Character Sheet
Name: Miriam Green
Shadow Name: Morata
Age: Sixteen.
Gender: Female

Path: Mastigos.
Gnosis: 3
Mana: 4/12
Wisdom: 7

Arcana: Mind 3, Space 2, Fate 1, (In Progress) Spirit 1

Aspirations: Unlock the Secrets of the Fire.

Obsessions:

Virtue: Faith
Vice: Curiosity

Health: 8/8
Willpower: 7/7
Defense: 2
Destiny (Merit): 4/4

XP: 0
Arcane XP: 1

Attributes:

Strength 3, Dexterity 2*, Stamina 3
Presence 2*, Manipulation 2*, Composure 3*
Intelligence 4, Wits 3, Resolve 4

Aspects:

Promising High School Student (4): She's smart and well liked around school. In fact, she has a pretty good grasp of not merely the basics of high-school learning, but even the things that are up to the senior year. Beyond what a person might learn in a she's a little lost, and so there are limits as to the kinds of things she'd know about, but if it can be found in a textbook she might have read, she's probably read it. As well, she knows how to plan her time, to get along with other people at school and not get into fights, and otherwise do well in this respect. She's best at history.

Preacher's Daughter (3): Growing up with a father who tells the gospel word, you learn how to mimic the way he gives sermons, quote the bible chapter and verse, and know more than a little about how to interact with people and their religions, faiths, and how churches function. Whether it is mingling after church, being a sounding board for her father's sermons, or playing games that involve reciting long passages of the bible from memory, she is good at it.

*A Bit of a Tomboy (2): She's really at the age where you're supposed to outgrow this sort of thing, really. But she still likes climbing things, she still likes running around the school, she still knows a little about getting into a scrap, even if she hasn't actually gotten into a fight since...well, a few years. She's keen, athletic, and very, very interested in baseball (boo, Kansas City Monarchs, boo!) which she read about, not having a radio, and that being fledgling besides. In any wise, it certainly isn't fading with time, and it's given her a set of interests and hobbies that meshes quite interestingly with her obvious piety and (reasonably, mostly) obedient nature.

Breaker of Chains (2): Abraham Lincoln was a swell guy, in her opinion. Her own father's involvement in the NAACP and her engagement in High School history has made it so that she's actually surprisingly knowledgeable on race issues, and quite talkative about them in the right circumstances. She knows how to keep her mouth shut, of course, around older white men or the like, but she has her opinions and she wears them on her sleeve, and that includes knowing a lot of things most girls her age wouldn't know about, academically and otherwise.

A Practicing Mage (2): While Morata has a lot to learn, and has only been practicing magic for a short time, she is now fully settling into magical society. She knows the Orders, and more than that she is starting to understand both the personalities and how magic truly works. It is a long journey, but she has taken another step forward.

Can We Keep Him? (1): She has had dogs and cats before, and currently has one of each, which she of course does all of the work taking care of, because her mom said that if she had to deal with that, she'd throw them out. She has a bit of a way with animals, and after the third or fourth stray, also with people and convincing them to go along with her quite innocent and well-meaning requests.

Problem Solver (1): Kids in her neighborhood and at school tend to trust and like her, or at least she's tried to be liked, and even go to her for help sometimes, whether of an academic nature or just to see what she has to say. She's not exactly a local guru or anything, but she's clever and tends to be able to help people with minor problems, or dispense advice, even if that advice is often enough 'Really, you should tell your parents, they're gonna find out, you know, and if they find out and you didn't tell them, they'll cane your hide raw.'

Sneaking The Cookie Jar (1): She's not a dishonest person, but being someone with a lot of friends means that you sometimes know how to lie for them, and more than that, that you know a little about sneaking an extra quarter here and there. Whenever caught she's full of contrition, and more than that she's not a fundamentally dishonest person, but...well, she knows plenty of people who deserve an extra cookie every now and then.

Mother's Teachings (1): Her mother has tried to at least teach her the basics of cooking, cleaning, and keeping house. The logic that she'll probably need it if she goes to college has been pretty persuasive, and while there are gaps, she's quite self-sufficient when it comes to balancing a budget or all of the other things a modern woman is expected to do, as far as it goes. She's best at cooking meat, and her recipes are all pretty simple, but it's food that'll fill a belly, and that's the most important thing.

To Dream A Dream (1): Morata has become a truly expert in the magic of dreams, and indeed has begun to truly explore what Demons and other denizens of the Astral can and will do. This is merely an extrapolation of what she can already do, hence the discount. Special: Can use Arcane XP for this.

Powers--

Mage Sight (Peripheral, Active, and Focused): She seems to be able to see something that others cannot. Magic itself, and her eyes seem especially attuned to distances and the spaces between things, as well as the minds of other people.

Mage Armor: Mind, Space

Mind 3, Space 2, Fate 2 (In Progress up from 1)

Spirit 1 (Will complete in two weeks)

Rotes--

Dividing the Mind (Mind 1): A rote to divide the mind in two, this means that it has extra reach to add to duration and so on, and that there is a two-dice Yantra that can be done to add to the power of the spell. Involves imagining the split in her mind to enact it.

Scholar's Little Helper (Mind 1): Scholarship is hard work, and it's often difficult to sift through a five-hundred page book on Astral adventures for the single passage on a threatening Goetic demon that's currently ripping the rest of the Cabal apart. Plus, cross-referencing other works can be difficult. Through this tiny little rote, the caster can input a word, phrase, or topic, mentally, and essentially search the book just by holding it up to the light, copying knowledge of what was said in those passages and the passage surround it into their brain without having to search. It does not grant perfect understanding, and sometimes the section requires context to make any sense, but it can save weeks on a big scholarship project. (Rote Mudra, Promising Student, +4) Reach: With each additional Reach, you can search an additional book in the same spell; You can absorb the entirety of the contents of the book, if not always parse its meaning, as if you read the entire book in the instants it took to cast the spell, cover to cover. It may take some hours of thinking and consideration to fully parse the contents, and of course at times understanding and applying it can be more difficult: but an entire book read in less than a second is still something.

Strengthen Mind (Mind 3): It does not, obviously, only effect the intellect, but any aspect of one's mind can be made sharper, as can one's social abilities. The key to doing this, or rather the Mystagogue form of it, involves closing one's eyes and pressing one's fingers against your forehead, as if trying to stimulate thought by motion. When you open your eyes, the spell should be cast. You cannot improve your mind or social abilities to superhuman levels (Rote Mudra: Promising Student, +4), Reach: You may divide the 'Potency' of the spell, eg: Potency 4, enhance Intelligence by 1, Wits by 2, and Resolve by 1; spend a point of Mana: temporarily, for as long as the spell lasts, Attributes can reach supernatural levels.

Scholar's Protection (Mind 3): Adapted from a famous Silver Ladder rote, this grants protection ot the humble scholar. They make a sign with their hands as if their hands are books, their palms pages, and then so long as they neither attack or order an attack, others struggle to gather up the will to attack them. If they do order an attack, or attack themselves, the spell automatically fails… but only for the target, and not any others. Automatons, or beings without thought are immune, but this potent spell makes it so that anyone with a Resolve less than their Mind +1 cannot bring themselves to attack. Those that can still feel hesitation, and it is as if the Mage has two points of Armor. Supernatural beings have an advantage: if they have a supernatural trait, they get +1 to the comparison of Resolve versus Mind, if it is equal to the Mage's, they get +2, and if it is greater, they get +3… even then, a weak-willed but powerful supernatural being might find themselves frozen in fear and doubt. (Rote Mudra: Promising Student, +4) Reach: Spend 1 Mana, the spell may now last for an entire day; You may spend Reach to increase the difficulty of overcoming the Protection, once; Attackers lose 10-again on rolls to attack someone, if that person has willpowered through the magic.

The Dedicated Will of the Just (Mind 3): A spell taught to her by her Uncle, it is in some ways an extension of previous spells. By touching the forehead and spreading one's fingers across it, yours or others, when someone grits their teeth and uses their will, they find it stretching out, like hitting a high note and holding it for longer than a single action, based on the power of the spell. (Rote Mudra, Preacher's Daughter +3) Reach: Willpower when spent can add +2 to all resistance traits; Willpower spent both increases one's ability to endure, and one's ability to 'act'; By spending a Mana, the caster can imagine the benediction and thus enact it in a single breath on themselves or any target, as fast as the speed of thought.

Determined Will (Mind 2): The Mystagogue must go through many hardships for knowledge. Whatever a materialist thinks, anyone experienced in Mind magic knows that willpower exists, and so by a series of invisible taps against either their own or--imagined--someone else's skull. By doing so the Mage can make sure that when they, or others, gather their will for a great task, as long as it isn't magic they will get a bonus to the will-enhanced roll (9-again.) (Rote Mudra: Preacher's Daughter, +3: Inspire others and inspire yourself), Reach: The bonus can be increased; the bonus might be able to be used even to enhance magic, strengthening the will that brings itself to bear in casting a spell.



The Bonds of Fate (Fate 1): It is one thing to look at someone and see them, it is another to be able to look at them and see the destinities, the curses, the broken oaths and more that mark their soul and their persons. Mystagogues imagine a cobweb of connections and strands of fate itself, and carefully reach out a finger to tap at the edges of the cobweb without breaking it, to see what creeps up. (Mudra: Can We Keep Him? (+1), the spider spins its web.) Reach: The Mage can know when someone is possessed, mind controlled, or otherwise has their destiny majorly influenced; the Mage can tell someone's Destiny and Doom, can know when the curse they're affected by will be lifted, or so on.

The Unusual Path (Fate 1) : Fate itself can sometimes intervene in small ways. Through this spell, a Mystagogue can state a goal and then receive omens, sometimes faint and contradictory, on how to begin working towards it… and can even allow them to match strength with strength: subtly twisting fate so that their talents are just the right ones needed to advance upon the goal. Miriam uses it to occasionally leverage her way through a tricky social situation. The Mudra involves tugging on strands and pulling them in with a flip of a hand, as if examining something. (Rote Mudra: Problem Solver, +1) Reach: Can substitute any skill needed while under the spell for another within the same category, e.g. the character's religious passion turns out to be just what it might take to convince the homeless person to tell you where the body is hid, instead of a skill involving the streets or crime; Can, if taken further, substitute any skill for any other skill: your athletic prowess intimidates the homeless man, your knowledge of petty trivia charms the high society lady you need to steal from.



] No Shackles For The Scholar (Space 2): A Mystagogue cannot be stopped merely by a locked door, or being chained up above a pit of sharks while a villain monologues about how the Secret of the Amazon will die with them. So by imagining their own escape, and circling around that thought a few times as fast as possible, they can affect it. Any one barrier: locked door, handcuffs, barred window, or so on is fine… though it cannot get one through a bouncer or through fire. It can also be cast on an object, such as if you want to push a macguffin through a locked door and then face the enemy yourself. (Rote Mudra: Breaker of Chains, +2), Reach: Can pass through even shackles or objects they could not move through, such as being chained up, or trapped in a coffin, or anything else; subject can squeeze through narrow gaps that they should not physically be able to make it through: you can in fact drive a car through an open front door half its width if you cast this spell on it.
Merits--

(**) 'Profession'--Student
1--Gain 9-again on any roll that can be justified as having to do with one's profession.
2--Gain two dots of Contacts related to one's 'profession.'
3--+1 to rolls against any mental, physical or social stress that might get in the way of performing one's profession.[1] This cannot create a positive bonus.

4--8-again on rolls.
5--One special bonus based on the nature of the 'profession.

[1] Okay, in this case, imagine the college student who is good enough at class that he can show up hungover and still get something out of class, or the athlete who can go out not feeling 100% and still actually manage not to fuck everything up forever, even if he's not putting in his best performance.

(***) Parents: It may seem absurd to say it, but having parents in the picture who can help solve moderate problems is a boon. Obviously the drawback is that if they get involved and it's over her head, it could end badly, and that more than that, they obviously are sure they know best, but asking Mom or Dad is totally an option available to her, and one that can enlist their aid and ask their advice.

(***) Contacts:

She has contacts with both People She Knows At Church, a broad group but in some ways self-selecting, and among those kids she knows around the neighborhood, as well as People At School. People are willing to talk to her, ask her advice, and that goes both ways, doesn't it? If she wants to ask around, she could certainly do worse than asking when she's at church, with someone inclined to see her well already.

Egregore--Mysteriorum Arche (•): In a teamwork spellcasting roll in which the character is participating, she does not suffer the –3 penalty to contribute without the necessary Arcanum rating, and adds an automatic success if a full participant. All members of the ritual team must possess this Merit.

(*)Language: Latin

She knows Latin, read and spoken.

(*) Order Status (Mysterium)

She has been initiated in the first mystery of the Mystagogues.

(*) High Speech

She can use High Speech as a Yantra in spellcasting, and knows enough to be (roughly) conversational outside of the very formal language of Spellcasting.

(*) Egregore

1) In a teamwork spell in which she participates, she doesn't take -3 to the roll if she couldn't cast the spell on her own, and if she can she adds an automatic success to her dice roll for the purpose of granting the ritual leader the bonus dice. However, everyone involved in the ritual must have this level of Egregore. This represents her connection to magic, and through it, others of the Order.

(*) Resources:

She has a little bit of spending money saved up. Not much at all, but it's something. And it's more than a lot of people have, and so she knows to be grateful for it.

(****) Destiny

Effect: Miriam does not yet know the specifics, but she is destined for greatness and yet also doomed in some way.

Currently at 4/4.

(***) Astral Adept: Can enter the Astral far easier, by paying just a WP and meditating.

(***) True Friend (Virginia)

Effect: Miriam has a true friend. True Friend represents a trusting relationship that cannot be easily breached. Unless Miriam really does something to deserve it (really, really) Virginia will not betray her, and I, the QM, has to go easy on her in terms of throwing her into danger. Slightly kid gloves with her, as part of an implicit contract, though that does not mean that Miriam's mistakes or actions might not involve her in deeper problems than she should be facing. And any roll, natural or supernatural, that has the purpose of influencing Virginia against Miriam takes a 5-dice penalty. Additionally, once per...let's say week, Miriam can regain a point of Willpower by having a meaningful/heartfelt/important interaction with Virginia.

Consilium Status (*): Consilium--Increasingly she is a known entity, someone whose existence is no secret at all and whose fame is even harder to deny.

Contacts: Vampires (1)--Her work with vampires means she has a greater awareness of where she can go to talk to them, especially once she thinks through what she saw.

Allies (1): Guardians of the Veil--In the aftermath of yet another Interview with a Vampire, she has been contacted by the Guardians of the Veil, who are curious and who are willing to trade curiosity for curiosity.

Trained Memory (1): She has trained her mind to be something like a steel trap, though perhaps rather more effective than that, all things considered: steel traps can rust, because outside of stressful moments she never needs to roll to remember anything… she just remembers, and without Magic at all.

Minor Elements:

--Having studied a Spirit Bestiary, Miriam is now more able to tell some common spirits apart, even without using magic, and can call up basic facts about said common spirits.
--Has the Memories of a vampire in her head, which can be examined/considered later.
 
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[X] Hierarch first
[X] [Issac] Approach it as a student. He is wise, and no doubt might have something to share.
[X] [Heirarch] Approach it as a chance to get a lay for the political landscape. She's not political, but, maybe she should start being so?
 
[X] Hierarch first
[X] [Issac] Approach it as a student. He is wise, and no doubt might have something to share.
[X] [Heirarch] Approach it as a chance to get a lay for the political landscape. She's not political, but, maybe she should start being so?
 
[X] Hierarch first
[X] [Issac] Approach it as a student. He is wise, and no doubt might have something to share.
[X] [Heirarch] Approach it as a chance to get a lay for the political landscape. She's not political, but, maybe she should start being so?
 
[X] Hierarch
[X] [Isaac] Approach it as a student. He is wise, and no doubt might have something to share.
[X] [Hierarch] Approach it as a chance to get a lay for the political landscape. She's not political, but, maybe she should start being so?
 
[X] Hierarch first
[X] [Issac] Approach it as a student. He is wise, and no doubt might have something to share.
[X] [Heirarch] Approach it as a chance to get a lay for the political landscape. She's not political, but, maybe she should start being so?

If that was our reaction to a cabaret, good thing we didn't go into the realm of lewds
 
[X] Hierarch first
[X] [Issac] Approach it as a student. He is wise, and no doubt might have something to share.
[X] [Heirarch] Approach it as a chance to get a lay for the political landscape. She's not political, but, maybe she should start being so?

Bandwagoning!
 
Vote closed!
Adhoc vote count started by The Laurent on May 28, 2017 at 1:08 PM, finished with 18 posts and 10 votes.
 
Huh, interest has slacked off some, apparently. Ah well. Will begin working on an update. Should have it up by Wednesday afternoon, probably?
I think its more that the consensus was fairly clear early on and so it was a lower intensity voting after the block had made itself manifest . And that it seemed less important on a personal narative scale then for example the Virginia ones.
 
Page 37: Meeting Minds
Page 37: Meeting Minds

It was a radical book. That much was obvious, but what Miriam did not understand yet, even as she read more and more of it, was whether this radicalism was a good thing or not. It was deeply religious, but also wrapped up in a sort of game.

The snake was a dragon that gave mankind the gift of self-knowledge, but it was a gift that was a curse, but a curse that God had foreordained. The chosen people were a metaphor, rather than a literal people in Jerusalem, and it was through the captivity and their enslavement that they gained the ability and desire to free themselves.

But, or so the book said, man had found a way to at least offer the hope of a Heavenly Kingdom, and that was what Jesus represented.

Everything represented something else, and there was both no historicity to what was being talked about, and at the same time it was truer and deeper than history. Deeper than hope, even, a fact and a Truth that was apparently central to the meaning of human existence. It was complex, but it had to be complex.

It reinterpreted everything biblical to be magical, and everything magical to be biblical in a way that made Miriam sure, as she sat on her bed, sprawled out, gangly and too tall, that she was missing a lot. That there was only so much the human mind could grasp, and that, brown hand turning each page as biblical belief shaded into History, into a discussion of Martin Luther and the problem of how to actually live in the world, rather than what it is like to live in the world, she was going to spend a long time trying to understand.

And she wasn't sure whether it would truly give her a way to live with her religion. At least not without asking whether, if everything was something else represented, it meant as much as she believed it did.

Her faith wasn't merely a faith in some abstraction of Christianity, and yet the book seemed to promise more than that. It warned against pride, and stressed humility, but also the building of something internal. A bulwark of some kind. What kind it did not specify, and she didn't know enough about what it was to do magic to even be able to guess. Was it a physical bulwark?

Was it a spiritual bulwark? Was it a community of believers, of magic-users, or the sheep that the shepherd-who-was-Mage watched after, or was it something internal and unbroken, down in their soul.

These were the kind of questions that rocked her to her core, but the answer wasn't so simply put, and couldn't be so simply found.

If it was a community, then that meant that it was the Consilium. It was the group that was going to judge a woman guilty or innocent based on what she might have done, and which was--run? Led? Guided? By a Hierarch and a council. It was a community that had been at war, in one small piece of it.

So temporal. It seemed so of Caeser, and so little of anything higher than that. And yet, the world was the world, the church was the church… but it was merely a place. Which made her wonder just what the Consilium was above the ordinary politics and problems. The way one pastor might be troubled or disagree with his congregation without truly discrediting faith.

In her time alive, she'd seen plenty of churches split off, especially over the manner of preaching and the kinds of messages that northern Negro churches had, but that southern Negroes weren't looking for.

*******

She was aware of herself in a way that was not very comfortable when she stepped into the office. She'd been walking through a building that had felt like foreign territory. Even though it wasn't. The University of Chicago had even started allowing Negroes to live on campus recently, and yet that wasn't enough to make her feel at home when she'd walked around the campus. Her face was darker than almost everyone here, and while this was one of the places she'd thought of going for college, that didn't change that she was not someone who should be here normally.

Yet she walked through the college quite invisible, or at least, as she admired the trees and the gestures towards greenery that she appreciated, and looked at the people mingling one way and the other. It was the summer, and so the feeling of the whole university was one of relaxation, of being half-empty, of people who had moved on, and those who remained were the ones who had nothing else to do.

She was wearing a long, green skirt and a white blouse, her stockings dark as always, her hair neat and clean and oiled and simple enough that she didn't have to worry about it at all. Her uncle, too, had chosen something less ostentatious. A dark suit, with a slightly lighter tie, and a look on his face that seemed to brook no assumptions of frivolity.

They were headed to Rosenwald Hall, and even here, history marched in step with them, Miriam thought. The hall, built less than a decade ago, was named after Julius Rosenwald, and certainly the Negro community owed something to him. Perhaps much. Miriam didn't know all of what he did, but she'd heard her father mention him before. On the board of directors for Tuskegee, a person of note and repute.

And it was an impressive building, a gothic monument that made her think, of course, about the cathedrals that she saw in books. The lawn really could use some trees, because it looked barren, the windows all closed, their row upon row look drawing attention upward, to the tower portion of the building, which jutted upwards well above the rest. And yet, she wasn't traveling far.

This was the center of admission, of offices. This was a business meeting, Miriam told herself. She'd washed herself, she'd made sure to dress in clothes without a single crease, she didn't want to come off as the tomboy she was, didn't want to look anything but someone that the Hierarch could only approve of.

First door to the right had them in an office. It was bright, the light almost too glaring for the rather small room. There was a bookshelf in a corner, the dark wood drawing a notable contrast, and the desk itself was scattered with papers in twos and fours, as if at random. There was no order at all to it, and the man sitting at the desk was similarly disordered, in a way. His suit was rumpled, and his face, all along the left side, had a series of scars and boils that had healed roughly, into patches of rough skin. H ewas pale, balding enough that he had to comb over what little of his hair was left to cover all of the rest, and his eyes were watery and brown.

His chin was barely present, and his hands, small and inkblotted, were resting on the table, picking through the papers as if he were a fussy child picking at food he didn't like.

He looked up and cleared his throat. "Dancing Shadow. I did not expect you so soon."

"I am not late. I'm not early, either," her Uncle said with a smile. "So I don't know why you hadn't expected me."

"You know how these things are. I was...looking into matters." He glanced at a piece of paper, and Miriam, looking closer at him, could smell something like dust. It made her nose tickle, and she realized after a moment as the smell grew stronger that he was performing a spell. "Ruth, is it?"

"That's what I'm calling myself for the moment," Miriam said. "I don't have a Shadow Name yet."

"Tardy, aren't you? You've been the matter of some attention and speculation, these last few weeks. I, uh, have heard in detail about your actions regarding the young girl…"

"Yes. Sara," Miriam added.

"You reportedly had no reason for wanting to see into her mind? It was just simple curiosity?"

"Yes… it was." Miriam frowned, looking at him. They hadn't been offered seats, but she didn't want to presume, and the hard-backed wooden chair didn't look all that comfortable.

"Some people find that hard to believe. I have had people here asking me that I should look into you, that your mind should be examined. And others saying that it was a careless gesture. You are attracting rather more attention than the ordinary novice Mage, and you have not even joined an Order. Are you against the concept?"

"No, sir," Miriam said. "I simply haven't decided yet. Dancing Shadow thought that it would be best for me to learn more about myself as a Mage before I joined an Order. But the time will come soon when I will decide."

"Curiosity like that is not always approved of," he said. His voice was dry, and a little nasally, as if he were getting over a head cold. "But there are places where such initiative would be respected. The Mysterium could always use new seekers after knowledge, people willing to push themselves further and learn the truth. You have passed a great test, and you are already showing a disposition to learn. This is good, as Dancing Shadow can attest, many new Mages struggle. They think that having reached the first step on the stair, they should sit down."

"Sit down?"

"Stop trying. Stop learning. We grow, and your desire to study history through the Astral, as well as what you've learned so far of various Demonic entities is impressive. I think that you would be very good member of my Order."

"I… I'm not sure," Miriam said. "I've thought about it, but I'm not sure yet as to what I truly want."

"She should explore her options. She's a good fit for quite a few different Orders."

"So are many people," Ostanes said. "I am Ostanes, by the way, and you may sit."

Ruth sat down as quickly as she could, and then smoothed out her skirt, almost coughing as the dust. "What do you know about the Consilium that I should know?"

"That we are a wise people who help each other and work together. We understand that there are limitations to any one Order, and we keep watchful and wary… and we understand the importance of banding together. A Mage without an Order is a Christian without a church. Unmoored, wouldn't you say so, Shadow?"

"I suppose so." Her Uncle shrugged, frowning.

"Oh, and what are you going to say at the trial tonight?"

"The truth, of course."

"Always a rare thing around here," Ostanes conceded. "Do you think it will absolve her or not?"

"I think that it is the decision of the honored Councillors and yourself, and that whatever happens, she should do penance as best she can." Her uncle nodded, as if punctuating his statement.

"And you, Ruth?"

"I think… that it is beyond my judgement at the moment. I should think carefully, and watch closely, and see just what it is does and does not work. I might have opinions," Miriam said. "But I am not going to make idle predictions about matters that are not yet clear."

"Well, then to be clear: she has done something truly horrific, hasn't she?"

"She has contemplated doing evil," Miriam said, "unless there is something I have not been told about her actions? It seems to me that her guilt is already quite a punishment, and yet I am merely one girl, and the good of an entire city should not be my concern."

"It will be, soon. We will have no inactive citizens," Ostanes said. "I'm sure that as a Silver Ladder, your...that is to say, Shadow understands this quite well."

"I understand. But I do respect honesty," Shadow said.

"Ah. And you think I am being dishonest? Or deceptive?" Ostanes pushed a piece of paper forward with one hand, playing with at as his eyes watered over for a moment, staring her uncle down. "I am merely offering her a chance to learn. It is clear, as anyone could tell just by looking at her, that she is very intelligent and that she would do well in a position where she could learn."

"And she can learn anywhere." Her Uncle frowned, his eyes hardening. "Was there anything else you wanted to ask her?"

"Yes." Ostanes paused, glancing left and right before saying, "It is simple. There have been reports that you've already begun to look into a little-studied area, but one of great import. Stories and rumors are found and reported, though rarely to me directly." Ostanes smiled, and it was a very weak one. "The Guardians are always watching, even now. They saw that you had connections to a certain Demon-spawn, and they mentioned it to me. Merely because I asked and wished to know. If you did join the Mysterium, you should know that we encourage results over all else. We do not care what creed you profess, or what race you come from, we do not judge except by the content of your knowledge and discoveries. And only those who can provide more knowledge, who can discover more of the truth, are likely to be respected."

"And you want me to look more into...this?" Miriam asked.

"Even if you do not join the Mysterium, a respect for knowledge is important. We are not the Library. We do not sell information for money and we do not believe that what matters is its value to others, let alone that all knowledge is free. We trade. Right exchange is central to not devaluing knowledge."

"Devaluing?" Miriam asked.

"We can say only so much now, but if you wish to know about what knowledge is, and about how to truly obtain it, then the door stands open. I think anyone could see that you seem worthy. There will be a test, but--"

He waved an arm, an almost impressive gesture marred by the clumsiness of it, "I am sure you shall pass."

"I will keep that in mind, sir."

"Thank you, Ruth. Then this meeting was not a waste. It was a pleasure to meet you, and we should talk again, but I actually have a meeting in an hour or so."

"I do as well, sir," Miriam said, quietly.

He blinked, but nodded after a moment, and this time Miriam didn't wonder with her first mind whether or not he'd read her mind. It was not worth thinking about.

*******

It was as dark as the office was bright, and the figure seated in the center of the small, badly lit room didn't seem like anyone she'd seen in quite some time.

He was old, easily in his sixties or older, stooped and hunched over, gripping a large staff. It was of dark, strange wood that seemed to glow with patterns that seemed familiar. A language she almost knew, or almost could interpet. Which meant that it was High Speech. His face, pale but oddly papery just like his skin was, was scrunched up, bunched together as if it had been originally meant for a smaller head.

Thin lips, a vulture like nose, and hair that, far from balding, was running down his back in long, thick tangles that seemed to have no sense or reason. He was shrouded, and that was the word, shrouded, in a red robe the color of blood. And then there were his eyes. One was blue, and another was golden-white, looking like glass, but far too reflective. Each of those eyes seemed to hold some special knowledge, and she felt her skin crawling, felt as if she were standing at the edge of an abyss every time her eye strayed towards his false one.

This was Isaac. Called the Sacrificed, for some reason that Miriam wanted to learn.

It was an ordinary enough apartment, in a district of white immigrants. "The Irish" as her Race tended to call every group of white immigrants.

"Ah. You have come at last. It was quite boring, waiting here for you so long," Isaac said. "Shadow has been remiss in some respects--"

He looked as if he had been about to say a name, but then he added, "No. The future is the future, and the past the past. For now you are Ruth, and Ruth you shall remain for at least the next day."

Miriam blinked. "Pardon?"

"You are pardoned," Isaac said, his raspy voice suddenly sounding as if he were a priest granting absolution in the Catholic manner. "You are also sanctified, which is to say you are sacrificed and put upon the alter, but given a knife and told that you will know what to do."

Miriam stared at him, and then turned back to her Uncle.

"What do you mean by this, sir?"

"I mean that ultimately, your fate is a tangle, and it will not take you where you expect. Time and history turn and turn against our best hopes, but we cannot wait for them to sweep us aside." Each word was spoken in that same rasp, and yet he was not even looking at her directly. Yet she felt his gaze, as if he were looking deep into her, or seeing her on a level that she'd never felt.

"I don't know what you mean," Miriam admitted.

"You can't. This is reasonable. Tell me, what do you know of history? What do you know of what history is, was, and will be, besides your ponderings of the Civil War? There is wisdom there in the questions you have asked in your heart, on whether there was more going on beneath the surface, on the differences of culture and the politics...there is much you are right on. Much you are wrong on. But it is only through magic or study that you can see. And in seeing through magic, it means something."

"That I am not able to learn it otherwise?" Miriam asked. "Are you talking about Time magic?"

"Time and Fate are what bound me. I realized something: you realized something. We are all mystics and philosophers, even such a person as Shadow."

"I am right here, you realize. You do not need to ignore me to make your own cryptic hints," her Uncle said, sounding annoyed.

But Miriam was fascinated, though also confused. "Do not insult him," Miriam said.

"I do not. He is a man of action. He has his own path through the weave and complexity of the world. We walk closer to our own ends every day, and we cannot stop it, merely redirect the flow. So I expected you for many weeks, and yet knew that it might only be on this day that we met. And we might not meet again. Probably, though, we will."

"What did you mean about the altar? Is it something with my destiny?"

"Every destiny is an altar. Every person destined for greatness is Isaac and Abraham. They sacrifice and are sacrificed." He stood up slowly, to a height around hers, and stepped forward, in a shuffling walk.

She realized that his feet were bare, and that there was something around him. The ground seemed to change for a moment, growing dirtier and cleaner, and smoke flitted through the air for a moment before it disappeared.

"Mind if I smoke?" her Uncle asked. "This looks to be very--"

"Smoke all you want," Isaac said. "You already have."

Miriam's head hurt, though not from any magic, but just from trying to understand it all. Her secondary mind was whirring out of control, and yet something about his gaze made her feel as if for a moment she was the center of the world.

"What do I know about history? I know that it travels onward endlessly, fed by a thousand streams. We can only know what we can uncover, and even then, we can't always know why people acted." Miriam paused. "We have to dig it all up."

"Dig and dig, yes. That is true. But there is more. History is a thing we construct of the past, and will construct of the past, and have constructed of the past in the less distant past. But it cannot be twisted too far. You cannot gainsay the traditions that History has handed down."

Out reached a twisted, aged, withered hand, the nails long and bitten down, and they rested for a moment on her shoulder.

"I… think I understand?" She did. The church had traditions, as did her faith, and she knew that these were important ways of viewing things. "Though sometimes they need to be broken."

Isaac paused, but pressed his hand down on her shoulder gently. "Perhaps. One can see the ties, the sympathetic bonds, that link you and your mentor, though he tries to hide it. He cannot hide from the right kind of eyes. But I bless you anyways: more life."

"More life?"

"That destiny is a doom. It is a destiny that shall take you to the forefront of the world, but leave you discarded behind. It is sad, how it is always the best who use themselves up, who grow withered and aged as they discard their youth for the masses. And yet they forge a new path, towards Atlantis, every one of them. Even those who would hate me. But if they do not cleave to the proper traditions, then their efforts are as water spent into a cracked bowl."

"Politics?" Miriam asked, frowning.

"Living," he answered, as if this and politics were the same thing.

What was he saying about her destiny? That she was destined to die? That she'd somehow be hurt by it? She'd known that in one sense. "Living?"

"It is all too often women, I find. Or perhaps I am old-fashioned. But they shoulder burdens that men, more used to being selfish, would shrug off. They load themselves down with the problems of the world, and step farther and faster than many." Isaac sighed. "But I will bless you, even though I know that you will merely take on more weight, more weight, until you are crushed beneath…"

Miriam frowned. "Do you mean that I'll do something for the Race?"

"Perhaps. Or perhaps for the human race." He lifted a hand, and she felt the power of his magic bearing down upon her. And that eye. He was just staring right at her, and she had to stare back as she felt it.

"There's always a price. I know you," Shadow said, angrily. "You've made her a pawn, honored Magister."

"We all are," Isaac said, "and some of us do not know it. This is my task, Ruth. You are to continue what you are doing. Learn about the Astral, pay attention. Allow your curiosity to guide you, and you shall be of use to this entire Consilium before the year is out."

"I… can try, sir. I don't know what this meeting was about," she admitted. "But, any blessing you give me, I am grateful for."

"It is always nice to see a respectful young Mage. Go and be lucky, and know that I am watching."

As if she could not know. As if it was not obvious to that other brain that he had spoken of many things but said little, that he had hinted and hinted again, and yet in doing so made her chase after the hints. They were not nonsense, but they were not meant to make sense.

She could know all of that, and yet welcome the blessing, and understand in some bone-deep way that somehow this was a man who knew so much more than he said, and whose understanding was bone deep.

And yet, he'd shown something, just enough to have her bite down.

But she was too curious where this was going, what this would lead to.


How does this luck manifest?

[] During her birthday, someone goes out of the way to give her a very special present.
[] She finds it much easier to learn, knowledge seeming to fall into her as fast as she can think of it (½ Arcane XP).
[] She has a dream that tells her something she might like to know.
[] She crosses paths with someone that she can help, that she has helped before.
[] Wait. Obviously Miriam can't control it, but the duration of the luck means it could 'wait' for some other opportunity next week. Or some other danger.

*******

4 (Int)+3 (Preacher's daughter)=2 sux

7 dice (Reading part 2): 6 sux

Reading The Magicology: 4 (Int)=1 sux

Talking to the Hierarch: 2 (Presence)+1 (Politics: Cribbed from civil rights involvement)=0 sux

Willpower, to 3/6

Talking #2: 6 dice=1 sux

Talking #3: Try a new angle 2 (Presence)+4 (Student)+3=9 dice, 9 again=4 sux

Willpower to 2/6

Understanding #1: 8 dice, 9 again=0 sux

Understanding #2: 11 dice, 9 again=10 Sux, oh wow, Isaac decides to...

Willpower to ⅙

Destiny at 2/4,

Isaac's Luck:

Fate 2 action, he has...a Fate score.

It's enough of a Fate score that combined with his Gnosis, he's not going to fail. I also don't want to spoil things.

Condition is "Charmed."

A/N: So, wow. Good luck, and finally meeting Isaac, the hidebound old bastard who hates the Folk. Though he didn't really show any of what Shadow primed Miriam to expect, did he?

Also, curious is such a good trait for writing.
 
Understanding #2: 11 dice, 9 again=10 Sux, oh wow, Isaac decides to...
Lucky ... what are the chances of that?

With regards to Issac, I can't help but feel some of his comments about destiny leaving you old and withered were refering to himself, which kind of makes senses about the path he went down with his skills and abilities.

[X] She crosses paths with someone that she can help, that she has helped before.

Preliminary, but I'll go with crossing paths with someone she can help.
 
[X] During her birthday, someone goes out of the way to give her a very special present.
 
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[X] During her birthday, someone goes out of the way to give her a very special present.

Isaac has gazed too deeply into the world's bones, I think.
 
[X] She crosses paths with someone that she can help, that she has helped before.
 
So my goal is to close the vote on Friday, though that requires, you know, voting to happen at some point eventually. But I do want it to be a shorter vote to make up for the slower pace of the last few weeks. It seems to have lost some voters or something. So hopefully a shorter vote pulls people in?
 
So my goal is to close the vote on Friday, though that requires, you know, voting to happen at some point eventually. But I do want it to be a shorter vote to make up for the slower pace of the last few weeks. It seems to have lost some voters or something. So hopefully a shorter vote pulls people in?


I wouldn't say its for lack of interest or anything. Sometimes I won't vote because of work or just being too busy.
 
I don't recall if I mentioned it here or elsewhere, but I tend to abstain from voting when I don't mind any of the current options. Like this vote, for example-- all of them sound fine to me, so I let the votes of people who actually have a preference dictate what happens. That tends to be a thing for a lot of the more lurker types, I think (though probably not with the same reasoning).
 
[X] Wait. Obviously Miriam can't control it, but the duration of the luck means it could 'wait' for some other opportunity next week. Or some other danger.
 
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[X] During her birthday, someone goes out of the way to give her a very special present.

I feel like the arcane XP is a waste of the bonus and waiting doesn't seem like the right call because no matter what we get it'll be better to have it sooner rather than later. The dream would give us more information and the encounter would give us the opportunity to help somebody, both would develop the plot somehow, they're both strong choices.

Ultimately I go with the present, because every magical item that I've seen from The Laurent has been fucking rad and would be very useful. Think of how often we've used the mirror and the pen. We won't get anything massive, but Miriam is a smart enough character to get a lot of use out of whatever it is even if it's really weird and niche.
 
[X] Wait. Obviously Miriam can't control it, but the duration of the luck means it could 'wait' for some other opportunity next week. Or some other danger.
 
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