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] "I've heard it said," by her Dad, she didn't say, "that when someone's troubles come creeping up, it's often their past that's catching up to them."

@The Laurent I missed an update somehow, but am still interested in the story.
 
[X] "I've heard it said," by her Dad, she didn't say, "that when someone's troubles come creeping up, it's often their past that's catching up to them."

Sorry for disappearing; I got an alert for a new chapter about a week ago, put it in its own tab to read through with the other alerts that day, and then never got to it. Then when the next chapter alert came up, I put it off because I hadn't read the previous chapter. So yeah.
 
[X] "I've heard it said," by her Dad, she didn't say, "that when someone's troubles come creeping up, it's often their past that's catching up to them."
 
You are ignoring content by this member.
It's just weird because just two updates ago, there were 14 or so likes/etc, and now there's 10. Eh, anyways. Vote closes on... let's say Tuesday morning?
Depending on how much free time I have in a given week, I'll often fall a few updates behind and then catch back up. Still a big of your stuff!
 
Vote closed!
Adhoc vote count started by The Laurent on Aug 15, 2017 at 1:06 PM, finished with 22 posts and 12 votes.
 
Page 52
Page 52: The Arts of Mental Wellness, Part 2

There was a pattern to Astral travel. It had felt strange at first, but already she was beginning to understand what the challenges were. She understood and, what was more, she began to approve of the idea.

It wasn't as simple as the fact that she had to fix her problems, but that she had to confront them, truly or in some weird symbolism, and overcome them, whether through denial or attack, meant that she could never be entirely distracted.

Combined with the feeling that meditation and prayer brought onto her, as if she were emptying herself out so that God could… but of course, even that thought bordered on questionable, for it was not as if God had any limits. But she liked the feeling, she liked the concentration, the way she was at once separated and connected to the world, and she even liked the challenge she had to face.

This time, she had to run, dodging cattle and slipping around in blood, searching for a way out. Miriam could guess easily enough what it meant. The stockyards took a lot of people in, and while they were more safe now than they'd once been, it was exhausting, horrible work by what accounts she could get. It wasn't work that took in girls', not that other women's factory jobs were all that pleasant either, but the more one listened, the more one wondered at what humans did to survive and get food on the table. It was nothing she could have managed, even if she was strong enough for it--though she supposed that magic could have bridged the gap, except what point would that be?

So, to escape this place, well of course. It smelled of blood and death, and she hurried out as fast as she could, because this was not for her. But then, if it was for her, she thought, as she woke up in the church, then who was it for?

This time, there were only eight or nine figures in the entire church, each of them whispering, one of them looking angry and splattered in cattle-blood, a big man who mumbled and muttered his rejection.

His frustration.

Each time she went to the church, there were less and less people. She didn't know quite what it meant, but it seemed a portent of some kind. Or perhaps it was focus. If these beings were her passing thoughts, then perhaps all of the time she'd spent meditating had cleaned out her mind slightly, when she was entering. She wasn't sure, but it could make sense. She'd walked around a few times before, checking to see if anything was wrong, and she could imagine that the more a Mage wanted to clean this place up… because she knew that this is where others would show up. This was the center-point to anyone going into her mind. If she was paranoid, she wondered, could she create traps even here?

But she wasn't that paranoid, and she had heard of no magic that did that, at least not directly. Which meant that she'd have to learn. She also wondered whether the paranoia might not be a smarter move, as dangerous as the world was.

Miriam waited, leaning back, watching the room for a moment, and finally Wayword arrived. He was dressed the same as before, though something seemed different about him. He was a few years younger, and his appearance was slightly slimmer, but other than that, she couldn't quite figure it out. Still, his robes were the same.

"This shouldn't take too long, to get there. Have you decided what to do?" He still had that heavy accent, and she imagined it for a moment.

"I have…" Miriam said. "A question. Is he from the same general area as you came from?"

"What a question. The same state, yes. Why?"

Miriam took out her compact mirror and focused. The accent was imagined as a series of sounds, as a way of being. It was difficult to even picture in her head, but she ran through the words, again and again. She could imagine that a dictionary might make a useful sacrificial element if she was doing it ritually, and she could also imagine that she could do it just fine.

She focused on it, and then she felt the weird sort of shift. It was like a crack in her head. "Well, do I sound any… huh."

"An accent spell?" Wayword asked, raising an eyebrow. He sounded just the same as before, but now she could feel like she more fully recognized what he was saying. It was easy to understand, even if it sounded a little weird. As did her own voice. The slow, slightly drippy, rich southern accent seemed like it just took too much time.

"I thought I'd try it. Improvise." It had been complicated, in a way, but it was also simple at the same time. Simple because she knew what she wanted and how to do it. Her words came a little slower, just another part of her accent now, which would be a little hard to deal with, because her thoughts came as fast as they always try. "And since I can hear as well, that means that I'll know for when we look into his past. Nobody is going to change how they speak, they're going to talk to him… or me, the way he remembers."

"That's a cleverer point than I expected," Wayword admitted. "We should go, but that's… an interesting way to look at it. I've known people who have given themselves a new language to understand someone's memories, but a new accent?"

He didn't clap, or give a smile the way Jack might have. But he nodded, respectfully, and she fidgeted a little. It wasn't that unexpected, but it was welcome, and they moved out, heading towards a memory of her walking by one of the slaughterhouses

It loomed. It really did. Part of it was because she was nine at the time, but part of it was because they were really imposing. They were dark, stinking buildings, made with a brutal sort of disregard for anything like beauty. The buildings stretched up, yes, but mostly they sprawled out, like a man with a bellyache, and she couldn't imagine working next to so many people, and so many corpses, working so crowded and yet in such a large space.

"Here?" she asked. "I don't know him."

"But I do, and with a little magic." He pulled out what looked to be a photograph, and held it up as he shifted left and right, pulling out a thin rod and tapping at the air as if it were some sort of vast drum. He shifted back, and she could hear something, whispers faster and faster, meaningless and yet clearly audible as close as she was, and then a door opened.

The factory was darkness, and the gate looked out into nothing, but she followed Wayword.

*******

It was a very small apartment, for two lives. It was cramped, and filled with discarded papers, and bottles of wine half-tipped over, the floor sticky with it, the scent of booze and vomit prominent in the air. The papers shuffled and moved around, multiplying, and she reached down, picking one up.

'That B…'

She looked away, flushing. Language.

Another was a list of places he'd gone that day, and another was a list of hours worked. Each piece of paper swept on and around, some of them damp with alcohol. There was no bed, no place to rest, no place to relax, and she stared at all of this in horror. "This? This is his mind?"

"Not very organized, is it? It's troubled," Wayword said. "That much is obvious.

A dog was barking in the background, loud and insistent. It just kept on getting louder without ever resolving into a dog at the door. Miriam took a breath and said, "How about his childhood? But how do we get there? From here?"

Wayword looked around, frowning a little, and he picked up a piece of paper. "Here." He held it out, dropping beer.

'Back home…' it began. She reached out and touched it.

'Back home, they say we have it good up here, but what the hell do they know?'

They were in a room, and there was an incomplete letter in front of them. She recognized the room only after a long moment, because it was so different from the apartment she'd seen before. The letter was being written on a table, there was nowhere else, no desk, and there was a woman in front of Miriam.

Her skin was as dark as coal, but her eyes were bright, and she swayed and sashed with a young vigor that impressed Miriam. "Honey," she said. "Things going okay?"

Miriam realized that the woman was Hessie, his wife. She was no doubt busy, tending house and also working at a garment factory at the same time, and she wondered how long it'd last.

Her youth and power. When someone entered the memory, they took the person's place. "Fine. Work is… work," Miriam said, carefully.

The woman froze, no doubt thrown off by the slightly different answer than reality, but she smoothly said, after that slight blip, "Aw, don't get down. We're really savin' up. And you said the boys had something?"

"I did?" Miriam asked, frowning, awkward. She had no idea how to behave as this woman's husband, nor how to even begin to draw information from her, not when what she really wanted was that letter. Another link in the chain.

"You did," Abby said, as she turned to look at Wayword. "You sure you're feeling okay? It's tiring work, but they gotta have a plan, right? That's what you told me."

"I did," Wayword said firmly.

Abby's eyes shifted back to Miriam. "So, anything else I can…"

"Which boys did I say, again?" Miriam asked, and then coughed. "It slipped my danged mind," she lied.

"Oh, Wallace, an' someone you call Littleboy."

Miriam nodded, and turned to the paper. "Gotta finish writing this letter first."

"You're doing well," Abby said, her voice soft.

Well at what? Miriam thought, but she was too busy picking up the paper and waving it for a moment, and then she focused.

Barking again, and the world was resolving. There was a heavy, heady smell in the air. She blinked and looked around, not sure whether she liked it, and found that she was crouched by a tree, with a scrap of bacon in her hands.

It was muddy, and yet the sky was the clearest, least smoggy blue she'd ever seen, so wide without any buildings that it almost defied logic.

She glanced behind, and saw that in the distance there was a very, very small house, rickety and built of old lumber that had seen not only better days, but better years.

The dog though, that was the oddest thing. She should be feeling some of his emotions, but there was no fear, or no particular fear. Yet the dog in front of her was large, a big, brown dog with red eyes and snarling teeth, that kept on barking even as her hand extended. "What is…"

"This is odd," Wayword said. "I think significant."

Miriam frowned, trying to take this all in, and as she did the dog growled and stepped forward, but she said, "Easy boy…" and then lazily threw the scrap of bacon. The dogs jaws snapped it up, still slavering and vicious, but its tail was wagging. Or was it? It seemed as if it was at once wagging, and yet somehow threatening all of a sudden, and she felt a chill through her spine as the warm day, so hot she could imagine that in an hour she'd be sticky with sweat, began to cool.

"This is…"

The dog turned to look at him. Without comprehension. He threw his own bacon.

"A phobia, maybe?" Wayword offered, but he sounded far less certain than he should have been.

Miriam frowned. "Why?"

"Phobias can be odd." The dog retreated, backing up, step by step, and then Wayword pointed towards the town.

******

"Out of the way, boy!"

Miriam didn't even have time to dodge. She was just slapped down, and stumbled, falling into mud she hadn't even seen. The streets were barely paved, and as muddy was it was, she was soaked as she looked up into the face of a tall white man.

He looked like a patrician, some kind of gentlemen, pale faced and white gloved, angry looking as he stared down at her. She picked herself up, and for the first time in a while she understood, really understood, why boys pushed and fought with each other.

Because she was so furious she could barely see straight.

"What is it, negro? Cat got your tongue?"

Miriam clinched and unclenched her fists as she stared up at him. He wasn't real, and he wasn't there. That made her want to hit him, want to hurt him, but violence wasn't the--

Wayword stepped forward, and tapped him on the shoulder. He swayed, and collapsed like a house, all at once, from top to bottom, snoring in the mud.

Miriam giggled, helplessly amused for a moment by the sight. Wayword clapped his hands. "That is enough of that. I left a place where they spelled Negro with two g's. I don't reckon that this tells us anything but that he had a reason to leave."

People were crowding around, and Miriam backed up. White, hostile faces, staring at them in suspicion, and then at the sleeping man, suspecting something.

It felt so compressing she almost wanted to run. She bit her lip, looking up at Wayword. Her levity had instantly shifted to fear.

This was the kind of thing…

She'd heard… well, heard a lot.

"Where to next?" he asked, his voice calm, as if he were not worried about an attack.

*******

Where to? Put the options in order, that is to say, [1], [2], and [3] (Choose only 3)

[] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?
[] Bigotry and racism can possibly drive people to drink? See more of the town.
[] What about his family? She hasn't seen them yet.
[] What about the reasons for leaving? What were they, specifically?
[] His spouse?
[] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?
[] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.

*******


Willpower from 2/6--⅙

Accent Magic: 2 (Mind)+1 (Compact)+1 (Gnosis)=1 sux

1 free Reach spent on time, none on anything else

1 Reach on duration.

1 dice for Paradox=Failure

Reading the Situation: Failure

Offering Food: Success

Composure: Failure

A/N: Easier to touch white bullies when they're actually just random figments of memory, huh?
 
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[1] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?
[2] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.
[3] What about the reasons for leaving? What were they, specifically?
 
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[6] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?
[5] Bigotry and racism can possibly drive people to drink? See more of the town.
[7] What about his family? She hasn't seen them yet.
[3] What about the reasons for leaving? What were they, specifically?
[4] His spouse?
[1] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?
[2] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.

Oh, you're supposed to choose just three. Sorry.
 
[1] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?
[2] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.
[3] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?

I'll go with these as they seem the most relevant, and can point to the source of some of his troubles. He's doing something with Little Boy and given where he works and the reputation around it, it could be something illegal or gang related. Second would be seeing a memory after he started drinking as to provide some further context for it. Third would be the phobia of dogs, as it was unusual for both our self and Wayword, and there was the sound of barking in the current state of his house so it should still be relevant.
 
[3] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?
[1] What about his family? She hasn't seen them yet.
[2] What about the reasons for leaving? What were they, specifically?

My random-ass wild guess is that he's wolf-blooded, or going through an unusually long preamble to the First Change, and the dog oddness is a manifestation of that. Werewolves certainly do have a tendency to... do poorly by their mortal relations.

No matter how hard they try, they're not human anymore, and one of the effects of being a werewolf and/or hiding that you're a werewolf from people you live with does involve aggression, alcoholism, and other abusive behaviors*.



* Most damagingly, werewolves can end up instinctively shapeshifting when under stress, so every Uratha is one tiny slip of control away from blasting their loved ones with Lunacy.

For the unitiated, werewolves have five forms - human, near-human, NIGHTMARE WOLF-MAN MONSTER, near-wolf, and wolf. The three in the middle there each provoke a supernatural psychosis called Lunacy, which is how werewolves stay hidden from the world: people who encounter them when they're not either full human or full wolf get punched in the brain with fear/terror/etc, and tend to either misremember what happened as something non-supernatural (you didn't see a giant wolf-monster suplex a car, some Unabomber nutcase tried to carbomb the local post office and the explosives went off while he was en route, leaving you on the edge of the blast radius), or get a "hole" in their memory that they can't clearly recall aside from vague impressions of teeth, claws, and being very very scared.

Each of the three forms impresses its own "flavor" of Lunacy. The near-wolf form invokes ancestral memories of when humans weren't the apex predators of the world, so people usually remember them as wild animal attacks or other "natural" events. The full monster form is so piss-yourself terrifying that your brain just shits itself and curls up in a ball, so witnesses either end up blacking out and being totally unable to remember anything for a while before and after their encounter or their mind shits out something to justify the utter carnage left in the wake of werewolves who use that form, so it gets excused as a freak tornado or an IED.

The near-human form hits you with the fear of human predators; people remember the werewolf as being just innately creepy and shifty and threatening, like they might suddenly do something horrible at any second. It's also the form most likely for human-form werewolves to reflexively shift to.

Thus, a lot of the time werewolves' families remember them as a faceless, malevolent presence in their lives, and mix that with memories (real or imagined) of them drinking a lot or meeting suspicious people to fully choke off any good feeling they may have tried to instill.
 
I would have thought that too but I believe it was mentioned previously that werewolves in this story don't exist, which obviously makes me reluctant to go along with that. It could be a case that the mages haven't discovered them yet, but I tend to doubt that.
 
[] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?

Odd, but could still fit.
Just need to have had angry dogs set on you at some point.

[] Bigotry and racism can possibly drive people to drink? See more of the town.

This, probably not. He came in from worse racism, so while this might be a sore point it's only an aggravator.

[] What about his family? She hasn't seen them yet.

Not unusual. Miriam wouldn't think it, but people traveling to another city before easy and cheap telephony losing contact and letting it fade out of mind is common.
His family thinks everything is great here.

[] What about the reasons for leaving? What were they, specifically?

Probably innocous.

[] His spouse?

She's in on something, but it looks like they have some ambitions towards improving their lot in life...but it's not going well.

[] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?

Significant name, recent figure.

[] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.

More context on the problem.

Hmm...I'd say like so:

[1] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.
[2] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?
[3] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?

Recent events for the context to understand, then the two oddities
 
[1] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.
[2] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?
[3] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?
 
[3] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?
[1] What about his family? She hasn't seen them yet.
[2] What about the reasons for leaving? What were they, specifically?
 
[2] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?
[3] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?
[1] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.

[] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.
'memory'?
 
[1] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.
[2] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?
[3] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?
 
[1] See a more recent member after he started drinking. Or be in it, though that might be a bit… odd.
[2] Who is this Littleboy, and what's this job?
[3] What's this phobia of dogs? It is rather odd, isn't it?
 
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