Your family has informed you that three days from now Pat Savage and her crimefighting gang (Colonel Grung, Professor Poseidon, Nicky Junior and Dame Csenia) are (probably) planning on kidnapping you from the D'vaugnas Tower during a riot/protest. Bobbi wants you to go with Pat, while Helen and Maribel are more conflicted. Burt is cautiously neutral. Bare in mind, warning Tama may have negative consequences for Ayama.
[x] Do not warn Tama of Pat Savage's plans, but tell Ayama to have her contacts message Pat that you're not interested in her 'rescue.'
Burt is asking about the Ritual and Tama's Master Plan. You can't say much about the former, but you can perhaps enlighten him about the latter.
[x] Explain that you think it'll be like Third Impact/Instrumentality from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Except, you know, in a good way.
Now that you have greater insight into Tama's Master Plan, what do you think?
[x] Some misgivings. Yes, there's a lot of suffering in the world, but there's also lots of good. Won't Tama's solution throw out the baby with the bathwater? Perhaps there's a middle ground between 'status quo dystopias' and 'the end of the world as we know it.'
Who should be the next chapter's POV? Rank from most preferred (5) to least preferred (1). Default vote is Eddie (5) and everyone else (0)
[4]Burt
[3] Helen
[5]Eddie (Default)
[2]Maribel
[1] Roberta
Below is the current plan, which has yet to be fulfilled. The default vote is to leave this plan in place, but you can put forward a new plan if you wish.
[X] Keep current plan (Default)
Oo, shades of what Delenn explained as being part of Minbari philosophy in Babylon 5. ... Although they didn't carry it to the next step Tama seems to be taking it.
FALGS-ancap? Doesn't have the same ring to it as FALGSC...
It's interesting, playing from the perspective of someone whose goals aren't at all in line with the others in the family.
Tama is persuasive. I think Eddie has drunk enough of the instrumentality kool-aid that he would tell Tama of the plans, but he wouldn't want to go so far as to sabotage his family's options.
Your family has informed you that three days from now Pat Savage and her crimefighting gang (Colonel Grung, Professor Poseidon, Nicky Junior and Dame Csenia) are (probably) planning on kidnapping you from the D'vaugnas Tower during a riot/protest. Bobbi wants you to go with Pat, while Helen and Maribel are more conflicted. Burt is cautiously neutral. Bare in mind, warning Tama may have negative consequences for Ayama.
[X] Warn Tama of Pat Savage's plans, even though this may upset Helen, Maribel and Bobbi. Also, tell Ayama to have her contacts message Pat that you're not interested in her 'rescue.'
If you are going to tell Tama about Pat's plans, when will you tell him?
[ ] You have three days. Tell him when he gets back.
Burt is asking about the Ritual and Tama's Master Plan. You can't say much about the former, but you can perhaps enlighten him about the latter.
[X] Explain that you think it'll be like Third Impact/Instrumentality from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Except, you know, in a good way.
Now that you have greater insight into Tama's Master Plan, what do you think?
[X] You have ambitions concerns. Tama's aims may be noble, but can you trust him? Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and he's already pretty crazy. Perhaps for now you should go along with his plans, but also look a means of usurping him when the time comes. You don't know yet how you'll do it, and you're uncertain what you'll do if you got the chance, but if someone is going to sit on the Diamond Throne and become The God the World Needs, why can't it be you?
Below is the current plan, which has yet to be fulfilled. The default vote is to leave this plan in place, but you can put forward a new plan if you wish.
[X] Keep current plan (Default)
Oo, shades of what Delenn explained as being part of Minbari philosophy in Babylon 5. ... Although they didn't carry it to the next step Tama seems to be taking it.
*Looks up FALGSC* Reminds me of Iain Banks' Culture series.
In case there's anyone else who wants to vote, voting is open until tomorrow night. My next day off is Wednesday, so I'm not going start the next chapter until then anyway.
Your family has informed you that three days from now Pat Savage and her crimefighting gang (Colonel Grung, Professor Poseidon, Nicky Junior and Dame Csenia) are (probably) planning on kidnapping you from the D'vaugnas Tower during a riot/protest. Bobbi wants you to go with Pat, while Helen and Maribel are more conflicted. Burt is cautiously neutral. Bare in mind, warning Tama may have negative consequences for Ayama.
[2] Warn Tama of Pat Savage's plans, even though this may upset Helen, Maribel and Bobbi. Also, tell Ayama to have her contacts message Pat that you're not interested in her 'rescue.'
-[x] Check with Ayama if she wants to take credit for the reveal. It might allow her to keep her place on Tama's roster of employees and her place as an infiltrator. Otherwise she should probably clean all traces of her involvement as we settle on a cover story for where the information comes from.
-[x] Butter Tama up to show restraint. Surely with an advance warning he could think of a way to not mar his greatest undertaking in blood of an old acquaintance.
[ ] Warn Tama of Pat Savage's plans, even though this may upset Helen, Maribel and Bobbi. Do not tell Ayama to tell her contacts to message Pat.
[ ] Warn Tama of Pat Savage's plans, but lie to your family and say you won't. Also, tell Ayama to have her contacts message Pat that you're not interested in her 'rescue.'
[ ] Warn Tama of Pat Savage's plans, but lie to your family and say you won't. Do not tell Ayama to tell her contacts to message Pat.
[4] Do not warn Tama of Pat Savage's plans, but tell Ayama to have her contacts message Pat that you're not interested in her 'rescue.'
-[x]Not lying to our family seems like a good start on making this decision. Pat is unlikely to be dissuaded by a kid telling her no. I could be persuaded to tell Tama, but think if we tell him we should tell him when he gets back.
[ ] Write in.
If you are going to tell Tama about Pat's plans, when will you tell him?
[ ] Go up to his penthouse right now.
[1] Try to catch him in the morning before he leaves.
-[x] Let him catch some sleep and get to the usual boisterous mood before hitting him with the news. Besides, you need to talk to Ayama first.
[4] You have three days. Tell him when he gets back.
Burt is asking about the Ritual and Tama's Master Plan. You can't say much about the former, but you can perhaps enlighten him about the latter.
[6] Explain that you think it'll be like Third Impact/Instrumentality from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Except, you know, in a good way.
-[x] Well, you don't actually know if it's going to be any good the way things stand, but it would allow one to impose some control over their future, and that of the world.
[ ] Deflect Burt's curiosity. Your family are beasts of the field: simple folk with simple minds. They wouldn't understand the necessity of Tama's plans and would only oppose him if you explained it to them.
[ ] Write in.
Now that you have greater insight into Tama's Master Plan, what do you think?
[ ] You are on board 100%. Sir Tama Dax D'vaugnas is a god among men. Okay, fine, maybe he's a megalomaniac, but maybe a megalomaniac is what the world needs. Rewriting reality to merge everyone into a superbeing sounds a little extreme, but there is a lot of suffering in the world. Tama can end that.
[1] Some misgivings. Yes, there's a lot of suffering in the world, but there's also lots of good. Won't Tama's solution throw out the baby with the bathwater? Perhaps there's a middle ground between 'status quo dystopias' and 'the end of the world as we know it.'
[2] You have ambitions concerns. Tama's aims may be noble, but can you trust him? Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and he's already pretty crazy. Perhaps for now you should go along with his plans, but also look a means of usurping him when the time comes. You don't know yet how you'll do it, and you're uncertain what you'll do if you got the chance, but if someone is going to sit on the Diamond Throne and become The God the World Needs, why can't it be you?
-[x] The theory is solid; it's the practical applications that are up to debate. But you are really tired of being toyed with by powers way above you, and the world could stand to be a bit better, no?
[3] I have both misgivings and concerns. There should be a 'successful' outcome short of merging everyone into the Overmind with Tama at the wheel...and if there has to be one person at the wheel, Tama is not the best option out there! Maybe there'll be an opportunity for Eddie to sit the Diamond Throne, maybe there'll be a chance to pick someone else.
Is there anything else you want to add?
[x] You miss your parents.
Who should be the next chapter's POV? Rank from most preferred (5) to least preferred (1). Default vote is Eddie (5) and everyone else (0)
[4] Burt
[3] Helen
[30] Eddie (Default)
[2] Maribel
[1] Roberta
Below is the current plan, which has yet to be fulfilled. The default vote is to leave this plan in place, but you can put forward a new plan if you wish.
[6] Keep current plan (Default)
[ ] New Plan (Write in)
Winning Vote
Your family has informed you that three days from now Pat Savage and her crimefighting gang (Colonel Grung, Professor Poseidon, Nicky Junior and Dame Csenia) are (probably) planning on kidnapping you from the D'vaugnas Tower during a riot/protest. Bobbi wants you to go with Pat, while Helen and Maribel are more conflicted. Burt is cautiously neutral. Bare in mind, warning Tama may have negative consequences for Ayama.
[X] Do not warn Tama of Pat Savage's plans, but tell Ayama to have her contacts message Pat that you're not interested in her 'rescue.'
-[x]Not lying to our family seems like a good start on making this decision. Pat is unlikely to be dissuaded by a kid telling her no. I could be persuaded to tell Tama, but think if we tell him we should tell him when he gets back.
If you are going to tell Tama about Pat's plans, when will you tell him?
[X] You have three days. Tell him when he gets back.
Burt is asking about the Ritual and Tama's Master Plan. You can't say much about the former, but you can perhaps enlighten him about the latter.
[X] Explain that you think it'll be like Third Impact/Instrumentality from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Except, you know, in a good way.
-[x] Well, you don't actually know if it's going to be any good the way things stand, but it would allow one to impose some control over their future, and that of the world.
Now that you have greater insight into Tama's Master Plan, what do you think?
[X] I have both misgivings and concerns. There should be a 'successful' outcome short of merging everyone into the Overmind with Tama at the wheel...and if there has to be one person at the wheel, Tama is not the best option out there! Maybe there'll be an opportunity for Eddie to sit the Diamond Throne, maybe there'll be a chance to pick someone else.
Is there anything else you want to add?
[x] You miss your parents.
Who should be the next chapter's POV? Rank from most preferred (5) to least preferred (1). Default vote is Eddie (5) and everyone else (0)
[X] Eddie (Default)
Below is the current plan, which has yet to be fulfilled. The default vote is to leave this plan in place, but you can put forward a new plan if you wish.
[X] Keep current plan (Default)
Current Plan @Nevill :
[x] Plan: Be Prepared (Skills and Friendships) -[x] Helen
--[x] Skills: Pistols (1SP), Martial Arts (2SP, K'Leto)
--[x] Friendships: K'Leto D'vaugnas (2 FP)
--[x] Perks: Slipping the Leash (K'Leto), The Underworld (K'Leto) -[x] Burt
--[x] Skills: Ritual Magic (Medicine) (1 SP, Dr. Herrica), Esoteric Medicine (Alchemy) (1 SP, Dr. Herrica), History (Occult) (1 SP, Tama)
--[x] Friendships: Tama D'vaugnas (1 FP), Dr. Bejen Herrica (1 FP)
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama) -[x] Eddie
--[x] Skills: Dreams (2 SP, Dr. Kokotomi), Ritual Magic (Witchboard Operation) (1 SP, Tama)
--[x] Friendships: Tama D'vaugnas (1 FP), Dr. Bata Kokotomi (1 FP)
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama) -[x] Maribel
--[x] Skills: Aeromancy: Tulpas (2 SP, Mage Tethys), Aeromancy (1 SP, Mage Tethys)
--[x] Friendships: Mage Tethys (2 FP) -[x] Roberta
--[x] Skills: Mechanic (Robotics) (2 SP, Ayama), Tactics (1 SP, Director Esau)
--[x] Friendships: Ayama Kokotomi (1 FP), Director Cornelius Esau (1 FP)
--[x] Perk: A 5th Column is You (Ayama)
Okay, I'll get started on Part III, Chapter Three!
Part III, Chapter Three
November 30, 1944, 1:30 AM (Local Calendar: 11 Kruses, 4A 0:5, 22.2/35)
Well, you might as well tell them, even though they won't understand.
You type up a few paragraphs detailing Tama's plans and their justifications. The upshot being: We're probably in a simulation, and it's bullshit there's so much evil in the world. But if we're simulated, then deep down we are the supercomputer, and individuality is only an illusion. Tama wants to use the Diamond Throne to end the illusion--the lie--and merge us into one.
You finish with: It'll be kind of like Instrumentality from Evangelion--the series not the movie. I know it sounds crazy, but everyone gets a happy ending. Everyone. Everyone now, everyone who ever lived. There'll be no more suffering, no more death.
You hold your phone out, and everyone leans close. The pause drags on. Burt frowns. Maribel's eyes grow wide. Goosie squints at your screen as if deciphering a mathematical formula. In the background, the radio advertises a brothel-temple on Beach Street ("Ask about our Life Completion services").
Finally, Bobbi says, "Motherfucker!"
"We have to stop Tama!" Maribel cries.
"Shh!" Burt says. He goes over and turns up the volume.
"So, wait--" Goosie begins, but then on her phone: Let me get this straight. Tama wants to end the simulation and kill us all, and you're okay with this?
"He's going to turn everyone into orange juice!" Maribel says.
"I said the series, not the movie!" you snap. Then with your phone: We're not going to be *dead.* We'll just be who we really are. The simulation is a lie.
Bobbi: if the simulation is a lie then we are part of that lie. we are individuals if you take that away then were as good as dead.
Burt: Even if we agree with Tama's plan, why do you believe he can even accomplish this? The Diamond Throne is dangerous. Aunt Esha put an Earth on the Ring by accident. Couldn't she just as easily destroyed one?
You have to admit, Burt does have a point. As you tap out your response, Maribel shows: i dont want 2 b mixed up with everyone else if im not maribel im not me!
You: I don't know yet the "how" of Tama's plan, but he seems confident. And he'll have Widari's help too. And Aunt Esha, if he wakes her up.
Burt and Goosie exchange glances. You can almost see the twin telepathy. What the fuck are they saying?
Maribel: grandma wont help tama blow up the universe!
Burt: Dr. Widari doesn't even believe this will succeed. If Tama's plan fails, it can fail badly.
Goosie: Eddie, do you really want to lose your individuality? Wouldn't being in a hive mind be boring?
Bobbi: your new daddy is a tyrant. hes taking away our right to choose.
You rip a page from Tama's playbook. Right to choose? Let's examine this. Tama told me about a sex trafficking ring he helped break up. But did those girls choose to get kidnapped and raped? What about the hundreds of millions who died during the war? Did they choose death? What about the Vendi who nuked their world into a desert? Or the medieval Jahannans who got hit with the fallout?
Just on the Ring alone there are quadrillions of people suffering, and that's not even bringing the other "realms" like our Earth. Our world is a simulation, and it's run by an asshole. If we have a chance of changing that, shouldn't we take it?
Goosie throws out a laugh and rolls her eyes. Bobbi snorts with disgust.
Bobbi: shit happens. thats the price of free will.
Goosie: Isn't this kind of like burning down your house to get rid of termites? Why should we give up our lives to save a bunch of strangers?
You nearly go with, "Because we are them. Personal identity is an illusion," but that lacks weight. Like Bobbi said when she unintentionally paraphrased Conan's famous quote: "If life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me." A strong argument . . . but one you can counter.
Okay, there's this short story called, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." It's about this Utopian city where everyone is happy, and there's no poverty or crime. The particulars are vague and don't matter.
But every citizen when they're old enough is taken to a basement and showed a small, sickly child locked in a dark broom closet. The child is naked and malnourished and covered in sores. It sits in its own shit and cries all the time. The citizens are told that somehow all the happiness of Omelas depends on this child's misery.
Most are horrified, but then shrug it off as a necessary evil. Some refuse to accept this and walk away from Omelas. What would you do?
Burt rubs his chin. The others hammer out their replies.
Goosie: Sucks to be the kid. I mean, I wouldn't like it, but don't like the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or whatever?
Bobbi: fuck walk away id save the kid. but this isnt the same. your city is exploiting someone no different from slavery. but suffering in the world is just the flip side of freedom. people do things and when they do shitty things shit happens.
Maribel: that city is bad and the ppl who stay are bad but it still doesnt mean tamas good he should give ppl a choice like if they want 2 b mushed in a hive mind then ok but if they want 2 stay themselves then ok 2!!!!
Bobbi looks over Maribel's text and nods. "Out of the mouth of babes. Still don't trust him, though."
Burt: Maribel's right. There has to be a compromise between the way things are now and full-blown "Instrumentality." Along with giving everyone a choice regarding the hive mind, couldn't Tama also hypothetically rewrite the rules of the simulation so that individuals are protected from harm, abuse, death, etc? He could even resurrect everyone who ever lived--including our family--and create a perfect world for them all. However, I stress, *hypothetically,* as I also don't trust him, no matter how noble his intentions.
Bobbi: road to hell is paved in good intentions but i wont even give tama that. if hes such a great guy why is he against workers uniting for better pay and conditions? no guys like him dont care about anyone but themselves. he may think he cares but deep down hes just a control freak egomaniac. even if i did trust him id still be against him covering reality in foam rubber. if theres no evil then how can there be good?
Burt: All right, we've all made excellent points, but the question now is what do we do? Or more precisely, what do you do, Eddie? Are you going to tell Tama? If so, that will probably get Ayama in trouble.
All eyes turn on you, and as if on cue, a dramatic piano piece from the radio punctuates the moment. You can't say you agree with your family, but can you say they're wrong? Burt about the dangers, Goosie about the price of success. How can you argue against Maribel's idea that people be given a choice to join? Or that there lies a happy medium between endless suffering and a mandatory hive mind.
And as stupid as she is, Bobbi probably isn't too far off the mark about Tama's true motives.
"Please don't tell," Maribel says over the music. Then: i kinda want pat 2 come but also not bcs therell b lots of shooting so cant we just tell yama 2 tell her friends 2 tell pat not 2 come?
You click your teeth on your lip rings and pace around the living room. Not a bad compromise, really. Given Pat's motives, she's unlikely to be dissuaded by being told "not to come," but if she gets this message, then how does she know Tama hasn't been told as well? If he has, then her plan has lost the element of surprise, and she'd have to be crazy to follow through.
If nothing else, it should buy you time.
All right, I won't tell Tama--for now. I just need to get Ayama to send Pat a message.
That seems to partially placate your family, though Bobbi warns you're "playing with fire." mans not meant to monkey around with the universe.
Yeah, whatever. Fire bad. Which earns you a pissed-off glare. Bitch. What does Goosie see in her?
Burt ends with concerns about K'Jala's telepathy. I don't think she can directly read our minds without us noticing, but she may sense we're hiding something. We should still keep our distance as much as possible.
Easier said than done, but you'll do what you can.
Wishing to get this over with, you leave Burt's apartment and head down to Sub-basement Six. Bobbi's mentioned Ayama's a night owl when it comes to computers; hopefully she's still up. But the prospect of meeting her alone in the lab makes your stomach quiver and your hands go all clammy.
Slicking back your black-dyed hair, you check yourself in the elevator's polished brass: black corduroy jacket with turtleneck, black flared slacks. Flared acne too. Shit. Do the Swans have a Clearasil equivalent? Might want to ask Dr. Herrica.
And what does Ayama even think of you? You haven't spoken much with her. She's probably not even into white guys anyway. Also, admit it, you're kind of a weirdo. Actually, no "kind of" about it. You're plotting with a megalomaniac to rewrite reality and force everyone into a hive mind. Why are you even worried whether a cute girl likes you?
The elevator opens and you walk down the white hallway, one of Tama's elf-guards trailing silently behind. He waits as you pass through the lab's double doors into a sweltering sauna of whirring fans and electric hums. The rows of computer banks, full of blinking lights and magnetic tape spools, come straight out of every science fiction film from the sixties and seventies. ACs blast from the ceiling, their valiant efforts an eternal battle against the ozone-choked heat.
Your heart skips when you spot Ayama at the far end, near one of the Apple II-esque computer terminals. On her knees and elbows, she has her head in an open panel, a soldering gun in hand. A dictionary-thick manual lies to the side, along with a cluttered tool kit.
You can't help but stare as you approach. Her gym shorts look really nice on her. Wait, what are you going to say? Shouldn't you have rehearsed this?
Reaching back for her kit, she notices you gawking.
"Um, oh, hi!" you say over the ambient noise. You wave. Real cool, Eddie.
She shoots you a sideways look, her wary grin a white glint on her dark, lean face.
You continue on. "I . . . need to talk to you."
She climbs to her feet. Already tall for a girl, her headbanded Afro poofs her to your height. A not unpleasant musk mingles with the ozone, marking long hours in this electronic jungle. Sweat glistens over her smooth, coffee-black skin, clinging her white tank top nicely to her sprinter's body. She may be lanky like you, but her arms and legs hold a wiry strength that say she can kick your ass. Not that that's saying much.
Her onyx eyes, bright and striking, study you up and down. Your cheeks prickle.
"This has to do with Pat, doesn't it?" she asks.
You glance away, comb fingers through damp bangs. "Yeah . . . ."
"They told you?" She shakes her head and throws out her arms in exasperation. "And Bobbi told me to 'keep it under my hat!'"
That takes you off guard. That they might have kept this from you hadn't even entered your mind. Your fingers twitch. "It's . . . kind of a big deal."
She huffs. "No doubt. Which is why I should have kept my mouth shut."
"So you're okay with me being kidnapped?"
She raises a slender hand. "It's not that--"
"You okay with Pat's gang breaking in here?" You advance a step; she almost backs up. Pretty or not, you don't hold back on her. "You okay with them shooting their way through the Tower? Aren't you friends with Zizzy and Vek? Do want them to fight Professor Poseidon? Do you want them to die?"
She gasps in mock horror. She eyes the exit. "Die? What kind of hero do you think Pat is?"
"The kind who wants to save her twin sister--and save the world."
"Doesn't mean she'll leave piles of bodies in her wake."
"She's killed before. I read it in her last adventure."
"Those were vampires. She only kills bad guys. I wouldn't say Boss Man is good, but his employees are good enough. Even fascists like Zizzy and Vek. So no, there's not going to be a massacre. If I were to guess, they'd sneak in and out before anyone knew what was up."
Zizzy and Vek, fascist? "Sneak in and out . . . and kidnap me," you say.
"Yeah, I imagine you wouldn't like that . . . ." She laughs a little too hard. "But I'm not behind it. I don't have anything to do with it."
"Right. You were just going to 'keep it under your hat.'"
"I . . . don't know what I would have done." She sighs and steps forward. Laying a palm on your shoulder, she meets your eyes. "Look, Eddie, I'll level with you. Bobbi's dropped me in the drink here. I didn't expect to be this involved. Please . . . don't tell Boss Man."
Your face burns; your blush probably reaches your ears. Still, she's left you an opening. "I . . . I don't want to tell him. But I also don't want to be abducted. You have your friends, your contacts. Can't they get in touch with Pat?"
She hesitates. "Yes. Yes they can."
"All right, tell them to tell to her to lay off. That I'm not interested. I will not go with her. Fuck her and fuck her gang. Tell her it's a terrible idea, and you think Tama already knows they're here, knows they're coming."
Her expression tightens, her jaw clenching as she swallows. "I can do that."
You gesture at the nearest terminal. Reluctantly, as if at gunpoint, she sits in the plastic Space Age 60s chair and begins to type. The queasiness in your gut leaves you feeling like an asshole, but what else can you do? What does she expect you to do? If she didn't want to get involved, she shouldn't have told Bobbi. And anyway, this isn't that bad. Beats losing her internship.
Her long skinny fingers clack across the keyboard as green Toloran text scrolls down the black screen of the oval CRT monitor. You've read up enough on this world's computers to follow along, if not do it yourself. The Jahannan "Grid" totals to a bunch of government and megacorp mainframes manned by savvy techs. Sparse and structured, most traffic runs towards business and legal, but an nascent hacker culture has cultivated on the underbelly.
At least among her circle, they lean hard left--real tankie types from what Goosie and Bobbi said. Dangerous, given Ayama's employer, but she says the computer lab connects along different phone lines than Cyclops. Of course, Tama's supercomputer isn't the only thing she has to worry about.
Most have turned in for the night, but by luck she reaches a comrade named, "Seasaltsweetie" who works at the Sewage Treatment Plant in Sologoth's Dockyard District, out in "Fish Town." Ayama and her swap passcode handshakes, and you read along at their back and forth, nudging when needed. But can you trust her? As soon as you leave, she could easily just text her friend: nvm some asshole blackmailed me into saying that. tell pat to come in guns blazing.
Maybe you should tell Tama?
Wrapping up her chat, she crosses her arms and remains stony and silent, her face set in that dark twilight between fear and anger. Your tepid thanks smothers in white noise. She says nothing. You skulk off, a bridge burning behind you.
Returning to your apartment on the 54th floor, you find sleep eludes you, so you spend the few hours before dawn pouring over a book on witchboard runology. You did what you had to do, but could there have been a better way? Does it even matter? Once Tama (or, dare you think it, you?) sit on the Diamond Throne, all these mortal problems will fade like an unpleasant dream in the morning light.
Or perhaps later you can discuss with Tama a happy medium alternative to his Great Merger?
You doze off in your egg chair and wake just before "First Hour" (an Jahannan "hour" being forty-one Earth minutes), which marks when the night's solar shade fully slides free of the sun. In Swan terms, about 8AM. As you make coffee over the kitchen stove (using a stainless steel pitcher thing called a "percolator"), a silvery aircar floats into view of the picture windows, having disembarked from the Tower's hanger bay on the 42nd Floor.
Emblazoned with the Diagnus Hexagon, the craft has the sleek shape and size of a Gulfstream jet, except with shark fins in place of wings. Twin turbines spin up a roar, flame rushing out the back, and Tama sets off, soaring out across Sologoth. "Right Spinward," if you're not wrong--no cardinal directions on the Ring.
You don't know a lot about Zapaport, only that it's a big city (but not as big as Sologoth) and the capital of both the Kingdom of Toloran and the Confederation. It's also, from what you've gotten eyeballing a map, not more than a couple hundred miles away, so it should be like an hour flight each way. With a birthday party, a lawyer meet, a conference call and a banquet, he might make it back tonight.
But after breakfast you run into Dr. Widari in the library (60th Floor), and he informs you that Club Seventy-Seven lies in Zapaport's downtown. So if Tama promised Valree a night there, he probably won't be back until tomorrow morning.
Weirdly enough, he took Dr. Herrica with him ("He travels always with his personal physician," Dr. Widari explained), yet K'Jala stayed behind. Apparently she and Tama's second wife (the birthday boy's grandmother) don't get along. Gee, wonder why?
You haven't delved too deeply into Tama's personal life. That biography says he has ten (known) kids, but you can only name six: his daughter K'Leto, his adopted daughter Nyma (semi-estranged, runs a Diagnus-funded charity), his sons Alred and Tarran (through his second wife; the boys are "a scoundrel and a decadent" according to Tama), and his illegitimate twin daughters Rass and Kali (Tama dotes on them; K'Jala calls them "barbarian whorespawn").
Tama seems to care about his children, even Alred and Tarran (enough to attend their kids' birthdays, anyway). Won't Instrumentality steal their future, mashing all their lives into a big ball of everything? How can he be okay with that?
With Dr. Herrica gone, Burt studies in the library, pouring over alchemy and ritual magic medicine texts. Goosie runs off with K'Leto to "have fun" since Tama's daughter will be going back to school in a couple of days. Maribel of course continues her lessons with Mage Tethys, though before your sister goes she acts uncharacteristically sullen. Bobbi, for some reason, says she's going to meet with Director Esau, the head of Diagnus' security. Kind of random, that. Could she have an angle?
Following Tama's advice, you visit Dr. Kokotomi, who lives on the 49th Floor. You press her doorbell, hoping with all your heart her daughter isn't there. Seconds pass, long enough you consider coming back later, but then the door opens.
Dr. Kokotomi gives you a bright smile. "Come in, Eddie!" she says in her rich, husky voice. "Mr. D'vaugnas said I should expect you!"
Her beaded braids tinkle as she leads you through the foyer, her sari dress flowing like red and gold waterfalls down her womanly curves. They say black don't crack, and she's a prime example. With her smooth cherub face (fuller than Ayama's, but with evident likeness), her age could be anywhere from late-thirties to fifty-something.
Her apartment flaunts an air of the ancient world, except weirder and divergent. The spindly, ornate furniture reminds you of the Romans but with Giger-esque ribs and sinew, as if fashioned from wooden bones. Upon marble pillars rest onyx busts, their features unmistakably African but abstracted and elongated, as if carved on Easter Island. Vases and tapestries illustrate scenes that hint at histories unknown: a naked warrior wrestling a bull; a mutilated woman nailed to a stone wall, then shown whole again, ascending from a cave on angelic wings; a horned man in a chariot drags a weeping moon across the Arc of Heaven.
One wall displays a pebble mosaic of a shining metropolis, its towers tall and white, its ziggurats gleaming gold. Airship traffic crisscrosses its sky. In the city's center stands a red colossus with a great braided beard. He watches you with two sets of yellow eyes, one atop the other.
The heady musk of jasmine sticks like oil in the air, dizzying you with its aroma. You may be in an atompunk world populated by a race of pygmy humans with magical powers, but stepping into Dr. Kokotomi's home is a new breed of strange. She is of Earth, but an Earth not your own.
"Would you like some tea?" she asks as she pours from a silver pot.
Remembering the 'Babel Fish Tea,' you hesitate.
"I am not Ms. Galanaba," she says with humor in her eyes. She downs half her silver cup.
Tentatively, you sip yours: tangy, with a weird mingle of black olives and pine. "It's good." It's not exactly a lie.
She offers you a seat on a plump Roman couch. "How are your studies with Mr. D'vaugnas?"
The cushions hug around your back and butt, like memory foam. "The more I learn, the more I learn what I don't know."
"The journey never ends." She settles across from you on a cross-legged chair and regards you with pleasant contemplation. Behind her, through the great picture windows, bustling Sologoth carries on its morning life, its neon splendor muted by the clear blue sky.
You have to ask. "What do you know about Tama's plan?"
Her brow creases. "You refer to our voyage to Duellona?"
"Beyond that."
"Ah! Then you refer to his Final State? His End of History, yes?" She laughs lightly, like the tinkling of chimes. "Mr. D'vaugnas is a man of ambition. Of that no one can deny!"
You narrow your eyes. "But what do you know of it?"
She swishes her drink, mulling the question. "It was to decant minds into machines, to cloister them into a crafted heaven . . . but that was before your arrival, before the City lay in his sights. He must aim now for grander heights."
"Does that worry you?"
Her thick eyebrows climb her forehead. "Does it you? You must know more than I! But if it is the will of God that Mr. D'vaugnas should succeed, then he will. If it is the will of God that Mr. D'vaugnas should fail, then he will fail."
"'God is in his Heaven; all is right with the world'?" you quote.
"Very much! But you are being facetious. Perhaps Mr. D'vaugnas's ambitions trouble you? You do not have to tell me, but I urge you to relax. May I tell a joke?"
"A joke?"
"A joke about Mr. D'vaugnas. A popular one and not very nice. It goes as follows: 'Syphillis was cured after Tama caught syphillis.'"
You snort. "I can see that."
"You understand?" she asks.
"He cured it because he caught it. Or he threw money at doctors until they cured it."
"It is untrue--at least about the cure. Syphillis was cured when he was a very young man, and he was uninvolved as far as I know. But behind the lie lies a truth: Mr. D'vaugnas helps others when he helps himself."
"Trickle-down altruism?"
She chuckles. "A cleaver phrase! And yes. I can give you a couple of real examples. Do you know of his quest for godhood?"
You shoot her a look. "I know he wants it. But he . . . kind of wants it for everyone."
"Does he? Ha! But I refer to an earlier adventure, before T'shiro's creation, before any talk of an 'End of History.' It was eight years ago, when I was not yet in his employ, so I was not there. But I have been told the story.
"Through ancient manuscripts, Mr. D'vaugnas had uncovered the location of Grakatuzul, a sunken city in the faraway Sea of Grish. Within this city lay the Temple of Many Towers, where if one performed certain rites, one would be bestowed powers beyond this world. As you may imagine, Mr. D'vaugnas desired these powers, which was why he was exploring the waters in the Snowy Rose.
"She was one of the earliest jet-destroyers. Not supersonic, but close. Mr. D'vaugnas fitted her with the best equipment, which included radar, sonar and even a miniature submarine in her hold.
"However, Dr. Savage and his team were also in the area, in their jet-cutter, the Rockadoodle. Dr. Savage had also heard of Grakatuzul, but his goal was to prevent the power from falling into the hands of John Sunlight."
"John Sunlight," you say. "That's Doc's arch-nemesis." You remember him from history class.
"Yes, and he had allied himself with the Dragons. Dr. Savage could not allow such a wicked man to unlock Grakatuzul's secrets. Nor, he felt, could he allow Mr. D'vaugnas to unlock them either. 'No one man should have such power!' Such sentiments infuriated Mr. D'vaugnas!
"And so, he and Dr. Savage were arguing over the radio, flying around each other, threatening each other, when a Dragon cruiser rose from a nearby tropical island and opened fire. Mr. D'vaugnas and Dr. Savage quickly put aside their differences, and a cataclysmic battle ensued. In the end, all three ships crashed into the Grishan jungle.
"Several of Mr. D'vaugnas' crew perished; Director Esau and Mage Tethys were grievously injured. Dr. Malachi says Mr. D'vaugnas was visibly abashed by this ill fortune, but his resolve did not waiver. Climbing atop the Snowy Rose's wreck, he drew his saber and pointed to the sea. Who was with him to the sunken city? Who was with him on his sacred quest? For once attaining godhood, could he not heal the injured? Could he not raise the dead? Could he not end this wretched war once and for all and create a beautiful world of everlasting peace?"
"Tama does like his speeches," you say.
She giggles. "Rousing, are they not? But regrettably he did not get to finish, because the survivors of the Dragon cruiser were closing in. So he and his crew retreated into the jungle, where they ran into Dr. Savage. This was the first time the two met in person. This was also when young K'Leto met Dr. Savage's cousins, Patricia and Pamela. She was quite captivated by them, much to Mr. D'vaugnas' annoyance.
"He and Dr. Savage joined forces, of course. I will not go into their adventures, but apart from their Dragon pursuers they faced many dangers: native warriors and giant lizards, deadly dungeons and an immortal witch-king. And finally: the watery depths of Grakatuzul. But while in the end Mr. D'vaugnas failed in his quest for godhood, he helped foil the Dragons' plans, sealed a portal to the Realm of Mu, and freed an enslaved tribe who, as I understand it, now worship him and Dr. Savage as gods."
"So he did succeed," you say.
She quirks her mouth. "Yes, but without the unlimited power, which I believe for Mr. D'vaugnas is the point. But this is not my only example. During the Pestilence following the War, parts of your United States fell into lawlessness, with bandits terrorizing rural regions."
"So I noticed."
She nods. "The Hayburners are--were--among the last. The situation used to be worse, but you Americans are a hardy nation. Between the military and militias, order was restored within a couple of years. However, Mr. D'vaugnas helped in this. Helped quite eagerly.
"This was shortly after the Sweet Pea's christening. He is very proud of that ship. He enjoys her capacity to impress--and intimidate. And even more recently, Dr. Widari had developed a terrifying new prototype: the photon cannon."
"Alan Turing told us about that," you say. "They're called 'lasers' in our world."
"Ah. We too had similar weapons, before the Apocalypse. Mr. D'vaugnas was immensely pleased with this rediscovered technology and wished a field test. At the time he was busy in your country with business, and with so many bandits around . . . ."
You shrug. "I see where this is going. Seems pretty altruistic to me."
Her expression darkens. "So it may appear. But I was on the bridge during one of these . . . demonstrations. It is said actions outweigh intent. Perhaps this is true. But I believe justice should be dispensed with grim resolve and a heavy heart, not with gloating and laughter. I believe if criminals surrender, no matter how heinous their crime, they should be detained to stand trial, not slain for spectacle. Doubtless Mr. D'vaugnas saved many lives, but I can't help but feel his delight tainted his good deeds."
"Yet the deeds were good," you say. "Just like when he went after the sex traffickers. From what he told me, it sounds like he 'disappeared' some of the guys who got off Scot-free. Is that a bad thing? Who cares if he gets off paying evil unto evil? Who cares if he's a megalomaniac? He's done a lot of good, and I think he's going to do a whole lot more before he's through."
Her onyx eyes, so like her daughter's, read into you. She finishes her tea. "Then we are in agreement. God will judge him as he will judge us all, but in this life Mr. D'vaugnas commits goodness while attempting greatness. His vice is virtue. His selfishness, righteousness. Look at yourself. He needs your help reaching Duellona, and so he lets you live in luxury. He pays you a rich salary. He offers you opportunities to train your talents--such as now, where I will teach you the art of dreaming."
Picking up on the cue, you down your own teacup and set it on the spindly coffee table.
"Lie down," she says. She presses a button on a brick-size remote, and shades slowly descent over the windows to quench the daylight, plunging the apartment into an evening dusk.
You recline on the Roman coach, resting your head on the cushioned armrest. So she's in agreement. Is she right? Are you right? That adventure with Doc sounded rough, but ended well enough. Though Tama failed to become a god.
Will this quest to Duellona wind up the same sort of mixed-victory? "Okay, Instrumentality was a bust, but we swiped some cool Vendi loot!" That'd be pretty underwhelming, given what's at stake.
And like what Burt said, "If Tama's plan fails, it can fail badly." And who will pay the price of that failure?
Dr. Kokotomi strikes a match and lights two skinny sticks on a tiny brazier. The incense smolders and sparkle, letting loose twin strips of velvety, violet smoke which rises from the table in rings which smell of pine and wet earth.
"Close you eyes, Eddie. Clear your mind."
You do the former, but the latter is easier said than done. "I'm not going to lie, I just drunk a lot of coffee . . . ."
"Listen to my words." Her voice lulls low and loose, as if borne by a breeze. "You are going down a soft carpeted stairway. Your hand is on a firm wooden rail. As I count from ten to one, you will walk down these steps, descending deeper and deeper into a peaceful and relaxed state . . . ."
Tingles trickle down your spine. Something shifts within. You strain to speak, but you are falling as her words fade and darkness devours you.
The man awoke on dusty cushions, his eyes greeted by the ruins of the Great Hall. Sitting up, he stretched and rubbed the sleep from his lids. Strange, he didn't remember having such alabaster skin, but then he had slept for a very long time. He stood from the sofa and paced, his sneakers silent on the chipped and cracked checkerboard tiles. Had the mansion always looked so lifeless, so drained of color?
He paused at the mummified husks curled on the floor, but relaxed when he saw they weren't his family. Deep Ones, judging by their eyeless skulls. That tugged a thread, but it slipped from his grasp. These Fish Men deserved their fate, though. He was sure of it.
He searched the kitchen, the study, the bedrooms, the basement. Dust covered all and clouded with every step. He called to his siblings but did not make a sound.
Maybe they were outside? He went through the front doors, already open to the porch. Beyond the terrace and stone steps, the woods gathered dark and desolate, the naked winter trees gnarled and gray. Above loomed a universe of unblemished black. Where were the stars?
Why were there no stars?
~Turn back.
The whisper echoed in his skull. The man spun around. Shadows watched in silence.
~Turn back, Eddie.
~Who are you? Show yourself!
In the starless sky appeared the face: bulbous eyes and glistening scales, terrible teeth in a hideous maw. The Deep One gazed down upon the man.
~You must not see. You must not know. Turn back.
The man shook his fists at the hollow sea. ~I defy you! You cannot contain me!
~Sleep.
You jerk awake on the couch, your heart pounding, sweat damp on your forehead. "How long was I out?" you gasp.
"About two hours." Dr. Kokotomi cringes. She grips her hands to keep them from fluttering. "I must apologize. I intended to join you in your dream, to instruct you, but alas I was unable. But you were . . . somewhere familiar? Someone spoke to you. I sensed that much."
"Yes," you say but don't elaborate. The dream floats through your head; you snatch at fading memories. That Deep One, was he . . . . ?
Dr. Kokotomi shifts in her seat. "You do not have to tell me. Or maybe you will tell me later? But I think we have done enough for today. With practice you may guide you dreams, reach out and speak through them across great distances. Would you like to meet again tomorrow?"
After agreeing on a time, you return to the library to check out a book on oneiromancy, the magic of dreams. Communication through dreaming is relatively commonplace among Jahannans. After all, virtually all of them are at least vestigially psychic. But its very banality limits its scope. For example, ordinary prisoners can't psychokinetically lockpick their cells, nor can they send messages beyond their prisons. The Jahannans have developed countermeasures, usually in the form of nullifier wards--anti-magic runes.
And D'vaugnas Tower has such countermeasures, the best money can buy. The wards are baked into its bricks, smelted into its steel. The building should be impenetrable to psychic influence . . . . yet, you're ninety-five percent certain Professor Poseidon contacted you.
Could the Deep One be inside the tower? No, surely someone would have detected him, and besides, his signal was too weak, as if he were reaching out to you across a great gulf. But from what you've read (and just like anything else) even the best countermeasures can be countered, with enough power and finesse. A thousand year old telepath should have those by the ton.
So Poseidon's wants you to "turn back"? Says you, "must not see" and "must not know"? Well, fuck that. He can't keep the truth from you.
You study up on dreams for a while, then switch to witchboard semantics. It's early evening when you head back to the 54th Floor and stop by Burt's apartment--the family's unofficial meeting place. Your brother lounges alone in an egg chair, sipping beer as he attentively watches the news.
You plop into the egg next to him. "Where is everyone?" you ask.
He appears distracted. "Goosie said she'd be with K'Leto all night 'practicing psychic stuff.' I don't know where Bobbi is. I guess still with Director Esau? Maribel turned in for the night. She seemed pretty quiet." He fiddles with his phone and adds: I think this thing with Pat and Tama has her worried.
You dig out your own phone. Well, yeah. She's conflicted. It's Pat's fault, though. Her rescue is bullshit. Btw, I think Poseidon contacted me.
That gets Burt's attention. You fill him in on the dream. His lips purse. I don't like this. Their plan was to "rescue" you during a riot three days from now. Now they might try it early. His face grim, he points with his bottle at the TV.
Two elf news anchors (a handsome man, a cute woman) are discussing the riots which have spread across Sologoth over the last hour. According to reports, earlier this afternoon the police conducted a raid on the Dockyard's Temple of Dagon, an apparent safe house for the Workers Liberation Vanguard. During the arrests, an "altercation" occurred which resulted in the shooting deaths of seven Vanguard members, including Priestess Sana Pepberos. The screen switches to a photo of a scowling middle-aged elf with a silvery-gold tiara on her head. She was halfway through her metamorphosis, judging by her bulging eyes, scaly skin and the beginning of gills on her neck.
Following the shootings, "Fish Town's" streets erupted in arson and looting, prompting similar unrest in Dabrine and Swanos, with incursions into D'Togos. Protesters have also gathered at Emerald Hill, though the district's heavy police presence has thus far discouraged violence.
The news shows scenes in rapid-cut succession: crowds chant and wave banners; a woman in red body paint dances atop a wrecked car; a Cicada's spotlight sweeps the streets, a megaphone commanding all to return to their homes; an orange inferno engulf a gas station, the flames spreading to parked cars; looters swarm a grocery store while on the sidewalk mohawked teenagers kick an old man in an apron; canisters skip across pavement, spewing yellow mist; protesters stumble and cough, then flee before a wall of riot shields; punks in gas masks hurl bricks; police return fire with shotgun volleys; a sorcerer in riot gear levitates in a blue bubble, lighting lancing from his fingertips.
Reports come in that along with corporate security corps and private police companies, many criminal gangs have also mobilized, some in support of the protests, others adamantly opposed. The newscasters refer to a recent drive by shooting during a protest which left nine dead and over fifty injured. Didn't Goosie and Bobbi mention that?
The anchors turn the show over to a pair of talking heads: Confederal Parliament candidate Cyran Yesric and former Diet Minority Leader Ayen Farbaros. Yesric claims the unrest is caused by too many foreigners and not enough God. Farbaros says too much poverty, not enough social programs. Within a minute the two resort to raised voices and name calling.
You glance behind your egg chair, out the apartment's windows. The solar shade half blocks the sun, deepening the sky an indigo that brings out the towering lights and neon of Rologoss Island. But beyond Sologoth's metropolis heart, Left Spinward across Lasso River and out into the relatively low sprawl of Swanos, smoke rises and congeals into an urban smog which lurks on the distant skyline.
"How long have you been watching this?" you ask.
"A few minutes," Burt says. On his phone: This wasn't part of the plan, was it?
You beat out: You think Pat will try something?
He rubs his chin, takes his time replying. I did at first, but now I doubt it. If they plan on using the riots as a distraction while they break in, they're doing it wrong. Nothing's happening here.
Nothing's happening here *right now.*
He smiles ruefully. Yes, that did occur to me. Do you think we should tell Tama?
You consider this carefully. Even if Ayama's hacker friends gave Pat the message, I doubt it'd change her mind. Especially not with Poseidon trying to get in my brain.
He sighs. "We need a family meeting." His blue eyes lose focus as he stares into space. A minute goes by. His face goes taut with concentration, then pales, his lips pressing into a line.
"I . . . I can't sense her," he says. "I can't sense Goosie!" An uncharacteristic shrillness seeps in his tone. He looks at you with rising fear.
It's contagious. Your stomach clenches. "Maybe she's asleep?"
He shakes his head, his expression desolate. "No, I'd be able to feel her. And I'd feel it if she was in danger too. She's not in the Tower!"
You raise a hand, cutting off his next thought. You text: Pat wouldn't kidnap her. I'm their target. And Goosie's with K'Leto. All the security everywhere? It'd be like the bank shootout in Heat if they tried to break into her bedroom.
Burt isn't reassured. "Then where is she?" he whispers.
"Maybe K'Leto's teaching her like, psychic blocking?"
He frowns, swallows. She asked me not to contact her. Said it would interfere with her telepathy practice.
And the pieces come together. God damn it, Goosie.
Burt spots the revelation in your face. "What? What?"
You motion for patience. Burt, remember when Goosie said she thought K'Leto knew a way to sneak out of the Tower? K'Leto leaves for school in a few days, so if Goosie were going to learn her secret... You don't bother finishing.
He catches on. "God damn it, Goosie," he mutters. On his phone: You think she'd be stupid enough to sneak out *during a riot?*
"The riot's only been going on an hour or so. And yeah, I do."
He drops his face in his palms and rubs at his brow. "Why would she do this without telling me?"
"Because you'd say no?"
"We have to tell Tama," he says, looking up. "Or tell someone, since he's not here."
The TV plays footage of a stumbling Vendi man clutching a gore-filled eye socket. Parked cars blaze behind him. Gunshots echo in the distance.
"Goosie's out there . . . ." Burt says, his voice small and hollow.
The bitter dreads disperses from your belly to the rest of you. But you're not as despairing as Burt. You keep a cool head.
But what should you do? You could argue that even if Goosie and K'Leto slipped out into the city, this is K'Leto's turf. She should know how to take care of herself. And the riots aren't happening everywhere. It can't be that dangerous out there.
On the other hand, from what K'Leto's said, she sympathizes with the protesters. Eat the rich, power to the people, death to the bourgeoisie, and all that. You'd lay down good money she and Goosie have joined in on the fun.
And then there's the wild cards. Where's Bobbi? Still with Director Esau, or with Goosie? And what about Pat and her gang? If Goosie's out in the streets, then could Professor Poseidon use his telepathy to track her down? Could he use her to get to you?
What do you do?
End Chapter Time
November 30, 1944, 7:00 PM (Local Calendar: 12 Kruses, 4A 0:5, 16.1/35)
The chapter was originally much longer (10-12k words?), but while writing I concluded Burt would discover Goosie's absence sooner rather than later, and that would be no minor thing. So here we are. This also creates an odd situation, since the party members not only now differ in goals, but (apparently) location. We essentially have a fog of war within the party. So if you want to know what Goosie's up to, you're going to have to either find her, or vote her as the new POV. However, you can see everyone's character sheets, so their might be hints there.
Anyway, I'm giving two weeks to vote. Possibly more if needed. But for now voting is open until the evening of January 21st.
Party Skill Increases
Burt has gained Skill in: History (Occult) (Tama wasn't here to help Burt with his studies, but Burt can study it himself)
Burt's Character Sheet
Herbert "Pookie" Springwell
[/B]
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Height: 6'2
Weight: 170lbs
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Bookish, lanky. Wears hornrim glasses.
Strength: Good
Dexterity: Above-Average
Intelligence: Near Genius
Perception: Good
Willpower: Good
Health: Good
Academic (Moderate bonus to academic and research-related skills).
Antiquarian (Moderate bonus to history, literature and other related skills)
Language Talent (Note: Burt isn't particularly aware of this)
Slightly Nearsighted (Wears glasses)
Bookworm
Worries a lot
Skeptical, levelheaded
A bit of a square
Special bond with twin sister.
New Skills are Yellow.
Languages
English (Native)
Latin (Fluent)
'Germanese' (Accented, Written)
Toloran (Accented)
Mental Skills
Computer Operation +5
Esoteric Medicine ---
First Aid +6 (***)
History (America, 19th and 20th Century) +5
History (Occult) +3
Literature +6
Medicine +5
Meditation +0
Mental Strength +2
Research +8
Ritual Magic (Medicine) ---
Writing +6
Physical Skills
Driving (Automobile) +2
Fencing ---
Guns (Shotgun) +1
Muy Thuy Kickboxing +1
Minor wound to chest (pellet) (mostly healed)
Superficial wound to upper right arm (pellet) (mostly healed)
Helen has gained Skill: Guns (Pistol)
Helen has gained Skill: Martial Arts (Toloran Judo)
Helen has gained Perk: Slipping the Leash
Helen has gained Perk: The Underground
Helen's Character Sheet
Helen "Goosie" Springwell
(Hebert's twin sister)
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Height: 5'9
Weight: 130lbs
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Light brown
Pretty, lanky, tomboy
Strength: Average
Dexterity: Very Good
Intelligence: Bright
Perception: Good
Willpower: Good
Health: Good
Artificer (Slight bonus to mechanical related skills).
Musical Ability (Slight bonus to music-related skills)
Natural Athlete (Moderate Bonus to athletic skills)
Pothead
College dropout
Lesbian
Tomboy, snarky, reckless
A little unstable
Special bond with twin brother.
New Skills are Yellow
Languages
English (Native)
Toloran (Accented)
Mental Skills
Artist (Drawing) +2
Computer Operation +4
Mechanic (Classic Automobiles) +4
Mechanic (Generators) +2
Meditation ---
Musical Instrument (Drums) +3
Physical Skills
Bicycling +8
Driving (Automobile) +5
Driving (Motorcycle) +6
Fencing +3
Guns (Pistol) +5
Guns (Rifle) +4
(Martial Arts) Muy Thuy Kickboxing +5
(Martial Arts) Toloran Judo +3
Skateboarding +7
Sports (Softball) +7
Eddie has gained Skill in Dreams
Eddie has gained Skill in Ritual Magic (Witchboard Operation)
Eddie's Character Sheet
Edward Springwell
(Herbert's little brother)
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Height: 6'1
Weight: 140lbs
Hair: Dark blond (dyed black)
Eyes (Blue)
Lip rings. Skinny, gloomy teenager
Strength: Average
Dexterity: Above-Average
Intelligence: Genius
Perception: Very Good
Willpower: Good
Health: Good
Wizard (World-Jumper)
Computer Wizard (Slight bonus to computer related skills)
Occultist (Moderate bonus to Occult related skills)
Poet (Moderate bonus to writing-related skills)
Straw Nihilist
Gloomy, sullen, snarky
Plays pen-n-paper RPGs
Drinks cough syrup
Kind of lazy
New Skills are Yellow
Languages
English (Native)
Toloran (Accented)
Mental Skills
Computer Operation (Tech Level 8 (modern)) +6
Computer Programming (Tech Level 7x) +2
Dreams +1
Fast Talk +3
Hobbies (role-playing games, video games, science-fiction novels) +6
Mental Strength +3
Philosophy (Applied Platonics) +2
Ritual Magic (Witchboard Operation) +3 (*)
Runology (Dwarven) +2
Runology (Jahannan) +2
Writing +9
Physical Skills
Bicycling +2
Maribel has gained Language: Toloran
Maribel has gained Skill in: Aeromancy
Maribel has gained Skill in Dreams
Maribel has gained Skill in Mental Strength
Maribel has gained Skill in Runology (Jahannan)
Maribel has Leveled Up Talent: Aeromancy
Maribel's Character Sheet
Maribel Springwell
(Hebert's little sister (adopted))
Age: 12
Gender: Female
Height: 4'8
Weight: 80lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Dark Brown
Little girl. Black. Usually keeps hair in ponytail.
Strength: Weak
Dexterity: Good
Intelligence: Near Genius
Perception: Good
Willpower: Very Good
Health: Good
Wizard +1 (Aeromancer, possibly a minor World-Jumper)
Psientist (Heavy bonus for Psi related skills)
Curious
Gets into mischief
Interested in the paranormal
Likes video games, anime
Thinks Helen is cool
New Skills are Yellow
Languages
English (Native)
Toloran (Accented)
Mental Skills
Computer Operation +5
Dreams +1
Hobbies (anime, video games, and the paranormal lore) +5
Magic (Aeromancy) +3 (*)
Magic (Aeromancy--Tulpas) +2
Mental Strength +7
Runology (Jahannan) ---
Physical Skills
Bicycling +5
Driving (Motorcycle, dirtbike) +4
Skateboard +3
Sports (Soccer) +4
Tae Kwon Do +3
Moderate wound to right hand (2nd degree burn) (Almost healed)
Moderate wound to left hand (2nd degree burn) (Almost healed)
Roberta has gained Skill in Mechanic (Robotics, Tech Level 7x)
Roberta has gained Skill in Tactics
Roberta has leveled up her Artificer Talent
Roberta has unlocked Perk: A 5th Column is You
Roberta "Bobbi" Zacarias
(Helen's Girlfriend)
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Height: 5'7
Weight: 160lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Butch, 'bad boy' style, tattoos
Strength: Above-Average
Dexterity: Good
Intelligence: Clever
Perception: Above-Average
Willpower: Good
Health: Good
Artificer (Good bonus to mechanical related skills)
Driver's Reflexes (Slight bonus to driving related skills)
Musical Ability(Slight bonus to music-related skills)
Mechanic (Classic and Modern Automobiles (TL 7 & 8)) +8
Mechanic (Classic Motorcycles (TL7)) +7
Mechanics (Generators TL8) +6
Mechanics (Robotics TL7x) +6
Musical Instrument (Guitar) +4
Streetwise +2
Tactics ---
Physical Skills
Bicycling +5
Muy Thuy Kickboxing +5
Driving (Automobile, Motorcycle) +6
Guns (Pistol) +3
Skateboard +4
Summary of the Problem: Pat Savage and her crimefighting gang were apparently planning to sneak into the D'vaugnas Tower and kidnap you during a riot three days from now. However, a bloody police raid in Fish Town has sparked the riot early. Pat and her gang might try to kidnap you soon. Also, Professor Poseidon seems to have contacted you during a dream.
Additionally, Goosie (and possibly Bobbi) may have sneaked out of the Tower with K'Leto (either that, or she's been kidnapped by Pat). Meanwhile, Tama has flown off to the city of Zapaport and should be back later tonight or tomorrow morning.
[ ] Write in.
What do you want to do about Goosie apparently being gone from the Tower?
[ ] Don't panic. Give it time. She probably sneaked out of the Tower with K'Leto, and while there may be a riot going on, it's probably not as big a deal as news makes it out to be. K'Leto apparently sneaks out all the time, and she's fine. Plus, you don't want to get her and K'Leto in trouble.
[ ] This a serious problem. There's a riot out there! Or Pat may have kidnapped her! You need to tell someone.
[ ] Write in.
What do you want to do about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you?
[ ] Don't worry about it. D'vaugnas Tower is a fortress full of stormtroopers. They can't possibly get to you.
[ ] This is a major threat. You need to tell someone.
[ ] Write in.
If you want to tell someone about Goosie being apparently gone from the Tower, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[ ] Write in.
If you want to tell someon about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[ ] Write in.
Anything else you want to add?
[ ] Write in.
Who should be the next chapter's POV? Rank from most preferred (5) to least preferred (1). Default vote is Eddie (5) and everyone else (0)
[ ] Burt
[ ] Helen
[ ] Eddie (Default)
[ ] Maribel
[ ] Roberta
Below is the remainder of the current plan which has yet to be fulfilled. The default vote is to leave this plan in place, but you can put forward a new plan if you wish.
Plan @Nevill -[x] Burt
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama) -[x] Eddie
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama)
Map of Local Area (Note: Riots in Dabrine, Swanos, the Dockyards and D'Togos. Protests in Emerald Hill)
1. Emerald Hill: Government. Historical. Lots of Second Age/Early Third Age architecture. Plenty of temples, castles, museums, etc.
2. Vororoth: Financial. Business. Heavy dominance of Dwarf (Odrom) owned companies.
3. Tors: Wealthy residential. High-end markets and department stores. The home of many government officials.
4. Rologoss Island: The financial heart of Sologoth. Heavily developed in the last century. A spillover from Vororoth that eclipsed the parent.
5. Swanos: Middle-class residential and small businesses. A number of Vendi enclaves in this area.
6. D'Togos: Low-income residential. Subsidized housing. Struggling businesses. Tolos Nation gang territory.
7. Dabrine: Warehouse district. Light industry. Large homeless population ("Bum Town"). Lots of political malcontents.
8. Prince Beach: Recreational district. Theaters, nightclubs, casinos. High-business, but also high crime, with heavy organized crime activity.
9. D'vaugnas Tower: You are here.
10. Eirohm Tower: Headquarters of the Eirohm Arms Company (Widari's folks).
11. The Green Palace: Home of the Doge of Sologoth (currently Alren Nuvan). Nicknamed "The Doge House."
12. House of Diet: Where Sologoth's Republican Diet meets.
13. The Star Fort: Late-Second Age fortress. Serves as Sologoth's military headquarters.
14. Keerlo Park: Nice nature preserve. Lots of old buildings to look at too.
15. Basso Island: Gun and missile Battery. Under jurisdiction of the CSK Navy.
16. Lasso Island: Gun and missile Battery. Under jurisdiction of the CSK Navy.
17. Arrow points to Kurogotto Deep, a large touristy town near the Verveenian border.
18. Arrow points to Sologoth Republican Airport, as well Zingwin Naval Base (CSK).
19. Arrow points to Dragroth, an industrial city near the Toloran border. Low income, high crime. "Little Kaien." Korigan ganglands.
20. Arrow leads to Sologoth City dockyards and warehouse district. "Fish Town." Large Deep Ones population. Sewage treatment plant.
21. Diagnus Pictures Building: Headquarters of the Diagnus Pictures Company, a television and cinema subsidiary of Diagnus Corp.
22. Sologoth Republican Archives: Site of both the Sologoth Republic Library (Main branch) and the Sologoth Hall of Records.
Dramatis Personae
Sir Tama Dax D'vaugnas: President and CEO of Diagnus Corp, ex-husband to K'Jala, father of K'Leto, philanthropist, futurist, computer and robotics magnate, occultist, archaeologist, adventurer, megalomaniac
Race: Elf
Ethnicity: Toloran
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Height: 5'4
Weight: 120lbs
Hair: Graying black, receding, with widow's peak
Eyes: Black
A lanky, middle-age elf with a deep olive complexion.
Net worth of ♕10 billion ($76 billion)
Invented digital computer
Attended D'shalsky Academy, was member of the Student Council
Was reputedly part of the Abraxas Cult, a fencing club of some sort
Mother diagnosed with lung cancer, commits suicide (1904)
Never attended university
Financed and fought alongside a mercenary army against communist forces during the Assalan Civil War (1910-1913)
Met his first wife
Rescued hundreds during the Ky'lan Genocide
Executed hundreds of prisoners of war (allegedly)
Led his Corporate Fleet against the Aesiran Republic during the Great War (1925-1939)
Spent much of the war looting magical artifact from primitives
His destroyer, the Snowy Rose, was sunk by Aesirans in 1936. Mage Tethys saved his life.
Frenemies with Doc Savage (Diagnus is partnered with Doc's company, Hidalgo)
Knighted by Toloran King Artara II for his services during the war (1939)
Ran a bid for Doge of Sologoth on the Corporate Republican Party ticket (1940)
Lost in a landslide to Traditionalist candidate Alred Nuvan
Claims the election was rigged
Currently under investigation for tax evasion, industrial sabotage and violating monopoly laws
Advocate of Euthanasia Reform. Believes there are too many suicides
Highly critical of CSK's Racial Purity Laws
Claims tobacco causes cancer
Master level fencer
Master level martial artist
Expert of Vendian Egyptology
Vegetarian
Teetotaler (most of the time)
Loves his fox Nee-nee
Don't bring up his first wife's suicide
First cousin to Vulas Vee D'vaugnas, 13th Baron Vaugnas
10th in line to the title of Baron Vaugnas of Rupengotha (Kingdom of Toloran, Confederation of Swan Kingdoms)
Married three times (once widowed, twice divorced)
Has nine (known) biological children with seven women (three are legitimate)
Has an adopted daughter
Has six fingers on both hands, six toes on both feet (a genetic mutation from the Vendi Atomic War)
Vestigial telepathy and psychokinesis
Was first to undergo the Ritual
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Computer Operation
Computer Programming
Engineering (Electronics)
Engineering (Robotics)
History (Occult)
Mathematics (Computer Science)
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
Philosophy (Applied Platonics)
Ritual Magic (Witchboard Operation)
Runology (Jahannan School)
Fencing
Martial Arts
Perks
Forbidden Knowledge: (2 FP to unlock) Party Member will gain access to his collection of Eldritch Literature.
Mind over Matter: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate psychokinesis ability (Available to Burt, Helen and Eddie)
Mind to Mind: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate telepathic ability (Available only to Burt, Helen, Eddie and Maribel).
Under Corporate Supervision: (2 FP to unlock) Tama will agree to let you leave Diagnus Tower into Sologoth, but only with an armed escort of guards.
K'Jala Galanaba, Secretary General of Diagnus Corp., Gnostic (Telepath and Clairvoyant), ex-wife of Tama, mother of K'Leto
Race: Elf
Ethnicity: Korigan
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Height: 4'6
Weight: 60lbs
Hair: Long blonde
Eyes: Icy blue
A beautiful elf woman with a cool demeanor. Has runic tattoos to enhance her powers
Known to be cold and calculating
Runs the day to day operations of Diagnus Corps.
Confederate Royal Sorcerer Corps (CRSC) (1926-1930) Rank: Lieutenant
Diagnus Corp. Security Assets (1930-1939)
Diagnus Corp. Secretary General (1939-)
Parents were Korigan refugees who fled the Aesiran Republic to neighboring Assal.
As an infant, she and her parents were rescued by Tama during the Ky'lan Genocide (Assalan Civil War: 1910-1913)
Christian (Zobartic sect)
Employee of Diagnus Corp. for fourteen years
Devoted to Tama -- but not blind to his faults
Tolerates Valree Zarhara
Was third to undergo the Ritual
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Meditation (Prerequisite for other skills)
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
(Has other skills, but they require Perk: Mind to Mind to be unlocked first)
Perks
Mind to Mind: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate telepathic ability (Available only to Burt, Helen, Eddie and Maribel).
Under Corproate Supervision: (2 FP to unlock) She will convince Tama to allow the party to leave the Diagnus Tower under security supervision.
Dr. Widari zun Eirohm: Chief Technology Consultant for Diagnus Corp, runologist, alchemist, mathematician, occultist, explorer
Race: Dwarf/Morlock
Ethnicity: Eirohm Clan
Age: 110 (chronologically) 96 (biologically) (the human equivalent of about 30)
Gender: Hermaphrodite (most dwarves go by he/him)
Height: 4'2
Weight: 150lbs
Hair: None
Eyes: 3, pink and beady
A being vaguely resembling a gray, hairless, overweight chimpanzee, with three pink eyes and squidlike hands and feet.
Was part of Uncle Grubb and Aunt Esha's Duellona Expedition
Due to a time dilation effect, skipped fifteen years while in Duellona
Family member of the wealthy Eirohm Clan, famous for Eirohm Arms
Author of Diamonds in the Mist: Imperial Count Gerbern's Expedition to the Autumn City (3A 7:15-7:30)
Can be rather talkative once you get him going
Diagnus Corp. Chief Technology Consultant (1927-)
Is considered an odd duck even by dwarf standards
Second to undergo the Ritual
Dwarf Facts
Sensitive to light
Require special fungoid diet
Smell funky
Switch biological sex every few years
Lay eggs
Lifespan of about 250 years
Stronger then most humans
Excellent fine motor skills, but clumsy overall
Contact Geomancy: can manipulate stone by touch
Tend to be overly pedantic
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Alchemy
Mathematics (Pure)
Mathematics (Theoretical)
Philosophy (Applied Platonics)
Ritual Magic (Witchboard Operation)
Runology (Jahannan School)
Runology (Dwarven School)
Director Cornelius Esau: Chief Security Officer of Diagnus Corp, Director of Diagnus Corps Security Assets
Race: Human
Ethnicity: Vendi-Israelite
Age: 63
Gender: Male
Height: 6'3
Weight: 240lbs
Hair: Bald
Eyes: (only one) Dark brown
A tall, imposing black man with a scarred face. The left lens of his wire-rim spectacles is blacked out.
Confederate Royal Army, Heavy Infantry (1899-1909) Rank: Captain
Led Tama's mercenary army during the Assalan Civil War (1910-1913)
Diagnus Corp. Chief Security Officer, Director of Security Assets (1913-)
Fought as a Corporate Privateer in the Great War (1925-1939)
Lost his eye in 1936 when Aesirans sank the Diagnus Corp. destroyer, Snowy Rose
Loyal friend to Tama, but thinks his interest in the occult is silly
Military history buff
Low-key/moderate supporter of the Vendi Separatist Movement
Tama gave him a custom battlesuit, but really he's too old for that
Employee of Diagnus Corp. for thirty-four years
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
History (CSK, Military)
Strategy (Air)
Strategy (Land)
Tactics
Pistols
Perk More Dakka: (2 FP to unlock) He'll allow you to train with shotguns, rifles and sub-machine guns.
K'Leto Lax D'vaugnas: Daughter of Tama and K'Jala
Race: Elf
Ethnicity: Toloran/Korigan
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Height: 4'9
Weight: 65lbs
Hair: Black pixie-cut, blue highlights
Eyes: Black
A lanky teenage elf with an olive complexion.
Student at D'shalsky Academy, member of the Student Council
Rumored to the part of the Abraxas dueling cult
Rebel
Competitive jet racer
Airbike enthusiast
Smokes, but keeps it a secret from her father
Master fencer
Master martial artist
Master pilot
Friends with Pat Savage, went on an adventure with her once
Hates Valree
Hates Vasgo music. Thinks it's bourgeois.
Listens to Zlak music, much to her father's annoyance
Plays guitar
Vestigial Telepathy and Psychokinesis
Sympathetic towards the Peoples' Revolution Party
Twelve fingers, twelve toes
First cousin once removed to Vulas Vee D'vaugnas, 13th Baron Vaugnas
13th in line to the title of Baroness Vaugnas of Rupengotha (Kingdom of Toloran, Confederation of Swan Kingdoms)
Used to be close to her father, but they've grown apart
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Fencing
Martial Arts
Perks
Mind over Matter: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate psychokinesis ability (Available to Burt, Helen and Eddie)
Mind to Mind: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate telepathic ability (Available only to Burt, Helen, Eddie and Maribel).
Slipping the Leash: (2 FP to unlock, can be purchased via Split-Cost) Once you get to Sologoth, she'll show you a way to sneak out of Diagnus Tower so the party can enter the city without a security escort. (UNLOCKED)
Bonus Perk: The Underworld (Free with Slipping the Leash -- but not if purchased via Split-Cost) - She also has a criminal contacts, and can get you access to an underground nightclub. (UNLOCKED)
Valree Zarhara: Tama's mistress, erotic model, photographer, artist, aspiring film director
Race: Elf
Ethnicity: Verveenian
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Height: 4'9
Weight: 60lbs
Hair: Waist-length auburn, feathered
Eyes: Hazel
A beautiful young elf woman, elvish even by elf standards. Rather snobbish looking.
Developed a crush on Tama during his run for Doge of Sologoth; her public endorsement of him hurt her career
Likes nightclubs
Likes Vasco music
Doesn't get along with K'Leto
Loves Nee-nee
From a small town in Verveenia
Dabbles in psychoactive substances
Sometimes gets Tama to take them too
Has an interest in the occult, though Tama keeps her out of the loop
People think she's an airhead, but she really is a talented photographer
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Cinematography
Dancing
Photography
Perk
Under Corporate Supervision: (2 FP to unlock) She will convince Tama to allow the party to leave the Diagnus Tower under security supervision.
Bonus Perk: Sologoth Night Fever (Free if you purchase Under Corporate Supervision from her) - She rubs elbows with the Who's Who of Sologoth. She can get you into the most exclusive night clubs.
Bonus Perk: Where Flap the Tatters of the King(Free if you purchase Under Corporate Supervision from her) - She will tell you what happened during the Yellow King incident.
Dr. Bejen Herrica: Ship's doctor and Tama's personal shaman.
Race: Elf
Ethnicity: Verveenian
Age: 60
Gender: Male
Height: 4'10
Weight: 70lbs
Hair: Thinning brown/gray
Eyes: Brown
A middle-aged elf in a white lab coat and thick coke-bottle lenses
Highly skilled doctor and shaman. Studied at Normaris Seminary
Knows ritual spells for healing, though due to their uncertainty and side-effects he uses them only when modern medicine fails
Atheist: Believes the deities he calls upon are merely Platonic forms
Forward thinking. Open to new treatments currently under development
Mildly telepathic
Employee of Diagnus Corp. for twenty-six years
Has 'Power Rangers armor' but rarely wears it.
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Diagnosis
Esoteric Medicine (Alchemy)
First Aid
Pharmacy
Philosophy (Applied Platonics)
Physician
Ritual Magic (Banish Spirits)
Ritual Magic (Dispel Magic)
Ritual Magic (Medicine)
Runology (Jahannan School -- Medicine)
Runology (Zobartic -- Banish Evil)
Perks
Mind to Mind: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate telepathic ability (Available only to Burt, Helen, Eddie and Maribel).
Race: Elf
Ethnicity: Toloran/Zurain
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Height: 5'2
Weight: 100lbs
Hair: Brown, long
Eyes: Brown
A hippy-looking elf man in his forties. Tattooed to amplify his powers.
Confederate Royal Sorcerer Corp (CRSC) (1914-1927) Rank: Sergeant
Diagnus Corp. Security Assets (192
Worships Nodens, the god of his father
Other wizards think he's a weirdo
Can use his telepathy to appear invisible
Because of his Zurian ancestry, he is ineligible for CSK Citizenship. He is legally classed as a CSK Subject
CSK Subjects are barred from owning property in the Swanland or marrying CSK Citizens
Hydromancer Facts
Psychokinetic power excels at fluid manipulation
Mid-high kinetic force (High with liquids)
Mid-high defensive wards
Moderate finesse
Can manifest tulpas into liquid elementals
Ship duties:
Direct flow of fuel and other fluids
Use a witchboard to influence local weather
Aide in repairs/maintenance
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Dreams (Prerequisite for other skills)
Meditation (Prerequisite for other skills)
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
Runology (Jahannan)
Runology (Zurainian)
Perks
Mind over Matter: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate psychokinesis ability (Available to Burt, Helen and Eddie)
Mind to Mind: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate telepathic ability (Available only to Burt, Helen, Eddie and Maribel)
Race: Elf
Ethnicity: Ghenaren
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Height: 4'6
Weight: 60lbs
Hair: Dark brown
Eyes: Brown
An attractive brunette with olive skin and warm brown eyes. Tattooed with runes to amplify powers. Has bionic legs.
Confederate Royal Sorcerers Corp (1920-1934) Rank: Major
Diagnus Corp. Security Assets (1934-)
Holds a Phd in Thaumatology
Motherly, though she has no children of her own
Lost her legs when the Diagnus destroyer Snowy Rose was shot down by the Aesirans. Saved Tama's life.
Aeromancer Facts
Psychokinetic power excels at gaseous manipulation
Low kinetic force (High with gases)
Low defensive wards
High finesse
Can manifest tulpas into semi-autonomous air elementals
Ship duties:
Cool overheating components
Navigation
Create vacuum tunnels in front of the ship (requires witchboard)
Influence local weather (Requires witchboard)
Aide in repairs/maintenance
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Aeromancy (Prerequisite for unlocking other Aero abilities. Available only to Maribel)
Aeromancy: Remote Sensing ('Aerodar') (Available only to Maribel)
Aeromancy: Tulpas (Beginner) (Available only to Maribel)
Computer Operation
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
Navigation
Philosophy (Applied Platonics)
Ritual Magic (Witchboard Operation)
Runology (Jahannan School)
Perk Mind over Matter: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate psychokinesis ability (Available to Burt, Helen and Eddie)
Race: Elf
Ethnicity: Toloran
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Height: 4'8
Weight: 55lbs
Hair: Dark brown
Eyes: Black, close-cropped with bangs
A skinny, somewhat surly elf with runic tattoos up her arms and legs.
Confederate Royal Sorcerers Corp (CRSC) (1937-1939) Rank: Private 1st Class
Diagnus Security Assets (1939-)
Kind of a jerk
Best friends with Zizzy; grew up in the same Sologoth slums
Family connections to nativist street gang, Tolos Nation.
Tolos Nation hates communists and immigrants, in that order.
Despite his vocal anti-communism, Tolos Nation isn't fans of Tama due to his advocacy of open borders and repealing the racial purity laws. Also, they consider him a race traitor for (twice) marrying a Korigan.
Vek is on friendly terms with her family, though there are tensions.
Vek won't help you against Tama without a very good reason.
Metalmancer Facts
Psychokinetic power excels at metal manipulation
Mid-high kinetic force (Very high with metal)
Mid-high defensive wards (Very high against metal)
Low finesse (Very high with metal)
Can create mechanical golems
Ship duties:
Ship repairs/maintenance/rapid (dis)assembly
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
Perk Mind over Matter: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate psychokinesis ability (Available to Burt, Helen and Eddie)
Race: Elf
Ethnicity: Toloran
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Height: 4'3
Weight: 45lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black crew cut
A tiny elf, scowling girl with runic tattoos up her arms and legs.
Recruited into the Confederate Royal Sorcerers Corp (CRSC) but the war ended during her training. Transferred to Reserves in 1940 (Rank: Private)
Diagnus Security Assets (1940-)
Touchy about missing the war
Surly, but friendly when showing off her powers
Best friends with Vek; grew up in the same Sologoth slums
Photomancer Facts
Generates and manipulates photons
Very low kinetic force
Very low defensive wards
Low finesse (Very high with light manipulation)
Can make herself invisible (in a 'Predator' sort of way)
Can generate holographic illusions ('phantoms')
Phantoms can be tulpas
Phantoms can be 'hard' and attack, but are easily dispelled
Can create a 'magic eye' for remote viewing
Can create light orbs
Light orbs can dazzle people
Light orbs can shoot lasers
Ship duties:
Minor maintenance and repairs
Survey hard to reach area with her magic eye
Can spot weld if necessary
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
Perk Mind over Matter: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate psychokinesis ability (Available to Burt, Helen and Eddie)
Dr. Endubis Malachi: Doctor of Alchemy and Thaumatology, Tulpa-Artificer
Race: Human
Ethnicity: Vendi-Israelite
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Height: 5'5
Weight: 170lbs
Hair: Gray, with a long gray Gandalf beard
Eyes: Dark brown
A short squat elderly man of Middle Eastern descent. Has a bushy gray Gandalf beard
Master of the field of thoughtform-craft, programs tulpas using runes and witchboards
Recently, he uses this knowledge in the budding field of artificial intelligence
Currently working on Project Cyclops
Employee of Diagnus Corp. for fourteen years
Curmudgeonly old man, but friendly enough once you get to know him
Friends with Dr. Widari, like to play cards
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Alchemy
Computer Operation
Computer Programming
Mathematics (Pure)
Mathematics (Theoretical)
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
Philosophy (Applied Platonics)
Ritual Magic (Witchboard Operation)
Runology (Dwarven School)
Runology (Jahannan School)
Runology (Zobartic School)
Perk Trademark by Hasbro (2 FP to unlock): He will teach you how to make your own Witchboard.
Dr. Alan Turing: British computer scientist, cryptographer
Race: Human
Ethnicity: Anglo-Saxon
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Height: 5'10
Weight: 170lbs
Hair: Dark brown
Eyes: Blue
It's Alan Turing!
Brilliant in his field
Worked on Project Ultra during the Great War
Blackmailed by the German government for homosexual activities (1942)
Arrested for sodomy; broken out of jail by Tama
Currently working on Project Cyclops
Only Earthling among Tama's entourage (you and your party excluded)
Doesn't really fit in
Employee of Diagnus Corp. for two years
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Computer Operation
Computer Programming
Cryptography
Engineering (Electronics)
Mathematics (Computer Science)
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
Running
Perk In the Halls of the Vacuum Tube Palace: (2 FP to unlock) He's not really supposed to, but he'll take you to meet Cyclops itself
Dr. Bata Kokotomi: Philosopher, physicist, metaphysicist, mystic, very mildly telepathic
Race: Human
Ethnicity: Vendi-Aksumite
Age: 51
Gender: Female
Height: 5'8
Weight: 160lbs
Hair: Black, braided with beads
Eyes: Dark brown
A curvy black woman of indeterminate age. Her dark eyes shine warmly
Revolutionized the field of quantum platonics
Panprotopsychist
Currently working on Project Cyclops
Comes from a long line of scientists
One-eighth elf
Husband is a Sky Marines General
Has four children: two in the Sky Marines, one studying for his doctorate and her youngest an intern with Diagnus Corp.
Warm and pleasant, with a good sense of humor
Mildly telepathic, but only can use it in dreams
Employee of Diagnus Corp. for seven years
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Dreams (Prerequisite for other skills)
Mathematics (Computer Science)
Mathematics (Theoretical)
Meditation (Prerequisite for other skills)
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
Philosophy (Applied Platonics)
Philosophy (Theory of Mind)
Physics (Quantum Physics)
Ritual Magic (Witchboard Operation)
Runology (Jahannan)
Perks
Dreamscape: (2 FP to unlock, must have Dream Skill and Mind to Mind Perk) Will teach you how to extend the range of your telepathy (from hundreds of miles to thousands) via a form of lucid dreaming (Available only to Burt, Helen, Eddie and Maribel) (Strictly speaking, no party member can pick this perk this chapter, but they can learn about it.)
Mind to Mind: (2 FP to unlock) Unlocks your innate telepathic ability (Available only to Burt, Helen, Eddie and Maribel)
Ayama Kokotomi: Daughter of Bata, tinkerer, computer whiz
Race: Human
Ethnicity: Vendi-Aksumite
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Height: 5'9
Weight: 130lbs
Hair: Black Afro
Eyes: Dark brown
A skinny black teenage girl, friendly and outgoing
Mother is a scientist, father is a general
Brilliant, but more tinkerer than thinker - shares none of her mother's interest in metaphysics
Studying for her Doctorate in Electrical Engineering
Works for Diagnus Corp as part of an internship
Working on Project Cyclops, but only in an unofficial capacity
Fixes the Sweet Pea's computer, even though technically that's not her job
Reads communist literature
One-sixteenth elf
Practices traditional Askumite martial arts
Knows how to 'hack the Grid'
Vocal supporter of the Vendi Separatist Movement
Skill Bonuses (Assign each FP to a skill--you can pick the same skill multiple times)
Computer Operation
Computer Programming
Electronics Repair (Computers)
Engineering (Electronics)
Engineering (Robotics)
Mathematics (Computer Science)
Mechanic (Robotics)
Mechanic (Battlesuit)
Mental Strength (to resist telepathic attacks)
Fencing
Knife fighting
Martial Arts
Perks A 5th Column is You: (2 FP to unlock, available only to Helen and Roberta, can be purchased split cost) Ayama will use her sources to open communication for Pat Savage's group. You will be able to relay and receive messages. (UNLOCKED BY ROBERTA)
Other Characters
General Counsel Ran Cregerg: Tama's "Chief Lawyer." Boring. Not very approachable.
Assistant Director Cletus Nok: Head of Security for D'vaugnas Tower
Security Chief Biron "Bibi" Folen: Head of the Sweet Pea's twelve man security team.
Sergeant Jann Pressa: Member of the Sweet Pea's security team.
Engineering Chief Fenoran "Finny" Alreno: Head of Engineering
Captain Felix Alexandros: Head of Tama's Corporate Guard team.
Lieutenant Ishmael Zal: Member of the Corporate Guard
Sergeant Horus Longinus: Member of the Corporate Guard
As per usual I'm baffled as to what to do, but hey!
Summary of the Problem: Pat Savage and her crimefighting gang were apparently planning to sneak into the D'vaugnas Tower and kidnap you during a riot three days from now. However, a bloody police raid in Fish Town has sparked the riot early. Pat and her gang might try to kidnap you soon. Also, Professor Poseidon seems to have contacted you during a dream.
Additionally, Goosie (and possibly Bobbi) may have sneaked out of the Tower with K'Leto (either that, or she's been kidnapped by Pat). Meanwhile, Tama has flown off to the city of Zapaport and should be back later tonight or tomorrow morning.
[X] Write in.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
What do you want to do about Goosie apparently being gone from the Tower?
[X] Don't panic. Give it time. She probably sneaked out of the Tower with K'Leto, and while there may be a riot going on, it's probably not as big a deal as news makes it out to be. K'Leto apparently sneaks out all the time, and she's fine. Plus, you don't want to get her and K'Leto in trouble.
[ ] This a serious problem. There's a riot out there! Or Pat may have kidnapped her! You need to tell someone.
[ ] Write in.
What do you want to do about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you?
[X] Don't worry about it. D'vaugnas Tower is a fortress full of stormtroopers. They can't possibly get to you.
[ ] This is a major threat. You need to tell someone.
[ ] Write in.
If you want to tell someone about Goosie being apparently gone from the Tower, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[ ] Write in.
If you want to tell someon about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[ ] Write in.
Anything else you want to add?
[X] Write in. Full Chicken Little is a go!
Who should be the next chapter's POV? Rank from most preferred (5) to least preferred (1). Default vote is Eddie (5) and everyone else (0)
[ ] Burt
[5] Helen
[0] Eddie (Default)
[ ] Maribel
[ ] Roberta
Eddie seems the right PoV for high magic &c. Could be persuaded by Helen just to see what she's up to out in the town.
Below is the remainder of the current plan which has yet to be fulfilled. The default vote is to leave this plan in place, but you can put forward a new plan if you wish.
Plan @Nevill -[x] Burt
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama) -[x] Eddie
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama)
I'm tempted for the next chapter have a Helen scene regardless, if only to have a glimpse of what's going on with her, but I think the POV restrictions adds an extra dynamic to the quest. If you're not Helen, you don't necessarily know what she's up to. This is perhaps more important now that the party appears to be splitting along philosophical fault lines. I'm open to arguments to the contrary, however.
Anyway, we're three days in; one vote so far. Still have eleven days left.
I've read this quest before making an account. I'm thinking about catching back up.
Could somebody point me where the house gets transported to the ringworld.
I've read this quest before making an account. I'm thinking about catching back up.
Could somebody point me where the house gets transported to the ringworld.
Well, about three days left. Still only one vote. Calling to the regulars @Nevill , @Chimerasame , @kittenmagic , @pantherasapiens , @GAWR , and of course anyone else who needs to vote. And if needed, I'll extend the vote until Sunday night/Monday morning.
I'm here, I'm here! Been here since last Friday, went through a series of "I'll just do this thing and then get right back to it", and did it for a week. It got so bad that yesterday I decided that I will be pulling an all-nighter and won't go to sleep until I finish reading the chapter, and then I dropped asleep by morning when I was done with everything else, and now I am pulling another one and writing this at 6 AM, but hey, I've finally done it!
The vote will be here later today. I need to get my 3 hours of sleep and visit a hospital in the morning, but I swear it won't be a repeat of last few days.
Also, hello, WallFlower. It's a pleasant surprise to see you here.
I was just about to write that it reminds me of an old comic I read somewhere, and then I remembered I read it in this very thread, about six years ago. It's a fun little callback.
You type up a few paragraphs detailing Tama's plans and their justifications. The upshot being: We're probably in a simulation, and it's bullshit there's so much evil in the world. But if we're simulated, then deep down we are the supercomputer, and individuality is only an illusion. Tama wants to use the Diamond Throne to end the illusion--the lie--and merge us into one.
So see, there was that other story I brought up before that dealt with a simulated world. It ran long, following several protagonists and even antagonists from antiquity to present day and beyond, but its premise was as follows:
A research center specializing in esoteric physics developed a quantum supercomputer that could affect reality via some metaphysical application of observer effect, and decided to put it to the task of averting some approaching cosmic catastrophe. A few guys on a night shift decided to take it for a test run before the big launch. The computer, unimaginably nicknamed the Observer, performed to specification, which is to say that lacking the ability to solve the problem outright it took a time-out and placed itself and the research center in a separate space-bubble, stopping the flow of time outside and granting itself an infinite deadline to consider possibilities. And incidentally, trapping the staff of the facility with a lot of free time to think on why you don't ask machine gods questions you yourself are too lazy to find the answers to.
Asking politely to stop halping didn't work, neither did pulling the switch, and messing with the code got them locked out of admin access. Having nothing better to do, the staff borrows a fraction of computational power to run simulations that would give them a hint on how to escape their predicament. Eventually they settle on an iterative model -- they run the simulation close to human history (so the data would still be useful to them), and then place the Earth in the center of an inter-galactic conflict and have them compete in a race for the center of the Universe (Master of Orion, anyone?). The result of the simulation is a psych-matrix of the single most capable, most ingenious individual of that Universe who wins the race -- in the hope that someone smarter than them could help them. They... haven't learned their lesson, obviously.
The psych-matrix is then injected in the next simulation and grafted on chosen humans who are used to guide human development along the lines desired by the programmers. The chosen are granted special powers and are codenamed as gods (Gilgamesh, Marduk, Zeus etc.), which is how the story explains the existence of pantheons and religions. The programmers are vaguely known to the denizens of the simulated world as Masters, though they are incapable of interacting with it on a micro-scale and give their directives through their chosen. Of course, everything goes sideways because "gods" are native to the simulated world and not everyone is cool with the idea of it being destroyed for some nebulous purpose. The faulty matrices are taken out of circulation... in theory. One simulation cycle goes out of control, and a "god" breaches the confinement of a virtual machine, turning into a virus that affects all consequent simulations. Their matrix is purged, but its corrupted traces remain. All this wreaks total havoc on simulations; the Masters now have to contend with an independent faction they can not excise completely, and humanity gets infiltrated by a race of man-eating "demons" to contrast them with "gods": those infected with the warped essence of a rebel "god" who know only that the Powers That Be are out to get them for no known reason. The whole god-demon conflict lasts through antiquity but generally the Masters stamp out the resistance and get history back on track by modern times.
The premise of a modern part of the story is that a clandestine demonic-aligned cult delving into the secrets of creation (read: simulation) finds out a way to reach to the Observer following a joint god-demon research project (by the story's first protagonist). They only get incomplete notes on it due to the original researchers' untimely demise, but they are intent on bending the universal laws for their benefit. They perform a series of hideous experiments on children deemed compatible with the procedure, which is where the second protagonist and the sole survivor of their ritual comes from. They manage to establish a connection between the boy and the Observer, and implant a piece of divine power in the child... which in layman's terms means that his existence is marked as a "system file", and the universe -- which is formed through observation by a supercomputer -- is incapable of imagining an instance without the boy, twisting and bending its laws until it finds an acceptable compromise.
In game terms it meant that the questers were effectively immortal, but every time they "died" with the world glitching out and needing to be adjusted to find an alternative resolution the system got a little bit more corrupted, losing bits and pieces of data. It was an ingenious mechanics that both incentified bold actions by promising that no choice will end the story while at the same time not letting the players dodge the consequences should they do something excessively stupid... like riding an active ICBM trying to divert its course, and yes it is something we attempted and succeeded in. We didn't know the mechanics then (it was major endgame spoilers how everything worked) and just thought ourselves very, very lucky. The world was poorer off for that one act.
Anyway, the experience at the hands of cultists traumatized the character to the point he created a split personality within himself in a true anime fashion, shutting down the memory of it completely, which is how the players were completely unaware on any metaphysical implications of their actions. But the second personality, awakened to the truth of the world, never forgot about how it was created, or what awaited the simulation at the end. In time, in parallel with all the other events in the story we started receiving strange and concerning news, like a suicide cult on the Net that allegedly promised ascendance to its members, with some of the supposedly deceased members continuing to be active on the Net. Turns out our alter-ego had not been idle and was trying to prepare humanity to survive the end by transcending its current existence. He reasoned that if the world is an illusion, a dream about to be scattered to the winds, then one only needs to wake up to be safe. The problem was, he only knew one way it works, the way he was born himself -- to turn the dream into a nightmare so terrible the mind can no longer believe it was real. Yes, our alter-ego was a little insane.
Having learned of the existence of the second personality, we attempted to enter medical sleep and confront it... and failed spectacularly, losing control of ourselves. Which he, fully aware of his borrowed divinity and the resulting immortality, used to infiltrate a nanomachine factory and facilitate a Grey Goo incident. The results were catastrophic. About 1.5 billions perished in agony, and another 4.5 billions died in the subsequent thermonuclear bombardment when the aliens (remember the inter-galactic conflict being the premise of the simulation? it's just a different branch of humanity -- the Masters don't need entirely alien mindsets for their collection) came by to check what the commotion was about, went "Nope!" and nuked the planet into oblivion trying to stop the outbreak without coming down. The protagonist woke up to a very different planet than the one he went to sleep on, and most of everyone he knew were dead through his own actions.
Which brings me to the point and the quote that started this reply. There was a major character and goal-defining choice point there, and one of the choices on offer was to recognize the truth of the alter ego, that the world is too terrible to be real and the only way to fix it was to make it realize its own fakeness. Given our connection to the Observer, we couldn't die, but we could corrupt the system into being unusable. The way to transcend the illusion would be to pick it apart, to commit an atrocity so mind-boggling that God could not comprehend it and would just do a hard reset.
We didn't go that way, but instead went with the "No Gods, no Masters" motto, deciding to overthrow the tyranny of the Masters. Our alter-ego didn't insist on his path being the only one; so long as we committed to finding a way to foil their plans. We clawed our way back up from the bottom, making Earth a stellar power once more with the help of cloak, dagger, ingenuity and ruthlessness, and waited for our chance to strike during the space race, not unlike the first god (first demon?) who broke the containment of the simulation. While one of the possible choices was to supplant the Observer with a more benevolent and more hands-on God (not passively watching 6 billion simulated people turn to sludge is not a high bar to clear, I'd think! That's not mentioning deleting entire simulated Universes!), we went for the throat and turned it off completely despite the concerns that removing an observer in a universe that we only knows exists through its observation may just wink it out of existence. Yet through the power of metaphysical shenanigans we managed to merge the simulation with the original Earth, and stabilize the resulting compromise reality which was once again alone it the world, with no Gods to watch it.
...except Horrors from Beyond, but that is a whole another story.
Why did I write all that? Well, because the current dilemma reminds me of the one faced back in that story: an uncaring God; a metaphysical crusade to overthrow it; all those talks about doing away with the Great Lie. The latter in particular makes me a bit tense; the alter ego made me give those rationalizations a wide berth, and every time I hear "let's end the illusion" I picture an intergalactic Muad'Dib's Jihad and screaming stars colliding into each other.
On the bright side, when Burt says Tama's plan can end badly, I like having a point of reference to compare to. Surely it can't be that bad.
He gets to administer judgements while escaping his scot-free, too!
...honestly, this would make for a much cooler motivation. A man that rebels against being defined by anything other than his own mind, refusing to be held accountable to anyone and anything up to the laws of physics. One who could glare at Death, tell her "no", and be obeyed.
Alas, for all that he scoffs at other people's criticism Tama is too vainglorious to be truly self-sufficient. With no sycophants to sing him praises and no ladies to swoon he'll get bored in a week, tops, and then we all know how it goes, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was Tama".
Ah, so then it is no wonder as to which solution Tama prefers. Giving people social programs sounds a lot more complicated (and vaguely communist) than giving them enough God.
But doing a dance while shooting people may be a little gauche.
Just omit the "justice" part since I am not sure even Tama claims it such, and call it what it is, a safari on acceptable targets. This avoids the problem of having to find the action laudable while changing nothing about its nature and consequences.
Right, about our situation. I'd say, it worked exactly as intended, in that the plan was made when we considered jumping ships to Pat's, and had Helen sneak away with K'Leto. The problem is, our opinion has turned around... or rather, we are playing a different character now, and this is now a problem. And Helen backed them up, so it's not like we can justify going back on it.
Being real? My personal take is, if someone is caught out there during a riot with a capable and well-guarded billionaire kid, the last thing you need to do is run out there and make it two people that have to be worried about. Just sit tight and wait it out. So what if Pat may want to use Goosie to grab Eddie? What kind of meaningful resistance you can offer walking out of a heavily guarded tower into the streets? Do you want to increase the leverage, or give them Eddie on a silver platter?
Not sure what we can reasonably do here, buuut... My votes are made in part to add choice to our choices. It's often that we latch on a single option among many -- maybe because it is actually that good, or because it's safe, or because it's what we are used to doing -- but if everyone votes for the same thing it defeats the purpose of having a choice. Which is why, while I have absolutely nothing against elarasilk's vote, I compose mine to be different on principle.
Additionally, Goosie (and possibly Bobbi) may have sneaked out of the Tower with K'Leto (either that, or she's been kidnapped by Pat). Meanwhile, Tama has flown off to the city of Zapaport and should be back later tonight or tomorrow morning.
[x] Pookie has psychic senses; he can go out, grab Goosie, and get back!
What do you want to do about Goosie apparently being gone from the Tower?
[x] This a serious problem. There's a riot out there! Or Pat may have kidnapped her! You need to tell someone.
What do you want to do about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you?
[x] Eddie will sit tight. By Ayama's reckoning Pat isn't in habit of grabbing people from the street to get at someone else. You don't know how much stock you can put into her account, but there is no need to go out there and tempt fate. Besides, he doesn't add anything to the search efforts.
If you want to tell someone about Goosie being apparently gone from the Tower, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[x] The security or anyone who may help make a decision. Burt could tell them he can no longer sense Goosie, and that he is worried she sneaked out. He then can ask to be taken outside to look for her.
If you want to tell someon about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[x] Don't tell anyone. You promised Ayama not to. The defenses will have to hold.
With the above in mind, let's switch to Burt and go see a riot up close!
Who should be the next chapter's POV? Rank from most preferred (5) to least preferred (1). Default vote is Eddie (5) and everyone else (0)
[5] Burt
[3] Eddie
Bobbi's always got that curt wisdom, I love it. I'd even go a step further; sufficiently detailed simulations aren't lies, they just have a different reality-substrate than the underlying reality (which might also be a simulation, etc!)
Okay, there's this short story called, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas."
Y'know I hadn't heard about that story in years, and then I've heard about it twice in recent memory! I should read it
Some stuff goin' down! The arrival of Pat Savage!
I wonder if it's happening early *because* Eddie prepped for the expected time. Like. Possible Ayama could've given the message, but ... also conceivable, especially in a magic world that this could be predicted. Is there divination/prognostication magic in this world? If the world is simulated, that would make it ... conceptually possible, like, silo a bunch of extensions of the simulation and predict how people will act and what will happen as a result in much the same way that, like, Dinah's Shard might do.
... of course if that thing i just thought actually *does* happen, then... are the people in those simulations at the same level as ours? Are all events under the scope of a divination spell's mechanism actually happening simultaneously? This is a big tangent
nodnod, yeah, I think telling Pookie is a good idea.
[X]Nevill
Mm, what do you mean? Pookie already knows everything Eddie does.
My vote is to kick Pookie out in the proverbial rain to pick up Goosie's psychic scent. Which will probably mean that whatever Goosie is about to face will now affect the two of them. And possibly some assigned bodyguards but we don't get attached to these guys.
Good for making sure rioters or police won't harm them, mostly ineffective against anything else.
...there is still merit in that, especially since Burt is a smoother talker out of the two, but also Burt won't be there if someone hits the Tower in the meantime.
Essentially it splits the team between adults who can take care of themselves but are mostly of no interest to any parties involved, and the kid mages who stay in the tower and are likely targets for kidnapping.
I was just about to write that it reminds me of an old comic I read somewhere, and then I remembered I read it in this very thread, about six years ago. It's a fun little callback.
I was going to ask what this story is called, but my Google-fu found it on rpgcodex. I'll check it out.
Why did I write all that? Well, because the current dilemma reminds me of the one faced back in that story: an uncaring God; a metaphysical crusade to overthrow it; all those talks about doing away with the Great Lie. The latter in particular makes me a bit tense; the alter ego made me give those rationalizations a wide berth, and every time I hear "let's end the illusion" I picture an intergalactic Muad'Dib's Jihad and screaming stars colliding into each other.
I'm hesitant to say anything for fear of spoiling, but I'll only state that it's possible to piece together clues in the story, especially in weirder scenes.
I know! Isn't it so altruistic of him? Everyone gets to be God, so long as God gets to be Tama!
He gets to administer judgements while escaping his scot-free, too!
...honestly, this would make for a much cooler motivation. A man that rebels against being defined by anything other than his own mind, refusing to be held accountable to anyone and anything up to the laws of physics. One who could glare at Death, tell her "no", and be obeyed.
Alas, for all that he scoffs at other people's criticism Tama is too vainglorious to be truly self-sufficient. With no sycophants to sing him praises and no ladies to swoon he'll get bored in a week, tops, and then we all know how it goes, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was Tama".
It's become obvious to Eddie that there lies a gulf between Tama's desires and ambitions. Or to be more exact, Tama might like the idea of Instrumentality more than its application. He is a megalomaniacal dog chasing a metaphysical mail truck. Does he really know what to do when he catches it? Does he even want to do it?
Like Goosie pointed out, being a hive-mind sounds kind of boring. On the other hand, what to do about all this evil?
Ah, so then it is no wonder as to which solution Tama prefers. Giving people social programs sounds a lot more complicated (and vaguely communist) than giving them enough God.
As a card-carrying Corporate Republican, Tama would blame too much government and not enough free market. This is a position that overlaps with Yesric's, though he'd be alienated by Tama's platform of open borders and the abolishment of anti-miscegenation laws.
But that's only on the surface. Tama is no everyday libertarian.
This is unscientific. Gloating, laughter and flamboyant posing make justice 37.8% more satisfactory, it's a verifiable fact.
But doing a dance while shooting people may be a little gauche.
Just omit the "justice" part since I am not sure even Tama claims it such, and call it what it is, a safari on acceptable targets. This avoids the problem of having to find the action laudable while changing nothing about its nature and consequences.
"A safari on acceptable targets" is an accurate description of Tama's adventures in the post-war United States. He'd of course give it a more grandiose label, as well as make the not-entirely wrong argument that were he to hand the bandits over to the authorities, there's a decent chance that the bandits would a) jailbreak before the trial or b) bribe/threaten a judge/jury to get off. Vaporizing them with a laser cuts down on the variables (and is also more fun).
Bobbi's always got that curt wisdom, I love it. I'd even go a step further; sufficiently detailed simulations aren't lies, they just have a different reality-substrate than the underlying reality (which might also be a simulation, etc!)
Le Guin is most famous for The Left Hand of Darkness, which I've never read. I've only ever read a handful of her short stories, and The Lathe of Heaven (which incidentally, is one of my favorite novels). "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" also left an impression on me. It's not so much a short story as a philosophical thought experiment. But it's short; you can find the text here.
Some stuff goin' down! The arrival of Pat Savage!
I wonder if it's happening early *because* Eddie prepped for the expected time. Like. Possible Ayama could've given the message, but ... also conceivable, especially in a magic world that this could be predicted. Is there divination/prognostication magic in this world? If the world is simulated, that would make it ... conceptually possible, like, silo a bunch of extensions of the simulation and predict how people will act and what will happen as a result in much the same way that, like, Dinah's Shard might do.
Divination is a thing in this setting, but limited--not accurate enough to be used in a court of law, for instance. It's usually thought of as "shades of things to come" a la the visions offered by the Ghost of Christmas Future. Not immutable, and not necessarily accurate at that.
Dinah's shard-type powers are possible, as well as the weirdness of Coil's split timelines or Contessa's PtV bullshit. These powers however are almost always stem from "Outsider" entities, i.e. eldritch abominations beyond comprehension and all that. It's not something a normal wizard can come up with on their own.
However, in this case, the riot happened early ostensibly because of the police raid and shootings. If there's anything behind that, you don't know about it, though of course there's always gears turning in the dark.
I'm assuming he mistyped and meant switching to Pookie?
My vote is to kick Pookie out in the proverbial rain to pick up Goosie's psychic scent. Which will probably mean that whatever Goosie is about to face will now affect the two of them. And possibly some assigned bodyguards but we don't get attached to these guys.
Good for making sure rioters or police won't harm them, mostly ineffective against anything else.
...there is still merit in that, especially since Burt is a smoother talker out of the two, but also Burt won't be there if someone hits the Tower in the meantime.
Essentially it splits the team between adults who can take care of themselves but are mostly of no interest to any parties involved, and the kid mages who stay in the tower and are likely targets for kidnapping.
Currently, your plan @Nevill is situated to win, though Eddie (11 votes) is still set up as the POV. Pookie still only has 10 votes, and Goosie 4.
Anyway, three votes so far. I'm extending the deadline until Sunday night, and possibly later. If you're reading the quest and like, feel free to vote!
That's the one. If you choose to brave it, do yourself a favor and use a reader program made for the thing (Book 1, Book 2); it's so old that the forum underwent a few upgrades since then and the in-thread index no longer works right. Note that more than half of the things I said are endgame spoilers, and the characters have very little idea of their place in the story for most of it, running around doing politics, causing and averting apocalyptic events, and generally having fun adventures.
I'm hesitant to say anything for fear of spoiling, but I'll only state that it's possible to piece together clues in the story, especially in weirder scenes.
There aren't that many of them. There was the fog and the time dilation, and the Hearthstone testing... what else? I'd appreciate it if you remind us the chapters where we encountered them for the sake of people who may want to postulate some theories.
I know you have the Strange Things section, but it grew to include a lot of things we found an explanation for, as well as things that are no longer relevant to our world or situation.
People have no imagination. They tend to go for the lowest common denominator of an analogy. There are ways sci-fi deals with the problem of collective consciousness without completely eliminating individual ones, or the concept of free will.
Now, to see how much of any of this applies here. What does it even mean to be a supercomputer "deep down"? Leaves may grow on a tree, but they are not one.
...this kinda makes me vote to come up with a different plan and then pit them against each other.
I didn't think people would be eager to sent Burt on a wild Goosie chase when she isn't in that much danger... but I suppose experiencing a riot up close is more interesting than sitting in a gilded cage all day long.
There aren't that many of them. There was the fog and the time dilation, and the Hearthstone testing... what else? I'd appreciate it if you remind us the chapters where we encountered them for the sake of people who may want to postulate some theories.
The earlier ones are perhaps less relevant now, or at least their mysteries have already been incorporated into the story. For example, in Part I: Chapter Nine, shortly after touching the Heartstone, Eddie mentions, "I saw . . . the abyss. I was me, but I was more than me. I was others. And I understood. There's gears under the world. There's eyes behind the stars," presaging both the illusory nature of personal identify ("deep down" we are one) and the artificiality (i.e. "gears") of the setting's reality.
In short, Eddie peeked behind the curtain.
For the more recent "weird scenes," I'd point at both Tama's revealing of the World Stone in Part II: Chapter Eighteen/Part III: Prologue and Eddie's dream in this last chapter. You also might want to go over Dr. Widari's philosophical ramblings in Part III: Chapter One. The rest is sprinkled here and there, mainly subtext--specific word choices, evocative phases, meta references and the like.
I know you have the Strange Things section, but it grew to include a lot of things we found an explanation for, as well as things that are no longer relevant to our world or situation.
Notes and References (along with Inventory) is hopelessly out of date, and to update it would be a truly herculean task. I'm temped to delete it avoid confusing new readers (as scarce as they are), but the archivist in me won't allow it. Anyway, it'd probably be easier to just open the story in "reader" and text search its four pages.
People have no imagination. They tend to go for the lowest common denominator of an analogy. There are ways sci-fi deals with the problem of collective consciousness without completely eliminating individual ones, or the concept of free will.
Now, to see how much of any of this applies here. What does it even mean to be a supercomputer "deep down"? Leaves may grow on a tree, but they are not one.
It occurs to Eddie that a bored hive-mind might very well do what it's apparently already doing: Split up into myriad entities and have adventures among itself. The contrived, blatantly RPGish setting hasn't escaped Eddie's notice, which he more or less takes it as a given now that it's silumated.
...this kinda makes me vote to come up with a different plan and then pit them against each other.
I didn't think people would be eager to sent Burt on a wild Goosie chase when she isn't in that much danger... but I suppose experiencing a riot up close is more interesting than sitting in a gilded cage all day long.
I would have bet money Goosie would have won, hands down. Current tally is Eddie 14, Pookie 15 and Goosie 4. I'm hoping Eddie doesn't win, since the next chapter will essentially be him sitting in his room watching TV while stuff happens outside.
Anyway, four votes so far. I'll wait until Sunday night in case anyone else wants to throw in.
What do you want to do about Goosie apparently being gone from the Tower?
[ ] Don't panic. Give it time. She probably sneaked out of the Tower with K'Leto, and while there may be a riot going on, it's probably not as big a deal as news makes it out to be. K'Leto apparently sneaks out all the time, and she's fine. Plus, you don't want to get her and K'Leto in trouble.
[x] This a serious problem. There's a riot out there! Or Pat may have kidnapped her! You need to tell someone.
[ ] Write in.
What do you want to do about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you?
[x] Don't worry about it. D'vaugnas Tower is a fortress full of stormtroopers. They can't possibly get to you.
[ ] This is a major threat. You need to tell someone.
[ ] Write in.
If you want to tell someone about Goosie being apparently gone from the Tower, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[x] Tell Burt she is gone.
Who should be the next chapter's POV? Rank from most preferred (5) to least preferred (1). Default vote is Eddie (5) and everyone else (0)
[5] Burt
[4] Helen
[3] Eddie (Default)
[1] Maribel
[2] Roberta
Summary of the Problem: Pat Savage and her crimefighting gang were apparently planning to sneak into the D'vaugnas Tower and kidnap you during a riot three days from now. However, a bloody police raid in Fish Town has sparked the riot early. Pat and her gang might try to kidnap you soon. Also, Professor Poseidon seems to have contacted you during a dream.
Additionally, Goosie (and possibly Bobbi) may have sneaked out of the Tower with K'Leto (either that, or she's been kidnapped by Pat). Meanwhile, Tama has flown off to the city of Zapaport and should be back later tonight or tomorrow morning.
[1] Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
[3] Pookie has psychic senses; he can go out, grab Goosie, and get back!
What do you want to do about Goosie apparently being gone from the Tower?
[1] Don't panic. Give it time. She probably sneaked out of the Tower with K'Leto, and while there may be a riot going on, it's probably not as big a deal as news makes it out to be. K'Leto apparently sneaks out all the time, and she's fine. Plus, you don't want to get her and K'Leto in trouble.
[4] This a serious problem. There's a riot out there! Or Pat may have kidnapped her! You need to tell someone.
[ ] Write in.
What do you want to do about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you?
[2] Don't worry about it. D'vaugnas Tower is a fortress full of stormtroopers. They can't possibly get to you.
[ ] This is a major threat. You need to tell someone.
[3] Eddie will sit tight. By Ayama's reckoning Pat isn't in habit of grabbing people from the street to get at someone else. You don't know how much stock you can put into her account, but there is no need to go out there and tempt fate. Besides, he doesn't add anything to the search efforts.
If you want to tell someone about Goosie being apparently gone from the Tower, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[3] The security or anyone who may help make a decision. Burt could tell them he can no longer sense Goosie, and that he is worried she sneaked out. He then can ask to be taken outside to look for her.
[1] Tell Burt she is gone.
If you want to tell someone about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[3] Don't tell anyone. You promised Ayama not to. The defenses will have to hold.
Anything else you want to add?
[1] Write in. Full Chicken Little is a go!
Who should be the next chapter's POV? Rank from most preferred (5) to least preferred (1). Default vote is Eddie (5) and everyone else (0)
[20] Burt
[9] Helen
[12] Eddie (Default)
[1] Maribel
[2] Roberta
Below is the remainder of the current plan which has yet to be fulfilled. The default vote is to leave this plan in place, but you can put forward a new plan if you wish.
Plan @Nevill -[x] Burt
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama) -[x] Eddie
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama)
Winning Vote
Summary of the Problem: Pat Savage and her crimefighting gang were apparently planning to sneak into the D'vaugnas Tower and kidnap you during a riot three days from now. However, a bloody police raid in Fish Town has sparked the riot early. Pat and her gang might try to kidnap you soon. Also, Professor Poseidon seems to have contacted you during a dream.
Additionally, Goosie (and possibly Bobbi) may have sneaked out of the Tower with K'Leto (either that, or she's been kidnapped by Pat). Meanwhile, Tama has flown off to the city of Zapaport and should be back later tonight or tomorrow morning.
[X] Pookie has psychic senses; he can go out, grab Goosie, and get back!
What do you want to do about Goosie apparently being gone from the Tower?
[X] This a serious problem. There's a riot out there! Or Pat may have kidnapped her! You need to tell someone.
What do you want to do about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you?
[X] Eddie will sit tight. By Ayama's reckoning Pat isn't in habit of grabbing people from the street to get at someone else. You don't know how much stock you can put into her account, but there is no need to go out there and tempt fate. Besides, he doesn't add anything to the search efforts.
If you want to tell someone about Goosie being apparently gone from the Tower, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[X] The security or anyone who may help make a decision. Burt could tell them he can no longer sense Goosie, and that he is worried she sneaked out. He then can ask to be taken outside to look for her.
If you want to tell someone about Pat Savage possibly trying to kidnap you, who do you want to tell and what do you want to say?
[X] Don't tell anyone. You promised Ayama not to. The defenses will have to hold.
Who should be the next chapter's POV? Rank from most preferred (5) to least preferred (1). Default vote is Eddie (5) and everyone else (0)
[20] Burt
Below is the remainder of the current plan which has yet to be fulfilled. The default vote is to leave this plan in place, but you can put forward a new plan if you wish.
Plan @Nevill -[x] Burt
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama) -[x] Eddie
--[x] Perk: Forbidden Knowledge (Tama)
