Arcana-talk time [A day or two into the new liminal]

[professorwolf]

We're still assuming that the liminal space before a Jaunt represents the Arcana competing in it, yes? I know someone's mentioned this earlier, but it definitely needs to be highlighted-- I think it's pretty obvious this time that the contest will be between Chariot and Tower. The giant wooden horse running through a thunderstorm really couldn't be more blatant. For once.

[He's not great at understanding symbolism, but damn if this wasn't an easy one.]

So if that's right, it'll be a contest of motion and persistence, versus dramatic change and catastrophe. I think it's easy enough to decide who we want to support, in this case. We'll just have to find ways to make sure we see what sort of conditions make for a win for each ideal.

Any ideas for what to look for and how to keep things from devolving into a catastrophe? Those seem to happen a lot when we're around, unfortunately.

Comments

[helborn]

I'm new here, so I wouldn't be able to tell you what to expect, but... well. The Tower is disaster, upheaval, sudden change, and revelation. The Chariot is control, will power, victory, assertion, and determination. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a battle between order and chaos. Order isn't always the best thing to go by, either... but it depends what the fallout of the chaos would be.

If the fact that we're in a Trojan Horse is anything to go by, we'll be dealing with Greece, and possibly Bronze Age. The Trojan War was about... somewhere in the 1100 B.C.E. range? I think around there, anyway.

Needless to say, we're looking at a culture that's very war-focused. Do what you can to avoid being drafted into the war. Yell for help if you need it. Stay away from anyone named Paris, Achilles, or Ajax for a start.

[professorwolf]

It may not be a Trojan Horse specifically. Chariot, the Arcana version of it, is in fact shaped like a horse himself. But if it is, then Greece... could be interesting. The Rome Jaunt was very laid back and quiet, comparatively, but with Tower in the mix, I doubt this will be.

If you have any questions, I've been at this for about two years now. I'd be happy to explain as I can.

[helborn]

Ah. I've never met him. I've only met Moon, to be honest.

[He sees no reason to hide that information, anyway.]

Yeah, Tower is... people get scared of Death when they see it in the deck, but it's Tower you need to be more cautious about.

Hm... well. Let me try to think. There's a lot of questions, really... has anyone found any of their abilities... altered at all? I think at least one of mine is gone, which... shouldn't happen.

[professorwolf]

Interesting. I haven't met Chariot, either, but I've been following conversations about it, and the others. I've met Judgment, and the Emperor-- twice. What was Moon like?

As for your question... yes, I'm afraid so. You won't be the first nor the last to have their natural abilities changes-- sometimes they're lessened, sometimes made more powerful, sometimes changed entirely. I don't know why. It may be something to do with the nature of liminal space, or it may be that the Arcana are actively changing us when they find something we do a threat, or some combination of both.

[helborn]

Moon was... nn. Not terribly clear, but I should have expected that from the fact that it's a card dealing with illusions.

[There's a pause as Casper sighs and rubs at his face and is generally annoyed.]

I wouldn't be surprised if they just thought they were abilities that straight-up cheat, because they kind of are. One's useful almost all the time, but the other I don't like to use. I'll have to wait to experiment to see if anything else is different. Some things I can't do without certain situations.

[professorwolf]

That's certainly likely, as well. Keep experimenting. Finding what your new limits are is important, so you don't run into a situation where you'd need to use something only to find it isn't there anymore, or has changed.

[helborn]

Yeah. I learned a lot of what I can do that way anyway. But it's going to hopefully be hard to get a dead body around here to use some of my stuff on.

... I promise it's not creepy. ... Okay, I promise it's not mindrendingly awful creepy.

[professorwolf]

Dare I ask what it is you do?

[He sounds more curious and amused than concerned. They have cannibals, werewolves, vampires, and time-jumpers here. He can't imagine it's so terrible they can't work with it.]

[helborn]

Well, other than being able to see and touch ghosts, I can put a ghost in a corpse, raise a corpse as a zombie, get a general sense of the cause of death of a corpse, or see a few minutes before and after a corpse's death.

[professorwolf]

So... you're a necromancer of sorts? You won't run into a lot of corpses in liminal space, I'll give you that. If any of us die, we get swept up by the Arcana to get "fixed", as it were. Though I will warn you, there are vampires here, literal undead. And I'm a little bit undead, as well. I don't know if that will bother you or not.

[helborn]

Nah, that doesn't bother me at all. I've never met a vampire, but I've known they exist in my world sinc3e I was little. Technically I'm a demigod, but my mother is a goddess of death so 'necromancer' isn't too far off.

[professorwolf]

Demigods. Well, we do get all sorts here, don't we. Well, welcome to liminal space, I suppose. Your abilities may wind up with less use among the Travelers, given the whole "the Arcana fix us" thing, but could be quite useful on Jaunts.

[helborn]

Thanks. And I'm always up for trying out new ways to use what I have - those aren't my only skills. It'd be bad to put all of your focus into one area, right?

[Except with occult stuff. Always study occult stuff.]

[professorwolf]

You'll have plenty of opportunity here to expand your skills, I'll certainly say that. Sometimes we learn things about this network, or about liminal space, or sometimes we bring back talents from a Jaunt. Or spontaneously develop new skills from your own world, even.

[Since that one happened to him, though it's less "spontaneous" than it seems to him.]

[helborn]

That sounds really neat! I kind of want to learn everything I can...

[He's a nerd and he isn't even going to try to hide it. Why bother?]