[Jaunt] Check in, dead side

[happyhalloween]

Uu. I think we're ghosts! This place reminds me of the Golden Land! Only I can't open doors here. It's not fair.

Is anyone else a ghost with me?

[A few minutes pass before she adds:]

Mr Raidou can see us!

[And maybe ten more before she adds:]

Uncle Matthew can too!

[And even later:]

And Mr Casper!

Comments

[sees_red]

Ghosts.

You mean, like, dead people? Those ghosts?

[happyhalloween]

Yep! Uu, this is annoying. I liked being alive again.

[sees_red]

I don't feel dead. And I don't remember dying.

[happyhalloween]

You don't always remember if it happens quick enough.

But maybe we're just investigating a ghost world!

[runs]

Who are Matthew and Raidou?

[happyhalloween]

Mr Raidou is a boy. I think he's in high school! He wears a cape and has sideburns.

Uncle Matthew is actually a bunch of people! He's possessed by the Blue Electric Angels, who are telephone spirits. They're really nice. I used to think the Angels were Matthew and Matthew was the Angels, but I had it backwards.

He knows all kindsa stuff about magic and also how to make every kind of portal.

[awitchdidit]

Some card's having a chuckle, I see. This is certainly an interesting setting...and I could certainly get used to being incorporeal again.

It stands to reason that people used to dealing with the afterlife have a means to see us. If I were on the other side, I'd be offering us some ghastly Achaian refreshments right now...

[awitchdidit]

You know, it occurs to me that when we have some free time, I should write a handbook of some kind. Being dead is pretty confusing, and people tend to make fools of themselves at first. The Egyptian Book of the Dead could use an update from a more modern ghost.

[happyhalloween]

Beato!

[Maria's mental voice sounds super relieved.]

Oh Beato, I'm glad you're here with me. I think most of the people are on the living side. And Bern's here and she's infiltrating as a ghost and she seems nice but I don't trust her.

[awitchdidit]

Never trust Bernkastel. Especially if she's acting nice. Even Infiltrating, she'll find a way to be on no one's side but her own.

This is interesting, though. Very, very interesting. The fact that we're cut off from the living Investigators is new to me, although apparently the Underworld in Achaia worked the same, upon review. There's certain to be a reason for it; the Arcana may not determine the metaphysics of the worlds we go to, but they do control the Network and Liminal Space.

[happyhalloween]

Uu. She's working for the Ghost Emperor, who's Zed, but she's also his advisor so I think maybe it's like one of the stories where the king thinks he came up with his ideas but really his advisor did. But I dunno.

She took me to meet with him. I think maybe they want me to help them with stuff. Is it okay if I pretend to help but really keep an eye on them?

[awitchdidit]

She has a history of interpreting her instructions however she likes anyway, I believe. You're probably spot on.

I think treating with them is an excellent idea, though. If ghosts have a hierarchy here, it would be prudent to be respectful of it. Remember, though, you're not MARIA or Maria Ushiromiya as far as Infiltrators are concerned. Even if you keep your name, you need to be someone who isn't a Traveler when they're around.

[happyhalloween]

Uu. I think maybe I can pretend that. Do you want to come and help me pretend to help them but not really? You're even better at pretending than me.

[awitchdidit]

I'll make my way there as soon as I can. I doubt the two of them can match the two of us in subtlety.

[happyhalloween]

Of course not. Mr Zed's bad at that stuff, even if Bern does it okay.

[sees_red]

Hey. I'd settle for Cliffs' Notes, right now.

[sees_red]

That's...

Not the weirdest thing I've heard about us doing. Okay. I can roll with that.

[happyhalloween]

I think that's what we're doing. It reminds me a little of the Golden Land, except we can't open doors and there's no Furniture to play with us or bring us snacks.

[awitchdidit]

The short version, then, is that a living physical body is not necessary for a person to 'exist'. Whether you died or the Arcana merely decided you should play the role of a spirit on this Jaunt, your awareness, your 'self' is now continuing to be without being attached to flesh.

Normally that means only specific forms of magic can affect you from the corporeal world, and vice versa. However, it seems that in this particular domain the rules are a bit different, and we're still bound by some Earthly physical laws in theory.

[runs]

What do does Matthew look like?

[sees_red]

Like, we can't pass through solid objects, but we don't have the ability to lift or move things, either.

[sees_red]

Furniture?

[awitchdidit]

Yes. It's rather inconsistent, isn't it? I can still use my magic to get around barriers, but it's strenuous and annoying since we're playing by the Arcana's rules and not my own. There should be some other way for ghosts to manipulate the living world...

[sees_red]

Is that magic you can teach? I spent hours in an attic.

[happyhalloween]

It's what Witches call the servants we either make or call up as demons! I dunno why, but that's what we call them.