Info Pooling (assume it's late morning in Britain when this conversation is starting)

[thornsofmalkav]

So. Uh. It's been a few days since they cordoned off the town and I think maybe this would be a good time to try to pool info again? Yeah. Probably. I'll go first.

Anyway, so. This is something I actually mentioned in another conversation I think either Alcuin or Casper started, but I dunno how many people saw it then, so I'll talk about it again now. Basically, I've been lucidly dreaming and I figured out that whatever happened to our dreams since they got the eyes and mouths and the rest of that spooky shit, it's created a sort of dreamland effect. Not exactly like Questing Country, but close enough that anyone who's been to Questing Country can basically transform into Champions, Adversaries, Oracles, and Pillars. And I'm willing to help people reassume those Archetypes if it's been a while. I've, uh, actually reassumed one of my own. The Champion one.

Uh, for those who showed up after Questing Country or were stuck in a basement during that Jaunt, we were all basically magical dream warriors. It was great except the fucking Devil kidnapped my bunnyfly and then I had a breakdown. I got better, though.

So that's the first thing. The, uh, second thing is that I just got finished talking to some MI-6 agents--for talking, read being politely interrogated--and, uh, well, they don't think terrorists are behind everything anymore, at least that's not how it sounded. But what it did sound like is that they do think this is one big faked haunting by the yoloninjas, so I'm not sure that's much better. I got lucky and they said I could go after my questioning, but I'm still waiting for Alcuin's to finish. And I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to talk to some of you guys too.

Keep on your toes, dudes.

So, anyone else have stuff to share?

Comments

[comebewe]

We have information on Bernkastel.

Not her actual name, by the way. Haven't been able to find that. She's known as Bernkastel mainly because stories featuring her tend to feature her showing up with a bottle of the stuff. But I have found information that suggest that she was real piece of work, even before her death. She was a sorceress and a cultist who sought the Necronomicon, a book of rituals for controlling the dead. I haven't found anything that says whether she was ever successful, but considering recent events it seems...possible, that she did.

I'm increasingly convinced that the idea that she is Zed's 'lieutenant' is nothing more than a fiction; Zed is an idiot who lacks anything remotely approaching subtlety. And from the stories we have found, he's not usually malicious outside of the anniversary of his own death. On that date, people have an unusually high tendency to decide to leap in front of trains and die, but any other time? He's not usually active. What he's been up to lately is outside of the norm.

[acapriciousthing]

The spirits can't move on. And when I try... it feels like they could, so it's not just that the Arcana have stopped me from being able to do that at all. Something's holding them here that shouldn't.

[helborn]

Yeah. Stay away from Zed unless you have something that can destroy Eldritch stuff, not just contain it. Stay away from anyone he's possessed, too. He tried to poison me, to beat me with a parasol, to wrap around me with shadow tentacles...

Just. Stay away from him if you can.

... Aside from that... about that dream I told you guys about.

There's two arcana disguising themselves as something catlike and native to this habitat to hide from the eldritch powers. The solutions they prefer are counterintuitive: the gentler arcana has a grimmer win condition; and the harsher arcana a gentler win condition. Pretty sure that Devil is involved, so... that's a thing.

... Also can you explain the magical dream warrior thing in more detail, I'm kind of confused.

[helborn]

... Okay so it wasn't just me having issues talking to some of them.

[acapriciousthing]

There's not much left of a lot of the new ones.

[helborn]

I noticed. And that's what concerns me the most, I think... I've never seen ghosts like that before.

[There's a pause.]

Other than people who were just that single-minded... but it's not the same.

[willyousee]

I am nigh convinced that one of them is the Priestess. She was the one to banish the King from liminal space in a permanent fashion, and there are numerous other signs which to me indicate that she is one of those here.

I intend to do some sifting of dreams and nightmares further and see if there is more information to be found, but if anyone else has a vision they can share, it may be that we can piece them together to form a whole.

[helborn]

Definitely possible, though the statues from the previous liminal lean otherwise... might not be, though. You guys would know better than I would.

I'll let you know if I come up with something else.

[acapriciousthing]

No, they're not just singleminded, there's barely any mind left at all. They should have been on the verge of fading away, but they've been dragged back up and all they are is angry.

[helborn]

I can't seem to bind them to things like I used to. I don't know what's going on. I don't have any ability that gets rid of them entirely, though I can punch them.

Any tips?

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah. Okay. That... that makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, I've read Bea's stuff about Rokkenjima and Bern shows up in that and it seems totally in line with everything I personally know about her. Maybe you should try to ask Bea or Maria what they know, since they've been dealing with her since before they got scooped up. Or Battler. That's Bea's husband. And yes, that's his real name. But yeah, I totally agree she's more likely to be behind everything than Zed. Hell, didn't Maria try to tell us that with the whole weird poodle stunt by calling her a 'grand vizeer?' Grand viziers are almost never good news.

And, uh, when it comes to names... like, okay, actual Bern goes by Frederika Bernkastel normally, but, like, that's her chosen name. Her witch name or her pen name or whatever. So it's probably not the name she was born with here either. And hell, her actual birth name here might not be the same as her birth name back in Bea's world.

But! But but but but but! I have some thoughts on that.

Okay, so here's the thing. A lot of times--not always, but fairly often--the names of people's overlays have sounds in them that mimic that of their actual names or have the same meanings. Like, a lot of times I end up going by a name in the same family as 'Charlene' because my parents made some bad choices when I was born. And even when I don't I'm something like Charoite or Chouko--and yeah, Chouko was technically an alias too, but Chouko's real name was Cho Ling, so I figure that's still close enough. And I've seen it with Alcuin too. He's always getting A names and usually ones that start with 'Al.'

And, like, Bern was in a rock band with Souji and Phillip and some other dudes when we were in the eighties, so if Souji can tell us her name from there, we could use it as a jumping off point for looking over town records.

Also, if she's that kind of weird-ass cultist, she might have been involved with the one from the first Harrogate Jaunt, so that gives us a rough time to look for her in and the possibility of seeing if there's any records of the Hellfire Club--the local cult, not the Georgian drinking club--and look for her there.

[thornsofmalkav]

Oh Jesus fuck.

Welp. If we can find who's binding them, we'll be one step closer.

I bet you dollars to donuts it's Bern, though. Matthew's theory is way sound.

[thornsofmalkav]

Oh my fucking God, Zed, what the fuck?

Anyway. Right. Questing Country was my first Jaunt, two years ago. Basically, there's this dreamworld called Questing Country that manifests itself from the subconscious minds of the various people of the world it's a attached to. And some of the people from that world can go there, where they fight the monsters than manifest from the subconscious minds. And in practice, it kind of ends up looking like magical girl bullshit. It's pretty awesome.

[thornsofmalkav]

They definitely lean Strength in terms of the lady and lion thing, but they also, uh, were kind of sexy in a possibly bestiality way, so it could have been Devil trying to fake out us out by pretending to be Strength.

[helborn]

I don't know. I did kick him in the ghost balls, though.

... That's pretty cool. ... Guys don't have to like... wear a dress or something, right? I don't actually know much about magical girl stuff.

[thornsofmalkav]

Nope. Hell, girls don't either. It's been two years, but I am fairly positive that one of my Bondmates wore pants.

Also thank you for your ghost ball kicking services, my dude.

[helborn]

Well that's good. Don't need any accidental upskirts or something.

And any time, really.

[thornsofmalkav]

I mean, mine has a dress, but that's because I dig that aesthetic.

[helborn]

Look, I'm not judging you for your dresses, I'm just saying I don't want one.

[thornsofmalkav]

Which is legit.

I think sometimes boys also get shorts.

[helborn]

I'll take pants, please.

... If that's even a thing that I can do.

[comebewe]

...Beatrice is married?

[they wonder how much they should be concerned for the sanity of the husband in question there]

I don't know what time period Bernkastel lived in. All I've had to go off of so far was the stories the innkeeper's family has been keeping, and they didn't say. You might be looking for a needle in a haystack.

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah. I've met him. He just showed up before we got dumped into Harrogate. He's cute, if way obsessed with boobs.

And yeah, I know you don't know, but we do have some clues to narrow shit down. Do you want me to hit the books and see what I can find?

[comebewe]

[there is a slight pause before Matthew responds. Thorne, how much Beato's husband likes boobs was not information Matthew needed or wanted to know, okay]

Sure. It can't hurt to pin down who she really was, if it's possible. Also we would be extremely grateful to not have to do that ourselves.

[book research is so not their thing]

[acapriciousthing]

You probably can't bind them because they're already bound. That's what's keeping them here. We need to find a way to resolve that.

[acapriciousthing]

That about sums it up.

Matthew's theory makes sense on the who. The next trick is how. Beyond "seriously bad Eldritch stuff".

[They've figured that much out clearly]

[helborn]

Follow where it feels the most death and entropy-ish?

[thornsofmalkav]

[If you've ever met Battler Ushiromiya, you would soon realize that the love of breasts is part of the foundation of his character, Matthew.]

I really don't mind being on research duty! It's reasonably safe, which is good since I'm trying to not get Dr. Durante killed, and it's totally within my skill set.

[comebewe]

...Have psychopathic ghosts been trying to murder you too?

[Since you know, normally Matthew wouldn't think that Thorne's overlay had a particularly high chance of being killed. But you know. Psychopathic ghosts. They did make things tricky.]

[thornsofmalkav]

Not yet, but it's fucking Harrogate and a lot of the stuff people are doing, like anti-ghost sigil graffiti, are the kind of stuff that get you in trouble with the police--and I'm fucking terrified of the police, okay? Regular and secret. And, I mean, it's a healthy attitude back in America when you look like I do.

[comebewe]

Ah. Have you been drawing wards as well? You're worried they'll catch you?

[thornsofmalkav]

I'm worried about a lot of things. That's why I've only just been drawing stencils for the wards so other people can do them. Somehow this is a version of me who is not a complete failure at being an adult and I owe it to her not to die or get arrested or sabotage her career while I'm here.

So nice, safe, library and archival research is right up my alley.

[comebewe]

Fair enough. There's lots of us drawing the wards anyway. One less person won't make that much of a difference.

And besides; we don't really know how much good the wards will do yet. They won't do much if we can't figure out the source of this.

[thornsofmalkav]

And with the stencils I've cut out of manila folder, it might streamline stuff for the spray-painters.

[comebewe]

Maybe. But we don't need any. We'd prefer to draw them ourselves.

[thornsofmalkav]

Choosing to grant people's wishes in a really shitty way? That's the one way she works that I do know of.

[acapriciousthing]

That's motivation, but I'm interested in the method. Holding spirits here isn't exactly trivial.

[acapriciousthing]

It's a start.

[thornsofmalkav]

I have no clue.