synopsychic | Like a stumbling ghost, I haunt these halls

Hi? Shit, I don't think I've ever been the one to start a mass psychic conversation. I'm more used to tuning out any voices in my head.

Anyway! This is Thorne, who some of you guys probably have met on the jaunt as Chouko, Princess Noriko-hime's attendant, and I'm dead! And in liminal space. Which I guess is traditional or something, I don't know. The Mantis killed me. He's, um, a killer cyborg with an inexplicable insectile theme. Well, okay, not inexplicable, if you ever knew Dr Wärring, which technically I never did, but Chouko did and the stuff in her memories actually reminded me a bit of this guy named Oda that my old, uh, boss used to be friends with and shit, I'm getting off-topic.

Right. So yeah, the Mantis killed me--he's Hajime, by the way, the Donalds are really running with that bug dude theme with him--but he's probably only after people who used to be with these guys called Vexatior--your basic shadowy organization who wanted to take over the world--so uh, if any of you guys remember having any ties to them, take care, okay? The only person I know who does is Min--I mean, I guess his name is Armin out of Jaunt--and the Mantis already spared him once due to age, but he's older than he was then and so, uh, if people could keep an eye on him and maybe make him stop being an idiot and wear a goddamn mask already that would be much appreciated. And try to help Noriko--Naoto--too? She's gonna be worried when she realizes I'm gone.

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Joscelin? Can you make it back to Liminal Space? I think I need your help with something.

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Yeah. That's what I mean. Undead.

[There's a pause where she takes a deep breath she doesn't need.]

We call ourselves vampires.

You know the story of Cain and Abel, the firstborn sons of Adam, right? I hope so. After Caine was cast out for his brother's murder, he scorned God and all the works of man. He met Lilith, Adam's first wife, who would not submit and was also cast out. She showed him magic but would not teach him how to wield it. So he drank her blood and learned it that way. Angels, four of them, came to him, telling him to repent of his sins and come home, but he scorned them and they cursed him, all but the last, who told him there might yet still be a road to salvation. And in the land of Nod, he set himself up as a king and he took some of his youngest brother's descendants, the children of Seth, and began to change them into beings like him, if weaker, and the ones he changed did the same, downwards through the ages. Cursed immortals, walking corpses, neither man nor beast, that shun the sunlight and need the blood of the living.

That's what I am. Of the thirteenth generation from Caine, of the line of Malkav the Mad. I've been like this for nearly a year now.

[ He takes that in, slowly. ]

They say that Lilith learned her magic by studying the Sefer Raziel. She may have met with the same angels.

I'll hold your confidence, Charlene. But you haven't said yet why you're sharing it.

['Sefer,' what is 'sefer'... oh, 'book.' Book of Raziel? But he believes her, thank fuck. She thought he would if anyone would. That's why she told him, wasn't it? So he'd have a better idea of what she is.]

We need to drink blood to survive. It-- doesn't have to be human, but it's more sustaining than animal blood. I had two friends who were donating blood for me, but they're both Infiltrating now. And-- and while I could just go back to Nova Venezia, pick someone out of a bar, and lure them back into any alleyway... okay, this is going to sound dumb, but I'd rather do it with someone I know, whose permission I got, with Selene there to help me pull back so I don't take too much, because if you're overdue for eating something it's easy to forget when it's time to stop before you take too much.

But, like, I know it's a weird thing to ask, so it's okay if you don't want to. I've got other ways to get it.

[Thorne... you never actually formally asked him.]

I protect and serve. Always.

I'm opening a portal now.

Thank you. Thank you so very, very much. I'll be waiting.

[And then this happens. Warning: the Religious Experience is very much NSFW.]

Like a stumbling ghost, I haunt these halls

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