Evening of November 1st, About A Day After The New Travelers Showed Up

[thornsofmalkav]

Uh, hey. I've got a few things I need to talk to people about, that I've mostly been waiting on until we got a new shift of liminal space so I could share them with all the newbies and returning Travelers too. Uh, I'm Thorne, by the way, if you haven't met me before. Sorry if this gets to be long

Anyway, some of the shit I want to talk about is kinda heavy, so we'll start this out with a rage comic I made with an app on my phone to balance that.

[The voice switches to the viewpoint of someone looking down at a phone screen, in which the follow rage comic has been constructed on:]



[About ten seconds later, the sensory livestreaming switches off and everyone's back to voice.]

Okay. Now the heavy stuff. A lot of you guys know already that the woman I was Infiltrating as during the last Jaunt, Chouko, was killed the fourth week by an inexplicably insectile cyborg known as the Mantis. I came back as an Investigator and ended up 'haunting' my murderer.

What most of you don't know is that Chouko left a corpse behind, which Herr Doktor Blitzkopf found. He replaced her heart with a clockwork one, then used the lightning of the storms to reanimate her body, ala Frankenstein and his monster.

I didn't go back to being Chouko at this time, although she certainly did come back to life. I know, I met her when she came home to the embassy, where I was taking care of her brother, Min.

The people we Infiltrate as, our overlays... they have lives outside of us. Unless there's a Blitzkopf around, when we die as them, they stay dead.

[There's a short silence as Thorne lets that sink in for everyone.]

Uh, next thing! So, there's a secret I've been keeping from everyone, but my spirit animal, Selene, has been going around all doppelgangered and telling people anyway and I figured that if I made this announcement I could control how people found out.

So. Uh. I'm a vampire.

What this basically means is that I'm a talking, thinking, animate dead person. Well, undead person. Technically double-dead person. I got killed again after I got turned into a vampire.

I have to drink blood to survive, but you guys don't have to worry about that because I've already made arrangements with some people already to be regular blood donors and there's enough of them that nobody's should have to do it so often that it make them anemic or anything.

There's a lot of details about my condition, which I don't want to bore people with, but basically it's annoying but manageable. And so far as I know, I'm the only one of my kind here. [If you consider her kind to be Malkavians and now wodpires in general.] I guess you could say I'm a monster, but I'm honestly trying not to act like one.

And, uh, I just wanted to say to any other dead people here, if you need someone to talk to privately about it, I'm here.

Which brings me to the last thing I wanted to tell you guys about! As far as I can tell by the calendars people can agree on, it's gonna be November 2nd tomorrow. I'm gonna hold a Day of the Dead thing at Leo's and, like, build an altar in his yard and stuff and have food. People are welcome to come, living as well as dead.

Uh. That's all, I guess.

Comments

[thornsofmalkav]

Rage comic. And yeah, I know it's not angry. It's a left-over name from the original comics done it that style that were super angry.

[awitchdidit]

It's like some kind of zero-effort yonkoma.

[Not that Beatrice reads anything so classless as manga. Only fine literature, how dare you imply otherwise.]

Based on the other discussions I've had in this place, though, I think I get the general idea. I'm also just taking it for granted that telepathy is common here. It's convenient, albeit maybe too much so.

[thornsofmalkav]

Haha yeah. It's meant to be purposely shitty.

Just plain speaking in each other's head telepathy is something we all get, yeah. There are more tricks that we can learn to do other stuff, like when I showed you guys my phone screen.

[awitchdidit]

I see. That could be very useful. My magic seems to be able to affect this space we're in in small ways, but actually affecting other minds directly...that opens up many new possibilities.

At any rate, you covered a lot here. My next question is about "Infiltrating". Am I correct in saying this means "playing a role" in the Fragments the Trumps allegedly send us to? And the news here is that, after our role is ended, the characters we play keep going?

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah! There were people who didn't believe that they did, so I thought I'd clear that up with everybody that I have proof they do.

[awitchdidit]

Well of course! In games this complex, the characters are their own people, even if they're sometimes controlled by players. We leave the board to its own devices, it continues on as it would without interference.

...since we're on the subject, though, what happens when one of us "Travelers" dies?

[thornsofmalkav]

We get resurrected later here in Liminal Space. Sometimes hours later, sometimes days.

[awitchdidit]

Hm...if nothing else, this is approximately lining up with the sort of game I play. A larger scale with many more players and a wider variety of boards, from what I've heard, but not dissimilar. I suppose the next step is working out the "rules". And whether we're meant to be playing against the game masters or not.

[thornsofmalkav]

Oh, hey, you've done these before? Awesome. When you've had a little more time to get yourself settled in, you should, like, try to do a big psychic message to everyone like this, so you can explain how it worked for you. Like, I dunno if the Trumps are doing the exactly same thing that you did before, but, like, any insight into how they work is great!

[awitchdidit]

Hmhm, I'll think about it, after I do some more research into how things really do work here.

Now, as for the next to last thing...tell me about Vampires. I've never had the opportunity to meet one, working mostly with demons.

[thornsofmalkav]

Uh sure, what do you want to know? I've told Connie a couple things already, like how blood tastes and if we can eat and how we make more of each other.

[awitchdidit]

Well, let's see. How are you with sunlight? In a "real" world, I mean. How do you become a vampire, is there a vampire society or hierarchy like demons and witches, that sort of basic thing.

[thornsofmalkav]

Sunlight makes me spontaneously combust, normally, although the Trumps seem to be doing something that only makes it rather uncomfortable to be in, which can be fixed with a parasol.

Like I told Connie, someone drains all your blood and then puts some of theirs into your mouth right away.

Vampires are super fucking hierarchical, Bea, you have no idea. Like, okay, I don't know how the Sabbat works or those VII creeps or what, but, like, all the other factions usually have someone nominally in charge and the Cammy has like all these levels of authority. Uh, the Cammy is the Camarilla. They consider themselves the boss of everyone that's not Sabbat, even the other, smaller factions.

But, like, basically what holds true wherever you are is that each city has a Prince who is the top vampire of everyone and bosses everyone around. And under them are the top vampires of the clans locally and they're called Primogens. And there's some other offices the Prince appoints, like Sheriff.

[awitchdidit]

Ahaha, oh my this is detailed. This is very interesting! I'm going to have to work up the magic to write things down and have them stay here. And to conjure up my copy of the Lesser Key of Solomon while I'm at it, so I can pay you back with some demonology.

I suppose I could tell you the basics about Witches in return, if you're interested.

[thornsofmalkav]

Oh fuck yes. Please. Knowing more about shit is always good. [Unless it's one of those things that Man Is Not Meant To Know and even then...]

[awitchdidit]

Well, let's see...normally I summon Virgilia to handle this sort of exposition, but I suppose I can handle it myself.

Every Witch is unique, and has different powers and specialties, but we can be arranged into broad categories depending on our level of influence. At the bottom are Apprentices: those who understand the principle of magic and hold some ability, but cannot truly express it. I spent a large fraction of my life apprenticed to the Finite Witch Virgilia, and I have my own apprentice now who apparently managed to beat me here. Order of magnitude: zero Fragments.

At my level are what I would call simply "Witches". In my home realm, I have the power of God over life, death, and endless possibility, but once I am brought out of it, my influence is overridden by more powerful beings like your Trumps. Our power is immense, but our actual sphere of influence is rather limited. Order of magnitude: all Fragments relating to a specific place and/or time.

The people who give me trouble even in my home realm are beings I call Voyagers - witches who can travel between all the infinite possible worlds at a whim, and impose their will upon them. Endlessly powerful and endlessly callous, they care only for small diversions to keep their minds from blanking at the enormity of eternity, or falling into the endless torments of their past - like playing with the game boards that are different realities. I have a suspicion that the Trumps are operating at this level, and that we Travelers may have achieved the beginning of it ourselves. Order of magnitude: all Fragments.

Finally, there are the Creators. Ones who make worlds, and then do as they will with them, creating, destroying, recreating and discarding. I can't comprehend them any more than a shrimp can comprehend me, but the usual motivation seems to be mainly the same as a Voyager's: boredom. Order of magnitude: as many Fragments as they can create, and they can even trap and play with Voyagers if they wish.

And while I've described some pretty clear power levels here, it's important to remember we all have different specialties that often ignore them completely. My little nine-year-old Apprentice can create something from nothing, normally the mark of an unfathomably old Creator, so take all this with a grain of salt.

of course she would think it was cool

[thornsofmalkav]

[You can't see her, Beatrice, but she's chinhandsing at this explanation. She's chinhandsing so hard. And grinning, really, really widely.]

So... you're kind of like GMs, then. Only instead of, like, GMing D&D or Shadowrun or Paranoia or something, you're GMing reality.

That is so cool.

[awitchdidit]

Ahaha...does "GM" stand for "Game Master"? If that's the case, that was even what I called my role in the Fragments I oversaw. I saw them all as games, played out between myself and a player.

Another reason I think the Trumps are a similar type of being, actually. From my perspective, this whole mess sounds like a board game marathon.

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah! Like, the guy that runs Dungeons and Dragons or whatever for you. Tabletop gaming. I've GM'd tabletop before. It's pretty rewarding for all that you don't get to roll up your own character.

Thinking of Trumps as sort of otherworldly GMs makes a weird kind of sense, Bea. I can see it.

[awitchdidit]

That's not a game I've ever had the chance to play...but it sounds better than my usual analogy of chess. After all, in chess, both players are theoretically on equal footing, and they hopefully both know the rules.

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah, hopefully.

Tabletop gaming's a lot of fun. So's most kinds of roleplay. Like LARP and forum games and stuff. If I ever run a D&D game here [and she's getting more tempted to all the time] do you want me to hit you up when the call for players goes out?

[awitchdidit]

Mhmhmhm. Playing such a game while I'm trapped in someone else's game? What a wonderful idea!

Thank you for the invitation, Thorne, I just may take you up on it.

[thornsofmalkav]

Great. If and when I do run it, I'll make sure to let you know.