A Question of Changes [A couple days into liminal]

[mytearsaremine]

Uh, hi. I'm Jolie. And I'm not screaming at you all this time. Sorry about that. I was just kind of scared and stuff, and didn't know what I was doing, since I'd kind of just showed up and all. But now I do, so no more yelling.

Only now I kind of have a question? And I wanted to ask as many of you as possible, so I guess I'm doing it here, and like this, even if it's kind of creepy still that people talk in my head. But it's not a bad talking in my head, and everybody says you can't do anything to me with it, so I'd better get used to it, right? And no better way to get used to something than to do it.

So anyway, the question, right. Do these Trump guys ever... change what you were before you got here? Like, your abilities or appearance or something? Besides the mark things. I've seen a couple of those. I mean like other things.

Has that happened to anybody?

Comments

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah, actually. I haven't been able to use any of the higher levels of Auspex--that's a vampire discipline, I'd used to be able to use it for viewing auras and psychometry--ever since I got here a year ago.

[forcechanic]

It's weird. The psychic network lets me hear actual words from people, but something about it stops me from picking up feelings around me like I can at home.

I've heard about people who were aliens and such keeping that as an option, too.

[brokers]

Yes, they do. I have spent the majority of the Jaunts I can recall either Infiltrating as a human, or appearing as one to the population of the worlds we visited. I believe most Travelers who are not human have had a similar experience.

They also alter the native abilities of those of us who were capable of some form of telepathy before we were chosen, so that we make use of the telepathic network rather than the abilities to which we are accustomed.

[shiroganeheir]

That is certainly a thing that can happen, yes. There are multiple skills and abilities that Travelers have acquired that change who people are or can be.

I personally have acquired the ability to turn into a Hecatite, which is a silicon-based rock life form.

[runawaystory]

Not to me, but then again, I wasn't anything special before I wound up here.

[neverfeltthatway]

As a rule, people who have telepathic or teleportation powers find that their abilities no longer work once they become a Traveler - though they are often more adept at using network and liminal skills, respectively.

There are other examples of such things happening, but the rest are generally on a case by case basis.

[mytearsaremine]

Wait, what, vampire? Are you a vampire?

[mytearsaremine]

Yeah, it is kind of dead-feeling, isn't it? The network thing. It's like nobody's talking right. All formal-professional and stuff.

So it's definitely a thing. It seems like, though people are losing like... good stuff. Abilities they miss. Is that all that ever happens?

[mytearsaremine]

Somebody else mentioned feeling other people's feelings, too. Which I guess is kind of telepathic. Maybe it just gets in the way of the network thing so they have to like turn it off or something.

So nobody will look at me funny if I'm not... uh. Totally human-looking and stuff? Even when I'm myself?

[mytearsaremine]

Wow, really? I knew some rock people back where I was last time. They weren't called hecatites though. I think they settled on trolls. We, uh, kind of didn't get a lot of info about what we actually were changed into.

But you say you have the ability to turn into it. They didn't change you permanently?

[mytearsaremine]

Lucky. I'd rather not be anything special, really. Special kind of sucks.

[mytearsaremine]

Is it always good stuff that's changed? Like, stuff you'd miss? Do they ever like take away something that really sucks...?

[forcechanic]

Some people can manage tone but yeah... dead feeling. I don't get the same sort of life flow around me that I'm used to.

People get new stuff too. Some of what I've picked up almost compensates but it still feels wrong.

[mytearsaremine]

Well, yeah, I mean, you showed me how to keep some sorts of people out of my head, so I know you can learn stuff. Thanks again for that, by the way.

[brokers]

Unless the world we visit is one that is accustomed to species other than humanity, no. Neither those who are native to that world nor those of us who are Infiltrating will notice anything amiss. I believe it would be inconvenient to our captors' designs if we were to incite panic on every undeveloped world we visited.

[forcechanic]

You're welcome. I felt really weird when I got here too. Like all my usual defenses were missing because the Force was so wrong.

[mytearsaremine]

The, uh, the Force?

[Jolie has in fact seen the Star Wars movies... oops. And she already knows some worlds overlap. Is this another case of...?]

[mytearsaremine]

That's pretty weird. What if you had like. Extra limbs and stuff? That could carry things and knock things around. Will people notice that or write it off as like your elbow or the wind or something?

[forcechanic]

The energy of life. It only seems to exist in my universe, but it's where I get my abilities.

[Is this a Star Wars thing or a using terminology without defining it thing?]

[mytearsaremine]

[The last time Jolie fourth-walled a person, it hadn't gone so great. Not bad, maybe, but she'd kind of freaked the guy out. She's not at all sure about the etiquette rules about things like that.

She finally settles for:]

Oh, uh. I'd kind of heard of something similar, I guess. I mean, my world doesn't actually have magic or energy of life or anything like that. It just has aliens. Or, well, one or two aliens, not like a lot of them. And most people don't know about them anyway. But I'm kind of used to a lot of weird things, since the place I came from wasn't home, but another place kind of like this where people came from all sorts of universes and stuff.

[Ramble. When in doubt, talk a lot.]

[brokers]

It's possible. It's better not to draw too much attention to any appendages or powers beyond what is common to the world, however. The screen that protects us from exposure only covers so much - if too many of us are incautious, we will alert the natives to the fact that there is something wrong. It's happened before.

[mytearsaremine]

Keep carrying things around in the tentacles to a minimum. Got it. What happens when people find out about us? Is it bad?

[forcechanic]

There's a few people who were somewhere else first. I guess it kinda makes sense, if there's all these universes, why would there only be one place they meet?

But I'm still getting used to most people only having heard of the places and things I'm familiar with in a movie.

[Let's just get that out of the way]

[brokers]

Typically. At best, they assume we are a hostile faction. At worst, we are otherworldly invaders of unknown origin and uncertain motive.

[thornsofmalkav]

... yeah? Why?