Snap, Crackle, Pop

[thessalian]

I think I broke them.

So I had to write out Skank, as Andy O's work people are complete and total bastards. Easy enough. While they were holed up in their rat-infested former Regulator barracks (and Chloe was standing on -- and doing acrobatics on -- a chair, and E was talking about how one skins, eats and cooks rat), Skank had a visitor of sorts. Spirit of Dwight, his House Thig compatriot, the one he came to Lampeter to talk to. Apparently he'd been seized in the Regulator raid, handed over to the Technocracy and tortured to death for information. He had nothing on Molly, who they were truly interested in; he did have info on Michelle, but apparently, that was "already in hand". Skank sent out a spirit to look for Michelle and scope out the land (he did this in the second session, so I figured it'd be apt to use it now), and it came back followed by Michelle's stallion. He went out after it, found Michelle chained to a couple of posts with her back literally covered in whip-lashes. Apparently she'd gone back to her post as if nothing had happened, been tried by a jury of her peers for the crime of trying to destroy the Regulators from within, tried to defend herself, found her magic didn't work very well, and found guilty. She was offered leniency if she gave information about the cabal, told them to go fuck themselves, and was then sentenced to twenty lashes. She got thirty and was left for dead. If she hadn't been a fairly good Life Mage, she would have been. As it was, Skank found her around the time she used the last of her strength to change her chains to paper, brought her to a nearby utility shed, and spent about 24 hours patching her up enough to let her heal herself enough to sit a horse.

Meanwhile, Susanna went out for supplies, as the place was hardly well-stocked, and the others discussed disguise options. E opted for going male, which Lucius did as a Life rote to good effect. This surprised the living hell out of Susanna when she came back, and Chloe took advantage of this and went out with Evangeline/Edwin to have a shag. This apparently did not work out well; the excuse given was that E was not used to the new equipment. After discussions (via 'radio') with Jeremiah, they realised that things were going completely to pot back home and they decided they should leave early. Several options were bandied about, but I decided to be nice and give them one that involved a minimal use of magic (they were talking about disguising themselves via Life and/or Forces, leaving an illusion behind on the building they were in, that sort of thing). Instead, Carl made Susanna's outfit look like the normal Broker pinstripe, Lucius redid his hair with Life and they went out to the local Travel Agents' depot to find transportation suitable for a group of misfits who, upon discussion, could only be a rock band. They called themselves "Paradox Will Eat Itself".

Lucius got in well with Ronald, the Travel Agent they dealt with, despite the fact that said Agent was a misogynist git who was sort of the anti-Lucius. I was really proud of him, though the thing about Susanna being his girlfriend, which kept coming up in conversation, was kind of weird (if we have another Pietro/Alison situation, I am going to scream. Then again, Susanna's sort of the anti-Alison, so that's okay). In the end, they got a mini-bus which used to belong to St Christopher's School (yes, where I did my A-levels) and drove it back to "PWEI". While all this was going on, the rest of the group -- well, those of them who made the perception rolls -- could hear what sounded for all the world like Skank bellowing, "MOTHERFUCKERS!" (Andy O read the report of Skank's activities and responded to my request for a reaction with that very word.) Kuo-Li tried to speak to Skank via Mind-link and was told to go on without him. Apparently it was all very Skank. In any case, Susanna and Lucius came back with the mini-bus and the group departed Lampeter fairly late in the evening. They had a brief stop with a Regulator checkpoint, but managed to talk their way out of it (how, I have no idea; they were a rock band with no instruments and a tendency to mouth off to authority ... actually, I can see how they talked their way out of it now).

They got home in the extremely wee small hours to find the house in an uproar. Around the time they were leaving Lampeter, Jeremiah had a visit from two Regulators who were looking for Molly Quincannon, apparently going to take her to some family in Aberystwyth. Jeremiah, quite truthfully, told the Regulator doing the talking that the girl could not be moved, and they weren't having any of it, so they brushed past him into the house. The Glomping Chair grabbed one of them and tackled him to the floor, and the stairs rather surprisingly went ... well, difficult to find. It was at this point that the rest of the group arrived. They asked the Chair to get off the other Regulator, and at this point, the group got a good look at him and identified him as Richard. Jeremiah also got a very good look at him. It's best rendered in dialogue.

thessalian: You've seen this man before. About four and a half years ago.
jeremiahtomasi What was he doing?
thessalian: (casual and deadpan) Shooting your wife.
(brief pause in which a few other players go, "...Oh")
jeremiahtomasi (same) I grab one of Lucius' swords, and go to kill him.

Needless to say, Lucius was not letting this man take one of his swords, so Jeremiah went to strangle Richard. There was bizarre kerfuffle in which Richard showed some magical talent and used it to escape to his horse. Jeremiah followed him out and Jeremiah told Richard in no uncertain terms, "I am going to kill you". Richard said, "You're one of them, aren't you?"; Jeremiah didn't even hesitate before saying, "Yes!". Richard left with the parting shot, "Then you're next". Jeremiah then turned around to Kuo-Li and said, "I need to wake up now". Of course, he then went completely insane. I think I broke him.

They got rid of the other Regulator easily enough -- he was apparently completely thrown by the events with his new partner. Apparently, this new Regulator is very new and was sent as Michelle's replacement. They didn't ask questions about this -- they had their own worries. Dawn and Molly were incredibly sick -- high temperature, laboured breathing and their skin was turning a rather dreadful shade of grey. Jeremiah, trying out his new Paradigm (and going utterly insane in the process -- he is literally edging into Marauder territory), managed to bring Dawn down to a level or two below imminent death, then challenged Lucius to show him what the Euthanatos could do. Lucius went to do some Life magic on Molly. Toos botched, and I figured it was time to burn all that Life-magic-related Paradox off. Usually, when Lucius turns into Serena, her 'soul', if you like, just steps forward and takes over Lucius' body; this time I thought it would be funny to have Lucius trapped in the body of a seven-year-old girl. This really pissed him off, which was what I was after ... but it turned into a little more than that. Lucius took on the form of Serena, his past-life echo ... and then basically keeled over, stricken by the same disease or whatever that Molly and Dawn were down with. Apparently, the whole group think I did this on purpose, but it was really an accident; I'm apparently more clever than I think. During a brief stint in the Shadowlands (Lucius is closer to it than most people because he's already been there once), he talked to Dawn -- for all they know, she pulled him in there briefly. She explained the rest and confirmed what they already knew: this 'disease' was unnatural, and affected children. Then said, "She's not evil; she's just insane". Lucius assumed it was Violet, but Dawn said not, told him "You'll see" and sent him back. Also, at one point in the evening, Lucius goaded Serena, basically telling her, "We may share a body, but I can still dash your head into a wall". I made Toos roll Willpower; she failed and Serena took over with a last "Ha-ha" a la Nelson. All in all, it was stupid.

Over the course of the night, Chloe kept a watch on Molly and Lucius/Serena (not Dawn, though, because "Dawn scares me") while the others got some sleep. Lucius got his own shape back over the course of the morning, much to his embarrassment. After awhile, they realised that Chloe hadn't been looking in on Dawn at all over the course of the evening and they found Dawn very damn close to death. They decided drastic action was called for and, since Lucius had recovered instantly when he got his older body back, they decided to try to use Life to age the girls so they'd be immune. They decided to start with Dawn, as she was the worst off, and did a blinding bit of Life magic that worked a little differently than they expected. They aged Dawn into her early 20s -- though they forgot her Avatar might think she was ready for more power with a stronger body -- but Carl, who was watching Molly while they were doing this, noted that Molly had also aged, and a little more besides. She also aged to her early 20s, and developed tattoos, scars and other markings that Skank, had he been there, would have recognised. Also seemed to think that Carl shouldn't be there, and developed a streak of outright bratty bitchery that seemed to be a cross between a pissed-off eight-year-old and an equally pissed-off post-teen. This, needless to say, surprised everyone, but they went along with it because, hell, what else was there to do? Carl hated her, but she got along quite well with E. They were quite clever, in their way -- when the other Regulator came back to enquire about Molly, as he said he'd do, they pointed to the older Molly and said, "That's Molly Quincannon; are you sure you have the right place?" He was so confused by this (and continuing lack of stairs) that he just said, "Bugger this" and left.

They'd been told that whatever was causing this was out Carmarthen way, so off they went, with Molly in tow. They were in Carmarthen, which was even more desolate than it is in the real world, and headed to the castle (from which a column of ominous smoke was rising) when a rather vicious hyena-looking dog about the size of a panther pounced in through the window. It clawed E, but didn't get any further than that before Lucius' botched Drive roll swung the car around and threw the dog into the backseat with Kuo-Li and Jeremiah. Jeremiah, utterly insane, reached out for it and got his hand bitten clean off before Kuo-Li could kill it, and Kuo-Li spent the rest of the combat healing Jeremiah. The others, meanwhile, were fighting off five more of the dog-things. My dice rolled far too lucky and the others were lucky to escape with their lives, the rate things were going. Fortunately, the luck worked both ways; Molly, who had borrowed Lucius' lightsabre, got involved in the combat and got two of them. Either way, they got rid of the demonhounds (as that was what they were), kept the one that had jumped into the mini-bus because Molly wanted to dissect it and went on. Carl informed her that Order of Hermes tended to punish people who had truck with demons; Molly explained, "I don't want to summon it; I just want to dissect it and find its weak spots". He sort of had to accept that.

They got to the castle and there was a matter of a large wooden door. Molly used Forces, started it smouldering. Lucius used Entropy to rot and dry the wood somewhat, it burned better. Carl used Forces to build up the flame, botched and snuffed most of it. Molly then summoned something that was quite likely a fire elemental and told it to torch the goddamn door. It did ... and around then, the Life rote wore off. Molly was back to being eight years old and was now standing in the epicentre of the plague. Needless to say, she did not stay upright and breathing normally for very long. Chloe and E froze her in time and they went off to find who or what was causing this. They found a woman who called herself Emma, sitting in the middle of an open space stirring a cauldron. Carl pulled out the Rubber Ducky of Doom and squeaked it at the woman, and wound up with what looked like a shower curtain at his feet. Emma told them to go away, and then muttered something about how children shouldn't have to live in such a terrible world as Restart has left them. Which decided Lucius and Kuo-Li, the latter of whom got an experience point for saying, "Now, I still can't condone this sort of thing. So I'll knock her out and you kill her". It was remarkably easy, despite the fact that the 'shower curtain' had Carl pinned for much of it; while Emma was distracted with pinning Carl, Lucius dealt her a blow that floored her, then asked her name. She told him, and asked if there was anything else. He said, "No" and swung, taking her head clean off.

They still weren't sure if the rote or whatever was still in operation, so they decided to try some experimentation. E kicked the cauldron but only sloshed things; then Jeremiah and Kuo-Li decided to throw things in it to disrupt the ritual while E, Chloe and Lucius went to check on Molly. Jeremiah threw in his shoes (somewhat eaten by the stuff E's kick sloshed on them) ... and then he threw in Emma's head. When Chloe and E took their time rote off Molly, she went an alarming shade of puce and her breathing was choked, so Lucius tried Life magic again. Another botch -- this time, Molly went a colour that was damn near black and started truly choking, so the Ecstatics put the Time rote back on and went back to tell the others. They tipped the cauldron out in the end, and Jeremiah went to suck the Prime out of it -- only by the time it was tipped, there was no Prime to suck, so despite his successes, he had no gain from it -- just a burned hand because he actually put his hand on a cauldron that had been in a fire for God only knows how long. The Time rote came off Molly and it turned out she was back to normal, and very confused as to how she'd come to be there. They saved the day again, hurrah.

One other thing happened -- they had their first meeting with Cerebrus Constantine, or a projection of. He appeared to Lucius, E and Chloe, said a few nasty things, dropped the "Lucius-could've-stopped-Restart" hint again, asked where Lucinda was, then told them to leave well enough alone and went away. When Carl heard about this, he marked the spot (circle with "Evil Was Here" written in it) and went to find a payphone. He rang his mentor and got their resident Correspondence Adept, Elspeth deGramont (French bint with the Gauloises), to come by and find out where the projection had originated. They needed some Spirit help, which would've been Skank's job but in his absence, Molly was happy to provide after asking for some herbs from Kuo-Li to replace the incense she normally uses. Elspeth popped out briefly, popped back in and told them she'd wound up in several places -- one of them a New York coffeehouse in which a bunch of Hollow Ones were looking at her rather oddly -- before winding up in a little dark room she thinks was in Cardiff. Lucius asked about the Hollow Ones and found that yes, his ex-girlfriend Eurydice was actually there. She Mind-sent him a map of the co-ordinates (probably including the co-ordinates she found for Constantine as well) and went away. She'll likely be back, though, if only to find out if Jeremiah really meant it about going out to dinner.

When they got back home, they discovered that Skank had returned with Michelle -- her healing rotes hadn't done all that much good, but they'd at least enabled her to sit a horse for the ride back to Bokugo. Kuo-Li and Lucius eventually did the healing thing, and she was much improved. Carl, meanwhile, waited until dark and then went off to his appointed meeting with the representative of the Ventrue who'd contacted him in reply to his letter to Trish (his Toreador friend who got them the pictures of the Technocrat meeting). He met a very old Ventrue calling herself Sabine dressed in the latest in Laura Ashley pink-flowered-blouse, who asked him questions about when he'd last seen Trish and asked him to go along and help Trish's band find out what had happened to her. His Avatar was rattling the back of his mind at this point, so he went. Sabine, meanwhile, went to deliver a message to the rest of his group -- she's about 1300 so you can just imagine how much fortitude a 1300-year-old Ventrue's got, not to mention Dominate, so she obviously wasn't worried. This is why Kuo-Li was so damn polite to her, and why it was surprising when Lucius mouthed off to her. At which point, I used a Command that cholten99 told me about awhile back -- "Disco!" So Lucius disco'ed as an object lesson, and she told them where Carl had gone ... approximately. She also gave her word, on her honour and that of her Clan, that he had come to no harm. When a Ventrue says that, you take it seriously. She went away (Obfuscate is so much fun -- I might run Vampire in Restart next!) and the session ended there.

The problem is that Lucius is showing the first signs of Jhor accumulation, Skank's on the fucking warpath and Jeremiah's gone clinically bonkers. I broke them! Three players in the space of one game! Just like Rice Krispies, there has been snap, crackle, and pop of tiny character brains! I'm not sure whether to be proud of myself or not.

It's not just there either. I seem to have broken Pietro. According to Toos, "Reinhard is going to step in and sort it all out". I don't know what this means, but apparently it boils down to "being a different kind of arsehole". I fear the next 7th Sea session...

Comments

[aberrantangels]

They called themselves "Paradox Will Eat Itself".

*sporfle* ^_^

That is all.