OoC [Mage the Awakening] "After the 2003 Hoax"

[Cire]

I confess (to my shame) that I got Lars and Winchester confused. I hope this new start helps.

[Mockery]

Okay, put something up. Assuming from what you've said here that you meant Lar would be unaffected by the shift in reality, while Winchester would be wholly subject to it, so for now he has no real knowledge of what he did before. On the other hand, Silencer still seemed to have some memory, soooo...yeah. Conflict commences.

That said, I don't have any of the sourcebooks that talk about Imperial Magic, so I'm playing it by ear here. Let me know if anything needs adjusting.

EDIT: Also, stopped at a point where

a.) There'd be recapping of what already happened, and

b.) I want to have my books handy before I say more.

[Cire]

I too am playing the Imperial Magic by ear. Since we are both faking it, I would say Winchester remembers what you want him to remember. By the way, I really enjoyed your scene and Thorn is a good shadow name.

[Mockery]

Well, for now it looks like Winchester is recollection-free.

That said, is it all right if I toss a writeup of Thorn on here for reference?

[Cire]

All right? I would be in your debt!

[Mockery]

Shadow Name: Thorn
Real Name: Iris Harper
Path: Thyrsus
Order: Mysterium
Virtue: Courage
Vice: Lust
Arcana: Life 4, Spirit 3, Fate 2
Strongest Attribute: Wits
Weakest Attribute: Resolve
(Thorn is impulsive and clever, and makes snap decisions well. But clever is not wise, and whether or not they're the best decisions in the long run is anyone's guess.)

Flighty and easily distracted--she'd say she's attuned to the whole world around her, others might just call her flaky--most would place Thorn as the quintessential Acanthus. Then she breaks out of whatever reverie she's in, snaps to clarity, and her smile seems a little less lazy or dreamy, and a little more wolfish.

Iris awakened young, fresh out of high school, not really sure of her path or where she was going.

The summer before she went to college, she went hiking in a local park, and found herself lost. Eventually, she came across a great tree, large around as a house and reaching infinitely into the sky, and with no greater motivation seeming necessary than its presence, she began to climb.

After hours, it grew thinner and thinner still, until the remaining miles of its length swayed under the weight of her palm.

Like it was the most natural thing in the world, she slipped out of her skin, and climbed higher as a squirrel.

When the world was far beneath her, the tree bent willowlike even under this; she could go no further, and so slipped out of her fur and climbed higher as a mouse.

When the tree's trunk was impossibly yarn-thin, and bent even under that tiny burden, she climbed higher as a mere inchworm.

Finally, through the worm's eyes, she saw a tiny hole in the trunk, and she knew that this was as high as she would reach today. But it was too small even for the inchworm.

So she slipped out of her skin one last time, crawled through the hole, and rose up in her own skin again, filthy with dirt and bark and blood.

Inside was a great chamber, hewn all out of the inside of the tree, all the same red-gold living wood. A single pedestal rose smoothly out of the ground, bejewelled with sun-yellow droplets of sap.

Weary and exhilarated, Iris walked to the pedestal, and slapped her bloody palm against it, leaving a dirty scarlet handprint as her mark.

She may have collapsed after that. She's not sure.

She was found after her awakening sleeping in a tree, slumped over a branch like a great cat, by a local member of the Mysterium researching the growth patterns of a particular grove, and whether the patterns that they formed were merely coincidental, or reflective of something...more. Sadly, his research was inconclusive, but he did score some points for finding a Mage fresh from her Awakening and guiding her to the Pentacle Order.

In addition to being an initially atypical-seeming Shaman, the Mysterium also seems like an odd fit for her. Thorn shrugs, but the Mysterium as a whole shakes their head and sighs: while they tried to ship her off to the Adamantine Arrow, some strange attunement to fortune has seen her turn up in the Mystagogues' paths--usually on some sort of top-secret Mysterium Business--on accident so often that they've more or less resolved their breach of security by giving up and taking her in as one of their own. They generally keep her busy by sending her across the globe to look into things (which she enjoys) in generally dangerous situations (which she also enjoys).

[Mockery]

As a side note, I don't think Winchester and Thorn should be doing anything until Hoplite and Miss Watson get a chance to get their scene in. It looks like it was lunchtime about when my stuff was happening, while Hop's was earlier in the day, so barring some serious Time magic we'll wait.

[Cire]

Thank you, Mockery. With your aid, I think the gaping wound in this game has been sewn up,

[egreham]

Everyone Else: You're Hei, right? Could you give us the sword?
Hei: What fucking sword?
Miss Watson: I'm sorry, your mcguffin is in another castle.

[Cire]

Exactly.

[egreham]

My thought was that some Imperial Magic was used so that no April 2003 Hoax took place. However, I see Windchester (if he still around) being unaffected since he was not in the Fallen World per say.

Whoah wut ze hell?

[Mockery]

Whoah wut ze hell?

Cire meant Lar. Winchester is wholly subject to the Imperial rewrite and so doesn't remember a thing, not least of all because a.) the hoax in question has never been relevant to the story from the beginning and b.) it would lead to sidetracking away from the current storyline.

(PS Just a minor bit of clarification because I acknowledge it was pretty vague: I had intended for Winchester to kill Ponte with direct application of Mind magic. The Seer never fired his gun.)

[Cire]

Mockery explained it well. I got confused as I all too often do.

[egreham]

So basically everyone is abandoning the Not-Aukland train.

[Cire]

Yes. I think this is an Aukland game until and if the remaining players go elsewhere.