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

[Cire]

Will do Winnersh 3. I am just planning ahead, but in no rush. I should have the draft up soon, but certainly would not post in IC for at least a few days.

[Winnersh 3]

Blast, I just managed to lose half my post! I kinda need to get to sleep now - would you mind terribly if I finished it tomorrow morning instead?

[Cire]

Not the slightest problem. In fact, I was going to see if either our two players that live in New Zealand might like to set up the next chapter. However, no matter might be setting things up, the next chapter won't be started until we are ready. Indeed, depending on events, it might be even further off.

[Ashreyel]

I'm sure between Jackal and I we can throw together a New Zealand chapter intro.

[egreham]

I'm whipping up a character. Should I post here? Also, would that mean I will start in New Zealand?

[Esuna]

Birth Name: Brian Willits
Shadow Name: Hoplite

Concept: Goetic Botherer

Home Location: Portland, Oregon, USA, North America
Current Location: Wellington, New Zealand on vacation. Because Hobbits.

Path: Mastigos, Tool - Brass Letter Opener
Order: Free Council (sort of unofficially), Tool - A Casio calculator watch from the 80s.
Rote Specialty: Crafts (Traps)
Legacy: None yet

Hoplite has been given only a rudimentary lesson in Mage orders or politics. He's learned bits and pieces from those he's met on the road, but never really excelled past his own natural talents. The real lessons he has learned are that a) demons are bloody dangerous and vindictive, b) fucking with them will get you hurt, and c) a pissed off demon that's far behind you is a sublime delight. Though he's only been Awakened for a year and a half, he's learned a lot about survival.

Virtue: Fortitude - Hoplite has managed to ceaselessly annoy, harass, and otherwise disrupt any number of demonic infestations. This has left him hospitalized, occasionally institutionalized, and jailed at least once. And yet he continues on, for reasons that remain unclear even to him. He just knows he has to stop them.

Vice: Wrath - Frustration has always been Hoplite's Achilles heel. While most intelligent people would handle being thwarted as a temporary setback or possibly even a "learning experience", Hoplite tends to throw tantrums followed by sulking.

Gnosis: 3

Arcana: Fate 1, Prime 2, Space 3, Mind 3

Nimbus: The sound of a mosquito somewhere around your head

Strongest Attribute: Wits - 18 months of thinking on his feet while dealing with enemies which he only partly understands has left Hoplite able to adapt quickly to a situation.

Weakest Attribute: Composure - Though he's able to think quickly, he's not graceful about it. Screaming whilst running, off-color jokes when nervous, and Geeking Out Hard about Awesome Things.

Merits: Common Sense (4), Danger Sense (2), Unseen Sense (3), Fleet of Foot (2), Occultation (2), Destiny (3), Striking Looks (2)

Bane (from Destiny): The last thing you see will be an empty mirror.

Backstory:
Brian's temper had finally gotten the best of him. He shouldn't have been at that bar in Chicago in the first place. He shouldn't have had quite so many bourbons. He shouldn't have punched the young mafia bravo in the stomach. And he definitely shouldn't have bellowed for the kid's cronies to “Bring it.”

He regained consciousness to the sound of tires on the road, the smell of gasoline, and the two red eyes of tail-lights looking into his soul. He was in the trunk of a car that he didn't recognize. His head hurt, and he was missing a tooth. A speed bump taken at 40 mph rattled him back to unconsciousness.

The two red tail-lights became embers in the distance as he sat in the cold gravel of a riverbank. They approached, and he saw that they were the red eyes of Charon, come to ferry him to the afterlife. He climbed aboard, since he had decided that he had died and that's what dead people do. But Charon didn't take him to the other side, he continued downstream, until Brian saw a great Iron Tower in the distance.

In a near trance, he approached the tower, ignoring the howling of primal fear in his left ear and sultry temptation in his right. He opened the door, climbed to the top, and discovered an abandoned laboratory, full of empty rat cages. Giggling in near hysterics, he scrawled his Name on the label of one of the cages, which snapped shut.

He awoke, screaming, next to a shallow grave that had been filled in. He had escaped... somehow.

He spent the next 18 months in a near daze, traveling from small town to small town and almost inexplicably encountering creatures of pure malevolent will. Though he was never able to go toe-to-toe with any of them, he learned enough to slow them down and sometimes distract them. He met aged bikers, draft-dodgers, and computer hackers, and they all had a little bit to teach him about magic. He grew stronger, and more canny, until a second run-in with a Demon of Hidden Bodies left him hospitalized with a broken collar-bone.

A friend told him he should take a vacation. He had a friend in New Zealand who was Free Council like they were and could give Brian a safe place to hide. He suggested to Brian that he choose a new name, kind of an alias, and that would make it harder for his enemies to find him.

Brian was to embarrassed to point out that he didn't know what the Free Council was. He just nodded, cashed in his life-savings, and bought a ticket to Auckland.

[Cire]

Welcome, Esuna!

[egreham]

Name: Hannae Li
Shadow Name: Hei

Location: Somewhere in Washington?
Path: Obrimos, Watchtower of the Golden Key.
Order: Adamantine Arrow
Virtue: Charity
Vice: Glutton
Arcana: Forces 4, Prime 4, Space 1
Merits:
Danger Sense **
Athletic Dodge *
Status(Adamantine Arrow) *
Retainer (Miss Watson) *****
Krav Maga [Reload p.79] **
Evasive Striking [Reload p65] ****
Aikido [Reload p71]***

Strongest Attribute: Dexterity
Weakest Attribute: Intelligence

Backstory:

Being born into an Asian family, Hannae was often under expectation and pressure to excel in education. However, it was apparent since elementary that she was hardly proficient with textbooks, and the fact that she was held back in 3rd and 8th grade was unacceptable in her mother's eyes. On the other hand, her father was more lenient and recognized her skills and interest in more physical departments, encouraging her to persue gymnastics. Hannae also had happy relationships with her younger (and embarrasingly brighter) siblings who admired her.

When Hannae was in high school, she accidently stumbled upon a handgun on a student and was promptly knocked out before she could react. While unconscious, she had a vivid dream about writing her name on the Watchtower of the Golden Key. When she wakes up dazed, she reached for her phone, only to see a panicked face and a flash.

Hannae woke up with a splitting headache and saw Harris, a recluse transfer student, and Dutch, his guardian. They revealed themselves to be mages and told her that when they detected her Awakening, they managed to save her and stop the school shooting. They added, however, that when they found out she Awakened, they faked her death in order to cut her ties with the mortal world and that she shouldn't ever see or contact her family again. It took days to convince Hannae that it would protect her family, and it took weeks to travel to a nearby society of mages. It was a sore introduction for Hannae to the world of magic, and eventually of the supernatural.

She joined the Adamantine Arrow in order to get a mentor, but had difficulty learning magic under traditional ways. Interestingly however, one of the younger member found a way to teach Hannae magic: with mangas and comic books. Even though Miss Watson was still an apprentice herself, she was informally assigned to instruct Hannae. Hannae and Miss Watson technically had the same mentor, but it was Miss Watson who truly taught Hannae, leading to a rather unusual but warm partnership between Hannae and Miss Watson.


Need help catching up to the story and any tweaks that it might need.

[Cire]

Welcome, Egreham! I'll help all that I can.

[Esuna]

Mind if I pop into Auckland, or is there a chance we aren't heading that way?

[Cire]

That should work. I will see if I can set something up. This won't be chapter two, but chapter one and half.

[egreham]

OK, so if I understand correctly: Tuesday wants to collect pieces of a magical chess board for hope to weaken the Seers and possibly rescue boy/girlfriend. She tries to recruit Cire (throwaway story hook character?) for the cause, but he refuses and goes away. Winchester comes along and he grudgingly agrees(?) and leaves. Doolittle banged a (important?) Mysterium chick and proceeds to join in the Paris-in-Texas-not-France cafe. Tuesday pulls a blackmail or information card or whatever on Doolittle, but turns out unnecessary. Then Tuesday instead offers boon and talks about True Faes. Then Scar comes along with his sunglasses and the conversation reveals that there's a chess piece in New Zealand. Oberon pops in magically with his changeling girlfriend and everybody's like "why" except Silencer who's pissed about it. Then like a idiot, Silencer brings a knife to a frakking magic fight, and like a douche, Oberon breaks his arm with the thanksgiving "Gravy Gun". Silencer complains about not having enough attention while Oberon has some ego talk justifying vulgar magic. While this is happening in front of mortals, Doolittle and Scar resolves some trust issues and Doolittle jumps in between Silencer and Oberon and like a proper Frenchwoman(?) propose an Arcane Duel (At this point, it's obvious that Silencer's Vice is Lust). Then suddenly, Willow appears with a movie script for Scar to play the Old Mage trick of "we're filming a movie that nobody can guess the plot of".

From this point it gets really confusing trying to keep track of people separating. Winchester is getting attacked by pregnant deers by a Seer named Ponte who seem to been trying to eliminate Winchester by ... guilt tripping him? Scar and Willow goes to an airport to extort some Harry dude. Lars avoids getting fondled with tentacles and inconveniently chugs poisonous truth serum into the responsible party and finds out there's a magical Rook somewhere. Doolittle blows off steam with a young Awakened boy with vandalism (not molesting, which is surprising considering the Lust vice). Meanwhile, Winchester is getting guilt-tripped not by killing the pregnant deers, but by killing the Seer assassin. Willow and Scar reads a cover story on a drunk guy running over a pregnant deer and uses scry to see Winchester killed some bloke. Tuesday leaves with Silencer to meet angsty Winchester and concludes that the duel is definitely off. Doolittle hears about it and is like "meh" and proceeds to summon a dragon Gentry with some random characters to interrogate the crap out of it. She finds out that the Elements of Harmony ... I mean the Chess Pieces has some personal conditions that needs to fulfilled in ordered to be obtained.

And now Hannae Li and Miss Watson is looking for Hoplite in New Zealand.

[egreham]

Ummm. I think I would like to know why Hei and Miss Watson would be looking for Hoplite. Also, isn't using true names .. bad? (Hei is her Shadow name. "Miss Watson" is also a shadow name")

Nevermind. Saw the message. I ... still think I need a bit of help. I first thought maybe Hei and Miss Watson was there to provide protection because of the friend favor, but apparently Lily has "no idea" why they would look for Hoplite.

Also, I'm pretty new to the whole Mage society thing, so forgive me if I make a faux pas here and there out of misinformation.

[Esuna]

Ummm. I think I would like to know why Hei and Miss Watson would be looking for Hoplite. Also, isn't using true names .. bad? (Hei is her Shadow name. "Miss Watson" is also a shadow name")

Nevermind. Saw the message. I ... still think I need a bit of help. I first thought maybe Hei and Miss Watson was there to provide protection because of the friend favor, but apparently Lily has "no idea" why they would look for Hoplite.

Also, I'm pretty new to the whole Mage society thing, so forgive me if I make a faux pas here and there out of misinformation.

I'm new to it as well... That's why I made someone who knew as little as I could get away with. It'll be okay, we'll learn together. ^_^

Maybe Hoplite can get himself into enough trouble that the others will have a reason to look for him.

[egreham]

Nevermind, I got it.