Session 91

Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 11

Scurve: I've been working on and off on my connection all week, culminating in a frenzy of new tactics this evening. I ended up with less connectivity than I started with :P
Scurve: I'm using a different laptop and network now, .
Random_Nerd: Oh, yes, one thought on that. Is it only a problem with IRC, or with all internetings?
lazarus: here's hoping, anyway
BethE: There, Session 90 up.
Scurve: It started out with Just my computer, Just having problems with this network.
Scurve: Now I can't connect at all, even reverting to the hardwired router connection. :\
Random_Nerd: A thought, then. Look at your status window on Magicstar for something that looks a bit like -Gryphon.MagicStar.net- *** If you are having problems connecting due to ping timeouts, please type /quote pong CA53242B or /raw pong CA53242B now.
lazarus: session 90?
lazarus: wow.
Scurve: That looks familiar.
Random_Nerd: Entering the relevant string at the right time might make it not drop you quite so often.
Scurve: I'll try that once I can connect again.
Scurve: Anyhow, I don't know if you got my next PM or not, but I made some changes to Avram.
lazarus: avram? You have a character now, I take it?
Scurve: Which can be a less-biblical Abe if it sounds too weird in a Familia of Brians and Theresas.
lazarus: well, we live in Modern Biblical Times :p
Scurve: I wrote up Avram, Dominus of Golems, but there are still a few snags to work out, I believe.
Random_Nerd: The biggest one, I think, is how to integrate Golems into the world.
BethE: I got my name from Theresa of the Little Flowers.  :)
BethE: Hmm...Terminators!
Random_Nerd: I mean, which things that exist in the real world would you describe as golems?
BethE: Robot arms in factories. Zombies in Haiti?
lazarus: RN: there's tons of myths about Golems and golem-like creatures ... I still maintain that there /were/ Golems, but are none alive right now
Random_Nerd: Well, yeah. But if it's to be a plausible Pillar of the Universe, it has to be something that exists.
Random_Nerd: Otherwise, if all the golems got wiped out, how did the Estate not die?
BethE: Maybe it's just very weak?
lazarus: hm.
lazarus: the stories lived on.
Scurve: My thinking was that there are maybe a few running around Yggdrassil, but none left on Prosaic Earth.
lazarus: tonight ... I have buffalo chicken wing and blue cheese dressing potato chips. Yep, you heard me, chips flavoured like buffalo chicken wings and blue cheese dressing.
BethE: Heh, now I'm seeing the Holocast as a Nettle Rite against the Golem Estate. If Golems couldn't protect the Jews, the Estate got weaker and thus got too weak.
BethE: Laz - last week it was Chinese food chips.
Random_Nerd: Ah, hmm. So, working with the idea that they've been wiped out on Earth, but not elsewhere.
lazarus: I decided the Szechwan chips weren't the best out there :p Interesting, definitely, but meh
Scurve: I can pull-up the already-written Power of Borders mighty quick though, if we need to get started with a less exotic Estate.
Random_Nerd: Hmm. I can work with that, I think.
Scurve: (scratch that first hyphen)
Random_Nerd: To what degree would you say that things like computers and robotics would count as golems?
Scurve: The way I saw golems, not at all.
lazarus: remind me that I have a link for you guys (today's 8-bit theatre) after kwd arrives ... y'all would be interested in it, I think.
Scurve: Golems are bodies of a pure element. Cotton candy, barium, yellow 5, clouds, whatever.
lazarus: Promethean meets Nobilis :D
Scurve: Physical incarnations of spirits, with elevated consciousness.

• Scurve apologizes for being so Ulgan.
  

Random_Nerd: Hmm.
Random_Nerd: What do you mean by "spirits" in this context?
Scurve: As part of the animistic universe, not spirits of the dead.
Random_Nerd: Well, everything is the physical manifestations of the mythic spirits.
Random_Nerd: That's just what stuff in general is.
Random_Nerd: At least, on earth.
Scurve: Alright, let me try again then.
Random_Nerd: (I know this stuff seems picky, but it's a lot easier to get this nailed down at the beginning rather than retroactively down the line.)
lazarus: hm.
Scurve: I understand
Random_Nerd: (We've done this with pretty much all the estates.)
lazarus: Human/other spirits in stuff?
Scurve: Golems are sentient beings of pure element.
lazarus: kind of like the otherkin in our domain, but, like, chairs.
Random_Nerd: Ah, hmm.
Random_Nerd: So, the fact that it's a pure element is key to the definition.
Random_Nerd: Why is that?
Scurve: That just feels right to me. Golems to me are not complex creatures but simple beings.
Scurve: They generally don't have as high a consciousness as humans, but they are capable of higher thought than a dolphin is and can speak and hold jobs and be depressed and whatnot.
Scurve: Unless of course dolphins have more complex thought than humans after all.
lazarus: "So long, and thanks for all the fish."
lazarus: (Douglas Adams was obviously a Noble of /something/)
Scurve: By element, I don't necessarily mean things from the periodic table or fire/water/earth/air/heart.
Random_Nerd: Hmm. What, then?
lazarus: one "thing", like, wood? Would it have to be from the same tree, or same kind of tree, or just wood?
BethE: *hugs Red*
lazarus: :D
Scurve: Well, I could make a golem out of a cloud, or gravel, or pleather, but not a golem from Marvin Gaye or cathode ray tubes or guitars or anything that's not essentially homogenous.
Scurve: I lack the ability to put this into the right words.
lazarus: I point back to my question about wood golems.
lazarus: (it's an example that can be easily generalized, I think)
BethE: I would also have to ask the question of how to stop a missle with a golem when you have that pesky gravity problem.
Random_Nerd: Oh, true.

• • • Knockwood has joined #nobilis.
      

BethE: Hi Knock!
lazarus: oh, right. That's, like, the only question that matters :p
Knockwood: Hiyo, sorry I'm late
lazarus: hey kwd.
lazarus: (Link: http://nuklearpower.com/latest.php)http://nuklearpower.com/latest.php <-- read, figure out how that applies to our group, laugh.
Random_Nerd: It's a truism that any a lesser miracle of any estate can stop a guided missile from hitting you, given sufficient ingenuity on the part of the demonstrator.
Scurve: Um, create a golem out of the explosive element and have him detonate early, punch his way out, or refuse to explode?
Random_Nerd: (I do frequently identify with Black Mage...)
BethE: Cute! Teeny tiny bo-bombs! ^^
lazarus: (Bob-ombs. Like, Bob, with ombs)
Scurve: Or,you know, just make a big ol' golem out of the ground I'm standing on and thank him for his help. He probably won't even have time to ask "help with what?", but hey.
Knockwood: Scurve: you're in a plane. (Like in the example of play inthe book.)
BethE: (Thank you, Laz.)
Scurve: Nkay.
Random_Nerd: Okay, I have a question.
Random_Nerd: What makes you want to run the Power of Golems, rather than just some other Power who has a Gift that lets him make golems for free?
Scurve: 'Cause I listed a bunch of Estates and that was the only one that got any responses
Random_Nerd: Probably because it was the weirdest one.
BethE: (We gravitate to weird, for some reason. I blame our Imperator.)
Scurve: Well,again, if this is too weird I have the Noble of Crowds ready RIGHT NOW.
Knockwood: (Hang on, I've got to kill a spammer...)
lazarus: honestly, it's the one of your list that I would love to see most. I mean, everyone always plays things like Sea, Air, or the colour Orange. It's nice to have something less abstract :p
Random_Nerd: I guess it's just that I don't really feel like I have anything approaching a good handle on the key essence of golemness. If someone else does, perhaps they have a better way to explain it?
BethE: You mean, why is Golem-ness a Pillar of the Tree?
lazarus: I'm sort of seeing it as a bleeding through of Mythic into Prosaic.
Knockwood: well, like I suggested... if you expand the domain to human representations... hrm...
Random_Nerd: Well, both, why is Golems one of the Most Important Concepts In The World, and, what would the platonic form of a golem look like?
Scurve: I wasn't aware that a concept was Commenced because it was one of the most important.
Knockwood: well, wait... you should play something you really want to play. Just because we glommed onto Golems doesn't necessarily mean that's the one.
Random_Nerd: Well, as a rule, if something's important enough to be part of an Imperator, it's important to the universe.
Random_Nerd: And as a general rule, all Estates are roughly as important as each other.
Random_Nerd: Within the same order of magnitude, at least.
Scurve: Knockwood: I listed only Estates that were interesting to me,in the first place.
lazarus: I also can see it as this: Kudzu is of the Wild, he wasn't always here. Golems may be important to Outside, but are only vaguely here (which is why we have the stories about them), but they're not really on the same order as, say, Physics for intrinsic to this world. (... just occurred to me: how did Physics deal before Kudzu?)
BethE: (It just didn't use numbers.)
Random_Nerd: (Yeah. Before Kudzu showed up, the unreasonable usefulness of mathematics in physics didn't exist.)
Knockwood: (But, presumably, things still fell, and lightning still struck.)
Random_Nerd: Well, since he's a Wildlord, it was foreshadowed before he showed up.
lazarus: hm
Random_Nerd: (Sure, but there wasn't stuff like the inverse cube law or the way quarks show up in threes or anything like that.)
lazarus: true.
lazarus: (... Greek and Norse physics ahoy!)
Random_Nerd: Heck, perhaps that's why people were slow to develop an understanding of physics and engineering, because before Kudzu, that stuff didn't work in as consistant or understandable ways.
Random_Nerd: (Heh, now I'm remembering the thing RSB said about the shinma in Fair Folk, that a concept was a shinma if and only if its absence would make your head explode.)
lazarus: or maybe it did work in consistent ways, but before Kudzu, you couldn't actually /quantify/ anything, so things like SCIENCE! were not possible.
BethE: But yes, back to Scurve.  :)

• • • Vurdalok has joined #nobilis.
      

Random_Nerd: Yeah.

• • • Vurdalok has left #nobilis.
      

Knockwood: what's Vurd's story?
Random_Nerd: I guess I'm asking how attached you are to Golems. If you really want it, I'll make it work, but if it's just something you chose at semi-random from various ideas, I'd like to go over some other ones.
Random_Nerd: I think he just likes to drift into and out of IRC channels.
Random_Nerd: Doomed forever to wander Magicstar, like a Flying Dutchman that sails the Internet!
Random_Nerd: </strange>
lazarus: hee :)
BethE: *checks RN's caffeine IV drip*
lazarus: (we've so got to find a way to make Davy Jones show up. Plausibly, I mean. I know in Nobilis we can have anything happen at the drop of a hat, just because a hat fell a few feet)
BethE: Which Davy...oh, that one.
Random_Nerd: Be amusing if they were both the same person...
lazarus: hum? The Flying Dutchman, of course.
Knockwood: (OK, now I've got Daydream Believer running through my head... )
Random_Nerd: Doomed sailor, pop star? Same thing!
lazarus: oh, right
lazarus: ... Noble of Pirates vs Ninjas. Or is that too powerful? :p
Knockwood: Scurve: before last session, which one did you want?
BethE: From last week: Scurve: I've also been coming up with a list of Estates while at work today, and those are: Addiction, Ash & Sand, Reincarnation, Mouths, Monotheism, Confessions, the Blues, and Golems.
lazarus: I was thinking "the Blues" as the feeling, but now, thinking about it, I think you (Scurve) were referring to the music style, and the Blues as a Pillar of Creation just makes hella sense.
BethE: Great, now I've got a country&western song stuck in my head...
Random_Nerd: Yeah, and there's lots of blues mythology you could play off for that, too.
Knockwood: alternatively, it could be both... or, Emotions
lazarus: hell, the Loa kind of goes hand in hand with the Blues. Sorta, anyway. Nawlins stuff, anyway.
Random_Nerd: Emotions and The Blues would be very different things, though, both in terms of metaphysics and in what miracles you could do.

• • • Scurve has signed off IRC (Disintegrated: CGI:IRC (Ping timeout)).
      

Random_Nerd: Hmm. Should we start the session proper, and deal with estate brainstorming in OOC?
BethE: Sounds okay to me, I think.

• • • You are now known as Theresa.
      
    • lazarus is now known as Brian.
      

Brian: do we have a session next week, or is that the first we're off for a bit?

• • • Knockwood is now known as DanteE.
      

Theresa: It's the week after that. The 30th, I'll probably still be in soreness.
Random_Nerd: Next week yes, week after, no.
Brian: ok
Random_Nerd: Anything else before we start?
DanteE: what are you talking about?
Brian: *wishes luck weeks early, in case forgets next week*
Random_Nerd: Week after next the session is canceled, as it'll be right after Beth's surgery.

• • • Scurve has joined #nobilis.
      

Theresa: The surgery I mentioned previously.
Theresa: Welcome back, Scurve!
Scurve: Bloody connection went down on this computer
DanteE: WB Scurve... what the heck's wrong with your connection this week?
Scurve: My dad's on the phone giving me the world's most annoying tech support
Theresa: *grin*
Scurve: As in, if the problem doesn't work, he reads it slower
Scurve: "To get to the properties you have to right click it. Did you right click it?Okay, do you see where it said properties?Click that. Did you click it?"
Random_Nerd: I warn you, if you give me flashbacks to doing tech support for college students, I'll cut you.

• Random_Nerd shudders.
  

DanteE: "OK, dry off the spilled beer first..."
Scurve: And then he launches into a lecture on different types of wireless wavelengths out of the blue, and I'm not even listening anymore because I realize I've been disconnected.
Scurve: No, no.
Scurve: Big virus went around sophomore year. I was one of two guys in the building not waiting in line for tech support downstairs.
Scurve: The other guy was my roommate :P
Random_Nerd: Anything before we start?
Scurve: Sorry for all the trouble, I guess.
Theresa: What was the last stuff you saw in here before you cut out, Scurve?

• Scurve sits and watches.
  

Scurve: shinma something
Theresa: *pastes over*
DanteE: I asked: before last session, which one did you want?
Scurve: Thanks.
Scurve: If I start dropping, just let me know. I'm using ircatwork.com and might not show me if I do.
DanteE: you're at work?
Random_Nerd: Okay, let's start.
Brian: summary of where we were last session? At Jim's?
DanteE: OK, I was facing off with that beholder...
Random_Nerd: When we last left Our Intrepid Heroes, they'd interrogated a brick and were plotting how best to track down the cult.
Random_Nerd: All the PCs, along with Jim, the Aides, and Lesson, were there.
Brian: ah right. I was half asleep at the time, so barely remember :p
Scurve: (I was just using ircatwork.com, I'm not actually at work.)
Theresa: And Theresa can't use her Auctoratas-spotting Gift because we're outside of home.
Random_Nerd: ____________START___________
DanteE: you were saying they probably have no way of spotting a Div, right?
Random_Nerd: Brick: "I wanna be with the other bricks! I wanna be part of a house! Or a shed! Or a porch!"
Random_Nerd: (Yeah, it'd be really weird if they were able to spot a divination.)
Brian: (notice how he doesn't say it's not possible. Just that it would be weird)
Random_Nerd: (A lesser divination's really only going to be spotted if you're a Noble with the right stats and you're already looking for one at just the right time.)
DanteE: ("Y'know, if you're really good, you could be an Ignatz Award.")
Random_Nerd: Another brick: "Yes! We demand mortar!"
Random_Nerd: (The bricks are, of course, audible only to those looking at the Mythic world.)
Theresa: (How well could a greater div be at pinpoint irregularities caused by the cult?)
DanteE: (How's the campus look in Mythic?)
Theresa: "Are you guys union?"

• Brian enters scene (was talking with Jim) "How much have you got from the bricks so far?"
  

Random_Nerd: (Well, you aren't in the campus right now. Are you going over to look, or asking what the residential area you're in looks like?)
DanteE: (Let's look around here, first...)
Random_Nerd: Okay, niceish house. Jim's probably not been living here long because the lares sometimes look at him with snooty expressions. He, incidentially, has a smallish guilt perched on his back. As for the nearby ones, you think you see something mythical jumping up and down by the house across the street.

• Theresa eyeballs the guilt.
  

Random_Nerd: (Oh, and Beth has pointed out that "lares" is an archaic word. The household gods, the little spirits that protect a home.)
DanteE: (Oh, I thought it was a typo...)
Random_Nerd: The guild scurries across Jim's back and tries to hide behind him.
Scurve: (Great, now I want to be the Noble of Lares :P)
Random_Nerd: (Err, guilt.)
Theresa: (Raid Jim's back! ^^ )
Brian: (Lares like Layers or Lah reys?)
Random_Nerd: (Oh, and on the greater div, it'd be relatively easy to see which plants have had a cult member near them recently.)
Theresa: (Or maybe Lairs. You could get all of the best choices of volcanos.)
Random_Nerd: (You couldn't pinpoint where they are, but you could tell where they've been.)
Random_Nerd: (I actually don't know how it's pronounced. I've only seen it in print, and my Latin is way worse than my Greek.)
DanteE: (Can I get anything on the guilt with a Div-Courage, or does his Anchoring screw with that?)
Random_Nerd: (I think it's like Lars, the name.)
Random_Nerd: (Anchoring would screw with that.)

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    • Scurv3 has left #nobilis.
      

Theresa: (re Scurve)
Random_Nerd: (But you do know enough about guilts to be able to tell something from it's looks. It's a smallish one that's trying to make itself seem bigger.)
DanteE: (Really, Scurve, feed those damn carrier pigeons)

• Theresa does a Major Div (for free!) for the whereabouts of where the cult has been, in the nearby area, recentlyish.
  

Random_Nerd: (Great, now you have me pondering what the Estate of Lares would be like.)
Random_Nerd: (You'd be able to point out the locations on a map. They seem to have gone all over town, and Jim's house has been passed by, but not more than other ones in the area.)
DanteE: (Quick aside: Being in a state with an early caucus is a major pain in the ass. Back to you.)
Random_Nerd: (The divination also tells you that, in the opinion of the plants, the cult members are far more worthy than you, and you should just kill yourself now, because you're a terrible Noble and a terrible person.)
Random_Nerd: (At least, in the opinion of the plants they've been near.)
Scurve: (that last connection was actually my PC. It can now connect to IRC and only receive packets through Azureus, but not send. Other stuff won't work. I'm bugging #magicstar for help later tonight.Sorry for disturbance and typos on this laptop keyboard.)
Theresa: (*sniffle* I'm Durant...do you know how long that would _take_?)
Random_Nerd: (Also, you think you have a pretty good idea where they probably hang out. You don't have an exact location, but there's a place you can't see where all the paths seem to come from, on the outskirts of town.)
Random_Nerd: (The plants think that maybe if you kill yourself soon they won't hate you so much.)
Random_Nerd: (But really they're as much disappointed and sad as they are angry.)
Random_Nerd: (Oh, and who was it who was going to see the hopping thing?)
DanteE: (Me)

• Theresa , having had dealt with pouty children from a previous job-life, will ask them what they think that I have been doing wrong. Will also say hi to Jim's guilt spirit.
  

Random_Nerd: The Guilt slashes at Theresa with a clawed paw, but its arm isn't long enough to reach.
DanteE: "Jim... y'know, we can see the guilt you're bearing."
DanteE: "It's a tiny little thing that's trying to puff itself up. Wanna talk about it?"
Random_Nerd: J: "Uh... okay, fine, I admit it. I took advantage of the situation. But I didn't hurt anyone?"
DanteE: "Details?
Theresa: (I'm guessing that he skimmed money.)
Random_Nerd: J: "Okay, so I knew that from what you did here, there was going to be a small but fundamental change in how math works, and I had a decent idea of which area."
Brian: "so?"
Brian: "It's not like insider trading."
Random_Nerd: J: "So I, ah, used my inside knowledge and spent a few nights going over set theory looking for something weird, and then published a few papers on it."
Brian: "Good for you!"
Random_Nerd: J: "And now everyone thinks I'm this big up-and-coming thing rather than a guy who just cheated."
Theresa: "Better than plageurising ferrets."
Random_Nerd: J: "Admittedly, it wasn't easy to find. But at least I knew it was there, which helped a lot."
DanteE: "You didn't cheat... you used your intimate relationship with numbers to advance mathematics."
Random_Nerd: J: "I'm going to nod and pretend I know what you mean!"
Random_Nerd: (That, to Theresa.)
DanteE: "I mean that literally. /He's numbers./"
Brian: "Guys who did Calculus ... they knew it was there, but had to invent it. They saw what was needed, and worked to fill it."
Random_Nerd: J: "Still, it's unfair. I had an illegitimate edge."
Theresa: "So what changes did you publish?"
Random_Nerd: J: "Does this mean I have to receive angry letters from Newton for years?"
DanteE: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but your papers are being read right now by other mathematicians, who will later use it to compete with you, right?"
Random_Nerd: Jim: "*mathtechnobabble!*"
Brian: "I fully expect that they had help from Physics at the time."
Brian: (mathnobabble!)
Random_Nerd: Samuel, to Brian: "Because he's a smartass?"
Brian: "hm?"
Random_Nerd: S: "Physics. With that whole Entropy trick. Seems just the sort to get two people to discover something at the same time."
DanteE: "We met Physics at a party."
Random_Nerd: W: "I still do hope that was a joke."
Random_Nerd: J: "...huh."
Theresa: (What can I glean about the techno? Like anything about evil having a physical form now?)
DanteE: (Status of the guilt=-thing?)
Random_Nerd: (Guilt thing is looking sheepish.)
Random_Nerd: (The mathtechnobabble seems very... mathlike. The sort of thing that would make professors gesticulate at each other, not the sort that will make the Stars Be Right and Cthulhu rise.)
Theresa: (Ah, thank you.)
Theresa: (Call me when they get to wrestling.)
Random_Nerd: (But remember that the evil-physical-form thing was a /different/ miracle than the one that ended the flower rite.)
Theresa: (I got confused. So, across the street and then Theresa will get a map to get us to the cult?)
Random_Nerd: J: "Fine, if you aren't going to be angry, that's okay. But I still think it was cheating."
Theresa: "Then just don't do it again. Get kudos on your own merits and not because you have the essence of all math sharing your brain."
Brian: "Numbers. Not necessarily math. Math is a byproduct of Numbers."
Theresa: "My apologies."
Theresa: "So, what's that thing across the street?"
DanteE: "And if it's any consolation, what we'll be doing in the next few hours might just screw with that.
Brian: "What that means, though, is anything math related ... well, doesn't much have to do with having the essence of Numbers stuck in your brain, Jim."
DanteE: "Or maybe just trash your office.
Random_Nerd: William glances across the street.
Random_Nerd: W: "Which thing do you mean?"

• Theresa looks across the street again, Mythic.
  

DanteE: "Well, it's possible some Excrucian-Number thing might get involved..."
Random_Nerd: Hopping thing: *tries to catch your attention*

• Theresa will walk over to the hopping thing.
  

Random_Nerd: It's a brick, wavings its arm in the air hopefully.
Theresa: (As Theresa is not very good at the whole math thing. When you're stuck trying to explain 1 + 1 = 2 to little kids, you don't get much farther than balancing checkbooks.)
Theresa: *to brick* "Hello there."
Random_Nerd: Brick across the street: "I heard you talking. Talking about bricks and mortar. And houses. Can't you just put me into a house? Just a little one, it doesn't have to be a big one."
Theresa: (Does it look like the bricks we have?)
Random_Nerd: Brick "Or a shed, even. Just as long as it's in a city."
Theresa: "Why are you here and not with other bricks? And why in a city?"
Random_Nerd: (Yep. It's got the same sort of vague abstract face.)
DanteE: (doghouse?)
Random_Nerd: Brick: "But I'm /trying/ to be with the other bricks! Please, ma'am, can't you give me a little help?"
Theresa: "What will you and the other bricks do when you are together?" (Arrgghh...I can't read brick body language!)
Random_Nerd: Brick: "I'll give you... uh. Dust. I've got dust. And some dirt."
Random_Nerd: Brick: "Be a house!"
Random_Nerd: Brick: "Or a shed. I'm not proud."
Random_Nerd: W: "I'll admit it, it's still hard to watch this sort of thing and not assume that you Nobles are crazy."
Theresa: "Hmm...I know a nice little farm out in the countryside...could use a well... One of those ornamental jobbies with a bucket and everything."
DanteE: (Are we missing some blatantly obvious clue here?)
Random_Nerd: (I don't think so.)
Theresa: (I'm wondering why the specific 'in a city'. And he's awfully insistant on being with the others.)
Random_Nerd: (But remember, Theresa does have a probable location for the cult from the GDiv, so it's not as if you have no leads.)
DanteE: "Well, Theresa is talking to the mythic spirit of ... that ... random brick.
Random_Nerd: W: "I imagined it would be something of the sort. But it still seems odd."
Random_Nerd: S: "Heh, it seems weird to /me/ that there're people here with two different worldviews, and neither is trying to impose theirs."
Theresa: (How many bricks will that be if I add this one?)
Random_Nerd: (Eleven, I believe.)

• Theresa brings the brick over and sees if she can place its face in the pattern.
  

Theresa: "Here's some friends to spend some time with."
Random_Nerd: You can't quite see any others that seem to match it.
Random_Nerd: But the bricks all make happy brick noises.
DanteE: (Careful, that may be what the bad guys want...)
Theresa: (I know, but I didn't want to have to carry brick-guilt. And she's a bit put out that her Estate is being sad and mean towards her.)
Brian: (what the hell is a happy brick noise?!)
Random_Nerd: In the background, most of the hairs on Jim's guilt fall out and drop to the floor, leaving it hairless and much smaller than it looked.

• Theresa will also ask Jim for a map of the area.
  

Random_Nerd: ("Brick brick brick. Brick? BRICK!")
DanteE: (Jim's guilt responds by having a mid-life crisis and buying a guilt-Ferrari.)
Random_Nerd: (That's next storyline!)
Brian: ((Link: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=8336581#post8336581)http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=8336581#post8336581)
Random_Nerd: Jim brings the map.
Theresa: "Okay, so I was asking my plants if they have had anything weird happening around them lately, at least in this area. Turns out that they think I should kill myself and have the cult take over for me. Because I suck. And so forth. So, I've tracked down an area that I can't get readings into and thus I think that they should be around *pokes map* here."

• Brian comforthugs (of the sort of side-by-side one-arm-over-shoulder kind) "What's there?"
  

Brian: (comforthugs _T_)
Random_Nerd: (Great, I read that as "comfort thug".)
Brian: (...)
Random_Nerd: (Like, the kind of guy who jumps you in a dark alley and gives you a backrub.)
Brian: (...)
DanteE: ("YOU! FEEL GOOD OR ELSE!")
Brian: (that's kind of awesome)
Scurve: (me too,actually)
DanteE: (Jim said not much was being built on campus, right?)\

• Theresa asks Jim to describe that part of town?
  

Random_Nerd: (Correct.)
Random_Nerd: Jim: "Well, it's not in campus. It's not really a part of town where a lot of people live these days. Uh, I think there used to be a furniture factory or something around there?"
DanteE: "William, what's the 'effective range' of a Cult's miraculous influence?"
Random_Nerd: W: "Hmm... Assuming a hundred or less in the area, and that they aren't doing any big rituals and don't have direct Excrucian support, perhaps two dozen miles? Wider for minor influence, and smaller for anything really severe or disturbing."
Theresa: "How urban of a place is it, Jim? Run down any?"
Random_Nerd: Jim: "Yeah, pretty run down. I don't think there's much industry here these days, but the university brings in enough money that it's not a problem. I only even recognize it because I think some photos someone in the Art department took were of some of the old abandoned factories."
DanteE: "Sounds like the down side of Urbanization."
Theresa: "Well, it's either where they're meeting or a place they spend a lot of time. Could be a ritual site."
DanteE: "Got street gangs?"
Random_Nerd: J: "Decent place to be out of sight at least. No... not really gangs. Maybe some townies get drunk and hassle underclassmen, but nothing big."
Theresa: "How out of place will it be for us to pull up near there?"
Random_Nerd: J: "Less out of place than talking to bricks."
Brian: "Besides, we're /Nobles/. Kind of like the Goddamned Batman, but without as much recognition"
Theresa: "It isn't that out of place when they talk back..."
Theresa: "Then we're off to storm the factory?"
Random_Nerd: Jim: "But the brick was just sitting there. Because it's a bri... oh, whatever."
Brian: "the wonderful factory of Oz?"
DanteE: (Let's see, if we could show Jim the Mythic world his mind would go boiOioiOIoiOING, right?)
Brian: "Jim, I'm sure we've said something about sanity and crutches before, right?"
Random_Nerd: (Yep. "Showing mortals the Mythic World" and "Inducing Dementia Animus" are synonyms.)
Brian: (but, Anchor should protect, no?)
Random_Nerd: (Not really. He's still mentally human, just protected from direct miracles.)
Random_Nerd: (Now, humans can learn to see the mythic without getting unhinged, but it takes years of training. And Nobles can do it trivially, the same way they can speak all languages and so on.)
Random_Nerd: (But the Noble ability to switch views in a controlled way isn't part of the Noble immunity to direct miracles, which is the part of the Noble package Anchors get.)
Theresa: "Let's just leave it at the fact that we can communicate with just about anything. It's just that not everything has something coherent to say."
Brian: "Cows are surprisingly coherent."
Random_Nerd: J: "Eh. It sounds pretty weird, but I'm willing to accept that you're right, even if it doesn't make any sense."
DanteE: "These bricks want to be part of something bigger... literally.
Random_Nerd: J: "I don't know if the idea of a coherent cow is more sensible than a gibbering cow."
DanteE: "Then again, that's what the cult may want as well."
Brian: "Yeah, but whatever."
Random_Nerd: (Except they don't make happy brick noises. That we know of.)
Theresa: "Without mortar, all they are is a pile."
Brian: "Besides, we build the bricks into something, we get to choose the something."
Random_Nerd: W: "Perhaps you should make a giant statue of a llama. Really confuse them."
Random_Nerd: Sam looks oddly at William.
Random_Nerd: W: "What?"
DanteE: "Can't do squat with 11 bricks."
Random_Nerd: S: "Well, how many bricks are there in town? Just these ones?"

• DanteE idly wonders what would happen with 13..."
  

Theresa: (What kind of divination of numbers would it be to find the number of bricks like these in town?)
Random_Nerd: (Lesser.)

• Brian will find out how many bricks like these are in town.
  

Random_Nerd: (Four thousand three hundred twenty seven.)
Brian: "4321. I mean 7."
Random_Nerd: (Also, the number 4,327 wishes to commit suicide, and is trying to sharpen its seven.)
Random_Nerd: (It's crying. And it's all your fault, it says.)
Brian: (too bad for it that it's only a quantification of something :p)
Random_Nerd: (It blames you for that, too.)
Scurve: (Good thing it didn't have any 5s to hang itself by)
Theresa: "We should get going. For all I know, a tree might try to kamakazi me."
Random_Nerd: (And it's not the big universal 4,327. Just the one hanging around here.)
DanteE: "So... your miracles are tinged with a self-destructive streak?"
DanteE: (Are the bricks new or used?)
Brian: "Dante, don't you dare do anything, then."
Random_Nerd: (New.)
DanteE: "Who, me? Do something ill-advised?"
Random_Nerd: Sam twitches.
Theresa: "Mine want me out of office. Preferably via death. Which is why I want this fixed, as I'm too young to be buried for longer than a winter."
Brian: "... you ... bury... less winter?"
DanteE: "All aboard the Dante-mobile, then."
Random_Nerd: W: "I suggest avoiding the whole year-king thing, if you can help it. Yes, it's nicely mythic, and some young Nobles go for that, but from what I've read it rarely ends well.":
Random_Nerd: S: "Human religion is weird."
Theresa: "Plant thing. Joke. Thingie."
Brian: "as long as that's what it is ..."
Theresa: "Besides, the next Age is going to be Mayish and who knows what the climate will be like then?"

• Theresa will get into the vehicle. (Are we bringing Jim?)
  

Random_Nerd: (He'll stay behind unless someone invites him.)
Brian: (BTW, (Link: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/frank+sinatra/birth+of+the+blues_20056003.html)http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/frank+sinatra/birth+of+the+blues_20056003.html )
DanteE: (We'd better leave him behind...)

• Theresa will ponder about keeping a year-king. Eh, it wouldn't look good to be keeping young men about then pitching them after a year. Bad example, too.
  

Theresa: (He can watch the bricks. Besides, his mind is easy to 'splode.)

• Brian will en-car
  

Random_Nerd: The Aides, and the uncharacteristically silent Lesson, climb into the back.
Brian: "Wait. This may be a trap for Jim. Ah well: Jim, let me know if you need help."
Theresa: (Hmm..can Theresa interpret demon body language?)
Random_Nerd: J: "Can do."
Random_Nerd: (You have Aspect 3 and a fair amount of experience with Lesson, so you can do so pretty reliably.)
Random_Nerd: (It's not mind-reading good, but you can certainly tell mood.)
Theresa: (Then I read Lesson like a book, please.)
Random_Nerd: (Lesson feels useless in a situation where there's no violence to be done, violent plans to be suggested, or humans to intimidate.)
Random_Nerd: (He seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as he can so you won't notice this.)
Theresa: (Aww...well, we're heading into possible violence. That should perk him up.)
Random_Nerd: (True!)
Random_Nerd: (Cut to you guys getting to the factory?)
Random_Nerd: (Oh, and what do you guys think of ending soon?)
Brian: (sure)
DanteE: (OK)
Theresa: (Cut and ending soon is fine.)
Random_Nerd: You pull up in the mostly abandoned industrial district.
Random_Nerd: Now, there's a part of what used to be the factory area that got demolished and prettied up and had houses and college buildings put up.
Random_Nerd: This is not that part.
Scurve: (my connection's been pretty solid! if only I could get it working on my computer. awesome.)
Random_Nerd: However, there does happen to be a rather large column of smoke coming from a nearby chimney.
DanteE: (Sight & Mythic View?)
Brian: (There is a day that Gondor may fall. But it is not this day! Way to go, Random Aragorn.)
Random_Nerd: (The column looks like a bunch of tiny human and angelic limbs floating into the sky. Like what you'd get if you took a bunch of kitten-sized people and angels, fed them through a blender, and then painted the stuff inside black.)
Theresa: (Angels?!?)
Random_Nerd: (Not that I suggest that you do this.)
Random_Nerd: (Well, wings, eyes, stuff like that.)
DanteE: "I think we have a winner."

• Brian draws his pistol "After you?"
  

DanteE: "William, Samuel, hang back. In fact, watch the car."
Theresa: (Can we tell if the smoke is doing anything else besides floating?)
Random_Nerd: There're a couple rather large guys in heavy coats standing outside the building.
Theresa: "Lesson, you're with us."
Random_Nerd: (Seems to be just floating away.)
Random_Nerd: Lesson nods, and grabs his Pointy Stick from the trunk.
Random_Nerd: William: "Should we, ah, come with you, or stick back for now?"
Theresa: "Rather elaborate outfits, given we're in California."
DanteE: (Sight & Mythic on the coatguys?)
DanteE: "Close to the border, too. Remember Beverly Hills Cop?"
Random_Nerd: (The coat guys look bigger in the mythic. As wide as they are tall. And the coats seem far tighter, as if they're either holding the guys together so they don't fall apart, or binding them in so they aren't much larger. It's tough to tell.)
Random_Nerd: (And, yes, the coats are unseasonable.)
Theresa: "With the leather jackets? Judge Reinhold was such a nice boy."

• Brian will de-car. Walk up to one of the big guys. "So ... what are you guarding?"
  

DanteE: "And I thought I was Mr. Direct Approach."
Random_Nerd: The guy's expression flickers from "dull apathy" to "insane with rage." He twists his neck in a way that hurts to even watch, and tries to bite your shoulder off with surprisingly sharp teeth.
DanteE: (What's your Aspect, Brian?)
Random_Nerd: (What's Brian's Aspect?)
Brian: (0...)
Random_Nerd: (Do you have Durant or Sacrosanct or something?)
Theresa: "Wild."
Brian: (but I have AMPs and a Miraculous Action this round. I'd rather get the hell out of the way than shoot back.)
DanteE: (Hang on, Brian...)
Random_Nerd: (You can dodge him with an Aspect 1 miracle or better.)

• DanteE spots it and does a kung-fu block of the dude's teeth...)
  

Brian: (1 AMP for the dodge, then.)
Random_Nerd: (He's fast, but not inhumanly so.)
Random_Nerd: The guy's jaws snap shut on air as Brian moves.
Random_Nerd: The other one continues to look bored for about three more seconds, and then suddenly takes a journey to the Land of Bugshit Insane.
Random_Nerd: In the duty-free shop there, he acquires eyes with blood vessels that seem to be on the verge of bursting, and teeth that look a lot sharper than they did a moment ago.
DanteE: "Theresa, got him?"
Scurve: ((That's Philadelphia, right?)
Theresa: (Do they seem human or never human? Like any sort of beasty we would know?)
Brian: "I think this qualifies as them being agressors"
Random_Nerd: (They seem quasi-human. Like someone took a human and decided to weaponize it.)
Theresa: "I guess. Is this the equivalent of leaving pit bulls outside of one's home without a rope?"
Random_Nerd: Lesson starts running on two legs and one hand towards them, holding his Theresa-made spear in the other hand.

• DanteE tries to put Brian's attacker on the ground face-down.
  

Theresa: (Is the other one doing anything threatening?)
Random_Nerd: (You have Aspect 2, right?)
DanteE: (3 now.)
Random_Nerd: He's snarling, and he bites through the thick collar of his coat, spitting out the cloth and insulation on the ground.
Random_Nerd: He then lunges for Brian as well.
Random_Nerd: (Okay, with aspect 3, you can deal with him as though you are Jackie Chan sparring with a poodle.)

• Theresa will do a flying lunge at the guy, aiming a fist into what should be a solar plexus on a human or just the gut on something humanoid, with hopefully the same result.
  

Scurve: (Damn you! You've uncovered my latest screenplay!)
Random_Nerd: (And dealing with both at the same time is quite possible. Do you wish to do so in a particularly dramatic way?)
Random_Nerd: (Ah, Theresa's going for the second one.)
DanteE: (In that case, I simultaneously put him onthe ground, immobilize him, insult his heritage and slap his momma. :)
Brian: "So ... my gun was pointless, then?"
Random_Nerd: He is grounded, pinned, and his heritage is impugned. Somewhere, in another state, his mother flinches.
Random_Nerd: (Theresa, do you want to kill yours or just incapacitate him?)
DanteE: "Probably not. But be ready for whatever else they have in there."

• DanteE checks his guy out with sight, Sight, and Mythic.
  

Theresa: (Well, I was planning on incapacitating him, but I have yet to see the Batman-ness displayed. Nice mother-attack, btw.)
DanteE: "This guy's not the negotiating type... Theresa, how are you doing?"
Random_Nerd: Now, he seems to have been hollowed out, with a courage-spirit placed inside that's been fed on red meat and dubiously legal steroids.

• DanteE pulls the spirit out and examines it...
  

DanteE: (Anything left of the original human?)
Random_Nerd: Theresa's fist knocks the guy's stomach sufficiently forcefully that you can hear it bouncing off his shoulderblades.
Random_Nerd: (Probably, if someone took a good long time trying to salvage him. But he's at the least severely mentally ill.)
DanteE: (Is his spirit gone?)
Random_Nerd: The courage spirit snaps at Dante and tries to eat his face, and seems puzzled when its efforts don't actually do anything.
Random_Nerd: (Well, if his spirit was gone, he wouldn't be here. So, there's still a human spirit there, just an emotionally mutilated one.)
Random_Nerd: His sharklike teeth glint in the sunlight.

• Theresa will hold hers down on the ground to see if he's got any resistance left in him as well.
  

DanteE: "Decision time, guys.
DanteE: "Is it worth it to get the human back?"
Brian: "While we can't really do anything?"
Brian: "I'm sure he'll be reincarnated into something better. Or however the whole death thing works."
DanteE: "Depends on whether they count as 'innocent'."
Random_Nerd: L: "Not sane. Even by standards of Hell."
Theresa: "How much would they have suffered to become this?"
Theresa: "They're trapped in their own heads."
Random_Nerd: L: "Not sure. Personal attention of an Angel, or a lot of work by humans or demons."
Theresa: (How are Hell's standards?)
DanteE: (Hm... should I sacrifice the courage-spirit to our Imp? We haven't been Harvesting lately...)
Random_Nerd: Theresa's guy tries to bite off his right arm, but is well enough pinned that he can't get the angle.
Random_Nerd: Still, you can hear the vertebrae in his neck straining against it, and his nerves and muscles slowly ripping.
Brian: "Well, we can't really leave them here or they'll come from us behind."

• DanteE grabs the Courage-spirit from Theresa's guy...
  

Theresa: *to her prisoner* "Don't."
Random_Nerd: The guy falls limp at the ground.
Random_Nerd: Either he's comatose, or he just tore his spinal cord in two and can't move. Hard to tell.
Random_Nerd: The two courages in Dante's grasp try to eat each other.
DanteE: Describe them?
Random_Nerd: They look like someone took a bulldog, cut off its cheeks and part of its jaws so its teeth and jaw muscles stick out exposed. The ears, too, have been removed. The eyes seem oddly human.
Random_Nerd: The two are similar enough to be siblings.
DanteE: (Could trashing these guys count as a Harvest, or part of one?)
Random_Nerd: (It would count as part of one.
Random_Nerd: )
Random_Nerd: (Since they're definitely part of your estate, even if a twisted and deformed part.)

• DanteE Harvests the two spirits
  

Random_Nerd: (But you'd need to get more than just two.)
DanteE: (Not a problem....)
DanteE: What are these two guys doing?
Random_Nerd: You hear a deep moan from inside the factory.
Theresa: "So what to do with these tw....oh, they know we're here?"
Random_Nerd: (The two guys are now just lying there, about the way you'd expect if someone took all their muscles and bones while they weren't looking.)
Theresa: (Are they alive?)
DanteE: "Brian... sit on this guy for a minute."
Random_Nerd: (They're alive, but not very alive.)

• Brian does so
  
• DanteE heads back to the car...
  

DanteE: "William, Samuel... legal question.
Random_Nerd: L: "Think you should kill them. Not right to leave like this."
Random_Nerd: W: "Yes?"
DanteE: "These two were essentially 'hollowed out', spiritually, and their insides replaced with a warped Courage spirit.
Random_Nerd: S: "Yow."
DanteE: "There's a tiny little bit of humanity left, but it'd take extraordinary effort to recover, and probably be twisted.
DanteE: "What's the Locust Court say about their status?"
Random_Nerd: L: "Seen humans like this before. The ones that break. Then no matter what done to them, just look at you. 'Pure,' some of the Angels call them."
Theresa: "Pure what, though."
Random_Nerd: W: "They attacked a Noble, clearly with lethal intent. You're within your rights to kill them up to seven times."
Random_Nerd: L: "Don't know."
Theresa: (Once would be enough, Will...)
DanteE: "And if we find similar ones inside... can we be preemptive?"
Random_Nerd: (Sure, but I imagine there's precedent for multi-murder.)
Theresa: (True, if you want to waste your time tracking down reincarnations....)
Random_Nerd: W: "That's the tough part. You can't, not by the laws. Of course, on the other hand, you probably could just not leave witnesses, and we at least won't turn you in."
DanteE: "Figured as much.
DanteE: "Entropy is a .... eh.
DanteE: "Keep your heads down."

• DanteE heads back to the others...
  

Theresa: "Lesson's right. It's not respectful to who these men used to be to leave them like this."
DanteE: "Right..."

• DanteE snaps their necks.
  

Random_Nerd: S: "The most important of Entropy's Laws. 'Don't get caught'."
Theresa: "Which flower is that?"
Random_Nerd: Their necks snap faster than nerve signals can travel.
Brian: "The invisible one."
Random_Nerd: W: "Sadly, there isn't an official flower for 'Ducking the judgement of Entropy.' I wonder if there used to be and it suddenly went exctinct."
DanteE: "Guess them's the stakes. Anyone else snaps at us... take 'em out, hard."
Theresa: "I may look into it. But for now, I feel like punching a door into dust."
Random_Nerd: There's another deep moan from the factory.
Theresa: (Does it sound like anything in particular? Like the building moaning or people?)
DanteE: "Hold on. Let's go in quietly. Then we can punch bad guys into dust instead."
Brian: "We should maybe see what's up?"
Random_Nerd: (If it's the building, it's a very humanlike sound for a building. If it's a person, they're very large and probably have vocal cords like a string bass.)
Theresa: (It's possible.)
DanteE: "Let's do it...

• DanteE heads for the door.
  
• Theresa will follow.
  

Brian: "I'll let one of you guys go in first this time ..."
Brian: (break here so next week we start with ACTION!?)
Brian: (and 'cause it's 12:35?)
Random_Nerd: (Almost to the cliffhanger...)
Random_Nerd: (I take it you kick in the door?)
DanteE: (More like _open_ the door...
Random_Nerd: Inside, it looks mostly like an old abandoned factory. However, there are three noteworthy things in sight.
DanteE: (I may be a brick, but I'm not dumb. :) )
Random_Nerd: First, there's an immense and weird-looking kiln, pouring out huge amounts of smoke.
Random_Nerd: Second, there are about 80 crazy-looking people, many with sharp tools in their hands.
Random_Nerd: Third, and perhaps most noteworthy, there's a nine-foot tall man made of what looks like very dark bronze, bound to a stone pillar with chains that pass through his arms, legs, and torso.
Scurve: (I love it when you actually bother using the word "weird".)
Random_Nerd: Also, his arms seem to be bleeding quite heavily, into what seems almost like a little moat of blood around his pillar.
Random_Nerd: He looks up at you with tortured eyes.
Random_Nerd: _______________STOP____________________
Theresa: He seems...familiar.

• • • You are now known as BethE.
      

BethE: Nice cliffhanger, dear.

• • • Brian is now known as Lazarus.
      

Random_Nerd: One tries.

• • • DanteE is now known as Knockwood.
      

Lazarus: titan?
Random_Nerd: Not exactly.
Knockwood: Ozymandias? :)
Random_Nerd: No, he's not just two big legs!
Lazarus: well, if nothing else, we now know what an excited brick sounds like ...
Random_Nerd: Thoughts on the session?
BethE: Sounds like the guy who had the plug in his ankle in mythology.
Lazarus: he was a titan, though, wasn't he?
Knockwood: Laz: We knew that for years. "I'm a superhero. I'm nigh-invulnerable! I was built for this sort of thing..."
Lazarus: Kwd: wrong brick :p
Random_Nerd: Spoon!
Lazarus: fun session, sorry I wasn't more ... interactive?
Knockwood: You almost interacted with his teeth...
Lazarus: true...
Knockwood: Then again... next step...
Lazarus: shoot things lots?
Random_Nerd: What did you guys like most and least about this session?
Knockwood: What's it called... Occam's Razor as applied to Mythos Cults?
Random_Nerd: Carter's Dynamite?
Knockwood: I think we kinda went in circles with the bricks...
BethE: I liked the bricks, although I am wary of them. I dislike the fact that I often feel brain-dead in some interactions.
Random_Nerd: Brick!
Knockwood: hm?
Scurve: Well, from the relatively unexperienced perspective, I found the divinations and subsequent attacks by the respective Estates enjoyable.
Knockwood: What do you guys think of how we handled the shark guys?
Scurve: Hard to say what I enjoyed least, since the points at which I wasn't very captivated were times in which background information would've been handy. Sadly, I'm still eyeballs-deep in backlogs.
Knockwood: Actually, there were times when it seemed you didn't see my lines...
Random_Nerd: Oh?
Knockwood: like when I tried to block the guy attacking Brian
Random_Nerd: Ah, I must have missed that.
Random_Nerd: *scrolls back up*
Random_Nerd: Ah, I think you said that at about the same time as Brian said he spent one AP.
Lazarus: yep
Scurve: Time to see if I can fix the networking issues. Thanks for letting me sit in, folks. Hopefully I'll be functional and cosmically related to you soon.
Random_Nerd: But still, because you were there to support him, he can have he AP back.
Random_Nerd: The AP, even.
Lazarus: Cool.
Knockwood: Scurve: Think you can get your network setup working properly?
Scurve: Hm. Your text is in orange again.
Random_Nerd: Clearly you've been eating too many carrots.
Lazarus: some clients highlight when your name is said.
Lazarus: Like so: Scurve.
Knockwood: Maybe that's hoe I got Asp 3
Knockwood: *how
Scurve: Well, if worse comes to worst, I can just use this other computer again with a USB keyboard to save on typos.
Knockwood: You could play Tpyo!
Scurve: Scurve: test
Lazarus: I knew the typo fairy was going to make an appearance.
Scurve: Hm.
Scurve: Anyway, the network seems to have stabilized, if nothing else. I've got a few ideas but didn't want to be jumping ship mid-session.
BethE: Well, guys, I need to get to bed. Good night and good game! *HUGS*
Knockwood: g'night Beth.

Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 11