jennafans | Between The Lights, Session 5: Meetings (Reply)

This is an actual-play writeup of a game I am running on the Jenna Moran fanclub on Discord.

Wikipedia was a daring gambit by the Power of Encyclopedias to preserve the Estate in a rapidly changing world. The fact that it also vastly increased the reach of the Power of Encyclopedias was an entirely unintentional (if convenient) side-effect.

-- The Other Side of Reality by Caitlin Katsaros

In this week's "session", because of sporadic availability, I tied up a couple of solo scenes. They take place in fun new places, because I like making fun new places.

Stupid Tourist

<HG> In the end, Devil's Lake turned out to be deep in China.
<HG> It smells like marshwater and incense. A narrow path has been beaten through the grass.
<HG> The hut next to the lake has a thatchgrass roof that stretches all the way from the top of a loft down to the ground. There is an old wooden sign hung up next to the door, in some obscure script that is not Mandarin Chinese at all, but some local language, still stubbornly used here despite multiple efforts to the contrary.
<HG> There is, in theory, a door. It swings open in the wind.

Maddie finds what is presumably a witch's house. The door is answered by a young woman, who hears Maddie's request for forbidden knowledge and responds like a normal person would.

<Maddie> "I'm looking for words. Words that'll hurt me if I say them, and hurt anyone who hears too."
<HG> "Oh. You're that kind." She yells out the back door. "Mother, there's a stupid tourist!"

At some point, we find out that the girl's name is Daisy. The mother comes out, equally unimpressed by Maddie. This is when Maddie gets an idea.

<Maddie> I'm going to spend 1 AMP for an Aspect miracle of Skill: Lies and Dirty Tricks
<Maddie> and pretend to be like, the kind of beaten down traveler who shows up and asks for a bed and a meal and turns out to be a god?

Maddie manages to present herself the sort of person that shows up in mythology to test one's willingness to present Sacred Hospitality. (I think technically that's a Greek thing, but I let it slide. I mean, it is entirely true that Maddie is secretly a god.)

<HG> Who wouldn't offer polite hospitality at a time like this? Because these women certainly would.

Incognito

Over dinner, the incognito god finds out that the family of witches (of which there is a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter) has managed to wipe themselves off the official records, so that they stop getting bothered by the government. Unfortunately, in China the official records are required to do anything or go anywhere. The mother and grandmother don't care. Daisy, on the other hand, feels trapped.

<HG> "I think they've finally decided that nobody lives here. Because officially, nobody lives here."
<Maddie> "Ah, yes. I'm sure that's... a good thing?"
<HG> "Not really," says Daisy. "I don't have an ID, so I can't go anywhere. Nobody would accept me to school, or for a job."
<HG> "But I'm sure that's all right. Must keep the traditions in the family," says the grandmother. "Since you're the only one left."
<HG>This is clearly an argument they have had several times before.
<HG> Would you like to intervene, or should you just politely nod and smile?

Later, after dinner, Maddie privately talks to Daisy, who is practicing some astronomy. Daisy confesses that she does not have those words of power Maddie wanted.

<Maddie> "I happen to be a literal god. I have a heavenly house with portal-entrances everywhere and I can pull minor strings if I need to. If I were to get you an ID, and take you anywhere you like, what would that be worth to you?"
<HG> Daisy pauses for more than a minute. Finally: "We don't have those words of power you were talking about wanting. We only work in powdered tigerbone and scouring-rushes. I'm afraid I couldn't help you even if I wanted to."

Maddie offers to find Daisy an ID and transport her to where she wants to go (via Chancel). Daisy almost doesn't take this offer... because if she leaves, then the last embers of her particular witchcraft tradition will die out permanently. Maddie is about to leave... but then she has an idea.

<Maddie> "You know. You could preserve traditions somewhere else."
<Maddie> "Take them with you."
<HG> "Wait... what do you mean?"
<Maddie> "Practice your tiger powder and scoured star charts somewhere else. In a city with electricity and stuff."
<HG> "So... like, making books? Or radio?"

With Maddie pointing out to her that she can preserve her traditions without having to stay in backwater nowhere - she can write them down or something instead - she decides to leave. Daisy requests to be sent to a college to study astronomy.

Maddie uses a big Aspect miracle to legitimately complete all the paperwork - including the paperwork that would put Daisy on the map enough to go to college - within a single night.

Locus Omphalos

<HG> Sonja receives a formal calling card from the Power of Truth for a visit on neutral ground. You know, that kind of thing. What is unusual is that it is for a visit on someone else's neutral ground. Where allegedly she would be the other involved party.

The Power of Truth, Acadia West, invites Sonja to a brief meeting in Locus Omphalos. A visit on neutral ground, which is normal. But Locus Kethredamen is already usually neutral ground, so this selection of location implies that the amount of assumed trust here is unusually low.

<HG> The other bits of the familia can fill her in on the various basic etiquette things - RSVPing, appropriate attire and belongings to bring (apparently you are only supposed to bring one "combat anchor", whatever that means), and so on and so forth
<Sonja> I don't believe she has anything that would qualify as a "combat anchor"
<Sonja> though I suspect the knife and twine could work in a pinch!
<HG> I mean they're not primarily for combat so they don't really count in this case - using Anchors for things outside of their specific Wondrous or Miraculous power that you use them for is usually not the best idea unless you're using the wishlike effect or wish levels
<HG> Pushing a noncombat anchor to do combat, therefore, would likely seriously damage it, and therefore presumably a Noble would have an incentive not to do so

As has become usual, Sonja doesn't do formalwear, but she does RSVP and prepare to attend.

<HG> Locus Omphalos is a Mayan city ripped out of time, on top of a mountain. The structures are ancient stone with creeping lichen. But there's a section with a bunch of offices, meeting spaces, and a banquet hall.
<HG> Above the banquet hall is one of those nifty retractable ceilings, silver hydraulics looking terribly incongruous with the surroundings. You see it closed up as a rain starts to fall.
<HG> You meet the Power of Truth in one of the larger meeting-spaces. It has precisely two exits. There are sets of chairs near each exit. A table in the middle is a rough-hewn block of granite... with hotel stationary and a silver pen provided on top of it.

Locus Omphalos is a Mayan city studded with modern comforts. Sonja is steered to a pre-booked meeting room. Acadia West, Power of Truth, enters. There are the usual pleasantries, and then they get down to business.

<HG> "A true accusation of Encroachment of Estate would be a rather serious matter, so I'd like to talk this over first, just to make sure we don't have any simple misunderstandings going on." Acadia takes up the pen and casually flips it in an elaborate pattern around his fingers. "But I do believe you've been recklessly making things into truth."

Acadia notes that he has seen a handful of Truths come from Sonja, who should not have the ability to do this. Sonja explains that she has a Gift for minor creations of Truth, to turn a metaphor's contents into reality. Then she explains that she only uses it for work. Well, work and...

Social Contract

<Sonja> "All for Heaven's glory."
<HG> "Huh." He blinks, distinctly, once. "Has Diane dropped by you and yours? There's a bit of a welcome packet."
<Sonja> "I don't believe I've met her, no." Sonja rubs her arm, looking a bit awkward. "I'm the only member of my familia wishing to serve Heaven."

Upon finding out that Sonja follows the Song of Heaven, Acadia is quite surprised. He invites her to the social associations of the Powers of Heaven, promising to send a request ahead.

They return to their previous business. Sonja agrees to be prudent with her use of her Truth-gift. Then Acadia explains why he asked Sonja about this, specifically, rather than pinning this on the Society.

<HG> "This kind of explicit contract is relatively rare," he says. "But the presence of Aliki has long forced us to enumerate and formally agree upon basic elements of the social contract with your familia, since she has this... habit. Of encroachment and disregard."

Sonja points out that Aliki is, in fact, extremely dead.

Acadia says everyone figured that Aliki's presumed death was just a ruse. He believes her now that he can see her speaking truth, but nobody else will.

<Sonja> "Truth will have to be self-evident, I suppose." Sonja shrugs. "Or Sasha will have to prove that she is Alienation herself."
<HG> "Then make her."

After that it is just small talk.