Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Rick's Entry for January 2012

(( One point for on time, one point for subplot (moving in Toronto), one point for talking about others (Lizzy break and other's doing), one point for furthering the plot (Investigating the lake and having a cam set up). So all four points. I think. Yay! ))

Hello everyone...and Lizzy...

I suppose I would eventually have done this, since we were told to go somewhere and because I wasn't being the man I wanted to be for Lizzy and I needed some time away to figure things out, but I never thought Lizzy would just run away like that, without telling me in person. I don't really like discussing my private life things publicly and I'm only forced to do so now because I obviously don't have any other way to communicate with Lizzy. Who know where she is exactly now. Anyway, I suppose I will forgive her at some point and forgive myself for not having been right. Sorry Lizzy...

With that past me, now onto more positive things. So, as I was saying, I already was thinking on leaving the city to fulfill two goals. The first goal, as you may have already learned, is to learn more about the new me, to learn how to control myself and to be the man I once was for Lizzy. The second goal is to help solve the mysteries of this world of darkness that opened itself to us on that dreaded night. That is why I moved here in Toronto about three days ago. It's certainly different here, the weather is much colder. On a side note, the Lynx in me to tell you that he loves the cold and the snow. Must be his Canadian heritage, eh?

Luckily, I don't have to live outside. Thanks to the money the Union has given me, I was able to get a nice apartment not far from the Lake. It got a nice view on it, so I've installed a camera in my window and I'm going to film everything that's going on. Surely, I'm going to see something someday. Either that, or I will go crazy from being around all that snow.

I would, anyway, if I wasn't given a contact with people here who are like me. I don't just mean, able to shift into animals, I mean, real lynx people, like me. There are three of us and a few others of different species. I don't know much about them yet, but I have the feeling we will get along well. They've been really cool with me so far, gave me tips and make me feel at home. Maybe I am, it's part of my blood, after all. Maybe I will move out here when I'm done. I think Lizzy would like it. The biggest lakes in the world! :P

Seriously though, what's left... moved, ferals, Lizzy, the cam... oh! Last thing, I'm going to apply for a new job next week. It's more of an apprentice job, really, since I didn't have time to finish my course, but it's better than a minimum pay job serving overfattened burgers with fries with too much salt. And don't get me started on those soft drinks...

I think that's all!

-Rick

PS: Oh, wait, how could I forget! I've talked so much about me, I forgot to talk about you guys. I know it's a pain to have you all so far away, it's a world of difference compared to the game nights of old. I'm sure you will be strong Christian, you have always been, that's why you always led our games. Austin, don't try to overthink things too much, ok? I know you're in a Free place, but being free doesn't meant being silly and irresponsible, :P Lizzy... you know I want to say, so... good luck over there in Japan. I hope your geist is having fun around all that water. (Kiss) And the others, I hope to hear from you guys soon, I'm getting worried.

Lizzie's Entry for January 2012

((Sorry for preempting you Ricky, but I wanted to include this post in my letter to Kris today.

1exp on time + 1exp subplot +1exp referencing others +1exp goal progress = 4exp))

Hey guys, good to see this is working out. Nice to be able to keep in touch, even if I don’t completely understand how this works. I suppose I should tell you what I’ve been up to, though. It might be important.

Well, first of all, the Dim Suns aren’t nearly as strict as any of those mage orders, and I’m quite happy for that. I don’t know how long I’d be able to last just doing chores and meditation all the time. Don’t you get any time to relax, Christian? Any freedom? I suppose not now with that oath you took. Living as a street urchin doesn’t sound that relaxing at all. Now if it were a sea urchin maybe… but I digress. 

The Free Council doesn’t sound much better, but I’m not sure what your role in it exactly is, Austin. Good luck with your studies, though. I dunno if you remember, but time magic was something that really interested me when we first started our group. Well, magic and technology, but we weren’t exactly out there looking for mad scientists. Although, these days… I’ve heard some interesting rumors among the Krewe about people who are able to give life to dead flesh. It’s only rumors, though. With everything that’s come into the light recently, I’m sure someone in the Union would’ve noticed if there was a modern-day Frankenstein running around.

I still haven’t gotten around to actually telling you what I’ve been doing recently, have I. Well, I still haven’t gone through with the ceremony to join the Dim Suns for real, despite how much they keep bugging me to do so. Stupid legends about us. I don’t want all this attention. I suppose there’s nothing for it, though. I get away when I can, but they seem to be keeping an eye on me more often. I’m not sure if they’re worried about something happening to me, or if they want to be there when I do something.

One thing you guys might be interested in… I visited the caves the other day where we originally encountered the cultists. The place where Ramira… Anyways, there wasn’t much there anymore, but we did find traces of it being a low place. You know, like in the sub-basement of our headquarters, where the world is closest to the Underworld and you can often find or make an Avernian Gate. Anyways, there were definite signs that a Gate was there, but we couldn’t open it. Jade thinks maybe we need to actually have the key, despite the fact Sin-Eaters can open Gates without the key. All the same, I’m taking this as a good sign. It means Rami might’ve gotten pulled into the Underworld, and not some alien plane of existence after all. We just need to figure out how to actually open the Gate.

I’m not sure where to start looking, so I’m just going to get away for awhile. Maybe try to escape my Dim Suns bodyguards. I’ll head to Japan and investigate that flood. If anything, I’ll be able to help with the victims, and any members of the Krewe out there will probably be too busy doing the same to notice me. I hope you don’t mind, Ricky. I know things have been a bit tense between us recently, so… maybe some time apart will help us both cool off. Hades knows I need a change of scenery anyways.

I’ll be sure to keep in touch no matter where I end up, and I know everyone else will do the same. I doubt I’ll really be gone that long anyways, but still. Until next time everyone!

-Lizzie

Monday, January 2, 2012

Austin's Entry for January 2012

Signin on

Well Chris I honestly feel like I understand less now about what you're trying to achieve out there then I did before you wrote us. An oath like that seems particularly pointless; I look forward to hearing all manner of fascinating stories which I will be given exactly no semi-empirical reason to believe... besides the fact that I trust you, of course. Still I've gathered the Order has a solid, reliable background if nothing else. I'm not sure about the others at the moment. As for me I'm currently trying to take stock of what's going on here on Earth, for now. Presumably that's not where you are. You really wouldn't believe the kind of hysterics going on right now; not outright panic, it's more subtle than that. Every prejudice and superstition anyone has ever held has been reinforced ten-fold the past few months, and there is understandable widespread hoarding of perishables and water. There are also rampant arrests and confusion amongst the police and military. Society isn't exactly unraveling, nor does it seem like it's about to, but anything might happen and we're as powerless to do anything about it as ever. T'is the emergent order.

My priority of late has been the Council. It's a shame how well democrats fit in here and feel so at home. For all its commitment to the dissemination of truth the FC has revealed itself to be overwhelmingly communist in sentiment, or at least populist, which actually shouldn't be too surprising. Yet at the same time there are definitely people like me, here, perhaps all of them; people the other orders would have immediately spat out. I'm making friends, and we're all putting out feelers and trying to figure out what exactly we ought to do. Seems pretty obvious to me that all we really can do for now is learn and stay on our toes. Intellectual minorities stand to benefit the most from Magic; now that I've had some time to brood it's literally impossible for me not to expend at least some of my energy conceiving of ways to use theosophic knowledge and power to frustrate the political class.

So alright... it's been a bit difficult. My mentors tell me I have not truly awoken, but I continue to study. I've taken a fascination with the arcanum of Time and Fate since they were most intriguing and disturbing. We stand to potentially answer once and for all the question of free will (violent shudder).Yet there is also probably Ontological wisdom to be sought in this field. It seems to me that at the center of our prosaic understanding of existence is a logical fallacy; either existence has to have always existed (impossible) or it must have been created (impossible). One of these must be true, even if both seem impossible. I don't know what exactly I stand to gain in terms of applied spell-weaving assuming I even make it that far. There are probably so many more immediately practical things to learn, and I DO try to stay diversified somewhat... but, well finding out how to shapeshift has become quite a high priority as well. Anyway this arcanum frightened me the most, and I have become irresistibly drawn to it, and yet of course knowledge IS power.

Anyway again, clearly I've been just waiting for an opportunity to go on and on about myself. I'm missing you all. No matter who I'm around I feel lonely without you chaps. It was always nice after a ridiculous day full of dregs and drones, to come home to the feeling of “Ahh... real people.” Keep me posted. I'm as anxious for insights of any kind as much as Chris.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Christian's Entry for January 2012


((OOC: Hi everybody! It's been awhile, I know. But I need to stay on topic here with my post. So like every post you guys do, please start your post with a total of the exp earned by your post. For instance: 1exp on time, 1exp subplot, 1exp included stuff from other people's, 1exp progress towards goal = 4exp))

Hey everybody. I apologize for taking so long to write; you have no idea how busy I have been. You'd think that the Free Council would be more of a party Order, but as it stands, it seems that my time has been extremely limited.

Don't anyone think that I am not committed to our cause: Believe me. I was there that night we fought the Deep Ones. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the stand we made against the shoggoths. I hope anyone reading this will be sensitive to my ability ( or lack there of) to write to you all. I do want to let you know how things are going, and especially tell you all everything in case something is relevant to what you all are doing.

So, I joined “the Carpenter’s order” the day we got back from Antarctica, and none of you have seen me since, not even my family. It’s quite the commitment to join the Order, but a commitment well worth it I think. You will understand when I tell you what I hope to learn here and what I hope to win to our cause. My gosh where to start...

How about how I live? That’s a nice place to start I think. Life here is... very hard. No electronics, no music, no fun. All we do here is serve: following the example of the greatest master who ever lived. I spend hours reading from dusty tomes, and hours more waxing floors, shoveling snow... and uncountable other things. I subjected myself to all of it, and still do... I read and heard from all that only a call of the Oracles could unite the Orders, and this is the only of the Legacies that knows the first things about how to find one. I would not resist if I had to spend two years to find out if they even exist... at least I would if I could. But we don’t know a thing about when the Old Gods will return. We have no clue what time and day it will be. I might not have two years. The fastest any apprentice has climbed the ranks of his order is five years. I am hoping to accomplish the same in just that many months. MONTHS! Crazy, I know, but that’s how these things work. We’re special... not just me, all of you... and I have moved more swiftly through the ranks than any other apprentices. Not because they just flipped a switch, but because I am genuinely getting the material. It’s so similar to what I had in religion that I understand it without too much trouble.

I hate being so cut off from the real world here, despite how nice everybody is. Real world things are happening, and I bet they matter to our investigations! Did any of you hear anything about some huge storm that flooded Tokyo? What about those weird crustacean bodies washing to shore on the great lakes, then vanishing later on? What about all those tweenage kids going missing in NYC? Somebody has to know more, and if not, they must be looked into. If there is other notable news anybody knows about PLEASE TELL ME! I want to know everything that you’ve learned, especially if it is relevant to our investigations.

So this next month is going to be the start of a really hard time for me. Has anyone here heard of the “Vow of Stranger?” It’s an awful thing... the worst. But in order to be initiated into the order I MUST stay a stranger until I make those I care about know me. I really don’t know what that means, but I do know the words of the spell. The rote, the vow... whatever that means.

“I am not myself. I die today to be reborn the day my soul is real without its body. I am the faceless stranger now. The orphan and the beggar. The prostitute and the thief. I will be in their world, I will know their wisdom. In my anonymity I will also know the unknown, though I will hide behind different eyes”

There are many here like me which have never made this covenant before, and they’re all pretty ordinary. There are few that have made this promise and still came back, and they all bear some scarring. Some of them seem a little insane, while others are missing limbs or otherwise physically disabled. Creepy stuff. When you make the promise, you swear never to talk about how you learn things, only what you learn. So I will never be able to give specifics about what happens to me... nothing you could use to positively identify me. Suffice it to say that there are some parts that don’t seem so bad, though you’d laugh if I told you what those were.

So I won’t mention them. Instead I’ll tell you about a legend I head about while living here, a bit of interesting lore that might be important yo us. When the world first began, there were no other races. There was no magic, only pain. So man suffered, they were enslaved and eaten and driven across the land. That was until man learned to speak. The words were not a spell, since there were no Mages, but they were magic. Words bring power, and these “FIRST WORDS” brought more power than any before. When these words were spoken, the Dragon Spirits came and ministered to men, teaching them the way to Atlantis. Other spirits came also, binding with them and fathering children and producing half-spirit offspring. People started escaping from Arcadia, bringing some of that power back to Earth.

I don’t know if there is any truth to the story, but... if we could find more about it... possibly even speak these words again... Imagine what might happen! We could change the world again, as much as it was changed the first time! That power is not to be trifled with, I don’t think, though everyone I spoke to called it a myth. Myth, please! How much of what we research has been a myth.

So that’s the majority of what has happened to me over the last month or so. Spending my Christmas away from my family dressed in rough cloth and doing nothing but awful confusing ritual and boring service... is no fun really. Please everyone, enlighten me with the subjects of your own research. How is all y’all doin’? What interesting are you doing? I don’t know when I will get a computer again, but when I do I would love to hear from you all!

Warm Regards,
Christian

((Well there we are! The first post in the new RP, letter edition! I hope it was alright, and offered plenty of new elements for everybody to use in their own posts. That said, please DO NOT hesitate to invent your own W.o.D. stuff. The only things you need to ask permission for are actual magical effects your character learns, and even then only if you are adding an effect that exp could not normally buy (either because it’s new or because it couldn’t ordinarily be bought).

Also ask me if you are doing some research or whatever, so you can ask me what you find. Just include as much info about the line of inquary as possible. Feel free to write these questions to me via paper, as with paper you can expect about a week turnaround on everything you send me. Remember the posting schedule, and thank you to those who play with me: I appreciate it. Not being alone.

-FD))