[Changeling] A Gathering of Mists IC

[Anarion]

"Oh, that thing," Stephanie said, producing it from her hat and waving it vaguely. She didn't feel big on ID badges conceptually but no sense making waves here. "Who's a Rover?"

While waiting for the others to show their IDs, she says. "Rover. Tut tut tut, here boy. It's safe to come out nooow. These little ladies won't hurt us, they said so."

As she speaks, a series of drawers and loose parts detaches itself from the MRI machine, forming into a loosely held together tangle of white chrome, metallic wire, bits of colored rubber, and several diodes. The pieces coalesce into a large dog, about the size of a great dane, and it lets out a mechanical bark and runs over to Autumn, who leaps off her patient's bed and gives the mechanical chrome wire dog thing a pat on it's white-plated head and rubs it behind its rubbery red and purple ears. It pants somehow, despite the lack of a tongue.

[SiuiS]

Charlotte's card snags on her pocket, and she's only half-drawn it out when rover appears. She squees and drops the card to the floor as she hastens to the... 'Dog's' side.

"Oh, goodness! Are you not just the cutest!" To Autumn, "What is he? How did you make him?" Charlotte pets the dog-thing, scratches him, and tries to stick her hand into his core and wiggle her fingers.

[Thanqol]

"So does the medical-machine dog fix people, or just bite them?" Stephanie said, slightly but understandably wary of Evil Computers. Not often was she the voice of caution but Charlotte was already doing a fine job of trying to stick her arm down it's throat.

[Anarion]

"Oh, goodness! Are you not just the cutest!" To Autumn, "What is he? How did you make him?" Charlotte pets the dog-thing, scratches him, and tries to stick her hand into his core and wiggle her fingers.

Rover growls a little, but doesn't bit Charlotte, although he shies away towards Autumn as Charlotte tries to touch his core.

"Hey, hey! you shouldn't do that, she says. Rover doesn't like being touched by strangers."

"So does the medical-machine dog fix people, or just bite them?" Stephanie said, slightly but understandably wary of Evil Computers. Not often was she the voice of caution but Charlotte was already doing a fine job of trying to stick her arm down it's throat.

"He can do brain scans!" She beams proudly. "Want to test one?"

[Raz_Fox]

"Oh, wonderful," Marchande says, her smile turning ever-so-slightly fixed and glassy, "You have a dog. How nice." She steps back slightly, simply letting Charlotte and Stephanie do their thing, which is really the kind of action that should be banned in Geneva.

[PhoeKun]

"...Ahuh."

Rose is slow to fish out her token, but flashes it briefly before folding her arms across her chest. She shifts a bit where she stands.

"That's... spectacular. Just great. May we begin, please?"

[SiuiS]

Heat in the face. Contrast in vision. Pain in the heart.

Charlotte straightens slowly, resigned, and resentful. "I just wanted to see how it worked is all..." she says quietly, before retrieving her card and taking her place in line with the others.

[Thanqol]

"He can do brain scans!" She beams proudly. "Want to test one?"

"Why would I need to do that?" said Stephanie. "I already know where my brain is."

[Anarion]

"That's... spectacular. Just great. May we begin, please?"

"Sure, sure. I've been researching into the soul, or maybe lack thereof, it's weird. And see this thing happened that..."

"Why would I need to do that?" said Stephanie. "I already know where my brain is."

"Oh, no silly billy. You get to see what your brain looks like! You game?"

Heat in the face. Contrast in vision. Pain in the heart.

Charlotte straightens slowly, resigned, and resentful. "I just wanted to see how it worked is all..." she says quietly, before retrieving her card and taking her place in line with the others.

She pets Rover while talking to the others, but does catch the end of Charlotte's comment. "Oh, I'm sure he'll warm up to you, just one too many artificers thinking they can take out some pieces for study, y'know. Hedgespun automotons don't grow on trees y'know! Okay, well, they actually do grow on trees sometimes, I guess it depends what you make them from, although actually there are trees of any material in the right part of the hedge. So, actually they do grow on trees!"

[Thanqol]

"Oh, no silly billy. You get to see what your brain looks like! You game?"

That sounded vaguely like a dare.

"Heck yeah!" said Stephanie.

[PhoeKun]

"Oh, now this should be good..."

Kalina coughs. The room wasn't exactly comfortable to begin with, but the manic energy and lack of focus floating all around isn't helping matters in the slightest.

"Erm... well. You just go ahead and continue when you have time. I'll wait."

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande shifts, body language saying: I'm standing by Rose. I'm also impatient, but go ahead with whatever you're doing. A half-baked explanation of magic is no use at all, after all.

[SiuiS]

Charlotte tucks 'hedgespun automaton' away for future use and contents herself to watch Stephanie find out she's cerebrally challenged from roborover.


She then feels bad at the thought.

[Anarion]

Autumn glances at Rose, giving her a somewhat more focused look. "Okay, you're really interested, I can tell. Let me finish my fun and then we'll talk. I do have something I need from you, which is why Qian set up this meeting." She reaches into her coat and pulls out a pair of sunglasses."I suggest you close your eyes" she says to the room at large, then pets Rover and says "Rover, number 23, on the shadow. Go boy."

Rover runs over to Stephanie and jumps up her back, opening his mouth impossibly wide. So wide that the chrome and wire seem to part and fold over backwards, revealing a laser light or something that suddenly goes off over Stephanie's head.

For anyone that didn't look away, there's a bright blinding flash, leaving you dazed for a few moments. Stephanie feels a bit woozy, but not hurt in any way. More topsy turvy, like she'd just been spinning around in circles continuously for a few minutes and suddenly stopped.

Rover dutifully goes over to the MRI machine in the corner of the room and sticks his mechanical tongue into it. It beeps and whirs and then an X-ray style image comes out of one side. At that Autumn gets up and dashes over, taking off the sunglasses and putting on a pair of regular, large-rimmed spectacles from another pocket as she takes the scan. She pets Rover and says "good boy, go have a treat, then take a rest." Rover then goes over to a pocket socket on the wall, gives it a few licks (all the lights in the room flash off then back on) and then disassembles himself near the MRI machine again.

Autumn holds up the image for everyone to see

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She then looks over at Rose and Marchande, as the two most impatient and gestures at the X-ray. "Look at this. A human brain. But look at her, a being of pure shadow. If she runs around enough, I'd give you even odds that her head would shift and slide around in a way that would seem impossible to house this brain. A Changeling is a being of magic. The rules of logic don't apply, the rules of fables do." She reaches up and adjusts her glasses, handing the X-ray to Rose as she begins to pace. "But, what are the rules of fables? Does a Changeling have a choice in how she acts? As time passes, the world that a Changeling perceives shifts more and more. Holding onto reality requires a supreme effort, a careful and ordered life, one without any unexpected happenings or deep emotional involvement.

But THINK ABOUT THAT!" she practically shouts. "What kind of life is it that has nothing but cold mechanical things, rational detachment and careful, ordered structure in order to preserve sanity until the day you die? Surely such a life withers the soul as thoroughly as any thorns. And yet the alternative is a descent into madness. A slow fall away from reality until the world is the storybook that your mind wants to perceive and you live out your life playing the same bloody play over and over.

Well, I've had it with that. And so have most of the others here. After several years of research, I believe that the key lies in human contact. There is...something...left inside us, even after the trip to the hedge, and it reacts to other people. That's why Changelings that stay sane need to have regular contact with mortals. But it's like a dying ember, barely held together. What I want is to amplify that somehow, to take the spark that flares in each of us when we find something right in life, and rekindle it.

And I'm hoping you'll be willing to help. I have two things I'd like to ask of you.

First, I'd like you to wear or carry these on you."


She walks over to a filing cabinet and takes out several small stones, about the size of a large gem. They shift and warp in a mix of emerald and black, swirling atop their perfectly smooth surfaces.

"Each of these is a monitor that is the closest thing I've figured out to a scan of the soul. You'll need to charge it with a point of glamour to attune it to yourself, then it will change color to match your...well your self. I am hoping that it will record what happens to your soul as your interact with others. It will preserve a record of its changes and I can view them when you bring them back to me.

Second, I have a somewhat more risky task for you. I'd like the essence of several other unique beings, for my studies."

She hands several extra stones to Rose.

"I need you to convince a Changeling who has completely lost her clarity to infuse one of these stones with her essence. I'd like something similar from each unique type of fae creature you happen to encounter. And, well, I don't actually expect this, but...if you ever encounter a member of the Gentry, if you could get it to infuse one of these stones as well...I think perhaps I could make a breakthrough into the very nature of Faerie."

She takes off her glasses and puts them away, slipping back into a smile and her overly perky persona. "Okie-dokie, little girls. Do any of you have any questions for teacher?"

[Thanqol]

Stephanie took her stone, reflexively charging it without even stopping to consider. It instantly exploded into a radiant green and pink starburst, and crystallised into place half way through it's detonation.

"Hmm," Stephanie said. She shook it. It remained stubbornly stuck, half-done, incomplete.

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"I think mine's broken," she said.

[PhoeKun]

The scan of Stephanie's brain legitimately catches Kalina off guard. She startles, takes another step back toward the wall, and widens her eyes. If you asked her, she wouldn't be able to tell you what she'd been expecting, but... not that. Not a plain old ordinary brain, housed in an impossible body.

She takes a deep breath, and listens. Quiet and attentive. This is more interesting than she thought it would be...

She turns the stone quietly in her hand, breathing deeply. What does her soul... herself... look like? She frowns and nervously grips the stone. She'd just have to see. She watches it gleam and fill with colors. Blues of differing shades, some purple, and... the red. Bloody and dripping, dark and dull. She actually has to force away the tear in her eye.

"...Broken, huh? No, I think I'm the thing that's broken. Sad. I thought I was stronger than, well, this." She holds the stone up.

"Of course I'm not. That's why I'm here in the first place. All right, then. You mentioned 'glamour'. You aren't the first I've met to do so. What is it, exactly? Why do human emotions seem to fuel all the things that make us... us? And is it bad for us or good for us if we want to not be this?"

She gestures at her stone again.

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande's stone, sleeping, drinks in the light. It is oddly heavy in her hand, and it reminds her of being back there. Nevertheless, if what Autumn says is true, if she stands on a tight-rope between a never-relaxing deathgrip life and descending spinning into madness and beast and teeth, it is worth carrying, and worth using.

She breathes on its surface, and where her breath touches, there deep purple bruises, running upwards through veins and blossoming into flower. The purple deepens into maroon, the darkest red, and then with a frightening suddenness explodes into orange, yellow, brightness like dawn. It shifts, trembles, and then stands as still as stone.

She runs it through her fingers idly, still feeling a lingering warmth on one side, and a chill on the other. "I have a few questions. In order of importance: how are we supposed to read these? Do you have a color guide jotted down somewhere in your notes? This just looks like I'm bipolar, Rose's a serial killer in the making, and Stephanie's not all there. Secondly, I'd like to repeat Rose's question about the nature of Glamour, and add a query on the nature of magic. But third, and most important: why us? If there's a huge, sprawling San Francisco court here, why are you giving your soulstones to four girls who have two people's worth of competence between them, and not even a week out?"

She presses the soulstone into her palm. "There's something you're not telling us. No one gives their research over to unproven vagabonds unless they're more than what they seem, or if they're completely out of options." Or because they have to tell the story, she adds in her head; her face locks down, carefully neutral.

[Anarion]

"Well, ladies, I'm asking you to do something dangerous. And it, it miiiight be true that a few people carrying those stones around have experienced some unfortunate accidents when they went in the hedge. But correlation isn't causation, so I'm sure it's fine. Also, I've asked a lot of people to handle these stones, you're just the latest and, so far, the nicestest!" She beams widely, though due to her enthusiasm or her extra "est" it's hard to tell.

Then she turns to Rose and Marchande. She stands and puts her hands behind her, reciting like a schoolgirl, which she resembles due to her short stature.

"Glamour is the source of Changeling magic, as well as the magic of Fae creatures and the gentry." She breaks character for a second and says "Really, anything with spooky powers that has gone through the Hedge," then winks at the party and resumes her schoolgirl stance.

"It is a substance, it can be crystallized or liquified with the right powers. It is psychologically compulsive, but not physically addictive to most Changelings, although extremely frequent harvesting can, in rare cases, lead to withdrawal symptoms. The rush is comparable to large amounts of adrenaline such as from skydiving or bungie jumping.

Glamour is created through the emotions of normal humans, from dreams, from pledges with normal humans, and infrequently from fruits harvested in the Hedge. It can be traded among Changelings through pledges."

She stops, then clears her throat.

"Magic is, well, it's magic. Supernatural effects, powered by Glamour in Changelings and other Fae creatures. These effects vary in type, power, and subtlety, but generally allow the user to become physically, mentally, or socially superior in some way or do something that violates the laws of physics. Most magic has special catches that allow the user to bypass the cost under special circumstances."

She breaks character and says "the ones that use a lot of magic all the time are usually a little crazy. Like me!" She gestures by sticking out her arm and shoving her thumb up to her chest in a sweeping gesture as she says that.

[Thanqol]

Stephanie waved all this away as irrelevant. She held up the stone.

"What is this and what does it mean?"

She was dead serious about this. If some stranger was telling her that this was what her soul looked like then she wanted coherent answers.

[Anarion]

Stephanie waved all this away as irrelevant. She held up the stone.

"What is this and what does it mean?"

She was dead serious about this. If some stranger was telling her that this was what her soul looked like then she wanted coherent answers.

"It's a piece of rock that you enchanted with some magic silly! The colors mean something about your soul, I think. I haven't sorted them all, and I'm hoping that it will change when you interact with other people, or maybe if you meet your fetch or meet other fae creatures so I can get data. Yellow means smart I think, red is passion or anger, grey is depression, purple is fear or something, green is inventiveness, blue is faith.

[Thanqol]

"It's a piece of rock that you enchanted with some magic silly! The colors mean something about your soul, I think. I haven't sorted them all, and I'm hoping that it will change when you interact with other people, or maybe if you meet your fetch or meet other fae creatures so I can get data. Yellow means smart I think, red is passion or anger, grey is depression, purple is fear or something, green is inventiveness, blue is faith.

"And black?" Stephanie pressed, "What is black?"

[SiuiS]

"Incompleteness."

Charlotte holds her stone, gazes into it. She slips it into her pocket and enchants it there, out of sight.

[Anarion]

"And black?" Stephanie pressed, "What is black?"

"Black is, uh, well, black is, uhh...it's, just the background for the other colors."

[PhoeKun]

"Black is, uh, well, black is, uhh...it's, just the background for the other colors."

"Don't lie to her." Rose snarls, "Black is potential. It's a promise of something to be revealed when the right time comes."

[Anarion]

"Don't lie to her." Rose snarls, "Black is potential. It's a promise of something to be revealed when the right time comes."

"Black is nothing and I've never seen it filled in."

She says, very quietly.

[PhoeKun]

"It will be filled. Don't talk about things you don't understand. If you knew, you wouldn't have to experiment. So sit there, smile, and watch."

[Thanqol]

Noth - noth - nortthh -

Never turn back. Never turn back.

"I don't get angry," Stephanie said quietly. "I don't get scared. I just don't. Not things that happen to me. I don't think. I can't think. I never -"

She couldn't even remember what it was like to be angry.

She couldn't even -

She was gone before anyone had time to process it, running out of the room and sprinting down the corridor as fast as her legs could carry her.

She felt good about it. She just fell into the trance of moving, reacting, ducking and sliding and falling and it felt natural, complete, whole. Like this was everything there was. That this was everything there needed to be.

She just needed to not turn back. That was all. That was the one thing she had to do.

The stone weighed in her pocket like lead.

[Anarion]

The stone weighed in her pocket like lead.

Where are you going Stephanie?

The voice was everywhere and nowhere. Not reassuring like the darkness, no. This voice was silky smooth and sickly sweet, like linen over a rotting corpse.

Through the hallway and out the window? That's nothing, the drop isn't very long, not even enough for you to break a sweat.

It echoed outside, pounding in her ears.

I think you can do better. Try the main building. 20 floors there, up the side. The sun is setting, it's almost nighttime.

Was Stephanie climbing? She wasn't sure.

That's more like it. Extreme sports always suited you. So limber, such a natural. You could jump any pit, climb any mountain. A sea of snakes was nothing to you, a river of flame just a trick to go over, isn't that right?

Was this all in her head? How was anyone talking?

A shadow can't fall, it's already in the ground. But a shadow can't fly either. It's anchored, tied down forever, nothing but a reflection. What goes up, must come down.

She must have been daydreaming. No drop could hurt Stephanie, she wasn't in any danger, she wasn't...why was she skydiving from 200 meters up in the air?

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande turns the stone over and over.

Dangerous. Stones, related to accidents in the Hedge. How tempting must that be, if emotions were power, if you had your emotions and your soul on display? Dangerous. Maybe useful. If they rejected this, the Spring Queen would probably be angry. She'd manipulated them into this, being the next test subjects. Don't get angry, get even. Be the first to win fabulous prizes.

Glamour: comes from the Hedge, unlocked through the Hedge, comes from people tramping along the street and feeling joy and despair and lighting up like roman candles, people are the key and the link and being people is what's important and the choice is being a person or being a fairy. Glamour is psychologically compulsive, damndamndamn, danger. Glamour explodes like fireworks behind the eyeballs.

Yellow is intelligence, red is anger, purple is fear. Can't be right, has to be right, fear bottled up by the suit- that's why it's the way it is, the orange is the black is the suit, the red is the roiling white shirt, all that fear and the beatings and the uncertainty of being around people who were people and thus sinners and saints intermingled, and orange has to be ascendant or she's just the whipped cur.

Black is nothing. She has no black. Black is a blank slate, an incompleteness, where normal things would be. Serves her right. What did it look like, those who went mad? An opal? A beautiful-bright opal? What did the Fairies look like? Deepest reds, so deep and rich they're blood - or black. Makes sense; she's run out.

Will accepting the stones lead to her ultimate goal? Will it be victory over the purple? Can she help everyone, do something great, prove herself right? Orange rising over purple and the serpent red.

The stone clacks into her palm.

"Thank you, Doctor Washnowski. I really do doubt we're the nicesest, but I'll do what I can to assist you, as long as I am provided assistance. My colleague recently received injury while acting as a Good Samaritan, and she lacks proper medical insurance and paperwork. I will require either treatment of her injury here on-site or the right doors greased and the right paperwork provided to take care of the injury." Confidence, aggressively so. The right set of the shoulders and the right pitch of voice and the expectation that everything is going to happen the way you say as long as you keep talking, and that certain set to the eyes. It's magic, but not the Glamour kind, the headology kind.

[Thanqol]

Where are you going Stephanie?

The voice was everywhere and nowhere. Not reassuring like the darkness, no. This voice was silky smooth and sickly sweet, like linen over a rotting corpse.

Through the hallway and out the window? That's nothing, the drop isn't very long, not even enough for you to break a sweat.

It echoed outside, pounding in her ears.

I think you can do better. Try the main building. 20 floors there, up the side. The sun is setting, it's almost nighttime.

Was Stephanie climbing? She wasn't sure.

That's more like it. Extreme sports always suited you. So limber, such a natural. You could jump any pit, climb any mountain. A sea of snakes was nothing to you, a river of flame just a trick to go over, isn't that right?

Was this all in her head? How was anyone talking?

A shadow can't fall, it's already in the ground. But a shadow can't fly either. It's anchored, tied down forever, nothing but a reflection. What goes up, must come down.

She must have been daydreaming. No drop could hurt Stephanie, she wasn't in any danger, she wasn't...why was she skydiving from 200 meters up in the air?

Action

Falling - distance extreme - momentum too rapid to catch - break down components

Reaction

Level flight - adjust legs - bring flight parallel to building - calculate angle - avoid breaking leg - grind

Action

Sliding along side of building - descent slowed by Contract - avoid full connection, momentum will break you - still too fast, too high

Reaction

Building opposite - eighth floor window, glass - angle - kick off present building - brace for impact

Action

Impact - jarring - horizontal momentum terminated - bruising - fall initiating again - momentum decreased - range acceptable

Reaction

Spread your wings


impact


Action

Fall terminated - minor bruising - staged flight breakdown successful - ready for next motion

Reaction

Stand. Move.