(PRP TMTP) - Curtain call

[Puck]

Interesting.

Okay, not really. It was what he was expecting. The employee has a stronger connection to the location then the visitors. Probably a summer job? People who came for the show knew each other to varying degrees, so dates and family nights out abound. Also the girl that heard him was available? Note for later if Phoenyx and company really were planning to avoid him. Was Puck out of line? It wasn't illegal, and any mage who knew anything knew sleepers couldn't understand high speech or see supernal resonance. The girl that heard him wasn't the only head he'd turned when he dressed up, and her reaction was barely even registered to the Libertine.

The Acanthus followed directions when the doors opened and walked into the theater. Like Phoenyx he looked for a seat in the back. Near or far from the other mages didn't really matter to him, so long as he could trace the strands of sympathy and fate across the crowd and stage. Part of him wanted to know what that tree looked like under Matter goggles, but that wasn't his thing.

Other then that? It's show time!

Spellz- 2E Fate Sight and Armor (P3 each), Winds of Chance (P2), Interconnections (P2)
Spell Tolerance- 4/3
WP- 3/3
Mana- 9/9

Puck's going to continue concentrating on Interconnections. I rolled once to continue scrutinizing but if you need more rolls I'll throw them in as well.

  8 suxx Interconnections scrutiny

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2021-08-05 20:02:48		[03] Puck rolls 11 to Interconnections scrutiny (Wits+Empathy+Fate) (10 Again)		7, 4, 9, 1, 1, 1, 9, 5, 9, 8, 9		5 successes
2021-08-05 20:02:48		[02] Puck rolls 11 to Interconnections scrutiny (Wits+Empathy+Fate) (10 Again)		3, 3, 6, 3, 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 2		2 successes
2021-08-05 20:02:48		[01] Puck rolls 11 to Interconnections scrutiny (Wits+Empathy+Fate) (10 Again)		2, 5, 7, 7, 4, 9, 7, 1, 3, 2, 2		1 success

[Aeolus]

With the audience fully seated the girl at the door disappeared for a moment, then reappeared and closed the doors from the inside and made her way to a mixing desk at the side of the room. Apparently she was also in charge for lights and sound.

The lights dimmed and an instrumental intro started playing. With it four actors entered the stage and lined up in front of the bench:
First, there was a plump Mexican girl with a pretty, open face and big eyes. Although she probably was in her mid-twenties, there was something motherly about her.
Next in line looked like a guy who stepped right out of a Hot Topic catalogue. Thin and wiry, his arms and neck tattooed and with short, platinum blonde hair and clothes that put him somewhere between 'model' and 'goth'.
Then you had basically the opposite of that guy: tanned, muscled and basically looking like the perfect son-in-law-meets-surferboy. His slightly curled, long brown hair was gathered in a man-bun and together with a stubbly beard he also checked off the 'dreamy artist' box. His clothes were unremarkably 'normal': a white button down shirt hanging loosely over beige slacks.
Lastly there was a petite Asian girl wearing jeans and a black knitted cardigan. She stood a bit out because of all the actors she seemed most nervous, her arms crossed and her hands brushing restlessly over the woolen fabric.

The music faded out and the four spoke out in unison: "Where is the love?"
What followed in the first fifteen minutes was an introductory shared monologue about compassion, tolerance and prejudices in the modern world.
Then each of them took a turn to step forward and explain their part and the troubles they face on a day to day basis while the other three sat down in the back: how their looks or heritage lend people to judge them differently, what kind of prejudices of their own they carry with them. The whole time the sound of chirping birds suggested the atmosphere of a beautiful day at the park and between each monologue the same line of the song used in the beginning was played in a more or less passably crafted loop: "Where is the love? Where is the love?"

While the message was admirable, the whole writing and execution was nothing to really gush about. With how on the nose everything was and with how the actors delivered their lines it was hard to imagine that this was the play everybody seemed to talk about lately. The Asian girl - Becky, as she introduced herself - painfully stumbled through her text, anxious hands scratching over her rough cardigan to get a grip on her nerves. Still, the audience watches in respectful attention. Maybe this was just a set-up for a remarkable twist?

Puck's further studies of the connections in the room exposed more of the expected: the four actors shared a bond (and the tomboy's thread was now revealed to be part of that knot of intertwined destinies). Malcolm - the surferboy and judging by his enthusiasm and skills probably the leader of the group - had the strongest connection to everybody else, the same dark-purple-going-black threads and tendrils the Enchanter witnessed outside.
All of them were also connected to the stage they were on, the tree acting as sort of an anchor to the whole. Supernal vision showed the bare metal branches to be draped with more tentacles, restlessly moving as if an unfelt breeze was going through the auditorium.

Puck I've used two of the three rolls for this first part of the play. The third roll will be regarded in the next round.

Everybody can make two rolls of either scrutiny using Mage Sight (Int + Occult), watching the actors (Wits + Empathy) or doing something else while watching.
Puck can also do a fourth Interconnections roll (if you think that the 5 successes you have left are not enough).

[Phoenyx]

Theatre was one of the creative mediums her Mentor had enjoyed, and had passed that interest on to his student.

Phoenyx tended to use things as a tool, exploring relationships created by someone else almost completely safely, allowing her to obseve and analyse relationships that came to her so poorly. Especially understanding the emotional connections - it was something she had been trying to overcome.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-08-06 08:05:42	Phoenyx rolls 1 to Watching the play: Wits+Emp -1 (unskilled) (10 Again)	6	failure

However, with no plot so anchor the scenarios it was like listening to someone relaying their experiences, their mundane problems... To someone all but raised under the veil of her order, she lacked any way to connect with them at all.

She sipped her water, trying to understand their small, false-seeming lives as they wove into a Lie within a Lie.

Equipment: Small bag (contains - Smartphone, Baretta Pistol (+2) Magical tool knife & sheath, purse, $34), bottle of water, pretty dress, heels.

Active Spells: As minisheet - Supernal Vision (Cloaked) Pot 6, Life Shield (Cloaked) Pot 5
Willpower: 3/3
Mana 6/6:
Spell tolerance: 2/2, Spell Control: 0/7

[Kaze]

Kaze settles in to his seat, a little behind where the others sit to be able to keep track of where they are, and tries to focus on the play. It's confusing. He's heard the buzz. He keeps looking for more than what seems to be there. And not finding it. He feels like maybe something reaally deep or sophisticated is going over his head?

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-08-06 10:44:26	Kaze rolls 3 to Analyze the show! (Wits 3 + Empathy 1) (10 Again)	4, 5, 4	failure

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-08-06 10:47:11	Kaze rolls 1 to 1 more die to analyze, forgot to roll 4 instead of 3. (10 Again)	5	failure

(PRP TMTP) - Curtain call
Health: 8/8
Mana: 9/9
WP: 3/3
Armor 3 ( +1 vs Bashing: Kung Fu 1)
Defense 5
Vulgar -1
Active Spells: 3/5
Personal Spells: 3
Spell Tolerance: 3/3 Spell Rolls
[1]Transform Aura (Aura is as a Sleeper) [M]
[1] Body Mastery (x2 rate healing Bash, Letha, Agravated; +1 success on all extended and instant rolls to resist diseases, poisons or drugs; +100 years lifespan)[M]
[2] Organic Resilience (Life Mage Armor 2e) pot 3 ( Armor 2; Defense 2 + Higher of Dex or Wits)[M]
Key: Potency | Effect declaration if needed | Turns remaining ("M" = Monthly Ritual)



Equipment: Smart Phone on silent; loose denim business casual trousers; suit jacket; white cotton shirt.
Active spells in the Monthly Rits link, all Cloaked. Transform Aura to Sleeper Aura is one of his Monthly Rits.

[/QUOTE]

[Puck]

Puck is perplexed.

The sympathy was making sense but the bits of the play he had seen so far didn't arouse any interest in telling people how great this is. Not that they weren't trying? Puck definitely got it. If he were on a stage in front of dozens of strangers he'd stammer through his lines to, and he wasn't averse to mixing political messages into his entertainment. This still felt off though. Sure, they weren't the first to try this as a medium for storytelling, but it felt a bit flat. Had they considered just going to a reporter? Or was this a production because these stories weren't true? Or were true but not theirs?

With a sigh he continued his scrutiny, trying his best to also get a read on the actors and the crowd. It was difficult to multitask though, and the normally perceptive acanthus felt like he was missing things on both ends.

  1 suxx Wits+Empathy

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2021-08-08 16:00:45		Puck rolls 8 to Get a read (Wits+Empathy) (10 Again)		4, 2, 3, 5, 2, 3, 1, 8		1 success

Spellz- 2E Fate Sight and Armor (P3 each), Winds of Chance (P2), Interconnections (P2)
Spell Tolerance- 4/3
WP- 3/3
Mana- 9/9


Puck's going to continue concentrating on Interconnections and try to get a read on the people in the room.

[Guru]

Guru was glad he got a beer first, but even the beer couldn't save this performance. He understood the message, he appreciated it and the attempt. But as the show went on he couldn't help but grow bored. This was the show he'd heard everything about? He understood why they didn't say anything about plot, there wasn't one. He had to tell himself he was supporting the local arts scene and the message was a good one. But he couldn't help his foot from tapping after his beer was emptied, the voices and stories not enough to keep his full attention as the pushed to the background and he looked around the show his eyes roaming around the crowd first before looking and staring at that tree and then looking over its structure and design, combing over it in intricate detail as it was the one feature that did draw his interest.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-08-08 16:51:57	Guru rolls 4 to Scrutinize (Int + Occult) (10 Again)	1, 9, 6, 5	1 success

Active spells:
Pulse of the Living World / Sense Life (Pot:2/2)
Organic Resilience Pot: 5
Evidence Shroud Pot: 4 Combined Life+Matter
Spell Limit: 3/6
Spell Tolerance: 3/3


Equipment: Smartphone (silent), copper ring (magical tool), THC vaporizer (half full)

[Phoenyx]

Phoenyx continues to watch the people, hoping to break a little more through her process. If tonight wasn't her night? The Arrow was nothing if not patient.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-08-09 07:48:33	Phoenyx rolls 1 to Watching the play: Wits+Emp -1 (unskilled) (10 Again)	8	1 success

[Kaze]

Kaze tries to focus on the individual actors and their interpretations of the relationships and dialogue they are portraying, trying to put himself in their place to gain an understanding of what the play is really about.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-08-09 22:13:12	Kaze rolls 4 to Kaze rolls 4 to Analyze the show! (Wits 3 + Empathy 1) (10 Again)	3, 8, 9, 4	2 successes

[Aeolus]

Phoenyx may not be able to connect to mundane problems, but watching those people deliver their lines brought up another memory: the two women seemed distressed, like people who'd been suspected to abuse or trauma. Sure, maybe they were just embodying their characters' problems really well, but that didn't make sense in relation to what they were describing as far as the arrow could tell.

Kaze came to much of the same conclusions. He's heard of method acting, but considering how the actresses are flubbing their lines it seems pretty unlikely that it's a stylistic choice. Becky especially seemed exhausted and unfocused. In a way it was admirable that she was powering through this anyway.

Puck spent some more time analyzing Fate's connections between the actors and after a while something else became clear: apart from the deep relationship between the troupe there was a certain quality emerging. The threads going from Malcolm to the others weren't simply threads, they looked like barbed whips. A symbol of authority? Torment? Whatever it was, he seemed to be somewhat in charge of this project, possibly responsible for what was happening.
Something else, something the Enchanter had almost missed: a barbed collar of the same quality around the surfer's own neck. Was that guy pushing himself too hard or was there an outside force involved?
When the Acanthus divided his attention between the actors and the audience he gathered some superficial pieces of information: the nervous energy on stage was natural, not an act and despite the quality of the play the audience seemed to be getting into it. They was no whispered conversations, almost no bored moving around - people seemed to be actually attentively following the action.

Guru was not one of those people. There was hardly anything to keep the Shaman's interest. How long did they say was this play? 45 Minutes, if he remembered correctly. How long has it been? Maybe fifteen? In movies they used to bring a big action scene around the 60 minute mark because peoples' attention span only went so far.
What did they just say? Probably not that important.
When the Thyrsus focused his Mage Sight onto the tree there was at least something interesting. There was no Magic involved, neither was there a sign of life apart from the people on stage. Except there was something. Not alive but.. trying to figure this out was frustrating, almost like those magic eye pictures where you have to cross your eyes to see the picture hidden between the lines. There was something, yet Guru couldn't put his finger on it.


The play went on and there was some semblance of conflict at least: in pairs the people met on the bench and talked about their differences. It still wasn't all that deep, but at least the dialogues gave the play some structure, some dynamic of a back and forth. The chirping birds faded out little by little, only to be replaced by a steady droning sound.

Everyone please roll Composure + Gnosis - 1.

success

It started off as a tickle down your back and at first you thought it was a bead of sweat or the foreboading atmosphere created by the drones, but your awakened Soul knows better: someone or something just tried to lull you in, to manipulate you in some way.
The feeling remained, like a cold finger feeling the skin on your back, on the back of your neck but aside from the uncomfortable sensation you remain unfazed.

failure

You think you get it now: the beginning of the play was bad on purpose so that the following could hit even harder. The juxtaposition of the drones and the hopeful message, the very real problems the Sleepers face even today, how humanity needed to work together or be doomed to succumb to the Lie and their self-made problems.
Whether it was sadness, hope or plain hope: you feel a strong emotion building up inside you, a cathartic release good theatre plays are supposed to create. You don't know the last time you've been this moved by a piece of art.
You loose one point of Willpower.

The mood in the auditorium also changed. Now and then you could hear people sniffing or suppressing sobs. Apparently the message really touched most people of the audience.
Conflict after conflict, prejudice after prejudice: the four actors worked through it and achieved a more wholesome level of understanding and tolerance. The drones rumbled on, the unstoppable force of change going through the small theatre.

Everybody again gets two rolls of their choosing. Characters who've failed their Comp + Gnosis -1 rolle above suffer a -1 penalty for those rolls.

[Phoenyx]

4 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-08-14 17:01:37	Phoenyx rolls 6 to Comp + Gnosis -1 (10 Again)	2, 1, 1, 2, 10, 10, 2, 10, 8	4 successes

Something about the Droning sound sets off Phoenyx's sixth sense. It just doesn't feel right. The Arrow scowls, beginning to assess the scene with her arcane senses.

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-08-14 17:09:20	[02] Phoenyx rolls 5 to Scrutiny - Int+Occult (10 Again)	8, 6, 4, 7, 9	2 successes
2021-08-14 17:09:20	[01] Phoenyx rolls 5 to Scrutiny - Int+Occult (10 Again)	3, 3, 4, 2, 7	failure