Dead End 2: Deathly Di-Di-Doo Ch.22 (Patreon)

[A Chronicle Continued]

— Didi —

They had a bare few moments and something of an eternity before settling where Sean had cast them.

Didi may have seen more than the rest of them as they transitioned back via his Reincarnation, but even she was just at the whim of Sean’s half-claimed Aspect. It was… surprisingly pleasant, giving herself over to her love entirely, if temporarily.

She felt herself distanced from the rest of her Aspected being with Sean’s own half-Aspected working. The distance was scant, but it was there. She would not be Endless Death for this session, this chronicle, this story Sean wanted them to live for themselves. Only Didi. Only… Maria, she supposed?

“You can use ‘Didi’ to make things simpler,” Sean said, speaking through the thread of Reincarnation that held her in particular. “I’ll fix things retroactively so it makes sense.”

He turned his focus — distant but still so close for now — to the rest of their reincarnating party. “In fact, I’ll extend that offer to the rest of you, too. Now that you’re actually inserting into your characters, I’ll allow a bit of a retcon to make the transition easier.”

“Is that why you suggested using my name from the start?” Gabriel asked, cocking her head curiously.

Through the threads, Sean nodded. “With you and Savage, I knew I was going to do this, and primed the stage accordingly. The others made their characters before I had the idea. Before I realized I could, even.”

Didi considered the offer. She didn’t have much of an opinion either way, but it would certainly simplify things now that they would be living their characters instead of merely ‘playing’ them. Maria could easily become Didi, and nothing would truly change.

“I think I’ll take you up on that, Sean,” She said, smiling. “As usual, everyone, call me Didi.”

“I shall keep THE Morrigan,” Hecate declared. “It’s a name I’ve assumed myself at times, anyway. I won’t have any trouble going by it for this Reincarnation.”

“Asmodeus… can become… Solomon,” Grundy said slowly. “They are already… similar in origin…”

“Oh, I’m keeping ‘Baby’, Gothboy~!” Harley chimed, grinning.

“I’m rather partial to ‘Rose’ as well,” Ivy added.

“I’ll make it so, then,” Sean said.

Didi felt him tweaking things at the other end of their Reincarnation, ripples that ran through the threads. Her Endless senses were dimming, though. It would be jarring to be just Didi, but thrillingly novel, too; she was willing to give it a shot.

She imagined Hecate, Savage, Ophis, Gabriel, and even Simmy were feeling similar ‘dimmings’. For the duration of this chronicle chapter, they would become their characters in truth, playing the roles, for they could do nothing less than be as Sean Reincarnated them.

As the Reincarnation process finalized, Sean went down the line and named them as their characters, exercising half-Aspected power.

“Didi, a woman of charity, awakened by the lifeblood of a dying mage who saw potential in you. Can’t you hear your Avatar, the Beating Hearts of People?”

Didi smiled as everything just clicked. “I can. They define reality, a collective Consensus, but that’s not to say magick can’t help by setting the rhythm.”

“Alice the Damnation, a runaway girl awakened by the lingering spirits that permeate the world. Can you see it, your Avatar? The Shimmering Veil of the Umbra over all?”

Alice grinned. “I can! It darkens the world but doesn’t lessen it; no, the world is greater for the Veil! And who’s to say witnessing, listening, and speaking won’t tap into that greatness?”

“Baby and Rose, one woman of two minds, awakened by the mundane and forgotten tragedies of the world. Can you see your Avatar: the Fractured Visions that appear in Reflections?”

“You know it!” Harley — Baby — enthusiastically confirmed. “Reality, it’s all in the mind, innit~?”

Ivy — Rose — nodded. “We master our mindful selves to master the world.”

“Solomon, an old wanderer and witness to so many mysteries, awakened by a passing mentor to finally take part in those things you should never have seen. Can you feel your Avatar? That intangible sense, that niggling urge, that Intuition to Survive?”

“I… can…” Grundy — Solomon — mused. “It is… luck, and more… than luck. That little push… to keep living… to affect the world… to see the next… sunrise and… make it your own…”

“THE Morrigan, an ordinary woman proclaiming extraordinary purpose for yourself, awakened by the sheer futile mundanity you’d been living. Do you know your Avatar when it comes as Signs and Incarnations of the Divine?”

“I do,” Hecate — THE Morrigan — proudly declared. “I am the Goddess I see in all things. The world is mine to mold.”

“Ophy, a not-so-simple sleeper, awakened while sleeping, vividly dreaming yourself awake. Your Avatar doesn’t come to you in your dreams; it is your Dreams, isn’t it? What do you Dream?”

“Hm. I dream of reality,” Ophis — Ophy — hummed. “Past. Present. Futures manyfold. Figments behind closed eyes that linger when opened. They are… my closest companion. They do as I ask.”

“Simmy, so curious yet so silent, a student of the world awakened by breadcrumbs of esoterica left to you. Does your Avatar speak with you already; the very Concept of Communication, knowledge and information shared?”

“[Confirmation.]” Simmy sang. “[Execution of Paradigm: Query. Query. Query. Magick: Questions = Cause; Answers = Effect.]”

“Gabriel, a hero in the making; the journey will be treacherous. Awakened overwhelmingly when the world you knew stopped making sense, do you remember your Avatar, those Memories Driving You Forward?”

Gabriel nodded, firm and determined. “I remember. The darkness won’t defeat me. I have my will, my choice, and my actions will realize it upon an uncaring world.”

“Savage, a man who has seen that there is so much more to see, awakened by a bender for the ages. You found yourself with your Avatar in hand, fully realized, didn’t you? The Sword That Cuts?”

“Indubitably!” Savage exclaimed. “There is more and more and more to EXPERIENCE, and I shall cut my way through it all!”

“And so you are,” Sean concluded. “Mages of infinite potential in a world that you yourself make so malleable. In large, this is your journey to ascension. But that’s inevitably a while away.

“In the meantime, you are still human; you are still people living as best you can. There will be trials and tribulations, victories and glories, and nuanced complexity every step along the way. The world can be larger than one could ever know, but it can also be small and personal — just you and those who stand beside you… doing what you can.

“I would suggest embracing the weird, the punk, the humanity, the fleeting moments of light in it all, and yes, even the darkness, but the choice is yours. Ultimately, this is your chronicle, your World of Darkness.”

“The only concrete rule I’ll give you…?” Sean said, audibly grinning. “Have fun~…”

Didi couldn’t help but grin right along with him. Alice groaned half-heartedly at the ‘rule’; Harley cackled, Savage bellowed with eager laughter, and Gabriel genuinely clapped.

They all landed in their characters’ bodies as if they were always there; just a smooth slii~ide into place.

Even temporary, Sean’s Reincarnation was thorough. None of them flinched or missed a step as they found themselves right where their chronicle’s last session had left them — the enigmatic Mrs. Johnson taking them with her as she made a tactical retreat of her operation from the dimensional nexus of a ‘Gate’ mall.

The lab-coat-and-suited woman led them to some kind of device: a doorway-sized ring of unnaturally smooth metal, empty for now. Mrs. Johnson was unfazed by how the light seemed to fall off the material, just as light rarely should; the rest of them were justifiably more wary.

“What is-…?” Solomon asked.

“Definitely something fucky,” Alice grumbled.

Mrs. Johnson ignored their concern, briefly and casually tapping the watch on her wrist. The Beat of a Heart echoed in the air as she did, heard by senses still new to Didi; her Avatar thrummed that magick was being done.

Then, FLASH! The ring sucked in all the light that seemed to fall off it, dimming the space around so a shining and shimmering sheet of spacetime could materialize within it.

Rather quickly, barely giving them time to process, the sheet cleared and revealed a whole other kind of chaos on the other side.

Didi blinked. How could she do anything but?

On the other side of the portal that shouldn’t be possible, a whole facility existed. And it was caught in the throes of even more impossible happenings.

Alarms blared on what must’ve been their highest settings. The lights on the other side flashed red and white. Didi saw a squadron of marines, clad in high-tech body armor and shooting laser rifles down a hallway as they tried to hold the line. It wasn’t nearly as effective as they likely wished it was.

From the offending hallway, head-sized, arthropodal creatures skittered and swarmed — alien insects straight from Hell, blind and malicious. Most fell to the wall of laserfire. One leapt into the air and landed on a marine’s head, swallowing it whole, helmet and all. The head-hugging creature then proceeded to pilot the marine’s body against their comrades. Laser bolts were loosed into armored sides to little effect before one of the other marines spun and put the zombified hybrid down.

Just when it seemed the marines had the situation in hand, ghastly alien screams echoed forth from the same hallway.

“Code XSS! Launcher Pair, get me chemical suppressant!” One marine called out.

At his order, two more marines took a knee and pulled a tube of some kind between them, mounted on the shoulder in front and manned by the marine behind.

Didi could hear their Hearts Beating through the portal; they weren’t like her or her new friends. But as the marines pulled the trigger of that tube, another Heartbeat joined them for a brief instant. It came from far, far away and long, long ago, past magicks etched into reality and made almost mundane to be wielded by those who needed them but didn’t have the capability.

The tube spewed a liquid payload all over the walls of the assaulted hallway. The payload that landed closest quickly hardened into cover, and the payload that landed farther down the hallway began to smoke for even more.

“That’s it! Black Plateau won’t fall today, boys!” The leading marine laughed.

The sources of the ghastly alien screams came as twisted blackened shapes in the smoke. With a cacophony that drowned out reasonable thought, they leaped from the smoke as hulking things that Didi could only compare to the Xenomorphs she’d had nightmares about as a child when she and a sister in faith had snuck out to see that sci-fi classic.

The new creatures sported scythe-like claws on their forelimbs, and still ran at high speeds on all fours. The porcelain flooring was sliced to pieces during their charge. Organic projectiles were spat with vivid green fury, eating away at whatever they landed upon.

All of the marines hunkered down behind their new cover except for one. That marine stepped forward into the empty space at the center of the hallway and met the xeno charge head-on.

Didi heard his Heartbeat racing as he did. It was mechanical, bearing the impossible strength and vitality of an internal combustion engine. Explosions within let him catch the first xeno in its charging tracks, meeting scythe-like forelimbs with augmented blades that sprung from his own. With a step into the xeno’s guard, he carved it open, shoulder to hip, and received a coating of acidic blood for his victory.

The rest of the marines coordinated their fire to slay the rest of the xeno-beasts. Back down the hallway, though, a chittering sort of language showed the xenos weren’t alone. Shots of bright blue energy came screaming towards the marines’ position.

Didi held her breath for them, praying for victory — man triumphing over alien malice. Then, it was suddenly gone, the whole scene. The portal winked out as if it was never there, never real.

“Tch,” Mrs. Johnson clicked her tongue. “Wrong channel, as usual. It’s almost habit to misdial at this point…”

“What-?” Simmy signed, the silent gesture somehow almost audible with burning curiosity.

“The-” Rose began; Baby continued. “FUCK-?!”

“Was that?!” Alice finished the question — a group effort that made Didi giggle despite the circumstances.

“Black Plateau.” Mrs. Johnson waved nonchalantly. “It’s always that construct. Can’t choose your neighbors, no?”

“I don’t think… that’s an… explanation…” Solomon said slowly.

“Should we be doing something to help them?” Didi asked, feeling a rhythm in her own Heartbeat pushing her to do just that.

“They wouldn’t accept help if it was offered,” Mrs. Johnson said. “Don’t worry, though; they have it well in hand. Breaches there are a monthly occurrence. Enough so that we have slang for them: ‘Black Plateau Incidents’.

“I’d suggest putting it out of your mind for now. No one in their right mind would take fresh recruits there first. Ah, here we go. Home sweet construct.”

She bulldozed over any other questions, tapping her wrist again. The portal lit up once more — shining and shimmering spacetime and the Heartbeat that enabled it.

Mrs. Johnson wasted no more time; she walked through the portal as if stepping through any other door and expected them to follow. Didi shared glances with the others. It looked as if they didn’t have another choice. It was much too late to run now, and even having just met her new fellows, they were more familiar than anything else happening.

This time, they found peace on the other side of the portal, not chaos. The seven of them followed Mrs. Johnson into the room beyond.

It was a comfortable space, but not quite lived in, with the kind of easy atmosphere one might be relieved to find in a therapist’s office before a tense appointment. The room boasted subdued and earthy colors, a trio of brown leather couches of quality make with a sturdy coffee table between them, and indoor plants to fill empty space.

The only thing that contrasted the down-to-earth atmosphere, quite dramatically, was the windowed view of space on the wall opposite the door.

It was there that Didi realized how thorough Sean’s reincarnating immersion was; there that she had a moment to stop and think.

Outside of this chronicle, Didi had seen space; Hell, her mother was the literal concept of it. In this World of Darkness, however, she wasn’t Death of the Endless. The awe of a simple woman of charity finding herself on what seemed to be a space station struck her in full.

It was… magical. Didi lost herself in not just the view but also the simple majesty of being mortal.

She’d lived a whole human life. It was right there — right here. In a way, it was all there was, just as real as Death. The Awakening she’d experienced was fresh in her mind, changing everything she thought she knew, and she saw the universe now through those eyes.

Didi saw similar realizations of blessed mundanity hit THE Morrigan and Hecate, Ophy and Ophis, and Simmy; she imagined that wherever she’d landed, Gabriel was experiencing the same.

‘Thank you, Sean,’ She thought.

“Always.”

Just as he’d promised, his Storytelling voice still came through clearly in Reincarnation.

“Spectacular, isn’t it?” Mrs. Johnson asked, her voice surprisingly soft and sympathetic as she watched them react to the view. “I understand, I truly do; I still remember my first. It’s unfortunately rare for Awakened to see light like this before darkness.”

“We just saw at least one man die to an alien ‘breach’,” Rose deadpanned.

“And I asked you to put it out of your mind, didn’t I?” Mrs. Johnson asked, unfazed.

“What-…” Alice began, almost breathless, before gathering herself and snapping at their mysterious host with wary intent. “Why do you care?! What’s your angle here? You’ve taken us freakin’ captive!”

Mrs. Johnson just shook her head. She invited them deeper into the room, waving at the couches. She took a seat for herself in the lone chair facing away from the spaceside window and the rest of the room.

With crossed legs, white lab coat, and black pantsuit beneath, she looked the very picture of composure. Didi took a moment to examine their mysterious ‘host’. In any other situation, Didi doubted she would’ve taken much notice of the other woman. How much did that normality hide?

She had black hair that fell down her back, a pretty but mildly scarred face, and brilliantly pale eyes — just unique enough to come around to unremarkable.

Mrs. Johnson watched them patiently, waiting for everyone to be situated before answering Alice’s snappish question.

Didi felt it was only polite to sit, and Mrs. Johnson hadn’t done anything so grave as to earn impoliteness. She was rather interested in having an actual conversation at this point.

Ophy collapsed onto one of the couches and immediately started snoring.

Baby & Rose sat, but stayed on the edge of their seat. Solomon settled back deep into the couch, quietly watching everything. With a haughty air and a nose-raised sniff, THE Morrigan took the seat beside Solomon. Simmy sat beside Ophy and took a short moment to visibly wonder over the girl’s snoring before focusing entirely on Mrs. Johnson.

“You’re in my custody, yes, but that doesn’t make us enemies. Why wouldn’t I empathize when you’re just as Awakened as I am, and newly, at that?” She asked, answering Alice’s question with a question.

Last and most warily, Alice took a seat beside Didi. Didi could see that she was frustrated, already ‘in-character’.

“I don’t know. That’s the issue. I feel like I don’t know ANYTHING anymore!”

Alice’s exclamation resonated with Didi and the others. Nods of agreement went around the room as they waited for Mrs. Johnson’s response.

“That’s absolutely true. You don’t; you’ve seen the barest sliver of true reality. But now that you’ve come to my attention, I can show you more. I fully intend to make this,” She said, gesturing at all of them and the room. “As productive as I can. Not cooperating, or at the very least being polite, harms your case more than it harms mine.”

While Didi was happy to accept her words at face value — surprisingly, Mrs. Johnson hadn’t given her any reason to doubt just yet — Alice, Baby&Rose, Solomon, and THE Morrigan looked at their host with narrowed eyes. Sean’s Storytelling voice whispered in all of their ears.

He sounded excited to reveal some of the back end of the reincarnating chronicle. “You want to see if she’s genuine? You can certainly try. There are still skill checks in place, based on your Attributes and Abilities. Now, you’re just applying them yourself. I’m not controlling the world you now experience; it lives and breathes without me. All I’ve done is set it up for you, and all I’ll do is help you execute your choices within it.

“You are still the one doing the actions, but my Storytelling voice in your ears is an advantage unique to you in this world. A guide. A co-Avatar, even, if you want to consider me as such. Think to me, and I’ll hear it; act decisively, and I’ll roll for you.

“So here we go, rolling~…”

Didi marveled at their Storyteller’s strange arrangement, the power he held over their chronicle even if he claimed not to control it.

The part of her that remained slightly removed from her character immersion was proud of Sean for finally stepping up to his half-Aspected potential, especially as he used it to give them a story worth living.

While Sean told the story, the world seemed to wait for him. The moment hung in the air as they all perceived and communed with their shared ‘co-Avatar’, yet the experienced mage in the room didn’t react at all.

‘I want to judge her Mind! Magickally!’ Baby proclaimed to their Storyteller, the thoughts heard by all who could hear him in turn.

“How~?” Their Storyteller asked in turn, his grin audible.

‘An Investigator’s Intuition! The little cues and more, peering deeper! Let’s pin this potential bitch to the wall~!’

‘Put a Willpower point on the roll, too,’ Rose added. ‘Just to be sure we don’t fuck up spectacularly here.’

“And so it shall be

“Wits/Intuition for Alice and Solomon: 7 dice and 2, difficulty 7. Wits/Alertness for THE Morrigan: 5 dice, difficulty 7.

“Alice: 2 successes, one critical. Solomon: zero successes. THE Morrigan: 3 successes, one critical.”

“Solomon first. Those street smarts you prize, the intuition that got you through a wandering life? It fails you here; you’re rather out of your depth. What do you know of the mysterious world of suits, much less the even more mysterious world of… Awakened.

“Alice, you’ve got a bit more of a grounding here; your parents were this sort of high-and-mighty suit, to a lesser degree. And THE Morrigan, you’ve worked with all kinds of people in dead-end retail and service. Both of you look at Mrs. Johnson… and find her as genuine as she says. She bears you no hostility. In fact, she’s going out of her way to ease you into all of this.”

‘… Huh,’ Alice thought, surprised.

THE Morrigan sniffed haughtily. ‘I shall keep myself mostly agreeable, then.’

The Storytelling moment hung in the air a little while longer as Sean saw to the magick being cast.

“And for our dual-minded investigator: 1 dot in Mind would allow for not-so-simple intuition, so 3 dice for Arete, with Willpower as an automatic success; difficulty 5. That’s… 2, 6, 1. The botch discards a success, but your Willpower point keeps you at one success overall.”

“You see deeper than mundane intuition could ever pierce,” Sean narrated. “Mrs. Johnson is genuine; she’s also looking out for herself and her own goals. She still isn’t hostile, but there’s a decidedly mercenary angle to her actions here as well. You have value to her, to whatever organization she represents. Even as she helps you, she may exploit you. She showed you this view first to shape and sway your opinion in a specific way. What she guides you towards, though, is deeper than you can see.

“Now, the consequences, naturally~…” They could all hear their Storyteller smirking as the world flowed around his presence without a hitch.

Mrs. Johnson turned her piercing pale eyes onto Baby&Rose. The dual-minded investigator was pinned in her seat without a finger lifted against her.

“That was… bold,” Mrs. Johnson said. “Not quite impolite yet; I really shouldn’t have expected anything less from a PI-type.”

“What did she do?” Simmy curiously asked in sign language.

Didi translated for the others, but Mrs. Johnson didn’t need the help understanding Simmy’s muteness.

Mrs. Johnson sighed, “Just a small flex of Enlightenment. All Awakened are capable of it. It’s what makes you what you are: that enforcing of yourself upon reality. Miss PI, why don’t you share what you did with the room?”

“It’s Rose,” Rose said.

“And Baby!” Baby chimed from the same lips.

Mrs. Johnson raised a curious eyebrow. “Fascinating… Not nearly the strangest situation I’ve seen; we’ll see how that works out for you.”

“We…” Rose hesitated. “Just looked at you, trying to intuit… well, whatever’s really going on here.”

“Pinned your ass to the wall of judgment!” Baby declared.

“And I certainly feel judged and pinned,” Mrs. Johnson drawled.

“You should!” Baby snapped.

“Likely an improvised procedure of Mind,” Mrs. Johnson mused aloud for their benefit. “It was minor, but working any procedure so quickly is an encouraging sign. I was right; the seven of you have potential well worth cultivating.”

“Of course,” THE Morrigan scoffed. “Yet the divine is not yours to claim. I will allow you to guide me, mayhaps, but nothing more.”

“Blinking reality from fresh eyes and already so arrogant, oh my,” Mrs. Johnson deadpanned. “My girl, you don’t know the start of the divine.”

“Could you tell us more, then?” Didi asked. She motioned towards the window into space. “We’re all rather lost, it seems, but you clearly know more. You’ve taken us here, wherever we are. You have something in mind for us, no? I don’t mean to be a poor guest, but I really would like to know what’s going on here.”

“Yeah, what’s the New World Order going to do with us?” Alice snarked, choosing fire to mask how lost she was.

“New World Order?” Mrs. Johnson repeated with a laugh. “Me? No, I’m not NWO.”

“That… It was just supposed to be an insult,” Alice stared. “The NWO’s real?!”

“And you… are not… part of it…?” Solomon asked.

The world hung on a moment once more, and Sean’s Storytelling voice returned. “Ophy, the Sleepwalking Oracle, speaks. Time 3/Correspondence 3 for oracular effect, 3 dice for Arete, difficulty 7, and an automatic success without Willpower for her Oracle merit. That’s… 4 successes. Ophy’s rolls stay GOATed.”

“The Void is never Silent,” Ophy said, her eyes not opening an inch. “The things that lurk, near and far, slither into cracks in… Consensus. Knocking come the deepest spirits; BANGING, they demand to be let in! Entry can never be allowed. WHO GUARDS THE GATES?! Who truly protects all that the Conventions claim to build…?”

As Ophy spoke, the window in the room showed her dreaming visions. The space beyond was suddenly populated by indistinguishable showcases of fantastical technology and magick. Didi heard Ophy’s Heartbeat race itself awake from sleep.

“An astronaut coated in alien blood answers the door with a graviton projector; beyond, a UFO of little gray men disintegrates. A stormtrooper fresh from the woven web charges counter, unto the breach and beyond. A starship flees past ghosts of Stygia and monstrosities from the deepest depths, leaving a wake of spiraling symbology where it does not belong. A researcher assigned to an Earthbound anomaly finds seven souls as they open their eyes…”

“… They are Void Engineers, the first and last line of defense against the terrible unknown.” Ophy blinked herself awake and aware. “Hn… Even nightmares?”

With only a slight pause, Mrs. Johnson took the show of oracular magick in stride. “Especially nightmares.”

“…” Ophy nodded, shrinking in on herself slightly. “I don’t like nightmares.”

Didi got up from her seat to go comfort Ophy. Even half-knowing, logically, what and who she was outside the chronicle, right now, she was just a girl who dreamed of things she probably shouldn’t. She hummed and leaned into the shoulder Didi lent her.

“I’m sorry, but what-…” Rose began; Baby finished the thought. “-The FUCK was that?!”

“Enlightenment,” Mrs. Johnson answered. “A much more potent working than your little peek — an adjustment, not a procedure — and a bit of a stolen reveal for me.”

She chuckled to herself. Simmy leaned forward in her seat to ask, taking a moment to figure out the right signs.

“It was true? You’re a… Void Engineer? What is a Void Engineer? How does it differ from the NWO? Are there connections between them? If you’re a Void Engineer, what were you doing in a mall on Earth? Was the mall in space, somehow?”

She buzzed with energy, her signed questions coming fast and furious. “What about ‘Black Plateau’? What were they fighting? Do you fight the same things? You called them neighbors; are we near them now? Are we really in space? Are aliens really, really real?”

Her Heart Beat and Beat. “And where do we fit into it? You say we’ve Awakened? Does that mean we were sleeping before? Even Ophy? Does the whole world sleep? Was it a coincidence we found you? How does Enlightenment work? Why can we do things that shouldn’t be possible?”

With one final Heartbeat, Simmy asked, “How deep does the rabbit hole go?”

Then, the world hung on a moment as Sean rolled for Simmy’s Beating Heart, her… Questioning, “A magick of luck and insight, Entropy 2/Prime 3. 3 dice for Arete, difficulty 6. That’s 2 successes for Simmy. Your questions, your burning need to know more, get through to your target. She’ll make an earnest effort to reveal the ‘rabbit hole’ as best she can.”

Considering the questions instead of answering immediately, Mrs. Johnson suddenly stood.

“Let’s take a walk.”

IIIII

— Sean Caine —

Running several reincarnations instead of just reincarnating myself was a novel exercise.

Thankfully, I had prior grounding in the World of Darkness. I’d been a mage of my own there, putting hundreds of lived years into a unique journey of ascension. I was still a mage now. In a way, I’d even reached the pinnacle of all Awakened: ascension, or my own version of it, at least.

As I told my reincarnated players, I didn’t control the world they were now living for themselves. The World of Darkness was fully realized with or without them. Even with half-Aspected power and familiarity, I could only affect that world through them.

Reincarnation made the insertion possible, the whole lived chronicle; my unique ascension helped me act as Storyteller as I looked back in on the reality I’d left behind. I told the story of their place in it.

Even my rolling for them just fleshed out decisions and actions made and done for themselves. It was oil in the gears of a system of stories told, not the omnipotent control and puppeteering of reality itself.

As seven of my players followed Mrs. Johnson deeper into the horizon construct she’d taken them to, I turned my attention to the two left out until now.

Gabriel and Savage were together in the very same horizon construct as the others. Inserted according to their backstories, they’d already been recruited by the Technocracy and were now being briefed on a potential mission by their own supervisor: Mr. Monroe.

Mr. Monroe was young for a supervisor, and seemed surprisingly agreeable. He wore his tie loose around his neck, and he forewent the usual black suit for a more practical and much more well-worn lab coat. He spoke to Gabriel and Savage on their level rather than speaking down to them and giving apathetic orders.

“I wish I could give you more personnel support here, but we’re short-staffed,” Mr. Monroe said.

“Are we… really ready for a mission on our own?” Gabriel asked.

“I will take on ANYTHING you throw me at!” Savage laughed.

“It shouldn’t be ‘anything’,” Mr. Monroe reassured. “Just a simple investigation of minor anomalous rumors. The area of operations is large, yes, and I would prefer a team of, say, nine or so agents, but I don’t anticipate the two of you running into danger on your own regardless.”

Savage and Gabriel exchanged glances at the prophetic mention of that number. Mr. Monroe didn’t notice.

He just smiled instead. “Hey, there’s good news, at least! With just the two of you, I can direct the rest of this mission’s budget to Requisitions! You’ll have all the tools you could possibly need.”

He winced. “… Well, some of the tools. For a minor mission like this, I can only excuse so much by throwing extra cash at it.”

“A catalog, then, Sir!” Savage requested. “We shall outfit ourselves accordingly, effectively, and cheaply!”

“And I’ll thank you for that frugality!” Mr. Monroe laughed.

He raised his wrist and fiddled with the watch sitting on it. Subtle ‘Enlightened Science’ (magick, by a Technocratic name) connected his smartwatch to the similar ones Gabriel and Savage wore and sent them the catalog.

“I’ve taken the liberty to highlight the requisitions I would suggest,” He said.

“Just then?” Savage asked in interest. “IMPRESSIVE, Sir!”

Mr. Monroe chuckled. “I may not be popular, but even my worst internal rivals don’t doubt my Enlightenment.”

“Uhm, Sir…?” Gabriel asked hesitantly. “Aren’t you… Why are you so… pressed, I suppose?”

“Divisional politics. I’m not very good at playing the game. And I’m sorry to say it so bluntly, but those same politics affect you, too. Someone has it out for you two; it’s why you got stuck with me.” He chuckled self-deprecatingly.

“I’m already pulling what few strings I can to do this much for us. I’d gladly pay with favors if I could get us more support, but the only colleague I’d willingly put myself in debt to is still out on her own assignment. Researching some nexus of dimensional flux, I think? Doesn’t matter.” He waved. “She’s unlikely to return in time to help us.”

I cleared my throat, and the world hung on a moment so I could comment in Gabriel and Savage’s ears. “Isn’t it fortuitous that his favored colleague just returned to base with everything your mission might need~?”

Gabriel smiled and giggled to herself. Savage just grinned a bit wider than usual. Neither moved to META-game with that Storyteller information, though. They pulled up the Requisitions catalog and began looking it over.

Gabriel thought my way. ‘Oh, Sean, can we look for, uhm, requisitions…? Tools and tech and things that we think the others might like?’

“I’ll allow it. You are a team after all. Or you will be soon enough, at least.”

Still keeping half an eye on them, I turned back to the other seven following Mrs. Johnson into the horizon construct. They passed through a glass bridge in the void and got a view of the whole thing as they did.

The construct was a near-Earth installation, a space station that played host to just one institution of just one division of the Void Engineers, one of five Conventions in the Technocratic Union. Even with that ‘limited’ scope, the construct was as large as a city.

A shard-like spire made up the core of the station-construct, stretching miles high and miles below. A trio of rings orbited the shard; the bridge they walked across connected the lowest of the three to the spire.

“These are the marvels we build to protect humanity, what we one day hope to lead them toward,” Mrs. Johnson said. “Enlightenment is what makes all of this possible. But at the same time, it gives us a duty to those who still sleep. Before us, the world was dark and dangerous. Monsters roamed, preying upon the innocent and the weak who could do nothing to fight back. Reality was unpredictable, and worse for it.”

“And who are you?” Didi asked. “More than just the Void Engineers, I assume?”

“We began as an Order of Reason, seeking to make the world make sense for everyone, not just the Enlightened few,” Mrs. Johnson answered. “We fought that fight for hundreds of years. The world you know is the result; it’s our victory. Now, we are the Technocratic Union, formed from five Conventions: the Syndicate, Iteration X, Progenitors, NWO, and Void Engineers.”

“So, what? You rule the world or something?” Alice snarked.

Mrs. Johnson shook her head. “Far from it. We may be winning the war for Consensus, but that just means we’ve worked hard to define a reality where regular people can live good lives, and we continue to work hard to protect it. Of course, the other Conventions might tell you differently.

“The Syndicate might say everything flows according to their societal systems, and thus they rule the world. The NWO might say they force the necessary shape onto reality, and thus they rule the world. Iteration X might say science and technology are the dominant and inevitable outcome, and thus they rule the world. The Progenitors might say that humanity must and will evolve according to their vision, and thus they rule the world.

“Void Engineers… We turn our gaze outward instead of in. Even when operating within the world most people know, we focus on the threats to it rather than the ruling. We hold the line. The world is better for it.”

“Where do… we enter… the picture…?” Solomon asked. “I doubt… you can let us… leave now…”

“You are Awakened. Enlightened,” Mrs. Johnson told them. “Let me ask you just one thing: the world you know, is it worth protecting?”

“Eh, it has its problems.” Baby shrugged.

“Many,” Rose deadpanned in agreement.

“I won’t deny that.” Mrs. Johnson nodded. “Defining reality as the Technocracy does is a constant process, always in flux, but it’s still stable enough for billions to live in.

“Those billions, are they worth protecting?”

THE Morrigan scoffed, “I know not of monsters, but I do know the yoke of late-stage capitalism. Is that not part of your ‘Consensus’? That Syndicate and their systems? I would not fight for that.”

“You ‘know not of monsters’ because of Void Engineers,” Mrs. Johnson fired back. “I won’t ask you to fight for the Syndicate. They’re bastards. But if you want a tomorrow where such systems have even the slightest chance of getting better, you do need to fight against the threats that would tear everything, including those chances, to pieces.

“That hope for tomorrow, is it worth protecting?”

“… And fuck the NWO, too,” Alice grumbled to herself.

“The Technocracy has all of this knowledge and advancement, but the world is still centuries behind,” Simmy pointed out in sign language. “Why hoard it?”

“That one’s more complicated, getting into the intricacies of Enlightenment and Paradox,” Mrs. Johnson allowed. “I can show you some fascinating papers on the subject, but let’s not digress.

“We do share. Modern technology and knowledge are possible because we push sleepers toward discovering things for themselves whenever we can. The majority of the Technocracy is made up of extraordinary citizens, sleepers who do know how much more there is to learn, because the Enlightened Science we Awakened pioneer can be used by them. However distant it may be, a core goal of the Technocracy is always to bring the rest of humanity along with us to Enlightenment.

“So that knowledge, the push for more to better humanity, isn’t it worth protecting?”

Mrs. Johnson took them to a door and stopped in front of it, waiting to answer more questions. Most of the seven had come around, Mrs. Johnson swaying them to the Void Engineers if not the rest of the Technocracy.

Simmy was in for the curiosity and knowledge; Baby&Rose were in for protecting people; THE Morrigan was in, haughtily, for hope, and Alice was in for spite; Solomon was in to go with the flow, as he always had; Ophy was in for the fight against nightmares.

And Didi…

“Can we help people?” Didi simply asked.

“Help and protect.” Mrs. Johnson smiled and nodded. “I certainly hope that’s what I’ve dedicated my life to.”

Didi was in to help people, everyone she could.

Seeing the shift in opinion, Mrs. Johnson opened her arms. “Welcome to the Void Engineers, Earth Frontier Division, SAR.”

“SAR?” Simmy signed.

“Silence.Align.Reinforce. We deal with anomalies on the frontlines of Consensus. Now, so will you. I know just the supervising agent to get you started. Monroe is one of the good ones, and he has a spotless record with green agents, much to the ire of our peers.”

“And so,” I grinned. “Your chronicle continues…”

IIIII

[AN: Let me know if you liked the way I did this chapter. I definitely wanted the immersion of the Reincarnation part of the chronicle, but I also want a bit of dice crunch with it. This is my solution. It might be a bit clunky in places, but I think it’ll work. Still interested in hearing thoughts and feedback, though.

Similarly, if you don’t know much about World of Darkness (or even if you do), was this a good introduction to the Technocracy/Void Engineers? Didn’t want to get bogged down in a giant lore-dump, so more will probably be revealed as we continue. SAR is homebrew lore for Void Engineers, very clearly SCP-inspired, but it does actually fit with their canon. I like this as a set-up for a Technocratic campaign.

As much as I hate to do the YouTuber thing, leave a like and a comment lol. More the comment bit, ‘cause Interaction fuels my muse :]