CONTINUED DARKNESS!

And a happy World Goth Day to all of you at home!

Mage: The Ascension 2022 29: Ending!

This week: fixing the hole in the Shroud!

Fighting through an army of angry ghosts, with help from some friendly ghosts.

Sending the Earthbound back whence it came.

Yes, Simon took the opportunity to say "whence" out loud.

Returning to find that we haven't been knocked out of time or anything like that.

Going on vacation.

Game over.

Being THE WORST remains huge fun.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong

As a single-player computer game with no active combat, I am okay at Swansong.

First Kill first look

Vampires? Hunters? Kissing?! Unheard of!

The Foundations Of Decay

My Chemical Romance return!

Friday The 13th

It's Friday, Friday, walking under ladders on Friday...

Dracula Daily

I remember Tumblr. It seems to have partially grown back after being beheaded by new owners? And it's doing a fun thing at the moment, reacting to the Dracula Daily subscription sending out sections from the novel on the day they're set.

Mage: The Ascension 2022 28: Boats!

This week: a descent into the Underworld!

There's a skeleton on a ferry and everything! (I blame Simon.)

And fighting an old dead enemy. And more shades. As in a city of them.

Advice from New Orleans

"Oh, New Orleans, I love you 😂"

Mica Burton.

The Met Gala

This year's Met Gala produced a disappointing number of Elysium style ideas.

I know I should stop comparing it to the 2018 "Catholic Imagination" theme when it was all like that, but still.

May

Judging by the weather today, the pagan ritual people didn't try hard enough.

Beltane

I decided not to follow tonight's Mage game by going to an actual pagan ritual. Happy Beltane!

Mage: The Ascension 2022 27: Violence!

This week: violence!

Cara kicks a demon right out of the body he's possessing!

Simon and Alissa lay down a ward to keep the Earthbound from rising!

Didi trips a guy!

The day is saved!

The Council take most of the credit!

We're too tired to argue!

Bloodhunt

Bloodhunt has gone live! And I have gone dead. A few times.

Avengers

Happy 10th anniversary, The Avengers! (For showing here anyway.) The one I go back to most of the MCU.

Mage: The Ascension 2022 26: Godzilla!

So, the demonic plan is to awaken an Earthbound demon sleeping under the city, and if we don't want a repeat of the New Bremen Godzilla Incident we're going to have to stop that.

New Bremen at 22

Home.

J:

Really wish they'd start a V5 version

R:

The liability of hosting a chat makes NB likely a relic of a bygone time

Jaz:

which blows ass

Conrad Hubbard:

I think you need two things to create a New Bremen:

1. A group of people willing to work on it. This happened last time because me and a bunch of Storytellers put crazy amounts of time into it.

2. A critical mass of players. I think this happened last time by it being on the White Wolf website. If a company didn't want to host it, they would at least have to give an unofficial chat a prominent link.

 

J:

Being on the White Wolf website gave it that air of authenticity, and that definitely drew players. There are a ton of small and medium size Discord servers running, sure a lot of them aren't great, but the desire and ST's are out there. sorta.

Mage: The Ascension 2022 25: Dickery!

Dickish Euthanatos Guy annoyingly finds a lead on the demon issue, so we have to go into a scary lair place and fight shadow things.

Easter special sadly lacking in resurrected religious figures, or bunnies.

Summer

Going to try to get back to STing in the summer.

Josie And The Pussycats

"Wishing a happy 21st birthday to JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS, truly the best movie ever. (Join The Army)"

Mage: The Ascension 2022 24: Hunters!

This week, a suspicious lack of demons.

Some ghouls, sure, but that's just a regular weekend.

And crossing paths with a new monster hunter. Who's kind of a dick.

"Well, darn."

Dead Can Dance Live

How Goth? This Goth.

Plot immunity

Some players enjoy feeling the safety of knowing their characters have “plot immunity.” Other players enjoy the stakes and narrative possibilities of character death. Both are viable ways to tell stories, but discuss expectations with the troupe during session zero.

Justin Achilli on Twitter

I want both at times, and often get more plot-armor-y as I get invested in characters.

A happy Plan To Kill Cappadocius Day to all Giovanni friends who celebrate!

World Rat Day

A very happy World Rat Day!

The Quest

"LARP-ing goes big budget in the trailer for Disney Plus reality show The Quest"

Kids today.

J: Cosplayers got beat up when we were kids.

Mage: The Ascension 2022 23: Demon kicking!

And next, demonic possession.

Simon and Cara and Michael get to be mysterious heroic strangers when they show up to help, having detected the intrusion. Didi and Alissa get to be supportive and warm as the boys prepare the ritual to draw the demon out. Cara is confident and reassuring as she gets ready to apply combat boots.

Demon: "A great fury rises. Your world will scream."

Didi: "Oh, big surprise."

Demon thumped and banished but the reason it appeared still a question for the Traditions in general...

I'm sure it'll be fine.

Trying to remake The Crow again

The Crow remake, really this time? With Bill Skarsgård?

Okay, probably not an April Fool because it's not wacky enough, but after all these attempts it feels like a fool's errand.

"Hey, this guy wore white face paint with lines over the eyes in a movie, get him!"

Also, if it actually happens it means a reboot of The Crow with an Eric I don't find attractive. Which is shallow of me, but.

Moon Knight

Moon Knight 1.01 is pretty fun once you get past the opening which yeek.

1.02 pretty much lays out what's up, chooses a moral stance, and has an invisible monster fight.

1.03 is fighty and Khonshu is a bad debater.

Layla (ft. Moon Knight) 1.04 had some very varied portrayals of mythological beings.

1.05 and I want a Taweret plushie because (a) adorable and (b) I need something to hug.

The Princess Bride

"Every chance she has to be defiant, stand her ground, and get in a good insult, she takes."

A look at Buttercup's role in The Princess Bride.

Mage: The Ascension 2022 22: Gig!

And next, going to a gig. We are allowed an actual night off.

Of course it's interrupted by monsters. But only a bit.

And Simon brings a date!

Spring

It's the first day of spring, and looking out the window I'm quite glad Tony Bennett doesn't rule the world because we'd flood.

Mage: The Ascension 2022 21: Sword fight!

Didi's night is improved by getting to "distract" one of the fancy vampires bidding on the stolen enchanted sundial by batting her lashes and flaunting her neck.

Cara's night is definitely improved by the chance to fight a sword duel with the Unseelie Sidhe knight trying to steal it.

Used correctly it can alter the day and night cycle. Vampires and other things want it, and not just to mess with Daylight Savings.

Easter

Maltesers egg this year, as last year. (Not a complaint.)

Addendum: TWO. Mwahahaha

Two years

As of today I've basically been staying home for two years. Looking back at the early days, the surge of free books and games and music and videos really helped.

Mage: The Ascension 2022 20: Auction!

So now we have to sneak into an occult artefact auction.

"Do we get to dress up?"

"Would a 'no' working even be possible?"

We get to meet many interesting people and not-exactly-people.

Vampire Slayer Player

I'd like to play a proper Buffy game again. Our Mage game skewed that way, obviously, but not all the way.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer 25

Happy 25th anniversary to the premiere of TV's Buffy The Vampire Slayer!

International Women's Day

Yeah

Nosferatu 100

Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror premiered on March 4th 1922.

Pancakes!

Happy Mardi Gras! And/or Pancake Day! And St. David's Day!

Pancakes had! (Which didn't happen any other day this year!)

And Mardi Gras parade livestreamed! I want to go to there.

Mage: The Ascension 2022 19: Burglary!

Well, nothing else crazy happens... for a couple of days.

Then someone steals a priceless and almost certainly magical artefact from the museum in a way that suggests a wizard did it. And the Tradition tribunal would like to know if we have an alibi.

Reuel: Their authority is illusory.

Me: But they look so grumpy when you say that.

Snow? 25th? Cookies?

Okay, I'm declaring this Third Christmas. Season's greetings!

Claudia's Lament

Watching Bohemian Rhapsody and imagining the authorized "print the legend" biopic of Claudia Welles.

J: Except she died of ennui

Me: Like that ever stopped biopics.

Happy Twos Day!

Mage: The Ascension 2022 18: Underworlds!

Simon: "We're gonna have to go in and seal it!"

Cara: "How do we get back?"

Simon: "Good question!"

Didi: "Wow, heavy, everything's in monochrome."

Shadows are returned to being, well, shadows. Alissa's mother is restored. This gives her some hefty Paradox, but she'll be fine in a couple weeks. Assuming nothing else crazy happens.

Ha ha.

I Wanna Be Your Gold

The women's figure skating final was lovely as usual until the depressing end.

Though I was not expecting to hear Iggy Pop.

Lestat

Super Bowl ads (a fascinating glimpse into a parallel world) include the first few seconds of footage from the new Interview With The Vampire series. And of course the first line comes from Lestat. And suggests some kind of antihero motivation change for him. Fiiiine.

Happy Be Excellent To Each Other Day!

Mage: The Ascension 2022 17: Final Destination references!

Cara: "So we have to stop angry ghosts hunting down the not-dead."

Didi: "Final Destination style."

Simon: "Okay, everybody be careful around buses."

And the revived people's Shadows working with the revenant.

The Hollow Ones find the revenant and Cara cuts his head off. Which slows him down for a minute.

Winter Olympics!

Winter Olympics! Exciting! Chilly! Has a sport called Skeleton!

Mage: The Ascension 2022 16: Sugar skulls!

This means a visit to some other Hollow Ones...

Didi: "I'm not guaranteeing there will be sugar skulls, but there damn well better be."

... the preparing of a ritual to find the breach...

Simon: "Let me get my enchanted compass, shut up it's not that funny."

... and a fight with a revenant.

Cara: "And I'm up."

Mage: The Ascension 2022 15: Yeah Yeah Yeah Boards!

With some people alive who were scheduled to be dead by now, there's a hole in the Shroud. Cara may have to fight some bad guys she's already killed.

Didi, when asked: "Of course I have a Ouija board. More than one actually."

Mage: The Ascension 2022 14: Backsies!

There are no airships. So that's good.

But Alissa isn't answering her phone.

They find her eventually, having saved her mom meant she has now has two subtly different versions of the last six years in her history, and while she remembers the original clearly the one where she had a good home life is the the one the world thinks is real.

"Damn, really should have gone on that assassination spree..." Cara says with a shrug.

The group meets up to see if there are any other ripples they need to deal with. The Time Mage and his no-longer-late beloved are nowhere to be found.

And on to the next problem.

Which appears to be ghosts.

Lots of ghosts.

Mage: The Ascension 2022 13: Risk-taking!

So the circle help Alissa save her mom and it doesn't seem to cause any more Paradox backlash. So that's nice.

And Didi and Cara discuss Cara's knowledge that the guy she's dating at the time is going to break her heart in a few weeks.

"I can do something humiliating to him?"

"Better leave it. I mean, if I'm happy with him I might never wake."

"Aww."

A week passes and Didi wakes up in her current place with her current hair. She goes to look outside warily.

"Please no airships..."

David Bowie at 75

Live without your sunlight

Love without your heartbeat

I can't live within you

David Bowie, Within You

Happy New Year!

Album of the year, in a year when like five other albums I liked came out, Halsey: If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power.