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