MASKS #24 - INTO THE SEPIAVERSE! [Recap]

A catch-up episode for What's Going On with Jason and Charlotte. Part 1 Now ... "There's something weird going on. I'm going over to the Sepiaverse to check it out." A message from Charlotte through the Ponies. And it's been too long since anyone heard further from her ... Previously ... Charlotte ... the graveyard is her home, and her group helped keep the city protected, so she's feeling kind of proprietary about the area, keeping out folk (aside from AEGIS, and repair crews), to keep an eye on the weirdness. Jason ... it's taking awhile to get that building bought up. Charlotte ... it's been over the holidays, folk have touched base, media talking about Iceland and its refugees, public opinion is "Vyortovia did it." Quill spokefolk dealing with connections between Vyortovians and the DC Event related to Byron Quill. Also the board of trustees isn't terribly pleased with Jason's "defense" of his father.  Charlotte keeping an eye on the cemetery. Ponies hanging out there, too, but AEGIS giving them the hairy eyeball. GG is staying close to the cemetery. (An Ponies-sponsored AMA is coming up soon!) Charlotte spends time ... reading. Anything. Research on current projects. Catching up on technology. Texting in long sentences with proper grammar and salutations and signing off. She notices something ... in the sky. Somebody hovering up there. She approaches and ... it's Magus Everard. Scoping out the Everard Mausoleum. She recognizes him without having met him. And he sees her. "Ah. You're still alive. That's promising." Apparently he is involved in her vivification. Not intentional / personal. Was fighting for his life.  Taking stock now of the situation and how poorly he did. And, apparently, answering questions. E: Why are you here? C: This is my home. E: Really? I wouldn't have expected that. (Stretches, arches back) I'm just here for the show, there's a few minutes before things get rolling. What would you ask me, Miss Palmer? I never knew your family. C: (Mentions connections to family down in that mausoleum.) E: (Counters that it's not his family. There's a connection there, though.) C: More with the Hidden Family of the Vyortovian Throne? E: No, I just take it as a hobby to vex them, and, by extension, their associated cousins. ... E: Your family was part of that whole thing. Except you. Interesting. ... E: (Goes into a meandering genealogy. Very few generations -- having kids in 30s to 60s.) ... I didn't create you, I just brought you to this ZIP code, chronologically speaking. ... I was looking for a healer, and had to work fast. Fingers crossed. C: What expectations do you have of me? E: What do you have of a child when they are born? Hope. (Additional metaphors, answered with Hope.) ... Just hoping to vex everything those people ever touched. C: Why? E: Those individuals, in a world that was dying and fading and cursed, came here, a place practically infinite potential, and settled in and prepared to make slaves of other people in this world because that's what everyone else was doing and they wanted to fit in. For that, I will flay their very souls to the end of the universe. Esp. since they did it to my granpappy, and everybody has to have hobbies. Oh, wait, look! Don't ruin the show! She finally spots who he's referring to. Using shadows. Creeping hesitantly around the mausoleum -- range finding around the dead spot. Long hair, must be a woman. Charlotte guesses it's Alycia Chin. E: Watch, this is going to be very interesting. Can you perceive the wound? (She uses some tricks she learned from Jason.) E: Here we go! Very fine thing, almost a wireframe arch, forms in front of the person. Glows. E: And there she goes! That is interesting, very interesting. ... The dead spot hasn't changed. Scars are bearable, but though this was very close to the wound, it didn't aggravate it. You'll probably want to do something about that, I have other places to be. What year is it? C: January 2018. E: Huh. You've been doing well if you're still here. ... Healer, it was a pleasure, and I wish you from the bottom of my tiny shrunken heart, good luck. (And he's missing his right side, interfacing to an energy signature, parts of him boiled away by ... something.) This is nothing, love, I've been dead for ages. Just have a few things left to do, hope I'm in a timeline where I'm still alive. If you happen to see me in 2014, look me up. And then he's not there. Charlotte adds him to her research list. Previous research: mostly uncomplimentary, bemoaned as Magus because very selfish. Celeb magazines, pictures of him in a chalet with JLo, etc. Oh, that's just another universe's JLo, who was a heroin addict, but I always wanted to date her. On the ground, sparking bits still of iron filings. Looks like the same tech as Jason's magic armor. Jason's armor / shirt is more like something alive, normally like a torpid lizard, but when he's really thinking and stuff, it is almost like a doubling of his mental signal. The obvious guess is Alycia Chin. Charlotte follows the script and plans to the other side. Because Jason's judgment about Alycia is a little ... "fragile," so she's going to do some prelim looking on her own. Calls Rebecca to let her to know about it. Who picks up the phone on the first ring, which she NEVER does. Shadow-walks to her. GG writes up a note, to be given to ... Jason, though if he's not available (or is his typical self when a girl calls him), B can give it to one of the other young gentlemen. GG heads over the dimensional barrier. [Unleash Powers! 8!] Comes across at her own grave, to stay out of sight. The world still has its own dim light to it. Can't tell where it's coming from. She lifts off from the ground ... and finds it convenient that she's not solid this time. Reaches out with her senses. Should be easy if she's still using Jason's powers. [Unleash Powers! 7!] [Takes condition to keep it from being shaky/unstable.] Have never before done this on this side. Shock to the system massive, bucket of freezing water -- the sheer amount of suffering and pain and death here. The world itself is unspeakably weary  and miserable. Like a blow to GG's psyche -- she fights through in terrible pain ("you mean, like a contraction?"), an oppressive assault. [Condition: Hopeless!] Finally can get the sensory input wanting. Jasoness that is not-Jasoness. They're at the radio beacon, doing something with it. Charlotte goes to Possess the beacon (without being seen, like, from below). [Freak Roll, 7] Can tell that Alycia is ... wiring additional stuff into it ... a headset? Letting her hear what's said, or maybe broadcast something. It's impossible she wouldn't detect GG, but she doesn't. She's wearing a top that shows activity like Jason's shirt, if less so. Listening, but also tracing or triangulating some sort of signal. And then the spotlights flare up, pinning both of them in bright light .... Part 2 Tomorrow !

Alycia's trying to be distaff Jason Quill with the power shirt? On a side note, I first thought on reading the title was "Wait, wasn't that Issue Three?"  Nope, that was "Into the Sepia Dimension!"  Close but not quite.  It's worrying that I'm beginning to grow fanboy-ish over my own tabletop game.

Jason should be happy, it's usually cute when a girl wears your shirt.

Mike said: Alycia's trying to be distaff Jason Quill with the power shirt My impression (without having seen her outfit in action) is more hacking the nanobots into her own tech ideas to give her certain abilities (dimensional portal? SGHG semi-cure? Information adjunct on how to get to the Sepiaverse). Sort of Earth using Shadow technology in S.3 Babylon 5 -- nowhere near the real thing, but still deeply disturbing.  On a side note, I first thought on reading the title was "Wait, wasn't that Issue Three?"  Nope, that was "Into the Sepia Dimension!"  Close but not quite.  It's worrying that I'm beginning to grow fanboy-ish over my own tabletop game. FWIW, I had the same panicky concern right after I posted it.

Bill G. said: Jason should be happy, it's usually cute when a girl wears your shirt. Especially when you've given it to her ...

I'm looking forward to part 2, given the roster of people in the Sepiaverse. "Jason Quill, you will be tortured and killed. We will spare you if you submit to our truth-beams and answer our questions. First, what is your actual relationship with these three women with you--" "Wait, wait. Can we go back to the part where you kill me?" I get the feeling that the Magus is looking for a "healer" for the dimensional breach ("the wound") and had to choose from the heirs of the Hidden Family. I doubt anyone else in that group would willingly help him close it off. He also sounded like he was kind of messed up, and that may be unrelated, or might indicate he has some mystic connection to the breach. He also sounds like has a Bruce Wayne or Booster Gold deal going on, to look useless so that nobody else thinks to travel back and kill him before he does this. If presented with the entire problem, Leo would be curious. What dooms the Vyortovians? Why is blowing up a city/world their preferred solution? Have others been tried, or are others even possible? If the clock is ticking, the Dread Queen might be forced into making a peaceful deal, and he'd be all for that. So hopefully we will see movement towards answers to some of these questions in part 2.

Bill G. said: I'm looking forward to part 2, given the roster of people in the Sepiaverse. "Jason Quill, you will be tortured and killed. We will spare you if you submit to our truth-beams and answer our questions. First, what is your actual relationship with these three women with you--" "Wait, wait. Can we go back to the part where you kill me?" Ah, but is it that he would have no idea what the answer would be, or what the Truth-Beam would reveal, or because of the looks the three of them are giving to him (hands-on-hips-well?!, wide-eyed-vulnerable-smile-i-trust-you, somewhat-surprised-but-too-polite-to-do-more-than-raise-an-eyebrow).

<a href="https://youtu.be/8D7FUn8KEtM" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/8D7FUn8KEtM</a>

If Summer has enough control over the holographic projection to visualize something and make it visible, she may be able to offer a gift to Dr. Quill. It may not be his son specifically, but maybe the memory and feeling will be enough. If Jason thinks it's inappropriate (and she'd ask first, given an opportunity), she would skip it.

... she's offering to give him a projection of ... Amir?&nbsp;

Of two brothers looking happy together. This world seems like it's got a critical shortage of reasons to smile.

Part 2! Fourteen Hours Later (Now) ... Jason is at the Quill Compound, getting things set up. Brigand is on his patch of the couch. Numina is helping getting things put together. Opted not to include Harry in the shenanigans. And GG is simply not available. So ...&nbsp; yeah , Doom check. [Freak roll! 8] Momentarily, Jason is spread, unable to move or process the perceptions, across his lab, the shadow realm, and the destination (200m south of Charlotte). Overlaid and impotent. He can see Li'lycia running around the room, flipping switches, adjusting controls -- Li'lycia looks at him with a "I can't handle this" look, flickers, and&nbsp; de-rezzes, and Jason feels some horrible nausea -- something going away -- The portal is open.&nbsp;Numina is there, looking reassuring. Jason swallows one last chance for her to duck out, and instead gives a slight smile and a nod. They jump ... The room behind goes away in a couple of seconds, swirls of paper, gate collapses, line of metallic goo left in the lab. Coughing in the ashy air. Numina flickers for a moment, and Jason feels a hiccup as different physical rules assert themselves. N: You did it. Congratulations are probably in order as long as we're looking at this without context. J: Yeah, not a great vacation spot. Air is not so bad as to be able to breathe. There are a few patches of uncloudy sky. (Unlike the picture) the streets are cleared, a mix of tech, primitive and advanced stuff, people camping in the streets ... Soldiers holding modern firearms. Folk have noticed Jason. Excitement and pointing, people headed their way. N: Do we run? J: Make an entrance. Jason is channeling all those&nbsp; awful times when Rusty intimidated low-tech tribal folk on various adventures. Big, flashy, bold. Walks toward the building. J: Stay close by. I'll protect you as needed. She takes on a hard light armor similar to his. Others walk up, no weapons drawn. Something of a uniform ... city camo ... beat up and worn. Not like the Vyortovian troops. More like GI Joe guys -- basic combat fatigues, shirtsleeves rolled up. Mix of weapons -- some version of proper firearms / long guns. Led by Capt. Thomas. T: Master Quill! J: Yes? T:We were told to keep an eye out for you -- would you like to come in for a talk? J: That sounds like a fine idea. Escorted, not guarded. [Pierce the Mask, 11] [What are their intentions?] These are people ... this is not their normal job (greeting folk and honor guard) -- they intend to follow their instructions. Grim group, taking stoic to a new level. Farming out on the Mall. (The comic book reader can see it.) J: Who said to keep an eye out for me? T: Your friend and your father. I hope I'm not being forward. J: Recently? T: Yes. This morning. J: Well, my father has his own purposes. T: Yes, he does. (Very emphatic and heartfelt, deeply dedicated and committed to him. A bit of fanaticism. Murmurs from those nearby.) [What would they like me to do?] Side glances, taking in his appearance, and Numina's. The lighting is weird and washed out, and masking Numina's light shell flaws. They are waiting for Jason to ... do something amazing. Looking to the son of the beloved leader. (Jason wishes he had set up some means of backchannel comm with Numina. Hmm, maybe transfer a nanobot bracelet to her? That would have some real ... be a terrible idea.) They want something flashy. [How can I gain influence?] Rusty would be here, would have trained them, would be assessing threat levels. J: (Coming to the the top of the stairs) We have no weapons to declare. T: (Surprise, suspicion, then) Of course, of course! J: (thinking) Oh, shit, I have no weapons. I am so out of practice at this. Some of the guards think they should still be searched, but are quickly hushed. The interior has been rebuilt. Off to one wing. In good shape. Out the back, can see through to the Mall. Sense of possibility, even hope, Jason is immediately making strategic thoughts about how to better improve, what are other places like, etc. The most hopeful thing he's seen. Even if the light is still wrong -- and will never be right. But things might be okay, eventually ... Off to a large suite of offices, french doors to the outside. And ... ... there's Dad. And Rusty. Rusty murmurs, "Dear God, what is he wearing?" They stop, about ten feet away. Captain Thomas ... salutes. Byron gives a perfunctory return, Rusty a proper one. Dismissed. Stare for a few seconds. J: Hey Dad, what's new? B: Even when she said you were coming, I didn't believe it. You look well. (He looks worn around the eyes -- two years ago, plus several years of wear and tear, like a President.) J: You look like hell, Dad. B: It's been a bit of an uphill hike. We're doing pretty well. We've got some space in here we can talk, and your friend ... J: Yes, my friend. N: Yes, Dr Quill, it's an honor to meet you after all I've studied and read. (She is being only polite, not honest) B: (Can see him sussing out whose tech / software / AI this is.)&nbsp;Come in -- there's a lot to explain. J: Where's my friend? B: Your charming Miss Palmer is ... right there. Previously ... Big, charming, 19th Century office. Charlotte is at the bookshelves. She hasn't seen Alycia since the plane came back down. Hosts are circumspect about getting close to her, except to assure her Jason will be there soon. Making her at home. In discussion with Byron and Rusty -- how did you meet my son? Charlotte considers Jason's story Jason's story. Will talk about the HHL and the Vyortovians and Iceland. But nothing personal about Jason, and not much about the rest of the team. They seemed familiar with Vyortovians. "Damn the luck, was hoping the place would be unstable." Agents, Hidden Family, Hannibal Lectric, etc. Charlotte doesn't mention her family history. C: What happened here? B: Apparently I did this. About 10 years ago. Me and Achilles Chin. They destroyed themselves in the process. One killed the other's firstborn. And then the other did the same. Then this. Concerned about the dimensional membrane penetration. Magus? Dead zone. Your perceptions must be very interesting (down the conversational rabbit hole). Discussion of what battle between Magus and Dr Infinity went. Byron has been doing research into their trans-temporal battle. Mausoleum. Keynome. Splash damage from the battle. Was it the Magus or Dr Infinity? C Assesses the Situation. Damage at the crypt was a wound. Magus did something to get her, and was looking for a healer. So the damage must be from Doc Infinity. She (android, presenting) does not like Halcyon City, because it is a point of temporal chaos. Byron sees it as a metaphysical drunken barroom brawl that caused all sorts of interdimensional damage. Sure, Doc Infinity is against Halcyon, but that would make Magus Everard a defender of the city, which makes no sense. C: But how did Alycia get through without damaging the barrier? B: (Phone rings, answers, hangs up) He's here. Now ... Numina and Jason cross to Charlotte. Are you okay? N showing off new body, "Cousins!" as she makes hand fade in and out. J: C, you didn't come back. We were concerned. Then ... Light came down. Alycia smirks. Raises hands in surrender. Dragonfly lands. But VTOL, and heavily armed. Not the one at Jason's house pictures. Guns trained on Alycia. Rusty and Byron. Charlotte comes up and walk up, "I'm a friend of Jason's." Alycia is giving them nothing. Rusty turned his chair around to watch her on the flight. Alycia played stare-back. Seems likely they were watching the rendezvous point. Lots of guns. Brought back. Immediately separated, but before long Rusty brought her up to much nicer quarters. Maybe because C demonstrated she could walk through walls. Now ... J: Alycia's here? B: She's under watch. J: For? B: What she's doing with my tech. J: Because I gave it to her. B: (several attempts to voice something.) J: Yes, i know you fucked up my brain ... B: Language! Charlotte raises eyebrows. J: (having stopped) Yes, I know you interfered with my memories. B looks abashed J: And you were working with Achilles Chin. B: Well, that didn't last. It's not the case now. We no longer work together. We didn't see eye to eye. J: Are you looking for a way back home? B: We can't go back. (Makes vague gesture that might be a huggish thing). We can't actually ... charged with energy of our home dimension. Static shock that might vaporize this building. J: I've seen a video from AEGIS. I've talked with Amir. B: What? J: Yeah, also there were mind shenanigans from Hecate B: (Blanches.)&nbsp;Son ... your brother died. (Jason closes his eyes, breathes.) I'm sorry to tell you this way. He died during that whole fiasco of ... he was working on this side, but there were scavengers, or the Family, but he... he died defending the Arc Circuit. J: (All the speculation about Amir collapses into more realistic set of options. Sepiaverse. He's a victim, working with/for Hecate, etc.) B: The one from this world ... when all of that happened, we, in our proximity to the effect, were the ground points for a tremendous amount of energy potential from this side and that side that was grounded out. When you came through, minimal damage, nearly non-existent ... (Li'liycia grounding out.) J: Yeah, I figured that out, Dad. B: We absorbed the energy of a landmass the size of the dinosaur-killer. If we contacted individuals from the other side, and if it returned to the other side it would likely resume the original damage potential. I'm ... sorry. J: Yeah. Where's Achilles Chin right now? B: We think he's working with Hecate. J: Excuse me whatthefuck? (Numina mouths the same thing.)

Bill G. said: Of two brothers looking happy together. This world seems like it's got a critical shortage of reasons to smile. Well, that's certainly true.

On the presumption that this constitutes an issue, we should have an end-of-session thang. Unless the Infodump that Doyce promised radically changes things, Jason "grows into his image of himself," having confronted his father. (Danger +1, Savior -1)

James' reaction: "Why would Hecate be working with a guy like Achilles Chin?" Hatred of Byron Quill trumps all politics. She's playing him. He's playing her. It's villainy made in heaven someplace. They may not have been working together long. Though this does imply some cross-dimensional communication that they've figured out. Both are working for/with the Dread Queen. (Sub-hypothesis: Hecate is &nbsp;the Dread Queen. Or the DQ is the Sepia!Hecate.)

*** Dave H. said: J: Yeah. Where's Achilles Chin right now? B: We think he's working with Hecate. : Excuse me whatthefuck? (Numina mouths the same thing.) Jason: <a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/aZ3LDBs1ExsE8/giphy" rel="nofollow">https://media.giphy.com/media/aZ3LDBs1ExsE8/giphy</a>.... Numina: <a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/xT9IgKK9NVmEZxYTeM/g" rel="nofollow">https://media.giphy.com/media/xT9IgKK9NVmEZxYTeM/g</a>... Charlotte: <a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/cZp4oS5MlrkFa/giphy" rel="nofollow">https://media.giphy.com/media/cZp4oS5MlrkFa/giphy</a>.... Alycia: <a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7TKVECPphPuoxWFO/g" rel="nofollow">https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7TKVECPphPuoxWFO/g</a>... Once Link hears about this: <a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/oLN8QcHK34VBm/giphy" rel="nofollow">https://media.giphy.com/media/oLN8QcHK34VBm/giphy</a>.... The audience: <a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/zvj9s4a2bUHBK/giphy" rel="nofollow">https://media.giphy.com/media/zvj9s4a2bUHBK/giphy</a>.... Weird Al: <a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/10esiSI9UXp9Mk/giphy" rel="nofollow">https://media.giphy.com/media/10esiSI9UXp9Mk/giphy</a>...

Two scenes in all of this that may or may not ever happen: Somewhere in the discussion with Dad, Jason needs to mention, "Oh, by the way, I've had to give up a lot to get to you here. Like a piece of my mind, because these nanobots aren't working properly and are slowly robbing my of my memory and cognitive-body connection, even beyond your design parameters to f-screw with my memories." (He won't mention Li'lycia yet, because he's still not clear what's going on there, and/or is in denial about it.) (Cell door slams open) "You.&nbsp;Your dad is alive.&nbsp;He's here on this world, but can't return to our Earth without destroying it.&nbsp;He's not working to fix this planet, but is instead working remotely with Hecate, who's the worst person on our planet ever.&nbsp;Get over it, stop smirking, I'm getting you out of here."

Audio of this episode:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1eZrLEw6Zw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1eZrLEw6Zw</a>

Bill G. said: *** Dave H. said: J: Yeah. Where's Achilles Chin right now? B: We think he's working with Hecate. : Excuse me whatthefuck? (Numina mouths the same thing.) All excellent. And the image I almost used:

*** Dave H. said: Hatred of Byron Quill trumps all politics. She's playing him. He's playing her. It's villainy made in heaven someplace. They may not have been working together long. Though this does imply some cross-dimensional communication that they've figured out. Both are working for/with the Dread Queen. (Sub-hypothesis: Hecate is &nbsp;the Dread Queen. Or the DQ is the Sepia!Hecate.) Putting my predictions out now, out of character: Assume our description of Hecate's powers are accurate & she's in contact with parallel selves. She has prior knowledge of Sepia!Byron's activities. Aria/Pneuma would be in a good position to evaluate this claim in character, once someone talks to her. Assume Sepia!Byron and Sepia!Chin are gone, and Prime!Byron and Prime!Chin are now in the Sepiaverse - Hecate, any Hecate, will probably want one or both gone. She would therefore ally with Prime!Chin to get rid of Prime!Byron, the kill Prime!Chin as well if possible. If so, she may see Alycia and Jason as useful pawns here and make a play for them. I thought about the Hecate/DQ connection before, and I assumed at the time that we had enough information (from our various public sources) that we could prove or disprove this (e.g. they look nothing alike, both have been seen at the same time by HHL members, etc.) That doesn't rule out magic shenanigans so I'm willing to buy it, but if so, Prime!Hecate is doing an absolute shit job of protecting the world she lives in if she isn't using that connection somehow. So I predict probably not, but it's a compelling theory anyway.

Oh yeah, and final prediction: when that cell door opens, either Alycia won't be there or she'll use Jason as her escape plan.

Bill G. said: Assume our description of Hecate's powers are accurate & she's in contact with parallel selves. She has prior knowledge of Sepia!Byron's activities. Aria/Pneuma would be in a good position to evaluate this claim in character, once someone talks to her. Well, that also raises the question of whether what Byron meant was that Prime!Chin is working with Sepia!Hecate (not Prime!Hecate, which was my first assumption). Which would also be really bad, esp. if the connection between Hecates is real. Assume Sepia!Byron and Sepia!Chin are gone, and Prime!Byron and Prime!Chin are now in the Sepiaverse - Hecate, any Hecate, will probably want one or both gone. She would therefore ally with Prime!Chin to get rid of Prime!Byron, then kill Prime!Chin as well if possible. That goes right with my thought of Chin/Hecate exploiting each other. If so, she may see Alycia and Jason as useful pawns here and make a play for them. That will have to be a hell of a play to get Jason to go along with, unless it's a lot more subtle than that sounds. Alycia doesn't seem like she'd play along, either, but if I'm wrong that would be a nasty combination.

A couple of other notes: 1. The Quill/Chin falling out over in the Sepiaverse is completely predictable, esp. if they were trying to reestablish society/civilization here. Mutual cooperation to stop the end of the world? Sure. Mutual cooperation to create a new world political order? Not too many people's relationships, even the best of them, would survive that. 2. I'm fascinated by the destruction of the world coming from&nbsp; one little conversation never having happened.

Sepia!Hecate's play: What do both Jason and Alycia want? To get their fathers back. Neither seem likely to move to the Sepiaverse permanently for that (but who knows?).&nbsp; What could she do? Intercept both kids on their way home. The brute force approach, lacks finesse, but probably doable. Now she has hostages, anyone can figure out where this goes next. She mostly has to worry about Rusty going in to assassinate her. Hecate's already demonstrated the ability to put a whammy on Jason's mind. Convince Jason & Alycia that the whole "if we go back the world goes boom" thing is either bullshit or solvable with her help. She puts on a light show, brainwashes the kids, tells them both to hug daddy, and steps out of the blast radius. Tell Chin that Byron has his daughter captive and let him loose. I get the feeling that she's keeping Chin around as a trump card if Byron gets out of control again, anyway. We have a repeat of the earlier scenario, only with more localized explosions.

I can't question any of that, except the idea that Rusty needs any additional motivation to assassinate Hecate.

*** Dave H. said: I can't question any of that, except the idea that Rusty needs any additional motivation to assassinate Hecate. He hasn't done it so far. If she has established some kind of settlement and protects it, that stability makes her a necessary evil. That changes if she takes hostages or otherwise makes a move. Chin's attitude and ability is an unknown there, but he went to her, not vice versa, as I heard it described.

*** Dave H. said: On the presumption that this constitutes an issue, we should have an end-of-session thang. Unless the Infodump that Doyce promised radically changes things, Jason "grows into his image of himself," having confronted his father. (Danger +1, Savior -1) Absolutely counts as an issue, and the same thing is true for Charlotte. Side note: At SOME point in there, I really really meant to have Jason Take a Powerful Blow, but in the drive to get at least SOME of the reveals out inside our window, I just... forgot. Maybe it all hits him later that night? I dunno.

Somewhere in the discussion with Dad, Jason needs to mention, "Oh, by the way, I've had to give up a lot to get to you here. Like a piece of my mind, because these nanobots aren't working properly and are slowly robbing my of my memory and cognitive-body connection, even beyond your design parameters to f-screw with my memories." (He won't mention Li'lycia yet, because he's still not clear what's going on there, and/or is in denial about it.) Byron will be aghast - moreso when it occurs to him that the buffer overflow error might in fact be caused by the 'airbrush out these particular memories' hack he basically dropped in at the last minute. [ByronPrime reminds me more than a little of Harrison Wells of Earth2, from the Flash.] He... does not have the resources here to even attempt a fix. At all. "It's a very good sign that some of those memories have come back, because it means the code is eroding, or you or the bots are figuring out how to circumvent it - like someone learning how to walk by using different parts of the brain to control motor functions, when that portion of the brain is damaged." He glances at you, then clears his throat. "It might mostly erode over time, but that's cold comfort if it takes too long... You need some way of overwhelming the thing all at once - some sort of mnemonic bolus would burn it out, but for that you'd need to somehow merge in original memories of those missing times, and some means of doing..." he waves his hands in the air, as if trying to snag the word he needs, "... memetic ... programming. Which doesn't even exist, as I just made the term up, so..." (Cell door slams open) "You. Your dad is alive. He's here on this world, but can't return to our Earth without destroying it. He's not working to fix this planet, but is instead working remotely with Hecate, who's the worst person on our planet ever. Get over it, stop smirking, I'm getting you out of here." We'll play this out, for sure, and the speech may be slightly different once I get through the info dump. Speaking of the Infodump No no, not your Hecate, this world's Hecate. (Though there's some indication the two are in communication, some how... or were in the past - this Hecate knows things about us...) I'm fascinated by the destruction of the world coming from one little conversation never having happened. Thanks. I was pretty happy with that. Not the destruction of the world. This world/reality is/was pretty well and truly screwed already - the Chin/Quill war only destroyed the Atlantic coast, Manila, Hawaii, and most of South Asia. The war killed - almost incidentally - the (few) meta-powered individuals this world had. Hecate was one of the only that survived, and she did not, by all accounts, do so unscathed. Sepiaverse "Sepiaverse? Fine... works as well as anything." This world - reality - is, for lack of better terminology, dying. Has been, for a very long time. If you want to get into particulars, this dimension has been leached of Possibility. If you look at an open field in our home world, you can imagine hundreds of things - thousands - that can be done with it. Build a house. Build a store. Build a soccer field. Leave it alone. Make it a refuge. Plant a forest. Whatever. Truly, whatever you can imagine, those are options on the table. In the Sepiaverse, those potentials are infinitely fewer, and the options are, at best, poor. In a probabilities sense, the world is played out. It is not that way around D.C., because when Byron and Chin and Rusty were pulled here, so was their captured Keynome, and that thing has given them both the means to ward off Hecate (who seems very intent on enforcing a "no Byron Quills" rule for her world), and actually give this part of the world a chance. (Well, technically, chanc es . Potential.) They've been doing what they can with that. [GM partly tongue-in-cheek comment he can't quite resist.] "Hopefully, the loss of that potential energy and the Keynome has not caused any significant damage to positive potential in your Washington - one would think the potentials stored in the rest of the world would balance things out. How's it going there, in the last few years?" In a way, it's a small, quite pared-down version of what was intended by the Family - take all the potential in an 'energized' reality, collapse that into their almost-dead reality, so that the resultant single version possesses some of that stolen potential ( some of it - a huge amount would have just been lost). This would have destroyed the Prime or... collapsed it into the other? Something like that.&nbsp; The end result would have been... far less than the prime, but far more than secondary. Probably hopelessly mundane, but still quite sound. "It's a terrible idea, unless you really, truly have no better options. But that is the very definition of this world: No better options." Chin Chin was fine while we were just trying to survive, but once it became clear Byron was 'just establishing yet another new world order in his image' - what he calls it when survivors and refugees flock to the one point of light in a sea of misery - then he reverted to form. Tried to steal the Keynome. Twice. They found out he'd allied with Hecate when the two of them and some other forces lured them down to the ruins of Mercury Bay about a month ago. Chin and Hecate planned to capture them in the Block (Kill Devil Prison, on your world), but they managed to escape. As they got away, Byron picked up a strange energy signature, and traced it to a Mask (Mercury, ironically), standing in the ruins of Mercury Bay. It was the first indication they'd had that anyone from your world had had any success in crossing the dimensional barrier. They couldn't decide if that was good or bad news, at the time. In any case, Chin is probably still working with Hecate, who is ... very pointedly *not* ruling the locale surrounding the other Keynome that was pulled into this world. (It turns out Icelanders don't like being ruled by a sorceress from another dimension.) Chin may dream he can weld that chaotic situation into some kind of anarchist communal utopia? Byron shrugs at that - he's never seen a solvable equation for Chin's political theories.) Dread Queen Byron and Rusty know next to nothing about Vyortovia - aside from whatever the locals knew. They never actually dealt with them or faced them directly, since they swapped worlds at the same time. If people don't explode when they touch Vyortovians, that's... indicative... of... something. It's possible Sepia!Hecate is coordinating in some way with the Dread Queen. It seems obvious the Vyortovians are still looking for ways to collapse the dimensional barrier and complete the ... tesseract of worlds. Chin originally fought the Family's plan two years ago, but the longer he's in this world, the more his options dwindle, literally. He may have come to believe the only way to break away from the governments he despises is via the total chaos resulting of two collapsed dimensional probability clouds. Okay... that's what I can think of right now, as well as stuff Byron would have said during this. If there are questions, I'm sure they will remind me of other things.

Bill G. said: *** Dave H. said: I can't question any of that, except the idea that Rusty needs any additional motivation to assassinate Hecate. He hasn't done it so far. If she has established some kind of settlement and protects it, that stability makes her a necessary evil. That changes if she takes hostages or otherwise makes a move. Chin's attitude and ability is an unknown there, but he went to her, not vice versa, as I heard it described. Well, that gets back to which Hecate we're talking about (I certainly lept to his cooperating with Prime!Hecate, but that's by no means clear in retrospect). But, yes, Rusty has held off on such an action so far. But it wouldn't surprise me if he's suggested it before, even if half in jest. UPDATE: So, yes, it's Sepia!Hecate we're talking about here, even if they are perhaps in collaboration.

[ByronPrime reminds me more than a little of Harrison Wells of Earth2, from the Flash.] As long as we don't end up with a Council of Quills ... (Flash on five Byrons shouting "Language, young man," and a sixth, with long hair and bell bottoms muttering, "Yeah, that language was pretty shitty.") Earth2!Wells does have that weariness about him that fits with how you've described Byron!Prime. It's just, well, I like &nbsp;Earth2!Wells (actually, I like all the Wells, even Thawne!Wells, but that's another story). It actually sounds (without having read the infodump, and very limited exposure) that life in the Sepiaverse has perhaps grounded Byron a bit. Fewer super-science adventure distractions, more opportunities to have the real world needs rubbed in his face. Also, knowing that is Sepiaversion Byron was part of the destruction of this world has to have been a Powerful Blow to Take (maybe multiple times), driving down his Freak and Superior and pegging up his Mundane and Savior. I doubt Jason will be in the Sepiaverse to appreciate that; he's still got a serious cold mad-on finally seeing him again, but it will likely lead to some thinking later on.

"It might mostly erode over time, but that's cold comfort if it takes too long... You need some way of overwhelming the thing all at once - some sort of mnemonic bolus would burn it out, but for that you'd need to somehow merge in original memories of those missing times, and some means of doing..." he waves his hands in the air, as if trying to snag the word he needs, "... memetic ... programming. Which doesn't even exist, as I just made the term up, so..." Yes, a shame that&nbsp; such a thing doesn't even exist.

If you want to get into particulars, this dimension has been leached of Possibility. So the Keynomes are embodiments of possibility, the cosmic collection of memes. If the Vyortovian mages of this world (just to pick a party) overused those tools in some fashion -- domination, defense, whatever -- digging grooves into the cosmic record -- then "possibility" gets exhausted, or, rather, ground into a single path, leading to one of the spiffiest fictional interdimensional "differences" I've run across.&nbsp;

*** Dave H. said: "It might mostly erode over time, but that's cold comfort if it takes too long... You need some way of overwhelming the thing all at once - some sort of mnemonic bolus would burn it out, but for that you'd need to somehow merge in original memories of those missing times, and some means of doing..." he waves his hands in the air, as if trying to snag the word he needs, "... memetic ... programming. Which doesn't even exist, as I just made the term up, so..." Yes, a shame that&nbsp; such a thing doesn't even exist. Now if only you knew someone who had memories of all those missing moments with Alycia, and a way to merge memories.&nbsp;

Chin was fine while we were just trying to survive, but once it became clear Byron was 'just establishing yet another new world order in his image' - what he calls it when survivors and refugees flock to the one point of light in a sea of misery - then he reverted to form. Yes, I can imagine, too, how that conversation sounds from Chin's perspective. Even a "kinder, gentler, more humanitarian" Byron Quill would doubtless impose "rational" limits on personal freedom "for the greater good," and while probably not reveling in it, hasn't seen fit to quash the cult of personality about himself, and probably (again, logically using all tools in the kid) exploits it to get necessary things done, back by an army trained and led by his close associate.

Doyce T. said: *** Dave H. said: "It might mostly erode over time, but that's cold comfort if it takes too long... You need some way of overwhelming the thing all at once - some sort of mnemonic bolus would burn it out, but for that you'd need to somehow merge in original memories of those missing times, and some means of doing..." he waves his hands in the air, as if trying to snag the word he needs, "... memetic ... programming. Which doesn't even exist, as I just made the term up, so..." Yes, a shame that&nbsp; such a thing doesn't even exist. Now if you knew someone who had memories of all those missing moments with Alycia, and a way to merge memories.&nbsp; You mean, like Alycia Chin down in the dungeon and someone who's done&nbsp; extensive research into zipper merges? Yeah, shame about that, too. (Flashing on the similar process in Young Justice episode " Bereft " ...) That opens up a whole other set of questions. A zipper merge between Pneuma and Numina was pretty straightforward at the time. This is finding bits of her memory to match with his deleted memories, How much will Jason trust a process that pastes sections of Alycia's memory into his own. Even if that's the only stuff brought over, can facts be separated from emotions?&nbsp;How will that color his attitudes about things? Is the damage in Jason's mind that distinctly identifiable? Let alone what anyone else's reaction to this might be.&nbsp; The plot thickens ...

Chin originally fought the Family's plan two years ago, but the longer he's in this world, the more his options dwindle, literally. He may have come to believe the only way to break away from the governments he despises is via the total chaos resulting of two collapsed dimensional probability clouds. That's a fascinating thought, in terms of the Keynome's effects (or It's lack and the effects of that) on him. Can Alycia convince him otherwise. Would she want to? How much does she know of the situation here, and given her apparent satisfaction in being captured (that smirk!), what's her &nbsp;plan?

In fact, this is the type of merge we've seen done twice in this game, the Victory Merge . Rossum did something like this to introduce data into Pneuma's mind, and then Leo reversed it by using Numina as a source of truth for the gap. I'll let Summer explain the theory and predict the outcome: "Memories are chains of associations, moments in time strung together and cemented by how we perceived them. Human memory is amazingly subjective like that. For example, ask Leo about the time he beat the Afterburner arcade game on 3 quarters. He'll tell you about how exciting it was, how he was bored that day, he'd just bought a bag of Doritos and didn't have anything else to do. He'll recall furiously pulling and pushing on the joystick to dodge enemy rocket fire, how he leaned his whole body into evading, how he knows it didn't do anything but still felt he had to at the time, how he was astonished when his jet finally landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier and the game was over." "Leo didn't beat Afterburner. Another kid did, and Leo watched it happen. I remember it that way, but he doesn't, even though we weren't distinct when the memory was formed. Leo was so engrossed in the action, so interested in the game itself, that he internalized the experience of play and made it his own. But my mind is not Leo. When the Heart Factory made me, it took those pearls of memory and shook them all out, like making your bed and snapping the covers over it, then folding out the wrinkles. The raw material of memory is still there - Afterburner, 3 quarters, Doritos - but my consciousness threads through that memory at a different angle." "Post-merge, Jason's mind would interpret the memories fresh. If those memories depend on other memories to be consistent and comprehensible, he'll get those - and if he didn't have them before, he'll fit them into his life narrative somehow. The brain does that, in self-defense: edits memories, incorporates them, rationalizes them. To save itself, he will do something with them that's meaningful. And even Leo was never able to predict just how it would turn out. Like Otto and Pneuma, he knew only that a new person would be the result. He never knew exactly who it would be." "But. The Summer that came to this world, and the Summer that will leave, won't be precisely the same person. New memories, new attitudes. Even a few very uh, intense and stressful weeks, separates Summer from Aria. We're always becoming new people, because we're always gaining new memories. It falls to our friends to keep us safe and on course when that happens."

Still seems a bit ... troubling to replace his (edited) memories of events with Alyicia with internalized versions of Alycia's memories of them. His brain will process them, but memory is also subjective, emotional links of symbols of particular things, enough of those symbols to usually keep the memory distinct (but not always, which is why we sometimes merge details of different events).* Merging Alycia's symbology references with Jason's in a way that's analogous is doable, but might have interesting results ("Why does the Monkey with the Hat remind me now of burritos?"), and the idea that it's Alycia's 1st person perspective of not just events with Jason but of Jason himself (and of Alycia herself) is ... complicated. The brain will do a lot of the work, but the outcome will not be the same as the originals, which in turn might color things in interesting ways. Which doesn't say Jason won't do it, it just won't be as simple as the YJ episode made it out to be, and he'll be more worried about it than maybe he should. ------ * I can remember driving in the UK. Did it a lot on a couple of vacations there. But when I do, unless I really concentrate on it, my memories (including visual) are of driving on the right-hand side of the road. Which, I hasten to point out, I didn't (except, briefly, on a couple of fortunately rural occasions), but the symbolic shorthand&nbsp; UK and driving and vacation tend to drift to the much more common symbol for driving &nbsp;that is on the right side of the road, because the brain is lazy. The memories also sometimes criss-cross as to which seat in the car I was driving from. It's amusingly weird, but points out to me how goofy memory is and how it's not like a tape recording that can be edited. Except in cases where super-scientists can (and have) done it.

Summer would not predict that Jason would remember things from Alycia's perspective - she has a whole lifetime of synthetic memories from Leo, where she's watching him or near him, and that's the result of her mind rationalizing those experiences. And yeah, it would not be a 1:1 replacement for his old memories, and she is of the opinion that it's almost better if it's not. "You lost your memory. You got replacements. They are not the old memories. But that loss and recollection is also part of your life history." She is hopefully one of the best people to shepherd Jason through this process, should he choose to engage in it.

I'll also point out that the (thus far) theoretical process in question would only really target gaps he still has, so this isn't so much replacing stuff Jason remembers, but filling in spots he's missing. All of which are fairly easy to identify, really, since Byron literally wrote code saying "airbrush here, here, here, here, here..."

*** Dave H. said: Jason is at the Quill Compound, getting things set up. Brigand is on his patch of the couch. Numina is helping getting things put together. Email from Numina; Leo and Pneuma and Otto copied. Jason has figured out how to get to the Sepiaverse without damaging the dimensional... 'barrier' (membrane/border) and is going to check on Charlotte, and maybe his dad. Visit with Amir raised a lot of questions for him about Dr. Quill. I'm going to go with. Should be fine. New shell is a little weird, but has interesting uses. Might want to keep everyone around the Compound or at least 'together', if you can, just in case. - Summer

"'Interesting uses'....'Going with Jason'..." Replace Doom with Leo and "Richards" with "Jason".

Might want to keep everyone around the Compound or at least 'together', if you can, just in case. - Summer Reply-all from Otto:

Bill's drew a smiling chuckle, but Doyce's was milk-through-nose-worthy.

I'm really liking what Doyce, Dave, and Margie are doing on this story, looking forward to seeing it play out further. Also glad Numina was able to politely greet Byron rather than use Leo's suggestion of "listen here, Dr. Douchebag--"

Leo is glad that she can be polite. Jason is worried that she can so ably lie under the cover of politeness. :-) (Now looking forward to Alycia and Numina bonding under a discussion of Byron.)

For what it's worth, I've completed&nbsp; the Jason perspective on this episode , literally about 20 minutes before the next game. :-)

And, of course, I fully expect the GM to incorporate all my character's final-installment ideas for said next game.

*** Dave H. said: (Now looking forward to Alycia and Numina bonding under a discussion of Byron.) "Jason, the good news is Alycia and Numina bonded. The bad news is they're talking about finding girls to set you up with. Take a Powerful Blow."

*** Dave H. said: And, of course, I fully expect the GM to incorporate all my character's final-installment ideas for said next game. *scribbles madly*