Subject: Correspondence & Updates
From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
CC: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca); Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca); Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Can we correspond? Do your parents read your emails?
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
If they did then your email would be very alarming Mr. strange adult who has us keep lots of secrets from our parents
Correspond away!
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
this is school district email tho so I guess we could make new emails but that doesn’t really work.
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
Connection blockers work ok.
Subject: The New Kennet Others. General Details
From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
CC: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca); Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca); Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Attached: Cblock.jpg
Ok! That should do.
E & I wanted to keep you girls in the loop as we finalize some deals. You should know our (Kennet councils) mentality & goals.
What we were looking for: we want Others who…
1) play nice with humans
2) play nice with us
3) work with what we’re trying to build.
We are also trying to cover weaknesses. Ways enemies can come at us or gaps in the perimeter they could slip through. In some cases we were after power.
Power does not mean the ability to fight. Some came and are feeding the perimeter. The box your friend Zed gave us as our share from the Choir wasn’t nearly enough.
The deal we made is that all the new goblins together get one vote. All 9 of other new Kennet Others get one vote. This is to help keep us from being co-opted. We didn’t want a block of new Others come in & outvote those of us who have been here all along. They could take control that way. There are groups out there that would try.
Every new member has two sponsors. If new members come & there are no issues after one year then they become half members for one year (half vote each) and full members a year after. To put it simply the only ways this process gets interrupted is if:
1) they break a major rule
2) 5+ of us vote to kick them out (can be part of #1 above) for cause
3) either sponsor says no.
Sponsors will know them best and be able to keep eyes on them. Sponsors will check in regularly to make sure they are being good and helping out. Sponsors can also act as go-betweens & have some idea how that Other works. Mostly.
The deals are complicated and some vary slightly with specifics about what “for cause” means and what rules are but all have agreed to these terms.
Will send some emails as I confirm details with sponsors & the Others themselves about who joined & their backgrounds & details.
Subject: Nibble & Chloe
From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
CC: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca); Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca); Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Attached: Cblock2.jpg
Nibble & Chloe are ghouls. Specifically Nibble is a Couch Ghoul & Chloe is either a profane or NDE Ghoul. Sponsored by myself (Matthew) & original goblins (TS/Gash/Blunt)
Nibble spent too long on the cusp of barely surviving while sitting in front of a flickering screen. Life gave up on him & Death was not alerted to claim him. Legal authorities eventually wrote him off as dead. The power shut off and when the screens went black he lost his last light and connection to the outside world. Was thrust into Undeath. This is fairly standard for couch ghouls with only some minor differences in context & circumstance. (Nibble had early inheritance to live off of after mass family death)
Nibble as a couch ghoul leans more heavily into light/dark dynamic than some other ghoul types. Was more ghoulish than partner Chloe for a long period of time. Probably owing to him being a ghoul for longer — he cannot give us a clear timetable except by referencing old TV. Appears as a 20-something male. Is skinny/pale with claws/teeth he can hide. Unlike other ghouls he doesn’t sleep like the dead outside of the hunt phase and is thus easier to contact. Good for us!
Nibble Gets low level of sustenance from games/TV/artificial light. Like plants & sun. My initial read after several conversations is that he is very mellow and jokey by nature but this is heavily suppressed by stress over current circumstance (see below).
Chloe was overseas with a group of friends when the group inadvertently intruded on an important funeral and offended rural locals. Vigilante justice followed. They were harassed/captured/made to turn on each other (on Chloe) and then released battered and bruised. Chloe’s humanity leeched away soon after and she became a ghoul.
We don’t know the specifics of her becoming a ghoul but from what I remember two possibilities stand out. The first is that she is a profane ghoul. Nibble’s rendition of her story is that the friends were tied up and made to decide who was most responsible for the offense and they named Chloe thinking she would die. They were released and started on their way home and then Chloe was released & caught up. She later attacked and devoured them. If she is a profane ghoul then she was cursed between the time they were released and the time she was and this pushed her into that knife’s edge state between Life and Death. Curse-oriented origin would mean she is more focused on right/wrong & law/justice & maliciousness.
Second possibility is she is a NDE ghoul or Near Death Experience ghoul. Same story but without the curse. If she nearly died or came to the razor’s edge of Death’s embrace (by being hurt enough or a metaphorical hair’s breadth from hanging/being shot/other execution) and stayed there long enough that could push her to become a ghoul. This state/Otherhood may have allowed her to fight her way free and deal with her captors. I can’t remember the specifics about NDE ghouls. Resilience?
The question may no longer matter. Chloe is not doing well and has lost much of her humanity. Distinctions fall away and she has the weaknesses of both. Chloe has more pronounced fangs/claws and waking/sleeping cycles. Is more feral.
Nibble & Chloe met alongside a third while foraging for sustenance. As ghouls they eat dead matter. The three became a foraging pack and became romantically involved as part of this.
In Summer 2019 they had a scarcity of accessible food. Efforts to curtail ghoul population restricted access to common foraging grounds. This caused the ultimate death frenzy of their third (who became so hungry she lost all sense of caution and put herself in the way of hunters) and Chloe’s steep decline and loss of humanity. Subject best avoided with Nibble: lots of self-blame. Nibble was not aware the other two could not get some small sustenance from television as he did and they were not clear about how poorly they were doing.
We took them on because they are fairly effective in a scrap, and they can see Life and smell Death. Their ability to see Life means they can notice many of those who might try to slip through the perimeter. The smelling of Death means they may notice the aftermath of any trouble caused by any intruders: bodies/dead residents/dead animals.
Nibbles is focused on Chloe’s state and Chloe is focused on her own circumstance. We all hope they can find some equilibrium now that they’re spending less time moving on and avoiding hunters.
For you three: expect wariness around practitioners. They are fine to talk to and approach but I would not put my own hand within reach of a snap from Chloe’s mouth. Be appropriately careful– I suspect you three make a more tempting meal than my doom-hosting self.
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Do we know who hunted them??
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
Texts at school says NDE ghouls can get stronger as you push them to the brink of Death. Or they may not be more resillient at all, they don’t get as weak as we do when they get more hurt so they keep going right up until they fall over and die for real. They get best sustenance from the recently dead ‘specially if they were scared when they die.
Best sustenance isn’t “more” sustenance. Is what pushes her closest to balance between Life/Death.
Can’t find the same kinds of details on profane ghouls. They’re a footnote in this book. They seem to be rare. MIght mean its more likely Chloe is a NDE type.
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
Verona: There you have it. I’ll pass that on to Nibble. He’ll want to know that. Will tell the goblins in charge of him & Chloe & E.
Lucy: No idea who hunted them.
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
what + who was their third member of the pack?
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
Faith. Became a ghoul after getting infected by another ghoul. The Death that runs through them can leech into a person who doesn’t have enough Life (because hurt, because other reasons).
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
Sometimes called the standard ghoul, the ghoul scion, the branch ghoul or the family ghoul. Pyramid scheme type power: it flows uphill, you get anchored more if you create more ghouls. At the bottom/if you’re new then existence is hard. As you get higher you get the really strong/dangerous necrophage types. I think they should be called ghoulfathers. No really obvious strengths/weaknesses except the ghoul scion is even better than regular ghouls at making more scions and gets stronger by doing it
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
I think we should move on.
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
CC: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca), Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca), Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
But save the info on binding all types just case??
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
:thumbsup:
Subject: Goblin Gangs
From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
CC: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca); Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca); Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Attached: Cblock3.jpg
10 new goblins include:
Group 1 – Tatty Bo Jangles, Bumcake, Bangnut, Humpydump, 1 Unnamed
Group 2 – Creamfilled, Kittycough, Fishmittens, Ramjam, Biscuit
The new goblins come in two groups– group 1 tried to invade when the perimeter went down and were deterred. Group 2 were brought in by Bluntmunch and have worked with him before. Some in group 2 may stay or leave depending on how things go.
Tatty’s gang are minor vandals and troublemakers who have spent the last few years going from misadventure to misadventure. Most of these actions were unsuccessful and/or mystifying to mundane humans. Recent efforts include:
— One attempt to break into a gun range and steal weaponry despite the fact that few in the group are of a size to hold a gun and none are of a size to easily carry and aim one.
— One effort to steal the curbside trash of a minor actress and auction it off online. The most literate and tech savvy of the group is the gremlin Bangnut and he writes/uses a computer at the level of a 2nd grader. After weeks of no replies on the illegible auctions, they abandoned the ploy. Apparently their own trash mingled with the stolen trash and they felt it was irresponsible to risk auctioning their stuff instead of hers.
— A campaign to erect large and detailed ‘snow dongs’ in mysterious locations across and around the city.
— One effort to steal a tiger from the Toronto Zoo as a pet & mascot. This halved the size of their group.
Group 2 is a pre-formed group of goblins who have helped Bluntmunch on jobs requiring many hands. Often this is looting & the coordinated carrying of heavy objects. They operate & cooperate surprisingly well as a unit when it comes to simple tasks. They have spent the last five years renting an apartment in what to Goblins is luxury and safety. Their old leader was a ‘Tod’. Tods are goblins specializing in befriending and enabling a perpetually inebriated human (or Othered human, through drink/drugs) as their imaginary friend. This human (referred to as a ‘Barney’) was a way for their group to launder money/handle simple tasks/and pay rent.
When the Barney moved on the group was left leaderless. Creamfilled held the reins for a short time but is content to pass on control to Bluntmunch. We’ve provided an apartment similar to their last one and they are happy to have a task.
Kennet’s O.G. goblins, John and I are keeping an eye on the two groups. They give us more eyes & more ways to harass intruders. Toadswallow thinks having more goblins gives us more cover by making us more like a normal town our size but I think that take is a reach.
Double-edged sword. They add up to a lot of small nuisances and headaches & that includes a few for locals.
Edith is reading over my shoulder and stresses a lot of small nuisances and headaches.
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
I’m a little goblined out
2nd group especially sounds like they are pretty good?
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
Hey Matthew is my little man the snot painter the unnamed one?
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
He is. He wants you to name him. Normally a right for someone important in a goblin’s life. I think he really liked you.
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
First Tashlit and now a snot painter??
What are you getting up to when we aren’t watching??
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
are the paintings good?
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
I’m getting up to meeting cool others. No idea if they’re good. Naming a guy’s a huge responsibility. I need to think on this.
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
how will they react to practitioners? team #1 and team #2 would react different I’m guessing?
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
Who knows? They’re goblins.
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
any recomendations on making a good first impresion? I think that matters more for goblins than others.
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
Who knows? They’re goblins.
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
yea
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
We’ll ask around.
Subject: Montague
From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
CC: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca); Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca); Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Attached: Cblock4.jpg
Our best guess is that Montague is a folded or corrupted spirit. He was a spirit or something spirit-like and a powerful ritual or something either altered him as a side effect of being too close (like a person or animal caught up in the gears of industrial machinery/a bird wounded by wind power plant/churned up by the automated plow in the fields) or transmuted the forces of an area and transmuted him in the process and now he transmutes other things.
Montague isn’t intact or standalone enough to spend much time unstructured so he borrows the structure of other things. He is apparent even to those unAware as a pool of blood or an oily red coating that slips along the ground or into and over objects. When he occupies an object (be that object a picture/radio/box/anything else) he alters its appearance to be grim & bent & battered. A derelict car may be filled to the brim with what appears to be blood with branching and zigzagging spider legs reaching out. A picture on the wall may appear to be painted in blood with twitching legs reaching from the corner of the frame. It takes him a few moments to get settled and he can lash out with these appendages from the settlement. If the object can communicate then he can in a limited fashion (radio voice or tapping).
He has helped in a few cases with making sure invaders cannot settle too easily or put down roots. It disconcerts them when the campfire at the edge of town goes out and the smoking wood starts oozing and growing appendages. Mostly however Montague is providing us with power. He can take some structure from diagrams and things and has been attaching himself to our perimeter to fuel it. He does this for about an hour at the quietest time of night just before dawn. The limited time is less about him having the power to spare (he does ok) and more about his influence inevitably altering the perimeter. Left too long with it he would absorb it and make it a part of himself and alter its function. As is he gives us an hour a day we can unplug the box Zed gave us and the perimeter will rev up but the atmosphere in town changes. Similar influence to the aftermath of the carmine beast but revved up– fighting/violence/stress/more echoes. Then for a few hours after (sunrise and city waking up) the perimeter will hum along nicely while plugged into the box.
We are overlapping the night and day shifts to fit during this time and using this as an excuse to check Kennet itself for trouble instead of watching and patrolling the metaphorical borders. If there is anything that has slipped through then a loop of a Montague-infused diagram encircling Kennet seems to give it a kick in the ass and make it show itself (a bit angrier and stronger than it would otherwise be but we manage). If you are awake when we do this then you should notice him starting his ‘shift’. Unawakened people up & about in the small hours of night may get a bad feeling or have to deal with rogue spirits/echoes/agitated animals. Tradeoffs.
As you may guess the influence the CB death had in the area drew Montague here. He came from the site of some ritual or big practice and has no recollection of what the ritual was or who/what he was before. Edith and Alpeana are sponsoring him.
Good guy all considered but was not easy to get on board. Negotiation was halting and he was resistant to the terms until Edith & Alpeana softened him up. I think companionship with them/with Tashlit were more impactful than any amount of quibbling over terms of membership & how he might get kicked out. 2nd hardest to bring on board (1st hardest will be covered in next batch after I talk to people today).
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
I was just reading notes from elementals class I missed. montague sounds like an elemental. fragile & needs a vessel & has lots of power to spare
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
Yep. Yepyepyepyepyep. Elemental seems to map to this yes.
:thumbsup:
Looked up folded spirits and didn’t find much but did find about Plicate Spirits. Fits Monty here.
Um. So when you do big rituals, especialllly realms practices like opening doors between our world and spirit or our world and abyss (loooking at you Ave) you can catch bystanders in the way as space folds and worlds bend to make room. Especially if you rush it or do a bad diagram. If that bystander is a human you can get a horror that’s all stretched out and bent and operates by slightly different rules. Horrors. The plicate spirit is this but for spirits (or plicate echo, or plicate elemental). Folded up, stretched out, twisted up with something else, and operating by different logic. Think implicate and ‘plicate: folded, crumpled, or corrugated, in biology.’
This book sums a lot of it up as ‘each one is different so no one thing works perfectly’, ‘apply lots of fire’, and ‘here’s how you should diagnose or deal with a plicate spirit overriding your diagram’ (which is basically cut off all power and run). Not very useful stuff.
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@Mooseboop.ca)
Elemental makes sense. The Girl by Candlelight/Edith is like that. She has a lot of elemental at her heart powering the spirit side of her. It’s what makes her so impressive when she steps free of Edith. You three sure got an education.
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
CC: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca), Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca), Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
Easy does it on talking about binding/’dealing with’, Ronnie???
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Matthew??
I caught that about the bird and wind power.
Don’t do that! Other forms of power kill way more birds!
Be one of the cool baby boomers Matthew. :sunglasses:
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
I’m a millenial.
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Then act like one. Don’t act like a crusty old 40+ guy :oldman: and do research and don’t buy into environmental propaganda!! Were you trying to be clever???
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
lucy is visibly annoyed sitting at the desk in our room with her laptop right now
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
I was not trying to be clever. I was reaching for examples and that came to mind.
Retracted. Sorry.
Subject: Cig
From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
CC: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca); Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca); Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Attached: Cblock5.jpg
Ambulatory object. Cig is a fairly old Other from what we can tell and has traveled from place to place by jumping from locations where cigarettes are used. Since the ban on indoor smoking it keeps close to the roads and has been traveling Canada. It jumps from rest stop to truck to hazy bar. A mostly intact & smoking cigarette with nobody to claim it. If picked up and smoked by someone unaware it will stay with them for a time then burn the fingers so it is dropped and will disappear to appear somewhere nearby.
Motivations are hard to discern. Cig doesn’t think like you or I might. We have to infer from where it goes and what it picks out. That it came here and seems to want to stick around. It accepted the terms given without issue and has already taken to indicating desired votes as one of the new Others. Edith writes options down and Cig will burn the paper to indicate a choice. Cig avoids places where smoking is not allowed or does not happen and this does include patches of nature where cigarette butts couldn’t be found littered here or there. We think this is because it cannot easily move to places where cigarettes are not in some sort of use.
Cig does not sleep and is very active as an observer. One of two Others we have mingling with incoming humans & potential practitioners. Cig hangs out around the motel/Bed & Breakfast/gas stations and watches newcomers. Part of this is to catch those Others who blend in with the crowd and part is to watch for any witch hunters or practitioners who may be paying attention to what is happening.
Cig seems to gravitate toward interesting people. It doesn’t shy from addicts or criminals– just the opposite. It also likes world-weary travelers and the rambling elderly so long as they have stories to tell. It may be best to think of it less as an object and more of one or all of these types of people bundled together. If they gather together and talk while sitting around a heaping ashtray then Cig is the old man/old woman/criminal/weary traveler/trucker/addict/teenager all tied up into one that is sitting & listening at the table with their cigarette lit but not yet smoked… with the person subtracted from the picture.
At the risk of injecting personality where there is none: Cig is nonviolent and passive. An observer and “listener” rather than an actor. It seems to prefer to avoid violence and sometimes remains behind after alerting us about potential threats.
Cig has been around for roughly a hundred years and has some familiarity with various Lords and longstanding Others. It has had two prominent owners we know of: the first a witch hunter who collected magic items and appreciated an endless cigarette without recognizing the sentience. The second an alchemist who fell victim to an explosion while working on their own work. The explosion seems to have scarred Cig with a telltale abrasion at one side. Cig is clear that it had no involvement in the explosion and seems to dislike the topic.
Cig is sponsored by Edith and myself. Initially it was Maricica instead of me but Maricica became annoyed by the smell and there were other Others (covered in the next batch) Maricica could sponsor. Edith has unfortunately picked up smoking again. I’m annoyed. Please don’t follow her lead. Smoking cig has no effects that regular cigarettes don’t and Cig doesn’t carry anything from location to location (inc. saliva, germs) but it’s really not good for you.
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
Girls I am thinking about taking up smoking
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
no verona
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
No! Gross.
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
Gross.
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
Any chance Cig can point us to that alchemist’s blown up lab, maybe we can forage? Was it recent? Or close?
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
You would have to ask. I would but communicating takes time.
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
We can try it…
I wanted to ask how you are Matthew? Are you guys managing?
We come back soon.
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
Tired. 50 hour weeks at work and then managing these Others and negotiations. Edith’s reading over my shoulder as I lie in bed typing this but she struggles with leading alone. A little too harsh. She often regrets her choices after. I come at things tired. She comes at it hard. We find an equilibrium but it is not easy.
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
we can help once we get back. can we take over duties? and not to pressure but we were talking and I was wondering if we get votes.
Email Reply From: Lucy (LEllingson@tbaynorth.ca)
Avery’s being nice about it. I was the one wondering…
Email Reply From: Avery (AKelly@tbaynorth.ca)
you were also the one wondering what we could do to help make things easier for matthew and edith
we have a responsibility to protect kennet as kennets practitioners
Email Reply From: Verona (VHayward@tbaynorth.ca)
Do you need extra eyes on any of the other Others?
Email Reply From: Matthew Moss (Mossball@mooseboop.ca)
You get votes. Obviously some things leave you out. Just as some things would leave me out.
Thank you for wanting to help. John informed me of how strongly you felt about protecting Kennet. It’s appreciated.
Some help with the perimeter guarding and keeping an eye on the Others would be good. But some are pricklier than others. Tashlit and Cig are easiest and most willing to let me pass on info: this is why I told you the stuff I did earlier. Goblins are a roll of the dice really. Then there are warier others like Montague and Nibble/Chloe.
5 more new Others to cover. 4 if you discount Tashlit who I already introduced. I need a day to get my thoughts in order. Some of these guys aren’t easy & a couple aren’t so ‘play nice with others’ / ‘play nice with us’ / ‘play nice with practitioners’. Sorry. We were struggling to fill gaps in the defense and this is what we ended up with.
Need the day to ask/negotiate what I can share with you and sort out my explanations.
After stopping in at work tomorrow I’ll send out emails about Tashlit / Lis / Jabber / Ken and one other I can’t name without negotiating permission. If you’re getting home in a couple of days then I want you to have this before you arrive so you have your eyes open.
Let me know if you need a ride. I know you said Zed offered and you have the Paths but I wouldn’t mind the chance to escape from things for a bit.
Pale 
Oh, FASCINATING. A JPEG of a diagram attached to an email actually WORKS!
(… huh, first? That’s unexpected.)
LikeLiked by 3 people
Makes sense, right?
Verona did message her dad a diagram to block his messaging.
Wonder how it goes about losing power though, what’s the digital equivalent of a diagram being erased? does the image start getting more and more jpeg artifacts until it’s just done and the attachment stops being downloadable?
Does it manifest as changes in metadata, size of file or anything else?
This sounds like Technomancy in a way, even if the diagram is very obviously a Rune. This is super cool. I’m glad Pale is dealing more with the integration of Practice/Modern society in ways Pact couldn’t due to the massive Karma debit and fast pace of disaster.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As a software guy myself, I have to wonder why JPEG instead of something lossless like PNG, just for the symbolic weight — it’s like comparing a diagram drawn in chalk to a diagram drawn in indelible ink.
Not likely to be JPEG artifacts in the sense you’re expecting. That’s what happens when you don’t allocate enough bits to representing the data. Rather, I would expect “bit rot,” like what you see in hard drives that have their magnetism weakened, or in RAM when hit with radiation — individual sections of data, perhaps even just single bits, getting corrupted. In an image file, it sort of depends on which bits were messed up, but you might see a little square get discolored or blurred or distorted or change colors, or you might see the entire rest of the image get shifted around. The metadata (including the file size) is less likely to get disrupted than the actual image data — statistically speaking just because there’s less of it, but symbolically speaking because the metadata isn’t the part of the file that represents the diagram.
It is absolutely Technomancy, and we’ve already seen that there can be crossover between different schools of magic. Our wild practitioners were already noted for mixing goblin and fae magic styles, largely thought to be incompatible.
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They’re using a different diagram each time, so Matthew’s drawing them probably in MS Paint or something analogous. The little number’s going up.
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While I think PNG superior to GIF and JPG in pretty much every regard(lossless, support for translucency, animation, and 24-bit color simultaneously, higher overall compression for images with color palettes small enough to fit into an 8 or 16-bit palette) and imagine diagrams to be good candidates for svg, JPG’s status as an obsolete file format that Just. Won’t. DIE! might actually grant it more power, especially since I’m pretty sure JPG has enjoyed wider use than PNG for most of the time they’ve co-existed.. Remember that one source of power in this verse is patterns of behavior repeting until they become tradition and that the older a tradition, the more power its rites and rituals hold, and that one of the weaknesses of technomancy is that most tech struggles to stay relevant long enough to accumulate any real power. Plus, most of the technomancy shown thus far has been with older tech(Audio cassetts, not CDs or digital players, 90s style keyboards, not modern style ones or touchscreens, Retro game controllers that are implied to be similar to this verse’s equivalent of the tari 2600, NES, and Sega Master System rather than the local equivalent of xbone or PS4/5, etc.).
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If i were to guess, it’s probably a picture of a physical thing that he drew, and sent the picture. If this is the case, it would likely be completely unchanged until the original drawn diagram wore out, then all at once the attachment just wouldn’t work.
Connection blockers, while they have an analog lifespan, getting less when they get tested, they’re very binary in that they work or they don’t.
The other commenter listed some very technical stuff, and for that, i will say NERD! because I’m one too lol.
I just have a feeling that taking a picture of a drawn diagram would work better than really sloppily drawing one in mspaint, though using an actual advanced layout software to draw it geometrically perfectly would work very well, it’s just a tiny bit wasted on a one time use diagram.
I wonder how diagrams work in 3d, if you can use 3d modelling software like autocad and create perfect diagrams and use lasers and projectors to use it with technomancy. That would be fun. Autodesk would be a good program to use, since it’s a relational object language, and relationships are important, and with any luck since it’s not stored as an image, it wouldn’t do anything until rendered.
Hm, now I’m thinking about 3d printing objects with built in diagrams in the infill. Imagine putting a tiny thing on the thingyverse that feeds you back a tiny portion of ambient power, if it’s a useful object, or you make lots, you could distribute it across the world.
3d printed diagrams and stuff would be easy to assemble, distribute across the world, heck, you could diagram across the planet if you got enough points. Like leylines, but with PLA.
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Correction thread, I guess.
You’re listing the headers as “BCC” but then you highlight one of the addresses being removed. “BCC” is “blind” carbon copy, so the recipients don’t get to see who else is on the list. This should just be “CC”.
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Fixed that about an hour ago. Might’ve taken time to propagate across servers, or you might’ve checked in early.
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Looks like propagation delay. Looks right on a refresh. All good now.
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A smart question for the girls to ask might be ‘how does this affect singling out Crimson Beast murderer.’ With a bunch of new members that don’t have an interest in the case getting votes, achieving unanimous consent to strip someone of power/render them for judgement may be difficult.
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On the other hand, the culprits collectively have a smaller vote share now (unless they’re bringing in Others loyal to them to gain more control, which could be). Hard to say how it shakes out in the end.
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It’s interesting that they’re bringing in all of these new Others who probably haven’t sworn not to harm the trio (unless I missed something). It’s even more interesting that Edith and Matthew are sponsoring quite a few of them, and this sponsorship gives the sponsor quite a bit of power over the newcomer, since the sponsor can singlehandedly prevent that new Other from staying in Kennet.
It kind of seems like Edith and Matthew could be amassing an army of Others that they can use against the girls if they end up making a bid for the Carmine seat.
Moreover, a lot the new Others are noted to actively dislike practitioners, which means they’re more likely to be hostile towards LVA if it comes to a fight.
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Oh, also, the Kennet Others seem to be needing a lot of new reinforcements. Were Miss and the Choir really that instrumental to protecting Kennet, that all of these newcomers are needed to make up for their absence? Or does this have to do with the CB’s death bringing strife to the area, or maybe the fact that the border took a hit awhile back?
I just think it’s a little bit suspicious that Matthew and Edith are suddenly drawing in quite this much backup. Supposedly it’s to protect the border, but it’s almost like they’re preparing for a different fight…
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Don’t forget that Little Miss Neo-Nazi wrecked the perimeter defences Charles set up before he was forsworn, and he’s now incapable of patching it because he’s forsworn- it won’t end well for anyone if he tried.
And the Hungry Choir is powerful enough it interested Durocher, who is otherwise interested in forgotten gods, primordial titans, and other things that are generally unique and powerful.
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Yes to all of the above. And also the fact that outside Practitioners have been poking at Kennet in recent months. But possibly also the last sentence.
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While the suspicion is probably meaningful, I do think that Miss and the Choir were extremely important to protecting Kennet. Miss had her unexplained weird and subtle ways of pushing people away, and the Choir was sheer raw power.
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Edith is sponsoring… a lot of new others.
Which makes sense, given that she is one of the leaders in the absence of Miss, and Mather has a job, but also…
Edith is sponsoring A LOT of of new others.
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This!! And these new Others that Edith now
controlssponsors both haven’t made any promises about not hurting the trio AND no longer count as “outsiders” that the OG Kennet Others would be sworn to defend the girls against.But I’m sure she has no ulterior motives besides protecting the Kennet perimeter…
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#1? Now that’s exciting.
Ah, a hikikomori.
Yes, I know using a Japanese word to describe Nibble makes me sound super weeby, but it’s a more precise term than its English synonyms.
It’s sad to hear what happened to Faith; here’s hoping Kennet gives them a safe space to recover.
Ah, goblins.
I appreciate the concern. Tashlit and Snotty turned out to be okay, but not all the viscerally weird Others Verona meets will be. Especially if she runs into them in the middle of an attempted invasion again.
I’m glad Matthew approves/recognizes what they’ve learned. It hasn’t been for nothing.
That’s a hilarious image. I guess it’s hilariously mundane, because of all the crazy stuff they’ve been dealing with lately.
Not unreasonable, but concerningly vague.
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Is he approving of their education? Or is he concerned about the amount they’ve learned? A few chapters ago the CB’s killers had this to say:
Ominous, especially considering that the girls are coming back both soon and educated.
Also, I agree that “some things leave you out” is a VERY concerning thing for him to say. He tries to play it off like they’l be left out of roughly the same amount of votes that he would be left out of, but I highly doubt that will be the case. More likely that the girls will be excluded at every turn.
Honestly I would have been much more comfortable if he had said that they would be included in very few votes, with some justification of that, because then at least he wouldn’t come off as so evasive.
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I wonder how that exchange would come across in a story where the audience hasn’t had over a million words* of training to expect nearly every conversation to be full of technical truths, half-truths, and lies of omission.
*If memory serves, Pact finished somewhere around the 900k mark, I’m assuming most readers of Pale read Pact first, and that Pale is already a few hundred thousand words in.
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Putting aside how you casually conflate Matthew’s attitude with that of the CB’s killers without even explicitly saying you think he’s among them…the distinction is meaningless as far as the value of their education goes. The approval of a friend and the fear of an enemy both indicate that their education hasn’t been a waste of time.
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I’m actually fairly sure that Matthew isn’t one of the killers (I feel like he’s been too straightforward from the beginning, but that’s a whole separate tangent lol), I was mostly drawing a parallel between those two moments (Matthew pointing out that they’ve gotten a good education and the killers expressing concern over the girls learning too much at BHI).
If I were any of the Kennet Others, part of the murder squad or no, I would be wary of the trio getting too powerful/knowledgeable. The girls getting exposure to the broader world of the practice, while it increases their ability to defend Kennet, also could spell out trouble for the Others in the future, since the girls will be more of a threat to them in general.
It would be nice for the Others to be able to rely simply on the trio’s goodwill as they get more and more powerful, in terms of trusting them not to try to control or enslave the locals in the distant future (say 10 or 20 years down the road). But even if they do have faith in the girls’ goodness, living with that power imbalance isn’t exactly a desirable situation. LVA haven’t been afraid to butt heads with the Kennet Others in the past when they’ve had disagreements (freeing Brie and taking down the Choir, for example), and the more powerful the girls get, the more dangerous those instances of butting heads get for the Others.
Definitely not arguing against the value of their education—they’re going to need all of that knowledge in the coming fight—but I could understand if Matthew is a little wary of how much they’ve learned.
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I have a suspicion that Matthew as the Host of a Doom is far more interested in the girls’ education than the others. They could potentially bail him out of a big problem, and it’s in his best interests to build up a good rapport with them as well as good karma. He’s got to play it political around the rest of the Kennet team, especially, y’know, Edith… but I think he wants them to be the best they can be.
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Don’t start smoking, Verona.
Just wait until you meet Mel, the animated bottomless bucket of peanut butter & honey flavoured ice cream who sings everytime you take a scoop out.
She’s tone-deaf, but much better company during tough times. Plus you can share with the gang !
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I’m really looking forward to the next one of these, really. I want to find out about the troublesome Others. Ones more troublesome than a horde of goblins. (Although, granted, these goblins are a gang of minor chaps and a successful team of bigger guys, so they aren’t as trouble as others would be. A single large goblin that could bully Bluntmunch, or a team of bigger guys who had the same approach as the little gang.)
Especially the chap who can’t be named. Have they possibly met them before, and that’s why- they don’t want Matthew to warn the girls they’re in Kennet for some reason? Can’t think of any independent non-goblin Others the trio have met, though, except the pigdog bogyman- and it won’t be him, not least because the goblins at least know he’s met Avery and would mention it. Does their name have power, perhaps, or do they share it with some entity for whom it does? Like, Odin the ogre not Odin the god, but whenever the ogre is addressed the god can hear and that makes the god angry so the ogre has to go nameless? With ‘ogre’ here being the first entity I could think of that wasn’t a demon, angel or faerie, for whom such a situation is unlikely.
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I think it’s much easier: any information you know about an entity can be used in binding it. Don’t Share Your True Name is creepy fae 101, only with practitioners as creepy fae in this case.
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Lucy: wind power defender
Verona: DON’T START SMOKING
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This, btw is Peak Verona. Like, absolute maximal Verona.
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