Shade's Retreat privileged info

[powersthatbe]

If you're not playing the Hunter or a Shade victim for this walkabout, please do not read this post.

If you ARE, please check in here, pop over here to let everyone know who you're playing, and use this post to coordinate shenanigans. If you have any questions, please leave them here, and the walkabout runners will get back to you as soon as possible.

Comments

Shade (Allura, Mamoru, Stone, Casper)

[powersthatbe]

Proposed possession schedule (can be adjusted per player needs if necessary, amongst yourselves):
Day 1: Tobi
Day 2: Mamoru
Day 3: Allura
Day 4: Stone
Day 5: Casper

You've never been particularly fond of humans. You've never really considered them at all, except as a resource. They're food, nothing more, and while you don't agree with those of your bretheren who think misery makes them taste better, you don't particularly see the point of bonding with the slow, dull, short-lived things. You do try - not always successfully - to keep from killing the ones you feed on, because you know from experience that a trail of bodies makes it easier for their hunters to find you.

In spite of your best efforts, one of them has caught your scent - and unlike those you've dealt with on other occasions, they've managed to follow you through several bodies. You thought you'd lost them on your last jump, and bound yourself to the human you'd chosen so you could be sure of putting a little more distance between yourself and your pursuer before you risked exposing yourself to the second sight and the unpleasant magics that often come with it. Unfortunately, your assumption that you'd managed to escape was incorrect - not only has the hunter managed to track you down, they ripped you from your comfortable host and trapped you within a ward you can't cross.

Now, the only way to keep yourself from being destroyed is to hide within the humans penned in with you, jumping from one to the next before anyone realizes you're there - you can access your host's memories (though you can't communicate with them directly), but you're not a perfect mimic, and you're bound to be under a lot of scrutiny. You hope to find a way to escape in one of these bodies, or even better, find a way to turn the tables on your pursuer.

The first PC possession will begin at the start of the second mingle, on November 22nd, and the Shade will jump hosts roughly once per OOC week/IC day, though you're welcome to arrange a shorter stint for your possession if you want to. The Shade can't communicate with its host, and while it can use the host's abilities and access their memories, it can't share its own memories with them. The host will remember everything the Shade says and does while in their body, but won't remember anything it did before possessing them.

Details on how the Shade was caught and exorcised from Tobi will be provided once they've been worked out by the players in question.

[reincarnatedprince]

I'm fine with being victim #2 and also checking in.

[reallymean]

Things the Shade would know for this possession:

1) The Hunter doesn't have any problem with doing things that will get his own kind dead. You probably don't want to bind yourself to this host even if it would be convenient for feeding - being able to get out of this host and into the next fast will probably be better for your survival.

2) Speaking of feeding, you need an energy top-up fast. Getting away from that maniac took a lot out of you, and you need to be ready. Fortunately, there are a lot of humans to eat from so you don't suck this host completely dry and can possibly reuse him after he recovers, if you absolutely need to.

3) Some of these humans are really weird. You can't trust them, because who trusts a steak, but they might be useful if you have to resort to (ugh) fighting instead of running and hiding.

Please comment by next Friday with anything the Shade learns while possessing Mamoru that you think might be useful to pass along to the next victim!

[reincarnatedprince]

Nothing useful here other than maybe "the ghost girl is highly observant".

Also is it safe to assume that Maxwell will likely need a lot of bed rest for a day or two to recover from this?

[reallymean]

That's safe to assume, yeah.

[helborn]

Checking in for final victim!

Will the Shade be able to use, say, the Network?

[reallymean]

Shade, no. Victim, yes.

[reallymean]

1) The Hunter doesn't have any problem with doing things that will get his own kind dead. You probably don't want to bind yourself to this host even if it would be convenient for feeding - being able to get out of this host and into the next fast will probably be better for your survival.

2) The Hunter has a ghost girl he's using as a spy, and she's rather observant for a ghost. You might be able to come up with a way to use this, but until you do, you should avoid her.

3) Some of the guests here are very definitely not human. Unfortunately, they're just as happy to murder their own kind as the Hunter is, so they're worthless as allies, but you might still be able to use them, if you can just pit them against the Hunter. That might crack the wards enough for you to escape - though the fact that some of them seem to have learned to detect you even when you're concealed within a host might make that difficult.

Remember, the Shade has access to Casper's memories, but not vice-versa - he'll recall what it does while it's possessing him, but can't give any insight into what it's done in the past or what it's planning. It also has access to any of his skills that aren't sourced from Liminal Space, the Network, or the Arcana. Touch base with Gail if you haven't already to decide how the Shade is transmitted from Stone to Casper, and enjoy!

[helborn]

We haven't totally figured things out and I don't know what to do since we haven't finalized things but I know time is running down.

[reallymean]

Are you comfortable handwaving the details of the transfer based on what you have worked out?

[helborn]

I think so... pop it on the latest walkabout post, then?

[reallymean]

Pop it wherever you want. There isn't going to be another official mingle, but you can post your own if you want to.

[reallymean]

Checking in for Victim #3.

Re: Shade (Allura, Mamoru, Stone, Casper)

[powers_that_hart]

Mr. Body checking in!

[finalizes]

Yo! What kind of character is Tobi's overlay, how well does the Shade keep up with their life, etc - essentially, what would Laughs' overlay be able to glance about them?

[powers_that_hart]

Tobias is a quiet man who mostly keeps to himself. He was an accountant, stuck to a regimented routine, didn't have many friends, liked to drink and read books and occasionally would say something that he clearly thinks is a joke that... no one else gets. When particularly drunk he would boast about a trick he'd pulled on his higher-ups at his last firm, but he'll never say what the trick was.

Right now he's looking particularly run-down, like he hasn't been sleeping well, and he's a little nervous. He sticks to himself, as per usual, but he hasn't been drinking as much - or rather, he comes down to the bar and will order a drink and apparently sip off of it, but he never gets more than one drink and he never gets properly drunk anymore. He keeps trying to awkwardly go sit with other groups and talk to people, but he's still just as socially inept so people mostly just side-eye him.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone checking in!

You say below that the Shade can't communicate with the network, but the host can... while possessed? So like, they could say "hey guess what something's controlling my body right now"? Or are they cut off for the duration?

[reallymean]

The Shade can't access the Network. If it's possessing an Investigator, they can unless they're severed for some reason - they're conscious the entire time, they're just cut off from any ability to affect the physical world. Which the Network isn't.

[finalizes]

Do you have plans for how Stone catches and loses the Shade, and would you like Shadwell involved somewhere?

[scarsolderthanyou]

I have no solid plans. I had vaguely thought something would happen with him and Allura, but I could have him just be in the wrong place at the wrong time and handy to jump to. He takes naps in weird places, and doesn't sleep as much at night as he should, so he could easily just be alone somewhere.

I do know he's planning on letting EVERYONE on the network know he's possessed, so investigators will probably converge on him. Or Gale, at least.

[finalizes]

it could be interesting to have Shadwell observe him (if he is already behaving weirdly, Shade behaviour will probably stand out less so he'll be less sure if he's really possessed) and not do anything and then somehow witness investigators taking care of him?

like

let Shade!Stone has an awkward stalker

[scarsolderthanyou]

ahaha XD oh you should totally do that. since Stone is weird already it WOULD be kinda hard to tell, at least for Shadwell who doesn't know him that well

I'll put up a plurk later for plotting for the investigators! I'll ping you in it

[finalizes]

excellent >D

[reallymean]

Things the Shade would know for Stone's possession:

1) The Hunter doesn't have any problem with doing things that will get his own kind dead. You probably don't want to bind yourself to this host even if it would be convenient for feeding - being able to get out of this host and into the next fast will probably be better for your survival.

2) The Hunter has a ghost girl he's using as a spy, and she's rather observant for a ghost. You might be able to come up with a way to use this, but until you do, you should avoid her.

3) Some of the guests here are very definitely not human. Unfortunately, they're just as happy to murder their own kind as the Hunter is - one of them tore you last host's throat out with his teeth, how barbaric - so they're worthless as allies, but you might still be able to use them, if you can just pit them against the Hunter. That might crack the wards enough for you to escape.

Remember, the Shade has access to Stone's memories, but not vice-versa - he'll recall what it does while it's possessing him, but can't give any insight into what it's done in the past or what it's planning.

Please comment by next Monday with anything the Shade learns while possessing Stone that you think might be useful to pass on to the next victim.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Well, he's probably going to have picked up that some of these non-human guests have some ability to sense him, because they're going to corner him/Stone at some point. Not sure how that's gonna fall out yet. I need to set it up (tomorrow prolly, ran out of time today). Most likely Stone is gonna get dead and the shade jumps to Casper in the process, but not sure what all transpires to make it happen.

Is there anything that CAN kill or contain the shade, besides Shadwell's ritual magic?

[reallymean]

With the caveat that this is knowledge the Shade has but Stone does not:

Wards or binding can restrict its movement for as long as the magic lasts, which is usually not past the next sunrise. Any purification magic could harm or potentially kill it when it's outside a host. Ritual is not required, nor is it particularly common. It isn't aware of other human magics that can harm it, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

It's also vulnerable to other predatory spirits (not ghosts) - Shades will occasionally eat each other in the absence of another food source, and there are much nastier things out there than Shades.