Mitch Returns to Mt. Shasta
Jeff
When Mitch visits Shasta I don't think he does a lot of pre-planning. He'll need to get up there somehow, and Mitch doesn't drive or own a car. Is there a bus? Does he want to invite Roger to come with and drive? Is there another option staring me in the face I'm overlooking?
Michael
I figured you'd hitch!
Jeff
Makes sense
Rather than call the monastery and determine when Jiyu is going to have a couple of free days to rub together, I'll activate a use of Mitch's Serendipity. Which maybe would also get him up there with no hardships, I think? He'll bring along a bedroll, a knapsack of iron rations and a ten-foot pole and a woolen blanket, that kind of thing.
Michael
Yeah, perfect! I'll have a think about the monastery in June today and set us up a scene or two.
Jeff
I don't know the geography at all so you'll have to advise me as to whether a dude with no relevant skills working off his defaults from HT 10 is going to be able to hike from the monastery to the petroglyphs he missed out on before or to the Mansfield site that was so intriguing.
Michael
I'll have a look at the Shasta map as well.
Jeff
On the potentially not-insignificant matter of orienteering, I have a second use of Serendipity ready to go.
Michael
So yeah, all the area around the monastery is hikeable. Most of the "entry points" that Mitch surveilled back in March were on the north and northeast sides of the mountain, so these would be long hikes, necessarily. But if you're fit you don't need a car to get around the area of Mt. Shasta the town. (I need to confirm where the petroglyphs are in my Mount Shasta book but they were near the base of the mountain iirc). But if we're starting with a visit to Master Jiyu we can do that this morning.
Jeff
Okay, it looks doable I guess — looking at google maps doesn't give me a sense of the verticality of the landscape, and I'm not clear on the extent to which either site is reachable via road or clearly-marked trail, but it seems within the realm of possibility, which is all we need.
Michael
So as Mitch arrives in the courtyard of Shasta Abbey and makes his way to the Abbess's residence and office, he meets with one of the monks who serves as Master Jiyu's personal secretary, a young man named Edward. The abbess is in meditation now so Mitch has to wait about 15 minutes in the antechamber outside her office, the one where she and Mitch meditated and chatted and drank tea (then whisky) three months ago. When Jiyu lets Mitch in, she seems overjoyed to see him. "Matthew, what a pleasant surprise," she says, her voice a little raspier than it was three months ago. "Please, come, sit. I'm so happy you've decided to visit us again. How have you been?"
Jeff
"It's been a time," Mitch says as he shakes her hand or gives an awkward little wave or whatever. "Been interesting places, met interesting people. Thought of another interesting place with people in it, headed up here."
Mitch scans Jiyu's aura.
I'll go ahead and roll.
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS
Fairly low MoS on the comprehension roll but not a failure or anything
Michael
Master Jiyu's aura, when she first caught sight of Mitch, was dark and clouded; purple-grey undulating shadows swirled through it. But as she began to realize who was this surprise appointment, as if rays of sunlight were breaking through, the dark clouds cracked and showed golden-pink light, as after a storm. By her mood, she was sullen and depressed before Mitch arrived; after, she is experiencing true joy and hope. Physically, Jiyu's aura shows that her health has deteriorated in the past three months. Not drastically or catastrophically, but subtly, chronically, like returning to a crumbling edifice after a few years of wear and tear. All the chronic problems she had before in March — endocrine issues, the weight and diabetes, the physical frailness even though she looks strong as a bull … they haven't gotten better. "Well, you must tell me all about those places and people." She's not sneaking any whisky this time: it's green tea in the teapot and cups for her and "Matthew."
"Have you seen Sheila and Lynn recently?"
Jeff
Mitch chuckles ruefully, sips tea before answering. "We had a bit of a falling out, as in, I got drunk and made an ass of myself at the end of the last trip up here. Haven't spoken to them since." He shrugs. "More recently I was at a hotel in Colorado, a convention where I met a couple of old acquaintances, made a few new ones. Had a revelation about the nature of the universe, had that revelation challenged, did a Houdini seance, you know. Like it goes."
Michael
Jiyu, expecting the odd non sequitur out of Matthew from their past interactions, takes this rattling-off of information very much in stride … but then very seriously peers into Mitch's eyes, like a master looking for unexpected wisdom in one of their students. "And what is the nature of the universe, Matthew?" Her eyes pleading, seemingly almost hungry for wisdom, for direction, for purpose, Jiyu's aura flaring with a strange simultaneous sense of hope and emptiness.
Jeff
Mitch is nonplussed a moment. "So," he says after a pause, "you know how none of this is real, right? Like, not in a shadows on the cave wall sense, but in like a, the world we know is a story God tells to keep Himself entertained kind of way."
Michael
Jiyu's eyes close and open very slowly, and she nods, still holding Mitch's gaze.
Jeff
"And there's other stories, and on the one hand, they're just as valid as this one, the one where the bum and the monk are having tea. But on the other hand, this one with the bum and the monk is the one we're in, the one we're stuck interacting with, so unless we want to just quit the game entire, it's where we are."
Michael
Mitch can sense a moment of satori flare up in Jiyu's aura: she Understands on some level, even if she doesn't quite get the context of how Mitch is approaching his explanation. More silent nods from the Master as Mitch continues.
Jeff
"And this world is full of people pushing up against the edges of it. This world is a balloon, fit to burst, we're a gas filling the space available and probing for cracks. And on the one hand, the bones of the world are strong and we press against them, press and press and all we do is deform ourselves."
"But in another sense, there's a way that they're fragile — so fragile! The wrong word at the wrong time and it comes tumbling down."
"And then we're in a different story that isn't the one we thought we were in … " Mitch breaks off suddenly, sips his tea, frowns. "This sounds like I'm making some kind of metaphor for self-actualizing or enlightenment or something, but I'm being more literal than that."
Michael
"Words and meditation and thought can change the illusion of reality we all labor within, Matthew. I understand. We all do this every day, with words and thoughts and actions. Whether we go with the flow or rage against the dying of the light, we either float along or make waves."
Jeff
"Once you start seeing how this is all one big shared story that we're all agreeing to live in, you wonder, how could it be different if we decided it ought to be? And who's this we in this idea?"
Michael
"Some would argue that we surreptitiously and subconsciously ask for the suffering we experience. That we only wish it to be so because our natures are not refined." With this, Mitch can see a flare of pain in her aura as she shifts on the mat she's sitting on across from Mitch. Sciatica? Back and hip pain? Whatever, it is the plain suffering she speaks of on the most personal level.
"What are the demons in the corners of the world but our secret wishes?"
"The makyō, the hell of our illusions, the cave of our desperate attachments, by which we are distracted and fooled."
Jeff
"Well, yeah." Mitch tries briefly to think of something helpful or sympathetic to say re: Jiyu's pain and diabetes-ravaged body and such, but draws a blank. "But it wouldn't be much of a story if there wasn't conflict. 'Once upon a time an infinite number of people were happy forever, the end,' that isn't a compelling narrative. That's not the best of all possible worlds."
Michael
"'Much of a story,'" Jiyu says, chuckling. "There is no master narrative, Matthew. And if there is one, it is the tortured logic of one seeking explanations for 'why'. There is no why. There will not be universal tranquility because existence is dukkha in and of itself. There is no other story that can be told."
"I believe you speak of the work we each do to perfect the self and therefore perfect the larger web-work of selves that make up society. I don't believe that healing the larger tapestry of society is futile per se, of course … but let me ask you, pupil. If you could make everyone think the same and thus end discord and war and conflict and suffering, simply by imagining such a world full of concord … would you do it?"
Jeff
Mitch chuckles a little himself. "I think the more interesting question is, if I wanted to do that, could I? But no. Either way, I don't think magical infinite comity would … well, it would by definition solve a lot of problems, but … " Mitch trails off. He's confused himself a little. "Let me take it from the top. My incredible revelation was that we constrain ourselves in boxes that we make for ourselves out of lies we tell ourselves. It was challenged when I was forced to confront … another story that I couldn't so easily deny and toss aside, not without breaking something I don't want broken."
"By 'we' I mean me, you, all us fake folks."
He shrugs. "I think I might have invented Gnosticism."
Michael
Jiyu raises an eyebrow. "Gnosticism and dualism is always a temptation, even and perhaps especially for those of us who've got a strange personal spiritual evolution from the C. of E. to Zen Buddhism," she says with a smirk. "And of course, gnosticism finds itself deeply intertwined with theodicy. What was this 'new story' you encountered?" From Mitch's first encounter with Jiyu: It's pretty interesting that during this orientation ceremony, Master Jiyu decided to drop a hint about demons in a reality next door. Whether that means she's totally clued in or just partially, Mitch isn't sure, but between SANDMAN's trust of Jiyu and her ability to peer into people's souls... you're guessing Master Jiyu is at least a little aware of what The Deal is.
Just in case you were concerned about how much you could say.
Jeff
Mitch is silent for a few seconds.
"It's the kind of thing where when you say it plainly you sound like someone with schizophrenia," he says.
"Let me show you something."
Michael
Master Jiyu drains her tea and scooches forward to see what Mitch is proposing to show her.
Jeff
There's, let's say a decorative candle on a table near the window in Jiyu's office, right? Mitch points at it, lights it up.
"I'm not schizophrenic," Mitch says, and has to pause again for a second to reflect on what he just said and whether he believes it. Then he nods. "Yeah, no. I'm not schizophrenic. But that doesn't mean my perspective on what looks like the cold objective fact-based world is the same as everybody else's."
He could go on but wants to see if Jiyu is with him so far or if she's shrieking and casting holy water at him.
Michael
She's waiting patiently and, if Mitch peeks at her aura, curiously, with an acute sense of anticipation she's trying not to betray on her face. She's just gotten finished talking about the demonic illusions of the makyō, so she thinks she knows the general kind of thing you're going to tell her about.
Jeff
"Okay, yeah," Mitch says, reacting to his perception of her aura as if she'd voiced her position out loud. "The thing about mysticism is that sometimes you're talking about the coffee being cold and the person you're talking to thinks, oh, that's a metaphor for how the universe doesn't bend to our expectations, or whatever, and really, you just meant the coffee was cold."
"But yeah. There's another way the world could be, right, and it's got a few good qualities you got to admit. Less deprivation. But the food would be shitty and the people wouldn't dance, so, all in all a net loss for humanity, if that's the way the world was. Lots of other downsides, I'm being glib. Demons.
"It's not the case, though, that those are our only options. You ever read Lord of the Rings? That's a different way the world could be. One of a billion or more. All these different ways, different stories, and we're fighting to hold onto this one and not let the story where the communist-fascist demons rule everything, not let that one win.
“And none of these stories are the REAL story. The underlying story. I don't know what the real world is, but it's not …” He gestures around him. "It's not this."
"And this isn't even a big deal. I mean, it's not like some kind of wholly original revelation on my part. It's boring, even. It's an everybody-knows kind of thing. But it's true."
Michael
"Those kind of 'boring, everyday revelations' are the ones that cause even venerable monks to fall off their plinths in shock, Matthew."
Jeff
"Well, you don't seem surprised, Rōshi, so now I'm feeling kind of embarrassed for making a whole thing out of it."
Michael
"You've already conceded that one man can't change the world. Or, if he could change the world single-handed by some means, it would likely be a disaster. We are not figments of the mind of God, Matthew. We have awareness, we have consciousness. Sometimes the phenomena we witness in the world are illusions meant to mire and trick us. Our attention and presence is the only thing under our own control." Jiyu sighs as she shifts. "The only way you or I will ever see that underlying story you talk about, the true nature of all things, as revealed only to the very few who have found their light as bodhisattvas, is to react to all things with calmness and placidity and lovingkindness. Even to the demons next door. This does not mean to acquiesce to their wishes, to bend ourselves to their wills which place further onerous illusions upon us. On the contrary. It means to bend in the tempest they create but not to break. It means to clear the mind, to clear the body, to find no attachment, to ring with compassion, to receive the Buddha-nature." With this, Jiyu closes her eyes slowly again, directing her gaze to Mitch. "Often your meditative mind... takes you places, doesn't it?"
Jeff
"That's one way to put it." Mitch smiles. "After the thing in Colorado...a run-in with demons, frankly I don't know how we survived...after that, I thought it'd be good for me to come back here and see. Or at least, look."
Michael
"You were in Colorado. Interesting. That mountain," she gestures east towards Shasta, "I'm no fool. I know its energy, I feel it; I've lived near it for three years now. But it's honestly not just Shasta. Everywhere in the East—China, Korea, Japan—the mountain is holy. Monks chase the Buddha at elevation, their breaths cold with frost, walking up countless stairs with buckets of water, learning to ignore the illusion of pain. Hell, even in the West there are mounds and hills and mountains that have been steadily venerated going back to pre-literate times. Why is that, do you think? What is so special about the mountain and why does it seem to cause humanity to focus their powers of worship and awe upon it?"
Jeff
"I can think of two things. One, mountains are big and cool. You can see a mountain from a long way off. Big pile of rocks...driving west out of Kansas, you see the Rockies coming up and it looks like somebody dumped handfuls of gravel on the horizon...it's dramatic. It lasts a long time. Climbing it is an experience, and if it's a big mountain the top is a weird magic treeless place, somewhere regular people aren't welcome the way we are down in the valleys.
"Two, mountains are landmarks that are too big and persistent to ignore, if you're looking to line up your story with another. They're an axis, right, a thing to orient yourself with.
"There's a story about a guy who climbed a mountain and when he went down the other side he was someplace else. You know what I mean?"
Michael
An aura flare of Jiyu at this, which also seems to... kind of knock something loose in Mitch's mind as well? Not in a "Jiyu is using a psi power" way but in a "there is just something that passed between the two of them that seems spiritually significant" way. Satori. "Yes, all those things are correct. Viewing the mountain—as you say, the mere act of being in its presence—extends our senses beyond the dimensions we usually look at in our boring everyday lives: side to side, ahead and behind. Before the aeroplane and the skyscraper, men looked to the skies at the flights of birds for signs from the gods. But those are ephemeral and you have to be lucky to witness one. A mountain is, seemingly, forever."
"If a mountain bursts through our normal conception of a side-to-side, front-to-back world and gives us a sense of a third dimension, what's to say it doesn't extend into other dimensions as well."
(Honestly, both an Occultism and Hidden Lore (History B) roll right now would be something good.)
Jeff
>>>> SUCCESS
>>>> SUCCESS
Either way, Mitch is nodding in agreement at the concept of mountains extending in other directions
Michael
All this is pretty boilerplate "the common metaphors of mankind" type anthropological stuff: the mountain is mighty, it is massive, it scrapes the heavens, it's where John Keel thinks the aliens come down to exchange monatomic gold with humankind's priestly caste. Jiyu is essentially saying that mountains touch other places, that they're ways in to another place. And that's also valid given what you've been talking about and given what you've found in your impromptu remote viewing into Shasta. But the vision that Mitch got was of the interior of the mountain being riddled with golden corridors and chambers. What Jiyu is saying is that when you make it to the top of a mountain, when you consider its height and its stealing away of human attention into another dimension, maybe all it takes to follow those lines into a fourth dimension is... attention. Concentration. Meditation. In other words, if inside Shasta is the honeypot, the golden trap meant to entice the gullible, foolish, greedy, and occult-power-hungry... maybe the true way through to the other side is finding the secret angle at the summit. Doing the climb. Suffering and sacrifice and pain. Going to "a weird magic treeless place, somewhere regular people aren't welcome" and seeing what happens.
Jeff
Okay, I was talking before about using my second level of Serendipity to ensure Mitch got to and from the petroglyphs site safely, but instead I want to use it on this.
Michael
A summit climb in June will be a much different prospect than it would have been in March, for sure.
1973-ify this advice and that's sort of what Mitch will face if he wants to try a climb to the peak
Jeff
"You know somebody who does, like, tours of the peak for people, right? They live near here. You know who I'm talking about, Rōshi. And they had a last-minute cancellation this weekend, or something; they're available. Can you give them a call for me?"
Michael
Jiyu says, "Come to the lobby of the guest lodge. There are brochures there and we'll find someone who can make arrangements on short notice."
Jeff
Mitch shrugs, because that works too.
Michael
"Also?" Jiyu stops as she laboriously gets to her feet. "Can you... can you take this to the top of the mountain?" She reaches into her desk drawer and pulls out a handful of dried flower petals, white ones. "Spread these there for me. I want... well, I'll never make that trip to the top, but at least something of mine can dwell there."
Jeff
"Of course."
Michael
I think we'll do the summit hike this week. I have some ideas from your last visit that I want to explore further and that will require a deeper dive back into my Shasta book.
Jeff
woo gettin weird with it
Michael
I'm gonna set up a choice for Mitch on the hike: the south passages to the summit are less ice-and-snow-choked, but most of the "weird encounters" that have happened on the slopes of Shasta have happened on the north side. So Mitch can plan his approach and descent accordingly and I'll put together some rolls.
Jeff
Man then it's gotta be north, assuming the local guide is confident.
Michael
So Mitch, even armed with a dose of Serendipity, isn't confident enough in his Climbing (default: DX-5) to try a solo ascent, eh? :)
Jeff
Like I said, I wanna use the second level of Serendipity to get a local guide on no notice.
Michael
Yeah, they'll help aid-and-equipment wise, probably enough to offset those penalties exactly.
Oh hey. I know who Serendipity would throw into your path. Remember Pete Kraus, the drifter-looking dude who codged free booze and burritos off you all back in March? Mitch contacts the first climb excursions business he points his finger at in the Yellow Pages and finds they have an opening this weekend, and when Mitch hurries over to their little office in Mount Shasta? It looks like Peter has made good in this little mystical community the past three months. He's now a hiking guide with a local excursions concern.
He's still Illuminated.
Jeff
Mitch greets him in about as friendly a way as he greets anybody. "Peter! Good to see you. You're going to take me up?"
Michael
Peter does a double take when Mitch enters the excursions company's little staging area. "Whoa. Uh, yeah! And good to see you too. What have you been doing since I saw you last?" He checks the itinerary that Mitch set up over the phone and says, "whoa" again. "The north face of the mountain, huh? You feel you're in solid enough physical shape for this, right?"
Jeff
“I think so?” Mitch says, turning it into a question. “I don’t have a heart condition or anything like that. Zero experience but, you know, my hands work fine, no crippling arthritis.” He holds them up.
Mitch is confident that if ascending the north face is a bad idea, Peter will warn him away from it, and if not, then not.
Michael
"Well then, I think we'll do a little bit of basic instruction and then we'll be off. We're lucky that we're expecting warm temperatures and a few of the north face trails should be good up to about 6000 feet or so. We'll start to hit ice pack and that's when the climb might get a little hairy."
Jeff
W/r/t timing, Mitch probably heads out of the Bay area Friday morning, reaching the monastery in the early afternoon. After meeting with Jiyu he's probably talking to Peter around suppertime, meaning they could do a little bit of instruction the night before (there's a couple hours of daylight yet) then set out bright and early Saturday morning. That way they can get up to elevation taking it nice and slow. Make sense?
Michael
Yeah, I figured this would be a whole-weekend sort of thing. I will begin the ascent tomorrow, I got my rough path picked out and everything.
So the first half of the climb feels really like nothing more than a good vigorous hike, if uphill. The ground is solid and rocky (with occasional patches of soft crumbly volcanic soil), the temperature slowly growing chillier but nothing too frigid. At about noon Mitch and Peter make the 7,000 foot mark, and things start getting cold. The air is rimed with frost, the sunlight bursting into tiny star-shaped rainbows, and yeah, that elevation is definitely getting to ol' Mitch a little. How about an HT roll to kick things off?
Jeff
>>>> FAILURE
Shoot
I need to sit down for a second, man.
Michael
(That's just what I was figuring. Want to roll 1d6-3 for FP loss?)
Pete takes the cue and finds a big flat rock to sit on, grabs his canteen and refreshes himself. "This'll be my … eighth summit run at this point. I dunno, all that climbing to mountaintops in India and Tibet, looking for wisdom from sages and gurus and ultimately I've been most at peace just taking folks up the mountain for an incredible view. It's been a trip. You know, I think I have you and your buddy Rogelio to thank for all this. I was in a pretty rough spot when you met me."
Jeff
>>>> 1d6-3 … 2
Michael
Yeah, Mitch definitely needs a bit of a breather.
Jeff
“It’s cool, man.” Mitch shakes his head. “Ugh, the altitude is hitting me a lot harder than I was expecting. Slow and steady wins the race … Anyway, I’m glad to see you’re doing better. Lodge brothers look out for lodge brothers.”
Michael
"Still feel like I'm waiting for something, though. D'you know that feeling? Like you're watching a bubble that's about to burst and you're just waiting there breathless for it to finally happen? I mean, I saw a Bigfoot in those woods down there, man! This town and this mountain... there's something here, isn't there?" He turns his back to Mitch, goes over to a little ledge and stares down the north face of the mountain. Uh, Detect History B please.
Jeff
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS
Successful activation, use, and analysis, MoS of 4 on the analysis it looks like
Michael
Now, as Mitch sort of prepares an answer for young Peter, a voice sounds from behind Mitch, as icy and crystalline as the air up here. "Don't. Say. Anything." the voice says in a cultured accent... European, maybe French, maybe Spanish or Italian, too few words to really tell. "Bring him to the top of the mountain. And yourself." Now, very quickly, Mitch can sense that this is a History B phenomenon. Mitch has NOT YET turned around to look but even merely from the sound of the voice Mitch can tell that whomever this is is tainted by History B; the source of History B energy is strong and feels to Mitch's Detect like one single living being. Obviously, Mitch can turn around and pay attention to where this voice is coming from but it's also clear from Peter's body language that he hasn't heard anything. Throw me a quick Observation roll too.
>>>> SUCCESS
Mitch hears no sound of rock or snow crunching behind him, nor the sound of anyone breathing or anything; the voice sounded like maybe it was a few dozen feet above and behind Mitch. At the same time Peter seems genuinely engrossed in the view from 7,000 feet and is not reacting to any of this. Whether Peter can't hear this voice because it's too far away or because he actually can't hear it is unknown at this point.
Jeff
Ugh. Okay.
Mitch’s first thought is that Comte here or whatever, this Voice of the Archons, he can go fuck himself; summit ascension cancelled.
Second thought is, surely Comte would be able to guess that’d be Mitch’s response, right? If Comte had instead warned Mitch away from the mountaintop, Mitch would be up on his feet demanding Peter get moving already.
Third thought is, if Comte hadn’t said anything, then he would have kept going, right? No reason not to.
Michael
(this is what's known as "elevation thinking")
Jeff
So what did Comte think he was accomplishing? What he’s done with his imperious demand that Mitch bring Peter to the mountaintop (!) is incentivize … continuing on to the mountaintop.
Shitty fucker. I see Comte face to face, maybe I burn his damn face off, Mitch thinks. He’s surprised at the strength of his reaction.
Elevation thinking, indeed.
Mitch ignores Comte and instead replies to Peter. “There’s something here, yeah. I can sense it, you can, too.”
“I dunno if it’s something we’ll find the answer to this weekend, but, shit, man, the view is nice.”
Michael
Peter turns around. He doesn't seem to react to anything up the slope behind Mitch, so that's good I guess. "The wind going through the pines down there, it was mesmerizing."
Jeff
“You seen Bigfoot again since the last time I was here?”
Michael
"Nope, can't say that I have." Peter shoulders his backpack again after the break. "How are you feeling, you want to keep going? Did that breather do the trick?"
Jeff
Mitch makes a noncommittal grunt. “We’re not in any rush, right? Couple more minutes. Like I said, the altitude is hitting me harder than I thought.”
He briefly considers trying to meditate, but decides it’d be inappropriate for several reasons.
Michael
"Sure thing," Peter says, stretching out a few kinks in his back and doing some impromptu yoga.
Hah! Whoa, weird coincidence.
Jeff
So instead Mitch just takes a few deep breaths and, since he hasn’t, scans Peter’s aura.
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS
Successful all around, MoS of 5 on the analysis.
Michael
Okay. As I mentioned, Peter is still illuminated, he's still got that golden glow in his aura. And emotionally? His aura is so much healthier than it was three months ago. As he does the yoga poses it's clear that he's processing ambient stress and... something else. As Mitch looks deeper at the cleansing physical and mental effects of the skills Peter learned in India, it's clear he's doing this to clear his mind of something he saw down in the valley. Analysis of his aura shows a glitch in his mind being cleared away. Peter is currently shaking off the effects of some kind of Anunnakku mindfuckery.
Jeff
Yeah, that’s going around, around here. “Hey, you know Ol’ Vera?”
Michael
And he has done it! Successfully!
Peter closes his eyes, looks slightly puzzled. "Vera?"
Jeff
“Yeah. No? It was just a thought. Met her last time I was here, in her little house with her, uh, handler? Disciple? Nurse? I don’t really remember what the job title was. I remember thinking, little old lady in a wheelchair, good on her for living as long as she has...” Mitch shrugs, shakes his head.
Michael
Jeff, Aura Reading gives you a bonus to Detect Lies, right?
Yeah, +3 it says under Emotion Sense.
You want to give me a Detect Lies at +3 as Peter gives Mitch a sort of noncommittal befuddled look at this line of conversation?
Actually, I'll roll that
So yeah, Peter gives a noncommittal shrug and says, "I don't think I know who you're talking about." Mitch doesn't detect any blanks in Peter's aura (or Peter struggling against any "missing time") as he listens to Mitch and tries to understand what he's saying.
Jeff
Okay
Michael
All right, so if we're proceeding up the mountain, Peter will need to aid Mitch with a Climbing roll at his skill of 13 + 2 for equipment. That aid (along with Mitch's own equipment) will help offset the default penalty for Mitch from his DX. Let's see how good a guide Peter is first.
>>>> SUCCESS
So Mitch will roll DX-5 + 2 for equipment + 1 for aid. So DX-2. I'm gonna abstract this roll out to reflect the entire upper half of the climb; no sense in making Climbing check after Climbing check.
Jeff
Effective default of 9
>>>> FAILURE
Well we allowed extra time
Michael
That's honestly not too bad. EXACTLY. That's what I was gonna say, you'll just need to take twice as long as an experienced climber would to climb to the summit with no headaches.
Which kind of makes sense for an amateur. Oh GURPS, you've accidentally made sense again
Jeff
My understanding is we’re trying to do a day-and-a-half excursion over two days
Michael
Yeah, that's right. Given that there's a descent in there as well.
Jeff
So we make it to some kind of camp site like two-thirds or three-quarters of the way up, and stay there Saturday night, right? (Trying to get information online is tricky inasmuch as websites assume you’re going up the other side)
Michael
Yeah. At this pace the summit and descend would be day 2.
Which is good because waking up refreshed with all your FP for the most difficult part of the climb is a good thing.
So yeah, Pete and Mitch manage to set up camp a couple thousand feet shy of the summit. The weather holds pretty well overnight; some tough winds but the campsite stays safe under an outcropping. I'm not sure if Mitch remains a little wary overnight or not from his aural encounter with "the Comte," waking up occasionally, starting at sounds on the mountainside, but the important thing is that Mitch can get a good night's sleep, there's no weird sounds, sinister European whispers, Bigfoot roars, or other oddities overnight. And with the coming of daybreak, Pete wakes up, breaks camp, salutes the sun with some more yoga, and the two of you make your way to the top.
(Carrying over the earlier Climbing check to today) By about 11 am the two of you make it to the top of the mountain.
The two of you are alone up there; given your slightly-staggered start and slow ascent, none of the other organized excursions have made it up here by now. As the two of you take in the sights, I will need Mitch to make another Detect History B roll(s).
Jeff
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS
>>>> DETECT … FAILURE
Failure! On the mountaintop
Michael
So it's funny, but as Mitch takes a deep deep breath of mountaintop air, he tries to reach out and feel any of the weird entryways or cracks in reality that he was able to "scry" for lower down on the slopes of Shasta. The top of the mountain feels … important and portentous but Mitch just isn't able to sense any kind of fracture into the Golden Halls of Lemuria.
Jeff
"See, this could be anywhere," Mitch says as he looks out from the summit. "We're not in California any more, this doesn't look like any part of California I've ever seen. Maybe this is Lemuria or the Heaviside Layer."
Can I retry?
Michael
Oh yeah! At a -1.
Jeff
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS
Michael
It will be important to keep track of FP so I'll put a pin in that.
Peter looks over to Mitch and kind of vaguely smiles at him with his "Lemuria or the Heaviside Layer" comment, and then his face crumples as he sees behind Mitch... something. Mitch's Detect ability flares into life; not only is poor Peter currently being affected by some kind of Anunnaki mind-whammy, but behind Mitch he can suddenly feel an intense vortex of History B energy in the form of a living being. "Don't make any sudden moves, mon commissaire," a voice emerges from behind Mitch. "It would be terrible if, well, any of us took a tumble from this majestic peak, non?"
Jeff
Mitch will make a fright check, turn slowly around, and probably (try to) burn something’s face off
Michael
I'm good with all of that.
>>>> SUCCESS
No penalty to Fright Check, so a straight 13-
Cool.
As Mitch turns around, he first sees an Anunnaki glyph. Will+5 to resist.
Jeff
>>>> SUCCESS
Effective skill of 18 so I think that's a success
Or no, effective skill of 20? Something above 17
Michael
Yessir. Hidden Lore (History B) roll before I describe who you see.
Jeff
>>>> SUCCESS
Also a success just barely I think
Michael
The man before you is short, stumpy, with bulging eyes and fishy lips... he looks almost frog-like: he is about 5 feet tall and clad in a weird mix of contemporary cold weather gear and actual furs. On his head is a golden crown, there's no other way to describe it. It is bedecked with crystals and gems and has a broad area in front. Carved into the front of it is (Hidden Lore success by 1) a KI.AG glyph, "Love me." And that glyph seems to have done the job on Peter. He stands before the Stumpy Fur-Clad Man, open-mouthed and tears flowing down his face. "Go ahead then. Try to melt me." The man smiles an infuriating grin.
Jeff
I set his crown on fire
>>>> SUCCESS
I believe that is all the rolling I do
Michael
Yes. Let me reacquaint myself with Pyrokinesis, one moment.
Jeff
I think it takes me five seconds to light his crown on fire assuming it is made of metal but I could very easily be misremembering key details
Michael
Inanimate objects resist with HT, people resist with Will. Hmm. If the crown is on his head do I count it as the inanimate object or is it within Monsieur le Comte's "aura of person-hood"
Jeff
I feel like there is a difference; he can rip the thing off his head before it starts to melt his skin, if I was targeting his skin he wouldn’t have that luxury
Michael
Yeah, good point. Okay, now I have to calculate the HT of a solid gold crown, you'll have to excuse me, but some work stuff popped up. I'll get to the horrible GURPSmaths as soon as I can, Jeff
All right, Jeff, you roll your PK skill, and I roll against an HT of 8 (small object, very ductile and affected by temperature changes)
>>>> SUCCESS
Made it by 4.
Jeff
I don't have a skill b/c I bought off the Requires a Will Roll limitation
Michael
Ohhhh right.
Jeff
So for the first round nothing happens, what does Comte do during that 1 second span?
Michael
"Wouldn't you rather talk, and learn, from your Master?" (that's like 3-4 seconds of speech)
Jeff
So you should do another 2 or 3 rolls because Mitch is not stopping to talk
Michael
>>>> SUCCESS
>>>> SUCCESS
The crown remains markedly unmelted.
Jeff
Man comes out with a magic hat and acts like he’s not the aggressor?
“Fuck you,” Mitch says, and tries to burn him more.
Michael
Ah, all right, so are you changing target to the Comte himself?
Jeff
Oh, no, good point, for all I know he’s a fireproof as one of the bull-demons, so, trying to burn the crown.
Michael
>>>> SUCCESS
Jesus Christ
This crown is earning its keep!
Jeff
I guess it’s magically fireproof!
Michael
I mean, that's a natural supposition for Mitch to make, I suppose.
"Let's talk. You must have questions."
"He can't hear us," he says, gesturing at poor mesmerized Peter.
Jeff
Okay, so, a quick review of my character sheet indicates that I did buy off the FP cost but I didn’t buy off the Limited Use, so, my understanding is that if I stop trying to burn the crown then I won’t get another chance.
Michael
Yeah, it's still 1/day for Pyro 6.
Jeff
I think in the time it takes Comte to say that I get one, maybe two more rounds of it, but if there’s not a dramatic response at that point I guess Mitch will sputter out and sink to the ground, sullenly defeated.
Michael
Penultimate melt.
>>>> SUCCESS
Ultimate melt.
>>>> FAILURE
Jeff
I don’t know how hot gold has to get before it ignites (despite my PhD in inorganic chemistry, go figure) but I do know it takes Mitch more than one second of successful pyrokinesis to get there.
Whether the gold gets hot enough to become uncomfortable to wear, I don’t know. It’s a magic hat.
Michael
Aha. Well, the crown begins to wilt a little bit just as Mitch is getting ready to give up. The Count very gingerly picks it up off his head before it really starts getting going, puts it down on a nearby rock, and pulls a second KI.AG glyph on a slab of stone out of his heavy coat and grabs Peter's eyes with it. "Yes, yes, you've had the kusarikku section of your ape-brain stimulated by our surgeons, we're all very impressed," the Comte says as he makes sure Peter is still mesmerized. "I know everything about you, lad. And I'm trying to give you that knowledge."
Jeff
“If you knew anything about me you would know—“ Mitch breaks off, too angry to form a fully coherent sentence. “You don’t talk to me like this!”
On the one hand, Mitch would like to set his lower-level pyrokinesis on that stone, but even if he was able to destroy it it would probably end up working badly for him. Vision of Peter with little swirls over his eyes jerkily picking Mitch up and throwing him off the mountaintop.
Michael
"Mitchell. You are such a special, special person. And you don't even realize it. Or perhaps you do, but you haven't put all the pieces together yet." The Comte amiably sits down on a rock on the summit, gesturing to a nearby rock for Mitch to sit on. "Let us break bread. I have such sights to show you and secrets to reveal. You are special."
Detect History B shows that the Comte is not putting any kind of whammy on Mitch, there's no Sumerian or source code in his speech, no mind control being attempted of any kind.
Jeff
“I am so tired of you people telling me things.”
He sits down.
Michael
"Mitchell," the Comte says, reaching into his knapsack and bringing out a large round crusty bread, a serrated knife, and a plastic Thermos and two cups, "I know what happened to you in Los Angeles was infuriating. Frightening. Unfathomable." The Comte pours forth from the Thermos what looks to be red wine. "You felt hard done by. Mind racked with amnesia. Suddenly possessing of powers you could neither understand nor control." He picks up the knife and cuts a couple of sizeable wodges of bread, offering one to Mitch.
Jeff
Mitch ignores the offering. “You think?”
Michael
"I'm very, very sorry for that. What's more, we're very sorry and they're very sorry." The Count looks around shiftily while he says that, and Mitch can feel a weird fluctuation in the History B energies surrounding him and the Count as he does, like someone approached and then retreated on "the other side."
"If I told you that the reasons that that business in Laurel Canyon happened are four-dimensional and will only become apparent around the year 2012, would you believe me?"
Jeff
“No. Does that surprise you?”
Michael
A weary yet amused smile and chuckle passes the Comte's lips as he eats the bread and drinks some wine. "Mmm. Quite nice." He brushes the crumbs off his lap. "Very well, Mitchell. This is the truth. I will try to explain it as clearly as I can. What you call History B exists. It is as real as the mountain you and I sit atop. But it cannot … express itself fully since you people revolted 1400 years ago. But humans live there, under the guardianship and guidance of our Masters. And even though these two timelines diverged so very long ago, every now and again a collision of sperm and egg occurs on one side of the barrier that precisely matches one on the other side, as impossible as that might seem to believe. You, Mitchell, are one of these people."
"Your double was born 73 years ago on the other side, to two people genetically identical, in essence, to your parents here. He was a trusted commissar for the Children of Heaven. He did what his Masters told him to do, he put into play a hundred plots and schemes he might not even see the results of, but at some point … well, Mitchell this is very embarrassing … your doppelgänger is missing. He has gone rogue. He does not respond to our Masters' entreaties. And we don't know what he has planned. Which is why, in large part, our Masters provided your gifts to you. To be able to track him, find him... and kill him."
"You may now protest, 'Oh no, I'm not doing your dirty work,' and fume and stammer but Mitchell, what I am telling you is that your encounter with your double is fore-ordained. There is no choice in the matter. You will meet him, sooner or later. And when he does meet you, he will likely want you under his control for any number of ontological reasons. But he won't expect you to be … in essence, a living weapon. So our Masters have given you the precise spread of cerebral evolutions necessary to defeat him."
Jeff
"I'm sure you think all that's true," Mitch says flatly. "Your sincerity is not compelling evidence."
Michael
"All right. If evidence is required, I'm more than happy to tell them that they need to find a way to put some in your path … gently. Sometimes, Mitchell, they do not understand how fragile we are, you see. They believe they're doing us a favor when they grant us … extraordinary gifts but they forget that our bodies and souls can sometimes … wither under that intense attention. I was just here to make contact and enlighten, as I have the past 100 years. Proof of faith? That's their department." The Comte once again offers a sip of wine or a crust of bread to Mitch as he gets packed up.
Jeff
"That's your we and they, then? The sorry ones?"
Michael
"'We' meaning the human race in this case, and 'they' meaning the Children of Heaven, yes."
"I'm a man, like you."
Jeff
“Sure.” Mitch scowls.
Michael
"Oh, and one more thing," the Comte says. "Keep an eye on this one," he says, gesturing to Peter. "He's special as well. Not as... unique as you, of course, but he's got special qualities, a focus of mind, quantum vision, a receptiveness to excellence and self-actualization. He could end up being of great help to you and your, heh, 'Sandmen.' À bientôt, Mitchell." The Comte begins the slow climb down the northern face of the mountain.
(The KI.AG crown slowly melted into a puddle covering the rock while Mitch was angrily talking with St. Germain. The comte LEFT the KI.AG stone here, like a littering backpacker.)
Jeff
I'll pocket the stone, assuming it's small enough to pocket. What's the crown looking like now? A hot sheet of shiny metal? Packing snow on it should get it cool enough to pick up and stow.
Who knows what Peter sees, if and when he snaps out of it.
Michael
Yeah, you can absolutely do both those things. As you stow the KI.AG stone, Peter slowly comes out of the daze. "What a view. What … what an experience," he says, shaking the cobwebs off. "Do you ever get that feeling of just universal acceptance and love and beauty? Like you've fallen in love with … well, the whole mountain, the whole Earth?"
Jeff
"Not lately." Mitch's demeanor is markedly more grim than it has been. "Something always comes along to ruin it, seems like."
Michael
Peter raises an eyebrow and breathes deeply. "Aw, man, I'm sorry to hear that." He gently pats Mitch on the back. "Need any more time? Or should we do descent now?"
Jeff
Mitch sighs, because he came all this way. "While I'm here … "
He trails off, looking west.
"While I'm here I should at least try meditating. It's what I came for. Don't think I'm in a good headspace for it but hell, maybe I can turn it around. Kill some demons with my mind."
Michael
That's a plan. Give me a Meditation roll.
>>>> SUCCESS
What is the last thing on Mitch's mind before he tries to slip into a meditative state?
Jeff
He’s irritated by the Annunaki showing up when he was hoping to get away from History-A, History-B, and the war between them for a weekend.
Michael
Mitch's consciousness sits at the peak of the mountain. In meditation, he feels himself present, with the entirety of the honeycombed-with-History B-embassies Shasta beneath him. A vision of "le Comte" comes and goes from his consciousness as he drifts into a pure state, remembering the things that Jiyu taught him about control and release. Mitch gets just the least little jolt of his past dalliances with "remote viewing," but this time it feels a little different than the last time when Mitch drifted into the golden halls of the mountain. One of those "contact" sites among the pines on the southern slope of Shasta appears in Mitch's vision, but as Mitch's remote viewing eye swoops over the treetops to approach it, he sees no freeway, but instead a well-trafficked railway and a few dirt roads. A couple of 1920s cars trundle up the road kicking up massive plumes of dirt. And from one of the cracks in reality that Mitch had explored and investigated with his consciousness previously, he sees a man emerge, Cooper-from-the-Red-Room style, out of the very side of the mountain. He's wearing a shiny silver suit, a strange silvery scaled coif over his curly dark hair, and has a weird ray gun by his side. The face he presents is Mitch's own, maybe 5 or so years younger. Right around the age he got back from 'Nam. The "Mitch" walks up to a campsite where three … prospectors? Loggers? are cooking up some vittles, they look at this weird dude in a silver suit and one of them laughs, and "Mitch" proceeds to vaporize two of them with his ray gun. The third tries to scramble away, and "Mitch" says a single word to him, and his consciousness shuts off. "Mitch" steals his clothes, buries his silver duds, and vaporizes the third camper. Then, "Mitch" walks off into the distance in his borrowed togs, and into History.
I'm gonna say this trip happened right before Mission 4, so Mitch will be stumbling back to Livermore on Monday June 25 in time for the weekly Monday afternoon all-hands catch-up meeting.