Orson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepperton_Studios
Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused with the Californian recording studio of the same name).
[4:46 PM]
Despite the financial ups and downs of British Lion and the changing of hands, the studios remained active until the early 1970s. In 1969, the studios produced 27 films; by 1971 this number had fallen to seven. Production throughout the 1970s was erratic, reaching a low of two films by 1979.
MutantsMichael — 9/2/24, 5:49 PM
After Orson was whisked away from Mitch by Orson's personal assistant for his afternoon takes, and after a whole lot of waiting around on Mitch's part, during which Mitch wandered around the studios and saw a whole lot of mothballed set pieces and props from Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange among other films, a studio runner hands Mitch a note to meet Orson at the Thames-side Red Lion Pub, in the back room that comprises the oldest extant part of the public house's early 18th-century bones: a stone-walled room called "the Snug." By 8 o'clock PM, Orson is tired but game and typically voluble. Surprising Mitch, he's invited a few other people from the film to this get-together at the Red Lion. The old worn table holds nine, very tightly, and in the mix are Orson, Mitch, Andy, a young French woman named Marie-Sophie, famed British actress (and past Roeg collaborator) Julie Christie, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, Orson's "companion" of late, Yugoslavian actress Oja Kodar, Bond girl and Avenger Diana Rigg, and controversial novelist/Shepperton local Jim Ballard. The clash of auras here is overwhelming, but as Mitch gets used to the suffusion of colors and patterns, he notes one important thing in all the auras; all of them, Andy included, are lending a small tendril of respect and awe to Orson, like sunflowers pointing at the sun. It's not a preternatural effect, it's nothing to do with his Illuminated nature; Orson just has that kind of magnetic personality. "Mitch!" Orson says in greeting, assertively and in that inimitable smooth baritone. "Feel free to take a pew, as our English cousins might say." Orson dips his Negroni in recognition of Mitch's arrival and does brief introductions around the table. "When I arrange a table for myself like this, I aspire to bring the most interesting conversationalists from within shouting distance, and I wager you'll fit right into this group. Let's get the lad from California a drink. Mitch, what will you have?" Orson says as he flags down the barmaid.
September 3, 2024
Dr. Cronk — 9/3/24, 3:09 PM
(Sorry, got some stuff going on.) Mitch is a little overwhelmed by the mix of names and faces, some he recognizes, some he resents [not recognizing, but nevertheless identifying as significant in some way, as if from the perspective of fifty years in the future]. He orders a rusty nail, makes a joke, tries his slightly-out-of-sync hippie-burnout schtick, which maybe calls for a Carousing roll, or a reaction roll, or both?
1
@Dr. Cronk
(Sorry, got some stuff going on.) Mitch is a little overwhelmed by the mix of names and faces, some he recognizes, some he resents [not recognizing, but nevertheless identifying as significant in some way, as if from the perspective of fifty years in the future]. He orders a rusty nail, makes a joke, tries his slightly-out-of-sync hippie-burnout schtick, which maybe calls for a Carousing roll, or a reaction roll, or both?
MutantsMichael — 9/3/24, 3:37 PM
Yeah, hell, Carousing sounds good, as does an Illuminated IQ roll, so let's do these two rolls first: Carousing-16 (the Aura of Orson's fame and legend as well as the Vibe he has curated is giving you a sizeable bonus and IQ-17 (this "Illuminated" check is based off your Current Affairs (Pop Culture) skill along with +1 bonuses for Andy and Orson being here as well)
[3:39 PM]
Furthermore, whenever the GM requires a roll against a skill such as Current Affairs, Hidden Lore, or Intelligence Analysis to tell whether a certain strange occurrence is truly a coincidence or the result of a conspiracy, you may roll against the higher of your IQ and the specific skill in question.
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/3/24, 4:01 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6Carousing is the only skill Mitch has consistently rolled failures:(4+5+1)= 10Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/3/24, 4:02 PM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6IQ:(4+4+6)= 14MutantsMichael — 9/3/24, 4:16 PM
Both of those would have been successes even if you hadn't been in the presence of the legend himself and the carefully-cultivated social dynamic he's brought together here at the pub table. Mitch slides into place beside Andy and across from Marie-Sophie and the barmaid very speedily brings Mitch a Glenfiddich and Drambuie, with a twist of orange peel dangling off the side of the Old Fashioned glass. (Will get you results on these later tonight or early tomorrow.)
September 4, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/4/24, 6:58 AM
To Mitch's jaundiced eye, the first level of what Orson is doing here feels like a flex, a gratuitous "See what I can do? Assemble a dinner party of some of the world's most famous, hip people (and Oja Kodar) at my beck and call with something like twelve hours' notice." Mitch has no doubt that Orson used his own Illuminated awareness and/or abilities to conjure up this conviviality in such a hurry; the entire thing smacks of Serendipity. And yeah, on the surface, Mitch thinks this is merely to show off, the typical, expected Orson Welles grandiosity, the classic Taurean luxuriant, the lion in winter bringing together an appreciative audience for his legendary raconteur act. And yet. As Mitch listens to Orson get each of the dinner party guests involved in the conversation in turn, talking about their creative projects, politics, art, sex, history, the occult—the rich parade of life in all its shades and hues—it's clear to Mitch Hort, teacher and headmaster, that Orson is doing something more here. He's teaching. He's essentially telling Mitch, "Yes, look what I can do. But you can do this too." If there are individuals who make outsized contributions to history, to culture, to politics, you can bring them to you. And perhaps it is folly, or madness, to try to take on the Big Men who rule the world, like I tried to do, and watch them shunt my films into some netherworld of being forgotten by the entire world, but at the best? You can have the joy of conversation and good food and drink, you can be the Falstaff who whispers to and gives vital life experience to young Prince Hal, to mold the future's prodigies into someone great. As if reading Mitch's mind, Orson quotes Henry IV at the table, in response to something the uncharacteristically quiet John Bonham said about his own pub crawling in Shepperton while working on shoots for his and the Led Zep lads' new concert/fantasy film, The Song Remains the Same. "Mmm, yes. The young prince and his dissolute master. Why bother enjoying oneself, stumbling from public house to public house on borrowed credit? Because it is important, it makes us more fully human."
Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's beauty: let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon; and let men say we be men of good government, being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.
"The sun's men are harsh, tough, Apollonian rulers. But any man who has done his night's business under the veil of Selene... he is the lunatic, the lover, the poet, whose 'pen turns things unknown to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.'" Orson gulps at his Negroni and looks specifically to Andrew and Mitch in turn. "And you, young screenwriter, young magister... what have your pens given shape to, hmm?" (edited)
Dr. Cronk — 9/4/24, 8:15 AM
"Given to grandiose claims. Describing historical events in first-person, as though he was there. Said he had two hearts and could hear people's tumors, see their diseases inside them. Insisted he could start fires with his mind, except the atmosphere here tonight was just a little too humid. Knew one good card trick and could perform it with a dozen dramatic but superficial variations."
[8:18 AM]
While Andy explains Atlantis Rising to Diana Rigg and Ora Kodar, Mitch considers that there's a hand behind Orson's, shaping the plan of the evening, and gives everyone's auras the hairy eyeball.
1
Dr. Cronk used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/4/24, 8:18 AM
@Dr. Cronk rolled
3d6:(4+5+3)= 12MutantsMichael — 9/4/24, 2:26 PM
As with his initial analysis of the room's auras, Mitch confirms that everyone here seems friendly, excited at some level or another to be in the presence of Orson, and of sound mind and soul. Mitch gives Orson's aura a longer look this time around, though. Physical health's not great, truth be told. Neither is his mental health; Mitch can see he's got a few Obsessions in there rattling around, real near the surface, tonight especially. Mitch gets the overall sense from Orson's aura that he doesn't really take all that much time or effort to think about the ways he is using his Illuminated nature, what kind of impact that using Serendipity like this might have on the people he draws together. His emotional aura is urgent, compulsive, annoyed underneath all the smooth gladhanded bonhomie. Mitch can also tell he's straining to let loose one of his patented monologues; the anticipation and focus of his mental and emotional energy seems to be honed in on young Mitchell Jefferson Hort here. Orson picks up on Andrew's plodding, stammering recounting of Book 2 of the Atlantis Risen trilogy. He puts his hand to his bearded chin and says, "Yes. Tales of secret alien invasions, by occulted forces who were found to dwell alongside us all along. This is, uh, something, heh, I know a little bit about." Mitch feels, via his Aura Sight, a stage magician about to go through with the Pledge—or perhaps the Pledge was this entire dinner party, and we are about to enter the Turn. As such, Mitch continues watching Orson, carefully. "And in the spirit of Mitch's evocation of... practitioners of legerdemain from the ancient Egyptian wondermakers to the Comte of St.-Germain, I will endeavor to tell my story with no flourishes, no distractions, no sleight-of-hand... merely a recounting of history... as I remember it. From roughly the Hindenburg disaster to the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Not many of you at this table were even alive during this time, but I'm guessing you can figure out what story I am going to tell, hmm?" Andrew, like an excited pupil, raises his hand, because he remembers this first-hand, a nine-year-old boy when it all happened, but it's Julie Christie who turns to Orson and says, "Orson, are you speaking of the War of the Worlds business?" "Indeed I am, cara Yulia, indeed... I am." He looks straight at Mitch as he prepares to show there's nothing (rhetorically) up his sleeves. (I may continue this live tomorrow night, Jeff, might be more exciting that way.)