The Apocalypse of History A
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 11:38 AM
Archie and Marshall at the Grove during the Owl spirit's arrival
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 11:39 AM
@Madness Dossier @Inverarity @Rob MacD
[11:46 AM]
I'm going to begin at the beginning of the six minutes of Archie having "fainted"; again, Stoney will keep Archie's body conscious, upright, and aware during Archie's shock at having seen the "source code" behind the Owl spirit. But Marshall is conscious and seeing the weird ultraterrestrial spirit flowing into the Owl Statue, its membrane reflecting the world and its history around it. As Marshall gazes more and more into the shimmering skin of the weird elder entity, he sees the majesty of History A in all its glory: ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, Charlemagne, Constantinople, the warring tribes of medieval Europe, the ships with their crossèd sails coming across the ocean... and everything that ensued. It's wildly disorienting but Marshall's exemplary will keeps him rooted to the spot and cannily aware during this series of moments. Archie is sitting across the auditorium about 60 or so feet away, sitting next to Edgar Bergen, and Marshall chances a glance in his direction. Archie's mouth is slack-open in shock; Marshall naturally wonders what Archie is seeing on the hundred milligrams of 2C-B here. As Marshall looks more carefully at Archie, I will need Marshall to make a Will-18 check first. If that Will-18 succeeds, please roll Body Language-14 (penalized for hallucinations and distance). If the Will-18 fails, please roll Body Language-11.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/6/24, 12:09 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Will-18:(6+5+3)= 14Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/6/24, 12:09 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Body Lang-14:(2+5+1)= 8MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 12:37 PM
As Marshall tries to quickly assess Archie's mental and physical state merely from his body language and posture, he receives contradictory data. On one level Archie looks frozen, limbs locked, perhaps even in the rigid posture of a petit mal seizure from what he is seeing. It's hard to see Archie's pupils at this distance but there's also marked conscious rapid-eye movement while the rest of his body seems rigid, almost as if his eyes are... reading something, deep inside the Owl Statue. Archie doesn't seem in any medical danger, per se, but Marshall does diagnose from this distance that his experience on the heroic dose of 2C-B is overwhelming his sensorium. The explanation for the dual physical differential diagnoses soon becomes apparent thanks to the sensory boost from the 2C-B in Marshall's system. Archie is inhabited by a memeplex right now; there is a spectre hovering over Archie, inhabiting his body, putting out a tremendous amount of spiritual and emotional energy. It takes the shape of a grey-blue hooded eagle, its aura surmounted by the stars and stripes of the American flag and the green Eye of Providence from the dollar bill. A safe bet that Stoney is riding Archie right now. Acting-14 please.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/6/24, 12:57 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Acting-14:(1+1+2)= 4Inverarity — 9/6/24, 12:58 PM
(damn, Oscar worthy performance from Stanley)
[12:59 PM]
I want to use that crit, if I can, to have Marshall make his way over to Archie but in a manner that seems unobtrusive -- like he's just getting up to go to the restroom or something.
1
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 1:00 PM
Man, Marshall is unflappable tonight. Skilled thanks to his own many many hours in front of adoring crowds and his SANDMAN training on how to avoid, say, glyph exposure, Marshall manages to dodge eye contact with Archie/Stoney's gamboling eyeballs. Archie/Stoney's gaze is fixed, solidly, on the Owl obelisk. And yes, that Acting crit will carry over into being able to relocate yourself casually as the Cremation reaches towards its explosive climax. (There's a lot of pre-recorded nonsense "liturgy" to get through before that moment, though.)
Inverarity — 9/6/24, 1:04 PM
Can I also make an Observation roll to spot anyone in the audience who might be having more of a reaction to what's going down? Anyone who seems especially into it, or enraptured, or stunned, stuff like that?
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 1:07 PM
Actually, I think Body Language again makes more sense, and I think the steely certainty lent to Marshall from his excellent Acting will allow him to make it without a hallucination penalty. So let's do Body Language-17.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/6/24, 1:07 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Body Lang-17:(6+6+4)= 16Inverarity — 9/6/24, 1:08 PM
Well, that makes sense as a marginal success -- it is dark out and the fire light must be playing tricks with the shadows.
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 1:10 PM
And it's a big crowd and there are a lot of people to analyze! But it's clear that the only faction of Grove guests that are emotionally or spiritually transported in any real conspicuous or noteworthy way are the white-robe-and-hood-clad "actors" who are attending to the Owl and readying the pyrotechnics on the raft with the effigy of Care, a group of a couple dozen (presumably) high-ranking Owls.
1
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 4:53 PM
Marshall sidles up to Archie, finding room on the bench behind Archie and Edgar Bergen in the outdoor auditorium as Cronkite's voice and the Bohemian playing "Care" exchange their ritualized calls and responses. Marshall, thanks to the drug, can feel Stoney close; the 2C-B allows Marshall to feel Stoney's own... alienness making Stoney/Archie an orbiting planet to the Owl-Thing's sun.
Inverarity — 9/6/24, 5:30 PM
" ... Arch?" Marshall says in a low voice.
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 5:38 PM
"Everything's fine here, Doctor," Archie says in Stoney's sepulchral, mid-Atlantic register. "We're just a little stunned at the performance right now. Shh. I want to pay attention to the ritual." Edgar Bergen casts a curious and concerned eye at Archie's "doing a voice." Ventriloquists know.
Inverarity — 9/6/24, 5:42 PM
Marshall pauses before nodding; he recedes into the crowd but is going to stay nearby and keep an eye on Archie.
1
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 5:56 PM
(Just going to wait for Jo's coup de grace in the woods to be confirmed before moving time along any further, Brant.)
MutantsMichael — 9/6/24, 6:30 PM
The pyrotechnics begin in earnest. Marshall sees experienced Bohemians down in the front row near the lake actually take out sunglasses. The entire auditorium is bathed in harsh, blue-white light as the fireworks begin on the disposable pier on the lake and Care bursts into red-orange flame. The firework lights are throwing off harsh psychedelic trails of infralight, a burning chromium glow that peels off fractally into multiple dimensions, reflecting off of the lake and off of the Thing in the Owl, which now seems to have filled the Owl Statue and taken its form. Archie/Stoney is still staring square at the Owl, paying no attention to the fireworks or the Cremation of Care. Marshall senses a queer vibration in his feet; a double-vision overtakes him as he looks down at the ground. Overlaid on the nicely flattened/paved dirt of the area around the Grove auditorium, he sees another vision: a densely-packed forest floor. The humus and undergrowth that a natural redwood environment would possess is bursting through the ground, fungus and beetles and needles and cones half-illuminated by the fireworks, showing Marshall a different world, one without the Grove built up here in the sequoias around Monte Rio. It feels... off. This is Marshall's nth test flight of 2C-B and he's talked to memes and seen visuals that suggest hyperdimensional effects and connections, but he's never seen another reality overlaid on this one. It disappears after a mere second or two, in the blink of an eye. Archie/Stoney looks away from the Owl as this happens, and looks for Marshall. The Bohemians are toasting each other and shouting and singing, Edgar included, so it takes Archie/Stoney no time to hop back to where Marshall is; Archie/Stoney does look a little impaired, though; a little drunk, kind of like the unsteady walk a kid might perform while learning how to twiddle the strings of a marionette. While he speaks to Marshall, Stoney retrains his eye on the Owl, not even deigning to give Marshall eye contact. "What do you reckon that was, my good Doctor? The shimmer, the flip, that glimpse of virgin forest?"
Inverarity — 9/6/24, 8:41 PM
“I think I’d rather discuss that with my colleague, sir.” (edited)
[8:41 PM]
(Has it been six minutes? Is Archie “conscious”?)
September 7, 2024
@Inverarity
(Has it been six minutes? Is Archie “conscious”?)
MutantsMichael — 9/7/24, 12:22 PM
Not quite yet, and until then, I will continue to have Stoney speak. "Operational security, I understand it completely." Now more sotto voce, nearly inaudible over the explosions, Archie/Stoney moves closer to Marshall, purring nearly in his ear. "Rest assured, my dear Doctor, I am doing Archibald a favor. Everything your world's admittedly potent drugs allow him to see, he invariably dissociates in the face of. His own lives, his forebears among Joseph Smith and his cod-Freemasonry, and now... this great prodigy," Archie/Stoney says, gesturing at the Owl Statue. "But he is watchful still, and he takes the wisdom into his heart and mind, like a true prophet." "I should wonder if while he was prisoner in North Korea, the Chinese didn't use some sort of drug regime to pry his secrets loose, and all his dissociation in the face of entheogenic contact is a trauma reaction to that." (edited)
Inverarity — 9/7/24, 12:27 PM
“Do you often reveal your subject’s private medical and psychological history to their staff?”
2
[12:29 PM]
If Stoney has like, any Body Language skill he will be able to discern that Marshall has literally no desire to speak with “him.”
MutantsMichael — 9/7/24, 12:34 PM
Stoney will actually do his full-on sinister cackle at that; but again, under his breath so that he's not very obviously acting out in Archie's skin. "Why, Doctor!" Archie/Stoney says, smiling, thoroughly enchanted and amused by Marshall's comment, "Who knew you cared so much?" "He'll awake soon. He'll need care; a good night's sleep to process what he's seen will do wonders, I expect. Perhaps you can escort him back to his bunk in the Dragons' Den once he does awaken." "But Doctor, do consider what I asked about that little glimpse of another world we were vouchsafed. If you ask me, your world's ruling elite is playing with some very dangerous thaumaturgy... thaumaturgy that your Sumerian friends might well take good advantage of." (edited)
Inverarity — 9/7/24, 12:38 PM
“If I were looking for outside input on this matter,” Marshall says, wiping his neck, “I wouldn’t ask someone who already lost the war. At least sit down so he doesn’t hurt himself when you … release him.”
MutantsMichael — 9/7/24, 12:43 PM
Archie/Stoney looks at Marshall this time with a look of undisguised cold fury instead of flirtatious know-it-all banter. But then a small smirk re-emerges on Archie's face. "We'll see who's lost whose war when our respective stories are all finally told. Keep pussyfooting around like you are? These men, all around you? They will crush you. Trust me." "Why don't we go back to our seats, Marshall?" Stoney says a bit more loudly in Archie's voice; a good approximation, surely, but it's clear to Marshall that Stoney is not as skilled a mimic and voice actor as Archie himself is. "I think I'd like to hit the hay after all this hullabaloo is over."
Inverarity — 9/7/24, 12:44 PM
Marshall nods and half-escorts, half-follows “Archie” to a bench, a bit away from the crowd.
MutantsMichael — 9/7/24, 12:46 PM
After another few minutes, Marshall can detect a marked change in Archie's pupils' dilation, his manner, and his posture. There's a momentary slump as Archie regains the "driver's seat" of his own body. He was out for a little over six minutes total from when Marshall noticed his slack-jawed staring at the statue.
Inverarity — 9/7/24, 12:48 PM
Marshall puts a hand on Archie’s shoulder. “Between Martin and Menos and now you, I hardly know who I’m dealing with lately,” he says in a gently ribbing tone.
1
[12:49 PM]
“What happened, Arch? What did you see? Why was he — why was he puppeting you like that?”
Rob MacD — 9/7/24, 1:09 PM
Archie looks back towards the Owl statue, bewildered. He's pale and I imagine sweating. "All-Star Baseball..." he says. The Cremation is still going on, right? Is Archie still under the full influence of the drug - that is, is he still seeing GURPS text anywhere? or "just" living memes - and is the Owl spirit still inhabiting the statue?
1
1
1
MutantsMichael — 9/7/24, 1:15 PM
The rip in reality that hath shewn Archie the Apocalypse of History A has repaired itself now; to Archie's eyes, what he sees when he witnesses the Owl Statue is the shiny mercurial blob that Marshall (at 20 mg of 2C-B) has been seeing all along. Maybe here and there there might be a shimmering letter or number or two in New Aster typeface fluttering down into the lake like confetti, but the information, the raw source code, has now "departed as a scroll when it is rolled together."
[1:19 PM]
As far as the Cremation itself goes, the revelry has now kicked in in earnest as the final fireworks are shot off and Care itself is nothing but a pile of smoldering embers. The bars are now serving the Brother Owls and the cowled elite are shedding the hoods and robes and getting down to celebrating and mixing with their lessers. A few, Fred Merrill included, are headed back up to the big central Clubhouse; they are keeping their robes on. A few other Bohemians and guests, Governor Reagan included, head up to the Big House with them.
Rob MacD — 9/7/24, 1:39 PM
"I'm sorry about that, Marshall. Poor judgment on my part." Archie rubs his eyes, tries to pull himself together. "This... whatever this is, it's too strong for me, I think." He sits there on the bench, taking deep breaths, watching the last of the fireworks and the dispersing Bohemians.
Inverarity — 9/7/24, 3:35 PM
“Don’t apologize — I shouldn’t have let you take so much on a first go. But I suspect that wasn’t wholly your idea.” Marshall watches as the crowd mingles and laughs and disperses, and sees Fred, et al., heading off. “It’s a pretty fucked up scene, I won’t lie — all this. What do you think they’re going to do with Reagan?”
Rob MacD — 9/7/24, 5:24 PM
"Reagan..." Archie tries to focus on that. "It sounded like they were still on the fence about him, but about to make their decision. Maybe tonight's his last chance to seal the deal." But he's still in a bit of daze from before. "Did you see... what I saw there, inside the Owl? The... scroll... with all the figures? About the spirit of ky... of ky... of History A?"
Inverarity — 9/7/24, 7:12 PM
"No, I didn't see that -- a scroll, I mean, I -- I saw something. I don't know how to describe it. But yes, I saw it. The ... the meme? The meme of the world?" Marshall stands and offers Archie a hand up. "I'd expect you'd see a scroll, with your understanding of the Math. It would make sense that your mind would translate the Math into, well, math. Anyway. Let me walk you back to your 'camp'."
MutantsMichael — 9/7/24, 7:20 PM
As Marshall and Archie make the set off for the bunks, a message via Jocasta's one-way telepathy appears in Marshall's mind. The 2C-B makes it feel like Jo is standing right next to him, like an apparition, speaking the following: In the woods, 200 yards north. Need to be out by dawn when guard shift changes. Raise left hand if you need help, right if no. Open if you need surveillance or watch, closed if you need assault or distraction. Can message again if needed.
Inverarity — 9/7/24, 7:25 PM
Marshall brushes his hair away from his face with his right hand, hand wide open. Then he taps himself down, takes out a cigarette, lights it, and looks up toward the crowd that includes Fred and Reagan. Then he says to Archie, gently: “Let’s get out of here.”
September 9, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/9/24, 7:06 AM
(I kind of love the idea of Archie glimpsing Jocasta and her aura crossing Swimming Pool Road and thinking he's had a Bigfoot sighting or something )
September 10, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 6:59 AM
(Do you guys have any more dialogue to get through before I ask about your plans for the rest of the fortnight-ish at the Grove? How long will the two of you be staying? Are there any other avenues of investigation/dialogue at the Grove I should prepare?)
Inverarity — 9/10/24, 8:26 AM
Nope. Marshall will spend most of the rest of the two weeks there meeting people and collecting intel. We can probably condense that down to just a few rolls and see what the results are. He also is going to give some thought to “saving” the Martinez painting, whatever that means (Memetics roll?).
1
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 8:45 AM
Cool. I'll see what Rob/Archie has planned and if there's a way to get secure communications back from URIEL over the next two weeks (I guess there's always Jo's Telesend!)
Rob MacD — 9/10/24, 9:03 AM
Nothing right now, other than anything else he sees as he comes down from the 2C-B. Is Archie obliged to stay the two weeks? I believe you said some busy executroids come for the first weekend, leave, come back for the end? I think he'd do that if it's allowed.
1
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 9:04 AM
That's cool. Having Archie off-site for everything but the Cremation and the High Jinks/Grove Play means he can consult with the Scooby gang in person as well.
[9:09 AM]
And yes, even for guests with as much metafictional juice/interest from the Owls/Fred as Archie, he's not going to be "imprisoned" here at the Grove. As an invited guest with business elsewhere, he can dip out from the 13th-ish to the 20th-or-so. He'll have to sign out and in of course as Edgar Bergen's guest. Will think about abstracting out Marshall's observations over the week-plus, he's got TONS of skills he can bring to bear on this. Feels like it should culminate in an Esmology roll though after taking in all the data. But no rolls yet please.
@Inverarity
Nope. Marshall will spend most of the rest of the two weeks there meeting people and collecting intel. We can probably condense that down to just a few rolls and see what the results are. He also is going to give some thought to “saving” the Martinez painting, whatever that means (Memetics roll?).
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 9:21 AM
Psychology-21 to start in on analyzing the class of men who attend the Grove, the ways in which they interact with each other and the inner circle of Owls, and the practices, speeches, conversations overheard over meals, and so forth.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/10/24, 11:59 AM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Psych-2:(6+2+1)= 91
MutantsMichael — 9/10/24, 5:22 PM
Gonna see how the rest of Mitch 'n' Roger work out and then I can start moving the clock forward a little and give Marshall the lay of the socio-psychological land.
September 11, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/11/24, 5:11 PM
(1/2) Marshall's original set of observations on the rank and file Bohemian Grove visitors holds him in good stead in the first couple of days after Care is cremated. All his first impressions—the concerted playful homosociality, the gestures at childlike innocence in a thoroughly insular, closed-off social setting—abide through the rest of the weekend. He sees most of the men holding the "Weaving spiders come not here" ethos in good stead; what Marshall does notice is a lot of business card swapping so that personal business can be conducted elsewhere and elsewhen, after the Grove fortnight wraps up. Building a network, filling the Rolodex; that's what the Grove is all about. The strivers—the little CEOs like Don Fisher, the bank Presidents from the middle of the country, research scientists and minor entertainers, the House of Representatives members—act wide-eyed, lucky to be here; the boys at the national/international level—the big CEOs, governors, Senators, Cabinet members past and present, and so forth—keep their own company and own counsel. More than once Marshall runs into alums or current members of The Company he knows from either Vietnam or from CIA interactions since he's been in SANDMAN; and yes, he does encounter a small handful of actual Sandmen here as well. Marshall nominally expected this, but it's clear the echelon of Project members who attend the Grove are the big boys in Esmology from the 'Peak: political and parapolitical thinkers and planners, liaisons with Central Intelligence and the Pentagon. These are folks at Marshall's rank or Archie's rank: Operation heads like Marshall or Division heads like Archie. Some Memetics personnel too, and some who fall into the vagaries of where the industrial side of the military-industrial complex meets the Project, in Materiel: these folks are in computers, biotechnology, less frequently heavy industry and agriculture. One echelon of the US military-industrial complex not widely represented here? Active-duty upper officer class military. Some retired generals, sure, with sinecures on corporate boards, but the Pentagon, it seems, is not part of the Owls' active Club/Grove membership. Why bother suborning them, when you have the politicians and intelligence brains, the real men in charge, here?
[5:12 PM]
(2/2) Over the weekend, there's an announcement for a talk on Tuesday scheduled from outgoing California Governor Ronald Reagan posted on the quaint little bulletin board with its daily newsletter called "The Owl." The topic of the talk is "Expanded Capital Ownership: The Only Answer to Creeping Socialism"; it seems to be focused on ways to make workers feel like they have a stake in the corporations they work for by encouraging broader stock ownership. So apparently Ronnie is still in the Owls' good graces; good enough to be allowed to give a speech that sounds like something anodyne he might deliver to the Rotary or Young Americans for Freedom. And it's this overall vibe that Marshall sees emerge after Weekend One: this sense that the men at the Grove are planning the future: not in the way that the Continuity Working Group did, with an apocalyptic endpoint in mind, of course, but as pure nuts and bolts tinkering with the current system that runs the First World: corporations, media, government, academia, finance. Things could always be better, the vibes of both the wide-eyed toilers in the vineyard and the Real Men at the Top seem to share, things could always be more orderly and precise and controllable. Many of these men, when they're not talking big picture stuff, are all about Control in their personal lives too. Where the kids are going to college, what is happening to their insular neighborhoods, where they're planning to move to be safer and more secure, why you can't trust the hippies and layabouts to know their place. Besides, many of the mid-level Grove visitors say, those kids are getting older now. They're settling down, raising families themselves. They'll come onboard, they'll see it's good for them to do so. The ones who don't? They aren't even worth pondering; they're not going to be customers or consumers. The system will take care of them, before too long.
September 15, 2024
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 10:09 AM
@Inverarity So! The memeplex residing within Xavier Martìnez's self-portrait and the "rescuing" thereto: So obviously Marshall's experienced hand in taking 2C-B at this point has allowed him to perceive memes; there's no need for him to do art appreciation to "pick the memetic leads out of the normal cultural background" as it says in the MD core book. Marshall can perceive what this memeplex is all about: Marty's artistic ego, his spiritual and ethnic identity as a Mexican descendant of the Purépecha people, and his being trapped/forgotten/hung here as a mascot/trophy by the Owls. Much like the Jack London memeplex that Jo encountered (or indeed the Storyteller Marshall met at The Clock), it's not a ghost; it's an impression made from the collective belief energy around Marty's life and artistic corpus. So honestly, since Marshall can communicate with and perceive it, there's no reason Marshall can't "catch" this meme, taking the contagion unto himself, and spreading it elsewhere. The downside that Marshall sees as an expert memeticist is that memes eventually fade when they're "caught" by a person, if the meme is not reinforced or repeated or re-caught. The self-portrait here provides the meme with, shall we say, a photonegative, a plate, that can impress the meme on others. As long as it exists, it's a wellspring for the communication of Marty's life and legacy. So one solution is to physically obtain the self-portrait, for sure. But Marshall's gotten the sense that having this connection to the Original Bohemians is important to the Owls; a statement of "what we used to be but are no longer." There are ways Marshall could get it out of here that use a cut-out: the family could make a claim for it—Marty's daughter Kai for example, or even Elsie Whitaker Martínez herself. But amidst all this theorizing, I would like Marshall to roll Expert Skill (Memetics)-16 to puzzle out some creative solutions on how to preserve and reinforce the memeplex with or without the original sketch.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/15/24, 11:28 AM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Memes-16:(3+2+6)= 11MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 11:44 AM
With the painting: With the right interpretive materials and context, Marshall figures he could make this meme stronger and more contagious. A curated exhibit, perhaps, or even giving it back to the Martìnezes somehow and letting them find the right physical space for it. But in the change to the painting's context—taking it out of the "trophy shelf" of the Grove—Marshall believes that that sub-narrative within the memeplex—the one where Marty is "wronged artist," captive to the Owls and their material rapaciousness—could perhaps fade away, and in the process so too would some of the memeplex's Power. (Marshall rates its current Power, by the way, at around a 6: enough to embed and obsess in most audiences, but more contagious among audiences predisposed to its message.) As it's currently constituted, the memeplex's anger and shame is part and parcel of its identity... who knows, maybe that part of the meme's self-belief is fueling the Owls somehow, but that would mean that the Owls feast on fear and misery which seems a little far-fetched. Marshall's learned by asking around that the original works by the Old Bohemians that get trotted out once a year are in storage/on display in the big house when the Grove's not being used by the brotherhood/when it rains out. They're tatterdemalion emblems of rulership and the merest nod to the Club's past; not respected, not kept in perfect museum conditions. Would they be willing to lend it out to the family? It depends on how important it truly is to the clued-in Owls who run the Club, I suppose. Without the painting: This is the scenario where Marshall lets the meme "infect" him and Marshall carries it out of the Grove as a memetic carrier. Advantage here is that it imprints on Marshall as it exists right now, with all its aspects. The disadvantage is, well, what does Marshall do with it then? As mentioned, it will inevitably fade (and, perhaps more importantly, mutate) upon Marshall becoming the carrier. Like a game of telephone, there's no telling what form the meme might change into after Marshall spreads it (verbally?) to others. Marshall's Expert Skill (Memetics) roll tells him that the perfect audience for this meme, for it to get carried forth maximally, would be visual artists and probably specifically artists of Mexican origin with an eye to pre-Columbian spirituality, religious iconography, what have you. They'd be able to "catch" the fury and the basic ego of the thing, and while the individual artists might end up impressing their own artistic styles and obsessions on the meme, the core of the anger and fury at being co-opted by the Owls would likely remain. So you'd be looking a changed meme, but one that's fully powered. And of course, Marshall figures, if he carries the meme out, he can certainly tinker with it too. Accentuate or diminish aspects of its payload here and there. I mean, on one level given the meme's strong identity, that would be, like, equivalent to brainwashing it and programming it, but when has Marshall ever blanched at the necessity of doing just that with humans?
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 11:52 AM
I suppose someone could combine the two approaches here—rescue the painting physically and then build an exhibition around it and other works that examine the Mexican artist in California boldly declaring their own identity—to spread the original meme effectively. But one wonders if Elsie and/or Kai, who have their own cultural and artistic memetics (remember, Kai is a devout Catholic who features Christian allegory in her work) would be down with that. (Sorry I'm bringing forth all my museum studies shit on this... I like the idea of physical spaces/exhibits inculcating memetic belief a lot, though. Temples and ziggurats.)
Inverarity — 9/15/24, 12:57 PM
Who's the youngest, hippest visual artist at the Grove this year?
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 2:00 PM
That is an excellent question.
[2:03 PM]
I mean, the Grove's tastes in art are quite traditionalist, from stately to kitschy. I figure there have to be a couple of artists attending who are, at least, au courant in pop and op art and other expressions of the modern idiom that have found favor with the rising young CEO class. I shall do a little research.
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 2:16 PM
lol
[2:18 PM]
Brant, how about this guy? He's going to be/is currently the curator of SFMOMA and did some daring political art in the '60s down in LA. https://arthistorians.info/hopkinsh/
Hopkins, Henry T. - Dictionary of Art Historians
Director of several California modern-art museums and professor and chair of the department of art, UCLA. Hopkins was the son of Talcott Thompson Hopkins a
[2:19 PM]
I found out he belonged to the Bohemian Club because apparently all curators of SFMOMA and the de Young (where Beth-El was shown you might remember) are inducted into the Club (edited)
Inverarity — 9/15/24, 2:20 PM
Perfect. Marshall’s gonna devote a few days to cultivating a friendship with this guy and then use him as a vessel to smuggle the meme out.
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 2:20 PM
"[material deleted]"
@Inverarity
Perfect. Marshall’s gonna devote a few days to cultivating a friendship with this guy and then use him as a vessel to smuggle the meme out.
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 2:21 PM
Ah yes, since he can speak the language of art and political art, he can act as a more sturdy carrier for the meme than Marshall can. Smart.
[2:21 PM]
Man, I love this little reprise of museum skullduggery calling back to Mission 2
[2:23 PM]
The War Babies exhibition mentioned in Hopkins' bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huysman_Gallery
The Huysman Gallery was an art gallery in Los Angeles, California that operated from December 1960 to summer 1961. It was located at 740 North La Cienega Boulevard, across the street from the noted Ferus Gallery. Curator Henry Hopkins, who founded the gallery, named it after the French decadent novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans. The gallery showcase...
[2:27 PM]
I picture the meme transmission happening over a Grove conversation with Hopkins about the art there; he'd definitely have opinions and might be a surprise proponent of Marty et al. He'd be pretty receptive to the meme if Marshall acts as a bridge for it. Let's see how well he's infected. We'll use Public Speaking, 22 plus 2 from Reputation, plus 1 from Fashion Sense, and a conditional plus 2 from having known the meme intimately thanks to the 2C-B. Public Speaking-27. It'll be transmitted even on a fail/crit fail, just at a lower Power.
Inverarity used
roll
Dice GolemAPP — 9/15/24, 2:40 PM
@Inverarity rolled
3d6Public Speaking-22:(2+5+5)= 12Inverarity — 9/15/24, 2:40 PM
Oh 27, well, even better.
1
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 2:42 PM
Lands at Power 7 and I would say Hopkins definitely will be someone we can check in on as time goes on (edited)
Inverarity — 9/15/24, 2:56 PM
Yeah. Marshall hasn’t put too much thought into to this — he’s only doing it because he feels kind of bad for the meme, something he himself recognizes is absurd — but his hypothesis is that if the meme finds purchase in an actual visual artist, maybe it will thrive “in the wild,” and since the meme is “opposed” to the Owls it’ll be useful to embed it with someone whose work might reflect its values.
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 8:47 PM
Leonard — 9/15/24, 9:34 PM
That's really weird because ESOPs later became a pretty standard liberal 'let's make capitalism fair' issue
1
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 9:44 PM
Weird how that keeps happening, huh Also unrelated did you hear that 17 Reagan administration figures have backed Kamala Harris
1
[9:45 PM]
What a better answer could we have to socialism? What an export item on the World market! What argument could a foreign land have against a corporation which made its “have-not” citizens into “haves”?
Bill B — 9/15/24, 9:48 PM
The barfier part for me was: "There was a wide distribution of land and they didn’t confiscate anyone’s already privately-owned land. They did not take from those who owned to give to others who did not own." There was no taking! Nevermind the folks pushed off; they didn't privately own it!
1
MutantsMichael — 9/15/24, 9:49 PM
YUP
[9:50 PM]
There was a reason I was so thrilled when I saw this speech, it's a perfect precis of what the Owls want out of Ronnie... but what on Earth did they extract from him to make amends for the failure of the SLA op....
Bill B — 9/15/24, 9:51 PM
Given they work in blackmail, knowing they've got him utterly to rights if they help disconnect him from West (but can hold that over him) just made him that much more appealing.
[9:52 PM]
Or the hollowed-out puppet theory.