Ch 16 - Our Lives Asunder Part 2
A fault is a weakness, a defect, a fracture. Faults divide, tear, and consume. Here in the city of Chester's chasm, we struggle to maintain that precarious balance over the precipice in the earth, in our lives, and in our hearts. This story is about 4 teenagers with faults of their own.
Crispin:The fault between my faith and freedom.
Saline:The fault between my family and identity.
Ben:The fault between my choice and my obligation.
Michael:The fault between my life and death.
Mistress Winter:As these fractures grow, we stand at the edge and ask what must we sacrifice to sate the void's endless hunger? Is it possible that the answer lies within all
Mistress Winter:our faults.
Mistress Winter:Greetings, and welcome to All Our Thoughts, a Monsterarts 2 actual play podcast from the Tabletop TaleSpinners network. I am your most grateful hostess and producer, Mistress Winter. Much like the proverbial ground shifting under the feet of our protagonists, I have been experiencing a similar shakeup. I'm at the tail end of a big move, but don't expect to feel a settled earth beneath me for a while. This may have some ripple effects on the quality of this episode as well as future recordings.
Mistress Winter:What I can promise though is that I am doing everything I can to ensure you the best listening experience that I can provide because you deserve that, my dear listeners. I do have another announcement to that end. This will be the last main episode of All Our Faults before we take a 2 month break. We came to this decision recently due to the turbulence caused by my aforementioned move, as well as some casting changes. As Cat mentioned in part 1 of this chapter, we are at a halfway point in our teen story.
Mistress Winter:This climactic episode offers an opportunity for us to split our season, reset and rebrand for the second half, and give me a little time to catch up on editing. But that does not mean that we are leaving you without your all our faults fix. After this episode, we will post a series of weekly aftershocks, with the last releasing on July 3rd. These will be short individual stories similar to the faulty flash points that we started the show with, providing even more intense cliffhangers that we hope will bring you back in September. Further, we will release some bonus content to fill in this massive fissure between our episodes.
Mistress Winter:We truly appreciate your patience and continued support. In our previous chapter, Michael, in his darkest self, caused chaos at Jacob's memorial. Bert dragged the direwolf into the underworld, saving Selene and putting his own fate into question. Meanwhile, Crispin arrived at the cascade to perform his vigil only to have his zealous entourage pick a fight with Jacob's mourners. Celine took notice of a supernatural influence being exerted by Doctor.
Mistress Winter:Miller, and an ensuing earth quake suspended the group's reunion as the seal that Crispin was meant to protect was broken. We hope you enjoy this exciting mid season finale. Chapter 16, our lives asunder, part 2.
Mistress Winter:Crispin, you are looking at the broken sigil. Michael and Celine have caught up.
Saline:How close is the sigil to the opening that's pouring out very magic light that reeks of the wild hunt?
Mistress Winter:The sigil is about halfway up the waterfall, so I'm gonna say a good 100 feet. A ways higher from the opening at its base where the light is pouring up out of. You have this grand waterfall. Crispin is perched on an outcropping of rock off the trail, gazing at something behind the waterfall about 40 feet away, at the bottom of the waterfall, where it dumps into that giant cavernous area, Light is pouring out of that hole. A little further in from that gaping chasm is a bridge that spans the river, and on that bridge are 2 groups of people who are currently mingled in all kinds of violence.
Michael:See, I love the violence part. That that speaks to me. Who could I possibly agitate the most in the violence?
Mistress Winter:Considering that most of the unarmed people are making their retreat.
Michael:Oh, and they angered me recently. Right?
Mistress Winter:Taylor did hit you?
Michael:Yes. Yes. Jacob's vigil.
Crispin:Oh, god. You fucking bitch.
Michael:Mhmm. And then you have the Christians on the other side?
Mistress Winter:Yes.
Michael:Okay. This feels in line with my darkest self. Could I possibly do a Christ pose hovering between the 2? In my an- you know, my angelic appearance, my blonde curls, my pale skin, but I take a Christ pose, a t pose, if you will, between the 2 of them, chanting in Latin. Sure.
Michael:I'd love that. Wouldn't
Crispin:you? Yeah. Why Latin youth hunt?
Michael:Why not? Something trescatolic for them.
Saline:It's just not historically accurate.
Michael:Exactly.
Mistress Winter:Michael, if you will indulge me.
Michael:Yes. I would love to indulge you.
Mistress Winter:Describe how you get to that point.
Michael:Yes. So because I'm a vampire, I I like to go back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer where vampires can hover. Right? So they can they don't fly, but they hover.
Mistress Winter:Well, you've used this ability before to buy on Harker.
Michael:Hover up to Windows. Yeah. To on William Harker. So I will, put my arms out, cross my legs at the ankle, tilt my head, open my buttoned shirt. Maybe what I'll do for a fact is I'll take my, like, sharp nails and I'll, like, make my torso bleed a little bit where the lens of longinus would have pierced on the side.
Michael:So I bleed just a little, and I will hover over the bridge just between the 2, enchant and Latin, just to everybody, as if I were possessed by angels with my golden curls tumbling before my face. I would like to maybe evoke hot in this moment as a role.
Mistress Winter:No. No? Shut someone down.
Michael:Shut someone down. So, shut someone down requires which?
Mistress Winter:Cold.
Michael:Cold? Oh, okay. Okay. That's a plus one for me. Okay.
Michael:That gets me a 7 total.
Mistress Winter:Okay. So you come across poorly, so you will gain a condition. But you get to choose either you can gain a string on someone in the crowd, give someone a condition, or gain a forward.
Michael:I would like to get a string on the leader of the Christians.
Crispin:Daddy? Father Miller?
Michael:Daddy. On daddy. Yes. On father Miller. I would like to get a string on father Miller.
Michael:He believes I am an angelic figure.
Crispin:I don't like the sound you just made Winter make. I just want it noted. I didn't like it.
Michael:Because of my hot and my unnatural hovering quality. That is definitely unnatural. It must be angelic.
Mistress Winter:They definitely do not see you as the second coming.
Michael:No. Definitely not that.
Mistress Winter:They do not revere you. If nothing else, the violence stops simply out of fear and confusion. And Jacob's group uses the opportunity to scatter and run for their cars, helping anybody still conscious back to their vehicles and eventually the emergency room. The religious group, we'll call them the lesser members, will retreat before the visage. Father Miller lingers, a seething hatred on his face, But with his devoted retreating back down the trail, he follows suit, and both groups will have left.
Mistress Winter:Now I'm wondering, Crispin, your reaction to all of this.
Crispin:Yeah. Oh, god. Yep. This is this is the moment. I think I think Crispin would interpret this as his friend being possessed.
Crispin:Oh. Yeah. Whatever evil Crispin is here to hold vigil against has claimed hold of his friend Michael, and so in a rage. Is there still light pouring out of the sigil?
Mistress Winter:Not the sigil, the tavern at the bottom of the waterfall.
Saline:Very light. Cool.
Crispin:Yeah. That doesn't mean shit's Crispin'.
Mistress Winter:Well, it's certainly not natural. So you have this unnatural light pouring up out of the caverns. You have Michael hovering as if crucified over the bridge.
Michael:It's like a reverse The Lost Boys.
Crispin:Adorable. Yeah. I think for Crispin, this is like all of his worst nightmares made manifest. So he is going did I make it to the cracked sigil to see it with my own eyes before I before this happened?
Mistress Winter:You can see it Okay. But it would take some climbing to get to it and touch it physically.
Crispin:I I don't need to get to it and touch it. I just need to, like, see it and confirm that my my fears have
Mistress Winter:Oh, yeah.
Mistress Winter:Oh, yeah. It is there is a a neat crack through the top of it.
Crispin:Okay. Then I am I think my friend is is possessed. I'm gonna I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go for the light and try to save my friend.
Michael:As the parties disperse, Michael will land on the bridge and turn around and look at Celine and Crispin.
Crispin:Crispin's gone. Like, Crispin's making for that cavern.
Saline:Can you explain to me exactly what Crispin does, please?
Crispin:I get eyes on the the sigil. I turn around. I see Michael hovering, speaking Latin that I don't know that he knows, and I believe he has become possessed. So I make a dash for this cavern where this supernatural light is coming from, and I am brandishing my club. And I'm I'm gonna fight the devil to save my friend Michael.
Saline:Okay. Can I do some things or try to?
Mistress Winter:What would you want to do?
Saline:Would trying to grab someone be lash out physically? Yes. Cool. There's a lot happening, and Crispin is about to find out I am fake. Crispin, who does not know that I the supernatural exists.
Saline:Crispin, who very much fell in love with. And we just shared a pretty tender moment. Pretty sure he, at the moment, likes me back. But he is about to find out that I am Faye, particularly if he goes into this cavern, and he will probably die because the wild hunt is very close. So I'm feeling trapped.
Saline:I would like to give myself the condition trapped, so I get a plus one to lash out physically. And I would like to try to grab this fucking boy before he runs towards the cavern.
Mistress Winter:Roll lash out physically. And depending on how that goes, I will have you run or make a runaway.
Saline:Okay. I hope that okay. Well, leave it to an 8.
Crispin:K.
Saline:So that's a success with consequences.
Mistress Winter:Yes. You do harm, but you choose 1. Crispin learns something about your true nature. I decide how bad the harm turns out, or you become your darkest self. Gonna have everybody in their darkest self by the end of this one.
Saline:I don't think darkest self works right now. Okay. I think it would be counterintuitive. Sure. Because then I'd have to run away from everyone.
Saline:And right now, that is not my goal for once.
Mistress Winter:Fair enough. Fair enough.
Saline:I feel like I have to go with the obvious one. I feel like it's the best choice. He he's gotta find something out about my something is revealed to him about my true nature. It I feel like it's gotta be.
Mistress Winter:Oh, okay. Initially, you are surprised when Crispin takes off and hurries down into the caverns to face down this threat. You give chase. And though you know the caverns better, Crispin moves with this almost supernatural guidance that takes him down into the caverns just to the point of that portal, which you are familiar with but is now twice its size. Something in you resonates with that portal, whether it's your Fey blood, whether it's the mark which has allowed you transition between the 2 worlds, But you call upon it instinctually and reach out to it in an effort to stop Crispin from certain death, certain doom, you attempt to close it.
Mistress Winter:It reacts violently there is an explosion of that power as it fights you and throws both of you back, Crispin being the closest, so you do take that harm. And when the energy clears, the magic evaporates the portal is smaller again and very translucent it seems that you may have closed it for now.
Saline:Can I ask a quick question? Sure. I've fully closed the portal?
Mistress Winter:It does not it seems almost like, like looking through a reflection of water. And when you move to touch it, it resists you.
Saline:Have I ever seen it like this before?
Mistress Winter:No. You have not.
Michael:Okay.
Mistress Winter:Crispin, you were witness to all of this, and you witnessed the exchange of energy, the the connection of magic between Celine and whatever this portal was. So you gained that string.
Saline:Question.
Mistress Winter:Yeah?
Saline:You said that there was a force of power. Right? I'm assuming my hair that is usually down covering my ears gets blown back and my ears that are unnaturally pointed when you really look at them are on full display while this is all happening.
Mistress Winter:100%. There may even be a glimpse of your mark on your neck that shimmers with a resonating light, something similar to the portal that you just closed.
Crispin:So as Crispin is running full bore towards this unbeknownst to him portal, He sees it start to seize and change. When he turns, he sees this energy exchange with Celine as improbable, impossible as it seems. He knows that she's done it, that she is the reason that he is still standing there. And I think his initial thought is for her safety. You know, whatever whatever got Michael came for her too.
Crispin:But then he really looks at her, and he understands that she has done something. And it's not something that he can explain. It's not something that his father would understand. And I think for the first time ever, when looking at Selene, he feels fear. And after a moment of just regarding her, he begins to stumble back away from her.
Crispin:Despite the fact that everything in him wants to go to her, wants to make sure she is okay. He's a coward. And tripping over his own feet, stuttering for words that never really come. E? Please.
Crispin:He gets as far away as he possibly can.
Mistress Winter:Give me a run away.
Crispin:I really should've known that was coming.
Mistress Winter:Oh, yeah.
Crispin:That's cold. Right?
Mistress Winter:No. Volatile.
Saline:Volatile. Damn. Alright.
Crispin:Well, I'm good. I'm good
Mistress Winter:at that. The 12. You flee. And again, as if guided, you get out of the caves. You make it back up to the trails.
Mistress Winter:There is one vehicle left from your church that had a little trouble starting and is just now getting going as you burst out into the parking lot. The driver sees you and motions you in. It's not my dad? It is not.
Crispin:So I don't have to, like, stay out here all night by myself?
Mistress Winter:That is up to you.
Crispin:It's not my dad and it's not father Miller?
Mistress Winter:Correct.
Crispin:Then it's probably one of the older ladies of the church, someone I'm sure my father has complained about being soft, being less dedicated to the faith. And so I will start to take steps toward her as if to take her up on it, and then I will think better of it and just kind of wave them on to go. And I will spend the rest of the evening or the rest of the night until dawn sticking as close to, like, the edges of the parking lot as I can.
Mistress Winter:Okay. We will then come back to Crispin. Celine, you are left in Crispin's wake down in the caverns, the lights extinguished. Michael peering down from the bridge above.
Michael:Yes. I'm pretty satisfied with myself. What do I see when I turn back and look down?
Mistress Winter:You could have witnessed the scene between Celine and Crispin.
Michael:Mhmm.
Mistress Winter:And just are now staring down at Celine, who was left alone.
Saline:I wanna ask a question about how it feels once the portal is quote, unquote, closed. What, like, what does it feel like for Celine? Is there a, like, detachment? Does she feel shut off from her fae heritage? Does it feel blocked?
Saline:Like, what does it feel like for her?
Mistress Winter:It feels like she's lost a limb. She was connected to something, and now it is just gone.
Saline:So reeling from that, I will also turn to Crispin. And before he leaves, I do think I get out essentially, like, I spend wait before he books it away from before before that moment settles that he is staring at me, kind of everything I've been afraid of him seeing, the fact that I'm Fae, the fact that I'm being hunted by something, the fact that I used being hunted by something to cause the death of someone else, it is very much so crashing around her in that moment before he flees, and she would just kind of be left staring before she would turn to the portal. And I think she would just start banging her fists against it, prying to get through. And the more it doesn't work, that's when just kind of screaming starts and she is just letting out screams and banging against this portal, and then the tears come.
Michael:Michael looking back, seeing Selene having a breakdown, thinks, I could meddle, but there's so much more fun to be had
Michael:elsewhere, and Michael hovers off, and floats in the direction of That's
Michael:a
Mistress Winter:powerful tableau. Each of you alone, That's a powerful tableau. Each of you alone and in different emotional states. Crispin. You spend a long hour or 2 pacing the parking lot.
Mistress Winter:A car pulls up. It is doctor Miller.
Crispin:Did I notice doctor Miller in the chaos at the site of the fight?
Mistress Winter:She was not amidst the chaos. If you did take notice of her, she was off to the side, not engaged in any of the of what was going on.
Crispin:Okay.
Mistress Winter:Crispin, are you okay? You came back. Of course.
Crispin:I think seeing her here, seeing that she came back for him, Crispin knows what to do. I think he is elated to see her. And also, no. I don't I don't think it occurs to him that her being here is unusual, especially because, presumably, father Miller is not in the car with her.
Mistress Winter:Correct.
Crispin:So I think he goes, you know, there was fight, and I I I didn't know what to do and it felt strange. And I saw things in in the woods and my friends and he's just babbling. I don't think any of it even makes sense. He's just the words are fighting to get out of his mouth so fast that he's just just babbling.
Mistress Winter:Crispin, Crispin, get in. With everything that has happened, I don't think that making you stay here overnight would do anyone any good.
Crispin:But my vigil my father and father Miller said that
Mistress Winter:It is okay. Get in. I'm gonna take you somewhere safe.
Crispin:They drive After a few moments, when Crispin has had time, he'll look over at Doctor. Miller and go, it isn't it wasn't how I thought it would be. I thought I would just sit in the woods for a few hours and come home and everything would be the same. But it that's not but that's not what happened at all.
Mistress Winter:I don't know if it's any comfort, but this is highly unusual. The events of tonight are unique, but your decision, your choice to not engage in that gruesome fray, to not perpetuate that violence, that showed you have a strong heart and means that you are of greater character than any other who has performed this vigil.
Crispin:That's that's not what Father Miller would say.
Mistress Winter:Say. No, he would not.
Crispin:I think I think my friends are damned. They maybe it wasn't them, maybe it was a a trick, the things I saw is, is the realm of hell upon us?
Mistress Winter:Many religions, spiritualities believe that at some point there will be some form of end times. Apocalypse, Armageddon, rapture, Ragnarok. It comes in many forms based on your particular faith. And sometimes when we're faced with these situations, these overwhelming and seemingly supernatural events, It can definitely feel like the end times have come upon us. Now I will not debate whether or not the end times are here.
Mistress Winter:What I will say though, are you willing, are you brave enough to face the challenges that will be presented to you and to overcome them? Will you face those demons, those dragons, those mythical creatures, and overcome them? Can you find the strength in yourself?
Crispin:Crispin is quiet for a long time, stares out the window, and finally, painfully, he turns to Doctor. Miller, and by way of answer says, when did Father Miller know that it was right and good that he should be a priest?
Mistress Winter:I suppose it's been a calling all his life. However, he found his current path just about the time that we began courting.
Crispin:I know I'm too young now, but after everything I've seen the last two nights, I don't think there's anything else for me.
Mistress Winter:What do you mean?
Crispin:In a rush, Crispin will explain about seeing Jacob's body, about feeling responsible for Selene and for hurting her and the research he did on Fenrir and this sense that has been building up over the last week or so that just everything in the world is very wrong. And it has become an all consuming thought for Crispin that there just is so much evil in the world that he had never taken seriously, that he had thought his father was overblowing, That the devil had been convincing him that all of this was bullshit. That all of this was false. That was fake. That none of it was real.
Crispin:A real psychologist would recognize the guilt and the shame and the self blame and the the survivor's guilt that Crispin is feeling. He is a teenage boy who is being faced with a very real and very scary dose of reality, and no one he feels like he can share it with. He barely has friends. He is the weird religious kid. He knows that.
Crispin:He's so grateful for the friends he does have, Juanita included, the the fucking lunch lady. He can't talk to his dad. His mom is might as well not be there. He is very alone. And I don't think he's ever approached this in his sessions with doctor Miller because even to him, it sounds crazy.
Crispin:But I think just over the last two nights, he's just seen too much and been pushed too far and would sacrifice anything to just even if he can't make it stop, to at least feel like he's trying.
Mistress Winter:There's a a song that the song lyrics spoke to me a little bit. They say that it's not that my arms will fail me, but this world takes more strength than it gave me.
Crispin:Yeah, that that feels right.
Mistress Winter:So you were by no means weak or unworthy or uncapable. Your potential is limitless, but sometimes we need help from others, need help from our environment, Luck, if you will.
Crispin:I feel that luck has ever been on my side,
Mistress Winter:but I can help.
Crispin:Chris has been perks up at that, for sure.
Mistress Winter:I can help you find that strength,
Mistress Winter:the power to control
Mistress Winter:your destiny, control those things in your life that feel out of control.
Crispin:Please. I I hate to ask you for more than than you already do for me, but I I'm at a loss. I don't I can't I don't know where to to go next.
Mistress Winter:Come with me, and I will show you. I will help you and guide you, and you will find that strength.
Crispin:Okay.
Mistress Winter:Out of game, I would like to offer Cat Yes.
Mistress Winter:The character of Crispin to trade off the knight for the horsemen.
Crispin:Okay.
Mistress Winter:It's one that I've
Crispin:made. Oh, no. I'm so scared. I'm so scared and so excited.
Michael:Wait. What? Madame.
Crispin:Tell me everything.
Saline:It's a really cool skin.
Mistress Winter:The horsemen of the apocalypse more specifically.
Crispin:Oh. Yeah. No. That I got the vibe. Yep.
Michael:I was thinking the horsemen of, like, Sleepy Hollow. So wait. Tell us more, madam.
Mistress Winter:Just a brief description. The apocalypse draws ever near and you are its harbinger. You are no mere doomsayer. Your very existence is a warning of the end as well as its catalyst. Whether you are a devoted disciple or an unwilling participant in which this mantle has been thrust, you are compelled to influence your environment and people in it down the path of destruction and ruin.
Michael:Oh, what a mood. Oh, for the, listening audience, Kat's face at this moment is incredible. The eyes have gone wide. The smile has gone bananas. The face is incoherent.
Crispin:I'm reading the moves. I'm reading the moves. Tell us.
Mistress Winter:I I will say that in this particular instance, you are being offered the red horse, the red horse of war.
Saline:Yeah. That makes sense.
Crispin:Okay.
Michael:Can you describe to us, those of us who are not currently reading The Red Horse of War, like me, what The Red Horse of War offers?
Crispin:Yeah. Strife and conflict erupt around you. You can pull a string on someone in the scene to compel them to lash out physically. And then I was also reading The Sex Move. Ask the partner if they will be your ride or die.
Crispin:If they say yes, you can summon them to your side by spending a string you have on them.
Michael:I love that.
Crispin:Oh, this is scary.
Michael:It's spicy is what it is.
Crispin:Broken seal. Take one forward if you willingly follow someone else's behest.
Mistress Winter:I will allow you to peruse that skin and may you can make a decision. It doesn't have to be, like, right now.
Michael:Imagine it as a deal with the devil.
Crispin:Kinda. Yeah. That's that's, that's where I'm at right now.
Mistress Winter:Yep. So we will fade out on their discussion. Michael, do you take your vehicle or you just float back into town?
Michael:I'm just floating.
Mistress Winter:So at least Selene has arrived back if keys are still around.
Michael:Yeah. So I'm in my darkest self. I imagine I'm in maximum drama mode, which means I'm angering everybody. I'm making everyone as uppity as possible, and I am on my way to poor William Harker's home floating through the air as obscured as possible, but I am floating. I am not driving.
Michael:I am not walking. I'm not riding a bicycle. I'm not taking a unicycle. I am not taking the trolley. I am floating through the air.
Saline:I love that it's not flying. Like, you're not flying. You're
Mistress Winter:floating.
Michael:Correct. Yeah. No. No. I'm not a bird.
Michael:I'm not a butterfly. I am floating.
Saline:But you're not a bat?
Michael:No. No. I'm not hovering. I'm not a bat. I it is a float.
Michael:It is not a fly. Maximum appeal. You're welcome.
Mistress Winter:Alright. Michael, you float back into town, heedless of who may spot you or any potential dangers, and float directly to William Harker's home.
Michael:William, I'm here.
Mistress Winter:There's a stirring at the curtains. Are you on the roof or?
Michael:I'm outside his window. If he's looking, I am floating, still. But if he's not looking, I'm just outside the window.
Mistress Winter:There is a stirring at the window. He will push aside the curtain and stare wide eyed out at you.
Michael:William, can I come in?
Saline:Why don't
Mistress Winter:you turn someone on?
Michael:Happily. I've wanted to turn him on for so long. I've waited for this for so long, And I'm so out of my own mind. I got an 8. No.
Michael:Hold on. Wait. I got a 9. Math is hard.
Mistress Winter:Yeah. Yeah. Yes. And he will step back. Essentially, he's taking the promise something he thinks you want.
Michael:Yeah. I open his window.
Michael:I come in.
Mistress Winter:He steps back, but is otherwise frozen to the spot.
Michael:William, may I? And I extend my hand to touch his cheek.
Mistress Winter:He twitches, but it is just this tension that is running through his body. This fear, this excitement that he's wholly unfamiliar with on top of just the abnormal circumstances, but he does not pull away.
Michael:My fangies, pop.
Michael:William, I've wanted you for so long.
Michael:And I'd like to use my sex move if I could, which is to ultimately deny him, but I wanna work him up first.
Mistress Winter:Give me another turn someone on.
Michael:Another turn him on? Okay. I've rolled a 10 plus 2, so 12 total. Oh golly.
Mistress Winter:You gain a string.
Michael:Yeah. Yeah. Sure. I'll write that down. Oh golly.
Mistress Winter:And he becomes completely compliant, enchanted, entranced, bewitched, however you want to describe it. But you have him firmly in your grasp, and he is yours.
Michael:And I think what I do is I caress his neck and his chest and his arm, and I kissed his cheek. William, I've wanted this for so long. And I drink from him.
Michael:And I make sure he doesn't die using my vampire move.
Saline:Of course. Of course.
Michael:And, because of my other vampire move, he's marked for the hunt, and also, I don't need to heal one harm, so I'm gonna take a forward.
Mistress Winter:Perfect.
Michael:And then I will, like, lick the wound and heal it. I will deny him more sex with my sex move.
Michael:William, another night though. Now is not the time, but know that I do want you badly. Good night.
Michael:And I will like, slide out the room without walking, out the window, hovering, and then like, float out the way while he's kind of, like, blinking to himself into the moonlight.
Mistress Winter:You leave him a quivering mess.
Michael:Good.
Mistress Winter:Who knows if he'll wake up in the morning
Mistress Winter:and think it was just
Mistress Winter:a fucking crazy ass extreme or if he now knows you to be a vampire, guess what by now?
Michael:We'll say I left him a pencil, like, a mechanical pencil that only I would use that he would recognize, so he knows I was there.
Mistress Winter:Fair enough.
Michael:But he's confused about the whole event, so it's all a blur. But he knows that it had something had to be real.
Mistress Winter:You float out. Are you going home?
Michael:I'm trying to experience the last bit of normalcy given I have thrown my phone into the chasm after my idiocy. So, yeah, I'm gonna go I'm gonna float home. I'm not gonna fly home. And I am going to spend my time with my little brother, and I'm going to play video games with Gideon.
Mistress Winter:Before you get home, you feel this mental spike in which your master's voice sneers your name, Michael, to me now.
Michael:Fine.
Michael:I guess I'm fucked. And I will go. Like hovering mid air over like a maul. And I will just, like my arms will, like, fall limp. My head will drip.
Michael:My blonde curls will bounce, and I will turn in the direction of daddy's apartment.
Mistress Winter:Alrighty.
Michael:I will pause, and I will float in the correct direction, despite my best interests against the moonlight.
Mistress Winter:We will come back to that. Celine,
Mistress Winter:you are left alone, sobbing at the bottom of the caverns, the portal to your other home, your father, closed to you?
Saline:When you say there's resistance, is it resistance I can at all push back against?
Mistress Winter:When you press against it, it's almost like you're pressing against like a very thick like ballistic gelatin. It gives, but you can't push through.
Saline:In this state of mind, I'm not accepting the situation. So I am going to in a fit of just kind of all consuming True despair, I'm going to try and force myself into the portal. It is not letting me through.
Mistress Winter:No. But give me a gaze into the abyss.
Saline:Oh, for sure. 4.
Mistress Winter:It resists every attempt, and you have no idea if this is permanent or if this is temporary.
Saline:I will turn around and, like, slide down to the ground against the portal, And I will pull out my mirror and just start whispering to myself, please, please, please, please. And I am going to open up the mirror, and in a desperate last attempt to connect back to the fairy world, I'm going to try to contact my father using the mirror.
Mistress Winter:A mirror swirls and swirls, and nothing ever takes shape.
Saline:Can I ask to clarify if because sometimes he doesn't answer, so to speak? Is this different? Is this, I can't connect to the fairy world anymore? Do I feel that it's different?
Mistress Winter:Essentially, like, static. So you're trying to connect on the radio, and you are just getting static.
Saline:In a fit of rage, I am going to scream and slam the mirror down into the ground.
Mistress Winter:The mirror breaks, cracking across its surface. And even the swirling colors, the static fade until it is simply just a mirror.
Saline:I think that will kind of throw me into another set of sobs as I kind of realize what I've done and this connection that I've lost, especially now, like, everything that happened with Michael, everything that happened with my sister, everything that happened with Crispin, the things that have been going on with my mom and my stepdad. Like, there is nothing for me in the human realm. Now I'm literally trapped there, trapped here. Well, the sobs will fade for a second. I have all these questions bubbling up in me, and one in particular is just, why?
Saline:Towards my mom. Why did she take me away from the pharaoh? Why did she leave my dad? Why did she she put me in this situation, Make me live a half life in the fae realm, a half life in the human realm. Right now, my anger is towards her because it's the most tangible thing.
Saline:So I'm going to close-up the mirror. I am going to stand up, take a shaky breath, and I am going to leave the chasm. And if I see Michael's car there with the keys, I am going to get into the car and drive to my home. I do not have a license. I know how to drive.
Saline:I feel like that's something Celine would know how to do. But she does not have a license. She does not have a car. But I'm going to drive home to confront my mom.
Mistress Winter:K. I'm thinking that this might be a good place to start.
Mistress Winter:My eternal gratitude to the Tabletop Tail Spinners network and its amazing director, Emma Kokar, for our home and support. Many thanks to our social media queen, Juicy Garland. You are a true champion of this show, and we appreciate you. My love goes out to our fantastic cast, Abby Marie Carter, who can be found at Abby _marie_carter, Juicy Garland at Juicy Garland, and Kat Kelly atcatthedungeonmom. Due to scheduling conflicts, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Ben.
Mistress Winter:We are so grateful for his work with us and truly wish him all the best in his future endeavors. Stay tuned for the first of our aftershocks due to release next Wednesday. We will be back with full episodes on Wednesday, September 4th. In the interim, I encourage you to check out our newest ad partner, characters without stories. It is an easy listen podcast that explores the ideas and inspiration behind those who have not yet walked the road of adventure.
Mistress Winter:More info in the ad to follow. I have been your hostess and producer, mistress winter. I can be found at g mistress winter. Thank you for listening, and may your hearts be safe and loved until we meet again. Good night.
Star:Characters Without Stories is a tabletop role playing game podcast about the roads not yet traveled. Every episode, I bring in a friend to tell me about a character they long to play. Characters Without Stories is about how our characters and how play is a gateway to personal growth.
Guest:The way I see tabletop is that I am running to something. I'm running to a world where it's possible for me to feel comfortable enough to stand up for myself.
Guest:The reason that you can die in these games is because it matters, and something mattering is one of the most precious things we can have. You want your life and your stories to matter.
Guest:Role play is a fantastic tool for exploring stories and exploring people.
Star:Thank you, and may all your characters find their stories.
Mistress Winter:This has been a tale from the Tabletop TaleSpinners Network.
