Here’s some more flavor fiction about my Mage LARP character. This was originally posted on 3 May 2006.
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A letter is left on the house’s kitchen table, with LORI printed across the envelope. Inside, it reads:
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Tetu, the Ibis-beaked. Scribes, mathematicians, and those considered wise were associated with him in ancient Egypt. Has Hubris taken me? Have I, when the chips have fallen, buckled? I had a solid plan, and in the course of a night, I’m left with the options of picking the pieces of my plan up off the floor and putting it together, or saying “fuck it” and doing something entirely random. But there’s no such thing as a truly random function.

Lori, I killed last night. I took careful aim at a prone victim, a Nephandus, and I shot him in the head until it exploded all over the floor. He was controlling peoples’ minds. Some kind of cult set up through the Universalist Unitarians, of all people. He was tagging people through fliers, and through his cult followers’ handshakes. It spread exponentially, like a virus. They came looking for us at the bar, you know, the Lab? I lost my head and went vulgar. I used my solar collectors/EM generators to generate a field around me that bent light around it, rendering me invisible. It worked, the ‘dox hit, and I couldn’t shut off the field.

Sam, the new chick, and I went straight to the church. I wanted to use this oddity to my advantage. I was gonna sneak into the church and pop that fucker in the head. I wanted to execute him. I couldn’t think of anything else. It wasn’t even for retribution… the people he’d turned into brainless zombies in the Lab… I wasn’t even thinking about them. I had this craving to end his life. I lusted for his death.

It didn’t go quite as planned. Everybody followed us to the church. I was already inside, and trying to get inside this fucker’s inner sanctum, and Eric, Midas, Loki, Sam, and the new chick stormed the church. I think Prisanth was leading them, but I don’t know for sure. Loki somehow fucked with the dude, and all of the zombie guys in the church with me just dropped. I kicked in the door and ran down the stairs. Dude was on fire, trying to put himself out. Had to have been Loki. So, before anybody came down the stairs, I shot him. In the head. With the phosphorus rounds.

His head -exploded-.

But I couldn’t stop. I just kept pulling the trigger. Until his demon book reached out and clawed the shit out of me. Three times. Apparently, demon books aren’t susceptible to light wave modification fields.

Everyone was downstairs by then, and they destroyed the book. Sam took me to Joseph. Loki was there too, and he was in real bad shape. He was still somehow able to let Joseph see through the field to put the IV in and get me recovering. Eric and Prisanth came in and dropped a bomb on me – we, our avatars, reincarnate. With Nephandi, their Avatars are corrupted, so because I killed the dude, his evil demon avatar will get reborn into someone else. I’d fucked up, big time.

Things only got worse from there. Eric was able to help Loki and I with healing. He even chased away some fire paradox spirits that were trying to burn Loki alive. Midas gave him the ability to see them, and that was about the only useful thing he did the whole night, AFAIK.

The church has a node. A weak one, but it has one. Prisanth’s people are cleaning it, and they want to give it to us, instead of guarding it themselves. But, according to them, they’ve got to give it to a Cabal. Or clique, you know. So Midas fails brilliantly at explaining this to everybody but Eric and I, who are still at the hospital. He gets everybody pissed that the Traditions are once again patting us on the head, because Midas can’t seem to say two words without talking down to people.

Nero and the new chick form a clique for the express purpose of flipping people off. There was -another- new chick, and she stayed quiet. Sam stayed neutral. Eric and I formed a clique and accepted the church, because we were sick of sitting around with our thumbs up our asses. I’m thinking now, that with the basement of the house, taking on the responsibility of this node was more hasty than it was wise.

Prisanth keeps asking me why I associate with people I see as ineffectual, or people I don’t feel any tie to. I really don’t know. I don’t have an answer for him, other than a shrug and “they’re Hollowers.”

Midas has been declared Barabbi by the Traditions. He’s made a deal with a malevolent spirit, and apparently that’s a big old no-no. He knows what will happen if he doesn’t clean it up, but all he does is avoid it, and threaten people who bring it up. His son -is- Old Man Scratch, and they were wrong about his wife. Her avatar isn’t Marauder, it’s Nephandus. Like the dude with the book.

I cleaned up one mess, even though it was sloppy. Maybe I should clean up the other. Either way, I need to learn how to defend myself. I need you to teach me how to shoot and fight. I can’t protect anyone if I can’t protect myself.

Oh, some new info for you. A messenger from California brought some news. ItX has transferred some brass from New Mexico to Detroit. High-ranking paper-pushers. Efficiency experts. If you’re going after the Cabal that made me kill our family, be extra-careful. Also, there’s an unaffiliated team going around the city with sniper rifles, picking off supernaturals. It may be your family. So far, they’ve targeted vamps and wolvies, and so now those are fighting each other. Euthies and Choristers have also been targeted, but only the Choristers had casualties, I think. So, heads up.

I miss you. I need your help. This blood thirst won’t stop; won’t go away.

– Matthew Samuel McNally / Tetu