OOC: Loa Blood

[Jacobo_Curious]

Hahaha, I'm glad to think so. It's always nice to have heroes who could just as easily turn out to be villains...

 

[SwampThing]

I couldn't agree more, Jacobo. As for me using Kell as a villain, I want you to just have him do whatever he wants, for his own complicated reasons. The difference between heroes and villains is largely a matter of how they are perceived and treated by civilians, the law, and other super-beings. I love the dark tone you're taking with Kel, and it really surprises me, coming from you.

I don't mind the "balance sense" thing, but Kell wouldn't need it in this case. Monolith is 12 ft tal and made of stone. His Loa Gift is obvious to anyone who sees him, special senses or not.
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KissTheSky, I'm sorry Sugar got dragged away from the other characters. She'll meet them again soon. How does Sugar feel about being carried away by this guy? The way you two are going, it's going to get harder and harder to explain yourselves to the police. Does Sugar still feel safe, or would her old insanity be creeping back in?

 

[KisstheSky]

ST,
its all good we'll reincorperate ourselves in somehow.
Us fleeing the scene pardon or not makes sense...since captivity is the only thing Sugar has ever really known-first at the hands of her parents, and then by the doctors with the Loa and finally at the asylum...she was afraid that the police would just find some new way to clip her wings.
Plus being alone has allowed Sugar and Ghost to grow and develop as characters which is good.
It shows a lot about their morals and such to see how they act in the real world enviroment even though they're on the run.
As for her insanity...it comes and goes. It will be more frequent eventually I'm planning a sort of build up that will lead to a break down sort of deal...perhaps at least...I still haven't fully decided what sort of path I want to take her on.
So who are these kids? Ruffians....Loa patients....narks...?
They'd be a good way to get us into the storyline if say they were doing informative work for Coda or something. *shrugs*
But its your call
I just takes it as it comes.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Mary isn't a good person or a badf person either. With her memory loss she's a "What about right now" person. She has a system of living that has been working for her, but it is theift. In D&D terms she'd be a chaotic good person, mostly ok with helping others but not at any risk to herself.

A lot of mental illness are cycle illnessness (in re: to Sugar). A person can be fine for a while, then gradually build up to a full blonwn insident. Sitzophrina, serial killers, manic-depressives and wife beaters are a few of that type. Depending on the state of the persons mental health the cycles get shorter (becomeing more ill) or longer (getting better).

And of course Faith is all about life, liberty, and Free My Country from the Oppressive Overlaod. Gotta love idealistic go getters!

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

how about postal employees?????

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Hmm...

Polite, should I wait for you to post as Mary before responding to AW? I think that would be best.

Oh, Monolith is made of stone, too? Hahaha! I didn't know that, I thought he was just really big. Hahaha. Oh well... Kell was probably too spaced out to really notice anyway... ^_^

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

yep. he's 10' tall, looks to be made of obsidian, with golden eyes. He has rough facial features, but not a human face ( soerta like The Thing from the Fantastic Four, but not as craggy). Hew weighs half a ton now, & his strength just grew too (he hasn't found that out yet)

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Well, I think I flowed with it okay. Kell IS supposed to be spacing out, after all. He's a bit out of it.

 

[SwampThing]

The kids Sugar and Ghost are with are small-time hoodlums, working as couriers and like that for a Sejealan gang (Kell's people). They are attracted to Ghost ad Sugar's style, rebelliousness and power. You can stay with them if you want, and prety quickly you would be offered work by the gang. Whether or not you take that offer, you can spend a day or two chilling with the kids. They can also help Ghost search for information on Marrow island.

I'd like to move ahead a day or two soon. Get us closer to the next Loa Blood shipment. So Kell and Mary should figure out how they wil spend the next few days. Coda wil have a warehouse or someplace for Monolith to live (and would certainly hire Kell, too if her was interested, but it doesn't seem like his deal).

Is it possible that Mary's doll and Sugar's doll got switched at some point? Back at the asylum? It would be interesting, but I'm not sure it would make sense.
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Dex and Kryna are facing Ragdoll. She's more intelligent and powerful than anything you've faced yet, and will certainly survive this encounter to haunt you again. She's fast and agile, and uses her railway-spike fingers as claws. Since her current form is made of rags and wood, bullets or punches don't hurt her, but fire or blades would. Dex's light bolts are force, not heat, so they can't burn her, but they might be able to blast her apart. And you can always grab her, tie her up, that sort of thing.

Oh, and if Kryna changes size, her clothes will probably fall off or be destroyed. Later, Coda will get you a size-changing outfit, but for now your clothes don't change with you.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Considering that Kell has already been on the street for three or four days (for his seventeenth birthday, no less!), and that he's a Sejealan, he might have already met that gang. That might be a way for Kell and Mary to meet Sugar and Ghost, if that's what we want.

If it IS what we want, knowing Kell, a situation most appropriate would be that he helped out Pol when he saw her getting into a scrape (thus making visible both his martial arts, which are mediocre but still impressive, and his Balance Hands) and then got mad at her when she offered a place for him in her gang. He hates the Loa almost as much as he hates his own weaknesses, but his need for the familiar will probably drive him to follow Mary wherever she goes, at least for a while.

If Mary goes too, and they don't ask any questions about Kell's past, he'll go join Coda. His powers are certainly worth studying.

Well, wait -- does Coda DISTRIBUTE Loa Blood? What exactly does Coda do, again? Because it really depends on that. If it ends up that Coda "likes" Loa Blood, Kell may end up doing his utmost to hamper Coda. (Course, I wouldn't do it if it got in the way of the story, but it would probably be Kell's course of action. For a few weeks. Until he got bored and depressed again.)

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

what about the REALLY BIG puppy following you guys?

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Didn't you already decide who you were working for? Or are you currently without a job? Have the heroes split up? Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention to the stuff Kell isn't involved in. ^_^

Alls I know is, Kell would probably stick with Mary, at least before he gets over his irrational desire for something familiar. Then he'll probably be disgusted with his weakness and run away.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

yea, he provisonally acepted the job to protect the next Loa blood shipment.
But remember, he was a cop, & protecting people is one of his major goals in life, even if it is protecting a kid from himself

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

That would be cool, but would it make sense? I mean, if you were him, would you really follow around some ungrateful dirty kid when there are millions of other ungrateful dirty kids in the city?

Still, we can probably find SOME way to get them to work together. Would Ghost and Sugar work for Coda if they got the chance, do you think?

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

i don't think they are stable enough, actually

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Hmm, yeah... at least Kell can give the APPEARANCE of being stable. ^_^

Well, I'll just wait to see what ST has to say.

Do you know what Coda is about, AW? I don't quite understand what it does. Like, what do they ship the Loa Blood for? That would be what Kell would care about.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

I have no idea
think Swampy is making it up as he goes

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Well, if he is, he's darn good at it. ^_^

Yeah. I'll just wait until he gets back and reads this before making any new moves. That and I want Polite to do some posting too so Mary isn't just standing there dumbfounded.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

same with me

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

I've posted, I've posted...no more standing around looking for dumbed for me!~

I don’t see how the dolls could have possiably been switched, but maybe this is something that can happen later?

Brain studies show that as children our brains are like jelly, which is why we can’t shake them. When shaken too
hard the jelly sloshes around and the nurel pathways become broken. As we get older our brain hardens to the
consistancy of jello. It wiggles, but doesn’t shift. So the connections and pathways don’t become broken. In
humans the brain becomes fully “set” at about age 17. A part of Mary’s problem is her flux between ages softens
and hardens her brain. The longer she stays in her adult form the more she will remember, but it will begin to get
scrambled again as she fluxes down to younger ages. Which, when she was running her foster care scam she did
very often. The pain is the nurel pathways trying to reconnect.

Also, I was wondering, after long time use does the Loa power wane and wax? Can you burn yourself out?

 

[SwampThing]

I like Kell knowing Pol and her gang. I was originally going to introduce them through Kell, but he got really busy and Ghost and Sugar needed something to do. It would be a good way of linking up the two (or more) groups. Maybe everyone could end up at the Twelve concert.

Coda uses Loa Blood in industrial experiments, developing medicines, non-poluting fuels, hybrid plants, stuff like that. According to GAIA regulations, they don't do any human experiments or weapons development. I think part of what attracted Dex, Kryna, and Monolith to working for Coda, is that the company made no mention of wanting to study their powers, unlike the Argo government, which did.

The Sejealan gang is made of Loa-worshippers. Sejeala is the seat of the Western Church of the Wheel, and a lot of religious Sejealans were hit pretty hard by the revelation that Loa created the world. So a lot of them, especially the younger generation, have turned to Loa worship. The gang sells those little pendants with Loa cells to the faithful. It's illegal to sell the things, but the Sejealans are doing it more out of religious conviction that the faithful have a right to have a piece of the Loa with them, than for money.

I hope that answers your questions, JC. As to whether I am making this up as I go along, I have a rough idea of the major players in this world, what they want and what they are planning to do. I'm fleshing that out as we go along, using the input from you guys (for instance, I knew I wanted a gang of Loa-faithful, but it was only JC's posts about Sejeala and Kell's own religious feelings that made the gang Sejealan). I cannot stress enough that I don't have a direction for the PCs to move in. I just want to give them a world to explore, and let them make whatever choices you guys want to make. If you decided you wanted to leave Argo and never return, and live in huts in the jungle, then that's what the story would be about.

Succubus, I only brought up Ghost getting tired because Amon had described the vanishing power as something Ghost could "sometimes" do, meaning that it doesn't always work. Think of your powers as physically demanding. You can use them as much as you want, but constant use is tiring, and contined use after that is painful. A couple of hours rest and you're good to go again. I really like your description of how/why Mary's amnesia works. Hooray for science!

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Soooo, shall I write Faith and Price? Or are you going to respond? Or did you respond and I missed it somehow? (Page # if I missed it, Please)

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Wow, awesome explanation, Polite. Yeah, seriously, horray for science.

Hmm... I don't want to create unnecessary friction, I'm just trying to think as Kell right now... his current feelings are that the Loas have somehow tricked everyone and that they aren't the creators at all -- not really because of his Wheel religion, but because he's slowly becoming convinced that he's a creator and destroyer. And, of course, 99% because he's bitter and angry about his remaining close family being killed off by Loa Blood. Luck does not seem to favor our dear Kell... though it depends on whether you're thinking short-term or long-term, I suppose. When you're stuck on the streets hungry, though, I imagine you think short-term.

Sooo... I suppose he'd work for Coda. Maybe just to try it out. More likely he would if Mary also found it a good idea to get something stable where she wouldn't have to worry about covering her tracks and switching ages constantly. He really, REALLY hates the Loas though. Bringing him into the gang, even temporarily, will probably cause a bit of tension though... heh heh.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Pardon the expression but there is NO FRIGGIN way Mary is going to join anything like a goverment agency or major
corp, esp one that deals in Loa blood. She doesn’t know exactly why that would be a very very bad idea, but even
the concept of it is enough to make her bolt. It was bad enough that they TESTED her, if she could get her hands on
the tissue and blood samples and destroy them that should could think of quickly enough, she would. But within the
scope of her powers, she couldn’t. And she doens't trust anyone enough yet to ask them for help. By the time that she did, it would be too late tand the samples would have been run already.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

I don't think Coda wants to do any research, though. They just want help from strong people -- those already infected with Loa Blood.

And it actually would be a lot safer than what she's already doing...