eveglass | Orpheus: The Late-Night Conversation, part 17

Okay, my LJ access has been really screwy lately, otherwise I would have posted this last night. (My browser keeps crashing when I get to the "type new entry" screen. I hate bill gates.) So this morning I downloaded an LJ client called Pheonix, and we'll see how that works.

So, for Kyn's benefit, because he made me promise, this is a summary of last night's Orpheus game, from Stacey's perspective. As always, there were many private conversations she wasn't part of, and you'll just have to wait for

maery,

cynicalyorick,

balistic, or LC (does he have LJ?) to post their view.

(please note that throughout this account I use the term "spectral" to mean ghostly, as opposed to real-worldly. If I'm refering to spectres, I say spectres. Just so there's no confusion.)

So, the session began with all of us in Charles' loft, still in shock. Benoit called a few of his contacts in New York, and it turns out that every Orpheus office in the US has been hit, and apparently someone's trying to keep it quiet. Charles tries to check the 'net to find out what's going on, but his access is blocked and begins to be traced. All of us, recognizing this as a Bad Thing, decide to leave. Chet and Charles go off to Chet's place to get stuff there, while the rest of us (Stacy, Philip, Lakuna, and Trish) go off to the rubble of Ripley's house, where Charles has said it will be safe, none of us thinking very highly of staying in a piece of rubble, you understand. (note: due to a tiny bit of story-twisting, we haven't been to Casa dela Ripley yet.)

So we get there. Lakuna and Stacey check it out and discover Ripley has somehow managed to turn himself into a house with no material form. From the street, it just looks like mist and fog. After a bit of discussion, we park the car in the garage and go it.

Our intrepid foursome check out Casa dela Ripley. At one point, Lakuna and Stacey find themselves alone (read: Ian was off doing another scene and LC was in the bathroom). They have a heart-to-heart conversation in which Lakuna is on the point of telling Stacey about her dreams... when Benoit comes back, with perfect Benoit timing, to report that there is no running water. Trish decides that she and her sister are sharing a room.

While waiting for Chet and Charles to return, Lakuna gets a text message from Dave (our liason), who is buried under 25 feet of rubble at the former Orpheus office. He strenuously objects to Lakuna and Stacey's initial reaction of "we must go in and save you", saying that it isn't safe. His parting line is: "who needs a body anyway?"

Chet and Charles still have not arrived, much to the worry of Stacey and Lakuna. (Their scene took about 45 minutes in the back room. We had time to go out to the dep and back before they were done. We had time for LC to get booze and porn and get bored with the porn before they came back.)

Lakuna convinces Stacey to call Chet. The first thing out of Chet's mouth is that there's a body in his appartment. He and Charles are both panicking, and the sound of sirens can be heard in the distance. Stacey tells them both to leave, and hopes that for once they'll listen.

About ten minutes later, Chet walks in as Charles stashes the car (apparently not knowing about the phantom garage). Chet looks the worse for wear, and Stacey pulls him aside to calm him down and find out what happened. It turns out there were two men waiting for them back at Chet's appartment, who knew them by name. One of them attacked Chet with a gun that shot gauze which had a spectral scream and was able to hurt his (Chet's) projected body, even though the bullet was not, itself, projected. The man was able to resist Chet's possession while the other one ran away. In the end, the man killed himself, leaving Chet and Charles to deal with approaching police cars.

Meanwhile, as Stacey and Chet are having this conversation, Lakuna's glass drops as she has a waking vision. Benoit apparently piggy-backs onto this, as he faints as well. Stacey rushes over to comfort Lakuna, who is shaky but not saying anything.

Chet decides he needs to go back to Orpheus, tonight. Much shouting ensues, as per normal with our crucible. Even Ripley joins in, writing in blood on the wall. In the end, it is decided that we can wait until morning (at least), since at the Orpheus office, spectres are eating the souls of PLEs. Chet storms off to the garage, Lakuna storms off to her room, with Benoit, and Charles storms off... somewhere. Stacey has a brief converstaion with Chet, where he shows her the gun used to shoot him, and then she too goes off to her room with Trish.

It turns out Ripley can comunicate via sterio and TV as well.

As Stacey's sitting in her room, Lakuna comes in. She (finally) tells Stacey about her dreams, that Charles knows, and that Philip has experienced them. She tells Stacey that Benoit is interested in her and extremely shakey right now, and could Stacey go talk to him? Meanwhile, she will go talk to Chet, who managed to hear part of the conversation between her and Benoit, or at least we think so (he was evesdropping outside, and extremely messed up... on even more stuff than Chet normally is). So Lakuna goes off to do damage control, and Stacey goes and talks to Benoit.

Benoit is not in good shape. He didn't take being raped very well. He's in a half-fetal position on the bed when Stacey walks in. They talk about various things, including how no one should have to be in the situation we're in (especially not Trish), and how creeped out we are to be living in Ripley's ghostly body. Finally, Benoit talks to her about the dream, and how he and Lakuna have decided to kill the spectre in her dream. Stacey's solution is simple: "bring me along, and I'll help kill it." Benoit sees the rays of possibility, but has no idea whether it will work. He instructs Stacey to dream of big guns (no problem, really, as she generally dreams of being in a war), and if he can, he will get her that night.

At some point in the wee hours of the morning, everyone falls asleep, and that is where the session ends.

A few choice tidbits that Stacey doesn't know, but that are interesting:
- Chet now things Lakuna and Benoit are sleeping together, since they're sharing a room, and he's overheard some conversation.
- Lakuna allowed Charles to read her Tarot cards.
- At one point. Charles went off to talk to Amin (I don't know whether it actually worked).
- Benoit's transformation from "utter jackass" to "I can care about other people" has happened rather rapidly. Being raped will do that to you, I guess.
- Somehow, Chet has taken on the role of Charles (whiney "I need to get my way NOW"), and Charles has taken the role of Ripley (voice of reason). Stacey actually mentioned to Charles that he was sounding like Ripley, not knowing the implications of that statement at all.

So that's it, really. I hoped I stuck close enough to what actually happened. Kyn, I hope you're happy. Next game is Wednesday the 13th.