The Alternity Event has screwed everyone up even more than I had thought. Even me. We're making mistakes and acting strange. Maybe I should look into Aretian psych therapy. It is supposed to be extremely effective, a leftover of the vacuum-colony days when one whacko could kill thousands and, therefore, no whackos were left uncured. How to sell the idea to those who need it most?
Lora is not comatose, despite being the focus of the Baron's working. Because her alter ego didn't die? Nice that I won't be IT for magick.
Megan seems to be an adept-enough shapeshifter to do what we need done. If she can duplicate Stumpy's abilities we can design servants with the ability, make an appropriate shadow, and recruit some.
Need to move Fi and the others soon... OH SHIT! We talked up most of this in front of Flora, who spies for that bitch Sand. Gotta get Theseus to monitor her Trump.
Ritual murder. I don't even want to think about it. They did a good job of the magick-wipe too, not that easy in Amber City.
Hope I can fix these comatose mortals. Hope I can fix them in large groups. I don't have time to do them one by one if it takes much time at all.
Wonder if Mom could help Fi. Would Fi want it done? She and Mom have some old quarrel, probably over who's Queen Witch of the Universe. Could ask Mom what she would want were their positions reversed. Doubt Mom would lie to me; lying is low.
I am much more off my game than I had thought. Discussing the arrangements for Fiona and the others with Flora there! Stupider than yrch.
The invalids are all tucked in. Later, I'll have to record messages for them when they wake up. Especially Random. Random... have to talk to Megan about him. He's got to be way the hell out of the loop by now. Maybe Gerard can record a message. Gerard... have to look into therapy for him, hell for me. Aretia is really good at it, former vacuum colony and all; they couldn't afford to have loonies walking around, opening air locks. Our psychology is essentially human. Some of the Terran governments brainwash people routinely, and there are the VR junkies -- somewhat similar.
OK, what the hell happened with Bob? Have I created a 'relative'? Can I teach him to do little Pattern tricks? That could be very useful. If he can handle it. Tests, tests, tests. Then, if it is reasonable to do more of them, triage on the basis of usefulness. The best of the officers and noncoms and constables. I could do several a day in my copious free time... Dee's even busier than I am. Theseus might be able to do the same thing with Trump, or do it better.
QUINN'S JOURNAL -- SESSION 64
Dammit, I've got ten vitally important things to do, another fifty merely important, twenty or thirty things I'd like to investigate.... and I need to meditate for a week to deal with the crap that the Baron sent me.
Hate to think what it's like for those who haven't thoroughly explored their own heads.
The odd Pattern-glow effect went away. Almost too bad. Almost.
Nice that Deirdre's really thinking. I didn't think of looking for our lost souls in the Tir. Of course they may well be in the nightmare zone that the Magistrate rules. He has good reason to dislike me. And Breann. Hm. If Megan can shadowwalk in Amber's shadows, she should be able to do the same in the Tir's. If she can... perhaps she'd be interested in a little Magical Mystery Tour. Especially since Fi's spirit may be over there.
And if Meg can do it, Gerard can. Being an Angel of Mercy would be good for him. For Meg, too, I think. Her defenses go on 'high' when she's close to me. Can Dee spare all four of us?
Quinn's Journal, Session 66
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Still amazed I managed to do the whole lot of the victims at one go. My head still hurts.
Too bad -- probably -- I couldn't catch one of the spirits, or whatever they were, that were in poor Bob and Fred. Somehow, my dragging them out of their dreaming comas made them susceptible to... this.
There's far too much that needs to be done and done now. Maybe I can convince some of my cousins to help. We need to query the oldest people we know about the White and Black Land. That's Finndo, Mom and, (Fuck Me) Brigid. Dworkin and Ben in the highly unlikely event we can get hold of them. Plus Finndo or Kethos may have been affected by the Ysian's little trick, so it's an exchange, there. Mom, no problem. Oh Shit. Does the W&BL underlie all the Pattern realms?
Brigid... My treaty idea? Maybe do a finding & comparison spell to see if she's carrying Ben's child. Just a hunch. That might make her more amenable to a permanent non-aggression agreement. Say Hi to Naomi. Wonder what she's really like.
What else? Gotta drag the subjects of Amber out of the Dreamlands somehow. Bleys too. Or should I wait on Fiona? Wake Random up direct.
No matter how much the Baron's trick took out of him, he'll be acting again soon. A scout, spy and raid party... Sander to raid, Megan to check out the Ysian monsters and find their weaknesses, Theseus to work out a way to run Trump into Ys, and out again. They should be up for it. We all want something, or a lot of somethings, to kill right now.
Theseus, Sander and Megan agreed to do the Ys recon. Theseus is claiming to know next to nothing about the B&W Land. If true, how did he know enough to warn and summon me? I don't understand excessively moody people. Anyway, between the three of them they should be able to sneak in, gather information, do some damage and leave.
I'm always surprised when Ander just reaches out and makes mental contact. It's not like he's strong enough to defend himself. He just trusts me to not poke around. He is safe with me. Fucking over your allies is stupid, and mental intrusions are bad manners among the noldor. And it did let him evade more of Breann's comments. Let me show him the B&W Land impressions directly, which helped. Words don't serve for that.
Breaking dreams by Trumping the dreamers out. Interesting.
Ander and Breann agreed to visit Finndo and brief him on the group hallucination from Ys, and to ask my questions.
Ander apparently brought Vanessa, the amazing singer from his dreams, over to Amber. I'd been wondering if that would work. Will she tend to be pulled back like Lora and Vaughn were pulled back to Amber? No idea. Perhaps I could stabilize her as a master of both Patterns. Let Ander know that I wanted recordings of him performing with Vanessa -- surprised the hell out of him that I'd visited one of his dreams. I WILL get them. Vanessa might freak out in Aretia unless I arrange to keep her in more familiar environments.
Bleys woke up fine. Wants to talk to Ander.
Mom broke Fiona out of her nightmare. Says Fi needs to rest and recover in the Tir. Moving her out by some power will open her to that power. She might be a tool. SO THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED TO BOB AND FRED!
Mom didn't know about the B&W Land but pointed out Amber's complex and twisted cosmogeny. And that the Baron could be pulling another nasty surprise.
Told her Brigid might well be pregnant. She didn't like the idea. Had no idea if the Mori had access to fast regen techniques.
Scanned around and found where Brigid had to be, a shielded little region my Lens just slid off of. Zapped nearby and sent in a messenger hawk. Waited on a little mountaintop and spent the day and night warding the hell out of it and layering defenses on me. And the Benedict-kin DNA detector -- they wouldn't let me cast it after I made contact. The next morning twelve Mori got close despite all the wards. They relayed Brigid's invitation and assurances. I might have been able to zap out before they could get through the last layers. Dubious. Brigid wouldn't meet elsewhere due to unusual circumstances. Pregnancy? Like that would slow her enough to help me. Went along with it. An interesting demonstration of rapid-fire twilight hops. They meant to confuse me but I was trained by Fiona. Her exercises are really nasty. And I play zero-gee wallball. And spend hours zipping my point of view around in the Lens.
While entering the palace it occurred to me -- way too late -- that Bleys had been powered out of his dream. Was he a tool of, what, some sort of Trump entity? Was Miriel safe? Probably. I didn't trust Bleys much and the computers didn't either.
Brigid was hidden behind a cloth in her audience room. She said she'd "been waiting to talk to me for some time". Uh oh. Or, Good.