By Timothy Toner (thanatos@interaccess.com) (2 Feb 94)
The nose of one twitched noticeably. "Another one. Great."
The newcomer smiled innocently. "Kunder. Glad to see they let you out of the cage."
Kunder growled.
"Hascombe. Good to see you, man."
"Whitey? I thought they got you in the Park last year."
"Nah. The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." A titter of laughter echoed in the hallway.
Kunder hated getting wet. It made his fur itch. "So Hascombe, why'd you drag us out here?"
Hascombe's pale face darkened, and he began to glance about, reaching for an invisible sidearm. "Kunder, you left a message on my machine, right?"
The large man closed his eyes, and let out a silent prayer. "We in trouble?"
"You got it. Whitey, did you bring the shotgun?"
Whitey, who had just begun to catch on to the trap, began fumbling with his bandolier. "Umm...Ummm..."
"Gentlemen, that won't be necessary."
The words reverberated against the walls. It was rich and bold. And really, really confident.
"Who are you?"
"You're very nosey. I wish we could keep you alive, to teach your silly friends not to associate with the likes of Gerold."
Hascombe laughed. "I take it we're graced by the presence of the Technocracy?"
"For the next two minutes, yes."
Whitey looked at Hascombe. "What happens then?"
The voice answered. "That's how long it will take Markie here to render you into a fine paste. Have a pleasant tomorrow."
A wretched sound, like gears procrastinating, then firing into action, groaned through the alley. A lone figure seemed to be generating the noise, as it stalked toward them. Bascombe levelled his pistol. He knew that he couldn't stop this thing, and that he could never run away far enough. Fifty-two years ended here. "Stand your ground, Whitey. Let's make sure when this prick returns to base, we've racked up a hell of a repair bill."
"Sorry, boys. Gotta go home." Kunder shrugged, looked at his reflection in the puddle on the street, and disappeared...
The thing coming toward them seemed to shrug in an unknown way ...and Kunder reappeared, his body twitching and thrashing from taking a .50 cal round in the chest.
"Whitey, make it count. Don't fire til you see the red of its eyes." Hascombe wasn't quite sure, but he thought he heard Whitey sobbing.
The thing was having an effect on the garbage which lined the alley. One object, a battered and broken TV, flared to life.
The creature stopped, appeared confused, and turned slowly to face the white glow of the screen. It was one of those generic Japanese imports that was in every kid's rooms in the early '80s. This "Markie" seemed to be transfixed by the image that was steadily forming.
Whitey looked at Hascombe. "Should we run?"
Hascombe shrugged. "What's on that tube?"
"It looks like that Terminator movie."
"Terminator 2. Linda Hamilton isn't trying to blow Arnold up."
The absurdity of the moment hadn't dawned on either of them. The TV had turned on by itself, with no power. And the creature was watching it like a curious child, seeing a new toy.
The tv erupted suddenly, and an arm extended, an arm with a .45 attached to the end. A voice squeaked out of the broken speaker.
"Hasta la vista, baby."
The gun fired, and the creature shattered utterly, exploding into a thousand fragments. The TV turned off.
Hascombe and Whitey looked at each other again. Hadn't they seen that before?
"Hey, guys. What happened to Ruff?"
Both turned. A nineteen year old girl stood behind them, wearing a rag-tag assortment of clothes. She looked like a kid from the streets who had made a five-fingered run through a mall. In her left hand, she grasped a very complicated remote.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Mallorie Keaton. Listen, Alex sent me. Gerold got busted a few days ago, and the 'rents got a hold of his files. This was a set- up. Let's get out of here, before the T-1000 gets it together. You guys sure are lucky that was on last week."
Whitey glanced back at the thing. The fragments had melted, and seemed to be running together. It was reforming.
"Right. Where do we go from here?"
The girl opened her rucksack. "Let's find out." While they hurried away, she drew out a tape recorder, and hit "play."
"Greetings, Mr. Phelps, this mission, if you choose to accept it..."
The most numerous of these groups, called Cons, is McLuhan's Kids, named after their idol, Marshall McLuhan, who had a dream of television becoming the great communicator, and ushering in the Global village, where all people would speak one language, and share one vision.
The Technomancers turned the dream into a nightmare. All of MacLuhan's theories on human nature were twisted into a tool to transform television into a monster. Rather than challenging the mind, it panders to the lowest common denominator, making people complacent about their entertainment.
However, the technomancers could not wholly destroy that initial dream. A few quality, imaginative shows filtered through their screen, and caused a desperate few to think beyond their walls. They realized the power of television to transform our perception, and in so doing, transform our reality.
In short, a few viewers Awakened because at the core of the Technomancer's spell was a dream, a hope which they caught sight of and to which they responded. These few looked at TV in a new light. What was it telling them? Like all things, some was truth, and most was glitz. But because they perceived television differently, they became aware of the possibilities.
They continued to lead their lives, unaware that when they wiggled their nose like Samantha on "Bewitched," something REALLY happened, or that although people could never shoot as good as the Rifleman did, they could. Television taught them a reality that was essentially mutable, changing from hour to hour, and from season to season, and in so doing, trends manifested that gave them insight into this brave new world, much the same way a Hermetic may notice similarities in a spell's patterns.
They met one another at conventions, strange shadows of the real Conventions which had spawned them. Together, they began excercising their dream, to bring the reality of the shows they watched into this world. Of course, this was rather hit and miss. Some liked comedies, while others liked dramas. Shows would die, and in doing so, that part of their reality would die. Because there was no cohesive push in one direction, the whole seemed a mish- mash. They eventually became content with the way things were.
Then came cable. The Technomancers thought that people weren't watching ENOUGH TV, and that subsequently, a smorgasboard of essentially the same pabulum would convince them that they were getting variety, the illusion of choice. To a large degree, it worked. THe problem was that cable TV was horribly complex. Unless they wanted to show their real face, the only way the Technomancers were going to get away with it was to employ Sleeper visionaries. This vision, transmitted through the magic of the medium, created even more Kids than ever before.
The Pre-Cable Kids, now loosely organized, realized that the old shows were coming back. Reality was now whatever they wanted it to be, whatever channel they could be tuned into. Further, society seemed to be responding, with a darker world modelled after television which was supposed to be modelled after the real world. The Kids slipped into this paradigm like an old friend.
Then came Pirate TV-7. A few Kids discovered the existence of the Technomancers, and passed themselves off as fellow scholars. They raided Iteration-X, snuck in lines straight to NWO's largest databanks, and generally grabbed enough stuff to get control over the airwaves. Using an abandoned Sons of Ether station, they created a bizarre horizon realm infinitely more complex than the "Net" of the Virtual Adepts: Pirate TV-7.
Did the Technomancers notice their stuff was missing? Sure. But the signal was coming from WITHIN the Technocracy itself. They couldn't stop their mechanisms without REALLY screwing up works in progress, and without some Sleepers noticing "the man behind the curtain." Since the Kids seemed to be in it for harmless fun, the Technomancers let them get away with it.
Then came Tune In Day. During the broadcast of Superbowl 20, a group of Kids interrupted the halftime show feed, and interjected a clip that they used to show during intermission at drive in movies. The effect was incredible, (almost as devastating as the Heidi fiasco which got two NWOs Gilgul, because they almost Woke up 3,000,000), with popcorn sales over the next week skyrocketing, a new interest in the old movies, and more phone calls to the network than at any time in the past, asking them to show it again. It was more than a subliminal message. It was a message to Wake up and expect MORE than what they were used to. Anything could happen through tv.
And people believed it. Rather than being numbed by CNN's 24 hour coverage of death and carnage, people began recognizing how wrong it was, and shifting in their Sleep.
However, recent crackdowns in the Kids have hit them hard. Many of the Mages have managed to insinuate themselves into the boardrooms of TV companies, and produced controversial shows aimed at Waking as many people up as possible. However, to accomplish this, many have had to go under, stripping the Kids of clear leadership. It is uncertain if they have been secretly subverted, since no one in the Technocracy is talking.
Their work has made the infomercial, which is making "miracle products" common, and true life dramas and video shows, which continue to whittle away at the differenced between reality and fantasy. The slam that these shows are tripe comes mostly from Technomancer-controlled critics. Ignoring the quality of these shows, they are beginning to prod awake quite a few people to their reality.
Supposedly, with the advent of the 700 channel supernetworks, the Kids will finally have enough power to launch a full scale assault on the Technocracy. Too many of the leaders of the Convention are seriously underestimating the power of this group. Their only obstacle is that no one in the Traditions believe that they are anything more than dupes of the Technomancers. This has ironically granted them an invisibility which has allowed them to go far. If a formal alliance were made, the Technocracy would take note that since the Traditions are taking them seriously, they are potentially dangerous.
Celestial Chorus: We try not to watch too much of that religious programming. Do the Technomancers know they've tapped into their system?
Cult of Ecstacy: These guys ROCK! I saw a few on M-TV. Sure, they act like snobs, but they know what it's about: HAVING FUN!
Dreamspeakers: They had a special on these guys on the Discover channel. I think Star Trek was on then, and I forgot to set my VCR.
Euthanatos: What a bunch of cheese-balls. The Addams Family did it a thousand-times better and funnier, and nobody had to get killed. I did see this one that looked like Eddie Munster, tho.
Hollow Ones: "Oh, look at me, I'm such a victim! The angst of the world is crushing down, so let me put chalk on my face and hang around in dreary clubs." They say they don't watch TV because it rots the brain. Judging by their name, I think TV could only put something in there.
Order of Hermes: I once tried to get into their chantries, posing as a cable repairman, and guess what: not a single set. What a bunch of in the dark losers! How are they going to save the world when they have no idea what soccer scores in Burkina Faso are?
Sons of Ether: The Sons are the closest to us. I mean, half of them awoke watching "The Wild, Wild West," and "The Twilight Zone." Still, they keep on trying to push a simple thing too much. THey really need to get back to their roots. That lunatic fringe stuff scares me.
Verbena: Hey, Samantha never did stuff like that, though you had to wonder about Endorra. And I really liked Dick Sargent over Dick York. Did you ever notice that? Dick Sargent, Dick York...Seargent YORK!
Virtual Adepts: We tried to borrow some of their gear for that really big screen effect, and they told us to "go away, you little Techno- dweebs." Boy, they're not invited to the after-Ascension party...
These "show" realms contain the entire history of a series. When one arrives there, a show is always taking place. The Kid can use the Time sphere to go backward and forward through these shows, and select the one they want.
So what advantage is this realm? In many ways, it is an erzat Dreamland, where the Kids can evoke forth any scene, or character from this Otherworld, much like the native Australians felt they could. This Otherworld is the Kid's Umbra. They cannot venture beyond it, into the Deep Umbra, except through Pirate TV- 7.
Some Kids take up residence in the houses next to their favorite shows. The Technomancer cannot accept the existence of such a place, and subsequently do not count any Kids living in the Otherworld, which leads to a serious underestimation of the total population of the Kids.
Another role the Otherworld take is as a prison. Only the Kids have easy access to the Otherworld. If they take a stranger to this world, they can trap them in a world-realm, a show-realm, or, even worse, an episode-realm, where they must relive the same realm over and over and over. However, escape is possible if the episode is ever shown in the real world. The environs glow, and seem to become more real. At any point, the prisoner, if he knows of the possibility, can will himself out. He will suddenly appear next to the set that was showing the episode. If a Mage, he immediately takes a 2 point paradox flaw, usually an inability to tell the difference between episodic reality (where nothing goes wrong forever), and real life.
Once the Kids were limited by the shows they could see, which just so happened to be really lame black and white comedies and westerns. With the advent of cable tv, they now have the full range of movies to choose from. The rule is that if it was ever uploaded to a satellite, it's theirs. However, seldom are schticks taken from cartoons, since it's very disorienting.
The truly twisted aspect of Kid magick is that it has a bizarre effect on Sleepers, much like the Garou's Delerium. A sleeper, seeing a Schtick, will subconsciously mutter, "Didn't I see that on TV?" The powerful suspension of disbelief which courses through TV reality allows the Kids to get away with Paradox right and left. Thus, this is their coinicidental Magick. Any other Magick is inherently vulgar. The only bearing is getting the effect right, whether through adequately remembering it, or bringing the right props.
Props are critical for schticks. If a Kid is going to vaporize a foe with a phaser, he has to have a replica made so authentic that any sleeper observing will immediately make the connection. Without the proper props on hand, the effect is impossible. Usually, only the objects are necessary, but occasionally, sophisticated Schticks require accurate costuming and make-up.
Subsequently, the best way to stop a Kid is to take away her bag of props. However, even this is no longer effective, in the advent of digital technology. Many carry around virtual glasses, with favorite schticks copied on digital tapes. By first running the schtick through their head, usually no props are needed. Roll Cha+Artistic Expression (diff 8) to see if they got it right.
Props are critical in the initiation of the schtick. Making one from Magick causes a +1 to all difficulties. Getting ones hand on a prop actually used has a -1 bonus to all difficulties.
One problem with schticks is that they are indeed an evocation of the primal memories that form the shards. By calling forth the image, it weakens that episode's memory. To reinforce the image, people have to watch the show. Thus, careful tabs are kept on what shows are used, then sent to the programming department, to insinuate within cable channels.
The Remote is the primary focus of all other acts.
To step into and out of Otherworld requires a television set or wired camera of some sort. This is a simultaneous Spirit/Correspondence rote, and to perform the action, the tv has to be on in some way. Force 2 will suffice to produce the power, but this has to be initiated before they can enter TV-Land
There are two ways to enter Pirate TV. The first is the aforementioned Spirit 3 / Correspondence 3 rote. Although this is a very potent rote normally, the Kids allow inexperienced members get their hands on Talismans which allow them to substitute either Spirit or Correspondence. Each use burns one Quintessence, and renting the talisman costs one Tass a month. In addition, a Talisman must be created to constantly increase their stock.
Pirate TV-7 also allow them to tap into "the Twilight Zone," or the Deep Umbra, a place where seldom go for fear that they either cannot return, or will not want to return.
Many Hermetic mages who study the construction of Pirate TV-7 are astonished that it works. To keep it environmentally sound, as well as maintaining its "TARDIS" interior would require a HUGE tass expenditure, and since it does not rest on a node, all tass has to be imported. So where is it coming from? Not even the Kids know the truth.
Pirate TV-7 was NASA's primary relay station for the live images from the lunar landing. Subsequently, it was the primary route for the Arcadia Connection. The connection is still intact. The Faeries haven't announced their presence on Pirate TV-7, but they like what's going on, and will support them whenever possible.
They're cousins, Identical cousins...(Correspondence 4, Mind 3): With this Schtick, the Kid can create a duplicate of herself that doesn't do everything she does. The Prop is generally one acting bizarrely, with an outrageous English accent.
Don't make me angry...(Mind 3): When the Kid is roughed around, he can activate this schtick to terrify those who are attacking him. Mental illusions are sent out to all those surrounding, one at a time, if neccessary, that the mage is transforming into something horrifying. The Prop is usually some dramatic physical change, like fangs, claws, or glowing eyes.
...You wouldn't like me when I'm angry... (Life 3, Forces 2): With this Schtick, the Kid becomes the creature of his target's nightmare. The modifications are as per the Prop, which is the performance of the previous Schtick.
The Sound-board (Mind 3): This is actually a whole class of Schticks having to do with subliminal sound generation. The Prop consists of a clip of the sound, played on a tape player with its speaker disconnected. Note that Astral creatures can hear the noise:
The Laugh Track: When the Kid activates this Schtick, everything becomes funny. While the effect is in place (the length of the prop), it is difficult to take anything seriously. THis has a tendency to aggravate several people.
The Suite (mind 4): This is a soaring piece of music, targeted at two individuals. The two immediately become attracted to one another. The control lasts only as long as the Prop, but there is some residual attraction.
The Dirge (Mind 3): When this Schtick plays, everything seems incredibly tragic. Targets must make a willpower roll (diff 6) to prevent crying.
The Stalking (Mind 3): When this Schtick plays, nerves are placed on edge. Perceptions are +1 die, and Initiatives are +1, but targets act very irrational.
Don't turn around (Correspondence 3, Mind 2): This Sctick enables the mage to suddenly appear where the target least expects it. The Prop is either a hockey mask, or a vampire's costume.
'Toon (Life 5): This Schtick allows the Mage to be as resilient as a cartoon character. It is a constant transformation from one form to another, to better accept the damage. However, each action weakens the cartoon character's shard, and some characters have been unwittingly erased from memory by careless mages.
Bucket o' Water (Life 5): This extremely nasty Schtick only works versus one thing: a Verbena. 'Nuff said.
Instant Replay (Time 5): The Kids who become Masters of Time develop an exceedingly powerful rote that allows them to actually replay the past 5 seconds. Doing so inflicts a permanent 1 pt. Paradox flaw, however, each time it is done.
However, the other denizens of the WoD don't quite know what to make of the Kids, except that they're always interesting to talk to.
Vampires (Nicknames: Barnaby, Nick, Count Chocula): The average vampire spends very little time watching television, and subsequently think the average Kid, spouting endless streams of cliched dialogue very annoying.
The Kids, for their part, know very little about vampires, which actually works to their advantage. With House of Dracula showing once a week, the Kids can subject a vampire to every cliche in the book. Ah, the price of ignorance.
Werewolves (Nicknames: Mutt, Ruff, Tiger, any other family dog):. The effect TV has on the Garou is well established. When a Garou is sucked into a set, he actually ends up in one of the episode realms. Many Garou owe their freedom to kind Kids who are always looking for stranded Garou.
The Kids think the Werewolves are neat, and better as allies.
Faeries (Nickname: Lucky): The Faeries are fascinated by what the Kids are doing to the inventive drive of humanity and Dream. Often, they assist to make complex Schticks happen, and the Kids are wholly unaware of their effect.
Lulled by too many viewings of Peter Pan, the Kids find it difficult to take Faeries seriously, which is okay, since it puts them in the same class with regard as to how the rest of the WoD perceives them.
Finally, the Kids are prone to do very erratic things, the least of which was the blitz of "It's a Wonderful Life" a few years ago, which has been directly linked to the recent acceptance of Angels into the reality of modern man. Perhaps they aren't as friendless as they seem....