Skills can be taught; character you either have or don't have (Post Masterchef Chiron Liminal)

[powersthatduel]

Who: The New Travellers, the Minor Arcana, and possibly a Major or two
Where: Liminal Space.
When: Post Masterchef Chiron jaunt
What: A reward for a job well done, and a glimpse at what's next.
Warnings: None come to mind atypical of Synodiporia Valor.

Liminal Space is on the deck of a floating, bustling night market in the style of Taiwan.

Everywhere is the sizzle of cooking oil, the unique smell of wok hei rising from the intense heat applied to pans, the aromas of star anise and cumin, burnt sugar, caramelizing noodles, grilling meats, baking bread, soy and ginger, ketchup and mustard, pickles and relishes, chutneys and chilis.

In the center of it all is an elaborate drink machine marked with something that's not not a taijutu, with a number of ancient coins of the kind called 'cash,' with holes in them to string them up in a bundle. Put a coin in the slot and punch in the button, and you'll get whatever drink you want in a cup with appropriate utensils - straws, spoons, whatever - and your coin back.

Below decks are the created rooms and the Hotel Leonardo.

Comments

The Adventures of Madeline Carter, Chapter ??1

[failed_arcana_check]

"... What on... No. No no, can't."

Doors were common enough in Liminal Space. New people through them, less so.

One getting launched through one, as if she'd been knocked back by an explosion just on the other side?

That might be a new one.

Maddy glanced around. "Their experiment... It should have failed once depowered."

She glanced for the door. "... Dare I hope it's that-"

She would immediately try for the door. A door that anyone else around might know would not lead back to where she'd been.

[powersthatduel]

One of the hawkers hisses in a breath in a gesture as feline as he is: a white cat on two legs in a curious blend of saffron robes and high-tech black and glowing blue bodysuit. Strapped to his sides are a straight sword used in the swift and martial forms of tai chi of the pattern called Jian, and a bundle of talismans on something like paper, with metallic conductive calligraphy ink making a kind of runic circuitry of them.

Here, behind his crepe griddle, he also wears a headband and an apron that says, in characters too angular to be Chinese, “KISS THE COOK.” And yet Maddie can read them.

“You are… not among those invited to our Game,” he says. “Ai ya… I would not leave the way you came, Traveller. It does not lead back to your home, thanks to the meddling of those who insult the Tao with their poisoned rhetoric.”

Illinois Nazis? He hates those guys.

“So, not meant to be here - but welcome all the same. Call me the Ten of Swords, or The Katador, or else the Taoist Archer, and welcome to this one’s humble ji dan bing stall. No charge; we are celebrating a victory of a peace brokered by our players through the magic of cooking.”

[failed_arcana_check]

Maddy stopped as she looked at the figure.

Okay. Okay, piece it together. This isn't the weirdest situation Madeline Carter's been in yet.

Obviously not with the Germans. The characters evoked China, as did the sword type - which meant it was very plausible this person recognized her katana as such.

Also, he's working as a chef. In...

"A night market?"

Looking around, she recognized the place.

The confirmation the door wouldn't work confirmed her fear. She must have been knocked through and then it collapsed.

Okay. Collect thoughts. Check - backpack is still fine. With that she can be ready for most things. Ammo box still on her belt, gun on the ground next to her - she quickly picks it up... And pops it open to remove the ammunition. Seems now isn't the time for a fight.

She then holsters the weapon, THEN answers.

"Ten of Swords... Uh, tarot symbology then?", she says, standing up. Seems like she's uninjured overall, so she moves over toward the stand - opposite the feline fellow.

"Invited to the Game?", she asks. "Seems you have me at a little more of a loss than I expected for, uh. Getting blasted through a collapsing experimental portal to another world after taking out the mad scientist responsible."

She sighed, glancing for any sort of seat to take.

"Should be trying to get back to D.C., but I suspect that will take a while, huh?"

[powersthatduel]

“Normally a simple matter, to find the way back, but you’ve been sent here at a delicate time,” the Taoist Archer says. “Just as we have started the 17th round of the game and ritual of Synodiporia. We cannot stray from this path until it is concluded, lest XII, Gambino, The Hanged Man be lost forever, to things that the enemies who’s hatred of you is the highest possible honor should hope they never successfully draw the attention of.”

He starts by cracking an egg onto the greased griddle, popping the yolk and dragging it thin and fine.

“Ask poor Samuel Devereux of Montreal, one of our Players, what I mean - and our foes are worse even than his Visitor, who meant none of the harm It caused. So for now, you are an honored guest, Madeline Carter, heroine, who walks the true path that cannot be named.”

[failed_arcana_check]

"... I see, I.. Think?", Maddy responded, looking at the food with some interest.

"... You know more of me than I would expect. Like you said, more or less, I officially don't really exist. The US Secret Service doesn't like publicizing that we are gallivanting all over the world breaking Nazi, Italian, and Japanese experimentation. The fact that you know my name given that establishes you as having something."

She sighs. "Further, it sounds like this is now fully a Type Three situation - where I encounter something entirely out of context to my mission, which I must handle or not at my own discretion. Or, in other words... I guess the best thing I can do is be properly introduced to this game. What might you be preparing? I-in the food sense I mean."

[powersthatduel]

“You were on our short list for worthy participants, and recalling our file on you through the Network was a simple task,” he says, and though he’s very hard to read, there may be something of a smile and a low amused purr in it. “We declined to recruit you because your work on your Earth was - had been - instrumental in preventing the law of Yamatai from giving your Empire of the Rising Sun any bright ideas of accepting the aid of their Empress Jingu.”

He spreads the crepe batter thin enough to crisp quickly but thick enough to bear the weight of it’s ingredients.

“But that was then and you are here now, so allow this one to cook a Hong Kong style crepe stuffed with eggs and sausage, and give you the offer you were once too important to be given.”

[failed_arcana_check]

Maddy was clearly taking time to consider what she was hearing.

The idea of things being multidimensional, she was already adjusted to. The Nazis had summoned demonic beasts, aliens had shown up from other planets...

"So from one role to another, huh?", she said. "... And from what you've said, returning me home would go no sooner if I didn't join in. Not with a stake I can scarcely fathom. But... Keep explaining. I have a lot to catch up on, especially if things are already in progress. And... The crepe does look great, too. Thank you for that."

[powersthatduel]

“Not just one role, no. There is the possibility… no, the certainty that you will at least once be called on to Infiltrate so deeply into the worlds thrown out of balance we’d correct as to forget, for a time, you were anyone other than your cover,” he says. “Though I promise we Minor Arcana of the sword, cup, staff and disc ask nothing of you we would not be willing to do ourselves, if we could. Ask me why I call myself the Katador sometime.”

It should surprise no one who knows of both the Tenth Sol and the Umbrian Vale that he took to kything rage as a sand penguin takes to dunesurfing.

“But there is no crisis without opportunity, no risk without reward. Every world you visit, every role you play leaves it’s mark on you, and from such brushstrokes are powerful techniques and skills written, given hard work and discipline to master your borrowed tools. Synodiporia is a path to cultivating personal power both gentler and safer than most.”

[failed_arcana_check]

"All for the low low cost of saving untold-many worlds through... The Game, as you've described it."

Maddy chuckles a bit. "I'd like to think I've got a good start point at least. Good with sword and great with gun, and with all the supplies I carry, I can trek long distances indeed. Which is. Way more useful than many expect."

[powersthatduel]

"How very Discs, to think of such practical matters while I studied the blade, but such will serve you well on your Travels," he says, laughing and purring at once. "Good with blade but Great with firearms, is such your fate? And skilled as well in the modes of action, banter and intrigue, as well as with things occulted? I would be happy to spar with you, though I warn you I was a master even before I became the Ten of Swords."

He sighs.

"You may want a drink," he says. "Or a Drink. As do I."

He puts his cash in the machine, punches it's single button, and with a bit of whirring and some blinkenlichten, it produces a small gourd, full of something clear and fiery, as well as two cups in which to pour it.

"Please, help yourself - it will provide whatever you most need. And I will pour your drinks if you pour mine."

[failed_arcana_check]

"Wouldn't say I'm great at banter, I'm no diplomat. Intrigue... Of a sort, I guess?"

She pauses. "Haven't had many chances to purely spar. Most of my practice was life at stake or solo practice. Enough to save my life, sure. You will near definitely win in a spar, though."

She follows to the drink machine, pulling out a coin... "Wait, will uh loose deutchsmarks work? Or dollars for that matter?"

Currencies are never fun to deal with...

[powersthatduel]

"Check in the coin return," the Taoist Archer says brightly. "And ask me questions. I will answer honestly or say I keep my own counsel, as we Minor Arcana swore we owed other Travellers, should the need to play Synodiporia arose once more."

[failed_arcana_check]

Maddy takes the coin, blinks, inserts it, and gets... A large bottle of a decent looking root beer. Seems she doesn't do alcohol super often.

"I... Hmm. I barely know where to start. I guess the first question, with an inkling of what's going on, is... Where are we now?"

She places the bottle across from her, and, with care, starts to pour from the gourd into his glass. It's extremely obvious she does not know the specific differences of pouring from a gourd shape and is using caution to make it work.

More interesting to observe, perhaps, is just how steady her hand is even against the shifting weight of a pouring drink whose flow she doesn't have a strong sense of.

[powersthatduel]

The 10 of Swords called the Taoist Archer likewise pours her a tumbler of root beer, and if there was no ice in it before, now there is one large cube and one crushed to tiny pieces.

"Long life. And this place is a Liminal Space of my own design, a reward for those who accepted before you did and have returned from their first Jaunt to another world. A Chiron - an Alpha Centauri III - that has for the first time in it's sordid history known peace, a peace our Players strengthened with their presence. Hence the Night Market's delights, and a machine of Cups and Discs, over the dubious reward of an iron throne of swords."

[failed_arcana_check]

"Long life," Maddy matches in respect.

"Liminal space... A space you can design, apparently?", she says, perhaps confused. "Cups and Discs is also new to me, I must admit. The space is... A comforting change of pace for sure, though."

Re: The Adventures of Madeline Carter, Chapter ??1

[travellingtogether]

“At ease, soldier, we’re safe enough for now,” says the man busy putting away an extra large beef chow mein bowl. “That went better than I hoped. Wasn’t myself, but the soldier I was - oh you’re a fresh recruit, not one of the ones deployed to Chiron III.”

The grizzled and scarred middle age man in his desert cammo fatigues with a space helmet off on his table salutes.

“Your kit looks like… Earth, US of A, circa World War II special forces? Major Khan, with the SolRepub drop infantry. Just git back from a diplomatic mission. Showing the Spartan flag, as it were.”

Re: The Adventures of Madeline Carter, Chapter ??1

[failed_arcana_check]

Maddy paused, turning toward the person speaking to her.

"... Fresh recruit? Chiron III?"

Maddy looks a bit cautious... But the man's armed with a large amount of beef chow mein.

She carefully unloads and holsters her gun.

"... Madeline Carter, United States Secret Service. Uh... World War II?"

It wasn't named that for her yet, possibly. Mostly because the US hadn't joined it yet.

"It seems the experiment I stopped was more successful than it seemed, then. Because now I'm very, very out of context."

Re: The Adventures of Madeline Carter, Chapter ??1

[travellingtogether]

“Shit, you’re from a splay, the Swordie Paladin warned me about this,” he hisses. “Be glad your time doesn’t lead to mine. Nothing but infinite war where I come from, till we carve out peace through superior firepower. And speaking of -“

He examines the many sidearms of unusual and advanced design on him, and grins savagely at the two unfamiliar ones he finds.

“Jupiter pattern hand flamer and a Santiago Arms Tachyon Bolt carbine. Nice. The spoils of war, or of Jaunts, anyway. One of the Minors give you a briefing or am I going to have to play drill sergeant?”

Re: The Adventures of Madeline Carter, Chapter ??1

[failed_arcana_check]

"I've gotten a start," Maddy explains. "Ten of Swords introduced me to 'the game of Synodporia' and a few base concepts. I've got. A lot to go."

She chuckles. "Prizes from the Jaunts are a thing, huh? That's a neat one at least. Most of what I got went into a bank account back home, which I presume I can't use here. Earned some equipment upgrades though."

The sword being a glaring exception.

"Define 'splay', though, that one's new to me?", she only thinks to ask after the rest.

Re: The Adventures of Madeline Carter, Chapter ??1

[travellingtogether]

“An alternity,” he says. “A different world, like the Chiron I came back from with its factional disputes and bizarre hostile fauna not at all being the shipyard and forge world from my own galaxy. Short version is; there are as many universes in this multiverse as there are stars in the Milky Way. If you think you know how a Jaunt works from how your world or your favorite pet trid or book that it resembles works, no you don’t. The devil’s in the details, and his gaze is lased.”

Re: The Adventures of Madeline Carter, Chapter ??1

[failed_arcana_check]

"That much already makes sense to me, yes," Maddy said. "Different versions of Earth could be different in all manner of ways. Not like I have a lot of books under my belt anyways - most of my stuff since I was twelve was training for what became my work."

She sighs. "... Trid?"

Yeah, there's gonna be some gap-bridging for sure.