There's a short one in return...

I think the demon's "real name" is Azazel...*shrug*... I'll look it up again to verify and let you know ASAP.

Not sure about Dogma, either...

ohh... and why!? Dear Lord why does Alex make it so EASY for Smoke to give him snotty/lewd comments? lol... I'm just rolling over here as I think of like twenty ways I can construe his latest comments into something delightfully Smoke-like.



M.

I was wrong... the demon is Dogma is AzRAEL... close but no cookies and... no central air.

Is served

Oh, right... Azrael - the angel of death... IMDB does rock, huh?

As to how I envision the Cultists perceiving their "lord" Azazel - "Azazel is revered as a physical/spiritual deity by many Theistic/Spiritual Satanic groups as a Promethean bringer of forbidden knowledge. Depictions of this entity vary from group to group, but he is generally regarded as a Luciferian force of enlightenment opposed to the Hebrew deity Yahweh, or the Demiurge, who is usually viewed as an imperfect tyrant, aimed only at keeping men from knowledge; knowledge of the falseness of the reality of which man occupies and its creator, thereby interpreting Azazel as a Gnostic liberator."

I kind of think the above fits is quite well with whatever Katul's designs might be but, of course, since this is our story you should all feel free to expand or re-mold the ideas here to advance or twist the tale as necessary.

So I was thinking, being that our characters for the most part all have what the Judeo-Christian system would view as "forbidden knowledge" we might want make Azazel a purveyor of false knowledge instead - I think it's just little more appropriate.

What are all your thoughts?

That's about what I was thinking, m'self!

Perhaps not "false knowledge" where the followers of those darker forces are concerned, of course, but definitely "false knowledge" as it applies to "Those of the Light" prevailing over the "Mad Gods and their minions" during the Reckoning, anyway.

I figure Azazel's overall goal in all of this (if it can be narrowed down to just a single thing) is to "soften up" humanity and/or the Gifted before the Reckoning actually comes, right? So, towards that end, (perhaps after long discussions with Katul, even?) he's been recruiting the easily twisted and tainted among the gifted to his side (with offers of wealth, power, etc, etc) and, for those that refuse to be swayed, death and worse... *shrugs* ... Now, I have a vague notion as to the connection between Katul and Azazel, given PMs between Meri and myself, also, have an idea as to how Alvaro and the cult are going to end up in cahoots, too... am now starting to wonder if the demon itself may actually come in to play beyond being a reference figure? Hmmmmmmmmm.....

Alice might just play into this as well then, although, naturally, she is pretty oblivious to the whole thing... innocence makes quite the strong anchor against "Madness", actually

Alice and Janelle's background is a bit flexible on this, but at some point when they were young, they stumbled over an artifact tied to Taint.

Now, where exactly that item comes from or where they got it, I haven't decided.

Perhaps it could've been planted by the cultists? I mean, even at that age, their Essence count would've been pretty apparent, so perhaps it was an indirect method of trying to get them out of the way? After all... I don't think they'd try to directly deal with TWO 75+ Essence Pool people, especially if they didn't know what they could do.

Just a thought I had... don't know if it works or not.

Busy posters we are.

If Alex or Penelope need to have any further discussions with the fluff ball I can always go back and edit... otherwise we shall let the ball continue to roll forward with this plot!

M.

I'm absoulutely thrilled at how easily we all seem to be able to keep this ball rolling, to be honest.


I mean, we've got great characters all around, talented players/writers/rpers, and all that but, WOW! This thing almost seems to be writing itself, doesn't it?

I'll hang back with Alex's next for a bit and give Nimu a chance to throw anohter out there... Joe may post before long, though.

Smoke doesn't talk to Janelle when she's awake, but what about if Janelle is asleep?

It's just a thought that came to me, and I wonder if Smoke would find that kind of amusing, for Janelle to wake up, look at her, then wonder aloud if she was actually talking to the cat in her dream.

Yep Eol is right, this is just writing itself isn't it?

I like the kitty messing with the poor girls dreams.

M.

So how stable is she with the dream memory? Is this something that Smoke would feel okay pushing for more information or is it starting to cause the poor girl to ripple somehow that Smoke could sense and feel better pulling back for now?

Surprisingly stable, actually... but that's because there's nothing related to the hotel that is traumatic to her; there's just a bit of trepidation and nervousness simply because it's related to Alice.

You all are incredible!

One of these days we'll have to pull together a Stare Into the Night convention and drink ourselves stoopid!

Loving the dream-chat going on between Janelle and Smoke... Can't wait to see where Alex and Penelope end up... and am just dying to get trouble rolling.

Got a Joe post in the works... and maybe another post from a "surprise" NPC, as well... Keep 'em coming, ladies and gents!