[Bliss Stage] Men and girls
Nev the Deranged:
Okay, finally I have some time to post the last mission scene. Which technically was Ron's scene, so I don't know why he didn't just post it his damnself, except he's probably busy as hell too. Anyway, hopefully I'll remember enough to make it worthwhile and Ron and Ben can fill in the gaps and/or put things back in the proper order. Apologies in advance.
So. I remember the klaxons going off and Gina rushing in to find the creche room in a panic. Something unprecedented is happening, and nobody knows what the hell to make of it. The thixotropic suspension media (which is to say, the goo) that fills the creche is displaying odd behavior, moving of its own accord, and forming fractal patterns on its surface. I didn't think of it at the time, but I bet it looked something like that ferroliquid stuff from all those youtube videos.
Anyway, Gina gets in, Leslie kisses her for good luck, and suddenly she's fractal diving (which I used to spend hours doing as a kid with relatively unsophisticated software, but is probably much easier now) down, down, down into an endlessly repeating pattern, faster and faster the colors cycle until, in complete silence, the view before her shatters like a stained glass window, rainbow shards everywhere. The shards slow, as if moving through syrup, until they come to a stop. Then each shard melts into a perfect sphere of swirling colors, like translucent soap bubbles.
Gina forms her armor, which takes the form of a huge, sinister praying mantis, chitin so green it's almost black. I commented, out of character, "If Leslie only knew how Gina's psyche represents her..." (remember that in Bliss Stage, the pilot's armor is formed from their relationship with their anchor). Gina wants to know what's going on with all the unusual imagery, so she draws on... someone else (I totally forget who) to manifest two antennae from her helmet/forehead. These are not mantis antennae, though, they are broad, featherlike moth antennae, with a million hypersensitive fronds all quivering in the myriad breezes of incoming data. The readings are odd... they tell her that each bubble contains an entity of some kind, something different from the usual light-monads that animate the blue humanoid constructs.
Then, each scintillating bubble of color forms into a mech of its own. We didn't really specify, but I imagined them as generally humanoid, more colorful than either Gina or Tess' armors, probably looking a lot like Gundams, in the Federation or Wing veins. I'm not super clear on at what point/under what circumstances, but Gina figures out that these mecha are piloted by humans, like her. And that she recognizes one of them. It's her mother.
The mecha surround Gina, forming a circle around her... a circle with one space conspicuously open. An invitation?
My memory is now dumping a bunch of stuff I'd forgotten on me, so I'm gonna pause and collate that before continuing. Ron, Ben, Tim, please feel free to jump in with details I've missed that may further job my recollections.
Ron Edwards:
This scene led me to question certain procedural features of Bliss Stage, or at least to question my understanding of them, or Ben's use of them. My preconception was that the aliens were presented and acted out by the GM, but there was no deeper story or content to them that the GM was supposed to fill in, or that we were to look forward to being filled-in by the GM. So that's one issue right there.
Then there's the issue of the specific content. Ben mentioned that in nearly every Bliss Stage game he's played, the parents show up somehow. Whereas my own expectations included a strong break with the past, in that the parents were damned well gone, and play would concern itself with the world known by the characters, period. Nor did I have any particular interest in developing what the aliens were or what they wanted.
Clearly, all of this has to do with the fact that we did not discuss Hopes before beginning play. I reacted to the presence of the parents pretty much like, "Awwww, shit, this is going to be about that?
OK, in practice, it wasn't a problem, because I deliberately shifted my understanding, at least for purposes of playing this game at this time, to include the GM deepening the content of the aliens and what they are, what the Bliss is, what that has to do with the dreamworld, and everything else. Regarding the parental content, I shifted this as well from being about my personal notions of what is in the story, to being about Gina herself and how I'd played her so far. I basically hit Actor Stance pretty hard, on purpose, dealing with play as it was being presented and not trying to manage or control it beyond my character's reactions and actions. So it worked out fine. But I think you can see why I had Gina basically shrug and eventually, after some fighting and faking them out by pretending to join the circle, drive her insectoid mecha's spiked foreleg into the opponent, impaling it and its occupant, her mother.
Plus omitting to mention any such thing to Leslie or John, upon returning to wakefulness.
I do want to arrive at a more concrete understanding of just how much content the GM is supposed to introduce or deepen concerning the aliens, beyond their appearance and immediately-literal actions in the dreamworld. I am further confirmed as well that specifying the Hopes is absolutely key, as well as ticking off in my mind that for me, what is not taken as a Hope should not itself become a central node of decision-making during play, although I certainly wouldn't disallow anything being included as Color.
Best, Ron
Ben Lehman:
I'm very sorry that I'm unable to keep participating in this thread right now -- I'm in a serious crunch time in school and not able to muster up the time or concentration.
I will try to come back to it once I have space to breathe. That will be in May sometime.
Ron Edwards:
Whenever you can, Ben. There's no need to rush it and I won't jump to any conclusions about my questions just because you haven't fired off an instant answer. I'll look forward to your thoughts.
Best, Ron
Nev the Deranged:
Ben, it'll probably be May before I get around to posting the rest of it anyway. No worries.
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