[nobilis] PerrySimm says, "log on" [Crows-Nest] Michel says, "one free critical hit for every GM smooch" [Crows-Nest] Michel works his jaws in preparation [Crows-Nest] Kori says, "anyone else kisses the GM and I'll kick your ass" GM says, "after about a week, Vona gathers you back together in the central part of the chancel, by a rather nice pond and bit of statuary" GM asks, "but before we get into what she says, what have you guys been up to for the past week?" Michel says (to GM), "er, I'll whisper" GM says, "(this would be a good time to tell your family/friends anything you're going to tell them, pick up anchors if you so choose, start making various cover identities, or pick up other hobbies)" Wilfred has been fussing about how this is Highly Irregular, and can someone Please Explain This Situation. Alexandra asks, "do you want us to whipser or say?" GM says, "say if you want it to be public/play it out" [Crows-Nest] Ghogg hands Wilfred forms 232-634-A and 20953-3423-ex to make him happy Raul says, "Wandering. And indeed choosing a new hobby: learning to speak, then read, all the languages in the world." Michel says (to Raul), "that's an automatic skill" Kori says, "I have mostly been busy trying to wrap my head around it. Not saying anything to anyone in my home life, which is fairly private anyway." Raul says (to Michel), "Is it? Good, at least I'll have one hobby I get good at instead of dropping after a few days" Wilfred asks (of GM), "Er, are we all stuck in the library over the course of the week, or what?" [nobilis] GM says (to Raul), "actually, speaking of -- all nobilis can speak/read all (current) human languages" GM says, "no, you're welcome to go out into the world again if you want" [nobilis] Raul says, "Right. Time to start on the dead ones, then." [nobilis] Franklin says, "huh" [nobilis] Kori asks, "what, no dead ones?" Alexandra has been anchoring her on/off gf Karin, a local artist, exploring the chancel, and experimenting with what she can do now. Also, avoiding explaining what's happened to her brother, since she's not sure how involved she wants him to be in this strangeness [nobilis] Kori says, "geeeez" [nobilis] GM says, "not unless you study them on your own" [nobilis] Tyoka asks, "does live include latin?" [nobilis] Tyoka says, "as it's being spoken in the vatican" [nobilis] Raul says (to GM), "I'd like to do so, then" [nobilis] GM says, "alrighty" Kori has been enjoying her ability to speak and read Japanese fluently, which is definitely going to be handy. So much for having to take summer classes. [nobilis] Wilfred says, "Yay Vatican, where the bank machines have instructions in Latin" Raul says, "I'm also going to make arrangements for my restaurant while I ostensibly go into the hospital for radical surgery on my legs." [nobilis] Michel says (to Wilfred), "dispensi tuus" [nobilis] Alexandra says (to Kori), "given your godlike research skillz, I imagine it takes oh, a day or so" [nobilis] Kori says (to Raul), "heh" GM says, "and, I assume, you all do a certain amount of experimenting with your powers and gifts and aspect which we can take as read" Wilfred is highly disturbed, and has spent the first three or four days trying to get back into his old job and finding that he ... doesn't really need a secretary to take care of his papers anymore. [nobilis] Alexandra says, "(er to Raul. My reading skillz are not godlike)" GM asks, "anything else before Vona talks?" Wilfred says (to GM), "not really." GM says, "right then" Franklin has spent most of the last week silently staring at the waterfall in the chancel. Vona glances around. "Really, this is quite a nice place -- the exits to all the libraries are an especially fine touch, if I do say so myself." [nobilis] Iain asks, "Are we playing tonight, then?" [nobilis] Iain says, "I don't see characters logged in." [nobilis] Michel says (to Iain), "get your arse in here" [nobilis] Raul exclaims, "!" [nobilis] Franklin says, "RIGHT NOW" [nobilis] Alexandra says, "we're here" Vona says, "but I'm afraid it's a bit weak in the defense department" [Crows-Nest] DavidW says, "Shame if something were to... happen to it." Vona frowns. [nobilis] Iain says, "Oh, okay, maybe a few." Penny arrives, looking for booty. Vona says, "and I can't have you hanging around here all the time; I've got things for you to do" Wilfred asks, "Defence? What sort of defence does a place like this need?" Michel says (to Penny), "yay, right on time" Gaston arrives, looking for booty. Vona lets her eyebrow raise ever-so-slightly. Gaston says, "'allo." Michel says (to Gaston), "perfect timing" Vona says (to Wilfred), "those aforementioned connections to the libraries are two-way, you realize" Gaston says (to Michel), "But of course." [Crows-Nest] Kori says, "they were off in a corner, um, pondering Penny's latest plot, no doubt" Vona says (to Wilfred), "I do not expect anyone to be coming through angrily, since at the moment I don't happen to have offended anyone" Vona says, "but one cannot be too careful" Michel gangles against a statue Vona says, "so --" [Crows-Nest] Ghogg says, "now that they're deities, they can use words like 'extra-husky'" [Crows-Nest] Kori says, "woo woo" Wilfred asks, "Yes, but who ... I mean, what could possibly want to launch an attack?" [Crows-Nest] DavidW says, "And "gangles"." Vona strokes her chin for a bit, and then her eyes brighten. Vona exclaims, "clearly what this place needs is a giant!" Gaston says (to Vona), "Not offended anyone in what context? Your manhandling of me onto that train was somewhat annoying." Vona says, "Yajpelapel will do, I think. I don't believe he's doing anything at the moment" Franklin asks, "A giant what?" Kori raises her eyebrows in turn Vona says, "go find him and bring him back here, please, and then I will bind him appropriately for the defense" Vona steps behind a tree and is gone. Raul says, "Mmm. I hope he likes to read." Kori asks (of Gaston), "(in an undervoice) what, did you get a disfiguring bruise?" Michel does not have a high enough Spirit to smirk at his Imperator directly, but does so now she's gone Gaston scowls at Kori. Franklin says, "Right. I guess we have to look up who this Yajpelapel fellow is." [Crows-Nest] DavidW says, "I wonder if Yajpelapel is in the phone book." Franklin says, "And where to find him. Or it. Or her." Alexandra says, "I like the level of detail she provides" Penny says (to franklin), "I guess so" Kori asks, "Ok, so, um, I don't suppose this place has an Oversized section?" Michel says, "So who wants to do the, ah, research, then? I'd look under mythology first, myself" Franklin says, "It has every kind of section." Raul says (to Franklin), "Knowing where in here to look sounds very much like your department" [nobilis] GM asks, "oh, incidentally, thanks to Wilfred, the chancel has an extra realm point -- did you guys want to buy off a problem or do something else?" Franklin says, "Yes. Hmm. I'm having trouble placing Yajpelapel culturally..." [nobilis] Penny says, "hmmm" [nobilis] Alexandra says, "I like the idea of ditching the banes, or augmenting resources" [nobilis] Michel says, "cool stuff cool stuff / we want cool stuff" Kori asks (of Penny), "you wouldn't happen to recognize the language...?" [nobilis] Penny says, "augmenting resources, if that gets us anything useful" Gaston whispers, "recap 100" [nobilis] Penny says, "(would I recognise the language?)" Wilfred says, "Well, I do say..." [nobilis] Raul asks, "Yeah, any of us able to place the name?" Michel says, "Does it matter? If he's mentioned in the library, it'll take us about half an hour to find him if we all start now." [nobilis] GM says, "that would be a minor divination miracle of language, so I assume yes" [Crows-Nest] DavidW says, "hm. I have a guess who this giant is. But I'm not playing." [nobilis] Raul says, "or at least say, 'hm, that sounds like the names used by the " Franklin says, "Assuming the paths don't change." [nobilis] GM says, "and/or franklin could presumably dig up the right book with a divination miracle, assuming it's in this library and is on paper" [nobilis] Gaston asks, "Stupid question: we are all nobilified and stuff at this point, I assume?" Michel says, "Sounds Central American to me, but it's not really my field" Franklin vooms a book into his hand. [nobilis] Penny says (to Gaston), "right" [nobilis] Gaston asks, "Did we miss anything important?" [nobilis] Alexandra says (to Gaston), "have been for a week" Franklin says, "Let's see..." Kori says (to Franklin), "nice work" Wilfred says, "Perhaps it's filed under Y." Raul says (to Franklin), "if you have an idea of where to look, I can lead you there." [peanut-gallery] Jota says, "Hmm. Too bad there's no way to have someone else unmute me from a channel." Raul says, "or you can have the books come to you. Handy, that." [nobilis] Gaston says (to Alexandra), "In game time? Okay, cool." Franklin adjusts his reading glasses. [peanut-gallery] BrenBarn asks, "?" GM says, "flipping through the book (which happens to be "The Anciente Mythologyse of The Giantse"" Michel sparks up, having been unable to smoke in the presence of an imperator [nobilis] Wilfred asks, "Can I ask the card catalogue where the references are filed?" [peanut-gallery] Emily asks, "you want to mute until some specific subject is dropped, or something?" [peanut-gallery] Jota says (to BrB), "I'm muting #nobilis during the Saturday game session, but I'll probably be logging off before it's over." [peanut-gallery] Jota says (to Emily), "You could put it that way." [nobilis] Raul says, "Card catalog? We've got the powers of paper and language" [peanut-gallery] Emily says, "ah, I see" GM says, "it says, roughly, that Yajpelapel was one of a race of giants from the Times Before Humans" [nobilis] Franklin says, "there is a card catalog, however" Kori asks, "anything about where, say, he went?" Gaston asks, "What was significant about him?" GM says, "most of them are extinct now, as humans picked up the role of being, hmm, the main character" [Crows-Nest] Ghogg says, "I wonder if a giant will work for you for cookies" Gaston asks, "Why was he remembered, I mean?" GM says, "there is a rather long and tedious history about the wars of the giants and so on" Franklin says, "...and so on, and so on." [Crows-Nest] Michel says (to Ghogg), "that's all we need, the Cookie Monster guarding our chancel" Franklin closes the book. [Crows-Nest] Gaston says, "I'd prefer Grover." [nobilis] Franklin asks, "does it say where we need to go?" GM says, "but eventually you get to the interesting bit -- about a hundred years ago, Yajpelapel got into an argument with a Power of some kind, and lost" Wilfred asks, "Does it say anything about Where?" [peanut-gallery] jwalrus asks, "there's a temporarily-mute-channel command, no?" GM says, "(as non-Powers tend to do in these situations)" [nobilis] Michel asks, "How much of a miracle would it take Penny to speed-read the whole thing and absorb everything in it?" [peanut-gallery] Gunther says, "@mutec" Raul says, "This is why I never read the Silmarillion" [peanut-gallery] Jota says (to jwal), "That's @mutec" Franklin hands to book to Wilfred. [nobilis] Alexandra says, "I gather we're all getting the story pretty quickly" Franklin (the) [peanut-gallery] Jota says, "Except I'll need to undo it myself, later." [nobilis] Gaston says, "Raul has enough aspect to speed-read it" GM says, "the Power bound him to the spot, forcing him to stay there until the Power him/herself came to lift the binding, or until someone came along that was bigger than he was" Wilfred checks the Index of the book. [nobilis] Gaston says, "Yeah." [nobilis] Michel says, "mm, that too" [peanut-gallery] jwalrus says, "I don't understand the problem" GM says, "that spot is apparently known today as ... Las Vegas" [peanut-gallery] jwalrus says, "or the situation" [nobilis] Alexandra exclaims, "whoo hoo!" [nobilis] Kori says, "damn, this would be SO USEFUL for academic purposes" [peanut-gallery] BrenBarn asks, "wait, when you said 'logging off', did you really mean 'logging off'?" Gaston asks (of GM), "Bigger than the giant, or the Power?" Michel says, "sounds similar to the Monkey myth, or Loki" Penny asks, "ooh, las vegas?" GM says, "(the giant)" [nobilis] Raul says, "I expect I'd need at least one higher aspect to skip the boring parts readily" Kori asks, "Las VEGAS?" Raul says, "I wonder how good I'd be at gambling now." Alexandra says, "hey, you can hide *anything* under all that neon" [Crows-Nest] DavidW says, "hm. Interesting." Raul seems lost in thought for a moment. Michel pounds his head against the ball of his fist Kori looks faintly annoyed to have to consider such a place. Gaston asks, "Las Vegas is the place with the money and the lights and the ladies, yes?" Gaston says, "I have not been there yet." Kori says (to Gaston), "depending on how you define 'lady'" Raul says (to Gaston), "Oh my yes. Fun place." Michel says (to Gaston), "It is a hole." Alexandra says, "question is: are there libraries in Vegas? I mean, reading isn't 'xactly the hot thing out there..." [Crows-Nest] DavidW says, "Reminds me of a She-Hulk comic." Raul says, "UNLV is there, of course." Kori says, "I wouldn't be surprised if he's buried under the MGM Grand or something." Penny says (to alexandra), "I was just wondering that, but there are actually people who live there" Franklin says, "It is a city with a normal population." [nobilis] GM says, "(as it happens, Las Vegas's taxes pay for a pretty good educational system and library)" Wilfred frowns prudishly. Penny says, "I would guess there'd be at least a school library or something" [Crows-Nest] Gaston says, "Hey, maybe he's buried in Lambeth." [nobilis] GM says, "(and a bunch of neon, yes)" [nobilis] Raul says, "And, I point out again, *UNLV*, which does actually have a library and not just a basketball team." [nobilis] Kori says, "heh. well, I suppose we can come out there, then" Franklin suddenly seems to have a map of chancel exits at hand. Gaston asks, "Shall we go?" Kori says, "Yes, I suppose we shall." Penny says, "okay, so I guess we head for an exit to las vegas" Michel says, "I would exercise a little caution here" Penny asks (of franklin), "is that going to be accurate?" Raul says (to Franklin), "Mmm, that's going to be hard to keep up." Wilfred says, "By all means. Let me process the exit forms first." Penny asks, "the paths change all the time, right?" Gaston says, "Let us bring some quantities of cash in lieu of preparation." Kori says, "And later I'll speak to Vona about getting some better taste in visiting-spots..." [nobilis] Raul asks, "I can find the path, right?" [nobilis] Alexandra says, "no airplanes out of the chancel for us, mwhahaha" Gaston says, "I understand they're essentially the same in this country." Franklin says, "As of 20 minutes ago. It might be out of date." Michel says, "Do we expect to just walk into Vegas and stumble upon a giant? More research here. We need to examine what giants are like, how we can find 'em." [nobilis] GM says, "you can indeed" Gaston asks (of Michel), "They are... big?" Michel says (to Gaston), "Not necessarily" Raul says (to Franklin), "At some point we should work together and see if we can create an always-correct map." Raul says, "But for now..." Penny asks, "and when we find this giant, then what?" Kori says (to Michel), "truly, the subtleties of your mind astound me" Alexandra says, "We can always research there. I say we head over and wing it." Raul concentrates. GM says, "the book used lots of comparisons like "as big as a hill! a big hill!" but this is not incredibly useful now" Penny asks, "I mean, do we summon Vona to bind him?" Gaston says (to Alexandra), "I agree." Franklin says, "How big is this fellow going to be? Since we aren't the Power that bound him, we need to somehow outsize him." Michel says, "The ancients used the words giant and Hero more or less interchangeably" Kori says (to Penny), "I'm guessing we have to take on the Power that is keeping the Giant there" Gaston says (to Franklin), "If he is Big, we will at least be able to see him." Gaston says, "If not, outsizing him will not be difficult." Penny says (to kori), "oh. that could be... interesting" Franklin says, "He could be underground." Raul says, "We go that way when we're ready," and points. "Well, if we go in the next little bit." Raul says, "I wonder if giants diminish if they're not believed in strongly." Michel says, "He could merely be a particuarly powerful entity- rather than necessarily large..." Franklin says, "Or perhaps disguised as a casino attraction." Gaston says, "I am sure there is some trick, but I can't imagine there is much we can run into that is now more powerful than us." [nobilis] Penny says, "I missed how he was bound" Gaston says, "Lobsters and endless fountains we can deal with." [nobilis] Penny says, "but I am suspecting franklin's guess is possibly spot on" Alexandra takes off for the next little bit [nobilis] GM says, "(he had a run-in with a power who bound him to the spot. it is not more specific)" Michel says, "one should not assume that our preconceptions of giants are what we should be looking for" [nobilis] GM says, "(also, vona said to bring him back here)" Franklin says (to Michel), "Indeed." [nobilis] Penny says (to GM), "oh, that's helpful" jwalrus arrives, looking for booty. Gaston says (to Michel), "And obviously the answer will be in the books and not in the reality." [nobilis] Kori says, "cool, smuggling giant into UNLV library. this'll be easy" [nobilis] Penny says, "in a 'damn, why didn't we pick a non-demanding imperator way'" [nobilis] Gaston says (to Kori), "Hee hee." GM says, "following Raul, you slip away between the stacks and eventually end up emerging .. from some other stacks. only this time it's in Las Vegas, and it's gone from cool and damp to hot and dry; inside, thankfully, the library here is air-conditioned" [Crows-Nest] jwalrus says, "oh, you've started? that's why #nobilis suddenly stopped making sense" [nobilis] Raul says, "'He's a...freshman. On the football team.'" [nobilis] Raul says, "'We're his tutors.'" [Crows-Nest] Gaston says, "heh." [Crows-Nest] DavidW says, "I'm curious how the players will handle this without scaring the normal people silly." Michel says, "we live in a world of emptiness' remembrances, my friends. stop clinging to fairy stories" [nobilis] Gaston says (to Raul), "That's 'camp counsellors'." [Crows-Nest] Kori says, "claim we're filming a sequel to 'Honey, I Blew Up The Kid'" [Crows-Nest] Wilfred says, "With the proper paperwork, they can't stop us." Penny asks, "okay, where in las vegas are we?" Alexandra glances at Raul for an answer Penny asks, "and, y'know, where are we going to start looking?" Kori says (to Michel), "yeah? I seem to have missed the name of the Department of Imperator Studies from which you graduated" Michel says (to Penny), "this was, ah, rather my point" Gaston says, "I think I can hear money in the distance." Michel says (to Kori), "I know nothing, and pretend to know nothing" Gaston asks, "Shall we look for the lights and the ladies? Uh, and giants?" Penny says (to michel), "I'm guessing we look for some signs saying 'see the GIANT MAN in the caberet!'" Alexandra says (to Gaston), "that would be the city's theme" Kori says (to Michel), "Ah, I knew there was a reason I hated French theorists." Michel says, "but this overconfident stumbling is madness" Kori says (to Michel), "we read what the library had to say" Raul says, "We're near the 515." [nobilis] GM says, "(as a side point, for +1 point, you can augment your technology with one field of "weird technology" that is more advanced than what you might find on earth in a few hundred years -- ie, super-advanced robots or the like, and this'll work on earth. or, you can ditch the advanced technology altogether, and spend the 3 points to give most inhabitants magic ability)" [Crows-Nest] DavidW asks, "I'm envisioning the group walking up to every statue in the city asking: psst. Are you, y'know, a giant?" Franklin says, "Perhaps there is local lore concerning this giant, if he's really been here all this time." [nobilis] Penny says, "I like the weird tech" Raul says, "The bus system is not great; we may want to rent cars." [nobilis] Kori says, "yeah" Gaston says, "I will start sniffing around for Powerful things." [nobilis] GM says, "(also, I don't know if this'll be helpful or not, but remember you can switch between seeing prosaic and spirit reality at will)" Wilfred says, "Perhaps there are better records of this somewhere." Michel says, "if you people would admit you have no idea where to start looking... precisely, Wilfred" Gaston asks, "I can spot Powers who don't have a strong Guise on, right?" [nobilis] Penny says, "I think we should take that, but if others disagree" [nobilis] Alexandra thirds the weird tech vote [nobilis] Raul says, "I'm for weird tech" [nobilis] GM asks, "what kind of weird tech would you like?" Gaston says, "Also, it just occurred to me that I can switch between prosaic and spirit reality at will." GM says (to Gaston), "yes, on sight" [nobilis] Michel says, "weaponry" [nobilis] Penny says (to GM), "um, hmm." Gaston says (to GM), "Aha." [nobilis] Michel says, "we need to defend our chancel, goddamn it" [nobilis] Raul says, "That's what the giant is for" [nobilis] Penny says, "I'm thinking michel has a point" [nobilis] Penny says, "but that divinatory tech might be useful" [nobilis] Kori asks, "do we have to?" [nobilis] Kori has Cannot Kill Wilfred shrugs, and makes a note in his agenda. "switched to spirit sight,