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Doresh posted:Or you make it like in Parasyte where the alien entity that was supposed to take over your body failed in doing so and is now forced to join you in some jolly co-operation. Was working on a concept semi-similar to this a while back -- except the parasites/foreign entities didn't fail to take over humans' bodies; in fact, they basically replaced the immune systems and important internal organs of the infected. But the parasites had a limited understanding of human society, so they'd retain the human's original consciousness to use to fit in with the herd, etc.; if that consciousness became a threat or useless to the parasite, it would just pare it down until the brain was compliant and barely sentient (which was how the Humanity-equivalent worked).
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# ¿ Feb 18, 2025 23:51 |
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I know it's been done many times, and everyone has pretty much come to the conclusion that it's pointless, but just to get it off my chest, here's another instance of "how I would fix Beast." Scapegoating in its original form -- the practice of expelling a community's sins, forcing them into the body of a goat and then either sending the goat into exile or killing it -- still works. What's more, in modern days, it can be done unconsciously -- "sin," however a community defines it, slowly accumulates in people who are Other to said community for whatever reason. These reasons don't have to be good or bad -- maybe it's the only non-Christian in the parish, and the priest needs some reason to explain the recent drought that doesn't alienate his flock; maybe it's that creepy guy in the woods who may or may not have killed half a dozen people, and people are terrified of him because he stands out back of his shed sharpening a stained cleaver all day. Whatever it is, sometimes things hit a tipping point: the church itself is destroyed by lightning or a local beauty queen is found dead in a gutter. The Other is charged with all the blame for the incident, and the combination of the explicit condemnation ("you're a monster who's made us suffer") and the implicit scapegoating and expulsion of sins ("if I say God hates you and that's why it hasn't rained I don't have to reconsider my worldview or question God's benevolence," "if I use slurs to address you I don't have to think about my own imperfect fit in gender roles," "if I assume you're a murderer I don't have to consider the idea that any of my friends or neighbors could have killed someone") turns the victim into a Beast -- sharp claws, big luminescent bug eyes, green blood, etc., a representation of the fear and hatred of the Other that the community has projected onto the Beast. This is explicitly a physical transformation, too -- Beasts can wear their old bodies' skin to blend in with the crowd, but it's a literal skin-suit that people can rip apart and it takes effort to repair it. (By the way, heavily implying scare quotes around all instances of the word "sin" -- it doesn't matter whether "sins" are actually harmful or just perfectly innocent characteristics that a given community can't tolerate for whatever awful reason, if a Beast gets scapegoated into containing them, there's enough fear and hatred associated to turn the Beast into a monster.) Of course, the scapegoating ritual doesn't end with the creation of a sin repository -- it has to be driven out or destroyed in order to expel the sin, which is where the whole Hero part comes in. The community, freshly purified of their previous sins -- and thus a lot less tolerant of those who aren't "pure" -- elect a leader, generally the most sinless among them (often the one who contributed the most to the Beast's creation, which is where the whole "a monster represents an aspect of the protagonist" element comes in), form a mob and attack, sometimes literally (i.e. pitchforks and torches) and sometimes figuratively (constant harassment, getting fired from jobs, etc.) to either drive out the Beast, so the sin is gone, or kill them and send it to Hell. If the Beast is banished or destroyed, everyone lives with smug moral certitude for a while until the sin builds up again and they need another scapegoat. If the Beast survives, they have to deal with being monsters powered by accumulated hatred -- and the fact that, in addition to the community that originally spawned them (which may still be hunting them in order to expel their own sins from the world), anyone who fears and loathes the "sin" that empowers/twists the Beast can sense its presence and unconsciously start scapegoating away their own sin, until they turn on the Beast in the same way as the original community. Beasts can become more powerful by acting monstrous and amplifying the hatred and sin inherent in them, as well as drawing from a larger pool of hatred -- devouring flesh, killing innocents and destroying buildings for no reason are things everyone can hate, after all, so more and more people will invest a monstrous Beast with their sins, which makes them stronger. On the other hand, it means more people, and nobler people, are likely to become Heroes -- it's not just the militant preacher who hates you for skipping church, it's everyone you meet, with the exception of people inured to murder, who can tell that you're an unrepentant murder-beast and are genuinely willing to kill you to protect your victims. So it's basically the story of "this society fears and hates me; how much vengeance can I take before I become genuinely worse than them," I guess?
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Mors Rattus posted:However, they must also keep their glocks strong. ![]()
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Not to the extent that they're incapable of choosing not to use magick, no, but I think on average an adept is someone who a) is fixated enough on their magick that they'll try to use it to solve as many problems as it can (since it's axiomatically an obsession identity and the best tool the adept is going to have), and b) would probably still be doing all their ridiculous charging/taboo bullshit even if it didn't let them leverage reality. A dipsomancer isn't a guy who drinks because it gives him telekinesis; it's a guy who drinks because sobriety is a state of nightmarish illusion, with telekinesis as a neat incidental.
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Strange Matter posted:How does Gutter Magick work if you're an Avatar? Where do they get charges from? Eat very frequently at restaurants sponsored by Mak Attax, I'd imagine.
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