Every time a verser pisses off Michael DiVars, he shoots them. How many angry versers are there out there that want to see his head on a pike? Eventually, all of the versers that Michael killed will become matches to his ability. You would think that would be a practice he would abandon rather quickly.
Michael DiVars
(13 posts) (4 voices)-
Kurt W.
MemberWhat are those versers going to do...kill him?
Of course, there are incredibly mean things that one could do to a verser, but I figure Michael could and would hold his own well enough to not meet those fates usually, and would only result in death at worst, which leads to many many more worlds between an encounter.
Thu Jul 17 2008 4:24 am # -
JohnA1nut
MemberWhat are those versers going to do...kill him?
Mother is constantly trying to kill Whisp. That would have to get irritating after a while. I mean how many versers has Michael DiVars versed out? Just knowing that there were thousands of versers out there who want to kill me would be enough to make me want to quit that practice. Not to mention, as they said in Alladin, Return of Jafar, "I might not be able to kill you, but you would be amazed what you can live through."
Thu Jul 17 2008 5:17 am # -
Ah, but your perception is warped by the repetition of the fiction.
You see, as far as I am concerned, Michael di Vars has only been on that Tropical Island once, and he may or may not have killed one person while he was there. The fact that a hundred different people claim to have been that one person Michael killed is irrelevant, because they do not actually know each other, and it is not true that Michael killed more than one person on that island. He was there once. One of a batch of what he considers non-descript newbies doubted his assertion that they had died and come back in a new world, and he, in his impatience, proved it to them the simplest way he could and asked the others whether they also needed proof.
Now, it is within the realm of possibility that that one person, whoever he happens to be in one game somewhere, is angry at Michael. But it's not at all like Whisp, who not only has Mother after him but also has a substantial bevy of scriff-infected jilted lovers on his trail who pale by comparison but would worry any lesser verser. There is one person who perhaps did not take well to his "proof" of his statement. This person only exists in one imagined version of the multiverse, that version in which Michael di Vars was on the island with him.
Your misperception arises from the fact that we replay this scenario so frequently because it works. I have the same problem with people riding the Mary Piper: they wonder why there's no recollection of previous versers, but there were no previous versers there, this is a different Mary Piper.
Right now there is a good chance that you will meet a verser in your present world who in this present world has performed heroic deeds with the help of some other versers--but if so, those deeds will not have been performed, and will become part of your story instead of that of the versers originally written into it. Every verser who saves the hostages in the tower of Why Spy is the only one who ever did so. Every verser who kills Horta in Vampire Philadelphia is the only one who ever did so. Early in this game, I ran five separate players simultaneously but separately through The Postman, and each of them handled it differently, and each was, in his own multiverse, the only verser who ever did that.
So Michael might have shot one verser on one tropical island to make his point once. He has not done so repeatedly. There is only one such verser who might be upset, from the perspective of his multiverse.
--M. J. Young
Thu Jul 17 2008 7:11 pm # -
Yes, that is the short version. The long version is fun, so I'll give a few details.
Whisp is a notorious womanizer. You know how everyone eventually develops a "philosophy of the verse," a "why is this happening to me?" Well, Whisp's is, "The verse is a wonderful place to pick up women." He gave entire new dimensions to the concept of the one night stand, but left a bevy of scriff-infected women behind who eventually figured out how they got that way, and wanted to exact a toll on it.
Well, there are easy ways to go and hard ways to go, and Whisp on one occasion was at ground zero of a tachyon grenade. The way those things work, the spew of tachyons rips apart your molecules and scatters the subatomic particles randomly into the past. There aren't too many more destructive forces in the multiverse.
It sometimes happens that you get so totally destroyed that the scriff can't quite figure out how to put you back together--so you get "zygoted". That is, you come back pre-born, go through birth, and grow up just like an indig. It has happened enough times that there is a reference world for it in The First Book of Worlds, and it's on the bod injury botch table. Whisp was born all over again in a twentieth century earth world--as a girl.
He refused to accept the idea that he was a little girl, and rejected every effort his parents made to feminize him. He repeatedly told them that he was not Louise Annabelle Jamison, but was Whisp, Galactic Warrior of the Dar Koni Mercenary Corps and verser, and very definitely a man.
He drove them both insane.
Mr. Jamison committed suicide, I believe.
Mrs. Jamison also committed suicide, but not until after she had killed the demon child to which she had given birth, and seen its body disintegrate before her eyes. Scriff exposure from her long-term relationship with him resulted in her also being a verser. Awakening alive in another world, and then sensing his presence and finding him there (still looking very like Annabelle but starting to change back to Whisp--it takes a few worlds for the form to return to the original) she realized that he really was a demon, and determined that she had to destroy him, because he was the reason she had not died but come back in this strange other world. She did not succeed that time, as Whisp by then had gathered some of his old equipment such as his Dar Koni Multiblaster, and she was no match for him; but she determined to become his match. Over the thousands of universes she has changed, losing more and more of her mind but gaining great prowess as hunter and warrior, always with the one objective wherever she goes: Kill the Demon Child.
And that is why when anyone says Mother is coming, Whisp starts running, looking to choose his battle ground for the inevitable fight. Everyone else knows that you are safe as long as you are not perceived as "in the way". She doesn't expect anyone to help her, but she will kill anyone she perceives as helping him. Not many can stand against her, and most of those who can figure it's not a good fight to choose.
That's the story.
--M. J. Young
Fri Jul 18 2008 12:31 am # -
johnosevens
MemberWhat if you get zygoted and decide you like the new look?
Like if I get tachyoned all to hell and decide that being reborn as, say, a rich kid, or a girl, or a prince, or something, isn't all that bad, or just generally like my new form better than my old one, is there anything there to stop me from changing back? Or is it sort of a "residual self-image" thing - there's no getting around it?
Fri Jul 18 2008 5:43 am # -
Harry--Technically, what matters is your "self-image"; technically that is something over which you have no control--you look like what you think you look like on some really deep level. However, it is not impossible that this can be changed, particularly in unusual circumstances.
The best example I can recall is someone who got zygoted after death by vacuum, but was born a sprite. He grew to about fifteen inches tall, was able to fly using wings, had a perpetual faint glow around him, and could focus enough energy into his hands to ignite a material that was finer than most tinder. When he versed, he came into the next world in a strange hybrid form, two and a half feet tall with wings that were sufficient for a steerable jump or glide. Having lived so long as a sprite, flying had become very natural for him. With a bit of help from another verser and a friendly sorceress he was able to develop a non-magical ability of morphing between those two forms and his normal youthful five foot human form. In a way he stopped the transition by claiming both forms and the middle form as "him". Interestingly, part of how he did this was by giving a distinct name to the person who was the middle form, and thus he is his sprite self when he calls himself by his sprite name and his human self when he uses his human name, and the transitional form when he uses its name. That is, he has three distinct concepts of "self-image", each for a distinct self.
It is not uncommon for zygoted characters to retain characteristics or qualities from their alternate selves as they transition back, particularly if those qualities are connected to specific skills. It is also the case that attributes are never lowered. (Non-physical attributes are retained in the zygote transition--you go through the pre-birth experience fully intelligent and educated. Physical attributes are reduced to nothing and built with the development of the new body, and bod skills have to be learned anew based on the examples of having known them before.) Thus if you like being Amanda Worthington because she is popular and attractive, that won't prevent you from returning to the physical form of Harry Smith, but you will still have those attributes which made Amanda popular and attractive. Also, Amanda won't be any more popular or attractive than Harry unless as Amanda you work on improving your animal magnetism and charisma, because she starts with Harry's attributes in those areas. If there really were something you could do as a woman that you could not do as a man which is a skill or part of your identity that you did not wish to lose, then it would be possible for you to stay a woman--although the only thing that comes to mind is if you married a man he would become your associate spouse, and you might well want to remain female for the sake of that relationship. How much of your masculine quality would return is another question.
John--Just because they're out to get you doesn't mean they're always right on your tail. Whisp often goes to multiple worlds before winding up in one with someone who is after him. After all, although it is still debated as to whether there is actually an infinite number of universes or merely a number so vast that it is for practical purposes as if infinite (think of the number of stars--there is a number, but at this point we can't even guess what it might be), even if a hundred people are after him it's not going to be that often that they land in the same universe with him.
--M. J. Young
Fri Jul 18 2008 10:08 pm # -
JohnA1nut
MemberJust because they're out to get you doesn't mean they're always right on your tail. Whisp often goes to multiple worlds before winding up in one with someone who is after him. After all, although it is still debated as to whether there is actually an infinite number of universes or merely a number so vast that it is for practical purposes as if infinite (think of the number of stars--there is a number, but at this point we can't even guess what it might be), even if a hundred people are after him it's not going to be that often that they land in the same universe with him.
In the rulebook, when it's talking about Whisp and Mother, it said that they were on the same cycle, and that Mother frequently suicides out of worlds once she realizes that Whisp is not there. The implication was that she catches up with him quite a bit.
What you ought to do is drop them both in the Land of the Benevolent Purple Dinosaur, where violent behavior is power blocked. See if they can work out their differences amicably.
Sat Jul 19 2008 7:58 am # -
Whisp is a character of a player in Ed's game, not mine. What I "ought" to do in that regard is completely irrelevant. The Architect and Whisp have been together in the same world more than once, and when we are I work with him. (It is said that the Architect is one of the few versers who have been able to focus Whisp on constructive tasks and steer him away from trouble, but I have had to rescue him from the consequences of his own actions multiple times. On the other hand, he is a far more powerful combatant than I, and I have counted his aid invaluable when I have faced problems that were not easily finessed--like the Chiak, a powerful multi-dimensional being who hunts sentients and steals their souls.)
Besides, I'm sure that Ed created Mother precisely to give Whisp an enemy he could not defeat with whom he could not negotiate. If you put the two of them in that particular world, Mother would be unable to do anything (she certainly will not parlay with The Demon Child) and Whisp will laugh at how pleased he is to be there while he works on developing his magic to yet more incredible levels for their next encounter.
They are not reconcilable; that is the point.
--M. J. Young
Sun Jul 20 2008 8:51 pm #
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