Scion AMA: Mitchell Gozer

All right, folks, you asked some awesome AMA questions and the players delivered. We'll be doing posts like this over the next few weeks with various characters' answers, and some bonus playlists for their hilarious hijinks and soulful tragedies as well.

First up today is Mitchell Gozer, Scion of Hermes, now known as Terminus, the god of luck and last chances. Or, "that guy who dies all the time and swears at the Moirai a lot".

Anne's Fiction Corner

I may still be pretty much useless on the computer, but with the help of dictation software and a whole lot of painkillers, I'm unconquerable nonetheless. Today's story is Qualities of Heat, starring Sophia Archimedes with appearances by Geoff Matheson, Mitchell Gozer, Marcus James, Sangria Tecuhtli and everybody's favorite mysterious Aztec Scion. It is a tale of expectations versus reality, reason versus passion, and what happens when violent temper collides with unexpected outcome.

Skeins of Fate won the voting this time (although it was pretty close), so they're up next! We're down to just two to vote on now, so let the rivalry begin!

• If you vote for Eastern Promises, you're voting for stories from the nineteenth-century band in a world of colonialism and industry - Leona Middleton, Samuel Vanderbilt and Paniwi Bayteru of the Netjer, Faruza Alinejad and Yadi of the Yazata, Mohini Misra and Padma Billingsworth of the Deva, James Howard and Alvin de Lafayette of the Anunna, and many more. They're currently fighting corruption among local authorities, learning what other cultures have to offer them and finding ways to survive no matter what the cost.
• If you vote for Strawberry Fields, you're voting for stories from the wild-eyed Celtic band - Dierdre O'Riordan, Seamus McMann, Jude Shriver and Auggie MacDonough of the Tuatha de Danann and Alaina Bertrand and Ignatius Rex of the Nemetondevos. They're currently gearing up to challenge the combined might of the military and their shadowy puppeteers, while reaching out to their kinsmen around the world.

And off we go!

Dancing in the Streets

Oh, man, you guys, do we ever have some more art for you tonight! From two different artists and two different games, and both are fantastic.

First, we have one of our all-time favorite scenes from Better Next Time, starring everyone's favorite pain in the ass, Goze! After discovering that Raijin and Fujin had seized control of the skies over Japan and were pretty much drowning the entire area in a constant hurricane, Geoff's group went to try to stop them by infiltrating in an undercover mission. However, they were pretty sure that one or both of them would notice if a rogue band of Scions suddenly appeared in their territory, so Goze was split off to go on a solo distraction mission. Upon arriving at their base, Goze spent several minutes almost getting eaten, and finally hit upon the idea of keeping the none-too-bright ogres occupied with tricks and flim-flammery. Finally, in desperation, he started busting off tribal dance moves he had learned from an Australian goddess, and poured everything he had into a crazy high roll to succeed. And succeed he did - so well, in fact, that both Raijin and Fujin joined in. They then proceeded to dance so energetically and for so long that Goze was forced to create a doppelgaenger of himself to leave there, eternally dancing with them while he made his escape.

Which leads to this incredibly awesome picture of a giant Japanese monster dance party:

By Samantha Braithwaite!

But that's not all! Over in Eastern Promises, we also have a great new picture of James Howard, Duke of Norfolk, squiring the Lady Leona Middleton about town on the lovely streets of Charleston, before the many Great Irritations of America started harshing all over their courtship. Mrs. Young, acting as chaperone, really does look like she operates under a constant raincloud of dislike and crankiness.

By Steph!

Guys, I am just completely bowled over by how awesome these artists are, and how incredibly neat it is that they want to draw things for our games. If they lived close enough, I'd hug both of them, and everyone they know. Give them a round of applause!

ART!

It's time for MORE ART! ART!

This one is something completely different, and we love it. From a master graphic artist of the great white north, here's an image of Goze, Sangria and Geoff as the young gods of the Teotl. Goze appears here as Iocolincolatl, the psychpomp god in charge of bringing whatever gods the Aztec people need most to their city; Sangria appears as Eztli, the bloodmother, warrior bat-monster and mother to her people; and Geoff appears as Tlazohtlaloni, god of marriages and life-giving ponds and beloved of Eztli.

In traditional Aztec art style, with bonus totally adorable evil baby. This is my new favorite thing of the moment.

ART!

Anne's Fiction Corner

It's that time again, and I hope you guys are all ready for this story, because our players definitely weren't. Today's story is The Fall of Tenochtitlan, starring Geoff Matheson with appearances by Sangria Tecuhtli, Mitchell Gozer and Marcus James, not to mention an insanely star-studded supporting cast. It is a tale of divided loyalties, devastating betrayal and events that change the world forever.

I just realized that for some reason I accidentally labeled the progress bar as Sangria Fiction this past round, even though it's technically Geoff fiction. But that's okay; Geoff may be the narrator and it may be his story, but you'd better believe it's Sangria's story, too.

Before I put up a new voting poll, I want to turn to you, the readers and players, for a little advice about how to plan for new fiction as we move on! John and I have been wondering if the current method of voting is really the best one, since it tends to skew toward always the same characters. I love all the characters, so I'm generally happy no matter what, but there are a few different things we were thinking of trying.

• Vote for individual characters, just like we do now. Everybody votes for whomever they're most interested in, and life continues as normal.
• Vote for individual games - that is, Better Next Time, Eastern Promises, Gangs of New York, Strawberry Fields, whatever. Everyone votes for the storyline they want to see more of, and then I'll write the next story in that line, which might be from any of the characters involved.
• Vote for individual characters, but rotate the voting per game. This time we vote only on Eastern Promises characters, next time we vote only on Gangs of New York characters, and so on.

Or something else that you guys think of that I haven't. Or maybe nothing needs to change! I don't know, I'm very unfocused right after I finish something.

Winona won with some kind of crazy old woman wizardry, so she'll be getting the next story. Tell me what you guys think, and we'll put up a new voting poll soon!

Anne's Fiction Corner

What, a new story done in under a month? It's true! Today's story is Children of the Sun, starring Sangria Tecuhtli with appearances by Marcus James, Mitchell Gozer and a seriously distressed Geoff Matheson. It is a tale of vengeance, family ties and uncontrolled power that finally finds an outlet. It's also the worst. Seriously, just the worst.

Geoff won the vote with a slim margin of only one, so he'll get the next story! The new voting poll will go up momentarily, and with the really close voting lately, I'm totally excited to see who will come up next!

• If you vote for Aurora Dahl, you'll be getting a story about the fallout of a divine war and the passing of ancient responsibilities on to reluctant young Scions.
• If you vote for Darcy Jolie-Pitt, you'll be getting a story about two sisters trapped in a foreign underworld, trying to find their way back to the light.
• If you vote for Faruza Alinejad, you'll be getting a story about unlikely friendships and the sacrifices bandmates sometimes make for one another, physical or spiritual.
• If you vote for Leona Middleton, you'll be getting a story about a headstrong girl bucking the demands of her society and setting her sights on a truly impossible dream.
• If you vote for Mitchell Gozer, you'll be getting a story about the long, hard road of repentance and the violent nature of divine divorce courts.
• If you vote for Mohini Misra, you'll be getting a story about her band undermining a corrupt raja and making difficult decisions about whether or not love can overcome evil.
• If you vote for Seamus McMann, you'll be getting a story about the clash between divine and mortal authorities and one band of Scions' determination to rescue one of their own at any cost.
• If you vote for Sophia Archimedes, you'll be getting a story about her stormy non-relationship with a certain notorious Scion.
• If you vote for Will Nordstrom, you'll be getting a story about his childhood and growth into one of the last Vanir Scions in the world.
• If you vote for Winona Nelson, you'll be getting a story about the struggle of poverty, the entropy of the universe and all the ways a normal woman can end up at the very bottom.
• If you vote for Woody Anderson, you'll be getting a story about a very old Norse Scion adapting to the ways of a new culture and finding a way to honor new family members.
• If you vote for Yadi, you'll be getting a story about her origins as a street rat in the back alleys of Tehran and her hopes for a better life as a child of the righteous gods.

Incidentally, I know Vivian was a super popular option on the last poll, so many people may be wondering why she isn't on this one. It's not because we don't love her - we just realized that her story can't happen until Goze's has gone through. So if you're looking for some Vivian love, vote for Goze and she'll be back in the next round!

Anne's Fiction Corner

If you've been itching to know how the Better Next Time team's travails in Duat turned out, itch no longer! This new story is out just in time for Valentine's Day, because Geoff is everybody's valentine.

Today's story is Sunrise, Sunset, starring Geoff Matheson with appearances by Sangria Tecuhtli, Marcus James and Mitchell Gozer. It is a tale of conflicting loyalties, the consequences of murder, and young people trying to fill shoes that are entirely too big for them.

Next up, duly voted in, will be Woody Anderson dealing with the aftermath of accidentally falling into the well of Mimir. New voting options will go up in a minute.

Whee! Stories!

Anne's Fiction Corner

Okay, so, I'm sorry, guys. This was supposed to be a story about Geoff, who was voted in next and has a lot of significant stuff to be doing in Egypt right now. And I really did sit down to write a story about Geoff, but while I was working on it realized that it needed to be happening concurrently with this story, and that this one should really come first for reasons of perspective and continuity.

So today we have The Seven-Snake Voyage of Mitchell Gozer, starring Mitchell Gozer with guest appearances by Geoff Matheson, Marcus James and Sangria Tecuhtli. It is a tale of extremely grudging heroism, incredibly uncomfortable selflessness, and enduring bromance.

And speaking of bromance, the next story will definitely be the Geoff tale that goes along with this one. Cross my heart.

Anne's Fiction Corner

Just in time to not be heartwarming for the holidays, here's New Wounds and Old Feuds, a new story starring Sophia Archimedes, with appearances by Mitchell Gozer, Geoff Matheson and some other people she doesn't like very much. It is a tale of old grudges, new wars and unreasonable vengeance, not to mention the sins of both the parents and the children coming home to roost. Sometimes you have to learn the lessons of the Roman Empire the hard way.

By popular demand, the next story will return to Geoff and his shenanigans in the Egyptian underworld. The poll has been reset to the right with the new set of characters who are ready to have the next story; vote for your favorite and next time the roster will change again.

Out of my own curiousity: if you were one of the four people who voted "Other" on the last poll, who did you have in mind?

The Way We Were

Question: Do any of your characters have or do anything that reminds them of their time before they became Scions?

Oh, definitely. Scions were all human once, after all, and often remain much more human than their peers even after they become gods. It comes with the territory; a god like Zeus can never really "get" mortals and their fragile, tiny lives, but a god who came up from that ground floor has intimate knowledge of what mortal life was like and who he or she was back then. It's part of what makes them able to connect more fully with the modern world and fight for the rights and needs of humanity that much more passionately.

Of our characters, some are more "human" than others and always have been, but most of them have things that remind them of their long-ago status as members of the human race.

For Eztli, her own face reminds her of her origins; while she recently used Health to cleanse all of the remaining mortal Aztecs of their European bloodlines and return them to pure Mexica stock, she was born mestizo and will always be mestizo, as will her children, an irony when she and the other Scions of her generation are now the only ones. Her mortal military training also continues to color her world, which is just as much about following the orders of her generals (Geoff, or the Tezcatlipocas) for the safety and betterment of her people now as it was when she carried an assault rifle to do it. She also still lives in Mexico City, where she lived as a human, now as its patron protector and goddess; her memory isn't always reliable enough to remember her days in the shantytowns on its outskirts, but their echo is always there.

Sowiljr may be de facto king of the Aesir now, but he still spent a lot of a recent game in the kitchen helping prepare for a wedding feast, traces of the five-star Vegas chef he was before Visitation lingering on. His entire status as god of marital fidelity and family has its roots in his mortal life, in which the absence of his father and the struggles he watched his mother endure made him swear that he would never let his own family be treated the same way; that long-ago memory of his own wish that his father had been there for him is behind a lot of his careful shepherding of his own sons and his determination to foster happy families.

Jioni's come a long way from mortal life to Queen of Erebus, but some things have never changed; her skills as a doctor and way with corpses were things she was good at long before her visitation, when she was a star med student and a county coroner. Her mortician's jacket stayed with her for many of those years, transformed into a relic that she didn't lose until godhood, and her relic flask of rum is just as much her friend now as it was when she was sneaking alcohol in Catholic school.

Terminus, oddly enough, might be the closest of all the Scions-become-gods to humanity; he's still carrying and using an iPhone (albeit a magic one), frequently uses Avatar to shrink himself down to become human in capabilities and powers, and actually went to his hometown to get his mortal mother and transplant her to his cult where he could be sure she would be taken better care of. Of all of our characters, he's probably the most fond of humanity and their hijinks, and most misses being one of their carefree number. Also, whenever he goes to his cult now, his mom nags him.

Not all of our characters are closely tied to their mortal roots; Vala's father nuked most of her mortal life to keep her from having anything to do but his errands, Aiona never liked humanity in the first place and never looks back on her humble origins, Marcus went mad around mid-Demigod and can barely remember who he is now much less who he was then, and Folkwardr hasn't been human in centuries and has little left of his mortal life. But they were all still human once, and even if they no longer carry much of it with them or don't think about where they came from, it had an inescapable effect on who they are now and what they grew into as deities.

Anne's Fiction Corner

Hey, everybody! Fiction's been slow lately because of working on the Birthright project and various other things, but it's never forgotten. Today's story is Skilled Labor, starring Sophia Archimedes with appearances by Mitchell Gozer, Geoff Matheson, Marcus James and Sangria Tecuhtli. It is a tale of mystery and origins, and a reminder that it doesn't matter if you're a phenomenally powerful demigod offspring of an ancient deity; if you borrow dad's car and crash it, it's still coming out of your allowance.

In case anyone is interested, by the way, there's a third poll up over on the right at the moment, where you can vote on which character you'd most like to see new fiction about. It won't work quite the same as the other polls - the winning character isn't always guaranteed the next spot, since sometimes I have to write another character's story first in order to make the next part of that person's tale make sense, blah blah continuity - but it'll give me a good idea of what you guys are interested in seeing, and I'll stick to it whenever I have the chance.

Players are all voting for themselves as we speak, I'm sure.

Playing Barry White in the Overworld

Question: Which god-level Scion currently has the most active libido? I know Sowiljr and Jioni played the field a lot as mortal heroes but have pruded up as gods, hence the question.

I cleaned up your question a bit, anonymous, because it was worded in a way that came off as less than respectful. No hard feelings, though.

I suspect this question is more for the players than for us; I mean, I know who tends to have the most active sex life (Jioni - sexytimes with Erebus are always on deck), but I wouldn't know if Folkwardr secretly struggles with unbridled passion or anything like that. There are only the four gods running currently, and all of them are faithfully married; Jioni and Erebus see each other fairly regularly, but Folkwardr hardly ever sees Ahouva, and Sowiljr tends to hold Eztli at arm's length (whether it's because he's afraid of having another giant basket of babies or hesitant because she's a bat-monster is unclear). Of the god-level PCs who only recently departed, Yoloxochitl had firmly regressed to childhood and entirely sworn off icky adult things like sex and romance, Terminus was married to Circe and reasonably afraid of suggesting much boudoir time considering their history (but even more afraid of even thinking about cheating on her), Aiona only remembered that sex existed when someone else having it was inconveniencing her, and Vala had never had a romantic relationship as far as anyone knows. The only other person you could really call libidinous was Zwazo, who definitely did try to woo the ladies when the opportunity presented itself and has a lot of little mini-Zwazos wandering around the world in various places, but was often too distracted by things like monsters and confusing African politics.

Just like most mythic figures, they run the spectrum from virginal and uninterested to passionate and excitable. It all depends on their personality and image as deities.

Incidentally, while Jioni quite enjoyed choosing her lovers as she went as a Hero and Demigod, Sowiljr's tomcatting days came to an abrupt end as soon as he married Eztli at around Legend 5 or so, so he really can't compete in that arena. (Not that that is having any effect on the seemingly endless parade of divinely attractive ladies bent on making him give it another try.)

Anne's Fiction Corner

Hey, everybody!

By popular demand (by which I mean a few people who emailed me so I'm sure you know who you are), we're going to start announcing when new fiction comes out here on the blog, both so it's more apparent for those not paying a lot of attention to the Updates page and so there's somewhere for commentary and people who want to tell us about typos. Exciting!

To inaugurate this new practice, today we have the new story Fathers and Sons. It is a tale of light in the darkness, familial responsibilities and mysterious regicide, and stars Geoff Matheson with appearances by Sangria Tecuhtli, Sophia Archimedes, Mitchell Gozer, Marcus James and Aurora Dahl.

For those of you interested, happy reading!

Mother's Day

Question: What's going on with the PCs' children? Are they mortal or Scions, or full gods? Do they live on earth or in the gods homes in the overworld? And what about Goze's mother? The last I heard she was still alive.

Our PCs are a reproductively prolific bunch, but this does not necessarily make them very responsible; about half of them don't even know where their kids are, and some have children they don't even know about thanks to a habit of knocking up mortal women and then wandering off long before anything had a chance to show.

The vast majority of the PCs' children are just mortals. Since they were born when the Scions in question were mere Heroes and Demigods, they are mostly growing up as mortals, though since their parents tend to take measures to safeguard them, few are living quite "normal" lives. Most of Marcus' many abandoned children fall under this category, as well as Sangria and Geoff's twins Dyre and Yolotli, Vivian's son John Jr. and Woody's son Atka. These children could become Scions if their now-godly parents decided to grant them a Visitation, but so far most of them have elected not to; as brand new gods, they're run off their feet with things to do and don't have much time or energy left over to spare on dealing with Scions of their own, and in any case some of them would rather not give their children Legend ratings and start attracting monsters and disasters in their direction right now. The childrens' grandparents could also grant them a Visitation since they're only one generation removed - the Baron could easily roll in and claim John Jr., for example - but it seems likely that most of the PCs would be pretty upset by such an eventuality, especially if their permission wasn't asked first.

A few kids were never human to begin with; our PCs also have a bad habit of sometimes canoodling with Titans, which results in such little hellions as Goze's son with Birragnooloo, Seamus' son with the Winter Queen, Marcus' son Bacardi, and Sangria's disturbing Chicahua. These are always problem children and every parent deals with them differently; Sophia abandoned hers completely, which will no doubt come back to cause her problems later, while Goze set up a trust fund for his and fled and Bacardi and his mother have not been seen since Marcus sent them off to find Matthias in the New World. Titanspawn children are fun from an ST perspective, as they're often very precocious, develop unexpected powers now and then, and usually have at least one Dark Virtue making it difficult for them to avoid causing their parents headaches. They also can't be converted into Scions since they already have a Legend rating, so they're likely to turn up later as pawns, antagonists or allies in later stories. Chicahua is the only exception, as he was actually bound to Eztli as a Follower when she hit apotheosis, which does not improve his temperament any but at least makes controlling him marginally easier.

The PCs have not had any children who are full gods... yet, but Terminus' wife is expecting twins, and given his family history, I fully expect them to be a barrel of excitement from day one. God-babies are often a huge pain in the ass, especially since they come at a default of Legend 9 (see Hermes, Ganesha, Huitzilopochtli) from birth, so several PCs are actually relying on their Avatar forms to make sure that any future children are more manageable Scions instead of full-blown troublemaking gods.

As for Claire, Goze's mother, you're right - last we saw in his backstory, she was still alive. Several PCs' mothers are still alive (as far as we know at the moment, anyway), in fact; Sophia's adoptive parents, Kettila's parents, Alison and Colin's mother, Vivian's mother... but do their kids ever write? What, Fimbulwinter is too busy for you to call your mother?