The purpose of art - as experienced beyond the artist themselves - is to communicate. Whether to evoke emotion, serve a political message or psychologically entice for commercial purposes, used effectively it bridges a chasm of understanding impassable by other means. Nonetheless communication gaps are inevitable, no two umwelts can ever fully synchronise and the signal to noise ratio for delivering your experiences to someone else will always fall hopelessly short of true fidelity. To most this is desirable, the very concept of privacy is based on being able to curate what you share of yourself. To others, the inability to really choose to fully open up is intolerable.
It was this inescapable aspect of being human that drove Hayley Rudall, art patron and coal heiress to create the Artlux Collective. Inheritance of an artifact - a mammoth ivory flute accidentally uncovered in one of their mines - that had allowed her father and grandfather to subjugate their workers by directly inflicting their perceptions and values on them, made it more than the idle and decadent art salon of a bored socialite. Sharing the power of this object allowed the collective to truly share and experience each other. Most weren’t cut out for that level of intimacy but those who stayed bonded inseparably and would take up permanent residence in the Collective’s historic tenement.
A commune hivemind that has survived decades since its 1923 origin, the Collective has since gained the ability to invest its greatest creations with magickal power. Artists temporarily sequestering themselves from the greater whole to craft deeply personal works and shape the group's future. This is not without risk, reception reflects directly on the degree of connection an artist is allowed moving forward. As the castoffs discovered, heinous trespasses can be met with expulsion. For people used to living with the thoughts of others inside their heads withdrawal is debilitating.
The Tantalus, an opus reflecting on and provoking unreachable and intense personal desire, was deliberately divisive. Reception was extremely mixed but the collective decision to recycle the magickal energy invested in its creation for other works was met by its creator stealing and then accidentally losing it to the city’s criminal underground. Having offended the bulk of the collective and then misplaced a sizable portion of their power she was expelled, along with her sponsor and followed by another artist emotionally invested in her welfare. Plagued by a degenerative condition only experienced by ex-hivemind members, their only hope for readmission and survival is retrieval of the Tantalus.
The cabal’s current goals are:
- Find the Tantalus, following the clues so far has led them through a series of local drug dealers to a Russian Bratva middleman responsible for supplying a sizeable chunk of local trade. Reaching this milestone puts them at 58%.
- Safeguard their cache of artifacts. Gloria, ever resourceful, managed a personal store of occult power that the cabal relies on as their primary advantage. Among their collection is several optimist’s cards, a return ticket and a half consumed hand of glory. The GM is encouraged to add any others as desired.
- Manage their condition. Losing connection to a hivemind is like losing several major senses all at once and the magickal backlash results in progressive mental deterioration. Obsessive mindfulness exercises and listening to constant recordings of babble to simulate the background of other people’s thoughts are the current extent of their prophylaxis. Gloria is following rumours of a drug which might provide relief through her sister, a medical researcher.
Aveline Bishop has been hit the worst, in no small part due to the severity and suddenness of her ejection from Artlux. As the Tantalus’s creator, she is indirectly responsible for the cabal’s predicament. She is also dependent on the other two members, her condition has progressed to a point she often forgets who she is and stares vacantly unless brought back to the world by a familiar voice. Her connection to the Tantalus has so far allowed her to act as a magickal compass and guide the group through acts of gutter magick.
Outwardly Aveline seems like an ingenue but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The well-educated and sophisticated child of the city's well to do, it's that her artistic talent is an instinctive beast that constantly surprises and seizes her. Headhunted from a prestigious art school by Gloria as a means to join the collective she took to the hivemind as an inspirational experience, spending some of her time on the peripheries and the rest in deep, soulful dives of communion. It offered her insight like nothing else she has ever found.
She resents and would buck at Gloria’s control were it not for what she owes her mentor and her encroaching infirmity. Conversely, she is grateful for Cameron’s support while feeling guilty that she cannot reciprocate the attachment he feels to her.
Gloria Bloxam was a successful gallery owner before joining the collective, atypical of their membership she produces no work herself but acted as a valve for releasing their work to the wider world. This bought her a certain degree of leeway and the opportunity to sponsor the other cabal members in joining the collective. Division over her membership without personal contribution was openly a factor in deciding to expel her along with Aveline.
Shrewd and tightly-wound Gloria prides herself on possessing poise above all else. If anything this, more than control of the collective’s artistic contribution to the world, drove her desire to join it. Battering her will against being consumed in the thoughts and feelings of others was a constant battle she gloried in winning. Fighting the steady deterioration of the cabal’s condition has become her new battleground.
Cameron Weldon feels a terrible responsibility to Aveline. A graffiti-artist styling himself as a optimistically nihilistic (but considerably less talented) Banksy, he is Gloria’s second protege. Being taken under her wing at the same time as Aveline the two of them bonded and for the first time he felt able to share stories of a troubled upbringing and his struggles with heroin addiction. Initially repulsed by the deeply personal nature of the revelation (and culture shock, having enjoyed a comparatively privileged and sheltered upbringing), Aveline’s later apology only made their friendship more awkward. Cameron blames himself for misstepping but Aveline simply values their connection in a less intimate way, reserving the best of herself for her work.
Choosing expulsion along with the other cabal members in a fit of pique, Cameron is now uncertain and queasy about his personal motivations in joining them. Given their collective predicament he is putting that aside for now to focus on survival. His checkered past has helped the cabal move through circles that would otherwise be off-limits to them, but it has also brought him closer to falling back on the needle than ever before.
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