There’s a city, it’s like the one you live in but glamorous, spotless and carefully curated. It is filled with dramatic stories that look like the events of your life but play out with a Hollywood slickness. Things might not necessarily go your way in the Silver City but in comparison to the original, the glossy reflection can be horribly intoxicating. No one will even notice you’re gone, your reflection takes your place and mimics your actions (or maybe you’re mimicking its). There are other things in there, things that don’t cast reflections of their own and they shine all the brighter for it.
Access to Silver City
In the circles where it’s discussed many cities claim to have their own silver counterpart. This is a lie, there is only one Silver City and its location is dictated by the population of those exposed to it. If you could motivate a mass migration of 'commuters' (as they’re called) to a new locale the City would move with them once the majority were someplace else. At this point it’s deeply rooted enough in its current locale that this is unlikely. That doesn’t stop people from trying.
For someone who has never been there the Silver City has a single access point, something large, public and reflective. At the moment it’s an ornate fountain in the middle of a park. You also need to be something of a dreamer, the tacit assumption of pursuit of an objective puts cabals on the right track but ordinary people living ordinary lives are hard pressed to find the City. Finally you have to fall into it while doing something dramatic and important: rushing to the big proposal you set up for your girlfriend, running for your life from armed thugs, trying to get to the courthouse with documents for an eleventh hour stay of execution.
For those who have been to the City before things are a little easier, any large reflective surface in the current host city is a potential portal. A Secrecy roll at a -30% shift or one on a specific relevant identity is allowed once per scene to breach through, they can take additional people in physical contact with them equal to the tens place of a successful result.
In either case people exit the way they came in, minus the urgency for first timers.
Supernatural Identity: Silver City Commuter
In the circles where it’s discussed many cities claim to have their own silver counterpart. This is a lie, there is only one Silver City and its location is dictated by the population of those exposed to it. If you could motivate a mass migration of 'commuters' (as they’re called) to a new locale the City would move with them once the majority were someplace else. At this point it’s deeply rooted enough in its current locale that this is unlikely. That doesn’t stop people from trying.
For someone who has never been there the Silver City has a single access point, something large, public and reflective. At the moment it’s an ornate fountain in the middle of a park. You also need to be something of a dreamer, the tacit assumption of pursuit of an objective puts cabals on the right track but ordinary people living ordinary lives are hard pressed to find the City. Finally you have to fall into it while doing something dramatic and important: rushing to the big proposal you set up for your girlfriend, running for your life from armed thugs, trying to get to the courthouse with documents for an eleventh hour stay of execution.
For those who have been to the City before things are a little easier, any large reflective surface in the current host city is a potential portal. A Secrecy roll at a -30% shift or one on a specific relevant identity is allowed once per scene to breach through, they can take additional people in physical contact with them equal to the tens place of a successful result.
In either case people exit the way they came in, minus the urgency for first timers.
Supernatural Identity: Silver City Commuter
You’ve stepped back and forth between the Silver City and the real city often enough that it’s become second nature to you. Able to hold the correct state of mind, read the ineffable signs and give off “the right energy” you can reliably replicate the ineffable qualities required cross over. You’ve broken down the barrier inside of you that keeps normal people out.
Feature: Unique - Enter the Silver City
Feature: Casts Rituals
Feature: Use Gutter Magick
The Cityscape
At a glance it looks just like the real city, it takes time for the nagging differences to become unnerving. The same way people see their own reflections differently than the way they look in photos, it’s idealised in a way that’s familiar but hard to put your finger on. If you get in and out quickly you might not even notice what’s wrong with it.
In the spaces unseen by permanent mirrors, the reflective surfaces left in place for more than 3 days, the Silver City reflects the dreams of its inhabitants in its architecture. This isn’t necessarily positive, a lot of dreams are self-serving or based on unhealthy cravings. It’s the movie-version of the city jacked up to 11 and dripping with symbolism. The ‘Si Si Si Si’ facade of the 1930s Italian Facist Party HQ facade is the sort of thing that wouldn’t look out of place.
In the real world your reflection switches places with you. To anybody else this is indistinguishable from the normal you except for a few minor details like handedness and the side you part your hair. You reflection has never known the kind of freedom to real world allows so they’ll mostly just follow your actions. The only exception to this is when you go places and act in ways that the real world doesn’t allow. The reflection will struggle to act as it thinks it should, behaving like a caricature of your passions. Should this go as far as you suffering stress checks the reflection starts to act out in serious distress and confusion, using passions as the most vague of guidelines. There will be blowback and confusion when you get back. Sometimes reflections who suffer badly enough gain a will of their own.
Untethered Dramatics
Just like the one-sided landscape, there are people in the Silver City that don’t reflect into the real world. Some of them are symbolic representations, others are people or reflections who have lost their counterpart. Unrooted from the real world, their intrigues and squabbles are horrifying and comedic melodrama.
Imagine two dozen people acting like they're the YA novel protagonist of the story and that belief being reflected in their environment. It’s like the worst parts of the most wincingly bad fanfiction and chatroom roleplaying resolved as a winner-take-all LARP with real consequences. They love to involve visitors in their plots, have their heroics and villainy adored by onlookers or use them as prey.
Feature: Unique - Enter the Silver City
Feature: Casts Rituals
Feature: Use Gutter Magick
The Cityscape
At a glance it looks just like the real city, it takes time for the nagging differences to become unnerving. The same way people see their own reflections differently than the way they look in photos, it’s idealised in a way that’s familiar but hard to put your finger on. If you get in and out quickly you might not even notice what’s wrong with it.
In the spaces unseen by permanent mirrors, the reflective surfaces left in place for more than 3 days, the Silver City reflects the dreams of its inhabitants in its architecture. This isn’t necessarily positive, a lot of dreams are self-serving or based on unhealthy cravings. It’s the movie-version of the city jacked up to 11 and dripping with symbolism. The ‘Si Si Si Si’ facade of the 1930s Italian Facist Party HQ facade is the sort of thing that wouldn’t look out of place.
In the real world your reflection switches places with you. To anybody else this is indistinguishable from the normal you except for a few minor details like handedness and the side you part your hair. You reflection has never known the kind of freedom to real world allows so they’ll mostly just follow your actions. The only exception to this is when you go places and act in ways that the real world doesn’t allow. The reflection will struggle to act as it thinks it should, behaving like a caricature of your passions. Should this go as far as you suffering stress checks the reflection starts to act out in serious distress and confusion, using passions as the most vague of guidelines. There will be blowback and confusion when you get back. Sometimes reflections who suffer badly enough gain a will of their own.
Untethered Dramatics
Just like the one-sided landscape, there are people in the Silver City that don’t reflect into the real world. Some of them are symbolic representations, others are people or reflections who have lost their counterpart. Unrooted from the real world, their intrigues and squabbles are horrifying and comedic melodrama.
Imagine two dozen people acting like they're the YA novel protagonist of the story and that belief being reflected in their environment. It’s like the worst parts of the most wincingly bad fanfiction and chatroom roleplaying resolved as a winner-take-all LARP with real consequences. They love to involve visitors in their plots, have their heroics and villainy adored by onlookers or use them as prey.
It's not clear if these actions are a reflection of the city or the city of them.
The Mirror’s Edge
The geographical edge of the host city marks the physical limits of the Silver City. As you move to the outskirts the sky darkens to night regardless of the time of day, the crowds thin and the roads empty, then the buildings start to disappear. As you approach the edge, the road and the landscape turn to smooth, reflective glass and the surrounding landscape is revealed to you. The Silver City rests on the center of a shard of glass suspended in a void. From here you can go no further.
People who leap into the void disappear forever, their reflections become permanently untethered from them. The only thing that distinguishes the reflection from normal people from then on is that they don’t show up in mirrors.
People who leap into the void disappear forever, their reflections become permanently untethered from them. The only thing that distinguishes the reflection from normal people from then on is that they don’t show up in mirrors.
No comments:
Post a Comment