LogFAQs > #966545449

1. Traci 13 (Traci Thirteen)
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This is a campaign with a large spotlight on magic. The genesis of the Society's unity is based on magic. The Spectre was introduced in both week 1 sessions. Two of the PC's are magicians. The Oblivion Bar is a key part of the base. There are themes of next-generation heroes in this campaign - at least there have been for most of the runtime so far. There's a gathering of Eighth Age magicians, and they all are finding a place on this list - Alice, Freddy, Misty, even Jaime is sort of magic adjacent. So finding a young magician at the top of the list should be no surprise.

Traci's introduction was all second-hand. We first learned from Jaime that he was trying to ferry her across the border to Juarez. Second trip to El Paso resulted in meeting Leroy, her familiar, who was trying to link back up with her because La Dama's people raided the school Jaime was based out of and kidnapped her. La Dama wanted her for her magic, you see. There were like three or four other El Paso/Juarez/Warpath sessions in that time, all before Traci would get introduced proper.

See, we had an issue with El Paso/Juarez. It was La Dama vs La Llorona. Some of us sided with the shrewd businesswoman drug queenpin, and some sided with the ghost of vengeance in La Llorona. Both women had done the other harm. Perhaps La Dama was more of a practical choice, and La Llorona more of a moral one, but even still we could not agree. And during this all, Traci stayed captured and Leroy without his mage.

It was in a conversation Saoirse had with Leroy where he gave clear thoughts - Traci needed to be rescued. And Saoirse, who was on the first trip to El Paso and none of the others, had been hands off. But now it was about rescuing and protecting another young magician, a mission with Saoirse felt a personal compulsion to see through. I don't know if it helped, but having a vote for "La Dama or La Llorona, whichever gets Traci saved faster" at least gave me some direction in the process.

We ended up getting La Dama and La Llorona to reluctantly agree to work together, and lead all of their people south in a convoy to the tip of South America while the Society took El Paso which was already being destroyed by magic blue beetles. There was a lot of drama along the way. There is still drama. Anyway, at the conclusion of this handshake, before the convoy left, Traci was brought to the party, and with Leroy reuniting with her, she was taken back to Z'onn Z'orr.

Now, we would get a taste of vanilla Traci 13. Unsure of what to expect, a few of us would visit her over time, and receive impressions - for Saoirse at least, Traci was a girl alone, separated from her family, including a father whose role was to disprove magicians and the supernatural. Traci was someone who suffered attempts to find a place in the world, whose mother had died when she was younger and whose didn't quite get her as well. And through that all, Traci forced out a smile, and chose to be cheerful through the pain.

Through survival tactics or otherwise, Traci began attaching herself to people. Saoirse was one of those early choices. And while it could be said that Traci was taking advantage of this lonely woman she spoke to who seemed a little lost herself, and that she could attach herself to this mage who had status in Checkmate and at least some corner of the magic community... well, Saoirse was okay with that. Because Saoirse was all of those things. Especially a girl who lost her father in a divorce when she was ten, who never lived up to her mother's designs, and whose marriage collapsed into failure, whose punk band dissolved as quickly as it gained traction, and whose only friend was a green-skinned supermodel superhero who originally showed up to shut her down.

Saoirse never had a sibling, nor much of a family, and here was Traci offering to be witch sisters with her. And perhaps because Traci's family life had issues, it was a need for her as well. Saoirse began to be Traci's guide to the organization and community, and Traci began to be Saoirse's guide to, well, having family. A symbiotic relationship developed between the two, which had its fair share of rocky points so far.

Lush had a time where she was not trusting Saoirse and so brought along Traci to Shadowcrest, where Lush went a little crazy after discovering Misty. Saoirse was not happy with Lush bringing Traci into harm's way because she had not yet learned to trust Traci in the field. But perhaps that lack of trust was overshadowed by Lush being crazy, and Traci doesn't like Lush at all while she's one of Saoirse's besties, so there's some drama there.

Traci also has been trying to explore her own role as a magician and a young woman. She saw Saoirse as a role model. Saoirse is someone who uses her body to gain an edge as much as her magic and when Traci tossed out the casual "I want to do that too", at the expense of romance, it put Saoirse in a tough spot where she was influencing this girl to adopt some of the traits she had herself adopted as survival mechanisms in a world where she had failed often. But Traci was young and not in the same position, yet wanted to be more like Saoirse. Was Saoirse right as a role model? Or was it to be a "do as I say, not as I do"? And was Saoirse really in a position where she could tell Traci what to do as an older sister without having known her for more than a short while, without being flesh and blood? Should Saoirse trust Traci as a young woman to make her own decisions, even if Saoirse didn't want her to throw away life experiences she deserved to have? Complicated, complicated.

(accidentally hit back and lost some paragraphs here, have to retype, ugh)

The pair have become close. When Saoirse first came to Z'onn Z'orr, she felt it would have been easier with someone in her corner, and so she decided to be that person for Traci. And Traci might have been manipulative in this process, but in so doing, got a witch sister who was perhaps more accepting of her than even her own family. And really, Traci may be manipulative, but Saoirse can be as well. At least enough to recognize how one can use social machinations to get folk to behave in certain ways. If brought to light, shouldn't Saoirse just congratulate Traci on following her example so well? And even if Traci did play her a bit, it's worthwhile for what both girls get out of it, right?