Ursula

References to not being a pizza guy: 4. (Not much in the way of egret squawks this session.)

• [NPC riffs on the way data from the pyramids in Tenochtitlan and the pyramid in Atlan connect the Aztec empire in a whole that is greater than its parts.]
  "The scary thing is, send us your data so we can be more productive? That's literally my job! I ask people that all the time!"
  
• "That should be an aspect--can I just blow your mind, man?"
  
• "Instacatl."
  
• [in tones of scorn] "It's not that girl from the first arc, is it?"
  "Oh, it's definitely Mocel."
  
• "Cut off the head of the snake, or bash it in with a rock, etc."
  "You don't need to be naked this time."
  
• "This may confirm Mocel's legitimacy, as much as it disgusts me to admit it."
  
• "It's not pop culture if it's 35 years old."
  "Not all of us were able to ignore ['Poor unfortunate souls']."
  
• "They went into that, like, art gallery place... and then they never left."
  [Player spends about thirty seconds making faces of astonished recognition.]
  
• "If you are unprepared to follow, you're going to be doomed to lead."
  
• "Whoever's dropping shoes has, like, six feet."
  "It's a bunch of snowy egrets."
  

Strangely, during a global pandemic, it's easier to schedule game.

Quotes from our virtual session:

• "I like this land--all my stuff is here."
  
• "We're working with the government here!"
  "This is the game in which we have made a roll to get on someone's Outlook calendar."
  
• [discussion of a possible counter-ritual]
  "We've reached, can we solve it with prayer?"
  
• "Who knew that I would be going from parcouring Geordie LaForge to robot menagerie maker?"
  
• "What eats butterflies?"
  [a list]
  "Parasitic flies!"
  "I'm not building one of those!"
  
• "Anyone who has left paper out on a dewy Pennsic..."
  
• "Unless you're being kidnapped by Aerosmith."
  

A piece of worldbuilding solidified for me, while doing this session's planning. One of the setting aspects we developed when we were first planning the Aztec Cyberpunk campaign was The Broken Pyramid. We agreed it was in some way technological, in some way related to climate or the ocean, and that cults tended to spring up around it. I realized, while thinking about the activities of a particular cult, that there's a natural way for magic and technology to interact. Everything I've read about Aztec religion has insisted that the dichotomy between representation and reality is a Western one, that a represented thing has its own reality. In this setting, that means a sufficiently detailed simulation will be not only descriptive, but prescriptive. And the pyramid is running code...

Anyway, on to the quotes!

• "I mean, who really knows what humans do?"
  "Certainly not humans!"
  
• "You haven't heard anything about this cult."
  "They're super obscure. That's so cool."
  "You had this god on vinyl."
  
• "You could just knock on his door and say, 'I want to join your cult.'"
  "You're not the pizza guy!" [bird squawking]
  "I am not making another sexy bird decoy."
  
• "I'm trying to data-science this!"
  
• "Gambler's fallacy! Gambler's fallacy!" [bangs table]
  "You made my d10 light up!"
  
• "You're going to break me!"
  "Between the cake and the pseudoscience..."
  
• "They could be using the natural power to disrupt the artificial power."
  "I hate to say this, but that sounds... right."
  
• "He wasn't able to find the ecoterrorist equivalent of a recruiting poster."
  
• "I'm listening to everything you're saying. A man turned himself blue and carved a key out of a block of silver."
  
• "You just need to study the ways of the desert snake."
  "To live in the ocean?"
  
• "Where did you get this die?"
  "It came with my husband."
  
• "It's like turning your liver into a laser."
  
• "We'll need to disrupt the power of the ritual, and we'll be like, OK, I hit this guy with a rock--"
  "An agate, so it calms him down."
  
• "I think we just need to tail the guy. Maybe not me, 'cause I sort of stand out. Having, literally, a tail."
  
• "Don't get this guy started on Carthage!"
  
• "This is--office drone kind of cult participation?"
  
• "Either that, or you're a lizard person."
  [flicks tongue, then squawks]
  "Or a snowy egret person!"
  
• "Fate brought us together."
  
• "By our powers combined, we are OSHA recordable!"
  
• [describes podcast]
  [enthusiastically] "It's like having fake friends!"