#spctr mta

Passer, Nephandus from Mage: the Ascension

Let's start with lady in the middle of the picture. Her name is Arietta, she's a Mage from Euthanatos and she firmly believes that the world and people around her are a part of some fictional narrative, who therefore have roles to play and plot twists to happen. (And technically she's right, being a character in TTRPG...)

Unfortunately, she believes that her own character, or, speaking plainly, she herself, has already died earlier in the plot. Which, mixed with mages' ability to warp reality, isn't good for her at all. Arietta, despite being very much alive, has many traits of Wraith and is slowly fading from reality. For now she holds onto reality through what she calls "haunting the narrative" and finding purpose in trying to "make some character's arcs resolve properly" (hence her affiliation with Euthanatos), but who knows when her paradigm will take over her completely...

This really worries, to put it mildly, Arietta's brother, Xavier, a guy in the lower left corner. Her sister turning more and more ghost-like led to Xavier desperate desire to understand death, Wraiths and their world, which led to his Awakening. He joined Society of Ether, conducting countless experiments and building endless tools in attempt to figure out reality to prove to his sister that no narrative by which she is dead or is supposed to be exists.

And these siblings are sometimes haunted by a friendly Wraith, Claude. He is actually their grand-grand-uncle and a Wraith from Legion of Paupers. He has his own plot going on, so he doesn't get involved that much, but he does like his descendants and helps when he can without Hierarchy noticing.

If you're new here, then firstly meet Rezul, blonde man. He's a former MiB who has switched sides and is now with Cult of Ecstasy. And he is desperately trying to cover up his past.

Enter Lemuel, red-haired man. He's a Chorister (he was on second sketch here, actually). He does have a stereotypical pop-culture "inquisitor" theme to him, so yeah, he's a cold-blooded bastard. Lemuel also pretends to like his colleagues from other traditions, but privately despises everyone whose beliefs or lifestyle are "wrong" from his perspective. Which makes up pretty much all Mages in his vicinity.

As you can guess, he's not a fan of Cult of Ecstasy and their "sex, drugs and rock-and-roll" schtick (even through they are much more than that, but it's not like Lemuel has ever studied their ways). He's not a fan of Technocracy either (since while not being specifically anti-religious, Technocracy is pretty atheistic by itself).

So when a new Ecstatic with weird tech-savviness and mirrorshades appears in city seemingly out of nowhere, Lemuel is instantly suspicious. He figures out Rezul's backstory pretty fast, but he doesn't have any substantial proof to make Rezul a threat in eyes of other mages to justify acting against Rezul. So for now these two are locked in a perpetual mind-game, where Lemuel is seeking of a way to get rid of Rezul without staining his hands, his soul and, most importantly, his reputation; and Rezul, knowing full-well that Lemuel has figured him out, tries not to give him any real information to confirm his suspicions.