[DL] Harmonica o' Horror

[Evil Robot Shane From Another Dimension <wishkah@redbrick.dcu.ie>]

 Okay, with two of the posse members having shuffled off this mortal coil
 (well, three did, but one came back) during the last scenario in the
 campaign, I'm taking advantage of the fact that two people are making new
 characters at the same time to tie them together in an interesting way.
 So, we have two Union soldiers - Cody, who's a not-too-bright all-American
 Yankee, and Marvin, who's Cody's invisible friend except he's visible and
 corporeal (and he's a huckster).  Here's what Marvin's player wrote up as
 background...

 BEFORE

Marvin. There is Marvin, and that is all that matters. A friend.
A companion. Somebody to tell secrets you wouldn't tell to nobody.
Somebody who'd be there no matter what.

He is a simple person. Deperately loyal as a friend and companion
till forever, till he and Cody are as old as grampa, living their
simple lives in rocking chairs with their trusty shotguns, growing
old together, and mourning for whoever went first. He was and is
the perfect example of the best friend a boy could ever have. Marvin
was there when Cody had to hide under the verandah from pa. When
Cody fell and cut his knee, Marvin was there to get him to stand
up and hobble home. When Cody got his first kiss from a girl in
the old barn a few fields over, Marvin was right there in the next
haystack, just in case anything went wrong. Marvin is a friend.
Marvin is a companion.  Marvin is the guy who makes Cody feel
like he's worth something at all.

Marvin does not exist. He is a subconscious picture that Cody
created to allow him some sort of assertiveness, to give him some
modicum of self-confidence, to allow him to continue. He is a
manifestation of the most supportive friend Cody could ever have.
Cody has known him for as long as he can remember, and to him, 
Marvin is as real as the next person, the mental crutch given form 
from the subconscious, from the imagination, from the id.

It is pitifully easy to forget how we percieve reality. We percieve
it only as a combination of senses, and by what we have been thought
from birth as being 'real'. It is simply a jumble of sensory input
that somehow, or brains can translate into conscious thought and
action. If we percieve another person, it is because we believe
they are there.  If everybody who encounters that person can obtain
a sensory image of them, then they are percieved as 'real' by
classical science. A person as we know it consists of the mental
pictures of everyone who has percieved them. It is a delicate web,
where every person has strands of perception leading from themselves
to others, to others still, until sometimes, the strand wastes away into
nothing, due to conflicting information, confusion, memory loss, death.
When this happens, we encounter exceptions. Marvin is composed entirely 
of Cody's mental picture of him. His actual psyche is so weak,
that it allows Cody to manipulate his very personality, to mould
Marvin's existence to suit his childish needs.  This leaves a mere
plaything, an unrecognisable soul that is imprisoned inside the
mental whim of a young boy.  Not that Marvin seems to mind. He is
as real as any other person, after all. When Cody sleeps, Marvin
returns to the hunting grounds, his presence on earth no longer
relevant.  When Cody awakens, he is born to this world again, a
soul trapped in blissful aloofness, a small boy with the best friend
a boy could have, forever.


 AFTER

A soul is not tied to another in the web of consciousness. A soul
remains where it is, strands emanating from it to wherever they
need to. A soul cannot follow a young man, intent on joining up
with the Union army. A soul needs to take some drastic measures.

Perhaps it was not the best of ideas, after all. Sure, taking
corporeal form would solve the problem of staying with Cody, but
at what price? It was not the nicest of smiles the manitou had
given him, when he struck the deal on his soul. Just a case of
occasionally doing what the manitou says, and bingo, instant
corporeal form, right? Of course.

It has been several years now, since Marvin entered the real world,
as a living, breathing human. It has not been the easiest of times.
People can be downright annoying at times, and it was getting harder
and harder to get reassigned to the same units as Cody. Once or
twice, he thought he'd lost him, but always seemed to end up
stationed right beside him. Perhaps someone was watching, after
all. Still, he didn't care, he's got Cody. Best buds till the
end, right? He always wondered why Cody sometimes cringed when
he'd recite their old promise these days. Still, it means something.
It means more then a soul is worth. It means more then all the
souls he had sent back to that same manitou since he arrived here.

He has established himself as one of the finest shots with a
winchester the union army has, which is due to a good extent to
some little tricks he's picked up over the years, having contact
with the hunting grounds and all. Still, as long as it means he
can be with Cody, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that when
this existence ends, his soul belongs to the manitou? It doesn't
matter that he has to kill the odd person, or do the odd job for
him, right? It doesn't matter shit, so long as he's got Cody.
Best buds till the end, right?

Yeah, best buds till the end.



 Cool, huh?  Anyway, that's that.  In terms of mechanics, Marvin will always
 tend to be where Cody is, turning up even when the party has split and he's
 supposed to be with the other group.  Marvin will only exist as long as
 Cody believes in him, so he has to keep it very secret that he's not actually
 real.  Also, Marvin can't be killed unless Cody sees it happen.  If Cody
 were to think about it, he'd realise that he doesn't know Marvin's surname,
 or where Marvin lived (Marvin always tended to be over at Cody's house when
 they were kids) - but he's probably not bright enough to think of it.

 As a final point here, Cody's player has no idea about this.

 Anyway, Marvin's player bought the Belongin's edge at a level that I 
 judged to be enough to get him a nice copy of Hoyle's and have his
 harmonica have come with him from the Hunting Grounds and be a magical
 item of some sort.

 So the point of all this is, can anybody think of something cool for a
 harmonical relic to do?

 Wishkah

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