comment: |
  Steampunk Feminist, looking for hell and/or whoever's on the throne
  of the world.

  Her name is actually "Catherly".

  * Plays for resources
  * Something personal about the PwoR being like hell?
  * More generally, be an explorer and do ALL the quests
  * Question: "Isn't there always something more to find?"
  ** She'll never be content with what she finds.
  ** do quests
  ** talk to people?
  ** Answer1: "I'll never know if I stop now."
  ** Answer2: "I explore for the looking, not the finding." or
     something more contradictory.
claimedby: Xavid
status: draft
stuff: |
  [[Actors]], [[ApocalypsePreventers]], 
  [[Lockpicking]], [[Dedicated]],
  [[InkSecret1]],
  [[Explorer]]
name: Ink Catherly
player: Ariel Segall
gender: m
contacts: |
  \MrsSchiff{Seems to run a lot of the logistics for the \Actors.  Seems
    to have been expecting you when you arrived.}
  \AirshipDude{Has \their own airship!  How cool is that?  Seems to be preoccupied
    with saving the world.}
  \PulpScientist{\AirshipDude{\first}'s friend.  Into science you don't really understand.}
  \IndianaJones{Someone who started talking to you when \they heard you're
    an explorer.  Has cool stories of exploring forgotten ruins, though you're
    not sure how relevant they are.}
  \CancerGirl{One of the other young ones with the troupe.  Keeps to \their 
    self and mostly just seems sad.}
body: |
  \cenquote{``Her name is Ink Catherly. Named for the color of her hair,
  she’ll tell you, and maybe that’s the truth.''}{The Legend of Ink Catherly}

  One morning, the sun wakes you up.  You're 12 years old.
  You go to your closet.  You find
  a tower and a journal.  The journal tells you that it is a tower to
  Hell, and that the author has recorded his journey.  The tower
  ascends up past the top of your closet, to the misty air above.
  You're an Explorer.  “Well,” you say. “Best go in.”

  \cenquote{``Her name is Ink Catherly. Named because she loves her books,
  she’ll tell you, and maybe that’s the truth.''}{The Legend of Ink
  Catherly}

  You pack sandwiches.  You climb.  At first the floors are empty.
  Then, you find all sorts of strange things.  An endless swarm of
  butterflies that fly out to carpet the stairs downwards.  The face
  of God.  Things have changed since the journal was written, but at
  first only in minor ways.

  \cenquote{``Her name is Ink Catherly. It’s short for Incandescent
  Universal Love Catherly,
  she’ll tell you, and maybe that’s the truth.''}{The Legend of Ink Catherly}

  You read the description of floor 62 as you go in. It reads:

  > Floor 62: I saw a creature made of mouths and sorrow.
  >    
  > “As fair warning,” the creature said, “Ink Catherly has certain
  > misconceptions regarding her nature and destiny, and these are going
  > to lead her astray. She cannot be trusted in such matters. If you wish
  > to understand her truths, you must watch the world around her. Those
  > fates that govern her life have taken the unusual course of arrogating
  > to her exactly what Ink Catherly deserves.
  >
  > “As for you, that is not so.”

  It’s weird to think that creatures made of mouths and sorrow were
  talking about you long before you came to the tower. It’s weird to
  think that you're so thoroughly wrong about yourself that random damned
  souls are getting a briefing on the subject. But what really bugs you
  is that here you are on floor 62 and the only tangible weird thing you
  can find is a can of Spaghetti-Os.  It is past its expiration date.

  \cenquote{``Her name is Ink Catherly. Ink’s short for Incorrigible,
  or so she’d like you to believe.''}{The Legend of Ink Catherly}

  The journal stops at floor 79. You continue.  After floor 93, you
  reach the top.  You can see the sky.  It is strange and beautiful.
  It is not Hell.

  You cry out to the sky, ``Why are things strange and beautiful, when I
  wish to be in Hell?''

  And a hole in the sky yawns wide; and it says to you, “I will let
  you pass through into the realm beyond; but such pain as you know
  there is at my sufferance, and of my possession.”

  You do not like the condition, but you go through; for it is your mission
  to explore.

  \cenquote{``Her name is Ink Catherly. It’s short for Incarnate
  Breath of the Void Catherly,
  she’ll tell you, and maybe that’s the truth.''}{The Legend of Ink Catherly}

  You find another room, with a door.  Then another.  They get
  stranger and stranger.  Fraying giants.  Manic spelling bees.
  Man-eating tigers.  Gogosauruses roaming amid cardboard cutouts.
  Jungles of horror and pain.  But each has an exit.  And having an
  exit, none is Hell.

  \cenquote{``Her name is Ink Catherly. Short for Incriminatory Evidence,
  she’ll tell you, and maybe that’s the truth.''}{The Legend of Ink Catherly}

  And then, you go through an exit.  Something is different here.
  You're in a tower again.  But it's not the tower in your closet.
  And you're on a stage.  And there's an audience, clapping.  You have
  a habit of blending in.  So, you bow.

  Later, backstage, \MrsSchiff{} congratulates you on your
  performance.  You seem to be an actor of some sort, here.  You try
  to act naturally.  You find acting the part of an actor to not be
  that hard.

  But you're not an actor.  You're an Explorer.  And so, you look for
  means of exploration.  \AirshipDude{\first{} has an airship.  You ask
  \them{} if you can join \their{} crew.  \They{} asks, ``And why
  would you want to do a thing like that?''  You reply,  ``I'm an
  explorer.  I'm looking for Hell.''  ``And what will you do when you
  find it?''  ``There's only one possible answer to that.''}

  \AirshipDude{\They{} seems to think that means you'll try to fix it.  That's
  the sort of thing that \their crew, the \ApocalypsePreventers{},
  does.  The Hell that can be ended is not the true Hell.  But you
  don't correct him, and he lets you join.  But \they{} seems to have
  stationed \them{}self here, and the acting continues.}

  But then, during a rehearsal for \AirshipDude{}'s play, you're alone on the
  airship deck.  An alarm goes off.  Lights flash.  You notice a
  red button.  It's labeled ``DO NOT PRESS''.  You see where the exit to
  the next floor must be.  And so you push it.

  And now you are here.  It's still not Hell.  But you're still an
  Explorer.  Explore.  Go everywhere you can go.  Find what there is
  to find.  And then, go through the exit.

  You already know where it is.  When you get here, there is this
  question, whispered in your ear.  ``**Isn't there always something
  more to find?**''  Somewhere, there is an answer that will let you
  continue.  And you will find it.  You are, after all, an explorer.

  == Goals ==

  * Explore as many Quests as possible.
  * Find the exit by answering your question.
  * Help put on Shows to blend in.
  * Work with the \ApocalypsePreventers, if it seems interesting or will
  help you explore.
  * Look for Hell.
username:
badgedesc: A Teenage \mf{Boy}{Girl} with a Backpack
number: <<parent.this />>
castinghint: |
  Your character is \name, an actor newly arrived in the Place
  without Recourse. You are a child and an explorer. It might be your
  fault that all the actors are here in the Place without
  Recourse. (But who could blame you? There was a big red button
  labeled "DO NOT PRESS" so of course you had to press it.)

  Costuming:\\
  Modern teenage explorer with backpack.

  Suggested reading:\\
  http://imago.hitherby.com/2004/03/the-tower/
wrapup: <<parent.this />>
CR: <<parent.this />>
password: <<parent.this />>
answers: |
  [[InkAnswer1]], [[InkAnswer2]]
email: ariels
