Actual Play - More Annalise: The Wake of Zenas Quantum

This time we're playing The Wake of Zenas Quantum. It's not very GOTHIC HORROR and a lot more... superheroes of questionable heroism doing questionable things.

I was a little unsure at first if the system could handle this, but once everyone got a feel for it and once we switched to more psychological play, it worked out. Instead of pupil-less eyes and drowned men crawling on the hulls of the ship, we have golden glitter, strange seductive scents, alien trinkets from Banner's homeworld..and donuts. There's kind of a homey, old-style American comics feel about it: alien trinkets and really special donut shops just have a vintage twentieth century feel. It's shaping up to be tragedy by way of the Silver Age, and the most monstrous thing so far is probably...well, honestly, us.

Isabella breaks and enters, but it's fine because she bought out the cops! Banner tried to steal from a journalist and kidnapped him (Isabella helped, and is really more concerned about the PR than the kidnapping). Barry covered up an accidental killing and then tried to take over the Heroic Agency. Kelly is the only one of us who is actually nice.

Everyone decided in the first scene that Zenas Quantum is the Vampire. The question, of course, is if it really is Zenas.

Zenas is plotting something in the background, but we're all too busy fighting each other. Barry's jealousy of Banner's heroism and superpowers motivated him to get Banner kicked out of the Heroic Agency. Isabella sort-of-accidentally gassed Banner with fear gas (someone replaced her tranquilizing gas system with fear gas!). Writing this made me realize that all the terrible things happen to Banner.

Also, all of this is building up to a fascinating...something. Why are there mirrors everywhere? What are the weird properties of Zenas's blood? Where's that seductive smell coming from? What does Banner's homeworld have to do with anything (and why was Zenas's blood inside a trinket from there?). What does the kitsune home/afterlife have to do with any of it?

And whatever the hell is going on with Zenas gloating in everyone's head?