A step into the Twilight Zone....Southern Style

By Rev.K.

During an extremely bizarre game of Mage, I had one of the characters contacted by certain spiritual entities who were frightened by recent events and wanted to give the Characters some information. It was interesting enough that I thought Y’all get some use out of it.

The Abode:

A large blue green trailer ( a double wide at least with concrete reinforcement.) sets up the hill from middling sized yard. The driveway is took up with an old Chevy up on blocks waiting for the man of the house to get around to fixing it. As is typical, right around the area where this work is taking place there are patches of ground where the grass will never grow again. Strangely, the man of the house is never seen. The yard is littered with toys, a mangy yellow dog, and dog poop. Up closer to the trailer is an immaculately kept herb garden. There is a DSS dish on the roof and the property is bounded on three sides by ancient sycamore trees that reach high into the sky.

The Mailbox reads: "The Fates" in the same way that it might read "The Smiths" or "The Johnsons".

The Interior:

The House is a dazzling display of fake wood paneling and formica and linoleum. No chairs in the house match and every piece of furniture shows the kind of wear that only children can put on it. the floor is littered with toys although one never sees a child. The only thing that makes the house livable is that there is much that is hand-made. There is a latch hook rug on the floor. Knitted pillows on the sofa and doilies on every flat wood surface. The kitchen is large and brightly lit and perfectly clean. The television is always on and tuned to some talk show or soap opera. There is a large comfy chair with a nearby walker and there is an end table on one side which has sewing notions,a stack of tabloids,like the Enquirer and the Globe (heavily annotated) and a KJV Bible.(also heavily annotated.)

Carlene:

The youngest and the most energetic, Carlene can be very mercurial. By turns she is sweet,loving, lusty,sullen,and just plain rattlesnake mean. Carlene has got a tattoo,and a pierced lip and long dishwater blonde hair. She’s voluptuous in a sort of White-Trash way and she comes off like any dumb southern girl on the Jerry Springer show might. She is almost always in some stage of pregnancy. She will flirt with any decent looking male who crosses her path.

Carlene will take to anybody with a sense of humor or somebody who is less than serious. and you should be warned that no matter how dumb Carlene might appear...she is not. Underestimating her is a sure way to earn her enmity.

Lucy-Mae:

The Lady of the House. Lucy-Mae is kind of dowdy and is constantly working on some project around the place, much of the time, this involves cooking or canning preserves. Carlene is not allowed in the kitchen on pain of death and this often touches off arguments between them. Lucy’s hair is going grey and she hits the beauty parlor at least once a week. Her only bad habit is that she chain-smokes like a fiend while she goes about her tasks. Any character who ends up looking lost or at least not busy, will be put to work snapping green beans or peeling carrots.

Lucy-Mae will inevitably gravitate towards the person carrying around the most pain. The surest way to upset her is to clam up when she starts talking to you.Lucy-Mae has a lot of wisdom to share on many different topics but most inevitably lead back to relationships. Any body who thinks that they are going to be able to consult the Fates in this aspect without getting a home cooked dinner first is sorely mistaken and it is Lucy-Mae who insists that the Characters display patience and good manners first. If you’re told to set the table, By god you better do it.

Annabelle:

The Old lady of the House. She sits in her chair, drinks her iced tea,thumbs through her tabloids and watches the T.V. with one eye. pets the stinky dog, Knits, and does little else. Annabelle is very old and grey and has that old people smell to her. she is constantly chuckling to herself as if over some private joke. She only has the inclination to talk to those who talk seriously and even then she’s awful elliptical. Annabelle never gets mad at people in the house because she is beyond all that. the only time that a character will see her wrath is if they have incurred the wrath of the other two women. it is at this point that Annabelle stands up ,without her walker, and will look the character in the eye and tell them to leave. The character will get the unmistakable idea that to push any further is to invite some ineffable cataclysm.

Dinner:

Green beans,mashed potatoes,three bean salad, fried chicken, salt water cornbread, Vegetarians will be looked at as if they are some kind of freaks. Dinner also features an inevitable argument between Carlene and Lucy-Mae.(The topic is not important.) The Argument is a test of sorts, Characters who stay out of it or who make it worse will have difficulties later on. Those who try to heal the breach between the two women will earn Fate’s good impression. The fight usually ends with Carlene screaming "YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND ME!" at Lucy-Mae and stalking off into her room, slamming the door behind her. The players have exactly one hour to try to talk Lucy-Mae down and to appeal to Carlene to come out of her room. If they do not do this, Carlene will emerge from her room dressed as if she’s going out to some bar and will slam out the front door not to be seen again.

The Ritual:

After Dinner, at some point, Annabelle will say, "Well...Let’s get down to brass tacks. You headed all this way for a purpose didn’t you?"

The Characters will be lead out to the backyard which is strewn with the inevitable toys and has a large inflatable wading pool in the center. They will be offered a choice; either to see what destiny would have them see. or to ask 3 questions and see what is shown in answer.

Each fate must stir the wading pool with a sycamore stick. If Carlene is not present for whatever reason, the vision will be incomplete or the characters will only be able to ask 2 questions.

If you are exceptionally cruel,like myself, Have the dog jump into the wading pool at some inopportune moment only to get yelled at by everyone and then run off into the trees. The dog will be the ending of whatever visions there are to be had. If asked, Lucy-Mae will mutter about having to cleanse the pool for the full turn of a moon, Damnit.

Why:

Occasionally, the fates choose to manifest in many different ways. This is but one aspect of them, why do they change from face to face? One could make a case that it reflects the basic changeable nature of Woman who the Fates are symbolic of. but the truth is...it is really only for their private amusement. Fate enjoys testing those who would know it’s secrets and this is but one of it’s ways.