Are you indiginous Russian, or etnic Russian? I'm asking this because I'm confused. If the former, then I understand. It's a shame Russians killed a lot of those tribes (a lot went extinct). But if the later, then I don't understand. You are now not part of a group, culture, and country that doas not view women as people, is about only vailenc in every form of it (phisical, mental, emotional, sexual, ect).

I mean Russians view wife beating as a form of love to the point that women who abendond it, and got together with non Russian men, were questioning if they partners loved them dou to them not beating them. Just look at Russia's domastic vailenc statistics, or how they say "It's a family value" about it. Or how there are up and running websites there, where they dox people who live there and part of the Lgbtq community, in hopes that they will get killed for it. Or what are they doing in Ukraine, and in the countries they went to. In Georgia Russians are openly fetishes the locals, whaile taking resorces away from them. Ask people from Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, or from any country that Russia has a history with. They will tell you the truth, and that really nothing good, or usefull, or worthy come out of that country, that culture, and those people seince the Russian revolution.

Sorry if I sound rude, but I just don't get it, why someone would be proud of it, and call themself that.

I'm both. My mother is Russian & my father is Chuvash. I have never been ashamed of my Russian family & I never will be. Being ashamed of it & pretending it doesn't exist won't magically make the bad parts dissappear. I simultaneously have a deep love for Russia's rich culture & history while not ignoring the suffering & wrong that's happened along the way (& is still happening). Holding both truths at the same time is possible regardless if people believe it or not. In my humble opinion, holding both truths & acknowledging the ugly parts of one's history is necessary for genuine healing, progression & a complete sense of self. But of course, that doesn't mean we endorse those horrible things. We should use them as a blueprint to do better in the present & future. That's all any of us can do.

These days it seems like so many people can't see outside of this Black vs. White polarizing way of thinking. It honestly drives me insane.

There's not a single country that hasn't committed atrocities in it's past. There's not a single person alive who's ancestors haven't done some fucked up shit. Are you sending these types of messages to Japanese people? They were committing some pretty horrific war crimes back during ww2 like The Rape Of Nanjing. What about Germans? They were genociding Jews, Slavs & Romani. What about the Dutch? They killed a fuck ton of the Lenape people when founding New Amsterdam (now known as New York City). Wait what about the various tribes in Africa that have been at war with each other since time immemorial? Ever heard of the Volhynia Massacre where Ukrainians slaughtered & raped Poles? What about Turks? Mongolians? Chinese? Indians? Need I go on? Are all people everywhere supposed to hate themselves? Or is it just Russians who are expected to perform this masochistic self-flagellation to appease random people on the internet?

Take a long hard look at your own history before pointing fingers at others. You're bound to find a skeleton or 2 in your own closet that you're not proud of.

RIFT

RIFT is an obscure Discipline -- rare in the extreme, born of anguish & remorse, sharpened through tear-streaked centuries of nightly struggle against the most obscene appetites -- that allows practitioners of its weird, flagellant art-form to coalesce their Beast into a quasi-living, sentient Umbral Realm bound eternally to their shadow: a sprawling, labyrinthine nightmare-dimension.

Through this monstrous realm, the Damned may walk.

And in this place, other things -- ancient things, titanic, hungry and inhuman -- soar corpse-pale skies lit by rotting, pulsating black stars, and dive through creaking forests of twisted-iron atrocity rising from endless oceans of blood.

Rift is an updated Discipline designed for use with Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, inspired by content from A World of Darkness (First Edition, 1992).

Brought to you absolutely free to enjoy, to test & to share – as always – by the fine folks of my Patreon.

If you enjoy this content and would like to see more dark, modern horror game-material by the author, the Bloodlines & Black Magic Kickstarter is going on right now.

Hugest of thanks to John Miętus for his invaluable editing-assistance and development during the creation of this fan-content.

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HISTORY

In the long black centuries between the rise of the Baali from their cursed organ-pit and the ascendance of House Tremere to majestic undeath, it is known that Saulot performed innumerable private pilgrimages to far-flung, moonlit realms in an eternal, fruitless search for the enlightened state whispered of as Golconda.

Some occult scholars claim that, in desperation, the Antediluvian sat silently for several decades at the feet of Shinbutsu-shūgō masters, wreathed in holy incense, the toll of tsurigane and a coil of unending thirst: contemplating the infinite sins of his undying lineage, reflecting upon his Heaven-ordained duty to his Progenitor and seeking to divest himself of all worldly attachment.

If so, it is possible that his incalculable and fathomless meditations produced the first echo of what would come to be known in later millennia as Rift.

Whether this is truth or mere fabrication, students of esoteric history trace the first known demonstrations of the Rift Discipline to a nomadic brood of Malkavians calling themselves ‘Gaki’ -- or ‘Hungry Ghosts’ -- who hunted the Silk Road during the 8th century. These wandering, blood-drenched emperors of jade & dust claim to have been taught the technique by a wandering Far-Eastern mystic who bore a shining third eye upon his brow & spoke in koan-like riddles about the Ten-Thousand Hells awaiting the Children of Caine.

The Gaki Bloodline

Rumors persist that a true bloodline of Malkavians -- or Malkavian Antitribu -- eventually emerged from among the far-wandering Gaki coteries, and that the eerie bloodline persists into the modern nights; a minority of Gehenna researchers claim that a cabal of such creatures were active in Tokyo as recently as the 1970s, drifting silently through the long, smog-shrouded neon shadows of that vast metropolis in search of fresh-spilt blood.

If there is any truth to these claims, those of the Gaki Bloodline suffer the full Derangement weakness of their parent clan; in addition, their perceptions are twisted by their hunger: when a Gaki is down to a number of Blood Points lower than her Humanity or Path rating, her world fades into a sinister & ghostly sea of potential victims, immediate physical threats, drifting fog and the whispers of the kumonosu. During this time, she is unable to focus on any other input -- such as traffic lights, the distant sound of gunfire or whether she’s standing in an apartment, on the street or in a fetish-club -- unless she expends a point of Willpower to shake off the unreal cloak of her hallucinations for the remainder of the scene.

The Gaki possess the Bloodline Disciplines of Auspex, Obfuscate and Rift.

Elder members of the Bloodline are known to have traded extensively in ancient nights with far-voyaging Gangrel of the Silk Road, and often possess some combination of Animalism (for use in controlling the Beast), Fortitude (for use in surviving botched Courage rolls when evoking Rift) and Protean (for general use in traveling the winding paths of the world in safety).

Since that time, the Discipline has vanished and resurfaced repeatedly, passed from master to apprentice; in these Final Nights, it is as likely to be practiced by a Nosferatu neonate dwelling in the gutters beneath a methadone clinic as it is to be wielded by a salon of elder Toreador Antitrubu who make an art of their own grandiose self-destruction.

The technique is very quietly forbidden within the Camarilla, as a pair of recurring themes amongst those who practice the art-form are a fondness for Diablerie and a penchant for experimentation in Dark Thaumaturgy ... although knowledge of the art is also -- somewhat surprisingly -- kept in secret among several coteries of particularly puritanical Josian devil-hunters.

REQUIREMENTS

Rift may only be taught by another, more-experienced master of the art-form. It cannot be learned from demons, spirits or other non-Kindred tutors. It cannot be gained at Character Creation nor selected as a Caitiff Discipline or Additional Discipline (pg. 494) unless explicitly approved by the Storyteller.

Once a Kindred has a greater number of dots in Rift than she possesses in any other Discipline, she may thereafter instruct herself in the Discipline through meditation; after this time, she no longer requires a tutor.

A Kindred may only possess a total score in Rift equal to one half the total number of points of Humanity she has lost since her Embrace.

Thus, a Kindred may not gain her first dot of Rift until she has lost at least 2 points of Humanity. If she wishes to gain a second dot in Rift, she must have lost at least 4 points in Humanity.

An elder who wishes to gain her sixth dot in Rift must, therefore, have lost at least 12 points in Humanity over her long, blood-splattered unlife.

In addition, upon gaining her first dot in Rift, the practitioner of this art gains the Nightmares Flaw (pg 485). She gains no bonus points of any kind for accepting this Flaw. If she already possesses Nightmares, the novice practitioner of Rift must instead select another Mental Flaw -- such as Deep Sleeper or Lunacy -- as deemed appropriate by the Storyteller, representative of her new reality: each time she slumbers, she is pulled deep into her own Rift to experience the most grotesque of tortures at the hands of her Beast ... and all its victims.

Note that proficiency in Rift is in no way dependent upon a vampire’s current Humanity total: a vampire with a Humanity of 10 could freely learn & utilize five full dots worth of Rift, so long as she had lost at least 10 points of Humanity at some point in her past.

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PHILOSOPHY

Rift is, fundamentally, about grief & regret.

It is about falling into the Abyss. It is about witnessing yourself lose the grand, shadow-draped chess-match against your own ravening Beast in a slow, ugly war of attrition. It is about shame, sorrow & self-reproach. It is about confronting your own subconscious desire to be punished for your sins, watering this garden with blood, and allowing the tangled forest of self-hatred to grow wild, dark & unchecked. It is about accepting one’s own damnation and the personal hell that comes with it, facing-down your worst fear wrought in a storm of ash & flame, and dying -- torn into a thousand screaming fragments -- over and over and over again.

It is about what awaits you in the dark, whether at the end of another blood-slick night of terror or at the final, jagged end of a squandered immortality.

On the surface, of course, Rift is about bridging the world of flesh to the nightmare realm, dancing along the weirding way between them with a twist of will & blood, flaunting the crude, limited physics of this concrete universe.

And, up to a point, it is that as well.

For these reasons, tutoring a potential student in Rift is prohibitively difficult.

For one, it is near-impossible for an instructor to gauge how much torment their would-be apprentice has already endured. Has this supplicant to the power you wield already begun to feel her soul & sanity crumble, crawling her way back up with broken fingers from the awful precipice of the gaping, blood-slick pit?

Or is she a mere pretender to such evil?

If she has not yet begun to grow her own Rift & populate the personal hell that she will soon steal-into like a thief, how do you tell an apprentice “go now, and commit atrocities, that you might regret them later?”

How do you remind her that the Beast is ever hungry, that it feasts with cold delight in the deep blackness upon those who would seek to dance around it?

Most Kindred simply do not possess the temperament to master Rift, and it is all but unknown among those who walk a Path of Enlightenment.

SYSTEM

Much like Obfuscate, Rift requires no expenditure of Vitae to activate its power. It requires concentration and cannot be used in Frenzy.

In addition, it is -- in theory -- quite a subtle power, with few obvious effects visible to the outside observer.

Any use of Rift automatically causes all mundane and electronic recording equipment within line of sight of the practitioner to glitch-out for a split-second; a video-camera cannot capture an image of hell by training on the Damned, instead recording only a few frames of static & distortion.

However, a practitioner of the Discipline must always first attempt a Courage roll whenever she channels the nightmare of her own private damnation; attempting this roll does not require an action, and the Difficulty of this roll is always equal to 4 + the level of the Discipline power to be activated.

DECLARING INTENT

Whenever a Damned chooses to activate any ability of the Rift discipline, she must specify exactly what level of the Discipline she intends to use. She cannot, for example, activate Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge and then -- once within her Rift -- decide to activate Dance of Unstable Nightmares unless she immediately attempts an additional Courage roll.

If this roll is unsuccessful, one of the following three things occurs:

the ability fails, as the Damned -- at the last moment -- draws back in terror from the eternity of suffering she has built for herself, brick by blazing & razor-wreathed brick.

the Damned may expend a point of Willpower, forcing open the gateway between worlds through sheer desperation.

the roll is a Botch, which has special rules noted below.

If the practitioner chooses to force the power of her Rift upon the unsuspecting world in this way, the effects of her Discipline are Obscene, as noted below.

A practitioner of Rift may always choose to voluntarily fail her Courage roll (no roll required), expend her Willpower and unleash her Rift in a wave of Obscenity, if she so desires.

If the Courage roll is Botched, the practitioner is consumed in a wave of horror & nightmare-flame emanating from the Rift bound to her. This deals a number of levels of Aggravated damage equal to the level of the Discipline power to be activated.

This damage may be soaked as normal (via Fortitude).

This damage is additionally reduced by one level for each religious item or icon the Damned carries; these items are destroyed utterly when the raw power of her unleashed Rift tears through her: silver crosses are deformed into unrecognizable twists of tarnish & rust, wooden prayer-beads blaze for a single moment with unholy fire before being reduced to greasy ash, and earrings emblazoned with the Sacred Heart shatter into splinters of smoking ruin with a bitter scream and a waft of brimstone.

The Damned may carry a total number of such items or icons equal to her Humanity score. These items must be worn or carried for at least 24 hours before they may be sacrificed in this way.

Note that religious items carried by the practitioner of Rift must match the faith (if any) of the Damned: atheist Kindred cannot benefit from them at all, and most creatures cannot gain the benefits of both a Star of David and a Holy Rosary at the same time.

Members of the Gaki Bloodline, famously, were the exception to that rule: true Universal Polytheists, they adorned themselves with sacred items from every culture they encountered, practicing as many good-luck & purification rituals as they could learn in an eternal mania to ward-off evil.

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LEVEL ONE:

Echo of Hells: Upon activating this technique, the practitioner of Rift chooses any one creature who likewise suffers the hunger of an undying Beast; she may communicate silently with that individual for the remainder of the scene.

This creature must be within line-of-sight to the Damned for contact to be established (but see below).

All attempts to communicate with this creature are automatically successful unless the other Damned chooses to block such contact; a Howl of the Devil-Tiger Kuei-jin who speaks only Early Middle Japanese may choose to ignore the alien whispers of a Western undead channeling the screams of her Rift, but their communication otherwise surpasses all language barriers.

If the Damned chooses to communicate with a fellow practitioner of the Rift Discipline who is known intimately to her, this communication may be performed over any distance; she must know the name, face, scent, touch and taste of her partner before communication may be joined in this way.

This technique, at the Storyteller’s discretion, may be used to communicate with creatures including ghouls, as they are subject to Frenzy, as well as Black Spiral Dancers, Nephandi, Formori and Risen but it cannot -- for the most part -- otherwise be used to communicate with mortals.

Obscene: If this technique is unleashed as Obscene, all creatures within ten feet of the chosen target hear a cacophony of discordant & hideous whispers emanating from the target for as long as your communication lasts.

Unlike more potent gifts of this Discipline, mere exposure to this technique is not enough to harm flesh.

LEVEL TWO:

Unveil Damnation: By use of this technique, the practitioner of Rift may draw another into her shadow-realm of eternal agony, if only for a moment, forcing her target to bear witness to the vampire’s private hell ... and to endure, for the space of a mortal heartbeat, its myriad torments.

This is a fully-immersive psychic onslaught: the victim cannot avoid this experience by averting her eyes, nor by covering her ears and screaming, although many creatures will instinctively attempt to do so.

ON THE TEN-THOUSAND HELLS

It is known that each Rift opens upon a different realm of perfect suffering, each uniquely tailored by the Beast of the Damned to accentuate the fear, shame, violence, frustration, guilt, trauma and horror they have endured ... and perpetuated, returned onto them a thousand-fold.

Before a player may gain any levels in the Rift Discipline, she must be able to describe to her Storyteller the basic nature of her particular damnation: one might be a breathtakingly beautiful rain-drenched forest, with a different victim of the Damned crucified upon each tree, through which she is chased in nightmare by the flaming corpses of all those she has Diablerized; another Rift might open into an endless, boiling desert of black sand, pillars of salt, coils of rusted razor-wire and pits of jagged glass shards, watched-over eternally by seven hateful, cataract bio-luminescent spheres roiling across the bruise-colored sky in a chorus of screams.

A Storyteller should work closely with her player to help detail this realm, drawing from the character’s misdeeds, phobias and failures.

This ability functions identically to the Level 2 Presence ability Dread Gaze (see page 194) with the following adjustments:

The Damned rolls Perception + Awareness to determine her success with this ability rather than Charisma + Intimidation.

This is not a Presence ability and is thus not subject to defenses such as Pavis of Foul Presence (pg. 236).

The victim of this technique may immediately attempt a Perception + Empathy roll (Difficulty equal to the practitioner’s current Willpower). If this roll is successful, she gains deep insight into the Nature, Demeanor, psychology and morality of the Rift-practitioner; at Storyteller discretion, this may give the victim an advantage against the Damned in later scenes or allow her to predict the Rift-practitioner’s next move.

Obscene: If this technique is unleashed as Obscene, all creatures within ten feet of the intended target bear witness to the same flash of utter horror ... and are thus subject to the effect of the ability (although the Difficulty to terrify these additional targets is doubled from its base; the Damned rolls Perception + Awareness separately for each target). Each target, as normal, may attempt a Perception + Empathy roll to analyze the tormented inner psyche of the Rift-practitioner.

In addition, the initial target of this ability suffers one level of lethal damage from exposure to such horror; the Difficulty to soak this damage is equal to 2 + the level of the Discipline used (see below).

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LEVEL THREE:

Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge: By use of this technique, the Damned may depart the world and physically enter her own Rift, vanishing as she steps backwards into her own shadow.

The Damned is invisible & intangible while hidden within her Rift, but she may be observed as an eerie, discolored silhouette in empty space by any outside observer scanning the area with Auspex or a similar supernatural perception ability.

She may only carry clothing, keepsakes, one-handed weapons and other small personal items with her when she steps into her Rift in this way; she may not carry other creatures with her, nor anything that requires more than one hand to hold. Any object too large, heavy or bulky to be carried across (subject to Storyteller discretion) is simply dropped at her feet in the world of the living when the Damned steps into her own Rift in this way.

Experienced practitioners of Rift can often instinctively guess what objects are too large to be carried across in this way, and are rarely surprised at being stripped of their held possessions when evoking this technique.

The Damned may choose to leave items within the realm of her private hell and retrieve them later.

At the conclusion of each turn spent in her personal hell, the Damned must succeed at a Courage roll with a Difficulty equal to her Conscience. Upon failing this roll, she returns to the night-lit world of the living. She may always choose to return of her own volition before failing this roll. Returning from her private hell does not require an action.

The Damned is always aware of what occurs directly on the other side of the veil between worlds -- in the space she previously occupied -- and may gaze out of her personal hell to observe the world beyond without any roll.

The Damned always returns to the living world in the same spot from which she departed, stepping back into the space she previously occupied.

Obscene: If this technique is unleashed as Obscene, the depths of the practitioner’s personal hell are briefly visible for all to see as the Damned steps backwards; all creatures who witness the Damned vanish are subject to the Obscene version of the Level 2 Rift ability Unveil Damnation, as above. In addition, the Damned leaves residue from her private hell on all surfaces with which she was in-contact when this technique is activated, potentially marking the floor upon which she stood with foul rain-water, drifts of ashen rust or tiny shards of gore-caked bone, glass and ceramic tile.

The practitioner of Rift may choose a single target within her line of sight when she uses this Unveil Damnation ability to be the initial or “intended” target of the ability. She must stare directly at that single target when this technique is activated.

LEVEL FOUR:

Dance of Unstable Nightmares: When the Damned exits her Rift, she may choose to reappear in any place in the living world that she can see clearly.

Thus, she might return to the world standing atop a building visible from her previous location, but not on the other side of a locked door.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above, except that the Damned additionally brings residue from her private hell with her when she exits that hideous realm, marking her passage in two places.

LEVEL FIVE:

Call-Forth the Majestic Nightmare: When the Damned enters her Rift, an entity from deep within her Rift is pulled into the night-lit world of the living; this creature immediately occupies the space vacated by the Rift-practitioner.

This entity is the true Beast of the Damned made manifest in flesh. Its specific appearance is left to the player and her Storyteller to decide, although it is always visually identifiable as -- at least in some way -- similar to the Damned who summoned it up from her personal Wheel of Punishment. It also bears an uncanny resemblance to any creature diablerized by the Rift-practitioner.

The entity possesses statistics identical to the Damned, with the following differences:

The entity is always in Frenzy and has a Humanity of 0. If the entity ever leaves Frenzy, it immediately vanishes.

The entity gains all the benefits of Black Metamorphosis (pg 189), Horrid Form (pg. 242), The Form of the Cobra (pg. 210) or a similar physical enhancement effect (such as the Fractura ability of Striga), as chosen by the Storyteller.

The entity is not bound in any way to creatures who hold a Blood Bond over the Damned, nor is it subject to similar emotional restraint or control (as adjudicated by the Storyteller).

The entity will preferentially target anything it sees as a threat to the Damned that created it, and will always attempt to murder anything that attacks it.

Once its safety is secured, the entity turns its abhorrent attentions to the living world. The entity hates the practitioner of Rift who called it forth and seeks to cripple & disfigure all that the Damned holds dear, targeting allies & friends of the Damned if it is able (although it does not attempt to destroy them outright).

In any instance, the entity revels in utter destruction.

When the practitioner of Rift returns to the world, the entity vanishes.

Any blood consumed by the entity is wasted when it vanishes.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above, except that the nightmare entity constantly drips (or sheds) matter from the depths of the practitioner’s private hell, leaving a trail of horror as it rampages.

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Cross the Nightmare Bridge: When the Damned chooses to enter her own Rift, as per the Level 3 technique of this Discipline, she may remain within that nightmare realm for an indefinite period of time (no Courage roll required). She must slumber, as normal, when sunlight falls on the living world beyond, and her thirst grows nightly: there is no blood to drink within the confines of her hell.

If the Damned falls into torpor while beyond the borders of her Rift, she falls backwards out of her own shadow and returns physically to the living world.

She is otherwise free to explore the boundless realm of her eternal damnation as she pleases.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

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DEVELOPER’S NOTE:

Unlike the majority of Disciplines, Rift allows access to two distinct Level 5 powers. Access to these two different abilities is treated identically to Elder Disciplines such as Karmic Sight and Mirror Reflexes (pg. 140-141).

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LEVEL SIX:

Distend & Evacuate the Nightmare Hoard: By use of this technique, the Damned may deposit any inanimate object held in-hand into her Rift; the object seemingly vanishes, like a card disappearing in a display of slight-of-hand. Only an object that might be transported via Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge may be relocated into the depths of a private hell in this way.

The Damned may likewise draw-forth any object deposited into her private hell.

Obscene: If this technique is unleashed as Obscene, the item enters or exits the Rift in a wave of unhealthy matter from the depths of nightmare, dripping bits of a private hell into the waking world. An item drawn from the Rift in an Obscene way radiates palpable, toxic waves of this energy, and deals 1 level of Lethal damage to any creature (except the Damned) touching it within the next minute. The Difficulty to soak this damage is equal to 2 + the level of the Discipline used (see below).

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Sinister Winds of Unstable Nightmare: By use of this technique, the Damned may choose to deposit any waking-world object held within her private hell in a location she can see. Targeting a particularly specific location with the object -- such as ‘the small space between my opponent’s glasses and his eyes’ -- when the object emerges requires a Perception + Occult roll, Difficulty 7.

Obscene: As Distend & Evacuate the Nightmare Hoard, above.

LEVEL SEVEN:

Covetous Eyes of the Nightmare Thief: By use of this technique, the Damned may deposit any unattended inanimate object within her line of sight into her Rift. Only an object that might be transported via Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge may be relocated into the depths of a private hell in this way.

Obscene: As Distend & Evacuate the Nightmare Hoard, above.

Doorway Out of Hell: By use of this technique, the Damned may establish a permanent physical exit from her Rift into the living world, usable only by her. This portal requires only a moment to establish: the Damned must touch an open, bounded doorway or archway of any kind -- such as a torii gate or a closet door in the home of her ghoul -- and expend a permanent Willpower. The Damned may always choose to exit her Rift through this doorway, rather than returning to the world at the spot she entered her private hell, or at a point in space within line of sight (as per Dance of Unstable Nightmares).

This doorway may not be used to enter the Rift.

The Damned may posses a total number of doorways out of her Rift equal to her Humanity or Path rating. The Damned may dismiss any doorway she has created at any time, from any location, without effort.

Obscene: If this technique is enacted as Obscene, the enchanted doorway leaks hideous drifts of matter & energy from the depths of the practitioner’s personal hell; this miasma marks the area around the doorway, twisting the local environment into something eerie, nightmarish and haunted. Any living creature that dwells within the area surrounding the doorway must succeed at a Willpower roll (Difficulty 7) at the end of each 24 hour period or gain a temporary Derangement; these Derangements stack. All Derangements gained in this way fade when the mortal spends at least 24 hours outside of the environment surrounding the doorway. If this Willpower roll is botched, the Derangement is permanent.

LEVEL EIGHT:

Pull of Nightmare: By use of this technique, the Damned can forcibly draw an unwilling creature into her Rift as she enters; the Damned must first touch the target, requiring a Dexterity + Athletics or Brawl roll if this action is performed in combat. A creature touched by the practitioner when she steps into her own nightmare realm may oppose this pull with a Willpower roll (Difficulty 7); her successes are opposed by the practitioner’s Manipulation + Brawl roll (Difficulty equal to the target’s Humanity or Path rating + 2).

A creature pulled into the practitioner’s Rift in this way is immediately exposed to the effects of a targeted Unveil Damnation; she can attempt to push herself out of the Rift (Willpower roll, Difficulty 6) at the end of each round spent within the nightmare realm. The Difficulty of this Willpower roll decreases by one at the end of each round. If the victim botches a Willpower roll of this type, she gains a permanent Derangement.

The victim is otherwise trapped in a hostile alien environment, alone with the Rift-practitioner. The victim is not aware of what occurs on the other side of the veil between worlds and cannot gaze out of hell to observe the world beyond.

If the Damned chooses to exit her private hell, the victim is immediately shunted back the world of the living. The Damned may choose to deposit the victim in any legal location for her to exit the Rift: she might dump the victim through a Doorway Out of Hell or in any location visible from her current position.

The Damned may choose to exit the Rift in a different location, and she may choose to send her victim back early at any time as a free action.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

Fling Wide the Embrace of Hell: By use of this technique, the Damned may allow a willing entity access to her private hell. She must expend a point of Willpower while touching her ally; the two may then enter her Rift together. A creature pulled into the practitioner’s Rift in this way is immediately exposed to the effects of a targeted Unveil Damnation.

The Damned may choose, when she returns to the living world, to leave her ally behind -- within the Rift -- for any length of time, although the nightmare realm does not contain the necessary resources to sustain life: it lacks potable water and edible food, among other amenities.

A living creature held in the Rift must succeed at a Willpower roll (Difficulty 7) at the end of each 24 hour period or gain a temporary Derangement; these Derangements stack. All Derangements gained in this way fade when the mortal spends at least 24 hours outside of the Rift. If this Willpower roll is botched, the Derangement is instead permanent.

A creature brought into the Rift can only be subsequently removed from the Rift by the Damned who brought her in; the visitor must be touching the Damned when the Rift-practitioner exits back to the living world.

The Damned may have a total number of visitors dwelling within her Rift equal to her Humanity or Path rating.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

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LEVEL NINE:

Imprison Within Eternal Nightmare: Whenever the Damned successfully draws a target into her private hell via Pull of Nightmare, the effect is permanent: the victim does not automatically exit the nightmare-realm when the Damned returns to the world of the living, nor does she receive any additional Willpower rolls to push herself free.

The victim may only exit the Rift when the Damned chooses to release her.

Rumors persist, of course, of powerful rescue-parties successfully invading the Rift of a Methuselah, but these tales are likely just that: mere legend.

The Damned may have a total number of prisoners caught within her Rift equal to her Humanity or Path rating.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

Manifest the Atrocity-Leviathan: The Rift of a true ancient is vast, containing multitudinous continents of horrors, hung like pulsating iridescent tumors in an ever-shifting constellation of depravity, sadism and self-hatred, laced-through with vast coils of razor-wire & city-sized shards of ichor-drenched obsidian.

Things -- unholy and undying things, born under no sane stars, armored and adorned with horrid & fleshy scribbles of frothing-mad blasphemies -- begin to breed in the shadowed places beneath that kaleidoscope of rotting, rust-caked punishment-houses. By means of this technique, such a monstrosity may be briefly loosed upon the living world.

This ability functions identically to Call Forth the Majestic Nightmare except that the entity summoned-up, rather than possessing statistics identical to the Damned, is something more terrible still.

It is left to the Storyteller’s discretion as to what terror of flesh or spirit could possibly prove more dangerous than an insane 4th-Generation vampire backed into a corner, but the Storyteller is advised to use her most wicked imagination in crafting such a cataclysm ... and not to shy away from true cosmic horror.

Obscene: As Step Upon the Nightmare Bridge, above.

Rift is an updated Discipline designed for use with Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, inspired by content from A World of Darkness (First Edition, 1992).

Brought to you absolutely free to enjoy, to test & to share – as always – by the fine folks of my Patreon.

If you enjoy this content and would like to see more dark, modern horror game-material by the author, the Bloodlines & Black Magic Kickstarter is going on right now.

Hugest of thanks to John Miętus for his invaluable editing-assistance and development during the creation of this fan-content.

The Investment of an Antagonist - Part Two

Entry 04 continued. [Trigger warning content: post contains discussion of Far Cry 5 details for the main villains including graphic violence, brainwashing, torture, child abuse mention, neglect, dark backstories, swearing, mention of self harm/religiously-themed-self-harm, drug use, etc. Spoilers naturally, for both Far Cry 5 and Far Cry New Dawn. Part 02 of 03.] [Link to part one here.] [Link to part three here.]

— Joseph —

Proceeding chronologically by descending age, we next have Joseph, the middle child of the lot. It can be interpreted that he mirrors his own trauma with the Voice being Utterly Unhelpful over the course of his entire life aside from telling him about the Collapse and such. He shows up in one of each of the Heralds’ individual series of scenes, primarily to address the Deputy to tell them about their supposed choice/sacrifice/gift/etc laid before them, watching but not helping to stop the suffering of the unwilling prisoners as Hudson mentions when you first find her in the bunker after defeating John. A transcription of Hudson’s relevant dialogue during The Quality of Mercy mission to get her and other prisoners out of the bunker post-John-boss-fight:

“All...all because of him! Him. That fucking...fucking piece of shit!” [throws the picture of Joseph on the ground, shattering the glass in the frame. Crouching over it, continues,] “He would come down here and he would just stand there...and watch. We were begging for mercy and he would just...fucking...watch.” [trails off into despairing laughter.] Joseph, just watching Hudson and others be tortured and tormented, instead of stepping in to help. In the idea consideration of the Seeds all inflicting similar suffering upon the unwilling victims, this would potentially parallel the scene where Joseph heard the Voice later on in life while being mugged—and further beaten up for not having any money on him. While being mugged he grew angry at the Voice, blaming it for all his troubles. Then the Voice spoke to him again, and Joseph had his revelation, the clarity of “purpose” that came from the vision of the Collapse, and what ultimately led him to becoming the Father. In the blaming of the Voice for everything that’s gone wrong in his own life, Joseph could be mirroring that perceived chain of responsibility with permitting the Heralds to take some people and kill others, mirroring the death of his wife. Mirroring the perception that all is according to what Joseph perceives as God’s plan, and thus those the Project takes are meant to live, per their own creed, and by “divinely” granted right to decide, as granted by Joseph from the Voice, and granted to the Heralds by Joseph. As Joseph said in the second scene with Jacob, “The Lord gives...and the Lord takes.” So too could that parallel in meaning with the Project (the Father) gives, and the Project (and so too the Father) takes. His darkest action in his backstory might also be echoed in how he permits the Project members to murder and torment the various people of Hope County in an echo of Joseph’s perception of the seeming randomness still attributed to “a divine plan” that ends some lives and spares others. His permitting of the atrocities against the civilians of the county feeds very well into the other Seeds’ behaviors, and that of their followers in allowing them to behave in a chaotic but in his eyes purposeful way. Perhaps Joseph’s line about “returning to the angels we once were,” includes a great deal of darkness, destruction and violence in the nature of angels in his vision of his utopic garden. Perhaps it is relabeling the grotesque actions of the Project as just and right because of divine mandate, the way the Judge is broken and brainwashed to believe come the time of Far Cry New Dawn. Transcribed from A Scribbled Note found in the bunker while seeking Joseph’s book in FCND: You know. You know best. God tells you. If I listen to you, it’s good, and right, and I can help, and I can save people, and make it right, and everything will be okay. If I judge as your judge the judgement is right and just, the judgement is God’s Word. I see now. I am so sorry. Please give me a mask I am afraid. No one can know me. Please let me be reborn like the world, cleansed of all sin and new, and I will fight to cleanse the sin. Thank you Joseph thank you Father. But as we see in the end, and in meeting Joseph for the first time in the flesh in FCND as the Captain, Joseph admits to being wrong. In the end he crumbles as his belief in all of the suffering being worthwhile and for a greater purpose is brought to ruin with the betrayal from his own blood, and the burning of New Eden. He had gone so far to try to be right, that to be wrong was his undoing because it meant he had done evil for no reason other than a misleading belief of his, whether or not the Voice spoke to him at all. Leaving him alive to scream at the unresponsive Voice once more brings him full circle, emphasizing his initial traumatic theme, among other possible themes such as the fate of Cain for kin slaying to wander the earth thereafter, marked so that no one can harm him both for slaying his brother Abel, and for not asking God for forgiveness or seeking absolution for his sins—in Joseph’s case, not asking for God to forgive him due to the cardinal sin of believing himself to be beyond forgiveness. Sparing him is in a way a final slap in the face for Joseph thematically speaking by emphasizing that he is wrong about what justice is, his interpretation of “God’s word,” and more or less everything he’s believed up to that point. (No shade thrown at anyone who shoots him though, the game presents you with a choice and it’s valid to pick either one.)

— John —

So thematically speaking, both John and Faith I would posit are more straight forward in their parallels within this particular discussion compared to the two elder Seed brothers. As he narrates to us the viewers, the Deputy, and Hudson during the Confession scene, John’s method is drawn directly from the torture and torment that his adopted parents the Duncans inflicted upon him when he was young. From their fixation on seeking out sin in a young John, we get the Confession John demands of his followers. The torment and pain that goes into that is once again John inflicting the pain he went through to get people to the same moment of clarity his siblings all achieved through suffering. “I wasn’t scared, I was...clear.” As John puts it in the Confession scene. All of the Seeds could be said to be trying to impart that moment of “understanding” their point of view thusly. John’s probably the most openly and morbidly enthusiastic about the matter, speaking about it most directly out of the four.

This would tie in nicely with the “we love you and we will take you” and the “In the end you will thank us” slogans and graffiti we see here and there, including in John’s bunker. Both are very aggressive and unhealthy potential echoes of the Duncans adopting John and “teaching him the power of Yes” (ie beating the tar out of him and not giving him the option to say “no” with said option being respected.) The flaying may have come about as an evolution from self flagellation/whipping/flogging in order to earn the Duncans’ approval—which also potentially feeds into the possibility of John having some scars on his back and perhaps other locations on his body, such as the shoulders. After the Duncans died (through either natural or unnatural means depending on your headcanon), John either started or was already living a rock n’ roll lifestyle. Further speculation of themes and underlying motivations for John could include the following: Was he ashamed of his scars, as part of his self-loathing that’s mentioned in the Book of Joseph? Perhaps part of the rock and roll life style was that if he and his partner(s) were all high, maybe no one would notice or comment on them. It would also feed into living the lie of being “John Duncan” as John and Joseph may have seen it. Perhaps he was ashamed that his skin bore such obvious marks of his suffering, inflicted by his own hand and by the Duncans in one way or another. Perhaps transcending that shame is part of his whole “courage” trip. Perhaps that’s why he likes to scar and flay others, so that he’s not the only one with the marks. Maybe it makes him feel more “normal” by inflicting his version of normalcy on others to make it a more widespread experience—though that can be said of all the Seed family. For John in particular though, Sloth could be said to be his original sin in the sense of spiritual abandonment of self-cultivation, healing from his trauma, etc in running from his self-hatred and how his past overshadows his present day reality into the foreseeable future, but perhaps Joseph meant a different one rather than Sloth when he spoke to John at the Baptism scene. Perhaps it is Envy. Envy of the people who have not yet truly, deeply suffered through his idea of torment for their “actual” sins as he perceives sin. Envy of the people who won’t know the suffering and torment he endured for false sins—the ones who don’t “understand.” Envy of the people who don’t “care” about these matters that have shaped his entire world view and life whether he wanted them to or not—echoed in how he also inflicts them on people, willingly or not. That could feed into Wrath by inflicting harm on others, too, for added sinning-points. But that could feed right back into his supposed original sin of Sloth in the spiritual sense, since it could be said he’s seeking to change the world in a harmful fashion instead of seeking how to induce positive change in his own attitude from within. Which really just makes Joseph seem like he’s giving cryptic mystic-on-a-mountain-stereotype advice of “don’t take the dark path young padawan” instead of reining John’s activities in and actually telling John how to fix it...which mirrors Joseph’s relationship with the Voice again, and how the Voice effectively does not seem to offer moral guidance when Joseph goes full ham with the cult’s actions, pre-Reaping, during the Reaping, and after. Then we have Joseph’s recorded phone message to John, left at the Seed Ranch outpost: “After all the atonements, all the confessions, all that you’ve done for me and Eden’s Gate, it’s not enough, is it John? Cast away your past. You need to open up your heart. You need to see that there is more love all around you. All the pain and suffering you spread will not help us in the long run. These actions will only feed the sin inside you. It will grow stronger,  it will convince you to do wicked things. Those you scar too deeply, they will heal. They will become the carriers of your sin. They will spread that sin to others. I’ve seen your death in a vision. You are destined to be slayed by your own sin. It will come back around in a new form. It’s only a matter of when. I’ve seen you die young. I’ve seen you die old. The difference between the two outcomes is how much love you let into your heart. I want to see you become an old man in the paradise we prepared for. I love you brother. I love you.” One other thing Joseph points out in his phone message he sent to John is “Those you scar too deeply, they will heal. They will become carriers of your sin,” which very much echoes John becoming the abuser, as the Duncans were to him. Most ironically would be that Joseph’s lines are also applicable to Joseph’s own self with this possible interpretation of thematic motive and choices, among other interpretations. This also is likely sending mixed messages despite Joseph’s words being more positively-tagged in the words of brotherly love and all that, if Joseph’s idea of morality is skewed via labeling as stated above. I personally find this message and Joseph’s...inaction as the cult leader to be very conflicting. On the one hand, it sounds like a clear acknowledgement that Joseph is aware that morally, John’s actions are fucked up, dark, and bad objectively. This would easily be extended to Joseph also understanding that all of the dark things the Heralds do are indeed dark and fucked up, since he is arguably very aware of what all the Heralds are up to. So if he knows, why does he do nothing to stop or to guide the Project and its Heralds onto a better path? It could be a messy nuance that he knows it is wrong, but doesn’t know how to do better as of yet in the actual mechanics of the situation while still achieving their goals. Not having a better answer, as it were, despite knowing logically there must be a better way. But conflicting as it may be, it does fit if Joseph is perhaps unconsciously choosing to act as “the Voice” metaphorically (and literally) to the Heralds and his followers. Basically, “you’re doing it wrong, go do it right” without really giving clear orders tailored-to-the-individual’s-psychology as to how, so as to get them to successfully want and start moving past their trauma. They have all internalized and recreated their past suffering, so...Joseph telling John to cast away his past is both hypocritical and ultimately unhelpfully vague in this interpretation of them. Another potential additional theme for John is that his actions may tie back to his past as an addict—presuming he’s largely off of all the more heavy hitting addictive substances and has curtailed the obvious overindulgence-behaviors (but may still drink in more restrained fashion, iirc I think he had alcohol in the form of whiskey at the Seed Ranch? Weed isn’t being counted in this case,) it might be that underneath it all he’s still got those base patterns of high-chasing from his addictions but in a new form. Another possible option that Joseph is referring to as John’s sin is rather his continued addiction behaviors, via the “it’s not enough, is it John?” noted earlier in the phone call message. That line from Joseph could be interpreted as noting how chasing highs can be an essentially endless pursuit with no real clear ending, where there’s no such thing as enough. This would fall neatly into Sloth within the theme John has for classifying people’s sins. In this case, it could be the new addiction to getting people to say Yes. An addiction to the thrill of victory, of learning things about others that no one else knows about—a power trip. The sheer exhilaration John has with getting that Yes from Nick, and flaying the man? The way he needs a moment to clean up and catch his breath before moving on to the Deputy’s Atonement (it’s also great pacing for the scene imo.) The way John says Wrath is the Deputy’s sin? Maybe Wrath for John is one of the most addicting highs of the sins, anger and violence fueled by the adrenaline rush and power over others’ lives, to end them as the Deputy so chooses. As John says shortly after the Deputy escaping the bunker in the Confession sequence, "Your sin consumes you. Blinds you to all the harm you inflict. It allows you to dispense of human life so easily. Have you ever given so much as a second thought to killing?” Combining that with John‘s earlier comment during the Confession:  “But it was Joseph who showed me just how selfish I was being. Always receiving. Always taking. The best gift isn’t the one you get, it’s the one you give, and giving takes courage. The courage to own your sin. To etch it on to your flesh and carry its burden and when you have endured—when you have truly begun to atone—to cut it out like a cancer and display it for all to see. My God that’s courage.” It could be interpreted that John is projecting his addictive tendencies onto the Deputy, an addiction to Wrath as it were. To killing. To violence. Addicted, without consideration of the people it hurts, much like how more severe addiction cases might drive a person to partake in similar veins of behaviors with violence, theft, etc (but obviously less high in the body count department since this is an FPS game.) Perhaps John’s world view also includes seeing all people outside the Project as being addicted to their sins. Perhaps what John thinks as owning his sin is to admit to his addictive tendencies and trying to turn it towards purposes that are “for the good of the Project and others.” Joseph apparently doesn’t agree, and could indeed be looking at it as John still chasing the newest high in another form as theorized earlier. Maybe Joseph recognizes some form of John’s behavior from his time working at a psychiatric hospital—that’d be dark, now wouldn’t it. A possibility though, mayhap. Of course there’s also the option of “Why not both” interpretations of the Envy and Sloth ideas, to add even more nuanced layers to John’s motivations. Whichever it is of those options in this particular examination, it does all tie in to John repeating his experiences as a theme for how he brainwashes and tortures people in his indoctrination process. It is perhaps a tad ironic that John might still have underlying themes of addiction though, given that Faith’s method of brainwashing is very heavily drug-based with the Bliss, with a hearty heaping addition of emotional manipulation. Perhaps that’s part of a possible motivation of John not liking Faith much given the little dig he has for her via the line also during the Confession mission, “In the east...well. Let’s just say too much Bliss can go to one’s head. Faith created her “Angels” but she never did treat them all that well...” This line is certainly part of the basis forming John’s animosity in A Cold and Broken Hallelujah towards Faith. If anything, it creates a very interesting line of contrast between John and Faith, and perhaps it is a matter of John hating something about Faith that he hates about himself. [Link to part one here.] [Link to part three here.]

Her soul is a plaything: a fragile, mutable wisp of light, so very small and insignificant. He dissects it with care, laying out every facet of her identity for his perusal. So very, very careful to avoid permanent damage. Every piece will go back where it belongs when he is done.

(Cut for length, and for content: torture, mind control, abuse)

She quivers beneath his hands. The vivisection itself writes fresh agony across the spool of her experience. He can excise that later, if he does not like the effect it has on her psyche. It’s so very easy to rewrite her. A rearrangement here, an inserted thought there. He could strengthen her weave with warpstuff if he so chose, make of her something more resilient, more like himself. He values her as her, of course. But what are the boundaries of identity, really? What version of her would be most satisfying? He plays.

She kneels at the daemon’s side, head low and shoulders slumped. Her despair on display for all to see. She fought, and fought, and fighting gained her nothing but pain and misery and eventually she stopped fighting because there is no point. She will never escape.

She is a mute toy, a dress-up doll, decorated with finery and displayed as an ornament. Psychic puppet-strings keep her posture elegant, bob her head and lift her hands to wave at favoured cultists. Sometimes she is permitted the use of her own body, so long as she keeps smiling and doesn’t try to flee or fight or scream for help

She walks among the scum and they flinch from her gaze. Their fear is a potent, heady intoxicant. She could have any one of them flayed. She could have any one of them elevated to heights beyond their wildest dreams. She smirks, catching the arm of a cringing cultist, and makes him look up at her. His fear is mingled with awe at having caught her attention. Power is sweet.

She sobs in her chains, flinching away from the knife in his hand. She’s always known that she would break like any other, after suffering enough. “I give up,” she sobs brokenly, “You win, I’ll do what you want.” “Beg me,” he teases. The razor draws stinging lines across her skin. It’s barely pain. But it is a promise of worse to come. “No more,” she pleads, “Please, please no more.” The words come easier than she would have expected. Pride seems like a petty thing now when all she wants is not to hurt any more. “I give up, please, you win.” “I don’t care,” he purrs. “You don’t get a say in this, Interrogator.  I won long ago. Scream for me.”

She wakes slumped against the door, head ringing. The circle is burnt out. Another failure. Perhaps she should give up on this, and take what she’s learned so far to Evelyn. They need every scrap of intelligence they can get... She picks herself up off the floor. Maybe it’s time to abandon this obsession. She needs to be on top of her game. Time to take a shower, clean up, and get back to work. And deep inside her, the seed of corruption slumbers, just waiting for a psychic whisper to awaken it.

Tacitus’ touch is bliss, an ecstasy such as she never imagined could exist. Nothing else compares. When it’s absent, she can think of nothing else. Her body shakes with longing. Her thoughts turn ever back to it. There seems to be nothing she wouldn’t do for another touch. No atrocity beyond her, no blasphemy too terrible. The shame and the guilt eat at her... but his touch can brush those away. She can feel good again. So she drags the evidence of her corruption obediently before him and hopes desperately for approval. She will grovel on her belly if need be, and push her head into his hand like a pet seeking attention. The humiliation won’t matter once the bliss kicks in.

She is a trophy. Chained and pinned and exposed to the jeering masses, unable to escape their abuse. Fell magic heals her wounds before they can kill her, and keeps her from the mercy of unconsciousness. Theirs is a cruelty born of vengeance, and knows no limits.

She is a favourite and she lives a life of luxury. She has everything she could want but her freedom. And she hates it. She rejects Tacitus’ blasphemous nature. But she has no options. No way to escape, or lash out. And as the months slip by, the urgency fades... despite her resistance, life has never been so good.

The golden light of glory is unmistakable. She knows with every fibre of her being that this is the work of the God Emperor. Tears flow freely as the light fills her with warmth and beauty. She is forgiven. She prostrates herself before the glory of the divine, and weeps with gratitude.

She thought she knew pain, but the depths of agony possible go far, far beyond anything her mind could have imagined. Every millimetre of flesh - or at least the soulstuff that she cannot help but perceive as flesh - is pierced through with a dozen razor-edged microfilaments. Her blood is awash with venom. Her skin blisters. Every twitch, every thought, every involuntary spasm somehow impossibly redoubles the pain. She is nothing but suffering, and it goes on and on and on without end or reprieve.

She hangs in nothingness, utterly helpless and exposed. Gasping with relief to be free of the last vision, filled with dread at what the next might bring. ~See, would a loss of faith really be so bad?~ She wants to say ‘yes’ but she has no capacity to lie. No capacity to speak, even. Tacitus reads the thoughts directly from her mind, and there is no privacy, no way to hide the terrible truth. There is not much she wouldn’t betray, if it could ensure a future that was more than just torment.

There should be denial. Her mind should recoil from the revelation, the loss of faith in herself. It should shatter into madness, withdrawing from reality. But he holds her mind fast - splayed and pinned like an insect on a board. There is no retreat from her own thoughts unless he permits it. She is far, far from reality already, and she can’t escape the enforced lucidity.

~What do you gain by hurting yourself?~ The question sparks a powerful need to resume her flagellation. To try again to scour away the weakness. At the same time another part of her cries out in despair, and is glad that he is keeping her from the pain for now. But she doesn’t have an answer to the question.

He parts the threads of her psyche, pulling to the surface the reasons that her consciousness has not been able to acknowledge. Brushing aside self-loathing and hope for salvation and fear of what worse alternatives he might inflict.

Here is panic at the shattering of her beliefs and expectations. She clings to the past, grasping as if at sharp-edged shards of glass. Here is fear of the unknown. What might happen to her if she relaxed the iron grip of the rules she calls faith? What if it is awful? What if it is not? What parts of her might thrive? What if she found herself happier? What would that mean for the choices she has made throughout her life?

It hurts. She had thought that she was motivated by faith. That she cared that she had been in the wrong. She does not want to confront herself, not truly. ~But you want to be accepted as you are~ No her strained soul insists no no no no no. She isn’t sure she can want anything any more. She loathes him for doing this to her. She loathes the galaxy for being this way. She loathes herself. She might want an end to everything. But even that is unfair and intolerable and also better than she deserves.

He sighs, and soothes her mind with a thought. Quiets the jabbering of her consciousness and offers simple comfort. With a psychic whimper of surrender she nuzzles into it and becomes calm. He brushes away the experiences she has just had, sets her back to the way she was when he plucked her from the cell she made for herself.

He still wants to make something better of her. Something better for her. Perhaps both. But that was not better, for all that it was entertaining.