Liquid Memory
Dominate •••, Spoiling •••
Effect
Among the most surreal of the known blood alchemy Solutions, this power allows the character to construct memories in his own mind, and then transmit them through this Solution. Compared to the Dominate power this Solution depends on, the effects are incredibly gross and unrefined, but nonetheless useless.
To create the Solution, the character first goes about inventing a memory in his own mind by imagining encounters and conversations, recalling fragments of his own real memories and using other memory tricks. The character does not fool himself with this false memory, but the best mental forgers create recollections so exacting that they hate to part with them. The action required to create a memory is similar to that used in The Forgetful Mind, but it is not penalized by the subject’s Resolve (because there is no subject yet, when the memory is created). The character performs an extended Intelligence + Expression + Dominate action to construct the memory, with each roll representing five minutes of mental manipulation. The successes accumulated are used just as the collective successes of The Forgetful Mind, but the character can make twice as many rolls as he has dots in Spoiling when writing a memory for the Solution.
Once the memory is ready, the character can distill it into his Vitae. Doing so requires an instant Intelligence + Expression + Dominate activation roll. The successes on this roll do not add to the memory’s successes. Instead, these successes determine the threshold for success on the subject’s contested action to resist the forged memory. When the Solution is created, the vampire loses his invented memory’s place in his mind. Most blood alchemists that know this power claim they can “remember the memory,” but it is a vague and incomplete recollection.
Unlike subjects of The Forgetful Mind, the drinkers of a Liquid Memory lose none of their own. Instead, they strangely incorporate the new memory into an “available space” in their own mind. A false memory depicting an nighttime encounter with a stranger might be rationalized as having happened when the subject was actually asleep (“I, uh, I guess I got up and went for a walk that night. There was this…person…”) Wise memory writers design memories to be easily incorporated into the holes of a subject’s day.
If the subject succeeds on the contested action to a resist a memory, he is not free of it but knows full well that it is not his own. In time, the memory may fade, but it cannot simply be forgotten. Some subjects believe they’ve hallucinated or suffered some sort of trauma, but those who know things about the World of Darkness might go looking for a supernatural explanation first.
To create the Solution, the character first goes about inventing a memory in his own mind by imagining encounters and conversations, recalling fragments of his own real memories and using other memory tricks. The character does not fool himself with this false memory, but the best mental forgers create recollections so exacting that they hate to part with them. The action required to create a memory is similar to that used in The Forgetful Mind, but it is not penalized by the subject’s Resolve (because there is no subject yet, when the memory is created). The character performs an extended Intelligence + Expression + Dominate action to construct the memory, with each roll representing five minutes of mental manipulation. The successes accumulated are used just as the collective successes of The Forgetful Mind, but the character can make twice as many rolls as he has dots in Spoiling when writing a memory for the Solution.
Once the memory is ready, the character can distill it into his Vitae. Doing so requires an instant Intelligence + Expression + Dominate activation roll. The successes on this roll do not add to the memory’s successes. Instead, these successes determine the threshold for success on the subject’s contested action to resist the forged memory. When the Solution is created, the vampire loses his invented memory’s place in his mind. Most blood alchemists that know this power claim they can “remember the memory,” but it is a vague and incomplete recollection.
Unlike subjects of The Forgetful Mind, the drinkers of a Liquid Memory lose none of their own. Instead, they strangely incorporate the new memory into an “available space” in their own mind. A false memory depicting an nighttime encounter with a stranger might be rationalized as having happened when the subject was actually asleep (“I, uh, I guess I got up and went for a walk that night. There was this…person…”) Wise memory writers design memories to be easily incorporated into the holes of a subject’s day.
If the subject succeeds on the contested action to a resist a memory, he is not free of it but knows full well that it is not his own. In time, the memory may fade, but it cannot simply be forgotten. Some subjects believe they’ve hallucinated or suffered some sort of trauma, but those who know things about the World of Darkness might go looking for a supernatural explanation first.
With each drop, Victor added a little bit more to the story. In this drop, Andrea remembers driving home. The little red spot expanded into the water. In this drop, she remembers leaning on the open refrigerator door looking into a crowded collection of wasted food. Each bloody drip thinned out to nothing. In this drop, she remembers checking her voice mail, and having none. Blood dissolved. In this drop, she remembers turning out the lights.
Material Components
Cost: 1 Vitae
Gestures & Ritual
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Expression + Dominate versus subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency
Related Discipline
Dominate •••, Spoiling •••
Effect Casting Time
Extended, instant and contested; resistance is reflexive. (An extended action is required to falsify a memory. An instant action is required to make the Solution; its effects are resisted with a contested action.)
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