Author Topic: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?  (Read 54759 times)

trinite

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The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« on: October 04, 2014, 01:50:48 PM »
So in the last episode of Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man, David discussed how apparently Mitchum Cleary had traveled back in time through the Dreamlands, and was apparently stuck in a time loop. Now, I know of his adventures in SotSoHM, and in Bryson Springs later on in the 1930's, but I got the impression from the discussion that there is at least one other adventure during Mr. Cleary's looping career. Could somebody help me out?
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Kamen

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2014, 04:43:29 PM »
I think there is an unplayed event where Mitchum is tossed back in time by a Yithian time portal. My guess is that it's actually just an excuse to play Mitchum again, but I'd love to see the events of the time portal incident get played.

Mr. Purple

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2014, 02:21:22 AM »
I played him in this one with two more events in mind:

1) The Yithian time loop (he explained it as "Lucille and me shot a wizard who was doin' some kinda funky thang with his hands") that actually sends him back sometime after the events of Bryson Springs.

2) Some event between the Dreamlands and Bryson Springs that results in him ending up in the back of the cop car with gaps in his memory

Yes, it started as a chance to bring Mitchum back and I figured if he survived long enough to close the loop it would be an excuse to play him again later.  I'm not sure that he'll survive those other events, though; poor bastard's luck is bound to run out sooner or later.
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clockworkjoe

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2014, 03:01:06 AM »
Yeah, Caleb and I need to talk about doing one more adventure to close the loop. I might somehow tie it into my current campaign of Masks of Nyarlathotep.

Darthrex

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2014, 11:14:48 AM »
I'm not sure that he'll survive those other events, though; poor bastard's luck is bound to run out sooner or later.

I think you mean that the poor bastard is bound to finally get lucky sooner or later.
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Kamen

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2014, 09:42:39 AM »
So if the other Mitchum games get played and posted will they get their own campaign page and primer to what the hell is going on?  :P

crawlkill

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2014, 12:10:24 PM »
but it goes so much deeper than that.

remember that in Think Before Asking Caleb panic-recycled his confusing Chinese name "ka le xi xi" (the basic function of my education in Mandarin is less to be useful, more to spend the rest of my life pointing out syllables that don't work in white guys trying to say Chinese names, you have no idea how hard Iron Heroes was for me) as the name of...like, a noodle joint or something, which suggests it either a) takes place in the same universe as Bryson Springs or b) even weirder, takes place in a world where RPPR actual plays have become the pop culture classics they deserve to be to the extent you might name your noodle-joint-or-whatever after something Caleb made up in his first CoC game.

there's no direct evidence I can think of that Think Before Asking takes place in the Know Evilverse, but Know Evil definitely takes place in the same continuity as Duality. there's even direct continuity to Ragnerdrok's Eclipse Phase campaign through Vicar and PCs jokingly watching Release the Kraken, too, so they're caught in the extended remixed loop as well. but given that all EP games recorded seem to be in the same continuity, I prefer to subscribe to the hilarious fanon that Know Evil and Duality exist within the Clearyverse, as proven by the name of that noodle hut.

Kamen

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2014, 12:42:23 PM »
Oh hell, we're really gonna have to draft up an RPPR multi/meta-verse wiki/flow chart aren't we? This is getting real SMT Amala network real quick.

crawlkill

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2014, 07:56:43 PM »
Oh hell, we're really gonna have to draft up an RPPR multi/meta-verse wiki/flow chart aren't we? This is getting real SMT Amala network real quick.

I really wanted to hook it into that "all of daytime TV takes place in an autistic child's imagination" theory, but I'm not sure we've had a solid reference to make that connection yet.  There are links between a lot of the CoC games, but nothing quite good enough to make a conspiracy theory out of. I haven't listened to that inverted world game, but given that it has a Steel Centurion, if it -does- have any other connections to other RPPR games, that would connect the whole of New Arcadia to anything it links to.

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Wyrdling

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2015, 06:15:08 AM »
Ross said that Sparkles has a halfling friend named Bright Eyes. That means that the New World campaign also links to Base Raiders. Preston Crowley shows up in New Arcadia, as an experiment of Pangloss. So maybe Preston is in a similar timeloop as he shows up in a recording in that ship in the Scum Tier of Know Evil. Also Balgren has a major role in the Spared and the Spoiled. Somatec is in the one-shot Operate Heavy Machinery which is the uplift company in Eclipse Phase.

Kamen

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #10 on: January 02, 2015, 01:19:22 PM »
Let's not forget the mention of Darlington and Bigglesworth in The Grandfather Paradox, which ties into Base Raiders/New Arcadia. Apparently the Darlington lineage was cursed by a Roman witch to grusomely, explosive deaths, while Bigglesworth is a pristine mythos-entity slaying god in The Night Mission.

Iafhtagn

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2015, 09:30:51 PM »
The Lady Lucille, Mitchum's Tommy gun, also shows up in Tribes of Tokyo, where the ronin purchase it from John McAfee and use it against Toru in the sewer shootout (not sure what happens to it next - I remember Caleb specifically mentioned that they were not dumping the guns from that fight into the ocean, since they didn't kill any humans with them).

So that ties Tribes into the story, and also gives Lucille her own time loop. She actually starts as Mitchum's platonic ideal of a weapon, created from his imagination in the Dreamlands. Then, after Mitchum returns from the Dreamlands, he purchases her in NYC in the 20s, and immediately uses her to hold up a bunch of bar-goers for cash.  Mitchum keeps her throughout his criminal career, using her at Bryson Springs and even carrying her through the encounter with the Yithian and the time-loop. Then she gets dropped at the Peach Blossom restaurant after Mitchum loses consciousness.

Kamen

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2015, 09:52:00 PM »
Does he purchase her, like during Sense I mean? I vaguely remember him just pulling The Lady wrapped up out of a trash can in NYC, like he planted her just before he got picked up by Mr. Lao's men, but I could just be misremembering. Though if Tribes and Mitchum are canon he would have to lose Lucille when he gets tossed back in time so MacAfee could acquire her in the 2010's

Iafhtagn

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #13 on: February 24, 2015, 05:31:59 PM »
I finished listening to Tribes of Tokyo, and went back to the relevant episodes of Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man. Lucille's timeline is surprisingly complex. Mitchum pulls the Thompson out of a trash can in NYC, but he definitely doesn't plant it before getting picked up - he makes a point of saying he has it with him when he goes to the restaurant. I'm guessing the Tongs were fine with it because they knew that if he tried to start something, getting the Thompson out of a case would take too long; they could just shoot him while he was undoing the clasps. As far as I can tell, this is what happened.

First, Mitchum Cleary time travels back to the twenties and winds up in New York. He goes to his appointment with Mr. Lao carrying Lucille in her violin case. He leaves her along with his body in the Peach Blossom restaurant when he enters the Dreamlands.

The first thing he does when arriving on the Plateau of Leng is to look for Lucille. Unable to find her, he arms himself with a rusted old sword he finds.

While in the Underworld, Mitchum dreams up Lucille as a magic weapon. This version of Lucille is presumably left behind either in the Enchanted Woods or on the Steps of Deeper Slumber when he heads back to 1920s New York.

Mitchum is then drawn supernaturally to an old trash can, where he finds a rusted old Thompson wrapped in dirty newspapers. He calls it Lucille. It's not clear where this incarnation comes from – I'm getting to that. However, Mitchum eventually carries her to Chicago, then to Bryson Springs, to his fateful encounter with a Yithian, and then back to the Peach Blossom.

Some time around 2012, Lucille winds up in the hands of John McCaffee, who gives it to Ito, the yakuza member of the Ronin/Empty Five.  David mentions Ito having a Thompson during the final assault on the temple, and the only change to his equipment that Ito makes before going through the toru gate is changing his suit. This means that, in 2012, Lucille finally makes it to the plateau of Leng where Mitchum looked for her almost 90 years earlier. During the fight with the Guardian, Ito ignores Lucille and chooses to use his family's ancestral katana instead. Lucille is left behind yet again when Ito goes to sleep and returns to the corrected timeline.

Lucille never gets rejuvenated like Mitchum does, so it can't be stuck in a time-loop, since it would become infinitely old and fall apart (and also never reach Ito). The most obvious way for Lucille to get out of the loop is for Mr. Lao to sell Lucille or give it to one of his men, starting it on the journey to McCaffee; the gun left in the restaurant doesn't get left in the trash can (although it was left there earlier). In Lucille's subjective timeline, it first encounters Mitchum when he pulls it from the old trash can in New York, and leaves his hands slightly earlier after going through Bryson Springs and the Yithian. Where does Lucille come from before then? Presumably, it was either being discarded after being used in a crime (since 20s ballistics might not be great, but there was really only one kind of person who used a Tommy gun), or left as a dead-drop for someone else to pick up. Alternatively, it might have been some emanation of the magic Lucille into the Waking World. If that's the case, then its final arrival on Leng really brings it full circle. In the un-reset timeline where Nyarlathotep talks to the Ronin, Lucille would probably be picked up by the North Korean ghouls, who might one day return it to their friends in the Underworld. In the reset timeline, it remains in the hands of McCaffee, and in the Delta Green timeline, who knows?

There's a certain irony in the way that Ito went out of his way to bring a sword with him to Leng when he had Lucille, while Mitchum found a sword as soon as he got to Leng but went through a whole lot of trouble to find Lucille.

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Re: The Mitchum Cleary Time Loop?
« Reply #14 on: February 24, 2015, 05:49:32 PM »
Iafhtagn, you have accomplished a great work this day. For your excellence, insight, and obsession, I pass the title "even crazier RPPRchivist than I am" to you as Crawlkill once did to me. Long may you relisten.