Back Door Parole

(• • • Life, • Prime; often with • • Mind) The Orphans Survival Guide 127

Sometimes being dead (or looking that way) can be more helpful than being alive. In a vampire party, a breathing guest gets noticed; in a rumble, folks don't usually shake down corpses; in prison, dead inmates tend to get an early parole (hence the name). For most people, "there ain't no comin' back"; some mages, however can make life look pretty much like death.

By entering a deep trance, a Darkling with the skill and the guts to pull this trick off can stop her own bodily functions. Clinically, she dies. Magickally, she actually just suspends the process of living, slowing it to an infinitesimal rate. Once "deceased," she can walk around, essentially undead for a short period; or she can imitate a stiff. When the coast is clear, she jump-starts her system and returns to "life."

[Life suspends the bodily functions while keeping the mage alive; Prime ties the life-force to the body, and Mind keeps the "corpse" aware of her surroundings. Although a mage with Prime senses can tell whether or not the Darkling has actually died, most people (including many vampires) will be fooled. Once "dead," the orphan can stay that way for up to one day for every point of Quintessence in her Pool. After that, she must either awaken or die. In the meantime, her spell is coincidental.... although she'd better hope she doesn't awaken on an autopsy table. A botched spell traps the mage's consciousness in her dying body, locking her in a mindscape (see "Quiet" in Mage, p. 179) until she either wakes up or perishes for real.]