In between Pauses

(related to the Pause game.)

As important as it is to complete Pauses, sometimes it is even more important to keep in mind what happens between the Pauses. First of all, normal people who are unable to participate in the Pauses do not know what happened in that frozen moment of time.

So when people suddenly see things appear in a different place from when they last saw them, it is understandable that they would be suspicious, to say the least. The same goes for yourself suddenly changing places as well, which would likely draw much more suspicion. As for trying to explain yourself, most people who have not experienced a Pause will likely not believe you in the slightest.

Healing

Also bear in m ind that after a Pause, whatever wounds a character has incurred will remain with them in the normal Time Flow. As such, it is important for a character to take care of him or herself in between Pauses.

For the most part, a character in the normal health boxes, a day or two should be enough to heal a moderate wound. Those in the critical boxes work a little differently. Each box of critical damage is healed with increasing amounts of time: about one week for the -1 box, two weeks for the -2 box, and a month for the -3 box.

While some wounds may be hidden for the most part when a character is in the normal health boxes, wounds in the critical status may be too gruesome to feign well-being. They also affect a character's general physical performance in between Pauses. As such, a character who is healing from critical status may opt to stay hidden and isolated until he or she is better able to come back into society.

Normal Life

Other than maintaining oneself immediately after the Pause, characters may need to resume their normal daily routine in between Pauses. This means going to the character's workplace, run his or her errands, socialize with his or her friends, so forth and so on. If nothing else, time spent in between Pauses may even offer insight into the Pauses themselves, such memories possibly becoming clues for Pauses further down the road.

While it is encouraged that the Players role-play their characters in their day to day activities while in between Pauses, the Coordinator is also equally as encouraged to abbreviate the time between Pauses in shorter periods of real time, as not to lose the interest of the Players.

Investigation

Characters may also spend time in between Pauses to further their ongoing investigation about them. The Players may role-play their characters meeting up and discussing the phenomenon, or perhaps pursuing a lead or two themselves.

Again, Players should bear in mind that most people other than those who are acquainted with Pauses beforehand will likely not cooperate with the characters in their investigation, either because they do not believe them or that they have no information whatsoever.

The Coordinator should also be able to augment the Players' ability to glean clues from the investigation. Characters with high KNO and PER Trait scores may be able to gather information where most cannot. The Coordinator is encouraged to award characters who have a direct or a creative approach to the investigation with more detailed information. These privileges should be able to prevent the story from being bogged down by Players who just cannot manage to get the clues themselves.

Preparation

Finally, characters should be aware that despite the rare nature of Pauses, they can happen anywhere, anytime. They can happen even when they are not around their teammates or when the characters are not ready for one. As such, it is important that the characters be prepared for them as well as they can without exuding a paranoia about it (again, no need to make normal people suspicious of someone.)

One step a character can take to stay prepared is to have his or her Anchor on his or her person whenever he or she can do so. Another precaution would be for the character to stay in the company of someone else who he or she knows is able to participate in the Pause as well – wireless technology tends not to work in a Pause since the air is unable to transfer data without being moved first, something that the device cannot do.

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