Champions and Thresholds:

[blackstaff67]

Coming soon! You knew it was! Right?

I kid. I kid.

This BEGS for a Jim Butch short story, especially since Harry prefers to shop there.  I mean, a story set maybe before Michael retired, with Harry and Michael in the store.

[vultur]

Unless WalMart had a chapel inside its store for people to pray...

Even then, I think the threshold would just be around the chapel, not the whole store.

[Todjaeger]

So here's a question for everyone.  How would the Threshold of a home react to someone supernatural who had called the place home but been missing/held captive for a long period of time and was now attempting to return and re-enter?

The recent movie Dark Shadows is what got me thinking about it, with a vampire imprisoned for two hundred years returning to the manor his father built and which his family still owns and lives in.  This could also occur/have occurred to people who enter the Nevernever, with time there potentially moving much slower than in the mundane world.

I haven't come to an opinion yet on how I think such a Threshold would react, but I'm looking for the opinions of others and/or a Word of Jim.

-Cheers

[wyvern]

I'd tend to say, if the supernatural someone still thought of the place as home (and their family still lives there), they could get in.  This would, imo, immediately rule out DF Black Court vampires - they're sufficiently inhuman that the concept of "home" doesn't work for them.  A White Court vampire, on the other hand... though, of course, the WCV could walk through an active threshold with no problem; it would merely limit the amount of supernatural power they could bring to bear.

In general, I'd say the creature needs to be something that is capable of generating a threshold before it could claim free entry on the basis of somewhere being its home.  So, probably not Red Court vampires, either.  Scions of most types, sure.  Dragons (even those with a lower case 'd'), sure.  Kitsune (but probably not kumiho), maybe tengu, definitely not fae (Though they get their own exceptions...), and so on and so forth.

[UmbraLux]

So here's a question for everyone.  How would the Threshold of a home react to someone supernatural who had called the place home but been missing/held captive for a long period of time and was now attempting to return and re-enter?

Two questions:
a)  Is the former captive essentially the same person as when he/she left?
b)  Do the current residents* consider that person part of the family / a member of the household?
If both answers are yes, I'd say the former captive could walk in with no problem.

*The residents being those maintaining and shaping the threshold - even if unconsciously.

[Todjaeger]

Thanks for the feedback.  Not having put the scenario together yet (it's still just an idea) I'm not quite sure how I'll have it work.

From the Dark Shadows movie, since Barnabas Collins was turned into a 'traditional' vampire (i.e. Black Court most likely, Red Court at the very least) via a curse, then he wouldn't be able to create a Threshold.  Also, since he was buried in a box for two centuries he doesn't get recognized as a member of the family immediately and the Threshold would keep him out without an invitation.  Once becomes recognized as a member of the family (much like Morty's ghost-ancestor) he'd be able to pass through the Threshold without an issue.

For a mortal, I think the way I'll handle it is if there has been a significant passage of time for the Threshold to be maintained or grown without the involvement of the person who was missing, then unless one of the people who live in the home and sustain the Threshold consider the place the home of the mortal, the Threshold would also apply.  At least until they start living there or are considered to live there by the rest of the family.

-Cheers