Mara and Chibi are drawing a feast in a changeling freehold.

The table stretches across two sheets of paper. There are crooked chairs, candles and a cake with its own staircase.

Chibi finishes the last smiling face.

Mara holds up a paper figure they haven’t seated yet.

Its mouth is a straight pencil line.

MARA:
“What about him?”

CHIBI:
“He needs a smile.”

MARA:
“Why?”

CHIBI:
“It’s a feast.”

MARA:
“Something might have happened before he got here.”

CHIBI:
“What?”

MARA:
“We haven’t asked.”

Chibi reaches for his pencil.

CHIBI:
“I could make him look happier.”

MARA:
“That would change the picture.”

He stops.

MARA:
“Would it change his day?”

Chibi puts the pencil down.

CHIBI:
“No.”

—

CHIBI:
“But won’t he spoil the Glamour?”

Mara opens their book.

MARA:
“In The Dreaming, sorrow isn’t automatically Banality. Glamour can be found in grief as well as joy.”

CHIBI:
“So a sad song could belong at the feast?”

MARA:
“Why not?”

CHIBI:
“I thought everyone had to be happy.”

MARA:
“Was that in the book?”

He looks at his smiling guests.

CHIBI:
“No. That was me.”

Mara folds the figure’s feet so it can sit.

CHIBI:
“He could be pleased they invited him.”

MARA:
“And still miss someone.”

CHIBI:
“Both?”

MARA:
“Would you stop missing somebody because there was cake?”

Chibi considers the enormous drawing.

CHIBI:
“Probably not. Even with stairs.”

—

He turns over a spare sheet.

CHIBI:
“A wraith might notice the sadness behind a smile. Lifesight can reveal a living person’s mood.”

MARA:
“Imagine a ghost watching a family dinner, then.”

CHIBI:
“He could hold someone’s hand.”

Chibi starts drawing two hands.

Then hesitates.

CHIBI:
“Except touching the living would normally require help from his Arcanoi.”

MARA:
“He could notice what everyone missed and still not be able to reach them.”

CHIBI:
“That’s unfair.”

MARA:
“Yes.”

He leaves one hand unfinished.

CHIBI:
“The people sitting beside them could ask.”

MARA:
“They could.”

CHIBI:
“And pass them something without making them explain everything first.”

Mara draws a little cup beside their quiet guest.

She leaves his mouth alone.

—

CHIBI:
“Some vampires look to religion for hope that redemption is still possible.”

MARA:
“Then imagine one who goes to pray with the others.”

CHIBI:
“And feels better afterwards.”

MARA:
“What if he doesn’t?”

Chibi waits.

MARA:
“Everyone else looks relieved. He’s still frightened.”

CHIBI:
“He might think he did it wrong.”

MARA:
“Or that they belong more than he does.”

Chibi looks at the cup.

CHIBI:
“Then someone should tell him he doesn’t have to feel better as quickly as they do.”

MARA:
“If they mean it.”

CHIBI:
“Feeling welcome wouldn’t make everything they did right.”

MARA:
“No. But we can understand why he wanted somewhere to go.”

—

Chibi takes two wooden figures from their box.

CHIBI:
“Changelings can strengthen friendship oaths with Glamour.”

MARA:
“What would you promise?”

CHIBI:
“To always be happy together?”

MARA:
“You ate my last biscuit yesterday.”

CHIBI:
“I’d like another question.”

MARA:
“I was cross with you.”

CHIBI:
“I noticed.”

MARA:
“We were still friends.”

He puts the figures beside each other.

CHIBI:
“Then being cross didn’t break the friendship.”

MARA:
“No. But friendship didn’t make it your biscuit.”

CHIBI:
“You remember that part very clearly.”

She smiles.

MARA:
“I wouldn’t want you to promise never to be cross.”

CHIBI:
“What would you want?”

MARA:
“To be able to tell you when something hurts.”

CHIBI:
“Even if I did it?”

MARA:
“Especially then.”

He looks at the two figures.

CHIBI:
“Otherwise we’d have to hide things so the friendship looked all right.”

MARA:
“And less of us would actually be there.”

—

Chibi studies the drawing.

CHIBI:
“I still want them to have fun.”

MARA:
“So do I.”

CHIBI:
“We’ve made the feast sad.”

MARA:
“We haven’t taken the cake away.”

CHIBI:
“You wanted to make it smaller.”

MARA:
“It needs a staircase.”

CHIBI:
“How else do they serve the top?”

They both laugh.

When they settle, Mara touches the quiet guest.

MARA:
“He might laugh later.”

CHIBI:
“And then be sad again?”

MARA:
“Perhaps.”

CHIBI:
“Would that mean the others hadn’t helped?”

MARA:
“Maybe he’d just had a good moment with them.”

Chibi moves a chair.

CHIBI:
“Then he sits here.”

MARA:
“Beside everybody else?”

CHIBI:
“Not at a special sad table. That would be a terrible feast.”

He puts the little cup within reach.

MARA:
“What if he doesn’t want to tell them what happened?”

CHIBI:
“He still gets his cup.”

—

Mara watches him arrange the other guests.

CHIBI:
“Are you sad?”

MARA:
“Not right now.”

CHIBI:
“Then why did you want him here?”

She looks at the paper table.

MARA:
“I wanted to know whether there would still be room for me on a day when I was.”

Chibi stops moving the figures.

Then he slides the box of colours between them.

CHIBI:
“There would.”

MARA:
“Even if I didn’t feel the same as you?”

CHIBI:
“You could be sad. I could be glad you came.”

Mara considers that.

MARA:
“And I could be glad to be with you without everything being all right.”

CHIBI:
“That’s more than one feeling.”

MARA:
“There’s room.”

He looks at the crowded drawing.

Then adds another strip of paper.

CHIBI:
“There is now.”

They turn towards us.

MARA:
“When you invite someone to belong—”

CHIBI:
“—do you make room for the person who arrives?”

MARA:
“Or only the feeling you hoped they would bring?”

Chibi leaves the quiet guest’s face unchanged.

He draws someone sitting beside him.

MYTHVEIL QUESTION

Is there room at your table for someone who is glad to be there and still not all right?

When you say “come as you are,” do you mean they can bring their feelings too?

CTA — CAMPAIGN

PLAY EPIC. FEEL THE STORY.

Game: World of Darkness
Campaign: Mythveil Chronicles
Theme: Month 9 · The Month of Abundance · Week 2 — Feast

A shared table does not require identical hearts.

Explore living worlds where joy, sorrow, hope and uncertainty can belong to the same gathering—and no character arrives with only one feeling.

https://startplaying.games/gm/dunchan

CTA — PATREON

Want to go deeper?

Discover Mythveil Chronicles essays, research dossiers and the philosophy behind our living worlds.

https://www.patreon.com/c/mythveilchronicles_bydunchanhuntergames

MYTHVEIL NOTE

“Do I Have to Feel the Same?” is an original Mythveil Chronicles philosophical dialogue. The paper feast and imagined situations are illustrative scenes, not published rituals. Mara and Chibi remain outside observers: they do not perform supernatural rites or swear magical oaths.

The comparison draws on Changeling: The Dreaming, Wraith: The Oblivion and Vampire: The Masquerade without treating their metaphysics as interchangeable. Its questions about emotional belonging are Mythveil’s interpretation, not claims that supernatural bonds guarantee understanding or care.

Our work is written with deep respect for the writers, designers, artists, developers and communities—from the original White Wolf era to those carrying the World of Darkness forward—whose creations make these questions possible.