Keeping Up Abhorrences

Elliott: A presence moves in the darkness. It is not a single self, but the idea of a selfhood — wide as the rain and older than the world. That presence is Semegastes Sarcocystidae, and in their wake followeth their many beloved Anchors and their dear friends and colleagues of the Tri-County Chapter of the Rider's Abstinence Society.

They are currently bedeviled by an escaped oracle, once bound into the service of Flowers'-Regal, Osamunda Brave. Now, that oracle — the dastardly Jackson Machinard — has slipped her leash, stolen her treasures, and uses them to wage a campaign that has (so far) mostly been about inconveniencing Sadabus Argand, for whom Jackson seems to have particular antipathy.

When last we saw you all upon the stage, you had reached an agreement with Osamunda to get rid of Jackson by whatever means you deem expedient and appropriate.

It has been a day since that happened; what have you been doing to prepare for… whatever it is you're going to try and do about him?

Gailizia: Still not sold that he's actually guilty. Too much wordplay!

What are we gonna do about him?

I think Sadabus wanted to make him into a hot monster in his harem.

Semegastes: Semegastes wants to recruit him to Team "Go Fuck Yourself, Flowers".

Gailizia: How hard could it be?

Semegastes: It should be a very easy argument to make.

"Your asshole ex-employer tried to hire miraculous assassins to kill you."

"You should join our League of Evil Ex… Employees."

Gailizia: The local public television cooperative!

Sadabus: He's an oracle.

We should absolutely give him his own TV show.

Like, a stockmarket advice thing or something.

Gailizia: Or maybe let him run the phones, intercept shitty callers before they get connected.

Radegesis: Like, we are still pissed at him too, right?

Semegastes: A little.

But he's the small fry bastard.

Sadabus: Eh.

Gailizia: Gailizia isn't? She'd find the bill thing less funny if it keeps running though.

So yeah, I think the answer as to "what did Gailin do to prepare" was mostly "nothing much, maybe watch a detective movie with Annalee and Scalbrand or something."

Sadabus: I got my hair cut. :fuguechip:

Radegesis: Yeah, Rad's taking this one pretty chill. But she is fully expecting this to blow up somehow.

Gailizia: Oh, she did have coffee with Yvanas.

Semegastes: Semegastes' preparations involved the Tech Kids, a whiteboard, and phrases like "broadcast Semegastes tweets via oracular foresight frequency" and "powerpoint about Flowers being a jerk" and "magical girl transformation sequence???".

Radegesis: Oh, actually, I know what Rad did: spent all fucking night arguing with Gabrelt.

And also underlining Semegastes' "magical girl transformation sequence".

Gailizia:

hotquackbatarang: wait they have a magical girl sequence
clownfucker69: yeah
clownfucker69: i regret to say it's kinda hot

:fuguechip:

Radegesis: "So… how are we finding this dick?"

Semegastes: "If he's impersonating Sadabus, we can just track Sadabus down, but do it wrong." :fuguechip:

Gailizia: "Oh! Like tracking down a shittier version of Sadabus with worse taste? So we think of stores that sell tight pants, and then figure out what the worse version of that is."

Sadabus: "I have literally never worn pants."

Radegesis: Rad steeples her fingers.
"I like ogres… but only twunky ones."

Gailizia: "Never said they were for you, dear."

Sadabus: I suppose I might as well fire up the old crystal ball just to see what happens.

I'm going to scry for Sadabus Argand and see what pops up.

Semegastes: Sadabus has invented… the mirror.

Sadabus: Evil genius, baby.

Gailizia: Gailizia is absentmindedly juggling something.

"I suppose I could try summoning him, but where's the fun in that?"

Elliott: I mean, yeah. If you scry yourself you get yourself. Maybe from time to time it tries to lock on to other-yous, but their You-ness doesn't seem to be enough to stand up to the sheer gravitational singularity that is your Eide.

Radegesis: Rad is sorting through her arcana in a corner. "I mean, I got eyeballs. I got… figs."

Semegastes: Semegastes is going to Greater Investigation by tweeting a bunch of low-quality pictures of Sadabus, poor enough that he could be mistaken for an impostor, and asking if anyone's seen him.

[3 Fugue, +1 XP]

Sadabus: "We also have to assume that he knows we're coming for him."

Being an oracle and all.

Elliott: Are you looking for Basic Information, Means and Motives, or a Clue?

Gailizia: "That's what makes it such a great bit. He knows we're coming, so when we do actually show up it's all wrong and the joke lands."

Semegastes: A clue to the fake Sadabus' location.

Radegesis: "That's what they teach you in clown school!"

Gailizia: "It's the classic Clownsandra bit." :fuguechip:

Sadabus: I suppose I could use Unfettering to free myself from a merely Creational prophecy.

Elliott:

@thejudybernes: Oh I saw that guy> ! He was near the old Kolme County Soccer Field.
@DeeDeeDee: Yeah, he was just like… lurking. It was creepy af.

Sadabus: "Insufferable! I am never 'creepy.'"

"Instead, words such as 'terrifying,' 'blasphemous,' and 'awe-inspiring' should be used."

Elliott: In fairness, it was the lurking, grammatically speaking, which was creepy.

Elliott: Your looks were uncommented upon.

Sadabus: Regardless.

Radegesis: "That's 'cause he's doing it wrong, remember?"

Gailizia:

themotleyfoole: an amateur imitation. everyone knows sadabus only smolders, or sometimes broods, in sports arenas. it's in the spotter's guide and everything

Sadabus: "Truly, this oracle is studied in the ways of aggression."

Radegesis:

sk8rgrll8rgrl: pretty sure he ogles sometimes too if its football

Sadabus: ogres

Elliott:

bringthe: Looks pretty cute idk :)

Gailizia: Gailizia looks up from her phone.

"Sounds like we have a 'where', I guess. We should get there before he scampers off!"

Sadabus: I'm going to Unfetter myself from fate and all knowability.

Semegastes: "What's the least threatening way we can fail to sneak up on this guy?"

Gailizia: She considers the question.

"Bring a treat?"

Sadabus: I am a a creature without substance. I am a prince of the silvered land. No oracle shall see my coming.

[Sadabus spits out a small shadow of himself to pass for himself as the others approach.]

Gailizia: "I shouldn't be the one holding the treat, though. That's a different kind of sweets-threat."

Semegastes: "I can give him… wait, fuck no, everyone throw away your weed."

"That counts as flowers."

Elliott: You could always bake another Strategist cake.

Radegesis: "Awwww, Sem…"

Semegastes: "We don't want to give the Lady Jerkass a front row view to us betraying her!"

Radegesis: "What if we… lure him with weed?"

Gailizia: "Oh, and Radikas shouldn't hold it either, she just jumped out of a cake with me."

Sadabus: "His isolation has been prolonged… certain things are inherently attractive to him."

[Sadabus produces a Nintendo Switch and a copy of the just-released Mario 3D All-Stars.] :fuguechip:

Semegastes: "We can give him…" Semegastes rustles around in Everett's jacket pockets, while the Tech Kids dolefully dump their stash. "…half a bottle of Mad Dog. With…a centipede… in it???"

Radegesis: "Oh, that shit's medicinal, y'know."

Semegastes: "Yeah, it could probably make you vomit."

Sadabus: "I believe this is a good time to consult our staff."

[Sadabus summons his council of wizards.]

Gailizia: "Hi, Helena!"

Radegesis: Is Jupiter a wizard yet? With a name like that they deserve to be one.

Semegastes: "Helena, does Jackson like terrible wine with bugs in it?"

Sadabus: "Greetings, my beloved minions," says Sadabus. "I have good news, for I have identified the specter that plagues you with paperwork."

"…and yes, it is Jackson."

Gailizia: Gailizia can, must, and will teach Jupiter faery magic.

Elliott: Helena's there! The other wizards too, still looking haggard from the various bedevilments Jackson's been wrecking on them. And Miranda, the elderly stitchwitch, is there, looking guilty.

Jupiter demurs on any offers to learn magic.

Gailizia: Gailizia respects her wishes!

Semegastes: I'm going to spotlight Helena's advice on giving Jackson a gift. :spotattention:

Sadabus: I've also got James, the new intern.

Elliott: "…You're going to give him a gift? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at anything, lately. You are none of you quite what I expected. Do you want a gift that he would like, a gift that he would trust, or a gift he could not refuse?"

Radegesis: "That last one, right? Pretty sure it's the last one."

Gailizia: "Trust? We're going for trust, right, and not in a 'secret big boxing glove inside' way, right?"

Sadabus: "He must be lured back into the arms of the Bureau, so that his license can be appropriately renewed."

Semegastes: "A gift that says to him, as soon as he sees it, 'hey, we know you've kind of been being a dick to Sadabus, but that's fair enough, and we got hired by your old boss to kill you but we aren't going to do that because fuck her.'"

Elliott: She pauses at that, then blinks, then pauses again.

"That is a vividly-specific question."

Elliott: "…and, oh, Osa seems to have touched a nerve…"

Radegesis: "fine ill get my own dang horse head for his dang bed"

Semegastes: "Yeah, I feel like taking her down a peg."

Sadabus: "Let me exposit, then, as is only proper."

"Our wayward oracle, we learn, has grown mighty upon gifts given by the lady you mention. She now calls upon our Wild Hunt to seek him out and eliminate him."

Elliott: "Be just ever so fucking careful with that one, gosling."

Gailizia: "I hate her!"

Gailizia's tone is weirdly cheery and much more sinister for it

Sadabus: "Yes, this is a hatred which we can cherish," nods Sadabus.

Elliott: "So, a gift that would convince him, maybe, to trust you?"

Gailizia: "Or at least not run when he sees us."

Elliott: "You could always give him Lord Argand's head, maybe attractively roasted on a spike?"

Radegesis: Rad hides Gabrelt behind her back sheepishly.

Semegastes: "He would get disappointed when Sadabus turned out to have used a decapitation ward to hide his real head inside a rabbit, and that would probably sour the relationship once it happens."

"Hey! He thinks you're dead!"

"Do you think he likes you enough that he'd care if you showed up all not-dead?"

Elliott: Rad, you sense Gabrelt: BURN. BURN. BURN.

Sadabus: "Incidentally, why does he dislike me so?"

Semegastes: "Or was it just a professional thing?"

Sadabus: "He seems to resent me far more than you do, and with far less motivation."

Radegesis: "only thing im burning is sadabus' taste in men you little toothpick"

Sadabus: "Not that I require to be loved, but I prefer to know the reason why."

Semegastes: The Technical Kids silently give a look that says, "we're not looking at Helena, whom Sadabus definitely murdered."

Radegesis: :spotattention: on that hate!

Elliott: "…He might consider it a good will gesture? Or he might assume that I've been resurrected only to be bound to Sadabus' dark will, which he might then take as evidence of further evil?"

Semegastes: "You could punch Sadabus in the face in front of him."

Elliott: She puts a finger to her chin when tasked with explaining Jackson's hate.

Semegastes: "Everyone wins!"

Gailizia: "Well, I mean… we could kill you and give him your head."

"It's not… hard for us."

Sadabus: "Please, I have plenty of spare heads if you need one."

Elliott: "Here's the thing about Jackson Machinard: The man sees things. Things that ought not be. Some that must not be, but are. I gather that might be an experience you can sympathize with, but… it makes him uniquely motivated in changing the things he thinks he can change. He gets wrapped up in his own plans, because he thinks doing anything less would be criminal negligence in his duty to the world. And we did hear a lot of stories about you lot. Not all of them, again I gather, entirely wrong. Or perhaps wrong at all."

"He's also just ever so fucking paranoid."

Sadabus: "So he decided to have me thrown into prison for jaywalking."

"I can respect that."

Radegesis: Rad mouths murder over his shoulder.

Semegastes: "Damn, it really is a shame we can't give him weed."

Sadabus: "Or… can we?"

"We must not be afraid to dream just a little bigger, darling Semegastes." :fuguechip:

Gailizia: "It was the Lichtenstein show in 1958, wasn't it. It's always that one with casual audiences and the rumor mills."

[Sadabus envisions a work of fantastic sorcery… the Tri-County Area-Of-Effect Bong.] :turnback:

Semegastes: Valentine goes to high five Sadabus. "The evil wizard is right, let's bring him some hash."

Radegesis: Bongs are basically alchemy!

Semegastes: "That doesn't count as a flower anymore, right?"

Elliott: :turnback:

Sadabus: "We won't know until we smoke it!"

Semegastes: Are those your turn back crows?

Elliott: Yes, but not serious ones.

Gailizia: Give us our threat, o master of games!

Commit to the bit.

Radegesis: "So, it sounds like we are all on board with this definitely very good idea." :spotwicked:

Sadabus: This plan cannot possibly go awry!

For Elliott to tell such a tale would make him… a cop.

"Come, my wizards! It is time… for crime!"

…I need a better line, here.

Radegesis, you're up!

[Rad cracks her knuckles.]

"Let's smoke some fucking weed."

Elliott: Hey, Rad. Hey, hey, Rad. You know what you're doing?

You're hatching an evil scheme.

And the gestation of it moves within the world and within you. Nearby, a handful of caterpillars tumble out of an overturned purse.

Infection +1

Semegastes: "No, foolish Radegesis, you don't smoke hash."

"For this…you'll have to dab." :fuguechip:

Radegesis: :D

Gailizia: What's that put her at?

Radegesis: 4!

Rad shakes her head like she's dislodging a fly and scratches at her collarbone a little harder than usual.

Gailizia: Uh-oh!

Sadabus: Meanwhile, I shall perform a Greater Stunt of sorcery as I devise, supervise, and enchant the, um, Area-Of-Effect Bong.

Sadabus: I guess it's more correctly Sadabus' hookah of county-wide potency.

Radegesis: It's fine! It's fine! We're dealing with the Sadabus thing!

helping someone else while in dire straits, +1 XP

Oh, dude, if you put a bunch of mouthpieces on it, we can all blow really hard and blast out a big puff of smoke.

Elliott: I'm imagining a huge pipe organ just belching forth smoke.

Sadabus: While I play… hm, what music do you play on the giant bong?

Semegastes: Pink Floyd.

Radegesis: "Smoke Two Joints".

Sadabus: This is not part of my aesthetic.

Gailizia: Radegesis smokes one joint only to find a second, smaller joint inside. and inside that?

Elliott: "Cruel Angel's Thesis".

Radegesis: Oh, that's a very Sad thing to do.

Sadabus: That isn't really my aesthetic, either, although Sadabus probably has to consciously restrain himself from knowing about anime.

Maybe I'll just go with Pink Floyd.

It fits his 70s pop-culture van-art wizard vibe.

Semegastes: Grateful Dead might be more airbrushed-van_wizard music.

Gailizia: Castlevania organ remixes.

Sadabus: Oh, yeah, "Touch of Grey"!

That's perfect.

"I. Will. Get High." :fuguechip:

Radegesis:

:spotcreation:

[Sadabus cracks his knuckles.]

Sadabus:

It must be getting early, clocks are running late
Paint-by-number morning sky looks so phony
Dawn is breaking everywhere, light a candle, curse the glare
Draw the curtains, I don't care 'cause it's alright
You will get high
You will get high
You will get hi-i-igh
Yet still, survive

Thick smoke pours from the twenty-seven chimneys of the Better Black Arts Bureau and course in all directions, like an evil, but very relaxing, miasma.

Soon, the Tri-Country Area finds itself abnormally chill.

I see you've got your list out, say your piece and get out
Guess I get the gist of it, but it's alright
Sorry that you feel that way, the only thing there is to say
Every silver lining's got a touch of grey

Wow, this is incredibly relevant.

Gailizia: "I guess I'll drive, now that you've drugged the Tri-County area."

[Gailizia is spending 5 Wear, (+1 XP) to Steel herself to function in whatever this plan is while high. Also, Perfect Timing.]

Sadabus: I'm going to unfetter myself from being high.

Semegastes: The Tech Kids have their eyes filled with whatever is Sadabus's iconic equivalent to Steven Universe's stars.

Radegesis: Rad sags in relief. "Oh thank Harumaph, Gailin. I'm not actually sure I have bones right now." :fuguechip:

Sadabus: Also using gust of wind to make sure my clothes don't smell funky.

Radegesis: Stars, I assume. but Falling!

Isn't that under prestidigitation?

Gailizia: She glances at Radegesis, emoting concern. "Not sure she has bones now" is a real threat given her deal.

Semegastes: Their eyes are now the Mystic icon.

Sadabus: I suppose prestidigitation does in fact cover the cleanliness thing.

Elliott: Sadabus tries and fails to unfetter himself.

Radegesis: Rad waves a hand floppily. "I'm good! It's fine. I got… stuff. In me." She pokes her belly. "See? So much stuff."

"Whoa. There's probably, like, so much stuff in here."

Sadabus: Is this sinister or do you simply find it funnier so?

Elliott: You used a not-miracle to make the smoke!

It is not-smoke!

Gailizia: She takes a hold of Rad's forearm with either hand, and gently feels her way across until she's satisified it's probably still bones.

Sadabus: I used a Stunt.

It's Creational magic.

Well, probably.

Radegesis: "Hwhwhwhhwh, Gailin, you got hands. I like your fingers."

Elliott: It's a corner case, but I'll give it to you.

For one of her most fantastic tricks, the Marvellous Gailin drives only slightly under the speed limit. That's fine, though; everyone else is driving much, much slower.

Sadabus: Given his rhetoric, it does kind of make sense for his magic to be closer to formation magic or some other Ninuan-driven thing.

Gailizia: I also don't think Unfettering actually makes the distinction between real/unreal, unless I'm forgetting something.

Sadabus: Sadly, Elliott is probably right.

Radegesis: It relies on Creational powers not bothering to specify Not-things, I think.

Sadabus: I don't plan to act hilariously intoxicated, however, because High Sadabus is probably just "even more thirsty than usual" and there's really no call to crank that up.

Radegesis: Wise.

Sad's just one of those guys who's great at covering it.

Radegesis: If it weren't for the fact that the falling stars in his eyes were bloodshot and falling so slowly.

Elliott: You make your way to the Kolme County Soccer Field. It is exactly what you might expect from such a place. I mean, mostly. At first? But there's… there's a door in the middle of the field. Or not quite the middle; like just not-middle enough to annoy any of you who might be vexed by such approximate perfection.

Semegastes: Everett is actually a little bit more coherent than usual? It's really terrifying what he's done to his body over the past few decades. Semegastes, though, is sending out some extraordinarily regrettable tweets.

Elliott: :spotattention:

Semegastes: "Everett. My beloved. My flower of molten crystal blossoming in a field of angel's blood. Might I ask you to be an absolute dear, and go knock on that door? I'm trying but I can't work your legs." :fuguechip:

Radegesis: "Wait. Sem, are you… also high?"

"Is it like… in his nostrils. And then in you."

Gailizia: Gailin shrugs.

"Probably? It's a blood thing, right."

Sadabus: I cast knock.

Semegastes: "Everyone's brain chemistry is just… really, really smooth right now."

Elliott: The door opens easily, whether knocked or opened by Everett.

Radegesis: Rad clutches her skull like she can feel her brain smoothing inside.

Semegastes: "Hello, we are walking into your trap; please don't kill us before we can give you a very nice gift!"

Gailizia: :spotreckoning: Gailizia looks at the door with the powers of her Vision.

Elliott: Inside, there is darkness. Little issue for you lot, though; within the darkness, you can see a long and winding path in a colorless expanse. The only joy is the flowers that grow alongside the road, vulgar and ancient. These are flowers that have not been seen since the First Age, since the coming of the Cup of Flame. There are powers at play here older than the wrongness of the World.

Also the door is cedar.

Semegastes: :spotreckoning: if anyone hears my introduction.

Radegesis: I do not trust like that.

Elliott: Offscreen, the audience can see something stirring within. For the Strategists? Nothing.

Sadabus: "What a marvelous trap," says Sadabus, delighted.

He moseys in, levitating anybody who's having difficulty walking alongside him with a finger-twirl.

Semegastes: Hmm, does this count as "giving myself into someone else's hands, making myself terrifyingly vulnerable?"

Elliott: I think it could.

Semegastes: Wonderful!

Radegesis: "wheeee"

Is this a new chapter, BTW? How are our spotlights?

Sadabus: I… forgot to use any!

Ludicrous folly. Inexcusable.

Elliott: Yeah new chapter, 2 XP.

Elliott: (I used two, so Sad is covered. :p)

Radegesis: sad he is

Gailizia: Gailizia is along the path, weaving together the flowers into a crown.

Sadabus: Sadabus power-walks.

Gailizia: She feels weird, between the obvious trap and the magical high and the hooked things stirring deep in her soul.

Semegastes:

@Flowers hey I'm sure you spying on us like a HUGE SNOOP so knock that off> !> !> !> ! v. rude > [gif of someone using an asphalt filler to fill in cracks in the road, absolutely not the one Semegastes meant to attach]

:fuguechip:

Gailizia: "I don't think they're hers," Gailin says, responding to the tweet out loud.
"They're not from there."

Semegastes: …unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Semegastes appears to have tweeted a Twitch livestreamer, rather than the Flowers'-Regal.

Radegesis: Rad is clutching Gabrelt like a bat, absolutely ready for something to jump out and eat her face.

Elliott: Gailizia, the flowers are… the flowers are gorgeous. You find them almost addictive. Definitely addictive. If you want to do anything else but play with them, it'll cost you.

Gailizia: I'm already Steeling myself; could you be more specific?

Elliott: This is old stuff, and Steel won't help you here because the very allure of these flowers is magical. It hasn't seemed to get its hooks in anyone else though! Strange.

Gailizia: Sure, but are they miraculous?

Sadabus: I set them on fire.

"Oh, pretty! Now burn."

Elliott: Yes.

They are in fact miraculous.

Quick, Gailizia! You can't let Sadabus burn these beautiful things!

Sadabus: You absolutely must!

It's inappropriate for a therapist to attempt restraint without a court order.

Intensity invoking my rightful authority as patient.

Radegesis: Oooo, nice move.

Elliott: You can't do two miracles at once!

Radegesis: Less nice!

Gailizia: Can't start two at once.

Radegesis: I think he has to wait until you try to stop him, and then respond to that with Intensity?

Elliott: We are all of us examining a single fractal moment.

Radegesis: Something, something, flurries.

Sadabus: I have raised my hand to destroy, but clearly it hasn't happened yet.

Or Gailizia wouldn't be stopping me.

Gailizia: Gailizia sets the crown gently down on Radikas' head, before plucking another flower. She looks at it, then carefully, tenderly brings it to her mouth before eating it whole, slowly, carefully chewing.

Only Semegastes can hear her as something stirs in her, and she thinks Is this love? Is this addiction?

+1 XP, wrestling with your sense of self

Radegesis: Rad touches her new crown very gently.

Sadabus: Okay, burning now.

"Ah-hahahahahaha! Ahahahahaha!"

Semegastes: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/728730265949831258/761747718530924564/ssrof.PNG

Elliott: Fwooom!

An ancient wonder, unseen for countless centuries, turns into ash.

Radegesis: "Huaghuauughuahguhguaghhuh!"

Elliott: Also probably Rad gets mildly burnt.

Radegesis: I'll take some Wear!

Elliott: Don't worry, Rad; it's phantasmagorical.

I think?

Did you Wyrd-burn these or Eide-burn these?

Radegesis: Oh yeah. Just my hair, comedically-singed.

It was a Destruction, right?

Gailizia: It's a miracle; it's only gonna burn what Sadabus wants burned.

Sadabus: I'm using Wyrd.

Radegesis: Don't tell me that. Give Sad some cover to pay me back for whatever dumb shit I've done to his plans.

Gailizia: He did just destroy your flower crown Gailin made.

Semegastes: "Hopefully, Jackson… Johnson? Jackson? Hopefully us arriving here very much stoned and then setting ourselves on fire will reassure you that we come in peace, and pose no threat to the world."

"Hopefully also you're hearing me with your second… smell…"

Elliott: "Ah-hahaha! Ahahahahaha!"

Radegesis: "Dude, do you hear something?"

Elliott: The noise of Sadabus' laugh echoes in the dark void of this place.

Or… Sadabus isn't laughing right now.

But the other Sadabus is.

Gailizia: "Oh, hello."

[Oh, Sadabus is still laughing.]

Elliott: He's there, at a bend in the path, smiling a smile like Sadabus might, if Sadabus' skin were vine and bark and stem.

Radegesis: Rad plants her feet. "Hey, you floral asshole! Get the hell over here!"

(Intensity + :spotcreation:)

Sadabus: We'll see who laughs last, and laughs best!

Gailizia: "Are you Jackson?"

Gailizia seems out of it, like she's refocusing after dissociating.

[The lights dim.]

Semegastes: "Okay, good, his name is Jackson."

Elliott: The doppelganger does not move at Rad's behest. Or at least, not at first. Then his smile widens and he takes a few steps forward, before shattering a porcelain tea kettle on the floor and running the other way.

Semegastes: "Is this… how Jackson sees Sadabus?"

"Because if so, that is a really good burn."

"Sorry Sady."

Sadabus: :p

Elliott: Out of the kettle's remains, a seething, whistling sound erupts. Steam gathers into a column that reaches the sky, then pours itself into the form of a dragon with a mane of storm-clouds and scales of smelted lightning.

Radegesis: "Oh, no, that explains it."

Sadabus: "Can't we have a storm giant?" Sadabus complains.

Radegesis: "Roll… for initiative!"
She falls out of Sad's ambiguously-still-on levitate spell and rolls a little.

Hey! Appreciate a good dragon!

Sadabus: Eh.

Semegastes: "Oh shit," Semegastes says, frantically pulling something from Everett's pockets and maneuvering herself into a composed stance.

#selfie!

Gailizia: Gailizia looks up at the dragon, eyes focusing more.

"You know what would be cool right now? What if it was a bird?"

Radegesis: "…whoa. What if it was a bird."

Elliott: The dragon looks down at the four of you, cracks its neck… and then sprouts three more heads, each with its own distinctive hair style and moustache.

Semegastes: "I took my selfie too early."

Elliott: "IF IT'S ANY CONSOLATION," it says in a voice that rattles bone, "I AM DISTANTLY RELATED TO BIRDS."

Semegastes: "Hello! I'm Semegastes Sarcocystidae. You've heard of me, I'm sure."

Gailizia: Gailizia snaps, and a large, fluttering sheet descends over the dragon.
"Oh, neat. That makes this that much easier. It's much easier to see the bird in something that's already a bit of a bird." :fuguechip:

Elliott: "I HAVE. I LIKE YOUR CHANNEL."

Semegastes: "They like our channel!" Semegastes beams at their comrades.

Elliott: Then the dragon rears back and fires a bar of liquid lightning at Semegastes.

[Sadabus nods.]

Sadabus: I lightning back!

Wizard fight!

Semegastes: Semegastes burns up to ashes.

Cliffhanger Rite

Elliott: Have you been in Vtuber mode?

Semegastes: No, I'm in Everett. Can my Cliffhanger not cover him?

Elliott: It probably can; I'm just checking my mental image.

Gailizia: Gailizia tugs the sheet down, concealing the dragon from view for just a second after the others exchange lightning and fire. Satisfied, she rips it away, revealing a small hydra bird behind it.

[greater stunt of faery magic]

Radegesis: "Hey! You dragon… bird… asshole! That's my friend!"

Elliott: The bird-hydra seems almost amused, and launches more liquid lightning at Gailizia, Rad, and Sadabus — it might have changed shape, but apparently not lethality.

Gailizia: Never said it would!

Sadabus: I cast protection from lightning.

Radegesis: Rad winds up with Gabrelt, and bats it back with a tremendous impact.

Greate Ignition, +1 XP

[cool/flustered]

Elliott: We do that anime thing where we cut between Rad and the attack and Rad and the attack and Rad/attack/Rad/attack/RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD/AAAAAATTAAAAAAACK. :spotattention:

Gailizia: However, it's much harder for it to get in my way now. Gailizia is going to pursue the false Sadabus, using her characteristic perfect timing to get to him in the nick of time to catch up before he gets away.

(For reference, her build of Perfect Timing is a level 6 Greater Revenant Rite.)

Elliott: That's a weird build, metaphysically.

But for the moment, let's check the score:

Gailizia: It's what's in the book!

Strategists are ill-equipped for the classics.

Elliott: When the dust clears, we see Sadabus with a halo of anti-lightning energy; we see Gailizia scampering off and tackling Sadarose, Semegastes is a pile of ash, and Rad is… where is Rad? It is unclear. But the beast is now melting under the weight of its own liquid-lightning, sent right back at it with Gabrelt's fury. The thing shrinks back and puts the fragments of its tea kettle back together, like a bird building its nest.

Gailizia, you've got the drop on the doppelganger, what do you do?

Gailizia: I drop him, naturally. It's quite the physical comedy act, and she gets to land on top of him all showily.

[Greater Stunt.]

Elliott: "Ah-hahaha! Ahhahahaha!"

Sadabus: "Tee-hee-hee! Oh, tee-hee-hee!"

Sadabus continues to be moderately buzzed.

Elliott: The floraganger does not appear to possess much in the way of a vocabulary.

You wonder: Is this a reflection of Jackson's perception of Sadabus? A limitation of whatever magic animates this copy? Who the fuck knows?

Sadabus: I do, probably.

Gailizia: Gailin bends back at an improbable angle to look Sadarose in the eyes.

"You have to be careful when you're fooling around!"

Sadabus: Time to examine the magic behind this simulacrum!

:spotcreation:

Elliott: It blurs the line of magic and miracle, mind you; it strains your spellcraft, even when powered by the holy void. But you do glimpse the basics of its function! This is the result of Beddle's bonnet, a flower once grown in the Outermost Heaven for use in the Shadow Rite, to give shape and power to a doppelganger of some foe-of-Creation.

Sadabus: "Well, now, that's just aces."

I set it on fire.

Gailizia: What kind of fire?

I'm on top of it, so it matters!

Elliott: It burns! Oh, how beautifully it burns—

But Sadabus, Sadabus.

Elliott: You watch yourself burn!

Sadabus: It's an experience that many have wished for.

But only I may witness it!

Elliott: You can feel it, though. The holy fire. You look down at your skin and swear that it is turning black, crusted in ash and coal.

Semegastes: What a terrible fate to have befall ones' self.

Sadabus: "Oh, hubris! Oh, waily, waily!"

Elliott: That's when you realize, Sadabus, that you are burning.

Sadabus: "Ow, ow, owa, owa, o-wa, watery sphere!"

Elliott: The water steams off into vapor before it touches you; you are incandescent now. You blaze.

[Sadabus screams.]

Elliott: It'll probably be something like 4 Burn, ironically, to fuck yourself up enough to break the sympathetic connection. Unless you've got another notion?

Gailizia: "Sadabus."

Gailin has rested her head in her hands, calmly watching you burn.

"Do you need one of us to kill it?"

Sadabus: I'm going to try to take a Minor Wound of Wyrd to seal this fire inside myself into some jewel of flame and mirrors.

Elliott: Iiinteresting. That'll do it.

I will however say, that the doppelganger winks at you before it is finally consumed. And you feel that familiar little thrum of triumph but also…but also… even more than ever, you are Sadabus Argand, the Strategist dying of magic. Sometimes even your own.

Infection +1

Sadabus: "Could I ever be destroyed by anything else? Of course not."

Sadabus compresses the fire down into a bauble of faceted red, and, reluctantly, swallows it.

Semegastes: Does this constitute a break in the scene?

[Sadabus removes 10 Burn from his character sheet.]

Elliott: Yeah, new scene. I think the last one was 1 XP, unless I'm misremembering?

Gailizia: Sounds right.

Semegastes: Everett and Semegastes show up fifteen minutes late with a chai latte.

…spiked with tequila.

Sadabus: Oh, and I'm claiming 5 XP.

"You look down upon what your villainy has wrought, only to find something completely different than what you were expecting."

Gailizia: "Well, that wasn't very productive. Oh, hi, Everett. You missed Sads burning himself alive while fighting his magic doppleganger."

Semegastes: Semegastes sips at their horrid chai concoction as Gailizia fills them up, but… it's like drinking ash.

Ash into which someone has poured tequila, but flavorless ash nonetheless.

finding your drink or meal has gone cold, warm, or flavorless on the table

Sadabus: "Well, that was interesting and productive, but we have captured no oracle as yet."

Elliott: The new chapter begins at the end of the path. Oh there are other flowers — ancient, wondrous, terrible flowers; Sadabus recognizes a bed of gyllenthe, the flower of the violence of perception, once banned by treaty from even the battlefields of the Valde Bellum.

Gailizia: "Yeah, I was never quite clear why we were focusing on the plant-you and not Jackson." She shrugs.

Elliott: But mainly, the path ends in a teahouse.

Gailizia: "Oh, that seems suspicious."

Semegastes: "Walking into one trap got us this far!"

"I admit I had assumed that the plant was Maynard, using some sort of botanical shapeshifting."

Gailizia: "Oh, true, that would be a Flowers thing, wouldn't it?"

Gailizia strolls into the teahouse and looks around. She also tries to find a seat.

Semegastes: "We brought you a present!" Semegastes exclaims, just in case.

Elliott: There are plenty of seats, and willowy flower-spirits serve you a cup of tea. At the fore of the house, there is a staircase; upon that staircase is Jackson Machinard.

Gailizia: Gailizia gives him a little wave and a small smile.

Elliott: "A present?" he asks, his voice tightly-controlled but unmistakably contemptuous.

Sadabus: "Oh, you have a present."

"What we offer you is the opportunity to have a future."

Semegastes: "We ended on pretty bad terms last time, so we asked Helena for some advice."

"Her advice was that we decapitate Sadabus, which was pretty good, but we kind of ignored that."

"Do you want some hash?"

Gailizia: "Flowers also put out a hit on you in a very obvious set-up. Figured you might want to know that part too."

Semegastes: Semegastes waves around a bit, wrapped up in wax paper.

"Oh shit, yeah, also that."

"Wanted us to kill you."

"But we're ignoring her; she's not our mom."

Gailizia: "Couldn't make up her mind if you stole from her or if she wanted her stuff back."

Elliott: His smile quirks. "His head would have been nice, yes. And of course Osamunda did. I stole from her. That'd be a black eye to any Power, much less one as proud as she."

"I assume you beat the Teakettle Storm-Serpent?"

Gailizia: "Yeah. So, how're you doing? Nice teahouse you've got in this. What is this, a waylet?"

Semegastes: "Always a shame to fight a fan."

Elliott: "That's the first of the many things she'll be wanting back."

Semegastes: "Well, tough luck for her."

"She's not getting it."

Elliott: "She calls it a district, but I believe that's the same thing — a waylet, yes."

Gailizia: "So long as it isn't a lacuna."

"Hate those things."

Elliott: "And I would advise you to return the serpent, if possible. It was a gift from her brother. One of the few he has ever seen fit to bestow on her."

Semegastes: "Oh shit, she's Nanami," Neva says in the Semegastes collective telepathy groupchat.

Gailizia: "What's the deal between the two of you, anyways?"

She pulls out a chair for him.

Intensity

Elliott: He doesn't take the chair, but he does take a seat on the staircase, giving him a look of both insouciance and exhaustion.

"I was… very angry when I found out that she had used me. Used us. So, I lied. I pledged myself to her just long enough to steal the power I needed to get… I don't know. Revenge, maybe? On you, and then on her. It's been so long."

Sadabus: "I forget, what did we do to you again?" :fuguechip:

Gailizia: "Oh, you've been spending most of it in here, haven't you? It's been like a few months, maybe, in Creation."

She takes a sip of lambda-tea.

"Cole's doing okay. Radegesis has taken him under her wing, helping him with the whole Hand thing."

Elliott: "You killed Helena, for one. And you…you are not meant to be here. Well, perhaps here," he says, gesturing to the house around him. "But not in the world."

"Cole," he says, and you can see the guilt dagger him.

Sadabus: "Logic would suggest, then, that you are not meant to be here."

"Also, yes, wow, child endangerment, most wicked."

Semegastes: "Killing Helena was too far. We're sorry. Sadabus brought her back, and I promise she's not his wicked undead minion bound to him forever. She can totally punch him in the face she wants to."

Gailizia: "She's wicked and undead in the normal, unbound way."

Elliott: "That, I might add, was her idea too. At least, she arranged it to bring Cole into our orbit, suggested using him… The choice to do so was mine, and I bitterly regret it. But she has some share in that blame."

Semegastes: "And for belonging… well, it's more that the world wasn't supposed to be here, in the void."

"A long time ago, I think… I think I felt at least a little like you do now. I'd burned out on what I thought was the point of my life. I'd done horrible things, things that I'm still trying to make up for today."

Elliott: "I've heard."

Semegastes: "I don't think I can tell you what to do from here. But whatever you do want to do, I'm guessing you're going to need protection from Flowers."

Elliott: "And better: I've read."

Semegastes: "You have mine, if you want it."

"And… if you're interested, there's a job offer."

"One that I think you'd be interested in as a guardian of this world."

Gailizia: Gailizia glances to Everett and Semegastes.

"Wait, that job offer?"

Elliott: "I hope you know who you're offering a job to first, Semegastes Sarcocystidae."

Semegastes: "Who better?"

Gailizia: "It would certainly complicate Flowers' whole vendetta…"

Semegastes: "I'm offering a job to a man whose greatest flaw is that he can't stop trying to save the world."

Sadabus: "I'm sure we've hired weirder," mourns Sadabus.

"Who are you, again? I confess I have forgotten."

:spotcreation:

Semegastes: "You may not believe that about yourself. Helena does."

Elliott: You look. You really look at this man sitting before you, and you see that he is not as you remember. Older, yes, by more than a decade, but also his skin has whorls like bark, and his fingers are like articulated roots, gnarled and thick. He is… perhaps a doppelganger? Like Sadabus' own?

He is, at the very least, something sculptural, something well-wrought and cunning. Truly an artist's work.

Gailizia: "Were you a plant last time we met?" :fuguechip:

Sadabus: Eh, I'll hire him anyway.

Elliott: "I gather that time is fluid for you, normally. But thinking in human terms… how long do you think it would take a mortal to teach themselves to wield the eldest secrets of holy botany? To master magic that even the Flowers-Regal doesn't bother to learn?"

Semegastes: "Six…"

"Six."

Elliott: He laughs, at first small and bitter, but then until he doubles over, visibly wracking with pain from the laughter.

"That's exactly right."

Gailizia: "No."

"You mastered alchemy in here???"

"Where do you even get real flowers?!"

Elliott: "I didn't master it. I think… I think 4 did? That's when I'd call it mastery. I am just his heir's heir, with relatively little contributions of my own to our lineage of craft."

Semegastes: "Ohhhhh."

Gailizia: "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

Semegastes: "How much of the first Jackson is in you?"

Sadabus: "And to think, James already mastered magic last week and got eternal life into the bargain, at the cost of his soul… but you make that bargain look positively wise."

Elliott: He shrugs. "The Doppelganger Rite is not meant to be used to try and xerox your way to immortality. I'm a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. We… uh… we eat the previous Jackson, inherit his memories and skills and dharma, and then… we keep going. I have no idea how much of him I am, or how much of him is me."

Elliott: "I do know that there's not enough of me — or of us? — left to do it again."

Semegastes: "Offer stands."

"The protection, and the job."

Elliott: "…I suppose I should at least hear the job."

Semegastes: "You know what Flowers is? One of the Nobilis, bound to a law-being to embody one of its Estates?"

Gailizia: "STATION MANAGEMENT is hiring."

Semegastes: "We're trying to help heal a wounded law-being, and it needs Nobles of its own. Hunger, Transmission, Listening. You can be one of those."

Elliott: Clarification: It has Hunger.

Gailizia: "No, Hunger is still alive. He'd have to kill that one first."

Sadabus: "He might be doing that one a favor."

Semegastes: "…okay, you can't be Hunger, but I figured that probably wasn't gonna be your choice anyway."

Elliott: "The Nobilis… they are sometimes immortal, right? But also sometimes not."

Semegastes: "Sometimes, yeah."

Gailizia: Gailizia begins speaking mostly to herself and the Semegastes in her head.
"Though, this does mean that the job is legally done — Jackson did die, he just also cheated a bit."

She looks to him.

"What, do you want to be immortal?"

Sadabus: "My offer to see him transformed into a bizarre monster is also fulfilled."

Semegastes: "Oh, yeah, lying-but-not-lying about that to Flowers is going to be so so so fun."

Elliott: "I don't want to be immortal, no. I have had six lifetimes to consider the virtue and folly in that. But I also believe that if I were to leave this place, I would not have very long left to live."

Semegastes: “Is it like a soil condition thing?”

[Sadabus produces a contract.]

Semegastes: “You need good rich Ninnuani dirt to make the old heartwood keep ticking?”

Elliott: "Jacksons just don't last as long as they used to. And as I said: I'm at the point where I am relatively certain that if I made another copy, it would be at best fundamentally damaged and at worst… something not me. Not us. You know," he says to Semegastes, "what it's like to be plural."

Semegastes: “I do. But not what it’s like to be alone. Your road’s a lot harder than mine.”

Gailizia: "We could change that. If you don't want to die."

Elliott: "…It's weird, right?" he asks with a small laugh. "Not knowing how to answer something like that. Not knowing what I want."

Semegastes: “No, I think that’s just the human condition.” :spotreaction:

Elliott: "I think I'd like to live. Or at least, I'd like to try."

Semegastes: "Then c'mon. You're missing a lot of cool stuff, out there in the world that shouldn't be."

Elliott: It does occur to you that you're probably going to need some strategy to get him out of here and to the studio, but without drawing Osamunda's attention. He seems to think she might be watching for him now that you've found him.

Gailizia: Gailizia shuffles her deck and places three cards in front of her. A figure, holding a glowing heart to its chest at night. A body being shed as something new steps out. A person drinking a goblet of liquid crimson fire.
"Pick your poison."

Sadabus: Hm, I could simply create a false alchemist, which I have transformed into some sort of headless horseman.

Semegastes: Would willing a door open from this Waylet to the station be a Lesser or Greater Navigation?

Radegesis: What about Sadabus' station? That's… some kind of unreal right?

Sadabus: Not really, just wizardy.

Radegesis: Rats.

Sadabus: I've reshaped it to my liking but it isn't really a Not-place.

Elliott: Honestly probably a Lesser Navigation.

Sadabus: I mean, the door is apparently mobile.

Elliott: There's a pervasive low grade Not-ness to most of the area.

Sadabus: Unless it was always in that football field.

Semegastes: Semegastes reaches out their hand, looking at Jackson Six beatifically. And there's a door behind them, a door marked with a halo of toxoplasmosis, just waiting to be opened.

"Let me show you."

[]:spotreckoning: on the Navigation, 3 Fugue and +1 XP]

Gailizia: Gailizia pulls out a set of comical fake glasses and puts them on Jackson Six's face.
"To mislead her." :fuguechip:

[Lesser Misdirection]

Elliott: You travel back, then, to the station. Is it instantaneous, this path you've forged? Or meandering?

Gailizia: We're with a world-breaker. Surely we can stop to smell some roses.

Semegastes: It's like… not to make this bit go on too long, but it's exactly like the doors in Scott Pilgrim.

The comic, not the movie.

It's like falling through dreams and infinity, with snow.

Gailizia: :spotreaction:

Elliott: You emerge with a few snowflakes in your various hair and on your various shoulders. As a matter of fact, you step right into the middle of a show in progress: Apparently Judy has started doing a chemistry show that airs on Sunday mornings. You enter just as she adds a final ingredient to cause a studio-shaking kaboom, so that covers your entrance pretty well.

Gailizia: Gailizia gives her a BIG thumbs up!

Elliott: You're all heading to the basement to get in touch with Uugaruu — thankfully, no one thinks you'll have to go all the way down into them to do whatever's about to happen.

But Judy's explosion has nocked a hole in the ceiling, through which you can see the stars.

Semegastes turns their head up just in time to see, from this particular angle, the Fisher's Star — the star upon which they swore their oath to Uul, to find them a way to live. A way to be free of Uugaruu.

It's like a throbbing, the feeling of that oath — of Uul's impatience and pain, of the weight of sin.

Gailizia may notice this. Therapists often notice things such as this!

Gailizia: They're even living in her head rent-free!

Elliott: But if she does, it is perhaps only for a moment, because she sees Scalbrand in the corner, suddenly doubled over in pain.

Gailizia: She notices for a second, before being urgently distracted and rushing to its side

"What's wrong!?"

Elliott: It reaches out — Gailizia, do you reach back?

Semegastes: "If I fail," Semegastes thinks to themself, and only themself, "then they may well destroy me, under this star's light. And would I not deserve it? No. I hope — no."

having a vision of or flash forward to a doom this quest might bring you

Gailizia: She does.

Elliott: You reach out. You give comfort. And you feel an attention press against your mind and your heart and your soul, a fury and a coldness that you understand in your bones. You see how it can be done: The Actuals are the scaffolding of reality and existence, the thing that approximates life and in its approximation, gives rise to its possibility. You imagine Semegastes, wild-eyed and desperate. You feel the weight of their oath upon them… and you see them render Scalbrand for its components, which may forge a new body for Uul.

You know now, with terrifying certainty, that this would work. It could be done. And the four of you — Semegastes and Gailizia and Scalbrand and Uul — know that each knows this too, albeit colored by your various natures.

Sadabus: Wow, that's so convenient!

Let's do it immediately.

Semegastes: Just as the silence becomes uncomfortable, Semegastes says, "No. If it came to that — then no. I won't murder Scalbrand to wash my own hands clean. Sooner myself, sooner nothing at all. I will not answer sin with sin."

5 XP: you make peace with the possibility of failure.

Sadabus: Sadabus, observing this, makes a note to sew Scalbrand into a shiny new law-being later on.

Gailizia: Gailizia holds Scalbrand close, hand running through tidy fur in hopes of providing comfort as she truly looks at Semegastes, the weight of her attention palpable against their self.

"Good."

Greater Focus, 7 Wear, +1 XP. Seeing an omen concerning the child, +5xp

Elliott: If you venture into the basement, where Uugaruu might be able to enNoble Jackson, Uul may sense you there as well. And you know that Uul knows an answer is arrayed before you.

Semegastes: No sense avoiding my problems.

Sadabus: Hm, I ought to enact a Strategy to determine how to stuff that fluff into Uul while everybody is distracted by the Estate-reveal party.

Semegastes: Ought you?

Sadabus: Well, I oughtn't.

But I am as you find me.

[Sadabus considers how to do this.]

I guess I could just… cover it all up with an illusion and then stuff the bear down an angel?

I could have James do it and rely on him going undetected since he's undersouled?

Semegastes: It would probably be sensible not to have Scalbrand descend at all, what with Uul know, and Sadabus bastardy.

Also, why is Sadabus trying to help a law-being?

Gailizia: Gailizia stands up and goes to a nearby bit of electronics.

<"Uugaruu, you are everywhere here. We've brought you family; come and meet them.">

Semegastes: That goes against everything I know about him.

Sadabus: It might be better to think of it as "Sadabus reduces the number of law-beings living in the station by 50%."

Semegastes: "Uul. I'm here, and I know what you would ask of me, and this I cannot do."

Sadabus: Maybe get James a gig as Power of Solitude, which would be both funny and ego-affirming.

Elliott: Semegastes, you are pulled down, down, down into a metaphorical darkness where you float alone, enwrapped in the isolation of Uul.

YOU SWORE AN OATH

Semegastes: "I swore an oath."

"And I am not abandoning it."

Elliott: THE MEANS ARE ARRAYED.

Semegastes: "But I will not murder for you."

Elliott: IT IS NOT ALIVE.

Sadabus: "It's really not."

Semegastes: "It is… becoming."

Elliott: IT COULD BECOME ME.

Sadabus: "It could become… part of an angel!"

"I mean, it basically has to acquire new parts if you want it to have a self to be."

Semegastes: "I beg patience of you, Uul, or failing that, punishment."

Sadabus: "Don't think of it as murdering your fuzzy friend to help an angel! Think of it as disassembling an angel to construct your fuzzy friend."

Elliott: YOU WILL NOT LIKE THE PRICE OF MY PATIENCE.

Semegastes: "I suspect I will not. But it is a price that I have no choice but to pay."

Elliott: I TAKE YOUR COLLATERAL. YOU HAVE ONE MONTH BEFORE IT IS LOST TO ALL RECLAMATION.

Sadabus: "My poor Mr. Neff!"

Elliott: It's not Everett who disappears into the darkness of Isolation, but Neva and Valentine, leaving only Sal as Semegastes' sole Technical Kid.

Sadabus: Sadabus sniffs. This angel is a lightweight.

That said, she took the best kid.

So, there's really no choice but to feed her the bear.

Semegastes: …how much Immersion would I need to take, to prevent that, or deflect it onto myself?

Elliott: 10, and you'll have to sell me on what it's taking in exchange.

Sadabus: Oh, come on, give her the Neff.

That's way more dramatic.

Semegastes: Half of Semegastes. Of the individual cells that make up their colony-self.

Elliott: What does that mean for Semegastes, though?

Sadabus: They would forever more be merely a Seme. :fuguechip: :turnback:

Sadabus: No longer could they deny that nickname!

Semegastes: It's like halving your brain sliced in half, and one half taken away.

Semegastes: And I'm going to take a Serious Wound, because I want to attempt a Greater Strategy.

Gailizia: The Serious Wound should probably cover both bases, then.

Semegastes: Oh, can you wound proactively instead of taking Cost?

Gailizia: You know, I'm not clear on if it's an either or both thing at the moment.

Elliott: Same.

Semegastes: I feel like it's supposed to be both.

Anyway, I'll pour 25 Immersion into a Serious Wound of "Eaten Up in the Jaws of a Law-Being."

And the Greater Strategy is… to build from within. Uul's taken an Eide and a Wyrd into itself, and they will bud and grow and metastasize throughout it like seeds, into a skeletal scaffolding on which an Angel might bear itself up.

Elliott: I'm sure there's no way this will go wrong.

Semegastes: And in fact, this feels like a good time to end my quest, and remember something.

Elliott: Oh?

Sadabus: They left the oven on back at the other station.

Semegastes: Semegastes remembers the moment they swarmed into the flesh of the Angel that became Uul, how they flooded its flesh and ichor and sinews like a thousand swallowed razors. It's horrible to remember, but it is also a pathway, a blueprint. It's not like they can just do it in a reverse… but with that memory, that understanding of what Uul was and how every piece of itself was connected, then surely Semegastes can grow a second of theirself.

Elliott:

I'm sure there's no way this will go wrong
g͇͑̃o̠͘ ̣̕͡w͑͗́r̠̓ỏ͓̀n̉͊̆g̏̂͐

Sadabus: Sadabus is more than a little unnerved by this.

"I think, perhaps… it may be time for a little cooking with wine." :fuguechip:

"Maybe I'll even put some in the food."

Semegastes: This is all happening in an existential void of isolation but Semegastes is livetweeting just so Sadabus can follow along.

Elliott: The deal is made, and then the deed is done. In the basement, one long tongue-flagella emerges from the mouth of Uugaruu to touch Jackson's brow, transforming him into the Power of Listening. It is, for all its metaphysical weight, an underwhelming moment to actually view — there is no lightshow, no numinous power to behold. Only a single touch and a singular gift.

Sadabus: He has become the most horrifying monster of all.

Job done.

Now, to gloat!

Semegastes: "How does it feel, Jackson Sextus?"

Elliott: He doesn't answer, at least not for a very long time. He is listening, listening to things that have been echoing on the periphera of Creation since the first moment of its existence; listening to the chatter of birds and the squeals of children and the sound of atoms boiling at the heart of the sun.

Gailizia:

to:Yvanas

hey uh. just had a weird day. you down to have some drinks with me and annalee later?

to:Annalee

dear i need to drink so much water when i get home after that magic bong. i will find you some nice fruit, or maybe cheese, to apologize for you and all your coworkers getting high for magic reasons

:fuguechip:

Elliott: He is listening, and smiling, and cries soundlessly.

[The curtain descends.]

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