Treachery And DEFRAYAL, or, Our Books Are In The SLED

<Hollyhock God> So, okay, we have four people!

<Hollyhock God> That's almost enough to complete your replacement moon!

<DukeGod> I should count as 1.5 people; the moon is loosely speaking part of my purview, if there are no Nobles of Moon in specific.

  • DukeGod is now known as Nomen

<Hollyhock God> Well, you also brought back an entire planet's worth of wealth despoiled by former tax emperor Enkidu.

<Hollyhock God> That and your giant diamond moon should be good for something.

<Hollyhock God> So, how are you going to finish the thing by the new moon in two days?

<Deathblossom> I mean, technically the new moon is whenever we finish it.

<Hollyhock God> >:<

<Nomen> The time-screwing got us creative.

<Deathblossom> I'm gonna start with palace-temples for all of us. Everyone good with a palace-temple?

<Nomen> If we still only have two days, despite that loophole, Nomen is gonna call in for help.

<Hollyhock God> I have no objections.

<Sarabande> "We will create our own palace-temple—we know what we want in a hive."

<Nomen> "Yeah sure."

<Sarabande> "Also we can do a lot of labour, if we are building in anything at all like beeswax."

<Deathblossom> "Also: does anyone have feelings vis-a-vis giving this new moon a ring?"

<Sarabande> "Hmmmmmm."

<Nomen> "No problem. I'll go collect some asteroids"

<Sarabande> "We expect there may be a traditionalist preference for unringed moons."

<Nomen> "How much of Jupiter is expected to exist?"

<Nomen> "Think anyone would notice about one tenth of it gone?"

<Sarabande> "We expect someone most likely would."

<Nomen> "Well I suppose the moon should use smaller rocks anyway."

<Nomen> "Oooh, we can use some precious stones."

<Nomen> "I think I know where to get some of them."

<Nomen> Nomen would like to call several politic across the world to strike a deal.

<Deathblossom> …you do remember that we've got literally the entire wealth of an alterna-Earth, right?

<Deathblossom> I imagine that involves quite a few sparklestones.

<Nomen> I can still get something else out of the deal.

<Nomen> First, let's see if I have something to actually bring into the negotiation's table.

<Hollyhock God> Like… what were you thinking of?

<Nomen> Several sessions ago I started a miracle that made it so that my Estate worked against those who dodged taxes.

<Nomen> Is it still ongoing?

<Nomen> (Technically, it's working against my enemies; most of those happen to dodge taxes, I guess.)

<Hollyhock God> I guess?

<Darryl_Collins> "Giving the moon a ring is a good idea, but is it a winning idea? Perhaps instead of a ring… a lace."

<Hollyhock God> That's not really the sort of thing you're supposed to be able to do with a Motion, so I haven't really thought much about it.

<Hollyhock God> Also it's really vague.

<Nomen> You said okay back then; lemme check the logs on Chancel Aleph.

<Hollyhock God> I didn't say you couldn't; I just have a hard time visualizing the consequences outside of a 5% downtick in nocturnal crime.

<Nomen> Found it, it was Greater Animation of Night.

<Hollyhock God> (Note: this is why Treasure miracles for "doing stuff" have to be sustained, because it makes the miracle more likely to be meaningful to the game if both parties have to keep checking in on what it's supposed to be doing.)

<Nomen> Oh, well, guess I don't have anything to bring to the table then.

  • Darryl_Collins stands on the surface of the moon-in-progress, watching the construction and thinking. This moon had never been gotten to by the Americans, and therefore it didn't have a flag on it. But now it was practically too easy to get to the moon. Anyone could put a flag on it, and it wouldn't seem like a big deal.

<Nomen> Unless they need any miracles cut, I guess.

<Deathblossom> "A lace could be promising. Or perhaps, not a ring—but a halo? Of shimmering silver?"

<Darryl_Collins> "It needs to be harder to get to this moon, too."

<Darryl_Collins> "That way it can be exciting all over again."

<Nomen> "We can put some extra dangerous giant animals on it!"

<Deathblossom> "I mean, we haven't put it in the sky yet."

<Deathblossom> "So… that makes it harder."

<Nomen> "Like, a giant lizard!"

<Nomen> "That breathes swords!"

<Darryl_Collins> "I meant harder later, after it is up there."

<Nomen> "And craps thunder!!"

<Darryl_Collins> "Back then, they had to invent a rocket just to get here. But now everyone's got rockets. You can buy a rocket."

<Hollyhock God> And so it was, that you created a diamond moon studded with all the riches of the Earth, with a halo of shimmering silver, and dangerous giant animals, and very difficult to get to.

<Hollyhock God> And then, exhausted, you fell over.

<Hollyhock God> Probably in some kind of hilarious position.

<Nomen> "I blame Vauncey for this."

<Darryl_Collins> Don't forget the lake of honey of introspection in the core!

<Hollyhock God> Then you woke up!

<Hollyhock God> …someone has jacked your moon in the night.

<Deathblossom> No.

<Sarabande> "Oh for fuck's sake."

<Sarabande> (This is unusual!)

<Deathblossom> I refuse because I am an unsleeping Plant Death person.

<Sarabande> (Sarabande is not hugely sweary.)

<Nomen> "You know how you were talking about making it harder to get to the moon? We need to make it harder to get into our Chancel too…"

<Hollyhock God> You must have been hibernating!

<Hollyhock God> It must be winter in your heart.

<Hollyhock God> Or you were lured away with the promise of pizza.

<Hollyhock God> Or distracted by the joys of marital living!

<Darryl_Collins> "This was pretty predictable, in truth."

<Sarabande> "That is part of why we are annoyed," Sarabande replies primly.

<Deathblossom> No

<Deathblossom> That is not a thing that happened, ergo, I reject your narrative.

<Hollyhock God> You challenge your god?

<Hollyhock God> Fine!

<Hollyhock God> Then you must explain where the moon went.

<Deathblossom> It went nowhere. It was here. Present me with opposition, but do not presume to declare results by fiat with no opportunity for intervention.

<Nomen> I cut away the miracle of invisibility surrounding the moon with Noble Nemesis.

<Hollyhock God> I don't actually have any plot planned for tonight aside from a moonjacking.

<Nomen> Or alternatively, I throw a swan at it.

<Hollyhock God> If nobody jacked your moon, then I guess… you go and put it in the sky?

<Hollyhock God> And you win! So you can be the tax guy still.

<Hollyhock God> It's very exciting.

<Hollyhock God> >:|

<Nomen> He's got something of a point.

<Darryl_Collins> What if I stole the moon?

<Nomen> I suppose that if someone jacked it, and we found it, it adds to the moon history and enriches it.

<Hollyhock God> Ooooo.

<Nomen> Especially if one of our own did it.

<Hollyhock God> Why did you steal the moon, Darryl? Or do I know?

<Hollyhock God> How are you keeping secrets from me?

<Darryl_Collins> Because Death was right, God.

<Darryl_Collins> We've ruined everything and we haven't any plan to redeem ourselves.

<Darryl_Collins> I can't let me get away with this.

<Hollyhock God> A crisis of faith!

<Hollyhock God> So… you'd better explain how you went about this crime.

<Hollyhock God> Tell us, and be smug about it!

<Darryl_Collins> Oh, it was simple enough. You were all so self-centered, so full of your own glories and desires, you never even noticed.

<Darryl_Collins> I changed the Regulations.

<Sarabande> Self-centred, despite our bond that we believe everyone should work together? I think you may have needed to fool Sarabande with something slightly different…

<Nomen> WHAAAAAT.

<Nomen> YOU CHANGED THE REGULATIONS? THAT I WROTE? THIS IS PERSONAL!

<Darryl_Collins> While you were all distracted with your petty fantasies, I removed the audit-nature which allowed you to check to see if the moon was there, and then I made it illegal to have a moon in our Chancel.

<Darryl_Collins> And a flock of gigantic swans pushed it out.

<Nomen> I need to kill more of these swans. >.<

<Nomen> Well, let's go on the treasure hunt after the moon then.

<Nomen> We start by interrogating Darryl.

<Nomen> Presuming he was gloating openly to us.

<Darryl_Collins> I wouldn't say that was gloating.

<Darryl_Collins> It's merely forthright.

<Hollyhock God> Well, there's the setup, it would seem.

<Hollyhock God> So, what's to be done?

<Nomen> Hmmm.

<Nomen> Nomen decides to attack the mysterious nature of the robbery by acting prosaic and common—he will search for forensic evidence.

<Hollyhock God> Hm. You discover a couple of mysterious feathers at the scene of the crime!

<Darryl_Collins> "What could these be?"

<Hollyhock God> They probably came from an angel's wing.

  • Sarabande searches the Chancel for angels.

<Nomen> No, they wouldn't dare. We were chosen first to be the taxers of this Ash World.

<Nomen> Unless it was a corrupt angel.

<Hollyhock God> Fallen angels are not uncommon!

<Nomen> Nomen will summon a demon and bind it.

<Hollyhock God> Okay.

<Hollyhock God> You summon Sptianger, mid-Baron of the Sixth Circle.

<Nomen> "Listen, goathorns, I have decided you know who stole our moon and was also unlucky enough to be summoned by me. So talk."

<Hollyhock God> "It was you, master! Only you could be so delightfully wicked!"

<Nomen> I throw a swan at the thing.

<Nomen> "I recognize your lie! Don't you think someone who can say only the truth can recognize a liar?"

<Darryl_Collins> "Yes, even with the truth right in front of their eyes, the fools cannot see the truth."

<Hollyhock God> "Okay, fine! It was that guy!" The demon points at Darryl. "He looks shifty!"

<Nomen> "I'm not convinced. Elaborate, before I decide to add a sparky unicorn horn along with a veeeeery rainbow-y mane to your head."

<Nomen> "And I will get those rugged claws of yours… a professional pedicure."

<Hollyhock God> "Okay, okay! Who do you want to be guilty?"

<Darryl_Collins> "Perhaps it was our own perfidity?"

<Sarabande> "Do we have pe…"

<Sarabande> "Never mind. We do."

<Nomen> "Where does this Perfi Hidity hide, demon!?!"

<Nomen> "Does he hide himself in some dead coral castle in the midst of the bermuda triangle?"

<Hollyhock God> The demon thinks about this for a very short time. "Yes. Yes, he does."

<Nomen> "Well, let's end this whole song and horse show. I need you to sign a confession."

  • Sarabande blinks.

<Sarabande> This involves swiftly forming the shape of a mammalian eye with eyelid and making it blink.

<Nomen> "But! Don't be so easily fooled."

<Sarabande> This somewhat spoils what would be a subtle piece of body language from a mammal.

<Nomen> "I would not hope to do such a thing without first checking something."

<Nomen> "Darryl? I think I need to check the regulations book."

<Darryl_Collins> "…uh. Okay, here you are."

<Nomen> "You wouldn't object if, just to be sure, I read the whole thing cover to back, would you?"

<Darryl_Collins> "Why ever would you want to do that? You always just destroy it."

<Nomen> "True, but since we are attacking ordinary conventions in this investigation, perhaps I should read it."

<Nomen> (also, welcome to Bullshitting 101)

<Darryl_Collins> "Well, naturally, I will be happy to hand it o—"

  • Darryl_Collins accidentally flips to page 890 and spills his coffee.

<Darryl_Collins> "Oh no! I'm so sorry!"

<Nomen> "Don't worry."

  • Sarabande catches the coffee…

<Sarabande> …IN THE NICK OF TIME.

<Hollyhock God> <suspenseful sound effect>

<Darryl_Collins> "—oh, oh. Right, well, sorry to be so clumsy. Here's the book."

  • Nomen rips the front cover and puts it in page 889.

<Nomen> "Well, since it starts at this page 889, let's start from here."

  • Nomen reads the Regulations book for once.

<Darryl_Collins> "DO YOU SEE NOW HOW WRONG YOU HAVE BEEN?"

<Nomen> "What?"

<Nomen> "These regulations are not as I have written them!"

<Darryl_Collins> "All this time, blowing through every investigation without ever even consulting section four-oh-three parens b parens five."

  • Nomen smacks Sptianger with the regulations book to make his point.

<Hollyhock God> The demon's flesh smokes at the touch of the holy writ of taxation.

<Nomen> "I have written these paragraphs, Darryl!"

<Nomen> "I know how they work better than you or Vauncey!"

<Darryl_Collins> "You wrote twelve pages while you were drunk, Nomen! We had to spend over two years adding things to make this shit work!"

<Nomen> "THESE WORDS! THESE RULES? THEY ARE NOT SHACKLES MEANT FOR ME!"

<Nomen> "THESE ARE THE SHACKLES SO THAT WE CAN BE SURE YOU AND HIM DO NOT GO MAD WITH YOUR POWER!"

<Nomen> "BECAUSE YOU WERE EVER THE GOOD ONES OUT OF US!"

<Darryl_Collins> what

<Nomen> "You were the ones who had to be the paragons. We had to set rules"

<Nomen> "Damn it, Darryl! You are supposed to be one of the good guys! You're not supposed to act AS I WOULD!"

<Darryl_Collins> "Okay wait, hang on, I'm not sure what's going on anymore."

<Nomen> "I KNOW YOU BETRAYED US, DARRYL!"

<Hollyhock God> oh my god

<Nomen> "I ASKED my ESTATE what happened when we were sleeping."

<Nomen> "Did you think anything could be done under the guise of the darkness of the night in this Chancel and I wouldn't know of it?"

<Darryl_Collins> "What?! Then why didn't you stop me?!"

<Nomen> "Because I thought you didn't have it in you!"

<Nomen> "I didn't think you'd break the rules. You wouldn't alter my regulations."

<Nomen> "You and Vauncey are my shackles Darryl, to stop me from destroying everything. And I set in place your shackles, in the interest of justice, to stop others from just taking advantage of us."

<Nomen> "Now… I can't trust you anymore."

<Nomen> "And worse, I'm proud of you."

<Nomen> "Just… bring back the moon, Darryl. This charade is over."

<Darryl_Collins> "Two problems, Nomen. One, I've been re-writing the Regulations since day one."

<Darryl_Collins> "And… real talk, I don't know where the moon is."

  • Deathblossom sits in uncomfortable silence, despite currently being a nine-foot tall dryad armored in terrible yronbark.

<Nomen> "Then we must find it. Together."

<Nomen> "But since it is illegal to have moons in the Chancel, you will give me the power to alter that. AS it should be."

  • Darryl_Collins blinks.

<Darryl_Collins> "Wait, don't you want to know why I did it, though."

<Nomen> "It doesn't matter; you're not the Darryl I know."

<Nomen> "We can deal with this, after our moon shines in the skies, with us the taxmen once more."

  • Deathblossom very gently pushes out by the force of Blossoming to inquire of it what Darryl is in the process of becoming.

<Darryl_Collins> (Rapidly more confused.)

<Hollyhock God> The more you know.

<Sarabande> "Yes! Together! We must not allow this to fracture our Familia!"

<Deathblossom> "…where does one begin to look for the moon, though?"

<Nomen> "I know the way, and now I can do it with the power to alter the regulations."

<Nomen> "First we will summon the swans who carried the moon away from the CHancel, and I will alter them so that those swans will retrace their steps, leading us to where they dropped it"

<Nomen> "There we can combine the powers of our Estates until we find it."

<Darryl_Collins> "I'm not at all sure that's an explanation."

<Nomen> "Adaptability is the better part of a Noble."

  • Hollyhock God checks his watch.

<Hollyhock God> Well, I guess you have four hours to solve the mystery before you lose your jobs by default.

<Nomen> Alrighty!

<Nomen> I summon the swans that carried the moon and alter the regulations so that they retrace their steps.

<Hollyhock God> This thing they do.

<Hollyhock God> It leads you to the front gate and then around the narrow rim of the Chancel-pot to a convenient dumping-ground.

  • Deathblossom transforms into a great dire blossom-roc, her talons made of grasping roots and her wings a span of infinite petals.

<Nomen> Is the moon there?

<Hollyhock God> No, but there are large tracks, as though a moon had been pushed over the side.

<Nomen> I follow those.

<Hollyhock God> You follow them off the side?

<Sarabande> We follow them!

<Sarabande> We can fly. It's a bee thing.

<Hollyhock God> How useful!

<Nomen> I can just crash, no problems.

<Hollyhock God> Very well.

<Darryl_Collins> I'd like to brood and think about my grand betrayal.

<Hollyhock God> You find yourselves falling/flying towards the Earth.

<Hollyhock God> Or brooding.

<Hollyhock God> You land/crash in the middle of a river valley in Canada.

<Hollyhock God> This valley seems to have been recently disturbed.

<Hollyhock God> Partially by Nomen crashing into it.

<Hollyhock God> But also by large quantities of displaced matter.

<Hollyhock God> It's as though someone had stood here and charged a giant Kamehameha wave, and done the thing where particles of rock and stuff float into the air in response to your ki pressure.

<Hollyhock God> Or possibly as though a large celestial body had here approached contact with the Earth.

<Sarabande> Curious!

<Hollyhock God> But notably, not as though the Earth had been hit by a falling moon.

<Nomen> "Hmmm."

<Darryl_Collins> "Well, Nomen? What is your plan now?"

  • Sarabande searches for signs of gravitational disturbance due to moving a moon in a direction.

<Hollyhock God> Hm. You can track minor disturbances in the dirt moving southeast.

<Hollyhock God> After a few miles, you find a large crater, as though someone got tired of lugging the moon around and set it down for a while.

<Hollyhock God> There are also quite a lot of trees that have been cut down here.

<Sarabande> Curiouser and curiouser!

  • Deathblossom is strangely both offended and aroused by deforestation these days.

<Hollyhock God> I am going to forget I heard that.

<Nomen> "Maybe they made a sled for the moon?"

<Darryl_Collins> "It's no good, we'll never find it. I'm simply too good."

<Sarabande> "Don't be so swift to draw conclusions!"

  • Sarabande searches for signs of construction, such as sawdust and discarded tools.

<Deathblossom> The enormous flower-bird looks down at Darryl. "We really need to consider getting the Familia a counselor. Our pity parties are Fitzgeraldian."

<Hollyhock God> You do find a lot of sawdust.

<Deathblossom> Mmmmm. Sawdust.

  • Darryl_Collins blinks, looking perplexed. "What does haberdashery have to do with this?"
  • Sarabande examines the sawdust for Clues as to what was created!

<Hollyhock God> It seems to have been some sort of carpentry.

<Sarabande> As we suspected!

<Sarabande> Any tracks leading away? Or signs of a flying machine taking off?

<Hollyhock God> Hm, there are tracks not unlike those of a giant moonsled.

<Hollyhock God> Now that you mention it.

<Sarabande> Aha!

<Hollyhock God> Come to think of it, isn't that a giant moonsled over there at the top of that hill?

<Darryl_Collins> "Hey, yeah."

<Nomen> AHA!

<Hollyhock God> Somebody is legging your moon away, Grinch-style.

  • Sarabande flies towards them with all the speed of a miraculous swarm of bees!

<Nomen> "The game is afoot!"

  • Nomen goes after them, too.
  • Deathblossom flies likewise, save for the part about bees being replaced by shapeshifting plant-gods.
  • Darryl_Collins huffs in an undignified fashion as he tries to keep up.

<Hollyhock God> You quickly begin to catch up, and grow close enough to see that the sled is being driven by your old enemy, the Robber Queen!

<Sarabande> !

  • Hollyhock God looks up her name and determines that it was Edem.
  • Nomen throws the regulations book, that he still hasn't destroyed, at her.

<Hollyhock God> And pulled by… four Megalith Wasps!

<Hollyhock God> Wasps, the natural enemies of bees!

<Sarabande> !!!

<Nomen> "Stop right there, CRIMINAL SCUM!"

<Nomen> "In this day, I am the judge, the auditor! AND YOU WILL RESPECT MY AUTHORI-TAH!"

  • Deathblossom shapeshifts into the natural enemy of Megalith Wasps, which, as it turns out, is a quetaquatal with the head of a husky.

<Sarabande> But of course!

<Hollyhock God> "Look alive, wasp brothers!" cries Edem, lounging dramatically in her sled-chair. "For it is… the Man!"

  • Sarabande looks around. "Where?"

<Nomen> "She means us."

<Hollyhock God> "It's exactly like the Man to disguise himself as such a sweet swarm of bees."

<Nomen> "That is one technically illegal for the moment moon you have there. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to confiscate it."

<Hollyhock God> "Now, mush! By which I obviously mean, mush 'em up."

<Sarabande> "We do not believe we have ever been a Man."

<Hollyhock God> Two giant wasps detach themselves from the harness and move in for the kill.

<Nomen> "STOP! I AM YOUR CREATOR!"

  • Deathblossom howls a great howl and begins to wrap megalith wasps tightly in his great, rainbow-scaled coils.
  • Sarabande flies around frantically to avoid the wasps.
  • Nomen orders the remaining wasps to stop FOR HE IS THEIR CREATOR.

<Hollyhock God> "Now, come forth, my Robbers," calls the Robber Queen, "and fight to the last! Destroy the last obstacles between us and legalization!"

<Hollyhock God> A black wind begins to blow.

  • Nomen destroys all miracles of movement in this area.

<Sarabande> um

<Hollyhock God> The wasps halt. So do Sarabande and Deathblossom!

<Nomen> I can do that, I have a Soul Carving Sword.

<Sarabande> yeah that

<Nomen> "I SAID STOP!"

<Sarabande> Though can bees fly as a part of Superior Swarm of Bees? :-)

<Hollyhock God> Well, you can probably start moving again, yeah.

<Deathblossom> Wait, what does it count Gifts?

  • Nomen decapitates a wasp and looks the other in the several eyes

<Hollyhock God> I guess I was just assuming that you were moving via Aspect 0. I doubt it stops you very meaningfully.

<Nomen> "YOU MUST LISTEN TO ME! I GUIDED EVOLUTION, TWISTED YOUR DNA! I AM YOUR CREATOR!"

<Hollyhock God> The wasp dodges your decapitation and stings you.

<Hollyhock God> Also Megalith Wasps come from the milky way.

<Hollyhock God> They're not native to Earth.

<Nomen> That sucks.

<Hollyhock God> Meanwhile, Deathblossom takes an arrow to the metaphorical knee.

<Hollyhock God> Quite a large arrow, bearing a large charge of, like, holy light or something! It explodes.

<Hollyhock God> This further interferes with your grappling, although you're still Immortal so you can just grow the damaged vines back more or less immediately.

  • Nomen runs after the Regulations book.
  • Deathblossom is thrown backward, assuming his nominally normal shape for just an instant before rising up as a vine-krakken taller than the tallest redwood tree.

<Hollyhock God> The wind increases in strength. It is becoming rather difficult to move around via flight, especially if you aren't very heavy.

<Darryl_Collins> "Whoo, go us."

<Deathblossom> "Seriously. I ate Death. Why am I the only one who seems impressed by that?" Deathblossom asks as xe grasps and grapples all the wasps like ragdolls (Aspect 5)

  • Sarabande lands and begins doing the bee crawl.

<Nomen> "Sarabande! Make a miracle that gives the properties of being light to bees!"

<Nomen> (as in with little weight)

<Hollyhock God> That would just mean they'd get blown around even more.

<Nomen> But I have a PLAN!

  • Sarabande attempts to do that thing!

<Nomen> Nomen cuts away the miracle. Bees are thus heavy and can fly in the wind

<Hollyhock God> Meanwhile, Deathblossom is being stung. This hurts rather.

<Hollyhock God> I'm not really sure how you work. If you take lethal injuries, will you have to regenerate a new persona?

  • Deathblossom begins to rip the stingers off the wasps

<Deathblossom> I suspect that's more or less it. Doctor Who rules and whatnot.

<Hollyhock God> This is harder than it looks. The wasps resist your efforts and begin working in tandem to lift you off the ground and remove you from the battlefield.

<Deathblossom> …can we calibrate how big the wasps are?

<Nomen> (this is our first true combat as a group, yay)

<Darryl_Collins> "Oh. Right. Sarabande, make wasps not work together!"

<Deathblossom> Because I am basically at kaiju scale.

<Hollyhock God> They are large enough for four of them to carry a moon.

  • Sarabande makes an effort and Destroys the wasps' cooperation.

<Sarabande> (1 MP.)

<Hollyhock God> They are really quite big. At least the size of a skyscraper, or even close to an Aaron's Serpent.

  • Nomen returns to his attempts of securing The Regulations

<Hollyhock God> Coherence destroyed, the wasps begin attemping to sting Deathblossom and pull him in *different* directions, wildly.

<Hollyhock God> This is technically an improvement but golly does it hurt.

<Hollyhock God> Nomen secures the Regulations!

<Nomen> I write the regulations stating that all giant beings must work to help us

  • Deathblossom armors his hide with uranium scales, dramatically altering his metabolism in order to emit dangerous wasp-radioactivity!

<Nomen> (That probably won't work on the wasps, my changing the regulations, I mean.)

<Hollyhock God> You succeed in writing this down.

<Nomen> (But there are still a number of giant animals IN THE MOON!)

<Hollyhock God> The wasps are mutated by this dangerous radioactivity! They grow extra stingers.

<Darryl_Collins> "Nomen that works exclusively on kaiju swans!"

<Hollyhock God> But also start to die.

<Sarabande> They're perfectly normal-sized Megalith Wasps, after all.

<Hollyhock God> Yeah, I don't think giant animals are naturally bound to obey the tax code.

<Hollyhock God> Unless they're Noble, I guess.

<Nomen> Even the ones on the moon?

<Hollyhock God> Why would they? Did you make them to be that way?

<Darryl_Collins> Yeah, the giant swans were bound by my geas, I didn't bind anything else.

<Nomen>

<Deathblossom> Inspiration!

<Nomen> I attempt to summon and bind Lucifer

<Nomen> (Nobilis is the kind of game where nothign I do makes sense X_X)

<Sarabande> iiiiiiisn't he an Imperator?

<Nomen> Yes, he is.

<Nomen> I hope.

<Sarabande> goodoh

<Hollyhock God> I… think I am going to have to ask for an action level on that.

<Sarabande> just wanted to check we were on the same page :-D

<Nomen> I don't have my book right now

<Nomen> But, are we talking Will or MP expenditure?

<Nomen> (I really can't look up any rules right now)

<Hollyhock God> Well, I need to have some kind of mechanical backing for that action before I can judge what happens.

  • Hollyhock God had to wander off to see whether all the bangs were someone down the street being shot, but no, it was just odd-sounding thunder.

<Nomen> lol

<Nomen> Mundane Action just won't cut it

<Nomen> SO I'm guessing this is a miracle of some sort

<Hollyhock God> Well, I mean, if you aren't doing it via your sorcery, how are you doing it at all?

<Sarabande> He can do an Aspect action on his sorcery, right? :-D

<Nomen> Probably, this would be that

<Nomen> So, I have Sorcery 3, throw in 4 Aspect MP

<Deathblossom> Aspect can't help magic

<Sarabande> oops

<Nomen> Wait, I need to go get pizza.

<Nomen> If I can't come up with the means to do it, just ignore it.

<Hollyhock God> Okay, so, Deathblossom is fighting giant wasps in mid-air, who are dying of radiation poisoning but also growing horrifying extra stingers, as you do.

<Hollyhock God> Sarabande is clinging to the ground to avoid being blown away.

<Hollyhock God> Nomen is getting pizza.

<Hollyhock God> Darryl is brooding.

<Hollyhock God> Edem is getting away, and someone is shooting at you that you don't exactly know much about.

<Darryl_Collins> This isn't, altogether, optimal.

<Darryl_Collins> But luckily, we don't need to stop Edem from getting away.

<Darryl_Collins> Just the moon-sleigh.

<Darryl_Collins> So I'll just remove my sleigh-grapple from my briefcase, an item useful and needed to audit either Edem or the moon, and fire it into the moon-sleigh.

<Hollyhock God> Okay!

<Hollyhock God> "This is less than optimal," says Edem. "But any hep cat with an ounce of sense knows that wrasslin' ain't real."

<Sarabande> "No, we are sorry, but that does not make /any/ sense."

<Hollyhock God> Deathblossom and the wasps are forced to admit that their death-grapple was merely an elaborate charade meant to impress everyone else.

<Deathblossom> "Perhaps," Deathblossom concedes, shrinking down into his "normal" form—albeit a form wracked by deep, strange burns and sloughing skin.

<Deathblossom> "But you know what I can assure you is quite entirely real?"

  • Deathblossom drops to all four and rushes forward faster than sound, leaping on Edem. As he pounces, his jaw distends and his maw expands, and inside there is a great whrring of wheels of teeth moving in alternating directions, and then the sound of swallowing.

<Deathblossom> (Aspect 7 fairy-tale feat for the rushing forward and devouring, shapeshifting is automatic, and +3 Strike)

<Hollyhock God> "Aw, you're just tryin' to scare me, punkin," she says, pushing you aside.

<Hollyhock God> Apparently she's right!

<Nomen> (also i'm back)

  • Deathblossom slides away, landing just to the side of Edem, snarling as his jaw re-sets itself.

<Deathblossom> Darryl's got hold of the moon, right?

<Hollyhock God> So he does!

<Hollyhock God> Also he's being shot at.

<Hollyhock God> A strafing cloud of arrows slams into the ground quite close to him and begins to move toward him at a rather uncomfortable rate.

  • Sarabande dashes over to give Darryl a moving carpet of bees to carry him away!

<Darryl_Collins> I use a Persona miracle to make shooting at me extremely painful!

<Hollyhock God> That works, I guess, in both cases.

<Sarabande> It's kind of like one of those moving walkways in an airport.

<Sarabande> But made of bees.

<Darryl_Collins> In fact, if you attack me, you get audited by bee-auditors!

<Hollyhock God> Darryl is now flying on a moving carpet of bees while attached to the moon by a grappling hook.

  • Deathblossom shifts once more, taking in one deep cleansing breath before growing to the size of a gaint, his arms being replaced by manifold tentacles made of roping vines stronger than iron or steel or carbon fiber or even stale grocery store doughnuts.

<Deathblossom> The vines slither and writhe and take root in the palaces, cannals, tunnels, and caverns of the moon—it becomes a part of him, as if it were always meant to be. Then he swings the nigh-indestructable moon like a morning star, batting away megalith wasps with the force and accuracy of an Ashuran Babe Ruth before finally rearing back like a pitcher and loosing the moon into the sky with a gentle softball lob.

<Hollyhock God> The wasps attempt to wrestle the moon away from you.

<Hollyhock God> But they can't, because, as has been established, wrestling is not real.

<Darryl_Collins> "Heh. Payback's a… er, certainly a thing."

<Hollyhock God> The moon goes flying into the sky, peppered by a few arrows from nowhere that fail to do much damage, and sweeps up into its proper place.

<Hollyhock God> A tiny blue flag raises itself at the top, as if to say "this is the property of Team The Man."

<Sarabande> Do our MP pools refresh each session? I can't remember…

<Hollyhock God> Each story.

<Sarabande> Ah, OK.

<Hollyhock God> So far those have mostly been identical.

<Hollyhock God> "Looks like we're blasting off again," mutters Edem, and quietly steals herself away.

<Sarabande> Is today the same story as the time travel highjinks?

<Hollyhock God> Nope.

<Hollyhock God> Later, she will try to win the competition with her "imaginary moon."

<Hollyhock God> This does not go over well, although she tries to sell it pretty gamely.

  • Sarabande hums the hum of Cooperation, and grants the moment that the moon reaches its proper place the Cooperation-nature of Forming Lasting Bonds

<Sarabande> Just in case. :-P

<Hollyhock God> You can't be too careful with moons.

<Sarabande> They have this tendency to go missing, and this one needs time to settle in!

<Hollyhock God> Now all that's left is the Truth and Reconciliation Council.

<Darryl_Collins> Oh! Is that a special kind of meeting?

<Hollyhock God> It's the one where they decide whether to hang you or not.

<Darryl_Collins> Oh.

  • Deathblossom is looking a little… radioactive, still, as he shrinks back to size.

<Nomen> We won but not really yet huh.

<Hollyhock God> No, I mean the one where you decide what to do about Darryl's betrayal.

<Nomen> Oh.

<Sarabande> Any chance we could run that in THE FUTURE? We're on a bit later than usual.

<Sarabande> =>** I am becoming increasingly like unto a person who is asleep.

<Hollyhock God> Very well.

<Hollyhock God> The audit of Audits can take place next week.

<Hollyhock God> In the meantime I can make up some additional shocking revelations.

<Sarabande> :-)

<Darryl_Collins> I am the one who took the caramels.

<Darryl_Collins> I admit it.

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