[Nobilis] Something From Nothing IC

[potatocubed]

The Spirit World
Two beings collide with abstract objectives; where they meet they rewrite each other's nature. One, the defender, is used to such amendments - it absorbs the new truths into its form and retaliates, layering new meaning into its opponent like brushstrokes onto a painting. The invader fights back, telling a story of betrayal and conversion, but the defender's nature resists self-implication - its damaged parts separate and become lesser entities which paint their own stories into the white void. Its assault is a tale of fragility and shattering, splitting the invader along its existing faultlines. The invader adapts and imitates, portioning off the pieces which are no longer itself and flinging them across the boundaries of reality--

Prosaic Earth
Seven women appear in the deserts of Nevada, Las Vegas visible as a shock of lights on the horizon. They wear the colours of the rainbow but their eyes are black and speckled with stars. Before the others can react, one flickers and disappears. The one in orange sighs, then smiles.

"Here we are again, sisters," she says, and although quiet her voice is the sort that you cannot help but listen to. "Let the testing commence."

Locus Tezcatlipoca, Some Time Later
It is a cool night in Locus Tezcatlipoca, as it is every night. The wind sweeps away the heat of the day. The sun still hangs visible in the sky but the property that lets it light the world is absent for now; flickering firelight can be seen in the windows of the homes of the chancelfolk and, for the luckier ones, the steady glow that comes from precious electricity.

Everything is quiet. Far below the surface of things the great god stirs, events on other levels of reality simultaneously distracting it and forcing it to act. Shortly the priests will begin to spasm and shout forth the will of Tezcatlipoca. Shortly the nobles, the favoured children of the god, will be gathered to interpret its drives as best they can. Shortly, things will happen. But for now, the night is peaceful.

OOC:
What are you up to this fine chancel evening? Feel free to add details to the chancel in your actions, it's all good. At some point soon, one of the priests will summon you all to meet in the great audience chamber where Tezcatlipoca isn't but his presence can be most clearly felt. But that'll happen in a few minutes.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer is sitting in the market writing. Today she has chosen to don a bright smiley face t-shirt and jeans. They don't do much to improve her mood. The market is set on the slopes bellow a massive stone pyramid. Everyone is going about their normal day without noticing the strangely dressed woman in their midst.

No one here knows her name. None of them can find her even if they looked.

At least nobody disturbs her while she is writing.

[DukeGod]

Name stares at the sky and throws away the chalice he had in hands. What was he drinking again? He didn't remember it
Using a small spell he begins to hear things on Earth. A couple if kids ask for protection. Nothing out of the ordinary. His existence was more of an old wives tale there but some people kept with the old rituals. They were wise to do so

Either way, this night was not one which he spent doing the tiny miracles that wouldn't ask for any of his power within the Chancel. This night he did a lot of nothing. Looking from atop the tower, he sees the lights in the windows. He begins to wonder what changed. How long had it been since he lived with them just a bit? What of the rest of the Familia...

Without him paying attention, a small group of women enter the tower and try not to be noticed. Only one of his servants would be confident enough to actually talk to him directly and she was not there

[potatocubed]

In the market Summer is discovered - a brown-skinned man wearing the gold torc of a priest, who addresses her as "Lady Nightingale". He bears a message from the great god, demanding attendance.

In Name's tower his boldest servant returns with the same message. Tezcatlipoca requires its most gifted servitors.

One by one you gather in the great stepped pyramid at the heart of the chancel. It is chill in here, and gloomy, lit only by torches carried by mortal servants of the god. A circular sacrificial pit yawns before you, who knows how deep, and beyond it the empty stone throne of Tezcatlipoca. Incongruously, a television on a wheeled stand graces the flagstones beside the throne, hooked up to a long extension cord that vanishes into the shadows of the chamber.

Despite a lack of physical presence though, the god is most certainly here. You can feel his nature pervade the place, alive in the stones and the crackling torches and the cold air.

The television flickers to life. It's a news channel of the prosaic Earth, the same stories repeating every half an hour with little variation. You watch, not sure what you are looking for - political corruption in DC, some sort of unfocused protest at Ayer's Rock, mortal wars everywhere - until the news loops around to an incidental piece about a city in eastern Europe.

This is of interest to your imperator. Tezcatlipoca's thoughts bubble up into your minds, his urges seeking out appropriate concepts to make themselves intelligible.

"And finally," the immacuately-coiffed news anchor is saying, "we turn to the city of Hrasny in Romania. For six months now it has been under the thumb of the warlord Harkany Ordina and his personal army, but it seems someone isn't taking it lying down."

The footage is grainy and blurred, shot on a phone-camera with a limited zoom. It is a military parade through the streets of Hrasny, surrounding an open-topped car bearing a man with long grey hair and plain black clothes - Harkany Ordina, looking like Steve Jobs crossed with Sephiroth - who stands and surveys his dominion.

--Ordina has wings, great grey pinions that look fully strong enough to carry him aloft, although no one seems to make much of this--

When the camera shakes and Ordina is suddenly under attack, a gunman appearing on the front of his car in a cloud of black smoke. The gunman has a pistol in each hand and blazes at Ordina John Woo style, the sound on the grainy video obliterated by screams from the crowd; Ordina's wings beat once, carrying him over the heads of his soldiers as they turn on the shooter. In the midst of this chaos a dark-haired woman can be seen in the back of Ordina's car, her red dress standing out starkly against the black of the car interior. She wears a blindfold of the same scarlet colour, not quite enough to conceal her shock at the attack.

You feel Tezcatlipoca's will assault the spirit of the television; it holds the picture for you to study - Ordina aloft, the woman in red shocked, the gunman furious - with the gunman and the woman mentally highlighted for you.

A wordless sense of aggravation washes over you, and Tezcatlipoca's instructions draw the appropriate concepts to themselves. These two are integral to an attack on me. His desire to not be attacked is clear in your minds. Unravel it.

Released from Tezcatlipoca's will, the televison news leaps back into life. Ordina survived. The gunman vanished in another cloud of smoke. Gossip columnists the world over would sell their souls to know who the woman in red is. The news anchor insists this is a strike for freedom against the madness of tyranny, still not mentioning the wings.

A mission has been given. What next?

Karla
Your estate twitched at the news of the protest at Ayer's Rock - not a full-fledged 'I am under attack' warning but more a sort of 'this is of interest' note. Ayer's Rock is similar to the Pinnacle Court in that the mortal and mythic worlds blur together there.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer turns to Names.

"It is always vague isn't it. What do you make of it?"

[DukeGod]

"I'm curious. Sending Nobles against such them is almost insane...killing them won't accomplish anything, we'll have to find out more about this"

Name remembers the highlited image with the two of them. He wonders if he could kill them so easily, erase their life from existence and be done with it. No, surely not. Perhaps more people were involved

"Perhaps we should depart for Prosaic Earth? I want to know why they tried to kill the other guy"

[The_Snark]

Locus Tezcatlipoca is not unpleasant. It lacks the commotion that pervades the modern world these days, babbling crowds and screeching car tires and all the noise you'd expect from seven billion humans. (Seven billion. Sometimes I think we'd be better off letting the Excrucians wipe out a few.) The people here are better. They are subdued in the shadow of the god. Still, I prefer the edges to the center. The land curves up, and up, until you come to the rim of the stone bowl that holds the chancel. It's always quiet up there, and you get a nice view of the stars.

The chancelfolk know better than to disturb me here. (Or anywhere, really.) So it's a surprise when one of them makes the climb to interrupt my solitude with a message.

Of course it's from Tezcatlipoca. Nothing else would drive them up here.

So I rise, giving the messenger a nod to let him know that he hasn't annoyed me enough to do something ghastly to him—really, one or two flares of temper and you get an awful reputation for decades afterward—and descend into the valley: down the narrow jagged paths that traverse the cliffs, past layered terrace-farms seeded with crops that have never known the sun, until I reach the blocky step-temple at the heart.

As always, our lord is both clear and terribly vague when making his will known.

"I don't like that name," I note, speaking of Harkany Ordina. "It has an Excrucian sort of feeling to it." Shrug. "We could start with him. It looks like he still has the woman prisoner, and that's more than we know about the man."

[Fouredged Sword]

"Lets try to be subtle this time." Summer sighs. "lets save pining one of them to a chair and making their will to resist without substance for after we gather some information. I prefer to avoid mental rape for the moment, at least until we determine some level of guilt."

[The_Snark]

"Oh please." Karla rolls her eyes. "Save the histrionics for when we actually do something, please. We're just going to talk to people. It's their fault if they start something over it."

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer sniffs at the dismissal. "Fine she says. I suppose we shall take the normal means of getting places? I will leave the door open for you to follow" Without waiting for a response she leaves the channel.

Once on the prosaic earth she uses her power to make a connection between herself and a bookstore near the target destination.

Once the connection is made she gathers the power of emptiness around her and punches a subtle hole in reality to cross the distance.


Using a level 2 treasure miracle to connect with a book I have written (Bond (1)- I am a published author under a pen name with books in bookstores) to a bookstore near or in Hrasny.

Then she uses a Persona 4 miracle to apply the characteristic of her estate "Has no substance" to the distance between her current location and the bookstore she is connected to.

This will take time to make that connection, please continue posting and let me know when it is considered done in game time

[potatocubed]

It takes Summer a few hours to attune herself to her book, but once done it is the work of moments to carry all of you from the warm darkness of Locus Tezcatlipoca to the cooler darkness of a second-hand bookstore in Eastern Europe.

The store is dark and cramped, although from the shafts of light that pierce high, dusty windows you can tell it is daytime outside. Books are piled on sagging shelves with little thought to organisation or placement; Summer's novel in the original English is wedged between a set of children's books and a translation of the Art of War, all in Romanian.

At a cluttered desk near the front of the store, an old man looks up from the dogeared paperback he is reading - a science-fiction novel by the looks of it - and frowns slightly at the customers he didn't see arrive before going back to his book. An old television in the corner shows a local soap opera. Somewhere in the distance you can hear the occasional rattle of automatic gunfire.

Welcome to Hrasny.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer nods to the others. "we are here. As I doubt that I will be found by anyone in this city I will go looking for our query Harkany Ordina from the parade. I think he would reside in the most guarded house in town, not hard to find, but hard to enter for anyone but me.

Why don't you two go look into the resistance and the woman with the blindfold."

With that summer activated her invisibility, focuses her emptiness into herself to remove the substance of her body, and flies through the roof to take a look around town.


There are likely to be ways to find an intangible invisible flying woman. One would have to be looking correctly and know Summers full name. Let's see what I find out.

[potatocubed]

A piece of nothing, Summer flies above Hrasny to take in the city. It's a typical European patch of urbanity: twisting streets crammed into the terrain with little order or organisation, ancient buildings redolent with history and fine craftsmanship mixed with more recent concrete constructions made with whatever will stand upright. A wide, slow river runs through the heart of the city and empties into the sea to the east, Hrasny's docks protected from the wrath of the open water by a solid harbour wall.

Not far from the bookshop a running gun battle is taking place in the streets: the soldier/police of Hrasny losing ground rapidly to some motley crew. However, what draws Summer's attention is the gargantuan gothic castle that sprouts from the city like a crooked hand. Ancient grey stone is supplemented by modern additions - a helipad, satellite dishes - and massive, arcane machinery etched with sorcerous symbols whose purpose you can't even guess.

This excessive, vaulting place has to be Harkany's home, although what he's up to in there is a mystery.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer chuckles to herself in her thoughts as she currently has no lungs. "He he, lets see what surprises we have waiting for us inside..."

Confidant her fellow nobles will find the battle and investigate Summer floats down into the castle without so much as disturbing the wind. Fist she circles the area looking for doors and windows she can see through. Once that is done she find the copter pad. When someone has a getaway so lavish and expensive it is normally near by other important places.

[DukeGod]

Name sighs as Summer disappears. Finding the resistance? They always got the difficult job...

First things first, he decides that such a boring thing will ask for some entertainment in the mid of the whole thing. Walking around the bookstore for some time he finds a book that might seem fun. It had a psychelic image thing on the cover. His attempts at reading are met with thet slight problem that he doesn't speak Romanian. Oh well, with some twisted logic he decides that if he speaks something out loud he can understand whatever he said and meant by saying it so he casts a spell to do it. Easy. He couldn't quite pronounce Romanian and casting something to make him able to do it was boring. Best to take the interesting round and just go by trial and error.

"Dre...Dresssht?" looks back from the other almost specting his sister to be there aswell "Karla? Let's go?"

And then he steps out to the street. Let's go to some of that roaring gunfire thing

[The_Snark]

Karla gives the spot where Summer had been an annoyed look. Find the underground resistance, indeed. And while you're at it, why don't you look for the lady whom every tabloid and gossip columnist within a hundred miles has been trying (and failing) to find? Meanwhile I'll handle the obvious lead, and look for the most conspicuous man in the country...

Oh well. They do have to start somewhere. She makes a note to be sarcastic towards her dear sister at some point in the future, and moves on.

"Yes, let's," she says coolly, following Name outside. "I believe that's shooting I hear? Sounds like a promising place to look for revolutionaries."

[potatocubed]

The Castle
Summer circles the castle, glancing through arrow slits as she passes and taking longer looks through the wide windows of the modern additions that seem to be overlaid onto and through the original building like they don't belong in this dimension at all. The inside looks like the lair of a magically-inclined Bond villain: consoles and monitors ringed with arcane symbols, technicians in jumpsuits entering commands at computers or engaged in ritual magic in rooms where the incense is pumped in via the a/c, and everywhere heavily armed guards in military uniforms.

As she swoops low over the helipad Summer spots two items of interest. In a large control room that just out from a high tower, offering a grand view of the city, she can see the distinctive winged shape of Harkany Ordina engaged in an arm-waving argument with a blonde woman in a green, flowery dress. He paces and gesticulates; she stands, fists on hips, frustrated. However, as Summer flies closer to hear what they're saying she spots a flash of scarlet through one of the lower windows of the castle - the woman in red, descending a spiral stair, visible for a brief moment through each arrow slit as she passes.

High or low? Decisions, decisions.

The Streets
The locals seem used to the sound of gunfire in their city: most hide away, hoping the skirmish passes them by. The few you see out and about are all heading in the opposite direction to you - away from the bullets, like sensible folk.

The moving firefight is on top of you almost before you realise. The government troops are in full retreat on foot, their APC silent and smoking at a street junction not far away. The rebels move with them, flanking them and setting up crossfires with the sort of co-ordination you would think impossible from a handful of locals with old AK-47s and no radio equipment.

"More gods come to join the war?"

The voice is from behind you, in a doorway you just passed and would have sworn up and down was empty. The Romanian man is wreathed in smoke - from his pair of handguns, from the thin cigar clenched between his teeth, or from some other source you can't tell, but behind that he is handsome in a way that didn't come across on television (for it is he, the assassin you saw on the news). In fact, now you see him it's difficult to understand how you missed him the first time. He draws the eye like a magnet.

"My sisters and I would appreciate any help you can offer," he says, his English perfect. "Ordina is a difficult man to kill."

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer flies up. The control room seems like a good place to find information. and a noble and a unknown beat out a mortal. She avoids the door and passes right through the wall.

[The_Snark]

Karla runs a critical eye up and down the man. Local accent, very concerned about the local tyrant, refers to Powers as gods; sounds new. That might be troublesome. Brand-new Nobles often lack a proper sense of perspective, like Summer.

But more worrying by far is the stirring in her chest, almost like the echo of a heartbeat: something about this man resonates with the unspeakable secret trapped inside her. That is dangerous. That would demand her attention even if the mandates of Tezcatlipoca hadn't already. It would be simplest to turn him to stone on the spot, and hope that solved both problems at once. But maybe it wouldn't; maybe it would only make it worse. She doesn't know.

Talking it is, then.

"Maybe," she says coolly, determined to be unimpressed by his trick of catching the eye. "But I'm not in the habit of swearing undying devotion to a cause on the first date. Why don't you fill us in on what's going on? We can talk on the move if you're in a hurry."

[potatocubed]

The Tower
Summer ghosts through the window and into the control room. Apart from the two main players a handful of guards and technicians are dotted around the room.

"...but couldn't you be a little less... like this?" the woman is saying. "You could--"

"I don't remember asking for your oversight!" Ordina snaps, wheeling and pointing at her. He resumes pacing. "We have already established that you won't oppose me, so either aid me or begone."

"I'm trying to aid you, Harkany. If you'd just--"

"Ach! You're as bad as the healer! At least she respects the terms of our arrangement." Ordina flaps his hand at the woman in dimissal. Not waiting to see if she obeys or not (she doesn't) he turns to a jumpsuited flunky.

"Deploy the psoglavs. Let's see how they fare against real opposition."


--

The Street
"What is going on," the Romanian man says, "is that the tyrant Ordina has been bleeding this city dry to fund... whatever it is he's doing in that castle. People disappear. Monsters roam the streets at night. He claims to be a god but now I know that to be a lie. Now I have the strength of the true gods, I and my friends are pursuing justice."

He glances towards the castle.

"He escaped me last time, with his machines and his wings and his soldiers and his creatures, but I've blessed my men to be unstoppable in war and the UN are sending their best to assist us. Together we will achieve what I could not manage alone." He raises his guns over his head and fires them into the air, grandstanding for the people who peer out of their windows. "Ordina will fall! And so will all of those who think to threaten our home."

He glances towards the castle again, then nods.

"I go. You may come, if you wish, but I cannot promise your safety."

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer eases back into reality, feeling the weight of the world once more fall on her shoulders.

Summer then decides a somewhat direct method seems the best.

"Excuse me sir, but would you mind explaining why you are unleashing dog headed cyclopes on the population of a city? I would really like to know if this is a situation that would require my interference before I meddle, but you must understand, that sort of thing just sounds bad."


I am using my "Affliction (3)- I cannot be found by anyone who does not know my name" to remain hidden despite the fact that they can hear me.

[DukeGod]

"Our safety? Don't be arrogant. You should be fearing for yours."

Name doesn't look impressedo looking around the city. He knew he had seen worse. But he had forgotten where...

"If Justice is what you desire perhpas you have the wrong gods. And we're not here to help you, but for our own reasons...I guess we can help you from now, but then you will assist us later...

Oh. And monsters always roam everywhere in the night. I know that better than anyone"

[The_Snark]

"Safety," says Karla, amused, "is not a concern."

"My brother is tactless"—she savors that moment of hypocrisy—"but essentially correct. We're here on other business, but we'll help you in exchange for, mmm... gratitude."

She tilted her head, examining him once again. Rhe urgency of the war seems lost on her. "What's your name?"

[potatocubed]

The Control Room
Everyone jumps at the sudden voice from nowhere. The woman in green looks around sharply, then fishes in her bag for a mobile phone, upon which she commences dialling while Ordina raves.

"What?" he shouts. "Another one of you come to interfere? This is intolerable!" He raises both hands to his face and makes a complicated gesture; Summer feels the mortal magic grope for her but it can find no hold on her essential nature. Seeing nothing, Ordina narrows his eyes and tries something else - something akin to a miracle, but different - but that doesn't take either.

"Show yourself!" he demands. "Or at least declare your allegiance. The resistance is about to be devoured, so if you're here in behalf of them you can turn around and go home."

OOC
Harkany's first attempt at seeing you was mortal sorcery. He's actually really good! But it doesn't mean anything compared to your affliction. His other attempt was a level 4 Domain miracle of 'The Works of Harkany Ordina' with two points of strike from the property of local reality 'none can defy Harkany Ordina'. Still not enough to get through Summer's affliction though.

The Streets
The man strides away down the street, forcing you to follow to keep talking to him.

"Self-interested, eh?" He casually shoots a sniper three blocks away without looking, instead favouring Name with a black look. "You didn't grow up here. You didn't see Ordina drag away your family to turn them into... things. You... ugh. Fine. I want Ordina dead and his regime destroyed. Help me with this and I'll help you with something later on."

"My name is Cesar." He extends his hand for you to shake.

Somewhere in the distance, over towards the castle, you hear a wolf-like howling.

"And those," Cesar says, "are the monsters that stalk our darkness. Ordina must be desperate to send them out during the day."

And there, loping down the street, come the psoglavs - dog-heads drooling, horse-legs eating up the distance, single eyes scanning for humans to eat. Cesar's freedom fighters meet them with a hail of bullets and Cesar sprints to join them, guns blazing.

OOC
The clash in the street is between two level 5 Treasure miracles, so it'll be something of a draw unless you step in.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer quickly responds to the cellphone instantly with her power, channeling her power to prevent any messages from leaving this area.


Persona 4 - Messages leaving the area have no substance.


Once the woman in green fails to connect her phone Summer drops this effort.

"Mortal sorcery will not avail you Harkany Ordina, and I cannot be found by others far more powerful than you. I am on no side of this pathetic mortal conflict. I serve my Imperator, who is beyond you as a giant is among flies that flutter around the rancid food left in the wake of his bounty. You are alone in this tower Harkany Ordnai. You will bend to me now or I will show you just how empty your soul really is."

She pauses for dramatic effect before continuing, taking a moment to impose her will on Ordnai


Persona 4 - Ordnai's courage is without substance. Supported by my "Bond (2)- I must ease the suffering of those who feel empty" because I must ease the suffering of all those in this city who are empty of hope. Forcing Ordnai to recall his monsters in literally the least I can do.

"Recall your forces from battle. I will not allow the suffering of those caught in the crossfire of your little war to continue one moment longer."

[DukeGod]

"Well, this should be fun"

Name steps into the resistance side, looking for a weapon. This blessing Cesar had was pretty amazing...

[potatocubed]

Tower
The woman frowns at her phone, then puts it away. She does something - a miracle Summer can feel, but not a local one.

Meanwhile Ordina staggers as his personality is assaulted, his courage vanishing and leaving nothing in its place. He has prepared for this - for someone to attack his mind - and stored in a chip in his brain his backup personality kicks in, overriding the flawed primary mind.

Summer's miracle is not so easily deterred, though, going to work on the courage of his backup self - so Ordina summons a cloak of his own arrogance, fuelled by something like miraculous power. A cold silver light washes out from him, bringing with it thoughts of surgical scalpels and pentagrams, and the smell of disinfectant and incense. Some of the technicians nearby collapse, unable to deal with concrete proof of the unreal right in front of them.

A beat of Ordina's wings sends loose objects flying and propels Ordina across the control room, letting him settle with his back to the wall. Despite his aura of power, his courage is still under attack from Summer's miracle. He snatches up a pair of goggles from a nearby desk and pulls them on; Summer can feel his power infuse the goggles as he finally looks at her.

"There you are," he snarls, although he still stays well away from her.

The woman in green steps between Summer and Ordina, hands raised.

"Stop it, will you?" she says, sounding more tired than angry. "This man may be an ass, but he's important."

"Besides," she adds with a glance behind Summer, "you're outnumbered."

A glance over her shoulder shows Summer that a new Noble has arrived unannounced - he looks Italian, and wears black and white robes almost like a priest. He has a gladius belted to his waist. He doesn't speak, but his expression suggests that he has no trouble seeing Summer at all and that maybe this whole business can be settled without resorting to conflict; moreover, that would be his preferred approach. A subtly raised eyebrow suggests that he knows where to acquire some excellent wine suitable to go with diplomacy.

OOC
Miracles! Ordina opposes Summer's miracle with another 4-point Domain miracle and the 2-point bond from local reality again. This leads to an effective draw between them, but I reckon Ordina will take a Serious wound anyway because his defence isn't hugely effective. He now has a 1-point affliction "I'm a huge coward!" which he has chosen to overcome with a divine mantle to give himself scene-long strike. He's still a coward, it just won't get in the way of his miraculous actions. He also repeats his miracle from last time except buying up to 3 strike - which is enough to find Summer.

The newcomer cannot make noise (3-point affliction) but constantly uses low-level aspect miracles to make his body language and pantomime into clear and unambiguous communication. He can find Summer because he knows her name, by means which may become clear later.


--

Name can find plentiful weaponry among the resistance fighters. Handguns are common, and there are a few AK-47's going spare. But what will he do with it?


--

NPC MPs Spent - mostly for my benefit, or I'll lose track
Ordina: 2/2/0/2, divine mantle, serious wound [(A1) I'm a huge coward!]
Cesar: 0/0/0/4
Woman in Green: 0/2/0/0
Italian Mime: 0/0/0/0

[Fouredged Sword]

"Then call off his dogs. I am amicable to an explanation, but understand that I cannot let such things past."


So, I am curious, because you have explained so far how people have bypassed powers, the quiet man saw through my normal invisibility? There are lots of ways around it, I am just curious so I can plan better defenses in the future.

[DukeGod]

Name knows exactly HOW he should act in a situation like that. He picks two handguns, and then goes through gun safety process. Then he checks to see if the clips are properly load. He was a cool noble, time to act the part. Putting his book away inside his cloak he turns to the psoglavs

Stepping into the territory, Name twirls the handguns he had for some time until the dogs are dangerously close. Than suddenly, he starts to aim and shoot making a lot of unneeded spinning and jumping around

Using an Level 0 Aspect Miracle to make sure everything goes just right

[The_Snark]

"Karla." Her handshake is a 7 on the Garret-Johnson Handshake Firmness Rubric; forceful, but not actually painful.

She releases Cesar and follows at a leisurely pace, walking down the middle of the street rather than heading for cover and a gun. The fact that this takes her right into the resistance's arc of fire does not seem to bother her. Nor do the bullets. Somehow, she contrives to give the impression that this is all terribly boring.

There is a moment when the dog-headed monsters recognize that the heart of the fight is here, howl in anger, and bound forward to end it. It is at this precise moment that Karla places herself at the center, halfway between the psoglavs and the revolution. She's in the way. Conspicuously so. Nobody ordinary has any business being there, much less being there and looking that nonchalant, and so even the wolfish monster-minds of the psoglavs must wonder: what does she know that I don't?

She folds her arms, raises a single eyebrow as if to say: well? What are you waiting for?

Aspect 3 ensures perfect dramatic timing! Basically, Karla is making herself a really eye-catching, obvious target. She's mostly relying on her Immortality but will throw in Aspect miracles of Being Really Tough if need be.

No retaliating just yet; she's going to let them get in the first few blows.

[potatocubed]

Tower
The woman in green turns to Ordina, shaking her head. "You've lost, Harkany. I'm not going to pretend to understand what's going on, but everything's coming apart."

"No!" Ordina shouts. "You serve me! I command that you defend me!"

"No," the woman says, "I serve my estate, of which you are a part." She sighs. "You're done here. Leave now and I can promise you a new start somewhere else. You know I'm good for that."

Ordina wavers, but his courage has been devastated. He shakes his fist.

"You haven't seen the last of me! You will rue the day you crossed Harkany Ordina!"

And with that, he dives through a secret door concealed behind a console and vanishes into the hidden passages of the castle.

You can chase him if you want, in which ignore what comes next, but he's using a 4-point Treasure effect to have the secret passages confound anyone pursuing him.

"Call off the psoglavs," the woman instructs a nearby technician.

"I... I can't!" the technician protests. "Once released they can't be called back until they've tasted blood. Maybe the healer could...? That's her sort of thing..."

The woman rolls her eyes. "The healer this, the healer that. Who is this woman?"

The Italian nods knowingly. With a subtle gesture he indicates that she falls under the purview of his estate - the healer, whoever she is, is hiding from something. He also points out, with an eyebrow and a nod of the head, that someone should commence introductions because he is unable to do so.

"Oh, of course," the woman says. "I was a little distracted. I'm Callista, Domina Genesis. Mr. Mime here is my brother caelestis Marco Itinari, Dominus Stealth. We have another sister caelistis too, who is... where?"

Marco's shrug speaks volumes.

"Well, no one knows where she is. Which makes two of you. Who am I talking to, anyway?"

OOC
Marco is also using a lesser destruction of Stealth to make it obvious to the whole of Hrasny that Ordina has fled and the rebels have won. Doesn't make much difference in the tower, but elsewhere...

P.S. His sister isn't hiding, so he can't find her with domain. He just doesn't know where she is.

Streets
The psoglavs close with terrible speed, only to find Karla standing impassively between them and their appointed victims. The creatures fling themselves at her, hands reaching to grab and jaws open wide to feast on her flesh--

And they break like the tide against cliffs, rebounding from her in a welter of confusion and flailing limbs. Their hands find no purchase. Their teeth cannot so much as scratch her unyielding body. Name and Cesar pick off the fallen monsters with gunfire and the resistance mop up the few stragglers. In moments it is over.

"Now that is impressive," Cesar says, nodding at Karla. He laughs. "Very divine. You make shooting these things seem so... classless. But there is no time to waste - onward!"

You are almost at the foot of the castle itself, soldiers entrenched before you, tanks parked and turrets swivelling, before the knowledge that Ordina has fled suddenly appears in your minds. You can see the soldiers blink as realisation sets in; some lay down their guns and start to look for places to flee to. A few of the rebels cheer. Cesar seems furious.

"He runs?!" he shouts. "No! I will have his head!"

And Cesar vanishes in a great burst of smoke.

"Excuse me?" The voice belongs to a blue-bereted UN soldier (mortal) stepping out of the cover of a nearby building. Others can be seen behind him. Cesar's departure has already been rewritten in his memory as a trick of battlefield smoke. "I'm Lieutenant Fennel. Are you the leaders of this resistance? We were sent to help out but I hear we're a little late - looks like we're a diplomatic mission now."

MPs
Cesar: 0/0/1/4
Callista: 0/2/0/0
Marco: 0/2/0/0

[Fouredged Sword]

"I do apologize for my direct interference. The bonds of nobility require me to see to those of my estate as, I am sure, your do as well. I bare you no enmity in this matter, and I hope you can find it in yourself to do the same. I am The Lady of Emptiness. Pleased to meet you."

[The_Snark]

"The leader of this resistance," Karla says darkly, "has apparently decided he has more important places to be right now."

Oh yes, she's annoyed. Cesar is at the center of whatever-it-is-that's-going-on-here, singled out both by the great god Tezcatlipoca and by the dictates of her heart. She hadn't intended to let him out of her sight until she'd figured out why. Now he is out of her sight, and she hasn't learned anything more than his name, and she is Not Happy about it.

Her gaze falls on the UN soldier like an almost physical blow, driving him back a step. "In the meantime, I suppose I can speak for him. What, exactly, do you want?" She motions him to follow as she strides towards the castle, indifferent to the tanks and confused soldiers still in their path.

[potatocubed]

Tower
"Emptiness, huh?" Callista says. She nods. "Well, that explains a lot. We should probably be enemies, me and you - I am the growth that fills emptiness, after all." She sighs. "But I'm not in the mood right now. Harkeny's something completely new in the world, you see, so naturally I get to babysit him every time he conquers someone's favourite country or something. Ugh. Why couldn't someone nice be transcending their mortality through uncertain means?"

Marco, who has strolled around to look out of the high window, rolls his eyes in a manner that suggests at least some of the babysitting is done by parties other than Callista, at least one of whom is not a million miles away from here. Mid-eyeroll he stops and, with a gesture, indicates that you should look out of the window.

"Oh?" Callista goes to the window and peers out. She frowns. "More nobles? Do you know these two, Lady Emptiness?"

Looking down from the tower vantage point, you can see Karla and Name striding through the ring of soldiers that surrounded the castle. In their wake trail a handful of ragged-looking revolutionaries and another handful of blue-bereted UN soldiers.

"I suppose we'd better go and say hello," Callista says. Marco nods, waving you in the direction of the spiral stairs with the confidence of someone who has his own methods of getting around. Callista shifts the weight of her bag on her shoulder then sets off for the stairs. "All this technology and he couldn't be bothered installing an elevator. I suppose that's what having wings does for you..." her voice trails off as she descends.

The Castle Gates
Karla strides forwards, Name in her wake, confused soldiers all around. The rebels, already used to following her and still in a little miraculous shock from seeing the psoglavs rebound from her flesh, file in behind. Lieutenant Fennel has to jog a little to catch up, more UN troops emerging from positions nearby to secure the area.

"We're here to keep the peace," he says, sticking to Karla. "And ease the transition of power back to the Romanian government so the people of Hrasny don't get hurt. And we're looking for a blind woman who's apparently shacked up here with Ordina. Someone upstairs wants to know if she's here or not, God only knows why. Probably someone's daughter or sister or something."

He breaks off.

"And who are you, anyway?"

OOC: You've got pretty much free run of the castle, so if you're looking for anything in particular just let me know. Otherwise it can be backdrop.

[Fouredged Sword]

"Fight? But I think I like you. Why should we fight, there will always be emptiness seeking to be filled. After all that is it's nature. As for that gaggle, that would be the rest of my little group. They seem to be in the thick of things as usual." Summer then turns to her companions. She whispers quietly while working some magic.


Making their ears seek to be filled by my whisper, and her's filled with their whispers.


"I am in the tower. There is a nice noble named Callista, who represents growth that fills emptiness, and a quiet one named Marco. Marco knows my name somehow, and Callista is somewhat in charge of Ordina as part of her estate. They say there is a third of their group but they don't know that person's whereabouts. So what is going on with you? Whisper and I will hear."

[The_Snark]

"Isn't everybody?" Karla asks, ignoring the lieutenant's last question. She waves off his protests and clarifications before he can voice them. "Yes yes, I know what you meant. I suppose we may as well look for her; I frankly haven't got any idea where the Romanian government is supposed to be, unless we count Ordina's people, and I don't think we are. Maybe we'll find some old ministers down in the dungeons somewhere. Excuse me a moment."

She reaches into a pocket and withdraws a cheap flip-up phone, holding it up to her ear so that she has an excuse to murmur to someone who isn't there. "You know, Summer, for someone who mopes so much about what the Hidden World did to your life you're awfully cavalier about using its power. You do remember what cell phones are, yes? And airplanes?" Here she pauses, but only long enough to cut her sister off just before she can retort. "We found the rebel leader, but lost him when he went off chasing Ordina. Have you found the woman yet?"

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer hrumpts from the top of the tower.

"Well if I get stuck ruling part of the universe I may as well use it, even if the part I rule is rather irritating. You can just call me if you want anything."

She then releases the power and turns to Callista.

"Well, my friends are being sticks in the mud as normal. Care to get a bite to eat? I bet somebody is throwing a party after today and I am hungry, stupid empty stomach. Care to find it? I would love to hear the story of how you ended up in this town."

[The_Snark]

"I'll assume that's a no, then." Karla shuts the phone and pockets it.

"Right," she says to Lieutenant Fennel. "Let's see about finding this woman, then. Have your fellows spread out and search — you probably ought to be securing the castle anyway. You too," she adds, pointing to the revolutionaries drifting along in her wake.

And with that she is off, striding through the castle in search of the woman in red.

Or anything else she might happen across. She's going through the castle floor-by-floor, so feel free to have her happen across other things if they're present. If she runs into any of Ordina's people she may ask for directions.

[DukeGod]

"I'm gonna see who exactly is with Summer. Good luck on your search"

Name leaves his sister with the resistance and the UN. But as he leaves, he talks a bit to Fennel

"I'm not quite sure the people of Hrasny will want to go back to being part of Romany. Maybe they'll create their own country after all. If you're here for peace, be ready for war, Liutenant"

Than, without turning around he chuckles a bit, making the whole place a bit more darker

Name is using a Ghost Miracle of Nights to make the whole thing seem a bit dark as if there was less sun coming through the windows.
Just for the hell out of it

[potatocubed]

Summer, Callista, Name
"I do know a good cafe near here, as it happens," Callista says. She pauses so Summer can catch up to her. "Sort of. You'll see what I mean when we get there. We can leave your friends to Marco and Floriana."

Callista leads Summer out of the castle, during which it becomes evident that the woman can talk. She moves from topic to topic with no apparent pattern, keeping up a steady stream of commentary about whatever crosses her mind at the time. It might be something to do with her estate or she may just be a chatterbox - it's difficult to tell. Just on the way out of the castle Summer learns that Callista is the third power to hold her estate, and that she was created as a fully formed adult (complete with memories of a childhood that she knows never happened) about six months ago. Apparently the power of Genesis has fewer "side effects" if it rests in someone created from nothing as opposed to someone born the old-fashioned way.

Outside the castle things are rather confused - the old soldiers are in hiding, the new soldiers are in charge (or perhaps not), some people are trying to arrange street parties, and some people are staging their own mini-uprisings and/or counter-revolutions. More gunfire crackles in the distance as Callista leads Summer to an abandoned street. Some sort of blast happened here - before Callista got to Hrasny, apparently - leaving buildings cracked and leaning, the glass in the windows blasted to splinters. Not a sign of life can be seen.

Except for the cheery cafe on the corner, bright and sparkling against the war-torn streetscape. Callista leads Summer inside, where everything is clean and the display food looks good.

"Not bad, is it?" she says. "I created it myself. Just now. And the food, and the people."

She sits down.

"My purview is new things, you see? I prefer new life, new growth, that sort of thing, but Harkany... there's nothing like him. He's an ass, but he's new in an important sort of way. I'm compelled to look after him, no matter how he behaves."

She gestures vaguely as a waitress - whose existence began just a few minutes ago, not that she knows that - brings tea and coffee.

"A while ago, or so I'm told, he found some man-sized wings. I don't know where, or how, or who they'd fallen off of, but they used to belong to a power. And, not knowing this, he grafted them to his own shoulders. Because that's what you do when you find strange appendages discarded on the ground." She sighs. "And if he hadn't been him, that would have been the end of that. But Harkany's a genius surgeon. And a genius sorcerer. So it worked, and now he has wings, and he acts on the same scale as us. Whatever was left in the wings is transforming him into something new. Except all he does is take over slices of Eastern Europe and cause trouble, which I have to get him out of."

She pauses again to drink her tea, looking thoughtful.

"He's actually getting more powerful with time," she says. She stares into her teacup. "You know when he was done building his machines and spells into that castle it worked like a chancel for him? If I could just persuade him to work for the good of the world instead of his own desires he could be such an asset in the war. But I have to let him evolve in his own way; that's how genesis works. I can guide but not force." She sighs again. "Why couldn't it have been someone nice?"

The bell on the door jingles as Name enters. Summer makes brief introductions.

"Name?" Callista seems confused. "Do you want a new... appellation? I could make you one."

Karla, Fennel, Mystery Guests
Name goes in search of Summer, leaving a pall of gloom in his wake. Lieutenant Fennel shudders, then scurries to catch up with Karla again. As they advance through the castle the UN troops and revolutionaries join forces to sweep the place.

The castle is vast. Karla strides past bunk chambers for Ordina's minions, massive reactors, rooms of humming power conduits, kitchens, two separate throne rooms, control rooms, laboratories, surgeries...

That Ordina has been experimenting on humans here is undeniable. The remains of his experiments are everywhere: half-formed creatures in tanks of formaldehyde or laid out on dissection tables, human-sized cages, blood, patient records. It seems that the psoglavs weren't pulled from some mythic realm but constructed from whoever Ordina could get his hands on.

In the kennel, Karla finds the woman in red. She sits on the floor amid large cages lined with hay, legs folded underneath her.

"They're not coming back, are they?" she says. The blindfold doesn't seem to hamper her ability to perceive you at all. "I did what I could to ease the suffering, but there's a limit to what I can get away with."

Lieutenant Fennel is muttering into his radio, informing command that he's found the woman in red. Karla's superhuman hearing picks up confirmation in the muted hiss of words coming back; Fennel's new orders are to kill the woman on sight.

"She's an unarmed civilian," Fennel hisses into his radio, at a level that a normal human might not catch. The response is unequivocal: if he doesn't put a bullet in her now, the UN has guided missiles on standby.

OOC: And then several things will happen more or less at once, so Karla can have a chance to act before they do.

[DukeGod]

"No. But I'm older than the word if it helps. Even if I only started using it only centuries ago"

Name takes a sit, pulling a chair from one of the tables if necessary. Without asking et all. He never bothered with education really

"I am the Baron of Nights and Black Holes. Pleased to meet you

[The_Snark]

"No, they're not," Karla agrees, only half listening to the woman. Luckily, she is an immortal Power and therefore perfectly capable of carrying on a conversation with less than half of her attention. Luckily, because otherwise — between the ghastly pseudomedical experiments and the not-exactly-blind woman — she might well have missed Lieutenant Fennel's quiet exchange with his superiors. And that would have been a shame, because it's a fascinating exchange and could potentially get everyone here (except her) killed.

Karla steps over to the lieutenant's side, plucking his gun from its holster and firing it twice into the ceiling. The sharp retort echoes around the stone chamber —

— yes, stone; the walls are stone, the cages are stone, the machines are stone, even the flayed specimens and gestating monstrosities are stone, forming a kind of grotesque Boschian frieze in three dimensions —

— and Karla gestures towards Fennel's radio, inviting him with a raised eyebrow to lie to his commanding officer. If he doesn't, well... she's still holding the gun.

Using Karla's Gift to petrify everything in the room that's not a person. Just for effect! Aspect should cover the gun trick.

[potatocubed]

Cafe
"Older than the..." Callista looks surprised but takes it in her stride. "That's pretty old. Well, I guess this is the sort of thing you expect among the nobles. I'm Callista, Marchessa of Genesis. What brings you two to Hrasny?"


--

Stone Room
Fennel pauses, his senses reeling somewhat under the sudden change in his surroundings. He had thought war had killed his ability to be shocked. He clicks the 'speak' button on his radio with a mechanical slowness.

"She's dead," he says, his voice shaking. He clicks the radio off again.

"What the hell?" he asks, just in general. He gestures at the room, at the woman in red. "What the h--"

There is a cloud of smoke and Cesar is there, fury written across his face. He levels both guns at the woman in red, a gesture presumably lost if she cannot see it.

"Where is he?!" he shouts, his voice impossibly loud, reverberating around the stone room. "Where has Ordina gone?"

"I don't know," the woman says. "I only went to him for protection. You have to--"

Fennel gasps and twitches strangely; Karla recognises the subtle signs of possession as someone else pours themselves into his skin. Suddenly, everything moves very fast - Karla's perception of time slows to a crawl as her immortal mind accelerates to keep up.

Fennel lunges for Cesar, swatting aside Cesar's bullets as the freedom fighter counterattacks - the tiny projectiles leave trails of blood on Fennel's hands and arms. At the last moment Cesar's body dissipates into billowing smoke and Fennel's punch passes through him to split the stone wall.

Simultaneously the lieutenant comes for Karla, a graceless kick delivered with such speed and power that even her preternatural speed isn't enough to stop it. It strikes with a force such as she has never experienced before, enough to wound even her - until she calls on deeper truths of her nature, and the eternity of stone remains unchallenged.

Only the woman in red remains undefended as the cyclone of death descends upon her as well.

Miracles!
Fennel - or rather, whoever is driving him at the moment - is using an Aspect 4 miracle of 'kill everyone in the room' with Strike 2 from his Bond "There is nothing I cannot destroy." That's enough to overpower Karla's Aspect 5 (since Strike grants miraculous edge) but it fails against her immortality. Likewise it blasts through Cesar's defence but his Elemental gift saves him from harm.

The woman in red has nothing to compare to this, and is going to catch an Aspect 4 miracle in the face if no one defends her.

[DukeGod]

"I'm not sure about that. I'm particularly old for a Noble I believe."

He smiles. Than loses the smile. He tried to remember just how old he was and found himself stuck once more at the memories he lost. How old was he by then? When Tezcatlipoca gave him the mantle of Nobility. What was wherever it was again? He was forgetting that too...
Back to serious then

"Oh. Right now, we're chasing some skirts. The skirts of a red dress which seems to be particularly sought these days as a matter of fact. Would you know anything of that?"

[potatocubed]

Cafe
"The woman in red!" Callista makes a frustrated gesture with her hands. "What is it with her? She's just some weird mortal alchemist or something."

She sighs, drinks some of her tea.

"She showed up in Hrasny about a week ago and asked for Harkany's protection - I don't know from what, but I think she must have been pretty desperate to go to him. She calls herself the Healer, and she lived up to it; since she arrived she's spent pretty much all of her time trying to smooth the edges of what Harkany's been up to - healing wounds, removing pain, that sort of thing. He treated her like some sort of trump card, like she was part of some grand scheme of his - but we've seen how that worked out."

She takes another drink, but remembers something else mid sip.

"Mm!" She swallows. "Ow, that was hot. Anyway, I don't believe for a minute that she's blind. You just have to watch her move to know that. I don't know if the blindfold's an affectation, a ritual thing, or what. Same with the whole 'wearing red' deal. You won't ever catch her in any other colour. Not even orange or pink. Just red, red, red."

"Like I said, weird. Marco reckons there's something funny going on with her, but he's a conspirator at heart. What's your interest?"

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer smiles. "It's an Imperetor directive without an details kind of thing. Do you know where we can find her? Actually, hold that thought, can you create a new connection between me and her? I know a way to find her quickly."

[potatocubed]

Cafe
"I can do that," Callista says.

There's no external sign that she's done anything - no gestures, or magic words, or sudden surge of power - but somewhere inside Summer feels herself reshaping in line with Callista's will. The sensation is uncomfortable but not unpleasant, so long as you don't resist.

"I really hope it wasn't you she was looking for protection from."

Miracle!
Callista's using a lesser creation to give Summer a surface wound - which works out as a 1-point Bond with the Healer, that you can define as you like.

[The_Snark]

As the room explodes into a flurry of motion, Karla remains unmoved, a pinnacle of stability amidst the chaos. Just before the storm reaches the woman in red, she reaches out and with the power granted to her commands it to stop. The unfortunate lieutenant calcifies, his body turning ashen gray.

"Cesar. How nice of you to drop by."

Using the Gift again to turn Fennel to stone from the neck down. I'll hold off on any further action or talking until I know whether that worked.

[Fouredged Sword]

"Excellent. Thank you for providing that. If you will excuse us." Summer then takes names by the arm. "We have a woman to see."

Summer then folds space (same as to get to this city) and moves herself and Names to the woman in red, closing it behind us.

The bond is that I do not want her to come to harm.

[potatocubed]

Together Again!
In a blink of emptiness, Summer and Name arrive in the stone room - they have moments to take in what's going on before being swept up into the chaos.

The lieutenant is briefly petrified - long enough for the woman in red to dive clear of a blow that would have crushed her ribs - before a bleak and consuming power surges up from within him to undermine his stony state. The feeling is unmistakable to all of you: Fennel has used the World-Breaker's Hand.

Cesar tries to reform but cannot remain solid for more than a few moments before Fennel's now-stony limbs force him to adopt smoke form once more.

"It's been a long time," Fennel says, and the light of challenge that gleams in his eyes isn't even close to human, "since I've broken an immovable object." He grins at Karla and his punch carries with it the sort of force that could split the world asunder - the shockwave certainly does a number on the castle, blasting the stone walls of the chamber outwards and causing the entire, ancient structure to lurch and sway.

Technicians and other inhabitants of the building scream as it starts to crumble around them, and the celebratory mood outside dims as people slowly realise that the castle may not be staying upright for long.

Miracles!
Fennel is sustaining his Aspect 4 Strike 2 'kill everybody in the room' miracle, so since Name is now in the room he's going to have to defend himself. Summer is also in the room but Fennel can't detect her so she's safe for now. Also the Healer/woman in red is going to need protecting again.

He used WBH to destroy the property of his stone body that it cannot move.

His attack on Karla is an Aspect 8 miracle of 'killing Karla' with Strike 2 from 'there is nothing I can't destroy' and, just because, Strike 2 from 'gratuitous collateral damage' - even though they don't stack. That's sufficient to put a deadly wound past even an immortal power. How will you defend?

[DukeGod]

"No wait, Summer don't..."

Too late, he's already in the room

"...get me anywhere close to a mortal...Oh too late"

Name gets in the midst of chaos. A thousand spells cross his mind but he knows better. None of them can match miraculous power. So, he will have to bring his own. Time to start showing off

As soon as the enemy begins the attack on Summer he brings his own power into hand. Thus, he summons his first miracle, wishing his Estate to come to him, and ending the day around. The sky blackens, the moon shows itself and starts come up one by one. Night was there

Than he focuses on his own hand. It carries the wrong feeling that the man brough not long ago aswell. Pure destruction lashes out, acting as his executor.

He almost wonders wether he or Fennel had more power but it was almost irrational to consider himself weaker. Aniway, his World Breaker's Hand reaches into the punch he is throwing at Karla and ends all force in it, sundering the sheer strength and rending it harmless

And next, before Fennel can do anything, he wills himself stronger, faster, perfect. He can't bring a lot of power of that but he can bring just enough to make match part of him. And then he cloaks himself in Night, his black cape becoming just as beautiful and deadly, reducing all power in the room that is not his

"Is this truly how you want to play?"

First, name is burning 4 MP of Domain to Summon a Night to him. This allows him to use his World-Breaker's Hand, using it against Fennel's Aspect to kill Karla and using it to destroy it's property of "damaging or destructable in any way"

Than, he is burning yet another 4 MP, this time of Aspect to a miracle of "Protect Everyone" and invoking his bond of "I want to be heroic (2)" for an Aspect 4 Strike 2 miracle matching Fennel's

AND THEN he summons a Divine Mantle with his last MP of Domain
(this would be likely better used first, but Name prioritized things this way. Save Karla, Protect Himself and Others, Whatever else he can do to help)

EDIT: Damnit, forgot to close the spoiler

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer looks at the raving Fennel. She looks sad for a moment before drawing her will into herself and stiffening her lip. She hates herself for doing this, bu tit needs to be done. She pulls from deep within herself and touches the coldest, darkest corner of her being and reaches out with that vicious aspect...

...and touches his life force, leaving in it's place an empty hole in reality desperately consuming all that maintains his body and mind.


Ok, big spending round for everyone. Summer is using 4 persona MP to create a rank 8 persona effect of "Fennel's lifeforce is a hole in reality that lacks the substance to support life, seeks to be filled with life, and is weakened by that very act of being filled.

This is supported by my temporary bond 1 of "I do not want the woman in red to come to harm"

[The_Snark]

Space twists as the distance between here and elsewhere is robbed of substance, and Night spreads its cloak throughout the room. Karla ignore her siblings' arrival. There are more important things to deal with just now.

A frown creases her face as lifeless Fennel springs into life once more. It is a fundamental tenet of Stone that it remains immobile, unmoved and unbowed by the vagaries of an inconstant world. It does not act. To render it animate is a transgression against what it should be. For this reason, Karla does not often call upon her Estate to obey her, but there are times when such violation is called for, and so it is that Karla holds up a hand and commands:


S t o p.

And though Fennel is not hers to command, and the malign will driving him is certainly not hers to command, the grey marble that now serves as his flesh is. She is Domina of Stone, and she demands obedience.

Karla is spending 4 DMPs to invoke a Lesser Animation of Stone and puppet Fennel's body. At the moment she's actually telling him *not* to be animated, but the principle is the same - she's controlling his motion. And just in case, let's burn the last DMP to add a point of Strike to that.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer hesitates just before the strike, long enough to see him just sorta stop. She clams herself and steps back from the edge. She shudders for a moment and takes a deep breath.

"Thanks for stopping him Karla. I don't want to think about what I almost did to him."

I am assuming that Karla will invoke a flurry and preempts me.

[potatocubed]

In the blink of an eye Name is wrapped in the night; he meets Fennel in the centre of the room and there is a thunderclap of force as the stone soldier and black-clad noble collide - they lock together, straining against one another for supremacy.

"It's you," Fennel grinds out. His lips twist into a sneer. "The Judge has a plan for you. If you survive me."

Then his resistance abruptly fades as Karla seizes control of his stone body. Whoever is controlling him struggles for a moment, roaring with frustration at carnage denied to them - and with a final burst of miraculous power they abandon Fennel's body, leaving the man confused and petrified, yet somehow still mobile.

Cesar finally reforms. "What is going on? Who was riding that soldier? And where is Ordina?"

"Protect me," the woman in red says. She stands, shakily, and reaches out. "My sisters have chosen you as their target and I can help you fight them, but they will kill me if they catch me. I throw myself on your mercy."

From all around comes the sound of groaning stone and steel. Hrasny Castle, weakened by the untamed forces unleashed within it, is starting to topple.

And somewhere far away but getting closer by the second, a guided missile - its spirit tormented until it vibrates with incandescent rage - slices through the air to finish the job.

Miracles!
'Fennel's last miracle was a lesser creation of 'It Gets Worse' - which is why the castle's falling down and someone's fired an enhanced missile at you. They're both mundane-scale threats, but powerful ones.

[The_Snark]

Karla steps across the room and seizes the lieutenant by the chin, angling his head first one way and right so that she can examine him. Then she leans in and kisses him, roughly. Rock climbers and stoneworkers sometimes talk about the granite kiss, the myriad of tiny scratches and bruises that one is invariably left with after spending any amount of time working with rocks. It's a lot like that.

"You," she tells him, "belong to me." Just in case anyone wasn't clear on that.

And then she's all business again. "Name, we may or may not have guided missiles incoming. Be a dear and do something about that, will you? Cesar, if you run off again I will hunt you down. Ordina will have to wait while we sort this out. You —" she points to the woman in red "— you're coming with us. Summer..."

She glances around the shuddering castle. "Find some way to make yourself useful for once, will you?"

Claiming Fennel as... an ordinary Anchor? A wondrous Anchor? I feel like he's probably ordinary, despite being a walking stone statue. He doesn't do anything magical, he's just a soldier who got caught in the miraculous crossfire. The Bond is, "Lieutenant Fennel belongs to me."

Let me know if this needs Strike to get through an existing Bond or Affliction or whatnot - I'm assuming that whoever possessed him has a general link to the UN or something, rather than claiming him specifically. On the plus side, if it's a Bond I can probably nettle them afterwards.

[DukeGod]

No point arguing. Taking a better look at the incoming missiles he realizes they are quite far away but approaching quite fast too. They could possibly get out before they hit but there were probably mortals in that castle and even if none of them had asked him for protection he still should save them.

The missiles were far, but they had two flaws: The first is that they existed, and the second is that they were within the universe which meant they were in the range of Name's most destructive powers

In the end, using it on Fennel was unneeded, so, time to do it again. But this time it wasn't such a hurry. So, he releases the World Breaker's Hand again. And as it reaches the missiles, he begins to attack them, again and again and again and again and again. Bit by bit he destroy every way they have of reaching, of causing damage, of holding together. Either of the ways could probably do the jop and stop them, but it was a weird day

World Breaker's Hand. He's destroying the missiles capability of mantaining estructural integrity, rendering them to pieces, he's destroying the capability of the engines to generate energy, the capability of that energy to move something, he's destroying the explosive material incapable of exploding, rendering the entire missiles incapable of touching anything, rendering them incapable of exploding unless they collide, the metal incapable of remaining solid, the liquid metal incapable of remaining liquid, the gaseous metal incapable of being gas, the plasma incapable of affecting anything, among other things

In effect, if whoever was controlling Fennel is watching he's giving them a lesson of how exactly one should use a power capable of destroying ANY estate

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer sniffs at the slight. She sharply nods at the walls and they stop falling down. The damage appears to be a lot more superficial that it looked. Simple. Goes to show her who is useful!

The damage to the tower is without substance. That should keep it from falling down at least until I forget to keep the effect going.

[potatocubed]

The missile is systematically stripped of everything that contributes to its existence, its spirit at last falling screaming into nothingness along with its component parts. The castle ceases to collapse as investigation reveals the damage is almost entirely cosmetic. Even Cesar ceases his frenzied pursuit of Ordina, although he glowers at Karla as he does so.

For a moment, there is peace. The world takes a breath.

OOC
I think Karla can claim Fennel just because she's got a spare bond point open - you just spend it and say 'I choose you!'. This also neatly avoids any contention over whether he's mundane or wondrous - I think wondrous, since his property of being made of stone might be important at some point. Still, that's a matter for TMPs now.

Anyway, things are quiet for the moment. Take the opportunity to forward your own agendas.

[The_Snark]

Karla nods in satisfaction as quiet momentarily descends upon the castle. Finally.

"Right," she says to nobody in particular. "Let's get out of here before something else happens." She grabs Fennel's wrist and pulls him along behind her, beckoning everyone else along with a vague gesture.

"And while we're doing that, you." She points to the woman in red. "Start explaining."

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer sighs. No recognition whatsoever. It's like she isn't even there. She goes floats behind Karla as she leads the way.

[DukeGod]

Following the destruction of the missiles, Name walks around the now...well not destroying castle? And with a quick effort of will, shatters the chains holding the woman in red. But not to let her free, he quickly seizes her, holding her by her arm

"Wait Karla. Who did ask protection for? And what you meant by what came right after that?"

[The_Snark]

"I'm fairly certain she can walk and talk at the same time, Name," Karla observes, though she pauses anyway. Hadn't she literally just asked for the same explanation? "Now come on. I'd rather not hang around here."

[potatocubed]

The six of you walk out of the damaged-but-stable castle: the familia caelestis of Tezcatlipoca, Cesar the revolutionary, the stone man Tim Fennel, and the woman in red. Outside, confusion reigns, no one quite sure what's going on, but it's a benign sort of chaos: shooting and looting are kept to a minimum, people are toasting the removal of Harkany Ordina, and a few are praising whatever gods will listen for their deliverance.

You can feel a miracle at work, easing the transition, but its originator is unclear.

The woman in red leads you into a church not far from the castle. It is deserted but maintained, the candles still burning. The woman bids you sit, then stands before you to tell her story.

"I know of the valde bellum," she says, "the war between the imperators of the world and those you term excrucians, who come from the lands beyond. One of these excrucians has broken through from the spirit world into this one, and Tezcatlipoca is her target in all layers of reality. The wounds he bears were inflicted by Oreute Bryde in the process of her breakthrough. Your weakness--" she nods at Name "--is where Tezcatlipoca's power was severed by her."

All of you sense the weight in your souls as Tezcatlipoca signals confirmation of her story through the spiritual link you share with it. The name Oreute Bryde carries with it Tezcatlipoca's sense of struggle, mutual harm, and grudging respect.

"But the struggle is not one-sided," the woman goes on. "Bryde has been wounded also, and her purpose compromised."

She reaches behind her head and unties her blindfold. She takes a deep breath. When she looks up again, her eyes are a blank void dotted with stars.

"I am Oreute Bryde's wound. I am the Healer. I am here to warn you, and protect you as best I can from her wrath, and where possible undo the harm she causes. My sisters are also Oreute Bryde, but their purpose remains pure. They will test you to see if you are worthy to be excruciated: if you pass, they will move against you with all their strength; if you fail, you and everything you care about will be destroyed."

"Regarding my sisters, I can tell you this: you have met the Brute already, wearing the body of that poor man. She is a destroyer, plain and simple, and tears down whatever offends her. The Knight and the Assassin reflect other physical aspects of Oreute: the Knight is honourable, the Assassin cunning. The Thief has a similar nature to the Assassin but would rather steal than murder. The Diplomat is a creature of persuasion and social manipulation, who will strike at you through your friends and allies. And the Judge will punish you for your transgressions, but like the Knight she obeys certain rules that might shield you from her."

The Healer spreads her arms.

"I throw myself upon your mercy. I have little power of my own - certainly not enough to protect me from my sisters - but I am the keeper of all the things that Oreute Bryde has stolen from the world. I cannot give them back but I can use them in service to your cause."

OOC
Dun dun dun! :smalleek:

Oh, and I forgot: Karla can get +1 MP in all stats by conducting a nettle rite against the Brute, having swiped Fennel from her. It's the work of moments.

[DukeGod]

"I see. Good. This Brute of yours told me the Judge has a plan for me? So, she plans pass her judgement huh. And what a good target am I. How funny, I guess it couldn't have been better. To have these powers of mine one can only imagine they I was a monster during the times I can't rememeber. She will telle me what am I guilty of and I will at last know my past. And then all I have to do is destroy the Judge..."

He relaxes in his bench. Name claimed a bench just for him. He was lying down on it using his hands as a pillow

"Destroy us all and all that we care. How bad a plan. All three of us are more immortal than one would believe. And none of us have anything we truly care that we did not lost already. We can bear that loss once more."

He takes some time to breath. Once he starts speaking again his voice is not amused. It's calm, stating a fact. And all the more threatening

"Now, now, Ms. Healer. Give me three answers, one for each of us. What is your test? What is in specific that Oreute Bryde took from this world, and How can we be sure you will use those things to help us? Summer, render her lies void if you please. Oh and Ms. Healer? Don't think of spouting any more ridiculous nonsense such as what you said in the start of the story.
I have no weakness"

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer hesitates for a second listening to Names talk. Karla may be cold and hard, but it's easy to forget just how inhuman Names can be. He never fails to make her flinch deep down in her soul when he goes on about being immortal. He may not have things he cares about anymore, but she has too much still left to hold on to.

She then silently turns to the woman in red. Without a word she reaches out and touches the world.

Not wishing to hurt the lady's free will Summer chooses to preform a twofold effect. First she effects herself and her family. She causes their lack of knowledge to become lessened when filled. Then she turns to the lady in red. She makes her ability to conceal anything to do with us without substance.

The first effect is to try to miraculously create connections that may not have occurred to us without intervention. The second to try to pry more information from the woman in red without pushing her too far and hitting my bond

[potatocubed]

The Healer doesn't resist Summer's power. She lets the miracle settle over her.

"Three questions you ask, and three answers I will supply. The test of Oreute Bryde is one of escalation - new troubles arriving one atop the next until you are drowned in the sea of adversity."

As she says this, Karla feels a sudden pang of awareness. Somewhere in the world the estate of Stone is coming under attack. Uluru, the oldest stone, clutches his head and twitches in frustration. He is losing himself, somewhere, somehow.

The power of Summer's clarifying miracle suggests that this is Oreute Bryde at work again.

"I can call on echoes of the power of remediance, rayashtra, hadargoes, and a few other things. Remediance is... inverted radiation. Particles which heal and enhance rather than harm and debilitate. Rayashtra is the principle of life which thrives in adversity. Hadargoes are large, clever birds of prey, much prized by falconers when they existed. All of these are estates which Oreute has previously found worthy and carried into the lands beyond creation."

"And as for how you can trust me... that I cannot answer. I present myself to you, an Excrucian shard loose in the lands of Creation, and I ask you to take me in based on nothing more than a story and the aggressive actions of two of my sisters."

At this point Cesar stands up.

"She's an excrucian by her own admission," he says. "I don't know what an excrucian is but I know it's bad - I can see it in your faces, hear it in her speech. I say we put a bullet in her, keep Creation safe."

OOC
The Healer voluntarily took a deadly wound from Summer's miracle: a 4-point Affliction of 'I cannot conceal information about Familia Tezcatlipoca from Familia Tezcatlipoca'.

Cesar has only been enNobled for a couple of days so he's a bit clueless, but an Aspect 4 brain makes up for a lot.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer looks sternly at him. "Stay your hand. She is currently under my protection. Cross me and you will find no place in the world with room for you to exist."

She is a person with an empty heart (she has no home or allies) and I also currently have a bond to prevent harm to her. If he crosses me I'm gonna send him to Tibet!

[The_Snark]

Karla hisses sharply. It's only a little sound, a sudden sucking breath of surprise like you might make if you were stuck with a needle, but it draws all ears nevertheless. This is a woman who has walked through hellfire and godthunder, who brushes aside bullets like raindrops, who once made a bed of stinging nettles and slept in it. And something has hurt her.

She pretends otherwise, of course. A moment later, she's all business again.

"She lives," Karla says in a voice that does not brook disagreement. "She is of interest to our lord—and so are you." She levels a finger at Cesar. "And until we know precisely what your significance is, neither of you is going to die."

"They're starting." She tilts her head, staring at one of the walls with a distracted look.

Can I tell approximately where the attack is centered? Or will that take a Domain miracle of some sort?

[potatocubed]

Uluru is another name for Ayr's Rock, in Australia. So the location is an easy one. Anything more than that is going to take a domain miracle, I think.

[DukeGod]

Name sighs and stands up. As he approaches The Healer he looks at her, actually taking the hair off his face to do so better. It had a somewhat cool effect

Name was not human. He was mostly human-looking but there were differences here and there. In his mind he questioned why humans looked so much like him...

In any way, his eyes were easily the most spottable difference. First things first they had an inverted pattern. His sclera were black and his pupils white. His irises were weird too, one of them half green, half orange, the other half dark blue, half-purple, in a mish-mash of various tones of either, causing a somewhat psychedelic look

"Cesar. Hold your hand. End of story...Healer, are you mortal?"

All of that is of course stopped cold the moment Karla looks somewhere else. He didn't think that happend when someone was in a conversation unless she had good reason

"What are you talking about, sister?"

[The_Snark]

"Attack," Karla said in a clipped voice. "Somebody is beginning a flower rite upon my Estate. It could be a coincidence, but I rather doubt it. Oreute Bryde's test is beginning." She tsks in irritation. Between this and the business with Cesar that she has yet to sort out, she's already feeling cramped. Karla is endlessly patient, but does not care to be rushed; in this she is very much a creature of her Estate.

"Well. I suppose we can't ignore it; some of us will have to go to Australia. But we'd better start thinking how we're going to defeat or elude this test. I don't intend to spend the next few years running around the world chasing one crisis after another." She frowns at the others. "I suppose we ought to take you with us, if only to keep an eye on you," she says to the Healer, "and I still need to talk with you." This to Cesar.

Lastly she considers Fennel, who has been silent these last few minutes. Shocked, very likely. Even for a statue, it's an awful lot to take in. "What are you thinking?"

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer thinks for a second.

"Well the thing is that there are two places to go looking for answers. First is the attack, the second is to chase down the crazy dictator man to see how he is involved. Normally I would say that we can't do both at once without spiting the party, but there is no reason a noble can't be in two places at once.

Here is what I think we can do. We take a quick pit stop for me to run an errand, then we all go meet this attack head on. Corrosion of the world must be stopped.

While we do that Karla and I shall take her new anchor and one of my many and investigate the situation here further."

[potatocubed]

Fennel looks at Karla, then at his stone body.

"I'm thinking... that I'm a soldier. I don't know what to do with the problems of the world. I don't even know what the world is, any more - a lot bigger than I thought it was."

"But this isn't - wasn't - my first tour. I've been under fire, I've killed people before they were able to kill me. I don't know who the enemy is but you seem to have one: if you put me between them and you I'll do my best to hold the line. That seems like the sort of thing I can do while I work out the rest of what's going on."

He shrugs. "Deal with what you can, I suppose."

"She is the enemy," Cesar says, pointing at the Healer.

"A prisoner of war?" Fennel suggests.

"Or a spy," Cesar replies. "Your decision, your risk. Karla - you want to talk to me? Here I am. Talk."

OOC: If Summer wants to run her errand, I'll accelerate things to Australia-and-also-Hrasny if you want to investigate further here.

[DukeGod]

"We can find Ordina later. We're going to Australia"

Name takes Healer's hand and holds it tight. A second later he does it with Cesar's hand too

"You want to shoot her? Well you get to shoot a different version of her. No need for warping space Summer, this is easy task, common magic will do. Pick a hand and hold it"

Teleporting would be simple enough for him. Even if it involved so much people. He was after all the most powerful sorcerer.

[potatocubed]

Australia
Name's magic takes hold. The interior of the church dissolves away and suddenly you are outside on a dusty plain, dotted with scrub. Here it is close to midnight: the air is bitingly cold and the heavens vault above you, every star clear outside the cities.

To the north are the lights of Yulara, the nearest settlement. To the south you can see Uluru - Ayer's Rock - poking over the horizon and illuminated from below - which is strange, as normally the rock is left dark as nature intended.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer looks quizzically at the rock.

"So, Karla," she comments "is the rock supposed to be glowing? Cuz I think we may have found our problem."

[DukeGod]

Name starts walking towards the rock

[The_Snark]

"No." Karla doesn't bother looking in Summer's direction as she answers. "It is not supposed to glow like that." She's striding towards the plateau as well, long legs eating up the distance at a brisk pace that she could maintain... well, forever.

"That is Uluru, the first stone," she explains after a minute or so of walking in silence, apparently feeling that—having dragged the others halfway across the world on short notice—she owes them some explanation. "Better known as Ayer's Rock in the modern age."

Not very much explanation, though.

[potatocubed]

Uluru
The glow on the stone proves to have an entirely prosaic - although still unusual - source: powerful searchlights have been placed at the base of the stone to cast their light upwards along its flanks. What looks like a small industrial enclave has been set up at the foot of Uluru, and next to it a spontaneous shanty town of protesters is spotted with anti-corporate placards and banners. Hard-looking security men patrol the enclave to keep undesirables out.

This is notably strange: as a national park neither group should be permitted to be here, yet here they are and the authorities are nowhere to be seen.

OOC: Uluru is a place where mythic and prosaic reality overlap to a high degree - it's possible for Nobles to just talk directly to spirits here, and even mortals can do it with a little altered consciousness.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer feels the crowd looking for her connection to her book fans.
Feeling around to see if I have anchors in the crowd

[potatocubed]

OOC:
A few, here and there.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer taps into the the empty hole in their hearts that seeks the romance of her novels. Once inside she connects her power to them, but lightly. Her majesty is riding within, rather than controlling them as a puppet. She is looking for context to what is going on. She reaches back into their memories to see why they are here.

Summer is going to use treasure 2 for a guidance effect and use that to poke the mortals to understand what is going on. They all get +4 to any relevant skill or passion to understand what is happening with this protest due to shine.

[DukeGod]

"I tought an Excrucian attack would be...a lot more direct actually....

He looks at all the reflectors and crews and everything

"I wonder what those construction guys want with the rock"

[potatocubed]

"Some of my sisters are straightforward in their ways," the Healer says. "The Brute, for example, favours direct destruction. But the Judge, the Diplomat and the Thief are all more oblique. Perhaps this attack was engineered by one of them."

Summer
OOC: Technically it takes about an hour to attune yourself to an anchor which is one of a group, but I'm not too fussed about that at the moment because it's just an infodump.

I'm also entertained by the idea that with your shine her act of considering the situation moves her "closer to her goals". Just having you in her head makes her more likely to live a satisfying life!

You settle gently into the mind of one of your readers - she cares so much, you realise, about the people around her, about the world - and nudge her towards consideration of the matter at hand.

They've found something under Uluru, she remembers, although with the clarity granted by your presence she realises that she's not clear who 'they' are or what 'something' might be. Somehow Bates Chemicals got permission to blast their way into the rock - and that's not right, she thinks, how did they manage that? - and the protesters appeared overnight, as they do, to stop them.

And now everything's deadlocked. The protesters block Uluru with their bodies, preventing blasting, Bates tries to get the authorities to move them along, and the authorities don't want to be involved.

Something else in her train of thought catches your attention; the protesters have got religion, although it's not one either you or she recognises. They wear yellow, and take some sort of powdered drug that they claim gives them visions of the dreamtime. Your host files this away under 'good hearted people with bad habits' and avoids their gatherings.

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer passes on the information she learned. "Bates chemical wants to blast under the rock. I assume that is bad for rocks in general. The protesters are stopping it so far, government doesn't want to get involved. I think the attack is the Bates company, but there is a funny religion think with strange powder drugs that worries me. I think they actually have something that works, and that could complicate things. They druggies wear yellow.

I say we do some little things to tip the balance for the protesters and get Bates out of here and see what the counter move is. That will tell us more about who is plotting and what position they hold on the board. Let me nudge the crowd without any real power use yet, just to see what happens."

If nobody protests, Summer will go intangible and invisible, then wrap her emptiness around herself until that is all that can be seen, even by those who have eyes that can see invisibility. She then floats among the crowd, keeping an eye out for the guys in yellow and whispering in the ears of protesters to "get rid of Bates without violence"


Ok couple of actions.
Naturally hidden due to people not knowing my name, actively invisible due to gift, and then "my ability to be found is without substance" persona 4 effect. More actively hidden after being burned last time by Mr. sneaky.

Summer is gathering more direct information about the people in yellow while lending her shine to the efforts to remove Bates. An additional 4 to passions and skills for the crowds ought to bend the outcome in that favor.

[The_Snark]

"Or we could just kill them all," Karla mutters with a glance at Name. It seems the attack has her in a bad mood. "Problem solved. Wouldn't take you more than a minute."

But she does not press this point. Let Summer play her games and try to save the mortals; there'll be time to kill them later if need be, and who knows? They might even learn something. She can be patient.

The Power sits on the dry cracked earth, and waits, and watches.

Going to survey the area from afar with the Sight, and see if Karla can pick out anyone with a connection (antagonistic or otherwise) to her Estate.

[potatocubed]

Summer moves among the crowd, lending her personal blessing to efforts intended to get rid of the chemical company - not that there's much direct opposition going on. A lot of noise is being made, but the prevalent feeling is that if they obstruct the blasting for long enough the chemical company will just go away; no need to do anything, simply to be there.

The yellow-clothed cultists, though - they're doing something. Again, nothing to do with Bates Chemicals; they seem to be recruiting. They share their little bags of powder, which when inhaled promotes fractured visions of... the past? the mythic realm? It's difficult to tell from listening to them talk. But they share the powder and then comes the pitch.

The religion itself seems to be fairly standard Earth-centrist eco-friendly peace-and-love fare, but they're extremely well-educated about the true structure of the universe. The core of the cult, about a dozen people, are going with a soft sell approach but in conversations among themselves the names Cneph and Yggdrasil pop up often enough to not be a coincidence.

Also, the inner circle all have a strange henna 'tattoo' marked onto the palms of their left hands, an ornate curling design that resembles a pair of closed eyes or perhaps a balance scale, depending on how you look at it.

Meanwhile, back in the desert, Karla scours the area with her gaze looking for connections to her estate. Uluru sits in the background, a massive presence, important to Stone in a way few other things are. Uluru-the-Spirit, clear to her Sight and as important as the rock itself, sits sprawled across the top of the rock, a deep frown across its features as it peers down at the humans below.

But the humans... Bates Chemicals are antagonistic to Stone. They have aligned themselves against her estate. More surprisingly, the cult in yellow who move among the protesters are also her enemies. They too represent an assault on Stone, although just how seems unclear.

"This is boring," Cesar says. "I could tear that chemical plant apart just by myself. Why are we waiting?"

[DukeGod]

"Because family makes things complicated..."

Name crosses his arms but doesn't sit

"I won't kill the humans unless I absolutely have to. Now, if you want their machines destroyed, they're as good as gone..."

[Fouredged Sword]

Summer takes a detour and decides to look under the stone to see what the fuss is about, then heads off to meet up with the rest of the the group.

[potatocubed]

The mythic and prosaic worlds are close here. Under Uluru is just rock, solid and eternal; but also under Uluru is a vast chamber with stone tablets on stone shelves, each inscribed with tiny runes in a language you've never seen before. Reading a couple suggests that they're some form of diary, recording the perceptions and thoughts of Uluru-the-spirit throughout the ages.

[The_Snark]

"We wait because we wait." Karla's eyes are closed now. Her body is entirely still now, sprawled carelessly across the cracked desert soil; she does not move, not to speak or blink or breathe. In the early morning gloom her outline is difficult to separate from that of the earth. One could almost imagine a wandering protester or miner stumbling across her in the dark and mistaking her for a stone outcropping, hard and immobile as her Estate, waiting—as Stone does—for timeless eternities to pass, until at last wind and wave reduce her to dust.

Employing a lesser Incarnation miracle to become one with Uluru. This may take some time - convenient, as I'm going to be away from home for the next week or so. Back next Friday!

[potatocubed]

Becoming one with Uluru is simple for Karla; in some ways it embodies Stone in the world, ancient and unchanging, heavy both physically and in terms of its spiritual weight.

Uluru feels the mayfly humans buzz around him like insects, not quite understanding why they have gathered. Karla, riding his mind, feels old - ancient in a way that her pre-Noble self could never have imagined. Even the mind of a creature like Uluru can't hold all that history, so he stores it in his library: writing the story of the world onto stone tablets and arranging them one at a time on stone shelves in his spiritual sanctum under the stone.

This, Karla understands, is where the blasting is aiming for. It might be possible for Bates to explode their way into the memories of Uluru, it might not be, but it seems they are primed to try.

But they are not the only threat: the memories slide away from Uluru like water, not stone. One by one, seemingly at random, the tablets are vanishing and the stone's memories go with them. This is the assault on Stone that she felt in Hrasny, but the perpetrator remains obscure.