Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

Selekhael's little flock honestly seems...

Relieved?

They weren't sure what to expect.

It isn't every day that a pair of actual gods show up in your town, run off some iron giants, and bestow most of the village with their blessing.

Some seem a bit concerned.

How will their old gods respond to all this? Others are less so. What good are silent gods that let people die from famine and disease and war? Aren't living gods better? Gods who will defend them? There are a few questions about... sacrifices, too. Will a maiden still need to be buried alive in a wicker basket every spring to ensure a good harvest?

That gets a bit of an eye-twitch out of Zee, but she holds her tongue. She's already spoken with her smaller flock and encouraged them, strengthened them. Reassured them. Reminded them that the Path of Strengthening isn't the only Path. To be patient and to build up those around them. Especially those that choose to adhere to the ways of the old gods. Zee told them to not to ostracize the others, but to show them through their actions that their Path is superior to that of the old gods. But... human sacrifice? That can't be tolerated. Worship all they want but it needs to be clear that murder to appease the silent gods is NOT okay.

As for, Selekhael will have some idea of how she works. She doesn't need food or drink offerings. She doesn't need blood sacrifice or children passing through the fire. She doesn't need special rituals performed on specific days. All she needs is the sacrifice of their deeds. Live up to her Path and that's all she requires of them.

Onyx, meanwhile, has returned to his family in the crowd. Their home was pretty closet to the village square and thankfully suffered only minor damage when the iron giants came. They've all be consecrated by Selekhael but Onyx finds that he doesn't mind so much. Onyx' mom seems deeply relieved that her boy is still alive after being so foolish and heading off for a better look at the giants. She scolds him, certainly, but he's forgiven when he asks for mercy. He understands now how terrible of a choice that was and will be more careful in the future. There are hugs all around.

When all is said and done, the crowd will begin heading back to the village with Zee joining them. After all, she's promised to use her heavenly touch to help repair the damage to the village.

But...

There's probably one person who's really going to want to talk to Selekhael one on one.

The mech pilot.

[bc56]

Lunch Time
She's a wiry, athletic woman, with more than a few scars to her name and reddish brown hair dyed a darker, earthy brown. Once, she was a gladiator in the Solaris Games, then a mercenary. She did what she had to to survive.
This job was supposed to be easy. Just extort money and raw materials from this village that had never seen a gun before, let alone a BattleMech. They didn't expect to be stopped by a pair of literal gods, nor did she expect to actually feel guilty about this afterwards. The desire to be absolved of her guilt pulls her to the shrine in the valley alongside the crowd of villagers. She looks and feels out of place, wearing a lightly armored pilot's suit and carrying a sidearm.

A speech is given. Could it be so simple? Just confess to this goddess? As the crowd disperses, she lingers. The goddess who destroyed her Blackjack retreats into the temple... Does she dare disturb her?

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

Maybe this is what they get for thinking they could carry on like they always did in the Nexus.

Sure, you might be able to push one village but then a couple of literal gods show up and stomp on you.

How are you supposed to account for that in a mission? You don't. You just get splashed everywhere like Dobson and his mech did. She had seen smaller mechs get nailed with heavy railgun rounds before but it wasn't anything like that. Everything above the legs was just gone.

Selekhael had taken her mech apart like a lion shredding a goat. And she had watched from the sidelines when Yezekiel just pulled out her Blackjack's reactor and swallowed it like a raspberry. The power of these... gods? it was insane. And in spite of that they want... what? For people to be forgiving? Is that really it?

As the crowd begins dispersing she fidgets nervously. The first time she killed someone she had felt sick, her conscience weighing heavily on her. But the more she killed, the less she felt bad about it. It was just a job. She was just trying to survive.

But being in the presence of Selekhael, it was like all those memories, all those feelings, that nagging conscience had come back with a vengeance. She felt like a greenhorn again, all that guilt weighing down on her.

Pausing at the threshold to the... chapel? Church? Shrine? Whatever it is. Her breath hitched. Could she just walk in and chat with a goddess?

Hell.

She hadn't gotten anywhere by being timid.

Time to anti-up.

Sandra DuBah, mercenary, murderer, and mechwarrior bereft of mech steps inside shrine.

"Uh... hey?" she tries. That's definitely the right way to address a god, idiot.

[bc56]

Lunch Time
"Uh, yes? Come in." That's hardly something a goddess says to her supplicants, silly. Selekhael inwardly cringes at herself. Shouldn't she say something like "yes, my child?" But this lady looks older than her and... Not like the villagers. ""Hi, uh, what's wrong?" She can tell instinctively that this visitor has something which needs to be forgiven. There's no hate or malice in her eyes towards the one whose weapon she so viciously destroyed not long ago. The goddess shows only compassion.
Could she really be so genuine? A mercenary never trusts their employer fully - there's always something more going on behind the scenes, and mercenaries are usually considered disposable assets. Selekhael isn't employing Sandra, but she must profit from this seeming generosity somehow.

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

Oh.

That was way more casual than Sandra was expecting. It actually puts her at ease, a little. Less like dealing with a strict commander and more like... just a person she should be polite to? That's easier for her to get her head around.

"I haven't ever really done, y'know, religious stuff before. But, heh, it sounded like you might be kind of new at this too? So maybe we're both going to figure out how the hell this-"

A beat.

"Oh, uh, I shouldn't... is it bad to swear in front of you?"

She's honestly go no idea.

After that false start she tries again.

"I've done... a whole lot of bad sh-uh. Stuff. Bad stuff. And for the first time in forever I feel pretty terrible about it. Like maybe I need to start over and take another shot at life."

God this is so awkward.

[Vahnavoi]

[Shore of a Distant Island]

"I don't know where your mother is, but we can try finding her. Come!" Calm Reed says. She doubts the creature can understand her, but hopefully the tone of her voice will encourage it to follow her. And get away from inhabited areas.

[Shore of a Distant Island]

"Maybe show us where you came from?" Rachel suggests softly, slightly concerned about having to explain why they were hanging around someone's yard. But if the creature retraced its steps, maybe it would lead to this thing's mother.

The monster stares at the two women, then slowly lets go of the fence and sets its palms on the ground, turning fully to face them. "Where I... came from?" It sounds confused, but a glint in its eyes suggests it's actually thinking of the question. "... dark. I came from the dark."

At this point, one of house owners gets out, a red-haired woman maybe in her thirties, probably to get her dog to shut up. She freezes at the sight of the monster. Thankfully, the monster has its back turned to her. If Rachel or Calm Reed manage to tell her to keep quiet, maybe it won't notice her.

[bc56]

Lunch Time
Selekhael doesn't seem too concerned about the swearing. She's heard worse. "It doesn't hurt me. When you swear, I mean." Hopefully that helps. Judging by a quick scan, this lady is the pilot whose mech Selekhael destroyed. "What's on your mind? You can tell me, I won't tell anyone else." She means it too. What kind of a goddess would she be if she used people's confessions for idle gossip?

[Ironsmith]

Codebreaker's Home

CB is honestly surprised that Kyrie doesn't seem to be resisting this act of generosity like the others. Perhaps the circumstance changes how he feels about it? That is the reason Codebreaker insisted on using money that already belonged to them after all. Hopefully Owena doesn't have any protests when she actually looks in.
"Good!" he looks about the room.
"...so what now?"

[Codebreaker's Home]

"...Well." Kyrie begins, returning to his seat and holding up the controller. "I believe we were in the middle of something. If I'm using the term right, you were... kicking my ass?"

Weird turn of phrase, he thinks. Contextually, he gathered it meant "inflicting a severe beating", but he failed to see how that connected back to harming a small beast of burden.

Elster
"I, for one, do not want to be trapped in this room waiting for death to come," Diablo says, jiggling the handle again, "If it's more secure, that just means we wait longer. Got a way to break this lock?" He's not worried about something getting onto the ship. He's already suspicious of the robots, he's worried they might be behind it. There's a reason his 'mech is wired so that it requires a pilot to move and shoot: if it could do those things on its own, it could be hacked.

[Elster]

The handle, predictably, does not budge.

"Of course I don't have a way to break this lock." Duffle grumbles. "The whole point of the lock is that it doesn't break!"

Meanwhile, outside the room, a chorus of electronic tones is picking up; near-instantly, every speaker on the ship is playing the same five notes in order, on loop, in a steady cadence. Da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da... clearly synthetic, but the significance isn't readily apparent.

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

And so Sandra spills her guts.

About all the horrible things she's done.

All the terrible things she's thought.

Of the excuses she's made for herself, the justifications why it was okay in spite of the fact that she knew, she knew deep down that what she was doing was wrong.

She had taken that voice and shoved it into a dark place but now she can't ignore it anymore. She can't ignore it.

And as she speaks she can feel that burden getting lighter, like a great weight is slowly being lifted off her shoulders.

"I don't have to do any of that **** anymore, do I?" Sandra says, more a statement than a question. She wipes some misting from her eyes with a finger. "Any of that. I could just stay here. Live in... whatever this little town is called. There's nothing stopping me, is there?"

[bc56]

Lunch Time
And Selekhael listens. She doesn't speak out or interject, never makes any judgement, she just listens. And when all is said and done, she gives Sandra a hug. "You can. Help rebuild. These people will forgive you, especially if you show that you care, and you want to make things right." The lion-headed goddess smiles at her follower. "You trusted in me, so now it's my turn to trust in you."

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

Oh hey a hug.

Sandra was absolutely not expecting that.

For a moment her arms just sort of hang in there air since she's uncertain what to do.

She definitely wasn't expecting this literal god to give her a hug.

But after a few seconds she relaxes and hugs Selekhael back.

There!

That wasn't so hard, was it?

"Yeah... Yeah, you can trust me. I want to be worth forgiving," Sandra says as she steps away, looking back toward the shrine's door. She begins to walk away but, "What about the rest of my squad? Estara was riding off into the sunset and I think Larson was on foot after his escape pod got shredded. And Dobson..."

There's something of a haunted look.

"The other one, Yezekiel, she just splashed his mech... You can't... is Dobson just gone?"

The question here is pretty obvious. Can Selekhael and Yezekiel do anything for the dead?

[bc56]

Lunch Time
"I'm sorry. When m... Yezekiel shot his mech, that's it. It's beyond my power to heal. Maybe if I had all his, uh, atoms, I could... Wait, all his atoms? When? Nobody saw anything did they? I'll be right back!"

All she has to do is go back a bit over an hour, drift into the cockpit of a mech, grab the pilot, and return to her own time, just before the giant bullet hits. That's not that challenging, right?

Assuming she's successful, she won't have appeared to move, but she'll suddenly be holding onto a second mech pilot, confused at his sudden rescue/kidnapping.

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

Not that challenging, sure.

Just hopping back in time and snatching someone from the jaws of certain death.

Easy!

In Sandra's eyes it is as if Selekhael just sort of jitters and now she's holding Dobson by his harness like it was just a bad movie cut.

Sandra blinks, rubbing her eyes. Is this even real?

How could this even be real?

"Ah what the **** how did you-" the disoriented pilot begins only to suddenly find himself wrapped in a hug by Sandra.

"Oh my God, Dobson, I thought you were dead!" she cries.

"Could someone explain to me what the HELL is going on?" poor Lewis Dobson inquires.

To be fair it is pretty confusing.

[bc56]

Lunch Time
"You were about to die, so I saved you," Selekhael responds matter-of-factly, "I pulled you out of your mech moments before that big neutronium bullet hit it. You would have been vaporized." Hopefully that's enough explanation. She'll let the pilots hug it out some more.

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

"Time travel? Are you ****ing with me? What is going-" he begins, reaching for his side-arm-

Only for Sandra to put her hand over his, her eyes fixed on his own.

"I'll explain, okay? Just... let's go outside," she says, leading him toward the door.

Shortly after they leave the shrine Selekhael will hear Lewis shout, "GODS!? Are you out of your ****ing mind?"

There's some more talking after that, mostly the quieter kind. Selekhael's pretty great feline ears will be able to pick up bits and pieces of it. Talk about how the battle went. What happened afterward. Just how dumb it was to try fighting Selekhael and Yezekiel. Disbelief, expressed in several different ways. Where the rest of their lance is. Eventually it settles into making sure that the other is alright. What to do next. Whether they should try to find Larson and head back to base. Lewis wants to leave. Sandra wants them both to stay.

These two pretty clearly have feelings for each other, but it has been played very close to the chest. Very cautious. Very guarded. And while Sandra already carries Selekhael's consecration in her mind, she WAS exposed to Yezekiel while the seraphim was unbound.

Which might explain why she has enough Determination to pull Lewis into a kiss.

"I love you, you idiot. I'm not losing you again."

[Morty]

[Shore of a Distant Island]

Calm Reed briefly glances at the red-headed woman and shakes her head slightly. She can't raise her finger to her lips without giving the monster the wrong idea, though.

"You should come with us," she says. "We will help you find out where you are now."

[bc56]

Lunch Time
Inside the temple, lingering near the door, Selekhael smiles. Those two can decide where and how they want to live from here on out, she's sure they'll think of something. Her work here isn't done, but she's not sure if she can or should stay. She needs someone to mind her temple while she's gone, but once that is settled, she might need to move on.

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

That's a real question, isn't it?

It's pretty clear this place is meant to be tended to.

Or, at least, it exists as an option.

Zee won't be around to give any advice on the issue any time soon, though.

Why you ask?

Because she's back in the village proper helping with repairs. An empyrean can do some pretty phenomenal things when when they have access to both the Matter and Shape spheres along with the determination to accomplish. There's a pretty good chance that Zee isn't even repairing things herself, just cleaning things up and supplying the materials the villagers need. Better that they don't expect the empyreans to do all the work.

That is, after all, how Zee likes it. Giving others the little nudge they need to strengthen themselves and others.

But hey!

If Selekhael decides she wants to ask the seraphim what they should do next she's certainly free to do so.

[bc56]

Lunch Time
Selekhael isn't about to disturb Zee. She has a few days before she needs to leave anyway. Maybe she can get a local set up as a priest? Or just leave a message about just speaking to her in her shrine even if she's not there? She's not sure if she needs to be able to hear and answer prayers all the time, or if it would even work.
Ultimately, she can afford to wait. She has all the time in the world. She will change out of her priestess getup though, back into her normal dress.

Elster
"You're kidding me. Useless. Fine, let's do this the brutal way. Where in here is the locking mechanism?" Diablo gestures at the door.

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

Funny story.

Now that Selekhael has supplicants a new category has been added to her quest log.

Supplications.

Huh.

Maybe that's why they're called supplicants?

If Selekhael decides to start looking through them she'll notice several interesting points. Most notably, it doesn't sound like the majority of these quests actually involve her current supplicants, namely the ones in the village. But rather other situations around seaside that she could help with. Each quest involves, in some capacity, the application of her Path. And each quest also includes, among other rewards, how many supplicants can be gained from completing it.

This is probably what Zee meant when she was talking about gaining supplicants without resorting to force. Aiding others while embodying their Path is often enough to set a person they've helped down the road to consecration without forcibly placing a shard of themselves into their mind.

Obviously that route takes way more time than just eating a town but it has one notable difference. It increases Renowned rather than Infamy. And it feels like Selekhael's Infamy is sort of... waiting. Like a wound spring that could release at any moment. No one knows about what she has done (or will do) but once people are aware of it? There will probably be consequences of some kind. Definitely for Selekhael. Possibly for her supplicants, too.

The rest of the available supplicant quests are aimed at helping the followers she already has. Mostly it appears to be pretty mundane problems. This village just got trans-located here to a totally new location and while they have enough food to make it for several months the surrounding lands really aren't set up for crops. Illnesses. Broken bones from the battle. Worries about what the future holds. Mundane issues, for the most part. One might be particularly notable, however.

Prevent the Old Ways faction from secretly sacrificing a maiden to the Old Gods.

[bc56]

Lunch Time
Wooft. Now Selekhael understands why gods don't always answer prayers. It looks like a lot of work.

But what's this about a maiden sacrifice? That seems bad. In fact, she won't allow that to happen.
She accepts that quest and in a moment is back in a completely human guise. Then she does her best to sneak out of the temple and down to the village in search of the followers of the old gods.

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

It's probably easier for more abstract entities since they can just make things happen.

Maybe?

Of course, if Selekhael decided to make a messenger then THEY could carry out her will by proxy.

Just a matter of making an ophan and providing them with a mission.

Zee sort of does that, but she doesn't appear to send them on quests. She seems more fond of open-ended commands. Sort of like how Onyx was asked to just keep an eye on things around the village

But could Selekhael do that, too? Just... splinter off a piece of herself to fashion it into something that is like her, yet not her?

The potential is there.

Waiting to be used.

Anywho!

Sneaking.

If the two mech pilots notice Selekhael leaving they assume she's just a villager that was also talking to the local divinity, probably. There's no obvious way to connect her to the cat-headed winged entity unless one is more familiar with Selekhael when she isn't doing the whole god thing.

That means she can start heading back toward town. Noticing Yezekiel really isn't that difficult. She's unbound at the moment, standing in the midst of a group of people that have already been consecrated in the town square, which was largely xenoformed into firmament already by Selekhael earlier in the evening. The sun is already well on its way down and a soft light exudes from the seraphim, filling the area with warmth and encouragement. More specifically, she's using her Matter sphere to call forth stacks of bricks fashioned from glass, like mirror-sheened marrow filled with solid sunlight. The bricks are being used to patch up the damage that was caused by the earlier scuffle and in spite of all of this the mood appears to be festive. Yezekiel seems... happy? She's softly singing along with the villagers, picking up on their working tune. It has been a very, very long time since she has just been able to be herself around people without having to worry about... well. Everything? She appears to have acquired a garland of wicker and woven flowers at some point, which she's wearing as an almost comically tiny crown. There's a good chance she's using her Matter sphere to suppress its transmutation into materia.

One might think that the presence of the house-sized seraphim could cause more problems, but the objects near to her deform at her touch ever so slightly rather than breaking. A little bit of added gentleness to her presence.

The end of her tail is swishing back and forth to the beat of the song and more than a few children have piled atop it and are whooping with glee every time it moves.

Not all is festive, though.

In the dark of the streets, far from Yezekiel where her light does not reach, several scowling people watch the merriment with seething disdain.

-Discover the whereabouts of the Old Gods faction meeting.

Selekhael will feel a subtle tug toward those figures.

[bc56]

Lunch Time
On one hand, that makes sense. Of course villagers would also come to ask favors of their new goddess.
However, the shrine was empty when they were in it a moment ago. I'm sure they have other things on their mind...

Oh right. Most of these people are already infected, they could just unfold here and nothing bad would happen. Selekhael's not going to do that. She sneaks away from Zee's happy congregation and lurks in the dark streets, creeping closer to the group of shadowy figures... Listening.

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

Strictly speaking it isn't just supplicants of Yezekiel that are clustered around Zee. There are quite a few from Selekhael's flock as well. Partly because everyone wants to get the damage repaired. Partly because today has been deeply exciting and most people are in a festive mood. Partly because the warm, encouraging glow of the seraphim is just pleasant to bask in. And maybe, just maybe, there's some vague understanding, some subconscious inkling, of Selekhael's feelings toward Zee. Within the Old Gods' pantheon there was mother and daughter pair of goddesses. It isn't a strange of foreign idea to the villagers.

But...

Uh...

The mother and daughter pair were definitely different from Yezekiel and Selekhael.

Sele might learn a little more about them in the near future.

Anyway!

Spying.

"-shameful is what it is, the casts mingling freely like that."
"It's that light the false gods glow with, I'm sure of it. It must throw some sort of enchantment on the mind."
"They didn't ensorcel everyone, most of the outlying homes and the farms beyond the palisade are untouched."
"We're still making the offering to Frayed, right?"
"Preparations are being made at the God's Barrow, yes. Thankfully the elder priest was there burning offerings when the false gods arrived."
"I spoke with him earlier. We'll carry out the offering tonight while these heathens are reveling."

Ah.

That's what Selekhael needed to hear.

-Discover the whereabouts of the Old Gods faction meeting
-Investigate the Gods' Barrow

Not far from town, it feels like. At that hill where Sandra's mech was standing before Selekhael tried jumping on it to no avail.

[bc56]

Lunch Time
Selekhael heads that way. She needs to stop this poor maiden from being sacrificed, preferably in a way that doesn't convince these followers of the old gods to wage war on her own followers. In other words, it can't be clear that she's responsible for the girl's survival. The easiest option might be to do what she did for Dawson, drift in, grab her, and drift out, but that only works if she's out of sight. If this is a blood sacrifice or a burnt offering, that probably won't work. She could try to convince the girl or her family to stop this madness, but if they're devout enough to sacrifice her, and she's devout enough to not already be trying to escape, that probably would fall on deaf ears.

So she needs to see what's going on, and she needs to formulate a plan.

[Reinholdt]

[Shore of a Distant Island]

Dark? Well that wasn't much help. "Deep ocean maybe?" Rachel mulls to Calm Reed. It did seem to have come from the ocean based on the footprints and the slightly damp sand.

Oh no a person! Rachel raises her hands and waves them in warning. "Everything's fine!" Don't scream. She didn't think this through as well as Calm Reed did.

[Vahnavoi]

[Shore of a distant island]

Rachel's waving alerts the monster to presence of a third person. It turns to look over its shoulder, locking eyes with the houseowner. "Mot-her?"

The houseowner doesn't scream. She simply bolts, catching her barking little dog in her lap and then reversing direction to run back inside. The sudden motion agitates the monster. "Mother!", it cries, turning around and smashing against the chicken link fence, tearing it down to follow the woman. It is not particularly fast, she will make it inside the house before it can reach her, but it's dubious if the flimsy backyard door, or even the walls, would keep it out.

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

It really is a thankful thing that empyreans can be covert when they need to, that it isn't all radiance and DO NOT BE AFRAID and so forth.

Finding the barrow isn't terribly difficult. Really, it wouldn't have been hard even if Selekhael's quest wasn't pulling her in that direction. The earthen mound outside town is topped with a series of standing stones meant to calculate months and seasons for the purpose of tracking festivals, times of planting and reaping, things of that nature. Several of the stones were casually knocked over by Sandra's Blackjack when she was stomping up on top of the hill to get a better view of the town from above.

There appear to be four entrances into the barrow, one for each compass point, and they appear to be dark and unguarded. Given that this is a pre-electricity culture it would be nearly pitch black outside if not for the bright full moon casting a silvery radiance over the world.

Selekhael could try just walking in through one of the entrances, but that would likely give the game up.

Or she could hide behind one of the standing stones and wait to see if anyone comes in or out, but what if the maiden gets stabbed or burnt or something in the mean time?

Or she could try drifting to get a good view of the inside of the barrow, but the uncanny feeling material folks get while being watched from perpendicular to reality might alert them that something strange is going on.

What will Selekhael do?

[bc56]

Lunch Time
Selekhael can't afford a mistake.
She's sneaking in there, in human form, in order to get a look at what's going on. If she needs to do something more now, her future self can manage it. Hopefully.
She just needs to not get caught. If there had been a throng of worshippers here, that would be easy, she could blend in. But it seems like that's not the case, so she has to be extra sneaky.
(She's not especially good at this, she should put points into it sometime)

[Rebonack]

[Lunch Time]

Selekhael chooses the option of STEALTH!

Really, though, considering that she prefers avoiding conflict and violence whenever possible investing a little more in stealth probably isn't a terrible idea. Why fight the villains standing between you and your objective when you can just sneak past without being noticed? Definitely seems like a good plan.

Why not just invest some tohu to grow that aspect of herself now? She gained a pretty significant measure of it from feeding.

There's nothing stopping her, right?

If she hadn't ever tried being sneaky that would explain it. Access to a new skill doesn't become available to an empyrean until they actually try to use it. Just like Lapis trying to learn slight of hand. But now that Selekhael is actually trying to skulk about suddenly that becomes an option for her to enhance.

Regardless, she's not very quiet at the moment.

Because this is a thing she really hasn't tried doing before.

As she rounds a corner she bumps into an urn that wobbles pretty loudly, which in turn results in a "What was that?" asked aloud by an as-yet unseen sentry.

Oh no! It sounds like he's moving to investigate!