Machinations of Light's Glory - death, decisions, doom

I have already agreed. It will be nice to not have to carry this burden.

Well I guess I will cast with my fellow Phoenixes again, since the members of the failed circle seem to have other business. Kohei will most certainly join and we would need two more. Alignment of all the Phoenixes except for Fontaine is pretty well established. So we will scry on one of the two people joining up. Now is your chance to get cleared if you faithfully serve the Light.

I will join Chance's circle.

Jes one more person in my circle an' I'll have five, then. As to what the second circle ends up being, well, ah'll leave that for you all to figger out.

"The majority seems to be against running a protective circle, in which case I will complete Chance's circle."

Oh and just to make it clear: I can compel people to actually contribute to the circle. No sandbagging allowed. So we will get one confirmed good person and one person who is either good or a traitor who is happy with a 50/50 chance of being scried. Sounds good?

*Fontaine appears to be standing in front of the all-familiar stalagmite; another Blue Rose attached to it. He has his hand on his chest, his Eye facing towards the sky. A low mumbling escapes his mask; it sounded something like the first song John Stargazer ever released.*

What in the bluest of blue hells is making that infernal racket? It sounds like someone shoved a kitten into a tin can, tied bells on it, and threw it into an industrial centrifuge...

Pardon me, but what makes you say that? If friend Lawrence's list from earlier is correct, Kohei has never been scried and does not benefit from a spotless voting record. Though I suppose his list does make the assumption that you were the one scried first.

Same; I will join Turin's circle.

I would rather not elaborate at this time. Suffice to say the evidence is strong, but not as strong as a scry.

Mmhmm.

Well at the moment it looks like the circles for the night are thus:

Chance the Sofa leading a circle, followed by
Dan Lawrence
Speak with Dazzler
Nute the adorable rascal
Anxifera

TurinTuramba leading a circle followed by
Cormac
Anabanana
Neopythia, though with a disturbing lack of bolded text.
probably Kohei, who is entrusted with secrets but as yet an unknown?

Although since Kohei has yet to appear and declare any intentions, perhaps I shall offer to fill the remaining space in Turin's circle.

I leave you for the evening - ensure the circles are filled as well as they can be. I am sadly too tempted by the information soli-chan intends to pass on.

Ah'm skeptical as to the value of information that can't be shared publicly at this late a date. Very skeptical.

"I guess that means you don't take too kindly to innocents, Chance?" Soli'Sturm paused. Damn, what is it about this guy. "Ahhh q-wendol, that's not what I was coming here to say. I too am departing for better company. Whatever else happens, well. Good luck to you all."

Chance snorts.

"You're about as innocent as a room full of succubi, all dancing in their respective points about a pentacle inlaid with menses and the blood of the unbaptized, while our Father who was in Heaven writes itself in fiery lines of Satanic verse across the skies."

So Bladida isn't leading a circle to protect the technotheologian?

Hmm. Ain't sure what else to do then. Who else needs a magic hand? Chance? Turin? seems you guys are all filled up as it is.

Excellent, the circle is filled. I want to ask all members of the circle who should be scried (excepting yourselves, that would be boring). More information is good information!

Well naturally I would like to scry Neopythia, as she has been rather reluctant to speak up so far and we have the least information to base on guessing her alignment as compared to everyone else in our circle.

Bladida was waiting to see what others were doing instead of declaring to lead a circle, which leaves you, her, and Kohei unaccounted for.

*cough* Apologies. Are there any circles left that need casters?

I would say that since Quackers' circle was sandbagged, we should scry the people who were casting in it: Anabanana, JohnStargazer, Dan Lawrence, Soli'Strum, and Equis. Given that I've been proven innocent and John is dead and Soli-chan is meeting with soundlyParanoid (I think we can assume that if soundlyParanoid turns up dead tomorrow, that'll be evidence enough of her guilt), we should focus on either Mr. Lawrence or our healer. I'm leaning towards Mr. Lawrence since our healer is, well, our healer. I admit that I've been having my suspicions about Dazzler after she refused to vote for the Neuroassassin till the very end and tried to obfuscate that with maudlin sentimentality, but we know for SURE that there is a cultist amongst Dan Lawrence, Soli'Strum, and Equis, so I'd much rather get that sorted out first before running off after other suspects.

Ah suppose since soundlyParanoid's bound and determined to meet with Soli-Sturm, and Soli saying as to how it will clear up any doubt, ah could lead my Circle to scry someone else.

Was Phoenicity one of the Doves? Presumably the Dove that betrayed QuantumBit?

So uhh, anyone need a hand? If not, I'll just go check on my ship. Again.

"Phoenicity was an Owl. And if you're scrying someone else, do tell. I think we're just waiting on Equis and Kohei at this point..."

As Speak said, Phoenicity was a grey owl. The remaining White Doves are Nebty, Bladida, and Demon. If we are to believe in Nebty and Demon, Bladida is the only unknown Dove.

Please enlighten us why it would be a waste of time.

I will participate in a circle if a fifth member is needed. Otherwise, I'll be in my ship. Can't think of anything better to do.

Ah'm actually plannin on scrying Bladida myself. No need to double up.

Very well. As announced I will scry one of the people contributing in my circle.

Uh. Can't we scry either Dan Lawrence or Equis instead? Hopefully Dan Lawrence?

Seems sensible. I'll do the same.

Well... I won't be in your ship though. People might talk.

As the glow from completed magic faded from the site of power on the hill, TurinTuramba’s circle began their journey back to the residential complexes, walking together through the woods. They made an unusual sight: the mechanical Baron Cormac, the robotic Anabanana, the unnervingly inhuman Lazy, the holographic Turin, and a simple human woman shoving her hands into her leather jacket to escape the cold.

She really was surprisingly cold, tonight. This part of the island may not have been covered in snow, but her breath was still mist, and a layer of frost was covering the trunks of the trees. A fog appeared to be rising, and thickening as they walked.

Neopythia shivered, a chill running down her body that seemed to come from somewhere other than her senses. She stopped walking. Her thoughts were turning to places they hadn’t gone in a long time, to fears she should no longer have to entertain. She was about to say something to the others, when The Scythe came flying out of the fog.

Some raised their weapons or readied their magic. Others knew that was futile, and began to scramble out of the blade’s path. But Neopythia could see who the target was. She knew that before she knew it was there. She couldn’t fight it, she couldn’t run from it. There was only one thing to do, so she did it.

She pulled the plug.

Her eyes rolled back into her skull, and her body went limp. It toppled over forwards, and the Scythe struck it through the neck as it fell.

But the blade passed through without harm, and the unholy weapon went spinning off into the fog. Her lifeless body lay clumsily on the ground, without a mark on it, and the others slowly gathered around it.



Neopythia opened her eyes. Not the eyes she was born with, and not her eyes on Light’s Glory. The eyes she thought of as her real eyes, inside the VR nation she designed, built, and ruled over.

Already she could tell she had been followed. Something was wrong inside her chosen reality. Malicious software was altering her creation, rewriting it, building itself out of her own code.

She looked out over her world, and she responded with a single command.
“Stop.”

The simulation paused. Twenty billion people’s entire existence ceased to run. They wouldn’t have even noticed - the reality their minds were running on had simply suspended the concept of time.

“Did you really think you could fight me here?”

Neopythia walked through her virtual streets, hands inside the pockets of her leather jacket, passing her frozen subjects. But her attention was focused on what some might have described as the ‘sky’ to outsiders. There was a foreign structure there, unmistakably shaped like a scythe, but incomplete. It was frozen in the process of its birth, with shards of scavenged virtual matter hanging in the space around it, prevented from reaching their intended place in the design.

“What are you meant to be? Some kind of embodiment of the idea of death? Or the fear of death? What did you think you could accomplish here?”

Neopythia plucks a piece of code from the sky that was intended to be the tip of the blade, and restores it to its purpose as a playground.

“Out there, in the world the gods made, things like you have power over us. But in here, in the world I made? Here, I make the rules. Here, death does not exist.”

She sweeps the entire construction away.

“You do not exist.”

Neopythia hears music with her ears. The ears she thinks of as her real ears. It’s her favourite music, set playing with a thought, as she sets about the work of repairing the damage to her realm.

Her ears on Light’s Glory hear nothing. The remotely controlled clone of herself she had sent there is dead, and will never hear again.

The ears she was born with, however, hear the otherworldly scraping of approaching unholy metal. But Neopythia doesn’t know, because she only hears with her real ears.

The Scythe claims her, and she never saw it coming. Her spirit rises to the heavens, and a world is denied its goddess.

Neopythia has been killed by The Scythe of Antioch. She was loyal to the light to the end.

The fourth day begins.

The bear stumbles in cursing.

"Someone attacked me and Soli'Sturm in the night. I do not know what, and I do not know who. If you are of the light, you made a grave mistake last night, but I doubt it. I can only pray she survived her fall."

At the same time as the events in the woods, an explosion is heard at the Phoenix residential complex. Anyone who looked out at that moment would have seen Soli'Sturm falling from a balcony, and landing on the rocks below.

Her back has been broken, and she's bleeding internally.

Soli-chan has been fatally wounded, and will die at the end of the next night.

"My, for the second night since we've arrived, we have need of Equis. Tend to her. Failure is not an option.

As for today's sacrifice.... well let's wait on results, shall we?"

How very peremptory of you, soundly. If you gained information from your meeting, maybe you should use it to convince the man, instead of issuing decrees?