Fight in the dark
After a polite prompt from Justice, Tess explains that her main goal is to get everyone else safely back to where they came from. This was the assignment that brought her here, and one she intends to fulfill. In order to accomplish that, however, she realizes they may need to accomplish what they have been brought here to do. In order to do that, she is generally in favor of the goals that Rere mentioned. Tess observes their guest carefully, having already used Mastery of Small Manners in order to glean what she can of Justices' intentions and opinions from how he responds and holds himself.
Stalling (and also legitimately curious), Mackenzie says that he has told them his short term goal (finding out about them and choosing more powerful watchers based on that), but not his own long term goal. It only seems fair that he do so as well. As he begins to answer, Rere activates Invoke the Heart's Refrain to get a sense of his motives in what he's telling them. Justice says that he is past the age of having specific larger visions and goals by several centuries. His overarching goal is to maintain order and harmony between Heaven and the way things are. Mackenzie asks what that means if things are not as they should be, and he responds that it would mean he is not doing a very good job. Mackenzie nods, hoping he will forget about asking for her goals or not pursue the matter. This is not to be however. Mackenzie says that she feels the group is very young, perhaps too young to commit to a definite course of action For now, she feels they should learn as much as they can as they go, and learn to be less dependent on others judgment and help. He asks if that is it, or if she has more short term goals. Feeling somewhat mischievious, she decides to chatter about a design for a flying machine and the difficulties of making an automated tea pot and spice trade futures until he stops her or she's interrupted. Unfortunately he listens to her chatter rather longer than she anticipated, partially for politeness sake and partially (as those with socialize charms active realize) in the hopes that she may reveal a bit more than she intends. Tess eventually comes to her rescue, and changes the subject.
Tess brings the conversation back to the aforementioned relationship between heaven and the way things are. She brings up the river metaphor for the loom of fate, and the idea that while many small pebbles and stones create slight perturbations in the river, occasionally there is a shift great enough to change the course of the entire river. She asks if Justice is able to predict shifts of that magnitude and if he interferes. Justice says that some of that sort of large shift have been predicted, and on certain occasions they have interfered. For example, there have been several times when the Empire has had the potential to fracture. While heaven does not at this time oppose a major shift in the Empire, some of the details of those possible courses made them unacceptable and Heaven took steps to prevent them from coming to pass. Rere asks if he predicted their appearance or the return of the Solars and the appearance of the Abyssals, and Justice admits that they did not but they are "managing". Tess shoots Rere an amused glance at this (faintly testy) admission of a lack of omniscience. Justice says that he thinks they have risen to the occasion fairly well, and that he thinks they have dealt with the group fairly evenhandedly. Their initial response was perhaps clumsy, but it should remembered that they didn't know what had stepped through into their reality. Rere says she finds their attempts to capture the group much more understandable than the pogrom against the solars whose essence were not successfully locked away that was ongoing until recently. Justice says that no Exalt that was solely the chosen of the Unconquered Sun would be willing to tolerate the excesses of the Empire. While these excesses are undesirable, trying to curb them via a conquering army would likely lead to even more chaos and suffering, and the ability to see the excesses of the Empire and doing something about them does not guarantee that one would rule any better. Rere counters that while she agrees that good revolutionaries aren't necessarily good rulers, she still thinks it's wrong to chop some clueless 16 year-old's head off because of what he MIGHT do, without even trying education as an option. Justice argues the point a bit further, then says that some of their own efforts to gradually shift the direction of the Empire include the training of young Terrestrials from near birth, much as they have been doing with their watchers, and after several decades in the service of heaven having them return to influence their families. He says that they hope to produce Terrestrials with more breadth in their world view and to curb the self-serving influence of growing of an aristocratic family. After acknowledging Eli's comment that teaching selfishness is about all nobility is good for and saying that it was not always so, he comments that they have tried this tack two or three times and are starting to get the hang of it. Rere asks if it might be that Terrestrials going by the name of Bright Fame or Radiant Praise might have been in one of those earlier groups. Justice smiles knowingly and says that it isn't his place to name names. However, he says, it is fair to point out that the Emperor was ALSO in one of those original groups. The Emperor's path indicates to him that they gave the previous group plenty of responsibility but too much direction. However, in the current group those like Lava Torrent indicate they might have given too much direction, as Lava Torrent is not enough inclined to question the rightness of his actions or orders. Tress dryly congratulates Justice on the breadth and ambition of his plan to alter the course of the Empire, which Justice accepts with good grace.
Tess brings the topic back to the offer of a tour of Heaven, and indicates that she, at least is interested, and would be happy to discuss things with Justice in the future. Eli asks about what Heaven looks like, and Justice tells him to imagine a place where people can build their homes out of whatever material they like, including snowflakes or fire, and often do. Though the effect can be somewhat chaotic, he finds it quite beautiful. Eli and Mackenzie ask about his place. He says that the halls where the Sidreals do most of their work resemble to buildings at the height of the First Age. As for his private home, it resembles the rice farm he grew up on long long ago. A few more pleasantries are exchanged, and Justice leaves with Southern Crown in tow.
Ted and Eli go to check on Sefu and Ancient Tree, and spend some time goofing off with them. Rere slips off the ship and asks to speak to Ma'at. Ma'at shows up shortly thereafter and goes for a walk in the desert with Rere. Rere brings up Jason's disappearance, and notes that it was confirmed for them that their kidnapper used sorcery, since it would seem logical that the undead army was also his and everyone knows sorcery and necromancy are mutually exclusive. After all, they pull your exaltation and mind in opposite directions, and hypothetically one could imagine it would take something as powerful as a primordial (a particularly stupid primordial that didn't actually know what they were doing) to change an exaltation enough to allow for both, and even then one could theoretically imagine that the strain of both would drive the exalt utterly insane. Ma'at (who, in Egyptian mythology was the wife of Thoth) asks if theoretical affliction this could be cured, or if the death of the current exalt would free the exaltation from its madness. Rere says that unfortunately she imagines that the damage done to the exaltation itself would likely be near impossible to untangle, and that the best outcome might be that the exaltation eventually is passed to a mind strong enough to eventually learn to hold itself (mostly) together. Ma'at says somewhat grimly that obviously in that case destroying a host that had proven itself incapable of containing a madness would be a kindness both to the exaltation and to the poor being that had received the exaltation. Rere say's she's sorry, and Ma'at says she needs to go talk to the other Lunars about Rere's speculation, and makes a somewhat gruff exit.
Mackenzie begins to seriously think about what she needs to do to make people more independent and capable of standing against their enemies and more powerful acquaintances as need dictates. Rere asks her about the silent communication devices she had mentioned once before, and Mackenzie says her thoughts had turned to those as well. Macknezie begins sketching and doing equations, and eventually informs Eli that she needs gold. A lot of gold. She explains that Orichalcum is one of the ingredients she will need to make these devices. While Orichalcum can sometimes be found in its natural state, the first age mines are gone. However, in can be purified from gold (with a volcano and a really LONG chain). She says she'll need a few other components as well (such as shadow that has never seen the sun), but the gold will be a good start. Eli considers options, and eventually decides that "the kid" could use a training merchant. The group begins discussing exactly where they're going to liberate this gold from, and Sefu mentions a particularly rotten merchant in his home city who is literally swimming in gold thanks to some of his shadier associations (including the Terrestrial Empire). The others are quickly sold. Ted wants assurances that the merchant's crimes are a little worse than mere greed before he's willing to sign on to thievery, but Sefu is willing and able to provide him with a laundry list of other sins both petty and terrible.
Eli checks out the building in bird form, and says that it appears pretty large and well-protected. Ancient Tree, who goes out to find what he can dig up with just a skin of peach brandy, reports that the merchant has a horrible reputation as an employer, but that he does not actually employ guards at night, apparently relying on the near-impregnable nature of his vault. Indeed, after examining the building, Eli says the only likely way in is from the glass ceiling 20 stories up, and the sheer smooth sides of the rectangular vault make an aerial approach necessary. There is some wrangling about how they will enter. Tess is leery of their ship being spotted in the city as she doesn't want to stir up local trouble. However, she reluctantly agrees that there are not enough people capable of flight currently in the group to constitute a safe task force to break into the vault, and the few ways they can think of to get a large enough group onto the top of the vault without bringing the ship needlessly close are so convoluted that they beg for failure.
The group begins to build a large double pulley system that will allow them to first lift off a section of the roof of the vault and then lift the gold and the others out. Mackenzie (with no ulterior motives whatsoever) says that perhaps they should warn the SS about what they're about to do, and eventually succeeds in getting agreement for her plan to tell Young Leaf. She happily heads out to tell him, and while he is not disapproving and is somewhat thankful for the advance warning, the meeting is disappointingly platonic. Mackenzie returns grumbling about a distinct lack of smooches, and gets a big sloppy tiger kiss from Eli that somehow fails to console her.
That night, Omar mans the pulley system on the ship as the others head out. Mackenzie and Ted stay on the roof to provide potential backup, and tho others enter the vault. Inside, the vault holds a cave-like darkness. The group creeps through the building, and finds themselves around the corner from two humanoid guards with the heads of wolves though they are clearly not beastmen. The two speak in some strange language which Tess eventually recognizes as a variant of Malfean. Realizing that while money can't by happiness, it can apparently buy demon guards, the group conducts a whispered debate on what to do. They eventually decide to approach as stealthily as they can and then attack. Sefu, Rere, Tess, and Eli move quickly forward and engage their opponents. Sefu hangs back and throws daggers, while Eli shifts to tiger form to deal with the threat close in. He and Tess quickly dispatch one, but the other is merely knocked down and to Eli's horror seems to dissolve through the floor. Eli hurriedly warns the others to expect company and the four close ranks in anticipation of another fight.
................
Quotable Quotes
................
Justice (on the potential for contracts with non-animal gods): “I do not, however, know how you would take the form of hope.”
Lyric (OOC): “See, there’s this guy named Barack Obama…”
Ted: “Just to get the ball rolling, introduce [Ma’at] to apple sauce.”
Someone: “What?”
Ted: ”Mott’s Apple sauce…”
Someone (OOC): “I thought we killed Thoth not Set.”
Marc (OOC): “You apparently Thoth wrong.”
Ted: “I’d rather take down a slaver or a hockey mom.” - Ted
Stalling (and also legitimately curious), Mackenzie says that he has told them his short term goal (finding out about them and choosing more powerful watchers based on that), but not his own long term goal. It only seems fair that he do so as well. As he begins to answer, Rere activates Invoke the Heart's Refrain to get a sense of his motives in what he's telling them. Justice says that he is past the age of having specific larger visions and goals by several centuries. His overarching goal is to maintain order and harmony between Heaven and the way things are. Mackenzie asks what that means if things are not as they should be, and he responds that it would mean he is not doing a very good job. Mackenzie nods, hoping he will forget about asking for her goals or not pursue the matter. This is not to be however. Mackenzie says that she feels the group is very young, perhaps too young to commit to a definite course of action For now, she feels they should learn as much as they can as they go, and learn to be less dependent on others judgment and help. He asks if that is it, or if she has more short term goals. Feeling somewhat mischievious, she decides to chatter about a design for a flying machine and the difficulties of making an automated tea pot and spice trade futures until he stops her or she's interrupted. Unfortunately he listens to her chatter rather longer than she anticipated, partially for politeness sake and partially (as those with socialize charms active realize) in the hopes that she may reveal a bit more than she intends. Tess eventually comes to her rescue, and changes the subject.
Tess brings the conversation back to the aforementioned relationship between heaven and the way things are. She brings up the river metaphor for the loom of fate, and the idea that while many small pebbles and stones create slight perturbations in the river, occasionally there is a shift great enough to change the course of the entire river. She asks if Justice is able to predict shifts of that magnitude and if he interferes. Justice says that some of that sort of large shift have been predicted, and on certain occasions they have interfered. For example, there have been several times when the Empire has had the potential to fracture. While heaven does not at this time oppose a major shift in the Empire, some of the details of those possible courses made them unacceptable and Heaven took steps to prevent them from coming to pass. Rere asks if he predicted their appearance or the return of the Solars and the appearance of the Abyssals, and Justice admits that they did not but they are "managing". Tess shoots Rere an amused glance at this (faintly testy) admission of a lack of omniscience. Justice says that he thinks they have risen to the occasion fairly well, and that he thinks they have dealt with the group fairly evenhandedly. Their initial response was perhaps clumsy, but it should remembered that they didn't know what had stepped through into their reality. Rere says she finds their attempts to capture the group much more understandable than the pogrom against the solars whose essence were not successfully locked away that was ongoing until recently. Justice says that no Exalt that was solely the chosen of the Unconquered Sun would be willing to tolerate the excesses of the Empire. While these excesses are undesirable, trying to curb them via a conquering army would likely lead to even more chaos and suffering, and the ability to see the excesses of the Empire and doing something about them does not guarantee that one would rule any better. Rere counters that while she agrees that good revolutionaries aren't necessarily good rulers, she still thinks it's wrong to chop some clueless 16 year-old's head off because of what he MIGHT do, without even trying education as an option. Justice argues the point a bit further, then says that some of their own efforts to gradually shift the direction of the Empire include the training of young Terrestrials from near birth, much as they have been doing with their watchers, and after several decades in the service of heaven having them return to influence their families. He says that they hope to produce Terrestrials with more breadth in their world view and to curb the self-serving influence of growing of an aristocratic family. After acknowledging Eli's comment that teaching selfishness is about all nobility is good for and saying that it was not always so, he comments that they have tried this tack two or three times and are starting to get the hang of it. Rere asks if it might be that Terrestrials going by the name of Bright Fame or Radiant Praise might have been in one of those earlier groups. Justice smiles knowingly and says that it isn't his place to name names. However, he says, it is fair to point out that the Emperor was ALSO in one of those original groups. The Emperor's path indicates to him that they gave the previous group plenty of responsibility but too much direction. However, in the current group those like Lava Torrent indicate they might have given too much direction, as Lava Torrent is not enough inclined to question the rightness of his actions or orders. Tress dryly congratulates Justice on the breadth and ambition of his plan to alter the course of the Empire, which Justice accepts with good grace.
Tess brings the topic back to the offer of a tour of Heaven, and indicates that she, at least is interested, and would be happy to discuss things with Justice in the future. Eli asks about what Heaven looks like, and Justice tells him to imagine a place where people can build their homes out of whatever material they like, including snowflakes or fire, and often do. Though the effect can be somewhat chaotic, he finds it quite beautiful. Eli and Mackenzie ask about his place. He says that the halls where the Sidreals do most of their work resemble to buildings at the height of the First Age. As for his private home, it resembles the rice farm he grew up on long long ago. A few more pleasantries are exchanged, and Justice leaves with Southern Crown in tow.
Ted and Eli go to check on Sefu and Ancient Tree, and spend some time goofing off with them. Rere slips off the ship and asks to speak to Ma'at. Ma'at shows up shortly thereafter and goes for a walk in the desert with Rere. Rere brings up Jason's disappearance, and notes that it was confirmed for them that their kidnapper used sorcery, since it would seem logical that the undead army was also his and everyone knows sorcery and necromancy are mutually exclusive. After all, they pull your exaltation and mind in opposite directions, and hypothetically one could imagine it would take something as powerful as a primordial (a particularly stupid primordial that didn't actually know what they were doing) to change an exaltation enough to allow for both, and even then one could theoretically imagine that the strain of both would drive the exalt utterly insane. Ma'at (who, in Egyptian mythology was the wife of Thoth) asks if theoretical affliction this could be cured, or if the death of the current exalt would free the exaltation from its madness. Rere says that unfortunately she imagines that the damage done to the exaltation itself would likely be near impossible to untangle, and that the best outcome might be that the exaltation eventually is passed to a mind strong enough to eventually learn to hold itself (mostly) together. Ma'at says somewhat grimly that obviously in that case destroying a host that had proven itself incapable of containing a madness would be a kindness both to the exaltation and to the poor being that had received the exaltation. Rere say's she's sorry, and Ma'at says she needs to go talk to the other Lunars about Rere's speculation, and makes a somewhat gruff exit.
Mackenzie begins to seriously think about what she needs to do to make people more independent and capable of standing against their enemies and more powerful acquaintances as need dictates. Rere asks her about the silent communication devices she had mentioned once before, and Mackenzie says her thoughts had turned to those as well. Macknezie begins sketching and doing equations, and eventually informs Eli that she needs gold. A lot of gold. She explains that Orichalcum is one of the ingredients she will need to make these devices. While Orichalcum can sometimes be found in its natural state, the first age mines are gone. However, in can be purified from gold (with a volcano and a really LONG chain). She says she'll need a few other components as well (such as shadow that has never seen the sun), but the gold will be a good start. Eli considers options, and eventually decides that "the kid" could use a training merchant. The group begins discussing exactly where they're going to liberate this gold from, and Sefu mentions a particularly rotten merchant in his home city who is literally swimming in gold thanks to some of his shadier associations (including the Terrestrial Empire). The others are quickly sold. Ted wants assurances that the merchant's crimes are a little worse than mere greed before he's willing to sign on to thievery, but Sefu is willing and able to provide him with a laundry list of other sins both petty and terrible.
Eli checks out the building in bird form, and says that it appears pretty large and well-protected. Ancient Tree, who goes out to find what he can dig up with just a skin of peach brandy, reports that the merchant has a horrible reputation as an employer, but that he does not actually employ guards at night, apparently relying on the near-impregnable nature of his vault. Indeed, after examining the building, Eli says the only likely way in is from the glass ceiling 20 stories up, and the sheer smooth sides of the rectangular vault make an aerial approach necessary. There is some wrangling about how they will enter. Tess is leery of their ship being spotted in the city as she doesn't want to stir up local trouble. However, she reluctantly agrees that there are not enough people capable of flight currently in the group to constitute a safe task force to break into the vault, and the few ways they can think of to get a large enough group onto the top of the vault without bringing the ship needlessly close are so convoluted that they beg for failure.
The group begins to build a large double pulley system that will allow them to first lift off a section of the roof of the vault and then lift the gold and the others out. Mackenzie (with no ulterior motives whatsoever) says that perhaps they should warn the SS about what they're about to do, and eventually succeeds in getting agreement for her plan to tell Young Leaf. She happily heads out to tell him, and while he is not disapproving and is somewhat thankful for the advance warning, the meeting is disappointingly platonic. Mackenzie returns grumbling about a distinct lack of smooches, and gets a big sloppy tiger kiss from Eli that somehow fails to console her.
That night, Omar mans the pulley system on the ship as the others head out. Mackenzie and Ted stay on the roof to provide potential backup, and tho others enter the vault. Inside, the vault holds a cave-like darkness. The group creeps through the building, and finds themselves around the corner from two humanoid guards with the heads of wolves though they are clearly not beastmen. The two speak in some strange language which Tess eventually recognizes as a variant of Malfean. Realizing that while money can't by happiness, it can apparently buy demon guards, the group conducts a whispered debate on what to do. They eventually decide to approach as stealthily as they can and then attack. Sefu, Rere, Tess, and Eli move quickly forward and engage their opponents. Sefu hangs back and throws daggers, while Eli shifts to tiger form to deal with the threat close in. He and Tess quickly dispatch one, but the other is merely knocked down and to Eli's horror seems to dissolve through the floor. Eli hurriedly warns the others to expect company and the four close ranks in anticipation of another fight.
................
Quotable Quotes
................
Justice (on the potential for contracts with non-animal gods): “I do not, however, know how you would take the form of hope.”
Lyric (OOC): “See, there’s this guy named Barack Obama…”
Ted: “Just to get the ball rolling, introduce [Ma’at] to apple sauce.”
Someone: “What?”
Ted: ”Mott’s Apple sauce…”
Someone (OOC): “I thought we killed Thoth not Set.”
Marc (OOC): “You apparently Thoth wrong.”
Ted: “I’d rather take down a slaver or a hockey mom.” - Ted