Halt And Catch Fire

Elliott: This is a story of Radegesis Ichneumon and her colleagues among the Tri-County Chapter of the Rider's Abstinence Society, but we begin in a world of light, rather than the darkness of the stage.

In particular, we begin under the floodlights that currently illuminate the parking lot of the Tri-County Public Access Television station.

Our unconventional Chancerists are joined there by Eric, Poppy, and Jupiter. They've all just finished setting up for tonight's SPOOKY DRIVE-IN / Haunted House combo.

Radegesis: Radegesis wiggles her fingers spookily!

Sadabus: I'm a little concerned about what happened to my injured intern! I need to spotlight this before I can concentrate properly on matters spooky.

:spotcreation:

Radegesis: In…jurn. It's part of the job title!

Elliott: James is fine. Probably. I mean, he's been pretty down since the whole Thing happened, but it's also kind of… faded? Softened? Like, even among the lot of you, there's a certain lightness to the memory of it. He's even one of the volunteers tonight, helping out with the haunted house inside the studio — he's got a real knack for lighting cues. Right now, he's wrapping himself up in the feeling of finding something to be good at, even if it's just that small.

Sadabus: Oh, well, okay, then.

"Though you should have been more wary
still you ventured someplace scary.
Ghostly powers I turn loose—
Sadabus, Sadabus, Sadaboose!"

:fuguechip:

[Sadabus unleashes a horde of the most terrifying spirits upon the face of the earth, possibly from some kind of chest with a face on it.]

Radegesis: Or a grimoire with a face on it!

Elliott: Or just Vincent Price, straight-up.

Sadabus is certainly getting into the spirits of things!

Sadabus: "Let this be a warning to all living mortals, that whosoever enters this drive-in telethon of horror, will face thirteen of the most terrifying spirits upon the face of the earth!"

Radegesis: Radegesis, I regret to say, has come in a "sexy weasel" costume.

Sadabus: "No."

I transform the costume into a scary weasel.

Rikki-Tikki-Terror.

Radegesis: But it's still sexy, right? There's only so much you can do about these puppies.

Sadabus: Are you quite sure about that?

[Sadabus waves his wand menacingly.]

Okay, now I want to know what everybody else is wearing, so somebody spotlight that.

Radegesis: Yeah! I'm not the only one who came dressed sexy, right? :spotattention:

Oh, god, it's going to be that "Babadook at an adults-drinking-wine party" except my tits are halfway out. :fuguechip:

The sexy weasel costume was, I think… mostly a half-zipped otter kigurumi, and wolverine claws, and possibly a cat-ears headband?

Elliott: Poppy has come as a Sexy Horrible Goose; Jupiter has taken the chance to come dressed as Scalbrand, who they have instead dressed up as Jupiter.

Eric is… not wearing a costume.

Sadabus: Sadabus shudders at Jupiter's costume. Now that's scary.

Promotion is coming for that one.

Elliott: He's been kind of down since the whole thing of not-becoming-a-god. Apparently it dug a little deep since he'd been unwittingly Anchored to the thing for a few years.

Radegesis: The greatest horror you can imagine, Eric… adulthood!

Gailizia: Gailizia, naturally, is in a Halloween-themed clown outfit that's on that edge of deniably hot.

Radegesis: Aw, no, wait, now it's sad. You should have dressed up as a god!

Sadabus: Sadabus wanders across the party, using dark sorcery to correct bad costumes.

Gailizia: Jupiter is playing with fire, I see.

Radegesis: It is gonna take both me and Rad a second to process Sexy Horrible Goose.

Sadabus: Time to lock those puppies away in a forcecage.

Sadabus: Sexy Horrible Goose becomes Actually Quite Terrifying Goose.

Sadabus: Eric can be a Napoleon.

Elliott: Eric has made a standing request not to be transformed into anything by Sadabus.

Sadabus: Not wearing a costume is a standing invitation!

I mean, come on.

Radegesis: Rad gives him her cat earband, at least. A sacrifice… she is willing to make.

Now he's a catboy! That's like being a god!

Sadabus: Sadabus also neglects to transform Gailizia into something less sexy because he's extremely afraid of her.

Elliott: Swoosh! That's the sound the ears make as they end up in the trash can.

Radegesis: Horrified reaction shot! :spotreaction:

Sadabus: James would never react like this.

Radegesis: "Hey, speakin' of, you should go help him with the lights, huh?" Rad waggles her eyebrows accordingly.

Sadabus: "Once I finish filling this fool with charms of gaiety and pumpkin spice," Sadabus agrees.

Radegesis: "Hey, I'm already gay! Pumpkin spice me!"

Elliott: Eric makes an excuse to go check the concessions.

Sadabus: "Very well."

Radegesis: She's got her mouth open in anticipation.

Sadabus: I cast the curse of pumpkin spice upon Radegesis, causing her to shed cinnamon and aromatic herbs wherever she passes.

And a cloud of orange dust.

"Bibbidi, bobbidi, boo."

"Oh! I should turn a mouse into our new station manager! It would be an improvement."

Elliott: Jupiter gives Sadabus a real cold look at that.

"You want to try again and come up with something that's not shitty, chief?"

Sadabus: "The mouse thing, or the Cinderella reference? I can never tell with you people."

Elliott: "The thing where you're shitting on Eric."

Sadabus: "Fine, fine; but someone else will have to cheer him up; I can't see me doing it."

Gailizia: Gailizia would comfort him, except she was also instrumental in delaying his promotion, so she will instead conceal her despair behind being a Halloween clown who happens to be quite hot. :fuguechip:

Semegastes: Semegastes' Anchors are dressed as each other. :fuguechip:

Elliott: Say more now.

Radegesis: Rad smacks Sadabus on the back, plausibly-deniable hard. "All right, enough of that! Let's go see about all these guys who showed up, huh?"

Sadabus: "Ah, yes, terror."

[Sadabus assumes his mantle of darkness and sweeps across the parking lot as a ten-foot-tall wizard casting a shadow that blots out the stars.]

Semegastes: Semegastes wants to :spotreckoning: the deal with Scalbrand.

Gailizia: Ah, with the Estate?

Or the costume?

Elliott: Gailizia is the expert on that — what have you done in the indeterminate amount of time since the Event?

Radegesis: I'll pile on to that, looking at the Estate!

The costume is apparently a switch with Jupiter, so I assume Scalbrand is now wearing like, the cartoon version of Jupiter's wardrobe.

Elliott: Yeah. Jupiter's a tall person, so a lot of their stuff already fit, but they've got Scalbrand in some major heels, a chic brocade blouse, and a purple velvet hat with a wide-ass brim.

Radegesis: I guess shades aren't included in that but I'm imagine-spotting Scalbrand lowering a pair of shades and winking at the camera to complete this reveal.

Elliott: Oh, absolutely.

Major John Lennon shades.

Gailizia: Scalbrand's body was built as a sort of crucible, and a crucible requires heat to progress the transformation.

When Uulgaru tried to enNoble Scalbrand, I think what happened is that that burning thing that is the Estate was taken, and swallowed by it, and but it did not undergo Commencement. It took the Estate into itself but not as a part of itself, instead encasing it as a pearl, a dormant coal of divinity — it's sealed like Time is, or like an egg struggling to break free of its shell.

Maybe when it completes it will enNoble it, or release it, or transform it thereby. Nobody's really sure! :fuguechip:

Gailizia: They haven't really done much, because there's not much to be done! On the other hand, Scalbrand is a bit like the metaphysical equivalent of a loaded gun right now.

Sadabus: So basically, you completely failed to honor Uugaru's request and you should feel bad.

[Sadabus broadcasts shame into the void, then remembers to be afraid of Gailizia and hides behind a werewolf.]

Gailizia: Maybe she should! She certainly has a lot of conflicting feelings about it!

Elliott: (Scalbrand hasn't really been using its auxiliary bodies lately, but it dressed them up as one another as well, so in the background, there's a gimp suit wearing a kigurumi, and a bunch of stuffed animals in latex bondage gear.) :fuguechip:

Elliott: Jupiter taps Rad on the shoulder.

They've got their walky-talky crackling.

Elliott: "I think your kid wants you?"

Radegesis: "What's up, Ju — ah, Scalbrand?" She winks.

"Oh, wait, what? Where you at, kid?"

She, I guess, just yelled that in the general direction of the walkie-talkie.

Elliott: Cole, over the walkytalky: "Fuck fuck fuck fuck Rad. Where are you? I need help. Like, emergency lessons."

Radegesis: "Oh, shit, oh, shit. All right, kid, hang on, I'm on my way!"

She tosses the sorrow-spider into the air and it scuttles ahead of her, leading the way.

Spherecraft

Elliott: The spider leads you to Cole, who's doubled over huffing and puffing in the chilly Halloween air.

"Fuck. Fuck, Rad, fuck. I need you to teach me how to use this thing right now. Or five minutes ago, if possible. Is that possible?"

He holds up his hand.

Radegesis: "Maybe. Probably not. What's up? What happened?"

:spotcreation:

Elliott: It takes a few tries for you to pull the story out of him — he's not great at putting things in logical order, and also he's scared out of his mind.

Apparently something jumped him in the haunted house, and he ran but it followed, and it was a thing of living, indigo flame that tried to hold and burn him.

He got away, stumbling through the studio door… but deleted the door in his panic. And possibly the concept of "entering this building."

Radegesis: Rad sags a little. "Hwoof. Okay. Pretty wild, but not too bad. Lemme see. Hey Sad! Is that purple fire thing one of yours?"

Sadabus: I attempt to determine if the purple fire thing is one of mine, via intense cogitation.

Maybe a Lore 0 miracle.

:spotcreation:

Semegastes: Sadabus asks: "did I do that?"

Elliott: You don't think so. I mean, you're not exactly a big curator of your Arcana, but they tend to be a little more flamboyant and a little less flammable.

Radegesis: Huh. Gonna deal with that in a minute, then.

Sadabus: So, a terrible beast of fire and so forth is sealed inside the studio?

Radegesis: "All right. Well, I guess the important question is. Did you also delete the possibility of exiting the building?"

Sadabus: Well, a studio. I still have one of my own.

Elliott: "I don't know!" he says in a tizzy. "I'm not in there to check anymore! And the fiery thing is! And the others are in there, too. I'm a fucking coward."

"And a time bomb."

Sadabus: "Well, then," says Sadabus. "What are you going to do about those things?"

He has located a crucible.

Semegastes: Semegastes :spotreckoning:'s to notice that there is a horrible thing of fire, assuming that the horrible thing of fire is within their notice-range.

Radegesis: "Okay, first off, running from purple fire is probably the correct thing to do in this situation. If you wanna be a time bomb, then you gotta admit it's just common sense and not cowardice. Can't be both!"

"Second, there totally is an easy way to check. Stand back a bit."

Assuming the Costumery of a rollergirl, Radegesis will proceed to Greater Stunt a hole through the wall. :fuguechip:

And, I'm assuming, now if not more so later, the child has been involved in a miraculous conflict.

Elliott: They definitely have.

And, hmmm.

So here's the thing:

Radegesis: I know it's impossible to enter the building, but that's phantasmagorical for me right now!

Elliott: Is it? It wasn't aimed at a Ninnuani.

Radegesis: Or, if it isn't, I might just knock a hole in the wall without actually ending up inside.

Sadabus: Amateurs.

Just erase the building.

Elliott: Yeah, I think the outcome is probably that Rad busts through… and erupts out the other side of the building, without ever occupying the space between.

Radegesis: In one side of the wall, out the other, without ever having been in the building?

Clash!

"Sad, this is part one. Part two is getting people out. Part three is dragging that thing out and kicking its ass a little."

Rad cups her hands and yells. "Hey! Special event! Free popcorn and, uh, candy popcorn out here!"

Semegastes: (Can I get a triangulation on where the monster is, relative to Seme, off the prior spotlight?)

Radegesis: She turns to Sad. "Okay, now Food From the Aerial Table that up or something."

Elliott: Where is Seme?

Semegastes: With the crowd, I'm assuming in the studio?

Radegesis: We cannot allow Sem to be called Seme.

Elliott: Ah, yes.

Sadabus: Sadabus uses goodberry.

Radegesis: "Ughhhh, Sad, you're worse than the dentist."

Elliott: So, Seme is definitely sensing that something is up, primarily because a volunteer comes running through the studio with their hair still singed and smoking.

Sadabus: Fine, fine!

Semegastes: "Uh-oh."

Sadabus: A heaping spread of edibles, piled as high as a man's head and tempting, tempting!

Elliott: They can see a strange, brightness within the depths of the studio, one moving towards them now.

Radegesis: I wanna see if people can leave the building, and if so induce them posthaste snackwards. :fuguechip:

Elliott: Hmmm…

This… snacking plan.

It seems to be working, at least for the two or three folks who are near enough to the hole you made to hear and head through.

Leopold Hickory ambles out of the hole with his grand-nephews, who are inexplicably dressed as gargoyles from Gargoyles.

"I was promised snacks?"

Radegesis: Radegesis points. "Beholdeth! And… shiver!"

Sadabus: Sadabus attempts to restrain his beaming smile as he waits for someone to bite into the snacks.

Radegesis: Is it Gatekeeper that gives you Oblivious? I'm going to pretend it is and therefore I didn't hear that.

Semegastes: Semegastes makes a Ninnuani sign of opening, and ushers forth a sea-blue mist of sorrows to extinguish the flames clinging to the hapless partygoers around them.

Greater Spherecraft

And… it probably brings the mood down, some.

Elliott: Their hair softens and shines with a faint glimmer of unhappiness.

Radegesis: Rad yells into the hole. "Sem, if you grab it, bring it on out, will you?"

Elliott: The folks in the studio take on a certain somber mood, including James.

Semegastes: Wreathed in azure fog, and now bedecked in their Costumery, which for this occasion has been 'literally Miku', Semegastes walks forward towards that strange and moving brightness.

Elliott: Semegastes, you find yourself lit by a strange, dark-fire; the heat of it kisses your skin and evokes memories of happy times that pierce even the mist of sorrow you have spread, for the flames are the flames of the Not. The creature itself is a nondescript darkness wrapped within that fire…and the fire spreads, forming hundreds of tiny imps, each of them a wisp of Ninnuan's joy-flame.

Radegesis: Joy, sorrow, Halloween spookiness… we're getting kind of an emotional melange here.

Semegastes: …if Semegastes were to Hunt this fire…

…on the theory that joy-flame is a material which might be tempered and forged with human suffering…

…would it be a Lesser Hunt or a Greater Hunt?

Radegesis: If you really piss Rad off we can fill out the Changeling courts!

Or anyone else, I guess.

Elliott: It'd probably be a Greater Hunt — at least that's the instinct that you get, since you could pretty easily Investigate it. There's definitely something off about it, though. Well, a lot about it is off.

Radegesis: Hm. Is this an appropriate juncture to insert a Strategy?

Semegastes: Let's start off, to add fuel to the Fugue fire, with a Greater Investigation, to get a sentence or two of general information on an Arcanum of their Sphere, plus a secret or a bit of expert knowledge if there is any such thing to know.

Elliott: This, Semegastes, is the Flame of Love Anticipated — the bright blue ember that burns in the heart of a Ninnuani bravo in the swift moments or agonizing decades before they profess their love to the object of their ardor. It is a keen, kind, cruel thing, and it is precious to your Sphere. But it is also… not just the Flame of Love Anticipated. There, standing at the heart of this flame-thing, radiating it in all directions, is a young girl.

Semegastes: Semegastes strikes an idol pose. "Hey there, magical flame girl! It's your favorite e-celeb, Semegastes Sarcocystidae, Halloween Special!"

Gailizia: Gailizia, who has until this moment been zoned out and talking with the station's antenna in a strange droning hum, snaps to attentiveness, and looks to the girl with acute Vision.

:spotreckoning: "Hey, do I know you? Are you okay?"

Elliott: SEMEGASTES, it says in the Voice of Flame — a wavering, beautiful thing, like the shimmer of hot asphalt on a far-away hill. HAVE YOU SEEN HIM? HAVE YOU SEEN COLE?

You stop, and attend.

You listen to the voice beneath the Voice of Flame, and it seems familiar.

Gailizia: "…Dee?", she ventures.

Elliott: The same.

Gailizia: She runs to her. "Dee! What's wrong?!"

Elliott: Gailizia: The flame! The flame! As you approach, it scalds and warns and presses against you.

Semegastes: Semegastes has formulated the theory of their Greater Hunt — they will draw the Flame of Love Anticipated out from Dee by resolving whatever romantic tension anchors it there, or, if that is not the reason why it haunts her, by creating and resolving some romantic tension with a third party such as can shuck it from her.

Radegesis: …ok, having refreshed my memory on who Dee is, didn't expect that one!

Elliott: Cole, upon hearing who the flame is, promptly books it — through the parking lot full of cars, beyond the screen where Rocky Horror is playing, and into the dark of the woods that surround the studio.

Semegastes: Alternatively, if it's one where a Greater Hunt lets me capture it instantly, I do that.

Elliott: It's probably not one of those.

Semegastes: Acceptable.

Time to play matchmaker!

Gailizia: As the heat sears against her skin, Gailizia shakes her head and makes a small smile.

"Semegastes, she's one of mine, too."

She reaches into the fire as though brushing the heat aside, and puts a hand on Dee's shoulder.

Lesser Spherecraft for protection, on the rationale that this is also a viable lambda-muse

Radegesis: "Jwh— hey!" Rad gives chase and, with the dual techniques of athleticism and being a big sister, easily… well, she doesn't corner him. But she does at least kind of herd him back towards the moderately lit and safe parking lot.

"Hey, kid, chill! If you don't wanna talk to her, we can just scoot over behind the back door and make like we didn't see her."

Gailizia: "Please… tell me what's wrong, Dee."

Lesser Intensity!

Semegastes: "Oh," Semegastes gasps, as Gailizia crafts their Sphere. It's like… being touched, unexpectedly, but not unpleasantly. :fuguechip:

Elliott: I'm going to call this a new chapter, and say the previous was 2 XP for getting perilously close.

Elliott: "Don't try and handle me, Rad," Cole says, and a trashcan nearby crumples into not-existing. He's upset… but he's also stopped running.

Radegesis: "Aw, hell, I'm not gonna do that, you know I can't handle anything for shit. I'm just… saying?" She fishes around in her, uh, previously-kigurumi-now-scary costume. "Here, eat this delicious KitKat with me." :fuguechip:

"You're not just gonna leave me hanging, right?"

Elliott: Gailizia, you part the heat in front of you like brushing aside a stray curtain, but it grows all the brighter and stronger the nearer you come. You don't know if it's Dee or the Flame or even if there's a difference, but they're still pushing you away… and burning themselves to do it, as the silvery soot of the Not begins to pale her skin.

Gailizia: It doesn't take a licensed therapist to see that they don't want to be touched, so she draws her hand away for the moment.

"Please, talk to me. What's going on between you two? When did—" she gestures at the fire "—this happen?"

Intensity continues.

Radegesis: "C'mon, Cole. Talk to me. What's going on here?"

Intensity

Elliott: "This is me, Gailizia," she says. "This is me."

Cole takes one of the KitKats when offered, turning it over in his fingers until they're smeared with melted chocolate. "I don't know. I mean… I almost hit Dee. I felt so ashamed of myself for running away rather than just trying to poof the monster, but the monster was Dee. I could have killed her. Or not even killed her. Like… would I remember her? If I'd hit her?"

Semegastes: "You're not-burning with
not-fire, child, with the Flame of Love Anticipated. Is there… someone you have feelings for?"

"Because on Semegastes Sarcocystidae Halloween Special: Romance Special: Fear the Love Monster! I'm here to help."

Intensity, invoking a title.

Gailizia: Gailizia smiles and, without noticing, begins to cry.

"Oh." She touches at the edges of the flame, cradling a stray violet spark, luminous with not-love. "You're beautiful, Dee. You've learned to burn and it's beautiful."

Radegesis: Rad runs a finger through her hair, which is maybe currently weasel fur. "Listen, kid, lemme tell you a story."

Semegastes: Actually, you know, this is a good moment for a #selfie. :fuguechip:

Elliott: Dee blushes inside her penumbra of flame. She aches with the awkwardness of a teen, but she says his name: "It's Cole."

Semegastes: "It's hard to tell him, though, I bet."

Radegesis: "This one time… this one time I got in a fight. There was this guy, and he was hurting me. I mean, in a way, he was made of the thing that's hurting me. He made a bird pop out of an egg and he told me he was going to do that to me, and I could feel… I could feel… well, I was scared. I was pissed. I had a big, nasty, sharp-ass spear. And I froze up, because I didn't know what I could do. Only two choices, right? He had a baby lark in his hand. I could kill him, tear him concept from concept, blast him off the face of the world. Or I could let him kill me, run screaming back to the void. That's all I had then. Either way's a fool's game. Either way you live alone and afraid and angry forever."

"That little lark was cheeping so cute, Cole. What the heck was I supposed to do?" :fuguechip:

telling your backstory + a meaningful conversation

Elliott: "What did you do?" he asks in a small and attentive voice.

"He ran from me," Dee says, dreamy and distant. "He runs from me a lot, lately. From all sorts of things."

Radegesis: "I asked him to stop for a minute. He asked for my hand and he put the baby bird in it."

Semegastes: "Cole… Cole is weighed down with a gift that no one should have to bear. And when you have all that weight, that pressure you shouldn't be asked to bear, sometimes you do things you wish you hadn't, because there's not any other choice."

"And like, apparently join the club, I guess."

"It's not fair, being asked to make decisions under all that weight. No one should have to do anything unless they feel like they just stepped out of the shower and had a perfect cup of coffee and their room smells like fresh-blooming flowers. But we're not that lucky."

"And like, teen romance? It's almost like the whole point of that is to be just agonizingly awkward."

Gailizia: "Running is easy. It's… simple, it looks uncomplicated." She takes a shuddering breath. "But once you stop running, you have time to look back. Cole has had a lot going on, but so have you."

"He's afraid, and he's running, but you don't have to run after him to reach him."

Gailizia offers a hand.

"How would you like to just… talk with him?"

Radegesis: "When his hand was on mine, either of us could have crushed that baby bird completely. It was just this little thing, and we held it together, carefully, because that was important to us." :fuguechip:

Semegastes: "I think Gailizia can help you, Dee. Just because he ran once, just because had a moment of being afraid and stressed out and not able to take it, that's not forever. That doesn't have to mean anything about you and him, as friends or anything else."

Radegesis: "Can't run forever, Cole. You shouldn't. Sometimes you leave such beautiful things behind."

Semegastes: "You don't have to burn forever."

Elliott: When Cole finally says something, it's in the smallest voice he can manage.

"I'm going to hurt her. I don't like her like she likes me. I don't like anyone like that. I usually don't even like myself."

"I don't know what I'll be if I stop burning," Dee says. "I think I might die."

Semegastes: "You never know what happens before you take that step forward. It's scary, god it's scary, but it's the only way you'll find ever find out."

"And no matter what, I will not let you die."

:spotdecisive:

meaningful conversation with the child (Dee)

Radegesis: Rad sighs. "I hear you, Collash. That's a couple different cans of worms. But running forever hurts, too. You're gonna have to hand this bird back eventually, nice and gentle."

Gailizia: "In the void… in Ninuan… do you know what it is we see? What it is that I can see, here, in you now?"

She takes another deep, shuddering breath.

"We all burn with the light that is ourself. We will not let that extinguish in you."

Radegesis: "You're not gonna kill her, kid. It's gonna be all right."

Elliott: The flame that is Dee dims, just a little; it loses heat and pressure, it allows you through. Dee is standing, every limb wreathed in not-fire. She is smiling an uncertain smile, something halfway between fear and hope.

"I could have," he says, and punctuates it by making a finger gun at a nearby tree, causing it to vanish. "It wouldn't be the first time, would it? But it doesn't hurt you guys like it would hurt her. Or like it hurt my family. Right?"

Radegesis: "No, it doesn't. Honestly, I kinda think it might not all the way hurt her either, but don't go testing it out. But you know what I'm talking about. I'm saying… Harumaph, I can't believe I'm saying this. I'm saying go talk to her, clear and friendlike. I can come with, if you want, to keep an eye on the hand, but it's gotta be you."

Radegesis: "It's just a hand, kid. It doesn't destroy everything forever. We're gonna get it under control, and you're gonna, I dunno, shake hands with it. High five. Fistbump. You get the metaphor." :fuguechip:

Gailizia: Gailizia takes her hand and holds it in a gentle firmness.

"However this conversation ends, you don't have to run."

A red light blinking in a cold air.

The low hum of electical power running through wires, building, amplifying, transducing from one thing to another.

In the distance, a reassuring voice announcing the evening news, before breaking up in static. A snapshot of a soap opera. bsssshhh. A laugh track, devoid of joke or context. bsssshhhh. There is the static, again and again, a moment between moments, a form preceeding form. A void.

Rad's radio clicks on.

"Hey."

"Could you put Cole on the line? Dee's here."

:fuguechip:

Glorification of the TV station transmitter

Elliott: Cole agrees to go, in the way that a teenager might simply by virtue of ceasing all resistance. He begins walking towards the studio, suddenly aware of how many people in their cars are looking at him — watched him have this little tantrum. He's flush and frustrated and he reaches back to you, Rad, with his World-Breaker's Hand, and wants you to take hold of it and just… let him try not burning things down.

Radegesis: I'll take his World-Breaking Hand in mine. With the other, obviously, I'll do a discreet little fuck off wave at the spectators, and Contagion a nasty itch in anyone who doesn't leave.

"Eagle One, over. Cole's here."

Gailizia: Gailizia squeezes Dee's hand.

"Whatever happens, we'll be here." :spotnudge:

Radegesis: "Go ahead, kid. I'm right here."
:spotattention:

Elliott: There's the long silence of two kids who both know how this will play out, but who still have to tumble through it. Dee asks: "Cole?" He answers: "I'm here, Dee." Then: "You ran away. Why are you running away so much now?" and he replies: "I'm sorry. You scared me. I'm scared a lot now." Then, in the silence, she makes a small, happy sound: Something like the sound an orchestra makes in the moment before they actually begin playing. They both speak at once: She says that she likes him — no, that she loves him, and she's sorry for that and sorry if she's making things weird but she loves him, she does, absolutely; he knows, and he's sorry, and he's run because he doesn't want to hurt her; she asks: is it someone else?; he answers: it's no one. He doesn't feel that way about anyone, and the truth is out there like they've both just vomited and they feel sick and satisfied and into that quiet, there's birthed a sense of relief.

"I'm sorry," he says.

"I'm sorry too," she says.

And it's okay, isn't it?

Maybe?

Gailizia: The world is wrong.

It's on us to make it better.

The truth is always a place to start building from.

Elliott: Semegastes: Your Hunt might allow you to draw the flame out of her now, if you try.

But there's so much in all of this that's wrong, subtly.

Radegesis: You feel something shiver and creak in these moments; something like the sound of new-grown limbs trying to wriggle through a chrysalis.

Gailizia: Look at this framing, this irony, the way the scene cuts against light and shadow. There's a terrible beauty in it — weighty and new.

Semegastes: It's simplest for you, isn't it? This heartbreak? It wracks at you… maybe not with much force, but it's inevitable and irresistible.

Everybody gets +1 Infection.

Gailizia: Gailizia continues to hold her hand, firmly yet gently. She points up to the sky.
"Where I come from, we also have the stars. I've never been able to tell if they're the same, or different, but… they're still beautiful."

She shivers in the cold breeze, and every printed eye looks to her. :fuguechip:

claiming 1 XP for The Work Is Never Finished and 1 XP for the child overcoming an obstacle.

Semegastes: Semegastes reaches out their hands and, gently, takes hold of the flame's edge, as if it were a gauzy veil. "Leave the child be," they say, as they tug ever so slightly at it."

Elliott: :turnback:

Gailizia: Yeah, uh.

We should probably talk about that!

Semegastes: Semegastes feels the flame singe their fingers, and withdraws.

This… wasn't how the plan went.

Gailizia: Because i'm pretty sure you're tugging out part of her essential nature if you go for this,

Semegastes: That… would probably be a mistake.

Radegesis: Yeah, it was a bit ambiguous whether this was, like, a fun thing someone dropped on her, but…

Elliott: I will tell you that it would be mixed, neither wholly good nor bad.

And accordingly: it is not a lethal course of action.

Gailizia: Actually…

If you wanna formally tell them to turn back…

Hand us down a doom.

Part the veil of fate.

Show us the gun before we reach out to pull the trigger.

Elliott: I don't have to, mind you. The doom may be uncertain or unclear — but the strangeness of this place and of its people? You have to make a choice, Semegastes: is it better that they be haunted by it, or that it be taken from them? Are you a bystander, or are you a guardian ready to patronize these folks?

Semegastes: Player-level objections to either end from anyone?

Radegesis: Seems weird to take someone's love from them, even if it's inconvenient. The fire part is under control, right?

Gailizia: If we take it from her I really feel we should ask her first at minimum.

But also i think her weird λ-fusion thing is something worth developing? Like what's up with that; is this some kinda Infusion or something? Usually it isn't so clean if it's a Prescott scenario.

Semegastes: Semegastes had thought the least pull, now, would draw the flame free of Dee's heart, would oust the usurper cuckoo from its stolen nest. But the singe of it against their fingers, the tugging back towards Dee that resists her grasp… this isn't what they'd thought would happen. This wasn't breaking a curse.

Radegesis: I don't think we know; the whole school's weird.

Semegastes: "Dee… I didn't understand. This fire… this fire is right, isn't it?"

"Or at least, the right kind of wrong."

Elliott: She looks at you confused for a second.

Gailizia: Another radio clicks on near Semegastes.

"This is me, Gailizia. This is me."

:fuguechip:

Elliott: "It only hurts a little. Usually."

Semegastes: "You don't have to hurt. Not if you don't want to. If you need it to be gone, if you want it to be gone, I'll take it from you, now or later or whenever you need. But if you want to burn…it's not my place to stop you."

Elliott: "I think I want to. For now," she adds, with a small flash of something like wisdom. The flame retreats until it's just an aura around her, an outline of blue radiance.

Semegastes: Can I ask you directly if Dee would be comfortable with being Anchored, without having to explain the whole process in-character?

Elliott: Dee would be comfortable with it. She's heard some background gossip from Poppy, and one of her schoolchums is in the Fanclub.

Semegastes: Spending 20 Immersion to do it.

Gailizia: Oh, boy.

Semegastes: And I think I now have to take an Immersion wound.

Elliott: Holy fuck that's a lot of Immersion.

Gailizia: I could Anchor her myself if you would rather not do that, since I've still got a free slot.

Semegastes: …oh! No, I'm only at… 73 Immersion, that's barely any at all

Gailizia: A pittance!

Semegastes: "Um."

"If you'd like?"

"I can also give you the whole."

"Um."

"Brain infection."

:fuguechip:

"Look I know it sounds bad, and it's kind of a big step, but it's, like."

"An AOL Chatroom?"

Elliott: "A what?"

Gailizia: "A Discord server."

Semegastes: "Oh my god Semegastes, she does not even know what an AOL Chatroom is; what am I doing."

Radegesis: Actually, with the symmetry here…

Rad slings an arm around Cole's shoulder, ignoring the sudden kicking between her lungs. "Listen, kid, I know you're not super into the Anchoring thing, but… there's a chance that if I tie you in here, I might be able to do something for you. It'll be slow, it'll take time, it'll probably get one or both of us in trouble, but… it's worth a shot?"

Elliott: There's an anime moment where Semegastes realizes they are so old.

Semegastes: "It's…

…poggers." :fuguechip:

Radegesis: I'm spending 50 Wyrd to make that Fugue Chip kill you.

Elliott: I don't get it.

But I will allow this.

Radegesis: And then it was Elliott who realized he was old!

Elliott: I already knew that.

Gailizia: Gailizia stifles a little laugh that Semegastes clearly hears in her head.

Semegastes: Elsewhere, all three of the Technical Kids are lying on the floor, unable to cope. :fuguechip:

Elliott: "Well, we've tried not trying anything, and nothing happened there," Cole says by way of assent.

Gailizia: Gailizia hands Dee one of her therapist cards.

"If you wanna set something up later, I suppose? Hard to find experts on this sort of thing to talk things out with."

Radegesis: Rad chuckles. "Damn, can't argue with that."

She reaches out. She makes the connection, and she gives Cole a divine, Shepherdly hug — ignoring the sudden rush of certainty that this is a terrible idea, that she's done something terrible, ignoring the memory of the baby lark that lay crushed in her hand once. :fuguechip:

an omen of the kid, 20 Immersion, +1 XP, closing out Bindings Quest 2

Elliott: Are you anchoring Dee, Seme?

Semegastes: Yes.

Elliott: Your lowercase-i infection spreads through her, and you can feel the Flame of Love Anticipated burning within her. It climbs through the connection you have made, the fine silver strand that links you to your Flore, and it charges that link with its own heat.

Bonus Get: Anchoring Dee also lets you take the Flame as an Arcanum

Elliott: But you feel another presence inside her, something now slipping out… you have just a moment to glimpse it and understand it.

Semegastes: Uh-oh!

Elliott: It is a slug-like thing, dark blue and barbed; your infection-self sees it even as it begins to disintegrate inside of her from where it had latched on to her heart.

Radegesis: !!!

I don't think I have a spotlight left but :spotreaction: !

Semegastes: Greater Investigation of whaaat the fuck is that.

…oh, and that does take me to a Fugue wound.

Gailizia: I do have a spotlight left.

:spotreckoning:

Tell me more about this chucklefuck.

Radegesis: Oh, boy!

Gailizia: They already fucked with me and my friend who is a girl once.

Elliott: It is, of course, the same sort of thing that Yvanas hurled up at the end of… whatever that break from reality was. The one that had the message.

Semegastes: That fucker.

Gailizia: I would like to reach in and pull it out while destroying its ability to dissolve.

Two Burn and a Greater Stunt.

Elliott: "I've seen worse performances," it says, already little more than a froth of particles, but Semegastes senses a wry, prideful smile in it. "It's a slim pass from me, this time."

Semegastes: "As qistja, as annuja, I claim this from you by foe-right: what is your deal, dude?"

Intensity

Elliott: Oh wait, is Gailizia still wailing?

Gailizia: You say this like I can just turn it off!

The silver quest is what I'm using to cut it out.

Elliott: I say it more as realization than question.

Gailizia: Functionally, a slug is merely a short handkerchief, and where a clown reaches to fetch such things is an unknowable mystery to the audience. Their throat, you may proclaim! But could it be so? A little secret between god and clown. :fuguechip:

Elliott: Gailizia is able to snatch some of its substance, although the lion's share is already nothing more than stray atoms. What she catches bobs and glimmers in her hand, and underneath its matter beats a pulse of the spiritus Dei.

To Semegastes, as its consciousness recedes: "I have to know," it says. "If you'll fail, like the ones who came before you."

And this is where we close; this is where the lights go out — with Gailizia holding a sliver of this intrusive thing; Semegastes wondering at its words; Radegesis and Cole eating the fuck out of some Milk Duds. :fuguechip:

Gailizia: Gailiza speaks as the stage darkens.

"You are present, dear Noble, and you have not yet been given leave from my stage. Next time, it shall be I who calls on you."

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