Chancel Aleph

<Rand Brittain> We were getting ready for your Great Convocation, I think. What were your plans?

<Rand Brittain> You can't just order pizza for a Great Convocation.

<Nentuaby> I was kinda leaving things to the folks who were driving the Convocation. Marcus isn't much of a host.

<crusher_bob> You mean, we are supposed to do stuff like provide 'slices of the world serpent' steaks? Or you want to know what agenda we want to push?

<Rand Brittain> All those things.

<Benhimself> Yes, it's not like we should consult the other Tempest in how we want to set the Chancel up for an arbitrarily large number of guests.

<Benhimself> All of whom have terrible, world-shaking powers, potentially.

<Nentuaby> "Potentially?" More "by definition," really.

<Benhimself> Well, they have it in potential, but they might not actualize said power.

<Benhimself> Odds are good we'll be very glad to have Defender's Blessing 5 by the end of the convocation.

• Uqbarian has joined #ChildrenOfEve

<Uqbarian> Hello!

<Benhimself> Now, that's just too many Excrucians.

<Benhimself> Oh, Uqbarian!

<Uqbarian> I'm a monster!

<Uqbarian> Rar!

<Rand Brittain> An Uqbarian is by name and definition an invading social context.

<crusher_bob> But do you have atomic fire breath?

<Uqbarian> :D

<Rand Brittain> Speaking of, audio CD of Borges' Collected Fictions comes out this month.

<Uqbarian> Atomic, no.

<Benhimself> There's probably a template you can apply to gnomes to get that.

<Benhimself> Maybe a tweaked Scion of Fire, since we're obviously talking 4E. Just replace 'fire' with 'fire and radiant'.

<Uqbarian> Exciting! Audio by whom?

<Rand Brittain> Amazon won't tell me, but Penguin is behind it.

<Uqbarian> Maybe a genasi reskin?

<Uqbarian> Would that be a genome?

<Uqbarian> I'll get my coat.

<Rand Brittain> We've missed you so.

<Rand Brittain> So- Great Convocation. You need party plans.

<Rand Brittain> Weapons-grade party plans.

<Uqbarian> I will actually get my coat, though, as I need to put some laundry on. Just be a few minutes.

<crusher_bob> We could serve up all kinds of apple pies, apple cider, etcetera. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that!

<Benhimself> We have two Tempests. We can effortlessly provide meals and entertainment to order.

<Nentuaby> I will make sure the gardens are in tip-top shape, and make sure there are lots of nice vine-screened nooks and crannys for guests to conspire in dark corners (those are a social necessity with Nobilis, you know).

<Benhimself> "I demand jugglers!" "Then jugglers you shall recieve! Jugglers in abundance!"

<Rand Brittain> Yes, but you can't just say, "Well, clearly we can provide top-class meals and entertainment." I know that. You have to tell me what it is.

<Benhimself> I'm not sure we want to encourage conspiracy. All our proceedings should be out in the open.

<Benhimself> Hmmm.

<Ryan> "I'm not sure we want to encourage conspiracy. All our proceedings should be out in the open!"

<Nentuaby> Also, there should probably be something like… very large, three-headed foo dogs guarding the Important Trees. Very friendly ones, unless you try to touch the fruit without permission.

<Ryan> "I suppose we should establish some baseline of meals and entertainment for the indecisive."

<Marcus> "You can't really discourage conspiracy, they're Nobilis. Better to make it comfortable, at least."

<Ebba> (All the tequila you can drink!)

<Uqbarian> (Can we assume we had a planning meeting with Dana so she could run through appropriate protocol and security arrangements?)

<Ryan> "Hmmm. I suppose I can see the advantage of designated conspiracy spots we ourselves have established."

• Uqbarian is now known as Alexa

<Rand Brittain> (That seems reasonable. Feel free to tell me what you decided.)

<Alexa> (We decided whatever Dana suggested that seemed reasonable. ;) )

<Marcus> "Hmmm, we should probably provide some waitstaff. Some plant people might be in theme, if Ebba doesn't object?"

<Ebba> And should we use the magic telephone to detect and record miracles?

<Ebba> That would tip us off if someone is doing something we wouldn't like.

<Ryan> "If she had plant loyalties, she's an odd way of showing it to her sister tea leaves."

<Ryan> "I was under the impression we couldn't not use the magic telephone to detect and record miracles. But yes, an excellent idea."

<Alexa> "That's after they leave the plant, though."

<Ryan> "But, mmmm. Some brightly-flowered vinefolk wouldn't go amiss. Multiple limbs are always handy."

<Marcus> "True that. I'll magic some up. Meanwhile- tables laden with vegan delicacies from around the world, lots of exotic drinks, various Light flowers draped over everything in garlands…"

<Alexa> "I think we should keep the menu simple. Lots of fruit and veg, like Adam and Eve might have had, though not the miraculous ones."

<Alexa> "Yeah."

<Alexa> "Make sure the waitstaff are distinguishable from the edibles, though."

<Ryan> "Nonsense, let's serve the Fruit of Wisdom to our guests. It'll be fun!"

<Marcus> "Hmmm. Should it be night or day, for our party?"

<Ryan> "Perhaps sunrise? Nicely symbolic, that."

<Ryan> "We could just make the sunrise last as long as we wanted."

<Marcus> "In theory, the wait staff could be the edibles. Fruit-bearing butlers are not out of the question. It might be a bit outre, though."

<Alexa> "Yuck."

<Marcus> "Yes, Sunrise is good."

<Alexa> "Yep."

<Ryan> "I would find that awkward if I were asked at another Noble's party to eat parts of the staff, even if they were enthusiastic about me doing so."

<Marcus> "Ryan, you've made eyeballs appear on my hat; I have a hard time believing that actually pings your oddity radar."

<Ryan> "Yes, but I didn't eat the hat afterwards, did I?"

<Marcus> "Who knows, it might have been delicious."

<Ryan> "I will continue to leave the exploratory consumption of objects of unknown potency to you."

• Alexa smirks.

<Marcus> "Okay, so we have refreshments, staff, and atmosphere… that leaves, I suppose, entertainment and our own couture. Should we theme that, or is that going too far?"

<Ebba> And as for the agenda, I'd assume the other Powers know, or will find out soon.

<Ryan> "This is a convocation first, and a party second. A theme might be pushing that."

<Alexa> "Theme parties are silly, anyway."

• Ryan begins making a few idle variations on 'brightly-colored vinefolk' to see how they look in practice.

<Marcus> "Fair play. Music should be fairly light and background-y, I suppose. We could make flowers that emit music as the breeze plays over them?"

<Ryan> "Although having a theme would give Dana a chance on revenge for Alexa's snubbing of her."

<Alexa> "I'm sure she's above that sort of thing."

<Marcus> "On second thought, however, I'm not certain we should encourage the obvious theme for a Garden of Eden party anyway."

<Ryan> "Yes, you're probably right."

<Marcus> "It could get quite awkward, if enjoyable."

<Alexa> "We could keep the air warm to make it easier."

<Ryan> "Well, the state of purity and innocence has not yet been reearned by humanity."

<Ryan> "Hmmm, speaking of which, whatever happened to that angel with a flaming sword watching our gates?"

• Alexa hums the tune of 'In A Gadda Da Vida'.

<Rand Brittain> Can you "earn" innocence?

<Ryan> "I can't remember if we ever determined if he was one of the First Lord's powers, or an actual angel."

<Marcus> "I'd kind of assumed the angel part was a mortal misinterpretation of some kind of Dark doorguard, but it might be looking into."

<Alexa> "No idea."

<Alexa> (Divination of Fire to see if anyone has left a flaming sword lying around.)

<Marcus> "Eh, anyway. Plans for the party sound right?"

<Ryan> "We really should pay more attention when overthrowing fundamental properties of the world."

<Ryan> "So far, yes."

• Ryan makes a few stately-looking bamboo-like trees with fluted leaves and branches for music.

<Alexa> "Can you make some sentries as well, to watch out for uninvited guests?"

<Marcus> "I'm on that."

<Ryan> "Giving them a fire theme might not be inappropriate, actually. Maybe you should make them."

<Alexa> "Well, I was thinking I can throw a wall of fire around the place once all of the guests are here."

<Rand Brittain> (No flaming swords that you can see. You'd probably notice!)

<Ryan> "Hmmm, so, a few gazebos and the like for smaller discussions, with many winding, almost mazelike paths connecting them, and one large open area for a gathering of all the powers involved. How many did Dana say we should be expecting, again?"

<Marcus> Marcus starts cooking up those Foo Dog/Hydras he'd mentioned. They are rather noble looking, as Foo Dogs go.

<Ebba> Agenda so far:

<Ebba> Here's what we know:

<Ebba> (stuff)

<Ebba> Blowing up the earth is bad.

<Ebba> Some sort of roving reaction squads, to prevent mortal miracles from getting out of hand? Since the things involved will be actual miracles, we might need Nobles to act as a fire brigade.

<Ebba> End of the world of science?

<Ebba> Do the miracles cause dementia animus? If so, need a strategy for that too. Time for another religious upheval? Does anyone have one in thier pockets?

<Ebba> (If no one else does, Ebba has some ideas along that line involving anonymous and 4chan… :D)

<Alexa> ( :o )

<Marcus> ((We're supposed to be the Light, Ebba. Not Hell.))

<Ebba> :D

<Rand Brittain> Do you have strategies in those areas? Having things to put forward ready-made is a good way to make sure your plan wins.

• Marcus wanders off to Create party stuff while the more politically-oriented members of the Familia set the agenda.

<Ebba> For Noble fire brigade, probably a rotaing roster, chosen by Dana, or some other respected person.

<Alexa> (I think we were hoping to come up with some way of extracting the Essence of Dark Lord from humanity, if we determine that's the cause of the problem.)

• Marcus pops his head back into whatever little garden nook plans are being discussed in. "Say, somebody has informed Her High-Temperedness that we're going to have a large number of strangers tromping around in her stronghold, yes?"

<Alexa> "Er…"

<Ebba> As for the stuff involving Anonymous, it would mostly amount to "memetic technologies for directing evolving stories" (or some other high-falutin' word) so that even if people do start seeing the world as both a story and a place, they can still sorta function.

<Marcus> "I don't like 'Er.' 'Er' sounds like "we're all going to die in fire."

<Rand Brittain> Dementia animus is generally the result of looking into the mythic earth, since Nobles exist in both. Since humans don't exist in both, human miracles could be presumed not to cause it.

<Ryan> "I'll look into that."

<Ebba> And the lack of 'faces' and the distributed nature would make it more difficult to discredit or counterattack.

• Ryan wanders over to the sleeping Phoenix.

<Ebba> The idea being, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose if you got to write the rules of the game first.

• Ryan sets up a few foo-hydras there as well.

<Rand Brittain> How do they chase their tails?

<Alexa> "Terrible!"

<Rand Brittain> …

<Ryan> By flanking them.

<Alexa> :)

<Alexa> (The issue of what to do with Eden can also go on the agenda.)

<Rand Brittain> Don't go letting other people tell you what to do with your magic garden!

<Ryan> They can certainly offer suggestions.

<Alexa> (How's the Phoenix?)

<Ebba> (Ebba's suggestion here is to use it as a stopping off point after death, where people can have a chance to deal with some of their bad karma. So that they can (hopefully) avoid being inevitably dragged down to Hell by thier accumulated bad deeds.)

<Alexa> (I like it!)

<Rand Brittain> The Phoenix is slumbering peacefully.

<Rand Brittain> It's a bit like the Emerald Sanctuary in the WoWs.

<Ryan> "Ahem. Ma'am? Would you mind terribly if we hosted a great convocation to which all the Light was invited?"

<Rand Brittain> "Mmmmmm…. toasted marshmallows would be delicious…."

<Alexa> (That sounds like 'Fine by me!')

<Ryan> (It certainly wasn't an 'absolutely not!')

<Rand Brittain> "…I command that you serve s'mores…."

<Ryan> "Of course, my Lady."

• Ryan begins discreetly backing away.

<Ebba> "Jawohl, mein fuhrer!"

<Rand Brittain> The Phoenix snores.

<Ryan> "Right. Hrm."

• Ryan decides to go share this information with the others.

<Ryan> "So, the party is on, but we've been commanded to serve s'mores."

<Alexa> "That's some American thing, isn't it?"

<Marcus> "Mmmm. Well, that's… auspicious. Anyway! Exotic beverages, vegan delicacies of the world, and s'mores. Check."

<Rand Brittain> How can the Power of Fire not know about s'mores?

<Alexa> (She chooses not to know everything.)

<Ebba> Curse you Hong Kong, with your lack of graham crackers!

<Rand Brittain> What a benighted backwater you inhabit! But at least you can get marshmallows.

<Ryan> "So, some sort of fire pit, where visitors can toast marshmellows, and maybe graham crackers and chocolates will be provided."

<Ryan> "I'm certain some of our guests would welcome a more down-to-earth setting to relax in."

<Marcus> "We should probably not have leafy people manning that station."

<Alexa> "Or marshmallow people."

<Rand Brittain> How about a separate ceremony after the main banquet?

<Rand Brittain> After the big hoo-hah, everyone puts on civvies and comes down to the campfire in a show of humility.

<Alexa> "Y'know, we could have a separate ceremony after the main banquet."

<Ryan> "Hmmm. Where everyone puts on civvies and comes down to the campfire in a show of humility?"

<Ryan> "That's an excellent suggestion!"

<Marcus> "Good idea. We could set the sun to put a proper cap on the day, and provide a proper atmosphere for a bonfire."

<Alexa> "Yeah. It's like you read my mind!"

<Ryan> "Uncanny."

<Alexa> "And then we burn everyone!"

<Ebba> Curse you all, perhaps I can try substituting saltine crackers…

<Ryan> "NONE ESCAPE THE PURIFYING FLAMES."

<Alexa> "Sounds good."

<Rand Brittain> Hm, Alexa's ideas are very good today.

• Alexa looks around as if expecting someone to tell her to not burn everyone.

<Ryan> (Fiona's not here anymore. Sorry.)

<Alexa> (Is she coming back?)

<Rand Brittain> Only if the internet smiles upon you.

<Ebba> (So our agenda is going to be: roving fire brigades, the 4chan reformation, and eden as, erm, "purgatory"?)

<Ryan> (And this whole 'leadership of the Light' thing.)

<Alexa> (And filtering out Dark Lordness. So: describe problem, identify causes, propose solutions.)

<Alexa> (But Ryan is Leader. What's to discuss? ;) )

<Rand Brittain> (Which design for his hat is superior.)

<Alexa> (Needs More Eyes.)

<Rand Brittain> Also, have you identified the First Lord as the cause empirically?

<Alexa> (No. That's right, we were going to go around detecting miracles as the first step for that, weren't we?)

<Rand Brittain> I think you were just looking for proof that humans were responsible.

<Alexa> (And we thought about talking to Helen, Karen was going to check out the merrows, and Dana was going to ask Mystery.)

<Ryan> But that's a good point. For all we know, it's the Phoenix's fireblossoms that we seeded the earth with so long ago that's causing all this.

<Alexa> (Hmm. We probably should have got more proof of the cause first, then.)

<Marcus> (And then none of this happened because nobody in that A-plot showed up for the session, and instead I got kidnapped by rude robots.)

<Ebba> (well, we can just go back in time and find out some more info. We're Nobles, we can do that sort of thing… )

<Rand Brittain> Well, the party isn't yet.

<Alexa> "Right. Let's review what evidence we've gathered."

<Ryan> "Take out the Miracle Detector. Its records are infallible to the point of inconvenience, aren't they?"

<Rand Brittain> They are a bit infallible, yes.

<Alexa> "Here it is."

• Alexa points the detector at Ryan.

<Rand Brittain> Nothing.

<Ryan> "Well, did you spot any human-based miracles when we were shopping, or didn't you?"

<Ebba> Yes, there were the headless guys, a miracle of Aspect.

<Rand Brittain> It was human-based, but the detector only knows who did it.

<Alexa> "Oh, yes. A girl called Charlie killed some muggers."

<Ryan> (Wait, didn't we take Charlie with us back to Eden for study?)

• Alexa tries to play back the relevant recording on the detector.

<Rand Brittain> I don't recall you doing that.

<Alexa> (I don't think we specified. The scene closed with Alexa suggesting getting Charlie some coffee.)

<Rand Brittain> Hm, what to do!

<Alexa> (My plan was just to help Charlie stay calm, and give her a card with one of our mobile numbers or something. Ebba, what did you plan?)

<Ebba> (I wasn't there; I was supposed to be delivering apples at the time…)

<Ebba> (That was supposed to be the B plot, to be done in the next session when some of you couldn't make it, or something.)

<Ryan> (Well, we're gods. It's not like we couldn't find her if we wanted to investigate her.)

<Alexa> (No, you're right, Ryan was there.)

<Ryan> (Alexa can just find her when she lights up a cigarette or walks by a candle or something.)

<Ebba> So should we plan to talk to Charlie next session?

<Ryan> Well, sure, for certain definitions of 'talk'.

<Ebba> Are you seeing the world any differently; have you done any other miracles?

<Ebba> Would you like to buy a religious franchise from one of us? :D

<Rand Brittain> Have you found a therapist to talk to about the people whose heads you tore off with your bare hands?

<Ryan> Would it be unreasonable to assume we've got some Simple Rite that could determine the source of her miraculous power, or would we need to find one?

<Rand Brittain> That's more complex than what the normal Simple Rites can do.

<Rand Brittain> That you know of.

<Alexa> (Wouldn't the Witch Hunt Rite work?)

<Ebba> With Aspect 5 therapy, Ebba can do it so well as to drive you mad with her threaputic awesomeness!

<Ryan> And you should see her gardening.

<Ryan> (It'll tell us who did it, but not how she came by the power to do so, I think.)

<Rand Brittain> Indeed. What you want is the power to analyze the flavor of an Essential being's causa causans in depth.

<Ryan> So do we know any ways to determine the source of a mortal's miraculous power, or are we going to have to improvise something?

<Ryan> I.e., "Ryan summons something or Ebba builds something."

<Alexa> (We didn't seem to say that we used the Witch Hunt Rite at the scene, but can we assume we did? If so, did it just give us a null reading?)

<Rand Brittain> It only showed you that she was the one who did it.

<Rand Brittain> This is kind of a problem that hasn't showed up very often.

<Ebba> I'd assume that once you prove that someone did the miracle under their own power, getting an answer on exactly how they did it other than the unhelpful "I AM THAT I AM" is a bit difficult.

<Ryan> Hmmm.

<Ryan> "I guess I'll have to look into my old summoning books for something that might be useful, here."

<Ryan> "I think I've considered the need for some sort of psychospiritual metasurgeon before, anyway."

<Alexa> "Any more alchemical ideas, Ebs?"

<Ebba> (Currently sitting at no AMP and 2 deadly wounds. :D …I'm tapped out right now.)

<Ebba> Though I can go and talk to Charlie just fine.

<Alexa> "Okay. Shall we go and talk to Charlie while you study, Ryan?"

<Ryan> "That sounds like a plan."

<Ryan> (And I've got to head off nowish, anyway.)

<Alexa> (Righto. Alexa would at least have exchanged mobile numbers with Charlie.)

<Rand Brittain> Plans, plans. Next week, Alexa dissects a college student!

<Marcus> Marcus tries on snazzy hats!

<Alexa> (I'm hoping we can do it without actual dissection!)

<Marcus> (Meh.)