<RyanSherbrig> "My apologizes, Elizabeth, but… family business, you know how it is."
- RyanSherbrig heroically refrains from gesturing towards Thorpe.
<HollyhockGod> "Oh, believe me, i know all about it."
<HollyhockGod> She heroically refrains from gesturing towards Thorpe.
<Alexa> (Are Ebba and Fiona coming too?)
<Fiona> (I am)
<Ebba> (sure)
<Alexa> "I just want to know one thing: are you coming back for good?"
- Fiona mostly looks kind of nonplussed about the situation
<Pandora> I'll…. be here forever!
<Pandora> Maybe not in quite the sense you were hoping for.
- Alexa looks like a hurt child, torn between wanting to hug Pandora and storm off in tears.
<Pandora> Let's make a long story short, sis.
<Pandora> I've been around for a long time, and most of it sucked.
<Pandora> I made a list once, and the number of deaths I got that were peaceful and surrounded by grandchildren were around 1% of my total.
<RyanSherbrig> "Slitting your throat to save yourself walking across the room may have been a factor in that."
<Pandora> Slightly more as time went by, but still not great… okay, yeah, Ryan has a point.
<Pandora> But still!
<RyanSherbrig> (/me is still in the denial phase, manifested by dry humor and treating the situtation as nothing out of the ordinary!)
<Pandora> So, the way I see it, there's a good argument to be made that the world would be better off it the Horsemen consumed it and memorialized it inside themselves.
<Pandora> So when they offered me the chance to show up I figured it was a good time to find out for sure.
<Alexa> "You're fucking kidding me."
<Pandora> If the world doesn't end, I guess it was worth keeping it around.
- Fiona is only mildly surprised.
<Pandora> When you're five thousand years old, maybe you'll think the same.
<Alexa> "But how can we trust you now?"
<Pandora> Trust me?
<Fiona> (do I still have her domain?)
<RyanSherbrig> (I suppose E'jah never got back to us about the stone of antiheroes being conveniently finished, and prepared for debuting at this very party, right?)
<Pandora> I expect you to kill me.
- Alexa gapes.
<Pandora> You're an important part of the testing process.
<Alexa> "What?"
<Pandora> I want to know if the world has enough goodness in it to survive.
<Pandora> That means doing battle with its defenders.
<Fiona> "That doesn't make any sense at all."
<RandBrittain> Fiona still has Rebirth, yeah.
<RyanSherbrig> "Hmmm. I don't suppose you would allow a recess of, oh, say, 8 hours to properly prepare for a duel, then?"
<Pandora> It makes as much sense as what most of our colleagues believe.
<Pandora> Oh, you can have plenty of time. This isn't going to be a formal duel.
<Pandora> This is war, after all.
<Pandora> I just thought I'd drop by to explain my intentions.
<Alexa> "Goodness? What about humanity?"
<Pandora> Well, as things stand, sometimes I think they'd suffer less if they were dead.
<Pandora> But if they want to rise up and kill me to prove me wrong, that's fine too.
<Pandora> Stranger things have happened, albeit only like, three times.
<Alexa> "But…"
- Pandora smiles.
<Pandora> I just wanted to let you know where I stood.
<Alexa> "But why this way?"
- Pandora shrugs.
<Pandora> This is just sort of how it shook out.
<Pandora> Plus I wanted to surprise you!
<RyanSherbrig> "Well, we appreciate the heads up, as well as doing it… relatively discreetly."
<Pandora> Oh, yes. So, are you going to out me?
<Pandora> I know the Phoenix will have forbidden it.
<Alexa> "Out you? I don't even know you."
<Pandora> This seems very predictable to me, but who can say?
<Pandora> Anyway, if you ever decide to switch sides, let me know.
<Alexa> (Alexa means she doesn't know enough about Pandora to out her, rather than disowning her, but the ambiguity is intentional.)
<Pandora> I'll put in a good word for you.
<Pandora> Or possibly a bad word? Not sure.
<Fiona> "I don't think we really care either way"
<Alexa> "I… I just wanted you to come back."
<Fiona> (Fona is not the sort of person who says things like 'also, fuck you', but if she was, she would be doing that)
<Pandora> I thought you might, so I did!
<RyanSherbrig> (Ryan's toying with the idea of Words of Command and soul-scouring sunbursts. But he doesn't think Alexa would approve.)
<Pandora> Instead of, you know, arriving for the first time on my pale horse with my army in tow.
<Ebba> (not to mention that new improved pandora will be at least as indestructible as old pandora)
<Alexa> "I still don't understand why it has to be this way. If you're tired of suffering, why not just quit? Why take everyone else down with you?"
<RyanSherbrig> (Who knows? Maybe Fiona has all the Rebirth now, and the new Pandora just has… um, pale horses and an army of monsters.)
<Pandora> To see if they deserve it or not.
<Alexa> "Deserve? Deserve?!
<Pandora> I know it seems rough that I'm murdering you, but inside I really really want you to stop me.
<Fiona> (I think Fiona's at 3 or 4 points of rebirth)
<Pandora> That is my #1 outcome.
<Alexa> "You've been here how many thousands of years, and you believe in deserts? No-one 'deserves' anything! There's life and death, and hope and fear, and fire and light and shit happens.
<Alexa> "'Deserves' doesn't come into it."
<Pandora> I'll rephrase myself.
<Pandora> I want to see if it's all going to end for the best or go to Hell.
<Pandora> Actively trying to destroy everything is just hurrying the process up.
- RyanSherbrig tries to subtly, while Pandora and Alexa are distracted talking, communicate with Ebba/Fiona via ASL.
<Alexa> "And how will this stunt of yours demonstrate anything?
<RyanSherbrig> "So are we attacking now, or what?"
<RyanSherbrig> (Will spend 2 AMP to help with the discretion part of that)
<Alexa> "How do you know the Horsemen aren't just feeding you a line?"
<Pandora> I'm pretty sure they aim to destroy the world, so I'm happy.
<Pandora> …in a general sense.
<Alexa> "So just how can you tell if things will end 'for the best'?"
<Ebba> (trial by combat, of course)
<Pandora> If the world fails to end, my faith will be restored.
<Alexa> "What if it fails to end but you're not around to see it?"
<Pandora> Technically possible, but I'm hard to kill.
<Alexa> "More importantly, how can we ever tell it's not going to end tomorrow? The world can fail to end today. That's good enough for me."
<Alexa> "Why can't it be enough for you?"
<Pandora> Historically, "be good and you will be happy" is something people say so that you won't question why they're on top.
<Pandora> And even if they mean it it probably isn't true.
<Alexa> "That's *not* what I'm saying, and you know it."
<Pandora> You can call me impatient, I guess.
<Pandora> I've been doing this longer than you, and it's gotten wearing.
<Alexa> "You don't know if the world will end, so you'll end it yourself? I call that selfish."
<Pandora> I speak from experience when I say that everyone dies sooner or later.
<Pandora> They get over it.
<Fiona> (Fiona has noticed Ryan's communications and is intentionally not responding)
<RyanSherbrig> (I was wondering.)
<Alexa> "So? Dying is not the same as a … a frozen eternity in a Horseman's saddlebag, or whatever it is that happens out there."
<Pandora> No, but living kind of is.
<Alexa> "You really have lost it."
- You are now known as HollyhockGod
<RyanSherbrig> "I concur, Alexa."
<RyanSherbrig> "Ebba, Alexa, with me! Fiona, grab the scarab and flowerwalk to the Fire Isles!"
<Ebba> "I doubt arguing philosophy will accomplish anything at this late juncture"
- RyanSherbrig shapeshifts into a tiger and tries to rip Pandora's throat out.
<RyanSherbrig> (As a mundane action. The throat-ripping, that is.)
- Pandora looks offended.
- Fiona glances over to see what Alexa is doing
- HollyhockGod pauses to figure out what Pandora's stats are.
<HollyhockGod> How many CP do you each have, these days?
<RyanSherbrig> (I was hoping the same as they were! But, you know, maybe not, in which case, we'll find out. Or at least Ryan will.)
<HollyhockGod> It's like Exalted. If you sell your soul for power, you should, you know, get some power.
<Alexa> (We're at 39, I think?)
<RyanSherbrig> (Hmmm. Let's see, I got… a HS up, glorious, and shapeshifting (2). So I think we're 7 over our base?)
<RyanSherbrig> (Oh, maybe I'm two down, then.)
<Ebba> (if we started with 30, we'd have 39 now?)
<HollyhockGod> I think you started with 32.
<HollyhockGod> So 41, so Pandora should have about… I dunno…
<RyanSherbrig> (Really? I'm pretty sure it was 30… not counting Eternal for free.)
<RyanSherbrig> (Regardless, feel free to give her as many stats as you feel appropriate, and then horribly Negative-Gift-murder Ryan or whatnot.)
<Alexa> (41 times 4 = 164. ;))
<RyanSherbrig> (He knows this is a little bit foolhardy)
<HollyhockGod> So what do the rest of you do?
<Ebba> (crack fizz pop The avalanche has started. Iit is too late for the pebbles to vote)
<RyanSherbrig> (Stand in shock? Facepalm?)
<Alexa> (Alexa kind of wants to wait to see what Pandora's doing — if she set off her Purifying Flame, maybe a Major Destruction of Fire could cancel it?)
<RyanSherbrig> (Just remember. If anyone asks, we uncovered her as a deciever-shard.)
- Fiona conjures a flower while waiting to see what Alexa decides to do
<HollyhockGod> What Aspect are you attacking with?
<RyanSherbrig> A mundane action! The shapeshifting was my miraculous.
<RyanSherbrig> But hopefully a mundane tiger-mauling is still at least somewhat significant a threat.
<RyanSherbrig> (I'm really hoping at least Ebba helps out)
<Fiona> (Ebba, the other useful party member!)
<HollyhockGod> You're all useful!
<Alexa> (Oh, screw it. Pick up the torch, Lesser Creation of Fire plus 1 Pen to burn her face off with it.)
<Fiona> (not that Alexa isn't also normally useful too)
<HollyhockGod> Fiona is just habitually peaceful.
<HollyhockGod> Your attacks seem to work!
<Alexa> (Bad sign.)
<HollyhockGod> Pandora's wounds bleed and her skin begins to show burns.
<Pandora> Ouch.
<Alexa> (It turns out to be Anna Beauregarde in disguise!)
<Pandora> I didn't actually mean to start outright battle here and now, but fine.
<RyanSherbrig> (Awkward!)
<Pandora> Maybe Phoenix will forgive you.
<RyanSherbrig> "I think it's you that will have to worry about her forgiveness."
<RyanSherbrig> (in Tiger-growls)
- Pandora erupts in blinding fire and light.
<HollyhockGod> You're suddenly surrounded by light and heat. It makes it rather difficult to see, except for Fiona who has her own personal zone of safety.
<HollyhockGod> You hear Karen's voice in the distance, saying "What was that?"
<HollyhockGod> Fiona, your action.
<Fiona> I'm going to wade through the light and heat to get to the centre (preferably while the miracle is a miracle rather than real)
<HollyhockGod> You move forward, but she isn't where she was.
<HollyhockGod> Ebba?
<HollyhockGod> Okay, Ryan, if Ebba is impassive?
<RyanSherbrig> Hmmm.
<RyanSherbrig> (Can I justify attacking Pandora to save humanity as service to the light?)
<Alexa> (First we have to find her!)
<HollyhockGod> Reasonable!
<HollyhockGod> But it has to be "great service" to get you MP.
<RyanSherbrig> (I'm attacking someone with unknown, possibly excrucian powers! The one thing that can threaten an Immortal!)
<HollyhockGod> Sure, but you don't get points unless you accomplish something.
<RyanSherbrig> (I hurt her, that's sort of an accomplisment. I was mostly hoping I could use the 4 MPs to back up an aspect-attack.)
<HollyhockGod> Try harder!
- RyanSherbrig aspect-0 tiger-sniffs out her location, and another mundane lunge.
<HollyhockGod> Hey, that's a good idea!
<HollyhockGod> She's moved backwards and to the side, but you sniff her out.
<HollyhockGod> Lunge!
<HollyhockGod> You slice into her achilles tendon, and she drops to one knee.
<Ebba> (sigh, called away)
<HollyhockGod> Alexa?
<HollyhockGod> Called away for the night?
<Alexa> (Give Ebba a go first?)
<HollyhockGod> Very well. Your turn, Ebba.
<HollyhockGod> Or are you called away still?
<Fiona> (it is a mystery)
<HollyhockGod> Alexa, maybe you should go
<Alexa> (Will a Lesser Destruction of Fire suffice to put out the heat and light?)
<HollyhockGod> It's impossible to say.
<RyanSherbrig> (Maybe Ebba is off doing crown control with Exemplar grace and tea-serving skills until otherwise noted?)
<RyanSherbrig> (Crowd, even.)
<Alexa> (Major Destruction, then. 3 DMPs.)
<HollyhockGod> It has to be 4.
<Alexa> (Oh, so it does. 4 then.)
<HollyhockGod> You vanish the light, and find Ryan slicing Pandora's achilles tendon.
<Alexa> (As a mundane action, shouting back to whatever's left of the party: "Deceiver shard! Emergency!")
<Alexa> (But I think we need to get the scarab off her and back to the Phoenix ASAP *without* letting Pandora actually die.)
<RyanSherbrig> (Deceiver shards: the excuse that keeps on giving.)
<HollyhockGod> "Guards! Lukas!" shouts Elizabeth Eliza!
<HollyhockGod> She appears at the balcony door.
<Pandora> Wake.
- Pandora stomps her foot.
<HollyhockGod> The castle walls and floor start to grind alarmingly.
<HollyhockGod> Ryan, you find the floor starting to eat your feet.
<Ebba> (ok back)
<Ebba> (assuming pandora still works in the normal fashion, shell show up after death at the scarab, right?)
<RyanSherbrig> (It's definitely what Ryan is hoping.)
<RyanSherbrig> (Hence his whole shouted plan.)
<HollyhockGod> Ebba's turn, then?
<Ebba> (but since she is carrying it around I'd assume she either has a plan, or it doesn't work like that anymore)
<Ebba> (but it seems that she doesn't have protection from direct miracles?)
<Alexa> (Hmm. Good point.)
<Ebba> (or is just putting up an act)
<HollyhockGod> Being burned with fire is not a direct miracle.
<Ebba> (as always, I will assume it is a diversion)
<Ebba> can I try a realm miracle to check that our chancel isn't under attack, or something?
<HollyhockGod> Sure.
<HollyhockGod> I don't know how many RMPs you need, but nothing seems wrong in the Fire Isles.
<Alexa> (Could we assume that was what Ebba was doing last turn?)
<HollyhockGod> Sure. Take an action for this turn, then.
<Ebba> lesser div is 3, isn't it? so I'd need to spend 4
<HollyhockGod> It's 2.
<Ebba> (not that I'm doing anything with those miracle points, anyway)
<Ebba> (and doesn't pandora explode with great fire?)
<HollyhockGod> Previously that was so!
<Ebba> (but we'll assume Alexa is on that)
<Ebba> so we'll try nabbing the scarab
<HollyhockGod> Mechanics?
<Ebba> (aspect 3, pen 2)
<HollyhockGod> Ebba snatches the scarab from her neck!
<HollyhockGod> Ebba snatches some scarabs.
<HollyhockGod> Oh, there we go.
<HollyhockGod> Strange.
<Ebba> who's up next?
<HollyhockGod> Um, Pandora is.
<Alexa> (Er, what happened with the scarabs?)
<Ebba> let's see somethnig good, then
<RyanSherbrig> Didn't Pandora do her 'wake' thing?
<HollyhockGod> Oh, right
<HollyhockGod> Fiona?
- Fiona takes the scarab from Ebba, then flower steps home
<Fiona> (assuming Ebba only got one scarab)
<Fiona> (what did happen with the scarab/s)
<Alexa> (Yeah, I'm worried about that.)
<HollyhockGod> Fiona vanishes into her special effect.
<HollyhockGod> That was merely my client lagging out.
<Alexa> (Oh, righto.)
<Alexa> (Is the scarab making a ticking sound, then?)
<HollyhockGod> Fiona, you appear back in your conservatory, where all is quiet.
<HollyhockGod> Ryan, your move.
<HollyhockGod> Er, wait, Elizabeth has a move.
<RyanSherbrig> Hawk form! Mundane eye-rending action!
<RyanSherbrig> Or, see what she does.
<HollyhockGod> She moves to cover you with her Auctoritas.
<HollyhockGod> And shouts "Karen!"
<HollyhockGod> Karen appears at the door, but her action can wait.
<RyanSherbrig> Ah, in that case, I shall keep the Brightly Burning Tiger form, and continue with mundane mauling.
<HollyhockGod> The tiger is still stuck in the floor.
<RyanSherbrig> Miraculously, I shall create some magical-soldiers by Fiona, just in case. Realm miracles don't use distance costs, correct?
<RyanSherbrig> Feet of light, teeth of bone!
<HollyhockGod> No, but you don't know where Fiona is.
<HollyhockGod> Oh, very well.
<HollyhockGod> Alexa!
<RyanSherbrig> (I'll just spend 4 RMP and FLOOD THE CHANCEL with such super-soldiers.)
<RyanSherbrig> (You never know.)
<RyanSherbrig> (And we did get the 'many' upgrade to our magical inhabitants.)
<HollyhockGod> Oh, right, you are the King. I forgot.
<Alexa> (It's good to be the King!)
<Alexa> (Um.)
<RyanSherbrig> (Sometimes!)
<Alexa> (Are we okay with killing Pandora on the assumption she'll appear in our Chancel?)
<Alexa> (Even if we can manage it, that is.)
<RyanSherbrig> (That was kind of the plan. I'm hoping the activity will alert the Phoenix that something is up, and she'll take steps to intervene.)
<RyanSherbrig> (Especially if Pandora appears at ground zero, so to speak.)
<HollyhockGod> Alexa's action, either way.
<Alexa> (Okay. Sticking the torch in Pandora's hair as a mundane action, then going Elemental.)
<Pandora> Arrrrgh!
<Alexa> (Alexa's tears vanish as she bursts into flame.)
- Pandora embraces Alexa tightly as her flesh sears.
- Alexa embraces her back.
<Pandora> Remember…
<HollyhockGod> Karen shouts "Stop!" and conjures ice, encasing Pandora instantly.
<RyanSherbrig> (And Alexa?)
<HollyhockGod> The sudden change in temperature difference does its work.
<HollyhockGod> Alexa is left untouched.
<HollyhockGod> But Pandora's body cracks and shatters.
<Alexa> (Damn.)
<Alexa> (Presumably Karen used enough Pen to overcome Alexa's Auctoritas?)
<RyanSherbrig> (Presumably.)
<HollyhockGod> "Another Deceiver?" asks Elizabeth Eliza?
<HollyhockGod> "Are you harmed?" asks Karen.
<HollyhockGod> Incidentally, nothing is happening on Fiona's end.
<Alexa> (Surprise.)
<Ebba> (that seemed very easy)
<RyanSherbrig> (Tricky. But at least we verified that.)
<Alexa> (So there's a big block of ice on the balcony with bits of Pandora being cooked by an Alexa-shaped flame inside it, next to a tiger stuck in the floor?)
<RyanSherbrig> (Or maybe she just had a false scarab.)
<Ebba> let's see about getting you unstuck
- RyanSherbrig glows back into his 'costume', away from the foot-eating bits of the balcony.
<RyanSherbrig> (Next time we face Pandora: She has a foci for preventing elemental and shapeshifting gifts. The heck with Immortal!)
<HollyhockGod> Killing a suicide themed Noble isn't so terribly hard.
- Alexa starts melting her way out of the ice.
<HollyhockGod> Karen thoughtfully dispels it and rushes to check you out for wounds.
<Alexa> (Are any of us wounded?)
<HollyhockGod> Um, no.
<HollyhockGod> Alexa is the only one who really *can* be wounded.
<Alexa> (Yay me!)
- Fiona escorts scarab to a convenient volcano access point, hits it with a destruction of rebirth, and drops it in.
<RyanSherbrig> (Monothaia: "OM NOM NOM NOM")
<HollyhockGod> The scarab goes red-hot in your hand. The miracle fails to take effect.
- Alexa de-Elementals and slumps to the ground, face in her hands, crying.
<HollyhockGod> Karen gently takes your shoulders. "It's all right," she tells you. "It wasn't real."
<Fiona> (huh.)
<Fiona> (I should probably go now)
<RyanSherbrig> "That wasn't the Pandora we knew."
<HollyhockGod> A voice whispers into Fiona's mind:
<HollyhockGod> "I believe now you have two things that belong to me. Take good care of them until I return."
<Alexa> "Uh, thanks, Karen. I'll … be okay."
<Fiona> (laters people)
- Fiona has quit (Disintegrated: Fiona)
<Alexa> (Seeya!)
<Alexa> "Thanks for your help."
<Alexa> "Ryan, did it work?"
<RyanSherbrig> "Hmmm. None of the soldiers are reporting anything unusual. It appears that she didn't reappear there."
<RyanSherbrig> (I assume I can ascertain that with a few lesser divinations on the chain of command.)
<HollyhockGod> The crowd bustles around you, offering support and bandages.
<HollyhockGod> Yes.
<HollyhockGod> Rhys appears to offer Ryan a stiff drink, and he thoughtfully brought tea for Ebba.
<Ebba> I'm not sure what her objective was there
<HollyhockGod> Possibly it was what she said it was- to let you know her intentions.
<Alexa> "Oh, so sorry for ruining your party, Liz. I hope we didn't cause too much damage."
<RyanSherbrig> (I think it's exactly what she said it was, yeah.)
<HollyhockGod> "You don't need to worry about it, Lady Fortis."
<RyanSherbrig> (And I must be off for work as well! Thanks for game, all.)
<HollyhockGod> Elizabeth Eliza quells the awakened castle with a gesture.
<Alexa> "Alexa, please."
<Alexa> (Ciao!)
<HollyhockGod> Yes, this was fun.
<HollyhockGod> I guess the story is over.
