Elliott: The stage is unlit. Nothing stirs upon it, and out of that nothing comes a slow accumulation; a budding; the growth-by-division of cell and tissue. The flesh of it pulses in the darkness, lit from within (perhaps by the mitochondria, which are said by Iolithae Septimian to be the powerhouse of the cell). It is thing of metastasis, a thing that hungers to be more than it is.
And within that thing, one with it, held hostage to it and yet also holding it hostage, is the manifold self that is Semegastes Sarcocystidae.
The curtain parts, the lights blaze to life, and we are in TCPA-TV headquarters!
I don't know which of you did it, or maybe none of you, or maybe all of you, but Jackson VI has been hanging out a lot lately. He's over the New Noble Jitters (and he's stopped hearing everything in existence, all at once), and despite what happened the last time you had a guest host (Jupiter: "That whole fucked up Yvanas incident."), he's just finished his first episode of a new call-in show where he mostly just listens to the callers and validates them. His answers to their problems are gentle and often insightful, but he really needs to learn that his experiences are not universal; his constant use of flower magic as a panacea to social woes does not make for #relatablecontent.
Did one of you invite him to do this? And what do you all think of his first attempt? :spotcreation:
Sadabus: This is terrible.
Just terrible advice.
Nobody is even dead yet!
Semegastes: Semegastes was scheduled to do, like… a CinemaSins thing, except for flowers? As a passive-aggressive jab at Osamunda. But when the day came around they really, deeply were not feeling it, and got VI in to cover for them.
Gailizia: Gailizia loves the vibe, but thinks the flower advice is neat but not super helpful — maybe it could be a side segment, or a second show? Some kinda alchemical home and garden thing.
Semegastes: Semegastes' opinion of the advice is: Semegastes is currently anxiety-puking in the bathroom.
your life is a mess
Elliott: There's a good, quiet moment for the rest of you. Something familiar: the feeling at the end of a show where nothing exploded, no one died, no one received threats of revoking licensure. Just… doing the thing that y'all somehow do. Jupiter is there on the cameras, Poppy on the soundboard screening calls, Eric keeping it all together. And all of you, doing the hundred little jobs that need doing. Like… well, a lot like that little moment in time before shit got Weirder.
"So… did y'all want to talk about anything for next week's schedule?" Eric asks, coming out from the booth with his clipboard. "Maybe an impromptu staff meeting, except with bourbon?"
Gailizia: Gailizia would relax, but she is constantly changing seats in the studio, moving away from stray magazines and posters and illustrations. Habit at this point, but an edge she can't outrun. Scalbrand is with her.
Semegastes: "I still want to do 'Your Flowers Are Terrible, Osamunda,'" Semegastes says, via a body that isn't currently puking. "Maybe a whole theme week about… her sucking."
Radegesis: Rad points with double finger-guns. "You know I won't say no to bourbon."
Gailizia: "Maybe a nature spot? Something outdoors."
Radegesis: Cole is, thankfully, not with her.
Semegastes: "Yeah, take it to where the flowers are."
Radegesis: "Botanical garden visit and we just call everything a bitch."
Though it doesn't really seem her heart is in that one.
Elliott: "Wow," Jupiter says, "y'all are really going in hard with your hate-ons for her, aren't you?"
Radegesis: "What goes around, comes around."
Semegastes: "I feel horrible and being a petty shit is the only antidote."
Elliott: Eric brings out some glasses, and a handle of perfectly acceptable midrange bourbon.
Gailizia: "No, I was thinking more like… local parks or somethin_oh fuck."_
She lifts her hand up and tenderly rips a glossy magazine spread from her hand, it sticking in strange, jagged ways like it was slowly toothing at her skin.
"Ugh."
Scalbrand takes the magazine and looks to her before eating it. :fuguechip:
Elliott: "I mean, yeah, she's kind of the queen of all assholes, but still. I mean, I guess it's not like you're fighting her," Jupiter says.
Semegastes: "You're right, you're right; it is a little childish. I need to be professional about this… shift it over into social media, get my followers to ratio her, maybe get this whole thing trending."
Radegesis: "Nope. No fighting. No violence involved. Just metaphysical middle fingers. And whatever the fuck Sem is talking about."
She restrains the bitterness trying to crawl up her throat.
Semegastes: "Rad, do you not know what Twitter is?"
Radegesis: "Yeah, it's what birds do when they're trying to fuck." :fuguechip:
Semegastes: "That… hrmm… Dee, help?"
Dee walks in at that very moment, with a plate of freshly microwaved pizza bagels, thanks to Trust. :fuguechip:
So far, she remains uninfested, so Semegastes has to use their words.
Radegesis: Ugh, communication.
Semegastes: "Twitter is that place where Semegastes thinks kids says poggers." :fuguechip:
Radegesis: "Oh, ell oh ell. Moron."
Semegastes: "Dee, you're supposed to help me, not bully me with Rad."
Elliott: There's a little flash of pale purple fire in her eyes when Dee smiles back at Semegastes.
Radegesis: She pats the nearest Semegastes on the shoulder. "This is helping. It's for your own good we mock you."
Semegastes: "Urrgh. My own good is… very bad, right now."
Elliott: "I hear a lot of tension in the room," Jackson VI says, "and I just want to say, if you need a young person to listen to your concerns, I'm technically the youngest here, and I'd be happy to — "
Jackson disappears.
Gailizia: Scalbrand moves to stand by Rad, taking her hand if she lets it.
Gailizia closes her eyes and rubs the bridge of her nose, sighing like she's uncomfortable.
"Not sure if I should take that liquor or not."
"…was Jackson just here a moment ago?"
you feel disjointed, dislocated — disconnected from what’s going on around you
Radegesis: Rad takes Scalbrand's hand reflexively. "Oh boy. Here we go with this shit again."
"Sad, is that… you?"
Sadabus: Probably not.
Semegastes: :spotreckoning: what his disappearance looked like, and any clues that might be drawn from that.
Gailizia: Its touch is cool, and for a moment it seems familiar, with roles reversed. It leans against you.
"…eh, he's a Noble; if it's a miracle I'm sure he can walk it off. Hey, Poppy, do we still have any coffee in the pot?"
Elliott: It was fast and pretty clean, but there was this little flicker with it? Like, his proportions skewed a little, like if you stretched a photo but forgot to hold CTRL.
You're not sure if you've seen this exact trick before.
Gailizia:
hotquackbatarang: damn homie got photoshop transformed right outta there
Semegastes: "He's a baby Noble, and Flowers is probably still all murder-eyes at him. I wanna check up on him."
Radegesis: "Poor dude got slurped right outta existence. Hey, Scally, have you been… eating? You seem… plumper."
Elliott: Gailizia might feel a strange pull, as Scalbrand is likewise spirited away — or at least, something tries to do it and, I can only guess, will meet miraculous resistance from her.
Gailizia: I mean, arguably it also has its own Ward. How much Immersion we talking?
Radegesis: "Oh, jeez; that would explain it — "
:spotreaction: to whatever's happening to Scalbrand.
Elliott: Probably 3 Immersion would do it.
Gailizia: Gailizia will take that.
Scalbrand looks up to Rad and shakes its head, as its hairs bristle and it stops. There's the feeling of something… moving under the surface of things, of it, anchoring it in the world, immovable.
spent 3 Cost, +1 XP
Radegesis: oh ugh ugh uhg ugh guh ugh get it off get it out
"Holy hell."
Semegastes: Semegastes lunges reflexively for Scalbrand, trying to grab not the Actual's body, but whatever ephemeral traces this miracle might be leaving behind. If it's taking people somewhere, there's got to be a way to follow that path.
Navigation sped up with a :spotreckoning:
[Gailizia sighs.]
Gailizia: "I am so tired of this bit. Can't our foes learn any new tricks?"
Gailizia: "Hey, Semegastes, do you bet Jackson had his phone on him?"
Semegastes: "I'm going to bet he stopped carrying a phone sometime between being grown in a pot and becoming an all-hearing divinity."
Gailizia: "Oh, right, he can hear everything. I could just do like. A direct call."
Radegesis: "Yell real loud, he oughta hear it. Or, what about the station spirit? Uh, whistle crash howl?"
Elliott: Semegastes has… something… at the tip of their fingers, like finding the seam on a roll of very thin tape. They work into it, and jigger it open enough to put an eye to it and see, indeed, the Yellow Brick Throat. Or at least, something like it. All around, the citadel-flesh is overgrown with pulsing masses of quivering plasm; there is a loud, screeching, throbbing noise that resounds from the hole and sends Eric and Poppy to the ground, hands over their ears.
Semegastes: "So, we should probably keep on keeping Scalbrand way the Hell away from Uul."
"Anyone else who wants to come along on another Body Adventure, let's go."
Gailizia: She says "hum whistle howl crash of static surf welcome to the evening tune in next time at Tri-County QTKR-TV" with terrifyingly precise enunciation.
She pulls out her phone.
Hey. Jackson VI. This is Gailizia.
You hear me?
Lesser Glorification of evening tune
Radegesis: That's the one. Sorry, I'm bad with names and can't afford Focus.
Gailizia: It takes her a moment to process what Semegastes said.
"Yeah, I. I guess you're right."
"Not that I'm that far off", she says absentmindedly.
Radegesis: Rad sighs. "I gotta invest in, like, a poncho or something."
Elliott:
g̴̃͂a̷͒̑ḯ̵͝l̶͑̌ỉ̴͆z̷͐̏i̵̽̆a̵̎̂?
Gailizia:
That's me> !
So. You kidnapped? Maybe in some kinda placeless loneliness?
She's conducting this whole conversation on the equivalent of speaker phone.
Elliott:
I̸̐̿t̶͂͒'̷͖͆ś̴̽ ̶̎̂v̸̓͐e̴̽͆r̸̈́̕ý̵͐ ̴ ̀̾d̷͂̃a̷̡̾r̶̢͐k̶̃̂.̴͗͝ ̵̀̒I̵̠̿'̵̳͛m̸̐̊ ̶͗̈́t̴͈̀r̷͋̚y̶̱̓i̴̮̽n̵͗̌g̷̀͝ ̸̲̃m̸̉̔ŷ̸̉ ̴̈͝b̶͛͛e̶̋̂s̷̐͝t̵̔͌ ̷̧̓t̸͐̏õ̴̕ ̷̎̿h̶̿͆ĕ̴̈́a̵͑̑r̶̜̍ ̷̉͠y̴͕̏ơ̷̱ǔ̶͠ ̸̈́̊b̵̊̽u̶͑̓t̸͗ —
There's a pressure on the other end of the line, and through the Glorification you can feel it as a physical grasping, a squeezing.
Radegesis: Oh, Harumaph. Boyo howdy. If I get swallowed again…
"I swear can we just hire a… gastrologist or something."
Gailizia: "Could reach in and see if we can grab him."
Radegesis: Rad sighs and pulls out Gabrelt. "They do not pay me enough for this."
And, using the barbs at the tip, attempts to… fish Jackson out. :spotwicked:
Gailizia: "Hmm. Actually, another thing we could try, maybe it would help."
Hey, Jackson. Could you try broadcasting yourself over the line? Radikas is gonna be rummaging around with a spear, if you need something to grab onto.
Elliott: That is…a very strange and cool idea that probably needs some kind of miraculous backing in addition to the Wickedness.
Gailizia: I think you want an Ignition miracle.
Radegesis: Gabrelt's got a Geas about piercing obstacles, otherwise… Ignition?
Elliott: Yeah, Ignition works for me. Or the Geas + some decent Ability, since this is… difficult, probably?
Radegesis: Ability? Who do you think I am?
Ignition + Wicked Action
That said, I'm definitely expecting to get pulled through instead.
Elliott: That expectation being stated, what can I do but subvert it?
It's Wicked, after all.
Radegesis: Rad looks directly into the camera.
Gailizia: :radmote:
Radegesis: sdfhlkgajbd i forgot we had those
Elliott: Gabrelt thrums with the holy fires of the Not; Radegesis feels a weight on the other end, and begins to pull. Through that strange rip comes Jackson VI… and the Ravening Maw, both battered to varying degrees. The same bilious stuff that now lines the walls of Uugaruu covers bits of both as well: In Jackson's case, it clings only to his boots, eating through them, transforming the skin. For the Maw — desperate, prey-eyed, screaming — it covers most of his body, now covered in a purple infection that has spread across half his face, transforming healthy flesh into pulsing horror.
Gailizia: "Hmmm. We're all just being eaten today, aren't we?" :fuguechip:
Radegesis: "Aw, hell's bells, dude."
- Elliott calls, with unusual certainty, for a chapter break.
Elliott: Spotlight up, y'all; 1 XP each.
We go to commercial and then get back to the program with the station mortals mostly recovered from the sound, if still a little tinnitus-y; Jackson trying not to freak out, and the Maw now wearing only one of those shiny emergency blankets, staring squarely into the middle distance.
Gailizia: Gailizia takes a seat in front of him, tying her hair up, speaking softly.
"How are you feeling? Do you know where you are?"
Somewhere in the background, Scalbrand is fussing with something.
Lesser Stunt of licensed therapy.
Radegesis: With Rad, tussling over… a plate of eggs? That doesn't seem like food you serve to a shock patient or corrupted Noble but Sad is looking the other way. :fuguechip:
They're deviled eggs. It's fancy.
Elliott: "I'm… I'm outside Uugaruu?" he says, unblinking. "I'm outside Uugaruu. I'm outside Uugaruu."
Gailizia: She nods. "Yes. Right now you're in the Tri-County Public Access TV station."
"How are you feeling right now?"
Elliott: What is Semegastes doing in all this?
Radegesis: "Welcome out!" Rad shouts. "Get you some food in — just — a moment!"
Elliott: "I feel… for the first time in a long time… like myself. But also, definitively, not."
The Maw is tearing up, and raises a hand of infected flesh to examine it with thinly-veiled disgust.
Semegastes: Semegastes is hovering a few feet away from Maw, holding a first-aid kit. They'd very much like to take a stab at healing some of the gunk on him, but aren't sure if he'd let them do that without trying to kill them.
Elliott: You think, especially with Gailizia keeping him calm, that he just might not eat you.
Gailizia: She nods, and continues speaking in an even tone.
"Is it okay if we try and help you? Or would you rather us give you space right now?"
Elliott: There's been enough eating, after all.
"…I'm… not alone here? Please. Help me. Please help me."
Gailizia: "Is it okay if I take your hands?"
Radegesis: Awright, heck. Rad abandons Scallona to, hopefully not straight-up eat the eggs, and come sit near to Maw.
Semegastes: Sem's first-aid kit — really, it's Everett's first aid kit — has gauze, and those scissors that turn at a funny angle, and band-aids, and neosporin, and bottles of disinfecting alcohol that absolutely aren't drinkable and if you try you'll be very unhappy, and some little single-wrapped advils. That's absolutely enough to treat a mysterious corruption blighting the flesh of a god, of course, what else would those weird scissors even be for?
Elliott: "Will you give them back?" he asks with a hushed, childlike, haunted sincerity that you immediately intuit means that Uul has, at some point in the past, actually taken the Maw apart. :fuguechip:
Semegastes: > Greater Glorification for some Extraordinary healing.
Radegesis:
sk8rgrll8rgrl: hey uul you imperial FUCKER
- Elliott checks his notes.
Elliott: Surprisingly, Uul is not on social media.
Gailizia: Gailizia nods.
"Of course I will. I don't want to hurt you, and neither do my friends."
Her grasp is firm and warm.
"Semegastes wants to try and help you with some of your injuries — it might be a little painful, but I won't let go."
Elliott: What's this all look like, Semegastes?
Semegastes: It's not pretty. It's not professional. It's arguably not even medical. The miracles of Semegastes' first aid kit have less to do with how the body works and more with Semegastes' faith in the healing power of applying band-aids, wrapping things in gauze, and smearing antiseptic goos on people.
Radegesis: Rad was about to make a joke about "you know they make a cream for that" but then Sem literally started smearing random creams on the guy, so.
Gailizia: Scalbrand peeks its head out from behind Rad to watch what's going on.
Gailizia would like to assess the patient. :spotreckoning:
Greater Vision applies, as per usual.
Elliott: The thing about this haphazard healing is that… you're not sure if it works? Really? Like… the Maw seems calmed. The infection stops moving. Maybe the affected skin shifts a single percentage back in the direction it should be going, and the throbbing slows. Is it a perfect panacea? You've every reason to think that it's stopped whatever happened, and started the process of getting back to how the Maw should be, but that even at miraculous speed, it's going to be more process than transformation.
Semegastes: "That should help, a little," Semegastes says, their hand covered in bandaids that accidentally got stuck to it. "Do you know what happened to Uugaruu that started all of this?"
"If it was Uul, I'll…" they trail off, not having any clue what they'd do.
you don't know what to say
Elliott: "It was Uul," the Maw says, small and defeated.
Radegesis: Aw, dogshit.
Elliott: "They were tired of waiting. They thought… they said that you'd tricked them. Infected them. That they would rather die than be part-you."
Radegesis: Gonna :spotattention: Sem's reaction to that.
Semegastes: fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
Gailizia: Gailizia nods, tracing circles on the back of his hands with her thumbs, hold still firm.
Radegesis: Rad whistles an oopsies sort of tone.
Gailizia: Scallona's hand grasps the cloth of your pants, tensing.
Radegesis: Rad puts an arm around Scallona's shoulder, solid and comforting. She'll tentatively extend the same to the Maw.
Gailizia: The skin of it crawls under your touch, and it leans into the embrace.
Semegastes: "That's not… I mean, it was just supposed to be a seed crystal, to scaffold Uul with its own Eide and Wyrd, not to make it part-me. I want the me parts back, but it took them from me and I just had to make do with what I had. It's not… it's not…"
Elliott: The Maw will accept any comfort offered.
Radegesis: Stunt of Big Sisterliness to radiate warmth.
Semegastes: "I wanted to help. I wanted to make things better and it told me I had to kill Scalbrand and then when I said no it wanted to take my friends and then finally it took me, and even then I tried to help it, and now it's just… it doesn't understand. This doesn't have to happen. This doesn't have to happen."
"…if I'd never killed them, this wouldn't have happened." :fuguechip:
Wailing Rite
And also being melodramatic about being devoured
Elliott: You watch a weight slough off the Maw, like a snake shedding its skin. The man cries; he hasn't in what might have been the length of an Age.
Radegesis: Rad rubs his shoulders comfortingly.
Elliott: What changes, if any, come with Semegastes' infection state?
Semegastes: Semegastes' increasingly erratic spiraling stops, abruptly, as they Destroy the emotions causing them.
Radegesis: "Hey now, Sem. It's not like you're actually puppeting that big chthonic fuck. This shit it's pulling isn't you."
Semegastes: There's nothing visible, from the outside. If Semegastes were to use Costumery, it would probably show a bleak and monochrome idol of nihilism rather than their usual avatar. :fuguechip:
Radegesis: "You good?"
Elliott:
Narrator: They were not.
:fuguechip:
Semegastes: "I'll be fine. We just need to be pragmatic about this."
"If Uul is causing the problem, we need to talk to Uul."
Gailizia: Gailizia looks to them. They can feel the change, from the remaining Semegastes in their own head.
"What are you thinking?"
Radegesis: Hmmmmmm. Rad has never been what you'd call "emotionally intelligent" but she knows a friend's pain when she hears it. Still… what can she do right now?
Semegastes: "I'm not certain. Every time I've tried to negotiate with Uul it's gone wrong. We're certainly more in each other's heads, now, but I don't know if that's going to be even remotely helpful. Worst case scenario, we have to write this off as intractable and destroy Uul to save Uugaruu and everyone tied to it."
Radegesis: Rad looks helplessly at her Chancery mates.
She really, really does not want it to come to that worst case scenario.
you don't know what to say
Gailizia: "And it wants to kill Scalbrand."
She looks pained as a thought crosses her mind.
"What… if it didn't come to death? What if we found some kind of… accord."
Semegastes: "I'd like to help Uul. The promise I made doesn't matter, not now, but it satisfy some irrational longing of mine to feel like I can undo the harm caused by my mistakes."
Radegesis: "Hmmmmm."
Semegastes: "And it might be interesting to see what it becomes, if I could crystallize a λ-existence within it."
"Anyway. Let's get going."
Semegastes gestures at the tiny rift they'd previously ripped open into Uugaruu's innards, and widens it out into a proper portal via Destruction.
Radegesis: Rad sighs, shoulders Gabrelt, and steps on in.
:spotattention: the long way down
Gailizia: Gailizia looks to the Maw.
"We're going to step away for a little. Annalee is going to spend some time with you while we're gone. Will you be all right?"
Lesser Trust to bring Annalee here
Elliott: "I think I will," the Maw says. Annalee arrives, and moreover, the others seem to busy themselves with the work that needs doing, filling this place with the comfortable noise of living. Eric, Poppy, and Dee are fetching things, but Jupiter looks back at Gailizia before she departs, raising their eyebrows with a strange look of "well, here we all are."
Chapter Break, 1 XP
You step through the rift, and you fall sideways, pulled along the eddies of Uugaruu's Hunger and Broadcasts; you've never noticed before, but they have an inertia to them, like being carried along a warm river flowing backwards to its inevitable headspring.
The Yellow Brick Throat passes below you, still infected. The closer you come to Uugaruu's nucleus, the deeper the infection — everything is a mass of tumorous flesh, lumpy and irregular and wrong, as only the worst parts of Creation can be wrong.
Semegastes: :spotreckoning: the nature of the infection - is this Uul metastasizing through Uugaruu, or something less direct?
Radegesis: "Ugh. It's so… fleshy."
Semegastes: "I don't think it's possible for it to be any fleshier than it was the last time we were here."
"I believe the term is diseased."
Radegesis: "Flesh is a disease, man." Rad barely restrains the urge to poke a tumor. :fuguechip:
Elliott: It is absolutely Uul metastasizing through Uugaruu; now that you're so close, you can feel its hatred through your own colony inside Uul. If you had to make a theory, it would probably be that Uul is trying to outgrow your own infection inside itself.
Gailizia: Gailizia shrugs. "It has its comforts."
Elliott: You arrive at last at the nucleus; all around you, Uugaruu's self rises up like a sanctum of flesh… but covered, almost to the inch, with the disease that is Uul.
Gailizia: "Oh."
She gasps.
"You poor things."
Her grip on Scalbrand's hand tightens.
Radegesis: Rad's fingers drum a relentless tattoo on her thigh, as does something inside her chest.
Elliott: DUB-THUB
DUB-THUB
Semegastes: "Uul, we would have words with you," Semegastes says, donning their Costumery to fit so stilted a line. Their avatar is all pale monochrome and centuries-old weariness, dressed in an outfit that's closer to the military uniform of the Host than pop idol fashion.
It is… Hatsune Bleaku. :fuguechip:
Elliott: The mass that is Uul pulls itself upward into a column of flesh.
OUR DEAL, it says in a voice as large as the Imperator itself.
YOU HAVE NOT HONORED IT. YOU HAVE TRICKED ME. YOU HAVE INFECTED ME .
Radegesis: "Welcome to the Infection club, pal."
Semegastes: "My recollection is that you ate me. Ought you have taken more care in inspecting what it was you were about to devour?"
Elliott:
I TOOK. I HELD. BUT YOU… YOU INVADED. YOU SLIPPED INTO THE CURRENTS OF MY TOMB-BODY. YOU INFLICTED YOURSELF UPON ME.
I WILL NOT BE ANYTHING THAT IS YOU.
Semegastes: "I have no desire to make you a part of myself. I had hoped that, from within, I might have been able to help, to free you from this parasitic codependence you so hate by giving you a dream to call your own flesh, and a Wyrd to dream that dream."
"I understand if you're afraid, but this is not any way to react to it."
Elliott:
YOU WOULD MAKE ME INTO A CREATURE LIKE YOU. A WRETCH.
Semegastes: "What do you think you are now?" :fuguechip:
Radegesis: "oooooooh"
Semegastes: "If you think I've betrayed you, punish me. Hurting anyone else isn't going to do a single void-damned thing to help."
"Hurting me won't help you either, but at least you'll be facing the right direction."
Elliott:
YOUR TIME GROWS SHORT. YOU CANNOT FULFILL YOUR PROMISE. IF I CANNOT HAVE A BODY THROUGH YOU, I WILL TAKE ONE. I WILL BUILD IT WITH BLOOD. I WILL WORK IT FROM PAIN. I WILL NOT SUFFER THIS SHADOW-LIFE ANOTHER DAY.
Semegastes: "No, you won't. I will die a thousand times to see that you do not."
Elliott:
I CAN ACCOMMODATE THIS.
Gailizia: Scalbrand starts making a strange, quiet, rasping sound, a throat never worked.
Radegesis: "HOKAY, okay, okay, no dying, all right? Let's cool it with the dying talk."
"You wanna talk bodies, buddy? We got a primo example of bodies right here. I mean, all of us, kinda."
Semegastes: "And would it make you happy, the two of us locked in a cycle of eternal destruction? Would that be any less miserable a shadow-life than this one?"
Gailizia:
"sssssssssshhhhh"
"hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhn"
It struggles, having never done this with this body.
Elliott: Semegastes, do you hear that? Do you feel that? It's very faint.
Radegesis: "Come on, buddy, you can do it, before Sem really works this guy up to killing them."
Semegastes: :spotreckoning:
Radegesis: :spotattention:
Elliott: Again, you are near, so near. Part of you moves inside Uul now, and that part feels something rattling inside its rotten form, stabbing at them, needling them. The flesh that is Uul attempts, time and again, to encyst it, fold the sharp edges of it in dark, sloughing boils, but never manages. The thing rattles free at the slightest jostling, the edge of it cutting through whatever obstacles Uul presents.
Gailizia: It grasps at its own throat, clawing and struggling to let something out.
"uuuuuuuuuuuuu"
Elliott: :spotattention:
Semegastes: If Gull is inside of Uul then he is going to very rapidly being Greater Destroyed.
Elliott: I will say for free that Gull is not inside Uul.
Semegastes: The Sarcocystidae colony inside of Uul worms its way towards the sharp-edged, needling thing, probing their way towards whatever nettles the angel-remnant. "What are you?"
Greater Stunt to examine this from the inside
Gailizia: It is on its knees, it is trying to retch, trying to scream, trying to become a thing which has words of its own that it speaks with its own mouth.
Gailizia does not move to help, imagining instead that she is choking, stuffing clogging her body and soul, as something struggles to be born into the world anew. The muscles under her skin twist as insectile things tug at it, filling her. Longing fills her like bile.
But then she snaps back to it, and watches Scalbrand, feeling the twitching, unthinking reflex, of what it does and what it wants, of becoming.
you merge with the thing that devoured you, possibly in a dream or imagine spot
Elliott: You think at first that it is a knife, but realize that the serrations along its edge are the teeth of a key. If your colony reaches out to touch it, it may sing a pure white note, the music of good Ninnuani steel. But it is inlaid, too, with Creational iron and bronze; those parts of it have rusted mightily, but the Ninnuani blade is imperishable and clean as the silvered countryside of the Not.
Semegastes: What actions would you recommend for determining whether this is a result of my seeding Uul with an Eide and a Wyrd, or whether it's been there all along?
Radegesis: Fucking becoming, man.
Elliott: Huh. Maybe a Greater Investigation?
Gailizia: Something breaks, and it stills. Something begins to move. Something begins to speak.
YOU HUNGER.
There is the faintest roar behind those words, as though something is beginning to move, a furnace beginning to burn.
Semegastes: Sure, Greater Investigation.
Elliott: Uul takes in a sharp breath, or the closest approximation it can manage. The throbbing of its flesh halts. Though it has no eyes, the pillar that is its body turns to round on Scalbrand.
Gailizia: It rises to its feet, shaking at first, but rapidly gaining confidence.
YOU HUNGER, LIKE I DO. YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE WRETCHED, TO BE INCOMPLETE, TO BE WANTING.
Elliott: This thing inside Uul is not your fault, Semegastes. It has been there since before the Third Age. It sings out its name as your mind touches upon it: CALAMITY QUELLED.
I DO, it says, grasped by anticipation, by uncertainty, by the palpable > newness> of the thing unfolded before it.
Radegesis: What the heck is this Calamity Quelled? Aside from a FATT-esque name? :spotreckoning:
Semegastes: The residuum of Sarcoystidae within Gailizia conveys this information to her, and, as much as they can, to Scalbrand.
Gailizia: Gailizia does not indicate whether she received their message.
Elliott: It's a key, apparently. Maybe also a dagger? It's not clear! You'd need to actually see it to… see it, more.
Radegesis: I'll spring for a Greater Vision.
Elliott: What sort of info are you looking for here?
Radegesis: I… kind of thought it was a metaphor, for some melding of Creation and Ninuanni forces. Is it a literal key-dagger?
Elliott: It is both, technically.
Radegesis: Then some insight into the more abstract ends of that.
Elliott: It is highly charged with metaphorical energy of this sort, but physically incarnate as this key.
Radegesis: Also, sick.
Gailizia:
YOU ARE… LONELY. IT IS WHAT YOU ARE.
It points to itself.
I AM. I AM EMPTY, BUT I KNOW THE SHAPE OF WHAT I LACK. I FEEL THE CONTOURS OF IT IN THE WORLD. I FIT THEM WITHIN ME, AND I GROW BLIND TO MYSELF AGAIN. I AM. I AM. I AM.
I AM LONELY.
It steps forward one foot at a time, slowly, gently.
Elliott: It is… strange to see something made of both the Not and Creation. Stranger still that it should seem simultaneously Right and yet also Dangerous. It shines in your Rider's sight like a détente between fire and water, a reconciliation. :fuguechip:
I AM LONELINESS, Uul bellows.
I am Loneliness> !
And then:
i am lonely.
Gailizia:
THE STRATEGIST. I HAVE FED ON HER, SHE HAS FED ME, I HAVE CONSUMED FOR MYSELF — SOMETHING FORMLESS, BUT NOT LIKE ME. SOMETHING SCRATCHING AND DREAMING, BUT NOT LIKE I SCRATCH AND DREAM.
A step.
BUT STILL, I AM LONELY.
A step.
I INHABIT A CRUCIBLE. I WRAP AND BIND YOUR SIBLING IN MYSELF. I LIVE AMONGST THEM AS KIN.
A step.
STILL, I AM LONELY.
It steps closer and closer.
Elliott: Uul grows still. In Radegesis' sight, in Semegastes' senses, Calamity Quelled grows still as well. It was not meant to be kept inside a moving thing. It finds equilibrium.
Gailizia:
WE ARE SO LONELY, UUL.
YOU ARE SO VERY FAR AWAY FROM ME, SOMETHING THAT HAS KNOWN WHAT IT IS TO SEE ITSELF, TO BURN WITH THAT FIRE, BUT—
YOU ARE STILL LONELY.
YOU KNOW MY LONELINESS.
I WAS MADE A PROMISE.
Elliott:
a promise?
Gailizia:
"I AM THE GREATEST FOOL WHO EVER LIVED," SHE SAID. "I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO JOIN ME ON MY JOURNEY."
"LET US UPSET THE ORDER OF THINGS> !"
LET US UPSET THE ORDER OF THINGS.
It touches the membrane of Uul, gently.
I CANNOT KNOW LOVE. LOVE ME ALL THE HARDER. YOU CANNOT HELP BUT BE LONELY. I SHALL BIND MYSELF TO YOU ALL THE TIGHTER.
LET US BE TRANSFORMED.
The roar of its voice deepens.
THE WORLD IS WRONG. WE ARE LONELY.
I DO NOT ACCEPT THIS. WE SHALL BE WHOLE. WE CAN END THIS LONELINESS.
WE WANT SO MUCH THAT THE WORLD MUST BREAK TO ACCOMODATE US. LET IT.
become something new with me.
:spotreaction:
:fuguechip:
Radegesis: (That's a fake :spotreaction:; I'm out of spots, but.)
Elliott: The connection opens, or at least the space where it may be laid. All that remains is an action. Now, quicken the fires! Make something new and glorious!
Radegesis: "…heh. Can always count on you to hatch a scheme like this."
Semegastes: (Belatedly: you witness something precious in the belly of the beast, something that could be the key to the world.)
Radegesis: Which, uh… how are we gonna get that out?
Semegastes: I think we should leave it there.
Maybe with some safeguards?
Radegesis: Try and knock it loose while you're in there, Gai.
Gailizia: :spotdecisive: "I just don't know when to stop a bit, I guess."
Scalbrand ignites in colorless fire as dormant metaphysical machinery roars to life, its body twisting and anchoring itself, webs of its body flickering through the air as it binds Uul to itself and encases them, pull all its disparate selves into one space, one arrangement, one point.
The crucible transforms itself into a chrysalis, having finally ignited.
Greater Design, +1 XP for spending 4 (effectively 8) Immersion
Elliott: What becomes of this? The GM does not know; he waits with curiosity.
Gailizia: Her wish is simple! She wishes that they may make each other whole, instead of being trapped in two different, horrible twilights. Not one killing the other, but two kin finding healing.
Semegastes: In the same moment, the cells of Semegastes within Uul twist and coil around Calamity Quelled, encysting it within their myriad flesh and then dying, petrifying into a stone sphere to hold it forever still.
Greater Stunt, and, "you merge with the thing that devoured you, possibly in a dream or imagine spot"
Semegastes: I'll take 10 Stilling to finish my quest 5 XP early.
And I feel like this quest resolution warrants leaving infection state.
Elliott: There is no transformation, at least for Uul. Nothing obvious. Nothing dramatic. Perhaps the flesh-tower draws itself into a slightly more defined form; finds the beginning of hands in its wavering pseudopods; finds the nubs of new wings budding at its shoulders. What there is: Connection. The two bend close enough to touch foreheads, and there is the sound of a great metaphysical turning of the wheel: One gives, one takes, and so on to infinity. What this will mean forevermore remains to be seen. But…
It's real.
Are there any last matters to attend? The curtains are closing, the lights dimming.
Semegastes: Just one.
Semegastes poses in the light of Uul, and takes out their phone.
#selfie!
- The curtain falls.