[I'm not sure who was supposed to be collecting them, but here are two I wrote down.]
On standing up for the Cammorae ...
Jurai: You've chosen a fine Warden. He refuses to have anything to do with me.
Sian: [Their warden's stature suddenly climbs in her eyes.] I'll have to have some coffee with him some time.
Jurai: I'd appreciate anything you might say to him on my behalf.
Sian: I'm sure I can find something to say about you.
On good ideas ...
Jurai: Remind your master that we [the Cammora] are at his disposal.
Sian: Now there's an idea.
Old patterns, old thoughts. Maybe this is why I avoided familia entanglements, to avoid dropping back into such patterns. It all passes by, almost painlessly and easily, and meaningless to me. It shouldn't -- I should care. But I almost welcome the Lethe of being a weapon, to be pointed here, and here, and not having to worry about the whys and wherefores.
No wonder I gave up what I did.
I listened to Christopher question Mariska sharply as to why she was making her daughter's life so unpleasant, by agreeing to torment Ofrah's fiancee, Noah. I'd wondered much the same.
Mariska made noises about merely making a holding action against Noah's master. I wondered if she believed that.
We arrived at the Chancel. Jerrai was there. The resurgence of the Cammorae after the -- that time, that was not a prime reason for my decision, but something that had weighed on me at the time. After watching selfless sacrifice and bold bravery, to see these -- slime taking precedence amongst humanity. Easier simply to kill them. Humanity, that is.
We bantered a bit. I wanted to do more, but speaking too much to the Serpent can only bring one to damnation. Besides, the less the contact, the less the chance of my acting -- rashly. Watching Jerrai's expression as a mere head atop my spear would be gratifying for a short time, but Cathetel would likely disapprove.
The Cammora did tell us that Cathetel was not readily available. We traveled to the Chancel's Heart -- a journey I felt uncomfortably impotent in. The magicks of the Chancel are not mine, and my disinterest has echoed my powerlessness.
Once there, within the labyrinth of a rest home's memorial garden, we found Cathetel in serpent form, reared straight upward, high above the atmosphere -- or where the atmosphere would be, were this truly the Earth.
My voice carried as a whisper, so Mariska, in my arms, must hail him. We brought him up to date, and he chided us regretfully for allowing the Excrucian to be recovered by his fellows. He warned us that they would be heading toward Jotunheim, too, and they were far less a known quantity than the enemy already there.
Cathetel advised us to get assistance from Chancel Amaciel. Some of them were on the Tree -- Lust and Electricity (as Mariska put it, "the most rambunctious" of them). Mariska, though, might be needed by Cathetel. As she was less powerful in combat, that was not too great a blow, but I would miss her company. Which seemed -- odd.
We received a prayer, echoing and awesome within the Chancel's Heart, from the Graf. We agreed to meet upon the Tree, on the outskirts of the Imperators' Graveyard, where once we interrupted a picnic. I found it vaguely alarming that I was considered to be a "guide" to the Tree. Ye gods.
The Graf spoke of what it had found in Jotunheim. That world, now torn and conquered by the Excrucians, had had its powers stripped from it over time, the Estates of its Nobles traded in to Earth. And -- I ought not to have been surprised -- those Estates had been gathered up by Amaciel and Cathetel.
I told the Graf and Mariska, then, of the First Apple, and the memory I had, of how the two Chancels had once been one. The Graf was peeved, but I attempted to explain how Cathetel had assured me it was done for the best of reasons, and the protection of us all.
Even as I spoke the words, though, I wondered ...
The Excrucian forces holding Asgard were not expecting an attack across the Bifrost Bridge. And that Bridge was why Jotunheim was of such value -- a gateway to any world, to any spot upon the Tree. It had to be destroyed. And to do so, we had to act from the Asgard side of the bridge, where the Excrucians -- far too many of them -- held sway.
“Your not a nice man.” - Jackie
“No, no, no I am not.” - Lee commenting on Death
“You are I think I big liar.” - Excrution Anchor to June
Lee belches
“That’s so attractive.” - Jackie on Lee’s belching
Lee belches
“Do you want to lick us down?” - Macy
“Oh god yes!” – Hunger demon
“Ever dance with the devil in the pale moon light?” - Jackie
“I think I just did.” – Lee
“Ewwwwww GROSS!” – Rachel commenting on Doyce letting Jake lick him.
The grand opening of the Amaciel Resort at Storeyville looks to be well on its way to a resounding success. Really. What was the boss thinking?
Gwen, a born Action Girl, is about to start climbing the walls. She’s been stuck in Storeyville a while and just knowing that with Orochi out there she can’t leave, except to Excrucian-ridden Locus Noctis, makes it worse. I let her go to New York. Just that she needed permission, or thought she did, riles her. Hell, she’s right, she did need my permission. Hot and cold running Excrucians, Desecration on the prowl, and me about to go seriously beyond normal contact range… So to keep my girlfriend reasonably sane I need to let her go out and play in traffic. She’s good at that sort of thing though.
If Desecration hurts her he’s dead.
The World Tree isn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be. Parts of me like it. I’ll be lucky if I don’t pick up a fast growing red beard. Found a way to zap, which is damned good because my flying speed sucks and it’s a long way to meet up with Macy. Zapping through the Sap – Szapping? – is a lot like getting way too much oxygen though.
Think I know how to deal with the Killer Bees.
JUNE’s Dinner With the Strategist: Everyone but the cooks and the waiters were unreadable: shards. There was a strange flower on the table and Iaziz doing his best to be charming. (Doyce channels the Merovingian.) June was interesting to him as the embodiment of Earth’s uniqueness: the split between the mythic and the prosaic. June represented the Prosaic. He thought of her as the Great Liar. Whereas he was Truth; he collected all the lies of Earth and protected them.
Iaziz wanted June out of his way without harming her. So he offered her a present, a flower that no longer existed on Earth since he’d Excruciated the concept it represented. And she just might be able to reacquire the concept as well. She should take it and refrain from interfering with his search for the Glutton he’d left on Earth long ago. The thing had been starving for its food of supernal grief and might eventually eat a hole in the world. He’d take it away, June would get the flower, everybody benefited.
June wasn’t having any. They parted on more or less cordial terms.
TERMINUS felt someone working against him… no, not against him specifically but contrary to his wishes. He tracked down the source of corrupted rites and found Desecration, an earlier, more confident Desecration. Terminus presented himself as a messenger from the future Lord Entropy and ordered Desecration to stand down. Desecration was unconvinced and left.
Iaziz appeared to Terminus, Cloak of Eyes and all, and offered to help. Terminus was trying to sting Desecration and Iaziz was all for it. The Excrucian would arrange for Terminus to get enough power to overwhelm Desecration’s efforts and demand nothing in return. Terminus agreed. This power was acquired by killing a thing from outside Creation, something only vaguely comprehensible to the Amaciel-shard within Terminus, the Excrucian equivalent of a tiger – or so Iaziz said. Terminus killed it. He’d killed Excrucians himself, as a sword in Amaciel’s hand. This is not nearly so bright but it is all his own; he stores the power in the form of another sword.
MACY huddled in her crevasse from the city-sized World Tree bees. A worm broke through the wall, an Aaron’s Serpent larva. She split and shouted at the nearest bee, miraculously loud. Zip. She took out an eye with a medium miracle and rubbed the jelly over herself while the hunger spirit ate a lot of it. The bees avoided the smell of her thereafter.
Hungry asked to be released once the city was in sight and Macy let him go. She reconned the Castle. The people were more organized than ants. Radnagast was the Castle itself. Macy spoke to her. Flattery and wheedling got her told that Radnagast had nothing of Orochi’s. Eventually it came out that he claimed Radnagast had his heart. On the World Tree, that was probably literally true. Macy tried to work out some sort of miracle of Lust to make Radnagast give the heart up.
DONNER checked in on the preparations for the grand opening. All was well. Gwen Raiden had butted heads with La Fleur a few times and used his name in vain. Donner backed her up in everything. Gwen was clearly going stir crazy, so despite the threat of Desecration he sent her out to New York to check out the electrical grid repairs – and steal stuff and blow off steam – in disguise.
Donner passed over to the World Tree and acclimated himself to the place. He discovered that he could use his zap travel trick through the Tree’s sap, though it made him giddy. A damned good thing, too, as Macy was to hell and gone from Earth’s branch, as he found out by praying to her. Zap. Zap. Zap. Zapzapzapzapzapzap. Bees. Big fricking bees. Zeroing in on him by smell. He could zap away easily, but further tests showed that he could ionize and vaporize away his scent. It should work for Macy too.
On the danger of Fungus attacking hungry people.
HG: Some of the svartalfs are shouting, "FOOD!" I figure, they live underground and eat mushrooms ...
Dave: "TOPPINGS!"
On great final exits.
HG: [To Fungus] So your body collapses to the ground with a big fa-whumpf.
Fungus: No, it's a mushroom cloud.
On summing up world-views.
HG: So Guilt sees everyone as nosy. And Sian sees everyone as private and closed-off. Projecting much?
On truisms.
Margie: It never pays to be sarcastic with Guilt.
On cross-character commonality.
Sian: [Having just landed in Seattle after a sub-orbital jaunt.] I brush the frost off my leathers.
HG: That's why Punishment wears leather, to perform re-entry.
Stan: No, that's why Lust wears leather.
On relations
HG: Eilim. He's Broch's brother.
Dave: I think Brach's brother should be Sees.
On metaphysical aerodynamics
Sian: I may need to burn an MP to pull Mariska along.
HG: Well, Guilt is a drag.
[Stream-of-note-taking ...]
Haley's shelter. She's happy to talk. Who does she work for -- and why haven't I thought of that before?
Never had a lot to hide.
Only from myself, it seems.
Or, that amnesia ...
No ... on another.
Never asked -- to whom do you owe allegiance?
an Angel. Not supposed to talk about him. Doesn't get along with others. Melek Taus -- "Peacock Angel" -- Unsavory. On Lucifer's side, but has rejected beauty and corruption.
Others: Memory, Envy.
Not the first time your memory has come back. Last time 50 yrs -- Gave me this (shows scar). -- Crushing dried flowers in my hand, sending them away (memories).
One of the reasons I'm still doing what I'm doing. Every time you started figuring out what was going on -- you stopped. Didn't have everything all planned out. Had to put off a lot of other projects when i heard about what happened. I went to the Luna base, thinking you'd go there. Worried about shooting. ... Like I lost my keys.
I haven't been happy for 89 years. Make it 104. 1915. The Divergence.
So ... why? Why would you do all of this?
532 years of good times? of fun?
What was it like then?
It's like she used to say -- "Ever forward!"
Who?
(Doesn't answer.)
You have a natural knack for agonizing. It's ... cute.
200 years.
Need to check with my familiar and Imperator.
You know, you never used to do that. The Legion ... the Fae Guard ... you just did it.
Anything else I should know? Don't want to know your memories ... but mine.
Peter Pan -- hmmmm ... I'll have to read that.
Oh, and don't go to Jotunheim. They don't like you there.
Man-hug/Patting back.
"I'll be back in touch -- contacting you."
Call Fungus. No response. Stupid tech.
Guilt: Fungus was going off to Jotunheim? WTF?
Have wrapped up Noah stuff -- might be interesting.
Noah anchored to her. He was driving when her sister died.
Responsibility. What a bitch.
Working with Guilt to cause Noah grief.
Sian makes a note to chat with Guilt about this.
Get through in a prayer to Fungus.
Excrucians. Need help? Lots of Excrucians at Bifrost
Hitherby Dragons: Leaf and Bone Harmony
Once upon a time, there was tea. It was a good tea. But it lived in the house of death."Some day," it said, "Death will take me from this pot."
In his bleak cathedral, Death turns towards the tea. He points a bony finger. "All things die," he says. "All things end. There is no beginning that hath not an ending. Children shall die. They shall die in fire. In water. In sorrow. In pain. They shall be hit by busses. They shall be slain by tornadoes. They shall be killed by stupid people who don't know any better, and nasty people who rather do. All their promise, snuffed out; and not because it is right, and not because it is better, but because this is the doctrine of endings."
There's more -- go read.
-Fungus-
Svartzelves are swarming over Fungus screaming “FOOD!” Fungus realizes that there are more involved in the current conflict when it is hit by a power pole sized crossbow bolt. An Excrusian weapon…ouch! Fungus watches as people approach it from the ruins of Bifrost. As they approach, they seem very Nordic though very much Excrusians, and it ponders doing a miracle to take them out. Excrusians attack Fungus and it succumbs in a humongous puffball explosion. Coating everybody and everything in fungusy goodness for markers.
-Punishment-
Looking for Haley in a homeless shelter in Miami, She is a bit worried to see Sian. They move to a room upstairs to talk about things.
Haley opens with the meeting Sian had with Lord Entropy and the sharing of Sian’s Apples.
They discussion moves to the “Third apple”. Sian digresses and asks about Haley’s chancel. Haley replies “Melek Taus”….the Peacock Angel, one of the fallen, that has in turn, rejected the code of the fallen. Given Sian’s conservative nature, she is repulsed by this revelation.
The power Memory is also a “member” of the club, as well as Envy.
But what about you Haley asks….
Ahh…The third apple. 500 hundred years ago on a hill top on the Isle of Man, regarding the erasure of those years, and my own reaction to it. The decision that at I made at the point to. I lost something at that point, it flew away. Did you know what I was going to do?
Haley had an idea and confronted Sian over it and Sian shot Haley. So Haley waited. And starts to mention things that went away in the reset.
Haley is worried about Sian’s happiness since Sian hasn’t been happy since 1915 (Ben Falk). So 89 years of an unhappy Sian. So why so much interest in Sian’s happiness on Haley’s part. This is really what Sian wants to know. Haley finds Sian’s confusion to be cute, and she wants to know if Sian needs any help in finding herself…you know like a Soul Sherpa.
Is there anything else that she (Haley) knows that I (Sian) may not know. Haley does not recall anything, but she reveals that Sian has a serious Peter Pan Fetish.
Oh, by the way you may want to stay away from Jotenhiem, because, you know they hate you.
-Guilt-
In Seattle with Cristofer. Phone book look up, by Chistofer. There are three: Freada Levy, F. Levy, and F.R. Levy.
Full name Freda…is a older woman. Not the one.
F.R…Blank. The one.
She lives in an apartment complex on the seventh floor in a nice neighborhood.
Guilt does a rite to see if there is anything Noah related. And Christofer finds a vial of Noah’s blood at which point Frida walks into the Apartment. There is a confrontation, and it turns out that she is the Power of Responsibility (Flower Yew).
Shop Talk.
Kindred Spirits.
Christofer is horrified.
Huzzah!
It is agreed to keep Noah with Ofra, and punish him.
Imperator: Astura
Chancel: Astura
Domains: Responsibility, Oceans, and Adaptability.
-Punishment-
Sian thanks Haley, and Guy hugs her help.
Sian flies north and tries to contact Fungus. No answer so she contacts Guilt. Guilt tells Punishments plans, and convinces Sian to come to Seattle for a meeting prior to meeting with Fungus. Punishment is a little concerned about Noah and his “punishment”. Sian arrives and they start to prey to Fungus to find out what has happened to it after the Earbuds fail to work.
-Fungus-
Wakes up in Nidavellim and they are the Nidavellir one of the walks up and introduces himself Eirim.
“Greetings Great One. I am Eirim leader of these people, and I sense the miraculous in you. Are you an Ally?”
“I fight those that are not of our world”
“Ahh, you speak our world tongue remarkably well”
“I am from the other side of the Bifrost Bridge”
“Ahhh…Midgard! We will take you to Hrungnir”
With this they make their way out of the bowels of the earth.
They see a giant Plinth…Utgard the home of the Giants.
Ratatosk. A Giant squirrel introduces himself as the Power of Stories.
“We have not seen your kind in our land for many a year”
Praying.
Giant squirrel talking.
Praying.
Punishment shows her concern as to Fungus’ condition. Fungus fills in the Familia as to what is going on. Ratatosk fills in Fungus on the history of the war.
The world of cryptozoology is in a tizzy over the near-discovery of an entirely new legendary, nigh-mythical creature. This beast -- composed entirely of ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and pita bread -- stalks the ranches and farms of the southwestern US and northern Mexico, killing and draining the blood from all manner of domesticated animals, goats in particular.
They call it, "El Chalupacabra."