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There is a knock at Osric's door on the Fringe. He looks outside. There is a well-dressed gentleman there, who looks slightly mussed. Osric scans. The guy is about 90-95% Amberite, and the Fringe defenses in the ares are active. The guy is staring at something held in his hand. Osric asks the man for his name, and they chat briefly. He's a fop, exploring. He claims that Osric is alive, due to his tricorder, which was guaranteed by Lloyds of London. Osric tries to dodge the scan by shielding, but fails. The guy wants a lift home -- he's lost. They talk for a while. Osric wonders if the guy was sent by Shiryu, but doesn't think that Shiryu has a sense of humor. Osric determines that most of the nearby Fringe gates open onto places without atmosphere or gravity, so couldn't have been this guy's home, and then gives him a lift to a platform a few stops away.
Osric discovers that the guy's tricorder can turn off the Fringe defenses. Osric is annoyed, turns the defenses back on, and decides to keep the gadget. Unfortunately, none of those gates lead to the lost fop's home shadow. After a while, Osric checks the logs of this vehicle, and discovers that it was used to transport someone from a platform nearby to a point half-way down a path, where the fop claims to have awakened.
Osric checks the logs in the relevant area. The Fringe gates there are frequently used -- several accesses a minute. He sends a Tinkertoy to get a visual. About thirty seconds after it arrives, someone destroys it with automatic gunfire. Osric realizes that the Fringe defenses there are off. He turns the Fringe defenses there back on, and sends another Tinkertoy. Explosions happen.
Osric heads to the scene. One guy whips out a gun and shoots at the car; the Fringe defenses fry him. Osric's passenger spots someone, points, and says, "That's Lloyds! From London!" The person indicated appears to be the highest ranking soldier present.
Osric opens the cockpit of the car. A flunky comes up and claims that Osric is his prisoner, and that this place is theirs by right of conquest...
Osric - "Excuse me - what are you doing in my Fringe?"
"It is ours by conquest! It was theirs by right of discovery, and we conquered them!" The officer points to another Fringe gate.
Osric - "Who did you conquer to claim this place? ... Oh - I'll have to destroy them."
Osric discusses proving his ownership of the Fringe. About three to five percent of the people from their world are Fringe-worthy. Osric determines that percentage is too high, and that he will have to lower it a bit. Osric decides to turn off the Fringe gate of the other people to keep them from counterattacking.
Osric creates a flat board of crystal under a soldier, and uses it like a springboard to launch the guy off the edge of the Fringe. Lloyds whines about channels and authorization. Osric sends another soldier off the edge. Lloyds continues to whine about bureaucracies and red tape. Osric announces to everyone present that if they don't leave now, they will die horribly. Two soldiers drop their weapons and flee through the gate. Lloyds claims that they were probably just shot as deserters by the people in the secure facility surrounding the other side of the Fringe gate, and that he, too, would be shot if he tried to just walk back through.
After a while, Osric agrees to grant Lloyds his day or so.
Osric quarantines that platform from the rest of the Fringe, locks down the other Fringe gates on that platform, and returns to his control center.
Shiryu's apprentice is patiently waiting for Osric outside his door. Osric greets him; the apprentice hands Osric a shopping bag. Inside is Johnny Mnemonic. Well, he's been heavily modified, but doesn't seem to mind. He sacrificed his legs to split his brain so he could hack more systems at a time.
Johnny hands Osric a message from the Etiquette Guild. It's an invitation to a meeting of Houses -- it's another election. Osric tries to ask the apprentice when the election happened, but the apprentice has left, using something that was not Fringe, nor was it any power that Osric could perceive. Johnny mentions that someone said something about yellow. Osric leaves the Fringe and gates to Thelbane. There are three or four dragons waiting outside. He greets them; they ignore him. Osric walks in.
A member of House Chanicut approaches Osric and tells him that he's been nominated for King. Osric tries to second REN's nomination. Mandor greets the Hero of Chanicut, and tells him that unfortunately, he cannot make or second nominations. Mandor tells Jean that REN is a second away from having to show up, and asks Jean how REN is. "Twitching" "Ah - that's too fun. I second his nomination!"
Jean turns to REN in the Dancers' Guild. "Well, I have good news and bad news..."
Yigrin stands and nominates Pharaban. Calla turns and asks her sister and father who that is. They point to the third chair. Calla avoids moving, in order to avoid possibly attracting Pharaban's attention. Pharaban gathers more of himself together, rises up, and some people detect the hint of a grin.
House Moonlight seconds Pharaban's nomination. Pharaban gives a speculative look in Cailin's direction. Cailin is positive that he can't currently turn into a yeti, or he would have. Princess Chandra just smiles.
Timbal rises and points out that an old apprentice of Princess Chandra's who is greatly interested in Justice has just returned to Chaos, and nominates Zorro. Mutters of "oh, no -- Zorro's back!" rumble through the galleries. Mandor asks Jean if he sees Zorro. Jean doesn't. Mandor asks Cailin to acquire Zorro. Cailin writes a note to Zorro saying, in short, "just say no!" An Etiquette Guild member returns with a message from Zorro, stating his regrets that the Council will have to wait until he has finished conquering evil. Mandor places Zorro's nomination aside.
A member of the Mages' Guild that is present stands, apologizes for the interjection, and announces that he has good news for the Council. Amaranth, daughter of Mandor, has been nominated Guild Second of the Mages' Guild. The voting has just finished, and she has been confirmed in her position.
Mandor announces his pleasure that his daughter has acquired a position of such power, and wants her to have some time to settle down in her position. He glares around the room. Amaranth is immediately nominated and seconded by a chorus of voices. Mandor doesn't summon Amaranth. However, Jean lets Amaranth know. She is ready to defer to either Pharaban or Osric, until she is told that Flora was nominated.
Amaranth arrives at Thelbane with the full regalia of the Second of the Mages' Guild. She apologizes profusely as to her delay, and announces her delight at accepting the nomination.
Laetatio regains consciousness, cracks open an eye, and says, "Who's the bimbo with all of the monks?" Flora casually flicks a pebble off his forehead, sending him back into consciousness. Random winces. Cailin bows in thanks to Flora. Calla notices that the stone made a meaty thunk, and wants to know how she did that.
Flora's speech is long and flowery and full of good feeling and understanding the fact that she was working at Silver Lyra's right hand, and has had much experience working on other kingdoms, could wash the bad taste of Caine's rule from the mouth of the Chaosians, ...
Amaranth's speech thanks Flora for her gracious sacrifice and how it is wonderful that she is willing to discard her existing duties and obligations to take on this burden... She slams Flora right, left, and center.
Flora stands after Amaranth's speech, and proceeds to slam Amaranth in turn.
After their seventh iteration, Mandor stands and points out that there are more candidates.
Osric's speech: "The only reason that I'm staying in this is that Shiryu wanted me to. And besides, look what happened the last time we had an Amberite as king."
Immediately afterwards, Pharaban stands, gestures towards Osric, implies that Osric's claim is better in such a way that everyone in the Council hears it, and sits back down.
REN is fished in by Jean, and politely states a preference to not be King on the grounds that the Dancers' Guild needs him, as Silver Lyra is pulled out of time and Rainbow has suffered an unfortunate fudgesicle-related accident. He effectively declines, but agrees to submit to the Council's will, and gets a good dig in at both Flora and Amaranth.
[Note to Ilk -- leave a bucket hanging in the Serpent's Antechamber over the place where Princess Chandra normally appears. Revenge...]
Flora and Amaranth immediately stand. Amaranth defers to Flora, "Age before beauty." Flora gives a long rambling speech. Amaranth gives a long rambling speech, implying that she would step down to anyone other than Flora. Flora gives a long rambling speech, stating that she would step down to anyone but the other Amberite. They go back and forth.
Mandor pulls his head out of the cradle of his arms where it has been resting and declares the nominations closed, and declares that both Flora and Amaranth have declined their nominations in favor of Osric, Pharaban, and REN. He proceeds to poll the room.
Osric wins, 104 to 14 to 25 plus Spehn. *ding*
Some of the next section of this log (Against Mikail: Organization) should be tweaked somewhat to compensate for the temporal anomalies, but the changes, for the most part, are fairly obvious, so I'm not likely going to bother.
Jean, in the bonsai tree, tells Ilk that he needs to see Ferethyn. Ferethyn needs to reset the view screens -- Silver Lyra is in that room, and she's contagious at line of sight. Ilk tells Jean that Ferethyn is busy, but agrees to relay the message.
Cailin walks up to Princess Chandra and says that they have issues. Princess Chandra agrees, and states that there may be fewer now than before. She also recommends that he go on vacation for a while, outside Chaos, to let Flora cool down.
Ilk sends a few tendrils over to Cailin and asks him if his body currently has magic. He's not sure. Cailin decides not to test experimentally while here.
["Aren't you a little short for a Cailin?"]
Ilk tows Cailin back out into shadow. Cailin tests his magical capabilities. His magic is very concentrated, as if through a tiny lens. Ilk asks Cailin to join in on their previous line of investigation. "Oh, right -- Mikail." Ilk sighs and takes Cailin back to Suhuy's ways, then points out that mages can cast a spell to detect the speaking of their name. "Oh. Right. Oops."
The tendrils that Ilk left behind in that shadow notice fire raining down from the sky into that general area. Someone that looks kinda like an Amberoid walks over to the spot where Cailin was, and the firestorm concentrates on him and fries him. The firestorm stops. Someone else sees that and shouts, "Brother! I will be avenged!"
[Mikail has made yet another enemy, in a place where he has never been]
Cailin notices that there is a Morganti cat kneading at his body's chest. He is not okay with this.
Ilk asks Jean for a Verra. Verra is having a lie-down in Swayville. Ilk asks Jean to tell her about the investigation when she wakes up.
Ilk, Cailin, and Jean discuss the situation. Ilk claims that this place is safe from eavesdropping.
Ilk takes Cailin back to the shadow. Cailin looks around magically, and notices that there seems to be a spell hung across all of shadow to detect Mikail's name. It has between two and three percent of all of the magic in this reality tied up in it. Cailin claims that this is a bad thing. Ilk takes him back to Suhuy's ways, and Cailin says that someone should tell Jenoir.
Jean mentions Mikail's name. All across shadow, everywhere that Jean is (but not in Suhuy's Ways), Jean gets some more energy from a firestorm that is raining down on him. He drinks it dry.
Jean decides that this is a bad thing, and wakes Verra. Jean points out that Rainbow has faked his own death in a very dramatic way to avoid the fudgesicles, and Jean can't find him. He points out that the last of the elder redheads is a very, very bad man. He points out the recent happenings. Verra advises him to say this name at every turning of the sky. She also suggests bringing along one of the younger Amberites as well, as an observer so they don't think that we're usurping their place. One who won't be too upset if there is an accident and and a fatality occurs. "Oh - do you mean besides Cailin?" "No, Cailin would be perfect!" Jean points out that Osric, the Hero of Chanicut, has just been elected King of Chaos. Verra is delighted, and considers sacrificing a city to him to make him a god, too.
They make a side-trip to the future site of the fudgesicle city. Verra gives the fudgesicles opposable thumbs, then takes them into Suhuy's ways.
Suhuy's intruder alarms go off. He looks, and opens a path in front of them to the appropriate room. She heads over there. "Darkstar - are you along on this little expedition, too?"
Darkstar, still in the form of a lady in waiting, is annoyed. "You're going to blow my cover, woman!"
Jean pulls Verra off to the side and whispers to her that Cailin proposed to Bronelle. She is amused, and delighted to hear that the Savior of Chaos is credited with the deed. Jean starts dealing out a card game.
Ilk reaches Cataan. Ferethyn is doing something active. Most of it is subtle, and far beyond Ilk's capabilities. Some of it is just smacking mages that are stupid enough to attack him. Not killing them, just swatting them. The amount of hostile magery that Ferethyn is mostly just ignoring is more than Ilk could handle, even with the Logrus.
[The GM is a liar, but not a very successful one]
Ilk tells Ferethyn about the hunt for Mikail. Ferethyn independently derives the same conclusions, and has the heads of the Psionisicts and Mages Guilds meet him at Suhuy's Ways.
Ilk tries to contact Melk, but he's busy right now. Ilk leaves a very ironic message on Melk's answering service warning him about Mikail and asking him to keep an eye on Mikail to keep him from doing anything stupid.
[Melk is currently busy undoing the damage from the first grey sphere, and keeping Mikail from getting any more grey spheres in the future.]
Before Jean is done dealing the first hand of sabbac, Jenoir shows up. Mere heartbeats later, Andron shows up. Jean congratulates Jenoir on her new Guild Second. Jean fills in Jenoir about a variety of events.
Jean asks Andron how to put somebody's mind back in their body, and points out Gerard's current situation.
[No time travel in this game -- yeah, right]
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