[center]* * * * *[/center] At the exact moment when the sun disappeared over the mountains, a water-clock was filled; A measured hour later, heavy bronze gongs resounded thrice into the night. Another import. Patrols began and only supervised workers were allowed to stay out after curfew. Vigilate and Scitis shone halves under a vivid river of galaxy, crossed twice by the sparkling pinkish rings of Lex. The four ophanim played in gentle orbits of their own, plumes trailing directly overhead. All this was easy to see, sitting on the capstone of the Cipher Pyramid. Pumps was whistling a slow dusk tune, dancing wide circles around Tauga's unmasked head, now fast, now gentle, now upside-down, the tube of arksynth bobbing in its straps, untouched. She looked out and saw the torches and braziers of the rotfly watch. In the moonlight she could make out all the streets she'd known so well, and for so long. There now was the burned district around the House of Jaan, cleared and marked into plots for new buildings, better slave housing. Over there were the docks, where Ruthar and Mako served tirelessly as inspectors of suspicious goods. Dozens of tents were pitched on the site of the old barracks, where Sen the watch now slept as Sareh went on patrol. In the distance, Lex glimmered in the river, and fields of gram stood ready for harvest, some already emptied. [colour=antiquewhite]"Hey, Pumps,"[/colour] came a tired voice. [colour=antiquewhite]"Why do they call me the blowfly?"[/colour] Pumps shrugged a little and made an 'iunno' sound. [colour=antiquewhite]"Is it because they see me around dead things? Is it because I came out of a dead thing?"[/colour] In the distance, two boats were candle-fishing, and the sirens, no doubt, tried an opportunistic song. [colour=antiquewhite]"Is it because no one can catch me? Or because I'm everywhere, and no one can ignore me?"[/colour] No answer but the breeze. [colour=antiquewhite]"Is it because I fly around? Is it because they hate me?"[/colour] Nothing. [colour=antiquewhite]"I think it's just the way I look."[/colour] Tauga unfurled her tentacles into the wind and reached down, hooking them into the lids of the closed Eye of Cipher. Something in the organic architecture responded to her touch, and she pulled, straining against the Eye as it struggled to close, until all at once it snapped open, gazing once more over the city of Xerxes. The City. Her city. Such a city as could only be built on the back of the many, the myriad selves seeking only to build until they stood at the top, only to become footstools for those who built yet higher. A city of people, for people, controlled by people. A city that refused any rule but itself. Xerxes had become its own beast, under its own crown. This city had created her, the first generation, and, in time, it might breed many more. Xerxes would be ruled by a Xerxian. It was her city, and it was [i]her[/i] city. [colour=antiquewhite]"What do you say, Pumps?"[/colour] A cheery whistle echoed her mumble. Tauga closed her eyes, and slowly, surely, as Galbar revolved in the heavens, the City forgot its need for a King. [hider=Baby's first dictatorship] Like... Seven sections, I think? All one story. [b]First section.[/b] Tauga is shown to have used the Bludgeons to destroy Usgalo, his household, and the barracks of the old military. A councillor tries to reason with her, to no avail, as she uses the threat of the Bludgeons to push the remains of the council to do their job. [b]No points spent.[/b] [b]Second section.[/b] Tauga takes control of the granaries with the help of Sen, the soldier she met previously, and is now employing among others as a mercenary. She gathers the poorest of Xerxes' many homeless and marks them with tattoos as her property in exchange for assured food and safety, forming a slave population. Bronze tokens are distributed to the slaves, which can be exchanged for rations of food and clothes. [b]2 Khookies to introduce slavery. 2 Khookies to invent coinage.[/b] [b]Third section.[/b] An assassin tries to kill Tauga and is quickly disposed of. Tauga's ethereal tentacles are shown to be able to touch the ghostly Other body that puppets fiberlings, forcing them to do her will. [b]3 Khookies to level up.[/b] [b]Fourth section.[/b] A food hoarder is found, arrested, and executed in public, along with various other criminals, including a Chipper with rebellious ideas. A new military, the rotfly watch, begins to form under Tauga's supervision. Murals, rumours and songs begin to circulate in Xerxes, naming the Bludgeons as agents of a new golden age. An aura of mystery and power begins to develop around the image of Tauga, the Blowfly herself. [b]2 Khookies to introduce propaganda. 5 Khookies to assemble the Rotfly Watch, a military organisation temporarily replacing the Ejército Mundo.[/b] [b]Fifth section.[/b] A lowly dock worker is forcibly recruited by Tauga to help administrate the harbour of Xerxes in order to maintain stability while she leaves. He is one of numerous peasant-class individuals scouted to form a technocratic elite that advises her decisions alongside the council. [b]2 Khookies to introduce a new administrative system to Xerxes that runs alongside the Council, with Tauga making executive decisions as informed by officers selected for loyalty and intimate knowledge of the working class.[/b] [b]Sixth section.[/b] Flying with the Bludgeons, Tauga travels alone to the Acalya grove on the northwest coast of the White Ocean. She realises that the Bludgeons are actually symbiotic communities of sentient souls that call themselves 'ophanim'. Using the tremendous destructive capacities of the ophanim, Tauga obliterates the outer edge of the entire Acalya forest, further crippling its spread. In the wreckage she finds Amber, the optic fiberling mentally stunted by extended time in the Valley of Peace and possibly the last surviving specimen other than Violet. [b]6 Khookies to level up.[/b] [b]Seventh section.[/b] Introspection and conclusion as Tauga idly ponders what she's become. [b]No points spent.[/b] [b]Tauga 5 Khookies Level Four[/b][/hider]