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Brown!

It's been an uneventful couple of days. Loose stakeout of operatives who came up during the Chase Black interaction. Long term work, dull but important. This is security trusted enough to look after the crown jewels and smart enough to not be the fall guys. They'll be reassigned, sooner or later.

Home life hasn't been as dull. White and Black came in with the disheveled smugness of alleycats. Red came in a while later, wearing aviator sunglasses, frenched Pink in the doorway, lowered her to the ground as she swooned, and then stepped over her as cool as ice. November isn't quite too horny to function, but she and Green were definitely holding a rearguard action against that label recently.

But work needed to get done, and right now that meant York. She's made her way to the cafe meet in Ares. The drab calm of her thoughts, though, deeply undersell how Brown moves through spaces. Green thinks in lightning patterns, calculating viable routes, each corner a new challenge but Brown is different - she is direct. Like a laser she cuts through the station on the most efficient route possible, and if that route involves the odd parkour jump, fence hop, or detour through maintenance hatches she takes it with the same blank unconcern she does everything. Her movements are so unceremonious that she hardly turns heads even when she goes over the side of an escalator to save thirty seconds on her route.

She walks in on York and slams her hand on the table in a way that's somehow politely understated. "You have a problem with my writing, buster?"

Green!

Green didn't come here to chew bubble gum. This is important - not just for Aevum Station's grander politics, but to make the wish of a child come true, and damned if she's going to lose to Pink and Orange just because she's on a mission.

[Law 0/1 Research 0/1 Data Recovery 0/2]

Her process is as much lesson as it is research. She explains her thought process out loud to Juan, the context she's bringing in, the logical throughline she's using. Part of this is her natural state of being; she has always been given to talking out loud and only coming to grips with an idea after she's verbally expressed it. Part of it is that explaining all of this to a child is excellent practice for writing an article explaining it to the general public.

But she also explains aspects of her methodology to Juan, explains why certain lines of speculation are pointless, the process by which she's gleaning information directly off hard drives, how to triage an overload of paperwork. She treats him in all respects like a valuable junior colleague who she's showing the ropes, pleased but not surprised whenever he gets something right and firm but not condescending whenever he gets something wrong. This is a puzzle that they're solving together and she legitimately needs the completeness of his human brain to jump across certain blocks she can't parse on her own.

Deep into this process, she does find a moment to talk about values.

"I know you know, but I need to say this," she said. "It's probable when this comes out it will have consequences for your family. Not even just in terms of external investigation, but some of your siblings will have their trust in your mother broken. Lots of things can be built on top of lies," she pauses.

"I'm not going to ask if you're okay with that," she said. "And I'm not even going to say that this is why you should never lie. It's easy to see something complex and reduce it to a simple, inflexible rule. That's what your mother, the Queen of Law, does. All of this," she gestured at the mess of paper on the floor, "is not the consequences of lying. It's the consequences of a deeper unkindness. And I get the feeling you've felt that unkindness long before you became aware of the lies that supported it. Remember that - the lies came second."

Orange and Pink!

It's clear Green has decided to take her time. She'll have to make her own exfiltration. There's something important to take care of once the show is done and they're well and truly on their way.

Orange sits Bondi down. "Bondi, I need to talk to you seriously for a minute," she said. "But first, some context. When Rebecc Alsonzo told you in secret that she had a crush on Katelyn, you told me not fifteen minutes later. When Romeo Goldstein failed linear algebra you blurted it out in the middle of your volleyball championship acceptance interview. When you realized that you had dropped your purse in a crowded shopping mall you said over the P.A. system that it had three thousand dollars cash in it and almost started a riot. What I mean by all this is that you are not particularly adept at keeping secret information secret."

"But!" said Pink. "Just because you're bad at keeping secrets doesn't mean it's right to manipulate you. So this isn't so much a confession as it is a retroactive recruitment. We wanted this party because we wanted to do some spy shit, infiltrating Costa-Silva's mansion. Our motives are journalistic, we think she's up to some shady stuff, and what she's doing will hurt a lot of people. We used the party as cover to sneak Green in, she'll be making her way out separately. We would like to publish the information we find on the front page of the news."

"But!" said Orange. "If you're not on board with the plan, we won't. We couldn't have done this operation without your help, and this reveal risks blowback on you, so if you were retroactively never on board then we'll let it go. If you have any questions at all, I can answer them - though some answers might have a delay."

She's dead serious about this, emphasizing it with every part of her body language. This is her biting the bullet on her beliefs. As much as she felt like the ends could justify the means, on this one particularly, the means always defined the ends.
Mosaic!

You cut as a God might cut.

This is no poetic flourish. To do anything as a God might is to enter the realm of the Divine. In a shining moment of aristeia you are no longer a ship buffeted by invisible winds and storms; you are the wind. You are the storm. You are outside and apart and you can see a galaxy with no empty space. You can feel the living sky, wet with the breath of Zeus. You can feel the fangs of Mars try to sink into the scales of Hera as they twist about, two enormous serpents, spear and shield. You cut but you wield a secret sword and it is not a thing of death, or war, or rebirth.

You cut instead at desire.

When you open her heart, words come rushing in place of blood. "Bored," they say, in the voice of Taurus, in the voice of Epistia, in the voice of Aphrodite. "Bored bored bored! Everyone is old, everyone is slow, everyone is inert. Nothing changes. Nothing happens. Nothing happens that I do not make happen. I am young and strong, and strength must be used. To have strength and not use it is to rot. To become ingrown. To be unappreciated. To be unrecognized. See me. See me! See my strength! Let it change the world! No one else can. No one else will. It doesn't matter how. It doesn't matter as long as I can be myself."

This desire is not hers alone.

Standing close by is Aphrodite, and behind him stands the dream of wolves. It towers to the heavens and the ruins of civilizations drip from its jaws. A colossus, the nightmare of barbarians at the gate, the yearning howl to crack the walls and blow your house in and devour the riches of empire. The words of craving spill from Taurus in a flood as she scratches at your shoulders, at your wrists, seeking even now to overpower you. You tumble together into a violent embrace as the desire of wolves soaks your breast and fur. It seems amidst this divine blood there is no space for the girl who was called Epistia - no space but what you might cut.

Ember!

You stare up at the sky. In the vast distance, past the clouds, amidst the stars your golden eye can see something burning. It glitters and focuses - a shape of thrones and trees, an empire in red and saffron. Galactic Reclaimer Unit 04. A... brother of kinds. Something made by Nero's hands. You can feel it calling...

And then it's blocked out by Gemini's face. She puts her foot on Sagetip's unconscious back and stomps down, squishing her into you into the dirt. "Oh!" she said. "You bothersome -! Everything is completely off the rails now, and it's all your fault!"

Every Ceronian is vulnerable to Gemini - and Gemini is vulnerable to Taurus. She pouts down at you, puffy-cheeked, loudly expecting your apology.

Dolce!

"Oh, I see what you are saying!" said 20022 brightly. "Yes, good show, you're thinking about simply pulling rank on the Crystal Knight. Unfortunately she quite effectively outmaneuvered me - she made a humble request for a few weeks delay, which is prima facie reasonable. She knows that a digital intelligence like the Royal Architect is rather unreasonable and will disregard her reasonable request. This would grant her a legitimate grievance and give her a free hand to perform any of a dozen political maneuvers, dragging both ourselves and the Service into disrepute - especially if what was destroyed is valuable, which I believe it is. We could make some sort of power play against the Crystal Knight in this situation, or we could roll up our sleeves and use a bit of elbow grease to make sure that everyone walks away from this satisfied."

Dyssia!

The Publica.

Open revolution against the Endless Azure Skies is neither possible nor desirable. The sapphire knights of the Skies hunger for such an obvious battle, they crave it, they will travel across the galaxy to put themselves in harm's way that they might provoke it. It cannot be offered to them directly. They cannot be torn down.

They must be built around.

The core of the Publica is the act of institution building. The construction of communities, networks, the forging of a social contract. The Skies releases servitor species like an ancient Tallship might dump a cargo of pigs on a tropical island, unleashing an invasive species so that at a later date they might come by the island and harvest the results. Taking these untamed, fatherless civilizations and convincing them they have something to look forwards to beyond the butcher's block is a task for heroes.

You are sent to a world of twisted, nightmare forests. Biomantic beasts prowl in the dark, nightmares that keep isolated communities from coming into contact. After months of battle you assist in months of negotiation, negotiating the details of the peace treaties between monsters and servitors.

You are sent to the heart of a sprawling ecumenopolis, an industrial city-world in the core of the Skies. An attempt at unionization ignited a crushing backlash from the Skies, collapsing an entire hive-spire. Amidst the neglected ruins it was the red and white flag of the Publica that raised, offering medical care, reconstruction - and government.

You are sent to a idyllic landscape of white clouds and green hills, ground darkened as a crusade armada gathers overhead. The princess of this prototype warrior servitor species dared to defeat the Molten Knight in single combat, an outrage that caused the Skies to launch a thousand ships to remind them of their place. Through daring speed, skill and piloting you snatch the princess out from under their fangs, the entire crusade fleet turning to pursue you and leaving the world unscathed.

One mission translates into another, finding ways to connect a galaxy grown distant from itself. The Dust Knight travels with you, teaching you secrets of sword, rail and command. He is grand in his way, but he is old and his imagination is limited - an old warhorse who will default to violence even if there is a better way. He has much to teach you, both as an example both shining and abject.
Green!

"A journalist is like a spy for everyone," said Green. "Technically I'm a spy for you."

She hurriedly scans over the documents and stashes them in her bag. "And in that spirit, is there anything you need help getting into? Or is there anything more you can tell me? And who is this Ms. Chough, as you understand it?"

She has gotten out her pen - behind her ear - and paper for old fashioned note taking. This is the real prize here - the context that can bring all of this together. She can repay the indulgence of her curiosity with indulging Juan's - cracking into places he can't get into while absorbing the context he gives her. She finally has a data intake source and isn't going to decide anything until she's heard as much of his story as he can give her.
Green!

As much as White frustrated her, there was something to all of that lecturing. At the end of the day being morally coherent meant that her answer to that question could be 'the truth' and not 'a smoke bomb'.

"I'm a journalist," she said, pivoting around and sitting cross-legged in front of the safe. She opened her palm, a holographic diode showed a display of the Anthropozine's front page. "I think that your mother is shady as hell and so I'm looking around to see if I can find evidence. What I've got so far isn't anything coherent, though. Boxes of case files I haven't had time to go through, and -"

She leaned to the side to show the open safe. "House keys? Like a hundred of them? I've got no idea what I'm looking at here. Not yet, at least."

Green's eyes were wide, glittering, honest - curious. Single note and predictable. It was refined, but it wasn't an act. Green had learned long ago that humans loved sincerity and consistency; someone acting as they were supposed to was someone with handles, someone they could interact with and steer to their own ends. And this kid definitely had an agenda - and questions - of his own.
Green!

Her thoughts are so loud and fast that they must be audible; her thoughts are so fast and powerful that the negate the need for physical movement entirely. She remains in place, body language disabled. Plans, thoughts, things to say, speeches and possibilities. All secondary to stealth. All secondary to trust.

How had he - oh, she's a fool. He'd sat on the beanbag chair and covered himself in a blanket. The irregular, lumpy shape of the beanbag had concealed his silhouette. She hadn't checked because there wasn't a chance that an adult would have fit into that space and because there had been no possibility of valuables being hidden under there. She'd walked right past him. That was quick thinking and a profound sense of understanding of how people moved. She felt a burn of appreciation a she tied the act of lateral thinking into her evasion protocols.
Wasn't it...

With razor precision she'd cut out her enemy's heart. She had taken the light and life from the machine, the genius that made it shine. Now it was metal and data. She'd forgotten how graceless the gods could be when they were not united with a loving heart.

But wasn't it...

She flares her thrusters into full reverse. The Kathresis was agile but in terms of brute speed the Aeteline was its match. they arc around the arena, circling on pillars of light and flame, endless chase. Hers is the more powerful machine, on the straight like this she could pull ahead. Instead she sets the burn so the Kathresis gently gains. It can't read even this simple deception.

Wasn't combat supposed to be beautiful?

As they circle she unfolds her machine guns again. Rotates them to a rear position and fires - short, stuttering, controlled bursts. Checking her fire after each salvo. Grinding down the Kathresis' edge like sandpaper.

She had loved fighting Akaithon. She had loved the intensity of their duel, their silent conflict made manifest in sword and spear. This time she had scalpeled her out of the fight entirely and now was set to the grim task of disassembling her machine in a safe and controlled way. Akaithon... she had become this in order to emulate a shadow of Solarel's power. In order to come closer to her she had put her life on the line. And she had denied that escalation with a single shot. There was no beauty in a desperate mismatch like this. There was nothing sadder than a failed tactic. If it worked, as it had when she had done it, it made the tactician look like a genius. When it failed they looked like a fool. And for that to be her rematch with Akai...

For the first time she did not even have anyone to not speak to. She only had metal, grinding down lesser metal.
Mosaic!

"This is serious!" said Taurus. "What could be more serious? Glorious battle in the eyes of the Gods!" her breath is so hot it steams in the night air. Purpose is pounding in her blood, rushing in her ears. She is a Ceronian with blood scent and every cell and impulse screams that she is made for this. "An army's job is to fight. A general's job is to find them worthy foes. A civilization's job is to raise them, arm them and send them on their way."

No past. No future. An endless hunt for the next battle. She left Elysium for this. Left that glittering, wet afterlife because this craving poison dripped in her blood. She was...

... she was the daughter of a mother who'd cursed the gods themselves. She was the daughter of a people who had beaten their swords into ploughshares. It had seemed a blasphemy at the time. A corrupted rebuke to the Gods, a prison in an eaten world, locked with a lie that had also been the truth. Of course she had died for it. But...

The girl raises her battle-scythe, blood of Hades alight in her veins.

There is a sword in your hand. You can smell your sisters close at hand.

You look past the physical force of the chariot as it charges, the scythe as it swings, the wolf as she snarls. You see your true enemy in the darkness of the blood rushing through her heart.

And you know that this is not a hopeless battle.

Ember!

You back up past the edge of the belltower, onto the rickety scaffolding. Your steps disturb the doves who burst out in a great flock. Sagetip has you dead to rights with a pair of pistols. The fall wouldn't be half as unpleasant as having those go off in your face at this distance. The fight was short and violent, her bandoleers are scattered on the floor, she only has these shots left. She is determined to make them count.

But in the scuffle you've knocked over the tripod that held the glorious crystal rifle. It gleams on the floor behind Sagetip and so long as she's holding you at gunpoint she's not picking it up and shooting Mosaic.

"Good show, now," said Sagetip, gesturing with one of her pistols. She's proud. "Off you pop."

She expects you to jump? Oh - of course, if she fires here then the smoke will throw off her own aim when she takes up the rifle again. At this distance that irritation will make it impossible. A fall by comparison won't add more than bruises but will give her the time to snatch up the rifle and make her shot before you recover.

Quajl is slumped but stirring. Her eyes are focused on her rifle. She only needs a moment.

How will you buy it for her?

[Pay a price]

Dolce!

"The Royal Architect is a digital intelligence," said 20022, pausing for a moment to see if that registered. It didn't, so he went on. "A remnant of the Atlas Cultural Sphere and a survivor of the Long Storm. Extraordinarily powerful and influential but profoundly fragile. He is a direct agent of the Skies' collective purpose and makes decisions about the demolition of planets, the relocation of stars, and the bending of physical law itself. He answers only to the Saoshyant. He has taken an interest in a mineral deposit under this planet and has requested its extraction - a process which is likely to destroy the entire peninsula on which we stand. This cannot be meaningfully prevented.

"The Crystal Knight, as sector governor, while not having the power to prevent the Royal Architect's operation can make it inconvenient. She wants to acquire... something of her own, sunk beneath the waves," he waved a hand. "Not important, ultimately, but she's willing to put the local servitor population at risk in order to get it. We could stand on principle but that will likely result in the deaths of thousands, so it's far more effective to ensure that what does happen is well organized. That means conscripting the local servitor population into satisfying the Crystal Knight's obsession, then pivoting immediately to the evacuation afterwards. If we do it right a lot of people will be very tired and somewhat homeless but they won't be dead."

Dyssia!

"Oh, sure there is," said the Dust Knight. "It's called the Publica."

That winsome little smile of his flits back onto his face as he looks up at the sky. "It's not a complicated idea," he said. "Be good to each other. But the implementation is complicated enough to even stir the mind of an old warhorse like me. The challenge is really just about implementing a stable, respectful form of government that can integrate all of these hyperspecialized biomantic species without the expedient of just biomancing them 'better'. In fact, we'd as soon see the whole fucking field of biomancy regulated back into the box of medicine where it belongs."

"Which," he sighed. "Makes it hard. Going to war with the Skies when your ethics prevent you from just biomancing up a warrior servitor species and sending them to kill the enemy's biomantic warrior servitor species is a bit of an ask, especially when that courtesy isn't returned. Make no mistake, we're outnumbered, outgunned, outclassed, and constantly on the run. Every twenty minutes we need to stop and deal with two servitors brain malfunctioning at each other, the pay is shit, everything is so scarce that pay is a relevant internal concept, and also if you have personal assistants you have to pay them or face administrative sanctions. But," he said, "as cures for boredom go it's way better than the fucking Skies."
Green!

It has to be the safe. There are other things that could be valuable, but the safe is the only thing that is guaranteed to be. This strange little basement lair, far away from the eyes of children. Three shampoo bottles, a marriage on the rocks, a powerful woman with a trophy husband - did she have something on the side? Her fingers move so steadily across mechanism and electronics even as her thoughts race around her like whipped horses. Concealment vectors, escape routes, limited time. Everything was going to come together or fall apart one way or another. All the pieces of this strange life and the ties that relied on it.

[Infiltration 0/8 4+6 = 10]

Orange and Pink!

Everyone is exhausted and wet. Everyone is laughing. Any further magic would pale in comparison. It was time to move into wind-down - which meant huge chunks of roughly cut sandwiches[1], heavy with seeds. Impossible to eat without getting juice over face and hands, inherently comedic and fun food as seeds were spit out onto the grass. Sugary without being cloying, cooling without threatening a brain freeze, a chance to bring everything back down to earth.

[1] Watermelon.

In this atmosphere, Bondi and Ariel collect Oscar's notes and concoct a series of prizes. Everyone gets something - from 'most balloons thrown at once' to Jason (prize: a crash helmet Pink had painted a brain pattern onto), to 'scariest girl' to Gwen (prize: Caliban's sunglasses, with a recommendation not to fight while wearing them). The goal at this point is not to go out on a high note of excitement but on one of contentment and harmony where damages are plastered over and everyone is friends again by the end.
"Don't think I don't see you!" Hsien yells at the television. "You liar!"

Lady Foxfire never fully grasped how television worked. She had instantly assumed from the first time she saw a broadcast episode of Gilligan's Island, that the people on the screen would be able to hear her if she shouted at them. And why not? It was essentially a miniaturized stageplay, wasn't it, or some sort of scrying spell, or whatever. The details were for nerds. She was a fox and had enough fox magic to make her uninformed opinions reality.

So it was indeed the case that her voice carried. The screen wasn't a wall any more; it was a portal - or something stranger. A tupla, a dream fragment, a platonic ideal? When Foxfire had first yipped encouragement to Gilligan as he was about to doom the crew once again he had responded as Gilligan and not as a confused human actor. All Hsien knew was that she was seeing red, so much so that she'd dragged the vending machine halfway across the room so she could bark in foxy outrage.

"This isn't like stealing a tofu bar!" said Hsien. "This is politics! You're messing with the city itself! You know that this is wrong! You're hurting people in ways you don't even understand, aligning yourself with the landlord class, and that haircut is like a three, tops! What's even the point if you're not cute? What's even the point if your scheme hurts a thousand people along the way?"

[A Mind of their Own, Unleash Your Powers: 1, 1 +3 = 5]
Green!

Case, then loot. That applies even in an exploration in real time operation like this - she notes what's there briefly and then continues onwards. Once she's explored the space she'll backtrack towards the extraction point, acquiring as many high ticket value items as possible as she goes.

Orange and Pink!

To recruit the holdouts dirty tactics are called for.

"For my team, I choose Isabella!" said Ariel loyally.
"Jordan," smirked Caliban. [Negotiation 0/1 - picking him first for the sports team]
"Herman!" said Ariel.
"Pablo," yawned Caliban.
"That's not fair," said Ariel, deliberate in her targeting here. "You've chosen all the big kids!"
"What are you going to do about it?" said Caliban. "And since you're busy complaining I'll also choose Gwen."
"That's cheating!" Ariel gasped.
"Too slow twinkletoes."
Ariel turned and knelt down, looking Isabella in the eye seriously. "We're in trouble, Isabella," she said. "We need to recruit someone big and strong to our team, and fast. Can you think," she made sure the framing had Isabella looking over her shoulder directly at Barrera, "of anyone who might be able to help us?"

Aiming a wide-eyed birthday girl in need of rescuing at someone was an excessive use of force.

To convince Selena, Ariel resorts to a more grown up version of the same tactics. Just absolute sincerity and "Pleeease? We could really use your help." No tricks or reasoning, just the sheer weight of guilty pressure to do something nice for a little sister. [Flattery 0/1]

To convince Luca to join up is more of a stretch, but Caliban does what she can. She waits for a moment when he looks up, makes eye contact and then reveals from inside her jacket a brightly coloured water pistol. She holds a finger up to her lips - shhh - and gestures him over, inviting him to put his skills into practice. [Shooting 0/1 3+1 4]

Oscar she doesn't press at all; she does not think that would benefit him. Ariel asks him nicely if he'd like to play but, if he doesn't, she offers him instead the job of score-keeper - a magical little paper notebook emerges from a sleeve and she asks him to work along with his dad to keep track of who landed the most number of hits.

[other scenes continue elsewhere]
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