Session 69

Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 9

Theresa: And after you left last week, Sara, I realized something..I was completely wrong about John's ancestor being a Noble/Shard/Anchor/whatever.
Etheric: Sorry for the delay, guys.
Knockwood: Hi Eth
Theresa: Hi Etheric! *HUG*

• Etheric HUGs Beth!
  
  • • Mode change "+o Etheric" for channel #nobilis by lazarus.
      

Etheric: Good to be back. Today is the day for Carrie's triumphant return, sort of.
Knockwood: whee
Knockwood: where have you been?
Snow: Woot!
Random_Nerd: Except for the triumphant part, and the return part, and the Carrie part?
Theresa: The div said that the last person the blood drop was in was immune to divs. The last person the blood drop was in was...the Strat Shard in the treasure room. *facepalm*
Etheric: Hush, don't give too much away!
Etheric: Okay, so hmm.
Etheric: I haven't had a chance to read up on the logs, but I don't mind learning in-character what's been going on.
Knockwood: didn't we localize that to 1870?
Etheric: Unless that poses problems for anyone.
Snow: Carrie gets to meet Snow!
Snow: *glee!*
Etheric: Eventually, yes.
Theresa: Oh bit of info, William has a fiancee'. How weird is that?
Etheric: It's not as weird as if he was affianced to the Power of Matchmaking. <.<
Random_Nerd: Localize what, Knock?
Theresa: Well, that whole no love thing, true...
Knockwood: hm...
Random_Nerd: One thing concerned the last time John's ancestor was in Amyra, and the other concerned when the blood was last in a person in Amyra.
Random_Nerd: The two proved not to be the same occurance.
Knockwood: despite the fact that the blood drop was from John's ancestor.
Etheric: Interesting!
Random_Nerd: Yep.
Theresa: Yep. Because the shard was carrying the blood drop inside of her (it?).
Random_Nerd: Okay, so. Where should we start the session?
Knockwood: despite it being 130 years old?
Snow: Were we headed back to the tower?
Theresa: Might not have been originally kept by that shard. Maybe it's an artifact specfically kept for getting into the Treasure room.
Random_Nerd: Despite that, yes.
Theresa: I think either the tower or the zoo. Fresh air and so forth.
Knockwood: ... that's right, I've been assuming Message did the miracle..
Snow: Ah, right. Well, since Brian and Carrie need to be brought back in, how about the tower?
Random_Nerd: There was discussion of the zoo, yes.
Knockwood: Yeah, I wanted to show Snow some new animals she could turn into.
Snow: Well, Snow could broadcast that they're going to the zoo.
Etheric: Perhaps you went by the zoo offscreen, and are now headed back to the tower?
Etheric: Unless you prefer to meet at the zoo.
Theresa: Ooo, that could work. Snow walking along and flickering into different animals.
Theresa: (The heading back part.)
Random_Nerd: Starting at the tower works for me.
Snow: Let's just head back to the tower, with Snow chatting away about her visit to the zoo?
Knockwood: Question: could snow fly if she turned into a bird?
Snow: RN?
Etheric: Hmm. What Aspect level is flight for birds? Is it the same as flight for winged humans?
Knockwood: 1 less if you have wings
Random_Nerd: Hmm.
Etheric: My mistake. I thought Aspect-flight was impossible without wings.
Random_Nerd: You need to have wings to truly fly with Aspect, at least unless you do a really big miracle.
Knockwood: GWB says it's a L5 Aspect Miracle if you have wings.
Random_Nerd: I mean, if you can shoot down the moon, then you can literally fly by flapping your arms hard enough.
Knockwood: p 118
Etheric: Ah, that works.
Random_Nerd: But it'd either take a gift or take a MP.
Knockwood: I've been looking it over so I can buy Noble Kung Fu. :)
Random_Nerd: Because it'd requite a stat above 5 to do free.
Random_Nerd: So, start with the PCs arriving at the tower, and Snow talking about her trip to the zoo?
Random_Nerd: Oh, and yes, she could fly with wings. Probably not quite as well or fast as a real bird, since she has less practice, but she could do it.
Snow: Sure! And Snow has not yet met Carrie, correct?
Etheric: No, she hasn't met Carrie.
Snow: Let's do this. :)
Theresa: Ready!

• • • lazarus is now known as Brian.
      
    • Knockwood is now known as DanteE.
      

Random_Nerd: ___________________START________________________
Snow: "Oh my gosh, did you SEE that walrus, he was like--"

• Snow turns into a walrus and roars.
  

Snow: "And I was like--"

• Theresa smiles indulgently.
  
• Snow turns into a girl and squees!
  

Theresa: (I wish I had a DP to give.)
Snow: That was /awesome/!
DanteE: "Yeah, but they can't move worth a damn on land.

• • • Etheric is now known as Eve.
      

DanteE: (Eve?)
Snow: (I just realised that I'm channelling Beast Boy with her.)
Theresa: (*giggle*)
Random_Nerd: (Eve.)
DanteE: "There is this cartoon called "Teen Titans"..."
Random_Nerd: (It's complicated.)
Snow: "Yuh huh?"
Brian: (Garfield! "Garfield?")
DanteE: "Then again, different forms have different benefits... you remember the tortoise?"

• Snow turns into a tortoise, who looks phlegmatically up at Dante.
  

DanteE: "See, this is what you can go to of something's coming at you.

• Eve is sitting in a chair in the conference table, a dark-skinned humanoid with long hair of a drab dark green. She turns as the others enter, and they see her face -- high cheekbones, slanted dark green eyes and pointed ears, visbily nonhuman. She looks close enough to Carrie to be her sister, despite the apparent species difference. As the others enter, she offers a thin smile.
  

DanteE: "Most mundane stuff will bounce off this (knocks on shell)"
Snow: "...huh. Like a rock!"
DanteE: "...uh ... hello?"

• Eve remains seated. "So you are the other Powers of Kudzu. I am Eve, Domina of Hope."
  
• Snow turns into a coyote, so she can walk faster, and grins cheerily at Eve.
  
• Brian is currently doing work in his office
  

DanteE: "Uh... what happened to Carrie, Domina of Hope?"

• Theresa blinks. "I'm sorry if this is rude, but wasn't Hope an American girl named Carrie earlier?"
  
• DanteE checks Eve out with the Sight
  
• Theresa prays to Brian. "Brian, please come to the conference room."
  
• Eve responds with a tinge of bitterness. "My sister Dawn is around somewhere. I'm sure you'll see her in time."
  
• Snow pipes up over the RH: "Hi Brian!"
  
• Brian gets there as fast as possible.
  

Theresa: "Dawn?"
Brian: RH: "Hi Snow!"
Random_Nerd: (To the Sight, Eve is clearly a miraculous being.)
Brian: "So, guys, what's up? .... who's she?"
Theresa: (Can we tell using Nobleknowledge what kind of humanoid Hope is?)
Theresa: "Brian, this is...Hope. Apparently Carrie's trip was...interesting."
Random_Nerd: (Also, she vaguely seem to have the same feel as Carrie. But not quite the same.)
Brian: "Ah ... uh ... I ... see."

• Eve turns to Brian. "Pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm Eve, Domina of Hope."
  
• Snow bounds up to Eve, and leaps onto her in the form of a lemur.
  

Snow: "Look, I'm a lee-muuur!"
DanteE: (I've got it! Carrie spent her down time playing WoW and is now an Elf! :)
Eve: (Nooot quite.)

• Brian turns to T: "... visit the zoo?"
  

Brian: "What happened to Carrie?"

• Snow snuggles up to Eve's chest.
  
• Eve strokes Snow gently. "You're the new one Lord Kudzu told me about, yes?"
  

Snow: "That's me!"
Theresa: "We went to see John and got frustrated with the whole blood drop thing. So we took Snow to the zoo. She's a quick learner. And then we came home and...yah."
Theresa: "Brian, Hope is more connected to the Chancel than I am...can you look through the Heart for Eve's sister..Dawn?"
Brian: "I can try"
Brian: (Realm Div of Dawn?)
Brian: (I assume it fails?)
Theresa: (Hmm..if it does, I can use my Noble-finder. or Brian can just talk to her through the RH and ask her to come to the conference room.)

• Eve giggles unnervingly. "We share an Estate and an icon in the Heart. I doubt you'll find her that way."
  

Random_Nerd: (What exactly are you looking for, with the divination?)
Brian: (Um... someone like Eve but not Eve)
Snow: "You both one person? Or two different?"
DanteE: "How exactly do you share an estate?"

• Eve looks at Dante archly. "Perhaps Lord Kudzu saw no reason to limit himself to one Power of Hope. I did not ask."
  

Random_Nerd: (Nothing shows up as particularly being similar to Eve without being her.)
Brian: "I can't get her on my Realmdar."
Brian: (ReDAR: Realm Detection And Ranging ;))
DanteE: "So where is Carrie? Her parents will be worrying."
Brian: "T? Want to give your doohicky a try?"

• Theresa concentrates, using the Scanning for Noble-spots gift.
  

Eve: "Her parents, yes. Her parents are Anchors of the Estate of Hope. I'm sure they have more important things to worry about."
Brian: "So, they're still Anchored? That means ... you're still Carrie, of a sort?"
Random_Nerd: (Okay, on the gift, there are... *counts* Those of you in the room, including Eve. Horse, down in his new room. Three spots in Kaerkoven without auctoriti.)

• Eve glares at Brian. "Don't compare me to that Light-obsessed twit of a sister!"
  

Theresa: (That would be...Lesson...and Hope's anchors.)

• Theresa blinks. Wow, the sibling rivalry is a bit heavy...
  

Brian: "Well, things are just weird right now - normally when an Estate changes ownership, the Anchors are freed."

• Snow wraps herself around Eve's shoulders in the form of a python.
  

Theresa: "Well, if Dawn is part of Hope, she isn't Noble in a way that my talents can sense. But I think pleased to meet you, Eve."
Random_Nerd: (Of course, there's prior weirdness with that. For instance, something odd has happened with James, and yet Lesson is still anchored.)
Brian: (Brian's assumption is that James still exists somewhere)
Theresa: (Wild Chancel. Weird is in our charter.)

• Eve strokes the top of Snow's head slowly.
  
• Snow snake-purrs.
  

DanteE: (and don't forget I grabbed James' gear...)

• Theresa sits down at the conference table. "So, Eve, care to tell us about yourself?"
  

Brian: "So, tell us about yourself. If we're to have a new Sister, we ought to get to know her"
Random_Nerd: (Indeed, Dante.)

• DanteE puts the blood drop on the table
  
• Eve smiles at Theresa, more relaxedly this time. "I'm not sure what there is to tell. I was created with some of Dawn's memories, which is how I know the rest of you. I'm the Domina of Hope. It's my hope to do service to Lord Kudzu, the Valde Bellum, and the Code of the Dark."
  
• Eve glances at each of her Siblings in turn, wondering how they take that last.
  

DanteE: (uhoh.)
Theresa: "Dark? Okay. I've met at least one other under the code of the Dark. She was very passionate about her Estate."

• Theresa is cool as a cucumber.
  

Brian: "I don't remember what the Dark is all about."

• Snow doesn't really appear to care, though she does tighten a bit around Eve in an attempt to gather more warmth.
  

Brian: "Snow, hon, remember that fur is warm..."
Snow: "So's people."
Brian: "point."
Eve: "I hardly mind."
DanteE: "That's the philosophy that says everyone should burn all their stuff and kill themselves...

• Eve strokes Snow's head a little more.
  

DanteE: "How does that reconcile with Hope?"
Brian: "Ah. That one. The one that even I consider insane."
Theresa: (Oh, _that_'s a way to make friends with the new version of our Sister...)
Theresa: (Although, Wild, insane, have a point.)

• Eve glares at Dante a little. "I suppose that might be one way of putting it. We of the Dark believe that humans' hopes for self-destruction are their greatest path to fulfillment. Such as a human can be fulfilled."
  

Brian: (remember the point in the Wild about sanity, though?)
Theresa: (Whoever was Carrie's travel agent, I'm not flying with them ever.)
Theresa: (I'll come out...I don't know what the opposite of Serpent is.)
Brian: "Long as you keep the Chancelfolk safe, and away from harm, I don't particularly care what Code you follow, to be frank."
Snow: "She's just Eve. No prooooblem." Snow slithers to the ground and turns into a girl, who leans up against Eve and hugs her.

• Eve looks at Snow tolerantly, but with a certain amount of distaste for the form she's adopted.
  
• Snow beams up at her.
  

Brian: RH: "Snow ... she seemed to like the animal forms better"
Theresa: (Eve would be able to hear that.)
Snow: (Heh.)
Brian: (whatever)

• Snow looks at Brian, confused.
  

Snow: "What else could I be?"
Theresa: "I have no problems with your choice in Code, Sister. We'll have to get William to update your heraldry."
Brian: RH: "You could be a ... komodo dragon!"

• Snow grumbles and, sullenly, turns into a komodo dragon. "People's an animal too..."
  

Eve: "You'll want to keep Dawn's heraldry as well. She'll be back eventually."

• Eve doesn't sound particularly pleased with that.
  

DanteE: "...Tell us about Dawn?"
Theresa: "Eventually?"
Brian: RH: "I know. Be who you want, of course, always."
Brian: RH: "But be aware."

• Snow makes a grump noise, and summons some rabbits to eat.
  

Theresa: (*twitch* Rabbits!)
Theresa: (Is it day outside still?)
Brian: (heh :p_
Random_Nerd: (Yes.)

• Eve sighs. "Dawn is the one you call Carrie. She is my sister." She pauses, looking like she would really prefer to talk about something else.
  

Random_Nerd: (Afternoon or early evening.)
Theresa: (Hmm. *ponders possiblities*)

• Snow waits for some rabbits to appear.
  

Random_Nerd: They do!
Brian: "When did you get here?"
Random_Nerd: Two rabbits hop in the door, looking faintly puzzled.
DanteE: "We do seem to have our share of questions about incarnations... (taps blood drop)

• Snow stumps on over, after releasing the rabbits from their obligation to behave.
  

Snow: "Rraaaawr!"
Eve: "I was created yesterday evening."
Brian: "Created?"
DanteE: to Snow: "You know, we have a cafeteria."
Random_Nerd: (But they don't serve rabbit.)
Brian: "Leave her be. She's having fun."
Eve: "By Lord Kudzu."
Brian: "For what purpose?"

• Snow watches as the rabbits flee in terror.
  

DanteE: (to bug us. :)
Random_Nerd: In the background, wind blows outside the window. A horse trots around a number of floors below. Billiard balls clack. Rabbits flee.

• Snow turns into a coyote and chases after a rabbit.
  
• Eve scowls. "Why don't you ask milord?"
  

DanteE: (Who's playing pool?)
Brian: "Just wondered if he told you why. He often has strange reasonings"
Theresa: (Who's playing pool?)

• Eve exhales dramatically. "Sorry. I'm not used to having my existence questioned."
  

Random_Nerd: (Someone downstairs.)

• Eve hasn't noticed the billiard balls.
  

Brian: "That wasn't the purpose of the question - only to gather further information about our illustrious Imperator's motives"
Theresa: (I didn't know we had a pool table.)
DanteE: (Same here...
Brian: (great physics demo table, of course we do!)
Random_Nerd: (It's apparently new.)
Random_Nerd: (Is the pool table going to be the new cow?)
Theresa: "Would you consider yourself and your sister to be separate enties, Eve?"
Brian: (no ... has Snow been introduced to "cows" yet?)
Random_Nerd: (Depends on the cow.)
Random_Nerd: (Not Red's cows, at least.)

• Eve arches her eyebrows again. "
  

Snow: (Hm. I'd say no...though she'd be familiar with buffalo and muskox.)
Eve: "I would. We're not the same person by any means."
Brian: (then that's a good one)
Random_Nerd: (There were cattle in Mexico.)

• Snow catches a rabbit and proceeds to eat it with delight.
  

Brian: RH: "Snow, summon up a cow ... they're great for watching and eating"
Random_Nerd: (On the background of some of the scenes set on the farm.)
Theresa: "Okay. Then that's how I shall treat you both. What would you like to know about us, Eve?"
Snow: "Can't--" *slurping noises* "--eating."
DanteE: "Excuse me for one moment...
Brian: RH: "Well, later, then. Cows are delightful creatures."

• DanteE goes downstairs to see who's playing pool...
  

Random_Nerd: Snow's eating is like Kudzu's thinking. Sloppy and unsettling.
Snow: RH: "Okie dokie!"

• Snow snerks.
  

Snow: (Sorry, that was OOC.)
Snow: (And it's Aspect 0 Eating, remember.)
Random_Nerd: (One floor down, in one of the formerly empty offices, Samuel and one of Lesson's arm guys are playing billiards. Lesson, slouching in the corner, is unsuccessfully trying to cajole William into betting on the match.)

• Eve looks at Theresa quizzically. "I can't think of much offhand... Snow is... Capriciousness, milord said... But what was she originally?"
  

Theresa: (Where's Snow from again? Alaska?)
Brian: "A coyote. I think."
Snow: (Northwest Territories.)

• Eve smiles.
  
• DanteE goes back to the table...
  

Brian: "Not that it really matters with her. She's whoever she wants to be at that moment in time"
Theresa: "Snow is a coyote from the Northwest Territories of North America. She can shapeshift into any animal shape, we think. And she swallows things."
DanteE: "So far, an Excrucian's head, and a rock."
Snow: (NWT is a territory in Canada, but never mind. :) )
Theresa: (Well, Theresa's an Amyran. All those silly countries in North American, bah...  :) )
Brian: (Can't expect people in Amyra to know that :-P)
Eve: "I like her."

• Snow coyote-grins.
  

Snow: "Want some rabbit?"

• Brian smiles
  

Theresa: "After she was enNobled, her Estate got attacked and we went to Mexico to help her."
Eve: "I'm not sure how it would agree with my digestion... Hmm.

• Eve raises an eyebrow. "Attacked? By the Dark Horsemen?"
  

Random_Nerd: (A whole rabbit would, indeed, disagree a bit with your stomach.)
Theresa: "Three, actually. Warmains."
DanteE: "YEs... as requested by our Imperator, apparently."

• Eve looks shocked, hearing Dante.
  

Eve: "Say that again... I must have heard you wrong."

• Snow crunches bones.
  

Brian: "Like I said ... our ... illustrious ... Imperator's motives are at times questionable and unfathomable"
Random_Nerd: (Well, it was one Excrucian, or rather, the shards thereof.)
DanteE: "I don't think so. Kudzu 'hired' the Excrucians to attack us."
DanteE: "er... the Shards, rather."
Theresa: "No, there was this thing about a Tempering and a favor that Kudzu called in to test Snow and us to see if we could keep her Estate safe."
Eve: "A Tempering?"

• Eve looks rather perplexed.
  

Theresa: (Perplexed in a 'what's that' way or a 'holy crap' way?)
Random_Nerd: (A thing Warmains do. Taking on the forms of honored fallen enemies.)
Eve: (In reference to the Tempering thing, 'what's that,' though there's still a bit of 'holy crap' left over from before.)
Theresa: "Apparently, the Excrucian who killed one of Kudzu's friends thought enough of that person to Temper or take on the personalities and qualities of that person. And somehow this included owing Kudzu a favor."

• Eve looks rather more unnerved. Which is significantly so.
  
• Snow mumbles quietly through her meal, "Food makes things way better...
  

Snow: "
DanteE: "Now I think you see why we're a bit suspicious of all this."
Brian: "heart and soul of a coyote."
DanteE: "Having an embodiment of chaos as a 'boss' makes sudden developments a bit more of a concern."
Theresa: (And Theresa hasn't even told anyone else that the Maple is a spy planted to gather evidence to see if Kudzu is a Mimic...)
Eve: "It doesn't make much sense... But Lord Kudzu's logic is above our own. I'm sure he has his reasons."
Eve: (Wow. Wow. <.<; Wow.)
Brian: "I'm sure he has his reasons, though thinking in terms of 'logic' is thinking in terms of a cage, and sanity. You must let go of that and experience as things come"
Theresa: "Oh and by the way, our Brother James seems to have disappeared or been taken by Kudzu. So he called up Snow."
Brian: (whee! Numbers rejecting logic and systems!)
Eve: "Thank you for the reminder. The point stands, but only as a figure of speech."
DanteE: "Yeah, his logic isn't above us as much as sideways. :)"
Snow: The other rabbit, who had receded to a corner of the room given that the coyote was sated...explodes in a flurry of blood and fur.
Theresa: (Etheric, I love your reactions, both IC and OOC. *grin*)
Brian: "Well, he /has/ no logic ... that's the problem"
Snow: *munch* "Like that." *munchmunch*
DanteE: (Cleanup in aisle 3...)
Random_Nerd: (Really, in this case I think it's less that Kudzu's logic is strange than that he works with a weird set of assumptions and priorities.)
Brian: (I still maintain that he has no logic, thus being unfathomable to humans, who fundamentally use logic, even if they don't know it)

• Theresa watches the destruction of the bunny and shudders, remembering the stuff with Monty. *rubs the arm that got hurt in that*
  
• Brian gives T a comforting half-hug (at least, it's supposed to be comforting)
  

DanteE: "Anyway, there was something else I was thinking of...

• DanteE taps the blood drop.
  
• Theresa smiles back half-heartedly. *turns back to Eve* "We hope that you'll like it here."
  

Brian: "Dante? Blood drop? What've you found?"
DanteE: "Now, this ... would seem to have to do with a prior Courage, yes?"

• Eve smiles at Theresa. "Thank you, Sister."
  

DanteE: to Brian: "Several strange assumptions and coincidences. In other words, the usual."
DanteE: "Then again, there's things we should know...
Brian: "Ah. Straight ahead, then?"

• DanteE fires up the viewscreen. It has a view of the table, apparently from Dante's POV.
  

Brian: "... not quite what I meant by that"
Theresa: "Dante, I was thinking about that while we were at the zoo...i think I was wrong earlier. The divination said that the last person the blood was in was immune to divinations. In my haste, I assumed that John's ancestor was that person. But thinking it through, the last person would have been the _Shard_. The divination was specific but pointing in the wrong direction.
Theresa: "

• Eve glances at Brian, then at the viewscreen.
  

DanteE: "OK... still think Courage is involved?"
DanteE: "It was a gift specifically to me...

• Snow finishes her meal, relatively tidily, and trots back to the others.
  
• Brian gives Snow a quick pet.
  

DanteE: (are you guys typing or stunned? :)
Brian: (waiting :-P)
Random_Nerd: (Likewise.)

• Snow shrugs and sits.
  

Theresa: (Awaiting the Powerpoint presentation.  :) )
Brian: RH: "Hm... Snow, can you transform into half-creatures? That is, like, half-fox, half-rabbit"
DanteE: "I'm thinking ... I'd like to do what Carrie did--try to get the history of the Estate of COurage.,
Random_Nerd: (She can't.)

• Snow squints, and tries really hard.
  

Random_Nerd: (Has to be a real terrestrial animal.)
Brian: (that's sad. that would be amazingly fun)

• Snow POOFS into an emu.
  

Random_Nerd: (Another point or two into the gift and she could, of course.)
Snow: "...nope."
Brian: RH: "Aw. But cute emu."
DanteE: "Hopefully I can do that and keep it together enough to display it on the screen there so we can all see it."
Theresa: (She can probably turn into any Amyran creature that would be mythical in the real world.)
Random_Nerd: (True. Amyra has "natural" animals that don't exist in real-world earth.)

• Theresa looks concerned. "Are you sure, Dante? That was a high level vision and it took a lot out of Hope."
  

DanteE: "There is, of course, one very important consideration.
DanteE: "...
DanteE: "...popcorn.
Snow: "Food!"
Brian: "... popcorn?"

• Theresa blinks and then hands Dante a wooden bowl of popcorn. "Okay."
  

Brian: "Ya know ... I miss KFC. They had these little ... popcorn chicken. Like popcorn, but chicken. That was awesome."
DanteE: "For you guys. We'll all be seeing it."

• Snow pecks at the popcorn.
  

Snow: (I hate emus. I don't know why Snow is an emu.)
DanteE: "Maybe you'll see details I miss."
Snow: (They're freaky. Like the Dutch.)
DanteE: "... ready?"
Brian: (...)
DanteE: (Er... remind me: GDivs are L6, right?)
Eve: (5)
Brian: (I'm speechless in laughter there, Sara.)
Theresa: "Ready. I think."
Snow: (*grin*)
Random_Nerd: (5.)
Random_Nerd: (Greater Divs and Lesser Destructions are 5.)
Brian: "No hope I can get some popcorn chicken? ... Didn't think so."

• Snow turns into a coyote for no apparent reason. *cough*
  

DanteE: (So, RN: a Greater Div of the History of the Estate of Courage, shown on the screen, would show... ?)
Random_Nerd: (Hmm...)
Random_Nerd: (Give me a moment.)
Brian: (that, Sara, would be worth Joss, if this system had it)

• DanteE takes a minute to fine-tune the screen.
  

Snow: (*grin*)
Eve: (That's a Deep Miracle for you, right?)
Random_Nerd: (Okay. Now, courage first manifested itself in the world in the Second Age, some time around 450 AF.)

• Brian provides "weee-ooo" noises of an old-style tv-land signal coming in focus.
  

DanteE: (Yep, Courage 2, Deep Domain miracle)

• DanteE dims the lights...
  

Eve: (Okay, that's what I thought.)
Random_Nerd: (It's a universal estate, not an earthly one, but it is more strongly manifest on Earth than in the average place.)
Random_Nerd: (What sort of details are you looking for?)
Brian: (a long drawn out image like the last one :D)
Snow: (I'm sorry guys, I have to bail. I've got a headache, I'm so tired.)
Eve: (Have a good night! Was good gaming with you.)
DanteE: (Well, an overview of the whole thing--with a quick glance as to whether Kudzu was involved from the beginning--and then, a closer look at the years 1850 to now)
Theresa: (Night Sara. Get better soon!)
Random_Nerd: (Later, Sara.)
Theresa: (*HUG*)
Snow: (Sorry, thank you! I really like Eve!)
Snow: (*hug!*)
DanteE: (oyasumi-nasai)

• • • Snow has left #nobilis.
      

Random_Nerd: (Okay. Now, it manifested itself in the world before Kudzu was openly present in Creation.)
Random_Nerd: (Some of the issues involving how Kudzu came in show up very vaguely or not at all. The passing of the Wildlords into Creation is shrouded in mystery even to them.)
DanteE: (Remember, there's still the is-he-a-Mimic question in our minds. :)
Random_Nerd: (That makes aspects of this that tie into how Kudzu came to Creation, and how Courage became integrated to the world, hard to determine. Same factor as made the Hope one a while back vague.)
Random_Nerd: (Now, you can't divine much at all about Kudzu through this. He's got a very strong auctoritas even for those things that aren't utterly undivinable.)

• Theresa offers Eve some popcorn?
  

Eve: (Word of advice here... Don't mention the Mimic thing to Carrie.)
Theresa: (Oh? What would her reaction be?  :) )
DanteE: (pretty much the same as the rabbit's... )
Random_Nerd: (It seems that the first time courage took root strongly on Earth was following the Deluge, and it got a lot more instantiated in the eleventh century AF after Kudzu became fully manifest.)
Eve: (Remember how Carrie reacted to learning Hope didn't exist in the world from the start? Now envision how she'd react to a suspicion thaT Hope isn't a true Estate at all.)
Random_Nerd: (From there on, Kudzu is visibly present, but you can't see the details because of how miraculous beings interact with divinations.)
Theresa: (It's a true Estate. It's just that the person in charge of it would prefer that the Universe gets a Divide by Zero error at the end.)
Random_Nerd: (But he shapes it, like a lead bowling ball on a rubber sheet.)
Eve: (Mimics' Powers' estates are remnants of true estates. There's no Power of the Dry Salve.)
Random_Nerd: (If he's a mimic, he's a mimic of some estate that died in or before the early Second Age.)
Random_Nerd: (And you wouldn't be able to divine about that with Courage, because Courage as such would not exist that far back.)
Theresa: (Ahh, okay, I was misunderstanding.)
Random_Nerd: (But it's tough to tell the difference between "The early part of the Estate is vague because Wildlord estates manifest strangely" and "It's weird because Kudzu is a mimic.")
Eve: (The Excrucians weren't even around in the Second Age, were they?)
Random_Nerd: (They weren't invading Creation.)
Eve: (Ahh, right.)
Random_Nerd: (They did exist.)
Theresa: (They had trouble finding parking.)
Random_Nerd: (But basically, it would make some big questions if Kudzu was a mimic.)
DanteE: (So, you're saying Kudzu is Definitely Not a Mimic?)
Random_Nerd: (Such as, what sort of Imperator was he before, since there weren't Wildlords in Creation that far back. And, what killed that Imperator, and why?)
Random_Nerd: (He is not /definitely/ not. It would be surprising and strange if he was.)
Theresa: (Ow, my head.)
Random_Nerd: (Of course, on the other hand, if he /is/ a mimic, then they picked the perfect time to slip him in.)
Eve: (parking for Horses of the Apocalypse?)
Brian: (since we seem to have moved OOC, is that it for the happenings of the session?)
DanteE: (The Div is still going on)
Random_Nerd: (He entered with the other Wildlords, or in other words, at the time of the enterance of a bunch of new Imperators governing things that were partly manifest in a different way before they came in.)
Random_Nerd: (Well, you need to give me more specifics on what you're trying to divine.)
Random_Nerd: (Really big picture divinations will be really vague.)
DanteE: (I did. Overview Beginning->1850, then a closer look... for reasons that should be obvious)
Random_Nerd: (A closer look at /what/, though?)
Random_Nerd: (Courage on Earth? Courage elsewhere? Kudzu?)
DanteE: (Who/what was running the Estate at the time & what happened to them)
Eve: (Nobles are immune to Divs right?)
DanteE: (AH... Earth, please.)
Brian: (I think he's asking this: what happened to the last Courage? Was Amyra a Chancel before? How was the Ex we killed related?)
Random_Nerd: (Okay. Courage, on Earth, has been most strongly manifest in humanity, particularly after the Deluge.)
DanteE: (We're the same bleedin' Domain, I ought to be able to see something)
DanteE: (Brian's got it)
Random_Nerd: (Well, the Amyra stuff won't really show up. The previous Courage, if there was one, would be immune to such divinations.)
Random_Nerd: (On account of being Noble.)
Random_Nerd: (At most, you'd be able to tell "A miracle of Courage was cast on such and such a date by... someone.")
Eve: (That should be enough to give hints, though, right?)
Theresa: (But that would still be info. That there was a previous someone to be Courage.)
Eve: (Well, Kudzu's someone.)
Theresa: (Very true.)
DanteE: (something. :)
Eve: (Some-many?)
Random_Nerd: (It feels like there was. Either there was a previous Power of Courage, or Kudzu had a shard that he used to cast miracles through on a regular basis.)
Brian: (Also, if the blood drop's path gets traced, that would be Important Information)
DanteE: (OK, let's zero in on him, then)
Random_Nerd: (There's no real way to tell more than that. But there were times that miracles of Courage have been cast in a time and place when Kudzu was clearly elsewhere.)
Random_Nerd: (Okay, the period during which this happened the most was during the Third Age. Early third age.)
Random_Nerd: (90% or more of the occasions were on Earth.)
Random_Nerd: (They were not particularly localized in a particular place on earth, although they took place more often in Europe than elsewhere.)
Eve: (We stalled, or what?)
DanteE: (I think RN's typing....)
Random_Nerd: (So, presumably either there wasn't a chancel, or it was a /big/ one somewhere in Europe, or the Power of Courage, if that's what he was, had more Realm than Domain and leaned on Realm more when in-chancel, or something else.)
Random_Nerd: (Or the possibly-power had a reason not to spend much time in his Chancel, or it didn't require much miraculous maintanence...)
Theresa: (They obviously didn't have Monty.)
Random_Nerd: (I know I'm not providing a lot of information, but it's just that you're dealing in things that, for reasons of how Nobilis works, are pretty much intrinsically undivinable.)
DanteE: (Or he was needed elsewhere fairly often... going by the book, early 3rd age is the building of the Roman Empire)
Random_Nerd: (Yep. That's the basic timeframe. Late Greek/early Roman is when the Noble or Anchor started being active.)
Brian: (Makes a lot of sense)
Random_Nerd: (And they seem to have been active for a couple centuries.)
DanteE: (OK, then, let's see if we can get something later... moving ahead to when the blood drop appeared)
Random_Nerd: (So, if it was an anchor, it was a proto-Luc or something.)
Random_Nerd: (Hmm. When the blood drop appeared, nothing particularly unusual was happening with Courage other than stuff you yourself had been directly doing.)
Random_Nerd: (The number of miracles of Courage had gone way up recently because of the PCs being ennobled, of course.)
DanteE: (when it first appeared, from John's ancestor)
Random_Nerd: (Oh, hmm. Nothing unusual there. Perhaps Courage was more active than now, because there were more wars going on then than now, but nothing /supernaturally/ particularly active.)
Random_Nerd: (He went down in a storm. You can tell that, because several people on the crew exhibited courage on the occasion. But after that, the blood doesn't show up.)
DanteE: (Damn it, there's something I'm missing... where was Courage between Rome and Amyra?)
Random_Nerd: (Presumably there was nobody being particularly brave on the ocean floor.)
Random_Nerd: (An excellent question.)
Random_Nerd: (But there's no clear answer. Now, there were /some/ miracles that don't seem to have been directly done by Kudzu then. But that's easily explained with anchors, and wouldn't require anything unusual.)
Eve: (Answer something for me... How would an Anchor do a miracle?)
Random_Nerd: (Their Noble or Imperator would do it through them.)
Random_Nerd: (Or with a Focus.)
DanteE: (This is turning into that photo-search scene from Blade Runner. "Enhance 1200 AD by Europe")
Eve: (Or, wait. You're saying Kudzu did miracles through Anchors of his. Okay.)
Random_Nerd: (Basically, you can't tell the difference, via such a divination, between a Noble or Imperator doing miracles through an anchor, and a Noble doing miracles himself. Both Nobles and Anchors are ineffable to divinations.)
Brian: (He's saying it's a possibility)
Random_Nerd: (Basically, the stuff around Rome would mean that either it was a Noble, or he /wanted/ a Noble but had a strong reason not to EnChancel, so he took an anchor or a string of them and used them in exactly the way most Imperators use Nobles.)
Theresa: (So Kudzu could do miracles through Lesson now?)
Random_Nerd: (So, depending on which it was, you have a question either way.)
Random_Nerd: (No. But James could.)
Random_Nerd: (If it was a Noble, then how did Kudzu come to be de-enchanceled?)
DanteE: (Any such Courage miracles from 1500-1900?)
Random_Nerd: (And if it was an Anchor, then why did Kudzu refrain from enchancelling and instead do things in an ass-backwards way?)
Random_Nerd: (A few. But, like, a couple dozen during those centuries.)
Brian: (Question: could we Divine previous Chancels?)
Random_Nerd: (Whereas with the time of the possibly-Noble it was several orders of magnitude higher.)
Random_Nerd: (Hmm. You probably could, somehow. But I'm not sure how you would go about it.)
Random_Nerd: (Give me a methodology, and I'll tell you if it'd work.)
DanteE: (I'm looking at the Estate over time. If it suddenly has more protection, or seems to be located 'elsewhere' for a while, we might spot it.)
Random_Nerd: (But a chancel wouldn't be undivinable the way a Noble or Anchor would.)
Brian: (Divine: previous Chancel housing of Numbers?)
Random_Nerd: (Like I said, the miracles didn't seem to localize in the way you would expect with a Chancel.)
DanteE: (... or if the Courage miracles were co-located with 'miscellaneous' miracles form the same source.)
Random_Nerd: (Hmm. What are you looking for, with Numbers, in looking for a Chancel?)
Random_Nerd: (Numbers miracles show up most often in Greece, or later on, in the middle east.)
Brian: (Presumably, Numbers knows its "home". With a Chancel, I'm thinking I can look at the "source" in a manner of speaking.)
Random_Nerd: (What do you mean by look at the "source"?)
DanteE: (OK, refocus to the few years right before we were enChanceled.
Brian: (and heh - I kind of expected that)
Brian: (Um. Instead of looking at "where are the miracles used?" I want to look at ... "what feels more like Numbers and Growth than Earth")
Random_Nerd: (Closest Noble canidate is Pythagoras, or at least, a guy in the Pythagorean sect.)
Random_Nerd: (Well, I don't think locations really "feel" that way.)
Brian: (well, actually, I'm not /doing/ these yet, as I suspect they'd be Greater, but just want to know if that's possible)
Random_Nerd: (Miraculous power doesn't move through the real world in space.)
Random_Nerd: (Or, rather, it does so through the Spirit World, but not the prosaic or mythic ones.)
Brian: (I do want to do this one: Realm Div on what makes our Chancel a Chancel)
Random_Nerd: (The answer is a combination of "Kudzu" and "Divination within soul of an Imperator, divide by zero error.")
Random_Nerd: (The thing that makes a chancel a chancel takes place entirely within the soul of an Imperator.)
Random_Nerd: (At least, if you're talking about what the defining characteristic of a Chancel is, rather than how they come to be.)
Brian: (That's what I'm talking about)
Brian: (the fundamental "Is")
DanteE: (Hm... could a Greater Div of Realm tell us if we were enChanceled before?)
Random_Nerd: (No.)
Random_Nerd: (You can't do Realm divinations farther back in time than Amyra was enchanceled.)
Random_Nerd: (Beyond there, there isn't a thing that you can divine on.)
DanteE: (OK, back to my ongoing Div...
Random_Nerd: (It's like looking for things in the vicinity of a whale, in outer space.)
Random_Nerd: (Okay, if you want to get anything more out of that, you're going to need to put in some more MPs.)
Random_Nerd: (As it is, it's already like six divinations in a row.)
DanteE: (There was one time when we know Kudzu was checking out the place... when I was in the fight where I lost the eye.)

• Brian sends a message to William over the bbs "Can I get you or Sam to look into whether or not Kudzu's been enChancelled before?"
  

Random_Nerd: You get the feeling of a nod back.
Random_Nerd: (I believe you asked them about that before, and they said that if there was, they didn't know about it.)
Random_Nerd: (But he'll look over their information again.)
Brian: (I don't believe I was there for that, or if I was, I can't remember it)
DanteE: (Div still going, or over? I'm not sure what to ask.)
Random_Nerd: (It's over.)

• Brian adds further information "We think that a Noble of Courage was active around when the Romans were expanding. Can you look into that as well?"
  

Random_Nerd: (Really, it should have been over some time ago, but trying to figure out where one div would start and another end in that would melt my brain.)
Random_Nerd: You get the tingle of an incoming prayer.
Brian: (I'll listen)

• DanteE Hellos
  

Random_Nerd: William: "That's very interesting. Do you mind if I pass that information to our Oracle, so our research staff can also look into it?"
DanteE: (Who got the prayer?)
Random_Nerd: (Brian.)
Brian: bbs: "Go ahead."
DanteE: "So... what did you guys get from that?"
Theresa: "Confusion."

• DanteE turns up the lights.
  

Brian: "I've asked William to look into things, giving him a bit of a target in time - the Roman expansion"
Theresa: "That there was very possibly another Courage before you, Dante. Which would mean that Kudzu had a Chancel earlier than Amyra."
DanteE: "Let me see if I remember my Roman history...
Brian: "Which raises the question: what happened to it?"
Random_Nerd: (Now, of course, the farther you go back before the founding of the Aides, the sketchier their information is, but they'll try.)
Brian: "Also, I wonder how accurate the original myths about Rome were?"

• Theresa will create a piece of handmade paper with the words on it to Samuel. "Do you know of any ways that can dis-Enchancel an Imperator without killing said Imperator?"
  

DanteE: "Romans fought with Aegyptos... conquered it ... 1st century AD.
DanteE: "Nubia was ... ahhhhh ...
Brian: "If the Internet still worked, I'd say look it up on Wikipedia."
DanteE: "... what would you say about hooking us up?"
Brian: "Can't be done? Needs constant data transfers between Chancel and not-Chancel, and I don't know of a way yet to do that"
Random_Nerd: (Oh, and one other thing to point out. If it /wasn't/ a Noble, you can't tell whether it was one long-lived anchor, a string of them, or even several concurrently)
Brian: "I mean, it's a lot of effort making sure my simple queries work - there's a /lot/ of traffic"
Random_Nerd: (For that matter, even if it /was/ a Noble, some of those miracles may have been done through an Anchor.)
Brian: (granted)

• Theresa will wait a little bit and then do a LDiv on the paper to see if Sam's written anything back.
  

Random_Nerd: (On the paper, Samuel has written "Impereal miracle, or some sort of Rite. Probably something involving sacrifice in large scales, if it's the latter.")
DanteE: (How large?
Theresa: *writes back* "Is there any history of such a thing happening before? And large scale as in what is needed to make a Chancel, plague, or genocide?"
DanteE: (...the Romans were 'sacrificing' Christians by the boatload 3rd-4th centuries)
Brian: (2nd-3rd, no?)
Random_Nerd: Sam's writing: "If it's happened before, we don't know about it. And at least on the scale of the sacrifices needed to make a Chancel in the first place, possible more."
DanteE: (Nero's reign, mainly)
DanteE: (ah... 1st century & later)
DanteE: (Wait... about what years did it look like there was a Chancel?)
Brian: (but went up, and then sharply down, as they started genociding others)
Random_Nerd: (Nero wasn't the only one, of course. They weren't big on minority religions with insurrectionist tendencies back then.)
DanteE: (Neither was the Church... but that's a tangent.)
Theresa: *to the others* "I asked Sam what it would take to deChancel a place. There's no solid evidence, but he thinks it would take a Rite or some Imperial miracle. And it would probably take a lot of deaths to do it, possibly even more than what was needed to make the Chancel in the first place."
Random_Nerd: (Oh, of couse. For that matter they aren't too popular today.)
Theresa: (Was the other time that you mentioned, the time in Europe..was it close to the Black Death?)
Brian: "Roughly what I expected. Question results: did Kudzu do it himself? If so, why? If not, then who, and for what reason?"
Brian: "For the final question of ... will he do that to us?"
Random_Nerd: (This is partly connected to the fact that most of the rites that involve changing the soul of an imperator or a Noble involve death. The Enchanceling rite, the Redtooth rite, the RIte of Rescue, the lesser and greater forms of Excruciation, and so on.)
Brian: "Hypothesis: Kudzu feels enChancelment is a form of cage - it ties him down to one spot, and to specific individuals"

• Theresa shrugs. "He seems to be very fond of change."
  

DanteE: "That makes sense. As much as anything involving Kudzu makes sense..."
Brian: "If that is the case, then the reason that we are here now is that he needs us. Likely so he can divert his attention elsewhere."
Random_Nerd: (Also, he tends to do violence to himself on occasion, and to think of you guys as extensions of himself.)
Brian: (the great thing about Wild is that I can use my logic sometimes, when it befits me :p)
Theresa: (Ow.)
Brian: (for being unable to use logic is as caging as it is to only be able to use logic)
Random_Nerd: (Do you mind if we stop here?)
Random_Nerd: (It's getting late.)
Brian: (I'm fine with stopping)
Theresa: (Brain mush. Glad Etheric's back. Murloc-brainsounds.)
Eve: (Stopping is fine with me.)
DanteE: (OK.)
Random_Nerd: ________________STOP___________________
Random_Nerd: Thoughts?

• • • Eve is now known as Etheric.
      

Etheric: Remind me what a Murloc is?

• • • DanteE is now known as Knockwood.
      

Random_Nerd: Warcraft thing. They make a particular gurgle.
Etheric: Ah.
Etheric: Oh, those. I remember now.
Random_Nerd: (Link: http://www.owlboy.com/wowwiki/mMurlocAggroB.mp3)http://www.owlboy.com/wowwiki/mMurlocAggroB.mp3
Theresa: Distinct enough that if you have it as a ringtone, you can see who plays Warcraft in a crowd by seeing who jumps.  :)
Etheric: LOL!
Theresa: I am very interested in seeing more of this Eve and finding out what all happened while Hope was gone.
Etheric: Eve is basically my response to Carrie feeling like a rut. Although there's more to it than that.
Theresa: Oh?

• • • Brian is now known as Lazarus.
      

Etheric: Well, the "more to it" is secret.
Random_Nerd: Mysteeeeerious.
Etheric: I still like Carrie and she will be back. How exactly is also a secret.
Lazarus: how do you like my flipping between logic-is-good and logic-is-evil?
Etheric: It's amusing.
Etheric: Are you large enough to contain multitudes?
Lazarus: hrm?
Etheric: Walt Whitman reference.
Lazarus: ah.
Knockwood: Oscar Wilde, not Whitman.
Knockwood: I think...
Etheric: "Do I contradict myself? So I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes."
Etheric: It is Whitman.
Etheric: Song of Myself.
Random_Nerd: Sounds more like Whitman to me.
Etheric: I can get the exact line number if people care to wait for me to dig the book up.
Random_Nerd: Besides, Wilde is one of those people, like Dennis Miller, that tend to accumulate quote attributations.
Etheric: Who's Dennis Miller?
Theresa: A sarcastic comedian who used to be on Saturday Night Live. Very caustic and ranty at times. But with a dry wit.
Random_Nerd: Anything you guys particularly liked or disliked about the GMing this session?
Lazarus: the Miracle wasn't as detailed and awesome as the Hope one :p
Knockwood: Pixelbitching.
Lazarus: (then again, I figure you had weeks to plan the previous one)
Knockwood: Granted, there's IC reasons, but still...
Lazarus: kwd: I don't particularly see that here. The problem is that we're trying to divine fundamentally undevinable stuff.
Lazarus: one of the things about Nobilis is the figuring out how and what to ask and look for.
Etheric: I'ding off... Have fun, all.
Theresa: Well, all, my brain is fried and I have work tomorrow. Welcome back, Etheric! *HUG*

Chancel_Amyra
Chapter 9