Amyra:Chapter 5

Chancel_Amyra

• Theresa relaxes in her conference room comfy chair. "A question...if we make this announcement and show descriptions of Lesson or Red or like that...will that break the brains of most of the Chancel?"
  
• DanteE groans, and drops his cane on the table.
  

[DanteE] "I'd guess so."
[DanteE] "William, Samuel... you'll never believe what happened...”
W: "Yes, sir?"

• Carrie bites her lip as she stares out the window.
  

[DanteE] "This incident was precipitated by our enigmatic Imperator...”
[DanteE] "As a reminder that we need to determine exactly how we're going to work with the mundane authorities.”
[DanteE] "...never thought I'd miss memos..."
S: "They do that sort of thing, I hear."
[Theresa] (A different question...can we tell if anyone in the Chancel is already suffering from D.A.? Besides the cops?)
[Hollyhock] (Lesser Divinations could check for it.)
[Carrie] "Our 'laissez-faire' policy didn't quite work for our Lord, apparently. And I thought it would please him..."
[DanteE] "Either of you familiar with dealing with mortal authorities?"

• Carrie bites her lip and thinks, her usually serene face pensive.
  

W: "We are both trained in doing so, sir. It's one of the duties associated with the job."
[DanteE] "Good.”

• Theresa will try a Lesser Divination of D. A. of the Realm.
  

Nobody's gotten their mind fully unhinged from the Prosaic, yet. There are several on the police force who're about one or two miracles away from it, and various other folks with lesser degrees of it.
[Theresa] (Any ideas about whether the announcements with, say, info about the War, about Nobles and pictures of Lesson and Red and Lesson's gang would push any of them over the edge?)
[Hollyhock] (Announcements wouldn't do it. It takes the direct witness of Noble miracles that can't be integrated into the existence of their worldviews.)
[Carrie] "What we need is to assert our superiority and inviolate nature, and at the same time, we need to leave the mortals here free to choose their own destiny, as the Wild demands."
[DanteE] "This one... there were 100 days of 'mysterious deaths', complete with gray vines sprouting from the dead.”
S: "Except for the vines, that's how it usually works, unless the Ymera has a firstborn son he's not too fond of or something."
William gives Samuel a look.
S: "Which, I'm sure you already know..."
[Carrie] (Used the firstborn son... well, daughter actually... thing in my own game which started recently, actually.)
[DanteE] "When we first came into our positions, we boosted everyone's Hope and Courage...”

• Theresa hmms. "Looks like with the exception of a couple of the cops down at the station, everyone's not doing too badly on the 'stable' chart. Showing pictures of Lesson might ruin any hope he has of having a secret identity" *smile* "but he and Red shouldn't fill the mental wards."
  

[Hollyhock] (That's partly because not many people have seen Red. Unlike Lesson or Ick, Red /will/ cause DA.)
[Theresa] (But he's a _nice_ tree! Hasn't stuffed anyone into a fridge yet...)
[Hollyhock] (At least, in the long run. Not instantly on sight, partly due to the largescale miracles of Courage and Hope that've been tossed around.)
[Carrie] (Hmm... Because he was made from a Noble Miracle?)
[Hollyhock] (But he's a /walking/ tree, and animated by a Lesser Change done by Theresa.)
[Hollyhock] (Unlike Ick, which was created by Kudzu. Imperators' miracles, even their Noble miracles, don't cause DA, 'cause Prosaic Reality reworks itself to explain them.)
[DanteE] "I'm thinking having the existing Parliament deal with the mundane stuff would be a good idea."

• Carrie nods. "However, we must clearly assert that neither we, nor our instruments will be subject to their jurisdiction."
  

[Theresa] "What kind of procedure should there be for reporting things to us or reporting to us? Also, we might get a lot of wackos who lost family outside of the Chancel, be trapped in the Chancel now or have their lives destroyed because they were dependant on imports."

• Carrie looks a bit pained.
  
• Theresa goes over and hugs Carrie. "I, for one, am glad you and your family came to Amyra, Sister."
  
• Carrie smiles at Theresa and hugs her lightly.
  

[Carrie] "Thank you, Theresa."
[DanteE] (Hey, this was asked a long time ago but never asked: do we still get media from Earth?)
[Hollyhock] (Do you want to? If so, you do. Otherwise, not.)
[Hollyhock] (Oh, and the lady that Theresa made pomegranate trees for is the closest, other than the cops, to DA.)
[Theresa] ('Cause she's a cow pimp to a walking tree! [G])
[Carrie] (My vote is that we do get TV from outside.)
[Theresa] (Ditto.)
[DanteE] (Let's see... on this side, ambulatory trees and murderous vines... on the other side, Jerry Springer & Fear Factor. Tough call. )

• Theresa smiles back and goes back to her seat. Scribbles a little. "So, why don't we start at the beginning of the whole thing..."
  

[DanteE] "All right, I told them we'd explain things tomorrow morning.”
[DanteE] "We might be addressing Parliament. What do we say?"
[Theresa] "Hi, we're the Nobles of Amyra and we'll be ruling you tonight..."

• Carrie frowns.
  

[Carrie] "We have to give some explanation for the 'plague.' It won't take a genius to put two and two together."
[DanteE] "Good point, though... how do we explain this? Do we explain this? They might not tolerate 'just trust us'..."
[Theresa] "We're going to be having people hating us no matter what. At least we can try to calm what fears we can with what info we can give. Would telling them about the War give them a patriotic feeling?"
[Carrie] "I'll defer to Dante on that, but my instinct goes against it."

• • • LordSmerf has joined channel #nobilis
      

[DanteE] (OK, I'm cool with the talking trees, rulers of/from hell, and mad forces of nature... but smerfs are _too damn far._
[Hollyhock] (Obviously you haven't been keeping up on Hitherby Dragons, Knock...)

• Theresa puts War in column on a piece of paper under the heading "Noble Conspiracy."
  

[Carrie] (Was Carrie's father still at the clock tower when we got here?)
[Hollyhock] (Correct. Both of her folks are, at the moment, staring at Monty, taking photographs and notes, and going "Hmm." a lot.)
[Carrie] "I'll be back in a moment. I've had one of my Anchors working on the explanation of the plague angle."
[Theresa] "Okay, Carrie."

• Carrie stands, curtsies slightly to her Familia, and makes her way down to the room where she saw her parents.
  

[Hollyhock] (Err, what are the names of her folks? It'd work easier if I didn't have to think "Carrie's Mom" and "Carrie's Dad.")
[Carrie] (The mom is Helen Winters. I don't know if I gave a name for the dad, but let's just say Dr. Frank Winters.)
Helen: "Oh, hello, dear. We were just looking at your... giant... rabbit... of doom?"
Monty towers.

• Carrie affects an air of dispassionate superiority to her parents, while quietly bolstering their hopes that this is only a facade (ghost miracle).
  

[Hollyhock] (*nod* And incidentally, Monty doesn't cause DA either. While the Nobles gathered the parts, Kudzu was the one who made him what he is.)
[Carrie] "Yes. Thank you. Anything to report?"
[DanteE] (How tall is lup-zilla now?)
[Hollyhock] (Tough to judge. His eye's about the size of a swimming pool.)
[Theresa] (... Kiddie pool or municipal?)
[Hollyhock] (Like, about ten yards across, say?)
Dr. Winters: "Did you know that, not only is this thing growing, the /rate/ at which it's growing seems to be growing?"
[Carrie] "I hadn't realized that. Monty's accelerating?"
[Hollyhock] (Fortunately, the Lesser Change of Space around him seems to be coping with the growth.)
Frank: "As far as we can tell, yeah. We've been using binoculars with a range finder to check, and as far as we can tell, he's accelerating."

• Carrie does a quick Realm Divination of Space to see how likely the miracle is to continue coping indefinitely.
  

Helen: "Do you know what this... little bundle of joy... is /for/?"

• Carrie frowns. "That's unknown to us as well."
  

H: "Well, dear, he's kinda creepy. The way he just /looks/ at you with those big eyes. And sometimes he seems to hop around in an angry sort of way, like he's restless."
[Carrie] "Hmm, it seems like we may have less time than I believed."
[DanteE] (... that's, what, young Godzilla size?)
[Hollyhock] (Yeah.)
[Carrie] (Barring any intervention, of course.)
[Hollyhock] (At least a few more weeks. And a Greater Change could adapt to anything.)
[Hollyhock] (A few weeks is the minimum, of course. It could last months, depending on how much Monty accelerates, since the growth process doesn't seem entirely predictable.)
[Hollyhock] (Incidentally, that's another thing. Unless something is done to mitigate it, Monty's hopping will soon start to cause structural damage to the Central Kaerkoven area.)
[Theresa] (... Wonder if Red would like a pet bunny...)
[Hollyhock] (Red is smaller than Monty, at this point. And possibly edible.)
[Theresa] (Meep...)
[DanteE] (To the watchers: Monty is an Australian rabbit who was briefly inhabited by our Ymera, and picked up some of his unrestrained growth. First thing he did, while possessed, was eat 11 of his brothers & sisters... so we named him Monty.)
[Hollyhock] (He also ate the feather of an angel, and the heart of a demon.)
[DanteE] (I know you're wondering, and yes... we did offer him mustard.
[Carrie] "I can imagine... Would you prefer to be given another task?"
Helen: "Well, is there something else I could help you with?"
Monty hops. The ground shakes a bit.
Those upstairs can feel it a little.

• DanteE felt that...
  

[Carrie] "Perhaps there will be soon. We might be looking for someone to serve as liaison to the government."
[Carrie] "Speaking of which..."

• Carrie turns to her father.
  

[Carrie] "How go the efforts to find an acceptable explanation for the plague?"

[Theresa] "Oh no...Monty..."
[DanteE] "...uhoh..."
[DanteE] "Oh crap, that is Monty, isn't it."

• Theresa gets up. "We haven't visited him in a while...wonder how big he is now..."
  
• DanteE heads down.
  

[Brian] "Let's see..." *will follow downstairs*

• Theresa heads down too. "How do you think the rest of the country would feel about us keeping Rabbzilla in our first floor storage closet?"
  

[Brian] "Long as he doesn't get out to ravage the countryside, I'm sure they'd be ok with it"

Frank: "So far, they're sufficiently uncertain that it's not too hard to keep the speculations controlled. Also, the fact that the deaths stopped when... everything changed, that makes the panic level lower."

• Carrie nods to her father and thinks a bit.
  

Frank: "Is something wrong, Carrie?"
[Carrie] "I'm wondering how much to tell them... We're going to have to tell the people soon and there's quite a bit that must be unsaid."
[DanteE] *arrives* "So how big is...

• DanteE looks in.
  

[*Monty*] *looms*
[DanteE] "...damn."
Monty twitches his nose up in the darkness, whiskers like trees moving as he does.
[DanteE] "Actually, scratch that, we're a few miles beyond damn and well into 'HO-ly FUCK!'"

• Theresa blinks. "I think Kudzu would be pleased with how Monty is doing...we need earthquake insurance now, though."
  
• Theresa waves dazedly at Carrie's folks.
  

[**Monty*] Hippity-hoppity-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP*
[Brian] (Look at Monty go...)
[Brian] (Monty the rabbit was very big and tall...)
[DanteE] ( o/~ with his great big paws and his great big nose and no rationale at all... o/~)

• Carrie has used her quota of Major Realm Preservations...
  
• DanteE grabs the doorway to steady himself.
  

[Carrie] "Greetings to you all... Just in time, actually. I had an idea about the plague."
[Theresa] "Oh? What's the idea?"
[Carrie] "If we told them about the war, could the plague be represented as the act of the enemy? We don't necessarily have to say that specifically -- just mention the war, and say that as a consequence, the people of Amyra were dying one by one. And then our Ymera took Amyra for his own, and stabilized the country as his Chancel."
[Carrie] "It's literally true, even if that's a convoluted way of saying it."
Frank: "You could do that. They'd buy it, as they're so desperate to figure things out that they'd believe anything presented with anything like credible evidence."
[Theresa] (Would that let DanteE out of talking, with his Honesty?)
[Carrie] (I think Dante can leave things out, he just can't directly lie. Correct me if I'm wrong?)
[Hollyhock] (Unless he wants to walk a very fine line with WeaselHonesty.)
[Hollyhock] (He can say things to give a misleading impression, but it'd be trickier than it would for the rest of you.)
[DanteE] "Ah... they'll ask the obvious question of 'who are we at war with?'
[Theresa] "Those from beyond. Those who would like to make it as if we didn't exist...nay, never existed."
[DanteE] "Screw that up and they'll be scared of their own shadows."
[Carrie] "True..."
[Carrie] "Any other options?"
[DanteE] "So, you plan to placate the country by telling everyone they were a pawn in a war between Things from Beyond Comprehension?"
[Carrie] "I was hoping to make us seem as rescuers, but I take your point."
[Carrie] "Is it better to simply not mention the war, though? Sooner or later, it will come to Amyra."
[Hollyhock] (Another reason why it would be trickier for Dante: Kudzu, technically, /is/ one of Those From Beyond.)
[Carrie] (Ack, I forgot that part.)
[Hollyhock] (He's just one of the pro-Reality ones.)
[Carrie] (Well, I would have phrased it as, "Those who would destroy reality," anyway. But that's even less likely to inspire confidence...)
[Hollyhock] (It's tough to be calm about the Valde Bellum.)
[DanteE] "OK, let's review...
[Theresa] "Perhaps mention that over the course of the disease, some people of Amyra were chosen to combat it and in the course of being chosen, the entire country was changed?"
[Carrie] "Well, four Amyrans and an American tourist. And I don't think we want to turn them against the Boss."
[DanteE] "All of Amyra was subjected to mysterious gruesome deaths for 2+1/2 months as part of a plot by an Imperator, whose motives, methods and existence is almost beyond comprehension…”
[DanteE] "In order to claim the land as a fortress against Beings From Beyond of equal power who want to destroy all of reality one abstract concept at a time...”

• Carrie is becoming gradually more certain that Dante must be kept away from the press at all costs.
  

[DanteE] "And as a side effect, the history books and memories of the rest of the world have had our home erased from not only existence, but memory, as if we were only myth.”
[DanteE] "And, for extra fun and games, like you said, at some point our fair land could be invaded by beings describes as 'unearthly beautiful' who, oh yeah, want to kill us."
[Hollyhock] (Keep in mind that every time Dante says something True but Not Good For People To Hear, and it makes trouble for you guys, Dante gets an MP.)
[Theresa] (But hey, if we take Dante's honest words and then put them through weasel-translation…)
[DanteE] (And I tend to get those MPs in blocks of 20 or so anyway. )

• DanteE turns to Carrie's folks. "Tell me, how are _you_ holding up?"
  

They look at him, and think.
Frank: "Well... it's not exactly easy, lying to and misleading people about the problem I'm supposed to be here to figure out. But it's for an important reason. I guess that makes it okay, I think."

• Carrie connects to her father's mind for a second, making her strong love for him and regret of the circumstance apparent in wordless communication.
  

Helen: "Of course. So, considering all that? We're doing /fine/." Dr. Winters smiles.

• Carrie does the same for her mother.
  

[Theresa] "If you two want a night off for some time on the town, I'll be willing to Monty-sit."
[DanteE] "But then again, we do have help in the form of a demon, a zombie, 3-armed tribesmen and ex-gangbangers."
[DanteE] "Assuming der uberbunny doesn't eat the country."
[DanteE] "Did I miss anything?"
Helen, to Dante: "Is... that likely?"
[Carrie] "James' miracle seems to be holding, and will for at least several weeks, assuming nothing changes. It might even last longer than that."
[DanteE] "Aha. Brian, can you tell what the Richter scale in the Seismo department is saying?"
[Brian] "Um... good question."
[Brian] (How powerful an earthquake are the hops?)
[Hollyhock] (About the sort of thing that'd unsettle regular folks and make Californians swear in a tired way, but not enough to break buildings yet.)
[DanteE] (Being near CA IRL, 3's a good guess, I think.)
[Brian] (If I did a Major Preservation of Realm - err, something - on the room, might that cause the earthquakey stuff to go down?)
[DanteE] (Stability?)
[Brian] (That would make sense. Or, well, a Preservation of The Realm :-P)
[Hollyhock] (A Major Preservation of Not Being In The State Of Having An Earthquake could render Amyra earthquake-proof forever and ever amen.)
[Theresa] (I doubt I'd be able to get up there even if I took a Wound.)
[Carrie] (Oh, by the way, for future reference... Can one use Last Trump to increase miracle points past their max, for purposes of a Word of Command?)
[Hollyhock] (No. It can move points from one pool to another, but it can't increase the capacity. This is part of why it's worthwhile to buy extra MPs.)
[Hollyhock] (At least, unless the Power of Earthquakes came in and started tossing around major miracles or something, or a Scruchie or somebody used a Destruction on the Preservation.)
[Carrie] (So the only way to be able to do a Word of Command is to either do that or take Limits to add to the max.)
[Hollyhock] (Putting an attribute point in a Focus, for example, would provide enough MPs to do a Word. Of course, if you did that and made use of the points, I would be honor-bound as a GM to screw with your Focus, because of the zero-sum way these things work in Nobilis.)
[Brian] (What was done to the room originally?)
[Hollyhock] (Lesser Change of Space, to make it grow to fit Monty.)
[DanteE] (What were Kudzu's specific orders re: Monty?)
[Hollyhock] (More or less, take care of him and make sure he's ready in case I need him later. He was vague.)
[Brian] "Hey, guys... we can stop these earthquakes. And all of them. Well, I can, anyway. Or, well, I could Preserve anything else we would want to, but I've only got enough energy for the one shot"
[DanteE] "Well, hold on...
[DanteE] "If he's still growing, he's gonna get destructive no matter what...”
[DanteE] "Any way to 'unhook' his little environment from Amyra, until we need it?"
[Carrie] "Is there a way to make the Chancel and its people completely immune to harm by Monty? That might save us a lot of trouble later on."
[Hollyhock] (That? That would be tricky. There probably is a way, but not an easy one. Come up with a proposed method, and I'll tell you what I think.)
[DanteE] "He sets off earthquake alarms just by hopping around, and he's still growing. He's liable to bring down the tower before long."
[Brian] (Major Preservation of not-being-harmed-by-rabbits)
[Hollyhock] (But what would you put the Major Preservation on? The people? The buildings? Everything in the chancel, in which case all the rabbits starve to death, including Monty if he needs food?)
[Theresa] (What about a Major Change where we keep the Realm from being harmed by anything related to Monty's size?)
[Hollyhock] (That would do it. Can any of you do a Major Change?)
[Carrie] (I could, if I did it with a Word of Command, and if I had enough.)

• DanteE Aspect-smacks the typo fairy.
  
• Carrie has been using Last Trump rather heavily…
  

[Hollyhock] (Okay, yep, she has Realm 2 and 8 SMPs. A Word of Command could do it, although it'd leave her hurt for some time.)
[Hollyhock] (And, she'd need one of her folks' permission, unless she gets a new anchor. Would she tell them that it's guaranteed to do her a large amount (though not fatal) of physical harm?)
[Carrie] (A question: Does using a Word through an Anchor hurt the Anchor?)
[Hollyhock] (I don't think so, unless you come up with some spiritusdeibabble why it should.)
[Carrie] (You're right I'd need their permission for the miracle. And I likely wouldn't tell them..)
[Theresa] (Would they believe looking deeply into their eyes and saying, "Trust me?")
[Hollyhock] (They'd probably feel bad, afterwards. And it'd make your Light Touch more of a handicap in the future, if they thought that anything they went along with might horribly injure Carrie.)
[Carrie] (Indeed it would.)
[Carrie] (Well, shelve that option, for now...)
[DanteE] (What can we do to prevent Amyra from getting shook up by Monty?)
[Theresa] (Find some sort of way to get Monty to shrink?)
[Brian] (Major Preservation of Size?)
[Carrie] (I doubt The Boss would like that...)
[Hollyhock] (He didn't complain when you tried it before on a smaller scale, but remember that it only contained the growth, rather than stopping completely whatever Kudzu did to Monty to make him grow and change him in other ways.)
[Hollyhock] (It would probably work, and it'd hold, but it'd turn him into a growth capacitor again. If something happened to break the miracle, like a Greater Destruction, Monty would become larger all at once, like he did before.)
[DanteE] "Can any of you tell if he has an upper limit on his growth?
[Carrie] "I don't believe there is, Dante."
[Carrie] "Theresa. Would it be possible for you to put roots throughout the ground that would prevent an earthquake?"
[Theresa] "Yes...but it'd probably interfere with the sewers, the cables, the subway and possibly any volcanic action underneath the Chancel."
[Carrie] "Good point."

• Carrie sighs.
  

[Theresa] "Hmm..what if we made the ground in here springy? Like shock absorbers?"
[Hollyhock] (For reference, Theresa could make earthquake-deadening roots throughout Amyra with a Greater Creation. It wouldn't completely stop quakes the way a Realm miracle could, but it would seriously mitigate them.)
[DanteE] "We may need to keep him in his own little pocket universe, separate from us...”
[DanteE] "But with a way there, for when the Boss wants him."
Helen and Frank are sitting on the ground, looking at the group of you with slightly amused expressions.
[DanteE] "Whatever we do needs to hold when Monty gets to _planet_ size."
[DanteE] "Complete with Einsteinian physics to complicate things..."
[Carrie] (Would a Lesser Change make the tower into a shock absorber?)
[Hollyhock] (A Lesser Change would stop the current earthquakes, but might not stop all future ones.)
[Carrie] (For the record, if this was an anime, Carrie would have done that sweatdrop thing about a billion times this session.)
[DanteE] (Hell, if I wasn't Courage I'd be gibbering by now.
[Theresa] (So, either have Brian do the Major Pres or Theresa do a Greater Creation?)
[Hollyhock] (And which Greater Preservation? The one of Non-Earthquaking, which would stop quakes but not stop other sorts of harm by Monty? Or of Non-Being-Destroyed-By-Rabbits, which would amount to chancel-wide rabbitacide?)
[DanteE] (...and how would a Plants _Domain_ Miracle make the tower shockproof?)
[Hollyhock] (Microtendrils of superstrong plant material insinuating themselves through the walls and foundation?)
[Brian] (It's a Greater Creation. They're plant-derived shocks.)
[Theresa] (I vote Greater Creation. That way we can avoid the rabbitcide and give more research time for a permanent (next Chapter) answer?)
[DanteE] (Hmm... OK, s long as the tower itself doesn't shake too much. I kinda live here, remember.

• Theresa frowns up at Monty. "You know, mothers across the world would _love_ to use you as an example of how big you can get if you eat your veggies."
  

Monty stares at Theresa with gigantic black rabbit eyes.
[Theresa] "Don't give me that look, mister."
[DanteE] "Yeah, but smart kids would come right back and refuse to eat 'em because it'll destroy the house."
He stares, blankly, with his big eyes. Theresa's high-aspect sight can see a slight disturbance in the surface of the eye, like various different shades of black swirling around in it.

• Theresa sighs. "I can isolate the tower, shock-absorb the impacts with root systems. It won't be a permanent solution but it'll buy us time. From the way Kudzu was upset with our lack of interaction with our fellow Chancelites, they have to be a higher priority than Monty."
  
• Theresa eyeballs Monty right back!
  

[*Monty*] *hypnotic eyeswirl*
[Theresa] (What can he hypnotize me for? I already feed him!)

• DanteE examines those eyes...
  

[Theresa] *raises an eyebrow*
[Hollyhock] (Monty's eyes seem to have a sort of rapidly swirling pattern of different dark shades on them. You have to be at least Aspect 1 and look closely to see it.)
[DanteE] (I'm Aspect 2, and with the same view as Theresa. What's in there?)

• Carrie is going to get some Aspect sometime. She really is!
  

[Hollyhock] (Divinations can show the same or more, but aren't as "automatic" as Aspect vision is.)
[Theresa] (Bah, you use Realm more. [G] Theresa can't do any of that.)
[Theresa] (Ehh, why not. I'll throw two more RP on for a Divination.)
[Hollyhock] (Okay, so, basically, you know that one "plasma cloud" fractal thing, the way it looks when animated?)
[Hollyhock] (Think that, if it were done in just slightly different shades of black, and run through a blender.)
[Hollyhock] (Inside Monty, both his eyes and the rest of him, he's a swirling storm of iron and blood.)
[Hollyhock] (No bones, brain, internal organs, or anything like that. Not even remotely like a bunny internally.)
[DanteE] (Iron?)
[Hollyhock] (Iron.)
[Hollyhock] (Also... has Theresa done a divination on any of Lesson's blood in the past?)
[Theresa] (We already knew that, though, didn't we? From when Monty first changed?)
[Hollyhock] (Correct. But it's moving faster, now.)
[Hollyhock] (The rate of movement has increased, although not as much as his physical size.)
[Theresa] (*thinks* No, just looked around for biohazards and took a bullet out of Lesson. And the stuff this episode.)
[DanteE] (Theresa's probably got a few drops on her hands or sleeves.)
[Theresa] (I can Last Trump to get enough points for a Divination of the stuff. Must remember to remove the corruption later.)
[Hollyhock] (Well, this blood has some of the same effect. It's got a Lower-Ash sort of taint to it. And the iron, in some ways, is the opposite. It's got a sort of radiant order and structure to it that interacts violently with the blood's corrosion.)
[Theresa] "All of this...storm and violence and iron...fighting...inside..."
[DanteE] "Iron?"
[Theresa] (The iron must be from the angel feather...the grey...)
[DanteE] (Or from hemoglobin, IIRC)
[Hollyhock] (There's less iron than there is blood, but the iron's stronger. The two, between strength and amount, are precariously balanced in Monty.)
[Hollyhock] (Oh, and the storm seems to be at least partly caused by the interaction between the two dumping energy into his internals.)

• Carrie frowns.
  

[Theresa] "Inside Monty. I...I don't quite know what it is inside...all there is is this storm inside him, fighting. Something and iron and...I dunno."
[DanteE] "Hm... reaction to Lesson's heart?"

• Carrie does a Lesser Divination to view the storm.
  
• DanteE does the mundane route and uses Frank's binoculars.
  

[Theresa] "Monty had the blood and innards of rabbits, the heart of a demon and the feather of an angel. What if the demon and angel bits are fighting?"

• Carrie then does a Divination to listen to the whispers in the Library regarding the Angel they got the feather from.
  

Library: "The Ymera Barakiel is Consequences, Duty, Shadows, and Eclipses. He was formerly exiled from Heaven separate from the Fall, but is now no longer under exile. Sightings of Barakiel on Entropy's Earth are believed, by some, to be responsible for certain aspects of Jewish and Islamic angelic imagery."
[Carrie] (Can I use a ghost miracle to project my voice to ask a question?)
[Hollyhock] (The Library doesn't listen to you. Rather, you listen to it, and pick what you're looking for out of all the things it's saying at once, both by selective filtering and by walking to where the relevant whispers are.)
"Ymera Barakiel has six wings, and is covered with eyes, thus bearing certain traits associated with the angels in Ezekiel, the angels in Revelation, and Islamic angels such as the Angel of Death."
"These folkloric echoes of Barakiel are believed to be linked in some way to his crime, although Heaven has not issued a public statement and Barakiel refuses to answer."


Beth


Chancel_Amyra