Between The Lights, Session 9: Sacrifice

[liquidcitrus]

This is an actual-play writeup of a game I am running on the Jenna Moran fanclub on Discord.

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The idiom "a black swan" once meant something that could never happen. Then they found a black swan, so it now means an exceptionally rare but present possibility. This is what taught me that consensus reality is malleable.

-- The Other Side of Reality by Caitlin Katsaros

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Today, a fateful meeting is interrupted. And we get a reminder that Maddie has been a Noble longer than both Sasha and Sonja put together. (Although this doesn't mean quite as much as you would think; Sasha and Sonja are both relatively new Nobles. But still.)

Tying Up A Loose End

Still finishing up the end of the social event from the previous entry, Maddie becomes tentative early friends with Jackie Yu. There was probably small talk involved there somewhere, but we both agreed to skip it, since roleplaying small talk isn't particularly interesting.

Sonja meets up with Maddie, and they discuss what happened. Sonja is contemplative about her future. Maddie, well...

Even though Maddie is perpetually thirteen, this does not mean that she is young. She knows how politics work. And so she has been trying to get social leverage on Jackie, so that she can eventually get revenge on Ariane.

<Maddie> "She's coming to the second Annual Spelling Bee!"
<Maddie> There's a wicked gleam in Maddie's eye.
<Sonja> "Oh gods, Maddie..." Sonja pinches the bridge of her nose.
<Maddie> "I'm not using her for anything direct yet. I need to build up ties to her stronger than Ariane's, and that means avoiding anything that might alienate her until she's already mine."

After a bit more banter, both of them go home.

Letter

Sasha sends Acadia West a letter, proposing that they quietly form an association of Nobles - i.e. a faction to oppose factionalism. Both Sasha and her player are fully aware of this irony.

Acadia West proposes that they talk in one of Locus Kethredamen's private meeting-rooms. Which is a reasonable request, since there's one of him and three of the PCs. They file in, and seal themselves into the Auctoritas.

<HG> The room is, unlike almost everything else in your Chancel, relatively barren. Oh, sure, there are the usual mahogany-paneled walls, and lush carpeting with intricate designs, and filigree brass furniture: but the lighting is recessed into the wall behind panels of diamond, and there are only enough chairs and tables for the four of you.
<HG> Haul the aegis-slab into place to bar the door: and begin.

Acadia West then reveals that he continued looking through the metaphorical dirt he found in the back of his mind, and has the deepest, darkest secrets of everyone involved. Everyone involved includes himself. And what does he find?

That the existence of Truth has shattered before his eyes.

<HG> "I'm not real. Truth is not real. I belong to a Mimic Imperator."
<HG> His expression is entirely too serene for this situation, but that's clearly because he's sustaining a miracle on himself so as not to break down.

Sasha impulsively hugs him. Maddie glares impassively. Sonja offers a hand. 

Acadia West further explains: despite having what he now knows to be a Mimic Estate, he is not knowingly a traitor to Creation. But if he found this in the metaphorical dirt, it's very likely that some of the others found this in the metaphorical dirt too. And Soil's-Regal had accused Sasha of being in league with the Excrucians.

<HG> "So, if you want me to help you? Let me take the fall for you. Tell them I bewitched you. I have no Estate to guard, no reputation to ruin."
<Maddie> "You didn't, though."
<HG> "Does that matter? Truth doesn't exist."

Acadia West offers himself as a scapegoat, to erase the stain of Sasha being accused of treason. The Familia immediately collectively refuses to let him sacrifice himself.

They think about ways in which they could, in theory, redeem the existence of an Estate. Sasha realizes that she knows someone else who has been bound into redemption. She attempts to call Rhonda with a Treasure miracle, only to realize that the meeting-room itself has a massive Auctoritas to prevent interference. Most mortal actions are still entirely capable of passing through, but no miracles.

<HG> It would hardly be a good meeting room if anyone could just listen in, right?

So Sasha decides to just text Rhonda, in the ordinary fashion, to ask her to come over.

Vien

Rhonda does come over, but she has someone else in tow.

<HG> You recognize the voice of one of the individuals involved as being Diane's anchor in the cape of raven feathers, from the First Annual Locus Kethredamen Spelling Bee. The other is Rhonda.
<HG> "And where do you think you're going?" shouts the feathered one.

Sasha opens the door. I name raven-feathers Vien, because to talk about her as "raven-feathers" would get very unwieldy very quickly. Vien, then, is clutching Rhonda's ear, furious. Acadia tries to melt into the woodwork, but he needn't have bothered, because Vien isn't focused on him at all.

<HG> She glares right back at Sasha. "Your associate here failed to fulfill a certain duty."
<Sasha> "Do you want to tell me what that is, or are you just going to passive-agressively beat around the bush in my own Chancel?"
<HG> "She failed the clause that Snakes must do no harm. She defeated Heat. She reached in and permanently warped his personality. And then she Anchored him."
<HG> You suddenly remember Spinnaker, and a certain sword.
<HG> "The only reason we have not immediately put her to death is because you are her sponsor, and apparently that which is yours cannot be taken by force."

Vien accuses Rhonda of having warped Heat and taken him as an Anchor, in a way that may sound suspiciously familiar because it was what Spinnaker did. Rhonda doesn't deny it. Sasha is furious.

<HG> Rhonda only shrugs. "She did it. Why can't I?"
<Sasha> "Because we are not her, Rhonda."
<Sasha> "We represent a new morality, a new generation of Noble that doesn't bend to that sort of petty horseshit."
<Sasha> "Put him back."
<HG> Rhonda looks sullen. "Kill me yourself if you're so insistent."

Sasha finds some scissors, but Sonja is actually rather good at making inspiring speeches about finding less violent solutions to problems. (You know, being a book protagonist and all that.) This stops Sasha short.

<Sonja> "We can do better than this. I know we can."
<Sasha> Sasha halts her scissors in nebulous mid-motion. "You're right."

Sasha demands that Rhonda confess everything and submit herself to the tender mercies of the Locust Court. Vien drags her away.

This act, sacrificing Rhonda in service of her morals, counts as breaking Sasha's Bond with Rhonda. So she takes a Wound for it: [You feel guilty about it. But, like, more than usual.]

<Maddie> "...this is a problem. We just lost a major asset."
<Maddie> "So now I'm starting to wonder, are we being sabotaged?"
<Sasha> "Yes."
<Sasha> "But this sacrifice is not in vain."
<Sasha> "We... put this piece in this position to gain... to gain s--"
<Sasha> Sasha covers her mouth with her hands and screams.

Power

<HG> "I... would like to continue that conversation we were having," says Acadia, in a very small voice. "Unless this isn't a good time."

They file back into the meeting-room and bolt the door. The PCs ask Acadia if he knows how to find out who did this. But he points out that they already have the answer: everyone in power.

Sasha asks the Raven to name all those who have the highest offices of power.

<Sasha> "Raven," Sasha says horsely, "who do I blame for this? Who do I need to punish for it."<Maddie> "There's not going to be any one 'who', is there?"<HG> "The Council of the Light. Cheshire of the Dark. Koirala of Hell. Spinnaker of Heaven. I can keep going."

After they stop the Raven from spending the next twenty minutes giving them more names and biographies, there is a brief digression about the Wild being absent from this list - apparently, the "absolute egocentricity" thing makes most of them loners, and even those in the Society carve their own niches rather than trying to gather followers. Sasha files this away, to investigate further later.

<HG> "Many of the Wild who join Society are Functionaries, answering a call to do unique things that would otherwise be left undone." The Raven bobs its head. "You could start asking there."
<Sasha> "We could rally them, maybe. They could be made to see that they have a rational self-interest to be served by throwing their lots in with us."

Then the meeting gets back to the core point: the problem is the Rot, the problem is factionalism, the problem is Society, and Sasha threatens them all.

<Sasha> "If we're pissing off that many people -" Sasha says. There is a grin on her face. It doesn't really seem to belong to her. "we're doing something right."

Sword

From this point of focused destiny, from this moment when she decides that she will in fact fight the entirety of Society, Sasha creates a res. It's - actually, you know what? It's too epic of a moment to compress into a summary.

<Sasha> Sasha takes a deep breath. The fire that has burned behind her eyes glows behind cracks in her skin, tinges her white. The slow, rolling power that has been building in her since the night at the ball has reached a critical point. The process begun when she slew her own shadow, when she proclaimed her independence from Aliki, is coming to an end. She has seen what her dream will cost. She has seen the risks she will have to take to change the world.
<Sasha> Sasha takes off her Robber's Sigil. She pries the pin from its back. The pin becomes a sword, a delicate thing. She thrusts the New Society forward in a dramatic flourish that has become unfortunately common for her.
<HG> And equally, even as the pin grows into a tiny sword, a rapier drawn from the vaults of the Robber's Order issues from Sasha's heart, the basket hilt of snakes iridescent, the blade banded and swirled like Damascus steel.
<HG> Name the blade and grasp it. It shall be yours.
<Sasha> "...I am a Power of the Dark. I believe humans are most beautiful when they are dying to express themselves, to claim what they want, to be HEARD in a voice that cannot be drowned out."
<Sasha> "I name you, the beautiful face of the world we will make, the body of the covenant that will topple the Songs, topple the Kingmakers, topple the Locust Court-- Revolution, the shouting and the bleeding of a million voices."
<HG> It is done.
<Sasha> "...Holy s--t that worked."
<Maddie> "Ooooh, it's pretty!"
<Sonja> Sonja covers her mouth in sheer awe at what she's seeing. She's seen a fair few swords in her time and this one is beautiful.
<HG> Acadia West, who is still there by the way, watches, mesmerized. "Can I touch it?"
<Sasha> Sasha holds Revolution in her hands with a grim determination. "Do you mean to pledge yourself to the new world?"
<Sasha> "This is not a toy, this is not a piece of art. This is a promise I have made Creation."
<HG> Acadia reaches out, slowly, entranced. He touches the flat of the blade. A jolt of electricity arcs down his arm as he pulls his hand away.
<HG> He looks at his fingers. A tiny lightning scar in the shape of a sword marks the thumb of his right hand.
<HG> "S--t."

On The Next Episode...

Flowers, a web, and the cutting of hair.