This quest began on Aug 01, 2018.
Celas wrote:
Anathema decides it's time for a night out, with some hopefully like-minded peers!
She pens some notes, inviting people for drinks at the tavern.
To Roy:
Royyo! Need a pick me up after the shinies won the fight. Calling Charlie and Aikhra Morvauhl out for drinks. You in? Dark side of the Taven tonight!
-A
To Charles Eckermann:
Charles,
Great running into you again during the Crisis. Loved the evil-linkup dealie you had with the Holy One- looked like that hurt a lot. Ending was tough luck for us all, huh? I'm throwing a night at the Arena Members' tavern for a few of us who were in on that, maybe blow off some steam over how that went. Dark section, tonight, if you'd like.
-Anathema
To Aikhra Morvauhl:
Greetings,
We missed our chance to meet up during the Crisis. I think we've got a lot in common, and was looking forward to meeting you, and would love a chance to fix this. I've invited a few others to the tavern, we can have some drinks, blow off some steam over how that whole mess went down, maybe talk shop a bit if you're interested. Sounds fun? Nexus BA Tavern, Dark section, tonight.
-Anathema
Lord Gadigan wrote:
Eckermann will be arriving in the dark section at the scheduled time. He seems to have picked up some sort of accessory or aura that now has him followed by a nebulous cloud of Outer Terrors. Seems more like a skillset-swap than a straight power-up, though.
Aikhra appears shortly thereafter; she seems slightly out-of-it.
Can I get confirmation of whether Roy is coming or not?
Pathaky wrote:
Heck yeah!
Lord Gadigan wrote:
Roy arrives!
Anathema, would you care to start things off, or are you waiting for your compatriots to do something first?
Celas wrote:
"Hey hey, welcome! Glad everyone could make it. Barkeep, a round of drinks for my friends. A toast to the Crisis, and a drink for our losses."
Lord Gadigan wrote:
The barkeep, a man in a black suit with a red tie with a goat skull for a head, brings your group drinks of inky blackness that sparkle faintly if stared into, calling to the souls of those who look at them.
Can I get a confirmation that you're on the general up-and-up with Eckermann and Morvauhl before I proceed? If you're planning to betray the group here, various contingencies may start triggering around now. I don't *think* you're planning to do that, but I feel like I should check early on here since I don't know what the actual plan is.
Celas wrote:
hah, yeah, this isn't an ambush of some sort. Friendly drinks, comiseration and maybe some scheming.
Lord Gadigan wrote:
The group toasts. Eckermann admits that he is vexed by the sway the Knights have gained in many regions, but pleased that Nexus remains mostly-untouched (thanks unintentionally to Vashna) and that the Knights and their fortresses may provide their own opportunities.
Pathaky wrote:
Roy toasts along with them!
He agrees that several of the Knightly Orders are, in his words "Treasure Pinatas, baby~!"
He questions the others on their opinions of this new element, this Truth. Do they think it's going to throw a hitch in their plans? Or do they plan on using it's steely light to illuminate the schemes of their rivals?
Celas wrote:
Anathema, for her part, is curious about Eckermann's new employer. "Doc Catastrophe and the Archtyrants, huh? I was kinda surprised to see you with that bunch. What's working for him like?"
Lord Gadigan wrote:
Eckermann answers Roy first. "Regarding Truth, I am vexed by its connection to Kriele and thinks that will make it harder to use against the Knights, but thinks that it otherwise will be an asset. Divination is, after all, one of the most handy tools in our arsenal as Battle Arena members. A universal strengthening of such, while it might harm our covert abilities, offers us new avenues of information gathering. I think we can make this work for us, even if we have to be tactical regarding who we use it on."
Aikhra spins the air and balances it on her fingertip like as a knife. "Not only divination. Certainty too. Mix Truth with Fate, and it becomes just that much more inescapable. There might be light cast upon my shadows, but my plans are now ironclad."
Her face falls down through the floor, burning as it goes. Her voice envelops and surrounds.
"Knowledge can hurt, though. See the wrong thing, and it's terrible. See the right thing, and then later you just realize that nothing quite compares."
Her face is back, she sets her drink down, distant and a bit morose.
"Aikhra, are you... alright?" asks Eckermann, eyebrow cocked.
"Not in the slightest. I'm twice as good as I was before the Crisis, and it's killing me. Only twice as good. Quantifiable. Finite."
Aikhra's form flares to life as the seconds burn around, leaving her talking while the room stands frozen around her.
"I tasted it, Charles. I tasted something past the far side of infinity. I can't even put it into words down here. I'm left with tatters, empowered by the me-that-could-have-been. I have one goal now - reach it again. And I don't know how that's even possible. No Arena up there past the horizon. Only one of 'us' who made it out is Kelsius, and he was Ascending, so it's not like that counts for anything."
Her eyes gleam for a fraction of a moment.
"I'll find it, though."
She sighs. Her flame dies down, time stops burning while standing still, and she downs her drink.
Eckermann adjusts a striped bow-tie. Anathema and Roy her a slight click.
Aikhra sighs. "Not necessary. I'm capable of controlling the fire. Give me a bit more credit than that."
Eckermann shrugs. "Better to be prepared. You're really not yourself anymore."
Aikhra shakes her head. "Twice as good, Charles. It wouldn't work."
Charles raises the eyebrow again and turns to Anathema. "As for your question, it was a relationship of convenience. Moreso a 'working with' than a 'working for'. They, having some leverage from back when they used to run Nexus, were my best option when it came to preparing against Forcystus. I had done a bit much to muddle with his Corruption plans to leave him in a position to be a threat; I operated under disguise where possible - thank you, Tia - but the wily bastard was impressively good at ferreting out who was doing what. By the time the event was starting, he knew. Whichever team I was on would be a target of his, albeit one of several, and I wanted the resources to make a go at fighting him. Pity it all went to hell in a hand-basket halfway through. On the bright side, the Doctor and I ended up getting out of the event with some upgraded loot on both sides. I'd work for him again if the circumstances were right. He and the other Archtyrants are willing to let associates do their own thing so long as it doesn't affect their whole 'legion of evil' in a negative manner while still being good at coming together and putting combined resources towards fixing problems when the time for unified action comes around. There's also the whole thing with Shalmarkion Ascending. Pays to hitch yourself to that sort of horse."
He turns back to Aikhra. "We need to get you mind-edited or something. Really. You'd be happier."
She sighs. Her flame dies down, time stops burning while standing still, and she downs her drink.
"Did you just..."
"Tried it. Didn't work. The cure lies forward and upward if it lies anywhere at all. Arhu arhu Aikhra Morvauhl."
"... I suppose the bowtie didn't work. At least you're not giving up. Might be some life left in this evening."
Aikhra shrugs.
Celas wrote:
(edit: Actually, screw it. I didn't like how the other half of this was coming together, and left it out for a future response or something, but I'm gonna paste it in.)
Anathema slams back a large portion of her drink. "Wow. Right up till now I... really, really wanted to ask you what Higher Reality was like, but now I think I really don't. Flip a coin and it coulda been me, you know, and I'm still not sure whether to envy you or feel like I dodged a bullet. Hellfire and damnation, but that peek did a number on ya. Whatever the case, you definitely convinced me not to whine about the Nemesis Mask. And, hey, when all's said and done: ambition, even if it's obsession, we can always drink to."
Anathema orders a round of something stronger!
"I dunno, though. Ain't saying I get where you're coming from, but having Darston in my head was... I'm like... I've got plans, y'know? And that's new. That's weird. I'm not just living in the moment and smashing everything that made me mad, which was... everything. Kinda feel like I don't know who I am anymore? Plus having all his power and losing it, and everything I had to let go in the prize room... ugh, Charles, let me tell ya. I always had tons of respect for you, you're a stand up evil dude, that's why I wanted to hang out with ya tonight. Findin' out that you played cat and mouse with ol' Forcy for any length of time is damn impressive, because, ugh. What I had to go through with him on my side was an unbelievable headache. Dude is like... deviousness incarnate. Expensive fuckin' ally. No Hax for Anathema. Eh. Anyway. Onwards and upwards. Got me plans. Gonna conquer a couple worlds, grab an artifact or two, settle up with the Fiend of Wrath. How's about you all? Imminent future, any fun ambitions?"
Pathaky wrote:
Roy nods as he hears Aikhra's stroy, humming to himself and drumming his fingers on the bar.
"Succeeded too much. Rough, real rough. Well, if there were ever a night to lower your Minor Status Resistance and relax those inhibitions, it's today, eh?"
As for Anathema's question regarding plans....
"...Gotta plan of my own! A great plan with a sick horse at the end of it! But probably unsurprisingly, I've made a few enemies, even in the Union of Horses, that I'm going to need to make good with before I move forward. Say, do you think horses have enemies? Maybe I could offer my eh, "services", pro-bono."
Pathaky wrote:
Roy peers at the bottom of his glass ruefully.
"As long as we're considering post-MQ benders, what do you say we check if that Casino disc is open? After all, we all just bet on the fate of the universe. Maybe some small-scale stuff will make a pretty good change. I bet the Bartender can set us up a suite of drinks to take with us too, eh?"
(I know the Casino Disc was out of action a while ago. Is it still shut down?)
Celas wrote:
Right, this has hit 6 months idle, and I was putting together a pitch for fast processing back in April, so let's see if I can knock this out. So without further ado, and unless Path protests, let's go ahead and see if we can wrap this up.
Seconding Roy's suggestion for the casino disc as a place to hang out, or feel free to show us some interesting corners of some under-viewed angles of some discs! What would a demon nightclub look like?
Go ahead and do some fast processing. Wins/losses at the casino, whatever. What kind of and how much trouble the group gets into and how well they get away with it! Because you know these folks can't be on their best behavior forever. (Do they get jumped by an angel that Anathema has to flay?)
(Also I was wondering if'n Doctor Beak might not be able to give Aikhra some relief)
And finally, the whole point of the evening, besides "have fun":
Anathema's pitch.
This never really fully coalesced in my mind, so it's gonna be a bit more barebones than I'd like.
"I keep thinking about how we all wound up losing. Besides Cordelia fucking us. I mean, we're a bunch of top-notch badasses, you know? And it keeps coming back to one thing: We were all pushing our own agendas and for our own wins, while all the shinies ganged up on us. Any of us was a match for almost any of them- sometimes any two or three! But that ain't enough against numbers like that. So I've been thinking that maybe some... structured cooperation is the way to go. I mean, it worked for the folks upstairs in the Dark Empires! I'm thinking maybe we go corporate. We all pursue our agendas and paths to power, nobody's saying we all have to jump into all the same teams for every big quest, but we work out some guidelines for how we resolve conflicts, some agreements for how we cooperate, and we all put some skin in the game so that backtabbing costs too much for any of us to bother with. Not saying you have to sign on tonight, but if you're interested I'll start the ball rolling and we can get some neutral enforcement, maybe from the Holy Imperial Homeworld? Whaddya say?"
