FINAL TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

FINAL TRIAL

[The Strangers manage to escape. By the time anyone has realized they have left, the Analemma is already on a course to a new destination, one not intended by their Conductor-who was certainly surprised to find their ride gone, hours later.

Cardia has turned off radar and other equipment that would allow anyone to find the train easily. There is no barrier around this train, so everyone can see the Clockwork Sun as it gets closer and closer.

They aren't going to London, obviously. Cardia manages to explain that, originally, the Throne of Hours was located there, but after Victoria became Twice-Renewed, the Throne was ordered moved closer to the Sun. Now, it is connected to the station called Sunspur-a desolate place, formerly an exhibition hall, where only the Sun's engineers and wayward captains now go. No one dares to cross the bridge that connects the Throne to it, when they are there.

That will change, but not immediately. Even at top speed, it will take several hours for the train to reach its destination. Cardia suggests everyone relax in the Lounge of this new train. Apparently, this one was going to pick up its newest passengers very shortly, and so the bar and kitchens are stocked with food and drink, at least.

There is much to talk about. Much to look through, and much to consider. The past four weeks have been difficult to process, but the evidence from Perdurance has been especially daunting. It only shows just how stark the situation is-and it's up to the Strangers to figure out just what they will do when they do, at last, confront Her Enduring Majesty.
After all.

Whatever happens, a reckoning cannot be postponed. Not indefinitely. And the bill is almost due...]





[It's time! The objectives are simple in this trial: untangle the story of this place and decide what to ultimately do when they finally confront Victoria, the Mastermind of the Little Courtesy! It will not be easy and the truth, as ever, will not be a light one.

Will they triumph? Will they go home? What else might happen? What else could be in store? There's only way to find out!

Have fun, and good luck! And remember-

All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.]

Comments

[katzenpfote]

[Caleb looks wiped. He has two cats sitting on him, barely able to move, and he's mostly been staring straight ahead for a bit.]

[... Slowly, he pulls his mind back together.]

You can ask me any personal questions once we get out of this. Right now... we need a plan. How are we going to handle this? What's our play here? I don't have another magical religious artifact I can pull out in front of this Empress.

[otherworldlyking]

Do something that distracts her while someone moves in for the kill.

[ He'll just assume everyone else will fill in the blanks where applicable.

Or make a better plan. ]

[katzenpfote]

I think we need a bit of a plan if you intend to kill something that powerful. Most of us do not have very useful combat options, and it is foolish to think that she does not have protection or guards or some sort of magical means to destroy anyone who tries this.

[otherworldlyking]

[ As he's been told twice (and knows by now), but it's still a pain rushing in and starting a fight without some kind of plan wouldn't solve everything. ]

I'm sure you guys could come up with something.

[higanbana]

Consider this.

We lack the strength we might have at full power, so rushing in physically is bound to fail.

However. What we lack in powers we have in information, and we know that the Queen is no God. Nine minds working as one should be able to overpower her.

So, I suggest that rather than striking her down physically, at least to begin with, we break her as she has broken us.

[otherworldlyking]

...Hah, we break her by talking to her and then strike her down?

[ ...Well, he's considering it at any rate. ]

cw: essentially encouraging suicide,

[higanbana]

Precisely. If we play our cards right, then she might even just lay down and offer the option to us.

Not that I wish to deprive you of a good fight, naturally, but I do wish to limit risk where we can. Our numbers have dwindled enough.

cw: WELP PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT NICE THINGS re: suicide, assisted suicide

[otherworldlyking]

[ Oh yeah, some thoughts are going through his head. The Empress has just managed to get on his bad side enough that he has no reservations whatsoever about them.

There's something dark in his eyes there, yep. ]

Heheh...wouldn't that be nice? [ ... ] As much as I'd prefer a good fight, it could be entertaining if she doesn't let it be too quick. She doesn't deserve that kind of death, after all.

continued CW

[higanbana]

[Ris smiles.]

E~e~he~he~he~.

We knew you would see it our way.

[otherworldlyking]

[ And this is why they've gotten along.

Truly, they are the pinnacle of morality. ]

continued cw

[katzenpfote]

... If required, I... know ways to make it last. I do not have use of magic here, but I was taught to be 'creative'.

continued cw

[otherworldlyking]

Oh? That'd be useful.

[overworker]

[BERNIE...]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

[Is it sad that she can laugh about this now.]

Well if that's what you want, I'm not going to stop you. We're friends now, so I'll support whatever you choose to do. And if it comes to it, I'll fight with you.

[otherworldlyking]

...Yeah?

[ SORRY HE'S LIKE THIS...

It is pretty sad...but he doesn't take it as a bad thing. That being said, she seems to be another someone who thinks of him honestly as a friend, and he looks at her for a bit...really does for a bit. ]

It wouldn't be bad having some back up.

[ ...and he supposes the one good side to not having his powers is that he doesn't have to worry about a little friendly fire. Get it, friendly fire? ]

[charmingheroine]

Here's your goddamned holy relic.

[Charlotte speaks a bit prematurely, as she's fighting with the knot around the bundle of things she brought - she gives up, once it's loosened, and carefully extricates a whip.]

In the end, I couldn't burn it. Too much history... in any case, you should be perfectly safe handling it. It's just a symbol, now, with none of the Lecardes left to wake it up.

[She coils the whip, securely, and tosses it at his feet. It was inevitable, wasn't it? No matter the world, she was going to end up watching a man with kind blue eyes sign his own death warrant, and that damned thing would always be there.]

[katzenpfote]

[He looks down at it, and then back up to her.]

... I cannot wield a whip, and I do not think she will care for it.

mods, she's bringing up a bazaar trade thing, you may be needed shortly?

[charmingheroine]

Then it really is useless, after all... God, he'd laugh -

[Her voice, already frayed from weeping, breaks entirely. She coughs.]

There's something else, they called it a book of prayer.

[She pulls the Book of Crimson Prayer out of her improvised satchel, and stands to delicately drop it next to the whip. Believe it or not, Caleb, she doesn't actually want you all to die....]

[katzenpfote]

... Sit. Sit here.

[He carefully lifts the cats out of his lap and passes them over to her as he picks up the book and flips through it.]

[strangerpeople]

[It is a Bible...if your Bible was filled with stories of love and betrayal, which...makes sense, one supposes. The tales of love are said to be from the Bazaar’s Crimson Book. The tales of betrayal, not.

Some of them are very graphic and torrid and detailed as Caleb passes through them.]

[charmingheroine]

[A pity that Charlotte didn't really bother looking through it herself, and that she's pinned down by two cats.]

Well, anything useful in there?

[strangerpeople]

[As Caleb gets close to the end, he will notice a story called "The Actuality of the Fifth City".]

[katzenpfote]

Jester would like some of this... perhaps I'll read some of these in more detail later - hm?

[What's this?]

[strangerpeople]

...AND THUS THE EMPRESS TRADED HER CITY FOR THE REVIVAL OF HER LOVE. SHE BETRAYED THE SURFACE AND HER PEOPLE, HIDING IN HER PALACE UNTIL AT LAST SHE ASCENDED TO THE STARS. IN THIS SHE BETRAYED HER DEAL FOR HER CITY TO BE PLUNGED INTO THE DEEP UNTIL THE LACRE DROWNED THEM.

SHE ASCENDED HIGHER THAN ANY HUMAN AND THE JUDGMENTS DEEMED IT BLASPHEMY. IT WAS DURING HER REIGN, THEN, THAT THE NEXT BETRAYAL HAPPENED, FOR THE SUNS ARE HUNGRY AND EVER DO THEY CONSPIRE...

[Keep reading?]

[katzenpfote]

Something about drowning in sealing wax... but she ascended, trading the city for her lover's revival. And then another betrayal, because the suns are 'hungry'.

[Of course he's going to keep reading.]

[strangerpeople]

[It continues to a section called "The Plot of the Amaranthine Conjunction".]

...THERE IS DARKNESS BETWEEN THE CLUSTERS. THERE IS A BLIGHT WHICH TAINTS THE FRUIT. THE HUNGRY SUNS CARED NOT FOR THIS BLASPHEMOUS CONSTRUCT, AND INSTEAD THEY FOUND ANOTHER FIRMAMENT WHERE THEIR LAW WAS BUT MERE LIGHT.

IT IS THUS THERE THEY CAME UPON THE MOONLIGHT LOVER, WHO MOURNED HER LOST LOVE IN THE DEPTHS OF MADDENING GRIEF, LOST IN A DARKNESS OF HER OWN MAKE. AND WITH THE HYPOCRISY OF SUNS, THEY OFFERED THE BROKEN ONE THE DEAL OF THE BAZAAR: HER LOVER'S LIFE, RESTORED, IN EXCHANGE FOR SOMETHING IN RETURN. BUT INSTEAD OF CASTING HER AND HER LOST LOVE TO THE DEPTHS, THEY WOULD RAISE THE MOONLIGHT LOVER TO THE HEIGHTS OF THEIR SKY, INTO THEIR LAWS, TO TELL HER WHAT THEY SAW FIT FOR HER TO ACHIEVE FOR THEM.

AND THEY WOULD NOT TAKE A CITY, BUT A WORLD, FOR THIS MIRACLE TO BECOME THEIR WILL. IN THIS WAY DID THEY BETRAY THEIR PACT WITH THE MESSENGER, AND SEAL THE FATE OF THAT COUNSEL OF PEACE BEING WROUGHT WITHIN THE REALMS OF EXPERIMENT.

BUT EVEN SO, THE FIFTH CITY ENDURED IN IGNORANCE TO THE MACHINATIONS OF SAPPHIR'D...