Session 19: 1/14/14

[YVENNE INTERSTITIAL] Yvenne returns to the bunker below the remains of the Glass Palace, where Meyers is waiting with Dove. Meyers has just put Dove to bed. Yvenne is not alright. “It’s Maris... all she does is destroy, and take, what she wants.” She explains that she believed that Maris killed Phoneix by accident... but then explains what Maris did with the external womb and Sparrow’s DNA. And shows Meyers the wounds she took assaulting the lab. “You mean you went after Maris, yourself, in this?” Meyers points out that Maris is illegitimate, and is not in a stable position in the long run. “I like that.” Yvenne explains that she plans to sic the Mundus on Maris. “Meyers... I don’t want to talk about Maris anymore. I want to talk about having another baby.” FADE TO BLACK. Post-mortem: it was not awesome, but not terrible.

[MARIS COLOR] Maris is working in the lab, with Chrysalis growing in the background. SAMPLE 1 TAG: Yvenne Obarom. SAMPLE 2 TAG: Kestrel Tamar. AWAITING SAMPLES. She focuses on those words on the screen and her psychic link to Kestrel.

[KESTREL INTERSTITIAL/MARIS BUILDING(1)] Kestrel has rushed back planetside after seeing Yvenne confront Maris. Kestrel meets Yvenne in the family chambers in the bunker. Meyers is playing the piano. Kestrel runs in in her battle fatigues. “I’m so glad you’re OK, but why?” They argue about whether it was reasonable to assault the lab. “She’s my sister and I love her, but she’s CRAZY. How could you have not seen this? It’s not just that you were fooled, you were one.” Kestrel says that she’s glad Yvenne is safe, and is about to say that Yvenne was stupid - but Maris locks her. Yvenne is initially relieved, but after the lock persists long enough, she decides that Kestrel must be completely exhausted and walks her into bed. Maris releases her when she falls asleep.

[QUINN INTERSTITIAL] The air on Lord Farouk’s ship is thick with tension, as he meets with Quinn, Torrent, and Frost. Frost is mediating. Farouk is still smarting from the attacks on the Vaylen ships. Farouk: “Our arrangement has been disappointing. What a shame that so many of your people in the South are so vulnerable now.” He turns to Alix: “You’re tight with Lord Crow, aren’t you? Bring him to us.”

[CROW INTERSTITIAL] Crow knocks on the bunker door and rouses a sleeping Kestrel, who climbs out from between her sleeping spouses. She stumbles out, still wearing her jumpsuit. They go somewhere where they won’t wake Meyers and Yvenne. Kestrel sums things up. She tells Crow she can’t be sure if Kestrel will fight the Vaylen now, and they feel a deep sense of vicious protectiveness towards all life on Avarine. “It’s taken some time to get used to... but in some ways I’m glad, because being close to Maris is very important to me.” Crow asks if Maris’ tech worked, and Kestrel says that it has - and that she’s not angry, the way Yvenne is. “I’m not happy for her in an uncomplicated way. I wish we had been able to have Sparrow. But that doesn’t mean that Maris can’t have her child.” She tells him she doesn’t know if she’s cold, or whether she just doesn’t feel things the same way. They address Maris directly through the link, and she assures them that she does not plan to attack Yvenne.

[MARIS BUILDER(2)] Maris has Delphia take a photo of her holding the newborn Chrysalis, her naked body muscular and iconic. Crow arrives, and after seeing his new granddaughter, Maris asks him for a favor. “As I’m sure you know, having a child - especially one of your own, when you didn’t think that possible - changes your perspective. I think my sisters need to hear of my new perspective.” Crow creates a stained-glass interpretation of the photograph that adorns Maris’ new propaganda posters: “1. THERE IS NO DESTINY. 2. ALL CHILDREN ARE LOVED. 3. ALL LOVE IS SACRED. 4. THERE ARE NO SLAVES AND NO MASTERS.”

[MARIS BUIDLER(3)] A bombardment awakens Maris and Delphia in the night. Maris dons her Iron and rushes out, telling Delphia to keep Chrysalis safe. Maris rushes out and hits the deck in her Iron, saying a brief prayer of apology to her sister as she cuts the attack sled apart in midair.

[TORRENT COLOR] A Brotherhood operative contacts Yvenne on a secure line. He shows her video footage of the lab, after the attack, and the destroyed Vaylen ship. “I thought you should know, this has been attacked.”

[TORRENT/MARIS INTERSTITIAL] Torrent meets with Crow, and they walk outside the bunker (with Anna following secretly). Torrent tries to manipulate Crow, but Maris tells him to fight. As Torrent and Crow struggle, Anna shoots Torrent in the back, fatally wounding him. As he dies, Maris starts to control Crow, and whispers in his ear, feeling the weight of all the missed chances and miscommunication between them. - “Go into the fire. Be free of your anger. Be free.” He shares with her one perfect memory, of him trying to teach her something serious and she - before the war, before everything, - just being flirty and flighty. “The future will take care of itself.” They fall into bed and we fade to black as Torrent dies. Maris takes the memory with her as she leaves Crow’s mind, leaving him alone in his mind for the first time in years.

[KESTREL COLOR] We see Kestrel crawling back into bed with Yvenne and Meyers and hugging them both tight, hoping that everything will work out.

[QUINN COLOR] Posters of Torrent’s dead body go up everywhere on the planet. “YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELVES. SURRENDER WHILE THERE IS STILL SOMETHING WORTH SAVING.” Word spreads that he is dead, and not by Vaylen hands.

MANEUVER: The Vaylen are driven off by an attack on their rear while they devastate Maris' heretics and are distracted. The nobles are decimated and never recover. Kestrel abolishes slavery, given the nobles’ weakened position. Commoners are permitted to elect representatives. Much of Alix’ dreams come true, in the end.

MARIS EPILOGUE: Funeral pyres for Sodalis dot the world after the attack. Years later, we see Maris - now the leader of a much-reduced heretical sect - living in a small whitewashed cottage in the South, with beautiful stained glass windows. Somewhere, Delphia is holding hands with her wife. She is showing a teenaged Chrysalis how to dress the wound of someone in the village. Far away, on the rocks below the peaks of Isla Tienne, the Tamar Iron is half-submerged in the crashing waves.

YVENNE EPILOGUE: Yvenne is pregnant, which everyone eventually gets over. The child is named Requiem - a musical reference, for Meyers. Yvenne, Meyers, and Requiem are playing in a garden that has grown over the former site of the Glass Palace. On one end is Maris, watching a toddler Chrysalis, while Yvenne watches her children. Yvenne refuses to make eye contact.

KESTREL EPILOGUE: Kestrel and Crow are poring over plans for restoring the Glass Palace, even more beautiful than it was during the war. Kestrel is hated, but Wren marries a rising political star of the commoners. Kestrel is treated rather more kindly by the history books.

CROW EPILOGUE: Crow is happy to relax into elder status, making memorial windows to Phoenix and Raven, and playing with his grandchildren.

QUINN EPILOGUE: Quinn is demoted to a Ksatryien body in punishment. But it makes her far happier than being human.

TORRENT EPILOGUE: Frost has carried on after Torrent, maintaining unity among the people as the politics change. He had Torrent buried by the seaside, where he felt most at ease. He is holding hands with Zabad, walking along the coastline. “Please wait here, I’ll only be a few minutes.” He goes along to Torrent’s grave, sits down, and reads him the current news.

We have bought, perhaps, a generation of peace.

FIN

Session 18: 11/19/13

[KESTREL COLOR] Kestrel is sleeping on the Leviathan, advancing towards the presumed position of a hiding remnant of the Vaylen fleet. She has an intense nightmare: she is playing with Dove by herself, when Dove disintegrates into blood in Kestrel's arms. Maris is standing over her, holding a bundle of something that she is guarding protectively.

[CROW COLOR] We see the wreckage of the Painted Palace. Crow trudges aimlessly through it, covered in soot and lacerations. He stops and picks up a tiny, intact glass bird.

[YVENNE INTERSTITIAL] Yvenne leaves Isla Norte in a fury, and asks Thalia to make her personal craft ready. She raises Zabad on the comm. She tells him that they are repoing the facility from Maris - and to bring as many guys as he can raise on short notice.

[MARIS CONFLICT] Yvenne confronts Maris at Isla Norte. Maris tries to convince her that Chrysalis, the fetus she has growing inside the lab, is as much her child as Dove is Yvenne's. Yvenne: "Then it will hurt all the more when I take your child away from you." Yvenne cannot make peace with the fact that Chrysalis has Sparrow's DNA, and attacks Maris and her Sodalis. The superior tactics and firepower the Sodalis command drives them back, though, and Yvenne's morale breaks and she leaves. Afterwards, Maris puts forth waves of sadness as Delphia turns away from her in horror.

[KESTREL INTERSTITIAL] Kestrel raises Yvenne, and Yvenne explains the situation. "She killed our baby, and she made her own!" Kestrel: "Don't make Maris angry. Not now. Not when we have all of this. What would happen to Dove if something happened to you? We can't fight two battles." Kestrel convinces Yvenne not to do anything rash, and says she misses her and will be home soon.

[CROW INTERSTITIAL] Crow meets Kestrel late at night in the bunker under the Painted-Palace-that-was, and tells her that she needs to meet someone who matters with and to the slaves - Alix Weller. Torrent fidgets uncomfortably to be meeting with this hated enemy. Kestrel explains her amnesty offer. Torrent's fists clench and unclench. "What you're proposing is... not in any way appealing." The deal being offered by the Vaylen is, he argues, better. "We would know what freedom tasted like for a little while, anyway. What you're offering assumes that we live... and we won't, because we are not soldiers." "I very much believe that your interests will no longer be relevant, once Avarine is conquered." "This isn't about many years from now. This is about months from now. This is reality - if we fight for you, we die. And why would we fight for you when we were just, before they came, planning your murders?" "So, which is it? Either you're all a bunch of helpless farmhands, or you're dangerous murderous revolutionaries. You can't have it both ways." "Can we poison a master's tea, or stick a knife in their guts? Yes!" "Those skills might come in more handy than you think. They do hide among us... The opportunity to die a clean death, rather than the inevitability of being hulled, is a good one. That's all there is to it." Torrent walks out. "I'm not going to sacrifice the fate of our planet to some high-minded ideals about brotherhood and equality." Crow: "He was looking to be wooed, and you did not woo." "If he's looking to be wooed, then you need to arrange to have the meeting with my wife, not with me." Kestrel promises to try again. "Alix is not an easy man to talk to. I did mean it when I said it went well!" She arranges with Wren to send a Crow-crafted glass letter opener to Alix as a peace offering. The note says, "Perfect for stabbing masters with."

[TORRENT COLOR] Torrent and Frost have a laugh over the gift when it arrives, but Alix slips it into his robe when he's alone.

[MARIS INTERSTITIAL] Maris "confronts" Kestrel in her mind about her promise to "take care of her" when the crisis is over. Kestrel promises that she does not want to see Chrysalis dead. "Can you appreciate how complicated a situation this is? What should I do, Maris?" The connection goes silent, an admission that Maris has no idea.

[YVENNE BUILDER] Yvenne remembers Maris mentioning Sister Priya, back during the initial invasion. She contacts her anonymously, giving her the coordinates to the lab, and a brief description of its blasphemous contents. The good sister examines the message, and smiles as she connects the dots.

[YVENNE COLOR] The Brotherhood ships start taking flight to engage the Vaylen fleet.

[MARIS COLOR] Delphia slams down a tablet showing images of the fight against the bedraggled but still potent Vaylen fleet, pounding Church Sodalis from the sky. Maris remains fascinated by Chrysalis, bathed in eerie blue light.

[QUINN INTERSTITIAL] Quinn and Farouk are poring over a dynamic map of Isla Tienne, showing the devastated Painted Palace. "This is still a strategic position, and I think we would do well to attach hard, here." Quinn gives him a quizzical look. "We go deeper."

EPILOGUE: TAKE ACTION VS. FLAK: Torrent makes an autotuned music video of Kestrel repeating her promises of amnesty until they lose all meaning, set against images of the slaves suffering in work camps. Brotherhood ships, rag-tag as they are, target Vaylen supply ships, outmaneuvering them and slamming them dead in space with nail launchers. Meanwhile, Zabad rallies the slaves, asking them if they are there to sing and dance, or to kill worms. On the Vaylen ships, the screens flash. "YOU ARE FAR FROM HOME. YOU ARE ALONE."

Session 17: 11/5/13

[KESTREL BUILDER] Kestrel is in the archives of Isla Tienne, poring through dusty histories looking for precedent for Crow and Lycelle’s marriage. Six generations ago, early in House Tamar’s history, she finds a case where a Forged Lord was grievously injured, and her heir assumed power. After a decade, the original Lord regained consciousness and tried to reclaim power, but after a brief conflict the nobles declared that the title could not be reverted once it was given.

[CROW COLOR] Crow and Lycelle are married in a short, simple, sweet ceremony before their families and officiants of both the New Horizon and the Mundus. It’s beautiful - Crow has crafted glass ornaments that shine rainbows of light over the party, and Meyers has written some special music for it. Crow and Lycelle celebrate their long, many years of love.

[YVENNE INTERSTITIAL] Yvenne pulls Kestrel and Meyers aside to express her concerns that Crow will make a move to take over now that he and Lycelle are married. Meyers urges Kestrel to talk to Crow. “I mean, I know, you all are Tamars, you’re all good at the passive aggressive thing.” Yvenne backs him up. Kestrel sighs and agrees.

[MARIS COLOR] While Maris watches the wedding, the HUD in her Iron shows her horrific scenes of the battle against the Vaylen on Isla Norte, Sodalis being splayed redly across the snow.

[CROW INTERSTITIAL] Crow confronts Maris and apologizes for... everything. “Dad... I cared about being a sixteen year old girl in heavy armor being shot at.” Maris tells him that she has spent her life alternately looking for guidance and blaming those who haven’t provided it to her - but she cannot and won’t anymore, she needs to own her own choices without putting them either on Crow or on the Wheel. Crow asks her why she killed Phoenix and he explains - it was as much about feeling betrayed by Locke as any duty to destroy the Vaylen - then shares his pain in part through the Psychologist’s Touch. “I will never be a parent. I can’t understand. But I can share some of the pain you felt at Phoenix’ death, if you want me to.” They both collapse into each other, sobbing.

[KESTREL INTERSTITIAL] Kestrel deadpans, “Father, I need to let you know how truly happy I am for you and Lycelle.” They exchange brief pleasantries, then jump right to what this means for Avarine. “Couldn’t quite keep politics out, hunh?” Crow tells her that Lycelle and he feel that Kestrel is endangering Avarine, and that Lycelle’s rightful place as eldest Tamar is as Forged Lord. “What should I have done when the Vaylen invaded, father? Made a deal with them? ‘Oh, you can only hull half the planet, and the rest of us will sit tight?’” “It doesn’t have to get ugly, Kestrel.” “It will get ugly, father. I am telling you right now, if you are tired of war, you need to put away these foolish ambitions.”

[KESTREL CONFLICT] Kestrel tries to convince Crow that resisting her would be foolish. Crow wants her to stop using force to bring the nobles in line. Kestrel agrees to at least listen to Crow’s counsel.

[QUINN INTERSTITIAL] Quinn brings Maris the external womb device.

[MARIS BUILDER] Maris and Quinn meet in the hulk of a destroyed Church vessel to hand over the external womb. Alix accuses Maris of hypocrisy, for being willing to work with the Vaylen. Maris tries to shoot Quinn in response, but they beat a retreat into their shuttle. Maris takes the womb to Isla Norte, where she is confronted by Yvenne, who DOES NOT BUY FOR A SECOND Maris’ explanation that she wants to use the device to study Vaylen genetic constructs. Yvenne accuses Maris of coldly killing Sparrow; Maris accuses Yvenne and Kestrel of caring more about the war effort and politics than Sparrow’s death. Maris says she knows she can’t bring Sparrow back, but this is the only way she can be a mother. Yvenne storms out, calling her Brotherhood to destroy the lab. Maris calls up her Sodalis to protect her, and begins splicing her DNA with Sparrow’s, running her blood into the womb in its eerie light.

[TORRENT COLOR] Farouk and Torrent discuss tactics. Then we see a ship flying in fast, through the planetary defenses, and bombs the Glass Palace to glorious splinters.

[KESTREL COLOR] Kestrel is on board the Leviathan playing with Dove when she gets the alert, and watches helplessly as the Glass Palace explodes on her screen. She lays in orders to pursue the bomber.

MANEUVER: HUMAN TA (ACTIVATE NOBLES) vs. VAYLEN TA. Both succeed. Nobles are activated, but Humans take -6 (-2 net).

EPILOGUE: Lady Aruna holds high a large shard of the palace as her pilotry pump their fists in the air, and commoners clasp smaller shards beneath giant posters of the Tamar royals. Torrent and his crew make sure the horrifying images of the attack play 24/7.

Session 16: 10/22/13

[MARIS CONFLICT] Maris has Quinn in custody and interrogates her, convincing her to bring her an external womb. Quinn starts out cagey, but is eventually overwhelmed with the pain of her treatment - Maris is using her knowledge of exorcism to cause the body to rebel against its wormy invader - and curiousity as to why a human would want such a thing. Eventually she relents and promises to bring Maris the technology; Maris secretly lets her go free.

[YVENNE BUILDER] Yvenne hands over a “Defend Your Planet - Demand Your Rights” poster to Zabad; he’s been doing the distribution, and organizing semi-secret slave rallies. He tries to gather a group of folks to start some “propaganda of the deed,” but few people show up. Just Frost. “It looks like you need help; I am your man.” Frost looks Zabad up and down, enjoying the view. Frost tries to comfort Zabad, explaining that it can be hard to raise people - and that Frost can help. Zabad enthusiastically agrees. “Well, uh, ‘bro,’ what are you thinking of going after?”

[KESTREL INTERSTITIAL] Kestrel has planned a home visit to spend time with Crow and her family. She meets Crow in the garden of the Glass Palace, now surrounded with ugly berms and earthworks against the invasion. Crow seems preoccupied with watching Raven, whose physical rehabilitation he has been helping with. Kestrel tells him that she owes him an apology for not spending enough time with Raven,and for losing her temper when they spoke last. “If he’s doing well, does that make him more worth your time now?” Kestrel says that it’s important that they support one another now. Crow: “By support, you mean you want my support, but you don’t want my opinions?” But he does seem a bit softened, a bit less on edge. Kestrel tells him that she has been taking his advice, spending more time with her daughter and spouses. Crow looks down, with just the hint of a smile. “Lycelle and I are going to be married, very soon. I would like you to be at the ceremony, but that’s your choice.” “I’ll be there, just say when.” They turn to chatting about Dove.

[MARIS INTERSTITIAL] Maris finds Meyers playing the piano late at night. She tells him the truth about how she was the one who endangered Sparrow in the first place. He hits her, repeatedly as it turns out, in between collapsing in sorrow. He asks what she wants - to assuage her guilt? She tells him, no - she wanted to talk to someone who would feel something about it, maybe even someone who would hit her over it. Then she tells him she wasn’t just saying that the music he wrote for Sparrow was beautiful. He plays her the whole piece.

[YVENNE INTERSTITAL] Earlier that day, Yvenne is working while watching Meyers with Dove. Eventually she gets up and goes over to Meyers. “Fuck, this isn’t easy for me to do.” Dove wanders away with her new angry-mommy word. Kestrel tells Meyers that she’s sorry that she hasn’t gotten to know him better, but now she realizes that they have something in common, their love and their grief. Meyers says that he doesn’t care that Yvenne doesn’t like him. “I’m here because you weren’t quite enough for this... union. But with her [Dove], I guess it doesn’t matter. But it’s been really hard.” Meyers is crying. Yvenne: “Maybe it’s too late, but I’d like to try to become a friend, if... if you still want to try to care.” She holds out her hand.

[KESTREL BUILDING] Kestrel rolls up with Maris and several assault sleds to seize Lady Venuca’s slaves. The Lady refuses. Kestrel: “It’s not your place to question my judgment.” Venuca will not relent, and Kestrel and Maris’ Sodalis storm the compound, freeing slaves.

MANEUVER: UNOPPOSED TAKE ACTION

The attack on Lady Venuca’s compound is the shot heard ‘round Avarine. Other nobles who had been waffling give in, freeing their slaves and depriving the Vaylen of divisions among the nobility. Nobles who had been turned to the Vaylen side burn across the planet. When they try to flee its surface, Yvenne’s ships cut them down. Their estates are razed and they are hauled before the Raven Brotherhood’s scanners, the Vaylen slaughtered where they stand. Meanwhile, the Vaylen fleet and the Church Hammer hang motionless and impassive in the sky, each paralyzed by indecision and confusion.

Session 15: 9/24/13

[MARIS INTERSTITIAL] Maris meets with Yvenne and Kestrel aboard the Leviathan and requests their aid to capture Quinn. The Raven Brotherhood will help set up an ambush, and Kestrel will get a drop ship.

[KESTREL INTERSTITIAL] Back in Kestrel's quarters on board the Leviathan. "I'm so sorry that you have to be dragged into all of these war meetings, and I'm taking you away from our daughter." Kestrel asks for Yvenne's help in getting the slaves on her side. She asks Yvenne to help her find someone among the slaves to lead the slave battalion, so they are not treated simply as cannon fodder - Zabad, perhaps. Amnesty? Yvenne has been thinking the same thing! Zabad! But there is one more thing... "This is much more difficult... but, I think, we need to find time to do things together as a family." Including Meyers.

[QUINN INTERSTITIAL] Quinn sells Farouk on recovering Locke's ship, at the Glass Palace.

[YVENNE BUILDER (1)] Yvenne heads back to her HQ on Isle Morena. On her way, she sends messages to leaders in the Brotherhood, putting out an APB on Quinn, and reminding them to use their Vaylen detectors. Word comes back of a contact who knows Quinn, who flags Yvenne at one of her work sites. "I hear you're looking for Lt. Laila Quinn. Well, she stands out, so when she moves, she's noticed." It seems Quinn is still interested in the ship at the hangar. They're likely to strike soon, before their intel is stale. Yvenne lets Maris know the score.

[MARIS CONFLICT] FIREFIGHT!!!! Maris and Kestrel and their forces lay in wait for Quinn as she drives up in Tamar-emblazoned anvil car. A brief, bloody fight ensues as the Vaylen are ambushed. A chaotic combat ensues, with Maris' Sodalis laying waste with their jack lasers, overwhelming the assailants and taking several hits in the process. Maris stands over a tackled Quinn, sword raised, as the Vaylen abandon their commander and flee in the Anvil car.

[CROW INTERSTITIAL] Kestrel is on her way out the door of the palace when Crow confronts her. "You're leaving again." "Did you forget that I captain a ship, and we're in a war?" "Did you forget that you're the Forged Lord? Did you forget that you have a family you barely talk to?" "My family needs me to fight the alien invaders who want to dominate us." "What if THIS IS ALL THE TIME YOU HAVE TO READ YOUR CHILD A STORY??" Kestrel tells him to keep to his man's place, in the home.

[YVENNE BUILDER (2)] Yvenne meets with Maris to develop propaganda posters to motivate slaves to join with the nobles, under the promise of amnesty. DEFEND YOUR PLANET. DEMAND YOUR RIGHTS. The idea is to make them think they demanded and won amnesty.

[CROW COLOR] Crow goes into Raven's room; only the young man's eyes can move to follow his father. Crow shakes his head. "I... didn't catch her. She left before I got to her." "You're lying."

[TORRENT INTERSTITIAL] Torrent goes to see Maris at the compound and asks if there's anything they can salvage. Maris tells him that he's another mistake, someone she loved who loved the cause more than her. She asks what the relationship meant to him, specifically, not in lofty generalities. He says, "hope." She says, "get out. GET OUT."

[KESTREL COLOR] Kestrel is in Raven's recovery room, having gotten word that he'd woken up. She goes to visit, but he's not conscious. She leaves a card with a picture of them as children.

[MARIS COLOR] Maris tells Quinn that she knows torture would just be "interesting" for a Vaylen. So she has Nereia lock the sensory deprivation helmet onto her. "I'll be back in about a week."

[TORRENT COLOR] Torrent is sitting on a beach, by a fire. He has a sack with him, full of things from the last four years with Maris. One by one, he throws them into the fire. He looks last at books on parenting, and places them in the fire.

MANEUVER: PIN vs. ASSESS. The Vaylen are pinned (for 6 dice) - Torrent's organization is tied up with trying to counter Yvenne's propaganda campaign and bring slaves back into their fold. But he exploits his Psychological connections to learn all about what's going on, assessing the human disposition.

3 (in game) months until we find out what happens next...

Session 14: 9/10/13

[MARIS BUILDER (1)] Maris recruits Calliope and her artillery company to man the Tamar ships, instead of the big guns overlooking the Glass Palace.

[TORRENT COLOR] Frost finds Alix with his head in his hands. "You're still moping. Look at the bright side, you can add 'having Maris as your lover' to your list of crazy things you've done that you should not have survived." He drags Alix to the shower.

[YVENNE COLOR] It is late at night. Kestrel is exhausted and asleep when Yvenne enters her quarters. Yvenne places her Vaylen detector against Kestrel's head, and breathes a sigh of relief.

[TORRENT BUILDER] Torrent gives a speech to the slaves, saying that the Devil they don't know - the Vaylen - is better than the nobles, the Devil they do. They are inspired to greater violence against the nobles.

[MARIS BUILDER 2-3] Maris attempts to contact the Inquisition and learns that the Mundus cathedral ship is infested with Vaylen. She cannot get Rhinaldi, the Dregus in charge of the Inquistion, to agree to take the Dregutai out of counsel over the next Archcotare, so instead she insists on her privileges as Cotar Fomas. Chief among those privileges, apparently, is slaughtering Vaylen in close quarters with a fusor.

[CROW INTERSTITIAL] Crow and Lycelle come to the Leviathan to meet with Kestrel. It turns out that Raven may not be entirely a vegetable. Lycelle meets privately with Kestrel, and warmly. "What are you intending to do... I mean about everything?" Kestrel: "They declared war on us. This is my role." Lycelle implies that Kestrel is too young to take Kaduka's mantle of warlord. "This isn't fair to you." Lycelle reveals that she has asked Crow to marry her, which would make her the eldest Tamar. "What you two decide to call yourselves is your business. But if you think that a lifetime of bearing children and planning parties prepares you for fending off an invasion by a hostile alien race, then you're more clueless than I thought."

[MARIS INTERSTITIAL] Maris goes to Yvenne, distraught. They have a long conversation about free will that I didn't take adequate notes on. Yvenne is convinced that the problem is Maris rushing headlong into decisions, but Maris has metaphysical concerns - if there is no river flowing her along with it, that would be an elegant explanation of why so much of her life has been chaos. She also discusses vivisecting Sparrow in great detail, which doesn't get much of a rise out of Yvenne. What does is her suggestion that if the humans have a choice to fight or not fight, the Vaylen have a choice to conquer or not conquer. "If we don't have a nature, maybe they don't either."

[TORRENT INTERSTITIAL] Torrent goes to meet Yvenne. "I want to know where the Brotherhood stands in all of this." "Torrent, what do you say we cut through the bullshit. I haven't slept much in two weeks... I sympathize with the struggles of the slaves, but I have no desire to bow down before alien invaders." "I was connected to Phoenix when she died. She felt her sister tear her child out of her, the child that she so wanted." "The vaylen in her head felt those things." "You're deluding yourself, Yvenne." "All I have in my life has come from rejecting people who have tried to control my choices. I don't see how this is any different." "I've spent much of my life romanticizing what freedom is because I've never really had it." "I dont' know why you would choose certain death later... over..." "Certain death now." They shake hands, and part, enemies.

[YVENNE INTERSTITIAL] Yvenne summons Kestrel to her factory. Kestrel is intrigued, but concerned that the scanners have to make contact with the skin. But it's still wonderful! Yvenne is ridiculously happy. "I can't believe they spent so much time trying to stop us from getting married, but look at what you've done! This is amazing!"

[KESTREL BUILDING] Kestrel grabs a tech to look at Yvenne's design, and maybe improve it. But late one night while she's deep into it, drinking a carbonated beverage, she blabs to a colleague who is a mole for the Vaylen.

[TORRENT COLOR] Torrent meet with Quinn and says that the slaves were inspired by his speech, but the Mundus, the nobles... ::shrugh:: Quinn:"More for us."

[MARIS COLOR] Maris is looking at her own blood under a microscope.

Session 13: 8/27/13

[MARIS BUILDING 1-2] Lydia and Delphia are in the Sodality HQ, staring at a matte-grey, odd helmet on a table. Lydia says it was built to Maris' specifications, despite its unimpressive appearance. She asks what it's for, and Delphia says that that's a "need to know" kind of question.
[KESTREL INTERSTITIAL] Yvenne arrives on the Leviathan, in Kestrel's quarters, clearly a wreck. Kestrel wants to know if everyone is OK, especially Meyers. Kestrel is somewhat less impacted by the news that Yvenne expected her to be. "Phoenix was dead from the moment they hulled her, but I'm sorry the baby didn't make it." Yvenne lets her know that Maris wasn't entirely truthful, but she doesn't know exactly what happened.
[MARIS BUILDING 3] Maris sits dejected on the floor of the eugenics lab, covered in blood. Looking at Phoneix' ruined body, she gets a haunted look in her eye, and proceeds to remove Sparrow's foetus and slice it up to preserve genetic material. Some she puts on ice in the lab, some she takes with her.
[TORRENT COLOR] Flashback: After Maris left, Torrent is walking in the dark on the beach, as are Crow and Lycelle, elsewhere. Torrent experiences Phoneix' last moments through his psychic link. He blasts out his distress to Frost and Crow. We see Torrent kneeling in despair on the beach, and Crow sobbing, "she's dead" to Lycelle.
[KESTREL COLOR] Kestrel lies awake in bed, reviewing information about the situation on her tablet. She flicks back to a family photo of her with Phoenix, and tries to will herself to feel, but feels nothing. She is envious of Yvenne's luxury to be emotional.
[MARIS INTERSTITIAL] Maris arrives on the Leviathan, and throws herself at Kestrel's feet. They have an emotional conversation that I can't adequately record here! Kestrel tells Maris that she's still her sister, and still loves her. "Aren't you even... angry?" Kestrel says she doesn't have the luxury of being angry, and secures Maris' promise of support. Maris leaves her the box with Sparrow's DNA. "We don't always have to accept that our fate is final."
[CROW COLOR] Crow is lying with his head in Lycelle's lap. "Marry me," she says. "Why are you asking me that now?" "You need me, and Avarine needs us. I will take the right of rule away from Kestrel, and you will help me rule."
[YVENNE INTERSTITIAL] Yvenne meets with Delphia and gets a fuller picture of what happened in the eugenics lab. She becomes convinced that Maris' actions were rash, but Sparrow's death was unintended.
[QUINN INTERSTITIAL] Quinn brings Torrent and Frost to meet with Farouk. Torrent seems distracted, Frost delighted. "So, she's dead." Torrent assures Farouk that that doesn't change anything between them. Torrent establishes a psychic connection with Quinn. He sends a short message to Maris: "I know what happened; please come home."
[YVENNE BUILDER] Yvenne meets Rabbit, who sells her some manufacturing parts that fell off a truck. She outfits her manufactory to produce Vaylen detectors.
[KESTREL BUILDER] Kestrel meets with her war council. "We are allies with the Mundus now." She tries to convince them to ambush the Vaylen likely to come for Locke's ship. Posters have gone up in the street, with the Mundus symbol: THE VAYLEN THREAT IS REAL. WE STAND TOGETHER. The Hammer Lords agree to help out.
[TORRENT INTERSTITIAL] Torrent meets with Maris. They have an epic argument that I was too close to to relate well! Torrent tells Maris about his very bad plan to ally with the Vaylen. She spits in his face when she finds out he was "riding along" while she slept with Locke. Torrent accuses her of book-learning, and she rebuts that she touched the frightened child locked in Locke's skull when she was in there. Choice quotes: TORRENT: "You sleep well, with your murder of infants on your conscience."/MARIS: "They will *farm* children on your island." MARIS: "I only regret that I will be dead or hulled before they strap you down, screaming, and put a worm in your head."
[YVENNE BUILDER] Yvenne starts manufacturing Vaylen detectors!
[MARIS COLOR] Maris is in her cell late at night, reading the final words of the Revelation of Aisha: "Remember that the Womb is the Earthly symbol of the Wheel. The great chain of being goes on, even though we do not. Though our fates are limited, the fate of humanity is not. Liberate yourselves, my sisters. Accept that your fate is final."

MANEUVER ROLL: HUMAN FLAK VS. VAYLEN ASSESS: HUMANS WIN. The slaves fall back under the coordinated assault of the nobles, awaiting leadership.



MARIS' SQUAD: Thelema, Oleanna, Nereia, Terpsichore