ꙮ The Queen’s Castle. Luĉja, of course, knows where all the secret elevators are. Do they use them, or did they take the portentious stairs leading up to the castle gates?
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- Yazhn Ravhi, the Hierophant
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#ck
#sq
This is not a formal meeting, and unlikely to end up as such. Luĉja takes the secret elevators.
ꙮ They rise up through the fortress-hill the castle’s built on with a pleasant, familiar, clack-clack-clack. There was a Reacher delegation earlier this morning, here for the Grand Soups but paying their respects to the Queen along the way, but they’re cleared out, now. The Great Hall is empty, but for the Scorpion Queen on her throne, one arm resting on the right armrest on the throne, as arms and armrests do, fingertips idly tracing over a specific hilt melted into the throne. One leg crossed over the other, foot wiggling idly.
exits the elevator, steps forward and bows, “We return from our hunt, Hero-Scorpion Queen. Have you the time or inclination for combats and conversations?”
slowly turns her head to face him, laughs. “And here I thought your memory had come back, but you need to ask the question.” She unfolds herself from her throne, hops out of it - immediately looks a bit less Imposing, even if she was sitting in a fairly lackadaisical way. “How was the hunt?”
: “It would be rude to make assumptions on your behalf. The hunt was very successful. Your sense of humor has not changed in my absence. Sending us to find those we sought as payment for winning the Grand Soups was quite entertaining.”
: “It is strange. The Beast is a place of so much change. But you change so little.”
grins, and her scorpion tail lashes from side to side, dramatically. “Glad you enjoyed the game. It’s not over yet, by the way. I’m very excited for the festival.”
laughs, “How could it be over? You are still here, after all. I should certainly hope you’re excited. We’ve prepared a plan that’s…well…out of this world, to be frank.”
nods in satisfaction, and- excitement, which is really not an emotion you’ve caught on her very often, that you recall. “Good. Gotta shake things up around here every now and again.”
: “Please look forward to it. When the least surprising development is that I am assisting in the cooking process, you know everyone’s going to have a good time.”
raises an eyebrow at Luĉja. “That doesn’t particularly surprise me, honestly. I’m happy for you, though.”
: “Straylight got a good laugh in. Thank you, Hero-Scorpion Queen. I, too, am happy. I hope that you will be, also.”
very, very briefly – and probably only Luĉja or Zaya would even catch it – looks Distant, but then smiles dangerously. “Don’t think my Champion is going to go easy on you six. Which just means there’ll be a lot of real good food for everyone. I do love a fight where everyone wins. But especially the judges.”
takes note. “To go easy on an opponent would be disrespectful. Though I concur, the culmination of a Grand Soup is likely much more amenable to the public than a regular fight. Speaking of which. I believe I owe you one.”
turns, and her scorpion-tail bobs menacingly, even gleams a little. “It’s been a while. I set the stakes last time, if I recall, which means it’s your turn?”
: “If I must. Again, it seems impolite to make decisions for our Hero-Queen. But I assume this will hold no more weight than it did the last…fifty times or so. So then. I would know some information about the cycles of the Beast, and whether or not there have been Endjinn before me. It seems unlikely that I will best you, so I will take this information on your enjoyment of the combat. This…you know is bait,” Luĉja twirls their crystal blade around once for fun, “So, what might you wish for as stakes today? I assume there would be no fun in this… ⁂*
- Luĉja, The Clockwork Knight invoked their 🔴burning gnosis [d6] -> 4.
- Luĉja, The Clockwork Knight invoked their 🔴burning gnosis [d6] -> 2.
puts their hand to the ground and a red pulse shimmers out. They draw their hand up, grasping an object as it follows. A red-hot blade, forged from the ground beneath them, sheathed in burning gnosis. “And I’m not sure you need another one of my blades in your throne.”
If I need to arete for this, lemme know
watches, eyes bright, as the Endjinn pulls the blade from the ground, corner of her mouth flicking up in a smile; she flicks two of her wrists and reaches to clasp those hands together, and there is a greatsword there where previously there had not been one, a purple so dark as to almost be black, a jeweled hilt. She taps the ground with it, once, almost delicately, and a circle of flame rises to surround the two of them. “Need? No. Want? Always. I accept your stakes.”
- The Scorpion-Queen invoked their Alethic 🔴burning gnosis [d12: (5, 12)] -> 12! It ✨explodes!
- The Scorpion-Queen invoked their Alethic 🔴burning gnosis [d12: (7, 6)] -> 7.
ꙮ Luĉja, starlit Burning for initiative!
- Luĉja, The Clockwork Knight invoked their ⭐Starlit 🔴burning gnosis [d6: (4, 6)] -> 6! It ✨explodes!
- Luĉja, The Clockwork Knight invoked their ⭐Starlit 🔴burning gnosis [d6: (1, 2)] -> 2.
- Luĉja, The Clockwork Knight has gained 1 Arete, and now has 7.
No arete spend - I hold.
ꙮ Luĉja’s quick, but the Queen’s inhumanly fast.
uses it on a [Wind Up], the sword lashing out and the scorpion-stinger lashing out at the same time, exploring his defenses.
The blade bounces off of Luĉja’s armplate as they duck the tail, but they won’t be able to dodge forever. In a surprising move, they leap past the Queen with a [Tumbling Strike], a small amount of radiant gnosis shimmering around them.
beams. “Oho, I see. Claw, today. It’s a good look on you.” She straightens herself out, frees herself of unnecessary distractions of possibilities, focusing like a laser sight on the inevitability of victory. [Wild and Pure and Forever Free]
: “I fear it will collapse quickly without my Scale and Shield, but this was my strategy for my duel against Salme. It seemed like a good time to try something new. After all. Almost everything here changes.” Flourishing gnosis swirls around Luĉja, bolstering their defenses.
[Brilliance] into [Weather the Storm] Current Def 6
grins. “She’s one hell of an opponent in a duel. Excited to see what you’ve learned from each other.” And then she whirls and spins and the sword comes cracking down with all the force of her warm-up acts– her signature [Real Ultimate Power!] that you absolutely knew was coming, and your defenses do take the brunt of it!
shards of gnosis fly away from where Luĉja took the impact of the Queen’s blade. “I’ll have to wax that before the Soups.” A quick flash, and their defenses return, along with another pulse of burning light. An aura of flames wraps around the still red-hot blade as they spin their torso completely around to hit the Queen’s sword arm.
[Instant Barrier] [Heavy Strikes]
takes the hit with no defenses, because defenses are something you spend time on if you’re not attacking every single round; she expends herself to expand her possibilities; she reaches out, with her want, her overflowing desire for victory, and wills that it will come to pass.
Refresh; [Dark Prophecy] on [Heavy is the Crown] and [Bonebreaker].
Steam overflows out of Luĉja’s vents. They’re trying to remember exactly how much strength being angry gets them. They manage to sneak a [Quick Hit] in against the Queen, followed by a second, and a burst of speed to re-ready themselves if they make it another round.
[Rage!] [Quick hit] [Adrenaline Surge] hitting for 5 + 6 and drawing two cards
takes a hit, and then another hit, and she laughs, and laughs - in a whirl of blood and fire and sharp tenebrousness, [Heavy is the Crown] and then [Bonebreaker] and then, three tenebrous-infused sharp strikes at the weak points in the Knight’s armor. You definitely can’t remember the Queen ever packing [Void Flare] before; it must be a new addition, and it hurts like hell, but you’re still standing!
laughs. “Well, look at you, playing with new toys.” Their eyes snap up as they stagger up to full height, eye level with the Queen. “I’m partial to that one as well.” Luĉja rotates out their chest plates and exposes their inner core: three red and black beams of fire and light sear outward into the Queen’s body.“ They quickly recompose their plating, knowing full well they won’t last another hit.*
[Rage!] empowered [Void Flare!]
looks right into the Knight’s aurichalcum core as it blasts her with gnosis, staggering back, taking the hit- her eyes bright, alive with the exchange, -feeling- it tear through her, shaking it off. Not laughing, not here- but still- delight in her eyes as she swings her blade forward, hitting her Knight upside the head with the flat of it, with a meteor’s tail of fire following the blade. [Real Ultimate Power!]
collapses down to one knee, as was always the outcome. They hold up their burning blade, reversed, for the Queen to take.
banishes her greatsword with a flick of her wrists and reverently takes the burning blade, made of her very own castle, for her, with a pleased expression. She doesn’t immediately stalk off to her throne to melt it in, yet, though; she’s catching her breath, and- flicks the dramatic burning circle away with another gesture, and sits, cross-legged, on the ground next to her Knight. Lets the moment hang, for a few minutes, and then: “There’s always a first Endjinn that comes out the Deepforge.”
: “So I am the first Endjinn, but also, not the first Endjinn.” A pause, as their gears struggle to keep up. “Are they always like me? Am I like them? Or like everything else, does it change?”
looks past her Knight, exhales. “They’re always very kind and very curious. They always reach out to me, to all of us, with all their self. That part doesn’t change.”
nods. “How many times have you done this?”
: “How many times have we failed?”
rests her weight on an arm that’s not holding the burning sword. “We’ve never -failed-. Not once.”
: “Well that’s good.”
laughs, a -little- bitterly. “Haven’t gotten the win I want either, though.”
: “But I refuse to call it failure.”
: “Understood. I suppose it is only truly failure if it stops us from trying again. Luckily for us, the very stars themselves force us to continue. There can be no failure. Only further striving for the victory we know awaits.”
nods, hard.
: “I am glad you also refuse to fail, Scorpion Queen. Salme, predictably, was worried about you. Since you have done this before. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share anything about how it all works with us? Or is it going to be one of those, you’ll know the world is ending when you see it, kind of deals?”
: “She also told me that I should make a slightly disdainful and dismissive breath-noise at you if you were unconvinced of your eventual victory. I see no reason to humor her in this regard.”
reaches up and starts fiddling with a necklace - two snakes, coiled and tangled together - that you’re certain you never saw her wearing before. “Kiiiiinda hard to miss, yeah. Or, well. Hm.” She frowns. “Actually, don’t quote me on that. I can only speak for my own vantage point, you six are weird, but by the same token I don’t know if I could tell you what it -will- be like for you.”
looks at the necklace. Perhaps Salme’s craftwork? Perhaps older? “I assume we will not miss it, no matter our strangeness. I am more concerned with what must be done once it starts. I assume at some point, we must journey to my home. To my resting place.”
: “I am convinced that we will avert what awaits us. There must be a new door to find somewhere. I need not know how and what. But it would be helpful if anything is consistent.”
pauses and sits up a bit straighter. “How many times have the rest of them come here, before the end?”
: “Mmm. For what it’s worth I am actually, no-shit, for-real convinced that something different is going to happen this time in a way I absolutely can’t predict. It’s exciting, honestly.” She tilts her head. “The rest of them? –your companions?” She gets a funny look on her face. “Yeah, no. Shit’s weird this time. We don’t get visitors.”
: “Do I know what that means, fuck no I don’t.”
: “Not used to that either.”
: “So in the number of times you have done this, which you have conveniently omitted, there have been no extraplanar visitors? No Sword-Saints? No Awoken? No Archivists, Emissaries, Weapons? Fascinating.”
: “Yeeeeeeep.”
stares her down a bit. “You know I cannot adjust my facial expressions, but I wish you to imagine how I would be staring at you avoiding telling me the number a second time.”
laughs, really hard, and a little satisfied, and finally drops the bit. “Do you really think I’ve kept a count? Trying to stay sane over here.”
: “Hey, no, wait, I got a number for you.”
: “2”.
: “Short for 2 Many Goddess Forsaken Times.”
can’t help but chuckle. “Very well, your Majesty. I shall drop the count. I understand this is not fun for you. But forewarned is forearmed, and unlike you…I have but the two.”
cackles, quietly. “Good one.”
: “But, naw, I’d… I’d tell you, if I knew. I swear to you I actively try to kill those brain cells every time I get the chance though. I can’t think about it. If I think about it I’ll go nuts. More nuts.” Her tail wiggles iconically.
chuckles. “I suppose this is what it feels like when I talk to Salme about things that happened one hundred years ago.”
: “I know it brings you no joy to think of it. But problems are only things we can run at, not run from. Would you tell me how the Beast cycles, or no?”
eyes her Knight. “Satisfy my curiosity. You got a hypothesis yet?”
: “Not since being on Almachadta. That world ends in fire. It seems unlikely that this world also would. I assume it is overrun by Fiends. But that is an incomplete hypothesis - I know not what would change after that. Unless you have spent every cycle eliminating them alone.”
: “Do worlds grow humans like they grow plants or fiends?”
shifts her weight back on to her hands, a little bit more. “Fire comes from somewhere.” And then she looks up, interested. “Now, that, that’s a good question. I think they just might.”
: “Try to figure that one out, for me, you can get places I can’t.”
: “Perhaps, we are more like the humans than even we thought.” Luĉja murmurs to themself.
shrugs. “Life’s life. You eat, you breathe, you love, you want.”
: “At your service, Hero-Queen. Though I submit that I will not discover this, as we will not fail here.”
: “You, too, have an Angel, or a Spark, yes?”
snorts, softly. “Yeah.”
: “Do you have a hypothesis as to why you cannot travel as we have been able to?”
: “World just likes twisting my tits off, as far as I can figure.”
: “Also, you didn’t happen to get kidnapped by anyone and dropped through a hole in reality, no?”
: “Nnnnnope. I’d like to see a motherfucker try.”
laughs. “I do wonder how fast he’d run away from you.”
: “Bastard might even be able to give me a run for my money, that’d be interesting.”
: “It seems possible. Though, he seems not as inclined to combat. He was not like us. He knew defeat. He swam in it. He could speak only of failure. Whatever advantage he may have surely would lose its edge against our Star.”
: “Sounds like we’re gonna kick his ass and stuff him into a locker when we get the chance, then.”
: “I do not question your prowess in battle, Queen. But I will warn you. I do not know if there is a force in all the worlds that are that would prevent Wolf and Salme from getting to him first. They fit in rather well on the Beast. And for that one, I do not think their rage towards him is finite.”
griiiiiiiiins. “Goddess, it’s fuckin’ great, isn’t it?”
: “Anyways, it’s a group fuckin’ project, at this point.”
: “Indeed. We all will stand together to protect each world.”
: “Remember, Scorpion Queen. No matter the number. You will never face this alone. For you have told me there is always A Clockwork Knight.”
has to actually take a minute and breathe very very deliberately, once or twice. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s true.”
: “With your permission, Your Majesty, I would take my leave. I have several dents to fix and some wax to apply before the Grand Soups. It would not do to be this disheveled while I stand against the Culinary Champions.”
playfully grins. “Yeaaaah, you gotta look your best when you win second prize.” She unfolds herself, stands up - and THEN she flies over to her throne like she’s on wires, and the fire around the blade she’s carrying goes critical, and she plunges it into the throne, stepping back to take a look at her handiwork, nodding. “Yeah, that works.” Pause. “Hey. Thanks for stopping by.”
bows. “I am your Knight, I am always at your service.” A pause of gears. A less mechanical follow-up, “And I am always happy to be here, Hero-Queen. Though, I should warn you, unless you plan on starting a Rite in the kitchen with your favorite frog…second place will be one behind us.”
grins harder. “We’ll see, old friend. Go… wax yourself, or whatever you need to do.”