Session 85: The Mask Behind The Other Mask
The Starfall's peaceful stretch looks to be ending, with Captain Bast informing the other officers that he had signed them onto a heist.
A weapon called the Frost Fair Blade is currently aboard the Seventh Dawn, and an unnamed buyer in the Triad has tasked Bast with retrieving said blade and returning it to the Triad.
Bast then laid out extensive information on the Seventh Dawn and its actions over the last two months; flight paths, docking procedures, number of crew, weapons loadouts, everything short of food allergies and insurance information.
With a considerable amount of information at their disposal, and the beginnings of a plan forming, our brave adventurers have started to try to fill in the gaps of this knowledge, and Orrey's question to the gods returned the truth of the Frost Fair Blade, that the Blade is a Guardian Force.
With plenty of truth left to be communicated, they have then called on Apocynthion Lunakrei Tolvani, the Third, to determine if Apoc has ever heard of the Frost Fair Blade, and anything else the officers feel like grilling him on...
**
Bast blinks. Apoc blinks. "Answer truthfully and fully," he repeats back to Orrey, giving the pocket watch aficionado a quizzical look. "About a sword?" "I think Orrey just ran facefirst into a god, he might be leaking for a while," replies Bast. "How much do you know about the various Guardian Forces?" "I'm sure Apoc always tells us everything when it's relevant to ship business," Yves says. "...oh, Apoc, apparently a mythical sword is relevant to ship business right now, FYI." He sounds a little distracted, as he helpfully explains in both directions. "I should probably start looking at the Meteor up close to figure out the engine stuff I need to adjust. Because of the sword." "A little about a lot, a lot about a little," Apoc answers unhelpfully. After being reminded of Isa's general existence, though, he elaborates. "I don't have detailed knowledge on any of them, but I have introductory information on maybe... fifty, sixty? Seventy? Ish?" "Yves, just don't blow it up while we're still on it, please." Linnet looks uncomfortably tugged in several directions. "Sorry, Apoc, I know this is out of the blue. Um. Okay, first off, where did you manage to cobble together introductory information on several dozen Guardian Forces?"
"It was part of my training," Apoc says to Linnet.
"...in being an actor, or an infuriating obfuscating force?" Linnet (in a perfectly normal tone) serves him coffee and a scone anyway and places fresh coffee in front of Orrey for when he returns to the real world.
"The latter, like as not," Apoc says. The scones are quite nice. "Let's back up a little, then," Linnet starts over. "Your training in what, seriously this time?"
"The Lumin, I'd think?" Bast gives Linnet an odd look.
"Yes, but what kind of information, meant to do what." Linnet motions with a scone in a "can somebody stop talking around the point" gesture.
"Like, you got their hobbies, their secret control codewords, their deepest inner motivations..."
Apoc raises the mug to Bast. Yves sidles out of the room, looking faintly uncomfortable. "Don't worry, it's not like I would blow up the engine for the Starfall," he assures Linnet absently as he goes.
Apoc gives Yves a wink as he goes.
"To find the Guardian Forces, it helps to know if the three-headed dog one is being chased by is one of said Forces or just a minor antagonist who will be forgotten shortly thereafter," Apoc says. "And for the record, Guardian Force, Cerberus. As you well know."
"But it's mostly a matter of identification. Not a tremendous amount of knowledge or small talk material." "There's a few specific ones we were curious about," says Bast. "First and foremost, one that apparently shows up in the occasional legend as the Frost Fair Blade."
Apoc's eyes lose focus, but not in a mystical sense, in a remembering-one's-lines sense. "A Guardian Force that is a blade?" he asks after a moment.
"Or at least appears as one? Doesn't seem like their appearances outside of the masks have much in common."
"I've only heard of one... yes, just one that doesn't appear as some sort of obviously-alive flora or fauna," Apoc says. "I know of the general existence of the Frost Fair Blade, but I did not know it was a Guardian Force. I figured it was just expensive."
"We just found out ourselves, from what seems like a solid source." Bast nods towards Orrey's residual glow.
"Your strange artist friend," Apoc says dubiously.
"A designation which also covers you and 85% of the crew," Linnet points out. "Moving on." "Saroni dropped by for a visit, if I'm understanding this right." Bast shrugs.
There is a noticeable shift in Apoc's demeanor. He watches every twitch on Orrey's face, as if at any moment Orrey could simply kill him with but a thought.
"Anyway. Nothing besides the stories on the Blade?"
"I don't have any additional knowledge of it beyond that, no," is Apoc's reply.
"Alright. A couple of others, we know by name..." Bast pulls a page out the stack of Chmurka's notes. "...Eos and Selene? Seems like those two work together."
Apoc looks up at the ceiling. "Twin... fairies, I believe? Largely harmless. Related to White Magic, if I recall."
Bast shoots Linnet a slightly perplexed look at the part about the fairies.
Linnet keeps her face just a shade to the "annoyed" side of neutral.
Apoc sips his coffee.
"Do you have much information on what they're like in condensed form, when not manifested?"
Apoc shakes his head. "Regrettably, no. Honestly, I didn't find them that interesting or notable. Still important and worthy of safeguarding, but there was little drama to be found with them."
"Understood. Thank you."
"We have descriptions on a few masks, too. Would you know any of them from that?"
"...that's what I was trying to ask, Bast." Linnet sighs and stretches.
"Potentially," Apoc says, leaning forward. "The masks draw on the appearance of the Guardian Force, so it's possible I can recognize them from the description."
"Condensed?" Bast's glance at Linnet is even more confused than before, before he turns back to Apoc.
"Anything like an iron helmet?" asks Bast.
"Just an iron helmet, nothing else?" Apoc asks. "Hooves, horns, anything bestial?"
"Just an inexplicably heavy iron helmet," replies Linnet. "Not, like, in your hands. Like, distorts the gravity of the room around it when you look at it, sort of thing."
"Quite possibly the Iron Giant. Broad at the shoulders, sword the size of any two of you put together, generally an emotionless killing machine. Interesting feelings on justice," Apoc says casually. "That's the only one I can think of that would just be the helmet."
"There's also...let's see..." Linnet ticks off some more details on her fingers. "A beak with red fur or feathers at the edges and a broken earring...purple ceramic with rough pink stitching and a sort of bulbous sac...and a giant mouth. Taller than it it wide."
"...how interesting?" Bast perks up at the description of the killing machine.
Apoc snaps his fingers, excited at the last one. "Atomos!"
Linnet raises her eyebrows and gestures for elaboration with the same scone, grown rather stale by this point.
“Atomos sounds ominous.” Orrey says softly.
"Precisely what it sounds like, a giant mouth that eats everything. Could be a portal to a compressed dimension. Could just be an angry mouth sucking up the countryside. Not exactly one for talking. Highly dangerous."
"Are you looking for something more than 'here's a guy' with these, a name to go with a rictus of a face?" Apoc asks.
"Any practical advice on dealing with them," replies Bast. "Things to watch out for. Containment?"
“What more is there to learn beyond these thumbnail sketches?” Orrey asks, eyes only faintly glowing still.
"For Atomos, run," Apoc says seriously. "The Iron Giant is physically unmatched, but is magically weak. Eos and Selene, I do not know."
Bast nods with a somewhat distant look. "Does Atomos...stop eating at some point? Fill up? Something got it back into its mask. And nothing for the beak or the sac?"
"The descriptions aren't enough for the beak or sac. If I saw them, maybe." Apoc looks very pleased to be talking about Atomos; it is one of his favorite subjects. "Atomos stops when Atomos wishes to. When, why, and how, impossible to know. There's no intelligence there, not how you or I would know it."
Linnet mutters something under her breath and swipes Orrey's pencil, grabbing a discarded sheet of notepaper. Her drawings are nowhere near the quality of Orrey's, but she does manage to reproduce something resembling the two as-yet-unidentified masks. Thrusting the paper at Apoc, she inquires brusquely, "Does that help?"
Apoc looks up after a moment. "It helps tremendously, Linnet, thank you!"
"The beak here is Valefor. From what I remember, it's a bird, obviously, and what you have here, the earring, see how it extends down so far? That was a chain, once upon a time, used to enslave the bird and keep it at its master's beck and call. As birds go, Valefor is larger and more dangerous than most, but it is also very slow to anger. The cruelty seemed to have been the point, with the chain."
He takes the other drawing now. "This is likely Pandemona, a creature of wind. Myths of the west wind that blew ships, whatever, history teaches us nothing. Despite being a creature of wind it has nothing to do with storms of any sort. Communicates via whispers, but only in one direction; if you are downwind, it cannot hear you."
Linnet nods appreciatively and turns to Bast. "Right. Strategic meeting?"
"Apoc, do you know of any connection between the Gods and the Guardian Forces?" Orrey asks.
"You're the one on speaking terms," he replies sharply.
"Says the one avoiding answering." Orrey says flatly.
Bast scratches his chin pensively. "Anything you know from your end?"
"He's clearly afraid of the Twelve, I'm not sure this is going to go anywhere productive." Linnet has taken back her drawings and is working on refining them.
Apoc doesn't take his eyes off of Orrey. "Nothing verifiable, but nothing good," he says, and he doesn't want to continue with Orrey here.
"I'm not aware of any connection," Orrey says. "I was wondering if you knew more from your training. I don't harbor any ill will toward you, Apoc."
Isa doesn't say that she does.
Orrey shrugs and gets up. "I'll go if it'll make you more comfortable."
"Then go," Apoc says.
Orrey walks out to go see how Yves is doing.
Bast frowns at that exchange, but motions for Apoc to go on as Orrey steps out.
"From what I have been told," Apoc says once the door is closed, "the gods and the Guardian Forces are on opposing sides. Why, I do not know. Master Roche always said the Guardian Forces willingly desired to become the Great Crystal to begin with, but Master Roche is a murderer and neither he nor those who support him can be trusted. Regardless, the two do not cross, and no god would ever aid a Guardian Force without some ill intention behind it."
"I'm a bit light on the history of this. Was it the gods trapping them in the Great Crystal, or setting them up in the sky, or..." Bast's hand motion vaguely suggests a stone rolling downhill.
(Linnet is forcibly doodling and theoretically taking notes, but not looking at anyone else in the room.)
"And is there some significance to the twelve constellations? Divine or otherwise?" Bast's stone comes to an ill-defined stop, possibly in more than one piece.
"I don't know if there's a significance,"Apoc says. "I left before we got to that part of the lesson. Perilune undoubtedly knows the --" he looks at Linnet, and forces himself to stop. "Perilune knows more of what Roche says."
Linnet does not make any sort of outward expression of emotion, but does make a mental note to call Perilune before setting out.
Bast breathes out slowly, almost a sigh, before giving Apoc an abrupt nod. "One other thing, for me. What can you tell us about Asura?"
Apoc thinks that over.
"Asura," he says quietly, "betrayed the Espers."
"I told you before that the Espers, the Guardian Forces, they became the Great Crystal. Asura served as their Queen, and she kept her wits about her more than most inside the Crystal. She is a diplomat. She always knew her way around courts as well as crystals. So, after Alterna was founded, Asura negotiated her freedom."
"That's not precisely how she termed it, of course. She would be an assistant to the Empress, to help the Empress understand how the Great Crystal could aid them and their people. Set them out on the proper course. Guide the people down the correct path through their life. The Espers' power in the crystal, it could be used and manipulated. This would let the Espers still be a part of the world they were protecting, even if they could no longer be part of it."
Apoc slumps back in his chair. "And in turn, the Espers would be enslaved by the Alternan Empire, their knowledge and power used to ensure the people never got any of either. All of you will be sailors," he says, gesturing lazily at the corner, "and Leviathan's going to ensure it's written into your very identity, no matter if they want to or not."
"So that wasn't how things were with the Great Crystal from the start?"
"Dictating paths in life? Apparently not," Apoc says.
Bast steeples his fingers in front of him, elbows on the table, and slowly taps his thumbs together. "Do you know how it started, then?"
"According to?" Isa inquires, pleasantly.
Linnet's eyebrows wrinkle, but she still doesn't comment, in the hopes that the conversation will end faster. "Alterna used the Great Crystal to lock everyone in paths they couldn't break free of," Apoc says. "It started with Alterna, and it ended when the crystal exploded and scattered the Espers into the sky. Roche wants to put it all back in place. Does he want to then control everyone? Or does he just not care if someone else does? I don't know, but I'm not going to stand for it. Everyone's got the right to be who they're going to be, even if it goes against what they were raised to be."
"And having finished his impromptu monopolization of the stage..." Apoc grumbles to himself. "Will there be anything else, Captain?"
"Hm." Bast considers for a moment. "Isa? Linnet?"
Isa shakes her head.
Bast takes a hint from Linnet's annoyed silence. "That'll be all for now. Thank you. This helps quite a bit."
Apoc salutes and departs. "Do I have time to get blackout drunk before this mission to cleanse my brain of that meeting?" Linnet mutters into her coffee.
"Anything in particular?" Bast seems vaguely amused.
"You know I trust that idiot as far as I can throw him, and you just spilled way too much mission-critical information. But apart from that, no." Linnet crumples her drawings and bounces them off the wall into the nearest wastebasket. "So, you two, what's the closest thing we have to a plan? And are we including the Devouring Maw in the haul if we do manage to break into the mask room? I kind of don't want to let Yves try to make friends with that one."
Isa shakes her head. "We're critically short on intelligence, overmatched, outnumbered, and outgunned. The best plan we're going to be able to come up with is choosing where to get in, and then hoping we can get out when the shitstorm comes." "Which means I hope Yves's work on Meteor is going well."
"We're currently depending on our blessedly unstable chemist genius to overclock the engine of our escape craft as the linchpin of our plan to get us onto the enemy ship where friggin' everyone's armed." Linnet's head thunks onto the table. "Bast, any more luck on finding out who this client is, so that once they've paid us, we can kill them?"
"I'm not sure we're going to get a better source on these masks in the time we've got. With what we've got right now, I'm starting to wonder if it's a good idea to go for them. And that's a no on the client, so far."
"'Good idea' doesn't apply to anything on this mission, Bast, but we won't get a better opportunity. They're in unless we get catastrophically wrecked before we ever get to the main target. Which we're assuming is stored with the other masks, because it's a blowin' mask." Linnet stabs the air with the pencil. "If we need a distraction, I need time to let the crew know. If we're aiming for a silent entry, you probably need to prepare for that, in terms of your tool belt. If we're trying to somehow enlist the masks themselves..."
"Target's in the vault, I don't have ship blueprints or anything like that yet but the vault isn't the room you described for us. And if we're planning to talk to them..." Bast looks over to the door that Yves left through earlier.
"I did too, for the record." Linnet pokes Bast (lightly) with the pencil. "Are we all going in? Is someone staying with the ship? Are we bringing Marina?"
"Good question," Isa says. "I can fly in, or out, or I can fight. But I can't do both. If we bring Marina in we've got another pilot, but I know her scale for hazard pay and this is hazardous."
"Flying in should be nice and quiet. Out's likely to get hairy unless all of the Twelve feel like being nice to us that day." Bast, hands still folded, taps his thumb against his lower lip. "I'm still trying to get more info on the ship and what our best ways in or out would be. Don't think we can count on simply cutting through, there's weird shit going on with their hull." Orrey is still stuffing in the various pictures of tools with proper labels back into his satchel as he walks back into the room with Yves. "Apoc talk done?" "--which is why we don't need the cargo nets right now," Yves is explaining. "Oh, right. Good news, everyone! I have a solid plan for the Meteor, and just need a few days to implement it. And maybe a few days after that to test and refine. It'll be great." "Such as it is," Isa says, then looks at Yves. "How's our boy?" "...and what are we doing with cargo nets?" asks Linnet, warily. "We're not using the cargo nets on this trip because we're not hauling anything bulky," Yves says soothingly, "which is why I can repurpose them for releasing the flash-chaff. Orrey says we have a ton of glitter, so that part will be easy, and it will only explode when we want it to. Hardly even an explosion! More of a controlled rapid expansion." Bast looks both disturbed and intrigued by what's coming out of Yves' mouth. "...we're fighting something with glitter?"
Linnet just looks mildly stupefied.
Isa hms, with something that might be in the neighborhood of approval. "No, no, of course not." Yves chuckles. "We're using the glitter to make it more difficult for the other ship to target us with their giant terrifying weapons while we get out of range."
Isa nods. "When you're drawing range on another ship, you look for reflections. Glass is the big one, but you'd be surprised how shiny a handrail in a busy spot can get. Good thinking."
"Sufficient lightweight glitter that won't fall fast, sprayed out behind us, and..." Yves makes a gesture with his hands which, despite his claims, looks an awful lot like an explosion. "They'll know we're somewhere in that flying whale sized target, but not where." Bast looks mildly less skeptical at that. "I'm thinking they're not likely to cast off and give chase right away, if we're waiting until most of the crew is gone, but...good to have options." He gives Yves an approving nod. "Also, if someone else wants to take a look at the place where anyone getting off their ship with the loot will be getting onto ours..." Yves clears his throat. "I'm thinking we might want some easy handholds for people who aren't already seated and strapped down, to grab. Because we want a lot of acceleration, and that can, I was reliably informed after the last time I adjusted an engine, really throw people around. So if someone else can install those, that'll save me a little time and focus while I'm doing engine things. I want to really really focus when upgrading the engine, because, uh, you know, bluespirit, it's great, but sometimes it wants to be great in a really aggressive manner, and I'd rather it support our greatness instead. Carefully. Rapidly! But carefully. As it were." "The easiest solution, of course, are cargo nets." Isa's tone is bland and even.
"............true."
"In the short term, perhaps, but longer-term loading safety is also a concern. Yves! Look at you, thinking safely!" Linnet jumps up and hugs him, the first sign of energy she's shown in an hour.
"What about...straps? Or belts?" Orrey asks.
"You can do a lot with some extra rope without looking too out of place on a ship," adds Bast.
"Harnesses!" Orrey says excitedly.
Yves beams at the Linnet-hug. "I'm trying not to blow anyone up, or knock anyone out a window," he says. "It seems like a good way to make this heist safe, straightforward, and successful! The getaway part, anyway."
"All for it." Bast can't resist adding "I'll come by later, take a look at those engine upgrades."
"Please do," Yves says earnestly to Bast. "I'll be sketching out the details so that you can take a look at them before I make any major irreversible changes. I haven't done anything yet but little fiddly prep stuff."
"...the getaway part, yes. Now if only we can work up some sort of plan for the other ninety percent of it..." mutters Linnet.
"We could just wing it. Play it by ear. See how things go and make it all up as we go." Orrey says.
Linnet sighs. "Orrey, with all respect, I've met your sister's new crew. That sounds like a recipe for getting us either forcibly conscripted, decapitated, or possibly just blown out into space. None of which gets us paid and none of which gets us back to the Starfall intact." "We should have a list of every hatch, hole and door that ship has to the outside before too long. Between that and what you and the rest of us have seen, we should be able to pick something that at least gets us close to the mask room. Still trying to get more info on the vault." Bast's clearly not all that happy about not having this in hand already. "That'd help. Someone let me know what we decide on as a diversion in enough time for me to rally the diversionary forces, please. And at some point, let me know one or two of Chmurka's favorite treats? Because I will be sending her kitten-mail." Linnet starts to gather the coffee cups and plates from the meeting. "I rather liked that musical number with Ivy's solo. I don't recall what the name of it was..." Orrey says.
Bast's staring off somewhere past the nearest wall as he nods in response. When he refocuses, he's looking at Orrey.
"So how much attention do the gods pay to what we do down here, anyway?"
Yves is, true to his word, now sketching out engine upgrade plans in one of his many notebooks, the better to figure out how to not make anything explode except for the things that are supposed to explode. And even those, only on request. "I don't know. I feel like it's not all that much, not towards individuals anyway. But that's purely speculation." Orrey says.
Orrey hesitates. "I could ask one of them..."
"Maybe not right now." Bast's fingers twitch into a faint semblance of a stopping gesture. "Saroni not around anymore?"
Orrey shakes his head no.
"Because from what Apoc told us, we might be getting in the middle of a divine turf war."
Orrey nods slowly. "That makes some sense. Fill me in."
"Gods apparently have it in for - Espers? Guardian forces?" Bast pauses. "Reasons lost to history, not sure what their goals are in this, etc. No word on whether it's mutual."
"That could be problematic with the masks on board," Orrey says. "I can't even imagine what a war between the gods and the Guardian Forces would do to the world..."
A weapon called the Frost Fair Blade is currently aboard the Seventh Dawn, and an unnamed buyer in the Triad has tasked Bast with retrieving said blade and returning it to the Triad.
Bast then laid out extensive information on the Seventh Dawn and its actions over the last two months; flight paths, docking procedures, number of crew, weapons loadouts, everything short of food allergies and insurance information.
With a considerable amount of information at their disposal, and the beginnings of a plan forming, our brave adventurers have started to try to fill in the gaps of this knowledge, and Orrey's question to the gods returned the truth of the Frost Fair Blade, that the Blade is a Guardian Force.
With plenty of truth left to be communicated, they have then called on Apocynthion Lunakrei Tolvani, the Third, to determine if Apoc has ever heard of the Frost Fair Blade, and anything else the officers feel like grilling him on...
**
Bast blinks. Apoc blinks. "Answer truthfully and fully," he repeats back to Orrey, giving the pocket watch aficionado a quizzical look. "About a sword?" "I think Orrey just ran facefirst into a god, he might be leaking for a while," replies Bast. "How much do you know about the various Guardian Forces?" "I'm sure Apoc always tells us everything when it's relevant to ship business," Yves says. "...oh, Apoc, apparently a mythical sword is relevant to ship business right now, FYI." He sounds a little distracted, as he helpfully explains in both directions. "I should probably start looking at the Meteor up close to figure out the engine stuff I need to adjust. Because of the sword." "A little about a lot, a lot about a little," Apoc answers unhelpfully. After being reminded of Isa's general existence, though, he elaborates. "I don't have detailed knowledge on any of them, but I have introductory information on maybe... fifty, sixty? Seventy? Ish?" "Yves, just don't blow it up while we're still on it, please." Linnet looks uncomfortably tugged in several directions. "Sorry, Apoc, I know this is out of the blue. Um. Okay, first off, where did you manage to cobble together introductory information on several dozen Guardian Forces?"
"It was part of my training," Apoc says to Linnet.
"...in being an actor, or an infuriating obfuscating force?" Linnet (in a perfectly normal tone) serves him coffee and a scone anyway and places fresh coffee in front of Orrey for when he returns to the real world.
"The latter, like as not," Apoc says. The scones are quite nice. "Let's back up a little, then," Linnet starts over. "Your training in what, seriously this time?"
"The Lumin, I'd think?" Bast gives Linnet an odd look.
"Yes, but what kind of information, meant to do what." Linnet motions with a scone in a "can somebody stop talking around the point" gesture.
"Like, you got their hobbies, their secret control codewords, their deepest inner motivations..."
Apoc raises the mug to Bast. Yves sidles out of the room, looking faintly uncomfortable. "Don't worry, it's not like I would blow up the engine for the Starfall," he assures Linnet absently as he goes.
Apoc gives Yves a wink as he goes.
"To find the Guardian Forces, it helps to know if the three-headed dog one is being chased by is one of said Forces or just a minor antagonist who will be forgotten shortly thereafter," Apoc says. "And for the record, Guardian Force, Cerberus. As you well know."
"But it's mostly a matter of identification. Not a tremendous amount of knowledge or small talk material." "There's a few specific ones we were curious about," says Bast. "First and foremost, one that apparently shows up in the occasional legend as the Frost Fair Blade."
Apoc's eyes lose focus, but not in a mystical sense, in a remembering-one's-lines sense. "A Guardian Force that is a blade?" he asks after a moment.
"Or at least appears as one? Doesn't seem like their appearances outside of the masks have much in common."
"I've only heard of one... yes, just one that doesn't appear as some sort of obviously-alive flora or fauna," Apoc says. "I know of the general existence of the Frost Fair Blade, but I did not know it was a Guardian Force. I figured it was just expensive."
"We just found out ourselves, from what seems like a solid source." Bast nods towards Orrey's residual glow.
"Your strange artist friend," Apoc says dubiously.
"A designation which also covers you and 85% of the crew," Linnet points out. "Moving on." "Saroni dropped by for a visit, if I'm understanding this right." Bast shrugs.
There is a noticeable shift in Apoc's demeanor. He watches every twitch on Orrey's face, as if at any moment Orrey could simply kill him with but a thought.
"Anyway. Nothing besides the stories on the Blade?"
"I don't have any additional knowledge of it beyond that, no," is Apoc's reply.
"Alright. A couple of others, we know by name..." Bast pulls a page out the stack of Chmurka's notes. "...Eos and Selene? Seems like those two work together."
Apoc looks up at the ceiling. "Twin... fairies, I believe? Largely harmless. Related to White Magic, if I recall."
Bast shoots Linnet a slightly perplexed look at the part about the fairies.
Linnet keeps her face just a shade to the "annoyed" side of neutral.
Apoc sips his coffee.
"Do you have much information on what they're like in condensed form, when not manifested?"
Apoc shakes his head. "Regrettably, no. Honestly, I didn't find them that interesting or notable. Still important and worthy of safeguarding, but there was little drama to be found with them."
"Understood. Thank you."
"We have descriptions on a few masks, too. Would you know any of them from that?"
"...that's what I was trying to ask, Bast." Linnet sighs and stretches.
"Potentially," Apoc says, leaning forward. "The masks draw on the appearance of the Guardian Force, so it's possible I can recognize them from the description."
"Condensed?" Bast's glance at Linnet is even more confused than before, before he turns back to Apoc.
"Anything like an iron helmet?" asks Bast.
"Just an iron helmet, nothing else?" Apoc asks. "Hooves, horns, anything bestial?"
"Just an inexplicably heavy iron helmet," replies Linnet. "Not, like, in your hands. Like, distorts the gravity of the room around it when you look at it, sort of thing."
"Quite possibly the Iron Giant. Broad at the shoulders, sword the size of any two of you put together, generally an emotionless killing machine. Interesting feelings on justice," Apoc says casually. "That's the only one I can think of that would just be the helmet."
"There's also...let's see..." Linnet ticks off some more details on her fingers. "A beak with red fur or feathers at the edges and a broken earring...purple ceramic with rough pink stitching and a sort of bulbous sac...and a giant mouth. Taller than it it wide."
"...how interesting?" Bast perks up at the description of the killing machine.
Apoc snaps his fingers, excited at the last one. "Atomos!"
Linnet raises her eyebrows and gestures for elaboration with the same scone, grown rather stale by this point.
“Atomos sounds ominous.” Orrey says softly.
"Precisely what it sounds like, a giant mouth that eats everything. Could be a portal to a compressed dimension. Could just be an angry mouth sucking up the countryside. Not exactly one for talking. Highly dangerous."
"Are you looking for something more than 'here's a guy' with these, a name to go with a rictus of a face?" Apoc asks.
"Any practical advice on dealing with them," replies Bast. "Things to watch out for. Containment?"
“What more is there to learn beyond these thumbnail sketches?” Orrey asks, eyes only faintly glowing still.
"For Atomos, run," Apoc says seriously. "The Iron Giant is physically unmatched, but is magically weak. Eos and Selene, I do not know."
Bast nods with a somewhat distant look. "Does Atomos...stop eating at some point? Fill up? Something got it back into its mask. And nothing for the beak or the sac?"
"The descriptions aren't enough for the beak or sac. If I saw them, maybe." Apoc looks very pleased to be talking about Atomos; it is one of his favorite subjects. "Atomos stops when Atomos wishes to. When, why, and how, impossible to know. There's no intelligence there, not how you or I would know it."
Linnet mutters something under her breath and swipes Orrey's pencil, grabbing a discarded sheet of notepaper. Her drawings are nowhere near the quality of Orrey's, but she does manage to reproduce something resembling the two as-yet-unidentified masks. Thrusting the paper at Apoc, she inquires brusquely, "Does that help?"
Apoc looks up after a moment. "It helps tremendously, Linnet, thank you!"
"The beak here is Valefor. From what I remember, it's a bird, obviously, and what you have here, the earring, see how it extends down so far? That was a chain, once upon a time, used to enslave the bird and keep it at its master's beck and call. As birds go, Valefor is larger and more dangerous than most, but it is also very slow to anger. The cruelty seemed to have been the point, with the chain."
He takes the other drawing now. "This is likely Pandemona, a creature of wind. Myths of the west wind that blew ships, whatever, history teaches us nothing. Despite being a creature of wind it has nothing to do with storms of any sort. Communicates via whispers, but only in one direction; if you are downwind, it cannot hear you."
Linnet nods appreciatively and turns to Bast. "Right. Strategic meeting?"
"Apoc, do you know of any connection between the Gods and the Guardian Forces?" Orrey asks.
"You're the one on speaking terms," he replies sharply.
"Says the one avoiding answering." Orrey says flatly.
Bast scratches his chin pensively. "Anything you know from your end?"
"He's clearly afraid of the Twelve, I'm not sure this is going to go anywhere productive." Linnet has taken back her drawings and is working on refining them.
Apoc doesn't take his eyes off of Orrey. "Nothing verifiable, but nothing good," he says, and he doesn't want to continue with Orrey here.
"I'm not aware of any connection," Orrey says. "I was wondering if you knew more from your training. I don't harbor any ill will toward you, Apoc."
Isa doesn't say that she does.
Orrey shrugs and gets up. "I'll go if it'll make you more comfortable."
"Then go," Apoc says.
Orrey walks out to go see how Yves is doing.
Bast frowns at that exchange, but motions for Apoc to go on as Orrey steps out.
"From what I have been told," Apoc says once the door is closed, "the gods and the Guardian Forces are on opposing sides. Why, I do not know. Master Roche always said the Guardian Forces willingly desired to become the Great Crystal to begin with, but Master Roche is a murderer and neither he nor those who support him can be trusted. Regardless, the two do not cross, and no god would ever aid a Guardian Force without some ill intention behind it."
"I'm a bit light on the history of this. Was it the gods trapping them in the Great Crystal, or setting them up in the sky, or..." Bast's hand motion vaguely suggests a stone rolling downhill.
(Linnet is forcibly doodling and theoretically taking notes, but not looking at anyone else in the room.)
"And is there some significance to the twelve constellations? Divine or otherwise?" Bast's stone comes to an ill-defined stop, possibly in more than one piece.
"I don't know if there's a significance,"Apoc says. "I left before we got to that part of the lesson. Perilune undoubtedly knows the --" he looks at Linnet, and forces himself to stop. "Perilune knows more of what Roche says."
Linnet does not make any sort of outward expression of emotion, but does make a mental note to call Perilune before setting out.
Bast breathes out slowly, almost a sigh, before giving Apoc an abrupt nod. "One other thing, for me. What can you tell us about Asura?"
Apoc thinks that over.
"Asura," he says quietly, "betrayed the Espers."
"I told you before that the Espers, the Guardian Forces, they became the Great Crystal. Asura served as their Queen, and she kept her wits about her more than most inside the Crystal. She is a diplomat. She always knew her way around courts as well as crystals. So, after Alterna was founded, Asura negotiated her freedom."
"That's not precisely how she termed it, of course. She would be an assistant to the Empress, to help the Empress understand how the Great Crystal could aid them and their people. Set them out on the proper course. Guide the people down the correct path through their life. The Espers' power in the crystal, it could be used and manipulated. This would let the Espers still be a part of the world they were protecting, even if they could no longer be part of it."
Apoc slumps back in his chair. "And in turn, the Espers would be enslaved by the Alternan Empire, their knowledge and power used to ensure the people never got any of either. All of you will be sailors," he says, gesturing lazily at the corner, "and Leviathan's going to ensure it's written into your very identity, no matter if they want to or not."
"So that wasn't how things were with the Great Crystal from the start?"
"Dictating paths in life? Apparently not," Apoc says.
Bast steeples his fingers in front of him, elbows on the table, and slowly taps his thumbs together. "Do you know how it started, then?"
"According to?" Isa inquires, pleasantly.
Linnet's eyebrows wrinkle, but she still doesn't comment, in the hopes that the conversation will end faster. "Alterna used the Great Crystal to lock everyone in paths they couldn't break free of," Apoc says. "It started with Alterna, and it ended when the crystal exploded and scattered the Espers into the sky. Roche wants to put it all back in place. Does he want to then control everyone? Or does he just not care if someone else does? I don't know, but I'm not going to stand for it. Everyone's got the right to be who they're going to be, even if it goes against what they were raised to be."
"And having finished his impromptu monopolization of the stage..." Apoc grumbles to himself. "Will there be anything else, Captain?"
"Hm." Bast considers for a moment. "Isa? Linnet?"
Isa shakes her head.
Bast takes a hint from Linnet's annoyed silence. "That'll be all for now. Thank you. This helps quite a bit."
Apoc salutes and departs. "Do I have time to get blackout drunk before this mission to cleanse my brain of that meeting?" Linnet mutters into her coffee.
"Anything in particular?" Bast seems vaguely amused.
"You know I trust that idiot as far as I can throw him, and you just spilled way too much mission-critical information. But apart from that, no." Linnet crumples her drawings and bounces them off the wall into the nearest wastebasket. "So, you two, what's the closest thing we have to a plan? And are we including the Devouring Maw in the haul if we do manage to break into the mask room? I kind of don't want to let Yves try to make friends with that one."
Isa shakes her head. "We're critically short on intelligence, overmatched, outnumbered, and outgunned. The best plan we're going to be able to come up with is choosing where to get in, and then hoping we can get out when the shitstorm comes." "Which means I hope Yves's work on Meteor is going well."
"We're currently depending on our blessedly unstable chemist genius to overclock the engine of our escape craft as the linchpin of our plan to get us onto the enemy ship where friggin' everyone's armed." Linnet's head thunks onto the table. "Bast, any more luck on finding out who this client is, so that once they've paid us, we can kill them?"
"I'm not sure we're going to get a better source on these masks in the time we've got. With what we've got right now, I'm starting to wonder if it's a good idea to go for them. And that's a no on the client, so far."
"'Good idea' doesn't apply to anything on this mission, Bast, but we won't get a better opportunity. They're in unless we get catastrophically wrecked before we ever get to the main target. Which we're assuming is stored with the other masks, because it's a blowin' mask." Linnet stabs the air with the pencil. "If we need a distraction, I need time to let the crew know. If we're aiming for a silent entry, you probably need to prepare for that, in terms of your tool belt. If we're trying to somehow enlist the masks themselves..."
"Target's in the vault, I don't have ship blueprints or anything like that yet but the vault isn't the room you described for us. And if we're planning to talk to them..." Bast looks over to the door that Yves left through earlier.
"I did too, for the record." Linnet pokes Bast (lightly) with the pencil. "Are we all going in? Is someone staying with the ship? Are we bringing Marina?"
"Good question," Isa says. "I can fly in, or out, or I can fight. But I can't do both. If we bring Marina in we've got another pilot, but I know her scale for hazard pay and this is hazardous."
"Flying in should be nice and quiet. Out's likely to get hairy unless all of the Twelve feel like being nice to us that day." Bast, hands still folded, taps his thumb against his lower lip. "I'm still trying to get more info on the ship and what our best ways in or out would be. Don't think we can count on simply cutting through, there's weird shit going on with their hull." Orrey is still stuffing in the various pictures of tools with proper labels back into his satchel as he walks back into the room with Yves. "Apoc talk done?" "--which is why we don't need the cargo nets right now," Yves is explaining. "Oh, right. Good news, everyone! I have a solid plan for the Meteor, and just need a few days to implement it. And maybe a few days after that to test and refine. It'll be great." "Such as it is," Isa says, then looks at Yves. "How's our boy?" "...and what are we doing with cargo nets?" asks Linnet, warily. "We're not using the cargo nets on this trip because we're not hauling anything bulky," Yves says soothingly, "which is why I can repurpose them for releasing the flash-chaff. Orrey says we have a ton of glitter, so that part will be easy, and it will only explode when we want it to. Hardly even an explosion! More of a controlled rapid expansion." Bast looks both disturbed and intrigued by what's coming out of Yves' mouth. "...we're fighting something with glitter?"
Linnet just looks mildly stupefied.
Isa hms, with something that might be in the neighborhood of approval. "No, no, of course not." Yves chuckles. "We're using the glitter to make it more difficult for the other ship to target us with their giant terrifying weapons while we get out of range."
Isa nods. "When you're drawing range on another ship, you look for reflections. Glass is the big one, but you'd be surprised how shiny a handrail in a busy spot can get. Good thinking."
"Sufficient lightweight glitter that won't fall fast, sprayed out behind us, and..." Yves makes a gesture with his hands which, despite his claims, looks an awful lot like an explosion. "They'll know we're somewhere in that flying whale sized target, but not where." Bast looks mildly less skeptical at that. "I'm thinking they're not likely to cast off and give chase right away, if we're waiting until most of the crew is gone, but...good to have options." He gives Yves an approving nod. "Also, if someone else wants to take a look at the place where anyone getting off their ship with the loot will be getting onto ours..." Yves clears his throat. "I'm thinking we might want some easy handholds for people who aren't already seated and strapped down, to grab. Because we want a lot of acceleration, and that can, I was reliably informed after the last time I adjusted an engine, really throw people around. So if someone else can install those, that'll save me a little time and focus while I'm doing engine things. I want to really really focus when upgrading the engine, because, uh, you know, bluespirit, it's great, but sometimes it wants to be great in a really aggressive manner, and I'd rather it support our greatness instead. Carefully. Rapidly! But carefully. As it were." "The easiest solution, of course, are cargo nets." Isa's tone is bland and even.
"............true."
"In the short term, perhaps, but longer-term loading safety is also a concern. Yves! Look at you, thinking safely!" Linnet jumps up and hugs him, the first sign of energy she's shown in an hour.
"What about...straps? Or belts?" Orrey asks.
"You can do a lot with some extra rope without looking too out of place on a ship," adds Bast.
"Harnesses!" Orrey says excitedly.
Yves beams at the Linnet-hug. "I'm trying not to blow anyone up, or knock anyone out a window," he says. "It seems like a good way to make this heist safe, straightforward, and successful! The getaway part, anyway."
"All for it." Bast can't resist adding "I'll come by later, take a look at those engine upgrades."
"Please do," Yves says earnestly to Bast. "I'll be sketching out the details so that you can take a look at them before I make any major irreversible changes. I haven't done anything yet but little fiddly prep stuff."
"...the getaway part, yes. Now if only we can work up some sort of plan for the other ninety percent of it..." mutters Linnet.
"We could just wing it. Play it by ear. See how things go and make it all up as we go." Orrey says.
Linnet sighs. "Orrey, with all respect, I've met your sister's new crew. That sounds like a recipe for getting us either forcibly conscripted, decapitated, or possibly just blown out into space. None of which gets us paid and none of which gets us back to the Starfall intact." "We should have a list of every hatch, hole and door that ship has to the outside before too long. Between that and what you and the rest of us have seen, we should be able to pick something that at least gets us close to the mask room. Still trying to get more info on the vault." Bast's clearly not all that happy about not having this in hand already. "That'd help. Someone let me know what we decide on as a diversion in enough time for me to rally the diversionary forces, please. And at some point, let me know one or two of Chmurka's favorite treats? Because I will be sending her kitten-mail." Linnet starts to gather the coffee cups and plates from the meeting. "I rather liked that musical number with Ivy's solo. I don't recall what the name of it was..." Orrey says.
Bast's staring off somewhere past the nearest wall as he nods in response. When he refocuses, he's looking at Orrey.
"So how much attention do the gods pay to what we do down here, anyway?"
Yves is, true to his word, now sketching out engine upgrade plans in one of his many notebooks, the better to figure out how to not make anything explode except for the things that are supposed to explode. And even those, only on request. "I don't know. I feel like it's not all that much, not towards individuals anyway. But that's purely speculation." Orrey says.
Orrey hesitates. "I could ask one of them..."
"Maybe not right now." Bast's fingers twitch into a faint semblance of a stopping gesture. "Saroni not around anymore?"
Orrey shakes his head no.
"Because from what Apoc told us, we might be getting in the middle of a divine turf war."
Orrey nods slowly. "That makes some sense. Fill me in."
"Gods apparently have it in for - Espers? Guardian forces?" Bast pauses. "Reasons lost to history, not sure what their goals are in this, etc. No word on whether it's mutual."
"That could be problematic with the masks on board," Orrey says. "I can't even imagine what a war between the gods and the Guardian Forces would do to the world..."
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