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New Avalon Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=New%20Avalon
Colors' Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gq9ZEFrwnYjQpSeuMg1a_7UepedMrQUSEwbrHWntFCo/edit?usp=sharing
Previous Thread: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2495027/
Jack's Unsanctioned Editorials: https://jacks-unsanctioned-editorials.tumblr.com/

You are Colors Eriksdotter, the Warlock Knight, and Philadelphia has decided to come to you, like the piece of shit it is.

"You should have stayed home," you snarl; you step in for a two-handed chop, and when Trevor sidesteps it he gets a razor-glass backhand for his trouble.

You catch the shaft of his staff right in the ribs when he leaps back to get away from you, his satyr's legs taking him a good four feet straight back, but that's fine. You don't intend on sticking with him.

You take 1 damage

Up ahead, Erin is on the defensive. Francesca doesn't wear armor but the big Ogre gal combines the full-force rage of a giant with the patient tactical movement of a professional boxer, and your blind (...friend? Lover? Not now) is having a hell of a time of it.

You've got an idea. Let's just hope Erin loves this movie as much as you think she does, given that the two of you have been singing its sound track for a lot of this trip.
>>
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>>2522705
"Erin, I've got cabin fever!"

You kick Trevor full in his mailed gut and whirl to grab Erin's hand, and praise be to Bragi and to Freya you guessed right; Erin's already reaching for you (Grab your partner by the ear, lash him to the wheel...). You pull, whirling her into battle with Trevor and putting you in front of Francesca (Do-si-do, step on his toes, listen to him squeal!). You can feel hot blood on your hand from where Erin grabbed you, but there's nothing to be done about that right now.

Francesca catches your slash between her palms, so you punch her in the elbow with your left hand. She groans but holds, trying to snap Bifrost's blade, so you hit her again, slapping her elbow with your open palm and raking the razor-sharp glass from your Contract down her arm to open her arm up. She roars in pain and staggers back.

"Where are the others?" you demand. Francesca laughs and comes in swinging.

It was worth a shot.

> Hammer that weak arm. You can end this here (Opposed Melee)
> You know where you cut her. Francesca's already dead; you just have to wait her out (Athletics against difficulty 9)
>>
>>2522714
> Hammer that weak arm. You can end this here (Opposed Melee)
>>
>>2522714
>> Hammer that weak arm. You can end this here (Opposed Melee)

VALHALLA AWAITS!
>>
>>2522795
>VALHALLA AWAITS! again.
>>
>>2522714
> You know where you cut her. Francesca's already dead; you just have to wait her out (Athletics against difficulty 9)
I doubt the wisdom of going opposed melee vs an ogre
>>
>>2522714
> You know where you cut her. Francesca's already dead; you just have to wait her out (Athletics against difficulty 9)
>>
>>2522714
> You know where you cut her. Francesca's already dead; you just have to wait her out (Athletics against difficulty 9)
>>
>>2522714
>Hammer that weak arm. You can end this here (Opposed Melee)
>>
>>2522833
Colors is many things. Wise doesn't seem to be one of them in a lot of ways.
>>
>>2522945
That's just bad combat tactics, she's not a bad warrior
>>
>>2522714
>> You know where you cut her. Francesca's already dead; you just have to wait her out (Athletics against difficulty 9)
Respectable as dying for the gods is, there's something to be said for staying alive to kill for them.
>>
wait are we going to kill these people?
>>
>>2523259
You're certainly slated to at the moment. It's remarkably hard to NOT kill people with most weapons.
>>
>>2523259
Is there any way to get out of this situation without killing, or at least get back to running to a trod?
>>
>>2523274
part of the reason why I want to know if there could be a way to get out of this situation without killing them is just the fact that colors murdering the Philie Hounds might not make sense in how we've been playing her so far, though I admit we don't really know about her relationship with these guys previously before Color quit summer.

I don't want to box her in to a situation where she kills when there are other options available and then has some sort of character crisis, specifically with upcoming interactions heavily hinted with her fetch.
>>
>>2523308
seems like that option ran out the door the second we decided to charge them instead of evading. As it stands now, these are hardened warriors, if we try to do anything less than total victory it'll likely be us getting stomped
>>
>>2523315
true but this is the hedge, and a big part of hedge combat is altering your environment to your advantage. I know this isn't technically a hedge duel but I feel we could definitely do more with this situation other than just stab our way out of it
>>
>>2523324
I'm referring to, specifically the mental attack where you call on on memories of your opponents servitude to the True Fae.
>>
>>2523324
>>2523330
come up with a compelling write in and hopefully people will give it consideration, not much else to say really
>>
>>2523332
Okay, but it'll be hard to write a mental attack without a little more information about what Colors would know about Francesca and Trevor. For a generic suggestion, how does

>Write in: Colors uses her knowledge of her former allies to call out their weaknesses and flaws, making them mentally relive their time in Arcadia and the things they regret most about it

Sound?
>>
Sorry to jump in with this after six hours. I know I'm joining the discussion late, but to be fair it's been a couple days since Vox updated and I didn't catch his update on tumblr
>>
>>2523324
>>2523346
It isn't a Hedge Duel, which vastly complicates your proposal. These are Hounds; if you drag them through their damage do you think they'll respond by getting LESS angry?

Notable for the situation is that Erin can heal, but she's also low on Glamour.

I'm not saying I'm opposed to plans in which people live, just providing relevant information.
>>
>>2523363
Well rage is powerful but often hard to control or direct, and while the Hounds of Summer are angry at Summers they're also most likely angry about a lot of things, and possibly each other. Turning their ire on each other for a few moments might provide enough of a gap to leg it while they're busy rolling around in the bramble. Is there anything colors would know about Trevor and Francesca that might be relevant to the situation?
>>
>>2523377
Compared to you murdering their leader in his bed? Not really. You do know them; they were your Motley once, essentially.

You do have Goblin's Malignance if you're willing to pay that price but even if it works that's likely to kill at least one of them.
>>
>>2523411
Out of curiousity, what would the price be for using Goblin's Malignance in an isolated situation like this? It's not like they can get any madder at us, and Erin's not likely to tell anyone. Not necessarily supporting this guy's no-kill policy attempts, just curious
>>
>>2523422
New Avalon's Summer finding out is essentially the risk you take. You don't have the rights to that Clause, and by definition you know that. It's... insulting? Intruding might be the better word.
>>
>>2523411
Does Francesca fit the typical ogre archetype of strong as a bull but susceptible to tricks? another thought- considering their relationship would Colors be aware of any pledge bans or taboo/frailties that the Hounds might have?
>>2523427
Considering the situation (an attack by an outside freehold on freehold members) and Summer's good works, what with helping to stop the militia and save all those kids, would anyone in the court of wrath begrudge Colors for using their contract?
>edited because I started calling Colors Summer for some reason
>>
>>2523474
Technically all Ogres fit that due to their Blessing and Curse... much like yours can make you bad at People. It's been two years and change since you left Philly; you no longer have an accurate read of their Pledges.

As far as Summer and the Clause... quite possibly, yeah.
>>
Well it probably won't catch fire but I'll submit it as a write in

>Use Goblins Malignance on Trevor or Francesca to make one attack the other, preferably making the more heavily injured/weaker one the berserker so the other Hound will hopefully spend more time trying to keep them alive
>>
>>2523606
I desire this to catch fire as well. Although we aren’t Summer anymore, we have Arthur’s support at least to a degree. Situation seems to call for it, and it would let us get away.

>Use Goblin’s Malignance to make the more injured one attack the other.
>>
>>2522833
Is it more difficult than the Athletics option ? Failing one of those puts us wide open for a devastating strike from Fr.ansesca
>>
>>2523286
You'd fatigue sooner than the Ogre I think. And she doesnt seem to want to give up before you or her are dead.
>>
Called. Narrow winner is:

> You know where you cut her. Francesca's already dead; you just have to wait her out (Athletics against difficulty 9)

Roll me 1d10+2 TWICE
>>
Rolled 3 + 2 (1d10 + 2)

>>2524221
Dice, guide me
>>
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Rolled 6 + 2 (1d10 + 2)

>>2524221
Guess it's up to me to save the day.
>>
>>2524238
6 + 2 = 8; Success At Consequence

Writing.
>>
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>>2522714
The blood gushing from Francesca's arm is the stuff she uses to live. There's no need to engage, just to keep her from helping Trevor. She's already dead, and you know it.

Unfortunately, so does she.

She'll open up with a big right hand first.

"Traitor! Oathbreaker!" Francesca roars; her Mantle pounds with violent Summer heat, withering the Thorns around the fight with her hate. You feel the temperature spike ten degrees when you duck her swing. You block a left-handed slap with Bifrost and throw your hand at her gut to keep her from following it with a devastating headbutt. "Murderer!"

You raise Bifrost and point it at her. "What happened to Marcus wasn't justice," you tell her. "I know that now. I also know that he had to die anyway. He was a demon and he's made you demons in his image, and Andy sat back and watched."

"We'll kill you for what you did," Francesca snarls.

"You'd better do it in the next five minutes then."

Here it comes; big hits, no whammies. Light gathers around Francesca's gauntlets, rising with her unholy roar, and lances out at you. You sidestep, Bifrost blurring, flat meeting the Lord's Dread Gaze to stop it from getting to where Erin and Trevor are. The light fills your blade and then shatters out as rainbow light, throwing you and Francesca to the ground, blinded and burnt.

You suffer 2 damage.

You roll to your feet in a heap, blindly fumble for the knife Erin left in Francesca's knee, and yank when you feel its handle. The Ogre cries out and kicks with her foot, but the impact is blunted by the Glass that sheathes you. You fall back against the ground with your vision swimming and focus on catching your breath.

"You ruined everything." Francesca is sobbing now. "It's all gone to shit because of you. We needed Marcus. We lost Zeus and Clockwork Katie to Winter. Andy doesn't trust us any more. You did this. YOU DID THIS!"

"Yes." You grab the nearby Thorns and pull yourself upright; you hear the grisly snap of bone and Trevor screaming in agony. Your wounds hurt, but it's distant, like it's happening to someone else.

Like in Philly. Fuck them for bringing Philly here to your new life.

"That's all you have to say? Yes?" Francesca raises her gauntlet, light gathering again, and you lunge, putting Bifrost through her palm and pinning it to the dirt. She snarls in pain and in rage, but when she tries to grab the blade to yank it out all she does is cut her other hand through her armor.

"Stop fighting," you murmur. "Francesca, it's over. Don't make me keep hurting you."

"It's not fair! We came all this way for justice and we get nothing?"

"Colors, I think he's still alive," Erin says from behind you. Trevor groans stupidly. "He passed out when I broke his legs."
>>
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>>2524704
"Don't kill him," you tell her, automatically, before you return your attention to Francesca. "You didn't come here for justice. You attacked me in the Hedge, far from prying eyes, because the Hounds are cowards. Because you are not justice. Because what you do is a disgrace."

"You did it too," Francesca spits. You set your foot on her chest and pull Bifrost free; she grabs your ankle with fading strength.

"Yeah," you murmur. "I did."

"Stop saying that!"

"There's nothing else to say." You raise your blade above her heart. "...Francesca, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I did you like that. I'm sorry I walked away instead of finishing what I started. But I'm not sorry he's dead and I'd kill him a thousand times to free myself from you. You're going to bleed out. Do you have fruit?"

"No. You'd just take it and use it anyway." Her fingers around your ankle squeeze. "Why? Tell me why."

"The Hounds took everything that was good about me away from me. I'm still trying to get it all back."

"...Finish it then."

One thrust, quick and clean. She jolts, and then is still.

"I'll see you in Valhalla," you murmur, before you pull Bifrost from Francesca's body. You stoop to feel at her neck and yank at the chain you find there, breaking it off to take her iron dog tag."

"You weren't kidding about them being your lights, were you?" Erin asks in a soft voice. You almost hit her on sheer reflex; she's right behind you.

"No, I wasn't," you agree. You finally look over at Trevor; the satyr's legs have been broken between the hooves and his knees, putting his feet at angles at which they do not belong.

"I'm thinking maybe you shouldn't kill this one," Erin suggests. She sounds almost shy. "...I'm thinking maybe killing him while he's down is something he'd do, and not something you'd do. Not...not something a Knight would do."

> Finish him. He signed up for this when he brought his war to your home
> Spare him. Erin's right.
>>
>>2524727
> Spare him. Erin's right.
One was a mercy kill, she was unsaveable. This one's simply wounded.

I.. have a feeling we're going to bring him with us. I also think that.. might not be the worst idea ever.
>>
>>2524727
>> Spare him, on the condition that Erins heals his legs as much as she can.

Leaving him here with broken leges would be cruel and dishonorable.
>>
>>2524727
>Spare him. Erin's right.
Most importantly, we need to bring him with us when we do. Leaving him here is just a longer way for him to die, and with less certainty.
>>
What did Fransesca mean that they lost Zeus and the other one to Winter ? Are they dead, or switched Courts ?
>>
>>2524860
Winter and summer are at war in Philadelphia, so presumably that means lost as in they were killed.

>>2524727
Whether we kill him or spare him, we shouldn't leave him alive and wounded in the hedge. Maybe patch him up enough to survive and dump him in the mortal world somewhere.
>>
>>2524874
I presume so, although in wars there are also conversion efforts going on on either side.
>>
>>2524727
>> other. Ask him.
Some people get defeated so bad theyre done, others wanna keep going
But if we save him and he doesn’t wanna be saved ask now and clear it up
>>
>>2524727
This reminds me, we do need to get goblin fruits. Probably should hit up a goblin market some time in the future
>>
>>2525045
healing ones mostly ?
>>
Called, writing.
>>
>>2525089
Probably, though more situationally useful ones are also good ot have on hand. limited by the wyrd in how many you can carry but you can also have them cooked so they last longer
>>
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>>2524727
"Can you heal him?" you ask, while walking over to your former companion. You flick the blood from Bifrost, wipe the blade on your pant leg, and then sheath it.

Erin coughs. "I mean...he'll just wake up..."

"Not right now, just in general." You shrug off your pack and pass it to Erin, then unclip the rope you brought from the side of it. This isn't the first time you've had to improvise a harness to carry a man and it won't be the last.

"Oh. Then yes," comes Erin's answer after she realizes what you're doing. The Fairest helps you with the ropes after she puts your pack on her back. Soon enough you've got Trevor strapped to your back, stripped of his weapons, and the two of you set back out in the direction of the flare from earlier. Erin walks with a hand on her left side, cradling her ribs and occasionally wincing.

"Why haven't you -"

"I can heal him or me, not both," Erin interrupts. "I'll see Sally when it's done."

Mere moments later the two of you hear Forum's voice up ahead, howling in agony, and break into a dead run. The path becomes littered with detritus from the mortal world; subway lights twine their way through the Thorns, along with newspapers and broken syringes.

The path dead-ends in a maintenance door, near which Forum kneels on the ground, ripping small trees out of holes in his arms and legs. The Rook holds up his hand to stop you and Erin, stoops, and patiently disables a tripwire in the way.

"Why does everyone use this fucking elf-shot," Forum complains, biting back tears of pain even as he yanks a budding sapling out by the roots.

"Arrow trap," the Rook explains. "You appear to have a prisoner. They will be waiting on the other side."

"Good." You have Erin help you unsling Trevor so you can throw him over your shoulder. "It's time for this to be done. Can you open the door?"

The Rook looks at Forum, who heaves in a deep breath and stands at length, growling in pain through gritted teeth. "Who's left?" the Troll asks.

"My Fetch, and...Miranda. The Oracle."

The Rook nods, knocks on the door, and then pushes it open. You step forward, blinking at the dim subway station on the other side - clearly abandoned, but still lit by dim lights that have seen better years.

"I have Trevor," you call out. "He's alive but needs healing for his legs. I'm going to step out so you can see him. Shots fired will hit him instead of me."

A moment of silence. Two.

"Wait," a familiar voice calls. From just out of the doorway's view comes Miranda.

She's had better years too. Your heart wrings in your chest.
>>
>>2525271
Couldnt think of any more useful, wih the Glamour restoring fruit in 2nd place.
>>
>>2525313
Is Elfshot fuckin painful in general or does Forum has a weakness against it ?
>>
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>>2525313
Your ex-lover's third eye has been gouged out by something vicious; the patch she wears over it can't hide the long scrape of knife scars. Her hair, usually so studiously dyed white, hangs in greasy clumps and shows black roots, and ragged holes in her mail armor have been roughly patched with sheet metal. She limps to the doorway, not looking at you, and takes something from either side of it, which she holds up to show you.

Grenades. She backs away a safe distance from the doorway and nods to you; you step through, with the men and Erin close behind.

"Francesca?" Miranda murmurs. You shake your head. "She always was like that. We brought someone here to see you, Colors."

"Her name is Susan," your Fetch snaps, stepping out from behind a pillar on the opposite side of the tracks. "Why'd you disarm the trap?"

"You had friends once," Miranda tells the you-thing. "Guess."

Slowly, you let go of Trevor's arm before you can break it on accident. That fucking name.

"I could kill her from here," the Rook says mildly.

"Try it, witch-boy," the Fetch spits.

"Enough," Miranda interrupts. "...Enough. Colors, I could throw these grenades and kill us all. Or your friends and I can stay out of it, and you can go finish what you started. Be smart."

You hand Trevor to Erin and look at Miranda. "Don't you want a piece of me?" you ask, as gently as you can manage through your confusion and the pounding fog of rage.

Miranda shrugs. "Your opinion on what I want and what makes me happy was pretty clear when you left me behind. Go."

"Don't keep me waiting, Susan!"

That fucking does it.
>>
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>>2525346
There's some planks littering the area near the edge of the tracks, probably used by the people (and things...) that live in the subways to cross the tracks. You're certainly using them for it; you lay two across the gap and walk across, eyes on your Fetch. She glares at you with your own living eyeballs, ripped from your skull when you were Taken to help create her, and bounces gently in place on her prosthetic legs.

("What do you get out of this?" the Rook rasps behind you.)

("Revenge, or something like it," Miranda answers.)

"Hurry it up Susan," your Fetch demands.

"That's not my FUCKING NAME!" you roar; your voice echoes off the walls, carrying your rage down the tunnels.

"Why not?" the you-thing screams back. You throw yourself forward when you see her draw a pistol and roll to your feet on the other side, just below her wild shot that leaves your ears ringing. "I worked so hard, for you! FOR YOU! To leave a good life you could come back to and be happy in, to be a good Other and you just left it behind like garbage!"

You rise and rush her, Bifrost clearing its sheath. Your Fetch's shadow ripples for a moment, and then she dodges, springing away in a long jump. Just as she does her fingertips brush Bifrost's flat and pull, ripping a long obsidian sword from the shadows of your blade that rests comfortably in her left hand.

"I woulda given it back to you," the you-thing accuses. "But you killed me. You killed me and you left Dad behind and you left our girl behind and you left your girl behind and if I can't have a happy life then why should you."

The pistol comes up.

> Use Control Glass; plunge the fight into darkness and cut the shit out of her (Wyrd vs. Difficulty 8)
> Get that pistol out of her hands (Melee vs. difficulty 9)
> Dodge! (Athletics vs. difficulty 9)
> Write-in?
>>
>>2525365
>> Use Control Glass; plunge the fight into darkness and cut the shit out of her (Wyrd vs. Difficulty 8)
>>
>>2525365
>> Use Control Glass; plunge the fight into darkness and cut the shit out of her (Wyrd vs. Difficulty 8)

Use what we got from the other side to destroy the murderous remnant of our Fetch? Yes, please.
>>
> Get that pistol out of her hands (Melee vs. difficulty 9
>>
>>2525365
>> Get that pistol out of her hands (Melee vs. difficulty 9)
>>
I'm hoping we can resolve this without killing her. It certainly didn't work out the first time we did it, and you know, the definition of insanity
>>
>>2525365
>You're right. I did the wrong thing. I shouldn't have killed you. Just because I couldn't go back to my life didn't mean I had to make sure you couldn't have it either. If I could take it back, I could but I can't, and killing me won't fix anything.
>>
>>2525365
> Use Control Glass; plunge the fight into darkness and cut the shit out of her (Wyrd vs. Difficulty 8)
>>
>>2525387
Technically its not really the remains of our fetch, just her sans legs, injuries from the first time colors tried to kill her
>>
>Get that pistol out of her hands
>>
>>2525365
> Get that pistol out of her hands (Melee vs. difficulty 9)
>>
>>2525365
>"I woulda given it back to you,"
Did olors know this, or is this part of the mystery and youre not going to tell ?
>>
>>2525628
I mean it doesn't really matter now, she's got a pistol and intent to kill, it's not afternoon tea
>>
>>2525628
It's irrelevant. Colors obviously didn't want it. Otherwise she wouldn't of fucked off to New Avalon.
>>
>>2525628
It's news to you. Killing your Fetch was the pre-req to joining Summer.

>>2525323
Elfshot hurts like fuck.
>>
>>2525635
She fucked off to New Avalon because she had just killed the leader of the Hound Tribunal in Philadelphia, and the other Hounds would kill her if she stayed, not because she didn't want her old life back.
>>
> Get that pistol out of her hands (Melee vs. difficulty 9)
>>
>>2525365
> Use Control Glass; plunge the fight into darkness and cut the shit out of her (Wyrd vs. Difficulty 8)
>>
>>2525959
may wanna link to the op >>2525365
>>
>>2525365
>Use Control Glass; plunge the fight into darkness and cut the shit out of her (Wyrd vs. Difficulty 8)

>>2525985
Thanks.
>>
When does vox usually post?
>>
>Get that pistol out of her hands (Melee vs. difficulty 9)
>>
>>2526022
Pick a number between -5 and 2000.
>>
>>2526022
Depends on if I'm working the day job & other Real Life factors. I work retail so I basically can't commit to a dedicated run day. As a result I'm basically never not running.

Right now I'm at work so you won't need to expect anything for like, three and a half hours.
>>
Unbidden: https://qm-vox.tumblr.com/post/173570108531/cinderella-sanction-quest-unbidden

I'll update tomorrow.
>>
>>2525365
> Tell her that it was your first mission. That you came back from fucking HELL to find that life had just . . . Left you by the side of the road. There wasn't a Susan anymore to come back, only Colours, and we weren't the ones who got to make that choice.

> And now Susan our Fetch who got to have all the times that were stolen from us, is standing beside the people who ordered us to kill her when we were terrified and angry at everything Fae and we didn't stop to think there was even another option. They sure as fuck weren't going to be the ones to give us anything like that.

> She didn't keep anything for us, but she's right. We didn't have the right to take away her life because it wasn't ours anymore no matter what she says about keeping it for us.

> It's not fair that we were hurt and warped and nobody even misses us because *Susan* was still there. Only it wasn't us.
>>
>>2525365
> Get that pistol out of her hands (Melee vs. difficulty 9)
>>
>>2525346
>>Write-in ?: "It's not fair that we were hurt and warped and nobody even misses us because *Susan* was still there. Only it wasn't us"
>>
>>2527263
Delicious Frozen Treat.
>>
>>2527584
... What?
>>
>>2527628
.....the story, silly.
>>
>>2528128
But what does that mean???
>>
>>2528320
Well, among other things, that it was enjoyable and amusing, and quite fun.

And the Winter Queen was exciting.
>>
Going home now. Will call for a roll once I get there; 30 minutes, give or take.
>>
Aight, narrow winner is

> Get that pistol out of her hands (Melee vs. difficulty 9)

Roll me 1d10+2 THREE TIMES.
>>
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Rolled 9 + 2 (1d10 + 2)

>>2530278
Let's see how well we can do.
>>
Rolled 4 + 2 (1d10 + 2)

>>2530278
I don't know why I'm rolling but I've already started typing this so it's too late to stop now.
>>
Rolled 3 + 2 (1d10 + 2)

>>2530278
>>
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>>2530302
He did technically say to roll 3 times
>>
>>2530288
>>2530361
WHERE ARE YOU GETTING ALL THIS GREAT ART?
>>
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>>2530363
/tg/ has regular art threads. A solid 65% of the reason I still go there.
>>
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>>2525365
9 + 2 = 11; Success

You twitch aside. For a mad moment you think 'did I put Trevor down?' but you must have; your back is light and unencumbered, which it certainly fucking would not be if you had an entire satyr on it still.

Gaps in time are a familiar feeling too. Little things the rage elides to keep you moving in its grip.

The pistol barks, filling the silence; her shot misses you by an inch.

("Get down," Forum hisses, somewhere behind you.)

("I really do not care if I die right now," Miranda returns.)

Bifrost flicks out. The you-thing springs away and fires again. She doesn't seem surprised when your answer is to press the attack, dipping and weaving to keep her from getting a good bead; the anger in your living eyes rises with yours, sick with a joy that feeds it.

("Get off of me!")

("She won't forgive me if I let you get shot you three-eyed idiot, now get down or I'll fucking stab you.")

Will she spring away or parry? If she parries she can take a free shot at you; it's what you'd do.

The you-thing doesn't disappoint. Her obsidian blade meets Bifrost with a sound like a wedding bell, but when she brings the pistol up you snatch it with your free hand and squeeze. With the Glass coating your hand and your own strength you can feel the metal buckle, then slice, and the weapon falls to pieces even as the Fetch springs out on her metal prosthetics.

She's making you come to her. Her movements are fluid, seemingly effortless, eating up huge chunks of floor space in just a few motions, and every time she gets out of your attack you have to cross into her reach to attack again. The wedding-bell sounds of blade on blade fill the air alongside the pound of your boots on the concrete and the metal flex of the you-thing's legs.

"There's the Susan I know," the Fetch hisses when she lands. "There's the hate."

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

("Oh my god." Forum)

("It's like Colors and Vickie had a kid and that kid was also Colors." Erin)

Slash-parry-slash; you slap with your free hand, roar when the you-thing dodges, and headbutt her full in the fucking face. Just before you can make contact she leans back like it's a fucking limbo competition, grabs the front of your coat, and throws you off of her; you narrowly miss staggering directly into a pillar.

(Miranda. "She's always been like this.")

(The Rook, rasping and wet. "Don't be so sure.")

"When I dragged myself out of that fucking river I spent years in a coma." The you-thing heaves for breath, but you can't push your advantage; your chest feels like it's on fire, and all you can do is hold yourself up against the concrete pillar and find your own air. "I was almost happy when I woke up. Amnesia, the doctors said. Likely temporary, they said. God I wish it hadn't been. I fucking wish I could have forgotten you forever, but no, nobody's that lucky."

"You stole my life," you shoot back.
>>
>>2530584
"YOU THREW THAT LIFE AWAY!" she shrieks; tears brim in your living eyes, so wide and out of place in her glass skull. "Fuck you. Fuck you, where do you get off blaming me for anything? What'd I ever do to you? WHAT'D I EVER DO?"

She leaps; you parry a slash from above, turn, and take a full-on tackle when she twists in mid-air to hit the pillar with her feet and spring right into you. The two of you roll with the hit and you come up, throwing Bifrost's flat across the small of your back on sheer instinct. You're rewarded with the ring of impact and the you-thing's shriek of hate.

"Just die! Die!" She leans back from a slash that should have opened her face up, seemingly prescient, and it's all you can do to meet her counterattack with your Glass-clad forearm instead of your vulnerable eyeball. The blade gouges a deep score in your Contract armor.

"Even your name?" the you-thing spits. "Even that? Dad gave you that and you don't even want it? It's yours once I'm dead you fucking idiot." You throw a punch; she springs back, black blade up in a high guard. "Just yours," she repeats, her voice a scratchy whisper. The tears are flowing down her cheeks now, pooling at her chin, dripping to the floor. "You going to leave that to rot too? Everything I built for you? I went to college, I fell in love, I came out to Dad for you, and you don't even want the name he gave you? You fucking, you - " her breath hitches, hesitates, and then becomes a choked sob.

> Lunge (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain VIDAR'S FAVOR)
> "You're a fake, something the Giant made. The life you built was never mine." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain TYR'S FAVOR)
> "That name isn't mine any more. If it's anyone's, it has to be yours. Susan Moore is dead." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain ODIN'S ENDURANCE)
> "What is it you want to hear, puppet? You know what you came here for. Come and claim it." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain LOKI'S SPITE)
>>
>>2530641
wait, do all of these options result in killing the Fetch?
>>
>>2530646
They certainly feature lethal intent. Is it your feeling that there's a version of this where that doesn't happen, 'cause that is not currently my feeling and I'd need to hear one hell of a fucking explanation.
>>
> "That name isn't mine any more. If it's anyone's, it has to be yours. Susan Moore is dead." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain ODIN'S ENDURANCE)
>>
>>2530652
well when the option was to disarm Susan, the idea, such that I thought, was to de-escalate the situation so that the two of them are eventually settling this with their fists.

it really runs against the grain for Colors to kill her fetch again, especially because of how apparently killing her fetch was the first step she took into becoming the person she know is desperately seeking to distance herself from.
>>
Besides, a couple of different posters have pointed out that they want to try to end this without killing Susan previously
>>2525409
>>2525418
>>2527293
>>2527451
>>
>>2530652
I mean if you wanted to spell out previously that there was no way this could end without someone dying there wasn't too much to go on, just the very vague descriptors of

>attack
>dodge
>disarm
>>
>>2530664
I...

Anon, I say this with all the love in my heart, but it kinda seems like you haven't read the room particularly well here. You eliminated the advantage of her gun but she's been trying to kill you this whole time and as mentioned previously not killing people under those circumstances isn't exactly the easiest even if you're actively attempting not to with all of the calm and skill of your heart.

D'ya think that's Colors right now?
>>
>>2530664
>>2530671
This is revenge against Colors, plain and simple. People are out for her blood, and Trevor wasn't murdered dead... probably only because Erin was there to remind us that that isn't the current, knightly Colors.

The fetch, are we somehow meant to come to an agreement with it? Say, "oh, bygones can be bygones, me swooping in to murder you? Yeah we can move past that like it didnt happen!"

Colors.. isn't going to be forgiven by the Fetch. If anything, the catharsis, the conversation, is going to come via talking with Miranda, the ex lover we hurt so badly in a way we only vaguely have an idea of. We might end up killing her, too, who knows.
>>
>>2530678
She's been trying to kill us, yes, but she's also crippled and bouncing around on prosthetic legs- she's dangerous but she's at a serious disadvantage considering she's using mundane replacement limbs. You've also been emphasing through dialogue with Susan that she wasn't initially antagonistic with Colors and that it was Colors own actions that created the situation that's now laid out before her.

Plus, at the end of the day, Colors just saying "There's no other way, it's kill or be killed" seems to fly against her characterization- she's gone to lengths to spare other antagonists, like with the militiamen, where she managed to negotiate a cease fire in a situation where there were multiple combatants
>>
>>2530683
That doesn't do anything with her idea for redemption. If she kills the fetch now, it just goes to show that the only reason why she's dealing with her problems now is because she didn't go far enough while she was in the summer court.
>>
>>2530686
The militia that lost a guy, had another down to the Rook, and the only dude conscious threw down to negotiate for the lives of his companions?

That wasn't exactly Colors' idea. She accepted an honorable surrender, she didn't propose one.
>>
>>2530683
>>2530691
specifically, what I'm getting at here is that Colors screwed up in Philie, her entire character is about trying to be better than she was as a Hound of summer and part of that will mean making ammends for things she screwed up on, to seek out some way to make up for the wrongs she comitted. Unless she wants to just forget that she ever did anything wrong and pretend her time as a hound was a bad dream, I don't see how she could, at least afterwards, remain part of spring without at least making the attempt
>>2530694
Yes, but she was the one who negotiated the pledge. The very fact that she's out with Erin Peters in the hedge helping her seek her spring speaks to a level of empathy that would make her tamp the breaks.

If you really think that her anger is so great that she is incapable of controlling herself, at least have us roll a clarity check, or make it like we're indulging a vice.
>>
>>2530641
> "You're a fake, something the Giant made. The life you built was never mine." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain TYR'S FAVOR)

May've been a fair trade in both the fetch's and the giants eyes, but definitely not for Colors.
>>
anyway, to summarize. Multiple posters have explained previously that they want to try to resolve this without killing the Fetch. If there's absolutely no chance of that why are we even given input on for Colors actions? we might as well just be running a bethesda style dialogue wheel where all of our choices are the same but with slightly varying levels of sarcasm
>>
>>2530641
Personally, I'd like to try to end this without Colors killing her fetch. It does have a point, it made a grand total of zero choices to hurt Colors prior to Colors trying to drown it.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess the prosthetic legs that it's hopping around on are probably not as high quality as the rest of it (and most fetches aren't exactly quality work anyway, the True Fate aren't exactly big on caring). If we can break one of them, then we can back off and slow this whole confrontation down.
>>
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>>2530729
...Anon, they're prosthetics. As in pic related. She kinda had to hack off her legs to get out of the concrete shoes you put her in.
>>
>>2530734
So? Even if they are high end blade runner style legs they'd still be easier to remove than actual legs attached at the joint, and I'm pretty sure that they would make fighting harder, not easier.

Plus, the fetch has gone on about how she a. spent most of her life previously being a fairly normal person and b. was hospitalized after her encounter with Colors

She wouldn't have the same level of training or skill and would be greatly weaker even if she spent every day since her recovery training, which she didn't, as she mentioned she suffered amnesia for some time.
>>
>>2530742
Just wanted it to be clear that these are, y'know, proper devices and not ramshackle Fae contrivances, which it sorta seemed like your fellow poster mighta believed. At this point I really do not want misunderstandings.
>>
>>2530752
okay. to be clear then, can we have an option where Colors attempts to end the fight without killing her fetch, possibly by trying to break Susan's prosthetic legs?
>>
>>2530734
>>2530752

If that's the sort of prosthetic, then there are two things we might be able to try. One is going after the attachment point. They're generally held in place by straps on the front. Makes getting them on and off easier. Cut that, and you can yank it off. Shards of glass might do it, or failing that a sword.

The second is that they rely on the blade compressing downward under the weight of the body and then bouncing back. Thing is, that creates significantly more downward force than a normal human stride. That makes stepping on smooth debris that can slide an absolute bitch. Sufficient force overcomes friction and you slip. Combine that with the fact that you don't actually have an actual foot that you can control to shift and rebalance, and avoiding a fall becomes even harder. This is one of the reasons amputees are advised to have "everyday" walking legs that aren't a running blade design, the ankle joint helps in that regard even if you can't really control it. It's a tradeoff of speed vs control, with the running blade favoring speed at the price of being less precise. Glass underfoot could provide the needed opening to get at one of those straps.
>>
>"You're a fake, something the Giant made. The life you built was never mine." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain TYR'S FAVOR)
>>
>>2530641
>> "You're a fake, something the Giant made. The life you built was never mine." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain TYR'S FAVOR)
>>
>>2530641
> "You're a fake, something the Giant made. The life you built was never mine." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain TYR'S FAVOR)
>>
>>2530762
Is it physically possible? Sure. >>2530838 has that broken down fairly well, but, anon, I'm gonna be real?

I have no idea where this is coming from with you.

I've spent an hour staring at this post trying to see this from your side and I'm just not grasping it. It's not just the situation, the emotions, the battle itself - though those are certainly part of it - but that I can't grasp where you're getting this gentle, lamb-like Colors from. Our first major arc involved her decision to dedicate a man's death to Tyr (and her related decision to honor his valor after his death, incidentally). She supported Virgo's death & pushed Venus Kennedy towards the same choice between death or Summer's mercy that Kennedy managed to fuck up for herself straight into Zoe's clutches.

Later, Colors spoke with Fancy after a Motley meeting: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/1964514/#p1964547

> "When I have to be," you admit, in a low tone. "...I used to be a hell of a lot worse. A thug. A murderer and hatchet woman. When I joined Spring it was to leave that behind, to...to find the nobility I'd been looking for. To be a Knight, not an assassin. But Knights turn out corpses too. Justice isn't always nice. Honor isn't always clean."

Colors places a deep and personal faith in gods of war. Her patron, Freya, has been known to start wars for the hell of it, and it's not as if any of the others are lacking in a relationship to violence. The nicest named goddess in the entire pantheon is probably Idun & the second runner-up, Sif of the Waving Grain, A. married Thor and B. is essentially the goddess of logistics, given the whole 'armies need feeding' thing.

The relationship to violence you seem to feel has been characterized thus far...hasn't been. Colors hasn't been leaving violence behind, she's been looking for her honor and to find nobility and purpose in these skills she's good at; to bring good out of evil, essentially.

So I'm gonna reiterate what I said earlier: given the circumstances, I'm gonna have to hear a hell of a good reason. I appreciate your passion; as an author it's flattering and very affirming. But one of us is misunderstanding the situation here and at the moment I don't think it's me.
>>
>>"It's like Colors and Vickie had a kid and that kid was also Colors." Erin2530584

Could you NOT be so accurate?
>>
>>2530641
> "That name isn't mine any more. If it's anyone's, it has to be yours. Susan Moore is dead." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain ODIN'S ENDURANCE)

2e can't even apologize, but fuck the worst hurt is seeing our fetch fall into the same trap we were stuck in for so long.

Like we can kill her, but jesus ic seeing that doesn't make us scared be won't be able to move past her.
>>
>>2530906

Colors has supported punishment, yes. She's killed people or supported killing people who have done absolutely awful things. Virgo was holding the pledges of a bunch of fresh-out-of-the-hedge newbies and using that to run a brothel that literally stank of misery. Rainbow John and by extension Venus Kennedy were preying on young runaways to twist them into a changeling army.

But what exactly is the fetch being punished for? Unless I've missed something, it's done nothing even approaching the shit Rainbow John pulled.

Yes, Colors still embraces violence, but as you said she has been trying to find nobility and purpose. It's not just killing that's good enough, but killing for a good reason.

Also, if memory serves, Colors got a solid scolding from Arthur for what happened with Virgo. He specifically called Colors out for falling back on old habits, and hating and killing her fetch was exactly what she did in her old life in Philadelphia as one of the Hounds.
>>
Of course, this is all a moot point since it looks like only two or three people want to try to not kill the fetch. Everyone else is just voting for killing, no discussion necessary.
>>
Okay, since apparently this hasn't been called yet, here's way too much text on the subject:

I see Colors as growing from simply killing people because her anger drives her to kill toward killing people if they have done something to deserve it. Looking at the people Colors has killed since coming to New Avalon (I am including indirectly, because that still counts):

Virgo
Exploited vulnerable newly escaped changelings, binding them into what amounts to sex slavery. Killing her freed those changelings, but also was called out by Arthur as a shady move. Colors may have taken some of his words to heart, specifically about the danger that Colors might slide back into old habits when it’s just grey enough to make it easy.

Rainbow John
Exploited the wonderland kids, playing on their crappy lives and desire for more to manipulate them into becoming changelings in his service. Colors specifically called this out in a conversation with Vickie as a reason to kill him that made it more than just a simple hatchet job. Still, he fought well enough that Colors was willing to show him a measure of respect in the end.

Sam the Sliced
Taking him back to face punishment from the Freehold was basically a death sentence. While it was Arthur who judged, sentenced, and executed him, Colors bears some responsibility for demanding that the militia turn him over. That said, he was technically a traitor. He had come to the Freehold in bad faith and planned to use his place within it to support a militia group. Colors apprehended him and returned him to the Freehold to face trial. It was harsh, but it was in keeping with her role as a knight.

Venus Kennedy
She conspired with Rainbow John yet lacked his one redeeming trait, his valor, trying to hide behind her wealth and then play games with the court to escape her punishment. In addition, I argued then and I still maintain that screwing her over was absolutely necessary after Sam’s execution. The changelings of New Avalon needed to see that the Freehold would not shrink from its duties just because the guilty party was wealthy.

Francesca
Wounded, bleeding out, and dying. She asked for Colors to finish her off, and Colors did so without much malice. There’s also the issue that, as a Hound, Francesca almost certainly has done a lot more to deserve death than the fetch. I don’t know specifics since that has not been stated, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that Francesca had killed at least a few people who didn’t really deserve to die. It doesn’t necessarily make her death just, but it puts it in a different league from Colors killing her fetch.
>>
So where would the fetch fit in to this? Everyone else that Colors has killed had, in someway, harmed or sought to harm innocent people. The fetch hasn’t. The fetch is here seeking to kill Colors because Colors attempted to kill her.

In her old life, Colors would kill because she was angry, anger cultivated for the classic summer reasons: To avoid feelings of powerlessness and victimhood.

In her new life, Colors has adopted a different, more spring-like coping mechanism: Roleplaying. Specifically, roleplaying a noble and honorable knight, protecting the vulnerable and saving those in distress. This adventure in the hedge was largely the result of Erin being a sort of damsel in distress. And going all the way back to the first thread, Colors’ intro was literally her beating up two goons who were harassing an old man on the street, then walking him home, and finally defending that home and the family in it from horrible beasts.

Killing her fetch because she’s angry would be more like her old life, in which she was the horrible beast in the night instead of the protector defending against the beast.
>>
>>2530641
>> "What is it you want to hear, puppet? You know what you came here for. Come and claim it." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain LOKI'S SPITE)
>>
>>2531062
Except her fetch is actively trying to kill her. Justification aside when something made of fae is trying to kill you, you can't really afford second chances.

also, it's trying to claim it's left her a life to go home to when she has been truned into a living glass sculpture, while pretending to be who Colors used to be before she was turned into said statue.

Colors can't go back home. It's literally impossible without horribly traumatizing her parents. All her parents are going to see is a glass stature that claims to be their daughter after the world was broken to pieces.
>>
>>2531319
This is before the mask fell. Colors would have looked the same to her parents and mortals in general
>>
>>2530906
If Colors is really incapable of controlling herself when she fights and gives herself entirely over to rage why is she even part of Spring?
>>2530939
This post has the right of it. Colors kills yes, but she's never been a frothing at the mouth berserker. She's a knight, who uses chivalric ideals. Maybe that's why she slept with Erin, the whole courtly romance thing.

At any rate, I don't want to accuse a railroad but it feels like we have a lot less control over our character in Changeling then we did in DLC quest. There's a lot less opportunity for write in. It sort of feels less like we're roleplaying and more like we're doing a choose your own adventure story.
>>
>>2530971
Eh, it's early yet, and the last story post was at like 3 am, more people could chime in before the vote is called. There are 33 different posters
>>
#fetchlivesmatter
>>
>>2530641
Yeah, I don't want any of these, exactly? I want to rage, I want to pity.
>>
>>2531385
Well, that is part of the thing with fetches since you killing them means you either have to step into your old life or leave your loved ones to deal with your apparent death.

Maybe another point for Colors not killing her fetch is that it'll seriously hurt her dad- she's already seen Susan almost die once, and now she's going to kill her again.

Really, maybe this is why I'm having trouble wrapping my around this Vox. Why bring Colors' fetch back if she's going to make the same decisions she already did?

>>2531387
Would you possibly be in favor of this ending in a bar knuckled brawl with fetch and changeling ugly crying and bleeding from broken noses but not killing each other?
>>
>>2531403
>Would you possibly be in favor of this ending in a bar knuckled brawl with fetch and changeling ugly crying and bleeding from broken noses but not killing each other?
Yep. But Vox doesn't see it as being realistic.

Maybe yelling at Susan? Making her go back to the life we tried to take from her?
>>
>>2530906
Maybe I shouldn't keep posting over multiple comments but another thought. Yes, even the domestic gods can be argued to have warlike aspects in the norse pantheon, but they also suffer greatly from war, and it would greatly mischaracterize Colors religion to assert that it would make her violent by defaul.

Freya doesn't cause war just for the hell of it- the entire Aesir/Vanir war was because she was murdered three times by the Aesir when they came to fear her abilities, and the entire conflict is essentially a parable about how the needless conflict was stopped by the two tribes of gods coming to put aside their differences and become allies. Freya is a passionate seeker of pleasure and knowledge and, most importantly, magic who brought her abilities to her new adopted tribe and humanity as well
>>
>>2531336
Except the mask HAS fallen and the fetch is still trying to convice Colors to go home.

Shadowruns. I would never trust something that was made out of stuff by insane godlings and designed to pretend to be me to have my best interests at heart.
>>
>>2531478
I don't think that the fetch is trying to convince colors to go home now, just that she had been ready to let her take over her life before the changeling tried to kill her and the fact that she didn't even try to go back to her old life makes her attempted murder even more terrible
>>
>>2531478
>>2531319
also which is more horrifying for a parent- to have a changeling in your family or to have your only daughter almost die, miraculously recover and try to rebuild her broken body through intensive therapy, only for her to disappear and die again
>>
>>2530641
can we try and keep the fetch alive for now?, murdering it only leads to the fact that whatever information it holds is lost.
>>
I think that colors should at least have the chance to try to end this fight without killing her fetch. I mean they're an essential part of themselves, in a way.
>>
We could always let the fetch just kill us now instead of giving it multiple opportunities later.
>>
>>2531062
>>2531569
>>2531436
>>2531525
Just want to point out that, including myself, there are now more posters in favor of a non-lethal end to the fight than there are for the most popular greentext vote (Tyr's favor)
>>
>>2530641
> "You're a fake, something the Giant made. The life you built was never mine." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain TYR'S FAVOR)
>>
>>2530641
>> "That name isn't mine any more. If it's anyone's, it has to be yours. Susan Moore is dead." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain ODIN'S ENDURANCE)

I can see where the "but whyyyy do we have to kill the Fetch" people are coming from; I'd rather not have to kill her either, and for the same reason—the only thing she did wrong was exist.

But that ship has sailed. Our Fetch has absolutely no intention of giving us the kind of leeway necessary for it to be possible not to kill her, and if we spare her now, I think it extremely unlikely that she will look even slightly more positively on us later. She'll just come back for another try.

So we give her the kindest truth we can in this, and end it.
>>
>>2531750
Well, I mean, she has been with the Hounds and her only experience with Colors was her attempted murder. To her, it probably seems like it's fated that either we kill her or she kills us. It would be hard to get her to forgive Colors- maybe even impossible- but that doesn't mean that it absolves Colors of her responsibility to at least make an attempt to make things right.

Hrm, there's an interesting note about Freyja actually, Colors' patron goddess. She's known as the patron goddess of Seiðr or Seidhr, a form of magic that she employed and what made the Aesir so afraid of her that they killed her three times. It's the ability to literally change destiny
>>
>>2531681
Mm. My current count has five at Tyr, three at Odin, and one for Loki (godspeed Loki voter).

This fight ain't ending at one vote, so I don't imagine this discussion is over, but I am gonna keep this moving. I've unexpectedly got the day off, and I'd like to use it.

So for this vote, we're called in favor of:

> "You're a fake, something the Giant made. The life you built was never mine." (Melee vs. difficulty 9; gain TYR'S FAVOR)

You gain TYR'S FAVOR. The Evenhanded lays his blessing upon this act of monomancy; you gain a +1 bonus to Melee and Perception checks for the duel.

Roll me 1d10+3 THREE TIMES.

And, again, nothing is currently set in stone. Let's keep this thing rolling, aye?
>>
Rolled 5 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

>>
Rolled 2 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

>>2532065
Evenhanded on Dice? Hmm
>>
Rolled 3 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

>>2532065

What, you mean the climactic confrontation with our mirror self from the past, that we thought we had killed, will take longer than 2 updates?

I'm shocked. Shocked!
>>
>>2532080
5 + 3 = 8; Success at consequence.

Writing.
>>
>>2532089
To be fair, it is harder to try to non-lethally end a fight if you spend half it stabbing your opponent
>>
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>>2530641
Slowly, deliberately, you transfer Bifrost to your right hand. "You're something the Giant made," you tell her. "A fake. The life you built was never mine, and it never could be."

"You -" she starts; you lunge, Bifrost snapping out, high-high-low. The more you watch her move, springing and parrying shaved seconds before anything human could, the more you're sure she's using some kind of cheap magic to counter your attacks.

"No, you fucking listen!" you roar. The wedding bells toll in a flurry of blade-on-blade. "I wake up screaming. I can't feel safe in my own home, I can't even go out in public without my fucking armor because of the thing that put you in my life!"

"That's not my fault," the you-thing shrieks. She parries a hit from Bifrost and then does something you weren't expecting; she jabs your armpit with her palm when you go to punch her in the face and pulls. Another blade, as black and glassy as the one she's holding, extrudes from your stained glass body.

She grabs the handle, twists it, and then snaps it off still inside you. Your left arm goes numb with agony and the warm trickle of blood around the glass knife buried inside of you. You punch with your right, breaking the parry to jack the you-thing right in the fucking face and send her staggering back in springing strides.

You suffer 1 damage. Your left arm is crippled. You deal 2 damage.

"What was I supposed to tell Dad when I woke up swinging?" you growl, arm hanging limp at your side. "What was I supposed to tell him about why his daughter couldn't live without a blade at her side? The girl you were dating? You're a lie. The life you built is a lie."

"Fuck you," the you-thing spits. "I'm not the only one you left behind."

"The Tribunal are fucking serial killers, you don't get to take the high road with me about them!"

Between Francesca and your Fetch there's been a number done on you; your attacks are lagging, while the you-thing seems as sprightly (and godsdamned prophetic) as ever. You stagger into a charge, have your attacks met with vicious parries, and are only saved from being stabbed in the back by your twilight mail.

> Activate Elemental Resilience for 1 Glamour (obviating your wound penalties)
> Do not

AND

> She's got a weak spot. Go for the legs, force her to wear herself out (Melee vs. difficulty 10)
> Attacking isn't working. Make her come to you (Perception vs. difficulty 10)
> The station might be abandoned, but the trains still have to come through here. Trains have glass. You just have to wait her out (Athletics vs. difficulty 9 AND Wyrd roll)

Remember, write-ins are always potentially an option. Also remember who these two are to each other at this point, including the choices the Fetch has made about the company she keeps.
>>
>>2532284
>Talk about Dad.
>>
>>2532284
>> Activate Elemental Resilience for 1 Glamour (obviating your wound penalties)
> She's got a weak spot. Go for the legs, force her to wear herself out (Melee vs. difficulty 10)

Does obsidian count as glass?

also, for write in or flavor options
>>2532303
talking about Colors family, trying to get an understanding of how and why Susan is here and what she wants to accomplish. Does she want to kill Colors and then go back to Philidelphia? Force Colors to kill her and take over her role? Just hoping to stab her a lot until she feels less angry?
>>
>>2532284
> Do not
> Attacking isn't working. Make her come to you (Perception vs. difficulty 10)
>>
>>2532284
> Activate Elemental Resilience for 1 Glamour (obviating your wound penalties)

> Talk about Dad. Tell our Fetch that she's more human than us now. That she should have gone back to him instead of coming after us, he would probably prefer her instead of something like us. Not the glass armor, but all the fear and rage and mistakes and desperation.

> What a fucking ironic theme this whole situation has, it just doesn't stop. She's working with the people who ordered her death, she abandoned Dad just as much as us, she's trying to kill her clone, she is made from dress and dreams but was better at living as a human than were were when we came back. All because we decided to try to live like a person again when we left Philly.

> The easy way would be to fight her and kill her for sure this time. But we are trying to change, and if she's willing to stop this we can . . . Figure something out.

> neither one of us deserves to be a monster.
>>
>>2532284
>> Activate Elemental Resilience for 1 Glamour (obviating your wound penalties)
> Attacking isn't working. Make her come to you (Perception vs. difficulty 10)
>>
>>2532804

>> Talk about Dad. Tell our Fetch that she's more human than us now. That she should have gone back to him instead of coming after us, he would probably prefer her instead of something like us. Not the glass armor, but all the fear and rage and mistakes and desperation

a good write in
>>
>>2532284
> Activate Elemental Resilience for 1 Glamour (obviating your wound penalties)
> Attacking isn't working. Make her come to you (Perception vs. difficulty 10)

The fetch is getting emotionally compromised. Lets use that against her.
>>
>>2532284
> Activate Elemental Resilience for 1 Glamour (obviating your wound penalties)

If she's got some prophetic abilities (only for combat use instead of just casting runes) then simple melee is probably not the way to go.

If we can, combine this
>>2532804
with
> The station might be abandoned, but the trains still have to come through here. Trains have glass. You just have to wait her out (Athletics vs. difficulty 9 AND Wyrd roll)
to talk about dad while we try to wait her out.
>>
>>2532284
>Activate Elemental Resilience for 1 Glamour (obviating your wound penalties)

>She's using obsidian weapons, which are a form of glass, and they're probably supposed to be enchanted to be able to counter bifrost....her sword has broken it's compact with you if it will not obey your commands. Use that against her.

>Ask her how her girlfriend likes her with no legs. Probably don't get in the way any more do they? Bet she enjoyed all the attention from the nurses while she was healing. Oh wait, she's too insane with rage, probably because the oracle mindfucked her into a mad, hate-driven fuckup of a monstrosity. It's not like anyone would love her for what she ~really~ is, after all.

>Attacking isn't working. Make her come to you (Perception vs. difficulty 10)
>>
>>2533694
The fuck is wrong with you? That's pretty non-knightly behaviour.
>>
Near as I can tell our winners are:

> Activate Elemental Resilience

and

> Attacking isn't working. Make her come to you (Perception vs. difficulty 10)

You expend 1 Glamour.

Current Health: 8/12

Give me 1d10+3, TWICE.
>>
Rolled 4 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

>>2534415
AVENGE MY DIE, DICE
>>
Rolled 7 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

>>2534415
>>
>>2534549
7 + 3 = 10; Success

Writing.
>>
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>>2532284
You whirl out a flat slash; your Fetch meets it with a parry, dodges the elbow you throw at her as a follow-up, and springs away on those cursed fucking legs of hers.

"I would be having...such an easier time...if you still had your legs," you bitch, gesturing vaguely at her with Bifrost.

"Yeah, well," the you-thing sucks in air, leaning against a pillar. "Congratulations, you played yourself."

("Are you fucking kidding me," Forum complains.)

You're wearing down faster than she is. You offer up a shard of Glamour, slick with laughter and bubbly glee, to your Wyrd and feel the Fire inside burn, filling in some of your wounds and bolstering your body with your Elemental nature, but while that'll keep you going in the face of getting cut up it's not going to stop you from collapsing where you stand and getting your throat cut like a pig for slaughter.

You move to put your back to the yawning gap that is the train tracks and raise your blade in a mid guard. Your left arm is still useless, and probably will be until this is said and done; you set your feet and beckon the you-thing with a nod.

("What is she -")

("Quiet! Erin, the Rook, and Miranda.)

"How stupid do you think I am?" the you-thing asks; she rolls your eyes at you.

You shrug. "You tell me. You came all this way for your revenge. Do you want it or not?"

A moment.

Two.

You turn to walk back across the planks, and are rewarded with the hateful shriek of the thing the Heartless Giant created. You drop into a leg sweep, feel your boot meet metal, and watch your Fetch go sailing over the side and into the dark. There's a sickening, wet crack, followed by the sort of swearing you're pretty sure Dad would drop dead to hear coming out of either of your mouths.

She springs up out of the dimness, blade lashing out to block Bifrost, but she did a number on her right shoulder; when her fingers grab the lip of the platform they can't keep the grip, and she goes right back down.

In the distance, you hear a train horn.

"No. No no no no no." She looks up at you, swears, and turns around. "Miranda!"

"Die down there for all I care," your ex says; the Wizened girl sits, still cradling her grenades. "I gave you your shot."

"No! You bitch!"

You sheathe Bifrost and kneel down, offering your hand out. "Come on!"

"You're still covered in spikes!"

"Those spikes are my armor, do you want to fucking live or not?"

That horn again, long and blaring. Light starts to flood into the abandoned station. Your Fetch bites her slag-glass lip, looks up at you with your own eyes, and then jumps for you. The spines of your Glass armor pierce her palm and slice her other hand where she grabs onto your arm, and you haul her up while she chokes back a sob of pain.

You deal 2 damage.
>>
>>2535013
> Kick her back into the train once you've got her. You weren't saving her, you were ensuring this is over.
> Toss her away, then pick the fight back up once she's ready (Melee vs. difficulty 10; increase TYR'S FAVOR)
> Toss her away and then give Miranda a piece of your mind. How dare she?
>>
>>2535013
> Toss her away and then give Miranda a piece of your mind. How dare she?
>>
>>2535013

> Toss her away and then give Miranda a piece of your mind. How dare she?

I really want to kick the Fetch into the train still though. Stupid nagging sense of honour.
>>
>>2535036
> Toss her away and then give Miranda a piece of your mind. How dare she?
>>
>>2535036
> Toss her away and then give Miranda a piece of your mind. How dare she?
>>
>>2535036
> Kick her back into the train once you've got her. You weren't saving her, you were ensuring this is over.

Really, is this something we can Talk Out?
>>
shoulda bound her to a contract before hauling her up...
>>
>>2535036
>Toss her away and then give Miranda a piece of your mind. How dare she?
>>
>Toss her away and then give Miranda a piece of your mind. How dare she?
>>
Aight, called, writing.

No YOU have inconsistent times based entirely around the interruptions in your daily life.
>>
>>2535036
>> Kick her back into the train once you've got her. You weren't saving her, you were ensuring this is over.
>>
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>>2535013
Gods in Asgard she's heavier than she looks, especially given the bits that are missing. You really wish your left arm was working right now.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," the you-thing snarls, because evidently you said that out loud. You groan and heave. Her right arm, unlike your left one, does work to an extent; she catches the lip and is able to help pull herself up, and you take advantage of the momentum to hurl her far and low across the concrete floor.

One good thing about leather jackets is they let you slide, at least.

"If I wasn't already trying to kill you, I'd kill you for that." Your Fetch cradles her pierced hand; it drips red blood in a steady flow, and after a moment to catch a shaking breath she starts to get up.

"Bandage your hand," you tell her. "...Catch your breath."

"Why?" she asks.

"Just do it." You turn away and glare through the windows of the train as it rolls past.

She'll either get up and attack while the train is impairing your hearing or she won't. You trust your instincts to keep you from getting knifed in the back. When the tail end of the train passes, carrying those passengers brave enough to enter New Avalon's much-maligned subway system, you can hear her cutting away parts of her shirt, and the you-thing holding back shuddering breaths while she treats herself.

The others (well, except Erin, for obvious reasons) are leaning in to catch a glimpse of the action. Forum seems a little surprised not to see any fighting. The Rook's expression is less readable.

"Really?" Miranda asks. Her voice has yet to really raise, or to show any emotion at all - she sounds flat and dead even to you.

"Where the fuck do you get off?" you demand. "Your companion asked for your help!"

"I said I'd stay out of it," Miranda answers.

"She would have died!"

Your ex-lover sighs, pockets her grenades, and wanders over to the edge of the tracks. "Why do you care?" she asks. "You're trying to kill her. She's trying to kill you. Do you think for a second that she would have pulled you out of there?"

"That doesn't matter. Why didn't you save her? My friends would have understood."

Miranda turns her head to your companions, all of whom are in various stages of nodding, then back to you. She can't hold your gaze, and looks away, down at the darkness between the two sides of the station. "Go finish her."

"She needs a minute," you reply. "And I want an answer."

"Get off it!" Miranda snaps. "I defended you! I told the others that if you killed Marcus it must have been because he betrayed the Court. They hacked my eye out over it, and now you're defending that fucking puppet? You want answers? I want answers. Why?"

"I thought you were my friend," the you-thing accuses.

"Shut the fuck up," Miranda returns.
>>
>>2535036
> Toss her away and then give Miranda a piece of your mind. How dare she?

This sort of thing is why we left without her, you know. We thought about asking her to come with us, but we knew she would sell us out.
>>
>>2536128
Well I guess I was wrong. Never mind, the post.
>>
>>2536128
Hey quick question since Philly sent assassins after us does that mean we have the right to kill Marcus?
>>
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>>2536128
"How we do things matters." You sigh and shake your head. "...You never did get that. None of you got that. I didn't, not for a long time, and then I still managed to fuck it up. But it does. It's not justice if you have to bury it. Honor's more than just, just words and keeping your Oaths. It's supposed to be who you are, whether it's to a King or a pauper or even a fucking Fetch."

"Call her Susan. You don't want that name." Miranda turns to walk back to the others.

"I'm not done -"

"I am," your ex-lover interrupts, sharply. "...I fucking am. Francesca's dead. I can't rescue Trevor without killing us all, I can't go home because Andy will kill me for failing. Go carve out your Fetch's heart and finish becoming a good person. Leave me to rot like you meant to the first time, you stupid, fucking, you glass bitch!"

No one stops Miranda when she kneels down next to Trevor and cries, head in her hands and her small body rocking with misery.

You turn to face your Fetch so you don't have to watch. The you-thing...Susan...has brought herself back to a standing position. Angry tears run from your living eyes and drip from her chin, but you're starting to recognize the telltale signs of someone who can't conventionally feel pain after the fight with John and all the time you spent with Vickie; she's steady when she should be ragged and fucked up.

"Are you ready?" you ask.

"Ready or not, you've been more than fair," Susan answers in a ragged voice. You can't hold back the laugh that bubbles up in your throat at the line; a brief look of confusion flickers across the Fetch's face before she realizes what she said and she, too, starts laughing.

From across the room you hear Erin's voice float towards you: "Does it have to be like this?"

Susan sobers up and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. "Yeah," she says. "It does."

She springs head-on, blade high in a two-handed grip.

> Dodge, then counterattack (Athletics vs. difficulty 10)
> Meet her head-on (Melee vs. her Melee)
> Use Control Glass to manipulate her sword (Wyrd vs. her Wyrd)
> Kick her out of the air. You can't kill her yet. You're not done talking (Melee vs. difficulty 12; suffer greater damage on failure)
>>
>>2536161
You already killed Marcus, leader of Philly's Hound Tribunal. If you mean Andy Nubis, the King of Jackals...it could be construed that way, yes. If that's an avenue you want to pursue you'll need, at the barest minimum, the blessing of the Queen of Bonfires, to whom you owe your fealty for the season.
>>
>>2536167
>> Meet her head-on (Melee vs. her Melee)
>>
>>2536167
>> Kick her out of the air. You can't kill her yet. You're not done talking (Melee vs. difficulty 12; suffer greater damage on failure)
>>
>>2536171
>Andy Nubis
Death is a mercy with a name like that.
>>
>>2536183
Given his title and the chosen name, he's probably a Beast with a penchant for sorcery, similar in power and fury to Baba Reeds.
>>
>>2536167
>> Meet her head-on (Melee vs. her Melee)
>>
>>2536167
>Kick her out of the air. You can't kill her yet. You're not done talking (Melee vs. difficulty 12; suffer greater damage on failure)
>>
>>2530641
> Kick her out of the air. You can't kill her yet. You're not done talking (Melee vs. difficulty 12; suffer greater damage on failure)
>>
>>2536167
> Meet her head-on (Melee vs. her Melee)

We roll 3 dice and have a blessing edge. Let’s finish this.
>>
>>2536167
>> Meet her head-on (Melee vs. her Melee)
>>
>Kick her out of the air. You can't kill her yet. You're not done talking. (Melee vs. Difficulty 12, suffer greater damage on failure.)
>>
>>2536167
> Kick her out of the air. You can't kill her yet. You're not done talking (Melee vs. difficulty 12; suffer greater damage on failure)

I mean we won't die.
>>
>>2536167
We should really point out that she should return to Dad. He would be happy to have a daughter back.

Also we should see if Erin can do something for Miranda. She's tricksy, might as well use that for good.
>>
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>>2536167
> Kick her out of the air. You can't kill her yet. You're not done talking (Melee vs. difficulty 12; suffer greater damage on failure)


>>2536335
Well, we might, it's about a fifty/fifty shot, but pic related.
>>
> Kick her out of the air. You can't kill her yet. You're not done talking (Melee vs. difficulty 12; suffer greater damage on failure)
>Ask her, "Which of us do you expect to go back to Dad? To your girlfriend?"
>>
>>2536171
I was thinking more of settling for a formal apology from him.

Oooh. Can we take Miranda and Trevor as prisoners of war? Then we HAVE to take care of them.
>>
>>2536345
Getting a little ahead of ourselves there. Focus on trying to get out of this with all of our limbs still attached.

>>2536343
Maybe throw in a
> "Go home Susan."
>>
>>2536359
Yes.
> "Go home Susan."
Waiiit, I get it. The Cinderella Sanction hit her too! She can't go home, she's a monster. A replacement, and she can't stand the sudden knowledge that she has never been real. She's trying to kill herself and end her fake life.
>>
>>2536167
> From across the room you hear Erin's voice float towards you: "Does it have to be like this?"
> Susan sobers up and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. "Yeah," she says. "It does."
Colors may also want to mention that, speaking from personal experience, she's pretty sure that killing people doesn't actually make you feel better. Her time as a hound just left her pissed off and miserable no matter how many people she killed. If Susan wants to feel better, she should go home to the people who love her and stay there.
>>
>>2536369
Nah, gotta remember that the falling of the Mask only happened in the last year, and Colors attempted to murder 'Susan' almost ten years back. And even if it had been much more recent, the Mask somehow still protects the identities of the Fetches.

'Susan' has always known that she wasn't human, she just didn't believe that Colors would come back so bitter and furious and try to kill her.

I imagine its part of the inexplicable and unique process of creating each individual Fetch, because some are completely inhuman in temperament, while others understand the cruelty and injustice that was done to their human halves. One guy I played with briefly (campaign didn't last long, dissolved quickly because of travel issues) had a background as a cop's kid; his Fetch wanted to do the best he could by the boy and his family, and 'grew up' to be a decorated police officer before going on a 'extended vacation' and never coming back. Left a locked box in the old tree house filled with tokens, letters, photos, and what was effectively an apologetic last will and testament.
>>
>>2536395
>the Mask somehow still protects the identities of the Fetches.
Does it?
>>
>>2536171
> If you mean Andy Nubis, the King of Jackals...it could be construed that way, yes. If that's an avenue you want to pursue you'll need, at the barest minimum, the blessing of the Queen of Bonfires, to whom you owe your fealty for the season.
The more I think about it, the more this is sounding like a thing we might need to pursue. Miranda and Trevor definitely wouldn't be able to give up the chase unless Colors is dead or Andy is, since Miranda said that he'd kill them if they returned empty-handed. And if we want Susan to be able to go home and live in peace, we'd need to do something about the fact that she's gotten involved with the Hounds and Andy might try to take things out on her.

>>2536395
The True Fae don't give a shit, so the fetches that they produce can run the gamut from basically human all the way through psychotic monster. There's no quality control, and even if there was the True Fae don't really get people in the first place. If they end up making a decent person, it's by pure random chance.
>>
>>2536402
Of course now I'm the one getting ahead of myself.
>>
>>2536401
Yup, Vox mentions so at the very onset of the quest.
>>
>>2536167
> Meet her head-on (Melee vs. her Melee)
>>
>>2536167
>> Meet her head-on (Melee vs. her Melee)

Let's end this. Clean and straightforward.
>>
Looks like we've got a tie. I'm gonna give y'all 25 minutes - until 11:45 EST - to break it or I'll pick which of our two options I feel is more appropriate.
>>
>>2536661
>Meet her head on
>>2536508
>>2536471
>>2536269
>>2536198
>>2536178

>Kick her out of the air
>>2536180
>>2536204
>>2536234
>>2536280
>>2536335
>>2536343
>>2536342

actually it's 6 for melee, 7 for kick her out of the air I think
>>
>>2536702
I have failed my ancestors.

Aight, roll me 1d10+3 THREE TIMES
>>
Rolled 9 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

>>2536711
>>
>>2536713
hot damn
>>
Rolled 3 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

>>2536711
welp
>>
Rolled 10 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

Just gonna get the last roll out of the way
>>
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>>2536713
>>
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>>2536734
>>
>>2536734
Nah. I haven't done single posters doubling up on rolls yet and I'm not about to. Let someone else roll.
>>
>>2536742
ah the one time for me to roll a natural 10
>>
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Rolled 3 + 3 (1d10 + 3)

>>2536711
Got it.
>>
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>>2536746
....so glad Vox takes best of three.
>>
>>2536713
Heh.

> From across the room you hear Erin's voice float towards you: "Does it have to be like this?"
> Susan sobers up and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. "Yeah," she says. "It does."

> Boot to the face
> "No, it doesn't."
>>
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>>2536167
Hold. Hold. Now!

You sidestep just ahead of her swing, when it's too late for the you-thing - for Susan - to correct the hit, and bring your boot up for a big kick. You remember to dismiss the Glass on your body just before you hit, which is good since otherwise you'd eviscerate her; as it stands you can feel her ribs crack beneath the hit. She folds in half and drops like a fucking stone, and you set your foot down gingerly. That fucking hurt.

You deal 1 damage

Susan clutches her ribs and scrambles back from you as best she can, her prosthetics scrabbling against the floor. You draw Bifrost and advance, but stop once her back hits a pillar, well out of her reach.

"It's over," you murmur.

"Not until you finish the job," she manages through gritted teeth. Susan raises her black blade to point at you, but her guard is shaky, her shoulder trembling. Immune to pain or not, at some point even a Fetch's body breaks down if you punish it enough.

"Susan -" you stop when you see the tears well back up in your living eyes. She sobs, the tiniest, most miserable little sound, and her blade shakes before her arm drops to the floor.

"That's supposed to be you," she whispers. "That's all I ever wanted. That's supposed to be you..."

You take a step forward to try and touch her and get warned back with a vicious, backhanded slash that splits the air just in front of your nose; you take two steps back until Susan, eyes locked on yours, lowers her blade again.

"I'm sorry," you murmur to her. "...I'm sorry I did you like I did. I'm sorry I didn't come back as the person you hoped I'd be. But I can't change either of those things. Even once I find my Spring."

"I always knew," Susan tells you. "The Giant told me. He said to me..." she trails off into the mists of memory, and when her voice comes again - forced through a tight throat and past tears - it's barely a whisper. "Thou hast been made to prepare the way, hollow thing. Thou art the slave of mine own slave. Construct for her a shining palace befitting of one with the courage to escape me."

She laughs and half-heartedly slashes the air. "I guess he never told you." When you shake your head she hits the pillar behind her with her closed fist. "That sick fuck."

"Yeah. That's...that's Him alright," you agree. "Susan, your ribs -" You step forward and get warned back again; that slash is still blindingly fast, and there's no mistaking the killing intent in your living eyes.

"Touch me and fucking die," Susan spits. "I'm not done. I'm not, I'm not fucking done with you. You don't get to look at me like that, you don't, you don't get to tell me you're sorry like it'll make my life better. I'm never gonna escape you. Never ever. I'm..." she chokes on a sob. "I'm your other..."

(Behind you, a shuddering breath, a miserable sniff. Someone suspiciously like Erin mutters 'keep it together' to themselves)
>>
Vox, I appreciate your attempts to keep us enraged, lethal, and in-keeping with the fact that we cruelly murdered our Fetch, and I appreciate your creation of an awesome Fetch situation.

Sorry we readers want current Colors to be a kind person, in contrast with her past.
>>
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>>2536896
Remember.
>>
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>>2536858
You look down at the wretched state Susan is in - clutching her shattered ribs, fighting for every breath that can't quite fill her chest - with pity. "If you make me keep fighting you, you'll die."

"I was made to die," Susan answers. "...I'm tired. Listen. There's things you have to know."

"Susan -" you twitch aside when she pulls an obsidian knife and throws it in the same motion, just barely avoiding having an eyeball taken out of your face.

"I am talking," your Fetch demands. "We have a little sister. I've never met her. Her name is Betsy, as in Betsy Ross, just like you're Susan B. after Ms. Anthony. Our mother came back after I went missing and she's with Dad again."

That hits you, like a hammer to the chest; you sink to your knees, staring in disbelief. "Why?"

"I don't know," Susan admits. "I didn't want to know. Mom can rot in Hell for leaving us and for leaving Dad, but you should go see him. Tell him what happened to you. Give the man his daughter back, for fuck's sake. I know I screwed that up but you don't have to."

Susan pulls a second, shorter blade - more like a gladius - out of her obsidian one. "I didn't leave you a criminal record. I don't have assets to liquidate or affairs to take care of. Just...keep the blades," she tells you. "Keep the blades and give me a funeral. That's the least you can fucking do for me."

Susan sets the blade over her heart; her grip is still on the hilt of her other one, warning you back. "You don't want to do this," you tell her.

"You're right," Susan admits. "But you can't stop me. You didn't want this life, and if it's mine? Really mine? Then it's over on my terms."

She thrusts. The obsidian blade sinks in to the hilt, parting her slag-glass flesh and dried-beef bone, and undoes the final tatters of the magic that's keeping her alive.

You watch for a moment, two, feeling something hot welling in your eyes. It's only when her hands fall from the hilts of her blades that you know for certain that Susan Moore is dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evAjHXMajVQ

END PART 2: THAT PAIN AGAIN
>>
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>>2536934
Someone's screaming, screaming bloody murder, voice raw with grief and hate and echoing off the subway walls. Arms wrap around your shoulders; you elbow on instinct, feel ribs flex but hold, go to do it again -

"It's me," Erin tells you. "It's okay, it's alright, it's just me."

The screams turn to wracking sobs, and belatedly you realize that was you screaming.

"I'm leaving," Miranda announces, from the other side of the room.

> Like hell she is.
> Let her go
>>
>>2536957
>> Like hell she is.
>>
Should we start a feud with Andy Nubis? I want to start a feud with him.

>>2536957
"Leave! May your other eyes be clawed out! Tell Andy I'll be coming back!"
>>
>>2536971
Please remember to

> Greentext ya votes
>>
>>2536934
Rest in peace, Susan Moore.

>>2536957
> Let her go

>>2536971
I think we're going to be feuding whether we want to or not. But first we have a funeral to arrange, and Colors should definitely get in touch with her dad about that.
>>
>>2536972
pls consider it a vot
>>
>>2536992
you can just make another post with the same words greentexted.
>>
I've gotta get ready for work, so some quick things

You have gained the Broken Mirror advantage; once per story or interlude you can tap it to gain a +3 bonus on a single roll.

You are NOT currently in interlude time. There's some upcoming choices to be made about that.

I'll be available by phone during the work day to field questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms. Thank you all for reading and participating!

>>2536896
You've got nothing to apologize for. I'd like to think I managed to strike the tone.
>>
I want to know, how proficient is Miranda at getting inside peoples heads?
>>
>>2537019
In what sense? Wizened in general aren't exactly the people you call for adroit social manipulation but the Hounds are supernaturally gifted at deception.
>>
>>2537022
I'd just like to know how much of confronting Colors was Susan's idea and whether there's any possibility that MIranda or the other hounds might have goaded her into her actions
>>
Hey Vox? What's your quintessential image of Colors? If you had to think of a defining scene, a backdrop for her, what would it be?
>>
Also, just putting this out there, but I think we should ask Miranda to stay so we can at least make sure she doesn't get offed by the summer court or anything
>>
>>2537269
And add her to Colors harem?
>>
>>2537183
I mean, maybe. They're angry people who recruit for Summer, but Susan was also an angry person. You may never really know for sure.

>>2537214
The blessing just before the John fight, and/or the moment with Erin at the Willow, caught up in the tangle of her own feelings.
>>
>>2536896
>Sorry we readers want current Colors to be a kind person
She's a cheating slut who doesn''t comprehend the consequences for those she abandons like Miranda. Besides the fact that killing her Fetch now is a mercy.

This doenst mean I'm pushing for the Fetch's death, but just that I'd like you to understand the different kinds of mercy; sparing someone or giving a broken person a quick and honorable death in battle.
>>
>>2536957
>> Let her go
>>
>>2536957
> Like hell she is.

She can surrender if she wants. Otherwise we can show her the old Colors she misses one last time to send her off. But she isn't allowed to go back to Philly so she can die for their sins and be a political out.

There will be a reckoning regardless.
>>
>>2537269
Do you know what a deniable asset is? If she goes back, Andrew Cumberbitch kills her and washes his hands clean of the situation.
>>
>>2536957
> Like hell she is.

She can surrender.
>>
>No. Running away is what caused all of this. If any of us want to survive we have to stop repeating the same damn mistakes over and over. Miranda, stay.
>>
I've never seen a Wizened Monarch or Princess. Do people that the True Fae change into Wizened, get the short end of the stik, so to speak ?
>>
>>2537314
> Hey Fancy, wanna come visit my Ex in prison with me?
>>
>>2536957
Also hey! We have another thing in common with Erin now, both our Fetches committed suicide.
>>
>>2539615
Wizened are literally made of spite, so there's some reluctance to give them political power in the freeholds. Also they tend more toward craftsmanship than people skills.
>>
>>2539615
>>2539695
I think Rook, for example, is a Wizened. There's was also that buddy of Arthur's from the very first one-shot that had those nifty flintlocks.

>>2539687
Every Fetch is different. Erin's probably couldn't handle the strain of living a lie, amongst other things.
>>
>>2539743
Literally the same if the issue was living a lie.

Our Fetch lived to die for us eventually.
>>
>>2539615
I mean. The Rook.

But yeah, in some ways the Wizened get fucked. All Lost get fucked, of course, but Wizened often struggle with asserting themselves. Things like eye contact, physical intimacy (even as casual as shaking hands or a touch on the shoulder), or crowds can often be too emotionally loud for them. Most Wizened crave control over their physical space and seek to enhance and attend to their environment as a way of reassuring themselves both that they are safe and that they have the power to influence that environment.

To go with these autism-like symptoms of Being A Wizened there is the fact that many Lost see Wizened as being essentially hateful and envious of others. Some Wizened certainly are, and all of them have good reason to be, but not all of them. For many Lost, the idea of placing a Wizened - whose specter in their head might range from "burgeoning terrorist" to "the help" - in power seems absurd. Many Wizened find the pressures of power equally absurd; how is someone afraid of crowds meant to give a speech in front of one? Someone whose exact flaws and struggles intersect with some of the most important duties of the position?

The Rook is in some ways an unusual example of his kind in that he sought power knowing its consequences, but he's also a man who has spent most of his life since his Homecoming learning to compensate for the exact flaws that hold him back, confront his fears, and be his own master. It has not always been easy.
>>
Called. Current winner is

> Like hell

Even if I count the one that didn't get greentexted.

Writing.
>>
So, here's a thought:

We tore out Erin's eyes, a very important step in her facing and owning up to her past. And we still have them in a jar.

Susan has our original eyes.

I say we take them as well!
>>
>>2540190
Susan said we could have the swords, not her eyes. I say we respect her wishes and give her the funeral she wants, preferably without desecrating her body any more than we already have.
>>
>>2540190
What, you want to make art out of them for dad to remember us by?

But in all seriousness: She's dead. However bad our relationship was in life, there's no need to cut up her corpse. The dead deserve some measure of honour.
Those fallen in battle probably even more so, for Colours.
>>
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>>2536957
"No you're not!" You rise, whirling on Miranda. Your ex-lover pulls a grenade from her pocket only to get her hand engulfed by both of Forum's; the Troll twists, and a series of grisly snaps - and her extended scream of agony - precedes the drop of the explosive to the floor.

("Forum." The Rook)

("I'm in my own grip, boss.")

You cross the planks in a blur of motion, full of angry intentions. You slow when you hear Erin's voice ("Colors, she's our prisoner!"), but it's only when you see Miranda raise her chin to take the hit she thinks is coming that the urge to actually hit her drains out of you.

"What happened to you?" you whisper.

"Nothing happened to me, Colors. Things happened to you." Miranda slowly pulls her other grenade and offers it to the Rook, who takes it with a nod. It's not like she can pull the pin with only one working hand. "You were the one having doubts. You were the one who couldn't be okay. I'm still with the Hounds. What's that say to you?"

"You loved me once," you whisper.

"Wrong verb tense." Miranda looks away. After a moment, Forum lets go of her arm, and the Wizened cradles her broken wrist. "I thought I came here to kill you like the others. I was wrong. What more can you take from me?"

"Your life," the Rook rasps.

"Walk your talk or shut the fuck up," Miranda whirls on your friend and you grab her before she can do anything, pulling her back into a crushing hug while she shrieks in impotent anger. Her Mantle blasts heat into the chill of the subway, lighting the darkness with a noonday light and making everyone sweat.

The Rook, for his part, takes his hand back out of his pocket.

"You didn't come here for the Rook," you yell in her ear. "Back your shit down!"

Miranda shrieks, thrashes, and slowly stops. After a moment she taps your arm, and you let her go.

Your steel-toed boots stop her attempt to stomp on your toes.

"You brought assassins here and you hurt me and my friends, Miranda. You're coming to see the Throne."

"Can I at least pick which one?" your ex turns on you. "Autumn's reigning here, right? They'd never understand. I demand a Summer monarch to try me."

> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe)
> That can be arranged (take her and Trevor to Arthur)
> ...Fuck it. Let her go.
>>
>>2540252
>> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe)
>>
> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe)

Of course we're going to have to testify, and to report to Zoe both before and after feels appropriate anyway.
>>
>>2540252
> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe)
Might want to explain to her that Arthur hates the Hounds, for several good reasons. One of which is that they killed a friend of his.

We may also need to talk with Zoe about the fallout from this anyway. I doubt this will be the last we hear of Andy if the talk about him becoming increasingly paranoid is true.
>>
>>2540252
> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe)

Does she hate us so much that she still wants to hurt us by dying as well?
>>
>>2540252
>supporting >>2540274
>>
>>2540274
It occurs to me that if Philly is attacking other Courts now, it might be time they got together and stepped in.

Before Valkyrie does. The US sure as shit won't tolerate war inside its borders.
>>
Of course, Zoe isn't exactly the nicest monarch out there either. It's just I'm pretty sure she's not quite as angry about the hounds specifically.

Hopefully when can catch her when she's not going full spooky.
>>
On the one hand, Arthur is the fairest. He's probably a better judge than Zoe is. Zoe likes setting people on fire. I'd like to see Arthur's Summer contrast with the Hounds'.

On the other, Zoe needs the experience. She's a fresh monarch, she needs all the experience she can get. She might be more sympathetic to the cruel, or she might be crueller to them.
>>
>>2540363
>She might be more sympathetic to the cruel
She didn't give a shit about what Rachel did to Rook, or slaughtering a opponent in her duel.
>>
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>>2540252
>It's not like she can pull the pin with only one working hand.
>>
>>2540252
>> That can be arranged (take her and Trevor to Arthur)
Don't think for her, give her the Judgment she wants.
>>
>>2540252
>That can be arranged (take her and Trevor to Arthur)
This is a Summer affair.

Honestly, I think Summer fits Colors better. She's a knight, a policeman. When she's done with her Spring, Summer is where she should be.
>>
>>2540389
> Honestly, I think Summer fits Colors better. She's a knight, a policeman. When she's done with her Spring, Summer is where she should be.
It's important to remember that Arthur's version of summer is not the norm. It's actually kind of weird. Things like justice and due process and respecting limits are not exactly summer ideals. There really is only one summer ideal: being mad as fuck. Summer in New Avalon going around being good cops is what sets it apart from most freeholds, where summer is basically a continuous gang war. But ultimately no matter how much Arthur dresses it up, anger will always be the core of summer. Colors embracing anger again would be like a recovering alcoholic deciding that it would be fine to take up drinking again because what's the worst that could happen?
>>
>>2540416
>It's important to remember that Arthur's version of summer is not the norm. It's actually kind of weird. Things like justice and due process and respecting limits are not exactly summer ideals.
Then maybe it's just that Arthur's Summer fits Colors very well.
As for anger being the core of Summer? Honestly, it's the core of Colors too, anger and hope.
>Colors embracing anger again would be like a recovering alcoholic deciding that it would be fine to take up drinking again because what's the worst that could happen?
That would definitely be the case elsewhere, but not in Arthur's Summer. I think he'd be good for her, too. He's all about leashed anger, taming anger.
>>
>>2540252
> That can be arranged (take her and Trevor to Arthur)

I am somewhat worried that Zoe might be more concerned how to use this situation to make a power play of some sort, or to garner favor from someone, rather than see justice done.
>>
>>2540252
>> That can be arranged (take her and Trevor to Arthur)
>>
Maybe bring her before Ramona and letting her handle this request would be best. She is more or less our direct handler and there could be no insinuations of political favor in that sort of move. Honoring the wishes of the defeated is the knightly thing but for as little clout as Colours has bringing her to Arthur could appear to be not approving of Zoe.
>>
>>2540873
I approve of this plan.

>>2540252
> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe, see if Zoe will allow a Summer trial).
>>
>>2540252 #
> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe, see if Zoe will allow a Summer trial).
>>
>>2540252
>> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe)
> but yeah, explain why
>>
> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe)
>>
>>2540252
>> That can be arranged (take her and Trevor to Arthur)
Justice.
>>
>>2540252
supporting >>2540992
>>
>>2540873
supporting
>>
>>2540252

> Yeah no she definitely does not want that (take her and Trevor to Zoe).

Miranda is almost as good at ideas as we are.

>>2540374

>See pic related for results.

That's a good way to see the dentist if you didn't prep them properly.
>>
>>2540873
Sounds like a plan.
>>
>>2540252
> Take her to Ramona first for advice on who to bring her to for Judgement.
>>
2540252
> Take her to Ramona first for advice on who to bring her to for Judgement.

I like this plan. This is a much higher-power thing than we want to Do directly, too many things can explode on a national scale.
>>
>>2540380
Changing my vote to:
>take her to Ramona
Seems to be the best political solution. And the least worst outcome for Miranda/Trevor.
>>
>>2542167
Aware of that due to my military knowledge. Miranda is suicidal and uncarig enough to do just that (loosen the pin in advance)
>>
> That can be arranged (take her and Trevor to Arthur)
>>
Gonna update when I get home from work tonight. Gonna be about 11 hours or so.

In the meantime I'm available via phone.
>>
>>2543644
I'd like to point out that the last time she tried Forum closed his hand around hers and broke it all to pieces. I, for one, would not want a troll to grab my face and squeeze really hard to prevent the grenade from going off. You?
>>
>>2544306
I wouldnt want a troll to make the same predictable attacks on a poster like last thread and one before that.

Yet here you are.
>>
>>2540252
Change my vote >>2540325 to

> Take her to see Ramona first
>>
>>2544306
Don't feed the troll dude. It just shits up the thread.
>>
>>2540252
Is this still open?
>>
>>2546439
Now that Decu is back, Vox is no longer the slowest poster.
>>
>>2546470
ONE JOB
>>
>>2546439
Sorry y'all, yesterday involved twisting my ankle no less than four times while standing and walking on it for about nine and a half hours.

Called, tallying, writing.
>>
>>2540416
I interrupt this update to respond to this like I thought I did already but it turns out I absolutely did not.

This isn't quite accurate. Summer has high ideals. Part of Arthur's reform of New Avalon's Summer is remembering those high ideals. Summer keeps the Freehold safe, but it also promises a better life the same way the other three Courts do. It promises justice, it promises to make you strong enough to be safe again, to have honor again, because if you're the strongest you get to make choices about how you behave - you don't have to say "I had to".

Like most ideals the practicalities can shake out differently, and of course people on their journey will struggle, stagger, backslide. But those are the ideals: we can make you a shining defender. We can make you a mighty champion. We can bring something honorable and just out of the evil done to you.

Does it fall apart a lot? Fuck yes. Anger burns out of control, or cracks the foundations of your morality like the roots of a tree crack a house. To make matters worse, most Freeholds - even New Avalon to an extent - live in a state of constant danger where fear is a reasonable response and authoritarianism appeals. It's easy for Summer to get drunk on their own Wrath; it's equally easy for them to put on jackboots and invade privacy, kidnap, murder, and call it justice. But these aren't the Summer ideal, they're failure states.

All Courts have things beyond just their passion and their season. You've seen Spring's ideals about growth and redemption. In Arthur's Summer you see a belief in honor, forthrightness, and justice. You also see a Court that has fallen short of those ideals in its past, as evidenced and embodied in Vickie (and Leo's decision to watch passively as she became a serial killer).

Is Summer a correct decision for Colors? That's not my shot to call, but I will say as a player in this setting you've played her as being on her journey with Spring in a very earnest and well-done way, especially here and now where most Spring hopefuls flounder and eventually crash and burn into the fail state.

Now to keep tallying.
>>
Alright we've got a narrow win to take her to Zoe (literally by one vote after all the changes, WITH counting the non-greentexted 'take her to Ramona' proposal).

Writing.
>>
>>2540252
The awkward silence that follows that statement manages to dull the anger in Miranda's eyes somewhat and gets the rest of your friends looking at you.

"This has to be the first time you know something no one else in the conversation knows," Miranda prompts. You know that patient tone (you've gotten it from Erin, Ramona, and even Cherry that one time...) as the one people give you when you've managed to Elemental yourself, and clear your throat.

"You, ah. You're going to want to see Zoe," you tell her. "And I'm taking you to Zoe."

"Why -"

"How bad do you want to live?" you interrupt. "Erin, tie her hands and frisk her please. Forum, can you please help carry Trevor?"

"If I fight?" Miranda asks, but she doesn't have to be an Oracle to predict Erin's answer.

"You have a second arm for me to break," Erin answers. "Be smart."

The Rook seems to know his way out somehow; the rest of you follow him once your prisoners are secure. He goes briefly ahead into the theoretically-populated sections of the subway and comes back to confirm that it is late at night.

No one in New Avalon is paid enough to run security down here at night.

You ascend to the surface and wince when everyone's phones blow up at the same time, with the sole exception of Forum who had the foresight to put his on silent. You check yours and learn that it is

October 4th, 2017; 3:42 AM

Or about nine days since you entered the Deep Hedge. Not bad, but you hurt, and your heart hurts, and gods in Asgard you want your dog. But there's things to finish up first.

There's nine messages from Fancy, one on each day near noon or so: [Just checking in. Let me know when you're okay.]

You sigh, bite your lip, and then text one back: [Back home. Gotta fix some things, find doctor.]

The Rook is on his phone talking: "...prisoners. Foreign belligerents, your Majesty. Mmm. I concur. We will meet you there shortly." He hangs up and pockets his phone again.

"Where?" you ask.

"Rachael's home. It has the least prying eyes ever since the Juniper Building became so public." The Rook coughs into his sleeve. "Time is of the essence."

"Who is this Rachael?" Miranda asks under her breath after you all get moving again.

"You really do not want to know," you not-answer.

As you slip into the territory controlled by Rachael's cult, you feel your resilience give out, landing you back in a world of pain.

Your ELEMENTAL RESILIENCE has worn off.
>>
>>2548443
Reminisce is waiting for you, on a Neighborhood Watch sign. Porch lights are bright all up and down the street; here and there, men and women - mortal - in robes stand in their lawns and get soaked by their sprinklers.

Though their hands are crossed over their chests, each and every one of them has an obsidian knife.

"What the hell is this?" Miranda asks, under her breath.

"You are in the home of Rachael Reeds, Goddess of Drownings," Forum murmurs to her. "Baba of the Autumn Court and Princess of Autumn. These are her faithful worshipers."

"All in the same neighborhood?"

"People unwilling to sell their homes near Rachael's had unfortunate accidents involving sinks, pools, and their bathtubs," the Rook rasps. You shudder and say nothing.

Rachael's home isn't too different from the others, though the Cadillac out front is definitely hers. Lights are on in a front room. When you knock, the door is answered by a young woman maybe Mary's age, who is soaked to the bone. Dark bruises mark her neck, and her eyes are wide and bloodshot; her breathing is harsh, labored, and shakes in time with her shivers of terror.

You have to uncurl your fingers from Bifrost's hilt when this poor thing manages, on the third try, to invite you inside before fleeing deeper into the house.

"Peace. This is her home," the Rook tells you.

"I know," you whisper back.

Reminisce flies into a room just to the left of the main hall into the home, from which light spills, and here you find Rachael's dining room. Zoe sits at the head of the table, a mug in one hand (from the scent and the steam, coffee) and her elbow on the table so she can prop her face up. Rachael herself sits to the left of the Queen of Bonfires. She and the Rook glare at one another just long enough for Zoe to tap her mug on the wood, encouraging both to look away.

"Congratulations Peters," Zoe says by way of greeting. "You've done well for yourself. I'm glad to see everyone's come back alive. Colors, the Rook said you've brought guests. Who are these people?"

You clear your throat. "Miranda Hargrave and Trevor Keels, of the Hound Tribunal in Philadelphia. Their compatriot, Francesca Cross, is dead at my hands. Trevor was taken prisoner in battle; Miranda surrendered."

Thank the gods, no one corrects you there.

"What are you doing in my Freehold?" Zoe demands, eyes snapping down to Miranda, who shrugs.

"We came to kill Colors. We failed," she answers. "I take sole responsibility. Trevor followed my orders."

"Bullshit," Zoe says without even blinking. "Try that again."

> Your Majesty, mercy. You said yourself that New Avalon will extend its hand to those who've made mistakes.
> Say nothing
> Bring up your Fetch
> Write-in?
>>
>>2548737
> Say nothing
We need more information here, sounds like there are things we missed. Best to not bring up the Fetch, that issue seems... resolved.
>>
>>2548737
>> Say nothing
>>
>>2548737
>> Bring up your Fetch
>>
>>Say Nothing
>>
>>2548737
> Say nothing
Unless it looks like things might turn violent.
>>
Gonna call this in thirty minutes. Yes it's inconsistent. Work's been shit and it took most of my day off just to get my head in order.
>>
Aight, called, writing.
>>
>>2548737
Man. We REALLY need to kill Rachael.
>>
>>2548737
Years of long reflex begin opening your mouth to stick up for Miranda only for it to immediately close amidst the voices in your head reminding you that she tried to kill you, committed other crimes by being here unannounced, conspired with your Fetch, and is your ex and not your girl. You brought her here for justice, you can at least see how Zoe conducts that.

You try and fail to block out the image of Venus Kennedy dying with burning fingers in her eyes.

"Typical," Miranda mutters.

"Of?" Zoe asks. She's sitting up now, her full attention on your ex.

"Autumn," Miranda spits. "You learn to be vipers and then expect everyone else to - why are you laughing?"

Zoe, Forum, and Erin are in various stages of chortling up a storm; the Rook and Miranda scowl, and you're decently sure you're wearing the same look of confusion that Rachael is. The Queen of Bonfires wipes a tear from the corner of her eye.

"Oh man. Oh Jesus I needed that, okay, please, continue your bullshit story. The person with no new equipment, ill-done repairs, obvious signs of depression and terminal failure to care for herself is the leader to whom the others obey?"

Miranda opens her mouth. Closes it. The temperature in the room rises steadily.

"If you wanna go I'll have Colors untie you and you can buy a ticket to ride this train," Zoe warns her in a low voice. "Or you can accept that I am not an idiot, and we can have this conversation like two intelligent people with a mutual interest in justice. Your call."

Miranda looks away after a moment, but she starts talking. "Colors murdered our leader and fled the city. When that happened, our star in the Court fell, hard. King Nubis was shamed and enraged that his loyal servants could be so incompetent and so blind. He cast into doubt our loyalty, our skills, and accused us of potentially lethal negligence. Without Marcus...without Marcus and Colors we became weak, and other power factions in the Court were shown favor. Our numbers dwindled further when two of our own died in the field after volunteering for dangerous missions in an effort to regain the Crown's love."

"Are you seriously intending to listen to this mewling?" Rachael asks.

"All night if I have to," Zoe answers, without looking. "If you don't like it you're free to fuck off. You got your cult out of bed and everything, go have an orgy if you can't be bothered with your responsibilities."

The Rook and Forum freeze in place. After a moment, then two, Rachael Reeds stands from her chair and stalks out of the room, muttering darkly to herself.

"Please continue," Zoe invites.

"How did you -" the Rook begins, but he stops when Zoe raises a hand.

"Later," the Fairest tells him softly. "Been meaning to have that talk with you anyway, given the company you keep. Right now this is Miranda's time. Interrupting her in a matter of life and death is fucking rude. Why don't y'all sit so we can do this properly?" There is some exchanging of glances.
>>
>>2549119
Fucking Forum got what we missed. Still waters and depths.
>>
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>>2549119
"It's not a social trap," Erin clarifies. "She's just tired. I'm tired. You're tired. Please just take her invitation and sit." With that, your (friend? Lover? This question needs answering soon...) takes the chair on the other side of the table from Zoe. You put Miranda to her left and sit next to your ex; the Rook claims the chair to the Queen's right.

"Seats are too small for me," Forum says, though you're decently sure he's lying. He leans against the wall and watches the proceedings.

Miranda clears her throat and continues. "Francesca originally proposed the attack. With the Tribunal cut down to three members we didn't feel it was worth the risk...until we were approached by Susan Moore. Colors' Fetch. She'd been mining Colors' dreams on the sly for some time and found our identities that way. She approached us in the belief that we wanted revenge as much as she did. We made our preparations, informed King Nubis that we would avenge our honor, and slipped into the Hedge to come here. When her Fetch informed us that Colors was low on Glamour and without most of her allies, we attacked. Now Francesca is dead, Trevor's legs are wrecked, and Colors is very much alive. We failed. Death awaits us at home, either from King Nubis or from our rivals who sense his indifference to us."

Zoe looks at you. "Who is she to you?"

"She was my lover once, your Majesty," you answer. "...I left her behind when I fled Philly. I didn't even stop to say goodbye. I should have done that, at least..."

Gods, fuck, why is your throat getting so tight?

"Let's step outside for a second." Zoe stands, stretches, and nods her head towards the door. You wipe tears from your eyes with a nod and follow her out into the hall, closing the door behind you.

"Yes, my Queen?" you manage.

"Zoe works for this talk," the Queen of Bonfires answers. "I imagine you're feelin' some ways about your Fetch, about Susan. I'm not here to tell you that you did anything wrong, or anything right. She dead?" You nod. "Alright. I know about old shit. So I'm gonna ask you two questions, straight-up, before I go pronouncing judgements, calling any of the other monarchs, or any of that shit."

"Wh-hat?" You swear under your breath and wipe your eyes again. Zoe puts a hand on your shoulder.

"It's alright," she tells you. "I'm supposed to be the scary one, remember? Cry it out if you've gotta."

You take some deep, steadying breaths, close your eyes, and get a hold of yourself. After a moment, the Queen of Bonfires takes her hand back.

"What questions?" you repeat.

Zoe nods her head at the room. "How bad do you want them to live, and what is it you, personally, want to do about this? Where I'm sitting a foreign King has sent soldiers into my Freehold that there needs to be reprisal for that. But there's a lot of ways to have that conversation. It doesn't need to be you and your Motley. If you want it to be you and your Motley? Now's the time to say that."
>>
>>2549144
> Miranda and Trevor were your friends once. You betrayed them, the least you can do is save their lives.
> Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.
> The Hounds are a sickness. You can't trust your judgement on Miranda but Trevor is tainted with hate and madness. They should be put down.

AND

> Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)
> Decline the offer (Begin Interlude: A SECOND OF AFFECTION)
>>
>>2549147
>Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.
>Decline the offer

We cannot trust personal feelings, but they deserve a chance at least.

As for Philly... that’s WAY beyond us. I would have gone for it as the Rook, just because he would want to, but Colors is a Knight, not a Monarch.
>>
>>2549147
>> Miranda and Trevor were your friends once. You betrayed them, the least you can do is save their lives.
> Decline the offer (Begin Interlude: A SECOND OF AFFECTION)
>>
>>2549144
> Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.

With a heavy dose of "we dragged them here and have to deal with our past to move on" and

> Decline the offer (Begin Interlude: A SECOND OF AFFECTION)

Moving on means not getting deeper into it.
>>
>>2549147
> Miranda and Trevor were your friends once. You betrayed them, the least you can do is save their lives.
> Decline the offer (Begin Interlude: A SECOND OF AFFECTION)
>>
>>2549147
> Miranda and Trevor were your friends once. You betrayed them, the least you can do is save their lives.
> Decline the offer (Begin Interlude: A SECOND OF AFFECTION)
To do:
- Arrange funeral for Susan.
- Get in touch with dad.
- Sort out love life.
- Don't think about how you always make the people close to you miserable in the end.
- Don't think about it.
>>
>>2549147
Miranda and Trevor were your friends once. You betrayed them, the least you can do is save their lives.
> Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.

Not mutually exclusive.

> Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)

Let's get angry.
>>
Clarifying question: Does this just affect what order we do things, or are we actually leaving Philly to someone else (and thereby closing out LORD HERE I COME) by starting the Interlude?
>>
>>2549147
> Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)
Take over Philly Summer in the name of New Avalon!
>>
>>2549147
>> Decline the offer (Begin Interlude: A SECOND OF AFFECTION)
> Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.
>>
>>2549218
You would in fact be passing up Philly yes
>>
>>2549147
>> Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.
Sentimentality would probably play into our decision as well, but it's not exactly a good reason to give, and I'm not even sure if Colors would even be concious of that, given her history with introspection.

As to Philly: I might be getting something about how the Motley oath generally works wrong here, but signing them up for what might well be outright war without even asking them seems a bit like getting ahead of ourselves.
>>
>>2549147
>> Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.
> Decline the offer (Begin Interlude: A SECOND OF AFFECTION)

It's time to put the past—and revenge—behind us. Reach for our Spring.
>>
>>2549315
Can Colors still get in touch with her dad even if we pass on going to Philly?
>>
>>2549147
>> Miranda and Trevor were your friends once. You betrayed them, the least you can do is save their lives
> Decline the offer (Begin Interlude: A SECOND OF AFFECTION)
>>
hey can I get some clarification- if we chose to make it Colors and her motley getting involved personally what exactly does that entail? Does it mean hauling ass to Philadelphia right now or can we wait a bit
>>
>Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.
>Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally. (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)
>>
>>2549366
Phones exist. Messengers can be sent; you can still choose to bring him back into your life.

>>2549507
It'd mean going once your wounds heal.
>>
>>2549625
so within the next week or so? I think lethal wounds heal at that rate
>>
>>2549652
About that yeah, with medical care.
>>
>>2549144
>Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.
>Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally. (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)
>>
>>2549147
>Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.
>Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally. (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)

And if revenge rears its ugly head and they come back at us, then, well. It can't be helped.
>>
>>2549187
We do have a week to work on all of that, honestly.

Also! Traveling between freeholds!! I don't know about you and everyone else voting to not travel to a new city and experience a different perspective on the impact the Unmasking has had on the world, but...

I'm going to need some proper explaining as to why we want to.. not do that. We have a week to work on things, and the reach for Spring argument here >>2549342 doesn't really... work. We just helped Erin reach for her Spring. She, very specifically, had to come to direct terms with her past and overcome them.

Us going to Philly is the extension of the same idea. I mean, plus the edging towards a declaration of war that Zoe was talking about.

At no point is reach for our Spring congruous with running away from our past. It's always been about people accepting what's happened, confronting it, integrating its effects into our person.. and only through that act of reflection and facing up to our mistakes can the change in ourselves occur. Not going feels like burying our heads in the sand and opting out of any responsibility in the effects of our past actions.

Colors the Knight, well. Fleeing from confrontation for our mistakes feels counter to everything we've been working towards with her, y'know?
>>
>>2549147
>> Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.
>> Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)
>>
>>2547297
>All Courts have things beyond just their passion and their season. You've seen Spring's ideals about growth and redemption. In Arthur's Summer you see a belief in honor, forthrightness, and justice. You also see a Court that has fallen short of those ideals in its past, as evidenced and embodied in Vickie (and Leo's decision to watch passively as she became a serial killer).
>Is Summer a correct decision for Colors? That's not my shot to call, but I will say as a player in this setting you've played her as being on her journey with Spring in a very earnest and well-done way, especially here and now where most Spring hopefuls flounder and eventually crash and burn into the fail state.
So yeah, I'd like to see Colors in Summer, once she's finished. We'd be losing Cupid's Eye, but we'd gain Baleful Sense and Goblin's Malignance.

I'd also point out to my fellow Philly Crusaders that we'd have a -3 social penalty against Philly's Court. We'd be limited to violence.
>>
>>2549147
>> Miranda and Trevor were your friends once. You betrayed them, the least you can do is save their lives.
AND
> Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)
>>
>>2549655
How much sooner with a healing from Spring ?
>>
Unrelated, but how socially acceptable is it for a changeling to mess with mundane people? With pledges and contracts everything it's relatively easy to work out a confluence of events that could ruin someones life without it ever being tied back to a particular changeling except by other changelings
>>
>>2549147
> Both reasons for saving Miranda and Trevor

They're both witnesses for one, and so long as they're alive Philly can't claim water under the bridge as it were.

> Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)

I like the idea of getting some other Courts involved in this. Like. Why do we have to do it right away? If Philly really needs to be taken out then we should see if they've upset other Courts.

Valkyrie is a concern as well, no? Like. Is this an assassination? Fukkin' WAR? A strongly worded letter?
>>
>>2549147
>> Miranda and Trevor were your friends once. You betrayed them, the least you can do is save their lives.
> Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)
>>
Okay, CALLED.

Current winners are:

> Misery said the Fae profit from the destruction of powerful Lost that's been happening in this chaos. Zoe should spare them because they can be of use.

(At 10 votes)

And

> Ask to be allowed to deal with Philly personally (Begin Part 3: LORD HERE I COME)

(At 9 votes)

I need to eat dinner and do the dishes so I'm gonna write at midnight. If anyone needs to dispute the count you have until then to do so.
>>
Aight, here we go. Starting a new thread.
>>
NEW THREAD

>>2552277
>>2552277
>>2552277
>>2552277




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