Twilight Mirage 41: No Value in a Closed Door

No Value in a Closed Door
Episode information
Episode	41
Release Date	March 2, 2018
Length	101 minutes
Episode guide
Previous	"Like What We Used To Do"
Previous	"Like What We Used To Do"
Next	"Look the Other Way"
Next	"Look the Other Way"
Links
Episode Page	friendsatthetable.net
Transcript	Google Docs

Episode description

After returning from their meeting with Advent and the Concretetown Particulars, the Notion discusses the complexity of the situation over dinner. When a new offer is made, the group prepares for their largest operation yet: The piercing of a powerful storm and a confrontation against an Axiomatic foe. Even digs for information, Signet reaches out for Divine aid, and Echo returns a gift.

This week on Twilight Mirage: No Value in a Closed Door

We don't talk much or nothin'
But when we talkin' about something
We have good discussion

Contents

Opening

“

One hour after receiving word about the negotiations, Cat's Cradle, part-time mercenary and loyal envoy of the Concrete Town Particulars, found herself catching her breath in the strangest place. She stood horizontally against the horizon, miles above Gift-3, attached by mag-lock boots to the Advent Society tech main, a massive orbital elevator connecting their burgeoning ground side headquarters with their research and development station above.

For the last fifteen minutes, she'd been counting the lightning strikes of the storm below, ears straining involuntarily in hopes of hearing thunder and trying to make sense of what the proposed deal would mean for her, and for the entire Quire system.

She breathed deeply, like city tourist on mountaintop. Despite the lack of oxygen, it was easier for her respirator here than below, or anywhere else on the Nine Idylls. People had misunderstood the mechanism that the citizens of Concrete Town wore. Most folks thought that the Hegemony's experimental cement had made it hard for the Particulars to breathe the gaseous form of The Mirage, but that was backwards. The reason they could breath near their concrete homes, was that the material was fused with Mirage stuff. The problem with the planets wasn't the trace amounts of strange particles in the air, it was the oxygen.

Cradle took hold of a momentum grip nearby, and pushed herself upwards falling further away from Gift-3, and towards the nearest transpo station. By the time she'd arrived, she'd counted another five strikes in the massive permanent storm that swam across Gift-3's field of bubbling Q-glass.

She found herself remembering a lesson taught to her by a grade-school teacher many sleep detachments long dead. Though we think of lighting striking the ground, her teach told her. It actually moves in two directions. First, countless branching leader sparks reaching downwards, cutting through invisible channels in search of vulnerability. But it is when they find their match below, when negative meets positive that the snake of blue-white plasma we call lightning really happens. You need both, she told herself. You need both.”

Plot

Even, Echo, and Signet settle down for a meal with the Facade family, Graph-1, Graph-2, Graph-3, and Evangel. The group discusses whether or not they can persuade the Volunteers of Seiche, Advent Discovery and Salvage Society, and the Concretetown Particulars to negotiate a truce.

Cat's Cradle arrives abruptly, bringing a projector to communicate with Kitcha Kanna, the leader of the technology research segment of Advent. Kitcha Kanna tells the Notion that Advent, the Particulars, the Volunteers, and O-Comm have all negotiated an agreement regarding the stitch: the Volunteers will control passage from the Tides of Harmony, Advent and the Particulars will control all other passage, and O-Comm will control communications.

In exchange for negotiating the agreement, Kitcha Kanna asks the Notion to take care of a threat: an Axiomatic storm in the Crashyards that could potentially disable the stitch. He asks them to either destroy or capture the Axioms involved, but will pay more for capture. The Notion privately agree that they'll try to destroy the Axioms but otherwise accept the mission.

The team prepares to enter the Axiom storm, with gear from Advent that will allow them to lock down the Axioms. In a flashback, Even gives an Advent guard a deck of cards that will allow him to hack into Advent's systems. He uses this to learn that Advent plans on capturing the Axiom, stripping it of any will and sentience, and using it as a way to defend their camp. Echo uses technology from Advent to begin researching. They learn that the Axiom they're hunting, Barricade, generates walls in order to protect what's within it. Signet reaches out to Belgard, who tells her that Advent is operating a biological research outpost on Brighton and likely wants to use the stitch to combine their biology and technology research.

Echo visits Ballad and warns him to be careful in working with Advent and the Particulars. They give him their bomber jacket, which was originally Ballad's but was embroidered by Echo. Ballad warns them to be careful on their mission.

Cast

• Austin Walker (GM)
• Sylvia Clare (Echo Reverie)
• Janine Hawkins (⸢Signet⸣)
• Andrew Lee Swan (Even Gardner)

Other Characters

• Graph-1
• Graph-2
• Graph-3
• Fountain Facade
• Melange Facade
• Juniper-3
• Evangel
• Cat's Cradle
• Kitcha Kanna
• Barricade (mentioned)
• Belgard
• Ballad Reverie