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Background
Episode Description
Despite the faux-mornings and would-be-nights, the sun never rises or sets over the Quire system. Yet today, in the moments between light and darkness, the air hangs too quiet, the way it only does at dawn and dusk. As Fourteen Fifteen guards the scientist and artist Wind's Poem in a well-barricaded hotel room, Tender Sky goes to convince her ex, Open Metal, not to kill the Notion's Ward. Meanwhile, miles and miles away, Morning's Observation and Grand Magnificent search for answers in the floating allocology of the Church of the Self.
Dark Day is here. But will it arrive, or be finally diverted?
This week on Friends at the Table: Our Flaws in a Vacuum, or the Promise We Made To Each Other
Click-clicking my heels wishing away the day
Wish it could have been Tuesday, just not today
Opening Narration
“
There is a trope in Keshian fiction that Keen Forester Gloaming has always hated. Periodically, all through the principality, books, movies, games and other stories about the Rapid Evening would begin to find a sort of cyclical popularity. And in just about all of these tales, there was a commonly used line that never failed to get a response from the audience, and a groan from Gloaming.
Some high-ranking agent denoted as such by the honorary surname awarded to them – Vesper, or Oba, or Dawn perhaps – would be pushed to their very limit by circumstances outlandish, yet perfectly predicted by Crystal Palace, and the agent in question would shake their head and say something like, “You know, just because we knew this was going to happen, doesn’t make it any easier.”
Which is wrong, utterly. For Keen, the foreknowledge that Crystal Palace offered was the most calming thing there could be. It was why, even now, even as his flagship, the Welkin Absolute, came under fire, he operated with total serenity. It’s true that, weeks ago, in a vulnerable moment brought on by the march towards Dark Day, he found himself confronted by doubt, and considered abandoning his post. But here, now, in the action, there was only the choreography. He might be dancing towards darkness, but he knew he would execute each step perfectly.
His vessel was being harried by a pilot of great skill, Massalia d'Argent, who’s entire life laid before Gloaming in datapoints and quotations and interactive diagrams, even as the two clashed in the sky above Skein's central Church of the Self. A life of ambition and regret had honed Massalia and now, under the tutelage and command of the so-called Waking Cadent, they had reached their apex as a pilot, and Melodica, their makeshift machine god, had been sharpened too, into something fearsome; to anyone, at least, who could not see the future.
But the tallest hill was not a mountain. Massalia’s lightning strikes could be anticipated and, while his own missile volleys wouldn’t find their mark, they didn’t need to. They need only to keep Massalia curious and engaged, so that they would not foil the Rapid Evening’s latest plan to destabilise the region; the Compel Project.
Dark Day yet approached, but so long as he could keep the foe Excerpt busy, he would dance his way there, knowing that they would not be the one to bring it.”
Plot Summary
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Cast
- Austin Walker (GM)
- Ali Acampora (Tender Sky)
- Art Martinez-Tebbel (Grand Magnificent)
- Jack de Quidt (Fourteen Fifteen)
Other Appearances
- Morning's Observation
- Wind's Poem
- Ocean's Roar (mentioned)
- Greel Kerney
- Chiron
- Open Metal
- Profit's Cadence
- Massalia d'Argent
- Keen Forester Gloaming