PALISADE 04: I Would Like to Help You Pt. 1

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Episode description[edit | edit source]

This episode carries content warnings for the discussion of blood and uncanny bodily manipulation.

Having placed the confusion of the Fundament Node behind them, the crew of the Blue Channel begin a slow tour across the few friendly ports in Palisade, refueling, resupplying, and escorting the displaced Twill into new, albeit temporary homes. All the while, there is an open breath, and an opportunity to converse, collaborate, and connect. It is downtime on Palisade.

This week on PALISADE: I Would Like To Help You Pt. 1

Show me the tree / and I’ll shoot down the figs.[Note 1]

Dossier[edit | edit source]

Organizations[edit | edit source]

The Twill: Though many groups have lived on the world of Palisade over the years, the Twill can trace their time on the world back the furthest. Though a first glance appraisal might make one think that their defining trait is the moss that covers much of their bodies and allows them to live on sunlight and water alone, in fact their most unshakable cultural trait is a practice of collaboration, aid, and acceptance. When groups like Advent, Kesh, the New Earth Hegemony, and the Divine Principality left Palisade behind, they often left behind the disaffected or unwanted. It was often, if not always, the Twill who helped these people find sustainable lives on the world, either by blending with the group over generations or through open exchange of goods and information.
The Branched: A post-human society of beings who have transformed their bodies into forms terrifying and spectacular and free—only to have the threat of war force them to rebuild themselves as soldiers first and foremost. After centuries of fighting a purely defensive war, the Branched have now begun to strike into the Principality’s territory.
The Devotees: A church from the Twilight Mirage that is committed to the worship of the divine Devotion, which they sometimes refer to as Fervor. Common practices include the regular checking of one’s pulse and multi-day group picnic outings.

People[edit | edit source]

The Witch in Glass a.k.a. Clementine Kesh (she/her): A former scion of Kesh who, after knitting a bond with the adversary Perennial, came into control of the broken body of the Divine Past, which she has renamed the Reflecting Pool. Rules over the Crown of Glass, a city-state on the southeastern reaches of Palisade. A shaky ally of Millennium Break. Haunted by an old foe.
Gucci Garantine (she/her): A defector from Stel Kesh, who used the remaining wealth and power of House Brightline to help found Millennium Break. Currently a key member of the resistance efforts on Palisade, and the commander of Millennium Break forces there. Codename Watershed.
Kriminel Kollage (she/her): A young Twill tinkerer who tried to convince her community to help her ressurect the long dead divine, Palisade, and went through with it when they denied tos upport her.
Veston Vicinity (he/him): A middle aged Twill who, having felt the Bilateral Intercession's occupation keenly, supported Kriminel's plan.
Partial Palisade (he/him): A man who was once a Divine, now living in the shell of a being quite unlike what he once was.
The Lost Duchess, Constantina Malady (she/her): Just as it is said, she arrived on a black horse with white fetlocks.

Places[edit | edit source]

The Twilight Mirage: Created over 5000 years ago by what was then the Divine Empyrean in an effort to protect the Divine Fleet, of which they were a member. The Mirage is a false nebula that obscures the position of its inhabitants both visually and by distorting time and space. Inside, there is now a vibrant and peaceful culture that spans eight planets, orbiting a dark and living Divine sun.  
Bontive Valley: Blessed by the departed divine Bounty, the Valley provides the Bilats with fruit that never rots and hyper-nutritional grain.

Divines[edit | edit source]

The Divine Imperium (once, The Divine Empyrean): One of the first Divines resurrected by the Divine Principality, and one of the leading figures in its conquest of the stars.

Contents[edit | edit source]

Opening[edit | edit source]

“

I don’t remember it in words at all. I just have images, and they’re all tangled up like photographs stapled to a line of rope, turned back against itself in a broken pulley. So as I reach out for the cable and I try to draw the pictures down, they get stuck. And if I move slowly, the rope stops, but if I move quick, they rip and tear, and I get frustrated, because I know my mind is meant to smoothly lift things higher, to sift sense from sensation, to leap from image to action, so that it isn’t thought at all when my arm reaches out in front of someone else, it’s faster, it’s love.

So all I have is these fuzzy photographs, but maybe that’s enough. I remember hands lightly gripping fingers, I remember luggage, I remember puzzles. I remember a child flicking a flashlight from my rear windows. I remember seeing things get smaller as I grew colossal, pulling myself tight, becoming overgrown, splitting my body into cliffs and canyons, and I remember fog, I wanted fog so badly and I could never get it right. I have black glimpses of those early nights, it was heaven-dark, beauty-dark, continental dark—see, when you’re big, it’s dark in another way, ‘cause you’re dark, too.

And then thousands of pictures that all look the same, and that’s not a complaint. No, that’s not a complaint. Birthday dinners, geese in rivers, Tuesday afternoons, waves on shorelines, sweeping brooms, the color in the sky. The color in the sky. The color in the sky. It was a warning. The color in the sky. The Twilight Mirage scrawled across a whiteboard by hands gloved in the same leather as the boots atop my skin.

And the truth is that the images that come after that grow indistinct, and I can’t tell if that’s a choice, or an outcome, ‘cause when I reach up and pull on that rope in search of the worst that followed, it spins away, and all I’m left with is portraits and landscapes. He turns over a seashell and calls back to his brother. She writes their name on an envelope and makes really sure it’s sealed. The storm creates a mudslide, and it’s a joy to see how soft I am. She hangs up the frame on the wall and laughs ‘cause it’s empty.”

Plot[edit | edit source]

It's downtime on the Blue Channel and festival season on Palisade. While the Twill refugees are being escorted aboard the ship, Coriolis heads back to the battlefield to grab her mech's cape. Her pulse quickens while she looks at the wreckage of a felled mech with a blood-stained cockpit. She asks Thisbe to take a photo of her posing in front of the mech, doing a Devotee salute. Amidst the shattered glass from the cockpit, Cori finds a BAC trench lighter and Thisbe finds a grappling hook.

Later, Thisbe spends time in the ship's cargo bay, taking care of the Twill refugees. Phrygian, who is curious about the Twill, joins her. The two of them repair a water filter together at the request of a Twill named Sprox.

The Figure in Bismuth sees Partial Palisade reading a popular history book and starts up a conversation. It begins with Figure answering Partial's history questions, but before long Partial starts sharing his first-hand memories of the universe's history and shaking Figure's long-held assumptions about historical "facts". Eventually, the conversation shifts to the topic of Partial being resurrected against his will.

Brnine takes a call from Gucci Garantine, unaware of the fact that the quiet room they've stepped into to take the call is Phrygian. Phrygian overhears Gucci giving Brnine advance notice of an upcoming "hit and run" mission in the Bontive Valley.

Cast[edit | edit source]

Other Characters[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Lyrics from the song In The Belly of a Whale by The Last Dinosaur feat. Amy Acre
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