Episode description[edit | edit source]
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
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
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 Aubade, 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[edit | edit source]
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Our Profit's Speech[1][edit | edit source]
“
[Our Profit] Residents of the Quire System. To those that walk The Path Of the Self, I am the one you call your Profit. And I have come to heed your prayers. To those who do not know me, please, listen to my voice with ease in your hearts.
I am the final Hegemon, and the first to escape death, though I will not be the last. I walk on the light as your collective asset, and I will not hedge for my people, or for you. I am the guarantor of faith, and I will keep, at long last, the promise we made to each other millennia ago; that we would travel the stars, not to escape our earthly problems, but to charge into the black as bulls and fix them.
Poverty. Hunger. Slavery. Suffering. Fear. Many of you fled these things to come here, and after you left, I rose, and began the work of undoing them. But I found obstacles that no familiar technique or technology could overcome, without causing irreparable harm to the very structures that brought us so far; our markets, our heedless competition, our love of freedom – these things brought us the light, but they could not save everyone. I cried for a solution in the last years of my first life, and this place, this Quire, sung one alive for me.
It was centuries ago that the first wisps of this technology arrived to Earth and brought with it endless possibility. First it freed my mind from my body, allowing me precious more time to consider and to experiment, and to build. Then, as we completed the Eternal Sphere’s construction, as we unlocked the power of the galactic core, it showed me something else. It showed me that it was not only a medium of storage, but of creation too. And I learned that we could, each of us, build our own perfect worlds. Real utopias, where we are all free to create and compete and love, without putting at risk life limb, happiness or our deepest, most immortal selves.
But residents of the extended Earth Sphere; know that we cannot and will not address our flaws in a vacuum. We cannot simply achieve greatness and freedom for ourselves. We must offer to all who live, all who suffer, and yes, to all that cause suffering too. Which is why I send this message, not just to the known citizens of Quire, but to you, Chief Intercessor of the Rapid Evening.
Driven by cowardice, you spent the last year of your life attempting to destroy something beautiful and potent. So scared are you for your people, that you would rewire worlds into bombs. Hiding in shadow and protected by prophecy, you dealt weapons and lit flames and arranged proxy battles, all in the hopes that disaster would follow. But the people of Quire are made of stronger, more stable stuff than that. And I believe you are too.
So. Keen Forester Gloaming. Destabilizer of a dozen regimes, killer of queens and ruiner of republics, loyal citizen of the Principality of Kesh, the unknown region, and faithful to your false god Crystal Palace – well.”
And then there is a warm sound, full and round and deep, like a power switch turning on, smooth as a stream. And in the sky of the Mirage, caught in the purple and tangerine hue, there is suddenly a new sun. A white, bright, light, that heaves, in your minds, the entire system onto a new axis.
“
Crystal Palace cannot see you now. It cannot see any of us. So get up off of your knees, and be free with your kin. For the rest of you, this is an invitation. My envoys will travel to your worlds in the coming weeks. You need only say the word, and you will walk with me, into the light, of the future.”
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Austin Walker (GM)
- Ali Acampora (Tender Sky)
- Art Martinez-Tebbel (Grand Magnificent)
- Jack de Quidt (Fourteen Fifteen)
Other Characters[edit | edit source]
- Wind's Poem
- Morning's Observation
- Massalia d'Argent
- Keen Forester Gloaming
- Ocean's Roar (mentioned)
- Open Metal
- Chiron
- Armstrong
- Profit's Cadence
- Saint Symmetry
- Our Profit
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Episode 53, 02:04:20.