Episode Description
This episode carries content warnings for mentions of violence, death, and colonization.
With the road paved by Misericorde and the NIdean forces which capitalized on his duel with the Apostolosian hero Cor’rina Corrine, the Curtain began to move their forces down onto Palisade proper. Within weeks, Kesh and Nidean forces had spread across most of the major, obvious settlements on the small planet. Within months, the people of Palisade were rallying, preparing to fight back, and making connections beyond their world. ⸢Wine⸣, the Excerpt of the Divine Bounty, whose presence on Palisade had been lost to history, took a small ship and sought aid from the only group proven to reliably bloody the Principality’s nose: Millennium Break.
This week on the Road to PALISADE: Wagon Wheel Pt. 1
Records Recovered from the Divine, Arbitrage
Factions
| The Curtain of Divinity: For generations, the Curtain of Divinity operated in the shadows of the Principality, partly as intelligence agency, partly as shadow government. After the events on Partizan, they were dragged into the daylight, and served as one of the two ruling factions of the whole Principality. But as the years progressed, and Cynosure Whitestar-Kesh, the Peaceful Princept, grew in confidence and skill, the group began a steady transformation and the spies began to return to the shadows… |
Persons
| Ce Gull (they/he): A scout who grew up on a Nidean outpost and joined up with Millennium Break after their home was destroyed by Stel Orio. They’re working on their skills as a gardener. |
| Caeso Wair (he/him): A horse, a cannon, a quiet confidence. There are many ways to be a cowboy. |
| The News of Her Arrival Flowed Between the People of the Village Like ⸢Wine⸣, Rich and Intoxicating (they/them): “Excerpt” of the seemingly absence Divine, Bounty. Excerpts are, of course, like Elects or Candidates before them, except they’re egotistical enough that they have to think of themselves as priests instead of pilots. |
| Broadleaf (he/him): A musician and aspiring chef who towers above others in an elephantine frame. Perhaps you might call him the heart of this crew. A dreamer, for sure. |
| Lishan Charles (she/her): Seneschal of Eversin, serving as local steward and sheriff, reporting up to the occupying Curtain forces if “trouble” arises. |
| Doctor J (he/him): Eversin’s doctor. |
Locations
| The Bontive Valley: When the fledgling Divine Principality left Palisade—for reasons unknown by most—those few who refused to leave (unwilling to see themselves become part of a new empire) remained in quiet isolation, blessed by the gifts of the Divine Bounty. Where that Divine is now remains a mystery. |
| Eversin: A small town in the Bontive Valley under Curtain occupation. |
Articles
| BigStar★: A large wagon drawn by a pair of massive slowderbikes. |
Miscellany
| Kalmeria Particle: A so-called miracle of modern science, providing those that master it power akin to what was wielded before the Perennial Wave. Like most miracles, there is an explanation, but most people have neither the knowledge of nor interest in what it really is or where it came from. Some know that it is named for the rogue engineer Kal’Mera Broun, but few know that it is the result not only of their research into the divine Asepsis, but also the particular consequences of Millennium Break’s battle with Motion and her siphoning of so-called “Autonomy Itself.” |
Opening
“
KEITH as KENNETH MARIAN CULVER: Imperialism, colonialism, occupation: yeah, we hear it a lot, we hear it a lot. It’s ahistorical, it’s not—it’s a misunderstanding of what our relationship to this place, to these places. Now listen, listen—I will bet you—listen, I will bet you twelve, fifteen hundred, sixteen—I will bet you that anyone you know—your cousin, your brother’s cousin, anyone. I’ll bet with every single person in this room, if you turned to your neighbor, if you went to your neighbor’s door, you could knock and they would answer. And you could say, “Neighbor, where do we, where does the Divine Principality come from?” And they might say, “Well, we come from Kesh, and we come from Apostolos. And we come from…” And you could say, and you would say, not to be rude, but you could interrupt and say “No, neighbor, where do we come from? Where is our home?” And you know what they would say? They would say, the Twilight Mirage, of course! So, so… so how can it be colonialism? How can a man colonize his own home?
[Clapping]”
“
That was the voice of the former Silk of the Curtain, Kenneth Marian Culver, now demoted and reassigned as part of the Peaceful Princept’s ongoing capture of power from the intelligence community. Disempowered, now Culver would simply be High Viceroy assigned to administered the occupation of Palisade by Stels Kesh and Nideo. And what a viceroy he would be! Somehow unctuous and self-aggrandizing, punchable and pitiable all at once. And today on Perfect Imperfect, we’ll come to learn exactly how a man like that tries to reshape a world in his own image. Stick with us.”
Plot
After the invasion of Palisade by the Curtain, several communities make the decision to reach out to Millennium Break for resources, people, and assistance pushing back. Wine, the Excerpt of the Divine Bounty, travels off of Palisade and returns with a group of Millennium Break agents: Ce Gull, Caeso Wair, and Broadleaf. The four of them travel together to the Bontive Valley, Wine’s home, in the BigStar★ to start providing relief and to lay the groundwork for more revolutionary activity.
The BigStar★ arrives in Eversin and the crew disembarks to find the town has been pillaged, and is now under the Curtain’s authority. Wine visits the clinic of Doctor J and helps supplement his supply stores with offworld medicine while Wine notes some of the equipment has been stolen.
Ce stops in at a local market and starts chatting with Lishan Charles about the work he's here to help with, discovering that Lishan is a seneschal for the Curtain — a local left in charge of keeping an eye out for dangerous resistance such as Millennium Break. Ce manages to talk Lishan into letting them stay and help, and Lishan admits that she’s not in a position to turn down aid, they just can’t let the word get around that it came from Millennium Break.
Broadleaf has a strange dream where no one in the BigStar★ crew knows who he is, and Ce tries to fly using a secret Broadleaf shares with them, but ultimately fails and begins to fall. Wine is accusatory, calling this a trap. Broadleaf struggles to catch Ce on his own, but can't when no one else will help. When he awakes and mention the dream, Wine wonders if it was sent from Bounty, who is dispersed across the area, and apologizes for the behavior of dream-Wine.