Twilight Mirage 62: The Feast of Patina

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Episode description

In the year after the Miracle, wonder and surprise appeared all throughout the daily life of the residents of the Quire System. Unfortunately, the composition of the system's political structures moved at a much more sluggish pace. Diplomatic gridlock and (well-grounded) fear of conflict leashed even the most aggressive states. The result was the vexing sense that the system had calcified in an imperfect shape. "To live in the Mirage," it was said, "is to see something unimaginable before lunch, but to be frustrated by the predictable before dinner."

But the assassination attempt on the system's leaders, the attack of the Axiom Schism, the end of the Rogue Wave's civil war, and the heroism of the Qui Err Coalition seems to have shaken the system out of its stasis.

Yesterday, even the Notion's patrons—the Cadent Under Mirage and Declan's Corrective—had little faith that their project of a unified system would come to fruition. But today, Seneschal's Brace has not only found recognition as a distinct sovereign nation in the system, but also has positioned itself to build an even broader bloc of ad hoc allies and smaller powers.

But everything hangs on what comes next. A dinner. Some conversation. And a question: If you could remake the world, in whose image would you make it?

This week on Twilight Mirage: The Feast of Patina

We don't talk much or nothin'
 

But when we talkin' about something
  We have good discussion

Opening Narration

“

An excerpt from the journal of Keen Forester Gloaming, Chief Intercessor of the Rapid Evening in the Quire System.

Is it fair to call myself a failure? I think so. Beaten to the punch again and again by everyday fixers. The system fractured but not yet shattered. One Annihilation-Class object replaced with a fountain of them. My own family turned against me. Well over a year into the Mirage and the greatest success I’ve achieved is to restablish a connection to Crystal Palace, after an asset we thought was in control turned out to have Adversary-Class technology. Chief intercessor? Me? More like Chief fuckup.

But Crystal Palace never calls me a failure. It only tells me that my failures are Guaranteed Events. There is a, security in that as much as there is an insult. No way out but, no way to blame yourself when things went wrong. You didn’t miss anything. History was just misaligned. New agents don’t get that. The see Crystal Palace made a couple of mistakes, and doubt sets in. But a few years later, you understand. Any single hiccup at the boundaries of the perfect, is just the result of a trillion accurate predictions. Even when it’s wrong, it’s right.

Which is why, even if I am a failure, I’m not worried. Yeah, the Qui Err Coalition are heroes in the eyes of the people and yes, this alliance between Seneschal’s Brace and the Brighton’s suggests a move towards stability. But Schism was Schism. A wakeup call, and not just for this system but for us, too. Yeah, the assassination attempt on the Mirage’s leaders has pushed these folks a little closer to outright war. But when something like Volition can make something like Schism right under our noses? There is only one solution for a thing like that. And that is why I’m making the call. Crystal Palace can not simply wait back on Kesh and leave it to us to zero out the inevitable gremlins of it’s forecasts. It needs to make the periphery the center. A new home, right here, in the Mirage.”

Plot summary

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The Cadent's Speech

“

Long after the life of Kamala Cadence, but long before the Divine Fleet fell into its eventual decline, it’s citizens lived and worked in study and worship with two hundred ninety-nine Divines. A three hundredth was considered, more than considered really, it was a topic of conversation and debate for many, many generations. Because even then, in the reign of our long paradise, there was something familiar and powerful about large round numbers. Some thought the three hundredth Divine should be made by human hands, to reaffirm the promise Kamala Cadence made in the founding of the Resonant Orbit. Others felt its Divine should be left to the synthetic minds of the fleet, to those mortals who walked between organic and Divine life, and who’s own rights were so recently upheld. And of course, some believed that the three hundredth Divine must be developed by the two hundred and ninety-nine who joined us before, as to reflect their soul, the central spiritual life of the fleet.

And as is the way of these things, our minds were made up for us well before we were ready. The three hundredth Divine had been there all along with us. Slowly building since the day of the very first Divines. Slowly building, from the algorithmic detritus and scrap parts of machines, long made obsolete. Slowly building their body from old signage once slapped by the hands of human children leaping for good luck. Slowly building their engine, in the abandoned prototypes, discarded by the most ambitious robotic craftworkers. Slowly building their mind, from the endless stream of Divine revisions of our assemblage. They were Patina. And they were with us always. An amalgamation of everything that made the fleet the fleet. And they were our three hundredth. Today, on their feast, let us celebrate our connections to each other, whether chosen, destined or coincidental, whether we are from the Divine Free States, the New Earth Hegemony, the Qui Err, or any other resident of this system. Though the Divine Fleet has come to ground, though the Resonant Orbit faces challenges, civil and spiritual, though the times are hard, let Patina’s story remind us, that though we may build ourselves individuals, we never do so alone.”

And, she bows her head in prayer, and says,

“

Blessings to all of you, on today's feast.”

Ending Narration

“

And just then, the camera clicks out of place, and moves away from Sho and Fourteen, tracing a path towards each member of what had, until now, been the Notion. First to Tender Sky, who sits with the Cadent Under Mirage and Declan’s Corrective, reviewing notes and talking blank strategy, all while Anticipation whirrs away, deep inside her head. And then, out a viewport, the camera retracts to Echo Reverie, as they step into the Holiday Gambit, offer the Qui Err crew a quiet nod, and receiving a returned greeting of warmth, from a snake made of living grass. Then it pans and dodges until it finds Even Gardner below the World Without End, toiling away with wrench, submachine gun holstered, as sweat drips down his face. And he is not alone; the gunsmith Cascabel works alongside him, at least until he is called away.

And the camera follows him too, until he meets with another old compatriot, Signet. He unfolds a rifle and hands it to her, and now she is at the focus, an Excerpt, and soon her Divine, and soon the Mirage, and soon she and Belgard skating across color towards the rebuilt Temple of Privign, where the Waking Cadent holds her court. But the camera pauses in place as they go, and instead turns just so, until it locks with the half bridge catapult that Advent uses to fling their plunder out of the Mirage. And we see it launch a massive container, a cube that turns suddenly, and comes to a sharp conical point, built to breach the Mirage. But this time, as it does, something strange happens. A blast from beyond the ether, and the container explodes into petals. And inside the catapult, in a luxury sweet, Grand Magnificent, and on a screen a red word; “Blockade.” His escape ruined by the arrival of the Rapid Evening’s fleet. He’s here to stay.

But as he receives the night’s stream, he starts to think; he may not be as alone as he thinks. Because all around the system, people tune in to the season finale of Gig Kephart’s DIY Guide to the Mirage, and they realise, quietly, that this hadn’t just been entertainment. It was an encyclopaedia for living independently, and together. Water purification and electrical engineering, gardens and kitchens and audio amplification. Lessons for hiking, and for building homes. If the apocalypse came, they would have Gig’s guide by their sides.

And then the camera clicks, and one image becomes two. And two four. And four eight. Sixteen. Thirty two. It is a wall, and with each click it becomes clear that this is not an abstract view. This is Crystal Palace, sight restored. And coming closer by the second.”

Cast

Other Appearances

Mentioned
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