Smoke Alarm thought through what the fire lady had outlined, seeing one major obstacle to her seeing the sacred flame. 'But, but I'm already a Blue Kang! Not red.' She ducked a little, wondering if mayhaps she could eyespy under the cabinet door, but it was no good. Frowning, she tried another tack.

The Kang backed off a couple of feet, then went through a full and formal how-you-do to the sacred flame in its sacred box, before ending in a curtsey. Then she pulled Puddy out of her backpack, presenting him to the Sister fire lady. 'Can Puddy eyespy it?' The worn black-and-white stuffed cat doll looked at the Sister with big, plaintive eyes matching those of the Kang behind them.

The Sisters trade a bemused look.  "Your 'Puddy' has no need to see the flame," the Sister who has been speaking says.

But the other one shifts her stance, as if this conversation has pushed her out of the comfortable sameness she has been in for day after day, year after year.  She unlatches the door and opens it a fraction, looking inside, enough for Smoke Alarm to get a glimpse.

"Melehndra!" says the other one reprovingly.

The Sister who opened the door says, "Sister... our visitor's persistence made me suspicious.  It was needful to make certain that nothing unusual has befallen the flame."

For all that, the actual sight was disappointing.  The space behind the door is not large -- Smoke Alarm would have to squeeze to fit into it.  A cheerfully blazing flame fills most of it, with a few odd licks of color visible in it.  Unlike the walls of the Sisters' temple, the stone inside the space is rough, iridescent with the metallic colors of the different cups that Smoke saw on the table.

"Very well," the first Sister replies.  "I suppose no real harm has come of it."  She glares at Smoke Alarm.

Melehndra closes the door and resets the latch.

OOC: The Guardian, for the NPC Sister of Karn, rolled 10 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 2,1. Is the Sister tricked?  Resolve(4) + Subterfuge(1) + By The Book(2).

Trav laughs delightedly. "See Smoke? Yawny and Unfun. Thank you for your hospitality, ladies, Ja Ne!" She turns to walk back to the TARDIS. "Hey Warlock, you and Erysk need a lift, or can you take it from here? Stay for dinner!"

Eagerly, Puddy stretched out and peered around the door, the sacred flame reflected in its plastic eyes. And, too, Smoke Alarm craned around and got a sneaky peak at the sacred flame. Meh. She'd lit bigger fires in rubbish bins. But, before either fire lady could eyespy, she was standing upright again and looking like the kind of girl with butter in her mouth the Rezzies wished for.

But Smoke Alarm was a bit worried about what she'd seen. 'It's still burning-bright. Shouldn't you fire-extinguish it?' she pointed out. 'Safety first.'
This message was last edited by the player at 13:36, Mon 09 June 2014.

Melehndra and her unnamed associate both draw a sharp breath as one, and both reach for their daggers.

OOC: May I invite someone, anyone, to intervene at this point?  Because them's fightin' words. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:17, Mon 09 June 2014.

He shook his head quietly.

"Be careful my friend. I don't think the fire does any harm, and unless I miss my guess given the words of 'Sacred Flame' it may well be sacrilege or blasphemy to even -think- about extinguishing the flame."

He then turns to the sisters and bows.

"Forgive my friend. Like myself, she knows not your customs, and I believe she comes from areas where fires getting out of control is a problem."

OOC: SEriously?

09:01, Today: Sereth rolled 10 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 1,1. Convince + Presence.

Everyone in the room fixates on the sudden tension, but with Sereth's quick words -- and the attention of the senior Sisterhood -- the guardians release their weapons and clasp their hands in front of them.  They give solemn nods to Sereth, though their expressions are stony, and Herresas and Lasca both cast troubled looks at Smoke Alarm and Trav.

"Perhaps it would be best if you and your friends moved on," Herresas suggests.  "We may call this a simple misunderstanding, and go forward from there."

OOC: All things considered, I didn't actually mean to make you folks roll for it anyway, so it was going to be an Easy (9) at worst.  Just so long as someone who wasn't Smoke spoke up.  They're not quite laughing it off, though.

Mind, I was looking for a clip of that bit from Brain of Morbius of the Sisters going death! death! death! :D

And this was, of course, hilarious.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:33, Mon 09 June 2014.

As the fire ladies reached for their knifes, Smoke Alarm backed warily away. 'Okay...' she said, mostly to Sereth's warning words. Well, they'd learn when the curtains caught fire. 'Mayhaps you could put some signs up?' she suggested helpfully to their iron faces. 'No ball-games, no fly-posts, no fire extinguishers...' She trailed off; her help was clearly not wanted. 'Burn high for happiness.' she said politely with a careful fist-over-fist gesture, still backing away. 'Be sound and safe.'

Quickly, Smoke tucked Puddy back into her backpack, zipping it up so its head could outlook, then she scampered away after Sereth.


OOC: One of you could have stopped her at any point. :p

Trav goes white when she sees this all happening, but fortunately Sereth's quick and careful words defuse the situation. "Sorry ladies, misunderstanding! All my fault, should have explained." She gets behind Smoke and everyone else. "Time to be outgoing now. Burn high for happiness! Sounds and safe." She tries to hustle her companions back to the TARDIS ASAP.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:18, Tue 10 June 2014.

Trav and the others return to the TARDIS with Lasca escorting them.

"Fare well," she says.  "Please do keep us apprised of what you may discover.  I doubt that the message young Smoke Alarm found is anything but a bit of flotsam from the war, but who knows?  Many things and many people have a habit of coming back to light when one thinks they have vanished forever.  We of the Sisterhood know that better than most."

"Yeah. I bet you weren't counting on seeing me. Aside from that, I really don't know what to say to that. I just hope that whatever washes up we can live with. Take care."

Trav pulls herself in and closes the door. In a moment, the engines begin their familiar grind, as the TARDIS disappears into the Time Vortex.

Smoke Alarm allowed Traveller to push her back into the talkiphone box, wondering what all the to-do was anyway.

Sereth was shook his head. Someone needed to teach Smoke the basics of diplomacy...

He then turned to Traveller and spoke directly. "Where to now, friend?"

"Off to Space Vegas! I wish it were entirely for fun. I have to be there to be at the reading of a loved one's last will and testament." With that, the TARDIS's time rotor groans and creaks!

OOC: This is assuming that everyone has been dropped off who wants to be dropped off, and etc.

'Space Vay-gas!' Smoke Alarm cheered, remembering Traveller's earlier carry-on, then outlooked to Traveller to see if she was doing right.

Trav gets wide eyes, smiling manically. She hops up and down. "Yeah. SPACE VEGAS."

A week later in their subjective time, the TARDIS materializes back where it originally landed on Karn.

Trav steps out. She is alone, and she has that same case. She clutches it like it was the entire world.

She respectfully waits.

Some time passes, but just before Trav starts to wonder whether she should go looking for someone, Lasca approaches from down the long hallway ahead.

She inclines her head.  "Traveller.  Welcome again."  She makes a somewhat quizzical tilt to the left, as if to look around Trav at the TARDIS.  "What is it that we may do for you?  And will your... adventuresome blue friend be visiting us as well?  I would warn the sisters to be... wary, if that was the case."

She looks confused. "Blue friend? Depends which one, babe. Oh, you mean Smoke. She's having a big tub of ice cream right now - This is a personal thing.  But, bring the chief sister here. I need your safest place. I have the future here in this case. I have with me the last legacy of the Corsair."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:20, Mon 01 Sept 2014.

Lasca leads the Traveller off through the temple to where Matriarch Herrensas sits meditating with her circle.  Lasca makes a complicated ritual bow of obeisance to the elder Sister, which takes the best part of five minutes, by which time Trav is extremely fidgety.

At last Herrensas' eyes fix on Trav.  "You have returned to us again, daughter of Prydon," she says.  "And alone, this time.  May I ask your petition?"

"Mother," Lasca comments, "the Traveller tells me that she has 'the future' in the case in her hands."

"Indeed," Herrensas says dryly.  "It is a very small case, and futures, we may hope, are very large.  Explain."

Without a word, Trav carefully opens the case, showing the sample.

"I've tuned the stasis field so that you can safely scan it. The Corsair always believed in big, big scores."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:46, Tue 02 Sept 2014.

Herrensas studies the sample closely.  From within her robes, she extracts an shimmering oval pendant on a chain, which she holds over the open case.  As Trav watches the rune-written silvery weight wriggle in an eerie pattern above the sample, she realizes with a start that it is wrought from pure validium, and it is dancing to the tune of the past bound up in that fragment of living skin, and the potential of the timelines that could spring from it.

As Herrensas gathers up the chain and puts the pendant away, she lets out a breath.  "Well," she says.  "It is genuine; the tale of the Reader Shard is clear enough on that, and it plainly has the promise of new life within it.  Your friend and your comrade, it seems, hedged a bet against destiny and won it.  So what of that?  Surely you have learned as much through your own skills and sciences.  What would you have of the Sisterhood of Karn?"

Trav narrows her eyes. Even the human part of her was in near tears. Not to be alone anymore. She breathes deeply, considering the enormity of the request.

"I saw the High Council return The Master using the Eye of Harmony." She swallows. "Can it be done? Can the Corsair live again, with a full set of regenerations? If so, what do you need from me?"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:09, Tue 02 Sept 2014.

Herrensas' eyes narrow when Trav mentions the Master.

"A murderous gene-woven homunculus animated by a jumble of transcription errors," she says, scowling.  "You do not want to set anything like that loose on the universe.  As for what you have brought me...."  Her voice turns thoughtful.  "Traveller, understand: your friend's memories and personality are not anywhere in that tissue.  If you had those, somewhere, anywhere, something could be done.  As you have not, what you could bring forth would be a newborn.  There are those here who would say that the children of Gallifrey maintain their sense of self from life to life because their essence ensouls their body through the fire of regeneration.  If you brought that newborn into being... would they carry a soul like the one that left this matter behind to you?  It might be.

"As to what we would need...."  Herrensas looks at Trav sadly.  "I believe you have guessed that already.  A life for a life."

She sadly closes the case. "So, no biodata. You are absolutely right,then."

Alone, again. Forever alone.

When the Mother curses Koschei's name, she finds herself growing whistful - nostalgic. The Master tried to kill her several times, and flirted with her outrageously when she had her first face. He was dapper back then, when Boobie wore that silk cape.

"Thank you, then. To be frank, I have no idea what the hell to even use this for. I mean, I have no ambitions except to keep everyone safe, and to not be bound down to anyone place. It's just as well - I think that bringing the Corsair back to a wrecked universe with her entire people dead would be a horrible crime. This saves me from a terrible ethical crisis."

"Unless there is any other counsel that you ladies can offer, I had be best on my way then. Trouble follows me, and you've earned your peace. The safest place I can think of, for this, is with me. If this is with me travelling through time and space, it'll be that much harder to steal. As for a life for a life? If I had his biodata and *she* would come back whole? Sure, I'd i'd give up a regeneration or two."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:23, Wed 03 Sept 2014.