Fran

(repeat)

"Not at all," said the Systmarch, handing Fran a long glass of water. "Except that - well, yes, there is much you should know about. Too much, of course. Wyrn will assign you to an OPERATION. Something obscure and arcane, I"m sure, but.."

He smiled.

"Intelligence - it is the lifeblood of the Conclave."

Taramore

You are Taramore, Lord of Mutation, said the Silver Shambler. And the Conclave wishes to offer you a position of Associateship within its hallowed ranks, depending on your ability. That is the reason for the summons.

Ruse

Of course, High Lord.


Soon Ruse is at the Chapel of Methodes, beneath the Hall of the Sun, and the guards smile at him and move away from the door, allowing him entrance. They understand that he is a Conclave-Lord.

Ruse walked briskly past the guards, not bothering to wave. He needed to head to Alkan immediately.

He went to the methodese chapel, which was probably already attuned to Alkan given the current situation. If it was not, he quickly attuned it himself and sent a manifestation through.

Taramore glares at the "Silver" shambler, the word like Acid to him right now but doesn't say anything about it. "What do I gain for joining this order?"

Fran

(repeat)

"Not at all," said the Systmarch, handing Fran a long glass of water. "Except that - well, yes, there is much you should know about. Too much, of course. Wyrn will assign you to an OPERATION. Something obscure and arcane, I"m sure, but.."

He smiled.

"Intelligence - it is the lifeblood of the Conclave."

Taramore

An Associate (Brown) is a full member of the Conclave without an official title or duty. They are often given missions by the Conclave, and are held on call. They receive a single vote in open councils, and answer directly to a Low Lord. In return for their good work they receive Conclave Stones and political favour, both which will help them advance in the ranks. They are considered more like agents-to-hire then actual full members and are considered to be fully expendable.

The Silver Shambler was unflinchingly obvious and precise. It was as if it were reading from a manual - perhaps it was. It continued.

There are three branches of Associateship.

Aggressive Operations are the largest branch of the Associateship, and involve military and strategic campaigns, invasions, and assaults. This field wars against all threats to the Conclave, active or otherwise.

Familiar Operations is the second-largest field, and involves manual labour, administrative tasks, paperwork, and ensuring the checks and balances of the Conclave are kept under control. Familiar Operations also include research tasks, and scientifically inclined Gods often join up to the field in order to receive grants while they work on their studies.

Estranged Operations involves intelligence work and subtler tasks not suited for some.


Ruse

As Ruse entered the Chapel of Methodes, his SUIT responded to him cheerfully.

You do not wish to enter Fort Seal at this time, High Lord Ruse. According to various magical fluctuations and current empirical data anomalies, there is an %87 chance of your death and a %94 chance of my own destruction. It would be folly.

It pleasantly ignored his other inquiries.

You are going to be a...finicky SUIT, aren't you? Loyal but opinionated...we'll have to work on that later. However, I am fully aware that I am endangering myself by going to Alkan. However, if Chalybis is not stopped this could inflict egregious damage upont he tree of life. It defies my honor as a zealous god to just stand by while Yggdrasil is in peril. I will gladly risk my life in exchange for the power and favor her ladyship has granted me.

However, you are too valuable a tool to risk in a 94% chance of destruction, so I will paradox you along with some other items I'm carrying over to my realm self, so should I die I will both be able to reclaim my possessions quickly while also not risking their destruction.

Ruse pulls his order scales out, and weaves a fate reinforcing his success and potency in his alkan endeavours. He then whisks all of his possessions besides his robes away to elsewhere and with a sigh of stubborn determination and committment he sends a manifestation throught he chapel to Alkan, less concerned for his life and more concerned for Yggy's wellfare.

When Ruse sends his manifestation through, he takes this manifestation and finds the bureaucrats in the Chamber of the Commerce of Ambaldros, here in the halls of the sun.

Ruse feels the magic surge through him, experiences the familiar rush of Fate, and then a staggering low - even worse than having one's own Fate negated. It was as if Ruse had been caught, for only a split second, in the blinding chill of the Void itself. And then - he was back. Normal. He wasn't sure if that meant the spell had failed or not..

Of course, High Lord.  I will not follow to Alkan.

There is a dazzling of prismatic lights - and a feeling of completion - and Ruse appears in Alkan.

The other Ruse, the present Ruse, soon found himself within a grand, pristine, circular room - the Chamber of the Commerce of Ambaldros. There within the huge room, in various states of bureaucratic work, were some hundred men and women - Divine, mortal, Systemarch and the occasional Callisti to verify statistics. The secretary glances over to Ruse.

"May I help you, Lord?" he asked.

Ruse nodded, and said,

"Yes, I am here to confirm that the budget for Operation HIEROPHANT has been approved. The bidget code is ROID-XCD655. Please process this immediately."

The secretary smiled, looked at his terminal, tapped a little bit at the arcane keys, spoke the code once more.

"You've been fully approved," said the secretary. "Operation HIEROPHANT is a go."

Ruse nodded his approval, and replied,

"Also, please direct me to Jonathan Marse. I need to speak with him immediately."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:02, Mon 03 May 2010.

"Of course. Right away, High Lord Ruse," said the secretary.

Ruse was led past desk after desk filled with mountains of paper, fitted with machinery.. until they reached an isolated desk - no other close to it by about ten meters - towards the back of the room. The scruffy, youthful looking Earthborn with money-coloured eyes swiveled around upon his chair, listening to blaring music from his SUIT while tinkering about with an advanced glyph-calculator of sorts. He was dressed in loose, casual Earthborn clothing of jeans and an easy shirt.

The music stopped when he saw the secretary and Ruse.

"Howdy, guys," he said, grinning to himself. "And to what pleasure do I owe this disruption of my work?"

Ruse looked to the secretary, and said,

"Thank you - that will be all. You may return to your desk now."

Looking back to the earthborn, Ruse replied,

"Ah, Jonathan Marse I presume? I would like to discuss both a business venture as well as a political opportunity with you. I am High Lord Ruse, pleased to make your acquaintance. I have it from a very reliable source that you are a talented individual."

The secretary ignored Ruse's arrogance, smiled at Marse, and returned to his desk.

"Roid, of course," said Marse, smiling broadly now. "He's the only one who's happy enough to share me with friends, and, I think, to complement me. Which would make you High Lord Ruse, U.I., something of a stir within the intelligence community lately. I believe you are going to ask me to join Operation HIEROPHANT," he said, reaching to the small icebox beneath his desk. He withdrew two frosty glass bottles, emblazoned with red logos, popped one and gave the other to Ruse. "Coke? Not the new, pathetic version, post-Territory, but the rather nicer bubbly Old Coke, before 2403. I run a factory that produces them, you know. In my spare time."

He talked quickly and confidently.

"Roid's always a little off the mark," said Jonathan Marse, still with the smile. "I'll take a thousand on top of whatever he's told you to offer me as a standard fee and as a base rate for my salary."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:38, Mon 03 May 2010.

((Wait is he jonathan hast or jonathan marse? Marse is what roid said.))

Ruse shook his head and declined the soda,

"I'm not feeling hungry right now, unfortunately. Long story." he said with a frustrated sigh.

Then he looked back at Jonathan, and replied,

"Yes, apparently I am causing a stir everywhere I go, despite my best attempt to do the contrary. And yes, Roid is the one who gave me this lead. I am the director of Operation HIEROPHANT, the newest Conclave operation to date. I am looking for good help - a commodity that is so hard to find these days it is simply exasperating."

Ruse flicked his long, silky, sensuous white hair back, and continued,

"You have a very good resume, mister Marse/Hast (whichever is correct lol). If you are as good as Roid claims, I would like to offer you the position of Commerce Manager of HIEROPHANT. Given your talent and status, you would answer only to myself and Roid so far as HIEROPHANT is concerned, and this is a new arena in politics that is ripe with untapped potential to be seized by the opportunistic."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:44, Mon 03 May 2010.

(Marse, sorry - I'm a little tired but enjoying this particular subplot. Edited.)

"If I am as good as Roid claims?" laughed Marse, sipping the Coke. "He isn't aware of half the investments I've made, businesses I've secretly run, Operations I've headed. There's talk, rising, ever so slowly of me being in line to inherit Council and I've been offered a position as Executive Supreme at the Apotheosis Circle, which I denied for reasons of taste. If Roid had any idea of how vast my fortune was.." His frown dropped, almost, resumed itself. "But I digress. Forgive me. I would be happy to accept a position as Manager of Commerce at Operation HIEROPHANT. I would also," he added, smirking, "Enjoy first offer as Leading Director if we ever get a psychic-House off the ground. I've been meaning to get into some harder work."

He sipped again.

"I imagine you'll've started with a support Operation," he said. "This would be wise. We'll also need a base of operations. Any idea towards that front? And if you give me your Seal I can take the four grand now and begin working for you straight away."

He looked towards someone behind Ruse. "Hey, Ghurhaff?" he yelled. "As of now I quit!"

There was a voice from behind: "Permanently?"

"For now. Wait until I change my mind," yelled Marse, smiling apologetically to Ruse.

((Wow he's the goofy yet competent type? Very nice. I guess since I'm human and he is human I find him appealing.))

Ruse withdrew his seal from somewhere indeterminate on his body, but did not give it to Jonathan yet.

"Very well, you're hired! However, I am not sure what Roid told you or not, but right now we have a limited budget. As such, and yes I am willing to give you 4000 stones instead of 3000, but your salary after today will be based totally on how much income the investments bring in. I was thinking a flat 5% of all profits would go to you, both of HIEROPHANT's investments as well as my own. That is a high percent I know, and you could potentially make a small fortune, but I consider investing in you as an investment in both my and this operation's future. Does this agree with you? If not, let's negotiate right now so we are both on the same page right fromt he get-go."

"Let's say five percent for now, with renegotiation available from either side depending on how we're doing, financial-wise," Marse said. "And with me on board, we'll be doing fine. Hell, let's make it a flat ten percent. You'd pay no less for a competent literary agent, I fear, and I am better than that. And I have as much freedom of action as I can possibly have - you and Roid are my partners, not my superiors. Consider me a third musketeer. And I can walk at any time. Besides this," he said, sipping again, now from Ruse's bottle, for he'd finished his first, "I think we'll get along fine. Your opinions as Director will trump mine, of course, and Roid's yours.. but otherwise? We'll be okay. Yeah, we'll be fine."

He looked at Ruse now, and then to the Conclave Seal.

"We'll be needing a building, too. I want my own office. With a fridge - no, a bar. And a couch. I can organize that for you, I think," he said.

Ruse grinned mischiveously at the man.  He was a true opportunist, and had a certain arrogance to him. Not Ruse level of course, but confidence. He liked that, especially if it was well-deserved.

"Okay, I'll pay you a 10% commission on the profits we earn from investments, renegotiable as we go but unchangable without both our consent. Also, when we gain a headquarters I'll make sure you have your own office. With a bar and a couch in it. Really, I intend to have our headquarters be rather mordern, although still aesthetically pleasing to the eye. But that will come later. And yes besides myself and Roid, you will not answer to anyone in HIEROPHANT - I'll make sure of that myself if need be."

Ruse handed him his high lord seal so he could start doing things with money.

"Here are my present budget allocations, and I authorize you to have access to the following monies for the purposes of investing them for both myself and HIEROPHANT:

1.) I authorize that 10,000 of my own conclave stones be taken from my personal account and invested directly into an area of your choice that will ultimately be most lucrative. The owner of the investments and the recipient of the proceeds will be myself, with you gaining 10% of my profits as we agreed. Have profits deposited directly into my account, with 10% going into yours.

2.) I authorize 6000 stones from the HIEROPHANT budget be taken and invested  directly into an area of your choice that will ultimately be most lucrative, with the ownership of these investments and the recipient of the proceeds being Operation HIEROPHANT itself, not me, with you gaining 10% of the profits as we agreed. Have profits deposited directly into the budget, with 10% going into your account.

3.) I authorize 2000 of my personal conclave stones to be transferred from my account into yours as half of your 4000 base pay we agreed on.

4.) I authorize 2000 stones from the HIEROPHANT budget to be transferred from my account into yours as half of your 4000 base pay we agreed on.

Where or how these monies are invested is your call, and one of the reasons we hired you. I also want to give you this freedom to see what you can do unhindered.

This leaves us with 1000 stones in the HIEROPHANT budget as an emergency cushion. Your base pay and thus your salary is being paid by both my own pocket and HIEROPHANT, both for my own benfit (I can certainly use more personal wealth) as well as to lessen the burden on the HIEROPHANT budget. All HIEROPHANT monies must stay within HIEROPHANT ultimately, and while we are free to add our own money to the budget if we so choose, Roid made it quite explicit that this is a 1-way transaction. As for a headquarters, we will look into that soon, but first and foremost we need to get more money to work with, and gaining lots of profit should be the primary focus for this first stage of this project SUPPORT. After that, when our budget stabilizes, the focus will shift to a headquarters as well as campaigning the higher ups in the conclave. I will try to approach some people now though, when I get the chance."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:48, Mon 03 May 2010.

"Thank you for hiring me," said Jonathan Marse, grinning, as he sipped at his 25th Century Coke. "You will never regret the decision." He took the Seal, ran it quickly through his own systems, and then smiled. "I am bought and paid for, High Lord Ruse. Now, as to your requests.."

He scribbled down Ruse's requests upon a sheet of paper, for ease of reference later.

1. H.L. Ruse PER; 10,000 CS > lucrative market (own choice); pft > Ruse.
2. Op. HI. BUDGET; 6,000 CS > lucrative market (own choice); pft > HI.
3. Payment for J. MARSE.

"Too easy," said Marse. "Yes, we'll have to stay one step ahead of the Conclave market analytic.. hmm. I've processed the Stones over to my account; I am working for HIEROPHANT immediately. With your leave, Ruse, I'll be off now to ponder over the investments - they will be made by tonight, I feel. Yes. I have an idea."

He emptied the bottle, placed it on his old desk.

"When we're more stable we'll work towards headquarters," he said, smiling. "For now, income. Yes. Meeting complete," he said, smiling, gathering his things from his desk. "I'll be leaving now, High Lord. Business. As usual. Hmm.."

Ruse retreived his high lord seal, and pocketed it.

"Excellent. That is good to hear, especially since lately it's been one bad thing after another for me."
So was the fate of those Zealous gods who had Yggdrasil's blessing.

"If you need to contact me, as a high lord you can leave a message for me on my channel. Also, low Lord Maxilita will be working for us as well. I have gained Wyrn's consent so after the duel she will once again be mine. Consider her our first ground operative. I will have her scouting out the real estate market a bit, since I'd rather you focus exclusively on profit generation for the moment. And remember, the more our investments bring in, the better your corner office will be." Ruse said with a playful grin.

He turned around to leave, and said,

"Oh and I forgot to carry a 1 somewhere, but we should have 2000 stones in the HIEROPHANT budget as a cushion, not 1000. 6000+2000=8000, and 10000-8000 is 2000. I'm sure you caught that already, but I have to save face."

With that, Ruse shifted into mist form and slithered on out of there, like streaming strands of white silk floating through the air.

Ruse decided, since he had a sentry watching the duel, that he should head over to the Tower of Babilu. for multiple purposes.

<To The Divine Valley - Babilu>

"Of course," said Jonathan Marse, waving Ruse off. "I am aware of it. Goodbye, Director Ruse."

Pitcarn re-appears in the Methodes Gate with the troops from his mission. He looks disappointed with the result, and the active paraflamers add nothing to his mood. One shot fired, and mothing more. A tea set destroyed.

That Damn fool Desafon. His selfishness could be the death of all.

Pitcarn looks around for Fiefmaster Jonaht, to report the return of the soldiers. He needs a drink.

Jonaht meets him, bids him sit down, offers him opium-filled steaming tea.

"Drink this," she said. "It'll help. Earthborn narcotic."

She was, once again, entirely naked, and her flaming hair continued to entrance Pitcarn. She moved with grace and was yet filled with power. The Chapel was empty, save for a few independent members of the Conclave using the Gate for their own duties.

"It was a failure, huh?" asked Jonaht.

Dismissing the soldiers with a wave of his hand, Pitcarn takes the drink wearily.

"A Failure, in more ways than one."

Pitcarn allows Jonaht to sit first before seating himself, then allows his heavy bulk to fall onto his seat.

"On one hand, Desafon, or rather the Apotheosis Circle, prevented me from carrying out my mission, while on the other, I had to refuse my nature.
"I gave the Duel God a chance, and from that I had my own opportunity for success removed from me."

Pitcarn takes the drink, and sips, allowing the liquid to slip down his throat, before continuing.

"I suppose I should take this as a lesson to strike first, as is my nature, from now on, eh?"

Pitcarn felt a warm, tingling feeling rise from within his stomach. His muscles relaxed and the pain of failure began to disappear.

"The Conclave has always been an assertive empire," said Jonaht, the fiefmaster. "Striking first and striking the hardest is their favourite method. Anything less would disrespect both their foes and the citizens of the Conclave. Only swift action can guide you true in the alien worlds of Yggdrasil. It is a professional necessity. But tell me - how is the tea? Relaxing?"

"Yes, it is relaxing. Thankyou for your thoughtfulness.

"Speaking of striking hard and swift action, I've just been posted to Tushmuthut. You, fiefmaster, seem to be the person who I need to talk to in order to get there."