Raises hir brow at the beggar to thief thing. "He steals everything from people.... or gets them to do things for him by force, trickery, or bribery.....  if they REALLY arn't evil by nature... something drove him to this... maybe if you really felt sorry for him, least enough to give him something that might touch his heart."

She looks up and over to Bozon. "But it would have to be something you carred about, and it would have to be given because you cared and because you wanted to.... no strings attached... not because you thought it might save your friends, but because you thought it might save him...... sure he can sense such things.... if you can't say that's honestly the truth don't bother, but if you can.... it may do something."

".. are you kidding in the situation he's in and what he's seen, those kids... how can he possably do that we need pratica-" she looks over to Theo and Scoord. "Wait! Can anyone poking around in our heads know about whats going on here? Can you keep Pontorna out?"

Bozon tilted his head to the side, an eyebrow cocked. If Joe is not himself evil, but held in the grasp of one who is, would it be harmful to invite him here to discuss with us how we could free him and his kingdom from Pontorna's influence?
This message was last edited by the player at 04:07, Fri 13 Mar 2020.

Scord responds, "Okay, hold off on bringing him in here. I've got a mind-reading detection skill, and our minds aren't being read by Pontorna while we're here."

A screen appears above the ground, with an impenetrable shield. Yalfa appears, "That's right. Pontorna can't interfere in here & can't learn of it unless one of you purposely reveals it. I have spoken, my baby yoe dahs."

Scord continues, "What even is evil? Evil is totally subjective according to what you love. I've looked into your lives enough to see something of your own loves. One thing we all seek to hold in common is our love & respect of sentient life. Sure, from our perspective he's evil. But from my perspective, anyone who doesn't love All-Child is acting evilly, because my greatest love is All-Child. But All-Child loves everyone at the cost to Hir own life, so I judge no one since I'm just as bad as the worst. Az, Bozon, Aflae, you're all right. Look at what Joe has done without Pontorna's influence as far as we can tell. He didn't have to buy Bozon. He didn't have to tease Auricle like a cat. So she has no moral value to Joe. He doesn't see Auricle or Bozon as people to be cared about, and simply pointing that out isn't enough. The man is vastly powerful - power causes people to lose empathy. He and all his kind have been enslaved due to the curse of Grandel since the first era. He wants to be pittied, but by someone equal or greater in power. But pity him without showing him his own evil will only harden his hear even more."

Theophili added, "That said, you could pull a virtual copy of his mind in here, and if it was non-sentient, Joe would never know.

Thinks about this maybe a gift can work.....

Takes out one of her magus stones and some materials and starts working, while talking to Scord. "You gave us stuff, and we could take it to the 'real' world. Can I take something from that world, and give it to Bozon, that he can take back with him?" She keeps working while looking over to Theo because she said she made this world. "Can you create a VI of Joe before he became evil?"  She figures, store the VI in a Virmagus projector give it to Bozon, and he give it to Joe.... Joe confronts himself, takes piety on who he's become.... there you go!

The big clown looked confused. She was proposing making a prop that he could take on-stage? Why was she talking about it as the real world, though? He felt like he'd missed something subtle yet important here.

"Auricle! No... I was almost done.....NO!! WAIT! I'm almost done you can't give yourself up! That's nothing new to him! It won't phase him at all!" She works feverishly.

The clown shook his head sadly. There was no time, there on-stage, and he saw no other way through this. He was just a beginning apprentice at his art.

Theophili says, "Not before he became evil, but before he lost his humanity, yes. By the way, I didn't make the Sideways. The Sideways was created and discovered by the Sprites with the help of Rexeaufayael to guard and protect all Leprechauns."

Aflae finishes her projector, and Theophili creates a Virtual Intelligence of Joe to inhabit it.

Thinking, Hergot, Scord said, "Bozon, that was very brave and noble of you. You are in an impossible scenario, and I don't envy you at all."

The Joe VI turns on, and a boy of about 26 dressed in gold jewelry and fine silk appears before them. "Hi! Um... where's mom?"

Theophili presses a pause button that appears on VI Joe's forehead and says, "Where was Joe's mom? What is happening in VI Joe's conscious present?"

VI Joe begins talking mechanically, "Joe's mom had just been murdered by her subjects. Joe's father, the angel, was preoccupied in his pleasure palace on the other side of the world with some of his other wives. Joe had not yet developed his Djin abilities other than shrinking and growing, and his life had been filled with the pleasure and ease of a prince who didn't expect to become king for another 2-300 years."

Theophili presses play and says, "She's resting."

Scord asks, "Shall we show him his modern self?"

In reply to Narrator (msg # 116):

Hearing his real name momentarily jolted Bozon out of the growing depression that the choice he had had to make on-stage was bringing him to here. Noble, yes. But he couldn't see it as brave. He was terrified inside of what agony might be coming, but he had to face it like a man out there. This... wouldn't just be acting that he was in torment.

"Even if it's just a VI it feels wrong but we got to." She hands the VI projector off to Bozon.

The clown looked at what he was given, puzzling over how to operate it. And, more importantly, how to get it from here to there. Would his carpetbag do the trick, reach into it in Joe's throne room and pull this prop out of the bag?

"Try and make it an honest gift, if you can... the cat is right that might help if you can..." tries to weave a Unimagus/Formagus spell into Bozon's skin if she can.... rather kinds should be using Kenimagus but don't know it. So instead tries to make a spell to activate if he's popped to use Formagus to repair him and Unimagus to revurse entropy and re-inflate him to make up for a lack of kenimagus to blow air into him.

Figures that would at least let him survive a single popping before Joe just melted him into a puddle or something.

Aflae gets the feeling that her Order Knuckles from Scord might be able to work a repair/heal spell after he bursts, but this spell failed.

Scord, seeing Bozon's difficulty with the projector, showed him how to turn it on and off. He explains, "You can certainly take anything from here out there, as long as the thing you're bringing into the regular world is not just a copy of something. You could take it through your bag, for certain."

The projection of VI Joe says, "Can I have sweet-cakes?"

Theophili tells Bozon, "The curse on Djin was made by Grandel the Wisest. It will unravel on it's own at the collapse of Oner 0. The curse is tied to their power and the Oner itself, so it can't really be broken before then. Fortunately. All Joe really wants is freedom. He also wants diversion from his boredom, but his boredom is born from the fact that he wants the one thing he can't have. His second desire would be to no longer be the slave of Pontorna. But Pontorna would have to use up his wishes or give his staff (Joe's physical anchor ((in other words, his lamp)) ) to someone else."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 02:28, Wed 18 Mar 2020.

Bozon watched what Scord showed him carefully.

Can this curse be relieved, for a time, such as by Joe divesting himself of the power it is tied to until he should take it up again? he thought at Theophili.


The clown had no legends of genies from his world to grasp the idea of a lamp, but he could grasp that the staff was the key to Pontorna's power over him.

"You guys do realize Pontorna will have a chance here to give all of Balur a soul here.... any soul of HIS chosing...."  Also is checking with her company if they have enough magem to bring it together in one place and compress it into a cluster of there own so there will be more than one mind node for balur incase they have to destroy that one.

In reply to Aflae (msg # 123):

A very surprised look crossed Bozon's funny face. He didn't think that that possibility, of Pontorna doing some nastiness with Balur's very soul, had crossed his mind before. But now that he had heard it, that fertile imagination was going to work coming up with possible scenarios, both for ill and for weal.

Theophili thinks for a moment then says aloud to Bozon, "I suppose if the Djin was willing, their master could wish to become a Djin. But only if the Djin was willing could the two swap, the Djin becoming whatever the master was, and the master becoming a Djin."


Scord responds, "Including himself..."



OOC: You won't notice this set-back, so don't be too concerned, but...
IC:
They comply and are able to create a mind node within an hour. The mind node is able to communicate, and it screams at them all, "DOOOM!!! I cannot reset, I've been trying since the moment of the last reset! Something is holding me back! Now I am also being eaten alive by a mindless fool!"

Just then 39 people in robes appeared surrounding the node, and it blew into Magem dust, seeding all of Auraluna and Arbaelf with the dust.

Scord pulls some Magustone in and a copy of Pontorna's staff. He wears a pair of glasses with a black Order Onyx lens over the right side of each eye and a clear heavenstone lens over the left side of each eye. While praying for help, ((OOC: When I use the double parenthesis, it means OOC; also praying of any sort is a form of magic in this game, and is treated as such)), using his Order/Chaos crystal cross to help, and his psionics to manipulate the staff, he pours his effort into each of the multicoloured stones in the staff, and changes its shape into a living tree branch with multicoloured crystal leaves. Then he pulled a gold-plated wooden altar into the place, setting the branch on the altar and prayed over it, sprinkling it with holy water. Pulling in a spark of flame from Azraile's new sword, he placed that spark on the branch and stepped back, closing his eyes. The spark went out and after 3 seconds 12 leaves burst into the flame and spread throughout the branch. He picked it up, and placed it on his right arm where it curled around him.
23:45, Today: Narrator, for the NPC Scord, rolled 136,120,68 using 12d24,16d15,11d10.  Create armband.
Scord gets:
Omnimagus Holy Armband (10, +2d) +10 dice size, +2 dice, recover magus and spiritual energy faster

Scord takes his other hand, and pulls out copies of the armband and says, "Anybody want one?"

The big clown considered what Theophili said with real seriousness. He did not want to have to become a Djin, whatever they were, to gain Joe a taste of the freedom he craved.

-------------

Watching Scord work his magic on the staff, then branch, and now armband. An idea occurred to him. I would, if you please, great Scord.

And if he can, pulls his copy out of the carpetbag in the on-stage world, working it into his clown act impromptu. His idea? Since it was derived from the staff that commanded Joe, it seemed plausible that the greater reality of Scord, Theophili, and perhaps Azraile combined with it could override the lesser version that Pontorna had.

Shi holds up her bracelet (wich shi can't exsactly take off) "If you can restore this, I may be able to bind his soul after he's killed. I'm not sure I'm strong enough honestly... but with this like it is, there isn't even a hope of it."

Shows off the Angelic Sliver.....  (It's angelic armor vagely based off spawn (before there was anti-spawn or least i knew about it lol) and was only for the arm... though now it's kinda damaged enough it's only realy enough for the wrist >.>  But she uses the chains it makes to chanel her own binding powers. She could probably bind something with out the chains but just don't know how.)

(she wouldn't have them put one together just see if they have enough and gather it up... be ready to put it together.   If she was going to put it together she would have send it to StellaLand to create a large area to store it in creating a masive anti-magus zone and the moment they get it put together and Balur hive mind linked to it..... lock the whole area down in stasis.... just drop the timpature to 0 kelvin and stop lock entropy out so nothing can move or change or anything can happen in the area untill she starts it back up again)

Scord is fascinated by the sliver, and examines it closely.

Theophili says, "I'm not powerful enough to do much with that."

Cheed says, "No, but I'm authorized to help in that department." Cheed holds the sliver above his head in cupped hands, and brings back down a fingerless wrist-length gauntlet. "Heavenly armour cannot be damaged as long as it is being used in cooperation with the will of All. But still provides protection even when it is being used against the will of All."


Okay, they didn't. They kept the stockpile ready to combine if necessary. In that cace, AAFT did that thing and lost their node and reported the results to everyone.

Scord's eyes light up, "I can't believe I've never thought of this before!" He reaches through the fabric of reality and pulls in Een, a divergent version of his wife. "Een!! My love!"

Een replies, "Scord?! How is this... But you died!"

Scord explains, "We're in the Sideways! I pulled you in here. My version of you died before I left our home Oner. You are from a world where I died and you survived. There's some really powerful people seemingly working toward the genocide of a living magic, and my friends here are trying to save everyone, because in the meantime, a microscopic parasite is eating that magic which is keeping a whole lot of people alive right now."

Een replies, "And what is happening to those people?"

Scord's eyes go wide, "I hadn't looked into that..."

Een shakes her head and opens a window into the Onerverse. "Don't you see this? Tens of billions of people are sick, dying or already dead. This organism is mindless and infinitely voracious. Somebody ate away all of its mind! It is a heartless husk, and not alive at all. But it is being used as a tool by Na to delay and prevent interference. Na consumed the spirit of a shadowplanet that he caused to die. That's it. I'm taking the mindless thing here." She reaches into the window and pulls a long spiderweb-thin string knot the size of a person into the Sideways. It stumbles and buzzes like an animated child's scribble. She wraps it around herself and says, "I claim this body."

Scord says, "Een, no!"

The Rulab scribble that is Een settles down and organizes into an Een shape and appearance. "Nothing to fear, husband! I've dealt with far worse pain than what that took." She looks to Bozon, Aflae and Azraile, "You won't have to worry about that anymore. The 150 year pandemic has ended."

Scord says, "The what?"

The clown looked very confused, exaggerating what he actually felt for greater comedic effect (hopefully). That this was Scord's Lady, he understood just fine, but who or what was Na?

Scord, sensing Bozon's question says, "Pontorna isn't properly one person. Pon, Tor and Na are three different people. Pon is always intellectual and powerful with Magus. Tor is always strong and strong-willed. Na is always the crafty one. In the Oner of Pskaena, there are only 5 people who are regularly reincarnated. From the first generations of humans to the last, they each return during pivotal moments in history. It seems Na killed and consumed the spirits of Pon and Tor. Therefore he is Pontorna."

In reply to Narrator (msg # 131):

Bozon blinks a number of times, then scratches his head vigorously. How did consuming the spirit eliminate reincarnation? And would that throw off any number of prophecies and divine plans that required the missing spirits?

He thought about it some more, recalling the few beings of his two pantheons that were able to end a soul completely and utterly. It was not a common attribute even for the most malign of divinities and demons.