Fate:

Mistique crossed her white-gloved arms and looked levelly at the Son of Roc with blank yellow eyes.  She remarked, "Je vois.  This is about repairing a world that has been broken for millenia.  I contend that the Quiescence is not the ideal state of the universe, nor is it worth fighting for."

She cocked her head slightly, then asked, "Your stratagem to thwart this impending doom is to disrupt a charity event, then?  Pardonne-moi, but I have difficulty in seeing the good in this."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:17, Tue 30 Mar 2021.

 "Quiescence is less of a concern than a Marauder testing his theories on an open crowd.

 We're trying to get people to focus on the fact that Santa came for Halloween instead of the fact that he flew in on a magical sleigh pulled by reindeer.

 We're trying to mitigate Paradox by getting people to look away from the magic. There are already too many Paradox Spirits in New York, some of a size we have never seen before.

 I remember the effects of a marauder. I've lost friends to them. The grandiose display of Arcanum that levelled New York feels just like that.

 Synthetics are sympathetically connected, all of them. All it takes is a big enough Paradox event for them all to become miniature holes in the bedrock of reality."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:41, Wed 31 Mar 2021.

Noah was doing his best to hedge the crowd. If part of the hoard was getting influenced then he would run interference to screw with their spell. True, they seemed to have numbers as Fate said, but it only takes a moron with a hammer to screw with intricate spells. And Noah was one giant moron with a giant hammer.

All he was doing was buying time.

PM

Fate:

In reply to Asimov's Folly (msg # 33):

Fate:

"Marauder is not the correct term.  The word you seek is Hieromagus.  Recent events make better sense in light of this understanding."  Mistique shook her head to the claim that synths are likely to turn into black holes of Paradox, "Conjecture sans fondement.  Your hatred is founded upon misinformation and falsehood, as hatred for entire peoples always have been since temps immemoriaux."  The claim of paradox spirits in the city was new to Mistral's ears, but it was plausible.  It did not bear discussing with this one, but it would be worth following up on.

Mistique demanded in a level, icy tone, "Be gone, and do not think to stand in the way of the synthetics who will rebuild this city."

 The mage was not armed, nor did he make any hostile movement. Instead he was watching the scene unfold around him. Halloween Santa, flying reindeer, an impossibly deep bag of goodies, and a legion of synths bringing in supplies. "It's not hatred. Whatever you may think of us, not all of us hate synthetics. Many of us have had synthetics of our own.

 What we worry for is the fate of reality when they're overloaded with Paradox. My own synthetic sacrificed itself to save me from a paradox spirit. I've seen what happens to them. It's not pretty.

 A man is not a savior simply because he fixes what he destroyed. The same is true for him. A Marauder is not the Heiromagus simply because his bubble is bigger than everyone else's."


 Despite his argument, the man made his move to leave peacefully. It seemed that he had no intention to fight.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:17, Fri 02 Apr 2021.

Fate sends another message through the slate, There's more than 68 of these guys.

Mistique turned and walked away, letting the man go though she still watched his every move by other senses.  She returned to Noah, Fate and Michael and told them quietly, “The Son of Roc intended to mitigate paradox by diverting Sleeper attention from the arcane aspects of ce spectacle.  He was reasonable, albeit laboring under incorrect assumptions.  If such views remain a difference of opinion then I take no issue.  I worry that his order may be less reasonable, and its aims less benign.”

She glanced to Talion and considered, then approached and asked forthrightly, “Are you aware of Paradox spirits roaming the city?If it is so, it is a matter to be dealt with.”  Mistral had her own means to investigate that claim, but it would take time.  It would be more expedient to have an answer from Apocalypse himself.

 Talion was present, overseeing the setting up of food and of the fireworks display which had just been completed.

 As Mistral approached, the fireworks began, filling the sky with vibrant colors and patterns...

… and, immediately thereafter, all the magic turned off. Mistral could feel it like a sour note, the threads of reality bound with so much magic that they could not be strummed properly.

… but, like her own attempts at repairing the fabric of reality, the threads here seemed strengthened by the act.

 Fate's supernatural senses shut down and all magical protections vanished in an instant... but the synths still worked. As she looked around, Fate could now pick out several mages by the dumbfounded looks upon their faces.


 Talion turned to Mistral seemingly without having done anything at all. "It wouldn't surprise me. There was a lot of energy released in that storm. There were bound to be tears in reality. Normally, the synths would have handled it but they were not in a position to do so.
 I'll see if Noah is up to retrofitting the synths with his backup systems and we can root out and contain the paradox within the city tomorrow."

Noah looked up at the dust in the air as the fireworks popped off. He twisted around and spread his wings around Mistral. If she had cast her illusion to disguise herself without use of the Tenna casting method she would either poof away or reveal herself. So it was the least he could do to block line of sight for her just in case she wanted to remain an unknown without operational magic.

Tenna casting was new to him after all.

Once he had ensured the conversation was nice and out of line of sight his tail reached out for Fate.

Tenebremancy: Cooperative casting does not operate with this merit.

 As Noah jumped in in full dragon form, shielding Mistral as the magic turned off, Talion looked up with a slight smile on his face. "There you are. I was planning on granting you custody of Pestilence as Ark's own personal server unit. You should be able to roll out your backup data in a cascading update overnight with her assistance.

 If you're up to it, then tomorrow we can all go and seal the Paradox in the city. I'll bring snacks."

Noah shrugged, "No doubt I can set that up. Though I think a double backup is needed. I've been meaning to set up a server off-planet. We could set up a relay that does a constant backup. That way if someone screws with the system we can just overwrite." He was thinking of a Cerberus system. A physical memory sample vault, the server unit, and a stationary digital backup. "We may want to make a list before I drag a hab up there to set up the server."

The fireworks went up and Mistique became Mistral again in nondescript hoodie and jeans, and looking none too pleased about it.  She waved off Noah as he made to envelope her in his wings, though she did appreciate the gesture.  She turned to Talion and asked plainly, "What just happened?"

Returning to the subject of the paradox spirits, Mistral nodded in agreement with the plan to go deal with them tomorrow.  "C'est bon.  Such spirits are a danger to our kind, mon ami, and allowing them to manifest freely earns no favor with your critics.  I have just spoken with one."

 Talion pointed up at the colorful explosions in the sky. "Antimagic. Wards and bans are useful when setting up an area of exclusion for an operation in advance but it's faster to just throw an antimagic blanket down. I laced the firework payloads with mana-infused iron filings so, when the fireworks went off, then all the magic in the area was dampened. It'll last a few hours then dissipate harmlessly."

 When she made mention of his critics and the paradox spirits, he took a deep breath and sighed. "You're right. It was not my finest moment. I lost control of myself and I have much to atone for."

 He took a moment to shake himself out of his melancholy before turning to Noah. "You want to set up a server off planet? Make sure to take Grey with you. You'll need to protect the site from asteroid impact and Grey can help with that."

"Off planet? That'll be something to see." Fate mused at the idea now that there didn't seem to be a threat anymore.

Noah nodded and smiled at fate, "Once we get some space suits we have an awesome space master, add in the fact I can give us thrust out there, sky is no longer the limit." He was already nerding out on the idea of a space base even if it was going to be a shed with servers. "I can't really not take Grey with me, but I think she would enjoy a Magic Schoolbus ride to the moon... I am afraid I am at best the short bus."

"Anything you want me to take up there? There isn't a lot of current claim up there." He was totally going to put a bigger Ark flag than the American flag up there.

 Talion grinned. "I already have what I need up there. There's a mountain range up there that I've been using for R&D purposes.

 Once I get the proper infrastructure up planet-side, I'll be able to use it as a relay point."

On the discussion of off-planet operations, Mistral looked up to the stars and pitched in, "Reaching extraplanetary localisations is not difficult.  La lune is plainly visible to the eye, after all.  The trouble is surviving once we've arrived."

 Talion turned his gaze skyward as well. "That shouldn't really pose a problem for any of you either. Grey is a space ship, after all."

Noah nodded, "Right, Ill let grey in on "Flight of the Navigator" but no alien movies. I could expose her to the stargate series."