JustAddWater/Session9Sum
Sidereal Shell Games
Or: Ding Dong, That Damn Fleet Is Dead, And The Sidereal Munchkins Rejoice
Session 9 begins with a meeting of the Circle back at the First Age ruins outside town, Plotting (as Sidereals do best) what to do about the Damned Fleet That Will Not Die Already. Fate snags are everywhere in evidence, to be further cleaned up later, once their cause, everyone's favorite fleet, is destroyed. Jiang, in the meantime, has been manipulative and taunted the unfortunate Mikiboshi, the Sea Lord, as well as his retinue with threats, offers of assistance, and sudden attacks of ninjas.
After discussion of various plans to lure Peleps Yolan into a trap-create a duplicate of her perfect desire, hide in her closet and leap out and drive-by ninja her, somehow luring away the Immaculates who are her guard-, Jiang speaks up with his knowledge. The Sea Lord has agreed to help separate Yolan from her bodyguards: there is a masked ball to be held in three days, and in the confusion of the ball, if Yolan can be disposed of, then one of the Sidereals (Jiang, with his Disguise of the New Face spell) could take her place. After Silent points out that the tangles will only get worse after three days, Jiang agrees to arrange for the timetable to be moved up to the next night.
The Cunning Plan further unfolds as Jiang suggests poisoning the garments of the Admiral and her monkly circle, with a very subtle narcotic: not poison, but a subtle thing, meant to loosen inhibitions and make them more easily distractable. Then, one of the party-Silent takes the job, as he has the destiny of Tepet Lisano, an officer of the All-Seeing Eye, already prepared-lures her alone, while her retinue is being distracted to where she may be pounced on and ninjaed into submission.
The next night, the ball comes, and it is about the equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burned, as it seems the world is ending around them: most of the nobles have turned up, for fear of their lives. PSL as Gelinda Hast, a premiere madam of Nexus, and Silent as the disguised Lisano, mingle, while the trap is being set. Yolan enters, as well as her monks, and the lot of them not only cannot keep straight faces, they giggle like drunken schoolgirls: it appears that the drug is indeed working!
The lovely Serenity then proceeds to set up the bomb, having the musicians stop playing for a moment, before announcing that she will dance in Yolan's honor (with a great deal of flowery titles attached to butter up the Dragon-Blooded's ego), takes off her kimono, and begins to dance, even over Mikiboshi's protests (and what proves to perhaps herald the tenor of the rest of the evening, there is a time-skip fate snag). And what a sexy, sexy dance it is, as she unwinds the silk she is wrapped in and wraps up the Admiral and her monks! Due to well-placed astrology and drugging, they are easy marks, even the Immaculates! Yolan, entranced, *insists* on taking Platinum back with them to perform before the Imperial Court.
However, it is so much of a success of a sexy dance, that it almost backfires! Silent, as Lisano, tries to interrupt, showing her the pendant that marks him as an agent of the All-Seeing Eye, and Yolan tries to delay him! Platinum, realizing that she is being a distraction, quickly says that she does not wish to distract Yolan from her duties and that once those are done, perhaps they could discuss patronage. And it backfires, as Yolan orders Platinum to be escorted to the flagship and given suitable quarters! And even more unfortunately, she and her guards snap out of their stupor!
Silent and Yolan, plus Immaculates, go to the smallest room, at the other end of a partition that Jiang has arranged. Under stealth, Jiang follows, while Silent desperately tries to talk himself out of this situation. Unfortunately, Yolan refuses to dismiss her guards: they are cleared to hear classified information!
Thinking quickly, Silent informs Yolan of Moray Darktide, the Solar commanding a fleet under the auspices of the Silver Prince: Yolan, however, does not seem to care. When, suddenly, screaming comes from outside, and Yolan casually mentions that there are troops coming in half an hour. But what is the screaming all about, then?
In the middle of the crowded ballroom draped in indigo, Hidden Crystal comes up with a hasty distraction: namely, pretending to be possessed by a demon, killing his vocal cords for a few days in the process with all the screaming! Four of the Immaculate guards are dispatched to see what exactly all the screaming is about, leaving the Fire Immaculate with Yolan. While the Immaculates pounce upon the supposedly-possessed Chosen of Endings-unlucky Crystal, to be gang-exorcised by most of a Circle of Immaculate monks, especially when he is not possessed!-ninjas do not fail to attack this time! Well, at least, they fail to attack Our Heroes, which is a stroke of luck in their favor.
Jiang and Sunset attack the surprised Yolan and the Fire Immaculate, and within seconds, it is over: Yolan is unconscious on the ground, and the Fire monk is dead! Using the power of his Resplendent Destiny, Silent summons the Calibration Gate to hide the evidence, and takes a form with him so that he may gate back. Jiang decloaks, revealing that he has been walking around disguised as Yolan's double (and he makes a handsome woman), the scene is made presentable just in time.
In the meantime, Platinum, who has not yet left, discovers herself in a situation in the red-draped ballroom, as a time duplicate Yolan, plus bodyguards, who was *not* there for her inspiring performance, has appeared! However, she is quick of tongue and adaptable, and she successfully distracts the duplicate by offering to fetch drinks for them.
Crystal has been basically trying to be as much a pain in the ass as he can to the Immaculates, which isn't much as he is pinned down forcibly, and they are continuing their exorcism, puzzled because it's not working. The Immaculates discuss what to do with him, as apparently the demon is very strong: also, apparently, the Immaculates are blind as they keep mistaking and referring to the Chosen of Endings for/as a woman! But then, he *is* extremely feminine-looking, so such a mistake is plausible.
Finally, he lets the performance wind down, as if the exorcism was working, so the monks take him to be examined by Yolan-who has been replaced by Jiang at this point-to figure out whether they should kill him or not. Confused by the missing Lisano and their Fire brother, Jiang, pretending to be Yolan, says that they have gone ahead and that they need to return to the ship, immediately. Confused, they then ask about the "possessed" Crystal, and Jiang says to take him along and lock him in the hold until he can be properly treated. And then Jiang marches away, followed by Yolan's Extremely Confused Retinue...
Only to run right into the temporal duplicate Yolan! Indeed, this is a sticky situation! Jiang plays the haughty Dragon-Blood to the hilt, as Platinum flirts with both of them-and is roundly slapped by both of them at the same time! Jiang, her/his retinue following, sweeps past the duplicate (and the duplicate doing the same for him), on the way out.
Silent, having stashed the dead monk and unconscious Yolan in a cell guarded by a Celestial Lion, returns, after navigating the bureaucrazy and successfully talking them into believing his story that the Calibration Gate form was correctly filed! He hides his Caste mark beneath a bandana, back in his Lisano-as-noble disguise, and heads back into the ball to figure out What The Hell Is Going On.
As Jiang proceeds on his way out, he runs into the troops that have arrived! And the troops of the Realm Expeditionary Force are stunned when the admiral orders them back to the ships, instead of taking over the palace! Silent follows Jiang and company out, prepared to Finish This.
PSL successfully distracts the temporal duplicate Yolan, keeping her on Coral, while the fleet under Jiang's command sets sail...straight into the storm. Unfortunately for Silent's Cunning Plan, Moray Darktide decided to go the other way, being an unpredictable Solar, and his fleet was not there to be attacked by the Realm Fleet. However, this setback is only temporary: this Circle is determined to get at the top of the Silver Prince's Damn I Hate You list for all eternity, and to do it with *style* and *flair*.
And, ding dong, the fleet is dead. And the Sidereal munchkins rejoice.
