STEAM LONDON: Realms of Aether Game Thread

[Nigel Wetherby]

Patrick held his forehead, something was definately amiss. First a half-destroyed construct is re-built and given claws able to pierce his deus flesh, and then his mouth began to speak words he knew were untrue, followed closely by little girls appearing feet away from their constructs when they had been brought inside. Then it hit him.
Something was causing these errors in reality. Like slashes in a victrola record, one cut caused the whole of the record to suffer. He would need to consult his files for this...

Cain held Angel closely. "Nothing is going to harm you, not while I'm around." His voice was a warm song of reassurance, one Angel had known well. A song that had put her to peaceful slumber on sleepless nights when it stormed or an enemy had attacked.

"Alright. I'll humor you." He gave her a reassuring smile. "But I still say I'm fine. Maybe it was just some bad..." He was about to say food, but then he realized the fact that they were still within listening range of the boisterous ship's cook who seemed as if she could do very well with weilding a hot pan.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss stopped Esmeralda as she came in the front door of teh school, along with the rest of teh students, who had been hauled up inside the St. Elmo for safety's sake. He nodded the leftenant and the other marines into the office where Patrick was conferring with the others, and then began his apology.

Esmeralda began to cry before he had even begun, and the words just tumbled out. "Uncle Jaisen, I'm so sorry, I was justtryingto help, and then that thing came back out and reassembled itself and attacked Poor Sir Patrick and I was teh one set it all up and healmostdied and thenyougrabbedmewiththatlightropeawwwwah ah ah ahhhh

Esmeralda, I ...I...Apologize. I had your best interests at heart. Please, don't cry, Honeygirl, I'm sorry. It's ok. It's ok...I never would have grabbed you like that if I didnt think you were in danger. ssshhh...sssshhhhhh, its o.k., Patrick told me an' ever'body all about it."

"He...He did...?"

"Sounds to me like you're some kind of War Hero! O.K., War Heroine, then," he chuckled. "There now, see? It's all copacetic, or as near as it gets. Shall we go face'em down?" HE stuck out his elbow, and she laid her hand on it and walked with him into Patrick's office.

[Stella Gaslight]

Angel relaxed in Cain's arms and gave him a thank you kiss.  "Let's go see if Zora is all better yet."  Angel yawned when she got hungry she got sleepy too.  As far as Patrick had ever been able to find out this was suposed to help her save energy but it always made Cain a bit nervous.

The spider legged platform pulled up to the school gates.  Helena was piloting it and smiling brightly while Sigmund looked half amused and half shocked.  "Sorry about that. I had no idea it could climb walls and the nav entry was right a straight line is the shortest distance between two points."  Her grin got more mischievous. "Do you want to dive it home?"  She was already thinking of how the technology could be used in different ways and wishing it was winter so she could launch snowballs from the thing.

[MWBailey]

The Rocket Grapnel THUNKed into the narrow front lawn of the school, narrowly missing HElena and Sigmund as they hurried to the main doors.

Captain Ishmael cursed sulphurously, causing Daphne, the Bordello girl who was guarding him until the tables turned and the wild ride to the school had begun, to glance up sharply.

"Sorry Miss," he said in his hint-of-yorkshire accent, "barely missed a pedestrian." HE leaned out of the ventilation panel of teh steering room's windscreen, and shouted, "SORRY! THOSE THINGS NEVER SEEM TO FLY STRAIGHT! YOU ALRIGHT, MISS HELENA?"

The wind had been picking up, and he figured the commodore would want to take the ship back to the Dock so he could get his stuff from his cabin, so He, Ishmael, had gone through the laborious process of loading a special grapnel rocket into the port tube, climbed all the way back to the steering room, lowered a cable with a spring-loaded shackle on the end down to where teh rocket's nose poked out of the tube, pulled the cable up so that the shackle caught and clicked open-and-shut on the ring on the grapnel warhead of the rocket, gone back to the helm, retracted the rocket, primed the tube, fired the rocket -- and nearly hit Miss Helena. He shuddered at the thought, and Daphne came over and hugged him gently. "Thats ok, love, I'm sure she knows you didnt mean it..."

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Why yes! Driving this thing home would be somethind indeed!" He laughed at the notion of piloting such a whimsical device, a welcome change to the cold lobster-tanks which flattened anything or anyone unfortunate enough to be in between point A and point B.
However, sigmund's cheer was interrupted by the sudden and repeated occurrances of the rocket propelled Grapnel, which causied his heart to practically leap from his chest as he whipped around to see who fired the shot, his hands reaching for any good weapon as his instinct kicked in. Upon seeing it was two rather friendly and apologetic looking citizens, he calmed himself down. His battle-ready methodicality was replaced with frustration.
"Good god man, watch where you shoot that thing!" Sigmund cried out, partially concerned with his own health, but mostly upset by the idea that a well-placed shot from that device could reduce Helena's head to a chunky red mush.

Cain scooped Angel up as if she were a large doll. "Zora can wait, When was the last time you had some time to refuel? All this Chaos has undoubtably worn you down a bit. I've seen you cease function before, it is a hurdle I would rather not re-enact that trying moment." He carried Angel in a hurried stride towards the Academy's mess-hall, despite Angel's impatient wriggling and urgings to see Zora. Cain would have none of it, taking on the air of a parent who would simply have no more protesting.

Patrick was holding his forehead, his mind going over every possible bit of data to see what type of metal might have been able to penetrate his Deus-skin. if a high powered, Aetherium-tipped drill couldn't do it, some extremely sharp metal must have.
"Ah mister Dreyfuss! How have those dreams been to you?" He greeted the old friend emphatically, hoping to preoccupy himself if only for a moment how close to death he was.

[Duellist]

Safe from the excitement above the scene, Leyton had watched the machine's continued animation with a certain degree of curiosity.  With the violence over and the commodore's pistol no longer aimed in his direction, he made some attempt to answer the questions, intimations and accusations aimed at him.  He began with the headmaster.

"My name is Leyton, The Honourable Christian Leyton, and I am a civilian advisor to the St. Elmo by invitation..." he paused a moment to cock an eyebrow at the irony of that word, "of Her Britannic Majesty's Government."

His intentions toward the young lady, painfully young to his mind, were entirely ambivalent and he resolved to explain his complete lack of improper acts at the first available opportunity.  Before that though, he truly wanted to escape from this chaos.  He would have to find another gateway, but they were easier to spot from the other side, so he cast himself out of the world and into the lands, heading for the Seelie Courts in hopes of some explanation for the events of the previous few moments...

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss saw Patrick was n distress, and answered the way he hoped Patrick meant him to. "I havent had any more wild dreams lately; real life has been wild enough! Patrick, do you know anything about a bunch people called "worldwalkers," or "planetwalkers?" The latter's what we used to call those Plane-traversing gypsies back home, but nobody's seen 'em around there in a hundred years or more; damnedest thing is, the Marauder "shootfirst" protocol is supposedly something the marauders started in their pre-airship days, specifically to deal with the "planetwalkers" in some kind of war, but I haven't been able to remember or dig up anything else. I'm asking, because all of this wild reality-error business started, on our end at least, about the time Nadya got hurt helpin' with the Lafitte Rescue, and was first laid up in Arachne's hospital. That was...two nights ago, now.

Seeing Patrick's evident confusion, he added, "She's an off-Plane worldwalker, who just sort of crash-landed aboard the St. Elmo about...How long has it been, it was the evening just before the reunion visit...Emma? Arachne? help me out, here, if you would, my head's getting kind of ...muddled... ooooo..." he felt himself fading as both the adrenaline and the white fire eased off at once. He sat down heavily in the large-ish oak and leather visitor's chair in front of Patrick's desk. On impulse, he reached into his coat and grabbed the grip of teh whitefire pistol, and felt better almost instantly, the energy flowing in as if through a freshwater pipe."I'm alright, I'm alright! Its just the letdown from the whitefire..." he said, as Arachne quickly stepped to his side and felt his forehead.

Okay, this is getting too complicated, now I'm starting to like her touch, Dreyfuss thought. Stop it boy, quit grinnin' like that!

------------------------------------------
TEH Hansom cab thundered through the city streets, going faster than the city ordinances allowed, its passenger berating and cajoling the driver to faster speeds still. Rosita Litton-Van Huiyck hung on for dear life; she diodnt care if they killed the horse, she was going to get to that school and find out WHY in Gods name the Ather Legue was "interested" in her daughter, Esmeralda...

Thhe cab stopped, and the driver called out, "Olandry's School for Technomancy, Ma'am! "Tha'll be sixty quid, please. Me Mare is goin' to need a rest and a curryin' before she can work again."

Rosita got out and paid teh driver, and then strode toward teh School gates, observed, unbeknownst to her, by Captain Ishmael, who hurriedly Morsed Dreyfuss of the impending Parent.
---------------------------------------------

Dreyfuss' watch began that damnable PINGing sound again, and he pulled it out, pressed the "receive" stud, and listened; then he said, "Patrick, sorry to ladle it on, but Rosita, Esmeralda's mother, is on her way up teh path, Ishmael says."

[T.Taylor the Third]

TRip had been flying above and scene most of the action that happened,
He now started to fly down toward the school when his foot cought on one of those invisible air-bridgesit caused him to flip over, and he shot like a rocket almost straight down toward the shcool, his wings under him uselessly.
,
*CRASH*

Luckly a pile of laundry was sitting beside the school in a large canves sack waiting pick up by the cleaners, He smashed into i, and t lay there for a short time waiting for the world to stop spinning. Some of the Boys from the school were still out side and had seen him fall,  "Wow, that was fun said Trip as he pulled himself up, he shook his head to clear his head. the boys had all run to see him when he fell, though for some reason Trip, unlike the rest of the crew, was not recognised for who he was. "who are you?" a tall boy with long blond hair asked.
"huh? oh uh." Trip struck a dramatic pose "I am Trip Taylor, master Time and Space!"  if he was expecting a gasp of recognition he was disapointed.
"*sigh* do you kids know were patrick is? i just flew over to see whats happenin and..stuff."

[MWBailey]

Esmeralda suddenly heard a loud THUMP! and a muffled "OOooff" from the othe rside of the wall of Patrick's study. She went out, up the side of the building, and saw Trip making his dramatic entrance.

"Oh, so you're Trip! Hello, I'm Esmeralda, Dreyfuss' niece. Were you at the reunion? The rest of them are inside with Headmaster O'Landry

[T.Taylor the Third]

"um, hi...were inside?im not realy familer with the layout.  think you could show me?"
"oh um...okay follow me"

[Stella Gaslight]

Helena was choking back a torrent of words that young ladies just shouldn't know instead she settled for dark mumblings about incompetence and how some people should not be allowed on a ship if they couldn't follow the blasted safety protocols. "We have to speak to Dreyfuss about his crew.  Just think if the children would have been out here." Why weren't the children out, it was a bright sunny day.  Had something happened here too? They went off to find Patrick, he had to know what was going on.

"I can't say. My internal clock is warped I thought it was just because I was ill but It could be something more.  I have to wonder if our other world travel hasn't stirred up something."  Emma looked bothered that something she did could have been responsible  for the attack on Patrick.

Angel was torn between wanting the cookies Cain set in front of her and pouting.  He set a big red jar of jam down and the cookies won.  Watching Angel eat when she was truely hungry was like watching a hummingbird, she flitted from plate to plate and the food they contained just seemed to vanish.  "After lunch we can see Zora right?" She added trying to lick a smudge of jam from her own cheek. "and Talos too?"

[Nigel Wetherby]

The evidence of a struggle littered the front yard. The metal bars of the school gate were dented terribly. A puddle of white milky fluid  that had been Patrick's blood according to Emma's notes. A stone statue had been decapitated and the swing set was splintered, the brank from which it hung lay torn and splintered upon the ground. As they entered the Academy, a din of chatter thickened the air with words of battle and a beast that nearly killed Headmaster O'Landry.

Cain sat down across from her, watching hapilly as she devoured the plates of cookies and jam. For a bit of experimentation, he placed a glass of milk at the side of the platter. A combination that seemed almost unearthly to Angel, but with the one dunk of that cinnamon macaroon, her world exploded with a majesty of flavors. Cain watched as she sat there, amazed for a moment.

"Quite alright mister Dreyfuss. Care to tell me of any more upsetting news?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

[Stella Gaslight]

"Something big happened here." Helena took Sigmund's and and ran as fast as her legs could take her.  She was going to get to the bottom of this.  Helena stormed in to Patrick's office worried for his life.   "What is this I hear about monster?"
 

Angel's eyes sparkled with recognition. "I know this. It is that cow stuff that Sweets likes.  I didn't know people could eat it too."  She was wondering how the kitty treats they had at home tasted now.   

[MWBailey]

Whats with all this raised eyebrow stuff, Dreyfuss wondered, It's not like I 'm actually trying to tick him off.
The watch started pinging again, and Dreyfuss shut the blasted thing off. He'd had enough disturbing news as well. Too bad... Rosita was at the door to the office...
-------------------------------------------
"KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! Head MASTER OLANDRY! Where is Esmeralda?! Where is my Daught--Oh! Hello Jaisen, what are you doing here?"
Rosita, it's wonderful to see you!, Dreyfuss said, catching Esmeralda's eye as she followed Trip in the direction of the office, and closing the door quickly; the look of thunder on Patricks face had scared even him, and he didn't want to see his only surviving foster sister fried to a golden black just now. Besides, Patrick would be less likely to fry Trip than he would Dreyfuss...he hoped...

Together, Dreyfuss and Esmeralda explained the whole thing to Rosita, who then agreed to wait in the waiting area outside the office/study until Patrick was ready to see them. Then Esme and he went back into the office, to see what was transpiring. "once more unto the hot seat, dear friend," Dreyfuss joked.
Esmeralda had the good sense, for once, to simply roll her eyes and say nothing...

Once inside, Dreyfuss motioned the marines out, and when they were out in the hall, he said, "go back to the ship and wait there; if we need you, i'll morse you or somebody'll aether you. Leftenant? go and tidy up Sick Bay. Tolchak? leave one gatling out, and lock up the rest. Aubrey? If you don't mind, go and make up the empty stern gallery cabin for Esme, I have a feeling she'll be joining us very soon, either by Patrick's wishes or by her own need to escape, or by her mother's demand. Make up both beds in that cabin; Rosita might be joining us as well." The marines left, and Dreyfuss went back in, feeling like he was facing Mariana all over again... He wondered what she was doing now. probably plotting my murder, he thought as he closed the door and turned around. Patrick asked him if he could show Mrs, Litton-Van Huiyck in. He opened teh door, and said, "Rosita?" in a softer version of he Basso voice than he normally used, and motioned her inside when she looked up in surprise.He said, equally quietly, "Here she is, Patrick."

[Nigel Wetherby]

The wreckage of the the battle on the courtyard was the least of the collateral damage yeilded by the conflict. As Sigmund neared the door, he could feel the knob of it vibrate as an army of students chattered and passed rumors over what mighty creature migh have wounded Patrick O'Landry. A man who was according to the mythology of the students was a construct with a human brain within it, devoured the souls of misbehaving students, and could turn repeat offenders into wind up frogs

"But of course. But until then..." He decided to sweeten the deal with a glass of ice cold milk. Angel was never fully exposed to such an amazingly improbable combination. Cain took one of the cookies, sure to avoid Angel's blurred hands as he dipped one of the chocolate disks into the white liquid, taking a relished bite. Patrick had passed on this trick, and he had yet to expose it to Angel for fear that it would deplete the milk supply during their flight to St. Peterburg.

"Welcome to me office, Ma'am. Enjoy the hospitality of my academy?" He seemed almost unfazed by her tyraid.
"Tea?" He held up a saucer of sour brown tea which steamed with silver whisps of water vapor.
"I have scones in the galley if you like."

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss hoped that Nadya hadn't become angry with him for what had apparently happened to the Planetwalkers; He was beginning to suspect that teh Marauders were responsible for the eradication of that group of counterparts to Nadya's actual people on her home plane. HE didnt want to lose that warm presence back in there among the older memories, where she (or a facsimile of her essence) sat in his head like she'd always been there, but if he was right about the demise of the Planetwalkers, then  he didnt see how he had any right to expect her to stay.

Am I just trying to isolate myself so I can't hurt anymore? he wondered to himself, or is it really a possibility? Am i inventing Nadya's presence in my head?

ay, mi comodoro, desisto! I am real, not a fantasy. But I'm not in your head, either, silly.
 He imagined himself taking the wonderful girl's hand, and telling her, I want your voice in my head regardless, Nadya.

The presence seemed to be pleased, or perhaps amused; it was hard to tell.

He returned his attention to the office around him, and caught Arachne looking at him with a smile, and what he could almost have sworn was a "knowing" look. He smiled back, and she turned away, sighing.

He considered telling Patrick of his experiences regarding the rapport spark, but decided it was of no real moment; if it became a definite liability, though, he would have to bring it up then. Unless, orf course, Patrick picked up on it immediately, like he appeared to do sometimes, like he, Dreyfuss was starting to do...

[Stella Gaslight]

"Calm down Helena."  Emma looked every bit the titled lady she was in her walking chair all bundled up with the expensive looking lap rug.  "Yes there was an attack on the school but it has been taken care of.  What we have to figure out now is why a formerly docile construct decided to attack right? So lets start at the source and ask it why."  That was entirely absurd but logical.

"Cain does that mean I can eat kitty treats too?" If milk was food than those were too right and they smelled good too sometimes.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Erm, I doubt that's a very good idea. Kitty treats dont taste very good." He refused to state the fact that he spoke from experience, the bitter taste of ash and fish meal played across his tounge like a visit from an unwanted house guest. After he finished off the last drops of his milk, he wiped his mouth and stood tall.
"Are you ready to visit Zoradysis and Talos?"

"Talos was misinformed." Patrick concluded, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Talos regretted seeing Zora hurt, he never wanted to put her in harms way. He would never have attacked unless he was sure there was an immediate danger to her. And how a simple defensive construct was made sentient and was rebuilt in a style perhaps more efficient than even Angel is another mystery I would rather like to investigate." He seemed unfazed by the event, though he stroked his side where the wounds had now healed, feeling his deus skin beneath his shirt.

[Stella Gaslight]

"Yes." She chirped, no matter how hard she tried to keep clean while eating she always ended up with a jam smudge somewhere and this time it was on her chin.  She very carefully wrapped up a cookie for Zora.  "Do you think Talos can have a cookie?"

"I think we can all agree that someone out there dose not want us traveling.  I am wondering if this isn't some interference from that other Emma, she dose seem to have vastly destructive weapons and I doubt she wants us to make progress.  We must keep going even if I have to stay here.  I don't want to risk exposing an unprepared world to whatever gave me these  purple spots.  Helena is capable of being my stand in until I am well." she looked over at her assistant. "What brought you running here?"

"Sigmund had some sort of attack I didn't know what else to do."  Helena said with some embarrassment, she felt like she had overreacted just like a child.

"Really what happened to you Sigmund?" Emma was gathering symptoms, she was going to figure this out.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Patrick weighed the idea for a moment. "Your other dimensional copy was rather ornery, but i see no reason why she would bear any anymosity towards us. We releived her of something causing dimensional irregularities and took away two thorns in her side for favor of medical treatment." Patrick stared haplessly into the bright, crystalline blue sky as his mind sifted through ideas like pages in the worlds largest book.

"Well, it's rather hard to explain." Sigmund began nervously, scratching the back of his head. "At first I thought It was just some stomach pain, but then it felt as if every atom of my being were on fire. It was almost as if I were being electrocuted. The world around me turned white for a moment. It's nothing life-threatening I hope."
He felt as if the question was only a practice in futile hope.

"I am not sure. But we should bring one for him just in case." He kissed her cheek and lead her towards the infirmary. As the door creaked open, Talos greeted them with a wary glare much like that of a hawk, ferocious but not to be feared.
"You are Zora's friends?"

[MWBailey]

Deyfuss perked up. He had been getting the old Cold One itch for almost two hours now, and here was sigmund, but it wasn't increasing, adn in fact, he wasn't getting anything bad from him at all.


"I know this is not goingtobe good news, and I'm sorry,but I think this ought to be brought up, because it's pretty suspicious, at least in my opinion..."

"Most of us know that I get a kind of a sub-muscular "itch" in the presence of the cold ones." Well, I get that around Sigmund, of course, but it's the itch with the 'badness' removed."

"what's eerie, here, is the fact that I did get the 'bad' cold one itch when I got down on the ground and closer to Talos; it was as bad as in the presence of the Tsar or the Tsarina, in fact. "

"I felt it again, greatly diminished, as if it had been close by but was gone and had left a residual trace, just a few minutes ago.  I felt it when Sigmund came through the door, and I'm feeling a bare ghost of it now."  

"Now, Please pardon my speculation, but...What if the Tsarina was corrupted by someone or something else?"

[Stella Gaslight]

"A corrupting influence more powerful than Tsarina?  I hope it doesn't end up being something we have to fight.  Either way we have to be far more careful now.  Something with vast power is playing with our world and we have no idea what it is or what it wants."  Emma sighed it looked like she had quite a bit of research a head of her.  "I think if we can find out what did it we may be able to stop it from happening again."

"Yup and we even brought you two cookies."  Angel petted Talos on the head and gave him a cookie that he stared at perplexed.  Zora was more receptive and sat up to eat her cookie.  "Talos do you know how to clap your hands?  I know some clapping games that we can all play."

[MWBailey]

"Well, actually, what I meant was that --" Dreyfuss hesitated a moment, because he was about to mention something that had been bothering him for quite awhile, but which he hadn't mentioned to anyone before.

"I'm sorry, Patrick, Emma, I haven't brougt this up before because one, I thought it was pure speculative silliness on my part, and two, because getting out of the Queen's Chamber, and out of St. Petersburgh, and back home, and getting Elisha and Miss Armistead treated was more important than any fantastical sensations I might be having at the time.

What I'm saying is that when the Tsarina was destroyed, or rather, right before the other, uncorrupted bright one took her to his continuum or whatever, I got a definite impression that a huge part of the evil that had corrupted her had fled, leaving behind her own native evil, which was still pretty horriffic, but nowhere near as 'itchy,' If you'll pardon the expression.

I felt a distinct and unique sensation in the presence of that 'greater' evil, which I had not felt since that day, until today. And its residue is laying in pools all over the courtyard, or it was; it was also rising into the air in a column, or seemed to me to be doing so. "It seems pretty preposterous to me too, Miss Helena, He said, noticing her skeptical expression. "No matter what else I might be, or have been, or am becoming, I'm at heart just a soldier who's been lucky enough, to survive long enough, to reach the upper echelons, despite his past mistakes. All this 'magical' technomantic stuff is great fun, but sometimes it just scares me witless, because soldiers are not usually 'magical' people.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"I doubt this corruptive force is anything like Tsarina. With the way it reconfigured Talos' capablities and gave him claws able to penetrate my flesh, I think we may be up against a force far more powerful than a bloated old squid." Patrick's tone was grave, his golden eyes turning cold and hard as he stared into the eyes of each crew member at once.

Sigmund could not help but feel a haunting familiarity in Patrick;s sincerity. The golden creamy color of his eyes taunted him like the faintest memory of a preformer's name who barely slips one's mind.

Talos found the idea of clapping a bit odd, though he was not uneducated. Zora had taght him the basics of the excersize, he patted his metal palms together, making a loud clanking sound. Zora could only giggle and kiss Talos' cheek, licking the traces of melted chocolate chips from her fingers.

[Stella Gaslight]

"The mission can't be stopped now we need to see this through.  I think the ships should leave as soon as they can while those of us staying here try and find out what really attacked the school.  I think Sigmund might be safer off in another world as well.  I don't think what ever hurt him will follow you.  Patrick would you mind sharing a lab with me for a while? I think we have a lot of work to do."  Emma was smiling, the odds against them were large but that had never stopped her before.

"See Talos you make music with your hands like this."  Angel and Zora did the simple rhyming clap game Angel had taught her so she wouldn't be so scared. "Here you try."  Angel giggled the music they made was odd but nice.