"'Shoved'?"
She shrugs, looking away from me.
"Escorted with menaces."
Well, I'm sure they were trying to be polite. You didn't say anything
offensive during the process, did you?
"Did you see anything untoward?"
"Do three instances of repressed sexual attraction count?"
Well, that depends on who they were towards. After all, Melinoë has a certain
exotic beauty... I'm sure she fills out her formal armour quite well...
"Probably not, unless it was occurring in the local gods. Also, these aren't your people so please don't go poking around inside their souls."
"I could transfer." She shrugs defensively. "They don't have an avarice or wealth goddess. I would fit right in."
Yeah, I don't see them being particularly interested in accepting new hires. Comes from this being something of a
family business. And if they decide to contact Hades to check your references...
Well.
"They're a new pantheon looking to do a lot of work. Somehow, I doubt that you'll take to it."
"What if I limit myself to vague but spiritually uplifting pronouncements?"
I don't think they need a goddess of 'Cutesy homilies' or 'Folksy knowledge'.
"I don't-."
"There was a 'boom'." Aporia grips onto the head of her bench to pull herself upright-. The fruit bowl is entirely empty. "Does that matter?"
Crap, she is
sloshed.
"What sort of boom?"
"A boom boom. Like…" She throws her arms up. "Boom!"
Well, that just clears it
right up!
"An explosion?"
"No. You know… Boom." She blinks blearily and I start hoping that there's a god-level sobriety potion or spell somewhere. "Boom?"
Alas, I don't think she's going to able to get so drunk she comes back to sober from the
other side... Thankfully, I don't think Bilious,
Oh God of Hangovers is nearby, so she might not suffer
too badly once she sleeps it off.
"Like a gun?"
"No? That's more like-."
Well, at least she knows what one
sounds like. Which raises
more questions about what the hell she's been doing to keep busy over the centuries...
I hold up my right hand.
"Stop. Stop. Melinoë, did you hear anything?"
"No. We left her here to…" She moues. "Recover."
...Was the bowl empty before or
after you left for the tour?
"Okay. Okay. Boom like-"
I have my ring make the sound of a gunshot.
"-that?"
See, that's what you should have
started with.
"No, that's a gun. I know what a gun sounds like."
"Alright. Boom like-"
I have my ring make the sound of a car backfiring.
No doubt the Ring has
quite the sound effects library.
"-that?"
"No."
I play a recording of a controlled demolition.
That, I rather suspect
more people would have noticed...
"No. Just… BOOM!"
Oh dear. I play the sound of a boom tube appearing.
...Oh,
boy. It's a long shot...
BOOM!
Aporia beams. "Yes, that's it!"
...Okay. That doesn't mean it was specifically an
Apokaliptian. New Genesis has Boom Tubes too. And I'm sure there are loose Mother boxes out there in the universe. It's not impossible someone 'acquired' one from a New God traveller...
"Did you hear it once, or several times?"
"Ah… Once?"
Well, there's that at least... Unfortunately, that means whoever Tubed in is
still here.
"Did you see anyone you didn't recognise?"
"I don't recognise anyone. I just got here!"
Yes, you rather walked into
that one, OL. Joy of dealing with someone
this drunk.
"Did you see anyone who seemed out of the-. I'm wasting my time."
Melinoë looks at me contemptuously.
Don't be like
that, dear. He's simply a little
slow to realise futility.
"How has it taken you this long to work that out?"
"Badly misplaced optimism. Look, Phoebe is… Biologically 'dead', and they don't have an afterlife set up to handle that."
...Hmm. I would expect the Olympians are written into the rules of Hades' Realm. There's probably a comfy location set aside for them to stay while they pull themselves back together...
"That happens. Cronus digested all of my aunts and uncles older than Aunt Demeter. Not even a trace of them remains. I don't even know the names of most of them, and I know that Grandmother Rhea named them all."
Ugh. Given that only the
last dozen or so he ate came out alive... That just makes Cronus even
nastier...
I wonder if they tried cutting into Cronus again after the war, to check? Or if that means that Metis is gone? She would be stronger than a newborn, but it's been a long time…
That might explain some of Zeus's decisions.
Heh. Yeah, I can
see it. Because I doubt his 'Little Thunderbolt' has much
wisdom in it...
I take a hologram generator out of subspace and generate an image of Phoebe.
"Do you have any idea what could have caused this?"
...Did you bother to get a reading of the Thaumic outline of her remains? Because a purely visual scan won't be much use.
Melinoë barely bothers looking at it.
"No obvious injury. I felt no great magic. If I could examine her directly I might learn something, but this tells me nothing."
Which raises the question of what weapon the assailant used. Perhaps it was some manner of soul trap, and Phoebe can be revived if they get a hold of it...
Reasonable. So, boom tubes means New Genesis, Apokolips, or Lonnie Machin. And last time I checked, he wasn't at anything like that level yet. My main concern is that Grayven might be involved, but there's no obvious reason for him to care what happens here. We're not particularly close to Reach territory here, and I haven't seen any indication that he has other ships on the scale of his personal dreadnaught. Splitting his forces…
To borrow a Worm saying: "Not
everything is a Simurgh Plot..." All you have is a rather addled observation of something that
may have been New God technology. Don't go jumping to
conclusions, even if you have a natural +20 to Jump checks to do so.
Except… He could. There's no real defence fleet here. The planet isn't especially populous and their lack of industry means that it wouldn't be all that difficult to ramp up production. Apokoliptians are comfortable using magic, so non-magic technology becoming unreliable wouldn't be a crippling problem. He could send a very small fleet, and as long as they had a way to kill the gods…
And we know that in the Renegade timeline he
did 'conquer' the Citizenry in passing. But No, I don't think he's go this far out of his way. Not unless he found out about the... Sun-Eaters...
Ohhh
crap...
Or it could be anyone else. I wouldn't even be totally surprised if it turned out to be Canis. Dead without a wound on her? He probably would find Coeus's emotional pain artistic.
"Okay, I'll try and get you permission-."
True, it
could be any random member of Apokaliptian Nobility looking to have a little
fun with the Titans.
"Lantern." Athyns strides into the room. "And companions. The gods require your presence."
"I serve at the gods' will."
"Hah!"
Hey, he's trying to be
respectful of his hosts, Melinoë.
I look around, and a momentarily shocked Melinoë blinks in surprise before considering her position and deciding to glare at Gaudia.
Gaudia looks surprised, then sags slightly.
"Sorry."
Moments later, Melinoë dope-slaps her. Not really the
best timing, you know.
