Session 31

← Session 30 | Session 32 →

Asa gets mauled, Nyx gets interviewed, the party visits Team ex-UNITY, and Sam (finally) does his job.

## Characters

* The Party
* Nestor Shields
* Pax Furyk
* Monday Hackett
* The Sculptor
* Valefor
* Neera Guinn
* 0-771534
* Zaida Loch
* Naberius MacLaughagan
* Benjamin Richards

## Summary

##### **Thursday, April 15th, 543:**

Everyone who stayed the night at Shields's garage is rudely awakened when he arrives with fast-food breakfast at slightly too early to be comfortable. Monday is nowhere to be seen at a quick glance, and Shields informs everyone they left some time ago. Kuno, used to his friend's oddities, makes sure everyone leaves in a timely manner.

Monday is just outside the door to the garage, and looks up from their phone as everyone exits. Pax once again invites them to help track down and kill Eldridge, and reinforces the sentiment that they have every right to eat Asa for leading COAST to Club Revival. He wonders why COAST was following Asa, to which Asa begrudgingly admits he's been working with COAST on occasion. At this, Pax fully shifts, and throws himself at Asa. Kuno and Nyx see themselves out, leaving Asa to sort out his own mess.

Pax takes a bloody chunk out of Asa, who starts reliving his memories in backwards order. Nyx, already halfway down the sidewalk, gets stricken with deja vu, and starts sprinting back to the confrontation, with Kuno following. By the time the two make it back, Monday has already pulled Pax off of Asa. They are holding him while he thrashes, trying to get free.

Shields has already left for work at this point in the morning, so he isn't around to wrap the gaping hole in Asa's shoulder. Kuno calls Colby, who is a bit preoccupied but promises to head on over. With Colby on his way, Kuno starts trying to bandage Asa's shoulder with what he has to hand.

In the Toska District, Colby has been dragged to a fitting for robe befitting his status as Patriarch of the Orthodox Church. He manages to slip out, evading Fells's notice, and makes his way to Shields's garage to heal Asa. Once Asa is no longer on the brink of death, the four of them head out, leaving Monday to deal with a still-struggling Pax.

After dropping Asa at his apartment, Kuno and Nyx are walking home in the same direction. Kuno calls Sam, who agrees to meet Kuno at his apartment. Nyx, having proclaimed her detachment from this whole affair, heads to her own apartment.

Nyx gets a text from Neera, inviting her to the church tomorrow afternoon.

Kuno and Sam debate several next moves in the direction of the Guide, but since neither of them have any particular idea where to find Turret and aren't confident in Sam's ability to get information out of Valefor, they settle on breaking into the Children's church. Security has increased since Anthony's murder, however, so they don't end the planning session with a concrete plan. While doing research on the church's hours, Kuno asks Nyx if she knows of anything interesting happening in the near future, and learns about her date with Neera the following afternoon. Sam heads home late in the day, after the two agree to meet again tomorrow to continue planning the break-in.

##### **Friday, April 16th, 543:**

At roughly 3 in the morning, Kuno finds himself awake. He isn't sure why, until he sees the Sculptor standing at the end of his bed in the dark. Kuno tries to start a conversation, but the Sculptor holds a finger in front of his face, and Kuno is unable to move. Feeling very strange, Kuno notices his skin is bubbling. The Sculptor shakes his head slowly at Kuno, before leaving through the open window. As he leaves, black ooze drains out of Kuno and follows the serial killer into the night.

Suitably unnerved, Kuno texts the group chat a summary of his encounter, ending it with the tag "(not urgent)". Despite this, Nyx shows up at Kuno's apartment at roughly 4 am. Kuno opens the door expecting trouble, but lets Nyx in. She is glad to learn he's still alive, and the two consider dropping by the Sculptor's lab again to have a conversation. Kuno discards this idea, given the hour and the fact he was just threatened, and Nyx spends the remainder of the night on Kuno's couch.

For most of the morning proper, Kuno and Sam wander around the back streets of the City looking for Turret. They don't find him, and don't make any particular headway on planning their break-in.

In the afternoon, Nyx visits Neera, who has recently started using Anthony's old office. It soon becomes clear Nyx has been summoned to a meeting with the Guide, who wants to know if she's worth Neera's time. Nyx doesn't do a particularly good job of making her case, which isn't helped by the fact the Guide sees Nyx as slightly "compromised". They offer Nyx 24 hours to hand over the name of whoever killed Anthony, or even bring him in personally. Nyx wants to know why they can't track him down themself, but they don't have Prime Plane investigative access unless they start breaking rules. They add Neera has spent a long time convincing the Guide Nyx is worth the effort, and they would hate to disappoint her.

With this, the Guide leaves, and Neera wants to know how Nyx is doing. She was concerned, since Val can be overbearing at times, but she is glad to hear the chat went well. The two go out for coffee, with business done.

When Nyx has returned to her apartment, she texts Sam with the facts Neera used the name "Val" and that he has 24 hours. She blocks his contact, deleting it from her phone, and thus doesn't see Sam's irate response.

With this information, Sam calls Kuno, who immediately invites Sam over. However, while Sam is on the way, Kuno gets a text from Zaida. This evening, Legacy is out, so the party can drop by with their questions. Kuno relays this information to the party, via the group chat.

Soon after, the party arrives at Ollie's apartment. Zaida doesn't know much more about the 32nd Annual Future Prospects Convention than what is public record, and is mostly confused by the paperwork from the Sculptor's lab. She does however recognize the logo, which Ollie explains belongs to UNITY. At this, Ollie pulls Zaida into the kitchen for a hushed conversation, at the end of which Zaida is still skeptical about giving the party information, but goes along with Ollie.

UNITY's work is the preservation of the timeline, so she expects they've already heard of or even solved the catastrophe Na'arisiel told Kuno about. Kuno wonders if UNITY has the seraphim's eyes, but all their timeline calculation was technological. Sam wants to know how the organization can still be doing those calculations with Ollie gone, which Zaida is astonished the party knows about, but Ollie explains he duplicated his software (with a few tweaks) so no one would know he left.

Zaida is concerned about the party knowing about UNITY, especially after the events of the Paragon raid, since she has friends and coworkers there. Kuno promises they won't do anything stupid, which does a little to reassure her. Circling back to the paperwork, Zaida had been under the impression the Sculptor was dead, and the name Romero means nothing to her.

On the way out, Ollie pulls Kuno aside, wanting to talk later. Kuno is busy for the next few days, but promises to let Ollie know when he's free. Sam hangs behind to check in with Zaida, who's doing as well as can be expected. Legacy is still a wreck, however; Sam again offers his help if Zaida can think of anything that would be useful.

##### **Saturday, April 17th, 543:**

The next morning, the party (with the exception of Nyx) gathers at Kuno's apartment. Kuno has been learning some about how to kill demons, mostly by spending time around Hollis. It's a tricky task, since demons are essentially pure soul, and thus can take a lot of damage, and the most effective kind of weapon is one able to do damage to soul as well as flesh. Notably, blessed weapons don't have any special effect.

In trying to determine a place for the fight, everyone ends up at Asa's apartment. After debating ideas for a while, Sam calls Valefor, and schedules brunch the following morning with them. Using Kuno's phone, he calls Nyx, and learns she's going to turn his name in at the end of the 24 hours, and there's no way to get any longer. After a bit more debate, Sam goes to Nyx's apartment, knocking her out and duct-taping her to a chair. Kuno, and the rest of the party, return to their respective apartments, leaving the situation in Sam's hands.

##### **Sunday, April 18th, 543:**

   Sam finds a hole-in-the wall cafe to bring Valefor to, though it's still decidedly busy at brunchtime on a Sunday. As soon as they arrive, Sam stabs them, plunging the cafe into chaos as everyone else leaves. Valefor is nonchalant and gloating about the whole affair, though they start slipping as Sam does more and more damage. The cafe ends up blazing, from an errant fireball, and becomes a full-fledged conflagration as Valefor throws fire while Sam is trapped under a collapsed support beam.

Valefor scoffs at MacLaughagan's choice of champion, expecting he would have chosen someone more capable. At Sam's admission he's doing this because they killed him, they say they only did that because Anthony wouldn't, and that he would have only been dead until the Parousia either way. Both Sam and Valefor end up very beaten and bloodied, Sam enough that he can barely hold his knife. Valefor is leaning heavily on a wall and Sam is catching his breath after being thrown across the room when they both notice another figure in the room.

Seeing MacLaughagan, dressed for work, Valefor snaps at him to help them up, which he refuses. The demon asks Sam for a conversation with Valefor, alone, and Sam stumbles out of the blazing cafe to Ben's apartment.

An hour after the time Sam scheduled for brunch, Kuno sends a scheduled email to the Children, with Nyx's address.

By this point, Nyx has managed to get free from being tied up, and tries to call Neera, as well as sending a text that she got knocked out and thus missed the meeting. However, Neera isn't answering her phone.

With Sam's task no longer urgent, Kuno emails Ollie. The two meet that evening, going for a walk around Ollie's neighborhood. During the walk, Ollie presents the quandary he's been struggling with: he could fix everything that's wrong with the City, since it's all connected, but it would require an objective viewpoint--which he could provide, at the cost of his humanity. He doesn't want to do this, he wants to experience life as a person, but he doesn't know if his desire outweighs the suffering in the City.

Ollie knows he can't even talk to Legacy, who is notoriously willing to sacrifice himself if it improves things, about this, since Legacy won't understand the quandary and wouldn't let Ollie do anything other than what Legacy sees as the right thing. Legacy thinks Ollie and Zaida are keeping secrets from him. Kuno provides a philosopher's opinion, namely that this is one of the oldest conundrums and comes with varying schools of thought, before asserting that Ollie doesn't owe the City a savior. He makes Ollie promise he won't do anything rash, and Ollie is incapable of that either way.

Over the next few days, while he's recovering, Sam tries to get in touch with MacLaughagan, with no success.

##### **Tuesday, April 20th, 543:**

   Colby gets back to his apartment to find a letter addressed to him sitting on the counter. Opening it, he finds an offer extended by Absinthe Romero to meet, as well as to collaborate with UNITY. Romero also thanks him for his contributions to their cause, and mentions previous association with his supervisor.

Slightly unnerved, Colby texts the party, where Kuno offers to host dinner. After the party gathers at Kuno's apartment, Colby shows everyone the letter. Nyx is supportive of him accepting the offer.

## Quotes

**Kai:** “This was Kuno’s braincells advance.”

**Pax:** “Something something condolences,”

**Ezra:** “He’s little, he’s a little man.” | **Kellen:** “Those are going to be your last fucking words.”

Kuno: “I hope you’re not busy, ‘cause Asa is a little bit dying.” | **Colby:** “Well that’s an issue ‘cause I’m a little busy.”

**Parker:** “Urban Shadows: UNITY’s Amalgam is filmed in front of a live studio audience.”

**Sam:** “No, I don’t think I can wine and dine a demon, Kuno.”

**Kuno:** “I want to at least make sure you guys have a world that exists to live in before I kick the bucket.”

**Kellen:** “You are simply burbling, my man.”

**Valefor:** "You’re not going to win this fight." | **Sam:** "Try me.” / **Kai:** “No one-liners for Samuel Fischer, that’s a six.”

**Kuno:** “You don’t owe the world a savior.” | **Ollie:** “I’d like to believe that.”

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