Clockmaker

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======Session 17======

This session was played on 2025-10-18. [[pc:clark_dubois|Clark]], [[pc:gaia_dynko|Gaia]] and [[pc:maelle_kurimoto|Maelle]] face two generations of abusers ([[npc:Jaled]] and [[npc:Ariyadna]]) and save a child (who is also [[npc:Ariyadna]]).

======Plot======

Still passed out after the [[session:16|previous session]], Gaia dreams of the [[place:Hunter Guildhouse]] and finds [[npc:Iorena Sevel]] there. They both believe it to be their own dream, but for a little while they enjoy the reunion.

Gaia then wakes up to the very scared faces of Clark and Maelle, and very little recolection of what happened around the rigasian tanks, only that she saw something very, very big.

This moment is broken by shouting in the courtyard, and the peek out to discover that [[npc:Jaled]] is there, shouting and threatening [[npc:Keleya]] about something they don't understand. Then [[npc:fulan ibn fulan|Fulan]] comes to try to deescalate the situation, and they manage to decypher that Baby Ariyadna has gone missing.

Maelle walks out to lend some support to Fulan, but this seems to anger Jaled even more, who suspects them of having had something to do with Ariyadna's dissappearance, and he threatens them with his scimitar. Maelle brings out her sword and they have a brief fight before Clark decides they have had enough and shoots the scimitar off Jaled's hand, shattering the blade in the process.

Jaled is then incapacitated and restrained, and Fulan and Maelle try to put together what the hell is going on. They suspect the Older Ariyadna from having orchestrated the situation, and Fulan and Keleya go back to explain things to the rest and try to see if they can find the kid.

Maelle joins then the rest of the party and go visit Mauto. To their surprise Older Ariyadna is there giving Mauto an explanation of what medication she can provide to keep her going until Kesizma. To Maelle's shock, most of the medication seems to be a huge dose of opioids to take off the pain, and stimulants to keep her awake and alert.

They mention the Child Ariyadna situation, and Ariyadna explains that she didn't take her. She didn't have to. The child ran off by herself after becoming aware of the time loop. Ariyadna is pretty happy in a worryingly unhinged way that things are going to loop soon, and that Jaled is going to die.

Gaia leaves for a while to talk with Derek and discovers to her surprise that Child Ariyadna is hiding with the huge wolf, who found her because of her scent. Derek is having quite a deep moment, pondering what the right thing to do about the child, with whom it feels a kinship and doesn't want to turn over to her owners.

This is interrupted by Adult Ariyadna punting a naked and broken Jaled to the middle of the courtyard, then using her heated double-ended spear to castrate him to the horror of everyone present. Clark's objections are brushed off because "he clearly has no idea of how it is". Ariyadna then steps up to Derek ready to grab her Child self, but Maelle steps in between and objects.

And then they fight.

The fight is long and extremely epic, with Ariyadna attacking everyone in sight impeded only by the need of protecting herself about Clark's powers to turn her into a popsicle. Gaia discovers that Ariyadna's powers prevent guns from shooting close to her, so instead she manages to pull the Kid version to safety. Maelle attempts to fight her hand-to-hand, but is stumped by her telekinesis, and Derek wrestles with the whirlwind of death that is her double-ended spear.

And then Ariyadna decides to go for broke and starts turning all the salt she's carrying into chlorine gas.

Finally the tables turn: Clark freezes the gas so it falls to the ground, Gaia manages to move far enough to shoot back, hitting Ariyadna in the shoulder, and Derek manages to break the spear into pieces. Ariyadna, infuriated by the bullet on her shoulder attempts to stop Gaia's heart, but she's saved by the younger one, and maybe something more.

As the fight ends, Derek pulls Ariyadna to the ground, Maelle manages to impale her on their sword, and Clark channels the cold with the help of the glove to permanently freeze her as they did with [[npc:zach shpak|Zach]].

Still reeling from the heart attack, Gaia has a weird impression of Adult Ariyadna coming back from being frozen, and then getting stopped by… herself.

And in the Great Dream, Looper Ariyadna is being restrained by her Dreamer Self as the [[pc:Antonio Vargas]], [[pc:Zoé Curie]] and [[pc:Steve]] provide commentary. 
======Cast======

* [[pc:Clark Dubois]]
  * [[pc:Gaia Dynko]]
  * [[pc:Maelle Kurimoto]]
  * [[npc:Amanda]]
  * [[npc:Derek]]
  * [[npc:Iorena Sevel]]
  * [[npc:Mauto]]
  * [[npc:Fulan ibn Fulan]]
  * [[npc:Keleya]]
  * [[npc:Jaled]]
  * [[npc:Ariyadna#child|Ariyadna (Child)]]
  * [[npc:Ariyadna#looper|Ariyadna (Looper)]]
  * [[npc:Ariyadna#dream|Ariyadna (Dream)]]
  * [[pc:Antonio Vargas]]
  * [[pc:Zoe Curie]]
  * [[pc:Steve]]
======Quotes======

* //Gaia power walks through the sitting room half jumping over and half pushing away one of the smaller couches and basically explodes into Iorena's office.//
  * //The woman herself almost jumps from where she had fallen asleep at her office desk, surrounded by many, many papers.//
  * //She stops herself, her hand halfway to a rifle set down on the end of the table, and looks at gaia, blinking her remaining eye as if unable to actually understand what's going on.//
  * **Iorena**: I… am dreaming?
  * **Gaia**: I'm dreaming?
  * **Iorena**: You're dreaming?
  * **Gaia**: Yes. I don't think you can dream inside a dream.

* **Gaia**: Derek is almost ready to go and the anagusi woman is going to get healed. And then we go open a portal to Kesizma.
  * **Iorena**: I don't know any of those dream people, Gaia.

* **Maelle**: Oh, fuck, you're awake.
  * **Clark**: You're OK? How are you feeling?
  * **Maelle**: Gods, I thought you died for a second. How are you?
  * **Gaia**: Uh… couldn't you check the pulse or something?

* **Clark**: It was worse than the time you looked towards Nuskom.
  * **Maelle**: What do you mean "looked towards Nuskom"?
  * **Gaia**: Like in the Zone. And there was explosion.
  * **Maelle**: Yea, but what would've ha… Oh.

* //Fulan swaggers in. Like holy shit that dude doesn't know how to walk normally, and the way scimitar dude looks at him, it probably is something that angers him a lot.//

* **Maelle**: Baby Ariyadna is missing.
  * **Gaia**: Oh, maybe that's Ariyadna's doing.
  * **Maelle**: What? Why would she do that?
  * **Gaia**: I think that means we're leaving today.
  * **Maelle**: If she fucking kidnapped a child then…
  * **Gaia**: She kidnapped herself. That's confusing.
  * **Clark**: She kidnapped herself?
  * **Maelle**: If she's kidnapping fucking children I'm stopping her.

* //Jaled goes apeshit on seeing the ambiguously gendered person who probs is offensive to his sensibilities and already was in hot water because of Baby Ariyadna saving them and them clearly objecting to his right as husband of the kid.//
  * //And it looks like he's going to fuck up Maelle with that huge sword, but then Maelle goes "no" and manages to dodge, getting just a very tiny scratch on the brow, then uses their greater mobility and very nice sword to parry all the bullshit he keeps doing.//
  * //And then, suddenly there's a CRACK when Clark shoots and Jaled's scimitar breaks in two.//
  * **Maelle**: Shit! Good shot, Clark!
  * **Clark**: Not that kind of bullshit today, no.
  * //Which is both a hit to his ego, toxic masculinity, and dignity.  Congratulations, Clark, he is fucking bruised for the rest of the scene.//

* **Fulan**: Even if this dude is an ass, that's still child-stealing, and you know most people here have issues with child-stealing. So what do you know?
  * **Maelle**: A friend mentioned someone known as Ariyadna might have something to do with it.
  * **Fulan**: The witch?
  * //Maelle nods.//
  * **Fulan**: The witch that can kick aberrations to the sky.
  * **Maelle**: Yup.
  * **Fulan**: The one that could probably punch us in half without breaking a sweat.
  * **Maelle**: That witch.
  * **Fulan**: Today is going to be great, isn't it?
  * **Maelle**: Fucking grand.
  * **Fulan**: Fuck me sideways; I'll tell everyone to keep an eye out.

* //Maelle mostly understands that they are discussing the potential side effects of the kind of healing Ariyadna does. Apparently there are a few. From the symptoms that Ariyadna is describing it sounds to you that part of the "healing" she does might consist on flooding the patient with opioids so they won't feel the pain  and then add some stimulants so they can keep going.//
  * **Maelle**: What in the fuck.

* **Gaia**: I'm pretty sure Maelle told everyone you stole the child.
  * **Maelle**: No I didn't?
  * **Clark**: Really? that's how I understood it.
  * **Ariyadna**: I didn't steal Small Me. I talked to her. And suddenly she learned that she has options.

* **Ariyadna**: I am her, and she saw me. The moment she knew she could be me, what do you think she would do?
  * **Clark**: So you're saying she wasn't stolen, but decided to run away?
  * **Ariyadna**: It's not gonna take because, you know, she's eight, but in the meanwhile Jaled is gonna be running around getting punched and then die. I love that part.
  * **Clark**: What?!
  * **Ariyadna**: Ohhh yes. Best moment of my life.

* **Ariyadna**: The kid comes with me and in time becomes me. Time loops!  Very much not fun, but unavoidable.

* **Ariyadna**: Do you know what happens if you don't connect the ends of a time loop?
  * **Gaia**: No, because it loops because it's… like happened before and that's how it works?
  * **Ariyadna**: Yes! It happened, and now there's a hole where a lazankú used to be!

* **Clark**: Mauto, I've hound this book inside the lord's chamber. Any idea what it's about?
  * **Mauto**: Let me see? Oh, I think you found someone's erotica collection, Clark.

* //Derek turns to look at Gaia and says: "Hello, Little Speaker," then raises a paw to reveal a huddled Baby Ariyadna hiding behind it.//

* **Gaia**: You didn't steal her, right?
  * **Derek**: Hm. Can you steal a person, Little Speaker? I thought i knew the answer to that but then… I am confused about many things these days. I did not take her, if that's what you ask, but she tried to hide around me. I could not see her, but I could smell her. The scent of fear was overpowering.

* **Gaia**: I don't know what to do.
  * **Derek**: Hm. Has anyone asked her what she wants? But she might not know the answer. I don't know it myself…

* //A naked and broken Jaled landed in the middle of the courtyard. There's a slight crater.//
  * **Clark**: What the fuck?
  * **Maelle**: Who the fuck?
  * **Gaia**: Why the fuck?
  * //Ariyadna comes down slowly, sitting on her huge-ass double-ended spear and grinning like a maniac. She talks in a language you don't know and she sounds a bit unhinged as she shouts at the broken shape of Jaled.//
  * **Gaia**: Maybe that's when she kills him…
  * //Ariyadna makes a gesture and Jaled's body turns to lay spread-eagled in there, then she takes the giant fuck-off spear and buries it in his crotch. There's a smell of blood and burnt flesh and she start laughing and laughing.//

* **Clark**: That's unnecessary.
  * **Ariyadna**: Tell you what, the next time a huge-ass old  dude starts checking on you to see if you have become "fertile" when you are eight years old you can give your opinion!
  * **Clark**: Not blaming you for the murder. It's the sadism.
  * **Ariyadna**: Oh, this is not sadism. Sadly I can't take my time to what I actually want to him. I wanted to make it last. Maybe drip acid on him over several weeks?

* **Clark**: You've done your dirty job; now leave before you get arrested for murder.
  * **Ariyadna**: Ohh, Little Fox thinks they can arrest me for murder?

* **Ariyadna**: I'm not gonna hurt the girl. I'm gonna help her. That's what you want, no? Do you even know how to help her? What it is to be her? When she can kill a person by having a tantrum?

* **Maelle**: You motherfucker! You killed a man for what reason? Even I wouldn't fucking do that to my mother! You're a damn psychopath!

* //Ariyadna starts exuding a greenish vapor. You have a flashback to her telling you: "You know the water you bring is slightly poisonous? It's like they fused salt and sparky air".//
  * **Maelle**: Oh. Chlorine gas.

* **Gaia**: Hey, there's like Ariyadna fight people we need help!
  * **Fulan**: Is that fucking chlorine gas?
  * **Gaia**: Do you know how I can hurt her with a gun so I don't explode?
  * **Fulan**: Yea, you can shoot. Chlorine doesn't explode. Also, why chlorine?

* //Clark is still unaffected by the poison, Maelle starts coughing, and Derek thinks this tastes slightly spicy.//

* //Ariyadna looks at the kids at the other end of the courtyard and snarls.  She raises one hand and Gaia's vision starts going fuzzy around the edges.  A sharp pain spreads through her chest and she loses feeling on one arm.//

* //Gaia is about to fall to the ground. Her legs are weak. And then Baby Ariyadna, or is it the older one? grabs her and says "no!". For a moment she believes that she can see three Ariyadnas, and then she wakes to the crying face of Baby Ariyadna who has her hands over her heart and is babbling in what presumably is Talosian.//

* //Clark gathers the cold on their hands and lowers them to the thrashing form of Ariyadna, and then lets it go inside of her. There's a burst of cold, a giant spiral of frost that covers the entire courtyard emerging from Clark and in the end Ariyadna stands there, as frozen as Zach, with a deadly wound in her guts//

* **Dreamer Ariyadna** (wrestling the other Ariyadna to the ground) Will you stop that? You lost! It's over!
  * **Antonio**: So this is the //perra// who killed me…
  * **Zoé**: Hello there, cutie, happy to see you again.
  * **Steve**: …

* **Zoé**: Sorry, your whole life was a lie. I saw that nice therapist while exploring; maybe you should talk to them.

======Trivia======

[[pc:Rose]] posted a very nice photo of the countryside. She was, in fact, there.

Apparently Maelle is very much against child kidnapping, unless she's the one doing it. Then it's not kidnapping, it's rescuing. Which, given the circumstances… yea, that's a very valid way of looking at things in context.

Emasculating Jaled is a running theme in this session, and then Ariyadna decided to be literal about it.

The wounds Ariyadna inflicted on Jaled were the first ones graphic enough that they would not have been shown on TV… not because of the severity but because of bared genitalia. TV rules are so dumb.

Ariyadna learned to make chlorine gas from seeing the water canteens that the party was carrying at the beginning of the arc.

Ariyadna's battle was designed to look and feel like a JRPG final boss, with a helper mob, AOE attacks and an extremely unfair instadeath move.

Ariyadna got a lot of tied rolls during the fight, that she lost because of the lingering wound given to her by [[pc:Steve]] at the [[session:9|end of Arc 1]].

Actual poison gas and heart attacks are //not// fun or clean, and the party might be paying for them for some time.

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