"Aaaaand… CUT!" Galatea's friend shouted as soon as she got back from her first real taste of gang violence. She could see her fireteam grow duller in real time as her friend left the weird narrator pocket dimension. They weren't drooling automata by any means, but they were definitely a little checked out.
"So!" He asked as he jogged towards her, forcing the witc– the player to tear her eyes away from the bratty dragon and to him. With her looking absentminded like that, the urges got a whole lot worse, "How'd you like our first session? I think there's enough material for two videos, at least."
"Everything I could've hoped for and more." She gushed, idly yanking Ariel to her to cuddle and nuzzle into to get the shakes out. If the little thing was a bit dazed already, now she was completely in lalaland. "Although I just wish the girls were always so lively, but I don't want to have to impose every time."
In response, the midget just nuzzled back, a dopey smile on her face as she dangled in her mistress' arm like a particularly smug cat, "Eh. From what I know, they'll be pretty lively soon enough," The soldier-man said with a shrug.
"Oh, neat. Any rules against bringing them along to the club once we finish this campaign? It'd be nice to celebrate with them, and a good debut proper as a member of the community." The purple eyed woman said excitedly, already planning the event. A little corner in the back of her mind reminded her that these weren't real people. She told it that neither were cats and everyone loved them anyway. People had legitimately pack bonded with slime mould and
turret emplacements.
"They're like a vaguely more intelligent chatGPT, once their 'personalities' are more solidified I'll just have to feed them prompts, and steer them a bit…
Speaking of!" He said, perking up.
"And without the lobotomy they gave to characterAI, either." Galatea chuckled, giving her muse a quick kiss on the top of her head. She couldn't exactly reach her face, on account of the tiny bundle of cotton candy being busy rubbing it into her biceps. "But yeah, go on."
"Did you
have to keep the scene with her going so damn long?" He asked, pointing at the tiny cartoon character, who… "
Eheheh~" made happy little noises as she kicked her legs in happiness, "Like– seriously?"
"She's cute." The albino retorted like that was the final arbiter of existence.
"Yeah. And I had to be 'her' every step of the way– it was super awkward, is what I'm getting at," Groaning at the memory, he ran a hand over his face, "I don't exactly mind it. We've done worse while we were still strapping young bucks, but you could have
at least answered the DMs I sent you."
"Too busy having a character moment.You
know how I get about immersion." Galatea shook her head. "Next time ask during the walk."
"Yeah, yeah. At least I don't have to edit anything explicit out of the video... or have a
conversation with my wife. Why I'm helping you with this brain rot of yours by spending my free time editing this campaign into a coherent narrative is beyond me," He teased, "Weren't you supposed to be a failed Arts Major, not a Theatre one?"
A stuck out purple tongue was all the reply he got.
"Very mature," He said, patting her head like she was a child, "And once again, completely ineffective against me! Anyhow, I'll leave you with your waifus and go start editing this mess. We'll make a watch party out of it at Avernus once it's done…. Try not to fuck the android until it bluescreens, mkay?"
"But it's my basic, psychological and self-fulfilment need!" Galatea cried in mock outrage, before sobering up, "That said, can we save the watching party for once the campaign is over? I want to debut as a member of the club properly, and they'd be put together enough to bring along for the party, which sounds fun."
"Fair. But I'll at least have the girls' VA and her brother look over the final edit. She always loves seeing what people do with her voice packs…" He trailed off, before quickly adding, "Her brother less so, but he knows what decent editing looks like. So eh."
"Tell me what she thinks of it! I worked hard making the girls do funny noises." The albino said, proving her point by giving a small pinch to Ariel's ass. As any good slaaneshi should.
Walking along the path designated by a number of spotlights, Ervoan took the time to look over the room he was in. It was incredibly dark. The lights above him were dim, flickering on as he came close and snuffing out as he left them behind, creating a tiny island of illumination around himself. What few bulbs were squirrelled away throughout the room only barely shone enough to give faint impressions of the layout as he took his position over the podium the trail of lights had led him to.
All around him were desks, some empty of all but darkness. Others filled by a veritable menagerie, thin rays of light adjusted to the millimetre and lumen leaving their silhouettes perfectly outlined but their features shrouded in darkness.
"All parties have arrived." A powerful, disembodied voice called out as a spotlight snapped to life above Ervoan, bringing all attention to him as he became fully visible. He'd opted to go with his latest avatar, the same one as the one he used most of the time in GBNO. If with a few minor additions, such as a bolt-pistol hid away in his wrist.
'
Shit,' He swore in the privacy of his mind as he realised that he had made a
truly costly mistake. The voice continued unabated, unwitting and uncaring of his sudden worry, "The Council is thereupon in session."
"Our first order of business, as brought forth by our newest member, regards a potential new addition to our number."
The announcement caused a murmur to ripple across the twenty of so 'councillors' currently in attendance… which he ignored. Instead focusing on lamenting his blunder… '
I should have gone with a plasma pistol. The glow of the coil would have looked so
much cooler in here!'
"The petitioner shall now have the floor."
Now
that got his attention. But rather than scramble to chase the intrusive thoughts so he could make his case, he methodically put them in the idea box they belonged in. Then he took just a tiny bit more time to think about how to present the situation. And to study this one.
'
Twenty, huh? More than I'd hoped, less than I'd feared considering the dataslate just dropped.' He recognized a few of the figures. But not all, which meant that they didn't know him either. '
This will either be good. Or pretty bad.'
Finally, he judged that he'd stretched his dramatic pause long enough, "Esteemed members of the Council of the Cabal. I, Ervoan, greet you. I come before you as my duty demands it," He began, queuing up a picture using the eye-to-screen interface of his mask, "Specifically, the one dictating that all instances of a narrative case 88 should be brought to light."
One cue, the picture he'd chosen appeared on screen. Galatea's toga-wearing, 40k avatar. To his mild surprise, no one said anything at all, letting him continue, "This is Galatea, a new arrival to the world of 40k and GBNO in general," With a look, her usual GBNO avatar joined the previous picture.
He felt absolutely no shame for having picked the one where she looked about as smug and bulliable as Lamu.
'
Ah, so now
they are reacting.' Brushing off the whispers, he soldiered on, "The event took place during an Hive Escape campaign. Some might be aware of it already, as it has acquired a small following within the club." Which was a polite way to say
'I have been shilling it in here for the last few days', "But. In the case where you are not, I would ask that you cast your eyes on the first document I have provided for this hearing. In it you will see the synopsis of the campaign, its characters and all other relevant information."
Waiting a moment, then a second, he said nothing until he was certain that they had all given it a cursory look. Or decided that they didn't care to.
"Now, to the most relevant moment within this campaign," This time, he took the time to unhook the arms from behind his back and tap away at the micro-computer on the arm opposite to the one holding the bolt-pistol. Immediately, multiple video feeds, all replaying the same moment in time– albeit from numerous angles, including Lamu's PoV, manifested in the air of the chamber.
On them, Gala's powerful punch played, replayed and re-replayed itself on a loop. Each feed synched up perfectly with the others to ensure maximum coverage. A glistening black arm crumpling the neverborn's chin beautifully, sending a small shower of teeth splinters raining down.
"After the first battle against gangers. Meant to be an introduction to combat, if even that, Galatea elected to engage in heavy roleplaying. As such, I, as the game master, made use of the narrative mode of the game to have her participate in a ritual that would see her character summon her fireteam of daemonettes."
"During this narrative phase. The daemon you see here, La'muorte'ndr, kidnapped Galatea's familiar, Ariel the Muse," A picture of a bumbly Ariel, and unbearably smug Lamu joined the others, "It was my goal to have La'muorte'ndr extort Galatea's character for favours and devotion, in exchange for the familiar's freedom… As you can see, this plan was dashed moments later."
"Have you anything to add?" The voice that had called the meeting asked, its origin still inescrutable.
"Not at this stage. I thus defer to the council's wisdom." Ervoan said, dipping his head fractionally.
"Remind me," Almost immediately, one of the councillors began to talk. From the voice, the gas mask wearing man could tell it was the damn cat bastard, the nasal quality of it and the annoying cadence meant it couldn't be anyone else, "How long have you been part of the council?"
"I believe…" Some quick math was in order. He'd started GBNO nearly four months ago now, and he'd gotten into 40k two months in, and into the council three weeks before Galatea had started playing, "A month and a half. Give or take a week or so."
"Wouldn't you say that it is rather… presumptuous for such a new member to advocate for one of their friends to join our eminent numbers?" The faceless mask of his optics made it easy to conceal his surprise.
Not that he had any to conceal. Evidently, the man was still sore about his catgirl Sororitas getting absolutely
destroyed by his guardsmen, "It would be. Yes," Ervoan chose to say, pushing past the other man's attempts at 'gotcha!'ing him, "But I am not sponsoring them. Merely bringing the fact of their existence and of their accomplishment to the council."
His words caused the council to start arguing.
They generally seemed to agree with the catman that trying to get his friend into the council so soon after joining was poor optics. But then again, he
wasn't doing that.
Which meant that Gala's nomination wasn't marred by this fact.
"Does this even count though?" One of them asked louder than the background of murmurs, "She didn't
fight that Alluress, she just sucker punched her."
Which got another round of arguments going.
"Heh," After around two minutes of it, a shrill, shriek-y voice chuckled, "Ah. You oomies and yer rules."
People looked to the one that had spoken up. Ervoan hadn't seen him around before, but the way the light hit his avatar, showing off his rather impressive shnoz and wide, droopy, pointed ears, marked him as a goblin, "Yer all too focused on how youz all need to show yer Brutal Kunnin'. How youz are soooo good with yer sword, yer gun and what have you… but youz all keep forgetting that you can also be kunninly brutal! And das exactly wot she did there! She saw a weakness, and she pounced on it to clobber the pinkie. Iz how I got my spot on the council after all."
This, of course, just got people to argue even more.
"
Quite the conundrum, eh?" A new spotlight sprung to life. This one more powerful than the ones outlining the faces of those sat at the desks. And for good reason.
Set into the floor, it shone up, illuminating what would only be called a wall of flesh.
Rippling muscles, as if carved from the purest marble by the most masterful of sculptors, their form ready to explode into a symphony of violence as the oil covering them glittered in the dim light.
Topping this was the dim shape of a cone, two burning orbs of ruby set into it, "
One one hand. We cannot deny that the case 88 can be cleared through cunning and subterfuge, far too many amongst us have fulfilled the requirements to join us this way," The founder of the Cabal said.
"'Owever," A different spotlight, to the founder's left, indicating that his second in command had joined the discussion as well, "We also can' say dat planing fer dis, lookin' fer a weakness. And den capitalisin' on it, is da same as wot she did." Greg intoned.
"
But to dismiss it all because it was 'a spur of the moment' would be much too harsh and unfair," The giant called out, "
Therefore… we believe a test is in order."
"A… test?" Ervoan asked, brow furrowing behind his mask and he tried and failed to intuit what that may entail.
"
Indeed! And I know just the one~." The first of the Three Masters of the Cabal said, "We'll send yuz da details later. Once we'z talk'd it ova with da skelliez." The second concluded.
And just like that all of the lights cut out, bathing the entire room in darkness.
Ervoan felt a small lurch as he was teleported behind his own desk, and wasted no time in adopting a classic Gendo Pose. When the light came back on, with the two founders gone and no one taking the stage, it was quite clear that the matter was to be put aside for now. Leaving only– "
This dataslate murdered my boys!" "
Yeah, well it butchered
mine!" The talk of– he had to hold back a shudder as he saw the Sister's new point values,
game balance.
"Wherever you are now," He grumbled as he glared at the baneblade getting its toughness slashed by two whole points, "You better be having fun Gala– wait, hold on. The Leman Russ costs
HOW MUCH now!?"
AN: If it wasn't obvious. This chapter isn't a video that got posted in universe
And as such I'll use it for some behind the curtain stuff. First being that ATM I'm aiming to have the campaign be 3-4 more big fights, with some being implied to happen in the background, as to avoid dragging this on too long.
depends on how Ni feels about breaking up the campaign, but there might be some giant robot goodness breaking up the 40k side of things, we'll see.
I will attempt to get a chapter out on saturday like we usually did. But morale is kind of at rock bottom recently, and I just sort of... stare at my computer, minis, books, console and other assorted things, thinking 'I should do things. I want to do things.' but can't manage to do anything. Not even Ni's constant poking helps much, which it usually does.
