-----GM-----
It's one of those days Valerie'd given up dreaming she could have. It's not with full mobility, but she's a girl with a guy and she's walking on a date.
Knowing that this peaceful world is just the skin of the rind that is the true, dangerous world is no matter - this is their peace and their time. There's still shame at putting herself out there, even with her thin legs hidden by her jeans, but it's leavened by the sheer freedom she feels. She's deeply exhausted when they're done and, though he's definitely in the mood for more, her big kitten contents himself by holding her in his lap, purring deep in his chest while she lays against him and listens.

-----Valerie-----
She still can't shake the impression she's got chicken legs and that everyone can see them, if not her thin thighs and bone calves, or barely healed spine, then picturing them through her walker and gait. But that she gets to have the waitress not take one of the chairs away so she can wheel underneath it or be relegated to a booth, to get to hold his hand side by side instead of in front of him, and look him in the eye... It's a delightful change of pace.

Between a week's worth of working out crammed into a couple of hours and then this whole walking around business, she's not in any position to go and have sex, either! So she's certainly glad that Ethan is, like, the greatest guy to ever guy and accepts it without a peep. She's heard about enough relationship horror stories online.

Plus, the purring. She sympathizes with the trouble he's gone through, but ...the purring! Silver lining to every trauma.

-----GM-----
The following day (after Arielle kidding her ass), she and her sister spend a few hours with Heimarmene. It starts off at the archmage's tropical paradise, but at Arielle's urging she leaves with them to see the city.

She doesn't really teach them or anything - she seems happy just to spend time talking to them, the older woman wise and yet strangely earnest.

-----Valerie-----
Maybe she really is kind of lonely? She can't imagine you can relate to many supernaturals when your very soul is a gateway to your own divine ascendency. Could be they remind her of their mom, if they were friends - or at least, acquaintances.

Or she's getting something out of it that is mysterious and unknowable to all but an archmage. Or both. Either way, Val is happy to give her some company - least she can do.

-----GM-----
As they settle down on a bench in a little boutique store to let Heimarmene try on some outfits in the changing room, Arielle turns to her. Today her hair is up in an artfully messy style.

"Is this a little odd to you?"

-----Valerie-----
"That we're chilling out, shopping and getting sweets with someone who's made of literal raw transcendent knowledge? Yeah, kind of." she looks out at the door to the changing booth. "My theory is she's lonely and we're her first friends in a while. Maybe since mom? That seems to reason."

-----GM-----
"Yeah - that's part of it, too. Does she feel familiar at all to you?"

-----Valerie-----
"Well... kind of. I mean, when she first showed up in my dreams to encourage me, in that cryptic way, to follow the white rabbit, she did feel familiar then."

-----Valerie-----
"But I've not really been able to place it... I'm guessing she knew Araqiel?"

-----GM-----
"Probably, but I think we've met her - in this life."

-----Valerie-----
"As babies or toddlers, maybe..." She looks out at the door again. "I don't have any conscious memories. ..might behoove us to look for a mind-Arcanum indexing at the assembly or Consi, if so."

-----GM-----
"I don't think she's manipulated us like that, but how could we tell? Still, her encouraging you, her stepping in to save me from myself - that's not something a casual acquaintance does. Let alone this."

She quiets as Heimarmene returns, wearing a new dress that sets off her golden tan skin.

-----GM-----
"What do you think?"

-----Valerie-----
"Maybe she doesn't even know herself? Not fully? We don't know what sort of costs she goes through for what she's become..."

She looks up at Heimarmene and whistles. "It looks nice! Though you have a natural beauty advantage already."

-----GM-----
She blushes and smiles. "Thank you. Why don't you girls pick something out, too?"

-----Valerie-----
"Oh, uhm... no, I'm good," she demures, tugging at her jeans a bit.

-----GM-----
"Oh, Valerie..." She takes her hands. "Please? What's the use of phenomenal power if I can't make you feel beautiful? Consider it incentive to keep fighting. You, too, Arielle - I insist."

-----GM-----
"I know you're shy and you struggle, so I'm not asking~"

-----GM-----
Arielle blushes more brightly still.

-----GM-----
"All right. I will."

-----GM-----
You wouldn't think someone who bares their taut midriff would be shy - but then, most people don't know Ari.

-----Valerie-----
If Val was at Ari's level, she wouldn't be so shy. ...maybe. Maybe she would be, then again, hard to say.

"I guess I can look at some of the selection.." she yields.

-----GM-----
"Excellent."
She steals their seat as they get up, watching with interest

-----Valerie-----
Valerie uses her walker to start to go around and see just what might be available. Something long skirted, maybe.. she can do short sleeved, though not much for swooping collars.

-----GM-----
The irony is that, for the duration of her heaviness, she has bigger breasts than her twin. Of course, it also means that she's almost a size bigger than her - but over the past month she thinks she has detected a little slimming going on.
Still - if she gets a dress, she can alter it fairly effectively to keep up. It could be a project.

The question is, what colors speak to her?

-----Valerie-----
Of course, 'fat' isn't exactly a flattering way to be a size bigger, but that's just her unflattering mind talking. Will depend on the end result in... however long this takes. At their current pace, she expects to be benchpressing Ethan by winter's end or something.

For now, well... part of her wants to say 'black', but that'd be just hiding. Maybe matching her hair could work... Largely pale, almost white, warm cream color, with dark, autumnal brown accents.

-----GM-----
Her sister picks something a little more somber, a surprisingly girly number in dark blue. Once they've tried them on, nothing would do but that they show off to Heimarmene, who claps delightedly and pays for them both on the spot.

-----Valerie-----
It's pretty weird to be standing next to Arielle and have both of them be blushing and bashful at being praised.

-----Valerie-----
Arielle saw her sister as this depressed but nurturing emotional bastion, and Valerie saw her sister as this buoy of physical perfection. They make a pair alright.

-----GM-----
The whole thing sets a pang in her. The last time either of them'd had an experience like this was just before their mother died, a couple days in fact.

-----Valerie-----
It's poignant to think about. And so their history comes full circle. She'll need to double check when crossing the road.

-----Valerie-----
Would hate to put Lakshmi's work to waste.

-----GM-----
Now that would be a sick twist of fate.

She lets them go, then, bidding them farewell before vanishing. Arielle looks to her sister, brushing her new dress thoughtfully.

"That felt good - and tell me if this didn't seem familiar."

-----Valerie-----
"Yeah, I'm in sync with you on this one," she admits, quirking a smile of her own.

-----GM-----
"Mmmph. Well, I'm not going to unravel it tonight. I'm heading to Dad's to chill out, maybe stay the night. We're all going together to Cornell soon after all."

-----Valerie-----
"I'm going to need to sync up with Honey for this weekend myself, and I kinda want to launch my video tonight and start monitoring it, so that's likely what I'll keep myself busy on tonight."

-----GM-----
"Sure, I'll drop you off back home, then!"

-----Valerie-----
"Sounds good! ..by the way, what kind of car will you get when I don't have something I need to strap in?"

-----GM-----
She cracks her knuckles. "I was thinking of getting a Thunderbird chassis and asking you to beef it up."

-----Valerie-----
"Going straight for classy!"

-----GM-----
"What can I say? I roll with the best."

-----Valerie-----
"I'd love to get my hands on one, so, consider it done."

-----GM-----
"And?" She grins. "What about you? You're gonna learn to drive after all."

-----Valerie-----
"I dunno. My sense of the aesthetic is telling me to get - or make - a Ducati motorcycle, if I'm honest."

-----GM-----
"Oh my god."

-----Valerie-----
"I'd probably get a truck for more functional stuff, like moving equipment around, though."

-----GM-----
She laughs.
"I guess you really are my heart, because a Ducati was my second choice~"

-----GM-----
"I really should, too. Can't take the T-bird on most missions."

-----Valerie-----
She snickers. "We'd cut mean figures riding down on a pair of XDaviels or Panigales."

-----GM-----
"I think you mean hot as hell."

-----Valerie-----
"Hot and mean."

-----GM-----
She punches her arm fondly and grins

-----Valerie-----
She rubs at her arm by reflex, though grins at her.

-----GM-----
She drops her off back home, then. When she gets in, she finds Ashlyn with her glorious red mane cut down. It's a cute style, sort of tilted to the front

-----Valerie-----
"Eeh! That's a world of difference!" she grins, walking in and letting the door shut behind her. Once inside, she turns her walker back into chair and sits down into it to give herself a break.

-----Valerie-----
"How does it feel?"

-----GM-----
"Really light and airy!" She brushes at it. "I figure I'll ask your sister to grow it out again when I'm sick of it in a few months."

-----GM-----
"Nice dress!"

-----Valerie-----
"Thanks. Heimarmene insisted." She brushes at it. "Not sure how often I'll wear it, but, well... I can always modify it later, magically or otherwise."

-----GM-----
"You look good in it. I know that's hard to see now, but trust me, you're pretty. You got nearly a hundred thousand subs on being cute and brilliant after all."

-----Valerie-----
She blushes and pokes her tongue out at her playfully. "Flattered, but I have a boyfriend already," she teases.

-----GM-----
She giggles. "If I'd poach anyone it'd be him, hunk much. Speaking of, see any interesting changelings today?"

-----Valerie-----
"Not today, and nothing will beat the teenager made of ice anyway!" She wheels on out to her computer to go put the finishing touches on the first video.

-----GM-----
Ashlyn sits down with her to watch her go through the final process, curious to see the final draft.

-----Valerie-----
Short intro with her new channel's logo, of the five realm runes: check. Talking about what the channel will be about and the caveats of who will be even {i}able{/i} to view the video: check. What to do if the video suddenly cuts out (go somewhere there's no one else around to be safe): check. A demo on magic, with a Shaping. And finally, the cosmology of the supernal and how it works, and what's to come next for following episodes.

She gives it a couple viewings just to make sure she didn't miss anything. "I'm going to make a lot of experienced people go 'yeah, duh,' I'm going to make a lot of people go 'huh, interesting,' and a lot of people go 'what the fuck is this.'"

-----GM-----
"Mmm - you know, you should maybe consider more Easter eggs. Things people can obsess over as baby mysteries."

-----Valerie-----
"Hm, not a bad idea. I can maybe cast very short, brief spells while I talk here and there, enough for the camera to catch, not enough to really be noticed until you search for it."

-----GM-----
"Even better if they're puzzles!"

-----Valerie-----
"Ooh... I could make an impossible looking puzzle box sitting on the desk and kind of fiddle with it as I talk and solve it with magic, even though it looks impossible to, and see who comes up with a series of moves."

-----GM-----
"That's a great idea~" She grins at her. "You know, these videos could help other people Awaken if it works out."

-----Valerie-----
"I'd really like that." She picks up a chunk of wood from below her desk along with a sliding actuator, and mashes the two together to turn the piece of wood into a series of actuating wood pieces - clearly trapped around one another with not enough game to fully slide out, but enough to look like a simple Chinese puzzle box. (Wonderful machine praxis! Gnosis 3, Matter 3, Persona 3, High speech 2, Rod 1. Instant, advanced duration.) @iced Dice {12d10!rr10!target8} Paradox {1d10!rr10!target10}
{2017-05-02 4:15:23 PM} Iced Dice: 12d10 : (3+4+6+4+6+2+3+8+1+10+4+7+8) = 3
{2017-05-02 4:15:23 PM} Iced Dice: 1d10 : (7) = 0

-----Valerie-----
(Exceptional~ Taking arcane Inspired.)

-----GM-----
Very nice

-----GM-----
"That is really strange to watch."

-----Valerie-----
Somehow, where there was no seam, Valerie still slides a piece aside so she can reach inside and slide another piece that had no seam, and another, and another, until the only piece that hasn't been modified is in the middle - a cube of wood, trapped by the actuating slats.

"I'm the one doing it and even I find it strange to do."

-----Valerie-----
"It's quickly becoming my favourite use of magic, because it feels new every time I do it."

-----GM-----
"It's definitely like, a definitive way to say that the world isn't what you think it is. Like watching Dr. Strange and seeing how the Ancient One made the world fold into itself."

-----GM-----
She plays with it a little bit, marveling.

-----Valerie-----
She leaves it in Ashlyn's hands while setting her set up so she can do the parts she wants to re-record and include the puzzle box. Plan is to not even mention it, just keep it in shot of the camera and cheat to solve it.

-----GM-----
Once she's done, Ashlyn comes back to help her put the equipment back into resting posture.

"Wonder how this is going to influence your Tenemos clone."

-----Valerie-----
"Certainly isn't going to make her less powerful let's just say that much." She goes back to her computer to cut up the footage and replace the old one.

-----Valerie-----
"Hopefully less sugary."

-----GM-----
"I got cavities just talking to her~ the Lil waifu."

-----Valerie-----
"I mean, it's cute, sure, but it's a bit weird to realize that she's the average of how my fans see me. Though I'll have to go back and see her when I go back to Lilith - see how this new channel changes her, and how Ethan's realtalk changed his."

-----GM-----
"I think it'll help. You guys both presented personas, but now the real people are poking through."

-----Valerie-----
The video file looks good, so she hits Render and runs her batch script to send it off to the VPN, with the spell taking care to register with it, and then it'll upload it with the meta data provided. Even nicer than her usual workflow!

-----Valerie-----
"Yeah, it'll get interesting, that's for sure!"

-----GM-----
"I'm gonna get to bed! I know we have a thing with Honey later, so don't let me miss it."

-----Valerie-----
"Sounds good. I'm gonna be up a bit longer, I want to see the first comments."

-----GM-----
"Sounds good~ I know you're sending invites out, so at least most of the people already know you."

-----Valerie-----
"Yep. We'll see how weird things get once they're away from the targeted invitations, but for now there'll be familiar ground. I might get some unsubs from the devout sleepwalkers, but I'll survive!"

-----GM-----
Ding!
{OMG wat did i just watch}

-----Valerie-----
And so it begins. She doesn't respond just yet, and lets them stew and speculate and debate.

-----GM-----
She stays up for a while, watching things come in. A girl tried to show the video to her boyfriend but it didn't work and he accused her of making it up. Others are trying to work out how the "trick" was done, and better how she's keeping it from showing up on YouTube's analytics. A few seem to think that's part of the trick. How right they are.

-----Valerie-----
There's a devious bit of entertainment to be found in the comments flowing in. How did she make her desk do that, how come some people can't see it, what is she talking about, with supernal this and that, is it a clever viral marketing campaign, etc.

-----GM-----
As she's about to let the pot boil without her, an email arrives in her private inbox.

"Ms. Valerie Beaudry,

We have reviewed your material posted online at (link), and believe that you would be an outstanding addition to our organization. We understand that you are doubtless reluctant to entertain this offer, let alone hear from us in the first place, but we urge you to consider it and reach out to us. To begin, we would offer a salary of 200,000 a year, with full compensation for any and all approved projects.

We understand that certain of our compatriots have made life difficult for you in the past, but we reassure you that no one in our ministry has taken up arms against you, and indeed we can offer substantial protection.

We may seem like the devil, Ms. Beaudry, but we serve the living gods of this Earth, and that is an honor and a privilege.

Please keep us in mind."

It's signed by an eye over a pyramid.

-----Valerie-----
She almost didn't bother checking, since her Wire Nest inbox is where all the emails came in. But noticing that not only did it go to her personal one, but that it was address to her while referring to her new video, well... That was worth a review.

Which opens a whole lot of questions. A $200k job is bonkers, first off, and one that clearly deals with magic. That certain compatriots made life difficult... Is this a job offer from the Seers?? If so, they have a lot of insulting gall to even do that offer!

Being the devil, and serving living gods seems to imply those who kicked the ladder out from over humanity's heads. If so, then not even 450 a day would let her accept. Still, the symbol looks different than what she thought it was, and if they haven't taken up arms?

-----Valerie-----
That would mean they don't follow ArchTime McDouche? Are they even seers?

Why would seers give a job offer to someone who's trying to shatter the lie by making tutorial videos? Is Valerie knee-jerk assuming because of the wording? This feels like a potential mistake, but... at least words have a buffer, so long as she doesn't accept a live chat. She makes sure to unplug her microphone and webcam, too.

'If you are who I think you are, or stand for what I think you stand for, then no money would make this worthwhile and I would be a bit insulted you'd think it would be. If you're not, then I'm willing to at least look at the brochure.'

-----GM-----
Even as she types it out, her forehead begins to ache

-----GM-----
Buzzing fills her ears.

-----Valerie-----
She wheels back from her computer, trying to bring up her mage sight to at least see what it is they're doing to her. Augh..!

-----GM-----
Nothing. This is coming from inside.

She feels an eye open in the centre of her forehead, and then blinding images fill her mind -

-----GM-----
Pillars falling, the sky burning, an iron seal, a cruel eye watching all, seeing all, burning, bright. The old world cobbled and shackled into thrones, an angel holding her hand before chains tighten about their neck, dragging them to the Eye -

They fade, blessedly. She can't handle them all - and somehow, she knows what she can remember is just a sliver of what really happened, her mortal mind's best interpretation of a cataclysmic supernal memory

-----Valerie-----
She nearly collapses out of her chair, hugging herself with a sudden bout of shivers, finding herself hyperventilating. "Holy shit... holy shit..."

-----Valerie-----
With a trembling hand, she takes her mouse and ditches her draft. Just... no. Fuck no.

-----Valerie-----
She saw - fucking experienced - part of the end of the old world... Jesus... She makes for the kitchen to drink some water to calm herself.

-----GM-----
That it was symbolic doesn't make it less real. Indeed, in a supernal sense, that made it more real. Sure, she didn't literally try to hold onto a fellow angel as they were enslaved to the Eye, but it's her mind's best attempt to understand the complexity of what did happen. Her anger, pain, and regret feel real.

-----GM-----
(Gnostic beat, as one would expect, + 1 mana for revelation)

-----Valerie-----
She can't even begin to imagine what really happened. This is the best her imagination can literally do. If she was a master of Mind, what horror would she have witnessed that Araqiel went through?

After a bit, she heads back to her computer, prints the e-mail into a PDF, and forwards it to both Lakshmi and the Assembly head, with a note that she 'witnessed a sliver of what they took us from us.'

-----GM-----
She finds her eye hasn't fully closed, either. It's still resting on her forehead, half lidded by the little portal it rests in

-----GM-----
The night outside is troubled by brooding rain that follows her mood.
{Did you have a vision, Sis?} a message comes in from Arielle.

-----Valerie-----
She's got a small mirror seated on the desk, looking at her new sapphire decoration, looking like it's half asleep. {I saw my mind's representation of but a moment of the fall of the silver ladder.}

-----Valerie-----
She then takes a selfie to forward to it, with the caption 'dat new jewelry, tho'

-----GM-----
She gets a similar shot back
{Same. I managed to put mine away - it's a bit like having a partial mage sight open or something. I bet supernal beings never need to turn that shit off.}

-----Valerie-----
{Or they can turn it off much like we know how to lower a raised arm.

It got triggered by a job offer from the seers. I was typing a response email along the lines of 'this had better not be from a seer or I'm not even entertaining it' and then it just ripped through.}

-----GM-----
{I think you can safely assume they were fucking Seers.}

A message comes in from Lakshmi advising her to be careful. The Seers tracked her identity down, but since she's in the public eye that was expected eventually and others have gotten away with it. She advises Valerie to consider changing her place of residency and maybe using an assumed name, knowing that the Thrones can find her at any time - and if she really does have "special help", maybe she could see what can be done from that angle.

-----Valerie-----
{Yeah, but on the bright side, that means there's a second faction doing its own thing, which is, presumably, smaller.}

Change her residency? With what money? This isn't Sonora. But still a good point that she's had, which is unfortunate..

-----Valerie-----
{I'm going to need to look for a new place, that said, cause that was addressed to me by name and in my personal email. One I can hopefully reinforce and make 'mine' more easily for protection. Provided I find some cash anyway.}

-----GM-----
{I don't think so. The Eye is supposed to be one of the most powerful Ministries and they're getting bigger, from what I've read.}

-----Valerie-----
{I meant Octavian's is smaller.}

-----GM-----
{Good question. I know of four main ones - the Panopticon, the Paternoster, and uhh - I forget the names of the other two.}

-----Valerie-----
{Wasn't in my Forge Master pamphlets, I'm afraid.}

-----GM-----
{So the first one rules surveillance, the second rules religion, the third rules nations, and the fourth rules war.}

-----GM-----
{Well, they try to. The Pentacle opposes them where we can. There's no doubt they have dominant control over money, though.}

-----Valerie-----
{No shit. They were ready to pay me 200k a yr and fund whatever project I'd embark on and they'd approve.}

-----Valerie-----
{Had they been anyone else but someone my very soul is opposed to, I'd have been sorely tempted.}

-----GM-----
{Probably after making you take down your new series.}

-----Valerie-----
{Yeah, that's why I was wondering if they were really seers or just someone with an unfortunately familiar icon. But, well, this flashback proved it enough for me.}

-----Valerie-----
{Speaking of, lots of dumbfounded debate and people are starting to try to puzzle it out. I think it's better I don't answer any question and pretend the channel doesn't exist. More mysteries for them.}

-----GM-----
{I agree. When's the next Vidcon again?}

-----Valerie-----
{Mid june.}

-----GM-----
{Few months to figure out what you're gonna do about that, then.}

-----Valerie-----
{Gonna be weird regardless! But fun.}