[b]Bella and Dyssia![/b]

Bella, you have spent a very relaxing afternoon reading in your room. It is calm, it is quiet, it is safe.

And then an enormous blue snake bursts in through your door clutching a giant sword.

How exactly does that go for her?

[b]Ember![/b]

The Silver Divers are having a great deal of fun with their Azura Sorceress. Hands bound and mouth gagged, she makes her way across the ship painting the glyphs of warding with a paintbrush attached to her tail. Magic has always existed, even in this far future where it and technology have intertwined - some people are simply blessed by the gods to be sorceresses, and some people are blessed by the gods with the strength to overcome sorceresses.

While that's happening, a council of the pack elders has been called. New tactics and strategies need to be discussed. Agonizingly, this must take place under the most favoured of Mars' rituals: transparent paper placed upon a lit surface, amplification crystal projecting it upon the wall. 

"We're up against two intertwined threats," said Sagetip. "And we cannot allow the threat of one to blind us to the other. The first is, of course, the Biomancer-General Liquid Bronze. On his own merits he is a terror; he travels with the normal biomantic retinue of a Drone swarm and has a host of apprentice Biomancers working under him. Additionally his speciality is in burnout tactics - that is, overclocking biological life so that they achieve vastly superior short term prowess at the cost of long term sustainability. Against his forces everything will come down to surviving the first wave, and so we will need to front load our defenses as much as possible when they are deployed.

"The second threat is the Summerkind - and realistically, this is what will be deployed against us first. There's no glory in killing Ceronians with Drones, but proving that his own warrior servitor species can take us on even ground - that'll get the attention of his peers. So it will likely be the Summerkind and they're a devil of a problem. Their lifespan is not a combat weakness; deaths simply restart their cycle to predeployment. We don't have the Biomancer cohort on hand to crack and format Summerkind eggs. The absolute requirement we face, then, is controlling the field after every engagement - that will allow us to incinerate any eggs and thereby attrit their forces."

"That's just chasing defeat," grumbled Plundering Fang. "Sure we can burn a few eggs, but what good will that do us? We're a pack, he'll be bringing his legions. The only move that makes sense is a decapitation strike."
"But that will force Liquid Bronze to deploy his Drones and then we'll be fighting both forces simultaneously!" said Sagetip.
"Good," grinned Plundering Fang. "Like you said, there's no glory in him Droning us to death, so there's no glory lost by dying to that."

[b]Dolce![/b]

"Well," said Demeter sympathetically. "I understand. You weren't built to be decisive. That's really the main thing that stops people from understanding me - most people are just not built properly. But don't worry. Sooner or later you'll meet one of my Chosen and they'll fix the broken parts of your brain and your heart. Then you'll understand."

She steps away into the garden. "Anyway, like I said, I'm feeling generous," said Demeter, dropping to her knees and sinking her hands into the soil. "I have my own family, so why shouldn't everyone else?" The work she does is hard, hands plunging into soft, dark earth, tearing leaves and sap, pulling roots, stripping stems. "And I believe, truly, that nobody should go hungry in my galaxy. You play a small but important part in making that happen. So why shouldn't you be rewarded with a murderous assassin? I'll even clear her presets for you - may as well while I'm here - give her whatever name you wish and they will become her target."

The body that grows is beautiful; long and angular, soft fur and curved musculature, lips that promise softness and horns and hooves that promise violence. There is undeniably something of the divine in the shape of a body perfected.