Khepmi, the Sundial Scarab

It was no problem, absolutely no problem that Solari couldn’t find her supervisor.

Star had used a certain code thrice on their last ship together. She remembered because it was a security concern. According to the handbook, you used a different code on each door and changed them twice a month.

Star clearly either didn’t read that section, or, more likely, didn’t think it that important.

6-2–9-9-9-3-2-9-9-9

Solari had it drilled into her brain by now. And thank the walls for it, she might’ve fainted from stress if it hadn’t worked.

Seeing a nihilist clad in alabile though? She might faint anyways.

The Monoist, for that is the only thing the figure could be, stands at the ship’s controls, their movements obscured by their hulking armor. As the door hisses closed behind Solari, the figure turns to look at her, fiery hair blazing around their shoulders.

As they make eye contact, Star stares at her, eyes wide.

“… Solari.”

Solari’s eyes looked glassy. Because of the bridge’s bright lights or the thin film of tears beginning to form, but neither would be able to tell which.

“… Star.” She looked through the Monoist figure, barely registering their existence. “The autopilot’s not functioning correctly, and there might be a nihilist in the main bridge. Do you know anything about that?”

“Don’t worry, Solari.” Star licks her lips, fear radiating through the alabile. “Everything is alright. Everything is going to remain alright. Don’t worry.”

“Star, I…” her body tries and fails to choke out a laugh. This is all a bad joke. Surely. “I dont think I quite understand.”

“No. No, Solari, I don’t think you do, but you don’t have to worry. It’ll all be fine. I promise. Don’t you trust me?”

"I-I want to! I really want to!" She laughs under her breath, terrified. "You can just, engage the autopilot, and this can all be behind us as some, some dumb prank. Okay? Just—Just ENGAGE THE FUCKING AUTOPILOT, STAR!" She didn't catch when or why her voice raised, but the yelling didn't feel right in her throat.

“Come on, Solari. You know I can’t do that. But you trust me, right? I need you to trust me.” Panic rises like bile in her throat as she speaks, blinking back tears.

Her breath quickens. She eyes the wall behind the shadow previously known as Star. There, an emergency bladiator behind an incaglass window. Maybe she could... no. No.

She wasn't stronger or faster than her supervisor. Why did she have to be between Solari and the damned controls?

Solari forces herself to take a step forward. She tries her best to look through Star.

“We will be fine. Everything will be perfect, I promise, and you know I wouldn’t promise anything I don’t know I can deliver. Everything is going to work out…” the Monoist’s voice is almost pleading, echoing coldly in the darkened bridge, “in the Next Eternity.”

Solari makes two sudden actions. For one second, she is frozen, in process or contemplation. The next, she lunges past the Monoist, elbowing the emergency incaglass, making a large crack through the window.

While Solari is occupied, the Monoist reaches back to the control panel, slamming down on the most important button: accelerate. At this angle, the ship will glide cleanly through the Plummet, through Sothera, and into the World to Come.

Solari punches the incaglass window until it gives way, bits of dissipating hard light cutting up her hand. The blade comes alive with an unnerving whirring sound. Sunstar weapons are made to cut through meters of tungsten; the image of what one could do to a person was drilled into the heads of every trainee. She swings at the Monoist once called Star, who flinches back enough not to be hit, moving away from Solari and away from the controls.

“Solari! Stop! Please.”

“You—” The axe-like bladiator hits the controls next to the Monoist's body. “You don't have the right to use my name, nihilist scum! None of it was real, huh? How long?! How long have you been planning to kill us?!” Error and warning messages from the shattered control panel illuminated the two with crimson light.

“No one is going to die, Solari! Don’t you get it?” There’s panic in the Monoist’s pleading voice. “In the World Without Walls, everything will be perfect! We’ll be together, forever!”

“Together forever with you? What a nightmare!”The warning blares were getting loud enough that they could barely hear each other. “Fuck, fuck the ship’s goi—”

Maintenance. Nothing unusual, even if Solari wasn't privy to the specifics. Even if she was dismissed from working for the night. Running basic ship diagnostics helped quell her anxiety. Her heart beating in her throat, trying to think of the right things to say to Star. She wouldn't focus on that. She'd focus on diagnostics.

Strange though. Even with the viy down, autopilot should be charting a far straighter course than the one they were on. No debris, potential impact or otherwise, was showing up on the scans. Just a quick pop into the bridge and—the passkey was wrong.

The all-ship announcement Star makes is simple. The ship’s viy will be down for two nights, allowing for routine debugging and maintenance checks. All basic features of the ship will remain active and available, including the autopilot and, more important to some, all food service. This should be almost exactly like any other night. The bridge will, of course, need to be empty for most of tonight for the same maintenance and upkeep. As good of a tecnic as Solari is, she’s been assigned to the far fringes of the ship for most of the time the viy will be down. The reasoning is simple, in a time that carries heightened risks, it only makes sense that the two best tecnics would be far apart, to cover as much of the ship as possible.

The Sagisttar is a larger vessel than she’s used to, but she made it a point to familiarize herself with the layout. While the rest of the crew was busy with a voyage party, she saw little appeal in mingling. Getting to know the vents, chutes and latters would surely prove useful in the immediate future. Solari just didn’t think she’d run into anyone within the ship’s bowels.

Star pulls her sleeves down immediately upon the realization that she’s not alone, swiftly returning to the proper, standard state of dress. She comes to face Solari with a perfectly calm ease that all but immediately falters with recognition. She can’t speak.

The silence between them hangs thick enough that you’d struggle to cut it with a knife.

Solari was never one for physical affection. But she quickly embraces Star anyways.

Star chokes out something in the space between a sob and a laugh, hugging back bone-crushingly tight within nanoseconds.

“I didn’t—I thought—I…” she takes a moment to compose her thoughts “I didn’t think my transfer request was effective! Was planning to… busy myself with work.”

“I didn’t think I’d see you again unti—um—ever. You. You put in a transfer request?”

“Uh-yeah. With a—oh walls this is embarrassing. A request to be stationed with you. I didn’t think they’d oblige.”

“I—with—specifically with… me?” She’s bright red, eyes wide, staring down at Solari.

“Well, yeah! You’re the only—no thats mean. You’re… more enjoyable to be around than most.”

Sourced from the Duskmantle Archives.

On the 5th of Mokosh, 10,072, Chima Tannari was tragically drowned by a krasis that had broken out of its confines. She was 18 years old.

Lie.

On the 5th of Mokosh, 10,072, Chima Tannari was tragically drowned by a krasis that had broken out of its confines. She would’ve turned 19 exactly one week later.

 Better, but still not true.

On the 5th of Mokosh, 10,072 Fena Tannari’s daughter died. I killed her.

 There we go.

My death was not tragic, accidental, or real. It was long overdue, carefully planned & executed, and a complete fabrication.

I chose the day perfectly- Lyswin was visiting, and I knew she and my brother (though he still thought he was my sister) would be spending a lot of time with me.

“Mother” would not. Too busy seething about her ‘daughter abandoning her’, like this family had ever been together.

The House gave me everything: all the secrets of Ravnica, a life beyond the walls of Zonot 6, money.

I would not disappoint.

Vanessa was my favourite out of the krasis we were allowed to interact with. A hydra/octopus mix, built for defending, whether it be a home or a military post.

Also the friendliest octohydra you’ve ever heard of. And very easily bribed with treats.

I would fall in, hold out the salmon, and Vanessa would wrap all around me with her… tentacles? Heads? Headtacles? Whatever.

This creates the illusion of her attacking me. 

The tricky bit was creating evidence that I had been killed by this. House Dimir provided it. I don’t know how, and I don’t want to. But they got it.

I swim down to the outlet grate, open it, let the… evidence float to the surface as I squeeze through the pipes. 

Simplish. Easy to follow. Unless your idiot sister has to jump in to save you. Thanks, Lys. Overbearing even when I’m trying to die.

Shaking her off and out of the water would be tricky. Unless I didn’t need her out.

If she lost her grip and couldn’t see me, I’d be clear, mostly. 

Now, if only there was a large creature nearby that could produce a cloud of ink when threatened. 

Oh, wait. There is.

Jab Vanessa in the siphon (sorry), slip out of Lyswin’s grasp in the ensuing ink cloud.

Done. Lyswin’s still feeling for me, her tail thrashing around in a panic. Sweet. Shame she won’t find me. Ever.

Twist the grate to open, slip into the air pocket. Push the horrible thing out, swim like hell. 

And two hours later, after the Azorius arrived, I was officially dead.

Based on the information we have available on each on you trough our matchmaking program, we think you might be able to form a solid team together. This is an automated message, you can deliberate under it, if at any point you both reply with "CONFIRM" we will update our systems to compensate, if either of you reply with "DENY" we will try to find you each a different match. Kind regards, the Kylem Multiversal Death Games Team.

Oh. Though I'm a Mage like you said, I'm not one to sit far away and cast spells. I can hold my own in a melee— once I shake the cobwebs from my skill at arms anyways. I said in the sign-up that I'm good for buying time for others, so if it matched me to you then you must be the opposite.

Based on the information we have available on each on you trough our matchmaking program, we think you might be able to form a solid team together. This is an automated message, you can deliberate under it, if at any point you both reply with "CONFIRM" we will update our systems to compensate, if either of you reply with "DENY" we will try to find you each a different match. Kind regards, the Kylem Multiversal Death Games Team.

Oh. Though I'm a Mage like you said, I'm not one to sit far away and cast spells. I can hold my own in a melee— once I shake the cobwebs from my skill at arms anyways. I said in the sign-up that I'm good for buying time for others, so if it matched me to you then you must be the opposite.

Based on the information we have available on each on you trough our matchmaking program, we think you might be able to form a solid team together. This is an automated message, you can deliberate under it, if at any point you both reply with "CONFIRM" we will update our systems to compensate, if either of you reply with "DENY" we will try to find you each a different match. Kind regards, the Kylem Multiversal Death Games Team.

Oh. Though I'm a Mage like you said, I'm not one to sit far away and cast spells. I can hold my own in a melee— once I shake the cobwebs from my skill at arms anyways. I said in the sign-up that I'm good for buying time for others, so if it matched me to you then you must be the opposite.

Based on the information we have available on each on you trough our matchmaking program, we think you might be able to form a solid team together. This is an automated message, you can deliberate under it, if at any point you both reply with "CONFIRM" we will update our systems to compensate, if either of you reply with "DENY" we will try to find you each a different match. Kind regards, the Kylem Multiversal Death Games Team.

Based on the information we have available on each on you trough our matchmaking program, we think you might be able to form a solid team together. This is an automated message, you can deliberate under it, if at any point you both reply with "CONFIRM" we will update our systems to compensate, if either of you reply with "DENY" we will try to find you each a different match. Kind regards, the Kylem Multiversal Death Games Team.

Plxtwt walks on screen once more, behind them the gates of Valor's Reach. They wave at the camera before beggining to sign in kylem sign language, a button appears at the bottom of the screen reading "translations", upon clicking it there are four options, "Kamigawan" "Capennan" "Audio" and "Subtitles".

Clicking on Capennan or Kamigawan pops up a small display of Plxtwt in a dressing room signing "Thank you to Vasro for teaching me this language", before signing whatever the big screen Plxtwt signs in the respective sign language.

Pressing Audio results in a voice over, pressing Subtitles results in subtitles.

"Hello Multiverse, I am your host, Plxtwt, happy to announce that signups for the very first edition of "Kylem presents:Multiversal Deathgames" are now open. I will walk you trough the signup process! There are two ways to go about it, one in person and one digitally, trough your Izzet transmitter, or whichever other device you are accessing the network with. I shall begin with in person sign ups!"

They walk trough the gates of Valor's Reach, the camera following it closely. It turns left almost immediately after entering and approaches an information booth, a nervous looking human sitting behind it.

"Good afternoon! I would like to sign up for the death games! ^" Plxtwt chirps at the human.

"Y-yes, just fill in this form" The human sputters before shoving a piece of paper into the homunculus' hands.

"Thank you Kyle!" Plxtwt holds the paper up to the camera "These questions are the same as the ones you find in the digital form, the link to which can be found after this broadcast!" It turns back to the human, "Say, Kyle, this form asks for two to three members of a team, but I'm here by myself, whatever must I do? Will I be unable to participate?"

"No, you can fillinthisotherform to help us machtmake." Kyle mutters before handing Plxtwt another piece of paper, which it also holds up to the camera after briefly cringing. "Great job Kyle, indeed, if you are alone without a teammate or you're a group of two looking for a third there is a different form for you to fill in. After submitting it we will assign you a new partner or two to fight alongside with!"

The camera begins moving backwards until it leaves Valor's Reach once more, flying upwards so you get a clear view of the whole stadium, inside there are a bunch of people setting up what seems to be a small town, except all the houses are empty and have no windows or doors in the respective frames. The words "See you soon!" appear on screen before the footage cuts out.

Signup as a team (only needs to be filled in once per team)