Last time, Avalon got out of jail
...She sees the being she'd named "Milo" (here) standing before her. She talks with it, and learns that it's a strange being that wants her, and other Prometheans, to fail. It wants the Pilgrimage to go on forever, for the New Dawn to be unobtainable. It is, it says, the Principle's shadow. The Jovian. It came into the world when Enoch failed to create an Athanor (here), and was attracted by Avalon touching this failed Athanor. Avalon asks who made this, and the Jovian says it was probably Jesse, but he doesn't know what exactly Jesse was trying to do.
She asks why it wants to flummox the New Dawn, 'cause that's kind of a dick thing to do, and it tells her that it doesn't really know, that that's like asking why water freezes at a certain temperature. Avalon responds that she knows why that happens; there's a reason for it. The Jovian considers this, and says that it isn't sure about its real nature. She asks if it's an angel, and the Jovian makes her clarify - she says "a servant of the God-Machine". He tells her that he's not that, and he's not a qashmal (and draws the distinction). He's something else. And, he says in a somewhat pained way, he's being uncharacteristically honest with her.
Avalon points that out perhaps, given the right information, he could change, and not be this ongoing stumbling block on the Pilgrimage. The walls crack a little and reform, and the Jovian tells her to remember a set of coordinates (he says she'll forget this conversation, but then probably remember it if she can destroy the failed Athanor she's holding).
And then we're back at now, and Avalon remembers the conversation. She relates it to the others, and they talk about the Jovian a bit - Avalon notes that she'd been thinking of him as one of a type of being (a Jovian), but he actually referred to himself as the Jovian. So is he singular? A unique being, or anomaly? Avalon points out that, at the park in Lexington, some of them talked to qashmallim and some of them, probably including Virgil, talked to the Jovian. They need to be careful. And how, indeed, does the God-Machine figure in?
They go to the library and Avalon looks up the coordinates on an atlas - just outside of Tulsa. That's where they were talking about going next, and that's where Skip feels he needs to go, but the others are considering Detroit as well. They head to their next destination, the Noodles & Co outside Polaris mall. There, they meet Dry, and sit down to have some noodles.
Dry explains that the God-Machine creates angels for four general purposes - destroy, inform, protect, or transport. He was one of the latter, an angel meant to take data from the destroyed Infrastructure in Detroit to a destination in the southwest; he isn't sure where because he Fell along the way. But the data is still there and still part of him, and extracting it might harm him if done wrong. Avalon suggests making a copy, but Dry points out that doing that paints a target on whoever's carrying the data, and no offense, but Prometheans are easy to track if you know how.
They decide to head out to find some electricity...and that's when the lights flare brightly. A man (?) made of light appears on the table in front of them and points at Dry, while the Watchdog-angel that fought Matt and Jessa a few days ago leaps through a window (the glass immediately rewinds and fixes itself). Dry stands and tells the others that if they want to go, they can go. Time stutters, and several people with light coming out of their mouths appear, but the normal folks eating noodles are frozen in time. And then Grimm, noting that that choice seems to be "fight" or "leave," shoots the bright angel.
Skip leaps over and pummels the Watchdog into the dirt, while Brilliant points at Dry and dazzles him, dropping him back into his chair. Virgil flips the table and puts Brilliant off balance, while Feather and Matt engage the cultists. Two cultists grab the chair and start dragging it out, but Enoch transforms into Barghest form and tackles on, killing him with poison. Virgil body-checks another into a wall, and Skip finishes off the dog. Grimm shoots the Brilliant angel again for good measure, but now that the Watchdog is gone, the bystanders are free and all hell breaks loose. Matt uses Morning Star to call some nearby bystanders to his aid (achieving his Whip milestone urge a human to take a major risk), and Avalon plays on the cultists' Vices (which are pretty much "BRILLIANT IS GOOD") to get them away from her.
Outside, Dry snaps out of it and has Matt hold up his cell phone. Dry touches it and digitizes, flowing into the phone and disappearing.
The Prometheans flee as sirens approach, and head out. Matt has a text message: "C U in Tulsa."
Next time, we'll do some epilogue stuff and plan the Tulsa trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment