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Lavender Ice Glory
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Episode 3! But a story always goes better with music! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRSgyE670tk
Continuing with the recap, we start with Ana's story. Something, or someone has hijacked her exit from the Astral plane and she see a dream of someone who has a dream of chopping down a tree, but then the tree retaliates and makes the lumberjack a part of itself. The lumberjack awakens and knows "they must protect her at any cost." Remember this "lumberjack" because they will be important later and cause a shit load of trouble for Scarred and Fortune. Speaking of our intrepid duo, the two of them after seeing the events of the side quests have a meeting with the real master of the black fog and the true leader of the Acolytes of the Ash Tree, the demon known as Andrew Goodwill. He makes it clear that the Ash Tree demon is basically his bitch and he uses him like a weapon to fuel his own dark designs, he also reveals that he wanted to punish Root for going against certain order as killing Absolution was not his wish, and that he was the one who granted Scarred and Fortune bodies to beat the shit out of Clara. Andrew then offers Scarred and Fortune a choice of who they would like to see die, for no other reason than his own amusement. However in defiance of him they chose none of them and instead pick someone entirely random (intending for Andrew to pick himself) as they don't want to hurt anyone. However the joke is on them because instead he picks Wildcat, the Curator attached to Ana. They quickly make a bargain for his life, but Andrew proposes a new idea, he takes over Ana's body to further punish Root. Both them promptly refuse, so in order to defuse the situation and save Wild Cat (who I will refer to as WC from here on) they all start to tell some really dirty jokes in order to save him, only highlighting how capricious Andrew Goodwill really is. Scarred comes in handy here as she tells one about a guy fucking a cow to death as well as "The Aristocrats Joke," often considered the dirtiest joke in existence (see here for what she said: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGA0dIz9-Wk) The joke is so filthy that Andrew lets WC live. They all swap some jokes, and Andrew leaves in good humor and WC promises to do his best to help Ana. Andrew returns to Root and warns him to not get so high and mighty again.
Meanwhile all of this going on Ana is talking with the young offspring of Mother Gaia and Absolution, who is promptly named Absolution Jr, and from this point on goes by AJ. AJ shows her that now with him acting as her right eye, Ana now has access to basic magic abilities. Ana is able to summon fireball and shoot it like a bullet from her finger. However this is the extent of her power so far, and it's all AJ can give her at the moment as WC is actually hindering her and AJ's ability to evolve and grow further at the moment, they will still grow however but at a slower rate. When suddenly, who should appear by Andrew Goodwill again. He reveals that Clara suddenly attacking was against his order and that Root was the one who ordered the death of Absolution due to receiving knowledge of another universe that had a far greater impact with magic and that he needed to die in order stop such a cataclysmic future. As stated this was against Andrew's orders and so he feels Root needs to be punished for his insubordination. He also plays the blame game and tries to convince Ana that her voices are actually a hinderance to her but it doesn't really work, although he does give some convincing arguments. In response Andrew gives Ana a sudden nightmare of her being attacked by a singing Root and immediately tries to blame it on the newest arrival to this meeting.
It's here Ana meets the brother of Absolution, the one who has placed a curse on the entire cult of the Ash Tree for the death of his brother. Morpheus the Dreamwalker, God of Imagination, progress and innovation, and dreams and nightmares. Dreamwalker makes it very clear that by siding with the cult, and for the deaths of his brother he has sworn vengeance on Root and by proxy, Andrew Goodwill. However some very odd peace negotiations occur in which Andrew tries and fails again to get more people on his side, but Dreamwalker will not be moved. Dreamwalker pledges to help Ana in anyway he can provided she takes care of AJ, his nephew. Andrew leaves in something of a huff and Dreamwalker helps Ana wake up back on the material plane.
When Ana awakens we see that WC has brought her into an abandoned auto garage, but she isn't alone. The young ghost Casper appears and tells Ana that the contract with him is dissolved and so has all the ghostly ties with the Ash tree Acolytes. Root was good to his word and let all of the ghosts go, however without their power Casper's form of a young boy falls away and he becomes a formless ghost. Ana tells Casper about Logan and that he might be someone who he and the other ghosts should look into meeting. Casper agrees and goes off to meet him. After he leaves two people enter the garage talking about their families curse. One of them is a young woman perhaps a few years old than Ana, and the other is an old man. Not only that but he is the old man whom Ana, saw in her dream when she met with the Ash tree, the woman is his granddaughter, Anastasia. Alas her hiding skill isn't great and she is quickly found out and Anastasia quickly points her gun at her. A very tense negotiation occurs, Anastasia says that Logan has made himself known and has begun his war against the cult. Anastasia and Ana after talking it out trade weapons and supplies and Anastasia and her grandfather take the car that's in the garage in an attempt to escape the city. Before they go Anastasia and Ana agree to stay in communication via a long range radio.
After the two of them leave WC requests using a small silver hand bell that he gave them when they first met. The bell opens up a small pocket dimension where a curator and shopkeeper named "One Horned Jack" runs a business selling good and information. One Horned Jack isn't his real name but it's what he goes by as a curator. Apparently on this pocket dimension Scarred and Fortune also have seeable forms, although they can't interact or touch anything, they are still able to talk and be heard by both the curators and Ana. Ana makes a brief radio call to Anatasia to test out the radio and they establish code names and she learns the cult is pulling corpses out on the streets and burning them. WC and Jack leave to talk business and Ana looks at what is for sale. Turns out Jack isn't just a shopkeeper but a man who will literally sell everything under the sun from items to secrets. Ana buys some healing items called "the needles of life," which can heal any injury no matter their severity. Jack and WC come back from talking business and as it turns out, owes a debt to Scarred and Fortune because they saved his daughter's life. Jack's daughter is Matilda who was on trial earlier and he gives them some information about who buys from his shop, mostly cult members needing medical supplies or even drugs. They negotiate the distribution of some needles of life to people who need them like Lester who as you remember will be stabbed later on and this may save his life. The shop also has a young blacksmith there who simply goes by "Blacky." . She also gives a new mask order for Blacky to fill out as the cult has already begun to recognize her by her fish mask, as well as gets a new weapon head for her hockey stick. Blacky turns it into a Svardstav, a swedish weapon that's a kind of long spear with a short sword on the end rather than just a regular spear head. Black leaves to complete the weapon order after it has been placed.
Suddenly, who should break into this pocket dimension by Logan the Magus himself. Ana attempts to be cordial, and Scarred is delighted to see the man who became her husband, but Logan is furious and demands she hand over AJ immediately. Logan reveals he knows that Andrew Goodwill is aware of his presence but he isn't the one he is worried about, and he demands she hand him over as he sees him as a little brother. Suddenly Dreamwalker shows up who was apparently disguised as one of Ana's voices and has been following her since she woke up and he helps defuse some of the tension in the air and points out some areas of information that Logan was missing. Ana however breaks down in tears and says that she knows her actions may very well be what got Absolution killed. She takes of her mask and offers to let Logan take AJ. But seeing her cry seems to have softened Logan up a little bit and he admits that he was too harsh and that the psychic connection has already been made between Ana and AJ. Jack comes back and offers both Logan a letter from Root. Upon opening the letter however it establishes a kind of ghost communication with Root and he invites Logan to his dinner party claiming that both he and Logan as well as Ana are all friends and allies. Both of them just see him as a sick fuck and while Logan agrees to "attend." Jack is also reprimanded by Lorence who shows up on the line and says that by serving Ana Jack fucked up and will need to have a performance review It's revealed this invitation is how Logan showed up at the dinner party in the side quest and how he was able to kidnap Root and kill off certain cult members. Logan says he has to leave soon and see someone who he isn't really wanting to see but it's a complicated situation and he must attend. Before he goes he warns Ana about someone called "The Ambassador" and that he's a dangerous and creepy person but he is definitely someone better to have on your side than against you.
Jack leaves and so does Logan and Black comes back with the completed Svardstav and also gives Ana a list of bodyguards she can choose from to help her out. The list consists of the following choices:
- Masturbating Mike and Handjob Hank, two men with mutated arms who work for porn. They are quickly discounted as being good choices.
- The Wolf-Pack, a group of hunters and warriors who worship Fenrir Wolf, the son of Loki, and seek hunt and live as free men in the world Root has made despite not being allies with the Acolytes of Ash. To get them Ana would have to join the pack.
- Fire of Hate, a pyromaniac who's payment is accepting "The love of fire" she is also quickly discounted.
- Crimson Cinnamon "Bleeding" Jimmy, "a psychopath" who dressed like Chucky the killer doll and is into tinkering and creating various gadgets and who keeps various weapons and tools inside their body like fucked up magic bag trick. He apparently works for cash.
- And lastly the Ambassador, who as stated is a creepy individual but one better to have on your side than not. This is the one who Ana decides to chose.
They place the call to the Ambassador who agrees to be her bodyguard after some very odd words and questions. He agrees to be her bodyguard as he was once a mortal and wants to gain more power, and even take over the Acolytes of Ash. It's made clear he sees her as something of a means to an end but at the same time she also agrees and the two form a rather tense alliance. After some very choice words the two end the call only for it to be revealed that Root's bodyguard, a silent monster named Stitch, is standing behind Ana, still acting on his previous order to find her and kill her. Stitch is a silent killer and a frankenstein's monster of an abomination. Ana freaks out but Blacky, gods bless his heart tells her to ring the bell again which will send her out of the pocket dimension. She does so just in time before Stitch has a chance to put his knife (which he keeps lodged in his neck) through her heart. However, Stitch is furious at Black for telling them how to escape. Stitch begins to break all of the bones in Blacky's hand except for Dreamwalker who is able to disguise himself uses his power to turn into Root, and he gives the order to not kill him. Stitch obeys but it doesn't mean "don't hurt him," and he breaks both the arms of Blacky and rips one of them off before putting a smile on his mask for Ana as she leaves watching all of this in horror.
Both Ana and Dreamwalker are horrified, Dreamwalker confesses he looked into the mind of Stitch while they were at it and there was just, nothing cohesive, like voices trying to call out from a black hole and even to a god like him it was horrifying. Ana wants to take a minute to think everything over but isn't given the chance as she looks out and see a woman dressed as plague doctor getting beaten up by three people in masks. Ana goes out to at least check it out and listen in on what's going on. As it turns out the plague doctor isn't one of the Acolytes of Ash but is instead someone who gives out masks to people so they can live in the fog. The people beating her are panicking and scared of what's going on and continue beating her. Scarred convinces Fortune and Ana that they need to help and Ana leaps out gun ready and one of the others also pulls out a gun and there's a stand off moment, Ana does the whole "Look behind you!" trick only for it not to be a trick. As it turns out this plague doctor named Epidemic Gretel also has a bodyguard, and it's none other than Bleeding Jimmy. Jimmy jumps down from roof he was standing on top of and attack with scythe. Ana like a champ calls out for Jimmy to stop.
Amazingly he does and reverses his scythe blade to just bonk one of the attackers with the round edge. Jimmy like a true psychopath reveals that he can't be killed by conventional means, even proving it by shooting himself in the face, we later find out Jimmy is one of the immortals like 93 is hence why normal weapons and gunfire won't kill him. Jimmy pull out a sort of remote taser and sets it to blast and the three attackers drop like flies all while he continues to act weird and creepy and threatens Ana with either coming quietly or getting chopped up via chainsaw. Ana promptly refuses to which Jimmy then throws a teddy bear with a bear trap in the mouth which Ana just shoots out of the air, to which then Jimmy shoots Ana with a harpoon gun which also has a car battery attached to a long cable. Jimmy activates it effectively tasing Ana and knocking her out. When she wakes up Jimmy has her tied up in an abandoned apartment complex and apparently is very worried about his boyfriend, who as it turns out was Blacky. Black set Jimmy up as a bodyguard and Ana tells him that he needs help fast, Jimmy instead is furious at the situation and while he still wants to kill Ana, Gretel has convinced him that Ana is a good person and says they should give Ana a chance to come with them and even sets her free. Ana says no but is grateful to both her and Jimmy (in a roundabout kind of way). But Jimmy has another trick and throws Ana out a window via another one of his traps. Ana lands in a dumpster with various needles in her back.
Scarred and Fortune ask for a damage report when suddenly a strange and very angry voice appears and tells Ana to get up and tells her to use it's magic to transform herself. Scarred and Fortune are horrified and see what it is doing this. It's the being known as "The Rage Within" which is later revealed to be a different side Absolution. If Absolution was law and justice and magic this thing is Anarchy and survival of the fittest, and pure primal rage. It is a being of pure rage and malice seeking blood. In the old days it was worshipped by berserkers who called it "The Blood God." Even Dreamwalker can't look at it and is horrified by it's presence. It was reborn with AJ and it's here it also escapes as Ana refuses to listen to it or either doesn't hear it. She pulls the needles out of her back which as it turns out healed as soon as she did it and healed up her wounds too. Amazingly they are needles of life. Jimmy has attached a note thanks for not joining us, and that while she's not a bad person she can't have them with them anyway as Jimmy wants to protect Gretel. We later find out in a separate sequence that Jimmy isn't really a man at all but in fact a young woman and Gretel's younger sister. The whole "Bleeding Jimmy" thing was all an act and she is actually very afraid for both her sister and Blacky. Funny enough in Scarred Ana's timeline Jimmy went by a different name, Alora "Jackie" Miller and both her and Gretel as well as Blacky who later gets new metal arms and calls himself "Weyland" become generals and part of her inner circle.
Ana begrudgingly carries on and decides to take the alleyways to stay off the main streets. Rounding a corner she meets a homeless man wearing a box for a mask with a sharpie drawn on the symbol roasting a hot dog over a fire in a steel drum barrel. The man introduces himself "Boxhead Hobo" (although I would later give him the name Edward "Ned" Kelly but he still goes with Boxhead for now)
They talk for a bit and Boxhead says that he has a sawed off shotgun in case he gets into trouble but otherwise prefers to avoid it whenever possible. Living on the streets and being an old army vet he learned how to survive and Ana asks if he want to come with her as both Scarred and Fortune recognize his tone as someone who is planning on using that shotgun on themselves. It takes some convincing but he does decide to join them, mostly because Ana did it via threats. This becomes something of a bad trend for Ana as she often makes the mistake of taking what Scarred and Fortune say she should do and then going either too hard on it or not enough. Boxhead does admit he is at least somewhat glad to have Ana with him as he was actually planning on doing something like suicide. Together the two of them make for an abandoned hotel that Boxhead sometimes sleeps in.
The two banter back and forth a little bit making their way through an old pit where the city was doing some construction work when suddenly, Oh no! A trap! They are caged in on both sides and the pyromaniac known as fire of Hate appears with a flamethrower at the ready. Her boss is a new general for the Acolytes of Ash, a try-hard named Flint, whom Ana mocks with Jojo references. After some banter anand more Jojo references with Flint being the butt of the joke, Ana and Boxhead realize they're completely caged in with Acolytes of Ash all armed. Ana questions why they're bothering with her at all since by this point Root has been captured by Logan. Flint says that Root said no one should follow him while he "Talks" with Logan and that his order are to bring Ana back alive if possible. Flint has also brought three people along with him. The first Madame Rosaline, a proper english lady with a penchant for tea and spiders, as well as her retinue of "Teacups" basically her butlers all armed with SMGs. The second is Inquisitor Raphael, a cohort of Lorence who likes making fun of Flint and being generally creepy. Thirdly is an unnamed lieutenant of Flints'. And lastly is Grandmaster Godfrey, the leader of a group of knights called the Cross Ash who seek to help people out of the city.
Scarred Ana recognizes everyone except for Rosaline, and is especially excited to see Godfrey as she learned how to fight from him. Ana says that she will surrender to Godfrey but not to the others, or she will have an honorable duel with Flint with her freedom if she lives. This causes a disturbance among the group as Godfrey doesn't know Ana and Flint wants the glory to himself and doesn't want to take the deal. It also reveals that Godfrey's mission and goals within the Acolyte of Ash are already under scrutiny from Lorence and others like him in the cult. Ana convinces the others that Flint is acting like a spoiled child and that this only proves Godfrey's in league with Ana. Godfrey responds by drawing his sword on Flint and telling him to essentially cut the shit. Flint, coward that he is agrees to let Godfrey take Ana. But then surprise entrance by The Ambassador who was listening in the whole time! He says he likes the idea of the duel better, and it quickly becomes a fighting tournament to see who will win. But since Flint's side has both himself, Raphael, Rosaline, Fire of Hate,and Godfrey and Ana's side has only herself and Boxhead, Godfrey joins Ana as he doesn't want to see innocents hurt.
The first match is between Ana and Flint. Flint gets in and huffs and puffs about how badass he is only for his try hard nature to be revealed in spades and he goes down with a single boxing style punch that Scarred taught Ana. Ana asks who the hell put this guy in charge and it looks like Ana has won, only for flint to be a cheating bastard and hit her with a blowgun in the booty while she was talking, which knocks her out for a few minutes. It's a cheap win and Flint doesn't get any points from anybody not even a high five but the win goes to him.
the second match is Godfrey vs, Fire of Hate (whom I will shorten to FoH from here on), the knight vs the fire breathing dragon. The ambassador gives Godfrey a ring that allows Scarred and Fortune to help/talk with Godfrey and the fight begins. FoH unleashes a blast from her flamethrower while Godfrey circles around using keeping his shield up against her fire. The shield won't last for long against that heat so he gets underneath and is able to cut the fuel line of the flame thrower. FoH isn't done though as she throws two different fire bombs into the air. Dreamwalker attempts to help but the powers that be determine him to be overpowered to stay with Ana with powers like being able to stop brain function and he is whisked away elsewhere to deal with some other shenanigans. We'll get back to him later but for now we continue the duel. Godfrey's cloak is actually fire proof and he wraps in around himself shielding himself from the falling napalm. However he can't get in close to finish the job as the falling fire has lit up parts of the field and she's retreated behind them. Godfrey is fireproof from above but otherwise walking through fire is still too tricky. Fire of Hate however pulls two firepokers out and tells Godfrey to get her. Instead he pulls a move straight out of lord of the rings using his shield like a surfboard going across the flames but FoH was ready and uses her fire pokers to stick Godfrey in the head and rip of his chest plate. Turns out Godfrey is an immortal and can't die from a blow to the head like that and he forces his way up even using his cape to smother more of the flames and catch a fire axe she swings at him. Cheered on by Scarred Godfrey headbuts FoH and she goes down and he points his sword at her. FoH won't accept defeat on anyones terms but her own and attempts to light herself on fire. Only through Godfrey literally punching her lights out does she stop. Godfrey takes the win and the score is one for one on both sides.
From here we cut back to Dreamwalker who was taken away from the fight by a mysterious power. He is introduced to a man calling himself "Black Tomato" and he says he needs Dreamwalkers help and wants to give him a physical presence he can act on. Why? Lord only knows. But he introduces to him a young woman named Laura. Please note this is not the same Laura Ana met earlier who works for the FBI. This Laura is a quiet girl who was born blind from birth. For some reason or other Black Tomato owes her a debt and through the help of an entity calling itself "Mr. Midnight" wishes to bond Dreamwalker with her. Dreamwalker has bonded to humans before creating the first "Seers." as it were. He talks with Laura and gets to know her a little bit more and sees that she is a very kind and warm person. He even gives her an idea of what she looks like to others via a telepathic view of her face. Dreamwalker agrees to the bonding on three conditions, she gives him open access to her mind, she leaves the cult, and three she must join Ana and help her and AJ. All of these she agrees to. Before the bonding, Black Tomato gives a phone to Dreamwalker to talk with "Mr. Midnight." Amazingly, Dreamwalker recognizes the voice on the other end of the line a trickster god of madness, and creation, something akin to March Hare from alice in Wonderland. The being has many names but simply goes by "The Mad Creator." He's dabbled in creating worlds of his own before, but his main goal is going around other universes stealing objects and materials to build his incredible hall. In this case, he's come to this universe and he is actually dying and needs something from this universe to prolong his life. The call is abruptly ended however, and Dreamwalker asks Laura if this is something she wants.
Laura assures him it is and the two of them bond, creating a kind of father-daughter relationship. Laura awakens back in the bunker city of the Acolytes of Ash and she can now see using a kind of dream vision. She quickly makes plans to escape only to get side tracked by a pumpkin witch named Betty. She and Laura talk a little bit and Betty reveals she was part of the original scouting crew sent to spy on Ana at the bus stop, and that she recently turned herself into an immortal. They also use this opportunity to test out one of Dreamwalker's abilities and they look into Betty's mind as she recounts a story to Laura, revealing everything she's saying to be a half-truth and that Betty is a monster who killed a poor fool and took their head. Betty in a twisted sense of humor gives Laura the head after making it sing the Adam's Family theme. The head says its name is Cleo and it would appreciate help in getting her body back. Laura agrees but before that she takes a short rest to test out more of her new powers of Dream-walking and dream shaping.
and it's here i'm going to end episode 3 as it is almost 3:30 in the morning. Goodnight!
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