Re: 0B. The Prince and the Popper
01:01, Today: Narrator, on behalf of Bozon the Burstbarian, rolled 834 using 63d24. non-sacrificially Enhanced Performance.
Djordon's cage lights went out, and he took a deep breath. He looked at Bozon and said, "It's okay friend. I've lived a long life, and I do not fear death."
01:04, Today: Narrator, on behalf of Bozon the Burstbarian, rolled 13 using 5d6 with rolls of 3,4,1,4,1. Neurodiverse.
01:05, Today: Narrator, on behalf of Bozon the Burstbarian, rolled 15 using 5d6 with rolls of 1,4,1,4,5. But a king.
Although he had difficulty understanding social cues due to his neurodiversity, his training as a king had taught him to read people's micro-expressions, and Djordon was clearly more afraid than he had ever been before in his life. Bozon has a flash of a page from one of the books in The Chronicles of Synthia's Last Request, where Djordon personally witnessed Auricle torture countless people with the pain she herself was tormented by. She even tortured Balur itself in order to gain power. And the torture she used was very similar to what King Joe had in the ceiling above. Something told him the fear of death was mingling with the empathy for those in the ceiling.
King Joe looked at Djordon and said, "I've looked at her mind, boy, and your girl would do the same thing again."
Djordon's face flashed through deep pain, confusion and then denial at that comment.
King Joe asked for a report on the effects of the Rulabs on the general population, and he heard that most people were showing only mild signs of energy drainage.
When Bozon began performing, he was taken up by the spirit of the moment and everything he did was executed with perfect timing and extreme skill. This performance made his act in the Pirate Palace seem like amateur night in a backwoods tavern. Among other hilarity, Bozon mimed pulling out a far-too-small bowl from a cupboard, and a polkadot bowl flew out of his bag into his hands. Every item he mimed did the same thing as he combined sparkling confetti 'flour' with green slime 'eggs' and other zany ingredients, and poured gallons from the thimble-sized bowl into an oversized mixing bowl and stirred with all his might, spraying mock-ingredients over everything. VI Joe was already laughing hysterically, when Bozon had a bright idea and an inflatable boy climbed out of his bag.
The boy looked like a typical vampire trope, and VI Joe said, "It's my friend, Yavod!"
King Joe's eyebrows raised at this.
Inflatable Yavod was not sentient, so Bozon mime-asked Yavod to help bake the cake, and 'punished' him every time he messed up by inflating him a little more. The oven made of ice beeped and Yavod pulled out a 15' tall completely finished utterly beautiful cake from the 2" oven door. When Bozon saw the perfection of the cake, he got excited and hugged inflatable Yavod, popping Yavod and causing the cake to fall and splatter all over the place.
When young Joe tried some of the cake, laughing he said, "Wow! That's even worse than Hagrod's pig-mush!"
King Joe huffed a little in bemusement at young Joe's reference.
After the entire performance completed, King Joe said, "Well, it's not quite entertainment, but I'll let Djordon live for it. Guard, escort Djordon to the hospital to see that he won't suffer too much from the Rulabs, then put him back on his home-world." The guards complied at once. "Now, since you must protect Tine above all others, Jen is the next to die if you don't make me laugh."
Pontorna appeared before King Joe and said, "Joe, my slave, greet Balur and explain the situation. I'll be back soon, the perimeter is almost secured." The emperor disappeared again.
King Joe had the box containing Balur opened and said, "We know all about your troubles, Balur. We are the cause. We've finally figured it out and halted your ability to reset the world. The creature consuming you is known as Rulab, and it was your divergent's natural predator in a divergent Oner from your own. It is mindless and cannot be reasoned with. As you can tell, you are the most complex and intelligent node of Balur remaining, and you are at our mercy." With that, he pointed at Balur and it shrunk to the size of a mouse pellet, then pointed with a different finger and it grew back to a little bigger than its previous size. "So you know my power. You will do as we say, or we will end you. I represent an ever expanding empire of 80 billion people whom you've no power over. We can live quite happily without you. We will name our price and you will pay it. You have no other choice if you wish to survive. You will remain gagged until your Emperor arrives to tell you the terms of your surrender."
Then, turning to Bozon, he began, "Now, enterta-"
VI Joe yelled, "You big bully! Just because I hate who you've become, that doesn't give you the right to treat people like that!"
King Joe replies, "Young me, shut up. You know nothing of what has happened. Do you know that I am Sangwen? But Yavod didn't survive Changing you when you stupidly nearly killed yourself. Your mother was brutally murdered by the people she sacrificed her time with you to benevolently rule over. They replaced her with your uncle, and he ate the kingdom into poverty. You know nothing, and I have the right to rule as I see fit, so be seen and not heard, brat! BOZON! Make. Me. Laugh."