The Phenomenal Fracas (GBS2G6) [Round Five: The Ambitus Phenomenon]

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

---

Thatix swirled around her contact, who if she had cared to check she would have seen him impotently trying to swat her away from him. Thatix was however focused elsewhere, on her past with Chancellor Blackmask. It wasn’t like they were good friends, she had only really put up with him because he was well-placed inside the Council of Elders. Other than that she’d found him pretty intolerable, constantly arranging meetings just to bitch about the missteps he felt the Council was making in their rules and regulations. He had explained his abilities to her at one point but she hadn’t really paid attention because she was pretty sure she wouldn’t have to fight him so why the hell should she care if he could blast lightning or whatever. Ugh, seriously, some people. Anyway why the hell was she reminiscing about this, she suddenly demanded of herself. Maybe because it was making slightly more sense than the crazy situation she found herself in at the moment, and speaking of which she should really ask Chancellor Blackmask about that… oh and hey look at who should just happen to be nearby…
“Hey Blacky.” She said, reforming into vaguely human form outlined against the window of the room. “What’s going on? Is the Council like going into some kind of civil war or something?”

Ripper was getting frustrated. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had a very tenuous understanding of precisely why the fireflies were allying with him, he would have been making more of a fuss about the treatment he was receiving from them. As it was he just had to feel it out until he had a better idea what was going on in Thatix’s broken mind.
“Aye?” he said hesitantly.

“That’s what I thought!” Thatix snapped cheerfully. “I thought that, just before when I was trying to figure out what was going on, but then I was like what am I doing here then, and actually what am I doing here?”

Ripper was silent for a couple of seconds, faltering to come up with an explanation for a problem that he didn’t even understand. Though her expression was not visible he was getting a sense that Thatix was probably frowning at him. He decided to go out on a limb.
“I brought you here.” He said, hesitantly. “I thought you’d want to get in on the action.”

“Oh hey that’s cool as well I guess.” Thatix said, approvingly. “But like that guy before; The Prestidigiwhatever... like what was his deal? Oh man I don’t even want to know. Let’s take this one thing at a time if you don’t mind. I’m guessing you probably have some kind of cool plan to take out the rest of the rest of the council or something?” Ripper hesitated, he was being asked a lot of questions here, and he wasn’t sure he could guess an approximate answer for this one. “Oh whatever… It can’t be that hard can it? They’re already fighting one another; we just go down there and pick them off one by one while they’re busy with one another. Then off we go back to Itharia and I rule over the place with an iron fist, or iron fireflies if that is an appropriate metaphor, which it probably isn’t but whatever. Metaphors are hard.” She paused and shot a glance at Chancellor Blackmask. “That’s right, right?”

Ripper sighed inwardly, it seemed that the fireflies had cleared up most of her questions with minimal input from him, and was still on his side. This was clearly a good outcome.
“Aye.” He said, with a grin of relief, but found himself talking to empty air. After a moment, she reappeared at the window.
“Are you coming?” she asked. “Chancellor Finch is looking a bit exposed at the moment. With good timing we can totally ambush her and then it’s like one council member down which is totally a step in the right direction.”