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It’s the day of the festival, and nothing is going to go wrong.
(Everything is going to go wrong.)
Loki makes some last preparations- ze has no idea what’s going to happen, but it’s best to be fully armed just in case. They’ve already got their sword, bow, shield, trident and axe, a variety of potions, ender pearls, and food. Where’s that crossbow… ah, fuck, she still has to enchant that. Quick Charge III, Unbreaking III, Multishot.
Now for the firework rockets. Ny gathers the ingredients- where the fuck is my paper, vae has to go steal sugar cane from Licemfletchtoburg for that- and crafts a few ceremonial fireworks as well as several dozen meant for dealing a lot of damage, both in the colors of the Lo’Bingbur flag.
Are they missing anything else? He’s got an ender chest and materials for two withers in it, a water bucket, weapons, fireworks, armor, other supplies… a few golden apples just in case might be a good idea. He takes fifteen out of his ender chest.
Okay. So cry’s pretty prepared for the festival. There’s still a few minutes until it starts, which Loki uses by trying to find Victor and Maxi.
<Aureus> hey vic maxi where tf are you guys
<Aureus> are we going together?
<bingus> loki we’re not invited
<Aureus> PFFT L
Wow. Imagine not being invited. Xe laughs at that, making their way to Licemfletchtoburg.
…And there they are, up on a tree, somehow having arrived before Loki despite not being invited. She quickly throws herself onto the tree (Riptide tridents are incredibly useful) and drops down to where the two sit.
“How’s it going?”
“Loki- what are you doing here-”, Victor says, sounding rather offended.
“Well, I’m invited to the festival.”
“Yeah, but we aren’t- you’re giving away our position, you’re supposed to be on our side!”
Maxi voices similar complaints, far more loudly than Victor.
“Listen. First of all, there’s nobody here. Second, it was really funny.”
Victor opens his mouth, presumably to respond, when he notices Will… writing something on the side of a building, and points that out instead. Loki decides to greet him- it’s only polite- and leaves the two behind to their arguments and discussions.
Upon seeing them, Will screams and disappears.
That went well.
Key then approaches the other festival-goers, chats with them about various things and participates in a few minigames. Aster attempts to drown her, very unsuccessfully. Unlike him, cy is greatly amused by this, as is Kookie.
Soon after, all of them make their way to the podium, where Lucem stands with Will and Mirach at his sides.
Loki decides that this is the perfect opportunity to show off eir fireworks crossbow, shooting five rockets into the sky and one directly at the trio on the podium. He manages to hit all three, though nobody is badly injured. Lucem, for some reason, pushes Will off and begins to shoot at Aster.
This country is really strange.
After several other strange occurrences and delays, Lucem gives his speech about his “great country” and “democracy”- hy doesn’t particularly pay attention.
Once finished, he joins the festival-goers in playing more games. Loki especially enjoys the boxing ring, where ce easily beats up Aster thanks to an illegal strength potion and Mirach wins two fights in row, and the way Lucem nearly drowns several times. Faer and Kookie’s attempts to get anyone to reveal state secrets are, unfortunately, not successful.
And then- then everyone gathers by the podium again for another speech, this time by Mirach, preceded by both insults and praises from Lucem directed at end.
It steps up to the microphone, adjusts the height slightly, and begins.
(Lucem asks for a bucket of water, nobody questions it. Aster brings him one.)
“A wise man once told me that Lo’Bingbur was like a lettuce. There are so many layers of tasty and healthy goodness-”
“I said that”, Lucem mutters.
“-and once you wash all the caterpillars and worms off the surface, it’s a pretty goddamn good meal.”
Everyone cheers, some more enthusiastically than others.
“Luc has successfully washed all of the insects off our great nation. And with that, he’s allowed the goodness and tastiness to shine through. Now, I’d like you to look around at what we’ve built today. Look at each other! All of this, thanks to democracy and the leadership of Lucem Ferto.”
More cheering, somebody claps.
“And isn’t that what this festival is all about? Democracy. Our people have been beaten down by royals and by dictators for so long, and now we are finally free. Free to elect who we want, free to live how we want, and most importantly, free to go wherever we want without the confines of those huge black walls. So with that in mind, I’d like to thank everyone for coming to this wonderful event.”
(This is where everything goes wrong)
Lucem begins to laugh darkly, and Mirach asks him what’s wrong.
“I was just thinking, Mirach. We like to have fun here, don’t we?”
“Yeah, we- what’s up, Luc?”
“You got anything else in the speech?”
Oh boy.
“No, um, let the festival begin!”
And once Mirach confirms its speech has ended, Lucem hands Will something yellow and the two begin to encase Mirach in it- it’s concrete powder.
So that’s why he wanted the bucket.
End watches nervously as Lucem pours water over its cage, hardening it, trapping it there on the podium.
“Mirach, I’ll cut to the chase. It really sucks for me to say this here in front of everyone, it’s kind of awkward.”
Oh god.
“I know what you’ve been up to- you’ve been conspiring! With the idiots, the tyrants, that we kicked out of this server, that we kicked out of this great country months ago. I don’t know if you know this, but treason isn’t exactly… isn’t exactly a respectable thing around here. You know what happens to traitors, Mirach? Nothing good.”
And he stares directly at vir.
“Hey- hey Loki, you wanna come up here for a second?”
Oh fuck.
“Come up the podium, Loki”, Will repeats.
“Let’s just send a message real quick.”
With no other choice, Loki uses their trident to get onto the podium, right in front of Mirach.
Lucem continues speaking, something about Mirach’s “crimes”, but all ve can think is oh god, oh fuck, oh this isn’t gonna end well.
Then he asks them to “take care of” end, and they try to delay by asking what exactly he means. Lucem goes along with it, but Mirach protests. Some more back and forth later, Lucem seems to get sick of it.
“I don’t want you to take it out to dinner, I want you to kill end right here and now, on this fucking stage!”
“...Ahh, now I get it.”
“And make it hurt!”
Aster points out that it’s a festival, Kookie begs for Loki not to do it. Lucem simply continues to yell. Will’s attempts to convince him to only imprison Mirach rather than execute it fail.
Loki slowly and nervously loads her crossbow with a firework rocket as Lucem and Mirach watch, one impatiently and the other anxiously. Ve points the crossbow at Mirach.
“Uh- I’m sorry, Mirach, I don’t-”
“Loki, what are you doing-”
“Loki, just fucking shoot end-”
“No, Loki, don’t-”
Finally, del cracks under the pressure, and xe fires the rocket right at Mirach, where it explodes with the colors of Licemfletchtoburg. It looks at him with wide eyes before ends badly burnt body disappears in a cloud of smoke.
archersandarrows went off with a bang due to a firework fired from [The Rocket Launcher] by Aureus
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the blast also hits Lucem and Will, knocking both of them out and off the podium.
The whole festival erupts into chaos as ve fires several more rockets into the crowd, causing everyone to run in every possible direction, and Maxi drops in right in front of Loki. He punches them a few times, though it does no real damage thanks to her netherite armor, and screams for Mirach before jumping down and attacking everyone else.
Loki takes this opportunity to flee, once again making good use of the Riptide enchantment on their trident. They hide in a nearby building to spy on the aftermath of the execution.
(In the distance, Victor searches for a button. He doesn’t find it.)
Maxi flees too, now, pursued by Will along with other citizens of Licemfletchtoburg. Victor doesn’t.
By now, everyone’s reconvened by the podium a third time. Kookie’s almost sobbing as Lucem yells at her for defending Mirach, Aster gleefully takes ends place by Lucem’s side.
Loki was content to sit and watch and nothing more, but then that absolute fool Victor B. Bingus had to come out and address Lucem in front of everyone.
“Hello, Luc. You actually murdered Mirach.”
His voice is soft, there’s a note of disbelief in his tone.
“I mean- you actually let it do that.”
Loki immediately jumps off their ledge and rushes out to stand next to him.
“Victor- I took you as a shitty leader, but I didn’t think you’d aid and abet Mirach in this two-faced…”
She does her best to shield him, but there’s people all around him, weapons out and pointed at the two of them. Ve’s not sure what cha’ll do if they start using them.
“...I’m pretty upset, Mirach was a pretty good friend, or so I thought, it put up all the decorations here, and, uh…”
Victor is, of course, wearing no armor, as usual, and they’re surrounded, and Loki’s a pretty good fighter but not against several fully armed people while protecting someone who’s not wearing any armor-
and Lucem’s finally done talking, and Victor responds.
“If you’re gonna kill anyone, kill me. Don’t kill anyone else here.”
VICTOR.
“Yeah, yeah, loverboy, I’ve had enough out of your mouth, I’m not gonna kill anybody else, I mean- do I look like a bad guy?”
“I mean. Kinda, yeah”, Loki interjects.
“Shut up, Loki. You had one job.”
“To be fair, I actually did that job.”
“You did do that job, but I was also, like, exploded-”
“Listen, it’s not my fault- the splash damage is really- you didn’t specify this in the contract!”
“Do you know how counterintuitive that is? I call you up on the stage to kill a traitor and I get knocked out?”
And of course Maxi interrupts right at that moment.
“Loki, what contract.”
“...It’s a verbal contract?”
“Loki, what are you doing?”
They sigh deeply.
“Trying to protect Vic, but he’s not making it easy!”
Victor, of course, has nothing to say to that. Lucem seems to have a lot to say, though, something about the festival and how Victor showed up and the execution. Loki’s not paying attention, though, they’re more focused on glaring at the armed people on either side of them.
(He thought Lucem was going to kill Kookie. He tells her to run. She does.)
Suddenly Lucem has a bow and arrows, and he’s aiming them right at Victor. The others attack, Victor pulls out a simple diamond sword, and Loki their potions, and it’s chaos once again.
Somehow, the two of them manage to escape with only a few cuts and scratches, and they, along with Maxi and Mirach, who seems to have respawned rather quickly, make their way back to Pogtopia.
A place Loki is no longer welcome in, judging from Maxi and Mirach and Victor’s laughter of disbelief and claims that she betrayed them. Xe tries to argue that there were armed people, cry was surrounded, any of them could’ve killed Mirach just as easily and Loki would’ve followed, but they don’t listen- Victor even starts raving to Maxi about how this means that everyone is against them, everyone only listens to whomever has the most power.
Victor’s still looking for a button- he wants to blow up Licemfletchtoburg?- when he comes across Kookie, and invites her to Pogtopia. She accepts. Maxi’s still yelling at Loki for the execution. It’s a mess.
Back in the ravine, Maxi confronts faer about it for possibly the sixth time in the past four hours. He’s getting a little sick of this.
“What’s wrong with you, Loki?!”, vae asks, “Why did you kill Mirach?”
They give the same answer as before.
“I was pressured and surrounded. Didn’t have much of a choice. I would’ve been killed.”
“You can literally fly!”
“Only when it’s raining, do you not know how Riptide works!?”
That seems to shut him up, but Mirach is now pointing a crossbow at eir. Wonderful.
And Victor leaves to pick up Kookie, who got lost- even better.
When he returns a few minutes later to Maxi still accusing Loki of various things, such as not being a real anarchist and having betrayed the revolution, he laughs maniacally, saying he forgives bon.
“Tell Maxi how much you hate Loki”, he whispers to Mirach.
(He wants them to fight, for his entertainment.)
Mirach does so halfheartedly, then with more conviction when Victor pushes end to.
Then he walks off, saying he’s going to make a combat pit. Meanwhile, Kookie briefly takes Maxi aside.
“It’s fine that you’re a traitor, don’t get me wrong. But why did you do it?”, he asks excitedly, digging out a corner of the ravine.
“I was under a lot of pressure”, is the response he gets.
Once Maxi and Kookie return, the rules are decided- no armor, no weapons. Victor tries to get Mirach to rile Maxi up, to no avail. End says it forgives Loki, using the same reasoning she did. Maxi insists they could’ve taken back the country. Mirach says otherwise, but agrees to have them fight in the pit. So they hop in, no armor, no weapons.
Maxi repeats the same old arguments he’s been using since the execution. Loki’s definitely really sick of it now.
Finally, vae throws the first punch. They fight, with Victor to the side riling Maxi up even more. It’s not a long fight- Loki easily knocks Maxi out with a well-placed punch to the face. This is, apparently, a satisfying conclusion for Victor, and everyone but him and Loki wander off to some other part of their base.
Which leaves Loki alone with the trenchcoat-wearing madman.
“Hey- when I blow up Lo’Bingbur, will you be ready to cause some extra destruction?”
“Oh, you have no idea”, she chuckles. “The other day I came across the materials for not one, but two withers- creatures of mass destruction the likes of which this server hasn’t seen before.”
She didn’t get to use them at the festival. But it seems she will get the chance to use them.
This information really gets him going- he starts rambling about destroying Lo’bingbur, about how all he wants is chaos and destruction, about how happy he is to be working with hymn.
And honestly? They’re happy to be working with him too. Chaos and destruction is what they came to this server for, after all.
“Loki, you killed Mirach in front of everyone!”
Gods, not Maxi again.
As xe makes eir way back to their own little base, he makes one last attempt at getting Maxi to shut the fuck up.
“We resolved that, in the pit. It stays in the pit.”
“It wasn’t in the pit, it was in front of everyone, you murdered Mirach because Lucem Ferto told you to-”
“You see, Maxi, you’re trying to use words. But the thing about this world is that the only universal language is violence. And we’ve had that conversation. We’ve spoken that language, in the pit. It’s over, Maxi. Onto a new day, a new plot to destroy Licemfletchtoburg.”
And they laugh, and Maxi mutters something in response, but they don’t care and they’re too far to hear it now.
Not long after, as Loki is putting away his remaining potions and sorting his inventory, Victor calls. He makes small talk, asks how they are, talks about chaos some more, and then Maxi joins in. And vae says something unexpected.
“You know what, Loki? You’re right. It stays in the pit. I forgive you for killing Mirach.”
He sounds genuine, as far as ne can tell.
“...Alright. Thank you.”
“Oh, that is the best thing I’ve heard all day”, Victor adds. “So- Maxi, does this mean you’re finally in favor of chaos? You’re gonna let us blow the whole place up?”
“No- no, that is not what I’m saying, I don’t want destruction-”
Someone else joins the call, or is added by Victor. Vys, Loki thinks her name is. She wants to betray Lucem. So does someone else, voi doesn’t know their name.
Victor and Maxi leave for a private conversation, and Loki is left alone with Vys and the other person, so they immediately attempt to convince both to join in on destruction so terrible no country can rise again.
The second person only wants to know if Loki advocates for the murder of cats. She does not, and tells them that. This seems to satisfy both of them, and they leave.
For the first time since before the festival, Loki is properly alone. He doesn’t think anyone will talk to them anytime soon. They all seem pretty occupied with their own things.
Which is just fine by hir- it gives them time to make sure they still have everything. They do.
It’s started to rain, so ve goes out for a little trip with her trident. She flies over Licemfletchtoburg- strangely empty- and is almost discovered by Lucem, Aster and Will, but manages to disappear in time, even getting in two shots with their fireworks crossbow.
...I should make a ton of crossbows and load them with fireworks. It’d be like an airstrike. I could kill so many people… bet Victor would love that.
For now, they simply relax- destruction comes later.