Chapter 43 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 43 — Odette hosts; 'It's coming'

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 42 — The warlord council; Princess Vinata · Next: Chapter 44 — The Beautiful Place; Blood Hunter · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

We all looked at one another, waiting for something else to happen.

Summary

Odette appears out of costume — a floating wheelchair, a yellow shirt, hair in a bun — fresh from onboarding into the Ascendency as Nekhebit, to replace 'punched in the face' Chaco, sponsored by Ultima Corporation's apocalyptic savings event; nothing rattles her, not even the Scolopendra warning, which she frames for the audience: the final boss should not wake before the eighteenth floor, but this season anything is on the table. Cascadia sprays tequila from a softball-sized ball through her rebreather and laughs in Odette's face when asked how she feels with her home system in civil war. Vinata whispers to Carl alone: Cascadia's former husband and most of her family are dead — the rebels hired the Valtay against the Bloom, and a derelict warship hit the liquid habitation ring around Borant three, millions dead, not yet public — and how will Carl react 'when you learn your entire family is dead as well?' 'My family is already dead.' 'That's not the family of which I speak.' They are expecting his move, perhaps now; they will all die; will he go catatonic like Cascadia; when he must choose between Donut and Katia, 'Simply nod, and we will take care of your Katia problem for you'; a place in her father's court; 'We, too, are survivors.' His fist tightens. Donut on the Operatics: one of their own tanks — 'probably built by the Skull Empire'. Tagg to Stalwart: the Dream has deactivated all Skull-made hardware in its fleet, his reserves are gone, civil war is coming; Odette's eye twitches at it. Donut proposes a Stalwart-and-Tagg scene for the Carl and Maestro sex tape, to Oasis. Carl demands to know how everyone still gets outside news; Odette explains: the galactic news media centre is a tier-three upgrade every off-world team bought, its live feeds now blocked but its directory still live, and every team owns a channel and pays 30,000 credits per renaming to talk — Sensation Updates renamed seven times in an hour, currently 'Yes. We have Deactivated the Infected Hardware.' The AI 'loves a good loophole' and will close it only by action item; Juice Box stops Ferdinand from spending one of Retribution's two — 'And so do they' — and Carl spends the Posse's. Cascadia, head on the table: food menus, the Scolopendra Club's activity schedule, trainer lockers, massage NPCs — anything programmed from orbit carries messages. 'The AI indicates it is irritated that you think it doesn't know how to do its own job.' Carl worries about Katia on Odette's floor. Juice Box, asked for a statement: 'Fuck all of you […] For what purpose other than your own amusement?' — and changes into a midnight-black armless thing with electric tentacles and hundreds of root-like legs that makes Odette gasp, Cascadia shriek, Ferdinand flee to Carl's shoulder and Houston stand up shaking with excitement. In a demon's voice: 'It's coming […] It is coming for you all.' The inevitable ruin, Carl thinks. She walks through the wall. 'That chick is intense.'

Characters

• Odette — Out of costume, playing Nekhebit, unshakeable, with an angle.
• Princess Vinata — Whispers of Borant's dead and an offer to solve 'your Katia problem'.
• Juice Box — 'Fuck all of you'; the shape that empties a room; 'It is coming for you all.'
• Cascadia — Tequila balls; her family dead in a habitat ring; menus as messages.
• Carl — Spends an action item; his fist tightens; 'My family is already dead.'
• Princess Donut — Cable; Princess TV; a sex-tape suggestion.
• Epitome Tagg — Skull hardware deactivated; 'you coward'.
• Architect Houston — Stands, shaking, at the sight of her.

Locations

• The production facility — A table nobody can leave.

Motifs

• The show — Channel names as a telegraph at 30,000 a change; a directory as a leak.
• The Crown of the Sepsis Whore — 'When you are forced to choose between Donut and Katia' — the Sultana knows.
• Borant — Civil war at home; a habitation ring struck; Cascadia crumbling.
• The Nothing — A shape that may be its personification, worn by a changeling.
• The Celestial Ascendency — Odette onboarded as Nekhebit; Katia bound for the same floor.