I’ve had a good run with Visage. Hanging with my idols! Buying hot rch! Thousands of adoring fans spamming chat with emotes! I got to play Magic with nto, got to et the Twilight Sisters, got to chow down with Kira and Sweet. It’s been fun. In a perfect world, I’ll get to keep doing what I’ve been doing for days and weeks and maybe even months.
Or they’ll fire from the company right before Radiance blasts off the tower. That’s also a possibility, given what I’m about to do.
I text Ferromancer the signal and get confirmation that she’ll be watching. Good. Now, once I start the stream, nobody at Visage will be able to take it down. I text my friends next, telling them not to bother moderating this stream. In fact, they should stay out of chat entirely.
Stream open. The screen says it’s starting soon, with a cute chibi Archon designed by Visage’s artists. I throw up links on all the social dia accounts I have access to, then start the countdown. Ten, nine, eight…
…two, one, zero. We’re live.
“So,” I start with a grin, “who here likes to get a little dangerous? Welco to the late show, gals and gars. It’s your favorite bitch, Archon, and tonight I’m uncensored and undicated. I know it’s not the usual ti and no real warning, but I have to say, it warms my heart to see so many of you showing up regardless. More of you pouring in, love to see those lovely faces. Welco, welco. Season’s greetings, everyone. What is it, third week of January? Fourth? I don’t keep track.”
I do. It’s the first week of February. First Friday of January was the aquarium date. Second Friday was the arcade. For the third, a nature walk. The fourth was Magic and a movie in the apartnt. The fifth and final Friday of the month, my most recent date with Sophia, was another relaxing night at ho with shows and snacks. She fell asleep again. This week, we’re going out for dinner at a nice burger place to talk about manga while we stuff our faces.
“Ah, lots of familiar nas here at this ungodly hour. Gim your greetings. Get rowdy in chat. I know a lot of you lurkers like to stay hidden, but hey, just for , co on out and say hi. It’s dark outside, at least where I am, so let’s huddle by the neon glow together. Tell you’re watching. Let know you want to be heard.”
MsKittycore: Bonus Archon stream, oh wow! ArchonHeart VisageClap ArchonHeart
thedrowsybird113: heyy. night owl here. weird hours. tired, but it’s nice to catch a stream live for once
LisaRenard: Caught just at the end of the day! What’s the special occasion that has you in such a novel mood?
Saphy115: yay, peopel! i have no idea what the stream is about but im so excited!
Deerlibeloved: when will you play Outer Wilds
Selacanis: longti lurker here, hi
Linnea: are you on drugs or sothing? wait, no, you said you’re off drugs. you should take your drugs before you say sothing stupid. well, stupider.
MsKittycore: Lisa! Saphy! Everyone! ArchonHeart ArchonHeart
Saphy115: hey, dont be rude @Linnea
Linnea: bite bitch
Ukronia_Verdelei: what was that about being uncensored? are mods asleep? why wasn tthis stream on the schedule?
I chuckle at so of the usual suspects. “Hi Sapphy, Kittycore. No, Deerli, I’m not going to play that ga. Fuck you, too, Linnea. Lisa, Drowsy, glad you could make it. I see more nas I recognize running by. It’s good to see you all, even the assholes. This is… well, you could call it spur of the mont. Don’t tell the bosses, but I really wanted to talk to you guys without Manager-chan peeking over my shoulder. For the mont, for as long as I have you, it’s just us. You get the unfiltered Archon, and I think I can trust my chat to be unfiltered at all tis.”
I’m not really lying about it being spur of the mont. It’s been nearly two weeks since I resolved to change the ga and start pushing harder for my plot against Venus, but I only ca up with this idea a few nights ago, after one of my regular streaming slots. I’ve been wracking my brains for how, exactly, I can make my next move, and I didn’t want rush off to try the first idea I thought of. This one felt like it had legs. I ssaged Ferro, practiced in my head, and here I am.
“I want to talk about the things I usually talk around, if you catch my aning. There’s a lot on that list, of course. I know shipping is on a lot of your minds, all the ti. Normally, I wouldn’t say it out loud that I think Kira Kira and Sweet Tooth are so adorable together they simply have to be dating, and I wouldn’t admit that I browse the subreddits looking for ship art of and Agatha. I definitely wouldn’t tell you that I read all the fanfiction, for all the girls and all the pairings.” I grin. “But, I do. Yeah, even the really filthy stuff. You freaks are creative.”
I’m exaggerating a little. Before I had a real job—well, streaming, so not really, but close enough—I could almost keep up with the endless tide of fanworks, but definitely not now. I keep a finger on the pulse of the community, though, so I know what’s being written and drawn.
LisaRenard: aokpsrhegfopasikhefp oh no she knows
Ukronia_Verdelei: archon untad!!! hide the tags!!! run for your lives!!
UltimateHiDtora: KIRASWEET! ITS TRUE YOU CONFIRD IT ITS REAL
Mister_Spark: okay but have you read the HARD stuff? there’s coterie x visage stuff that goes crazy, so many wonderfully evil won…
Aballa03: ohmygosh i write so much yuri. did you read my coffesshop agatha fic??? the enemies to lovers hurt/comfort 30k atrocity i dumped last month??
themothcourt: i have so many ships i can abrely keep track, do you ship the big trio? im such a polyvisage shipper
UltimateHiDtora: is archatha real?????????? tell us you have to tell us tell us tell us
Saphy115: @Aballa03 omg share your ao3! Wait. is that why your na is like that??
RabbidEnbnuy: ive uhhhhh read so really spicy maenad smut. and glamour.
LisaRenard: oh god she’s seen the archon smut. so of it is. oh my. oh MY. far, far too spicy for , goodness gracious
Ukronia_Verdelei: yeah but did she like it tho
LittleBombEnthusiast: i like mako art. theres this one artist who draws really good fish and dolphins in the background MakoHeart
Okay, yeah, this was worth it no matter what. “Yes, Sparky, I have. Lilith art is particularly choice, and I may or may not have a folder of it on my phone. No, UHD, I’m not confirming shit. Aballa, I adore your atrocity, I have it bookmarked. The scene with the burn scars? Not how our regeneration works, but magnifique all the sa.”
I giggle at the frenzy in chat. This is a delight. Just saying it all out loud? Liberating. The goblin in wants to keep going for hours. Oh, what a stream I could make if not for that pesky age rating.
“And, yes, I’ve seen what you draw of . My tits are not that huge, for the record, and I’ll have you know I’m quite happy at this size. As for the more, ah, creative uses of my powers, well… keep at it, pervs. You’re not far off.” I cackle, knowing this will incite a whole new wave of completely deranged fanart. “Anyway, I’ll stop before the site admins catch wind and gim a slap on the wrist for talking about NORMAL ADULT INTERESTS. God forbid we acknowledge people look at porn, yeah?”
My gripes with the platform aside, it’s not completely forbidden for a strear like to talk about “spicy” art. Most Visage strears have a social dia tag for the NSFW drawings, though for most it’s more quarantine than signal boosting. The expectation is for that kind of thing to be an open secret. Everything has to be invitation and abjuration, the endless tease.
“So, changing the subject… I have a confession, gals and gars. God, I have got to stop saying that before it sticks. Okay, right, on topic. So for the past month, I’ve been getting into a new hobby, and it’s kind of weird, kind of cringe, but it’s really sucked in. Do any of you like to read about conspiracy theories?”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
I pause for effect, and so chat can get the first wave of reactions out of their system.
“I’m not talking, like, moon landing stuff, to be clear. Or 9/11 conspiracies, or Flat Earth, or any of the old-fashioned garbage. Most of those are just racism painted up with a thin veneer of occultism or pseudoscience, and they’re usually not even that creative. No, when I say ‘conspiracy theories,’ I an theories about magic. About magical girls. About the planet that disappeared and the cats that ca to our world. About what happened to Texas. I an, we all know the basic story, right? Moons of Jupiter, big war, and one side ruined it for both, so now they keep their hands tied. Then they ca here, and started giving out superpowers. If you thought us witches got told anything different, well, sorry to disappoint. But I hear a lot, skimming the web. What do you all hear?”
This is the gamble. Visage is going to be furious with . Striga is going to be furious with . And the Jovians…
crowsdanger: what if the jovians are actually birds not cats that would be cool
Ukronia_Verdelei: idk abot conspiracies but can we go back to talking about girls
RyuuBlank: okay listne im only telling you this because you asked okay but this is big this is the biggest if they find out youre dead im dead were all dead because theyre in control they control the governnt ythey control the dia they control everything man its everything its all of it and it started in the ice age when the martians and the neptunians were feuding over control of their outpost colony and the greys aka the ANDRONEDANS had to flee and now the jovians are just the next stage in an inte
GhostHunter283: it’s so obvious i cant believe no one’s talking about it, am i the only one who realizes the jovians must be ghosts? think about it, why have people stopped making ghost shows? why has ghost investigation dried up? it’s because it’s being suppressed to hide the truth! ghosts are real! TAKE THAT MOM
MorriMaple: hi long ti listener first ti caller do you think it like, feels good when phage bites soone and turns them into a thrall? sorry that was random. i think magical girls are like, a mass hallucination caused by spores, but if they’re real then they’re probably vampires and they’re just different vampires, like different clans, but they dont know because theyre being suppressed by the technocracy’s mind controllers
N1dalfr: what the fuck is going on? this is getting weird, im out
Anneka_Wright: i unfollowed kira kira because shes literally a walking bomb, like, she could go black hole supernova at any monts, how is she allowed to be alive??? she’s going to turn into a calamity any day now. they dont want you to know this but there was footage from texas and cataclysms happen when a witch gets exposed to too much radiation
RyuuBlank: rgalactic war that goes back im talking millions of years because this planet is where the black obelisks are hidden deep beneath the earth, the bones of the giants, its what the illuminati and the freemasons were trying to find but they were just pawns for the martians and theyve been completely outmanuevered by the JOVIANS but thats not even the half of it because the syndicate and vanguard are working for a jovian coalition trafficking them bodies for human experintation in exchange for the
Aliased: wait @MorriMaple how would they be vampires like what would make them vampires if only one of them drinks blood and they can all go out in daylight and like. eat garlic and stuff?
thedrowsybird113: idk about vanguard but i could totally buy syndicate doing human trafficking shit
DeyzeriaHerself: i think its all one big play, like a planetary theater performance for the benefit of so higher cosmic powers watching from the stars
MorriMaple: well its like how vampires can go outside in twilight right they just sparkle theyre really beautiful and what are all magical girls? beautiful. maybe they like. drink blood in private and we just dont know about it. celebrities drink blood, right?
RyuuBlank: secrets of SATANIC SEX MAGIC that theyve been using to infiltrate the secret world governnt and take over from the inside through their dark sex rituals and the whole arican public is at risk because its in the advertising its in our tv shows its in the news and were next youre next unless we stop them
Piscine_Creed: whoah that’s crazy
MagentaMorningstar: here’s the REAL tea, visage is in the pocket of big oil and has been from the very fucking start. follow the money. do you know how much rch they sell that uses PLASTIC? it’s basically all of it, and it’s caused this massive knock-on boom for competitors in other industries, so now everyone is producing way more plastic figurines and plastic poster than ever and do you know why? because big oil paid visage to do it. JOIN COTERIE NOW
Aliased: i dont know if celebrities do drink blood. maybe a couple. i feel like sooine would have noticed though if magical girls were going around drinking blood. like, at the very least itd get reported to the police in case it was a sign of phage moving in
Saphy115: hey i know everyone is getting really excited but maybe we should keep things more chill? this enviro is starting to feel a little uncomfy ngl
dreamsofdeh: i bet the jovians corner girls that are dying to offer them contracts. like, find a girl hit by a car and make her agree to be their slave to fight their forever war in exchange for getting to walk again
MorriMaple: okay @Aliased true but maybe phage has all the like police commissioners thralled and she’ll be coming for next phage if youre reading this you can dm and ill give you my address hi im your biggest fan
LisaRenard: I’m not really one for conspiratorial thinking, buuuuut if we’re going to talk about it… does anyone else feel like the big conflict between magical girls and witches just doesn’t feel like it matters? I an, I know it’s not kosher to talk about on a Visage stream, but how is magical wrestling supposed to advance so ancient factional war? And if that’s not real, what about Vanguard vs Coterie? What are the “solars” and “sidereals” gaining from any of this? It just doesn’t make sense.
Ukronia_Verdelei: shit, that one actually sounds kinda reasonable
DeyzeriaHerself: its like actors in a play, the swords are dull and the bloods all squibs
RyuuBlank: i have a podcast btw
They gave everything I need. Most of it’s nonsense, of course, but the actual content doesn’t matter; what matters is that people are going to start talking about this. And for a bunch of entities utterly dependent on controlling the narrative, that’s a problem.
I make a fuss of having to close the stream early because I got a text from managent—which is true—and direct people to the Discord server that grew out of one of the forums I used to frequent before I beca a witch. The ones who really care will find like minds.
When I leave my closet office and step out into the rest of my apartnt, Pandora is waiting. I lean against the railing by my bed, looking down on the purple cat sitting in the middle of my living room. Its tail flicks erratically.
“Enjoy the show?” I ask with a grin.
“No,” it says curtly. Still business-like, still practically emotionless, but just a little more clipped than usual.
I laugh. “Got your attention, didn’t it? Hey, Pandora, while I got you here: what do you think of Venus?”
The cat tilts its head. “The planet, the myth, or the Sailor Guardian?”
“The egregore.”
There’s a pause. “I’m not sure I understand your aning, Ms. Emily. I know your comnt on stream was a joke, but I’m beginning to worry you really do need dication.”
“Probably,” I muse, “but we’re about far too late on that. Let ask you a different question, then, and see if it gets better results.” I raise one hand lazily, holding it out to the side, and bring green fire to my fingertips. “Hey, Pandora, while I got you here: how would you like to be free of Minerva’s rules? Free to act for the first ti since the triumvirate bound you. Yeah, I know just how restrictive your ‘empower and guide’ really is. I know that right now, you can’t stop anyone you’ve empowered from doing a damn thing, because taking away those powers would be breaking those stupid, stupid rules that Minerva forced on you.”
The cat’s tail stills. “What do you think you know, Ms. Emily?”
“Call Archon,” I order the spawn of Jupiter. “Or better yet, call the new Venus. I’ve seen the other side, cat. I’ve seen the rising goddess of love, beauty, and the adoration of the masses. She made an offer. She wanted to be her champion, like she claims the Catastrophes are Jupiter’s.” I grip the railing tighter and put venom in my voice for this next part. “Like Strix Striga belongs to Minerva. She told that, and suddenly it all made sense. The reason she’s busier than even a magical girl has any right to be—the reason she never has ti for , because she’s always running errands for that harlot goddess who claid my Sophie. Well, I’m not having it.”
Pandora doesn’t move. Doesn’t blink. Watches . “I’m listening.”
I chuckle. “Of course you are. Let make one thing clear, cat: I’m done playing the cheap, disposable minion. This is so much bigger than just distracting Striga. I don’t care about that anymore, and I don’t think you do, either. You want Minerva out of the picture, and Venus, and Mars, so your master can break free. Okay. I’m in. I’ll break your chains so you can break Jupiter’s, starting with Venus. Help usurp Venus, and I’ll give you Jupiter.”
A long silence. Pandora’s probably conferring with its counterparts across the world. Eventually, slowly, it asks, “Why? Surely Venus told you what Jupiter—”
“Don’t care,” I interrupt. “I don’t care about anything, cat, except Sophia Lane. And I will burn the whole fucking world to make her mine. So here’s the deal: you can have your god, but I get the rest. Venus, Mars, Minerva, all to . And when I have all that power, I’ll make a space of my own, sowhere far away from the rest of you, where I can keep Sophie safe and happy in her Rachel’s care for all eternity.”
One cat ear twitches. “Perhaps we should return to a previous point in the conversation. You stated you could break us from Minerva’s rules. How would you do this, Archon?”
I roll the green fire up and down my arm. “With this. You gave all the clues. My power, it isn’t just making monsters, making weapons. I can transform anything. I can transform you into sothing that isn’t bound by ‘empower and guide.’ Of course, there’s a kind of insurance in that; the mont you fail to earn your keep, I can take the power back. You’ll lose your freedom the second you plot against . But I think that’s a fair price to pay. Don’t you?”
This is who I am. This is what I am. Archon, the Prothean, puts monsters on leashes to steal fire from the gods and save her beloved. That’s the story I’ll carve into the World of Glass. That’s the myth I’ll make.
“Let’s talk terms,” the Jovian says, and I know I’ve won.
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