The Mayor sat in the mothership, sighing and sipping his cocktail gingerly as he stared out the window. He puffed his cigar at a leisurely pace, not at all concerned with the turmoil taking place down below. He was, indeed, content to watch and see how it all played out.
A chattering sound of clacking shells arrested his attention for a moment. With a sigh, the mayor lackadaisically reached into the pocket of his thick, wool cardigan and produced his portable sending conch.
"Hello?"
The Mayor's face made no expression - after all, it wasn't much of a face at all as much as it was a face-shaped structure to mimic some semblance of normalcy to taumans. Why did everything always have to be catered around taumans, the Mayor had often wondered. Gharlique never got such special treatment as taumans did. Regardless, his face made no expression - however, deep in the inner workings of his mechanical bodice there was a slight click, click, clicking reverberating throughout as he listened intently to the dark voice on the other end of the line. This was, for Gharlique, very much the equivalent of furrowing his brow.
"Yes, yes, well, a number of certain..." the Mayor paused and glanced out the window to observe G'athoong blasting a torrent of water out of her gullet, "...events have taken place this afternoon that require further analysis, of that I can say with the utmost clarity. All that said, there is much that I still need to learn before I draw any wide conclusions so far as to the existence as well as efficacy of this so called New Curr currently sweeping Gifflenberg."
The Mayor click, click, clicked again as he listened to the voice's response.
"Well, frankly, it's such a wasteland there right now that it feels beyond the point of no return in a way," said the Mayor with a sigh. He leisurely puffed his cigar. "I mean, it's heartbreaking, it really is. Believe you me, I hate to know that I, the first respected Gharlique Mayor in all of Nomachiato, a trailblazer, a, an icon, have found myself in a predicament wherein I can't rightly set foot in my own great city. But surely, you must understand that if the rumors are indeed true and New Curr is resistant to the cure, well then, I risk turning into a shell of my shell of my former self, if you catch me."
The Mayor sighed and took a long swig from a flask out of his jacket pocket. Then, he stashed the flask away and nodded, listening to the voice on the sending conch as he grasped his martini glass and took a cool sip.
"Yes, yes, of course I know that it isn't of much concern to you and your plan. Sorry, our plan. Yes, of course our plan is still well underway. As you know, you undoubtedly have my full support, or I'm not the Mayor! I just would've hoped things could've worked out a little better for Gifflenberg is all. That meteor crash really took everything down a few pegs."
The Mayor glanced out the window as he listened over the conch. He saw Kahli kick her big rock away from the giant robot, which caused it of course to arc around and slam the robot in the side of the head. From what he could make out with his system, which was not the most robust and yet was always dependable, she'd managed to land a crit.
"Yes, yes, of course. Collateral damage. Inconsequential, in the grand scheme of things, indeed. That being said... I want to be sure we haven't left any loose ends. Sure, I think the Order is well convinced, but I don't think that everything is properly sorted."
The Mayor jumped as the voice on the line yelled at him in fury.
"Now, please, understand where I'm coming from!" pleaded the Mayor. "We're on the same side here, truly we are. I just want everyone to have a full grasp of what it is that is important here, and that is that the hatches are properly battened down. That is to say, what I'm really seeking at this time is just to be sure that there is absolutely no way that anything could be traced to... well, traced to us and what we're doing here."
The voice got even angrier. Once again, the Mayor stopped sipping his martini in order to produce a flask from his jacket pocket and chug it heartily. He glanced down to see Taubitha trying - and failing - to land attack after attack on Kahli, who had opted to put a disgusting, writhing mass of tentacles all over her face that was inexplicably parrying Taubitha's every attack. Finished, he tossed the flask asunder and sighed into the conch.
"Look, I don't think you're fully grasping what I'm saying here. I know, and you know, that at the end of the day none of it will matter. World dominion will be, as we've duly planned, established and your hegemony shall reign supreme over Nomachiato, and then soon after over all of the cosmos indeed. Believe me, I've heard the lecture, and I even agree with it. I really do think you've got that cat in the sack, as it were. That being said, my concern is one wholly different than that. The last thing I would ever want you to think is that there was ever a single shred of doubt within my soul on this. Once again - no, no, no, I do not doubt your ability to establish what we've been working so hard towards, and indeed I never will. That being said, what I am concerned over is that there are certain people moving about in the wider Nomachiato, some of them I may know of, some of them I may not, who I know with certainty would indeed oppose your superior reign. Not out of prudence or correctness, mind you, but instead just due to plain old hubris. My concern here is that there is always the possibility that said hubris could carry such a soul forward to a point wherein they act out against your best wishes and intentions, or that is to say your worst wishes and intentions. With that, I simply want to posit that we do a bit of base covering henceforth and work towards a time in which we can duly neutralize and such behavior so as to prevent it from taking root and preventing that which we both have worked so very hard to bring forth indeed."
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The Mayor took a long, deep drag of his cigar as he listened to the voice's response and watched the scene at the window continue to evolve. It seemed that, finally, everyone in the clearing had stopped trying to hurt one another and was instead focused solely upon an ensuing attack directed by a large troop of Flungunglian archers. They were indeed firing torrents of arrows at Kahli, the dragon, Taubitha, and everyone else associated, and this resulted in a bit of a smattering of dodges and poorly placed attacks that seemed to do little but expend peoples' energy and add stress to the situation. Indeed, the water dragon seemed to have prevented many a foe from attacking Kahli by submerging them in water, but these powerful foes could only be relented for so long before they were back up and causing trouble. And trouble it was that was being had down there, that is to say that it looked like a large number of the Flungunglian troupe was going to end up dead. Did Kahli even care? The Mayor wondered this as he only half paid attention to what the voice was jabbering to him with vigor. She probably didn't care, he realized. She just wanted to stay alive. Was she even aware that so many of her previously submerged enemies were now instead fighting unintentionally on her own behalf? Probably not. After all, she'd splattered that writhing monster all over her face. She almost looked like descriptions of the vile insurgent that had disgraced the war mage back in Gifflenberg, it occurred to the Mayor.
And then, he spat out some of his martini. Was Kahli the insurgent from Gifflenberg? If so, it made her a criminal. And that, the Mayor realized, was an advantageous thing. Because if she was a criminal, and if Taubitha indeed failed to kill her for the Order - which seemed indeed more likely than not at this point - then having the backing of the law, however nebulous, was incredibly attractive to the Mayor.
Suddenly, he snapped out of it. The voice on the sending conch was silent. They were waiting for his response!
"Of course, you know, it would be advantageous to do things such as, well... Such as use what I have at my disposal as an instrument of the Establishment in order to, say, ensure your success in your goals. That is to say, possibly the way to kill two tamavens with one electrocution [skill] may very well be to use law to our advantage. There are indeed already a number of troublesome taumans that I have been somewhat concerned of vis a vis the carrying out of your plot, and I believe I could throw the proverbial book at them and indeed prevent them from taking any sort of retaliative action against you as your plans continue to ripen. Furthermore, we could use this very same principle to make sure that our bases are covered. After all, it would be mighty messy if everyone found out what was going on with... well, with those special structures you've had built, wouldn't it? We don't want lay taumans understanding what a Tesserator is. We don't what them to even realize that someone knows and has intent behind the presently chaotic goings on. It all seems disconnected, and I want to keep it that way. Indeed, it would be even better if you were to assume your rightful place without most people understanding how far this all goes, or what you've done to ascend to said heights. Really, it should all be things that happen in the background - with many people partially if not wholly unaware of your reach and impact until such a point in time that they have no choice but to stop ignoring your imminence. That being said... it is ultimately up to you." The Mayor puff his stogie and sighed.
The voice hesitated for a moment, and then it responded. And its response made the Mayor respond with his familiar click, click, clicking.
"Don't get me wrong," started the Mayor, "I'm thrilled you agree with me. Only problem now is that I don't know rightly how in the hell I'm going to rope everyone else in, or what line of bullshit I'm going to tell them, in order to pull the wool over their eyes. But don't worry - I'll figure it out."
The voice sounded pleased, very pleased. And soon enough, they started to cackle maniacally. The Mayor laughed softly, but he was unable to partake in such similar theatrics.
The Mayor looked out the window again, and this time it brought a brighter glow than normal to his eyes. With excitement, he addressed the voice through his conch. "By the gods. It looks like one of the Flungunglians hit Kahli in the neck. Now isn't that an unexpected turn of events? Theseosus herself might be on our side, after all. Heh heh."