Mare Internum: An Exalted Quest

[Crumplepunch]

[x] Do you have any embarassing stories about Fincher?

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"Do you have any embarassing stories about Fincher?"

ROOSTER: "Oh, wow, yeah. Do you really want to hear that stuff?"

"I really want to hear that stuff, I really do."

ROOSTER: "Well, okay then! Let's see. When we were, uh, fifteen, sixteen? She tried to escape the Stair by climbing down the storm overflow drain, which leads straight to a wetland at the foot of the mountain. She made a big thing about it, planned everything out, wrote out maps, got supplies ready for going cross country at night, managed to get some scrip together to bribe a captain her dad used to know in Riven Quay. She was really going to try to go the whole six hundred miles on foot over the mountains and escape overseas."

"She got picked up on the road, right?"

ROOSTER: "Nah, that wouldn't be a very embarassing story, that happens to lots of us. What happened was, she said her goodbyes, and I thought I might have seen the last of her. Then late at night I heard a banging on the pipes."

"From her climbing down the drain?"

ROOSTER: "Well, if the plan had gone well, she should have been already on the road, and the banging was a secret sequence we kept to ourselves for danger. I got up to check it out. Luckily there wasn't anyone around. I'm not very stealthy."

STEALTH: I can confirm that Rooster is not very stealthy.

ROOSTER: "Anyway, it took me a while to figure out that the banging wasn't actually coming from the drain. See, it was dark when she set out, and a lot of the pipe entry panels are in the same maintenance room.

"So where was she?"

ROOSTER: "Sewage pipe."

"Oh, ew."

ROOSTER: "Yeah, well, the sewage pipe was actually a lot narrower than the storm overflow, but she still managed to get almost halfway down before getting herself properly stuck. If the pipes hadn't connected to the one that goes under our dorm, I might have never heard her banging at it."

"So how did she get out?"

ROOSTER: "Well, there was no way to pull her back up, and no way to get her further down, so in the end I just removed the entire section of pipe and took it out to the yard. Managed to split it in half with a pickaxe without hurting her. She was not happy. Like... imagine the most offended wet cat you ever seen, and it's also poisonous."

"Wait, you did all that without getting caught?"

ROOSTER: "Yeah, that's the worst thing. They don't really guard the Stair very well. Most of the security against escapees comes from having retired legion veterans running the farm villas in the valleys for hundreds of miles around."

A vision of a burning valley in the darkness flashes in your minds eye, and is gone.

ROOSTER: "So yeah, Fincher could probably just have used the actual stairs."

"What happened after that?"

ROOSTER: "Well, there was, you know, a lot of mess, as you can imagine. The busted pipe was still leaking and flooding the area. We managed to get cleaned up and back to our bunks before morning, but they still figured out it was us. Our fang spent the next month cleaning up the mess on punishment duty."

"Well, thanks, that definitely qualifies as an embarassing story."

ROOSTER: "No problem! Oh!" he suddenly looks horrified. "I shouldn't have told you any of that! She told me not to tell anyone."

"Don't worry about it, Rooster, I'll keep it to myself."

ROOSTER: "Oh, thanks! Anyway, did you need anything else?"

[ ] Why did you want to escape from the Stair? Isn't it a school?
[ ] When did I kick you in the face?
[ ] The Paleans need more arbalests.
[ ] You're a smith? Can you make something cool for me?
[ ] How did you get so big?
[ ] I need to get Dragonlord Mei to like me.

 

[Crumplepunch]

[X] How did you get so big?

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"How did you get so big?"

PHYSIQUE: Yes, listen well, this is the secret we have been waiting for!

ROOSTER: "I dunno."

PHYSIQUE: CURSES.

ROOSTER: "I mean, someone told me that there are people on the Cinder Isles that are big like me, but I've never met any. My parents might have been slaves from there. I grew up in Chanos, anyway. Adopted. Worked in a bakery. Pretty nice life, honestly, I can't complain."

"And then you Exalted?"

ROOSTER: "Oh, yeah, that was a surprise. Off to the Mirror I went. That's where I met Fincher. They tell you that you can be a legionary for ten years training and fifty years on campaign, or you can be a monk forever. And monks, they can never have a family or do anything other than being monks. What kind of choice is that?"

SAGACITY: The Obsidian Mirror is the institute to which young peasant outcastes are taken after they are rounded up. It gives them a year of baseline tutelage and then presents their imperial duty: the choice to join either the legion or the Immaculate Order. Failure to live up to either of these obligations, such as legionaries who desert or monks who become pregnant, is considered treason, and often punishable by death.

ROOSTER: "Anyway, I was always big, it's not a technique or anything. Well, I guess the muscle is. Just eat lots of rice and work with your hands, it'll do you good."

[ ] Do you know where Fincher came from?
[ ] Why did you want to escape from the Stair? Isn't it a school?
[ ] When did I kick you in the face?
[ ] The Paleans need more arbalests.
[ ] You're a smith? Can you make something cool for me?
[ ] I need to get Dragonlord Mei to like me.
[ ] I'll let you get back to work.

 

[Crumplepunch]

[X] The Paleans need more arbalests.

Click to shrink...

"The Paleans need more arbalests."

ROOSTER: "Oh, is that what she was saying?"

"Who?"

ROOSTER: "The Palean lady. She kept shaking a big bag of silver at me and saying bal-a-steer-ee at me very slowly as though I knew that that meant."

"You don't know Riverspeak?"

ROOSTER: "I know a little, but I've never heard that word. I'm not very good with languages, and this is my first time working with auxilliaries. We're all trying to adjust, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Rochar says she needs about a dozen to be battle ready."

ROOSTER: "Ah, a dozen? That's tough."

"You can't do it?"

ROOSTER: "I can do it, but the other legion smiths can't. These things are precision instruments, getting the weighting of the limb wrong or calibrating the winch poorly will kill the operator."

"Yeah, she mentioned something like that."

ROOSTER: "They need a lot of delicate forged, cast and carved components, I could make a hundred good swords in the time it would take me to make those dozen arbalests. They're effective, but there's a reason the regular legion doesn't use them. I can handle it though, my team have the regular weapons and armour in hand. But..."

"But?"

ROOSTER: "I need silk. I haven't seen any silkworm farms on the island, have you?"

"No."

NAVIGATE: Actually, come to think of it, we haven't seen any insects at all.

ROOSTER: "I don't know what to do then. Without good high-quality cord for the drawstring, they're just very expensive clubs."

"Maybe I can find someone else who can help."

ROOSTER: "Well, let me know, and I'll start working on them right away."

[ ] Do you know where Fincher came from?
[ ] Why did you want to escape from the Stair? Isn't it a school?
[ ] When did I kick you in the face?
[ ] You're a smith? Can you make something cool for me?
[ ] I need to get Dragonlord Mei to like me.
[ ] I'll let you get back to work.

 

[Crumplepunch]

[X] You're a smith? Can you make something cool for me?

Click to shrink...

"You're a smith? Can you make something cool for me?"

ROOSTER: "Oh, yes! That's perfect, I can pay you back for saving Fincher."

"I saved Fincher?"

ROOSTER: "She said you saved everyone by charging in to attack a cavalry column on your own, naked."

"Well, I wasn't naked, but it's interesting that she thought of me that way."

ROOSTER: "Well, anyway, I can make something for you, for sure. What do you need?"

[ ] What about some cool armour?
[ ] A fine sword would be good.
[ ] Can you make me a daiklave?
[ ] Could you make me a prosthetic finger?

 

[Crumplepunch]

[X] Could you make me a prosthetic finger?

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"Could you make me a prosthetic finger?"

ROOSTER: "A what?"

You hold up your hand.

"I could do with a replacement, if you can manage it."

ROOSTER: "Oh, yes! That's just the kind of thing I can do. I've been wanting to try out some- you know, I won't bore you with the details, but yes, I can do it. Let me take a look."

Rooster kneels down in front of you and extends his hands. Even kneeling, he's head and shoulders taller than you. He takes your hand in his. His hands are rough and warm, like those of a stone statue heated in the summer sun.

PHYSIQUE: This man will give amazing hugs.

He traces the contours of your maimed finger with his enormous thumb, itself wider around than your wrist. You get the sense that he is concentrating intensely.

ROOSTER: "Yes, I can see it. Give me a few hours, I can get you what you need. It's not going to be magical or anything, but I still think I can do you something special."

"Thanks, Rooster. Can I have my hand back now?"

ROOSTER: "Oh, yes!" He releases your hand. "Sorry."

[ ] Hey, can I get a hug?
[ ] Do you know where Fincher came from?
[ ] Why did you want to escape from the Stair? Isn't it a school?
[ ] When did I kick you in the face?
[ ] I need to get Dragonlord Mei to like me.
[ ] I'll let you get back to work.

 

[Crumplepunch]

[X] Why did you want to escape from the Stair? Isn't it a school?

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"Why did you want to escape from the Stair? Isn't it a school?"

ROOSTER: "Uh..." Rooster cocks his head to one side, giving you a considering look. "I assumed you'd been. Are you a Dynast?"

"I don't know. Fincher told you I was having memory problems, right?"

ROOSTER: "Oh, right. Well... Pasiap's Stair is a school, but it's also a prison fortress. It's a brutal place. They teach you how to fight, and how to be a good officer, but I think what they really want to teach you is how to be cruel."

"What do you mean?"

ROOSTER: "I'd never been in a fight before I got to the Stair. I've never been in a battle since I graduated. I've killed eighty-six people in my life, and they were all in that place."

"What do you mean? You killed other students?"

ROOSTER: "Oh, no, no. Students dying is pretty rare, and students killing each other is even rarer. No, I'm talking about the graduation battles. At the end of every year, we have mock-battles on the plains under the mountain between all the students and an army composed of... I don't know, they never told us. Prisoners, slaves. Desperate people. And we fight. A mock-battle, they call it."

"Every year?"

ROOSTER: "Oldest students are in charge, younger ones take the orders. I did this ten times. A couple of times some of them survived. I wanted to escape, but never worked up the nerve. Punishments are collective, I would have just gotten other people hurt."

"So when Fincher got caught..."

ROOSTER: "Our scale got punished, yeah. It was rough, but I didn't want her to stop trying. She hated it in there even more than I did. Some people just have to be free. She stopped trying after the third attempt, though."

"I'm sorry you went through all that."

ROOSTER: "Well, I'm on the flight's engineering talon now, so at least I get to make things. I'm good at that, makes me feel useful."

[ ] What do you think of Dynasts?
[ ] (Offer a hug)
[ ] Do you know where Fincher came from?
[ ] So when did I kick you in the face?
[ ] Can you help me get Dragonlord Mei to like me?
[ ] I'll let you get back to work.

 

[Crumplepunch]

[X] (Offer a hug)

Click to shrink...

You open your arms, offering a hug.

ROOSTER: "Uh..."

"Come on now."

ROOSTER: "Well, okay..."

He kneels again and opens his own arms. You approach and put your arms around his chest as best you can. There's obviously no way you can actually encircle him in your arms, so you end up sort of splaying your right arm over the magnitude of his chest while stretching your left arm over his flank.

He responds by placing his own arms delicately around you. The weight of them settles on your back, covering you from shoulder to waist, gently pressing you into his chest. It's like being surrounded by warm stone. He smells strongly of charcoal, but you decide this is probably because he was just working in the forge, and you are pressed into a soot-stained leather apron. You feel the slow beating of his heart, rhythmic and soothing.

ROOSTER: "This is nice."

"Yeah."

ROOSTER: "I don't get many hugs."

"I don't think I do either."

The hug continues. It is vast in its scope, limitless in its capaciousness. It could continue for hours. There would always be more hug.

MEI: "What the fuck is this."

Rooster releases you and stands so rapidly you almost fall from the sudden displacement of weight.

Dragonlord Mei stands behind him, looking furious.

ROOSTER: "Uh, dragonlord, I was just, uh-"

MEI: "Rooster, were you hugging the person I specifically told you not to interact with?"

ROOSTER: "Oh, is this her? I mean, I didn't-"

MEI: "Are you saying my description was inadequate?"

ROOSTER: "Well, I don't think she has a 'moron's face', exactly-"

MEI: "And you!" she turns to you, eye smoldering. "I told you to stay out of the legion's way, and you're pulling my chief engineer off the job to give him a hug!"

You shrug. "He needed a hug."

She looks back to Rooster, scowling.

INTEGRITY: She wants to argue with you, but she can't deny it.

ROOSTER: "Dragonlord, please, she was delivering a message from the Palean captain about a requisition. She was helping."

She spares a moment to glare at you directly before looking back to him.

MEI: "Fine. Whatever. I'm here to tell you that our original marching orders are fucked by the intelligence Fincher brought in. We're going to have to wait on repairs of the ship, so you have more time." she glances back at you. "Just don't waste it."

He bows his head.

ROOSTER: "Alright dragonlord. Repairs on the armour are almost done. I'll get back to work on the arms."

He opens the workshop door and hurries inside.

ROOSTER: "Nice meeting you!" he calls before slamming it shut from within.

You look back to Mei, who is still standing with her arms folded, glaring at you.

"He seems nice."

MEI: "What the fuck are you playing at?"

[ ] I was just doing a good deed.
[ ] I am sowing the seeds of sedition.
[ ] I'm doing what I want.
[ ] Do I really have a moron's face?
[ ] So we're going to Ashglass by boat?
[ ] Is there anything I can help with?

 

[Crumplepunch]

[X] Is there anything I can help with?

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"Is there anything I can help with?"

The question seems to take her by surprise.

MEI: "What?"

"I mean, you're under-strength, you've only got so many Dragon-Bloods, there must be something I can do to help out."

MEI: "No, fuck this, you don't get to walk around acting like everything's fine."

"Well, I can tell not everything's fine, I just don't know what isn't fine."

MEI: "I want to know what you are doing here, right now."

"Yeah, me too. I was hoping you knew, actually."

MEI: "You're really going with this amnesia thing, huh?"

"It's not a thing! I can't remember anything!"

INTEGRITY: VERY DIFFICULT

CHECK PASSED

INTEGRITY: You can see the anger burning away, unable to sustain itself. Underneath it is something uglier, more raw. Hurt. Confusion. Humiliation.

MEI: "You know, it's best for you that I don't believe that, because if I really thought you forgot what you did, I'd kill you just for that."

[ ] Logris says you're trying to get me to start a fight.
[ ] I really just want to help. Tell me what to do.
[ ] (Offer a hug)
[ ] I'm sorry. I'll stay out of your way.

 

[Crumplepunch]

[X] (Offer a hug)

Click to shrink...

You open your arms, offering a hug.

MEI: "What the fuck."

"Come on now."

She stands frozen, staring at you. Then she blurs into motion.

ATHLETICS: LEGENDARY

CHECK FAILED

A bow-wave of furnace heat hits you like a slap across your body an instant before her hand strikes your throat. Her fingers feel like hot metal digging into your larynx. She doesn't stop moving, bowling over your whole body and slamming you shoulders-first into the wet ground. Your hands close around her wrist, trying to pry loose her grip, but it's like trying to shift a pillar of iron.

Her eye burns. It is not a metaphor. It shines with the incandescent light at the blinding heart of flame. You feel steam wisp around you as the puddle you are lying in starts to boil.

MEI: "You think this is a game. You think this is fucking funny?"

"I didn't... I-"

MEI: "We could have done anything." she hisses. "Anything. And this is where we end up."

The burning eye is vivid in your memory. You see it through time, on the face of a scared, resentful girl, a smiling young woman, an enemy. You feel it searing the hole that still aches in your chest. You see with absolute clarity that it will kill you. Your every instinct screams that you are a heartbeat from death.

LOGRIS: "Dragonlord!"

Mei blinks, and the killing heat abates.

LOGRIS: "Dragonlord, I must insist that you release the magistrate immediately."

MEI: "Or what?"

LOGRIS: "Are you going to kill me too?"

Mei stares down at you.

MEI: "No."

She releases you and stands, slowly. She looks tired, spent.

MEI: "I believe you. You must have forgotten." she looks up to the looming tower of the manse. "I'll be up there before dawn for the beacon, looking for survivors. If you want to know what I know, meet me there. Bring a weapon."

LOGRIS: "Dragonlord, I must object. An illegal duel, at... at a time when-"

Mei's glance silences her. The dragonlord walks off, deep in thought, without looking back.

You remain lying in the puddle. Logris comes into your view, more flustered looking than she seemed previously.

LOGRIS: "Dragons. Do you know, I half-thought she was going to say 'yes' and kill me then and there."

[ ] Thanks for the help. I guess we're even.
[ ] I don't think she's like that.
[ ] Were you following me?

 

[Crumplepunch]

[X] I don't think she's like that.

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"I don't think she's like that."

LOGRIS: "What do you mean?"

"I just... don't think she'd hurt anyone else. Just a feeling."

LOGRIS: "Oh, well I am very glad that your feelings give you such a keen understanding of her character now. We have ascertained that her temper lies somewhere between 'really dislikes hugs' and 'willing to murder everyone', well done."

LOGRIS' FACE: You are an idiot.

"Your face is so harsh."

LOGRIS: "Do you have a concussion? Come on now, get up." she offers her hand.

[ ] Take the hand.
[ ] Ignore it and stand on your own.
[ ] Ignore it and just lie there.