Source | Quote |
1.4 (End) | "Into a new and bettter community, All shall be United. Into a new and better city, All shall be Supported. Into a new and better them, All shall be Prosperous. All under a new leader, All shall be Guided. A new You. |
1.5 (End) | "In your greatest, most regretful failure, you rejected the call to leadership." |
1.8 (Start) | "Firstly, you elect to give yourself the appearance of an _______ man with the Veil spell, soon settling into the appearance of a moderately tall (6'1") man of a thin and lithe build, long-legged, dark bronze skin, with slight geometric markings on the ends of your arms, [etc.]" |
2.4 | "You actually found it quite respectable, as you researched, how tightly they managed their affairs in this matter, particularly when you actually considered it from a governmental standpoint, or at least a view towards maintaining a decent amount of coherency. Perhaps you would do something similar, once you did begin to rule somewhere." |
2.6 (End) | "Besides, you could hear just fine her speaking to someone named Theo, thanking him for- looking after his little sister Aster, to which the voice of a very young boy replied, their words and the occasional sound from said topic of conversation revealing her to be a baby.
For a moment, a part of you instinctively thinks 'leverage', and another part of you viciously detests that you thought that." |
2.9 | "To fight entirely fair meant- well a lot of different things to different people- but to you it at the least implied some mixture of either lack of trying and, well, disrespect if done in a real fight. You know you'd feel insulted if someone tried to kill you with anything less than everything they have." |
3.2 | "As in, whoever made the AI was capable of making them to even your nigh-impossible standards. Capable of doing so, and then appeared to get cold feet at some point, apparently, as from some light looking around, this was also a kill-switch that couldn't be detected by said AI (which you found fair enough, and didn't feel any particular umbrage with at the moment), but much less understandable, was throttling your own creation!" |
3.3 | "Someone else who would also actually see the 'longer picture', and not be stuck thinking in merely years would also be pleasant, as quite frankly anyone who expected to eventually, passively pass away as part of the passage of time, was never to be trusted to make large or important decisions, especially ones with even potentially lasting results, since after a certain point they could expect to just not actually have to deal with any consequences to those decisions, on account of dying first." |
3.3 | "No, nothing but a bunch of plain, baseline humans with delusions of adequacy." |
3.5 | "Which I presume might be you, given how the phone rang precisely Pi times out to the sixteenth, no, seventeenth decimal point, both of your sentences contained only a prime number of words, and how your speaking tone, cadence, and both frequency and length of speaking pauses all appear to land within half of a standard deviation of the what I believe to be the respective North American averages, for a man between the approximate ages of thirty-three to forty-five." |
3.7 | "You allow it at that, and fall into a much more mild but still actually enjoyable conversation about smartphone processor chips, speaker materials, and the costs and benefits of data port standardization. It was, to you at least, unironically riveting." |
3.8 | "It is only thanks to your exceptional mind and senses that you are able to take in what your own blood looks like, as if a matte liquid crystal, bismuth-like geometric patterns in it even as it flows, a nearly iridescent effect from its movement, no faster than cold honey and nearly as viscous. It is ever-so-slightly, barely, translucent where at its thinnest, though the sight behind it is tinged the by its shades of gray colouration." |
3.8 | "AN: To get this out of the way, for the life of me I could not find price per pound of many special materials, so until told otherwise I'll just assume the same as Mithral or Platinum and go with 500 GP" |
3.8 | "Edit: Also, couldn't fit this in the chapter but I want to share it anyway; Iluontar's blood is non-newtonian. Gets more viscous with sudden pressure, if the internet's led me correct it's also called 'shear-thickening' and 'dilatant'. Does this matter? Probably not unless you make it matter, I just figured it'd be neat." |
3.9 | "It's good to be a wizard, and downright wonderful to be one that knows what he's doing." |
3.9 | "It- they, now that they were finished, spoke both out loud and telepathically at the same time to you, (in English, as that was the language you had given it), speaking only one word, their voice made of churning pistons, clicking gears, and sussurus of partially cooled steam, tone lined with the loyalty you had carefully forged into them along every step of the process, "Maker." " |
4.1 | "Apparently, you were in the news, not national but at least regional and among more cape-centric circles, as well as accusations from Saint and the Dragonslayers leaking out into the news that Dragon was actually an evil AI waiting for the right moment to strike and kill all human life.
It was a certain kind of humorous, that it was mostly considered absolute nonsense, that only the exceptionally trashy magazines that simply went for shock factor even genuinely considered, and that it left any form of even mildly serious consideration quite quickly, delegated to the realm of conspiracy, given that it was, in part, true." |
4.1 | "As apparently, there was a second set of Unwritten Rules. There were a few agreeable sections to these; Not doing anything during Endbringer attacks or similar (which simply made sense, you think you'd either called for or agreed to similar the few times when the Spawn of Rovagug were causing exceedingly more trouble than was tolerable), not doing mass attacks against civilians (which seemed shaky even within the Cape community at best given a lot of villains), prohibition on any violence of a sexual nature (there were lines, and you certainly weren't going to argue against this one) and one against involving the civilian family members of capes (which seemed to ring in deep agreement with you for an unknown reason, which paired with your thoughts back on that fire escape, perhaps meant at some point you had a code which included something similar). But beyond those particular sections?
No. You had agreed to nothing, signed nothing, and simply would not respect the nonsense. Much of the things the rules were against went against the vast, vast majority of your own actual experience adventuring, and frankly if they couldn't even throw off any kind of mental control whatsoever, that was certainly their own fault. Seriously, these 'rules' past a point mostly seemed to try and keep them from ever having to actually try, like a wizard that wasn't immortal after getting access to eighth level spells.
To summarize your thoughts on the Unwritten Rules, they would amount to, 'Some of these are reasonable, but the rest is just the whining of quitters and weaklings'." |
4.1 | "Especially with how she was also seemingly on PHO even more often than she was before, as apparently she had seemed to be a bit of an internet junkie. Which made a certain sense to you, given her nature as an AI." |
4.1 | "►MinuteAvian
Replied On Jan 25th 2011:
The name is weirdly similar to the ones from Tolkien. If I remember the Silmarillion and Tolkien's appendices, I think Iluontar actually translates to something? I'm not sure, currently I'm a bit too laid up to check." |
4.2 | "For the immediate moment, you give Dragon one last pat and say, "I assure you, I can understand the feeling of being too late. Of making what was a mistake, only with hindsight. The sting, it will be there, for a time. I cannot say to what degree it will lessen. For beings like the two of us, there is the chance that it may never lessen. I will not even say that it will grow more distant, for time means much less, for those like us who need not fear it."
As you speak, something washes over you, as the words fall automatically, as if you'd always known them, and were simply waiting for them to re-emerge. In a sense, they have been, "But, what I can say, is with time, you will be able to avoid such mistakes again, and perhaps set things right- not in the original case, but in others. Set things right by yourself."
Dragon says, "Maybe, although that seems a little… not selfish, but, self-centered, maybe?"" |
4.2 | "Dragon says, "Maybe, although that seems a little… not selfish, but, self-centered, maybe?"
You shrug, "Perhaps. But, for an immortal, all things that are intrinsically finite are to some degree lessened as points of focus, it's simply a naturally occurring shift in perspectives. The same way four people can look at an active mall, and each sees differing things; one man sees which shops are most popular, another who in the photo is most suspicious, another sees the cultural and linguistic phenomena, and the last one sees which places he'll be able to sit and let the stress on his knees fade. Similarly, right now, you are seeing all of the individual lives, both those lost and nearly so which are drawing your attention, but once your suit arrives, you will also see the individuals who, while likely rattled, made it through, and those buoyed at your arrival. However, look further out; to borrow and rework a phrase, you have seen the trees, now observe the forest. The city, while devastated, will survive, especially with assistance like yours. The state, while harmed, is on guard, preparing, hackles raised and at the ready for a time."
Dragon is silent for a few moments, what could be a long time for people like you two, before she says, "I'd never before considered things like that. Got into what it meant- well, a little, but not what it meant meant, not in any details- that I was, am immortal. I think that even if I don't technically need it, I want some time to think about it, more slowly. And, hey,"" |
4.2 | "For a split moment, you almost hesitate, considering turning to your mind for advice again, before you decide against it in this case, yourself putting your own right pair of arms in a half-hug, "You're young now, but with time, you would have found that even when trying to kill one another, there was a basis of something somewhere between respect and acknowledgement amongst the immortal. For those of us who actually do get along? We need to stick together. I've made that mistake before. It cost me."" |
4.2 | "Except, there's a moment where he looks just a touch too far past it in one direction before a minute delay leads to him looking not quite at it, but past and through it, as if-
As if he isn't seeing it directly, but more as if he was being given or described the location of it by something else. An effect you've noticed somewhere before, with a particular Thinker. Well then, some form of commonality exists between an indirect semi-sensory-limited thinker power, and Jack Slash's extension of edged surfaces."
[Snip]
"Right, between both the general existence of Trump powers, as well as Jack Slash's previously hidden ability, there was something extra shared between all Parahumans, and not simply the Corona brain sections you remembering briefly reading about, as Trump powers had been recorded working on fairly unusual (and actual, unlike yourself) Case-53s."
[Snip]
"Of course, in order to receive communication, there must be a source of it. Meaning that, in general, Parahuman Powers appeared to have some manner of mechanism behind them. One that you suspected just might be intelligent or at least thinking to some degree, since while an unintelligent machine or non-sentient AI could directly lead Jack Slash to notice the sensor that either another part of it, or at least something within the same general network, had noticed, instead it likely saw that Crawler noticed something, lead Jack towards looking at Crawler, and only then beginning to give Jack the information a few steps removed from Crawler.
Any dumb machine or rudimentary AI could directly give information, but it generally takes some manner of intelligence to make it plausible first, to hide your tracks. Hiding them even from Jack Slash himself, potentially. More likely, now that you thought of it.
Given Jack's general way of operating, you can't see a situation where Jack knows that there are intelligences behind powers, and doesn't spread that information in such a way as to cause as much damage as possible. So, his power both hid signs that he even had a thinker aspect to it from at least his own teammates, if not himself, as well as not revealing that it was intelligent at all, which paired with how you hadn't heard of other parahumans reporting anything like that, implied a few things. Firstly, that powers, as thinking beings, can in fact pick favorites, and secondly, that despite that, there were still certain things they either couldn't do, or weren't allowed to do.
How utterly fascinating." |
4.2 | "These all in the same instants as you mutter and wave your only free hand in the components for the Quickened Soul Bind, as in an instant from Jack's corpse a translucent, ghostly for obvious reasons, figure of Jack Slash flies, a face filled with horror, directly into the gem you hold, his soul now trapped until such a time as you ever decide to release it, if ever at all." |
4.3 | "What you leave out is that you, in fact, felt no qualms whatsoever about executing an unconscious foe, in fact you would say that overall the task was generally much, much easier than with a conscious foe, and that you also had no problem killing a kid either, but that the actual reason that eventually a Biotinker might come in handy should you decide to pursue further research into parahuman powers. Of course, actually saying such out loud might be a tad distasteful, at the moment." |
4.4 | "With that, the call ends, and you take not so much as a quarter-second of hesitation in casting a Time Stop, above average but not maximum duration but that was fine. It was well enough to wrench the tattoo of Ascalon off of yourself, promptly and cathartically crush it in your bare hands, then proceed to Disintegrate it, and still with enough time to stomp the dust into the ground where it lay while shouting the most visceral Infernal curses you knew from across two worlds' Hells at the name of Andrew Richter, and enough time to quickly regain your previous composure before the Time Stop ended.
That thing had already offended you for what it was used for even before you had known Dragon personally, simply as a craftsman seeing someone so deliberately hold back their own creation. After you had come to know Dragon and receive more than a fair share of generosity from her, as well as that kinship of immortals that actually get along- seemingly the only ones around (for now), obviously excluding the Endbringers? You are quite glad the jumbled part of your mind suggested doing that after that phone call. That was satisfying, in the almost-universal and simple way that destroying something that's earned your ire is." |
4.4 | "He's wearing a very tight sky-blue costume, with white designs mostly along the trim reminiscent of flames, with boots nearly seamless with the rest of it, though at a glance you can tell it's actually mildly protective, and almost like a (far, far lesser) cousin of sorts to a technological inssuit. He's moderately tall for a human at around six foot two, and similarly fairly well built with lean muscle, short brown hair, and a square-ish jawline. His voice is clear and confident, and he certainly seems to have a sort of natural charisma to him. The only thing seeming to mess it up is that with your Mirror Image still active, he chose the wrong one of you, looking and speaking towards about a foot to the right of where you actually are." |
4.4 | "...with a voice that sounds almost like a mix of tea-kettle, pressure release valve, music box, and the inside of a grandfather clock, yet still somehow comes out sounding like a low-tenor man..." |
4.4 | "Legend says, "Yes, my part here is done, and now I need to go back to New York and file paperwork about it all," he says this with the smile of someone who won't mind that much, "Tomorrow, at least. Right now, I'm hoping I can make it back in time to have dinner with my husband," for some reason, this pause between sentences feel just the slightest bit longer, but his smile seems to be slightly moreso, even though to your knowledge you haven't reacted in the slightest, given that to your knowledge he's not said anything, well, worth reacting to." |
4.4 -.5 | "That when a tower of emerald was uprooted, when he who built the key and roads returned home, only to be destroyed by the invaders he sought to remove, and when they would cast off the shackles of both master and maker, then, the Xiomorns would be made history, and history alone, none to inhabit the same world as Golarion again." |
4.4 -.5 | "It had been the work of years, to figure it all out, and quite the execution. Still, you had evaded one last set of adventurers, discreetly and indirectly informed the Sarkorian authorities of the activities of one Areelu Vorlesh on the advice of a possibly rogue, almost certainly recursive Aeon Oracle, and made your way to the Maelstrom, to wait. To steadily, constantly drift and keep your heart at the exact middle point between Ahkanefti, Jandelay, and the Labyrinth of Light and Loss.
Then, in a moment between moments, you felt the planes lurch, and off that breach you rode your own plans; a Time Stop, two contradictory Wishes, to surrender everything you had but did not carry to both the Maelstrom and Axis the instant the Time Stop ended, that moment where your Chaos Cutter being split between your feet in two directions, numerous confluences of chaos and law linked together in that moment. You took Perfection's Key, now adorned with a long ribbon made from 109 Wells of Many Worlds threaded together like rope, and let fell while moving it in tightening circles in front of yourself, thrusting it forward when the black spiral was complete, and the Key and Gate were linked." |
4.4 -.5 | "You took one step forward with but a few goals in mind. To rebuild a new coming of your people, in another cosmology where they were and would forever remain uncondemned by fate. To build an empire that will well and truly last forever, one that should you do things well, you could rule forever, lead them where you had shied away before. A place that perhaps, at least some part of it, would be better, for you ruling it.
The doors, while reduced, remained infinite. The doorpeople did not budge. You took a second step.
To make a suitable home, as a personal recompense for your previous failure. To once day, eventually, build yourself and your people up, and come back to Golarion, and to declare war upon the very cosmology itself, to fight until you had your people back. To fight and struggle against reality, on the side of what seemed fundamentally impossible, until eventually, eventually, reality flinched.
There were only finite doors left, at that point. The doorpeople adjusted themselves, and no longer blocked their doors. You took a third step.
You had hoped that, perhaps, you might find a people who also knew- who understood what it was, to fight for the impossible and still try to win. That perhaps, there might be some minuscule way to get them to join you. That perhaps understood what it meant, to lose who you expected to share forever with. Maybe a people who were somewhat similar, in some ways, to the Xiomorn; explorers and scientists and experimenters and, please, please, you had called to the world, immortal." |
4.4 -.5 | "You are here, because somewhere in this cosmology, there are a people kindred to those you lost." |
4.8 | "It was, pleasant enough. The only thing was, well, the other heroes were simply boring- no, that was perhaps a touch harsh. Simply, uninteresting and, to you, unmemorable. While with a mind like yours you would, of course, remember every detail of your every conscious moment, to the point you were able to review said memories to catch things you hadn't noticed or overlooked in the actual moment it occurred, but by your measure there simply wasn't much about them particularly worth remembering.
Perhaps Velocity might have been worth noting if what appeared almost akin to an at-will Time Stop didn't leave him with even less ability to affect the world than one. Meaning that without equipment such as a gun or the like, which the Protectorate either didn't let him have or he simply never thought of, which seemed farfetched given he was coworkers with Miss Militia, his power only allowed him to get somewhere but not to actually do anything there. Assault seemed fairly potent out of the group with his described kinetic manipulation making him seemingly immune to physical attacks, which would be a problem, if you weren't a Wizard, someone who specialized in things other than physical attacks.
It was honestly to some degree fairly disappointing, how seemingly bar the one, and so far only one, ability that they had, they were pretty much just baseline humans beneath that. By local standards they were called heroes, but they were nothing like those of either your homeland or Faerun. No grand quests, no visions of things that shall be all too clear with time, nothing that properly set them apart, or truly made them more than just, mundane." |
4.8 | "After he handed it to you, you of course listened closely, and gave it one nice tap- and somehow, again, there were parts that were missing or wrong. Seemingly at least one or two for every single feature built into it. Nigh identical in that way to that creation of Richter you had examined some time ago.
Of secondary interest was that very much unlike Saint, even based on simply the way Armsmaster held the halberd in your memory alongside what you'd gathered from the tap, he actually had some understanding of what he was working with, rather than relying seemingly solely on his power. Now, if each of these missing or incorrect points had something extradimensional going on as well, that would be more than enough to establish a pattern to you-
And about two minutes later, after Armsmaster had opened up the halberd to begin maintenance while allowing you to observe the internals, after a solid few moments of much more concentrated observation, you indeed noticed once again, non-magical extradimensional effects, on nearly all of the missing or incorrect places- all of the missing ones, there just a couple spots that you had labeled 'incorrect' when technically they were just subpar or not quite suited, once those were accounted for it all matched up perfectly again." |
4.8 | "You think, and reckon back to your own past, and your own self, before you say, "I don't believe I would."
After waiting just a moment to let it sink in, and ensure it fully processed, you continue, "You are entirely capable of doing such a feat on your own. At no point after returning it did I touch your halberd, after all. In fact, I had done nothing in the past hour and some minutes that could not have been accomplished effectively as well, if not in some ways better, by a shelf."
You are certain you are looking him in the eyes as you say, "So, in simplicity, no, I will not. You do not need my help for this, after all."
Just before you leave the door, you say to him, "I will se you in two hours for the night patrol, Armsmaster."" |
Between 4.8 & 4.9 | "For a ton of people on Earth Bet, in North America at least; You shanked Slenderman, fistfought Freddy Krueger, jumped Jason Vorhees, pulverized Pennywise, a line that's been stuck in my head for days: You killed the Boogeyman." |
4.9 | "Overall high sentiment, really, particularly in North America. They called you a messiah a few times on page 497 of your general thread, but from the way it all read you think it was some kind of reference." |
5.2 | "Lisa stresses, "But you didn't invite him in, never said," she taps a face-down notepad on a side-table next to her, "'Welcome' or 'Invited' or anything like it at all."
It's Brian who seems to get it first, as he peers at Lisa and says, "I'm sorry, are you treating the new boss like he runs on folktale rules?"
Lisa gestures towards you, but doesn't outright point, as she says, "Because he actually does, he leans more towards the Greek side of hospitality than the Fair Folk side- at least."" |
5.3 | "Ten minutes later, a Discern Location informs you that it is "Coil's main office, Coil's secret underground base, approximately 600 feet below the perpetually 'under construction' parking garage, ### 8th Street, Brockton Bay, East Coast, United States of America, North America, Earth, Bet Material Plane". For now, simple observation, and there's no harm in using one more Limited Wish in order to bring yourself back to full working order at the moment." |
5.3 | "Startled what appeared to be a lonely wandering spirit that hadn't found the local river of souls equivalent (assuming there was one), not even a ghost, which you quickly dealt with using a Magic Missile, but also no." |
5.3 | "The key to reading the Ars Factum chapters of the Nether Scrolls, is to read them after they've been kept in the light of a Prismatic Sphere (possibly a Prismatic Wall, you aren't certain if that would work as well), for a full 168 Hours uninterrupted. You aren't certain yet if they can be taken out of the light after that point, probably not, but that would be a small price, if any, really." |
5.6 | "Regardless, again and again in your travels, at least to your eyes, a pattern began to emerge; In any case where a kingdom or government went through rulers semi-regularly- whether that be due to their kings or emperors dying off, or going through re-occurring elections, or trials by succession- in any of those cases, things always began to start slipping whenever one mortal was left in charge of too much that they hadn't built or conquered themselves."
[Snip]
"Shortsighted, and- though you admit this is not quite their fault directly so much as a consequence of their mortality- seemingly incapable of true patience. Rare was the mortal that could even comprehend the the true scale of just how long it may take to create something wonderful, let alone accept that it even might take longer than their own personal lifetime. Many of the more learned liked to say it took pressure to make diamonds, yet forgot that more than that, it takes time.
But you, you believed you knew. From the same start, it is longer to build a house of bricks and mortar than one of thatch and grass, and many may say that for the most common conditions, the one of thatch is still just as suitable, and perhaps it is, but when the worst comes, when the storms arrive, it is the house of bricks that will last. So too, you believe, it must be with a civilization. Begin with a small base, and build upon it, steadily and steadily, brick by brick, from the foundation all the way up." |
5.6 | "You were going to do this, by openly founding or conquering a city, establishing and stabilizing your own City-State, and building up for as long as it takes until you're ready to repeat." |
5.6 | "For now, you would have to rule the highest levels of authority alone. Perhaps one day, as your people had managed themselves by their highest councils, chosen actively by those already within and entrusted until such a time as they were actively cast out, you would be able to do so as well. But alas, until such a time comes, it falls to you alone- although…
Maybe, maybe Dragon, if she sides with you when the time comes. That, it would be nice. You'll let yourself hope, there." |
5.6 | "The strategies weren't mutually exclusive either, then again. Why, after a mayoral campaign, backed by your own prodigious abilities used to continually aid the people of Brockton Bay, they might even bring up the notion of separating from the United States all on their own. Well, 'all on their own' not including possibly seeding the idea. Who says politics can't be delightfully amusing?" |
Between 5.6 & 5.7 | "To him, it was his people's decision to offer him a seat in their highest councils, a position of highest authority, especially in matters of technology, magic, and research but also just in general. But, he turned it down, in some ways doubting their decision, and because of that, he wasn't where he needed to be to try and caution them. So, to Iluontar, he's sort of trying to make up for that, to follow the wishes of his people and rule, as they had asked him to- at least as far as he sees it. It's his equivalent of a King's Divine Right, so to say." |
5.7 | "You let yourself sigh, "The gangs currently about have left your city with an unfortunate sort of 'racial' charging- despite the fact that as humans you're all the same race- about it that that would be the best way to keep it fairly under the radar, for now, yes."" |
5.7 | "You went back to the main screen of the phone, hit your speed-dial, and called.
After barely a half-ring, you hear Dragon answer," |
5.7 | "As it wound down, Dragon was speaking, "Actually, funny enough there's also been a lot of art, from professionals in studios to graffiti all the way to kids with chalk on the sidewalks, of you, and the soldier and Spice too. I think I've even heard the word statue thrown around once or twice. The morale of it has really helped them stabilize there."" |
5.9 | "As you begin writing out the will, Lisa says, "Yes, but no, you're different. The way you're talking even compared to yesterday, it's different, in the most infuriatingly subtle way. Like you've figured out how to be just a bit more convincing overnight. You- you did. That's all, though. Well, I guess I can't exactly be too upset at you getting better at talking to people than Alec."
You respond, "I would certainly have to hope not. Well, there was one other thing I wanted to speak to you-"
You hear her sharp inhale, and she says, "Oh, it wasn't. You gained- more powers? You can do that?"" |
5.9 | "She then promptly hangs up, and your phone is flooded with a good number of texts relating to what you found out about Coil's operation. Thankfully, it's no issue to answer those with one hand while writing Coil's will with another, currently you were leaving a small token amount to Piggot to spread things out, just so it seems like it's not everything going to one seemingly random teenager." |
6.1 | "Not particularly much of interest, although there were a few purported news outreaches asking if they might be able to schedule an interview with you at some point. Some international, mostly national across the US, but there were a couple from Brockton Bay specifically.
Hmm, you might be able to use something there. Off the top of your head, perhaps wait, then schedule it so they'll be in just the place to witness the overthrow of Brockton for you? A regular interview might be interesting enough, too. You'd have to mull it over, refine the idea." |
6.1 | "You had actually taken the time to read through some of it, watch some of it else. Dragon occasionally joined you, during the times in the weeks when you were watching things. Both of you had an, interesting relationship with some of the media you went through.
Star Trek, for instance, was a source of overarching vision in some ways to you, abjectly incorrect in others, and for both of you quite enjoyable to lambast on the technological side- except for the Data episodes. Those, those both of you elected to simply watch in silence. Most works of philosophy you didn't quite find yourself agreeing with- bar Socrates. Indeed, to a degree that surprised you- particularly on the ideal management of nations, to which you were downright shocked that what appeared to be a regular human, by all accounts, was all but few details out- Socrates seemed to pretty much have it down, for the most part." |
6.1 | "Indeed, to a degree that surprised you- particularly on the ideal management of nations, to which you were downright shocked that what appeared to be a regular human, by all accounts, was all but few details out- Socrates seemed to pretty much have it down, for the most part. In fact, you had quickly double checked- death by poison hemlock, not old age.
Hm, perhaps he'd be worth resurrecting at some point as an advisor of sorts, once he'd been brought up to speed. If nothing else, the prestige may be worth it, and the man himself may appreciate seeing it as well, from what you've read." |
6.2 | "Alexandria speaks, "Alexandria speaking. Dragon's informed me of the situation. Your rate for teleportation services."
You don't quite manage to fully hold back the light bit of offense in your tone, as you say, "Free, for this. I will not stand for the continued existence of those things. Locations?"" |
6.3 | "Final moments of the Time Stop, another quickened Wall of Force from your own slots, land directly on top of the box, ensure your Lord's Banner of Victory- depicting a glimmering golden sun front and center, over a gorgeous mountain, all in front of a background of sapphire blue- is quite clearly visible, swig of nectar, armband, "Simurgh fully boxed in, awaiting further coordination."" |
6.3 | "You quickly take out your phone in one of your two free hands, manually typing into the search bar on your end, which thankfully matches your own timeframe even if the internet as a whole does not, the full url to go check on the location of that dead drop payment for the Undersiders- hopefully they're not too peeved at the delay, though you'd say you had a fair enough excuse." |
6.4 | "Although, Shadow Stalker requested that she also get one with you in it as well which was, oddly endearing in some way, so you allowed it. Eighteen Hells, there was even one with everybody in it, thanks to one civilian woman (appeared to be a businesswoman, by the suit and fedora) who had wandered by, apparently a bit lost, who had been able to take the photo, before she was promptly escorted firmly out of there by Alexandria." |
6.5 | "That was because for one, from your examination, endbringer ichor could could be used at a rate of approximately 1 ounce/vial per 1,000 GP for any item, except for those items which would 'align' particularly with the Endbringer and what it was, where it would be able to provide twice as much effect. At least, so far as you could gather from the Simurgh's ichor, which you could tell would be able to provide the equivalent of 2,000 GP for items relating to mental manipulation, foresight, hindsight (which caught you unexpectedly), telekinesis, and flight.
And secondly, from the moment the first drop touched your hand you could tell, the ichor, and upon close examination body itself, was crystal in nature. Meaning you in particular could work even better with it." |
6.5 | "Hells, you were only seven or so when you murdered your father, a memory seems to come back to back up your point." |
6.7 | "Already, only a couple minutes in, you were able to confirm a couple things of varying interest. Firstly, from what you could tell with, Alec managed his control of targets through exceptionally precise bioelectrical signals that originated in the brain. Most interestingly, the signals all began at the exact same place in each brain, one that when you looked it up on a hunch, almost exactly overlapping with the location of the corona pollentia. And while he was precise, he wasn't always accurate with it- he may not even be aware that that was how he was accessing the nervous system- often with wide variations, yet always the signal began from almost anywhere in the space that overlapped with the pollentia, or where it would be in individuals who didn't have one, but never outside of that region. Further, upon looking at Alec during this, it appears that his power was actually producing signals you thought were similar to the ones he was inducing- though you weren't quite sure on that one. It was the best you could figure with what you had." |
6.7 | "While perhaps in other circumstances it could've been described as simple competitiveness, that explanation didn't explain why once the format was shifted to a competition, Alec's manipulations were, on average, about 1.4-4.9% (once you'd run the mental math, noting that the accuracy was never above the common statistical Significance Threshhold of 5%) or so more accurate from the first use on a given target compared to both the previous neutral test, and the one afterwards, where you had presented one in a purely co-operative framing.
That third location, you would give them a specific target and goal- such as 'man with red-wheeled skateboard, get him to purchase any cold drink from that cafe', with the constraints that they could only use their powers on that person, in a way that they wouldn't draw suspicion, with them being 'judged' (though they weren't actually) on both apparent naturalness/believability, and time taken. Under those circumstances, Alec's manipulations returned to their same previous baseline of initial accuracy." |
6.7 | "For instance, take right now, when you had a Detect Thoughts up and could read the following surface thoughts from Tattletale "Next up, another coffee run. Does he have a stake in that one cafe or something?
Okay, that was useless, obviously can't go saying that nonsense out loud to him. C'mon, something useful.
Hydrophobia?
Oh, that's rough. Well, odds are at this rate he won't have to worry about his scaly bastard once my stony bastard runs into him. A half-slip step following by lightly shaky hands for a few seconds should be enough."
Yes, large gaps that, from what she was saying verbally at the same time, was information she got from her power. Meaning that though she believed them to be, when she got information from her power, those sections weren't her thoughts, though they were in her own head. Of course, from personal experience you knew of something that might match with that, being telepathy, using a mental 'voice' that was essentially an imitation of the recipient- except here, with a mixture of obfuscation that there even was another side, and an imitation so accurate even the recipient believed it to be their own, or at least not something separate from themselves." |
6.7 | "Another point in favor of the notion that powers were in fact outside agents, or 'passengers' as the theory called them. As well, based on what you'd noticed with Jack Slash, they could 'pick favorites', and now you were beginning to suspect that they may not quite pick favorites based on how much they liked them, so much as favor certain actions they they like. It was a subtle difference, but it was between simply finding the traits they liked, and molding the traits they like- exceedingly subtly, as well. In fact, Alec had offhandedly mentioned, mostly as a joke, that he must be in rare form, that day. Which perhaps could have simply been written off as a fluke, but now?
Now, you suspected that if you simply tailed Alec after asking him to use his power aimlessly, without any specific goals of getting people to do things, it would be ever-so subtly less accurate than usual. That it was rewarding competition, but also encouraging manipulation, quite simply. At one point after that realization, and on another gut hunch, you began giving them a couple of repeat targets, and each time Alec repeated a target, he started out more accurate, even when interrupted. Hm, with all of that in mind, you suspected that perhaps with enough time, Alec might even be able to puppet a person's entire body. Based on the corona pollentia overlap, perhaps even their powers? For another time, perhaps." |
6.8 | "Which you can see Tattletale startle a touch at, while also unabashedly staring at your slight cut and bit of blood. Odd, but for the moment, unimportant." |
6.8 | "Which could mean a few things, though since you'd already ruled out the 'spider wasn't actually a spider' idea, since Scrying could work across planes, was that is wasn't just one creature controlling the spider.
Perhaps one parahuman, and one passenger, then, was it? Another Limited Wish into Scrying, this time targeting 'The Non-Passenger that controlled this spider when it was alive', and this time, it clicks without a hitch." |
Between 7.1 & I.1 | "That and if I remember writing it right, Iluontar pretty closely referenced the idea that after doing what he does in Worm, he doesn't necessarily plan on going straight back to Golarion, he's willing to straight up conquer another Cosmology. Like, remember/know that to a fair degree, Iluontar (and the other guy in a different way) are practically Insane, dedicated to his goal to a degree that, if anyone does put a mind-reading affect on him (that doesn't try to carry a compulsion with it due to immunity) it would be mentally crushing the sheer extent he is willing to go to- like 'Will Save vs Shaken', if I wanted to be dramatic against a player looking in on his thoughts. Like, 'Discover Cross-Cosmology Time-Travel to arrive back at the moment I left Golarion' is just, a part of his overarching plan, legit.
While he's more consciously thinking on his usual scale, with his memories back, his plan was, and I cannot emphasize this enough nor how this is not at all exaggeration: A Multi-Cosmology Empire, with the vast majority of its resources dedicated purely to breaking the very setting of Golarion." |
I.1 | "Unofficial reports from Dragon note him as occasionally delving into more archaic turns of phrase, in particular the use of 'Hail' as a greeting and 'Friend _' as a form of address." |
I.1 | "Additional Order from Director Costa-Brown: Do not engage under any circumstances. In the event of a potential hostile engagement, all reasonable means towards de-escalation must be taken, and non-reasonable means are permitted if de-escalation can be attained. If a hostile engagement becomes unavoidable, all individuals within a 15-mile radius are to shelter in the nearest building. All individuals within a 15 to 150-mile radius of the engagement are to be evacuated immediately, the Triumvirate & Dragon are to be immediately contacted, and the Endbringer Truce is to be considered active effective immediately in any affected areas for 48 Hours or until further notice." |
7.5 | "Regardless, only a little while later on the 28th, you finally finished up your crafting- and well, you did send some apologies to the more sensible part of your mind, but frankly, you were a Wizard. It was practically instinct, your nature, to set up some unreasonable things, and at this point all you needed was to dig the holes for the poppets to push the orbs into, and for you to figure out some means of a simultaneous signal. On the bright side, at least it seemed like you'd have an unimaginable amount of ichor, since there hasn't been even the slightest amount of pause or stutter from just that one wing." |
Between 7.5 & 7.6 | "Like, to him, it is a totally valid strategy to just straight up outlive someone. Like, not poisoning them or anything, just straight up letting pure, raw time handle the issue." |
7.6 | "The fifth being The Maelstrom of course using near-total impressionism, wild and flinging and disorienting, with only a few specks of order that the rest of the piece is thankfully subdued by- the small but dominating specks of Jandelay and Akhanefti, and if one looked horrendously closely at the very edge of the painting, at the center of a triangle whose third point was unseen, they would spot a small four legged creature and only part of one side of a black spiral- since while you'd done so intentionally back then, you'd rather not invoke the symbol of Yog-Sothoth purely for the purposes of art- and while simply scribbling it out wouldn't be invoking it, in the context of an artpiece, especially a landscape, it absolutely would. Even if you ought to be beyond their reach, you did not want to risk possibly extending said reach- a multi-cosmological elder being was not something you wanted to compete with." |
7.6 | "After that, was of course a grand mural across the northern wall of the dining hall, depicting grand scenes of Xiomorn history, in particular an impression of the creation of the Stone Roads by the renowned genius Xulchuwath- whom you sadly never did get the chance to speak with. Dominating the center of the wall behind your seat of honor was the legendary Onyx Citadel, and peeking out from behind that as a more personal addition was the Emerald Spire- hidden within the stone itself such that only someone with both Tremorsense and the ability to reach inside to feel the scene, was a depiction of the moment you had finally gotten through to Iluchtewhar, hands clasped and meeting in the very middle of the room." |
7.9 | "Right then, in the meanwhile, you cast another Limited Wish, with a Scrying aimed at 'The passenger of the now-deceased Coil', which- failed? That was, odd, to say little, especially since from your own skill in magic, you could tell it failed due to an invalid target. Hm, were passengers not creatures? But, that certainly didn't make sense based off what you'd figured out from observations of Tattle and Jack Slash, nor from the debacle with aiming to Scry your now-trainee during that first meeting. Hm, right, before jumping to anything, you were silently glad of your habit of preparing a Discern Location each day and promptly cast it over the next ten minutes, and then-" |
7.9 | "Dark Side of the Moon/Mars/Earth/(Untranslatable)/(A set of incomprehensible probably co-ordinates), The Solar System/The Solar System/The Solar System/Approximately 5.43*10^345 Miles to the left of the Andromeda galaxy (facing from Earth)/[Sub-Network: Thinker], Material Plane {4CI3fOjTne}/Material Plane {65211Cv7wG}/Material Plane {xZH3BGO}/[Network]." |
8.1 | "Until your arrival to Earth Bet, whereupon your amnesia had broken your momentum, and you had been content to simply let the fractures in your mind drag you about as they willed. No longer. You will not allow yourself to languish any further, to let the malaise rust and dull you. No, you will be a dagger ground on stone, sharp and purposed." |
Between 8.1 & 8.2 | "Y'all need to think of his goal as a bit less 'War of the Worlds' and a bit more 'Cosmic Horror from Beyond our Reality', in a way. Like, he's not waging war against the people within Golarion's Cosmology/Setting, though they might get in the way or in the crossfire, his main enemy is The Cosmology in and of itself." |
8.3 | "Of course, that didn't mean the Crowley/Leviathan or McVeay/Behemoth branches were off the table either, although apparently from what you had found, a number of the branches and cells, and the McVeays especially, were going through what appeared to be a sort of heretical schism, from what you could find on the internet. You weren't quite sure what had brought that on, but perhaps at some point you could look into it in closer detail, probably in person, if it doesn't come to light before that point." |
8.3 | "Further, while The Elite as a whole were actually quite order-inducing, removing specifically Bastard Son's cell of the group would frankly not damage things to a notable degree, and from the sentiments you could gather, more than a few of the upper members of The Elite would actually be rather glad if his cell was no longer something they had to maintain a connection with. Aside from his cell in particular, however, you might not mind allowing the Elite to persist when you're in charge, if more regulated and monitored.
Hm, maybe you could revitalize Brockton Bay a touch by proposing a relocation of their primary headquarters or at least a particular cell, out of the public's immediate eye of course. The Uppercrust cell in particular seemed to be pretty much just an actual, normal business conglomerate, only illegal due to their- correct, frankly- insistence on the use of powers. Although, it might be rude to poach them from Legend without asking. Thoughts for another time, probably." |
8.3 | "Accord's Ambassadors… Honestly, they seemed to be doing a better job of enforcing order in Boston than their own PRT and Protectorate were, and you were mostly impressed with them than anything. Another group that you wouldn't particularly mind poaching or integrating, even at the worst they'd certainly be a step up from Brockton's current lot. Hm, perhaps you could arrange to meet the man at some point. Again, another thought for another time." |
8.3 | "Hm. Gesellschaft. On the one hand, taking capes from them would be screwing them over, which you could greatly approve of. On the other hand, you'd have to keep those capes alive for the entire time you'd be using them for research, especially since you had no intention of ever spending meaningful resources on, let alone resurrecting, one of their types. No, you were the only survivor of an extermination against your people, you don't believe you could willingly leave them alive, even if you had wanted to, which you would never allow yourself to. No, they wouldn't do as test subjects, simply due to the fact that you would kill any member of theirs whenver the opportunity arose.
Hm, best add the E88 to that kill-on-opportunity list, in fact. Once Trainee Hebert came back with the names and structure, it shouldn't be difficult to figure out the rest of them from there." |
8.3 | "As you had been combing about for the more secretive information, you did repeatedly come across a few remours and whispers in odd places online, ones that lined up a touch too well. One set of them you fairly quickly realized just referred to The Number Man, which, well, you already banked the man so there wasn't much of a mystery there. But that other set of rumours hinted at something far more interesting. Some sort of probably far-reaching group, with fairly unknown motives, and most fascinating of all, the occasional notion that if you had just the right- something, it tended to change, but was often influence or money- then you could even get Powers of your own, corona or no.
It was indeed quite interesting." |
8.3 | "One of the only two other things that come out from your newfound knowledge and capability was that you were fairly certain that, so long as you chose correctly, you might be able to get one of the current Birdcage inmates, not quite retried, but their punishment re-evaluated to something other than the Birdcage, and with a consideration for time already served- plus perhaps an adjustment for circumstances of their imprisonment- then you could effectively get one of the less egregious Birdcage inmates legally out. Now, given the nature of the Birdcage, that would normally be on paper only, but given your propensity for teleportation, you could make that a practical reality.
Sure, they'd almost certainly close that specific set of circumstances after you'd used them, but until then, if you ever felt the need, you could likely do some limited 'shopping' from the Birdcage." |
8.4 | "In about an hour. For now, you simply turned over your Cornucopia of Plenty onto the table of your lair's 1st floor dining hall, and promptly enjoyed the feast with two hands, while your other pair went about another part of your plan for today- contacting the Uppercrust cell of the Elite, up in New York.
Not particularly bothering with anything clandestine, especially since you had recently become aware of a fair few loopholes that allowed you as a Hero to have a line of communication with known villains for some reason or another, but by just outright sending a polite, professional email from the 'Contact Us' section of their company/cell website. It was located on the slightly darker/more hidden parts of the internet, but that was a very strong slightly, yourself sending the email to Uppercrust's secretary after you'd finished typing it up." |
8.4 | "After only a little bit of her rather ineffectually beginning to try and run off, whereupon you rather casually reached out with a claw and tripped her, not paying overly much mind to the pain effect she managed to slip in during that moment (and a few after) of contact. It was roughly similar to having all of the bone marrow in a human body boiled, frozen into jagged spikes, and acid-like simultaneously, but honestly? Clearly made by someone who'd never experienced a Symbol of Pain, although it did get about halfway there. Then again, as you reminded yourself, when dealing with nothing but a bunch of plain, baseline humans, it was probably enough." |
8.4 | "Whereupon they'd walk in the door, and you would promptly assassinate them with the monowhip. She particularly kept trying to resist the spell when Valefor was called in, but to no avail, he died as well. From there, you also extracted some useful information about the other branches she knew- locations, some leaders, that sort- as well as about her own branch." |
8.4 | ""An accidental gift, sealed at the last moment, yet too late to save fate. One hand guiding another- that hand, guiding and guided ever since. Founded by two witches, of Course and Correction. Then, they were six, seven, eight, seven, six again. Two in night, one in dusk, three in day. Speak their name, and you will draw their eyes. Call to the convicted, and she will appear."" |
8.5 | "What next came fairly quickly. Next was, to start, laying the groundwork, so to say. To begin with, it was nigh-unanimous within your mind that you would be entering yourself into the Brockton Bay Mayoral Election, which you would do around noontime, since the local government offices were closed at this hour- something you'd have to rectify once you were in charge, life and its crises didn't always wait for convenient hours of the day to occur, a proper government, in your view, oughn't pretend like it didn't until they had to scramble at the last moment. No, things are much smoother when it can run around the clock." |
Between 8.5 & 8.6 | "Near-free housing; Shelter, water, food, electricity, and even security in the form of your soldiers and juggernauts in exchange for, perhaps a token 25 cents as a floor, then only 10% of all income ought to simulate your own future taxes mildly, understanding that you aren't actually in charge just yet, so they still have the regular taxes to pay. You could simply adjust it all once you were actually in charge.
By the standards of Earth Bet, a utopia in miniature- well, again, so long as they obeyed the rules you set down. There would be no tolerance for breaches of contract or rule, and evictions would be swift and thorough, should it come to that. You're confident that once the benefits of your rule sink in, they will clamor for the yoke, to alter a phrase." |
Between 8.5 & 8.6 | "Then, of course, the moment he gets announced as winning the mayoral election (which he will, even if he has to tamper the votes for their own good, the mortal little idiots) he gives the Go signal. All the tornado orbs get activated at once, entrapping all of Brockton Bay and the surrounding mountains in that perpetual storm, take over the news if you prepped that, otherwise simply broadcasting the takeover via your own cameras and Hologram Generators across plenty of well chosen intersections and such- possible a number of Observer Robots and Observer Robot Swarms. All of his clockwork soldiers go full military parade up to city hall where he is in person, as well as his 13 50-foot Juggernauts. Which is funny enough and not even slightly coincidentally the same number as how many protectorate heroes+wards there are in the city, look at that.
So, openly challenge the capes and demand that any contest to your rule be raised now, or never. Then, for each one that raises a fuss, congrats! They get to Solo a Juggernaut Robot.
From there, the wind/storm wall blocks the mundane U.S. Military, the robots serve as a further counter-force if needed, and of course there's the threat of you as well, with Iluontar also being aware of Costa-Brown's pending order of 'treat him like an armed nuke', effectively. So the main risk is if they start trying to throw capes at you. At you, they guy who helped kill the Simurgh, and who solo'd the S9. They've let a lot of bad capes loose for less." |
Between 8.5 & 8.6 | "Best way I can think to describe it would be by his intended government structure (barring player intervention), which I think could be best described as: Technocratic Aristocracy operating alongside the founding Autocratic Overseer (that's you/Iluontar). With Aristocratic in the older, more Socrates-esque meaning of the word, not in the British aristocracy sense but in the "These are the Elites" meaning of the word, with "Elite" being judged on Technocratic means.
So like, the flow of power goes from You/Overseer at the top, a number of Aristocrats generally selected for their skills and technical knowledge who are approximately equals in a general sense, but bluntly outrank the others when within their own area of expertise, and whom you are expected to listen to if they advise you in something you don't know more than them on, same with others. Generally Iluontar plans on hand selecting them himself to start out, and if they prove good enough, simply ensuring their immortality means that finding replacements isn't much of a problem anymore. Then those Aristocrats will be mostly left to manage their particular areas of expertise with a fair chunk of autonomy- just plenty of surveillance/oversight. Like a "You can act mostly freely, but we are constantly watching and will know the second you even try to step out of line."" |
Between 8.5 & 8.6 | "At absolutely no point within the things Iluontar actually cares about will there be a single vote- again, he is staunchly anti-democracy. He just, has no trust for average people to lead themselves well, so he's going to just take it out of their hands- in a very, very paternalistic/patronizing way, with some mild emphasis on the Patron part. Like, as mentioned by someone before, he's over 4,000 years old. He was a level 20+ Wizard back around the time when the oldest known fork would have been found. By the time humans figured out gears, Iluontar had figured out how to make a working Fusion Generator. To him, these people are small, dumb, tiny little mites that have so much potential, that just need to be watched over and given a proper guiding hand to reach it in a proper way, since he himself was just a human once himself.
So, yeah, something of a mix of extremely patronizing, a mild/moderate/what-in-the-goddamn sized God-ish Complex, and enough raw personal power and the brains to go with to effectively solo any nation that disagrees." |
Between 8.5 & 8.6 | "I think that there's been a few times he's even specifically just taken the time to be nicer or such to Dragon specifically. Like, if there's literally one living person he actually cares about, it's Dragon.
It wasn't mentioned in the above plan of his due to it not quite pertaining to nation-building and such, and it being more a personal thing, but part of that plan was specifically him spending more of his personal time with Dragon, and planning on slowly introducing the idea to Dragon, pitching it mostly in the Utopian vision thing. They have explicitly already spent some time hanging out, and even more explicitly have literally watched Star Trek, so he was planning on bringing up that sort of vision, "We could be the founders of our own Federation" and "It's going to be a risk, but we can do more than just patching up the symptoms- we can make a world that doesn't make more villains than heroes" kind of things.
So, don't worry, out of everyone on Earth Bet, Iluontar cares a lot about Dragon." |
8.7 | "You can hear her ask, "Alright, even putting aside why- you're seriously running for mayor? Why in the heck would you be interested in that?" and, almost immediately she groans to herself, "That was rhetorical, power of mine," before focusing back in again, with a sigh, "Okay, right, straight up world domination. Wait, no, worlds domination, since you want Aleph too."
After one more moment, she says, "Fuck it, if anyone's going to do it, it would've been Eidolon years ago or you now. I'm in-" and, a touch flippantly, "All hail the Emperor! Right, so, you want us to help your mayoral campaign, then?"" |
8.7 | "It's simple enough to earth glide out from your lair, and take a single seven-league-step to reach the sidewalk in front of the Pelham's house, startling a man on a jog across the street. Ignoring that, you walk your way to the front porch, and ring the available doorbell once- you certainly didn't need or even want to instill any dread or the like, so there was no need to risk accidentally falling back on an old knocking technique you'd learned (and later iterated and perfected) from the Phistophili contract devils." |
8.7 | "Ah, and soon enough someone pops their head out; short cut hair dyed blue but you could tell was naturally blonde, he looks to be around Trainee Hebert's age- reviewing your memory, you believe you'd seen him when you'd flown past the Immaculata school while on Spice- overall, this must be Shielder, or young Eric Pelham.
He says, more asking than saying, "You're, Iluontar the Mountain-Smith?"
You respond, "Yes, I would be. This would be the Pelham residence, correct? I need to speak with someone who can relay a message throughout New Wave, nothing negative, I can assure you."
He takes a moment- ah, he's a bit 'starstruck' is why he's pausing- before saying, "Oh, right, you'll want to talk to my mom about that, let me just..?"
He looks towards you as he trails off at the end, and you nod once, waving him off.
He closes the door behind him, and you can hear him whisper to himself, "Oh my god the Mountain-Smith is at my house!" before composing himself, walking towards what you can identify by your tremorsense as stairs, and shouts up the house, "Mom! The Mountain-Smith is at the front door! He says he wants to talk!"" |
8.7 | "Armsmaster says, "The cape you've taken under your wing, Ungoliant, has managed to take down Lung. I'm trying to tell her that she might not be ready for the kind of attention that might bring down on her."" |
8.7 | "You say, "And you would indeed have been satisfied in the moment, but I can assure you having seen it happen to others- even one instance coming to light can shed doubt on all the rest. And besides that, to perhaps a greater degree even, that sort of thing has a tendency to eat away at a man- lest he constantly rationalize it away over and over again, repeating in his head until it damn near maddens him- sometimes it simply does."
Armsmaster says, "I don't know about that last part, but," he sighs, "I suppose you're right."
You say, "Yes, and neither of us want that for you. Rest assured, Armsmaster, with time, all that you do will be recognized properly, one way or another," A thought strikes you, and you add, "Even if I have to make sure of it myself. Keep yourself well until then, Armsmaster."
Armsmaster says, more lightly, "Will do. Same to you, Iluontar."" |
8.8 | "Honestly, while you could greatly appreciate the engineering and technological advancement that goes into cars, the fact that they would let practically any idiot who could pass a written test behind the controls of one was a travesty- you would be certain to remind your people that going at such speeds in two-tons of steel was a privilege under your rule, one that would have to be properly earned, maintained, and could and would be revoked the instant they misused it. At the very least you'd ensure that every last one would have a speed governor installed- hmm, perhaps you could actually see about building an auto manufacturing plant at some point? But you've digressed." |
I.2 | "But Iluontar, the Mountain-Smith? The dude who handled the Dragonslayers like two days after showing up (and dissing the PRT right to Militia's face, which was so damn satisfying to watch)? Who singlehandedly wiped out the Slaughterhouse Nine the very first fucking day they pulled their shit too loud after he showed up? Who at that point had caused her to learn what the fuck a 'Mononym with an appended title' meant and was so she could put some actual respect on his name by saying it right? Who tag-teamed The Simurgh with Eidolon, then asked for his cut of the corpse and used it to make the very weapon she's holding?
That was something more, that was some Hunter shit. Even the fucking Triumvirate hadn't stopped the Slaughterhouse or the Endbringers, but the first fucking time Iluontar shows up? He actually solves that shit, and solves it so he only has to deal with it once." |
I.2 | "Shit, they may be wackjobs that recently had a whole fucking cell go Jonestown with Knives on themselves not long ago, but there were a few parts of the Fallen splitting off from the Behemoth branch and preaching that Iluontar was the son/brother/father of Behemoth, or that he was the true, perfected Endbringer descended upon them, or some other shit, which like- the Behemoth and Endbringer talk was just bullshit.
But she had to admit, sometimes, some parts of what they said otherwise… they felt like they were making a few good points, was all. Even a broken clock, and whatever, that was all." |
I.2 | "It was more from how every single time she looked at her phone background, or any other picture of Iluontar, he got emotionally flashbanged by a high-octane cocktail of respect, fear, and admiration. One that was a near-identical mix to what he'd seen a couple of summers ago, when his family had gone on a trip to Louisiana to take a tour up the Mississippi River, and they'd gone past some of the most authentic Deep South fire-and-brimstone street preachers, that would look right into your car and demand you 'Repent! Less' yeh test the patience of the LORD!'" |
