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Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)

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Peanuckle said:
Dang, man. If all her souls are gonna be that much work to manage, I wonder how the Primordials ever got anything done at all. They were born with 20-ish souls which had their own souls...

No wonder Cecelyne's entire job in Hell is to keep them in line.
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Oh, they aren't inherently that much work. Not in the slightest. Keris could ignore them completely if she wanted. Of course, then they wouldn't be as well-inclined towards her, and she wants them to like her. To love her. Malfeas doesn't particularly care what Amalion and Suntarankal think of him, but Keris is essentially trying to wrangle four to eight baby Unquestionable and keep them all positively inclined to her. Which is of the same order of difficulty as doing the same thing to four fully-grown Unquestionable, with the only difference being the power dynamic.

On the plus side, if she keeps it up and doesn't fuck up too badly, the effort she's putting in now will mean they'll get along much better and be generally much better-inclined to her than Third Circles of the Yozis when they're all grown up.
 
Aleph said:
Oh, they aren't inherently that much work. Not in the slightest. Keris could ignore them completely if she wanted. Of course, then they wouldn't be as well-inclined towards her, and she wants them to like her. To love her. Malfeas doesn't particularly care what Amalion and Suntarankal think of him, but Keris is essentially trying to wrangle four to eight baby Unquestionable and keep them all positively inclined to her. Which is of the same order of difficulty as doing the same thing to four fully-grown Unquestionable, with the only difference being the power dynamic.

On the plus side, if she keeps it up and doesn't fuck up too badly, the effort she's putting in now will mean they'll get along much better and be generally much better-inclined to her than Third Circles of the Yozis when they're all grown up.
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A lot of the... how to put it? A lot of the demanding childishness about them is all Keris' fault for making them into her children. There's nothing about being a soul of an Infernal that means they have to have the mind of a child - and in fact, Calesco tried to become something else until Keris insisted in treating her as a child while she was still forming.

On the other hand, because she's putting that time and because she's treating them as children, they're more human in mindset and actions than they would be if she'd let her plant soul take form as a hungry consuming giant tree that might, later, grow a human avatar. Because she's giving her souls a childhood, they're going to be closer to the human normal - hence why all of them are social creatures that get lonely and want friends and playmates. They're not human at a soul level, but their normal is such that they can pass as a godblood.
 
Aleph said:
Oh, they aren't inherently that much work. Not in the slightest. Keris could ignore them completely if she wanted. Of course, then they wouldn't be as well-inclined towards her, and she wants them to like her. To love her. Malfeas doesn't particularly care what Amalion and Suntarankal think of him, but Keris is essentially trying to wrangle four to eight baby Unquestionable and keep them all positively inclined to her. Which is of the same order of difficulty as doing the same thing to four fully-grown Unquestionable, with the only difference being the power dynamic.

On the plus side, if she keeps it up and doesn't fuck up too badly, the effort she's putting in now will mean they'll get along much better and be generally much better-inclined to her than Third Circles of the Yozis when they're all grown up.
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She's got her work cut out for her when she learns to summon them. I'm thinking that Echo's going to get pushed towards the back, since she gets to run outside already, which leaves Rathan and Haynel warring for it. Of course, that assumes that it won't develop spontaneously.
 
notanautomaton said:
She's got her work cut out for her when she learns to summon them. I'm thinking that Echo's going to get pushed towards the back, since she gets to run outside already, which leaves Rathan and Haynel warring for it. Of course, that assumes that it won't develop spontaneously.
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Nah.

There's a good chance Echo will get to go first. Keris would argue that she's just doing it in age order.

(It's really because Echo is her favourite, which is something she will never admit in front of the others. From a "mind state" point of view, it's a sign that Keris loves her joy and curiosity even more than she loves vengeance and self-pity, self-improvement and greed, or compassion and guilt.)
 
EarthScorpion said:
Nah.

There's a good chance Echo will get to go first. Keris would argue that she's just doing it in age order.

(It's really because Echo is her favourite, which is something she will never admit in front of the others. From a "mind state" point of view, it's a sign that Keris loves her joy and curiosity even more than she loves vengeance and self-pity, self-improvement and greed, or compassion and guilt.)
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Well, bluntly, it's also because if she bumped Haneyl or Rathan up a level first, they would immediately declare war on their weaker sibling. If Echo goes first, whichever of them comes after her will be at least to some extent preoccupied with keeping her out of their land. Haneyl will probably go after Rathan, honestly, because she's the one who starts most of their fights - he just takes revenge, whereas she constantly tries to invade the lands of her siblings.
 
Speaking of demons, I'm sure it hasn't escaped anyone that Keris has a new soul; Calesco, and is planned to get two more. And she's going to give each of them some keruby, partly so that they have company and aren't lonely, but mostly to see what happens.

Shall we find out? Yeah, let's!
Keruby of the Midnight Whisper
It is a curious trait of the mezkeruby that they possess two shadows; one flinching away from the light and the other stretching toward it. Sometimes their movements fail to match the tar augur's, especially when the light is dim and they go half-unseen. Tar-keruby have rubbery skin that appears black - in fact it is transparent; the colour coming from the boneless tar that fills them and passes for blood to their kind. Though they cannot change their essential bipedal shape; they can ripple their skins from within to alter surface details, and commonly rearrange their features into eerily smooth blank masks when they wish to go unrecognised.

Every tar augur is enthralled with the belief that they possess a special destiny; that a fated something awaits them in the future that will change their lives forever and be the fulfillment of all their dreams. To this end, they pursue any way they can find of predicting when, where and what this event will be; from astrology to lithomancy to vision-quests - though their favourite method is invariably their natural clairvoyance in bowls of tar and honey. There is no record of any tar augur ever having met their destined Happening, as they call it, but they remain upbeat and hopeful in their efforts - though to question their certainty is to invite a quick and cutting response.

While they themselves are only subject to Fate when they are in Creation, and have no particular importance in the records of Fate, mezkeruby are nonetheless skilled in the many forms of fortune-telling they practice. A tar augur can serve as a personal astrologer, and their semi-fluid bodies can be put to various uses. They are talented mimics of profiles, though they can do little about their obvious colouration and size, and a liquid-filled finger in a keyhole can quickly find pins and tumblers. Mezkeruby will gain Limit if anything prevents them from trawling the future each day, and a tar augur can slip into Creation whenever oil or tar spills across the apparatus for a form of fortune-telling they have never before encountered.

Physical: 2; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Sneaky Shadow Style (6)
Social: 4; Social Styles: Devious Disguise Style (9), Sharp-Tongued Retort Style (7)
Mental: 5; Mental Styles: Murky Mélimancy Style (12), Random fortune-telling Style (8), Shadowy Explorer Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;

Arms: SPD 6, ACC +0, DMG 2B, DEF 0, Rate 1 (Suffocating clinch)
Armour: 0 (Rubbery skin)

Join Battle 2; DV 2
Accuracy: 2; Damage: 2B;
Soak 1; Health Levels; 2

MDV 3; Urge: Find My Destiny
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Hope for the Future (4), Sceptics are Stupid (4), New Forms of Fortune-Telling (3), Yummy Honey (2)

Fast Charms:
Shadow Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Mezkeruby dances cloak the area in shadow and airless gloom, dimming the light around them and plunging bystanders into suffocating darkness. Characters in a tar-kerub dance suffer reduced visibility; clear/murky vision ends at 10/30 metres at the first level, 0/10 at the second and 0/0 at the third.

Diviners of Destiny
Keywords: None
Tar augurs do have some small talent at gleaning truth from the future. A mezkerub may roll its Conviction at Difficulty 5 whenever it makes a divination. Success reveals a tiny, out-of-context glimpse at a random facet of samsara. Though it is unlikely to relate to the augur's own future, most assume these fragments of knowledge relate to their Happening in some way, and pursue them enthusiastically.

Keruby of the Sound that Sunders
A femkerub wears a bronze helmet over its head, trapping a wild crackling bob of electric dreadlocks beneath it. There is no substance to their heads beyond this anchored lightning, and it exhausts them to leave it unconstricted. Their limbs are thin and spindly things of scratched metal, but their torsos are hardy, and sparks leap from the bumps and nodules that form there. Despite their seeming fragility, spark jockeys are both strong and rapid workers when they feel so inclined. There is little art or elegance to their slapdash tools and constructions, but they are generally sufficient to do the job they're made for before they break. They gravitate to cities and settlements, both for the familiarity of patchwork slums and for the fauna that come part and parcel with civilisation.

Lightning-keruby are great animal-lovers and love to ride. Their preference is not for grand or majestic beasts, however. Rather, their favourite breeds are livestock, domesticated beasts and those urban vermin who live off humanity without permission. Femkeruby delight in the company of such creatures, and encourage them to be wild and free, stripping away their tame natures and rendering them independent once more. They are superb jockeys, and the most common use femkeruby put their handiwork to by far is the making of saddles. Such saddles are nothing like any human work, though, and nor is their usage. A femkerub saddle has one purpose: to comfortably protect the animal from the electrified metal body of the cherub, and everything not essential for that purpose is stripped away. Spark jockey riding is rapid, chaotic and wild, and a human who tried to replicate it would be thrown and trampled to death in very short order.

Femkeruby are summoned as ostlers, though asking one to corral livestock is likely to result in the entire herd going missing overnight. They can, however, happily tolerate men and beasts living in equal partnership, and a wandering hero could benefit greatly from a spark jockey to help care for their steed. Their quick and dirty construction is just as useful when one needs a ramshackle shelter or improvised cooking pot for the night. When lightning strikes near a group of owned or imprisoned animals, a femkerub can emerge from the bolt to free them. If they see an animal suffering under human ownership, they will gain Limit unless allowed to remedy the situation.

Physical: 6; Physical Styles: Madcap Dancer Style (5), Wild Rider Style (12)
Social: 3; Social Styles: Beast-Befriending Style (9)
Mental: 2; Mental Styles: City-Creature's Clinic Style (6), Slapdash Builder Style (6), Urban Explorer Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;

Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 3L, DEF 1, Rate 1 (Club or flail)
Armour: 3 (Tough metal body)

Join Battle 1; DV 3
Accuracy: 8; Damage: 6L;
Soak 6; Health Levels; 6

MDV 1; Urge: Free Beasts from their Chains
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Riding (4), Urban Animals and Livestock (4), Quick and Dirty Crafting (3), Complex Contraptions (2)

Fast Charms:
Lightning Dancers
Keywords: Obvious
Sparks are never far from the surface of a femkerub. When they dance, their inner charge is brought to the surface in arcs and showers of sparks, bright bolts of electricity and tremendous fields of crawling lightning. Those unfortunate enough to be holding metal objects must roll at each interval against a disarm attempt. This roll is Difficulty 2 at the first level and rises by 1 for each subsequent level.

Friend of Feral Things
Keywords: Training
It is with strength of spirit that the femkeruby connect with the beasts they encounter, not conditioning or cruelty. A spark jockey can ride any beast - even nonsensically small steeds such as foxes or rabbits - and ignores Control rolls for any animal with Enlightenment lower that its own. Prolonged exposure to lightning-keruby will wear down domestication and training, increasing the Difficulty for any other rider to handle the creature by (kerub's Enlightenment) until it is re-tamed.

Keruby of the Tidal Artisan
If there are differences between the genders of the agyakeruby, they are invisible to any save each other. Their malleable bodies of seabed clay and woven reeds give no sign, for they can be reshaped and sculpted with ease; mutations and decorations applied and removed like letters written in sand. Avid critics and consumers of art, clay-keruby are prone to keep homages to their favourite pieces on their bodies, and a change in their tastes can render them almost unrecognisable. The dances of the living canvases make the area around them as malleable as their own bodies, warping land, structures and even living things that linger too long; often damaging them in the process.

Althrough dreamy and prone to strange chains of logic, agyakeruby are nonetheless effective diplomats and negotiators. Some are surprised at this, but such people have never seen a seemingly random comment from a clay-kerub disarm an offended warrior's growing wrath, or a serene non-sequitor about the quality of a treasured painting flatter its merchant owner. While they can be blunt in their appraisal of arts and crafts, they are generally friendly in disposition, and many find work in trade and barter. Offending them is difficult but not impossible, and insults to their favourite art pieces - intentional or otherwise - will often spark a creative mind to plot odd and inventive means of revenge.

Clay-keruby can serve as aides in diplomacy and bartering for those other than the lyrical heirs, who look on them with favour as well-behaved subordinates who help them in controlling mixed groups of their kin. Any artist might find their critique a useful prompt, but those who work with the sculpting of flesh are likely to benefit most - living canvases are perfectly suited as test subjects for intentional mutation. When a person's flesh is changed or sculpted into a form they consider beautiful, an agyakerub can arrive nearby to congratulate them on their good fortune. Insults to their own aesthetic tastes cause them to gain a point of Limit.

Physical: 2; Physical Styles: Flesh as Clay Style (8), Madcap Dancer Style (5)
Social: 5; Social Styles: Bewildering Barter Style (9), Dizzy Logic Style (9)
Mental: 3; Mental Styles: Connoisseuring Critique Style (10), Random artistic Style (7)
Enlightenment: 2;

Arms: SPD 5, ACC +2, DMG 2B, DEF 0, Rate 1, Range 5 yards (Hurling clay)
Armour: 2 (Thick clay)

Join Battle 1; DV 1
Accuracy: 4; Damage: 4B;
Soak 4; Health Levels; 2

MDV 4; Urge: Judge the Merits of Artwork
Principles: Dance (5), Music (5), Art (4), Everyone Getting Along (4), Bartering (3), Curiosity (3)

Fast Charms:
Mutative Dancers
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping
Agyakeruby warp the world like clay when they dance. Stone ripples, metal twists, wood warps and flesh flows like wax; growing more fluid and less formed as more of them gather. The stress of these changes tear at objects from within until they crumble, and even the survivors leave changed. At each interval, characters within the radius of a clay-kerub dance must roll Endurance+Survival to avoid mutation. This roll is Difficulty 2 at the first level and rises by 1 for each subsequent level. Failure inflicts a randomly chosen thematically-appropriate mutation, whose cost cannot exceed the number of successes the character failed by.

Flesh of Clay
No agyakerub looks exactly like another, for they can reshape themselves as they wish. A clay-kerub has a pool of (Enlightenment x 2) mutation points, which it can reassign with a dramatic action of one hour as it reshapes itself. 0-point Cosmetic mutations do not count towards this limit, but it can only have (Enlightenment x 2) of them at a time. Other agyakeruby can reshape a living canvas, as can anyone able to work with clay or apply mutations - though for obvious reasons this is difficult without the agyakerub's cooperation.

All three have, of course, been added to the main keruby writeup post.
 
Boy, that's a lot of diversity there. Eevees indeed.

I do wonder about how you're pursuing the Pantheon charms though. At this rate, all of Keris' souls are going to be coming from liasons with Yozis instead of purely herself as described in Titanic Heart Overweening. I wonder if such a soul (if it ever comes about) will consider itself different from those born from Yozi essence?
 
Peanuckle said:
I do wonder about how you're pursuing the Pantheon charms though. At this rate, all of Keris' souls are going to be coming from liasons with Yozis instead of purely herself as described in Titanic Heart Overweening. I wonder if such a soul (if it ever comes about) will consider itself different from those born from Yozi essence?
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Already decided on. Keris is going to have six Pantheon children - eight souls total if you count Dulmea and the po. They're not all going to come from actual direct Yozi contact - only Echo and Calesco have that; Rathan and Haneyl didn't - but they're all her children; her family.

Her other Titanic Heart Overweening souls will mostly be those coming from TLA Principles, and they won't be children or family members in the same way. Fluff-wise, they will in fact be qualitatively different; much less "tiny people with human psychology who can pass as godblooded in personality" and much more weird spirit things that are defined by the Principles they embody.
 
Nervaqus987 said:
Quick question.

The bits in front of "keruby " for their names, where does that come from?

I remember Keris mentioning something about how since Haneyl got her hands on them and altered them that they should be "sziromkeruby" instead of szelkeruby."
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Basically translations of their various aspects, in Hungarian. Sometimes butchered a bit to make them flow. The bits where they're referred to as wind-cherubs or clay-cherubs or whirlpool-cherubs? Those are basically the translations.

Szelkeruby: Wind cherubs.
Orvenkeruby: Whirlpool cherubs.
Sziromkeruby: Petal cherubs.
Viharkeruby: Storm cherubs.
Zenekeruby: Music cherubs.
Mezkeruby: Honey cherubs.
Femkeruby: Metal cherubs.
Agyakeruby: Clay cherubs.

In-setting, Keris is presumably butchering Old Realm for the names (dammit Keris).

And yes, the above three do indeed add to the keruby magical girl squad:
a) a mystical one who spends a lot of time scrying the future
b) a tomboy one who rides around at high speed on things, and
c) a dreamy artsy one who speaks in very odd ways and believes in nargles
 
Aleph said:
Her other Titanic Heart Overweening souls will mostly be those coming from TLA Principles, and they won't be children or family members in the same way. Fluff-wise, they will in fact be qualitatively different; much less "tiny people with human psychology who can pass as godblooded in personality" and much more defined by the Principle they embody.
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For once, Keris is showing a little bit of self-restraint. Among other things, it's probably a good idea to cap how many Third Circles you make. And leave yourself some room for having demons who won't cripple your self-identity if they get killed.

Aleph said:
In-setting, Keris is presumably butchering Old Realm for the names.
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This is what happened when Rivertongue speakers are let near a proper language. They mug it in a dark alleyway and steal its vocabulary.

(Haneyl is somewhat embarrassed by how her native language is Nexan-accented Rivertongue, while Calesco natively speaks perfect Old Realm, Rathan speaks Lintha Old Realm, and Echo doesn't speak at all, but carefully explains that she's miming in Other Mama's language which is better than Old Realm because everyone understands it and that Calesco can mime it too if she wants to because they're full sisters, not just half sisters.

This is one of the main reasons that Echo is viewed as probably the most annoying one by her siblings. The fact that she sometimes shows off that she's the most intelligent being in Keris' soul hierarchy.)
 
I'm honestly curious what's going to happen in Kerisgame the first time an Unquestionable gets permakilled by a prince, I'm fairly sure this is a when, not an if. Not saying it will be Keris either, but at some point an Unquestionable is either going to piss a prince off just too much, or be in the way of something they have planned.
 
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Five Days Dreaming
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    • So yes. First off, I have finally finished Keris's ENLIGHTENMENT 9 SEEKING FUCK YEAH. You can read Five Days Dreaming here, as Keris wrestles with deeply-held truths that she's not altogether comfortable accepting. The Maiden of Secrets may or may not declassify the sealed portion of the records in Sufficiently Sexy at some hitherto-undetermined date and time. She hasn't decided yet.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Growing Pains - Chapter 5
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    • Following the above - which occurred between Sessions 49 and 50, as you may recall, and has been placed appropriately into the doc - we have another Kerisgame from this weekend just past - delayed by a day to get the Seeking finished. In which... things happened.

    Yes. Things. A lot of... things.

    I am not speaking to @EarthScorpion right now [1].

    I'm not even gonna comment on what happened. Read it for yourselves. Fucker pulled another Rat, the frelling... grrrr.

    Anyway, bonus bits are pretty substantial this time; a lot of chatter on various subjects.
    EarthScorpion: Hee. Keris is E9 now, and thus prettier. That will be a nice surprise for Sasi next time they meet.
    Aleph: ... oh, Sasi. Hahaha. You know what else?
    EarthScorpion: The unquestionable are getting less attractive to her?
    Aleph: From a fluff perspective... well, when Keris IEI'd the chunk of Shattered Crystal, it read as Enlightenment n/a, right?
    EarthScorpion: Mmm.
    Aleph: So yeah. Uh. Those scars Adorjan left on Keris's face, which aren't healing because a trace of Primordial power is left in them from the direct touch of the Silent Wind.
    Aleph: Sasi: "..."
    Aleph: Sasi: "What. Happened."
    Aleph: (on the plus side, they look like very pretty scars to her.)
    EarthScorpion: More like gorgeous ritual scarification.
    Aleph: Sigh. Dammit Keris. Since Sasi last saw you, you have got facial scars from a Primordial, attained E9 and become pregnant. And will be noticeably showing when you next see her, despite it only having been about a season.
    EarthScorpion: Oh yes, won't she have Yozi sickness again?
    Aleph: It's lessened inside her soul and with the turbulence of Calesco, but yes. At the point of the last session she hasn't noticed it yet because the dream is still pretty fresh, but, uh
    Aleph: that arousal and flushed feeling isn't actually going to go away for, like... a month.
    Aleph: And not the comfortable simmering type of arousal, either.
    EarthScorpion: Temporary 3-4 dot principle of "Arousal (All-Consuming)" which... uh, she can reduce with a scene of... entertainment. And which gains a dot for each scene she doesn't entertain herself in some way, up to its cap.
    EarthScorpion: Keris: "... this is really getting in the way of my research."
    ...
    Aleph: Okay, so this is "experimentation fortnight 2", "bombshell halfway through" and anything evil you have cooked up and waiting. Remind me what I need success-wise?
    EarthScorpion: Okay, so you've done a Theory phase and an Experimentation phase. You have one more Experimentation and a Refinement phase to go.
    Aleph: Cool. Oh yeah, we changed it up, didn't we. So I just have to succeed at the roll Difficulty.
    EarthScorpion: Okay, so this is again Cog + Occult, and now you're testing on Kuha. So what's your pool and what do you get from Charms?
    Aleph: Okay, right. So 2+4+4 Empyreal Alchemist Style bonus+2 Manse+a 2-die stunt=14 dice. And... sigh. Yes, I think I'm going to say that Keris has TLA'd Kuha, partly because she's adorable, partly because Keris has been putting a shitload of work into her and cares deeply about this issue, and partly because of the Yozi Sickness. So she's also channelling Compassion to add 3 autosux to her roll, and it upgrades her stunt to a 3-die one, making it 15+3 sux.
    Aleph: Sadly, she has completely destroyed her spare workshop, and thus can't render that down for parts - and she's not willing to render Kuha down. Hmm. What raw materials and exotic components can she get from complete, usable items at this stage... testing on demons won't work. Oh, hmm. Unless she boils a metody down herself for some really high-grade vitriol.
    EarthScorpion: She can totally hunt one down, although that might take some time. Oh wait, no. She can just summon it.
    ...
    EarthScorpion: So that's a success, and she got sufficient threshold successes that Kuha is fine. At this stage, Keris has a working prototype and thus she should be transformed by it at some point during the week. Also, what TLA intimacy is Keris making towards her?
    EarthScorpion: Actually, honestly, depends when she generates it. Pre-change, it'll probably be 'oh, she's so cute and admirable for how she copes with her sickness'. You know, like how Keris would probably have towards Hayate.
    Aleph: True. Okay, I'll have it be "Kuha (Very Cute)".
    EarthScorpion: Well, that might be "Motherly Love"
    Aleph: No, slightly distinct from that, I think. That will, sigh, be more likely to be what it shifts into if she has it hang around post-change and realises what Kuha now looks like.
    ...
    EarthScorpion: One of the darkly amusing things I find about my Lilunu rework is that she's still an abuse victim. It's just a lot more low key and realistic - it's the abuse of a younger woman married off to a powerful older man as a trophy bride. And it's not very overt, because quite a bit of it is already so internalised. Rather than the atrocities of canon, it's just implied with how she doesn't argue too hard with anything he says, and is immediately apologetic if he doesn't let her win.
    Aleph: Oh, Lilunu. : (
    EarthScorpion: And because of things like that, she still loves him and he's fond of her. She's just also scared of him.
    ...
    Aleph: Hmm.
    Aleph: Heh.
    Aleph: One of the things that always bugs me in fanfics (especially angstfics, urgh) is when characters who have problems - depression, self-esteem issues, that sort of thing - just sort of outright spill things like "I'm useless and I don't deserve to be loved and so on". I'm not sure if I'm right or not, but it's always seemed to me that while people very well may believe such things, internally, they also tend to keep them internal with an almost savage intensity.
    Aleph: So they don't helpfully voice the toxic ideas so they can be refuted, and you don't get blunt statements like that. They just colour other things they say. You won't hear someone say "I don't deserve to be loved" or "I'm stupid and no good at anything and can never succeed", but that sentiment will colour the things they do say as a foundational assumption, while at the same time they try to hide saying it directly.
    Aleph: Hmm. Ah, yes. It's defensiveness from pity, and pride. So probably not a universal thing, but it definitely does suit Keris, who says "I'm not good at planning" and "I don't bother thinking long-term" to hide the underlying belief of "I'm not very smart" that she's built up from spending all her life around people like Rat and Sasi, letting them do the brains stuff.
    EarthScorpion: Echo points out that Keris is smarter than she thinks she is, because Echo wouldn't be a super-genius if Keris wasn't at least part clever.
    EarthScorpion: Echo waves her hand, and admits that Haneyl is also quite clever for someone who thinks so slow.
    Aleph: ... huh. Actually, come to think of it. I totally can have Keris hit Cog 3 without removing that little insecurity, and... hmm. In some ways that might be a more interesting character trait than to just have her stay at average levels of Cog. Keris always has been bad at measuring herself against other people, in either direction.
    Aleph: Hmm. I shall think about this thing.
    Aleph: Sigh. And she's justifying her work in vitriol-alchemy with "well this is just pretty easy" and "guess I have a knack for it".
    EarthScorpion: And yes, since Sasi is her main associate and Sasi is a... uh, very clever and above that, very very well-educated lady.
    Aleph: And Sasi also hasn't - I don't think - realised that Keris thinks this way, and thus hasn't yet gone "... Keris. Vitriol alchemy at this level. Is not easy."
    EarthScorpion: Oh, Keris.
    EarthScorpion: ... huh. Will the experience of having been bimbo!Keris actually strengthen her own self-confidence in her own intellect?
    Aleph: Hmm. Not these ones, since these she's interpreting as "they're very stupid" rather than "I'm smart". But once she gets a full Gale working, and realises the difference between mortal genius and her intellect... yeah, that might.
    EarthScorpion: Well, it's more that she could be a lot more stupid, and there are bits of her that are rather smarter.
    Aleph: Yeah, but she still has people like Sasi defining the high end.
    EarthScorpion: Mmm. Especially since Sasi tends to use her excellency dice quite a bit, if she's focussing on the academia.
    ...
    Aleph: Oh, Calesco. You know, it might be half-and-half there. Half sincere happiness, because she's Keris's compassion and criticism aside, she knows Keris will be kind and generous and loving and doting as a parent - will go overboard, if anything. And then, yes, half cynical barbed amusement at how her souls weren't enough, and nothing ever will be - she'll never fill the hole that craves people loving her.
    EarthScorpion: There's a bit of Calesco which resents being shaped into being Keris' daughter
    Aleph: Hmm. I might use this as a good point to give her that, hmm, "hope that Keris can overcome her failings and be better" Principle that counterbalances her "angry criticism" one. How to sum that up?
    EarthScorpion: Guarded Optimism
    Aleph: Hah. Yes. Oh, Calesco. <3
    Aleph: Haneyl is Clingy Affection / Demanding Expectation towards Keris. You're Angry Criticism / Guarded Optimism.
    Aleph: ... though the two of you do both agree on neither liking Rathan much. : P
    ...
    Aleph: ... on the plus side, assuming those automata are sending or carrying a report back to Ligier, Keris is probably going to get away with any embarrassment she caused him, since a) "Adorjan is stalking me" is a pretty good excuse as such things go, and frankly b) the fact that she had a personal encounter with the Silent Wind and was able to attend his banquet less than two weeks later is pretty fucking impressive, depending on how it's spun.
    Aleph: I mean, status-wise she's equal to the Second Circles, and any of them who'd had that happen would be unable to attend on account of being dead.
    Aleph: ... admittedly this might make people slightly less keen to associate with her, since, uh
    Aleph: yeah
    EarthScorpion: This is one of the reasons Lilunu is sort of a recluse and seldom leaves her own flesh.
    Aleph: Hmm?
    Aleph: I can't imagine Infernals go crazy and blurt out telenovella pregnancy reveals frequently when she leaves the Conventicle. Unless you mean the her-getting-possessed thing.
    EarthScorpion: When she gets nervous and when she is ill-at-ease and concerned, her swings get worse.
    Aleph: : (
    ...
    EarthScorpion: Oh, Calesco. You will likely have a lot of abortive and ending-in-tears relationships in your teenage years, because you're looking for love, want to prove that love isn't just pain, and... well. You're Keris' daughter.
    Aleph: : (
    Aleph: She needs hugs from Madoka. Or Usagi. Hee. I do like that... yeah, unlike most "cynical characters who point out people's flaws"... Calesco would love Usagi. She'd take one look and immediately adore her, because the vast majority of Usagi's flaws are surface things, and deep down she's a truly good person, while Calesco's scorn is directed at people who are smooth and impressive on the surface and flawed or hypocritical deep down.
    Aleph: ... okay, she'd probably criticise Usagi's fashion sense.
    EarthScorpion: Oh, Calesco. She's bad at relationships because she's too cynical, and thus overcompensates and is willing to believe assholes or people who are bad for her because she can't separate people apart.
    EarthScorpion: ... also, lol, Haneyl-Calesco hair-pulling is just hilariously petty.
    Aleph: : P
    Aleph: It's more like arm-wrestling than a conventional hair-pulling fight.
    Aleph: Calesco has the advantage due to being a) bigger and b) having stolen Wild Alleycat Style somehow.
    EarthScorpion: Echo dances by, practicing Friagem Serpent katas.
    Aleph: ... *facepalm*
    Aleph: how many szelkeruby have 1 dot in friagem serpent
    EarthScorpion: Honestly, Keris' styles are probably proliferating through the keruby
    Aleph: goddammit keruby
    EarthScorpion: ... sigh
    EarthScorpion: they're breaking into her Style storage repository in the Domain
    Aleph: Hahaha. The Library? And reading the scrolls in there.
    EarthScorpion: and mucking around self-teaching themselves from the pretty pictures
    EarthScorpion: It's almost like dancing!
    Aleph: ... yeah, okay, let's be honest. The first szelkerub to master Mendaciloquent Maverick Style is probably going to insta-evolve into the first szilf.
    EarthScorpion: Echo's eyes widen, and she falls over laughing.
    Aleph: ¬_¬
    Aleph: She will be delighted, yes. Or possibly responsible. I can see her deciding to teach it to one of her friends.
    EarthScorpion: Keris: "... Echo. What have you done now?"
    Aleph: Szilf: *braids long red ribbons into her hair, stomps over with her hands on her hips and wags an exaggerated finger at Echo*
    Aleph: Echo: *laughs even harder*
    EarthScorpion: Heh
    EarthScorpion: How did Keris feel about Rounen and the way he called her 'mum'?
    EarthScorpion: (this was probably picked up from Echo)
    Aleph: She thinks it is adorable and very sweet, though suspects it's more in a generic sense than literally seeing her as a parent.
    Aleph: Heh. Similar to the Tengese and "Honoured Grandmother".
    EarthScorpion: ... she probably wishes her own children were as sweet as him, rather than being mega-brats
    Aleph: In fairness, her children can be individually sweet.
    Aleph: At times.
    ...
    EarthScorpion: Oh, hey
    EarthScorpion: Keris has narrowly avoided being a teen mother.
    Aleph: : P
    Aleph: I think she's coming up on 21 now, actually. Ish.
    EarthScorpion: Echo objects to that and says Keris is certainly a teen mother
    Aleph: Keris: "Okay, so how old am I? Because all I've got is 'probably between 19 and 21', and I doubt you know any better."
    EarthScorpion: Echo points out that she is eleven, so Keris must have had her when she was between eight and ten.
    EarthScorpion: (echo gonna echo)
    Aleph: Keris: "..."
    Aleph: Keris: "Aha! That means that BY YOUR OWN LOGIC, I was not a teen mother!"
    EarthScorpion: Echo points out that she was a mother in her teens, so nya.
    Aleph: Keris: "... damn."
    Aleph: (you cannot out-echo echo)
    Aleph: Hee. I do love her being the smartest one.
    Aleph: It fits so well.
    EarthScorpion: Echo tilts her head, and considers when Keris will become a grandmother and who's the most likely to have children first of them.
    EarthScorpion: Echo adds that she wonders if Sasi is a grandmother yet.
    ...
    EarthScorpion: So, among other things, Keris will have certain dietary requirements for her pregnancy.
    Aleph: Indeed
    EarthScorpion: She'll need to find a diet of food associated with the essence types of the babies.
    Aleph: ... this is going to be fun, then.
    EarthScorpion: Kali will... um, probably be considerably easier.
    Aleph: Yes. Oh, Keris. Eating Tengese gold jewellery as snacks. And silver for Ogin, heh.
    EarthScorpion: Oh, I was talking about actual food here. Heavily spicy sun-dried tomatos, for example, are a Kali-favoured food.
    Aleph: Ah, kay.
    EarthScorpion: Keris can't actually digest metal as it stands, for one. And she's eating for three. : V
    Aleph: Yeah, I'll need to look into getting that Metagaos thing sooner rather than later.
    EarthScorpion: ... also, uh, her Splintered Gales are going to have phantom pregnancies Which, hmm, actually will be inconvenient, because it means her one for An Teng will appear to be pregnant out of marriage.
    Aleph: Well, no, because she can alter them with surgery. And she'll already be altering that one extensively to look Tengese.
    EarthScorpion: Ah, fine. Hmm. Probably not actually Tengese, though - that'd make it misbegotten.
    Aleph: True. More Tengese, then. Possibly... sigh. An "exotic" half-Tengese-half-Dynast who leans close enough to conventional Tengese looks to pass, but is "exotic" and cultured and posh because she's from the Realm.
    EarthScorpion: Keris: "Damn, she's sexy."
    Aleph: Sigh. Sareh can have "brought her back" from the Blessed Isle.
    ...
    EarthScorpion: Part of Sasi's tragedy was that she was a genuinely devoted immaculate, the kind that gets moderate Solars going about how it might be lies, but it gets some people doing good things.
    Aleph: : (
    EarthScorpion: A rather better immaculate than her husband, incidentally.
    Aleph: Oh?
    EarthScorpion: Well, yes. He was a sorcerer, and was rather more interested in his sorcery than running the satrapy. Pre-Exaltation Sasi was a lot kinder, in a paternalistic, white-imperialism sort of way. She genuinely believed it was her role as her husband's second to ensure that the slaves and serfs in the satrapy would be born to better next lives and that they not be drawn into corruption or temptation and she worried a lot about how her own actions would affect her karma and sought to compensate for the things she liked less about effectively running her husband's satrapy for him.
    EarthScorpion: And so if you'd found her, you'd have found a simply dressed (by Dynastic standards) middle-aged woman with a quiet voice and a persuasive manner, seldom seen without a monkly advisor, surprisingly liked by the serfs because she followed the social contract and supported the Order when it brought complaints to her about breaches in the social order.
    Aleph: Oh, Sasi. And then she found herself an Anathema. : (
    EarthScorpion: Also, looking thirty years younger.
    EarthScorpion: Notably, a lot of her change in how she presents herself wasn't from sorcery sacrifice - it was just from the trauma and the rationalisations and the failed suicide attempts. So it's not that she sacrificed that side of her. It's down there, somewhere under the layers and the lies and the "I'm an Anathema and that's... that's a good thing!"
    Aleph: Oh, Sasi. Hmm. Whereas Keris was, in a lot of ways, too low to really pick up much of the Immaculate Faith. Honestly, part of that might have been because she got annoyed at their attempts to teach her to read, and so didn't go to their charity events as much - and she was a good enough thief that she didn't need to very often; she could generally find food.
    Aleph: And the lure of power and family were far more attractive to her.
    EarthScorpion: Aiko is certainly helping bring that side of Sasi out a bit more, at least around her. She won't ever be like that again, but it'd certainly be possible to nudge her back a bit into a more motherly, caring side that's a bit less cynical and who's recaptured some of that quiet faith that things will turn out all right in the end.
    Aleph: Heh. You know, if you ever get struck by inspiration, it'd be cool to see a short side-drabble from her PoV.
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    [1] In the sense of the word where I am speaking to him, but occasionally break off to glare at his Skype window for a while and make creative suggestions about his ancestry, character, intentions and various other qualities colourfully and at length.
     
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    • Wow, Keris is going to have an interesting time getting out of this with a working tongue and voice.

    I wonder how many times Ligier has, just for a moment, forgotten that Lilunu isn't actually Ruvelia. And how many times she's noticed him doing it.

    I'm guessing that the unpleasant truth serving as Calesco's core is the truth that the Infernal Exaltation is actually a Solar Exaltation with a bunch of stuff glued to its surface? Also, that she doesn't like her real appearance because it's actually quite beautiful and she thinks she doesn't deserve that?

    ...actually, Calesco seems like she's still working on her self-hatred, given that she's constantly reinforcing it. And, from personal experience, I can tell you that sometimes depressed people are in fact quite blunt about how they feel, because otherwise they can't convince other people that they're worthless.
     
    .....ES? It's official. You're clearly Adorjani in nature. That's the only way to explain why you enjoy making Aleph[1]​ suffer like this.

    @Aleph Firstly; Oh my! Secondly; Oh dear, and watch out for purple.[2]​

    [1]And the readers of the session notes.

    [2]Deliberate Problem Calculus to lessen chances of a Signature Scorpion Surprise later?
     
    So Keris's dirty dream got detected by Kimbery, who gave her children based on the dream? Or did Keris subconsciously use one of her charms to auto-impregnate?

    The mental argument was pretty interesting too. Nobody had any ground to stand on because they were all guilty of what they claimed to be fighting against. Keris' position is probably even worse because she's actively thinking about how power abuse is a problem and needs to stop, but then she summons up a demon and renders it into vitriol to pursue her own projects. Really flighty thought pattern there.
     
    Aleph said:
    I am not speaking to @EarthScorpion right now [1].

    I'm not even gonna comment on what happened. Read it for yourselves. Fucker pulled another Rat, the frelling... grrrr.
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    But... she just wants to help you by tutoring another charm :(
    Why you no love her?

    Edit: also, did Keris accidentally Great Mother's Wame? Without realizing it for a month? Cause that would be hilarious.

    Edit2:
    Peanuckle said:
    The mental argument was pretty interesting too. Nobody had any ground to stand on because they were all guilty of what they claimed to be fighting against. Keris' position is probably even worse because she's actively thinking about how power abuse is a problem and needs to stop, but then she summons up a demon and renders it into vitriol to pursue her own projects. Really flighty thought pattern there.
    Click to expand...
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    Serfs aren't people, they are really well crafted Expert Machines with the ability to gain true sapience and thus Citizenship.
     
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