<during the fight with Sashi>
EarthScorpion: So, Step 1. Also, you can pre-declare any scenelongs you're putting up first.
EarthScorpion: Declaration of attack. Declare how many actions you're taking and Charm use.
Aleph: Bluh. I don't have enough
motes for more than 1 charm atm; my pool is getting 2m/action now but it's almost empty.
Aleph: So... I guess just Self As Cyclone Stance for a two-attack flurry with my orichalcum spear; both directed at her. Keris will be lunging at her unprotected back and aiming for a rapid kill shot that won't damage the room too badly.
EarthScorpion: Why do you always go for 2 attack things, out of question?
Aleph: Self as Cyclone Stance: "Normal rate limits apply to attacks within this flurry, with normally infinite rate weapons reduced to base Rate 5 before adding in any rate bonuses." The dire spear is Rate 2.
EarthScorpion: You have hair and legs and stuff like that. Unarmed attacks can be mixed in.
Aleph: ...
Aleph: ...
Aleph: ... ... ...
Aleph: That had not occurred to me.
EarthScorpion: also, you have Dread Panoply of the Silent Wind
EarthScorpion: this is literally what it is made for
Aleph: On a related note,
shut up.
Aleph: OKAY. Self as Cyclone Stance for a five-attack flurry - two spear and one knife at her, two knife attacks at her compadre as the higher-penalty ones.
...
<GUESS WHO>
Aleph: ... hahaha. Did she just show up to teach me SRS?
Aleph: yessssssss~
EarthScorpion: That's the primary Mentor role, yes. And maybe a little pillow talk. : p
Aleph: BEST MENTOR
EarthScorpion: Look, if Keris was upset about killing lots of people, she was completely in the wrong mood for learning Adorjan Charms and being what Adorjan wants her to be. So she helped out.
Aleph: lawl
...
Aleph: kerisssssss
EarthScorpion: Oh, Keris.
EarthScorpion: Did you like the planned end of arc reward? : p
Aleph: : D
Aleph: u r scary
EarthScorpion: Hmm?
Aleph: Your Adorjan. She strikes a good mix between "awe" and "terror".
EarthScorpion: And you also got her perspective on how Third Circles work
Aleph: yes, heh
Aleph: I guess there's some truth to that thing about how "everyone's waiting for the Ebon Dragon to stab the Reclamation in the back, when they should be more worried about how Adorjan's going to stab it in the face".
EarthScorpion: Well, yes. If it wasn't for the Exalted learning Adorjan Charm, she already would have.
EarthScorpion: ... well, that and her attention span.
Aleph: heh
Aleph: oh, Keris
Aleph: I wonder if anyone else - besides the Csend - has twigged yet that Adorjan thinks Keris is Marus reborn?
Aleph: ...
Aleph: ... probably not. They'd be panicking harder if they had.
EarthScorpion: And, heh, I do try to keep Eko and Adorjan having separate personalities while also resembling each other as mother and daughter.
Aleph: yes, heh
Aleph: I do like the parallels of Eko being a tiny reflection of Adorjan's traits.
EarthScorpion: Oh yeah, so
EarthScorpion: Oramus and Szoreny Charms are now available
Aleph: wheeeee~
EarthScorpion: if Keris wants to get a headstart on being the "first Exalt to learn X charms", she can.
Aleph: ... sigh. Keris. No. Don't get Envious Heart before anyone else in the Reclamation nabs a Szoreny Charm and thus come to the attention of /two/ Yozi-forests.
Aleph: And get Kagami interested in you as well.
EarthScorpion: Adorjan indicates that that's not what she wanted her to do. She should be buying more Adorjan charms!
Aleph: in fairness, she does have Bound by Blood-Red Strings lined up as soon as she reaches Baisha and has a flashback
Aleph: seeking
Aleph: thing
Aleph: and Wind-Carried Passion and Seven Nights Shintai.
EarthScorpion: Keris: "... well, uh, at least Adorjan doesn't take it personally that I'm pregnant with someone else's children."
Aleph: : P
Aleph: she did use Adorjan Charms to inhale both of the fathers, so
...
EarthScorpion: ... how does Calesco feel about Keris' relationship with Adorjan?
Aleph: Concerned.
Aleph: Hmm
Aleph: Let's see
Aleph: She acknowledges Adorjan as her mother, just as Eko does. She was
proud of Keris for stepping up to Adorjan directly and being hurt to save others. She doesn't especially like how Adorjan murders trillions, though... hmm. Perhaps not as much as she hates, say, how Kimbery kills serfs, because at least Adorjan isn't doing it out of spite and hatred and sadism - just because it's her nature to kill the things she touches (same as Eko).
Aleph: And... oh, Calesco. She's not Eko, but she does understand how desperately rewarding it is to be loved, and how much Keris
needs and
craves it.
EarthScorpion: Of course, sigh, Adorjan never seems to show up when Keris is sharing a bed with Sasi
EarthScorpion: She comes for her when she's lonely or isolated.
Aleph: Yes.
Aleph: So, hmm. Quite possibly "concerned, but understanding" - especially since, hah.
Aleph: Keris is unquestionably the
weaker party in that relationship, and the one who always winds up hurt by it.
EarthScorpion: Yes. It's... actually, sigh, probably one of the things that make her much more sympathetic to Keris - and even more so once Calesco finds she's got the same problems in the kinds of relationships she's prone to.
Aleph: : (
EarthScorpion: Oh, Adorjan. She isn't attracted to the way Keris looks. She could look however she wanted and Adorjan wouldn't care, unless she decided to look even more Adorjan-like.
Aleph: : D
Aleph: She loves Keris for what's
inside her.
Aleph: ... no, not her blood.
Aleph: Though that's certainly pretty.
Aleph: (and bishie, too)
...
Aleph: Oh! Oh yes, hah. Remembered something from yesterday.
Aleph: So yeah, you know how when Vali's the Thunder Dragon he's at his MOST POWERFUL but the lack of any limits to push against rapidly exhausts him?
Aleph: What would happen if he had an Artifact 5 suit of superheavy dragon-plate designed to contain him (probably using very similar design principles to how a five-dot Fire manse caps an active volcano), and also designed to disengage and fall off before the building pressure from within breaks it (because I doubt even an Artifact could contain the Thunder Dragon indefinitely).
EarthScorpion: ...
EarthScorpion: so what you're saying
EarthScorpion: is you need to give him training weights
Aleph: Yes. Yes, that is basically what I am saying.
Aleph: It makes him one of those fucking massive heavily-armoured bosses where you have to damage the armour through the first half of the fight and then it fucking
explodes off him and he's in a super-charged dragon-state from all the pressure and charge he's built up inside it.
EarthScorpion: More like he takes off his heavy armour because he's been wearing training weights all long
EarthScorpion: And even that isn't his final form.
EarthScorpion: goddamnit Vali and Haneyl, why are you the shounen siblings?
Aleph: ... well, in dragon form it's more likely that it's designed to disengage via explosive bolts when he FLEXES
EarthScorpion: Is it the Realm influence?
Aleph: partly because, uh, he doesn't have limbs in dragon-form besides his wings
Aleph: and partly because it means
his armour blows off him via a bunch of explosive bolts when he flexes.
Aleph: Which is the most ridiculously shonen bullshit, and thus totally appropriate for him.
...
EarthScorpion: So, yeah. Keris has a blinging artefact that she can anchor all kinds of spells in.
Aleph: Yesssss~
EarthScorpion: Especially weather related ones. Or, you know, any kind of WMD spell she could use that would be made better with the addition of dragon theming or storms.
Aleph: Oh, Keris. There's a frankly alarming amount of business she does and loot she picks up in Creation that she "forgets" to mention to her bosses.
Aleph: ... ooooo. Yes. That could totally be used for a fleet-killer Sapphire spell against the Realm. Or Adamant, which is a fuck-you to even any Sidereals onboard at the time.
EarthScorpion: Vali points out that dragons and storms clearly mean it's his.
Aleph: ... heh. Actually, a weather-dragon WMD spell would totally fit her po-invocation, if she used Id and the jade dragon as a joint-Anchor.
Aleph: At the adamant level that means Pekhijira manifests
in full as a storm-quetzalcoatl.
Aleph:
EarthScorpion: So, yeah. Keris has a blinging artefact that she can anchor all kinds of spells in.
Aleph: Yesssss~
EarthScorpion: Especially weather related ones. Or, you know, any kind of WMD spell she could use that would be made better with the addition of dragon theming or storms.
Aleph: Oh, Keris. There's a frankly alarming amount of business she does and loot she picks up in Creation that she "forgets" to mention to her bosses.
Aleph: ... ooooo. Yes. That could totally be used for a fleet-killer Sapphire spell against the Realm. Or Adamant, which is a fuck-you to even any Sidereals onboard at the time.
EarthScorpion: Vali points out that dragons and storms clearly mean it's his.
Aleph: ... heh. Actually, a weather-dragon WMD spell would totally fit her po-invocation, if she used Id and the jade dragon as a joint-Anchor.
Aleph: At the adamant level that means Pekhijira manifests
in full as a storm-quetzalcoatl.
Kuha: "... Kerishyra's totem is that?"
Rounen: "There's a reason nobody goes into the Cloud Wall."
EarthScorpion: Kuha wants to ride it
Aleph: ...
Aleph: That woman has entirely too much Valour.
Aleph: She, uh, is also going to have to deal with a Keris suffering Yozi Sickness
yet again. So that should be fun.
Aleph: In this case, I suspect Keris isn't going to have very good control over her flesh for a while. Or rather, over the switch from flesh to wind and back.
EarthScorpion: Sigh. I think Testolagh is getting in much better with the owl riders. After all, they're now high Valour and that means he gets them better.
Aleph: : D
Keris: "Hah! I did good!"
Aleph: Hmm. Yeah, so I think for this bout of Yozi Sickness, Keris treats all of her Principles as if they were a dot higher for the purposes of triggering a reaction to stimuli - they're the same level for the purposes of suppressing and channelling and rolling and so on, but 2-dot things trigger her as frequently as 3-dot ones normally would, etc. Whenever she experiences a significant emotional disturbance she rolls Temperance, and failure means she unconsciously hits Scarlet Rapture Shintai and Eloquence in Unspoken Words. This probably means that she's going to get snappish at Orange Blossom during the interview and have her skin split apart into ribbons and wind and switch to miming in mid-sentence (she may or may not notice this).
Aleph: (Orange Blossom probably will.)
Dulmea: "Child. Please. Start using your mental defences when you encounter an All-Maker."
Keris looks highly offended and spreads her hands helplessly. If she's graced with a religious experience, she asks by touching her heart, how can she turn her face away or laugh it off?
Dulmea: "Or just stop encountering All-Makers. Especially the Silent Wind."
It's not like Keris asked Adorjan to invade her dreams, she shrugs.
...
Aleph: Urgh, I hate you
Aleph: Purple canvas, plum wine, the Handful of Violets, fucking
lavender and
lilac...
Aleph: Urgh, I should've noticed they were centred on the market. But I wrote all the Illana-specific stuff off as her being Jamelia.
Aleph: GRRR H8 U
EarthScorpion: Lawl
