- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I mean, I could conceivably do something with similar-looking fonts, maybe? Dunno, I'd have to think about it.
Ascensions and Transgressions: the Tales of Keris Dulmeadokht (Exalted game)
- Thread starter Aleph
- Start date
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Using color is fine in principle, the issue I've got is with these particular colors; they're too low contrast against the page. You could for example use (dark) brown and black, and I wouldn't have any problem at all. (Though I prefer light-on-dark color-schemes, dark-on-light is for physical books please.)
TenMoreMiles
rotating 梅长苏 in my head 24/7
- Pronouns
- It/Its
Can't you use Stylish or some other browser extension to change Gdoc's font colors?
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Sadly, no. I usually read these on my phone.
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
To add my opinion to the discussion, I like the current layout of the documents and the colours that have been used. But more importantly, I just realized the true benefit of getting top-of-the-setting cosmic powers, and if not the last then at least one of the straws which caused Pekhijira having its "dialogue" with Keris:
That being getting quality of life improvements:
That being getting quality of life improvements:
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Haha, I was wondering if anyone would spot that before she got back to the Southwest! Yes, I deliberately wrote that into the Charm to make Keris happy. There are quite a few hilarious side-effects and synergies like that in the tree. I'm very proud of it, really. Do tell me your thoughts!
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
Well, now that you asked... I noticed something else that I wasn't sure if I should comment on first. Anyway, isn't this what you would call "getting crap past the radar?"Haha, I was wondering if anyone would spot that before she got back to the Southwest! Yes, I deliberately wrote that into the Charm to make Keris happy. There are quite a few hilarious side-effects and synergies like that in the tree. I'm very proud of it, really. Do tell me your thoughts!
I wonder what kind of "social attack" could be used to take "advantage" of this weakness.
More seriously, the main theme of Pekhijira is obviously what its own Urge is: "Survive". Which means that if Keris decides to use the Twin Soul Synthesis Shintai in a middle of an ongoing battle that she is already part of when she has been pushed too far (if she will ever be caught in that situation in the first place...), and not as a preparation for an ambush, the power up sequence accompanied with fake Old Realm choir chanting on the background, and Keris ranting about showing them her true form... Well, I bet that it will likely be followed up by a very confused heroic PC party wondering where the giant snake-woman they were fighting dissappeared.
- Location
- Virginia
Retaining the distinct between your text and ES's is important and I'm convinced the story would read jarringly without it.
I wonder what kind of "social attack" could be used to take "advantage" of this weakness.
I guess Keris will be even weaker now to random children who run up to her to hug her leg.
I really enjoy the conversations you two have, and would prefer that the distinction between your writing be kept.
That was a really interesting side story. I remember the point made about Keris' loneliness during Calibration, but had forgotten about it. Making peace with her base instincts feels like a big step forward for Keris emotionally.
This is also the first look we've had of Panteon charms! I think they were first mentioned years ago? They fit with Keris' character and her po's survival themes. Plus, now she just needs a heat resisting permanent charm to be comfortable in An-Teng!
I wasn't expecting physical alterations, and I really wasn't expecting the enhanced touch charm. I'd gotten the impression that Rathan was going to get the touch charms from SWLIHN from the temple iconography that had been discussed for him, but I guess the introduction of Szoreny changed those plans.
That was a really interesting side story. I remember the point made about Keris' loneliness during Calibration, but had forgotten about it. Making peace with her base instincts feels like a big step forward for Keris emotionally.
This is also the first look we've had of Panteon charms! I think they were first mentioned years ago? They fit with Keris' character and her po's survival themes. Plus, now she just needs a heat resisting permanent charm to be comfortable in An-Teng!
I wasn't expecting physical alterations, and I really wasn't expecting the enhanced touch charm. I'd gotten the impression that Rathan was going to get the touch charms from SWLIHN from the temple iconography that had been discussed for him, but I guess the introduction of Szoreny changed those plans.
"Death by Fear" - Pekhijira and Keris's Cowardice
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
As many as I can come up with!
... I came up with five.
Yes. Basically that. And also - to toss off a few ideas that aren't "Sasi giving her a massage" - her children cuddling with her as they ask her to do things, a starving peasant grabbing her hand and begging for her to help them, a big scary dude holding a knife to her throat to threaten her (okay, granted, this isn't very threatening to Keris, but still) or even a sycophantic lord providing her the best, most luxuriant sheets and clothes and carpets money can buy when she stays over at his palace in an attempt to butter her up.I guess Keris will be even weaker now to random children who run up to her to hug her leg.I wonder what kind of "social attack" could be used to take "advantage" of this weakness.
Do note that it only works when she has her enhanced sense of touch active, though, since this one she can actually turn off.
This has been a while in the making, yes. Rathan was originally slated for SWLiHN, but a) Keris still has that phobia of all things Pyrian and b) she fits Szoreny so well. Seriously. So well. She would totally have Favoured him if he'd been part of the Reclamation when she joined - possibly even as her primary, in fact, with Adorjan coming second. So Rathan got the Szorenyn stuff instead which fits him much better and Keris lost any investment in the Whispering Flame... but I still wanted my touch-enhancer. Pekhijira was a nice way to get that, and even kind of made sense as it likes burrowing into its hoard and - much like Smaug - can sense the tiniest movement of so much as a single coin being taken by THIEVES. Thematically, the physical alterations are part of a systematic trend in the Charms of making her physically more like the po - first just some feathers, then mimicking its eyes, then becoming a po-Gale for a moment, then fusing with it to be a half-Keris-half-Pekhijira naga/lamia thing, and finally [?????]
Also I just think they look cool.
And speaking of Pekhijira...
Ahh. Now. This is a fun story.
Pekhijira's Limit Break was, right up until the very last bout of writing TYI; Overindulgence. You were absolutely right, and I had based its behaviour entirely around stealing and hoarding and smashing into breweries to drink all their wine and attacking palaces to set fire to the drughouses of princes and inhale the smoke and draping itself in the fabrics of the demon realm so it could roll back and forth crooning happily at the feel of them on its feathers. And so on. I'd had a bunch of hilarious ideas about naga-Keris Indulging herself while Sasi looked on and was like "... um" for a minute before getting glomped and cuddled and crooned over.
Then we had this conversation:
There was more, but that's all I'm willing
It doesn't let her heal any faster or fight back much better [1] or even shrug off much more damage, because Keris doesn't ever intend to try and fight a battle she's losing, and wounds already don't slow her down at all when she's running away due to Wind-Born Stride. Twin Souls Synthesis protects against the things she's a lot more scared of, that being the types of force she can't reliably fight off or escape from - sorcerous and social power. Shaping effects and mutations and derangements get shredded as impositions on her selfhood, and Compulsions, Illusions and Emotions get flensed away as she symbolically goes back to her deepest roots as a person, before all the titanic power and hellish politics and pantheon heresy. She touches base with the thing that defines herself, and strips everything else away, leaving her refreshed and renewed and free.
[1] Though if you look at the clinch bonuses you'll note that she can oneshot heroic mortals through plate armour with those razor-feather coils.
It works ridiculously well. You can trace so much of her character back to fear. Why does Pekhijira hoard things? Partly greed, yes, but that's mostly Haneyl (another nice thing about this distinction - she doesn't have to share that niche). No, it's largely because it's scared of losing them and feels like it has to keep them guarded and safe and never use them or they'll be gone. Look at Keris refusing to commit the Baisha for fear of it becoming known to the Realm and destroyed or taken. Look at her collecting an entourage of family members and allies but being afraid to send them off on missions in case they don't come back. Look at her treading lightly around Sasi's damage or Testolagh's pride in case she triggers a fight in the emotional arena where she can't rely on her gifts to protect her.
Look at how she compulsively layers herself in aliases and false identities. Look at how she always acts cautiously, nervous of making any moves that will overturn the table or change the face of the board because she knows how this one works and a new game might put her at a disadvantage. Look at how she avoids confronting the Exalted wherever she can, and treats even a baby Dragonblooded bookworm barely out of the academy and six enlightenment dots lower than her as a serious threat. Look at how she's terrified of the Unquestionable, terrified of the Whispering Pyre, terrified of the Realm.
Let's talk about terror. There's a great definition about the difference between terror and horror; "terror is... the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience. By contrast, horror is the feeling of revulsion that follows a frightening sight, sound, or other experience. (...) In other words, horror is more related to being shocked or scared (being horrified), while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful." And by this metric Keris is fundamentally and overwhelmingly a creature of terror. Her time on the streets taught her - and Pekhijira retaught her - that something bad is always going to happen soon. The duration of "soon" might vary, but it's always coming, and the longer the wind-up is, the worse the punishment. Being Exalted has (had) made her soft, but mortal Keris lived in a constant, never-ending state of anticipating the next horrible thing that would happen to her and planning a dozen reactions. Would it be a gang trying to muscle her for something? Catching the eye of a market stallowner - or worse, mercenary guard? Maybe she'd miss a chance at food and have to starve for a while. Or get ill. Or there'd be a cold snap and she'd have to find somewhere warm. Could be that there'd be an arson or an accident nearby and she'd wind up fleeing from a district fire. Or the Wyld Zone in Firewander might go into flux again; that was a constant worry. This stuff was in some ways more real and pressing to her than the present she was living in.
While nowadays, she causes terror. She is, literally, a terrorist - she never lets her enemies know what they're fighting if they can help it, she never gives warning about where or when she's going to strike, she never even leaves evidence if possible. All her foes know is that horrible violence has happened to them before, and will happen again, and that they can never be sure when it's going to come next or where from or even what's doing it. She blinds people with fog and night and blood, she pushes them into terrain where they're struggling and lamed and off-balance. She takes away the things that make them safe like campfires in the dark or ships on the ocean or steeds in the wilderness, and then she starts to pick them off one by one as an unseen malevolent predator. She makes them afraid, but she never gives them anything to lash out at. Just the terrible empty unknown and the awareness that something's out there and it's coming for them soon.
And we all know that the anticipation is worse than the delivery, with stuff like this. At least when something bad is happening, you can react to it.
As is mentioned in the conversation, @Shyft once told me that he tends not to like the hyper-paranoid type of playstyle where characters never risk anything or do anything rash or stick their necks out at all, and added that Keris isn't an example of such a case because she actually takes it far enough that it's a serious character flaw. It was touching on that understanding of her character that led us to the conclusion of the Pekhijirite Limit Break being Craven Cowardice and the nature of Keris's po being Fear.
What was that brutal quote from a few sessions back?
Yeah. Exactly.
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And notice what the "I'm murder when grappling does" - it dis-incentivises people trying to grapple her for fear she'll shred them which means she can run away better without people holding her down and kicking her head in.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
There's a whole other effortpost that could be made on this topic, but the short form is that it's sort of a rolling process. We plan a lot outside of sessions and talk about her and consider possible future routes and characterisation paths, and then we play and put some of them into effect, and then we talk more and build on what happened for more planning, and sometimes huge things like this pop out emergently in a state where they're fully-formed and tied into dozens of other cross-referenced bits as if they were intensively planned through multiple iterations of conscious intent. The beautiful symmetry and symbolism and iconography and geography and politics of her Tiger Empire was another one like that; we built it with no real thought to the thing as a whole, and then when we started looking at the top-level structure it turned out it fit together beautifully as if designed for it.
So, yeah. Bit of both, really, and the nature of our writing jams and plotting sessions means it's sometimes honestly hard to tell where the planning ends and the emergent qualities begin.
Indeed. Fundamentally, Keris's Pekhijirite shintai is not something she activates to reveal her true form and make her foes despair, it's a button she hits when she's losing and scared and wants to run away.
(This is one of the reasons why going into Limit Break makes it quicker, easier and more convenient to activate.)
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
Hmm... Lets see. And E10 and Id 5 is probably a capstone charm, or fairly close to one and Infernal's high level powers don't come as smaller effects that combine together to get really powerful, like Solar charms, but are Shintai effects that are largely huge, obvious and utterly destructive, especially for combat effects; as an example Demon-Emperor Shintai adds 10 B/L soak on top of Malfeas's armor charm and also fuses it with the Infernal's armor, making them perhaps the toughest nut to crack in the game, and it basically turns them into a walk and talking and stabbing nuclear reactor that melts the faces off of anyone nearby and gives any poor fucker who looks them in the face Green-Sun Wasting, or how the Great Shintai of the Endless Desert turns you into a living sandstorm that wipes out armies and cities.
So, It'd be in that ballpark, potentially stronger since it has a background tax as well. So, mechanically I'd guess it'd be Keris taking on the form of her Po and conjuring the deep fog from which it hunts, both smothering her enemies and camouflaging herself so that even as massive Quetzalcoatl, she'd be able to to do hit and run attacks.
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Looking at these two examples my guess would be Keris turning into a big dome of clouds where she gets to attempt to steal everything within it for free. The whole hoarding thing has of course been a bit recontextualized to be less greedy, but something more evasion than fighting focused that still fucks over her enemies feels fitting.
Frakir's brother
Goodbye.
- Location
- The Sea of Trees
Is the Po fabulous enough to have that name? Look up a picture of a quetzal, is she colored that way?
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If you have another name for a giant snake with feathers instead of scales and huge bird-like wings, I'd love to hear it.
Parenthood - Chapter 1
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And we begin the hundredth published chapter in a new story; Parenthood. Though a milestone in and of itself, it's actually the 156th session we've played. Do you guys understand what that means? It means that if we'd been hitting a solid one-game-a-week-every-week (instead of having the occasional ten-month gap), Kerisgame would be three years old. Three solid years of weekly sessions.
Wtf, is all I can say.
So, obviously such a big milestone deserves momentous events, and... well, this session didn't disappoint. Honestly, I'm inclined to say that writing any more would spoil the impact.
Enjoy.
Wtf, is all I can say.
So, obviously such a big milestone deserves momentous events, and... well, this session didn't disappoint. Honestly, I'm inclined to say that writing any more would spoil the impact.
Enjoy.
Aleph: Okay! So, timelinewise Keris just saw her parents off during the early morning. Which I think in retrospect means I don't need to retcon a dream, we can have the Calesco-summoning (possibly with Calesco having sent a dream to Kuha with an idea because she's CLEARLY SMARTER THAN HER BROTHER and thus thought about her Anchor in advance and doesn't want the Lance because it's a killing weapon drenched in blood), and then the dream can come on the night of the new moon after Calesco is summoned. Then Keris's reactions to finding out her new abilities, and some travel/tracking downtime (and possibly the birth~).
Aleph: I kinda want to say we stretch this session out to cover that, because Session 100 is just such a fun place for it.
EarthScorpion: Hmm. I mean, I was just going to say she was going to spend the rest of the day starting to get ready for the trip away (which is a downtime thing), and then the dream occurs before the start of the session and she wakes up. It'll help things progress faster, and mean we can get the "reactions to the new powers" out of the way at the start of the session.
Aleph: Yeah, sure, that works too. I guess that means they left the day before the day of the new moon. The 27th.
Aleph: heh, and the end of TYI has her waking up, lol.
...
EarthScorpion: Okay, so firstly we'll roll to see how well Keris does at obtaining surplies. It's Cog + Bureaucracy, Diff 1 for the basic effect of getting properly provisioned, but more successes result in better value. Overall, preparing for her group is a Resources 2 purchase for basic things, or Resources 3 if she wants to be really sure.
EarthScorpion: This is all offscene - there's no need to stunt it.
Aleph: Aww. I had a stunt half-written. Fine. Goddammit I need a bureaucrat assistant. Where is the Rock to my Revy? Where?!
Aleph: 3+0+2 stunt+3 Kimmy ExD=8. 6 sux.
Aleph: ... wait crap I included the stunt in that.
EarthScorpion: Nah, just describe what you got later.
EarthScorpion: You're comprehensively equipped for going back into the mountains, and you get three "curios" you get to stunt into being.
...
<After Calesco's anger at Oula "remaking herself">
Aleph: oh calesco
Aleph: Mildly annoyed I missed that MDV 4 roll.
Aleph: poor cally
EarthScorpion: Heh. Babybat birb is jealous :c
EarthScorpion: Do you think the possession thing is working out?
Aleph: Yes, heh.
EarthScorpion: Also, she's not actually jealous. She's scared.
Aleph: Well, depressed and- hmm?
EarthScorpion: That's what you missed. Oula made herself into exactly what Rathan wants.
EarthScorpion: Calesco is terrified that her mezkeruby would do the same for her.
Aleph: Scared she won't have anyone like that, or scared for- ahhhhh.
Aleph: >_<
EarthScorpion: Because she's an awful person and no one should be what she wants.
Aleph: : (
Aleph: Heh. Though Kuha is gaining a whole new respect for Kerishyra, who apparently manages this sort of head-bickering all the time, only three times as bad.
EarthScorpion: Also, hmm. The Rathan/Oula stuff working out for you? I'm kind of having fun with the ship, but I want to be sure it's staying safe and that it isn't hogging too much screentime.
Aleph: Yeah - that tent scene, actually, where she just snuggled into his side fully-dressed because she wanted to be close to him?
Aleph: Super cute, and very much safe-ised it.
Aleph: I was amused by her very clear intentions that this was going to be a date goddammit, even if she had to trick Aunty Keris into giving them money to go visit a nice eatery.
Keris: "You do know I wasn't remotely fooled, right?"EarthScorpion: She's probably the most, heh, distinct keruby yet - and she's claimed that title very quickly from humble beginnings.
EarthScorpion: Heh. I'm actually really pleased with how the moon wives have turned out. Compared to the first version, they're way more assertive, aggressive and demanding - which is to say, more Rathan and Keris like. And they're not just trophies for the raiders to fight over - they're much more clearly evolved wave cherubs who've transmuted their justice into love.
Aleph: : D
Aleph: And I probably am going to get use out of them, because as long as you leave their hearts at home they're genuinely something Keris can use for things.
EarthScorpion: Not least because with sunglasses and a headscarf, they can basically pass as human and they're not socially useless.
Aleph: Keris will remain forever oblivious about how many moon wives wish she would summon them with their heart and claim their love.
Rounen: *looks over some moon-wife-commissioned sziromkeruby stories*Aleph: Heh. I am amused at how easily "mum" turns to "ma'am" when he grows up and becomes a bladed poet.
Rounen: "Mmm. We're never telling milady Keris about this."
EarthScorpion: Heh. And moon wife marriages are no longer beautiful means of freedom from the men, but borderline toxic things of mutual obsessive love. No wonder older married moon wives prefer friends with benefits relationships with others moon wives married to different people.
Aleph: ... honestly, if the keruby as a universal breed are sort of the "priests/buffer class" between ordinary citizens and the royals, there's a much smaller group of "high priests" who are the keruby with specific personal relations with royals. And that group is probably small enough for them all to know each other by name.
EarthScorpion: They're the ones who mostly see Creation, too.
Aleph: Rounen: "Duchess Oula." *nods respectfully*
Oula: "Pontiff Rounen." *returns it*Aleph: Heh. Those two get along quite well - certainly far, far better than, say, Rounen and Elly - because while Oula is primarily linked to Rathan she's also got a strong secondary link to Keris, and they were on good terms in childhood during the Taira mission and don't step on each other's toes.
EarthScorpion: Also, she's Keris' first daughter in law, and Keris has trained her to push Rathan around and avoid some of his worst habits.
EarthScorpion: Sigh, Sea foreign policy probably gets more aggressive once Oula starts poking him, and she expands the power of the crown over the nobility.
Aleph: : D
EarthScorpion: ... Haneyl may try to bribe her away because she can see how much more effective she makes Rathan.
Aleph: Oula: "I would never abandon my love!"
Aleph: ...
Aleph: sigh
Aleph: Oula may in fact, as one of Rathan's generals and a moon wife, have higher Bureaucracy than, uh, Keris does.
Aleph: Not by much, but I wouldn't be surprised if she had a dot in it.
EarthScorpion: Lol
...
EarthScorpion: jesus wth
Aleph: Cooooool!
EarthScorpion: Obviously they're not showing the cuts where he hit himself in the face with his yo yo, or got tangled up in the string.
Aleph: Well, no.
Aleph: ... sigh. Dammit Eko.
EarthScorpion: Heh. Honestly, one of Eko's favourite weapons is basically just a meteor hammer. She was very affected by getting to play with that weapon Ligier loaned Keris.
Aleph: : P
EarthScorpion: And of course, the rope is replaced with a ribbon.
EarthScorpion: Hmm. Yeah, I think Calesco and Haneyl are the only two who can easily possess someone as an anchor. The others need much more thematic work and links to justify it.
Aleph: Rathan could probably possess someone who loved him.
Aleph: Eko would have extreme difficulty with it and honestly would probably just find it impossible no matter how thematically tied the host was.
EarthScorpion: Yes. Eko hurts anyone she gets close to, so the best she could manage would be a short term thing.
Aleph: Zanara... sigh. Artifact clay statue would work really well for Zanara. : P
EarthScorpion: Well, heh, to possess a mortal Zanara would need to make them into art.
Aleph: : P
EarthScorpion: Heh. Same for Rathan, really; the Szoreny stuff means you'd probably need to make the mortal look just like Rathan so he could possess his "reflection".
EarthScorpion: Vali's just bad at being anchored by things that aren't artefacts.
Aleph: He can temp-anchor himself by smashing things pretty well.
...
<After the rescue of the three girls>
EarthScorpion: Hmm. How did you feel the Calesco stuff went?
Aleph: Good! I really liked it, though damn you for dropping three more dependants on me.
Aleph: I think that talk may have led to Calesco maturing a little.
EarthScorpion: Yeah, that... that was me juggling balls a bit.
Aleph: Hmm?
EarthScorpion: The lick thing threw off my plans. You were meant to go there with her.
Aleph: Whoops.
Aleph: oh Keris
Aleph: : (
EarthScorpion: I hoped you didn't feel I was railroading you there, but I kind of just fell back on "... okay, let's just try to make this work".
Aleph: No, it worked out quite nicely.
EarthScorpion: And yes, you managed to catch it with the talk with Calesco and get her that growth she needed.
Aleph: I am putting in a running thing of how Keris is basically running herself into the ground here, which I think is working quite well. And should pay off nicely when she hits a tipping point.
EarthScorpion: Did you notice other glimpses of the starlight form getting through - but not just from happiness. It's also "from using her nasty side for compassion's sake". Which is another form of self-acceptance.
Aleph: Yes.
Aleph: <3
Aleph: oh calesco
EarthScorpion: It's, heh. Actually a way that she's Keris' daughter that neither of them really even knew she had.
Aleph: Hmm?
EarthScorpion: Even more than Haneyl or Eko, Calesco doesn't actually respond well at all to being penned up and "useless".
Aleph: ... yes, true.
Aleph: Mou~
EarthScorpion: The fact that for once, she's actually able to act independently means suddenly Keris is seeing a side of her that isn't stuck to asking/nagging Keris into getting her way.
EarthScorpion: ... also, sigh. Just like Keris, Calesco pushes herself too hard.
EarthScorpion: Poor Kuha. It'd be much easier if Rathan was in her body.
Kuha: "Rathan? In me? Well, I wouldn't say no..."Aleph: I did like the "chibi-Keris used to bring back strays".
Oula: "I would! In both senses of the word, too! Because I know what you're talking about, you... you wicked female!"
EarthScorpion:
EarthScorpion: It's also something that's been mentioned before on the streets stuff, how she and Rat raised rats and pigeons.
EarthScorpion: ... admittedly also for food.
EarthScorpion: But in the good times, keeping animals like that was a way of saving food for later.
Aleph: yes, heh
Aleph: Oh Keris.
Aleph: She's always had a sweet, caring side.
EarthScorpion: Plus, Nexan pigeons have been bred for egg-laying, too.
EarthScorpion: Oh, Nexan pigeons. They're like London pigeons, turned up to 11.
Aleph: Yes, heh. And Rat used to try and teach them how to swoop down and claw at people's faces as a distraction.
Aleph: (this rarely worked)
Aleph: (the teaching them to do it on command, that is)
EarthScorpion: Poor Rat, he really wanted a trained hawk or something.
EarthScorpion: He dreamed of trained pigeons that could steal food from carts.
Aleph: : P
Aleph: He wanted Friendship With Animals Approach, dammit.
EarthScorpion: He would have been so happy to be a Solar.
Aleph: : (
EarthScorpion: He would have scammed the fuck out of those people, and returned to Keris with a silver tongue.
Aleph: Hmm. That would have been an interesting and possibly slightly unsettling dynamic, if just one of them had Exalted.
EarthScorpion: Or she would have been a Solar trickster and con artist's waifu.
...
Aleph: Keris dammit stop showing off
EarthScorpion: ... okay, yeah, that's a fun dress
Aleph: Keris: "... but how are you meant to move in it?"
EarthScorpion: Sasi: "It's not for moving in, dear."
EarthScorpion: EKO
EarthScorpion: just use a spoon ffs
Aleph: : P
...
EarthScorpion: Hee. It's a little funny that Calesco has less interest in the agency of others than Keris.
EarthScorpion: Because Calesco doesn't have Vali as part of her.
Aleph: : D
Aleph: Though she is on good terms with Vali; they're one of the stronger bonds in Krisity, so she can at least understand why Keris finds it so important.
Aleph: Even if she doesn't always agree.
Aleph: While Keris's view as a blend of Calesco and Vali is that she'll try to push you to make the right choice, but she still wants you to have input rather than just telling you what's going to happen to you.
EarthScorpion: Calesco just wants people to do the right thing, and doesn't mind not giving them a choice if it's saving them from a worse thing.
EarthScorpion: Basically, sigh, Calesco doesn't believe in the right to make your own mistakes if the mistakes would be bad enough.
EarthScorpion: Heh. Calesco does really have some of the strongest bonds. She's Eko's adorable little imouto-chan, and she and Vali have one of the closest friendships.
EarthScorpion: Likewise, Vali has the same with Calesco, is bros with Rathan, and has his thing with Haneyl where they love each other dearly and that means they always get in each other's faces.
Aleph: Honestly, for all that she's annoying, Eko's unconditional affection and insistence that Calesco is pretty and precious and perfect is probably really good for her issues.
EarthScorpion: Eko is trying to be a good big sister, especially since Calesco's the other one who's got Other Mama sometimes remembering she exists.
Aleph: : (
EarthScorpion: Eko explains to Keris with her arms folded in tight that she's scared that Other Mama might remember her or Calesco exist and then visit them in their dreams.
...
EarthScorpion: ... sigh. It's kind of notable that so far there are no domestic servant demons in Kerisland.
EarthScorpion: Which means that there's no one obsessively driven to clean things up and make them neat.
EarthScorpion: Which, uh, means cleaning is mostly done on an adhoc basis whenever the demon in question finds things are too messy.
EarthScorpion: basically it's just a giant children's bedroom
...
<post-session>
EarthScorpion: Man, Keris is just fuckin' loaded up with dependence now.
Aleph: Yeah, so you know what hilarious thought I had, halfway through the labour with Rathan and Calesco acting as teenage midwives?
Aleph: This is basically their mountain troll.
EarthScorpion: Hmm?
Aleph: "there are some things you can't go through without becoming friends, and acting as teenage midwives to your mother as she gives birth in po-fused Shintai form in the middle of a mountainous nowhere without painkillers is one of them"
Aleph: they're never going to like each other
Aleph: and they'll still fight and bicker
Aleph: but they can't go through something like this and not come out a little closer
EarthScorpion:
EarthScorpion: oh those two
Aleph: "You're still a bitch and I still don't like you, but there's a solid thread of mutual understanding and respect now."
...
EarthScorpion: So, yeah, feelings on how things went, pacing, etc?
Aleph: Good! I am pleased with that plot point coming to fruition. It peaked nicely.
EarthScorpion: Heh. This is the first time Keris has had to really face adverse environmental conditions with people along with her.
Aleph: Yes. She's not used to having to care.
Aleph: It's why she made the mistake she did.
EarthScorpion: And the fact you rolled well on your "getting gear" roll back in Terema is paying dividends here.
Aleph: God, yes.
EarthScorpion: And you're having to take rest days for everyone else.
EarthScorpion: Eko's literally the only one who can keep up with Keris when she's like this.
EarthScorpion: ... and now she has newborns to look after.
Aleph: yyyyyup
Aleph: that's going to be fun
Aleph: on the other hand
Aleph: she can see her feet again
Aleph: ...
Aleph: ... or could
Aleph: if she had feet
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notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
I wonder if Keris is going to hit Enlightenment 10 from this. Her Po giving birth could mean that it's spawning subsouls and turning into an Unquestionable, as a prelude in the same way some of her souls have shown up before being really born.
Or it could be spawning a new demon species, or it could just be symbolic.
I really just want to see Dulmea going 'but I can't be an Unquestionable!' Like she's on a telenovella.
Or it could be spawning a new demon species, or it could just be symbolic.
I really just want to see Dulmea going 'but I can't be an Unquestionable!' Like she's on a telenovella.