Pretty sure that Kusanagi is a replica, and the original was lost centuries ago.
Band (Worm/Scion)
- Thread starter Brother Mouse
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
The OG is still floating around in Scion, still around in Band too.
Meant the one in the shrine is a replica.
AntaeusTheGiant
Child of Gaea
- Location
- Lawrence, KS
Along with the 81st Emperor, 安徳天皇 (Antoku), in 1185 at Shimonoseki Straits during the Battle of Dan-no-ura.
Last edited:
Lily's Character Sheet & Relics
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
THIS! Is the character sheet with which I used to determine the capabilities of the starting out characters of Band!
This sheet is Lily's, as she has completed her Visitation, and thus is the first relevant character for me to reveal her base sheet. Please note this is a fan made, printer friendly, sheet for second edition that I cannot for the life of me remember where I DL'ed it or who made it (IF ANY OF YOU KNOW PLEASE TELL ME AND I WILL EDIT THIS TO GIVE PROPER CREDIT)
So after I wrote the outline for each character of the as of yet unnamed Band, I used the chargen rules from Scion 2nd Edition; Hero to make every member of the Band (minus Taylor because she's a canon character and I'd just class her as a DMPC with super plot relevance.). This is an almost complete character sheet; the proper amount of Health boxes have not been marked, Deeds are shit you do that you get XP for and if you complete all three you move up a point of Legend, she doesn't have any Fatebindings (yet), and her Birthrights needed a separate notepad file to write what they do in proper detail beyond the ant size space of those boxes and they WILL be featured further down this text post.
This here is Page 1
Let's start with Skills & Attributes. Rated from 0 (Being a chance die roll and thus a lower chance of success) to 5 (being the peak of mortal human abiliity without magical/divine enhancement, which Scions can go past once they hit Demigod) with the dot rating equal to how many dice you roll when using that skill or attribute. A proper dice roll is skill+attribute with the goal to get as many successes as you can. Now you may be wondering, how in the hell does a 14 Year Old girl have almost master level athletics and close combat and the strength of a man twice her size and then some. Usually Scion characters are made to be about in their late teens/early twenties in Origin, I just used the same rules and handwave it as "Being a Scion means you have an easier time reaching above than mortals" The words on the underline of each skill are the Skill Specialty, you can get these once you hit a skill rating of 3. You can add a specialty to add a +1 Enhacement to your roll when you use that skill in that way, Enhancement giving you an additional Success if you succeed at least once (thus allowing you to activate knacks, inflict injuries, crit, etc). Being a girl who wants to make her own Tokusatsu, she picked up martial arts and is in the best shape of her life. So her Athletics and Close Combat (it's your melee skill) specialties are Acrobatic Tricks and Hand-To-Hand respectively. Her Integrity specialty being her Pure Heart (deflecting temptation by being a "pure and sweet maiden") and her Leadership specialty being Team Building Excercises, because godammit I couldn't get the idea of motivational speaker Amaterasu teaching people how to properly work together out of my head. Specialties can be as specific or as vague as your Storyteller/DM will allow you.
Legend, the stuff that Scions run off of. Concentrated memetic badassery. With each point of legend comes a legendary title; you use these to make your action a Feat of Scale (upping the Scale of which you do things by one) by spending legend. Your Legendary Title goes off one of your Callings (which we will get to that in a bit) and thus must be made with keywords associated with them, in this case her first legendary title "The Sun's Justice & Mercy" comes from her Judge calling.
Paths are divvied into three; Origin (What you were), Role (What you are), Pantheon (What you are to your Pantheon/What you want to be to your Pantheon). Paths are how you get some of your skills in chargen (hence why they have skills in parentheses by their name. You also get whatever is relevant to your character through your paths and invoking them, working with your Storyteller to see what that actually means.
The Virtue Track, basically you can up your roles by sliding towards one way or the other on the virtue track and also risking being overtaken by that virtue and making yourself one dimensional. Lily being a Kami has the virtues of Sincerity and Right Action. The balancing act of being genuine and doing the right thing.
Here be Page 2
Callings, these bad boys are how you get your Knacks (Demigod Perks/Skills). You must choose one from your Divine Parent/Patron/Former Self and then you may choose any other two you want (at chargen when making a Hero, Origin tier get watered down Callings and they only can have one calling and it must be the one from their Patron/Parent). You can have up to your Calling Dots in Knacks from that calling, Heroic Knacks "costing" one Calling dot and Immortal Knacks "costing" two. The amount of dots in a calling determines how many keywords should be in a Legendary Title. Her title being rooted in the Judge Calling those words were "Justice" and "Mercy". Let's go Knack by Knack
Issun-Boshi
Guide & Retainer
Guide Traits (Rating: 1)
Asset Skills: Close Combat
Benefits/Invocation: Issun is quite the spry little thing and knows the best way to take on opponents larger than yourself!
Guide Stunt: (1-3s) Gain Enhancement equal to successes spent on the next roll you make to attack, defend, or evade an opponent of a larger Scale of Size than yourself.
Celestial Wolf Armor
Henshin Hero's Garb
Relic Traits (Rating: 4)
Purviews: Epic Strength, Epic Stamina
Motif: With the strength and fortitude to face any evil
Knack: Henshin!
The Armor can be summoned and dismissed from the belt buckle
Armor Traits
Armored: Hard (1), Resistant (Bulletproof) (2)
Yata no Kagami Compact
Compact Mirror
Relic Traits (Rating: 2)
Knack: Scry
The Mirror allows for remote viewing of any person on The World so long as the user can properly visualize their targe and/or has something of their target's, Rating: Imbue 1 Legend
Yasakani no Magatama
Jade Jewel Bead Necklace
Relic Traits (Rating: 4)
Purviews: Order, Prosperity
Motif: By the grace of the Kami do I claim the right to lead.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Lily Vargas as a scion complete with almost done character sheet. Lemme know what you think, lemme know what you thought of 2.4, hell lemme know if you would prefer I don't make another post like this again and just stick to prose. Your feedback helps drive me and drives the story.
This sheet is Lily's, as she has completed her Visitation, and thus is the first relevant character for me to reveal her base sheet. Please note this is a fan made, printer friendly, sheet for second edition that I cannot for the life of me remember where I DL'ed it or who made it (IF ANY OF YOU KNOW PLEASE TELL ME AND I WILL EDIT THIS TO GIVE PROPER CREDIT)
So after I wrote the outline for each character of the as of yet unnamed Band, I used the chargen rules from Scion 2nd Edition; Hero to make every member of the Band (minus Taylor because she's a canon character and I'd just class her as a DMPC with super plot relevance.). This is an almost complete character sheet; the proper amount of Health boxes have not been marked, Deeds are shit you do that you get XP for and if you complete all three you move up a point of Legend, she doesn't have any Fatebindings (yet), and her Birthrights needed a separate notepad file to write what they do in proper detail beyond the ant size space of those boxes and they WILL be featured further down this text post.
This here is Page 1
Let's start with Skills & Attributes. Rated from 0 (Being a chance die roll and thus a lower chance of success) to 5 (being the peak of mortal human abiliity without magical/divine enhancement, which Scions can go past once they hit Demigod) with the dot rating equal to how many dice you roll when using that skill or attribute. A proper dice roll is skill+attribute with the goal to get as many successes as you can. Now you may be wondering, how in the hell does a 14 Year Old girl have almost master level athletics and close combat and the strength of a man twice her size and then some. Usually Scion characters are made to be about in their late teens/early twenties in Origin, I just used the same rules and handwave it as "Being a Scion means you have an easier time reaching above than mortals" The words on the underline of each skill are the Skill Specialty, you can get these once you hit a skill rating of 3. You can add a specialty to add a +1 Enhacement to your roll when you use that skill in that way, Enhancement giving you an additional Success if you succeed at least once (thus allowing you to activate knacks, inflict injuries, crit, etc). Being a girl who wants to make her own Tokusatsu, she picked up martial arts and is in the best shape of her life. So her Athletics and Close Combat (it's your melee skill) specialties are Acrobatic Tricks and Hand-To-Hand respectively. Her Integrity specialty being her Pure Heart (deflecting temptation by being a "pure and sweet maiden") and her Leadership specialty being Team Building Excercises, because godammit I couldn't get the idea of motivational speaker Amaterasu teaching people how to properly work together out of my head. Specialties can be as specific or as vague as your Storyteller/DM will allow you.
Legend, the stuff that Scions run off of. Concentrated memetic badassery. With each point of legend comes a legendary title; you use these to make your action a Feat of Scale (upping the Scale of which you do things by one) by spending legend. Your Legendary Title goes off one of your Callings (which we will get to that in a bit) and thus must be made with keywords associated with them, in this case her first legendary title "The Sun's Justice & Mercy" comes from her Judge calling.
Paths are divvied into three; Origin (What you were), Role (What you are), Pantheon (What you are to your Pantheon/What you want to be to your Pantheon). Paths are how you get some of your skills in chargen (hence why they have skills in parentheses by their name. You also get whatever is relevant to your character through your paths and invoking them, working with your Storyteller to see what that actually means.
The Virtue Track, basically you can up your roles by sliding towards one way or the other on the virtue track and also risking being overtaken by that virtue and making yourself one dimensional. Lily being a Kami has the virtues of Sincerity and Right Action. The balancing act of being genuine and doing the right thing.
Here be Page 2
Callings, these bad boys are how you get your Knacks (Demigod Perks/Skills). You must choose one from your Divine Parent/Patron/Former Self and then you may choose any other two you want (at chargen when making a Hero, Origin tier get watered down Callings and they only can have one calling and it must be the one from their Patron/Parent). You can have up to your Calling Dots in Knacks from that calling, Heroic Knacks "costing" one Calling dot and Immortal Knacks "costing" two. The amount of dots in a calling determines how many keywords should be in a Legendary Title. Her title being rooted in the Judge Calling those words were "Justice" and "Mercy". Let's go Knack by Knack
- Good Listener: By nature of being easy to talk to and friendly enough to vent to, you can glean relevant information from people. (When talking to DMPCs you can figure out if they have anything relevant to what you're looking for via conversation so long as they know it)
- Indisputable Analysis: You get super investigation visualization skills, now you can roleplay your favorite evening cop show character! (in game you roll to determine the enhancement bonus you get to investigating a scene)
- Quick Study: You have sherlock holmes level observational investigation powers (in game; halve the time you need to make a complete clue collection in a scene)
- Army of One: Exactly what you think it means (In Game; receive no penalty for fighting outnumbered, gain enhancement based on your Legend to all attacks so long as there are more enemies than you are facing/there are members of your party)
- Yaoyorozu no Kami is the Signature Purview of the Kami of Japan. It allows their scions to communicate with the kami of objects and thus get them to tell you things or do things for you. Its boons; Appeasing the Kami allows you to schmooze the kami into being better at its job for you and yours while making it uncooperative for anyone you don't want using its using it. The Watchful Spirit allows you to have an object kami play lookout/watchdog for you. Innate Ability; you can speak to the Kami within objects.
- The Sun Purview. Gives you the power of the sun. Doesn't matter if its the sun as a life giver, a source of heat, or the symbolism of it such as the morning light meaning hope for a new day. Hope Reborn channels the symbolism of the sun to make people see you as a possible solution to their problems thus granting an Enhancement for when you try to figure those out or (if you're an asshole) use them as leverage in influence. Penetrating Glare adds Enhancement when you roll to cut through lies, confusion, illusions, or any other deception. Innate Abilities; you can radiate an aura of sunlight that pierces darkness up to long range as a reflex, spending legend makes the light more radiant and imposes penalties on rolls to attack you or your allies.
- Epic Stamina. This is the kind of tankiness you expect from Demigods, you can now facetank things you shouldn't. Adamant body gives you natural armor and makes you resistant against a specific type of damage determined by you when you activate the Boon. Innate Abilities: immunity to mundane poison and disease and never risk dying of hunger, thirst, or exhaustion
- Epic Strength. Remember Hercules? He had this one. Pistons for Fists make you hit so hard you knock people prone or send them flying backwards also, Mooks and Jobbers become Dynasty Warriors enemies and thus you can take out Mooks/Jobbers all at once with your attacks rather than going at it one at a time if you so choose. Innate Abilities: your scale goes up by one for the purposes of lifting/carrying/breaking objects you can also use the Might attribute in place of Presence to intimidate, seduce, or make friends.
- Order. Supernatural Authority over society and civilization. Innate Abilities: Law sense, allowing you to determine if any action you witness or think about doing is legal, accurately. Also mortal, non blessed, normal law enforcement is physically unable to taking action against you for doing something that is lawful nor can they overreach the bounds of authority. Why? Because, and I quote, "their body betrays them in the face of true justice"
- Propserity. You control the prosperity of people and cities thus allowing to bless people with good monetary fortune (wether it be good investment or just an influx of high paying customers) or rescind it. Innate Abilities: by flexing your wealth to influence someone, you can make them like you a bit more. Lily will NEVER use this.
Issun-Boshi
Guide & Retainer
Guide Traits (Rating: 1)
Asset Skills: Close Combat
Benefits/Invocation: Issun is quite the spry little thing and knows the best way to take on opponents larger than yourself!
Guide Stunt: (1-3s) Gain Enhancement equal to successes spent on the next roll you make to attack, defend, or evade an opponent of a larger Scale of Size than yourself.
Celestial Wolf Armor
Henshin Hero's Garb
Relic Traits (Rating: 4)
Purviews: Epic Strength, Epic Stamina
Motif: With the strength and fortitude to face any evil
Knack: Henshin!
The Armor can be summoned and dismissed from the belt buckle
Armor Traits
Armored: Hard (1), Resistant (Bulletproof) (2)
Yata no Kagami Compact
Compact Mirror
Relic Traits (Rating: 2)
Knack: Scry
The Mirror allows for remote viewing of any person on The World so long as the user can properly visualize their targe and/or has something of their target's, Rating: Imbue 1 Legend
Yasakani no Magatama
Jade Jewel Bead Necklace
Relic Traits (Rating: 4)
Purviews: Order, Prosperity
Motif: By the grace of the Kami do I claim the right to lead.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Lily Vargas as a scion complete with almost done character sheet. Lemme know what you think, lemme know what you thought of 2.4, hell lemme know if you would prefer I don't make another post like this again and just stick to prose. Your feedback helps drive me and drives the story.
Your link is broken, and the page isn't there.
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
I fixed it, if its not showing uo again i dhall fix ir again
Bend & Break 2-5
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
Lily
01/11/11
01/11/11
"Lily?"
I turned my head away from Taylor and to the woman who called my name. Despite not recognizing her face, I recognized her voice. My godmother, Saoirse McCullough, was standing next to a man with bright red hair and concerned eyes, he looked like a young Finn McCullough. Rather than the seasoned pair of fellow denizens of the Champion's District, they looked like they were in the prime of their lives. Seeing as how the past day or so have been kinda hectic and weird, I wasn't really surprised.
"Shouldn't you be in school, young lady?" asked Young Finn, looking really weird with his outdated fashion sense and newfound youth. I mean, he rocked it, don't get me wrong but it's kind of weird seeing someone dress like they just came off some old movie set.
"I snuck out and came here. I called my parents when I parked my bike at around-" I looked over to the hospital room clock, the hands read 9:32. "-2:30ish. I had to come…"
Young Finn and Young Saoirse looked concerned, same mannerisms as they had when they were old folks kinda confirmed that I'm just seeing them as they are rather than the illusion that made them look old or whatever.
"Mr. Hebert was here." I told them, letting out a sigh and slouching in the uncomfy seat some more "He looked exhausted so I told him to get some rest."
Young Saoirse moved over and took the seat to my right, Young Finn brought a chair from the corner underneath the TV and gently set it down on my left, sitting down on it. Saoirse gave me a hug and I laid my head on her shoulder, Finn gave my shoulder a firm and comforting squeeze.
"Poor dear, been here for seven hours!" she said trying to hug me as tight as possible "You must be exhausted yourself."
Truth be told, I wasn't. Three hours of sleep, haven't eaten since lunch yesterday, my Visitation (is it really a visitation if you have to bike your way there and its technically you incarnate as a mortal reawakening your memories as a goddess or is it called something else?) and then coming here would have laid me out. I don't even think I'd be able to force myself awake normally, even now as a Scion. I know it isn't the mirror or magatama's power, it's almost instinctive but I feel like it's the armor within the belt's power.
"I'm fine." was all I could say, Saoirse hugged me a little tighter and Finn gave me a pat on the back.
"How is she?" Saoirse asked me
I explained to her what I had heard from the doctors and nurses that came through a few hours ago; her condition was stabilizing, she was healing a little faster than expected but nothing unnatural, no infections which was practically a miracle, and they may be able to take her off the breathing tube-thing soon, but since she hasn't woke up yet they're gonna do a CT scan some time later today or tomorrow and maybe see if they can pull that healing cape girl from New Wave over.
I never bothered learning cape names, just their general power plus gimmick. I didn't really find them interesting or intimidating when I was an unaware Scion and now that I'm what I am even less interested and even more unintimidated. Unless it's Clockblocker (because how the hell do you not remember a name like that?) or Mouse Protector (who is a treasure and if anything were to happen to her I would use my reawakened goddess-ness to smite the monster that would dare strip the world of a shining light)
"How's Walt?" I asked after I took a moment.
Finn let out a frustrated sigh "He'll be in juvenile hall 'till his court date tomorrow, Donnie paid for a lawyer out of his own pocket and told us that he should be released and have the charges dropped on the state's Good Samaritan law but the juvenile prosecutor is, and I quote, a "hardass with a mean streak a mile wide and a burning hatred for children and adolescents" and is taking it to the judge.
I know that my hometown is a rough and tumble place with a crime rate and amount of dirty cops and judges rivaling Chicago's historic records but I also knew for a fact that no judge in this city would be dumb enough to let an assault and battery charge stand and waste the court's time. Just like I knew it was the Magatama's power helping me remember that.
We sat in silence for a while, Taylor's EKG beeping along steadily.
"Relieving Daniel was a good move. We were mighty surprised when we saw his old truck in his driveway." Finn said, breaking the silence. "Saoirse and I went to see him before we came here. He seemed to be holding up a lot better than you'd expect…"
Finn trailed off and took a deep breath before getting back to it
"He said that Doreen and Eric, Walt's parent's, had came and spoke to him in his dreams." Finn's eyes got a little watery, but his voice didn't change "They told him that it wasn't Taylor's time, he just had to have faith…"
He smiled nostalgically, Saoirse chuckled
"…and then Eric told him 'don't forget a helluva lot of patience' then he said Eric gave him a punch to the face and woke him up!"
I was a bit confused at that and raised my hand a bit
"Let's just say that's how we knew for sure it was our dear son-in-law talking." Saoirse helpfully said.
I lowered my hand and just nodded.
"Still. I don't know if it really was Eric and Doreen themselves or just Daniel's own hopes, but I'm inclined to believe that dream of his." Finn said giving me a hopeful look, one I returned with a smile. "Now you should be heading home, you are officially relieved."`
I gave him a salute and a smile, one he returned and Saoirse gave me a wave goodbye. I told Taylor goodbye as well and made my way to the elevator. When I hit the call button, the elevator was all the way to the top floor, giving me plenty of time to think about my next move. That girl that Walt mentioned could be a lead, find her and then find her accomplices. My house is within riding distance of the McCullough's house, which is right next door to the Hebert's. None of us talked about school during our little hang out at the music shop, but if Walt and Taylor live near me then that means they are in my school district. The district I'm in, if I remember it right, is the West Brockton Unified School District. There are five schools in the district, and of those five there are only two that will take new students year-round; Whipple High School which is underpopulated with students for some reason, and Winslow High School which is a notorious example of the worst that you can get in American education outside of Chicago and will take anybody regardless of if they even have the resources for some damn reason.
If Winslow was like my school then they would have the students fill out incident reports for the school administrators to give to a resource officer or a disciplinarian or something. I know that Winslow is a shit hole but it's not like they can just tell them to fuck off. It was better than standing around and Winslow was on the way home. Besides, I still have plenty of gas in Chibi Cyclone's tank! The elevator opened up and I walked in, feeling like Shotaro Hidari sans the fedora or twinkish partner. Well, if Donnie was with me I guess he could be my twinkish partner but he doesn't have the features for it, personality on the other hand…
The elevator's ding and the doors opening brought me out of my thoughts of Donnie in Phillip cosplay and how ridiculous he'd look. In walked a face that I swear I had seen before but couldn't quite place, a face almost obscured by the hood of her white robe. Brownish hair, smattering of freckles, kind of on the thicker side of average and bringing back some memories of my past life all involving onsen trips that I was desperately trying to not think about as I didn't need visions of the various plots and tracts of land belonging to the ladies of the court in my head right now as I am a good and pure kind of christian maiden with pure intentions and thoughts and most certainly have not read some explicit doujins of anime boys and many Kamen Riders, nor have I indulged in the unsolicited writing of fan works that have been posted on the internet to be disseminated to fellow degenerates.
Nope.
Most certainly not.
Rather than continue down the dangerous and unproductive train of thought I turned towards the familiar girl and noticed that she was on the phone, a frantic male voice was chattering away from her phone's speaker and I tried to subtly eavesdrop as to distract myself.
"Slow down." she said pinching the bridge of her nose "You're up pretty damn late for you, start with why."
The voice chattered away again, slower, but still frantic
"I don't like where this conversation is going, please tell me you didn't do something stupid."
The amount of words that the chattering seemed to correlate to did imply that mystery man did in fact do something stupid.
"What. The. Hell. Did. You. Do. Johnny?" the girl ground her teeth with every word
The voice screamed out words that I could easily make out as "Just come over and help me, please!" said in a manner that I could only describe as desperate and panicked.
My totally accurate and in no way wishful thinking deductions have led me to believe that this girl's boyfriend is going to be in the doghouse or on the couch for the forseeable future. Such are the trials of young love. Well whoever this girl is probably has it handled, and judging by the look on her face, about to raise some hell.
"You better open the door when I get there." The girl said with a sigh "I'm hanging up, you keep that girl stable and you better not do something crazy while I try and get a cab ride there."
The plot thickens! And now I'm thinking about thick plots again.
Dammit.
As soon as we hit the ground floor robe girl strutted out as she called up a cab and I headed towards the bike rack to get Chibi Cyclone and unchain it. After that I popped my phone into the cradle on my handlebars, popped in the directions to Winslow on MapQuest and was on my popping way. I tried to gun it as safely and within the rules of the road as I could, tyring to avoid a ticket, and thanked my magatama for letting me know how far I can go before I'm in lawbreaking territory.
It didn't take long, there wasn't that much traffic and the MapQuest app always seems to know the fastest route for your vehicle, and mopeds count as bicycles. When I actually got there it was time for some recon. I circled around the campus once on my bike and parked it a bit a ways from anywhere within eyeshot of a security camera and made sure to chain it up thoroughly, this was the ghetto after all, the second time was around foot. The campus had a chain-link fence around the perimeter topped with barbed wire to discourage fence hoppers and three entrances for vehicles; the main parking lot which was occupied only by a single security guard more engrossed in his phone than patrolling or even paying attention, the rear access to the school's really crummy football field with its own parking lot and chained up fence gates, and a side gate probably made for landscaper access or something. Of course, I did find one other entrance. While I walked around the fence, I spotted a hole cut open and covered with some bushes, I crawled through and made my way to the school's main building.
Between both times I circled the building I had only seen one car, that security guard's, which hopefully meant that there wouldn't be anybody inside the school at the moment like a heavy cleaning crew. At my school we had an incident involving the ag club and some fertilizer, and since it was considered bio-hazardous waste by technicality they had to call the district to get the area cordoned off and have it be thoroughly cleaned by a hazmat team. With this being ACTUAL bio-waste involved I doubt they could actually avoid calling the district before word got back to them. Which meant that if there wasn't a crew here then either they were on their way or they were there the day of the incident. If it took hours for them to get to my school I have no doubt they would take their sweet time getting to a shitty school like Winslow. At the very least I had a naive hope that I could get in there without having to sneak by anybody wandering inside.
I kept to the rear side of the building, trying to find some way inside aside from the doors, feeling that they were probably all locked. I spotted an open window, about big enough for me to just eek through and with a convenient parallel wall for me to shimmy up like a ninja and just slide through. Of course with the winter breeze I didn't get a whif of the inside. As soon as my feet touched the floor it hit me; old blood mixed with stale piss and untended toilets. It didn't take me long to see the source of the blood smell; blood spatter on the wall and under the sink closest to the window, pooled blood that couldn't quite go down the tile floor's drain and just stained the floor. There was a trail and smear that seemed like it was made by someone being dragged through it. The amount of blood everywhere was probably enough for someone to die. The footprints through the blood were a bit curious. Different styles of shoe all frantically walking over the blood and presumably dragged the guy into the stall, then there's a small set of cat paw prints going into the stall but in a manner indicating bipedal movement and gait, and then over all the previous prints are a pair of a heavy shoe, maybe a work shoe, walking out of the stall and stopping at the sink before turning and walking out the door.
Unless there was another stabbing at the school, which I wasn't going to count out just yet, then this is where Walt was attacked and that just posed a couple of questions in and of itself. First, while there wasn't a lot of blood on the floor there was enough to say it was full on stabs and not just shallow cuts and slashes like Walt tried to play it off last night. Second, there was the cat paw prints, the ones that looked like it was a cat walking upright rather than on all fours. The first explanation that would make sense would be that Walt is a cape, that would mean that he would have had his whatever-moment inside this bathroom stall as he was being stabbed or even as he sat in the stall or have had powers previously, but that did not explain the paw prints. The second explanation is that Walt is whatever his Grandparents or his parents are. This explanation entirely hinges on whatever Finn and Saoirse are whatever Walt's parents were and sadly none of the smattering of memories of my old life had anything to say beyond maybe being some form of Denizen, the catch all term for sapient and sentient supernatural beings that are not mindless monsters, or a Scion like me. It makes more sense then Walt being a Parahuman to be completely honest and has a chain of logic that I would like to think makes sense. Something is weird about Finn and Saoirse, therefore there was something weird about Walt's mom and possibly father, therefore Walt has that weirdness through inheritance.
With a shake of my head I got to my feet and I made sure to take photos of the paw prints plus the blood before I left the bathroom. I stepped out as stealthily as possible making sure to ease the door closed to reduce noise and kept my ear out for any noises other than mine. It seemed like I was alone in the halls of Winslow High, the only thing that I could really sense was a foul stench coming from further in to the school. I followed the smell, already having a good idea of what the source was and sure enough, it was the locker. I don't think I could really describe it in any other way then kegare, not just for the contents but for the amount of pure evil it took to actually put someone inside it. I took photos with my phone, trying desperately not to cry or crush my phone into scrap. My instincts told me that I wouldn't find anything in that foulness, nothing worthwhile that could be used to bring me closer to the culprits, despite that I took the photos. I needed it to remind me of the kind of evil I was going up against, the kind that I knew existed but ignored my whole life.
Actually seeing the locker in person did tell me one thing at least; this was premeditated, it was personal, there was history behind it, which meant I may just have something with that incident report line. Which meant I needed to get to the administration office. I spotted a few signs showing where the main office was and followed them, still trying to be sneaky in case there was someone else inside the school with me. When I got there and tried the door, it was locked. Luckily I knew just the trick to get it open. I knelt down in front of the doorknob, gave a quiet clap, left my hands in a prayer position, and then gave a bow to it.
"Pardon the intrusion, most venerable kami of the door." I made sure to address the kami with as much respect as I could "My friend was harmed in this school and the answers I seek may be within the records held beyond you. May I come inside?"
The grain of the wood shifted slightly making a pensive face and pausing to think for a few moments. The face in the wood grain softened, then nodded, and I heard the lock disengage.
"Thank you kami-sama." I said as I opened the door, giving it a pat on the frame as I passed through the threshold.
As I walked into the office two thoughts popped into my head; I should probably give my bike and my phone some TLC and thank their kami, and that this office was the most disorganized office I had ever seen. It was honestly very difficult to look at and I didn't know where to even begin. I'm not exactly tech savvy and I don't think that a school computer's kami would exactly be willing to parlay with someone other than the person who used it on the reg, I got lucky with the door, I didn't need to push it. That left everything else. I honestly don't know how much time I spent combing through each and every unlocked cabinet and drawer but it was probably forty five minutes minimum, luckily it was time well spent. I had found a good amount of incident reports with Taylor's name going back as far as last year in really bizarre places like inside a binder marked "Loss Sheets", under the secretary's desk, or even in a box marked "To Be Shredded for Boiler Kindling" of all things.
Taylor had quite a few girls bullying her, but the three names that came up the most were Emma B, Sophia H, and Madison C. I couldn't find anything that could help me find out what those last initials stood for or even where to look, it was like this place was built on an indian burial ground with a floor plan that generated negative feng shui AND was cursed by a gypsy woman that was having a bad day for good measure! It was honestly a miracle that I found what I did. I know that nobody would notice a few missing incident reports, but I needed copies for myself that I could reference with Walt and Donnie when he gets his head back on straight.
WHIRR~
I turned the copy machine on and felt myself die a little inside with every loud noise that came out of it.
KER-RUUUUUUNG~
With every page copied, a loud whirring and clunking of internals chugged out.
BWEEEEEM~
I whipped my head back and forth between the window and the copy machine, praying that nobody walked in and nobody was inside the building.
VWIM~ VWIM~
Then the blasted thing finally stopped making noise and I stuffed the copies into my parka and left the originals sandwiched between some random file folders on the secretary's desk.
I didn't want to risk exposing myself anymore than I had so I left the room, thanking the kami of the door again as I left. Sneaking my way down the halls, I heard something that made my heart beat out of my chest.
A burly sounding man shouting "Hey make sure to bring the pressure washer and the gut bucket!" and the slam of a van's sliding door.
With that, I stopped sneaking and just bolted towards the school's back door. With every step I hoped and prayed that I wasn't about to be caught. I reached the back door and thanked every kami I could name, even myself, that the door had a regular deadbolt and not a keyhole on both sides. I undid the lock, clumsily and hastily, threw the door open and ran for the hole in the fence. I didn't stop running until I got to my bike.
I stopped, my breathing getting only a little heavy, and looked over my shoulder towards the school. The cleaning crew were all laughing and joking, nobody was chasing me and I was sure that nobody even noticed I was there. I let out a sigh and felt my jacket to make sure that the copies I made were still there, the rustle of paper telling me they were. I unchained Chibi Cyclone, thinking on what I had just done. Even if there was something in the incident reports, they wouldn't be admissible in court, not unless I could get a cop to actually look for the originals and I doubted they would in this town. Still, it was a lead.
I revved up my bike and took off towards home, hoping that Walt's charges got dropped and that he'd be able to help this investigation and that he'd answer my questions about his attack.
WHEW! I really hit the wall with this one, words didn't want to flow no matter how I wrote it. Like trying to draw blood from a stone. Either way, we get some demo of use of Purviews, Lily comes a bit closer to finding the culprit and has some questions for the cowboy. Lemme know how I did with this one, your comments and criticisms do in fact feed the beast and keep the writing flowing. Have a pleasant day.
Last edited:
- Location
- Finland
Here's something that would make this even more fitting: Her noticing that it's not a hazmat team there to do the cleaning but some random local cleaning firm.
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
Sadly she didn't. Still information for later....
Bend & Break 2-6
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
Walt
01/12/11
01/12/11
The past day and a half, although a phenomenal waste of both mine and the legal apparatus of this city's time, was rather enlightening. Mr. Rhodes had provided me with a lawyer from the law firm of Cypher, Scratch, & Morgenstern (a name that didn't really dispel the low hanging fruit of "how many lawyers there are in hell") that got to do very little in the whole process besides go on a tangent about how the whole legal system needed an enema. My attorney had informed me that due to the nature of the utterly asinine and draconian laws pertaining to youth offenses in light of the rise of parahuman led gangs, and thus a surge of youth offenders along with it, that a minor can be held by the police without bail until the minor's first court appearance with zero say from their legal guardians. My attorney was rather confident that in spite of all of it I would be let off with a fine at most on account of New Hampshire's Good Samaritan Law but I would still have to stay in a holding cell at the station until they took me to court the next day.
I was stuck in a holding cell with about four other boys my age and I didn't care to speak or even acknowledge their existence. No, I simply sat on the bench and thought to myself while keeping still. My cellmates were frightened by something or other, I couldn't tell what, and had huddled into the furthest corner of the cell opposite me as I focused on my thoughts. I thought on what happened to me in the bathroom, what happened to Taylor in the locker, and what I was going to do about it when I was released. Which naturally, given the way the legal system was handling my situation and the picture painted by Taylor at New Years, meant that I would have to find and pursue the culprit myself. I may not be one of the Hardy Boys but Grandfather made damn sure I knew how to pay attention. I only had two leads, one of which being a name and the other a possibly missing girl but it was better than nothing. Sadly it was the only conclusions I could come up with thinking all night in a holding cell.
Once the courthouse opened and started processing the youth offenders my cellmates and I were fast tracked their to meet our guardians and legal council. Finn and Saoirse weren't allowed to speak to me until after the hearing and were ushered into the courtroom seating while my attorney gave me a rundown of what was to come and rant on the perversion of the legal system since The Protectorate became a government body. She didn't really say anything pertinent to my case, just went on and on about legislation being proposed at the federal level and I did my best to tune her out. Then it came time for the hearing. My attorney didn't even get to say a damn thing; prosecutor opened her mouth, read off the charges, the judge read through the file, proceeded to tear into the prosecutor, then dismissed the charges outright on account of the Good Samaritan Law. Lucky me that the judge seemed a decent man. After they took the cuffs off and released me back to my grandparents, my lawyer left after handing them her card and my grandparents told me that there was somebody who wanted to meet with me. They were pretty cagey about it, but I had a good feeling on who they were talking about. We stopped by the house so I could shower and get some clean clothes on rather than the uncomfortable clothes they gave me at the station.
Silent car ride later and we were at The Champion's District making our way to the shop, Evian perched on the ledge of one of the windows comfortably.
"About time!" He purred as he stretched out "What took ya?"
"Had to shower, cat." was my reply and Saoirse made sure to give me a playful smack upside the head for it
Evian just chuckled and rolled his eyes as best as he could before addressing Finn and Saoirse
"Doors unlocked, they used the spare key."
Finn and Saoirse headed in first, they looked like they were hoping beyond hope that they were not being strung along and I followed behind them. Standing casually against the register counter was my father and standing in the middle of the store with a somewhat nervous expression was my mother. Father had a briefcase in one hand and was wearing mostly black; a flannel winter coat, a pair of boot cut jeans, and some old work boots. He would no doubt stick out like a sore thumb if he were to walk among the people of Brockton Bay but given recent revelations I don't think he would care in the slightest. My mother was the opposite, wearing a forest green Brockton Bay University hoodie, jeans, some sneakers, and her long red hair in a ponytail, actually looked like she would blend in quite well in the city.
None of us said a word, the silence dragging out for what felt like hours. None of us moved, barring my father looking from Mother to Finn to Saoirse to me then back again. Father let out a sigh then gave a lazy wave and a smile.
"Finn. Saoirse. Walt. Good to see ya." He said plainly and with an accent that you'd expect from a Wyoming country boy rather than the non accent I heard him speak with when they brought my soul to his Sanctum. "We did not entirely die."
With such an odd choice of words said, my mother let out a sigh and began wringing her hands as she attempted to formulate a sentence. Instead of speaking she just ran up and hugged Finn and Saoirse tightly not wanting to let them go. Finn and Saoirse did the same.
Father walked around them and gave me a one armed hug
"How ya feelin' son? Healing up nice?" he said jovially
I just nodded. My father was in front of me in the flesh and I just nodded. No words, no questions, no heartfelt embrace or tear of the eye.
Just nodded. What kind of son just nods to the father he has never seen in person? A subpar one I imagine.
Mother broke the tight embrace with her own parents, seeming to finally work up the steel to say something.
"Mom, dad I dunno how to tell you this…" she started, her voice that of a New Englander and her face growing more sheepish and nervous as she spoke. "…but I'm a goddess and my husband is a god?"
Finn just chuckled and Saoirse just had a knowing smile.
"Honey, we kind of had the idea that you were more then met the eye when we found out about Evian." Finn said, once again embracing Mother.
Saoirse chuckled and said "Ní raibh tú caolchúiseach i ndáiríre."
Somehow I know that's Irish, never heard the language before in my life and never even knew there was an Irish language.
For some reason.
Mother laughed and said "Ar a laghad ní raibh tú ainm dom tar éis mé féin."
"Either of you understand any of that?" Finn asked
Father shrugged his shoulders and I just said "No."
Mother and Saoirse laughed then we moved to the back room. They continued their conversation in Irish on the back couch, Evian on Mother's lap being petted, while Father, Finn, and I sat at the table. Finn and Father conversed while I listened attentively.
"What did you mean by 'not entirely dead' and which gods are you two supposed to be?" Finn's question was said rather directly, I got the feeling that while he had quite the brush with the supernatural and being forever changed by it, he still had trouble believing it.
"Quite a few actually. See, a god has these things called Mantles, more or less the godly persona. There's the main one a god has, then sometimes they make new ones either by accident or on purpose." Father said with his feet propped up on an unclaimed chair "I've picked up a handful of 'em as I wandered; The Grim Reaper, Pecos Bill, got mistaken for the devil a few times but it never really caught on. My main one is Erikaer Helson."
"I don't know who that is, also how do you go from being the personification of death to a whimsical cowboy story?" Finn was rather incredulous to say the least
"Eh, it's all in the audience." Father waved his hand as if to dispel Finn's skepticism "I also don't blame you for not knowing who I am, I'm a really minor Norse god after all. Really only known as Hel's son and going out and grabbing people who try to cheat death. Hell I think I only show up in either Edda like twice."
Finn sighed and cut straight to the point "Doreen is Titania isn't she?"
Father tapped his nose and nodded. "Not her main Mantle, but it is one of her favorites. Dawn's her main one, yet another minor god. She kinda became the go to girl for witches in North America by accident and she shows up as a bit part in some Celtic myths."
"Minor gods, ok." Finn let out a deep sigh "So if both of you are gods then why did you die?"
"Eh, went loud and murked eight of the crackhouse nine."
Finn went pale, his eyes widening in shock. "They were in Brockton Bay?"
"Yeah, figured that'd be the reaction." Father said with a chuckle. "They weren't here long, obviously."
Father leaned back into his chair, nodding over to Mother. "Hey Dory, wanna tell the story or should I?"
Mother sat straighter and cleared her throat
"I was doing some divining with Evian and found out about it. Walter was only six months old and neither of us trusted the local authorities to do anything competent, we figured if we were discreet about it we could deal with a problem and be back the next morning."
She chuckled nervously
"Needless to say that didn't quite happen. As soon as I found out and told Eric, we took Walter to your place Dad, got some gear then rode over to where the nine were heading."
Finn and Saoirse both looked like they were reliving that night. I imagine it was a rough memory to have, seeing your daughter and son-in-law drop off their son and then never be seen alive again.
"Turns out they had the bright idea to offer their services to the highest bidder among The Marche, The Teeth, and The Empire. The Teeth, psychos that they were bid the highest. That's when Eric had the bright idea of kicking down the door we were by and 'just start blasting them' with his trench broom."
Father laughed, almost a cackle really, with sadistic glee
"Finn, you shoulda seen it! The Butcher went all 'Oh shit!' when I just unloaded on him! Seeing the bastard's flesh rend off his bones, mm-hmm, I got a huge kick out of that! He died first and I caught his nasty ass with my death bag! Man! He was on every damn list I could think of, all those souls had different places they were heading and none of them were good lemme tell ya!"
Mother cleared her throat once more, giving a gently scolding look at Father who held his hands up and uttered an apology with a smile. When she continued, a rather fond smile graced her features
"Robbing the sight from their very eyes, turning fortune against them, seeing hardened criminals become a panicked mob running for their lives in utter terror. That's a sight I will cherish. The Marquis had the right idea of leaving the first chance he had, The Teeth were slaughtered wholesale between the pair of us and the chaos, we didn't manage to kill anybody from the Empire sadly. We did kill all but that slippery bastard Jack Slash through great effort and he filled up the roster by the end of the year."
Father let out a heavy sigh
"Fucker got away while we were fighting Grey Boy. He managed to catch me into a loop, but I killed it."
Finn gave Father this odd look
"Yes, I killed the weird time loop bubble whatever he put me in. Being a death god will do that."
Father turned to me and said "That's a quick bit of advice for you, the stuff you have divine purview over can be used even in esoteric ways like literally killing a time loop."
I gave a quick nod and committed that to memory.
"On our way home we were stopped by some familiar faces, Valkyries for me, the whole damn Wild hunt for her."
"No ifs ands or buts." Mother added "Felt like I was eight again."
Saoirse lit up, remembering something "Ah, at Bachman's!"
Mother rubbed her neck nervously "Yup, didn't wanna leave and it was time to go. Just booted our souls from our mortal bodies and then dragged us off to Asgard and Tír na nÓg respectively. Lugh wanted to have words with me."
"Allfather, the real one that is not the dumbass down here, got chewed out. 'You almost broke the damn rules Erikaer, they had another fifteen years Erikaer, why are you acting so smug Erikaer, go back to Helheim and stay there until you've learned your lesson Erikaer' damn was he pissed."
Mother smiled smugly "Lord Lugh was more understanding, however he did bar me from making any personal visits for a while. He did allow me to weave the mists into Walter for his protection and to leave instructions to have Walt sent to Wyoming with Lucian. And before you ask mom, I did that because Walt would have been far safer out there in the sticks and Lucian, for all of his flaws, would have prepared him for his future far better if socially stunted."
I am not socially stunted. I just don't enjoy speaking to people very often.
"Another fifteen years for what?" Asked Finn, Father was the one to perk up and answer
"Eh, the gods all got together in a big ass conclave and we gave humanity from January 1st 1981 to January 1st 2011 to stop…" Father trailed off "…something from happening. I'm gonna be honest I wasn't really listenin' and Dory refused to explained what got everyone so riled up in the Overworld and why we were gonna stop maintaining the Mists. Why is that Dory?"
Mother smiled mischievously and simply said "Spoilers, babe."
Father gestured to her and said "See what I mean?" while Evian had a look of shock on his face and said something to the effect of "Wait they just stopped maintaining the Mists?"
"Which brings us to the other reason we're here." Mother said, once again clearing her throat "While we aren't banned from visiting the world from time to time we can't stay for too long, lest they drag us back again. We came here to grant Walt his Birthright."
Mother got up from the couch, Evian in her arms, walked over to me and then set him down on my lap.
"First part of it; Evian. He will be your guide into the ways of magic and help you with the Encyclopedia Fabula."
"Yo." Evian smiled toothily and smugly, his earlier shock gone.
I glared bullets into him, silently lamenting that I was now cursed to have an overly talkative Bostonian cat as my magic teacher.
"The stuff in the briefcase will have to wait, the next part is further in to the shopping center. If you'd all follow me?"
Finn and Saoirse seemed to have an idea of where we were being lead, Finn had a bemused look on his face while Saoirse looked slightly annoyed. Saoirse caught up with Mother and began speaking to her in Irish again so fast I couldn't make out the specifics of what they were saying although I could tell it was probably a scolding. Finn moved closer shortly after to try and play peacemaker leaving Father and I to trail behind with Evian in my arms.
We didn't speak as we walked. To be honest, despite all the questions I said I had during the incident at school none of them were coming to mind. In hindsight any of them just seemed childish.
"How you holdin' up son?" he asked me, breaking the silence.
"I'm fine. My wounds are healing nicely." I told him "Little chance of scarring according to the doctors."
Father sighed "I mean about what happened at the ranch."
Ah. The reason I was even sent here.
"I'd prefer not to talk about it." was all I said on the matter.
Father just smiled and let out a chuckle. He reached into a pocket of his coat, pulled out a business card, and handed it to me. The number on the card was (000) 424-2564. Odd. 000 is not a valid are code…
"Call that number if you ever wanna chat up your old man, ok?"
Once again I just nodded and followed my mother and grandparents down an alleyway within the shopping center. The path we walked took odd turns and bends the whole way, and the light of the sun struggled to reach into the pathway with the only light really keeping the cobblestones visible being the lights of the many odd shops that dotted the alley. Eventually we arrived; two stores stacked on top of each other in a strange dip in the ground the one above ground was a tattoo parlor with a sign simply saying "Reeve's", and near the staircase leading to the below ground store was a smaller neon sign saying "Nuts N' Bolts" along with a helpful neon arrow showing the way.
"Well son!" Father said giving me a clap on the shoulder. "Time to get some ink."
"I'm sorry what?" was my reply. My eyes blinking in surprise.
"Just go with it, when it comes to your mom life gets easier and more interesting when you do."
I let out a sigh and tried to steel myself going in. I honestly never expected to have a tattoo and I never saw the appeal, let alone as a teenager. With my parents, my now very present and living in a manner of speaking parents, and grandparents accompanying me and giving their permission.
Good god what has my life become.
Mother opened up the door to the shop, an iridescent and odorless smoke curling out from within. When we got inside, the smoke was not filling the whole place but hugging tightly to the floor and ceiling constantly shifting from one color to the next. The walls were filled with framed sheets of artwork in varying styles, the furniture throughout the store was all antique and all from different cultures. Deep within the back of the shop we heard a man with an English accent loudly berating a simpering man.
"Go see who's at the bloody door you fucking muppet!"
Out of the back room, a rather put upon twenty-something with rather tasteful tattoos on his right arm dressed in some band shirt and jeans came out.
"Uh… d-do you h-have an appointment?" he stuttered out as he approached the front desk.
Mother smiled and cupped her hands around her mouth to yell "Hey Reeve! Your favorite apprentice and teacher is back in town for that collab!"
A commotion came from the back room and a very thin and somewhat tanned man wreathed in the same iridescent smoke that hugged the floor and ceiling. With golden eyes, extremely sharp features, pointed ears this man was clearly not human. With him closer, I could tell that the smoke was coming from glowing tattoos depicting swirling smoke around his midsection. The strange thin man's face went from surprise to a wide jovial smile
"Well it's about damn time!" He said.
Mother turned to address us
"This here is Reeve, this is his shop, in a previous life I was his mentor, in my life as Doreen McCullough I was his student."
Reeve stood up straight, no longer hunched over he had a clear foot and a half taller than me and was probably at least seven feet tall. He crossed his fully sleeved in ink arms before speaking.
"Best teacher and student I ever had." Reeve lightly swatted the chest of the skittish man beside him "My current apprentice here could learn a thing or too. Pay attention."
Reeve's Apprentice nodded, his eyes filling with determination despite looking like he was a hairs breadth from having a panic attack. Reeve began walking towards the back room of the shop, his apprentice following along, the rest of us coming by when he called out to us to follow him. The room we were in was spacious enough for the seven of us to move around in, there was an adjustable chair that looked like it could be arranged to be a massage table in the center. Much like the front of the store, the walls were filled with framed sheets of artwork.
"So who's the canvas?" Reeve asked looking through a rather impressive tool bench filled with various bits and bobs as well as pots of ink.
Evian decided that now would be the time to squirm and get out of my arms, Mother soon grabbed my shoulders and guided me over to the chair.
"This is my son Walter and this piece will be for him." Mother's voice was filled with joy and excitement.
"Placement?"
"Back."
"Nice." Reeve let out a whistle and smiled a bit wider then turned to his apprentice "Set the chair up for the little prince."
The apprentice did so.
Mother went over to Reeve and took her hoodie off, she was wearing a sleeveless tank and I could see a full sleeve tattoo that seemed to change styles as it went from wrist to neck in a multitude of colors, and began discussing something with him in Scots Gaelic. I took off my top layers and once the apprentice was done I leaned over the back of the chair while I sat, resting my chin on the headrest and hanging my arms over the arm rests that were not raised and angled to facilitate my current posture.
What came after was several hours of waiting; Finn was reading a magazine, Saoirse was apparently teaching Evian how to speak Irish, Father was resting his eyes as he sat on the floor against the wall, Mother and Reeve were hard at work sketching out the stencil.
Reeve stopped to show me what he'd be using; a pair of needles that would make most people a bit nervous. He said that normally he'd use a gun for this but he didn't want to "Flex a bit" and Saoirse took that as her cue to take Evian to the front of the store and teach him there with Finn following after. I suppose that's one way to find out your grandmother is afraid of needles.
When the stencil was done they placed it on my back and got to work. Mother and Reeve were gloved up and moving their tools over on small wheeled trays and tables. Mother wheeled her stool over to speak to me face to face.
"This tattoo will give you great speed and fortitude, son. I'd rather bless you with immortality and invulnerability but if I did I would be provoking fate just as Frigg did when she did so with Baldur." She whispered to me. "It won't prevent you from being harmed, but it will make it more difficult to be harmed."
Then they began.
I felt the needles pierce my skin and I grit my teeth a bit in response. Mother asked me to let her know if the pain got too much.
The pain of the needles was a mild annoyance in comparison to being stabbed, stung by a dream eating parasite, and being shot. The pain of the needles was almost comforting in a way, with every prick I felt power flow in to me. The rest of the session was silent and flew by quickly and I almost fell asleep a few times. Soon my mother and Reeve stopped and they told me it was done. They brought out a hand mirror and reflected the mirror my back was facing, giving me a good view of the now finished piece.
At first glance it was a tree that covered nearly my entire back. On closer inspection, the entirety of the piece was actually an extravagantly intricate Celtic knotwork. I thought I could make out some swooping runes in a few of the lighter and more visible knots of the tree. It was beautiful. On top of all that, I felt lighter and hardier then ever. Like I could run a marathon at full sprint and not get tired with no warm up, although I didn't want to test that.
"It's done!" Mom called out to Finn and Saoirse as she disposed of her gloves and pulled her hoodie back on. Then she took out a camera and took a few pictures of the piece.
My grandparents were rather impressed
"It looks great, honey." Finn said with a smile "Next time you visit maybe you can give your mom some ink."
"I would sooner burn my coat dear." was Saoirse's reply as she smiled at him
Reeve came over and handed a clipboard with some forms and a pen to them
"Yeah, seeing as how it's illegal to tattoo a minor without legal guardian's permission I need the both of you to sign these."
Saoirse rolled her eyes and got to reading and signing the paperwork. I stood up from the chair and started putting my shirt and coat back on. To my surprise there wasn't any soreness and I was fairly certain that I was supposed to have some kind of seal or something on the tattoo. Nobody stopped me and nobody was telling me about any hazards so I just chocked it up to magic.
Mother cleared her throat and I turned to face her.
"Normally with a Visitation you would be given a task by your patron, myself in this case. However, you're already planning on finding the one who attacked Taylor I take it?"
"Yes."
"Good. Then you will need a suitable weapon when you face them. You'll need it to face the evils you will come across and pursue."
"Not to mention. You're gonna need a nice costume with some protection to go with it." Father said walking up to me from his spot on the floor. "Make sure the feds, the jagoffs in their little gangs, and other similar undesirables don't come after you and yours."
Father brought up the suit case, released the clasps, then opened it. Inside were a silver belt buckle with a golden harp and a pair of crossing Irish flags behind it and a very ornate revolver.
Saoirse exhaled slowly, clearly wanting to say something in protest but not doing so. Finn just rubbed her shoulder.
"Try the buckle first, you'll see why when you do." said Father, gesturing to the plain belt I had on.
I switched the original plain buckle with the new one and fastened my belt.
"The belt is magical, it will allow you to change from your normal clothes to the Mantle of Midsummer. It's enchanted armor made specifically for you." Mother said. "It'll be a suitable disguise and the enchantments on it will help you deal with bullets. All you need to do to don the Mantle is to say something with the intent of calling it forth."
That sounded a bit familiar.
"Like some kind of catch phrase?" I asked her, inwardly cringing that this was the question I was comfortable asking.
Father chuckled and said "You should shout 'Drip' when you do it, it'll be lit! They say that nowadays right?"
Mother had the good sense to lightly elbow him in the ribs and tell him "You're sleeping on the couch tonight."
Father just laughed a little more.
Ah. Now I know why it seemed familiar. It reminded me of something Lily was talking about when we all were watching that show of hers. I had asked her why Kamen Riders pose and say their catchphrase. She said that it had its origins in kabuki theater, then when western media came to Japan it fused with the tropes from that media and became part of the general tropes of the medium. It was a signal to the audience that the hero was ready to face the villain and that the tide would turn.
With that, I moved away to give myself some room and faced the mirror on the wall.
I stood in profile, drawing my left arm across my chest as if drawing a pistol from a shoulder holster, aimed my hand as if were the drawn gun and took aim at my reflection with the index finger out and my thumb raised.
"Let's ride." I said, willing the Mantle to come out.
Vines and leaves sprouted from the belt and covered all but my eyes, my clothes shifting and a bundle forming on my head in a vague hat shape. The belt grew a holster and several rings the perfect size and shape to carry moon clips and the buckle changed designs, now depicting a rose with a pair of crossed revolvers. Just like the wax seal of the letter Evian had brought. The vines and leaves broke away in a shimmering light, leaving no debris. On my head was the cleanest and purest white cattleman I had ever laid eyes on, a forest green bandanna covered my face below my eyes, I was wearing a black long sleeve button up with a very intricate rose and thorned vine embroidery, a dark green duster, some nicer boot-cut jeans, and the nicest pair of roper's boots I'd ever worn. All I needed to add were the spurs I had at home to make the ensemble complete.
Father let out a low whistle "Just as sharp lookin' as his old man."
"It does suit you" My mother clearly agreed
Finn gave me a thumbs up and Saoirse took in the outfit nodding in approval.
"What's a cowboy without his gun?" said Father, handing me the gun by the barrel "Bullets will come later when you're ready to bring in that psycho that hurt your friend."
The gun in question was a Remington 1858 New Model Army, a cartridge conversion to be specific. Standard eight-inch barrel, six shot cylinder, yew grips. The frame of the gun was bronze plated with silver inlaid vine engravings on the cylinder and along the barrel were runes;
ᚲᛖᚨᛜᛚᛟᛁᚱ ᚨᛗᚨᛞᚨᚾ
I holstered the weapon and willed the Mantle away, figuring that if I had to will it forth I could will it away. Once again the vines came forth, this time undoing the change and taking the gun along with it.
"Does the gun have a name?" I asked Mother
"Fool Binder. The gun's magic will turn any bullet in its chambers into fae shot. They won't kill, but they will paralyze whoever they hit with intense wracking pain."
She walked up and hugged me tight.
"When your current quest for justice is over, you will be given duties. But for now, please find the culprit. There is also one last thing to tell you; by a trick of fate that I couldn't predict you've been under geas your whole life. A compulsion to face any evil in front of you."
"I don't need a compulsion to do that." I said, somewhat smugly I'll admit "Not like I'd stop doing it if it wasn't there, now there's just more incentive not to."
The smile on Mother's face went away for a second, her eyes however stayed sad.
"Goodbye son." was all she said, giving me one last hug, Father joining in.
"Don't worry, we'll pop in from time to time." Father said "We have a lot of parental bonding to catch up on."
The both of them took a step back and waved us goodbye, disappearing in an ethereal light.
Evian hopped back up on to my shoulder and perched himself like he was a parrot on a pirate's shoulder. I didn't give him a glare or brush him off, didn't want to kill the moment.
Finn put a hand on my free shoulder and gave me a reassuring squeeze.
"Who wants tacos at the M&M?" He asked jovially "All these heartfelt reunions and talk of quests works up the appetite."
"One shouldn't start a quest on an empty stomach, dear." Saoirse added helpfully.
"I could eat." I told them, not worrying about the small smile on my face.
We bid our goodbyes to Reeve and his apprentice and made the short walk to the market in silence. When we got to the market Lily was waiting just outside, her face growing a determined smile when she saw me. She opened the door for Finn & Saoirse to walk inside and stopped me before I could walk in after them. She locked eyes with me and said;
"Man, have I got something to show you."
Mal-3
Fun Tyrant
That's... an interesting divergence with the potential for some odd butterfly effects down the line. Anyway.
General criticism: This chapter feels a little topheavy with the exposition and Walt may be a little too chill with the whole we're-your-parents-back-from-the-dead-and-also-gods-and-btw-guess-what? thing, but I guess it's best to get the whole Visitation thing out of the way quick and hard, get our three non-comatose main characters on the same page and ready to start tracking down fools for a little divine retribution. Which is where I'm kinda hoping we're going next - maybe with a diversion towards Johnny, Panpan and Madison - but it's time to get the Band moving, y'know?
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
Yeah...
Exposition heavy chapters make me want to throw my head through a damn wall. The simple solution to a lot of my problems writing this is to scrap it and start over, however I have committed to this and a now a masochist. Walt being too chill is a thing. I was trying to send home that he really doesn't know how to react so he defaults to silence. This is not conveyed well due to my crappy writing. As for where we're going, next up is Donnie and his wacky misadventures pulling his head out of his own ass. Where he bumblefucks his way into the investigation and we find out some shit.
Hopefully I can actually write it in a way that is both entertaining and doesn't make me want to throw my head through a wall.
ExaltedNekoKun
Exalted Glorious Feline Light Source!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him/Lord/Fuzzball
Show, don't tell is one of the more potent writing tools, unfortunately when a character needs to be 'read in' to something, and you're not going for some dramatic reveal using info given off screen... it doesn't really work.
Honestly, the only way to blunt the Exposition stick is to thread it in a scene where other stuff is going on. In writing, it makes for a noisy and more difficult to follow scene, but if pulled off well can end up being more than the sum of its parts.
Honestly, the only way to blunt the Exposition stick is to thread it in a scene where other stuff is going on. In writing, it makes for a noisy and more difficult to follow scene, but if pulled off well can end up being more than the sum of its parts.
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
I'm gonna be honest, i think that 2.6 is the worst chaper ive written so far.
Do you guys think i should rewrite it or just move on to 2.7?
Do you guys think i should rewrite it or just move on to 2.7?
Walt's Character Sheet & Relics
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
Since I forgot to do this when I dropped 2.6 here's Walt's starting Legend 1 character sheet. Gonna run down his abilities and relic like I did with Lily, although since I went over the specifics of stats and what they mean with her this will be a much shorter piece. Although I will reiterate; I am using a house rule that gives both Boons from the Scion's Pantheon Signature Purview and two of their Innate Purview's Boons for free rather than just choosing two total.
BE WARNED! Minor spoilers are in his Paths but it's kinda transparent and on theme so it's not entirely a spoiler, but still erring on the side of caution and letting you all know now.
Page 1 link in case the embed doesn't work
I am going to just come out and say this: Building Walt as a Scion was a royal poin in the ass. I knew what his shtick was, I knew what stats would suit him, but goddamn his Paths, first Legendary Title, Knacks, Relics, and Purviews were a bitch. But eventually I slammed my head into the wall enough times to figure him out.
Let's start from the top and work our way down as per usual;
The keen eyed among you may notice that his Athletics specialty is equestrianism, normally horse riding is under the pilot skill in Scion (for some reason) but I'm house ruling it as athletics purely because it makes more sense for riding an animal to be an athletic action rather than a mechanical action (at least to me). Walt is a rough and tumble kid and did get into fights with people back home in Wyoming, mostly started by others and thus his Hand-To-Hand specialty. He did a lot of shooting with his Grandfather and went on hunts with him, but he was more a marksman than an outdoorsman and prefers the six gun hence his predilection for revolvers. His Integrity is high by nature of him being the most stubborn SOB you will meet and nobody barring adults he actually respects and defers to (his grandparents or parents) he will ignore anybody telling him otherwise, luckily this has helped him hone an Iron Will as his Integrity specialty. His other skills are all just what I thought that he'd dabble in and thus went with that.
Walt's attribute spread was a lot easier he is a Physical Primary with his favored approach being Resilience, with Mental being his secondary and Social his tertiary. His best two stats; Composure and Dex. Nothing outwardly phases him and his draw is fucking fast, not a slow bastard by any stretch either. He is average intelligence, not the most clever person, and if not for being a juggernaut of a dude he would blend in to the background, he's also not one for lying.
His Title actually came from this reply early on;
Thanks TSBasilisk!
His paths kind of speak for themselves, but his Pantheon path is a minor spoiler. When all is said and done, Walt will be the Seelie Court's personal bounty hunter, fae that are causing a ruckus amongst the mortals will be brought before Dawn (as Titania) after Walt drags them kicking and screaming to her court. Granted he will have to work up to the Big Fellas. According to a friend of mine who read Dresden Files this sounded a lot like the Summer Knight. So a bit of serendipity has given him a nice hook.
Page 2 in case the imgur embed doesnt work
Originally Walt was going to be super gimped, basically the demigod equivalent of a mule. Since he was the child of two seperate pantheons, he would have access to neither PSP but still have the downsides of the innates of both (He would know how he dies but not the context and he'd be under Geas but gain no Momentum from it) this would have been a massive overcorrection so I just had him do the thing they suggested you do with a Scion of two deities in 1e with the Deva write up; take the purviews of one and the callings of the other.
Callings; Walt is primarily a Hunter with him just barely dipping his toes into the Warrior and Guardian callings.
Apex Predator - If Walt's target attacks him or tries to counter hunt him and his target is a lower tier than him (so Mortals atm) have a more difficult time actually doing anything to him, if the target is his quarry than the difficulty is even greater
Keen Eyed Predator - You know those scenes in westerns or in an action movie where the hero walks into a seemingly empty location, keeps walking, and instinctively knows about the dudes about to blast him away? This knack gives Walt that power. Mechanically its a knack skill roll and the player would be able to ask the Storyteller the amount of successes he rolled in questions. The example questions in the book are "What kinds of hazards are present, where is the closest exit, whats the safest way in, how many hostiles" etc
Most Dangerous Prey - Remember how Apex Predator had quarry in italics? Thats because of this knack. This knack lets Walt choose an enemy to be his Quarry and he gets enhancement to all rolls against them until they are caught by him (or the end of the session whichever comes first but this aint a tabletop gaming session so it's not likely to end that way). This knack grants Walt to special stunts; Stalk (make another movement after resolving an attack) or Snare (trap the target in place)
Hunter knacks are perfect for making a Dead By Daylight Killer btw.
Trick Shot is Walt's only Warrior knack at the moment and it was chosen solely because its such a cowboy knack. If Walt decides to walk the path of Revolver Ocelot and do some wicked gunplay than the difficulty instead becomes enhancement. THATS RIGHT HE SHOOTS BETTER WHEN HE DICKS AROUND!
A Sentinel is a fun little Guardian knack; Walt guards either a person or a group of trivials (i.e. a bunch of random passersby Walt doesn't personally know) as his charge and thus gets better at defending and they get better at defending (themselves) while Walt gets enhancement to keeping track of and defending his charge(es)
PURVIEWS!
Walt's Pantheon Signature Purview is Geasa. The innate is that he's under Geis and thus gains momentum whenever obeying it causes trouble. Walt's geas is "You must face any evil in front of you". Its boons; Lay Geis and Tongue of the Bard.
Lay Geis allows him to put someone under a geis of their own at the cost of a point of legend (which comes back if the geis is ever broken) with the only limitation being that the person under geis must be able to uphold it immedietly when the geis is placed on them, which means banning someone from wearing red while they're wearing red wouldn't work since the person is wearing red.
Tounge of the Bard is a fun one; by imbuing Legend, Walt speaks the truthful answer of a question he asks (the Storyteller) either in an impassioned speech or a rhyme and gets Enhancement 3 to any action that benefits from it. I can't wait to use this!
Walt's innate purview is a conversion of the 1e purview of Epic Perception (they gave this as an example in Mysteries of the World for doing so) and it was chosen purely because I couldn't think of anything to give him until I already wrote 2.1 and at this point im committed to it. The innate power is that he is immune to all mundane forms of surprise and thus gets to act in a surprise round, unless the surprise comes form a supernatural (or parahuman) source which means he'd have to roll a clash of wills (NARRATIVE TENSION FOR THE WIN!) which means he could get jumped.
The boon Predatory Focus gives enhancement to all attack rolls so long as Walt only attacks a character he specifies. It's the "LET's FUCK UP THIS GUY IN PARTICULAR" power, if he attacks someone else the boon ends.
Third Eye. It's essentially a max level Detect Magic/Scouter supernatural edition at the cost of imbuing legend. Basically magical things come up with a halo of light around them, the brighter the halo the stronger the magic (and the higher the legend if they have one) it also grants enhancement to see through magical illusions.
Epic Stamina I covered with Lily, but Walt has Unbreakable as a boon instead. Unbreakable is a reflexive action, if someone tries to damage Walt then he can spend a point of Legend to negate it, alternatively he can do this counter to negate a debilitating injury or loss of physical ability (losing a limb or breaking his spine)
Fortune! The one I haven't covered. Fortune's innate; Cowboy here can sense the presence of Fatebindings, and if he meets the other half of a Fatebinding he knows of he can tell that two people are bound together. He can also sense when Prophets and Sorcerers manipulate Fate with their abilities even if they normally wouldn't be able to be perceived. This purview is tied to his guide, Evian. Fluff wise that means that buddy cat is teaching him this shit. God help his sanity.
RELICS!
I went over The Fool Binder in an earlier threadmarked informational post, it's a fae shot revolver that can bank shots accurately. His back tat channels the powers of epic stamina and epic dex, not much. If he gets skinned (easier than you'd think with Scions) that counts as his relic no longer being on his person. His armor is The Mantle of Midsummer, it is the uniform for the Knight of Midsummer (totally not the Summer Knight) and is a bulletproof duster that he can call forth from his belt buckle.
We all know about Evian. But did you know his full name and title? Sir Evian of Beantown, Knight of the Noble House of Fiona, First and Only Familiar of The Goddess Dawn, First and Only Familiar of Walt Connolly. Evian is the best study buddy and best magic teacher you could have, however he is a chatty bastard.
AND THUS THE SHEET OVERVIEW IS OVER! ENJOY THYSELVES!
Next up is Donnie's chapter and then we get his nifty stuff out of the way. Luckily he hast more Knacks than Birthrights.
BE WARNED! Minor spoilers are in his Paths but it's kinda transparent and on theme so it's not entirely a spoiler, but still erring on the side of caution and letting you all know now.
Page 1 link in case the embed doesn't work
I am going to just come out and say this: Building Walt as a Scion was a royal poin in the ass. I knew what his shtick was, I knew what stats would suit him, but goddamn his Paths, first Legendary Title, Knacks, Relics, and Purviews were a bitch. But eventually I slammed my head into the wall enough times to figure him out.
Let's start from the top and work our way down as per usual;
The keen eyed among you may notice that his Athletics specialty is equestrianism, normally horse riding is under the pilot skill in Scion (for some reason) but I'm house ruling it as athletics purely because it makes more sense for riding an animal to be an athletic action rather than a mechanical action (at least to me). Walt is a rough and tumble kid and did get into fights with people back home in Wyoming, mostly started by others and thus his Hand-To-Hand specialty. He did a lot of shooting with his Grandfather and went on hunts with him, but he was more a marksman than an outdoorsman and prefers the six gun hence his predilection for revolvers. His Integrity is high by nature of him being the most stubborn SOB you will meet and nobody barring adults he actually respects and defers to (his grandparents or parents) he will ignore anybody telling him otherwise, luckily this has helped him hone an Iron Will as his Integrity specialty. His other skills are all just what I thought that he'd dabble in and thus went with that.
Walt's attribute spread was a lot easier he is a Physical Primary with his favored approach being Resilience, with Mental being his secondary and Social his tertiary. His best two stats; Composure and Dex. Nothing outwardly phases him and his draw is fucking fast, not a slow bastard by any stretch either. He is average intelligence, not the most clever person, and if not for being a juggernaut of a dude he would blend in to the background, he's also not one for lying.
His Title actually came from this reply early on;
Thanks TSBasilisk!
His paths kind of speak for themselves, but his Pantheon path is a minor spoiler. When all is said and done, Walt will be the Seelie Court's personal bounty hunter, fae that are causing a ruckus amongst the mortals will be brought before Dawn (as Titania) after Walt drags them kicking and screaming to her court. Granted he will have to work up to the Big Fellas. According to a friend of mine who read Dresden Files this sounded a lot like the Summer Knight. So a bit of serendipity has given him a nice hook.
Page 2 in case the imgur embed doesnt work
Originally Walt was going to be super gimped, basically the demigod equivalent of a mule. Since he was the child of two seperate pantheons, he would have access to neither PSP but still have the downsides of the innates of both (He would know how he dies but not the context and he'd be under Geas but gain no Momentum from it) this would have been a massive overcorrection so I just had him do the thing they suggested you do with a Scion of two deities in 1e with the Deva write up; take the purviews of one and the callings of the other.
Callings; Walt is primarily a Hunter with him just barely dipping his toes into the Warrior and Guardian callings.
Apex Predator - If Walt's target attacks him or tries to counter hunt him and his target is a lower tier than him (so Mortals atm) have a more difficult time actually doing anything to him, if the target is his quarry than the difficulty is even greater
Keen Eyed Predator - You know those scenes in westerns or in an action movie where the hero walks into a seemingly empty location, keeps walking, and instinctively knows about the dudes about to blast him away? This knack gives Walt that power. Mechanically its a knack skill roll and the player would be able to ask the Storyteller the amount of successes he rolled in questions. The example questions in the book are "What kinds of hazards are present, where is the closest exit, whats the safest way in, how many hostiles" etc
Most Dangerous Prey - Remember how Apex Predator had quarry in italics? Thats because of this knack. This knack lets Walt choose an enemy to be his Quarry and he gets enhancement to all rolls against them until they are caught by him (or the end of the session whichever comes first but this aint a tabletop gaming session so it's not likely to end that way). This knack grants Walt to special stunts; Stalk (make another movement after resolving an attack) or Snare (trap the target in place)
Hunter knacks are perfect for making a Dead By Daylight Killer btw.
Trick Shot is Walt's only Warrior knack at the moment and it was chosen solely because its such a cowboy knack. If Walt decides to walk the path of Revolver Ocelot and do some wicked gunplay than the difficulty instead becomes enhancement. THATS RIGHT HE SHOOTS BETTER WHEN HE DICKS AROUND!
A Sentinel is a fun little Guardian knack; Walt guards either a person or a group of trivials (i.e. a bunch of random passersby Walt doesn't personally know) as his charge and thus gets better at defending and they get better at defending (themselves) while Walt gets enhancement to keeping track of and defending his charge(es)
PURVIEWS!
Walt's Pantheon Signature Purview is Geasa. The innate is that he's under Geis and thus gains momentum whenever obeying it causes trouble. Walt's geas is "You must face any evil in front of you". Its boons; Lay Geis and Tongue of the Bard.
Lay Geis allows him to put someone under a geis of their own at the cost of a point of legend (which comes back if the geis is ever broken) with the only limitation being that the person under geis must be able to uphold it immedietly when the geis is placed on them, which means banning someone from wearing red while they're wearing red wouldn't work since the person is wearing red.
Tounge of the Bard is a fun one; by imbuing Legend, Walt speaks the truthful answer of a question he asks (the Storyteller) either in an impassioned speech or a rhyme and gets Enhancement 3 to any action that benefits from it. I can't wait to use this!
Walt's innate purview is a conversion of the 1e purview of Epic Perception (they gave this as an example in Mysteries of the World for doing so) and it was chosen purely because I couldn't think of anything to give him until I already wrote 2.1 and at this point im committed to it. The innate power is that he is immune to all mundane forms of surprise and thus gets to act in a surprise round, unless the surprise comes form a supernatural (or parahuman) source which means he'd have to roll a clash of wills (NARRATIVE TENSION FOR THE WIN!) which means he could get jumped.
The boon Predatory Focus gives enhancement to all attack rolls so long as Walt only attacks a character he specifies. It's the "LET's FUCK UP THIS GUY IN PARTICULAR" power, if he attacks someone else the boon ends.
Third Eye. It's essentially a max level Detect Magic/Scouter supernatural edition at the cost of imbuing legend. Basically magical things come up with a halo of light around them, the brighter the halo the stronger the magic (and the higher the legend if they have one) it also grants enhancement to see through magical illusions.
Epic Stamina I covered with Lily, but Walt has Unbreakable as a boon instead. Unbreakable is a reflexive action, if someone tries to damage Walt then he can spend a point of Legend to negate it, alternatively he can do this counter to negate a debilitating injury or loss of physical ability (losing a limb or breaking his spine)
Fortune! The one I haven't covered. Fortune's innate; Cowboy here can sense the presence of Fatebindings, and if he meets the other half of a Fatebinding he knows of he can tell that two people are bound together. He can also sense when Prophets and Sorcerers manipulate Fate with their abilities even if they normally wouldn't be able to be perceived. This purview is tied to his guide, Evian. Fluff wise that means that buddy cat is teaching him this shit. God help his sanity.
RELICS!
I went over The Fool Binder in an earlier threadmarked informational post, it's a fae shot revolver that can bank shots accurately. His back tat channels the powers of epic stamina and epic dex, not much. If he gets skinned (easier than you'd think with Scions) that counts as his relic no longer being on his person. His armor is The Mantle of Midsummer, it is the uniform for the Knight of Midsummer (totally not the Summer Knight) and is a bulletproof duster that he can call forth from his belt buckle.
We all know about Evian. But did you know his full name and title? Sir Evian of Beantown, Knight of the Noble House of Fiona, First and Only Familiar of The Goddess Dawn, First and Only Familiar of Walt Connolly. Evian is the best study buddy and best magic teacher you could have, however he is a chatty bastard.
AND THUS THE SHEET OVERVIEW IS OVER! ENJOY THYSELVES!
Next up is Donnie's chapter and then we get his nifty stuff out of the way. Luckily he hast more Knacks than Birthrights.
Last edited:
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
I fixed the imgur embed problem on the previous post. While I'm posting this, what do you guys think of the fic so far and are the character sheets ok? Like they're not busted or annoying to read through are they?
- Location
- Classified
Seems neat so far, not enough Scion content out there. The imgur links don't work for me, though.
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
I added hypertext links. Glad you're enjoying it. Scion needs more buzz IMO great system and setting (1e's setting that is, 2e is a mess).
Re; Band's Progress since I'm here.
I got a good section of 2.7 outlined, although now thats 2.8 and 2.7 is something new. Also rearranged some plot stuff for better flow. All thanks to the power of highly caffeinated beverages and a massive headache.
ExaltedNekoKun
Exalted Glorious Feline Light Source!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him/Lord/Fuzzball
That! That is ominous, not reassuring. That's the line of anti-reassuring-ness. I'm not reassured, here!
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
That! That is ominous, not reassuring. That's the line of anti-reassuring-ness. I'm not reassured!
I think we all have our rotuals and vices that fuel our creative endeavors. Mine hapoens to be drinking energy drinks more than one at a time.
Sadly the side effext also includes ideas for OTHER stories other than the one im working on. Then it all gets clogged up and shit amd you have ro work through it. I dont plan on splitting off and doing something else tho. Not unless i hit the wall on this one and need a break.
ExaltedNekoKun
Exalted Glorious Feline Light Source!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him/Lord/Fuzzball
That sounds like how you make a seizure... Maybe an idea seizure. You get ideas, but they're not the ideas you were trying to get. You get the idea?
I'd offer wisdom or advice, but I never put in the effort nor seriously practiced aside from when I had to as an assignment, and the last such was almost two decades ago. So instead I shall say, whatever works, more power to you, and I'll be watching my notifications with anticipation. And dread. Maybe a little dread, now.
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
...
That was totally planned and in no way u intentional. You have a grwat eye for details and I totally didnt just not notice that now...
Carry on.
Bend & Break 2-7
- Location
- Mausheim, USA
Taylor
01/12/11
01/12/11
When I came to, I heard my mother's humming more clearly and felt a gentle hand running through my hair. That humming and now the hand thing, Mom would do that when I was really young after particularly bad nightmares. Not unlike the one I'd just lived through. Despite being awake I didn't dare open my eyes, not after having dreams like this before. I knew how this would go if I did; either my mother wouldn't be there or she would be leaving me. You would think that small bit of rekindled confidence from meeting Walt, Lily, and Donnie would have been enough to take a leap of faith on this. You would be wrong.
I just laid there, trying not to open my eyes, trying to steady my breathing, trying not to hope.
I don't know how long I was forcing myself, could have been second, could have been hours, but soon the humming and the gentle hand in my hair stopped. I felt tears starting to form, my breath catching in my throat, all fearing the worst part of dreams like this.
"Shh. It's alright my little owl…"
My mother never speaks in dreams like this. My eyes shot open, my mother was smiling over me.
Good fucking god. This chapter. It's only 200 words, I apologize, but fucking A this took like 8 rewrites. I am so sorry. I've felt like slamming my head through a wall and if I don't post something I will lose what little momentum I have. I tried some writing exercises to clear the jam in my head but that's just causing problems of its own. In other news, some of you may have noticed some renaming of the chapters. Trying to make this thing less of an incoherent mess as it is. I don't want to let this thing die especially here. I will make a much better chapter in future.