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Exalted: Out Of The Eater

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Is it not possible to be so overcome by anxiety that we can't talk to him and just run off? It seems like a good source of future angst and would foreshadow initiation into Necromancy pretty well.
 
RedV said:
Is it not possible to be so overcome by anxiety that we can't talk to him and just run off? It seems like a good source of future angst and would foreshadow initiation into Necromancy pretty well.
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Or we can not abuse anxiety for cheap drama, that'd be awesome...? I guarantee you, it's not as enticingly dramatic or necromancy-inducing as you think. It's mostly just humiliating and demeaning.
 
[X] Tell him to fuck off with his defeatist bullshit. He clearly hasn't been paying attention to these sermons if he can't see that nothing but good is coming in the future BAYBHEE!!! Gonna be nothing but sunshine and roses and shit.

:V :V :V :V :V
 
TenfoldShields said:
Who is it who offers first? Who asks and who reciprocates? Do you even know? Does it even matter?

There's no real privacy in the helot quarter but the two of you still find a space, a little alley between the buildings where the shadows cluster thick. It's cramped but it's cool and the wind is softer here, people walk past now and then but none cut through, none disturb you. You kiss him and he buries his face in the crook of your neck, the joint between shoulder and throat. His arms wrapped around you, his hands slipping lower. Your own exploring him, feeling the hard planes of muscle and the starker spars of bone. Stroking the heavy brawn of his breast, fingers gliding across the tanned skin; lacing together beneath his tunic, across his back. Savoring the way you make him shiver despite himself. Blonde hair hangs half over his eyes, he doesn't quite look at you.

"Do you enjoy me?" Jason murmurs.

"I think you're beautiful," you say. He laughs, a hitching, hiccuping noise in the sharp bark and holds you tighter. He steps in closer, all but pinning you against the wall. It goes fast after that, a steady degeneration. Preparing you and asking if you're alright and then kinder concerns giving way to harsh gasps and barely stifled moans. He's gentler with you than he really needs to be; like he's worried you'll break or shatter in your grip. You take him with your back braced against the side of the building, your legs around his waist. The two of you more than half naked, nearly nude but for open jackets and hiked up shirts.

His face buried beneath your jaw, your nails digging into the dense muscle, both your breathing coming in ragged pants as you finish. He makes no mood to clean up, to get decent, just standing there chest to chest. Letting it last as long as he can.

"(It'll be alright)," he says, repeating it like a mantra as the two of you cling to each other. The rest of the world dead and gone. "(It'll be alright, I'll make it alright)."

In the morning you wake to see a hundred carrion crows circling the town of Ivory Bones, watching, waiting, as a new brace of "battle-standards" are raised, the old ones, the rotting carcasses finally cut down. The next day they slash everyone's rations, working you all double-pace.
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oh no

I have remarkably little narrative awareness, but even I can see the doom flags here.
TenfoldShields said:
"It's not that," he hisses, rounding on you and you can see, now that his eyes are glassy, bloodshot, the skin around them slightly swollen and puffy. All around you the helots are milling about, the edges of the crowd dissolving and fraying as people filter away. Nobody pays attention to you to,w nobody has the energy to care. "Xauma is coming now Alexius, they'll be here in a few hours, less maybe. Sidonia's ordered the army to liquidate the slaves. You were right. You were fucking right."

The smile slowly, slowly slips from your face. Every feeling ebbs away, empties you out. Somewhere, far from you, you feel the panic start. A rolling wave building and building, rising to catastrophic heights.

"Oh," you say.
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ahhh shit

[X] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.

To be honest I don't... really buy Alexiuss and Jason's relationship as actual romance? Like, I said above I have surprisingly little narrative awareness, so I actually have no idea if Jason is an Encrypted One or not, but if he is then I can totally get on board with twisting the knife in him, but, mm... I guess it's that I can totally see why Alexiuss goes for Jason, he's hot and he's giving and when you're in shit state like most Helots are it's easy to latch on to the small things. But I don't feel like I've got much of a sense for why Jason is or would be into Alexiuss, which on one level means I don't really buy the relationship as a reciprocal romance, which is not a knock against Tenfold; that seems to be what Tenfold is going for, with even Alexiuss being explicitly unsure if love is on the table, but it also means that if Jason is Encrypted, I don't think saying we love him would... actually twist the knife very much? Less, "oh shit, I'm falling for my target," more, "aww look, my dupe's fallen for my charms, it's almost like he's people." So I kind of go with random_npc on this one, that a reminder of the disparity between us would be more effective. And, y'know, if Jason is exactly what he appears to be, it's still a nice sentiment.
Kaiya said:
that seems like it'd create more problems than it solves. what about stopping when we have a firm grip on the power structures of lookshy and have killed all the big names profiting off of slavery and enforced a new order
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Honestly uh, at this point, once you've killed the big names profiting off of slavery, you've basically razed Lookshy to the ground already. Because "the big names" are mainly, "the City, the Goddess, the entire Citizen class."

So yeah, no, fire and sword to the whole deal, liberty through bathing in the blood of tyrants.
 
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Hmm, point, simply truly gratefully thanking him might cut MUUUUCH deeper than the love bit.

[X] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.

Nothing ratchets up guilt quite as much as stringless gratitude.
 
TenfoldShields said:
"Xauma is coming now Alexius, they'll be here in a few hours, less maybe. Sidonia's ordered the army to liquidate the slaves. You were right. You were fucking right."
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Grave digger, grave digger, please, let me be the one who got away...

[ ] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.
[ ] Tell him you love him. You don't...know if you do, really, you don't know what love feels like. But he makes you feel something like whole, something like wanted, and you want to make him feel the same way too.


Honestly, segue from the first half of the first one into the second one, and I'd be sold.

But between those two, I suppose the one that speaks to me more is the story of doomed love. It something nobody can take from you, something that transcends the aches and the pains and the weight of all creation on your back. And it is doomed because the executioners draw near and no amount of clever helot plotting will see them through that. And, of course, it is similarly doomed if it is betrayed by one of them.

But say it. Earnestly. Honestly. Openly. It is the closest thing to positive intimacy Alexius has had in ages and now, in the hour of his death, he must know it will be the last thing close to positive intimacy with another man that he will have.


[x] Tell him you love him. You don't...know if you do, really, you don't know what love feels like. But he makes you feel something like whole, something like wanted, and you want to make him feel the same way too.

Say it. Or die trying.
 
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Cornuthaum said:
Grave digger, grave digger, please, let me be the one who got away...

[ ] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.
[ ] Tell him you love him. You don't...know if you do, really, you don't know what love feels like. But he makes you feel something like whole, something like wanted, and you want to make him feel the same way too.


Honestly, segue from the first half of the first one into the second one, and I'd be sold.

But between those two, I suppose the one that speaks to me more is the story of doomed love. It something nobody can take from you, something that transcends the aches and the pains and the weight of all creation on your back. And it is doomed because the executioners draw near and no amount of clever helot plotting will see them through that. And, of course, it is similarly doomed if it is betrayed by one of them.

But say it. Earnestly. Honestly. Openly. It is the closest thing to positive intimacy Alexius has had in ages and now, in the hour of his death, he must know it will be the last thing close to positive intimacy with another man that he will have.


[x] Tell him you love him. You don't...know if you do, really, you don't know what love feels like. But he makes you feel something like whole, something like wanted, and you want to make him feel the same way too.

Say it. Or die trying.
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Save me if you can, the time for me has come...let me be the one that got awaaaaaay...
 
Imrix said:
To be honest I don't... really buy Alexiuss and Jason's relationship as actual romance? Like, I said above I have surprisingly little narrative awareness, so I actually have no idea if Jason is an Encrypted One or not, but if he is then I can totally get on board with twisting the knife in him, but, mm... I guess it's that I can totally see why Alexiuss goes for Jason, he's hot and he's giving and when you're in shit state like most Helots are it's easy to latch on to the small things. But I don't feel like I've got much of a sense for why Jason is or would be into Alexiuss, which on one level means I don't really buy the relationship as a reciprocal romance, which is not a knock against Tenfold; that seems to be what Tenfold is going for, with even Alexiuss being explicitly unsure if love is on the table, but it also means that if Jason is Encrypted, I don't think saying we love him would... actually twist the knife very much? Less, "oh shit, I'm falling for my target," more, "aww look, my dupe's fallen for my charms, it's almost like he's people." So I kind of go with random_npc on this one, that a reminder of the disparity between us would be more effective. And, y'know, if Jason is exactly what he appears to be, it's still a nice sentiment.
Honestly uh, at this point, once you've killed the big names profiting off of slavery, you've basically razed Lookshy to the ground already. Because "the big names" are mainly, "the City, the Goddess, the entire Citizen class."

So yeah, no, fire and sword to the whole deal, liberty through bathing in the blood of tyrants.
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Not to be overly disparaging but I think you just didn't get it. I'm on my phone atm so I won't go back and quote the relevant passages but we're hardly 100k words deep so I'm sure you can find them yourself if you want to check :V

Jason has been pretty obviously been having a slow face-turn because he's been around Alexius. Helots are supposed to be less than human, just disposable slavemeat that work until they die like animals, but Alexius gave up some of what precious little he had to Jason just because he didn't want to see him waste away like him (and to prove to himself that he still had some shred of agency). Jason was pretty clearly affected by this, and shared some of his food back in kind. Then we have the conversation about bravery which pretty pointedly had Jason covering up his reactions by shovelling food down his throat and then choking on it because some of it hit home. Now we've got him behaving all anxious and jumpy as the sermons start (which another Encrypted attended to scope out) and Calibration comes. Now he's just flat-out trying to save Alexius' life, like... I dunno how he could be clearer on that front without outright stating it?

If it was "aww look, my dupe's fallen for my charms, it's almost like he's people" then he wouldn't even have warned Alexius and generally wouldn't be behaving like this. He'd be keeping calm and carrying on right up til he conveniently slips away just before, I dunno, Lookshy drops a giant cartoon anvil on the gathered helots.
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
Not to be overly disparaging but I think you just didn't get it. I'm on my phone atm so I won't go back and quote the relevant passages but we're hardly 100k words deep so I'm sure you can find them yourself if you want to check :V

Jason has been pretty obviously been having a slow face-turn because he's been around Alexius. Helots are supposed to be less than human, just disposable slavemeat that work until they die like animals, but Alexius gave up some of what precious little he had to Jason just because he didn't want to see him waste away like him (and to prove to himself that he still had some shred of agency). Jason was pretty clearly affected by this, and shared some of his food back in kind. Then we have the conversation about bravery which pretty pointedly had Jason covering up his reactions by shovelling food down his throat and then choking on it because some of it hit home. Now we've got him behaving all anxious and jumpy as the sermons start (which another Encrypted attended to scope out) and Calibration comes. Now he's just flat-out trying to save Alexius' life, like... I dunno how he could be clearer on that front without outright stating it?

If it was "aww look, my dupe's fallen for my charms, it's almost like he's people" then he wouldn't even have warned Alexius and generally wouldn't be behaving like this. He'd be keeping calm and carrying on right up til he conveniently slips away just before, I dunno, Lookshy drops a giant cartoon anvil on the gathered helots.
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See, that works very well, but only if Jason is Encrypted, which again I'm not entirely sold on. Or I mean, I wasn't until Tenfold rated your post Insightful so, yeah, I guess I just didn't twig to the signs and bought his fisherman story. This doesn't surprise me - see above re: little narrative awareness.
 
[X] Tell him that it'll be alright. That he's done the best he can but you're just helots, and if you survive it'll be luck as much as skill and if you die it...won't matter as much to you. Because you'll be together.

Just to make the betrayal extra poignant.
 
[X] Tell him you love him. You don't...know if you do, really, you don't know what love feels like. But he makes you feel something like whole, something like wanted, and you want to make him feel the same way too.

If "oh-gods-fuck-we're-all-going-to-die" isn't the right time for a maybe-love confession, then I don't know what is. Nothing like an impending, painful death to make our lips loose.
 
[X] Tell him you love him. You don't...know if you do, really, you don't know what love feels like. But he makes you feel something like whole, something like wanted, and you want to make him feel the same way too.
 
[X] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.
 
[ ] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.
 
[X] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.
 
Part of me still wants to believe Jason isn't a plant but then again I also thought Gahm wouldn't sellout Chris in Shadowrun so maybe I'm just hopelessly naive.

[X] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.

'You've ranked up the Tower social link!

Alexius will now die for you.'
 
[X] Tell him you love him. You don't...know if you do, really, you don't know what love feels like. But he makes you feel something like whole, something like wanted, and you want to make him feel the same way too.

God, i just want to hug every single person in this update. Especially scalie boi who had his fangs taken out. ;-;
 
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[X] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.
 
ManusDomini said:
The Encrypted Ones are not treated as helots, they just infiltrate their ranks. They're taken from Citizenry and the gentes and they're inspired by the very real kryptaeia from Sparta.
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Ah. My assumption was that the Encrypted Ones were essentially deep-cover KGB agents, living their lives among the helotry in order to poison them from within; hence, I assumed that their status would be hidden from everyone except whatever federal organization sponsors/trains them, since otherwise the helots would get suspicious of the "fellow comrade" who never gets whipped or recreationally branded or whatever by the overseers.

If we're instead looking at more a short-term rite of passage where young up-and-comers prove themselves with copious amounts of helot murder, then yeah, I can sort of see why they wouldn't turn coat against Lookshy; the entire point of the exercise is to 'toughen them up', so they'd consider the abuse from overseers to be a fundamental part of the exercise and wouldn't be subjected to it for years on end.
 
Imrix said:
To be honest I don't... really buy Alexiuss and Jason's relationship as actual romance?
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I somewhat agree with you.

That is to say, our boy Alex is damaged goods. It's not his fault, being born and raised in a society of "Citizen boot stomping on a helot face, forever" will do that to you.

And because he's so ground down and beat up, because he has no idea, no context...to Alex, when he thinks about freedom, he conceives it as dissolving into nonexistence.

That's the head space he lives in. So yes, not much of a romance: shared smiles, shared scraps of food, quick sexual encounter, but to Alex it's the closest he's gotten, maybe the closest he's ever going to get to the real deal.
 
[X] Tell him you love him. You don't...know if you do, really, you don't know what love feels like. But he makes you feel something like whole, something like wanted, and you want to make him feel the same way too.
 
[X] Tell him thank you. He was there for you that first night, he's been there for you in the days since. You don't know what you are to each other exactly but he is your friend. And you would die for for your friends.
 
[X] Tell him you love him. You don't...know if you do, really, you don't know what love feels like. But he makes you feel something like whole, something like wanted, and you want to make him feel the same way too.

Oooooooooooooooooof.
 
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