You are Irue Valen, and for the first time in what seems like a year, you've awoken in a bed. It wasn't the same sort of comfort your own bed would have brought, but the serenity of not having a sword hanging over your fate with every waking breath was difficult to beat. The conversation with Rinnier yesterday had... Exhausted you. Physically, mentally, and emotionally, you had never felt so completely spent until it finally ended. you'd barely set foot in your erstwhile room before that overwhelming hollowness weighed down upon you, pulling you to and beyond the brink of sleep so quickly that your memories of even entering the room were hazy and indistinct.

Pity that you couldn't say the same of your dreams. Even now, you could feel the faint echoes of a second heart synchronizing with your own, and it took you little effort to find its owner weighing down one of your arms. Ari was still sleeping peacefully, clutching onto you like a safety line even as her face buried into your sleeve. It would have been endearing, if you didn't feel the dreary echoes of hurt confusion trying to edge their way across your connection.

>Hearts Harmonized

If this kept up, you might have to start forcing Ari to sleep elsewhere. Going two for two on nightmares wasn't your idea of a good night's rest, and the more it happened, the more you were beginning to feel like you were violating some very basic tenets of privacy. You were supposed to share dreams not memories.

It took you some effort to disentangle yourself from her slumbering grip, leaving the frail Testament to curl into a ball in the absence of something to cling onto. You wouldn't say you felt particularly rejuvenated, but there wasn't much hope of you falling back to sleep after that dream... And you were more than a little worried that even if you succeeded, you would only find yourself experiencing it all over again. Better to get to work, since you had finally stumbled upon some grace in the constant storm that had become your life.

>Seek out Rinnier
>Find Asche
>Summon Dullem for a debriefing
>You miss Kara
>Meditate (To what?)
>Other? (write-in)

Previous Threads:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Valen+Quest

Where things are said: https://twitter.com/Riz_QM
Where things are asked: http://ask.fm/RizQM

Assorted Supplemental:
Current Abilities - http://pastebin.com/PchcdWpw
A List of Forgotten Things - http://pastebin.com/kPEscJ3h
Irue's Memoires - http://pastebin.com/sWnicrK7

Write-ups:
Kara's Day Out - http://pastebin.com/8ZbiSKLs
Adventures with Asche - http://pastebin.com/RNviCBJu
The Reclaimed Doll - http://pastebin.com/n6miP1qT
In Your Shadow - http://pastebin.com/EfeeHFAE
Friends Forever - http://pastebin.com/Yn0QaTVB
The Woman Beneath Steel - http://pastebin.com/pMGgiHC3
Paper Flowers - https://pastebin.com/Pk0W7rEm

Misc notes:Finals! Finals everywhere!

Memo:
1. Rinnier wants you to decide soon on how you'll make a public appearance to capture the hearts of the people. (11/4/2017)
2. Invite Marchovic on adventures next time there's a chance.
3. Mim said "When are you going to tell her?" Tell what to whom?

>>2106031
>>You miss Kara

>>2106031
>>You miss Kara

>>2106029
>inform Ari about hearts in harmony, ask about her experience with it

>>2106031
Oh yeah, it's my favorite time of month!

>Find Asche and order her to tell us about the bracelet.

>>2106053
>>2106071
Kara!

>>2106092
Waking up Ari? How cruel.

>>2106097
It can wait, apparently?

Writing!
---

>>2106097
I run more than once a month!
I had to go check and verify it's at least twice a month.

>>2106109
Woo you're back!

Part of you considered waking Ari to try and talk to her about your latest Atelier-borne aquisition, but... It was something you could address after she woken up on her own. The last thing you needed was to wake her from a dream like that and immediately segue into how you had been inadvertently peeping on her past. There was a minimum to how far you would dismiss tact, even with the best of intentions.

That said, you didn't plan on sitting around in this room and waiting all day, either. One thing immediately on your mind was to find and talk to Asche again. You had nearly as many questions for her as you had stories for Rinnier, and you had already reached - and passed - the point where you needed them answered. You had faith she'd be honest with you if you asked... You wanted to believe in her. It was clear that she had known more than she ever let on, but she had always been by your side, and repeatedly tried to warn you.

It had been your choice to disregard her each time. This time, you were ready to listen.

...Is what you would say, if she was here. Possibly more disconcerting than the persistent doubts that had been plaguing you regarding the loyal maid was the fact that she actually wasn't there to greet you immediately. She'd been the first thing you saw every morning, of every day, for nearly the past ten years of your life. You left your room curiously, eyes roaming the halls for a glimpse of your petite aide, but finding only the occasional knight as they moved to and fro on Luna only knew what task. Plenty of unfamiliar sounds greeted your every step, and even stranger still was the experience of being hailed every so often with 'Welcome back' and other such derivatives.

This process repeated itself as you wandered the halls almost aimlessly, subconsciously straightening your posture as you struggled to recall older mannerisms. Things you had slowly let slip to the side in the face of mounting desperation and emergency. A proper stride, and sharper gaze.... Things which would help offset how wrinkled your clothes had become, and disguise your lost expression as one meant for inspection.

Luckily for you, this headquarters wasn't a structure you were terribly unfamiliar with. What rooms it had were mostly makeshift, and it didn't take you long to navigate towards the entry and find Fen once more whiling away at his desk

"Ser Valen!" He stood abruptly, mere moments after noticing you had entered the room, and performed one of the sloppy salutes you had come to expect from your knights. You'd never devoted much of your time to military affairs, so the meaning behind the action was all but lost upon you beyond simple formality. "Was the room to your liking?"

"I needed the rest." A diplomatic answer that was technically true. You could have collapsed unto a bed of moss and probably slept just as easily after yesterday. "Where is Asche?"

"Miss Lamandra got fed up with her lingering outside your door and sent her on some errands." Fen explained shortly, "I imagine she'll try and finish them quickly to return, if you feel like waiting."

"I'll pass. I have my own errands to take care of, anyway." If you were lucky, you'd run into her while you were making rounds to track down your knight captain and demihuman Testament. Hearing she hadn't left your side of her own volition was relieving, though. Even if it conjured up images of Rinnier physically dragging her down the hall by the back of her collar. "Has Rinnier left any messages for me?"

Was that something he was in charge of? As far as you could tell, Fen acted as some sort of secretary for the office. If there was anyone responsible for relaying messages it was probably him... Though it felt a little impersonal to be using him like a mailbird.

"Nothing. She's cancelled most of her duties and confined herself to her office since yesterday." If Fen had taken offense to being treated as such, he didn't show it. "Do you want me to relay something to her?"

"No." You had a good idea what she was withdrawing to focus on, and the best you could do in this case was to let her finish and talk about it later. You'd be lying if you said you weren't somewhat anxious over whether or not she'd eventually do more than humour you, but the issues you had unloaded on her the day before weren't things to be rushed. "You wouldn't happen to know where Kara is, would you?"

"The demihuman's leader, right?" Fen scratched his cheek curiously. "She doesn't come around often, and as far as I know, only really talks to the captain. Sorry."

You wave off his apologies understandingly. You'd heard much the same from Rinnier already, so it had been a long shot in the first place. "I'll find her. If Dullem comes around, tell him I'm back."

"He already knows."

"...Then where is he?" You'd expected your knight captain to be one of the people there specifically to welcome you back, or expect a debriefing. Were you overstating your own importance here? ...No, no you were literally the most important person in the entire town.

How could you phrase this so it didn't sound arrogant and whiny?

"What's more important than reporting on Carona's status?"

"With all due respect, Ser Valen, it's well past noon." Fen shrunk under your incredulity. "We didn't know when you would wake up, and Miss Lamandra gave strict orders not to bother you."

"..."

"He left to attend to his daily duties. I'm sure he'd be willing to prioritize you if you want the report immediately, though."

"No, no that's fine." You sighed, shaking your head resignedly. It wasn't a big deal to you in the first place, just a little strange. Finding out you had practically slept the day away explained a lot of the inconsistencies you had been experiencing since you woke up, though.

Mysteries resolved, you dismissed Fen back to whatever he had been doing before you arrived and ventured out into the ruined streets of Carona. Relatively ruined, at any rate. The ones nearest the headquarters had been cleared extensively, and pathways through town had purportedly been one of the first and most important reclamation efforts Rinnier had implemented. In fact, it was a little disorienting to remember that Rinnier had actually been handling the reconstruction of Carona for the better part of two months already.

Order and everyday life had nearly been restored at this point... In so much as 'everyday life' now consisted of the long trudge towards salvaging and rebuilding. If it weren't for the chokepoint on resources, you imagine even that would have been progressing soundly. As it stands, progress was mostly stalled by how much usable material could be salvaged via reclamation.

That was another thing you needed to fix. It was a band-aid to a greater problem, but not something that could be expected to last.

Even still, the atmosphere of the town wasn't as ridden with despair as you may have expected. There was grit to be found beneath the veneer; The resolve of Carona's citizens had been tested, and they had proven themselves stalwart in the face of adversity. Determined to rebuild what was theirs, rather than ache and moan over its loss. That they had gained the unexpected aid of your knights, in the public name of House Valen's support, was an encouraging boon for many of them.

It was a pity, then, that their thankfulness rather pointedly did not extend to the aid of your demihumans. If anything, their hearty and self-reliant natures served as a double-edged sword in that regard, as they appeared more than willing to reject your help completely if that was what it took to rid themselves of the demihumans.

Had Carona offered you such petty and advantageous conditions as "Let us suffer and go away" in other circumstances, you'd probably have been thrilled. Unfortunately, fate had seen fit to further define Carona's existence in your life as an inconveniently lodged thorn in your side. One which threatened to let you bleed out if it were extracted and discarded carelessly.

Truly, the feelings you held for this place and its people were a complicated dichotomy of utter loathing and necessity.

"Yo!" A familiarly cheery voice interrupted your inevitably spiralling contemplation on Carona, its owner striding lankily into view with a fanged grin. "Long time, 'Rue!" The distance between you melted away quickly, forcing you to crane your neck back to address the tallest of your Testament. It was difficult not to break out into a stupid grin of your own when confronted with the easy going demihuman's happy greetings. "S'Ari fine?"

"She's doing good. We just got in yesterday." You had spent so much time in the Imprisoned Child's Atelier bemoaning Kara's absence. Finally having her back in front of you was... Was... Something. "Sorry I didn't get to talk to you yesterday."

"S'no problem." Kara shrugged, "Tried t'hunt y'down when I caught yer scent yesterday, ended up bein' too slow."

"You could have just come to the headquarters." Though even if she had, it'd have been awkward to have to send her away when you spoke to Rinnier. It may have been a blessing that she ahd chosen to stay away... Even if it was a habit you wanted to remedy as soon as possible. "I'm sure Ari will be thrilled to see you again."

"Ehehe." Your demihuman Testament chuckled bashfully, rubbing her nose in a futile attempt to mask a simple hearted smile. "I missed ya'll too. Not t'many friendly folk around here. Been doin' our best since y'left, though!"

>What do you wanna talk to her about?

>>210631
First of all

> Touch fluffy tail

Then

> How she has been getting along with Dullem

> How her brother is doing

> Our plans for the pack

>>2106315
>>2106339
Call me Ganon because I fucked up the Link

>>2106315
do you notice me paring it down to an action and three things?

Let's pare it down further

> Touch Fluffy Tail

> How her brother/pack are doing

Smaller, faster updates! Don't want you burning out.

I'll probably leave this open while I rest. I hope everyone had a happy food day by the way!

As a bit of an update: The system I had in mind for Valen isn't quite ready for alpha testing. Thanksgiving stalled it. The good news is that the maps are more or less done (and look terrible/embarrassing). I'll probably poke at Rinnier's PoV when I have time.

If there are any other questions in the meantime, I can field them whenever I check in!

>>2106417
I don't expect to burn out any time soon! In fact, considering my stress levels are sky rocketing thanks to finals, I have more motivation than ever to do [Anything Else].

Also one of those votes is concerning.

>>2106315
Need breakfast. Get some apple pies

>>2106339
This, but with head pats Head pat for us, that is. We'd have to stand behind her to pet her tail which would be awkward to do while talking her. At least with this we're facing her.

>>2106315
First of all

> Do NOT touch fluffy tail

Then

> How she has been getting along with Dullem

> How her brother is doing

> Our plans for the pack

>>2106470
> not touching fluffy tail

What is wrong with you.

>>2106453
You're right. We should sit and absentmindedly play with her tail.

>>2106501
People are going to think we are completely insane and under the Demi's thrall. Please do not

>>2106315
>tell kara we missed her
>ask what we smell like

>>2106513
Then they can experience a shade apparition.

We went to bat for her against a bunch of town guards. She's our Testament. Better to balls through and convince people we're just fucking hard enough to make them buckle. Because the rest of them sure don't serve out of love.

>>2106315
>ask her opinion on how the pack is doing, explain that we'll find her a place here but integration doesn't seem to be working

Maybe get the other stuff out of the way before we start talking shop though.

>>2106428
Touch Fluffy Tail is by which I mean headpats or other casual physical reassuring plus praise.

It's what dogs crave.

>>2106693
Compromise with a hug?

>>2106703
A hug and an ear scritch.

>>2106709
We can't reach that high!

>>2106738
We can order her to sit.

>>2106738
We can if she lifts us up in a hug.

>>2106315
>>2106470
This. Rue isn't exactly... physical.

>>2106935
I will continue to vote for hand holding and hugs.

>>2106428
You clarified the hearts in harmony power, can you do the same for home is where the heart is?

>>2106985
>can you do the same for home is where the heart is?
As I understand, it functions the same was as 'Jinn calls me', but instead of always pointing to Carona, it takes you to what you consider 'home', which is different for each person.

>>2106315
>hug

> How she has been getting along with Dullem

> How her brother is doing

> Our plans for the pack

>ask what we smell like

>>2106470
>>2106935
Do Not TFT/PDA

>>2107048
>>2106693 (provisional)
Anon you can't just keep voting to hug people!

>>2106417
>>2106470
>>2107048
>>2106935
How Raid's doing!
Time with Dullem!

>>2107048
>>2106689
>>2106417
>>2106470
>>2106935
Plans for the pack and how they're doing.

>>2107048
>>2106553
...What does Irue smell like!

>>2106429
This will be a difficult proposition.

Alright, vote closed!

>>2107416
>Touch fluffy tail didn't win
Dropped and eagerly awaiting dog days quest 2 instead.

"How is your pack doing?"

"Great! No one's killed themselves!" You struggled to keep your smile unaffected. You're unsure whether the absence of self-termination was an appropriate measure for how screwed up her pack really was, or if it was just the measure she had personally decided was important. Whatever the truth, Kara brightened immensely as she relayed it to you. "S'not to say they haven't tried off and on, but no one's succeeded!"

"That's progress." You allowed neutrally, "Have they been causing trouble in town?"

"Prolly. Like I said, not many people like our kind." Kara shrugged, smiling easily with the admission. It was a problem you were having to deal with, but for them it was more a fact of life. "Can't keep an eye on all of 'em, so I got Raid helpin' me. 'Sides the usual, we're keepin' to ourselves. Sometimes people won't like us around, but 'Lem handles that."

"'Lem'?"

"Aye, that big guy who tells everyone what to do." You wonder if Dullem was aware his name had fallen victim to Kara's verbal shorthand. "Don't think he likes us much either, but he keeps tryin' t'look out for us."

"So besides people not liking you, have you had to discipline them any? Keep them in check?"

"Nope!" Her tail wagged about proudly, eliciting a familiar, repetitive 'paft' as it grazed the cloth of her pants. "Deal was they work hard and they don't gotta fight 'fore bed."

That was an activity you remembered vaguely, having witnessed it during your trip to your aunt and uncle's. Kara had taken to simply beating them all into the ground, night after night, to make them too exhausted to try and kill themselves. Their motivation towards participating had been to acquire the Faedka she'd (falsely) promised them if they could defeat her... Seems that it had simply become a tradition for them to get throttled every night in the meantime, however. It was suspicious that she hadn't needed to keep any of them in check though, especially considering the amount of reports Rinnier had been receiving.

Even if most of that pile were just smoke and mirrors blown out by frustrated people, your trust in the demihuman's nature notably did not extend terribly far beyond Kara herself. Something wasn't adding up.

"How many people are still fighting with you?"

"We don't do it a whole lot anymore, t'tell the truth." She laughed, bashfully scratching the beck of her neck. "None o'mine are slacking off, and Raid keeps me aware of what's going on with his group. Sometimes there's a bit of a brawl, jus' cause someone tried to slack off, or got into it with someone, but s'not a problem."

"That counts as disciplining, Kara." You correct the smiling demihuman with a sigh. "Do they even respect Raid? Won't that jeopardize your position as Alpha, if they're answering to him?"

"Nah, Alpha's like..." Kara's arms crossed as she tried to think of how to explain it. "I'm Th' leader, yeah? But the Alpha's the Alpha 'cause they're th'best at gettin' what the pack wants, or needs. We're 'sponsible for makin' the plans, and deals, and stuff. We can delly- dam- Delegit?"

"Delegate."

"That! We can do that whenever we want. Jus' cause I'm th'Alpha don't mean I can be everywhere. S'not so much of a problem now, but bigger packs often have a whole lot o'people in charge of different things. S'fine! They'll answer t'Raid like they would t'me."

Admittedly, you didn't have more than a cursory, surface-level understanding of demihuman society. They were bestial and possessing of superior physical attributes and healing to humans, but the key component which drove them apart from common society was their sociopathic tendencies... Or more accurately, their nature defaulted to what most sane people would consider to be immoral, manipulative and pragmatically cruel. As had been driven into you by no shortage of people, they saw nothing wrong with toying with emotions, using, and outright lying if it accomplished getting what they wanted.

But the lynch pin in this was that they weren't stupid. While it was common to deride them as common beasts, or animals, the truth of the matter is that they were often highly intelligent... So long as that intelligence was aimed towards social engineering and pursuit of their own goals. In a similar vein, the title of 'Alpha' seemed more in line with a representative of interests, than someone having absolute authority.

You wondered, not for the first time, if you encouraging Kara to step into that position was the correct thing to do.

"How is Raid doing, anyway?" Her brother shared Kara's golden eyes, but was still very young. There was a web of relationships in their pack that you weren't privvy to, but it was clear that Raid had been the primary reason for Kara's loyalty to the group. With her transition to Alpha, Raid's status as someone she seemed to trust unconditionally had granted him an abrupt, and massive, influx of authority among the group.

"Great!" Kara all but beamed when the topic swung towards her little brother. "S'been a big help, and hasn't tried t'kill himself at all! He's th'first one t'get better like that."

It'd been roughly two months since you had dumped a Revenant on Kara's pack, and you recall Raid having been as badly afflicted as the others of his ilk... But Kara had been very possessive of him during the recovery period, and he had come off as perfectly coherent when accompanying you on the road to your aunt and uncle's. If you took her word for it, he really had shown a remarkable recovery... Which left you to wonder why. Was it a difference Kara had made, or something unique to him?

"He's been curious 'bout when you would be comin' back, actually."

"Oh?" You didn't have a bad relationship with him, exactly. Besides the fact that you drove his family into suicidal depression and blatantly threatened to steal his sister away... None of which you're sure if a demihuman would be apt to hold a grudge over. Kara might, if she were aware of it, but Kara was an exception to the typical mold. "What's he interested in?"

Kara simply shrugged, providing you the unsurprising answer that she couldn't help you any. "I dunno, ya'll got along pretty well before, didn'cha? S'not like he's got many friends."

Friends...? Was she implying you were friends? Did Demihumans even have friends?

"Tell him I'm back then, I'll talk to him later."

"Ah, he knows already." You were quickly becoming irritated with that answer. "S'your scent, 'Rue. Even if y'don't tell us, we can find ya. S'actually kinda spooked him the y'got back before anyone caught wind of ya down th'road."

"Is it that easy to pick me out of a crowd?" Demihumans noses were sharp, you knew that much, but you thought there would be harder.

"S'normally a bit harder, but you're different." Kara's hand plopped down over your head, nearly buckling your knees as what was likely meant to be a light heartedly familiar gesture quickly turned into your neck being wrenched back and forth. Your fist had lashed out into Kara's ribs as an almost instinctive reflex of having your hair accosted without warning, which only made things worse as it was like slamming your knuckles into a wall. She didn't even seem to care. "Hard t'mistake you f'anyone else, 'Rue."

"Don't do that!" You scrambled out from under the absent minded physical abuse, hands rising warily to readjust the damage that had been done.

"Ha...?" She blinked in confusion, looking between you and her palm as the smile on her face fell. "Oh... Sorry, 'Rue. I thought it'd be fine if I was gentle." She tucked the offending hand behind her back, laughing apologetically as her tail stilled. "Y'okay? I didn't hurt ya, did I?"

You weren't a terribly physical person in the first place, and while you probably could have withstood that level of inadvertent abuse from your supernaturally strong Testament, who knows what kind of rumours would get started about your relationship with the demihumans if you just put up with it. Your public image here was too important to risk.

"No, I'm fine. Just surprised." You felt the need to crack your neck, but there was a lingering concern that doing that might actually finish the job Kara had accidentally started. The real problem was trying to explain to Kara why you didn't want her to be overly friendly with you in public... It would take a supremely self-absorbed person to not notice the distance she had quickly adopted after you had rejected her absent-mindedly proffered affection.

...Ultimately, you couldn't talk to her as thoroughly on the matter as you would have liked right now. Not so visibly in town. Any measure you took to reassure her could just as easily be taken the wrong way by someone else, and frustratingly, the same could be said for rebuking her actions. But she wasn't a child; You'd make a note to talk to her about it later, when the circumstances were better... And bring something to apologize with. Maybe you could find some apples? Or go even further, and scrounge up a pie of them. You weren't going to go cold with one of your Testament, just because Carona was watching.

"That aside, I was hoping I'd find you. We need to talk about Carona, and your pack."

"Eh?" She hesitated, the remains of her smile visibly straining to stay afloat. "We jus' talked about them, didn't we?"

"I asked how they were doing. This is about what they will be doing." You corrected, "Like you said, there's not many people in Carona that are comfortable with demihumans. I had hoped you'd be able to integrate more by helping rebuild, but it looks like it's been having the opposite effect."

"Ah... Yeah." Her shoulders fell reluctantly. "Not much we can do 'bout that. So whatcha got in mind, 'Rue?"

>Other questions? What did you want to do with them?

>>2107685
>Dog Days 2
I hope that QM keeps making more quests. I never got into the Dog Days one, but I enjoyed Card Captor Masami. It was disappointing to hear they were doubting themselves, recently.

>>2107894
How easy is it to hide demihuman features again?

Also, I kind of want to talk to the rest of the pack, not just Kara.

>>2108114
Depends on age. It was touched on a while ago, but younger demihumans - Such as Raid - don't have fully developed features yet, so they can be easily concealed in any number of ways.

As they get older, it becomes more difficult, and there are some things you just can't hope to hide effectively anymore.

>>2108114
this is me, just switched computers
>>2108123
Time to give the pack a new job. For now, we could just have them patroling the surrounding area maybe?

Raid could be a messenger of sorts (Demihumans are fast right?), keep him disguised. But yeah, should probably talk to the rest of the pack too. Maybe they have some suggestions, who knows?

>>2107894
No other questions for now. We talked about using them as guards for the mining operation didn't we? It's physical and out of the way.

>>2108137
>>2108139
Temporary reassignment to patrols, while we talk about future tasks with more of the pack!

Writing.

"For now, I wanted to charge your pack with patrols." You'd talked about having them protect the miners, and that was still a job you felt could fit them rather well, but you'd need to get those plans underway before you would have anyone for them to guard. Until then, getting the pack used to the idea of guarding things would be helpful. "Mostly keeping track of what's going on outside of Carona, and making sure nothing surprises us while we're rebuilding."

"Oh. Oh!" Kara's reflexive response was followed moments later by a more enthusiastic one. "We can do that! Th'pack used t'do a lot of stuff like that!"

"People hired you to protect things?" You filed away that rare glimpse into the history of her pack's lifestyle.

"Nah, usually we were 'sposed to break in and kill someone, or steal somethin'." Kara shook her head, "But it's th'same thing, yeah?"

"...There are shared principles between them, yes. I don't expect you to have to kill, or steal, anything. Just keep us aware. We don't have any defenses in place in town, so if any bandits start prowling around, I want to know."

"If y'say so, 'Rue." Kara's back straightened more confidently. "I'll tell everyone later. This mean we don't gotta keep helpin' with the rebuildin' an such?"

"If the people don't want your help, I'm more than happy to deny it to them." You grimaced distastefully, "In that regard, I'm hoping you can focus on helping me, instead of them."

"Can do, 'Rue! Though, 'Lem's been having us go huntin' every now and then to keep meat flowin'. I don't think there's any bandits t'worry about." While somewhat relieving, her thoughts mirrored your own on this matter. You were deep in the heart of Valen territory, there wasn't much chance of common bandits making their way out here without a very specific purpose in mind. "S'there anythin' else we should be looking out for?"

Was there? The Oakenbears shouldn't be an issue anymore, and beasts like the giant snake you had felled in the forests didn't tend to wander this far out. If you set those two threats aside, and wrote off bandits, all that really left was... "Something close to a monster is probably going to be arriving in a day or two. If you encounter it, do not-" You make very sure to emphasize that, "-attack it. It's been invited, just be sure to tell me when it gets here."

"Uh... Aight." Kara seemed to roll the idea around in her head briefly, before shrugging acquiescence. "That all?"

"All I can think of right now." You nod, "Consider this a training exercise. I have some other things I may be relying on you and your pack for in the future, but if you can't handle something like this..." You trailed off, and left the implication unsaid. Partially because there wasn't any need to drive home the doubt, but also because there wasn't much malice behind it. You were plenty confident the demihuman pack could do this easily.

The question, then, was if they were willing.

"We'll be the best patrols!" Kara boasted brightly, coarse pafts issuing forth once more as her confidence reassembled itself. "Gon' find all the things, and tell you 'bout em!"

"I look forward to it." You deadpan, trying not to smirk in the face of her ambitions. "I'd like to meet with the rest of your pack later to get their opinions on some things. When can you have them available?"

"Ah... Tonight?" She paused in thought, nodding to herself a breath later. "Yeah, tonight's good. I'll make sure they're ready. Is this gonna be like one of those reports 'Lem's always grumblin' bout? 'Cause I dunno how to make those."

"I don't expect one, no." You shake your head at her blatant admission. "It's not meant to be a formal visit, either. I didn't realize how resistant Carona was going to be to having demihumans around, so I'm rethinking my plans for all of you."

"So what's that mean for us, 'xactly?" Kara hesitantly probed. "Usually talks like this happened 'fore we had t'go find some new clients,"

"That won't happen. As long as you're Alpha, your pack is technically under my employ. Just make sure they behave themselves."

She took a heavy breath, releasing a sigh somewhere between relief and stress. "Doin' my best." You weren't sure if that was meant for you, or herself. Maybe both, to some extent. "Anythin' else, 'Rue?"

"Yes, actually. This has been bothering me for a while, but... What do I smell like?" She'd mentioned your scent before, but considering how easy it was to pick you out of a crowd, your curiosity was somewhat piqued. It wasn't like you had a secret soap you used to make a difference.

Whatever she had been expecting you to say however, that wasn't it. It took her a few seconds to process the question before she made a show of raising her nose to the air. Her features scrunched together cutely, the visible effort of thinking about how to describe it showing through. The longer she tried however, the more frustrated she seemed to become over the continued inability to describe it. "Sorry, 'Rue." She gave up eventually, shaking her head. "I forgot, I guess."

"Can you describe the word?" It wouldn't be the first time you'd had to fill in the blanks in Kara's vocabulary.

"S'not like that. S'like you're familiar, but I can't remember why." Kara shrugged off your offer though, still irritated at being unable to place it. "S'not just me, everyone else said th'same thing."

"I smell like something you've forgotten?" Some manner of very specific despair was born from this revelation.

She shrugged, wholly unconcerned with your impending feelings on the matter. "Kinda? That's not really it. S'like I wanna remember, but I can't."

"If that's all, I better get back to m'pack." Kara shifted her weight from side to side, starting to get antsy from having stood around for so long.

>Anything else?

>>2108472
>"I smell like something you've forgotten?"
I take a perverse pleasure in knowing other characters have Forgettings.

>Anything else?
Should be good.

>>2108472
Nothing else.

We should probably talk to Dullem next. Ask about that council Rin mentioned.

>>2108477
>>2108484
Nothing else! And onward to Dullem!

>>2108084
CCM was really nice

>We'll be the best patrols! Gon' find all the things, and tell you 'bout em!
C U T E

>"I smell like something you've forgotten?" Some manner of very specific despair was born from this revelation.
Please don't bully your players

>>2108471
>Did I always smell like that?

"Did I always smell like that?" You ask, partially raising your arm for an experimental sniff before better reasoning caught up with you.

"Yup. S'why I got to ya first back when y'met Raid and them the first time." Kara affirmed your suspicions easily, puffing up her chest with pride. "I knew it was you right away. Th' others couldn't figure it out, but s'hard to mistake ya once you know what it is."

"...I always thought your nose was just stronger than the rest." You admitted uncomfortably, realizing now just how she had picked you out.

"Ehehe." She sniggered cheekily "T'Tell the truth, s'why I didn't just leave back when we met. Thought I'd met ya 'fore, an' kept trying t'remember where... M'kinda glad I stuck around now."

"I hope you don't plan on leaving once you remember." You deadpanned, curiously filing away the fact that this strange reaction was something all of her pack had experienced.

"I'd like t'stick 'round, if I can." Kara admitted sheepishly, "S'nice t'be wanted for a change, An' I ain't sure how I'd do bein' Alpha if y'kicked us out."

You offer a noncommital hum, unsure of what to really say in response to that. You were still getting used to being responsible for other people, and the notion of being appreciated so honestly hadn't stopped being disconcerting to you. It was one thing to be in awe of you due to your status or authority, but this was... A more personal kind of sentiment, which you fumbled around responding to.

Kara didn't seem to mind, or perhaps even notice, the disease her thanks had created as she made to leave. You watched the demihuman Testament swagger off down the streets, seemingly distracted by some scent or sound, before her path led her to wandering out of sight. That left you alone again in the streets, but with one of your many 'to-do' items checked off the list. You'd need to try and scrounge up some apples before you met with her tonight. Rinnier would probably know if there were any still to be found, but that wasn't something you wanted to bother her over... Dullem, maybe? Tracking down your knight captain was certainly one of the things you had set out to do today, and it'd be worth while to tell him about Kara's reassignment.

Goal in mind, you... Realized belatedly you didn't actually know where you could find him. Unlike Kara, it wasn't as if he'd catch wind of you and appear out of thin air to come see you.

"Should have asked Kara before she left." You tilted your head skyward, picking a direction and setting off with the aid of some mild guesstimations.

Deduction was a strong suit of yours, even if past events didn't always imply as much.

Dullem could have been anywhere in Carona, but if you gave some thought to it, the range of places he was likely to be were much narrower. You could rule out any place that was beyond the scope of reclamation, simply due to the lack of people working there. If the knights weren't there, then Dullem, as the person overseeing them, likely wouldn't be there either. From there, it was just a matter of digging up old memories of the time your Doppleganger spent wandering Carona, and then thinking about which districts someone like Rinnier would be most keen to focus on.

It helped that you got directions towards likely spots from the first knight you found, but you'd maintain that it was your razor intellect which led you to your quarry.

Speaking of which. "Dullem!"

"Huh?" The bear of a man was much the same as you remember him. A large frame built for toiling the land, whose baritone voice rumbled with less confidence and presence than you'd expect from someone half his size. This was a man who had, by some cruel quirk of fate, found himself the elected leader of a group of dispossessed serfs-turned-brigands. Who had the spectacularly bad fortune of being promoted to being the captain of your knights, by sheer virtue of reluctantly serving as their representative at the time. "Oh, Ser Valen." He halted whatever he was doing as you approached, handing off the paper in his hand to another worker. "You're up. Didn't rightly know when you were gonna wake up, sorry about that."

"Nothing to apologize for, I didn't know when I'd wake up either." You wave off his concerns, glancing past him to the raucous din of ongoing reclamation. "Rinnier told me you've been hard at work. How are things going?"

"Could be better." He groused honestly, either unwilling or unconcerned with hiding his lack of enthusiasm for the work. "We're doing what we can to salvage materials from the wreckage, but we've only got a handful of people suited to stuff like this. Feels like nothing we do is gonna get done fast enough."

There had been discussion of the coming civil war with Rinnier, but you had been under the impression it was something she hadn't shared with the others. "Is there a deadline you're working towards?"

"Not that I'm aware of." He grunted, "We know what it's like being homeless, Ser Valen. We're doing what we can, but it's a shitty feeling going to bed and knowing people are gonna have to wait another day for you to put their life back together."

"Just impatient, then?" You snorted quietly.

"Something like that. Gotta admit though, didn't expect to be learning carpentry as knight captain." Dullem cleared his throat conspicuously, "Nevermind about that. I'm guessing you need me?"

>What did you want to see Dullem for?

>>2108652
Maybe Dullem could give us a little tour of the town while we talk, see the progress and start interacting with the Caronians.

>ask him about Thomas Rhime.
>ask about the council

>>2108652
>Get a status report
>Ask about Thomas Rime
>Talk about mining and demihumans' reassignment

>>2108652
Tell him we got rid of the monsters and fixed the forest.

Ask what he wants and needs to get things done faster.

>>2108652
>Tell Dullam it's good to see him again!
>Ask about Thomas.
>Tell Dullam that we've taken care of business in the fae woods, we rescued Ari and the knights that wandered in there, also there shouldn't be any more oakenbears spawning!
>Inform him that we're making plans to relocate to the fortress up north.
>We'll also want to lead a small party off to his former rear camp at some point in order to check on something, please prepare plenty of lighting!
>Ask him how he's handling being captain. Empathize with his position, we understand what it's like to go from having very little responsibility to having a great deal of people depending on you. Lets do our best together!

>>2108669
>>2108676
>>2108695
Thomas Rime!

>>2108669
Council of buildybits!

>>2108676
>>2108669
Status report! And seeing Carona!

>>2108680
Ask how to make things go faster!

>>2108676
>>2108695
Also we're reassigning the demihumans.

>>2108695
Polite chatter and talk of future projects.

Alright, writing! This'll probably be my last update for the night, as the skyfire now rises extra early just to spite me.

>>2108706
Ah! The apples! We forgot to ask about apples!

>>2108651
Genetic memory of our smell?

Oh gods. Did one of our Ancestors make them as a servant race?

"I'd like a report on how things have been going eventually." You admitted distractedly, "But I've got some news of my own as well, and a couple unrelated questions you might be able to help me with."

"I'll do my best, but if it's about Carona then Miss Lamandra's probably a better source of info than I am." His barrel like arms crossed patiently expectantly, "Should I be worried about the news?"

You crack a smile at the trepidation in his voice. "It's good news, for once. I took care of business in the Fae Forest, and Ari's come back safe and sound." Dullem loosed a low whistle, but you were hardly done. "Ari's not the only one coming back, either. The Fae should be returning the missing knights as well. I don't want to speak too soon, but I think I managed to save everyone this time."

There was a certain mark of pride to be had in that statement, even if it felt disingenuous to claim everything you'd been through had been a 'success'.

"I... Don't know what to say." His uncertainty illustrated a response from stark disbelief. "After what I saw the last time... I mean, there's some things a man just can't do anything about."

"If that were true, I wouldn't be here, you know?" You smirk back at him, "That's not the end of it, either. It's tentative for now, but I wouldn't expect to see any oakenbears for a while. Seems I managed to put them back to sleep for a while, so the forest should be safe again!"

"I wouldn't call that place 'safe' just because the Oakenbears have hunkered down." Dullem argued, running a hand through his hair incredulously. "What did you even do in there?"

"More than I care to remember." Your self-assured smirk faded as you declined to recount the nightmare you'd been trapped in for what felt like a full year. "It wasn't easy, but it was worth it."

Dullem's head shook back and forth slowly, "It's a wonder someone like you even needs knights." You blinked quizzically at the sudden non-sequitor. He looked as if he would hold back at first, but grimaced uncomfortably when it became clear the conversation had stalled. "Can't say I'm much of an expert on what constitutes 'knightly duties', but I ain't ashamed to tell you that what we saw trying to cross that river the first time? Scared me shitless."

"I don't blame you. We all had to run back then."

"Aye, we ran; You went back." He sighed heavily, glancing around at the reclamation behind him for a moment. It was long enough for him to come to a decision. "Mind if we take a walk? I don't wanna talk about this out here."

"I've been thinking about it for a while now." Dullem continued after moving further into the ruined portions of Carona. "The folk that got taken were my responsibility. I knew I had to get them back, but the forest rose up like that? That was it. I knew we'd never get them back. They put their lives in my hands, and I gave up on them."

"I don't think you were wrong to do that." You'd certainly not been thinking about the missing knights when you'd charged back in. "There wasn't anything there that could be fixed by throwing more people at it. You did the right thing to protect the others."

By Rinnier's standards, Dullem had probably made a better decision as a leader than you had by charging back in bullheadedly. Not that either of those paths had left their walkers free of regret in the end, apparently.

"They were depending on me, and I failed them." Your knight captain steadfastly refused your reassurances. The sort of conviction in his tone as he did so made you wonder whether he'd gotten tired of hearing himself try and make those exact same justifications. "And when that Salamander guy came back and told us what'd become of you, I thought I'd doubled down and failed you, too."

"...What?" You came up short at that, suddenly finding yourself on a very different side of this conversation.

"I know I can't compare to someone like Miss Alouette, but even I know that knights are meant to do the protecting, Ser Valen. I should have gone back with you, but I was too damn scared to even think about crossing that river again. Bugger me if the first news to come back after you left wasn't about how you'd vanished."

"If I sent Priat back, I'd have sent you back as well."

"I know. Believe me, I ain't got no delusions about matching up to an Adept like that guy, but Shade take me, what am I supposed to think? What kinda knight am I if I'd just be in the way? What kinda leader am I supposed to be when you had to go help people I screwed up with?" You followed behind the much larger man, crimson eyes tracing the breadth of his back as his voice shook. "I'm begging ya not to take this the wrong way, Ser Valen. I know you've done a lot for us, and I'm damn thankful. Don't think I'm being ungrateful here... But It's clear we ain't no good as knights. You've been protecting us this whole time, not the other way 'round."

"..." He wasn't wrong. If anything, he'd nailed it right on the head of the matter. From the very beginning, their induction as 'knights' had been to protect them from the Crown while you tried to help them. You'd never once thought of them as proper knights, so much as a grandly-titled militia of ill-trained serfs. What were you supposed to say to this?

>?

>>2108775
> Then you'll get better. I have no illusions about what I started out with when I took you on. But already you've been a great help.

> Hunting the snake in the forest. Watching over my friends. Going with me into the tunnels under Carona. Infiltrating the town.

> Right now in fact, rebuilding this town is more useful to me than a platoon of knights brave enough to die by my side. That doesn't downplay the fact that you and my other men already have fought and some of them have died for me. But just because you haven't had a lifetime of training to embrace a hopeless battle doesn't mean you're *no good*.

> Of course I've protected you so far. You're MINE. I don't see it as a burden because as I do so, you will grow into what I need you to be in the future. If you have difficulty doing so, I will help you with it.

> Please. Tell me I can't do it. Because those are the challenges I face all the time it seems.

> Rah Rah if you don't believe in yourself, believe in the me that believes in you. Now stop badmouthing my men, otherwise I'll have to challenge you to a duel for impugning my honour.

>>2108775
>>2108790
Basically this, but without the duel threat.

>>2108775
>You've been protecting us this whole time, not the other way 'round.
Of course. What kind of Noble would we be if we didn't?
I mean, wasn't that our deal? You work for me while I protect you. If I don't protect you and you still work for me, than that's no different from slavery!

>>2108790
This. They'll get better.

>>2108775
>Firstly,
Anything to do with the fae woods is very specifically not his fault, we aren't a fighter by any stretch and all the force in the world couldn't have dealt with the fae. It was a very delicate matter and it wouldn't have been resolved without knowledge of the Valen family history, thus it was not within the realm of a knights duties.

>Second,
The only reason we didn't fail in our duty to Carona and all the people in it while we were trudging around in a forest for nearly a month is because Dullem and Rinnier were here to pick up the pieces. Make no mistake, we need him. We can't do this alone.

>Third,
We don't expect him to transform into some stalwart heroic figure just because we made him a knight, it's something you have to work at. Personally, we don't have any experience on fighting or commanding soldiers but Rinnier does. Ask about what kind of training he's been doing with the knights, ask about the feasibility of starting something more focused, like formation drilling. The pikes worked well on the snake, maybe we should try to train them in a Macedonian phalanx formation? He has already cultivated respect and camradere with his men so he already has a good foundation on which to improve.

We're planning on having an iron income soon so that could factor into it.

>Lets do our best together!

>>2108790
This is fine, but I'll also second
>>2108802
on toning down the aggressive delivery.

>Also to expand on the snake encounter,
That victory belongs to Dullem and his knights just as much as it does to us. All we had to do was remember the correct course of action and he carried it out perfecly, resulting in a total victory. Surely that means he has potential?

>>2108775
>Dullem, your feelings aren't news to me, you have worn them on your sleeve since the day we met. I didn't leave you in charge as a practical joke or a desire to see you squirm and hate your life. That said, you are my knights because it was the only way I could save you from the Crown. If the title is such a burden for you we'll do something about it, but look around us. There's no time to be bothered by your job description. Somewhere down the line, when Carona is in a better spot and my finances stop leaking like a sieve I can, and will, hire real knights and we can quietly put an officer on a fast-track promotion and replace you, but for the time being you'll have to deal with it.

There really is no reason for us to force him to play this role. We'll keep him on for the reconstruction because restructuring and reorganizing right now will be a nightmare and worse, replacing our knight captain with... -someone... who the hell is qualified anyway?- is going to start rumors that'll spread like wildfire and it could be used by the dissidents as ammunition against us.

>>2108954
>There really is no reason for us to force him to play this role

We don't have much and he's loyal, he's also proven himself more useful to us than any other peasant we're likely to meet. I guess swapping him out could be an option for later but we can't afford not to nurture what we have right now. Besides, he rebelled for a reason: there's hardship everywhere and he's currently in a position to help us do something about it.

>>2108790
I like this, but also
>>2108802


I wonder if we should retitle them? 'Knight' carries a lot of weight, and doesn't fit them, nor will it for some time. Dunno what we retitle them to, though; most I can think of is vaguely... downputting.

>>2107685
Will smutanon save the day?

>>2108982
Yeah, if you read the rest it's just not possible to let him quit. The guy is so upset over his shortcomings and failings real and imagined, on top of his already low opinion of himself, that it's going to take a miracle to nurture him into a real knight captain. Like he said he's no Alouette, but there is nothing stopping us from finding a knight of her caliber unless we are going to continue to be paranoid and internally scream stranger danger every time we meet someone new.

After this whole debacle is over and done with we'll review Dullem's work and find a job that's a good match for him in our retinue.

>>2108775
>I need people I can trust more than I need anything else

File: Did anyone else catch that.png (153 KB, 294x478)

153 KB PNG

>>2108790
>>2108802
>>2108809
>>2108822
>>2109014
Tell him to get better!

>>2108809
Reinforce a mutually beneficial relationship!

>>2108822
supplemental explanations for why he is not a failure.

>>2108954
>>2108982
...Make plans to fire him and replace him later?

>>2109322
I inexplicably trust you!

A bit late, but writing!
---

>>2109093
>The guy is so upset over his shortcomings and failings real and imagined, on top of his already low opinion of himself, that it's going to take a miracle to nurture him into a real knight captain.

"And?"

Dullem turned to face you befuddled. "Pardon?"

"Do you think I made a mistake?" You clarified levelly, maintaining a distance that prevented you from needing to tilt your head back too far to make eye contact. "You've never made a secret of your thoughts regarding leading. I knew that when I gave you these responsibilities, and it wasn't just to watch to squirm."

A half truth, at best. You'd had a hunch that Dullem wasn't particularly cut out for leadership when you met him, but the circumstances behind his continued leadership were more complicated. He was someone the rest of his people had already shown to trust, which made it easier to coerce them towards integration when orders came down through him. They believed he served as a filter, between their best interests and the orchestrations of a social caste they already had reason to distrust.

"If you knew I'd be no good at it, then why?"

"You were the only one who could." That was true then, but as it was now...? It would be inconvenient if you had to shuffle your chain of command with things progressing as they were. Your pool of talent wasn't particularly wide, and while the idea of stumbling across someone on the level of Alouette was enticing, you'd die holding your breath before it happened. That woman was more comparable to the Perfect Storm than mere 'good luck'. "I've made plenty of mistakes, Dullem. You're not one of them. I don't regret taking you all on as my knights."

"We ain't done anything to deserve that, Ser Valen." He insisted. "We're all doing what we can, but it don't seem like hardly enough, and it sure ain't knight work."

"A knight's duty is to serve. Look around you, Dullem." You swept an arm out to the surrounding wreckage. "Men who trained for years to fight and defend someone's honor are worthless to me. I need blacksmiths. Carpenters. Farmers. It's thanks to all of you that Carona is in as good a shape as it is now. Are you saying this isn't enough?"

"I ain't saying that." a hasty denial sprung forward, "But there's no way you knew this would happen when you took us in, and when we get this town back up and running, then what? Just cause we're earning our keep now, don't mean we can keep it up."

"Then get better." You suggested flatly. "I had no illusions about what I was getting into when I took you on. I'm no stranger to the weight of becoming responsible for people, Dullem. The decision I made back then wasn't something I settled on lightly. If it bothers you so much that I'm doing my duty to protect you, then do your own."

"What?"

Crimson eyes narrowed as your tone clipped challengingly. "What do you think a knight is?"

"I don't know." He grimaced, hands raised in exasperation. "Gallant? Honorable? Stalwart? Proud?"

"Do you think their pride comes from having a paycheck?" You raised your chin imperiously, abusing the distance between you to succeed in looking down your nose at a man almost a foot taller than you. "The only reason I could handle the Fae as I did is because I had faith that you and Rinnier would stay behind to handle Carona. I needed your support to do that."

Dullem's gaze dropped in defeat, but it wasn't the sort of submission that implied acceptance. One large, calloused hand cupping the back of his sun baked neck. "Even if you say that, it ain't gonna sell. It might seem like that to you, but down here, we're spending every day trying to find something to do. Carona gave us that, but we know it ain't gonna last... And then what? What do you want us to get better at?"

"...This isn't just about you, is it?" You blinked in realization. At some point his speech had begun to be sprinkled with more and more references to a greater collective. He wasn't here to confide in you personally; He was a representing the people under him.

"I ain't saying I'm not part of it, but no." He shook his head tiredly, "We don't know what you want from us, Ser Valen."

>Am I forgetting something...? (write-in)

As a note, if you don't get the Forgetting then it will just continue on with the prompts I hadn't resolved yet.

This is more of an interruption, than a new update.

>>2110108
Thread 18 >>42413436
>"My judgement is conscription. Effective immediately, your past is discarded. You will work for me, and train to become my own knights."
>Colloquially, you would simply be a guard under my disposal."
>"I'll put my faith in a handful of broken men. Perhaps tomorrow, you will be worth calling knights."
This is the best I got.

>>2110179
>Alouette requested thoughtfully, "I do not believe there to be any ore in the peaks behind the estate
I'm suddenly less confident in our mining plan.

>>2110108
>"I ain't saying I'm not part of it, but no." He shook his head tiredly, "We don't know what you want from us, Ser Valen."

A future.

>>2110179
Has the right of it. We knew they were broken men. But we decided to make them our men. If all they need is "something to do" then oh boy are things going to be getting exciting soon.

We should clue him in to the greater politics happening here. That what they are building isn't just a town, but a future power base for us to weather the eventual storm that's brewing between the Nobles and the Royalty, with shadowed conspiracies and strange powers moving in the night.

Our men need to become educated on what a Knight is. Now that we're back, Rinnier can handle more of that education while we take on some of her Carona duties. Get them further trained with polearms since she has experience with them.

They WILL be needed to fight at some point, and to lead others to the fight as well.

>>2110233
Yeah, he'll be happy to know that their stint of brigandry was merely a prelude of what to come and a symptom of an enormous conspiracy. What we want of him is to make sure no one else in our fief will resort to the same measures he did

>>2110248

He doesn't need to be happy. He needs to be inspired. To know that what we need going forward isn't people who want to be heroes, but men that will do the jobs that need to be done.

It's good to know they have spare time now, because we've got to the point where we can fill it up.

We had to live up to being able to utilize them earlier, when we had no resources to turn them into the real knights we need.

Now we have those resources thanks to Carona - once it's fixed.

Dude isn't serving at his fucking leisure. It was serve us or die for his crimes. We're going to make sure he does the option that's useful to us.

>>2110233
>We should clue him in to the greater politics happening here.
I dunno about that; he's repeatedly said such things are above his paygrade before. He'll be more interested in things he can do something about, I think.

It keeps coming back to them doubting themselves as knights or not knowing what a knight is supposed to do.
>"What do you think a knight is?"
>"I don't know." He grimaced, hands raised in exasperation. "Gallant? Honorable? Stalwart? Proud?"
>"Do you think their pride comes from having a paycheck?"

>>2110108
We were TOLD what a knight is and it sounds like whats going on now.
Thread 16 >>42162322
>"A knight of any merit yearns for a purpose to devote themselves to."
>"A leader is more than a figure head, or someone to handle borders. To we knights, you are an ideal. Our life, the reason for honing our skills, we want something to devote ourselves to. A purpose to strengthen and defend."
>"Without that, we are empty, and suffer for each day of that aimlessness."

Going to leave this up over night. I've got some appointments to deal with in the morning, unfortunately.

>>2110108
Are we supposed to recall that there's a war brewing, and possibly more than one?

>>2109597
The irony was not lost on me.

>>2110108
>>Am I forgetting something...? (write-in)
Giant snake hunting
Nightgaunts
Golem

Alright, making breakfast and writing!

What you wanted? If you wanted anything from them, it was the same thing they came to ask you for: A future.

They didn't deserve what happened to them, and the only way you saw to make it right was take them on as knights. Dullem had, of course, never made it any secret of his doubt that they were qualified in any sense of the word to be considered knights. It was a sentiment you whole heartedly agreed with him regarding, especially since your only real comparison to such a title was Alouette... Which wasn't fair in the slightest.

Not only because Alouette's title was officially that of 'Guard Captain' rather than 'Knight', but because Alouette herself was an unfair existence. You were dearly fond of her, but normal people did not split the sky in the process of cutting down a tornado. There was absolutely no way you could reasonably expect such a performance from Dullem, or indeed, any of your knights.

But idealistic as that answer was, it wasn't something you could put into words. Precisely because it was so idealistic, you realized it would do little to alleviate Dullem's concerns, much less provide him something to pass on to the others. It was a vague, and open ended answer, which could be interpreted to mean any number of things... And what their role in that 'future', or what they should be doing to achieve it, could scarcely be considered among them.

No, something else was nagging at you. You'd told them blatantly when you had conscripted them that they would work for you. It was no secret that you were aware they weren't qualified; You had explicitly admitted to viewing them as an investment - Faith placed into the broken, in the hopes that they would grow into being worth their position. It was supposed to have inspired them, and driven them to improve. To hone themselves.

It hadn't.

You may have won their loyalty, but they remained mired in stagnation. They would follow orders, and they liked you well enough, but they still lacked something... Besides the obligatory skills one would expect, of course. It didn't make sense, and the fact it didn't make sense gnawed insistently at you. You had missed something. They were happy, they were obedient, their lives were provided for. What was wrong?

"A knight of any merit yearns for a purpose to devote themselves to."

Alouette had been the one who convinced you to take them on. She'd agreed that the rabble they constituted wasn't knight material, but her gentle urgings insisted that she saw something more there. It had never mattered to her that they weren't prepared for the role, as in her own words, few are ever born to be knights. They rose to meet those standards, finding strength in their devotion.

It wasn't a stretch to say that you were their saviour. They owed their lives to you, and everything they had now was inarguably thanks to you. You'd given them plenty of reasons, and even explicit instructions, to devote themselves to you... So what was the problem? There weren't any signs of rebellion, or reluctance, if anything they just seemed confused and uncertain... Aimless.

"A leader is more than a figure head, or someone to handle borders. To we knights, you are an ideal."

Was it more than just a lack of direction?

"Our life, the reason for honing our skills, we want something to devote ourselves to. A purpose to strengthen and defend. Without that, we are empty, and suffer for each day of that aimlessness."

If you expected them to devote themselves to you, then you were the ideal to drive them. You were their inspiration to serve. What did that mean for you? What kind of ideal were you to them? More than a saviour, more than your self-focused mission to succeed in the Rite, what did you represent? What values did you embody? What philosophy did you exemplify? What greater purpose?

They didn't know what you wanted from them, and it wasn't just due to lack of instructions... Was it possible that they didn't understand you as a person? If that were the case, it didn't matter how fondly they thought of you, or what they owed. You couldn't pursue something you didn't understand. They couldn't find inspiration in something alien.

But what did you represent? You'd never had any particularly grand ambition or motivation beyond protecting what was directly in front of you. You weren't like Caylen, whose ideals were strong enough to override any form of common sense and forethought. Even now, with this coming civil war, did you have any personal stake in it beyond wanting to come out on top? Some inherited sense of indignation? The greatest and most profoundly driving force behind your actions had been spite, which was hardly a trait which lent itself to inspiring devotion in others.

"Ser Valen?"

Dullem's voice brought you back to reality, yet the ground beneath your feet didn't seem as firm as it had moments ago. He needed an answer now, but this wasn't a problem you could solve in a moment, nor with words alone. You cleared your throat, raising your voice to speak as clearly as possible. "I understand. I haven't given you much of a purpose to rally around."

"Back when you finished that Rite thing, I don't think anyone cared. We were all just happy we'd found something to call home again." Dullem explained, picking his words cautiously in some vain attempt to not accidentally misconstrue the idea of mutiny in the ranks. "It's only something that's been going around recently. We're thankful for what you've done, just... We ain't sure what happens now. We know we owe you a deep debt, and it's weighing on us."

"I want to make one thing perfectly clear." You began seriously, "The relationship between a knight and their master isn't one-sided. It's just as much my responsibility to support and aid you, as it is yours to do the same for me. You haven't failed me. If anything... Maybe I failed you."

"No, no, no!" Dullem's eyes widened in a panic as he waved his hands in denial. "Nothing of the sort, Ser Valen! You've done more than we could have expected of you!"

"There's more than one way to fail someone." You disagreed vaguely, cupping your chin in thought as your eyes turned contemplatively groundward. "It's not something I can fix right now, though. All I can do is ask you trust me a little longer."

"You have it, obviously." His rapid answer was a scramble to reassure you, revealing how uniquely unsuited to this sort of interaction the bear of a man really was. As imposing as he was physically, he seemed to flounder in matters concerning emotions and relationships... Which, you suppose, made him ironically well suited to the position he found himself in.

You recognized how easily a man like him could become bogged down in his own short comings, both real and imagined. It was, perhaps, that familiar earnesty which led you to trust him so easily. Even if it would take a miracle to nurture such a man into being a knight captain exemplary of the stereotype, you never considered the option of the man himself not trying.

...And it was your obligation as his master to requite those efforts.

"For now, I want to officially endorse what you've taken initiative on in Carona. I should have given you the order myself, but your skills are precisely what I need here right now. If you doubted it before, consider it my will that you keep at it."

"Glad we could be of help." His back straightened in the face of your authoritative shift of topic. This was business now, and perhaps the first time you'd given him any sort of orders outside of an emergency situation. "Miss Lamandra has been a great help keeping us organized."

"She mentioned you were cooperating with a council of crafters for Carona's reconstruction?"

"Doing my best, to." His weight shifted, subconsciously displaying his discomfort with the topic. "There's a lot of arguing over what should take priority, and where resources should be allotted. They've been a great help manpower wise, but..."

"A pain in the ass?" You queried understandingly, receiving a relieved grunt for affirmation. "You're my voice in those meetings, and I am both the mayor of this town, and the Heir to the house which oversees the territory. Their job is to work with you, not the other way around."

"Ser?"

"In other words, you decide what takes priority. Or relay the decision from Rinnier and I, and tell them what needs doing. Remind them that this is not a democracy. Their role is to help you by organizing their workers."

"All due respect Ser Valen, they know their town better than I do."

"Then let them make reports. Extract estimates from them of the resources you'll need to make something happen." Your arms crossed imperiously, head tilting back minutely. "You are the final word, and your job is to make this go smoothly. Every moment they spend arguing is another one that people are suffering because the ones with power can't agree how to help."

"...Alright." Your knight captain's brows knit, something in those words finding root in him. It was a familiar sentiment, and one Alouette had impressed emphatically on you - One which Dullem, of all people, could find something to relate to. "I can't say whether they'll like that, but I'll do it."

"Consider it an order." You suggest archly, "If they complain, I can make time to correct them personally."

Dullem blinked in surprise, returning an agreement with more enthusiasm as he processed the thinly veiled threat. It wasn't the first time you had considered throwing your weight around - The entire recruitment of Dullem and his people was, in fact, one such occasion - But it was likely the first time he had been made complicit in your aggressive governance.

"You've earned at least a fraction of the pointless pride you had when we met."

This wasn't an Atelier, or some tradition rigged against you. You didn't need to hesitate. Rinnier promised to support you through this.

You'd give your knights something to devote themselves to.

"Kara told me you've been organizing the demihumans as well. How has that gone?"

"Like herding cats." Dullem grimaced briefly, "They'll do their fair share as long as she's around to keep them honest, but she can't be everywhere. Can't say many of my folk are fond of having them around, either... Not that we'll cause a problem." He swiftly amended a reassurance, but it more or less confirmed what Rinnier had already told you. This at least confirmed that you'd need to pay closer attention to Kara's pack... And have a talk with Raid, specifically.

"There have been a lot of complaints from Carona's citizens about their involvement." You segued away from your knights for a moment. "How much trouble has that caused you in trying to get things done?"

"Augh... Probably more than I'm dealing with." He admitted reluctantly. "They can be a pain to work with, but ain't one of us can deny they're useful. We've got plenty of places to work on, and I told my men to just move on to the next site if someone complains. Even doing that, it's more progress being made than if we took them off."

Which meant those complaints would filter up to Rinnier instead... Or back to Dullem, through the council. "I'm planning on reassigning them to patrol duties outside of Carona. It would get them out of your hair, but do you think that's worth losing their aid?"

"Can't really say, but I'm fine with it." Dullem shrugged, "Even if we move a bit slower, it'll be nice not to deal with people nagging every other day."

"But... Thank you." You let the force in your voice ebb momentarily. "Kara is my Testament, and her pack is staying under my command so long as she remains their leader. I had hoped they could integrate with Carona, but if I can rely on you to be able to continue working with them, then I'll take that compromise."

"Well, like I said, we ain't particularly fond of them." Dullem offered a half-hearted protest. "But we owe you too much to make a fuss about who we work with."

"Did you have issues working with Kara, or just her pack?"

Dullem's hand slid nervously behind his neck again. "I got the feeling she didn't really understand what I was asking her most of the time. Wasn't sure whether she was just ignoring me, or humouring me." That wasn't too surprising. It took you a little effort to iterate your instructions to her until she got it right... Especially if it required any active thought, or decisions, on her end. "She worked hard enough, though. I ain't mean nothing bad when I say this Ser Valen, but I don't think that freak ever got tired. She'd work through the day and night, and sometimes just stop and ask someone a question with most of an entire wall on her shoulder."

"...Yeah." You glanced back towards town agreeably. "I'm hoping that she can keep the rest of her pack in line by consolidating them in one place. They'll be out of sight for a while, but expect to work with them again soon. I'll talk to Kara about it later."

"Understood."

>Status update on Carona
>Talk about the mining project

>Optional: What kind of ideals does Irue represent? Cite specific instances or actions in the quest to support your reasoning.

>>2111766
>>Status update on Carona
Let's round out the reports before we get into future plans.

>What kind of ideals does Irue represent?
In general? Arrogance, Spite, and Greed, mostly. I'll dredge up references later, but for now:
Arrogance from our noble birth; we're born to rule, but we have no training relating to ruling or even dealing with people, but we look down on those lower than us. Basically, we talk a big game with nothing to back it up.
Spite was a major motivator during the first arc (Gnome priest), and we have a tendency to harshly punish those we perceive to have done us wrong.
Greed comes from our fierce protection if what we think of as ours, often to absurd lengths. We don't protect our 'things' for their own sake, or because we care for them, we protect them because they are ours. Perhaps selfishness would be a better name?

>>2111766
Protection and loyalty to the point of possessiveness.

Like from the start when we defended Kara against first a spiteful priest. Then kicked the shit out of the Town Guard.

More recently with Ari.

Integrity.

We hold ourselves to our own unrealistic standards to the point where we are constantly criticizing our own failures. Regardless of the feasibility, we do our best to follow through and do what we promised.

Pride. Oh god pride. We think we can actually live up to our own insane standards.

Not only that, but we are proud enough to judge the Mana themselves by our standards because we believe in fairness.

We attac. We protec. But most of all we act.

Additionally, we should point out that it is fine for him to guide Kara. Her job is not to understand what he needs to get done, but to trust that he knows it and to use her position to help him complete it.

>>2111766
Oops I almost forgot.

Having fabulous hair. Men that can't grow hair will grow fabulous beards. Men that can't grow either will be ordered to wear full helms at all times.

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>>2111914
Status updates!

>>2111952
Also it's fine to guide Kara. Don't ask her to think too much.

Writing!
---
>Ideals Irue represents
>Arrogance, Spite, Greed, and Bitchin' Hair.

>>2111979
HEY. I said Loyalty and protectiveness. We take a lot of hits so other people don't have to.

And we have almost a cruel integrity, a sense of Nobelesse Oblige that drives us on and lets us recognize loyalty goes both ways, we just explained that to Dullem.

Not saying we don't have the other things.

>>2111979
"Tell me again what that thing is?"

You shrug, looking over the hastily prepared platter of finger foods before you. "I'm not really sure."

"But you're its master, right? It listens to you."

"For the most part." You confirm idly, patting Ari on the head as she looked about the room from the relative safety of your side. "It can speak, but it doesn't really understand our language."

"You can send it away though, can't you?"

"I do not think it would go far, Ser Valen." Rinnier interjected politely, "It has been very... persistent in its pursuit of us."

>>
Riz !y56qKWqxyc 07/25/15(Sat)23:40:07 No.41467023

"Also it'd probably be upset if I told it to go away now." You follow up thoughtfully, "It's fine isn't it? Your nanny can babysit it for a while, it shouldn't make a nuisance of itself."

Caylen drug a hand over his face grievously in the face of your nonchalance. "Alouette is the captain of my guard, she isn't a nanny to be looking after whatever strange horror you managed to find!" You level a flat stare at him for several moments, "She's been your 'caretaker' since we were four years old, Caylen. Shall I tell her you do not acknowledge the years of care she put into you?" You sniff at the defeat in Caylen's eyes, "She would be devastated that you think so little of her devotion."

"No... No, just... Why are you here?" He sighed, "Where did you even come from? Did you ride that creature all this way?"

"Of course not." You reject the notion out of hand, "We walked."
"That's worse! It must have taken a week-"
"Nearly two."
"-Two weeks to get here. Why would you even go that far? We just met at your Rite."


We also tend to pick up lost strays.

And have a poor grasp on what's human and what isn't.

>>2111979
In fact personal loyalty is so important to us that we felt very uncomfortable about the Knights after Shadowrue was murdered by lazy and thoughtless monsters, because we didn't feel they were REALLY ours.

Also we were so stubborn that we gave birth to ShadowRue.

So Stubborn, Loyal, Spiteful, Proud (arrogance has been beaten out of us at this point), Greedy (although not really for ourselves.) and totally bitchin' hair.

>>2111979
Riz !y56qKWqxyc 02/15/16(Mon)02:23:07 No.45434778

>>45434696
I was born a shadow. It's all I have.

>>45434726
You were closest.
It was one post further down.

God this is going to be a little heartbreaking to write. Give me a bit.

>>
Anonymous 02/15/16(Mon)02:25:51 No.45434817

>>45434778
Damnit. Was it
>"You're Irue Valen."
>
>-Why did you summon me, why are you doing this-
>
>"You can't give up."
or was that covered by >>45434687 ?

>>2111766
>>Optional: What kind of ideals does Irue represent?
Ha ha ha...

"Also about Kara... She takes orders better than she takes suggestions."

"I... Thought she outranked me?" Dullem explained baffled. "She's one of your Testament, ain't she?"

"She is, but it's a personal thing. If you leave how something gets done up to her, she'll come up with something on her own. Tell her what you need done, she'll handle it."

"She won't get mad at me?"

"...I think she'd appreciate it, honestly." You stopped to try and imagine it from her point of view. "I'll talk to her about that as well, but it should be fine until further notice."

Dullem remained unconvinced. "If you say so, Ser Valen."

"Moving on, what can you tell me about Carona?"

"It's a mess. We've written off most of what I'm told was a district a vassal family of the Valen's used to inhabit. It took the worst damage of anywhere, and since no one actually lived or did business there anymore, it's been low on our list." You still didn't know what happened to them. You knew for certain that the Tier sisters were still alive, but as for where they were now... "The roads are as clear as they're gonna get. They were partially done when we got here, and Miss Lamandra told us to get them done first. Something about transport."

"It's easier to move goods and services in and out across established pathways." The reasoning was basic knowledge for you. It was actually a little surprising Dullem wasn't aware of something like that. "You were a farmer, weren't you? Didn't you have paths to move wagons through?"

"Yeah, of course. Never really paid them much mind, though." A light flush crept up his cheeks as he laughed. "Where I was going was more important than how I got there, usually."

"Strong roads make strong regions." You idly butchered an excerpt from your required studies. "What else?"

"We have space in place for medics and a public mess square. Miss Lamandra has us focusing on getting people's homes cleaned up and built again, now that we've salvaged enough supplies to keep day to day life going."

"As opposed to...?"

"Uh... Businesses and trade, I'd guess. Don't think anyone would be able to do much trading right now, anyhow." He shrugged, "Most of the crops were ruined with the disaster, but we've been stretching the food we got. Probably wouldn't have lasted this long if not for the demihumans, to be honest." You tilted your head curiously, silently requesting clarification from the man. "Guessing they overheard someone complaining they were hungry, Luna knows there were enough of them. This little guy - guessing he's her lieutenant or something?"

"Sounds like Raid." You filter through a quick description of Kara's little brother, urging him to continue.

"Aye, well anyway. Comes up to me and spins me a plan for the demis to go hunting and pass it off as something we caught. Figured it couldn't hurt to have em gone for a few days, and every little bit helps..." Dullem shook his head incredulously, brushing his hair back to wipe away beading sweat upon his brow. "Came back that night with the same kinda snake you had us take down. We've been rationing that out in soups for a while now."

So that's what was in the soup yesterday.

"Doesn't really matter what else that demihuman Testament of yours does anymore, I give up."

You snorted softly, a soft smirk proudly curving along your lips. Your instinct was to attribute the kill to Kara, but if Raid was the one to suggest it... You struggled to think of an angle for his involvement. Altruism was barely a human concept, completely impossible for demihumans, which meant there had to have been something for him to gain.

Poisoning something that large didn't make any sense, and you couldn't imagine what they could stand to gain from making an enemy of Carona now. Passing it off as an act of your knights ruled out any chance of courying good will from the people. A chance to get out of town, maybe? But then they'd need a reason to want to leave.

Questions for later. For now, you'd just appreciate the end result.

"We can clear things fine enough, but rebuilding is gonna be tough." Dullem continued heedless of your distracted thoughts, "Plenty of wood around here, but we'll need decent stone to make anything worthwhile, and that's not even getting into things like nails." He ticked off his problems across rather large fingers, "Miss Lamandra's not made it a secret that we ain't exactly got the cash to throw around, so we either find it ourselves, or salvage what we can... And that about catches you up, I guess."

"Rinnier mentioned you had an idea about that?"

"Well, I spent plenty of time out in the words near your cousin's place, and figured the mountains weren't too much further off. I ain't really sure what to look for, but I always heard the best place to find stone is in the hills. Might be we get lucky and find some iron while we're at it?"

Stone would be in high supply, but Alouette didn't think there was any ore to be found back there. Then again, Alouette wasn't exactly a prospector either. If you could convince a Gnome Adept to accompany you into the mountains, you could at least confirm one way or another if they really were barren... Assuming your meeting with Mim left you in her good graces.

"I don't really want to try digging around here." Dullem continued darkly, "Last time we stuck our head under ground 'round here, we got attacked by apparitions and barely got out alive. I don't care if there's iron six feet under my boot right now-" He turned aside and pointedly spit at the ground. "-It can stay there."

It took some measure of self control to not laugh.

"I may be able to convince a Gnome adept to help us out with finding ore in the mountains." You figured now was the best time you'd get to discuss this with him. "If I can, then it's only a matter of time before we find something we can use, and a definite 'yes' to the stonework you needed. The problem is how we plan on getting it once it's found."

"I know some of my guys used to be miners." Dullem ran his fingers across the grizzled stubble coating his cheeks. "Can't say we'd be fast about it, but they said mining ain't too difficult work. Enough sturdy bodies and we can get it ourselves."

"Which would take you off of Carona's reconstruction to do it." You observed neutrally. "And that's not to mention the beasts that could attack you in the meantime. Alouette warned us about the gryphons."

"...Aye. It ain't all sunshine and daisies, that's for sure." Dullem groused, "Guess that's a no-go then?"

Golden blonde hair shimmered from side to side in the sunlight as you shook your head. "Not necessarily. I mentioned to expect working with the demihumans again in the future, didn't I? If you can trust Kara and her pack to protect you, then that should give you plenty of time to find, extract, and move the ore."

"...This ain't an order, is it?" He asked hesitantly. "We can deal with them helping us, but I dunno how many of us are willing to trust them with our lives out there."

"It's something to think about." You decline to enforce any specific answer for now. "I'll expect an answer from you in the next couple of days. By then, I should know whether or not we'll have a Gnome adept in our retinue, so be prepared for either outcome."

"Aye, alright. I'll talk it over with the others."

>Anything else?

>>2112096
> Ask if about mixing socially with the locals

We need ideas for throwing a party. Not an extravagant one, but a fun one nonetheless.

Also

> Has Dullem found any special Carona girls? Do we need to bless any round bellies?

>>2112096
>Will Carona citizens settle for wattle-and-daub houses instead of stone?
We'll be able to raise them up much quicker if it's just wood and clay.

>>2112101
>>2112117
Things. Writing!

>locked into negative only traits
God dammit

>>2112126
That's some shit if the window is closed already, it's half a day yet before I can find time to vote

>>2112126
>>2112127
You're free to debate them or suggest your own.(remember to cite examples to support them).

This won't have immediate results in any updates, but I'm keeping an eye on them, and you.

For what it's worth, traits that are considered negative are just as valid as positive ones. They have their own implications, and I'd suggest you prioritize your suggestions around what you each feel best encapsulates Irue, rather than build a christmas list of all the reasons you deserve to be on the Nice list.

>>2112129
How valid are the shadowrue experiences?

>>2112133
Technically Dopplerue was part of Irue, but from an IC stand point, Irue considers Dopplerue a separate entity. Progress has been made towards readopting the memories Dopplerue left behind, but Irue treats them somewhat reverently, as opposed to the familiarity one might their own thoughts.

It's not to say Irue couldn't pick a trait or aspect from those memories and try to honor it, but if you dig up a bunch of them then you're liable to just remind Irue how much they screwed up by getting Dopplerue killed.

"What good traits do I have?"
"Oh well my Doppleganger had plenty."
"....I fucked that up."

>>2112139
Reminder that Dopplerue proved markedly more competent for some reason.

"If the mining doesn't work out, is it possible to settle for wood only?" You didn't know what exactly that change entailed, but cabins could be made purely from wood, couldn't they? It'd be cheaper, and far faster to throw together.

"Houses ain't just log cabins, Ser Valen." He responded tiredly, evidently having gone over this rhetoric in the past. "We could slap some together, but they won't be worth a damn in a few years."

"Would it be worth it to put people in houses quicker, though?" You forge on inquisitively. "Even if they're just temporary homes, they could do the trick in the meantime."

He still seemed reluctant over the idea, and rolled the question around for a while before finally giving up. "I guess? Seems like a waste of wood and time to me. Might be able to talk them into it now, just to start getting them back into houses, but I figure they'll be bitter about it later."

"Happiness wears off and it's not up to their standards?" You frown, "If we're just going to replace them later, they shouldn't have to put up with it that long."

"We'd have to tear the things down before we could build something back up in their place." Dullem rumbled unenthusiastically, "Put them right back out of their homes to give them something decent later... Unless you want to stick the folk in huts outside of town. Can't say whether I'd prefer that over just waiting out something worth a damn the first time." He shrugged as it say it wasn't his problem. "Give the order and we start building, Ser Valen."

"I'll think about it." It'd be a quick way to gain some good will now, but if Dullem was right, you could expect it to sour in time... Especially if something came up later and you couldn't replace the houses with something sturdier. Was it worth it? ...Maybe. You could think of a few plans where that small uptick in gratitude could be useful. It would be risky though, and likely wouldn't have the same pay off in the long run.

"Speaking of happiness," You set the matter aside for later, when you knew whether or not you'd have a Gnome adept on your side for the mining. "How's the atmosphere?"

"Morale's as high as can be expected, I guess." The man was hardly skilled in reading a crowd, but he'd been here far longer than you had, and was likely more in touch with the average person than Rinnier. "Had a party last week when the snake got drug in, but I'd say we're back down to the grind by now. People used to complain they didn't have enough food, but past couple of days they've just been sore over it being the same old thing."

So you'd missed your chance for the easy ride, it seemed. "What would you suggest if I wanted to make raise morale?"

At that moment, your knight captain dug deep inside. At the behest of your quandary, he consolidated every piece of insight he had gained from his time amongst Carona's citizens for your benefit.

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>>2111766
>Ideals Irue represents

>How to call it? Not-surrendering?
Different from stubborness, Irue seems just hate the concept of giving up, as evidenced by the visceral disgust felt when Dopplerue gave up on life, in Ateliers, talking with Elly's brother may he burn in hell and I think other occasions as well.

>Forgetting important things in important moments
This was a joke please don't really count this!

>Perseverance
I'd have to quote the whole quest.

"Iunno."

"Figured." You clicked your tongue dismissively, continuing on with faint shade of sarcasm. "Anything they want besides their lives back?"

"That's pretty up there, but, eh. When we were coming out here, and camping out in the woods, anything was better than nothing. You can only repair your clothes so many times, kids need something to keep their interest, you know." The bulky man stretched leisurely, scratching his chest in an absent minded gesture. "Guess what I'm trying to say is... Life goes on? Or, nah that ain't it."

"I think I understand."

It wasn't exactly advice, but the perspective of someone who'd suffered through things like this before, it was a useful frame of reference. The memory of loss would stay, but the shock and trauma passed relatively quickly. Inspirational speeches were probably going to fall on deaf, and bored, ears. You'd need something to give them real, tangible progress. Either that, or some snippet that could help ration back to them that elusive feeling of recovering one's life.

Something to think about. You had a lot of things to think about, lately.

"By the way, have you met anyone in Carona?"

"Ser?" Dullem responded dumbly. "I've been working with enough of em, I guess?"

"No, I mean... You're the captain of my knights, right? You're the face of the whole recovery effort in Carona."

"I try not to think about that much." He admitted dully.

"That's a big deal isn't it? No one's tried to..." You reached for some metaphor for a topic you weren't well versed in, settling awkwardly on a verse from one of Asche's books which You Did Not Read. "Express their gratitude?"

"Yeah, we get a lot of thanks. Gets kind of frustrating when I can't do more for them, though." He sighed, and you decided the topic wasn't worth pursuing any further. If you had to clarify this any further, you'd just get embarassed yourself.... And it wasn't any of your business, anyway.

"I've got some more rounds to make." You'd learned plenty from Dullem as it was, and he had his own work to get back to. "Rinnier mentioned you might be able to point me towards a man named Thomas Rime?"

"The guy who signed over the headquarters?" Dullem perked up curiously, "Yeah, I got an idea where the old man's holding up. If this is about that whole expressing gratitude thing, Miss Lamandra thanked him profusely."

"No..." You closed your eyes in defeat, "That's not... I have business with his kids, that's all."

"Oh." he nodded uneasily, "That might be a problem."

"Why?" You hedged warily, feeling a familiar knot work itself into the pit of your stomache.

"Last I heard, one of them was still missing. Can't remember which one, though."

>?

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>>2112155
What a spoiled lot these Caronans are! Medieval townspeople lived in wattle-and-daub houses their whole lives! We should just sell them into slavery, that'll show 'em!

>>2112157
We know it's Jill. It can't be anyone but Jill. Because this would be the more painful option, it must be true.

>Ask how to find Thomas anyway. We can decide what to do later.

>>2112157
> I'll talk to the Demi-humans about it. Kara can pick people out by smell easily enough, but they all can to some degree.

If they're patrolling anyways . . .

Also

> what about grey/black markets? Where is there criminal activity. We should offer them a one time chance to go legit.

What happens if we make a shade apparition at crime central?

Bad ideas! Make another apparition. Then dispel it. Shit could we mine mana cores out of them by doing it? What happened to the Jinn mana core.

Also we're bookish.

>>2112157
We need to get in touch with hunters and Marchovich and find out where oakenbears were killed/found. Gotta get those mana cores!

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>>2112165
>Make another apparition. Then dispel it.
>could we mine mana cores out of them by doing it?
Yes. If you want to, I won't stop you.

>What happened to the Jinn mana core.
Odds are good Alouette annihilated it.

>>2112168
Hm, what manga is this?

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>>2112171
Crest of the Stars. It's the first prequel to the Banner of the Stars series.

It's got a 4 season long anime adaption! The manga is very cute, though.

>>2112168
Obviously not in town.

Alternatively we could set a bunch of fires around Rinnier.

>>2112173
Oh. It's the "We're an aggressive expansionist empire seeking to monopolize every means of long-distance communication, but we're also cute space elves so we're the good guys" one?

>>2112180
We're talking about the same one, but yeah. I don't think it does much justifications towards the protagonist faction being any "better", aside from the fact that it's the one the story is framed from.

>>2112129
Ah, I thought you closed it, thanks.
>>2112157
>ask him to lead us to Thomas
>>2112166
What are you thinking of doing with the cores? I'd prefer to make new apparition friends than boost farm production myself.

Skyfire is risen, so I suppose vote remains open until later tonight!

Save me from tyrannical rays. And finals.

>>2112202
Well I WAS thinking about discretely placing a bunch of Shade apparition cores in our office.

We'd be used to it.

Supplicants and such not so much.

>>2112223
There is a Shrine in town; that's the sort of thing they'd eventually detect, and then they'd have some rather pointed questions for us I think.

>>2111766
> ...But this was not your concern. Not yet, anyway. Given the choice between aiding the country and helping the people directly before you, you hadn't so much as hesitated to leave matters to your aunt and uncle. They would handle Caylen's actions, like they had handled everything else thus far. In the meantime, your hands were tied with decidedly more direct and ambiguous concerns.

Pragmatic and not idealistic. Iruelen does the job in front of her first, taking care of her people before others.

>>2111766
> Your frown deepened, remembering the less pleasant interactions you'd had with the late Roderick. You remembered receiving the report of his death not long after the event, and it still left you... uncomfortable. He died with questions of loyalty shaded across his name, but the actions he took in his final moments were beyond reproach.

> On his deathbed, you would admit - if only to yourself - that perhaps he had been a good man.

> But also he was an asshole.

Judgemental but she strives to be fair about it. She acknowledges the positive qualities of people as well as the negative ones.

Much like her feelings about Carona, despite how much she hates the town itself she has repeatedly praised the citizens for being hardworking, stoic, etc.

>>2111766
>>2112361

I forgot, but also how she handled Kara betraying her. She was able to not only understand but accept the position Kara was in, despite being hurt by it.


Iruelen is Dutiful and Insecure.

Despite hating Carona she strives to do her best to take care of it once it became her responsibility.

She assumed the obligation towards the Knights that Shadowrue took on, and has genuinely tried to connect with them. Even though originally she felt like they had been dumped on her by Shadowrue.

She acted to save the Demi humans and rehabilitate them instead of using them or ignoring them. She could have simply saved Raid and a few others, or broken them further into obeying Kara. Despite actively disliking them, while she initially helped them because they were important to Kara once she accepted them as a responsibility she worked for what she considered their best interests.

>>2111766
What about insecure though?

I had a big point by point write up. Too big. So here's some points.

We started out thinking marrying a Prince from the ruling Royal family was unacceptable. Not even a step down but outright not good enough.

d the stuff we're bad at on her so we always interact in that context.

Until very recently, nobody knew who we were at large even though we were going to marry a prince. We're broke, and have no friends. Our Testaments are terrifyingly loving and heart breaking dependent, literally retarded, and super busy being better than us at all the stuff we discovered was expected of us that we suck at and we usually make her life harder.

Finally we just keep running into bigger problems. First the Testaments problems, Carona being shit and the Mayor fucking with us, then the cospiracy / civil warmore testament problems, more Testament problems and the Mayor having a conspiracy that hurt our testaments, THE FUCKING FAE, weird Forest shit, a goddamn dead god and possible apocalypse.

Iruelen is so focused on the end goal of proving herself as Head of House Valen, while at the same time fixing her subordinates problems, that her actual accomplishments are ignored because of her crazy expectations.

We made a sandwich! And punched out a Flame apparition!

>"I..." Cracked fingers grasped immaterial reigns as you felt something twist and writhe within your grip. "Am Irue Valen!" The warcry that rips from your throat carries specks of copper blood and skalds your tongue from having opened your mouth so close to the blaze, your vision obscured by frantically tearing eyes in an attempt to resist being dried out. Not knowing what you held, you rip the fire aside, dragging forward a shocked fire elemental into your waiting right fist.

Worth noting Rinnier just bitched at us for that even though she was going to throw water on an oil fire.

We H2H a fucking Oakenbear.

We fought the Law and we won!

We defeated multiple apparitions in the Ice Atelier and the shade apparition at the bandit camp But not the final form .

What else? We faced down our Shade doppelganger and didn't get strangled to death.

Uncovered a conspiracy and probably saved our Cousin.

We're a goddamn walking Mana Nuke if necessary, wrecking towns and killing Mayors despite not being able to hold a weapon.

But the best example I can think of regarding how little Iruelen thinks about her achievements is that she solved two Ateliers and didn't think it was important.

>>2111979
Thread 8.5 sneaking into bandit camp.

> These things are tentatively set aside as you put a decade's worth of study and countless generations of House Valen pride to work to stroll directly through the brigand camp as if you owned the place. While you weren't particularly adept at this type of thing, you WERE good at reading people. Learning their body language, how to force a reaction and what to bait. It was basic social etiquette, tools any self-respecting noble should have in spades, and you were proud to say that it was quite the specialty of yours.

Irulen is canon manipulative and sneaky. She infiltrated multiple times. Bandit Camp. Carona. The Mayors compound.

Backfired when she tried to negotiate with Mim because that's how she sees social interactions.

>>2111766
Irulen has a lot of character development in thread 9. Wipes out the Bandit Camp. Saves Ari. Deals with the Shade.

Specifically this defines Irulen as a PROTECTOR.

We literally chose the protect option when dealing with the Shade. It also completed the milestone of protecting all three Testaments. Rinnier the Wet Blanket Fire Princess during Kitchenmancy. Our Klutzy Killer Kara at Carona. Then Ari Always Away with the Fairies in the tunnels.

Notably we directly put ourselves in harms way each time.

It's also one of Irulens most extreme examples of RUTHLESSNESS. We didn't just kill all the bandits with Night Gaunt's but we also probably killed Garet.

Additional evidence for Ruthless is killing the Mayor at all costs, and wrecking Carona.

Note going forward - Irulen is capable of interacting with the opposite sex as seen with Garet. So while she isn't particularly interested in romance, she isn't a Harem Protagonist. She's nobility and that means marriage and such have political obligations.

>>2111766
To put it all in one post.

Top tier ideals.

Irulen is Pragmatic, achieving her goals is more important than vague ideals, pride, or even morality. She is Protective of people important to her above protecting her own self and Loyal to people who support her. These values override any other negative or positive values, and are neither good nor bad but situational. For instance pragmatism doesn't mean she won't choose difficult or risky actions, but more along the lines of being willing to break a few eggs to make an omelette. Protecting someone isn't done by smothering them (chapter 9, response to shade) in her own words. Loyalty begets loyalty, she doesn't feel obligated to hold loyalty towards someone that betrays her - different from someone that fails. Conversely she doesn't expect people to be loyal to her if she isn't loyal in return and is uncomfortable if they don't hold her "accountable" to her expectations of loyalty.

Also totally bitching hair.

Second tier Values and Ideals

>>2111766
>>2112558
These are more what she aspires towards and and considers moral for positive, and what she is motivated by and filters her assessment of herself and others through for negative.

Positive ideals and values:

Fulfilling the obligations of Duty is expected as the minimum requirement for both herself and others and not something to be praised or congratulated for. Doesn't mean she isn't happy when she is. She is Resolute in her determination to fulfill what she sees as her duties once she has accepted them, some might say Stubborn about completing a chosen course of action.

Personally I feel that she has grown past stubbornness for its own sake as seen by her giving up the Demi human integration by reconstruction plan and changed to Demi human integration by hunting and working with the Knights. She also Bravely faces personal threats or challenges directly if possible, risking harm and failure if it's the most pragmatic route.

While Proud of her abilities, when someone else is more capable she is willing to let them lead (pragmatic) and accepts criticism when constructively explained.

She is very Insecure about the value of her accomplishments and others opinions of her, being very critical of her accomplishments vs her expectations. She's Judgemental of others and doesn't accept excuses for failing to live up to her standards, but she's Fair about recognizing their good qualities and can respect their deeds if not the person.

As others pointed out, she can be Spiteful towards people, places, and things that get in her way like that desk she stubbed her toe on or a certain cousin seducing whore with saggy tits and hair that is so basic that PBS broadcasts on it and is going to get hers. It's worth noting that her attitude and relationship with her Aunt, whom she was originally most spiteful to, changed once her Aunt engaged with her in a more supportive way. I don't think there's much spitefulness left towards her any more. Not because we need her as an ally or other clinical reasons, but because we've come to understand her better and recontextualized her past actions.

Irulen is still Arrogant, believing that failure is due to her making a mistake instead of simply lacking ability. It shows in how she treats others when they conflict with her expectated values as if she suspects malicious incompetence at best (they refuse to listen), or the person actively working against her for selfish/evil reasons etc. That it is at some point a conscious decision to be a "bad guy".

I don't know if I would say Irulen is Greedy really. She doesn't really want money or luxuries, maybe more possessive. I would lean more towards Ambitious as her desires are more immaterial in nature. She wants power, safety, status, etc.

>>2112571
>She wants power, safety, status, etc.
I disagree, we're pretty fed up with power and status really. Power is only a tool to be used and every time we try to use it shit goes totally tits up and it puts us under so much stress it causes complete mental breakdowns. Status is still something she think she deserve because she was born into it, but has become merely a necessary evil that does nothing but cause us headaches and nobody really gives a damn when we try to make use of it.

I also want to make a case for Integrity as our real driving force. Ironically enough Irue is like the true fae, our word is law like a self inflicted curse. We vowed to get back at Roderick, and wow did we deliver in spades. We promised to help Dullem's brigands. We promised Ari that we'd keep her safe- look what happened. We also promised Kara that we trust and forgive her, much to the chagrin and contempt of the people around us. We promised Rinnier that we'd help her- look what happened. Even though she fucking killed us twice we are still holding on to that promise, any normal person would flip her the bird after month upon month of ungratefulness, bitching and verbal abuse. We made a promise to Mim and we are twisting our gut to find a compromise that will let us keep that promise.

I thought about spinning it as loyalty but in the end it has never been about our feelings toward any one person and all about refusing to lose our integrity by going back on our word. IMO that single virtue is what it all boils down to.

>>2111766
Final value / ideal

Ruthlessness. Not really a consistent ideal or something that Irulen aspires to, or motivates her. More a reflection of how much Irulen assigns value. There is a clear line between her "in" group that her ideals apply to, and the rest of the world.

Which we may have been doomed to save Ari. RUTHLESS.

> That was... A responsibility on its own, right? As the Heir to House Valen, you couldn't just ignore that, could you? You owed it to her to repay that, didn't you?

{You were doing this for yourself. No greater reason, no noble justifications.

>"Let's do something together when we get home, alright?"
>"Yes, master!"

>You'd figure it out later. In the meantime, you didn't owe the world a damn thing.

Destroying a Town to stop the Mayor. RUTHLESS.

> "I've heard all I want." Ah yes, it was all rushing back to you now. You nodded calmly to yourself; You had satisfied your curiosity, and waited long enough to listen and learn. You had stood and endured, and now that you had humoured one side of the storm, it was only fair your humoured the other.

Killing all the Bandits to make sure we can rescue Ari. RUTHLESS.

> Not entirely. There were things you still wanted to learn about those brigands, and Garet was the only contact you really had. That's all. You didn't feel guilty about it.

> ...Maybe a little bit.

Never to be discussed again.

Chapter 39. Summoning Shade on the Demi Humans. RUTHLESS.

> Natural born sociopaths, detached and separated from empathy. You had wondered what the result of forcing a Shade apparition upon them would be, but the results were... Fascinating.

Read the posts voting for it. Definitely designed to crush them as thoroughly as possible.

Chapter 39. Summoning Shade on the Demi Humans and forcing ourselves to face our biggest regret - Shadowrue dying bitterly after living bitterly. RUTHLESS.

At some point, people cross a line with Irulen and become not-people. Just simply a cost. There are other times with Shadowrue like the razor spider web.

Noteable is that she felt guilt about Garet but not the other bandits. Also the use of the bracelet to meditate, but we made the decision to use it as ourself. Maybe there's something else . . .

>>2111766
SECRET VALUE: LESS THAN HUMAN MORE HUMANITY

Remember that we connected our Jb (heart - emotion, thought, will, intention) with the Oakenrue through the Web using the bracelet and experienced it's Bâ (Personality - The thing itself as a whole / the impression a thing makes on existence). This process resulted in "Aeon Foundation Recognized" while using ability "Ignore Humanity". We chose best of 3, failure mitigated but success heavily flawed. Which might explain "Mana: Undetermined." And "Source: Fragmented. Corrupted" - well probably Dryad since we were linked to an apparition of it.

So we are going forward possibly building an Aeon foundation. But no Mana loves us. Not even Dryad. So uh. Maybe take this ideals thing seriously.

>>2112638
> Integrity

We lie a little too much for that. Also from chapter 15 our argument for employing the Knights. Pre-ShadowRue which happened in chapter 16

> "No." You shake your head, brushing a stray strand of stubbornly long blonde hair behind your ear, "We make them want to do it. No one will support a cause more fervently than one which they believe they chose to support themselves."

> "If they never find out the path was straight, they'll always believe it was their choices which brought them there. If they're happy with what they chose, does it matter what the truth is?"

This was our counter-proposal to Rinniers suggestion of using a legal pecedent to enslave them which she argued for passionately as the least worst option. Our plan and reasoning offended her to the very core of her being.

When did Rinnier kill us twice? After our punch-up when we gained her support, she has done nothing by work her ass of trying to help us.

Oh. How that ended.

> It was when your foot slipped, the ground under you proving to be far less providing of traction when coated in slicks of blood, and you stumbled forward too heavily. You felt something press against you, heard something rip as you felt your stomach twist and the urge to throw up promptly made itself known. You choked it back, tightening your abdominals to ignore the discomfort as Rinnier's guard finally dropped, her hands falling aside in shock.

> She was trying to say something, but whatever it was happened to be lost upon contact with your fist sending her splaying back onto her back.

Gotta size that moment of weakness on her part. As we hold our guts in. To win a fight we started by punching her when she said we weren't trustworthy because of how manipulative we are with people.

I would go more with Duty still for how she generally acts. Irulen honours her word because it carries the weight of House Valen behind it and using that name carries obligations with it. It isn't free, as we found out when we tried to use it to get out of biting Roderick and the whole letter thing.

Loyalty, now Irulen has that. That was the whole point, that she was trying to win Rinniers loyalty by proving Irulens loyalty to her. Ironically we almost didn't convince her that we weren't just using her until we punched through her walls as it were. Still, from the arc end thread

Is Rinnier tsundere for us?
Not exactly, no. Rather, she legitimately hates you. It's something specific in her wording from last thread:

> She didn't trust you. She still doesn't. She doesn't want to. But what she wants doesn't matter anymore, does it?

> She's bitter and confused.

Then we got drunk for a month and dumped Carona on her and golems with our face stalked her while we hung out with Demi-humans whom Rinnier does NOT trust or like then went into the forest.

Dude our integrity is super situational.

>>2112202
>>2112162
To Thomas!

>>2112165
Kara fetch?

>>2112165
Illegal activity...?

Writing!

You were already bracing for it to be Jill. You'd barely interacted with her brother, and she was the one you had most wanted to make amends with, so of course it would be her. Months after the incident, if they were still missing by now... "I'll keep that in mind. The directions?"

"I can walk you there." Dullem offered, squinting skyward. "I got something to do in that direction, anyhow."

"We'll do that, then." You nod along, stepping aside to allow your erstwhile knight captain passage back towards the town proper. "Was there anything else you wanted to talk about before we go?"

He hesitated to pass, looking between you and the road ahead indecisively. Eventually one foot fell in front of the other, his deep voice rumbling as he moved on. "I reckon I've said enough. Thanks for hearing me out, Ser Valen." Rubble snapped and crumbled under each careful step, leaving you to watch his retreating back. Any number of fruitless calculations ran behind vacant crimson pools, the dialogue you'd shared not moments ago being processed, analyzed and broken down. A reexamination of the state of your knights, and of how to handle Carona going forward.

Gratitude wasn't enough to inspire devotion. Not the kind you needed from them, at any rate. For something like that, for the sort of dedication required to fill the hearts of men, you needed something greater. More thoroughly pervasive. Contagious.

As strange as it was to consider, this was something your cousin Caylen seemed to have no problem doing. In fact, given his personality, you doubted the often clueless boy even knew of the effect he had on people; The extent of comraderie which he inspired almost effortlessly in the people around him. It was something he'd always had... Some natural spark, which you'd never understood.

She'd had it as well.

"Ser Valen?" Your lashes flickered shut, sweeping away those creeping, nebulous thoughts. Dullem stood ahead of you - The man himself, rather than some abstraction of what he represented - and looked back in concern. "Did you step on something?"

"No, just thinking." You fell in line behind him, brushing back a lock of errant hair. "Let's go."

"Have there been any problems with crime in Carona?" You broached a last moment topic as the captain of your knights guided you through the recovering town of Carona.

"Like what? Thieves?" Dullem scratched at his stubble, eyes wandering along the streets evaluatingly. "There's been some disputes here and there, but it's rough telling looters from workers. No one's gonna pay much attention to someone carrying off an armful of junk." You followed his line of sight towards a group of people doing just that. One of them nodded to Dullem in passing, but their face wasn't one you could place off hand... Be it because you lacked the familiarity with your knights, or because they were from Carona.

"I was thinking something closer to black markets." You clarified, watching them walk away, finally disappeared around the dutifully enduring pillar of a still-standing building. "The previous mayor had plenty of mercenaries hired in his last days. With their check gone, I can't imagine they just left empty handed."

"Miss Lamandra's had us keeping an eye out." Dullem ruminated, "Few of them wound up in the infirmary tents from time to time, not a bad folk. Figure they've left by now, though. Not like we could afford them with all this."

"None of them caused any trouble?" You asked doubtfully, turning your attention back to your conversational partner.

"Officially, we had to break up some spats early on. Not so much anymore, though."

"And unofficially?"

"People've gone missing." He lowered his voice pointedly, "Plenty of missing people already, but I mean ones what should've already been accounted for."

"Why?" Your brows knit together in mild bewilderment. "They can't expect a ransom, they know what state this town is in."

"Close as I can reckon, there might be a fence somewhere." Dullem blew out a beleagured breath, "We get asked if we've seen them off and on, but I don't think anything's come of it. Ain't got a clue where we'd start, even if we did have enough of our own free to go looking."

That was something else you could talk to Kara about. The demihuman's noses were strong enough they might be able to track down people like that, and since they were going to be on patrol already... But it had already been over a month since the disaster. Even if they formed a net now, you couldn't help but wonder if it was like closing the bridge after the river was already crossed. Still, any stragglers who got caught would still be better than none at all.

"Well, here we are." Dullem spoke up, raising his hand jerkily, the appendage left hovering partially extended towards you before he seemed to think better of it and turn the motion into a sloppy salute. "Glad to have you back, Ser Valen."

"Thanks. You've done well, Dullem." You nod to him appreciatively. "Do you know where I can find some apples?"

"Eh?" He blinked at the bizarre transition, "Wait for a merchant to come in, I reckon? Haven't seen any orchards."

You don't recall there being any apple orchards around Carona either, but you'd hoped there were still some laying around. Seemed like your only options would be looking further down the road... Troublesome. Didn't seem likely you'd have any before your meeting with the demihumans tonight.

"I mean... If there are any left, you'd have to check in with the mess square." Dullem continued skeptically, "We've been pooling whatever food we find there, so who knows."

"Mess square." You repeated to yourself dutifully. "Thanks, I'll keep it in mind."

And with that he was gone, leaving you alone with your thoughts once more. You took advantage of that short remission to reorganize yourself as you tried to figure out what you even here for. How to handle Thomas Rime after all of this? What were you going to say to him? What could you say to him, really? Thanks for the pub? Thanks for hiring me for a day? Were you approaching him as the Mayor, or the Heir to House Valen? As yourself?

You came out here wanting to make amends with Jill, but what had you really been planning to say to her? What if she was still mad, and didn't want to hear you out anyway?

Reason after reason sprung to mind to justify you putting this off, but the most puzzling thing was that you didn't know why. You barely knew them, and while your brief interaction with Jill had left a bitter taste in your mouth, it wasn't as if she had been a close friend. In fact, you'd spent a great deal of effort trying to keep her at arm's length and uninvolved - Rather than a friend, it was more accurate to call her an annoyance.

...So why were you hesitating?

"Pardon." An older man's voice broke your reverie, forcing you to about face with a rapid twist. He was taller than you by a couple inches, clad in an apron that had seen better days and worn clothes with the amalgamated scent of herbs and spices wafting lightly off them. Unlike Dullem's ox-like frame, there was little unusual to note about the lean muscles and slightly wrinkled skin. "Lost your way?"

It took you a moment to recognize that disembodied voice, but there was no mistaking it. "Thomas Rime?"

"Call me Tom. Didn't know I was still famous with the..." He grinned, making a show of looking you over jokingly. You blinked as his good natured smile showed a tinge of genuine confusion, but he forged on unperturbed. "So, what can an old chef do for you?"

>What did you come here for?
>Am I forgetting something...? (Write-in)

A cute alternative. Strictly non-canon.

"Well, here we are." Dullem spoke up, raising his hand jerkily, the appendage left hovering partially extended towards you before he seemed to think better of it and turn the motion into a sloppy salute. "Glad to have you back, Ser Valen."

"You can touch me." You pointed out blandly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

He coughed, visibly caught off guard with being called out on his awfully disguised hesitation, and reached out once more to awkwardly pat you on the head.

The next minute found you glowering at the man's back while he walked away, hands busily trying to repair the damage he'd inadvertently done to your hair not moments ago. You'd need to readjust the band entirely, or it'd just keep sliding around and letting more of your blonde mane loose. You could still feel the dirt that had rubbed off his rough skin, and now it was in your hair. This wasn't worth it. Why'd it have to be your hair? This wasn't worth it!

>>2113217
>>Am I forgetting something...? (Write-in)
Diary of reflections

And I dunno, I've no problem with just introducing ourselves and thank him for earlier, saying that we were in disguise when we last met.

I'll close the window in about 2 hours or so. Having just one update a day is too slow, even during finals.

>>2113217
We came talk with Jill and as anon said >the diary

Writing!
You did not remember.

>>2113448
Damn, I had no guesses except the DIary as well.

>>2113448
The hell we didn't, what else could it be?

goddamnit

>>2113448
We've never even met the guy, what's to remember?

>>2113490
Didn't we? We worked in his tavern.

>>2113490
He let Kara stay iirc, but how's that relevant?

"My name is Irue Valen. We've met before, but you probably don't remember." You begin, shaking those nagging feelings out of your mind. "I was disguised at the time, but you and your family were a great help to me."

"Valen, hm..." An impressed hum spilled from his throat. "Well I'll be, you really are. I don't suppose you're our elusive new mayor as well?"

"I am." You smiled back, feeling small blips of pride well up from finally being recognized. "And the master of the knights you turned your pub over to. Whether you knew it or not, you've been an immense help in all of this."

"Guess I have." He laughed cordially, "But that is some beautiful hair you have. I can't believe I never noticed it. Are you sure we've met before?"

You held your head a little higher, subtly allowing your hair to swish behind you. "Not face to face. In fact this is the first time we have formally met, as I spent most of my time your children before. You might remember me as the briefly hired help your daughter talked you into."

"That would explain it." He chuckled softly, "Should apologize for that. Pub stayed busy during lockdown, so I never had much time to step outside the kitchen. Should have given you a proper welcome back then."

"Don't worry about it, I was there trying to gather information in the first place. In fact, I actually came here to make my own amends." You danced around the topic of just asking about Jill, finding yourself reluctant to spoil the easy going mood the conversation had created. "I parted on bad terms with your kids, not long after my identity was discovered. When I heard found out you'd signed over the pub to help us handle Carona, I thought it was as good a chance as any."

"Bad terms, huh?" Thomas flashed a wane smile. "Knowing them, probably caused you a lot of trouble trying to tag along." You winced, prompting a stronger, barking laugh from the older man. "Got it one!"

"It was too dangerous to get anybody else involved in." You agreed implicitly, "So I did everything I could to tell them 'No', but..."

"First mistake right there!" A roguish grin donned the man's face as he puffed his chest out proudly. "This family can't take 'No' for an answer. We're a stubborn old lot once we're set on something."

"So I learned." You deadpanned, letting the man amiably deflate before continuing. "Still, for all you and your family's done - Both for Carona, House Valen, and myself, I wanted to thank you all."

An amused snort met your sincerity; The only warning you had before you saw the tell-tale signs of the man's heels beginning to metaphorically dig in. "Keep your thanks. If me or my kids did anything for you, it was because it was the right thing to do."

This would have been exceedingly awkward if you had come with the intent of rewarding him, or worse, trying to use that reward for publicity... But as it stood, nothing of that sort was riding on this conversation at all. You could afford to just accept the man's stubbornness for what it was. "Even if I can't thank you, I know at least one of your kids hoped for more adventure in their life."

"Yeah." He sighed fondly, "That'd be my fault. Raised them both up on my knee, reading them a bunch of old stories. Wrote some of them myself!" Thomas tapped his chest confidently, but couldn't keep the soft tremble from his voice. "Not the brightest idea I've ever had though, give you that. Damn fool I was thinking they'd be happy with a quiet life, after I stuffed their heads full of dreams when they were brats."

"This might be a good opportunity for all of us, then." You took the opportunity tentatively broached, "If they're still willing, I can offer them a life that's bigger than just Carona."

"..." Thomas stilled, peering down at you cryptically. For a moment you braced yourself for an arbitrary rejection on their behalf, but what met you instead was the slow, steadily crinkling skin of a wizened smile which rose up to his deeply etched crow's feet. "If my boy were around, he'd have damn well cried!" A throaty chuckle rumbled up from his belly, and you couldn't help but blink as the man in front of you began to all but guffaw before you.

There was little you could do to respond to something like this. You'd come expecting a broken man, perhaps a bitter one, but this laughter was nothing short bewildering. "I'm... Sorry?"

"Hahaha, don't be!" Thomas gasped, bending forward to brace himself on his knees. "Haha.. Ah, pardon my manners. It's just that, with all that's happened... Haaa..." A well worn finger slipped across his squinted eyes, dragging away the budding moisture trapped behind his dusty lashes. "Just imagining the look on Jack's face, when a cute thing like you just shows up and invites him on an adventure. Haha... The boy'd have followed you with the clothes on his back and aught else. I'd be damned if he even bothered to look back."

Your smile strained weakly, not entirely sure how to respond to being called cute, but more confused about something else. "Will he be back soon?"

"No." Thomas cleared his throat wetly, the mirth in his face fading, even if his smile remained sadly affixed. "No, I don't suppose he will. He's been missing since that apparition tore the town apart."

>?

>>2113527
THESE GUYS WORK WITH LUNA.

Didn't Jack go missing before the Apparition?

>>2113527
Also Nightgaunts were blamed for our connection they set us up with getting killed. But was it NightGaunts?

We also ran into Jensits here.

>>2113527
Also Maran has a cell of conspiratores somewhere here, probably in the Shrine but maybe elsewhere. We ran into her when she was on urgent business with them.

Jill also met her, and Moron spilled the beans about who we were.

>>2113527
Jack knew our story as a bastard offspring of House Valen as well. It's weird neither of them mentioned things like Jill getting kidnapped.

We should ask how she was afterwards. Also we should go inside and sit down.

>>2113527
Also didn't we use our own face at the Pub? Maran recognized us.

What the hell is this guy playing. Or were his memories wiped? He seems rather unconcerned about his missing daughter.

>>2113527
We should also ask if he has seen Taggart around, he was Jill's connection to the underground.

Strange that the people involved with the whole Mayor business are missing.

>>2113527
Also Kara found Jill by scent once before already.

>>2113527
>>Your response was to offer her a position as a Maid, succeeding at removing her from the small town, but completely missing the point of what she was after. At that point she crumpled, because she had the desperation-driven realization that menial work was all anyone would ever want her for, and all she could expect out of her life.

So she probably sought adventure or something and is caught up in something shitty.

Let's bring that up too. We fucking OWE her and if her dad tries to snow us then he'll regret it.

>>2113530
>THESE GUYS WORK WITH LUNA.
What do you mean?

>>2113540
We were disguised. Maran thought we looked familiar, but didn't recognize us.
Also only one of his kids is missing, so I suppose Jill is home.

>>2113533
The people Nightgaunts were blamed for were actually kidnapped by Ari and Oakenrue. They might not even be actually dead.

>>2113553
One of the first things Jill told us was that they gather information for Luna. It's a bar.

Damn. She's perfect cult material.

>>2113553
Oh well let's nut up and talk to Jill. I panicked about the forgetting a little.

>>2113557
I can't find this place at all.

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>>2113490
Nothing important, it seems.

>>2113505
Thomas ran the pub, and has never actually met or interacted with Kara. You're thinking of the innkeep from your first visit to Carona.

>>2113530
>>2113533
>>2113535
>>2113539
>>2113540
>>2113542
>>2113543
>>2113546
>>2113557
Are you okay, anon? It's okay to take your time, voting windows are really long.

>Didn't Jack go missing
No.
>Nightgaunts were blamed
It was Ari and the Oakenrue, you learned this later.
>our story as a bastard offspring of House Valen
You're not a bastard! You're the heir!
>didn't we use our own face at the Pub? Maran recognized us.
You did. As mentioned, you never actually met Thomas, and had a lot of problems with people recognizing you at all early on. This is the first time meeting him face to face.
>Jill told us was that they gather information for Luna
You have tragically misremembered a great deal. I am concerned.

>>2113565

You suppose that explains why it was so easy for Jack to get you a shift... But this place was run by their family? You hadn't actually considered that a pub might be a family business before.

"I suppose that means your family really pays homage to Luna, huh?"

Jill gives you a strange look, and you get the feeling you've missed the mark a little.

"...Work with their attendants?"

"What exactly do you think a pub is for, sugar...?"

IS IT NOT FOR FINDING INFORMATION??? That's why quests start there.

Also Taggart was recommended to us by Mim whoops.

Skyfire has risen, so obligatory notice, I suppose.

>>2113579
Or...... A pub is a place you go to eat and drink?

Ride out that Adderall high and try again lol

>>2113629
Yeah but it's also a place to socialize and talk. Add in the alcohol and it's a goldmine of information.

I bet we can find the remaining c- ...missing people by using a spiders web.

>>2113907
That's... not a terrible idea, though I doubt there's many more alive people to find. And it'd take a looong time to get the Web that large. And we're trying to wean ourselves off of it; it's shockingly addictive.
Still, it's worth considering.

>>2113527
>"Just imagining the look on Jack's face, when a cute thing like you... "

Cute? I'm not cute! I'm intimidating! *pouts*

>>2113527
>>2113565
Well I guess it's time to apologize to Jill than.

But first, we should assure Thomas that will help find his son in anyway we can. Actually, ask him for more details on that if there are.

>>2114882
It occurs to me that when we offered Jill a position as our Maid, she might not have understood how we work. Namely that everyone gets sucked into our bullshit.

We should introduce her to Asche so she realized that being a maid to Irulen Valen is unlike being a maid to anyone else.

Hell our Knights are a bunch of peasant bandits

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So I forgot last night was campaign night. We'll be resuming later tonight, sorry about that.

>>2113539
Ask about Jill!

>>2113546
Talk about why Jill was mad at us!

>>2114882
Definitely talking to Jill! Also details on her brother.

>>2117295
Oops. Writing!

You'd come fully prepared to hear Jill had died during the Banshee, and found the opposite. A feeling of short lived relief swept across you, fading as quickly as it came since reality nipped neatly on its heels. Even if Jill hadn't been the one to die, the Banshee had still claimed its price from her family. The glimpse of their relationship before was hazy, but they didn't seem to be on particularly bad terms... Which meant that if you did manage to make amends, and she was willing to accept your offer to join House Valen's ranks, it would be yet another addition you'd made of people whose friends or loved ones had passed on because of you.

There was a peculiar feeling of ugliness to the realization that this had become a common trend with you.

Your first instinct was to ask for more details on the status of Thomas' missing son, but the answers you would find were sullenly obvious. It had been near two months since Carona experienced the destructive whimsy of Mistral's Child. At least a month since Rinnier had organized its citizens and begun to reconstruct the town. To have remained missing until now eliminated even the faintest glimmer of survival. The only thing left to find now was a corpse.

But a corpse was still closure. It would be better than never getting to say good bye. "I'll do what I can to return him to you. Do you have any idea where he might have been during the apparition?"

"Chasing skirts?" Thomas chuckled darkly, "I don't know if they told you, but my kids traded off helping out at the pub. Jack was around during the mornings, but left the night work to my daughter. Can't say where he got off to once his shift was over."

Jack seemed the licentious sort. Be that as it may, unless Carona secretly had brothel you'd never heard of, it didn't particularly narrow down where he could have been. There was a lot of rubble to search through, and you couldn't justify pulling everyone off their already assigned work to go digging blindly for corpses.

...Unless you weren't digging blindly. The threads of 'A Spider's Web' were more than capable of covering Carona, and you already knew how thoroughly they could canvas even the most narrow of passages. If you were willing to spend the time on it, you could leave your worthless senses behind and do something useful for once. It would take you a couple of days, maybe less, to pinpoint every living being within the web, and from there it was only a matter of finding a way to filter through the chaff to find whatever dead remain buried beneath the ruined towns.

And the more you thought about that, the more appealing it sounded. Though the time for rescue was long past, many were still left without closure to their loss. If you could provide that as a whole to Carona's people... Something to think about, at least.

"Don't worry yourself over it." Thomas squeezed your shoulder while stepping past, "Come on inside, sit down."

The inside of the tent was anything but personal. Blankets sprawled themselves across the ground, vaguely outlining the cramped quarters that at least half a dozen or more people had slept in the night before. It was a stopgap measure to provide shelter for the homeless, and it provided the bare necessities to accomplish that end result. Thin walls which kept out wind and rain, providing some small relief from the prevalent gaze of the sun by virtue of the semi-opaque cloth and leather tarping which stretched across its exterior.

Although those same qualities meant that stepping inside was like getting physically hit with a wave of heat and humidity, as what heat filtered inside baked the stagnant air within, and coaxed sweat from the hapless pores of those within.

You wrinkled your nose distastefully, but said nothing. Your bed had been hard, and your room sparse, but this was miserable. You almost preferred the cold of sleeping under the stars to this. Strike that - You DID prefer sleeping outside.

"Afraid I don't have much to offer you but hospitality." Thomas called over his shoulder, setting up a pair of chairs for the two of you. "Hope that doesn't drive you off too quick."

"It was hotter working in the pub." You assured him, vaguely wishing you'd had the Diary of Reflections on you now to counteract this offensive heat as you had back then.

"It's even hotter in the kitchens!" He grinned thankfully, gesturing to take a seat across from him. "Now my memory isn't what it used to be, but I think it was my daughter who came barging in bugging me to hire some help back then."

"I spent most of my time with Jill." You confirmed easily, filtering through the final memories of your Doppleganger to recall the set-upon stress of trying to keep Jill at arm's length. "I found who I was looking for thanks to her. I made her promise she wouldn't do anything rash, but when I turned around, she'd been kidnapped trying to find information."

"Kidnapped?" Thomas' shocked voice pitched up concernedly. "I never heard anything about that."

"It was short lived, thankfully. I was able to track her down and get her back safely... But after that, I knew she couldn't be involved anymore. I'm surprised neither of them told you about that, though." You quirked your head at the older man, "Jack knew about it, too."

"Mm. If they had, I'd have closed up shop right away and gotten involved." Thomas shook his head ruefully, "...And I suppose that's exactly why they kept it a secret from their old man. Damn brats." You blinked curiously as he muttered an affectionate, if irritable, curse under his breath. "My little girl came in the evening the apparition showed up, broken up and ready to bite the head off the poor bastards what tested her. Guess that was after you'd gotten her back?"

"Likely." You had no idea what Jill had done after you left that day. "You didn't bother to ask what was wrong?"

"If you have kids one day, you'll understand." Thomas intoned with a tone of wisdom you'd liken to a man who stuck his hand in a fire ant's nest. "After a certain age, old dad asking what's going on ain't so appreciated anymore. Best thing I found to do was tell 'em they could come and talk if they needed it."

You nodded slowly, unwilling to comment on the parenting of a man whose family had been inadvertently ruined through your operations. Even if you were, what could you really say?

"Just glad that she still showed up that night. We were safe when the apparition appeared." Thomas forged along, slapping his knee with a nostalgic laugh. "Grandad always said he built that thing to last; If that old geezer knew what it'd been through now, we'd never hear the end of it."

"Well, about your daughter." You owed it to the man, at least, to explain why his daughter had been so distraught. Hopefully telling him didn't spoil your relationship with her any further than you already had. "She was the one I meant earlier, when I said one of them wanted more adventure in their life. She asked me to let her keep helping, but..."

"You turned her down." Thomas concluded, nodding along.

"Actually, she turned me down." You correct wryly, "I didn't want to throw her into something dangerous immediately, but I did owe her for helping me... So I offered her a job as a maid."

"..." The tent grew silent after that, as the older man seemed to sit back and genuinely think over what you'd so earnestly admitted. His brow furrowed in the dimly lit tent, a faint sheen of sweat beading along the grooves of his wrinkling skin. For a moment you worried you'd made a mistake, when he finally ran his tongue along his dry, cracked lips and made eye contact again. "Not your finest moment?"

You sighed.

"That'd explain why she was so upset." He mused at your expense, "Cheer up now, it ain't your fault. Girl's never been outside Carona her whole life, I'd have been shocked if you took her on as anything more than a house servant."

Your 'house servants' inevitably got caught up in the maelstrom that was your life anyway. It probably wasn't worth explaining that, at this point. "Be that as it may, I wanted to see if she had changed her mind. Or if not, at least thank her for what she'd done. When you see her, could you send her to the headquarters? Or tell me where she is now?"

"Too late for that, I'd think." Thomas observed with a hint of regret. "Couldn't tell you where my little girl is now."

"I'm... Sorry?" A befuddled mutter escapes your lips, "I thought only one of your children was missing? She is safe, isn't she?"

"I hope so." He answered fervently. "My boy Jack's been missing since the apparition, but my little girl left on her own not long after I turned the pub over. Same day, to tell the truth."

"Wh- Left to where?"

"Where ever the road takes her, I'd guess." Thomas shrugged. "Can't say I was surprised. I knew she'd had a bit of a wanderlust in her, and with the lockdown over, and the pub gone... Guess she thought it was a good time to go." When he turned over the pub... That's nearly a month, wasn't it? She'd been gone for that long already. Given the timeline, it wouldn't have surprised you if she left while you were trapped in the Imprisoned Child's Atelier searching for Ari.

"You didn't try and stop her?" You rose to your feet incredulously, "Or send anyone with her?"

"Who would I have sent?" Thomas' eyes followed you up curiously. "The town was in worse shape than it is now. Besides, You already know how stubborn she is once she's made up her mind. Even if I'd forbidden her from going, I imagine she'd have been out like a lark in the night. At least this way, I could see my daughter off with a smile, and the family bow."

>Anything else to do with Thomas?

>>2118036
Geez, poor guy. Guess we owe him more than we thought.

>"Neither you, nor anybody in your family, from now until the end of all things, will ever have need to fear me or House Valen. I promise you this."

I guess... wait for nighttime to talk to Kara's pack? Spider's Web while waiting?

Yeah, definitely a spin a web. See what we find.

>>2118082
Hahaha...

Writing!

>>2118279
Did the anon doom us?

>>2118488
We are a recovering addict plunging headfirst back into the addiction deeper than we've ever gone before. I hope we at least tell someone where we're disappearing to for the next few days, else we might die of dehydration.

So, yes, more or less.

"I'll tell her you asked about her if she sends me a letter." Thomas assured you. "Don't imagine there'll be many letters making it to us for a while, though."

You had no idea what the state of postal delivery was for Carona right now. Until now it hadn't even been something on your mind, and somehow you didn't think it was going to remain on your mind for very long either. "Hopefully we won't be like this for very much longer, either. It was nice finally meeting you face to face, and..." You smile to mask the soft sigh which breathlessly escaped your lips. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to come to the headquarters to tell us."

"I already told you I didn't want any rewards." Thomas frowned. You offered the man your hand regardless, having anticipated his own self-admitted muleheadedness.

"It's not a reward. You and your family have gone above and beyond to help me; Returning that kindness is the least I can do."

"Fine, you win." Thomas grumbled, taking your hand firmly in his own. "But if I hear tell of you going on about something silly like owing me, you'll make me regret this. Don't need or want you trying to pay me back for being a decent person."

"I'll keep it in mind." You shake briefly, more a formality than anything else. Given his reluctance to even accept this much, trying to argue Thomas into agreeing to anything formal would have been an exercise in futility. Not to mention liable to spoil whatever good opinion you may have built with the man, which was something you wanted to avoid if you could.

With your meeting over, that left you... About a quarter of the day left. There was still plenty of things to do, but with the appointment with Kara tonight looming ahead, you didn't want to wear yourself out in the meantime. That ruled out dealing with any PR today, and it most certainly meant you'd be putting off talking to Mim for at least another day or two. You didn't know how long that was going to take, but whether it long or short, the mere prospect of going through that was enough to make you start feeling drained.

...There's also the problem that you never actually asked where you'd be meeting your Testament and her pack. Given the disdain Carona held for them, and the way Kara herself avoided the headquarters, they couldn't have spent their time anywhere in town. Especially not if Kara still made a point keeping up the good-intentioned domestic abuse she called sparring.

You shielded your eyes and frowned, trying unsuccessfully to squash some persistent, baseless feeling of angered frustration. Your day had been surprisingly low stress and productive, even considering the noise you'd learned from Thomas and your knight captain.... But despite your efforts to that end, some distant echo of anxiety still crawled around in your gut. You'd finally caught a break. You'd earned a break... And yet you couldn't banish the thought that things were going too well.

Normally the other shoe would have dropped by now. The fact it hadn't was both a blessing, and a curse, as the tension in your shoulders maintained that the longer things went well, the worse it would be when things inevitably went fell.

You really hoped you weren't becoming one of those people addicted to stress.

In the meantime, the thought of weaving a web earlier had been unexpectedly alluring to you. It'd been a long time since you got to really sit down and relaxingly entrust yourself to the soothing threads of 'A Spider's Web'. You'd tried briefly within the Imprisoned Child's Atelier, but the end result to that had been... Unfortunate. And more than a little unnerving, considering how absolutely aware you had been of the expanse of Nothing you'd accidentally found yourself in.

But given the edge you couldn't seem to shake, maybe now was the perfect time to weave. You could both literally and figuratively spend a while unwinding, and use that opportunity to see what you could find with the web. You'd find everything, naturally. There was nothing that couldn't be found within 'A Spider's Web'.

With these thoughts in mind, you needed to think of a decent place to set the center of your weave...

>Anywhere nearby will do
>Headquarters is literally your command center.
>Outside of town is best. Somewhere natural.
>Other? (write-in)

>>2118681
>Headquarters is literally your command center.
Seems appropriate.

>>2118681
>Headquarters is literally your command center.
And tell someone to kick us awake if we're out for too long.

>>2118681
>Headquarters is literally your command
Bracing for a disastrous timeskip.

>make sure we crack a few Windows open, maybe leave the door open
>tell Rinnier what we're doing

>>2118681
>>Headquarters is literally your command center.
Tell rinnier, make sure that asche keeps us fed and hydrated I don't want to die of dehydration if this takes long.

>>2118726
I'm more worried about pissing ourselves.

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>>2118729
Oh come on man

>>2118726
>>2118729
Nothing bad has ever happened as a result of 'A Spider's Web', anons! You're unsure if anything bad could ever happen. It's a good thing. A safe thing.

>>2118732
Why would you do this? Come into the Internet and lie?

>>2118688
>>2118695
>>2118711
>>2118726
HQ!
Also something silly about letting people know you're gonna be relaxing. Who knows what that's about.

Writing!

>>2118744
Stop bullying us!

The headquarters was a good choice. It was already the center of your operations in Carona, and there'd be no better place for you to get some peace and quiet while you were immersed. There was also the issue of the time lost while weaving, which you could hopefully abate by having someone wake you up when it started to get dark. It wouldn't do for you to schedule an appointment with Kara and her pack, only to not bother showing up.

The first person to come to mind regarding that was Rinnier. You'd initially dismissed the idea since you already knew she'd asked to not be disturbed, but those thoughts drifted back time and time again as you walked back to the Headquarters. Fen would have done just fine, and in fact he was the one you had wanted to have wake you up in the first place, but... There was a very distinct insistence that you check in with the flame haired Testament before beginning your weave.

However your straight path to said princess was interrupted almost immediately, as Fen wasted no time in haling your attention when you entered the building. "I have messages for you, Ser Valen."

"Messages?" The statement itself wasn't odd, but you found yourself stopping short as you parsed it. You'd arrived yesterday, and as far as you knew, there weren't many people who even knew you had returned to Carona. Who would be leaving a message for you, much less multiple? "Plural?"

"Three." Fen confirmed, turning over two neatly scrawled notes to you, followed by a formally stamped and sealed envelope. The notes' contents were simple to scan through at a glance: Asche had returned from her errands, and elected to wait for your return. Ari had woken up and wondered where you went. "Last I saw, those two were heading towards the room you were assigned last night. I can guide you back to it, if you don't remember where it is."

"No, that's fine." You shuffle those notes to the back and look over the envelope curiously. While the other two had been internally lodged, this was different in a variety of ways. One being the finer parchment, and another the sophisticated cursive which proclaimed your name on the front. It was a method of writing that felt familiar... And it was that familiarity which turned to cold steel in the pit of your stomach as you turned it over and saw the unmistakable image of the crescent moon imprinted on the seal.

"An attendant dropped that off not long after you left. They assured me it wasn't anything urgent, but it's probably the second or third time I've seen a message on paper that fine." Fen's needless explanation only vaguely registered as you opened it, finding the overly grandiose piece of mail to only contain three words.

"Welcome back, Irue!"

"I need to talk to Rinnier." A sense of urgency you hadn't fully realized tinted your words as you slid the paper back into its envelope. "Is she still in her office?"

"Should be." The secretarial knight confirmed, "Want me to tell the other two you're back?"

"No, I shouldn't take long." You were already walking away as you answered, eagerly retracing the previous day's footsteps until you stood outside of your spitfire Testament's office once more. You'd like to say that a lingering sense of propriety kept you from throwing the door open immediately, but in truth it was the unexpected - And somewhat irritating - fact that the door itself was locked. Your attempts to open it did little more than jiggle the handle, and nearly cause you to walk face first into the space you had expected to be vacated.

It also served to boorishly alert the room's sole occupant to your presence, Her muffled voice slipping through the door in a distorted mezzo. "Is it important?"

"Yes." You took a step back from the door, momentarily biting your lip as you collected yourself. The tell-tale click of the lock sounded seconds later, with the door opening to reveal Rinnier's head poking out into the hallway quizzically.

"Did something happen?"

"Mim knows I'm back."

You skip straight to the point, handing over the letter as proof of your claims. Rinnier scanned through its contents at a glance, turning the paper over curiously, to check for additional script. The rising sense of urgency on her face was...- "Alright?" -Conspicuously absent. "She's the Representative of Luna isn't she? Of course she knows."

"...I thought I had more time." You admitted sheepishly. "If she knows I'm back, she'll get suspicious if I don't meet with her soon."

"You needed to meet with her to discuss the Gnome adepts for the mining project anyway." Rinnier reasoned, letting the door swing open further to stand before you. "It's not like this letter changes anything. You weren't going to put it off anyway, right?"

"Not... Purposefully?" You hedged half-heartedly. "I'm still thinking about how I'll handle it."

"Just send a letter back, then." The flamehaired Testament's arms crossed over her chest, "Tell her you're too preoccupied to come for a while."

"Preoccupied with what?"
"Carona? Recovering? If you need time, just say so."
"I need time."

"To her." Rinnier corrected gently, handing the envelope back to you.

"That aside, was there anything else?" She changed topics lightly, "I'm still a little busy, but if you need me..."

Right, you'd wanted to talk to her about 'A Spider's Web' before you started weaving. Mim's letter had been a very abrupt derailment. "I'll be meeting with Kara and her pack later tonight," You begin, "I'm going to be resting until then. Can you make sure I don't lose track of time?"

An irked frown crossed her face. "I'm not your alarm, Irue. I have things of my own to take care of."

Explaining 'A Spider's Web' to someone without the capacity to experience it was... Infeasable. The sheer amount of time you had lost while immersed in its threads had been staggering, and it wasn't something you could afford to happen this time. You didn't think it would happen this time, as long as you kept the web simple, but it was better to have backup in case you were wrong.

"I get it." She eventually acquiesced with a sigh, "You could have just asked Fen, or your maid, to do this though."

>Anything else?

>>2118834
>Ask how much she knows about Teranfordian architecture. Maybe Teranfordian housing is faster to build.
>Also we need to appoint Asche to wake us up, because she can do this from -inside- the Web.

Skyfire is risen, so I am kill.

>>2118834
>tell her explicitly that we need to use our atelier power to search the town, say we didn't want her to think we slipped into a coma or appear frail in front of Fen if we fail to wake up immediatly
>if she asks for more info tell her it's like a meditation that allows us to set up a large zone, observe anything inside of that zone and also murder people
>thank her for the previous thread before we leave

Incidentally, can we really use our web to detect things that are under a pile of rubble? Our web was stopped by a window before.

>>2118836
>>Ask how much she knows about Teranfordian architecture.
She doesn't know how to build them, it was mentioned last thread I think

>>2118834
I'm not going to go to sleep, Rinnier. I'm going to stop being human for a while, the concept of time is notably absent from ateliers.
heh

>I'm going to use a... power, from the Ice Queen's Atelier to locate the remaining missing people, I'm not going to have access to normal human senses such as time, sight and hearing for a while.

>>2118875
Most rubble is probably not as airtight as a window.

>>2118836
Went over this last thread, she doesn't know. No need to bring it up again.

>>2118834
>Add that it's possible we'll be gone for over a day, easily, to envelop the town and all its hidden nooks and crannies and that she shouldn't panic until after we've been comatose for a week.

>Send that letter to Mim saying that we're occupied atm.

>>2118834
Nah, we should be good. She doesn't need to whole spiel about A Spiders Web and its effect on us. We can talk to her about it when she's not busy.

>>2119390
Sure, the full explanation isn't really necessary, these are just cliff notes.

>>2119390
We just asked her to wake us up and she acquiesced. If she does come and sees us sitting in a chair looking and acting brain dead she's gonna freak. She's going to need a bit of advance warning

>>2118836
We want Asche and Rinnier to wake us up...?

>>2118875
We might appear like we're in a coma. This is normal.

>>2119153
It's a departure from humanity!

>>2119213
Letters to Mim!

Writing!
----
>>2119213
>she shouldn't panic until after we've been comatose for a week.
...Anon you can't skip your appointment with Kara AND ask two different people to wake you up in time for it. That's not how this works.

>>2118875
>Can we really use our web to detect things that are under a pile of rubble?
Not completely, no. The web is blocked by solid things, and requires space to thread itself through... But if there's space, your web is more reliable and useful than your paltry default awareness. The things you can locate by probing through the minute holes and gaps are far greater than what could be found using your inferior senses.

You're probably going to miss some bodies that are just completely entombed, but it's still a fair mark better than digging blindly. And really, when you're not using a web? You're basically blind to everything, anyway. It's a wonder you can even walk straight.

Does anyone want me to babble on about some basics regarding 'A Spider's Web'? I think you already know most of what I'd tell you. Or at least, you've had plenty of time, experience, and/or the information required to realize it already.

>>2120711
>Does anyone want me to babble on about some basics regarding 'A Spider's Web'?
Probably should; most of what we know about is has been gleaned through experimentation here and there as we've had time, some of which has been a while IRL. If nothing else, it'd be nice to have it all collected somewhere.

>>2120711
Well they should be aware of the possibility. I'm pretty sure I didn't vote for meeting Kara but being unable to snap out of it isn't out of the question, I only wanted a contingency in case something goes won't. Besides will a couple of hours be anywhere near enough to be meaningful? I don't see the point in doing this if we will have to redo the whole process when we know what it can do to us

>>2120753
>What is it?
So 'A Spider's Web' is an ability you were granted after Solving the Ice Queen's Atelier. It has the basic function of allowing you to transfer your consciousness into a vague thread-like construct, which is what you use to weave the web with.

>What does that mean?
It should be obvious, but the realm of awareness granted to you by this web is unimaginably more potent than anything your default senses could possibly provide you. If something is within your web, then you have absolute acuity regarding just about anything it does. If it talks? You can hear it. If it moves? You always know precisely where it is, in relation to everything else in your web. You can effectively treat your web as a field of Absolute Perception. Nothing can hide from you inside of your web, not a word can be spoken or breath taken without you knowing.

The other side to this is that your awareness is very strictly constrained to the web you've woven. The may as well not even exist outside of it, because there is absolutely no way for you to perceive anything beyond. Someone could be screaming at you from just outside the web, and you would never realize it. There's no possibility to "almost" or "sort of" recognize something when it comes to 'A Spider's Web'. Either you Are, or you Are Not.

It's worth noting that it respects geometric planes in this regard. If your web is semi-flat, you have a boundary of proximity around it which I'm not going to bother getting into the exact metrics of (and neither should you!). People above, or below you, are effectively outside of your web in this respect, and thus do not exist at all to you. They're beyond in some infinite void of Nothing.

>What else should I know about it?
High mana density is difficult, sometimes impossible, to interact with. You saw this with the Behemoth, where its body was basically a gaping area of static. It's difficult to interact with people in general due to this trait as well, because your web just kind of slacks off of them by default. It's still POSSIBLE, but it requires a great investment in thread to accomplish.

There's also the state of matter to be considered. By default it can handle gaseous states - Empty air as an obvious example - but you're aware that solid objects have previously stopped it. You've also seen it serve as a cruel, deadly weapon for maiming solid flesh. You don't know how that's possible to achieve, but it's easy to suspect it was a result of someone fully inhabiting the web (A complete transferral of consciousness), or the fact that the thing doing it at the time was effectively an apparition in the first place. Possibly both.

>What about liquids?
I don't think you've ever tried to weave through liquids. Since you've seen the web maim a man before, you know it's theoretically possible? You might do well to remember what water represents in this setting before trying that, though.

>What can I weave with it? What do my weaves do?
Magic A is Magic A. What this means is that your weaves, ultimately, have properties your web does.

The most obvious thing to do is weave a web. Experience and practice with it makes it obvious you could weave "cages" rather than "planes", giving you a more complete three-dimensional awareness. This is just the application of multiple planes. You can also weave through narrow spaces that you'd otherwise not be able to access. It's worth noting that your awareness in this sense is more a radar than anything else; You lack "sight", so you can't identify people by their physical features. You can, however, get a feel for the density of their Mana and what Mana clings to them.

You've ascertained that it's possible to wrap people in cocoons with it. Why is this important? Well, look back at the properties of your web. As long as that cocoon is connected to the greater web (or the weaver!) then you always know where they are. Because the coocon is made from your thread, they're wrapped within the proximity of your awareness; This includes hearing them perfectly, constant awareness of breathing or heart beats, and an inherent awareness of if they get injured somehow. As you've dedicated a great deal of your thread, this effectively "bump maps" your target, giving you a vague idea of their physical features. The denser one's Mana is, the harder it is to accomplish this.

>What do I do once I've made a web?
You can detach yourself from a web once it's been woven. Doing so removes your ability to alter it and severely reduces your connection to the awareness it provides, but lets you move about normally otherwise. The remaining web serves like an alarm of sorts, meaning you could set up a little web around a house and know if anything enters its area. Once detached from a web, it will naturally degrade over time; That degradation will be much swifter if its exposed to high Mana density, be it through an entity (an adept or apparition), or just because the the atmosphere is rich in Mana.

It's also worth noting that the web has a greater degradation rate, and outright chance of unraveling, the more complicated it is. Simple proximity alarm sorts are low maintenance, but cocoons or expansive areas being covered are prone to falling apart rapidly.

>Anything I should be wary of?
In the beginning of the weave, you experience a transition where you exist within a void of Nothing. No senses, no sight, no sound, no awareness at all. An infinite expanse of Nothing. It's terrifying, isn't it? You've actually experienced this while trying to weave in the Imprisoned Child's Atelier. There's a specific meaning to that, though no one seemed inclined to think about it. You have enough information to theorize what that means, and it might interest you. Or concern you.

The most common concern is lost time. This isn't as much of a problem as long as your web is kept small and simple, but the larger (or more complicated) the weave becomes, the more time you'll lose. You can build resistance to this with practice, to an extent, but ultimately what it comes down to is that your awareness is being stretched more thinly. For example, if your web covers an entire town, you're processing every single movement, spoken word, and event within that space simultaneously. That's effectively where your lost time goes; A complete immersion in becoming aware of everything. Obviously the more space you're aware of, or the more thread you've concentrated to be aware of something, the more time you'll lose. This is especially dangerous, because the simple fact you can expand the web compels you to do so - A persistent curiosity to reveal more of the void.

Then there's the addiction factor. Your addiction to the web isn't entirely predicated by a mental compulsion to return to it! A large part of it is simply because the web really is as good as it sounds. A few examples of this to imagine being the transition between physical mail, and instant messaging. The difference between loading web pages/gifs/videos on dial-up vs fiber. The difference between games where you can straif easily and games with tank controls. Like having the small, 1x1 inch screen of old nokia phone screens all your life, and then having an 8x3 inch LCD smart phone. The difference between having lived on a 15gb/month data cap, and having over ~100TB to spend freely. Like turning the DPI on your mouse down to 1.

Immersing yourself in the web represents all of that, and when you disassociate with it you're giving up those things and returning to the old way. You're spending every miserable, painstaking moment of your life writing mail by hand, and waiting several days, weeks, sometimes MONTHS for it to get to its recipient and then get back to you. You've seen what the world COULD look like, but you're using these worthless eyes instead. You will never forget that, but if you abstain from it long enough you'll begrudgingly get used to the shitty way you live without it. The longer you indulge in it, and adjust to that way of living, the harsher and more stressful it is for you to go back.

And being what it is, you're doing all of that while the alternative is just a step away at all times.

I wasted an immense amount of time writing all of that. None of it is new information by any means; It's all things Irue has observed or experienced regarding the web in the past, but collated and put together.

One thing not included is the point to be made that things interact with things, and the results can be dangerous. An example being the times you've tried to use 'A Spider's Web' in conjunction with the bracelet, or the time 'A Spider's Web' was effectively a cage of maiming and murder.

A thing about Valen is that most of the world revolves around "Magic A is Magic A", but very little of it comes with a manual, or anything stopping you from jamming a stick of dynamite into a shotgun barrel. It's easy to observe the effect created, but that's the end result. The mechanics behind that effect are elusive. So in the previous shotgun example, you might go...

"Hey, this lets me shoot things really far!" with the shotgun, and then look at the dynamite and go "and THIS blows stuff up!", then get the bright idea to blow up something really far away! The effects obviously make sense, but in practice you're liable to blow up.

If you don't know why something does what it's doing, it's very easy to misuse it. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes for much worse.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled waiting decades for a short update.

>>2121043
>You've actually experienced this while trying to weave in the Imprisoned Child's Atelier.
I think most of us took it to be a representation of the 'space' the 'dream' was built in. I certainly didn't give it any thought regarding the nature of reality.

>There's a specific meaning to that, though no one seemed inclined to think about it. You have enough information to theorize what that means, and it might interest you. Or concern you.
The nature of reality seems a little... high-minded for Rue. I'd think she'd be more worried about more material matters, but maybe that's just me.

>but very little of it comes with a manual
The bracelet came with a manual, but said manual refuses to open. Clearly the key is to be as reckless as possible with it, so the manual breaks down and tells us how to use it properly. Anyone got any Fun ideas?

>>2121088
>said manual refuses to open
Goddammit anon, we never asked!
I vote for asking every time Asche is around, but always get outvoted for some reason.

>>2121088
corona vs apperation 2: electric boogaloo

>>2121088
>>2121251
She actually volunteered to tell you twice, but you decided you had other things to do.