dpscheck | open post (may 2018)

open post (may 2018)

open post

in the cover of the night

Since the last one was so popular, here's a brand-new open post for all of you to post characters, mingle, and tag each other!

Seriously, post whatever you want. Empty toplevels? Open starters? Starters closed to specific people? It's all good — just enjoy!

If you feel like you need a couple of prompts to get started, though, consider any one (or a combination) of the following:

FITS: EVERYONE. No matter who you are or where you are or what you're doing, your clothes have suddenly — poof! — transformed into the Gold Saucer bunny uniform! Because now EVERYONE can wear it... EVERYONE.

PLEASE USE THE AUTO-TRANSLATE FUNCTION. You have the sudden urge to shout a phrase from the auto-translate dictionary at the nearest person! This can be a whole phrase or any combination of phrases. What are you going to yell? "We're chewing the fat"? "I seem to have misplaced my keyboard"? "Miqo'te" "rear"?!

THE CURSED SWORD. A shifty merchant sold you a remarkably beautiful Far Eastern katana for an absolute pittance — with just one catch: now that it's been in your possession for a few bells, the sword keeps whispering in your mind, telling you to kill... kill... find stronger prey... hunt... The katana cannot be destroyed or abandoned; it is impervious to assault and any attempt to leave it by the wayside will simply find it in your belongings once more. Will your character succumb to its mystical influence? Find a new owner for it? Try to exorcise the evil spirit lurking within?

As always, tag out and have fun!

TEMPLATE CODED BY

valoirs

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[Y'shtola lets the outburst proceed unabated, regarding the young Scion with a gaze all the more unflinching and inscrutable for the gloss over her eyes. When the hesitation comes, she motions away the concerns with a flick of her hand.]

I asked, did I not? When it comes to Garlemald, few can answer with dispassion. The Empire has taken much and more, and I would not ask you to forsake anger against them.

[Though it is the wisest course, it is one people can only come to either in time or great need. They've not the latter to cite, so Y'shtola can only allow for the former.]

Are you familiar with the plight of Ala Mhigo?

[It's enough to be unnerving, really, her eyes. She's only noticing for the first time that it's not quite like those with a natural gray color, though her manner doesn't seem to indicate anything's out of the ordinary and even if it did she likely wouldn't have had enough knowledge of her mannerisms before to know what to look for. Not that she was ever one for particularly careful observation in the first place even in that case.

The founding Scions were an inner circle Sayano hardly dared to breach, and though she would approach easily enough, she had always assumed they of all the members would be the busiest, and had been conscious of the amount of their time she would take. It's only because this desire to fight them, the one she'd more aptly described as an "itch", had reached its peak that she'd come to one of the pillars of the Scions for work to see to it.

Sayano tilts her head in thought, the movement a discreet attempt to distract herself from the unreadability of Y'shtola's eyes and to keep from staring in an attempt to correct that.]

They're another nation they've claimed, like Doma. I've taken adventuring leves from their settlement in Thanalan, but haven't been able to speak to them very much.

[Well aware that she could be unsettling, Y'shtola allows her gaze to pass away, resting it on an unfixed point well past the young woman's shoulder. The answer is enough to work with, and not too much to merit alarm.]

Hearing this may sit ill with you, but those of Ala Mhigo were treated even more poorly than those of Doma. 'Tis not surprising given the state of Eorzea in those days, but nonetheless... where Domans work productively in Revenant's Toll, the Ala Mhigans live primarily in poverty and despair.

And we can't help them the same way? Wait- [she perks up,] -do you ask because they've asked? Can I help?

[And maybe beat up some Imperials in the process, of course, because she hasn't had enough time to separate the fight for freedom from the fight for the fight's sake.]

Of course they have asked. Countless times, and each time the answer the same: no help is forthcoming, for the independent cities of Eorzea dare not risk the Empire's wrath.

And so one man took it upon himself to force the issue.

[Y'shtola keeps her voice neutral, her true opinions of the Griffon's actions masked. She is curious for this young woman's reaction, for seeing it will help her better understand.]

...Oh!

[Sayano suddenly remembers.]

Our guest, that Miqo'te - wasn't she here about something like that?

[She might have been on top of this conversation if she was more attentive, honestly.]

There must be a way to help without- without any of that! Without forcing people. That isn't the sort of help I had in mind.

Doubtless there was. And it was one not pursued. [As simple as that. Much as there must be a way to resolve many other problems in Eorzea, yet said problems are left to linger.]

I tell you this not to discourage you, nor to dampen your spirits, but so you understand why things are as they are. And perchance why opportunities for direct action against the Garleans has been thin on the ground.

Thin, but not absent? Whatever can and should be done, I want to be there! I was hoping you'd know. That is, your position being what it is!

[She's getting ahead of herself again, her weight shifting and the tip of her tail flicking again restlessly.]

I know if anything's left for us, it's likely to be dangerous, already addressed by the Warrior of Light, or both.

But you see, arguments over what 'can' and 'should' be done are what dominate affairs.

[Still, satisfied she has offered enough of a lecture in politics for her own taste, Y'shtola folds her arms. On the meat of the matter at last.]

Now, with their hands forced, the cities of Eorzea can and will move. And without question, we shall be there. 'Twould be futile to warn you that is like as not to be deadly, I suppose?

[It's something. Sayano grins, bright again.]

It's not my first time in mortal danger! I don't think I would have started adventuring if I wasn't prepared for it.

[That's not entirely true, but it's true enough now that she has some experience under her belt.]

As long as this one's an opportunity I won't miss, I'd be glad to lend my blades!

Were you truly prepared for it the first time? [A rhetorical question, but Y'shtola cannot fault her eagerness. She will have to be quite mindful of this one, for eagerness like that must be both nurtured and bridled.] Mind this, however: the greatest harm you can deal to Garleans in Gyr Abania is not to strike them down. It is to help the people there. The deeds are our enemy, their oppression and cruelty what we must oppose.

Helping people means striking something down often in this profession...

[The remark isn't so much a witty retort as it is an attempt to cling to what she knows best. She tilts her head in confusion as she considers alternatives.]

Um... well, I am a ninja. I can gather information? I know how to safely carry poisons, too. [Another pause, weighing less certain skills against what might be needed.] I also know some carpentry and goldsmithing? Not well, it isn't as if I'm trying to build a career on them...

[Y'shtola raises a finger to put a pause on those thoughts.]

Do not mistake me -- oftimes the only way to help others is to strike down those that would harm them. Like as not there will be enclaves of Garlean might that must needs be taken throughout the lands where we will venture. It is well to consider other means of aid, but I am not saying you should forsake your swords.

[She pauses the moment necessary to give her words weight.]

Rather, what you must consider is why you fight. You came to me seeking a means to fight the imperials; what I offer is a means to aid others whom the Empire has trodden on.

[See the difference?]

...I don't know why I fight. I know that I want to, that what they do is wrong, I want to end it and I know the best way I can help do that.

[A pause. It's the first time she's considered why, and as with most of her considerations happening for the first time, it's only the barest scrape off the surface that she comes away with. Still, some self-awareness is better than none.]

I also know that I can't be trusted to do it alone or on my own initiative, because I'm likely to die or worse, get someone else killed.

[That is more self-awareness than most show, and both it and her honesty increase Y'shtola's respect for her a little.]

To that, I say that fighting simply to stop a thing that is wrong can be reason enough. There are many who disagree to that, thinking all people who seek to do good in the world only have their own self-interest at heart... and perhaps there is some truth to that, but it is not all-inclusive.

[The Scions, after all, are home to many of those who have naught but Eorzea's good at heart. Minfilia had been one such, and Y'shtola fancied herself another...]

So. In light of your admission, I deem that flaw of yours in need of correction.

[That particular piece of awareness had been earned the hard way. It's kind of sobering, and her ever-present high energy is now channeled into nervousness rather than the more recognizable anger or cheer. She fidgets with her fingertips.]

Well, I'd like to be able to take action. The greatest paved their own way, rather than following someone else... I've never thought about how to start.

[It's honestly a more abstract thing than she's used to dealing with. It's hard for her to improve on something when the regimen is more than "practice makes perfect". She's pretty straightforward, in a detrimental way.]

No one starts with knowledge. The greatest thamaturges and conjurers learned from their guildmasters and superiors, who taught from knowledge founded by countless years of study and experience. Even the Warrior of Light began humbly, doing errands about town and mastering skills through practice and training.

So then shall we train you. I shall recommend you be assigned to one of our senior members. Perhaps one of the Boulders would serve...

Boulders? Oh! The Roegadyn brothers?

[At least she's not clueless. Of course she'd spoken to some of the others, though from her lack of elaboration, she hadn't spoken to either of the Boulder brothers much.]

You'll have no complaints from me! They seem capable. [She smiles nervously.] Though, I suppose to be in the Scions they ought to in the first place.

Very capable, and I think suited to instructing you in the field. I trust their judgment and their skill.

[A suitable result, she thinks. A young asset trained, at the same time doing what she can to put her eagerness to use.]

[And yet she cannot help but wonder: what would Minfilia have done in her place?]

Perfect! [She clasps her hands together in delight, ironically in more a Miqo'te gesture than an Auri one. Most of her Adventurers' Guild friends are Miqo'te - some gestures were bound to rub off on her.]

Thank you so much for this opportunity! I'll do my best!

[It's as if she hadn't been seething with anger before. Perhaps she falls for her own emotional deceptions.]

[Diverting and diminishing that anger from motivating her had ever been Y'shtola's intent. She supposed this must be what the armorers of Limsa Lominsa must feel like, taking raw materials and painstakingly coaxing flaws out of them, hammering the edges to slowly produce weapons of war. Full glad is she for the aid of others, for taking this girl from an instrument of anger to one of protection and security for Eorzea is like as not to be an exhausting process indeed.]

[But for the nonce, all is well, and Y'shtola favors her with a smile as unreserved as she can manage with a relative stranger.] 'Tis my certainty that you will do your best that grants you the opportunity, so I have no fears to the contrary.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

open post (may 2018)

Eh, she knows Thancred

This is true :P

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Sorry for the delay, it's been a hell of a week

It's okay! RL > RP, always

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Sorry it took so long for me to come back to this

S'cool!