shadowbringers

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shadowbringers

beneath the stars It's been a week since our newest expansion officially launched! And, I know, I know... some of you already have a lot of feelings that you need to air out. But canon updating in your games is a struggle! And so is finding PSL partners! Luckily, that's what we're here for. This is a post for you to play out all the Shadowbringers-related content you might be dying to write. Behind-the-scenes nonsense? Between-the-scenes angst? It's all welcome here! 1. Toplevel your character. Include any details you might think are relevant. Or don't. As always, we're not the cops. 2. Reply to other people's top levels! 3. Have fun! ⚔ Please clearly mark all spoilers in your thread subject lines. Clearly indicate whatever spoiler preferences you may have. We're only a week into the expansion, officially, and there's no shame if you're not far in it or haven't started it yet. ⚔ You are welcome to play characters who are new to Shadowbringers. However, please try to avoid topleveling with icons and descriptions that convey major plot-related spoilers. If you aren't certain about a character's playability, feel free to PM parser.

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[rewritten_history]

So they did not. [There is a note of quiet acceptance in his tone and, somehow, relief. It wasn't what he labored to see happen, and their dear Warrior suffered with the Light for it all the more as a result. But in the end, it turned out to be the better outcome. The clash with the Ascian was always on the horizon, no matter if the Exarch did as he had intended. If he had taken the corrupted aether from their friend and thrown himself between worlds with it to die, would the battle with Emet-Selch have changed? If he had not been there to summon the heroes from other realms, would the scales have tilted?]

[It was astounding, what one bullet could change. One decision, one will. In a split second, time had been altered, a course in history moved with it, perhaps forever. Already he had seen it happen twice in his unnaturally long life in ways immeasurable, once in devastation and the other in gradual healing, and still three centuries was all but a drop in the ocean.]

[Having lived so long now, having had only a taste of what the Ascian knew, and a poor one at that, he thought he might pity the man. They would never have understood each other, their views and experience and goals being what they were, but he couldn't help but feel still that it was a loss. Another branch of time that would never happen. Be that as may, he would not go back looking for a way to alter the course. The gains far outweighed any potential benefit, and the Exarch would not entertain the idea. If his mind and heart had not already steered him just so, he needed only to see the twinkle of the stars above, to hear the laughter of his people and see the joy on their faces to know where he stood.]

There is still the matter of returning you and your fellow Scions back to the Source. Not an impossible task, yet one whose methods still elude me. To permit a body and soul to cross the rift is one thing and no small undertaking on its own, but a soul alone?... It is... complicated. But worry not. I do have thoughts on how to see this done. You will be returned home, I promise.

[Now that the Warrior had inadvertently proven one of his theories, he had confidence that it would work again. The trouble then: how to bring a body without a soul between worlds when it could not heed his call?]

[fearlessly]

Oh, no doubt.

[ alisaie casts him a sidelong glance, and though her words are as direct as ever, there is the twinkle of something like teasing in her dark eyes. ]

Pray, do your best to return us to the correct bodies, if you don't mind. Your aim is not known to be entirely trustworthy.

[ and if she wakes up in alphinaud's body she will ride back to the first on a comet and string you up by your tail, crystal cat man. ]

Nevertheless, there is no pressing rush. There are important things we need see to on the Source, but there is much and more to be done here as well, before moving forward.

[ mayhaps it's selfish, but alisaie certainly has a list of her own - already she itches to return to amh araeng, to see what has become of halric and his fellow afflicted, to help ease what she can only believe must be their recovery. it is not too late. it cannot be too late. the light is torn from the sky, it is gone, resolved, and with its disappearance she guesses - she knows - that those at the inn will recover. it may take time, but they will speak again, the veil will lift from their eyes, and they will live. she must believe it. ]

[rewritten_history]

[Color him sheepish! A pioneer in any field of magic was bound to make mistakes, sometimes dangerous ones, but he knew exactly what it was that he was playing with - a life - and he had the utmost respect for those especially who were, for better or worse, at his mercy when it came to crossing the rift.]

[The utmost respect and the utmost care. He never had intended for things to go so wrong, and he would always harbor a guilt that they had, even if things had turned out for the better in the end. The Exarch's ears flatten to the sides and he looks away, with a soft sound, despite a smile.]

Yes, I promise to make your return as clean and painless as I possibly can. [He looks back to her, shame pushed aside for the time being to allow them to continue to enjoy the night.] When the time comes, of course. As your brother once said, this world is your home now as much as any of ours. I would not dream of taking you from it without your explicit say in the matter this time.

so sorry for the delay!! ... and then i posted too early

[fearlessly]

[ don't worry crystal cat man, she's only screwing with you. mostly. for all that he has been painfully, maddeningly secretive, she does not doubt the purity of his motives or the goodness of his heart. even his betrayal had been brief and flimsy. now that the worst has passed and the ascian shattered, she has no reason to suspect he might interfere with their return home. the exarch has revealed more than his face with that hood, there seems now an.. understanding between them all, a trust to put them at ease.

admittedly, alisaie trusts perhaps a bit too easily in the motives of others, but nevertheless, she believes every word he says. even if she'll give him a hard time about it. don't take it personally. think of it as her own particular brand of affection. ]

Oh, I do not doubt it. With any hope there will be no urgent call for us to return immediately.. I should like to enjoy a little time here without the burden of its salvation.

[ not that alisaie does particularly well with taking anything even remotely like vacation time, but she can.. perhaps enjoy a few days before her nose is to the grindstone again. ]

aaaa sorry for the delay here too!

[rewritten_history]

[As much as his deceit had been necessary and the betrayal that followed a hinge point in his plans, he couldn't say that he regretted how things ended. That he was alive now still came as a complete shock to him. By all rights, he should be dead and gone, or simply just gone. But here he was, gazing out over the valleys between the hills of Lakeland beside one of the greatest heroes the First had ever known.]

[In a way, it felt almost wrong to have survived everything, having come from a world and a time now that would never be. Cheating death had never been so strange. But it was an opportunity to make right what he had wronged, to make better a place in the world that he had created, and he had no intention of letting that go to waste.]

For the moment, time seems to flow at as similar a pace between our two worlds as I have ever seen it, so you need not worry yourself too much. You have more than earned what enjoyment you will find.

[fearlessly]

[ enjoyment? the very word, the very idea is enough to pull a wry smile over her lips and a dry chuckle from her throat, but he is not wrong. ]

I am not so sure I remember how to enjoy myself.

[ even at home, before the first and all the horror and pain and wrenching joy that came with it, alisaie has ever pushed herself to move forward, to work, to not sit on her hands. what is a soldier to do with themselves once the war has ended? how is she to spend her downtime?

by setting right back to work, naturally. ]

I could take a day or two to myself, I suppose.

[rewritten_history]

[His gaze turns back to her, from the vastness of the valley down below, regarding her with a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. If he is perfectly honest, his feelings on that are closer to her words than he would like to admit. How long he has spent in careful planning and preparation for these days, hoping they would come and yet never certain, only ever sure that he could not fail, for what that meant if he did.]

Nor I. [A gentle confession.] But the time we might take will be shorter than it might seem. It always is.

[Just in the way time would seem to fly by when having fun. But what fun they might have would be clouded in its own way, with memories of darker times, with the pain of loved ones lost and friends forever gone, that they might live to see another, hopefully brighter day. For their sake, he would remember them fondly, shed a tear for them at the memorial service to be planned and held later.]

[But for now, the night was quiet and the breeze warm.] There is work yet to be done. I am well aware, but even if this moment now is all that we have, I hope you find some measure of peace within it.