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shadowbringers
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 ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small} parser. |
TEMPLATE CODED BY valoirs
valoirs
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75/76 ish spoilers
Swallowing both pain and pride, Lyna walks slowly across the open plaza toward the tower, unable to ignore the slick stone - wet with rain her people fought and died for - or the downcast gazed of her citizens, the whispers of great loss. Vauthry’s threat lingers in the air, rank and rotten.
It feels like years before she knocks smartly on the door to the Ocular. He’ll know her without the need for words, but she always says them anyway.]
I’m here to report, my lord.
[She wonders if he can hear the weight of every lost soul in her voice the way she can.]
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[He had been a different person then. Still eager to make his way in the world, still willing to lend a hand, still full of energy and spirit and mischievousness. Now and then, he would look back in retrospect and see shades of that young man in the things he did, the words he chose, the gestures he made, but time had tempered him. Tragedy and desperation and hope in equal parts had molded him with hands firm and unyielding, each experience smoothing rough edges, each joy a foundation, each loss a crack in that to be mended and built anew.]
[But the process still hurt. Under the cowl, beneath the title, past his years, he was still a man with a battered soul and a broken heart made stronger for the agonies he had suffered. The pain lessened little, if at all, each time it happened. Now would be no different. From his portal upon the wall, the Exarch had been granted a view of the battle like none other, tense and silent. Now he watched the aftermath, counting their losses, remembering each and every face of the ones who lay on the ground, eyes closed, never to see the night again though it had only been returned to them so newly. For all of them save himself and the ones fighting there with them from the Source, it was the only time they had ever seen it.]
[The Exarch lowered his gaze at a knock at the door and forced a sigh to release the tension remaining within him, shutting his own feelings aside. Whatever else he was, he was still their leader. His people needed that side of him. A wave of the staff before him banished his view of the field. She didn't need to see that again. She would be seeing it well enough for the rest of her life.]
Enter, Captain.
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There he stands, staff in hand, unreadable as ever beneath his cowl, though the line of his mouth says only weariness. Lyna takes rather halting steps into the room, saluting, then leaving her hands in fists as the door closes softly behind her. Unlike the Exarch, her aching shows too plainly in her eyes, for all she tries to force composure in them as in her stance.]
How much do you know already?
[Lyna is far from ignorant of his extended sight. She doesn’t ask with certainty, though, but there is the same heaviness to it. Somewhere behind her the stars look down on so many lost.]
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[He isn't sure, and to mention it now might do her worse, but he isn't without his care. He lowers his gaze to a place on the floor between them, setting it aside for the moment to let them get this out of the way.]
Enough. But I would hear your words, regardless. [She came here out of duty, and he would not offer a slap in the face and make her visit for nothing, especially if she had come here in her state.] When you are ready.
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Of course. Though you will not like to hear it told.
[Lyna's next words paint the bleak picture for what it is; she cannot name every life lost simply because the record remains unfinished, though she tells of the charge toward the Imperative and the forces they had to spare to head off a mob of them descending on the Round. To a one they fought bravely. She grits her teeth through that, trite and empty a reassurance as it has ever been.
She shifts her stance, leg aching, and glances around the room once.]
One of your...guests saved my life today. [Lyna isn't one to push off credit where it is due and deserved.] The guardsmen fighting at my back...met with a powerful sin eater before I could give an order to draw back. They paid for it with their lives, at my hands.
[Nor will she defer blame. Seeing the twisted and Lightridden bodies of her guards drop their weapons, reach out with claw and screech and nothing left of them in their eyes...there wasn't another choice. She doesn't dwell on it, but she had to tell him, though it took a gravely harshness to do it.]
When the one who turned them came for me, Thancred stopped it. [She has harbored respect for these strange visitors in one form or another since they began their secretive work in Norvrandt. The battle at Holminster Switch changed her mind to their cause permanently. And now this.] He's been taken to Spagyrics.
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[He knows it all too well, and he sees it in more than just her eyes. He sees it in the slight movement, favoring the one leg over the other, and he knows now she is hurt. In his chest, his heart clenches, knowing she walked all this way just to bear her burden to him. If ever he held respect for this woman, he knows it now more than ever.]
[But he lets her continue and speak of her comrades, who fell one by one to the stronger of the sin eaters. He had been witness to that event, watched in angry horror as the creature took first one, then the next, then the next, until it had Lyna herself in its sights. Then Minfilia, who wished only to aid a friend. Then Thancred, who challenged the sin eater with a vengeance.]
'Twas a battle well fought. I have no doubt that every man and woman on the field gave their all to protect this city and those who cannot fight. They will be honored. [He turned his gaze up to her again, eyes weighted down with everything upon her shoulders and his own.] They will be remembered. Once we have gathered our resources and our people have had rest, we will see to memorial services for those who laid down their lives this day, that we might know a better tomorrow.
[The hood lowered with his gaze again, and this time did not rise. As much as he longed to be on the field with them, his own duties kept him in the Tower, to monitor from afar while his people fought and died and faced horrors that, in a perfect world, he would have shielded them from forever. But it wasn't to be. Not this time, and it burned no less that he could not follow his heart's content.] Thank you for your report, Captain. Your dedication is, as always, admirable. But before you return to your duties, I would offer a proposal.
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But it's rare that he fixes her with his stare so clearly. Lyna swallows hard, allowing herself only a nod. One breakdown was one too many already. If the film of tears momentarily overtakes her gaze, it goes away in short order. She can pretend she didn't care if he saw.
He thanks her and she salutes once more. Usually her cue to go, to attend to whatever orders he has or - in the aftermath of battle, as now - what might be best for those serving under her, be it company in the infirmary or a silent understanding at the tavern, that he offers a proposal gives her a bit of pause.]
Of course, my lord. [She would be a fool not to listen to it, whatever it is.] If it is within my ability to do it, I'll see it done.
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[Perhaps they always would be. He was only one man and not without his limits, though in times like these especially, he seethed at them.]
[They trusted him. The Crystarium would not exist if they hadn't, but the people were not without their pride and their limits. She, of all of them, perhaps, most of all. It would be a line he toed with his offer, and he was well aware, but he could not in good conscious stay completely silent while his people suffered. He was many things to them, but heartless was never one of them.]
[Even still, he could not look her in the eye as he prepared himself to speak the words, hood lowering once more, then rising again with resolve, voice softened.]
Forgive my impropriety, but you are injured. Pray, allow me to assist you with that before you go. There has been enough pain today. 'Tis the very least that I can do.
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So he must be worried. More worried than he likes.
For a moment she thinks to just...refuse. A half dozen versions of "I'm fine" bloom and die on her lips before she ever parts them. Her fingertips twitch near her chakram as another wave of aching passes. It would be easy to tell him their healers already did what they could, that he doesn't need to expend his energy on this.
Instead she takes a quick breath through her nose.]
Your offer is kind. [Kind, because he could have done nothing, but also because he could have ordered her to sit in some chair he conjured out of nothing while he...does whatever it is he intends to do, without giving her the choice.] I would be a fool to refuse.
[Lyna relaxes out of standing at attention, letting her hands fall limp and her shoulders slump just this much.]
But try not to tire yourself. I'm not hurt past working. I'll be fine.
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[Failure now means the end of a world. Failure now means the reality that sent him here will come to pass. He cannot see either happen. He will not see either happen, no matter the cost to himself. One misstep, one wrong move could mean the difference between salvation and oblivion for millions, as he is only too aware.]
[All the more reason for him to care so much about all of the little details now more than ever. But he will not force her to accept his help. A simple curative spell is all it would take to ease her pain and close the wound a little, but he nods, leaving her to her decision. His was the offer, hers to take or let be, and he will abide by her will.]
As you wish, Captain. Regardless, I wish you and all a swift and easy recovery. [He pauses, glancing at the floor once more in that time.] I will be along soon. There are a few things I must attend here before I return to the city.
oops i thought that read as a yes BUT IT'S OKAY gonna work with it
[They always do. The Exarch has a gift for turning even the longest and brightest of nights into new shadows of hope, with his well-chosen words and his gentle manner. He knows what to dwell on, and what to try to leave behind. How to pick up the pieces.
Lyna salutes one final time, stiffening again.]
When you have need of me you need only say the word, my lord.
[If she isn't nearby herself, someone will be who knows where to find her. Meanwhile she, too, will do all she can, no matter how limited that is.
She makes it to about three steps from the door before her leg gives way, leaving her on one knee and trying not to hiss through her teeth. Damn it all, everything, Light and eaters and Eulmore and every gods-forsaken footstep they try to take toward anything better in this world.
Rather than say these things aloud, Lyna strikes the floor with a clenched fist. This time, she doesn't let her composure crack.]
aaaa sorry!
[If any of his people slept tonight, he would count that a blessing. Though he would visit as many as he could before the morning came, his presence would only do so much. There would always be hurts he could never hope to heal, tears he could never reach to dry. His heart broke for them, his very being ached with all the horrors he wished he could take away from them. But he knew better.]
[As their Crystal Exarch, he had to know better.]
[Very swiftly and suddenly, he finds himself watching her walk away, and then crumble.] Captain! [In motion before he realizes what he's doing, he hurries to her side, and, despite that she towers over him while on foot, he ends on a knee near her. One hand, flesh and bone, twitches to do something, but his staff remains still and quiet in the other.]
Please.
[It's all he will say. It's all he can say. If she refuses him again, he will offer gentle protest, but the wound is only going to worsen at this rate.]
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Lyna looks at him, far from deaf to his plea, to the bone-deep wish in his voice to be able to do one thing for one of his who is suffering. Since he cannot return lost lives or give any lasting comfort to newly broken families, could he not...at least do this.
She was never going to refuse a second time regardless. She swallows and nods, eyes closed.]
You may. As expected...I was a fool to refuse.
[Rather than keep strain on her leg half kneeling like this, she manages to shift her weight and sit. What she must look like, biding her time thus on the floor of the Ocular.]
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[But her acceptance of his help had come at a price. She had her reasons for declining his offer initially. Pride, perhaps, or some form of self flagellation for what had come to pass. It was not his decision, and it felt only marginally better for him to hear her agree to his healing. Her hand had been forced, after all.]
[For all of his power, he could make this quick. He only needed to close the wound just enough to allow her to get along with her day and see to the injury later, but if he allowed a bit more energy than was absolutely necessary, it could boost the mending. And so he did. A nod of his head, and the staff's head began to glow as he tipped it toward her. The power within the Tower itself could have been no stronger than it was now, there in the heart of the structure with his focus as the conduit. It was those same energies that permitted him to reach across time and space to another world and not only touch that world, but bring back a soul - several - and the Warrior of Light, in soul and body, with him.]
[If he had been told in his youth that he would be able to accomplish such a thing nearly three centuries into his life, he would have laughed and given the messenger up for mad. Now, it came almost as easily as pushing through a heavy door, difficult but manageable. By comparison, healing newly split skin was merely a step across the room.]
[Within moments, he had done all he could. With all the horrors of the First today, he wished desperately that he could do more, but her pain from the wound would be dulled, and her injury nearly fully mended. At its end, the staff's glow dimmed again, and he set it upon the crystal floor, still within his grasp should he need it once more. Beneath the hood, he watched her carefully, making note of every flinch, every look, every shift in position to gauge her condition.]
How is it now?
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Yet as the spell takes hold, mending her wounds, Lyna's breath comes more easily, and her fists relax alongside the tension in her shoulders. Their medics at the Imperative did all they could, of course, but they were so reduced in number and stretched thin in resources - which Lyna also felt were better spent on the rest of the Guard, those that had survived and not taken an injury that would turn them - that her treatment was cursory and her refusal met with little resistance.
The spell fades, and Lyna draws up her injured leg, quietly marveling as always at the way healing spells simply remove pain, though she is careful with it all the same.]
Almost as if it was never hurt in the first place.
[There is something unusually soft there in her eyes as she looks at him. She owes him so much. Her position here, her training, her life.]
Thank you, my lord. [At this volume, her words don't echo at all in the high empty chamber.]
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[And yet seeing her move her leg now, so newly after the healing magic had done its work and faded away, a node of tension releases itself more and more as the second tick by and her pain has not returned. She is well and truly better for his effort, even if all he managed to accomplish here is that she will be able to carry herself without stumbling out of this room and back into a world of other hurts his staff can't hope to touch.]
[The softened tones aren't lost on him, a reflection of the relief she must feel having one of her worries lessened. He bows his head.]
You are most welcome, Captain. Would that it could have been more.
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What you do for us already is more than enough. It always has been.
[His array of defenses protects the city from sin eaters as nothing else can. He watches over them all, and he intervenes directly when he must, whether he knows she is aware of that or not.
There is still some tenderness in her leg and side now she's standing with her full weight on it, but nothing that will slow her down. Nothing she can't spend her sleepless night enduring.]
What are my orders?
[She may sound all business, but this, too, is softer than a good captain to her superior.]
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[Her mental state is another question entirely, one he will not yet ask after so soon past the tragedy that put them there. They know without words what it is to lose friends, to lose family. Their worlds have been all but destroyed - his, completely, and hers brought to the brink of destruction - and still they lose more by the day the longer they are in this fight. But they have hope yet, and the Warrior of Darkness is with them. They have those who remain, and they have those who have fallen before them.]
[They have something to hold onto, though their fingers tremble. It isn't easy and it never will be, but it may be all they have. This Crystarium, and those within it.]
[For a moment, he watches her, unaware of the ache that still plagues her - she hides it well enough now that it isn't threatening to send her back to her knees. Then, his gaze lowers, staring at a point past her in space.]
Pray, see to your people, Captain. They will have need of your strength in the coming days. I will have supplies and reinforcements sent out as soon as I can to aid in bringing those injured back to the Crystarium.
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We will all have need of each other before this ends. [She closes her eyes and nods to him.] As you suggest. I will inform the guard of your plans to move them home.
[There is one other matter - one she would not dare mention in front of another, not even the Exarch's most honored guests. Those who slay the Lightwardens are not to be privy to a moment of...faltering hope.]
You...don't mean to agree to Vauthry's demands.
[It isn't quite a question. Lyna believes fully in the Exarch's adherence to his vow to keep the Crystarium whole, no matter what Eulmore throws upon the walls. But she wants to hear it in his voice, from his lips. To have that to carry her out the door and back to the men and women who lost so much today. If she has overstepped her place, so be it.]
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[If one knew what to look for - and after so long observing Eulmore's policies, it seemed obvious what the man was up to - it was all a farce, just another means to an end to coerce the people of the Crystarium and, should the Crystarium submit, the rest of what remained of Norvrandt would follow. It was what Eulmore, in its leader's deluded conclusions and grossly unchecked authority, sought to achieve.]
[He knew it. He was certain of it. That his Captain of the guard had seen fit to question him on his stance spoke of the depth to which this day had struck her. If he blamed her for her worry, he would count himself a poor leader himself. But he couldn't deny that the doubt, coming from a long standing ally so trusted, hurt. When he next he spoke, he let only his resolve bleed through, concealing the hurt within.]
My people have made their position clear when I asked them what we should do regarding Eulmore's warnings. To go back on that now would be to betray not only them, but everything we have fought for all these long years. This I cannot, and will not, do.
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Thank you, my lord. [It was never in question. It was a request for some small comfort, the only sort Lyna’s character will let her accept. If they are together in this, she can walk upon it, let it bridge her way back to getting to work. Let it bolster her as they offer what comforts they can to their wounded and mourn and bury their dead. That, at least, should be well readable on her face.] Your people shall not falter nor fail your faith in us. We will recover and carry on as you have taught us.
[Still. She owes him some explanation for even making him think she doubted him.]
Strong though we are, the insult Eulmore throws on top of our injuries is...hard to bear. I would have your words to give them more hope than they can manage alone. [She doesn’t have it in her to smile or anything near to it, but her words are warm and so is the look on her face.] We are with you. I heard concern in the streets but only with conviction beside it.
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[They could bend, and they could break. He would not blame them. Damnably, Vauthry's declarations had been planned and carried out with every intent to demoralize the people in all of Lakeland, and the Exarch had to admit, he could have made no better attempt.]
[He nodded at last, letting her words settle in.]
This has all been orchestrated from the start by Vauthry himself, but you have the right of it. Those are no easy words to hear so soon after all that has happened, even for the strongest among us. Whatever fears my people will have, they will hear directly from me should they wish. They will not lose my faith in them, even should their own in me waver.
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[This, she knows without question.
Lyna looks toward the door, mindful of everything waiting for her beyond it.]
Should you wish to see to your friend, I can return when the healers say he wants for visitors. [She isn’t eager to get to work, or back to it, but idleness has never become her, nor taken a place among the folds of her uniform.] If that is all, my lord?
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[It already has, in some of them. He cannot blame them. But a part of him wishes he could change all of that. His original intentions had been to save the Source, to save the Warrior of Light, but in doing so, he knew the people of the First needed salvation as well. He could not abandon them to their fate, and the stake in it was more than a little personal, now for not one but two worlds.]
Thank you. I shall await word of his recovery. [He saw the look back to the entry of the Ocular and knew the impatience and hesitation behind it. Another side effect of too many straining days and bright nights gone by with no change, or too much shift in the wrong direction. He thought again, if he could take it all away and make it right just like that, he would. He knew she would as well. Who wouldn't? But it was no use dreaming of things he could never make happen, not quite so easily. His staff and magic could heal her flesh, but her soul was far beyond his reach.]
[His voice softened, hoping it carried a note of comfort with it this time.] Go well, Captain.