dpscheck | 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

parser.

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[She wanted to permit it before, but one last fragment of pride caught her tongue. There's none of that now. Besides, she isn't sure she can rise again alone as she did at the Imperative (where no one dared approach her in her helpless rage).

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.]

[They had been through much together in their relatively short time as Exarch and Captain. He could have asked for no finer Captain to head the Crystarium's guard. With that, he trusted her in all things, even and especially in knowing her own limits. It might have been selfish on his part, but he hadn't been able to bear seeing her suffer. Many things, she was, but she was still of the Crystarium. She was still one of his people.]

[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?

[Always her reasons for refusal are for the preservation of his strength. That he might not spend it all, particularly not on her, when there are so many others who might have need of it - the Exarch himself most of all. They would be lost without him, she would be lost, all their hope extinguished with his disappearance or passing.

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.]

[He knows the strength in his magic, the comfort in his healing. There had been times, during and after those fierce first battles to defend a fledgling city that had yet to even see houses built or walls to fortify itself, when he had been the recipient of his own abilities. Having stood alongside the first of the guard, people who were no longer with the Crystarium in one way or another or who stood beside him still, wearied and hardened as he was, he knew well what he was and was not capable of.]

[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.

[In truth, were she able, she would simply sit here until she felt her soul held the strength to stand again, if ever it did. But her duties do not permit her such leisure, as his do not. Ignoring the strength of spirit she no longer has this day, Lyna carefully gets her feet under her and rises - and she'll offer a hand to help him up, should he take it.]

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.]

[If only it felt as such, he allowed for a thought. He watches her carefully in her return to her feet, pushing himself to his own under his own steam as soon as he is sure she's feeling better as she says. He believes her words, but seeing gives him that much more confidence in her physical state of being.]

[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.

[This time her salute is smoother, unburdened by so much buried physical pain. The wounds to her spirit will take much more time, bared as they are over so many older scars.]

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.]

[Behind the shadow of his cowl, blood red eyes widened, but all she would see of his shock was a parting of his lips. That she would doubt him in his resolve after so long having been by his side rattled him. But he took a mental step back and considered that this had been one of the worst days for all of them. To anyone, Vauthry's words struck home, and the battle and outcome of it seemed to ring true to his words.]

[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.

[Nevertheless, she knew it would sting to hear. Lyna can’t look him in the eye unless he looks back, and under the cowl it’s hard to say. But she tries.]

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.

[In truth, he had been surprised to hear the Crystarium soldier's message from the Warrior of Darkness such as it was. Surprised, and proud all the same. No matter their resolve, they were still people with hopes and dreams who had just seen a back and forth of intense emotions, already weary from the constant day to day around the city and the eternal Light in the skies.]

[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.

It will not.

[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?

[He isn't too modest not to nod in agreement with her sentiments, though he will not voice them. His closest advisors, he knows he can trust to follow his lead, as he trusts them and will continue to do so. But the rest of the townsfolk are loyal to the Crystarium and to what and who they have left in this small world that grows smaller by the day. They will not turn on him or on what the city stands for, but their hope will waver.]

[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.

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