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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[Guilt bit at him before his hand ever reached the Warrior's shoulder, but it was a necessary evil, as with so many things he had had to do over the last few years. But then the moment passed and her eyes fluttered open and it was too late to take anything back.]

[As she moved to right herself, coming slowly out of her doze despite the rude awakening, he stepped back to give her her space, positioning himself conveniently to the side of a stack of crates where wandering eyes would be less likely to spot him and draw attention to them both.]

She is disinclined to speak with me but for those rare occasions where it is absolutely necessary, and Ryne has her own concerns to to occupy her. Your secret is safe with me.

[The smile he offered seemed a bland compensation for pulling her from well deserved rest, however she could find it, but he couldn't help his concerns. The burdens placed upon them aside, it had been clear from their first meeting, so long ago now, that the Warrior of Light could change the world if she wanted. It drew people to her, for better or worse, and made those who truly cared for her protective. Many years more than she could know separated them, but if anything, his concerns had only grown over time that went beyond the necessity of the thing.]

[The worlds needed her, it was true. More than that, she was a friend. If time had taught him nothing else, life was too precious, and those near and dear to him were treasure nothing could ever replace.]

Though I imagine they will ask after you during our next meeting. Are your accommodations lacking in any way?

[ Ah that was right, he and Y'shtola didn't... didn't really get along. She should have remembered that - it wasn't like the other woman had hidden it in the slightest.

The question makes her tilt her head a bit in surprise, before realization struck her; if this was the first time he'd found her like this, of course it must look like she'd rather be sleeping here than in her own bed. Which which was not the impression she wanted to give in the slightest. She shook her head quickly. ]

Oh, no! Believe me, if there was something wrong I would have mentioned it before now! [ She's pretty sure she would have, anyway. Her hand is still rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly as she looks away. ] You could say this is... something of a bad habit of mine.

[ She falls silent for a moment, part of her teetering - wondering if she should elaborate or not. While she didn't try to keep her own thoughts and feelings held back, it was something she ended up doing more often than not. Which made the times where she could speak of them, even for small things... difficult. Another bad habit, she supposed. And then there were the echoes of the mistrust she'd felt when she'd first gotten here, alone, desperately confused and desperately missing the people who'd been brought here before her. The Exarch kept many secrets, and that was something that niggled at some old wounds.

And yet. And yet. From those selfsame wounds, knew just as much that secrets didn't have to come from a bad place. That there could be care behind them. Even if she didn't... necessarily like it. And - her mind flitted to a basket of sandwiches left on her table with care, even their conversation the other night after they'd just gotten back from Ahm Araeng - she'd felt nothing but care from the Exarch so far.

She sighs softly. ]

Some nights, when it's hard to sleep it just feels... too quiet. So I go wandering, to find where people are, and where I can listen to them. It's soothing.

[ And there's that sheepish smile again. ]

A bit too soothing, sometimes. [ Most of the time. ] Alphinaud could probably tell you of it, if you were to ask.

[ Alphinaud wasn't the one who found her usually, dozing on one of the couches in the sitting room of Fortemps Manor. But he had, once or twice, and Tataru had plenty. And the three of them had been thick as thieves back then, only having each other to rely on. ]

If falling asleep in odd places is a bad habit, I would be loathe to think of what may qualify as worse. [The smile he showed her was anything but unpleasant, having had his fair share of terrible habits to fall back on over the years. He had taken on nothing that would ever cause concern for others, of course, but the failures and waiting and uncertainty of his efforts. Those days had been long and longer still, but the end was in sight.]

[At least, for some of them. He didn't envy her what it was that they all knew she must do. One last Lightwarden, one final battle for the future of the First and the Source beyond, and it would be over. The Warrior of Darkness would return home with the Scions and all would be as it should. His note in history would be minor, and he would die a happy man, knowing the Eighth Umbral Calamity would not come to pass, his timeline forever but a possibility in the wild imaginations of writers of fiction in their worlds.]

[The thought seemed to soothe him, though his concern for her did not fade. So much hinged on her ability to see this through. His head bowed, eyes gast downward under the hood.]

The silence grows ever louder than it should have any right to be, does it not? I understand. I quite find it deafening at times, and when it gets to be too much on these old ears, I roam the streets and turn to my people. [He looks up again, watching familiar faces walk past, busy in their own work.] We were not meant to be alone.

[ She's not sure if it's meant as a joke or not, but it's certainly not meant unkindly, and he gets a chuckle out of her either way. If she were feeling contrary - or fretful - she might have argued that it was "bad" though in that it could worry her friends that she were to go "missing." That it might make her difficult to find when it counted. But, well, that was more energy than it was worth right now. ]

No, we're not.

[ She paused a moment herself, watching those same faces - some familiar, some not - passing. ]

And even if we can't really... explain it all in words, sometimes just being there with them is enough.

[ She doesn't know much about him, but from what little she does, she thinks he might be able to understand that. Not even because of the secrets he's kept, but more that - having been the leader of the Crystarium for as long as he clearly as been - his status as legend here probably is not unlike her own back at the Source. With all its benefits and drawbacks.

Though that does bring up something she's... wanted to add for a while ]

Especially here. That's something I felt, even when I first arrived. There's so much... life here. Joy and hope. Even when life is at it's darkest - or should I say brightest, perhaps? - they don't give up. I can feel it, just being here.

[ And that helps give her strength, she thinks. ]

[In his time, he had seen people turn to distraction and atrocities far worse than simply dozing on a collection of boxes hidden and out of the way. Habits where blood had been shed, despair turned to fear, life turned to illness or death. Never had he wanted to see such things, and never could he have imagined, as bright as their future looked when he sealed himself inside the Crystal Tower with a final farewell to his friends, that he would wake to the horror that he had.]

[The thought tightened the line of his lips.]

I quite agree. It is our nature to persevere where strife and tragedy threaten to ruin all we hold dear. [Not everyone held to that, as he was only too aware, but many did. It was what made them who they were. What one aspired to in their darkest times set fire to others and gave them something to hold onto and fight for where nothing else seemed to matter. Their races had survived Calamity after Calamity as a result, even if the shadows grew longer and the light dimmer with each passing turn.]

[Still, they carried on. Still, they spread stories of hope and courage as far and as fast as fire over dead and dry leaves, bringing that hope with it.]

[The Warrior of Light and of Darkness no less than the strongest of them, though he knew it weighed heavily on her shoulders.]

Quiet moments like these are few and far between. You have more than earned them, my friend. I would not wish to disturb your rest longer than I must, but I only mean to be certain you are as comfortable as we can make you until we have found a means to relieve you of that which ails you.

shadowbringers

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Crystarium night music helped with this so much

omg one of the best pieces in the expansion!