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.

TEMPLATE CODED BY valoirs

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[crystallyna]

[Dutiful even in this, Lyna waits in the Ocular for him to return, ready to go. Yes, she will ask their Warrior of Darkness if it is possible to bring him some new books...

Then he is there, looking up at her with just that hint of friendly curiosity that for so long she knew only in his voice and not his features.]

Of course.

[It's a matter of a few steps and one gesture to hold open the door for him.]

As long as I am not disturbing your work. [Yet...she can't help a glance out that door, and up at the brilliant dark sky.] I...prefer walks in the clear night like this.

[rewritten_history]

[An old man though he claimed to be and, by all rights, was, the door to his Ocular would yield to him easily after all of his time handling it day in and out. He hadn't expected her to hold it open for him, but he accepted the gesture with a thankful nod nonetheless, stepping over the threshold and into the hall beyond where one of many grand staircases led to a series of halls and chambers and, ultimately, back down to the Exedra.]

[He waited there for her to come to his side before continuing on, managing a pace that with his shorter stride would be easy for her to keep up with.]

As do I. Long have I waited for the people of Norvrandt to look to the sky and view the stars in all of their glory once more. My work is more review now, less urgent while they yet shine overhead for all to see.

[And still the war went on, somewhere on the Source, where the Warrior fought. The battles for their dear friend seemed endless, one way or another, but he did hope that the man would return one day to find respite and know what remained of the First as a place of rest and sanctuary, if nothing else.]

How fares the goings of the Crystarium in my seclusion?

[Whatever it was she wished to talk about, what brought her to his door to pull him away and into the night, it certainly wasn't this, but it was as good an ice breaker as any. She seemed wary, by her anxious shifting when she had broached the question, and it was the last thing he wanted her to know around him.]

[crystallyna]

The same as always, my lord.

[For this, she can spare one of her rare smiles. As long as she has lived here, as long as she's called the Crystarium home, its people have been able to climb to their feet and thrive no matter the hardship. Even with the enemy at their very gates, even when the blasted Light returned after the hope of darkness and all seemed lost. They put one foot in front of the other and pushed onward for the sake of their world and each other.

Lyna will always be proud to belong to such people.]

What a poor example of your dedication we would be if we could not hold the fort while you rested.

[She walks a pace behind him, as any well-trained guard would do. When people greet them as they pass, she is quick with warm replies and nods of acknowledgement - though few are about at this hour.

Yet his words about the stars remain in her thoughts.]

Even in the deepest part of the Rak'tika Greatwood, few remain who knew the stars before you brought them back.

[rewritten_history]

[Her smile received a tug at his own lips more than had already been there. These days, now that the end of two worlds was not staring him in the face, it came easier and easier when he could pull his nose from his tomes and set his presence back into the city, among its citizens. Those who passed them now still knew his kindness, but in a new shade, lightened with the lessening of the burden upon their shoulders.]

[It was not the end of their struggles and he wondered if ever there would be a time when they truly could want for nothing, wishful thinking though it was. But he kept his eyes forward in more than a literal sense as they strayed from the Tower and to the quiet of the central aetheryte crystal without intending to do so. It seemed as good a place as any to begin a round in the Crystarium. Perhaps the stairs to the walkways over the markets?]

It did not take one person to raise this city. I have every confidence in that our people will endure with or without my constant vigil.

[The comment had been intended in gentle jest, but there sat nestled in it a hint of consideration his thoughts touched on more than once in recent days, now that darkness had been rightfully returned. And, in truth, one he did not grant himself time enough to linger on.]

So there are. This world has suffered the loss of the night sky for nearly a century, as we all know only too well, but no more. 'Tis a precious gift her people and their children and their children's children and on down the line will know forever, as I have dreamed. As they have dreamed.

[A curious twinkle caught in his eyes as he turned to glance back at her, wondering. He knew her race tended toward a long life, longer than most races. Some individuals even remembered the stars and yet looked as though they were but adults by other race's standards, barely in the middle of their lives. By her reactions upon seeing the night again, he thought it might be the first time for her. Long though he had known her, whether or not she was new to the darkness was a mystery to him, as much as his own origins were shrouded to her.]

Your dreams as well, I can only imagine. Speaking of, how are your eyes adjusting to this? [By now, he thought she must be used to it, as most of the city was, but with the return of the night came an adjustment of circadian rhythms and sleep schedules with it. His own eyes, being what they were for his race, found the change difficult - not impossible, only an effort, one staved off by the lamps newly posted around the Crystarium.]

[crystallyna]

[By all the gods she hopes it is forever.

No one will ever know how she felt when, some days after her first sighting of stars, the primordial Light came back. It is her intention to never tell a soul. The weight of it was crushing, the evidence writ large that somehow, somewhere, the not-so-covert efforts of the warriors from beyond had failed. That the danger could return.

Some days she forgets, and when she wakes to full sunlight, rushes to the window to make certain the sky is blue.

All of this she shakes away, for the Exarch has asked her a question.]

Well enough. If it is a slow adjustment it is no worse than any other.

[She was raised in the Crystarium, of course, but knows enough of the origin of the viis to know they favor the shadows beneath protective trees and old stone.]

Remembering to carry a lantern on night patrols proves more difficult.

[rewritten_history]

[The Darkness's return had been necessary, but almost as difficult to adapt to as it had been welcomed. He knew as much himself - though all of his efforts had been to see just that happen, despite his shrouded eyes, he had still been a century in living with the ever-present Light as they all had been. From his window into the rest of the worlds, even his own eyes needed shielding and guidance until they were used to the First's new state of existence.]

[But it was something he would forever welcome, when it meant the Source would survive, and what remained of the First still had a fighting chance.]

Good to hear. It will be second nature in time, hopefully time short enough that it hardly seems to pass at all. You must have seen some of the stars by now. I can only imagine what that must have been like.

[This, he had wanted for his people more than anything. The stars among the darkness well beyond their world. Places they had never been to, may yet never know, but in beauty beyond compare no less. How many nights had he spent beneath the leaves of the trees, looking up to those glistening spots in the sky, wondering whatever it was his youthful thoughts would? How long had he spent searching through tome after tome with little more than starlight to guide him? The wonders of the world could make one feel so small, so humble, but the glory of the universe beyond...]

[The First should know that at least once, he thought. Privately, that had been one of his wishes for his people, and he hoped they would know it.]