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Nakulian Year 6239, Ascending Moon to Ascending Sun Timeskip Theme: 1d49 13 - A wins with 17 of 49 votes You had a million things to learn and be good at, expectations coming at you from every angle - and even cheating by being up all night wasn't giving you enough time to negate all of that. You had to learn to be a good doctor, to create medicine, to heal the wounded, you had to learn to fight, learn to hunt, to learn to work together with others, to forage and provide for your home, to explore, to see that which no one else could see... perhaps it wasn't completely abnormal, but it was still overwhelming at times. There was only so much time in the day, and only so much you could do in that time, and so you just had to make use of the time more efficiently. Rama kept saying that as if it was the simplest thing in the world. It wasn't exactly easy though - your foundation was far from shaky, but you had exhausted many of your mentors of what they knew. While Jo Kul's knowledge still was helpful for mastering your own condition, at least as a wise voice, it was far from the expert instruction he had for growing and improving your body before. And Mala... Well, she seemed quite straight forward with the metaphorical slamming of a door in your face when you proposed she should help you with the study techniques she once was assisting you in learning. ------- Nakulian Year 6239, Ascending Moon "Do you really think I want to waste my time teaching brats?" The woman looked down on you in a way that few people dare to - despite being shorter than you, she made you feel infinitely small, and threatened in a way very different from Haimi. "Do I not spend enough time having to guess at another miserable brat's needs week in and week out with that little friend of yours? You want me to spend even more time delaying my own improvement to, what, make you a little bit better at yours?" She scoffed at the idea. "But what about the pl-" The second the topic came from mind to tongue, your brain felt like it was on fire and you lost your breath. It hurt just to think for a second, and you could hear Rama's panicked telepathic voice asking you what was wrong even as you knew the pain spread over to him - your shared sensations now that strong. But in a few moments it faded, "I mean, you helped me for Darpan's sake before. Why not now?" "One: he bribed me. I mean, I made my offer, and he gave me that Elder tier corpse he stole off your Father." She motioned to her robe, which was a verdant green both in reality and to your essence senses, giving off extremely strong madra on par with most of your equipment, or your father's own robes, "He's the one who values you, not me. Secondly, even with that bribe, the offer to teach you was only on the table while you were benefiting from my ability to improve your mind and make you learn it quicker You'd need to give me something even larger to get me to do it without that. Maybe a couple of your treasures?" She raised an eyebrow, and you could feel Rama's disgust at the greed he saw in her eyes. "We need what we have. We need more armor if anything, but the ring at least supplements our lack. The gloves are your only hand to hand weapon of worth, and while I'd be fine with giving up that, I see no reason why you should with the time you've spent on it. Besides, this snake is hardly trustworthy." Rama's voice in your head just affirmed what you kind of already knew - that Mala wasn't exactly the greatest of people to trust... though you weren't sure Rama had a great track record on who not to trust. She must have seen your refusal even without you voicing it, "Otherwise I suppose your Father as Bladelord could provide a few bribes I'd accept. Perhaps he could replace me as your friend's mentor with someone else? I'm extremely tired of that little know it all goody-goody." She complained about Jute as if you weren't friends, and it annoyed you, "Or maybe he could get me taken off of having to attend the drills for a few months. I already have them all memorized. It's a waste of my time too." She stared at you seriously, before shaking her head, "Who am I kidding. He's too upright to use his position to get you what you need. Such a waste. Just get out kid." ------------ You wanted to improve your Mental Discipline, because you knew it would help more than just straight studying. Being able to see things from new points of view, being able to consider possibilities you hadn't thought of - they were all part of what Mala had started to teach you. You knew it'd be helpful for your time with Jo Kul, more so than his time would be for helping you focus your mind on the difficult task of learning Mala's discipline. So you already knew what you wanted to work on first, as you and Rama narrowed in on the idea of improving your fundamental foundation to be built upon later. But the question was how valuable it was to you: you might be able to part with two of your treasures and not fall completely behind - after all, you had the right to get equipment of the same tier as your Blade-Tongue-Boots made from your hunts nowadays. But it would be a great loss none the less - you doubted you'd ever get something as unique as the Starlight Scales, Reprisal Ring, or the Glacier Gloves once more. The treasure vaults all seemed to contain treasure, but... there had been nothing close to a repeat thus far, outside of the unbreakable cloth. There was also the possibility of trying to convince your Father to get Mala out of either her mentor-ship of Jute, or her presence at the drills you were now part of. You weren't exactly the closest in the world, but you had started to see him a little more now - even if he always seemed a little upset still, when you arrived at the drills and he was put face to face with the reality that you would be heading off to dangerous battles soon, long before he wanted you to be. Mala wasn't exactly wrong that he didn't like to bend rules, but he'd done it before to try and protect you - maybe if you played up its importance to keeping you off the battlefield by improving your skills as a doctor? You already know Mala is the best teacher you could have for keeping your mind focused. But do you value her that much? A. No, don't bother trying to secure Mala as a tutor. B. Yes, trade two treasures for her tutoring. Vote for B1-B3, not just B. B1. Starlight Scales, Reprisal Ring B2. Starlight Scales, Glacier Gloves B3. Reprisal Ring, Glacier Gloves C. Yes, try to convince Dad to get Jute a new Mentor. D. C, but try to convince Jute to join you in asking. If you fail to convince Jute, this action fails. E. Yes, try to convince Dad to let Mala stop joining drills. There were always other options than Mala. None of them were nearly as good as far as you knew, but some of them were certainly nicer. Obviously your Mentor was not one of them, nor was your Father - neither were very good at thinking skills. Your Mother was very busy almost all the time, but she was very smart, and she'd obviously had to study a lot to become as good of a doctor as she is. After all, she made up for her lacking Armament compatibility by being just That Good at the mundane side, according to... basically everyone. Jo Kul wasn't exactly an expert of mental disciplines like he was physical, but he was smart, friendly, and as long as you did some work to help him with his cooking duties, he always seemed happy to teach. There was also your friend Jute... you knew already that she was super smart, incredibly so according to many people. But you'd already asked her to help you open treasure doors, to help teach you tactics, and to help you practice with your new treasures after you found them. You'd given her an elder tier treasure of course - though without her you would have likely opened only a single door, not the three you did,, and helped her with some of her initial combat training when Mala was refusing to - but that was nearly two years ago. You hadn't really spent any time teaching her since then, pawning her off on Yash instead. Was it fair for you to ask her to teach you again, if you weren't going to reciprocate? You also could try to reciprocate it - you knew a lot more about getting stronger faster than she did. Maybe she'd be willing to teach and learn together? You weren't exactly foreign to self studying either. It wasn't the quickest way to learn, but it did mean that you wouldn't have to worry about bothering anyone else or taking up their time. It might be more efficient than having to work around someone else's schedule honestly. You'd already have to be self studying what you'd gone over in the nights... it'd just be a little more lonely to do it during the day too. F. Ask Mom to teach you when she has time in the Hospital. Some XP will go to Medicine/Alchemy as you work with her in the Hospital. G. Ask Jo Kul to teach you when he has time. Some XP will go to Cooking as you help him in the kitchens. H. Ask Jute to teach you in place of one of her self study sessions. I. Ask Jute to teach you Mental Disciple and teach her Strengthening Techniques. Some XP will go to Teaching. J. Self study. --------------------- Outside of your decision on working on your foundation, your responsibilities didn't lessen at all. You were still expected to join the hunting parties with your mentor, and with your newfound confidence in the signs and signals of battle in the Embrace, you joined the drilling classes as well. They both kept you busy, if not exactly challenged at every point in time - but they at least provided a much needed distraction from the endless studying. A chance to stretch your legs... and arms, and everything else, because you still found yourself most at home when exercising compared to when quietly reading. The hunts continued their slow decline in risk and effectiveness - where in Descending Stars you faced a third of your hunts coming up blank without anything to fight, and another third being so few or so weak that you hardly had to do anything yourself, now it felt like half the time you went out your parties found nothing. Even when you did find something, most of the time they seemed wounded or starved and barely could fight back against your overwhelming party. It certainly didn't help your party's morale either, despite nominally being a good thing - even your Mentor who had previously always seemed happy to join in hunts began to complain after the third outing in a row without a single bit of action. "I could have at least been practicing back home. Trudging out three hours away just to find out that there's nothing here? Wasting two hours confirming that?" She complained as you walked back to the Embrace, her frown cemented on her face, "At this rate, there isn't even going to be enough meat for every Warrior to get their full portion. That'll be a pain." Pav gave a solid nod to that, "They've already shifted to using more from the Garden for us. Not too much, but I noticed it the last few days. I suspect if this whole month is this lean... and next month too, well, it might even start hitting the Guardians." The first Warrior you had ever sparred against seemed level headed as usual as he spoke with your Mentor. "We might have to start going further out again..." One of the other Warriors added. "We're not going to consider camping out anytime soon. Last time we made that mistake, we lost an Armament - and it's still gone to this day." Your Mentor was severe as she scolded the idea of going out further, of camping out to get to more distant hunting grounds from the Embrace. ---------- The drills were at least a little more interesting. There were fewer actual battles than you expected, and not as much to learn about actual combat as you hoped. Instead they seemed focused on basic athleticism mixed with testing your teamwork in varieties of ways. Sometimes they were as simple as playing games that children played, but with a lot more seriousness imbued by all the adults wanting to show off their teamwork. Sometimes they were full on war games where the Warriors and Guardians were split into various teams and expected to do mock battle with each other - though without throwing real blows. Sometimes it was just being introduced to what a Guardian could do, so you'd know come time for battle. Others just standing in a line and learning to fight shoulder to shoulder with various people using various weapons without hurting each other. You already had something of a celebrity status as one of the youngest to ever join the hunts and begin the battlefield classes - though few remembered your age when seeing you. But passing into the proper drills in only three months, and with a perfect score at that had only made it worse. Half of the Warriors and about a quarter of the Guardians always wanted you on their team, and were quick to bring you into the fold. The other half of the warriors seemed to view you as something of a threat to their self worth for doing what took them much longer so quickly - as did some Guardians. And well, you weren't too privy on the other Guardian's reasons for turning their nose up at you, but you figured it was more political stuff that went over your head. Luckily between Rama and you, you were easily able to keep up in the drills even when you first joined them. It wasn't perfect, but nothing ever was - and while your Father seemed to face the idea of his failures every time he looked at you during the drills, you felt nothing but a slowly forming sense of belonging the longer you spent with the others. The Embrace was everyone's home, and they all were dedicating their lives to protect it, just like you were. It was at least comforting to know how similar you were to others. It was also time for you to come face to face with Aarav, Dawa, and to a much lesser extent Aditi for the first time since you had 'settled' your grievances with them, though they were all kept as Guardians for the sake of the goings ons instead of Warriors like you, due to their Armaments that they possessed all the time. Aarav had had his Armament for four months now, and you could already see how naturally he took to it - the boy was larger than he'd been four months ago, but more than that he was faster at the draw. Another reminder of how limiting your lack of Armament was, even if you knew he had been in the same situation for four years longer than you had thus far been. ----------------- "Isha." Aarav said it with just a small nod as you walked past him. Aditi didn't add anything to it as she stood next to Aarav, the two holding hands in the short break period for lunch. "Isha, lets spar or something. Just get me away from these two, I'm gonna vomit." Dawa was the most talkative of the three, as he groaned like he was in pain. "They've suddenly decided to take their engagement seriously." You could see a smile twitch up on Aditi's lips for just a split second - without your acute awareness and enhanced senses, you wouldn't have even noticed it. But you weren't sure why she was smiling, except perhaps because she liked her engagement, "Wait." You paused for a second as you realized something, "You're engaged?" You knew they were close, but you didn't know how close.... But all three of the teenagers looked at you like you were stupid as you asked that, Aditi answering first, "Obviously. Aarav's marriage to me was decided the moment that he was born a boy. Our family had made the deal ages before either of us were born. How did you not know that?" A pause, and then a moment of realization that was visible, "Oh. Right. I forget your family doesn't care how weak its blood gets." The girl rolled her eyes as she said that. "I'm not sure if that's better or worse than my parents pushing me to find someone." Dawa seemed the most uncomfortable of the four of you as he spoke, "They keep introducing me to people they think I'd work with, but they're all boring and weak. If they can't fight, what are we even going to do together?" "You need a hobby." Aditi was clearly not having it with Dawa, you had the feeling this topic had come up a lot. "Wait, I'm still..." You interrupted, "You were planned to get married before either of you were born?" You'd heard about some of that - about how the Koshys and other Guardian families sought other Guardian having families, or at least families who once had many Guardians in them, to try and strengthen their compatibility to Armaments. But it was still kind of foreign to you. "It's completely normal. My Father arranged for my marriage partner before my birth as well, as well as my..." A trail off as the rage filled your heart for a moment, telling you enough about who he meant, "I was meant to wed her the winter after next. I wonder what happened to her after my death. She wasn't the worst." "Get over it Isha." Aarav laughed at you as you continued to be surprised. "Give it a few years and you'll be facing your own struggles with this. Or I guess you can be like your Mentor, and just end your family line with you. Bet my parents would be happy if you did that." He said it casually, without malice, but it still kind of hurt to know that their family disliked yours that much for.... well, you didn't even know the real reason. "Anyways, get out of here before people think we're friends." Aditi was quick to cut to the point as she waved you off, "I'd prefer to eat my meals with the people I choose to be around." You knew when you weren't wanted - at least when it was made that clear. ----------- KittyEmpress fucked around with this message at 11:55 on May 23, 2022 |
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May 23, 2022 11:51
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May 23, 2022 12:30
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If we can't persuade her, just go with self training. E: switching to AF Maugrim fucked around with this message at 07:00 on May 24, 2022 |
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May 23, 2022 14:24
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AF
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May 23, 2022 15:52
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AF Mala just isn't worth it. I like Jute, we should continue to bully her into adventure, but we don't want to take up one of her time slots and it's better to have an experienced teacher instead of just a study buddy. Getting extra medicine and going for healing next Signet Month might get us the Signet for more time.
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May 23, 2022 16:11
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AF
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May 23, 2022 16:59
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Mr. Prokosch posted:AF We have a trainer at home. Mala's help was of questionable utility too, since the mental boosting interfered with our compatibility.
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May 23, 2022 20:21
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AI
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May 23, 2022 20:29
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May 23, 2022 23:11
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May 23, 2022 23:20
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AI
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May 24, 2022 00:48
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Caught up with the thread and I have to say I'm having a blast. A we don't need Mala's expensive teachings. F we need to spend more time with our mother, and additional medicine knowledge always help
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May 24, 2022 03:41
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Changed my vote above. I'm reminded that studying healing may get us more signet time so the option that lets us do both is very appealing (and our mother is awesome anyway)
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May 24, 2022 07:02
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D, Mala's an unpleasant and untrustworthy person but a good teacher, having some friction wouldn't be bad for the timeskip story, and if we can get Jute a mentor who doesn't despise her, win-win. F if A wins (extremely likely!) or we fail.
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May 24, 2022 07:04
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C it keeps Jute from being poisoned by someone hostile and is possibly a good thing for her to get a teacher who’d give a bit more of a gently caress about her, and I think Dad would agree, even if not openly F The signet is our foundation after all
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May 24, 2022 07:05
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C F
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May 24, 2022 19:40
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Nakulian Year 6239, Ascending Moon Mala Approach Vote: 1d37 17 - A, ignoring Mala wins with 31 votes, to no surprise. How To Study Mental Discipline: 1d37 15 - F, Mom wins with exactly 15 votes. Your Mom was always busy, to the point where she rarely had time to train herself - so there was basically no chance of you being able to get designated study time with her. Even with all her love for you, her duties as healer came first and that meant that you would have to go to her. Still, you didn't exactly mind the idea of helping out at the hospital - there was always plenty of benefit to getting better at medicine, and the medics were amongst the nicest people in the Embrace when it came to interacting with you. And she was always happy to have the help, even if it came at a 'cost' - one you're fairly sure she didn't mind any more so than you did. Luckily for you, the infrequent injuries during hunts due to the relative lack of Farbeasts recently meant that the Hospital was not nearly as busy as it could have been. About half the time you are present, your Mother has the time to instruct you - and she's not even completely exhausted every time she does. Your Mother isn't as knowledgeable on how the mind works as Mala, nor as trained in the topic of keeping it disciplined and focused... but she's a much better teacher, at least. She's patient and easily understandable, she easily corrects your mistakes and understand where you lost track. The only real flaws are that she lacks the time to make a proper plan when teaching you like how Jo Kul always seemed to have, and that you still had plenty of minor injuries and sicknesses to tend to as medics between when you could study. At the very least, her words and direction gave you a good place to start working when self studying at night. Rama was far from useful for this sort of situation, though he no longer went completely quiet as you studied things he had no interest in. Mostly because he could no longer 'disappear' like he once would - with your newfound bonding of souls, whenever you were aware, so was he. So he at least acted as a sounding board, despite the fact that you already seemed to be more advanced than him in this method of study focusing. It also provided you ample time to improve your skill with medicine, something you knew would be important once the Signet was once again in your hands in a few months. You had started to practice healing with it last year, but weren't quite at a level where your Mother could allow you to take over her duties for even a little while. But you'd improved a lot at working in the Hospital in the last few months, and felt very secure as you came to another realization; What realization did you come to? A. Signet Healer (Talent) (Unlocked by Healer + Signet Healing Technique) - Under your Mother's expertise as the most knowledgeable person for the signet's unique madra, your experience utilizing her technique, and your focus on becoming a healer instead of a doctor, you may use the Signet's healing techniques an additional 2% cheaper per Medicine rank up to hard cap of 90%. This provides no benefit to any other form of magical healing. (Current benefit: 50% -> 70%) B. Healer's Hands (Talent) - By focusing on how to use medicine to assist the healing process, you're better able to stretch even the most minute of benefits to be greater over time. Medicine 'soft cap' improves to rank 15, halving up to rank 20. Small reminder on Medicine rules text: Reduces the cost of all forms of powered healing by 5% per rank up to rank 10, half per rank after until rank 15. C. Aim For The Heart (Talent) - Despite their wondrous powers, most Farbeasts still are alive in much the same way a person is. By utilizing your knowledge of anatomy you can better deliver crippling and killing blows, increasing your combat effectiveness based on your Medicine score. D. Take Them Alive (Talent) - Drawing on your knowledge of the body, you can more easily figure out ways to defeat opponents without killing them, pushing them to their limits but never beyond it. Helps prevent accidental kills, aids in capturing opponents alive. E. Vital Defense (Talent) - You know where you can survive being hit, and where you can't. By using that knowledge a little more proactively, you can reduce the severity of some of your wounds by sacrificing less important areas. F. Doctor (Extreme Specialty) - You have only scratched the surface of the medics knowledge despite your months of training. By refocusing on more advanced mundane techniques you can greatly increase your ability to treat wounds without magical healing, including difficult surgeries. ------------- Even with the reduced amount of time to train, and you trying to balance two fighting styles at once between your hammer and your fists, the ease at which you wielded the hammer meant it was inevitable that any exposure to the battlefield, real or simulated, would bring you to your next realization. You could feel the moment mid fight with the large chanting mantis-hare when you just knew how to get past its terrifying guard with your heavy weapon. You sent it flying into the tree behind it with a sickening crunch as the realizations of Rama mixed with your own. Which insight did Isha gain for her hammer? H. Shell Shattering (Talent) - (Enhanced by Ogre's Club + Giant's Blows) - Opponents with thick armor were one of the most dangerous things for those wielding smaller, sharper weapons. A hammer could blow through those thick shells easily. Each successful attack reduces enemy armor. All weapons ignore some armor. I. Lightning's Hammer (Talent) - (Unlocked by Lightning's Heir) - The greatest weakness of your hammer is how slow it is - both you and Rama focus on powerful blows, be they sweeping to harm many, or crushing to break a single person. You don't spend much time with your Father, but his lessons on speed still ring true, and you push yourself to be faster with your weapon. J. Swing The Bat (Talent) - (Unlocked by Swarm Swatter) - Launching enemies into terrain is fun, but launching them into each other is far more useful on a battlefield. Sending many foes flying into many other foes who could be out of reach can turn the tide of a battle. K. Loose Stance (Talent) - (Unlocked by Destructive Body Style) - The hammer demands a rigid stance fully planted on the ground to direct its full force - this doesn't allow you much use of your legs for attacks or defense while using it to the full capacity. By loosening your stance you lose some power to your hammer, but greatly improve the ability to mix your two fighting styles. Rama gained: Squad Crusher (Talent) - Furthering the ideals of the one man army, Rama charges ahead of his men to handle whole squadrons alone, utilizing their formations to crush them all the quicker. Increase area damage of Swarm Swatter, small general boost when fighting while outnumbered. Skill Gains for Ascending Moon Mental Discipline (Timeskip Focus): +661xp, raising to rank 9 Medicine +48xp, raising to rank 10 and unlocking second evolution. Alchemy + 166xp, raising to rank 6 (overflow from capped Medicine) Hunting+Drilling Tracking +30xp Tactics +48xp raising to rank 9 Unmoving, Untouchable +68xp Lightning's Heir +67xp Destructive Body Style +36xp Hammer +29xp, raising to rank 10 and unlocking second evolution + Rama's second talent. Danger Sense +33xp Ranged Defense +30xp Multiple Opponents +27xp Nakulian Year 6239, Ascending/Apex Moon Your birthday was a quiet affair, a little more so than usual now that your Uncle was also gone. The only people who come to visit you are your Mentor and Jute - as well as, obviously, your parents. Jo Kul doesn't show his face, but each of your meals is paired with a semi precious treat - sugar was a valuable commodity in the Embrace, and often hidden away to be given as rewards to those of lower social standings than you. Where you would receive imbued equipment or access to a teacher for a good deed, a laborer might receive a sweet cake or a warm sweet drink. This year you got to enjoy three, one sweet with each of the meals sent to you. It otherwise goes quietly. --------- Nakulian Year 6239, Apex Moon The only big incident in your entire time at the hospital was a single sparring 'accident' - but it wasn't a pretty one. You weren't sure what inspired it, but Haimi had accepted a duel for the first time in a long time - and it hadn't turned out pretty for the other person. It was just like the signs of a hunt, but on a human being now - you walked into the room the duel had been in to find the floor painted with frozen blood as your mother held down the carotid on the twitching young woman - Dipta still held firmly onto the Eternally Falling Avalanche Lance with one of her hands, even as she shook. [SIZE=1]"This is why I said no."[/SIZE] Was all you heard from Haimi as the blood covered woman pushed out of the room without a second glance. Your Mother was too busy to stop her, and no other Guardians were present in the room - meaning that everyone else gave her a very large distance between them. Luckily for everyone, the wound wasn't quite as serious as it seemed at first - at least not for someone as senior as Dipta. You knew well that Guardians who had entered the pure stage and beyond were able to survive things normal humans couldn't - and you were very glad of it in this instance. ---- "She knows better than to let people provoke her." You could hear your Mother talking on the other side of the door as you walked towards the Hospital. She seemed stressed. "She does, but reminding them of why she isn't to be provoked isn't all bad, Hansa." You recognized that voice as your sometimes-teacher! Jo Kul and your Mother were apparently acquainted... and Rama's silent urging for you to stay and listen made you not interrupt, "Besides, this is partially your family's fault to begin with." "Wha-" You could hear your Mother's tone shift, but she hadn't even raised her voice. Still she caught her self and spoke in a more level tone, "I mean, how is this our fault?" "I'm not blaming you, Hansa. But when Haimi volunteered to help Isha learn to hunt, your family's enemies became hers. She had to establish why it's a bad idea to do that." You can feel the older man's annoyance with the situation in how he huffs. "Don't blame the girl for it." "She still could have killed Dipta - that wouldn't have made anything better for anyone here." "She could have. Easily. She knows what's going to kill and what wont, Hansa. We both know that. They wanted to intimidate her into keeping neutral. She scared them instead. It'll be fine." "Lets hope it's not the start of anything worse." You hadn't really realized how much your getting close to people could affect them. The idea that Haimi was pressed into a fight for your sake was a little uncomfortable... but there wasn't anything you could do about it. ---------- As hunting got more and more sparse even in just the span of a month, you soon found yourself returning to the Embrace with a fruitless expedition two out of three times you left in the week. It was exhausting - and more than that, it meant the quality of food was going down. The Garden was plentiful and fully capable of supporting every member of the Embrace now that it had been improved with the cornucopia crystals taken from the secondary Garden Aarav found... but what it grew lacked for what you and the other Guardians needed. You could feel it perhaps more keenly due to your self mastery, but you weren't quite as quick on the uptake - everything felt ever so subtly... off. It was just barely there, but it was concerning. Concerning enough that one session of drilling broke into a full blown argument at lunch. "We need to start going further out for our hunts then!" Rohan was at the head of the argument, though with how Aarav's mother and him had been speaking just before he raised his voice... "Only one person has been injured by a Farbeast in the last two weeks while hunting. It's not as if we are heading out in the middle of a warzone." "Rohan, I understand your frustration." Your Father tried to calm the argument, but everyone was arguing now. People who wanted to go for longer hunts, those who wanted others to go for them but didn't want to have to leave their families, and those who agreed with your Father, "But we all know why we stopped scavenging outside of the Embrace. An entire Armament, and eleven warriors were lost the last time we believed it was quiet enough and that we could find more." "That was years before any of us were even born, Jai." Guarav was happy to argue back, "And they made that decision to keep us safe - but we need to make a decision to keep us prepared. We cannot be heading into the season of Sun without food stores - and we cannot head into the season of Void eating like this. Our enemies would tear us apart if they came like last year and we were all weakened." "I don't want to risk that, when my daughter needs me." Seema, mentor to Rati and mother to a young girl whom you had helped test the compatibility of before spoke up, "I don't care what you do, Guarav, but only those who volunteer should have to go on these hunts. It's not a risk I will take." "We all need to come together. It's our duties as Guardians to do things like this. Our predecessors errors were having only one Guardian per group. We've corrected that, but we could be even safer." Yash was the youngest Guardian, but you could see he was determined to voice his opinion, "If we take combine what would normally be two hunting parties into one, it'd be safer. We would be able to bring back more, have night watches. What are the chances any Farbeast could ambush four Guardians?" The argument went back and forth - your Father wanted to keep everyone safely nearby. Guarav's group wanted to make extended expeditions to create preparations for later. Middle grounds existed - those that wanted volunteers to be able to do it, those that wanted only the most senior Guardians to go, those who wanted to keep such expeditions larger to prevent tragedies like before. Did you voice an opinion? L. Agree with Dad - Losing access to high quality food and feeling weaker is better than potentially dying. M. Allow volunteers to go out for extended hunts overnight. N. Allow only senior Guardians to go out for overnight hunts. O. Allow extended hunts, with double hunting party size (4 guardians 12 warriors on average) P. O, but only those who expressly volunteer. Q. Agree with Guarav - for the good of the Embrace, hunting should become extended trips for everyone. R. No, I keep my mouth shut for once.
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May 25, 2022 08:37
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AHP Double sized group of volunteers sounds right, and we need to push further out. Further stagnation is death.
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May 25, 2022 09:13
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AKR Sometimes it's good to hang back and let others make the decisions, even if they're the wrong ones.
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May 25, 2022 09:23
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A I P
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May 25, 2022 09:46
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CKP I don’t think undermining our father is in our families best interest
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May 25, 2022 09:49
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CJR
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May 25, 2022 10:04
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AHR Let's train for the BIG problems. Smaller Farbeasts with less protection are easier to deal with, even if there are more of them. Also, let's not barge in discussions that are over our head, for once.
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May 25, 2022 10:47
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EJP
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May 25, 2022 12:27
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A H P
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May 25, 2022 13:02
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AHO
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May 25, 2022 14:36
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CKR
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May 25, 2022 15:08
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This
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May 25, 2022 15:21
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CHR I feel like our relation with dad could be better, and we are not knowledgeable enough on this to really speak up I feel.
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May 25, 2022 15:25
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CHP
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May 25, 2022 17:29
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A K What's Rama's take on the situation? How would he lead troops on missions like this?
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May 25, 2022 18:44
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FHR
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May 26, 2022 03:01
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Nakulian Year 6239, Apex Moon Medicine Evolution Vote: 1d37 7 - A, Signet Healer wins with 17 votes Big push right at the end for doctor, but this was still the majority vote. Your Mom was easily able to show you what the Signet did easily, and what it struggled with - how it could seamlessly generate blood in those who had lost too much, but struggled to regrow bone without proper preparation. Her relatively low compatibility meant that she seemed to know every place where she would need to save energy, and every way she could do so. You paid a lot of attention to these lessons - lessons she'd never given to any of the other Medics. After all, you would one day be the Healer for the Embrace, wielding the Signet Ring Of Nakul's Eternal Life in your own hands. And while you knew you were of higher compatibility than your Mother, she had many years of practice mastering the healing powers of the ring - your own technique was wild and wasteful in comparison to hers. Hammer Evolution Vote: 1d37 5 - H, Shell Shatterer wins with 9 votes You already had a fighting style for facing fast opponents who could dodge around you. You may have lacked a ranged style, but you had the speed to close distances easily. You didn't need to blend everything together - sometimes letting go of your weapon was the right choice. So you pushed yourself further into your biggest strength - namely your strength. You didn't need the hammer to destroy an agile foe who could dodge around you like Aditi - you needed it to break open the enemies your fists weren't strong enough. To shatter the shells of the great beasts that broke the spears of the Warriors on its back without wounds. Whatever you swung against, you left cracks - you shattered your enemies iron skin and left their soft insides exposed for others and yourself. You were a one woman wrecking ball, even the walls and floors of the Embrace shuttered against your strength, healing notably slower from the 'wounds' you give it during your practice. --------- Hunting Speech Vote: 1d38 25 - R, keeping quiet wins with 22 votes You hold your breath and just... hope no one asks you anything as the debate rages on. It wastes an entire second half of the day of sparring - and a decision isn't even made before the end. Instead your Father simply asks the others to continue observing the situation, and that it's unlikely the Farbeasts will continue to be such rarities in the months to come, and that if anything they are likely just gathering their numbers. That at least gets some agreement from those who were against him - quiet seasons never lasted forever, after all. ------------ You can definitely feel the difference through the month though. Whether it was the two extra weeks you spent helping in the hospital, your time with Jo Kul, or the work you did in the drills and while hunting - you just felt sluggish. There was a general malaise around most of the Guardians indeed - no one was unhealthy, but no one was at their peak and you could tell. You could tell it was slowing you down compared to before - literally and figuratively. You didn't feel quite as quick, quite as strong, nor did you feel like you were grasping things as easily as before. "Like you've been learning, eating food rich in madras - properly - makes your body better. My people used to use madra farmers to create special foods our servants could harvest and make to keep us stronger. Hunting was a secondary source only. But obviously for your people the only option is to hunt." "Should I have tried to convince Dad to let people go hunt more, then?" Rama had gone along with you without complaint before, when you chose not to question your Father so publicly. "Your Father was in the right for the sake of safety. He made the choice to not take unknown risks. That said, avoiding too much risk leads to stagnation. Life is only ever improved by taking risks on it. Hopefully he is correct, and this is only temporary though." "Would you want to go on those extended hunts if we could?" The idea sort of appealed to you - it would mean more time out in actual nature... where you knew Essence was overflowing, unlike in the Embrace where it all seemed to be absorbed or made into madra. "The only place I would be interested in going is to find my family's palace. But it was weeks away. Otherwise you may do as you see fit. With your unsleeping nature, you would make an excellent night sentry - I had several sentries trained in techniques to stay awake like you myself, for longer campaigns." ----------------- After a month and a half with your Mother, you finally felt like you had learned as much as you could from her. She still had more to teach, but the concepts just flew out of your mind as you tried to grasp them - it made sense, but it didn't at the same time. You just couldn't manage to focus enough to take in the more advanced lessons she wanted to teach you. Still, you could feel how much you had improved in that time - even with the general malaise from the change in diet, you felt like you were learning faster than ever. Your mind was honed and focused and you were; A. Expanded Understandings (Talent) - You were reaching the limits of how far you could improve your understanding in many important things - and you knew that meant you had to expand your general understanding, like how Jute had done. Mental stat experience gain improves by 5% per rank (to 10%). B. More Studious (Talent) - (Unlocked by Studious) You had many things you needed to study, ands so little time to do so. But by pushing yourself even harder to expand your understanding, you knew you'd know more in time. Mental skill experience gain improves by 3% per rank (to 8%) C. Star Student (Talent) - You have had many great teachers over time, and have greatly improved your ability to understand their lessons through focusing your studying efforts on how to better learn from others. All skill experience gained 1 on 1 from teachers improved by 3% per rank. Has no effect on self studying (such as night actions) or group actions such as hunting/drilling/etc. D. Lonely Student (Talent) - For years you have spent every night alone, improving yourself without the guidance from someone else. With only books to teach you. You've gotten very good at it. All skill experience from self studying actions improved by 3% per rank. Has no effect on tutored actions or group actions. E. Mental Wall (Talent) - By practicing how to keep yourself aware and studious in the most boring of lessons, you've managed to gain insight on keeping actual attacks from breaking through your awareness. Provides a boost to Mental defenses, scales on Mental Discipline ranks. F. Write In Talent ---------------- With the difficulties of finding good ingredients, working with Jo Kul in the second half of the month came with its own struggles - specifically in that he actually required assistance when doing his cooking, rather than simply needing you to fetch things for him. The meals he made were far more elaborate now, as he tried to wring minute amount of essence out of the Garden's materials, to bolster the effects of the bits of meat you and other hunters had managed to provide. The work seemed stressful to you, and the man was shorter with his words than usual, even as he tried to teach you while you helped him. Luckily the month and a half you had just spent with your Mother left you more than ready to study under Jo Kul in these situations. You were learning quickly - even picking up things you didn't mean to memorize, such as which ingredients would go good to what dish and his short explanations why. You were a sponge ready to soak up the man's knowledge. Indeed by the end of the three weeks you weren't a half bad assistant to the man. G. Self-Aware Cooking (Talent) - (Unlocked by Mastery of Self) Your self awareness of your body's needs means you are the best person to satiate them. You may add your Mastery of Self ranks to your cooking skills for any meals made for yourself. H. Preserved Meals (Talent) - Jo Kul had told you in the past that his specialty in cooking lie in preparing fresh meals - not the sort of preserved camping meals you made when spending nights in the outer Embrace without coming back for an entire day. You could specialize in such yourself. I. Freshness Guaranteed (Talent) - Following in your mentor's steps, you specialize in the art of making fresh food to maximize essence absorption by the body. Meal effects improved, but decay quicker over time. J. Frugal Cook (Talent) (Synergizes with Frugal Alchemist) - In the current shortage of Farbeast Meat, you need to stretch as few ingredients as far as you can. Allows you to make more food with less ingredients. K. Write In Talent You haven't interacted with cooking at all due to your station as being cooked for, but good meals provide a bonus to everything - strength, speed, xp gain, etc. The higher your cooking skill, the higher the maximum effect is, though limited by stuff like good enough ingredients. --------------------- The drills provided a great place to train your ability to fight multiple enemies at once. Indeed, it was one of the things you were, in fact, drilled in. How to fight on your own, as well as how to fight as a team against one enemy. It was important for you to know these things because on the battlefield you rarely had equal numbers. Where most people struggled with fighting multiple enemies at once, you had Rama with you - and through him, the skill was already like second nature. You could keep track of everyone easily, you could position yourself to make your foes unable to gang up on you at once, you instinctually knew the best way to prevent their advantages. It still was harder to fight two than one, and harder to fight three than two - and so on. But it wasn't so difficult that you couldn't handle it. You were thankful for the time you spent fighting with Kanti, Rati, and Avha before, because it made you well aware of the type of tactics that a well prepared group could use to make openings for one another. K. Intimidating Destruction (Talent) - (Unlocked by Destroying the Advantage) - Groups have many advantages, but they have a disadvantage as well - by crushing the weakest link you've already become able to sniff out thoroughly enough, you can destroy the morale of those remaining. L. Two Minds (Talent) - (Unlocked by Two Souls as One) - Isha and Rama are a group of their own, and with their increased closeness they are better able to make use of this by having the inactive mind track additional enemies. Negates penalties versus two opponents, greatly reduces penalties when facing more numerous opponents. M. Makeshift Cohesion Crusher (Talent) - Not all groups are as trained to work together as the ones you've faced - Farbeasts rarely possess much actual practice at helping each other in a fight. They get in each others way, they lose chances to each other, and you can take advantage of that. Greatly improves abilities versus less trainer groups. N. Many Armed Defense (Talent) - Putting all your effort in learning to defend from many enemies at once, you become an impenetrable defense when needed, each limb tying up another opponent's weapons. Greatly improves defenses against multiple opponents. O. Write in Talent Skill Gains for Apex Moon -5% xp to all actions due to lack of high quality meals. Mental Discipline +169xp, raising to rank 10 and gaining second evolution Alchemy +161xp, raising to rank 7 Mastery of Self +502xp raising to rank 8 Cooking +226 xp raising to rank 6 and gaining first evolution. Tactics +63xp Tracking +53xp Unmoving, Untouchable +48xp Stealth +36xp, raising to rank 5 (talent delayed because too many votes as is.) Lightning's Heir +32xp Danger Sense +28xp Destructive Body Style +27xp Ranged Defense +27xp Multiple Opponents +2xp, raising to rank 10, gaining second evolution. Overflow 38xp becomes Cohesion (Extreme), rank 1. Nakulian Year 6239, Descending Moon As you enter the third month of the season of the Moon, you know you have to make a decision - the obvious choices for what to use to make up your foundation were covered, and though you'd love to study them more, you simply couldn't. You knew that you needed to cultivate your mind to expand your understanding before you could - which left you with a decision to make. What did you want to be part of the foundation you build upon, beyond those? P. My Speed and Reactions - Father always taught you that a single second was the difference between life and death. What better to include into the foundation of who you are? Q. My Combat Style - You had spent months developing your own style of combat, every limb used in concert with minimal movement and maximum force. Surely they should be part of you. R. My Skill as a Hunter - Though you only learned of it recently, you now know the value of good trackers and hunters. Especially if you were to begin going further out, you'd want those skills to be ingrained into you. S. My ability to Create - Through alchemy and cooking you have learned to make something useful out of nothing. Rama has told you of potions with great potency from his past, and Jo Kul the value of meals... perhaps they could become a foundation to build upon. KittyEmpress fucked around with this message at 02:57 on May 27, 2022 |
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May 27, 2022 02:53
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EGLP
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May 27, 2022 03:25
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Mr. Prokosch posted:EGLP This seems like a pro plan
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May 27, 2022 03:42
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Mr. Prokosch posted:EGLP Shinarato posted:This seems like a pro plan +1
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May 27, 2022 04:16
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 01:17 |
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E J L P
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May 27, 2022 04:36
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