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Post by cajun on Feb 11, 2022 10:57:47 GMT
Zero steps through the veil, and finds herself in a similar shop, yet one that is only halfway abandoned. Strewn about the shop are various casting materials, products, and alarms, such as a dingo on its side, or an alligator on the ceiling, with one of its nails loose, or a bass on the wall, more despondent than ever. Wormwood herself is behind a counter, having just stopped dragging another taxidermied alligator at the sight of Zero's planeswalk. "The prototype angel finally sees fit to descend upon us." With a mock professional smile, she hauls the work onto the counter, and dusts off her apron. She may not be in full protective dress, but as Zero can see, Lettie's belt and coat are bristling with potions and tools. "I assume the shining construct before was your work, so let us dispense with all pretense." She stops suppressing her snarl of disdain, and her fingers trail miasma as she slams a hand on the alligator. "Pretense, after all," she all but spits, "cost me so many opportunities before, but now all my affairs are in order, save for naming my heir. So, let's not—"
Lettie begins her attack in the middle of her sentence, animating every alarm strewn about the shop that could possibly harm or impede Zero. One alligator leaps from the counter, as another drops from the ceiling; the dingo scrambles to its feet, before jumping for Zero's sword arm, and after a few moments, a leopard's skin and an elk's skeleton will seek to tackle Zero to the ground. "...waste any more time."
Planted Diversion Enchantment When Planted Diversion enters the battlefield, you gain 7 life. , Sacrifice Planted Diversion: Target creature gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. //Here's some life to pay, and some Cover for later.
We All Fall Down — This becomes more efficient as you kick it due to the manner in which symmetric modal costs scale with repetition. With that in mind, the kicking not being exactly tied to game progression is also a reason to take points off. 7/10
A rift opens in the leaping alligator's path. Zero reaches in and spins, inexpertly lobbing a knife at Lettie. Her fist clenches and meets the dingo heavily in the stomach. [Combatant Alligator crawling from the floor. Combatant Cat in motion. Combatant Skeleton taking a step. Combatant Wormwood location unknown. Primary target combatant Cat.] Another rift between her and elk, though that trick's unlikely to work twice. She rips her sword across the aether and across the leopard. [Integrity of constructs unknown. Combatant Dog temporarily disabled. Combatant Cat temporarily disabled. Combatant Alligator approaching. Combatant Skeleton finding a path. Combatant Wormwood location unknown. Primary target combatant Alligator.] Heavy is the Head Instant Target creature gets +7/+7 until end of turn unless an opponent torments themself. If they do, it gets +3/+3 instead. (They lose 3 life unless they discard a card or sacrifice a nonland permanent.) Planted Diversion - the on board counterspell of this is unfortunate, especially at common. it at least needs a decent amount floating around to do it. 8/10
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Post by test on Feb 12, 2022 3:34:43 GMT
A rift opens in the leaping alligator's path. Zero reaches in and spins, inexpertly lobbing a knife at Lettie. Her fist clenches and meets the dingo heavily in the stomach. [Combatant Alligator crawling from the floor. Combatant Cat in motion. Combatant Skeleton taking a step. Combatant Wormwood location unknown. Primary target combatant Cat.] Another rift between her and elk, though that trick's unlikely to work twice. She rips her sword across the aether and across the leopard. [Integrity of constructs unknown. Combatant Dog temporarily disabled. Combatant Cat temporarily disabled. Combatant Alligator approaching. Combatant Skeleton finding a path. Combatant Wormwood location unknown. Primary target combatant Alligator.] Heavy is the Head Instant Target creature gets +7/+7 until end of turn unless an opponent torments themself. If they do, it gets +3/+3 instead. (They lose 3 life unless they discard a card or sacrifice a nonland permanent.) Planted Diversion - the on board counterspell of this is unfortunate, especially at common. it at least needs a decent amount floating around to do it. 8/10
Zero's throw is telegraphed enough that Lettie is able to warp the wood of the countertop and flip it into the knife's path; the knife is lodged in the transmuted shield, and everything else that was stored on top of it at the time, from potions to poisons, clatters to the ground. An unhealthy mix of vapours is rising in front of the barricade that was once the counter, and with Lettie behind it, Zero seems to have lost track of her.
Meanwhile, Lettie cycles through her alarms, and is unsurprised to see them unable to threaten Zero. The alligators and elk skeleton are fine, but the leopard skin is in tatters, and the wiring of the dingo has been snapped at the midsection. A few moments longer and they will all be destroyed, so now is the time to make use of Zero's preoccupation before this opportunity is also lost. "You were never this silent Proto, not even when you slaughtered Kaira... what about you five? I know you all remain there, though I doubt there is much you can do to speak to me."
In the following pause, Lettie draws a corrosive vial, and tosses it around the side of the barricade, her aim aided by the perspectives of her alarms; it will burst into a cloud now familiar to Zero, though of somewhat smaller scale in order to account for the enclosed space, and the alarms will attempt to stop Zero from escaping. Should the attack fail, Lettie continues, "I can only imagine what it must be like, to be trapped within this broken fool, forced to watch as she abuses the power stolen from each of you. If you help me destroy her, at least your suffering can end." As she speaks, Zero's biological scans might alert her to life appearing all around her, as the shop begins to creak in time with a slowly beating heart.Lettie has spent 100 valor to unlock Scavenge.
Dire Shrew Creature — Mole Beast Deathtouch Scavenge (Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to this card's power on target creature. Scavenge only as a sorcery.)2/1 //Without knowing what kind of evasion we're up against, we can use this to indicate an indifference for P/T. We'll call this the way to win against another tall strategy, and boost the Duck. Heavy is the Head — ...which wears the crown. I like the flavour of this one, though the punisher acts more as a conditional on whether or not the attacking creature can be blocked at all; if it can be, there are more efficient combat tricks. However, on an evasive creature/clock, it can easily become an interesting decision. 8/10
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Post by cajun on Feb 12, 2022 5:26:50 GMT
Zero's throw is telegraphed enough that Lettie is able to warp the wood of the countertop and flip it into the knife's path; the knife is lodged in the transmuted shield, and everything else that was stored on top of it at the time, from potions to poisons, clatters to the ground. An unhealthy mix of vapours is rising in front of the barricade that was once the counter, and with Lettie behind it, Zero seems to have lost track of her.
Meanwhile, Lettie cycles through her alarms, and is unsurprised to see them unable to threaten Zero. The alligators and elk skeleton are fine, but the leopard skin is in tatters, and the wiring of the dingo has been snapped at the midsection. A few moments longer and they will all be destroyed, so now is the time to make use of Zero's preoccupation before this opportunity is also lost. "You were never this silent Proto, not even when you slaughtered Kaira... what about you five? I know you all remain there, though I doubt there is much you can do to speak to me."
In the following pause, Lettie draws a corrosive vial, and tosses it around the side of the barricade, her aim aided by the perspectives of her alarms; it will burst into a cloud now familiar to Zero, though of somewhat smaller scale in order to account for the enclosed space, and the alarms will attempt to stop Zero from escaping. Should the attack fail, Lettie continues, "I can only imagine what it must be like, to be trapped within this broken fool, forced to watch as she abuses the power stolen from each of you. If you help me destroy her, at least your suffering can end." As she speaks, Zero's biological scans might alert her to life appearing all around her, as the shop begins to creak in time with a slowly beating heart.Lettie has spent 100 valor to unlock Scavenge.
Dire Shrew Creature — Mole Beast Deathtouch Scavenge (Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to this card's power on target creature. Scavenge only as a sorcery.)2/1 //Without knowing what kind of evasion we're up against, we can use this to indicate an indifference for P/T. We'll call this the way to win against another tall strategy, and boost the Duck. Heavy is the Head — ...which wears the crown. I like the flavour of this one, though the punisher acts more as a conditional on whether or not the attacking creature can be blocked at all; if it can be, there are more efficient combat tricks. However, on an evasive creature/clock, it can easily become an interesting decision. 8/10
Zero fires herself into the elk skeleton, damaging all the bones and floorboards getting in her way. One by one the combatants fell, and her movements began catching back up. "What is there to talk about?" she asks. "You want me dead. I'm here to return that message."
She catches a glint of the vial and rips open a wide rift to catch it. Nulien would have to forgive her.
"And do it myself, instead of using a pirate or an old man or a little girl to do your dirty work for you."
"I can only imagine what it must be like, to be trapped within this broken fool, forced to watch as she abuses the power stolen from each of you. If you help me destroy her, at least your suffering can end."
I don't know about you lot but I'm partial to living. Is this living? Might be. We're here aren't we? Maybe we can still get back. What do you think, science guy? We've had our chance, let us just have our peace already. I want to hear from the science guy! I am not sure... our bodies are likely not retained but surely we could create androids of our own. See, we've got a chance. I don't want it. Well I do! I've got a husband to get back to! I would certainly not turn down the ability to try... Cara, honey?
"Will you all just stop talking!" Zero shouts as the biological readings creep upwards.
Sorcery The controller of target permanent may torment themselves three times. If they don't, you gain control of that permanent. (To torment, they lose 3 life unless they discard a card or sacrifice a nonland permanent.) Dire Shrew - looking good 9/10
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Post by test on Feb 12, 2022 7:10:39 GMT
Zero fires herself into the elk skeleton, damaging all the bones and floorboards getting in her way. One by one the combatants fell, and her movements began catching back up. "What is there to talk about?" she asks. "You want me dead. I'm here to return that message."
She catches a glint of the vial and rips open a wide rift to catch it. Nulien would have to forgive her.
"And do it myself, instead of using a pirate or an old man or a little girl to do your dirty work for you."
"I can only imagine what it must be like, to be trapped within this broken fool, forced to watch as she abuses the power stolen from each of you. If you help me destroy her, at least your suffering can end."
I don't know about you lot but I'm partial to living. Is this living? Might be. We're here aren't we? Maybe we can still get back. What do you think, science guy? We've had our chance, let us just have our peace already. I want to hear from the science guy! I am not sure... our bodies are likely not retained but surely we could create androids of our own. See, we've got a chance. I don't want it. Well I do! I've got a husband to get back to! I would certainly not turn down the ability to try... Cara, honey?
"Will you all just stop talking!" Zero shouts as the biological readings creep upwards.
Sorcery The controller of target permanent may torment themselves three times. If they don't, you gain control of that permanent. (To torment, they lose 3 life unless they discard a card or sacrifice a nonland permanent.) Dire Shrew - looking good 9/10
"And what right have you to silence them?" Lettie snaps, oblivious to the fact that the sparks are disinterested in her offer. "Unlike you, I have never seen fit to involve innocent children, so I can't imagine what you refer to by that. The others, however, were not innocent." Lettie notes that Zero's rifts are fast enough for projectiles to be ineffective weapons. However, Zero is also placing a great deal of pressure on the flooring for her attacks. The creaking heart grows louder, and the floorboards themselves refuse to support Zero's weight, and instead seek to wrap around and immobilize her.
"Did you think I had conjured them from nothing? I did wish to help Lysenda, but my previous hireling had only worsened the situation, at which point I sent you after the most likely suspect in her disease. As for the pirate, she was a necromancer, who was already sacking entire settlements on the coast! I had hired entire battalions to fight her off, but she only took it as a challenge, and every mercenary was slaughtered and raised. Only when I realized such battles were hopeless had I thought to involve you for the next!"
Miasma creeps from between the floorboards, and soaks into the remains of the alarms, which disintegrate, and reform into a fae almost as tall as Zero, that has shrouded itself in the skins of many lives stolen, save for its gleaming eyes and long talons, by which it hopes to tear Zero's false skin. Lettie herself is starting to shout now, "Don't you see? I thought Lysanda could have been saved, that necromancer could have been defeated, or at least you could have been destroyed! Instead, you failed in both tasks, yet you somehow persisted!"
Lettie has spent 100 valor to increase her mana value limit to 10.
//Tactical Imperator
//It's a shame Lettie already played aristocrats. We're a control pile, so we'll continue using our anti-aggro lifegain to slow this down
I'll Be Taking That — It's an odd sort of gold which is a punisher between its colours. I think this is just slightly too efficient though on torment side (which can easily be outpaced by the alternative against some decks, hence why punisher doesn't mitigate it much); my first guess would have something like 4 mv, though it's debatable. 8/10
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Post by cajun on Feb 13, 2022 0:33:48 GMT
"And what right have you to silence them?" Lettie snaps, oblivious to the fact that the sparks are disinterested in her offer. "Unlike you, I have never seen fit to involve innocent children, so I can't imagine what you refer to by that. The others, however, were not innocent." Lettie notes that Zero's rifts are fast enough for projectiles to be ineffective weapons. However, Zero is also placing a great deal of pressure on the flooring for her attacks. The creaking heart grows louder, and the floorboards themselves refuse to support Zero's weight, and instead seek to wrap around and immobilize her.
"Did you think I had conjured them from nothing? I did wish to help Lysenda, but my previous hireling had only worsened the situation, at which point I sent you after the most likely suspect in her disease. As for the pirate, she was a necromancer, who was already sacking entire settlements on the coast! I had hired entire battalions to fight her off, but she only took it as a challenge, and every mercenary was slaughtered and raised. Only when I realized such battles were hopeless had I thought to involve you for the next!"
Miasma creeps from between the floorboards, and soaks into the remains of the alarms, which disintegrate, and reform into a fae almost as tall as Zero, that has shrouded itself in the skins of many lives stolen, save for its gleaming eyes and long talons, by which it hopes to tear Zero's false skin. Lettie herself is starting to shout now, "Don't you see? I thought Lysanda could have been saved, that necromancer could have been defeated, or at least you could have been destroyed! Instead, you failed in both tasks, yet you somehow persisted!"
Lettie has spent 100 valor to increase her mana value limit to 10.
//Tactical Imperator
Zero hid behind her rift for the moment. Getting to Wormwood wouldn't be much of an issue, but not walking into a deathtrap was a different issue. She gently set down her sword and reached for the rift.
"Never involve a child, right," Zero taunts. Her voice changes, still keeping its robotic tone, but now changed to the voice of a little girl. "She told me ‘Spark Labs is the enemy, and to help Zero, you would have to break her again.’"
"She said she was trying to help, but I should have known it was just your poison seeping into every thing it touches. You expect me to believe the others are any different?"
A few bottles fly up from the rift and shatter as they connect to something. The alcohol Zero had offered to barter here so long ago. She snatches back up her sword as the fae pulls itself together.
"Instead, you failed in both tasks, yet you somehow persisted!"
"If you are trying to save yourself with excuses, you are doing a terrible job."
She scans over the hulking fae. Talons appear to be the only weapon. She electrifies her blade and aims for the thinnest point to sever them. Instant If an opponent would gain life this turn, instead you gain that much life and torment that player. (They lose 3 life unless they discard a card or sacrifice a nonland permanent.) A Tale Signifying Nothing - the lifegain on this worries me especially at common. the average is probably within reasonable numbers but the range seems a bit crazy. 6/10
Walking Shadow - this one's a lot nicer as a giant beater boi. 9/10
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Post by test on Feb 13, 2022 3:15:30 GMT
Zero hid behind her rift for the moment. Getting to Wormwood wouldn't be much of an issue, but not walking into a deathtrap was a different issue. She gently set down her sword and reached for the rift.
"Never involve a child, right," Zero taunts. Her voice changes, still keeping its robotic tone, but now changed to the voice of a little girl. "She told me ‘Spark Labs is the enemy, and to help Zero, you would have to break her again.’"
"She said she was trying to help, but I should have known it was just your poison seeping into every thing it touches. You expect me to believe the others are any different?"
A few bottles fly up from the rift and shatter as they connect to something. The alcohol Zero had offered to barter here so long ago. She snatches back up her sword as the fae pulls itself together.
"Instead, you failed in both tasks, yet you somehow persisted!"
"If you are trying to save yourself with excuses, you are doing a terrible job."
She scans over the hulking fae. Talons appear to be the only weapon. She electrifies her blade and aims for the thinnest point to sever them. Instant If an opponent would gain life this turn, instead you gain that much life and torment that player. (They lose 3 life unless they discard a card or sacrifice a nonland permanent.) A Tale Signifying Nothing - the lifegain on this worries me especially at common. the average is probably within reasonable numbers but the range seems a bit crazy. 6/10
Walking Shadow - this one's a lot nicer as a giant beater boi. 9/10
It briefly occurs to Lettie that she brought this on herself with all the deception that she had woven, but the idea that the child is one of her agents is enough for her to scream at Zero in rage. "That idiot child kept pestering me for where to find you because she wanted to help you, you rotting demiurge! I told her that to convince her to stay away from the spark-stealing war machine, and now you tell me that she spoke to you anyway? You monster! Her dearest had tried to help you before, to correct your internal mechanisms, only for you to start treating the children as threats! Children! And Kaira died for that!"
As Lettie is screaming at Zero, the shop begins to dangerously creak, and she opens the door out the back of her shop, and prepares two vials. Once she finishes, she tosses a corrosive vial next to the counter, too far from Zero to be intercepted by a rift, creating a much larger corrosive cloud that at first blocks the way to the back of the shop, before threatening to fill it entirely. As its talons are cut away, the fae shifts its tactics to try and tackle Zero, regardless of harm to itself, and pin her in place for at least a moment— and then with a final shudder, the roof of the shop collapses, the corrosives rushing through splinters with the change in air pressure.
Outside, behind what was once a shop, Lettie tosses a vial of pale morningstar powder onto the remains. Miasma trails from her like broken wings. "...Do you even remember Kaira? The woman you killed? This is what you were designed for—to see your citizens as enemies at the earliest convenience! To extract—to steal and seal away sparks, just like that child's... who could create such a thing as you? I heard the memory of you murdering one of your creators just for another spark! Do you want to blame that on me as well? How could Spark Labs create a monster such as you!?"Lettie has spent 100 valor to unlock Fuse.Heartache Sorcery Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. // Thousand Natural Shocks Sorcery Create X 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control. Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)(Split Card) //Offset the first torment by sacrificing Walking Shadow, then bring it back and get some more sacrifice fodder. Ashes in Your Mouth — That's an excellent attack in context of the fight. A good flavour reference too. 10/10
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Post by cajun on Feb 13, 2022 7:54:26 GMT
test Heartache//Thousand Natural Shocks - is a funky split that almost certainly doesn't fit on the name space. while i'm possibly committing the sin later down, the fused version of this does seem crazy for uncommon, though the individual parts are fine in it. 9/10
Children can absolutely be threats. "Children can be threats, just the same," Zero grunts. The children were a miscalculation. An error she could never have predicted. You think that girl would really do what she did after all that, if she didn't really mean it? I know kids who would. She was just falling for Wormwood's deceptions, again. She slashes for the summon again. She tries to filter out the complaints of the voices. She does too well.
The fae tackles her. THUD. She thrashes at it. THUD. The building finally gives way. THUD. THUD. THUD. Beam by beam, it just keeps piling on...
--- The shaking of the collapse is replaced by a shaking of... herself. Her entire body buzzed, from excitement, fear, caffeine, all three, it was hard to tell. She was in a familiar room back on Nulien, where she often went for repairs. She was writing something illegible on a paper surrounded by coffee cups. A heart pounded in her chest.
Footsteps began clicking toward the room and she finally she got up to see the rest of the room. Zero was looking at herself again, though a herself that was more metal than skin, and this time, she is not active. Her fingers fidget, nervously passing a small bolt of lightning between each other.
“It’s quite the development, isn’t it?" Her body refused to turn to look at whoever at entered. "Proto shouldn’t be able to cast spells at all, yet…”
“She didn’t hold it for very long though.” She still hadn't looked, but she recognized the Experimenter’s voice right beside her. She could have sworn the heart started beating faster.
“Well, even a moment is extraordinary! Maybe she can only shrug off one attack, but that can decide the fight. And who’s to say Proto can’t learn more? You got one donor, why not more?”
“Hrmm,” was their only response.
More shaking managed to pile on at that non-answer. She needed to get out of here. Or, something told her she needed to get out of here. But she wasn't ready. Her fingers moved more quickly. She refused to so much as move her eyes. “You never did tell me, why’d that fellow donate anyway? I’ve met a number of planeswalkers with troubles with their sparks, but none who’d just give them up,”
Even without looking she could feel the holes being stared through her. “He was someone finished with life. Who wanted to do one last good before he finally said goodbye.”
“Hrmm,” she mirrored back. Her body was screaming at her to leave and she wondered how that was all that came out.
“Well, I should get going, you know, pick up the new parts and skin for Proto.” It was time to get away. Maybe it was nothing. She’d be able to tell when she came back. It was never nothing though.
"Don't be too long, Xan."
---
On second thought. A beam flung up from the collapsed building. A white glow surrounded Zero as she pulled herself up from the burning wreckage.
I vote we get out of here before this wears off though. You don't get a vote. I'm not sure if this one will chase us down. There is no us.
"...Do you even remember Kaira? The woman you killed?"
"The woman who tried to kill me for the crime of protecting people from you?" Zero yells.
"If I was made to steal sparks, why haven't I stolen that girls, or yours, or any other eleven that I have met?"
She picks her way out of the wreckage, looking for the witch.
"If after all that I’m a monster, then what does that make you?"Five souls in uneasy tandem have spent 100 valor and unlocked pinnacle.
The Star-Crossed Soldier Instant Pinnacle (You may cast this spell for .)Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater. Planeswalker[1]: {name: Lord Reza Starlight plane: Ushni recommendation: an old man who won't put up enough of a fight to stop us manabond: w note_log: ["killing things may grant a temporary invulnerability. ensure there are no insects within the extraction room before we begin."] sound: [r1.mod, r2.mod] extraction: false}
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Post by test on Feb 13, 2022 9:20:46 GMT
test Heartache//Thousand Natural Shocks - is a funky split that almost certainly doesn't fit on the name space. while i'm possibly committing the sin later down, the fused version of this does seem crazy for uncommon, though the individual parts are fine in it. 9/10
Children can absolutely be threats. "Children can be threats, just the same," Zero grunts. The children were a miscalculation. An error she could never have predicted. You think that girl would really do what she did after all that, if she didn't really mean it? I know kids who would. She was just falling for Wormwood's deceptions, again. She slashes for the summon again. She tries to filter out the complaints of the voices. She does too well.
The fae tackles her. THUD. She thrashes at it. THUD. The building finally gives way. THUD. THUD. THUD. Beam by beam, it just keeps piling on...
--- The shaking of the collapse is replaced by a shaking of... herself. Her entire body buzzed, from excitement, fear, caffeine, all three, it was hard to tell. She was in a familiar room back on Nulien, where she often went for repairs. She was writing something illegible on a paper surrounded by coffee cups. A heart pounded in her chest.
Footsteps began clicking toward the room and she finally she got up to see the rest of the room. Zero was looking at herself again, though a herself that was more metal than skin, and this time, she is not active. Her fingers fidget, nervously passing a small bolt of lightning between each other.
“It’s quite the development, isn’t it?" Her body refused to turn to look at whoever at entered. "Proto shouldn’t be able to cast spells at all, yet…”
“She didn’t hold it for very long though.” She still hadn't looked, but she recognized the Experimenter’s voice right beside her. She could have sworn the heart started beating faster.
“Well, even a moment is extraordinary! Maybe she can only shrug off one attack, but that can decide the fight. And who’s to say Proto can’t learn more? You got one donor, why not more?”
“Hrmm,” was their only response.
More shaking managed to pile on at that non-answer. She needed to get out of here. Or, something told her she needed to get out of here. But she wasn't ready. Her fingers moved more quickly. She refused to so much as move her eyes. “You never did tell me, why’d that fellow donate anyway? I’ve met a number of planeswalkers with troubles with their sparks, but none who’d just give them up,”
Even without looking she could feel the holes being stared through her. “He was someone finished with life. Who wanted to do one last good before he finally said goodbye.”
“Hrmm,” she mirrored back. Her body was screaming at her to leave and she wondered how that was all that came out.
“Well, I should get going, you know, pick up the new parts and skin for Proto.” It was time to get away. Maybe it was nothing. She’d be able to tell when she came back. It was never nothing though.
"Don't be too long, Xan."
---
On second thought. A beam flung up from the collapsed building. A white glow surrounded Zero as she pulled herself up from the burning wreckage.
I vote we get out of here before this wears off though. You don't get a vote. I'm not sure if this one will chase us down. There is no us.
"...Do you even remember Kaira? The woman you killed?"
"The woman who tried to kill me for the crime of protecting people from you?" Zero yells.
"If I was made to steal sparks, why haven't I stolen that girls, or yours, or any other eleven that I have met?"
She picks her way out of the wreckage, looking for the witch.
"If after all that I’m a monster, then what does that make you?"Five souls in uneasy tandem have spent 100 valor and unlocked pinnacle.
The Star-Crossed Soldier Instant Pinnacle (You may cast this spell for .)Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater. Planeswalker[1]: {name: Lord Reza Starlight plane: Ushni recommendation: an old man who won't put up enough of a fight to stop us manabond: w note_log: ["killing things may grant a temporary invulnerability. ensure there are no insects within the extraction room before we begin."] sound: [r1.mod, r2.mod] extraction: false}
The wreckage burns, stoked by the cold winter winds, as Zero picks her way out and descends toward Lettie, whose wings of miasma are becoming thicker by the second, and the argument starts to become a contest of shouts and screams.
"The woman who tried to kill me for the crime of protecting people from you?"
"From me!? I created that sinkhole to keep you from taking the children hostage! Don't try to deny it!"
"If I was made to steal sparks, why haven't I stolen that girls, or yours, or any other eleven that I have met?"
"None at all!? Even now, you imprison five sparks! FIVE! How do you think you came to possess them?"
"If after all that I’m a monster, then what does that make you?"
Lettie's answer bursts from her before she can even fully think it through, in cackles, each louder than the last, until even the winds seem silenced in fright by the final choking laugh, which seems to echo into the snow. She remembers this feeling, from when she had tried to halt Zero's repairs.Diplomatic Desperation Instant Choose one. If was spent to cast this spell, you may choose both. • Creatures you control gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. • Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. "I'll work on the rest of it. Including... Including thinking through... how I'm speaking, and what I'm saying..." "A monster." The wings spread into a black, opaque front, that eventually blots out the entire area. "Just as you are. Just as your creator! The same sorts of beasts, doing whatever we must to survive, to abide by whatever illusions of right we still cling to, taking up arms against a sea of troubles, many of which we create, only to drown all those near us, until we are felled by just another beast! I don't care if it was you who stole those lives, or if it was your creator. It's the same injustice either way, as is mine!" If Zero is engulfed, unseen maws will sink their fangs into her flesh, and try as they can to slowly rip her apart.
"This is how it should have been from the start. No matter what happens now, a great evil will be destroyed this day." The Star-Crossed Soldier — Cards like Chop Down and Collective Effort make this come across as a bit weak for its base mode; the pinnacle is somewhat better for something like limited, but also seems just a bit weak (partially due to same costing assumption as for front side). Otherwise, this is good in context of fight and flavour. 8/10
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Post by cajun on Feb 13, 2022 10:45:45 GMT
The wreckage burns, stoked by the cold winter winds, as Zero picks her way out and descends toward Lettie, whose wings of miasma are becoming thicker by the second, and the argument starts to become a contest of shouts and screams.
"The woman who tried to kill me for the crime of protecting people from you?"
"From me!? I created that sinkhole to keep you from taking the children hostage! Don't try to deny it!"
"If I was made to steal sparks, why haven't I stolen that girls, or yours, or any other eleven that I have met?"
"None at all!? Even now, you imprison five sparks! FIVE! How do you think you came to possess them?"
"If after all that I’m a monster, then what does that make you?"
Lettie's answer bursts from her before she can even fully think it through, in cackles, each louder than the last, until even the winds seem silenced in fright by the final choking laugh, which seems to echo into the snow. She remembers this feeling, from when she had tried to halt Zero's repairs.Diplomatic Desperation Instant Choose one. If was spent to cast this spell, you may choose both. • Creatures you control gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. • Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. "I'll work on the rest of it. Including... Including thinking through... how I'm speaking, and what I'm saying..." "A monster." The wings spread into a black, opaque front, that eventually blots out the entire area. "Just as you are. Just as your creator! The same sorts of beasts, doing whatever we must to survive, to abide by whatever illusions of right we still cling to, taking up arms against a sea of troubles, many of which we create, only to drown all those near us, until we are felled by just another beast! I don't care if it was you who stole those lives, or if it was your creator. It's the same injustice either way, as is mine!" If Zero is engulfed, unseen maws will sink their fangs into her flesh, and try as they can to slowly rip her apart.
"This is how it should have been from the start. No matter what happens now, a great evil will be destroyed this day." The Star-Crossed Soldier — Cards like Chop Down and Collective Effort make this come across as a bit weak for its base mode; the pinnacle is somewhat better for something like limited, but also seems just a bit weak (partially due to same costing assumption as for front side). Otherwise, this is good in context of fight and flavour. 8/10
"All you did was endanger everyone around us," Zero evaded rather than denied.
"I did not take them," she shouts back. And I would rather be rid of them. Right there with you.
She is taken aback by the acceptance. When faced with her ugly past she tried to shove it away. Wormwood laughed at it. She abided to her illusion, her sense, of right. This creature was nothing more than that.
Zero's sword snapped to attention and tried to find some purchase among the wings as they surround her.
So I can use your spells can I?
Well, I don't think I ever found out quite how it
A bolt danced between her fingers. ...But I guess they did.
A thunderstorm erupted into the miasma's biting wings. Diplomatic Desperation - a seiva fog. unfort the choose both mode here feels pretty niche, you can't take advantage of the indes in combat, and if they try to remove an attacker you'd just fog yourself 7/10
Planeswalker[2]: {name: Xan plane: they won't tell recommendation: co-experimenter, but very suspicious. bring any unusual activity to my attention. manabond: u note_log: ["supposed to be bringing that new skin any day now", "they're excited to work with us, but they're so twitchy. keep an eye out until we're sure its just the coffee.","very adept at these electric tricks. we may very well be able to improve your power supply if they're willing to share"] sound: [x1.mod, x2.mod, x3.mod] extraction: false}
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Post by test on Feb 13, 2022 12:01:06 GMT
"All you did was endanger everyone around us," Zero evaded rather than denied.
"I did not take them," she shouts back. And I would rather be rid of them. Right there with you.
She is taken aback by the acceptance. When faced with her ugly past she tried to shove it away. Wormwood laughed at it. She abided to her illusion, her sense, of right. This creature was nothing more than that.
Zero's sword snapped to attention and tried to find some purchase among the wings as they surround her.
So I can use your spells can I?
Well, I don't think I ever found out quite how it
A bolt danced between her fingers. ...But I guess they did.
A thunderstorm erupted into the miasma's biting wings. Diplomatic Desperation - a seiva fog. unfort the choose both mode here feels pretty niche, you can't take advantage of the indes in combat, and if they try to remove an attacker you'd just fog yourself 7/10
Planeswalker[2]: {name: Xan plane: they won't tell recommendation: co-experimenter, but very suspicious. bring any unusual activity to my attention. manabond: u note_log: ["supposed to be bringing that new skin any day now", "they're excited to work with us, but they're so twitchy. keep an eye out until we're sure its just the coffee.","very adept at these electric tricks. we may very well be able to improve your power supply if they're willing to share"] sound: [x1.mod, x2.mod, x3.mod] extraction: false}
The exchange of grief continues even through the darkness of the miasma.
"All you did was endanger everyone around us."
"Like you endangered everyone around you with your careless galvanism! Kaira shot you after you struck Seiva!"
"I did not take them."
A jumbled signal sparks within the melancholic miasma, and reflexively, various alchemical reactions within it conspire to direct the excess current away from its heart—and back toward the aggressor. Still, it was never designed to pass a signal of such energy, and much of the miasma falls to the ground in droves of ash, coating the snow. The background aether is noticeably thinner, and the air tastes of ozone and death.
"This very same careless galvanism." Lettie growls, now visible through what few strands of miasma have not yet faded away. She pulls fistfuls of dried mint from her components bag, and scatters them across the ground. A spell rips through the ground beneath her feet and Zero's, and the snow shifts as entire portions of the ground fall into sinkholes as it is consumed for the next summon. "So it was your creator then. As I thought... our crimes against nature are the very same. So much sacrificed, so much stolen, just to create you, for a purpose you'll never fully understand, bound by rules and history you will never escape! Nothing you could do could ever justify your existence; it just harms others." Lettie can't help but think of even those she had tried to distance herself from...{Defense Card — Mercury Familiar} "You're a failure Zero! You failed to save Nulien, and you represent your creator's failure in creating life just for it to suffer!" The ground of the entire area churns and collapses downward, to reveal the largest swarm of worms-that-walk that Zero has ever seen. "Wretches such as we are better off dead!" Behind Zero, the burning wreckage continues to groan, as it threatens to slide into what will soon be better described as a crater, and Lettie clings to the far edge. The Addicted Artificer — Fair front side; back side wants to hit something that's 5 or above though, which is tough to evaluate the usefulness of, but an option's an option. Flavour and context continues to be on point. 9/10
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Post by cajun on Feb 13, 2022 23:14:14 GMT
The exchange of grief continues even through the darkness of the miasma.
"All you did was endanger everyone around us."
"Like you endangered everyone around you with your careless galvanism! Kaira shot you after you struck Seiva!"
"I did not take them."
A jumbled signal sparks within the melancholic miasma, and reflexively, various alchemical reactions within it conspire to direct the excess current away from its heart—and back toward the aggressor. Still, it was never designed to pass a signal of such energy, and much of the miasma falls to the ground in droves of ash, coating the snow. The background aether is noticeably thinner, and the air tastes of ozone and death.
"This very same careless galvanism." Lettie growls, now visible through what few strands of miasma have not yet faded away. She pulls fistfuls of dried mint from her components bag, and scatters them across the ground. A spell rips through the ground beneath her feet and Zero's, and the snow shifts as entire portions of the ground fall into sinkholes as it is consumed for the next summon. "So it was your creator then. As I thought... our crimes against nature are the very same. So much sacrificed, so much stolen, just to create you, for a purpose you'll never fully understand, bound by rules and history you will never escape! Nothing you could do could ever justify your existence; it just harms others." Lettie can't help but think of even those she had tried to distance herself from...{Defense Card — Mercury Familiar} "You're a failure Zero! You failed to save Nulien, and you represent your creator's failure in creating life just for it to suffer!" The ground of the entire area churns and collapses downward, to reveal the largest swarm of worms-that-walk that Zero has ever seen. "Wretches such as we are better off dead!" Behind Zero, the burning wreckage continues to groan, as it threatens to slide into what will soon be better described as a crater, and Lettie clings to the far edge. The Addicted Artificer — Fair front side; back side wants to hit something that's 5 or above though, which is tough to evaluate the usefulness of, but an option's an option. Flavour and context continues to be on point. 9/10 The circuit completes into Zero’s socket. Energy reroutes itself away from critical hardware back towards her power banks.
Thinking we can’t run then. Don't think she's giving up til someone's dead. “I am not a failure yet,” she growls. “Nulien may still be saved. And so too can we. Me.” Now the child was in her head too. It was already crowded in here. She moves away from the collapsing ground. “I can’t bring back the dead. But I can make sure wretches such as you don’t make any more.”
[Combatant worms. So many of them. No obvious weak points.] Her attention pulled from the worms. Purple lines drew around Wormwood in her vision. She pulls back. [Entering the fray is a death sentence.] It’s just a distraction. She’s the weakest link. It’s a very in my way distraction. It won’t be the last. [Aerial assault would be ideal but wings offline.] You don’t need your wings. How else They’re extra juice but you have everything you need.
She lingers between the two targets for a moment.
So I do.
Zero’s white glow has been replaced with a blue crackle. She runs a few steps and flings her sword high in the air. She leaps and exhaust fires out of her boots, rocketing her over the pit. [Accessing from_above.mod.] "Salvation arrives from above!"
She’s right about you, you know. Rifts open around her. Her free hand pulls an explosive pellet to her, the final round scavenged from the captured Experiment Four. She flings it for the worms as hard as she can, then snatches her sword out of its calculated arc.
She angles her blade for Wormwood as she comes falling down. The Merciless Mercenary Sorcery Glitch—Pinnacle (You may cast this spell for . If you do, remove all [restrictions].)Exile up to three target permanent[ cards from graveyard]s. Draw a card for each card exiled this way. Mercury Familiar - this is a good cat. wonder if sorcery might be a more appropriate rider, but guess depends on the rarity. 9/10 Planeswalker[4]: {name: Lhin Atranivax plane: I didn't ask recommendation: suicidal vandal who wants to take the rest of us down with him. likely has friends coming to try to do what he could not. no one is allowed in the labs without express permission anymore. manabond: b note_log: ["you'll never get away with it", "How in the hells!", "I'd be interested in seeing this angel machine of yours, she could be just the thing we need"] sound: [l1.mod, l2.mod] extraction: true}
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Post by test on Feb 14, 2022 4:24:07 GMT
The circuit completes into Zero’s socket. Energy reroutes itself away from critical hardware back towards her power banks.
Thinking we can’t run then. Don't think she's giving up til someone's dead. “I am not a failure yet,” she growls. “Nulien may still be saved. And so too can we. Me.” Now the child was in her head too. It was already crowded in here. She moves away from the collapsing ground. “I can’t bring back the dead. But I can make sure wretches such as you don’t make any more.”
[Combatant worms. So many of them. No obvious weak points.] Her attention pulled from the worms. Purple lines drew around Wormwood in her vision. She pulls back. [Entering the fray is a death sentence.] It’s just a distraction. She’s the weakest link. It’s a very in my way distraction. It won’t be the last. [Aerial assault would be ideal but wings offline.] You don’t need your wings. How else They’re extra juice but you have everything you need.
She lingers between the two targets for a moment.
So I do.
Zero’s white glow has been replaced with a blue crackle. She runs a few steps and flings her sword high in the air. She leaps and exhaust fires out of her boots, rocketing her over the pit. [Accessing from_above.mod.] "Salvation arrives from above!"
She’s right about you, you know. Rifts open around her. Her free hand pulls an explosive pellet to her, the final round scavenged from the captured Experiment Four. She flings it for the worms as hard as she can, then snatches her sword out of its calculated arc.
She angles her blade for Wormwood as she comes falling down. The Merciless Mercenary Sorcery Glitch—Pinnacle (You may cast this spell for . If you do, remove all [restrictions].)Exile up to three target permanent[ cards from graveyard]s. Draw a card for each card exiled this way. Mercury Familiar - this is a good cat. wonder if sorcery might be a more appropriate rider, but guess depends on the rarity. 9/10 Planeswalker[4]: {name: Lhin Atranivax plane: I didn't ask recommendation: suicidal vandal who wants to take the rest of us down with him. likely has friends coming to try to do what he could not. no one is allowed in the labs without express permission anymore. manabond: b note_log: ["you'll never get away with it", "How in the hells!", "I'd be interested in seeing this angel machine of yours, she could be just the thing we need"] sound: [l1.mod, l2.mod] extraction: true}
The confrontation echoes across the pit.
“I can’t bring back the dead. But I can make sure wretches such as you don’t make any more.”
"By killing more by your own hand? You're just another wretch! How many more corpses will it take for you to understand that?"
And then Zero leaps, clearing the gap in a single bound; the explosion scatters the worms-that-walk as they form, and what remains slowly tries to reassemble itself in the depths of the pit. With the hand by which she clings, Lettie harvests an enormous swathe of the top layer of the soil not yet collapsed, and hurls it into Zero's trajectory like a net, in hopes of tangling her attack and landing; the weave is strong enough to bear explosions, so Zero's sword should be caught as well. With the same motion, Lettie pushes herself over the edge of the slope, down into the pit, so that Zero's crash does not crush her.Failed Instructor Creature — Human Soldier Whenever Failed Instructor attacks, if your team controls three creatures with power 2 or less, target player chooses two cards in their hand and discards the rest. 2/2 "Don't let anyone suppress you anymore, okay? Especially don't let you push yourself down."You liar. How could you tell someone that and then just throw yourself away anyway? We were the same. We deserved the same fate, so how could you tell me something so sincerely? As Lettie slides further into the pit, her dress catches on a freshly unearthed rock she fails to notice, and she roughly tumbles until she comes to a stop near the absolute bottom. She tries to pick herself back into a combat-ready stance, as the worms-that-walk surrounding her try to do the same, and she calls up to Zero, her voice starting to become hoarse. "You think every sacrifice and agony will be made worthwhile if you save Nulien? If you kill me? Every life ended to create yours, every life you took yourself, every mistake and tragedy you yourself suffered? You think saving Nulien and slaying monsters is your purpose..." Lettie's voice cracks as she screams, and her vision blurs from tears of rage. "BUT IT'S A LIE! A LIE! Nothing will ever erase your crimes, your history, your scars! NOTHING WILL EVER COMPENSATE US FOR WHAT WE SUFFERED! What does peace mean for a machine of war? You'll never find peace until the day another like us kills you and takes your place... the whole multiverse is infected with us!" The Merciless Mercenary — I want so badly to give this 10, for such things as the mix of Glitch and Pinnacle, or the way that the glitch cuts through the plural, but I'm afraid enough of the backside's 5 mv 6-for-1 to just leave it at a 9/10
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Post by cajun on Feb 14, 2022 9:28:18 GMT
The confrontation echoes across the pit.
“I can’t bring back the dead. But I can make sure wretches such as you don’t make any more.”
"By killing more by your own hand? You're just another wretch! How many more corpses will it take for you to understand that?"
And then Zero leaps, clearing the gap in a single bound; the explosion scatters the worms-that-walk as they form, and what remains slowly tries to reassemble itself in the depths of the pit. With the hand by which she clings, Lettie harvests an enormous swathe of the top layer of the soil not yet collapsed, and hurls it into Zero's trajectory like a net, in hopes of tangling her attack and landing; the weave is strong enough to bear explosions, so Zero's sword should be caught as well. With the same motion, Lettie pushes herself over the edge of the slope, down into the pit, so that Zero's crash does not crush her.Failed Instructor Creature — Human Soldier Whenever Failed Instructor attacks, if your team controls three creatures with power 2 or less, target player chooses two cards in their hand and discards the rest. 2/2 "Don't let anyone suppress you anymore, okay? Especially don't let you push yourself down."You liar. How could you tell someone that and then just throw yourself away anyway? We were the same. We deserved the same fate, so how could you tell me something so sincerely? As Lettie slides further into the pit, her dress catches on a freshly unearthed rock she fails to notice, and she roughly tumbles until she comes to a stop near the absolute bottom. She tries to pick herself back into a combat-ready stance, as the worms-that-walk surrounding her try to do the same, and she calls up to Zero, her voice starting to become hoarse. "You think every sacrifice and agony will be made worthwhile if you save Nulien? If you kill me? Every life ended to create yours, every life you took yourself, every mistake and tragedy you yourself suffered? You think saving Nulien and slaying monsters is your purpose..." Lettie's voice cracks as she screams, and her vision blurs from tears of rage. "BUT IT'S A LIE! A LIE! Nothing will ever erase your crimes, your history, your scars! NOTHING WILL EVER COMPENSATE US FOR WHAT WE SUFFERED! What does peace mean for a machine of war? You'll never find peace until the day another like us kills you and takes your place... the whole multiverse is infected with us!" Zero slices for the interception, but it does her little good. The ground heaves as the ensnared android plows into it. She wastes precious time untangling herself from the mess. Or so she thought, as she stands back up, Wormwood hadn’t taken advantage of her trap. She seemed to have run away. Maybe I was wrong.
"You think every sacrifice and agony will be made worthwhile if you save Nulien?” screams from the pit.
Guess not. Zero’s sword drags along the ground as she walks to the pit’s edge. She looked down on the shambling monster fueled by hatred, and her worm summon. Everyone saw the monster. I am having a very hard time seeing the person inside. How many people have you killed then? Well I can’t rightly remember now, can I? This will never end by fighting her. It’s sure as hells not going to end by not fighting her.
“You think saving Nulien and slaying monsters is your purpose…”
“It is!” Zero tries to yell over the argument in her head.
"BUT IT'S A LIE! A LIE! Nothing will ever erase your crimes, your history, your scars. NOTHING WILL EVER COMPENSATE US FOR WHAT WE SUFFERED!”
There she is. What? It’s all an act. Pretty convincing one. …You do know how acting works right? When you don’t let people know you’re about to shoot them. Sure. A defense. An actress hiding her stage fright behind a mask. A cornered cat hissing and scratching because it's the best thing she knows to not get hurt any worse. I buy that less when the “cat” attacked first, a lot. She didn’t. She did.
“What does peace mean for a machine of war? You'll never find peace until the day another like us kills you and takes your place... the whole multiverse is infected with us!”
“I have never sought to erase!” she yells back. Just deny.
“I am not looking for compensation!” she yells louder. Just revenge.
“Will you BE QUIET!” her screams were beginning to get painful.
“You’re right about one thing. I WILL never find peace, because peace is not mine to FIND. IT IS MINE TO MAKE! IT IS MINE TO TAKE FROM THE HORRORS OF THE WORLDS, NO MATTER THEIR FORM!”
It was an awful deal. I said be quiet. That… was you, Zero.
“I SAID BE QUIET!” The screams were getting loud enough to feel the vibrations. It did not matter. It was what she had to do. That’s what she’s been saying.
“I am DONE listening to EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!” Prot “NO! I AM NOT TAKING THESE INSULTS FROM SOMEONE WHO WANTS ME DEAD!”
“JUST YOU, MULTIVERSE, YOU!” the machine stumbled through a sentence. She collected herself for one last ear-splitting scream. “MAYBE THE MULTIVERSE IS JUST INFECTED WITH YOU!”The Booming Bride Instant Overload—Pinnacle (You may cast this spell for . If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of "target" with "each.")The Booming Bride deals 2 damage to target creature and to target opponent. If a creature dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead. If this spell was cast for , you may cast cards exiled this way until the end of your next turn. Failed Instructor -this is a real interesting one. 10/10 Planeswalker[3]: {name: Nami Kurashi plane: Unknown recommendation: she’s a nice lady, just be sure to stand behind her when she gets angry manabond: r note_log: ["capable of intense sonic bursts. the prototype will need to be stabilized against such things", "Oh wow, I didn't realize. I can't today, really, big day tomorrow and all, but I can come back later and help", "you know, we’re putting a big production together, and this crazy flying robot girl, she could be just the thing we need"] sound: [n1.mod] extraction: false}
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Post by test on Feb 14, 2022 19:51:31 GMT
Zero slices for the interception, but it does her little good. The ground heaves as the ensnared android plows into it. She wastes precious time untangling herself from the mess. Or so she thought, as she stands back up, Wormwood hadn’t taken advantage of her trap. She seemed to have run away. Maybe I was wrong.
"You think every sacrifice and agony will be made worthwhile if you save Nulien?” screams from the pit.
Guess not. Zero’s sword drags along the ground as she walks to the pit’s edge. She looked down on the shambling monster fueled by hatred, and her worm summon. Everyone saw the monster. I am having a very hard time seeing the person inside. How many people have you killed then? Well I can’t rightly remember now, can I? This will never end by fighting her. It’s sure as hells not going to end by not fighting her.
“You think saving Nulien and slaying monsters is your purpose…”
“It is!” Zero tries to yell over the argument in her head.
"BUT IT'S A LIE! A LIE! Nothing will ever erase your crimes, your history, your scars. NOTHING WILL EVER COMPENSATE US FOR WHAT WE SUFFERED!”
There she is. What? It’s all an act. Pretty convincing one. …You do know how acting works right? When you don’t let people know you’re about to shoot them. Sure. A defense. An actress hiding her stage fright behind a mask. A cornered cat hissing and scratching because it's the best thing she knows to not get hurt any worse. I buy that less when the “cat” attacked first, a lot. She didn’t. She did.
“What does peace mean for a machine of war? You'll never find peace until the day another like us kills you and takes your place... the whole multiverse is infected with us!”
“I have never sought to erase!” she yells back. Just deny.
“I am not looking for compensation!” she yells louder. Just revenge.
“Will you BE QUIET!” her screams were beginning to get painful.
“You’re right about one thing. I WILL never find peace, because peace is not mine to FIND. IT IS MINE TO MAKE! IT IS MINE TO TAKE FROM THE HORRORS OF THE WORLDS, NO MATTER THEIR FORM!”
It was an awful deal. I said be quiet. That… was you, Zero.
“I SAID BE QUIET!” The screams were getting loud enough to feel the vibrations. It did not matter. It was what she had to do. That’s what she’s been saying.
“I am DONE listening to EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!” Prot “NO! I AM NOT TAKING THESE INSULTS FROM SOMEONE WHO WANTS ME DEAD!”
“JUST YOU, MULTIVERSE, YOU!” the machine stumbled through a sentence. She collected herself for one last ear-splitting scream. “MAYBE THE MULTIVERSE IS JUST INFECTED WITH YOU!”The Booming Bride Instant Overload—Pinnacle (You may cast this spell for . If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of "target" with "each.")The Booming Bride deals 2 damage to target creature and to target opponent. If a creature dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead. If this spell was cast for , you may cast cards exiled this way until the end of your next turn. Failed Instructor -this is a real interesting one. 10/10 Planeswalker[3]: {name: Nami Kurashi plane: Unknown recommendation: she’s a nice lady, just be sure to stand behind her when she gets angry manabond: r note_log: ["capable of intense sonic bursts. the prototype will need to be stabilized against such things", "Oh wow, I didn't realize. I can't today, really, big day tomorrow and all, but I can come back later and help", "you know, we’re putting a big production together, and this crazy flying robot girl, she could be just the thing we need"] sound: [n1.mod] extraction: false} At least in the time that Zero took to untangle herself, Lettie's worms-that-walk have reassembled themselves, and are poised to defend her.
“I am DONE listening to EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU! NO! I AM NOT TAKING THESE INSULTS FROM SOMEONE WHO WANTS ME DEAD!”
"They are your cu- your gift, and curse. You'll be together a-always. This begi- this torment... is only the beginning... hu- how will you fare in ye- a year? Ten? A hundred!?"
“MAYBE THE MULTIVERSE IS JUST INFECTED WITH YOU!”
The peal of Zero's final scream feels like claws being driven into the back of Lettie's neck, and for a moment, she falls to her knees clutching her ears. The tears won't stop flowing. It was a terror she had hoped to never face during battle, from the piercing words of strangers when she was too young to understand them, to the twisting faces of her family before she grew numb to the pain of seeing them. She couldn't bear anything like that again—not another attack like this.
Nearby, the sound has shaken the ground enough for the burning wreckage to begin sliding into the pit. Lettie feels the rumbling beneath her legs before she can hear the tumbling and crackling of fire. She struggles to her feet, as the worms-that-walk flee from the flames that have joined them in this cauldron. I'm almost out of options, and I haven't meaningfully harmed her. Zero's going to kill me. It's a relief to realize it, and Lettie is convinced that she's glad her suffering is almost over, and that the reason she can't stop shaking is only the base fear of the scream from moments ago. Of course you'd think that, you naive fool, but it's impossible. I never wanted to live like this. I've been dragged back into this personal hell too many times; I'm just a vector of this infection. Enough of Lettie's hearing has returned that she can hear her own sobs now; her mask had completely fallen while she was unable to watch herself. And there, with what remains in her components pouch, the worms around her, the burning wreckage behind her and all that was lost within it, and the sheer essence of how she feels then, an idea seizes upon her; the same kind of desperate inspiration that had doomed her to this fate. The miasma rises from her like wings once again. I know it was you. Your entire creation deserves to suffer with me. All rotting parts of an unconscionable whole. Lettie continues to sob, and draws her sickle, and casts her hateful glare up at her target. "The greatest comfort was the da- the hope that one d-day this... would end! So let us FINISH THIS ALREADY!" She pulls the sickle from one corner of her offhand forearm to the other; it is not a cut the harvesting tool is designed for, and Lettie can't stop shaking. The result is clumsy, far deeper than would be necessary for a spell like this. Through the pain, she can feel the veil around her almost recoil, as though the multiverse understands that a part of it has been harmed. With blood dripping in excess from her sickle, Lettie puts what strength she has remaining into a hateful swing and scream. The sickle and blood cut through the air, cut through the veil, and a plume of reddened miasma rips across the gap in a wave, an extended cut racing right for Zero's midsection.
Back at the absolute bottom, Lettie tries to laugh, and can only manage another choked sound. Her good hand tosses the bloodied sickle back onto the fire, and she cannot fight through the pain to do anything with her other hand than let it hang, an unsustainable flow of blood falling from it onto the ground. Some worms-that-walk take up defensive positions in front of Lettie, and the rest begin tossing themselves onto the fire as well. The smoke that rises from the mixture is growing to resemble Lettie's own miasma, and Zero's sensors are beginning to spike. The Booming Bride — Similar issue to Star-Crossed, where the front-side isn't particularly good and it affects the back-side development. I do like the keyword use here though, and the way that the impulse is added on, borrowing black and blue's pie. 9/10
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Post by cajun on Feb 15, 2022 2:54:08 GMT
At least in the time that Zero took to untangle herself, Lettie's worms-that-walk have reassembled themselves, and are poised to defend her.
“I am DONE listening to EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU! NO! I AM NOT TAKING THESE INSULTS FROM SOMEONE WHO WANTS ME DEAD!”
"They are your cu- your gift, and curse. You'll be together a-always. This begi- this torment... is only the beginning... hu- how will you fare in ye- a year? Ten? A hundred!?"
“MAYBE THE MULTIVERSE IS JUST INFECTED WITH YOU!”
The peal of Zero's final scream feels like claws being driven into the back of Lettie's neck, and for a moment, she falls to her knees clutching her ears. The tears won't stop flowing. It was a terror she had hoped to never face during battle, from the piercing words of strangers when she was too young to understand them, to the twisting faces of her family before she grew numb to the pain of seeing them. She couldn't bear anything like that again—not another attack like this.
Nearby, the sound has shaken the ground enough for the burning wreckage to begin sliding into the pit. Lettie feels the rumbling beneath her legs before she can hear the tumbling and crackling of fire. She struggles to her feet, as the worms-that-walk flee from the flames that have joined them in this cauldron. I'm almost out of options, and I haven't meaningfully harmed her. Zero's going to kill me. It's a relief to realize it, and Lettie is convinced that she's glad her suffering is almost over, and that the reason she can't stop shaking is only the base fear of the scream from moments ago. Of course you'd think that, you naive fool, but it's impossible. I never wanted to live like this. I've been dragged back into this personal hell too many times; I'm just a vector of this infection. Enough of Lettie's hearing has returned that she can hear her own sobs now; her mask had completely fallen while she was unable to watch herself. And there, with what remains in her components pouch, the worms around her, the burning wreckage behind her and all that was lost within it, and the sheer essence of how she feels then, an idea seizes upon her; the same kind of desperate inspiration that had doomed her to this fate. The miasma rises from her like wings once again. I know it was you. Your entire creation deserves to suffer with me. All rotting parts of an unconscionable whole. Lettie continues to sob, and draws her sickle, and casts her hateful glare up at her target. "The greatest comfort was the da- the hope that one d-day this... would end! So let us FINISH THIS ALREADY!" She pulls the sickle from one corner of her offhand forearm to the other; it is not a cut the harvesting tool is designed for, and Lettie can't stop shaking. The result is clumsy, far deeper than would be necessary for a spell like this. Through the pain, she can feel the veil around her almost recoil, as though the multiverse understands that a part of it has been harmed. With blood dripping in excess from her sickle, Lettie puts what strength she has remaining into a hateful swing and scream. The sickle and blood cut through the air, cut through the veil, and a plume of reddened miasma rips across the gap in a wave, an extended cut racing right for Zero's midsection.
Back at the absolute bottom, Lettie tries to laugh, and can only manage another choked sound. Her good hand tosses the bloodied sickle back onto the fire, and she cannot fight through the pain to do anything with her other hand than let it hang, an unsustainable flow of blood falling from it onto the ground. Some worms-that-walk take up defensive positions in front of Lettie, and the rest begin tossing themselves onto the fire as well. The smoke that rises from the mixture is growing to resemble Lettie's own miasma, and Zero's sensors are beginning to spike.
Zero looked around, uncertain how that sound had erupted from her. But whatever it was finally had an effect on the witch. She was down… and she was in tears.
Look, I wanna get back more than any of you but I don't think we need to keep this up. Leave the poor girl alone, please.
Haven't you been listening? She's a fanatic. She kills us for good or dies trying, either way is a win. We leave without finishing this, and we’ll be the finished one.
You’re the one not paying attention. The bot blustered her way into all of these fights. She just needs to knock that off. I mean, look at her! Does it look like she's in a position to do anything?
There are few things more dangerous than desperation. When someone has nothing to lose, and anything at all to gain. Especially when they count their own life as nothing.
Zero had nothing left. She knew civilians. She knew creatures. She knew angels. Each had their place. And Wormwood just refused to fit. If she was anything, she was a civilian of Elsewhere.
Well, out with it already. If you aren’t going to be quiet you might as well all complain.
I already know I can’t tell you what to do.
"The greatest comfort was the da- the hope that one d-day this... would end! So let us FINISH THIS ALREADY!"
Wormwood apparently still had some fight in her. She won’t give up until she’s dead.
She held the sickle to her arm. She’s not going to sit there and let that happen is she?
She was. If Wormwood destroyed herself, all the better.
Instead, the sickle slices a wave through the air. Too wide to go around. Her boots fire again and rocket her over. Too far. She slides down into the pit until her sword bites deep enough in the earth to stop her descent.
The witch and the worms waited below. Fight. Run. Kill the civilian. Flee from the monster. Do. Something.
“Why even bother to end it? If there’s too many wretches, if there’s never any peace, then why hunt down the others? Twist them in your schemes? STAB them in the BACK? WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF IT?” the echoes pound off the walls of the pit. “I had done you no harm but you try time and TIME AND TIME AND TIME AGAIN!”The Weary Wayfinder Sorcery Pinnacle (You may cast this spell for .)Converge — Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn for each color of mana spent to cast this spell. “These souls deserve so much better than the devastation they have seen.”[Eliminate creatures of Elsewhere. Minimize civilian casualties.] Fallen Angel Effigy - the cleanest blueprint there ever was with a slick acronym to boot. 10/10 Planeswalker[5]: {name: Just Cara Is Fine plane: Lovi recommendation: a harmless tourist manabond: g note_log: ["this world deserves so much better than the destruction it has seen.", "so I hear you're a bit bad at directions"] sound: [c1.mod, c2.mod] extraction: false}
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Post by test on Feb 15, 2022 6:12:56 GMT
Zero looked around, uncertain how that sound had erupted from her. But whatever it was finally had an effect on the witch. She was down… and she was in tears.
Look, I wanna get back more than any of you but I don't think we need to keep this up. Leave the poor girl alone, please.
Haven't you been listening? She's a fanatic. She kills us for good or dies trying, either way is a win. We leave without finishing this, and we’ll be the finished one.
You’re the one not paying attention. The bot blustered her way into all of these fights. She just needs to knock that off. I mean, look at her! Does it look like she's in a position to do anything?
There are few things more dangerous than desperation. When someone has nothing to lose, and anything at all to gain. Especially when they count their own life as nothing.
Zero had nothing left. She knew civilians. She knew creatures. She knew angels. Each had their place. And Wormwood just refused to fit. If she was anything, she was a civilian of Elsewhere.
Well, out with it already. If you aren’t going to be quiet you might as well all complain.
I already know I can’t tell you what to do.
"The greatest comfort was the da- the hope that one d-day this... would end! So let us FINISH THIS ALREADY!"
Wormwood apparently still had some fight in her. She won’t give up until she’s dead.
She held the sickle to her arm. She’s not going to sit there and let that happen is she?
She was. If Wormwood destroyed herself, all the better.
Instead, the sickle slices a wave through the air. Too wide to go around. Her boots fire again and rocket her over. Too far. She slides down into the pit until her sword bites deep enough in the earth to stop her descent.
The witch and the worms waited below. Fight. Run. Kill the civilian. Flee from the monster. Do. Something.
“Why even bother to end it? If there’s too many wretches, if there’s never any peace, then why hunt down the others? Twist them in your schemes? STAB them in the BACK? WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF IT?” the echoes pound off the walls of the pit. “I had done you no harm but you try time and TIME AND TIME AND TIME AGAIN!”The Weary Wayfinder Sorcery Pinnacle (You may cast this spell for .)Converge — Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn for each color of mana spent to cast this spell. “These souls deserve so much better than the devastation they have seen.”[Eliminate creatures of Elsewhere. Minimize civilian casualties.] Fallen Angel Effigy - the cleanest blueprint there ever was with a slick acronym to boot. 10/10 Planeswalker[5]: {name: Just Cara Is Fine plane: Lovi recommendation: a harmless tourist manabond: g note_log: ["this world deserves so much better than the destruction it has seen.", "so I hear you're a bit bad at directions"] sound: [c1.mod, c2.mod] extraction: false} Perhaps it is because the pain of her sacrifice is great enough to distract her from the ringing in her ears, Lettie does not seem to falter in the face of Zero's shouts again. She draws in breaths, already feeling lightheaded, and steels herself for the last struggle. "Because the best we can do is destroy ourselves and each other! Because you were brought into this world for purposes that will never justify your existence, justify all the suffering it took just to create you! Because the reunion of action and consequence will push you to evil you would have once imagined impossible for you! Because I can still stop you before you become worse than I could ever be! Before you'll suffer worse than I ever did!"She'd tried to explain this much before. She'd wanted so long for someone to understand the cruelty of this fate, and struggles to keep her sobs from choking the words. "Because it doesn't matter what you think you can choose! You'll choose the best of what you can, but what you can choose will always be beyond your control! Just like you never chose to be created, such that you are! You think that I could have stopped this, but I made my choice, only for it to be cast aside! THE ONLY CHOICE THAT EVER MATTERED!"
With the final scream, Lettie's legs give out. The burnt offering behind her is consumed, and merges with the miasma that seeps from her. Just above where Lettie’s head was a moment ago, the smoke forms itself into a cloak, and in that cloak appears a humanoid shape twice Zero’s height with broken wings. It is a seeming tear in the veil to the blind eternities, through which stars can be seen, gleaming brilliantly upon Zero like eyes. The wind stills and light fades away in its presence. For a moment, all is silent, save for Lettie, who lies on the ground weeping, cradling the arm she tore open. The summon is crowned by boughs of apple like antlers, and a wreath of wormwood. With a tilt of its head, it grasps a scythe black as starless night in its talons, and moves to slay its fellow angel. The Weary Wayfinder — This is a little bit less of a pinnacle design, since all it does is change what you're being given the opportunity to pay, though the intersection of words is still nice. Front side comes off as a bit weak, but the back side is fairly usable in some limiteds, depending on if you have evasion. 8/10
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Post by cajun on Feb 15, 2022 9:19:49 GMT
Perhaps it is because the pain of her sacrifice is great enough to distract her from the ringing in her ears, Lettie does not seem to falter in the face of Zero's shouts again. She draws in breaths, already feeling lightheaded, and steels herself for the last struggle. "Because the best we can do is destroy ourselves and each other! Because you were brought into this world for purposes that will never justify your existence, justify all the suffering it took just to create you! Because the reunion of action and consequence will push you to evil you would have once imagined impossible for you! Because I can still stop you before you become worse than I could ever be! Before you'll suffer worse than I ever did!"She'd tried to explain this much before. She'd wanted so long for someone to understand the cruelty of this fate, and struggles to keep her sobs from choking the words. "Because it doesn't matter what you think you can choose! You'll choose the best of what you can, but what you can choose will always be beyond your control! Just like you never chose to be created, such that you are! You think that I could have stopped this, but I made my choice, only for it to be cast aside! THE ONLY CHOICE THAT EVER MATTERED!"
With the final scream, Lettie's legs give out. The burnt offering behind her is consumed, and merges with the miasma that seeps from her. Just above where Lettie’s head was a moment ago, the smoke forms itself into a cloak, and in that cloak appears a humanoid shape twice Zero’s height with broken wings. It is a seeming tear in the veil to the blind eternities, through which stars can be seen, gleaming brilliantly upon Zero like eyes. The wind stills and light fades away in its presence. For a moment, all is silent, save for Lettie, who lies on the ground weeping, cradling the arm she tore open. The summon is crowned by boughs of apple like antlers, and a wreath of wormwood. With a tilt of its head, it grasps a scythe black as starless night in its talons, and moves to slay its fellow angel. The Weary Wayfinder — This is a little bit less of a pinnacle design, since all it does is change what you're being given the opportunity to pay, though the intersection of words is still nice. Front side comes off as a bit weak, but the back side is fairly usable in some limiteds, depending on if you have evasion. 8/10
Zero intended to do far better than end the life of one sad witch, and while there was going to be an awful lot to sort through once she wasn’t watching her back, she could hardly believe in suffering that would reduce her to even the witch’s level, let alone worse.
But what was the point of talking anymore. The screams seemed to fall on deaf ears now. And it seemed all Wormwood had left was screams herself. You could have stopped this. At so many points.
At last, she screams her last and crumples. The voices overlap in what to do next. Zero doesn’t get a chance to decipher them. The smoke flows together into a shape, a human, an angel, a king, a reaper. It lifts its scythe to finish its task.
[Primary directive: Eliminate creature of Elsewhere.]
The slope of the pit crumbles as Zero and sword fire out of the summon’s path. Purple lines draw across her vision, move around haphazardly for a minute before vanishing entirely. How are we supposed BE QUIET AND LET ME WORK.
[Creature may be some level of incorporeal. Sword combat likely but uncertain to be ineffective. Inventory: Water and alcohol. Rift density: Inexplicably high. Has she really brought them here?]
Rifts tore open around her as she skid to a stop. She planted her sword and reached for the nearest rift, pulling whatever remained of her canteens across the planes. She hoped whatever the reaper was coming through was close enough. One by one her trail of rifts sealed back shut, and she attempted the same to whatever tear in the plane the creature was spilling out of.
She lobbed her canteens into the smoke. A spark bounced through her fingers, then as much careless galvanism as she could spare chased after the corroded metal that remained on the canteens.
Her hand snapped back to her sword, and she waited.Zero has spent 100 valor and unlocked mana value 6.
The Erratic Experiment Legendary Planeswalker - Zero Pinnacle (You may spend to cast this spell.)[-1]: Draw a card. If you’ve spent to cast spells this turn, draw three cards instead. [-2]: Destroy target creature if it’s power is 4 or greater or if you’ve spent to cast spells this turn. [5] Suffering Eternal - big nasty fae that never stays dead. not sure it feels super legendary, and might be dangerously easy to loop with sac effects, tho you've gotta sink that six mana in to get that started at least. 9/10
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Post by test on Feb 15, 2022 10:49:23 GMT
Zero intended to do far better than end the life of one sad witch, and while there was going to be an awful lot to sort through once she wasn’t watching her back, she could hardly believe in suffering that would reduce her to even the witch’s level, let alone worse.
But what was the point of talking anymore. The screams seemed to fall on deaf ears now. And it seemed all Wormwood had left was screams herself. You could have stopped this. At so many points.
At last, she screams her last and crumples. The voices overlap in what to do next. Zero doesn’t get a chance to decipher them. The smoke flows together into a shape, a human, an angel, a king, a reaper. It lifts its scythe to finish its task.
[Primary directive: Eliminate creature of Elsewhere.]
The slope of the pit crumbles as Zero and sword fire out of the summon’s path. Purple lines draw across her vision, move around haphazardly for a minute before vanishing entirely. How are we supposed BE QUIET AND LET ME WORK.
[Creature may be some level of incorporeal. Sword combat likely but uncertain to be ineffective. Inventory: Water and alcohol. Rift density: Inexplicably high. Has she really brought them here?]
Rifts tore open around her as she skid to a stop. She planted her sword and reached for the nearest rift, pulling whatever remained of her canteens across the planes. She hoped whatever the reaper was coming through was close enough. One by one her trail of rifts sealed back shut, and she attempted the same to whatever tear in the plane the creature was spilling out of.
She lobbed her canteens into the smoke. A spark bounced through her fingers, then as much careless galvanism as she could spare chased after the corroded metal that remained on the canteens.
Her hand snapped back to her sword, and she waited.Zero has spent 100 valor and unlocked mana value 6.
The Erratic Experiment Legendary Planeswalker - Zero Pinnacle (You may spend to cast this spell.)[-1]: Draw a card. If you’ve spent to cast spells this turn, draw three cards instead. [-2]: Destroy target creature if it’s power is 4 or greater or if you’ve spent to cast spells this turn. [5] Suffering Eternal - big nasty fae that never stays dead. not sure it feels super legendary, and might be dangerously easy to loop with sac effects, tho you've gotta sink that six mana in to get that started at least. 9/10 The Erratic Experiment — Valuation of this is tough. 6 generic is definitely less than full WUBRG, but Pinnacle also has the situational value of already having met the conditions. Scaling is also a bit weird in how it differs between the two abilities. Besides these developmental details, this nicely ties together all that we've seen up to this point, and manages to remain an uncommon walker for how simple it is. 9/10
With eyes that can never be closed, Lettie is alone under a night sky. The heaven above all worlds shines down on her, every plane a star. This place had always hung over her, reminding her of just what a small part of the multiverse she was. Tonight, she sees something she has never seen before; a rift tear across the sky, banishing the fog that lay about her, as a nebula fills her vision, and every star seems to blur into an incomprehensible mass. Zero's rift trick cuts the summon from its supply of miasma across the veil, and in that absence, the summon can not power its own spells. Then the lightning tears through it, disintegrating much of the fragile transmuted materials that constitute its being. It had been too momentous in its entrance, and Zero had acted quickly enough. Now, it can only seek to rip through Zero with its own rift-tearing sweeps of its scythe, however weakened they are now.The pain is fading, as well as the light, first from the blinding tangle, to stars as though in a night sky, and then nearly all at once, they go out. The part and the whole. Destroy one's self, destroy the multiverse. Just as all this began…{The Only Choice That Ever Mattered}
... After what may be the longest moments for Zero yet, the summon, stripped of its aether beyond the veil, its base components, and the will that animated it, reverts into ash. Lettie had brought nothing across worlds; it had never been more than a conjured figment.
Ash and snow falls around Lettie Wormwood. She isn't moving.
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Post by cajun on Feb 15, 2022 22:40:11 GMT
With eyes that can never be closed, Lettie is alone under a night sky. The heaven above all worlds shines down on her, every plane a star. This place had always hung over her, reminding her of just what a small part of the multiverse she was. Tonight, she sees something she has never seen before; a rift tear across the sky, banishing the fog that lay about her, as a nebula fills her vision, and every star seems to blur into an incomprehensible mass. Zero's rift trick cuts the summon from its supply of miasma across the veil, and in that absence, the summon can not power its own spells. Then the lightning tears through it, disintegrating much of the fragile transmuted materials that constitute its being. It had been too momentous in its entrance, and Zero had acted quickly enough. Now, it can only seek to rip through Zero with its own rift-tearing sweeps of its scythe, however weakened they are now.The pain is fading, as well as the light, first from the blinding tangle, to stars as though in a night sky, and then nearly all at once, they go out. The part and the whole. Destroy one's self, destroy the multiverse. Just as all this began…After what may be the longest moments for Zero yet, the summon, stripped of its aether beyond the veil, its base components, and the will that animated it, reverts into ash. Lettie had brought nothing across worlds; it had never been more than a conjured figment.
Ash and snow falls around Lettie Wormwood. She isn't moving.Zero's sensors tell her the creature of Elsewhere is falling apart, expedited by the electric strike at whatever remained. All she needed now was to keep dodging long enough.
She can feel herself slowing down, but the summon's scythe moves slower still, until finally, it has nothing left. It rains down on the battlefield as ash.
Heavy footsteps approach Wormwood. The only movement is the blood still fleeing the wretch.
Zero lifts her sword.
And after the longest moments for Zero yet.
She walks away. To Be//Not To Be - i think there's a minor miss here in not making it a different split card so it could be /or/ rather than the typical /and/ of splits. pretty minor thing tho. let's round you out before you go - 9.5/10
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Post by test on Mar 3, 2022 5:15:07 GMT
{Content Warnings}Ableism, Gaslighting, Attempted Suicide. Written in collaboration with cajun .
Karina’s eyes blurred as Zero disappeared from view. She needed to tell Miss Lettie that Zero was coming for her, but she had so many stores, she’d never be able to find the right one in time. Lettie didn’t even have any other way to contact her, like Pidge did. …Pidge!She started digging through her bag, and finally pulled out a little box with a red button. “Please actually be instant,” she whimpered as she pushed the button over and over.
A green portal vmms open near the collapsed building. A little kithkin bounds out of it, followed by the slightly taller Karina. Ash is still settling to the ground. “Somethin’ went down here, but looks like we already missed it. Look around, see if she’s still here.” Her breath catches as she sees the collapsed building. She pulls out a PING of her own and hammers out a specific pattern on it. “Jhanu will be here soon to check the building, be a dear and don’t watch him, kay?”The two cover the secluded area, Karina quickly coming across the worm pit. “She’s down here!” Karina calls, then starts sliding her way down. “I don’t think Zero’s still here!” She slowly approaches the body. The wave of painful emotions she normally got from being near Lettie was missing. She isn’t breathing. “M-miss Lettie?” she whimpers. She drops to her knees beside her. “That is so much, that, is, why, blood, no, no.” Blood is still trickling from the wound on her arm. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Karina repeats as she guides her hands over the wound. The blood stops flowing out of her. The grisly slash remains. Pidge pulls at her arm. When did she even get down here? How long have I been here? “I’ll worry about the cleaning an’ stuff, alright? And Jhanu will get her moved to the bakery. You go on an’ tell Sevid we’re coming, kay? You’ve done enough, ya don’t need to see any more of this.” Karina weakly nods and pulls herself up. She’d done enough to Lettie alright.
Lettie had often awoken from dreams to painful reality, but this is the first instance where she feels as though she has returned from an empty void—only to be greeted by aches through her whole body, spots in her vision, and a phantom cut still clumsily dragging itself along her left forearm. She finds herself on a bed wide enough to fit an entire second person, which takes much of the space in a small bedroom with very little else in it. Aside from a small window, nothing adorns the wooden walls. In the far corner stands a lonely desk overflowing with piles of papers and maps. Beside it sits Pidge on a stool far too short to actually belong to the desk. “Hey there, Lettie,” Pidge jumps up and runs over to Lettie’s side. “How’re ya feelin’?”Lettie had not prepared to ever wake again, much less have to speak to Pidge. The memories of what had happened are only now returning, and with them, shame that stills any words she has in response. She says nothing. ”’s okay, take your time. Need a drink or somethin’? You’ve been out of it for awhile now.”“...like death it…self,” Lettie finally manages. “Well, ya was pretty close to it, very nearly bled out at the bottom a’ that pit. L’il Karina came ta me and said a giant robot lady was gonna fight ya. We were a bit late to stop it, but we at least got ya patched up. Looked like you got banged up pretty good in that scrap, but ya should be back in fightin’ shape before too long.”Lettie’s only response to that is to pull some of the bed’s covers over the crooked, barely closed wound on her left arm, though she can do nothing to conceal the pain even such gentle contact brings. Pidge frowns at Lettie’s silence. “What was the fight even about? Tried to ask the kid but she didn’t seem to quite know either.”Lettie looks about the room, searching for an escape route; she is much too weakened to planeswalk. There is the window, but at its height, Lettie would need to climb out—an impossible task, she notes, given the state of her arm. The only other route is the doorway to the room itself, behind Pidge—and in it is Karina, who gives a weak wave. “We checked around your other places, seems like you were clearin’ out,” Pidge continues trying for any answers. “That related at all?”“I’m finished…” Lettie coughs, “with Ar- the Arena,”“Don’t blame ya, what with all that goes down here. Jus’ wanna make sure that whatever trouble you’ve fallen into here doesn’t chase ya down wherever ya move to next.”“Wherever… n- am I now?”“You’re in the Atlas Bakery. Well, back in Sevid’s bedroom of it, anyway. She almost never actually sleeps back here, so take whatever time you need here. Figured if that robot is still out there we shouldn’t have ya anywhere she might be lookin’ for ya, at least not without some backup if she does. We don’t got many places left on the Arena to take ya anymore.”The Bakery, Lettie mentally notes, is practically a neighbor to her own home. If she could just leave unnoticed, she could find supplies or a place to hide while preparing for a planeswalk. However, even if she were to wait for Pidge and Karina to leave her be, Sevid’s unknown location, as well as Lettie’s incomplete understanding of the Bakery’s layout, would make such an escape an unacceptable risk at best—leaving only planeswalking. So instead, without another word, she lays her head down and closes her eyes. “Alright, I’ll give ya some space,” she sighs. “If you need anythin’ jus holler, I’ll be nearby.” Pidge walks over to the other side of the room and sits back down on the stool. “Well, I think she’s gonna be okay in the end,” Pidge says softly to Karina. “Gonna take her awhile to recover, but she’s tough, she’ll be back at it before ya know it. Jus… wish she would let us know what went down there. No idea how safe she’s gonna be from that thing.”Karina leans on her spear. Something about miss Lettie’s injuries just didn’t sit right with her. “I’m… I’m not sure if they even did fight?”“What? You saw how she was, how was that not a fight?”“I mean like, I saw Zero fight before. She uses lightning and her big glass sword, and, maybe those exploding things? But, miss Lettie doesn’t seem like any of that happened to her? She, she, had the…” Worry starts creeping into Karina’s mind and it’s hard to keep her words straight. She holds her hand to the knife scar running straight down her cheek. “But it, it’s, it doesn’t seem right?” She wanted to say it didn’t look like where a sword should hit, but she was getting less sure of herself by the second. Her eyes lower. She can’t bring herself to look at Pidge anymore. “It is a l’il odd, but fights get messy. We can’t really know if Lettie ain’t talking.” Right. Stupid. Not everything works like it does in training.She isn’t talking, but she wasn’t the only one there. Would Zero tell me? Maybe? She shouldn’t attack me at least, and she seemed open about what she was going to do before. Which makes it all the crazier to ask. But, it’s all we have, right? And if I’m right, maybe, maybe she did change her mind. Miss Lettie did end up a lot better than Kaira. Pidge isn’t going to like it, but maybe we need to do it. “We… we could ask Zero.” Panic suddenly runs through her at the suggestion. That wasn’t right. She looks around and sees if Lettie has moved. Was that from Pidge, or was miss Lettie still listening?Pidge laughs. “Right, miss robot, why’d you go an’ attack Lettie for, how’d that go.” Definitely didn’t come from Pidge, then. “We should maybe talk outside so miss Lettie can get some rest,” Karina says, still looking at her. What are you scared of? Is it Zero? Or us talking to her?“I’m not sure I should be leavin’ her alone right now, we can jus’ talk quieter,” Pidge whispers. “No, it’s…” She opens her bag, digging out a notebook and pen. She scrawls out a message and shows it to Pidge. Think something is wrong. Think she is hiding something. 0 knows, 0 let her go.She thinks for a minute before adding another line. I can get 0 here without fighting.“I don’t think that’s—” Karina planeswalks away before Pidge can finish protesting. Pidge sighs. “Coulda at least taken a STOP or somethin’ with ya,” she says under her breath. [Power remaining: eight point seven five two percent.]Zero props up her sword against the outer wall of her ruin shelter to collect sunlight. She would need a while to recover from everything Wormwood had thrown at her. She did not want to think about her words, but somehow she kept dwelling on them. She needed to return to Spark Labs. But she did not want to return. She needed to return to defend the citizens she had accidentally abandoned. She needed to deal with the ones still stuck in her head… [Power remaining: thirty six point one eight four percent. Magical readings: fourteen point eight six zero percent.]An unusual appearance of Planeswalker[10] made her stir in her low power state. She didn't have the energy for dealing with the child right now. Maybe if she just ignored her she would just go about her way. [Rift density increased]What is she [WARNING: Unexpected contact loss with solar blade.]Zero stands and bolts from the makeshift room. Karina was already several feet away as she made it outside. Zero knew the girl could planeswalk away in the time it’d take to close the distance. Once it was a planar race she’d never stand a chance. “What have you done with my sword?” “I…pu, I put it away,” Karina stutters. “You’ll get it back after we talk, if no one gets hurt. You can do that, right?”“Talk about what.” Zero takes a step forward. Karina takes two back. “About what happened with, with Miss Lettie. After you fought her. She, we, we tried to ask her what happened, so we, you, don’t fight again, but—” “She tried to kill me. I ended up not returning the favor. That’s all that matters.”“Not if it’s just going to happen again!” Karina yells before catching herself. “I know you went to kill her, I’m not,” she pauses, trying to find the right word before giving up, “But you didn’t. That’s… something at least. Something better.”“I have already done my part. Nothing will happen if she keeps to herself.”Karina looks over the robot. This wasn’t going quite as she’d hoped. “Then, you’ll be good to come talk to her then, right? Let her know that? Maybe get her to stop… whatever it is that caused this whole thing? What even was it?”“She believed I needed to be destroyed. That’s enough reason for me to not see her again.”“She’s not going to do anything to you, she doesn’t have anything and can barely move in her bed. I don’t think she could hurt a bug if she tried right now.”The two stare each other down, neither wanting to back down or scare the other off. “All the more reason I should not see her. Now, may I have my sword back?” Zero holds out her hand. “You’ll get it back after you talk with her, and, no one gets hurt. I know you can do that, easy.” It was a gamble. A crazy, stupid, dangerous gamble. That she needed to take. That she knew Zero would accept. At least, she knew she hoped that. Zero clenches her fist. She could not let the child run off with her only source of generating power disappeared off who knows where. Following her was a risk, but one she was being forced to take. “Fine,” she growls. “Miss Lettie? There’s someone here to see you.”Lettie hardly glances back from where she lies. “I’m not taking visitors.”“Well I’m on a bit of a schedule.” Zero interrupts Karina’s response. Karina lets out a shocked gasp as she feels a sudden combination of terror and hatred from Lettie, then tries to compose herself. She knows these aren’t her own emotions, now. Lettie is meanwhile silently fuming at the fact that both she and Zero have survived, despite her best efforts. She considers that she could attack Zero now, but perishes the thought when she remembers that the child would immediately be caught in the resulting battle, however short it would be. “That fa- is your fault for leav…ing a job unfinished,”“Which one was that this time? I thought you didn’t involve kids.”“I don’t,” Lettie says, rolling to face the doorway. Zero walks further into the room, towering over the bed and the child following behind her. “Whatever you have to tell yourself. She has me stuck here until I do whatever it is you have dragged me here for, so let us just get that over with.”“That I’ve dragged—” Lettie laughs when she remembers Zero’s suspicions of Karina’s involvement in the schemes. Her laughs turn to chokes as the movement jostles her arm. “Ah, yes, you’ve seen through it, but now it is too late. As I foresaw! You left me alive, for who knows what reason, and now I shall finish this, unarmed, bedridden, and right in front of the child!”Lettie’s tone flies past her. Just another desperate deception. "Oh, have you saved something bigger than that reaper then?"Lettie sighs and glances at Karina. Without the energy for another screaming match, she can only wait for someone else to point out the obvious. "Is that all you have to say! You fought, and, and miss Lettie got all hurt—""She did that to herself," Zero says flatly as she points to Lettie’s arm. Karina stumbles between being interrupted and being proven right. "Wh, well, still! Obviously you didn't want to, want to,” she struggles over the word kill before skipping it and getting back into it, “she's still alive! We can fix, you can fix, whatever you were fighting over without hurting each other!" She shrinks away after her screaming fit, then takes a few steps away from Lettie. “That’s impossible. This pa- is going to be painful no matter what happens.” Lettie grunts as she tries to prop herself up, but fails. “Young lady, if we must speak, I would… appreciate your assistance.” Karina lets her spear float just behind her, slightly angled towards Zero as she moves to Lettie’s side. Her arms shake as she piles pillows between Lettie and the headboard to help her sit up. Lettie wonders how much the end result resembles a deathbed. It takes a moment to mentally retrace the previous argument, but after a few moments, Lettie has decided where to begin. Still, when she speaks, it is with prosody as halting and odd as ever.. “Zero, I noticed you were… speaking to el- someone else, before. Have you spoken with those planeswalkers of…ten? Have they accepted their fate?”“More often than I’d like. Some of them are trying to find a way out.”Lettie’s tone becomes severe at the confirmation of her suspicions. “Are you prepared… for that to happen?”“I expect it will be nice to not have people fighting in my head anymore.”“And your return to Nulien? And the expectations that were thrust upon you?”“That is a trickier matter.”“No,” Lettie says, shaking her head slowly, “it is an impossible one. Your goals are completely at odds with one another, and once you begin compromising on some, the consequences will refuse to leave you. There is far worse to come.”“I do not see the issue. I had dealt with creatures of Elsewhere before them, I will be able to after.” She turns away from Lettie. “I have seen that how I came to be was not without problems, but I do not think that makes the other goals not worth pursuing.”“Then why were those sparks stolen for you in the first place? Do you even know?”Zero is quiet as she listens to a spark. “It seems it was a backup plan. Understanding the methods of planeswalking in order to stage an evacuation, rather than an extermination.”Lettie interrupts before there can be any elaboration. “Do you even understand what it means to be created for someone else’s purposes?”Zero looks back to Lettie, but says nothing. “In truth, the choices you think you can make do not matter. They were already made for you, when you were called, unbidden by yourself, into existence.” Lettie considers elaborating on her reasoning, and Karina feels fear from her. In the end, she simply finishes with “and at unspeakable expense.”“And who is to say those cannot be changed? That the expense may not be outweighed in lives saved, or possibly undone on its own?”Frustration begins to creep into Lettie’s tone. “I already told you, that is a lie. There is nothing, nothing, that will compensate all that was lost to even attempt to save those lives, and Nulien is already largely lost. And I can say that.”Zero’s voice grows louder. Please don’t shout the girl to death. “Is it not worth the sacrifice of five to save thousands? Those sacrifices should not have happened, but surely it is better to do the best with what we have now than to do nothing.”“And that fact will never be erased, and that fact will change what you are. Those thousands have not yet been saved. In fact, I doubt you will be able to save them at all.” Lettie pauses, and with a sigh, admits “I kn- do not know what else could have been done without know…ing the scale of the threat, but your crea…tor is a wretch no better than I am.”“I think on that at least, we can now agree.”“That you’re a failure who will never justify their existence?”“No. That you,” Zero points to Lettie’s face, “both have caused so much damage for so little reason.”Lettie does not miss a beat; she is already raising a finger to point back at Zero. “One of those reasons is you, Zero. Whoever they were, they did it for you, and now you will live with that. You will achieve deeds far more terrible than I could ever manage.”“If that were true I don’t think you’d be here to say it.”“You have time.” She takes on a tone of mock reassurance. “You already killed Kaira, and you have your dilemma between the souls you imprison, and the purpose for which you were created.”“As I remember, I met Kaira when she shot me in the back. I met you attempting to buy things. Then the second time we met, you attacked me.”“And had I not been there, what—” Lettie cuts herself short before she mentions the averted hostage situation; one of the near-hostages is standing nearby, seemingly oblivious to the danger past and present—and with Zero as her hostage, at that. “Well, you already know what you would have done, and those consequences would have chased you as well. Young lady, must you be here for this?”Karina turns to Lettie, startled that now she’s suddenly in this argument. “Maybe. Things didn’t go so well the last time you two were alone, and they’re going better now.”“I would not say so. As I see it, these thi- are the same things we argued about before.” She lets her gaze wander to the window. “No progress has been made.”“Had you not been there,” Zero returns to the point, “I’m sure it would have been handled just fine.” Even if the note warning of the child had been fake, it had not been entirely wrong. It was no wonder she had been brought to guard the small experimenter. Wormwood, though. She did not seem to be associated with that group, as they had long since left the Arena. No one at that meeting had seemed to be expecting her. “And why were you there? I was seeking repairs, and there you were with vials ready before anyone knew about ‘the unspeakable expense.’”Just as soon, Lettie’s hateful glare is back upon Zero. There’s a noticeable pause before she speaks again. “You clear- were clearly malfunctioning as you wea- were requesting weapons. It seemed like dis- a disaster lying in wait.”“I already had weapons. I was looking for ones better suited for when I am attacked by, for example, seven undead animals at once.”Lettie was poised to criticize Zero’s search for indiscriminate weapons, but with the explanation, realizes that those had been her own first suggestion, and not Zero’s first request. “Well sw- a sword’s one thing, but— well…” Lettie trails off, entirely caught within her lie. “Well? Your response to the malfunction was to go directly to attacks?”Lettie is too preoccupied trying to conceive of a new consistent set of lies to answer. “There is one way I’ll never be worse than you. At least when I have to fight it is for an actual reason.”In the following moments of silence, Lettie considers if now is the time to provoke Zero and take her motivations with her to the grave. Still, the child stands there, oblivious as ever. Karina’s gaze falls to the floor as she feels unwanted worse than she has for months. At last Lettie speaks. “There is a reason. Your malfunction indicated fundamental flaws in your design as an artificial form of life. Severely damaged memories, no awareness of such, but still enough personality to feel distress.”“So your reason was I was damaged and in distress?”“Your fate is not unique. In an infinite multiverse, on how many planes do you think mortals decided to play G—” Lettie stops short of her plane’s theology, before continuing, “play at creating artificial life, only for it to suffer? Just Nulien?”“I do not see how that is relevant.”“You are the result of the so- same sorts of mistakes,” concludes Lettie. “And so you decide you should kill me because I am suffering.”“It’s mercy…” Lettie takes a breath through her teeth, “of a sort.”“I think I would rather make do without your mercy.”“You don’t understand the… alternative.”“I have been living that alternative for most of what I can remember.”“And what if this will be the rest of your life as well?”“And what if it is not? There is only so far one can predict anything. Destroying something on nothing but a guess is—” she uncharacteristically stops. For a moment, she debates herself, before she decides to commit. “Is why you’re a wretch.”In an instant, Lettie’s hateful glare becomes an uncomposed snarl. “It was no- never n-nothing! …I…I can…’t explain… it.”“That sounds close enough to nothing to me.”“There… is n—” Lettie glances at Karina. “We can not discuss this any further.”Zero looks to Karina, who crosses her arms. “Well someone is going to have to.”Lettie thinks for a moment, and recomposes her mask. Her tone is soft for a moment. “...Young lady, will you accept Pidge as a witness? You cannot stay here.”“I guess…why not though?”Lettie’s tone turns adamant. “There is nothing here you should hear.”“Usually when people tell me things like that they’re wrong.” Karina tightens her grip on her spear. “How old are you, child?”“Almost twelve.”Lettie remains stern. “If we still live in seven years, I’ll explain to you if you still are interested, but I expect you’ll have many more things to worry about by then. For now, you must leave.”Karina’s shoulders slump and she backs away from the two, keeping her eyes on them. She calls for Pidge who takes her place before sulking off into the bakery. “I… will need some time. I never thought any- of how to tell anyone of this.” She briefly glances at Zero’s eyes, and winces as though they are too bright. “Without your… expectant gaze.”Zero stares her down for another minute “Fine. You’d better cook up something a lot better than this, Wormwood.”
Zero storms into the main lobby of the bakery and stops at a table beside Karina, who alternates between poking at her transceiver and taking bites out of a muffin. “She kicked you out too, huh?” she asks. She takes another bite, then looks back to Zero, “Wait, you’re the one she’s supposed to be talking to!”"She has sent me out here to collect herself. May I have my sword back?""Are you two done fighting?"Zero stares at her. "Yes."Karina’s eyes narrow at the robot. "I don't believe you."Zero glares at her for a bit longer, then gives in and sits on the floor. "Let me know when she deigns to speak again," she says before her eyes go dim.
Pidge walks over to Lettie’s side as Zero leaves the room. “Okay, so I’ve got about… ten percent of what’s goin’ on here. Care to explain?”Lettie is preoccupied trying to mentally piece together her story, and does not answer immediately. When she does, she speaks hoarsely. “I nearly died trying to destroy that machine… and then a child takes it hostage and forces us to explain our motives to one another. I would have preferred dying.”“No, that was the part I—what?” Lettie stares at Pidge, waiting for an actual question. “You were about five minutes from dying when we found you, you sure that’s better than this little chat?”“I hope- had hoped to never tell anyone of this.” She thinks of those she threatened, violently or not. She couldn’t be proud of any of it. “I ostracized someone just… to keep her from possibly finding… out. Later she told me that I was the first person she ever truly hated.”“Findin’ out?”“She was a brilliant mind, fond of exploring. And I doubt I was… forgotten on my home plane. I suppose I thought that if anyone hear- were to hear of me from there, and realize who I was, I would never find a place where… I could pretend to be safe again. I kept as much as… I could a secret… for nothing, it now seems.”“I’m not sure I’m followin’ any of this, or what it’s gotta do with the machine.”Now Lettie finds herself taking another moment to consider what Pidge should hear, before abandoning those calculations entirely. “Zero wants the truth as to why I had suspected her as dangerous from the beginning. I can’t give her partial answers anymore; she sees through them. I can’t explain without… explaining everything.”“Well it seems to me those secrets weren’t doing you much good here. I ain’t gonna ask what they are, but is explainin’ everything gonna make things any worse?”“You won’t have to ask, because Zero will not leave until she’s heard most of them!” She realizes her tone is starting to raise itself out of her control. She takes a moment to try to pull herself together. “I’m… terrified. I felt less afraid when losing- when I was losing consciousness during the battle.””That would be the parts of your brain shuttin’ down. Really though, how bad can your stuff from back home be? Lotsa ‘walkers got stuff they leave behind and never come back to without another thought.”Lettie seems to be taking another moment of silence to think over her answer, until she buries her face in her good arm, and starts shaking. No matter how she tries to hide them, she can not stop her tears from escaping her. Sobs break the silence she had tried to keep. “Or if it’s that bad” Pidge moves her hand wanting to offer some comfort, but remembering Lettie wouldn’t like the surprise contact, “surely you can leave out some stuff? Enough so that whatever your secrets are stay safe.”Still, she cannot stop crying. With each memory she tries to put into words, her blood boils, or her heart aches. Even as minutes pass, she cannot imagine where she could even begin to explain this, or even understand where this had all began for her, if not from the very moment of her birth. The realization is more painful than any individual memory. “Just… send her in,” Lettie finally chokes. “I can’t stand waiting any longer.” “Well, let us hear what that extra time was worth,” Zero says as she clunks into the room. By this time, Lettie has dried her tears, and done her best to appear prepared. “Spark Labs…” Lettie, hoping to begin with Zero’s experience, asks, “what place did it hold in Nulien’s society?”“It sought ways to combat the creatures of Elsewhere with technology. Not all of them were weapons, exactly, but fighting them usually had better immediate results, if not permanent ones.”“That was not quite what I had asked.”“It served the defense of society? I am not sure I understand what you ask, otherwise.”Context within the plane’s society is what Lettie decides to be the starting point. “...I can think of… a handful of for- manners in which I was fortunate…” She finds her footing in one of the few phrases she was able to rehearse, and continues, “to be born in a time of upheaval for both science and magic. Our greatest discoveries in alchemy were driven by pursuit of The Great Work; the search for the perfect stone, and the distillation of life’s essence itself. Even during my life, it was one of the chief concerns of our aristocracy. In our case, they were our ‘finest minds’. Now is the question clear?”“No. What is ‘our aristocracy’?”Lettie snorts. “Those who owned enough that they never work- had to work a day in their lives. Some of them found time for loftier matters, or, I suppose… those of great personal importance.”The question remained unclear. I think she wants to know if they were important, dear? She wants to know if they’re the government. “Spark Labs held some influence with the various governments, but was not one itself, as far as I know, given my current situation.”“...I see. So only the results would have mattered, for them.”“The results as opposed to what?”“Anything else that could have been… gained from the process, I suppose…” The motivation for the work, Lettie decides, will be key. “Our story begins with the unfortunate case of Lord Barton, a peer—I suppose for you that would be a government official, however c-clumsy that comparison is. His interest in The Great Work was personal; when I first knew of him, the opinion of his physician was that he had at most three years to live. Transmutation of life’s essence, he thought, would be a miracle cure—which is reasonable when compared to the more common hope others held that it would be a step towards immortality.”“Is this going somewhere soon?”“I think you would scarcely believe my claim if it were so soon. My involvement in The Great Work was unusual enough, in that sense.” Lettie waits for another comment in light of her retort, and seeing that Zero has at least this much patience, continues “...I suppose that it was fir- the first time that I had benefited from someone else’s misfortune.”“The start of your life as a monster.”A bitter laugh. “I should hope it was not so soon. I was eleven.”“So is the kid outside, and look at the mess she has me in.”“I am also in this mo- mess, but I would not call her a monster. Now, for where I… was… three years as a generous estimate meant that there would not be enough time for Barton to settle his affairs, so he sought expert treatment to at least delay the inevitable. One expert was my mother, and in such a case, we were… fortunate. Barton was residing in our empire’s capital, and we in the country, though with many reasons to leave. Moving an apothecary for the plane-bound is no inexpensive matter.”“Seems to move a lot quicker un-bound, though.”“From what I understood, it was something we could only do once, and only at expense covered by that peer. What it meant was there was much at stake once we were at the capital, as my mother made sure was clear to me. I had been a… difficult child. In the country before, I had been slow to begin speaking, and slower to adopt manners. Other children didn’t particularly like me. One girl decided she’d experiment, or rather study if I was a fae, which involved some salt getting in my eyes. I learned what a regeneration potion tasted like that day. My nanny threatened to quit if she ever had to see anything like that again, and I was too young to be left at the house, so instead I would spend that part of the day in a corner of my mother’s shop. There was the consolation that she had an excellent collection of books.”“Your guardian left you because a child threw salt at you?”It had been embarrassing enough to mention it even once, and Lettie’s indignation is apparent in her tone. “That ‘guardian’ was a hireling; I understand that such a thing is nor- not normal in other societies, but she was nor- not being paid enough for that kind of trouble, no matter whose fault it was.”“I thought we were talking about your job as a little girl doctor, how have we gotten to your babysitter?”“Little doctor! That was not a nickname I was fond of. I’d tried to recount an interesting portion of the encyclopedia I was reading to one of our customers, though he was not interested, and rumors spread from there. It was unusual enough that a working mother should also be looking after her child, but said child had unusual and improper interests.”It seems the only way through this is going to be the long way. “Would it not be helpful for the child to learn the work? This is not particularly uncommon on many planes.”“No—I was expected to inherit our place in the guild, but apprenticeship would have officially begun at fifteen. Until then, I would have been a nuisance.” She says it as a matter of fact, as though the reason for such should be obvious to anyone. “What is the issue with beginning earlier?”“In medical practice? Plenty. Besides introducing me to the basics of sympathetic magic and some errands, there wasn’t much to be done. I was supposed to still be a child at the time.”“I think we both know how little that matters.” It is just the way some planes work, needlessly strict to their denizens. Not unlike a certain someone’s code. “So you dealt with nonsensical rules and rude children. This sob story does not excuse attempted murder.”Lettie lets out a breath to save her anger for after her explanations. “All this to say that moving was one way to escape our loss of reputation, as the cities care little for what the country thinks. However, if something similar were to happen again, the reverse would not be true—and the only place that would be left for me then would be Bedlam House… the asylum. It was a sordid affair that everyone in the empire knew, even a child as young as I.”“A child would be sent there?” If she has stayed there it might explain some things.“If they were found to be completely lacking sense or morals, yes. I was already suspected as a fae changeling, and if found to be one, I would have been killed.” She lets the words hang for a moment before finishing, “in short, I was expected to ensure our gamble would pay off. The stakes were severe—particularly for me.”Pidge finally gets her thoughts straight enough to butt into this strange conversation. ”You’re bein’ real callous ya know. And don’t ya go blamin’ being a machine, I make those, you ain’t the same as that. Maybe ya don’t know what it’s like bein’ a scared little kid, but from what I hear I’d guess you got a pretty good idea of getting dealt a bad handa life.”Lettie doesn’t particularly appreciate her explanation threatening to turn into another argument again. “Pidge, I tried to kill her. We’re get- still getting to the reason, but I don’t fault her im…patience.”“There is a way to deal with that.”“You have many reasons to not trust my words, but I’d like to only go over this story once.” There is an edge of spite to her words. “I am being thorough. Now then… the capital was an improvement. No one knew who I was, errands were easier to run, so long as I kept an eye out for dodgers, and with some time as a groundling at the theater, I learned how to act my role. With some hope, I could stay in character for the rest of my life.”“As for Barton’s treatment, that was at his estate, somewhat distant from our residence in the capital, so I was again spending a good deal of my day at my mother’s workplace, in case she needed me to run errands. She had made it a condition of her employment.”“See, you should have been just fine working.”Lettie waves away the interruption, but appreciates that Zero seems to at least be paying attention. “Barton also had a good library. There was a point where his daughter mistook me for a servant, and questioned me on when her staff had begun hiring children only for them to read books. It was a less than formal introduction for a member of polite society, but I learned then that she was Margaret Barton. Before long, I’d be calling her Maggie, on account of how little other company the two of us would have for the next few years.” Lettie oddly draws out her next words, for how carefully she re-examines them as she speaks. “Fr…atern…izat…ion between… two heirs of different… classes would be beyond belief in any other circumstance, but everything about our situation was… strange.”“Eventually, however, I was old enough to officially begin my apprenticeship. I still was not considered a member of polite society then, but there was enough respect for my mother, who had kept Lord Barton alive for four years by that point, that I could attend social events on the estate as the apprentice of an esteemed apothecary. I usually did so in Maggie’s company.”“Gradually moving out of our adolescence, we had begun to understand the importance that any progress in The Great Work would have for us. Since Lord Barton was a benefactor for many of the capital’s… ‘finest minds’, they were also frequent guests at the estate. At one such ball, Maggie, and therefore myself as well, were introduced to a promising young student of the capital’s university. His name was Michael Haldean.” Lettie almost growls the name. “Michael,” she continues, with her discomfort apparent in every pause placed before and after every mention of the man, ”was an alchemist who largely specialized in alchemical galvanism, and its role in powering and controlling constructs. For one of your background, this may sound entirely ordinary, but for us, it was a frontier of research. He was an… impressive young man, and we would often converse in coming years on matters of advancement in alchemy.”“Finally we get to your explanation, then?”“All of this has been the explanation, but Michael is core to the events of my story that concern your existence, Zero. I can not imagine how I would explain the rest of this without the context of my relationship to him and Maggie.”“I imagine in a shorter manner.”“I had tried a much shorter manner before.” That, and tried as she had, she could not conceive of any concise, digestible way to convey what had driven her to this point. “Shall I continue, or shall we lose more time?””Let us get on with it while you have time to lose.”Lettie has half a mind to provoke Zero again, but she is not about to let all her words be wasted. “All that I described to this point was an unusual but uneasy arrangement, a product of Lord Barton’s circumstances. But then, eight years after he was told he would have three to live, he finally died, despite our efforts. That was the end of it. I was nineteen at that time.”Lettie uncomfortably shifts; she presses some of the fingers on her good hand against one another at odd angles as she thinks of how to phrase the next chapter. “The times thereafter were… difficult, to say the least. In the midst of her mourning, Maggie was faced with the difficulty of being a peer’s only heir, and unmarried at that. With the many entailments of her title in question, she was sent to live with her relatives in the highlands, while her mother managed the title in the meanwhile. Maggie and I promised to write to one another as soon as she was halfway through mourning.”“As for me… our family returned to its regular business, except now in the capital, rather than the only apothecaries out in some country town. In those days, I spent more time sleeping in the shop than I did at home. My life became a matter of surviving long enough that I could become properly certified as an apothecary. Michael felt he owed Lord Barton enough that he offered me help in studying.”“Life seemed as though it could become easier once I was certified, but inheritance law, of all things, would rear its ugly head once again. The guild would not recognize me as the inheritor of our shop’s title unless they could be certain our line would continue—in other words, unless I would marry. It was a… difficult prospect. One of my younger sisters had already married, and the other was courting a promising suitor. I… had no one. Or, I had supposed, I at least had Michael.”What is this suitor? I don’t know what you all know, someone you might marry, or date but… more so. “You do not speak his name as though he was a ‘suitor.’”Lettie stares at her hands, recalling how vividly she had once dreamed of him. “I… there… was a time… when I loved him. It is long past. When I still did, it was fortunate that Michael was in want of a wife, regardless of social standing, though he would have much preferred someone wealthier than I if he were to marry for anything but love. So, I sought him out, with many more discussions of recent advances in The Great Work, both in our letters and in social gatherings. On one strange year, which had no summer, I was visiting a cottage with him when a conversation we had about mankind’s creations inevitably falling to ruin struck me.”“In terms of The Great Work,” Lettie begins, pausing to consider the depths of technicality to which she must stoop, “the latest advancements were in mechanical effigies, which were incapable of self-repair or learning, or in sympathetic magic animating effigies of formerly living matter, which faced similar faults. There was a vague hope that the perfect stone could imbue these creations with some spark of life that would allow both. However, thinking on it more, the fundamental flaw in these approaches was the focus on the endurance of a static creation, endowed by some abstract quality, rather than the continuous process of existence.”“That is to say, I was struck by the idea that ruin followed abandonment, and that if life were thought of as a continuous action of survival, of self-replication, then it could persist on its own in perpetuity. Of course, self-replication was not a new idea either; one failed approach to alchemical life had been perpetual solvent, which was unintelligent and unsustainable, on account of its uncontrollable growth.” Her speech is beginning to take on a faster, more natural pace, as she describes a topic with which she is so familiar, so practiced in recounting. “But if the mechanism for growth were also the same mechanism of control, then survival would never disrupt control, and control would ensure sustainable survival. Phrased another way: I theorized that the key to life was a control mechanism designed to replicate itself. A set of automata that by design would ensure that their local numbers would never deviate from a prescribed concentration.”“In fact, it was likely that the same was true for our own biology on the chemical level, though if it were the case, it must have been occurring on a scale too fine for us to perceive, at a level of complexity we could not yet understand. What we did understand, however, was a great deal about alchemical processes, and from my experience in preparing them as potions, how they could be designed for some degree of delay and autonomy.” With the earnestness with which she speaks, it seems that Lettie could have almost forgotten her present circumstances. “With alchemy’s own inefficiencies, some processes could be used as timers, others could be used to count, and before long, I had devised a method by which the overall system could create crude memories and carry out basic arithmetic.”“Before the time came to leave for home, I brought my insights to Michael,” she says, some of the ephemeral spark in her eyes fading away, “along with some basic recipes for alchemical loops and conditional reactions that could be used to construct such automata. We had spoken enough before that he seriously considered my words, and when he finally understood what I was trying to communicate, he was astonished. My initial design was woefully inefficient, both in terms of space and material consumption, but with some refinements, particularly to the method of transferring information between automata, it was feasible that we could create a truly intelligent alchemical lifeform, capable of surviving and learning on its own.”“Once we returned, it was time for our work to begin in earnest. I had a good enough memory for various alchemical reactions that I could devise ‘maps’ for different states the automata could transfer between, as well as various methods for consumption and respiration of the surrounding environment. Unfortunately, I had never learned how to solve differential equations such as those governing the long term behavior of such a system, so that responsibility fell to Michael. However, we did eventually prove that the system could remain stable in the long term, with a predictable lower bound on remaining materials over an arbitrary amount of time.”“Next came the information transfer process; Michael devised schemes by which to transfer signals by galvanism, and I modified the design of the states such that they could accommodate such a current. In a matter of weeks, we had devised a self-sustaining process that could replenish its reserves from the environment but would constrain itself such that it would not starve itself of resources, and which could form memories and correlate them. Already, we had accomplished more than any prior work on the matter. I was the one to name the substance: ‘melancholic blood’, for its black color, and with some irony regarding older beliefs about the human body’s ‘humors’.” She seems to recall her wit with some levity, but becomes much more somber as she adds, “much more work remained, but in a sense, from the beginning, our creation was… doomed… to know restriction and loss, down to its very blood.”“Our work would continue for months, focusing on methods by which the being could sense its surroundings, or exert its will on them. Michael began drawing schematics for a metallic skeleton on which he could engrave enchantments that could govern the melancholic blood. By this time, Maggie and I were writing to one another, and among our many other topics, she had mentioned that she was closely studying human anatomy. Graciously, when I asked her what she had learned, she offered to lend me whichever textbooks she no longer needed, along with some copies of her notes. From the blood onwards, we were seeking to replicate bones, muscles, eyes, lungs—nerves were unnecessary, given the blood’s ability to pass signals… Before long, I realized that our ambition had become to create not just intelligent alchemical life, but something that would, somewhat uncannily, be made to resemble a fully formed man.”“Shortly after I turned twenty-three, we had finished devising what we considered all the designs necessary to assemble this creature. By this time, Michael had spoken enough of his excitement for our work that word had reached the prince regent himself—our sovereign. We were invited to a ball to celebrate our work, and to explain its underlying principles to those gathered. With royalty in attendance, I was by this point far out of my depth, but when the time came for explanations, I still had some of my old enthusiasm left in me.” Even now, Lettie seems to still have some trace of it left in her, though stained by regret. “The majority of our explanations were provided by me, and by the end of it, we had been promised resources by which we could realize our designs, with the confidence that we were imminently approaching a milestone in The Great Work.”“The whole affair had felt surreal to me, and as the evening turned to celebration, everyone felt so distant yet discomforting for me. To spare my nerves, I retired to a balcony where I could watch the setting sun.” Lettie speaks slowly and deliberately, as though the very memory itself were delicate. “As it neared the horizon, Michael joined me, and we briefly spoke of the great expectations that had been placed upon us. Even for all my obliviousness, I could sense the nervousness he felt then. And then… steeling himself, he asked for my hand in marriage.”Lettie pauses to wipe away gathering tears. “...There on that balcony, invited by royalty, after having spoken of my knowledge as I had always wished, with Michael’s earnest proposal… I thought I finally understood, then, why I had been created, such that I was. Every difficulty of my childhood, the great many tribulations of our work until then, my relationships with Maggie and Michael… all of it had been so that I could understand what others could not, and accomplish something truly extraordinary.”There’s finally an extended gap in Lettie’s speech. Zero looks between her and Pidge. “I must commend you, being able to spin up such a tale in a mere five minutes. Had the Multivese saw fit to put you on a more sensible plane I am sure you would have done quite well as a storyteller instead of a mad apothecary.”Lettie would snarl if not for the trembling of her lip. Haltingly, with her indignation scarcely concealed, she growls, “if we could take the time, Pidge could retrieve my ledger from my home. It should have mathematical proof of the blood’s stability, as well as one of Michael’s diagrams of the skeleton.”“Let us say I accept that you have created some level of automaton out of your plants and worms. Already an extreme claim. You must also claim that this creation’s assured future failures apply to all others despite whatever alternate methods or designers are behind them. And that this ‘suffering’ is not just inherent to life itself.”“I have yet to describe the breadth of our failure—my story is yet incomplete. But you must understand now, Zero, what a fool I was, to think that achievement would be all that would be needed to wash away my history. That kind of redemption is nothing more than a lie.”“Wash away your history of what, precisely, being an unusual child for your plane’s odd customs?”“Of being broken,” Lettie’s voice cracks, and she struggles to bring it back under control. “Slow t-to learn, unable to f-follow the script everyone else had been born with, or at least seemed to… already have.”“If your automaton is real, surely it should wash away any stigma of being slow to learn. As for being born with scripts, it is my understanding that is unique to constructs. So much of the work behind me is getting that to adapt the way biological creatures do innately.”Lettie’s frustrations are all too apparent in her voice. “Nothing is engraved in us, but the way most adapt, many manners become ritualistic enough that you could call them scripted. I could never adapt the same way. I am an unusual biological creature in that regard, as you are an unusual construct; your internal mechanisms were broken from the moment that I met you. In fact, your ‘self’ seems to be entirely at odds with them, at times, even without the sparks speaking to you.” She lets out a tired and pained sigh. “We’re both broken, Zero. It’s miserable, and nothing will ever compensate for what we suffered.”“As you’ve screamed before. And as I have said before, I think it better to make the most of what we are left with rather than do nothing but seethe in misery.”“As I had tried; The Great Work was for the benefit of all huma- of all citizens of our empire. But my insight did nothing for the ‘stigma’, as you call it.” With more to explain, Lettie steels herself to recount more. “My tale did not end with Michael’s proposal, though I did accept once I understood what had happened. Of course, we could hold no ceremony, occupied as we were with constructing our creature, but we were known to be engaged, and we agreed that we would have our wedding as soon as our work was complete. Still, peace seemed to be in my sight at last.”“Slight adjustments in the recipe and control scheme had to be added for every component; we tested each, and were exceedingly careful when it came to the assembly. By then, I was taking meticulous notes for the sake of ensuring that the whole thing had been carried out properly; they’re buried deeper in my collection, but you could see them as well,” she adds spitefully. “In all, creating the components, testing them, and assembling them took two years.”“That was the best my life had ever been, and shall never be again; I had enough support that I no longer had to scramble for a living, Michael and I could spend our time together without judgment, at balls, at the opera house... Maggie seemed to have left mourning entirely for happier times, though she did seem troubled on occasion. We wrote often and earnestly.”“When I was nearly twenty-five, I received my last letter from Maggie, though I had no reason to know that at the time. In my reply, I spoke of the great creation Michael and I were soon to finish, the wedding we had planned, to which I assured her she would be invited, and the home that would be ours. I spoke of the designs underlying the final steps of our work, and how far we’d come in a matter of years.” What anger Lettie had before has vanished, revealing her to be entirely forlorn. “I have thought, many times, of what it was that I said that could have caused her to… vanish. I still do not know… and I still have some of the textbooks that she lent me.”“The final thing our creature needed was a start to its unending process of survival, a seed of energy. It was a prodigious amount of power required that no human technology of ours could safely produce. We did, however, find an ironic solution: nature. A bolt of lightning guided through our wards would be enough to spark the life of our creature.”She takes a deep breath. “So we prepared the necessary apparatus, wrote our hypotheses, and waited for such a storm; we slept in shifts so that we would not miss it. When that fateful night finally arrived, we watched, as electricity coursed through its shell and bones, and the melancholic blood began its many processes. I had seen the blood act on its own in small quantities, but nothing could have prepared us for the sight. We had done our utmost to ensure that our creature’s figure would be well-proportioned, but its very mass shifted as the blood squirmed within, and learned the limitations by which it would be bound from then on. It could not safely consume the entire current, and some of the blood pierced its own skin in spikes, in order to safely discharge the excess. From its head, it flowed like unkempt hair, a continued trace of the black veins beneath its deathly pale skin, that became more visible by the second. Then, it opened its eyes; as it cast them about, they shifted between seeming like empty glass, to being entirely black, as it learned to perceive its surroundings.”Lettie can no longer bear to look at Zero. ”I looked to Michael, and saw that in those few moments, his expression had shifted to one unmistakable of terror, disgust, and regret. He fled, leaving me alone with our creation. Part of the initial animation had included a spell much like our effigies; it would at first only imitate a human, much like an animated scarecrow, until it learned how to act as a human in truth.” Her voice now is barely more than a croak. “But, in the next moment, it reached out to me, as though to… accost me, and in that motion alone, I felt… its own confusion and desperation. Only then did I realize what a mistake it had all been. All that I had suffered, all the flaws by which I was cursed, I had passed them all to it. For every ache of my existence, it would suffer worse, the first of its kind, bound by rules and purpose it could never have chosen. This, Zero, is the curse you share.”“From what I have heard, it is a curse you share.”“Each of us shares this curse.” She feels so tired. “Was this entire story not about why constructed life suffers so much it must be destroyed, as a mercy?”“The first terror that it had felt was inherent to its existence, and how could it ever have been freed from the expectations of an empire? Of my hopes that had been laid upon it? What about the sparks stolen to create you, Zero? Or what hope remains for Nulien? The intentions of your creator?” She pauses, trying to see if she can glean any expression from Zero’s face. “I still remember the terror that I saw in you when you realized the flaws within your memory. Like The Mistake, you are bound by mechanisms incongruous to some elemental sense of self, and those include those expectations you could not have chosen.”“Provided the opportunity I would rid myself of those sparks and whatever intentions my creator had for them. I am far from bound by this.”“Then how fr- how can you free yourself? Is this just some vain… hope?” She almost seems afraid to say it. “They were removed before. Why would they not be removable again? And that may require fighting that creator. And—” Zero cuts herself off. “...and what? Are you even capable of that?”[Minimize civilian casualties.] Zero is quiet for a long moment. “And we’ll do it if we have to.”“Is that… the decision you all have… reached?”“They would like to be removed as well, and the one that would know claims it can be done.”“So you hope,” she all but spits, and with a voice tenuously locked at level, continues, “and I had once hoped that I could live as any other, or at least that my insight could be the true reason for my existence. Even when Michael turned and fled, I had hoped still that we could continue, though I could not face my mistake alone. I went to retrieve him. I implored him to face our responsibility, and we argued briefly about what our creature’s fate should be; I convinced him that we should return, and wait to see if it would stabilize. But, in our absence, a decision had already been made for us. We returned to our laboratory, and found it empty.”Her blood is already boiling. “I should remind you that it took the better part of two years to construct our creature. We did have the insights that we recorded in our research notes, but at best, we had been set very far back, in both time and materials, if it would have even been correct to simply repeat our previous steps. I was still hopeful that at least others could continue our work in some respect. In any case, we were expected to attend another ball not long after that, and speak to the prince regent about our work; no deception could save us; we would, at least to some extent, have to tell him what happened.”“Though the hope was there, the interceding months were… harrowing. It was then that I was acutely aware of Maggie’s silence. Had I been able to, I would have asked her what to do; she would have known. Instead, the only person I could ask was Michael, and we… often disagreed about what had happened.” Lettie pauses from the pain shooting through her arm. She realizes she’s trying to clench her hand into a fist. “For one, he insisted that I had been the first to flee; any attempt on my part to contest it led to him acting concerned for my… perception, and memory. It was infuriating, and if not for the logbook I had kept of the night, he might have even convinced me.”“The evening arrived. I knew enough of my place on the world’s stage that I had rehearsed my story, the reasoning that we would provide that we should be allowed another attempt. I had spent the previous months creating copies of our notes, so that we could provide them, and they were well-received. But when ti- the time… came,” Lettie chokes and wipes away more tears. “But when the time came to explain our creation’s disappearance, Michael blamed me, not just for its disappearance, but for fundamental flaws in its design, as though we had not meticulously examined that design together before we had received the regent’s blessing in the first place. He said that I had misled The Great Work, by turning its inquiry away from life’s true essence, and toward only an imitation of it, and that I had deceived him. Already, I could see Bedlam House’s gates swinging open to devour me.”She shakes her head with a grimace. “The lines I had prepared seemed to vanish in an instant, and my protests were ignored until they became invectives. Others had witnessed our history, as it had happened, and as it was recorded in our research, but I could feel the new narrative taking hold. For all I could argue, I was the more visibly upset party, and of lower class. I realized I was doomed. At least, as a final insult, I had my right as a woman to call off our engagement, and I did so, in such a public manner. I returned the ring too, with great haste. It marked his brow. What I had done was certainly a breach of decorum. I ran into the streets before it could be answered.”“In the cold of the descending night, I realized my new place in the world. I was well on my way to twenty-six, the eldest of my sisters, yet not even engaged or in courtship. I had acted with great impropriety before the eyes of the most powerful man in the world, and many of comparable status. My greatest mistake, a crime against nature, had turned itself loose, and not appeared anywhere since. I… I…” She cannot bring herself to say more, and simply trails off. Zero waits for some continuation. With none forthcoming, she tries to make sense of all she has been told. "So this automaton of yours brought you great distress. Not itself, of course, it was brought about by its creator and the plane that had already brought you so much distress. But you blame that not on the people, but the machine, the 'crime against nature.' You blame that not on those who did it to you, but on me."“I was a fool to hope that mere achievement, or… ‘support’ would be enough to spare me the fate of anyone so broken. What will you do when you fail?““You think I have not had failures? I will do what I have done before, what I am doing now, doing the best with what I have until I cannot anymore.”“I know you already failed, given the ‘transition station’, and Kaira.” Red rimmed eyes glare at Zero. “That was only the beginning, and you have so much lower to sink. The prototype angel is already selling intimidation. It will all be you trying your best, of course, the more you do to survive.”“Better intimidation than pirate attacks,” Zero counters. “I already told you,” Lettie begins, raising her voice slightly, “that pirate had already been raiding the coast and practicing necromancy. All I had control over was her next target and your presence—though I don’t delude myself; I have become something awful in the course of my survival. My creation, myself, and you—none of us should have ever been.”“But we are.”“And there we come to mercy. Do you understand now?”“No.”Lettie lets out a rattling sigh. “Should I… rephrase the explanation?”“I would prefer to not listen to another speech of why you should be able to kill me.”“How can you be this stubborn?” She shouts, “is this kind of selfishness governed by one of your mechanisms?”“If you wish to call self-preservation that.”“I do!” She shouts louder still. “Self-preservation for whose sake, at what cost?”“And what of your own?” Zero shouts back. “This is not by choice,” Lettie snaps. “You should have finished me.””I try not to bring harm to unarmed civilians. While I have many doubts to your civility, you were not breathing and had lost far too much blood. You were not a threat even if you did keep yourself alive somehow. So I thought.”“You know the cost of su- of my survival. This will continue, for both of us, until we die. I had hoped one of us would perish, just as it should have been either you or the necromancer. Once again, the worst has come to pass.”“And what if I had? We just replace one wretch with another.” She did not want to believe she was anything like Wormwood, now or ever. Where Wormwood had kept making things worse for those around her, she was trying to make things right. Doing the opposite of what Wormwood wanted would likely be a good starting point for anyone. Maybe even Wormwood herself. “Perhaps the only way to truly kill a wretch is to get her to stop acting like one.”Lettie seems taken aback; she had not suspected as much from Zero, and she can not deny it. “...I don’t know that it’s… possible for broken beings such as we.”"You were there when the Kaira woman attacked me. You knew what I would do." Zero points at Lettie. "I did not fail to kill you. That, at least, was by choice."“So you tried to choose otherwise. But it was a meaningless choice in the end, all but ignored… just as the most important choice I could have ever made was cast aside. I tried to stop so much of this before it all began, before I had ever become a planeswalker.” Still snarling, she grits her teeth, and prepares to recount the worst yet. “With the possibility that I would be followed, I did not go to my home that night. I took shelter in what was once meant to be my shop, and prepared some last bottles of absinthe for myself. I had time then, to contemplate all that had happened, in totality. After a few bottles, I thought I had finally found the words to express the rage that I had felt then, and set them to paper. I can scarcely remember now the sight of what I was writing, but I remember the subjects. The Great Work’s hypocrisy, the part our angels had to play in our empire, and so on… up until my intentions. I had made my choice.”“I gathered some of my medicines, and mixed the most potent ones—that is to say, those that were practically poisons.” Lettie glances at Pidge and Zero, as though second-guessing herself. “I drank… as much as I could. There was still some substance left in the second bottle when the convulsions struck me.” Lettie had expected to hold back tears. Instead, she only feels cold, and hollow. “After the shock, I… had barely registered the sound of the bottle breaking on the floor, before I fell after it, and writhed. My right arm was dragged across the fragments. My senses faded away, and in what brief blinks of consciousness I had, the pain, in time, became… indistinct. I remember… falling through a starfield, into a miasmatic abyss. I remember… nothing else.” She sounds uncertain. “It is difficult to describe the feeling of awakening from that darkness. I have the memories of my first sights, but at the time, I felt as though I were only an observer, with no self to speak of. Even once I remembered that I could act… that I had been poisoned, it all felt so distant.” With her good arm, she rubs at her brow. “My very… feeling of being had changed, and I could only wander, as I felt the pain of hunger, but not its weakness. By the time that I truly understood who I was, and what had happened to me, I had already stolen food just to stave off that pain.”“It was little wonder that I had been slow to understand who I was; by all accounts, the memories I had should have belonged to a corpse, yet I saw then that my wounds had completely healed, and I was not suffering longer term complications from the extensive poisoning. Something, I realized, had taken hold of me, and was refusing to let me die.” She gives Pidge a resentful look. “Only when I had grasped that had I remembered my shop, and in remembering it so vividly, I found myself standing in it once again… only it was in complete disarray. The entire place had been violently searched in my absence; and my written testament from before had vanished. As far as anyone on my home plane knew, I was dead. In the following hours, I familiarized myself with what I would come to know as planeswalking. Then, I had to find some retreat for myself on the first distant refuge I had awakened on, and once I had, I moved as much as I could from my old shop to that place. Once I could bring nothing else, I shattered the windows of my shop, to make it appear as a mundane burglary.”“And then, like the Deity, so infected with life was I, that I fought to survive. I amassed a shifting collection of rotting buildings through which to move my belongings, I found settlements in which to ply my trade, and where I found enemies, I learned to be merciless. You know the manner in which I have fought, and the cost it holds for others. Had I not been bound to life, none of it would have happened.” Her voice cracks again. “What you showed me was not mercy.”“Were you not the one who said life was the continuous action of survival? If you were infected with life, it would have been from your own fight for survival.”“I only started su- fighting for my survival after my… attempt had failed, and I understood my s-suffering would not so simply end. It… was not me.” It’s unclear if she’s trying to convince Zero or herself. Zero is quiet for a minute, and seems distracted before finally answering, “Could it have failed because you were already fighting?”Lettie’s eyes are wide, and seem almost wild now. “That’s… impossible. I… had wished it so earnestly… how c-could I have healed myself, barely conscious? It has- had to have been some… thing else.”“What of your black aura? In all you have said today you have not mentioned it, so I do not know how precisely it works. But it seems quite capable of most anything you put your mind to. Even without your input, if that reaper had anything to do with it.”She can feel her heartbeat in her joints, in her teeth. “That is because it is not my power. That miasma has gone so far as to replace my blood in the past just to bind me to life. I can consume it for spells, pass transmutations along it, but I cannot deplete it, nor dismiss it… what happened to W- the reaper?”“I cut it off from Elsewhere to remove some of its power. I used what little metal I still had available to ensure my careless galvanism would only strike the intended target,” Zero kept her usual off-kilter tone while referencing Lettie’s past remarks. “And it fell back into ash, eventually.”“Ashes!? That would mean… Elsewhere… the… Blind Eternities?”“I have heard it referred to as such. I am not sure they are the same, but at least similar. What would ashes mean?”For a moment, she is quiet. “...consumption of casting components. Not a being bound by pact, but a figment like any planeswalker’s summon…” Then, she shouts, “but that still does not explain the miasma!”“Why not a spell, as any planeswalker’s spell? The construct I summoned which fell on you was not a spell I knew of. It was from one of the sparks. The miasma may be from your spark the same way.”“Except you can speak to the sparks because they are not yours! It’s not normal… I spo- never spoke to mine. The miasma… the miasma is a spell that…” Lettie falters as she remembers how Seska had dispelled it, only for it to reappear. “I never cast… even after it was dispelled, it simply reformed unbidden… around my spark…”Zero’s attention turns for a moment, like she’s listening to someone else. “One of the sparks says they had experienced similar. An intense sense of impending danger that they could never be rid of, only try to ignore. A spell they could not seem to turn off, but only activated after they had become a planeswalker.”That had been since the moment she had become a planeswalker, Lettie tries not to realize. “...There… has to be… another explanation.”“Why does there nee–”“It can’t be true!” Lettie interrupts. “And why not? I can get a sense of your magical radiation, it is quite high. That is commonly a spell that is powerful, constant, or both.”“It’s too… horrible… why… why did I become a planeswalker at all?””With how you deal in chemicals, it was likely the only way to keep yourself alive.”With her heart threatening to break free of her, Lettie tries to draw the breath for more protests, but can find no more of it. She barely has time to notice her lightheadedness before she faints altogether. Pidge shouts and runs over to Lettie’s side. “She is fine,” Zero says. “She—”“Get out of here!” Pidge yells at her. “I did not even want to be in here,” Zero complains before she walks back out to where Karina is still waiting. She seems much more interested this time. “Sooo, what happened, what’d I miss?”“She seems to be upset because she does not believe her spark can have a magic separate from herself.”“Really?! I could have just told her that!”
In an empty field beneath the heaven above all worlds, the miasmatic fog parts around Lettie, revealing her warden: they sit on the ground, resting their broken wings, and through their blackened silhouette, the stars of the multiverse above seem to shine so much brighter. Lettie’s voice cuts through the stillness surrounding the figure twice her height. “Wormwood!” It acknowledges her with a tilt of its head, a motion magnified by its antlers and wreath. “I know it was you… it must have been you who gave me this spark… forced me to live as a broken wretch!”It leans forward, so that it could almost be at eye level with Lettie—were it with eyes. Its voice reverberates through her with every deliberated word. “The spark was never mine to give—only hold. However, it is true—I am the one who pulled you from death’s embrace, and back to a cold, indifferent reality.” "Why? Was I just a pawn to spread this infection across other worlds? Was it not enough that our own home was doomed since your fall?"It slowly shakes its head, as though too decisive a movement could harm Lettie. “The disease has no master, and does not need you to carry it. You were returned to life for your own sake.”“And what good came of it? The miasma had been mine to influence, but the life it carried was an infection that could then be controlled.” She raises her accusation with a pointed finger. “Whose will could it serve but yours?”“If you mean to insinuate that you had only been a part of an infection that I controlled, then know that though the miasma was my power, it was yours to wield as you chose.” The figure briefly watches for protest, before continuing. “Do you deny that it was your own choices by which you acted?”“For the options available given the circumstances!” She can’t help but shout. Then, trying to keep at least some semblance of deference to what had once been a great star on high, she continues, “and for all the similarities between your miasma and the melancholic blood, I suspect that you had shaped those circumstances as well. All for what?”The Fallen One raises itself back to its original height, its gaze still fixed on Lettie. “...In a sense, it is true. You may consider me an inspiration for the melancholic blood, and so much more. I was also the heartache that drove you to take on a mask of normalcy, to conceal your true nature from those who would seek to harm you. I was the fear you felt as you realized the scope of the many minds which conspired against you, a reminder you felt every time you looked into their eyes. And I was the one who taught you to write the scripts of others for your own ends. I was with you from the very beginning.”“So I was just a pawn after all… nothing I could have done would have changed anything…” It is a horrifying notion, but more comforting than anything that she had realized in the past year—but that comfort is cut short by The Fallen One’s rumbling voice. “No. Every choice and every mistake was yours, though the circumstances were unfortunate.”“You say that as though they were not of your own making…” Already, the seemingly flat contradictions are maddening, as much from the Bitter Star as they had been from Zero. Still, Lettie does not abandon the opportunity to ask her most important questions. “Would you at least tell me why it had to be me? Why did you shape me so? Why did I have to live such a life?”“You wish to understand the true nature of what you suffered?” Lettie is taken aback by the offer, and does not answer. The Fallen One puts forth a hand, and in it, conjures the shadow of an apple; letters seem to drift from it like skin being peeled. “Knowledge is the most corrupting force of all. There will be no turning back once you have understood the truth. Are you certain this is what you desire?”Lettie remains silent as she considers, before coming to the same decision she had made long ago. “I swore on your name that I would never avert my eyes from suffering.” The Fallen One relinquishes the offering as Lettie takes it, and begins. “Do you understand that choice? It is the first step to finding the answer you seek.”Lettie again takes a moment of silence as she retraces her memories, and tries to rationalize now what had seemed so natural to her before. “I had been blinded by hope when I created The Mistake. I… never wanted to harm anyone ever again. But all I have been able to do for over a year now has been to harm others just to keep control of this life you have forced me to live. It is the only way I can live.”“And what of those you had tried to leave behind, on that fateful night?”“Who could they be? I had no one left. Even Maggie had abandoned me.” She had once held out hope once that she would hear from her again, but it now seems too foolish. Quietly, Lettie concludes, “my passing would have bereaved no one.”“And what of the harm it inflicted on yourself?” The Fallen One pauses as Lettie looks up in confusion, but she does not protest, so it continues, ”Do you consider yourself separate from the world? We are all under the same heavens.”“I…” The memory of the moment she made the decision nearly brings Lettie to tears before she forces herself to continue. “I just wanted to end my suffering! That was all I had ever wanted… Yet all you’ve done to me has forced me to suffer constantly, for over a year! How could it have been for my sake?”The Fallen One seems to seize upon the distress, and presses Lettie for more answers. “Do you remember the throes of death? The convulsions, the shards of glass, your heart nearly stopping, the bile dr—”“At least that suffering would have ended!” Lettie interrupts. The stars above seem to flicker in irritation. Then, like a flow of blood, or a spreading infection, many begin to turn red. “The true nature of such suffering is that it would have continued with or without you.” In the dire glow, silhouettes of adversaries past form… the shadowed tendrils of the witch, the cruel machine and her phyrexian accomplice, and the pirate who foolishly surrendered her fate. “There have been, and will be, many more just like you.”Lettie already knew this before; she had tried to tell Zero as much. But she does not understand how it explains why she should have been bound to life. “Then at least I could have ended my part in it.”“However, by the time you had made that choice, you had already consigned someone to your fate… though what terrified you most was the pity you felt for them. Would you have helped them?”“I never should have created it!” Lettie cannot help but shout. She had felt such fierce hatred in her very veins before, yet again, all she feels now is exhaustion. “I never should have been created this way either… All I had thought before our work was complete was how such an achievement could redeem me…”“Redeem you of what crime? What crime was there before your crime against nature?”“Of being a burden! Of being unable to abide by my role… and people were right to hate me!” She motions to the stars above. “Look at what I inflicted on others no sooner than I was freed of such constraints! Why was I born this way? Why could I not simply play my part, do what was necessary?”“It was all necessary,” The Fallen One begins with a tone of forced patience, “within the realm of manners that govern your empire—the descendants of laws written by the angels who never faced the suffering they caused. You never had to accept that role."“How could I not?” Lettie can feel her temper slipping away. She tries to imitate the ancient being before her. “It was never my place to question it… so much was sacrificed just so that I could be raised, and had I not hidden myself behind my role, it would have all been for nothing.”“You were raised with the expectation that you would repay the privilege of your very existence—much like a plant, sown only to be reaped. To be alive and intelligent, but far less than a person,” The silhouettes of the red glare are replaced by one of Zero, complete with her wings. “Just as was the prototype angel's fate.”“It was not just for them… all I had lived through had prepared me to understand what no one else could. I was the only one who could have accomplished such a thing.” Briefly, she recalls the moment on the balcony, when she had once thought she had realized her life’s meaning. “At least we could have learned something from it… and even if my life was horrible, some good could still come of it. It was my purpose for being!”“Yet as you told the prototype angel, nothing could have possibly compensated all you suffered. The purpose for which you lived was one that you had chosen to comfort yourself.” It holds a hand up to quell Lettie’s next interruption, before finishing, “Then, even when you had become all you thought you should have been, you found it to be only a reassuring delusion—your suffering continued.”“Do you mean to tell me that there was never any reason for my suffering?” She screams in frustration, in disbelief. “That there is no reason for me to be alive at all? Was there no reason you had shaped me so?”Yet The Fallen One does not raise its voice above that which already shakes Lettie with every word. “Your reason to live was always yours to decide, then and always. But when you realized the false purpose that had been forced upon you, to die then would have been a grave injustice. So with that realization, I gave you the time to find a fitting meaning to your story rather than a lie.”“Only for the time you gave me to bring more tragedy!” She shouts again, before resigning herself to a more quiet melancholy. “How could my life possibly improve, after all I have done—and all that was done to me?”The shadowed figure of The Fallen One seems to creak as it leans forward once again, to where it would nearly be at level with Lettie’s gaze. Almost softly, it speaks. “This is not the hope that one day life will be better. It is simply the refusal to accept the doom that others wished for you.”Lettie can only cast her gaze downwards. Try as she might, she can not deny it. "...But why tell me this only now? How could I have sought the justice you wished for me in your silence? I harmed so many just trying to survive on my own terms...""Because I cannot tell you anything you do not yourself know.” When Lettie raises her gaze again, she is alone in a field of stars, the voice echoing around her. “The Fallen One is still a charred dreaming corpse at the bottom of the sea, and there is more in the multiverse than our home could have dreamt of in all its philosophy... not even its creator. You far surpassed us all.""Dreamt... this... is only a dream...""And surely, now, you understand who I am."
As Lettie wakes, she bolts upright quickly enough that pain shoots through her arm again; she does not care. She peers into the unseen direction, and sees the heaven above all worlds. Raising her good arm, she tears the veil, and miasma begins to pour through, and away from her spark. Lettie notices that the stars seem to brighten. Pidge sees a dark cloud rising from Lettie, similar to what she’s seen before when Lettie planeswalks. “Hey there, you’re not ready to run off now,” Pidge tries to wave off the fumes as she runs to Lettie’s side, then gently sets hand on her shoulder. “You really shouldn’t be movin’ much at all, don’t wanna hurt yourself any worse… do… do you?”Lettie is acutely aware of where every knuckle of Pidge’s hand meets her shoulder, of a foreign heartbeat in contact with her. The interfering sensations quickly feel as though they are claws digging into her shoulder—just like the claws Lettie feels are sinking into the back of her head as she looks into the blind eternities, their true form taking shape. She must force herself through this pain. Through gritted teeth, she growls, “I’m… ru- not running. I can’t see with ha- your hand on my- on me!”Pidge pulls back her hand. “Sorry, I wasn’t th…, you can’t see?”She does not answer. She stares wide-eyed into space, surrounded by black miasma, into the blind eternities, as their true, overwhelmingly complex form reveals itself. She can scarcely bring herself to speak. “The planes… like the uncountable gleaming facets of a cut jewel…” It had only seemed to be a blinding tangle of lights when Seska dispelled her before. “And we can see ‘em once you’re healed up, let’s don’t go while you’re hurt, though.”“No, it’s…” The sight is too intense for her to continue for much longer. “I can… see them now… I had always seen them as stars! The miasma…” The stars had only been the faintest glimmers beyond the veil of her own miasma. She could have dispelled it if she had so wished, but the thing that had kept her from doing it before was this base sensory pain. Now, she can not bear it any longer; she allows the miasma to begin reforming around her spark, and shield her sight once again. The miasma in the room is fading away, and the newfound clarity is more than what Lettie could have been prepared for. She doubles over, sobbing. Her shoulder, her head, her heart, all of it aches. “It was me, Pidge… all this time… I could have s-stopped… at any point… I’m such a coward.”“Not sure I’d call ya a coward. Jus… did some stuff maybe ya wish ya hadn’t. Happens to everyone. And it seems like y’all haven’t done anything that can’t be fixed.”“People are dead Pidge… I sided with tyrants… Zero wasn’t the only one I hounded like this…” The confessions flow from her like her tears. It had all been such simple selfishness, and cowardice. “That’s… well, you’ve,” Pidge struggles. She’d known Lettie was a bit less above board than her, but this… The door creaks open. “Is everything okay?” Karina runs into the room, with Zero not far behind her. “We heard some shouting, and, and…” Her eyes start to blur as she gets near Lettie. She starts shrinking away from all the eyes on her. “It seems we are not quite finished yet,” Zero says, looking to Karina and back, “So we were at your spark keeping yourself alive, as I recall.”“It was my power… I… wanted t-to believe I was forced to live like this, but… I was such a coward…” Lettie can’t bear to look at Zero after all that has happened. “I dispelled it, just now… I could have stopped at any point.”Zero closes her fist. There were a few ways to go here. She chooses to try her own advice. “And now that you know, will you?”“I… don’t want to die.” She feels pathetic saying it, as though it is only a desperate plea. “From what I have seen of you, you have put yourself into more danger than others have.”She still cannot stop crying. “I thought… if it weren’t my choice… if it were destroying other evil, I… could just leave this all behind… but now there’s no escape… there never was… I was always too much of a coward.”“When you said that of me, I said those sacrifices should not have happened, and surely it is better to do the best with what you have now, than to do nothing.”“...What could I even do?”“That may be something only you can determine. Or those you have wronged.”“...You were one of them…”It takes her a moment to respond. “That is good to hear. As for that, I would have you do two things.” She holds up one finger. “Not try to kill me anymore.” She points to Karina. “And convince this kid we are done fighting.”Of course, the child is here. Lettie tries to choke back her tears long enough to have a semblance of composure, with the sternness to match. “...Child. I do not know the means by which you coerced Zero, but they will not be necessary at this point.”Karina nods. “I’ll… give it back when we’re back outside.” Lettie gives her an odd glance; had the child been stringing Zero along? “I suppose that is the best I can hope for. It may not be much for all you have to do, Wormwood, but at least it is a start.”Lettie grimaces, still maintaining her shallow composure. “...Please do not… call me by that name.”“It is the name you gave me.”“...It is a name borrowed from what you called ‘reaper’.”“I see. What else should I call you, then?” Karina looks weirdly at Zero. She’d definitely called her Miss Lettie in front of Zero several times already. For a moment, Lettie considers giving the name she had been known by on her home plane. However, after all this time, she feels as distant from it as her old family. “Most people on speaking terms with me know me as Leticia, or Lettie.” It feels bizarre, more than anything, to introduce herself to Zero after all that had happened between them. "Very well, Lettie." Zero is quiet for a moment. "And, I think, I should ask the same of you. What I might do, as one who may have wronged you."Lettie can scarcely believe what she has been offered, but she considers carefully before making her request. “The both of us… are still broken beings. We will have to find a way to continue living. You have... convinced... me that there is still something we can do... so... l will… hold you… to the claim. Could you write to me, and tell me what comes of this?”“I can try to do this. How does writing letters work among planeswalkers? We are not exactly easy to find at the best of times.”“That one I can help with, if y’all are really doin’ this.” Pidge looks worriedly at Lettie. “Are y’all really doin’ this?”She does wish to know if Zero can continue, such as she is, and with the informant network dissolved, this would be the best way. “It… feels unreal… as though this were a dying dream, that I could still be writhing on the floor, or bleeding to death in the pit… but I think I must know, whether even Zero can truly continue under these circumstances. I… think I would be lost, otherwise.”“Strange as it is, yer really here,” Pidge says as she goes to rummage in her bag. She pulls out a card and a small box with a button, then uncertainly hands them to Zero. “That’ll help ya find my outposts, we do planeswalker delivery stuff, whatever and wherever you’re sending ta Lettie, we’ll be able to get it to her.” Zero accepts the items from Pidge. Karina squints as she watches Zero open a rift, set them away, and then reseal it. “Very well. I shall send whatever developments occur. Is there any more that is needed or shall we leave to let you recover?”“Thank you…” Lettie murmurs, somewhat in disbelief. “I think… I will need my rest now.”Zero turns to Karina, who nods and runs out of the room. Zero follows behind, her heavy steps stomping down the hall as she finally leaves. Lettie groans as she tries to set herself down again. “Pidge, might you help me with these?”“Yeah, let me know if I’m jostlin ya too much.” Pidge pulls aside the extra pillows around the edges of the bed and helps Lettie lie back down. “That good, or you want more of them back there?” A weak nod changed partway through to a shake is the only response. “Alright, good with that, then.” Pidge looks around the room. “Let’s get that door closed so ya don’t get any more noise than ya need to.”A moment after the door closes behind her visitors, Lettie speaks again. “Even now, it all feels like a lie.”Pidge picks up her stool and walks it closer to the bed. “What does?”It takes Lettie a moment to think through what exactly she feels. “That I want to continue living… that I’ll try to set things right, as though it were possible…”“Well, just cause you couldn’t see something doesn’t mean it wasn’t there, or that you can’t see it with a bit a’ work and maybe some help.”Lettie turns to lie on the side that’s least uncomfortable for her in this state, and thinks a moment longer. Her eyes feel heavy, as though weighed down by the exhaustion of the past year. She manages one last, weak laugh. “I suppose then, I will have to continue, against my better judgment, and see what comes of it.” She closes her eyes.
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Post by test on Mar 3, 2022 22:07:04 GMT
Once I thought myself a walking shadow A poor player desperate and scriptless whether the wretch awaiting the deathblow or tyrant of the rot that afflicts us
I was Wormwood, thrall of the fallen stars I cast my bitterness upon the land With gifts I thought born of unfading scars Only with mercy did I understand
For all the years I wish'd this pain would end In truth I was my greatest tormentor Still hiding behind masks perhaps I'll mend Though first I must exit stage's center
Still this hope seems no more than deception
Yet I cannot spurn my introspection Lettie Wormwood has left the Arena, her now forgotten home notwithstanding. During her run, she unlocked the following achievements: Epic Proportions Enter the Infinite Wojek Veteran Old Fogey Homicidal Seclusion Modern Master Conqueror's Pledge (The Tragedy of Kaira Veis. Also participated in Troischa/Dieule, as well as Kadri) Helix Pinnacle {Lettie's Character Sheet} (Art by Aleksandra Wojtas) Colors: (2 points) CMC Level: 10 (10 points) Type Masteries: Creatures, Sorceries, Artifacts, Instants, Enchantments (5 points) Multicolored Level: 1 (1 point) Mechanics: Split Cards (1 point), Wither (1 point), Persist (1 point), Treasure tokens (1 point), Vial tokens (1 point, they're artifacts with “, Sacrifice this and another permanent: Draw a card. Activate this ability only during your turn.”), Agonize (You may cast this card from your graveyard by putting a -1/-1 counter on a creature you control in addition to paying its other costs. Then exile this card.), Hire (You may reveal a Privateer card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand, or create a 1/1 black Soldier creature token.), Scavenge, Fuse Basic Perks: Rarity Upgrader (1 point), Multityper (1 point), Artificer (1 point) Advanced Perks: Tactical Imperator (2 points) Valor: 741 Score: 2941 Mana: 10/10 CFA Sets: Core Sets //Vial tokens by Pinkmoth. {Intro 2019-08-31}An abandoned studio has been settled, and to this point has only had a single window replaced. The door has been removed altogether, and the stagnant smell has been masked by choking fumes rising from beakers and flasks, separated from the entrance by a short cabinet acting as a makeshift counter, with a stuffed alligator on guard atop it. Hanging from the alligator's neck is a sign: "Bartered goods first // Local currency second".
The shop is run solely by a young woman, always absent until the moment someone crosses her threshold. She insists on being called "Lettie", a name she gives with a cheerful smile and cold eyes. She ventures nothing further, and quickly becomes irritable if those she presumes customers ask her petty questions such as where she's from, if she owns the tiny shop on another plane, or heavens forbid, how she sparked. However, she's all too happy to ask questions of her own (though she assures none will be asked for suspicious purchases), and her many shelves seem to gather books by the day. {Intro 2019-09-26}The shops have begun to dot the planes, and a handful have been equipped with expensive and advanced aether tunneling technology, and consolidated into a central hub filled to the brim with books and Lettie's many potions, poisons, oils, and reagents. The buildings holding the tunnel endpoints are now filled with cats she feeds on the regular, and bear the signs: "Adopt a Cat // Free of Charge", and "Site Caretakers Wanted // Knock to Inquire." The circles under Lettie's eyes are beginning to fade, but she still has a certain coldness about her when forced to talk about anything besides business and books. {Intro 2020-01-11}For several days, a strange woman has been seen fumigating, cleaning, and decontaminating her many shops, and on occasion passing a hot iron over her papers and books, a sour expression on her face the whole time. By the end of the process, each shop is aglow with green mana. She then makes quick rounds through her shops, hanging a new temporary sign, "Apologies for Closure // Back in Business", and double checking that her previous signs are still readable. Lettie currently bears faint and faded chemical burns just under her eyes, and she speaks quietly and softly when handling transactions, with no time or attention spared for most small talk. {Intro 2021-03-26}Where a house once stood near the bakery, there is now only a ruin. The root of a great sprawling system, it has been severed, but its creator lives, attending the surviving shops branching throughout the Arena and Multiverse. A new house will be built soon, and until then, Lettie Wormwood continues to ply her trade. Though the last vestiges of the burns beneath her eyes have vanished, they are quickly being replaced by horrid dark circles. Despite that, she seems lighter, in a sense, more energetic, as though she has found the answer to a dilemma that she has faced for far too long. Anyone can see, however, that the answer has only brought her grim resolve, and not happiness. {Intro 2021-07-05}Near the Atlas Bakery there is an extravagant house with a storefront. It is a bizarre mix of wood and steel reinforcements with carved embellishments and astonishingly wide windows. To one who would know the sense of the word, it is modern, what with its lightswitches and heating, but it is mismatched with its inhabitant, one of another era, who is not quite a witch, not quite an alchemist, and as she feels, neither entirely dead nor alive, in a state that can never be fully present. She feels alien to her own home, as ever she is an outsider to the entire multiverse.
Once again, a myriad of shops on the Arena and a handful on other planes are connected through the aether tunnel of this residence, and the rest are supplied through planeswalking. Before long, Lettie will have redistributed her stock to their proper places, and continue her dismal business. Intro 2022-02-10: The shops are all closed. One by one, they are being abandoned, stripped of their signs, then all their goods, and then finally their furnishings. Soon, all that will remain will be the cat sanctuaries with their aether tunnels, and Lettie's own home, for what time there is left that she may call it that. Informants are being handed their final payments along with apologies, with some asked to organize management of the cat sanctuaries. Poor Alsy is given the greatest sum of all; she needs something to survive after all that she has lost.
Lettie Wormwood herself is taking care to avoid visitors; she is rarely seen enough that rumors have begun to spread among some of her former clients that she has perished, and that suits her just fine.
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Post by test on Mar 4, 2022 1:47:39 GMT
(Art by Dominik Mayer)
One sunset, all of a sudden, there is a knight traveling as they always have, between towns that will always be. For a moment, they pause to gaze out along the horizon, and marvel at the beauty of their home, this Arena. What new adventures await? What noble deeds?
Lothaire has entered the Arena.
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Post by WindyDelcarlo on Mar 4, 2022 2:00:21 GMT
"Sector 1-13-2."
Rel announces the numbers to himself as his transceiver tells him he's entered the region. This was a very high resource region, for some unknown region. Maybe there was an ancient facility buried here. Maybe a noble once ruled this land and had a treasure vault. Or maybe it was just lucky. Whatever the case may be, this was a high priority sector to take control of, and it was only... some distance away. Not a travel to make daily, for certain. And the only problem was that it resided on top of a small town, one that didn't seem to know or care about the riches beneath their feet. One that the Dairan military would have no problems wiping out, if it came to it, but that was a fate he would much rather avoid.However, without any idea who or what ruled this place, he would just have to get to work, and see what problems walked into his path. A grid of lights should do.Zone of Control Enchantment Whenever a creature attacks you, put a law counter on it, then Zone of Control deals damage to it equal to the number of law counters on it. When Zone of Control leaves the battlefield, remove all law counters from all permanents. To control a region, first one must establish that a region is theirs.(Rel is purchasing enchantments)
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Post by test on Mar 4, 2022 2:28:41 GMT
"Sector 1-13-2."
Rel announces the numbers to himself as his transceiver tells him he's entered the region. This was a very high resource region, for some unknown region. Maybe there was an ancient facility buried here. Maybe a noble once ruled this land and had a treasure vault. Or maybe it was just lucky. Whatever the case may be, this was a high priority sector to take control of, and it was only... some distance away. Not a travel to make daily, for certain. And the only problem was that it resided on top of a small town, one that didn't seem to know or care about the riches beneath their feet. One that the Dairan military would have no problems wiping out, if it came to it, but that was a fate he would much rather avoid.However, without any idea who or what ruled this place, he would just have to get to work, and see what problems walked into his path.Zone of Control Enchantment Whenever a creature attacks you, put a law counter on it, then Zone of Control deals damage to it equal to the number of law counters on it. When Zone of Control leaves the battlefield, remove all law counters from all permanents. (Rel is purchasing enchantments) Maybe a noble once ruled this land and had a treasure vault.
The next glance he takes at the small town, Rel notices the ruins of a keep atop a hill, with only half an empty moat that has survived the ages. He remembers seeing it as he approached, but then what does that mean for his memories of speculating on the cause of these high resources? Regardless of what answer he comes to, it is difficult to miss the glowing knight cantering down the hill, approaching Rel. It might occur to him how out of place he looks here.
"Hail, friend!" The Knight calls with a wave once Rel allows them to approach close enough to be heard—or if he ever takes his eyes off them, in which case they will appear alongside him at the next moment, glow and all. "What brings you to these lands? Pilgrimage? Or perhaps you are errant, searching for a retinue to join? You seem wayward such as you are!"
Creature — Elemental Whenever Blinding Steed or enchanted creature is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to any target.
Spectral (When this creature dies, you may return it to the battlefield as an Aura enchantment attached to target creature.)
2/3 Zone of Control — I don't like how this messes up combat math in a non-constant manner that doesn't equally affect stats like minus counters do; I would almost prefer it if it were checked removal instead of damage, since at least it doesn't interfere with combat in the same way. Otherwise, I'm not certain how to judge the cost, other than something like a situational (that is, very slow) no mercy that doesn't let damage through. Flavorfully, it's well representative of this kind of colonial behavior. 7/10
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Post by WindyDelcarlo on Mar 4, 2022 2:43:29 GMT
"Sector 1-13-2."
Rel announces the numbers to himself as his transceiver tells him he's entered the region. This was a very high resource region, for some unknown region. Maybe there was an ancient facility buried here. Maybe a noble once ruled this land and had a treasure vault. Or maybe it was just lucky. Whatever the case may be, this was a high priority sector to take control of, and it was only... some distance away. Not a travel to make daily, for certain. And the only problem was that it resided on top of a small town, one that didn't seem to know or care about the riches beneath their feet. One that the Dairan military would have no problems wiping out, if it came to it, but that was a fate he would much rather avoid.However, without any idea who or what ruled this place, he would just have to get to work, and see what problems walked into his path.Zone of Control Enchantment Whenever a creature attacks you, put a law counter on it, then Zone of Control deals damage to it equal to the number of law counters on it. When Zone of Control leaves the battlefield, remove all law counters from all permanents. (Rel is purchasing enchantments) Maybe a noble once ruled this land and had a treasure vault.
The next glance he takes at the small town, Rel notices the ruins of a keep atop a hill, with only half an empty moat that has survived the ages. He remembers seeing it as he approached, but then what does that mean for his memories of speculating on the cause of these high resources? Regardless of what answer he comes to, it is difficult to miss the glowing knight cantering down the hill, approaching Rel. It might occur to him how out of place he looks here.
"Hail, friend!" The Knight calls with a wave once Rel allows them to approach close enough to be heard—or if he ever takes his eyes off them, in which case they will appear alongside him at the next moment, glow and all. "What brings you to these lands? Pilgrimage? Or perhaps you are errant, searching for a retinue to join? You seem wayward such as you are!"
Creature — Elemental Knight Whenever Blinding Steed or enchanted creature is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to any target.
Spectral (When this creature dies, you may return it to the battlefield as an Aura enchantment attached to target creature.)
2/3 Zone of Control — I don't like how this messes up combat math in a non-constant manner that doesn't equally affect stats like minus counters do; I would almost prefer it if it were checked removal instead of damage, since at least it doesn't interfere with combat in the same way. Otherwise, I'm not certain how to judge the cost, other than something like a situational (that is, very slow) no mercy that doesn't let damage through. Flavorfully, it's well representative of this kind of colonial behavior. 7/10
Initially Rel lifts a hand in a wave, then looks down to continue his work. He's definitely surprised, then, when he looked back up and the knight was suddenly there. "Yo, nothin' much. Doin' a resource survey on a chaotic and ruthless land. Come from a place called Daira, this kinda place doesn't exist there."Blinding Steed is a fun take on Boros Reckoner. I like what Spectral does for a card that already expects to die, too. Just very solid design. 10/10 Emperor's Aide Creature - Human Warrior Whenever Emperor's Aide attacks, another target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn. "Humanity's greatest strength is unity. As one state, under one rule, we can accomplish great things." -- Lord Evun Rex2/1
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Post by test on Mar 4, 2022 3:20:33 GMT
Initially Rel lifts a hand in a wave, then looks down to continue his work. He's definitely surprised, then, when he looked back up and the knight was suddenly there. "Yo, nothin' much. Doin' a resource survey on a chaotic and ruthless land. Come from a place called Daira, this kinda place doesn't exist there."Blinding Steed is a fun take on Boros Reckoner. I like what Spectral does for a card that already expects to die, too. Just very solid design. 10/10 Emperor's Aide Creature - Human Warrior Whenever Emperor's Aide attacks, another target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn. "Humanity's greatest strength is unity. As one state, under one rule, we can accomplish great things." -- Lord Evun Rex2/1 "Survey? My friend, these are long settled and charted lands! They are neither chaotic nor ruthless, but full of wonder and life!" In the pause following the Knight's words, Rel becomes aware of bards playing festive tunes in the nearby tavern, muddled by lively conversations and clanging glasses. "...unless you would have something to say about that? It seems such simple existence is unknown to Daira, after all." Near-Empty Pistol Artifact — Equipment
When Near-Empty Pistol enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to any target.
Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
Equip Emperor's Aide — You know, we've gotten a lot of vanguards lately, but I think pseudo-evasion granting with no further cost is pushing it a bit. Otherwise, it does provide a use case for late game, which is good. 7/10
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Post by WindyDelcarlo on Mar 4, 2022 3:47:31 GMT
Initially Rel lifts a hand in a wave, then looks down to continue his work. He's definitely surprised, then, when he looked back up and the knight was suddenly there. "Yo, nothin' much. Doin' a resource survey on a chaotic and ruthless land. Come from a place called Daira, this kinda place doesn't exist there."Blinding Steed is a fun take on Boros Reckoner. I like what Spectral does for a card that already expects to die, too. Just very solid design. 10/10 Emperor's Aide Creature - Human Warrior Whenever Emperor's Aide attacks, another target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn. "Humanity's greatest strength is unity. As one state, under one rule, we can accomplish great things." -- Lord Evun Rex2/1 "Survey? My friend, these are long settled and charted lands! They are neither chaotic nor ruthless, but full of wonder and life!" In the pause following the Knight's words, Rel becomes aware of bards playing festive tunes in the nearby tavern, muddled by lively conversations and clanging glasses. "...unless you would have something to say about that? It seems such simple existence is unknown to Daira, after all." Near-Empty Pistol Artifact — Equipment
When Near-Empty Pistol enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to any target.
Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
Equip Emperor's Aide — You know, we've gotten a lot of vanguards lately, but I think pseudo-evasion granting with no further cost is pushing it a bit. Otherwise, it does provide a use case for late game, which is good. 7/10
"You're not wrong, this's pretty strange to someone like me. All kindsa examples of people tryin' to live like this and then the next day something horrifyin' that you can barely understand shows up and it doesn't care about logic or feelin's, all it wants it for ya to die. Stories around here say a city called Sanaerti upped and vanished 'cause of somethin' like that. 'S it not better to have somethin' to rely on? Somethin' that can protect the life ya want to live when the titans clash on top of ya?"Near-Empty Pistol like "I get to shoot something for one and then I have a rock." Which is fun. 8/10 Suzerainty Enchantment When Suzerainty enters the battlefield, draw a card, then choose an opponent. Creatures can't attack the chosen opponent unless you pay for each creature that's attacking them. Creatures the chosen opponent controls can't attack you unless they pay for each creature that's attacking you.
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Post by test on Mar 4, 2022 4:33:10 GMT
"You're not wrong, this's pretty strange to someone like me. All kindsa examples of people tryin' to live like this and then the next day something horrifyin' that you can barely understand shows up and it doesn't care about logic or feelin's, all it wants it for ya to die. Stories around here say a city called Sanaerti upped and vanished 'cause of somethin' like that. 'S it not better to have somethin' to rely on? Somethin' that can protect the life ya want to live when the titans clash on top of ya?"Near-Empty Pistol like "I get to shoot something for one and then I have a rock." Which is fun. 8/10 Suzerainty Enchantment When Suzerainty enters the battlefield, draw a card, then choose an opponent. Creatures can't attack the chosen opponent unless you pay for each creature that's attacking them. Creatures the chosen opponent controls can't attack you unless they pay for each creature that's attacking you. The Knight lets out a short burst of laughter. Then, catching their breath, they put a hand to their helmet as they roar a much longer chorus of laughter. "Sanaerti! My friend, Sanaerti never vanished! Our goddess is on the throne, and where great evil rises, our greater heroes will strike it down!" They take a few moments to breathe before chuckling some more. "We've known many tyrants and conquerors on this Arena... you Dairans would not be the first invaders—and certainly not the last. Do I assume too much?" Breaker of Oaths Creature — Human Knight First Strike When Breaker of Oaths enters the battlefield, you may destroy target artifact or enchantment. 2/2 Suzerainty — I'm not sure if it's intended, but the opponent protection ability allows you to completely shut off the attacks of other players, which makes flavourful sense, but is also annoying as hell design-wise. Taking into account as well the power of these effects in multiplayer, as well as the development of propaganda type effects, this seems much too easy and powerful, even if it otherwise captures the flavour well. 6/10
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Post by WindyDelcarlo on Mar 4, 2022 5:02:02 GMT
"You're not wrong, this's pretty strange to someone like me. All kindsa examples of people tryin' to live like this and then the next day something horrifyin' that you can barely understand shows up and it doesn't care about logic or feelin's, all it wants it for ya to die. Stories around here say a city called Sanaerti upped and vanished 'cause of somethin' like that. 'S it not better to have somethin' to rely on? Somethin' that can protect the life ya want to live when the titans clash on top of ya?"Near-Empty Pistol like "I get to shoot something for one and then I have a rock." Which is fun. 8/10 Suzerainty Enchantment When Suzerainty enters the battlefield, draw a card, then choose an opponent. Creatures can't attack the chosen opponent unless you pay for each creature that's attacking them. Creatures the chosen opponent controls can't attack you unless they pay for each creature that's attacking you. The Knight lets out a short burst of laughter. Then, catching their breath, they put a hand to their helmet as they roar a much longer chorus of laughter. "Sanaerti! My friend, Sanaerti never vanished! Our goddess is on the throne, and where great evil rises, our greater heroes will strike it down!" They take a few moments to breathe before chuckling some more. "We've known many tyrants and conquerors on this Arena... you Dairans would not be the first invaders—and certainly not the last. Do I assume too much?" Breaker of Oaths Creature — Human Knight First Strike When Breaker of Oaths enters the battlefield, you may destroy target artifact or enchantment. 2/2 Suzerainty — I'm not sure if it's intended, but the opponent protection ability allows you to completely shut off the attacks of other players, which makes flavourful sense, but is also annoying as hell design-wise. Taking into account as well the power of these effects in multiplayer, as well as the development of propaganda type effects, this seems much too easy and powerful, even if it otherwise captures the flavour well. 6/10
Rel lets out a chuckle of his own. "Goddess, huh? I'd hate to be on the receiving end of one of them. Heard plenty of stories of the Saints of Solari. I think ya've misunderstood me, though. Daira wouldn't do harm to these people or their lives. Being completely honest, there's not a reason I'd want to. They're not troublin' anyone. Thing I noticed was a deep vein of platinum -- super useful for protective alloys against spells, kinda useful for aether mechanics. Seems like it's kinda a waste lackin' the tools and know-how to use it when it could benefit so many people. That's the kinda thing we do."Breaker of Oaths is probably correctly costed, given what Rec Sage costs, but it really feels like it's too high. Maybe it could be larger at this mana cost -- you're basically trading a mana for first strike. 7/10 Platenite Armor Artifact - Equipment Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has hexproof. Equip
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Post by test on Mar 4, 2022 18:11:31 GMT
Rel lets out a chuckle of his own. "Goddess, huh? I'd hate to be on the receiving end of one of them. Heard plenty of stories of the Saints of Solari. I think ya've misunderstood me, though. Daira wouldn't do harm to these people or their lives. Being completely honest, there's not a reason I'd want to. They're not troublin' anyone. Thing I noticed was a deep vein of platinum -- super useful for protective alloys against spells, kinda useful for aether mechanics. Seems like it's kinda a waste lackin' the tools and know-how to use it when it could benefit so many people. That's the kinda thing we do."Breaker of Oaths is probably correctly costed, given what Rec Sage costs, but it really feels like it's too high. Maybe it could be larger at this mana cost -- you're basically trading a mana for first strike. 7/10 Platenite Armor Artifact - Equipment Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has hexproof. Equip "Yes, these are rich lands! But what, my dear... guest, do you think would be necessary to exploit such a deep vein?" Rel might suddenly become aware that townsfolk have begun to gather around the exchange. Still, the music plays, growing somewhat louder still. Are the bards coming to see for themselves? "Daira would not be able to do any harm to the people who reside here though, that is true. I consider you an envoy for now, so I suggest you recognize where you stand." The rest of the Knight's retinue, which have been silent and very much present until this moment, laugh.Palatine Extorter Creature — Human Soldier When Palatine Extorter enters the battlefield, target opponent sacrifices an artifact. If they can't, you create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token. 1/1 Platenite Armor — Thinking of something like goldvein pick, I think that this is more or less the correct cost, and sidearm pointedly hedges it out of common, so it's the correct rarity too. 9/10
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