This post has the following content warnings:
She was napping in the woods on a Nexus of energy. Nobody bothering her. No urgent responsibilities. Trying not to let her ever-present angst get too big.
Weiss Faron knows she is troubled. Perhaps even depressed. A hero complex, or something like that.
The long details of her inner turmoil and angst could fill quite some pages, but now is perhaps not quite the time.
Weiss catches up to the party again, a bit later, seeming kind of down.
"Hey, sorry, I was interrogating a ghost. Former victim of our necromancer apparently. With plenty to say a deck of harrow cards that was of special sentimental value and about some other criminals, who I might go investigate - uh, kind of a religious duty for Tirran kitsunes to help ghosts. Not in a Pharasmin way exactly, though."
"The guards who searched the place mentioned something like that, said they found a deck in a hatbox with a decaying head kept as some horrid trophy. I take it the ghost told you all about that?" She says with a note of sympathy.
"By all accounts you've earned enough favor with your infusions that they'd probably hand it over from the evidence room if you asked, ghost or not."
"Would you need any help with the ghost, or is it more of a solitary duty? You hadn't seemed the devout type."
"I wouldn't turn down help- And I don't think I'm especially devout, exactly. It's just... So, Tirran-kitsunes are a little bit of psychopomps and guardians against cursed lands? Not only that, and there's a bunch of culture clash behind it, but the legends and stories definitely point that way too. I think we're- I don't know if I ever explained this, um... We're slightly more like outsiders than ordinary people? Tamamo picks a few deceased souls and remakes them, I think the other light gods contribute but it's mostly Tamamo, and then incarnates them again, and that's us. I don't think we're like outsiders in other ways though. So I do at least try to nod at the ostensible purpose I was ostensibly created for, even if, like, She's obviously Chaotic and not gonna yell at me for doing whatever instead."
That would explain the psychopomp activities, if that is one of the ways that this Tamamo lays a claim on souls to remake as Her servants. Every sensible wizard has multiple plans for cheating death in the works; perhaps she ought to explore 'make a substantial offering to Tamamo and arrange to die in close proximity to a kitsune' as an addition to her own list.
"Not unprecedented, there is a blue-skinned people of Tian Xia who are supposed to recall their past lives, and the tieflings and aasimar are touched by the lower and upper planes while remaining mortal humanoids. How does Tamamo reward people who serve her?"
She giggles. "Sends kitsunes to help them, sometimes. Or little miracles. Omens that point them to novelty - interesting people or places or hobbies - or away from danger. Priestess abilities, which are analogous to clerical ones. There seems to be much less intervention around here than on Tirra though. If you're thinking of praying, whimsy is much more the correct outlook than transaction."
So, what, her kitsune reincarnation scheme would only work if Tamamo happened to find it funny? Vavana is reminded of why none of the other Chaotic gods feature in any of her existing plans.
"Sounds like She'd get along with Cayden Cailean. The Lucky Drunk's not the sort of god you'd want ruling a country, but He's very much one you could have a drink with."
"Oh, right, I forgot to say earlier - we also found in the old man's collection a brooch that was stolen from the queen, you might want to start thinking about what boon you'd ask from her majesty if she offers it to you next time you have an audience."
"I don't know that I have many very queen-amenable desires. There's always money, but like, ehhhh. It might be fun to play Smash Sisters, or make another copy of it- Oh, I figured out a trick to make my illusions mostly permanent with diamond dust, if that sounds useful to anything."
"It's an illusion game! There are a bunch of characters and you pick one and use a handheld controller to make them fight. Or just watch them fight autonomously. They all have different styles and stuff. The original one was Smash Brothers, but mine is Sisters. Girl power!"
Behold! Illusion of Linkette and Toph going at it.
Oh, the one throwing boulders definitely looks like a kineticist! More support for the idea that Weiss hails from somewhere that they're more common.
"Yeah! It's really fun. Or at least I think so. There is skill to it- You can do a bunch of different things with this kind of illusion game, not just fighting, but fighting is the one I made here."
Why didn't she go into illusion game dev before?? So much wasted time.
"I think I can peel up all the work I did for the one I gave Ileosa and copy it out to a new one in, like, ten minutes. Instead of a week odd to remake it from scratch."
"How close is it to a real fight? I can see it being good for training people, not at any of the physical movements but at the kinds of decisions you have to make in the moment. Or is it more like stage combat?"
"I made it much more like stage combat because that's more fun." And nostalgic. "Combat sim and combat game are very different."
"Oh, sure! I can do a motion capture thing. Probably. I have kind of a feel for how you move by now but I'd want to see lots more examples of it. I'm not really into sparring for sparring's sake though. Or at least, not in the mood today."
"Eh, most kitsunes don't have this much illusion pow-ah. They usually do special effects on shows and dances more than complicated interactive games, but I'm sort of synthesizing several things into one. Call it a hobby, or a rush of creative energy? Nostalgia?"
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
