[ you can't out mind games ME "lucien has literal magic mind control powers" irrelevant. energy of a small chihuahua that thinks its a rottweiler
anyway. he hums, light. ]
No game. [ but temenos looks thoughtful for a moment, weighing it over since lucien wants him to. hmm... ] ...I suppose, if you must ascribe something to it, you could think of it as similar to how Throné and I came to travel together. After all, our goals hardly aligned - but that didn't matter. I've been able to help her. She's been able to help me. Such is the case with all eight of us. Our journeys are unique, yet we aid each other.
I'm a cleric with a skillset relating to life and death. Your particular brand of troubles do fall within my purview, albeit in a far different context. Not to mention, you've already asked of - demanded, really, my help once.
But, that hardly matters. I am helping you because I want to. Nothing more than that.
[ absolutely small dog disease happening here. he is a feral cat who's decided its boss of the alley and can't be told otherwise. he isn't sure he likes this assessment at all, but it ... tracks. at least. ]
[ maybe sometimes people just like helping people you loser
but yes, that gets a nod. ] Eight. It was just Throné and I at first, but we picked up people along the way.
Really, the first time was in a place not unlike this. [ temenos gestures outwards with his head - back out towards the icy cold snow outside, and huffs a laugh. ] We found someone face down in the snow outside of Cape Cold and took him under our proverbial wing. Seemed rather cruel to leave him like that.
[ yeah that's how it happens. you just start picking up weirdos and suddenly you have an adventuring party. ]
... I met Cree when I was young. We were urchins, in the Run, and she had a talent for picking pockets, but I could hit harder, faster, and talk us out of corners. Infernals don't get much leeway, but the Catfolk don't either, so between the two of us, it worked.
there's a bit of a crook to his mouth, there, a smile. he glances over at lucien again, curiosity on his face, though it's muted. ]
Sounds a bit like us. [ the pick pocketing, talking out of corners. temenos can't hit hard, but, you know. same vibe. ] People with complementary skills tend to find each other, here and there.
[ yeah, there's a reason he likes throné so much, and it's because she is insanely cree-coded to him. shaking his head slowly. ]
... Brevyn. She was the daughter of the wretched bitch who'd let me stay in her basement, when it was raining or I begged hard enough. The favorite daughter, for as much as that ever meant with Auntie Mama. She's the one who had the connection with the Orders, vouched for us. Otis we picked up in Rexxentrum, another Claret Orders grunt, she was running as a fence on the side.
When we all left, we ran into Zoran, Jurrel, Tyffial in the Run. More Orders washouts. We all tend to congregate in the same wretched, bloody places.
[ there is so much information to unpack in this little bit!!! so much lore!! he listens to it, fills in the blanks with insinuations where he can. it reminds him a bit back to his initial reaction of temenos as a cleric.
...it's interesting, how some things, between worlds, stay the same. ] And you all started to travel together, after that? To what ends, if any?
Probably for similar reasons you did? The same reasons any group travels together. Solving problems is easier with more than one sword, and you can sleep at night with someone else on watch.
Apart from that, we wanted more than the Orders could give. Contracts were drying up. When you're a monster hunter, you need monsters to hunt to put food in your belly, and those are harder to find now. We'd begun getting more lucrative offers - they'd at least trained us well, if nothing else - from deep-pocketed clients. We could survive expeditions into the ruins of the Calamity, which is more than most mercenary groups can say. Eventually I caught the attention of a few members of the Assembly. [ this is something that would mean a lot to someone from Exandria, but Temenos isn't, so-- ] A powerful group of mages. The puppet hands that pull the strings on the Empire.
[ he nods along to that, because yeah. similar reasons. but the detail helps - monster hunters are common to solistia, too. you do what you have to to fill your belly. it's not even something the travelers are unused to. (though, with partitio, maybe less so.)
he finds this abjectly fascinating, even without the context. it feels rare to earn information about lucien, all things considered - information offered, even, not information he had to ask about? and so he treads carefully as its given, reading between the lines. ]
What sort of attention? [ good attention, bad attention. with a group like that, that definition varies, and gods doesn't know know it. ]
The attention that comes with large amounts of gold for a job well done. A dangerous job.
Vess DeRogna was her name. A fascination with Antiquities, with power, with anything she could use to get the upperhand politically. Didn't matter to me, we were paid well to not care. The agreement was we'd go to Eiselcross - a frozen wasteland, graveyard of the Age of Arcanum city of Aeor - and we could keep anything that wasn't magical, and I'd have access to her research, her books and papers. Her resources. Not something typically available to a tiefling urchin from the Run.
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no subject
[ leaning in. ]
I want to know your game.
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anyway he does not lean out of the way of this. lucien is allowed to investigate - temenos just raises his eyebrows. ]
Do I have any reason not to help you?
[ he does not deny being inscrutable because yeah! yeah he is! ]
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if the tension is lucien wishing he had mind control powers back very strongly right at this moment, then yes. ]
Plenty.
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anyway. he hums, light. ]
No game. [ but temenos looks thoughtful for a moment, weighing it over since lucien wants him to. hmm... ] ...I suppose, if you must ascribe something to it, you could think of it as similar to how Throné and I came to travel together. After all, our goals hardly aligned - but that didn't matter. I've been able to help her. She's been able to help me. Such is the case with all eight of us. Our journeys are unique, yet we aid each other.
I'm a cleric with a skillset relating to life and death. Your particular brand of troubles do fall within my purview, albeit in a far different context. Not to mention, you've already asked of - demanded, really, my help once.
But, that hardly matters. I am helping you because I want to. Nothing more than that.
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Eight of you?
no subject
but yes, that gets a nod. ] Eight. It was just Throné and I at first, but we picked up people along the way.
Really, the first time was in a place not unlike this. [ temenos gestures outwards with his head - back out towards the icy cold snow outside, and huffs a laugh. ] We found someone face down in the snow outside of Cape Cold and took him under our proverbial wing. Seemed rather cruel to leave him like that.
no subject
... I met Cree when I was young. We were urchins, in the Run, and she had a talent for picking pockets, but I could hit harder, faster, and talk us out of corners. Infernals don't get much leeway, but the Catfolk don't either, so between the two of us, it worked.
no subject
there's a bit of a crook to his mouth, there, a smile. he glances over at lucien again, curiosity on his face, though it's muted. ]
Sounds a bit like us. [ the pick pocketing, talking out of corners. temenos can't hit hard, but, you know. same vibe. ] People with complementary skills tend to find each other, here and there.
Is it just the two of you?
no subject
... Brevyn. She was the daughter of the wretched bitch who'd let me stay in her basement, when it was raining or I begged hard enough. The favorite daughter, for as much as that ever meant with Auntie Mama. She's the one who had the connection with the Orders, vouched for us. Otis we picked up in Rexxentrum, another Claret Orders grunt, she was running as a fence on the side.
When we all left, we ran into Zoran, Jurrel, Tyffial in the Run. More Orders washouts. We all tend to congregate in the same wretched, bloody places.
[ so, there were 7 of them. ]
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[ there is so much information to unpack in this little bit!!! so much lore!! he listens to it, fills in the blanks with insinuations where he can. it reminds him a bit back to his initial reaction of temenos as a cleric.
...it's interesting, how some things, between worlds, stay the same. ] And you all started to travel together, after that? To what ends, if any?
[ just to wander the world? ]
no subject
Apart from that, we wanted more than the Orders could give. Contracts were drying up. When you're a monster hunter, you need monsters to hunt to put food in your belly, and those are harder to find now. We'd begun getting more lucrative offers - they'd at least trained us well, if nothing else - from deep-pocketed clients. We could survive expeditions into the ruins of the Calamity, which is more than most mercenary groups can say. Eventually I caught the attention of a few members of the Assembly. [ this is something that would mean a lot to someone from Exandria, but Temenos isn't, so-- ] A powerful group of mages. The puppet hands that pull the strings on the Empire.
no subject
he finds this abjectly fascinating, even without the context. it feels rare to earn information about lucien, all things considered - information offered, even, not information he had to ask about? and so he treads carefully as its given, reading between the lines. ]
What sort of attention? [ good attention, bad attention. with a group like that, that definition varies, and gods doesn't know know it. ]
no subject
Vess DeRogna was her name. A fascination with Antiquities, with power, with anything she could use to get the upperhand politically. Didn't matter to me, we were paid well to not care. The agreement was we'd go to Eiselcross - a frozen wasteland, graveyard of the Age of Arcanum city of Aeor - and we could keep anything that wasn't magical, and I'd have access to her research, her books and papers. Her resources. Not something typically available to a tiefling urchin from the Run.
no subject
And the catch?