Hector straightened. “Ah... Garovel wants to know about the Sandlords.”
<“What about them?”>
“What about them, Garovel?”
The reaper’s bony brow twisted. ‘Ask what they’re up to. We heard they were having trouble with Abolish before, so have there been any notable developments with that? Or any other problems, maybe?’
It took him a bit longer, but Hector relayed the reaper’s questions. More or less.
<“As far as I can tell, the Sandlords don’t like to discuss that type of thing openly,”> said Lynn. <“But the news has been a little odd.”>
“Odd, how?”
<“Ah---um, I should preface this by saying that I had to ask someone to translate for me. The news is in Valgan, you know, so... just, don’t get mad at me if I got something wrong here, alright?”>
Hector blinked as he listened, feeling a sudden worry that his own awful speech patterns might be having some kind of negative effect on her. And without even thinking, he said, “I doubt I could ever get mad at you.”
There came a very long pause.
His eyes widened as he realized what had just come out of his mouth. He wanted to take it back, but he was too afraid to say anything else. When he looked at Garovel, the reaper’s hollow eye sockets had grown larger as well.
<“...Well, uh.”> It was her turn to clear her throat. <“I just thought the news seemed odd because there are a lot of mysterious reports going around. Freak industrial accidents. Disappearing pets. Brushfires. Even a rise in burglaries and murders.”>
Hector’s brow lowered. “Where have these things been happening?”
<“Zebul, Guldamere, Shara, Egas--all over eastern Sair.”>
“Hmm... Do they think it’s Abolish?”
<“I assume so, but who knows? This place has been so busy. It seems like the Sandlords have had to dispatch people to investigate a new problem every few hours.”>
“Huh. That’s... unsettling.”
<“Yeah.”>
“Maybe you should head back to Atreya soon...”
<“Ha. That’s not up to me, Hector. Why? Are you worried about us?”>
“Uh... well, yeah. These Rainlords and Sandlords... they’re no joke, Lynn. I’ve seen them fight with my own eyes, and they scare the hell out of me--way more than anyone we fought back home. So... I mean, anyone who thinks they can go up against these guys is either really stupid or really dangerous.”
<“I see. Well, I’m sure Prince Meriwether knows that, too, but I’ll tell him what you said.”>
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
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ReplyDeleteNo girl is safe not even from Hector.
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ReplyDeleteMight as well jump on the bandwagon.
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Y'know, Hector, beneath all the stammering and silence, you are one smooth customer.
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ReplyDeleteLMFAO that was easily in my top 5 favorite chapters just from that part with Lynn stuttering then Hector speaking plainly. Man I REALLY want to know what Garovel was thinking right there!
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ReplyDeleteGod, this is cute. And even Garovel is speechless.
Quick question about the "brushfires". My dictionary of choice has no entry for "brushfire". I have no trouble understanding it, and I found some cases of it being used, I just wanted to make sure you didn't mean to write "bushfire", which seems to be way more common.
Look up wildfires. Basically an off hand term for the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI did, it's what wikipedia redirects to when searching for brushfire. I didn't mean to imply that it's not a real world -- I just wanted to make sure that it is the word Frosty actually meant to use. "Bushfire" has ten times the number of hits than "brushfire" on google, and there is no functional difference between those two as far as I can tell, so I see no real reason to use the less common one. I do like the word wildfire even more, though.
ReplyDeleteReally, don't mind me over here, it's just a minor language thing for me. I just stumbled over the word because when I hear "brush", I'm thinking about the tool for painting and not about bushes.
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ReplyDeleteDid Hector just get abducted in the middle of the conversation?
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ReplyDeleteBrushfires can take place in environments that don't classify as "grassland, savannah or semi-dessert". ;) Bushfires don't bring heather-rich, Scottish or Yorkshire heathland to mind... ;)
ReplyDeleteOh dear, the Sandlords sending people every which way over seemingly minor, easily-caused problems...Abolish is trying to empty the Golden fort so they can drop the hammer on it, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, we may be about to see Haqq's awesome battlesuit in action.
Wasn't it Abbas' creation?
ReplyDeleteI don't care either way, I'd rather see Abbas himself in action
Something I've been thinking bout. Does anyone else think Lynn will ever be able to see reapers? I mean, do you think her soul will bond enough with her item that it'd allow her "the sight" so to speak. I've been kind of assuming this will happen and I'd like to get others' opinions on it
ReplyDeleteI think that if that happened Lynn would end up going almost full aberration. That has potential to be interesting but I think I would rather her stay unable to see reapers. Or have her turn out to be a potential reaper. I don't remember the circumstance of which she got the gauntlet thing or whatever and what conditions were around it but it seems odd to me that any old human can wield it. Actually just about every path she could take seems to have interesting possibilities to me.
ReplyDeleteShe stole it from the Vanguard. I think either it only super-glues to non servants, or else maybe servants have no trouble simply cutting off the offending appendage to remove the item. My guess would be that she could gain the abilities much more easily than she could lose her personality. Ibai seems to prove that they do have functional souls, just a lot of difficulty understanding human morality. I would guess that even if it tried to give her an abberation's personality, she would still retain the memory of what it means to be a good person as she figured it out with the conscience she used to have. My guess is that she just ends up falling behind Hector in power (given that she would need to inflict a fate worse than death on more people than it would be practical to find that deserved it anyway). Unlocking the ability might come with the aberration's senses though.
ReplyDeleteHoly, Wall of Text, Batman!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I wrote that much.
I upvoted all the "..."
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that yes, it does get power from the unsoul of the aberration, including all of the people it consumed before being killed and made into an aberration item. However, I'm pretty sure that the mental connection is one-way, otherwise it would likely have at least equal representation right from the start, and they might have proportional soul-based representation, allowing them to simply dominate a mere human mind and soul.
ReplyDeleteLynn does not specifically need to enjoy consuming souls, she just needs to be happy and wish to use the ability. Of course, being happy while consigning even deserving people (the nastiest of criminals, for instance) to a fate worse than death would require extreme compartmentalizing at best and sadism at worse, and if that isn't blocked possibly also experiencing every memory and thought that those same vile people had at time of death might warp her further.
I would personally put the chance of Lynn taking on an aberration's personality very low, but there is a very simple risk that a decent person wouldn't be able to do what is required to make an aberration power, and she will need to choose between remaining powerless or becoming someone she probably shouldn't for the sake of power. I think that she likely has enough that she can decently protect herself against Hector's enemies, and if she needs to become more powerful they can probably find her a good reaper. It might actually be a good idea, given that it would immediately remove her huge weakness of being blind to reapers, and it would giver her the ability to remove her gauntlet while retaining both arms.
"I doubt I could ever get mad at you."
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, on the other end of the line, Lynnette is blushing up a storm while her brain tries to compute things together.
It was glorious.
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