I like to take pictures and do the RP (🔞: spicy pictures sometimes, you have been warned) Chad: Dockworker/Chef at Dan's BBQ Kasha: Onmyo Mage/Yokai Hunter Twitter: @cargal_kilnor (I think I'm gonna put the more spicy pictures there)
Chad's a dockworker and chef at Dan's BBQ, a confident fistfighter working on her magic with her girlfriend, M'lyyhia!
Chad Hunkler's RP Carrd
Kasha's an Onmyoji and Yokai Researcher, she owns a spiritual office in Kugane, where clients can take contracts for various problems. Currently, she's training a samurai, Toyo, in the way of her magic.
Kasha's Carrd
I also have some Spotify playlists for them - Relaxation and Training for Chad, and just one playlist for Kasha!
A grudge is a horrible thing to hold, and even worse to die with.
Yurei exist because some tether ties them to this world. Onryo exist because that tether is burning hatred–they didn't die in peace and can't pass on.
They are among the most formidable mononoke you can meet.
Long-lived spiders seldom care for the company of their fellow auspices, let alone for the affairs of man. Unless it serves their interests.
Jorogumo in particular tend to favor an attractive spoken form and may live among smallfolk, deferring to charm to get what they want.
Commission for @oneiroy of theirs and @verysmallcyborg's Ryss and Fornax!! I love these two so much always, it's always a pleasure to draw them!! :3 Thanks so much, and happy pride!! 🌈✨🧡🤍💛💪😁
"Consider perhaps a dense book. Everything you can see in the world around you is encapsulated in a couple of pages. Were you to turn the page, you'd find something similar but different. Keep turning and you slowly further deviate from where you began. These are hidden facets of existence that most cannot see, and what I have honed to focus on all my life. Often spirits or the spiritually acute lurk beyond the veil here, including voidsent.
"You read on and on, and eventually you reach a new chapter, a new story. This is a whole new realm, often called a reflection or a shard - within the same book, for all such realms are part of the greater whole. Worlds not utterly foreign to the Source, but their histories are their own. As well as the relative flows of time. Such is believed from where voidsent hail. From where Alexandria originated..."
... And in that regard, Alexandria's world must be exceptional.
When the search for Pakim had stalled, despite scrutiny of the Ohantum Family, I turned my attention back to Origenics and the trail of souls that flowed from there, using that to re-coordinate my friends' efforts. Further south, into Yok Tural. While I couldn't trace those souls all the way to an endpoint, the shinobi did pick up some interesting information through the Landsguard...
The City of Gold.
A common Turali legend that seemed to be considered very real within intelligence.
I shared my findings with Ashelia...
...And she was able to corroborate via an independent source that the City was in fact our destination, and that it resided in Yak T'el, a region that lines up with the souls' trajectory.
Finding the mythical City was believed to be the end goal of the rite of succession, and seems that it was connected to the world from which Alexandria came all along.
To have had an influence as to spur centuries of myth and speculation, the veil to that world must be quite thin indeed. And this, coupled with the process of the Rite, is how Zoraal Ja was able to strike an accord with Alexandria to begin with. How he became its king and arranged a merge with Yyasulani.
The summit of Everkeep was quite unlike anything I had expected... Barring the dramatic throne, it was remarkably featureless. Almost as if the head had been severed perfectly clean from the rest of the body, and I suspect that the uppermost reaches of the complex had been left behind in the home world.
It felt like something else used to be there. Maybe it was lost at the time Zoraal Ja was vanquished. Is there a connection, I wonder, with the City of Gold?
I did feel a little bit too assured on information that was largely obscure, I imagine, to the wider Tural. Knowing what I've known, I wasn't at the least unconvinced about the City's existence.
Still, I'm of the understanding that its location has been long-sought for a long time, a close secret - and the upper echelons of the Landsguard have been keen on keeping it that way.
I don't doubt Ashe's impeccable connections for a minute, but how would Pakim have known? How did he reach that world to set his plans in motion...?
Living Memory... Yes, that would certainly be fitting, with everything that has transpired...
...!!
"Lazuli, I have a question... There has been a lot of talk, lately, and I have met with many Alexandrians, but I'm afraid it has eluded me -- what, truly, is an Endless?"
"Well, this is mostly hearsay, but... Believe it or not, there is a thriving black market in Everkeep, and the scarcity of the neo-regulators fast made them a ripe target for shady dealings-- a scalper obtains such a device, doesn't register it, and then sells it under the table for the most desperate. Abhorrent, but amidst all of that there have been tonzes of rumors - regarding the Endless, the Cloud, the very nature of the 'Queen' herself, past and present. You see..."
On the back of Loksen's neck, hidden by his hair, is a large scar from a branding he received while imprisoned by Garlean forces.
Initially, they sought to conscript him into fighting for the empire as Wood-warders are renowned warriors. However, during the first battle he was forced to fight in, he killed his CO and tried to escape.
In lieu of a field execution, Loksen was given a brutal brand to denote that he was dangerous and an escape risk and tossed into a labor camp. The idea was that he'd be subjected to a horrible, painful death by infection from the brand, and his rotting corpse would serve as an example to other prisoners to stay in line.
Due to providence, the group he was tossed in with had a pair of Sharlayan scholars who were knowledgeable of medicine and healing arts. Intrigued by the brand, they nursed him back to health and taught him the Eorzean language.
The Brand
It looks like a cross between the Garlean icon and the Brand of Sacrifice from Berserk (VERY original, I know lol)
Hinako sighed as she tapped her tasseled earring. "The static in the air is intense..."
"Here, you two. I have more of a bead on the one we're looking for. These ofuda bear the essence of his brother's qi, so any blood relation should be markedly similar. He's not the only blood relative around here, but the added taint of this land's lightning-aspected qi should leave less room for doubt - Know, however, that he may not be alone."
"Tatsuya, please continue to patrol Yyasulani. There's no certainty our man or his men will not show up here. Toshiro, I would have you keep vigil back in Shaaloani - be mindful that a sister is also in the area - as well as deliver a message to Mozu."
The tengu called Toshiro bowed their head. "As you wish, Lady Daigo."
Mozu, my love.
I am in Yyasulani as we speak, and enough has happened since we last spoke, it is hard to know where to begin. We finally met Lady Ashe's missing Shetona informant, Talon. It turns out that he was connected all along to this crime syndicate in our periphery, this Ohantum Family Enterprise.
But he seems to hold little regard for his family and their ways, and he was not alone. He was joined by his elder, a man called Pakim. They had then lived together in the years that passed exclusively within the dome. It was enough for Pakim to develop a grudge toward Alexandria, and he has been conspiring to undo the change.
Electrope has the potential to capture and copy memories, and the stolen variety from Yuweyawata in particular appears capable of giving them physical form, with enough energy. The idea is allegedly to use that power to bring back the Yyasulani that was. I shudder to consider the implications of this, a reliance on memories - ever fleeting - as an agent of change, and whatever else that we have yet to learn.
Talon admitted to being an accomplice in all of this and has since been eager to work with us and make things right, but Pakim remains unaccounted for. He may have once chosen his brother over the syndicate, but he was also one with great influence within it, heir apparent to lead at that. Knowing this, now that we exposed and undermined his hideout, there's no telling what he will do next.
Furthermore, there is a sister in Shaaloani who has also disregarded the Family. Talon said she is yet unaware that he had been living in the dome, but I worry that is only a matter of time before she gets roped into these affairs.
Toshiro has brought you a talisman that is imbued with Talon's essence as well as a hint of the Yyasulani's lightning-rich qi. May it serve you well in our continued search for Pakim Ohantum. I'll let you know if anything else develops.
Be well, my sparrow. Until next time, yours always,
