#augmentedspartan

[theenduringsun]

yo i was tagged by audiallychallenged (who is also like super cool and awesome 10/10 would follow)

1. Steven Universe?

naturally

2. What is your favorite thing about the person tagging you in this post?

they’re super hella sweet and fun to talk with <3

3. Would you say he is a good friend?

yaaaaAAAAAAAS

4. What superpower would you like to have the most?

shapeshifting. turn into a dragon and rob a bank or smthn

5. Pizza?

please

6. Do you cosplay? If so, what’s your favorite cosplay/dream cosplay??

i rly wanna cosplay amethyst someday...

7. Favorite Homestuck character???

eridan ampora (problematic fish boy fave)

8. What fictional character do you feel most linked to and why?

kirby tbh. im just a genderless orb who wants to eat food and have a good time

9. What is your most valued possession and why?

my blanket from when i was a kid cause it keeps away nightmares uwu

10. What is your favorite animal (this includes mythological!)?

dogcopter lmao

alrighty so here are my questions for the nerds i tag

1. if you have a gemsona, what’s their gem and weapon

2. if you were an animal crossing personality type which would you be 

3. what’s your favorite sound

4. who is your favorite video game character

5. if two guys were on the moon and one killed the other with a rock would that be fucked up or what

6. whos ur problematic fave

7. which version of never gonna give you up do you prefer: the original or the tisdale

8. what’s your native language/what languages do you speak other than that

9. whos ur fave steven universe character

10. whats your favorite meme

[pink-tiger-shorts]

I meant it like how many shadows they can use in one go, because Valkyrie always uses short bursts of shadows while attacking, instead of a constant stream that could be more useful. The same way it took Skulduggery a lot of training to be able to launch more than one fireball at the time and instead go full flamethrower, a necromancer would need a lot of practice to be able to throw more than just short bursts of shadows.

Ah. 

Yeah, that makes sense. I think it would be determined on power and practice. People like Lord Vile and Darquesse didn’t need too much practice because they were basically world-breakers and had so much magic that they could just use it for basically whatever without even thinking. Whereas Melancholia, though she did have it infused into her, still had lived in the temple her whole life to learn Necromancy. Valkyrie only had a few years of practice, and though she was pretty good (a fast learner too) she would definitely need more practice to do something big.

[pink-tiger-shorts]

I thought most items were made out of shadows like the armor. Wasn't Valkyrie's ring pure shadow too? Obviously less powerful, but made out of shadow nonetheless. I also think there is a max amount of shadows a person can invoke depending how powerful they are. An apprentice will probably be able to just use a small amount of shadows each attack, but someone like Vile or Melancholia will probably be able to summon waves upon waves of shadows before their reserves run out.

Nah, her ring was a ring that they infused with shadows. That’s why Solomon kept giving her new ones, rather than Valkyrie just wrapping shadows around her finger to form a new one. 

I don’t know if it would be more like a reserve of shadows, because it doesn't seem like there’s a predetermined amount they can use. I think it would be based on how strong the person is at that moment. For example, someone who’d just been fighting and were tired wouldn't necessarily have “less” shadows - they would just have weaker ones, like how someone at full strength or fueled by adrenaline would have stronger and more effective shadows.

[pink-tiger-shorts]

It also makes me wonder if there are "levels" to the type of necromancy items you can have, because his armor was not only impenetrable but could be changed to add spikes and such in a whim. Like, Valkyrie has a ring as her necromancer item, which might lead to limitations since she can only use it in certain ways. It would seem very practical to have something as powerful as a darkness armor, but almost everyone had something more "direct" in their uses like a cane or a shotgun.

I think it had something to do with control. When Valkyrie’s ring was crushed by Melancholia, Solomon said something about the magic returning to her, but without an object to wield it, it was useless. Melancholia also bragged about not needing an object to wield her magic and that it was just a part of her (though obviously not a safe thing to do). Necromancers most likely just choose things that are easy for them in particular to use easily. Valkyrie liked a ring because it was something small that she wouldn’t really have to worry about losing and it was on her hand, so it was easy to direct her magic. Solomon used a cane and could use it to hit people and swing shadows around. The gun would be for someone who wanted endless shadow bullets. It’s more of a personal preference.

Skulduggery’s armour wasn’t a host for shadows - it was shadows. It was kind of like how Melancholia had them woven into her body and so SHE was the host, but the shadows themselves were Vile’s shadow’s host. It’s fair to assume that a) that’s a dangerous way to channel death magic, and b) it would be hard to do. Skulduggery can do those sort of things because he’s Skulduggery. Being dead would have meant that he didn’t have to worry about those shadows killing him like Melancholia had to worry about (when they kept draining her, or when the symbols got cut and it started messing up). 

I think Lord Vile used armour instead of something normal because he was insanely powerful and didn’t want people to know who was inside.

[pink-tiger-shorts]

Yeah, rather than have the shadows on their "natural state" like Valkyrie when she was dead, Skulduggery solidified them into something tangible, which probably made him last longer. I kinda like to think of it as a limited sealing of one's true name. Instead of being able to control all magic like Darquesse or Argeddion, Skulduggery had only full control of necromancy. It also makes sense because it was said that some that sealed their true name were destroyed by the power they unlocked.

That makes sense, but I think it was more sealing for that particular situation than for everyone. Lord Vile’s armour did was it was armour does - it protected him. Skulduggery’s special and those sort of things happen with him. It might have also had something to do with the fact that those shadows stayed inside Skulduggery, since he was basically hollow, as a skeleton. They didn’t really have anything in their way when Skulduggery was inside the armor and that might have been part of the reason why it could function without him easily, since it was used to being able to be most of the control anyway. 

[pink-tiger-shorts]

Yeah, exactly that. But also the way Nye said it, it makes me think that being dead and using necromancy would mean that after a while it would destroy you because it would be in its more pure state. So not only is Vile powerful enough to destroy almost anyone in combat, but also he is powerful enough to control a type of magic that shouldn't exists the way it exists because it keeps powering itself more and more. Kinda like having a nuclear reactor be powered by nukes.

I think that it could destroy you if you weren’t careful enough. Valkyrie whose insides were not inside her and was carrying her heart around in a bag, would have been killed for good fairly easily. She was physically too fragile. But I think that if someone could control it well enough they would last a decent while. Skulduggery sort of had the advantage of being a skeleton though - there isn’t really a way that anything could destroy him unless he was torn apart too much (and that’s just his theory) or if his consciousness was forcefully removed, like if he had given it to the Accelerator. And he sort of cheated with that - he was using the shadows as armour, which was protecting him from being destroyed by them, since they would have to destroy themselves first, if that makes sense. So yeah, he’s like a never ending and constantly charging up battery.

[pink-tiger-shorts]

I don't know if you thought of this before but I just realized that Lord Vile was such a great necromancer because he was a dead person using death magic.

That…. That makes very good sense.

Holy shit.

Also, when Valkyrie was dead in Mortal Coil and using Necromancy to threaten Nye, it was terrified - “But you’re dead! It’s death magic wielded by a dead person - you don’t know what you’re doing! You can’t control it - you’re not strong enough!” (pg.255). Valkyrie was fifteen there and obviously not as strong as Skulduggery, but her magic was pretty strong there and was more ruthless when she was using it, saying it “swept her up like an eager servant” when she tried to walk towards Nye. She was still pretty new to Necromancy as it is, and was way stronger than usual while she was dead. But Skulduggery is one of the strongest Elementals out there (aside from maybe Mevolent) and that's harder to use than Necromancy magic.

Lord Vile would have been horrifying.

[abstruseglitch]

4?

I said I don't feel like it