pov you do your usual thing of speaking for the party and agree to serve the rat king on behalf of all of you and then the rat king immediately casts geas on your party member, which was NOT supposed to be part of the deal, and you kind of want to apologize to your party member but also you did get the desired result, technically, so you just go “that was...not what i intended” and respond to his “we do what we must” with “we certainly do”
13, 21, 38, 44, 45, 59, 69 for arcis. 13, 31, 59, 60, 61 for cerise.
hi meg.
arcis
13. what are some motifs you associate with them? did you intentionally bring in those motifs, or did it happen over time?
the whole snow and ice and fur thing was pretty intentional but i have leaned into it more than i necessarily expected to. the precise, complex fractal patterns that you get from snowflakes or ice on windowpanes is what i think of most especially. she's started developing just a little bit of a wolf motif in my head too which i did not expect but do like a lot and should lean into more.
21. do they have an idea about how they’ll die? do you?
yeah, she thinks that knight guy who stabbed her when she was in the necklace is going to kill her. classic bit of hubris, she sort of thinks nothing in the dungeon COULD kill her other than the powerful memory/dream knight. i am decently optimistic about her survival, but think that if she is gonna die it'll be because we get surprised or ambushed in a small space. this party is so weak to ambushes and deprived of my ability to get around the corner? yikes. fortunately with arcis i've finally built a character where pretty much any death she can have is poetic and satisfying. any death is dying for her goals!
38. do they see themselves as an important part of their party?
yes. next question.
44. what lies do they tell others?
she really doesn't lie that much! she talks up her/her party's competence and importance a bit, but also she does think quite highly of herself and them. she makes promises that she's not sure she can keep, but then she does TRY to keep them. i think maybe the biggest direct lie so far was how absolutely she intends to fuck over the rat king at the first opportunity. and the whole prospero situation.
45. what lies do they tell themselves?
answered for mer!
59. what’s an element of their philosophy that you disagree with?
sob. so much of it. the biggest one i have trouble with is that she's much more callous about human lives than she should be, which occasionally trips me up in roleplay scenes--i have SO much trouble being arcis talking to uoser, and idk what i'm gonna do if she ever has to interact with the master's hands. she's not totally heartless, but she just sort of puts "number of people who might die" as one factor that she weighs along with all the others
69. what’s one secret they don’t want getting out?
feels almost too easy but: true name !
cerise
13. what are some motifs you associate with them? did you intentionally bring in those motifs, or did it happen over time?
i feel like “blood” and “bones” can’t count as motifs but those. and then there are the ones that come automatically with being a cherry tree person, leaves and blossoms and cherries and wood and all that. lightning i did on purpose from when i built her spellbook, but i think it only sort-of worked--she should have just been a fire character, but we were already cursed so i was trying to get away from it. in the crop novelization she’ll have fire magic. although really her most aesthetically correct spell was guiding bolt imo--there was something going on with silver light as a motif, which was accidental, just out of a contrast to cami’s gold. but like, moonlight, starlight, etc was definitely SOMETHING. i also associate her a lot with clear water and with rain.
31. do they respond well to praise? how about criticism?
no to both, honestly. she was very suspicious about praise, either assuming someone wanted something from her or just dismissing it because of her own self-hate. she only liked/accepted it when she could take it as “oh this is something that makes me valuable to others, got it”. and criticism just made her double down alskjdflskjdf she’s too stubborn
59. what’s an element of their philosophy that you disagree with?
yikes! she was Not in fact responsible for the safety of every single one of the sorcerers--or like, she was, but she did that to herself, she didn’t have to. she also had this reverse ends justify the means, where if bad things happen because of what you do you were wrong to do what you did, thing going on and i don’t necessarily agree with that either.
60. what do they have faith in? what keeps them believing?
a better place! in the middle of everything there was always just that sliver of a chance that she could be free and safe again and she held onto that shred of possibility like a lifeline, with a ferocious and stubborn determination to keep believing it existed. she also really believed in the Arborean people--this is why she trusted Papaye, why she trusted Esme, why she was holding onto hope for the god queen so late in the game, why she could have had SUCH a dynamic with the crimson knight if she knew what went down in uberta. even affected the way she was about the sorcerers--she believed that they wouldn’t betray her or turn on her, she believed that they could survive and heal and adapt and do their part to make what she was doing mean something. her late-campaign arc always would have involved standing on behalf of the Arborean people even as she did everything she could to take Salic down.
61. is there an in-game moment of theirs you think about and just laugh?
that one first roadtrip scene when cami and cerise were trying to figure out what the hell was up with auberon’s antlers! a bit ooc for her but also. it was really funny and makes me smile.
31. do they respond well to praise? how about criticism?
oh this is a fascinating one. i think she does respond well to praise--there's part of her especially in this city that's very attuned to what agenda someone might have for complimenting her, but there's another part of her that's just preening like a peacock, "yes thank you i am a genius wizard and very good at what i do". she's absolutely not good at responding to criticism she just gets defensive. although i will say i think she is good about taking responsibility for things. it's a "yes, that was me, and i stand by it" sort of thing.
45. what lies do they tell themselves?
grimacing emoji. she lies to herself that she has more control than she actually does, that all of her precautions and spellcraft and intelligence are working, actually. that one she's a little bit self-aware about though, even if she'd never ever admit it. the one that she's not even a little bit aware of is the lie that all of this is worth it--that if she finds the answers she's looking for, it will be worth everything she gave up, everything she compromised, all the party members or allies she lead to their deaths. she's either going to die still searching and still believing it would have been worth it or she's going to find what she's looking for and. well! we'll see!
55. they're seeing their greatest wish come true--what's happening?
she's in the castle at the heart of the weeping city and she's learning what caused the empire to fall and disappear from history :) THAT'S the moment that the wish hinges on--she does want to then bring that knowledge back and restore it to history and leave a legacy and be known as the one who found the name of the city but that's all secondary. if she died immediately after gaining the knowledge for herself she'd still consider it a win.
18. If they could live or visit anywhere, where would they go?
this whole big world and the answer is so deeply "the palace at the center of the weeping city"....i'm told to commit to a hook and i do it. i think she'd also like to see the Aori Necessity tho, once she's solved every mystery of the weeping city. is this because i want to see it? yes.
cerise
9. How do they like their mornings? Rainy and chilly? Bright and sunny? Not at all because they don’t wake until noon?
right NOW she just likes them "not snowing" and "as warm as possible". generally she's a big fan of the sunshine though :]
wakes up. takes a moment to center her mind, make sure there have been no especially notable dreams--write them down if there were. looks around the room, ensuring that nothing has been disturbed or changed while she slept. then she goes to her little desk and opens first her notebook, quickly reviewing what she wrote down the previous day. THEN she opens her spellbook and prepares her spells for the day. then she takes out her little silver thread and she sets an alarm around the entire room, and then around max's and elio's rooms if she needs to. and then she goes downstairs and buys a newspaper <3
16. How do they feel about rain?
sob. yeah no she never really liked it and now she's getting REALLY sick of it. she never thought she'd miss snow but oh boy does she!
39. If someone could tell them anything about the future they asked, would they want to know? Would they ask?
yes! absolutely, all the time, always, every single time. what's she going to do, turn down a chance to get knowledge? she cares more about the past than the future, though. also i do think this question is maybe supposed to say "what would they want to know" in which case the main question is "will i succeed". she thinks she will. if asked, she'd say of course she will. but that's what the question would be anyway! you can't ever know until you KNOW.
rowan, arcis, jess, and sinead for the playlist asks :D
wow mer we sure are in four games together...pleading emoji
Rowan: "What's Up Danger" by Black Caviar
i like high chances that i might lose, i like it all on the edge, just like you
this one's early on the playlist because this was for the young, reckless rowan desperate to prove herself. this is who she was when she met cress.
Arcis: "Hungover in the City of Dust" by Autoheart
we're hungover in the city of dust, let our minds run round in circles while we figure it out
tbh i'm not sure i still stand by this one. i Really like the song and the playlist needs something downbeat at that point in it and it's on here for reasons of like...not being who you used to be, feelings of isolation, etc, but it's also definitely a song about people who Stay while everyone Else leaves which arcis definitely isn't. so we'll see if i take it off she's still a new character <3
Jess: "Devils Point" by Wicked Shallows
what do you do when the devil offers you a drink? what do you say when it's cold outside and hard to think?
:D she sure is a warlock! the drink in question is magic <3
Sinead: "The Cave" by Mumford & Sons
i know my call despite my faults and despite my growing fears
MAN! a cleric who is leaving their home and their duty in order to follow their purpose for the first time in their life is something that can actually be so personal,
