“—And who are you?” Senn tensed, prepared for mockery or worse from the Voltaris. He expected the question to be for him, but he refused to let the Deathsinger antagonize him. However as the silence stretched, he realized the red eyes were not looking down at him.
The Deathsinger was staring at the Tidesinger with something like mild interest. Not the hatred Senn would have expected from mortal enemies. Nothing in the Deathsinger's gaze seemed to suggest that he knew the Nestoris at all.
Achillean didn’t speak, Senn did not turn to look at him. To see what the Nestoris’ expression was. Instead he straightened his back, and spoke for him.
“That is the Tidesinger! Or have you already forgotten him!?” The silence that followed was long, and heavy.
The Master Voltaris’ face shifted through emotions so fast that Senn could barely see them. There was a brief flash of confusion, then something almost like fear, and then rage. Pure white rage.
“He is the Tidesinger?” Senn flinched at the venom in the Voltaris’ words. His grip on his sword tightening and eyes locked onto the threat in front of him.
Not noticing the smile on the Tidesinger’s face. If he had noticed, he would have seen the way his cheeks pulled back too far, or the one too many teeth that were in his mouth.
It's Forgotten Realms based with my OC Kitalia Deathsinger.
The Statue of Jade - I plan on making it a series eventually called The Deathsinger. I honestly have no idea how long it will be or how often I will be updating it, but it's been living in my head rent free for months. @vera-king-hrfl as always has been reading my random drivel over it for a while and even pinged some future ideas at me (you're the best bestie 😭). I've been exhausted, I'm sure there are gramatical and spelling errors. I try to fix them as I go, but if you see something that just sounds really awful, please tell me.
There's only 2 chapters so far. It's - I really don't know how to describe it, so here's the summary I made for it on AO3 -
Kitalia is lost to time. Her family, friends, all she knew long since dead and forgotten. Hope of ever being free lost.
Un-life is long. Kingdoms, cities, even the lands constantly shift, change, rise and fall. Only Kitalia stays the same. Never changing, never aging, untouched for millennia.
Ancient parchments find their way into the hands of leader of Bregan D'aerth. As Jarlaxle looks over the writings, realization strikes him that there is more to these than a mere record of the past. With the help of Artemis Entreri, he is off to find the jade statue of one Kitalia Deathsinger, a treasure worth it's weight in gold.
I'm thinking of mingling it with BG3 lore, but haven't reached that point yet.
So, there it is. My other fic (World Apart) has been on hiatus for a long ass time mostly because I got stuck on how to deal with certain details and I'm not sure when I'll pic it back up.
Behold: My incoherent rambling about the Songs of War Legends fight!
under the cut because it's mega long
-i know ive mentioned this before but both of them spin a lot when they're fighting. spin buddies
-Achillean tries to kick ingressus in the face but fails because ingressus slights out of the way.
-Ingressus is the first person in the fight to use songs. he uses his aggroblast (?) twice (upon slowing down the footage, THREE times) in quick succession. interesting to note that aggroblast (?) is a very FOCUSED, CLOSE-COMBAT, and LOCALIZED aggressium song. Unlike say aggrostorm and aggroquake which are broader/meant to hit multiple targets, or aggrovortex and aggrobeam which are meant to hit from a distance.
-Ingressus uses aggroblast the first time to put distance between himself and achillean. he just channels it through his fist here, which i believe is the 'lighter' version of the song not meant to do as much damage. the second time though, he channels it through his sword. this usage is given about twice as much visual weight. The THIRD time, Achillean uses the exhaustion/recovery time ingressus would have to take to use the rocks near by as a jumping off point.
-Achillean then jumps over to the OTHER side of ingressus and gets back in close quarters with him. Ingressus does the EXACT same jump maybe a second later. like same spin and everything. again. spin buddies
-Ingressus actually does this spin jump move 3 times here. he really likes doing one thing 3 times in a row before switching. interesting choice.
-Then Ingressus uses yet another song, this time a protisium. I'm not sure which one as Achi cuts him off pretty quickly, but I think it's protesphere.
-Ingressus charges in at achillean, and appears to try to disarm him by hitting achillean's staff in the hook with his sword.
-Achillean gets a hit here, prompting Ingressus to fall back and begin his speech ("they call me Deathsinger")
(I had to slow it down to 0.5 speed to get all this information btw)
-Achillean takes up a defensive stance, clearly expecting Ingressus to attack him again. but he doesn't. When achillean REALIZES Ingressus is talking instead of fighting, he actually lets his guard down. when the camera cuts to him next he's using his staff for support (note: his staff is in his left hand here) and crouched a little. he gets back on his feet when ingressus starts walking towards him.
-ik ik it's been said but i NEED to applaud the voice work JDB does here. There are so many complex emotions in ingressus' voice here. disdain, disgust, anger, yes. but if you listen, under the 'bossfight music' there is grief. there is exhaustion. his voice is breaking in this speech. Its so freakin good. i cant even articulate how good it is
-When he asks achillean 'why', achillean switches his staff to his right hand before ingressus even finishes the sentence. maybe im reading too much into <1 second of footage but it seems to me achillean knows exactly how much ingressus blames him for, and asking him 'why' could very well lead to a quick escalation given ingressus' temper in this state.
-Ingressus points his flaming sword at achillean to ask the question (why do they call you tidesinger?) and achillean DOES NOT MEET HIS EYES when he answers. he looks down. he looks away. he can't formulate an answer immediately. and when he does, and looks back up at ingressus, it hurts him to say it. cause like. this is his best friend. his brother. and he has to verbally affirm that what his brother has created is a NIGHTMARE.
-And the second he does this is when Achillean once again charges at Ingressus. important to note its ACHILLEAN who takes the offensive first move to restart the fight here. i think it's that "this isn't ingressus, this is the deathsinger" switch flipping in his mind.
-Ingressus uses protepoint to fend off achillean's attacks
-Achillean then does the following: 1. spin his staff, 2. throw it in the air, 3. kick ingressus in the leg to throw him off balance, 4. catch his staff, and then continues fending off ingressus' attacks IMMEDIATELY. I don't even need to say it, this is INCREDIBLY SKILLED fighting technique. Possibly one of the most impressive single physical feats in the whole movie.
-it is at THIS POINT that achillean uses his first song of the fight. Mobilibounce. Ingressus spends this time trying to land a hit on achillean, but then SWITCHES TACTICS. He grabs achillean's arm when he darts in for a hit, taking himself with achillean on the final bounce. he USES THIS MOMENTUM to slam achillean into the ground. DESPITE THIS, achillean is able to roll out of the way to avoid getting impaled by Ingressus sword before ingressus even hits the ground. do i need to explain how insane that is. have any of you ever been slammed to the ground? I have. it takes the wind out of you BADLY. from that height i can only imagine the effect would be worse.
-Achillean's fighting has intensified at this point in the fight. he lands many successful hits on ingressus, including the kick to the face he previously failed. Ingressus is forced to go on the defensive for a bit here, which is INSANE.
-Ingressus then kicks achillean in the stomach, knocking him on his back once again. achillean, once again, recovers quickly and uses his aggrobeam, the second song of the fight.
-this shot needs no introduction. ingressus deflecting achi's aggrobeam with his sword is cool and iconic as HECK.
-he is visibly winded from the effort of this, and says as much to achillean. he RESPECTS achillean's efforts and I theorize achi's ability to put ingressus on the defensive was as much a surprised to him as it was to me. which is crazy because achillean was TRAINED by ingressus so surprising him with something would be hard.
-please see my previous "achillean has a superiority/savior/messiah complex and definitely WOULDN'T have refused the primes at the time ingressus got them" rants for my opinions on this piece of dialogue. (Link here)
-that said, Ingressus absolutely BREAKS when he says this. it's the first time- THE FIRST TIME we hear ingressus laugh. and it's not pleasant. Achillean giving him the same song and dance every ardoni has at this point is infuriating to him.
-it's amazing to me how in sync these two are in this part of the fight scene. Ingressus indicates to achillean he will charge, Achillean takes up a defensive stance, and they start going at it again.
-This is also the first time Ingressus pulls out voltar in this fight. I think this is indicative of Ingressus seeing Achillean as a more advanced threat now, warranting the need for a defensive weapon on top of his sword's offensive capabilities (because, that's what ingressus uses voltar for first- to block achillean's attacks)
-then, somehow, between shots, ingressus sheaths both voltar AND his sword and just straight up grabs achillean by the shoulders and throws him to the ground. again. AND THE RULE OF THREE RETURNS.
-Ingressus laughs AGAIN in this dialogue scene. its fun bc this is just straight up the laugh I do when i'm plotting something nefarious (like. Idk. in iwg for example.) twinning <3 nefarious plotting buddies <3
-Ingressus switchup here is noticeable, but even moreso when you have it slowed down the way I do. He goes from being angry to being... upset? downcast, i think is the right word. and it happens right when he calls achillean his greatest adversary. it saddens him.
-"brought together an army which I could NEVER have hoped to destroy" is clearly said with the spite and anger of someone who knew his clan would be doomed with that much stacked against them. He's about to go through this portal HOPING AND PRAYING there will still be voltaris left when he comes out on the other side.
-again. Ingressus blames achillean. for putting the voltaris in danger again, for suggesting ingressus enter the tournament.
ok buckle up boys this is one of the most fast paced moments of the fight
-Ingressus uses Mobiliflash to get into close quarters with achillean
-he then uses supporospike to launch achillean into the air
-He uses the spike as a jumping off point to jump down on achi from above
-he anticipates achillean's next move and uses protearmor to encase himself as he hits the ground
-when that shatters, he stands up, does one FINAL totally unnecessary spin, and uses aggroblast one last time to launch achi off the cliff.
-that's counts 4 songs used in quick succession. the exhaustion is so bad he collapses onto his knees after it's over. breathing heavily. he looks down over the cliff (we don't know what he saw) and then leaves through the portal. the fight is over.
ok i think im done now. hope this helps somebody :3
