My hands quiver as I catch little bits of parchment as they fall from the rafters.
How... how could... why...? WHY!?
The little chittering source of my frustrations looks down from its perch with glee in its eyes as it nibbles on a tome of buckskin filled with musical lore. My eyes gaze sorrowfully upon the smudged script.
Why you little... RODENT!
I'm vaguely aware thet I'm sputtering nonsensical protests; spittle spraying about the room as I make feeble attempts at enunciation while frantically waving my arms in protest. The little demoness is laughing at me now, losing control of its bladder and micterating upon the already damaged tome. I can feel my rationality slipping away swiftly until it is but a small voice in the back of my head.
The room reverberates with the crack of thunder as the song of Tempest surges within me, driven not by need, but by rage.
Wait... don't do it!
My mind becomes a warzone. Rationality duels emotion while desire presses the attack against responsibility.
KILL HER! KILL THE WRETCHED DEMON!
I feel like a bystander as I feel my rage take temporary control, summoning all the energy of the Tempest I can feasibly control... and perhaps more. The last time I became this angry was in the Goshi tower. The last time this happened, it ended in death. My eyes turn white as the core of a bolt of lightning and my voice becomes the wail of a hurricane wind accentuated with cracks of thunder. Then a hesitation.
She doesn't know! Ignorance is not deserving of death! You are a teacher, not an executioner! Stop! Please, for the love of Karia, stop!
WHAT USE IS THERE IN TEACHING ONE WHO WOULD DESTROY LORE FOR THE SIMPLE PURPOSE OF SPITE!? WHAT WORTH IS THERE IN SUCH A CREATURE?
A creature's worth is not for you to decide. You know this. Would it not be better to educate than to destroy? Of course it would. You know this. You accept this.
It seems reason has temporarily swayed the battle in its favor. I manage to choke out a few words of warning. "Squirrel! Out! NOW!" It just keeps laughing and smiling. The little demon has no idea of the intensity of the battle that is being fought for her life within my strained mind. It would be so easy to give in. It would be so easy to leave the little beast as a pathetic pile of ash. It would be so easy, just this once, to do not what my responsibilities dictated, but what would feel satisfying at the time.
I watched it all play out in my mind; my throat unleashing the few notes that would spell the doom of the otherwise ignorant Zipsum. Her eyes exploding open in surprise... literally. Every fiber in her fragile little body being heated hotter than the temperature of the sun in less time than the eye has a chance to notice. Her normally supple fur incinerating in a flash, followed closely by the vaporization of her internal organs and bones. Come to think of it, there wouldn't even be much ash left; just the stink of ozone and burnt hair.
Then the ramifications.
Moses looks at me like I'm the cruelest creature on Karia.
One of the gentlest hearts you have ever known, and you may have just broken it, old man.
Kiyoshi and Una have a look of betrayal in their eyes.
You swore to protect them. How can they trust you now?
Rei giggles.
Everything, even the removal of a demon, has its price. Are you willing to pay this one?
Reason reassumes full control of the battlefield as I watch Rei gently transfer the now dozing form of High-Dive outside. The Tempest resides, taking my visage of wrath incarnate with it. I feel frustrated tears welling in my eyes. It is difficult to become so enraged and not have an outlet and so, my outlet becomes my tear ducts. My hands are shaking uncontrollably as I cradle the tome. Una looks at me with concern in her eyes.
If she knew what sort of battle just took place, how would she think of you, old man? How would she react if she knew how close you were to destroying everything within 10 meters of the place you stood, all because of a book? What if the others knew? What if the squirrel knew?
For now, she offers me kind words, tea, and cleanses the tome of High-Dive's urine.
I begin reading quietly, pondering a solution to my conundrum. The trick would be getting High-Dive to understand without having her witness it first-hand.
Hell of a trick, that.
Ruins
Cities
9 comments:
I didn't realize how narrowly the poor little Zipsum avoided being crispified. :D
Woo... somebody has a temper.
Heh, Mokuzai has more patiance than Kiyoshi. If she were doing something like that to, say, a First Minds artifact he would try to kill her immediately, no questions asked. Guess that is why Kiyoshi does not fit into the old, wise guru archetype, eh?
No Kiyoshi leaps to violence pretty fast for anyone wanting to claim the label 'wise'.
Well, High-Dive has fortunately got a few things working in her favor here:
(1) Mokuzai doesn't like killing
(2) Mokuzai knows she is "marked," and therefore important to the fate of Karia.
(3) She's cute. It isn't much, but it helps.
(4) Mokuzai's player generally frowns on the killing of other PCs... generally. There was this one time when I ate a party member's immortal soul against their wishes... ah well, different character.
I dunno - when not reduced to 1 Health, I'd say that Highdive is probably hard to kill. And you're probably both one Kata use away from murdering each other (recall the 150 damage to the kyo-tee-shee :)
I do think it's funny that all of these NPCs who nearly kill Highdive are NPCs that Mokuzai wants to have conversations with...
I also think that anime, as a genre, requires infuriating cute critters with no regard for propriety who are almost impossible to punish for their behavior :)
Doug is definitely right. High Dive is no easy target, though in general I dislike players arguing over whose character could kill whose.
The cute but annoying little animal is definitely an anime trope that Pam is playing extremely well.
In one anime series in particular, the cute but annoying critter is actually God. O_o
If we MUST argue about whose character could kill whose, let's let it be settled with this:
- None of us could kill any of us. This is because anyone who does kill another player, if male, will get kicked in the balls by every other player at the game. :P
Are your balls worth the brief satisfaction you might get from player killing?
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