text - anonymous

[necroyalty]

I've been given the essential information regarding our stay here, and I have a question regarding the belongings I've arrived with.

Say that you arrived with a possession of yours that was truly precious. Such that you fear what you might do for the sake of keeping it undamaged.

Such that its loss would be enough to make you die of despair.

[She's not going to let on how literal that is. Sure, the exact science of lichdom might not be common knowledge, but she's not taking her chances.]

I have no desire to leave it in the care of another, and would prefer to relegate such a thing to a last resort. And I find the thought of sticking it in a safe to be rather...pedestrian.

Again, I'd only resort to such a thing if I really had to.

So I ask you:

What outlandish extents would you go to in order to ensure the safety of such a treasure?

Comments

[necroyalty]

And how literally are we taking this?

[chainlinks]

[Well that's either a red herring or the world's least subtle bulls-eye.]

I don't know yet. You tell me? I've never had something that could kill me if I didn't have it.

private

[necroyalty]

[ ...well, then. ]

Allow me to tell you a story.

A child was born. She was weak. She could scarcely eat anything without falling ill, she was prone to fainting, she often grew cold and jittery at the worst possible times. It was determined that she would die far before she grew into old age.

These things happen. The child's father grew resentful that he was saddled with such a fragile heir, but the child's mother, a respected mage, wished for her daughter to know her craft before she passed.

Against the odds stacked against her, she survived. She threw herself into work, struggling to put some dent in the world before her flame flickered out. She studied magical secrets, which grew to become her life's greatest joy and passion.

But all through her life, she could not escape her fate: that she was to die well before she grew old. She felt her life's glow slipping quickly away from her, and knew that before the year was over, it would finally fade to inky blackness.

She refused to accept it.

There was still so much she wanted to do. There was still so much she wanted to know. And she felt her soul resting at the top of an hourglass that was quickly running out, and thought about how it would feel to wake up in the morning and not be wracked with pain. What freedom it would be to not have to eat, or sleep, or do any of the other little things that took her away from the things and people she loved.

[ She's going somewhere with this, she promises. ]

Tell me what you think you know, now.

private (Sorry RL)

[chainlinks]

[It's an interesting story, truth or not. Ren can't really be the end-judge of everything. He doesn't think he could have done the same, but he's cheated death more than once in his life so far.]

I'd think...that depends what they did afterwards.

We all have our reasons why we do the things that we end up doing. I'm more interested in knowing what happened next...and the price that had to be paid.

[There seems to be always one, after all.]

shit happens

[necroyalty]

[And in response, Joker gets... a recipe?]

-100 ml of purest midnight tears
-500 ml phase spider venom
-1 liter of blood from a unicorn, extracted within the last 30 days
-1 liter of wyvern venom, extracted within the last 60 days
-1 liter blood and the still-beating heart of a humanoid killed within the last 24 hours
-1 liter blood from a vampire or vampire spawn, extracted within the last 10 days

The humanoid killed for the potion can be the same one needed for the sacrifice that forms the other half of the ritual, as long as they died by your own hands.

He was a murderer, and I know that doesn't make my actions unselfish

but I would rather have simply died if all I could use was an innocent.

[chainlinks]

[This is...not at all what he expected to get back in return and he frowns as he reads some of the ingredients. He supposes it sounds like something you'd use to turn something undead. A zombie maybe? It seems so far-fetch that he has to accept it as truth...at least for now.]

I don't agree with killing anyone.

[He's had that tested a few times, after all.]

No one should decide who gets to live or die.

I hope you understand that in that mindset, we're different, but you seem to already know that.

So you used that to to make yourself escape death? What did you do afterwards?

[necroyalty]

...that would have been the only person who's ever died by my hand personally.

Unfortunately, it's not my first foray in deciding who gets to live or die. Not that I was particularly fond of it, but war has a way of forcing you to make these decisions.

I did what I could afterwards. Ensuring my daughters grew up safe, making sure that my people didn't fall to the same traps our ancestors did.

[chainlinks]

[...personally...he'll keep that in mind.]

Ahhh, I take it that sicknesses aside, you're world isn't exactly peaceful...

[Not that his own was either.]

What traps are you talking about?

[necroyalty]

My father sought to occupy himself with useless territorial grabs along our border. It proved to be a frankly senseless and unpopular war.

I thought it more prudent not to make more enemies for ourselves and instead focus on preserving what we had, so after his death I decided to write off our losses and intimidate our neighbors from taking any further action.

It was messy, and relations still haven't entirely smoothed over, but I was able to at least stop the bleeding.

500 years later

[chainlinks]

I can't say I would know much about that...although I did fight a man attempting to take control of our country for its own benefit.

[Technically Shido's count would be low since he didn't kill others personally, getting his men to do it instead. Thus Ren can only assume what 'messy' means, especially if she's a zombie. Zombie is probably the right word.]

So I guess this brings it back to your first question, then. What did you do with it back home?

[necroyalty]

[ ...wow. Just. Wow. Technically she'd offer to Feeblemind Shido if he ever came here and you boys informed people about it, but. Details. ]

Truth be told, I wanted to buy myself enough time to protect the stability we had. That meant potentially stripping myself and my own family of power years down the road and fundamentally changing a few things that otherwise would take a generation or two.

I know that's probably not the best excuse, but there it is.

After that? Funny thing about immortality. You can't simply turn it off once what you set out to accomplish is done.

I don't know what comes after, and it's terrifying.