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carrionmywaywardsunLate afternoon sunlight slants through the bedroom windows. It’s clearly not a personal room, but a wholly unremarkable inn room, nice enough to have a complimentary fruit basket on the rickety little table and chair to one side, but not an inch nicer. An elegant individual sits in the rumpled bed, dressed only in a thin inner robe, flimsily tied, long dark hair falling loose over one shoulder. Thoughtfully, they lick some dried blood off a fingertip. “Mm. Execrable, as always. Death taints everything about you.”
“Then maybe you should keep your fucking talons to yourself next time, Star,” Valor suggests, tying off his pants. Given their mutual state of undress, the state of the bed, and the layers of clothes strewn about the room, it’s not hard to guess what they were just doing. And indeed, Valor’s bare back does, in fact, look like someone scratched it up with what may or may not be called talons.
“I will not,” Star says pleasantly. “Pass me an orange, please.” Valor tosses them an orange from the complimentary fruit basket on a side table before sitting cross-legged on the chair. “Thank you. Now, what do you want?”
Valor fishes a knife out of the black robe draped over the table as he says, “How do you feel about House Ragara?”
“Swollen ticks upon the backs of honest tradesmen and humble merchants,” Star says promptly, digging their thumb into their orange with a sudden viciousness.
“So, you fucking hate them.”
“I hate every squalling infant spat out by the Scarlet Empress’s gaping cunt, and every vermin that huddles begging at their misbegotten heels.” Despite the vitriol in their words, Star’s voice maintains the same steady, pleasant tone.
Valor reaches for a dragonfruit to start cutting out slices. “Got a job to rob House Ragara. You want in?”
“And join you as yet another mindless tool of your master’s all-consuming cruelty? I should gut you for the suggestion.”
Valor sighs heavily. “It’s not a job for the boss.”
“Oh.” Star finishes peeling their orange and breaks off a segment to chew on thoughtfully. “Tell me more.”
“House Ragara’s taking a bunch of shit out of the main compound vault. One of them’s a necklace, which is what I need. I figure we take that, we take anything else we can get our fucking hands on, and then we split it all half and half.” Valor pauses to pop a chunk of fruit in his mouth before continuing. “Except for the necklace.”
Star sniffs disdainfully. “That hardly seems like striking a blow for the countless throats crushed beneath the Realm’s ironshod heels.”
“We’re gonna steal it from Ragara Novis’s wedding.”
“I don’t see why I should concern myself with whatever bloated spectacle the ticks of House Ragara have chosen to regurgitate their ill-gotten gains on.”
Valor grins, gesturing with his knife as he talks. This is about the reaction he’d been expecting from Star, and he’s ready for it. “Yeah, but think of their fucking faces when they try to show it all off and have absolute fuck all.”
Star tips their head thoughtfully, lightly touching a hand to their chin. “Ah. You’re saying that, by stealing from Ragara Novis’s monument to orgiastic decadence and apathy to the plight of the common folk, we’ll publicly humiliate House Ragara before their equally parasitic peers, and in so doing, expose their forces as enticingly weak and vulnerable to a restless populace?”
“...Yes.”
“That does make the job more appealing.” Star pops another piece of orange in their mouth. “Very well. I accept your offer.”
“Fucking finally.”
“Do you have a plan? No, of course you don’t. What do you have?”
“First of all, fuck you. Second of all, this is how the necklace is getting to the wedding...”
Valor knows exactly how far he can trust Eleventh Star Raging, which isn’t very. Star might cooperate until the job is done, but they’re almost certainly thinking up the best way to—probably literally—stab Valor in the back and walk away with the entire take once the job is done, even as the two of them talk through everything Valor’s manage to dig up so far on Ragara Novis’s upcoming wedding.
That’s alright, though. Valor’s doing the exact same thing.
- This is an Abyssal memory, which means this is Valor with his post-Exaltation appearance–he’s got the sickly complexion and the red in his hair and eyes.
- Shirtless Valor has quite a few scars, most of them seemingly the result of sharp objects. Notably there are a few puncture wounds scattered over his front and a couple on his arms–arrow wounds, a few years old. He’s missing the large gnarly scar on his side that’s mentioned in his journal, not that anyone’s see that so far.
- Eleventh Star Raging is a Nadir Caste Infernal, which is the thief/assassin caste in Exalted 3E and therefore the Infernal equivalent of the Solar Night Caste and Abyssal Day Caste (which is what Valor is). Star and Valor have a “friends with benefits and backstabbing” relationship which, while occasionally erupting into mutual attempted murder, is overall amicable. Star’s an excellent thief and always down for a good time, in bed and otherwise. (Star is AFAB, though I’m not sure how obvious that would be as they have the kind of slender build that you’d expect of an acrobatic thief and are wearing loose clothes.)
- Heists are just what he does in his downtime, apparently. Heists and ill-advised sex. What else is a divinely empowered thrill-seeking edgelord thiefssassin supposed to do to relax?
- Knowledge Gain: Infernal Exalted, Malfeas, etc. Also more about the Realm and the Great Houses.
“Then maybe you should keep your fucking talons to yourself next time, Star,” Valor suggests, tying off his pants. Given their mutual state of undress, the state of the bed, and the layers of clothes strewn about the room, it’s not hard to guess what they were just doing. And indeed, Valor’s bare back does, in fact, look like someone scratched it up with what may or may not be called talons.
“I will not,” Star says pleasantly. “Pass me an orange, please.” Valor tosses them an orange from the complimentary fruit basket on a side table before sitting cross-legged on the chair. “Thank you. Now, what do you want?”
Valor fishes a knife out of the black robe draped over the table as he says, “How do you feel about House Ragara?”
“Swollen ticks upon the backs of honest tradesmen and humble merchants,” Star says promptly, digging their thumb into their orange with a sudden viciousness.
“So, you fucking hate them.”
“I hate every squalling infant spat out by the Scarlet Empress’s gaping cunt, and every vermin that huddles begging at their misbegotten heels.” Despite the vitriol in their words, Star’s voice maintains the same steady, pleasant tone.
Valor reaches for a dragonfruit to start cutting out slices. “Got a job to rob House Ragara. You want in?”
“And join you as yet another mindless tool of your master’s all-consuming cruelty? I should gut you for the suggestion.”
Valor sighs heavily. “It’s not a job for the boss.”
“Oh.” Star finishes peeling their orange and breaks off a segment to chew on thoughtfully. “Tell me more.”
“House Ragara’s taking a bunch of shit out of the main compound vault. One of them’s a necklace, which is what I need. I figure we take that, we take anything else we can get our fucking hands on, and then we split it all half and half.” Valor pauses to pop a chunk of fruit in his mouth before continuing. “Except for the necklace.”
Star sniffs disdainfully. “That hardly seems like striking a blow for the countless throats crushed beneath the Realm’s ironshod heels.”
“We’re gonna steal it from Ragara Novis’s wedding.”
“I don’t see why I should concern myself with whatever bloated spectacle the ticks of House Ragara have chosen to regurgitate their ill-gotten gains on.”
Valor grins, gesturing with his knife as he talks. This is about the reaction he’d been expecting from Star, and he’s ready for it. “Yeah, but think of their fucking faces when they try to show it all off and have absolute fuck all.”
Star tips their head thoughtfully, lightly touching a hand to their chin. “Ah. You’re saying that, by stealing from Ragara Novis’s monument to orgiastic decadence and apathy to the plight of the common folk, we’ll publicly humiliate House Ragara before their equally parasitic peers, and in so doing, expose their forces as enticingly weak and vulnerable to a restless populace?”
“...Yes.”
“That does make the job more appealing.” Star pops another piece of orange in their mouth. “Very well. I accept your offer.”
“Fucking finally.”
“Do you have a plan? No, of course you don’t. What do you have?”
“First of all, fuck you. Second of all, this is how the necklace is getting to the wedding...”
Valor knows exactly how far he can trust Eleventh Star Raging, which isn’t very. Star might cooperate until the job is done, but they’re almost certainly thinking up the best way to—probably literally—stab Valor in the back and walk away with the entire take once the job is done, even as the two of them talk through everything Valor’s manage to dig up so far on Ragara Novis’s upcoming wedding.
That’s alright, though. Valor’s doing the exact same thing.
- This is an Abyssal memory, which means this is Valor with his post-Exaltation appearance–he’s got the sickly complexion and the red in his hair and eyes.
- Shirtless Valor has quite a few scars, most of them seemingly the result of sharp objects. Notably there are a few puncture wounds scattered over his front and a couple on his arms–arrow wounds, a few years old. He’s missing the large gnarly scar on his side that’s mentioned in his journal, not that anyone’s see that so far.
- Eleventh Star Raging is a Nadir Caste Infernal, which is the thief/assassin caste in Exalted 3E and therefore the Infernal equivalent of the Solar Night Caste and Abyssal Day Caste (which is what Valor is). Star and Valor have a “friends with benefits and backstabbing” relationship which, while occasionally erupting into mutual attempted murder, is overall amicable. Star’s an excellent thief and always down for a good time, in bed and otherwise. (Star is AFAB, though I’m not sure how obvious that would be as they have the kind of slender build that you’d expect of an acrobatic thief and are wearing loose clothes.)
- Heists are just what he does in his downtime, apparently. Heists and ill-advised sex. What else is a divinely empowered thrill-seeking edgelord thiefssassin supposed to do to relax?
- Knowledge Gain: Infernal Exalted, Malfeas, etc. Also more about the Realm and the Great Houses.
