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>>650644
Raven Shrine is fairly empty, but the nooks contain two people you recognize - Ash and Riley, both looking drawn and haggard. The two men sleep, in comfortable robes, with the Reverend to attend upon them.

"The taster?" you hazard.

"The very same," the priest agrees. "Rest is best for them, at the moment. Your shadow is in the kitchen, with your body, where neither will disturb those who come to worship. Your sister preserved it against rot, a blessing I appreciate. My human guests are not so resistant to disease."

"I'll move...me..." you agree. You tip your hat to the Reverend and move into the next room.

Kat looks up when you open the door, her head snapping up in feral vigilance. She looks down, at your corpse - wrapped in a white shroud and looking more or less at peace - then back to you.

Her claws come out as she starts a low, spectral growl.

"Kat, Kat, it's /me/," you emphasize. "I'm /back/. I know, you saw me die. I /did/ die. I'm /back/."

You hold your hand out, speaking in a low, soothing tone. Kat's growl stays, but she doesn't lunge. The shadow's voice echoes through the room, filling it with the layers of her fear and frustration.

"It's okay," you murmur. "I'm here. Kat, I'm /here/. It's gonna be okay..."

You take a step forward and then stop when Kat gives you a long, sustained shriek. She quiets down, after a moment, and stands up in that folded-paper way shadows have about them. She looks around the room for a moment before she presses against the wall, flattening out.

Kat spreads herself out into a formless blob, then shifts and slithers, arranging herself into a - a -

"A theater," you murmur. "You want to show me something?"

The shadow resumes her normal form and nods.

"Okay. Show me," you agree.

The shadow doesn't splinter - she can't - but you see the thinnest thread of herself run along the bottom of the wall, connecting multiple, smaller versions. One gropes its own breast and moans silently; another cowers in fear, its hands up to plead for mercy, while a third slashes and rages mutely. A fourth staggers, confused, looking around for something. She lets you see it for a moment before they're pushed into one Kat by a hand from 'off stage', forcing them together while they struggle. The hand grabs Kat and drags her to the feet of your corpse, where it makes an elaborate show of sewing her feet to yours.

"...Yes, I made you," you say after a moment. "Those feelings are leftovers from the death I used to bring you life."

Kat stands and folds her arms, sullenly. She shakes her head and forms back into the four emotions, then herself. Back to them, then herself.

"You feel them all the - you're unhappy," you murmur.

Kat nods.

You let out a long breath.

> What do you say?

>>650836
>> What do you say?

DICKS OUT 4 HARAMBE!

>>650836
>"I didn't know you felt that way, I... What do you want me to do?"
At this point, it's not what we want, sure Bri wants to help but right now, it is about Kat.

>>650836
>Do you want to pass on too? Do you want to....be unmade?

Honesty is the best policy, and she's not entirely ignorant of what that means.

It's going to totally suck for Bri, but it' the honorable way to do it. And probably less traumatic for both Bri and Kat than Kat dying in a fight.

>>650836
I will support this>>651212
Bri wouldn't want to force anything on Kat. We could always offer her the soul we have if that's what she wants.

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>>650836
Look, baby, I'm sorry for making you the way I did. That you live with horror and death every day, that you have to exist knowing you've been created from blood and death. But you mean the world to me, Kat, and I don't know if you'll ever forgive me. But I hope you understand, that we've made it this far, you made it possible.

I don't ever know how I'll make it up to you, kid. But I intend to try, and I hope with all my heart that it's good enough for you.

>"How can I help you baby?"

>>650836
"Sometimes I wonder if it's just me, you know? If it was all just inside me. That every time the bike bounces up and down it wasn't the 12 inch dildo entering my ass, but the bike itself. They say you can't love yourself if you can't love your bicycle, and I'm inclined to agree. But I just don't know what to believe anymore. Maybe I shouldn't have replaced the seat. Fuck."

>>651249
>>651247
Seconding both these options!

>>651249
Really?

And called, writing.

>>651238
I have no objection to giving Kat the soul if it takes away the suffering, it would also be nice if she would still want to help us, I don't think we've ever treated her badly enough that she'd want to leave entirely.

>>651261
I figure that the best thing we can do is help separate Kat from the remnant emotions of her sacrificial host, the Half-Rakshasa demoness. Start building her into her own person.

>>651287
While I support giving her the soul and making her a complete being, I would hold off until she stabilizes and won't lash out at anyone out of confusion or fear.

A lot of strange shitpostin going on here.

>>651294
>I would hold off until she stabilizes and won't lash out at anyone out of confusion or fear.
While I agree with giving her the soul as well, I think the issue here is that this part is easier said than done.

Because from what I can tell from what just happened, Kat is all 4 of those major emotions. Or in other words, we can't fix her because they are what she is literally made from. I think the best direction to go in is to not just give out solutions but perhaps trying to find/figure out a solution /with/ her.

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>>650836
You adjust your hat, nervously, and take another steadying breath. "Kat, I didn't know - no, I /did/ know, sort of. I thought, with the way you'd been acting, that...that you were getting better."

Shyly, the shadow takes out her witchlight and bats at it in an awkward approximation of play.

"Yeah, and...with Nate's shadow," you agree.

Kat shifts, into two selves connected by a thin thread; one the lusty thing from before, the other laughing silently, carefree and giddy. Soon enough the laughing shadow stops, though, and the other three are back. Your shadow pulls herself together, and you take your hat off and hold it in your hands.

"What do you want?" you ask.

Kat points at your corpse and becomes a question mark.

"I told you, I died - okay, you're shaking your head at me..." Kat points at the corpse again, then crosses her arms over her breast and becomes a question mark. "Are you asking if you're dead?"

The shadow nods.

"No, you're not dead," you tell her. She points at you, then becomes a question mark. "...You're not alive either," you admit. Kat looks down at the floor, confused, then looks back up. She shifts, subtly, showing off something on her back, like, like a - "A windup key - geargrinders?" That excited nod. "...I suppose you are like them in a way. Alive but not...traditionally."

Your shadow makes a low, worried sound and becomes a sword, then a question mark.

"...Originally. Not any more. Not for awhile," you admit, softly.

Kat tucks her hands into pockets that aren't there. She looks lost. Alone.

"Tell me what you want," you murmur softly. "I made you. The least I can do is...is help, is /guide/ you."

Kat nods. Slowly, she shifts into a cloud of little question marks. One by one, they pop, until only Kat remains.

"...You want to stop thinking?" You flinch away from the shadow's angry shriek. "You want to be less confused. Smarter?"

That silent nodding.

"That might be complicated." You pause, realizing that's probably lost on her. "It might /hurt/."

She nods.

"You might be able to grow more...complex...on your own," you tell her, haltingly. "Few necromancers have studied that, though. We tend to either die or enhance our shadows before that happens. I can make you smarter, but that might be more confusing, more hurtful, in the short term. The world is big and scary."

You don't say the last option out loud, but it's there, in the back of your mind. The one that's either making a part of yourself into a new being, or killing Kat and replacing her, depending on who you ask...

> Try to talk Kat into changing on her own; she isn't ready
> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown] OR use spare materials)
> Give Kat the innocent soul

>>651370
>Try to talk to Kat into changing on her own; she isn't ready
When we feel she is we can talk to her about this again

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>>651370
> Give Kat the innocent soul

Let's put this shadow in the light baby! Literally nothing could go wrong.

And now I must go to bed. Votes remain open.

Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated.

Thank you all for reading and participating!

>>651370
> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown]
Side effects unknown is the best unknown

>>651370
>Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown]
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!?
But seriously I'm actually really curious as to what this will do and it seems somehow appropriate I mean shadows are kind of already a part of you.

>>651370
> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown] OR use spare materials)
I say we use the post-resurrection remains to give her a more stable, earthly form. Also, I've got the idea in my head that doing this will give her a deeper bond with Brianna, and might even make Kat look like her. Sooo, Bri gets another sister or daughter? We might have to introduce her to the rest of the clan; Grandma Maddie would be proud to see Brianna turn something negative (the shadow creation) into something positive (Katherine La Croix!).

>>651476
>>651508
There's risk, definitely, but unlike other asshat necromancers (COUGH Belltower Bastard COUGH), Brianna actually /cares/ about Kat's general well-being and her newfound desires. This is the /only/ reason something like this would work; Kat is beginning to understand that she is not actually that Catgirl Demon, that she's her own person, and that Brianna, Nate, Amy, and River are all there for her. Family, if you would.

>Give Kat the Innocent Soul

This is literally the exact thing it is meant to be used for - giving independent life to that which lacks it. Simply upgrading her won't be enough by itself - she'll still be BOUND and that's part of the issue. She needs to be freed, and to be able to grow on her own now. She's neither dead nor alive, which means that Liife for the Living nd Death for the Dead is not applicable...we need to draw her from between life and death and put her squarely on one side of that line.

And I would chose life over death.

>>651510
Yknow, I have to wonder; what will happen to Kat if she becomes a truly independent and self-aware person? Not just emotionally and mentally, but physically and spiritually as well. She's a shadow, her body doesn't follow the normal rules of life and death. Giving her this upgrade with Brianna's body might push her towards a more solid, human-ish form, but like the option states, can't be sure.

It might make it easier to treat her a bit like the Fae; normal rules and regulations do not apply. It'd be cool if she could have 'Nine Lives', like the superstition about cats.

>>651527
Very true. But she's not bound like Lora is; I'm pretty sure that if she wanted to, she could break loose without much trouble on her part. It's more of a mental and emotional dependence. Brianna provides stability.

Like I said before, I do want to give her the soul and make her complete. Just..give her time to gather her thoughts. Even out.

A good example would be someone with bi-polar disorder. She needs help managing these conflicting emotions, and this upgrade might give her a solid footing from which to control herself.

>>651370
>> Give Kat the innocent soul

>>651370
> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown]

Using our own body seems like something Kat would appreciate, would be a way to deal with the body, and overall seems like a good way to see what using our old body does in these sorts of things, in case we do get more revives somehow. Also, unknown side effects are the best side effects.

>>651370
>> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown])

well this should be interesting. To the extent we might want to do this with the caretaker because it would be a chance for him to see something new.

>Give the Innocent Soul
Kat is becoming her own person. Part of her is her past, part of her is what she is now. Kat doesn't know who she is or what she should be, but if we use our own body to help her then we distort the process and Kat becomes three things at once. The innocent souls gives Kat a blank book on which she can expand herself but on her own terms and naturally evolve her own sentience and feelings. It gives a solid foundation to personhood without someone else's thought process layered on it and that's only fair.

>>651370
>Give Kat the innocent soul
I really want to do this one and give her a body too. Can I do that?

>>651370
>Give Kat the innocent soul

I really, really wanted to offer fetch the innocent soul, and then make a new familiar out of our own corpse. Given the way the vote is right now, though, the only option for reanimating our own corpse seems to be giving kat the soul.

If we use Bri's corpse to upgrade Kat we are passing up a perfect chance to run a shell game on Richard.

>>651736

Or anyone else. The wyrm comes to mind.

And, I mean, come on. How many necromancers in history have had the chance to make a minion out of their own body? This is science!

> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown]

What a horrible/scientifically valuable idea.

We can still apply the Soul later if we want to. I feel like upgrading her smarts is a good idea right now. Give her the tools to do some more heavy duty thinking of her own. Then see what she came up with.

Bri, I do not envy you for this task.

>>651370
> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown]

Eh, what's the worst that could happen?

>>651370
>> Give Kat the innocent soul

We need to stress to her that this isn't a band aid that will fix all of her problems though and it might cause more problems along the way.

Ask for a little bit of time to talk to the liches and get their opinion of what, if anything, might happen

if this option doesn't fall through I vote secondarily for

> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning ( use spare materials)

>>651736
this is exactly what I was thinking.

Besides, what if we DO die again?

As our shadow Kat will die this time, forever and for true, if she's still attached to us

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>>651370
>> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (use spare materials)

if we do upgrade kat is there anything we can do to make her her own person instead of just our shadow? Basically to help her be more independent and avoid issues like
>>651780

>>651786
The innocent soul, more than likely will allow her to become her own independant entity. We still have no idea what kind of entity that might be though.

>>651786
We're basically trying to separate the 'new' Kat from the old emotions that came from her creation. So we want to preserve things like this;
> Shyly, the shadow takes out her witchlight and bats at it in an awkward approximation of play.
> Kat shifts, into two selves connected by a thin thread; one the lusty thing from before, the other laughing silently, carefree and giddy.

>>651736
>>651745
We can't run a shell game on Richard, he knows how the reincarnation works.

>>651769
She goes mad and kills us.

We may not get another reincarnation, you know - Lora warned us.

>>651370
> Give Kat the innocent soul

>>651812
yeah but having a body double would be really good

I mean, consider. If there are two briannas running around pesky things like snipers will always have a chance of shooting the one that's already dead

>>651370
>> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown]

Using the soul here is a terrible idea. The soul is an entirely new person. Using it to modify an existing entity will either overwrite the existing "person", or give them a serious case of multiple personality disorder.

>>651911
Remember that the Lord of Stained Glass didn't have a soul, and would rather die than take the innocent soul. We do not want to be putting souls into existing entities unless we want to utterly destroy them.

>>651918
that could have just been fey though

>>652001
I'm not sure the risk is worth it.

>>651370
>Explain what would happen if the soul was used, and if she wants to,
> Give Kat the innocent soul

>>651370
>> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown])
The above anons have a really good point about the innocent soul as it related to another soulless entity we met. We shouldn't be trying to make Kat into a different person than she is. But she wants to be smarter, and we can help with that.

>>652165
But she does. She fundamentally does want to be a different person than she is. She doesn't want to be the person born of pain, and lust, and rage, and sorrow.

She wants to be free of the things which made her. It feels like giving her the innocent Soul was perfect for that

>>651370
> Give Kat the innocent soul

Forgot my vote. And if we don't do that, I really want to

>use spare materials.

I mean, it's OUR body. We could reanimate OURSELF.

>>652214

If we do end up using our body, would it be possible to have cat more or less possess our body? To have her be able to serve as a double for us? That sounds like a good compromise between the various things that people here want to do.

Hell, doing that would actually mean having the fewest number of companions, because instead of reanimating our body, and having cat, they'd be the same.

If we can do
>>652222
Then go for it. Otherwise
>seconding >>652214

>>652208
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it seems like Kat wants to change her nature, whereas giving her the soul would basically exchange her for a different person who just happened to look like her. The distinction is pretty important.

>>652232
I don't entirely appreciate the difference. What is a person, except for their nature plus memories?

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I feel that this is relevant.

http://existentialcomics.com/comic/1

>>651370
>> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown])

I think this is the greatest gift we can give to Kat right now.

>>652241
Of course this is quite the philosophical question. The only answer I can really give is this: I experience seeing through my eyes. I don't experience seeing through your eyes. I'm quite confident that if you made an exact copy of me, I wouldn't experience seeing through his eyes either.

I have to hit work, folks. I shouldn't have this problem with not being able to update after I wake up for the rest of the week, though I won't make promises. I'll see y'all just after 7 PM or so if I'm not asked to stay late again.

I'm leaning towards using our corpse to upgrade Kat but I am not completely sure.

>>651911
If I recall correctly, it merges the old person with the innocent new being it has become.

Kat isn't a new person. She is a creature, a literal soulless monster powered and given life by our life. Givng ehr the innoent soul might "destroy her" but as we pointed out to Lora, "destroying" doesn't equate to "ruining". She's a newborn creture, yes, but she has no soul, no true life of her own.

Making her smarter might make her more aware of that....and that is NOT a good thing given the pain and turmoil she in now. Giving her the soul makes her a truly new life, a new living thing all her own self, and it expands her potential beyond the four states of her emotions and life that she can experience currently. Making her 'smarter' might not expand her repertoire of feelings and selves, it may just make her more acutely aware of what a limited creature she truly is.

The innocent soul may make Kat different, but it won't ruin her.

>>652471
>but she has no soul, no true life of her own.

Does the Lord of Painted Glass have no true life of his own? Does Flitter?

Did Silence?

>>651370
> Upgrade Kat with your corpse

>>651370
>> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (use spare materials)

>>652241
Kat wants her nature tweaked, a boost in intelligence. Not so distant from us changing as we live our lives. Giving her the soul would utterly wipe who she is, and make a new person from the remains.

I still think the innocent soul should go into the undead angel

>>652540

There's a distinction, and that they are designed by their creators, whoever they are, to be sentient without a soul. To be immutable and unchanging.

Kat, by comparison, was designed to be a simple, non-sentient servants. She has been awoken, in much the same way that a magic item might be, in a way that was not imagined in her original design.

This would be correcting a flae that we, ourselves, have made in her creation. We are destroying what she was, but isn't one of the running things here that you cannot change without destroying? I seem to remember several people stressing that point. We are looking to change something relatively major about her.

>>652621
If we ever reach a point where we are seriously considering what you want we should consult Lora first.

>>652621
It doesn't do that to things that don't have souls. Kat doens't have a soul of her own, and the only life he is is literally what we gave her. Her intellect is alien, an aberration...but the innocent soul has none. It devoid of personality and existence - ll it is is a nascent soul, which will imprint upon whatever it is placed into

That's the key point I think - Kat has a personality, but no soul, The innocent soul has nothing but a blank slate that can be an individual existence. If anything it is exactly what we want for Kat.

>>652636
>correcting a flae(flaw?)
That implies there was a flaw in her creation; there wasn't. You can change something due to changing needs, wants, options, etc without there being a flaw. Furthermore, destruction doesn't have to mean radical change; if any change is destruction, eating a sandwich shouldn't purge your memory.

>>652702
>It doesn't do that to things that don't have souls

see
>>651918

>>652722
There was a huge flaw in her creation - she was never supposed to become independent, much less sapient. She's not a familiar, like Fetch or like River's Shadow. She was an undead mosnter like a zombie or the hands or the other chickns, or even the boar. A tool, a weapon.

The fact that Brianna is giving her a chance to be more doesn't make the fact that she's an aberration of unnature (yes, she is in fact that very thing) any less true.

>>652736
This isn't the first time this has come up. The fey aren't designed to have souls, they're not like Kat at all, and you really shouldn't compare them. The last time we had this discussion, the idea of adding it to Silence's dead body was brought up, and it was stated it would not be silence, but a new creature, a child with a blank slate for a personality that would grow and develop. Kat isn't even technically a life form - she's undead and soulless, but she wasn't designed to be intelligent or have sapience ether. she became more intelligent and possessed of will on her own, and I think that would work in her favor, not against it.

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>>652788
>taking something that doesn't have a soul and putting a soul in it

>>651370
> Try to talk Kat into changing on her own; she isn't ready, but offer our corpse if she wants to grow up (probably) too quickly.
What the hell is with these idiots trying to give an innocent soul to a shadow?!

>>652862
Personally, I think that if Kat understands what using the soul will mean, and wants to use it, then this is as good of a use for the soul as any.

>>652788
Anon, I don't think shadows were designed to have souls any more than fey were. If Kat was still mindless, it wouldn't matter, it'd be a new thing replacing nothing (just like it was when we accidentally gave her free will). But now, when Kat's a person? The soul might destroy her, or it might not, but I don't think we can take that risk with our friend. Not if there's another way to help her.

>>652788
>The fey aren't designed to have souls
We don't know the relationship the fey or the Secondborn have with the gods, including the matter of their creation. It is likely someone created them, but we just don't know.

>she's undead
>"No, you're not dead," you tell her. She points at you, then becomes a question mark. "...You're not alive either," you admit. Kat looks down at the floor, confused, then looks back up. She shifts, subtly, showing off something on her back, like, like a - "A windup key - geargrinders?" That excited nod. "...I suppose you are like them in a way. Alive but not...traditionally."

>not designed for sapient, independent

We're walking the same road any necromancer does when they upgrade their shadow. While not directly designed for it, increasing a shadow's power usually increases their intelligence. This is what makes upgrading them risky, especially if you have a poor relationship with your shadow.

I suppose one of the roots of my arguments is that we will be changing Kat entirely while giving her more power. Will she even remember us? Is it worth the risk?

An understanding I have of the innocent soul is that it [i]is[/i] a person unto itself. You're supposed to put it into something without life or death or undeath, to create a person. Thus, shoehorning it into an existing person or creature is damaging to the creature, stunting to the soul, and a waste of something that could be more.

>>652875
Okay then it may be fine to use it AFTER SHE GETS SMART AND NOT BEFORE! She is obviously having trouble right now expressing herself and understanding it, giving her a blank soul with nothing to add on to her, remember that all she is getting is a soul, not intelligence.

>>652894
Good point. She's starting to get smart right now, though.

>>652924
She can do shadow puppets like a parrot can talk, she can barely understand more complex shit like being given a soul and the implications it has, she can barely understand how Bri is up walking and being dead.

>>652931
She can understand human speech, and it's not like we tried explaining these things before.

>>652894
>>652924
>>652931
>>652961
My issue with upgrading her intellect is that we don't know how it happened in the first case, and if it not enough, she might have issues, and if it's too much, she might have worse issues. Brianna stated it herself - it might hurt her, it might be complicated.

Using the innocent soul is not, and it really can't hurt her; when we discussed it about Fetch, it was made clear it would NOT change his personality, but he would be a living entity - a lich chicken.

Can I just say, I'm glad we get a crowd of reasonable people eager for discussion and theorizing than a bunch of raging shitposters? Feels...comfy.

Also, what happened to Railroad Anon. I thought he'd be all over this.

>>653029
Huh, your right. We haven't heard from that faggot in a while. When was the last time he posted anyway?

>>653005
Incidentally, everything I can find from Vox on the subject of putting the soul in Fetch:

> Put it in Fetch and it'll become something remarkably Fetch-like, etc, so forth.

> He would be something remarkably like Fetch, which would then change and grow as its own being, mostly due to the answer to the next question.

> While Fetch is still the being made by being part of Brianna, he would no longer be part of Brianna, but rather his own being, complete and whole - capable of anything a souled being is capable of, including having an afterlife. He'd change and grow on his own, rather than as part of Brianna.

> The innocent soul is, again, not yet anyone /in particular/. It's "someone" in the sense that everyone is a soul but it's never been born, never lived, grown, or changed. It is someone /in potentia/. In giving it to Fetch, you make it someone in particular - and that someone is mostly Fetch.

Personally, I actually read two different answers from those quotes. The first two quotes suggest that Fetch (or Kat, as we're presently discussing) becomes a different person who's just a lot like the original. The third quote suggests that it remains Fetch/Kat, but now a real boy/girl. The fourth quote is, in my opinion, ambiguous between the two interpretations.

>>653072
I can see hy some would want to upgrade her more, but I personally worry that the upgrades may not go as we wish and will change at into something no one - including Kat wants to see.

Complaining about the soul destroying Kat and then immediately arguing to give her greater intellect and upgrades using our body is just....well, it's pretty obviously hypocrisy, though not intended that way or as a snub or insult. Kat's intellect is an aberration, and upgrading her might make things worse rather than better.

>>653067
After Silence died, when that one super-faggot vomited his own brand of madness (nothing like Vox's, the Lich is a qt) all over the thread.

I still have no fucking idea what that queer was talking about.

>>653120
No one did, I think he might have been having a stroke or something.

>>653097
To me, it's about giving her more of something she already has, which might change her nature, but is unlikely to replace her with someone else, vs. giving her something she doesn't already have, which is known to essentially destroy and replace at least some other soulless entities. While I'll grant that there's risk involved in both, I'm a lot more leery of the latter than I am of the former.

>>653072
That was my discussion with Vox and the third quote was about him still being our familiar or not after giving him the soul. Not Fetch being Fetch specifically.

In regards to the 4th quote another way to look at it is the other way around. Instead of putting a soul into Fetch, we are putting Fetch into the empty soul. Kind of like a full prosthetic from Ghost in the Shell.

>>651370
Y'know, why don't we just outright ask her which way she wants to go about this? We can let her choose how she wants to change herself.

Nobody said we had to choose for her. Hell Bri just said " The least I can do is...is help, is /guide/ you."

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So guys what do you think would happen if we combined Kat with both our old corpse AND the innocent soul? Could we make a sort of catgirl copy of ourselves?
apologies for pic it was literally the first result when I searched catgirl + necromancer

>>653376
This is exactly what I wanted here >>651718

>>653376
That's honestly the route I want to go with. The upgrade allows her to grow and at the same time let her understand what the soul will do and the soul will let her become her own being. I just feel we should give her the soul later when shes had time to adjust to the new intellect or other factors that pop up.

... actually, I just realized I never actually voted
>>651370
>> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown]

>>653376
What would Nathans Shadow to cuddle the?

>>653528
...
Kat's Shadow?

>>653528
...River's shadow? That might be weird though.

>>653582
Wait, would she even have a shadow at that point?
>>653610
Wouldn't that be...cheating? Maybe?

>>653622
Proabably yes.

>>653622
>Wait, would she even have a shadow at that point?
...Wait, if we give Kat her own soul/body or whatever, would we get our shadow back or is that permanently Kat's?

>>653751
>"Mrs. LaCroix, where is your shadow?"
>"It grew so smart and powersome that it started using my body as a meatpuppet to move around. She went to the city to get a degree in necromancy."
>"Wait, then how are you here? You are currently in a body, right?"
>"The gods have forbidden me from answering that question."

>>653376
And then have Bri fuse herself with that. BriCatClone ^2.

Question

Can we ask what Brianna reasonably expects from the process?

How will using Brianna's body differ in results from using existing necromancy supplies?

Can she hazard a guess what giving the innocent soul to the shadow will do? Will ti give it a body?

>>654547
This.

>>654547

Also this. This is important - we need to know what Bri knows, or could reasonably suspect.

>>654547
> How will using Brianna's body differ in results from using existing necromancy supplies?

[Side effects unknown] is there for a reason, my friend. This is not a position anyone's been in before. By rights, Kat should have dissipated, and ghosts cast not shadow with which to create a servant. Brianna's situation is wholly unique. The best you've got, knowledge-wise, is that your death definitely freed Kat from your direct control.

Which means this is already going much better than it usually goes.

> Can she hazard a guess what giving the innocent soul to the shadow will do? Will ti give it a body?

Kat already has a body, even if its properties are a bit odd. She has substance of a sort; if you killed her and scraped up the bits left over after she dissipates you'd have something approximating a corpse. The chief side effect aside from the ethical question of what ensouling Kat /means/ would be that Kat would have an easier time growing (mentally/spiritually) on her own, without direct upgrades or intervention from Bri.

Gonna call and write in approximately an hour.

>>654547
I'm just wondering what is projected instead of a shadow right now. Unless Bri is transparent, light isn't hitting the ground behind her. If she is transparent, we might should be panicking.

Actually, Bri must look fantastically weird right now. She'd have no depth to her; she'd look like a flat painting.

>>654833
would giving Kat the innocent soul fundamentally change her in the same way giving it to the lord of stained glass of silence would have?

>>654942
That's a whole lot of assuming there, anon.

I said at the start of this quest that things were gonna be more narrative instead of more hard-and-fast. This is one of those times when I'm going to gently remind you of that fact. Bri, visually, is the same as she always was - except she has no shadow. Even when she had Kat 'attached' to her, her shadow's size and angle had no relation to the light in the room or, in fact, her own movements.

Nate and Brooks' shadows have, similarly, not really obeyed the physical properties of light to date.

You're like an entire quest too late to start in on this.

>>654946
Well that's the question, isn't it? Would it? The Lord of Painted Glass was losing something vital to himself - immortality - and gaining something that would fundamentally change him - Jack's soul, and everything it entailed. The innocent soul is blank, but it's still a change, and fundamentally it's a change to the question of, "Which part of me is /me/?"

>>651370
> Give Kat the innocent soul

>>654942
She isn't transparent, her shadow literally pulled a Peter Pan and jump ship from her. Well not intentionally at any rate.

>>654966
It's just idle wonderings. Sometimes you walk into a room and wonder why there are waist-high walls everywhere, you know?

>>651370
> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown]

Eeeeeeeeever so slightly late - CALLED, TALLYING, WRITING.

>>655083
I'm gonna take a stab at over-physicsing magic here, less because it's productive or useful and more because it's fun. It could be that Kat is visible because something about her absorbs light. I mean, physics-wise, that kind of has to be happening, otherwise how would she be a darker spot without something "casting" her. But she doesn't radiate heat (quite the opposite, although that's for unrelated reasons), so where's the light going? One explanation is that it's radiating, very subtly, from the space around Bri, such that Bri appears to no longer cast a shadow (in the same way it's hard to get a lit lightbulb to cast a shadow, although it'd have to be a bit different from that to prevent Bri from appearing as a flat picture). Of course, this only works if they're both in equal amounts of light, or at least if Kat's degree of darkness shifts based on where Bri is.

But yeah, the actual explanation is "it's magic, it doesn't care about physics."

>>655933
Maybe the light hitting Kat is somehow redirected to where Brianna's shadow would be? And Kat is made of a substance that cannot exist in the presence of light?

>>656121
Actually now that I think about it, it could just be explained like "The gods said something weird in the Divine Tongue so now shadows are exempt from Physics."

>>656121
I thought the first part of that, at least, was what I said?

>>656145
But yeah. A wizard did it.

Sweet zombie fuck.

By ONE VOTE, our winner is:

> Upgrade Kat's intelligence and cunning (Use your corpse [side effects unknown])

All future reference, I don't do if/then voting, as in, "if this isn't winning, count as X instead".

Writing.

File: quelling.gif (1.28 MB, 600x600)

1.28 MB GIF

>>656490
>if/then voting, as in, "if this isn't winning, count as X instead".

who the fuck does this?

>>656500
Oh hey, a Smite Gif

He needs a buff

>>656500
Several people during this vote.

>>656520
I KNOW

Zhong Kui is so cool, but so weak ;_;

>>656528
That's super lame. Props for not bowing to the bullshit.

>>656307
I meant that the light got teleported so that it hits the surface Brianna's shadow would be. That sounds needlessly complicated now.

Also,
>"I think I mispronounced [absence] as [malevolent].
>"Why do you say that?"
>"Shadows now come alive and murder everyone."
>".........[Crapcrapcrapfixingthingsdivinewords] and now the murder-shadows have to be intentionally made. Not that anyone would be stupid enough to do that, of course."

>>656531
He was my main for all of season 2, but then the warrior meta hit solo lane

>>656550
best explanation ever.

"why does this thing not fit the in universe rules?"
"the gods fucked up."

Its also in line with what we have seen of the local gods, so that might literally be the reason shadows are so weird.

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>>656554
Chaac2gud

>pic related, it's Chaac

>>656792
Chaac is ehhhh, unless they buffed him sometime.

I haven't seen anyone use him in a while

>>650644
> "What if she's...renegade?" Nathan asks, awkwardly.
> "Listen for me yelling 'No, what are you doing, I created you!'. It's a bit traditional by now."
> "Would you -"
> "Yes, I'd let those be my last words," you tell him. "Because that's how it fucking goes. You fucked up in the way a million other people have fucked up, you knew it was coming, you did it anyway, so you /shout the phrase/, and then you /die painfully/, and wait for the next person in line to fuck up."
> "...When you put it that way..."
> "We're only crazy from the outside," you opine, before you set off for Raven Shrine.

I just want to say, this bit killed me. Literally. Don't be surprised to find a creepy laughing skeleton outside your abode, good Lich.

>>656792
Pic is appropriate for an Ewok. Creepy little fuckers were like the horrific offspring of gerbils and chimps, weaned on the suffering of Man.

>>657371
Vox would be quite happy for an understudy for his day job.

>>656490
Sleepy lich

Comcast?

>>657902
Comcast is actively malignant; they'd wait till it was the middle of story time, right when we were in the thick of it, to interfere.

Think of Comcast like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, maniacally laughing and rubbing his hands together while he ruins the Hero's good day.

The damsel in distress (Vox, of course) is tied up with tight ropes of Responsibility, and the oncoming train of Real Life is riding the hard rails of Unfortunate Reality, heading straight for him.

WILL THE HERO MAKE IT IN TIME? Tune in next time, for the thrilling finale! - Brought to you by White Wendigo! When you need to bring out the shine in your bones, or eliminate troublesome blood stains! White Wendigo!

I maaay have had a few drinks. Apologies? Don't actually give any fucks right now, but I might later.

>>657927
So if vox is the damsel in distress who's the hero?

>>657927
This image you have painted is an excellent picture and is now cannon in my mind.

>>657932
I have absolutely no idea. A self-insert for anons everywhere?

>>657932
>>657951
>hero's reward is a thousand and one night of tales

Well, it would be, if we actually save him from the clutches.

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>>657958
If it wasn't official before, it is now.

Vox is a waifu.

Fucking kill me.

Vote still called, draft saved, will finish and update when I get up.

>>658016
good night waifu, we will save you from trains.

>>658016
Did you want to finish this bit here, then jump to that write-up of Isoldt and Brooks? I just remember you mentioning that, and I'd honestly like to see more of the many very interesting side characters. So, so many.

Jewel and Cherry, Bridgette and Victoria, Brooks and Miller, Isoldt and Harry, Henrietta & Cooke, Lord Borsh and Lady Lista, Kells and Ms. Slaughter, Briony and Hunting-Talon, Natalia and Mr. Hatchet, Diving-Shadow and Lawrence, the Caretaker, etc. AND THEY'RE ALL SO GOOD!

Actually, do you have any favorites? Any you felt were weak or needed that extra umph?

>>658030
Speaking of, where's that Chosen of Red Troth right now? Catherine? I do kinda want to see more of her and her development.

>>658109
In the Sunless Sea, with Emily, Flitter, and Scribbles, where you asked her to gain intelligence before you rush in blind.

>>658030
Honestly? Borsh and Lista are the weakest two from my end.

Writing again.

>>658435
>hype intensifies

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>>651370
You reach a decision and put your hat back on your head.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" you ask again. "Even if it hurts?"

Kat nods.

"Then I need you to step back a little, up against the wall. Like when you got your ice."

Kat moves to obey, and you move to your body. You reach into your coat (this is going to be odd later when you pick the original back up) and take out your bone wands, which you cross over the chest of your corpse. You give Kat a chip of onyx and place two more on the closed eyes of your former body before you take out your corn meal and start to draw the veve in it.

Kat makes a curious noise.

"I'm using my corpse as the raw material," you explain. You look up and see that Kat has become a question mark again. "Well, for one thing it's on hand. In practical terms, I can't have a body laying around to be used against me either. And...I mean, I like to think I'm smart? Maybe it'll rub off on you."

Another shift.

"Not /that/ kind of rub off, get back to normal!"

You put your hand on your - the corpse's, that is - chest and start the incantations. You know what you want, it's just a matter of the work. Nothing you haven't done a million times. You mentally prepare yourself to shout the appropriate phrase anyway, because you can /hear/ your Grandmother scolding you.

The body starts to dissolve away, into flecks of darkness that run towards Kat, layering themselves into her. Everything normal thus far. She sinks to her knees, nervously hugging herself around the chest.

Something tickles at the edge of your mind, which is all the warning you get before the spell seizes hold of your head and, from the look of things, Kat's. You feel the moment of her creation, painful but in a way relieving, and the fear and shame she felt. You see through her eyes, colors exaggerated, lights brighter and stronger, when you fight against Lisa the Seeker.

Dozens of memories flash by, in shards. Stabs of joy at being asked to help. The comforting touch of Nathan's shadow. Her confusion as she bats at Amy's and it doesn't react. The giddy, child-like glee of getting her witchlight.

Grief and fear, raw as a wound, when you die and Kat thinks she will be left alone, all alone.

You come to, your hand against the stone floor, eyes wide and chest heaving. You wipe tears from your eyes with the back of your hand and look up at Kat. The shadow is sharper, defined in layers of darkness that go from grey to charcoal and suggest depth, form, nuance, that the mere absence of light cannot.

"What did you see?" you ask, softly.

"You're...you were..." Kat's voice has that faint echo common to the dead, a double-layer, but is also rich and smoky, as a singer's might be. She hesitates, knowing words, unsure of how to use them. "You were ashamed to create me," she murmurs.

"...I was," you admit, softly.

"But you helped me."

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>>658572
"You didn't ask to be made," you whisper. The shadow slithers from the wall, taking a hesitant step towards you. You hold steady, still trying to find your wind.

Kat pulls you into a soft hug. Her body is cool, but not freezing - at least not right now.

"Thank you," the shadow murmurs.

"That's what family is for," you tell her, quietly.

* * * *

Your stuff is near Nathan and Amy. Going through it, you realize that you now have duplicates of some things - supplies you'd had with you before you set off. You combine the magical supplies, the wands and silver and onyx, but two things in particular bother you. You sit on a cot with them next to you - your Grandfather's knife, and Aunt Carol's hat. The one you'd come back from the dead with is much less worn and torn than the hat you've been wearing, and you stare at it uncomfortably.

The first hat was eaten by that crocodile, wasn't it? Now you have two, and you're not sure if you like that. Are they both really hers? Yours? And then there's the matter of the knife. You gave it to the Lady of Ravens, and it feels like - like /cheating/, in a way, having it now.

> Keep the knife
> Offer it at the shrine; it is not yours any longer

AND

> Destroy the new hat
> Give the new hat to someone (who?)
> Write-in?

We'll do reanimation and minion upgrades over the course of this interlude, I don't want a giant vote-and-tally dump of that again. That shit hurt me in my soul.

>>658586
> Keep the knife

Woah, we paid for this one by dying again.

> Give the new hat to someone (who?)

A hat for Kat

>>658586
>Offer knife
>Give hat to Kat.

>Ditch both and the cloak.If we keep them it might mess up the timelines in that we have copies of things that shouldn't be.

We got rid of our body, getting rid of the knife and the hat and the coat we keep the new stuff to a minimum.

>>658586
>Keep the knife
>Give the hat to Amy

Cool she is still a shadow, I was worried about a meat puppet situation, or the jokes Bri made to Nate about dealing with Kat. I think I was the only one who voted to wait and see on her development, I'm interested to see where this goes. Is Kat moving on her own or attached to Bri?

>>658593
The former.

>>658586
>Offer it at the shrine; it is not yours any longer
It's a shame but we don't need to carry around a bad feeling.
>Give the new hat to someone (who?)
>River.
A la Croix needs a hat.

>>658586
>keep everything.
Honestly it seems the most practical option and as for the err 'originals' they are still wherever they went what we have are just some sort of copy right?
I mean the fact that our old corpse hung around suggests that the soul is the only thing not duplicated by this resurrectiony stuff.

>>658586
>> Offer the knife at the shrine; it is not yours any longer
>> Give the new hat to someone, Kat if she can take it and River if Kat cant

>>658586
>> Offer it at the shrine; it is not yours any longer
> Give the new hat to someone (kat)
Shadow it into Kat somehow

>>658586
>> Keep the knife
This one is just a clone of the original

> Destroy the new hat
Hat's our trademark. Kat's still a shadow, don't think she can wear it.

>>658586
> Keep the knife
> Other
Offer the hat to River.

>>658586
>> Keep the knife
It's a gift from Lora now. I suppose the other one was too, technically.

>> Give the new hat to someone (who?)
Speaking of which, maybe offer the hat to Lora? It's a bit like regifting, but I think she'd appreciate the gesture. A keepsake from a friend.

To the 'hat-to-River' voters, you do recall that Bri tried to insist on getting River a hat before and River finally told her point-blank that she prefers to work with the hood, yes?

>>658664
Hat for Kat it is then, at least for me

>>658586
So happy we got a new sister/daughter. And of course, she's a qt. We've GOT to introduce her to Jewel/Cherry, the Caretaker, and the rest of the family.

> Offer it at the shine; it is not yours any longer.
The original offering wasn't just giving up a practical tool, it was symbolic of Brianna giving up something precious to her, a memento of her Grandfather. Holding on to the new one feels..wrong. Maybe we can just give it to the Reverend or..Oh!
> Give the new knife to Jewel. Pass it on.

Aaaand yes, we now have a Cat in a Hat.
> Give the new hat to Kat.

>>658636
Not anymore! The new upgrade gave her physical substance. So now, instead of a looking like a creepy shadow cut-out, she's got form and weight and mass. She's a Real Girl now!

>>658664
Need to get a Lark & River scene of sweet elfy lewds, with plenty of ear rubs. LOBE MASSAGES FOR EVERYONE!

>>658680
More like it turned her from a two dimensional drawing into a three dimensional one. She's still a shadow.

>>658586
I am >>658601
Changing River to Kat.

>>658664
It's been a while.

>>658695
>>658695
Man, our boy's shadow is going to lose its mind when finds out it's shadow waifu literally became 3D

>>658586
> Offer it at the shrine; it is not yours any longer
Yeah, no cheating.
Let the Lady puzzle this shit out, she may like it.

> Give the new hat to someone (who?)
Kat.

>>658586
> Keep the knife
> Give the hat to Kat.

>>658586
>Keep the knife
It's a lesson and a reminder of how it came about; so as to keep in touch as much as we can od the idea of mortality with consequences.
>Give the new hat to someone (who?)
>River.
A la Croix needs a hat.

>>658586
> Offer it at the shrine; it is not yours any longer
> Give the new hat to someone (who?)
Henrietta

As you have likely guessed already, I must go be Gainfully Employed. I have tomorrow off, so hopefully there'll be more than one fucking update (I am SO SORRY for the slow runs lately) during that time. Votes remain open.

Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated.

Thank you all for reading and participating!

Damn a lot of things are kinda finding the right place to resolve during this interlude.

>>658586
SUCCESS!

>>658588
seconding this, we die and get a knife back its ours, and best cat/demon/shadow/girl thing deserves her on spiffy hat.

>>658586
>> Offer it at the shrine; it is not yours any longer
>Hat for Kat

>>658586
>Offer it at the shrine; it is not yours any longer
>Hat for Kat

>Offer it
>Kat in the hat

>>658586
> Offer knife at the shrine
> Kat in the hat

Late night order is keeping me here awhile. Could I get the kindness of a count?

>>660364

Keep:
>>658588
>>658593
>>658603
>>658636
>>658647
>>658662
>>658755
>>658768

Offer
>>658590
>>658601
>>658608
>>658611
>>658680
>>658734
>>658775
>>659186
>>659252
>>659346
>>659389

Destroy
>>658636

Hat for:

Kat:
>>658588
>>658590
>>658608
>>658611
>>658680
>>658702
>>658734
>>658755
>>659186
>>659252
>>659346
>>659389

River:
(invalid due to
>>658664
)
>>658647
>>658768

Amy
>>658593

Lora
>>658662

Henrietta
>>658775

>>660510
Speaking of Kat in the hat, can't cat fit in the hat with her shadow powers?

>>660510
Thank you very much. That was an unpleasant end to my day.

Looks like our winners are:

> Offer the knife at the shrine
> Give the hat to Kat

Will write Shortly(tm)

I must say, I'm shocked you didn't want to give the hat to Jewel. That's kinda what I'd expected.

>>660577
jewel's not around though.

>>660579
...Anon, she's in the Roost. With Nate and Amy. At the hospital where they're recovering. TREATING PATIENTS.

I did mention this fairly recently.

>>660577
I honestly completely forgot she existed.

This is why having options and not just write-ins is beneficial

>>660577
Ah, but here's the kicker; she's going to be a doctor, right? We should put some money together and get her some really nifty medical tools and supplies, and maybe a shiny hand-crafted talisman shaped to look like that rod & snake, or whatever the sigil for modern medicine is (Not the dollar bill; I've heard that joke too many times, and it hits rather close to home).

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>>660591
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius
That shit was in since Greeks, m8.

(murrifats just mix it up with caduceus, which ironically IS a symbol of commerce, i.e. the dolla)

>>660618
Danke, mein friend.

Soo yeah, we can do that for Jewel; a talisman of protection against necromanctic toxins and slaying spells, shaped to look like that there rod & snake.

>>660585
We should make sure that the butterfly effect from Brianna being resurrected hasn't severely harmed Jewel or Cherry's memories.

>>660618
>ignoring that the caduceus was also the symbol of Hermes, who taught the first doctors in mythology, including Asclepius
For shame.

>>658586
>"Thank you," the shadow murmurs.
>
>"That's what family is for," you tell her, quietly.

dawww, here's your official welcome to the family kat la croix.

>>660663
>We should make sure that the butterfly effect from Brianna being resurrected hasn't severely harmed Jewel or Cherry's memories.
But weren't they inside the dungeon when it happened? I thought it mostly affected those outside it.

>>660732
To my knowledge, I don't think Jewel has ever actually /left/ the Dungeon. I don't think she's even seen Glen.

She just already had issues with old memories from her previous life bleeding into her new one. I just want us to make sure the memory alterations from coming back aren't making things worse for her.

Speaking of, does the rest of the world not know that Brianna exists? Or is it more that, the Hero Squad as a whole is responsible for the sweeping changes rather than a single pivotal individual?

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>>658586
You decide to give the hat to Kat, which turns out to be a bit of an event in itself.

"This is going to fall off the moment I relax," the shadow says in vague confusion. She holds the hat with her arms coming off of the wall, which is making your eyes hurt to see.

"Kat, this half-on-half-off shit needs to not," you plead. "Can you...I wonder..."

Your shadow turns into a question mark.

"It's...in a sense it's Aunt Carol's hat. It, like River's hood, is used in manipulating darkness. I wonder if you could just pick its shadow up."

"I can't really touch most shadows," Kat admits, but she draws herself onto the wall and crouches down to grip the shadow of the hat. She pulls and is surprised both when she has an actual grip and when she encounters resistance.

"Lift from the knees," you advise. She changes her position and follows your advice, straining to lift the hat.

"This...hurts...a bit," Kat admits, her voice tight as if speaking through gritted teeth. "Why is it so /heavy/?"

You hear something, and look down to see the physical hat starting to slowly unravel. Kat makes a triumphant sound, not paying attention to what you're seeing, as the shadow she's lifting starts to move. The higher she lifts it, the faster the physical hat unravels, until it has become entirely shadowstuff and your creation has a tenebrous top hat on her head, just between her cat-like ears. She gives you that absence-of-darkness smile with no teeth or defining features and tips the hat to you.

"Good job," you praise, blinking. "...I need to go write this down."

* * * *

"I didn't mean to take this back," you murmur, when you set the knife down on the Lady of Ravens' altar. You don't stay to watch the fate of the knife. This is hard enough as it is.

* * * *

You have two undead dogs to raise, and some raw material on hand. Even discounting most of the sapient corpses you've got enough to make them a bit better than standard issue.

> Dog zombies
> Skeleton dogs

AND

> Upgrade them with parts from the Lush (tougher, stronger)
> Increase their intelligence and speed
> Lace their teeth with necrotoxins

>>660795
>Dog Zombies
bit of meat on the bone didn't hurt.
>Increase their intelligence and speed.
need some replacements for the chicken assassination squad. Also mounts for Sir Fetch!

>>660797
hey Vox>>660795
can we eventually get the dogs the necro toxin later?

>>660798
Quite possibly, aye. I'm trying to break up the upgrade votes for this interlude so I'm not staring down the fuckbarrel of massive vote tallies /AGAIN/.

On that note, I need to sleep. Votes remain open.

Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated.

Thank you all for reading and participating!

>>660795
What are the exact benefits/disadvantages of skeletons vs zombies?

>>660795
Ugh, I want ALL THE THINGS DAMMIT! But if I have to choose only one...
> Increase their intelligence and speed.

Stupid minions die faster than the dreams and aspirations of youth. Hopefully we can give upgrade them to be tougher later, if they survive the Sunless Sea. I'd still love to armor them with toxic spines, give `em spider eyes and snake-tongues and other creepy shit.

What's the difference between the zombies and the skeletons? I mean, aside from the foul smell, rotting flesh and unnatural hunger for cranial matter. Just a matter of aesthetic, or do they perform differently?

>>660799
Ooh, that sounds nice. I'd love it if we can nab a couple Witchbats in a session of sisterly-bonding between Brianna and River over the creation of awesome undead minions.

>>660800
Zombies are physically stronger and tougher, but tend to be slower and are also more natively aggressive. A skeleton left alone without explicit orders will do nothing. A zombie left alone without explicit orders will /kill shit/.

Skeletons are faster and tend to retain more of their...nature, shall we say - the way the chickens and weasels did. This can be an upside or a downside, depending. Of the two, the tend to be calmer.

This is the reason zombies are favored for massive armies. All you really need to do is get them /close/ and the idea of killing your enemies occurs to them naturally.

>>660804
OH.....That's pretty..yeah. I don't think we want to know what would have happened if any of those lizard zombies got loose.

Okay, so I guess that means going for;
> Skeleton dogs.

If it makes them non-violent unless ordered and natural team players, sure. Plus, we can layer on some muscle with the bone-armor or toxic bite later.

>>660795
> Skeleton dogs
On account of >>660804, we need them to be fail-safe.

> Increase their intelligence and speed
Speedy speedy.

I'm on the fourth DLQ thread in the archives and just want to ask if it's worth going through the rest and getting to the live threads?

>>660818
Depends on how you like it so far?

>>660818

If you DO like it so far, then yes.
It continues to have a steady quality across the entirety of all threads. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it only gets better.
(So many emotions... David Cage would be proud of this rollercoaster.)

>>660795
> skeleton dogs
> Increase their intelligence and speed

Already thinking of names. Could always name them Heel and Shake, or Sit and Stay, considering we already have a Fetch.

Or maybe Bark and Bite.

One of them would be worse, then.>>660795

>>660869
Bay and Howl comes to mind.

>>660795
Wait a second, can we make one a zombie dog and the other a skeleton dog?

>>660869
I say we satisfy some of Vox's Norse-fetish. Name them Skoll and Hati, after the sons of Fenris, who were destined to devour Sol (the sun) and Mani (the moon).

>>660881
What would be the point? We'd still have to waste time and effort preventing the zombie from trying to eat folks. Skeletons don't have that problem, and will have much more 'friendly canine' in them than 'undead monster'.

>>660884
Well we could make the skeleton the zombies keeper when fetch isn't around, and have the zombie become the more durable fighter, while the skeleton can be our doggo assassin.

>>660795
> Skeleton dogs
> Increase their intelligence and speed

>>660795
>> Dog zombies

> Upgrade them with parts from the Lush (tougher, stronger)

>>660795
> Skeleton Dogs

> Increase strength and toughness with Giant Bones

Like, did everyone forget that we needed more durable minions than the chickens and hands? That's the whole point of medium minions?

>>660884
>>660743
Seconding Skoll and Hati.

Also, can we make one tougher and stronger and one smarter and faster?

Then they can work together with one Harrying and driving prey into the other one that takes enemies down. Like how real wolves hunt.

>>660804
Since we're also all together, can we get River to help us out with upgrading so we can do two things?

Mechanically, it's to catch up our minions with the more upgraded ones.

>>660795
> Skeleton dogs
> Increase their intelligence and speed

>>660795
>> Skeleton dogs
>> Upgrade them with parts from the Lush (tougher, stronger)

>>660795
>Skeleton dogs
>Upgrade strength and toughness

>>660795
>>skeleton
>> lush bones

>>660804
>> Skeleton Dogs
>> Increase strength and toughness with Giant Bones

Yeah, control is important. I'd say we need more hard hitters right now though.

>>660994
They don't really need to be individually specialized to mimic pack hunting.

>>660795
> Skeleton dogs
> Increase their intelligence and speed

>>661091
Do we need to have them be identical either though?

>>660795
>> Upgrade them with parts from the Lush (tougher, stronger)
>> Skeleton dogs

We don't need more lightweights, we' have that covered.

>>660795

Waaaait I just read down the votes. I like the idea of splitting them up like >>660994

Then we can have Fetch, his second in command dog, and a bruiser dog. Cover all bases.

>>660795
> Skeleton dogs
Because control is important. Poorly trained attack dogs are just a bad idea all around.

> Upgrade them with parts from the Lush (tougher, stronger)
We have Fetch and Kat for fast, smart minions. We need heavies.

I'd rather not do the split, just for my ongoing sanity.

>>660795
>> Skeleton dogs
> Upgrade them with parts from the Lush (tougher, stronger)

>>660795
>Skeleton dogs
Rather have control. Besides, Brianna seems to be the kind of person who would want control.

>>660795
>Upgrade them with parts from the Lush (tougher, stronger)
I forgot to add this to the post>>661760

>Skeleton dogs
>Upgrade them with parts from the Lush (tougher, stronger)

We could really use minions that actually HURT when they bite. Poison is all well and good, but takes times. Bite in yon jugular or femoral ends fights much quicker.

BTW, long time reader, first time catching thread live. Hope Dick's plans keep receiving punches to the dick!

>>661820
Welcome to the quest, anon! Anything stand out on your journey here?

Finally free from Real Life. CALLED, TALLYING, WRITING.

>>661820
Sadly, a lot of things are going all according to his plan.

Honestly, that we were quick on some levels feels like a good thing.

>>662040
His plan seems to basically be "hold out until he can do his thing." And honestly, I have no idea what we can do about that except go faster. I mean, we could conceivably try and skip levels, but that has some substantial strategic weaknesses.

It is reassuring, however, that he's worried enough about us to try and convince us to not come back from the dead. If we were way behind schedule, I don't think he'd have bothered.

Okay, so the good news: my personal coffee pot is finally working again!

Our winners are:

> Skeleton dogs
> Use the Lush's bones

Writing.

>>662561
Cool and cool.

>>662561
That's a good thing.

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>>660795
You raise the dogs as skeletons and incorporate parts of the Lush's bones into their construction, adding bulk and toughness and making them stronger. They can't actually bark or pant, but the canine skeletons have a habit of hanging around with their mouths open and nuzzling anything that touches their head.

You name them Hati and Skoll, then carve little perches into the upper part of their ribs so that Fetch has some place to ride them.

"You're sure I'm not like them?" Kat asks, for the third time.

"I'm sure, Kat," you promise. "Would you like to touch the silver again to be sure?"

"...Yes please."

* * * *

"I, um. I wanted to do something, while Ames is out," Nathan admits. "Do you think we could talk to her parents and formally ask their blessing?"

"For?" you ask, quizzically.

"Our marriage," the Hero explains.

> Sure
> Nate, she's a grown-ass woman. She doesn't need /permission/.
> Hold up, our what? Aren't you rushing?
> Write-in?

Okay, so, time for the usual question: What all would you like to accomplish, or attempt to accomplish, during this interlude? Anyone you'd like to check in on, or things you need to get done?

You'll visit the necromancer soon, I promise.

>>662804
> Sure

>>662804
>> Sure

>>662811
Practice our darkness magic so we are a better support caster. Maybe do it with Kat and River for extra bonding time.

>>662804
Wait a minute, did Bri ever learn about the marriage plans?

>>662804
> Sure. But she has to be there too for maximum embirdessment

>>662804
>> Sure. But she has to be there too for maximum embirdessment

>>662843
She did not!

>>662804
>Sure.
>Wait what.

>>662804
>>662952
In that case...
>Write-in
>...I honestly don't know whether I should be surprised or not. How long have you been planning this?
>I'm not objecting though! And if we go ask Amy's parents, we should bring her along, if only to fluster her.

>>663024
Seconding

>>662804


so we're up to 3 kids already, and only one of them is traditionally alive. Though i'm not sure if kat is undead or not since unlike cherry she was never traditionally alive.

even by la croix standards I think our kids are going to be a bit weird.

>>662804
>> Sure. But she has to be there too for maximum embirdessment

>>663024
Seconding.

Called, tallying, writing.

>>663530
That isn't a bad thing though. Hell Nate and Amy haven't gotten a chance to adopt anyone yet.

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>>662804
You blink. A whole lot of thoughts run through your head all at the same time - starting with 'I haven't even been asked yet you ass' - but you push them down.

"How long did it take you to decide to ask me this before actually proposing?" you ask at last; you dig out your pipe and start to clean it, a little grin on your face. The Hero actually /blushes/.

"Awhile," Nathan admits. "But...it's important that they know we're in this together. And I thought you'd appreciate that."

"In a way," you admit. "Should Ames be with us?"

"Rather defeats the point," Nathan admits. "You don't want them to feel pressured. Their blessing is between them and us."

"Alright. Let's go."

You've managed to get your pipe packed and lit by the time you get to Diving Shadow and Larry. Amy's father is talking to a pair of young harpies - maybe equivalent to six-year-old humans - in gentle tones.

"These," he says softly, touching their talons, "are for when our lives are in danger. Or someone we love is in danger. These aren't for each other, little ones."

The two - a boy and a girl - look down guiltily. The boy mutters, "Yes, Daddy."

"Sorry Daddy," the little girl agrees.

Diving Shadow chirps for the two, and they flap off towards the other children, who are gathered around one of the older harpy boys and a small stack of storybooks. Amy's mother gives you a tired smile. "How is my daughter doing?"

"Resting," Nathan tells her. "Doc Meadows assures us she's recovering. She's just...she needs some time to be down and out. We - Brianna and I - we'd wanted to ask you something."

Larry takes a seat with his wife and puts an arm around Diving Shadows' shoulder. "Ask away," the kineticist prompts.

"We came to ask your blessing, to marry your daughter," you admit, wanting to be part of the conversation.

Larry opens his mouth and then shuts it when Diving Shadow gives his knee a hard squeeze. The harpy woman has a shrewd look. "Marriage. A human custom, one that I like, mind, but a human custom nonetheless."

"Is that bad?" Nathan asks, curiously.

Diving Shadow wobbles her hand. "It /is/. And I know Amy is a fan of it, since she went and asked your family their blessing - ah, didn't know that, did you?" Nathan shuts his mouth, his cheeks a deep red color. "It's interesting to have the tables turned, isn't it? But tell me, what's wrong with what you have now? You're her mate. You love her, she loves you, all of you know this."

"Nothing is /wrong/ with it," you say carefully. "But...we want more."

"More than what?" Diving Shadow asks.

"It's..."

>>664861

> A symbol of our love that we can present to the world. I /know/ you don't quite get this whole affair. It isn't exactly common either. A marriage is a statement.
> Part of /my/ traditions, regardless of species. Yes, the la Croix are a mostly human family, but we've got our own customs about this.
> Something I've always dreamed about. The actual marriage isn't more special than our love, but...I want it
> Write-in?

>>664863
>A symbol of our love that we can present to the world. I /know/ you don't quite get this whole affair. It isn't exactly common either. A marriage is a statement.

>>664863
>> A symbol of our love that we can present to the world. I /know/ you don't quite get this whole affair. It isn't exactly common either. A marriage is a statement.

>>664863
>> Part of /my/ traditions, regardless of species. Yes, the la Croix are a mostly human family, but we've got our own customs about this.

>>664863
> A symbol of our love that we can present to the world. I /know/ you don't quite get this whole affair. It isn't exactly common either. A marriage is a statement.

>>662811
Maybe a little checklist of further stuff.
> PLAN A WEDDING! HOLY SHIT!! THIS IS MORE STRESSFUL THAN SAVING THE WORLD!!! Of course, with the good Reverend Crashes-Often presiding. Harry and Isoldt can craft the oath-rings. Or torcs. Depends on personal preference.
> River saves Brianna from said stressing with magic lessons with the Caretaker. Should bring Kat along too, just to make the old pile of bones rattle merrily.
> Talk to Henrietta and others about what went down; we need to make sure that Brianna's resurrection hasn't turned her declaration upside down, or made other folks of importance forget things entirely. Like the Princess, or that knight woman who offered to host some harpies as wards, or the pirate-merchant from Wrackholm.
> Give Lora hugs and some homemade gumbo in a bread-bowl. Plus, tell her about the wedding. Even if she won't be there, she needs to know that the three lovebirds would never have met if she hadn't helped bring them together (I just think she needs something bright and cheerful to focus on, instead of Dick insanity).
> More minions maybe, like the Witchbats or some more Chickens for nostalgia's sake. Or upgrading the dogs again. Up to you Lich.
> Introduce the new Kat to Jewel and Cherry, maybe take them out somewhere. Quality mom-daughter bonding time.
> Invite Natalia to the wedding. Ought to bring out some happy tears from Sad Mom.
> Give Kat one of the little bells made from Silence's bones. Maybe she can use it to augment her own powers? Also, Pplay that flute to see if its got some creepy Fae magic.
> Talk with Natalia about those Geargrinders. If she's adopting them, then she's going to have to take care of them like a real mother.
> Check in with Flitter, Catherine, Hatchet and Scribbles. I remember the option to switch perspective to the First-Mate of the Pallbearer, and it is not making me feel good.
> Talk with the survivors of the Cornucopia. Damage assessment, repairs, the works.

Going to get an actual decent night's sleep for once, and then take a shower in the morning. Votes remain open.

Questions, comments, discussion, feedback, and criticisms remain welcome and appreciated.

Thank you all for reading and participating!

>>664861
> I'd marry her every day if I could. But I'll settle for once in public, and do it all the other times in my heart.

>>665057
Marriage waits until after saving the world. Half-assing either is unacceptable.

>>664863
>> Part of /my/ traditions, regardless of species. Yes, the la Croix are a mostly human family, but we've got our own customs about this.

>>665057
>>664863
Y'know what, switching over to this, because it makes more sense to me.
> Something I've always dreamed about. The actual marriage isn't more special than our love, but...I want it.

I'm kind of jaded against marriage, simply because most of the examples I've seen have been because the couple came from the old school of 'Till Death Do Us Part', or were only half-assing the relationship and it fell apart a couple years later. I want to believe, but Real Life leaves a bad taste in mouth. Like shit and anti-freeze.

I'm also a socially-awkward spaz and inexperienced noob when it comes to romance, so I can't even begin to lecture anyone on successfully finding 'The One' - like Love was the goddamn Lord of the Rings - keeping said special someone, and maintaining the relationship long enough to raise a family, if you even want one.

>>665211
I figure we'll do the ceremony either during this interlude, or the next, with only a few special guests like Harry, Diving Shadow & Lawrence, and the Reverend preside. The extravagant wedding party can be /after/ we save the world.

>>665227
My folks have been married happily for 25 years, it works for some people dude.