#here.

The olive tree where we first met

and mirror!mccoy, who did not make or suggest or even once vaguely think about kirk taking such actions, is just...............................i know you're going to want it to hurt right now, but once we've fucked about it, i am going to heal it.

kirk, far meaner than the situation calls for: i want the scar.

had it for a while. putting it on main because I need a point of reference when talking about it to people and also like. It's Fun. with the power of imagination you too can have Selene Moonborn in YOUR Watcher's party

background: this AU gives Selene her original background of being raised in an Ondrite temple in The White That Wends, escaping and eventually making her way to the Dyrwood, with the difference that she happened to arrive several weeks sooner and not on Odema's caravan. alone, she wandered until eventually deciding to head to Defiance Bay, where the Watcher eventually encounters her.

Recruitment

Once allied with Dunryd Row, you receive a sidequest from Kurren to investigate a chain of serial murders (separate from the disappearances connected to Lumdala; these are proven murders, with bodies found). He'll direct you to a few crime scenes, where you will read the remnants of the victims' souls to learn how exactly each of them died, and where the killer went after that. You will learn that the killer was a woman, who was cloaked but emitted some kind of light, and that all of the victims were suffering prior to their deaths: a victim of robbery stabbed and left to die, a sick man with nothing to relieve his pain, a heartbroken widow who has tired of life.

You will eventually follow the killer's tracks to Ondra's Gift, where you'll find her in an abandoned building where a gang of criminals was torturing a traitor. The torturers are already dead, and she's getting ready to finish off the victim; with a high enough skill check you can stop her, but otherwise she'll put an end to the woman's suffering.

The killer turns out to be a moon godlike woman. Either through dialogue or through Watcher powers, you learn that she has some kind of condition that makes her feel the pain of others, and being in a crowded city overflowing with refugees is driving her insane. She has been killing suffering people in a futile attempt to make the noise stop.

At this point, you can either fight and kill her, putting her out of her misery, or turn her in to Dunryd Row (mentioning them will make her perk up, barely recalling that she wanted to find Dunryd Row before the noise became too much, hoping that they could help her).

In your next conversation with Lady Webb, she'll mention the woman you brought in: her name is Selene, and the ciphers of Hadret House have been able to bring her back to her senses. Webb explains that Selene is a powerful cipher whose mental defenses were worn down, and that though an insanity plea might spare her from being executed, she'll probably be locked away in the sanitarium for life. A Watcher with a high enough Intellect or Perception can pick up on the fact that she wants them to ask whether there's a better solution to Selene's problem; otherwise, Webb will bring it up herself. Either way, she will offer that the Watcher take Selene with them. If you agree, she will become available as a companion.

(If the Watcher refuses to take Selene with them, the first time you camp outdoors after the Defiance Bay riots you'll get a cutscene where she approaches the camp and asks to join you, explaining that she saw what happened in Hadret House and wants to avenge the deaths of those who helped her, giving you a second - and last - chance to recruit her)

Dialogue

Selene gets more dialogue options as her companion quest advances, but by default you can question her about her abilities, her condition and her homeland, all of which she will be perfectly willing to explain — though she skirts around discussing her community and its religious practices, saying that it's personal. She has a bitter attitude towards everything Ondrite, and it's clear that she was once fond of the religion, but for whatever reason that relationship has soured. She'll mention that her godlike nature made her important to the Ondrites in her community, but refuse to elaborate, falling back on vague "you know how it is" statements (though she'll be a little more open with a godlike Watcher, saying that she was expected to become a spiritual leader because of her nature)

Banter

Selene has a concise manner of speaking, trying to speak shortly and simply, but not out of a lack of patience: she just wants to be understood. If faced with aggression from other companions, she'll sometimes snap back, but most often she'll just retreat into herself, either indifferent or exasperated. She has a deadpan sense of humor, delivering jokes in the same tone she says everything else, and will laugh at the jokes of others when they're not outright cruel or too raunchy for her to relate to. She seems to enjoy the company of Sagani, Edér and Kana the most, having long conversations with them. Her fondness for Edér, seemingly based in their shared experience of being sentenced to death by their god and her admiration of his ability to find light in the world despite his hardships, seems to be deeper than she lets on; in one of their conversations, she asks him whether he'd like her to remove some of his Saint's War memories, a process that (unbeknownst to Edér, but known to the Watcher) is painful to her. He rejects her offer.

Companion quest: Still Waters

(if recruited at Webb's request) Selene, a cipher with a mysterious past, has killed several people in Defiance Bay. The ciphers of Dunryd Row brought her back from the brink of insanity, and I have agreed to take her into my party to make sure this never happens again.

(if recruited in Act 3) Selene, a cipher with a mysterious past, has killed several people in Defiance Bay. The ciphers of Dunryd Row brought her back from the brink of insanity, and now she wishes to avenge their deaths. I have agreed to help her, but I should keep an eye on her in case she relapses.

Tasks:

- Travel with Selene for some time

Selene's quest functions similarly to Durance's and Grieving Mother's, in that it advances through cutscenes that trigger when resting with her in the party. Once you have triggered all three cutscenes, a special visitor will arrive in Caed Nua, and dealing with them will resolve the quest.

Like many other companions, in interactions with Selene during her quest (and maybe in some Selene-prompted conversations), you can sway her towards one of two values: in this case, connection versus isolation. To sway her towards connection, the Watcher has to be supportive and stress that Selene doesn't have to face her struggles alone, and encourage her to care about others; to sway her towards isolation, remain indifferent or suggest that Selene can minimize her suffering from other people's thoughts by spending her time away from other people and/or emotionally distancing herself from them.

Cutscene 1: on the first rest with Selene in the party, the Watcher suddenly wakes up from a nightmare to find her standing over them, having woken them up with her mind. She explains that their thoughts were painful and kept her from falling asleep; the Watcher can express gratitude, remain indifferent or ask why hasn't she killed them like she did the other suffering people. Regardless of their reaction, Selene will explain that back in Defiance Bay, her judgement was clouded by pain and that she wants the Watcher to know she's not a danger to them. If the Watcher asks how it felt to be in the city, Selene will refuse to explain, saying that she wouldn't wish this feeling on her enemy. The scene ends with her offering to put the Watcher back to sleep with her powers; if they accept, they drift off into a peaceful dream of a moonlit ocean shore.

Cutscene 2: The Watcher finds Selene at the edge of camp, staring off into the woods with a lost expression. If asked, she will explain that there's a dying deer not far from the camp, and she's keeping it company. The Watcher can approve of it, mock her, stand with her in silence, or offer to go look for the deer. Selene will say that it's not necessary, and then announce that the deer has died. The conversation then turns to her feeling the pain of others, and, feeling vulnerable in the aftermath of sharing an animal's last moments, Selene will talk about how her cipher powers awakened when she was an Ondrite acolyte, and how she was tasked with taking people's painful memories away until her mind couldn't handle it. Her fellow Ondrites tried to put her out of her misery, then, but she escaped and lived for decades more with a broken mind. She will then ask the Watcher whether they think that was the right choice, giving them an opportunity to argue either for death as a mercy or for clinging to existence even when it hurts, or to argue the more neutral point that every person should be allowed to choose that for themselves (which Selene clearly wasn't).

Cutscene 3: As the Watcher sleeps, they find themselves pulled out of their dream and into Selene's. There, they see the temple she grew up in, and follow a phantom version of her around until it leads them past a closed door with a cold, terrible feeling radiating from it. Upon opening the door, the Watcher will see the events of the night when Selene's fellow priests tried to ritually drown her "to return her to Ondra" play out: Selene walks into the chamber, expecting a parting ceremony as she's been told that the temple has allowed her to leave, finds four priests waiting there for her, forcing her into the pool in the middle of the room. She kills them with her mind and runs outside. When all is done, present day Selene will appear next to them and comment that this was the first time she'd ever taken a life with her mind, or at all. The Watcher can express sympathy, callousness or indifference, and then has an opportunity to question her more about her past and her recovery. The conversation ends with Selene confessing that on that day, the whole world has shrunk to the size of this room for her: here, her family betrayed her, and though she didn't let them kill her, she had to lose them instead. The Watcher has an opportunity to argue either that Selene shouldn't put her faith in people blindly, or that, though what the priests did was horrible, there are people out there who would support her.

Special Visitor: after the third cutscene, an Ondrite Acolyte will arrive at Caed Nua. Impatient, the Acolyte will approach the Watcher at the gates of Caed Nua, explaining that they are a missionary sent from their temple in The White That Wends to spread their faith in the Dyrwood. At that point, they will notice Selene, either in the Watcher's party or coming over to greet them, and be shocked. They cry out, calling her Saint Sigrun and expressing their confusion at seeing her in the flesh, as it's known that she has ascended. Selene then speaks into the Watcher's mind, explaining what they can probably piece together themselves: that the Acolyte came from her community and that Selene's escape was apparently never solved, and now she sees that her people believe her disappearance to be Ondra's miracle. She's shaken, and the Watcher can feel her composure start to crack through their telepathic connection. At this point, they can either pressure her to steel herself (earning Isolation points) or reach out and support her (earning Connection points), all the while they and Selene stumble through trying to construct a plausible explanation for why she's here and not "ascended". Eventually, it becomes clear that her presence in Caed Nua can't be handwaved away, and Selene faces a choice: tell the Acolyte the truth (which will surely find its way back to her people, letting them know she's alive) or erase their memory of the encounter. The former earns Connection points and the latter earns Isolation points, but it's possible to let her erase the Acolyte's memory and still end the game with a high Connection score. This will finish Selene's companion quest, as one way or the other she will have come to terms with her place in the world.

Endings

If Selene's Isolation score is higher than her Connection score: once her quest for vengeance is fulfilled, she walks into the woods of Eir Glanfath, never to be seen again.

If Selene's Connection score is higher: she returns to Defiance Bay and joins forces with Kurren to rebuild Dunryd Row, determined to not let the legacy of those who helped her fade away.

(bonus) If her Connection score is higher and every one of her banters with Edér was triggered: it's mentioned that Selene regularly rides out of town to meet up with someone. She never tells anyone where she's going, but Kurren once managed to track her down and saw her walk into a tavern side by side with a familiar straw-haired man.

Bonus content: The White March

(spoilers! people who haven't finished TWM2, avert your eyes)

Taking Selene with you to The White March for part 2 of the DLC yields you an entire additional storyline. The Low Tide's situation reminds her of her own; she will be more or less vague about it depending on how much you have advanced her personal quest, but Ondra's general presence will deeply unsettle her. Learning about the murder of Abydon has a strange effect on her, seemingly evoking both schadenfreude and dread; in addition, if Selene is present, Ondra will address her personally, accusing her of shirking her duty to her (an accusation that hits different if you already know that Selene was supposed to be sacrificed).

If her Isolation acore is high, after defeating the kraken Selene will ask the Watcher to let her stay behind and strike the crystal, saying that she's tired of fighting against her fate. If the Watcher refuses, she'll try to use her powers to force them to hand the hammer over to her; successfully resisting requires passing a high Resolve, Intellect or Might check. This only affects whether you get to choose who stays behind; the criteria for Selene's survival are the same as any other companion, and if she strikes the crystal and survives, you'll get additional dialogue with her where she seems shaken, but weirdly invigorated by the experience, delighted by the fact that Ondra couldn't claim her after all.

Deadfire