#lumpywrites

So Starris is a planet that has achieved world peace. They really don't need a leader. But they refer to the Regent as Regent. His title means something, even if it's empty.

The idea I've settled on, after talking with my dear partner about my favorite little space brat, is this.

Starrians are capable of having children. They can get together, each take a bit of their core star-stuff, mix it together to make a little void mass, and then feed it a special clay so it can form its shell.

Or, they can make a child by themselves, parthenogenesis style. It takes a bit more out of them, but the process is the same. Star-stuff, void mass, feed it clay, baby.

I think the Regent was born the latter way, from a long line of Regents, that started from even before the peace began, when knowing how to do battle and forge weapons and sling atmosphere altering levels of power was necessary and important information to have.

And then peace happened! And then the planet and its people didn't really need to know how to do that anymore.

But what if something happened? What if an invader came from outside? What if the peace collapsed? Someone needed to hold onto this information, just in case. But not too many people, that might cause problems. One person, to be a living archive. So, the first Regent received their title. And the "bloodline" has been continued, the information passed down throughout the centuries, just in case a time like that ever occurs again.

That was a millennium ago.

Other Starrians have been partnering up, having kids in a time of peace, who will grow up in peaceful times and might have their own kids in equally peaceful times.

The Regent is a copy of a copy of a copy of something that knew how to wage war. He is good at what he was taught. What he was taught is utterly useless on his planet.

He was taught how to win a race. He was really good at winning races. And then he shows up to the starting line only to find there was never a race to run. Everyone gives him this sort of...pitying look, when he demands an explanation for why there's no race to run.

———

Another nondescript period of time, another snippet.

This one's pretty simple. The Silent gives the Ironclad a hug.

———

The Silent opens her arms. The Ironclad gives her a look. She looks right back, before waving her hands at him a bit to prompt him. Like a child. 

“You can’t be serious.” He says.

———

Hello hello sts2 folks!

A little bit ago I wrote a snippet about the Ironclad and the Necrobinder. I liked it, but it was so short that I didn't really want to post it on ao3. So I left it there to collect dust until I could figure out a fic to wrap around it.

And then I saw a post about the two of them (@the-final-sif talkin bout you 👀) and I was like. Fuck it! I'm throwing it on tumblr.

Enjoy!

———

“I-I just… why didn’t he just let us leave?” she sobs.

“Don’t.”

The guys I am talking about are the Fogmog and the Obscura, and their illusory minions, the Eye With Teeth (shuffles 3 dazed into your discards) and the Parafright (straight up hits you).

It'd be very fun if the illusions they summoned were tailored to the target it was fighting.

The Eye With Teeth is a distracting illusion, its sole purpose is to make its enemy slip up. Maybe it'll suddenly look like a perfect mirror of its opponent, with all of the convincing ferocity of movement but none of the force to back it up. Maybe it's just someone the opponent knows, moving in a weird approximation of what a Sentient Mushroom thinks regular movement is like. Otherwise not all that upsetting. Honestly, it's more annoying, than anything.

The Parafright, on the other hand, is an illusion that's meant to instill fear. The Obscura is apparently powerful enough to give it enough physicality to make its blows actually hurt. That would only add to the realness of the illusion, which could be really interesting to play around with.

My take on what the slayers might see would probably look something like—

Ironclad: His memories are swiss cheese. He faces an ever-shifting mass of smudged half-silhouettes stained in red. Something familiar. Something that he knows in his heart and bones was real at some point, but he just can't figure out why looking at it makes him recoil harder than when its strikes land true.

Silent: Her big sisters. But how they would look if these infested levels of the Spire corrupted them a la the Entomancer. They fight with almost as much skill as the real ones do, and the Silent could never imagine besting them, not yet, not until she's proven herself to them. But if they're like this, then she never will—

The Regent: A handful or so of his people. But how they would look if the Spire chewed them up and spat them out. Beings that don't know pain, from his home that only knows peace, that this place took and mangled into something horrible. The only thing he could do for them now is to put them out of their misery.

The Necrobinder: Her new friends. But with terrible, fatal wounds that are too reminiscent of the moment her world was ripped to shreds. They don't even look vengeful as they strike at her, even though it happened again and she couldn't stop it and she is, yet again, the last one left. She's always the last one left.

The Defect: Flaw. But perfectly repaired. It tries to talk to it in the beeping, trilling machine language that they share. But all attempts to communicate are met with indifferent violence. There is no evidence that Flaw even recognizes it. Is this what it was meant to be? Is this what the Architect will make it if he fixes it?

- - -

It's always a relief when the fight is over. Moving on from the ordeal is easier if there's more than one person ascending.

Characters:  Regent (Slay the Spire), Silent (Slay the Spire), Ironclad (Slay the Spire), Necrobinder (Slay the Spire), Defect (Slay the Spire) 

Summary: The Regent often finds himself with an excess of free time on his hands that he doesn't really know what to do with.

Characters: Ironclad , Silent (Slay the Spire), Regent (Slay the Spire), Necrobinder (Slay the Spire), Defect (Slay the Spire), Pael (Slay the Spire) Summary: The party, exhausted from a slog through the damp grime of the Spire's sewers, is offered an opportunity by the Melting Dragon—to take whatever time they need to rest and recuperate in his domain before they continue their ascent.

They take the offer, of course, and pile themselves together along with the various soft things strewn about the place for a much-needed nap. The Ironclad (despite where he finds himself, in all this) doesn't follow their example.

Characters: Ironclad (Slay the Spire), Silent (Slay the Spire), Regent (Slay the Spire), Necrobinder (Slay the Spire)

Summary: The Ironclad and the Silent both have long hair. Long enough to need braiding if they want to keep it out of trouble. So, from time to time, they give each other a hand.

This song is so Unbelievably Ironclad-coded, that I had to translate the lyrics for the non-CN folks in the STS2 fandom to enjoy.