#merathera

☔️ - Someone who Can “Turn Lemonade into Lemons” 

“Zerri. You can bust your asses boarding a ship, only to find that all they’ve got is  half a crate of ration bars... and Zerri’ll see it as a success. She’ll be all ‘Huzzah! Another successful mission!’ ...I have no idea is it’s the best thing or the worst thing for morale.”

🍰 - Someone who Loves Food 

“So, back in Commorragh, I lived with this... group of people? Like, we were trying to be a Kabal. Not in the political sense, like fuck no we weren’t breaking into that, but in the protection sense? We watched each others back, promised to avenge each other, that sorta thing. I didn’t know this guy well, he was an ally of an ally, you know how it is, but he loved to cook. Like, by hand? He wouldn’t buy it, or having something make it, he’d put the raw materials and make food. Bit weird, that guy. Got in the middle of a thing between the Eaten Tongues and the Bleeding Hearts.

Poor guy learned that the avenging promise was a lil’ empty.”

🌷 - Their Mother 

“She’s a good enough wych, and a good enough teacher. She’s a solid middle of the rank crowd pleasers, and there’s a few archons she’s in favour with. In maybe a thousand years, she might break into the top two thousand.

And she beared me from her loins, taught me everything I know, et cetera.” Khelresse smiles and shrugs. Parents, huh? They’re all the same, the smile-shrug says.

 3. What do you think others like or admire about you?

Khelresse: “My fighting prowess, or course. I’m a wych, darling, kicking ass and putting on a show is what I do, and they love me for it.”

Merathera: “My cunning. Sure, that’s not why they think they like me, but it’s the real reason.”

Jas: “I can pilot. Individual people might like me for different reason, but the crew as whole? That’s the reason they keep me around. If I couldn’t, they probably would have just dumped my on a Exodite world somewhere. Not that I would mind, anywhere is better than Commoragh, but I wouldn’t be here.”

Kaemoque: “I’m not sure. People like me, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a reason, but I don’t know it.

Though if it turns out to be because I’m psychic, I am going to have to kick them in the groin. Psychically.”

8. Should all people be treated as equal, and have the same rights?

Kaemoque: “Define ‘people.’ Sure, all Eldar should be treated, the concept of nobles is silly, but mon-keigh? You can’t give them the same rights, or treat them equally. They’re not capable enough. Like, you shouldn’t be pointlessly cruel to them, but treating them as equals would also be cruel, you know? They couldn’t keep up.”

Khelresse:“Of course not! Not everyone is equal. That’s why we have nobles, trueborn, and so on. It’s sill to say people are or should be.”

Merathera: “In principal, sure. But I don’t live in the world of principals, I live here. If other people treat me right, I treat them right. If they don’t, well, I don’t care whether we’re ‘equals’ or have ‘the same rights’ or not.”

Jas: “I kind of agree with Kaemoque. Mon-keigh aren’t equal. They can’t be.

“But, they’re also sentient. They feel pain. ...I’ve felt them feel pain. Look, I’d never say we were equals, but I think me and a human both have right not to be in pain. And I’m willing to say we might share other rights too.”

9. If you committed a crime, would you accept punishment willingly?

Merathera: “No. Why would I?”

Khelresse: “Never. I wouldn’t stoop that low.”

Kaemoque: “Look, in Commoragh, my existance is a crime. Do you see me turning myself in right now? No? There’s you’re answer.”

Jas: “Unlike these people, I would, because I have *morals* and *standards.* Crimes should be punished.

“Unless the crime happened in Commoragh, in which case, no. The punishment would be disproportionate.”

16. What would you consider a fate worse than death?

Another member of the Merry Band of  (Mostly) Eldar Pirates: Merathera!

She’s wearing human clothes because she likes people to underestimate her/think she’s not as threatening, and wearing human clothes does that with both her allies and enemies (win win!) Also, she’s pretty tiny for an Eldar, so they tend to fit her better than Eldar clothes.

(She’s also the first character in the Merry Band who’s had her skintone randomised. I’ll see how that idea goes.)

2. if you HAD to choose, who’s your favorite muse?

Rilka, probably. She’s definitely the one I’ve played the most, as she is my d&d character. And she’s so fun to play! She spouts bullshit and has no sense of self preservation, and it’s awesome.(Our party has a Reasonable Face and a Bad Idea Face, and Rilka is the Bad Idea Face.)

3. which muse is the trickiest to get into character for? 

Merathera. Her character is a little vague at the moment,  so it’s often hard to get in character when she has so little.

16. which muse is most willing to fight another muse? 

💅 - How does your muse feel about gender roles? Do they conform to them, or do they play by their own rules? 

This answer is going to be more Doylist/less in universe than the rest of them. It’s kinda hard to talk about gender roles re: the Dark Eldar, because canon has the whole ‘tells egalitarianism, shows sexism’ thing a lot of sci fi and fantasy have. Ie There’s no gender roles, everything is completely egalitarian, what uneven sex ratio? What gender specific roles?

The best way to put it is that Khelresse conforms as much as she can to the Wych role, and that happens to be a mostly woman specific. She can’t completely conform, because she’s a) not in an arena and left her cult in a humiliating sort-of scandal, and b) her boss won’t let her torture people? But she puts a lot of effort into being the best! and flashiest! fighter, she puts a lot of effort into looking attractive.

And if she had the oppurtunity, she’d dive right back into being an actual wych.

🐜 - How does your muse feel about animal lives? Do they treat them the same way they’d treat a person, or do they feel they’re inferior? 

Jas feels that animals are definitely inferior to Eldar, and that there’s not anything necessarily wrong with killing them. But.

But.

He’s spent enough time feeling hunted and/or farmed, and he’s seen more of his own insides than he ever wanted to see. And now he is really uncomfortable eating ‘real’ meat that was not grown in a lab. He didn’t intend to sympathise with space chickens! But he knows enough of how they’re farmed, at least in Commrorragh, and now he’s accidentally a developed an empathy for them.

(Tangent: Dark Eldar factory farming is probably really horrifying. Pointless suffering would be a feature, not a bug.

And Jas was ‘farmed’ in a sense. I should probably make a post or write those origin story ficlets I’ve been planning)

🔗 - What are your muse’s standards for meaningful relationships? How quickly do they form relationships like these? 

Hooboy. How Kaemoque relates to and forms relationships, from a human perspective, is weird. It’s also weird from an Eldar perspective, but less weird.

Kaemoque spent most of his life outside the protection of a Kabal, and had to be extra paranoid. No one would care if he lived or died. He was charismatic to have some allies, but none he could really trust. Especially because of another factor: Kaemoque is psychic. Not a latent psyker; he’s one of the ‘has to be careful not to light anything on fire’ kind, the obvious kind. And he had to spend most of his life hiding that fact, because if he didn’t, he would die. So he couldn’t let anyone get to close. He ended up simultaneously relationship starved and relationship averse.

So when he joined a Corsair crew that he could trust, and which knew about the whole ‘psyker’ thing--

With Kaemoque, it takes quite some time for him to trust you. But once he does, he goes from zero to hundred fast. He’d die for you. He expects you to die for him.

Which works on a relatively tight nit pirate crew. (Which is significantly larger than 6 people. I’ll introduce more characters! I’ll try to make it clear there’s a lot of offscreen people!)

📊 - How does your muse feel about the state of the world? Could it be better? Could it be worse? 

Merathera doesn’t pay much attention to wider galactic events, and doesn’t much care. She cares about her own personal sphere.

She thinks the Merry Band is a significant step up from Commorragh. It’s not perfect, but she’s quite pleased with how things have turned out. She’s (relatively) comfortable materially, she’s not living on the edge of having her soul burned out, and no one is trying to stab her in her sleep (much.) Things are good!