#secretsbeckon

WORKPLACE CONFLICT , it’s pretty much all out war no ?

@umtplex | @secretsbeckon

Let’s look at it like this!  Maria is one of the founders of a... company, let’s call it Old Hunters Inc. They had a rough go at it starting up, but eventually with the help of some college kids willing to devote some time, Old Hunters Inc really managed to secure a customer base. Maria and some others were not really pleased with the direction Old Hunters Inc had to go in and pull away from center stage, still helping out but as silent partners. 

Simon joins Old Hunters Inc right when they’re going through a serious restructuring and are eventually re branded as H.C. He works his way through the ranks and eventually comes across some dirty info on the practices of Old Hunters Inc./H.C. and knows he can’t stay silent about it. Maria doesn’t necessarily disagree that it IS shady, but all the same, she thinks Simon trying to whislteblow will do more harm than good, she tries her best to persuade him to do otherwise.... some choice phone calls here and there, perhaps intercepting him in the parking lot more than once. 

She had thought it to be perfect. A panacea, a cure-all. She had placed her faith so blindly in it, as she had her veneration in the holy order. Both had, after all, restored sight for both she and the younger Maybel child, given back a sense that so many would be beyond distraught to lose. Thus sister and brother became cleric and hunter.

But no one could have predicted that that which mended lives would unravel them with a hideous, beastly scourge. 

She remembered everything. She remembered the sheer and utter agony of bones breaking and flesh twisting, musculature deconstructed and reconstructed at speeds not possible for any other organism. She remembered claws splitting her nail-beds and fingers elongating, and flesh and bones of her feet crunching into malformed hooves. She remembered antlers tearing their way through her skull and teeth twisting into razors. She remembered blood blotting her eyes ‘till her sight went red and she was rendered blind again. Then hunters had hacked at her ‘till innards did spill and blood did stain her white fur, and her beastly form shuddered with a final exhalation of breath.

Everything went dark. And when Sister Fleurette awoke, gasping for breath, she saw her own pale and trembling fingers, not claws. Why, then, was she not a beast? Just where was she? Was this a dream? Or a nightmare? She was met with the interior of a clocktower that spiralled heavenward; it compelled her to ascend.

“Gehrman, Ludwig, you... you were all my heroes. My inspirations. When the hunt was long and the blood tempting beyond all reason, I clung to what I'd read about you. About how fearless you all were, facing down the terrible beasts and unspeakable horrors alongside the other hunters of yore. I thought to myself on those dark nights, ‘if Maria and Ludwig would persevere against such things, what excuse have I not to do the same,’ and would steel myself anew against the tides of madness...”

His drawn sword, once so balanced and comforting in hand, feels leaden now as the realization of what must be devours those now childish aspirations of old. “I see now, though. How fallible the hearts of men can be. How easily we can succumb to our fears, our desires and temptations...” With a flourish, the silver of his sword glints in the scant light, the guard resting against his breast as he offers her a sweeping bow. A salute to you, to what good you had done in life and what good your legacy had done for him... before he must erase you from both at long last. “I reject this shadow of you, Lady Maria. I reject this terrible nightmare wrought from scorned gods.” 

With a shuddering clang, Brom snaps his sword into the sheath upon his back, forming the greatsword that honored the will of Ludwig in every stroke. A clear challenge, a declaration of a duel.

⛅️   ──   friends of circumstance.

THIS HONESTLY HURTS ME SO MUCH  !!  These two together could have easily been the strongest duo in the entirety of the game, in the entirety of their universe if only their ideals weren’t constantly clashing against each other... BUT I am pretty sure that we could indeed think of a circumstance in which they will have to momentarily stop their cat fight in order to team up, mayhap against a greater evil... Or, to be more honest, simply because they have no one else to rely on  :)

>maria:   *breathes* >amelia:   *triggered*

but also: