Thread: Return of the Exalted (closed for me and Showmeyouloveme)

OOC Sorry turned into a bit of a long one. I'd sort-of thought of what had happened between the two, at least for the 'gun to the head' bit, at work a few days ago and finally had a chance to introduce it. Helps that the setting does have firearm-like weapons - most of the main Exalted setting is very medieval-ChinaJapanetc. It's not a style suited to you, trust me, Leo had said. Erik had a few theories about what style he practised, one being that he didn't practice a specific style at all and just used inherent Lunar Charms. Erik shrugged as Allison asked what Leo might be doing, Could be intercepting some Fair Folk or undead, could be searching for a new animal form to transform into and that's something Lunars have to do alone. Just as well, too, from what I've been told it involves hunting a specific animal for a while, killing it, then eating its heart. After that the Lunar can change into that specific animal whenever they want. Frankly it makes me glad I'm a Solar. Seriously eating a freshly ripped-out animal heart? Eugh. Erik got flashes of memory as she bumped into him as well. There was something about jealousy but it felt different, like it wouldn't happen for years after the incident with the gun. He saw his past self pointing what looked like a flintlock pistol at the head of Allison's past self, around them were flames and the scent of blood. A corpse nearby, impaled by pieces of wood flung at high speed, wore a distinctive red kimono. Both past selves were blazing with the light of the sun but hers felt fresh like she'd Exalted only minutes before. His face was remorseful as her thumb pulled back the hammer. No more excuses, you careless bastard, she said, you didn't care about the collateral damage you'd cause by fighting them, you didn't care about the innocent lives you ended with each swing of those damned fists, you killed my family ! The memory ended just as the trigger was pulled. Erik shook his head as the memory ended, trying to get his wits back. He felt his past self's anger rise as he looked at Allison but quickly bit down on it. They weren't his emotions, Allison was not to blame for whatever happened that day more than ten thousand years ago. Erik felt there was more to it - who or what had her past self been fighting? How could it have been so destructive to level a whole village? Why didn't he care about the collateral damage? Or was it his opponent or opponents that were really at fault? He made a mental note to try meditating on the memory later in the day - it had helped him remember some of his Charms, like Summoning the Loyal Steel and finding the daiklave bound to his Exaltation - hopefully that would get him the full story. When we get back, he said when he got his emotions back under control, take your time looking through the files on those Celestial Martial Arts. You're not limited to learning one, but it's easier to focus on just one at a time and it could be years before you master it. It was sound advice, but it was also to make sure she left him alone long enough for him to try and recover those memories. Leo must have had a mobile phone or something on him during the fight because a file describing some Celestial Martial Arts Styles had been slid under the door by the time they got back which probably wasn't the best idea since Erik almost stepped on it as he opened the door. There were four styles described inside - Snake Style teaches the practitioner to strike quickly, slipping through their opponent's guard and striking from unexpected angles while learning to harden their Essence to protect them like a serpent's scales Solar Hero Style is the classic brawler style refined into a more complete fighting style, that page had a note on it marking it as a particular recommendation from Leo Mantis and Tiger Styles both worked on the same principles as their mortal kung fu versions but taken to the extreme of the Celestial Martial Arts. An extra note at the start gave a rough comparison of the three kinds of martial arts A mundane martial arts master can split a brick and jump over a hedge. A Terrestrial martial arts master can split a boulder and jump over a house. A Celestial martial arts master can split a city wall and jump over a mountain. While Allison looked over those, Erik ducked into his room, sat on his bed and relaxed, meditating on the memory he'd gotten as Allison bumped him. It was broken and fragmentary but Erik had expected that, stories saying that a god in Yu-Shan cleaned some of the memories off an Exaltation while it was between hosts, but often left some memories on. He saw a quintet of Dragon-Blooded warriors, clad in ornate, jade armour. One was an overseer or something for the small farming village his past self had grown up in. The overseer was talking with the villagers happily, greatly loved by the locals who were eagerly talking with him while farmhands loaded a tribute of rice on their wagon. The memory jumped forward several years, his past self racing back to the village as the sounds of battle erupted from it. Blades and fists clashing with enough force to be felt from hundreds of metres away. As she crested the hill, the memory became a crystal clear image - every facet of that moment had been burnt into her mind. Many of the houses had been obliterated by a titanic clash, many were on fire, parts of the ground were covered in a sheen of ice or smashed and drenched as though been hit by a tidal wave, a boulder had destroyed half of the teahouse while the stables had been overgrown by thorny vines. In the town centre was a tall man blazing gold, his hands covered in blood as he looked about at the devastation in shock. The five Dragon-Blooded warriors from the previous memory all lay dead around the town, along with all of the villagers. As her eyes fell on one corpse in a fancy red kimono, she felt raw rage fill her. Common sense went out the window as she ran straight for the warrior, recognising him as a man who'd disappeared from the village years ago. A related fragment of info entered Erik's head, explaining that she later learnt he'd fled the village because he Exalted and wanted to avoid drawing the Wyld Hunt a branch of the Realm's Immaculate Order dedicated to hunting down non-Dragon-Blooded Exalts, believing them to be demons possessing mortals. As she reached the warrior, she started swinging at him, screaming in rage as she tried to punch him. As she punched at him, he idly deflected her blows, still in shock at the destruction he'd caused. The shock stopped him from noticing the sign of the Eclipse Caste forming on her forehead and the anima forming around her until she kicked him in the side of the knee strong enough to drive him down and pulled the flamepiece a weapon similar to a flintlock pistol, but that fired a gout of flame instead of a projectile out of his belt to press the barrel against his head. That was when the bit he'd gotten in the forest picked up. As she pulled the trigger at the end, there was just a loud click as the hammer fell. The flamepiece hadn't been loaded and it fell from her numb fingers. All she could do was stare at him through tear-streaked eyes, asking him why he allowed their village to be destroyed. If he was powerful enough to kill five Dragon-Blooded, surely he could have led them away where the collateral damage wouldn't matter. He still seemed to be in shock, like he hadn't even considered the collateral damage to be a possibility or even notice it had happened until the fight was over. She demanded he leave, saying that she would kill him if she ever saw him again. Erik let the emotions from the memories wash over him - bottling them up would just cause problems and he'd locked the door to his room to avoid interruptions. Finally, they passed, his past self - a young woman named Darting Lynx - was gone. Her memories or at least the ones he'd viewed were no longer affecting his emotions. There were still gaps - just who Allison's past self had been before he Exalted and what had happened between them over the next 200 years before the world was restructured into what it was now. And there was no guarantee the answers were on his Exaltation or Allison's - who knew what criteria the God of Exaltation used when deciding what memories to clean from the shards of divine power and what to leave on them?