Kiran and Reveno bitch about the war

[7:05 PM] SwaDM: Albeit there is certainly urgency upon the party's arrival  into Valveria - it needs not be said that running at  full pelt down a large mountain is, perhaps, an incredibly poor idea. Similarly, it would be a poor idea to move across a great many hours without stopping once or twice to catch one's breath, or drink something.
[7:07 PM] SwaDM: This being the case - there would be a couple of stops along the cliffside that Kiran might have been able to use for his curiosity-related purposes - or whatever it is he desires. If he has been keeping track, he might have noticied that in one of these earlier stops, Lous had conversed with Reveno about...something.  He's not all that sure what - and it's not like he'd have snuck in to eavesdrop. Probably.
[7:07 PM] Kiran: He would not have. Kiran has great respect for social nuances, even if he does not fully comprehend them.
[7:08 PM] SwaDM: Translation : KIran is not remotely confident enough in his sneaking baility.
[7:08 PM] SwaDM: Regardless - he has enough perception to notice whenever he may have an opportunity -  which there are plenty of.
[7:09 PM] Kiran: Excellent.
[7:10 PM] Kiran: will simply approach Reveno at a likely moment, without much preamble. Reveno is one of the few people Kiran is fairly confident in having a conversation with.
[7:10 PM] Kiran: "Hello."
[7:11 PM] SwaDM: Very well then. Come this point, the trek down the mountain path has about reached the  midway point, with Reveno having sat himself by a nearby stump. It is not the only stump he has, either!
[7:11 PM] SwaDM: "Hm? Hey."
[7:11 PM] Kiran: Heh
[7:12 PM] Kiran: "How are you feeling?"
[7:12 PM] SwaDM: "About as well as you'd expect, I'd imagine."
[7:12 PM] Kiran: tilts his head from side to side.
[7:13 PM] Kiran: "Figures as much."
[7:13 PM] Kiran: "I, uh. Wanted to apologise again."
[7:14 PM] SwaDM: "For the whole...? Well. It's not entirely your fault, since it seems you - nor anybody else - got the memo."
[7:15 PM] SwaDM: He manages but a weak shrug, arching his eyebrows up, for a moment.
[7:15 PM] Kiran: "Yeah. But after we stopped to think about it for, like, five minutes time we worked it out. Things've been kind of non-stop."
[7:15 PM] Kiran: "Kind of guilty for not realising before."
[7:15 PM] Kiran: shrugs.
[7:16 PM] SwaDM: "Eh. You feel guilty, I nearly caved in three of your ribs - it balances out to a small degree, at least."
[7:16 PM] SwaDM: "...Still bloody surprised I punched her tooth out."
[7:17 PM] Kiran: "I think you might be the first person I've seen actually hit Sandra when they felt like she deserved it."
[7:17 PM] Kiran: "Do part-werewolves regrow teeth?"
[7:17 PM] SwaDM: "Oh? Were you and  Blake mentally cheering for it?"
[7:17 PM] SwaDM: "No, they don't. Pretty sure."
[7:18 PM] SwaDM: "She'll need a regeneration, or a prothesis for that one."
[7:18 PM] Kiran: "Sandra and I had a pretty big blow-out at one point a few weeks ago. We never really spoke about it afterward."
[7:18 PM] SwaDM: "What about?"
[7:20 PM] Kiran: "Something about kriendyh tech. It started off as me being concerned about something that you graft into your flesh - and concerned that she wasn't remotely concerned by it, and she implied I was avoiding learning things out of fear, or facing my fears."
[7:21 PM] Kiran: "It escalated from there. There was... a lot of frustration in the room."
[7:21 PM] SwaDM: "Sounds like her, sure."
[7:22 PM] Kiran: "It wound up with her yelling at me for being a coward and not innovating, and me saying she claims to be an inventor but hasn't invented a thing in the entire time I've known her."
[7:22 PM] Kiran: "Still feeling pretty guilty about it. But... pretty promptly afterward, she seemed to adapt her entire combat style and start actually using her technological know-how in fights. So maybe something good came out of it."
[7:23 PM] Kiran: "I should apologise to her at some point."
[7:23 PM] SwaDM: "Perhaps. But, then again, she never should have been here in the first place."
[7:23 PM] SwaDM: "She's just a spoiled, rich kid with delusions of familial grandeur that's never actually lost anything in her life."
[7:23 PM] SwaDM: "Not someone I'd have personally picked for this whole...Void business."
[7:24 PM] Kiran: "I imagine the time she tried to execute Raken probably wasn't well-received."
[7:24 PM] SwaDM: "Let's just say the only reason nothing else happened was because of backed up goodwill between us."
[7:25 PM] Kiran: "Well. That's something, I guess."
[7:26 PM] Kiran: "I've disagreed with her a lot. I can't deny she's been useful, but I'm not really planning to, like, send her a Bromas card or anything."
[7:26 PM] SwaDM: "A work acquaintance more then anything, is it?"
[7:27 PM] Kiran: "I care about everyone on the team. Some more than others, obviously. I just don't really seek her out to spend time with."
[7:28 PM] Kiran: "I have trouble imagining everyone on your team getting along with, say, Raken, but I haven't had a conversation with him. This is just first impressions."
[7:28 PM] SwaDM: "You'd be surprised."
[7:29 PM] SwaDM: "For one, we are not exactly children. Unlike...  - well, let us face it. Apart from Lous, all of you are quite young."
[7:30 PM] Kiran: "I know. Everyone always has more to learn."
[7:30 PM] Kiran: "Some more than others."
[7:30 PM] SwaDM: "I suppose so. No. Things are generally...calm."
[7:31 PM] Kiran: "Professional?"
[7:31 PM] SwaDM: "It's a word for it, sure."
[7:31 PM] Kiran: "I think that sometimes that'd be nice."
[7:31 PM] SwaDM: "Get rid of Sandra somehow, and who knows?"
[7:31 PM] SwaDM: "Maybe."
[7:31 PM] Kiran: shrugs.
[7:31 PM] Kiran: "She almost managed that herself back when we were facing the UFF."
[7:32 PM] SwaDM: "I remember. The Pesh thing."
[7:32 PM] SwaDM: "You know what's absolutely hilarious?"
[7:32 PM] Kiran: "You heard already?"
[7:32 PM] SwaDM: "I'ma spy. Kind of my job - but no, you'll love this one."
[7:32 PM] Kiran: "Sure."
[7:32 PM] SwaDM: "Pesh is a very light hallucionogenic. It is, infact ,comparable to just things like wine, alcohol, really."
[7:33 PM] SwaDM: "I've used it already. It is basically the tamest drug you could possibly pick."
[7:33 PM] Kiran: sighs, an aborted chuckle.
[7:33 PM] Kiran: "Of course it is."
[7:33 PM] SwaDM: "Again. Spoiled child."
[7:34 PM] Kiran: "It was one of the worst possible times for her to have done it."
[7:34 PM] SwaDM: "Why?"
[7:35 PM] Kiran: "She was in the brig for... I think a few days. We were at war. It's one of those frustrating moments where you can see a better way to have conducted yourself, and the person just... doesn't."
[7:36 PM] SwaDM: "Are you building up towards a segway where you tell me I shouldn't have done something? Because it does feel that way."
[7:37 PM] Kiran: "Well I kind of wish you hadn't stabbed me so hard, but no. I understand why you've done everything you have. I can imagine a world in which I would've done the same thing."
[7:37 PM] SwaDM: "I don't think it's a matter of the world. More the situation."
[7:37 PM] SwaDM: "You did say things were..."
[7:38 PM] SwaDM: "Moving nonstop, didn't you?"
[7:38 PM] Kiran: "I guess that is a pretty poor word choice after we've discovered that alternate realities are real."
[7:38 PM] Kiran: "And yes."
[7:38 PM] SwaDM: "Well, did it ever actually stop?"
[7:38 PM] SwaDM: "Did you?"
[7:39 PM] Kiran: "No. I don't like stopping. Things... go wrong when you stop."
[7:39 PM] SwaDM: "It's not that things go wrong."
[7:39 PM] SwaDM: "It's that, the moment you do, you'll realize what happened."
[7:40 PM] SwaDM: "So - my recommendation is for you to very much not stop."
[7:40 PM] Kiran: tightens his expression.
[7:40 PM] Kiran: replies, quieter. "That too."
[7:41 PM] SwaDM: He glances towards Kiran, giving him a small nod.
[7:41 PM] Kiran: "I wonder what would've happened if I'd wound up on your side of things."
[7:42 PM] SwaDM: "It's hard to tell. People don't act the same way - as much as certain pessimists...or excessive optimists, would have you believe."
[7:42 PM] SwaDM: "Of course, I'd swap with you on a dime. I meant everything I said."
[7:43 PM] SwaDM: "You were given a chance.  Not because you deserve it - but just because you did. Call it the grimmest kind of luck possible, I suppose."
[7:43 PM] Kiran: "Adalet helped."
[7:43 PM] SwaDM: "He has nothing to do with the Void not just gobbling up your world entirely like some sort of midnight snack."
[7:43 PM] SwaDM: "But, I'm sure he encouraged you."
[7:44 PM] SwaDM: "And I'm also sure he had a reason for it."
[7:44 PM] Kiran: "He wasn't sure which side I'd end up on, he said. Like he knew. I guess he's seen a lot of new recruits."
[7:44 PM] SwaDM: "Like he knew?"
[7:45 PM] SwaDM: "Or like how Neviltis knew?"
[7:45 PM] Kiran: frowns.
[7:45 PM] SwaDM: "...After what Blake told me, I can't exactly trust the flying burlap sack as far as I can throw him, either."
[7:46 PM] Kiran: "I... I don't know. What was Adalet doing in Valveria, near to my workshop?"
[7:46 PM] Kiran: "We didn't know about the Vaults back then, did we?"
[7:46 PM] SwaDM: "I'm not entirely sure - but I don't think so, no."
[7:47 PM] Kiran: "Shit. That's... concerning. I'll have to write him another letter."
[7:47 PM] SwaDM: "Or just talk to him. Either or."
[7:48 PM] Kiran: "Or that."
[7:48 PM] Kiran: "Heh. Maybe if I'd wound up on your side of things, someone else would've helped me learn to fight. And there wouldn't've been a video of Blake nearly killing me."
[7:49 PM] SwaDM: "I didn't record that - I recorded the wrestling. I think."
[7:49 PM] SwaDM: "Regardless. Builds character."
[7:49 PM] Kiran: "It certainly improved my ability to parry. My character, I'm less sure about."
[7:51 PM] SwaDM: "Hm."
[7:51 PM] SwaDM: "Why'd you come over, anyway?"
[7:53 PM] Kiran: "Honestly? I wanted to make sure you were okay. I know you won't be, but it's like you said. A lot's happened."
[7:54 PM] SwaDM: "Bit like Lous, then. The concern is appreciated, at least - but. As you said. A lot has happened."
[7:55 PM] Kiran: "And if you're not. Well. I dunno, I'm not great at people, but I have working ears."
[7:56 PM] SwaDM: "Well, I suppose I do have a question. More curiosity then anything."
[7:56 PM] Kiran: "Sure. I like questions."
[7:56 PM] SwaDM: "You really think Spera's remotely cut out for any of this? The more I see and hear, the worse the picture gets."
[7:57 PM] SwaDM: "Because I've got a lot of regrets - but leaving isn't one of them."
[7:58 PM] Kiran: genuinely gives this some thought.
[7:58 PM] Kiran: "No. I don't."
[7:59 PM] Kiran: "But I don't think anyone is, really. Not any one person, at least."
[8:00 PM] Kiran: "Spera isn't alone - she's got all of us. People who know a little more about tactics, or fighting, or healing. Spera's job is to bring us all together, not to win the war. That's why we're here."
[8:01 PM] SwaDM: "So, a glorified wagon driver."
[8:01 PM] SwaDM: "Frankly, that's hilarious when you think about it."
[8:03 PM] Kiran: "I also don't think that Neviltis is perfect for the job. I think that if it weren't for the glimmer incompatibility, the two of them working together would win the war easily. Spera for the human aspect of things; the softer side that cultivates the people with her. She's gentle, and nurturing."
[8:04 PM] Kiran: "Neviltis for the hardest decisions that you have to make in a war. The calculating, cold and detached side of things."
[8:04 PM] Kiran: "I can't help but think both sides will be needed."
[8:04 PM] SwaDM: "Yes, Kiran. If it weren't for this stupid incompatibility nonsense, the war would have been won ten years ago."
[8:05 PM] SwaDM: "Instead, we got hundreds dead - and nothing to show for it."
[8:05 PM] SwaDM: "...I don't know. Even with  all my memories back, I  can't remotely justify anything regarding Spera."
[8:06 PM] Kiran: "Is there something specific that you're thinking of?"
[8:07 PM] SwaDM: "I suppose I'm thinking about myself, sure."
[8:08 PM] SwaDM: "Thank the fact that I've been able to get in a whole lot of brooding for my weekly quota - all thanks to our friend the Mimic there, but."
[8:08 PM] SwaDM: "Should she really have even "saved" me?"
[8:09 PM] SwaDM: "Because at this point, over half my life has been just...this."
[8:11 PM] Kiran: "You have the chance to help fight. Would you rather you aren't there to help build... whatever comes after this?"
[8:12 PM] SwaDM: "You mean I had to chance to fumble about, not being able to affect anything meaningfully for a few years, and then became a Faceless for nine, without half my memories, and then got brought back to square one."
[8:12 PM] SwaDM: "I  think I said this already, but I'm not....really concerned about any of the building you're talking about. That's not why I'm here - it's never why I was here."
[8:14 PM] Kiran: "What about everyone you've saved until now? All of the people who've gotten a chance because of you?"
[8:15 PM] SwaDM: Reveno quirks one eyebrow over towards Kiran - afore shaking his head and sighing. "Well, that's just a cheap blow."
[8:15 PM] SwaDM: "Yeah, I can't exactly turn around and say "I don't care about that" on that one, since, at this point, you'd be able to catch on to the blatant lie pretty quickly."
[8:17 PM] Kiran: "You've shaped the fight. The way I look at things...  take ability to enhance my allies' weapons for example - I don't strike the killing blow to the Void myself, but I'm part of it."
[8:19 PM] SwaDM: "I don't know, it's just...yeah. I'm sorry. My whining is the last thing you need to hear. I guess I'm just...tired. Of the fight. Of losing people. It's been far too long, at this point."
[8:19 PM] SwaDM: "And now that it's all come back, it...well, it hits you."
[8:19 PM] Kiran: nods.
[8:20 PM] Kiran: "Don't apologise. Sometimes everyone needs to take their thoughts and put them outside of themselves."
[8:20 PM] Kiran: "You can't hit something that's inside of you without hitting yourself."
[8:20 PM] Kiran: "That made more sense in my head."
[8:20 PM] SwaDM: "Welcome to my life."
[8:21 PM] SwaDM: "But, as I said. What comes after... I don't know. And I don't want to think about it. All I want, right now, is for the Void to be gone."
[8:22 PM] Kiran: "I think we all want that."
[8:22 PM] Kiran: "I wish we had more time."
[8:22 PM] SwaDM: "Any reason why?"
[8:24 PM] Kiran: "Bunch of reasons. I never feel completely ready. But in this specific case, I kind of wish I could ask you for tips on fighting. Libra kicking my ass was a big help."
[8:24 PM] Kiran: shrugs.
[8:24 PM] Kiran: "Plus, I don't know what we're going to see when we get down there."
[8:24 PM] SwaDM: "I don't think I could teach you much. Far different styles."
[8:24 PM] Kiran: "Eh. You can always learn something. Even if it's minor."
[8:25 PM] SwaDM: "Maybe. Still, we fought. At least you now know not to get stabbed?"
[8:25 PM] SwaDM: "It's something."
[8:25 PM] Kiran: snorts.
[8:26 PM] Kiran: "If I make it all the way to the Vault without getting stabbed, I'll be astonished."
[8:26 PM] SwaDM: "I wouldn't count on that one, no."
[8:28 PM] Kiran: "Eh, fair. Not like I really have any advice for you either."
[8:28 PM] SwaDM: "I probably wouldn't hear it anyway."
[8:29 PM] SwaDM: "Just try not to die, is all I can tell you."
[8:29 PM] Kiran: "I've historically been pretty good at that. Aside from that one time I thought I died, and instead saw someone's memories or something."
[8:30 PM] SwaDM: "...That sounds funky."
[8:30 PM] SwaDM: "And weird."
[8:30 PM] Kiran: shrugs.
[8:30 PM] Kiran: "If you know anyone who lived through a sort-of greyish Limbo-like landscape where they ran at a portal that the Void was piercing through to invade while cursing the idiots who didn't stop it... well, let me know, I guess."
[8:31 PM] SwaDM: "That's so ridiculously specific, I'll actually keep it in mind."
[8:31 PM] Kiran: "Thanks. It's been bothering me for like a month."
[8:32 PM] SwaDM: "What happened for you to get that vision thing, anyway?"
[8:32 PM] SwaDM: "Couldn't have been at random."
[8:33 PM] Kiran: "Remember when we launched our flight through The Cloud by Skyship?"
[8:33 PM] SwaDM: "I remebemer that was your plan, yeah."
[8:34 PM] Kiran: "We got attacked by a Void dragon. We had to ram it with the skyship."
[8:34 PM] Kiran: "Oh. In case you missed it, Void dragons are a thing."
[8:34 PM] SwaDM: "Because of course they are."
[8:34 PM] Kiran: "Right?"
[8:34 PM] SwaDM: "I mean, it makes sense. If they're micing beings...anyway. Go  on."
[8:35 PM] Kiran: "Yeah. So the ship broke apart, and I... don't really know, honestly. I had the vision that I outlined, and after charging the Void in it, a golden hand pulled me to safety. I thought it was Spera."
[8:35 PM] SwaDM: "Well, where did you wake up?"
[8:35 PM] Kiran: "I woke up on the ground, with a broken arm trapped beneath one of those Void scavengers."
[8:36 PM] Kiran: "The fall should've killed me."
[8:36 PM] SwaDM: "I-"
[8:36 PM] SwaDM: "...Hrrm."
[8:36 PM] SwaDM: "I may have a mild theory."
[8:37 PM] Kiran: "Please. I'd really really love an answer, no matter how vague."
[8:37 PM] SwaDM: "Something a little similar happened to me. In the sense that I should have died - but I didn't. When the Mimic cut off my arm."
[8:37 PM] Kiran: tilts his head.
[8:37 PM] Kiran: "Right."
[8:37 PM] SwaDM: "I don't know what, but something happened."
[8:37 PM] SwaDM: "There was no vision like yours, I will admit, but for some reason, I was alive. And bristling with glimmer."
[8:38 PM] SwaDM: "And like...I was saying beforehand. Glimmer does allow us to do things that...well, we shouldn't - but at the same time, we...need?"
[8:38 PM] SwaDM: "I know that happened with Lous, when he threw Raken off of a mountain."
[8:39 PM] SwaDM: "I suppose I might be suggesting Glimmer parachutes. Might've reacted weird with the dead Voidspawn, who knows?"
[8:40 PM] Kiran: "Maybe. I didn't wake up producing glimmer, though."
[8:41 PM] SwaDM: "No, it's certainly different still, yeah."
[8:41 PM] Kiran: "The fact that you were able to use our glimmer..."
[8:41 PM] SwaDM: "I still don't know what happened with that, I'm afraid."
[8:42 PM] Kiran: "I know. It just gives me a faint sort of hope for the incompatibility some day being solved."
[8:42 PM] SwaDM: "I...just don't hold any, I'm afraid. But I suppose we'll see."
[8:42 PM] Kiran: sighs.
[8:42 PM] Kiran: "I hate mysteries."
[8:43 PM] SwaDM: "Well - let's start by solving the one of what is it that the Void is even doing here then, hrm?"
[8:44 PM] Kiran: "If I had to guess? This is a world where a god broke free of the dimension. I'd be surprised if it was completely unrelated to that."
[8:45 PM] Kiran: "Or whatever's in that... demi-plane or whatever the Kriendyh made."
[8:45 PM] SwaDM: "I...would not be surprised if there was some relation, no."
[8:47 PM] Kiran: "Did anyone ever work out how old the glimmer-rich artifacts are from this dimension?"
[8:48 PM] SwaDM: "Well... I know Jugo had a look on one of them. Old, sure, but bit THAT old. Far newer then the Kriendyh."
[8:48 PM] Kiran: "I'm still confused about those."
[8:49 PM] SwaDM: "You, and everyone else."
[8:50 PM] Kiran: "We'll figure it out."
[8:50 PM] Kiran: sighs and gets up, brushing down his legs.
[8:51 PM] Kiran: "Oh. The fighting style might not suit me very much- but if you have any pointers for Johnathan, let me know. He wants a sword just like yours."
[8:53 PM] SwaDM: Reveno simply pauses for a moment, afore nodding at Kiran. "Later, perhaps."
[8:55 PM] Kiran: "Good. I'm going to go check on the others before we start moving again. Talk to you later."
[8:55 PM] Kiran: "... Grumpy."
[8:57 PM] SwaDM: "...I am going to stab you again later for that."
[8:57 PM] Kiran: turns and grins, walking away backwards.
[8:58 PM] Kiran: "We'll spar after we get to the Vault, then."