Because I can't roll a die and they combine decently anyway.
ARCHIVE: suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com
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You are River la Croix, necromancer and demonologist, and you are in striking distance of an upset angel that you increasingly suspect to be Lora's peer. No pressure.
"What. Have you done. To /my daughter/," Matariel demands. Lora lowers her blade, permitting the Rain Choir to take an angry step forward. Your shadow rises protectively, with a silent snarl of challenge on its tenebrous face.
"Down, Whisper," you order. "I knocked her out, Lord Matariel, and nothing more. She and I have been enemies for some time now."
"And what grudge do you bear?" the angel scoffs.
"Your daughter has been attempting to become a god so she can have a sense of self-worth. I'd like you to examine that sentence and tell me where the morally wrong part is," you tell him, flatly.
"She wouldn't dare. After I disciplined her -"
Okay. That's quite enough of that.
"/After/ you disciplined her, your daughter helped a madman imprison and enslave her aunt, a madman who promised her godhood as a /bride-gift," you interrupt, your respectful tone dropping into an enraged snap. "/After/ you disciplined her, she founded her cult all over again and gathered soldiers and assassins to prosecute her grievance and kill anyone who got in her way, and I'm pretty sure she did all of that to impress /you/. I would like you to examine that and tell me /where the morally wrong part is/."
Matariel looks offended, but he stops walking towards you, stormy eyes flicking to Seraphina.
"What in all of Hell did you do to her?" you demand.
"I - /nothing/. I disciplined the girl when she grew out of hand!"
"Nothing?" Lora murmurs. "That's exactly what you did, Matariel the Weeper. /Nothing/. All of her life, you've done /nothing/." Lora's remaining chains manifest around her, and the angel rattles them, like an accusation. "Listen to all this /nothing/ you did, /brother/."
"I will not be spoken to this way!"
"Her fate needs deciding. You can participate in that, or you can abandon her. Tell me her story, Matariel," you demand softly. "Or leave, and I'll try to give her a dignified death."
"You wouldn't -"
>Combining winning votes edition
ERMAHGERD RAILROADING SHIT QM ARGLBARGLBARGLA
You got your power back, I'm guessing?They fix the power line already?
Fuck yeah for public utilities.
Grief flicks back to the side of the Rain Choir's throat. "I would," Lora states, almost indifferently. "You can be replaced."
"You think you're so much better than the rest of us just because our parents made themselves subject to your law," Matariel spits. "You wouldn't dare, /Aphrael/. You're no kinslayer."
"I'm swiftly losing my patience with you."
"/Enough/," you shout. "/Your daughter/ couldn't muster a single thing she liked about herself, a single /word/ to save her own life, when I had her at my mercy. She thinks so little of herself that she was ready to die rather than deal with herself. I want to know /why/."
Lora lowers her blade and sheaths it. Matariel sighs, heavily, and looks down at his daughter. "...It is a long story. May I sit?"
"This isn't my place. It belongs to the dead," you answer.
"I can give her the short version with no bullshit," Lora offers, bitingly.
There's a headache forming in your temples. These angels, you swear to the Gods.
> Ask Tina to go get the chairs (hear Matariel out)
> Ask Lora to give you the short version
> Write-in?
Ok fuck this waste of space.
> Ask Lora to give you the short version
I'm still of the opinion we need to kill her, and given how much of an arrogant idiot Matty clearly is I doubt he'd be able to give us any actual useful info.
>Fuck this guy, have Lora bring up everything that's been going on in-between what the hell happened to the kid.
And now we wait for Observer to show his autistic face again.
> Ask Tina to go get the chairs (hear Matariel out)
Not becuase it's nice - it's probably a pain and a chore - but it'll relax and de-escalate Matarial enough. He cared enough to discipline, so cutting him out - or him feeling like he's cut out by only taking the short version - will only exasperate the situation.
>hear both sides
>> Ask Tina to go get the chairs (hear Matariel out)
>ask Tina to get chairs
I agree with your assessment
>> Ask Tina to go get the chairs (hear Matariel out)
it's probably not going to make a difference one way or the other, but with an unbound angel here the risk of shit going horribly wrong has just taken a dramatic drop. So we may as well be polite and through.
I'm sorry but I'm not really buying the whole "blame Daddy" for being an evil cunt.
Matariel's daughter did something cunty so he bitchslapped her and then she got butthurt and did more cunty bullshit.
At some point people have to stop blaming their parents for their own mistakes and the Daughter here could have easily looked to anybody else than her father to learn that maybe you shouldn't be an evil dick.
>Ask Tina to go get the chairs (hear Matariel out).
But if he tries a fast-one, we can introduce him to Sleep.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear
>> Ask Tina to go get the chairs (hear Matariel out)
meh he didn't seem that bad for a tripfag, I didn't read all that shit obviously but he seemed alright in general.
He's not bad and analysis seems to be his trade
Called, writing.
Already voted, but I will say that I REALLY don't want this one to live. Just guarantee a clean and complete execution
I have no problem with her living, though I do want her out of the story.
It does not really matter what we want though, it's what the characters want.
She tried to kill Cherry.
Cunt must die.
I could possibly even agree to that, but if we think she must die or not does not really matter here. Does River the ex mercenary who got a second chance think she should die is what matters here and honestly I have trouble imagining her thinking that unless she were truly on the road to self destruction; not just self doubt.
Cherry's already dead.
Your unfounded maternal/paternal instinct to keep her around is part of the problem.
Especially in a warzone.
Don't utilize child soldiers if you don't want dead children.
Yes, having her possess Jewel was a choice to put her on the line.
So seriously, stop thinking that some angel should care about your ghost kid.
Its not even comparable to actually targeting and killing children
> Short version from Lora and then let Mary fill in any gaps.
Whoops. Missed Vox calling it among the shitposting.
Jesus fucking christ user. Move the fuck on. We're past that.
>Yes, having her possess Jewel was a choice to put her on the line.
Excpet that /Jewel/ isn't supposed to be on the line?
Enemy agent we flipped of course she's going to be a target.
>writing
You gesture to Tina. "Can you bring the chairs back in and ensure that the others are at a safe distance?"
"Others?" Matariel asks, as Tina obeys.
"They had no part in this," you tell him flatly. "I've decided to hear you out. Please don't make me regret that decision."
The succubus comes back with a pair of chairs. Lora declines the offer to get another; you take a seat, and Matariel places his opposite yours.
"Seraphina's mother was beautiful," he says wistfully. "Her name was Elise, and she loved the rain and the snow, and left offerings at her village's shrine for my Choir. She would sing to us, out in the storms, and made beautiful paintings. She learned to blow glass so she could make model storms in bottles..."
Behind the Rain Choir, Lora folds her arms with an irritated expression.
"I came to her, to ask her for her songs and ask why she loved us so much." Matariel smiles, wistfully. "She wouldn't look at me, that first time. Wouldn't get up off from her knees. She was so scared. I visited her more and more, fascinated by her, and sculpted clouds and storms for her, as gifts in return for all she'd given us. And one day, I asked her to be my wife."
"I know angels sometimes have children with the Firstborn," you agree, quietly.
Matariel scowls. "I did not have a child with Elise. She was robbed of that chance. She died in birth. The healer said it was an air pocket, in her blood. Nothing that he could do. I flattened his village in my wrath."
"Like a petulant child," Lora drawls.
Matariel stands so fast his chair splinters against the wall of Cannot Hold. "Don't you /dare/. YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!"
You whistle, sharply, making both angels wince. "Seraphina?" you demand.
"...I left her in the care of an orphanage. She had her mother's eyes. I attended to my paternal duties when I found her abusing her power. I'd /thought/ the matter settled."
Matariel's expression is defensive, wary. Behind him, Lora points at her eyes, then to him; she wants to give him that piece of her mind she'd been talking about earlier.
> Fuck it, let Lora yell at him. You need to collect your thoughts.
> "Are you /fucking serious/?"
> "You left her in an orphanage and never checked on her?"
> Write-in?
I think a wombo combo of >"Are you fucking serious?", "You left her in an orphanage and never checked on her?", and then just tell Lora to cuss his dumbass out because she knows more languages to say them. in that order.
> Fuck it, let Lora yell at him. You need to collect your thoughts.
Besides, Lora has been imprisoned duento his negligence of his daughter. A little family spat wouldn't do too much harm
> Fuck it, let Lora yell at him. You need to collect your thoughts.
Why didn't the green com on? trying again.
>>"Are you fucking serious?", "You left her in an orphanage and never checked on her?", and then just tell Lora to cuss his dumbass out because she knows more languages to say them. in that order.
>> "You left her in an orphanage and never checked on her?"
It's 'cause the arrow needs to be on its own line, my friend. Can't do it in the midst of a block of text.
there it goes.
Ah, thank you for clarifying for my dumbass.
This is retarded as fuck.
Didn't Nate grow up an orphan with magical super powers and not become a piece of shit?
Why the fuck is The Daughter's gay ass evil shit Matariel's fault?
He's a shitty father? Sure. I don't give a shit.
The Daughter is responsible for the Daughter.
Pretty obviously yeah
Difference is, Nate didn't have the possibility of being a god, also knew damn well that what his mother did that made him was horrendous, and Nate had a based Blacksmith stepfather and a sexy nurse to keep him straight. the half angle didn't have a third of that.
>> Fuck it, let Lora yell at him. You need to collect your thoughts.
>Excuses
You might as well blame the shitty orphanage workers who never treated The Daughter right for how she turned out since they're the ones who actually raised her.
Is it because I fucked up once why no one is going with this?
I'd like to take this moment to state, gently and for the record, that Seraphina's fate is ultimately in your hands. An insight into her past and/or motivations is not the same as a justification for her actions or an intent that you feel sympathy.
1) Nate hid the fuck out of that shit
2) Nate's magical shit was highly shameful and motivated him to distance himself from it; the Daughter's magical shit was highly positive and motivated her to embrace that aspect of herself far more than she ought to
3) Nate didn't have his real parent come back out of nowhere, destroy everything he'd ever built, then fuck off again
Its pretty fucking obvious she has powers they shouldn't fuck with, if they didn't have the balls to do the job then it probably is their fault.
naturally, right now its more finding out how she became such a piece of shit. she will get her punishment. But it will not be from this irresponsible twit of a parent.
>3) Nate didn't have his real parent come back out of nowhere, destroy everything he'd ever built, then fuck off again
But Nate wasn't being a piece of shit and acting like an asshat.
you are mostly correct angry user, except for the part where Nate's mother did not show up halfway through his life burn down everything he cared about because he was not living a satisfactory life then fuck back off again without so much as a word; also he is a big damn Hero.
Her mistakes are still her own damn fault and she is not a good person, but it is not like he does not share at least some of the blame.
Yeah, because his magical shit only justified self-loathing. The Daughter became such an egotistic bitch because she grew up knowing she was literally divine but never got a fucking sit-down talk about responsibility. As far as she was concerned, everything about her nature not only supported, but DEMANDED her actions re: cult.
>some of the blame.
The biggest blame he shares is not raising his daughter, but on the other hand any parent that gives up their child is probably someone who wouldn't raise them correctly anyway.
That or choosing the wrong orphanage.
Also flattening the village was a dick as fuck move but that's completely unrelated.
I feel like flattening the village is kind of an insight in his character
like a storm, he strikes out randomly and without warning. There's no justice in his actions just raw emotion
Good thing he didn't raise The Daughter then, right?
you know when this line of thinking came up I was sort of hoping we could just pawn this bitch off on the father but that is starting to seem like a poor idea, this fucker is almost as irresponsible and pig headed as his daughter.
fuck it
>write-in
>de-summon angel
Called, getting dinner, writing.
Honestly I'd say we should put Seraphina's fate in Lora's hands. Ask her if she feels the cunt's debt to her would be best repaid with death or continued, heavily restricted, life. Don't even give Matty a say in her fate - he had his chance and rather spectacularly blew it.
second
>almost
He's probably worse, he's just too lazy to bother actually do shit like she did.
I'm leaning this way my self.
There's multiple things that could have been done better here. Matty could have checked in more, could have involved himself, maybe spent some time explaining things, rather than just up and blowing shit up before leaving. Hell, he could have blown stuff up then, and then had a serious, rational conversation explaining why, before fucking off again.
Instead, it looks like he just showed up, told her to quit being a douche, and she might not have had any idea who he was, and then he blew her up, shouted cryptic shit, and left.
Not good parenting material.
Seraphina's not exactly blame free either, she did start a murdercult. But power corrupts, and without a guiding influence in her life to steer her away from poor decisions, why should she care about what little peons think about her?
Makes me wonder more about who the fuck Dick is, that he could find and manipulate all these people.
> Write-in?
>Execute her and be done with it
I could care less about the father. She alone is responsible for her actions.
>could
couldn't*
Don't you understand that without an all-powerful angel telling her that ending the world is wrong she couldn't possibly form a positive morality where she isn't sacrificing and killing literally millions of people for power???????!??!?!?!?!?
No. That's stupid.
Even though I know you are being ironic, but anyone that actually thinks that the father being neglectful somehow lessens her crimes or her responsibility toward them is clinically retarded.
the absence is not the objection, though it was doing no favors. I think the shitshow of her first intervention is where the guy fucked up. Besides she hasn't killed millions of people or even planned to, that's dick; she just killed some people and wanted to become a god.
Come to think of it is it even confirmed she has killed one person herself? Her followers did in her name in the old days I think, but other then that we don't know shit.
She isn't going to suck your dick if you keep apologizing for her user.
I know the dad gave you a useful scapegoat, but what done is done.
She's pretty much on the whole blow up the planet and make a new one train with Dick. And she was going to be a God in that world so . . . yeah, the whole planning to murder millions thing is still hanging there over her head.
meh I could really care less what happens to her, Rivers character development is the only thing I am interested in and this seems like a key moment in it.
This
Fuckin
user
Let me make excuses for the villain because we "dont know everything"
Meanwhile lets make no excuses for the grieving widower who may have been thinking a tad irrationally after the death of the woman he loved.
Death, by the way, which is a real person in this world. And is his sister.
>tfw your sister kills your waifu and then your daughter becomes a shit
except the chain bearers have no idea what exactly dicks plan is
Nothing so far has absolved her off responsibility. A shitty childhood is no reason to start a death cult TWICE. Petty crime from misdirected anger? Sure. Not any of this.
She did all of this off her own will. A bit of self loathing isn't enough to save her.
No one said it was.
"I am his partner! His collaborator! He /adores/ me, /worships/ me, his new world will be his bridal gift to /me/, and nevermind that coward Taylor." The nephilim flicks her wings; the muffled snap of them is like an accusation. "Not that I care. My bed has not been empty. You stole my soldier, necromancer."
>HIS NEW WORLD WILL BE HIS BRIDAL GIFT TO ME
I think she knows, senpai.
Unrelated but who the fuck is Taylor?
Then why did we call him?
Are we going to call the parents of every single villain we face from now on?
Do we need to talk to the Lush's dad about not teaching his son not to rape?
Probably the Librarian.
The name's been mentioned before.
Ooh, maybe Taylor is dick's new husband/lover
You look at Matariel's face, sigh, and gesture to Lora. He turns around and sees the look on her face.
"What?" the Rain Choir asks.
"You're a shitty father, and a spoiled brat," Lora says frankly.
"That's rich coming from -"
"The /rebel/?" Lora snaps. "Do you have /any/ other insults? My grievance was addressed, and I made my apologies to our parents. Meanwhile, you couldn't be assed to be a father to your /only daughter/."
"I have duties," Matariel protests.
Lora's ringing slap echoes across the ice.
"That's your excuse?" Lora asks softly, in the silence. "To /me/, of all people? To /me/, you protest /duty/? You had every good example to follow. You had a /family/ to turn to in your time of grief. You think Wren wouldn't have raised a cup with you? You think Red Troth wouldn't have shared your sorrow? Do you think the Lady of Ravens couldn't counsel you? You /dare/?" Lora's wings flick, spread in anger as she advances. "I could have been there for you but you've spent all this time blaming me for /doing my job/. She was mortal. Death is their way."
"You could have spared her. You could have -"
"NO. I. CANNOT!" Lora snarls. "I can spare /no one/. No one, do you hear me? If you threw the Lady of Ravens, mortally wounded, at my feet I would /attend to her death/ if I could not prevent it. I cannot bring the dead to life. I /cannot/. You are a spoiled child and you've ruined your daughter's life."
"I did a father's duty. I disciplined -"
Matariel, despite being made of ice and water, is starting to visibly bruise from being slapped around like this.
"You took /everything she'd ever built/ and /annihilated it/, then /left/. You exiled her from her home and abandoned her /again/. You did /nothing/. NOTHING!"
not saying it is an excuse I am saying it is an explanation.
Lets say for example you had a drug problem, and your parent decided the best way to deal with this was to burn your house down kill all your friends blow up your car then tell you "stop being so shit" before fucking off never to be seen again. Can you understand in this situation how that could possibly fuck with your head?
my mistake
Lora whirls on you. "She should go with him. He should be force to do what he's been too cowardly to do and /be a fucking father/. He can go sniveling to the gods because I'm such a damn bully, but that girl had her mother stolen from her and was left with this /sorry excuse/."
Matariel lunges with a wild yell. Lora sidesteps and sinks a fist into his gut, knocking the wind from him.
"I could kill you with a word," she murmurs, softly. "Don't tempt me, brother mine."
> Fuck it, let Lora yell at him. You need to collect your thoughts.
> "You left her in an orphanage and never checked on her?"
Take turns yelling at him.
He was the Baron.
>Is Matariel even going to do anything different? Would foisting Seraphina on her father do anything to heal her?
>Matariel has other family members, doesn't he? Isn't there someone else who can at least check in on her or something? Otherwise we're just setting ourselves up for a replay of this problem twenty years down the line
>> Force Matariel to take her
Lora wants it, fits into Rivers redemption character development; perfect out.
>> Kill Seraphina
> Write-in?
>He should be force to do what he's been too cowardly to do and /be a fucking father/.
No Lora that's stupid. The point of orphanages is to take care of children from parents unfit to raise them or who are deceased. He's not her caretaker, somebody else was.
>Left with this /sorry excuse/
She was left with an orphanage. They are the ones responsible for raising her.
Your idea that blood has to raise blood is frankly archaic.
Speaking from someone who calls someone not of my blood a sister.
I think I understand what's going on here
Matariel, consciously or not, blames Seraphina for killing her mother.
My dad's not my blood. Great guy, wonderful father.
The thing is that since she's half angel she has lots of powers that ostensibly only another angel could teach her.
A mortal orphanage just didn't come with the tools to teach her about not using her divine abilities to entrance people into worshiping her or bending the weather to her will or whatever
Her fucking up was inevitable
but the fact of the matter is she spent a large portion of her life trying to impress him, even if he did not consider her a daughter it is fairly certain she considered him a father.
No chance that Laura could actually adopt her or show the daughter the angel ropes could she?
Lora trying to do so would be fairly problematic, but remember how there's seven Choirs and Lora leads hers? Matariel, her brother, leads his. That leaves five potential candidates of equal station and puissance - Fangs, Deeps, Sorrows, Leaves, and Mysteries. Even scratching off Mysteries for being weird unknowns, that's four folks you could possibly ask.../if/ you want to have the temerity to suggest it.
>I suggest it then!
I feel like handing off Seraphina to Matariel won't magically make him into a better father. If anything he's going to be even worse to her now then he did before
Having at least shared custody with another choir leader would be a great idea
> Kill Seraphina
If she herself considers her life of no value, why should we?
Oh shit you thought I was talking about me. No i was talking about River saying that.
>changing my vote from
to
>I suggest it then!
mostly to keep it tied, plus it is a better solution
>Support
Do we know anything off the top of our heads about the different choir leaders?
Only that they exist, really. Of the various Choirs, mortals know the most about the Sorrows, but angels don't really stop to explain their jobs to people a lot. Or ever.
I also find the idea of even more angels being dragged into this custody battle hilarious.