neathbound

[neathbound]

Though to be clear, the problem is actually that I as a player don't much care about Burgundy. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I frankly never cared for the Duchess, and the best part about the city is the redacted bits.

The problem with the latest chapter of Firmament is that Maiserel isn't that concerned with saving Burgundy. They've seen the visions. If Burgundian dominance of the Neath is on the table, well, Maiserel would be happy to wait until the city's been incapacitated to step in & help.

Frankly, it's why they're on Maximilian's side here. Not because they like the guy, but because the Duchess is mad they tried to kill her. And, you know, because they wouldn't mind a war between Feastmen and loyalists decimating both sides.

[neathbound]

The problem with the latest chapter of Firmament is that Maiserel isn't that concerned with saving Burgundy. They've seen the visions. If Burgundian dominance of the Neath is on the table, well, Maiserel would be happy to wait until the city's been incapacitated to step in & help.

Frankly, it's why they're on Maximilian's side here. Not because they like the guy, but because the Duchess is mad they tried to kill her. And, you know, because they wouldn't mind a war between Feastmen and loyalists decimating both sides.

[neathbound]

the problem with having an evil mastermind manipulator oc is that i am not particularly good at being any of those things

[neathbound]

SCP-9177 "Maiserel"

Item #: SCP-9177

Clearance: 2

Containment Class: Euclid

Disruption Class: Vlam

Risk Class: Caution

Read it here.

[neathbound]

Meanwhile, in Red London

Once upon a time, there was a great cavern beneath the world’s Surface. Inside that cavern, there was a city. Inside that city, there was a garden. Inside that garden, there was a gate. Inside that gate, there was a library. Inside that library, there was a book. And inside that book, there was a city.

Read it here.

[neathbound]

The thing you have to understand about Maiserel is that yes, they're basically just a guy with a bunch of clones, but none of them are more "real" than any of the others.* There's no hive mind linking them all together - they're all different people who used to be the same.

And they wonder. They're forced to experience their own life vicariously - hearing about the exploits of the other Maiserels, the other versions of themself, the connections they've made and the things they've achieved.

That's the real irony: they split themself because they obsessed over what they could have done differently, after Nemesis. They avenged their daughter, but couldn't stop wondering if they'd made the right choices.

And now they're still stuck wondering if they're making the right choices, only now they have to watch the other versions of themself make different choices, choose different paths, achieve different heights.

They literally tore themself apart with grief and obsession, only now the question isn't whether they're the best hypothetical version of themself - it's whether they're the best actual version of themself.

*The Unaccountable Double's simulacrum-of-a-simulacrum thing does mean that one is less real than the others.

[neathbound]

utmost importance: new red handed queen art

[neathbound]

Maiserel, as a formerly-Dazzled and still-Dawnburnt individual, falling for Summer offers some fun questions. They know, at this point, that she's June, and certainly she's smart enough to figure out why they always wear those spectacles of theirs...

So are their feelings for her in any way affected by the lingering Dawn in their head? Surely her feelings for them, whatever those feelings may be, are influenced by her knowledge that they've been brainwashed by a machine she herself built.

This might take the cake for the most toxic situationship Maiserel's stumbled into, and that's saying something.

[neathbound]

Being an evil doppelganger has to be so fucked up like imagine meeting a better version of yourself. Some chain of events going differently that led to "you" being a better person in a way you can never achieve. Personally I'd have no other option but to try and kill them

[neathbound]

The temptation to make a whole slew of Stacks AU Maiserels now that we know for sure that there can be alternate universe versions of real people...

[neathbound]

Anyway having finished Firmament ch. 4, I understand that probably the story needs to be built such that all four officers stick around till the next chapter, but also, the story felt a little weirdly pushy about helping the Duchess despite what it outright calls "tyranny."

No, she's not there yet. Yes, Maiserel was heavily considering murdering her anyway. I just want the option to do that.

[neathbound]

In retrospect that was a good decision, because Maiserel, having finished the fourth chapter of Firmament, has fallen deeply in love with Summer.

Let's not forget why they're called the Radiant Architect, after all.

Maiserel, wreck that they are, spent ten minutes agonizing over whether to dance with Summer or Tatterdemalion - they eventually chose Summer, but spent the entire dance making eyes at Tatterdemalion over Summer's shoulder.

[neathbound]

Maiserel, wreck that they are, spent ten minutes agonizing over whether to dance with Summer or Tatterdemalion - they eventually chose Summer, but spent the entire dance making eyes at Tatterdemalion over Summer's shoulder.

[neathbound]

y'know... for a setting that places so much importance in Language and does so many ice cool things playing with it (Correspondence/Discordance, Parabola & Irem, etc) i think there's a bit of a missed opportunity when it comes to the terms and words people use in their day to day life... like for example:

do you think radical revolutionaries would avoid words like "enlightening" in their vocabulary and flip them for LON-appropriate counterparts to signal their beliefs?

like substituting the word "light" with "blight". lol

similarly, pet names relating to light like "sunshine" kinda have a whole extra flavour tied to them, leaning into nostalgia, melancholy and/or danger depending on the people using it. irony, even

"honey" as a pet name also has extra connotations now and might actually bother some people instead due to the association with the drug...

do you think SMEN, taboo as it is, and seeking being a recognizable phenomenon even to the common londoner, would spawn swear words and insults? (imagine the weight of telling someone to Go Seek or Fall Down a Well)

the word "well" itself. well as an adverb, interjection, adjective. just. think about it. think about what it represents. idk something is happening to this word for sure

[neathbound]

A Neathy Scroll

[neathbound]

Somewhat belated, but Maiserel does not have a reflection. What passes for their "reflection" is always actually just one of their many Discordant Doubles who happens to be in Parabola. They have no idea where their actual reflection is, and they're starting to get worried.

[neathbound]

I didn't really mean to do this, but it's important to note that the surviving iterations of Maiserel are becoming less and less human. One's a city, one's just a Snuffer that stole Maiserel's face, one's a badly-copied Discordant Double, one might be possessed, one's a Drownie...

It's entirely possible that by the time the Sixth City falls, not a single Maiserel will be human any more. It's entirely possible that Maiserel won't mind.