#casca shadowstorm

[kerra-and-company]

Currently thinking about how Casca, after escaping from the Flame Legion, literally decides to be happy out of spite.

She thinks her partner is dead. One of her best friends betrayed her. Another one died in front of her. The remaining two are a) actively ignoring any memory of her 'bandmates and supporting a system Casca hates, and b) AWOL, from what little Casca's able to find out.

Casca herself has spent a while (still messing with the timeline, but at minimum a year) imprisoned by the Flame Legion, with a long list of trauma from that. She has no desire to try to forge a new place in the Citadel and deal with that battle for recognition again.

So, upon getting free from her prison and having nowhere to go, she decides to say fuck you to the people who thought of her as dangerous or disposable or brainless or a plaything by thriving solo, in whatever form that ends up taking. (One of those is compiling a report on everything she knows about Flame Legion weak points and all but dropping it onto Malice's desk. That's the last time she sets foot in the Citadel.)

She takes on odd jobs. She becomes something of a contractor for the Priory, then the Pact--not a soldier. (Never a soldier again.) She makes new friends, and they're not the same as her warband, but she does love them. And slowly, slowly, it stops being "I'm going to thrive because fuck you" and starts becoming "this is genuinely making me happy and I want to keep this."

It's still Casca, though. She's not a person to ever fully let go of spite, or grudges, or the past. It's never erased or papered over.

And then, years later, she finds her partner again, on a mission halfway across the world. They thought she was dead, too, but turns out neither of them are. She's in shock and thrilled and still half-disbelieving, and it might as well be a miracle (if she believed in those). It's an empty place inside of her suddenly not being empty.

But Casca now is fully realizing and remembering what she lost, again. And she is happy. She is incredibly happy.

But she's also furious.

#gw2 #casca shadowstorm #splitshadow #this also is the lead-up for her encountering weylon during icebrood #since she reunites with brook during lws4 #tfw you're recovering and happy and go through periods of being chill and happy and periods of being Pissed #because what happened to you Was Fucked Up #anyways if anyone else reads this thank you for your time asldjkf

[brightwingedbat]

for the ask game, anyone’s thoughts on ryland (and/or my kiddo casca, maybe), if you’d like? :) @kerra-and-company

I'll do Marcus for Ryland. While Marcus has a lot of disappointment and anger at everything Ryland has done, I think in the end he's just really sad about it all. As a man who changed from probably being someone like Ryland used to be, to a charr of care and understanding, it hurts to see Ryland go through what he did.

Not to mention Marcus being a father close to his cubs, that final scene between Rytlock and Ryland was heartrending for him. Ultimately he wishes that he could have gotten Ryland to stop and listen, truly listen. But he knows how the charr are, and some just won't do that.

---

As for Casca, I think something interesting would be my charr Pyraxus, an ex-flame, ex-ash, New Flame charr.

He'd feel upset, if not even guilt for what she went through there when captured. Ever since he left Flame he's been fighting against them, trying to stop what they do to female charr, perhaps even make openings for them to escape too. The fact she went through that means to him that he hasn't done enough to stop Flame.

He'd be much gladdened hearing that she escapes and lives her own new life away from the legions. He wouldn't blame her for wanting to leave, the only reason he stays is for more chances to fight back.

He also knows that after rejoining the New Flame, he may lose respect from her, but that doesn't matter because at least she's away from the wrongs of Flame and the Legions overall. He doesn't do what he does for respect, he does it because it's what is right to him.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #Marcus Furyclash #Ryland Steelcatcher #Pyraxus Wrathscald #Casca Shadowstorm #answered

[kerra-and-company]

Happy Valentine's Day, folks! :)

Have a couple of pairs of mine, who are victims of my first attempt at editing couples together. (Cio and Ari are the two in the left-hand image, with Casca and Brook on the right!)

#gw2 #ciari #splitshadow #cioffi #ari stormshield #casca shadowstorm #brook splitstorm #company art #i shall slowly improve at this; i am sure; but i'm proud of these already! :D

[kerra-and-company]

📂📂📂Here's three for you too!

Thanks a bunch!! :D

📂 - Casca has absolutely stabbed at least one person in a bar before because they were flirting with her and didn't stop when she said she wasn't interested, and she then fully proceeded to pull a Han Solo and tip the barkeep for the mess while walking out. (Notably, she wasn't aiming to kill them, but she really doesn't know what happened to them after she left.)

📂 - There are aurora-borealis-like phenomena in several different parts of Tyria. Some are caused by the same thing those in our world are caused by (particle collisions in the atmosphere), while some of them have more to do with the ley lines and the inherent magic flow in the world. All the changes relating to said magic flow in the last decade have absolutely impacted those phenomena's color, location, and frequency. There's a whole host of scientific papers on the subject and half of them are badly out of date.

📂 - Technically in game, as far as I know, Tyria has no ambient squirrels running around (though someone references them in dialogue at least once). However, as far as I'm concerned, Tyria absolutely has squirrels, and they have an absolutely huge range of color variation. There's a huge range of squirrel types even in the average suburban neighborhood in our world (grays and browns and reds), and there's different types that live in the rocks by the ocean--child!me was fascinated by the spotted squirrels I saw. And even in our world, we have squirrels that look like this:

(Yes, those are real squirrels, I swear--they're Malabar giant squirrels.) Anyways. Tyria has Very Cool Squirrels and I will die on this hill xD

#gw2 #casca shadowstorm #brightwingedbat #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #you did not sign up for Squirrel Facts today but that is what i have given you #also if you didn't know these squirrels exist then now you do :D they're very cool!!

[kerra-and-company]

Ship question Love #1 for splitshadow, please!

Sure sure!! :D Thanks a bunch!

1. Who said “I love you” first?

Brook, in a very teenager-overanalyzing-things way. They realized it abruptly in the middle of a conversation they were having with Casca about something they absolutely cannot remember now* and proceeded to bluescreen for a solid thirty seconds--during which they were doing way too much thinking about secrets and truth and what you do with that in Relationships (TM)**. After said thirty seconds (which involved Casca asking them various versions of "are you okay"), they did indeed just basically blurt it out xD

(*It was a conversation about the best way to get Casca's whetstone back from their primus.)

(**Downsides to following Kormir and being a teenage charr trying very hard to make their own path--you might overthink stuff like this! Though immense props to them for the fact that their overthinking took a solid thirty seconds and that was it.)

#gw2 #splitshadow #brook splitstorm #casca shadowstorm #starlightswitch #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #and for your interest in them!! :) <3

[kerra-and-company]

Casca, how did it feel when you found Brook with the Olmakhan? What was your first reaction to seeing them again, how did they react on seeing you again?

Casca runs a hand through her hair, pushing it back where it'd flopped forward a bit, and smiles, a little off-kilter. "How'd it feel? Like I'd ended up in a good dream for once. Weird."

She meets your eyes and says in a very conversational tone, "I thought I'd died, actually. Wasn't much like Brook had described the Mists, but it was the only thing that made sense. They'd been dead for years, or so I thought. Where the hell else would I find them?"

She pauses and clears her throat. "But. You know. Not a dream, actually. The best thing that ever happened to me, but not a dream.

"And as for them..." The smile comes back, but softer. "I'd say they looked like they saw a ghost, but we'd both seen ghosts before. That's not the face you make when you see one."

#gw2 #casca shadowstorm #splitshadow #congrats you have made casca be Somft #not hard to do considering this was the question but you still get points askl;jdf :) #brightwingedbat #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D

[kerra-and-company]

I'm curious what Casca's thoughts are on the New Flame Imperator, Efram Greetsglory.

Absolutely, sure sure!! :D

If Efram were in almost any other position, Casca would like the guy and respect him. He reminds her of Ari a bit. As it is, she's almost more wary of him because she'd otherwise be inclined to trust him.

Casca got herself out of imprisonment/captivity with Flame after three years. Didn't have any help from anyone, just made plans and had a decent dose of luck. She knows others suffered like she did (Brook, for one, though it was in a different manner), but she has no reason to have any faith that there's been meaningful change made. Sure, maybe Efram's better than Gaheron on a first glance, but that's about all she's confident of, and that's a low-ass bar to clear.

I guess the gist of Casca's thoughts on Efram Greetsglory are "I sure hope you're doing good things, even though I don't and can't fully believe that's true, but regardless of whether you are or not, I'm staying the fuck away from you and your legion."

#gw2 #casca shadowstorm #brightwingedbat #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #it's also. just. #casca's not a forgiving person. at most she'll give someone a second chance but only one #and weylon was someone who got a second chance to be her friend and he burnt that to the ground #giving a second chance to the flame legion is something she can't picture #at the same time there's a part of her that would like to believe that the new flame legion really is better #because that would mean fewer people are experiencing what she did #she just really does Not believe that

[kerra-and-company]

Gonna send some asks for that gw2 meme 3 for Casca!

3, 6, 11

Gladly!! Tyty! Casca hours :D

3. What person impacted them the most?

There's several people who've impacted her immensely, but for this question? Brook. The two of them bonded incredibly quickly after coming to the fahrar and are best friends to the point of near-codependence as they grow up. They eventually end up mates as well. Brook is--and as far back as she can remember, always has been--pretty much the most important person in Casca's life.

Brook's fascination with human spirituality and religious belief is why Casca doesn't shun or scorn it, even if she doesn't believe in it herself. Brook's constant presence in her life--and the fact that they also use magic, though they're not the only other 'bandmate of hers to do so--is a not-insignificant part of the reason that Casca is so incredibly determined not to hide or be ashamed of her own magic. Brook was captured by the Flame Legion along with her, and the hope of getting out and saving them was her main reason for not giving up.

On the flip side of that, Casca spent a good eight years or so after she finally managed to escape the Flame Legion thinking that she'd been too late and that Brook was dead, and it was incredibly devastating. She managed, eventually, to rebuild something from the pieces of her life and take on mercenary work (for sketchier third parties at first, then later down the line for the Pact). She made some friends. She, interestingly enough, fully avoided dealing with her feelings towards the Flame Legion and didn't try to seek out revenge solo, which might not be what you'd guess if you'd known her before everything went down. She knew Brook wouldn't want her dead (and neither would Ari or Pol, who she was also pretty certain she'd lost), and her anger was so intrinsically tied to her grief that if she did let herself focus on it, she wouldn't have been able to even kind of handle either one. It was this weird kind of limbo where she wasn't okay and she knew it, but also thought this would be as good as it ever got.

Finding Brook with the Olmakhan in the Sandswept Isles was the best thing that could ever have happened to her, as far as she's concerned. She loves them fiercely and entirely. But it also released that hold she had on her anger. She's not big on second or third chances anyways, never has been, and that was the nail in the coffin. Any interaction with Weylon--who had betrayed their warband to Flame in the first place--that she had from that point forward was going to go immediately and violently south.

6. They're now a heart NPC/part of a string of quests. What does that involve?

As a renown heart NPC, I think you'd get baby!Casca and the rest of the Storm Warband running investigative trips into the Flame Legion in the Iron Marches. Ari would be nearby Casca and you could talk to both of them. Casca would complain about being asked to make a more solid map of the territory and Flame presence for the higher-ups, and you'd be able to help either by reading documents and bringing her information or by dealing with some of the nearby Flame Legion yourself. You'd be able to find the rest of their 'bandmates scattered throughout the area doing their own thing, and they'd all come back every once in a while and have ambient conversations with her and Ari.

11. How accurate is their reputation/image compared to how they really are?

Somewhat, I'd say? The most well-known side of Casca is the reputation she gained as a mercenary over the years. The estimation of her capabilities is pretty accurate, but the estimates of both her emotional volatility and tendency towards chaos are Not accurate.

#gw2 #casca shadowstorm #brightwingedbat #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #casca facts for you

[kerra-and-company]

Ooooh for your charr, most to least loyal to the Legions!

@mystery-salad

Ooooh :D Okay okay!! This order varies a lot over the years, but as of right now (post-EoD), most to least loyal:

Weylon: in an upset I find incredibly ironic, Weylon actually gets the top spot--he works with Efram and Flame's back to being considered part of the Legions. He's more directly loyal to Efram and to Flame than he is to the concept of the Legions as a whole, though.

Lifa: her loyalty to the Legions is...weird? She technically also was fully fighting against them at one point, since she worked with Bangar and the Frost Legion. But she still holds loyalty toward the Legions in some sense, even though she would not necessarily be received fondly if she went back to the Citadel.

Pol: he is almost what I'd call true neutral here. He respects some things about the Legions, but dislikes others enough that he doesn't go back to them when he finally gets the chance to. Maybe "I respect them, but it's not for me anymore." Something like that. He's got a lot going on in his mind when he makes that decision too, though.

Ari: she shoved a lot of her negative feelings about Everything into the self-loathing corner for a long time and is still kinda processing them. Definitely not a fan of the Legions and is at a point where she can admit that she feels betrayed that no one would help her get her 'bandmates back.

Finch: it's the only one on this list who up and left on its own without some sort of (outside) event. It's not going back, ever. it also has no more ties to anyone within the Legions--its relationship with its bandmates was never as close as some, and those bridges have fully been burned. It'll actively tell people as much if they ask.

Brook: they're loyal to the Olmakhan, if anything. The Legions never treated them or their loved ones well in the first place, much less lifted a finger to rescue them. Their personal opinion is that the Legions can get fucked.

Casca: the one on this list most likely to try to burn shit down if they gave her enough of a reason, which is why she gets the "least loyal" spot. Flame being accepted back into the Legions definitely hasn't helped.

#gw2 #weylon stormblade #pol stormheart #ari stormshield #finch wildreign #brook splitstorm #casca shadowstorm #mystery-salad #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #this was really interesting and i enjoyed writing it out

[kerra-and-company]

Most likely to Commit to the Bit to least likely for the OC grouping asks! Who's gonna go all in on a joke to ridiculous lengths! (@uselessidiotsquad)

Oh this is a Fun one askldfasdf :D Hmm...to give you a selection of a few folks from most to least likely, we've got:

Ever: if they ever get themself into a bit (which isn't that common of a thing), they're sticking to that bit. Not even necessarily because it thinks the joke's that funny, it's just bad at letting things go.

Casca: can and Will run a bit into the ground, but specifically in the situation where it's something she and the people she cares about find funny but someone she dislikes hates. If it's going to irritate the shit out of someone she doesn't care for, she is never letting that go.

Minei: will commit to a bit, but only with her sibling(s) and no one else.

Kerra: will stick to a bit, but not for extremely long at one time--more of a "I'll bring this joke back around again next week/month/etc. because I still find it funny" thing, if anything.

Pliarr: will laugh about others committing to a bit in the right circumstances, but isn't going to do it himself.

#gw2 #uselessidiotsquad #everlyrre #casca shadowstorm #mineille #kerralind #pliarr #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #if you don't send me a selection @ anyone reading these tags btw i'm just picking five folks to give you a decent spread a;sjkdf #and no worries also ruby; this ask was totally fine :)

[kerra-and-company]

I don't have anything specific on my mind right meow, but care to ramble a bit about whoever has your attention the most right now? (@commanderhorncleaver)

I almost didn't catch the "right meow" and I want you to know that asld;kjfadf (and tyty for the ask! :D)

This isn't going to be an answer for a specific person, but I've been thinking a lot about how lost literally everyone in the Storm Warband is after they split apart. Not just sad or devastated, but specifically lost.

Ari joins the Order of Whispers, originally in an attempt to help her captured 'bandmates, but ends up just drifting through her version of everyday life for a while because she doesn't know what to do if she can't help them.

Brook and Casca both get out of captivity on their own eventually, but separately and not together--they each think the other's dead. Brook basically full-on starts walking and doesn't stop until they end up in the Sandswept Isles, and Casca eventually falls into mercenary work out of having nothing better to do.

Lifa, the only member to stay in the Legions, goes through three different warbands in the next ten years--mostly not her fault, but she's also desperately searching for some sort of place to belong or way to make an impression on someone higher up the chain than her.

Weylon, who's the reason all of this happened at all, doesn't find the glory and recognition he was hoping for in the Flame Legion. He's under the thumb of someone he hates, but puts his head down and deals with it by continuing to follow his new orders while feeling worse and worse about himself and his choices.

And Pol, the one who died, wanders the Mists for years on his own.

They do all end up with at least some resolution to this and most of them are doing better nowadays, but...yeah, it was Bad All Around for everyone.

#gw2 #storm warband #commanderhorncleaver #i could ramble individually about all of them for Hours but this is the broad overview of their worst times post-split #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #ari stormshield #brook splitstorm #casca shadowstorm #lifa stormstrike #weylon stormblade #pol stormheart

[kerra-and-company]

🖊🖊 for casca and finch! :-)

Oooh, for sure for sure! :D <3

🖊 - Casca is really not a fan of fishing. She has the patience to pull off longer missions--she's former Ash Legion--but sitting still and waiting for fish to bite a line would be absolutely horrible for her. (Don't ask me why this is the first thing I thought of because I have entirely no idea aklsjdfsadf xD ) Funnily enough, her partner Brook is totally fine with fishing.

🖊 - The fact that Finch hates deep water is, weirdly, part of the reason it ended up in Cantha. If you're going AWOL from the military organization you grew up in and want to go somewhere people wouldn't think to look for you, crossing the ocean that people know Full Well you're terrified of is certainly a good (?) choice. It absolutely hated that journey with its entire being.

#gw2 #casca shadowstorm #finch wildreign #deathfeigning #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #you know i think i thought of fishing because of your icon it's entirely your fault alks;jjdfasdf

[kerra-and-company]

4, 9, 20, 31, 34 for whatever TWO otps you want to talk about most! :3c

@mystery-salad

Double the OTPs!! :3 :D We'll do Casca/Brook and Cio/Ari, because I feel like talking about both of them and haven't gotten the chance recently!

4. How did they first meet?

Brook and Casca met in the Ash Legion fahrar, when they were very little (toddlers, more or less). They honestly don't remember not knowing each other, and can't remember the specifics of their first meeting, either.

Cio and Ari met for the first time when they were assigned to the same airship for the upcoming attack on Mordremoth. Ari was the pilot; Cio was the engineer more-or-less in charge of making sure the weaponry did what it was supposed to do. They were both stressed and on edge, and managed to get on each others' nerves very quickly--and then, very shortly afterward, had to rely on each other to survive in a jungle full of Mordrem after the fleet crashed.

(Putting a cut here because all of the other answers are Long!)

9. How are their personalities different?

Brook and Casca can both be abrasive, but it's slightly different forms of abrasiveness. If it's mission-related, both of them are more than capable of acting differently/playing a role, but in general, with no motive to act otherwise, Brook is just kinda...I think I described them once as "spiky", alsjdkf. They need a reason to be pleasant to someone (adults, at least; they're pretty good with children). Casca, on the other hand, can be...sort of aggressively pleasant, if that makes sense? Not in a cloying way or an insincere one. She's the kind of person who will tell you with 100% honestly that you're pissing her off and she's really exhausted and would rather not deal with your bullshit today so could you please fuck off while grinning. This still feels like it's not quite capturing what I mean, but I think it's close. (Side note, for whatever it's worth, Casca is very awkward with kids, though she does like them.)

Also worth noting for these two is that Brook has faith in the gods--more specifically, in Kormir--where Casca does not. Brook's faith is not in quite the same form as Kasmeer's, but it is pretty unshakable, even though (and partially because) they do believe in the gods' fallibility. Casca, on the other hand, has never had that kind of faith in any sort of higher power--not a god or gods, not the Legions, not the Pact. The closest she's ever gotten to that was the trust she put in Ari, but it's not really the same thing.

Cio and Ari both had walls up in very different ways when they first met. Cio was afraid of letting people get close because she was afraid of losing them, but she was still outwardly friendly/amicable to most people, just distant. Ari refused to confront all of the complex emotions she was dealing with as a result of past experiences, and therefore barely talked to others beyond what she had to for her job (or what slipped out as a result of being angry/irritated/pushed past her limits for the day). Their personalities without walls up have some semi-similar differences. Cio is entirely unafraid of calling out anyone who's being an asshole, but she's also quick to be friendly to a stranger, whereas Ari is not. Ari has a sort of gruff teasing thing she does with people who are (at minimum) on the cusp of progressing to the friend stage from the acquaintance one, but Cio really only teases the people she's closest to.

20. Who holds a grudge the longest?

For Brook and Casca? Casca, by a mile at least. She'll give a second chance, but very very rarely, if ever, gives anyone a third.

For Cio and Ari...hmmm. Cio, as far as who's actually held one the longest. Ari blamed herself more than anyone else for the losses she experienced, and she thought her primus was horrible (which he was) but didn't exactly hold a grudge against him. (To be fair, by the time she was in a space where that grudge would maybe have resurfaced over the various other feelings she was distracted by, the guy had already died, so.) I was going to say that I could maybe see her holding more of a grudge against Weylon (and Lifa, later on) if she thought more of herself, but...honestly, no, not really. She was in charge, and as far as she's concerned, on her head be all of it. Cio, on the other hand, does hold a very justified nugget of resentment with her towards a large part of Rata Sum and the Arcane Council, one that she would likely be holding even if they hadn't repeatedly proven over the years (often specifically to her face) that they're no better than they were when she was a child.

31. What’s the relationship like? Smooth? Rocky?

Brook and Casca were inseparable as cubs. They were a team before they really formed a warband with the others, and they remained a team afterwards. They got together romantically during their early teenage years, and their relationship was pretty much like their friendship. They had some arguments, some minor rockier times, as well as some things that were more or less related to growing pains--both of each other, as they were literally growing up at this point, and of the relationship. But they'd had a whole lot of practice with those things in the thirteen years before they got together and managed to navigate it pretty damn well in the following seven years. And then their warband was shattered, they were both captured by the Flame Legion, and they were separated for nearly ten years.

After reuniting, it's...both smoother and not as smooth. They have to relearn each other in some ways, but they're also not kids, and they have a sense of stability in a different way now. There's places they have to be cautious that weren't there before, triggers that are new, ten years worth of memories to go through together. But they've always known each other, and they still do after everything. And they love each other. And they're making it work. It gets easier every day.

Cio and Ari have a very smooth romantic relationship, but in terms of their relationship in general prior to that, it started off somewhat rocky. As kinda mentioned in question 4, they didn't like each other that much when they first met, but they worked well together when they were forced to, and their back-and-forth switched at some point during their trek through Maguuma from having a tone of "I'm irritated with your existence" to having one of "I care about you and would very much rather you didn't die"--not that neither of them would have admitted that at the time. They kept working together throughout the rest of HoT, and their friendship progressed from there, but it wasn't necessarily smooth or linear. They worked for different parts of the Pact (Whispers for Ari, and the Priory for Cio), and therefore were deployed to different locations at some points during LWS3 and early PoF. When they were together (or when they sent letters), there absolutely were miscommunications occasionally, and hurt feelings, and a decent amount of hey, I care about you, please eat/sleep more than you are currently. LWS4 was when they reached a point of making key decisions based on each other--which group they wanted to be deployed with, where they'd be stationed during the fight with Kralkatorrik, what they'd do afterwards. Whether or not they'd go to the All-Legion Rally.

These days, they're no longer part of the Pact, and they get to make their own decisions. They fight very rarely, though they disagree over smaller things on a semi-regular basis. They have somewhere they're comfortable and they're building a life together. Aside from that one time recently that the world almost ended thanks to the Dragonvoid, their lives and their relationship are both going pretty smoothly!

34. Do they give each other nicknames?

Brook and Casca will use shortened versions of each other's names when they're alone--just B and Cass, nothing super fancy--but that's pretty much it.

Cio and Ari have the nicknames that they originally gave each other as insults--Ari called Cio "Sparky", and Cio called her "furball". Both of those eventually became more affectionate terms. These days, the nicknames are used in more teasing circumstances. They use each other's names when they're trying to be sweet/romantic.

#gw2 #splitshadow #ciari #mystery-salad #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #rambling about these folks was Really Fun #because i have so many thoughts about them stored in my brain alsjkdfsa #also worth noting but i didn't know where i could put it: #cio teases people who are *very* important to her and that's it #and ari hit that threshold Very quickly without ari realizing it at all #but cio absolutely noticed it Instantly and was like. 'ah. shit. what.' #which is notable because she noticed and Didn't pull back despite that really scaring her #anyways #thanks again :D #brook splitstorm #casca shadowstorm #cioffi #ari stormshield #tagging them all individually because there are Character Things in this post too

[kerra-and-company]

character spotlight, day 12: casca shadowstorm

“Here’s what’s going to happen. I am going to get free, and when I do, I am going to break off your other horn and shove it down your throat.”

#gw2 #once again i'm doing two on one day cause i'm behind asdljfasd #oh well! #tomorrow we shall return to our regularly scheduled programming lol #casca shadowstorm #moodboard #character spotlight #company art

[kerra-and-company]

🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊 for anyone you'd like

Ooh, all righty, tyty!! :D You get one fact for everyone from the Storm Warband, since there's six of them!

🖊 - Lifa is technically a fugitive from the Citadel at the moment, thanks to her working closely with Bangar during Icebrood. Luckily for her, there really isn't anyone actively looking for her despite this--so she has to be careful but isn't really all that likely to be caught.

🖊 - Weylon sometimes stops by Cio and Ari's shop in Lion's Arch. It's ostensibly to pick up new equipment/weapons, but it's also a very clumsy attempt at reconnection from someone who a) doesn't know what the heck he's doing and b) still doesn't really think he deserves anyone's forgiveness. Cio's the one who helps him, when he comes in. Ari hasn't talked to him yet.

🖊 - Pol's magic, after his return from the Mists (which, in his case, means from the dead), very much straddles the line between ranger and necromantic magic. Considering that he learns the ways of the Untamed in Echovald shortly after coming back, which somewhat mask this, it's not something most people would notice--but if you're an expert in either type of magic, you might be able to pick up on something weird.

🖊 - Brook visits the Sanctum for the first time at some point in the period between LWS4 and Icebrood. They come back every once in a while to check on it and spend time there, and they end up befriending Nenah. On a related side note: they're, despite their devotion to Kormir, not particularly bothered by the gods' departure. They are bothered by the fact that the majority of them left with no intention to say anything about it.

🖊 - Casca's first job after escaping the Flame Legion was as a bodyguard, more or less, for a Priory expedition to investigate some of the ruins in Lornar's Pass. It didn't pay particularly well, but also not particularly poorly, and she enjoyed it, so she ended up taking on a lot of work with the Priory. After the three orders became the Pact, she was an extra hand there as well, almost serving the same way Nisha did for a bit--with the group but yet not really--but a lot more come-and-go than xe ever was.

🖊 - Ari is one of the first Whispers agents to make contact with the Order of Shadows, right at the beginning of PoF. (She's surprisingly stealthy for being a nearly-9-foot-tall, mostly-white, cat creature, haha.) She understands their take on the Joko situation (that it's entrenched in people's way of living at this point, and fixing the problem he created isn't as simple as killing him), but she also befriends Maya (another OC of mine) and understands her take on the situation (that it may not be simple but a stalemate also isn't tenable). She gives Kito a bit of a headache, lmao, but it's still a good start for reestablishing connections between the two orders, and Kerra further solidifies that relationship when she arrives.

#gw2 #the storm warband #mytalikes #lifa stormstrike #weylon stormblade #pol stormheart #brook splitstorm #casca shadowstorm #ari stormshield #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #please enjoy cat facts

[kerra-and-company]

Mirror mirror x2! (Plus who would you want to encounter the least of their dark versions) (@uselessidiotsquad )

x2, coming right up! :D Used the random character generator and we have Tanza and Casca for you today.

For Tanza--considering how good Jormag is at whispering, I'm imagining an AU where her connection to them is a slight bit stronger, and so she's able to hear them from a young age, and, once they awaken, becomes their champion. There's versions of that canon where Tanza's still mostly themself but they've also been talking to an Elder Dragon in their head for their whole life. And there's versions of that canon that better fit the "mirror mirror" prompt, where Tanza's natural inclination to be personable becomes skill at manipulation, and Jormag is the one space she feels safe--the person who fears change becomes the champion of Mx. "ice fortifies, ice protects". Mirror!Tanza is terrifying in a sort of relentless way, if that makes sense. (And I don't like living in the brainspace of this AU so I'm gonna head out to the next one now als;jdfasd, which is...not really any happier but it's Different!)

For Casca--one of the things I find really interesting about her character is the fact that she and Weylon had similar weaknesses growing up, in terms of what would make them manipulate-able. They both really wanted to be seen as important and/or special, Casca because she felt she hadn't gotten the accomplishment she deserved for her skill and contributions, and Weylon for the same reasons (and because he grew up in the shadow of a father who was Very well-known in the legions). The difference between them in regards to that was a combination of Casca being less willing to trust people promising something like that, and also there just...not being people/groups around who could ever have promised her that in a way that she would have believed it. Gaheron's Flame Legion's treatment of women meant that she would never have even Considered joining, and the fahrar and the Legions had treated her badly enough re: her magic that she wasn't a huge fan of them either. All this to say, the two potential Mirror!Cascas that I can see existing are Wildly different. The first involves her being one of the few survivors/escapees after Weylon's betrayal instead of being captured, assuming the group loses Ari instead, and taking the "kill people to move up the ranks to deal with this problem" route. This Casca very much becomes a part of the Legion system while also being semi-chaotic as per usual. She's not...quite a dark version, per say, but I could see her making bad decisions along the lines of both Rytlock's and Smodur's at different points in the story. The second Mirror!Casca takes almost a polar opposite approach from a similar beginning. After losing the people that grounded her, she decides to be as much of a problem as physically possible for Literally Everyone Else. As long as she's recognized as someone to watch out for, she's okay with that. Flame Legion? Black Citadel? Renegades/Separatists? Treaty negotiators? All equally fair game.

Aaaand last point! Out of all my characters, which dark version would I least like to interact with? Oof, hmm. Kerra's, Tanza's, or Cyp's, because all of them would involve manipulation aspects in how they interact with other people, and that can make for really great villains but also activates my Stay Away From Me button a WHOLE LOT.

#gw2 #tanza mjallkin #casca shadowstorm #sorry for the giant blocks of text asdljfaf #uselessidiotsquad #and #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #also case in point--your daffodil can Fuck Right Off as;ljdfs would Not like to meet her in person and i mean that as a compliment to your- #--character design