You Never Forget Your First
Universe: Starbound
CW: Grief
Words: 665
Context: Written for the Woe, Cubes be Upon Ye Protectorate Event, some of Mio feelings about the Terrene Protectorate.
"Where you go, I'll be right behind you…"
The song drifted along the quiet, empty corridors of The Vestige, mournful in its longing and loneliness.
"Where I go, I'll have you at my side…"
Kata looked up from where she was reading, hidden in a storage compartment near the front of the ship. Her e-book was tucked into a pocket as Kata rose, flicking one long, grey pigtail out of her face. She crept out of the storage compartment.
"Where we go, together…"
The song was coming from the Bridge.
Kata checked her watch. Past midnight, local planetary time. No one but she was usually up this late. No one but the Captain was allowed on the bridge.
Kata crept forward, keying open the Bridge door, wincing at the pneumatic hiss. Sat in the chair at the navigation console was Captain Mio.
"There's nothing we can't fight through. Nothing we can't weather…"
The rising beeps and bloops from the ship's instruments made an odd accompaniment. With every other line of the song, Mio tapped the little hula girl, gummed down to the top of the console.
"If you've got my back, I've got yours. Standing firm against it all…"
Kata couldn't stand the pain in her captain's voice any longer. She rapped against the metal hull.
Instantly the song died in Mio's throat. She rocketed to her feet, reaching for the pistol on her hip.
"Kata! 'Tides, woman…" Mio cleared her throat, hand moving away from her weapon to sign out, "What can I do for you?"
Kata stepped onto the Bridge. "Captain, you okay?" she signed, her hands slow and cautious.
"Yes, thank you." Kata frowned at Mio's quick and perfunctory signs.
Kata drew herself up, her gestures sharper. "Respectfully, do not believe you."
Mio lifted her chin. Kata looked her in the eye, one fist on her hip.
All at once, the Captain seemed to crumble. Her shoulders bowed, her gills flared rapidly, and the underside of her throat flushed a speckled red. Mio wobbled on her feet, then fell back into her seat.
Kata cried out as she rushed over, hands flittering between Mio and signing, "Captain! What's wrong? You sick? I get Medic!"
"No, it's fine." Mio caught Kata's shoulders, before her hands returned, tremulous, to the signs. "I'm just… I miss my first crew."
Kata shook her head in confusion.
"That song was one Fabian came up with. To remind us there was nothing we couldn't do together. Tides, he was so proud of it too." Mio nictated, her gaze over Kata's shoulder. "And here I am, singing it as a mourning song, instead of a marching song."
"This at Academy?" Kata asked.
"Yes. Our last year, we were sorted into proto-crews. We trained together as one unit. We should have graduated together. Gone into space together."
"How long?"
"Since Earth?" Mio's hands shook, mangling the sign for the Protectorate's homeworld. "Nearly five years? Maybe. I'm ashamed to say space has made time fuzzy."
"It has been seven years, three months, 19 days, 55 hours and 3 minutes," SAIL's modulated voice came quietly through the speaker on the console.
Mio twitched an eyebrow ridge, her throat working.
"Okay to miss people. Sadness not a failing," Kata said. "Don't have to hide."
The shiver in Mio's hands belied the perfunctoriness of her signs. "I have my current crew to think of. Food to source, equipment to maintain. I shouldn't be wasting time on what's long passed."
"Captain-"
"I also have to finish plotting this course. Thank you for your concern, Kata. Go to bed." The last signs were delivered with a sharpness that made Kata blink. She rose, but still hovered until Mio made shooing motions at her.
As Kata left the Bridge, she heard Mio take up her tune again, but rather than the mournful sound from before it was upbeat and joyful. Kata smiled; glad, if confused, that her Captain was in better spirits than she'd been found.
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The War Chronicle Notes are now up on the Triangle Strategy wiki! There's also full scripts for the beginning of the game thru Chapter III: Part 1, and I'm working on the rest.
Additional datamining ramblings under the readmore.
What I think is the entirety of all the text in Triangle Strategy is in this Google spreadsheet (a new one since last time). It's got:
All the dialogue from the main game (+ some cut content)
All of the character stories
The Wolffort Wedding extra story
The names of people + places, as well as all the profile blurbs (it's interesting to see how many versions some characters have, they change a lot throughout the story)
Ability, weapon, and class names
Everything in the War Chronicle including chapter headings and summaries
Lots of other little odds and ends that come from the UI
It's a LOT of data and more than a little messy due to some different sorting methods and things that I used, but feel free to take a look if there's something you want to find.
As far as the script goes, there's a lot of things I'm still not 100% sure about (mostly under what conditions who says what, because while I can see that certain pieces of dialogue are given a "scenario ID," it doesn't actually say what the conditions are for each scenario). As is the nature of wikis, anyone can go in and fix up anything that you notice is missing/inaccurate, so definitely feel free. I'll probably still be making some tweaks to the formatting on these as well.
On a different tangent, I was able to rip a bunch of images from the game as well (like the Glenbrook image in the screenshot above). I haven't really figured out what to do with all of it yet, but let me know if there's anything in particular you'd want posted here/uploaded to the wiki. There's a lot of UI stuff that could make for cool custom edits and things.
Also! Just as a blanket note, if anyone's dying to copy and paste a bunch of text, you're welcome to take the data in that spreadsheet and put up pages yourself if you want. There's a lot of it that I really don't even know what to do with, like the photos. Consider the spreadsheet public domain and go wild if there's something that sounds fun to you.
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Hello Plant, lovely friend ^^ I am a-coming with questions. Oh would I have loved just putting the whole post into your asks but that would be unfair to everybody else who wants to ask questions and maybe also be a tad bit overwhelming. So I've made a selection. Feel free to pick the ones that tickle your fancy the most and ignore the rest ^^
3. What architectural or design aesthetic would best suit them?
7. If your OC could meet any historical or past figure, whether in the real world or in their own canon lore, who would it be and why?
13. Is your character bilingual or multilingual? Yes she is Which language are they most comfortable in or prefer using? How did they come to learn them? (Also if I may make an add-on which language are reserved for which occasions? What's the socializing language? The academic language? The work language? Does she learn Antivan?)
23. What sort of routines, rituals or rules do they have or set for themselves? (What is her procedure to make herself comfortable after a long day of work? Bold question, may be a tad bit personal, if so please ignore)
I hope you're having an amazing day!!!!
Henlo my excellent friend :3 Thank you for sending the lush asks! I will answer them ALLLLLLL 8D
Under the cut, because like Aurelio and Revka, I am incapable of keeping it concise.
Okay, so 3 (what architectural or design aesthetic would best suit them?). I'll be the first to admit I'm not au fait with the industry terms. What I can say, though, with regard to general preferences:
Most important thing for Rhodri is that stuff is clean and in reasonably good repair. With the exception of hairline cracks in the buildings, which any Tevinter will assure you adds character, broken tiles and the like should be replaced. Also important is to make the place look both imposing to outsiders, but welcoming to familiar people.
Some clutter indoors, especially books, is encouraged, but only on table surfaces (never on the floor, as Tevinters consider it dirty, no matter how many times you mop it).
I've always seen Tevinter as a place that has a lot of sandstone and marble, so I figure plenty of the buildings are made out of those two things. Especially the upper-crust villas like what Rhodri grew up in.
In terms of decorations, better with trees and gardens rather than fancy statues. The symbol of Tevinter can either be carved into the sandstone, or in a banner hanging at the front of the villa.
High ceilings, please, and an atrium indoors, as it's hot as buggery year round in Minrathous. Make it nice and light, too. It's a beautiful, sunny city.
A couple of pictures below if that helps (links embedded in the pics):
close to ideal house. God help me for using minecraft. Make the land flat and stick a gazebo out the back for watching the afternoon thunderstorm, and that's a wrap.
Someone made a Tevinter-inspired courtyard, though I would just make this their atrium. MeggieRock took a whole bunch more pictures; I just chose the one I liked best. They're all amazing, though.
I'm not quite sure if that's what the question was asking or not. Was I close? haha :D lmk if not!!
Number 7 (If your OC could meet any historical or past figure, whether in the real world or in their own canon lore, who would it be and why?)
Oh, easy choice. Zevran's mother, hands down. Naturally, if she could plan it out, she'd take Zevran so he could meet her, but if that wasn't allowed, she'd take a list of questions and information to pass on to her mother-in-law on Zevran's behalf.
One thing I never really thought of until now is that it would have been quite a thing at the wedding to see the Imperial Chantry packed to the rafters with Rhod's family and friends and friends of the family and and and... But then not a soul from Zevran's side. People would've been astonished. Northerners have huge networks, and Zevran comes empty-handed to his own nuptials? It's sad, honestly. Especially because even though Tevinters don't marry for love as a rule, the marriage does signify two households becoming much more linked. Really, you don't just marry one person, you marry the whole family.
On the plus side, Zevran has a whole new gaggle of people who love him to bits, so it's very much a net win. Even so, Rhodri was looking forward to the whole +1 family add-on with whomever her father was going to set her up with. So the chance to say g’day to her mother-in-law would be something she’d be absolutely jonesing for.
Assuming Zevran isn't allowed to join in on this, meeting Zevran's mother would be a very emotional event, I think, for Rhodri and her mother-in-law both. Not least because this poor Dalish woman realises her only child has gone and gotten hitched with a Tevinter Magister, oh my GOD. I dunno, though, I think Rhodri's candour and very plain affection for her son (she practically sings odes about him as it is) would reassure her. She'd probably be heartbroken to hear Zevran went through what he did with the Crows. I’m sure she’d be very proud of him too, though, especially as Rhodri waxes lyrical about his heroism and kind heart during the Blight (and every other point in time, honestly) .
And yanno, marrying into fabulous wealth with a spouse who's willing to do anything for him, well. It's a turn-up for the books after Crow living. This lady would probably be content enough to let Rhodri go (only after ALL her questions are answered) with some ominous warning about haunting the shit out of her if she breaks Zevran's heart. Fair enough, honestly. What loving mother could do more?
13. Is your character bilingual or multilingual? Yes she is Which language are they most comfortable in or prefer using? How did they come to learn them? (Also if I may make an add-on which language are reserved for which occasions? What's the socializing language? The academic language? The work language? Does she learn Antivan?)
Ooh. Ooh ok. Let's see. I can't say Rhodri dislikes Common, because it's her mother's native language (though Revka does speak Tevene) and her mother is a SAINT, damn it! BUT Rhod's far more Tevinter than Kirkwaller, culturally speaking, and does have a heavy preference for Tevene.
The trouble with Common, as any proud Northerner will tell you, is that it's not so much a cultural language these days, but rather a trade tongue. A lingua franca, at most. Those poor bloody Fereldans and Marchers, Maker help them, lost their cultural language and can only speak Common now. Where are the culturally-specific words for certain moods, circumstances, weather phenomena, celebrations? Where's the language made by the first of their people to live there, that ties them to their homes and families?
She uses Common when she needs to. Everyone does. If anyone with her doesn't speak Tevene, or doesn't feel proficient enough, she'll speak Common, as basic courtesy dictates. With Kirkwaller family, though, she uses it more joyfully. Especially when she gets a chance to whip out the dreadful sandblaster Kirkwaller accent and horrify everyone but her mother, who was the one to teach it to her.
(HC if needed: I have assigned various accents and dialects of the English-speaking diaspora to the Marcher nations and beyond, as I'm sick of RP everywhere. Kirkwallers speak Australian English; Starkhaveners have the most gorgeous Glaswegian (feel free to picture Sebastian Vael screaming "Whae fuckin widnae! Eh? Think ah fuckin widnae? Ya fuckin radge!" when challenged to a fight). And those splendid people in Tantervale delight us all with the linguistic beauty of Belfast!)
For all other matters, she speaks Tevene. I'd say she's evenly bilingual having grown up speaking both, but Tevene, which is much more expressive and emotional, communicates her and her inner workings best. Lots of Tevene doesn't translate well into Common, and she forever bemoans that, because it makes it much harder to get her message across. The pain of having to explain 'te amo plenissime' while Zevran's still learning, oh god. She thinks and dreams in Tevene. Any poetry or important, heartfelt things she writes-- Tevene (except to her mother, of course). Magical research is more easily written in Tevene- Circle mages across Thedas use a lot of Tevene loanwords for magical things because of course, magic was suppressed outside of the Imperium.
She does learn Antivan though! Luckily, the two countries have very similar linguistic roots-- in fact, my HC here is that Antivan developed from Tevene, and they haven't diverged too much yet. I'd say it'd be like being a German speaker learning Dutch. The trick is keeping your own first language out of your target language's turn of phrase. Zevran and Rhodri both pick up each other's language without too much trouble once they're living under the same roof again after Awakening.
23 What sort of routines, rituals or rules do they have or set for themselves? (What is her procedure to make herself comfortable after a long day of work? Bold question, may be a tad bit personal, if so please ignore)
Rhodri, who has been watching me type all this for her, has asked me to pass on that, 'iucundis can ask me anything at all, and we will not be ignoring this question,' so there you have it!
I don't think there's anything very specific to the busier days that would feature, to be honest. Her schedule is embedded with the things needed to keep her comfortable. When she was a little sprout and had come home from a long day, she was often fairly tense, especially if she'd gotten dirty. Her folks found that the best solution was to drop her in the bath and read to her, and then give her dinner. Most problems can be fixed by getting clean and having a good meal, really.
Even now, bath and food works wonders. Bathing with company or without, she doesn't mind. (Ironically enough, given its fussiness about modesty, Tevinter has a big bathhouse culture, and friends and family love a day out together at the spa/baths.)
That aside, if she's tired or stressed, it's more painful as a rule to deviate from the schedule, so if she has things that need to be done, she's found that it's better to half-arse them to get to bath/food/bed quicker. Dealing with the fallout is Tomorrow Rhodri's problem. My little rebel. <3
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