Chat talks for future reference!
(00:28:09) Haneul: But yes, where do we go from here? Just continue hunting for Andras' people? And then we'll see how we can potentially tie it all in with the main thread, even if that is dead?
(00:28:44) Kitan: Yeah. I think we'd have to keep hunting Lavelle, unless you'd like to drag out something from Haneul's past after all
(00:29:11) Kitan: I have a few ideas for Lavelle, but none are much good. Most are pretty firmly in wacky town.
(00:29:51) Kitan: So if you have ANY suggestions, I am absolutely all ears. I'm pretty sure I used to have some good ideas for what Lavelle was going to be about, but they have been lost time time!
(00:30:49) Kitan: Right now the ideas are stuff like "Lavelle is secretly the battlemage that Haneul keeps sensing" which is pretty far out in left field.
(00:31:41) Kitan: Especially because if that were the case Haneul should already know, anyways, from having seen Lavelle.
(00:32:39) Kitan: I should probably give you a crash course in Andras' history with her?
(00:34:44) Haneul: Yes, she'd know it was the same person, so Lavelle being the battlemage is unfortunately out
(00:35:55) Kitan: I'm not sure what we went over in the thread already, so I'll just take it from the top:
Andras was once a proper Oslun guard, but he had a xenophobic streak that made him look the other way for a titre gang run by Lavelle. They went around beating up foreigners and selling them into slavery, which Andras thought seemed a fitting punishment for those who came from a culture which had slaves. Lavelle eventually seduced him. But Andras' involvement was discovered, people didn't like the slavery bit, and then his Uncle (who had been raising him) commited suicide via fire. Andras blamed Lavelle for all this, and stabbed her in the eye before taking over her gang. But she got away, and hasn't been seen again until now.
(00:35:58) Haneul: A tiny crash course might be a good idea, yes. I know we talked about this a little bit at some point but since it's been quite a while (sorry about that), I've forgotten most of it again. I know they were close, and that there was an accident, and he thought she had died. But I'm not sure anymore if he was devasted to think she might have died, or if he wanted to kill her. Was there betrayal of some kind?!
(00:37:51) Kitan: Lavelle didn't technically do anything to Andras, besides get him to look the other way when they did their business. He blames her to avoid accepting guilt.
(00:39:54) Kitan: I'm thinking she survived the eye-stab by accepting magical treatment from the hospital. As a citizen, she does enjoy the benefits of Marn's free health care X)
(00:41:45) Kitan: I thiiiink that's all that's formally established. And we can always mess with details anyways.
(00:42:59) Kitan: I'm almost tempted to suggest trying to connect Lavelle to Haneul's backstory somehow, but I think any way we did that would be forced. It'd be quite the coincidence if she happened to be working for Haneul's mysterious benefactor guy.
(00:44:52) Kitan: I think it would be fun if Lavelle was curious about Haneul, though. A one-on-one talk between the two might be interesting, once we hash out a motive for her.
(00:45:53) Kitan: And we can always time-skip, too. Even to events after the assassination attempt, if we want to give Lavelle time to, say, research Haneul and get in contact with her benefactor.
(00:47:00) Kitan: Not sure why Haneul would stick around Andras after the fact though. He probably should have tried to kill her in her sleep by then.
(00:47:18) Kitan: Actually, that in itself might be our next bit?
(00:47:39) Kitan: Andras did directly threaten to stab her in her sleep, should he start to think she has motive to betray the cell.
(00:48:17) Kitan: The instant he learns that the assassination attempt failed, he'll certainly have motive to try. Where does Haneul stay, anyways?
(00:50:26) Kitan: Oh wow, reading her possessions she's actually got a dang nice set up. A servant and everything.
(00:53:17) Haneul: (sorry for disappearing, but somebody wanted something from me at work. give me 5 min, and I'll catch up!)
(00:53:37) Kitan: No worries
(01:05:06) Haneul: About that mysterious benefactor: Kat and I got into talking about that at some point because she had a plan for the Lord - he is an astral being, communication via mind only, so no physical appearance as of yet.
(01:05:39) Kitan: Oh phoo. Well then XD
(01:06:20) Kitan: I guess that was hinted at with Haneul's backstory emphasizing her communion with invisible spirits
(01:07:09) Haneul: Exactly
(01:07:29) Haneul: I honestly can't remember much of what Kat and I discussed back then and the doc with the chat log died with my usb stick
(01:07:45) Kitan: He's the only thing I'm aware of that Haneul has strong feelings about. Is there anything else we can potentially use?
(01:08:19) Haneul: Her addiction to magic, maybe? And the fact that she on a fairly regularly basis needs to escape the tight control of the battlemages to make use of her magic
(01:09:34) Kitan: I feel like that's more likely to seperate her from Andras. So, assuming Lavelle could figure out somehow, that would be a good time for us to do an interaction between the two.
(01:09:44) Kitan: That's a pretty big assumption though
(01:10:16) Kitan: I guess this all comes back to a need to rediscover Lavelle's motive
(01:11:13) Kitan: She hasn't made any moves to take back the gang. I'd rather not give her some weird fixation on Andras.
(01:12:05) Kitan: Maybe even though she isn't magic herself, she has access to something that is. Haneul couldn't sense that.
(01:12:26) Kitan: Unless it was on her person, I mean.
(01:14:40) Kitan: Or we stick to the mundane. She has discovered something really valuable, but needed to lay low so Andras wouldn't find her and put an end to her in the process of cashing it in. Maybe something archeological discovered in Marn's tunnels
(01:15:36) Kitan: If we do go the magic way, maybe she is aware of Andras' unrealized magic potential and needs it for something, but then decides Haneul is more likely to get her what she wants?
(01:16:44) Kitan: In the mundane way, she tries to cut a deal with Haneul, saying "I get that Andras is providing you guys with funding. But if you bump him off for me, I can give you a cut of the profits I make from this artifact and you don't need to deal with him anymore."
(01:17:30) Kitan: Maybe Gatchey provides her with intel on us, or something. To justify why she would know to do either of these.
(01:17:42) Kitan: Any of these ideas speaking to you?
(01:19:45) Haneul: (reading up)
(01:21:27) Haneul: Considering that Haneul is currenlty quite on edge and itching to get out of the city soon, it could give a premise for Lavelle to figure something out if they bump into her soonish, or find a way to get to her. Maybe Lavelle is having them watched after she escaped?!
(01:21:52) Haneul: Petty jealousy and old feelings is always a good starting point for a female motive
If nothing else
(01:22:21) Haneul: The archeological find sounds good, too
(01:22:25) Kitan: Do we really want to say she's gone through all this effort just because she's Andras' crazy ex?
(01:22:56) Kitan: I mean, I'm down for those feelings being there. But I feel like she at least needs a justification to tell herself
(01:22:57) Haneul: Nah, not really
(01:23:30) Haneul: I think the magical way would be more plausible than the archeological find. While I can see it interesting Haneul somewhere, I don't think she'd cut a deal over that..... except... wait, I just had a thought
(01:24:06) Haneul: If that archeological find could somehow be related to astral beings having prowled the earth at some point or other... and it could potentially lead her to finding out more about her mysterious benefactor, whom she doesn't really know much about, it miiiiiight be something
(01:24:19) Haneul: Basically it sounds like both your ideas could be tied together, one way or another.
(01:24:27) Kitan: Hmmmm!
(01:24:42) Haneul: And that paired with Gatchey telling Lavelle that Andras has a whore dogging his heels..... we have it all
(01:25:33) Haneul: Mind you, the archeological find may also just turn out to be a complete fluke in the end. No need to actually have THE big find. But it could have the potential to be such.
(01:25:34) Kitan: Uh, I hope I made it clear that Gatchey is not at all buying Haneul's cover story XD
(01:26:33) Kitan: Though of course he doesn't know what she really is, I think he has at least managed to put together that she's with Paragon
(01:26:44) Kitan: There's no other group supporting Andras, after all
(01:27:17) Kitan: Well, I guess he might also assume she works for some slavers. That's one other option.
(01:30:39) Kitan: Hey, how would Haneul react if Andras tried to assassinate her anyways?
(01:31:07) Haneul: Does Gatchey know what Haneul's actual Paragon cover is?
(01:31:22) Kitan: Because I think no matter what we do, we are going to wind up crossing that threshold. I'm pretty sure the party is canonically happening tomorrow
(01:31:34) Haneul: Because even though he hasn't bought her cover with Andras, he might know that she's part of Shanuri's group of dancers (who aren't exactly whores, but dancers and whores are often confused)
(01:31:55) Kitan: Gatchey wouldn't know anything about Haneul specifically. Unless you want him to.
(01:32:23) Kitan: brb, bathroom
(01:32:29) Haneul: Guess that also depends on how much Andras wants his people to know about the Paragon people he's associating with
(01:33:25) Haneul: If Andras tried to assassinate her? Well, heck, that would really be a party haha. Might be an interesting thing actually! She'd definitely use magic, consequences be damned at some point, and that might be something that'll incite Andras' magic to react in some way....?
(01:34:33) Kitan: I had never anticipated actually doing anything with the magic potential bit. That was just for flavor, since it isn't really something addressed despite being part of the setting
(01:34:43) Kitan: But we totally can, if we want to
(01:36:00) Kitan: If we really wanted to, we could sidestep all of this being just letting Haneul kill/maim Andras, but get a battlemage on her tail. I have been making actual progress with my Melcari rewrite lately, so... we could techincally jump to an adversarial thread. XD
(01:37:38) Haneul: *grin*
(01:37:43) Haneul: So much potential all around!
(01:37:57) Kitan: But as far as Andras and Haneul go, I may be underestimating how much we already have to go on. I do think it makes sense for Andras to try to follow his threat through.
(01:38:14) Haneul: The magic reacting may just be a "Hiiiii I'm heeeeeeere, but I'm lazy" kind of thing, just enough for Haneul to properly notice it but nothing more
(01:38:45) Kitan: Oh, yeah. That might prompt some interesting reactions from her
(01:38:46) Haneul: It really would yes, and if she's going to grab his balls now and squeeze for all her worth, he may be even more intent on killing her. I'll have to flavour the accompanying words nicely
(01:39:07) Kitan: Hehe
(01:40:57) Kitan: I'll post this chat to plot discussion, and we can think on it as we work through this weird molestation scene and subsequent assassination scene. Boy, do these two sure do produce some bizarre responses from each other! I love it.
