#Lemuel Bastion and Quigley

[unsoundedcomic]

What do the literacy rates look like in Alderode? I imagine jets and coppers that can't read would be seen as mentally deficient since they have CENTURIES to learn and are expected to take jobs that require reading to perform, but the other castes? Do plats even need to read to cast, and is it worth investing that much tutoring in a 29-31 year life? Bronze barely do much paperwork, how many of them will need that knowledge? Silver and gold men might make good use of it in their years, especially if they run a business or work in management but really why bother wasting your teachers precious time on the cannon fodder?

In addition to castes, Alderode is split into a few very important classes, with the two most important being those inside ghers and those outside ghers. A ghers is a caste community where members all live in the same neighbourhood and pool resources and share roles and responsibilities. This is really the only place for an Ald to access affordable education, healthcare, and any kind of social safety net. So if you're fortunate enough to be inside a ghers, you're guaranteed a level of education, including readin', writin', and 'rithmatic. Even the girls, with all the classes being taught by local wives.

About half of Alderode is inside a ghers or in the class above; the other half is not. The literacy rate follows accordingly, with most of the underclass only having a cursory knowledge of letters. This is often used as one of the justifications for not allowing them to vote, since they're so ignorant and backwards.

To apply this to our Aldish characters, the Quigleys and the Adeliers both came from ghers. Bastion hailed from a noble family so he was in the class above. When Lemuel went on his rampage after Duane's murderers, he raided a place called Sevencrow Court, which is a slum district where the underclass lives.

[soartfullydone]

Title: The Unforgivable Thing

Characters: Lemuel Adelier, William Argenti Sr., Bastion Winalils

Chapters: 1/1

Summary:

In which Lemuel learns at last where he fits into the schemes of a certain Silver politician and has his faith brutally tested.

My submission to Winner of the latest 2023 Unsounded Fanworks Contest - Fanfiction Portion. Hope you all enjoy it! My only regret is that I couldn't include Quigley in it to complete my beloved quartet of terrible men!

Edit: Thank you to everyone who read, voted, and participated! The bastard men and I are all incredibly moved!

[forumkedis]

Silver Patron and Friendly Frozen Coffee

What do you think an Unsounded blorbo would be?

(As inspired by a recent post of yours that Tumblr won't let me put in my ask)

I haven't been on tumblr much this week so whatever "recent post" you saw was probably queued weeks ago and I've forgotten it, sorry haha

Oh wait possibly the "blorbhov from my russian novels" post? Like, how to make a pun on "blorbo" that follows naming conventions that are characteristic of Unsounded?

In which case, the most obvious one is "Crescian names are four letters", in which case I submit:

What about Blrb the doomed silvermonster bait from my favorite webcomic

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Or if you just mean "what are the blorbos in the Unsounded fandom", well @lemueladeliers runs a whole blog for Lem obviously and I've also seen people get rather blorbo-rific about Bastion, Anadyne, Mikaila, Duane, and Prakhuta. Unsounded has so many fascinating, compelling characters that there's MANY possible blorbos there, sky's the limit really

[unsoundedcomic]

Heya! In chapter 11 Bastion persuades Rahm to try and waylay the Quigleys, saying Mathis is a wildcard in Lady I's plan. Then in chapter 17 Prakhuta implies that Lady I planned for Duane to learn that Mikhaila is alive, to manipulate him. How do these facts fit together? Sette and Duane only went to Litriya shrine because Quigley wanted to go there for Uaid

Bastion also told Rahm he would find some alternative transportation for Duane. He wanted him chasing the silver down the Jarla, but not in the Quigleys' company.

Duane goes to Litriya. He always goes to Litriya. He always tells the Salt Lizard story and is always disturbed by his memories. Litriya is always attacked, the inak always die, and the Alds are always ultimately repelled. These events are too big and ripply to change. But there's a crucial moment on 16-26 where Duane walks past a window while Lemuel and Mikaila fly unseen in the opposite direction, and he passes the door behind which all the Litriya twins are hiding. Originally, Duane stayed with the kids in that room, reminded of Jon's death and determined to play shield. None of them left that room and no one died.

What Ilganyag did was push his buttons in the night, coaxing back old Duane Adelier (the man he'd always been) who'd never cower behind a closed door protecting Crescians. Instead Duane was out creeping around, fired up in his Ssael outfit, helping no one but his own pissmops. He winds up on the roof helping shuffle his dudes down into the construct facility, and there he runs into Lemuel.

Lady I was right to be wary of Quigley in all this. There was that scene of Quigs trying to get Duane to calm the eff down after his pageant freak-out, and Matty and Jivi were such bright spots in general while Duane was glooming around in chapter 15. But as we saw, none of it was enough to combat his risen Cause, and Lady I got him where she needed him.

[soartfullydone]

Some Favorite ~Skirmishes in Unsounded But They’re Yakuza Fights:

“Hethllot, I seek the abducted. I seek vengeance for a slain child. If you are assisting the slavers, provide me satisfaction. Do not continue to assault me with this flashy, illicit spellwork so unbefitting a son of Alderode.”

“‘Son of Alderode.’ Ha, SON of Alderode! I’d rather be son of a whore. Alderode is a hell. And I’ve watered weeds with the blood of patriots louder and stupider than you. Left its bourne but not its influence, eh? Weak-minded cretin.”

“Traitor. Slaver. Murderer. By the six rings and the Aldish kings you shall answer to me!”

[cue “Two Dragons Lions”]

Bonus:

[unsoundedcomic]

Duane's ability to tinker with incorporeality and momentum make him incredibly mobile, with an effect almost the same as Bastion's cheating. On the small scale, at least, since Duane can't just skip over-country like Bastion can. But I'm wondering how much of Duane's mobility is because of his pymaric mastery and how much is due to being super zombie with perfect recall who can cast by thinking. How much slower would he be without those things?

Most good wrights are like this. Rahm was incredibly acrobatic in his mobility if you go back and look at that clocktower fight.

Duane's a little bit faster at *everything* thanks to his extra port and wordless casting, but the rest boils down to how physical he is. Quigley is a great caster, but he doesn't have the same awareness of his body as a physical fighter like Duane does, and so can't pull off the same tricks with the same ease. Duane also doesn't need to breathe, so he was able to ascend slowly through the water from the secret lab while Elka had to go the long way around. Duane is OP trash, throw rocks at him.

But even the zombie can hit walls that an offsetter like Bastion doesn't have to worry about. For instance Duane can drop down to the basement of the shrine like it's nothing (bear in mind he is using the same portal he set up for the soldiers earlier, so he has a path marked through the shrine's layers of various materials) , but there's no easy way to get back up again short of climbing stairs like a normie. Bastion, on the other hand, can offset along a khertline with no concern for gravity, arriving on the roof in almost the same time it took Duane to descend from it.

Without his tacit casting, Duane would still be incredibly fast and mobile. Go look at his moves in 14. First essentially flying after Shaensigin with Lemuel in his arms, then escaping over the chasm from the falling heart. The boy was good. The man was even better. The zombie is damn near terrifying.

[unsoundedcomic]

Which of YOUR bastards is actually bastard enough to NOT go down on their women? Bodie ain't giving any elbow grease for his mistresses, that's for sure. Quigley didn't seem the type to bother, either. Glaring at Jab and Argenti too. Nary gets a pass because of that battering ram of a nose, he'd poke somebody's eye out with that thing. Duane and Toma though? Team players all the way.

Well, we definitely know Duane does, there's art to prove it. Duane will go to great lengths to please a woman thanks to his mild inferiority complex. He grew up Just Knowing that he is homely looking (Lemuel was the handsome son), and that no woman would want him. He feels compelled to make up for his looks, and Leysa benefited from that~

Toma is just an egalitarian. Quid pro quo. If you're gonna get pubes in your teeth, I'm going to get pubes in my teeth. It's only fair.

Quigley would have gone down on Vienne if asked, but Vienne never did. She was pretty shy. Which is just as well, probably, Quigley wouldn't have been able to tell if he was doing a good job, and would have gotten self-conscious, and it would have turned into a fight, and then Vienne would have had to spend twenty minutes stroking his ego.

Bastion would lick your butthole for a dollar, whatever.

[unsoundedcomic]

It only just occured to me (roughly eight years after starting to read this comic) but Duane is extremely fluent in three! languages. Is being bilingual (tainish+continental) a widespread thing in Alderode? How much interaction is there between the two languages? (loan-words, other influences?) Ssongs of Ssael that Duane carried around on him were, it seems, well translated? from that little episode where he read to the brothel workers.

Most Alds speak Continental. It’s the language of commerce and government, and most great historical works of fiction. Continental entered the country with the Rortidian invaders and remains the dominant, primary language through central Alderode and into the north. Aldish Continental sounds old fashioned to foreigners, a result of both the country’s insular nature and the fact that it’s ruled over by four-hundred year old men with undue influence on the culture.

Tainish is the primary language on the east and west coasts, a result of Tain itself on the east coast and then the Ssaelit diaspora that happened when Ssael took his followers and fled west, from the King. Tainish is purely regional, rather than religious. Quigley and Bastion were both raised Gefendur, but as west coast Durlynians they grew up speaking Tainish.

Most educated Tainish speakers, however, also speak Continental, and Duane’s no different. He mastered the second language in school along with Old Tainish. Old Tainish is the language of pymary, with modern New Tainish being an evolution and simplification of the old tongue created both to avoid accidental spellwork in day-to-day conversation and to protect the knowledge of pymary from unrited laymen.

A serious spell composer needs to have mastered Old Tainish. Of course the version that people learn today is meant for formatting spells and not so much for holding conversations, so Duane or Rahm would have some difficulty if you zapped them 1500 years in the past for a conversation with Ssael.

It’s not uncommon in Alderode to find people who only know one language. Women, especially, will usually only know either Tainish or Continental since they’re barred from most higher education. Since Lemuel didn’t go to school his Continental is very poor and broken, and that was also the case with most of the soldiers last chapter. Captain Claggart’s order was the Order of Chinoll - chinoll being Tainish for bird of prey.

Duane sincerely loves both languages and enjoys the writings of Ssael in each, so he has his little bilingual copy~

[unsoundedcomic]

Quigs would break down in tears halfway through, Bastion would just up and leave when he's done. Both unfuckable. Toma would apologize for slapping my ass

Bastion might stay if you cooked for him or let him borrow money. Quigley’s definitely a crier, good instinct.

You know who’d be a good lay is Lemuel. He’s naughty, a little freaky, but also attentive. He would help you make the bed.

[unsoundedcomic]

Of everyone who doesn't have tails, who's got the best butt?

I think my favourite butt shot in the comic belonged to Duane, when he was remembering having sexytimes with Leysa and that lucky ho got to grab it. Toma has a very similar butt: not perky, but well-muscled and powerful. A dad butt.

I’m drawing Knock’s butt right now as she slams it into someone’s face and it is the best of the comic’s wider assets. Elka calls her a “fellow sister of the rear guard,” because she, too, appreciates Knock’s ass during this maneuver.

If you want a cute butt, you can’t go wrong with Uaid’s and I think Vienne must have agreed because she explicitly didn’t cover it up with anything.

Bastion’s butt is okay but it’s a little flat ‘cause he doesn’t work out. He doesn’t even walk as much as he should. Lazy! Quigley has the same problem. Get out of your construct and do some cardio.

Lemuel’s butt is rock-hard, taut like two medicine balls sharing a trash bag, but it is kind of an evil butt. It is not pure.

[unsoundedcomic]

As someone who likes twinks, I vote you give Lem a slighter build

I like twinks too, but when they’re swinging two big-ass broadswords around they look kind of goofy. We have Quigley and Bastion. I feel Lemuel should be a little thicker. Just a touch :)

[unsoundedcomic]

Skull drilling and ports? Are they regular cosmetic things for Aldish people, or do they have a function? How’d it start?

It’s a macho thing for Aldish males, yeah, purely cosmetic. Of course you can stick whatever appliance in your skull ports you want, including pymarics - Quigley uses his to hold his glasses. Lemuel had a little vliegeng, Duane had a tasteful khert-line swirl with some inlaid emerald Aspects. Bastion can’t get them since he teleports; they’d be left behind whenever he offsets.

[forumkedis]

I disagree with Lemuel and Bastion and here’s my case:

Lemuel would get swirlied in a vliegeng poo in the army for wanting something as hoity toity as wine. He’ll drink soldier’s ale and he’ll damn well LIKE it who does he think he is, the fourth motadwe of the Temple of Song? However! He will drink anything of appropriate viscosity and while hanging out with his pal Argenti, the available beverage is usually wine. He’ll also drink wine with ladies (before swearing both off) (his wife does not count as a lady for wine drinking purposes)

Bastion, however, was brought up as nobility. He’s been drinking wine since age nine. He pulls out sommelier knowledge where Lemuel just pulls out the wine in the first place, but in his spare (alone) time, he has a secret preference for aaaaaaabsolute garbage wine. We’re talking Beadman’s “Better” Boxed. When he’s especially in his feels he grabs the Kasslynian version of Everclear off the counter, and when that’s empty he mixes Jager with Malort and 99 bananas just to feel something. While fundraising he’s a fancy wine or liquor boy, depending on whose elbows he wants to rub (and how long between offsets he’s pouring the glass)

I agree with Toma and Elka. I do not reject this. I think sometimes Toma drinks fruity things with Elka because she is NOT wrong, they ARE good, but he always gets a stomach ache from it because he’s not used to their concentration and sucks them right down.

Quigley cannot get his preferred spirit outside Alderode - I agree with the spirit of your choice, but I think it would have to be a weird cursed Aldish version for him - and it’s a not-insignificant reason he will never get time to retire from getting money together for Matty after his death. If he can import it he’ll pay that price, and when he can’t anything that burns from a bottle will do.

This is going to be waaay off Anglo sensibilities, because it's based on Hungarian drinking habits, but Duane is 100% a beer guy with the occasional wine when he is feeling fancy. Lem on the other hand is all wine all the time, together with Toma. Elka drinks whatever she is presented with, but she feesl ashamed of how much she likes girly cocktails. Sette on the other hand openly revels in them. Quigs is a hardcore pálinka-drinker, and Bastion only drinks shitty spirits unless fundraising.

*nods along, knows nothing*

[unsoundedcomic]

can you quickly explain the eyebrow things duane and others wear? i swear i knew at one point but must've forgotten

Fashionable Aldish gentlemen wear brow jewellery. It IS kind of hardcore, as they must have their browbone drilled and tiny threaded ports installed into the holes. The jewellery screws into those. Duane wore a little stylized golden swoop with an emerald in it, to symbolize a khert-line carrying an Aspect packet. Lemuel wears a big old blingy vliegeng. Quigley’s spectacles screw right into his. Bastion never had the ports installed, as he spent many of his formative years in Cresce, and once he learned to teleport wouldn’t have been able to take the jewellery or even the tiny ports with him.

[theforumcat]

I think there are a lot of people who like Lemon a lot, but who like someone else more. Like me; I adore Lem, but Bastion is more overtly and flamboyantly the things I like about Lemuel, plus a bunch of other stuff I like that he isn’t. There are also things that I’m pretty sure a lot of people like, but Quigley is right there being more overt about them and doing stuff that goes along with to make Quigley, not Lemuel.

The fact that Lemuel is a hard read, a lot of his traits are full of subtleties, and he’s a character we’ve spent a lot less time - especially “present day” time with - makes him harder to adore. And plenty of people are like... okay, love this, but would like him to tell us he is who we think he is before we fall over ourselves. Our feelings about Lemuel are just mirroring Lemuel’s feelings about Lemuel. Opaque and cloaked in subtlety.

Lemuel is solidly #2 in who I want to be when I grow up though.

Are there any other things that surprised you? Like readers's theories or opinions (like what characters are liked/disliked etc.)?

I really am bad at predicting who gets liked. I never thought anyone would care about Vienne or Knock but people consistently tell me they're their faves! This is a problem because those ladies just aren't in the story very much :D I do what I can to accommodate - for instance that flashback to Vienne's murder a few pages ago wasn't originally going to be shown, just revealed as a few single lines by the Chief. But I rewrote that so I could give Vienne a few more panels to herself.

I did think that Lemuel would be a little more popular than he is. His ultimate fan notwithstanding, it seems readers are mostly pretty cool towards him. I think maybe y'all are cautious because he's such a hard read? He's pretty opaque; can't see what he's thinking.

My favourite thing is how divisive Bastion is. Bastion should be both loved and despised. I see a lot of both, so this makes me feel fine and good and all is right with the world.

And then of course there's Sette the gatekeeper who has chased so many people off in the first chapter. My little Cerberus. My tiny fire-breathing piss-hound.