#sikudhana botb

[violetren]

Blood of the Basilisk Chapter 27

Thilde gets to live. The mayor and/or his assistant get to drink bleach.

Kota and Pyter definitely created quite the impression storming back into that building.

When I took a second to reread it slower for the sake for refreshing myself on what moments I wanted to comment on, the brief few seconds after Kota has got Thilde restrained for questioning and she has to float herself up to be at eye level with her captive, are objectively hilarious. In the moment it flows great and would look dramatic as fuck in cinema. Removed from all context however I fully snorted.

I appreciate how quick on the uptake and understanding Norga and Thilde are once they realise what the fuck is happening.

Nadani's magic training sounds cool as fuck. What she could potentially do with iron and bronze is cool, but also imagine what she could do with glass. And Gold. Honestly even just the candles with the right perfumes added. Sikudhana has taught her one hell of a skill.

I was still very keyed up over the whole bombing thing and so when Gharol rocked up to be like "hey lets go to headquarters" my first thought was kidnapping. I feel like I need to apologise to Gharol because every time she shows up my first thought is "impendng betrayal" and then she consistently just does her job to the best of her ability without betraying anyone.

That is to say I was very relieved when Gharol and Nadani arrived at Grimmani HQ and Kota and Nadani got to hug.

I fully support Pyter's decision to melt Yenara's face off and ask questions later, and look forward to the results after I finish my workplace training thing tomorrow. I do wonder if Yenara is gonna be another undead construct.

[violetren]

Blood of the Basilisk Chapter 18

I am rotating Pyter rotating that pendulum around over and over in my mind. I wanna know what the fuck it is.

When I said I wanted to see Nadani leave the house independently I didn't realise I was wishing on a monkey's paw and that an entire full market in the semidaem ward would get burned down to make it happen, holy shit.

Good to finally meet Dura on page though. She was a delight. Calling everyone in the household Lady, and presumably something along the lines of young master for Pyter just to be sure she doesn't go causing offence is such a good little trait.

Sikudhana needs to elaborate on that "you've got a bit of dragon magic in you" factoid. What did Pyter do? Or could Kota have accidentally done something when removing the slave brand? I'm still leaning towards well intentioned feradrake shenanigans.

Feels like a point of potential worry for Nadani until they figure out how it happened what the nature of the dragon power is though. As far as she is concerned it could be a stealth slave mark. I reckon its probably some kind of "you're family" or "you are loved" type deal instead though just because of the genre we're working in.

I love that Sikudhana's response to Nadani's explanation of why she doesn't think it was a gremlin (complete with unicorn) was just to look at her silently for a moment. Like yeah. Same. You're right arson doesn't sound gremlin-y when you put it like that.

The healing of burns by drawing fire out was cool as fuck. This:

The power of the flame was intoxicating, and it took time for her to clear her head enough to realize the man had spoken to her.

fucking worries me a little. It could be nothing. Could just be an innocent comment on what its like using powers when she hasn't had access or understanding before. Could be me fully projecting just because I once played an onomancer who could get power boosts by exploiting elementals with her magic (at least thats what her master trained her for) and so everytime powers of any kind are described as intoxicating I am primed to go "What if they did get addicted though?"

I love how the community has come together to help not just with clearing and healing and rebuilding, but also making sure food and water and such is there to sustain the folks working and in need of care, up to and including putting umbrellas up wherever anyone finds a place to rest. It's so good.

Which makes it such a shame Guthrie arrived to ruin my mood.

Full honestly my first thought was "I wonder if she's returning to the scene of the crime." Closest reason I would be able to think why though is to flush Nadani out and of all potential bounty hunters that might be out to recapture Nadani Guthrie would know she wasn't in the ward, and would have no reason to think burning it would draw Nadani out of the safe confines of Kota's house.

I do think the fire was lit by someone less informed and hoping to get at Nadani though. I suppose it could be unrelated or more to do with the keystone and far gate thing, but... idk.

I like that Dura's response to Guthrie's shit talking Kota was a hand to her knife. I wonder if later Nadani will look back on that as "Loyal Orc Girl gonna Loyal Orc Girl" or as "Kota's employee was ready to pull a weapon on someone Kota doesn't like being around Nadani." One point Kota will have in her favour is that Dura didn't actually make a move against Guthrie.

Every time, or rather the longer, we see Guthrie she feels shadier. Idk. I don't like the interest she's taken in Nadani. She's too careful in her wording and framing of events to set Nadani against Kota even when Nadani speaks against that interpretation to feel well intentioned. She might not have been a direct threat the first time they met, but she's had time to have been contacted or heard about a lucrative kidnapping job by now ('cause you can bet the cult wants Nadani back as much as they want Kota dead for "taking" her) and she definitely feels like the type to finesse the target into practically black bagging themselves.

I have the opening shift tomorrow so I should have been in bed 40mins ago, but I saw this chapter started with Pyter getting scritches and basically fell in a trance so I'm gonna sleep now.

[violetren]

Blood of the Basilisk Chapter 14

Pyter is a walking talking flying antidepressant and I love him.

Norga really is a no-nonsense type of person. Very task oriented, a little standoffish.

Thilde's "I just want shit to get done with no complications but people insist on being complication causing idiots" brand of tiredness resonates with several PC's I have played but first reminded my one one of my old wizard pcs Shael. Thilde seems a lot more likely to dig her heels in and face down bullshit though. Shael would just nope out and lit it be other peoples mess, "very you made this bed lie in in/I made this bed you lie in it" in a way I think (hope) Thilde isn't.

I like the undercurrent of tension that comes from Kota basically serving the function Kota serves within the agency just without the ability to use magic. Norga is a fixer, a problem solver, but is constrained from advancing by her lack of magic. A ready made lancer on Kota's arrival.

The fact that Kota had to be the one to be like "hey, remember how there are two factions of people who are just as advanced as us who are native to this planet and who could be reached out to by outsiders" is so telling as to how colonisation works in this world and I fucking love it.

Turns out not even Thilde is immune to Pyter's sheer adorableness. I wonder why he went for the pendulum. It could just be that it was shiny, sometimes thats just how things be and I doubt Pyter is immune to that, but Kota seemed surprised so who knows?

Also underwing pocket is something that makes sense and is convenient as a natural skin fold type deal, explains a lot about how dragons/feradrakes carry lil trinkets and extra food without losing the ability to use their clothes and jaws, but I'm mostly just picturing Pyter in a cute little custom woolen vest. He'd be such a dapper lil man.

Sikudhana is a very cool lady. I like her.

The whole "I don't know how to be free" conversation was so fucking good and the reason I like Sikudhana so much is because she didn't try to tell Nadani to just shove that aside because she is free, or that she shouldn't be prideful about using what skill she picked up during slavery to survive, or that she should use the existential dread of losing everything she currently has if Kota dies to narrow her focus or any other kind of bullshit advice she just acknowledged how stressful the situation might be, reinforced why this training would eventually help her not feel like that, and then offered her a way to practice magic that might help alleviate that stress.

Nadani and Kota should 100% have a conversation about that method though, cause like Privacy and Boundaries are a thing. It definitely worked out for the best in this situation though.

MOAR THOUGHT/INSTINCT SHARING! And confirmation that it runs in both directions. Delicious.