#we need a chapter or two from npc pov tbh

[evilkaeya]

Living in yokohama in bsd must be crazy. Imagine you go to your balcony for some alone time after a long, tiring day and you see a kid driving up the building vertically in his pink motorbike

[lightandwinged]

ALSR, Chapter Two: Rogues = Master Class

Nazmir: Apari’s Perspective

I had to google Apari to make sure she wasn’t an NPC I missed during my rushed questing through the Horde storyline in BofA deez Factions, and she’s not. Apparently, Roux created her just for this novel, which is exciting! I like seeing OCs in novels. I bet Roux plays her on some RP realm somewhere, and none of us know it.

Apari is watching a troll named Seshi slowly die, and she’s into it enough to ignore the pain in her leg from an old wound. Seshi dies, Apari has a little pet dreadtick named Daz (which I find relatable, please let her be in the next expansion, I already love her), and it turns out that Apari is a talented poisoner whose current concoction makes people basically pop like unto ticks squeezed hard. 

She’s joined shortly thereafter by her most trusted general, Tayo (“a huge slice of bone pierced her septum, her elongated tusks capped with sharpened gold points. Mud and black paint made her long ponytail look like a tar spill”). These two were on Yazma’s side of things during that particular coup adventure, and they aren’t terribly fond of Talanji (in fact, they’re hype about giving her this exact poison to kill her! These gals have fun). 

Apari knows her plants because when her leg was hurt, she basically tried everything ever to fix it and nothing worked, so she just accepted it and all the other betrayals in her life, which is a far healthier outlook than most WoW characters have, tbh. The poison she’s made here is concocted of “retchweed and riverbud root,” for all you herbalism students out there.

At their core, our new friends here really hate that Talanji’s so into joining the Horde (but she’s also kind of their bitch eating crackers…)

...so they’re hoping to poison her in front of said Horde at some point in the near future. In the meantime, though, a pale rider and an unliving elf have arrived! Apari watches her victim explode and have black bile come spewing from his mouth. I love her so much. 

She sends her tick off hunting (bye Daz, I love you!) and goes to meet the pale rider (“dark of hair and red of eye”). Said pale rider (good ol’ Nathanos, if anyone didn’t read between the lines) wants to chat somewhere that she’s not been practicing poisoning techniques, and Apari’s like “oh no, my good bitch, we meet here so you know what I’m going to do to you if you fuck with me.” Nathanos’ elf companion (“her pink skin, veined and mottled, was sickly as a skyterror’s webbing [...] the murderous glint in her eye transcended culture and custom”) is impatient, and Apari’s like “listen, we’re all poisoners here, and I’m not resting until Talanji is toast.” 

And we SWITCH PERSPECTIVES!

To ZEKHAN!

Zekhan is living his best life after Saurfang’s melodramatic death and serving as Thrall’s page. He’s all about being useful, bless him, and after Thrall and Old Shaman go to have their chat, he follows along after Rokhan and talks about being a shadow and how it’s important to be a shadow, and this book is feeling quite rogue-centric, which is probably why I’m enjoying it so much so far. 

Orgrimmar is having some big festival about “yay fuck Sylvanas” or something, there’s naked dancers, there’s kids with balloons, it’s a good time. Everyone is involved in the festivities, except Talanji, with whom Zekhan is “intrigued, and, admittedly, a little besotted.” He decides to make himself useful to Talanji and offers her any help she needs, to which she’s like “yeah, no, don’t spy on me, zappy bitch.” 

Zekhan is all ready to back off and let her be cranky, but then he gets a premonition that Something Isn’t Right. He knocks over a goblet of wine intended for Talanji, only something is very not right about the wine. It’s supposed to be some fancy arcfruit sangree (Thalyssra brought it special, and that is just so very precious lmao), but it’s turning black and smells like death. He notices it smells less like wine, more like herbs, and wants to know wtf this is. 

(it’s poison, btw)

Zekhan stands between Talanji and the servant who tried to give it to her just in time for the servant to be like…

...at Talanji. Everyone is upset about this, understandably, and the troll servant who tried to do the poisoning kills himself before they can interrogate him, which a lot of people do in this book so far. All he says is that “she… will know… our b-bite.” Talanji is stunned that one of her own people would try to kill her, which is like… didn’t we just have an entire expansion about how a lot of people want her dead? 

Thrall suggests questioning her own people, but Talanji, despite having seen that the person trying to kill her was literally one of her people, is like “no, y’all are the worst, and I am leaving this circus.” Everyone’s uncomfortable about this specifically, but Zekhan and Thrall are otherwise preoccupied. Thrall is probably like “geez, could this day GET any worse? Why did we start allowing more than four races again? This all went downhill with BC.” 

But Zekhan is confused because it felt like something that wasn’t him was directing him to protect Talanji--like his body moved of its own accord and knew things he didn’t. Everyone’s like “wow, Zekhan, you’re the best zappy boi!” but he has no idea wtf is going on and is so delightfully humble that I love him even more. Revisiting my earlier statement, it seems like Thrall is concerned about this, and Zekhan is like 

And I am about this, these POV characters are fun! Onto the next chapter...