Work Text:
HAT: Again, bane is just chilling, like, 100ft tall, sitting on a dark throne. A flickering, red and gold soul in his right hand, occasionally tossed like a toy to spin and return to him. (edited)
"I understand you have ... An offer in mind."
JAY: "Lord Bane. It's an honor, truly, to stand in your presence. The books and songs pale in comparison."
—
7:21 PM
HAT: "flattery already. Tell me why I should allow you to waste my time "
"speak your purpose, failed spawn of Bhaal."
His voice is everywhere. The force of an earthquake. Your bones feel ready to shatter.
—
7:24 PM
JAY: "Failed? Oh, no, nothing of the sort. You see, Lord Bane, I have come to realize that you and I have... Something of a common enemy."
"You see, my Father was not the one who rejected me. I rejected him. After slaying his chosen, hm. He was near begging on his knees for me to take her place. Threw quite the tantrum when I refused."
—
7:29 PM
HAT: "he expected the other."
"the sycophant who failed to understand his creed. Yet she still usurped you."
—
7:39 PM
JAY: Jarn chuckles, "My darling sister, my usurper, my lesser. A foolish girl who couldn't finish the job. And my foolish Father, so blindsighted by her amateurish chaos that he pretended to want her." "They both thought wrong. Here I stand. her viscera under my nails. And dear Father's off ripping chunks of himself again, forming new blood, as though it's Bhaal's great plan to create spawn after spawn, each defeated by upstart heroes"
"I have no respect left for my Father. But I have much for you."
—
7:43 PM
HAT: "his goal is not to have spawn wrend the world, girl. He intends to consume the spawn you beget and rise once more." Laughter, formless, malicious, hungry, echoes around and within you. "I do not blame you for your ignorance, child. Dear Bhaal would never have told you his intentions." Bane's hand raises, a whisper of a scream of agony accompanies the falling, writing soul in his hand. A sound you have heard many many times and yet only scarcely recall.
"Your respect is appreciated by those who do not expect it. I am a god. I am tyranny. Your attempts to cajole are... Amusing."
"You have come seeking something." An echoing scream reaches your ears as Bane closes his fist around Enver's Soul
"tyrants rarely bargain. Tell me, Jarnathan. Your will to cut and slice and wrend. Your determination to survive."
"how well would a scavenger serve a king?"
—
7:51 PM
JAY: Ignore it Jarn, push it aside. Push it aside. You are strong. You are intelligent. You have what it takes. "I come with an offer unique to my position. Do you know what the world sees when they look at me?"
"They see a savior. A 'hero of baldur's gate'."
HAT: "To gain the ardor of foolish cattle. Truly a glorious accomplishment."
—
7:59 PM
JAY: "A butcher worshipped by the herd? A rather nice position. You know what I see? Opportunity. A battle was won not a mere tenday past. The people? Celebrating. So comfortable in their victory. They believe all evils vanquished, they feel safe, with so many heroes as their protector." "In time, they will rebuild. In time, they will grow caution. In time, weary of the next danger they face." "In time, but not now."
—
8:00 PM
HAT: "opportunity in the lull of strife. Indeed. Continue."
—
8:05 PM
JAY: "I found your followers in the time past. Some were hiding in plain sight, others more literal. They are strong men and women, scattered, but devoted. They'd make a powerful force, but all they do is hide. In this time of perfect opportunity, your people duck behind corners and cover their faces."
—
8:06 PM
HAT: You watch a god bristle in indignation.
He will allow you to speak further.
—
8:15 PM
JAY: Jarn takes a breath, not too deep, but enough to steady. This was it, one wrong word and it would spell her death. "I come to you, Lord Bane, with an offer to unify your people. They are intelligent, brilliant, but they lack leadership. Why wait for years to pass? For another generation of worshippers to amass? Why not take lead of the foundations already laid in the city?" "I have spoken to many. They have blended into the masses. No one will doubt the snakes hidden among sheep. All they need is someone to guide their hand."
—
8:16 PM
HAT: A black hand curls around a writhing, shrieking, agonized soul.
Bane leans forward, towering , ominous, overbearing. His gaze is heavy as ship yard mooring; binding and immovable.
He does not speak. He waits. A patient tyrant watching, waiting, weighing the value of a supplicant.
Beneath you, in this amorphus dreamscape of blacks, golds, reds, and white, a shape of a hand, larger than anything you have seen. Bigger than the elder brain you battled atop barely a tenday ago.
You rest in the palm of an unyielding iron hand. Fingers taller than mountains curl into a fist around you. The cool metal; frigid as a blizzard.
—
8:22 PM
JAY: small, so small. she was a child again, cradled between the grasping hands of two loving oh-so-loving gods
—
8:23 PM
HAT: He does not crush you. He is not trying to. He raises you from the base of his throne (was it the base of his throne? Were you at his feet? Were you miles away?)
Blazing furnaces where his eyes sit in his dark skull. His black hand raises you, not to his level, but above the floor you had been languishing on.
—
8:27 PM
JAY: "L... Lord Bane. What I offer you is more than myself. Your people know my face, but they will follow another's voice. One who has never failed you. One who followed your teachings better than anyone else. One who came closer to realizing your goal than any other you can ever choose."
Keep yourself together, oh wicked one. do not falter now
—
8:28 PM
HAT: The hand you stand upon quakes as the fires in his eyes flare
"you speak of Gortash"
The God's lips split into a hungry, violent, furious snarl.
"the boy failed at the final hurdle. Unable to do what I demanded of him; Keep them in line."
The god has not been angry with you before. The menace of his presence was not sharp.
The black hand of iron grip: unyielding, unbreakable, surrounds and surrounds and surrounds and surrounds you
"You dress your wants in false promises of fealty."
—
8:33 PM
JAY: Jarn chokes, but through that, she laughs. "Tell me, Lord Bane, are there any out there as brilliant, as devoted, as he?"
—
8:34 PM
HAT: At this, the hand that is the ground you stand on... Stills.
—
8:35 PM
JAY: (OOC for a second, i feel like i'm doing salary negotiations)
1
—
8:35 PM
HAT: (you're doing GREAT)
(we can always stop)
—
8:36 PM
JAY: (no keep going i'm having thrilling fun)
"I come to you not with such petty wants. I come because I know the brilliance of the one you hold, and I know, clearer than anything i've known before, that he stands to benefit you far, far more as a leader than a toy."
—
8:45 PM
HAT: Bane, his eyes burning furnaces where iron melts and is remade into more useful shapes, studies you for a long moment. Minutes. Hours. Days. Years. Eons. All pass as a god holds your breakable form in his black hand.
"A broken weapon is never as strong when it is reforged, Child Of Bhaal."
—
8:51 PM
JAY: "So they say." She grinned. "Good thing your weapon is no mere steel. A brilliant mind cannot be broken, it will not be mended, for it will already be perfect."
There's another card, a final card up her sleeve. She dearly wishes not to reveal her hand, but if the time comes, well
—
8:55 PM
HAT: A rumble of an earthquake says the god is laughing. The sound is of crumbling rocks falling to the depths of a ravine.
"what use is a failed Chosen to their successor? A failure as advisor? A screaming child of a tyrant's aide?"
In the hand of bane where Enver Gortash exists, the soul flickers into the shape of a mangled child. Destitute, beaten, burned by hellfire.
His wet, scared, hurt eyes land on you, and his lips tremble. He looks lost. Afraid.
—
9:00 PM
JAY: No weakness show no weakness none none none
—
9:01 PM
HAT: "Enver Gortash. Enver Flymm. A child that took what he needed and then took more. A man that could not hold the leash of two petulant children pretending to be Chosen."
—
9:02 PM
JAY: (holy shit what a line)
—
9:03 PM
HAT: Enver Flymm's pained scream echoes and is silenced by a metal spike impaling the child's form.
Up the base of his spine, through his skull.
The fate of a failed Chosen of Bane.
—
9:05 PM
JAY: unfocus your eyes, do not look away. you are strong. you are strong. you are strong
—
9:06 PM
HAT: "again, Jarnathan, Daughter Of Bhaal, what use is a failed Chosen?"
The corpse of Enver Flymm shifts, grows.
—
9:07 PM
JAY: "I...", and her voice cuts off, speechless at what she sees.
—
9:07 PM
HAT: Clothes, more familiar than the garb of a hell's servant now adorn the adult body.
The sight of a boy, impaled, killed, shown as spectacle. You watched him grow on the spike; his chest still breathing.
He looks familiar again. He looks like the man you knew. The man you respected.
—
9:10 PM
JAY: "What a waste..." a mere whisper.
—
9:10 PM
HAT: He is limp on the spike. His eyes, however, find yours.
"waste? What is there to consider wasteful in a failure?"
—
9:14 PM
JAY: "To throw away someone so... so useful for something so little."
—
9:15 PM
HAT: "what tyrant accepts failure from his subjects?"
"why would I not punish him for his inability to control his lessers?"
—
9:17 PM
JAY: "One who sees beyond the black and white of failure and success. One who welcomes back a valuable ally once thought dead."
"Control. That he had plenty. The one thing beyond his control, the one thing beyond anything's control, a damn Netherbrain." "That is what you punish him for failing to control."
Even as she talked, she could feel the negotiation slipping away. Damn it, damn him. (edited)
—
9:21 PM
HAT: You feel a warmth around you. Not pleasant. Hot. Burning.
"He made the choice, little Bhaalspawn. He laid the road. The domination of the elder brain. His plan. And later, yours."
"I applaud his ambition. I appreciate yours. I do not accept failure."
—
9:23 PM
JAY: (how do you non-lethally explain the sunk cost fallacy to a god lmao)
—
9:23 PM
HAT: Enver Gortash's eyes stare into you. Hardened. Determined.
His fist, gauntlet free for the first time: clenches as he struggles to open his jaw. Blood slips out of his mouth.
"you wish to be my chosen. You wish to lead his failures to glory. This is not impossible."
—
9:26 PM
JAY: Jarn could not speak. She stared, and listened.
—
9:27 PM
HAT: Enver Gortash's body folds in on itself with a series of horrific crunches.
Once more, a floating, amorphous ball of soul energy.
"Gortash did not ask to be my chosen, child of Bhaal."
—
9:28 PM
JAY: "Nor do I."
—
9:28 PM
HAT: "the nature of it, little fool, is to-"
Bane blinks.
A rumbling of laughter is felt and heard again.
"Then explain your presence, for I have not called you"
—
9:30 PM
JAY: "You have a chosen, the perfect chosen, in the palm of your hand."
"What I offer is, something of a trade."
There it is, the final card up her sleeve. Her patron must be screaming already
—
9:34 PM
HAT: "tyrants rarely bargain, child."
—
9:38 PM
JAY: "Not even when faced with such a benefitting deal? Hear me, Lord Bane. Let your chosen finish his task. And he would, i know of it. You would have nothing to lose, and everything to gain."
—
9:41 PM
HAT: A god sighs.
It sounds almost fond.
"you propose I release him. Show that failing me is survivable. That a tyrant allows weakness in his lessers."
You are staring up at a god. A god. Miles. Miles. Leagues above you.
"my end would be his release. What is your offer?"
—
9:48 PM
JAY: Looking upon a god made her dizzy. "A collateral, of sorts. Mine own soul as well in addition to his, if we are to fail. Of course, I have no doubt it would ever happen but, well, for you. That's just more to win, isn't it?"
—
9:49 PM
HAT: The sounds of crumbling foundations. Cracking earth. Broken lands. Bane is laughing.
"a soul given to me, not in worship, but in... Test." (edited)
"the soul of my old rival and friend's daughter. Mine. To break and sunder until all of you is forgotten."
The hand curls around you. No longer do you see your god. And he is your god. He has claimed you.
"desperate people are terrible bargainers. Your soul has been promised to another. I unmake your pact." (edited)
A terrible ripping, tearing, sundering of your very essence grips you.
Power. Power. All you had. Gone.
—
9:55 PM
JAY: oh, such pain, such horrible misery. and yet, why does she want to laugh?
—
9:55 PM
HAT: (please. Describe what she feels)
—
10:04 PM
JAY: every fiber of her being, deep in her bones and muscles and tendons stretching, something that once held everything together, simply snapped. a distant scream, angered, enraged by a contract forcibly shattered by an outside force. pain, that was what she felt, was it not? the screams she heard, those are hers and yet, she felt... removed. as though she watched the pain happen to someone else. even as her throat strained, her back arched, she felt none of the agony and then. as quickly as it came, it was gone Jarn sagged, gasping. gone was the pain, but so too was the constant spark at her fingertips, the power in her bones She felt empty, but oh, all she could do was stifle her laughs.
—
10:06 PM
HAT: On your knees, in the black hand of your god. Weak. Broken. As all are before the tyrant.
"Your soul is mangled, little Bhaalspawn. It is... Flayed. If it breaks before I choose to claim it, our deal will break with it."
A scream. A familiar and forgotten scream echoes and echoes and trembles in a vast, empty space that should not allow it
Your body shakes as you try to move. You must. You cannot bow forever.
—
10:10 PM
JAY: Her throat too ragged to speak, but she still whispers, even as she forces her body to move. "Only the sweetest of souls for you, lord bane"
—
10:10 PM
HAT: His scream is constant. Never rising. Never falling.
"do not attempt to feed me souls as your father bade you. The dead cannot serve their king "
A man's body writhes beside you
Naked. Vulnerable.
Bleeding. Broken.
Bones broken and sticking out of his flesh.
Yet he smiles.
He smiles with broken jaw and teeth.
Blood pools beneath him.
—
10:15 PM
JAY: Alive. that's all that matters. Alive. Healing will take no time at all. none at all She kneels again, her head bowed, a dutiful little worshipper, and says a prayer.
She doesn't quite remember what she said. it was pulled from somewhere deep within. something she'll find soon again. Her new god seems satisfied
—
10:16 PM
HAT: "rise, little pawn."
—
10:17 PM
JAY: She obeys
—
10:18 PM
HAT: the black hand of bane rises to bring you higher. to what level you do not know. what is height and equality in such place
—
10:18 PM
JAY: This time she meets his gaze. the gaze of a god, the gaze of her god
—
10:19 PM
HAT: "Take the failure and ensure he does not fail again. Ask him what his punishment was. Ask what awaits you when you fail your god."
JAY: Bane's gaze is fire and remaking the world in perfect order. Perfection in subjugation.
—
10:21 PM
JAY: Jarn couldn't help it. She smiles
—
10:22 PM
HAT: Bane's smile is wider than the heavens. Deeper than oceans. The god of tyranny smiles with you and knows whatever you manage, you are his. And so is Enver Gortash.
"You bargained for so very little, child of Bhaal and Bane. I trust you will leave the details to your better half."
And in the blink of an eye. in the second between heartbeats; you and Enver Gortash, are gone from his sight.