16_02
Added 2021-04-07 04:00:52 +0000 UTCThe shrine's under attack!
You may recall that the headmistress banished all the shrine's two-toes underground after three young males broke into her office. Those males had been made paranoid not only by news that their people were being rounded up all over the country and put into camps, but by the sudden arrival of Crescian soldiers who set up tents outisde on the riverbank! Uncle Masek called the boys fools for thinking anyone would come all the way out here for them, but what is Masek left to think now that there are bombs falling? And what in the heck can he do to protect his little family?
Wait, hadn't the boys retrieved something unusual from the headmistress' office..?
We haven't seen much of Ruffles' brother there (other than watching her pounce on him and bite him because brothers should be bit) but they are as close as two-toes can get to being twins. I cut some dialogue last chapter where Ruffles was upset that she doesn't get the same respect that Sara and Siya get even though she's a twin girl too, but it's true that humans just don't seem to care about them in the same way~
Comments
and desperation is the mother of bad decisions....
Judith Bradford
2021-04-10 04:47:49 +0000 UTCMasek has spent his entire life as a servant right here in the basement of a Crescian shrine. His knowledge of human geopolitics is pretty poor, and he doesn't realise the soldiers outside are not the very same soldiers he and Minnow saw camped on the riverbank. If he sees them in person and recognises they're not Crescian at all, that will certainly sway his mind. The way it stands now, he has no idea why Cresce is bombing its own shrine. But he does know that Crescians are capturing and imprisoning lizards all over the country, he knows that his own nephews are in trouble for crossing the headmistress, and he knows that absolutely no one (including Minnow) is left who will speak for his family. So whether the soldiers have come specifically for the two-toes or they're here due to these other machinations playing out in the construct facility, Masek wants to be proactive. His family WILL eventually be forced out of here. His hope that Lori would protect them was shattered with her collective punishment. He feels this could be his last chance to act.
Ashley
2021-04-08 23:16:18 +0000 UTCHow can adult two-toes not grok that spiderpaws aren't one monolithic group? Nana had to flee the Aldish slaughter into Cresce. The boys were NOT right-- if they had slaughtered the kids in the shrine, the current attackers would be happy their enemies were dead, but enraged at the lizards for taking away the "fun" some of them are planning.... And probably killed the two-toes on general principle, since they'd murdered humans. BOMBING the shrine isn't something that proves the spiderpaws are after the lizards-- why would they? If the "spiderpaws" wanted the lizards dead, they wouldn't bomb the shrine and kill a bunch of shrine priestesses; the shrine would show the soldiers where the village was, and they'd take them.
Judith Bradford
2021-04-08 22:54:40 +0000 UTCMasek is scared and needs to figure out that it's ALDISH soldiers doing this. Crescian soldiers attacking their own shrine is nuts unless they're coming to collect two-toes (or so Masek thinks) but Aldish soldiers here to investigate the construct facility, that would make more sense. Mostly Masek is confused and erring on the side of paranoia and protecting his family. His presumptions are also influenced by Iori's betrayal in locking them all up down here. He's doing his best! D:
Ashley
2021-04-08 13:41:44 +0000 UTCIf Masek had asked her, Nanna would have probably repeated her wise opinion that the shrine's two-toes are just not significant enough to explain this air raid. But alas, he didn't give her the time...
Rob N
2021-04-08 05:21:34 +0000 UTC
