>>5329203"If you don't mind my asking, *why* is that the choice you have?” You say, voice buzzing through your construct envoy. “Are you incapable of meeting a Daughter in person without having to fight her? I met a sapient Amalgam like that recently, she didn't want to fight people but was incapable of resisting Amalgam instincts. Or is it just that you can't see yourself living any other life?"
“It’s not like I’m lacking in self-control, or anything. We’re talking right now, aren’t we?” The Vagrant replies, his gravelly voice tinged with amusement. “I feel for your ‘sapient’ friend, though—it’s hard, resisting the pull to violence. There’s this kick in the guts we amalgams get when we see a Daughter, a pang of…envy, maybe? Perhaps anger’s more on-the-nose. Not sure how best to describe it, but it’s a feeling that gets easier to suppress the longer you’re up and active. And me? I’m old as balls, as the kids like to say.”
A beat and then; “They…they *do* still say that, yeah?”
Rath gives you a withering look, while Amara just shoots you a thumbs-up before you focus back on the vagrant through second-hand eyes, and he concludes with; “I think you hit it right on the nose, really…when it comes right down to it, I can’t see myself living any other way.”
"Maybe you can't. But if this is all you've got, I think you should make the most of it.” You counter as gently as you can manage.
“That so? You got an alternative in mind?” He asks coolly, planting the palm of his only visible arm atop one covered knee.
“Don't just be a wandering treasure trove waiting for someone strong enough to seize it. Why not actively cultivate that strength, and take a student? Find some promising seed and raise them up, pass on your skill with the blade until they're worthy of defeating you." You offer, a flicker of disbelief evident in the minute twitch of the Vagrant’s hood. "For that matter, you could take multiple students. Any one Daughter probably isn't going to want to wield fifteen swords. Which, really, is also a problem with passing your entire arsenal on to whoever defeats you. They'll probably just wind up passing the blades further on. It would be wasted on them.”
“Whoever’s skilled enough to take me down won’t have any problem with that.” The swordsman smoothly parries, his armament shifting on his back as he crosses one tree-trunk leg over the other, the vague suggestion of his monstrous form still concealed. “You can hand ‘em out one by one, sure. But my powers let me use all of them at once. Doesn’t matter if you’ve got enough hands, ‘cause they can go on auto-pilot, if the user’s interested.”
He shrugs his massive shoulders. “Besides, the strongest thing I’ve got doesn’t even have to be a sword, at all. It’s just taken that form because it’s what I favor. Ex-…my trump card alone would be more than enough to turn the tide of a match.”
(Continued)
