In my defense I have no defense.

[splinterself]

CHARACTERS: Dirk Strider (splinterself) and various and sundry other people who can speak for themselves.
DATE: The 20th, thus allowing for people to tag into both. Huzzah.
RATING: PG13
SUMMARY: I joked about a bunch of horrified level 1-2 people staring at the level for the dungeon before going off and getting e-beers. I was encouraged. Also, I'm starting with prose just because that's how I roll with intro posts, but brackets are strongly encouraged if that's what makes your soul happy.

...and after some stuff which doesn't particularly matter Dirk was staring at the level info for Δ Choosing Superior Offerings. Level 11 temple dungeon? He'd get his ass kicked.

In time he would go back and deal with this issue, go find people to team up with, whatever. But for now? Now? Goddamn.

So he turned to the nearest person who looks plausibly lost, alarmed, bemused, or other such reactions and said, "Hey. I don't know about you but I'm tired of dungeons right now. Know where a guy can get a drink?"

Comments

[viiru2alert]

He shrugged at that question, continuing to drink the beer like a MAN. Or just a troll who's more than used to disgusting things going down his gullet. "Obviously, Sburb ransacked it at a point in time. That's kind of inevitable. So she must have done it at some point before that, and also at some point before Earth detonated. But the Earth I saw didn't look anywhere near post-apocalyptic, so what, did she just... run away?" The thought was almost inconceivable. The Condesce, on a normal day, did not run away from anything.

[splinterself]

"Well. Assuming that it's the same crazy genocidal sea hag we're talking about," and that was still an if: recent events had more than proven that there were at least one alternate universe him, after all. "Assuming that's true, I heard rumors that she had some kind of superior. Some demon, crueler than she was: the only thing she feared."

There was a pause, punctuated by a bit of water. "Who knows if that's true." He had reason to believe it was (if not, why would Jake's grandmother get killed?) but it was far from a confirmation.

[viiru2alert]

The Condesce had a superior? Really? Sollux found that hard to believe, but that was mostly because he had grown up on Alternia, where she was touted as the absolute superpower of the universe. It was entirely possible, since when one got down to it, there was almost nobody of his age who knew much about the Condesce at all. (And if there was, a yellowblood like him would not be it.) "...It's possible," he admitted finally. "She has a knack for keeping things under wraps if she wants them to be."

Seriously, you'd be amazed how much you learned by having the Empress-to-be as a feelings jam partner.