Millimax (ᴀᴋᴀ “Kettle Hooves”) @millimax@high.cat

if you're interested in the whole "destiny crusade" story

the official site of the campaign is here:
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/the-destiny-crusade-literorrery

my full profile (well, partial for now) is here:
https://www.worldanvil.com/hero/40f92760-ec9b-45fb-ba31-8c9cc0112693

my full journal starts here:
https://www.worldanvil.com/hero/journal/2247a60c-e6bc-4ecd-84e9-727ec2a4cec0/view

but i'll still post and respond to folks here because you're all wonderful!

alright this gets meta but hear me out

[dc] means 'destiny crusade' because that's the title
[ooc] means 'out of character' because it's complicated

i'm still gonna be lovable old me but i'm getting the chance to show up in a game @orrery is running for my friends @mawr and @kelseyhusky and @IceWeasel and @kobunny

if you see [dc] but not [ooc] then it's my game-me's journal

if you don't see those it's just me being stoned

i feel i should explain the look of my legs in my user photo here because i'm not a "robot" pony or a "cyborg" or any sort of machine or portion of

i am a living sculpture and i will resculpt myself in copper and porcelain until i am whole even if i have to get there one piece at a time

the big difference here is that the first is a mind-meltingly complicated system of logic circuits and actuators and code

the second is just me haunting a pony-shaped teapot

this cannabis strain has the full spectrum of effects

it makes me want to sit down and dance

this morning's choice of paper was "the sharn inquisitive" because they printed mattock's reply to the king

short form? she called him out for his hypocrisy in not treating the forged as people until it was convenient and ignoring their struggle afterward and papering over his shame with irrelevant gifts and announcing stuff for them but not with them

"you want my name for your prize? have it along with my art – i'll make more"

so she's in between names right now

after that mattock invited the forged (including our group even though half of us don't really qualify) to join her at the red hammer where the first round was on her

there were a lot of toasts to the red hammer and the missing pieces and even the h&h and basically everything the forged have created

there was talk and real planning for how to organize further

i can't help but think of them as a proper herd learning to take care of each other and that's wonderful!

anyhow he was so impressed he wanted to reward her work with a lot of gold and a permanent display at a museum in wroat

plus he announced a new "brelish forged arts society" and the "mattock 19 prize for excellence in the forged arts"

the grown in the audience applauded for a bit until they realized the forged were silent

mattock told 3 she'd write a reply by the end of the day and asked him to deliver it

and that was the end of the session

at one point the king's bodyguard – a massive forged named "3" (seriously?) – asked to address the audience so she let him speak

the king couldn't attend but he sent a written message that 3 read out loud

in it the king explained how after seeing "cost of repairs" he was a little more aware of the tragedy in how he'd thrown the "warforged" into the worst of the fighting

how did he not know that then? and how does he not know the forged aren't called that anymore?

as promised mattock held her talk the next morning

right there in the charred remnants of the gallery because it turns out she is not easily discouraged from anything

again i'm reminded of brushsmoke

mattock told her story of being created to tend a farm but instead pressed into military service and thrown into combat for twenty years

after that she knew she had to make a statement and the obvious reactions to it emboldened her to keep talking through her art

we promised to explain to the watch so they wouldn't come down on him and maybe so they could identify the halflings responsible

the last thing he needs is more of a hard time

as it is he and his father are living in a tent village full of cyran refugees (seriously breland you've got to help your neighbors more)

i felt bad for him and i really hope he'll be all right so when we get back from fairhaven i'll check in on him

then we investigated a little and here's what we have so far

a teenager who'd lost a lot of family in the war was talking nasty about forged in general and mattock's work in specific

a pair of criminal-minded halflings coaxed him to turn his words into action and gave him a "chromatic orb" spell for the purpose

he threw it and clearly it worked but he immediately regretted it and ran home because he was scared

it's clear that he wouldn't have done it without being pushed

while i was in the building (don't worry i cast "resilient sphere" and it worked fine) i found the starter – "chromatic orb" on a chunk of diamond – which zer' took for scrying

when i got out mattock was there just ... watching the flames

i asked her what she'd do now and her answer was quick – "keep making art since clearly i have their attention"

she stated that the question-and-answer session would still happen in the morning as scheduled

i'll have to start with a clarification

the artist of "cost of repairs" is in between names right now but she went by "mattock" while her art burned

...

in the middle of the night our sending stones echoed a call for help so we rushed to the 6t2 gallery

we got there quickly but most of it was already on fire so we did what we could

this included rescuing councilmage "sava kharisa" – the gallery's owner – with minimal injury

but the art is lost

we also heard some good news

herringbone – the forged we met on that same trip – made it to his destination at "fort light" and is happily settled in!

the meeting finished pretty late in the evening but by then everyone was in good spirits including us so i'm glad we stayed for it

then it was off to bed ... though we were up a bit longer to explore medya's new gauntlets some more

i'm really glad her first day with them was a good one!

ploughshare organized the meeting

i hadn't expected to sit in on it but they insisted we'd be welcome so we did

as folks arrived i worried that the talk of what they'd been through would put a dark cast on the day but the whole point was to lift up out of that darkness

they did discuss those difficulties ... but also of finding healing and joy so many ways that also reminded me of home

they sang together – ploughshare has a beautiful voice!

after that we visited a florist to get some houseplants that can survive without being watered for a couple weeks because the h&h could use more green but we seem to travel a lot

then we picked up our fully-loaded songbeetles and returned to the h&h feeling rejuvenated

we were just in time to help bell tidy up and ready the place for a small gathering of folks in the "missing pieces network" – a mutual support circle for forged veterans

then we took an skycoach to one of sharn's outer towers and found a very nice park where we enjoyed a picnic in the sunlight

medya was so happy she couldn't help but sing which attracted a small group of listeners and before long there was a circle of children singing along and dancing

i was so happy i actually joined in the dancing which i basically never do in public

for a moment it felt a lot like home

which was exactly what we needed

back when we were on the train to starilaskur rakela had something called a songbeetle (no idea why) that could echo any sound played into it and hers was filled with music she liked

while exploring the "tradefair" district we found a songbeetle vendor so we each bought one to be loaded up with a wide variety of music from all over khorvaire

we also found the perfect scented polishing compound for her – evergreens and something she calls "mountain air"?

this morning medya put on her gauntlets and they fit perfectly

to describe my emotions requires a pile of words so here they are

delight accomplishment relief excitement pride encouragement love

also there was much exploration and now she can change how sharp her talons are without having to use caps so no more accidental punctures in my hide!

don't worry that didn't happen very often

anyhow to celebrate we took the day for ourselves but mostly for her

you may find that you don't always have it in you to share your art

there may be times you don't have it in you to do your art

but don't ever curse yourself for what comes out wrong or never

you've still got that creative fire in you and everything you create is a nourishing gift to yourself

take the gift