Grey

Fate/stay Night - War of the Fourteen Magi - High Casual

Turns out this week is going to be busier than I anticipated, so it's probably gonna be shorter posts or no posts from me depending on free time pans out.

Me, a few days ago

En'jer: Pharaohs of Egypt

weak.

bask in the chaos, it is the only way.

from ashes, life will begin a new, better than ever.

inb4 Satiah becomes the vessel for Apophis, eats the sun and usurps the final boss.

not necessarily in that order.

En'jer: Pharaohs of Egypt

Turns out this week is going to be busier than I anticipated, so it's probably gonna be shorter posts or no posts from me depending on free time pans out.

En'jer: Pharaohs of Egypt

Satiah

As Nebet spoke and as she moved, Satiah could feel it in the back of her brain. A sense that she knew quite well: the sense of foreboding before a conflict.

The priestess really, really wanted to inflict a great deal of harm her, didn’t she? Her barely restrained rage was evident in her language, both verbal and corporal. She was close to snapping, Satiah was sure. If she could get the priestess to succumb to her rage, the attendant would consider it a job well-done. This would be good in that esoteric way that they loved so much, maybe even for Nebet herself; the priestess’ repression was clear - no doubt the result of those “divine edicts” that priestly types clung to like a man drowning - and maybe she would get to learn a something she couldn’t get from those scriptures of hers. For example, Satiah had often been called a fool, and what was the first rule when dealing with fools? Don’t argue unless you’re willing to match them.

“It’s interesting that you say those things...” Just one final push, and she had lots of options. Challenge her infallible wisdom? Refute her answer with increasing nonsensicality? Poke more holes in her reliance on fickle nobility? Suggest she lacks faith in the kingdom and the Pharaoh? Or maybe all at once? “Because why wou-”

-----------Damn it.

It was before she could say anything else that Amen and Qar reappeared, shifting the attention to them and, sadly, stopping Satiah from stoking the flames of the priestess’ passion. Was this what the men in her troop called ‘getting blueballed’ felt like? She even planned on giving her a cute nickname like Apple: “Nebby”. Whatever the case, she was quite unsatisfied with this resolution, but soon found satisfaction from a different source.

She’d keep that nickname in her back pocket, though. She quite liked the sound of it, even in a non-mocking respect.

“A great Pharaoh for the kingdom’s sake, huh?” Satiah echoed, more to consider the thought herself than any mockery of the sentiment. She liked the sound of it, at least. The affirmation of his resolve was definitely a step in the right direction, as far as knowing himself and improving the people's’ quality of life went, but it was still an untested resolve, malleable and in flux - albeit not as much as it seemed before. He still had his doubts and his misgivings, and he too quickly resolved to merely ‘try’ and all too readily accepted a short reign. But the slave had hopes for the boy, and for now, she was confident in his abilities to grow. “I like the sound of that.”

Of course now, with Qar’s lie of omission and Nebet so kindly bringing up what exactly they were doing for so long, there was a choice to make here. A well-placed comment could ignite further chaos within the study - a veritable shatterpoint of discord, as it were. The question here was: did she want to tap it? Yes, if only just to see everyone squirm a bit more and to test the Pharaoh’s resolve. But would she?

No.

She was quite aware that small actions could lead to wide-reaching consequences. In the past, this had been well-applied with surgical strikes on key enemy formations. Now though, cross-applying those principles to human interaction was a simple enough effort; as much as she hated political process and held little talent for the subterfuge part, the ‘impact’ part was not lost on her. This one had too many negative consequences for friendly entities. Entertaining consequences, but still negative. She’d had too much fun today anyway, and it was kind of a dick move.

Besides, someone was bound to do it eventually for her.

“Is that so…? Okay then,” Satiah commented in response to Qar’s explanation. “Now I guess it’s only right that we catch you guys up on what’s been happening too then. Let’s see...” She paused in thought, thinking of how to convey the right combination of barely restrained rage and lack of anything being done in the most appropriate way possible.

“...We were slaving away here, discussing topics like upper class dissent and how to effectively deflect it, Amen’s tone, and how to direct the speech in the most strategic manner. Of course our discussion was getting pretty heated,” she paused, then continued innocently and remorselessly. In her mind, she justified it as being an indication of her awareness. “You’d almost think you were about to watch a brawl in the streets, except friendlier, made of palace officials, inside a study, and more liable to cause a great scandal among any civilians who became aware of it. Fortunately everything seems to have ended for the best, isn’t that right Priestess Neb-”

The air became strange. Forbodingly strange, and everyone could tell.

“-et?”

The atmosphere faded as fast as it came. Weird. Maybe it was just because she was using a title? At any rate, Satiah rested her hands on her lap, unaffected.

“But anyway, yes, that concludes my report. We should get moving though. Time’s running out,” she said, gesturing to the hourglass on the table, “Guess the most important question here is: what’d you see out there, Amen? That's definitely the best place to start if we want to get anywhere.”

En'jer: Pharaohs of Egypt

CLearly this means Satiah needs to make some thinly veiled comments about taking the fight to slavery

En'jer: Pharaohs of Egypt

I still have a few hours left of classes, but I also really wanna post.

Yeah, don't think Satiah and Nebet are going to ever agree on anything.

@Rune_Alchemist

I mean if Nebet tried to beat her (or really anyone) up, Satiah would probably respect her a lot more.

But clearly this dynamic is begging for Iaret to come in and tell all the cviziers they need to live in a kooky royal dormitory, where the girls need to learn to live together!

En'jer: Pharaohs of Egypt

I've got homework so I'll just wait for Rune.

En'jer: Pharaohs of Egypt

Satiah

From the top of the palace’s rooftop, essence-fueled eyes watched the city with unmatched clarity. For all its resplendence, the city of Thebes held with it an aura of grotesqueness that made it an eyesore in her sight. It was clear that things had to be changed, one way or another; the fact nobody would act was simply symptomatic of its corruption by stagnancy. The bustling streets were like diseased blood vessels.

But dwelling on the nature of things was not why she was here now, watching the city below. With the time spent speaking with the other viziers, Amen had long since vanished from the palace premises. Nobody had seen him leave through the front, but at the same time, nobody had seen him within. Word travels fast among slaves, so she was inclined to believe what she had heard; her own search yielded likewise results. Therefore, the only possible solution was that he was down below in the city itself.

Now, if she were one of those stuffy officiates, this would be a troubling fact. Instead, Satiah could only smile at the way things were progressing. The chance to get to know the people himself, and for them to know him as one of their own, would vanish forever once his coronation came to pass.

And it was for that reason that she chose not to intercept Amen when she caught sight of him. Which wasn’t so long, since that shock of blue hair and shimmering gold stood out within the public about as much as her own robes did in the desert. She’d also noticed Qar exit the grounds himself, which indicated that the others had finally caught on to Amen’s trickery, but she doubted he would be able to prevent the impetuous young boy from pursuing his own interest. He struck her as far too polite, too concerned about the proper way of things like the rest.

She clicked her tongue in irritation as her mentor’s warning echoed in her mind. Cerebrally, she knew that there were “weaknesses and strengths to every approach”, but had not yet committed such a thing. Not really, at least. She snorted. If that old man knew what she was getting up to here, he’d probably have a heart attack. Or maybe he’d just do that thing where he shakes his head exasperatedly, laughing or crying in turn; he would’ve known what he was getting into when he appointed her.

She blinked, the presence of essence fading from her enhanced eyes in the process. Even though the events below were starting to ramp up in intensity, Satiah determined that she had witnessed enough. That, and that there was no way she wouldn’t be there when everyone else heard about it - they were sure to have a heart attack!

But mostly because of that first one; the lesser nature of the enemies present meant that there would be nothing left to learn - and if there was, there had been no point in learning it in the first place.

So, she would return to the dusty little study. Heralding her entrance with the rapping of her knuckles against the stone door frame. There was a smile playing at her lips like she was remembering a funny joke, which clearly didn’t bode well for anybody within. But, rather than acerbic comment fueling a populist agenda, there was nothing more than a simple: “You guys look like you’re having fun.”

She’d not heard much of the conversation ensuing as she entered - some talk about being unable to write the speech with a proper balance of assertiveness and tranquility, and peasantry or nobility as the subject of focus. Which was good - it meant that somewhere in there brains, she’d gotten through just a little bit. “Just let all the force flow forth, Priestess. If it's too much, you can always rewrite it anyway,” she interposed, taking the chance to offer some friendly advice to the more subdued young lady, “Though... considering Amen, I wonder how much this deliberation is going to be necessary.” They ‘why’ of that comment was left unsaid. To those in the room, it may have been taken as an agreement with the shared unspoken sentiment, but really, it was clear to Satiah that fighting a bunch of slavers was the kind of debut any speech couldn’t whitewash.

“But that’s not here or there,” she dismissively waved her own comment, “Did some thinking outside, and as long as Amen isn’t around, I don’t think we’ll really be getting anywhere by writing a full speech. For all we know, we’ll have to rewrite or throw out the damn thing if it isn’t to his liking; just using the notes as a guideline for him to craft something that flows naturally - or kind of naturally, at least - might be best. Sure it’s a bit reliant on his appearance here, but isn’t everything? Besides, if we don’t find him by the time’s up, it’s not like we’re going to magically find him for crunch time instead.”

If anything, Satiah would at least offer to spare them the heartache. Let it not be said that the ex-slave was not a merciful person. “But then again, we might as well have one prepared just in case he shows up last minute - y’know, too late to edit but not too late to memorize it all,” she shrugged, not knowing how long the fight would last.

“So back to the thing you guys were talking about. Right,” Satiah began, recalling the scraps of conversation she’d heard as she entered and using them as a reference to continue, “Something about appealing to people with balanced force? Well, I figure as much as you wanna pretty it up, Amen is still a k...young guy, so any impressions were skewed since the beginning.” And, by all accounts, were going to be skewed even more. “If he comes off as too super tyrannical - or even super wise - his enemies’ll know someone else wrote it for him or consider him more of a threat, while his allies’ll be turned away since he’d be coming off as, well, tyrannical. Which makes forcefulness and feigned wisdom the clear wrong answer here,” she explained, “But if we make the speech convey who Amen at face value, then the precious status quo will be maintained another day, and the officials who would’ve wanted to ally with him are just gonna go ahead and do it, and those who won’t, won’t; they might even get lulled into complacency if we’re lucky.”

There was a distinct pause.

“And hey, if anyone tries to move against him, we can just beat them up or discredit them or nip them in the bud some other way, right?”

En'jer: Pharaohs of Egypt

@Jinxer How do you know I'm not being sarcastic too? I'm actually planning for Qar to die. That way, Amen can start his harem.

@Blu

"What of Zamonth" you might ask?

Zamonth was a big burly outlander with an exotic blade, so the potential reaction was a bit more obscure on that account. Maybe they’d think Amen went full Roman and got himself a male concubine.

@Grey

En'jer: Pharaohs of Egypt

No items, Qar only, Final Destination.