[ Asura understands the importance of symbols. For the Lost, they fostered community; marked the places that were safe, those hollows where they could belong. They stood as staunch reminders that even those forgotten by the world could be unshakeable, utterly inviolable in their standards and in their principles, and that every soul among them who donned their heraldry with pride would forever be a custodian of the highest purpose of all—freedom. In this way, the triple stars of the Resistance are no different from the Biscione of the King's Freehold in Milan, and that's why... in the days before setting foot in Dorchacht for the second time, Asura had taken to the forge, smelting down a gilded torc of solid gold (a 'gift' from the other side of the mirror) and had hand-poured the molten metal into custom molds.
The first of his design: the triple stars. And the second? A crowned, coiling dragon, its maw opened wide to devour a man whole.
To your good fortune, it is not the latter emblem which Asura offers to you. Though he wears it for himself, the miniature dragon form fastened to the lapel of his red and gold brocade overcoat, what he presses into the palm of your hand is a triple star pin—you hadn't been wearing one, right? And because that golden torc had been more weighty than a damn Gargantuan, Asura's got plenty of them to spare. ]
It'll help you to open some doors, yeah? [ Regardless if you're Witch or Monster. ] Wear it with pride.
II): SUMMER IS FOR TRAINING
[ Just outside the reaches of the Onyx Wall, see....! A gaggle of Wilder recruits, all in the thick of running basic training drills to the tune of Asura's draconic bellowing. All those present, Monster and Witch alike, have seized upon the King's offering of tutelage for hunting out in the Wilde.
And for it...? W e l l, they're doing fine. Before one can hunt, they first need to learn how to survive, and the ground fighting techniques that Asura's got pairs of two (battle buddies, he's called them, and while it's far from a Bond, it'll do) working through will give him enough insight into their current level of ability. Sure, if this were Summer territory, Asura wouldn't be nearly so kind (new recruits, they get dropped off in the middle of nowhere in the Hedge with nothing but an auroch's horn, and are judged by the length of time they can go without pissing themselves sounding the horn for help). But... here, while Asura is hard-nosed and scrutinizing, he is not unkind while correcting ("an attack must be grounded in the proper footing! do not attempt to press your opponent before regaining balance!"), and there is even—
—a hint of a smile playing upon his lips. Asura, he is almost at home, in this. If he let it, it could remind him of his Court's training grounds at the crack of dawn; the Wilder recruits none too dissimilar from wrathful novitiates.
But that sentimental shit doesn't happen upon him, because you do first. And recognizing you as Mirrorbound, Asura's voice breaks from the rolling deep of its thunderous holler to...! Extend an offer?: ]
You up for joining me in running these newbies through a drill or two?
III): A NEW SPECIES
...should use you damn kids as bait on the regular. [ The kids in question being a trio of Wilder recruits (two of them Asura's own students, so hungry to earn for themselves the laurels of battle that they hadn't bothered to heed his wisdom of before: venture out into the Wilde before you are ready, and you are dead!), wounded and bloodied but still breathing now that you and Asura are here. The recruits stammer, telling the tale of how their party had been separated by one of t-t-those things, or whatever it is that lies in the stillness of death at the King's feet. ]
Yeah, it's particularly nasty, isn't it? [ —Asura agrees, but the way he says that, it sounds like he's giving the creature its due acclaim rather than calling it repulsive. Sure, there's no way to put lipstick on a ...shrieking horse-man-beast with its guts on display, but the way the creature had pursued (the kids) its prey so single-mindedly (ferocious and unyielding, jaws gnashing until the instant it'd lost its human head) deserves acknowledgement. And were you and the King both not around to take the Screamer down, the would-be Wilders would have been toast.
Looking nearly as wild as the horse-man-beast had been (Asura, his hair is heavy and matted with blood and gore from the kill, the red of his overcoat darkened with the same because the take-down had been far from clean), the King crouches down beside the felled creature, taking his time to study it now that the wayward recruits have quieted.
To his Mirrorbound companion, he murmurs: ] You ever seen a creature like this before, out in Aefenglom's Wilde?
IV): WILDCARD
( Asura can be found in and/or around Dorchacht through Ieneu 13, doing the following!: (1) playing the flute, (2) starting to map the Wilde outside of Dorchacht, and (3) drinking heavily somewhere while canvassing the locals about how things have been since the Circle of Three came to power. Want to incorporate any of these things into a thread? Go for it! Got another idea? I'm still game! o9 Feel free to write a starter or hmu on the CR meme to plot something out. )
Asura | Witch | OTA (Dorchacht)
II): SUMMER IS FOR TRAINING
III): A NEW SPECIES
IV): WILDCARD
( Asura can be found in and/or around Dorchacht through Ieneu 13, doing the following!: (1) playing the flute, (2) starting to map the Wilde outside of Dorchacht, and (3) drinking heavily somewhere while canvassing the locals about how things have been since the Circle of Three came to power. Want to incorporate any of these things into a thread? Go for it! Got another idea? I'm still game! o9 Feel free to write a starter or hmu on the CR meme to plot something out. )