Long Game 83: The Survivor

[Steeldancer he/him]

This takes place Day 4, but StrikerEZ hasn't posted it yet, so I figured I'd repost it here to make the RP I just wrote easier to understand.
When Leets finally came to his wits again, he began to mull upon the things the bug-thing had said. Yes, it had been creepy, but it had said something about the gift his father had left behind. That the spikes weren't the gift? 
Putting aside the question as to why a creepy bug thing would know about what his dad had left behind, he pulled out the box, which contained the twin spikes. 
Trembling, he pulled the spikes out. They were in clear vials, with blood. 
Behind them in the box, now that he was paying attention, he saw something he hadn't noticed before. The back had a small notch in it. 
He yanked on the notch, and it came free. A false back. In the small space behind, were 2 medallions. 
One with steel. 
The other with copper. 
He briefly touched the one with steel, and felt a MASSIVE reserve of feruchemical steel inside. He staggered.
"Wow."
That was evidently the result of quite a bit of compounding. 
The other was one was copper, which could only mean one thing. 
Hesitantly, Leets touched the copper, and tapped it. Memory overwhelmed him.
He remembered a journey across the cosmere. He remembered dying twice, and being returned by a gracious Endowment acting for the good of the cosmere. 
And he remembered a villain. A man of speed, from another universe. One who had, in an effort to not lose the speed that he valued, stolen the power of compounding of others. 
That was what the spikes were. They had never been his father's in the first place. 
The next thing he remembered was colored with pain, with loss. He saw a body. The body of the man, slain by his... by his father's hand. 
He remembered the body of his sister. 
Of his father's sister? That would have been... his aunt?!
The villain had murdered his aunt. No wonder his father had been so loathe to speak of her. 
He saw his father, having lost everything, fleeing to the Drominad system to live a backwater life. Where Leets had been raised.
A more specific memory then entered into his mind. 
He saw his father. Or more specifically, it was the memory of his father looking into a mirror. 
His father smiled. 
"I'm sorry Leets. I knew you would finally open this when you were ready to accept what I left behind. I know how little you think of yourself, of how much you think of me."
His father sighed, his shoulders slumping. "But as you can see from my memories, I failed. I failed terribly. My own sister... murdered by that beast of a man. I was never the hero you thought me to be. I almost awakened the lightning, like he asked of me."
A grim smile formed on his face, and he continued. "So, please don't be like me. I might have saved people, but I failed to save what I cared about most. But... well I had you and your siblings. That brought some measure of joy back into my life. I'm sorry that I'm going to give away my breath, but my time has come. It came multiple times, and I was selfish to stick around for so long. Now that you're all grown, it's time for me to go."
His father reached out a hand. "I love you Leets. I gave you the option to become Steeldancer, if you so desire. At least to be able to compound, as much as that means in this modern age. But I also gave you those spikes. Those spikes that represent my utter failure. So... don't view me as a hero. But, I will always be your dad."
The memory ended.
Leets found himself with tears on his face. He slumped, realizing how flawed his views of his father had been. He had been a failure too. 
He laid down on his bed, absorbing the thoughts, trying to parse how he felt about this massive revelation. 
So it was, he was deep in thought when the door opened. 
Leets sat up, and was about to say something to the sudden visitor when the knife took him in the throat. 
Panic struck, and he tried to scream, but the knife prevented him. 
No, no no no no no NO. NOT NOW. Not JUST when he was figuring this out, when he was on the verge of realizing what he wanted to actually be. 
He gurgled blood, realizing that he was going to end up just like his dad. Dead before his time. Except like his dad, he was of no importance to the cosmere, and no shard was going to come and save him. 

No. 

NO.

He would not be like his dad. He would fight. 

Leets lunged at his shrouded attacker, snarling. He ripped off the hood, attempting to strangle the assailant. 
"YOU" Leets managed to choke out.
Then he was slammed headfirst against the wall, and all went dark. 
~~
Max opened the door, having heard that Leets had finally awoken. 
To his horror, he found Leets, a knife in his throat, on the floor. Blood leaked slowly from the wound. 
"LEETS!" Max hollered, skidding to his knees to feel his heartbeat. 
There was still a pulse, though he could feel it weakening. 
In a panic, Max reached to his pocket. A precious item, but well he had no choice. 
First, he ripped out the knife.
Then he placed the gold bracer around Leets's arm, hoping against hope the little unkeyed health he had in this would be enough to save his best friend. 
To his relief, he watched the wound close. But it left a scar. The healing was not much. 
He picked up his friend, and ran with every ounce of speed he had to the ship doctor.
~~
"I'm sorry, but he won't be waking up anytime soon. We don't have any feruchemical gold to spare. He took a head wound that, most likely, will leave him in a coma."
The doctor looked consolingly at Max. 
"At the very least, I'm pretty sure he'll stay alive. The operation worked, so it should be ok. But I have no idea when he'll wake up."
Max put his head in his hands, letting a few tears out. The shock of it all was just barely catching up with him. 
He took a deep breath. 
"Doctor, if there's any change whatsoever, I need you to tell me."
The doctor nodded. "When we get to Roshar, we might be able to get some more advanced medical attention there. But who knows when we'll get there, with all that's happening..."

Some Time Later, after the Mutiny
He slowly awoke, opening his eyes to see a plain white ceiling. 
He tried to raise his hands to wipe the sleep from his eyes, but found he couldn't. There was a tube entering his arm, and medical equipment nearby. 
Leets took a deep breath, trying to clear the fog from his brain, figuring out what was going on. 
He looked around, and saw Max in a chair nearby, dead asleep. Leets was surprised, but glad to see him there. 
As he stirred in his bed, Max also awoke. His exhausted face broke into a grin. "You're alive!" 
Leets sniffed. "Was there ever any doubt of that?"
Max frowned at him. "You realize I found you barely alive with a knife in your throat. That was, 3 and a half months ago?"
Leets felt at his throat, and only felt a small scar. "You must have used your feruchemy for me, didn't you."
Max nodded, and Leet sighed, and sunk back into the bed. 
"So, what happened? Last thing I remember was getting jumped."
Max nodded, and began to explain what had happened. 
The story was a long one, but essentially, the traitors from Roshar had ended up taking over the ship, killing pretty much everyone on the ship, and then flown it back to Roshar. As a result of the incident, the whole cosmere was on knife-edge as Scadrial seemed poised to strike back, and the people on Roshar were furious that a kill squad had been sent to Roshar. But that was outside, and at least here in Urithiru, things were relatively peaceful. 
"So then, why the heck did they not kill me?"
Max grinned. "They needed a lead engineer in order to get back to Roshar. You getting here safely to get medical attention was my demand, in order for me to help them. They agreed to the request."
Leets nodded. Then he pointed near Max's head. "So, what the heck is that in the air."
Max frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Leets squinted. "How do you not see the funny looking... cracks in the air?"
A voice then came from said 'funny looking cracks in the air'.
"Welcome to Roshar, Leets, heir to the aspect of Speed."
Leets and Max both started. 
"Leets, to be short with you, the spren of Roshar have come to the conclusion that you should be brought into the Knights Radiant, in order to preserve the aspect of Speed that you inherited from your father. The resonance between Abrasion and feruchemical speed is essential in making this occur, along with a spiritual aspect your father alone had, so you are the only candidate for inheriting this power. The power of not just a magic system, but rather utilizing investiture to draw close to a spiritual ideal."
Leets shook his head. "I didn't understand a single word you just said." Max laughed from his chair. "That's what you get for trying to explain spiritual mechanics to this guy."
The spren- it had to be a spren, though Leets had only ever seen his father's spren before- sighed. "Normally, we don't bond brand new off worlders, but we're making an exception for this. And us ashspren wanted to beat the cultivationspren to the punch this time. This is no time for a healer, but a warrior."
Leets held up his non-tubed hand. "So let me get this straight, you're inviting me to the Dustbringers? Because, speed spiritual mumbo jumbo?"
"It's more important than that," explained the spren, "but I can teach you the details later. For now, do you accept this generous offer?"
Leets thought for a moment. It almost felt cheap to just... be offered a spren bond out of nowhere. He hadn't done anything heroic, or gone through anything even that particularly tragic, like the famous Radiants of old. He was just the son of his father, the Steeldancer. 
But he also would not be like his father, at the end of the day. He would be a Dustbringer. Or Releaser. Same difference. 
Leets cast his mind back to words his father had taught him while he was young. 
"Life before Death, Strength before Weakness, Journey before Destination."
A shiver ran through Leets, and the ashspren moved about in its particular way. "Welcome to the Knights Radiant."
~~~
And thus I shall set aside my character for another day, because I have plans for this guy Leets. 

Edited March 13, 2022 by Steeldancer
edited D4 death RP, that hasn't been edited in there yet

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

yo so i kinda forgot that posting in aftermath threads was a thing but

thank u for running striker, experience

thank u for im-ing devo

i dont really have a meme for that but cheers

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

Congratulations to the elims and thief for winning, and thank you to Striker and Experience for running the game!

As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Devotary of Spontaneity, Elbereth, Araris Valerian, Elandera, or StrikerEZ, or post in the GM Signups & Discussion Thread. Not only will we get you added to the list, but we'd also be more than willing to help out in any way we can. 

You can also ask questions and get some hints and feedback from everyone in our Art of Game Creation thread. With all the games that we've run so far, we have plenty of experienced GMs that can help you refine any game you're thinking about. If you would rather keep some detail secret, or are self-conscious about posting in thread (there's really no need to be; while we do slaughter each other, we are very polite about it), then I'm sure one of our fantastic committee members (Amanuensis, STINK, Sart, Fifth Scholar, Straw, Archer, and Kasimir) would be more than willing to help you out in private.

Thanks again to everyone that played, and we look forward to killing seeing you in future games!