[ PERMANENT. ] a (k)atch-all log for kenos

[dawnlord]

WHO: Set ( redsoil ), Bondrewd ( dawnlord ), Drizzt ( twohand ), et. al
WHAT: i actually can't stand month-by-month logs so i'm gonna crush my boys into one perma-log for anything outside of events
WHERE & WHEN: Listed in comment headers, or under the cut.
WARNINGS: General warnings for violence, vulgarity and unethical science. Will update/comment with warnings!


I struggle so hard w/ month-by-month logs, so y'all have to deal with my weird organization...

— [MARCH | SET] GOT NO SHAME, GOT NO PRIDE

Comments

[subsist]

[ Helping out at the Greenwood Yards is a no-brainer. Kaeya has been giving them his aid for as long as the Blight had swept across Highstorm, but he doesn't quite expect the idea of working with pairs — even more so when he's assigned to a Meridian.

What's worse, they've been given their assignment: Veil Shroud. Excellent. Perhaps it is the one that Kaeya wanted to work with the least, but it is what it is at this point.

Regardless of his own feelings on the matter, he offers an affable smile. ]

Oh? Then wouldn't it make more sense for me to follow your lead? You're far more knowledgeable than I am.

[ Taking the blue flowers from World's Edge is as far as his experience with planting goes, after all.

He sweeps his hand forward as a gesture for Set to go ahead. ]

After you.

[redsoil]

Knowledge does not mitigate curried suspicion or disfavor.

[ Said sternly, but without anger. If anything, he expects Kaeya to function like a Zenite — watchful of the Meridian presence in his midst, and anything less is a little insulting to him! Not that he'll press, if Kaeya still deigns to follow his lead. Greenwood Yards matters to Set, after all. Even if he must deal with the Veil Shroud and its effects, perhaps if he keeps his mouth shut and head down, he and Kaeya can escape without anything damaging coming out.

Perhaps that is why he hefts a stack of large crates onto his shoulder, the juvenile plants wiggling within the confines of their temporary pots. They'll need to be removed from the pots, their roots cleaned of the old dirt, and then replanted and given a burst of spellwork for their health. ]

Ah. Before we begin — this may cause us to be irreparably honest with one another. Would you like to make a deal, that nothing we say under its influence will pass from us? Nothing. Not even the most minuscule of detail. And if you wish to back out at any point, I will not hold you in contempt. Some matters are deeply private, after all.

[subsist]

Oh, I assure you. It does not.

[ Kaeya says that so casually, but he's more than happy to switch gears and focus on the task at hand. He makes his way toward the other pile of crates, lifting them with a bit of effort. What he has isn't the same amount as what Set has, but that's fine. The Meridian has grabbed more than enough to balance it out.

He listens dutifully as the other speaks, rolling one of his shoulders in a small shrug. ]

And I suppose a deal to take each other's secrets to the grave is quite fair. Shall we discuss if there are any boundaries we shouldn't cross? Perhaps we could consider some sort of sign to let the other one know they shouldn't press any further?

[ He's sure spilling the wrong ones will give them grief one way or another, by way of Discord. No one wants to deal with that. ]

[redsoil]

[ Kaeya is an agreeable creature, which means that the war god's hackles settle within a few moments of them rising. Less someone who needs to be admonished for being foolish with his tongue, then, and more someone who understands the value of holding one's cards close to the chest. Even Set, with as loud a personality as he has, holds many pertinent details far out of view.

He carries the boxes effortlessly, plunging into the Yards with the passion of someone who has sight of a goal. If he must bargain for secrets to be maintained, to have his connection to them again, he will do so. ]

I do not believe this plant will allow us to create maintainable boundaries, unfortunately. However, cover your heart, when you begin to feel the effects take hold of you. I will do the same, for it is the heart that will speak against you when you are judged for the life you have lived. That is the way of things in my world, where your heart will sit against the weight of a feather.

[ He wonders if he ought to have brought the image of golden scarab with them, and if they would protect his and Kaeya's heart from speaking against their wills. Alas. ]

I do wonder about your deepest desires, though. You were the one who spoke of your findings in the Church of Helios — the dark things many, regardless of faction line, wish to find the root of to end, and punish. Such a thing speaks to a sense of justice, maybe.

[subsist]

[ It’s not that Kaeya doubts what Set is saying. After all, he was made aware of the plant’s properties too, and it wouldn’t be the first time that his secrets were drawn out of him against his will. To think that a plant would be capable of such a thing, though…

At least he’s with someone who understands the importance of keeping secrets. ]

Do I strike you as someone who seeks justice?

[ When he asks that, his voice has an airy quality to it, casual. They’ve reached where the plants need to be settled so he carefully lowers the crate he’d been holding to the ground. ]

That’s an interesting assumption. Most wouldn’t normally say so. [ Shady. Suspicious. He’s heard it all. ] However, that was likely our only interaction thus far, so it makes sense. Your opinion of me might change after today.

[ Leave it to him to find a roundabout way of not acknowleding what Set thinks of him. ]

[redsoil]

[ With Kaeya, Set places the crates on the ground — if he had sleeves, he would roll them up and begin to sort through the juvenile plants to ensure their leaves were healthy and roots unbound before sinking his hands into the soil to prepare a healthy foundation for them — and he thinks, about the question. Genuinely. ]

I have a lot of opinions about men like you. Affable and evasive, you are not the first of your kind I have met nor will you be the last.

[ He begins to unstack his crates, for ease of access, and reaches for the string and stakes that have roped off the section of garden for them to visibly see where they'll be planting. From one of the crates, he takes out a pair of procured gloves and holds them out to Kaeya — the world's most stupid olive branch. ]

You do not even know my opinion of you, besides. We have yet to interact much with one another, but will not be forced to divulge quite an arsenal... I would like to approach you with a more open mind, though not with naive trust. Here. The sooner we begin, the further we may get before our secrets are exposed. I want to earn the right to return to the Greenwood Yards, even as Meridian. I have always loved this place, and its ghosts.

[ His nose wrinkles briefly, the first truthful casualty between them laid bare. ]