[ 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

[redsoil]

[ While Set is not so vapid as to look upon someone's color scheme as a sign of their allegiance, it is ironic to him that a new face arrives to Kenos and they are dark-and-violet in tone. A bit like that overlarge suit of armor that had been captured, sniffing around the Tree at Heliopolis. It is more that the young man who arrives, again and again, to the Church throughout the day is a curiosity to him — why does he flit around the entrance, so obviously? He cannot be a spy with actions such as that, and Set cannot find anyone else skulking around as if using the young man's actions to distract.

( The more obvious something is, the more likely it is hiding someone less-obvious, after all. )

That the figure enters eventually, and slips into shadowed seat, is what holds Set back for a moment. Those hands are hidden, but the fact that this individual is so unidentifiable and fresh-faced encourages him — either he is a very new arrival, unharmonized, or a Zenite conscript attempting to do some sort of surveillance. They are sneaky little things, after all. Whispers and rumors that find purchase so long as light is not cast upon them, and they are not called out for liars and instigators. Set takes a moment to observe,

but only a moment. Before he tosses the high tail he's drawn his hair into over his shoulder and steps into view, expression beatific and confident. Dressed in the white vestments of the Church's order, he slips himself into a pew before Yuri and folds his arms over the low back of it, draped in weighted consideration. ]

— are you looking for guidance, or solace, hm?

[wolfish]

[ Perhaps surprisingly for one whose approach had been so overtly furtive, Yuri had allowed his focus to be limited to his prayer alone, rather than bearing his surroundings in mind. To his credit, the result of being greeted results in little more than a jolt of his shoulders. In the next moment, he smooths the tension back out, as innocuous as a ripple passing over still waters.

Yuri lowers his hands further to rest his forearms against his legs with a soft exhale, looking up to see who had greeted him. A clergyman? He'd observed such robes at a distance, when scoping the church out, though from such a distance he couldn't make out faces. His own expression is outwardly placid, belying whatever thoughts he might have. ]

Well now, I didn't expect such a sunny greeting so late in the day.

[ Despite the two prominent cities in this place being held in perpetual daylight or night, Yuri holds to his perception of time. He needs it, if only for a sense of structure in this bizarre realm he's wound up in.

It would appear that he's disinclined to address the question until he adds— ]

Protection, I suppose. Not that I expect the— [ he arrests his sentence for a beat, revises. ] my goddess to hold much sway here. But it's a comfort, just the same.

[ The people of his homeland understand they must take the future themselves, form it with their own hands. But it's nice to think that the goddess is watching over them, just the same. ]

[redsoil]

[ Dryly: ] Sunny greeting.

[ One of the least sunny personalities might be Set's, unless gripped by his strange divine mania that drove him into joyous mocking and taunting for his own pleasure. He twists his wrists upward, to better support his chin as he pools his face into the curve of his palm; the golden laurels upon his head tilt dangerously to the side, threatening to spill from the top of his head. A sloppy sort of priest, then. Not one feverbright with faith to Meridian, but serving the cause in his own way. ]

Perhaps she does not hold sway in the heart of the faithful, but your connection to her is no less real. The Church of Helios does not believe in a god, but in a force that sustains the spirit during our most challenging times.

[ That is no small thing to be said, as he flaps his free hand like a delicate bird looking to take flight. ]

If that force takes the shape of your goddess, then she will always be with you on your path.

[wolfish]

[ Greet a man with a big smile, get called sunny. Cause and effect — so Yuri would claim, though the truth is simply that he's a flippant little creature at heart. So sunny will stand, sir.

The response strikes him as rife with metaphor, but then, Yuri hasn't yet familiarized himself with local beliefs. Yuri suspects it comes back inevitably to one of the two factions as it always does, central as they evidently are to the nature of this realm. After a moment's consideration, he parts his hand, raising one palm up. ]

...If it is a force, then it isn't my goddess at all, is it?

[ A question for which no answer is necessary. Yuri has known and associated with enough clergy to be aware that they often resent being challenged or disagreed with. There are those who were consigned to Abyss' shadowed passages simply for worshipping the wrong deity, and he wonders briefly what they might do to someone of differing belief here. ]

I don't mean to waste your time; it just seemed as fine a place as any to pray.

[redsoil]

[ Set doesn't even bat an eye, when what he says is questioned.

His question in return, is ripe with only curiosity. A line of inquisition that betrays no hostility, only a sense of someone wondering exactly what sort of god-faithful this young one is. He doesn't mind being questioned, as long as it is not on matters pertaining to himself or his own existence, because it means someone is inquisitive, not as prone to conceding to blind path-following. ]

I mean, it can serve as a conduit for your faith. Not a replacement.

[ A question requires an answer, to Set's mind. And he always has an answer, whether it proves self-serving or generous remains to be seen; with a mind like his, he is laconic about the existence of divinity, of intangible power and force, the physical manifestation of cosmic power or natural phenomena. ]

If I thought you would waste my time, I would not have come to you. If you wish to pray, then pray. I will lend my presence to you, to bolster your voice — such is my responsibility, as one of the guides within this Church. And as a god, myself.

[wolfish]

[ Well, points for creativity— of all the outlandish claims that Yuri has heard in his life, casually calling oneself a god isn't one of them. It's sufficient to leave him taken aback for a moment. Imagine someone saying something like that back in Fódlan with such perfect delivery. The Church of Seiros would be up at arms.

As it stands, Yuri has never been a zealot. He simply loves the goddess. ]

Right. [ The guy's a god garbed up like a priest for some undefined mystical energy, why not. ] You tell that one often or am I getting special treatment here?

[ If the man is trying out his own little comedy routine since there's just the two of them here, Yuri doesn't mind terribly, but it is awfully strange. He may not have ever seen Sothis, but he'd like to think she wouldn't just casually saunter over and drop that little detail into a conversation. ]

[redsoil]

You can confirm with nearly any other that I am Set, god of the desert and of war.

[ Thanks to Set's Character Development, and the acknowledgement of others, he doesn't immediately give in to retaliatory wrath in the face of such disbelief. Kenos has taught him that many worlds did not have gods, or at least, ones that were as deeply involved in the daily lives of their people as the Ennead were.

It's why he arches a brow instead, straightening up in order to cross his arms over his chest. Defiant and stern of brow as he looks down his nose at Yuri, eyes narrowed but not hostile. The authority drips off of him, and either he's fully entrenched in a delusion or speaks the truth, by his bearing. ]

There are a few of us among Shardbearers, it is not as uncommon as one might think. Even we have opinions about the past and future of existence, after all.

[wolfish]

...So that's to say the leadership here can bend a god to their will?

[ It sounds far-fetched enough that surely it's no surprise when Yuri cocks his head to one side like a curious bird and regards him with an open and continued incredulity. The fellow purports to being a god, but he awoke from the same sort of dirt nap as the rest of them? How does that work?

Yuri finds it difficult to wrap his head around, putting aside the fact that he has no idea why a deity would preside over war and desert. Did he come from a desert realm? What about sand required governance? He's heard of everything in nature having a spirit but this isn't quite the same notion. ]

I don't imagine why someone like me would be brought here if they can just load up on gods of this-and-that.