beleos: (Default)
beleos ([personal profile] beleos) wrote in [community profile] kenoslogs2023-04-21 04:58 pm

The Seeds of Unrest, Phase Two 🌱


UPROOTED
Time has not been kind thus far, and the future will be no kinder.

The slow passage of days to weeks has seen both cities increasingly ravaged by the untamed growth of the enlarging roots. Their size is enough to uproot buildings by their foundations, if not bisect them entirely where they push through unfettered. In the worst-hit areas, entire blocks are left abandoned - if even standing at all, displacing families and leaving businesses in ruins.

Cetina and Kathova have been in near constant contact with Bearers via Communion, feeding them information about which areas to focus their lifesaving efforts. Yima’s Manor and the Seat of the Tribune - despite their closeness to the Trees - have been fortified by your leaders and act as a base of operations for each respective faction. You will be able to return to either to find sanctuary from the chaos beyond, but the innumerable civilians are not so lucky.

Bearers are tasked with rescue and recovery efforts and requested to assist hands on the ground with taking refugees to temporary shelters. Survivors must be dug out of the debris. Those who are capable of healing will be enlisted to assist at hospitals and triage centers. Supplies must be gathered and harvested from areas that are collapsed and too dangerous for civilians to navigate. If you are feeling generous, you can go on search and rescue missions, as many people are considered missing in both Highstorm and Springstar. Some areas are completely cut off to regular foot traffic by the massive, winding roots bearing countless Blight-blooms. Citizens are succumbing to the Blight flower’s effects persistent from phase one with more and more frequency.

While both cities slowly succumb to a deepening catastrophe, the situation worsens.

STIRRING STORMS

As the days pass, inexplicable and unnatural weather occurrences will randomly plague both cities. They can last as long as a full day or as little as an hour before dissolving entirely.
  • Flurries: this snow is tainted by the Blight, making the snowfall look like ash. Any organic matter it touches will be affected by reopening wounds, re-infection of illnesses, or re-experiencing injuries that may have healed over years ago.
  • Thunderstorms: these storms carry a frigid rainfall and heavy cloud cover, making already difficult-to-navigate disaster zones harder to clear. As each thunder bellow crashes overhead, you might swear you hear a familiar voice reaching out to you in the fading rumble… one that sends a message - either from the future or past.
  • Fog: dense clouds of thick, freezing fog will roll in randomly, making visibility even more precarious. In your search for survivors - or your companions, you may find yourself coming face to face with someone else, instead: a version of yourself (or a companion) from another timeline. You may also hear your own voice calling out to you from within the fog, attempting to beckon you further into the mist.
  • General Note: Exposure to any of the above weather patterns will increase your Blight infection.
THE BLIGHT COMES FOR ALL
As if it were not enough to see the cities that have become your salvation at the end of the Timestream falling to collapse and ruin, the Bearers will slowly begin to realize their previous immunity to the Blight is eroding. They will begin to show symptoms of infection that increase into May’s event. ( For more information on the effects of the Blight and purification methods, please see the OOC Summary. )

Now that their last bastion - the Bearers - are just as much in harm’s way as everyone else, the populous’s efforts to formulate a temporary stop-gap solution are being rushed to completion. Time is not on anyone’s side. They will continue to work with those who have been kind enough to volunteer their resources and brilliant minds - collecting materials and attempting to figure out a way to avert their otherwise inevitable destiny.

ORDERS

Orders from your leaders will come as soon as infections among the Bearers have been confirmed.

🌙 YIMA will stress for all Zenite Bearers to prioritize their well-being and to avoid unnecessary exposure, to manage their symptoms as much as possible. They must fight for their own survival to bring in the birth of a new universe - and their lives are too precious to risk. Beyond that, she asks them to save what they can of their people and their most critical structures with the understanding that hard choices may be necessary.

🌞 CYRUS will implore all Meridian Bearers to prioritize the general population's lives and turn their efforts to save as much of Springstar as they can. He will note that Bearers have ways to help keep one another from suffering too much contagion and to coordinate their usages appropriately, to keep one another safe, and watch their backs.

ANOTHER EN-TREE-TY
The Tree of Life continues to sicken, yet - thankfully - the progression of the Blight is slow. Still, Bearers will find themselves occasionally compelled to take a moment to sit beneath its boughs and vibrant leaves, even as some begin to show signs of discoloration and rot. Any characters who sit with the Tree with the purple leaf they found on their person after phase one will find it warming to the touch, its veins laced with gold. This effect will be even more effective if taken into the cavernous roots beneath the Tree! While this may fill you with a temporary sense of calm, it doesn't seem to have any other effects... yet still, you are compelled, if not curious.

The Tree has offered you this gift for a reason. Perhaps you will find its use before long.

...As long as you - and Kenos - survive long enough to discover it.

CODING
sharethememory: ([trailer] 022)

[personal profile] sharethememory 2023-05-08 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ And then via their joined hands, shoves Childe off of him and away from the door that leads to the entrance of Childe's home. If the floor quakes at just the moment Childe puts his back foot down to regain his balance, well -- that, too, cannot be helped. In a strictly fair competition, Childe is much quicker and dexterous than Zhongli, most of his the God of Contracts power coming from his strength and constitution. So Zhongli needs to create an advantage or this will never work.

Zhongli moves quickly through the house, suddenly grateful he did not bother to remove his shoes at the door as it makes it that much easier to exit back into the Blight-covered city outside. Once outside, it takes but another moment to rise a stone stele up against the door to prevent Childe from following the same path. Could Childe easily exit the house through the windows or another method? Yes. But all of that would take time even he did not want to brute force the way out of his home. And brute force would just leave that many more ways for the Blight to get inside.

Speaking of---

Spear in hand, Zhongli rushes down the narrow and winding streets of the city to take care of just that. If he could prune the vines back to a certain radius, then even with the accelerated growth of the Blight, Childe's home and Childe himself would be safe for at least a few hours.
]
vapour: (pic#15024833)

[personal profile] vapour 2023-05-08 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ What? Childe doesn't understand. He's going to make this place safe and then come back? What is he coming back for? Why is he smiling (at him?) like... that... despite everything?

Before he can express any of his befuddled in a manner beyond his expression he's being forced back. He's quick to attempt to than his balance, but the trembling floor makes that almost impossible and certainly impossible for him to move in time to not get cut off the by the sele.

Ugh, no... what the fuck is the other doing?!

Furious, Childe forms his hydro weapons, moving to slam one violently into the stone barrier as he yells Zhongli's name. He knows that's not going to do much, but how dare the other do this to him? How dare he catch him off guard and leave without clearing his infection first after Childe demanded he do it multiple times! How dare he leave? His fucking dare he smile at him like that before pulling this shit?

What does he do? He can't make the house more vulnerable; where would they be able to retreat to one Zhongli isn't delirious? Even if not concerned for the small animals, this—
]

Damn it, Zhongli! What do you think you're doing!

[ but screaming about it is not going to do anything— but shit shit, he can't let Zhongli go to Springstar!
But even if he gets through he won't get through in time to stop the other if he's going there immediately.

Not knowing what else to do and his mind overly focused on Zhongli, a communion link will end up established forcefully, although there's nothing stopping Zhongli from disconnecting it just as quickly. Childe's communion sounds confused, frustrated, and slightly panicked.

Why he's panicked isn't clear: it could be just as well he thinks he's being abandoned as much as it could be he's concerned for Zhongli's wellbeing.
]

Stop, come back! Zhongli...!

[ don't you dare leave me here alone by succumbing to the Blight. Damn you...! ]
wolof: (You're stupid (I like that in a woman))

[personal profile] wolof 2023-05-08 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ The spell itself, the shunting of Blight toward her makes her slower, colder, and she can feel her magics -- what little remained -- are further and further from her grasp. She could feel it slip away as she tried, and tried again, the magic she relied on so far. This had always been her failing -- Akua knew this better than anyone -- and she had yet again let someone get close enough to hurt her.

First Catherine, then Howl, Amos, and now Misa. One would think, that at some point, her lesson would be learned, but her ego and pride had again forced her hand. She can feel it, that Misa gave her all of her blight, and there's something... Back. She cannot use her magic, but her senses are keen enough to feel it, the exchange of energy. Akua hopes it is something dire -- but really, Misa will find a heart imprinted somewhere on her body instead, to match Akua's own shard.

She fell, when pushed, and looked up at Misa with a tip of her head. She used her Name, and not her name, and her lips -- they felt blue, stiff -- split into a grin.
]

D -- Don't tease me with a proper stabbing, if you will not do it.

[ Her words came out chattered, and cold, but it was a good distraction from her name. How had she known? Was there something that had been found, when she defected? ]
wolof: I craved the taste of it (A poison so sweet)

[personal profile] wolof 2023-05-08 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
They thank you because they are powerless, Link. Their adulation can be unfounded, if you hadn't even done anything. They thank us because of whom we align with. They thank me for the same thing, and I recently defected temporarily. Their praise is not the reason you should do this.

[ She does not think it is, but she thinks that she needs to drive home something to him. That Praise is nothing. It builds to a fever pitch, but it does not solve anything. Once, she had the will of the people of Praes behind her, she had been taking the will away from the Dread Empress, and she had burned it to the ground because it was nothing. Not stacked against the acts she had committed.

She had done so little, and they had praised her. She knew it meant something, to hear that, for a hero.
]

I suggest you do what you can, instead. Direct resources, plan strategies, or even simply offer your support by directing messages.

You are weak now, and if you choose to whittle yourself further, you will find there is nothing left to receive that praise with.
sharethememory: ([screenshot] 043)

[personal profile] sharethememory 2023-05-08 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ There's a slight huff of laughter at that. For someone who gets lost in his own head more often than not, the lack of being able to recall exactly how a long departed friend looked or sounded like would be a much more troubling experience. The vividness of long-lost memories here is something precious and might be one of his favorite aspects of Kenos, confusing at it can make nearly every experience. ]

Losing my mind would sound very differently, I assure you.

[ One hand clutches the armrest of the bench before he fully sags into it, decorum demanding that he at least attempt to keep somewhat good posture. This attempt fails shortly thereafter as he is once again leaning against Rosaria - shoulder to shoulder this time. ]

I believe so, though you will have to clarify what you mean by access. In this case, do you mean expose?
hyperpotamous: (012)

[personal profile] hyperpotamous 2023-05-08 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I do, but that's the tricky part. I can sacrifice a limb relatively easily if I have to, and that control is why I can keep it concentrated to the one arm, but that's all I can do about it.

[ he keeps working while he talks, seeming to find it even easier to split his attention this way. ]

Any other sort of injury? No problem. The Blight doesn't just heal when we want it to, though, does it? See, usually, it erodes things and rots them away. It'll start out looking like frostbite and keep moving north, but unlike a normal wound, I can't heal it or regrow any tissue until I purge the infection.

It becomes thanergetically inert, which in layperson's terms, means I can't directly affect the tissue with necromancy while the Blight is active.

[ john works methodically, taking his time and fixing the way the bandage lays just so all the way. that's the sort of person he is — careful. all of this culminates in him getting to the end of the roll of gauze up around his upper arm, where he tucks the edge in and works a knot into it to secure it. ]

The weird thing about the snow is that it seems to work in reverse — instead of rotting things away, it rolls them back to another time. A past injury that I had no problem healing the first time around. I won't demonstrate just in case it undoes what you did, but if I made it whole, it'd snap right back to how it started.

I suspect your healing magic worked because you can manipulate the thalergy directly, but deadening the nervous response is different than repairing all of the damage, so I would wager it would have diminishing returns over time.

[ he gets to the end of all this and only then looks up and seems to remember who he's talking to. ]

If that makes sense.
zauneyete: (That good sunset light)

[personal profile] zauneyete 2023-05-08 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
[ Sorry, Cid. You're just left with these Shimmer goons, and while they're clearly fantastic muscle, they aren't exactly...

Well, they look like they're drugged, in some way. Go figure.
]

What role did you contribute in your world, then? I assume you'll want to do the same thing again, yes?

[ Silco was cruel, but he wasn't stupid. One person's life was nearly meaningless, but... they did need resources to make it to the end. ]
sharethememory: ([trailer] 016)

[personal profile] sharethememory 2023-05-08 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ Zhongli does not disconnect from the communion - quite the opposite. He welcomes it as warmly as he can while hacking through the frozen stalks of the blighted vines encroaching upon their district in Highstorm. That is to say, it's not warm physically at all as the chill of the outside laces the communication. Zhongli's voice remains steady and ground though, reaching out to sooth Childe's frustrations. ]

Childe.

[ There's a long pause then, as Zhongli formulates what to say next - half a dozen ideas ultimately discarded. ]

I cannot keep my promise to you while debating with you in your house. This is the best solution unless you can think of a more suitable one.

I will clear the Blight here, in Highstorm, before returning to Springstar. And I will return before it has the opportunity to pose a danger to your residence. Please stay there where it is safe.


[ Truly the arrogance of a god who thinks he has an answer for everything. ]
settingup: (keep screwing that bitch)

[personal profile] settingup 2023-05-08 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ It both is and isn't a strange experience for Atsumu right now. On one hand, he is incredibly used to the feeling of chewing someone out for some decision they made he thinks is stupid, or a perceived poor performance or flaw. On the other, however, all those people have been his own age. He's mouthed off to adults before, usually his parents, and usually regretted it almost immediately. He's never gotten away with giving someone older a dressing down like this, and having them accept it.

It makes him feel weird, and his expression wavers for a second by the time Amos is looking back up at him. Some people naturally have a more aggressive and authoritative bent to them, and some don't. It's naturally regardless of age, but he's still young enough that he's stumbling his way through life figuring out these lessons here and there.

If he's got the power to shame Amos though, to make him feel some sort of kicked-dog guilt for his behavior, then he should have the power to make him wise up and make a better choice right.

Right... Maybe.

Atsumu holds his hand out into the air between them, palm up and expression fixing into something stern, the momentary hesitation gone.
]

Or you can do something that ain't stupid as hell, and get some help fixin' your problem.

[ Fixing might not be the right word for it, but at the very least the symptoms can be eased. ]
gravings: (070b)

[personal profile] gravings 2023-05-08 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ It can be so hard to tell sometimes when a mage is really being logical or if they're using logic as an excuse to do whatever they want. Whatever the case, Gray is quite sure that mages as a species just hate to look anything less than superior. In other words: they're sore losers. But it's clear that Rin is set on staying, so Gray won't fight her on it.

More importantly, Rin mentions something about the rules. If they're fighting a Servant, then Gray supposes that means the rules of Masters, Servants, and the Holy Grail War. That's still a world Gray only has peripheral knowledge of, so she stares at Rin's hand as she tries to connect the dots. ]


The options?

[ After all, Gray has never known the Fifth Holy Grail War's "Saber," let alone why that Saber would be wearing a pure white dress. From her perspective, she's merely in a strange situation with her hair strangely blonde. ]
intervener: (â–£ cypress vine.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-08 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
[ Vash grins in response to that; wow, buddy, come on! he isn't so bad! is he? naw, surely not. ]

A beginning? [ hm. ] Okay, I'll bite. Which beginning are we talking?
intervener: (â–¥ ghost echeveria.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-08 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
[ IS HE LITERALLY SQUARING UP RIGHT NOW? Vash looks increasingly annoyed as his fingers come away without reaching their goal, but he's pulling himself up and out of the sinkhole - at long last - once and for all.

which means he can go and flail his hand around in animated gestures of irritation to his heart's desire; how fun!!! ]


What's wrong with you, anyway?! You let me fall down there and then you go and help me out? What, was this all about the begging?!
intervener: (â–£ dahoon holly.)

1/2

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-08 05:27 am (UTC)(link)
[ a WHAT

did she just. did she just say a god? a god haha like. a god god? that kind of god? he knows that people come from all walks of life around here - and Highstorm too, but this is... you know, a little........

...

he's looking at her.

he's looking at the Denseâ„¢ Shard in his hand.

.........he's looking back at her, ]
Edited 2023-05-08 05:27 (UTC)
intervener: (â–£ cup and saucer vine.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-08 05:28 am (UTC)(link)
[ bringing it closer and closer to his eyes to the point they go cross-eyed ]
intervener: (â–¥ false hellebore.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-08 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ though he might play the part of the idiot well, Vash isn't entirely as stupid as he lets on. whether it's something he's able to tell from 'Melshi's' posture, from the tone of his voice, from the strain in his eyes - it's inconsequential. in what might come as a surprising move, the gunman doesn't argue with Melshi.

he gives a nod. instead, he's shifting his weight to piggyback the unconscious Blighted man... and beginning to run off in the direction Melshi had indicated with a shout over his shoulder. ]


Get some cover; I'll find you. --And don't go and try to kill anybody 'til I get back!
intervener: (â–£ bright eyes.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-08 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
[ Vash gives a squawk as he's displaced by Mamoru's kick, rolling a few times before managing to get the right way to a crouch on his feet. ugh, geez-- ]

You could say that...

[ drugged... no, but it sure as hell looks like it the way the guy is now trying to rip a shelf off the wall he just collided with, tugging at it again and again... and again... with enough force to send several others clattering over. he apparently wants to use it like a club to beat the shit out of either of them if he can get it free, for the record-- ]

Look, he cut in line and I told him he had to let the sweet old lady go first, and-- HEY!

[ Vash ducks as the Blighted guy tosses some merchandise off the wall beside him.



so Vash shout-whispers toward Mamoru, trying to slowly wiggle his way closer without attracting too much attention, ]


What if you ask him real nicely if he'll take a coupon to leave?
helloween: (063🫀)

[personal profile] helloween 2023-05-08 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ Rin's threat doesn't sting him, nor does it bounce. As he considers it, a tired, hot sigh can be felt brushing against her outer folds, shielded just barely by her panties. Dark's eyes shut when he contemplates whether or not he's going to be cooperative. He feels Rin's fingers splayed over his legs like a cat clinging to carpet with its claws. Her whole body is stiff and defensive, annoyingly unreceptive to him even as he nuzzles the groove of her pussy with his nose bridge again.

He gives. ]


Fine. Stay defensive, repressed, and scared then.

[ He pulls his head out of Rin's thighs as if he's just bitten into a rotten peach, turning his face away from any part of her and moving his arms behind his head instead. He expects she'll say something snippy and back out of the whole ordeal like she'd said she would. Maybe collapse while trying to storm out. ]

I'm really not interested in humiliating little girls. If it's too much, just let me gash a wrist open or something for you instead.
vapour: (Default)

[personal profile] vapour 2023-05-08 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
[ No, what is he thinking? What is he doing! He can't single handed clear out the Blight even if he were completely devoid of its infection. Forget Springstar, he's going to die in Highstorm disallusioned. Childe shouldn't get over Zhongli's safety when he makes choices like these, but it's just like that initial panic that crossed Childe's features after disbelief upon seeing Zhongli in his corrupted mindscape. It's not willful and is simply reactive, instead. There's no point trying to convince Zhongli of reality, is there? He's completely under whatever the effects of what is influencing him. Still— ]

What the hell are you saying! You can't clear the Blight in Highstorm even temporarily by yourself, you'll die! How do you intend to get back to Springstar then, you stupid fool?!

[ He tries to avoid the whole I'm doing this to protect you ordeal but ultimately fails upon realizing it's not gong to go away just because he's trying to ignore it . It's hard to argue the sincerity here, but Childe feels repulsed— repulsed because there's a clear yearning to cling to being wanted, for someone to want to care about him to such lengths even if he can't stand the idea of being protected like this.

Of course, he wants this from Zhongli, of course it's part of what he wanted from Zhongli all along. But, like this—

(What good is it if you die... damn it!)

His grip on his weapons is so vicious that blood starts to splotch his gloved in areas of stress even as he struggles to keep his emotions in check. He needs to calm down or his discord is going to potentially tear it's ugly head. It's been a while since he's been truly departed from Zhongli beyond him being somewhere in Highstorm. How long will Zhongli be gone— No, this is bullshit, Zhongli isn't going anywhere because he's not Meridian!

He can't stop him like this, and he's not sure if he can guilt him. What's left after that?

. . .
]

Don't do this.... don't do this to me, Xiansheng!
sharethememory: ([screenshot] 071)

[personal profile] sharethememory 2023-05-08 07:46 am (UTC)(link)
[ Childe isn't wrong. Zhongli is a stupid fool in many aspects. Though there's a rare feeling of offense that Childe thinks him so incapable that he'd end up dead on the streets of either city. He'd helped others and himself manage karma for literal millennia. Did Childe think him so naïve and foolish that he'd make such a monumental mistake as to miscalculate how much he could handle?

(Childe would be right, of course, conflicted and determined as Zhongli was to maintain control over a situation where he had long lost his grip on the wheel.)

It's ridiculous, really, just how much more complicated life is in Kenos. In Liyue, there had been a duty and an uncompromisable goal upon which everything else could be deprioritized against. Choices were a simple of matter of "does this protect the people of Liyue or not" and whatever best fit that criteria was chosen and everything else eliminated no matter his personal feelings on the matter. But "clever", "retired" Zhongli had made himself a loophole so that he could put the survivors of Teyvat before factions, and just such a simple additional factor was interfering with all of his known calculations. Always prioritizing the survivors of Teyvat was foolish - they were all vision holders with their own conflicting goals and agendas, perfectly capable of executing upon them without Zhongli's interference. Even Childe would probably have been fine should Zhongli have not come today and made a mess of everything. (The repulsion leaking through the communion at the thought of needing protection was clear. Pride was an integral part of the Vanguard and the Knights of Favonius and not to be tread upon lightly.) But the people of Springstar and Meridian - they always needed protection just as the majority of Liyue had. That need was well-known and familiar rather than whatever this argument he was having with Childe was. The choice of what should be done should be clear.

Yet it was dark as the muck that dripped from Childe's discordant form and just as bleak.

Perhaps it was time to stop trying to play chess against himself if he was going to make such a disastrous mess of the board.

The options were clear. Return to Springstar and work with his fellow Shard-Bearers to protect the people. Weather the storm here with Childe in Highstorm. Or die trying to do both and protect no one.

Well at the very least one of those options was no option at all.

After a long intense silence where nothing comes over the communion but the howl of the icy wind in the streets outside:
]

Then what would you have me do?
baltimores: (138)

[personal profile] baltimores 2023-05-08 09:57 am (UTC)(link)
[ Amos really is a shitty excuse for an adult sometimes. That, and on some level he knows that Atsumu is right, that Amos is acting irrationally. That level of knowledge is mostly drowned out by how crap he feels, but it's still there. And it helps that they result in the same thing: acquiescence.

So he stares at that hand offered to him before looking up into Atsumu's eyes, his own still filled with confusion. What. What is happening.

When it clicks as to what is happening, his eyes widen, staring back at Atsumu's hand. At what he knows he's offering. And Amos could say something absolutely fucking stupid, like are you sure, but Atsumu wouldn't be offering if he didn't mean it. He could say some shit like but you're a kid; it isn't your job to look out for me, it's mine to look out for you, but he's already ceded that ground, hasn't he.

Instead, Amos reaches for his side. Under his coat, towards his hip. They're gonna need blood then, right? So he's unsheathing the dagger Yima gave him months ago, something that is almost always on his person, because this is the quickest and easiest way to do it. It doesn't occur to him that they're outside and technically in public (for whatever little of public still remains); Amos is the type of person who recognizes what's inevitable and would rather skip to the end as soon as possible.

He holds the dagger out to Atsumu, giving him the option to take it — or. ]


Just a prick of your finger'll do it. I can do it for you if you don't want to, though.

[ Because for as tough and decisive as Atsumu is currently — and, you know what, there is plenty of respect to be had there — he still is just a kid, who played volleyball, and doesn't want to work in a machine shop, so, you know, he might not want to gently stab himself at all, even if he is offering this solution to Amos.

So if they're going to do this, he can do the hard part for the both of them. It's fine. Probably better than everything else he's feeling right now, at least. ]
prizeneck: (88)

[personal profile] prizeneck 2023-05-08 09:59 am (UTC)(link)
[Atsumu's high pitch feels natural, what a normal person should react to this situation, and he recalls hitched breath in his own lungs tickling his ribcage, but the overwhelming sense of disillusionment upon finding that things aren't, after all, under control, first and foremost. It's in little moments like this that Mamoru becomes reminded of how messed up he is. Terror and awe strike sharp for most. But they're subdued for him, doused in the inevitability of things, in the tang of an alcoholic breath in the back of his mind, in the scent of burnt rubber and spilled gasoline. Even now, and even then.

The swordsman smoothes caked-up gray hair on the man's head in a way that he hadn't done before, in a way that Makabe had done to Mamoru many times in the past. Another reason for him to believe that this is, yet again, a messed up way to play with his mind, and nothing more.
]

I've made sure to keep this memory vivid throughout the years. [A tilt of his head. He recalls the sight, this point of view, and yet, seeing alone feels so foreign.] He is not dead, if you're worried.
baltimores: (104)

[personal profile] baltimores 2023-05-08 10:30 am (UTC)(link)
[ There's a slight uptick of his own lips in response to Childe's smile; the significance doesn't totally land on him, but enough of it does. They're friends; they're partners; this is what people like that do.

It fades, however, at Childe's question, and Amos can't help but roll his eyes. ]


Whole world here is so far behind technologically, I don't know what I'm supposed to expect them to have. I know better than to expect drones — [ which would be unfathomably useful at the moment — ] so I'm just going with whatever we've got.

[ Which, in this case, would be primarily... himself. In fairness, it's not like he could lift boulders on his own back where he was from, but in the current situation it's not like it's the best tradeoff.

Either way. He watches as Childe's familiar appears. Watches as his eyes go blank, and Amos shifts once again to keep an eye on everything around them above ground. He's more than capable of keeping watch; used to it sometimes, even. But there really isn't anything here, so it's all precautionary — and allows him to snap back to attention when he hears that weird garbled sound. And even though Childe can't see him at the moment, he still looks back at him when he asks his question. ]


Something's up, but fuck if I know what it is. [ His voice is also quiet, like he's taking precautions to avoid disturbing something — though what, he doesn't know. ] If it's a ghost or some shit, it can get out on its own. But if there is a person...

[ But there's no body. But there's something. His mind is racing, because it feels like he needs to come to a decision now. ]

How deep underground are you? Maybe I can lift some more debris out of the way, give us a bigger opening to see. Maybe go down there. I...

[ He drags a hand down his face, once, an agitated swipe. Some of it seeps into his voice; this sucks. ]

If you can't see anything then either there's nothing to see or it might be too late already.

[ Might just have to cut bait and move on to the next place.

Frustrating, but what're you gonna do in the face of quickly looming odds. ]
fishfearme: (sad)

[personal profile] fishfearme 2023-05-08 01:05 pm (UTC)(link)
It does. Thank you for your explanation.

[Byleth was always interested in learning new things - especially pertaining to magic - and he meticulously filed that away. He stared at John's now bandaged arm - except not really, more like he was staring through, his mind obviously mulling over the new information given to him. He'd noticed that his magic was rather limited in healing the Blight. The most he could do was alleviate symptoms and pain...

Though, he could delay the Blight effects using Divine Pulse, but even that was limited. Kenos throttled his ability to gently nudge Time in the path he wanted it to take, and so unless he wanted to thoroughly exhaust himself to the point of death, he could only prevent Blight symptoms for about a handful of minutes at most.

If only Sothis were awake. Perhaps if he relinquished control over to her, she'd be able to do something...]


It's as if the Blight untethers its victims from the natural flow of Time. It carries them faster down it, but... this snow... hm. I haven't yet experienced it for myself, but it sounds just as dangerous as the Blight's acceleration effects. If one had suffered a near-fatal injury in the past...

[Or, in Byleth's case, had been dead at one point and revived only due to the Crest Stone in his chest... what would even happen in that case?]
diversionist: (r1 » watch your back.)

[personal profile] diversionist 2023-05-08 01:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[ cassian had guessed that vash would understand. call it, perhaps, a hunch. but he's already seem too many coincidences around this man to actually believe them for coincidence.

he huffs out a soft breath, almost a scoff, at the instruction — WHO IS HE GOING TO KILL HERE, HE'S ALONE — and watches vash leave with the man until they round a corner, out of view. getting vash to leave without him had been the gamble; there's no question in this mind that a man like this would come back for him. that's why he'd folded it into his instructions, and into his plan. suggesting vash do otherwise would only incite a different argument, waste time, for likely the same result.

instead, he finally allows himself a low hiss through his teeth, staggers backwards until he's inside a nearby alley, moves towards an overhang he'd seen from a distance. not a large one, but more protection than none. the cataloguing of his pain, his apparent injury, is a cold, clinical thing. none of it makes sense, but that's so often been the case in kenos. he hasn't felt this bad since —

since.

that pulls him up short. raises the question, again, of what the hell the snow is doing; but with more of an answer, reconsidered in this context. he

hurries over to that relative shelter, where he can let himself slide to the ground. and keep an eye out for vash, if the blighted weather doesn't stop his return. ]
prizeneck: (95)

[personal profile] prizeneck 2023-05-08 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[The fact hits him harsher than the frag.

None of this is real. He aches, deeply, and he knows exactly what happens next. Mamoru would get up, look up to the sky, unseeing, feeling the breeze freeze the blood on his cheeks, sticking his collar to his skin. The swordsman would wander a few feet away, away from nearing hunting dogs (figurative and literal), and stumble onto a hill, almost dying yet again in the process of rolling down it.

Nothing like this happens. The killing intent in the distance is near but doesn't approach at all like the inevitable mortality of all, playing with the concept of 'out of sight, out of mind'.

So that he knows all of this, and how this person approaches, the dust in the air...

It must be true.
]

I've died plenty of times already. [Even before the event that originates this nightmare, Mamoru isn't a foreigner to death in his own subconscious. He winces, the hurt of trying to open his eyes just an increment too much to bear and he keeps them tight shut.] You think this is a dream?

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