beleos: (Default)
beleos ([personal profile] beleos) wrote in [community profile] kenoslogs2023-05-12 05:00 pm

The Seeds of Unrest: the Iconoclast Oracle


RUNNING OUT THE CLOCK
The situation is bleak.

The Blight - and the massive labyrinth of roots tearing both cities asunder, spreading deadly flowers wherever they penetrate - have progressed to a point beyond catastrophe. People are dying in rapid numbers. Bearers are having difficulty keeping up with the spread of infection - even among one another. The collapse of Kenos seems inevitable; a cure will not come in time. You can do nothing but watch as each new day brings further disaster, ticking down the seconds until it all falls apart.

And then, you feel something seize your Shard. As if physical fingers have wrapped around it, as if it is being clutched through you by invisible hands, you feel invaded. You feel wronged. But before you can panic, a voice enters your mind through Communion.

Excuse the dramatics, but there isn’t much time for pleasantries. The Trees are about to hit the point of no return. But there's still work to be done. The Tree of Life will take you where you can find it: the Oracle and the creature causing all this mess. Fix this when you find them. However you'd like.

Have you heard Aetos’ voice before? Perhaps it is the first time; perhaps it is familiar to you. Either way, the last thing you will remember is a confusing jumble: a spell of immense and incredible power, one utilizing the Tree’s strength to shelter you. The sensation of every cell in your body coming alive, yet seeming to break apart and render you into billions and billions of tiny pieces, all hovering in different times and places across all the different iterations, timelines, and realities in which you have ever existed. A voice that speaks not through words asking your forgiveness, unspeakably sad.

And then, there is nothing.

AWAKENING
Your eyes open, gritty with the feeling of a long, deep slumber.

Perhaps it takes a moment to shake off the heavy veil of exhaustion, to recollect what you were doing before you fell into this state of hibernation - but as soon as you do, you feel an immediate sense of foreboding around you. It is thick in the air, oppressive and pervasive, and you aren’t left long to wonder at its source. You lay beneath the branches of the Tree of Life, but as your bleary eyes focus… you see it. The Tree is all but bereft of life. Its bark has withered down to gnarled wood, the soft lichen dried up, and the grass that should be alive beneath you is long dead and gone. There is not so much as a single leaf on its decaying branches.

It has been this way for a long, long time... you realize this with a feeling of intense dread as you see it - the beautiful expanse of stars, of the cosmos, of universes scattered like starlight above the tree's boughs, gone. In its place hangs a sickly, ominously low-hanging, and dying sun ready to sing the end of everything.

You can't help but wonder how long Kenos has been in this state, but a sense of gratitude fills you as you realize that the Tree expended the last of its energies to protect you, the Bearers, during your state of rest. Had Aetos worked with the tree to see you sent here?

The next question comes quickly: how much time do you have left…? And can you find the Oracle before that time expires?

ABANDON HOPE (DAYS 1 & 2)
The cornerstones are still active and will take you to whichever city you wish to see.

Highstorm and Springstar sit like empty monuments to the cities that were once filled with life - yet the first thing you will notice is they are strangely absent the signs of the Tree’s overgrown roots, the Blight, the catastrophic damage that you can recall all too easily. Instead, each city sits as those they were summarily abandoned overnight, leaving nothing but their shells behind. There is a stillness in the air that is unnatural and unsettling. Despite the lack of any sign of the citizens of either city, you cannot help but feel… watched.

Something terrible happened here. Best you find the Oracle before something terrible finds you, instead.

The burning of a dying sun beats down on you wherever you go, unbearable heat sending waves off the aged cobblestone streets. Perhaps it is your instinct to seek refuge in the shade - but linger too long about the shadows and that feeling of eyes on your back, of being unable to breathe, of your world closing in around you will grow untenable and drive you back into the light. If you hope to explore the ghostly shell of your city in search of the Oracle - or to sate your curiosity, some problem-solving might be in order.

And while you acclimate yourself to your circumstances, you cannot help but note you feel wrong inside, somehow…

EXPLORATION

  • If your characters choose to explore previously unreachable areas, please use THIS TOPLEVEL to report when they get there in the thread! We will get back to you with what is discoverable in that location.
  • The following areas are off limits for exploration: below Yima’s Manor; below the Church of Heliopolis; Alenroux; Kowloon.
  • The Great Trees of both Highstorm and Springstar are in a similar state to the Tree of Life and will not respond to Communion.
  • Generally speaking, items will be of poor quality. Most will look as though they’ve aged thousands of years. Others will be in half-decent shape, but sparingly so. Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem like the whole city has aged at the same rate, so especially diligent rummagers can find worthwhile supplies. Please consider this should be rare and don’t go overboard!

NOTES

Here are some prompt reminders - see the full thing at the OOC Summary!
  • Characters will have a diluted connection to the Zenith or Meridian.
  • There will be periods powers are weakened or non-functional during days 1-2 (up to player discretion).
  • The sunlight results in scorching; the shadows cause claustrophobia and fear while outdoors.
THE RITUAL (DAYS 2+)
The place you started your journey to Kenos is also where it seems it will end. As soon as the first Bearer makes contact with the Iconoclast effigy, you are collectively drawn to the roots beneath the Tree - like a pang sent through your Shard. Your objective has been found. The Oracle awaits.

Trusting Aetos seems like a fool's errand, but you must put your hope in the Tree. What choice do you have left? It's time to find what lies at the end of this.

Bearers descend, your steps echoing in the dark, cavernous space. Once brimming with life and vitality, the roots are now dried and brittle like the bones of some ancient leviathan that died long ago. As you make their way deeper into the earth, the deadened roots twist, leading you to a vast chamber deep within it; the air here is thick with the smell of decay, and the faint glow of luminescent fungi and mosses barely illuminates the space.

To your left, the Bearers will notice what has drawn them here - and the object of their search.

An effigy sits on the ground between two darkened tunnels. The effigy is made of gnarled, dead branches woven together in a humanoid shape; its hollow, empty eyes are sightless, yet you cannot help but feel it is watching your every move. Branded on its forehead is the Iconoclast symbol carved into the rough wood.

Once all Bearers are present, the Ritual will begin. Your means of exit have been sealed off, and you are trapped, slowly deteriorating together…

NOTES

  • Bearers will have access to the Ritual Chamber which is a very wide, open space with the effigy situated against the far wall from the entrance. Several smaller tunnels off-shoot from the Ritual Chamber. They all run to dead ends; some are very small or narrow. This may afford you meager privacy away from the group.
  • Once a Bearer steps into the Chamber, they can no longer head back out the way they came. They’ll find themselves automatically walking back into the Chamber as if of their own volition.
  • For brevity’s sake we won’t list them out again here, but the complete description of effects Bearers will experience days 2+ is available in the OOC Summary.
  • The effigy is impervious to damage.
  • It Is Watching You.
  • In a dead-end root tunnel attached to the Iconoclast’s Chamber is the Blighted statue of an Otter that may be familiar to some… Please see THIS TOPLEVEL for more information!
THE PURGE (DAYS 5+)
The sap has festered in your veins for what feels like days. It’s impossible to tell how much time has passed; this place has no sunlight. The effigy watches as you remain trapped, huddled together around it, unable to leave as you find yourself sick with the affliction of the Meridian, Zenith - or both.

And then… something finally gives.

Though it does not move and speaks no words, you feel the effigy offering you guidance. Knowledge. Much like the Tree speaks to you in impressions and feelings, you are conveyed wisdom you did not have before: a way to take what you want and rid yourself of what you do not. A way to make your convictions known to all who would hear them. A way to be known. To write your path in blood, be it yours… or theirs.

When all is said and done, only one force - Zenith or Meridian - will gain its favor.

Show it who you are. Show it what resolve looks like to you - and what you are willing to do to attain it.

NOTES

Here are some prompt reminders - see the full thing at the OOC Summary!
  • You can Purge your alignment through various methods: Trading, Corrupting, or using the Effigy itself.
  • All characters will understand the end goal is for everyone to Harmonize; the alignment with the higher rate of Harmonized Bearers alive when time’s up wins the Oracle’s favor.
NOTES
  • A reminder that the Harmonization tally will take place on Friday, the 19th and be open through Monday, the 29th. The results will be released on Wednesday, the 31st OOCly.
  • Don’t forget to submit any deaths to the Death Tracker, with a gentle reminder characters will remain dead until the event conclusion!
  • Reminder to fill out the SETTING POLL ASAP if you haven't already!
  • Have some MUSIC if you'd like. LYRICS here!
  • HAVE FUN!!
CODING
redsoil: (pic#16220792)

[personal profile] redsoil 2023-06-01 03:30 am (UTC)(link)
[ To see her so free with her laugh, with a smile, each time is like a blow to the chest; a tension that constricts around him, as he thinks about how he has delivered her to the place where she wanted to be, but — could there not have been a better way? Some tangible thing to attach her too, lest even she float away into the cool, dark emptiness that Zenith promised?

She seems happy, at least.

Maybe for now, that will have to be enough. She is happy, and soft, and safe. So, he does not let her go. ]


Some of them hide it better than others.

[ Interrogate the world and all its inhabitants well, Jyn. ]

What, is it that you want most? To seek Zenith — some things passed between us, but. I do not understand how someone like you, could place her unyielding faith in such an unsure and cruel future. You are a rebel, for all people. Not just the few.
Edited 2023-06-01 03:31 (UTC)
zenwhoberi: (07)

[personal profile] zenwhoberi 2023-06-01 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
[the first time anyone had ever thanked her — or at least the first time gamora could readily access in her memory — it'd been four years ago, when she'd helped to save a planet from annihilation. she hadn't been quite sure of what to do with it, then, how to react to being regarded for something other than death or destruction.

now, suddenly, faced with hesitation that acts like a window to the past, she's unsure all over again.

it's a moment that's over soon enough, though — and so is their trade. their deal.

but that window isn't so easily closed, and there's one last thing to offer the silence: what a part of her wishes she'd heard a long time ago.]


You aren't alone, Tohsaka. [she returns the grip as they shake, then releases rin's hand. turns on her heel as if she's ready to leave, but adds, softly,] Remember that.
redsoil: (pic#16220538)

[personal profile] redsoil 2023-06-01 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
[ Every inch of his mind warns him — he would fall to this man, if he allowed him purchase. The burning brand upon him means that he owes him something, in the eyes of the Oracle; when really, to Set's mind, he was only evening the scales between them. Having observed the shallow extent of the Eye, of its Avatar, he had thought of Jonathan Sims more in terms of something like himself — otherworldly of thought, elevated of intellect. Nonhuman. And now, he sees his mistake. This man is but a man, a sorrow-stricken and haunted man. Someone seeking to do good in the world, for whatever reason — the most good, for the least number. All that a human could possibly fathom, really.

He does not like it, but John's conviction is solid. ]
I can respect your stance, Jonathan Sims. Your heart is in the place you believe is ideologically righteous, both as a Zenite and as a human who sought to help a scared young woman. I will hold you to your word.

[ He will give Jonathan Sims that. It is a choice he would not have thought to encourage Ruby to make, for she would not have been able to wrest herself from his safe haven. ( He had not wanted her to have to, either. He remembers kicking her shoes off in the garden, toeing at her heels until she was barefoot — dangling herself from the sill of a window over a drop that would kill her. Seated with him, draped against his side. He had removed her shoes, so she could run away more easily.

He had to let her flee, even if it meant into the arms of Zenith. ) ]


Maybe not. But, I am the crueler one between us. Zenith is a kindness to so many who do not want to return, or cannot return. But, I am Meridian and am not its silly little hope, I am its wrath. Love who you can. Look to a future you desire. Mourn what you left behind. Know I admire you for your choice, for it is not an easy one. You do not make it lightly.

[ Still.

He will snarl and sneer and bleed Zenith, until it is limping and crawling and wheezing. A kill under his foot. There will be no sorrowful apology from him upon attaining victor. Just apocalyptic rage, and spite. That is the Meridian in Set. ]


You could reconsider. I would allow you, too, to choose another world and moor yourself upon it. Why must you desire this impossible vision, anyways?
vallt: (34)

[personal profile] vallt 2023-06-01 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
Unyielding?

[what had been a breath of a laugh turns to a derisive snort, swift and immediate, before jyn really even processes everything that's being said. because that, more than anything else, is funny: the thought that she could believe, unquestioningly, in some stupid arbitrary cause to provide answers or guarantee any kind of future for anyone.

she has the decency, though, not to give another, and to take pause to consider. you are a rebel for all people, he says, which — makes her shift on her feet, avert her gaze. an image of what saw's face might look like, hearing that, surfaces in her mind; it comes with less anger rising in her than would have six months ago, but it's still not an easy one to let sit.

it's not easy to look past betrayal and abandonment; it's not easy to allow the regard of someone who'd known her as jyn erso.

which set now knows her as, too. that hadn't been hidden by the connection that their trade had created.

so what answer does she really have to give but the honest one?]


I don't believe Zenith is lying any less than Meridian is. It's a choice to make as much as any other.

[she picks her eyes up, and adds, plainly,]

And I want to know the truth.
warmare: (息を呑む)

[personal profile] warmare 2023-06-01 08:17 am (UTC)(link)
[She didn't mean to bite him that hard. It will be apparent, perhaps, in the little surge of panic that spikes in the chaotic mix of their Communions. She can count her life's kisses on the fingers of her hands, which was already too shameful a fact to bear when she hadn't even been able to accomplish the sick goal she'd attempted under the guide of masquerade anonymity- the same failure that had led her frustrated and slick beneath her tail to demand he shared a room with her that night, because-

... Because she had trusted him.

She shouldn't have given his shard back- If she still had it, would this make sense? Were she in heat she could find an excuse to forgive herself for what she had done (what he had done?), but she isn't, she won't be for a week, at least, and... no, she cannot ask for his shard back now, she doesn't- What if she senses in it-]


You have been thinking of me as a woman this entire time- ?

[Her voice cracks, the tears cooling on her cheeks... but she says the word "woman" as if it were the most shameful thing a person could be.]
leicesters: (193)

[personal profile] leicesters 2023-06-01 08:48 am (UTC)(link)
[He sighs, still wiping thickened blood from his lip with a thumb.] This isn't about being a woman or man. Even if it were, it wouldn't make me see you as any less, one way or the other.

[He's stung even by the suggestion under her question. Sure, he finds her beautiful, and he doesn't see anything inherently wrong in being a woman in the way she does. He also doesn't see her as just a woman and nothing else, with all of the baggage with which she associates the word.]

You just held my shard... Surely you know that if I felt any kind of contempt for you, I'd never allow it. [And if he did, as some kind of trickery, surely his revulsion for her would come through at holding his very soul itself.]
warmare: (pic#16264549)

[personal profile] warmare 2023-06-01 09:37 am (UTC)(link)
[She cannot deny that she hadn't felt... anything negative in his shard. But she also can't deny that she still finds that hard to believe, because... because didn't most everyone? What had she really done to earn that? He had such a silver tongue, perhaps he was a good enough liar that... that he could fool even the shards?

(He's still bleeding, she bit him too hard, stupid-)]


Then-

[All four of her dun knees have locked up, her tail is arched and quivering, and her hands- They don't know what to do. She looks almost more scared than she had when she'd thought his giant lizard was a monster in Alenroux, before she went into battle-]

Then why?

[The confusion in the vague sense of her communion is clear- She genuinely doesn't understand. Why anyone would want to kiss her (knowing it was her, no masks in sight) without domination or use on their minds. Why he would kiss her, now, of all times-]
leicesters: (020)

[personal profile] leicesters 2023-06-01 09:57 am (UTC)(link)
[After everything he'd told her so far, everything he'd shown her via communion, or his shard, and she still didn't understand? He feels a slight flicker of panic that, for once, he has to actually explain himself, that his usual rebuffs and deflections through half-answers aren't working. But if he tells her, it might damage whatever they've built irreparably.

Maybe it doesn't matter, when all this will end soon anyway. But still, that small hope, or fear, of what if it doesn't end--

He takes a deep breath, and meets her eye.]


I... I love you, Hayame. I guess I have for a while. That's the only way I can explain it.

[He already knows her response will be to rankle against it, to call him absurd and a fool and a liar and whatever else. Maybe she'll just laugh in his face and tell him never to talk to her again. He's prepared for any and all of those things, so he heads her off before she can, far more calmly than the spooked deer he actually feels like in communion.]

You don't have to feel the same. I'm just glad I could tell you, before... whatever comes next.
warmare: (ショック)

1/2

[personal profile] warmare 2023-06-01 10:30 am (UTC)(link)
[- What?]
warmare: (残骸)

[personal profile] warmare 2023-06-01 10:31 am (UTC)(link)
[She must have misheard him. There is a long moment where she just stares at him, unmoving, unbreathing, unblinking, as if she's forgotten how to do any of those things. Is it a cruel joke she has become the punchline of? Was she hallucinating? Was he- ? Of all the things she could have thought was going to happen now, here, in the dirt and roots of the dead Great Tree, she never-

Never-]


You're confused-

[The words come out suddenly, before she can even really understand them herself. Her knees shake, threatening to unlock so that she might flee from the confusing and unexpected confession that she should denounce as insulting, as mockery at best. To be desired she could almost manage to imagine, because even the humans who denounced her kind as beasts to be subjugated would still fuck them, but love? She loved-

A man who wasn't here. A man who would never know what she felt, because she was a coward, a man who would die with her the morning after she managed to return to her world.]


You think the world is going to end-

[That had to be it. It was the only thing that made sense. He just didn't want to be alone, and she was... She was there.

She was still here.]
erbe: (114)

[personal profile] erbe 2023-06-01 01:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[With Gray making her wants (mostly) clear, Rin grabs her. Fisting her hands in that beaten cape as she rises on her knees to loom over Gray.]

Then I shall scold you. Won't you regret it? If you lose after having done nothing? Would you rather passively accept the fate that threatens to consume you, or will you stand up against it? Tell me!
warmare: (キモイ)

[personal profile] warmare 2023-06-01 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[If she knew this Jeralt person, Hayame might agree with his opinions on certain things very much. Self-cannibalizing weasels would seem appropriate enough. As much as she had once dreamed within the confines of her realistic fate that a general of honor and renown would purchase her... no, perhaps because she had once thought such things-

Her distaste for them is strong. The things she had long overlooked and born as her lot in life have become things she actually has the freedom to express distaste over. And Claude-

- Was what now? Hayame does a double take when she registers that Byleth had just implied (er, said) that Claude wasn't just a noble, but the leader of a nation? Was she hearing things? She must be. What leader of that caliber would not proudly proclaim it? Especially since Claude had been involved in more than one debate in which claiming such lineage or rank would have lent weight and experience to his position. So-]


No, it does not excuse it.

[That's the bottom line. That's what matters to her.]

At least you realize the limits of a mercenary's knowledge.

[The line is not spiteful, but it is sharp, even though, in her own way, it is almost supposed to be praise. She appreciates people who understand their capabilities. And she doesn't want to listen to Byleth defend Claude much more than she wants to listen to half her so-called allies defend Voryn Dagoth. Still... she had engaged him to thank him, and so she belatedly attempts to... soften it.]

I assume you are a good one?

[... That'll do it.]
leicesters: (053)

[personal profile] leicesters 2023-06-01 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[He shrugs, not in disagreement.] Maybe so. But if I die later, I'd rather do it with no regrets.

[It's not even like he wants an answer from her. But the impulse that seized him, to say something... He couldn't just ignore that. Telling her everything else before, how he respected and admired her, would just ring as empty platitudes without saying the whole truth. She already decided he was insincere and false, after all.]

If it's just another burden to you, you can just-- [he trips over the word a little,] disregard it. Pretend I never said anything. For me, I just couldn't go out pretending the past few months never meant anything. [Not in one of their darkest moments, when everything seems to be falling apart, when she's hurting like this.]
fishfearme: (gentle neutral)

[personal profile] fishfearme 2023-06-01 02:27 pm (UTC)(link)
It depends on what you mean by 'good'.

[Byleth obligingly let the topic of 'Claude' drop, understanding Hayame's lack of will to discuss it further. Honestly, he wasn't in the mood to continue gossiping about his... possible friend either. He felt curiously guilty about it, like he was doing something bad. Was it allowed to whisper behind a friend's back? Byleth wasn't sure.]

If you mean by skill and success rate, then yes, I am 'good'. I've rarely been defeated in battle, and I fulfil my contractual obligations to the letter. I don't disobey my orders.

['To a fault,' Jeralt would sigh. 'Kid, sometimes you gotta be imaginative with your mission objectives.' But Byleth never fully understood what his father meant with this. Jeralt was the one who decided what their mission truly was anyway, so Byleth didn't really think too deeply about it... something which was biting him now, since he was on his own in a strange, incomprehensible world...

Well, it's going to end soon anyway, an increasingly pessimistic side of him said, so it's not like it's going to be an issue to care about in the near future.]


But I'm also widely feared by my peers. While this can be an advantage, it gets tiresome when most would rather flee than engage with me. Most assume things of me that aren't true, as my reputation paints me as something monstrous. From that perspective, that doesn't make me 'good'.

[And it was lonely too, but he wasn't so far gone that he would admit that to a near stranger.]
helloween: (065🫀)

1/2

[personal profile] helloween 2023-06-01 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Oh. Unexpected answer... ]
helloween: (007🫀)

2/2

[personal profile] helloween 2023-06-01 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Actually, the more he thinks about it, the more he likes her answer. She's so self-assured, Dark can't help but find it charming. ]

Awww, that's so nice.

[ How kind-hearted. And she still has both empathy and hope for the others around her. ]

I didn't think you'd say that. You're cute for that. What's your name, huh?
warmare: (追いつかれた)

[personal profile] warmare 2023-06-01 03:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[The tears on her face are growing cold, and she cannot- her hands won't move to try and wipe the shameful tracks away, even though they twitch and jerk in abortive little movements she keeps failing at making. Everything is happening so- so much, and she doesn't...

Should she run? No, it would look so craven. Should she deny him? Yes, yes, she should-]


Pretend?

[Yet she keeps not doing it. He thinks she can just forget that someone said something like that to her? To a breeding stable jinba who thought that her fates in "love" ranged from being mounted each season as a broodmare or to hopefully only having to open her mouth when whoever purchased her was drunk? Her throat is too tight, the words come out half-strangled,]

You do not- You do not even know me...

[Said in the tone of a woman who actually means if you really knew me, you wouldn't love me. And- No, wait, not just him knowing her-]

I do not-

[What had that man Byleth said? Suddenly, she turns it back on him, accusatory in her confusion.]

- Are you a noble?
leicesters: (013)

[personal profile] leicesters 2023-06-01 03:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[He watches her with guilt and some other conflicted, unnameable expression on his face, as if he would reach to wipe her tears for her again but feels he's pushed his luck far enough already. Sure, he doesn't know her as well as he'd like, but he knows enough to know how he feels here and now.]

I-- what? [The question throws him off. Byleth or Dimitri must have mentioned it, maybe, so he opts simply to be direct.] ...I was a duke, back when I still lived in Fódlan. I gave up that title when I left.
warmare: (壊れた)

[personal profile] warmare 2023-06-01 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[A small part of her almost feels perversely victorious, to throw him off even remotely near as badly as he has surprised her, but the feeling can't last. She has avoided thinking about what that mercenary had said to her, half because she hadn't believed it and half because she was afraid to pry into the lives of anyone who might then try to pry into her own in turn, but-]

What is a duke?!

[Her voice cracks again, frustrated with the reminder of their different worlds, their different cultures, now of all times. But even as she asks, she knows it means the answer to her question was a "yes", that was some type of noble, and if that were true-]

Do you not know what I am? What I was?

[She had never admitted it in words, but-

It wasn't something nobles could or should love.]


Do you not have eyes?

[Even if she weren't chattel... she was still jinba.]
leicesters: (033)

[personal profile] leicesters 2023-06-01 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sure you wondered why I never told you. Or anyone, really.

[Aside from some general love of secrets, he had his reasons. Namely--]

I don't want people to see me as a noble. Or as a king. Or as someone from Fódlan, Almyra, or wherever. My entire life has been dictated by people judging me on how I was born, where my parents came from, and I thought that here, I could have the freedom to be myself, regardless of social standing or birthplace.

[Yet now, instead of nations or social classes, there are dividing lines like 'Meridian', or 'Zenith', or 'Shardbearer'. He could almost laugh if it weren't so bleak.]

So... it doesn't bother me that you're not human, or what your station was in your world. I consider you my equal, no matter what.
erbe: (108)

[personal profile] erbe 2023-06-01 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Shut up, shut up! Something must be messing with my magecraft!

[At least the shelf was empty, like most of the supply displays here, but she still has the gently fluffed biscuit in her hand.

Which isn't for her in the first place! So she shoves it back at him. Put it in your mouth, punk! Behold the revival of the stale biscuit! Don't let that embarrassing pyrotechnics be for nothing!]
Edited 2023-06-01 15:56 (UTC)
zenwhoberi: (05)

1/2 lmaaooo

[personal profile] zenwhoberi 2023-06-01 04:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[oh. that's.

??????]
zenwhoberi: (04)

2/2

[personal profile] zenwhoberi 2023-06-01 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[yeeeaaah no]

I'm Gamora.

[a beat, then:]

And I wasn't flattering you.

[because she's nothing if not blunt.]
warmare: (恐怖)

[personal profile] warmare 2023-06-01 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[Of course she did. Of course she wondered. She'd tried to dismiss it, and maybe she would have succeeded had he not just said such an impossible thing to her, but now that he has-]

A king?

[Unlike "duke"... that translates perfectly well enough. She thinks of (unwittingly broadcasts in communion) that day in the stables, with him curled up on her flank, that morning in his living room, his forehead pressed between her shoulderblades, and that- that man had been a king?]

We're-

[She almost says they're not equal. But she doesn't want- She doesn't want to be someone's lesser anymore, even though she feels it almost every day. She just wants to find something to explain what is happening, something that makes sense-

But everything she finds is sharp and weaponized and she should just say it, but she hesitates. Even though she hadn't wanted to hear what he'd said, the look he always wore when she denied him, the way his brow furrowed and his eyes looked hurt-

She doesn't want that, either. She wanted-

What did people who love want?]


I am a warrior.

[So- No one should expect her to be able to love.]

I cannot give you children.

[So- No one would want to wed someone who couldn't continue their line.]

I have already promised to die-

[So-]
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[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-06-01 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[The supposition that Sebastian raises is troubling. What has been driving Liem to such extremes of despair is the thought that perhaps the old worlds shouldn't be brought back, given the rampant suffering many of them included — but he had not previously spent much time considering that perhaps reviving them all wasn't even achievable.]

I don't know. I… couldn't begin to guess about such things. The gods rarely intervened in their Creation in dramatic ways, but I was taught this was by agreement with each other, to avoid conflict — not because of an inability to do so.

[How did one calculate the toll required to revive scores of doomed existences and all their inhabitants? And how could he really guess what the limits of the Oracles' power were? All he really knows is that Zenith claims one thing and Meridian claims another. He is just a mortal man, and despite a knowledge of religion that would be considered extensive by probably anyone in his own country, he doesn't remotely have answers to the questions of what might truly be possible in the hands of the gods.]

Miss Akua said something similar to me once — that the toll for resurrecting every single world would be astronomical. [She had said it confidently, and just as confidently asserted that she was eminently qualified to make such judgements.] Still, that didn't stop her from pursuing Meridian's promise. She is an intelligent and learned woman; I don't believe she would make such a decision baselessly.