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[sterngaze]

I love me some gen threads, especially funny or drama-filled ones, but I am also shamelessly here for shipping AUs. The general Liem-shipping vibe is "I want more than this, but I shouldn't & they can't possibly want me back," so if you're into that, I've got what you need. His default setting is very D&D-like high fantasy, but I'm comfortable playing him in modern fantasy settings as well. Pretty much any prompt can also accommodate Liem being a full vampire instead of a dhampir, if that's your thing. Prompts for inspiration: • Arranged Marriage: Liem's shady vampire family has arranged his marriage to you, but he seems a rather reluctant fiance. • Bodyguard Shipping: It's Liem's duty to keep you safe and out of trouble, possibly despite your best efforts. • Companion to Royalty: Reclusive vampire king Liem and YOU! Are you a gift from a local power? Sacrifice from the townsfolk? Or did you just stumble up the road to his castle during a storm? • Enemies to Lovers: Maybe Liem is a foreign agent trying to sabotage your country or organization. Or maybe you're rebelling against the current regime and he's trying to take you in. • Fake Dating/Fake Married: A relationship is your cover story while you're travelling for some secret reason. Gotta keep up appearances. • Hunter & Hunted: Are you a hunter trying to track Liem down? Or a snack that proved more than he bargained for? • Hurt (Comfort Optional): Whether he's hurt, sick, drugged, or just upset, two things remain constant: Liem needs help, and he doesn't want to accept it. But maybe you don't want to fix him anyway; maybe you want to make him worse. • Living a Lie: Whether you're undercover on a mission, or you lied to cover something up and now you have to commit, you're stuck playing a role until you accomplish some secret objective — or until you can shake off your nosy company. • Loss of Control: For whatever reason, one of you is struggling not to go berserk — or perhaps has already failed. If it's Liem, can you help him come back to himself, or are you the one pushing him over the edge? • Out of the Frying Pan: The classic "tried to help someone in trouble, ended up with a new and possibly worse problem" situation. But at least you're in it together! • Priest/Celibacy: Default here is that Liem is the priest, but it could go the other way. Smutty, or just laden with UST? You decide. • Texting: Stupid TFLN-style text threads, my beloved... • Random Scenario: For if none of the above tickle your fancy. contact. Sporelett | info. Link | permissions. Link

CODE BY TESSISAMESS

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[redsoil]

[ Once, Set had a wife. Nephthys had been the woman he'd yearned for, as far back as he could remember; marrying her had been both the realization of his love for her, as well as a shackle that Osiris had signed off on the creation of — because he'd needed to ensure Set was kept close. That Set was kept rooted to a given variable, a family that he would feel responsible for and love. Osiris had coveted ownership of him, and in a terrible way, Set — whom had always sought independence and functioned under his own will — had taken a similar, desperate stance towards Liem at the end.

The hot, ugly thing inside of him was half-mad with it. And he'd used the language and felt what Osiris must have felt towards him, when he'd spoken so blisteringly toward the other man. Now, he was stewing in it. The understanding of what Osiris must have felt. The horror of it. The way he'd been willing to inflict that same horror on the man whom been utterly undeserving of it. He says as much, to Liem, with his thumbs working along a stitched seam for want of something to do — a subtle tic, in his own discomfort. ]

I had thought from the start that I had found you only so that I would lose you later. That I had come to want to love you, because I knew I would miss you terribly. I was ready to one day part...

[ It is the way of a god, to adore a mortal so passionately while also understanding it was impermanent. ]

But in that moment, it was like an abyss opened inside of me. I wanted to swallow you whole.

[sterngaze]

[Liem frowns down at the laundry he’s folding, scowling fretfully at it instead of at the man beside him. He doesn’t want to direct such a frown at Set, who has been so faithful and devoted to him. Even though his actions nearing the cycle’s end had shaken Liem, and made him fearful of Set in a way he had rarely felt the need to be.

He did not want to be swallowed. Even the part of Liem that had always secretly wished to be so desperately desired shrank back from it, because this was the opposite of what he had silently, selfishly yearned for in his more wistful moments. He had wanted to be desired enough by someone that they might sacrifice something important to be with him; instead, it was something important to Liem that was placed on the altar. He had been important, desired, but only in the way a prized possession was.

He realized he did not want this kind of love: this desperate, destructive thing. It was disillusioning, degrading. It flew in the face of trust.]

The more I considered it, the more sure I was that in order for us to stay together, at least one of us would need to lose something precious. So I knew we would have to part eventually.

[The thought had lived uneasily in him, had made him feel terribly lonely as the end approached and he couldn’t help but contemplate it, but he had accepted it as truth. In the end, it would still be worth it. He would still have loved and been loved, and that was more than he ever thought to have, no matter how many lifetimes he ended up living.

Now he does glance over, though only at Set’s hands. Warm, beloved, dangerous hands.]

If things had gone as you said… I don’t think either of us would have been happy.

[redsoil]

[ As dear as Liem was to him, in that place, he was not someone who would love Set forever. The closest that he would have had to that would have been Quetzalcoatl, or perhaps: Amos, at the end of all things. It was Liem he had wanted, though. Pursued with a single-mindedness and a bold desire that had surprised even him with its fervor; the hunger that had possessed him toward the end, he feared, was not solely the work of Meridian's brilliance within him. It was some deficit within his soul, as well. Like his brother, he was just as poisonous while in love. Now, he reaps the simmering mistrust and guilt between them, despite that the imperfect, living world created in their wake presented them with the best future for their affections.

Set cannot bring himself to reach out to Liem's hands, working dutifully on the laundry. His fingers visibly twitch, as if he yearns to seize the other man. Considering the topic of their conversation, it doesn't seem appropriate to do so just yet. Instead, he twists his fingers into the seams of cloth a little harder, like he might tear them apart in his strange, violent state of honesty. ]

I knew that, too. My affections for you were given with that in mind, of course.

[ That was the responsibility he had toward their relationship: to not lose perspective on that, even as he'd given so much of his heart and trust to the man seated alongside him. ]

— Liem, I am glad it did not come to pass in such a way. It is one thing to understand what will be faced when things come to an end, and another to be genuinely faced with that end. [ In the end, was it any wonder if was Meridian? Defiant of endings, willing to claw and bite to revive that which he wanted? ] I fear that I could have deluded myself into being perfectly happy with the outcome that made you most miserable.

[ After all, he was a great deceiver. None better an example than when he'd ruled Egypt, and pretended to be powerful, tyrannical, untouchable by all things; best at deceiving himself, really. Set's jaw tightens, eyes narrowing as he frowns deeply. The self-reflection he pours forth is an ugly view of his depths, perhaps even a self-abusive openness of his greatest faults and the true hideousness of his mien. That he feels he has to remind Liem of his worst traits, before he broaches any further question of whether they — still could be anything to one another. ]

The fact is that I considered it. And I am sorry. And I worry now that your fear might outweigh your love.