sterngaze | kenos

[Liem can sense, through whatever bond their communion is creating between them, that this man is aligned with Zenith. He supposes it makes sense that Yima would tell him Liem might have had an encounter with the creature in Alenroux, considering that he’d gone there at her behest — and, notably, hadn’t come back to return the equipment he’d borrowed until after he’d had time to regenerate at the Tree of Life.]

I served under the Regent there, yes.

[It’s not really a glowing admission to make, but if Childe was in Kenoma as well, presumably he’ll understand.]

And I did have an encounter with the monster in possession of Manon’s shard. It went badly enough that my body was dissipated.

Ah right. Same. Well, onto better things this time, hopefully.

Oh. So, it was still really aggressive after it left...

You were... unharmonized, I'm guessing? [ not that harmonization did any good for Vander, but... ] Did you run into it alone? So far the people I know who ran into it were with someone else, but that's not something you can really bank on, since I did find some people wandering alone in the woods.

Yes, I was.

[He doesn’t see any point in avoiding this question. He might still have wound up dissipated if he had been harmonized, but being unharmonized certainly hadn’t helped. As for the question of whether he was alone…]

I was lucky enough to be with someone who retrieved my shard afterwards. I don’t know what would have happened to it if I’d encountered the creature alone.

Since I am one of the people you’re looking for, I have to ask: why are you interested in speaking with me, and the other people who encountered that creature?

I was, also.

[ at the question, although childe pauses a moment, the general atmosphere surrounding his intent in wanting to answer is sincere. he seems to be thinking about how to best explain it so it's not overwhelming but also not misleading. ]

You saw and heard things during the encounter, right? When I spoke to the others, they had heard and seen different things than Vander and I had. I feel if we have all our experiences together then a better picture will emerge of Manon and what happened.

[ a pause ] I assume both Cyrus and Yima will "get to the bottom of this." After the Regent, though, I don't want to be too quick to believe everything one or the other says. This could very well end up being one of us in the future, and I remain committed that regardless of what side we take, we are each other's best chance at surviving this place and not the factions themselves. Cyrus informed me Manon was having doubts about being a Zenite, and I had noticed that his transformation was very similar to a Meridian's discord going crazy. I recall that he was a very happy individual as a Zenite, however. So, something must have happened to change that, and I want to find out what. Also, I saw a figure that seemed to set him off in the visions we saw, and I'm wondering if that person is a key in all of this.

Would you be willing to exchange with me what you saw/encountered? Not sure if it you got it from Cyrus, already, since I told him about it, too, but it's the least I can do.

[A thoughtful pause stretches from Liem’s side of the link as he considers Childe’s explanation. Although Liem did decide to lend his service to Cyrus and Meridian, he didn’t do so out of a sense of trust or loyalty, or an overwhelming suspicion against Zenith in particular. There are things Cyrus has told him that he suspects he shouldn’t share freely, but the situation with Manon does trouble him, and he doesn’t intend to sit idly by and rely entirely on Cyrus to resolve the issue.]

I’d like to know more about what happened, as well. There are a lot of things about that situation that I don’t understand.

I’ll share my own experiences with you, if you trade yours. You’re right: we have no reason to trust that either faction ultimately has our best interests at heart. And someone does need to get to the bottom of this.

You got it.

[ as a sign of goodwill,
he'll go first without hesitating and offer through communion the encounter he and Vander had with the shardbeast, including the incident itself as well as the memories that were dripped by Manon. ]

Edited (html fail ) 2022-12-18 01:53 (UTC)

[Liem carefully absorbs everything that Childe shares with him: Manon’s terrified flight through the woods, the silhouette of a person, the feeling of something growing, of roots crawling out from inside him. The flash of Manon’s face is that of the same man he’d seen while he was dissipated and regrowing at the Tree of Life, but the flashes of information gleaned are unquestionably different from the pieces he and Hayame received.]

The Below?

[The feeling conveyed over communion is intent: the feeling of trying to recall something heard and since forgotten.]

I’ve heard that name before, I think. Do you know where it is?

Actually, yeah. I got directions from Cetina.

[This is not the answer that Liem had been expecting — though given that Childe already admitted to having discussed Manon’s shard with Cyrus, perhaps the news that he also spoke with his Aedile should not come as a surprise.]

Hmm. I’ll have to inquire about that, the next time I see her.

[He wants to ask if Childe has been there himself, or if he knows where Manon was hoping to escape to down there, but that can wait. After all, he did agree to be forthcoming with his own experiences with the creature in possession of Manon’s shard.

As promised, he relates the encounter he’d shared with Hayame, explaining his impressions of the monster and sharing the flashes of communion it had hurled at them. Notably, none of the bits of communion he’d received from Manon had mentioned The Below at all, though he had mentioned fleeing to Meridian, and he had sent the image of a certain masked figure.]

I don’t know if that man was the same figure you saw in his memory, but he seemed to feature heavily in Manon’s thoughts as we fought with what he’d become. He certainly must have been involved in what happened to him.

Sure thing. If you wanna go, too, maybe we should go together at some point?

[ ... Childe is quiet in the exchange and seems to tense somewhere around the "still too fragile" and when the masked individual passes through his mind. Unintentionally his mind does the same, a kneejerk reaction that melts away soon after.

He's quiet a moment before asking curiously: ]

Is the fact he fled to Meridian why you aligned with them over the Zenith, out of curiosity? Not gonna lie, his shardbeast form had me suspecting Manon had already gone Meridian until I was told that wasn't the case. Like, what made you go to Cyrus instead of Yima? If it had been me, I'm not sure who I would have gone to myself, but...

As for that guy... he's not gonna be easy to find even if we had what he looks like, his name, and his home address already. If he's anything like the guy he's giving me the impression of, this is going to be a wild ride.

Edited 2022-12-19 17:54 (UTC)

[Liem has to admit, judging by what happened to Manon, wandering around one of the places he was right before he fled to Alenroux is probably something he shouldn’t be attempting by himself. It would be wiser to go with a partner.]

Perhaps we should. I do intend to follow up on this.

And, although I don’t know what his face looks like, that arm seems fairly distinctive. And I have an alias for him, as well. When I was dissipated, Manon told me that he heard someone calling him “Aetós.”

[If anyone in The Below recognizes that name, it could still end up being useful.]

It wasn’t suspicion of Zenith that made me decide to work for Cyrus, though, so much as a desire to see my home again. Yima told me that our worlds are certainly destroyed, but where I am from, even the long-dead can be revived if the right price is paid. I want to know what the price is; that’s why I went to Springstar.

Hm... Definitely sounds like some kind of codename. That means he's most likely not a single individual. Which means... it's going to be potentially really hard to find them. —and if we find him or the group... finding out their real deal will be practically impossible for us right now. I hope you're ready for a long haul investigation on this guy.

[ Childe sighs. ]

Honestly... I don't blame you. I didn't pick Zenith over Meridian myself in denial of one or the other, but I would do anything to get my homeworld back if that's really possible. If only we had some guarantees.

...But... [ he thinks about mentioning his siblings and their shards, and for a brief second, he will see the flash of two young boys that are playing in the snow before it's gone and Childe moves on to something. ]

Either way, after our encounter with Manon, I realized it's impossible for me to do anything without harmonizing. And then someone important went missing. Cyrus seemed to think I was a Zenith before I was, so I guess that's just how it is.

[Surprise filters through the communion at the possibility of Aetós not being a single person. Liem agrees that it probably isn’t his real name, and he thinks it’s likely he was working with accomplices, but Childe’s suggestion implies more organization than he had been contemplating.]

Someone else went missing? Who?

[This is the first he’s hearing of anyone other than Manon disappearing — but then, he hasn’t had a wealth of time to investigate since getting back from the Tree of Life.]

Also, you spoke to the others who encountered Manon’s shard, didn’t you? What did they have to say about their encounters?

[ At Liem's question about who was missing, a sheepish feeling extends from his end of the link awkwardly. ] Ah, sorry... it was one of us— Kaeya, if you know him. He's back and no harm done, but I'll admit I had wondered if something happened to him like what befell Manon because of the timing. As for the details, he's kind of a dodgy character and didn't have much to share. I don't see why you couldn't try your luck with him if you're interested in what happened, though.

—Oh, right, theirs was... uh, it's just better if you see it since they seem to have found him before either of us.

[ Childe offers the memories that were transposed to him, only speaking up afterwards. ] I knew they were involved pretty easily because their voices were chorusing with Manon when Vander and I stumbled on him.

Ah— We have met, yes. It’s good to hear that he’s well after all.

[Liem doesn’t remember having too many conversations with Kaeya back in Horos, but he seemed like a decent enough man. He would have felt concerned to learn that something had happened to him.

He is not, however, at all sure that a “dodgy character” like him would be especially forthcoming about where he disappeared to, if he took the time to ask.]

That voice… When I heard it during my own encounter, I thought it was a memory. But after witnessing this encounter, and yours… it seems more as though the creature was being controlled somehow.

[ aw, that's nice! here kaeya is saying people don't like him all the time, sheesh. ]

—controlled.

I didn't think of that... slow gaining of information isn't anyone's favorite, but... maybe it's for the best here if that's true. Who knows if we're being expected to go digging.

What do you think, by the way, about this whole situation with it being seen as the Tribune holding Manon hostage for not turning him over right away?

[Liem also doesn’t like the implications of Aetós — or whoever it was — being aware enough of those encounters to influence them, and to possibly even know things about the people who might want to come looking for him. He much prefers when his quarry doesn’t know he’s hunting for it. But then, chances of that lasting long were always going to be slim.]

It’s politics, [Liem says without hesitation, with the air of long familiarity.] Regardless of why Lady Yima wants the shard back, her best chance of getting the Tribune to hand it over is to make him look like a villain for refusing. His image is important to him, after all — just as I imagine the Matron’s image is important to her.

Oh. ... I didn't think of it like that; that it would increase chances of simply being returned, but you're right. I guess since it's politics it's just as easy for it not to be taken as personally in certain cases as the other way around...

That said, I am curious to know what the Matron might be concerned about, in demanding Manon’s return. The Tribune’s goals are fundamentally opposed to her own, from what I understand, but I had not previously thought hostilities between the two sects were so pronounced. And he has been fairly open about his intention to heal the corruption afflicting his shard, which it seems unlikely she would take issue with.

[There are reasons that she might take issue with it, of course, but that isn’t the point of his line of inquiry.]

So I wonder what she fears would happen to a hostage in the Tribune’s care.

kenos | inbox

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sorry for disappearing ugh ugh

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