sterngaze | kenos

[Liem is so cute and domestic... Why did D come to ruin it with his weird vampire hunter questioning?!

Aside from the strange and peculiar happenings in Springstar, D looks the same... albeit with two new additions: one is on his back, each end of a slightly curved long sword protruding either by his shoulders or near his leg; the other is behind him... a cyborg horse. The sword is rather ominous considering his sudden appearance at Liem's door; however, he has never been aggressive to Liem before.

The horse... Well, sometimes, you just aren't ashamed to ride a horse around a city.]

I want to talk to you about some things I've heard.

[He doesn't want to air anything out while standing on Liem's doorstep, and he wants to make it clear he isn't here for nefarious reasons. D doesn't emote very much in the first place, but he does not sound angry or suspicious now.]

About you.

[He's giving Liem a chance to give him another side of the story. An explanation. This isn't the Frontier anyway. He's not a sheriff, so there's no reason he has a say in punishing anyone else. (Maybe Silco after the Oracle.) And usually? D only works for money.]

[Liem doesn’t love the fact that the first time he sees D the vampire-hunter with his big sword is when D is paying him a personal visit to question him about “some things” he’s heard. He frowns up at the man, noting both the sheathed blade and the… augmented horse(?) standing behind him on the road. Ah. So, this isn’t just a friendly house call.]

You’d best come in, then.

[”About you” does rather have some implications, though given the variety of incidents Liem was involved in during just a couple weeks’ span, he doesn’t actually know what D is even referring to. It’s never a good sign when you’ve wound up screwing up in such a variety of ways that you don’t actually know which incident is coming back to bite you.

He retreats inside, withdrawing into a small entrance area that opens up into an open-plan main floor: nearest to the front, the tidy sitting area where the dusting rag still sits atop one end table, and toward the back, a dining area followed by a handsome little kitchen.]

Shoes and sword left at the door, please, [he says as he withdraws toward the sitting room, slippered feet whispering on plush carpet. Don’t track dirt onto his nice floor. For once he will forgo the ritual of tea, since D has never seemed interested in drinks, and his visit seems business-focused in any case.]

[D really showed up looking like he is going to be guns-blazing, not realizing. It's fine...

He follows Liem in carefully, and as soon as he's through the threshold, he removes his hat out of politeness. The true conundrum is when he is told to remove his shoes, and he watches Liem flit inward and away. Slowly, he glances down at his boots... He has never really had to take anything off except his hat; however, he has not exactly made it a habit of going into people's houses on the Frontier.

Not when most people avoided him like the plague.

Hm.

It takes a few minutes, but finally D emerges more inside Liem's house, following the invisible trail Liem left behind. D is now... barefoot (free feetish for Liem, but why does he not wear socks???), without his sword and hat, but also... without the obnoxious pauldrons, cape, and collar? He's left in the fitted leather outfit, and he looks more like the slim, young thing Liem had been exposed to in the spa.

Hey.]

[Oh… It’s a good thing Liem’s nosy neighbours can’t see D strip down like this, or they might reevaluate what kind of visit this is going to be. All that’s keeping those aunties from glimpsing his pretty face and slim figure is Liem’s obsession with keeping his curtains closed against the unrelenting daylight outside.

Liem has put the dusting rag away somewhere and is buttoning up the cuffs on his now-unrolled sleeves by the time his guest reappears from the entryway. The sight of D looking slim and barefoot is a little startling after him showing up at Liem’s door looking like an omen of death — but Liem’s only reaction is a brief glance over his person, after which he gestures at a fancy little couch that is part of an equally fancy, rococo-style sitting room, indicating that D is welcome to sit. Liem takes a chair, perching straight-backed on the seat as he regards his visitor.]

So— What would you like to speak about?

[Certainly his ill-fated interaction with Gen created some stir recently, but it’s likely D also saw Amos’s snide comments on the communion he’d sent out after their mission to Alenroux’s northern forest. By no means is he assuming that D is here to talk about any specific thing.]

[D follows the motion to the couch. This is such a Liem aesthetic thing...

He moves over to sit down, and he hilariously sits much like Liem. Near the edge, back straight, no lounging. They are silly.

Liem gets his full attention.]

Gen told me about what happened.

[He says this in the way where it's obvious he is not putting a lot of heavy stock in an accurate recount through Gen. He isn't accusing.]

But someone also told me there was an incident with you attacking others.

[This also doesn't sound accusing despite the implication blood was involved.]

I wanted to know what happened directly from you.

[They are just two regular men, sitting primly in this seating area that was clearly designed for appearances rather than lounging anyway. Do either of them even know how to lounge? Debatable.

Liem’s mouth thins slightly when D reveals the dirt he’s got on him. “An incident,” he says, which could still refer to just about anything, but Liem supposes it doesn’t really matter. If he’s going to explain, he should be thorough anyway.]

I assume by “what happened” you’re referring to the interaction I had with him in the greenhouse.

[Surely D would not be asking Liem about the details that led to Gen getting thrown in jail. It doesn’t get much more straightforward than being arrested for attacking an unarmed man during an attempted apology, which Liem could hardly be expected to bear blame for.]

I can tell you about that first, if you like. I made… a number of decisions during the latter half of the Oracle trial that I should not have, but that was the first.

It was right after I had attended the revel thrown by the local fey. [Actually, that was probably the first of his bad decisions.] I contacted Gen over communion to let him know that I had found a shard that belonged to him. Ah— but I was a little bit coy about it. At the time, I think, I wanted to see how he would react.

Yes.

[Well, the "what happened" that got Gen jailed, too, but he managed to parse some things together to come to the conclusion Gen probably overreacted as usual. He's at least accustomed to how Gen deals with... literally everything Gen comes up against. Like with Gen, he does not pin the blame on either of them while he's trying to have a clarifying conversation.

He also understands full well what kind of fey chaos went on during the Oracle trial... being the victim of a few himself. Liem confirms what he had already partially presumed.]

He said it was something important to him, so I imagine he didn't react well.

[Gen slipped up and almost said someone, but D doesn't mention it even if Liem is privy to the knowledge already. D remains attentive, listening.]

Go on.

[”I imagine he didn’t react well” is an almost ridiculous understatement, but given the sober tone of their conversation, Liem can’t bring himself even to smile about it. Now that he’s able to look back at the entire thing, he just finds it sad.]

No, he didn’t. As soon as I revealed what I had to him, he became incandescently angry. His first words to me were “who said you could touch him?”

[Like an aggressive, resource-guarding dog, he’d thought. One used to being treated unkindly. But he hadn’t felt generous enough to be understanding.]

We quarrelled. I took issue with… how antagonistic he immediately was, essentially, because of our history up until then. I told him that if he wished to have the shard returned to him before the conclusion of the trial, he could present me with one of the effigy’s possessions. Otherwise, he would simply have to wait.

[Embarrassment makes his hands fidget a little as he says this, clasped restlessly in his lap. Because, well… he was being a dick. He doesn’t love admitting this to someone like D, who would likely frown at the idea of indulging in petty power trips with teenagers. (Speaking of the incident with John had been much easier, for equally obvious reasons.)]

And, when he promised to bring me the first item he found if I would just give the shard to him immediately… I refused that also. I’d already set terms, and I didn’t want to bend them for him.

[His gaze now rests somewhere in the region of D’s shoulder, uncomfortable as he is with the prospect of meeting his eyes.]

[The Gen way of blowing things out of proportion. He understands. Which is why he's sitting here in Liem's very stylish sitting area without his armor and sword and no boots.

Gen wouldn't tell him anything about what Liem had taken "hostage" (as Gen put it), so to find out it is a him has the gears in his head turning. Family? A friend? Smeone Gen would go more feral over to protect.

It's funny how Liem had issues with Gen's aggression the same way D questioned whether Liem had ever done this to Gen before. Gen is Gen, but even so, Liem does not seem like the type to consistently misbehave.]

So he attacked you later to get it back.

[Gen had said he had to take the shard back by force once he believed Liem had lied to him.]

Later…?

[Liem surfaces briefly from his mortified reverie to puzzle over this question, wondering if, in asking it, D is referring to the scuffle that had landed Gen in jail. He has no idea just how much Gen actually told him about their interactions, but it doesn’t sound like he delivered a very detailed picture.]

No, his retribution was quite immediate. He secured Set’s cooperation, and sent him to retrieve the shard from me by force instead. I resisted Set only briefly before relenting and surrendering it into his keeping.

[Partly because Set was beating the stuffing out of him, but also because he had been so clearly wounded, in some deep and animal way, by what Gen was holding over him. And because Set hadn’t wanted to keep hurting Liem to get the thing he’d come for.

That, actually, is the only part of this whole story that still makes Liem frown. Set may have done many, many terrible things in his long life, but he hadn’t deserved the misery Gen had inflicted on him. Not from Gen.]

I don’t know why he didn’t just come for it himself. Perhaps because he wasn’t confident he could take it from me, and he knew that Set would be able to. A fair enough assessment, I suppose.

[Liem’s always been a slippery little guy; if Gen had come for him to take the shard by force, Liem probably would have just ditched him. But Set had been rather impossible to shake off.]

[Help, this is funny.

It's true that Gen was extremely sparse on details, but of course Gen was. This is why D came to Liem, to see if he could put the pieces together. And he's sure Gen would immediately accuse him of taking Liem's side... as Gen already halfway tried to do with assumptions.

Although D has never looked much more than placid usually, it's surprising to see how terribly dark D's face grows with the explanation. Something happens in Liem's quaint room: the shadows at the corners begin to slowly churn, the presence of them rumbles, they stretch inward and bend toward D. Liem can feel the iron weight of familiar, old power. A red haze is just barely noticeable where D is sitting, around him. And then, suddenly, it is gone. The haze, the creeping shadows, the weight.

The disappointment and judgement in him is almost palpable. Gen's bar is so low, but Set? He's so disappointed right now. Why is this so messy?

However, in a heavy and quiet voice:]

I see. Gen should learn to fight his own battles, in that case. This does not concern me, and is the business between you three. I was only looking for a more clear story.

But I am here to talk about you attacking others for blood. That incident is my business. I believe it may have been a while ago.

[Given D’s unflappable, even gentle demeanour up to this point, Liem does not at all expect the reaction he receives to his explanation of how Gen had retrieved the shard. As the atmosphere in the room grows heavy with menace, the shadows seeming to roil and close in around them, his body winds tight with sudden anxiety, as though he might leap up and cling to the ceiling at any moment.

Even when the aura dissipates, leaving behind only deep disappointment, the nervous tension lingers. Truly nothing in Liem’s life has made him feel like more of a normal little guy than meeting this frightening man who has a human’s warmth and a human’s heartbeat, but who possesses a vampire lord’s horrifying power and presence.]

I don’t know who told you this thing, [he says warily.] There have been only two incidents that are as you describe, and both of them happened inside that greenhouse, in the second half of our time there.

The first was when I hunted down Silco, using the magic signature from my holy symbol, which he had been carrying with him throughout almost the entire event. I found him when he was alone and I took it from him — and, although this has never been a habit of mine, I also took his blood for the trouble.

The second was during the raid Hayame and I made on Zenith’s camp, in order to retrieve the faerie wing from it. She was fighting with Amos Burton when I slipped inside; since they were still fighting when I returned with the wing, and he had also dislocated one of her arms, I bit his throat before we made our exit.

[Reading "harmless little nerd" while opening to reply to this thread currently is so hilarious.

Things really carry on like D didn't just now have a moment of triggering anger. It's fine. It's funny that Liem allowed this man to perform spa bondage when this is embedded somewhere deep within him.

D listens, but seems contemplative while Liem speaks. It was Dark who made an off-hand comment, so he's trying to figure out how Dark may play into only two instances when Dark is never mentioned. If D could put a name to Silco's face, he would not really hold much against Liem for Silco. In theory, even Silco shouldn't be attacked by vampires; however... after the event, D does not care for the person Silco is at all.

These didn't seem like simple, unprompted vampire attacks.]

I will take your word on it. [It's genuine, not like he's unconvinced.] I'd like to hear more about how vamprism works for you and your world.

[So he's not making assumptions.]

Would you be willing to make a deal with me?

[Liem when he met D like “oh, we’re the same” vs. Liem increasingly over the following months like “oh, we are not the same.” He’s a little scared by whatever D has going on. Can’t believe he sassed D while tying him up like it was no big deal…

In contrast to the story about him and Gen, which was embarrassing because it really was just a story about Liem being mean to a teenager and then getting beat up on two different occasions because of it, Liem seems much more straightforward about confessing to his indiscretions with biting unwilling people’s necks. He doesn’t seem completely unrepentant; he still acknowledges that it’s fucked up to feast on someone like a beast during a fight. However, he also feels like both parties legitimately had it coming, and he already intended to dissipate both of them regardless of method.]

I can tell you what I know, though I’ve had very little direct contact with vampires myself. And, my personal experience has actually changed in the time that I’ve been in Kenos.

[When he’d said it wasn’t his habit to bite people during a fight, that wasn’t just because it was beastly behaviour. But he’ll only get into that if D seems interested.]

What kind of deal do you mean?

[The very sweet boy in him mitigates the absolute terrifying horror... thankfully for Liem. And everyone else.]

I would still like to hear.

[Even better if Liem changed while in Kenos. D is interested in that, too, whether for better or worse. He is a nerd at heart. His eyes lift to settle on Liem's face.]

If you ever become out of hand, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and begin attacking others, you will allow me to kill you. [No sugarcoating.] Similarly, if I become out of hand and begin attacking others, I will allow you to kill me as well.

[There's a bit of nuance here to this probably, but the gist of the idea is the same. They each have a mutual understanding of what it's like when either of them goes truly sicko mode. Liem also doesn't have to accept the deal.]

[It’s probably telling that Liem’s only immediate reaction to D’s proposed murder deal is thoughtful consideration. He understands why the man would bring it up, and he doesn’t disagree; he doesn’t wish for innocents to be harmed because of what he is, and he is more than willing to believe that the same is true for D as well.

A year ago, he wouldn’t have thought such a future could happen for him, at least here in Kenos. With his father gone, vanished with the world he’d left behind, there was no real risk of him being made into what he was. Now, though, he isn’t so confident. Kenos has enforced its own strange trajectory on him, one he doesn’t know how to arrest.]

Are you suggesting that, if I rejected your deal, you would stay your hand if I were to start hunting people?

[This seems unlikely to Liem, given the man’s rather pointed interest in what had happened between him and the others he’d fought with in the greenhouse. That incident is my business, he had said.]

Or are you just seeking someone to be accountable to? I’m not sure I could kill you, Dee.

[Not alone, anyway.]

[Liem knows him so well...]

I wouldn't.

[He'll just be honest. The people here are not entirely like the dichotomy of the Frontier. There are more than only humans and vampires going at one another. So he has to walk a finer line in allowing stronger people to fight their own battles.

Humans and innocents are still a different story.]

But it's better if you are aware before a situation like that happens.

[It's better they have a conversation about it, he thinks, than for him to show up in Liem's doorway with his sword drawn.]

This place has subdued many of the ways my body has been made. It would be difficult, but not impossible. I've hunting vampires for a long time, and the day when I attack others for their blood is the day I will also be hunted.

You understand how that goes.

[How civil of D, to visit Liem just to tell him “hey, if you start wilding out for real, I will kill you.” Very neighbourly. Liem is, in fact, not surprised by this at all, although he cannot say he has any direct experience with vampire-hunting or the threat of being hunted himself. (Aside from by paranoid, trigger-happy villagers, whom he has encountered many of in the past century of his life, actually. But hostile mobs running him out of town aren’t the same as someone being hired to kill him.)]

Hm.

[It’s actually kind of scary that D as he is now has been made less powerful than he’s used to being. Liem doesn’t know in what ways he’s been “subdued,” but it just strengthens his suspicion that D is actually Not Like Him At All, at least in terms of his physiology. Admittedly, their traumas and mindsets probably have some significant overlap.

He decides to tell D about at least one of the things he asked after.]

When I first arrived here, about a year ago, I was not much different from how a human in my situation would be. My senses have always been better. Certain powers and magics affect me strangely. But I was not in the habit of drinking blood, and for the most part, I lived as a human man.

[He makes it sound simple, but D had not had the opportunity to meet Liem before he’d begun drinking blood regularly. He always looked tired and ill, in those days. The lack did not ever force him to drink, but it had affected him nonetheless.]

After a month or so, I was dissipated for the first time. [He didn’t die, really… but he kind of died. Anyway, he got better.] Several weeks after that, a friend let me drink from him. Since then, I’ve noticed… I regenerate quicker from wounds. Whenever I drink blood, I get a little stronger. And if I don’t drink again, I suffer a terrible withdrawal, almost debilitating. After a while, I started being able to cling to walls and ceilings, too.

None of that has ever happened to me before.

[Thinks about them being side by side on the mommy and daddy (worse) issues chart.

His attention remains honed on Liem while he listens. Much the same as Liem, he realizes they are not entirely alike. At least, on his end, their differences are because the terrible blood in him has been tampered with by experimentation. He isn't like most of the dhampirs on the Frontier either.

A part of D wants to be envious and relieved Liem seemed to have the opportunity to live as a human, but D understands it probably wasn't that simple. As behaved as they could get themselves to be, there will always be a vampire side. It wasn't about drinking blood either. The vamprism, as powerful as it could be, is such a disease.]

The blood is making you stronger.

[This is more an acknowledging, agreeing statement than a lecture.]

Vamprism on the Frontier doesn't work that way. The Nobility don't drink blood because it keeps them alive. They drink blood because they have been cursed to crave it. Their strength comes with age and experience.

[He is thoughtfully quiet for a few moments.]

...There is a way I may be able to help you rely less on drinking blood, if it's something you're interested in. [If Liem had a drinking kink, that's not D's business...] But I would have to find all the tools to do my work first, or equivalent alternatives here.

I'm not sure yet if it's even possible. Worse, I don't know if someone like Aetós might need to be involved if other paths lead to a dead end. In that case, we may as well just deal with consenting donors.

I plan to try Kowloon first.

[Liem frowns as he regards the man sitting on the couch across from him. He is not surprised to hear that vampires in the land D comes from are different from how Liem himself seems to be. Truthfully, Liem isn’t sure how he would even describe himself in relation to actual vampires of Golarion. If vampires there became stronger just by drinking blood, he’d never had cause to suspect it before. As far as he knows, his condition is specific to Kenos.

In the times he’s had occasion to dwell on it, he’d supposed that that giving into his desire for blood was making him less human, more vampire. Perhaps eventually the transformation would be complete, and he really would need D’s bargain to keep him in check.

But that is a fear he doesn’t entertain during his waking hours.]

Your work? [Liem frowns, uncertainty creasing the skin between his brows.] I thought you were a vampire hunter.

[Is D also an alchemist…?]

[Unfortunately, also a nerd... He enjoys doing genetic and chemical research things!! Just... not... like Aetós. He has morals and a conscience.]

I am.

[He was probably first and foremost a vampire hunter. At least on the Frontier.]

I created a pill form of dehydrated plasma which could be disolved in water. It satisfies the craving. The composition could perhaps be altered to compensate for nutrients.

[For Liem's case. Maybe.]

The technology here is not as advanced as the time when I'm from, however. And the pills require higher technology to craft.

[If Liem was going to be honest, he’d have to say that a pill of dried blood mixed with water sounds pretty gross. He doesn’t even want to drink real blood from a cup, much less fake blood. However, he is too polite to say this outright, especially since he assumes this is how D was getting by in his own world. So instead, he just nods.]

I see.

[He actually doesn’t see at all. The technology in Kenos is roughly equivalent to where Liem was from in most cases, perhaps even a little more advanced. He doesn’t know what deficiency of Kenos’s technology would make the crafting of these pills difficult. But then, he’s no alchemist regardless.]

You shouldn’t trouble yourself on my account. I have an arrangement already that suffices.

[He is less reluctant to admit this than he would be with probably anyone else. D’s frankness and familiarity with the subject serve to ease his mind.]

But let me know if I can be of assistance. I do visit Kowloon semi-frequently, to peruse the markets there.

[LIEM ALREADY HAS ARRANGEMENTS. It's his turn to I See. But if this bothers him, D obviously doesn't show it. In truth, as much as he does not particularly enjoy the idea of drinking any blood--ah, yes, self hatred--he cannot do anything about consenting blood exchanges.

Revisit this later after he has been forced to have a bite of a few people. He's hating being stuck in Kenos more and more as they go along. Maybe blood drinking will push him into Meridian T4.]

I'm interested in certain pieces of chemistry sets. And also the vampires in Kowloon.

[Not for vampire hunting reasons, but he does not clarify this because, if needed, he would fall into the vampire hunting schtick for them, too.]

I don't think any established area would have the level of technology I require, but I may be able to find remnants of some elsewhere. You were with Set when he found his sister's temple, weren't you?

[Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of shame and self-loathing to go around on Liem’s side of the equation. Set was just very persuasive (read: pushy and uncomfortably familiar), and also Liem is pretty sure his blood regenerates easily regardless.

Speaking of Set, Liem’s eyebrows rise a little when D mentions Isis’s temple. The god had been public in his desire to find this mysteriously familiar temple somewhere in the Beyond, but the identity of the temple’s original patron is a much more privileged piece of information.]

He told you about that? Yes, we found it together.

[And Liem helped him revitalize it, including hallowing the structure for Set so it would strike fear into the hearts of any Zenites who might find their way there.]

I suppose it’s possible there could be a fragment of someplace remaining that has what you need. You should also try visiting the Cache in Kowloon, though. The owner is some kind of… very sophisticated construct.

[Robot. He means a robot.]

It collects and sells objects like the ones you mean. Technology and artifacts that cannot be found other places in Kenos.

[D hums in affirmation to Liem's first question while Liem keeps talking. The only reason he probably knows is Set has an unhinged obsession with his son, and unfortunately, D happens to look almost identical to said son.

He has promised not to talk about Anubis, though, so he does not give any reason why Set would tell him of all people.]

I see. Thank you.

[The robot will make a lot more sense once D sees said robot. For now, he thinks maybe the owner is simply some weird Kenos sort of thing. A golem? A steam-powered construct.]

I'll look into it and find out if there is anything useful. If you change your mind, [about the pills]</small let me know.

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