sterngaze | kenos

[It has been days since the shardbearers went to Alenroux and discovered that it was deserted before nightfall for a reason. Even more days since the leaders of the Meridian and Zenith had called upon their followers to investigate the fate of a missing man, and ask for his rescue or the retrieval of his shard. It’s been a week since a priest of Abadar and a jinba archer had set foot into the woods of Alenroux for their own reasons… and if sheen half a day less than that since Liem Talbott had died on the forest floor.

What made it worse was that Hayame had been there, and yet because of her weakness… For most intents and purposes, Liem had died alone.

More debt. More things between them that she does not know what to do. In her ignorance, Hayame does only what she feels is her duty, what she feels is owed… what she hasn’t begun to pay him back yet. She stands guard, she warns others off stepping on this patch of root-filled land, and-

She tires. The man who had healed her had warned her that her body would pull from its own physical capabilities to reknit flesh and reseal blood vessels, but still she is exhausted. Exhausted enough that… When Liem begins to awaken and claw his way free from the roots…

Hayame is a deep in sleep by his “bedside”, curled up tight and her face pillowed in the crook of a limb.]

Edited 2022-11-20 13:32 (UTC)

[ Liem will receive a communion link request from a fellow harbinger sometime around the latter half of the first week of Takiltu. If he accepts, he'll hear a voice curious as if someone was peeking into a house from a door that was unlocked to see if anyone's there. ]

Hellooo..? Liem?

[ Past the events of the Scorching Isles, NAME will receive... A very nice, handwritten letter! Which, if you prefer the actual easy to read text (fair), is here. ]

[ Also included is Sebastian's address, which is located near the Tomes in Highstorm. Should your character wish to attend (and bring a +1), that log is a mingle style one here! No pressure to tag it if you're busy, but just let me know whether your character attends or not if you can't swing it OOC! ]

[ There is an obnoxious banging sound coming from Liem's front door.

Incessant, rough. It carries on, seemingly without end because apparently the individual on the other side of the door carries their discourtesy as a weapon, as the core of their person. It might give hint to who might be there, if/when Liem opens his front door. Set, dressed as he ever is ( gold jewelry, dark shendyt ), beautiful still, though amidst the dark, smeared kohl around his eyes there is the hint of exhaustion. A wrung-out weariness that cannot be physical, but emotional. ]

— oh good, [ he snaps, irritable. The moment he sees Liem, the worry that had creased his brow bleeds away, replaced with a disgruntled thing. ]

I see you did not catch your death on the Isles, only that you have been hiding.

[ WOW YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CAME TO SEE LIEM, SET. BEHAVE. ]

[ The forests of Alenroux are especially dangerous. Even Gray, who feels she has a pretty fair record when it comes to monster-fighting, can feel how strangely formidable the creatures here are. Maybe they grow off the same fertility that makes the land so ripe for farming. In any case, she was unable to explore the entirety of the island on her own thanks to the more heavily monster-infested areas, but with Liem to help her along, she feels comfortable that they'll manage to make some progress.

It all goes swimmingly until it doesn't. More monsters rush them than expected, and Gray is caught off-guard by a particularly determined one — a stupid mistake that catches her in a broad swathe across her arm. She dulls the pain with magical strengthening and carries on, dispatching of monsters with Liem until the forest falls back into an oppressed silence.

Gray lets out a breath and looks to Liem to see how he's faring. She ignores her injury for the moment, a long gash that turns her white sleeve into a curtain of crimson. She continues to dull the pain, keeping the ache of it down even as the adrenaline begins to fade. ]

Mr. Liem? Are you alright?

Liem. Good afternoon.

[... Small talk is not a specialty of hers. She thinks perhaps she should try, but. She has a question to ask, and it feels strange not just to ask it. After an uneasy pause in which she attempts to ask anything else first-]

Have you seen hide or tail recently of the war god, Set?

[She knew they were at least vaguely acquainted, but... most of the people she knows for sure have deeper bonds with the man (god) she despises, and she will not speak to them, even in a time such as this.]

[ There is no truenight, in Springstar. The darkest place he knows is Liem's home, kept cool and dim and apart from the dual suns that eternally shine in the skies. Routine is kept, time managed in a way that allows shops to close and workers to return to their homes for rest, companionship, and to recover for a new 'day' — and there are those, who need none of those things. The perpetually awake divine, such as Set, who dabbles in sleep and meals only as experiences, rather than necessity.

Which is why, come 'night', when there are few places open and the allure of the dark pleasures of the Last Dance are not calling to him, that he turns to soft, fine grains of sand and slips his way into Liem Talbott's home in patient increments. Puddling upon the handsome floor of his room, as he patiently feeds his natural weight in sand through a meager crack in one corner of the window's sill. Hardly enough to let a breeze through, but the sands of Egypt are ancient and worn to intensely fine grain, and so he finds his way.

As if caught on the wind, he flows across the floor in rivulets and ribbons, lifting up against gravity itself to slip his piece of the old desert under the sheets and blankets of Liem's bed — and by the time his arms begin to curl around the man's waist, he is whole and warm and solid. And hopefully, he hasn't woken the priest ( haha as if ), as he tucks his face into the back of Liem's head and rests there, awake but unmoving. ]

Edited 2023-09-13 03:22 (UTC)

[Weeks after the Exalt Oracle had been claimed, in the middle of a perfect, lovely day, one in which it might seem nothing could go wrong at all... Someone is screaming.

With no warning, no build, the equivalent of a sudden desperate, panicked pounding at the door, an attempt at Communion comes slamming into Liem's psyche. There are no actual words, no plea for help in anything but a jumbled, inarticulate, weak longing for it, but stronger is the vicious shame, the fear, the blame, the rage, rage brighter than a blazing sun ready to flare.

An eye, sickly green, dangles between gloved fingers, but then it is a stormy grey eye, dangling by the slick and severed optic nerve between bloody fingers in the rubble of a city under siege. Pain deep in the skull spreading, spreading, something that should never be touched flayed raw and pulled out, on fire at every ending, the glint of a scalpel sharp in the overbright light. A young jinba covered in blood and viscera smiles eerily, holding out a freshly cut slice of liver in offer as if it hadn't just been ripped from the half-butchered human on the table. There are sharp teeth smiling sadistically, shadows caressing soft over skin in contrast with the pain that makes her want to vomit. Liem's arms, wrapping hesitantly around her waist, his cheeks hot and wet where he buries his face in her chest, but then the wet isn't tears it's blood, even hotter, crimson, bright and smeared around his lips. Blood on the fingers that pull out of the hole where an eye once was, blood in her mouth as she tries to bite through her tongue. Ropes, straps, no matter how much she struggles she can't move, she can't fight, no, no, no, she doesn't want it, she doesn't want it and it doesn't matter, it hurts, it hurts෴

And then there's nothing.]

Edited 2023-09-22 05:52 (UTC)

[The communion that follows some time after Hayame's is like a sharp wind, one that whips at the skin, sudden and impossible to ignore. Claude is angry, but not at Liem in particular, even if he's the unfortunate recipient of it right now. He isn't sure who else to turn to, when he has little faith in Hayame's other so-called 'friends' to be of use, or even that they're trustworthy.

With none of his usual flippancy, his communion is short and to the point.]

Have you seen Hayame recently?

[After all the BS that has transpired in the last few months, Liem is probably glad to have a day to be at home and vibe. Unfortunately, mixed with all of the sudden flipping of Kenos as a whole, a large and looming silhouette appears at his door.

Most of the time on the Frontier, his appearance is heralded by fear--no one wants the vampire hunter D coming for them--but this time, D is only here to talk a little.

And he's polite, knocking firmly on the door and waiting patiently. Liem has always been helpful and polite to him, so... returning the favor. He's pragmatic and does not pride himself on jumping immediately to violence even when vampires are involved.]

[ Very suddenly, there’s a sense of Communion touching your character’s mind. However, it’s as if they connect with the mind of a shared Aspect, as they’re not able to block out the brief, but sharp memory that comes to them. ]

It wasn’t necessarily something they’d set out to do, but opening a little shop to offer carefully handcrafted and enchanted jewelry had been more popular than they’d expected. A Shard-Bearer watches a customer leave with a smile, and they feel a deep pang of pride that they’d made something of themselves after all.

[ ooc note — Just to avoid OOC confusion/misinterpretation, the details included in this memory are random and are not necessarily interconnected or plot meaningful beyond a surface level. However, your character is free to interpret this random memory however they’d like! This event will also be touched on somewhat during today’s NPC Communion Post. ]

[ Hello... Gray probably could have just tried to drop in on one of Liem's baking sections to chat with him, but today her concern is a little more urgent. She carefully peeks her way through to Liem via Communion, like a candle entering a dark room. ]

Mr. Liem? Um, would you have a moment to chat? Specifically, I wanted to ask about something...

[ Set slipping into Liem's home through a tiny crack heralds one type of conversation. His standing at the front door, knocking, in full view of Liem's nosy neighbors, means another is coming — a storm, perhaps. The expression on Set's face is a little smooth, purposefully controlled.

Rather than launch into it, the moment he sees Liem ( the moment the door opens, he sees the hint of that handsome nose or hears his voice ) — he reaches for his face and folds it between his palms. ]

You're okay.

[ Relief.

Gen and Ruby had been dissipated, but Liem was okay. ]

[On the first day of the new year by the Kenosian calendar, Hayame seeks out Liem Talbott, though... it is easier to ask him to come down and meet here in the little garden. There is a certain formality to her visit at first, not just the fact she has come dressed in her one formal dress (which he may recognize from the dance lessons he gave her before a certain masquerade), the shorn short remains of her hair styled as best she could. There is ritual to the greetings she is attempting to recreate in this world- the ones she had grown up emulating and learning so that one day she might perform them. A low bow, gratitude expressed for the care in which she has been held the past year...

But eventually she softens from the rigid (though sincere) motions, in order to present what she has brought. Somewhat embarrassed, inexperienced in being in any sort of position to give actual gifts to people, she manages to explain that in her world it is customary to present new clothing on the occasion of the new year, and he had gifted her something for the holidays already, so...

She has brought this- a long, dark robe that resembles the fashions she is used to from her own world. Close enough, anyway. Liem had been a difficult man to procure clothing for considering he... seemed so particular about his appearance and his fashion choices, but she thinks this much might still be to his liking. It is not restrictive, and it is sturdy, there is plenty of concealment to it to hide pouches and weapons beneath. As she puts it in his hands...

She manages to say that she hopes he likes it. That it would honor her if he were to wear it. And that they will be in each other's care for the next year as well.]

[Hayame tended to prefer to speak in person, rather than use Communion, when possible. It was less risky, less invasive, to a person that valued her privacy. But... there are a select few she does not feel as uncomfortable approaching this way.

Liem is... one of those. Which might be why, even though she could just show up at his home (and might... be very close to his home right now), she reaches out to "knock" on the door of his mind before,]

Liem, good afternoon.

Are you free to speak... ?

[ Yuri's presence in Communion starts simply with the impression that someone is there and waiting. Like a surprise visitor who pauses before knocking on the front door, unaware that he's been spotted through the window, there's the briefest of hesitations.

And then he presses past it. The intrusive nature of these communications can't be helped, he knows, even as he suspects Liem may be much like him in preferring his mind be a private place. ]

Do you have a few free minutes, Liem? I took your advice and had myself a chat with Set. He had a message for you, among other things.

[ — there is something on his mind, quite obviously.

Where Set is usually an animated individual, full of movement and impassioned word, he sits quiet with calmed expression. A vaguely contemplative atmosphere surrounding him, eking out into the space he shares with Liem Talbott. Having come to him in the wee hours of Skysong's dusk, to settle up in the comfortable shadows of his home with his steady companion. The light gleaming off the band that rests on his finger, worn without hesitation to display Liem's claim upon him.

Set hm's soft, turning red eyes up towards Liem. Mouth pulled into a mou of — well, is it ever clear what he is feeling? It could be delighted frustration. It could be solemn eagerness. He is, at heart, a god of deep dichotomies and warring natures, after all. A guardian and a warrior, man and beast and nature. All things, which soften and curl and warm when he finds Liem's gaze. ]

Come here, Liem.

[ Stretching an arm out, he invites the priest to him. To settle against his side, wanting to touch him and take comfort in him. ]

I have been thinking. Of our duties to Meridian which guide us all too often, yes — but also, of you. Separate of the war and what has brought us together across time and space.

post-Alenroux dissipation;

communion.

a letter sent at the start of emru

EARLY MARCH, BEFORE MANON.

SCREECHES IN

no subject

action; several days following the end of the exalt