muchalucha: (pic#16286379)
QUETZALCOATL ♡ ([personal profile] muchalucha) wrote2023-03-01 11:15 pm
sterngaze: (neutral: back)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-08-10 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[Liem isn’t sorry to escape another explanation of Quetzalcoatl’s weird circumstances as a summoned aspect or servant or whatever else. Despite feeling reasonably confident that he understands the gist of what she’d previously told him on the subject, the specifics still make his head spin a little bit, and he’s content to leave his current level of understanding as is.

Like Quetz, he leans against the cocoon where Set’s reforming body sleeps. He wonders if any hint of their presence reaches him during his dreaming, and if the company is at all a balm to the loneliness that seems to plague the red-haired god.
]

I understand it. When I was in Taldor, I spent much of my time looking for bad things — to correct, to contain, to scrub out. There’s no end to a job like that. That’s why I went to Zenith; I thought, maybe the world didn’t have to be that way.

[His expression is sober as he thinks about this — but then, he glances over at Quetz and smiles thoughtfully.]

But not everyone’s life is like that. My calling has always been something I pursued so that other people wouldn’t have to, so they can do honest work and come home to their families. It’s not really fair to give up on those people, is it?
redsoil: (pic#16552210)

ykw theyre both leaning on the Pod™ it's slimetime

[personal profile] redsoil 2023-08-10 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[ As Liem presses up along the cocoon, it seems as though the combined weight of their bodies leaves a dent in the surface — only for a split to form right between them, where all the vines and substance within have pressed up along the interior of the pod. It ruptures like an overripe fruit, immediately sluicing down between the two of them as a pale arm shoves its way out through the gap. The dark lines of the Savant's spoke-wheel mark upon the back of the hand make it a little more obvious, that it belongs to Set.

( The fact that Quetzalcoatl's ehēcacōzcatl necklace is wound around the wrist too, might also help. ) ]
sterngaze: (disapproval: unimpressed)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-08-11 02:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[The nice, peaceful moment between them is interrupted abruptly when the cocoon surface right between them splits and spills a rush of sap-like fluid. Liem flinches back with a noise of startled disgust, but it’s too late to keep the half of him nearer the opening from getting thoroughly drenched. It isn’t until he’s already half-risen and kneeling at the edge of the soggy, mossy puddle that he registers the pale arm with it’s dark Savant marking.]

Ugh, [he mutters, straightening slightly so he can dig his fingers into the other side of the split and tear it wider. Why are these things so wet inside? He’s going to have to walk back home like this! It’s almost as bad as if he’d been the one soaking in the pod himself.

Still, his irritation at his sudden drenching is quickly overridden by relief that Set is emerging back into the world of the living. Even a very wet and sticky, trouble-making Set is a significant improvement from a silent green cocoon.
]
redsoil: (pic#16220810)

[personal profile] redsoil 2023-08-12 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ — honestly, he doesn't know what he expects, as he comes to. But, to find anyone there waiting is not chief among them.

The vines that encircle him as he sags from the pod fray from far too many places upon him; each spot he had driven a weapon, they wither and fall from as he feels the cocoon give way under wrenching hands. Hears the muffled sound of familiar voices. A vine falls from his throat, and he can still feel the dull ache lingering. Whatever had been done to him to dissipate, it was numerous in nature and violent.

He sags out of the cocoon, hips still stuck inside, and weakly lifts his head to look up through soggy, red hair at the pair helping him out. There is — abject disorientation, almost disbelief, to find Liem and Quetzalcoatl there, and then there is a flicker of satisfaction. Hehehe, get gooped on, you two. He rasps, hoarse and thin: ]
— oh. Boo?
sterngaze: (neutral: dry)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-08-15 02:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[Had Liem expected to find Set’s cocoon so close to the time of his emergence, he would have brought a towel or something, to address the sticky sap that is now slopped all over all three of them (but still mostly Set). All they have on-hand is the handkerchief that he already gave Quetz, which is nowhere near big enough to deal with an entire person’s worth of gooey mess. He was… not thinking ahead, clearly.

As the sun god throws her arms around Set’s emerging torso, Liem remains kneeling where he is, letting Quetz deliver hugs and tears and insults for the both of them. It’s for the best, considering he is not an especially demonstrative man. He doesn’t feel the need to turn this into a wet group hug, even if he is glad to again see Set living and whole.
]

You gave us a little scare, [he says, an afterthought to Quetz’s wailed admonishment-slash-welcome.] We didn’t know where you’d gone.
redsoil: (pic#16220625)

[personal profile] redsoil 2023-08-17 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
[ Everything hurts, courtesy of his own choices that lead him to dissipate in the first place. Wielding an arsenal against oneself left its mark, the bone-deep exhaustion within him that has him unable to fight back when Quetzalcoatl throws her arms around him and begins to wail. Sap and all, she "WAA'S" her heart out and he seems — well, too tired to resist being snatched into her arms.

The position does let him peer over her bicep towards Liem, looking wrung out and slightly disoriented by the whole thing. His brow knits, eyes narrowing. ]


So, what? You both sat around and... waited? For me?

[ Honestly, that CANNOT be what happened. They probably just happened upon a pod and decided to hedge their bets. ]

I knew what I was doing, all went as planned.
sterngaze: (disapproval: unimpressed)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-08-23 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[While Quetz might be too distraught to pick up on what Set had said right away, Liem blinks, and then frowns at the incredulous-sounding pronouncement. All went as planned, says the man currently leaning half out of his rebirth pod, still wet with its sap. There is no one else here save for the three of them, and neither Liem nor Quetz had known what had happened to Set to begin with. He had spoken with others who also had no idea where the god had disappeared off to. Who planted his shard here, supposedly at his behest?]

I knew of no such plan, [he says, his voice as dry as the desert itself.] Hayame simply contacted me, saying you had disappeared, and when my search spread to the Tree, my magic brought me here.

[He punctuates this last word by patting the verdant pod still in the process of disgorging Set like a ripe pea. Though his delivery is patient, frustration lurks behind his rather-too-composed expression. Set had worried them for days about this, and for what?]