muchalucha: (pic#16286379)
QUETZALCOATL ♡ ([personal profile] muchalucha) wrote2023-03-01 11:15 pm
uproared: (you would think that wouldn't you)

[personal profile] uproared 2023-05-31 07:43 am (UTC)(link)
I spoke to the mouse.

[ It's clear more is incoming, though she needs a while to give the words (thought) voice. ]

... Back at the tree, I planned on leaving before she saw me. I figured it'd be better for both of us. [ She knows Gray would feel differently, but she also thinks Gray is a fool. ] You're the reason things didn't go to plan, but you also helped her make it out okay. So... thanks, or whatever.
uproared: (wow i've never thought about it)

[personal profile] uproared 2023-06-01 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Quetz's fanon Mordred is such an improvement over the real thing... wish we could trade.

It's frustrating that Quetzalcoatl is so Quetzalcoatl, and won't just let her say thanks and dip, but even though she meets the other woman's sunny positivity with her own wave of dour negativity, she's not quite rude enough to leave her on read. The explanation comes slowly, reluctantly, through the communion-equivalent of gritted teeth. Mordred isn't sure why she feels this way; only that she does, and that it really, really, sucks. ]


I wasn't there when she died, so I didn't have the right to face her. I even held on to her Shard for a while, 'cause I was worried the same shit might happen again, and I wouldn't be able to stop it... but that wasn't fair to her either.

[ "I couldn't protect her and I feel bad about it," but the emotionally stunted version. She sighs. ]

It's all so freakin' stupid. Of course people are gonna die in a war. Hell, I lost count of how many I killed when I was alive. I don't get why it feels different this time.
uproared: (in a way aren't we all responsible)

[personal profile] uproared 2023-06-05 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
[ She'll address the rest in a moment, but first: ]

... I don't particularly care about her, though. [ Ok. ]
uproared: drama from me. | twitter id: citron_82 (don't involve me in any drama)

[personal profile] uproared 2023-06-05 04:53 am (UTC)(link)
[ See, Mordred denies it, but she doesn't actually know enough to argue. Nobody has ever cared about her, so it's only natural that she has no concept of what it feels like to care for someone else. To her, it sounds more like Quetz is calling her weak — which is why she continues to angrily ("angrily") protest. ]

Don't be a fool, sun god. We're not even allies, much less friends. How can I care about someone that I'm going to kill?
sterngaze: (neutral: commish)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-06-30 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[It takes some time for Liem to arrive at the Tree.

He does not know of it immediately when Set passes, as their bond does not connect them in any way beyond the usual; a bond of companionship, sealed by word and deed alone, strengthened by the time they spend in one another’s company. Though he goes days without speaking to the god, it is only when Hayame contacts him to ask after Set that he realizes… he has not seen him in longer than he would normally expect.

(His thirst confirms for him that this is the case. It has been some time since he last supped from the god’s veins.)

So Liem goes looking. At his shrine in the Beyond, where they had shared intimate moments in days past, and where he thinks the thread of communion between them might spark loudest. At his home in Springstar — a place that he had never before visited, and had to be told even existed. He seeks him with his body and his soul, but the god of the desert is nowhere to be found.

And so, in resignation, he eventually finds himself here: at the Tree of Life, wandering its roots in hopeful trepidation of one familiar sight. Guided unerringly by the pull of magic leading him onwards, he searches for the swelling pod of a planted shard, nestled amidst the moss and dirt at the Tree’s roots.
]
sterngaze: (neutral: back)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-07-01 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
[Once he’s teleported to the Tree of Life, locating Set’s shard is a simple task. Following the tug of magic that manifests in answer to his spell, he descends to the tree’s base and traverses the roots until he finds the familiar shape of a growing cocoon — this time that of a friend, the pod immature and unbroken. The sight fills him with a melancholy sort of relief; though he doesn’t know how Set came to be dissipated, at least his shard is already safe in the Tree’s embrace, regenerating in its cocoon of greenery.

He is also relieved, and surprised, to catch sight of Quetzalcoatl leaning up against the rounded shape, apparently fast asleep.

Had she been the one to return his shard to the Tree? Would she be able to tell him what had happened to him? He is a little loath to disturb her, peaceful as she looks — but she must have been waiting here in solitude for some time to have fallen asleep like this, and he thinks perhaps she would welcome the company.
]

Ma’am? Quetzalcoatl?

[He crosses the distance to Set’s cocoon and crouches next to it, regarding Quetzalcoatl soberly.]

How long have you been here?
sterngaze: (Default)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-07-04 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
[Liem isn’t sure how he feels about Quetz’s lack of nervousness about napping in a place as publicly accessible as the Tree of Life. Sure, she is a goddess — but he recalls that she was one of the people in Meridian to get dissipated during the earlier portion of the Blight outbreak. And here she is next to Set’s cocoon, where his regenerating body is tucked snugly away. Clearly even the Divinities among Meridian’s number are not immune from danger, if the circumstances swing the right way.

Well. He’s no threat, so there isn’t any reason to get put out about it. He blinks, glances at the humped growth that she’s been leaning against.
]

I came to find him.

[Set, he means. He assumes that she knows whose cocoon she was napping next to. Having found what he was looking for, Liem approaches until he can kneel down in the moss next to the pod, noting how thick and lush the greenery seems to be around it. There’s no sense at all of the person sleeping within; he hopes Set is having good dreams.]

Were you the one who planted him here?
sterngaze: (neutral: commish)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-07-06 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
[Liem's brows lift in surprise at her admission — then furrow ever so slightly, as he realizes what it means. If Quetzalcoatl didn't even know whose cocoon she was resting against, then she must be as lost as him on the matter of how exactly Set even came to be here.

And yet, she knew enough to be aware that he had vanished, and to come looking for him. It gives Liem a little comfort to find someone already here, watching over him, even though — once again — Set hadn't extended a request for such consideration.
]

It is. And I've found him; his shard is here.

[He pats the curved side of the pod welling up from the ground, confidence mingling with melancholy in his tone. How had someone like Set managed to end up here, at a time when the blight was finally receding? Even though he expects Quetzalcoatl to be just as in the dark as he is, he can't help but ask anyway.]

Do you know what happened to him?
sterngaze: (neutral: dubious)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-07-07 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[Despite Quetz’s decidedly emotive and admittedly tender-hearted personality, Liem is still a little taken aback to see that, when he confirms that it really is Set’s shard nestled inside this cocoon — tears well up in her eyes and she begins to cry. Had she been holding back those tears back all the time that she’d been waiting here, or had she been crying here, alone, before she’d fallen asleep next to the cocoon of this dissipated person that she’d hoped was Set?

But she doesn’t acknowledge it, so he pretends that he hasn’t noticed anything at all.
]

I haven’t seen him in closer to a week, [he admits.

How often has Set been the one to seek him out with some bit of news, some question, some aggressive offer of aid? The only time recently that he’d sought Set out intentionally was at the end of the Mnemosyno Sending, when he’d gone to see the god preside over that final ritual of passing and had instead found him in the grip of something far more strange and upsetting.
]

It was when I was still with Zenith. He has seemed a little strange of late, but still… I do not know how he could have ended up here.
sterngaze: (blush: aghast)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-07-08 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[When Liem sees Quetz grasp the edge of her poncho and lift it to her face, his eyes dart hastily up to look somewhere north of her head — but he isn't quite quick enough with his realization to avoid catching an eyeful of divine tit. A faint, dusty-violet flush touches the delicate planes of his cheeks as he continues steadfastly to stare off into the Tree's depths, keeping his gaze there until the poncho has been dropped back in place.

Clearly, he was wrong to simply pretend nothing was the matter. Even as he returns his gaze to Quetz's puzzled face, pale fingers slide up to his breast pocket so he can retrieve his handkerchief and offer it wordlessly to her. Just in case of further tears.
]

I was.

[He's a little surprised that this is news to her. Admittedly he hadn't been terribly public about it, and he'd continued to spend time in both Springstar and Alenroux, but Hayame, Claude, and Set had all known of his defection. He had thought that at least one of them might have made the knowledge more public.]

For a few weeks, at least. I was… forcibly recruited during the Oracle trial, and only returned some few days past.
sterngaze: (neutral: dry)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-07-09 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[Liem allows himself to feel relief that Quetz accepts his offer of handkerchief, even if the immediate need for it has passed. Now that they have determined that this cocoon belongs to Set, it looks like both of them are intending to remain here for a while. Perhaps he can head off a second flashing incident this way, if she ends up tearing up again when Set actually emerges.

(He can’t remember the last time anyone called him “sweet.” Fortunately he’s already flustered enough from accidentally catching a glimpse of her chest that he doesn’t react visibly beyond a slight twitch of his mouth.)
]

Well… Sebastian Michaelis made an attempt at it.

[He doesn’t hesitate to name the people involved; other Meris should know what they’re capable of, for good or for ill.

Bracing a hand against the pod’s side, he rearranges his legs below him so he can sit next to it, instead of kneeling. The thick moss provides a surprisingly comfortable cushion.
]

I rebuffed him, but… I isolated myself more than I should have, during that period. John — not Mister Sims, but the other John — took it upon himself to, ah, convince me.
sterngaze: (neutral: dubious)

[personal profile] sterngaze 2023-07-11 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
[Converting people to Meridian by force had never been something that Liem had considered either, when they were all beneath the Tree. It had seemed unclean to him, to resort to such methods in order to claim victory. What did it say about those who were willing to rob others of their own agency in order to get their way? What did it say about the cause they fought for? During that interminable period in the Oracle chamber, with Zenith whispering in his ear, he hadn't felt confident enough in his own righteousness to assert his will over others.

He'd talked to them, instead. To look for trade partners. To try to understand other people's points of view, and to try to persuade them to see his. But despair had weighed too heavily on him; he couldn't claw his way back into the light.
]

Well…

[He glances up, thoughtful, at the immense body of the tree above their heads. Is he mad? At John? The question hadn't even occurred to him until now.]

A little, I suppose. I think it's more accurate to say I've formed an uncharitable opinion of his character, now.

[He can't really be too angry. He was the one who ultimately let himself be swayed, after all. That was why Hayame was angry with him, when he left.]

I don't think it was personal. We'd never even spoken before that interaction. He was probably just looking for someone vulnerable to convert.

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