Takes place right after the return of the sun at the crowlands, as the ship sails back towards the Fire Empire capital of Gurinbarฤ-to.
Lillian and Wulfram finally get to talk about the mark on her hand, and about the knight's newfound divinity.
Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:43 am
tab} ๐ท ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ x ๐ฏ ' ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ xxxxx tabtabi dont know how to do thisxxxi step forward, you step backxxxdanced many dances but i'm not accustomed to this one yet..
Lilloan sat in her cabin room, gripping at her arm which had a spiderweb of green markings all the way up to her elbow. Never had it been this aggravated, brought to it's current extreme by her utter desperation to save Wulfram. She knew it would rerurn to it's normal state given time, so for now she would just have to deal with the pain. With everything that happened, she would have gladly traded even more pain to make sure everyone got out of the Crowlands safe-- and she almost had.
Luo was asleep somewhere in one of the spare cabins on the ship, and Nava was off somewhere else on the vessel, most likely talking to Wulfram and Yorha. She had split off from them as soon as they had appeared on the ship, under the excuse that she was tired and needed rest. It was a bullshit lie, of course, though if anyone had seen through it no one had come to bother her yet.
A heelee boot slammed in to the floor as Lillian hissed, doubling over from her position sitting on the bed. She had stripped the battle dress that the chakra from the mark had tattered, and sat now in just an undershirt and leather pants, amber hair strewn in a curly mess around her face. She had truly made an insanely stupid decision when she branded herself with this fuin in that temple, and she was sure some day this cursed thing would kill her.
For now, however, the spiderweb of green retreated a little bit and the pain faded slightly. Lillian sat back, letting out a rattling breath, closing her eyes. She would have to research further on this "anchor" when she returned back to her house in the capital. Perhaps she could find a way to release the pain sooner in one of tge few tomes she had found.
The pain had left her wheeling and dizzy, so much so that she didn't register tge door to her cabin opening.
Three kicks on the bottom of the door, a well practiced ritual, was all that warned the Dove of Wulfram's entrance. His left hand pushed the doorway open and his lumbering frame ducked through the small doorway into her chamber. Minor details about the man had changed, enough to cut him in a different light to those who knew him. His hair, by-and-large still the long chestnut mass, had gained a peculiar white streak over his right eye, where Yatagarasu's natural energy and his own deific forces clashed. His eyes, once a calming green tone, had become almost a translucent amber in most lights, and his face had grown thin, aged by the sudden imposition and waste of force in a moment's time.
He carried himself differently, his latent rage surfaced, and now he walked on eggshells because this was the last person on earth he wanted to be angry with.
"You tried to use it?" He asked, as he crossed the frame, Ganymede having gotten stuck on the door had to be adjusted.
He held the blade, in her sheathe, gingerly in his right hand halfway down the length of the blade, before unceremoniously he tossed her onto Lillian's bed beside her.
At least there he didn't risk accidentally harming Ganymede.
"I swear, Dove. You're as reckless as I am prideful, and it's going to get us both killed if we don't calm down." The Knight chided as he stood across the room from the woman and slumped himself down against the wall.
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Torture Me Softly
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Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2020 11:30 am
tab} ๐ท ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ x ๐ฏ ' ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ xxxxx tabtabi dont know how to do thisxxxi step forward, you step backxxxdanced many dances but i'm not accustomed to this one yet..
He was changed, even more so than his appearance. She felt the tension in him, and for a second her worry for her brother-in-arms trumped the pain in her arm, but only for a minute. The spiderwebs pulsed again, dully glowing, pulling another gasp from her as Wulfram settled against the wall. The historian bit her lip, closing her eyes tight, and counted down the five seconds it would take for the pain to go away in her head. One... two... three...
"Of course I tried to use it. I did not know how that situation was going to pan out. You know I would do anything to protect you, Wulfram." Her eyes flicked to Ganymede, who had been tossed beside her only moments before, relaxing as the pain passed. The Knight tended to be wreckless, and his sister could only do so much in her current state. It was up to her, and only her, to see Wulfram grow in to a seasoned old man who told war stories. Taking a deep breath, Dove looked back towards him, her tawny eyes meeting his now pale golden ones.
Lillian was worried, very much so, even though the danger had passed for now. Worried about what had happened to Wulf and what it meant for him in the future. He had, it seemed, became the very thing he hated. The Nightmare had said something to her in the otherworld, something that now chilled her to her core.
You will lose him in a way you could never foretell.
Demons lie, that's one thing she quickly learned in her research... but sometimes they told the truth as well, especially if that truth was as painful as a lie. Lillian looked at her hand as another pulse made it's way through her chakra network, the intricate mess of fuin work nearly blinding her with its green glow. The woman mumbled under her breath, just barely loud enough for her companion to hear.
"It is meant to be used. How anyone could ever get past this damn pain, however, is beyond me. There should have been a ******** warning." Her time in the otherworld and the temple had been very tramatic, and so she barely talked about what happened. Even her report to Masahiro had been uncharacteristically bare bones, almost as if it had been written by someone else and not by the ex soldier who looked upon a challenge with glittering eyes and a spring in her step.
The spiderweb of lines on her arm died down further, reaching about midway up her forearm.
"You know, maybe the fact that you almost died. Found it in an abandoned reliquary tower. And I had to pull you out of the water, murk, and mud... Oh! Couple that with the fact that there is not a soul alive using the same kind of fuuinjutsu, unless the white-haired old c**t who employs us has some stashed away in his abyssal library." The Knight began to argue, stopping as he felt the torrents of light and void rise from his flesh.
And even breath heaved from his chest and the darkness calmed, the light took longer to fade.
"Look, little Dove, I'm just worried about you. As much as I know you'd do anything to protect me, I'm tired. I've had to pick you up, time and time again, broken and bleeding, near death. It hurts me to lose you time and time again." He admitted, his now golden eyes cast down the to the floor, then towards his hands.
His hands, wrapped in their opposing forms of energy fiddled with one another. He had seemed to have found something utterly interesting about his fingernails and just continued to inspect them while he tried to speak to her. While he confessed his momentary weakness, his worry about what he would become should something befall her.
"What happened today, it would have been worse were it not for Ganymede putting the form of light in context with the void. And it would have never subsided without your voice. If I lose your voice, I may lose my own next time."
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Torture Me Softly
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2020 11:05 am
tab} ๐ท ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ x ๐ฏ ' ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ xxxxx tabtabi dont know how to do thisxxxi step forward, you step backxxxdanced many dances but i'm not accustomed to this one yet..
Wulfram was right, of course. So she sat there, and took the verbal lashing, watching the Knight Captain with tired eyes. The rotunda was still clear in her mind, the fresco paintings and scribbles of fereverent writing. The last whisps of chakra disappeared from her arm as the mark settled back in to a dormant state. She let him continue, her eyes looking at the floor when he finished speaking. Her heart was heavy... leave it to Wulf to make her feel remorse-- and she was not a remorseful person by any means.
The two sat in silence for a few moments; there were very few times when words failed Lillian and this was one of them. The gears in her mind caught and groaned as the historian picked at the skin on the sides of her nails.
"I'm sorry... cรฉile..." The apology was strained, the ex-soldier was not one to apologize. Too prideful. "I... We... have both lost many things... nearly everything. Our family, our home, damn near our country... T-the last thing I mean is to inflict you with more pain, I-I just..." A harsh breath escaped Lillian as she tried to grasp the words she wanted to say. "This world keeps getting more crazy. More dangerous. You're all I have left... You have Ganymede, despite her current state, and your men... Masahiro, and many others in the capital. The little ward, Himawari..."
Lillian shuffled uncomfortably, tawny eyes flashing up at Wulfram. "I am not a friendly person. Hell, I don't even think I'm a good person, Wulf, so I just have you... And I am weak. Compared to these gods and demigods, these people who weild magi- sorry, Ninjutsu -like they are only breathing... I need more. I need to be able to protect you from everything and now even yourself..." There was a desperation in her eyes, a deep pain. She had told herself loneliness didn't matter because she had Wulfram, he was all she had ever needed. So when she arrived here in the South and had fallen for Masahiro, it had taken her by surprise... but now he had found the love of his life and was married. That glimpse of not being alone anymore made her realize how alone she actually was.
Sad, dried up, Lillian. Alone in her tower with her books. A conniving b***h, wasting away.
She was scared to be completely alone, she was scared to lose her best and only friend. Blinking rapidly, looking up at the ceiling, her hands in her lap, she continued. "I'll try to be more careful in the future. I'm sorry."
"I'm not a maiden in need of protection, and neither are you, Madame D'ouve. We've both been through more viscera, gore, and soil than I care to remember. And we're going to see a lot more of it by the time this is through, so I'd appreciate it if you kept your head on your shoulders." The Knight said as his eyes met hers, a stoic tone broke free from otherwise shaky breaths.
"We're both flustered, broken, and entirely out of our elements here. The Old Man was a damned curse in our lives," Wulfram started, his voice trailed off a moment as the taste of his thought lingered on his lips "but he was right, you know. He warned us, that if we followed him home to the Lands of His Birth, we would see a world unlike anything we knew back home. Skyeveil seems like a distant dream to me. I was, complacent there. Things that would have killed us there, are so alien now." He finished as a whisp of shadows passed through his lips, void given form.
Wulfram had to chew on what Lillian had said about not being a good person. He had watched this woman run herself into harm's way countless times for little more than the successful lives of others and a legacy that she wouldn't live to see. A legacy that none of them would ever live to see. Well, maybe he would live to see it now. She did this just because it meant that others lived, and she ensured it. She did this because it was just, or right, she did this because one potential sacrifice ensured the lives of many others. She was a woman who could not see the forest for the trees because she was too entangled in the pain of her own failings and unable to see the great she did selflessly.
"You know you're not alone. We can shoulder this weight together."
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Torture Me Softly
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:01 pm
tab} ๐ท ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ x ๐ฏ ' ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ xxxxx tabtabi dont know how to do thisxxxi step forward, you step backxxxdanced many dances but i'm not accustomed to this one yet..
Back to silence, back to being unsure of what to say. She felt off kilter, like a lifelong dancer who suddenly forgot how to dance. So many things had changed, and she felt like her hypothetical ankles were broken. Lillian stared out of the porthole to the wall left of Wulfram, her hands trailing up her arms to hug herself. So much had changed. Too much had changed. For the first time in a very long time, the historian felt lost. She was a woman of knowledge, she collected pieces of that knowledge like pieces on a chestboard and held the playingfield to her advantage. Back in Skyveil she was the best, only matched by Wulfram. But now her words no longer carried weight and she was weak and for the first time in her life she felt like the man across from her didn't understand.
They were so familiar with eachother thst they could have conversations without opening their mouths, weave in to eachothers attacks like they were the same person, and... other things they never spoke of. And for the first time Wulf didn't understand. He didn't.
"Is it so wrong to want to save you from more heartache?" She finally mumbled, gripping at the soft sleeves of her poet shirt. "You're right. We've seen our fair share of hell, and it is our fate to see even more. Your new form all but confirms that... But I..." Lillian trailed off, her features scrunching in annoyance and frustration. She scoffed, dropping her hands in to her lap.
"I... There was a time I was weak. Weak in a way that I had never been before. I refuse the be that weak again, Wulfram. I'm terrified. I'm becoming this soft person I don't recognize and-" She let out a soft hiss, gritting her teeth, her eyes stinging as anger roared behind them. Anger at the world, anger at herself. Further behind that anger was a cold core of fear. "And I cant be because you need me at my best. We need me at my best. So I keep making stupid decisions in desperation to reclaim the strength that keeps slipping just out of reach."
"You're all I have." She repeated, trying to get him to understand. He had to understand. She didn't even understand, but still her soul pleaded for him to. What was left if she couldn't match the ridiculous strength of the beings in this world? What was left if she slipped up, if she didn't try everything? The mark on her hand flared, a reminder of her idiotic conquests to keep up with the power struggle.
Wulfram was something divine now, and with his divine path he now had divine enemies. And here she sat, a mortal woman stumbling for pieces of knowledge. For him. For this stupid moron of a man who didn't see that he did need to be protected. Who didn't see he was even more reckless than her. Who didnt see that he was everything. Lillian took in a deep breath, reaching up the back of her hand to wipe at her eye.
"No... For gods' sakes no..." His parlance had changed, the infallible man whose belief and anger in the void of the gods and damnation of them always remained in the singular, it had shifted, nearly accepted the fact that multiple existed. A singular slip of his tongue, enough to show something deep inside of him had stirred, something deep and profound, something enough that even he caught it after the words escaped his lips. "but how can you save me from heartache, when you're the one who causes me the most? When you run away and chase valiant dreams without me by your side, and nearly die by your own hubris? When you decided we should walk away from the guard to follow the court wizard across the sea, in spite of our promotions to leadership. You followed your heart, lass. And I followed mine, to spare myself my own heartache."
The Knight froze, his eyes downcast. Radiant images of his sister's astral space danced through his skull as he tried to keep himself focused. He needed to keep himself grounded.
"You were never the weaker one. Physically, maybe if someone could ever manage to get their hands around your wrists... Like that one night... But you were always the strongest willed, the wiliest, and the most prepared for everything we faced. You planned ahead, you gave advice none could falter against." Wulfram's eyes turned upwards, to meet hers. "I still don't think I can match your level of grace, or humanity. Even if I am some kind of divine, I will never be the kind of man who deserved you. I should never have tried to stand in the way of the Emperor you chased."
His admission, more succinct, visceral, and without the joking candor he had always bevied in his own defense. He was just tired now.
"You don't have anything to try to reach to become. You are far stronger than me, without some divinity you need to rely on. But if it helps you, we can be terrified together, since each other and that old codger are all we have." He chuckled.
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Torture Me Softly
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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 2:14 pm
tab} ๐ท ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ x ๐ฏ ' ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ xxxxx tabtabi dont know how to do thisxxxi step forward, you step backxxxdanced many dances but i'm not accustomed to this one yet..
Lillian's damp eyes met Wulfram's, then trailed off to one side as she listened to him speak. 'I will never be the kind of man who deserved you.' The words brought back memories she had buried, or at least had attempted to-- lips against her own, calloused hands against her skin, a moment suspended in time. It was a mute elephant in the room; Wulfram had never mentioned that night but neither had she. When morning came, they had gone about their business as if nothing had happened. Only a look had transpired between the two before they returned to the daily activities of being high ranking soldiers in Skyveil. The blame was equally on them both, they silently refused to talk about it to eachother. It was a conversation they needed to have but could never bring themselves to address, and it was only further complicated by her instant affection for an Southerner-- Masahiro. This distance between them, it was her fault. That was clear now.
It was up to her to fix it. To swallow her pride and fear and fix it before it was too late.
With a soft exhale of breath, Lillian pushed herself up from the bed. Her tawny hues were back on Wulfram as she came to a rest in front of him. Their depths were clear again, focused, determined. She had regained her resolve amd composure. Her mind was made up. Gently, her arms wrapped around the Knight, hands sliding softly across his torso to clasp behind his back. She pressed close, resting her head on Wulf's chest, ginger waves coming to rest just below his chin. With a gentle squeeze to the man who was all but trapped by a woman almost half his size, her eyes closed. It was an apology, a silent one, attempting to portray the words she couldn't. I'm sorry. I'll be better.
"Yeah... Me and you against the world, right...?" Out of all the things that had changed, she hoped that that hadn't.
"Us against the world, always. Might have to beat an old Wizard too." The Knight said as his void-wrapped right arm lifted from the ground and slid around her waist and pulled her into an embrace.
The moments like these were few and far between, moments of kindness, weakness, where they let themselves be human instead of simple warriors bound to duty. Wulfram relished them, his dearest friend and the best soldier to have served alongside him. His fingers splayed along her back as he pulled her in closer and just took a deep breath of her, and let his breath catch for a moment.
"I miss the Diamond Coast. I miss the surety of home. I hate what I am becoming." The man admitted, as he tilted his head back and looked up towards the ceiling.
He was a man of action, of combat, rolling wars and surety. This political intrigue and the dance of gods and man was not a place where he belonged. His position as Guard Captain was a placation, meant to keep him stable and from wandering. It meant that he traversed the Empire and handled the issues that arose, such as when the errant Luo began testing the shields of the Capitol, or when the rebellion in the woods broke out and spun a Yokai Necromancer to life. It kept him alive, but he still was at the thrall of a political game, and he was not enthused. Lillian had been much the same, they had been along his side in the Skyveil guard, she had become a Master of Spies, he had saved her in both roles as many times as she had saved him. They had been romantic and never spoken another word of it, she fell for the wizard they came to serve after The Knight returned from his first visit to these lands.
"I won't leave you alone, ever again." He said, his voice heavy.
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Torture Me Softly
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 8:55 pm
tab} ๐ท ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ x ๐ฏ ' ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ xxxxx tabtabi dont know how to do thisxxxi step forward, you step backxxxdanced many dances but i'm not accustomed to this one yet..
"You better ******** not..." Lillian replied in to him, her hands gripping at his shirt. "Skyveil was hell without you..." That description wasn't an exaggeration. When Wulfram left for the south, she had been lost. He had left shortly after their... night, and it had left her anxious, feeling like it was her fault. Their goodbyes were little, and strained, because neither of them knew how to say goodbye. And then he was gone, and Lillian had felt like she was lost at sea.
She unraveled a little in his absence. Wulfram was her confidant, the only person she could ever trust, especially after the incident with Sparrow. To suddenly not have that, especially for a spymaster... She had no one who had her back, no one to lean on when she was weak, no one to listen to her. She had kept hopeful for the first year, hopeful that he'd come back like he had never been gone. But after the second year she lost hope. What if he had found Gany and settled somewhere, created a life, gotten married... forgot about her.
When he showed back up, she had been surprised. She had become accustomed to the thought that she would never see him again. She wanted to fight him, scream at him... among other things. But she had other things to do, he needed her, so she shut up and was there. The hours of research she had done on his behalf, killing herself day and night, had at least been of some use. Had helped him save his twin, if you could call being soulbound to a piece of metal being saved. It's all she could do.
Her anger at his leaving was another thing they never talked about. Because of course he had to leave... He had to find Ganymede.
The redhead pulled back a little to stare up at Wulfram, her eyes guarded. He would not see the bitterness that hid behind them. She had no right to be bitter. Family came first. That was always how Wulfram had been, and it had been her choice to stay. On to the next topic.
"I wish you wouldn't hate it. It's... worrisome. And bothersome. But... you're you." She smirked softly, a little bit of her normal mischievous glint returning to her eyes. "A blunt a*****e who likes to fight a little too much. That'll never change, at least."
