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always armor here - Deimos - 11-01-2024
An influx of letters about some new variant of vampire gourds had the Sword sweeping through the guild library. Not an uncommon notion, snagging the opportunity when he had it, and by the time he’d surprised several other members, glancing up from their tables, he shook them off and grabbed at a book detailing the variety of seasonal creatures.
Claiming a table for himself closer to the crackling hearth, he opened to the specific pages on the pumpkins; familiar, with them, given his years spent in the Hollowed Grounds. Glancing between the pictures along the parchment, and the ones hastily sketched within the messages, indicated that perhaps another adaptation had stirred amidst Caido. He’d certainly never heard of them floating, or conjuring illusions. Not quite frowning, but certainly narrowing his eyes in speculation, he extended a long, deep breath, settled into the chair, and began to respond. Seemed they’d be heading on a hunt soon.
RE: always armor here - Koa - 11-04-2024
There are a number of reasons that bring Koa to Halo, but chief among them is a need for counsel. Despite the uneven start to their relationship, the young soldier has come to see the Sword as something of a (perhaps unwilling) mentor: someone to aspire to, whose unreproachable moral compass has kept him clear of drama and disrepute.
(The fact that he's unrelated to a certain blonde helps, too.)
Leafchange has only just begun, but already it's freezing cold in Halo, and Koa relishes the warmth as he enters the Monster's Guild. Shedding layers like a snake sheds skin, he follows pointed fingers and quiet directions deeper into the building, back through a library and to a cozy study adorned with comfortable chairs. There sits the Sword, busily working, looking relaxed and only slightly too large for his surroundings. Pausing at the threshold to the study, Koa audibly clears his throat, not wanting to intrude should Deimos be in the middle of something important.
RE: always armor here - Deimos - 11-04-2024
Unreproachable moral compass was probably a bit of a stretch – there were moments where Deimos had thrived on spite and pettiness, and would wholeheartedly do it again. At least, presently, those instances were not earmarked for Koa.
He’d heard someone approaching, but presumed it’d been a guild member finding their way through the study – and had ignored it for penning his response. Checking over the details of the journey again, he started writing once more, before the throat clearing echoed around the chamber, and his piercing gaze rounded over to the Dragoon. Pausing momentarily in his work, mind going through appointments for the day and not recalling any with the Stormbreaker, he then had to wonder why the younger man was seeking him out.
But instead of going through the meticulous array building through his mind, he simply said it. [say]“Koa,”[/say] came with a nod of his head, though he didn’t rise from his seat – finishing the sentence on the parchment before leaning back in his chair, and waving a hand in the direction of various others. A direct invitation. [say]“Something you need?”[/say]
RE: always armor here - Koa - 11-11-2024
Well, it isn't the coldest invitation he's received, and Koa's more than willing to take it. Sinking into the offered chair with a muted [say]"woomph,"[/say], the young man set about removing his gloves, rubbing his hands like a raccoon in an attempt to warm them up.
[say]"Kind of? Um."[/say] Glancing around the study uneasily, Koa tries to muster his words. He's planned on visiting Deimos well before this with a very different series of questions and concerns, but the recent encounter with Sunjata has left him feeling adrift. He doesn't want to rat out the Flood - they're friends, kind of, he thinks - and yet...
Swallowing down the last of his doubts, Koa steels his resolve. [say]"It's about Sunjata,"[/say] he says at last, copper eyes glinting embers in the firelight. [say]"He's infected. I... I tried to talk him into coming here for treatment, but he flew away."[/say]
RE: always armor here - Deimos - 11-12-2024
Patient and composed, the Sword waited – attention focused and honed on the young Dragoon. Seasons before, they’d discussed other possibilities, and ramifications, of sovereignty, so his expectations formulated there. Maybe there’d been developments in Stormbreak that the Warden was unaware of – it would make sense, given the furtive nature of some void and Family movements.
So it was safe to say that what Koa did bring up broke his composed mask. His eyes rounded and widened, mind swirling upon multiple conclusions, entangled threads, and knotted, gnarled signs he’d seen but hadn’t fully put together. Instead of answering right away though, he stood, quietly crossing over to the study, closing the door, and coming back to his seat.
Given his experiences with the Flood, he’d be the first to rapidly agree with the sentiments simply on principle. But there was much at stake with Koa’s statement. Unfurling a cool, calming breath, he tried to wrangle himself together; trusting in verification first. [say]“All right.” [/say]Swallowing down the lines he wanted to utter, he opted for another approach. [say]“How do you know?”[/say]
RE: always armor here - Koa - 11-18-2024
He watches in silence as Deimos shuts the door, right heel tapping against the carpeted floor. There's history between the Flood and Sword that Koa knows he can't begin to grasp, but it doesn't keep him from wondering about the thoughts swirling behind calm, ice-blue eyes. It feels like an eternity before the Warden sits, but his measured voice soothes the boy, stilling him into a soldier's calm. Unconsciously he straightens his spine, hands folding attentively in his lap.
[say]"This,"[/say] Koa answers immediately, pulling the ring off his finger and holding it up for Deimos to view. [say]"It's the ring you took to Starfall for us - the one Safrin made. It warms in the presence of the infected."[/say] It had burned hot, when Sunjata was near.
Should Deimos seem interested in looking closer, Koa will of course offer the ring; otherwise he slips it back on his finger, trying not to fidget with the silver band. [say]"I went to speak to him- told him I knew, but not how. I think he'd already learned from Frey."[/say] Shaking his head, the young man signs. [say]"I tried to talk him into coming here to be healed, but he flew away. So I thought I'd come to you."[/say]
RE: always armor here - Deimos - 11-18-2024
Some part of him, deeply inward and wrapped around his ribcage, hoped the sentiments weren’t true. That perhaps things had been mistaken, and all the misgivings, trepidations, and things that had nagged at the back of his mind had been only that. But upon seeing the ring, the same one he’d carried to Starfall, made everything clear and precise.
He sighed; casting another long, slow breath, trying to let everything else subside around him. [say]“Ah. I did not realize it was a shared item.”[/say] Nodding, and not needing to see the item any closer, his thoughts rankled and bit; feeling the summoning of another headache coming along. [say]“So he was already aware…,”[/say] and maybe that made it much worse. It confirmed the suspicions of the rapier, of who might’ve sent along information to have it then stolen from Ronin…
And all the planning. All the meetings. Not only did the Family have intangible threads listening in on conversations, but now they had someone within the very battlements. [say]“That explains a lot,”[/say] he mustered, fighting the urge to put his palms up to his forehead. [say]“Thank you for trying, and letting me know. I will contact Ronin and Remi and see if there is something we can do.”[/say] Mentioning it to Ru also pulsed at his brain; but he didn’t know if the timing (what with them being newly engaged) mattered, or if she’d even care. She didn’t seem to about all his other sins. [say]“Did he say how it happened?”[/say] A longshot, probably, and Deimos might've already known on the blurred sentiments already shared by the Flood once; but he snagged at the parchment he’d had laden for notes, and began to scrawl out another message.
RE: always armor here - Koa - 11-18-2024
[say]"We went to Safrin together,"[/say] Koa confirms, nodding his head as he returns the ring to his finger. [say]"Usually we've kept it with Zavien, but I already had suspicions for Sunjata, so I took it to have them confirmed."[/say] He hadn't wanted to do things halfcocked, not this time; hadn't wanted to come to Deimos without concrete proof.
As for how aware Sunjata'd been... [say]"He said he didn't know, but also that he'd already spoken to Frey. And he certainly wasn't surprised."[/say] Not the way Ever had been, when they'd confirmed it with the gods. Koa can already feel a weight lifting from him as Deimos speaks about Remi and Ronin and seeing what can be done - clearly this was the right decision, now the 'adults' are involved.
Shaking his head at the question of how, Koa bites his lip. [say]"My friend Everest is infected, too. I think Dahlia did it. Somehow."[/say] He shudders, imagining horrible syringes or weird brain worms. [say]"I'm hoping to convince him to come get cleared up, too. But it's hard. People who are infected - they seem happy about it. Ever says it's made his life better. Helped his brain."[/say] Raising a hand to scrub his face, Koa sighs and shakes his head. [say]"And... I dunno, maybe it has. But that doesn't mean it's right. Especially since he wasn't given a choice."[/say]
RE: always armor here - Deimos - 11-18-2024
He nodded at the explanation; wondering how long it had been since the infection had taken hold of the Flood. Well before their conversations within Torchline? When Dahlia had supposedly visited? Those last machinations clicked within his mind, and then the logic of King’s End having no protection – why would it be, when the Family had already encroached upon its leader? [say]“So he has been keeping it a secret.”[/say] He fought the urge to roll his eyes, and opted for shaking his head – because had he told, they would’ve done something to ensure he was no longer Dahlia’s puppet. Tried, at the very least.
He’d known about Everest from Flora, and perhaps hoped that he’d make it here on his own too. [say]“I had heard. He has not come to the springs either. No one has.”[/say] Which left the Sword pondering about the parameters of things – if part of the issue was the illness itself, leading them far away from remedies, balms, and antidotes; especially when it was so easy and simplistic. [say]“I wonder if it is like past sicknesses – the second blight made us not want to go anywhere near the cure.”[/say] Mulling over the notions while pausing to scrawl something out for Remi and Ronin, he tilted his head, questions forming throughout the musings. [say]“Did he say how it helped him?”[/say] What was the benefit? Because from his standpoints on being infected with anything, it was never good. Perhaps this was a brainwashing, conditioning, and influential mechanism. Or a sign, a symptom, of what to watch out for in the future.
As for the rightness of it all, Deimos could only agree. [say]“Safrin would not have sent us so many warnings if it was a beneficial thing.”[/say]
RE: always armor here - Koa - 11-19-2024
[say]"I don't think they want to be cured."[/say] That's the impression he's gotten, at least, from Jata and Everest both. Being a Friend of the Family seems to warp those infected into loyalty toward their state, even if it wasn't something for which they initially volunteered.
The question of how his friend had been helped is a harder one to answer. Resting his elbows on the arms of his chair, Koa presses his fingers together, chin upon his hands. [say]"Ever... he's always been different. His brain - he described it as trying to walk through a hallway full of string without tripping. And the lights are off."[/say] Difficult and hazardous in ways that Koa can barely begin to understand.
[say]"And now I guess it's like the lights have turned on. Things - people - are easier for him. But how much of that's him feeling that way, and how much is it them making him feel that way?"[/say] A rhetorical question - there's no way for Deimos to know. [say]"That's why I want him to use the springs. Because then at least he can decide for himself, instead of having them decide for him."[/say]
Never mind that it's Koa's decision that such intervention is needed at all. It's easier to see others' hypocrisy than identify ones own flaws.
RE: always armor here - Deimos - 11-19-2024
Not having spoken to any of the infected about the illness itself – for clearly the Flood had hidden it – he could only surmise Koa’s notions with a wrinkle of his nose and another sigh. [say]“And we do not know how they would react upon being coerced into going to the springs anyway.”[/say] Because the Sword presumed it would be a fight, regardless.
Unaware of Everest at all, save for the time he acted as an announcing boy for Dahlia and her arrival into a poorly planned meeting, his head tilted, listening. He wasn’t sure he understood the mechanics behind it either; his own mind was a constant flux of machinations and calculations, all hardwired into protection or next, plotting steps. And he didn’t have an answer for Koa either, other than musing. [say]“Maybe, after healing, he will see it was within him all along.”[/say] He shrugged; because that sounded like some motivational speech he didn’t have in him at the moment. [say]“I dislike the thought of forcing them into the springs though.”[/say] Unless it was Sunjata; for the thought of holding that fool’s head underneath the water seemed very amusing.
RE: always armor here - Koa - 11-20-2024
[Say]"I hope so."[/say] Hopes that Ever can come out the other side and still be happy with who he is - a version that isn't modified by some sort of space parasite. He shrugs at Deimos's aversion to force, similarly finding the idea distasteful, but it's also all they've got. [Say]"They'll be free to make their own choices after."[/say] And if that choice is the Family, well.
He doesn't want to think about that.
His main message conveyed in full, Koa heaves a relieved sigh and sinks back in his chair. Letting his attention drift through the study, he gazes in open admiration at the trophies and trappings, the products of the hunt. [Say]"So... monster hunter's guild, huh? I've heard stories about your hunts. Always wanted to go on one."[/say] He smiles wistfully at the Sword. [Say]"I'm sure you have some awesome stories."[/say]
RE: always armor here - Deimos - 11-20-2024
His eyes narrowed at the statement, unsure on how they’d proceed from there. He couldn’t quite give any pacifying response about the counter-measures when there were plans to be made and shared, so he resigned to simply silence; nodding along as he finished off the letter to Remi and Ronin, then set it aside to find a courier later.
He didn’t expect the next response – perhaps thinking Koa had come here to discuss past portions of sovereignty and challenging for something in the midst of all the Family debacles – and raised his head up from the parchment at the barely-concealed insinuations. Opting to humor and meander around mischief, he tilted his head again, intending to bat notions around, not unlike a cat. [say]“Are you here to ask me about hunting stories?”[/say] Of which, it was true, he had multitudes; from early days and burnt guilds and dragons that pummeled, decimated, and traumatized, to those of less lethal natures. But he doubted it was just that.
RE: always armor here - Koa - 12-02-2024
[say]"I'd not forgive myself it I passed up the opportunity,"[/say] Koa replies with a chuckle and a smile, eyebrows raising in invitation as he leans forward in his chair. Aside from being perpetually interested in stories from his heroes, he has no shame in seeking distraction from darker, more severe subjects. The Family, its effects on Sunjata and beyond.
The plans he's made but not yet voiced, to try and make a change.
Whether or not Deimos deigns to regale the lad with tales of exploits, eventually the true topic of his concerns will need to be breached. Expression growing serious, Koa clears his throat. [say]"I also wanted... well, we'd spoken about the, uh, monster problem back in Stormbreak."[/say] He raises an eyebrow meaningfully at the Warden. [say]"I thought... given the changes in the Greatwood