all that and more

KIADA

the harpy

’Old habits.’ What an excuse. She flashes him a cheery grin briefly, amused by the shrug and the warm smile that crosses his face – glad to see it there when she’d seen so many frown lines forming on his face in the time she’d known him here. Gods, had it been two years? Almost? Somewhere around there? Where had the time really, truly, gone? Regardless, she appreciates being included in the more intimate of information, after everything (captures and blights, faced with Zariah’s tyranny and the rebellion, faced with losing Ru’in twice and then a third when she’d been too weak to capture his soul…) he certainly deserved to be able to keep his old habits.

Some of them.

Smirking as she moves closer toward him – arms open to pull him in a tight embrace and melting when he wraps one arm around her – like the father she’d never had, the beacon of light despite his dark edges and quiet shadowed solitude. The pillar she required in a time of so much uncertainty that she’d absolutely latched onto and never quite wanted to let go. “You’re welcome!” She says chipperly, brightly into his side, burying her pale face into the crook of his arm and body.

all bright things must burn

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

Deimos He could always be worse and simply not say anything at all – truly return to the ways of a detached, apathetic, insouciant creature, with not much to live for save violence and brutality. A creature and cretin of melancholy, shadow, and deceit, stalking the veils of sinister reaches and nefarious means, hovering along his mountain summits, harpooning a sharpened edge to anyone he met. It took time for him to erode, to evolve, to change, to assimilate, and that he’d come this far at all could either be ignited as some miraculous happenstance, or revered as something occurred, altered, because of those around him. He was permitted to cherish, to devote, to love, instead of rampaging his way across the earth in pursuit of every little havoc-reaching design. The latter would still probably happen, just much less. He breathed easy, no skipping rocks when she was tucked against him, arms wrapped around his torso, his arm intentionally lifting to drape across her head obnoxiously. A quiet grumble, appeased, for the moment, as he stared across the scenery again, daring not to imagine the hot springs of old, before the gaze settled back down upon her. “What are your plans for Deepfrost?” Out of sight and out of mind Make everything alright So let the sky and sea collide Just not in our lifetime

KIADA

the harpy

“Ugh.” The Harpy manages as soon as Deimos drapes his arm across her head, tucking it in and hunching her shoulders a small amount to try and shake him off, but she keeps her arms around him – and if it’s something she has to deal with for the time being? So be it. At least she could, at least it wasn’t like back in Helovia when she’d tried to fight back against her mother to go to the Basin once more.

Only to find out in the Threshold that he had passed.

It stirs something in her gut that she drowns before it has a chance of reaching the Attuned bond, and instead focuses on the question he poises. “I… Plan on going to Halo, I think.” She announces, perhaps a bit sheepishly. It would be safer there, home among the mountains where she didn’t have to worry about souls or monsters, wouldn’t have to relive the terrors of stepping along the snowy ground in the dead of LongNight to chase after a ghost in the hands of a monster.

all bright things must burn

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

Deimos He petulantly ignored her attempts to shake him off, maneuvering along the top of her cranium as if she hadn’t motioned along at all. He lessened the weight so she wasn’t actually supporting his figure, just remaining obnoxious and close, chiseling along things he didn’t get to have before. So he simply listened again, remaining in the calming ambience, the back and forth, the mischief and the melee, as she proposed her intentions for the upcoming season. With her not going towards the stretch of LongNight’s claws and knives, it made sense to avoid it altogether, now that they had the opportunity. The Sword had already immersed himself into overprotective ranges, intending to stay within confines and boundaries, instilling doors if he could find qualifying candidates – so he mulled and mused, gaze not leaving the shoreline. “We are likely sending over some Grounders willing to go to Halo for Deepfrost.” How many or who was a current underlying factor, and they’d only know once they’d posted the announcement and gathered things in order. “Would you help watch over them?” Another set of strong, determined eyes to ensure safety and logic, that they wouldn't do anything foolish, ridiculous, or rash. Out of sight and out of mind Make everything alright So let the sky and sea collide Just not in our lifetime

KIADA

the harpy

Of course, he wouldn’t make it easy to evade the weight of the arm on her head, but he does alleviate some of the pressure and she keeps him in her grasp just for that alone. Her question is uttered, half wondering what he’d request of her – whether she should stay, whether it would be good to. But if one thing was certain, it was the fact that he was stronger now than before. He had made it out of the Monster Hunter’s Guild before the collapse. He’d made it out, with Amalia, and after that? Well, she couldn’t really claim she’d be more help.

Probably more of a nuisance. More of a worry.

So she inhales deeply, offering him a small smile when he asks the question. A task, a job to do. “Yeah, I can do that.” She answers before pinpointing him with that icy, amused stare, nose scrunching slightly. “Do I have permission from the council to punch someone who’s being an asshole?” Her grin shifts to something mischievous with the question, a snicker leaving from her throat as it’s uttered.

all bright things must burn

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

Deimos Deimos had no predilection or notion that Kiada would be worried about him. Maybe it was because he rarely worried about himself, and considered others would treat him the same – the regards had been vastly similar in Helovia. Fight, rip, tear, bleed for his people, rinse and repeat, with not much lacquered and layered in between. Too used to the flames, to the bristling wares, to the height of pain, anguish, and lacerations, the lines of scars pressed into their ivory wake, riddled and scattered along his figure, were nothing. It meant more to ensure those he cherished were safe, protected, and shielded, and he’d remained committed to those actions. This year would be no different, defending, assailing, firm in his stalwart, stubborn, tenacious beliefs. But even if Kiada wasn’t there with them, he’d still worry. It was embedded and infused in his very nature, in the tight circle of family he’d concocted and created. She’d be safer in Halo though, away from the boundaries of fallen souls and dastardly monsters. He smiled, the generous turn of his mouth delving into a snicker as she considered, then accepted the proposition. Glancing down, he was snagged and caught on her icy stare, and he laughed again – as if she needed anyone’s permission to unleash her own brand of hell. “You have my permission,” for whatever that amounted to. Give them hell curled and coiled through their forged connections, amongst and amidst another bridge of amusement. Out of sight and out of mind Make everything alright So let the sky and sea collide Just not in our lifetime

KIADA

the harpy

A snort leaves her as he laughs with her question, bright icy gaze lingering on him as she awaits the answer — the permission extended to fiery attitudes among the ice and snow. And when she receives it, she laughs brightly, a playful roll of her eyes before she lifts up her free hand to salute him, a grin forming on her face. “General’s Orders, then.” She launches off the salute, snickering quietly.

As if I’d give them anything else. She teases Deimos, letting him go but not before snagging his arm to drag him along with her further down the road. “You and Amalia are staying, right?” Wondering whether they’ll split the residences they choose to occupy once again, wondering how many of the Grounders will actually leave for Halo and Torchline when the opportunity arises.

all bright things must burn

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

Deimos Acceptance thereafter, made on salutes and snickers, expecting nothing less, not bothering to fight off the roll to his eyes, dragged off with little fight as they wandered and meandered along the shoal of hues and heat. “Then Halo should be in safe hands,” and he meant it, truly, even if it was embedded in a chuckle. His strides were far longer than hers, and more than once he had to nearly cease all movement, avoiding collisions, but likely instigating further irritation (victory in one form of another). Her question didn’t give him pause. “Yes.” Somehow, he wished the answer was different, that they could be capable of wandering off through portals too, indulging in another world’s darkness without the monsters, trauma, and disaster attached. But they were already embedded in preparations, in plans, in heralds’ motives and their own, intending to galvanize and fortify, protect those they served. Perhaps next year everyone could be convinced to leave for those last two weeks, and there wouldn’t be any bodies left behind to discover, any claws left rendered in those lost in the gloom. Maybe this time they could actually adhere to staying inside, but the doubts had already begun to brim over; he’d be naïve to believe in such well-wishes and aspirations. Out of sight and out of mind Make everything alright So let the sky and sea collide Just not in our lifetime

KIADA

the harpy

“Ack.” She offers with a scrunch of her nose. “We’ll see.” A light tease offered, a taunt, because it wasn’t Halo she would go to keep an eye on and protect — but the Hollowed Grounds people she’d go to keep an eye on. It was simply a branch extended to get away and still be useful somehow, and she wants to take it up. Wants and craves the ability of needing to do something.

Her smile softens when he agrees that they will be staying in the Grounds, and she turns a small amount on her walk with a slight skip to focus her icy gaze on him. “Will you be opening doors again?” She asks with a raise of her brow, a slightly curious pulse running through the bond. She can’t say anything to it, having hoped someone had opened the door for Ru’in when he perished, but she hopes they have precautions in place.

all bright things must burn

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

Deimos He smiled then, gave no doubt to her strength, a pulse of strength, might, and reassurance beating through their attuned connections, before his eyes went back to the water. The core of their familial values always seemed to strain towards protection, who could shield, who could defend, who could rapaciously carve their entities through maelstroms and storms, indifferent to how their bodies were mutilated in the process. They’d all been hurt, they’d all been broken, and they still came to conquer, to fight, to brandish some edge of their fortified hearts. Stubborn, tenacious, and obstinate, often learned through experience, to rise again and again and again no matter how many times they’d been thrown into the rocks and shoal. So Kiada would do as she said – the Sword had no semblance of uncertainty or apprehension towards the Harpy. Deimos caught her raised brow before the inquiry assaulted; he’d been of the same, opening the door more than once, guilty as charged. The first had been for Cera, to race along with Remi and recover the Golden Prince’s broken, maligned form, and the second had been for her mother, Rexanna’s battered, impaled form, and all the anguish that had followed with it. He wrinkled his nose in a juvenile, impish accord. “No.” But she’d be able to take that with a grain of salt, knowing full well their capabilities of holding back on those insinuations, depending on the circumstance. He tilted his head, stare rendered along the hues from these angles. “I asked Safrin to help with a door to block monsters.” He shrugged, the monumental weight of what was required of it still laced and layered over shoulders. Whether or not it would help would remain to be seen. Out of sight and out of mind Make everything alright So let the sky and sea collide Just not in our lifetime

KIADA

the harpy

“Uh-huh…” She chimes to him with another small wrinkle of her nose as her smirk broadens a bit, a pale shadow against the Cheshire grin she’d given previously. She can spy the wrinkle of his own nose, the amusement therein of the lie for what it was. They always opened the door for someone who needed it — the hard part was deciding who was a monster and who wasn’t, and the terror of that entire ordeal.

So when he mentions Safrin, her head tilts toward him curiously, pausing in her steps ever so slightly before she tries to pick up the pace again to catch up. “And how did that go?” She asks, wondering what the goddess thought. There was a part of her that was also surprised at the notion, that Deimos would venture out to speak with her in the first place.

It must have meant a lot, then, in order for that to happen.

all bright things must burn

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

Deimos Oh, they’d tried their tricks before. Communication through shells, reflecting designations settled into frames, or opening it at every opportunity. It’d saved some, and allowed for monsters to thrive. The notion of keeping everything locked tight, no longer a revolving aperture like last year’s, would be something they would have to relate again and again and again. Some of their Grounders would be refugees in other lands, other worlds, their choice to advance into another form of shelter. Some would buckle down in their own homes, comfortable in the reign of an endless, eternal week of death and damnation. They’d try to construct the Spark Bird perch once more, leave offerings for a wall and whirl of flames. They’d try, as they always did. And so too would the demons outside. He kept marching, elongating his stride along the bank, wandering, wandering, wandering as he mused and thought, as the apprehension and consternation began to build and brim behind his chest. Some role of responsibility flickered over his shoulders, weighed them down, and though the cumbersome load wasn’t his to carry, he’d do it anyway, jaw striving to clench out of habitual reticence, a way to retreat into the ease of distance, of nonchalance. He thought naught of Kiada’s inquiry though, forgoing the way Safrin had insinuated his next step would be to pledge his devotion to her, how he’d remained vigilantly silent. “I have to find an Ascended willing to give an upgrade and half of their fluid.” So she could ascertain how well that was damned and doomed to go. Out of sight and out of mind Make everything alright So let the sky and sea collide Just not in our lifetime

KIADA

the harpy

Well, she certainly doesn’t expect that answer from Deimos. Asking how it went, expecting some snark about the deities before her gaze focuses on the pathway ahead — stilling quietly in her step while the words reach her ears. It reminds her of the bargain she’d had to make, and she chews on the inside of her cheek lightly while she considers it. “Ascended fluid?” She repeats, mulling over the upgrade as well.

“Have you asked my mother?” A tentative question, pulling back in her strides to walk beside him and tilt her head up toward him — icy gaze flickering up to try and catch his own, dark brows furrowing slightly in her questioning stance.

all bright things must burn

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

Deimos Oh, there were similarities in the things asked; save for this Ascended fluid was meant to be molded into a door, to ensure the monsters stayed out, and hers would’ve likely ended up in some newly-furnished Spire Demon again. When she stilled, he followed in the same refrain, motionless and unyielding along the outer banks, listening to the weight of other things and circumstances bridging gaps. He didn’t expect her inquiry, face rendered into its reticent reserve once more, somewhat taken aback by the notion. “No.” He wouldn’t have asked it of Rexanna, and certaintly not after learning some other information. Therein the passing moments, an instant of dread and apprehension curled along his ribcage, and he wondered what would unfold from the information he was about to unfurl. “She is having another child.” A sigh flickered through him, a tilt of his head to glance down at her, to fill up the spaces in between the inevitable. How or why or when was mystifying on its own – Ascended properties withstanding, some powers of Voice precision or control – but the expected recoil made him extend his arms, in case she required support or comfort. After all, how many times had Rexanna done the same, forgoing the others left in her lineage? He adored his friend, but her mothering capabilities had always been lacking. The Sword caught her furrowed brow, uncertain whether to smile or frown, offering instead. You will always have Amalia and I. That they were shelter in the storm, that they were sanctuaries and sanctums she could eternally return to. Out of sight and out of mind Make everything alright So let the sky and sea collide Just not in our lifetime