KENOS INBOX

[erbe]

COMMUNION

Reaching out to Rin is like stepping into a moonlit parlor. Everything is quiet, muted, and neatly tucked away. Almost like a "lobby," of sorts to keep visitors away from the rest of what goes on in her head... and her heart. This space is cool, and placid. Much like the surface of a lake in winter as it reflects the pale glow of the celestial bodies hanging above it in the sky.

A reflection of serenity rather the true thing. A mask of elegance to hide anything that may be unsightly. Anything that may betray her.

✧ Specifics

✦ Unable to block out: Harbinger
✦ Compatible with: Iconoclast | Advocate
✦ Discord Accrual: Exalt

(CODE)

Comments

communion

[uproared]

[ Right when Rin is in the middle of something important: ]

Hey. I'm bored.

[erbe]

[There's a notion of a bristle at the other end. Like someone who is interrupted in the middle of trying to mix something volatile.]

Shut up. I'm busy.

after gray's revival

[uproared]

Buy me clothes.

[erbe]

[The first thing Mordred receives is a laugh in disbelief.]

Who do you think you are? My Servant?

in love bites, post iconoclast oracle event 🫀

[helloween]

Riiiiiiin.

[ While lazing about the castle one day... ]

[erbe]

[So many things happened in the wake of the Blight. Over-extending herself, watching Sieglinde suffer as she relived the binding of her feet, the ritual of the Iconoclast itself and what happened within. People murdering each other for their ideals, and Dimitri almost killing her.

It increased her Discord quite a bit. With that came apathy, insomnia, cooler body temps... and the darkening of her sclera. Bright white dulling into grey that is black at the edges. Encroaching in a way that is stabilized for now, but would worsen with future conflict.]

What are you crying about today?

[She heard him from her green room. Rin's hands are washed up, but her gardening apron is dirtied with soil.]

Post Iconoclast Event

[hauntedking]

[ There's a little nudge. A faint, tentative brush through the communion. ]

Rin. I'd like to speak to you, if you'll allow me.

[erbe]

[Dimitri reaching out to her without an overwhelming flood of malice actually surprises her. Though he'll find unlike before there's a colder aura to communing with Rin. Something tired, but also a bit more apathetic.]

I'll allow it.

[fishfearme]

[The Communion contact is initially tentative, a tiny little tap to catch her attention before Byleth connected completely: bearing the same presence as some eldritch static entity that had decided to live inside your walls.]

Hello. Pardon the intrusion, but I've come to issue to apology for any potential insult or injury Sothis may've inflicted upon you whilst I was... indisposed.

[It was clear by how robotically he had rattled that off that it was something he had rehearsed multiple times before making this Communion call.]

[erbe]

[The response is cool. A little lacking in emotion, but not completely. The Discord from the most recent ritual has settled into her bones, but doesn't perfectly mask her just yet.]

Oh, don't worry about it. I kind of liked her.

a few days after dark's communion

[muchalucha]

[ As usual, Communion with Quetzalcoatl is like opening a window on a sunny day where her warm, divine presence is slightly overwhelming... But the Love Beam is also directed at Rin with genuine concern today. Half of it is legitimate and the other half is... also legitimate, but stupider. So, you know. ]

Ey, señorita, are you okay?!

[ We'll at least start with that one since she'll be charitable and assume that maybe Dark wasn't totally wrong and maybe Rin had been in trouble ]

[erbe]

[Quetz reaching out to her so suddenly gives Tohsaka a noticeable surprise. There is quiet. Hesitation. The sensation of a shadow shying from the light.]

...Ah. Yes, I just got back not too long ago.

[settingup]

So what's the full magic story anyway, huh?

[erbe]

It has to do with inheritance. Only one child can be raised in a mage family, because there is no point in splitting the crest between children and having two less powerful mages when you can have one very powerful mage as your successor. My sister was adopted away to a mage family whose bloodline could no longer produce mages. As the older sister and one who inherited the family name it is imperative that I affirm that I was the right sister to keep.

communion

[lockedon]

[ He's here for two reasons today, but first of all: ]

Is this Rin?

[erbe]

[Hoh? Not going to address her on the big public announcement so she can't blast that she was his precious little princess to the whole world?

Smart. When Rin replies it's... without the energy she was able to muster during the Oracle trial. She is drained both emotionally (Dark/Lucien's demise) and physically (being without her medicine the whole Oracle event, having to protect herself when Dark's castle came crashing down to earth, and hauling all of her shit from said castle to her new shop so she could basically live there).]

Yes, this is Tohsaka Rin speaking.

mid-Iqnu

[warmare]

[Weeks after the Exalt Oracle had been claimed, in the middle of a perfect, lovely day, one in which it might seem nothing could go wrong at all... Someone is screaming.

With no warning, no build, the equivalent of a sudden desperate, panicked pounding at the door, an attempt at Communion comes slamming into the psyche of someone close enough in Aspect to accidentally connect and smash through. There are no words, no plea for help in anything but a jumbled, inarticulate, weak longing for it, but stronger is the vicious shame, the fear, the rage, rage brighter than a blazing sun ready to flare.

Crimson eyes stare out through the darkness, above a smile sadistic and sharp and the purr of a voice that cannot be properly heard. An eye, sickly green, dangles between gloved fingers, staring blankly, connected to nothing. There's a scalpel glinting in the light, a pain deep in the skull spreading, spreading, something that should never be touched flayed raw and pulled out, on fire at every ending. Ropes, straps, no matter how much she struggles she can't move, she can't fight, no, no, no, she doesn't want it, she doesn't want it and it doesn't matter, it hurts, it hurts෴

And then there's nothing.]

[erbe]

[It's hauntingly familiar, what bleeds over. Rin may not have had her eye messed with, but she remembers so viscerally her nerves wailing in the same way. Tohsaka nearly topples over in the middle of her shop from it all, and hurriedly shoos out any browsing people before slamming the door shut.

How Rin copes (or tries to) isn't exactly relevant. What is relevant happens to be the panicked, almost desperate way she tries to reach back out for Hayame. Not once, not twice, but for about an hour it's like she's slamming against a locked door with no one home.

Time passes. She's still alone in the dark on the floor of her shop. When Rin recovers she'll try reaching for Hayame again. Once a day. Hoping to be scolded or told to shut up. A dismissive response is better than none.]

YOU KNOW,

[redsoil]

[ The desert unfurls like a carpet around them, blooming and bustling with crisp heat and arid, charring temperature — and Set's attention flicks across Rin like a paper airplane sent through her mind. ]

Rin Tohsaka. Were you still seeking lessons? I have recently reacquainted myself with my sister's memory — I believe I will be able to teach you as she would.

[ Which was the spirit and tone of the agreement, even through his snickering and cavorting. ]

do i really

[erbe]

[Tohsaka's consciousness is no match for a god's — neither in depth nor intensity could she meet him. She greets him coolly, like a proper Zenite should. Bringing to mind the chill of a lake at night; deep in the midst of a crisp autumn. This lake, however, isn't entirely placid.]

Before we begin there should be an amendment made.

at le shop Edelstein...

[gravings]

[ After a poke and a request for directions via Communuion, Gray pokes her head into Rin's shop, fashionably dubbed Edelstein Aroma-Thaumaturgy. It immediately strikes her that this is as magelike a shop as she could have imagined, full of mysterious items and sporting the feeling of an elegant cave. Every mage is a shut-in at heart, by Gray's estimation.

She steps in cautiously, as if this could be a mage workshop full of boobytraps. ]

Hello...! It's me, Gray.

cw: needles and blood

[erbe]

C'min.

[Her voice is muffled through the cloth in her mouth. As Gray steps in she'll find that since it's a retail venue, that it's more welcoming than the typical workshop of a mage. Yet if Gray's eyes wander to the back corner to see Rin, she'll catch something odd. An elastic tie on her arm, a needle to her inner elbow, and the cloth in her mouth. Tohsaka recognizes Gray's voice, so she doesn't stop. Instead she continues to pull blood from herself. When the syringe is full, she'll pause.

Her syringe is set down, and she uses the cloth in her mouth to sterilize the tiny spot where she drew blood.]

Is there something you need?

a memory—

[kenosnpcs]

[ Very suddenly, there’s a sense of Communion touching your character’s mind. However, it’s as if they connect with the mind of a shared Aspect, as they’re not able to block out the brief, but sharp memory that comes to them. ]

The excitement of making a new friend fades away into instant, soft heartache. The Shard-Bearer always thought their wife had such a unique name, but this new Kenosian friend shares it.

[ ooc note — Just to avoid OOC confusion/misinterpretation, the details included in this memory are random and are not necessarily interconnected or plot meaningful beyond a surface level. However, your character is free to interpret this random memory however they’d like! This event will also be touched on somewhat during today’s NPC Communion Post. ]

communion; a day or so after gavial revives

[kinaesthesia]

[Lucky for Rin, when Gavial reaches out to her she is operating on an extra full day of rest, which means: 1) there is a lot less low-key panic there on this mental line than there would have been prior and 2) she is not getting jostled from sleep like poor Amos had.

It is around mid-day when she finally does try to contact her. Just a brush at first to announce herself—a little brusque, a little clumsy. Gavial’s communion presence is usually pretty vibrant and relaxed, but there is a heavy curtain of exhaustion tamping it down today; a feeling that Rin might find all too familiar, having had the misfortune of knowing what it is like to rise from the dead here herself.

And beneath that is a low thrum of worry that Gavial is trying very hard to bury.]

So. Kinda owe you an apology.

[erbe]

[Meanwhile Rin's space is... almost artificial. As if she manufactures a "lobby" to keep people away from the rest of her space. She keeps herself cool, clean, and devoid of any personal impact that would give her away... This can tend to slip when she gets riled, but for now it allows a space that's calm and without oppressive personality. If she were not a mage she wouldn't think about, or even attempt, to cultivate such a mental space.]

Oh, you're back. Was it difficult?

[Tohsaka cannot say, "you have nothing to apologize for; it would have been me if not you."]

communion ;

[epiprocta]

[ WEARILY and extremely deadpan: ]

I ain't in love with Miya.

[erbe]

I'm pretty impressed that you both couldn't tell I was just giving you both a hard time, but the both of you were surprising aggressive in your denials.

late takiltu

[hauntedking]

[ It's a pair of weeks after the oracle and Rin recieves a small parcel delivered to her front door - either her housing or it shows up at her shop. Inside is a small collection of cookies and other baked goods, some fancy soaps, and a small pendant or brooch - a red gemstone set in gold. Also a note. ]

As always, I wish nothing but the best for you. I hope this note finds you well and that these small tokens will provide some cheer.

-Dimitri Blaiddyd

[erbe]

[She has no home at the moment, so her shop it is. Rin will only accept the package when she figures others aren't looking. In addition, he does not receive a thank you.

At least, for now.]

communion

[gravings]

[ Gray's communion, normally soft like a feather duster, now comes pounding at Rin's door like the butt of a fist. Rin will hardly have time to accept the connection before Gray's words and pent up anxiety come tumbling in. ]

Rin! The command spells... What does it mean when they disappear?!

[ The answer should be fairly obvious, but she needs to know if there might be a different answer — anything to avoid the worst one. ]

[erbe]

[Gray will first feel the initial shock, but then... quiet settles. Something solemn and somber replaces the immediate alarm.]

It means... that your contract has been cut.

edelstein... again

[gravings]

[ A suspicious individual enters Rin's shop.

There's nothing in the immediate appearance of the person that suggests mischief: it's a teenaged girl, short with long, blonde hair. Her features are delicate, cat-like, her clothes quietly rich. One might imagine her to have a confident personality...

Instead she enters the shop quietly, looking pointedly for the shopkeeper as if gauging for something before stepping in further. As if remembering that she ought to be more confident, her chin lifts as she turns to look over the items on display, arms crossing as if in judgment. But every once in a while she sneaks a glance in Rin's direction as if expecting something... ]

[erbe]

[Hm. Tohsaka feels as if she recognizes this person. Not by sight, but because mages can sense the magical energy of others if its not explicitly concealed. While tempted to call her out, Rin leaves it be. Instead she'll address her like any other customer. After all, it's possible someone could be layering their disguise and making themselves 'feel' like Gray.

So Rin calls out as she steps away from her counter and into the store proper.]

Having a bit of choice paralysis, are we?

a gift!

[muchalucha]

[ A week or so after their talk over lunch, Rin will return to her shop one day to find a small package waiting for her! There's a small note attached to the plain little box, and even before reading who it's from, it's pretty easy to tell. The whimsical, curled handwriting alone is a big enough clue.

Well, and the Spanish. ]

¡Hola, Rin!

[ but then we're switching fonts to make this readable,,, ]

You weren't here when I came by, but don't worry! This is just a little gift that I'm dropping off. Actually, I'm kind of glad you weren't here, since I'd feel a little shy giving it to you in person! ♥

This is an ehecacozcatl—It's special to the Azteca, but also to me. They're always cut from a conch shell (or made to look like it, since it's hard to cut them all so well!) since the shape of it is a powerful one to us. It's also associated with me, the Feathered Serpent and the guardian of the wind!

But I'm giving it to you as a little talisman, if you want to use it that way. I want you to know that no matter what happens with the factions and the Oracles, I'll always listen for you. Whatever I can do to help you and protect you, I will. This is a symbol of that! So when you hold it, you should feel a little of my blessing and my love coming through.

That's it! Maybe it's a little silly, but I hope you like it anyways!

♥♥♥
Quetzalcoatl

[ And inside is a silver pendant shaped like a cut conch shell, though it doesn't include a cord or anything like that. She figured that it would be a gift best left for Rin to decide how she wanted to use it, if at all! It is indeed an artifact given her blessing as well. ]

two days before Cyrus' assassination

[bakedapple]

[ Link's Communion explodes into the mind of every Zenite, like the opening of a window during a hurricane. It rushes in with an intense and primal sense of panic, a mixture of both fight and flight, and the horror of knowing that neither has worked. A certain death is imposing down on him. If you've died before, you'll likely recognize this potent cocktail of desperation that's suddenly flooding your mind. But unlike the flashing of one's life in the moment before the end, this moment is filled with purpose — unfocused and clumsy, but desperately bold and determined. The message is not conveyed in words, but in feelings and impressions, unbound by the limitations of language and becoming that much more distinct and impossible to misinterpret. ]

Get away from the Manor.

Get out of Highstorm if you can.

The Meridian —

[ ...and then, it's gone. Both the message and the roaring sensations that carry it halt abruptly, like the slamming of a door — but, even a slammed door makes a sharp noise as it shuts, sends a gust of wind as it moves on its hinges. This sudden stop doesn't come with anything, no friction, no echo, not even the intentionality of closing a Communion once a person has said what they meant to say. Just stillness. ]

action ; early march ; edelstein

[epiprocta]

[ It's late in the afternoon, well after reasonable customers have all left and Rin's probably sweeping the floor and preparing to close up shop, that her door swings open. Some inconsiderate person stopping in at the last minute forcing her to have to stay another twenty minutes dealing with them? Well ... not quite.

It's Gen standing there, looking like something the cat dragged in. Disheveled, bleary, exhausted, and frankly a little greasy -- like he hasn't been taking care of himself at all the past week. (He hasn't.) He looks a little disoriented at first to boot -- he's been sleeping so much, curled up in the darkest corner of Amos' guest room that the decor of Rin's store is almost too much for his eyeballs right now, and he blinks hard for a moment as he adjusts.

Only afterward, he shambles in a step, letting the door swing shut behind him so he can lean against the counter. Of course, what he says isn't 'hey' or 'how are you doing' or 'how have you been since the life-upending events that have probably traumatized all of us than we should be at our ages.' Instead, what he grumbles hoarsely is -- ]

Lemme borrow your couch.

[erbe]

[Rin's Discord has remained high as of late. Thanks to Florence's relief in the aftermath of the Manor's destruction as well as D's assistance as she escorted him through Highstorm, Rin at least isn't read to break from her own skin and turn into a monster like Dark had. As such one will be able to notice a few features: black sclera contrasting with her bright blue eyes, her skin in some places will have patches of opalescent scales that - when they flake away - reveal empty shadow or the red veins of something hauntingly familiar. In addition to this some of her skin has been "light scarred". Seared by the moonlight in Highstorm before she had a chance to board up the windows of her shop.

The apathy that comes with Discord and the the light scarring means she doesn't go straight to hollering at him when he makes his demands, but it also means she isn't rushing to prop him up either. At least for his eyes the store is dimly lit with magic candles rather than true forms of light. Ever since the moonlight bleached parts of her skin and portions of her store she has avoided it.]

Don't be ridiculous. I have a guest room.

[Though she won't help him hobble along, she will guide him — towards the back of the store, behind her checkout counter, there is a door that will lead up into her housing area.

There is a relief in her. Something he won't be able to sense over communion, and for a moment she's grateful for their opposing Aspects. He's alive. She hadn't been paying attention to communion aside from Kiritsubo's family aura. He's intact. One of the very few peers, one of the small number of friends, that she has. What took him so long?

It doesn't matter. He'll need a bath before she allows him to touch any of her furniture.]