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

[erbe]

A wakeup call. There's no point in making deals over safety when such things cannot be guaranteed.

[A lesson I shouldn't have had to learn. Something that should have already been engraved in me. Rin should have known better anyway. Her life nothing but a succession of "goodbyes," in which Lucien and Dark were bound to be next. It was inevitable, and hammered in even harder when she went to check the tree for scene of his rebirth, but he wasn't there.

So either he ended up like her, or something else was wrong. Either way it's probably better for him that she not stick close. Tohsaka seemed to be an ill omen for others. Especially to the ones that bring her some benefit some happiness.]

[redsoil]

I agree with you. We cannot ensure others remain safe — however, we can ensure we have power to enact change. Trading in knowledge is one such way.

[ The tone he takes is an easy one. If he regrets Dark or Lucien's fate, he won't show it. In the end, were he privvy to her mind — he would agree wholeheartedly with her. The two of them should have learned. They were anathema to others, they would only bring pain and anguish.

( Maybe she can make peace with that, as he has accepted his role. )

He slips the mask, both visual and metaphorical, off his countenance. And sinks below her eye level, not on his knees, but to place himself in a position to look up to her. ]

— I am still willing to aid you. A lesson for a lesson. We will not speak of the future, lest it comes up naturally, but depending on our compatibility, we may table a thought. Or not, if we are a poor match.

[ Either this will be a one-time deal, or maybe something more. He places no onus on either of them to commit beyond the immediate. ]

May I know what spells you are willing to teach? I would like to walk away with something I find worthy of my time.

[erbe]

[Usually when reaching via communion Tohsaka treats it much like a phone call. Receiving the voice of another person, and sometimes there emotions when they leak out. However with Set it's different. He seems to impart scenery, vision, and the act of gesturing before her.

Her response is to keep herself cut off. Cold. Wary of the way he meets with her being so much different from the manic needling and prodding from before. To him she will be but a cold ceramic rotary phone relaying her voice.]

I had considered gandr. A curse which can be condensed into physical form if you have the aptitude.

[redsoil]

[ Can she not imagine that even he wears multiple faces, for public and private dealings?

A colorful bounty of images drift around them; lightning in a sandstorm, the patient and endless flow of erosion — tearing all walls down, transforming them into the most basic of elements. Abraded soil and stone, become sand that he embodies. Loose, amorphous. Warm, scaldingly-so, but not the sun. Not the light that sears and pries at aches and pains. He stands as a shadow to blot out blind hope. ]

I am adept with curses of divine nature. [ Evil god, evil gang. ] Would you like to test my aptitude and see where my domains lie within the context of your magic, young scholar?

[erbe]

[Her expectations were more that if someone were to have masks in a place such as this one it'd be more faction based rather than public vs private. In any case, she tries to shut out the distractions provided by their connection and instead focus on the task at hand.]

I have no doubt you'd be capable of such a performance. After all, the powers of a god will naturally outmatch humans.

[This is just a Fact. There's no use in trying to refute it. Tohsaka wouldn't even try. She's the type of person who understands her limits and won't even try if she knows there's no chance of winning (except when she doesn't, but that's a weirder issue she doesn't acknowledge — thanks Emiya).]

[redsoil]

You would think that. But, you are a girl who thinks in exceptionally Meridian-aligned terms.

[ He is wild in his confidence, as if all her considerations are nothing in the face of his scrutiny and study. There's nothing gentle in him, but there is something firm, the knowing audacity of a god. Even a diminished one. ]

Your world is gone, nothing you knew matters any more — so, let us treat one another as strangers. No knowledge we had will bring us strength, when we could learn anew. Abandon the old already, young scholar. That was your choice, when you accepted your new place.

[ Facts are so only sustainable by their surroundings. Tohsaka really needs to let her world die already, and stop being so Meri about clinging to the past!! ]

[erbe]

Don't be ridiculous. Our bodies are still bound by their old limitations and failings. I could perhaps expand on myself and strengthen my weaknesses, but we all come from somewhere which serves as an origin point or baseline. To ignore such a thing would be foolhardy.

[One can want nothing but new, one can want to abandon the old, but one must also be practical. Reasonable. Realistic.

Besides... she's betting on his old failings to be her boons.]

Where would you like to meet for lessons?

[redsoil]

[ In turning colder, affirming herself tight to her learning — his manner twists, slackens a little. There is something in the depths of her, and his interest in her sharp tongue and attentiveness barely outweighs the exceptional disappointment he feels in that moment. He marks his observations under her name, and slips them away within his mind.

Instead, he shutters it away. Fills himself with a dark, mimicry calm like her and prepares to shift his ideas on what to do with Tohsaka Rin in the future. "Pleasantly", he does not address her ideology further; he only nods, and files away her responses within his mind. ]

Alenroux.

[ And he stoppers the connection shut between them. She will either be there immediately, or she won't. Either way, he'll accept gandr as payment for his tutelage. ]

[erbe]

[...But where? Where in Alenroux? The settlement, the edge of the forest, someplace else? Hello?? He's no longer on the other end so she cannot ask, and she doesn't really feel like pinging him for clarification, but...


HELLO??? They didn't even set up a day or time! Whatever. She'll let him stew for a day or so with his vague decision.]

[redsoil]

[ ALENROUX. YOU KNOW, YOU TURN UP, HE WAVES YOU DOWN. IMMEDIATELY?

( they're such freaking messes help, ) ]

[erbe]

[No specifications means no showing up. Oh well!

She expects him to either call her all pissy about it, or maybe cancel on her. Either way she's too much of a princess to make the first move.]

[redsoil]

[ no actually it means after a few minutes of WAITING for her he's going to highstorm and invading her brand new ( really neat!!!! ) shop to kidnap her.

He does that. Without mercy.

Time is a difficulty for him. His perception of time is alien, compared to most people's; it happens all at once, has happened, and sorts itself out in experiences and moments, wherein sometimes he feels like he's lived it already, but is also living it for the first time. It's why, when Rin does not turn up to Alenroux immediately, he knows he needs to go to her and fetch her.

It takes him a little while, to discern her whereabouts. Her shop is a lovely place, one he would find interest in patronizing — his own curiosity dangerous in its willingness to fraternize across 'enemy lines'. Zenith isn't really an enemy, but rivals. However, he does consider individual Zenites enemies. Or pitiable. Or any number of things. Like right now, he views Rin as his student. And he storms into her shop with the gallows-dark expression of an irritated professor, hopping the counter to get to her, if he must.

He bends slightly, to seize her by the waist and hoist her under his arm. A bit like one might carry a struggling child on their hip while trying to flee the playground after they've bitten another child. Or a football. ]

You are late. [ Announcing it, formally. ] When unsure about the time you are to meet a mentor, you ought to be confirming —

[ And scolding her!!! ]

[erbe]

[Tohsaka yelps when he grabs her. The customers in the store give them an odd look before shuffling out. Not to be caught up in a dispute between two shard-bearers. The young woman squirms in his grip, and accidentally drops a pipette on the floor during her struggle.]

You're the one who cut the connection! Besides, you aren't the only one who is going to be teaching, so shouldn't you extend the same courtesy to me!?

[She kicks and pushes as much as she can without relying on any of her magic. It wouldn't be worth it considering she's already had to slurp the human red sauce (blood) from three people already just to get back to feeling somewhat normal.

AT LEAST LET HER FLIP THE SIGN AND LOCK THE SHOP.]