leicesters | IC INBOX: KENOS

[Byleth's still not quite used to intentionally reaching out via Communion, having only really accepted Communion requests thus far. But not long after the debate had ended regarding Manon and what their approach should be, Byleth gave Claude the mental equivalent of a very tentative 'hey, you busy?' poke.]

[ There's a tentative brush from Dimitri; this still feels a little odd. ]

Claude? Do you have time for a quick discussion?

Claude!

[ despite the fact that it’s only dextera’s voice, there’s the hurried impression that he ran to wherever he is now in order to commune with him. considering claude was the one who proposed matters with manon, he should be the first to know. ]

I talked to Manon!

[ A lot has been bugging him about their time spent down in Aetós' zoo, but nothing more than seeing Adelfoúla get murdered right in front of them, and him being helpless to do anything about it. Amos doesn't give a shit what anyone else says or insinuates; that was a child he watched die, and that shit's unacceptable.

And in the immediate chaos afterwards, two of them had rushed up to see if there was anything they could to do help — him, and someone else he already had found a growing respect for.

So after. After they're all out of there, after he's had a night to sleep on it, turn over every little detail in his head, he reaches out to Claude.

And, without preamble: ] She's alive. The girl. I don't know how, but...

[ Amos' voice trails off before giving up and simply transmitting the memory of what he saw and experienced to Claude, to the best of his recollection:

While the room is small, there’s what amounts to a closet where they’ll find various (macabre) equipment like syringes, bonesaws, etc., but also… Adelfoúla, or what seems to be an exact copy of her. She doesn’t move or react to them opening the door in the slightest, but examining the area where she had “broken” earlier will reveal a tiny fragment of what looks like a shard. It’s far from the size one would have come to expect from shards, and almost seems to have been cleaved from a larger stone. There’s a slight glimmer to the shard that he could recognize as being “alive”, essentially, but that her consciousness just didn’t seem to be present.

And upon attempting to commune with her, Adelfoula’s voice responding with a feeling of being distinctly surprised and a “You found one?” but no more than that.

It just.

Really seemed like something Claude should know. ]

[This time, Byleth is a lot more confident in reaching out in Communion with someone he's comfortable with, so whereas his first invitation had been a very tentative poke, this one was more like a knock on the figurative door.]

Claude, it's me. Come to Daystar Café.

[...his invites are still kinda awkward, though.]

[ Sometime in the second half of Pelu (pre-event), Claude will probably trip over something waiting outside of his door one morning. The box is not marked, and there is no indication of the sender, but inside is a folky picture oop-up book - one possessing no words - that tells the tale of a deer that makes friends with a mouse in the woods and details their unlikely adventures. They frolic through beautiful watercolor trees and fields, and it ends with the two of them turning into spirits to dance in the grassy knolls into eternity. ]

[ It eats at him, for a time. Cybernetics, ceramics, magic nullification, animal husbandry, Egyptian mythology. Cybernetics, ceramics, Egyptian mythology. Cyberneticsceramicsegyptianmythology. He had voiced his concern to Byleth, in the moment - questioning Aetós's interest in his divine kin and kind. What could he be plotting to do? And then, because he is not foolish, he begins to wonder: what has he already done?

So, it is to Claude he goes. The sense of him on the approach within their Communal space like a most indelicate thundercloud, sleek and dark and crisp. He pummels at the edge of Claude's consciousness, demanding ~~attention~~ an audience. If ( when ) granted, he leads with no formalities, only a demand in the form of a question: ] What happened to Adelfoúla, after she led you to Vander? Where did she go?

Claude. I have used the word "ambassadors" in conversation, and blame you for this.

[ ugh diplomacy

but also, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhghhhhhhhhhh he's gotta propose something ]

[A part of him thought, it's not really my business, but on the other hand, Claude had promised to talk to him later, and it was now 'later'. So, emboldened by this bit of internal logic, Byleth gently prodded Claude via Communion after returning to his home in Springstar, pottering about his home and doing some chores as he did so.]

Claude, are you free? I want to talk to you.

[With little warning, approximately a week after Certain Events occurred…

A communion message, short and simple... but much heavier, perhaps, in implication.]

I will report to the General in Springstar tomorrow.

[Hayame had been at the discussion between the so-called “ambassadors”. She had not been allowed to speak (even though she had plenty to say, even though she is dead confident she could have done more, done better), but she had been there.

Watching. Growing angrier and more frustrated by the minute. And when it ends…

She has the good graces to allow him a ten minute breather before,]

Congratulations on your success, Claude von Riegan.

[Funny, because she really doesn’t sound like she’s congratulating him…]

[Byleth didn't gently tap Claude via Communion so much as he drunkenly slammed against the door before knocking it. Somehow, he was still composed as ever despite clearly being under the influence, but there was an air of something about him, something almost restless.]

Claude, are you busy? I have... a social question.

[ There's a bit of (unsure) about Dimitri when he reaches out, but it's more to do with himself than it is Claude. ]

Hello Claude; I was wondering if I could seek your input on something... I hope you're doing well, though.

[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... Hayame 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 Claude's psyche. There are no words, no plea for help in anything but a jumbled, inarticulate, weak longing for it, (she can't, she can't, he'll die), but stronger is the vicious shame, the fear, the rage, rage brighter than a blazing sun ready to flare.

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. An eye, sickly green, dangles between gloved fingers, but then it is a stormy grey eye, dangling by the slick and severed optic nerve between bloody fingers in the rubble of a city under siege with a beast in the sky. Claude's face, so close, his smile soft, his thumb tracing gently over her cheek below the hole where an eye used to be. There are sharp teeth smiling sadistically, the shadowy silhouette blurred by something hot and wet and a backing of bright lighting. She bites, iron flooding her mouth and pouring down her throat, but before she can choke on her own blood fingers grab her tongue, something hard and thick is forced into her mouth. Her dun flanks rise and fall slowly, Claude curled against her and moving ever so slightly along with her breathing. 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, she wants to go home෴

And then there's nothing.]

[ 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. ]

A Zenith Shard-Bearer holds another Shard in their hands, and it’s with an overwhelming feeling of loathing. They always thought of themselves as an honorable warrior, but it would be so easy to destroy this Meri…

[ 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. ]

[ Claude receives a small parcel; inside are some baked goods and sweets, a small, portable chess set, and a bottle of fancy wine There's also a note: ]

Claude, I hope this note finds you well. And although I must apologize for having only discovered this via the newspapers, please allow me to extend my congratulations to you and Hayame on your relationship. Please share the bottle of wine with her, with my best wishes and my hope for your happiness together in the future.

-Dimitri Blaiddyd

[On the first day of the new year by the Kenosian calendar, Hayame wakes up early enough to watch the dawn break over the treeline in Alenroux. The first dawn is supposed to be important. She stays in bed longer than usual, her cheek pillowed on her partner's chest. Before his morning meditation, she asks Claude if he saw any dreams that night. That was another superstition from her world- that the first dream would have some sort of meaning. ... She did not remember anything in particular from hers, but. In the talk of new year traditions, she mentions that is customary to gift new clothing, but gives no indication of actually following the custom.

But when he returns to their home later that night after their various duties and work... On the bed is a neatly wrapped package with Claude's name on it written in painstakingly copied, slightly shaky letters. Inside is a neatly folded outfit (sans silly cape part, and with a more symmetrical, haori-like top). It had been difficult to find clothing exactly like her world's, but... It was close enough.

... And she thinks he would look good in it. So!!!]

uve been spotted by.........the $ MONEY GOO$E $
send the $ MONEY GOO$E $ to 3 people or u get scorched!!

[ It's some time after a few conversations Yuri's had over Communion when he reaches out to Claude. The tiniest hint of weariness precedes any words, if only because Yuri isn't quite so used to this much mental discourse, but it's necessary.

They've got so much to concern themselves with. ]

Hey Claude, when you've got a minute, I'd like to bend your metaphorical ear about something.

[The moon rises properly in Alenroux, unlike how it cannot defeat the suns that never seem to set in Springstar. It feels more natural here, to have the dark and light come in cycles. That is part of why she had chosen to live there, even with the monsters and the risk of accumulating Discord away from the base of Meridian power. She sleeps easier here despite all of that. But when she sleeps laying on her side on a proper bed, she needs to awkwardly turn over every few hours in order to keep herself comfortable and breathing easily.

Now... it is almost second nature to account for someone else when she does that. Gently untangling limbs, lifting her head from a chest, pulling away from warm arms... Whatever needs doing, she feels softly in the dark for Claude's body to make sure that she did not roll over onto him or disturb him overly when she shifted. These days, she doesn't even worry about waking him too much. He's grown used to it, like she has.

Tonight, though... after she rolls over and returns to his side, laying her head back on the pillow near his shoulder and settling back down with no need to worry about accidentally tugging on a strand of her no-longer long mane... She does not slip easily back into slumber. She watches him through the one natural eye she has left, the one that could see decently well in the dark. She listens to him breathe, until she is sure that he is sleeping deeply, soundly enough that he will not truly hear her when she whispers,]

Khalid... ?

[A test. She is silent after his name, heartbeats too loud in her chests, almost not breathing herself until she is sure it did not wake him. Once she is... Surely, if he is sleeping, she can... She can practice. She can say it.]

Khalid, I...

[She almost manages it. It's just two more words, they're so short, they should be so easy to form with her lips and her tongue, but something... Something holds her back. She doesn't know what it is, that leaves her quiet and embarrassed in the dark. Isn't it... She knows other people probably do not need to. Claude certainly hadn't. But practicing would make it easier to say when it was actually proper to, would it not? If she cannot even get the practice out...

Ruddy-cheeked and frustrated with herself, Hayame eventually gives up for the night, curling in beside her bedmate and letting her eyes fall back closed. Maybe... She will just try again another time. That is all.]

[Hayame is not... the most domestic person. Though she has worried at times that their relationship, having a home, and all manner of other elements in Kenos had somehow conspired to make of her more of a mare between Oracle trials and missions... One of the things she did not often do was cook. At least, not in the way she imagines women in her world were meant to. She was no accomplished chef anyway, the most she was capable of when she arrived in this place was simple camp fare... and most of what she was capable of now was still simple camp fare. In ~~their~~ her home, Claude did more with meals than she did, and when they spent their days apart she usually relied on the market, street stalls, or jerky, rice balls, pickles, and other simple, long-lasting foods she prepared.

But one day, with no forewarning whatsoever... Hayame presents Claude with a cloth-wrapped box before they part for the day, only muttering something along the lines of "it's lunch" before she sets off for the Legionary's new headquarters. When he opens it... Well, she wasn't lying, it is lunch, a simple arrangement of a few game meats, egg, rice balls, and fermented vegetables. The rice balls, though, are not like the plain white ones he may be used to seeing her eat. These contain bright yellow chunks of boiled chestnut and have turned reddish from the red beans mixed with the rice grains.

Inside is a small note, written in Hayame's halting, still-learning hand.]

𝓂𝓎 𝓉𝓎𝓅𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝒿𝑒𝓌𝑒𝓁𝑒𝒹 𝓇𝒾𝒸𝑒

[And that is all, with her name signed carefully below.]

Teatime with (Bizarro) Teach

no subject

( communion, beginning of the month )

communion, post-Vander rescue

Teatime with (Bizarro) Teach Take Two

action;

communion; during pt 2 of the seeds of unrest event