understood by few; mysterious or secret.

❛  i will ... i will not be here. i will be away from you guys. far away.  ❜

❛  we may follow you. ❜

❛ you do and you die. ❜

❛ run away with me. ❜

❛ long live the pioneers, rebels and mutineers. ❜

❛ go forth and have no fear. ❜

❛ come close and lend an ear. ❜

❛ all hail the underdogs. ❜

❛ it's our time to make a move. ❜

❛ it's our time to make amends. ❜

❛ it's our time to break the rules. ❜

❛ hold on to me, i'm a little unsteady. ❜

❛ i'm alone cause this house doesn't feel like home. ❜

❛ if you love me, don't let go. ❜

❛ i know that you're tired of being alone. ❜

❛ i know you're trying to fight when you feel like flying. ❜

❛ you know you got to hang on. don't let go. ❜

❛ i might be better off without you. ❜

❛ there's too many people all around you. all these vultures that surround you, they don't know a thing about you. ❜

❛ you're so gorgeous. 'cause you make me feel gorgeous. ❜

❛ nobody understands you, you ain't nothing they can handle. ❜

❛ we are young, we are free. ❜

❛ can i start? ❜

❛ lights out, i'm afraid of everything that moves. ❜

❛ god, i'm running in fear. ❜

❛ too good. ain't it all too good? ❜

❛ i keep waking up afraid to look on the bright side. ❜

❛ i get nervous when i'm happy. i get nervous cause what comes up must come down. ❜

❛ okay. doing A-OK. ❜

❛ i'm nothing but a low life, thinking about my own life. ❜

❛ i'm trying to fight the good old fight but after it all, i'm still just a low life. ❜

❛ now please tell me i'm broke. it's much easier that way cause i just let you down. ❜

❛ i can't help myself from falling. ❜

❛ i started to reflect on all that's been before. ❜

❛ i've been working night and day. ❜

❛ i'm going berserk and i'm going insane. ❜

❛ i'm gonna go big, i feel bigger than ever before. ❜

❛ hey, it's a new day. ❜

❛ take it out on me. i try to help out, you push back. ❜

❛ no matter what, you know that i will lift you up for now and forever. ❜

❛ i will lift you up til you feel light as a feather. ❜

❛ i know times are tough when you're under pressure. ❜

❛ i know you need somebody to act like it's alright. ❜

❛ i've been reaching from the ground up to the highest heights. ❜

❛ i've been cooking up a shit storm and i feel alright. ❜

❛ i got my head in the clouds and my feet up off of the ground. ❜

❛ i feel like death is chasing me down. ❜

❛ i've been picking up the short stick, going from bad to worse. ❜

❛ today i'm gonna superpower. ❜

❛ when you came around, i was dried up. i was broken down. ❜

❛ i can't find it. the road i traveled on is gone. ❜

❛ i can't give you love 'cause i'm loveless. ❜

❛ i gave it all, they robbed me blind. ❜

❛ when i met you, i was half a [man/woman/person] with half a heart and half a chance. ❜

❛ i can't give you my love. i can't give up on you. ❜

❛ i feel too cold to live, too young to die. ❜

❛ just forget the wit, it's the best to use. ❜

❛ ain't no god on these streets in the heart of the jungle. ❜

❛ i lost my mind in the city of lights. in the backstreets buildings and the neon lights. ❜

❛ when i heard the thunder, i could feel the rain. it's the same to me, just a different name. ❜

❛ i ain't no ken and you ain't no barbie. ❜

❛ ain't none of my friends have a perfect body. ❜

❛ if we let it all go, we could break the mold. ❜

❛ from my head to my toes, i'm feeling overexposed. ❜

❛ all my faults, all your scars. who i am, who you are. i wanna be naked with you. ❜

❛ no more lies, no more hate. no more waiting in the wings. ❜

❛ take my hand, take this danger. ❜

Triple pair of eyes dwell intensely, on the Guardian, as if studying him, taking note of the gauges atop his helm fidgeting slightly.

"You misunderstand," He retorts sharply, "I'm anxious about you. The last time I let a Hive God close to me, it manipulated, puppeteered and ultimately killed the woman I loved."

"I'm going along with this because it's our best shot. But even still, you're fucking with the worst sort of Hive magic there is. Are you certain you can control this?"

❝ oh no, brother, I ain't going to deny that claim, but that's all you have! the oone claim you'll hold over my head to make ya look like the innocent one. that's alright, I ain't bitter about a good job done great, you know ❞.

Bingo. There it was, the sole reason behind the misplaced hatred. The one piece that made so much sense to everything Nordic did against him, and yet it was a pitiful image for a person who could hold the threads of time in his fingers. It was hilarious, and disappointing.

Of everyone else he had antagonized for no reason, the Drifter wasn't expecting this one to give him such an empty answer, yet one that held so much more information than Nordic perhaps realized. He had his doubts, oh he had. Now he would only need to group everything he had learned so far, and ask the right people. Oh, this would be a fun side project, but one he wouldn't focus much of his energy.

❝ so after all this time, you're just mad because you can't pin me to a stereotype and I make your plans look bad on paper? ❞ And he's laughing, one that make him stop for a second and bend his core, hands on his knees, people turning to look at the source of such laughter. Then it stops, his tracking of Nordic continues, not a hint of the laughter remaining

❝ I'm not playing when I say I have more time than you do. I don't waste my seconds hating on someone for being smarter than you are, and for some petty reason. gotta give that one to you, that's the most creative reason to hate me I have ever heard. but no matter how badly you wanna make yourself believe I ain't special in your books, all that energy you're using to hate me for not understanding me?

Could, certainly.

"Spoon feeding on your own delusions, are you?" He sighs, "You're so excited to be included. I won't take that from you. It would be like kicking a puppy; cruel."

Does it serve him to let Drifter think he spends more time than he ought seething over his interference, over his intricate idiocies? Probably not. Letting him get a fat head over it isn't going to make him any easier to predict and might even make him worse, at least in terms of conversation. Drifter seemed to like it that way.

It would be so easy to just shoot him... Just...

Ugh.

“In order to bring this fight to Xivu Arath, I must adapt to this newfound status — it is the only way.”

Her voice is warped, altered, but still possesses a complete semblance of being Eris.

"... Sure, whatever."

The projected gauges on his helm flit quickly, almost anxiously, as if trying to categorise and collate faster. He sighs, gently.

❛  i should've worshipped them sooner. ❜

❛  we were born sick. ❜

❛  the only heaven i'll be sent to is when i'm alone with you. ❜

❛  i'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies. ❜

❛  good god, let me give you my life. ❜

❛  there is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin. ❜

❛  it's toying somewhere between love and abuse. ❜

❛  no more alone or myself i could be. ❜

❛  [i/you] lurched like a stray to the arms that were open. ❜

❛  i lay my heart down with the rest at [your/their] feet. ❜

❛  i wonder if it's better now having survived. ❜

❛  i'm so tired trying to see from behind the red in my eyes. ❜

❛  no better version of me i could pretend to be tonight. ❜

❛  [they/you] found me just in time. ❜

❛  cause with my mid-youth crisis all said and done, i need to be youthfully felt cause i never felt young. ❜

❛  it'd be great to find a place we could escape sometimes. ❜

❛  we tried the world and it wasn't for us. ❜

❛  you knew who i was with every step that i ran to you. ❜

❛  would things be easier if there was a right way? ❜

❛  honey, there is no right way. ❜

❛  i fall in love just a little bit every day with someone new. ❜

❛  there's an art to life's distractions. ❜

❛  love with every stranger, the stranger the better. ❜

❛  all i've ever done is hide. ❜

❛  when you kill the lights and kiss my eyes, i feel ike a person for a moment of my life. ❜

❛  but you don't know what the hell you put me through. ❜

❛  it feels good to be alone with you. ❜

❛  there are questions i can't ask. ❜

❛  now, at last, the worst is over. ❜

❛  i know that you hate this place. ❜

❛  there's something tragic about you, something so magic about you, don't you agree? ❜

❛  there's something lonesome about you, something so wholesome about you. ❜

❛  innocence died screaming. ask me, i should know. ❜

❛  there's something broken about this but i might be hoping about this. ❜

❛  we'll lay here for years or for hours, your hand in my hand. so still and discreet. ❜

❛  i'd be home with you. ❜

❛  any way to distract and sedate. ❜

❛  i'm somewhere outside my life. i keep scratching but somehow i can't get in. ❜

❛  don't you stand there watching me, won't you? ❜

❛  don't you join in, you're supposed to drag me away from it. ❜

❛  i'm so full of love, i could barely eat. ❜

❛  [they/you] are sweet as can be. [they/you] give me toothaches just from kissing me. ❜

❛  no grave can hold my body down, i'll crawl home to [them/you]. ❜

❛  you never asked me once about the wrong i did. ❜

❛  [you/they] would never fret none about what my hands and my body done. ❜

❛  if the lord don't forgive me, i'd still have you and you would have me. ❜

❛  why were you digging? what did you bury? ❜

❛  i will not ask you where you came from. i will not ask and neither should you. ❜

❛  just put your sweet lips on my lips. we should just kiss like real people do. ❜

❛  i know that look, eyes always seeking. ❜

❛  i will not ask you why you were creeping. in some sad way, i already know. ❜

❛  you know better than to smile at me like that. ❜

❛  i know who i am when i'm alone. ❜

❛  you don't understand. you should never know how easy you are to need. ❜

❛  don't let me in with no intention to keep me. ❜

❛  it can't be unlearned. i've known the warmth of your doorways. ❜

❛  i'll find my way back to you. ❜

❛  my heart is heavy with the hate of some other man's beliefs. ❜

❛  screaming the name of a foreigner's good is the purest expression of grief. ❜

❛  i feel no control of my body. i feel no safety in [your/their] arms. ❜

❛  all that i've been taught and every word i've got is foreign to me. ❜

❛  it looks ugly but it's clean. ❜

❛  your fight and fury is fiery. ❜

❛  it's worth it, it's divine. i have this some of the time. ❜

❛  you called my name til the fever broke. ❜

❛  i heard a scream in the woods somewhere. ❜

❛  i turned and ran to save a life i didn't have. ❜

❛  i need you to run to me. run to me! ❜

❛  when i was a child, i heard voices. some would sing and some would scream. ❜

❛  don't you ever tame your demons but always keep them on a leash. ❜

❛  you've done me wrong for a long, long time. ❜

❛  after all you've done, i never changed my mind. ❜

❛  please, try to love me. ❜

❝ was it any different from what human guardians experience? ❞

The light worked in mysterious ways. The traveler only facilitated its reach, it seemed, with how many non humans had adquired the gifts that once made them different. The gifts that once made humans believe themselves chosen and important, now provided to other creatures many of her fellows looked down in disgust. For Eris, it was fascinating to hear of others gaining the light. Desperation, perhaps, forced the traveler to reach further than what it was comfortable using before. But a vex? Of all the creatures in the universe, the vex were the ones she was less versed in. Their existence was fascinating, and their ability to bend time to their will and convenience was both captivating and terrifying.

To hear one vex had gained a ghost and the light was enough to force those with information to provide the vex's location, but to find it willing to discuss in peace...it brought a feeling she had forgotten about, one of curiousity and the joy behind knowledge and understanding. She sits, her eyes fixed on the ghost accompanying the vex, and she waited. It gave her a warmth within her stomach she would remember for when it woul dbe best to remind herself of it.

❝ your memory. is it lost to the vex mind, or has it passed now to your ghost? what do you remember from your days before obtaining the light ? ❞

Anavió simply stands and watches, the rhythmic shuddering of its body the only movement, the gentle creak of the metal joints the only sound that breaks the otherwise oppressive silence. The ivory glow of the Radiolaria within its torso, the imposing crimson of its eye. All signs of life, all signs of presence.

The near-silence persists.

It's a long, long half-hour before Anavió finally responds. The motions are all slow and practised, as its head twitches and tilts, eye piercing straight at the point between Eris' three. Fingers clench, feet shuffle and, finally, a voice. Metallic, an imitation of voice, not from a voicebox or a speaker or processor. Vex ingenuity.

ｗｅ ａｒｅ ａｗａｒｅ ｗｅ ｂｅｌｏｎｇｅｄ． ｗｅ ｄｏ ｎｏｔ ｒｅｍｅｍｂｅｒ ｂｅｌｏｎｇｉｎｇ．

Anavió doesn't know what else to say. The awareness comes from conversations with Dikastís, who had informed it that being Vex meant they were once part of a Vex Collective. But it had no means of recollecting this lost information. It simply was.

It felt the Radiolaria churning. Knew that the Radiolaria was 'many', but it had thought 'singularly'. Dikastís didn't know how to explain this, and Anavió certainly couldn't bring anything to light. Things simply are, with this Hobgoblin. But its Ghost was determind to find out the answers.

ｗｅ ａｒｅ ａｂｅｒｒａｎｔ．

"Hrnk," An involuntary noise as she wraps an arm around him, "Sure. Same old same old."

It's not. It's not at all the same Guardians. Years spent in this other Last City of Humanity and he still isn't used to seeing people alive that should be dead, by his reckoning. To know people now dead who, in his timeline, were alive. He grieves for people that were never here, he misses people who have never left.

How utterly bizarre he finds it.

"... Flower, what the hell am I looking at?" It's clearly a Vex. Or, at least, it was. Whatever it is now is still Vex in origin but the fact that it has six heads, fourteen arms and five legs means something isn't quite right. Now, either that old coot is back to messing with things he shouldn't be... Or Flower is bullying the Vex by turning them into nightmare statues that wouldn't look out of place in a Golden Age art exhibition. "No, really. The fuck, kid?" @ahkein

the little psion seems far too pleased with her current art project.

she has a limb lifted in the air as lush enters, and is using the mental powers possessed by her people to tilt and twist it. it has to be just right before she can reattach it. she has to make sure it's perfect. otherwise, what is the point? art can be messy, yes, but it must be purposefully so.

when lush speaks, though, flower pauses her work. the vex arm falls to the ground with an echoing thunk. her lips curve into a smile. she reaches out with her left hand, fingers searching for his.

Anyone else might be utterly perturbed by the display of twisted metal. Lush had seen, been, worse. A child's curiosity could be a nightmarish thing, but out here, where every moment could be your last, letting a girl whose powers sometimes seemed beyond defining experiment with them was important.

At least, he thought it was. Let her be who she is. He takes her hand and squeezes it, dwarfing her easily within his.