Swain Song

part 1 / ? .

❝ a less trusting person might think this all sounds very suspicious. ❞ ❝ you say all the right words, but i’m not sure you mean the right things. ❞ ❝ i know somewhere quiet. somewhere intimate. somewhere we can…indulge in each other. ❞ ❝ eugh, don’t be nice to me. it makes me want to be nice back. ❞ ❝ we needn’t be enemies. there’s plenty of those to go around already. ❞ ❝ there’s a steeliness to you, an unwavering tenacity in the face of, to be frank, quite dire odds. ❞ ❝ even the waves of fate can break upon the shores of will. ❞ ❝ i appreciate anyone that opens a conversation with threats of bodily harm. ❞ ❝ oh, you know me - ever the optimist. i’m trying to focus on the positives. ❞ ❝ i’m not easily impressed by people, but you’re stronger than i gave you credit for. ❞ ❝ there’s an air about you. something alien. ❞ ❝ loosen the grip on your pride for one blasted moment, won’t you? ❞ ❝ it’s been a long time since someone stuck their neck out for me like that. ❞ ❝ there’s something odd about this village. people skulk around like they’ve something to hide. ❞ ❝ you know, if you want to spend time with me, you only have to say so. ❞ ❝ i want to know what the world sees when it looks at me. what you see. ❞ ❝ what’s better than a devil you don’t know? a devil you do. ❞ ❝ you must know that you’re…that you’re very special to me. ❞ ❝ the gods are nothing if not vindictive in their vengeance. ❞ ❝ stay with me a while, will you? day will come all too soon. ❞ ❝ here’s my little treat with their cheeks all flushed. ❞ ❝ i am terrified. i will not claim otherwise. ❞ ❝ my apologies. i’m not quite myself yet. i had the strangest dream last night. ❞ ❝ we didn’t die today. tomorrow, perhaps. but not today. ❞ ❝ leader’s need to make tough decisions. we do what we must. ❞ ❝ i think that unknowable powers come with unknowable consequences. ❞ ❝ i’ve had a lifetime’s fill of watching little men puff themselves up with grand titles. ❞ ❝ in these times, all we can trust are the blades in our hands. ❞ ❝ it’s not easy to turn away from one you once loved. ❞ ❝ much has been promised to you, hasn’t it? but what has been taken from you? ❞ ❝ damn it all. i can do nothing right - not a damn thing. ❞ ❝ every instinct i have tells me that nothing’s changed. that i’m still just a means to an end. ❞ ❝ do not speak of a story you only know the half of. ❞ ❝ i dreamt every night that you’d come back to me. that somehow it was all a nightmare dawn would undo. ❞ ❝ when the time comes to strike, you must take it. for there may be only one chance. ❞ ❝ your eyes. there is pain, endless and deep. but also devotion - blazing like the sun. ❞ ❝ you’re adorable even when you’re teasing me. ❞ ❝ i don’t need your help, and i don’t need your pity. ❞ ❝ i’m more than what i was. and i’m not afraid of anything any more. ❞ ❝ i said exactly what i meant: i love you. you should never, never doubt that. ❞ ❝ this is all like some sort of terrible dream. but it’s real, isn’t it? ❞ ❝ there is no redemption. can’t you see? it is too late. ❞ ❝ i don’t know that it was brave. i just know that it was right. ❞ ❝ you took those bastards down like it was nothing. it…was amazing. ❞ ❝ they underestimated me. so they paid the price. ❞ ❝ we fight, we die, and we just hope that when our time comes, there is someone else to take our place. ❞ ❝ unfortunately for me, you’re my friend. rescuing you from mortal peril is my right. ❞ ❝ what did you think i was going to say? 'oh, come here, i'll kiss you better'? ❞ ❝ flowers are so overrated. they're bright, gaudy, and almost never make good poisons. ❞ ❝ i’ve been lied to, my whole life. and i was gullible enough to just believe it. ❞ ❝ you know, i never pictured myself as a hero. never thought i'd be the one they toast for saving so many lives. and now that i'm here…i hate it. ❞ ❝ you know, i feel a connection between us. like we're two souls walking the same path. ❞ ❝ the forgiving sort, are you? you should be careful. plenty would take advantage of that. ❞

She knew that he saw through her. That she was not infallible; he had proven as much time and time again. Plans did not equal results, often only disappointments, but that was not something she glossed over.

Leblanc had more than enough plans to make up for the failure in results, often it was nothing more than a single variable that she failed to calculate. Nowadays, that variable was often Swain himself, but instead of pure hatred, she hated that she enjoyed his challenge.

Millenia of planning had often left her bored, uncontested in a lot of ways. Jericho brought her fresh perspective and a perfect challenge that she couldn't help wanting to try her cards against his own. So as she continued to pretend she made no mistakes, she didn't let any annoyance break free from her often blank face. Emilia shook her head, only a few made her smile like he did, laugh like she felt truly part of the world rather than a hivemind completely filled with the information and thoughts of her sisters as well as her own.

For a moment, his arm on her back, her mask falters with such fondness setting her off-guard. It almost makes her flee, wish to escape, but no, she refused to let him scare her away with such a gesture.

"While I typically would lie regarding my interest with you, I know that it is simply not worth it; we both know each other too well to refute it. Now, don't we?" 

Despite all her internal wishes to flee, she disregards them completely and moved instead closer to the Grand General. After her attempt with Marcus Du Couteau, it had been made abundantly clear that he was not a possible assassination. Unless Katarina was on her side, which she very wasn't, it wasn't possible. However, she continued sending bothered people his way to deal with them as she wished. Little did he know he was giving her precisely what she wished by killing them.

The infernal part of him is much less motivated by mortal striving and much more arbitrary hunger for knowledge. To dig and dig at that hidden beyond view. But to the man, toying with his biggest 'nemesis' and enjoying benefit and blade alike, was very much a point of mental stimulation and another game to play. If he has other feelings, he is unwilling to scrutinize them or consider them. Noxian pride and pigheadedness still hold Jericho.

Gloved hands give a cursory grazing touch along her back. Both a taunt and a gentler sign of affection, one cannot always be knives and blood, though he regards both with equal mirth.

"We could know each other better." He says, nictating lids giving a playful wink.

Black feathers fluff outward at the touch, much neglected pin feathers itching off, though his gaze doesn't leave hers, jaw subtley tensed, neck and shoulders still, waiting for a sudden move.

"I'm a product of my environment." He says offhandedly, looking at her, trying to ready himself for a would be threat.

2nd base: exist in a public space together

3rd base: you witness me have a real, candid emotion

Certainly he was a competent general, leader and above all visionary, but if he was seen as a cripple again, things were certainly over before they had begun.

As the blood mage approaches him, the air changes, stiff, stagnant, like static shock. Red and black flickers of magic, the shadow of a raven's wings, desperately surging forward to drain all life from his surroundings. Slow enough to not result in an immediate death, but certainly painful and selfish.

Despite the attack being unprovoked, Elise did not really blame Swain. He had not hidden the fact that he was plotting something ill-advised. No, this was her own fault. And she would probably do it again.

Stubborn legs buckled, and the mage was quite happy to let herself fall to one knee. Were hyperthermia symptoms common? The cold was giving way to warmth, and the lethargy was being pushed aside by energy...

Still, as he gathered his wits, and did his best to breath in the renewed energy, he could feel a heavy wave of energy, so quick it was less something he felt coming and more an instant wave of vertigo and static shock.

@elisethetraveller

Call it professionalism or foolhardiness, but the mage does not retreat at the sneering or flash of red in the grand general’s eyes. Instead she follows his swaying, ready to step in should his balance fail. A scavenger following dying prey would not have been an inappropriate comparison, if it was not so obvious that Elise was trying to help. “You are bleeding.” The words do not quite carry the weight of a scolding tone, Elise has more respect for Swain than that, but this was no time for Noxian doctrine and pride. “I am a healer. Let me help before you lose another limb.” Stubborn, stubborn man. No matter how many times she has had it explained the blood mage does still not understand why accepting help was such a bad thing. What was the point of medicine and fellow people if not to step in when one stumbled in their steps? “I can be quick, alright? It will be over with and no one will know.” Granted there was a lot of blood around, but who were to say where it had come from. Glancing away she did a quick scan of their surroundings. It would not be long before someone else came to check on them. “Just let me help, please?”

🔴 - "And? I've bled before. A lot more." He seethes indignantly. Swain had been on the very brink of blood loss- this was nothing. He'd shed much in his time, enough to contemplate his mortality tenfold. Veins pulse and tighten painfully, heart racing and pounding loudly in his ears. Nothing he's not overcome before.

"I lost a limb from having it cut off and then shortened for sepsis-, not a laceration!" He hisses, the demonic energy is keeping the grand general standing, but without taking full form, a small stretch of magic should be more than enough to give him some vitalisation. She may not be eyeing him as a predator intentionally , but he is beginning to eye her as desperate scavengers are want to.

"And you are interested in losing another, is that it?" The snark was deeply unprofessional and mostly hyperbole. Swain would not lose the limb unless something particularly unfortunate got into the wound. But that did not mean he would not be better off with it tended to. "You can at least sit for a moment, allow yourself to breathe." And hopefully, the fatigue would hit him hard enough once he sat still that he would let her do her job.

The suspicion hit the second he acquiesced without more fuss. Elise was old enough to realize when something was too good to be true, and most likely a trap was being laid out. Unfortunately, a long-lived life also gave rise to the arrogant notion that some traps could simply be ignored and weathered.

Certainly he was a competent general, leader and above all visionary, but if he was seen as a cripple again, things were certainly over before they had begun.

As the blood mage approaches him, the air changes, stiff, stagnant, like static shock. Red and black flickers of magic, the shadow of a raven's wings, desperately surging forward to drain all life from his surroundings. Slow enough to not result in an immediate death, but certainly painful and selfish.

Eduardo Arranz-Bravo (Spanish, b. 1941)

New human 4, 1994

"Or you're making careless mistakes. Observable by mere mortals." Others were in the know now too, Medarda's, though he suspected it was all part of the plan.

Possibly even if certain hesitations were likely unappreciated. Much as Leblanc liked to angle herself as above Noxian culture- a formative hand and not apart, she was not free in his eyes of the instinct to gather those who continued to challenge her mind and plans. Those who cowed too readily and quickly were often discarded or humiliated. But that was conjecture, perhaps she was simply saving her stubborn headstrong asses for a different slaughter.

" I am charmed by you, though I can't say it changes our dynamic or relationship much." Dark eyes dart to her, angling his head, maybe he wants to lean, but a part of him wants to make her try and dig her fingers in his shoulders, escalate this. His teeth do grit though barely hidden tension which was recognition of the threat she was- and the thorn he had not been able to decisively remove.

"Perhaps, I cannot promise it will stick any better than it has before." A charmed warble of a croak, as much as a warning.

Though in his heart, he knew the thing to put him down was not her. Or if it was- by that time it would be a mercy kill not just for him but the entirety of Noxus.

"Of course you don't. " He says with a good degree of mockery, not offering where he had caught her out. Now, one could debate whether he had or not, but there was no concealing the other messes that hadn't gone entirely smooth.

He raises his remaining human arm to graze along the back of hers, a teasingly fond look.

"I wouldn't say I'm comfortable, but I find you stimulating to engage with."

He lets her angle his head, sharp gaunt face lined with small black feathers, pin and down alike, flitting under nails he knows want him dead, sometime soon.