* the longest journey is inward.

The expression used draws a blank; although outlawed once long ago, Cecil couldn’t recall it having a biting problem! It isn’t out of the realm of possibility given the hostile nature of sound, but unable to make a clear connection, he tilts his head in response. By all means, the difference in realities was apart of the confusion – and so, regardless of his insufficient knowledge on the topic, he laughs. He then stops laughing, unknowing if it’s a joke or just a generalized statement, and politely nods to indicate his agreement. Vaguely, offhandedly, without meaningful purpose he wonders if this is how she has felt throughout the duration of their conversation.

Fingers idly tug at the loose bits of scales on his leggings as he shrugs. Cecil didn’t believe in a life without some form of indulgence, be it a quick treat on the way to work or working perhaps an hour longer than needed of him, but he isn’t sure if the same treatment is to be applied to this. On one hand, drinking to forget is essentially the town’s slogan, on another hand livers are considered pretty important, and upholding care for them is also essential. On another, disproportionate hand, Sapphire wouldn’t be keen if he commented. And so, Cecil refrains. 

“It was mine at a point also,” Cecil adds, “Although there are many things here that you can come to enjoy other than drinking! Nothing that you could come to enjoy immediately, but surely there is something you would like. It could be a scenario like whenever you bump your funny bone against the corner of your coffee table, or against a member of the Secret Police who just so happened to be masked in advanced camouflage - which is like normal camouflage, except less normal and more lethal - and it hurts for just a moment, until you grow used to its presence.”

Lost in his current train of thought, he almost misses her question. The result remains the same, Cecil blinking his eyes as he gathers any information about the topic… which, unfortunately for his company, is precisely nothing and everything at once.

“I’m… not sure we have anything like that. At least I don’t think we do? We might’ve at one point!”

The way he laughs and suddenly stops makes her laugh more, the 16 year old now extremely drunk and finding everything hilarious--with also the realization of strange this world was to her, old expressions were useless here. She was gonna have to get used to that... she was sure she would be unhappy in the morning. If only she could read the statements being written here--then she might be able to answer, alas, she cannot.

“Uhhh...” There’s an awkward chuckle at the mention of secret police being in the area, and in advanced camouflage and she seems to reflect the same feeling he’d had but moments ago. “Are they here now...?” she pauses and looks around, but her eyes are aimless and hardly seem to look anywhere carefully in the least, it was easy to see if you could look at how her pupils were naturally drooping: it seemed the alcohol was hitting all at once--and was going to be the cause of unconsciousness.

The stranger’s demeanor changed impressively fast in so short a time. While he was apparently on the run from… SOMETHING, his concern for the situation extinguished, and when he angled himself to implement a BOW, Zuko’s true surprise seeped through a stoic facade. What would be a passing surprise, that is; mention of “THIEF” persuaded the furrowing of his brows that shattered the shock. Gut reaction. Instinctual response. In the moment, maybe the dethroned prince didn’t consider he himself fit that description (at one point), all for the sake of survival. JUDGMENT had a funny way of persevering even then.

He wasn’t quite out of those woods, yet. The blood of superiority royalty still seared through his veins.

And so, he could only GUESS what or who this vagrant was hiding from. He jumped to conclusions in the blink of an eye, but couldn’t help wondering how IMPORTANT the latest thing he stole could possibly be to create a chase that’d bring the culprit this far underground. As if anticipating guards to break from the same wall, Zuko glanced over at what was now closed up. His lips thinned into a line before he climbed to his feet and pat the dirt off his robes.

“Glad you’ve led them here,” he said, sarcasm as thick as the air around them. 

—but, he… had apples in that bag. APPLES, of all things. And sure, Zuko could assume there were a few other items stashed away; he just… Had stealing fruit led him to where he was now? Must’ve been an Upper Ring vendor of some variety…

He looked between the two colors in his hands, and his nose pinched in the slightest—not at the observation, but the OFFER itself. “You… You’re SHARING with me?” 

Tosen smirked again, while he’s sure the Dai Lee couldn’t be following him anymore--as they would’ve been here by now if they had kept up--it was FUN to keep the other guessing as to who would come in for who. Maybe the slightest noises would bother him, and he’d get jumpy that’d be fun to watch.

“You’re absolutely welcome.” he replies with equal sarcasm but it’s missing most of it’s snark by this point, because he does wonder... what will happen on the surface, IF they don’t find him. Tosen doesn’t keep on that train of thought for long, nor does he say much about thieving, it wasn’t the real reason why he was there so it hardly mattered to this discussion--though one of the items in his bag did REVEAL the true reason he was running away.

He mentally scolded himself for doing something so ridiculous--of course everyone had known, and... of course they wouldn't do anything.

I’m just developing my story by practicing roleplay in that universe!  If you want to actively roleplay in my universe go ahead and hit me up and I’ll add you to the server!

For the past (has it already been a) year, @kiralushia​ has been assisting me with all resources and assets for this blog that needed to be drawn, so after drawing 11 full body characters, two scenes, and a giant piece of all of the characters, I wanted to take a moment to appreciate Kira’s hard work.

Working with her has been an extremely rewarding experience and I’ve been lucky enough to have someone so talented and professional help me with this project. I only wish that tumblr would let me show you just how many exquisite pieces she’s created. I would definitely recommend her for any projects you may have.

my biggest commission yet decided to get a poster of it (60in * 21in)

Me: “disliked bc her wife is afraid of them” “know each other through her wife” “thankful for them taking care of  her wife”

What part of this haunted house are you?

    There’s something eerie about this house, something wholly unfamiliar in the familiar. You’ve always been aware of it, of everything just a little too much. You’ve seen how this house sinks its teeth into whatever passes through it because you are the passage that connects one to the other. So you know how this ends — when someone believes they can tame a predator, and now you must sit back in and watch as they become the newest prey. You have a good heart, or what is left of it, but you learned the hard way to put yourself first in a place like this. So make no mistake, when the third step from the top creaks it is not without purpose. You are a bridge, at the end of the day, the intermediate between the familiar and then unknown. A staircase goes both up and down, after all.

As such, each transitioning individual can be sure of their choice without any drawbacks. However there is regulation on this, as many criminals have taken a glamour or potion to go into hiding. It’s been put into place in many countries that those who have purchased a potion or glamour need to be reported. Countries where this isn’t enforced see this as a way of keeping track of and oppressing transitioning or transitioned individuals.

Most peasants don’t know the importance of washing their hands, nor do their doctors as most healing can be promoted through purification magic or direct healing from compassion mages, so treating someone who has a small infection is more likely to die than someone with third degree burns from fire magic.

In the rarer cases, possession can be from invocation for rituals where a lesser god is summoned through a conduit or, even rarer, a divinious entity can trick a human or monster into agreeing to it.

Lesser gods are summoned through a ritual and such rituals have sigils and spells in place so the lesser god’s host can regain control after the ritual is over. However, in a divinious’ case there is no one general sigil or spell that will end a divinious’ control over the host.

Humans with stronger soul values (aka vivid hues) can gain control of their bodies again if they truly desire, however those with equal or less than soul values of the divinious can result in permanent possession if the divinious does not leave of their own accord.

Most humans don’t worry about possession too much except in this case--there is a noticeable change in eye color during possession making it easy to determine which is type of possession is happening. 

Incarnates lose the whites of their eyes and their pupils resulting in flat color all across. Lesser gods result in brighter hues of the iris as the hosts have to lack soul value to be possessed. Divinious results in a darkening of the hue, so someone with lime green eyes may change to celery green while influenced.

There are rumors of three particular instances of possession in an incident over one thousand years ago, where the eye color did not represent any of the following possessions: all lacked sclera and pupils, their eyes either white, black or gray--no such Gods exist as it is impossible for humans and monsters alike to have black or gray souls.

The three individuals seemed to have left a message for the ruler of what is known as Ancient Enrios, however given that Enrios is a city of ruins, that message has since been lost--however it has been noted that the hosts of the three possessed died to unknown causes shortly after.

Each ritual has their own set ups; Palesa requires an offering of harvest, to show that they are no longer needing the wealth of Gennadius; Gennadius requires a sigil made with the recent rainwater, the ritual must be done at dawn to show that Baldilwyn’s warmth is still necessary as well as Palesa’s rains. Daedalus’ ritual needs complete darkness, and is often done at midnight, but at least after dusk--it’s a long ritual and hymns are chanted until signs of dawn. It is nearly impossible to tell if Daedalus’ ritual is done properly. 

The biggest difference in ritual comes with Baldilwyn’s summoning for spring. It requires a giant bonfire in a isolated area, 10 mages are required for the summoning and several sigils are required from the mages’ flames, but she requires an extra step--a dance must be performed. The dance can be perfectly and not summon Baldilwyn, whereas the dance can be performed poorly and she may still show, according to the high priests of Aliota “no one knows what causes her to show or not, and that she may simply chose to ignore certain summonings.”

In truth, it depends on both the audience and the mages performing the dance. The dance is held very tenderly to Baldilwyn so those who perform perfectly but do not actually “feel” the dance will fail to summon her, whereas those who do “feel” the dance or are focused on their dancing partner rather than the steps are more likely to summon her.

If a partially corrupted soul is consumed (due to the crystallization, the soul will persist and can be finely ground or chopped into meals; it is considered a delicacy to nobles and used as an enhancement drug for those with magical prowess), the body will experience flu-like symptoms and panniculitis before going to more catastrophic symptoms like neutrophilic dermatosis to leprosy. The changes of crystallization that a hybrid or monster can undergo while still having a balanced hue to survive the decay for these changes simply only causes the decay and not the growth of the glass or crystal-like structures. 

Even when this temporary power up goes correctly, it is a lottery for what skill a mage may gain temporarily, such as flight with the use of wings, will allow a mage to sprout wings for a matter of days before the wings fall off. To keep these wings, one would have to consume a crystallized soul (does not have to be the same time, just needs enough magic from the soul to upkeep the gained skill) twice weekly to use the skill, and once weekly to prevent loss of any assets gained.

Many mages find this diet both unethical, and inefficient as the risk is not worth the reward. However, a certain group of poachers will trap monsters, hybrids or human slaves, start the corruption process then use a purifying spell to crystallize the soul--then terminate the being.