STELLAR — *

@tiianfa ☾ ( sc )

Well, since he had stopped in the kingdom of Xalphina, might as well get some books for him and Alucard to enjoy. And of course, for Sypha as well since he had located her within their aligned kingdom. It was like their lives hadn’t been interrupted - saved for Richter’s newly found bloodlust and people wanting to kill you, but to be fair, that last part isn’t really anything new to a Belmont.

Richter thumbed through the collection of books, landing right on one about astrology. Alucard had enjoyed the astronomy book he had gotten him back during Christmas, so maybe he would enjoy an astronomy book as well. Cerulean eyes gazed outside of the window, watching clouds pass by as the sky changed to signify that daylight was ending soon.

     “I wonder if the stars are different here from back in      the city…”

          not a shelf away, the draken browses a collection of tales strung together by the people of this world, pale fingers tracing patterns of stars along the pages as though their cool light might respond to him here. tales — at least as he thinks of them, insofar as they differ from those that his world had fabricated: one of humanity’s many attempts to make sense of what is unfathomable to them.

          it is in pondering this that he overhears the man nearby murmur the precise words that crossed his own heart, unspoken. && he lifts his head; the other’s attention is on some idle point beyond the windowpanes where orange twilight has begun to bathe the city in its soft rays — deceptively peaceful, for what awaits come nightfall. even though the man is only talking to himself, perhaps it is the odd coincidence of his words, aligned with susabi’s own thoughts, that prompt a rare response.

                              ❝ ... would you like to find out? ❞

@tiianfa, you seem knowledgeable about magic! | starter call!

  Should he be staring directly towards these leylines? That’s yet to be seen, but Cyrus finds himself entranced by the sight provided as night takes over the sky. With how much light is provided from these pools and the lines branching out across the stone, it may as well act as a second sun. While sticking his hand into it would give him experience, he isn’t willing to risk his health on a gamble like this.

  Standing up straight, he scans those still outside at this hour and picks his target. His approach is far-removed from subtle, the heel on his shoe giving warning to his approach.

  “ Excuse me! Might I ask what these lights beneath our feet are? I’ve only witnessed them in this particular city and you appear to be the type that would hold information about the matter. ”

          returning from an errand across the city, he chose to take the long route back to his observatory; the breeze is pleasant, and the cloudless sky promises an unobstructed view of the constellations once they emerge from the oppression of the sun’s radiance. in the purity of the descending night, the city’s leylines seem to come alive, surging fonts of magic appearing that much more luminescent in the wake of daylight.

          his sojourn goes undisturbed, though a few who recognize him — students, or other scholars, or those around the city who have worked with him before — pause to greet him respectfully as they pass by. it goes undisturbed, that is, until the approach of one energetic man has him stopping in the middle of a road.

a man of few words – this will be interesting, mikazuki thinks. another smile creeps onto his face and he watches the quiet man walk past him towards the direction of the site in need of his help. without much hesitation, he follows him, silently agreeing that they shouldn’t waste time in this journey. they longer they dally, the more risk the kingdom is subjected to. 

so, there’s silence for the beginning of their journey, as mikazuki walks behind susabi, watching out for any threats that might emerge from any direction. his hand never strayed too far from the handle of his sword, deft fingers prepared to unsheathe whenever necessary. he has agreed to play the part of the guard and he intends to follow through with his word.

eventually, mikazuki breaks the silence, growing a bit bored during their quiet walk. he decides to play a little game with himself and see how many words he can manage to elicit from the ward he’s to protect. from behind, he asks, “susabi-sama, my superiors couldn’t quite explain what’s happening by the borders – might i ask for you to explain what’s happening there and why you were sent? i understand there’s some issues they’re having, but what exactly is it?” 

          susabi neither welcomes nor rejects the silence. contrary to what the onmyoji of kyoto would whisper among themselves when they thought he could not hear ( or was ever not, in some way, aware of ) them, he did not disdain conversation; it is simply not in his nature to contribute much to it unless he feels a need. even so, the quiet is advantageous in some ways; it does less to give away their position to any potential threats, && the subtle wind has a pleasant sound as it passes them by, even if the overhead skies look less benign, blanketed in a thick layer of grey.

          when mikazuki does break the silence, a few hours in, he doesn’t falter, either, nor even glance back to acknowledge that he’s being spoken to. in fact, it might seem as though he is entirely ignoring the question or didn’t hear it, if not for a slow swish of his tail against the dirt path to show that he does intend to answer.

          ❝ what about the one that comes at night, though? i saw it... looked just like ‘im, hovering around the windows last night. well near gave me a heart attack... ❞

          ❝ huh? the hell you talking ‘bout, woman? ❞

          the one that comes at night... susabi frowns, the tip of his golden tail swaying once in careful thought. this may not be xalphina, but it seems the talk here is the same — those doppelgangers are walking the streets across this world. the voice that had spoken to them all bade them save this fabricated existence, and by extension, themselves. already, he’s heard rumors of the ‘ assimilation ’ of those who don’t belong here: the wiping of memories, the implanted belief that they were citizens of this world all along.

---

          it’s nightfall when he returns to the house. this time, the fisherman and his wife are away, and the silence that permeates the walls is tense with secrecy. the establishment isn’t large, && it doesn’t take him long to find what the man had been bragging about: a large cage sequestered in the back of the building, away from windows and prying eyes. inside is a man whose glistening skin gives away that he was a denizen of the sea once before this new landbound captivity. his voice is quiet as he addresses him, but in the shadows of the empty home, it seems to echo regardless.

          ❝ ... your mist reaper is nearby. in your current state, it would not be difficult for him to best you. ❞

FANTASIA WARS ASK MEME | @tzarov

🌱 : what’s a thread you really want to do with your muse?

          the boring answer is that i really can’t think of any cravings HAHA… but i wouldn’t mind doing a thread where you get to see a little bit of susabi’s more humane side. he’s so often shown as completely cold, exacting, and punitive, at best, apathetic; at worst, resentful. which he is, like, 90% of the time. but there’s moments in canon where we see that he a lot more open-minded ( or at least tolerating ) than the impression we get of him, i think. so something like the final scene of SP miketsu’s memory scroll where he expresses his own brand of care for her and tells her to rest, or even something like his manga appearance with ren where he actually displays the 1-in-1000-years-moment of emotional vulnerability.

FANTASIA WARS ASK MEME | @ziodie

♈ : what fantasy race did you choose for your muse (and why?)

★ : she’s not used to people staying this quiet around her, much less remaining so completely dead in the face. even the emotionless menreiki talks more than this guy. but – marisa isn’t the type to push people for answers. pry, maybe, but she can go snooping later on her own time after they inevitably part ways.

<<Well, I mean… you just kind of had that aura. I dunno. Wild guess?>> she shrugs, not in the least bit unnerved by his complete lack of reaction to anything she’s said. <<There are a lot of new people here all the time, so for all I know every single person I meet is new here at least.>>

<<It’s weird, though.>> she pauses, still kicking her feet at the water. <<In all seriousness, you kinda look like you’d be where I’m from, but I think I’d remember a fish-eyed guy like you. Do you have any other expressions?>>

          a wild guess, is it? well, it wasn’t an erroneous one. he is still growing accustomed to a place that is far afield from the steady, methodical world he has known. humanity changes — at a pace that far eclipses that of nature, or of gods. it is both the source of their strength and that of all of their deepest flaws. but this world around him now seems to change at rates even more rapid than he has ever seen. even for a spirit like himself, it’s somewhat disorienting. these thoughts flow through him like a quiet stream as he regards the water’s surface, the girl’s chattering in his ear another part of the scenery as she notes that there might be some similarity between them. && he seems like he may not even be listening, at least until her last remark.

          ❝ ... you are profoundly rude. ❞ the statement comes with a sidelong glare, dark indigo sharpened with frost. ❝ if you seek to know about others, you should first amend your approach. ❞ he shifts, and the wind drifts through the folds of his robes; as the fabric flutters, the roseate pattern on it ripples like real flower petals in the breeze. ❝ i am not from just one place, but many, over countless centuries. ❞ he glances at her again, this time with a more neutral look. ❝ i do not share your human concept of ‘ home ’. ❞

     blame on herself is as present as the blood flowing freely from her shoilder. she knew better, trained better, and yet they managed to find her and harm her. anger pulsated as she fled, body turning to survival mode. her mind remained blank save for the thought to escape, limbs moving on autopilot. she could not be caught, be killed or tortured for information she did not have. it was a fate Elaria refused to succumb to.

    so focused on the pursuers, she failed to keep her surroundings in check. no sooner had she faced forward was her path block and she came to a sudden halt. fingers gripped the blade tightly as her mixed with that which coated the blade,dripping to the ground. he made no move to advance, and neither did she. 

     “…..”

 elaria breathes deeply,willing her heart to calm itself from thumping wildly in her chest. the adrenaline coursed through her veins dispelling any pain or weariness she undoubtedly would feelsoon. eyebrows furrow as her gaze remains on the stranger.

         “ You’re…not with them.” 

          a suspended moment hangs, tense, in the midday air as they regard each other — for sharp seconds, gauging hostility. she is wound tight && ready to pounce; in the hardness of her face, he can see that she is just as accustomed to being predator as she is to prey. and then, the moment passes, and her disengagement is minuscule, but palpable. as she softens her defensive posture, his eyes also dim. now a few miles away, the xalphinan caravan has been overturned in the haste to pursue her, and bodies, insensate or already in the grips of death, mark the distance from there to here as stepping stones across a river.

          ❝ actually, i am, ❞ he clarifies in an unmoved tone. ❝ they were to be my escorts back to eriol. it seems they forgot their duty upon realizing you were nearby. ❞ a poor band of escorts in his opinion, but in the end it had seemed he was hardier than any of his so-called guards, regardless.

          he waves a hand in dismissal; the motionless ornaments floating about him stir in a brief, lazy orbit around his person before falling back to their resting places.

                              ❝ put away your sword. i am not                                  interested in fighting you. ❞

mikazuki knows he’s merely a weapon. he was a sword created by someone and, inexplicably, given a physical form. his whole purpose in life is to battle, to help ensure victory. if he breaks along the way, then it simply meant his time has come and he can no longer be used. it is because of this, his whole purpose in life, that he didn’t protest when he was asked to join the army. it is because of this he doesn’t hesitate when given a task by the army, as a mere weapon should always follow the orders given.

so, he arrives, a soldier acting as a bodyguard to a professor or some kind that is supposed to fix a problem nearby the border. by now, mikazuki understands that they’re in a constant state of war, and the borders could be dangerous with enemies looking for take an additional piece of land from the kingdom. although most of the border is guarded and fortified, there’s a chance that through the cracks, an enemy task force might slip through.

“i presume i am,” he says, a reply given in jest. there’s a smile on his face (then again, when is there ever not a smile) as he approaches the professor. the professor towers over him, but mikazuki is not one to feel intimidated (by anything, really). “i will try my best, esteemed teacher,” he says.

“it will be a day’s journey to the border by foot, according to my superiors. the further we are from here, the greater the chance for an attack from bandits or camped enemies,” he says, explaining some details in case the professor hadn’t been informed. “but, since it is only i who was sent to protect you… perhaps they didn’t think the chance of an attack is that great?” he muses, “we shall see.”

with his hands by his side, he bows respectfully. “allow me to introduce myself – my name is mikazuki munechika, your humble sword for this short journey. might i have the pleasure of knowing my company’s name?”

          expression unchanging, he listens to the man recount the details of their journey that he already knew. but rather than irritation, he remains stoic as the other talks, neither affirming his words or answering his contemplative question, which, it seems, turned out to be rhetorical, anyway. he does not claim to know the minds of the military commanders who had sent this man to guard him, as though ‘guarding’ him were necessary. susabi briefly closes his eyes, ruminating on the strangeness. removed from the world he oversaw and stripped of the powers that define him, then placed once more in a newer world, still, with powers not his own. in a way, he is beginning to feel not quite like himself. the fleeting thought crosses his mind with some small amusement.

          ❝ you may call me susabi, ❞ he replies calmly && simply, long, thin tail swaying to and fro once behind him. in response, the ornaments hovering about him rotate and spin in a slow dance, like wind chimes in a gentle, passing breeze.

     “When speaking of the stars themselves, I would believe you to be correct, but I speak not simply of the stars, but of the meanings that cultures and religions assign them.” She needn’t turn her head to the intruder, not just yet, she had a point to prove before this conversation could progress into other matters.

     “Look up there.” She gestured to a cluster of stars which formed a constellation in the loose shape of a woman with a dove. “Back home, that constellation resembled peace by means of encompassing the story of a young woman who unified different city-states by peaceful means. Not a story told by the stars themselves, no, but it is represented as such widespread. Here though… those stars might mean something completely different. That is what I wonder over.”

          patiently listening to her thoughts, he follows the direction of her gesture to the cluster of lights in the sky. they gleam, in equal parts cold and warm, alienating and welcoming. scattered across the inky expanse, they are as numerous as the myriad stories she proposes. he acknowledges her insight with a brief sound of consideration. throughout civilizations and ages, the tales may differ, but they are all fundamentally the same and speak the same messages of the people who imagined them. he thinks back to the seaside cliffs, when he would once do as she does now — stand in solitude and ask questions of the stars, with which he had always felt a kinship, deliver unto them his own stories, his own prayers. those millions of eyes... he closes his eyes, lowering his head. ❝ why wonder about such things? ❞ he asks her calmly. ❝ if you knew the answers, what would you do with them? ❞

                    “   i don’t believe we’ve… formally met.   ”     —–  rather, gossip travels quickly, tells of the shikigami far too poised to be the everyday, whispers of how the onmyoji have made contact with it, him. the coast is a long way from the forests of his comfort, the village that the humans have claimed as their home base even further, and yamakaze has found no reason thus far to traverse beyond his usual territory. but the two spirits under his temporary care are restless; they find ways to cause trouble that are far too clever for him to prevent, and in such a tight space, it’s difficult to go without a few fauna casualties. so he decides that the rivers are safer than towns riddled with humans, shiro and kuro at every bend and turn, and is put on scouting duty to reaffirm that. the one thing that he’d never expected was stumbling upon a youkai, one of such high prestige, at that.

                    “   i ought to say that ‘it’s a pleasure’, but i’m unsure.   ”

   //  @tiianfa      ❤ ‘d     for a starter !!

          the banks of the quiet river are tranquil, the waters chattering softly about the stones with deceptive timidity. sunlight gleams off the pale blue surface, scattering light in thousands of idyllic diamond shards the further out one’s eye travels. on the shoreline blanketed in crumbled sand and bits of stone and shell stands a lone man, profile dark in the backdrop of his resplendent surroundings. he doesn’t react to the rustling of the brush denoting the arrival of someone else, but there seems to be something of an acknowledgment in a subtle shift of his aura, anyway. after a moment, he half-turns, looking at the forest spirit with an undisturbed expression that seems to imply he had expected him, to an extent. he doesn’t immediately respond to the lukewarm greeting.

          even then, though, with a cunning matched only by the faekin of these liminal woods along the borderlands of xalphina and neighboring opalaria, she had evaded and even subdued a number of those pursuers. in her distraction, however, he had managed to go around && block off her path to escape.

                              ❝ stop. ❞

          his voice is not loud nor aggressive, but firm, as he stands in her path. only the two of them remain; the others have been incapacitated or killed. there’s no hostility in his posture as he regards her, however; separated by a distance of only some meters, he observes her, winded and wounded from battle and the chase.

                              ❝ you have fought enough. ❞

Yggdrasil nudges the door open with her foot, hands occupied with a cumbersome, heavy metal crate. She had vanished the sprout from her head, and while poking her head through the classrooms, was mistaken for a  student, and then tasked with completing an errand that wasn’t even meant for her. She hadn’t anticipated her disguise too effective.

As she wobbles into the study, she tries to speak pleasantly, but her voice is hoarse with disuse. “Professor Susabi.” It feels odd, addressing the stately stranger as ‘professor’ when she wasn’t a student, nor had she ever attended a school in the conventional sense.

“A delivery for you,” she croaks, placing the metal box beside his desk. She winces at the clang of the contents inside. For faekin, she was truly graceless.

          the girl’s strange intonation goes largely unnoticed; xalphina’s schools are accustomed to any manner of inhabitants, boasting a somewhat more diverse population than that of the city at large, even during these times of war — or so he’s been told. regardless, his experiences over centuries lend to little surprise at the perceived unexpected. as she staggers in with the box, he simply nods, gesturing dismissively to the floor and half-turning back to the book in front of him. it’s only at the heavy thud of the box landing unceremoniously on the ground and the disheartening rattle of its contents that he looks up.

                              ❝ come in. ❞

                              ❝ i presume you are the one assigned to guard me. ❞

          some days earlier, he had received notice that the leylines near the outskirts of xalphina, where it bordered the marshland of yela alora, required maintenance. their power, incompatible with the current rotation of stars, has begun to flag — potentially a danger, given that a weakness in that area may invite encroachment by their enemies to the south.

          the ancient power of draken flowing beneath his skin, he has the tools to protect himself if need be, but susabi has never foremost been a being of war unless necessary. it was wise to bring someone who was, and for a figure of such standing as he to take up a mission of such peril... only the finest would be appropriate.