𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘯 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴

EVERYDAY LIFE / DOMESTIC

📋 : how organized is your muse?

✅ : what do they pretend to have together that they don't?

🕰️ : what time do they naturally wake up when no one needs them?

☕ : what's their morning ritual, and what happens when it's disrupted?

🧺 : how often do they do laundry?

🪞 : do they look at themselves in mirrors, or avoid them? why?

🍽️ : do they eat to survive, for pleasure, or as comfort?

🏠 : what part of their living space reflects them the most?

🌱 : do they keep plants, and are those plants alive?

🧼 : what's something they're weirdly particular about being clean?

📺 : what do they put on when they don't want to think?

SOCIALIZATION / CONNECTION

🗣️ : are they better one-on-one, or in groups?

📱 : do they text back immediately, or let messages rot?

🫥 : how often do they pretend to be fine to keep the peace?

🎭 : how different are they with strangers versus people they trust?

🤝 : do they make friends easily, or accidentally?

🧠 : what do they assume people think about them?

🌘 : how hard is it to really know them?

🎉 : do they enjoy social events, or endure them?

🪑 : are they the type to leave early without saying goodbye?

INTROSPECT / INTERNAL LANDSCAPE

🕵️‍♀️ : how often does your muse think about death?

🧩 : what part of themselves do they not understand yet?

🫀 : what emotion scares them the most?

👣 : do they believe they deserve good things?

🧱 : what walls are they aware of building? which ones are they not aware of?

🕳️ : what do they spiral about at night?

📉 : what's their most common self-criticism?

💀 : do they trust their own memories?

🌊 : what emotion do they drown in when they're alone?

PERSONAL / DEEP / TRAUMA-ADJACENT

🩸 : what wound shaped them the most, even if they won't admit it?

🔥 : what moment do they replay when they're ashamed?

🧷 : who failed them first?

🕯️ : what do they grieve that no one else sees as a loss?

🪤 : what pattern do they keep falling back into?

🧨 : what pushes them past the point of restraint?

🧬 : what did they inherit emotionally from their caregivers?

🕶 : what lie do they tell themselves to survive?

🩹 : what actually helps them heal, even if it's unhealthy?

HABITS / VICES / COPING

🚬 : what vice do they justify the most?

🍺 : do they drink to socialize, numb, or celebrate?

💊 : what's their relationship with substances, past or present?

🏃 : do they move their body to feel alive or to punish it?

🛏️ : how do they sleep when things are bad?

🎧 : what kind of music gets them through the worst days?

🖊️ : do they write things down or let thoughts rot in their head?

☔️ : do they intellectualize pain instead of feeling it?

🕳️ : what habit would unravel them if taken away?

SEXUALITY / INTIMACY

🫠 : is it easy for them to get turned on, or do they need emotional safety first?

💞 : do they separate sex and feelings, or blur them dangerously?

🛑 : what's an immediate turn-off for them?

🔥 : do they crave intensity or stability?

🤲 : do they like being in control, or giving it up?

🪶 : are they gentle with people they desire?

🍒 : how do they feel about their own body during intimacy?

🎱 : what do they need to feel wanted?

🔒 : do they guard intimacy, or give it too freely?

💔 : have they ever used sex to avoid something?

MORALITY / CHOICES

⚖️ : what line will they never cross?

🩶 : what line have they already crossed and justified? or regret?

🧭 : do they believe they're a good person?

🔪 : what would they do if survival demanded cruelty?

🪙 : what do they value more, loyalty or truth?

🚪 : who would they abandon if forced to choose?

🕊️ : do they believe in forgiveness? for themselves? in others?

🧨 : what would make them snap permanently?

📜 : what promise do they regret making?

It felt as if she was birthed into pure coldness as she finally broke free from the void. Exactly like a fresh hatchling from its egg covered in terrible gestating juices.

She gasped out as she broke through the shell that had broken as it escaped the void with her in it. The air was so cold that she felt as if she was dropped into a frozen lake and she could hardly remember how it felt to be so cold.

Kai'sa crawled out of it as gooey substance stuck to every part of her body. Her void parts were soft as they hardened with the exposure to the chilling air that surrounded her. It nearly sent her into a stasis from the extreme cold.

While the first part of the decade she had fought to survive within the void—the latter half of it was nearly indescribable as the void corruption consumed her head-to-toe to change her. This change was different, unlike all the changes she had experienced up to that point. Something more similar to that of bug birthing from it's column than that of a moulting.

Exhaustion was heavy as her body had grew used to the extreme heat that was within that casing. Her chitin still malleable and her eyes were surprisingly human despite it all. Her face decorated with lines of void corruption and her wings glued together as they tried desperately to harden.

She was weak—her body and the void screamed danger yet the Shuriman night made it too hard to scan her surroundings. Too hard to function and the bitter winds whipped—Sand?

The chilling gales brought back distant memories of Ionia's mountains, sand buffeting upon her like hail in the night. Beneath the thin scarf fastened around her head, she sang to herself in a quiet, trembling voice, ignoring the limp in her gait that had become impossible to suppress; she was ill-prepared for a storm, and much less in any condition to face one.

This was as far as she had been able to rock surf, after fending off a surprise onslaught of void monsters earlier, and it was not far enough. Her thread of recklessness had left her wouded, battered and alone in a pitch black night, the nearest town a stroke of arrogance away.

She would walk a little while still, she had decided, perhaps enough to make her way past the tunnels that she could sense below her. They were empty, at least, and any palpable activity was now distant and unclear.

That is, until something landed in her periphery.

The song froze in her throat. She begged her exhausted senses to sharpen and reveal more of what she couldn't see in the sand-buffeted darkness.

It was something light. The sand made it fuzzy and a guess at best, but it was very much like a person, judging from its weight. How could that be? Here? She should've sensed them much earlier.

A cold chill crawled up her spine. It seemed impossible. But here in the void territory, the earth and its laws were twisted.

If it really was a person, she could help, or be helped. If it was a monster, she was vulnerable to its attack, anyhow. Would she be able to flee and hide from it? Could she bear listening to someone's cries behind her, as a monster dragged them away to certain death?

She prayed to the Great Weaver, and set her course for the being that accompanied her in the winter night.

It was very near now, and she still could not see through the darkness. It had hardly moved, and she could hear hints of breathing. Human breathing.

Her heart jumped. " Hello? " she offered in a low voice, barely above the wind. " Can you hear me? "

He knew that their reunion if it ever happened would be like a bittersweet tart, but nothing had prepared hm for this. Her helping him sit up before burying her head into his chest like the countless times that they were inseparable from each other. It felt like memories blurred by the drink—that hurt in it’s own way. His bottom lip trembling as he wrapped his own arms around her.

Yasuo felt as if he was the one who wronged her with the way she sounded so fearful that it felt like it should be his fault. He should have went with her, why didn’t he go with her?

“I’m here, Tali.” The samurai whispered, raising one of his hands to comb through her hair and soothe her tears. He rested his head atop hers, letting out a soft sigh of relief. He squeezed his eyes closed as he also felt the same—he thought he was never going to see her again once she left Ionia. Yet there his pupil was—in his arms where the two could take solace in each other once again, as they once did.

He really wanted to tell Taliyah everything—tell her how badly everything got without her, but that was too much, and she could never hope to hold the sadness that he did nor did Yasuo wish her to. He wanted to be the umbrella in the torrential downpour to spare her what he could. For he could take it… He had to take it.

No words came to his mouth—only a shaky breath to show that he wanted to say something but it hurt all so desperately. He tightened his grip on her.

But no, she could not pretend that years hadn't passed or shaped her since then. In three years she had seen her homeland fissured and oppressed, and risen to defend it. She did not quite fit into Yasuo's arms anymore like she used to; she was less small, less contented by a mere embrace. The sense of that change was sobering to the overflow of her emotions -- that, and the stinging stench of her poor master.

Blinking away her tears, Taliyah basked in his embrace for a while still, while enough for her nerves to calm down and accept that Yasuo was truly there. She had found him, she had found him.

Then, responsibility urged her to move. It was the adult sense of weight and guardianship that her younger self had left to her master in the past. Taliyah pulled back, making sure to support her master to sit upright as she did, lest he wobble in his stupor. Passerbys eyed them, particularly keenly from the direction of the tea house, and the air was tense. She had to get them both away from the scene that her master had caused.

" Master, " she began, struggling to find the right tone between her role of being his student, and her newfound authority. It felt somehow out of line to speak to him in her voice, the voice which could no longer sound naive and reliant. " Can you stand? Please, come with me. Rise now and I'll help you. "

The stoneweaver stood up, urging her master to follow her and lean into her aid. She found herself praying that Yasuo would not be stubborn. " Please. We'll be fine. We just need to find somewhere calmer first. "

Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a passing gleam in the direction of the tea house. An immediate sense of danger and malice hit her, and she acted faster than she could think. In an instant she spun around, facing the tea house, and with her motion the earth around them rose into a protective shield. Two clings chimed, sharp metal panging against stone. The crowd of celebrants around them erupted into chaos, fleeing, yelling, pointing, bracing, lanterns sent flying and drinks spilling.

The camp was nestled between tall rock formations, mimicking the mouth of a cave. A ring of rocks encircles burnt wood, and a small clothing line to air out his garments. A basic tunic, pants, and a brown wool cloak are pinned to the line gently swayed in what little breeze that passes by.

The voice calling out took a few times to stir the Lunari awake. Grumbling as he tosses and turns in his sleeping bag, desperately trying to ignore the questions. Being in a shitty mood doesn't help the lack of sleep. But if they keep calling out... might as well indulge them so he could go back to sleep.

As he hears the last question, he reaches for his sleep shirt to put it back on. Quick fingers ruffle his hair to attempt to look like he didn't just wake up. He buttons his pants once more, and slips into his shoes.

Unpinning the tent's opening, he bows his head low to meet whoever has been yelling. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he unknowingly glares down at the young lady. Is it really that important to know who he is at such an early hour?

The young man stood before her with dark circles under his eyes. It's quite apparent that he is under the weather, considering the contrast between the rest of his skin. Pale, light as the moon that clung to the last hour of her daily cycle. Eyes of deep, rich jewel tones. Silk navy that blends into violet seamlessly. And as the sun begins to rise, her light shines down on him, flecks of twinkling stars in his eyes of night. His hair pitch black as a raven. Typically well-kept, in this moment, it is slightly messy. As if he ran a brush through his hair quickly before leaving the safety of his tent.

And so, when she finally hears movement and shuffling from inside the tent, her heart beats anxiously.

Then, her heart jumps.

From the tent emerges a tall man, and though pallid and subdued, his strength and capability are apparent in his frame and bearing. Instantaneously and instinctively, she knows that he is special in some way, that there is an importance to him, though she cannot tell how or why. She certainly hasn't met anyone like him before, and he doesn't remind her of anything.

Her stare is awed, and her usually agile and graceful bearing is stiff, like she'd forgotten how to move in her usual way. " Yes? " she repeats after him, meeker than intended. " You mean to say, you are alright? "

Then, to her dismay, he moves away from her, back into his tent, to... fetch water. She'd half-expected him to be done with her intrusion!

It's Taliyah's turn to sigh with relief when he speaks again. The fact that this stranger is not only unharmed, but receptive to her, is more than she could've hoped for.

Her shoulders relax, and confidence returns to her stature. There is an apprehensive friendliness on her sun-browned features. " I am good, thank you for asking. "

Then, to urgent matters. If only this were mere desert, bathing in the morning light, and a happenstance meeting of two travelers. " You survived the night. There was a breach the other day, so I'm... looking for anyone who might need help. You must be a seasoned traveler, and quite capable, to brave this part of the desert. Have you heard or seen anything unusual in the last days out here? "

send one to have our muses meet for the first time.

“Sorry, were you just talking to me?”

“I think you dropped this.”

“You look lost. Need some help?”

“I don’t usually talk to strangers, but…”

“You’re sitting in my spot.”

“Whoa! Careful!”

“We’ve never met, right? You seem familiar.”

“Is that seat taken?”

“Sorry, I think I just spilled something on you.”

“You’re blocking the doorway.”

“Were you just staring at me?”

“Excuse me, do you know the time?”

“Wait — are you the person I’m supposed to meet?”

“I’ve been sent to find you.”

“Please don’t be alarmed, but I think we have the same bag.”

“Do you work here?”

“I’m fairly certain that’s mine.”

“You’ve got something on your face.”

“Sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

“Do you know the way to ___?”

“You’re hurt. Do you need help?”

“That’s a fine ___ (cloak/hat/book/etc.). Where did you get it?”

“This might sound strange, but can I hide behind you for a moment?”

“You look like you could use a friend.”

“I think your dog just stole my lunch.”

“Hey, you dropped your coin purse.”

“I think we’re stuck in here together.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to overhear, but…”

“Are you the new neighbor?”

“First time in town?”

“I’m not sure if this belongs to you, but…”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I’ve been hearing a lot about you.”

“Do you mind if I join you?”

“I think you’re in the wrong place.”

“You seem… out of place.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you following me?”

“That was a close call.”

“Not to alarm you, but someone’s watching you.”

“Mind if I walk with you?”

“You look like you’re in trouble.”

“Was that your doing back there?”

“You don’t look like you’re from around here.”

“That was impressive. How’d you manage it?”

“I’m guessing you’re not here by accident.”

“Do I want to know what just happened?”

“You might want to keep your voice down.”

“Is it always this strange around here?”

“I have a feeling we’re about to become acquainted whether we like it or not.”