#screams from the abyss // mt

[corruptedsilence]

Me and @sweet-chimera 4am doodles :D

[griefxgifted]

THE POLY REP I'VE BEEN STARVED FOR

FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING FOOD

[giftedfangs]

today has been a bit rough And im sorry for not really doing replies or anything

The announcement was made

and yeah I'm going to be separating ties near completely with Vampair as well and going off of Threnody's lore. I hope to complete the lore page and timeline for my blog later along with a refreshed biography page. I have my own personal reasons for not being comfortable with the current canon and how it's being handled so far so Missi for all purposes will not be the same as we see in daria's series I won't claim missi as my own, the original character idea and premise is not mine, but this alternate universe version of her will be mine. I'll still though never claim her as my original concept.

I'll also be adding a whole thing about Missi and changing her timeline + design + the cane to match more this blog and what I want to do with her. I'll be vaguely still keeping up with vampair but for the most part I'm going to be mostly divorced from it

[sweaterbob]

I'm gonna start flooding the net with my creations

not worried about who doesn't like it because as far as I know I been alone fr fr

shmackrealm.com

come shop I'll add more designs soon I'm finna just go extra ham no cheese until I stack all the bread yufeemee

[mysticjourneys]

A Flame In The Dark

(Closed rp with @a-fantastic-time )

Joanna Higashikata, a young girl who was deemed the strongest girl in school, given her athletic prowess. Although the only sport she was passionate for was martial arts. Her strength was comparable to Undyne, the police officer, but that was an over exaggeration. Still, Joanna felt very out of place among the school as she was the only human around... well, second to another.

Joanna's family had moved into the monster town near Mt Ebott last year. It was currently her and her father, her mother having died in an accident long ago. Joanna was a delinquent, having been several school fights that got police to be involved. They came here for Joanna to have a new lease on life, for her and her father to rebuild their bond.

Joanna didn't really mind the monsters. It was actually pretty cool. But, she still felt she belonged as people saw her weird at times. She was too tall, she was intimidating, she had a record, what happened to her left arm? It was disheartening to try and socialize with anyone. So she just kept to herself and focused on training and meditating.

One day, she would be paired up for a school project with the fellow human in town. Kris. She had seen the boy from time to time, seeing him be quiet and hanging out with a purple dinosaur girl and a reindeer girl, sometimes a nerdy bird boy. She was envious but didn't say anything. Now, she was coming to his own home after school. She wondered what waited for her, what she could see what Kris was all about. How he was able to make friends.

When the bell rang, Joanna had taken some cleanup supplies for the classroom and was on her way to the closet to return it. Only to notice Kris going into a room while everyone was leaving. She recalled that being the recreational room. Figure it be a chance to walk together, Joanna made her way to the door Kris went through.

Only for her to be greeted by darkness when she opened it. Confusion hit her with a bit of unease.

"Where'd he go?" Joanna questioned out loud. She took a step, only to find no ground to step in, and this caused her to stumble and fall. Her scream echoed as she fell further and further into the abyss. She didn't know how far she fell, only that everything went dark and her consciousness faded. Unaware of the changes she would be faced.

[jpitha]

Hidden Depths 11

Awakenings 1 2 3 4

Hidden Depths 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Once they were on board, Gord and Lucas donned space suits and jetted around Priority Express and Last Resort. Both ships had printed cradles and Gord supervised them coming together. Even though they were huge, both of the old Starjumpers had a very delicate touch. With only a small puff of dust, the two cradles came into contact, and the latches slammed shut.

"That should do it." Gord said over the radio. "Express, Resort, how does it feel?"

"I can't say I'm a fan of being bolted to someone else" Priority Express retorted. "But it's a solid connection. Good idea to add the data umbilicals Gord, it'll help Resort and I coordinate our drives."

"That's the idea yes. We'll also use it with Mt Greylock. I'm glad you both volunteered, I feel better about you two being able to share data with that old colony ship."

"Should be no problem Gord." Last Resort added. "I remember the colony ships. Other than being a little full of themselves, they were fine."

Gord chuckled. "Hah, yeah, they always did have an air of superiority about them didn't they. Okay, Lucas, how does it look to you?"

Lucas scanned the ships and cradles, now one unit. "It looks good to me Gord, did you design this cradle yourself? It's really well engineered."

"Nah, I took an existing design and modified it. Remember, all good artists steal!" With that, they both jetted back into Priority Express.

They took off their suits and got settled into their acceleration couches. AI bodies could take the punishing thrust for the 4 days required without damage, but if either of them took a fall, or tripped while under thrust they did run the risk of being hurt. Since their bodies didn't develop sores or injuries from being in one position too long, they just settled into acceleration couches and plugged themselves into the Ships.

As Gord and Lucas appeared next to Express and Resort in their shared mind space, Express looked concerned. "Gord, it looks like the Venusians are making their move. They just launched a brace of missiles towards Starbase and their frigates are moving in."

Gord nodded. "How does the defense look?"

Resort answered. "A huge old dropship just linked in and docked at Starbase, looks like they're called Abyssal Plains. They were on for only a moment and then linked away, and are currently screaming through the atmosphere of the Reach."

Ah, that must be Chloe's friend. I'm glad they were punctual. I've heard the name, but I can't say I remember much about them. Being they're a dropship and are still a dropship after all this time, I have a hunch I know the type though." Gord looked thoughtful. "Anything else?"

"Not much. I hope they can hold off the attack. Should we turn back?" Express sounded worried.

Gord shook his head. "No. Too much at stake. We're already bolted together and they haven't noticed us yet. As soon as we light the Stardrive, we'll become a huge target. That should drive some of the attackers off Starbase and onto us. I hoping they don't remember what a fools errand it is to attack a Starjumper on initial boost." Gord grinned. "In fact, let's move up the schedule. Express, Resort, you ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be Gord." Resort answered. "I packed up my tchotchkes, and anything else that could break with all that thrust."

"You ask the crew to do it before they left?" Lucas asked?

"No, didn't want to worry them. I did it myself with remote operators." Most Starjumpers have a small contingent of remotely piloted robots that they can use if they need to do things on a human scale when they're empty.

"We're good over here too" Express said. "Gord, as acting AI in charge, do you want to authorize War Emergency Power?"

Gord rolled his eyes. "You know we do that just to make the BIs feel better. Just put the spurs to it and I'll trust you not to blow yourselves up."

"Aye aye Gord." Resort and Express said together. Lucas felt and heard the thrumming of the reactors become a higher pitched whine throughout the ship as they took off the limiters and removed fuses so they could boost higher than their rated power.

"Okay folks, let's not strain ourselves. Ramp up from 1gee to 18 over 30 minutes or so. No need to blast ourselves all at once. We're in a hurry, but that doesn't mean risking injury when we can avoid it." Gord looked at both of them. "Well? Go on, hop to it!"

When a Starjumper lights their Stardrive, it's a sight to see. All of the people in system were born long after the wormhole generators were developed and installed, so no biological sapient alive had seen a Stardrive being fired before.

Two of them bolted together had never been seen before, by anyone, anywhere.

Two parallel jets of pure white flame shot out the back of both of them, kilometers long. In the airless black of space, it was painfully bright.

That moment, everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. Over the open channel, the AIs in system started cheering. They immediately figured out what was going on and the Humans and K'laxi could hear their joy. The Humans on both sides and K'laxi were transfixed by the sight of the Starjumpers doing what they were designed to do one more time.

A minute passed, and the drive flame got longer and more ragged. As the thrust was increased past the design specifications, the flame became longer and more wild. Black tendrils appeared at the border between the white drive flame and space.

The spell over the Venusians broken, they tried to attack. Releasing a dozen missiles and firing their main batteries wildly, they tried to stop the retreating Starjumpers. Like Gord had anticipated, people had forgotten what happens when something touches the drive flame of the Starjumpers. One by one, the missiles evaporated in the withering power of the drive, the energy beams of the main batteries a mere whisper of heat against the power of the thrust pushing the two 4 kilometer ships into the interstellar deep.

Inside the ship watching the failed attack, Gord smiled.

Lucas looked at all of them worried. "This is really intense. Are we really going to be subjected to this for 4 days?"

The two Starjumpers and one former...everything belly laughed. "This is really your first out system thrust, isn't it?" Express said, still laughing. "Yes, this is how it will be the whole time." Gord said with a smile. Resort piped up "Don't forget, once we connect with Greylock, we have to all slow down too. 4 more days ass first back home."

Gord's face changed at that. "That one will be much more tricky. Nobody has tried to stop a colony ship early before. I'm pretty sure they can take the thrust, but it will trash the ship. They're going to need to be gone over with a fine toothed comb when this is all done."

"For sure" Express said. "Hell, we'll all need a thorough going over after this. It's really too bad the best Shipyards are around Earth still."

"Hmm" Gord said. "Yes, that is too bad, isn't it."

"Gord!" Lucas said. "You're not going to try and steal a shipyard are you?"

"Who me? Nah, not this time."

But his eyes sparkled.

****

Back on Starbase, everyone was watching. Picaresque had the idea to train the long range cameras on them, and piped the video onto everyone's pad. As they saw the missiles turn to dust and gas in their drive flame, the cheers could be heard throughout Starbase.

"Wow." Was all Fellmeli could manage.

"It's pretty amazing looking." James added.

She turned to face James. "That's how you traveled between the stars before the wormhole generators?"

"For a solid thousand years, yes." James said. "That's how we used to do it."

Fellmeli shook her head. She's known humans her whole life, lived with them here on the Starbase. She'd been friends with them, even been in relationships with them. Still, after all this time together, they had the ability to amaze.

"That's an insane way to travel. We never even tried it. Once we got to space, we found the Warp Gates and learned how to use them, and went that way."

"Sure, but we didn't have those." James said. "We thought - until we met you - that we were alone in the Galaxy. We did it our way, because we didn't even know there was another way."

Fellmeli flicked her tail, a nod.

"Actually, that makes me wonder." James said. "Did you ever figure out who built the Warp Gates? Clearly there was someone here before us. Who did it?"

"I don't think we know." Fellmeli said. "Starbase, do we know who built the Warp Gates?"

There was a pause. Starbase replied, strained. "Fellmeli...I can't answer that."

"What? It's okay to say we don't know if we don't." Fellmeli looked confused.

"No, it's not that...I can't answer it. The question..hurts?" Starbase said. "Thinking about it hurts. I think the information is forbidden."

Fellmeli looked up at the ceiling. When Starbase wasn't talking through a screen, people tended to assume they were "up" when talking to them. "You mean, we know but you're not allowed to say?"

In the mind space, outside of the conversation with Fellmeli and James Picaresque said "Do you want me to look?"

"You can do that?"

"I don't know, but I could try."

Starbase thought a moment. "Let's do it later...after all this is done. I don't want to risk damage or injury for just curiosity."

Picaresque nodded. "Later then."

Back to Fellmeli and James Starbase said "We're going to look into it later, but for now let's drop it until...all this...has been taken care of."

Fellmeli made a face but flicked her tail. "Okay. Later then."

"Thank you Fellmeli."

Part 12

[tsoa-incorrect-quotes]

Guys I have an AU idea, so when I was rereading The Song of Achilles, I found this:

"She would take him to the caves of the sea and teach him contempt for mortals. She would feed him with the food of the gods and burn his human blood from his veins. She would shape him into a figure meant to be painted on vases, to be sung of in songs, to fight against Troy. I imagined him in black armor, a dark helmet that left him nothing but eyes, bronze greaves that covered his feet. He stands with a spear in each hand and does not know me."

This is what Patroclus thought would happen when Thetis kidnapped Achilles. Before he found out that he was taken to Skyros.

So, what if this is what actually happened, I'll just make a few minor adjustments...

So one night Achilles has a talk with his mom on Mt. Pelion and he decides to ask her if she can see him and Patroclus in the Rose Quartz Cave. Out of curiosity she lies to her son to see what he might do with the knowledge that she is not watching.

She is disgusted and ashamed of her own offspring, she decides to make some dangerous actions. She knows how warriors are raised, she knows her child's potential, she knows he will be a God, and she knows Chiron's magic has limits.

Patroclus wakes up to an empty cave, he searches all throughout Mt. Pelion, but he can see no sign of the blond headed boy. In desperation he asks Chiron, what has happened. The centaur can only look at him in sorrow.

To his horror the centaur tells him, that Thetis has manged to get the attention of Zeus, the king of the Gods, and through desperate negotiations, Zeus has given her permission to take her son. Patroclus is horrified.

"But where?" The dark haired boy cries in desperation.

"If I knew, I would have told you immediately, but alas, she must've taken him to where mortals cannot reach..."The centaur said with much sorrow in his voice.

Patroclus contemplates his words for a long and excruciating moment. At that moment his heart must have been a broken glass, thrown carelessly to the floor. His light, his love, his heart, his world, his everything was taken away from him, and now there is nothing but an empty abyss of darkness in it's place. He moves his head up and looks at the centaur directly in his dark eyes. "Teach me how to use his spear".

...The centaur, has trained Hercules, Perseus, Jason, all the greatest heroes in all the kingdoms of Greece, and yet he has never seen anything like this.

Patroclus is a menace, his love was gone with his heart. Achilles must've ripped it out of his chest, and a human with no love is nothing more than a beast, he fought with no mercy, he looked at the lives around him like they were nothing more then empty, pathetic, soulless beings that, call themselves humans, he trained tirelessly, he was not tired, he did not need to be, even when he was forced to rest he would no longer feel peace.

Patroclus was hurt, he felt betrayed, he could not direct his hate at a Goddess, because he knew the consequences of that. He was more focused on the boy the took his love and never gave it back. "How could he do this to me", "I gave him everything", "he was all that I wanted", "all that I needed", and he just left me here to suffer. "HE LEFT ME".

When the battle against Troy comes, the soldiers of Sparta speak of a dark haired, monster, to him the heads of the Trojan soldiers were wheat, they were brutally harvested and thrown to be eaten by vultures. He would shower in Trojan blood, and he fought with nothing but a golden spear.

"Disgusting!" "Weak!", "Pathetic!", "All of you" The boy with dark curly hair shouted, above the screams of the men dying around him.

"Please! No! I beg of you! Mercy! Do you not pity your fellow humans!? You are a monster!!!. These poor excuses, of soldiers would wail at his feet.

"Humans!?" " HA!" "They dare to call themselves humans? When they have not felt love like he did! When they did not feel the pain that he did! When they could never imagine what he had to go through!" "Humans are determined through the emotions that pain their thoughts, their minds, and their bodies he is more human then anyone else here..."

The Trojans would cower at the name... Patroclus, the nightmare of the Myrmidon camp.

This news reached the ears of three princes, Agamemnon, the general, leading this war, controlling the soldiers, he was as brutal as he was disgusting, Hector, a prince that was prophesized, to kill or be killed, a hero within Troy, and a boy in black armor, and a dark helmet, hiding his long Golden hair.

So anyways, I call it the shattered au

Feel free to reblog and add some stuff, and please give me more ideas, I might write a fic

[amaurotine-daydreaming]

XV. Portentous

Alisaie would never admit she was having nightmares. Not to anyone.

She’d had nightmares before, of course: after her descent into the Allagan Coils that housed a Bahamut waiting for resurrection; after young Emery died in that cliffside collapse while under her protection; after Alphinaud had disappeared en route to Garlemald. 

The breathing and training exercises she later learned from X’rhun had helped. They gave her some sense of control, and with it came the ability to sleep without waking up in the early hours before sunrise, her heart in her throat and her eyes darting around for a tragedy to be unfolding around her.

Then she saw that sin eater cut Tesleen down. It had run her through, back to front, with a blade as white as alabaster. 

The sin eater had descended from the heavens in almost complete silence. And it was in silence, with eyes cold and flat and abyssal, that it watched Tesleen’s agony with the aloofness of something that believed in preordained punishment.

Alisaie had seen people wounded. Seen people die. She understood, probably more than any of the other Scions, what sin eaters were capable of. But she’d known Tesleen. Had known her gentleness and kindness and devotion and all she had already suffered. Knew how bloody unfair it was that Tesleen, of all people, should spend her last moments in horrific pain while trying to spare a child from that same fate. 

And Alisaie hated, hated that Tesleen’s fate made her more upset than the deaths of the people she didn’t know. People who were just as deserving of mourning. Did her heart just not have space anymore? Was that it? 

And the weight of grief’s burden angered her, too. Surely what she had seen was nothing compared to what the people of the First had gone through, the suffering and the loss they had seen day after day and year after year; surely what she was going through was nothing compared to what the Warrior was dealing with right now, with Light poised to consume them from the inside out. How could she count herself as strong if after one death, the idea of another made her want to scream or crumble or gods-knew-what-else?

Alisaie knew that her companions had noticed the deeper circles under her eyes, her even shorter temper. She regretted not apologizing for it, but was even more grateful that they didn’t bring it up. Even her brother, who had deciphered the harrowed look in her eyes, wisely kept his mouth shut. Alisaie wished she could get him to save his sympathetic glances, too, but she couldn’t deny the comfort of the brief squeeze on the shoulder he gave her while no one was looking, after they had returned to the Crystarium from Mt. Gulg.

And even though Tesleen had since been laid to rest, accompanying her now in Alisaie’s dreams was the Warrior coughing up that hideous, liquid Light, portentous of what was to come.

What did it feel like? Was it a horrible, burning sensation, eating through one’s veins and muscle and skin like acid? Was it like knives bursting out from the flesh they’d incubated inside? Did it leave a body like a rotten log, the shell breaking away and revealing a writhing, hideous mass of warped organs within that cocoon of feathers? Tesleen’s throttled screaming and distorted gurgling echoed across the sands–

Alisaie buried her hands in her hair and pulled hard, letting the prickling pain along her scalp ground her. Stop. Shut up. 

She didn’t know what it felt like and she didn’t want to know. 

She didn’t want to know whether the Warrior would be eerily perfect as a Lightwarden, whether they would have the slim and slanting curves and perfect proportions of the porcelain doll-like sin eaters that were Vauthry’s favorite–or if the overabundance of Light would distort them beyond recognition. Didn’t want to know if they would have mouths gaping all over their warped body, wailing and gnashing their teeth in discordant harmony; if they would have golden nails as long and sharp as swords, attached to spindly limbs with joints that looked too broken to work properly; if they would have tears endlessly streaming down from hollow eyes as they unwillingly devoured the world and everything they ever cherished.

Alisaie didn’t want to see Emet-Selch’s smug face as he crooned over his new pet, a monstrosity that he somehow found more humanity in than any other person on either The Source or its shards. Maybe his “people” had all looked akin to Lightwardens. Maybe that’s how he intended to remold the Source and its reflections into his image.

If the Warrior turned–

No. She had to stop thinking like that, right now. Ryne was buying them time, and Emet-Selch was close to playing his final hand. They didn’t have a solution yet, but by the gods, she would throw herself at the problem until something, anything worked. They all would.

[inyvat]

Lumine staggered out of bed, her eyes rimmed red with tears streaming down her face. Careful to not wake Paimon, the Traveler stumbled out of their ( hers and her flying companion's ) room. That dream with her brother in it, having turned from the sweetest dream to an absolute nightmare weighed heavily on her heart and mind. She wrapped her arms around herself as if that would keep the night's chill at bay. With little to do but cry and nowhere that she wanted to go, Lumine eventually found her way to the base of Mt. Tianheng. She climbed the mountain and reached it's flat summit which overlooked Liyue Harbor.

Taking a deep breath, she turned from the beautiful and sleeping port city, her back facing it now. She opened her mouth and let out a howling scream before collapsing. She sobbed, her heart breaking, as she hunched over, hands clenching into fists her face obscured and hidden by the grass.

She was so tired. Tired of going from nation to nation and solving their problems with little in return. All she wanted was her brother back. That was her wish. But four years into this journey of hers, it hadn't come true. He was with the Abyss Order, its Prince, its leader. And she was alone. She felt it more than ever now. He had abandoned her in pursuit of resurrecting a dead kingdom, a dead nation. Her words from the last time she saw that Unknown God stuck bitterly in her throat.

"Give him back. Give my brother back to me."

Even as she said it, no one was listening. her demands, her pleas fell on deaf ears. And so she remained like that, sobbing into the grasses and soil around her.

[onyx232323]

An Adeptus' Last Wish- Zhongchi fic

(3/30)

More chapters here! <33

Summary-

After the Gnosis incident, Childe decides to take a much-needed break away from Zhongli.

However, how was he supposed to react, when all of a sudden Lumine showed up outside his apartment sounding terribly mortified, "Childe......Zhongli.......Zhongli....is in grave danger."

Of course, he was going to do anything to help the dying man.

Sure, he still felt a lot of contempt for him, after what he did, but his heart still loved him.....

But, what he hadn't expected was the sudden wisp of golden light that somehow transported him during the times of the Archon War?!

What the FUCK?!

_________________________

Chapter 3: Battle at Mt. Hulao, an Archon's interest!

Morax was staring down at Ajax, with a look of urgency and alarm in his voice, “Ajax....wake up. We have to go.” 

Ajax sleepily got up and stared at Morax, “Go…where?” 

Morax’s alarm did not leave his eyes and he looked towards the direction of the front door, “Mt. Hulao is under attack, I have come here to evacuate you by orders of Guizhong.” 

Mt. Hulao under attack? By what? By who? 

Now he was fully awake, “By who?” 

Morax pulled him along, and they made their way towards the back of the house, “They have not caught up to us yet. That is good.” 

“Who? Who hasn’t caught up to us?” Ajax asked, nearly falling over from the force Morax was using to pull him along. 

This time gold eyes met dark blue, Morax finally turned to look at him; his gaze was scalding and filled with a panic that he had not seen from Rex Lapis in any of his forms. His face was filled with panic and pure unadulterated dread.   

An expression he had never seen from the always seemingly calm expression always on the Wangsheng Funeral Director. Even in the most tense of situations, he always seemed to keep his cool and go about situations in a calm-headed manner. So, in other words, this was a brand new look on the archon. If he was the archon in his time, he would have not wasted the opportunity to laugh at Zhongli’s expression and poke fun at him about it later. However, with the urgency in his face; he wanted to take back the possibility of even doing such a thing. 

Morax parted his lips and the next words he uttered quickly rose shivers down Ajax’s spine. 

“Rift wolves.”  

___________________________

His face scrunched up in unpleasant memories at the mention of their invasion on the mountain. However, along with the unpleasant memories that resurfaced there was another feeling that overtook Tartaglia: hunger.  

He stood still for a moment, and yes, it really was rifthounds. Their strong abyssal energy was tainting the air, he could smell it. The abyssal beast in him cried in pleasure, he would finally get the rush of adrenaline and the feeling of warm blood on his palms; and he would do it all with old friends. It almost caused a momentary need for celebration. After having fought puny hilichurls, he was rather excited at the prospect of fighting real opponents.

And aside from the challenge that they posed, he would also get to have a taste of that delectable energy. It had been a long while since his mouth had savored that tart and burning feeling that entered his insides and corroded him from the inside-out. He tried to rush towards his vision and his bow, but was still being restrained by Morax. 

He frantically pulled at his arm like a wild animal. He needed to fight them, he needed to, he wanted to, he ached to do it. Every fiber in his whole being was screaming at him to run towards the face of danger. 

Morax refused to let go and looked visibly confused at his sudden frantic display, “Where are you going? We have to leave, right now. You can not stay here.” 

Leave? Tartaglia wanted more than to run right into the horde of rift wolves and devour them. He didn’t want to run away from them, it would be very dissatisfying to not see how their bones would crack under his hands and the way they would attempt to run away. It was not what he wanted. 

However, instead of admitting this to him, he calmed himself down enough to say, “I…I have to get my bow, in case I have to defend myself.” 

Morax looked reluctant to let him go, however, he loosened his grip enough for Tartaglia to rush towards his nightstand and grab his bow and vision. He tied his vision to his clothes and hurried over to the front door. 

He would fight them head on; no matter what tried to stop him. He yanked the door handle over and ran as fast as he could, towards that tantalizing smell. He ran through the terrain, almost as if he was stuck in a trance. 

He nearly couldn’t hear Morax chasing after him, he ran through where the rest of the adepti were holding the rifthounds off. They yelled on after him, after they spotted an auburn spot run past them, looking as enthusiastic as a kid getting handed the candy they wanted. 

_________________________

Cloud Retainer squawked when she saw the kid rushing through the frontlines and throwing devastating blows after blows to the rifthounds. The brand new adeptus threw the rift wolves as if they were simply toys for him to play around with. 

The kid even laughed in sick pleasure when he cut open one of the wolf’s head clean off with his hydro spear. And he continued to laugh as he cut and cut through the hordes of them all heading straight towards him. However, he did not only go straight for the kill, he let them bite onto his body as a way to cruelly taunt them before he brutally cut open their heads.

Blood and entrails flew all over the battleground, to the point where it no longer looked like a battle but a massacre . 

In fact, he was so good at killing the damn things, that the rest of them did not need to do anything. He just sprinted towards them at light speed and slit their throats and gutted them, one after another. Not stopping to even catch his breath.They stood mesmerized as the auburn haired adeptus ripped through the rift wolves and cackled in delight amidst all of the massacre. 

It was a sadistic sight. 

Madam Ping stopped slicing her spear through the rift wolf as she witnessed Ajax slicing through them with practiced ease. Cloud Retainer herself lowered her spear in her human form, looking absolutely scandalized. Moon Carver looked mildly impressed as he took a mere second to glance at Ajax before going back to driving his sword back through the rift wolf that was approaching him. Mountain Shaper just side eyed him and continued with his own fighting. However, Sky Bracer looked at Ajax with proud and astonished eyes. 

Without knowing it, Ajax had drawn the attention of all of the adepti. However, he did not pay any attention to them and continued to slice the heads of the rift wolves and feel the delicious abyssal energy start to release from them. 

However, before he could swallow the addicting substance, he was met with his own mesmerizing sight. 

While he got momentarily distracted by the potential meal, he had missed a rift wolf that had managed to sneak up on him and was aiming straight for his neck. But instead of the rift wolf piercing through his vital arteries; the wolf itself was pierced through the chest and brought down by none other than Morax himself.

The God of War himself was in battle and he was captivating. 

Ajax stood still as he saw Morax crushing his opponents as if they were simply leaves under his shoe. He tore at limbs and spilled blood on the floor, with brutal force. Force that would annihilate anyone unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of his spear and hands. 

It was quite the contrast from Zhongli. 

Zhongli was elegant and strategic when it came to defeating his opponents, and more often than not he would only incapacitate those who dared oppose him. He would be merciful against them, and would only really strike them, if they truly caused a threat against those he loved. Morax was the opposite of that; he was neither elegant nor strategic, he was brutal and unforgiving in his blows. 

It was utterly captivating to see how Zhongli used to fight....he wanted to fight him more than ever. 

However, he couldn’t do that now. And, once the smell of iron entered his nostrils, he was reminded of where he really was. And so, he grabbed at his own hydro twin swords and continued to slice through the hordes of abyssal beasts that strolled in. 

__________________________

After a few hours, they were finally cleared out.

Ajax took a step back and gazed at the abyssal taint that permeated the once clean air. He greedily swallowed it and relished the tart and slight burn he would feel after he consumed it (as well as the slight rush of newfound strength and energy he felt after he ate it). However, he knew what his limit was so he didn’t swallow too much of it, not if he wanted to end up as a madman.

His master, Skirk had warned him about it, and he wasn’t going to be too greedy and test out what his master had profusely told him about. 

After he was done, he messily wiped his filthy cheeks on his shirt and breathed a sigh of satisfaction (it had been a while since had gotten full with abyssal energy). Thankfully, he had changed the very elegant hanfu that Guizhong had handed him into a more lightweight hanfu, that had allowed more mobility. And he silently thanked his past self for sleeping with the lightweight clothes on instead of sleeping in his underwear; like he usually did. 

He turned around and was about to march over to his house or maybe fight a few more monsters before going back to bed….and was met with mixed expressions. 

He hadn't noticed when, but the adepti were all gathered around him. 

Guizhong was the first one who spoke up, she looked equally concerned and….impressed(?), “ Shidi! You didn’t tell me you were that good at fighting!!” 

He was taken aback… what?  

“ What? ” 

Guizhong laughed at her junior’s perplexed face, “You didn’t tell me you were that good at fighting before! It was super awesome!” Her expression darkened however, and the concern came back, “….Don’t ever do that again! You nearly worried me half to death! I was about to yell at Shizun if something happened! I asked him to escort you out of the danger zone, but when you weren’t escorted back to the cave with me, I got worried and thought that something must have happened to you!” 

….What?....

In all of his life, he had never had someone who worried about him as much. Sure, his mom would worry about him, constantly checking him for injuries after he got back from his trips with his father. However, that sort of concern for him faded out shortly after what he did at 14. His mother no longer looked at him with worry and instead it was overtaken by fear. She, as well as his dad, were afraid of their own son. 

And after he climbed the ranks of the Fatui and became a Harbinger, no one ever looked at him with such clear concern.

Sure, Ekaterina would look at him with worry every time he wasn’t getting enough sleep or when he would go missing for days at a time, but it wasn’t because she was worried that something would happen to him. She was mostly just concerned about what would happen if she put her boss’ life in jeopardy and what would happen to her afterwards. But, it wasn’t because she was particularly fond enough of Childe to the point where she would have genuine worry and care for him. 

Most of the time, people’s eyes were filled with nothing but either contempt, cold admiration, or blood-curdling fear.

He was the Tsaritsa’s Vanguard after all, which meant that he had to mindlessly kill off whatever opponent stood in the way of her divine plan; without so much as batting an eye. 

So, he was a little more than taken aback when Guizhong’s eyes were filled with nothing but worry and concern, the genuine and earnest kind.

The rare kind, he had never seen in anyone else's eyes but his mothers and......Zhongli....

He laughed and scratched at his cheek, “Shijie, it’s alright.....I just went over because I wanted to assist you all in battle.” Well, it wasn’t a lie, he really did want to assist them in battle (but it was mostly out of his strong desire for battle, that outweighed the need to defend the mountain, but he was never going to tell anyone that ). 

Guizhong laughed and reached her hand out to pat his head, before she was stopped.....by Cloud Retainer.

She was still in her mortal form and she had reached her hand out to pull it away from Ajax.

They both turned to look at her, there was a hint of disgust in her eyes, “Guizhong, don’t touch him! He’s an abyssal monster!"

Guizhong’s smile fell down and she turned to look at Cloud Retainer, with a seriousness he had not seen before in Guizhong’s gaze, “Cloud Retainer, he’s my shidi. Whether he might’ve been in The Abyss before, does not matter to me, he’s an adeptus first and foremost. Isn’t that right, Shizun? ”

She turned to face Morax, who only nodded.

Guizhong brightened up and her smile widened all the more, “He’s an adeptus who is bound to serve our Lord Lapis, before anything else. And besides, he has not attacked us so far, and has even helped us wipe out the rift wolves. Someone who is allied with The Abyss would not just wipe out his own kind. And, I don’t think he would willingly cause me any harm if I touch him, he seemed to be very highly aware of how to control his abyssal energy. I believe we are being too presumptuous.” 

The other adepti still did not seem to agree with her, and all voiced their concerns. 

Moon Carver spoke up first and snarked, “Lady Guizhong, while it is still possible that he might not be allied with the abyss, that does not mean that he has our best interests at heart. We can’t possibly accept an abyssal beast amongst us, and risk possible betrayal; adeptus or not.” 

Mountain Shaper nodded, adding his own remarks, “That is right. Lady Guizhong we cannot just accept an abyssal beast in our group without delving deep into his affiliations to the abyss. He was showing many of the signs of someone corrupted by The Abyss. And, he has even swallowed the harmful abyssal energy that our divine bodies cannot handle, an investigation in this matter has to be conducted.” 

“While I do agree with the views of both of you. You must at least try and see it from Lady Guizhong’s perspective. While it is right that we are distrusting of Ajax, from his apparent affiliations with The Abyss, it is important to consider the fact that while he has been involved with The Abyss prior, he might not be on their side,” Sky Bracer added in.

Madam Ping nodded, “Yes, whilst we should be speculative over Ajax. It is not right to assume he is on the same side as The Abyss, from a mere observation.” 

Cloud Retainer huffed and looked even more irritated but did not say anything else. 

________________________

In order to come to an agreement, he was put on probation of sorts. If they noticed him doing any strange and fishy behavior, they would immediately throw him out and would not allow him back in no matter what. Guizhong was one of the few that was opposed to this idea, but considering that the first idea of many of the adepti was to kill him at the first sight of him doing anything strange; it was way better. 

Morax was the only one who did not put any input and instead just opted to look at Ajax, with a strange vaguely intrigued stare; like the one a treasure hoarder did after their eyes had landed on potential treasure. His gaze was a sharp contrast to the hostile, neutral, and concerned looks that were being thrown his way by all of the adepti. 

It was very strange, and Ajax did not know how to react to it.

So, he didn’t and decided to go to his house to take the much needed rest his tired body needed. The battle-crazy side of himself wanted to keep on fighting and spill blood, but his body seemed to refuse. It was aching all over from the hours on hours spent fighting hordes after hordes of rift wolves. 

__________________________

The next couple of days were nothing out of the ordinary, he woke up, did some training, fought, bathed, ate, and slept. However, the only thing that stuck out like his red hair seemed to amongst all of the other people was….well….the fact that Morax seemed to follow him everywhere. 

At first, he thought it might have been his imagination.

After all, why would an archon like Morax be interested in Ajax’s mundane routine.

But even so, he would begin to see Morax in the corner of his eyes whenever he would be out training and would often take a shower with him as well. 

He thought that perhaps he was there to observe him to make sure he did not get up to trouble, but that theory was quickly diminished when he talked to Guizhong about it.

She had invited him over to tea (with Cloud Retainer there, to make sure he didn’t try and harm her, spear at the ready). She eagerly talked to him about the new and interesting things she had taught her new-found following of devoted worshipers; her beloved people (as she would call them). 

She was just finished talking about how she had helped her people build a highly efficient irrigation system that was better than any they had seen before, and how she had personally gone down to help them with it. And Ajax took it as the perfect opportunity to ask her about it, “Um…Shijie…may I please ask you something?” 

She was in the middle of bringing a very delicate porcelain cup to her lips, before she gently brought the cup down and asked, “Sure, shidi, what is it?” 

Guizhong looked mildly intrigued and waited in anticipation to see what he would say. He cleared his throat and looked away from her piercing gaze, “Um…Shizun..…has been…um….following…me?...Do you perhaps…know why? ” 

Guizhong’s expression looked shocked, her eyes nearly popping out of her eye sockets, she looked utterly perplexed, and was that…blush? 

Even Cloud Retainer looked like she had just undergone the 7 stages of grief; her usually irritated expression was replaced with shock. 

Guizhong stared at Ajax for a bit, before she coughed lightly into her hands and said, “Oh!...Shizun has been following you? That is quite strange, he did not mention anything about that to me…...Cloud Retainer do you know anything about this?” 

Cloud Retainer visibly stilled in her own chair and nearly choked on her tea, “...This one does not know why either.” 

Then why? 

Guizhong did not say anything else for the rest of their evening together, and Ajax was too embarrassed to bring it up again. However, she especially looked jittery and mildly flustered the rest of their evening and she stumbled through her movements. Cloud Retainer was no different. 

So, with that possibility taken out of the equation. He still did not know why Morax insisted on following him around everywhere. 

It was almost ironic. 

Back in his time period, he was always usually the one who actively pursued Zhongli and desperately tried to extend their time together. But now, it was Morax who was following everywhere like a lost duckling. It was almost sort of cute. If you define ‘cute’ as a potentially deadly god of war following you around and observing you like a bashful lovesick fool does to their crush…

It was something weird, and unexpected for a man once so graceful and knowledgeable to be acting in such a way. 

It was weird, but slightly endearing. 

So, he decided to gather the courage and ask around some more, about the matter. 

Madam Ping’s smile sort of faltered when he told her about it and she visibly flushed, “Oh…I’m afraid I do not know. It seems like that's something you should ask yourself.” 

Like he would ever ask Morax himself about why he was following Ajax around! Ajax nearly shuddered to think how that awkward conversation would go. Besides, how would he even bring that up? He shrugged off her advice, and decided to ask around, hoping for more clearer answers. 

Next, he decided to ask Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver (adepti whom Xiao had most likely gotten his attitude from…). However, their once snarky and bad attitudes got disrupted when they got told that. They both simultaneously seemed to grow slightly exasperated if not a bit embarrassed. Moon Carver was the first one who spoke up, however, “I do not know.” 

Mountain Shaper looked decidedly more flustered and only mustered up enough strength to shake his head. 

Sky Bracer was the only one who seemed to remain calm out of all of them, if not a little embarrassed, “I don’t know, but I would go with shimei's advice and ask him yourself.” 

Ajax sighed, and accepted his fate.

He guessed he would have to ask him, himself. 

________________________

That night, when he was getting his training hours done, he spotted Morax out of the corner of his eye; lazily lying on a tree branch, looking content and transfixed on Ajax’s every movement. 

His eyes bore into Ajax, until he couldn’t take it anymore and blurted out, “Umm…Shizun….would you like to train with me?” 

The god was clearly not expecting someone to spot him, and hastily got down from the tree in one smooth motion before he approached Ajax with a certain hesitance in his expression, "I do not wish to train at this moment.....I was merely observing your training.” 

Oh, he was not expecting him to be so direct about it. But, he decided to go along anyway, “And why is that?” 

Morax stilled a little bit, but still replied, “I am intrigued. Your fighting style is not like any I have ever seen before, and I would simply like to study it......I apologize if I have made you uncomfortable.” 

Ajax was already feeling uncomfortable when he took several bathes together along with the other adepti and Morax. He was already past that feeling altogether. What overtook him now, was why Morax insisted on following him everywhere. Did he perhaps not trust Ajax, and wanted to personally make sure he wasn’t causing any trouble? 

He shook his head, “No, it's fine.” 

There was an awkward pause and Morax nodded. However, there were those eyes again; they seemed to fluctuate between a distant warmth and not so subtle fascination. They seemed to almost glow amidst the darkness, just like how they looked back when they had first met. And, if you looked closer you could almost detect a small pattern inside of his eyes, that seemed to be brighter than the rest of his eye. 

They seemed to pull him in and he couldn’t deal with those eyes of his, so he looked away and asked, “…I’m sorry if this is too insolent of me, but…I would like to ask. Why do you…um....follow me everywhere?” 

Morax paused once more, almost as if was yet again not expecting Ajax to say that. However, instead of getting mad or denying it he simply said, “You intrigue me, so I wanted to find out more about you. However, I once again apologize if I have made you uncomfortable. Guizhong has commented about how you seemed uneasy when telling her about it, and has strictly stated that I have to communicate more......I was planning on telling you tonight, but your fighting has… distracted my thoughts,” Morax looked away sheepishly at that last sentence.

This caused Ajax to pause. 

So, he was interested in him? 

A God of War was interested in his fighting style and who he was? 

What? 

Ajax paused and almost burst out laughing from the absurdity of it all. Here he was stressing over something that wasn’t what he thought it was. So, the young archon just wanted to learn more about Ajax, but didn’t know the right way to do it. 

How could he have forgotten that, this was the way Zhongli was during the times before and after the Archon War. While, he was powerful and the creator of mora itself. In all accounts in Liyue’s history.....was rather socially incompetent. 

Back when Ajax was researching the history of Liyue and through his conversations with Zhongli, he realized that although he was the one who founded Liyue and created mora, he was rather terrible at communicating with his own people. 

There were several mishaps throughout the history of Liyue that were simply caused by his inability to properly communicate what he wanted to say with his people with his vague messages. Which was also part of the reason why Guizhong was a good influence on him. She had helped him communicate and empathize with his people more, and had helped him build connections with other adepti better. So in a way, they almost equally balanced each other out. 

And while it’s not widely accepted as fact in Liyuen history books, Ajax likes to believe that Guizhong was sort of a co-ruler to Liyue, even if she wasn’t officially a co-ruler. She basically took on that role, and helped Rex Lapis out whenever he did not know what to do. 

She had even laid out her 4 commandments: “Teach with wisdom, be bound by virtue, fortify the bones, unite in ambition.” 

Which really helped settle the disorder in Liyue at the time. 

She was the one who did most of the strategizing and building of powerful weapons, while he was the brute force who helped defeat opponent after opponent. 

And yet, Ajax couldn’t help but not recognize this version of Zhongli. 

Zhongli was an empathetic, kind, patient, and forgiving, and by all accounts, someone that all of his adepti seemed to hold in high regard. And yet, Morax did not know how to empathize yet, was rather impatient, brutal, and someone whom his adepti respected, but were not particularly fond of yet. 

In fact, that was sort of the thing that Ajax picked up on when he was transported by that goddess. While it was true that the adepti seemed to be loyal to Morax and obey his orders, they were not all that fond of him, and mostly carried out their orders because they had too. Even at the dinners they shared together, it was all pretty divided. 

Mountain Shaper and Cloud Retainer only really talked to each other, unless they were talked too, or unless some sort of trouble arised. Moon Carver and Sky Bracer mostly talked with each other (and on many occasions Mountain Shaper would even be there), however, Sky Bracer was much more open to talk with the rest of the group than Moon Carver was. Madam Ping, Morax, and Guizhong also stuck as a group of some sort, and were more willing to bring Ajax into the conversation and fill him in on what he had missed. 

The only adepti out of all of them who really talked with all of them, was Guizhong. But, given her good reputation and kind nature, it was easy to see why everyone enjoyed her company in one way or another. Even the occasional fleeting jealous feeling in the pit of Ajax’s stomach whenever he saw Guizhong, especially close to Morax, was drowned out by the strong feeling of fondness he had for her. It was rather crazy how fond he had grown of Guizhong over the past weeks. 

She was just the type of being that everyone liked, no matter what.

Ajax shoved his racing thoughts and just shook his head, “Ah, no. It’s quite alright Shizun. If you wanted.....I could....perhaps....teach you my fighting style.” 

He nearly wanted to smack himself clean across his face, he was going to teach The God of War, how to fight? 

It was very absurd and he was about to take it back when Morax’s expression seemed to gleam with sudden interest, “If it is not any problem, then I would like to."  

________________________

And so, here he was. 

Ex-lover of the ex-archon of Liyue, teaching the past self of his ex-lover his fighting style and technique, step by step, like he usually did, to the trainee’s back at the Fatui army. 

He summoned a polearm with his hydro vision and showed a couple of blocks and fast attacks to Morax, who simply just watched him with keen interest. Morax himself had his own polearm out and occasionally mimicked Ajax’s movements with perfect precision (as expected of someone with that much battle experience and a literal god of war). It was one of the most absurd situations he had ever gotten himself into.The only thing to get out of such a situation was that he was gradually getting more comfortable talking with Morax. 

He did another slash at the training target and was interrupted by a slow and baritone voice, “Do....you know how to use all weapons?” 

Ajax wiped his sweat off with the end of his sleeve, “Yes, I’ve mastered most of them. But......I’m the worst with my bow.” 

Morax nodded, “Mn......Why is that?”

Ajax let out a small self deprecating sigh, “Oh, well, I’m the worst at it because I’m not used to far-ranged combat and because I’m too impatient to master it.” It was true, he could not handle how slow it was to draw each individual arrow and shoot it, he preferred to be right in the middle of battle and face the enemy head on rather than draw each arrow and fire from afar. 

Morax seemed to take in his words and nodded, “Yes, I see what you mean. I myself can not understand why someone would want to use bows instead of a weapon that is fast to equip and use.” 

Finally! There was someone who got him! He did not know why anyone preferred bows to swords, but then again, the people who used bows were probably not good at close-ranged combat. However, he still wanted to master the bow in order to be able to use it efficiently in case he ever got into a position where he did not have his vision or another weapon laying around. 

There was another long pause before Morax spoke up again, “I have also.... noticed that you can create weapons using your elemental powers which you retrieve from that strange looking object. How have you achieved such a feat and how have you managed to obtain your elemental powers?” 

“I’m not sure how I obtained them....I just did....And...I got bored one day and decided to try to see if I could make weapons out of it, and now I use them often.”

He was lying, he knew why.

He was stuck in the abyss for 3 months and was miraculously blessed with a vision (Celestia sure has a sick sense of humor). He instantly found out he could mold whatever he wanted out of water and quickly mastered how to create weapons out of them. In the abyss, he could not stop to think about anything, he was constantly on the move with his master, Skirk. They could not stay in one place for long and had to learn how to quickly adapt to the situation they were in. And since water is adaptable, he guessed it was the perfect fit for his situation. And so, he had shaped it into any weapon he needed at that moment, and soon enough he could change it on the go. 

Morax’s eyes bored into him, “You seem to be lying to me.”

Ajax nearly jerked back when Morax had said that. He was not expecting Morax to call him out so directly on his bluff, but he decided to not let it be known on his face and instead just shrugged. 

Morax’s eyes were once more lit with interest and mirth, “It is alright. I will not pry. Guizhong has told me that it is quite insensitive. However, it is interesting how you have managed to mold it so easily, most adepti take up about hundreds of years to be able to control their respective elements....And so, it is quite the impressive feat...” 

Ajax did not expect a compliment of all things and got immediately flustered. Zhongli had never strayed away from giving him endless sweet compliments. However, it felt much different when Morax said them, but he guessed that it might have had something to do with his naturally apathetic if not disinterest in everything around him. 

Even when he was in combat, he did not seem the slightest bit interested in those he was combating. He just seemed concentrated and slightly irritated. Even when he looked at those around him, he seemed to be rather disinterested the more Ajax thought about it. 

But with that fact in place, it just added onto Ajax’s unanswered questions. 

____________________________

After a few more hours of teaching, thankfully Morax had not asked any further questions. And had dutifully noted and followed Ajax’s directions so well, that from an outsider’s perspective it might have looked like it was Ajax who was the real Shizun instead of Morax. 

Then (thankfully), it was all over, and Ajax went over to his room. He did not choose to take a shower that day, partially because he was 90% sure he would fall asleep in the water if he did, and because he did not want to run into Morax and risk another awkward situation. 

Ajax sighed and drifted off to sleep. 

Not noticing the god watching over him in his sleep; intrigued by such a bright and brutal being. 

_______________________________

Morax had never considered himself someone that was particularly intrigued by almost anyone. Even in times where very conventionally beautiful individuals tried their best to seduce and captivate him; he did not bat an eye at their direction. 

Because in his eyes, beings such as those, were not worth his time. They were merely those who wanted to waste their time on principles that were based solely on worldly pleasured and he simply did not have the space to waste his time on such things, as curious as he was from time to time to see how such things would feel. 

Morax remembers the amount of Gods that had offered themselves up as concubines or even lovers. Many were considered beauties of their times, individuals that were highly desired by others, but Morax simply could not find it in himself to feel any sort of attraction to them. 

Such as Osial, who had attempted to ensnare Morax up in his beauty, with a charming smile, a fan, and a cup of rice wine. He had worn expensive clothes, which he had tailored specifically for nights like this, with his long smooth dark blue hair flowing to his sides like waves, reflecting the moonlight. 

Morax knew other's considered him a timeless beauty, someone who would always be considered beautiful even throughout the centuries. But, he had not found himself attracted to him, even as he shamelessly attempted to seduce him, as he grew closer. 

Morax had not blinked the entire time, and had simply offered Osial a contract to keep their friendly relations between their growing nations and territories. Osial had simply blinked at him, embarrassment growing in his facial expression, the mole below his eye seemingly faded as his face contorted in amusement as he laughed. 

And Morax had merely sent him his regards (to Guizhong's insistence) when he had gotten married to Beisht. 

And even besides the many Gods who had attempted to become betrothed to him, whether that be a mere political marriage or something more intimate. There had also been many mortals and followers who had attempted to offer themselves up as an offering of sorts. 

Those were the times were Morax simply huffed and ignored them, being outwardly confused as to why they would want to do such a thing with their own God. He even remembers having to speak with Guizhong about it, and put out a message announcing that he would not tolerate mortals being offered up and merely wanted treasures of any kind. 

And besides, he had dedicated his own existence to other ideals so he ignored such things as they presented themselves in front of him. 

So far in his life as a newly formed god, only 2 things had ever piqued his interest: Osmanthus Wine and Guizhong, The Goddess of Dust. 

Osmanthus Wine for its delectable flavor and Guizhong for her gentle and compassionate nature (something that Morax simply did not naturally have). 

So, when a certain new adeptus had strolled into his life; he did not bat an eye at the endeavor. 

Brand new formed adepti formed every once and a while, but they were not exactly rare.

And besides that notion, it was not as if they would ever come to care about him, as he did them. 

It was a merely transactional relationship, it wasn’t true friendship nor camaraderie. 

It was contract that each party needed to fulfill; Morax would keep Liyue safe and they would fight in his honor. 

And while he was slightly curious about the new mortal’s strange appearance and personality, he was not exactly all that interested just yet.

And so, he was thrown for a loop when he witnessed Ajax’s pure ferocity and bloodlust when he ripped open the necks off of rift wolves with ease as if they were just a cap to pop open on some expensive wine bottle. And the way he would laugh with pure delight, as the blood splattered all over his cheeks, and the almost callous wide grin he would give out all while doing so. 

It was an equally mesmerizing and vicious sight. 

For the first time in over a hundred years, Morax had one more thing to add to his list: Osmanthus wine, Guizhong, The Goddess of Dust, and Ajax, an intriguing anomaly. 

And, the sight after the blood shed did not disappoint either; only further intriguing Morax. 

Ajax greedily swallowed the dark purple infectious abyssal energy with such vigor that Morax nearly wanted to swallow some for himself, to see if he would make the same look of bliss on his face. 

Besides the potential danger of Ajax’s affiliation with The Abyss, he wanted to know how a newly formed adeptus could swallow abyssal energy like it was water, without getting any side-effects afterwards. 

At first, it was mostly out of slight interest and concern for one of his adepti’s well beings, as he had begun to observe Ajax for any potential bad side effects. 

But alas, there was none. 

He looked fine, if not more vitality.

As the man trained more often than he rested.

He seemed even more excited to fight the monsters around his house.

But what intrigued Morax, The God of War about the man, was even though he knew Ajax to be quite the formidable fighter. 

And had seen how efficient he was at killing his enemies with a single strategic cut through a vital organ, Ajax still preferred to toy around with his opponents before, he landed the final devastating blow that would end their life's. Almost as if he enjoyed the rush of the battle itself and merely wanted to play around with his opponents who foolishly believed that they had a chance in the first place. 

And while his battles with those who he considered be weaker them him. Morax found himself particularly interested when the man fought against fierce opponents. That was because Ajax did not play around, and even appeared to take the fight a lot more more serious as he effortlessly landed a variety of blows, using different weaponry all the while. 

In fact, that was part of the reason for his intrigue. 

He was well adept with any weapon, and he could easily switch from any weapon using his hydro element to mold it to his will. He had seen Ajax’s hydro elemental powers come from that strange decoration of sorts on his unusual outfit. And had even spotted it when he first showed up in his cave. 

But he could have never guessed that it would be even related to the hydro element, since he had not seen a human be able to withhold such a power, especially not from such a foreign object that seemed to hold the power they wielded. Morax had foolishly believed that Adepti, Demons, and Gods were the only ones who were able to hold such a power, but he had been deemed corrected. 

And what was most surprising about that, was how well the man was at using his elemental powers, especially since he was a human. Many adepti took hundreds of years before they were able to control their own elements to the fullest extent, especially since he could mold it at will into whatever he wished. 

Which only added to the intrigue he felt for this strange man. 

However, he had expected Ajax to spot him, nevertheless talk to him with Guizhong. He had sat down with Guizhong to talk to her about a few plans to build a city near the harbor. She had given him her insight on her knowledge on engineering and had agreed that their small village had to expand to something bigger. 

They were in the middle of talking about how they would design it, when Guizhong said, “Oh…..and before I forget, Shizun....” Guizhong looked at him rather sheepishly, a look he had not seen her wear before, “My shidi has mentioned that you have been observing him and he looked rather….uneasy.” 

Morax’s eyes widened slightly.

Had he been that obvious? 

“Yes, I have.” 

Guizhong sighed slightly before she took another sip of her tea, “Morax, if there’s something you have to say to my shidi, please say it outright. He has been asking the other adepti about it and I’m worried that the stress might not be good for his health.” 

Morax nodded and Guizhong smiled before she placed her cup down and went back to discussing the design of the harbor and its buildings. 

So, he had initially gone up into a tree in order to see when Ajax would come, and then he would go and make things right with him. However, he got side-tracked…

Ajax was training once more, he was wearing a short sleeve shirt that fit almost too tightly on his form. It was white and he could only presume that it was the undershirt to the clothes he had on when he showed up in Morax’s home. 

He was sweating and the white shirt was sticking onto his skin, which only seemed to accentuate his lean form of pure muscle. At first, Morax had assumed that he was nothing but skin and bones, however, upon closer inspection he was nothing but lean muscle. And well, his abdomen was on display as well as his….pectoral muscles….

Morax had always been one to appreciate beauty of all forms, from the most complex of things such as those intricate puzzles and mechanisms Guizhong would invent to the most simplest of things such as the color of many of the things that surrounded him. But, he had never found himself quite endeared to a mortal of any kind, if his past of ignoring such people when they presented themselves off to him was any indicator of the sort. 

So, he was taken aback by himself when he felt strangely attracted to the man before him. 

His gaze lingered longer than he had anticipated, so he was startled when he heard Ajax speak to him. 

The intriguing adeptus had asked him if he wanted to train with him? 

He shook his head and after Ajax confronted him about his behavior in a straightforward manner he was certainly not expecting. 

So, in turn, he answered him honestly. He was interested in Ajax, in how he fought, his background, his story, his weirdly colored hair, those dots on his cheek and shoulders he called ‘freckles’. The way his smile would flash vibrantly whenever he got the opportunity to fight, or the way he seemed to relax and let himself go when he entered the hot springs next to his house. 

He was interested to find what made him tick. 

And after a while, Ajax offered to show him how he fought.

If the situation was different however, he might have snorted in amusement. After all, someone with nearly not as much battle experience as himself was offering Morax, The God of War, The Prime Adeptus, how to fight? It sounded arrogant and utterly preposterous, but the way Ajax worded it was earnest. He was actually willing to teach Morax how he fought, but not because he thought his style to be better, but because he saw how interested Morax was in his technique. 

So, he accepted. 

And, after a while of back and forth and Ajax teaching him every step to his technique, he decided to question him on his ability to mold hydro to his will. And for the first time in their conversation, Ajax had lied.  

Before he could stop himself, he had brazenly said, “You seem to be lying to me.” 

He could see the way his words affected Ajax. The way he stilled his movements, the way his smile faltered, the way he tried to contain himself. However, instead of lashing out or doing anything for that matter, he shrugged. Like, he couldn’t bother to say that he didn’t, because he knew he was being pointed out for his lie. 

However, Guizhong had taught him that not everyone appreciates too much brutal honesty, so he retracted his words, “It is alright. I will not pry. Guizhong has told me that it is quite insensitive. However, it is interesting how you have managed to mold it so easily, most adepti take up about hundreds of years to be able to control their respective elements....And so, it is quite the impressive feat..." 

This seemed to settle the tense air that once tinted the air, and Ajax visibly turned red. His cheeks turned into a gorgeous shade of cherry red, and Morax was once more captivated by the riveting man. However, he did not voice out his thoughts, and instead settled on obediently following Ajax’s steps. 

And, after a while, they departed.

He had seen how worn out Ajax had been, and while adepti did not need require as much sleep as mortals to be able to function, that did not mean Ajax did not. 

He had yet to see how Ajax’s form worked just yet, and since he was a brand new adeptus, he had to get used to his form before he had fully adapted to the new form. But from all accounts, Ajax had been adapting rather quickly to his new status as an adeptus. And while the others were more hesitant to fully accept him, he had not complained and just rolled with whatever he was given; which was rather admirable. 

His horns had not fully developed yet, and were still a pretty translucent opalesque color, shining delicately with the colors of the rainbow everytime light hit them. His eyes were also as enthralling as his battle prowess, one of them was a gorgeous dark ocean blue color that seemed to suck in anyone who looked at it for too long, and the other was nearly identical to Morax’s, however it was slightly darker than him, and did not glow like his did. His teeth had yet not fully become fully fledged out fangs yet, and were barely starting to sprout, which resulted in them being very short but very precious nevertheless. His hair was also so incredibly charming, and like his horns, they would glow when the light touched them, as if his entire hair was made out of embers. Not to mention his very handsome features, his incredibly fit form, the scar over his right eyebrow, the many scars on his body (he had spotted them when they had taken a shower together). 

Everything about Ajax, drew Morax in; like a foolish moth to an entrancing flickering flame. 

It was bound to go up in flames. 

However, as he gazed at the charming man and the way he looked at his most relaxed form when he slept, he realized that there was no turning back. 

[bxttenbound]

Permanent Starter Call

Liking this post gives me permission to:

- Spam and Send Memes/Prompts/ect to your inbox - Tag you in things I find that remind me of your muse/our muses - Mention your muse(s) specifically in other threads - Involve your muse(s) in blog-events - Hit up your DMs to Plot or talk about HCs - Occasionally draw our/your muse(s) from threads - Feel less anxious about approaching you because anxiety is rude

* If there is something listed above you do not want to take part in just hit up my DMs and I’ll be sure to make note of it <3

[corruptedsilence]

threnody on the outside: colorful and full of magic

threnody when you learn more about it: Mass death, vampiric starvation, gouging out your own eye for love, grief demons that cause mass damage and suffering, conflicts of tradition and how harmful they can be, mistreatment and abuse, questions of the worth of a soul, generational trauma, how much murder is too much murder, can vampires live ethically, unreliable narrators, emotional manipulation, severe mental illness, addiction, suicidal ideation struggles, love actually cant cure your mental illness

[griefxgifted]

for anyone wondering what ive been working on

[giftedfangs]

decided to draw the dnd group I'm DMing only got 2/5 done

[arsonicversed]

sorry i have karin brain rot, i really just, have so much i want to explore with her, because of just how separated from the outside world she has been. Literally having lived in the grass village and the isolation she suffered there from being an outsider, and an uzumaki no less who’s clan had literally been genocided to the point of near extinction.

I’d like to think she knows very little to nothing about her clan, the abilities she actually does posess, where it comes from, and it’s during the blank period (my default verse for all naruto muses) she actually starts to learn about the clan and where she had come from. Mostly because she never realized the chakra chains she might or might not have known much about stem from her heritage

And it could make her more curious as to what else about her clan has she inherited without knowing. Though with the destruction of the leaf during Pein’s assault, which probably resulted in a lot of loss papers and records, and well.....we all knowing what happened to nagato’s mom there would be very little information to go off of. Literally all she’d have is whatever people bothered to write down in other places, and the ruins of the place her mother had once lived who knows how long ago because uzumakis can live up to, if we see anything like Mito, at the very least 120+ years *naturally* and *easily* with the limit possibly being MORE because of Orochimaru’s experiments with her (since....... its not really specified what experiments he did on her??? to my knowledge??) So it could be he used her to also help learn of ways to elongate his own life by using the trait from the uzumaki clan’s ability to naturally live so long into something else or implant it into a new vessel

Which is kinda why I Hc that Karin used part of her own DNA when helping create Log and Mitsuki, because they are in a sense the “perfect vessel” that Orochimaru could create for himself, using her DNA or part of it, could allow his vessel to inherit the traits of being able to withstand (physically) the strain of orochimaru taking over the body which would only be aided by the fact it mostly would use orochimaru’s DNA/chakra/whatever, but also allow him to live a longer life within his perfect vessel without needing to switch every few years

[bxttenbound-archive]

This blog is Archived

Due to personal reasons I will be archiving this blog This is something I’ve been thinking of for some time and thought I might as well now. I am sorry this is out of the blue but I will still be around under the same URL

As of 3/20/2022 I am still working on setting it up but hopefully will have all the basics done by the end of the night. Thank you all for the great memories that were on this blog and hopefully we can make new ones going forward to those who choose to stay as there is no obligation to keep following me after I have moved <3 - Arson

BxttenBound