death's eyes

Queen of Death, Empress of Pearls, the Reluctant Savior of the Longest Light, Blessed by the Far Sea [Affiliated: Aldebaran]

[aldebaransea]

It’s official: we’re moving!

Good afternoon, residents!

After much discussion and invaluable insight from the community, we’ve made the final decision to switch platforms from Tumblr to Jcink. We strongly feel this will benefit Aldebaran as a whole, and while the transition may be tricky, the mod team will do their best to help everyone adjust and assist with any problems that may arise during the move.

You can find the new and improved Aldebaran Ark at: https://aldebaran.jcink.net/

What’s that you say? The URL doesn’t roll off the tongue too well? In that case, try this: http://aldebaran.systems/ (Note: the new url currently leads to a placeholder page, but you can expect it to go live very soon!)

The official opening of the forums will be on Friday, December 14th. All members are free to start setting up before that date, although some elements of the boards will still be considered a work in progress until opening day.

The opening will be followed by a three-week transition period, during which we ask the players to fully transfer their characters to the new platform. This period will last until Friday, January 4th.

We hope the changes will not disrupt your role-playing experience too badly. In case of any questions or problems, please do not hesitate to reach out to the mod team! Additionally, mod Neptune has written a guide for transferring your characters to Jcink, which can be found here: https://aldebaran.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=27

[glimmeringbone-blog]

ordennan-steel‌:

lungtienhsiang‌:

glimmeringbone‌:

Oh. Temeraire’s ruff flattens right to his head as he watches the two of them, and even he can’t miss the undercurrent of tension running through Hella now, the way Adelaide meets her stare so directly. They’ve fought, then, and maybe they are still fighting? Adelaide doesn’t deem like she is, but Hella seems ready to. He shifts behind her anxiously, a low rumble starting in his belly- not a sound so much as a feeling, for now.

He sinks towards the ground slowly, less relaxation and more preparation to spring between the two of them, should it be needed.

“It’s true,” he says, more hesitant now- “When I first came, they had taken away my flight, and also I cannot use my Divine Wind anymore. My Laurence also had his sword taken away.”

Hella’s hand twitches when Adelaide’s fingers brush over it, but she doesn’t jerk it away. Because. She’s being civil. Adelaide is standing a bit closer than civility might call for, though. 

“Forces? What do you mean, forces? Who - what’s running this place?”

Hella’s heart drums against her ribs. From behind her, she can feel the dragon’s palpable anxiety and discontent. With Adeladie in front of and Temeraire behind, she feels agitated, confined, like an animal in too small of a cage. 

“Look,” she says. “Look, can we all just -” Hella breaks off, places a heavy but careful hand on Adeladie’s upper arm, as though to move her back a couple paces. Really, though, it’s almost an excuse to touch her, to check if she’s real. She feels as solid as anything, as present and alive as she was back in Nacre.

As she was when Hella killed her.

Hella lets her hand drop, as though the god-queen had proven to be too heavy to be budged. She glances down at Temeraire, a little embarrassed to have made that odd gesture.

“So you’re saying…you’re saying, you lost more than just possessions,” she mutters, speaking to the both of them. “What kind of a place is this?”

“It’s powerful, for it captures gods,” Adelaide says lightly. She is distracted from the conversation and immensely pleased with herself. Hella’s fingers are callused in a way utterly unlike hers. The contrast of that controlled strength is striking. The weight on her arm.

“And we get entertainments and trinkets.” Her eyes follow Hella’s to Temeraire, and she smiles ruefully at his witness to her ensnarement. From his pose, he wants to protect them both. He is a real peacemaker, for such a clawed and fanged creature! Between him and Hella, these are two unforgettable bodyguards. “But it is easier now with your captain here, isn’t it, Temeraire?”

[glimmeringbone-blog]

ordennan-steel‌:

lungtienhsiang‌:

glimmeringbone‌:

Temeraire looks between them, wondering if they are from the same place- and why Hella seems so very unhappy to see Adelaide. Surely he’s imagining it though- perhaps it is simply that it has been some time since they’ve spoken? 

He feels a little curl of anxiety in his gut at the thought that his two friends might not like each other, but squashes it, sitting and curling his tail around Hella’s feet, like back-up, like reassurance.

“Adelaide helped me, when I first came, when I was very sad,” he says, almost plaintive. Oh, he hopes they are not unhappy with each other. That would be so very uncomfortable for everyone involved, but most especially for him.

Hella takes a long breath in through her nose. Exhales. Civil. She’s going to be civil. Maybe once she gets through this exceptionally weird day, she’ll go to sleep at night and wake up back in Samol’s house with her friends, like nothing ever happened. Maybe this is all just some elaborate dreamscape Adeladie’s cooked up, to tease her with. The level of detail seems a bit excessive, but Hella wouldn’t put it past her.

If that’s the case, it makes the friendly dragon an interesting touch.

On some level, though, Hella has a creeping suspicion that this is all frustratingly real and isn’t going to fix itself in an instant. She’s not quite ready to deal with that, though. Hanging onto the idea that it might all abruptly go back to normal is what’s keeping her sane, right now.

“Oh, did she?” Hella tries to lighten her voice, although the raise in pitch might just be making her sound even more unhinged. She relaxes her grip on her scabbard, but her eyes never leave Adelaide. “That was very nice of her. Maybe now she can help me, as well.”

Hella doesn’t doubt that Adelaide was going to come find her, nor does she believe for an instant that her presence at the station was coincidental. She wonders if even running into Temeraire wasn’t an accident. Hella’s learned by now that the more you try and distance yourself from the Queen of Death, the more persistent she becomes.

“Where’s my sword, Adelaide?” she asks. “What happened to it?”

Adelaide resists the impulse to sigh at Hella’s complete lack of response to her calculated pose. She steps forward, reaching to touch the hand on Hella’s scabbard. That hand is her only weapon, she reminds herself, and Hella will not raise it to her here. “The forces that run this place take weapons away. You have to win them back with good behavior. That shouldn’t be too hard for you.”

She meets Hella’s stare full-on. Her expression is difficult to read. “It took from me, too. I haven’t liked staying here.” Until now -- echoes after, unsaid.

[sphinxmemesmusings]

Send me a very scandalous rumor about my muse to see how they would react.

[glimmeringbone-blog]

Never have I ever killed someone and regretted it.

Adelaide takes a drink with a sigh, but there’s a stony look to her eyes. “You already knew the answer. Everyone makes mistakes. Why not ask a more interesting question?”

[glimmeringbone-blog]

voidmarks‌:

“On occasion.” Point of fact, he has only slept a handful of times since arriving here: despite his flesh and blood, he is still not quite biological, and drives like hunger or sleep are abstract at best. But if he lies very still, and lets his mind sink into the infinite black, feels himself sink deeper and deeper until he can feel the weight of the whole sea pressing him into a point–

The experience is novel. So is finding himself in someone else’s dream, or someone else’s Void. He’s not sure that means he likes it.

Adelaide does not strike him as someone whose control he would like to be under, even accounting for how much he dislikes the experience altogether.

“You’re well, I trust.” He slows to a stroll, letting his gaze cast around the chamber. "Is all this yours?”

“It is mine.” She doesn’t enjoy saying so quite as much as she might have once. “And I am well. Though it is not. The Ordennan cannon -- well, when my city was invaded, their artillery was destructive.”

She spins her hand lazily and her throne spins and shifts downward to meet the ground. The stone underfoot shivers with unease.

[night-guard-felix]

Send my muse a 'Never have I ever [blank]'. If my muse has done it, they have to take a shot.

[glimmeringbone-blog]

bonnaillie-days‌:

Alyosha follows the Queen, eyes scanning over the seats before finding one that seems to be at a distance both hospitable and respectful. They used to perch nervously on the edge of chairs when they were younger, but now their back doesn’t accommodate that expression of anxiety. They sit all the way to the back of the chair, and fold their hands in their lap, trying not to fidget immediately. “I…I’ve found my stay pleasant…” they start slowly. “I have had much to adjust to, in terms of customs and… technologies. However, accommodations have been more than enough for me.” Alyosha frowns. “I am concerned for the congregations I was leading at the time that I came here, but I cannot change that, it seems.” They take a breath, trying to wipe the worry from their face. “Have accommodations been appropriate for Your Highness?”

“They have been fine. You don’t need to worry about my comfort.” Adelaide watches the careful folding of their hands and feels a little abashed. There’s little use in teasing someone without an ounce of spite in their body.

This Alyosha reminds her of Lem King. Although not nearly so bumbling, there is something about the softness of their voice that is similar.

“You were Samothes’s.” She follows suit in leaning back in her chair, subtly using the back to support her neck but also to appear relaxed. “Do you miss him? Or have you had time to?”

[the-write-ideas]

Send me a △ and ask a really invasive question aimed at my character

They’ll have to:

Rate on a scale of 1-10 how much they don’t want to answer that question.

Answer that question.

[glimmeringbone-blog]

ordennan-steel‌:

lungtienhsiang‌:

glimmeringbone‌:

The train ride with Hella has left Temeraire bright-hearted, eager- he thinks he may even convince her to let him fly her to Bi Xiu, as well. She had pressed her face to the window much as he had the first time he’d ridden the train, and he thinks that he likes her very much, and that she is proving herself so far to be a person he can quite get along with.

He’s right on her heels as she presses her way out of the train, and his own bulk ensures that they have a decent amount of room around them. He’s just turning his head to explain to her that they will have to follow the road down to the short when a woman steps forward.

Ah- not just a woman, but the queen who comforted him when he first found out that Laurence was not here after all. A short burst of anxiety consumes him for a moment before he remembers that Laurence is here after all, now, and he lifts his head, eyes bright and ruff flaring with excitement.

“Adelaide!” He prances forward to meet her, then winds his way around her briefly before returning to Hella’s side, pressed up warm against her. “Why, I did not know you knew each other!” Of course, and why would he? He ignores that fact, though. “It is very nice to see you again. I was showing Hella how to get to Bi Xiu! Did you know, I can fly again?”

Hella almost doesn’t attach the voice to the person, at first, given she is so accustomed to hearing it disembodied. It takes her a moment to realize that the voice isn’t inside her head but is in fact coming from a direction, and, when she turns in that direction -

Adelaide Tristé, in the flesh.

The shock is cold, as though she’d plunged into icy water. Like a reflection of the void Hella had just traveled through to reach her, Adelaide is dressed all in black, with the miniature pearls studding her dress like stars. As though magnetically drawn by memory, Hella’s hand goes to her scabbard; in lieu of the hilt of a sword she curls her fingers around its empty sheath, staring stony-faced at Adelaide’s smirk. Someone exclaims the god-queen’s name first, though, and does it far too cheerfully to be Hella.

Hella stares in disbelief as Termeraire bounds forward, curling friendly and familiarly around Adelaide before returning to her side.The cold shock dissipates, slowly, thawed by a burning frustration as Hella realizes: As much as she’d like to scream, or threaten violence, or fall to her knees, she’s going to do none of those drastic, dramatic things. She’s instead going to have an agonizingly civil conversation with the woman she killed. 

Which is no doubt just how Adelaide wants it.

“I. Didn’t,” she says, gruff and halting, speared on god-queen’s smugness. “Know that. That you knew each other. Either.”

She presses her hand briefly on Temeraire’s side as he passes her by.

“It is a wonderful coincidence,” Adelaide says, glancing at Temeraire before lowering her eyelids to look at Hella. Hella is nearly as tall as he is. And her hand is around her scabbard, isn’t it. My, my. “I was going to find you.”

Adelaide moves subtly to show herself to best advantage.

[glimmeringbone-blog]

voidmarks‌:

This dream is unfamiliar.

He is not in the Void, or at least the Void he knows– and after four thousand years, he knows it better than anyone. But the similarity itches, a note that isn’t quite right, a melody he can almost remember. The shapes of the un-world around him stretch out like the bones of something long dead.

(He has wondered, before, where he would dream if he slept; would he just return to the comfort of the abyss, like so many others do, when they glimpse his shadow? Each night since he has arrived in Aldebaran he has wondered. Perhaps this is the answer.)

The Outsider steps carefully, methodically, as he winds his way through the fragments of the thought they occupy. One strand at a time.

One might not recognize her like this, after so– comparatively– ordinary a meeting. But he does.

His voice is soft and clear, even as far away as he is as he traces his way along one of the fractures: his lips to god’s ear, as it were. He almost sounds cordial. “Adelaide. This is a surprise.”

“Outsider!” She affects her own surprise and shifts on her throne to peer down at him: a dot of black scrambling around the rocks. “So you do sleep.”

If the room were in its original state, she wouldn’t need to peer. In fact, she would avoid doing so when possible, lest she seem human. But there’s no need for such precautions. She is beautiful and elevated enough as it stands.

[glimmeringbone-blog]

northridden‌:

“Ask the difficult questions, don’t you?“  Alexis lets that hang there for a minute as they think for the best way to explain it, to explain something best conveyed in a language they don’t even know or understand – 

“Mimicked betrayals.“  Seven is the number.  Seven is the number.  “It leaves a mark.  Can’t dream without a rope, or a cell, or chains anymore.“

Adelaide nods slowly. “I dream of my city, as it was.” She touches her neck. “My dreams have always been...” Mine, she almost says, but it is so untrue that she falters.

[glimmeringbone-blog]

dangerousallies‌:

“You mistake me, Majesty,” they say serenely. “’Tis not my interest that is of consequence.”

After a moment they add, light, but measured: “In my home, walking under the sky would kill me. A punishment, you could say, for transgressing against death.”

“Against death!” She puzzles through this. “You were too violent, then?” Adelaide is truly smirking at this thought. Oh, she can imagine the Diplomat committing a murder, but not brawling like Hella Veral.

“Or did you live beyond your time?” That is familiar territory. Some may die, and not vanish when they go. Though that is no offense to her.

[glimmeringbone-blog]

bonnaillie-days‌:

Alyosha doesn’t expect Adelaide to step out, much less without a second thought, and he finds himself rushing to catch up to her. He feels like his cane is far too loud against the tiles, but he knows it’s just nerves. He has dined with Kings and Mayors and Master-Curators, but faced with the Queen of a mythical land, he finds himself quickly becoming very anxious.

“This door here is to my personal room,” he says, though for a moment he can’t remember which one is his and which belong to his as-yet-unseen roommates. He needs to mark his door in some way, he thinks, before he truly forgets. “This way is the sitting room, if it pleases Your Highness, and I believe a bath of some kind…”

“We should sit, then.” The rooms are much the same as those on Adelaide’s floor. She sits firmly, and grins sharply at the cleric following after her.

“How has your stay here gone?”

[glimmeringbone-blog]

northridden‌:

“Someone who’s drowned an’ keeps convinced they’re still dead.  Not neighborly.“  They sit, sprawling over the chair with careless grace.  “Drowned a couple’f times; not that it stuck, obviously.“

“Obviously,” she agrees. Adelaide lets the sounds of the city and the ocean go by for some time before she asks, “Why were you chained?”

[glimmeringbone-blog]

northridden‌:

“An ocean’s just water.  Plenty’f that out there.“  They’re not particularly amused, but it’s hard to be that much of anything when drifting, still tied up in the dregs of something-else’s-remembrance.  “’s for the Drownies, sides, and I’m not one.  Not yet.“

“What is a Drownie, exactly?” She pats a chair next to her, offering them the seat. “Do you expect to drown?”

[glimmeringbone-blog]

bonnaillie-days‌:

Alyosha bows, though this eyes flick briefly to the doors when they close.

“I am honoured, Your Majesty,” he says, “Please let me introduce myself. I am Alyosha, Northern Exarch of the Creed of Samothes.”

The doors ding and open again, this time on his floor. Alyosha shifts awkwardly.

“Unfortunately, I have little to offer in ways of hospitality…”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure I'll get used to it.” Adelaide sweeps through the doors without a look back.