#risengain

[ofpolyhex]

@risengain for perceptor

Whirl spirals down from their post in the stratobiome just as Luna-2 is beginning to crest the horizon. Below them, they spy the last stragglers leaving Maccadam’s oilhouse. The sound of distant laughter drifts up to them as the two mechs—one Decepticon, one Autobot by their insignias—stumble down the street side-by-side.

They hum to themself, pleased by the sight, and swoop in to transform and land. After a week of patrolling the most elevated layer of Cybertron, the ground feels strangely dense beneath them.

“Percy?” They let themself in, hoping the newly instated bartender doesn’t mind them calling after closing hours. It feels like a lifetime has passed since they last spoke. “You, uh, want some help with the clean-up?”

[threeyedbane]

“your constant movement ever worries ikora.” scurrying about to and fro, actions without permission or notice beforehand, disappearing off the radar. there was no end to the list of things so common in nature like their’s that proved nerve-wracking for the warlock. eris herself acting on impulse all her own, guaranteeing stern words from the keeper once her lack of presence was noticed. “these are pressing times, fear and anxiety loom above all, but i would...hope you have been well.”   /  @risengain​

[apollonic]

@risengain literally did not ask

     an  arm  slings  around  his  shoulder ,  pulling  ignis  close  with  a  boyishly  charming  grin .    ❝  sooo ,  iggy !  ❞    and  there's  a  suspicious  amount  of  eyelash  fluttering .  prompto ,  clearly ,  wants  something .    ❝  you  got  any  plans  for  the  night ?  not  asking  for  any  reason  in  particular ,  just ,  uh  —  just  curious ,  heh !  ❞    and  oh ,  it's  so  obvious  he's  lying .

[apollonic]

@risengain / sc

     A  BRIEF ,  SCRUTINIZING  PAUSE   and  hubert  lets  out  a  soft  hum .    ❝  i  must  say ,  seteth ,  i  was .  .  .  surprised  to  find  that  your  loyalties  did  not  lay  as  strongly  with  the  church  as  i  had  expected .  ❞  another  hard  look ,  hands  placed  behind  his  back ,  every  ounce  as  menacing  as  people  expect .    ❝  i  should  hope  your  loyalties  to  the  empire  are  much  stronger .  i  would  hate  for  something .  .  .  terrible  to  happen  to  you .  ❞    the  smile  on  his  face ,  however ,  says  otherwise .

[apollonic]

@risengain  |  THE YOUNG WOLF said to THE CROW: ❛ i cannot love you , if i love you , i will die ❜

    CROW DOES NOT THINK HE WAS MEANT TO SEE.   he is almost certain that the young wolf thought he was looking away,  that his attention was captured by something else  —  like the mission,  for example.  how,  then,  could he confess that when the two of them are near each other,  it feels like nothing else exists?  they have his attention,  even now,  because they always have his attention,  because,  to him,  few things are worthier of it than they are.

    and he does not think he will ever be able to tell them.

    he is uncertain what history wolf has with his body,  but he knows that it is not a happy one.  he can feel it in the way they look at him,  the way they hold themself apart,  the minute hesitations that he would not notice if it were anyone else.  the irony in the fact that he is only aware of the chasm between them because he wishes to bridge it is not lost on him.

    or maybe he would notice,  but remain uncaring.  what is it to him,  after all,  if a guardian is uncomfortable around him?  the crow has had more than his fair share of guardians showing him discomfort.  so why is the young wolf any different?  that there is something desperate and unspoken between the two should be irrelevant,  should be meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

    but it is not meaningless.  nothing about them could ever be meaningless.  he wants to say something over the comm,  to let them know he saw,  but.  .  .  it feels too secret.  too private,  especially given that he was not meant to see.  especially given that neither of them have admitted that there could be something between them.  especially given that they are saying they don't want there to be.  he understands how painful it must be for them,  to see his face  (  a face whose unknown crimes he will pay for until his final death  )  and have such complicated,  conflicting emotions.  

    no.  it is best,  he thinks,  to keep his observations and his own feelings to himself.  best to focus on the mission,  and pretend he did not see their not - confession.

    ❝  your prey lies just ahead of you,  guardian.  ❞    even calling them by their title feels like too much of a confession.  as if they will somehow know that if he does not maintain a semblance of professionalism between them,  his feelings will come tumbling out from behind his lips in a rush.    ❝  take care not to startle it.  they are.  .  .  dangerously flighty.   ❞

[apollonic]

@risengain  /  uwu

    IT HAS ONLY BEEN A FEW DAYS SINCE LISSA STUMBLED OVER THEIR NEW MEMBER,  and chrom has been trying to give the exo enough space to acclimate to his new life.  but all the same,  he knows how difficult it can be to figure yourself out by yourself in an actively hostile world.  and it seems that robin - 2 has more to figure out than most,  given the events of yesterday.  so chrom takes a seat beside their new friend,  and clears his throat.    ❝  even though i've never seen anyone do what you did,  i still think it was pretty cool.  maybe in the last city we could find someone to help us out?  if.  .  .  you think that's a good idea.  ❞

[apollonic]

@risengain​ said: "This is also part of the story: how the story changes. This is something I forgot to tell you." (wolf to crow)

    THIS IS SOMETHING HE COULD NOT HAVE FORSEEN.  how becoming a savior of the people  (  a legend for the ages  )  would irrevocably alter the course of his life.  he has heard at least three different accounts of missions he was supposedly an integral part of.  .  . that he didn't even know happened until after their success.  he cannot put his finger on when,  exactly,  he had shifted from being a figure shrouded in mystery to the near - mythic figure he is today.  (  probably sometime shortly before he became the hunter vanguard,  in all actuality.  )

     (  that was when the vitriol he received for simply existing with the face of the man who killed cayde - 6 became almost matched by the kind of wide - eyed wonder of being the one to save the warlock osiris,  of helping the guardian kill the high celebrant of xivu arath.  )  (  becoming hunter vanguard awarded him for a sin that he cannot remember,  a sin that caused so many to despise him.  and now he is lauded for it.  the double standard is almost nauseating.  )

    crow is uncomfortable,  to say the least,   with the sort of scrutiny with which the general public examines him.  as he and wolf make their way through the crowds in the city,  he pulls his hood closer around his face.  he is used to people avoiding his gaze,  used to agonized expressions and outright violence.  he is not used to this,  to the wonderment that graces the features of some who watch him as he spends time with their city's exalted hero.  if the weight of his responsibility is heavy on his shoulders,  he cannot begin to imagine how it feels on theirs.  a wry grin crosses his face as he casts a glance their way from underneath his hood,  and his step wavers to bring him ever so slightly closer to them,  the back of his hand bumping theirs.  

    at the very least,  crow is glad that they are a part of most of the tall tales that have been circulating as of late.    ❝  i wish you had told me,  that way i could have gotten a new outfit on the way.  after all,  i should ensure that my bearing properly reflects my station and story,  shouldn't i?  ❞    another ironic smile,  tone becoming ever more teasing.    ❝  what do you think,  should i get a haircut?  or perhaps a new hood,  one that matches my gun.  ❞

[apollonic]

@risengain​ said: “All these things and what to do with them. We carve up the world all the time.”  / laurent @ inigo

     IT IS ,  ADMITTEDLY ,  ONE of their more vulnerable moments .  something that few get to see  —  and yet ,  it somehow seems easier to be honest with laurent about their innermost conflicts .   (  is it because of their not - all - that - distant conversation at the hot springs ?  because laurent understood them when they didn't even understand themself ?  perhaps .  )  inigo lets out a small sigh ,  looking up at the sky above them ,  at the stars sparkling in the inky blackness .  they suppose that he has a point ,  that they've all been fighting their whole lives with nary a chance to catch their breath .  it isn't something that anyone in this time could possibly understand ,  the kind of desperation that sits in the very bones of inigo and all their friends . 

     laurent is intelligent and perceptive ,  so the fact that even he doesn't know what to do with their collective trauma is unnerving .  it isn't something any of them ever willingly or knowingly picked up ,  and yet they have no place to set it down .  at least ,  no place apart from each other .  (  it makes it marginally less lonely to know that inigo is not wholly alone in this ,  that they don't hold this burden by themself .  )  (  if anything ,  laurent understands loneliness better than they ever will .  five years is a long time to be on one's own .  )  a glance back at their friend .   ❝  i don't like it any more than you do ,  but we have to do this .  for our future .  for the fate of the world .  ❞

     there is ,  as always ,  that small bit of dissent in the back of their mind .  the one that dislikes killing living beings ,  that desperately wishes for something other than constant war ,  constant fighting .  but they'll continue ,  because they must .  because this is about more than them ,  more than even the people they care about .  a very small ,  almost secret smile .   ❝  if it makes you feel better ,  at least we aren't carving the world on our own .  not anymore .  ❞  not ever again .