IC INBOX ( KENOS ).

[redsoil]

█ To Commune with Set is to stand barefoot in an endless, scorching desert. The sun illuminates all, scalding the shadows themselves out from underneath whomever enters his dominion; the arch of gentle, distant, waves of sand mask the precarious chasms, towering dunes akin to mountains. The sense of vastness, timelessness, is of particular notice, lending itself to the alien, eldritch quality of his mind. There is a dark storm in the distance, and you know intimately that this divine being is far from benign. You cannot bargain with a force of nature. You can only survive it. COMPATIBLE WITH: Exalt, Iconoclast REPELLED BY: Advocate

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[redsoil]

— you two, absolute idiots!

[ In some scholars' interpretations, Set's name is invoked upon charms relating to love and pleasure, but he is no god of pacification and affection. Childe and Zhongli clearly have something deep between them, a chasm that cannot be bridged alone; they're discordant and having such trouble communicating, and Set thrives in the chaos and discord they're inflicting one another. He ought to incite it, drive a wedge between them so deep that even if Childe returns to Zenith, they'll always be at odds within their own faction.

Zenith, after all, was such a boring Kumbaya bunch. They needed some internal strife.

He steps forward once Childe is thrown onto the ground, reaching under Zhongli's arm to find Childe's cheek. To touch it with his own fingers. It means, for Zhongli, that the redheaded god of war is draped across his back; one arm drifts around Zhongli's waist too. He cannot do anything for either of them and their Discord, too. Childe is one step too far from a Savant, and Zhongli's own Aspect is in opposition. He can, however, offer some cutting words. ]

Zhongli came to find you, earlier this month. I scolded him for being so stiff with you, actually. Do you not hear him calling your name so plaintively now? If you are angry with him, you must tell him what you want. Not why you are mad, but what you want from now on with him. Tell him what he is to you, Childe.

[ And against Zhongli's ear, he whispers: ] Be less a god, show him the passion you harbor for him, Lord Zhongli. You want to connect with him, you want him — no matter where he goes, he can go freely... but, did it not feel terrible that he was not with you?

[sharethememory]

[ Zhongli's weight pinning Childe goes slack when he tries to shove him away. Ah, so Childe's pain ran so deep that he was disengaging from a potential fight, even one he himself had initiated. This was so far outside Zhongli's realm of understanding. Far beyond what he had the knowledge to fix. Perhaps he would be more grateful for the other god's company if Set were not as volatile as Childe in his own specific way.

Set was unpredictable in all the ways that Zhongli found the most difficult to deal with. He had brought Childe over to Meridian, believed Childe was more suited to stay among their ranks, became Childe's confidant and was now here to aid and protect him. It makes little sense for Set to want to mend the rift between Zhongli and Childe if his preference was for the Harbinger to stay and flourish within Set's own faction. So then what could be the reason? Was their something Zhongli was missing?

(Probably. If he had missed all the signs that had boiled over as a result of the last Oracle competition.)

Zhongli shifts to move Set's hand from his waist. Itching fingers wants to do the same for the hand that is touching Childe, but that is not his choice, even as his pride and his arrogance demand that he do what he thinks he right. How troublesome. That these sort of tense emotional situations did not always have a clear correct path. ]

I shall take you words under advisement.

[ And since Zhongli has nothing more to lose, why not make an attempt to show his passion. It was a strange concept since less emotions were usually called for more difficult situations. But where had that gotten him in this? Practically no where.

It was fortuitous as well that Zhongli did not feel particularly embarrassed about his desire to be close to Childe. ]

During those last days of the Blight, you told me that this would always be my home. You requested that I be not a god that acted in the best interests of their people, but your friend. So I have kept this place in your absence, and I have waited for such a time as you wanted to talk or when you were ready to come home.

There is a restlessness in you, a search for something that I do not know how to help you with. Something that Lord Set has seen in you as well.

How could I call myself your friend if I did not allow you to pursue such a path? I have missed you terribly. I do not know if this place can be called if home if you are not here to share it. And of course my preference is that you would wish to stay here in Highstorm. But my regret would far outweigh my loneliness if I stood in the way of you finding what you were looking for.

[ Perhaps not a particularly passionate statement, but look. He's starting to get there bit by bit. ]