![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
IC INBOX ( KENOS ).
|
โ 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. |
no subject
[ It's a similar vow he made to Gen, actually.
To stand as a shadow among the light, for people who might want an "out" or another way. Who might crave destruction, and desire companionship; creatures of needs and wants that seemed antithetical to one another, discordant and unable to be reconciled. A bit like the war between the factions, which was born of dreams that could not co-exist. Set is a creature that represents acceptance of things that don't co-exist, chaotic hearts that want to live and die in the same breath. People who have killed every path they could walk except the one that leads to their demmise will find shelter in him.
That is his vow, as a wicked god. As someone who once protected people, then turned and slaughtered them. Hateful and desperate to save himself from further pain. He cannot and will not rob Sebastian of his due, but. If Silco puts his mind to surviving once more, he can find aid in Set. Careful aid, but aid nonetheless. And if they cannot succeed, well.
He will mourn this man. Without a doubt.
In the depths of that room, full of items and destructive toys and mechanical genius, he stands carefully among the remains of Jinx's life and presence. Her guns, her bombs, her Shard, which he watches Silco pick up from the ground. Ah, so that was what must have happened; she was there, alive and creating, and then she was gone. And Silco had never moved anything, from the moment she had vanished and become the shell of herself once again. His reach is slow, as he moves toward Silco and cradles the back of the man's remaining hand. To gentle the tumble of Jinx's shard into the palm of his own, whereupon he cradled the other side of her.
And admitted: ] I was going to tell her about your contract. You gave her everything, and I remember seeing her โ I knew she'd give it back to you. She and I were the same Aspect, you know? I would have burned everything with her, for you.
[ She was going to be how I saved you, he meant. Because he figured she'd stop at nothing, the same way Silco would for her. With Silco's daughter, his only love and his entire world, held carefully in his hands, he says: ] I am still going to.
no subject
He would never allow her to interfere, for as long as she lived, if he did enough to propel them for the future, he would have been happy, to cement their victory.
He still would, if it meant she would be guaranteed her life in Yima's new world. If she was allowed her wild freedom and grand inventions, her mind able to flourish and invent, and create chaos. He would have been happy with just that. He didn't have that luxury, though, and he knew it. If he was dead, would she even still be here?
Could he beseech Yima, to save her, when he gave everything for Zenith?
No, this was a thought he could not even entertain. Refused to entertain. If he gave that up, was it worth it? ]
She would have burned me, if she knew. [ He answered, to explain the half-smile that ghosted across his lips. ] She would have never forgiven me.
[ He would have been leaving her, and he hadn't even known. ]
I don't --
[ He reached out, this time his hand on Set's wrist, as he held his daughter in his hand, careful though he was, Silco still felt fear. How could he not? This was his most prized, and perfect posession. This was his whole world, his heart, because he'd given everything for Jinx. She was the very epitome of Zaun. Strong, smart, hewn by years and trauma and abandonment. She was Zaun, and Zaun was her, in his mind they were everything, and Jinx was the spirit of it. As long as he had her, he didn't even have to consider the remnants of the city, or that they were left in the ditch.
After all, he knew that few Zaunites would have ever wanted to bring back Piltover, if it meant their own revival. They were a worthy sacrifice. ]
I don't want to die. [ He hissed, his tone fervent, despairing. ]
I can't leave her -- but I don't know how to release myself from it, or get around it.
[ If there was a way, his tone said, he would take it. He would not just lie down and die, despite the dramatics. ]
no subject
Come now, Silco. You are a man of business. What, exactly, was the wording of your contract?
[ If the man was sloppy about what he was agreeing to, there was no hope for him.
And Set could not directly intervene. Such a move would place him firmly in opposition to Sebastian, whom he also respected for what he was. Simple as that. He was a predator, a hungry one, and refuting his right to Silco's soul would be a dire, foolish move. Naturally, Set has a mind that befits a trickster. One who twists the letter and the spirit of the law as readily as he twists heads from necks; his mind is fae-like, functioning in a far, far different way than a mortal's, yet oddly beholden to their sentimentality and sensitivity at times. ]
Honestly, considering Zenith's culture of revering souls, I am surprised the all-knowing Lady Yima is allowing this to happen to one of her most trusted Zenites. I thought you had worth to her. I worry for the future of your daughter, if you do not โ even at your heights of Harmonization. She is not as loyal and proven as you, after all.
no subject
And even then. He'd messed up. He was losing her, and the contract would cement it, just as surely as it had been before. Just as certainly. In his pursuit of revenge, in his pursuit of making it so, or perhaps even in his pursuit of keeping her close...
He'd lost her. He'd lost his daughter, he'd lost all the objects he'd sought out originally, and it was only through his own dogged inability to let things go, that Sebastian remained in his employ -- and perhaps his soul spoken for. He could see that now. He could understand that perhaps even that had been an attempt to keep his... dinner (?) warm and ready for him.
Set presents an avenue, that he might look toward the wording. Perhaps there was a way. Silco wondered, but did not dare hope for emancipation from this danger. No, he knew. He knew what the value of his soul was worth, after all. To anyone other than Sebastian? Maybe Set? Nothing. ]
Nobody has ever chosen me, Set. Yima is just another in a long, long line of them. It was never about her world, but in destroying everything. [ A twitch of his lips, tightening. ] There's little in what is left that has value, after all. [ There is no Jinx. ]
It was always about making sure she was alive. In that new world? That's all it ever was.
[ His hands twitch, as if to reach out, to take her. His hand under Set's, not moving away, even though Set could see the impulse, to pull her back into his hands, to protect her. The fact that he doesn't keep her on his person is only a testament to the dangers in Kenos itself, and how he desperately tries to protect her, even now. ]
Yima is not who I am loyal to. I never have been. [ He placed his hand over Jinx's shard, in Set's hand. ] This is everything that matters to me. I will do anything to make sure she's alive, Set. I will find a way out of my contract if I can, but --
[ But he's human. He's, just like his daughter, made one too many mistakes. The spoiler, and always has been. Like father, like daughter, really. He'd cared so much about getting there, that he'd not seen the forest from the trees. ]
I needed you to know. To save her, before... [ A swallow. ] Before she's lost again. She's already dead, Set. There is no saving her, if she is not here. Even if it is all saved, she is still gone, unless she is taken away from there.
no subject
Perhaps it is a mercy, then, that Anubis has never come to Kenos. Not like Jinx, whom had flitted into and out of Silco's life in a way that had cornered him, driven him deeper into the claws of his contract. Until there was no way out, until all he had left was to ensure something survived beyond him to care for her. ]
My sister is a goddess of miracles, Silco. A woman who loves women and children and would drown the world for her own. I come from an era when gods still walk among men, and do deeds on their behalf. I would lower myself before a woman who I loved and betrayed me, and ask her for one more intercession. For Jinx. When Meridian wins, I readily see a way for her to live โ safe and free.
[ And it goes without saying, that he would never allow Piltover to continue, even if Meridian were to win. ]
If Lady Yima could not save Jinx now, she will not be able to save her in the future. Only I can, and I am not walking in a direction that does not contain countless possibilities for her survival. I will not take that risk, because โ I care for you. And your wishes. I really do.
no subject
[ He says it with disbelief. What were miracles, to people like he, and Jinx? They had been denied so much, for so long. They lived in squalor and poverty โ though they were perfectly comfortable in the Last Drop, and Jinx had never known a day of hunger after Silco had hugged her that first night in the rain โ underneath the noses of those that looked down on them. ]
Set, I cannot bank on a miracle. Twice I have.
[ His fingers curl around her shard, and it's so gentle, despite the way he trembled. Twice, she had been here, violent and grand. He knew. ] Whatever your quarrel with Yima, I do not look to her to bring Jinx here. She has tried, twice and both times the tree called her back.
[ Well, that answers why Silco hates the tree so much, doesn't it? ] I...don't even know if your world will allow her, or accept her.
[ The skin around his blinking eye tightened, and he closed it. ]
Think about it. Were I to leave Zenith, what would happen to her shard?
[ He knew. People left Zenith all the time. Yima would yank it back. She had a persona of softness about her, but Silco knew. He'd seen it, beneath the comforting smiles, the things that Silco found lurking in her deception. She'd asked him to make monsters, she had told him that Aetรณs's attention was not unwelcome. He knew that she would take Jinx back.
She had once told him, all those months ago, that to her, there was nothing more important than reuniting family.
He did not believe that she would reunite him with his daughter, unless he paid for it.
But it was transactional, and that he understood, more than anything. Transactional was how they had lived their lives. That was how he could function. ]
I have to proceed this way. It's our only hope.
[ He picked her up, held her in his hand, cupped like she was the most precious thing in the world. ]
If it is not enough. If I can't โ
[ Silco was one man, is what he didn't say. He could fight and fight, and fight, but he could not be anywhere. Could not do as much as was needed. He believed in fighting for it, but he understood. He was not a fool, after all. He knew that Meridian promised hope, and hope was infectious. ]
It's why I ask you to watch over her. Yima can't take her, if I don't betray her. She can't wipe her from reality, if I die enacting her will. It's not my life I'm fighting for.
It's hers.
[ He'd promised her that he would never leave her. He knows he will. He doesn't have a choice, now. ]
no subject
[ In that, miracles are entirely possible. They are not wishes or hopes, but real things that happen; the same as apocalypses, mass slaughter, magic and cosmos. For Silco to say he cannot bank on a miracle, to Set, is the same as saying he cannot bank on his own power changing something. It is foreign to a god, whom makes such things happen. And then he tips his head, as if judging Silco for โ ]
You fear Yima more than anything, and that is what she's counting on. To rule you with fear and control you, the way Piltover looked down upon you and Jinx โ pitiable, and easy to manipulate. Cassian and Jyn left Zenith with the Shards of their loved ones. And do not dare voice your doubt that my world would accept her, when I exist there, despite all my slaughter and misdeed.
[ THough his words are harsh, he parries each of Silco's beliefs with an assertion of his own. Because he believes in more than Zenith's silly little promises, empty and whispered into desperate, foolish ears. A leash to control them, which he manifests in the palm of one hand: a long string of sand, morphed into the shape of a collar and leash that loosely entwines itself around Silco's throat before being jerked into the sand-facsimile hand of Yima herself. ]
Silco, I will not let Yima touch her. If Zenith is to win, I will never allow a woman like Yima to have any hand in the world to come. I hope you would find it in yourself to stop being so afraid of her, and take of her what is yours.
[ With that, he tucks Jinx's shard gently back into the man's palm. ]
Do not accept anything less than everything.
no subject
Silco's fingers instinctively curl over his daughter's shard, as if he had done it countless times, the small, faint comfort that it was. Some doubted the shards, but Silco knew. Perhaps it was foolish, perhaps he believed too much, but he knew she was there, because the shard was not cold or chill, but vaguely inert, mild to the touch. That was perhaps not a guarantee, but he could imagine a sense of Jinx's wild and carefree attitude, the spark of chaos still residing within.
His eyebrow drew down (the other still and unwavering as always, drawn in as it was) because Set spoke of fear, as if Silco feared Yima.
He opened his mouth, but closed it, and his only moving eye narrowed slightly. ]
For all that they were present after they shifted, yes? [ He asked, with a slight scoff. ] I do not doubt that they would have been taken away. It's what I would do.
[ The shards were a gift for loyalty to Zenith, after all. ]
Regardless, I am not with Zenith out of fear, Set. I exist beyond it. [ Foolish words, perhaps, given what will transpire soon. ] I am with Zenith because I do not want our worlds returned.
Jinx's body is gone. [ His fingers tighten. ] Do you think we will be shard-bearers when our worlds are returned? We were not before. Why would they not return to how we were before?
[ But more than that, Silco felt it was right to destroy them. To rend and tear and destroy them because he wanted nothing more than to exact his final revenge on these worlds. For the crime of existing, because he'd lasted now for two years (or nearly) without his daughter. Had her taken more than once, and for all of Set's (supposedly) irrational hate for Yima, he did not think this was her. Not when his loyalty was so easily bought by her mere existence. No. No he did not think it was Yima. ]
I intend to have what is mine, you do not have to fear that, Set. Never fear that. I am taking what is my right. Nobody will stand in my way. Not even Yima.