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IC INBOX ( KENOS ).
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█ 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. |
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[ Said in the same tone that one might say, like: REPUBLICAN.
Also, honest as Voryn is, he is also a HUGE BITCH. Set adores him, but will also turn him into a kicky toy and claw him to ribbons. <3 ]
Have the other Meridian finally warned you against me, Quetzalcoatl? Have they told you I am traitorous? A troublemaker! I may not take such a hardline stance against certain matters, but I have never invited trouble to their doors! Ungrateful.
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Republicansecular person! There's definitely a feeling that's transmitted that's a light surprise as she realizes that she misunderstood Voryn's distaste, if that's it. Just a feeling of oh. ]no subject
I didn't realize they were talking about you!
[ She hadn’t heard it from the Shard-Bearers, but more the average citizens of Springstar and most frequently those that were at the Coliseum or around Heliopolis. In those cases, they tend to be a bit more reserved since Set is intense and scary to them. It was always a bit more vague than directly referencing a god (that would make it too obvious) and tended to be focused on the hair color since it’s such a distinguishing feature for Set. ]
I heard that someone really angry tried to break into Heliopolis a couple months ago and I went “wow, that’s really bold!” but that’s a lot of trouble! The Meri are our—
[ She starts to get to scolding, but his words catch up with her a little more, so she stops. ]
Wait, traitorous?
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The burn of his Discord tastes like poison, acrid and cold in the back of his throat. The idea of Meridian relying on another god to control him plagues him now, sits in the back of his mind and bares tooth and claw like a cornered animal. She could do it, too. She is bright and vibrant and easier to love. ]
Heliopolis is my home! The city I come from, upon my world. This place wears the name of it, stole the name of it!
[ He still harbors such deep hate, possessive and agonized, over the fact that Springstar's most illustrious core is called by the same name as his home. The place called Jwnw, the Pillars. The City of the Sun, the seat of the throne of gods and men. To some, it might be a foolish thing to get stuck on, but it causes him grief. A reminder of a place he was banished from, the ghost of it. ]
Yes, a traitor-god, Quetzalcoatl. That is what I am. Destroyer of kingdoms, slayer of kin. Zenith conspirator, I am sure they even whisper of me now. What, are you going to do something about it?
[ he's just so paranoid ]
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Oh… Set.
[ The way he talks about Heliopolis, she understands how it must sting, or enough of it. If it had been called Tenochtitlan, she thinks it would hurt her too. It would be a reminder of what’s gone, of course, but having it replaced by something she can only imagine is nothing like his Heliopolis is cruel. Unintentional, because she’s more forgiving than Set, but painful.
By the time he finishes his explanation, her presence is gentler. Rather than a sun that’s scorching, it’s a warm, enveloping presence. It’s a blanket on the shoulders or sitting next to a fire on a cool night. ]
I’m not going to do anything about it, no. I might have come to scold you a little about being nicer to mortals, but that’s it!
[ She sighs, but it’s definitely at herself, not him. ]
I don’t know much more than the basics about you and your divinity, Set, and I don’t know how much you know about mine. We oversee two lands that are far apart, right? [ Her tone lightens for the rhetorical question, but it’s quickly back to a more serious one. ] But I can hear it in your voice how you miss Heliopolis, so I am sorry for being rude about that. I didn’t know.
[ She can at least give an apology easily, and the sincerity is without question. ]
So, you want to help Meridian and be able to bring back your home. Right?
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[ It is not that he thinks Quetzalcoatl as incapable of such a thing, but in his finite experience with fellow gods ( and all of them, denizens of the Levant and neighboring countries ), he can only believe that she, like his own family, will seek to subjugate. To control. To levy blame upon him, with his temper and his secretiveness; to misunderstand his loyalty, and the fact that though he has pledged to Meridian, his priority will forever be Egypt. No matter what, he would always do what it took, for the land that he existed as.
Consorting with Zenith was, arguably, one of the most innocuous of acts.
She claims she is here to scold him a little, something about being nice to the mortals — and he cannot believe it, not even as the weight of her warmth envelops his overheated, burnt Soul. Not even as he thinks of spreading himself thin across the whole of the desert, each grain of him basking in Ra's fathomless light. His family would have scolded him, once. Now, he knows them to only blame. A foreign goddess with no love for him could not scold like a sibling.
Quetzalcoatl's sincerity, her divinity, is unquestionable. That is what slows him. He doesn't know what to make about her apology, and it is there, in the faint shock, the estranged parts of him that have never been told 'I am sorry', because blame is easier to lay upon a war god than forgiveness. He can handle blame, it is his due. Her apology is — it is strange, and he feels it is misplaced. It isn't as if she would be wrong, if she came to stop him on Meridian's behalf. He'd just be hurt, that even a fellow divinity would not understand. ]
I do not know anything about you. Save for that you are divine, and that you have a connection to the sun itself. But, make no mistake — I seek to bring back my home. All things end, and will be reborn, but there is a wrongfulness about this destruction. Do you think one of these mortals will be able to do a proper job of it? They are born of sorrow.
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The rest of what he says is more important anyways, since there’s recognition and the relief of familiarity that comes with his perspective. With her brightness and her clear love for humanity, the response probably isn’t what he’s expecting. ]
That’s precisely it! I see the same thing! If this were the end of things, then we’d know, right? It’s sad, but that’s just the cycle.
[ She’s partially explained it to others (much to their confusion), but Set at least gets the fuller explanation. In part, she just thinks he’s better suited to understand it because the scale at which things worked for gods was simply different and difficult for humans to understand. Literal things that happened and metaphor blended together in a way that they struggled with, because that was simply what it meant to be divine in the world. Her world, at least. ]
We’re distant divinities, you’re right. So, I’ll tell you. In the lands of my domain, we’ve created and destroyed our land four times already. I’ve been the sun, life-giving and creating, and I’ve also been the one to strike down the sun when it was my brother Tezcatlipoca and ended all things. I love humanity with all my heart because I was the one to give them life this time, but eventually, they’ll have to be wiped away for what comes next.
[ It’s the short (and, honestly, more flattering) version, but the actual process of the cycles of the Suns isn’t what matters for why she’s telling this story to Set. For one, she just wants to show she understands and agrees. For humans, it would be values that totally contradict, but especially for the gods of the Aztecs, it doesn’t. Creation and destruction are intimately intertwined, and it’s why her people also had to give blood in return to the gods that had created them. But of course, she doesn’t get into that part of things.
Second, there’s the part that matters to her most. In her easily loving heart, they’re already friends because they’ve shared the excitement of an excellent fight and the bond of the responsibilities of divinity. But if that’s too much to ask, then— ]
…But not yet. That’s the point, right? If there’s even a little hope that our homes can be saved, then that’s why we’re here. So long as you believe in saving your home, then we’ll be allies.
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Some might think that his and Quetzalcoatl's vision of ends and beginnings, divine right and might, were mere arrogance. That they were untrue things in Kenos, that they existed sans the two of them — when really, they were them. She is the sun, even if she stands alongside it. He is the desert, even if he walks upon it. So, when she says that she had destroyed her land, only to restore it? He understands.
They're not contradictions. There is no "evidence" that they are liars, nor divorced from being the archetypes that they are. There is no "gotcha" moment for any mortal to have, pointing at the fact that war existed in their own world without the presence of Set, the god of war. She's a relief. A balm. He is wary of her, but — ]
Of course we are allies. Provided you do not aim to subjugate me to your will, [ he means 'make me be nice to mortals', really ] or seek to obstruct the way in which I seek to accomplish the same task, we are allies.
[ He needs to get that out of the way. Divine allies one day can easily be divine rivals the next, and back to allies, without it being contradictory or strange at all. The other Meris have a bit of a time, keeping up with the flow of a god between their parameters... ]
— Ra, my grandmother. She is the sun, the light of creation that illuminates Kemet. She is the only being able to unmake Kemet, and return it to the primordial sea to be reborn. I cannot think that my world is gone, either, not without her permission — I can, however, believe that it could be... removed from time.
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Mm, I won’t force you to do anything, I promise! But I can give advice, right? So, that’s what I meant by being nice! [ She’s simple, but at least insightful enough to pick up on the implication there, or at least guess at it. ] If you’re too grumpy, it’s scary!
[ She laughs warmly, since she’s teasing just a little bit. Characterizing Set as “grumpy” is probably a little of an understatement, but… She’ll at least move on from that subject, at least for now. She does have questions and a little concern over him claiming to work with Zenith, but that’s something they could talk about later, she thinks. She doesn’t want him to get defensive and withdraw completely, so the hope behind their faction’s promise is a better subject. ]
I think about the same. For my family it’s… Hm, it seems a little more complicated than other pantheons because of how our people believed in us. [ DON’T ASK, SET, IT’S FATE SHIT!!! ] But together, we’re all teotl, the expression of divinity and power, so we can all make and unmake the world. It could be unmade outside of us, sure! But then <>teotl itself would be gone, so my existence would go with it, you know? So, that’s why I’m sure. It’s out there, somewhere.
[ And, of course, she has to add: ]
…But tell me about your grandmother a little bit! If she’s a fellow god of the sun, obviously I’m curious! Is she like me at all?
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[ It won't take much, in his experience, to lead Quetzalcoatl to the conclusion that the only thing that she can do is force him into compliance. It not woe that has lead him to the conclusion that he is entirely incomprehensible, even to other gods, but experience, fact. Despite being made in the image of an orderly world, he had been given the power of one who would forever defy it; a god designed to carry the thankless burden of providing meaning to everything. Not even Ra herself had such authority. And Set, within Kenos, was kept far from such dominion.
Instead, he coveted war and disorder. The confusion of those with weak hearts and the conviction of those who clung to their desires; had he Anubis's shard ( — had he Horus's ), he would find no further meaning in playing dutiful Shard-bearer. True anarchy would reign from him. True anarchy might yet, if his deep paranoia consumes him... #yikes. ]
— yes, it is like that. Had the unmaking been full and true, I would not be here. I have yet to meet anyone before you, who truly comprehended the meaning of a divine presence. It is uninspiring, to know that only another god knows of it. Some of the other Shard-bearers were so naïve as to think that my sovereignty was delusion [ what a relief for kenos, that he's got people who acknowledge him, even slightly..... ] and not proof. I am proof that Meridian is correct. Yet, Zenith's conviction that the opposite is true is a matter I must investigate, still.
[ Two things can be true. After all, gods are impossibly contradictory! ]
Ra is the first and chief among us. She gave birth to herself, and in turn beget the lineage of the Ennead and the land of Kemet. I find her difficult to understand, she is the epitome of divinity and the furthest removed from the humans that my siblings and I ruled directly. I find her — funny. Annoyingly so. [ That's because Ra and Set think alike, about the world and their role within it. Even if he covets human-like attachment to family and lineage, in the way she rejects it. ] I can see similarities between the two of you, unfortunately. An inscrutable attitude of delight and joy, and —
[ He leans in, without preamble. Close to the waves of Quetzalcoatl's bright, golden hair in order to sniff her with his ever-sensitive nose; like this, he can smell the unique presence of her divinity, the elements of her like a peerless structure — each one a hint into her nature. ]
You are both very warm.
my html.......also no,,,,
Aw, don’t be so hard on them! Mortals are… Well! They don’t know better, right? The way we work is really hard for mortals to understand, I’ve noticed. That’s why we have priests to interpret things for them! Or, well, did, I guess. [ She laughs ] I loved my teopixqui, but it’s also probably better to not have any here!
[ Since even if it’s not a conflict for her, personally, how time has gone on since the height of her people’s empire as well as some of the knowledge from the Throne makes it clear: the human sacrifice part of rites wouldn’t go over well…
She listens attentively as Set describes Ra, and she smiles, warm and easy. Considering how easily she had taken to Set, of course she’s interested to hear about a god that shares her particular domains. It makes sense that they would have similarities in their personalities, for what could the sun be but joy and life? And, so, she simply laughs as Set takes a whiff of her.
There’s warmth in her presence, but in the smell are the other parts of her domain. She’s wind and lightning, clean and crisp as the air before a storm. Technically the sun was only a former domain… But the association stuck with Quetzalcoatl far more than it did to any of her other family members that had been the sun. ]
Sí, it sounds like we would definitely be friends, then! Or at least be interesting! My father, Tōnacātēcuhtli, he created himself like she did and the heavens, but then we four kids did all the hard work! So, it sounds like I’d have plenty in common!
[ But, Ra isn’t here. Set is, and so he’s the recipient of her affection. Since he’d smelled her hair, a very normal thing to do, she responds teasingly in kind by giving the crown of his head a playful ruffle. With all of the hair he has, it’s not quite as effective, but it’s the thought that counts. ]
And annoyingly funny is pretty good! If I get to be that, I’ll be muy contento!