eachdraidh | video

[ The locket, as always, is held up in mid-air when the Outsider turns it on. He is not alone in this recording, though; behind him are four women in long, gauzy black dresses and veils. With them are several children, eyes all black; the women are gently ushering them along the shore of the beach behind them while two massive dogs run back and forth.

In the distance is the black line of the Void, creeping over the ocean.

Next to the Outsider is another one of the children, and next to him the resemblance is clear: the same eyes, the same curious tilt to the head, the same bony cheeks. The child looks a bit more fey, but he sticks close to his sire, hands clutching to his arm. ]

Do not harm the children, [ the Outsider begins, and his voice is cold, shows every century of age and power. ] Do not harm the children or we will use your blood and bones, and you will be lucky if you are dead when we start.

[ A large palm smooths over the hair of his son. A daughter comes up on the other side, humming. She smiles at him and her teeth are sharp and red. The Outsider leans in so she can murmur in his ear. ]

Ah, yes. Should anyone find themselves with a need to desecrate shrines further -- the same warning applies to you. I will know, should you touch one of mine.

[ His daughter giggles and takes the hand of his son, and the two go to join the others. The Outsider watches, head half-turned. A seagull swoops down and perches on his shoulder, ruffles its wings, and the feed ends. ]

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[A very thin smile. The image waves in and out of focus; none of the Brucolac's alternative communicators have a video function, and he's out of practice framing shots.] I am glad, truly, to have an accord with you. I'm doing what I can to keep the Shrines safe...

I don't know whether the personal presence of a vengeful god would make the situation better or worse. [He says that in a genuinely uncertain tone, eyebrows lifting as he considers it. It would be interesting, to say the least.]

None of your little ones were too seriously threatened, I hope?

I imagine it would depend on the courage of those damaging them.

[ Still, the Brucolac gets a smile in return. He's- not really any better at them, over the past year, but the attempt is there.

One of his children peers at the locket, blinking pale eyelids over black eyes. ]

They are capable of handling themselves against most, but shardbearers have always been something different -- as are groups of angry fishermen. Still, the truest threat at the moment is the Void. It will swallow this coast first, and so these young ones are relocating. Perhaps with more siblings in one place, they will be safer.

[The Brucolac blinks back at the child, inclining his chin in a rather solemn nod.]

The bay on which Srathmarbh sits is so far quite insulated from the Void. They are welcome there, though it is...busy.

I cannot chastise each angry fisherman when much of the town's trade depends upon them. But most of them know well enough to avoid your offspring.

...Of which you have how many, in any case?

Edited 2015-05-06 14:52 (UTC)

If they are foolish enough to be drawn in, then they will die. It is as simple as that.

[ His children need to eat, and they are the wrath and hunger of the sea. ]

Many. [ Yeah, he knows that isn't a number. ] They hatched this spring.

Mm. I've seen them. Black eyes beneath the surface of the waves. Heard the stories. They grow fast. The stories and the children.

[He wants to ask is it different now? now your blood is part of this world? but he's fairly sure the answer would only disturb him.]

I wonder whether you know what's to be done about the Void.

[Quite carelessly.]

Care for the sea and its life and be spared, receive a gift. Otherwise...

[ Well. The little ones have to grow. ]

It is not my Void.

[ The Brucolac says it carelessly, but the Outsider has been waiting for someone to ask. He turns his head, looks toward it. ]

The closer it comes, the worse things will become.

So I can easily imagine. Is it...anything? Anything at all?

Is it really just nothing?

In my world, it is what created the world and what will destroy it. My assumption is that they are tied together, that the Void of my world is inherently similar to this one, the first Void.

In my world it is also the realm of dreams, of magic, of death. It is nothing, it is everything. It is- abstract. One walks within on pieces of their world, things they recognize, things tied to them that they did not see: frozen images, pulling at their heart and their mind. Is this Void similar? I do not know. The Maidenfish panic when I try to get too close, and I do not think I would like to be swallowed by it to find out.

[ His lips thin, and the implication is certainly there. He's considered it. He's considered coming close, seeing if Void reacts to Void, seeing how Disconnection in his chest responds. ]

I fucking hate abstract.

[Eloquent.]

Dreams, magic, death; I thought every realm was realm of those things? We hardly need that black horizon bringing more of it.

[He tches and carries on.] I'm travelling to Verla soon. I...hear it's close to the mountain. [There's a mournfulness in his voice.] The pyrii are going to die. If death is what is inside the Void.

Edited 2015-05-06 16:14 (UTC)

It is the source. But again -- that is the Void of my world. I do not know about this one, save that the Shuck is Death. It stands to reason that the Void is then something else.

[ But he doesn't know, and that's the worst part. ]

A shame. [ And he sounds like he truly means it. ] But it is their choice to stay, if that is what they wish.

Yes, it is. Which makes it...worse, I think.

If I happen to notice anything interesting when I draw closer to it, I'll tell you, of course. Ah, and you should know.

Apparently not content with guzzling seawater and rock, it's got itself a fucking avatar, or so I hear.

[ There is no snap of anything, no suck of breath between his teeth, no drop in temperature. But the Outsider's eyes narrow, the black seeming all the more encompassing, impossibly darker and just as ready as the Void to pull in and not let go. ]

Then we are going to find it.

[ Yeah he's volunteering you, Brucolac. ]

[Ah.

That's an order, isn't it.]

Of course.

[Quite smoothly, as if he never had any other notion.

Fucking hell, he's got to stop pledging himself to any god he can find. And speaking of...]

How are you—holding up? I assume you've heard there's a war on.

Another one.

The gods' one.

[ As always, he enjoys free will, choice. But perhaps the fate of the universe is becoming more important than his own entertainment.

Maybe. ]

I am not dead yet, which is more than can be said about those who have desecrated my shrines.

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