#♡. broker.ic ⁄ ⁄ the aspect of kindness .

[stellarhistoria]

@stellafortunae. // genshin impact au broker & andrii. // yeet.

"How tiring it must be, to be so furious and have nowhere the fury resolves anything." but the catalyst user that speaks looks quite old. close, so close, to zhongli's age, but not QUITE that old. and that gives him a little bit of a youthful air. not quite tired, not quite disconnected from the world. "Mora for your thoughts, or should I buy lunch?"

[astrummorte-m]

@novastrae. starter call.

"That boy of yours," green eyes flicker to the lended mehrak contraption built with old technology and new genius all the same, and he just can't help but chuckle past his next words. "he's not very bright, is he?" mischief glitters in his eyes, ancient and young at the same time. he knew well how the boy felt towards them & their partner. it was just a shame he didn't believe himself WORTHY of such love.

[astrummorte-m]

"Ah, then you have not had their intervention. That's a good thing... or perhaps a damning one. It either means that your Realm Gods have trust in your ability, or that they have turned their back on you. I pray only that it's the former, not the latter." he hums absently, as if to punctuate a run on sentence, though he took his time with his word choice.

slightly clawed fingertips curl out towards the space beyond his back, turning slightly as if to say to follow him. "Come, follow me. I think you might have a bit of a laugh as the common place for Kamen Riders to dwell." he chortles, in his own way, at the momentary thought of Ye Olde Krispe Kreme. "If you do not understand what I say, I can always call a... medium in the matters."

eerie, though, would expect compensation from him.

which is fair, considering his weapon is the reason they're...

...not important.

Realm god...doens't ring a bell.

"Maybe I was doing my job when that lesson happened...but I don't know what a realm god is."

He rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably, after all without him knowing. His realm is relatively new when it came to riders, and well he's not one to dwell on the more specific things. He just wants to be the toughest, strongest, scariest rider out there!

Not that it was easy, he had a lot of competition, even his big bro had a scarier form.

"But talking instead is a great option! It takes real guts to sit down and talk to people you don't know! Sure. I would like that!"

[stellarhistoria]

"You seem tired," the older man's voice carries in a way like the breeze curling through strands of hair, before he tilts his head and smiling. "Bequeath an old man your troubles?" he chuckles. "Strange word choice or not, I s'pose."

@denphelia // genpact au broker & decie. // semi plotted.

[astrummorte-m]

"... You didn't deserve it." his lips thin into a line, the only thing visible under his wide brimmed hat rim. "I know, you already know that, or at least you should... but you didn't. Truly. I'm sorry you did not get the love you needed when you needed it, but I'm glad you got it when you could."

@bedlamology . loni & broker.

[astrummorte-m]

@henshinhero

"Hello, dear...? Yes, I look a little strange, as does the person who runs the cafe, and the library's assistant... others, too. What brought you to speak with me?" says the man who looks to be part bird, and brandishes such attributes almost gleefully. "I don't mind company, but if you need something from me, I'm afraid you'll need the coins."

[stellarhistoria]

"Yes, ah... actually, I could probably just send them both a message right now to let them know we're running around and might stop by Mondstadt. Two of them have my vision, after all." he says with a quiet understanding that showing up out of the blue would make one of them very huffy and he hates seeing them pout over something, small or big.

he looks up towards the sky as he falls silent, continuing his long legged stride with easy pace to follow, breathing slow and quiet, almost as if he were sleeping while awake. only for him to blink and jolt back to reality and shake his head, smirking at something. seems he got a response back.

"Seems like both my first chosen and my daughter are in Mondstadt right now. Meaning his wife will also be in town nearby. That will be fun." his gaze drifts back to decima, reaching out to place a hand on their head to ruffle their hair gently. "You'll be able to meet people I brought from home."

" And I love you, too, " You responded quietly, blinking a little as you glanced at him. It's been... centuries now, since you've last felt the love of a parent. ( you missed your dad to death. ) But you were slowly starting to slowly regain that parental love, thanks to Broker. You paused for a moment, before shaking your head.

" You haven't-! " There was some enthusiasm lacing your words, your eyes sparkling a little. You were always interested in hearing about others' and their personal lives, it was always so interesting, and it always offered some insight of people you wouldn't know.

" Chaotic duo... That just sounds like my older brother and I when we were kids, or my friend Mari and I, " You couldn't help but snort a little. " I wouldn't know anything about the one who lives in Fontaine, but I might've heard about the one in Mondstadt - I live in the Whispering Woods, but I still might've heard about them! Tell me about them. "

[astrummorte-m]

❝ do you think shrimp have feelings? ❞ Tracy to Broker

things said in my parties. @stellafortunae. broker & tracy.

"... Tracy." lips flatten into a line, for a moment. "Everything sentient has some level of feelings, just not in the same way as a mortal human or Cryptid would. I thought that would be obvious."

[astrummorte-m]

"Not everyone can be an otherworldly hero. Sometimes, all you can be is yourself, and whatever comes next is within your control. Better that than, well, the opposite."

[astrummorte-m]

"Hm." amusement, then concern. "Spirits ( @kurikajeremy )? Did- was there a realm break somewhere? I swear I'm seeing ... more than quadruple."

[stellarhistoria]

"Mmm... I have to disagree." his words are quiet - a flutter of a butterfly's wings against the breeze, a crumbling of sand through fingers, a static shock when too much collects in the air, the humidity that doesn't get noticed until you try to breathe too deep, the bubbles underneath the surface detecting life. he was gentle in his soft discordance of reality - as if he lived in the world as much as he was a part of it, here and there and nowhere at all.

"A life is lived as both a sum of memories and a total of choices. That's what makes a person. Those memories, and the actions that happened to make them, are what give life meaning. It's the purpose behind every action," ever youthful features betray their age for a moment as his visage softens, smile crinkling the edges of his eyes in crow's feet. "it's the curiosity that drives a soul to thrive."

"My husband once told me: you are half what you love and half what loves you. I once believed he was a fool, when I was freshly grieving the loss of my entire world. I once believed he had the lofty belief he did because he had lost nothing. As time passed, I had realized... my husband held such beliefs because he had loved, because he had lost, and because he continued to live."

he chuckles and stands up, his towering form tall even to zhongli, but perhaps only slightly taller than a certain winery owner. "No matter how painful, the memories make you half of who you are. Don't forget that. Your love of life is well and true noted, Ren." had the archon asked for a name? perhaps not. but he knew it.

what concerned him was that he could not see where the curiosity began.

close  to  his  HEART  —  ?  the  wanderer's  expression  twists,  surprise  then  annoyance  washing  over  delicate  countenance  in  quick  succession  before  he  has  the  sense  to  smother  it  all  down.  he  would  love  to  point  out  he  has  NOTHING  of  the  sort  —  that  his  chest  is  a  hollow  altar  devoid  of  the  centerpiece  (  of  the  divine  heart  )  it  was  once  constructed  to  hold.  however,  that  would  only  serve  as  an  admission  of  his  inhumanity,  and  he  isn't  foolish  enough  to  announce  such  a  thing  to  a  stranger  he  hardly  knows.  (  he  isn't  foolish  enough  to  announce  it  to  most  people  he  does.  )  instead,  ren  merely  exhales  a  hiss  of  a  sigh  through  harshly  grit  teeth.  reconstructing  his  composure,  piece  by  meticulous  piece.  it's  not  the  sort  of  thing  a  human  would  get  SO  UPSET  over,  and  so  he  should  try  to  feign  that  same  sort  of  indifference  if  he  means  to  maintain  this  careful  masquerade  of  one.

❝  that  wasn't  my  point.  ❞   he  says.  it  feels  like  it  takes  him  an  ETERNITY  to  speak  —  though  in  reality,  ren  suspects  he's  only  paused  a  few  seconds  longer  than  normal.  ❝  i  never  said  memories  were  without  value.  ❞  on  the  contrary,  he  knows  what  it's  like  to  exist  without  them.  for  all  the  pain  they  bring,  stripping  himself  of  his  past  leaves  only  a  hollow  and  unfulfilled  existence  in  their  wake.  it  may  be  a  curse,  but  it's  his  curse  to  bear  —  the  one  that  HE  CHOSE,  when  he  made  the  decision  to  shoulder  his myriad of  sins.  ❝  however,  i  don't  draw  comfort  from  deluding  myself  into  believing  the  dead  are  able  to  maintain  an  EXISTENCE purely  through  my  recollection  of  them.  ❞  he  thinks  of  their  memories  as  something  akin  to  carefully maintained portraits  lining  museum  halls.

❝  i'd  rather  honor  them  through  my  actions.  that's  all.  ❞   the  wanderer  may  never  FORGET,  but  that  doesn't  feel  substantial  enough.  he  needs  to  do  something  —  enact  revenge,  enact  change  as  a  way  to  COMPENSATE  the  dead  for  the  wrongdoings  they  suffered  in  life.   ❝  directly  or  otherwise ...  they  all  suffered  at  the  hands  of  someone  truly  reprehensible.  ensuring  no  one  else  endures  the  same  fate  seems  like  a  fitting  way  to  pay  them  back  for  all  the  misery  they  were  subjected  to.  ❞

[astrummorte-m]

what a terribly lonely experience it must be.

presiding over all knowledge, and only that.

how lonely you must be,

to have the past as your only friend.

[astrummorte-m]

darius libra tags

[stellarhistoria]

hey dad watch this [contorts horrifically] tada

silliness occurs thru the horrors of man / @denphelia.

"... five out of ten." he's seen more horrific. but they're just a kid, so.

[astrummorte-m]

finally, a brief glimmer of a smile, perhaps even a sassy smirk if you could call the expression that, peeks through the gloom and doom of the knowledge god's demeanor. he knows well that she was just messing with him, getting a rise out of him and trying to see if he would crack a joke with her. & maybe that's why he feels at ease around his riders. "I'm used to sillier questions. This was too upfront for you, but not out of pocket. I wanted to hear you laugh." aww.

@astrummorte || not above being a menace

There is a bark of a laugh, thoroughly amused with the answer she'd gotten. He was being so serious about it! "I do know! I've got druid magic, remember? And I was training to be a vet." Tracy let out another laugh as she leaned forward, openly grinning at the god. "You think you'd be used to the silly questions by now."

[stellarhistoria]

Did Broker choose to adopt his current kids, or was it the other way around before he realized how much he cared? You know how kids these days are with good folk.

"I'm not sure."

he has to pause for a moment, consideration furrowing his brow as he meanders through his recent memories. ( and they were / recent, that is. it had been such a short time between THEN & NOW that it felt like he had only sat down after working for a while before the kids had needed him and his husband again. ) when was it, that he had considered them "his kids"?

was it before or after rudeus had all but grinned and spat in the face of his divinity? was it before or after zephyr had looked him in the eyes and smiled, offering him a hand to his emotional feet? was it before or after he had been willing to DIE to protect them? was it before or after he had realized he had fallen in love with their abrasive sense of MORTALITY?

was it before, or was it after, the moment he realized he was in love with life?

"I think... they were always mine, and I was always theirs."