#dval

[constellies]

more writing, but no title for this one ! same vibe as winnower/gardener, sometime after the events of tarot's plotline

Acme's steps leave flowers in her wake, they burst through the hard earth in the underbelly of the Garden. She intrudes upon Stigma's grounds (although this too would count as hers.) She treads on ice and memory, her breath freezes in the air, the flora growing on her shivers and shrinks back.

"Stigma," the Gardener greets her sister, "What has kept you down here for so long? (Are you at least having fun?)"

Stigma does not answer, she is studying Kismet’s Secret. Picking apart their will the countless times she already has to make it into something she can wield. A spear of judgment, glorious and shining and raising a temple for itself. It is far more than the fragments Acme had glimpsed them as at first.

"Will you [please] take a break with me? (You need one. We all do.)" Stigma can hear the many smiles in her voice, trapped behind her words.

"...I will. Give me some time."

"As always."

Acme rolls a flower stem between two fingers. They are sheltered under the shade of trees and sat in the grass. It's begun to overrun her when she sits still for too long.

"Do you think you'll ever be friends? (I hope so...)" She asks.

Stigma knows who she's talking about. She stares at the flower, it's a red spider lilly.

"No. We're too different." Stigma's hands crawl with scales of ice and stolen memories and forbidden knowledge. It spreads down her arms under her sleeves, a pattern of self destruction. Acme has seen it too, and sees it again as Stigma takes the flower from her hands. The flowers wilts in her grasp.

They are watching a dead god swallow her whole.

"Why?" Acme tilts her head, a flower blooms on her cheek and she wipes away the blood. The green streaking through her hair is full of life.

Stigma frowns. "I don't know. Just a feeling I have."

"And you think it's right?"

"I've been right about a lot of things "

"As if that means you're right about everything,/It can be wrong, you know," Acme picks out the forget me nots from her palms. "Why don't you try? Talk to her more. (It never hurts to try.)"

Stigma pins her down in her gaze. The air grows cold. Acme stares back, the flowers are never-ending, blooming and growing and reaching out from each other like fractals.

"You really just don't like her, do you? (I can tell.)"

"Do you think we'd ever be friends?" Achmalier sits on one of the many walls in the Garden. She is untouched, not a single mark of the throne world on her. The scar on her neck is old and faint now.

"I don't know," Acme sits next to her and shrugs, the cloak of life clinging to her shoulders sheds an uncountable amount of flowers, "like us? We were never friends. (Never will be.)"

"Aren't you?" Achmalier questions.

"No, never were. …More like sisters (I think.)" Acme absent-mindedly answers her.

"I feel always a little distant."

She laughs. "That's because you hid from us/me for an eternity. Just spend time with her/us and wait. If you want to be friends, you'll have to go and find her first. (Because she won't. She's too busy.)"

Achmalier notes how ivy has begun to inch her way over to her, eager and reaching. She doesn't want to be part of this place, Acme already knows it.

"Is this what's left of Kismet?"

Achmalier stares up at Stigma's work, it's an alien thing down here, glowing and bright and full of the same cold that pushes away all else. It lights up the entire underground space in the Garden.

"It's all that I could find." Stigma's voice sounds distant despite standing next to her, like as if it was reaching Lier from across a hall (and that hall is across time, stretched and then pressed together.)

"And it's... safe?" She watches as Stigma strides across the threshold before following her.

"Safe as any artifact from a dead god can be. Now let me show you..."

Stigma stands before a decorated spear impaled into a pillar of ice, the final weapon of the god of fate. It is like both an anchor and beacon for unmoored time, and she spreads her arms wide. She opens the floodgates and reaches to a different time to tear it into theirs. A wound in reality is created before her eyes.

Achmalier is witnessing time bleed, and she does not like it.

Stigma turns on a heel and sees her fear.

She clasps her hands together. "This leads to one of Kismet’s dead timelines. Nothing will change with no one to hold their will. It's... something for us to study."

"For you to study," Achmalier rubs the sheath of her knife with a thumb, "don't you think we should leave a god dead? Leave their work lost to time, because their turn is up? We killed Kismet for a reason. I don't want any of them coming back."

"Apocryphal/heretic work in my garden... (Why don't you lay that thing to rest already?)"

Acme is a growing forest personified.

"We are not gods, Acme."

Stigma is like an ax.

"Then what are we, if we aren't born in a lord or mortal shape? Are we caught between like the Lord of Secrets from a roll of the dice? (Are we a chimera? Our own new shape?)"

Her sister grins. She grows faster, more prosperous, more resistant each time.

"What of Achmalier? (She's more human than either of us.)"

Stigma can't keep up, she never will. She feels roots dig into her. Around the verglas inscribed on her skin.

"I don't know."

[constellies]

cracks my knuckles

giant dragons that can change the world to whatever they like. people coming back from the dead sometimes and now with superpowers, no we dont know why. someone put the entire world in a shredder, if you wish hard enough Something Or Someone grants it, no we dont know Who Or What, the ocean is a little fucked up and not The Ocean. oh yeah the dragons like you hope thats not an issue later on, yeah.

ok the last post was infodump friendly. this one is NOT.

i expect you to explain your/something about your magic system as badly as possible. i want to be confused. i want to lack context.

i'll start:

big wyrm gives off radiation that is also magic. ohhh no gas.

[helreginn]

@yggdrasilushxrt asked:

“we keep each other safe.  it’s my turn to protect you.”

"It's not a turn based system, Dval!" Hel laughed, entirely misplaced in the situation. She never had been able to gauge danger when it was near. "We can fight together or not at all."

[nemxricultrix]

A blonde youth passed by today. Hair of spun gold, caught by the wind and rain, walking as if the earth owed a debt with thunderous applause. While they carried not the flame of hate, one could tell a cold drifted from their passage, even with the plants growing in their wake.

I know not their story, but they just marched up the path to the Dval Pass, not even stopping for supplies or respite.

[devilsalley]

DEVIL'S ALLEY - INFO

What is Devil's Alley?

Devil's Alley is an oc askblog with a narrative focus that follows the story by interacting with the cast. Many characters will come and go as time passes, and there are many secrets and hidden messages to find! This blog is best viewed with the custom theme on browser, as things will change over time and secrets can be found on the custom theme.

This story contains elements of horror, posts will be tagged appropriately, but do let us know if we missed something!

After every story update, the askbox will open and readers will be able to ask questions to further the story (some updates may be attached to an ask.) Other updates may be polls, puzzles, or art! If you have a question or want to contact me while asks are closed, send an ask to my main @constellies.

When are updates?

Updates do not have a fixed schedule and will be announced and uploaded when they are ready.

Tag list:

LETTERS - asks to various characters

AUTHOR ASK - asks to the creator(s)

DVAL - every story post + drawings

PHOTOBOOK - art of the characters

BOOKS OF DESCENSION - story posts related to character lore/story and worldbuilding

BROADCASTS - text/update posts

#'character name' - find specific posts with a character

#'act #' - find specific story or ask posts from a specific section of story

#sillyposting - what it says on the tin

#🥞 - posts by soup

#💫 - posts by dragon

[detval]

https://dval.org/share.php?u=29A40A6422C1532DC1E319C3A644ED1A

[side-line]

Colombian darkwave act Antiflvx lands 3rd full length: ‘Dval Canvas’

http://dlvr.it/Sx8dgm

[masonmccheers]

silversincere replied: are you a tomcat? @joiexvalerianxx

MEOW!

[joiearielps]

joiexvalerianxx mentioned you in a post

…to me! ( @emilyofjoie, @ joiearielps )

No more suggestions of threesomes with my brother and we’ll see what we can do...

[felicianomusic]

Live • #TELETONMEXICO 🍃🇲🇽🏞➕ @diegovaloficial ••••••••••••••••••• 🔮: @_kbocanegra ✨ 🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️⚛️ #Music #Live #Taxco #Guerrero #Teletón #Dval #Fender #Telecaster #Nord #Synth #Fullflor #Style #Dreadlocks #Felicanodiego #Perú #México #Perrolocostore (en Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico)

[heldvisionsarch]

❝ i think i’m pretty safe. who would care enough to hurt me ? ❞ [ to dvalin ]

the dragon gives the god a draconic mental equivalent of an exasperated eyeroll. “ i wonder- ” dvalin begins, tone dry. “ it’s not like you have an impressive list of enemies that you have accumulated in the past two and a half millennia . . . not as many as lord morax, perhaps. but a long list, regardless. ”

“ and since it seems that you’ve forgotten- ” dvalin slaps his tail- attempting to drive in his point. “ the times have changed drastically, barbatos. you should pay more attention to the world around you. for not just your well being, but the well being of mond. ”

chaos of stars. @bardictales

[constellies]

this relationship chart looks like a fucking food web

[codenamesilas]

There's a note left on the table

"Silas,

The issue has been resolved for the time being. I got pretty banged up during the altercation. Still alive, though. Just taking some time to heal up. I'll need to see about getting a replacement phone though- mine didn't survive.

Talk to you soon,

Dval Evelyn."

That's a lot of cause for concern there. He knows Eve is a good fighter, and he trusts her judgement. That doesn't mean he isn't still worried.

[helreginn]

@yggdrasilushxrt asked:

[Touch Meme] Impishness clung to Dvalinn's mind on that day. Harmless little tricks for laughs- who could be cross with a Hart for wanting to pass some time with benign shenanigans? Hel was her present target, a worthy challenge for sneaking up on! Dvalinn took her time with it, keen on avoiding any giveaway. Bit by bit, she got closer. Only once she was in range did she move into her cervid frame and close the distance to deliver a loooooooong lick on the side of her dear friend's face. Mature? Hardly. Humorous to her? Absolutely!

Like a mother snow leopard, keenly aware but pretending not to notice the approach of her mischievous child, Hel hummed softly as she slowly walked ahead of her friend. The goddess was cocky. Complacent. She had expected the surprise but not the aggressive tongueing. It earned a gasp from the redhead and she laughed as she tried to pull her cheek away.

"Dval!!!!!" She squealed helplessly as she continued to laugh. "Why?" Despite her mild disgust, Hel beamed from ear to ear. After all these years of kinship, she knew that the Hart had her ways of showing affection. If this was one? So be it.

[therosefrontier]

Whumptober Day 4

No. 4 - TRUST FALL

“Do you trust me?” | taken hostage | pushed

+++

Genshin Impact | Diluc, Kaeya, and Mondstadt’s resident dragon friend

(crossposted to AO3)

+++

“Well, what a surprise this is, you asking me for help? You must be really desperate, then.”

“Don’t get any ideas. I’m not asking for your help tonight; I’m only asking for this one favor.”

“So, you play hero and I watch from the sidelines? Hmph, you wound me, Diluc.”

Diluc leveled his eyes at Kaeya with complete lack of amusement. He really didn’t have time for this. He pulled his sort-of brother into the stock room at Angel’s Share this morning with the intention of getting him alone with as little fanfare as possible (he wouldn’t be going to the knights for this, that’s for certain) and in as little time as possible. “I’m serious,” he insisted. “I’m only asking you to do this because you’re the only one who can. I need you to convince Vind to leave her post, just for one night. There’s going to be danger, and I need to ensure her safety. Obviously, I can’t do it myself, as this could reveal me as…well, the rumored vigilante.”

“The Darknight Hero, you mean?” Kaeya supplied with a smirk.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Fine, fine.” Kaeya shrugged. “I understand; you wish to keep your secret identity a secret. No worries; I have no intention of letting Vind be prey to some Abyss mages tonight. I’ll make an excuse to get her out.”

“Right…wait!” Diluc’s eyes widened at the realization. “I didn’t tell you—!"

“That the Abyss Order was the ‘danger’ described?” Kaeya appeared far too satisfied with himself. “Don’t be so surprised. I have my sources just like you have yours. It is the reason why Sucrose is on her way right now to tell Vind about those strange weather anomalies in Dragonspine that need her attention right now, as they could be the sign of a great storm that the expertise passed down to her through generations might be useful for. Plus, she has the official knightly request signed by yours truly.”

Diluc sighed. “You…already had a plan.” Of course, he did. A very official-sounding one, actually. “Wait, is there actually…?” If this was a lie, there was no way that Sucrose would go with it.

“No, probably not, it’s just a little stretching of the truth. I asked Albedo to hype up the facts for this purpose. But don’t worry, he doesn’t know any details.”

And…he got Albedo in on his scheme as well. “You would think of everything.” He exhaled while rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Well, fine then, you do that; I’ll handle the rest.”

  It really wasn’t that much of a surprise to him that Kaeya would show up anyways. And, if he was being honest, it wasn’t unwelcome. Especially considering his timing.

Diluc struggled to regain his footing quickly, use the flat side of his claymore as a shield when another barrage of cryo icicles came his way. The cryo still caused a melt reaction on the flaming bush in front of him that made the fire burst in his face and deal yet another painful shot of damage. He inhaled a sharp breath and responded with launching himself at the cryo abyss mage with a flaming sword. He then unleashed his flaming phoenix on the hoard—half of Stormbreaker Point was already on fire, so it really wouldn’t matter if he added more flames to the mix.

A wound on Diluc’s arm was bleeding heavily, and he reached up to touch his face to confirm that there was blood there, too. Before him, a large group of abyss mages and Hilichurls made a blockade stretching across the clifftop and around the watchtower, and behind them, four Ruin Guards stood as support. The grass and trees around them had caught on fire, making a beacon in the pitch-black night sky. Behind Diluc, there was the edge of Stormbreaker Point and the long drop to the ocean. And beside him, there was Kaeya.

Diluc did not expect the fight to be as intense as it was. He knew that the Order was planning some raid because they got it in their heads that the tower at Stormbreaker Point must have something vitally important in it, and that Vind was some kind of powerful, mystical protector of it. Hilichurls hung around the tower a lot, so maybe they…communicated, somehow? Either way, Diluc planned to put a stop to it. However, he wasn’t planning on this much resistance…maybe they learned of his involvement?

Or maybe, that one Abyss mage in the middle, the cackling pyro one, was just a cut smarter than the rest. It made a point to sneer at the “Darknight Hero” upon Diluc’s arrival, and when Kaeya came in from nowhere to bowl through the line and take his place by Diluc’s side, it sneered at him, too.

“Well, if it isn’t the great cavalry captain of the Knights of Favonius? Such a…wonderfully unique star in your eye, isn’t it?”

Diluc felt Kaeya tense by his side.

“Hehehe, what’s the matter? Worried about your precious Darknight Hero? Or your precious secrets?”

Kaeya didn’t respond to the taunt. He kept his stance steady, his sword angled towards the hoard. His one visible eye didn’t lose sight of the sword’s target. “They’re coming,” Kaeya spoke in a whisper that only Diluc could hear. “Our reinforcements.”

So Kaeya knew, coming here, that the battle was bad enough that they would need help.

“What’s that, oh great knightly captain?”

Most of the mages didn’t talk that much. Diluc wasn’t sure they even knew much, or if they remembered things. They ran on their one-track goal against humanity, and they plotted and schemed to meet that goal. It was enough of a reason to destroy every one of their ilk Diluc saw.

(He tried not to think much about what Kaeya told him that day, about the truth. He didn’t know what to do with that truth. He couldn’t protect Mondstadt if he doubted what he should do about it, so he didn’t. Whatever those mages used to be, they were only monsters now.)

Kaeya unleashed a blast of cryo in front of him, and Diluc followed by running into the fray of fighting renewed, taking out every creature he saw. In his distraction, he almost missed that he had been targeted by a Ruin Guard’s missile, and he stumbled to the ground in a desperate last-minute attempt to dodge. A Mitachurl tried to capitalize on that moment of weakness and bring down its giant flaming axe on him, but Kaeya in that moment dove in and struck the monster deep in the side. He then grabbed Diluc and they dodged backwards.

They were going back too far. Little by little, they were losing ground, to the point that their feet neared the edge of the precipice. Still, they fought. It hadn’t been so long for them that Diluc’s fighting by Kaeya’s side felt unnatural…although it was odd. Because, they were older now. Kaeya had a Cryo vision now. Everything was…different, but every now and again, they’d still end up doing something together anyways.

Diluc breathed heavily, his hands around his claymore sweating underneath the gloves. He pushed whatever pain he felt from his injuries somewhere deep, deep in the back of his mind. He needed—they needed to push through the line. He wasn’t confident in the state of his glider after getting himself roughed up and singed so much or in their ability to avoid further attacks during their descent.

“Kaeya, we need to—”

“Diluc, do you trust me?”

Diluc’s eyes darted over to him, taken aback by the gravity in Kaeya’s softly-spoken question. “What kind of question is that?”

“Well, do you?”

As if he could answer that in one sentence or less. He trusted him…in some ways, he guessed. He trusted him in battle. He trusted him…with Mondstadt, yes. Just…well…that was all very besides the point and this was really not the time. “Yes, sure,” he huffed.

“Excellent.” Kaeya smiled.

What was he—?

Then, Kaeya laughed, loudly and triumphantly, a wild look in his eye and he reached out for Diluc’s collar and grabbed it tight. His soft voice had turned into a shouting, mocking one. “Hahaha, end of the line, Darknight Hero! The Knights have no need of meddlers like you!”

What the fu—

He pushed him. Before Diluc knew what was happening, he felt his body succumbing to gravity, his feet losing their hold on the stone of Stormbreaker Point’s edge and following the rest of his body into the open air, suddenly void of every handhold or foothold within reach.

Kaeya fucking pushed him.

Diluc had to open his glider—fast. It wasn’t working. The hell was Kaeya thinking he couldn’t open it in time he was going to—

And then, he landed on something with a thud, much sooner than he should have. The surface uneven and scaly and distinctly familiar, it didn’t take him long to realize that it was a someone. Was that—?

Dvalin arced into the sky with a powerful beat of his wings, looping back around to the space underneath the cliff, coming in close at the moment Kaeya jumped off the edge as well. Diluc repositioned himself on Dvalin’s back to a place of more stability astride his spine and watched Kaeya make a much more graceful (much better prepared, that is) landing than he did.

Diluc’s first thought was that he was relieved to see Kaeya in one piece. His second was that it was time to demand an explanation. “What was that about?”

“Clever, wasn’t it?”

“You could have told me something!”

“But would it have believable to the mages if I did? You’re not that great of an actor, Diluc.”

“Your theatrics are utterly pointless,” Diluc huffed. “And now that we’re both gone, who’s going to stop them?”

“Well, look down,” Kaeya directed.

Dvalin had flown back up into the sky, well above the surface of the cliff but low enough that one could see exactly what was going on. Diluc looked down and saw, sure enough, some familiar forms attacking the small army on the cliff, now at the perfect position to pin them against the edge. He saw Jean herself, along with Amber, the Traveler, Eula, and a number of other knights as backup. Diluc had almost forgotten that Kaeya did tell him about the reinforcements. Looking again, he noticed even Venti hanging in the back, acting as if he were there for mild support and not the actual anemo archon. Dvalin’s presence was probably his doing. Wait, Kaeya didn’t know about Venti, did he…?

“Since we had discovered during our Golden Apple Archipelago adventure that our very curious bard friend is a good friend of our resident dragon, I thought I’d ask him for his assistance. Sure, there’s other ways we could have gone about this, but sometimes, striking fear into the hearts of your enemy is very much a job for ‘theatrics,’ as you called them.”

Well, it did make some sense, Diluc guessed. He was just relieved to see that the reinforcements in question were having little trouble that hoard which had given him such a difficult time solo. Still, the relief didn’t quite keep all the lingering irritation from his voice. “You really called in the knights.”

“Well, this may come as a surprise, but that is their job.”

“Hmph,” Diluc grunted. “You say that like it would have been easy to get the bureaucracy to trust an anonymous source about the attack happening in the first place. They’re consistently useless on matters like this.”

“So you still don’t trust them.”

“No.” He’s established this already.

“All of them?”

“I trust Jean,” Diluc clarified.

Although, he supposed she might not be the only one on the list. There were…some knights who knew what they were doing, mostly. And, he had respect for the Honorary Knight, not that they really counted as a “knight” in an institutional sense.

“Well, that’s a start.” Kaeya shook his head with a smile. “I’d be worried if you threw even her under the bus for doing nothing wrong at all.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Is it, now?”

“Kaeya, what are you even talking about?”

“Well, maybe I could bring to your recollection that because of your insistence on working alone, you walked into a rather significant ambush today, facing a threat to Mondstadt without bothering to communicate to the people of Mondstadt, and also sending poor Vind all the way to Dragonspine because you couldn’t be forthright on the potential danger to her life.”

“You know that last part was specifically your plan, right?”

“But you were the one who wanted me to make up an excuse.”

“You literally already had your plan in motion while I was talking to you this morning!”

“Are you two quite finished?” Dvalin’s booming voice rattled through their ribs, his point made quite loud and clear.

“Right, understood,” Kaeya agreed. “So, Diluc, ready to head back and get someone to look at that arm of yours?”

“I can still fight, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I do not think that would be necessary. They’ll be fine, and besides, I can always return to provide backup.”

“No,” Diluc refused. “If I’m seeing a healer, so are you.”

“So you’re fine with that, then?”

Dvalin was already ending his circling to start heading towards the city of Mondstadt, but Diluc could still look back and see the clashing forces on the cliff, now with two Ruin Guards down and many more mages extinguished or thrown off the edge. It was clear to see who the winning side was, now.

“It’s fine,” Diluc finally conceded with a steady exhale. “I trust them.”

[rodentbard]

“ you are waiting for someone who is not coming back. ” for venti :)

“ ... “ Venti is quiet at the words his old dear friend uttered. It’s almost like Dvalin meant to make him feel bad - meant to make him feel heavy and like the only relief there would ever be was to get SO black-out drunk that he would just FORGET. And truly, it’s the first thing on Ventis mind, how he could drown this out, how he could feel light & FREE again.

The Bard had heard that often enough - from himself - and from others. After all, there was no waiting for something that’s been permanently lost.

“ -- I know. “ Venti finally utters, feet shifting on the ground. He takes a step back, another, he can feel his mind getting heavier, and he can feel himself tear up slowly, shaking his head. “ I’m sorry, you’re right. “ He says, while tearing up, still stepping back, hands wandering up to wipe at his eyes. “ I’m sorry. “ Venti isn’t one to apologize - especially not on this scale - even when he fucks something up - it’s like he refuses to apologize ( maybe he just hoped that would make it easier for others to leave him ).

Finally pausing, a shaky sob heaves out of him. “ -- I-.. Dvalin.. “ He knew who Dvalin was speaking of, but in a way, he feels, Dvalin also means himself. It’s been a bit, since his dragon friend had even shown his face. Seeing him, it didn’t help Ventis heavy heart.

Guilt rippled him. He wanted to run away, he wanted to run away, escape this responsibility, hide away, get drunk, intoxicated.

“ Dval-lin.. “ He pauses in the middle of the word, voice faltering, quiet, barely leaving his throat. And instead of running away, he tries to approach again, a hand weakly reaching out. “ Dvalin! I’m sorry! D-don’t-- “ He sniffles a sob. “ Don’t leave me here! “