#tianyou ☠ 001

[elokian]

who?: @faelortianyou where?: the streets™️ when?: after all this aventia mess who cares about that tho some people got real problems

He distracted his crew with pillaging while Lysara defended herself against the many threats she seemed to be facing. As far as Elokian could tell, the nation was finished and he sure as shit wasn't going to let his armada get caught up in the mess. However, he wasn't ready to let the Raiders of Neptune's Fleet plunder Eterna to the bones quite yet. His ships could be seen sailing between Lysara and Caribella for months now, an unusual occurrence for the fleet known to sail all over the world. He was looking for someone, and thanks to good intel Elokian finally found him. Perhaps after making contact, he'd sail away, or perhaps he may need to stay for longer than anticipated…

Due to his more recent crimes against the Queendom, Elokian moved dashed over the rooftops of Eterna with a hood over his head. He knew a noble may not stick around, so he had to make contact now no matter his personal reservations. When he turned his back on Avalon, he turned his back on it all. It'd been decades since he sought out a high elvhen and centuries since he faced off against the nobles of Elgar'nan’s Hearth. The undefeated record in combat games from his youth may have been the only card he had left to play to get some respect, but he'd try. Elokian promised Robin he'd try. When he spotted his quarry he let out a sharp whistle to draw attention in one direction so he could drop down from the other, a useful strategy if he was planning a surprise attack. But as Elokian drew up from his spread leg power stance, he pulled back his hood with a grin and no weapon to show. "Aye, you're not an easy one to come across. Then again, the most sought-after men in history ever are," he said to Tianyou, spitting off to the side to seem nonchalant though he was nervous in a way he'd forgotten he was capable of. There was no easy way through this situation, nothing he could do to force Tianyou's hand or beat him into submission. Elokian was a Raider, but staying true to that wouldn't accomplish anything. "It turns out I may need you. Ironic, isn't it? I gave up my Light to be selfish, and now I may selfishly need it again. And you. I'm in some deep shit."

[elokian]

"What? You've never gone fist to fist as a means of saying hello? To pass the time? Just to put a smile on your face? I'm being friendly, I swear. I got on my knees for you, you're the one who told me to get up." Elokian's charms, if you could call them that, came from his audacity. He would always put his money where his mouth was, no matter who or what he faced. Persistence was a quality he was proud to show off. "If you feel antagonized by a drunk sailor who's trying to have a good time, that's on you. I'm only here to get help. Besides, why be antagonized by someone you feel so superior to? I thought I wasn't worth being on your radar," he counters, his grin as wide as the berth of his arm as he slaps Tianyou's shoulder in a hefty pat. "Loosen up, highborn. You don't become a legend by failing to surpass expectations. Seeing me coming is not the same as stopping my advance. Case in point, I tracked you down, and unless you scurry on past the Moongate to avoid me, I'll keep doing it, too. I'll be all up in your business, so see away."

Palms crooked under his pits, tongue brushing over his teeth, Elokian looked rather entertained. True, his approach may not have been the most tactful and his seafarer's tongue might've undercut the humility it took to admit he needed help, but Elokian wasn't a fool. This wasn't just about finding a way forward, this was about covering his bases. He needed Tianyou to know exactly what he was about and he needed to look the other in the eye to learn the same about him. Whether the high elvhen realized it or not, it took an immense amount of effort for Elokian to force himself to trust the other. "You mean you don't want to trade sexcapades over drinks? Gods, I was starting to get excited. I'm fun company, you know. For the most part." Another lewd remark, another diversion, Elokian was an elvhen constantly on the move. Like the tides, he never settled which meant serious moments held little interest to him. But at this point, why bother hiding anything from Tianyou? "You don't get it, do you? What it means to be a Raider? The life is everything, and in death I'll be mourned by some. The waves will keep on turning without me. I don't fear death. But my dying isn't the worst outcome for those I'd leave behind." Elokian had done all he could to prepare Robin for life without him, still there were fates worse than death. The Veiled Sea had taught him as much.

 "It's not an act. I mean, I do give a fuck about myself, but I'm not going to sit around crying about a big set back like this. I'm a Captain, and the moment that anyone begins to suspect something is wrong—and that goes doubly for my crew—I'm finished. Like blood in the water, sharks will start circling. The fact that I am here, begging for your help, knowing you have no reason to offer any should tell you how serious this is for me. Whatever else I may seem. I'm not scared of dying, but I'm terrified that my mistakes will mark Neptune's Fleet as easy prey. What do you think the other major Captains would do if they heard about my condition? If they thought I was weak? My death would be a more favorable outcome, but a Captain who can't be relied upon would cause more suffering than if I just ended myself here and now. You want my fears? I only fear failing my crew again by not getting this fixed before my body gets taken over. Me dying would be a mercy to them. At least then, they wouldn't have to deal with my shit." As he spoke, that smile of his faded into something more serious. Elokian looked up to Tianyou without wavering. "I can count on one hand how many people know what's going on with me, and you're in that club now. I'm vulnerable, and that is dangerous. More dangerous than death. My treasure isn't my life, it's my legacy and I can't protect that like this. What I fear most is that my story ends with me being a victim. Dying like a Raider will make me a legend, but having my soul consumed and my body taken over? That's a fate I will do whatever it takes to stop."

"Elokian...I don't need to fight you to gain pleasure. You're asking for my help here, are you not? You would do well to not antagonize me. Plus, antagonizing me doesn't work." After how much he dealt with Riandur, he was desensitized to that sort of thing. Tianyou was so often frustrated with his other half that it felt like others could never really bother him. Elokian was obviously trying to get some sort of rise out of him and he would not let that happen. All of that meditation did work wonders for his many frustrations. "I never said you weren't good. I just said you wouldn't be able to beat me. I'll always see you coming," he stated with a pat on the other's face.

A brow rose as Elokian went on and on and on. Tianyou was used to people talking his ear off. Eventually, he would have to find a way to accept his path in life. He'd have to take over once his father was gone. It was a path he had not chosen for himself, but it was one he would have thrust upon him anyway. The high elvhen supposed he understood the other's plight. He had people counting on him as well. His mother. His siblings. Ikaros. Abelas. Areina. Even Riandur. But he wasn't the one that had a demon latched onto him. He wasn't as stupid as the silver elvhen standing in front of him. Well, he supposed stupid wasn't the right word in Elokian's case. Nonchalant about everything was more like it. Even if he was damn near begging for his situation to go away. "I really don't need you to teach him how to do anything. We are perfectly fine without your assistance. You need to give me something better than that." His fingers lifted to his chin. "Maybe some sort of acceptance that you fear death because the people around you would suffer from it as opposed to acting like you don't give a fuck about yourself."

[elokian]

"Sounds like a cop out to me. Beating me would be easy? And who decided that?" Violence without aggression, combat without malice, Elokian shed the blood of his enemies as easily as he drew breath into his lungs. He loved to fight, hell he was born for it. And as Val'shira would surely attest to, Elokian had no problem getting in the face of stuck up nobles. "If you think you wouldn't have fun with me in a ring, that's your deficiency. Only a bore or a stiff wouldn't derive pleasure. I'm very good."

Good enough to put everything on the line, aside, wherever it needed to go to get what he wanted. He rose to his feet and slipped his hat back on, his pride taking no hits from Tianyou's laughter. Elokian made a promise he intended to keep, that's how important he was. He could be paraded around each branch for every highborn of Avalon to point and laugh at his circumstances and Elokian wouldn't care. Turning his back on the tree meant turning his back on them, so they owed him nothing. But if there was a chance this ritual could work for him, then he'd take anything. "Disease, age, or even the wrong side of canon fire would be acceptable to me. No, I don't fear death, and of course, I don't give a shit about someone else's choice in that matter. Neptune knows I've made that decision for plenty. What I can't accept is my downfall because of some demon from beyond. I've got shit to do and promises to keep. I'm not ready to go out like this." Say what you will about Elokian, but he was an elvhen with conviction. When he puts something into words, he means every bit of it, and that had nothing to do with his truthful tongue. "I need help. It's not easy for me to say, but I do. Believe it or not, I got people counting on me. So help me, and I'll teach that man of yours how to suck the very soul out of your dick. The Caribellan ways are unmatched."

A brow rose as Elokian spoke. The other elvhen was…quite eccentric, but Tianyou had always surrounded himself with people like that. The only difference here was that the two of them were not friends. He wasn’t sure if they had ever really considered each other that. Tianyou often found himself speaking to everyone that resided on his branch of the Laurelin though. Elokian fell into that category. Civil until they gave him a reason not to be. Before Tianyou could even respond to one part of the other’s statement, the silver elvhen was speaking again. Arms folding across his chest, he waited for the yapping to finish before he chose to respond. “A sparring match wouldn’t be fun. Beating you would be too easy.” And far too embarrassing for Elokian. Apparently this entire conversation was going to be embarrassing enough for the raider.

A demon. Elokian had been saddled with a demon and now he was asking for Tianyou’s help. The first instinct he had was to laugh. As much as he wished to stop, he couldn’t stop the fact that the laugh had actually fallen from his lips. From the serious look upon the other’s face to the begging on his knee, he couldn’t stop laughing. “Are you serious?” It was a rhetorical question as he stopped laughing finally. It wasn’t a funny situation, but one thing had caught his attention. One single thing that Elokian said caught his attention and that was that the silver elvhen had said he wasn’t ready to die. “You willingly chose to be a silver elvhen and you’re not ready to die? You’re a raider and you’re not ready to die?” Sometimes he was sure that people mistook his kindness for weakness. “Some people don’t have the choice like you do.” His hand dropped to Elokian’s shoulder. “You should fear death. You should be desperate.” His brows furrowed as he looked down at raider captain. “Get up. There’s one man I prefer on his knees and you’re not him.”

[elokian]

Loathe as he would be to admit it, Elokian hadn't been eager to return to Avalon since he was forced to make his choice. He turned his back on the tree and in over two decades hadn't given the elvhen realm much thought. There wasn't anything waiting for him there anymore because even when he was still a high elvhen he made it clear that the sea was his home. "Aye, a good Raider is down to try anything once. Besides, I love a flashy entrance. Do you honestly think you'd give me a second to say my piece if I just approached you on the street? Nah, this way is more fun for the both of us." Elokian started bounding on his toes, shuffling his feet and squaring his shoulders as he shadowboxed a little bit. "Or maybe the fun thing would be to have a little sparring match together, eh? It gets boring being better than everyone else sometimes. I haven't gone fist to fist with someone from the Hearth in a long time. You down for that?"   Of course, he was being mostly humorous and broke out into laughter, placing his hands on his hips while he arched backward to release his boisterous guffaws. Yeah, Elokian was stalling. There was nothing comfortable about this situation for him, but he made a promise to Robin. His story would not end with that mystery box. "I searched for you because this is pretty sensitive information for me and I figured a noble would be too busy prancing around the Laurelin to care much about how this impacts the mortal realm," he says, cutting off his laughter abruptly to speak. Suddenly, Elokain's mood got serious as he looked at Tianyou directly, even taking off his hat as a sign of humility. "I got myself saddled with a demon. Just my body for now, but it'll get worse before it gets better. Now, I heard there's an Elvhen ritual that can help me out. I've never heard of any said ritual, but I figured a noble might have. Or, at the very least, you'd know where I need to go. I promised I'd never return, but if I've got to go back then…" He trails off, hesitation clear from his body language. Still, Elokian drops to one knee and looks up at Tianyou with nothing but sincerity in his eyes. "Please, I'm in a very desperate position here. I'm not ready to die."

It was always funny to Tianyou when people tried to get the jump on him. Really. If said person was someone that knew his specific ability, he started to question their logic and common sense. The elvhen was not often judgmental towards people, but his mood lately had been less than savory. After everything that was going on, he had half a mind to just head back to Avalon and never come back. But then he would be leaving Riandur and he had made a promise that he would stay as long as he could. Then again, did that even matter now? They barely even saw each other these days with everything going on. As much as Tianyou was over at Caer Glas Keep, he felt like they were just two ships passing in the night. Hm, what a fitting statement for the man that had decided to attempt to sneak up on him.

A whistle from one side and dropping down from the other? He'd almost give Elokian props for it if it had worked. It wouldn't, but at least there had been effort. Sort of. Nothing fell from his lips as the raider started speaking immediately. He had half a mind to walk away, but Tianyou didn't much care about why someone would want to become a silver elvhen. Elokian's choice was Elokian's choice. Why would he tell him to do any different? As the other finally finished speaking, he slowly nodded his head, a corner of his mouth lifting slightly for barely a second. There was a short scoff that followed. "I would think you would know by now that you can't sneak up on me. I don't know why you would try." He paused and observed the silver elvhen. "Well, what do you need?" Tianyou was willing to help. Depending on what it was, of course.