astralyavie

[astralyavie]

#musing #hayliel #musing.hayliel

[astralyavie]

#mirror

[astralyavie]

"I should take my leave though, things to see, people to kill." Or was it things to kill and people to see? Yavie supposed he'd make up his mind when he got there. Tepiltzin did try, but he was a terrible conversationalist; where his tongue failed to turn silver, that mop of curls atop his head closed the rest of the distance. Fortunately for them both the liche's candor was one that Yavie's capricious mind had a tendency towards, all Tepiltzin needed to do was make a few declarations of power and it was clear how similar the two of them truly were. Yavie would always forgive him though, so as he stood he left the liche with something of a parting song. "Tep-ilt-zin," Yavie sang, his tune light clear as a bell, "don't stay out of trouble." Somehow, the Astral doubted that the liche would be able to stop himself even if he wanted to, and true to Yavie's nature, he would be looking forward to what would come from what Tepiltzin would do next. The Astral turned away from the liche and just as quickly as he did the creature had disappeared entirely, fading almost instantly with the brief flicker of a blanket of stars foreign to any mortal sky.

END

He made the action of his lips pursing together, but the skeletal apparition which greeted Yavie likely made the action undetectable, the words resonating as a truth. All Tepiltzin had ever done was under the guise of his own survival, stripping his identity and becoming Seth Lozano as he abandoned what once was. Under the Asphodel, under Oztalun he could live within his truth, but the liche had lived so many different realities, a multitude of lies and fabricated beliefs, that even as a skeleton stared back at the Astral elf, stripped bare to their bones, was it genuinely the sorcerer? The gelid cold had always been the embrace which welcomed him, a lone soul who'd not needed friendship nor companionship, little birds occupied his interest from time to time, but none ever wrought significance for him; power was the very crux which drew him in each time. Warriors, aspiring royals, con artists, those who understood the game of this realm and sought to profit from it; that was another commonplace with the Astral elf, until Yavie seemed to alienate himself from this realm completely. "Right," a brief flash of a skeletal smile, before the glamor was raised once more, flesh stitching across familiar edges and musculature to form the visage of Seth.

"I had a feeling to expect nothing less of you," the Astral was some Otherworldly testament, something which the liche could not entirely understand, druidic roots steeped so deeply in the mortal realm it could be conveyed as a surprise that he craved the Abyss. But even something so otherworldly as the Astral, with it's substantially different flow of time, was eclipsed by the manic ideas of the Artillerist, and Tepiltzin was certain not to skip upon the very invitation, even if it meant the liche would surely be completely out of his own element.

#tepiltzin #as ye wish #the way my spellchecker violently hates the word liche

[astralyavie]

"You're like me." Yavie admitted, "You love yourself more than you'll ever be able to love someone else." As strong as the liche had become it was clear that the vampire hadn't managed this alone. It required magic, powerful magic that was capable of accessing and harnessing the powers of the Abyss. Anyone with enough intuition would know how that transpired, of those connected to the necromantic forces, Tepiltzin would have the most challenging time hiding if he wasn't blatantly working to mask his presence. Stood on skeletal display, it was clear that the liche wasn't trying to hide. "Our difference is you signed your name in the book. It won't want to let you go." It wasn't a criticism; there was a good chance that an eternity could go by without a piper to pay. "Fortunately, it's destroyed, though, right?" Yavie smiled at this, playful implication of what was gradually becoming encroachingly obvious. The Inferno was gone, Gods flooded into this realm, and demons ran rampant through the Otherworld. These Romans who'd fought so hard hadn't succeeded in winning anything.

Yavie tilted into a more comfortable position and hovered a few feet off the ground with his cheek propped against his fist as if he were lounging on a couch. Even as an eladrin the Astral rarely touched the ground, it felt reminiscent of his own detachment. Even now, the discussion was oddly casual that at some point, this realm that the people of this world had called home for so long would come to an abrupt end. Yavie had traveled to enough places across the Astral to know that ends were inevitable; this continent threaded by the Otherworld wouldn't last forever; it was painfully clear that it had been dying for a very long time. The budding rot would sweep what remained, and through that decay, the Astral was at least confident that he'd be able to whisk the few people who mattered to him to safety. "You'll never forget it." Time flowed differently in the Astral, it made binging interdimensional cable so much easier.

Everything he'd sought and searched for since he'd been turned into a Mars vampire had been granted recently; necromancy salvaged the pieces of Tepiltzin that he thought he'd never see again; sorcery, magic, dark arts. Being a vampire held such chasmic nothingness within, it was an unbearable truth and feeling, something that allowed his cruelty to expand as though it would line the empty fragments within him and heal what was so desolate and cold. Death magic, possession; it was a slight leap to the left when it came to abilities and sorcery he once garnered but the elicited feeling of magic resonating in his veins once more was worth any transition towards differentiated power. He smiled at Yavie's expected answer, the liche nearly grinned ear to ear.

"So, what do you say of me?" A dangerous question for the liche as he tread towards thoughts of the heart, matters where logic was abandoned under the pleas of love. "If I love nothing, why am I still powerful as a result?" Denial was stronger than any advocacy of love; Seth had let Yurena sacrifice herself for the liche could not figure himself to do it by his own hand; love did not serve him, it weakened any sensible person, and so the Criminal did away with it. The betrayal within the Returned's eyes glossed over any former affections she'd once had for the liche and though Tepiltzin did not miss a beat when it came to continuing his sorcery, laying the foundations for his Abyssal loyalties; it was another pang of emptiness that resounded within. The grin returned as he clapped the other on the arm, it spoke of fondness, a rarity for the liche who understood violence more than friendliness, "An invitation? From Yavie?" He mocked the Astral elf's former mockery, but he nodded in a pleased affirmation, "If I need a vacation, you'll be the first I call."

#tepiltzin

[astralyavie]

When stars died, they didn't go quietly; they collapsed and took in everything around them. It hurt to become. Yavie thought briefly to what his mother had said years ago, that adage so popular among the most ancient of his kind that had trickled down over the ages: set your heart ablaze. Yavie learned firsthand what became of elves who lost their zest for life; in his heart, he had been born an unquenchable flame, all-consuming and never satisfied. From the stars, Yavie had been born, and to the stars, he returned every night. "Starving." Proof that you could be well-fed and hungry all at once; the Abyssal powers that called to Tepiltzin were woven into the core of the liche's rare being. Each daemonfey was tethered to it in some form; sacrifice equated to strength. Suffering. Tied to the world above, everyone was made to wilt parts of themselves to feed what mattered most.

"Of course." It was a simplistic answer to a simple question, "It's a cliche for a reason, love is the most powerful force in any realm: it's why the Abyss will force you to destroy it if you ever wish to separate from It. Why the Abyss make you that much stronger for feeding what you love to It." Hayliel was Yavie's singularly most important earthly tether, the Astral were detached creatures by nature, he wasn't a citizen of this continent, not like the elves of old or current, and his reasons for staying boiled down to something that was inherently selfish. Then again, all of Yavie's pursuits were selfish, even Somniar's maiming had been entirely for his own entertainment. Though it was obvious that he had an affinity for those with skeletal features. "Affection? From Tepiltzin? You're too good to me." The liche's confirmation wasn't needed but mutually acknowledged; in mortal years, this realm had only rotated its star a single time, but Yavie had enjoyed watching the vampire's descent. He planned to observe further, just as he would others. "I do, several actually, with room for a third if you ever require it. There's a Margaritaville in an alternate realm that has bloody margaritas, Hayliel and I will take you some time."

"And are you hungry, friend?" Seth already figured he knew the answer, understood it personally, but the liche often did not look at people outside of their usefulness. Someone with the potency of astral energy behind him could be powerful even beyond his own comprehensions and Tepiltzin, peering around at what Yavie had conjured for himself, was already proving such ambitions fruitfully. Despite his question towards the elf, Tepiltzin also understood that Yavie could not be bound to one place nor affiliation, even the elves were something he was only abstractly loyal to; this was all under the liche's own assumptions, of course.

The Criminal relished in his ability to be seen as above paltry ideas of friends; many looked at him as cold and unloving, but Tepiltzin had not found any in this lifetime or the last who he'd deemed worthy of expending his own care upon. Perhaps Yavie came close, something of a friend that he was not tethered to out of obligations; where they came together was on the mere basis of being like-minded and it was such tether Seth preferred above all else. "So you came back for... love?" A brow raised, despite their similarities, where they starkly differentiated could be seen in Yavie's refusal to let go of love. Seth had so effortlessly let Yurena walk herself to the pyre but the liche was certain that the astral elf would never let Hayliel sacrifice himself for the idea of a greater good. "I may not need you, but I do like you," a rare confession, smiling almost cunningly, "And that's far more important than any other condition." Where Seth lacked the tether of needing people, it was equally as rare for the liche to discover those who didn't come to inevitably annoy him. "I'm not sure yet, but you still have that sanctuary in the astral, yes?" Teasing at further destruction of this realm, if it came to such point, Seth was merciful enough to Yavie to offer him reprieve from it once more.

#tepiltzin #gonna quote some glee at u for the vibes

[astralyavie]

At the liche's remark, Yavie couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth. The feature was hauntingly ever-present, scathing to the point of mockery. That was how the Astral had his fun with it, you could point out so many truths to the arrogance of this world with little more than a grin. For Tepiltzin, though, it was more genuine and fond. "I'd expect nothing less; the hungry are never satisfied." His friend had already bested an archfiend. That was proof enough that in the question of kill or be killed, Tepiltzin was the survivor.

"I understand that feeling well." Yavie had always been starkly different from his contemporaries, where once he thought it was by his upbringing, he never ceased to be an outsider. He'd grown up among fey within the mortal realm, befriended and sworn himself to the courts, and gifted a position under his abilities, but still, it was deeply unsatisfying. There were rules, regulations, and expectations that never fit. Yavie looked for inspiration in the faces of others, in their presence, and in their tutelage, but time and time again, they were only disappointing. Be they blades, inventors, sorcerers, or travelers. Yavie had resigned to this loneliness in his heart because, at the core of his self, there was one definitively true thing: there wasn't a soul in these worlds that could understand him. "I considered staying away, the Astral is infinite, I spent thousands of years within it before I returned; there isn't much for me here, save for Hayliel and maybe you. Though of the two of you, he's the only one that needs me." Tepiltzin didn't seem to have much need or use for friends, and Yavie's presence either way wouldn't have impacted the liche to many degree. The Astral assumed it had to feed some ego, though, to know that there would always be one person rooting for him, regardless of where his travels took him. "What's next in your story?"

A skeleton peered back at Yavie, as hauntingly abyssal as the Abyss itself, there was nothing beautiful about something so deadly, but even someone coined an oddity like Yavie could find wonder in the macabre. Glamour was a trivial thing for the Criminal, he'd surrender any bits of him for something more absolute and potent, and he had, though magic had repaired his sacrifice under an elementary glamour to reconstruct what once was. Sitting here with the astral elf, however, the Criminal felt somehow comfortable enough to sit without the rudimentary magic that wove his former carapace, grinning softly, "And I've only just begun, friend." So much he couldn't speak of when bound to Oztalun, the Asphodel; the End had changed things and where once he was so gleefully open about his wantons and affiliations, even the Criminal knew when to slip under the radar.

"I've never been to the Astral Sea," something uncharted even to the Criminal, a once vampire had no interest in the limitless span of astral energy that had been coined the Astral Sea. Still, much like Yavie seemed to be enchanted with the idea of the Abyss, Tepiltzin could find wonder in the outer realms that a creature such as he seemed woefully out of place in. Tepiltzin had never resonated any place as home, he was a permanent outsider in society and took to the title well; comfortably even, loneliness could not shake him for he'd built his foundation upon it. "I have never not known loneliness," it was as vague as Seth could be, he'd never felt struck down by the feeling, but exchanging thoughts about it with Yavie suddenly felt constricting. "But it's not something I give life to. Most will never understand and we just have to accept that." Plus, the only other liche he'd currently met was someone who'd become and hated it; that just simply didn't fly with Seth.

#tepiltzin #in your dreams

[astralyavie]

After his conversation with Malacoda, if there was one thing that Yavie would do, it absolutely wasn't believe Hayliel. All this man knew how to do was lie and nut quickly, at least that's what the elve's manifest had told him. Was it all true? Well, Yavie could be easily swayed. "Don't tell me what I think; we're talking about you here: I'd be an amazing parent," Yavie tousled some of Hayliel's hair affectionately even though he was mad at him. The fallen was just too cute. His fingers laced through Hayliel's as he brought the back of the other's hand to his lips to press a kiss to it, "if you think you can tear yourself away from your mistresses, then yes."

"I don't surround myself with loose people. I would surround myself with just you, but you're so busy. You're my favorite person in every world. Why would I focus on anyone but you?" It may have sounded like he was just trying to butter Yavie up, but anyone that knew Hayliel knew that he was always talking about to elf. Actually, to some, he talked about the other too much. The fallen thought they didn't talk about him enough actually. Yavie did quite a lot of great things. Why wouldn't they have shared it with anyone who would listen? "I don't know. You don't think you'd be good at it?" Hayliel wasn't even sure how he'd be at it. He had a feeling that he'd grow annoyed very quickly. Or bored. Babies couldn't sing karaoke. They'd butcher every song and he just couldn't have that. The thought was pushed to the back of his head as Yavie kissed the back of his hand. "You want to go shopping?" A smile lifted onto Hayliel's face. It was baby shopping, but shopping was shopping. "I love shopping."

#hayliel

[astralyavie]

The most toxic creatures always came with the brightest colours, nature's alarm. "If I chose to be stealthy, that just wouldn't be fair." Yavie sang as Rainer stood, and the astral sank, clairvoyance ringing in his ears as he slid through the revenant's legs and kicked off to create distance between them. Turning through the air as he did, Yavie landed with a characteristic flourish as his sword flowed around him. Again, the astral took a stance as he craned his head slightly to the side, "You could do with some, you don't shine quite like you used to."

Rainer couldn't help but laugh as Yavie laid across his back, undoubtedly making a spectacle of himself. The little showboater that he'd always been. "With all your sparkling, even if my eyes were failing, you'd be hard to miss." The Revenant stood straight as he felt the weight lift, sinking low as he swung around. In the same motion, his left hand slid across the dirt, lifting a handful of dirt and rocks to toss up into his opponent's line of sight. He struck just as the cloud of dust fell into Yavie's eye he threw himself up and forward, bringing the sword over his head to strike down hard.

#rainer

[astralyavie]

"Your bar is full of loose people; you surround yourself with them." Yavie pointed out as he looked one woman directly in the eye after she'd been staring at Hayliel for a heartbeat longer than the Astral would have liked. Honestly, one of these days, the elve would take Hayliel into space and leave him there so that he'd be far away from all this temptation. Alas, Yavie did enjoy teasing him. "What? You expect me to raise a baby?" The elve put his hands up at the remark, they were cute and everything but they cried and they never had any good or original ideas. Boring. "I think I might just take one from somewhere else, like elves used to; I'll just swap one out of a nursery. No one will be any wiser." Yavie reached for the other's hand and pressed his lips lightly against the back of it, "You want to help me pick out a good one for him?" Zahrya deserved only the best.

Children. Hayliel had never really thought of himself as the type to ever have any of his own. With the way Ulthar had been, they had always feared they would end up just like him. Maybe they wouldn't though. Maybe it would be different. Well, it had to be. The fallen certainly didn't plan on doing all of the shit that his dear father had done since their conception. Anyway, the point of all of this was that he didn't mind the thought of children if it was with Yavie. He had Elijah, but he'd missed out on the demon's entire life. He couldn't do that again. His brows furrowed as he caught what the elf was saying. "I don't hang out with any loose people. Or any other people." Well, there were all of the people that inhabited his bar, but he barely ever paid attention to them. Anyone that knew Hayliel knew that he only ever had eyes for Yavie. Actually, everyone but the elf knew that information. "You want to...give Zahrya a baby? Like one we make?"

#hayliel

[astralyavie]

"I'll have to give some to Hayliel, he's a very fun drunk." Yavie conjured forth some of the brew to try for himself, "But, so am I." Anyone who remembered the vampire wedding last year would remember this. Robin had put a great deal of work into her court, something that Yavie admired a great deal; it couldn't be easy to step forward and have to fill someone else's shoes, particularly where there was such a large hole where they'd once stood. Bitterness had defined Yavie's feelings for the Autumnal Court's predecessor, but where it had been a little over a year since Robin ascended, it had been several thousand for the Astral. "Knowing Zahrya he has something cooking." Yavie said with something of a dreamy sigh, aesthetically, the thought of having children was always so appealing. Realistically? Raising one seemed like such a chore, Yavie needed help to stand staying in one place for very long; even holding a singular conversation sometimes felt like a one-sided waste of his otherwise precious time.

"I suppose you are right, and yet, I had to try," she muses, a rueful twist to her lips that is quickly wiped away as she laughs softly and gives her companion a quick nod. Subtly, she gestures to the walls. Where Yavie's twinkling stars ended, her luminescent fungi began. They snaked up the walls, weaving up the walls and mixing in the decorations as they pulsed in rhytmn with the music. "Aside from my delightful presence? And my own to cents to the decor? If you go to the drinks table, there is one punch that is my special brew. I have had to spell it to stop most from drinking it, though, it came out quite strong," she admits with a Cheshire grin as she brings her flask to her lips and takes a long sip. "I considered adding some spores to spice up the circumstances, in Zahrya's honor, but I did not know if he is preparing something similar for spring."

#robin

[astralyavie]

#mirror

[astralyavie]

hayliel | moon palace

inhabited by @astralyavie and hayliel. who knows what other creatures are lurking about.

#musing #hayliel #musing.hayliel

[astralyavie]

@hayliel location: Hell's Bells notes: open ur mouth bb

"So many children lately." Yavie liked kids, they were like a clean slate: all wide eyes and imagination. They seemed like a lot of work though and long before the astral and the fallen ever considered having children together, Hayliel was going to need to work on his infidelity. "If only my partner didn't hang around with so many loose people." Yavie looked around the bar, nice as it was, the elve could tell there was a lot of people here that would gladly try and steal his man if he gave them the opportunity. He'd blow up this whole place before he let that happen. "It's fine, but I was hoping we could give Zahrya a baby for his birthday this year. Maybe next, I think he'll have his hands full as it is."

#hayliel #haylielstarter

[astralyavie]

Chay on Instagram

#mirror

[astralyavie]

"Well obviously, that's why I've been waiting for you to ask." Yavie said with a sigh, it was fine. It was fine. The Astral was looking forward to the party though, it had been a long time since he'd seen his friend(s). He thought it had been a long time anyways, sometimes it was difficult for Yavie to gauge just how much time had or had not passed. Anyways, if there was going to be drow there then Yavie needed to make sure to bring them some party favours. Something fun for them to bring home like a monkey clapping an instrument.

Hayliel knew Yavie like the back of his hand. And that just meant that they knew what was going on in that head of his every single time nothing was being said. Yavie wanted him around all the time and of course the seraphim wanted the exact same thing. Whenever they were separated, it felt like they were supposed to just be gravitating towards each other somehow. Hayliel thought that he should probably start bringing the astral elf to the senate meetings with him. Surely they wouldn't mind. They were indeed heroes after all. How could they say no to such beautiful faces? Nevertheless, they leaned into the kiss, tongue meeting the elf's own for a mere second before Yavie was speaking again. "I was going to ask you with some grand song, but you distracted me, baby." He pressed his lips to Yavie's again. "Do you want to go with me?"

#hayliel #we can wrap this you were slipping again the party's OVER

[astralyavie]

There were many ways of accessing the Abyss, though Yavie had only been there a handful of times now. Even for someone like him it was a very dangerous place to travel to, still, curiosity was among his greatest vice. Archfiends were uncommon, powerful, and varied: to the surprise of no one conjuring something that would bond with a leech wasn't as simple as bending down and picking up any rock. These creatures all had their own planes of existence, each with its own set of rules and laws; precision mattered above all else. For a creature incapable of performing magic, like a vampire, it was almost impossible to have achieve this without aid. No, they'd need a sorcerer that was capable of harnessing the different domains of power associated with the many-layered Abyss.

All this to say it was clear to Yavie that Tepiltzin had done everything they said they would, they'd joined the Asphodel and someone within had assisted with the conjuring. Someone powerful, though Yavie wouldn't stroke another's ego too fondly. "Somehow you improved yourself even further," an easy compliment, because the skeletal visage was something that worked well for the liche in front of him. Those cheekbones were even better unfettered by the limitations of mortal flesh. "it's a very, very long story. A brush with death in the Astral Sea and then-" he thought about it briefly, then smiled, "not so much death." To think this had all started in the aftermath of a red wedding, "Do you find it lonely at all? Being so different from those around you?" Tepiltzin had always stuck out as Yavie had, neither meshed with any convention that had been laid out in front of them. Still, they were both changed now and there was no going back.

Even as a druidic Tepiltzin lay dying upon a sacrificial slab, he'd not felt such a harrowing vestige of pain comparable to the archfiend slithering within the confines of his throat to have a battle of odds and wit. Self veneration was effortless for him, something which bespoke of ego but inflicted him with the ability to conquer over the abyssal archfiend and be offered their unyielding augmentations. "With some modifications," teased lightly, a small grin evident as Yavie marveled at his the macabre skeleton before him. Those at the mercy of vanity and pride did not understand Tepiltzin's insatiable need for power and resources, though as Yavie peered upon his fleshless visage the Criminal discovered he had found a kindred friend indeed. "And what of you? You reek of changes yourself." Something, something, Titania made a sacrifice but Yavie always went rampant within their storytelling.

#tepiltzin

[astralyavie]

"Incredible." Yavie remarked as he approached the liche with some intent, he took in the places where his body had melted away to reveal the daemon's true form underneath. Power for power's sake was reason enough alone to seek it out, though Yavie always thought that was incredibly common. "And it's really still you?" He could feel the force of the Abyss radiating off of Tepiltzin, the archfiend's power vibrated through the air itself. "I can't imagine conquering that creature was an easy task." He knew enough to know the essentials for how a liche came into being, Tepiltzin's will had to be strong indeed to overcome the creature that he'd been bonded to.

Power for the price of a once handsome visage, if Seth wasn't so hellbent on procuring every ounce of power for his own cruel gain, the liche might have hesitated; but Tepiltzin found it to be a small boon to exchange for the iniquitous power that now flowed within him. The Criminal grinned, almost impishly, at Yavie's request, "That's not a surprise coming from you." On the surface level some might have looked at the two -an astral elf and a daemonfey- and found that two people couldn't be more different, but Seth always understood that Yavie was multifaceted; and on some levels, just as twisted as the liche. Seth silently lifted the glamour, the typical face which greeted Yavie fading away to stark ivory as bones took over the entirety of his face; his nose fading, skin molting away until he was nothing but bones.

#tepiltzin #felan and yavie both have a thing for bones clearly somniar has a type