of course, there's a part of mizu that still sees childe as a friend even after all this time. they were rivals once. shared tips and sparred with each other. childe never won. but it was... fun. nice. he was missed. mizu already thought him dead once, and this is not the way he deserves to go out.
but there is also a part of mizu that has been held captive for god knows how long. a part that wonders, callously, if the sudden appearance a mara-struck man so close to the ports would enough for everything to get shut down. childe is strong. he could make a mess of things. it could be alarming enough, perhaps...? but it would come at a cost, and it might not even be worth it.
well. there is one thing mizu can try, and it could go either way.]
Childe. Please, listen to me. I— [a sharp stop, mid sentence. and then focusing on something just over childe's shoulder. point.] Wait, just a moment. Over there. Isn't that...?
[there are nothing but randos over there, but. childe. listen. please look over there.]
[ the thing is, mizu is right. a mara-struck soldier right in the middle of everything would be alarming enough to shut the ports down. it could be the way he's going to win this. the only way.
and childe really shouldn't fall for this.
but he trusted mizu, once. so he looks over his shoulder, away from mizu. ]
with an eight, though, it doesn't do shit. it does not knock childe out, but it does make him... explode? sort of. see, when someone gives in to the mara, the flowers bloom across the skin like a wildfire. it clearly hurts, considering the scream childe lets out as they sprout, violent and beautiful. he writhes, dropping to the ground, shrieking himself hoarse as it takes over, as it consumes him.
the crowd around the two of them freaks the fuck out. people start running, stumbling backwards and trying to get away. childe doesn't seem to notice. in fact - what was childe doesn't care about anything other than mizu.
on the ground, he shudders. and his neck makes an alarming cracking sound as it yanks backwards, breaks, so that he can look up at mizu from an unnatural angle. silence. and then he laughs, and he keeps laughing, and keeps laughing - and launches himself at mizu gleefully, forming ice knives in both hands and shanking them into whatever flesh he can reach. ]
so much for trying to spare him. looks like callousness it is.
but first, mizu is going to get stabbed in the left shoulder because after all this time, childe probably had a win coming. between the pain of being stabbed and the burning sensation that comes from being stabbed with fucking ice, it's a bit hard to put the left hand to use for the time being. but mizu's right hand is still perfectly functional, and the creature formally known as childe will almost immediately find an ice sword being swung at his side. though it's less of an attempt to kill him, and more of an attempt to get him off. get some space between them.
if this succeeds, mizu will immediately start running to draw him even closer to the port. anything to get the cloud knights on high alert and shut this whole thing down.]
people are screaming and falling over each other to make their way to safety. the cloud knights are rushing forward, trying to figure out how to put a stop to this. in the distance, there's the sound of howling, and mizu gets about two feet of distance between him and childe before seeing, in the distance, a pack of borisin crawling out from the seating area he was once trapped in.
and nearly immediately, he can hear hoolay shouting, barking orders, and that flood unleashes itself on the citizens. packs of wolves tear helpless citizens to pieces, leaving bloody splatters across the luofu's streets.
that's bad. but maybe what's worse is childe earnestly, violently, single-mindedly chases after mizu in an attempt to kill him. stabs aimed for sensitive parts, internal organs, across muscles that will make it difficult for him to get away. he will win, for once, he will get revenge. he will kill the thing that left him for dead.
you left him for dead, you let him go. you didn't save him. why didn't you save him? ]
Edited (finishes my fckin sentence) 2025-02-20 04:48 (UTC)
[on one hand, the cloud knights are reacting. this is what mizu wanted, in a sense. but it's hard to say if the gates were shut down or not, without personally seeing them.
and then it gets fucking worse.
the borisin are crawling out of their hole, painting the streets red with horrifying efficiency. i rolled to see how distracted mizu is by this in regards to getting chased down by childe, and. well.
distracted by the borisin, mizu stumbles, and that's enough to let childe catch up. he may pin mizu down, if he wishes. stab and slash to his heart's content. mizu will take another swing at him with the ice sword, as hopeless as it may be, trying to get at his neck or anything that counts as vital for his new transformed body. dying is fine. it's an eventuality of war. but if they could go down together—
down they go. mara-struck soldiers are pretty damn hard to kill. they're mindless beasts, and with that much abundance rising up in them, it means that fatal blows tend to take a second turn to go through. childe is busy shanking through mizu as much as he can, leaving neat ice holes all across his torso, but that mindless fury means that he isn't dodging in the least.
mizu swings, gets that sword up enough that it nearly cuts him in two. and for a second he shudders like he'll fall apart.
and then he lets out a strangled noise and attempts to jab an ice dagger through mizu's eye.
whether or not he succeeds, he slumps after that, dead weight on top of mizu, the flowers starting to wither and rot. ]
[it only took a century! and it wasn't even a win, but a draw. hand in unlovable hand and all that.
mizu's torso is a mess of frostbitten flesh and sluggishly bleeding stab wounds. not immediately fatal, having missed the vital organs. but that almost makes it worse. exsanguination is a terrible thing. slow. mizu may be a healer, sure. but it's hard to do any actual healing when you're the one currently bleeding out on the ground and there's nobody around to help. numbness has already began to creep up mizu's fingertips. everything feels cold. any healing magic used now feels more like putting a piece of tape over a gaping wound.
and then childe stabs down one last time, and it's suddenly so much worse.
mizu's vision explodes. staticky and blurry and nauseating. the knife cleaves through the left eye, white hot pain overtaking that entire side of the head. mizu screams, voice gone raw by this point, and shoves childe's now rapidly rotting corpse away. they're both a terrible sight. bloody and covered in withering yellow petals. bright red frosting over their weapons. distantly, mizu wonders who's going to break the news to childe's family this time... assuming they're not being murder by the borisin at this very moment.
panting, mizu looks to the sides. dizzy and sluggish and slowly dying, but searching for someone. where the fuck is hoolay?]
the borisin are everywhere. they've overwhelmed the citizens, let free by hoolay. he no longer cares about secrecy - that cat was out of the bag the second childe started to snap. he's curled up, slowly rotting away, but mizu can see his face. he's not dead, not yet. he's slowly dying, watching mizu with a look that's something like betrayal but also just... longing, maybe. like he wanted things to go right, this time.
the city is going to burn. the ports are open, and maybe they could escape - but here's the thing, the guards know. hoolay didn't get the chance to kill all of the witnesses. so it's very possible that this could work out, that the general... which general, one of the generals, the name is hard to grasp - could get rid of the threat. all that mizu knows now is that he's dying.
there's no fixing this. nobody will be here in time to save him, but that's alright, maybe. in war, you have to make difficult decisions. and sometimes, you won't be around to see the result, you just have to trust that others will take what you've done and make something of it.
what are mizu's last thoughts as he bleeds to death on the streets of the luofu, surrounded by battle? ]
even as mizu's thoughts begin to wind down, it's difficult not to linger on what ifs and what could have beens. the ship has erupted in chaos. blood paints the streets. a friend, thought long lost, now lays dying. was there any way to reach a better outcome than this? the phantom impressions of a life led by somebody else seem to indicate that maybe there was another way. maybe so many people didn't need to die today.
but it hardly matters. regrets change nothing.
you can only ever live with the choices you make.
but these are not mizu's final thoughts. not quite.
in the last moments before slipping into that peaceful oblivious, mizu looks at childe and thinks—
i shouldn't have stopped to talk to you.
followed by another thought, turning to stare at the sky (or whatever functions as a sky here), head lolling to the side nearly limp.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
holyspirits) wrote2025-02-16 05:05 pm
no subject
I see. [...] Another question for you, then. Do you have a younger brother?
no subject
[ a beat. there's a crack of a sound, and then he looks at mizu properly, clenching his fists. ]
... Mizu?
no subject
but also... nods. hi.]
Childe. [just the slightest hint of a smile, here and gone in a second. i, quynn, hate this.] I was under the impression that you were... dead.
no subject
Haha - I sort of was! I remember being on the battlefield after all of it. You all left me for dead. Didn't even bother coming to get my body.
[ another cracking noise. his arm... ripples. ]
no subject
of course, there's a part of mizu that still sees childe as a friend even after all this time. they were rivals once. shared tips and sparred with each other. childe never won. but it was... fun. nice. he was missed. mizu already thought him dead once, and this is not the way he deserves to go out.
but there is also a part of mizu that has been held captive for god knows how long. a part that wonders, callously, if the sudden appearance a mara-struck man so close to the ports would enough for everything to get shut down. childe is strong. he could make a mess of things. it could be alarming enough, perhaps...? but it would come at a cost, and it might not even be worth it.
well. there is one thing mizu can try, and it could go either way.]
Childe. Please, listen to me. I— [a sharp stop, mid sentence. and then focusing on something just over childe's shoulder. point.] Wait, just a moment. Over there. Isn't that...?
[there are nothing but randos over there, but. childe. listen. please look over there.]
no subject
and childe really shouldn't fall for this.
but he trusted mizu, once. so he looks over his shoulder, away from mizu. ]
no subject
and immediately tries to punch him the fuck out!!
this will either knock childe out or it will make childe fully hulk out but i just rolled an 8 so HELPPPPPP]
no subject
with an eight, though, it doesn't do shit. it does not knock childe out, but it does make him... explode? sort of. see, when someone gives in to the mara, the flowers bloom across the skin like a wildfire. it clearly hurts, considering the scream childe lets out as they sprout, violent and beautiful. he writhes, dropping to the ground, shrieking himself hoarse as it takes over, as it consumes him.
the crowd around the two of them freaks the fuck out. people start running, stumbling backwards and trying to get away. childe doesn't seem to notice. in fact - what was childe doesn't care about anything other than mizu.
on the ground, he shudders. and his neck makes an alarming cracking sound as it yanks backwards, breaks, so that he can look up at mizu from an unnatural angle. silence. and then he laughs, and he keeps laughing, and keeps laughing - and launches himself at mizu gleefully, forming ice knives in both hands and shanking them into whatever flesh he can reach. ]
no subject
so much for trying to spare him. looks like callousness it is.
but first, mizu is going to get stabbed in the left shoulder because after all this time, childe probably had a win coming. between the pain of being stabbed and the burning sensation that comes from being stabbed with fucking ice, it's a bit hard to put the left hand to use for the time being. but mizu's right hand is still perfectly functional, and the creature formally known as childe will almost immediately find an ice sword being swung at his side. though it's less of an attempt to kill him, and more of an attempt to get him off. get some space between them.
if this succeeds, mizu will immediately start running to draw him even closer to the port. anything to get the cloud knights on high alert and shut this whole thing down.]
no subject
people are screaming and falling over each other to make their way to safety. the cloud knights are rushing forward, trying to figure out how to put a stop to this. in the distance, there's the sound of howling, and mizu gets about two feet of distance between him and childe before seeing, in the distance, a pack of borisin crawling out from the seating area he was once trapped in.
and nearly immediately, he can hear hoolay shouting, barking orders, and that flood unleashes itself on the citizens. packs of wolves tear helpless citizens to pieces, leaving bloody splatters across the luofu's streets.
that's bad. but maybe what's worse is childe earnestly, violently, single-mindedly chases after mizu in an attempt to kill him. stabs aimed for sensitive parts, internal organs, across muscles that will make it difficult for him to get away. he will win, for once, he will get revenge. he will kill the thing that left him for dead.
you left him for dead, you let him go. you didn't save him. why didn't you save him? ]
no subject
and then it gets fucking worse.
the borisin are crawling out of their hole, painting the streets red with horrifying efficiency. i rolled to see how distracted mizu is by this in regards to getting chased down by childe, and. well.
quynn 🌊 mizu Request: [1d20] Roll: [1] Result: 1
fucking rip!!!
distracted by the borisin, mizu stumbles, and that's enough to let childe catch up. he may pin mizu down, if he wishes. stab and slash to his heart's content. mizu will take another swing at him with the ice sword, as hopeless as it may be, trying to get at his neck or anything that counts as vital for his new transformed body. dying is fine. it's an eventuality of war. but if they could go down together—
well. childe still had a win coming up, so.]
no subject
down they go. mara-struck soldiers are pretty damn hard to kill. they're mindless beasts, and with that much abundance rising up in them, it means that fatal blows tend to take a second turn to go through. childe is busy shanking through mizu as much as he can, leaving neat ice holes all across his torso, but that mindless fury means that he isn't dodging in the least.
mizu swings, gets that sword up enough that it nearly cuts him in two. and for a second he shudders like he'll fall apart.
and then he lets out a strangled noise and attempts to jab an ice dagger through mizu's eye.
whether or not he succeeds, he slumps after that, dead weight on top of mizu, the flowers starting to wither and rot. ]
cw: eye trauma
mizu's torso is a mess of frostbitten flesh and sluggishly bleeding stab wounds. not immediately fatal, having missed the vital organs. but that almost makes it worse. exsanguination is a terrible thing. slow. mizu may be a healer, sure. but it's hard to do any actual healing when you're the one currently bleeding out on the ground and there's nobody around to help. numbness has already began to creep up mizu's fingertips. everything feels cold. any healing magic used now feels more like putting a piece of tape over a gaping wound.
and then childe stabs down one last time, and it's suddenly so much worse.
mizu's vision explodes. staticky and blurry and nauseating. the knife cleaves through the left eye, white hot pain overtaking that entire side of the head. mizu screams, voice gone raw by this point, and shoves childe's now rapidly rotting corpse away. they're both a terrible sight. bloody and covered in withering yellow petals. bright red frosting over their weapons. distantly, mizu wonders who's going to break the news to childe's family this time... assuming they're not being murder by the borisin at this very moment.
panting, mizu looks to the sides. dizzy and sluggish and slowly dying, but searching for someone. where the fuck is hoolay?]
no subject
the borisin are everywhere. they've overwhelmed the citizens, let free by hoolay. he no longer cares about secrecy - that cat was out of the bag the second childe started to snap. he's curled up, slowly rotting away, but mizu can see his face. he's not dead, not yet. he's slowly dying, watching mizu with a look that's something like betrayal but also just... longing, maybe. like he wanted things to go right, this time.
the city is going to burn. the ports are open, and maybe they could escape - but here's the thing, the guards know. hoolay didn't get the chance to kill all of the witnesses. so it's very possible that this could work out, that the general... which general, one of the generals, the name is hard to grasp - could get rid of the threat. all that mizu knows now is that he's dying.
there's no fixing this. nobody will be here in time to save him, but that's alright, maybe. in war, you have to make difficult decisions. and sometimes, you won't be around to see the result, you just have to trust that others will take what you've done and make something of it.
what are mizu's last thoughts as he bleeds to death on the streets of the luofu, surrounded by battle? ]
no subject
even as mizu's thoughts begin to wind down, it's difficult not to linger on what ifs and what could have beens. the ship has erupted in chaos. blood paints the streets. a friend, thought long lost, now lays dying. was there any way to reach a better outcome than this? the phantom impressions of a life led by somebody else seem to indicate that maybe there was another way. maybe so many people didn't need to die today.
but it hardly matters. regrets change nothing.
you can only ever live with the choices you make.
but these are not mizu's final thoughts. not quite.
in the last moments before slipping into that peaceful oblivious, mizu looks at childe and thinks—
i shouldn't have stopped to talk to you.
followed by another thought, turning to stare at the sky (or whatever functions as a sky here), head lolling to the side nearly limp.
shit. i should have just stabbed that bastard.
fuck you, hoolay.
and that's all she wrote, folks!]