Twinflame

"K'iara," K'ile said her name as he approached her again, smiled, then decided smiling was inappropriate and averted his eyes while making a very straight face. "Uhm." Something about trying to make a straight face made it very difficult to do so, and he ended up smiling again, though his brow dipped in vexation. Pain in his ear let him know that he was pulling on his ear, so he stopped, and then noticed his tail was shivering behind him as well so he swung it a few times to make it stop. "Uhm, sorry," He finally said, dipping his head a bit, looking up through the veil of red hair at the woman. She was hard to look at because she looked so much like his brother. It made him nervous, so he smiled a bit more. "Really. I didn't mean to make you angry. I'm just doing the best I can to do the... best I can!"

Evening brought with it preparations for cold weather. The reasonable members of the tribe were donning heavier garments; K'ile was not one of those people. He dressed the same in heat and in cold, in the desert or at an oasis. But he would at least draw close to the fires once they were lit. In addition to cooking meals, the fires were all bu prerequisite for making it through the night without becoming ill. The tents were situated in small groups of three or four around small bonfires, and once they'd burned out, the coals would be gathered in clay bowls so that the heat could be carried into the tents and ward away the cold. K'ile didn't know where K'iara's tent was settled now; every time the tribe migrated, things tended to move a bit. Luckily, he didn't have to look far. The woman -- like a thin, female version of his dead brother -- cast a long evening shadow in the red light as she trudged through the sand in his direction. Feeling a moment of anxiety, K'ile bit it away. He was just going to apologize. How could he mess that up? Knowing him, he'd find a way. "K'iara!" K'ile waved over his head to beckon her. "Two minutes? I just need two minutes."

I'd like to commission you, but I'm not sure for what. Does the subject need to be an ARR character, or can it be from another MMO?

"Do you really want that?" D'aijeen's brow dropped, her voice fell. She leaned forward under the weight of the subject she'd accidentally broached. Had it been an accident? D'aijeen knew how much K'airos missed her family; she knew it now better than ever. "You would move away from the tribe, avoid them, just for my own comfort?" She frowned. "Or would you just house me in Horizon and then go to Drybone on work constantly, keeping me away from them and going to them alone?"

There was a disappointing lack of nibbling while changing clothes, even as D'aijeen did disrobe her sister and had not passed on any opportunity to make contact. K'airos just prattled on about boats and smallshells, which was adorable but not particularly intimate. It was like K'airos had no sense of romance at all. But that was finel K'airos would have to sleep at some point, after all. Still, they were here on the beach as evening approached, ready to cook and spend the evening together. That counted for a lot, and D'aijeen had absolutely no complaints she channel aether into her scepter to light fire to the remnants that K'airos had claimed. "All we need is each other, Airos. We can light our own fire whenever we want." She sat down next to the fire, letting her sister take care of the fish. Cooking shouldn't be a problem for her; back int he Sagolii, K'airos had learned the skills of survival that the tribe taught. D'aijeen's skillset had always been a little different, though she was sure if she really needed to cook a fish she could figure it out. "I'm looking forward to the next few days," D'aijeen looked her sister over again, still amused by the greenness of her hair and lips. "But what about after that? Are we going home to Drybone?"

Following her sister in silence, D'aijeen mostly watched the woman's tail. The way she kept talking to the smallshell just made D'aijeen smile wider and wider, energized her tired body more and more, chasing her despair and grief farther away. Surely if D'aijeen loved someone as much as she loved K'airos, she could not be the kind of person who would kill D'ahl. "I think my diet should include little nibbles of you," D'aijeen said wryly, following her sister very closely. "Not with dinner. After. Maybe right before bed. And you can have a few nibbles of me. Yes! I'm adding that to your diet. A few tastes of Aijeen right before bed."

"Let the smallshell keep watch," D'aijeen said, her expression unchanged, her eyes taking in the tightness of the clothes on her sister. "Nobody will bother us, and you'll need my help to get out of those clothes without damaging them. As for my diet," She followed after K'airos, her tail swinging behind her as she did. The young woman, thin and dark, stained with blood and smelling vaguely of corpses, leaned forward and said in a quiet tone, "Maybe I'll just take a few bites of you while you're changing."

Letting herself be stood up by Airos, she smiled, the look in her eyes as she considered her sister one of pure adoration. "Yes, it is a Dodo thing. And a you-and-I thing." She continued to play with the bow on her sister's chest. "I would love to go everywhere with you, Airos, my shining sun, my new Azeyma. But first, yes, a change of clothes. I have brought none, so I'll have to find a private place and undress you." In her shadow, unseen things still stirred, though they did so sluggishly. The sank and lost cohesion, flattening out until they were indistinguishable from her normal shadow. "Take me wherever you want to go, Airos," the small, frail woman breathed. "You are the light of day, the brightest thing in the world, and I want to be the shadow that you cast, as close as skin."

Wishing she could cry again, D'aijeen just curled up tighter against her sister, eyes pinching shut. "You still want to," she breathed, her tone embarrassingly high, cracking. Knowing everything, having a clear image of it, completely in control of her every thought and action, she still chose D'aijeen. It was real, her real sister, really loving her. "Airos." D'aijeen lifted herself away from her sister for just a moment, grabbed her head in both hands and turned the woman's face to look at her. And then she lay her body against K'airos' body, and her lips against K'airos' lips, still crying, but happy.

"That's very clever," D'aijeen said, playing with the bow on her sisters chest. She sniffled, the crying having slowed by the tears still flowing down her cheeks. She pressed herself firmly against her sister, closing her eyes again. "Airos, I command you to forget every comman I've given you. Think whatever you want about anything."

The words helped. K'airos was the only person in the world whose words meant anything anymore. D'aijeen closed her eyes and held close to her sister, feeling the movement of her chest as she breathed, smelling that unmistakable scent that had been with her for all the best parts of her life. Truly, if there was anywhere in this world that love existed, then it was where K'airos was. If any person who was truly capable of it, then it was only K'airos. And herself. For what else could this be? It was exactly what her mother did not feel for her. "Airos." D'aijeen lay her head against her sister's chest, lay her hands flat against her body. "Why are you dressed as me?"

She did cry. She wouldn't have been able to stop herself, but with K'airos' permission, she stopped trying not to cry. She tried to cry all the more. D'aijeen cried for her sister, shaking in the woman's hands. As she cried, she tried to say, "I wanted to fix everything. I wanted everything to be better for us. I went to mom and talked to her, but D'ahl got jealous. And then D'ahl and mom fought, and D'hein got angry, and that Lalafel attacked D'ahl! Everything just fell apart. I tried to fix everything but it just fell apart! It's not my fault. I tried. I tied. Everyone was so terrible and I couldn't do anything." She wailed, "I wanted to make everything perfect for you but I couldn't! I'm sorry." D'aijeen hadn't expected herself to apologize, had almost forgotten that it was for K'airos that she'd been doing everything. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"I don't know." D'aijeen collapsed against her sister, pulled herself as close as she could get, and then closer still. If it weren't for her weak body,s he might've crushed her sister from her desperation to pull herself into the woman's lap. "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know I don't know I don't I don't I didn't do it! It wasn't me!" She couldn't stop herself from crying or talking, blubbering senseless words at her sister. D'aijeen choked, tried to hold her breath, tried anything to stop herself from crying and reclaim her mind, but nothing changed. She felt like she was bleeding out her sorry, coughing it up like blood. It was not that the warmth and closeness of her sister was not reassuring; it was strengthening beyond compare. But it merely promised that she would recover. It could not stop the sadness before it was exhausted. "D'ahl is dead!" she finally managed. "She died! I couldn't stop it. I wanted to stop it. I didn't want it to happen! I didn't want it to!" She pulled at the bow on her sister's chest. "K'airos, say it's not my fault. I didn't do it! I wouldn't do something like that! Tell me I didn't do it!"

The voice pierced through all the panic and screaming thoughts inside of D'aijeen's head, and she stopped in her tracks, leaning forward and bending at her knees. She coughed and brushed tears at her face. The sleeves of her robe were almost more red than white, all with blood from the night before. For a moment, she was almost afraid to look up at K'airos, unwilling to face the sister that she so adored, and that had chosen someone else over her. Everything D'aijeen had tried to make that right had failed. They had collapsed dramatically that somehow, something inside of her had twisted until she had summoned a beast to... No. no, that hadn't been her! She hadn't willed that! She'd been desperate to stop it! Part of her blamed K'airos' betrayal for what had happened to D'ahl. If K'airos hadn't lied to her, D'aijeen would not have tried to renew the love between herself and her mother. If she hadn't done that, D'ahl would not have felt betrayed and would not have tried to hurt the woman. Then D'aijeen would not have been so angry. She would not have chased D'ahl down in the night. She would not have... D'aijeen pulled on her ears violently. Her mind was suddenly full of images from the night before, of the silent fountain, of D'ahl crying alone in the dark, of the monster stepping from the shadows summoned by D'aijeen's fury. D'ahl hanging from its teeth. Her body dashed against the stone again and again, ripped into, split nearly in two. Blood flying everywhere. The dead look in D'ahl's eyes. Screaming. Voidsent stirring beneath her feet, D'aijeen lifted her eyes to look at K'airos. And D'aijeen broke. She collapsed to her knees at first in sobs, but only for an instant, and then threw herself forward in desperation. K'airos stood in the sunlight, in the beach she'd been so happy about visiting together. The woman's red hair had turned green, her lips painted green, her Brass Blades uniform traded out for a too-tight white ensemble obviously stolen from D'aijeen's own wardrobe. The girl had disguised herself as D'aijeen. It was ridiculous. It was annoying. It was adorable. It was K'airos, and everything she loved about her. D'aijeen cried out wordlessly as she ran, embarrassed by the base disregard of the gesture but unable to contain it. She was still crying, felt herself shivering and numb all the way to the tip of her tail, but she didn't care. She ran to her sister, threw herself bodily at the woman and clutched at her, and just cried.

D'aijeen arrived on the ship from the Silver Bazaar in the late afternoon. The cool wind from the sea stirred up the heat of the desert and they spun around one another, pulling on her robes and the bangs hanging out from under her green hood. Her face was downcast; she didn't even look up as the boat moored itself to the small pier and the ferryman disembarked. The burly Hyur who stank of salt and old fish lingered near the boat, beckoning for D'aijeen to step out and telling her over and over that they had arrived. She heard him, but she couldn't move, sitting with her face down, staring at the blood that still stained her clothes beneath her green traveling robe. Her clothes, which had always been so immaculately white, stained now with the blood of her... What would she even call D'ahl, now that she was dead? A passing acquaintance? She had loved D'ahl, but had not thought of her as... and in the end... the hound... The Hyur man stomped on the edge of the boat, making it sway to get her attention. "I am aware that we have arrived!" D'aijeen leapt up. She didn't feel the motion, but she was on the pier in a moment, dizzy but standing steadily. Her stance was wide, the muscles in her body so tight that she might have been stone encased in skin. Her tail stuck out straight behind her, her ears squeezing her skull, the muscles on her face palpably contorted into hideous shapes. She listened to herself shouting, "Such a barbaric, empty-headed animal to not give a woman a moment's peace! Where are you in such a hurry to? What grave or miserable pit must you so urgently drag your massive, hideous carcass to that you would protest to me! Your voice is like the belch of a corpse cut open, but I pity the insects in whatever pit you go to, for your stench exceeds the breath of Thal himself!" "Shit, lady," the man stepped back and raised his hands. "You're the one who smells like Thal's breath. Calm down." "Begone!" Something ripped out of the shadows between D'aijeen's robe and her body, falling through the planks on the pier and sliding outward. The wood beneath the Hyur man broke upward, throwing him out over the water. He landed half-on his own boat and then slid into the water with a confused wail. In the shadows beneath the pier, a man-faced, ink-black Voidsent retreated like a snake returning to its hole. D'aijeen took a step back from it just before the thing melted and rose back towards her, slipping beneath her robe once more. "Stop! I don't want you!" She shouted, shifted, spun and stumbled to try and get away from it, but she could feel the chill of the Baalzephon pressing against her skin. "You killed her! It was you, not me!" She ripped the robe from her body and threw it towards the water. the Voidsent remained inside of it, resigned to the shadows. But as D'aijeen crossed her blood-stained arms over her chest and ran down the pier towards the town, sobbing quietly, others moved in the small shadow beneath her feet, chasing her. The cactuar earring bounced beside her tussled hair, its face dappled with dried red droplets.

The way that K'mih's demeanor sank made K'ile drop his brow and flick his tail in agitation. Why couldn't he ever say anything right to these women? Did K'mih not want to dance with her sister? He'd assume that given five minutes of time together, they'd be best friends. Surely they'd have met and made some kind of connection by now. K'ile dropped his hands away from K'mih and looked uncomfortable, pulling on one ear. "Uh. Try and be happy. There's nothing more fun than dancing! It'll be good." He shifted a step back and said, "I need to go get everyone to start getting ready for the feast. We'll start tonight after you get a firedancing stone from the Elders and talk to K'tahjha. If you see your dad tell him to go talk to the Elders, okay?" The Tia turned to walk back towards camp. Maybe he should find K'iara now.

"I know she'll say she can't," K'ile's smile came a bit easier after seeing K'mih's. He stepped forward to put one hand on either of K'mih's shoulders, emphasizing his point. "It won't be easy to convince her, so I need you to really try. The tribe needs us to really work hard for each other."

"I'll be able to dance again soon! No problem." K'ile's ears popped up, and he forced himself to smile a bit wider. He was sure K'mih would be able to conclude on her own why this was necessary, once she had time to think about it. The Tia gestured to the large tent at the center of the camp, "The Elders took the firedancing stones, so what you need to do is go ask them to give you one. I already mentioned it to them, so it shouldn't be a problem. Before you do that, though, I need your help convincing K'tahjha to dance. She's afraid of fire, but she would be a good dancer, and I think everyone would love to see you and your sister dance together."

"Uhm?" K'ile snapped his head around to watch K'iara run off, the anger in her grating voice sitting heavy in his ears and pulling them down on his head. What had she gotten so angry about? Maybe she didn't think the feast was as important as K'ile knew that it was -- the tribe was starving in its heart as well, after all -- but she should at least respect the fact that the Elders gave him the go-ahead. He quirked his features in discomfort, watching the girl's red tail she left. He wished he knew her better, or that he understood women and their emotions better. Maybe he'd find her later and apologize for whatever he'd done to upset her, if he could figure it out in the meantime. Knowing himself as he did, he was sure he'd said something he shouldn't have. K'mih's voice snapped him back around, and at first his hands swung away from his body to greet her with enthusiasm. But his right wrist felt light and vulnerable, the fingers of his hand curled under his naked wrist. K'ile Tia drew the wrist that had once born the bracelet of the firedancers near his body. He almost hit it from the girl. But, then, it was K'mih. Instead of hiding his hand, he brought it in front of him to show her the absence of the stones. He smiled, though, hoping that the strained expression would draw a more sincere smile from her. "I need your help with something. There's going to be a feast tomorrow evening, and someone's going to have to dance to dedicate the feast to Azeyma. I can't dance anymore, but I want to teach you and K'tahjha to dance for the tribe. It's a very important job, but it's a lot of fun, too."

K'ile Tia came to a fast and sudden stop, kicking up sand as he did so. His face twisted in displeasure at hearing K'luha's howl, but he threw an indicating hand out towards the middle of tribe, to where he imagined K'iara had stored the food, "Help with the hunts? I'm sorry I haven't been around to help, but that food is my help! An entire feast of food to make sure that we start this journey with our bellies full, and and a ritual will make sure we have Azeyma's blessing for the trip. People are hungry now. Why would we wait? Because it looks bad on me?" He moved to step around K'iara and continue towards the others. "This isn't about me. And anybody who wants to assume it is can think whatever they want. We have a tribe to take care of, K'iara." Kicking up his pace into a trot, K'ile waved his hand over his head and called out to where the K'yohko's girls were gathered around the outsiders' chocobo. "K'mih! I need your help with something!"

"Sorry," K'ile's ears dipped at the woman, K'thalen's daughter. She looked so like him that she was almost difficult to look at. "I'm in a rush to get things done so we can get this over with and leave soon. There haven't been enough dances or feasts or rituals these past years. We can be sparing on the food, some of it, but the tribe needs this feast, especially if we're going to be leaving soon. We owe Azeyma some respect, and it's better to travel on a full stomach anyway, right?" The Tia started walking. Not toward the medical tent, but instead towards where K'zhuzhu's supposed son and K'yohko's daughters were speaking. "I want to go fetch K'mih. I'll need her help to get K'tahjha to agree, anyway."

"We will have the feast tomorrow, then," K'ile Tia snapped in silent huff as he spun around and shot out of the tent in sudden haste. It was not that he was in a hurry to get anywhere, but more that he felt he needed to be distant from the Elders for both their sake and his own. His wrist felt strange and bear, as though some bone had been removed. There was a line of soft skin wrapping the base of his hand where the bracelet had protected it from the sunlight. He slipped past K'iara in a flash, the leather flap of the Elder's tent snapping as he pushed it aside. The huntress was for a moment a shade of her father, or of K'ada; his mind wasn't sure which dead person it would suffer him to be reminded of. The Tia rebuked his wandering thoughts, though, and caught K'iara with his eyes. "Tomorrow there will be a feast and I will challenge K'yohko for his place as Nunh. The food will have to be cooked and the Nunh will have to be ready to defend himself. I need to teach K'mih and K'tahjha how to dance for the ritual."

Most likely Bluehole is actually one of the companies behind the project and is looking forward to collecting money for selling the exact same MMO to the same target audience twice. I predict that Azera will be sold at a full box price, charge a sub, go P2W and then F2P within a year, same as Tera did. A lot of the humor in the game is very dark. Like the hilarious ways that Chua talk about eating people and then their silly one-liners when you kill them for it. Just because it's a cartoon doesn't mean it isn't mature, and people who are nostalgic for that era of animation and gaming (90s platformers, Titan A.E., Treasure Planet) are going to feel very comfortable and satisfied with the tone. Whereas people who prefer anime aren't going to know wtf they're looking at (although they could totally watch some Outlaw Star and come pretty close on a few episodes).

"I did everything I could to bring home whatever I thought would help," K'ile answered in a mutter, knowing the words mean nothing. "I think K'tahjha should learn to dance. K'mih, too. They both smile very easily. I could teach them the basics quickly. We should hold the feast before we travel so that we're strong for the trip."

"Piru found her before I did. Airos has joined the outside world and does not think she can leave it or her mother. She may come home when we move to Drybone, but I don't believe she will ever let go of Piru." K'ile was unsure now whom he was talking to. K'takka had mentioned exile, and K'deiki had echoed the suggestion, even if only in theory. He couldn't believe that either of them would have gone through with it; they were just angry. Rightfully so. But they were women and their anger would fade. K'jhanhi's fury had settled immediately where it would, and would not waver. "I will earn the stones back after I defeat K'yohko and become Nunh," K'ile said this strongly, losing his ability to contain his own sense of will. "Before that, who will dance at the feast? I'll have to teach someone." "Why would we let you challenge Yohko?" K'takka hissed. She shifted in the shadows like a worm beneath the sand. K'ile could almost feel the air shift in response as she leaned forward, her eyes turning to thin, glowing slits. "It would shame us to have such a disloyal creature mating with our women." "I brought a feast and have a woman to vouch for me," K'ile responded, eyes on the dirt. "If K'yohko is better than I am, then I will lose."