promittere: (Default)
lunae calamitas mods ([personal profile] promittere) wrote in [community profile] lunaecalamitas2024-06-20 02:26 pm
shortleash: (pic#17165565)

[personal profile] shortleash 2024-06-23 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
... Did you not receive your own charm from Robin?

( The only correct answer here is that its presence is masked, think fast, )
lustro: (051)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-06-23 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
[ … What a spell. ]

Wow

[ That is something Ginger is still learning to understand - the severity of death, the absolute inevitability of it for those that are born to die. Death itself had not been inherently cruel, to Ginger - separation is what’s cruel, he’d thought. Severed relationships. Even his fear of death was passive - akin to knowing a cut will hurt and being wary of that moment, but never looking beyond that.

Ginger’s greatest fears had been rejection, heartbreak. Rum’s rejection would break his heart into so many pieces he’d forget how to breathe; he’d cry himself to death. Death wasn’t the fear there.

It was Mika who came into his life and brought along death. That line on Mika’s neck still taunts him - maybe that’s why he finds himself fixated on it when they’re alone. Would that he had Mika’s fangs to piece through skin and tear away the scar, and throw out death’s touch - its invitation and demand.

Losing Mika is a very real fear, his worst fear, but Ginger losing himself? Abstract, nearly abstruse. Death, he thinks, cannot touch him. Who would ever allow Death’s decaying steps to touch Heaven’s pristine clouds?

And so when Mika asks him, he blinks, surprised. ]


… No, it was always for you.

[ He doesn’t say he’d been busy working on different spells - the charms to mitigate fall damage (mostly, for Mika; during the Eastern mission, the rain, the attack, the fall), the spell to bind memory (for Day, so that Mika and Tatara could rest easier). He hadn’t thought to make himself anything. ]

I have the moon defense charm from Yamato. And… you.

[ All he needs, in his opinion. ]
shortleash: (pic#17121457)

[personal profile] shortleash 2024-06-23 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
( Mika clicks his tongue, but at least it isn't the upset, flat tone he took with Ginger during the group meeting - he's learning to be a little better than that (a little bit). Not that he's any happier now than he was then. Ginger is like Yuu in this regard: self-sacrificial when given the option. He might try to mitigate - he has argued on behalf of his own case and Mika has accepted it - but like this, in this moment, danger to himself seems almost a blind spot to Ginger.

He exhales, trying to keep his heart steady. Solutions, solutions. If this is Ginger's blind spot, then Mika will be his eyes.

He shakes his head, like a metaphorical spray bottle. )


I would take any hit that comes your way. But I know you don't want that.

( And he knows that's not what Ginger meant. But in the same way Ginger measured the ambition of his protective charm for Mika, and understood Mika would sacrifice what Ginger had offered as protection - Mika wants to emphasize this, too, is the same case. If Ginger does not protect himself enough, Mika will make up for the difference.

He has already done so, fatally, once - for Yuu. And he would not hesitate to do it twice, for Ginger.

He slips his hand from Ginger's own and from his chest, and he fishes out Robin's charm from his pocket. He cups it between his hands, as if holding spring water. And though Robin's magic radiates the unnerving coolness of death - Mika still holds it fast, in the same way the flickering sage holds fast to those threads. )


... Donec moraire.

( Once again.

It is a request to Robin's magic; a gentle fissure that exerts itself between the thickly-woven threads of Robin's Northern magic, asking if he might split it apart, in this methodical, Eastern, way. And with his gentle pressure, his firmness, he is granted passage (thanks, Mauyn!!).

The charm splits in two - the mark of Grima cleaved clean into halves. The effect, therefore, is halved for the both of them - they would have less time until the charm burns to ash - but it remains effective. From the split ends blooms small vines; leaves; roses - very small, and rather thornless, but they wind around the halves like a locket, and the vines form a hook. They will stay firmly attached to their persons, wherever they're placed.

He offers one half to Ginger. )


It can't only be for me when we're only whole together.

( tbh the reason robin's magic let him in must be because the sentiment resonates in some mysterious way... )
lustro: (117)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-06-23 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ Ginger wants to argue because that’s less time for Mika should anything happen. But - it’s not as though he can reject Mika’s magic, when they share one heart. Anytime Mika flows into him with his words, his touch, his magic, Ginger opens himself, the space already made and fitted to the shape of Mika.

And as Mika had said, the truth is they’re only whole together. ]


Yes, Mika.

[ He tucks the charm away. Thank you, Robin. Sorry, Robin. ]

I do have a promise to keep to the love of my life, so don’t take a blow for me. Please, sweetheart. Help us both dodge instead?

[ Compromise, compromise. He’s already thinking that if anything happens, he’s getting Mika out of there and to a healer regardless of his own state. ]

How much magic did you use to do all of that? Do we need to…?

[ Replenish his magic with blood? ]
shortleash: (pic#17103479)

[personal profile] shortleash 2024-06-23 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
( Mika hesitates, then - shakes his head. )

... I don't know if now is a good time.

( To take from Ginger, when he might need it, should anything happen - and to rile up the both of them in the way bites kind of do. He'd make himself manage.

If anything, he seems far calmer - relieved - seeing Ginger acquiesce to the split charm. It's not ideal (Mika would rather Ginger have the full effect, himself), but they just have ... to make sure that it's enough, right? )
lustro: (006)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-06-23 05:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ Already brainstorming ideas to get around that. Now is clearly not the time for their usual.

Then maybe something like this? Something similar to what he’d done this morning. He takes Mika’s hand again. ]


Tell All One’s Heart.

[ Ginger’s magic asks first, prodding gently - ‘Ready for me?’ Slow as molasses, it pours into Mika in a thin stream. Not too much, he knows Mika would fret, but enough to act as a pick-me-up. ]
shortleash: (pic#17176078)

[personal profile] shortleash 2024-06-23 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
( Ah...

He welcomes it, of course. There is a faint pulse of guilt at the self-condemning memory of the time he had been too angry to accept Ginger's magic, but he banishes it from his mind - or tries, anyway - lest his heart lock up, and his chest become too tightly gated to let the magic through.

He relaxes into it, like a filling bath. It stops short of overwhelming him, which - he would allow, if Ginger ever wanted to drench him in his magic. A little less himself; a little more the both of them. )


... Thank you. ( He looks - and feels - rejuvenated, for sure. He gently lays a hand to Ginger's cheek - concerned, of course. ) That wasn't too much from you?
lustro: (016)

[personal profile] lustro 2024-06-23 07:09 am (UTC)(link)
You’re welcome. And thank you.

[ For accepting his magic. He leans into the touch, smiling softly. ]

It’s us.

[ His simple explanation, tone light. He would gladly share and carry the weight of them both. He’s said it before and he’ll say it forever. As it is, that much won’t tire him.

If he runs out of magic, he’ll then rely on his feelings - and his feelings for Mika will never dry out. He’ll be fine, dear heart. ]