![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
KENOS IC CONTACT
© TESSISAMESS
[ Communion with Silco is like being doused in cold, polluted water. It feels like taking a breath is difficult, like there's fingers around your throat, pain all over. The water is too-slick like it's almost more pollutants than water, and the water crashes against you, inescapable, even if you were to somehow find the ability to breathe, there is still no escape from the sickening undertow. Somewhere, perhaps deeper in the water, or something else, is a simmering, vile hatred, resentment, and it feels like it should be hot enough to make the water around you boil, even if it's almost too-placid, and too cold. Like all of this hatred is buried deep. Then again, the fact that it feels so close means it must burn so hot. ]
no subject
His lips curled, and he looked Gen up and down. ]
One of my many ventures.
[ He said, and turned slightly toward him. Gen will notice a very familiar golden pin on his own lapel, something Silco kept on him at all times. ] Ryad is an excellent...testing ground, you know.
[ As if to punctuate it, there's the echo of a howl, and several slams against a wall...somewhere within there. ]
I did not expect to see you making time in there -- [ Eyes flicked toward Gen's own pin, with an -- ] Ah, just business?
no subject
His next breath comes as a slightly more tense huff when he looks back to Silco. ]
No, just here for a fun nighttime stroll.
[ Said deadpan, because they both know that's a ridiculous thought. Guaranteed safety or not, Ryad isn't exactly the sort of place anyone should be hanging out for fun.
Which, of course, means Silco definitely isn't here just to kill time, either. Gen ignores another bout of banging coming from the wall nearby, focused solely on Silco. ]
... a testing ground for what? [ He has his guesses. ]
no subject
[ He asked, with a slight tip of his head toward Ryad, the pathway in, and the sounds of howls and screams. A crack now. ]
I have a perfect copy with my power, but that's hardly something I can market and administer, you know. So there have been...efforts toward replicating it in full.
[ He spread his hands. ] All the more useful for those among us without as powers, don't you think?
[ Even with the few powers he has, Silco does still consider himself without power. Even though Sebastian's mark was burned into his hand, he still saw himself as the little thing without power for influence. It was a part of how he saw himself, how he thought of himself. It was a part of the whole picture to which he still thought of himself, even if every day, he found himself further and further from that picture of himself. ]
no subject
'Without powers,' huh. [ A slow cant of the head as he lets his gaze flickers from the mismatched glow of Silco's eyes, to his hands, then swiftly back. ] Sure, I get it. [ He lies, like a liar. ] Though I dunno if I really buy it that you're as defenseless as you say.
[ He wouldn't be at all surprised if Silco has some two or three nasty abilities up his sleeve that he's just been keeping hidden. Not that he's expecting to figure out the answer to that so easily, though, even if he'd love to know the full scope of Silco's abilities. (As a failsafe. So he better knows how to gank the fucker like he deserves.
So for now, he settles for rummaging through his pockets for a cigarette like always, parking it between his lips to feign his usual brand of teenage apathy as he mutters, ]
What even is your endgoal with that shit? Seemed useful enough, but it wasn't like poison or anything, was it. [ He's taken advantage of it two, three times by now, after all, and it hasn't had any effect on him, he's pretty sure. ] You just trying to get people hooked on it over time?
no subject
Well, perhaps a few of his faction spells, but even those were not quite so direct.
No, Silco had never been one for fighting himself, despite the brawls he'd been in as a boy. He had always been the one off to the side, behind, with a knife ready to launch in, but never in the forefront. That was not who Silco was, after all. He'd been the face, of a sort, as he was now. Much better that than the one getting his face punched in.
Much. ]
It's not. Oh certainly it is a drug like any other in some aspects. Addictive, and those who cannot control their want for it will experience it like any other drug.
The point is to bring power to the powerless. Even here. There are those of us shard-bearers who have so little compared to the Quetzalcoatls of the world. There are those of us who have so little, and we're thrust into this war the same as any other. And then there are the natives here, who have little to no power compared to even the weakest of us.
Why should I not bring this to them? Even the playing field just a little bit.
no subject
He's never forgotten the vast differences in power between himself and some of the other Shardbearers, after all. Even after more than a year of being tossed around strange worlds, even after being granted some special bullshit anime powers of his own, he still knows he wouldn't really stand a chance if one of those superpowered freaks seriously wanted him dead. A chance to even the playing fields is something he totally sees the allure of. ]
So you're planning on just handin' it out to the people here? [ There's a shriek somewhere not too far off, and Gen tilts his head towards it. This area's way too dangerous to be fucking around in, is his impression thus far. ] Sure, I guess that'll help you win some favors against the Meridian, but you sure that's gonna be worth it? Dunno if people here're gonna stick by you just 'cause of that.
[ A pause. Then: ]
Shouldn't you be focusing on your fellow Shardbearers instead, hm? If you're really looking to even the playing field.
[ 'Fellow Shardbearers' he says, but he means himself. Is it shameless coming at Silco from this angle? Probably. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Not to mention -- it'd probably be best to act casual around Silco for a while. Really try and sell that they're of the same ilk, and Silco can trust him as far as a man like that is capable of trusting anyone. ]
no subject
What I offer those Topside [ Said with a small amount of bite ] is imperfect. Experimental. It is not fully developed, yet.
What I give to shardbearers... [ With that, he lifted his hand, gloved, and waggled his fingers. ]
Is the pure version. Without any dangers for the livelihood of our fellow bearers. [ He clasped his hands behind his back, the cigar smoldering in his fingers. ]
But we must start somewhere, shouldn't we? For my fellow bearer, I can control what I provide, no addiction, all of the power. For those who purchase it, however, who are not those I wish to uplift, it is very different.
[ By design of course. He could encourage a bearer to be addicted, couldn't he? Though power is just as addictive as the drug's other effects. ]
no subject
It could really wreck some havoc if that shit got a proper foothold among the Meridian, huh. ]
... sure, I get it.
[ A half-shrug. ]
But you say what you're giving to the Springstar folks -- [ brief pause before he changes tack, repeating Silco's term a little pointedly: ] -- to the Topside is experimental. Won't they catch on if they see you handing shit out and it starts messing them up? Not exactly like you're keeping on the down-low. Or hard to recognize.
no subject
[ He says, his fingers drug across his lips. ]
I imagine they would. [ A Ghost of a smile. ] Though one cannot make progress without some mishaps, this one is... calculated, you have nothing to worry about on that front.
I have... anticipated the reactions they may take.
[ In fact, his tone suggests, that this is what he wants, though Silco doesn't say that. The key to keeping things from others, and not giving too much away, is to simply leave more unsaid than said. ]
no subject
Not that he's trying to look entirely respectful and good-natured -- he knows he's usually too much of a shithead, and that would only draw suspicion. It's just that, in this case, he deliberately gears his shitty attitude less towards being obnoxious and more towards being opportunistic. ]
Sounds like you've got a nice little setup all planned out, huh.
[ Said at a languid drawl. Then a pause before he continues: ]
Let me in on it too. We're on the same side an' all, yeah?
no subject
Well, that is why I mentioned it to you.
[ He states, simply. It should be obvious, he thinks, if he is speaking of something, that it would mean he intends to do so around someone. Silco is an incredibly deliberate, incredibly controlled man. The type of person who keeps everything in place, everything carefully stacked and organized.
The things he says to one person, he does not to another, and so on, and so forth. ]
Do you think I could trust you with such a duty? Pushing this topside? I'll offer protection, of course, if you need it. Gregór could use the opportunity to leave the bar.
Stretch his legs a bit.
[ Keep an eye on him. ]