— BEARING FRUIT ( VARIANT ).

[ Rather than linger at the Tree, he leaves as soon as he can. A stumbling, diminuative figure that cannot bear to remain in the dirt, and easily refuses to help any struggling figures as they claw their own way from the grave. They shouldn't come out, they shouldn't be here. Allowing them to be here, in the end, is wrong and needs to stop. It all needs to stop. The moment he hits the nearby Cornerstone, he calls out into the ether — take me where I can make it stop —

And so, he finds himself in Highstorm. Dazed and dirty, with moss in his hair and blood under his fingernails. A child, no more than eleven, with dark eyes so emptied out of life and a stillness to him so strong that he seems, at times, to be frozen in time. To be dead, walking and shambling. Thin-wristed and battered around the knees, rubbing at his eyes as he walks into the depths of Highstorm without even a look-back at potential of Meridian, of Springstar. ]

— maman, the kittens will not eat.
— my hunting dogs, my wolves with iron teeth.
— set our course, bearing eight-two-six.
— lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
— it must end, end, end.

[ He speaks in fragments, wobbly-limbed and disoriented, until finally the child with dark eyes and hair collapses in the street and curls his fingers into fists, into his hair by his ears and covers them, as if to block out the sound of something unending around him. Too much. Too much. ]

— HIGHSTORM.

[ Yima appears. Yima addresses them all, and seated in a high-backed chair in her Manor's yard, there is a child with dark eyes, who looks at her

with such hatred.

No, no. It is not hatred in those eyes, so fast does he swallow it down. It is guileless confusion, his mouth pulled into a deep frown and brows knit, helpless and unhappy as he looks through the crowd and looks and looks and finally settles upon someone. In his hands is one of the seasonal drinks, lurid and bright in the cup, and he looks vaguely disquieted by its presence, holding it up in offering to the individual he has picked out of the crowd. ]

Um, would you want this? Mama told me to never accept anything from a stranger. Someone — someone said "mama isn't here anymore", though...

— WILDCARD.

[ OOC. Anything goes! Yuca can be found anywhere as an Unharmonized Shard-bearer, seeking information and alliances by playing up his "helpless child" role. Notably, Yuca is a child in shape alone, and is actually a millenias-old immortal entity that really, really wants to die! He's here to noodle around, potentially as a future replacement for another character who will be PERMAKILLED ( coughcoughbondrewdcough ), and is only here for some fun time atm. One day...... he's 110% a future Zenite, potentially a Stargazer or Harbinger, but for TDM purposes, he's [REDACTED].

For anyone new who wants to TDM, here's a free toplevel to tag into for fun! I'm Pax, player of Set, Bondrewd & Drizzt Do'urden! ]