The Shaping of a Yeleni | Aolin's Ascension with Omei

Aolin · January 2021

Because RP with @Omei is full of COLOR, this will be a conglomerate of copied text (from before I started logging) and screenshots. Trust me, it's better this way.

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Aolin steps silently onto the glorious petals, stopping to commune with the prismatic moths with a faint grin before selecting a cushion before the throne of the Imago and settling into it. Closing her eyes, she concentrates on the emptiness within herself, contemplating it with the eye of an artist upon a blank canvas.

For a long time, Aolin sits, cold and grey, a distorted view of potential perfection like a statue seem through murky waves. Her brows, first deeply furrowed, slowly smooth as her face takes on a serenity and resolve. The distractions of the world outside her head fade into irrelevance, flies on the wall of someone else's house altogether. Thoughts crystallize, shimmering like pyrotechnic sparklers against the void inside, and Aolin's lips part, words hovering at the edge of her lips like a cliff diver contemplating the leap.

Eyes closed and body still, Aolin considers the truths found along her long journey. The words finally come, careful and delicately formed, still fragile and fresh and luminescent against the hollowness inside. With a whispered prayer to Lady Omei, she opens her eyes and stares up at the moon as it plays with the murky clouds, tasting each word and finding it good. "All emotions are beautiful in their way, and only by embracing them can you control them." Picking out glimmers of stars amid the slow-moving sky cover, she smiles serenely and continues with in a thoughtful tone. "The past can only hold on to you as much as you allow it to- even if the price of refusing that hold is high." Heartbeats pass, almost audible in the silent night, so high above the Woods below the chromatic petals. Violet eyes flicker as the hardest lesson of all makes a last struggle to escape her, but is brought to bear quickly with a honed discipline. "I am worthy." Disbelief echoes through the words despite her best efforts, and she shakes her head. "I am worthy," she repeats, and this time the words click into place like a key in a lock. "A worthy artist and musician. Worthy of friendship and belonging. Worthy of happiness." A final pause. "Worthy to ascend."

"Such words from a once mouse," Omei murmurs, Her voice coming from a point not so far behind you. On silent hindpaws, She steals forward, Her shadow preceding the stride of Her sable legs, and stands at your side. She lifts a claw, slow, to place it there on your shoulder.

Still staring up at the moon, Aolin reaches up a chill, grey hand and places it over Omei's with a small, ironic smile. "It's been a long road from here to there," she says quietly. Pushing a tangle of hair from her face, she takes a deep breath of the flower-perfumed night air, holding it in her lungs for several seconds before exhaling. Looking up with a ghost of an impish grin, she tilts her head. "I have a request to make of you, my Queen, if you're willing."

"The road is neverending - for its length is a mere matter of perspective," Omei returns easily. She circles to your back, Her other paw finding its place at your opposite shoulder. She makes slow inspection of the bones and muscles which bunch beneath your grey skin. The moonlight washes Her dark fur to an eerie, pale slate, and sparks of a soft, rosy hue drift into view, lost from the pits of Her eyes. "Ask," She bids you gently.

Merek arrives from the down.

Merek peers about himself suspiciously.

Merek slips along after making his offering.

Omei stares expectantly at Merek, Her eyes bright red and seething.

Merek leaves to the down.

Omei turns back to you, the momentary brightness fading away. A minute amount of tension drains from Her huntress' claws.

Aolin nods easily at the words, laughing quietly. "I have a long way to go, yet," she agrees, pulling her legs into a tighter cross-legged position. The unexpected arrival sends a faint wave of tension through her body to match Omei's own, but one that quickly dissipates as the insignificance of the arrival and departure filter through a newfound serenity. When they are alone once more, she looks upward and backward, hair falling away as she smiles. "I would request that you fill this emptiness in me with Life, my Lady. With your essence. When I worked the quicksilver with Straid today, I felt more alive and filled than I have since becoming hollow, and.. it feels right. I want to become Yeleni, and by your hand."

Omei smiles down upon you, Her maw a second, crescent moon in your sky. Her tail flits slow and thoughtful as She considers your stretched, slate-grey shape - but if She's perturbed by your shape, She gives nary a sign of it. "The Narrator is one to inspire such enthusiasm in silverwork," She purrs, a fondness in Her tone. "It has been long since I have granted such a request. Most simply work upon such essence as they can find, to one end or another."

Omei, the Imago murmurs to you, "You would be the first hollow one I have wrought in My reign."

Aolin smiles softly, shaking her head again and sending straw-like tendrils tickling against the paws on her shoulders. "I don't want just any essence, Lady Omei. I want yours. You are everything to me, and it would be the greatest honor I could imagine for you to shape me." She pauses, a thoughtful look crossing her face. "Will it hurt?" she asks. Her tone is unconcerned, curious, more suited to asking about the color of a dress than the filling of a soul.

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Thank you so, so much for this incredible experience, Omei. Seriously, you (and Iesid) are the primary reasons I stuck around long enough to give Aetolia a solid chance, and you continue to be easily some (if not most) of my favorite parts of it.