inflicting memories and slipping the ring

[22:52] What mayhaps was once nothing more than a suite posed for work had shifted throughout the passage of time. Whence it were barely lived in, saved only for one, the tonal shift of more souls confining themselves to this abode has posed a drastic shift.

From the cold and absent showing of its initial holding to one befitting of at least a smallest scale of a household.

Within, the shifting motions of a leading Jude propel himself to stand amidst the center of the room. With hands tucked within the inner pockets of his coat, he looks on with an expectant gaze; anticipating something.

"For a while, I have been attempting to accomplish something with my time," he announces, posh in the usual baritone of his declaration. "And I at the very least wish to pass a much more memorable reminder if my connection with you."

Piqued from months of harrowing work lies the ebbing conclusion prepared by the Cirque for a decided moment.

Pulling free from his hand lies a velvet ring box, fuzzed in dark indigo as a hand pulls open the container.

Within holds the beauteous contours of a brilliant gemstone, cut cleanly to find a place upon a fine-crafted arcanium band; glimmering in opulence at the mere shift upon the light above them. Inscribed runes glow the faintest blues, calling for an unerring mixture of cold and warmth.

A ring.

"For as long as I could, I wish to let this be a more grandiose statement on my end," he hums. Deep breaths clutter amidst each sentence, propelling an internal preparation as the tone finally breaks free.

"Olivia Kalogera, I wish to imprint our memories together upon this ring. Be it a lasting statement for each other's hold."

"A connection that cannot be severed, even in death."

Upon his free hand, the soldered and empowered present of a memory glimmers, reaching out for hers. What was imbued with the essence of Soulsteel and the lasting effects of vials of pure ether, he holds it out. An abstract shape, priming to pull in memories to be embedded upon the proclaimed wedding bands.

An act to cement their memories together.
(Jude Cirque)
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[00:57] Her own expression reflected an acute awareness of for what exactly Jude had called her here. With sure credit to his sincerity, Olivia's jade irises fell upon the face of her verisimilar counterpart, and they scrutinized him as if reading pages of a book which was nigh-unreadable. Although hiding her emotions was second-nature, Olivia, long of the habit of not carrying on such things in private correspondence, transform into an expression of open astonishment.

"An impression of our memories?" her voice carried away -- to an indefinite distance, moving then in inaudible reflection.

Notwithstanding the illusion by which she had allowed herself to exist and continue within Jude's world, Olivia still felt herself the outsider. Never would she have expected to have been so hopelessly smitten, obsessed, with the determinants of another soul still on Esshar, nor could she have expected to find herself concerned with the determinants of a soul which was not her own. On the subject of anima, Olivia has thus far lived as though she were a machine without feelings, soulless and heartless and plodding every forwards to a destiny in which she had no say. Absent the edification of the Cosmos upon the state of her soul, Olivia, long resigned to the fact that she could not be saved and, hence, should not be saved, had deluged her mind in despair, and consequent to that despair, she had thenceforth sought the counsel and aims of an absent entity.

Their two worlds - Network and Church, Nidaz and Cirque - which exist only in fantastic and opposite views of one another, had pooled into each-other in an uneasy mixture on impetus of the unsuspected depths of sentiment which stirred in their hearts. By what privilege did she deserve his sangfroid efforts, and by what privilege did he deserve to look upon that lustrous eminence which had been anointed by stars fel and fair?

"Indeed we must," she bade in firm conclusion, canting her eyes from the unreadable to the curious inconstant reflexivity of the ring and ether, which glowed with a light of its own. Both gentle and serious, her thin digits curl upon the gem. That which was, or, at least, that which she pictured to be, enter the memory with the coolness of gentle palpitations.
(Olivia Kalogera)
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[01:14] From the bead would minds meet. Whereas like a sponge does it seem to shiver and grow porous as human experiences begin to dabble and coagulate upon the wispy emanations of such a rare and alien substance.

Softly does the built façade face once more. A coveted smile, saved only for the one before him flashes as the canting nod that followed suit begins to the process. "And so it shall be done," he whispers.

Upon its starry visage does the mote echo a distant thought. A thought emplaced before the impetus of such an item; familiar solely to the two of them.

The practiced formations of Spiritmancy present its eventual use as the cerulean irises of the gentleman glow an icy blue. The fizzle, fading and pulsating as if a means of signaling their forays past what was tangible. Goosebumps trickle as the offer had brought up the verisimilitude of what was to be remembered.

A fraction of who they were, idolized merely by the replaying words exchangedupon that fateful evening.

'A partnership, between you and I. One for a lifetime, however short or long it may be.'

Like a ghost, it haunts the fragment that they had physically held. The essence of their union slowly bursting into wispy comets, drifting from the Fleeting Memory as they slowly envelop the ring that would be theirs in moments.

'I should not want anything more. That is, if you would have me.'

They glide, the warmth it exposed siphons the experience, plucking a fragment of the two as if a material for the very outcome of the pair of bands. A recluse of reminders that slowly leave a lasting blankness upon each other's psyche.

What felt like a lifetime of memories waded through splits merely for but a mere few seconds, shifting amorphously as—at least in the case of Jude—the raw reminiscation of his betrothed falls into place.

The ring flickers. One soul willing in the union.
(Jude Cirque)
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[01:56] A deal had been given, signed, made inviolate. That which she retained on this earth for the sanctity of her passage towards the eternal. A life hardly lived was thrown away willingly for her mere soul.

True, this was lastingly incomprehensible, that the chenille of which others most prized she tarnished, but that which others willingly signed away she kept most cherished. If it was true that vices were never without punishment, she would have been smote by the divine, but instead they have been rewarded with blessing and divine fervor. Had the intervention of the stars, then, irrevocably destroyed those burdensome chains which bound her upon an uncertain future? Or was the future passage and journey of her soul still her lone possession, the only thing that she had retained in her obstinate grief?

Upon their final hour, it is that which causes her countenance to swell and shift with pangs of confusions. Ponderous hesitation upon the factthat she could lose the illumination of Eternal Light lifted her deeper into despair.

But love is law to itself alone.

Olivia sets forth her soul, a pitiful, weak, meager thing, lacking the defiance or tepidness which had deluged her own consciousness. A portion of that which, being devoted to the preeminence of starlight, had sought salvation and won it, even shackled to the will of that which sought only the destruction of the heavenly sphere.

Gingerly, she raises her left hand and that which remained in her flows as hypostasis into a river unto the store of memories, latent there in that rock for time eternal. Her own memories, of a moment embowered by thin walls and with the somber declarations of her betrothed, flicker into the ether. The fragment of a soul in conflict with itself, over itself, warms the ring with the memory of a time shared together as a lull of contentment of a tempestuous heart.
(Olivia Kalogera)
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[02:14] Crackles of energy burst upon the seams as the radiance of such a process burns like a supernova at the brink of undoing into a blinding bang.

The united march within the somber and cruel world they had signed upon this moment becomes manifest. For that no longer must one endure the hardships and pains ushered forth by the whims of reality in forlorn lonesome.

As the flash of Gehennic magic strives upon the Cirque's countenance would the fervor of the memories reach apotheosis.

The huddle of scintillas, like moths to a flame, reunite upon the ring as the shift of coloration cements their imbued presence upon the gift imposed upon the priestess.

Whereas her soul may had found forfeit, his shifts like the moving sails of a boat toward a lighthouse upon the waning sun. A sense of clarity proves his assurance: for no matter the destination, whatever blockade may veer its head forth, there remains the wish to be with one's inamorata.

"Even in death, we shall not part," he murmurs, nigh defiantly against the very makings of the world that proves otherwise. "And in life do I promise to keep you upon my best wishes."

Slowly, a hand conjoins with hers. The heated warmth that the mote of a Fleeting Memory still holds the lasting residue of its initial presence upon the gentleman's palms, a heat bringing on the comfort a husband could to his wife.

Pinched upon the forefingers of his free hand, the Cirque sets off the momentous item. Saternus, the darkest of stars upon the nebulous skies. Its fashioned presence slips as the first ring is brought upon the contours of Oliva's annular finger.

The ring of their vow clamors. The resounding thump of ardor nestles as the soft embrace of its metallic hold finds her. "My beloved."
(Jude Cirque)
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[02:45] "Even in death," she repeats.

Her chin lifts to meet Jude's, and that lassitude which had so long lingered in the deepest and most arcane parts of her jade irises seems to banish, for time indeterminate, on the confirmation of their shared vows.

The repose of Saternus unto her thin digits and the swell of their spirits into the rings brings with it a swell of emotions as those of painters and musicians who elevate the beauty of the natural into the sublime. Intertwined, Olivia mirrors his final declaration with vivacity and amorous tone.

"My beloved."
(Olivia Kalogera)