[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/Svvasvb.png[/img][/center]
[hider=Toun is guilt-tripped.]
- Toun starts to feel that maybe he overreacted, but he stays angry.
- Vestec shows up and Toun is unimpressed with him assuming that he gives a witch's teat about mortal creations like Teknall does.
- Vestec's rant makes him think that maybe that's what he seemed like when he was being a dick to Astarte. He resolves to find out if she actually cares by checking if she signed the Oath of Stillbirth.
- Ull'Yang's presence is noted. As is his absence from the oath.
- Toun finds Astarte's signature and its residual abloo-bloos. As Toun is also feeling pretty flat, he feels guilty. He returns to Astarte and reluctantly apologises without saying sorry.
- Toun tells Vestec to sod off and then starts walking away.
[/hider]

Toun's reaction as he was pulled back by Teknall went almost too far. His head snapped around and stretched out to look at him with his blue eye burning and his elbow raised up, almost as if he was going to strike the craftsman away. Instead, Toun made himself still. Both Teknall's words and Astarte's stammering made the notion that she was there to make light of the tragedy not so obvious anymore.

Toun's gaze turned back to Astarte, then to Teknall, and then to Astarte again. He silently considered whether to continue looking furious for the sake of saving face. And then Vestec showed up.

Before Toun could get a word in, the laughing god made an oratory trying to pose himself and Teknall as complicit in the recent deaths. Toun righted his posture to receive it. At first, it cut deep. It was as if Toun's recent pact meant nothing in Vestec's scorn. It made assumptions about how much he cared about his siblings versus his trust in keeping themselves alive.

As Vestec continued, however, Toun straightened his head and relaxed his eye. Less and less of the jester's spit was applying to Toun at all. He was not as easy to sway with sentiments towards mortals, and he had been nothing if not diligent protecting the creations he made use of. Vestec's words were intended to provoke them, but he wasn't realistically in a position to cause true mischief with both himself and Teknall present. 

Toun looked away, not in guilt, but in thought. Funnily enough, Vestec's rant served as a demonstration of his own behaviour, forcing him to reflect. There was no point in listening. Only accepting that he should do better. There was at least one way to do that.

[color=PaleGoldenrod][b][i]I never did check before I lost my temper.[/i][/b][/color]

Toun was calmed, somehow. He did not wait for Vestec to finish before he gracefully began to walk back to the gate unguarded, not giving anyone another look. Except for Astarte. She received a fleeting and suspicious glance. The glance was broken by a stretched step all the way to his destination.

[hr]
Vestec was right about one thing, at least. Ull'Yang had indeed returned. He was hiding in a stone, for what reason Toun did not know. Nevertheless, Toun had no intention of bothering Ull'Yang if he chose not to show himself. If the sun god had returned here to grieve, he could do so however he liked.

Toun's true heading was the gate. He did not need to look through it for long before he noticed what he was looking for. Of course, Astarte's signature was not as stoic as Teknall's or his own; Toun's eye expressed a softness at its fragility.

[color=PaleGoldenrod][b][i]It does not make sense,[/i][/b][/color] Toun thought. [color=PaleGoldenrod][b][i]You might grieve, but you...Sister, you have written a verse of a goddess falling apart, not anything like you have been before. Have you felt the hollowness as well?[/i][/b][/color]

Ull'Yang's absence on the oath was noted. A detail put aside for later. An unexpected urge came to Toun's mind that he wanted to act upon immediately.

[hr]
Toun was back by the cube before Astarte had finished standing up. His abnormal step rushed to a stop right in front of her and Toun bore his stare right into her eyes, head craned forward. He blinked, suddenly realising how unpracticed he was in what he was about to do.

[color=PaleGoldenrod][b]"Sister, wait please."[/b][/color] Toun's eye darted to the ground and back up. He was otherwise deathly still. [color=PaleGoldenrod][b]"You...I saw you signed the oath. You are not...you may not behave always as I would prefer, but...you deserve credit enough to not need to suffer my outburst. You are commendable. I do not deserve to be forgiven."[/b][/color]

Toun's eyelid was so taught with shame that he had to rotate himself a quarter turn to break eye contact. He had an answer for Vestec in any case.

The sound of an inward breath preceded Toun's venom returning. Though, this time, it was soundly directed at the god of laughing chaos. [color=PaleGoldenrod][b]"You. I have nothing to prove to you."[/b][/color] He narrowed his eye. [color=PaleGoldenrod][b]"Ebb, brother."[/b][/color]

Toun did not wait to hear a response before he strode around Vestec and started towards the gate again.