Vermilion Tears.

[Kage]

The air is salty. Water rushes over the sides of the cliffs below. The ocean. Merciless as ever. The countless lives it swallows without even twitching. Rain pours down on the hillside, the drops making their own sound, their own music. But it was quiet on this hillside. Nothing but the water from the ocean and the sky made a noise. No birds sang, the weather forbid it. No wolves howled, the sky was too dark for a moon. The hillside wasn't large, only a small group could possibly fit on it. But there was no one. There was no need for anyone, they would visit at their own time. A lone gravestone sits atop the hill, in the center.

Here lies Krest Fairstar.

Blacksmith, Father, Swordmaster.

May he rest in peace.

[sunday12321]

A figure stands near the tombstone. Its height suggests a fairly thin human man. The gentle wind makes his light jacket rustle. He tips his hat with his right hand, the left sleeve is folded where the forearm would be. And though no one is around him that moment, he still opens his mouth to speak, as if the dead could hear him anyway.
"I got two words I could say about you. One of them is that you were an asset to this world. The other one shares the same first three letters, but I will avoid profanity. Holy ground and what not..."
The flame of his lighter illuminates the stone for a brief moment.
"Don't make Bwonsamdi kick you out, old friend."
He tips his hat again, and turns to leave.

[MstrCorvus]

A large Elven man wearing dark purple plate stands looking down at the tombstone. He lets out a ghostly sigh.
"Went and got yourself killed just after you met your brother. I must be pretty horrible then." A small chuckle escapes him and he pulls up his hood low over his face.
"Seeya."
He turns and walks down the hill, leaving his brother alone on the hilltop.

[WindZealot]

Footprints...No, paw prints would mark the path leading to Mr. Fairstar's grave. An elf wearing a metal mask walked up to the grave, and stared for a long while, her worg behind her, waiting. Varyis stared at the tombstone for a long while, her hissing breath due to her mask being the only sound sans the rain. Finally, she uttered a phrase, and set back to mounting up on her wolf.

"...See you around, Boss."

With that, the elf rode off.

[Bitlordman]

Rezzak slowly made his way, holding a small piece of cloth. He sighed loudly, crouching down only to extend his hand further and burry the cloth he held in his hand underneath the soil. He removed his mask, fully gazing at the tombstone now. He smirked faintfully, with a long shaking stare. ''Ye' were one of those peepol tha' had something to show to this world. It wasn't ye' time... not yet."

With that Rezzak simply stood up, gently leaning his hand on the coldish stone for a moment. "We be all joinin' ye one day. Maybe there we can finish our neva' ending fight!" He chuckled for a short period of time, mumbling a small blessing for the elf. "Loa guide ye' through tha dead path brotha."

[Maarten]

The Elf, rain ticking off his white glistening armor, approached the grave slowly. He smirks."First mom dies, now you. Bah, even disowned you're still my father. A jerk but my father. Maybe it wasn't your time, maybe it was. Whatever it was, know that you will be missed, old man." If he could, he would let out a tear. The Elf slowly pushes himself up and turn. He walked back down the slope and disappeared into the fog from whence he came.

[Loxmardin]

She probably wouldn't have come here if it wasn't for the stubborn insistance of a Lady Scales they both knew all too well.

Frowning, Ardanna stood before the gravestone with her arms folded over her chest. This was definitely not the first gravestone she'd visited like this, nor was the man buried here the last person to come and go, however briefly, through this Blood Elf's life. There would be no tears shed or heartfelt words offered this time, but she knelt before Krest's resting place and gingerly placed a golden pendant with a phoenix motif upon the soil. The bird's wings wrapped protectively around a shimmering gem that almost seemed to swirl upon closer inspection.

"Keep it," she stated simply before she rose again.

She lingered only for a few more moments before she departed, not sparing the tombstone another glance.

[Wanafly182]

The man looked closer at the engraving, as if unable to comprehend what it said. He read it over and over to himself, his heart sinking as the words embedded themselves into his head. He walked closer, stepping onto freshly grown grass. Six feet under him was one of his closest friends, gone from this world. His eyes drifted along the edge of the gravestone, a small pendant, placed sometime before him, with which on it the symbol of the phoenix. He smiled lightly, a fitting metaphor for someone who burned so brightly with what life they had in them. His mouth opened, but words failed him. If he held any belief that Krest would hear him, he held it now. For the long moment he held on it, he opened his mouth and spoke.

"I didn't know you long. Not compared to family or whoever was with you in the Reach, of course, but you were my friend. I...I'll be honest, I was never on-board with the Reach. Mainly because I went unpaid for most of my time there." He paused, giving a small smile as a memory drifted through his head. "We had many differences, we had arguments, you threw me out of the Reach over something that I can't even remember." He chuckled lightly, feeling, for a moment, that he was standing there with Krest sitting against the gravestone in front of him. "I came here with the intention of kicking the stone or pissing on the grass you were buried under, I'll be honest. But...No. You deserve better than that." He smiled now, "Goodbye, my friend. If we meet in paradise, you owe me a drink." He hesitated, "And about three months of overdue pay."

With a long look over the site, and another, longer look over the stone, Percy turned, and perhaps reminded of his own mortality, walked quickly off the hillside, a few unhindered tears washing down his smiling face.