[ORP]Ravenous

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Vhagar

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Vhagar »

A Flash of light...

A body broken on the rocks. It's only this way for the briefest of time, though this time the change is slow, hesitant. This time there is more control behind the way the bones and skin shift. How funny that this should be how they learn this thing. There is always jealousy in Vhagar's mind as she thinks of the other who seems to shift so flawlessly, and without pain. How is that fair? Who is this beast and why is everything so much easier for her?It's not fair.

No...it's not. They all knew what they were doing. They are all fake but they are right. He is better off now. And if we die, no one will remember us anyway. Let me try. On my own. Sleep and let me find the answer, even if it means going back. I have the strength to face him because I don't care. You're a liar. But so be it. Do as you must, Beast. I am done.

A flash of light.

He looks up at her from the floor where he's fallen all over himself, stunned into silence. And she smirks back. It seems her plan worked beautifully and he has finally stopped jabbering. All it had cost was a kiss. These creatures have such odd views of simple kisses.

But a few days later and she was wrong. HE was speaking again and had drawn the most interesting of conclusions. Vhagar is surprised and curious. How far will he take these conclusions? How ironic that he considers himself immune to such things and yet has latched so fully to this wrong conclusion. It's amusing. It's almost...endearing. The hunger is getting worse but she has no way out this time, she will not go back to him and act as if she was wrong, no matter how bad this hunger gets, it is better to let the darkness take her and let the beast out.

A flash of light.

The black outs. The waking up from them ill and unable to move. There is blood on her and she doesn't know why. She doesn't know why her stomach churns. But that gnawing of hunger is gone for now and she feels full. If she can only survive again to recover, she will be fine again before the darkness takes her. What is wrong with her? Who is she? WHAT IS SHE?

Another flash of light and the urge to go somewhere much more pleasant for things are getting too close now. She tried to retreat into the memories of good things, but so many of those brought the changeling's face into her head. That was happiness, yes but also despair. Each smile, each kiss flitted through her mind. A time when she was less confused because the cat had helped them see each other, to know the other was there. But they had known before? Another time?

A flash of light.


"You must stop resisting!" Her voice hisses out. Slowly her arms stretch out above her head and her body arches. She moves her feet so that her toes point downward. It is painful to stretch so she stands on her toes and lifts against her arms but if she does not do this then the shackles about her wrists will bite painfully into her skin. Why was he doing this? What was happening to her? Why does he not just kill her and end it. The fear is laced with adrenaline through her blood as the girl strains her ears, listening for any footfalls beyond the cold and dark room. Her mind can hardly focus on anything else. If he comes again, she will beg him for death. Beg him to end her suffering. The last time it had not been fruitful but perhaps this time, this time it would work. She had thought her village an awful and boring place and her heart had longed to find adventure but now she yearned with everything in her to be back in her happy quiet life, even if she'd never be that girl again.

A screaming roar filled the air, vibrating off the walls. No. Not this again. Not one of those days. Frantically, she tugged at her shackles, no longer feeling the bite of metal tearing flesh and despite knowing that it was pointless. Not this. Another roar threatened to burst her ear drums. Through the fog of her own fear, she realized the sound was different today. So long this beast she knew nothing off had been something of a companion for they both suffered at the hands of the same evil. The days when Talia heard the shrieking roaring were always the worst but even so there had been a note of defiance in them. Today it was gone. There was only pain and resignation. Then there they were....footsteps in the hall.

Talia could not stop her tears. She had never been particularly strong but that strength she had heard in the roaring had strangely been comforting. It was gone now, this was a place where strength died. She gave up trying to pull herself free to go still and sob. Then the door was open and she began pleading.


"No please...no more....please just end it...don't hurt me anymore!"

"Talia you must stop resisting. And stop this crying. It's a gift what I am giving you. You will be stronger than you ever have been, then you ever could have been without me. And all mine. The specimen has proven...disappointing. I have collected all I can. I do hope you do not plan to continue disappointing me."

"No no I won't. I'm not! I am trying, please!

A flash of light.

Talia dances about in the meadow with her sister. Her mousy hair swirling loosely about her and blue eyes sparkling. The girls laugh together and Talia so loves dancing. They would collect wildflowers today to present to their father, and he'd dote on them and compliment them. He'd put them in a vase on the table, even if they were in truth only weeds. There was going to be a party soon and Talia had already had boys asking if they might dance with her there. Finally, she turned about and fell back on the grass, the sun's warmth kissing her skin.

"Talia I still can't believe you invited that stranger in. He looked dirty and he gave me the creeps! Father won;t like it!"

"Do not be so fanciful little sister! Father always says we should help the less fortunate.Just because he is dirty does not mean he is bad."


"What is this? I don't know this one." "Because it's MINE...ONLY mine! Get out of it!" "You brought us here...take us back. I was so close to seeing it."

Outside of her mind Vhagar still lays on the ground, oblivious to anything going on.
Silence

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Silence »

((OOC note: This is a post written from the perspective of 2 characters... I'll try and make it clear which one's perspective is being considered at any time.))

Half of the mercurial blade turned in his grave, anomaly no more, they could not move.

The insane warlock stumbled on

The moon eyed fool lead his people away. The old crow taught them once more to scavenge.

The scholar with the watchful crystal… well, they returned to their research, observing hardship.

The pawn with death’s gaze lay cold, thoughtless and motionless… they died as they lived... understanding nothing along with many others like them.

The mercurial blade’s other half continued with his life, doing what he could with the little he had left. The anomaly lived on.

And the navigator… the one now called Fate and once named Shin.

Well, they were getting really quite tired of having to correct for Alder’s antics.

“Strange… I have never once seen you emotional. You were able to fake it quite accurately before, but… I do believe this is the real thing.”

Alder turned on his heel, his hand going for one of the knives he kept up his back.

Yes, usually he wouldn’t take the extra time to draw an extra knife, but when your enemy planned out their every encounter to the nearest fraction of a second, any minor disruption you could throw their way helped.

“Hostile and difficult to deal with as ever, I see.”

“Oh… I don’t know… could it be that yeh turn literally everybody you meet into yer pawns and right now, I’m just about in a wrong enough state of mind to fall for it… and then you choose this moment to show up.”

“Your paranoia has not changed.”

“Why the hell are you here?!”

Shin brushed some dust off his gown as he stepped away from that bar that he had been standing next to. He did not lean on it… after all, it was difficult enough to seem imposing trapped within the body of a child without leaning on things and as such not utilising the full height that he had. The navigator took his time to look around himself.

Yeah… same smug air as usual, like he knew everything that you wanted to know and would take pleasure in keeping it from you for as long as possible, dangling it over you like a damn carrot. Not only that, but somehow he stood at under 4 feet and still managed to make Alder feel like he was being looked down on.

Shin hadn’t changed much since he’d last seen the changeling. Why would he? He intended to be in this position for hundreds of years… allowing his physical form to change this early would imply that he expected himself to change and that change brought with it instability.

He still had bleached white hair tied away from his forehead with a piece of silk, revealing a third eye in the middle of his forehead. His normal two eyes were pitch black, like somebody had replaced them with lumps of coal. The child looked quite unhealthy even not considering that. His veins and internal organs were visible through his translucent skin and the nails of his left hand sharpened into points.

“I am here, Alder… Youken… Witte… because I see an opportunity to set a record straight.”

“Oh?”

“I wish to pay off part of my debt.”

“Really? You couldn’t pick a better time?”

“Alder… time is quite literally not flowing in this moment. We have all the time you require for you to get over whatever emotions are clouding your judgement and then discuss this properly.”

He didn’t know whether to punch the kid in his smug face or thank him for that.

“The star traveller, or Asymikins or something that sounds very similar may claim to have some domain over time, Fate and the like… and I did not take kindly to discovering that my authority was not absolute, but… well, this is hardly challenging. Now, onto the business at hand… I have never, not once seen you emotional. When all was lost and all of us remained in states between rage, despair and terror, Youken was the only one who remained calm and thought of a plan to right things.”

“I ain’t Youken.”

“Irrelevant. You occupy the same place in Fate… the two of you were interchangeable… indistinguishable, if you will. You could have been in his place and he in yours and the result would have been identical.”

“But-”

“I am not done. Even after then, following the death of Youken, you were the one who realised that he had lied to all of us, that he had a plan and that he had given us an opening while the rest of us were convinced he had betrayed us all. The Alder I know, whether he is played by Youken or Witte, would never be reduced to allowing emotion to taint their actions… ever. No matter how terrified, angry, elated or despairing they might be, they act in spite of it, always forcing it aside, biting down the pain of doing so and doing what they believe is right. I… honestly do not like seeing you in this state.”

“Oh… you here because you can’t bear to see the great anomaly that tricked Fate, that tricked you in a state like this? Does it make you look bad that you were outdone by this?” The changeling made a gesture with his free hand, indicating himself.

“Quite… it is not as if I could have any ulterior motive… such as passing on the information that you will find the one who is disrupting your thoughts so much unconscious not that far from here… that she is vulnerable and unguarded as we speak. No, I would not be here to pass on that information, true as it may be, because that would be a great waste of effort on my part for a single petty anomaly to whom I, as Fate itself, should have no attachment for. It is but an ant, after all.”

“You… wait, back up.”

“I’d rather not. Walking backwards in this robe looks quite ridicu-”


“No no no… unconscious? Vulnerable?”

“Oh, I let that slip.”

Shin’s tone was as if commenting on the fact that it was raining. There was no irritated surprise, only a statement of fact.

“You… really haven’t changed.”

“I should hope not. I intend to be a fact of life for a long time since you assisted me in deposing the previous being who held this position. Now, as for why I am really here, you really must stop acting independently of me… or acting at all for that matter. I cannot predict your actions or their results, and as such, crafting a time line with anomalies such as yourself running around and causing havoc is quite-”

“Not gonna happen.”

“Oh… well, I suppose I tried. Woe is me, that I cannot convince you to stop moving. Well, I suppose I have done all that I possibly can. You win this day, changeling.”

“Wait, did you really just come here to-”

“Ask you politely to do something totally unreasonable and then follow up with absolutely nothing when you rather predictably refused, yes… yes I did.”

“Ok… hey, Eyeball.”

The navigator let out an exhasperated sigh.

“What do you want now, annoyance?”

“She don’t need me… in fact, she seems to be tryin real hard to keep me away.”

“You are asking me, of all people, to comprehend your love life?”

“I just… why bother tellin me? Even if she is unconscious, she doesn’t want me to help her. She wants me far away.”

“Oh my, changeling… have you really altered that much? I see permanence only suits one of us… after all, since when has whether or not somebody requested your help been a factor for whether or not you give it?”

“You know… if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to manipulate me. You know, my steward’s doing it… now you… does the old crow want in on this? Maybe we should grab that prism guy? Oh, hey, maybe some of the order are still alive and they can get in on the tricking and manipulation game.”

“Witte… if you truly wish for the truth, this is, as I said, me paying off my debt to you. You gave me my position and my life… I saw an opportunity to repay part of it. Now, what you maggot choose to do with this information is not any of my concern.”

“Alright… get the hell out of here.”

“I intend to… I have spent quite long enough around you for my tastes already. Did it truly occur that you somehow became less agreeable with?”

“Look, get out of here and stop playing with my head before I poke yeh in the eye.”

“As you wish… I take it that I have not paid off my debt?”

“Of course not.”

“That is… good to hear. Now, I simply await the moment that I no longer have to deal with or worry about you.”

“Yeah… at least death won’t have folks like you around that I actually allow to look down their noses at me.”

“I would not be so certain.”

With that, the navigator disappeared and time resumed itself once more.

Of course that didn’t pay off his debt… some cryptic information that Witte didn’t even know what to do with that had required him literally no time at all to deliver against him risking his life multiple times for the child’s sake… it didn’t even get close.

Besides, Shin would never pay off his debt even if he somehow did more than that.

That was what being friends meant to those two, twisted individuals… a permanent debt that both of them agreed to be in to the other. Alder didn’t have many people he considered ‘friends’ left… he’d be damned if he let Shin off that debt any time soon.

Witte spent about three seconds making his decision, then turned and ran. He didn’t know where she’d be, so he’d need to search quickly. Chances were he would be able to do nothing and would not be required, but…

Well, if nothing else, he could make sure she was safe, watch over her and make sure she was comfortable. She didn’t even need to know he’d been there.

She’d run out of here… had that really not tipped him off that something was wrong?

No… it didn’t take that to know that something was wrong. He hadn’t followed her because he’d been asked not to, but… this changed things. This was something he could do without her thinking he was still stuck with her.

After all, how was she supposed to know that she hadn’t just conveniently fallen in a comfortable position on some soft ground and potentially with some moss or some of her dress bunched up under her head? It was… something. He could still do something. And then, if anything went more wrong than just her being a little less than conscious… well, then he’d be around to do... something.

He spent his whole life trying to do things for others that they couldn't or wouldn't do for themselves and, more recently, judging those who were above judgement from any others. He'd be damned if he'd be willing to suffer as much as he had for people he barely knew and then wouldn't at least do this little thing for somebody he actually cared for... so long as she didn't know he'd been around, no harm would come of it, right?


Alder was not the best of trackers when it came to the wild... put him in a city and he could navigate a web of rumours and heresay, ask the right questions of the right people and find nearly anybody... but, out here was not his element. Figured that over the course of his life, he'd have done this so frequently.

Because of that, it took him longer than he would have liked to find Vhagar.
Last edited by Silence on Tue Jun 05, 2018 5:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Vhagar

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Vhagar »

A flash of light...

So many memories flitting through her mind. So many emotions and feelings. So much love. The love of a family who she may not ever see again. Love she may not ever know again. Only that wasn't exactly true. They allowed his face to fill their memory for a moment before pushing themselves further into the darkness.

Their memories filled then with horror and pain. It exploded over her body as it lie motionless on the rocky earth. She fought back, willing herself to take in one memory at a time. The beast took the pain into herself. The beast was strength that the girl had never had.


"No please...I'm so tired...make it stop!

"You must stop resisting, girl!"

"I'm not I promise, please!"

Weakly, her head drops down and she hangs limply from her chains. Around ehr the world goes fuzzy. Then, a frustrated growl as the last syringe is stabbed directly into her chest, piercing her heart. The girl screams, lifting her head to fill the air with her scream as heat and pain sears through her chest. "The dragon is dead, this MUST work or we will have to start again!" Then there is only darkness. The cold of the darkness, the emptiness, it's almost relieving. How easy it would be to just stay there. How much safer, even if it is filled with nothingness. Almost as if through a tunnel that gravely voice reaches her even through the emptiness. "It is a shame. Next time a corpse, freshly dead. Perhaps we should try that. Go fetch me another beast, something smaller this time!"

Suddenly the darkness vanishes as quickly as it came. But the room looks somehow wrong. Almost as if it had grown smaller. The girl gasps awake, throwing her head back again. Her eye open but a yellow gold color spreads from the middle until they are filled with nothing else. Her skin crawls for a moment then pain explodes over her as scales erupt from i, bleeding. Then more pain and a scream that sounds more like a roar as wings tear through the skin of her back and stretch out behind and above her. With a snarl, she tugs at the chains with clawed hands. When had they grown so slack? What was happening to her? She flinches as her ears fill with gleeful laughter.

"Finally, I've done it! I've done it! And you will be mine, formidable!"

"What have you done to me? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

"I've improved you."

Her hands tug hard at her chains as she snarls again. As the pain of her transformation fades, something else replaces it. A gnawing and much more urgent feeling, clawing it's way from deep within her. The confusion of it only enrages her further. She must...but what is it she must do? What was this clawing at her from within. As if the empty from the dark place had followed her here and threatened to swallow her whole and anything or anyone else that got too close/ Already her mind was frantically trying to make sense of her suffering, her torment, and failing miserably. None of it made sense to her and that was...enraging. Snapping her hands, the chains break apart and the look of panic on the wrinkled but keen face of the tall man standing across from her is satisfying. It doesn't last. She needs more. So much more.

The room around her seems to grow smaller and smaller and she fall to all four, shaking her wings out above her and snarling as she fills her lungs. Just as she opens her snout wide to finish him there is a flash of light. She roars and instinctively falls back, and he is gone. She can feel that ache that must be satisfied. Can feel the rough stones against scales as she climbs and claws at the ceiling and finally, she can feel fresh air in her lungs. Still, it's not enough. She must...what is it she must do? Eat. She MUST eat. The hunger clawed at her, threatening to undo her. Her mind closes in on that hunger, shutting all else away. The beast was instinct. She knew only that she must eat, she must fight the empty threatening her.

All else was locked away. Even for now the memory of the girl.
Silence

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Silence »

((OOC clarification, I misread something, so my previous post has now been edited very slightly to avoid continuity errors))

Alder was no tracker.

It took him far longer than he would have liked to locate Vhagar in the forest, a writhing figure with eyes, golden orbs, locked open.

"Aw hell..."

Ok... Ok, there had to be something he could do, right?

The changeling dropped to his knees, mumbling curses under his breath.

She didn't need him... she didn't want him... right? He had no business being here and this was far outside his area of expertise. This could have been anything for all he knew... his steward's deal with her might be returning her memories, this could be some internal struggle, she could be poisoned or under some spell... and in some cases, recklessly trying to tamper with her would do more harm than good.

Alright... focus on what he could do.

Technically, he had mastered the way of the priest long ago, but he hardly had the materials here to make any use of that, so healing magic was out of the question.

Herbs and conventional healing methods... no, they were only any good if he knew what he was dealing with.

The changeling wondered if maybe tying her down to avoid her harming herself would be a good idea, but... again, that could disrupt whatever was happening, and not necessarily in a good way.

If he messed up her chance to get her memories back by waking her, she'd never forgive him.

For all the power he had obsessively amassed over the previous years, he was powerless to do anything significant as he watched her.

Well, to hell with that line of thought.

First thing he could do, clear the area of rocks, thorns and other objects around her, avoid her harming herself. He then dropped a handful of beetles, of himself onto her and used that to cover her wounds, having the beetles form into something like skin... it was less effective than a bandage, but it would do as a temporary measure until her wounds closed from her body's own healing.

Cautiously, Alder reached forwards and placed one hand behind her head, ready to try and catch it if she convulsed too hard and looked as if she was going to cause herself injury. The other hand... he did the only thing he could think of and slipped it between her fingers.

Well, so much for not being here when she woke up so that she wouldn't feel obligated to him. He'd apologise to her later for giving help she hadn't asked for. For now... he'd left her alone once before, he'd be damned if he'd do it again.

With that done, all he could do was pray to the mages and remain silent even if she crushed his bones with her grip.
Vhagar

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Vhagar »

The girl's body went still and limp and her face peaceful. Her breathing became shallow and her heart beat faint, but there. It was as if she'd fallen now into a deep sleep, but it wasn't dreamless. In her mind she cycled through memories of before that day when a man had come to the girl's village and changed her life forever. The day the beast had been captured while she prepared to eat and the time spent in chains without sustenance were times burned so deeply into their mind that they couldn't escape it. That gnawing feeling was always there. There was also guilt and regret and a deep and cutting loathing.

I am an abomination...I died...what am I but a parasite?

No! You are my strength. What am I without you now?

I cannot exist like this....

No! Don't leave me alone!

Still her body remained unmoving. On she slept, trapped in her own memories.
Silence

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Silence »

Be alright... be alright... come on, if she would just be alright, everything would be fine.

Damn, he had no clue what to do.

He didn't even know what to do about the fact that he didn't know what to do... seriously, he always had ideas, a plan, a thought... something. This was... this wasn't him.

The changeling had no idea how long he'd been there for with his hand in hers. For some reason, he had stopped counting the seconds... which made it very difficult to keep track of time when his mind did not operate at the same rate as most, when a second could feel like minutes.

However, fairly soon, the changeling lost patience.

For better or worse, he had to do... something. He just hated feeling this useless.

His first thought was to just remove her weight from her and then carry her somewhere where she could recover more easily.

Fortunately, he identified the flaw in that plan before he tried to execute it. While he knew exactly how heavy she was from experience (experience that he looked back on with a faint smile, even if those days were over), to remove that weight from her would still...

Ok, it wouldn't be difficult, but he turned away from her in preparation still. This turned out to be the right move, as moments after had he removed her weight, he was collapsed on the floor, heaving mouthfuls of blood onto the dirt.

The changeling's arms, supporting his own weight, shook for a moment, then he wiped his mouth, straightened his clothes and picked himself up.

Yeah, no real issue, even if it wasn't pleasant... but he would have hated to get his blood all over her.

Ugh, what were his priorities right then? He scowled at himself, a scowl that melted away into a look of concern as he easily scooped the woman on the floor up into a bridal carry.

Yeah, probably for the best that she was unconscious for this bit.

The changeling bent his knees slightly, then leapt forwards, the landscape blurring away around him.

Once, this would have been dangerous for him... once, moving at these speeds would have involved faster calculations than he could handle... but, eventually, he had learned how to send a small force forwards to part the air before he reached it... he'd learned to use obstacles to adjust his direction rather than smashing straight into them. He'd learned not to trip over his own feet or give himself too much force and end up smashing into the floor with enough force to give himself a concussion. It wasn't as if this came automatically now, after all, his kind had no reflexes, but he at least knew everything he had to consider... even when his aerodynamics were slightly altered by carrying a woman in his arms... a woman who he tried very hard not to look directly at or he'd probably get distracted by just the way she looked and end up making a mistake that could hurt them both... wait, since when did he have any concept of beauty? No, that was a thought for another time. Right now, focus on not crashing... honestly, moving at this speed was a risk, but...

He just didn't want to be transporting her for long. If he could get her somewhere more comfortable, he wanted that process to be as quick and painless as possible.

For a moment, he considered taking her to his own home... but, he didn't exactly live in luxury. If she woke up in his bed, she'd probably be uncomfortable...

Better to take her...

Ah, yeah, the Murdock family were visiting Bravia right now and if he was right, they always left their keys up the backside of their lawn gnome. Mages knew why they left the spare there of all places, but... well, they had a nice enough place.

It was the work of moments to arrive, break in and then gently lay Vhagar on a proper bed. Now... he had a choice to make. Did he stay here until she woke or... or did he pay somebody else to take care of her?

After a moment of consideration, the changeling's form shifted, his green eyes remaining the same dark hue as ever, but otherwise, his body became taller, his hair lightened in tone, becoming a brown and his skin darkened, becoming more tanned. Most of his scars faded away into his skin and his face visibly aged as his body restructured itself.

Once he was done, the changeling smiled and then sat down next to Vhagar.

There... he could tell the rest of the world he was obsessively learning carpentry, and now, however long it took, he could make sure she'd be alright for some time.

He supposed the first thing to do would be to get food for the two of them and then figure out how to make her eat in this state.
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