[ORP]Ravenous

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Vhagar

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Vhagar »

First, she is confused by Duke's suddenly taking to her lap and wonders if she should not pet him, or maybe there is some ritual she is not privy to. Suddenly he is not his fluffy cat self at all but translucent and glowing, though one could still make out the shape of the cat. He almost seemed to melt into her in places and her eyes grew wide, the familiar fear flashing in their yellow gold irises.

She pushed it back again. She MUST know. She craved to feel the way everyone around her did, to take joy in things. She wanted to know what sort of person she was or had been. She gritted her teeth and braced herself for the inevitable. She was never going to live out the rest of her days stuck this way in this skin with no way out.

As she glanced up to ask the girl what was happening and what was required of her, she nearly startled. The girl was close to her and her hands covered the sides of her face but her eyes...she was not there really but elsewhere. Vhagar could almost feel that elsewhere around her like a tangible intangible thing, only that didn't make mush sense, did it? Her own golden eyes whirled as she looked back, feeling herself almost falling there. It was exciting and terrifying all at once, but she was feeling...and hearing?

Her eyebrow raised slightly on her forehead.


Yessss....

She had no idea if she'd replied in her own head only, or also out loud.
Victor_Callow

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Victor_Callow »

((Note: Due to some confusion, the end of this post has been edited slightly)).

Glamour.

It was what the lost called the strange substance-less energy that they could trade for their power. Incredible power could be gained by signing contracts with forces in this world. One of the lost with a contract with flame could turn a fire mage's flames against them. A Lost with a contract with water would never drown. Of course, your exact abilities depended on the clauses of the contract that you'd signed. And then contracts were a two way deal. Sorrow would obey your commands and inflict who you desired with crippling grief, but it wouldn't do it for free. Either an offering of glamour had to be given, an amount agreed upon by the contract, or some other clause in the contract had to be activated, something the Lost referred to as a 'catch'. For example, Flame might agree to leap to being at your command if you allowed it to burn your hand as it did so. Mirrors might allow you to use it to see afar if you were using a mirror that had been recently polished or using one that had been smashed in order to locate the one who had broken it while wishing them harm. It varied from contract to contract.

Victor had signed a number of contracts, one with dreams, another with autumn, another with mirrors and entrances, and yet more that were simply single clauses that only applied to stupidly specific situations, but the ones that he'd been able to negotiate the best deals for had been with Darkness and Fear. Still, he needed glamour, and no Lost could hold glamour for more than a few weeks, which meant they always had to replenish their supply, even if they hadn't used it recently. The easiest way to do that was by harvesting emotion. Desire, Fear, Sorrow and Wrath were the easiest emotions to harvest, and while many of the Lost felt that inducing an emotion in order to harvest it was amoral and tampering with the natural order, Victor felt differently. It wasn't as if harvesting had any side effects on those harvested from... and he wasn't doing the children any harm.

For one reason or another, although they would go home to their parents and complain of nightmares, children always came to hear the young man's tales. And he in turn was happy to tell them.

Interestingly, in these lands, tales of strange creatures that came to snatch up children in their sleep or who burnt villages to the ground meant nothing to most kids. That sort of tale was commonplace. Death was something that they just accepted. They didn't fear tales of the shadows that wanted to take them in their sleep, because they knew that there were things out there that were worse and all too real.

So Victor had gotten creative. If they wouldn't fear the terrible, then maybe they'd fear the strange... creatures that came and ate a person's third finger. Days later, the victim in his tale would feel something tickling their stomach from the inside. Eventually, they would cough up their own finger, nail first, then the bones, then... usually the children were terrified by that point and Victor had generated more than enough fear to replenish his supply of glamour if he just harvested it, a process that required him only to sit near them for a few minutes.

And yet they came back... as if they somehow enjoyed the thrill of his tales. Every night, they were willing to once again lean in towards him, enraptured by his stories of the strange and unknowable, of a man who didn't realise that he was already dead, but who was rotting away and who finally stopped moving as he realised that he no longer lived, of a child who was snatched away at the start of the tale and then spent the rest of the tale toiling under a strange master who gave him strange command after strange command, of a man who sleepwalked, obeying simple commands, given to him by a creature with an unknowable vendetta... 'get out of bed', 'walk' 'open the door' 'walk down the stairs' 'walk into that man's home' 'step off the edge' 'pick up the knife' 'cut the string' 'bite it off'... all the while, Victor made sure that there was an element of the unknown in his tales, and it was that that the children found they feared. All the while, he played their emotions and fed off of their fear.

But why did he even need the glamour?

Three reasons. Firstly, the feeling of having power was intoxicating, not to mention that he was utterly addicted to it as a man might be addicted to a substance.

Secondly, there was always the chance that he was going to need it if something took a turn for the worse.

Thirdly, he was here on an errand, an errand that he would need his contracts to complete.

Harvesting emotion was the easiest and quickest way to get glamour, but it wasn't the most reliable. So, Victor had begun to look for people who he could give his aid to in return for a more reliable source of glamour. And he'd found it in a young woman with no idea who or what she was. In return for a small trinket of no value left outside her door each day, he'd help her search for what she was. She'd offered to leave a single hair outside her door and that was enough. The trinket itself didn't matter, it was more the gesture of her doing it that mattered, the gesture meant that she was consciously continuing their contract, and he had weaved in a clause into their agreement that so long as she continued the contract, she supplied him with a reliable source of glamour. He didn't even need to harvest her emotions so long as she left things outside her door.

It was only once he'd made that contract that he realised that he'd have to assist her with finding out who she was and that he had no idea where to start. She'd left the tavern before he could really question her about what she already knew.

So, his first thought was whether or not her subconscious still knew. If it did... well then, if she still had the instincts of a... whatever non human thing she was, then maybe it would show in her dreams when her subconscious took the place of her conscious mind.

Maybe it was time to activate a clause from one of his lesser used contracts. On the positive side, those contracts practically paid for themselves. After all, after entering a person's dreams, you had direct access to their subconscious, and harvesting glamour from there was no more difficult than collecting salt water in the middle of an ocean. On the negative side, entering her dreams meant forming another contract with her... it couldn't be done without her consent. And then after that, harvesting that much glamour from one person could actually have side effects, so maybe it was best to ease off a bit.

Still, the idea had some merit, so he still shielded his eyes against the sun and grimaced uncomfortably as its rays made his skin feel strange. To most people, having the sensation of something crawling under their skin stop would have been anything but uncomfortable, but Victor had become so used to the feeling that when it stopped, when he was exposed to sunlight, it was like he had suddenly lost all feeling in his body. Still, approaching at night time could send the wrong message, and sunlight didn't actually harm him, as far as he was aware.

After setting foot outside and yawning widely, for he was used to sleeping during these hours, he set his sights towards Vhagar's house, unaware that at that very moment, she was being visited by somebody who could well solve her problems for her themselves.
Last edited by Victor_Callow on Sun Aug 28, 2016 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Karina
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 9:38 pm

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Karina »

Vhagar wrote: Her eyebrow raised slightly on her forehead.[/i]

Yessss....

She had no idea if she'd replied in her own head only, or also out loud.
"Good. Alright, this may be a bit unsettling; but less so if you often go to mass... We're going to need to open your mind up bit with feedback from some of what you are already feeling that resonates with our own memories...; after that we should be able to have a deeper look around."

Sounds and images begin pouring into your mind with the occasional phrase spoken by Karina between different sets of them.

Caged Bird, Beyond the Veil, Child of Light, Take Flight

After the acclimation is complete they ask,
"How do you feel? Alright?
If any flashes of your own have been triggered, look into them, maybe we can help you interpret what we see."
Image
-Banner by Aida
Vhagar

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Vhagar »

She had not frequented mass. Well, maybe once. The main thing she had been feeling so often was confusion. Should she latch onto that? Did she dare focus on the fear that skittered always in the recess of her thoughts. The fear of knowing, the fear of not knowing. And there was determination. Determination to know, and to no longer be afraid, or confused. The determination to fight and be free of it all which so often seemed to come from another part of her entirely. The part that craved, the part that hungered...not only for sustenance but for feeling...experiences...domination.

The shy, awkward side was terrified of that side but Vhagar was becoming so very aware of the need to bring her two sides together, to meld and combine them in their common interest. Survival. Aye, her mind was a whirlwind of different emotions and the one thing she felt above all in that moment was...lost. She focused on the determination.

Words invaded her inner thoughts. Her mind focused on them in the haze of emotion and questions, for only a moment.


TRAPPED...THIS SKIN...CANNOT CONTAIN FOREVER...MUST FLY!HIDE! MUST HIDE! SOON THE BEAST COMES!TRAPPED!INSTINCT DESTRUCTION FIRE!

The words and flashes were so confusing. Darkness and a ripping sound. The blueness of sky assaulted her vision. The blueness interrupted by an orange red glow and the feeling of joy. But also fear, a drawing away...a feeling of repulsion. What had been done to her? What had he done? It was unnatural! An abomination! Then more words cut through.

FLYING...HUNTING...I WILL FIND YOU... HIDING...RUNNING...I CANNOT FACE THIS...

But...you must. More flashes, more images in her head. And in the fog a vision...she focused on that. A firl with silver blonde hair and blue eyes running through the darkness. Lost in her fear. Not this time, little one...you will see. The girls stops, freezes and Vhagar looks beyond her, follows her eyes. There stands a huge pale beast. White scales cover it with some gold veined into the wings, and the eyes whirl in swirls of deep gold as they take the girls measure. The dragon dips it's huge head so that it is very near the girl who stands frozen.Weakling.Abomination.

More words cut through this vision. Please. This one pleads. No more. Create ME. For a moment she is lost in the sounds and in her desperate plea, her need to reconcile the two parts of this vision. Here flashes interrupt. Memories that threaten to break the dam in her mind and flood her. But perhaps she was not ready. Not for that part. A flash of a face, lined with cruel eyes. Magic and pain...so much pain lay that way, little one. Before you can face it, accept it...you must find the strength. You must accept that which gives you strength. And she felt for the feeling she so wanted to focus on. Determination.

Make me what I am, rejoice in what we are.

More words cutting through her thoughts. Urgently now while we still have time. Share the sky, little one.And I will keep you grounded.

Perhaps this was not the original purpose of her quest. But she supposed not all things in the veil could be predicted and for now this was enough. This was important. This combining of spirits, of sides of the coin, of faces. Even if it was only fleeting, who should say. Still, repulsion and contempt could melt together to form an acceptance. An acceptance that what had been was gone and an acceptance in what was now in it's place.

I feel....freer...
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Karina
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 9:38 pm

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Karina »

Vhagar wrote:TRAPPED...THIS SKIN...CANNOT CONTAIN FOREVER...MUST FLY!HIDE! MUST HIDE! SOON THE BEAST COMES!TRAPPED!INSTINCT DESTRUCTION FIRE!

What had been done to her?
What had he done?
It was unnatural! An abomination!


FLYING...HUNTING...I WILL FIND YOU... HIDING...RUNNING...I CANNOT FACE THIS...

Weakling.Abomination.

Determination.

I feel....freer...
The mind can fly even without a body.
You don't need to hide. The beast can be faced, a sprung trap broken; destruction birth creation and fire serves all three.
-
What has? It's in here somewhere. Seek it.
Who?
Beyond nature is supernature. Supernature is not necessarily abominable.
-
You aren't your own pray; seek not in hunt, but in play.
Can you run faster than yourself or farther than yourself; can hide from your own mind; you CAN face this -we can face it together.
-
You are not week. You are not abominable.
You are just you. There is nothing wrong with being oneself. Oneself is all anyone is.
There can be strength in vulnerability. There is function and purpose behind every creature.
-
Good.
-
A wonderful start. Are you happier?
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-Banner by Aida
Vhagar

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Vhagar »

As she fought through the mist, Vhagar had been aware all along of the voice guiding her, helping her to achieve that which she craved so desperately. It had not gone as she had hoped. She still could not grasp the memories that eluded her. The beast was as anxious about facing those memories as the girl was terrified of them. Through that way she sensed only pain and the loss suffered by both.

Vhagar. It was the beast that most fought for this identity in it's host. The girl had been Talia, but she was no more that than she was human any longer. And so such a name would no longer do. The girl cared not for names. Now she wanted to reach out and please the beast and so she would keep the name that side of her preferred. Remembering her name was important, though. It was one memory not etched in the pain and she would keep it close to her.

The parts of her were taking tentative steps towards acceptance but still there was a disjointedness about her mind. Even so, she was still feeling less confused. She was girl and she was dragon. Perhaps she could learn to rejoice in those things even if she did not yet understand why it was, if there were any others like her or the events that created her. This would certainly be an interesting journey.

To the voice guiding her both beast and girl put forth thoughts of gratitude for this new beginning and the chance to make themselves fit together in some way.


We are.
Victor_Callow

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Victor_Callow »

Victor shaded his eyes and steadied himself against a nearby building as he squinted at Vhagar's residence. Almost as difficult to deal with as the strange sensation and the limited vision that light brought him was the issue of having his sense of balance leave him. Still, daytime was the time to conduct amiable business with other people if you didn't want to seem as if you had something to hide. Now, what were those figures doing, hmm? He squinted against the whiteness that hid everything from him and tried once more to make out what those figures were doing... two small ones, one looking like an animal, and... there was a blurry thing. There also was an adult sized figure.

Damn it all, the idea had seemed sound, but he could barely stand up. There was no point in trying to make any offer to them right now, when he'd just be a hindrance. No, better to wait and make the offer when they naturally encountered each other.

Victor Callow, the 71st highest ranked among the Autumn Courtiers of the Lost, sunk back away from the three figures and back into the shadows.

((Just trying to maintain continuity as Victor later made his offer to Vhagar in the tavern)).
Vhagar

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Vhagar »

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are many missing bits to this story. Perhaps they shall be told in time, perhaps not but that skip in time represents so much that happened to Vhagar in this realm. As well as many many lessons learned about the deception creatures practice for their own gain. For now, this is where her story is.

The great white dragon roars her pain into the sky as her wings tear through it. She leaves the tavern and everything behind, even him. This was for the best. It would all just happen again and she was so very afraid, though she would never admit that to anyone. If she used her wings,, and got far enough away for as long as it took, forever if she must, then maybe he;d go one not remembering her. And he'd be just fine. And eventually this pain in her chest would go away.

Far away.
Vhagar

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Vhagar »

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yellow eyes stared blankly back at the cottage in town that she had lived. It was too short a time, it seemed, for much of anything to have changed here. Though, it had been long enough for some things within herself to change. And without. She wore her silvery blonder hair in tight braids now. Sometimes they were more intricately woven, but for the most part, a single braid down her back. She'd tossed aside thin, simple dresses for tight leather and furs. The biggest change was the pattern of scales which seemed etched beneath her skin. It was more difficult for the beast to maintain this form without the girl stepping more forward, but the girl must be sheltered, protected. She had been left broken by their time away.

Vhagar had not found the one that had cursed them to this form. There were not enough in the scattered memories that her mind still refused to access. Their minds. It was futile. And so the girl in her despair had taken to other measures to solve their problems. They both desired freedom from each other's thoughts, from each other's pains. It was maddening for the beast to be so caged. But those measures, too had been futile in the end.

Now she stared thoughtfully at her cottage. A step down from the temple, she'd likely just stay in now. It was much less accessible to the various creatures so intent on making friends, despite her insistence that she was not interested in picking up strays. She'd learned after all, that many of them were insincere in their endeavors. She burned inside as she thought of the events which had drove her away to begin with and how the one called Varann manipulated everything and everyone around her to make something that was not hers, about her. She had taken something, especially from the girl, and would never be forgiven. Things that were beyond the beasts understanding only fueled her fire and she didn't understand the intricate weaving of webs to turn others towards them in anger when she really had needed something else...a friend? What a silly thing that thought was and no doubt the girl's doing.


"What will you...we... do with it?"

Yellow eyes moved again over the cottage. It wasn't time. Not yet.

"For now...we will keep it. Anything else might raise suspicion. And I have an idea."

Any passersby might have heard these thoughts said out loud but in different voices, no doubt assuming she was quite mad.

A memory tugged at her. No, not of Beetles. That one was troublesome. He was tenacious and she was struggling with getting him to leave well enough alone. After all, having his memories removed should have made this easier. And yet there had been times in her self inflicted solitude that she could have sworn she smelled his scent on the air. Each time she had picked up and flown elsewhere. If it was not her imagination then she at least knew she could fly faster than he could climb. She had avoided tracing the scent, it would have not been good for any of them if she had found him then. Besides, he was without memory of them, so surely if he was out, it was for something other than herself. It was the memory of his own memory loss which tugged at her.

Varann had not done it, of that Vhagar was certain now. It had to have been the one he had mentioned as his squire. She had some vague recollection that that one had once offered her his help in recovering the memories she had lost before appearing in Fenia, trapped as they were. And he had clearly been able to remove specific memories from Alder's head. In her mind there was a feeling of uncomfortable agreement. There was still fear and apprehension there but the beast would have none of it.

Reaching up she plucked a hair from her head, drawing it slowly from the braid. Walking closer she wrapped it about the banister and went inside, waiting.
Victor_Callow

Re: [ORP]Ravenous

Post by Victor_Callow »

Manners maketh man...

They also made up much of the Fae's lifestyle, what with their little mockeries of human like courts and their self taken name of the Gentry. That meant that if Victor made a promise to at least look into somebody else's problems for them, he would do all within his power to ensure that he fulfilled that promise.

And, just like the Fae, he would take that excuse to his grave rather than explain his true motives for acting. Honestly, it came down to one thing... emotion. It was like a drug to one such as him and Alder's repressed and often confused state was... well, no better or worse than the passion of a love struck couple pining for one another, the fear of a man cowering before death or a child shivering in the darkness, it was no different in quality to the sorrow of a crowd of funeral goers or the wrath of a man dedicating his life to vengeance. All of those would have done him just fine, but all of them were only temporary... so long as Alder refused to properly acknowledge his emotions, but still had them, well, it was a source of his precious addiction that would never go away... and he was more than content to do the marginal work of a steward to remain close to his source.

Loss and grief over his parents, despair and pain at his approaching and inevitable death, confliction over the potential to save himself at the loss of so many others, and then love and even more confusion... but that love had been the first unstable emotion... it had been the first one that he acknowledged... it had had to go.

And then, from nowhere, the solution had presented itself. She had driven him away for mages knew what reason... something about being feral had been involved, but... well, he was going to jump on this opportunity.

The issue came about a month later... Alder's other emotions no longer held the same 'kick' he remembered them having before... damn it, but he missed that old love struck fool. So, against his better judgement, he had given the changeling some advice... advice which, apparently, they had taken.

Once again, the universe seemed to simply work itself out for him. The one Alder had been involved with 'requested his presence'. Oh, maybe it would be over something that would run counter to his goals, but deals were his domain... the very worst case scenario was that he walked out of here no worse off than he had been when he walked in.

Because of that, Victor raised a hand to wrap his knuckles on Vhagar's door, then clasped his hands behind his back and put on his best winning smile. It was somewhat ironic, in a way... the one who lived by lying had been trying to be sincere while the one who could not lie under oath was the one with his own agenda.

The irony wasn't lost on the Autumn Courtier.

"Excuse me? I was lead to believe that I... well, that you wanted my presence for something. I do not know what one so humble in power as I could hope to offer you, but what little I can offer, I do."

And so, the lies through smiles and veils of truth began.
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