|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 11:46 pm
"See ya." And that was that. Regime stretched casually and resumed his position of languor upon the cushions, but he was listening quite carefully to the sound of the motions around him. There was an underlying tempo to all this, and that was the fluttering that beat upon his visitor's ribs like a bass drum. Perhaps she had thrown him a few choice phrases during their exchange, even a convincing look or two when she forgot she was dealing with the blind, but there was one thing even the best liar couldn't hide. He had his truth, but he couldn't foresee the future- whether she returned or not would be anyone's guess. It would be interesting in more ways than one to see what she chose in the end.
The climb out of the pit was even more steep than the one coming in, but B-sharp wove through the jagged edges without a second glance. His mind moved in slow, methodical motions, his eyes sliding to their corners now and again to consider his evergreen charge. Even he did not know for sure what Regime would do for her plea, but it would be something, and he had a fairly good guess as to what it was. No doubt they would be discussing it once she was on her way.
"Will you really come back?" He asked her once they reached the summit, his tenor tones low so that it seemed for her ears alone. It was not that he would report the result to Regime, although he most surely would if asked, but he was genuinely curious. He had seen the bright canvas of her back shift with tension the whole time and he was no fool, though his conviction was questionable.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:56 pm
Her vision started to fade out along the edges as they made their way over the tarnished landscape, and Avalie blinked it steady again after several tries, cautious of the slope placed before her. She did not want to plummet back in some abominably girlish faint, afraid to challenge the agreement that had been forged in a second of misunderstanding and irony. There was no way of knowing how high they were, how many feet were left to scale before she was out, too busy watching her paws again as they struck the pile. Her thoughts were scrawling crazily, and there was only so much she could blame on deprivation, the tightness in her chest similar to the time she'd fallen in a river after the winter melt, everything black with terror's swarming haste. Drowning, that was an apt comparison; she was drowning with air all around her and metal between her toes, crushed by a current of yearning too strong to shake. There was no telling if she'd be thrown ashore in time.
The ground evened out, and she sucked in a breath, the oxygen hitting her in a rush, bringing neglected hues back and banishing the wispy blackness that had started somewhere between the range of a broken crate and an old, flat tire. His question made her wince, not for its content, but because she'd been largely unaware that he'd kept with her to the top and witnessed everything in-between. Now was not the time to relax, not quite yet. It was still a ways to the outskirts of the woods where her affinity tapped greens and pollen yellows to disguise.
"Will you ambush me if I do?" She countered softly, mimicking the whisper, even if it came out more ragged than she'd wanted. But she knew better than to wait for an answer, simply plunging ahead, looking out toward the trees while something raw with exhaustion unspooled from her mouth. "I don't know... if I were smart, I'd keep my distance, let it go like I should. But -" A one-sided shrug and she turned back to him, the health of the forest clashing badly with his exterior, making her pupils shrink. Perhaps he'd been colorful once, and hardship coupled with dwelling in a den of alien, sterile walls had turned him dark, neutralized him until only brittle patches of pink and green remained. Or he'd been born of waste and machinery, lived in it, was accepted by it regardless of flaws.
"Sometimes the running feels like circles." She admitted finally, more to herself than to him. Her own flaws glared out so as not to go unnoticed, the sole, unchanged bud in a family of prized flowers. And why did he care? Probably didn't want to squander his time, planned to scare her off completely if she showed the least bit of willing. The fact that she'd been about to ask B after Regime's intentions was laughable, wanting reassurance even from someone like him. He'd respond with whatever he'd been programmed to say, and she'd be just as lost. Her throat clamped shut around it, refusing to let it out in case it turned to accusation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 1:12 pm
B-Sharps movements were stiff and methodical, a careful staccato among certain patches of waste and a surreptitious slur when the path leveled. His tongue absently sought the corners of his muzzle and he imagined he could taste the anxiety on his temporary charge. He waited to see her topple and slide, squander in the ragged material as he once had in the soil in the wake of the injustice she brought. For one so accustomed to soft edges and the yield of grass, it would be understandable. It didn't happen. She answered him, and his long ears ticked at his shoulders, lip curling for a fleeting flash of a canine. He was amused.
All prudence and practicality seemed to say that making deals with a Nightmare was a bad idea. They were cursed for a reason, and while Regime didn't fit the bill of your garden variety psychopath, he didn't try to hide the fact that his nature was shady. B had been at the side of his mentor the whole of his life; it was his eyes and the blood on his paws that truly built this inorganic pyre to its height. Regime was made it worth anything, though, the king in his castle with B as the servant to whom he bent an ear. In B's mind, Regime's words were made of the same magic that spun a bale of hay into the finest gold lace. No matter how many times he'd seen it done, he could never deny the art of it. Many kitsu flinched from what Regime had to offer them, and perhaps for that they were the wiser, but there were always a few who lingered and let themselves be draped in the finery. You gotta think of it like this, The Nightmare had told him on the occasion he had dared to ask the Magician what he kept up his sleeve, Ain't a one out there that's not lookin' for somethin'. You just tell 'em what you're selling, and either they're interested or they ain't. Mostly, the ones that ain't don't got the measure to take what they want. Afraid to, dig? The front of the shop says 'Closed', and you and me? We're in the alley. We offer 'em the back door. Now, there ain't a lot of light in there, but don't you worry. I'll make the sale- you watch the door.
And that was how it was and how it always would be.
Sometimes the running feels like circles. He was fairly certain he had absolutely no idea what Avalie was talking about, but he heard it and stored it away nonetheless. She didn't elaborate and he decided he wasn't going to ask her. After all, he didn't care, right? "There's nothing between you and me. Not anymore," He said at length, toneless, "If you come back, you'll be expected. I'll escort you in." It was that simple, no matter what the lingering feeling of teeth in his heart said. "You'll see me. It is suggested, but not mandatory, that you bring something for the pile." In a way, that would have to be her penance.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 1:04 am
How one creature could house so many unlikable traits was beyond her, and even if it was in her nature to try and see past the bad, he wasn't making it particularly easy. But it was the memory of their last encounter that let her smother any anger before it truly started, pointing out how he still had the upper hand, that the gathered strands of heat knotting in her chest were useless in this place and against this enemy. The smile almost went unnoticed; then it was half-mistaken for something else, a slow-motion snarl that stayed incomplete, lifting the bare minimum to qualify. Everything he did now was a dry echo, sincere as a spider crumpled in pretend death. It was reminiscent of the reserved emotion she'd tried to ward her brother off with, holding the world at bay by keeping everything under lock and key. It was also proof that she was over-thinking on the wrong subject, wasting time she should have devoted to wondering after the neglected fine print. At least she hadn't scribbled out anything in blood yet, her promise to return faltering at best.
Avalie shook her head in bemusement, stilling immediately when he spoke. Nothing between them? She looked at him steadily, envisioning the beast that had come hurtling down the heap like a meteor locked on her green body. "That's a lot of lie to fit your mouth around," She uttered offhandedly, and it wasn't what she should have said, not when a truce was what she'd almost used her one wish on. Provocation, pure and simple, easier than the epithets she'd used to rile him with guardian trees observing overhead. Those she could be sorry for, her unleashed tongue quicker than anything clever in her head. This was more a point she couldn't prevent herself from making, that they'd both managed to claw under each other's skin, and his relinquishing of it was more insulting than the injury he'd paid. He could be as repressed as he pleased - as the Nightmare with hell on his breath wanted - but she'd seen him before all that, knew there was a depth behind the flatness. It wasn't about hate or vengeance, or whatever he'd twisted it into in his spare time, but neither was it allowed to be forgotten on command.
She started down the pile, still unused to the terrain with footholds harder to find and no cushioning below to encourage haste. There was a chance she pulled her bad temper directly from the earth since it didn't come from any genes she was aware of, her father's sweet, loyal disposition and her mother's scatterbrained joviality nowhere in sight. Even Chrys didn't understand her completely, the shy little brother who would have sworn off flight for her if it meant anything but further pain. Wings of her own granted her the opportunity to float above instead of continuing around on the same path, cycling within self-loathing and bitter admiration. If they were real, if this wasn't a taunting, horrible dream that she'd wake from with all of the bruises and none of the hope. The whole idea was still unbelievable, and it should have been too easy to hate how she was being baited, how she'd pointed it out in the first place like an amateur itching for disappointment. If only she didn't want it so much.
"I'll bring you another instrument," She volunteered to the air in front of her, using his inflectionless method back on him without turning to confirm he'd heard. If she was going to bring anything to add, it only made sense.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:07 pm
A brow might have been arched at her candor, and B sincerely had to wonder just why she wanted to press it when she'd been offered the out. She'd already proved she was gutsy, spurred on whim and too proud or too foolish to step back even when he caught her hesitating. A wound had healed over and now she was picking at the scab. B-Sharp scoffed openly at her, furrowed his brows, but he did not bristle.
"You seem to think you're worth remembering. Hating? You're wrong." He told her, coldly. She wanted something to hold onto and he wasn't going to let her have the satisfaction of getting it from him if he could help it. He'd already given her far too much. They made their way down the hill and B lead her down the alley between mounds, not looking back, not letting her have even that. Finally, he sat at the line of where the trash ended and sprigs of grass were beginning to make their stubborn way in.
"I'm no musician..." Seemed to be his parting comment, but it was a note below monotone. His gray eyes finally slid to regard her, baleful behind the mask of a strict machine. Little did she know, the faith would be upon him to fulfill the task to which Regime had so easily agreed. It would be a paltry trade.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
