Starlight Cookies and Moonlight Milk (4) : A new shop has opened up, just in time for the Star Festival! It doesn’t have anything on the menu except for Starlight Cookies and Moonlight Milk, but they are the talk of the town! Everyone who’s anyone has tried them, and without a doubt, they’re the most delicious things that they’ve ever tasted! Though...the reviews don’t mention that after you've had any, your eyes begin to glow strangely and sparkle like little galaxies are swirling within them. It’s beautiful, if a little strange! The effect fades after an hour, and your vision isn’t impacted...though, if you go to try the cookies again, the shop seems to have disappeared…
S.T.A.R parties had popped up all over the local scene in honor of the citys Star Festival, Waru'd gotten an invite and eagerly prepped to attend. He loved a good one off rave, strobed neon lights, blaring music, a eurythmic beat that he could feel in his bones. The bass boosted so deep that it made his breathing irregular if he got too close to the sound system. A perfect way to spend a night off work, insofar as he was concerned.
The walls of a partially abandoned warehouse, that lay just beyond a storage district, flared and shook with the swell of some standalone swrly mix. The sound blared in from the back and the ceilings. That combined with the noise of the overpacked crowd inside, was enough to swing the industrial lights above (the flourescent bulbs neatly swapped out for blacklights, for maximum aesthetic), and shake the metal rafters. The host was clever enough to scrawl 'Stargazers Only' across the entranceway.
There was no space without bodies, without heat or pressure. The atmosphere such that everything was supercharged, every molecule broiled with life and the energy generated by people moving in sync. It wasn't a place for quiet conversations and delicate dancing. It was a rave - barely clothed forms, ceaseless movement. Waru swayed into the press and swell of the sweat misted crowd, let himself get dragged further in until he was at the center of the mass. Until he could loose himself to it.
It could have been hours or minutes later when he briefly fell free of the crowd. His path towards a table laden with drinks suddenly blocked by a studded stilleto wearing, indigo-velvet clad blond. The sharp woman accompanied by a fawn haired, corseted boy, who hung off her arm like an adornment.
On their own they were a pair, temptation from every angle, but the real draw was their eyes. Streaked with the brightness of galaxies unfurled, the likes of colors Waru had never seen on a person - powered or other - he wondered what kind of contacts they were wearing; if they even were that.
So he crowded her, made it a point to make eye contact, to get her to nod approvingly, and then pressed his fingers beneath her chin. Until her head was tilted just so - to get a better look - to fall into her gaze and drown for a moment. In return she pressed a cookie against his lips, and he eagerly took a bite. Ate it out of her hand while the fawn at her side cooed approvingly.
It was ******** delicious. If it was an edible, it wasn't like anything he'd ever had before.
Eventually he escaped the cloying grasp of the pair and made his way to a sheet metal hole that had been cutout from the main wall. The rough hued hole funneled crookedly into what looked like a hastily constructed bathroom area of sorts. All plywood, cracked mirrors, and outhouses.
“Holy ********…..” and Waru wasn't sure how much time he'd spent staring at himself, completely mesmerized by his own gaze. The kaleidoscope of deep dark stars and green hued supernovas that shone back from within the grimed, chipped, bathroom mirror. If he hadn't seen it in the others eyes he would have blamed it on the drinks, something in the air. He knew it was those too perfect cookies, some obscure recipe he'd never tasted before. The increasing oddity of them was that he didn't feel high. They weren't laced with anything that felt like that...
"I've soo gotta get some of these things over to the firebrand, it'll be a trip..." He'd secret a box away to take home in passing. They wouldn't miss 'em, whoever was hosting clearly knew about the magical cookies properties. Even if Waru'd known where to find the shop for them, he didn't want to put in that much effort. Whoever had the cookies out there knew exactly what they were doing.
Stargazing.
WC: 665 *Basic Albite* = ✶
Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 5:44 am
✶Falling Out of Love: A Bad Breakup - A Bad Fall✶
Floors one through four, he admired himself in the lit ceiling mirrors of the elevator. At six through nine he stood aside for more people getting on, and off - and o f f. A bit of jealousy for the way the couple stuffed into a corner were all over each other. There was no hiding the way her partners hands trailed the edges of her skirt, or how hers kept disappearing between them; their blurry muffled giggles that held taunts and hushed 'when-we-get-there's'. As if the nights drinking had finally led to a culmination of uncontainable want.
At the top floor Waru got off into a penthouse suite that was in full swing of a party that looked like it'd never end. No one gave him a second glance as he wove into them, openly searching someone out. Across the marble floors, and stained windows, his gaze swept gold trimmed couches and the full bar. Alit on a tall lean man who stood at the center of a social tornado. His every sly grin and coy comment earned a sweep of tittering laughs that clinked like a chorus champagne glasses toasting some triumph.
Ugly
The crystalline eyes, healthy tan, sleek platinum wave of hair. The way he wore his clothing, a perfectly tailored image of homeless sheik that cost an arm and leg to wear. All neatly draped on a body that would have been described as cosmetically handsome.
A hideous lie.
Waru parted them simply by way of being, the one gift he cherished was being able to move a crowd without saying much; he just had to stare and they'd move or get moved. He grazed by the blond, hooked a finger in a beltloop muttered something sultry into his ear. Shark grinned, deep voiced, evert syllable laden with want and a promise of a good time; if he'd only leave the crowd with him.
Their mouth's grazed, hands tugged, a tentative sweetness that all too quickly became a vicious battle for dominance once they hit the stairs to the rooftop, to have their rendezvous above it all, away from prying eyes. Waru submitted, let himself be handled up the brief set of stairs until they hit the roof's exit door. Only then did he turn his natural strength against the blond, shoved him bodily against the door, felt the blonds shoulders hit the metal, his back the bar that would fling it open in a rush - the bite he received for that - a snare of perfect teeth against his lower lip that drew a bloom of red - a hurt meant to subjugate - a hurt for hurts sake.
Such a stain of a human being.
The man was beautiful as he stumbled out into the moonlight, curls tousled by the breeze and clothing pleasantly mussed by the brief scuffle on the way up the stairs. It all belied the truth of things, that even though the outside gleamed a perfectly pearly white, it was a façade, a carefully manicured lie. Like a decayed tooth that had been rotted through. One couldn't see it in the smile, they had to drill beneath the surface to realize the cavity that lay inside.
'Henshin the ******** up' - a whisper of noise, a mere breath as Waru became ensconced in power and the exit door swung firmly closed behind them both - Behind Albite, who stood silhouetted by the moon. An impassible barrier, unrepentant judge, force of retribution personified. The echoing clang of the exit closing and latching - clear as a death knell amongst natural music of the city.
"Binding Retribution" Albite was speaking even as he was moving, closing the distance to less than three feet in an instant. Not giving the blond time to adjust; to do more than stare in wide eyed confusion.
Tattoos - shadows - living ribbons - However described, they were apart of Albites self. Ink and skin and flesh that answered to thought and command - the dark wild markings across his arms and torso shot out like a snake to strike unerringly at the blonds throat. To wrap there, almost lovingly, like the fingers of a hand, like the closing grasp of a fist.
"Th-fuhrkk* -" the man nearly tripped back, but was held firmly in place, his motion stopped short as he was bound to Albite by his throat. The two held together by a leash of shadow, connecting ones neck to the other, as if the form of the attack enjoyed the symmetry of the image.
The man clawed at the magical constructs, nearly drew his own blood in attempt to remove the shadows that linked the two firmly. Impossible to break with such a simple gesture. Albite had fifteen seconds, but that was more than enough.
He took a step forewords, watched slack appear between them as he closed the distance, like twine going limp. Albites grin sanguine when the man attempted to flee, snagged back as the binding darkness went taught once more. Snapped like a leash, unable to go any further than three feet from another in any direction.
'God I love this...best part of being a magical ******** girl? Is getting one up, on assholes like you.' the thought was a purr of gravel wrapped in velvet, a promise of pain etched beneath a whisper of softness that caressed Albites mind.
So it went, Albite encroaching, backing the man up to the edge of the building with the threat of force if he tried to go anywhere else. Until his overpriced heels touched the brick ledge, a layer of roof gravel spilling over below.
The terrified yowl that left him was music to Albites ears, unable to suppress his grin, when the man peered over and noticed the seven story drop to the street level below. The panic and pallid color that overtook his features as he realized there was no more space to back up from, and no way to escape the leash.
"No, you-you-s-stay away! You ******** freak, you get away or I swear-- -"
"Awwh, but b a b y - I could never stay away from you! Because I'm too stupid to function, yeah? I mean, how could I ever know what I'd want, what I'd need.....that was your job right, for my own good. Remember?"
Waru...Waru had been stupid, but Albite? Albite was retribution for that errant mistake. Judge, Jury, Executioner.
The scuffle that ensued against the ledge was brief. A right swing that took Albite across his jaw, spilt red across split skin. While Albite simply hooked his leg behind the blonds knee, grabbed handfuls of his shirt, and shoved with all of himself. Wedging one booted foot against the brick ledge as the sudden pull of the blond going over dropped him to a knee. The magic that had held them together went taught and suddenly snapped in a fizzle of black sparkles. The tattoos reappearing slowly across his skin once more, resettled, merely ink again.
"Huh..so it'll break before it can damage me." Albite couldn't tell if it'd been the inertia of the fall, or the weight of the mans body suddenly meeting the pull of gravity that had snapped the bind. He wondered if enough something heavy enough yanking quickly enough enough was similar to putting too heavy a fish on a line - if there were such a thing as tensile strength that could be attributed to his magical abilities.
Regardless, Albite let out a slow lingering whistle as he eyed the drop, settled on the ledge and gazed with awe at the distance between the roof and the ground below. He hadn't been sure of what would happen, only that he'd had to do it.
"Good to know--"
He hadn't even gone for the mans Starseed. Metallia deserved better, likely it would have given some poor youma indigestion if it'd been pulled. Besides, he didn't want to touch something so obviously poisonous.
"good to know..."
WC: 1253
Shiningamisgirl
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Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 6:23 am
✶Gee thanks, I hate it... ✶
Quote:
Star Candy (3) : In your mailbox, locker, or desk drawer appears a bag of star candy! There is no indication of where or who it came from other than a small tag that reads: “Happy Star Festival!” The small, colorful pieces of sugar seemed to almost glow faintly, and after eating them, the world looks a bit different. Cartoonish and much less…real. Is it a hallucination? Is it some new reality? The strange vision lasts only half an hour, and after it wears off, the rest of the candy seems to disappear. How strange!
It was late enough that Waru didn't bother checking the clocks anymore. Rhythmically he went room by room, turning off unnecessary lights, checking doors, locking locks. Ensuring a bat was propped near the back. Shotgun behind the couch. He didn't live in the best area, it wasn't as dangerous as it could have been, there was just enough gentrification - but it wasn't a place with an HOA either. Life had taught Waru to be prepared rather than sorry. Just because he had Ablite's powers on speed dial, beck and call style, didn't mean he wanted to test himself against someone with an actual weapon, and not just magical tats. When he checked his pockets and found a small star candy, he was initially confused.
After a moment he remembered that he'd grabbed an errant candy he'd found atop the boss mans desk, had figured it was helping in a way, after all that was how you got ants..maybe even youmaized ants? Waru'd been sure he'd seen rats there as well; though they hadn't bothered his firebrand boss so...pets...helpers...youma rats? Was that a thing?
Whatever...he'd been impulsive, and the little candy had been a bright star of color that he couldn't ignore. He wasn't sure he'd intended to bring it home, rather than toss it into the nearest waste bin, but there it was, forgotten to linger in a pocket. Waru was glad that he'd taken time to check so that he didn't wash it and accidently ruin his jeans, who knew what kinda dye was in the thing. He contemplated eating it, briefly. While he set up the couch, and got ready to put something on the t.v that would let him zombie-zone out and find sleep.
Everyone always complained insomnia was a b***h? Waru, Waru made insomnia his b***h - on a good night it wouldn't have been an issue, he'd have things to do. All sorts of things. Tonight though? He was feeling it, legitimately tired, body and soul, he needed the sleep that wasn't coming without a distraction - the T.V worked like background static, white noise for his thoughts. He rarely watched anything all the way through on it.
Once he'd had gotten as comfortable as he could, flipped something on, because the goal was to 'not' pay attention to anything, so the show didn't matter. He errantly decided to pop the little candy into his mouth without hesitation. Sweet, delicious...and then the effects of the candy had settled in...
"Whelp, there goes my evening.." Waru hated it, groaned and wiggled across his couch until he found himself flipped himself upside down and kicked his legs up over the back, he let his arms cross over his chest, let his knees dangle off the backing. His hair sweeping the floor as he took in his living room from a new vantage point. It made taking in the scene a little easier.
All the bouncing furniture and slow slurry of black and white that encroached over everything. Until he felt like he was living in bouncing, bubbling, cartoon straight out of the 1920's - A showing of 'Oops! Mickey smoked the glass' vintage edition - "Never taking s**t from his office gain, worst ******** candies ever."
Lessons were learned, briefly at least, only time would tell if they'd stick. Waru reasoned they wouldn't, that he'd eternally do stupid s**t until he couldn't anymore, until something truly hampered him.
"And now my wallpaper is ******** smiling at me...greaaatt..." the literal, actual, worst trip ever. Colorless happy faces and dancing end tables, singing lamp shades. Waru huffed and closed his eyes, grabbing the nearest pillow off his couch to shove his face into, where he screamed briefly while he hoped it'd all wear off quickly, or that he'd fall asleep before he had to take much more from the visuals.
WC: 596
Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:16 pm
✶Louder than Words✶
“Heya girl - the hell’d they give you, huh?“ and Waru was used to the watery smiles and languid ease with which she moved when she’d gotten something good, and albite was used to stepping in when she was so tired she was manic. When she was on day seven of job two and just needed to crash for awhile - dreamlessly, blessedly, deeply in a way she wouldn’t remember - she never remembered Albite - called it some etchi cosplay s**t when she was coherent enough to make any comment on it at all - he felt it helped that he had a place to take her now when she needed nights like those.
Better off now than he’d been before, able to sometimes repay her - even if it was only a fraction of what he knew he owed her.
Lina - because she hated how Lenore made her sound old beyond her years. She wasn’t even 25 yet.
Because more often then not they’d taken care of each other on and off in different ways throughout the years.
She’d let him crash in a back room when he’d left his fathers for the final time. Sixteen, angry and stupid, but willing enough to do menial tasks and take shitty part time jobs if it’d mean he could sever himself from the man completely - when emancipation sounded more like freedom and a quick pathway to adulthood than anything else. When a GED sounded good enough, because if he was really smart? He’d never need anything higher than that.
She’d been there again, and he was nineteen and he was done - again - for the final time. All that anger now turned in against himself, because how could he have been so stupid? To give that much power over to anyone else. Let alone another man, and he’d thought he’d had something with this one, that things had been good. Right until they hadn’t.
She’d warned him from the start what kind of people they were, what kind of person that man was, and he hadn’t listened - not at first - heard yes, but not listened - up until he had - and once he listened in a way that led to him taking actions, he did something about it. Though it was all slightly more drastic than just leaving the guy.
He hadn’t told her that though. Only that he’d left the guy for good, and she’d cooed and praised him, handed him a weeks worth of tip money with a kiss on the cheek and told him not to worry about it.
There were a number of things they never told each other, most of which involved the details of daily drudgery. It was all big picture things. They left names dates and places out of it, with the exception of the occasional serious matter.
When he needed a softer shoulder than the world gave to lean on. When she needed someone to look especially scary, to enact his specific kind of retribution - on the kinds of people who were a little to rough, the rare few who didn’t get ‘no’ the first time.
Never so much as an ‘I love you’ between them, because actions spoke louder than the words ever could have and because it wasn’t quite like that. It was freer almost - unconditional - in all ways. No constraints or cages or leashes, just a check in every now and then.
Waru gave her a ride home, and stayed, because she needed the sleep. Helped her wordlessly with all the little tasks to prep for bed so her mascara didn’t smudge her pillow as she slept, so she didn’t get glitter on everything else in between the shower and the bed.
And he’d make sure she slept, because even if she didn’t ask for it, the shadows that lingered beneath her choal eyeshadow had begged for it. He’d get to add to his energy count, she’d get to count sheep.
None the wiser.
She’d always let him practice, her little magical sleep aid, senshis first starseeder, even if she’d always been too out of it to have known it. Only that she’d slept better when he was there than she ever had before, on the too few nights she allowed it. He’d learned to be insistent about staying more often, especially all those times, because he’d worried, because he’d needed to learn how to test his limits safety.
Because she would have done it for him, without needing the words.
WC: 747
Shiningamisgirl
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 1:48 am
✶Care of Wisps for Dummies: A How to Edition✶
They should have come with warnings like gremlins in the movie. Except there was no sagely man to give Albite advice on these things.
To proffer out a twelve step list of do’s and dont’s of proper wisp care. He was on his own, in the thick, burning, woods of it, with eight troublesome wisps on display in his home.
His sweet little orbies didn’t wait long to cause havoc.
Albite learned the first rule no more than five minutes after getting home-
1. Don’t try to take their energy, it makes them huffy.
Of course he should have known Sarah would have been the prissy one, he’d expected it from Portia, but no - Sarah - soft glowing, whip fast, but he’d been bored. So he’d tried it.
He’d never stuck his tongue in a light socket before, but he imagined if he ever had, it would have felt exactly like that. 1200 watts of do not touch, that left him floored, literally. Floored so hard he’d powered down, dropped the guise entirely out of fear of further pain.
10 minutes of cursed writhing followed by another 10 of frantic searching, because in that time the wisps had scattered.
The only saving grace was that his low rent apartment unit was blessedly small.
Once he had them bundled safely again, counted and recounted, he decided he needed a bath. Unable to let them out of his sight, they came along.
Waru deposited the bunch in the sink, and feeling bad for where they’d been all night, ran them a mini bath of their own.
And in doing so learned the second rule of wisp care.
2. Water and soap is a (N O P E)
It was fascinating at first, to observe that the wisps seemed hydrophobic. The water seemed to roil right off of them, and then almost magically get sucked right into them, as if they were suddenly parched.
Waru’d thought it was cute honestly, and he’d added something that smelled faintly of apple crisp into the mix of them, watched it suds and shine - iridescent like the dome had been. Pretty little bubbles that foamed around their spherical fuzzy frames. Warud finally gotten five minutes of peace all to himself, his hair would wait, an apple cider vinegar and baking soda soak was not something he had time for at the moment, but at least his body would be clean. Occasionally he’d see one slip up along the lip of the sink as if it meant to leave, a simple admonishment by name seemed to settle it back, until waru was done.
They’d sloshily morphed about each other while he’d toweled off, oozed more of the iridescent apple scented bubbles. Then waru had shut the sink off - and reached for one of the triplets to towel dry - only for it to slip through his fingers and crack against the tile below.
It’d become dense - bowling ball dense - weights at the gym dense - thickness of his dense a** skull d e n s e.
“The *actual* ******** are these things!?” Warus panic evinced in his tone as suddenly the other seven followed suit, and warus tile had not been pristine. Far more run down and aged grout than anything, but now?
Now it looked like he was gearing up for a home renovation, and had taken a ball pin hammer to his own bathroom floor, several times, just around the sink area... <******** o w, I mean!? Why!?” Distraught even as the orbies slipped and slid - no larger than they had ever been before, only impossibly heavier, and now leaving sluggish soapy trails as they glid over newly cracked surfaces.
Waru spent the next hour squeezing water from wisps like sponges, towel drying them to fluffy warm luminescence, and tossing said pile of towels over the porcelain and grout mash - if only so he wouldn’t slice his feet open when he inevitably returned to the room.
“Alright! That is ********. We’re going to sit, like people, in one place - and do absolutely nothing - until I fall asleep? Then we’re going to continue to do nothing for 8 hours…then breakfast….”
Waru was tired - he bunched the wisps carefully onto a pillow, cocooned them in a nest of blankets - and found blissful unconsciousness.
For an indeterminate amount of time everything was peaceful until the din of a dish disposal and flare of flickering lights shattered the illusion of peace, along with any chance waru might have had at sleep.
What he woke to was chaos - adorable, floating, gently luminescent chaos -
“Ohmygod, my orbies are suicidal, they’re going to purée themselves.”
The twin Beas were under the bed, benji was in the blender, the triplets were throwing a tantrum, Sarah was circling the drains, and Portia - that b***h had flipped all the light switches on-off-on-off-on!!
“This is my life now….just twelve more hours of this…It’s fine, I can do this…I just can’t let them out of my sight, or leave them alone, or sleep….” And waru wanted to weep, even as he went about collecting each and every one of the eight, again. A mad man streaking through a blinking 900sqft unit. Screaming about wisps. <******** I wish I’d lost the damned game to the boss. Hell, maybe I can call him up and yano just - ‘sup firebrand, I ******** up, mistakes were made, please yank my starseed. No no no I insist, I deserve it, because apparently managing glowing dust bunnies is above my mental pay grade!’ ”
3. DO NoT SLeEp - OrBs aRe NOT PetS - Return ASAP.
So it went, that Waru didn't sleep that evening, not through the night, not into the morning, not into the next afternoon. Every time he'd thought to doze some new thing occurred. He chugged energy drinks, drank half a pot of coffee - taught the wisps to do spherical acrobatics and keep him entertained - because the second his eyes sought to close - heavy like steel trap doors - they started up their antics once more.
By the end of it all they had the run of him. His home, his body, his hair. By the time it was dark enough to go meet Faustite and the Merchant the next day - the bags under Albites eyes were darker than the shadows on the other side of the moon. He was haggard - in such a way that it slipped through even his powered form.
He'd never been so happy and yet disappointed to be rid of something before. He was going to miss them, for all the havoc they'd caused. Glowing, warm, sweet little bastards..
WC: 1107
Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:11 am
✶Call me, call me any, anytime✶
Quote:
The Calling (7) : A beautiful melody drift on the air from somewhere far away. The vocals are in a language you don’t quite recognize, but feel somehow familiar to you. Something about the song calls to you, but no matter where you go, the song seems to sound the same distance away. The longer it goes on, the more emotional the song becomes--and the more emotional you become. Something about the song is possessive and consuming, like it’s all you can think of. Something resonates in you as the song crescendos, and the feeling is at its strongest--be they good, bad, anything, but suddenly the song fades, and there’s only an emptiness inside of you. The feeling of loss is strong, and can leave someone feeling emotionally numb. Someone out there was calling to you, and you couldn’t find them.
It had always felt best to run at night, especially in the summer. If destiny city had one thing, it was well irrigated parks, woody areas that were thick with foliage and made just for people like him who enjoyed their night jogs. It helped him think, wore him down in a good way, especially after he'd spent the whole week doing what felt like grunt work.
He let the odd jobs fall off like hot drops of sweat, forgot about the cloying temptation of darker powers that lay only a word away from his grasp. He just ran, until his mind was blessedly blank, until everything was wind and earth and a tunnel of forewords motion before him.
Then a song trickled in, caught his attention, like someone blasting their headphones too loud at a distance beyond the treeline, and it reminded him of 80's prog rock, and the old Blondie songs his mom had liked the best.
He'd take the boy, she'd keep the girls, and while it scarred some part of his heart, stung so deeply he thought it'd never heal, he was also glad. Girls needed moms - even at 8 years old he'd known that fact intrinsically. They'd be safe, and happy, and have all that nice soft warmth to themselves. Waru would be fine, he was a big boy - he'd be strong for them, just like his mom had asked him to.
The tears came unbidden, clumped on his eyelashes and clung to his cheeks. He couldn't place why the urge to cry had come on so strongly. How suddenly the thought, the memory, had struck him. Like lightning through his chest. Waru nearly tripped into a bush, caught himself on a tree like he'd hit the breaks to hard. Every breath shuddered as he wiped at his eyes and whipped his head around, searching for the voice, the source of the song like a sirens call.
"Hello..." and then he was in motion. Driven like he was running from something instead of towards it. Into the treeline and beyond, the call echoed off bark and through the air. Demanded he find it, begged and pleaded and he swore with all of himself that he knew that voice. That he needed to find it, them, whoever, if he didn't something terrible would happen and he could feel it.
If only he were faster - or stronger - some approximation of better. No matter which corner he turned or log he picked over no one was there. The forest was empty, the song faded. He was lost, he'd failed.
Such a worthless, useless, stupid thing he was. A waste of strength without purpose, because what good was any of it if he couldn't even manage finding one single ******** person in the woods? The song was gone, whoever'd been calling him was g o n e.
And Waru suddenly felt numb. Small and young and hollowed out, exhausted from the run in a way he'd never been before. Not since he'd done track for the first time and spent most of it dry heaving because running a mile in that kind of heat was insane...
He hadn't felt this way since he'd been home, and that'd been so long ago that ----"I need to see Lina..." the bubble of thought burst, ice water cold against all other thoughts.
He dug his way out of the forest, found the walking path he'd veered off of like some madman, and made a call. He'd spend the night there, curled up in her warmth, buried under her pillows that smelled of ten different kinds of Victoria's secret perfume and too many musky colognes.
She wouldn't ask questions, he wouldn't have to talk about it, they could just curl up together and sleep the night away like guilty puppies who'd snuck out too late and come home even later than that.
WC:645
Shiningamisgirl
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Shiningamisgirl
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Posted: Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:01 pm
✶A Wish's Worth✶
Quote:
The Wishing Tree (1): A Destiny City Star Festival Tradition to be held every year; In Town Square, there is a beautiful tree with spreading branches. It is tall, but the lowest branches are easily reached. The city has decorated the tree with small, starlike ornaments and glistening lights. Thick leaves and beautiful purple flowers dangle from the branches, along with a myriad of different colored papers with handwritten wishes. Next to the tree is a stack of blank paper with twine attached, and a handwritten sign that explains:
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.
Waru'd gotten dragged along earlier on, enjoyed the stalls and sights, briefly munched on some cotton candy, which was surprisingly good if Waru ignored how empty the calories were. He'd indulge just a little and work it all off later though, he knew little spun sugar wouldn't really ruin any plans he had intake wise. It wasn't until the evening had hit that he'd broken off from his friends to explore on his own. Caught up in his own thoughts, feet leading him mindlessly as they would..
The ground beneath them changed from tarmac parking lot, to sidewalk, to the crunch of grass and leaves, fresh dewy smell of plant life surging and teeming against the summer breeze. Fresh cut grass and wind blown pollen, fragrant flowers and things that wilted in the heat. The infrequent storms had made it all a heady mix of humidity - and the post rains smell.
The center of the earthiness was the grand tree, decorated and decked out for the festivities. Waru'd never much bothered to participate in these sorts of things before, seemed a waste, why wish for s**t when he could just go get it himself? When he could go out and actively make it happen - wishing seemed almost lazy - In the spirit of it Waru examined the tables, the parchment, read over the sweet little rules that had probably been conjured up by some city PR person, or an elementary school teacher.
"S'kinda childish.." Waru murmured as he sucked the last of the cotton candy off the stick, lightly nibbled the paper cone casing that the sugary fluff had been wrapped about - nipping off any overheated clumps that had gathered between the stick and his eating.
Childish or not, Waru figured he'd partake of it while he was there. Grabbing up a pen from one of the jars, and a deep leafy green paper pouch full of seeds, he carefully bent over the table - and stalled - "The ******** do I even wish for..."
Everything that came to mind was selfish, self serving, and beyond that? Things that people couldn't have reasonably accomplished, and beyond even that - things that he could have accomplished himself if he'd truly desired it. "********, this is so damned stupid, how do I even...How can I not have a selfless wish?"
Waru grumbled - ran through a mental list - each one turning to so much ruin in his mind - he immediatly discarded every notion that began with capital gain, or any other sort of gain that would have benefited himself.
'I wish everyone were healthy, or would work out more, or would be kind'
"Yean, nope, none of those" they felt like mindless mewlings of an unrealistic nature. "Alright, maybe? Maybe if I make a wish about someone else...that would make them happy?" and Waru turned that around in his mind, and the concept seemed to be just enough in line with what the rules of the tree were. He didn't even know why he cared enough to follow the rules - but it seemed important, especially if the end goal was to see the hypothetical wish fulfilled.
Waru realized absently that he was a grown a** man talking to himself in front of a tree - in public, and quickly bent over and scrawled his wish on the colorful paper. Handwriting that any four year old would be proud of, that he was proud of because so long as he could read it - who the ******** cared. It meant something to him, and maybe if he was lucky it'd end up fulfilled.
"I wish - that everyone could have a ride or die, bottom-b***h on their side. Ya'll need more friends, you lonely ********."
Waru grinned, scratched out a smiley face with X's for eyes at the end of it. It felt nice to him, the whole world needed friends after all, good loyal, top dollar friends.
WC: 653
Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:15 pm
✶In the Aftermath✶
Albite had waited, went home and showered and used more neosporin than he had any right to own. Cleaned the dirt out of minor scrapes, hissed under the spray of antiseptics on abrasions and open skin. He'd learned to love the flexi spray skin bottles - liquid bandages that worked so much better than anything else could have, considering the mire and myriad of differently shaped marks.
Albite felt raw, excited, and buzzing and r a w - skinned open - not only his flesh but his heart, because his poor baby wisps. His sweet ******** orbies and that absolute a** of a merchant who'd run his mouth about putting them back together before it'd been to late.
Albite wasn't sure if he was to blame, if he should've gotten more, or the wisps, who seemed innocent in it all but who knew with space s**t, or the merchant who'd brought them down to earth with him..Who seemed the most likely to blame? Because maybe if they'd stayed apart they wouldn't have become such a monster. Something they clearly weren't meant to be.
Albite turned the sour thoughts over and over again in his mind until he'd fallen asleep to them. Slept through the whole of the day and into the next evening. Clicked on the news and blanked out over the sight of the crater and swath of felled trees that laid in the path of the battle now long past...
Then Albite got up off his a** and went back. Focused and silent and careful into the desiccated woods that lay around the former battle site.
Cautious of lingering onlookers, and possible police. Albite sifted through the debris - looked for anything left behind. How odd that the creatures iridescent blood had left with it - when the energy of it had burned hot as fire to the touch. If Albite hadn't been there himself, he wouldn't even know that it'd been something as simple as a few wisps gone colossus that had caused all the mess.
In his searching he picked up a few things - he assumed errant dropped items from all the others who'd been powered and battling alongside them, or maybe trinkets left behind accidentally by news crews and swat teams.
Albite through kicked up debris n scattered pine needles, he eventually found a pair of black pearl studded earrings for his efforts. While rummaging around an overturned log he discovered a cool looking-glass ornament, it resembled a Wisp Glass. The crystalized wisp, miraculously uncrushed beneath the felled tree. Smooth and cold to the touch, just holding it dragged back the sense of dismay at the loss of the real orbs. He summarily kicked the log the rest of the way over, and tucked the crystal away for later - only to freeze at the sound of snapping branches in the distance.
Albites head whipped around to track a sudden, yet distant glow - small fat lumens that peeked out from beneath deadened soil and rotted trees - that swam out of hollowed logs and up from beneath branches. Albites breath caught in his throat, a prickle of tears at corners of his eyes, because he couldn't begin to believe what he was seeing.
"Babies?" Maybe the merchant wasn't such a hot pile of evil afterall.
"ORBIES!!" and Albite was motion and joy. A clumsy behemoth that vaulted logs like twigs and ignored the way the dirt and branches clung to him as he hit the earth running, a saint bernard set loose in a field after his bestest ball.
He skidded to his knees in the dirt, arms open as he fell into a pile of rapidly approaching wisps. They buffeted and barraged him all at once - heedless of the increased light show. "You little shits, monsters, terrorists..." Albite laughed and clung to the ethereal beings. Let them smudge his suddenly wet face and clump up and between his dreads. "Scared me...You're all in so much trouble the second we get home, I swear!" and he sounded like a child trying to be grown, no more stern than a toddler could have been, as he lovingly cradled his wisps - noted with exasperation that there were more than the original eight he'd first brought the merchant. A gleaming total of ten....
"Listen, we're gonna get some straight house rules this time - no peeing on the carpets - no swimming in the washing machine..Gonna have to get names for the other two.." and Albite bundled the lot of them together in his arms, quickly made off like a bandit with his glowing hoard.
He knew they wouldn't last long in his shoe box of a unit - the grin for that - the knowledge that he had somewhere else to put them. Oh all the joys of having a useful General, with a nice big empty office.
"You're just spending one night with me - the one!! We're getting all the names sorted, and then? We're gonna go stay with the boss - daww you'd like the boss huh? Lotsa stone, n glowing rocks, you'll love it there." It'd give him a reason to visit the verse more often anyways, check in on his little orb lite posse.
The whole of the way home he checked, again and again, Sara, Portia, The Twin Beas, The Tripplemint Triplets, Benji, counted over and over again out of paranoia. Came up with names for the two newest globes that would inhabit his life - saving and grace, because he thought that sounded the most clever.
Though he was sure he'd change his mind later, several times over even throughout the night. As he shuttled them into bed, said his goodnights, unplugged every electronic in his home - because he'd learned his lesson the first time - because he could learn.
Besides he didn't need any lights - the gaggle of orbs that grouped up around him as he slept were enough - warm little fuzzes of static and alien glow. He'd never slept better. Even knowing he'd have to face Faustite down with his newest 'surprise', it would all be worth it, whatever annoyed upset the man may conjured, he couldn't have cared, just knowing he had a safe place to keep his orbies was enough to let him rest at ease.
WC: 1,097 (Wisp Solo - for the orbs!)
Shiningamisgirl
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Shiningamisgirl
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Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2021 4:37 am
✶Like a Match loves Gasoline✶
Oh, look a monologue! Albite, Being Albite. In All Things. In All Ways. Always!
Quote:
-In which Albite spends time with his lovely orbs - hanging in his Generals office while he's away. Means to surprise him with a gift, has gotten bored, and so has gotten into the gift before even presenting it. He's just so excited for what he's provided for his boss (and of course his Bossette Nembus if it was ever her thing to partake in) that he can't help but try some of it.
Because Albite believes with all of himself that Faustite (the guy on actual real life fire?) should have something dark like whiskey to go with his tea, and if he has whiskey for his tea then he should also have baileys, and gin..gin goes amazing in tea. Albite gets so lost on his notions of tea and the things that go in them, that he gets through a healthy portion of one of his gifts without even noticing...and....well? Albite, he's always got a lot to say...and the orbs? His lovely sweet little wisps, they're very good listeners.
The best listeners, actually , and they never ask him to stop talking, never correct him. Though he intonates their movement's as such, every little flourish and bob. He communicates with them even though they're silent in return. He believes he can damned well hear what they're saying without them having said anything at all. They're a real sassy bunch of glowy bitches, Albites wisps are.-
Characters: Eion + Waru --- ClickforBig -- > Artist Credit To: Zhuany1
"The atrocities I would commit, to see the people I love - really, truly, l o v e - to see them happy."
"We're talking real kinds of happy, but most importantly? Happy with me, in the spaces I occupy and where I could see them and be with them and experience the fact that they were indeed 'happy'."
"Problem is I only know how to love people the one way - with all of myself - and its not just about the physical, yeah? There's lots of ways to love people. Lotsa little ways people need things, and filling that role for someone else fills something in me. Like that stupid kids book about 'how to fill your bucket' emotionally, one drop at a time, one little kindness at a time..."
"The point of the book by the way? Is that filling up other people, filling 'their buckets', fills yours up too. Always liked that part, felt it."
'"But yeah...N' if they get it from someone else - their happiness - if they're getting their needs met by someone not me? Fine, sure, I don't get jealous, I don't care about things like that. Body types, gender, labels. How many people do they need, and if it's more than one, more than ten? That's fine too."
"There are people I'd do it for - the marriage thing, not the monogamy thing - and only the one person actually. Except she'd sooner cut out my liver than take my ring, and I love that she'd crush my little boyish dreams, like, into dust. With her bare hands around my throat even......."
"N then there's the other - except he'd look better in the dress than she would. N' even better then that? He also wouldn't care, where or how, I got the needs I have met. For him, just. I'd give absolutely everything for him. The things I'd do for him, that he'd never even need to ask me to do? That if he asked me to do I would do them without hesitation. ******** I'm bad with tangents...Anyways! I was saying that people need things from other people sometimes. Sometimes that's all the time, and that's fine too."
"It's the leaving that gets me. My ******** up little part in it all, where I'm selfish about it. Where the thought of them abandoning me to go off and have their nice happy little lives somewhere I can't follow? Outside of me, away from me, and the fear of getting left behind completely. That it'll continue on like that, because I couldn't provide them with what they needed - even knowing its not humanly possible to be that for another person all of the time?"
"I'm not ******** *obtuse* to these kinds of things...or is that even the word to use? Whatever!"
"My point is - that part of me - it's violently selfish, deep down to the marrow, and I would commit atrocities to keep the people I love happy. To Keep Them. We're talking bodies piled high, worlds burned to ash...."
"If that would make them happy? If that would make them stay? If that would accomplish both those things, and also give me what I want in the process? Nothing I wouldn't do for that. N o t h i n g"
"Except it's more of a worth thing...if doing that would make them see its worth staying with me. That they can have all that other stuff, and still have me, and still be happy..."
"Except I can't put any of that s**t on them, on other people, because I would've done it even without them as an excuse for it. I'm saying that because I do that kind of s**t anyways, on the daily, it's just small and harmless when it's me without a reason to escalate things - doing things for the love of ******** things up. Doing it to see what'll happen - thermite reaction - will it all blow up in my face, will it be hot?"
"What'll being a certain kinda intrusive get me this time, how many times can I poke the actual literal 'bear' before natural consequence's - hell - natural selection? Makes a decision on the outcome of me doing it."
"Sometimes? I even think about everyone, and how I love them, and if killing them would let me keep them...."
Keep them in the ways that I want to keep them. Like good memories or aged wine.
"....because death seems better. Its an understandable kind of leaving, a natural loss: everyone dies, all the time, no ones eternal."
"Don't start on the 'reincarnation thing', because whatever new you pops out on the other end is not, and will never be, the same you that went in. Its two separate 'you's', an inception of you's - ghosts of you's from futures past! Its the flavoring of you all garnished up without the main ******** course. Seasoning on its own is not a goddamned meal. Seasoning makes a meal interesting, elevates it, the garnish makes it 'pretty'. Salt, pepper, spice, ******** parsley sprinkles. You don't need it, but having it makes it taste better? It's not the whole of the dish though, not a single goddamned dish is built around seasoning and garnish... It's not even s**t you can like - cognizantly remember - that people don't go absolutely bonko's from recalling any of it is - I mean it's just...."
"Whatever, tangents...as I was saying...What was I saying?"
"Death, right! It's easier to process something like that, for me specifically. Easier to visualize it and understand the absence it creates. Easier to do that then it is to wrap myself around the fact that I wasn't ever going to be enough - that something was too broken for me to fix - that I'd finally met a wall that I couldn't put my fist through?"
"I wouldn't give it up though, the worst parts of myself, because it's those same parts of me that let me love so freely, yanno? That let me give soo freely, and meet people where they're at with all of myself, every time."
"The darkness? Chaos? Metallia? It's secondary - omittable - because it was already there. I know myself pretty damned well; what I like, what I want, and I don't need a reason for it. People who try to dissuade me from all the s**t that I already know about myself? Those people - I like to prove them wrong, really just, have fun with the doing of it even. Cause this is not a new thing, the way I react to people, the ways I need them, and I do need them. To love them and be things for them."
"Being alone? It's not a new fear either - the abandonment thing - the parts where I'll never be enough... "
"The parts where I end up alone specifically because I can't be anything else? I'm not ever going to be anything else other than 'me', other than 'this', I'm not a damned chameleon - not getting any smarter or....or things like that..."
"I recognize with like - begrudging ******** malice - that I might have personal limitations."
"Which, then makes it essential to drag them all down to where I'm at, because I can't climb up to where they are. As mean as that would be, and to make them suffer with me doing my best on that level. To try to please them from my own standing."
"None of that is her - and maybe she's the lit match for all this - but I was always the gasoline. It's like a tragic love story, two potentially destructive beings that burn for each other, and because of that should always stay apart."
"Gasoline always ends up finding matches somehow though, doesn't it? Or, maybe its the other way around. Except with this one? I picked up the matchbook and lit the damned thing myself, because self immolation sounded more interesting..."
"Not cleaner, not kinder, just 'more interesting', and for me? That's always been enough of a reason for anything. Filling needs, needing more, feeling alive for having survived the pyre of it."
Snarled and swiped at a youma that swooped in too close, felt it’s claws rake gouges over him before swatting it the ******** off. Bled, heaved air and energy as he clung to his final attack like a lifeline; like he clung to the pickaxe he’d been granted youma leg style.
Disappointed as he was that the cliff hadn’t fallen. Felt it tremble and then resist him because it was a ******** cliff side, and somehow still not a youma!? He let it go. Stared out as the communicator went off - over and over anew; conflicting for him. Don’t pull a star seed - do pull a star seed!? Don’t die, do die, stay there, stab a cliff, *run*….
But to where?
The only good thing about being where he was? Was the vantage point. ******** scenic. Used the few seconds he had to take it all in, swept his gaze over the mess of it below - a war zone.
The whole of it - everything - stunning- and he ping ponged between emotions. Joy bled over rage at the praise of the fleeing bubbled Senshi he still wanted to drop the cliff on. Hell yes, he did look good, thanks, but also she had a *shield*?! Absolute son of a - she coulda waited a bit longer, whatever!
Awed at the ice dragon, and her orders had made him grin, feral, and thrilled as she went back over the edge like a super hero. Pounced on the swarm below, the *Big Boy*. How she tore into him and became a goddamned dragon before his very eyes. Perfection in her form, and he’d thought she’d looked deadly before, but now? Amazing.
The glory of the chaos from just above it, and the way it lit up brilliantly like a sun had formed in the center across the narrow pathways of it all. He had a moment to coo over how pretty it all was. The way it showed the lot of them - those that remained alive - clustered, cloistered, and scrabbling to get some semblance of together to escape. Fighting for their lives.
Lit up friend and enemy alike. Impossible to miss Kama then, blinding sunspot flare of him and how his eyes watered as he was forced to look away, peer out though his fingers in order to marvel at a walking sweep of fire taken form in the midst of the group - creature that danced like a blaze given life and breath and form - and the General over the coms had said ‘youma’ - the youma were agents?
Well s**t.
Albite didn’t have another star seed on him, because who in their right mind *did that*? Didn’t need one though, not when he *was* one, energy personified, power on tap, and *man* if ever he’d thought of an end - *this* - this was what it looked like. Resonated deep down. He’d known choosing Faustite would be fun. Best General ever.
“Hey, buying you guys like - I dunno - 15 seconds - a minute? You’d all better get a ******** move on.” used the stupid tablet pen thing for, like, the third time in his life; blurbed a message to whomever.
Easiest thing he’d ever done, second nature by now with how often he’d pulled the stunt of it.
To pull such a stunt alone in a vicious hurricane of a youma swarm, versus making his way down to grab people up and die ‘en mass over the side of a cliff?
Whatever - didn’t matter in the end, so long as he had a good time with it.
There is no word count. This journal entry doesn’t exist.
Shiningamisgirl
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Shiningamisgirl
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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 10:36 am
✷Picasso Ain't Got s**t On You✷
Quote:
Art Alive (1): Destiny City tries to keep a clean, upstanding city, but sometimes you just can’t beat the taggers. Graffiti art has been popping up around the city but it seems like it’s always moving from place to the next. Literally. The art is up one day and gone the next--on a completely different wall. Some people think it’s an elaborate prank--except, sometimes, in the dark of the night, you can see the art stretching from one wall to the next. Or, maybe it’s just your eyes playing tricks on you. No one would believe you if you said you saw artwork moving, anyway.
Waru had been surprised by the uptick in sidewalk - sidestreet -side surface art. As if the city had come alive with it all of a sudden. While some people hated it Waru found he didn't. Though to be fair, he hated ugly scrawls and meaningless shitty tags too - hatted clipped gangtags and warning code's flashed in errant quick spraypaints over brickwork...
This though? Everything he'd been seeing lately, and how all of that screamed something else. It wasn't the usual type of s**t he was used to seeing. It was --- not just pretty --- but ethereal? Begged questions of how and why in equal measure.
Especially when he'd walk the same street once - twice - three different times. Would wonder 'Was that there yesterday, wasn't that different a week ago, how did they get it off without painting it over or spraying it down?'
There were times when he felt like it was something more. Like...like it was something worth paying attention to -- like maybe it was watching him back?
Wasn't that a familiar feeling for Waru. For Albite?
Better to handle it as one and the other, to chase his curiosity with a buffer of power between him and whatever it could have been. Brought his orbies out with him. Skirted the tops of streetlights and brittle brickwork. Scaled them and found skittered little tags and paint scraps that likely shouldn't couldn't wouldn't have ever been there before...
Set his babies out. Soft glorbs that would alight over one patch of color or another - would catch the briefest flicker of movement - of something vanishing - spreading - spiraling down a pipe and across a surface like a spooked shadow being chased by a tiny soft white sun.
His orbies were having a good time of it though. Playing tag with the tags. Zipping like spotlights given targets worth hunting down. Worth herding up and in...
He'd never been more proud of them. Chased after the art as he chased after the spherical orbs. Whistled to get their attention and sicked the lot of them on any speck of splotched paint swatch that seemed just a little too out of place - that seemed likely to move.
Chased it all down into an epicenter of an alley that led to a brick backed dead end. Caught bodies --- occasionally --- passed out -- dropped down -- people who were seemingly sleeping and left in the wake of where the ink had passed over and through.
"Youma? Whatdya think boys n girls -- Lakey McTentateeth part two?" and he really did need to settle on a better name for the octalampray that had settled in at the bottom of the reservoir. Massive thing. Not evil - just overly hungry for its size...
Albite shook the idea free - and followed the ink in - followed with his orbies at the lead for how their light cast over the darkness seemed to offer an extra buffer all in one. Came up to writhing shadow and coalesed ink all in one. At first it looked like nothing more than spray paint. Uglier, messier, clumped and shadowed over and over and over -- as if it'd been aged in layers...
Sat his a** down in the filthy alley and waited. Orbs tucked up amongst his locks, head in his hands. As slowly -- ever so slowly -- something shifted. Albite watched in awe as it all sworled alive - cascade of colors that bled black and blue and iridescent shimmer. Warning flickers that stretched over surfaces. Flecked into crevice's and cracks and became something entirely new.
And the Youma, the magic, the being that he stared into that seemed like shadows becoming art coming alive. How the fascinating movement of it all - the shifting complexity bewitched him - how he thought he was losing his mind for all that it couldn't have been real. Except he wasn't sure he had any mind left to lose sometimes, and he had seen stranger things already....hadn't he?
All the images backcast by the orbs glow --- gave Albite ideas. Made him want for fresh ink on his skin and the sting of needles that was never pain - that soothed in the ways so many things hadn't before. Wanted for change like he wanted for power. The power to change?
"C'mon babies. Let's go home, yeah.." gathered his orbies in tow - smushed them together into one convenient chunky moodlight that he could easily tuck away. He'd leave the art alive -- let it have its alleys and its claims. Was far too entertained by it all to do anything else besides dream of future ideas for scrawls he could add to his flesh -- all inspired by some art come alive.
WC: 774 Super Albite = ✷ (for the Orbs)
Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:31 pm
✷Fogged Glass✷
Quote:
One Foggy Night (5): As the seasons shift, the temperature changes too. It’s not uncommon for fog to roll in, sometimes from the mountains, sometimes out of nowhere. This fog is particularly thick and difficult to see through; Destiny City has issued several weather warnings and cautions being out or driving at night. It’s easy to get lost and difficult to see obstacles. Not to mention the strange, smothering sensation of dread and fear that rolls in with the fog. While there is sometimes the sensation of being watched, it worsens when the sun goes down. Some have even said they’ve caught glimpses of a tall, horned figure traveling with the fog. The news has reported that this is probably just a side effect of climate change and suspects that weather patterns should return to normal towards the end of the month.
What clouded up the window pane - bated breaths - the inside warmer than the chill that crept around the casing that kept the pair feeling safe within. The sweat warm bodies that sat inside. Chilled outer metal shell - warm leather interior with the heat kicked up and floodlights shut off.
Pair huddled together in a backseat —- for warmth—- for closeness —- who could say?. What with how readily she clung. Long milted fingers tangled up in dreadlocks that had lengthened with weeks and months. Nails painted purple and green - poison vine scrawl fit for the season.
Pairs of eyes that nearly matched- dilated wide as owls — how the dark centra seemed to catch every scrap of moonlit beams cast down —- sought each other in the pitch; and neither seemed willing to blink - - -
“W a r u—-“ soft lips that ghosted over bare flesh, with syllables that fell heavy, skin nearly flush with the shell of his ear. Mat lipstick that would surely smear, for how often she’d licked it - run her tongue over dry black that bled mauve.
“Sshhh…” large calloused hand that tucked her head into the crux of his shoulder — pressed her there as if his mere presence could keep out the world.
As if he could abate the fear —-
Abject terror that clawed in with the thick fog that had rolled up on them. An irrational thing. The way it frosted the outside air — trickled up and over them as they had walked - simple short jaunt from cliff side to car ride.
Watching the sunset mid autumn — how that had seemed like a friendly enough thing to have. Time owed for all the stolen moments they hadn’t had.
How it had quickly become a horror show —- air that had become thick as batter between them. Waru was tempted to turn. To Henshin the ******** up - reveal be demanded.
Except it was Lina—- his Lina —- and he’d sworn up and down how none of it would ever touch her. That the magic war that brewed just under and above the surface of all things would stay exactly that way, for her…
That was when he’d grabbed her and run. Had picked flee over fight for the first time in forever. Had streaked straight towards the perceived safety stuck in park at the edge of a trail — while the shadows cast out from beyond the tree-line had cast horns — had shunted spiked ice up his spine — even within the confines of the car.
When the sight had chased Lina shivering and shaking into his arms. Turned the normally kickass balls like brass woman into a kettle that seemed a split hair away from shattering apart on a scream.
Oh — how he’d been tempted to kick it on and throw them into reverse and out of there.
Headlights only made it worse —- and any noise seemed to draw it near —- - - -
Left the engine running out of desperation. When the cold had become too much and the toss up between lights and warmth had been called in favor of staving off the potential for frostbite.
When the thing in the thick gray blanket had clawed across hood like daggered nails on glass —- how quickly Waru dragged them one and all into the back seat.
Told her to sleep —- even when he knew neither of them would catch more than a solid blink between them.
Not so long as the being just outside the steel doors and fogged glass waited…..
WC:606
Shiningamisgirl
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Shiningamisgirl
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 4:33 pm
✷Check✷
Everything about Sylvite was so — and Livi was — and Alexa? Apparently Sylvite was Alexa. She had a civilian name - duh - she was people. She went to school, she liked fashion. Did fashion? Fashion school?
Made him think he should’ve introduced her to Celadonite- as a person - as more than just agents who lived curled up in swaths of power draped on like a guise. He liked it when there was more to a person, loved power- being that - having that - every now and then though?
Stepping out and seeing the people beneath it? It was a nice thing, soothing even.
Like her nails over his scalp and her fingers in his dreads - the way she was a total badass, apparently. Though he knew that, she was a secret ninja and had absolutely kicked all the a**. She picked up the conversations where he wouldn’t - all those sweet little things that distracted him from how much he hated hospitals and the sluggishness of the healing process in general.
Though hate seemed like too strong of a word — disliked — except he was way more impassive about it then that. Too tired to dredge up more than the vaguest of ‘meh’ - for all that he should’ve been, something?
He’d chalk it all up to shock.
To the ‘huh-ness’ of his mind tripping the ******** over Faustite being dead, darkness that followed that, and then waking up enough to see that everyone was very much alive. Himself included. Shrapnel, singed skin and magical a** kicking aside - very alive.
Very Meh.
Fleeting image of Faustite being whole, present, and surrounded by orange like karma, fishnet stockings, and that one silver haired Senshi he’d mentioned to Dee before, over a very nice dinner.
Hoped his bossette was okay. Was safe and alive and hadn't been any part of the debacle. She wouldn't of liked it, wasn't a fighter. Had already been through so much, getting snatched up here, and tossed around the rift, and...Hadn’t seen Dee herself, hadn’t heard from her, hadn’t…
Had seen Ochre.
Very sweet auburn Senshi that had summarily ceased to be just outside of his purview, on the sidelines. Like some periphery happening that he should’ve cared about, but couldn’t manage to dredge that up.
Ochre had done a thing — been kind - given him info. Jet had done a thing and ended his access to more of that, the information, the interaction. Aqua had given him orders, and he’d followed them. With reverie and joy, frolicked through the field and — played whack-a-mole with the lot of them.
Bopped every little Senshi and Knight that came into view. Not to death, not run through, not even roughly. Just —-
For all that it’d been a fight? It hadn’t felt like one. It’d been fun. He’d had fun - pulled on power that wouldn’t ever be his again. Swam in chaos saturated seas like the air they breathed and played at being something better. Youma incarnate, a helluva thing.
Should’ve been happier for it all - especially since Thorite was there! He’d missed him, he’d thought he died. That he was Dead. Something about after the rift? How he’d lost track of everyone at the end, how he’d ******** worried and grabbed the ones he could and gotten out, because staying wasn’t an option and it was damned hard to be a Senshi and stay there and wait and he was sorry he didn’t stay on his ill gotten goat and w a i t —-
Not like he could command the ********, but —
Thorite now - Cosmos Knight now - Amsvartnir - mentioning letters he’d never read. Like Albite had an office, like he got mail? How could he have!? Didn’t have Elias in his home and hadn’t gotten to give him a key or an address and Elias never talked about where he lived and Waru wasn’t rude enough to pry like he should’ve..
Thorite now Amsvartnir was sad - handsome and doused in rainbow head to toe - bleeding black. Like someone’d soaked him in ink, and he was sad. Terrified. Of him? For him?
Let him go because he begged — wanted to not do that — but maybe Elias didn’t like to be kept either? Wasn’t like he couldn’t have come back to them, when he wanted, if…
It was fine, people made choices and Amsv' was clearly hurting, so he turned his back - ended up scalded for it. Hissed for the hurt he'd received after his offer of kindness, and the attack a negligible thing, he got burnt all the godamned time, might as well have been a moth for how often he touched literal flames, the betrayal though? The certainty that Thorite was saying ‘No’- not just to the Negaverse as a whole, but to him?!
Wanted him in black or dead — wanted that to not be a lie spoken in anger. Wanted the words to be real enough to act on in the background of a battlefield and with Mari’s tinkling laughter nipping at his heels from twenty feet over.
Would’ve protected him from Jet the same way he would’ve protected Cybele from Faustite. The depth and breadth of arguments they’d had purely over her - over the concept of forced corruption. Especially in regards to enemies that were better off dead and returned to the cauldron, to come back to them and be theirs again in a better way — 20 - 30 - 10,000 years from now; because Albite liked to fight. Strong opponents, not mindless puppets. People of will and purpose, because he believed there were only so many times a person could be cracked open and emptied out before they ceased to be useful as anything other than a corpse — how death could be a mercy granted out of respect for that enemy, rather than to spite them.
How corruption — while he’d rather it not be done at all - rather it be left as a punishment for something heinous — a lock ‘em up and throw away the key type tactic for those who had committed the most egregious of wrongs, than be a common act of induction? How he understood it as a tactic. How something had to be done with all those who it’d been common practice to bring in that way — the ones who made a choice and wanted to change; who had to suffer though that as a transition over to their side.
All the ones they’d gotten in the course of an evening — wasn’t sure how that worked — how chaos could be imparted on others without a focus behind it..
And Alexa was talking to him again, so he smiled, because he’d be okay - he had to be. Especially when her space was very comfortable, if small, could’ve been that he was big? He wasn’t sure. It was better there than the hospital — infirmary — it was cute — or whatever.
Like her voice. All those soft, warm, easy words, let them shut down his thoughts that wandered a hundred and one different places against his will while he was too tired to reign them in.
Listened to Alexa talk about nothing while checking in.
WC: 1,227
Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2021 11:42 am
✷Checked Out while Checking In✷
Every single little flag that ran red-red-red like stop lights. That flared right up the pole of his growing concerns that lived in the back of his brain, sharp angry spiked thing that drove him into a texting frenzy the moment he could find his own fingers again-- and just because he was easygoing and kind - just because he was slow and didn't like prodding all the things. Didn't mean he was unaware of the obvious. Didn't mean that he was unobservant. He knew things. He understood them at a base level. Didn't dig in and demand more for all that knowing...
Like how time kept passing and Dee might've been dodging him-- except...
How it was all so much like Thorite, minus all the rift s**t that had made him wonder if the young man who was his dear friend had survived it at all. So much like how Thorite had gone radio silence - had just - ceased to be in the aftermath of the mission, for him. How he'd paced his home, ground his teeth and stood his ground on top of the idea of the person he cared for being gone and dead...or just being gone..or...just being done with him after how abysmal the whole thing was for everyone else...
Except what'd happened on that hill wasn't like what'd happened in the rift. Bodies got left behind, to a degree. No black beasts to launch up outta every crack n crevasse who would tear apart a frame whole - who would gnaw sinew and bone to get to the crunchy treat within faster than a tootsie pop. No, these were people they'd been fighting. Human soft, they lived, they died, didn't turn to dust and come back at their leisure.
So if Dee had been there - if Nembus had been there - if she'd died?
Quote:
'Hey there Delilah! So, fun fact? Nearly dying s u c k s - Sylvites super cute though, did you know the General had a whole pack of boys? Like, all the boys! Lieutenant's and Senshi and....ohmygosh our Firebrand would lose his damn mind. If uh...I mean he technically lost his mind already, maybe, or...No..his head stayed on..the rest of him though? Oh, g2g, plz get back to me asap, yeah? Please?'
Let time pass - let minutes - sent little emojis in-between - sent a picture of a Hat Alexa had worked on. Just a hat, multiple shots of a hat from different angles. It was soft and svelte and dapper n' s**t.
Quote:
'So Faustite died - except he didn't? Good news is he got to spend more time with the Silver haired guy, I'm sure, saw him carying his body n everything. Their totally an item. Which - speaking of items? We should check in on the others. We should - hold a ceremony? Or not, I dunno how coming back from the dead works, but I feel like the guy should get a party the second we all see him again. In like, more than passing glances, cause uh...I've got questions..and I'm doing better now. On my feet n' everything. Gonna see Lil's n' her Bro soon enough.'
- that was important, he was a Super. He had responsibilities, it was important, and if she was okay then she had to help, had to...
Sent proof of life pictures of Haymitch all curled up and nestled safe with Lilith, who'd apparently had a cold that'd took her down harder than a mac truck, who'd sent her brother out. He was so damn grateful Alkmene had been at their boss's side when he couldn't have been, even thought he'd wanted too, so badly.
Quote:
'I'm gonna...are you good, are you home? Like, at the apartment of your previous persons that you're super good in -- except I still think you shoulda moved out, but whatever..'
Pictures of a the orbies visiting him - Gifs full of hearts and 'miss you's' - pictures of badly brewed tea, and Faustites secret stash and the burn marks in the table framed with a series of fiery sparkles and question marks.
Chucked it all out into the Ether and Waited - waited - waited --- got back not a single damn thing, for days, for longer than days for...
Nothing - he got nothing back and he should've told someone. Except then -- then he thought of Ochre, and choices, and how some people in the Negaverse handled other peoples choices. How they handled them poorly, or rashly, or with violence that was undue to his Nembus. His bossette. His Delilah..
Thought Thorite who looked so damn good set in rainbow and white, looked like he could've been happy if he hadn't also looked so sad right in that moment --- Thought past how angry he was at being left behind without a word....Not without a hug though. Even if it'd come late, even if it'd taken till the middle of a battle at the end of a hill of black. Even if he'd been all gussied up and youmaesque - he'd still gotten his ******** goodbye hug. Was owed that, due that? Because of all the things he'd been, an a*****e undeserving of a goodbye hug was damned well not one of them.
Quote:
You'd better be Dead or Dying, cause if not? I'm ******** coming for you.'
He was getting his hug, and he was getting his goodbyes. If he had to wait, if he had to hunt her to the end of the world? Waru was getting his due, it was only fair.
