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 Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 5:56 pm
Malodore had awoken before she had - that was normal, really, given that the plague doctor didn't generally require rest except during times of extreme stress. It was usually happy enough to lay there, limbs entwined with hers, and let itself drift into thought or reverie until Riley awoke. Today, though, it looked down at their entangled bodies and thought darker thoughts. Thoughts of bindings, of anchors, of chains. Of things that held one down. It did its best to keep tension from its surface thoughts and from creeping into its body, though it feared it was losing that fight. She had graduated already, after all, and made her disdain for the school quite plain - and it could not blame her. She had not found a mentor here as it had, and her goals and ambitions had always been lofty. And yet here she was. For how long? It clenched its beak at the thought and tried to push it away.
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:03 pm
Sleeping in was the most unnatural habit she'd ever found herself getting used to. She only slept once every other day, but lately she'd come to realize that sleep was very enjoyable. Being in a state of complete unconsciousness had once been an impossible and unacceptable task - her mind and body were allowed to rest in a state of semi-consciousness, where she was aware of her surroundings and still able to manipulate thoughts in the directions she wanted them. Dreams did not occur in these rest periods. She simply worked on the lowest power setting her body had; and remained there for several hours, quietly floating in an unthinking void as her body and mind healed itself from overworking. That had been sleep, for Riley, for most of her entire life.
And then she died. And her existence survived in a shell, never fully unconscious, but still completely powerless. She was stripped of her claims, pulled apart at the seams, and remade in someone else's image.
Now, she dreamed.
Her dreams usually consisted of another life. It was the life that her death and rebirth had wiped clean, or so she'd always thought. She did not have dreams, she had memories. And she sunk deep into them, reliving each one as her mind slowly mended during the night.
She heard a knock at the door. She turned to open it -
Her eyes opened when Malodore tensed, its arms giving it away. Her dreams did not change the fact that she slept light, and the softest change brought her back to the present - and to Malodore's struggling thoughts. Thoughts that revolved primarily around their continued happiness. She blinked the sleepy haze out of her eyes and focused them on the plague doctor pressed lovingly against her.
Morning. It was one word, and she'd said it every morning that she slept - but it knew the difference. It knew exactly how her voice changed when she was worried about it. Her eyes wandered over its mask, and asked silent questions in their troubled gaze.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:14 pm
Malodore's tension was immediately - no, not replaced, but put at one remove by a wave of chagrin. "Ah, mi dispiace, mia cara - I have woken you," it murmured, though it couldn't help but open its beak in a smile at her gentle greeting. How it loved that sound. But it knew that tone. "I should know better than to think I can hide anything from you," it said, ruefully, but it was glad that it couldn't do so, not for long. Hiding was a very bad habit. "I think too loudly, si?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 8:50 pm
Riley shifted just enough to stretch out her body, without losing the intimacy of closeness she obtained by sleeping against it. Her neck tilted to one side, and then settled back against the pillow. To say your thoughts are too anything would indicate there is an excess. You do not think too loudly. You think just loudly enough to interest me. Your mind stirs me in ways no mind ever can. You are never allowed to temper your thoughts. Her hand reached up and brushed the back of her fingers lovingly against the side of its mask. But I do worry when you think something so troublesome. Are you envisioning me abandoning you, mia cara? I would not say I have given you much reason to think I could ever leave you.
Her eyes searched for its own, reading it through more than just its thoughts. Tell me how you feel. We will come to a resolution, I am sure.
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Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 5:12 pm
It chuckled and leaned into her touch. "Truly, it is nothing - only that you have already earned your right to leave this place, and unless I am mistaken I believe that you have very few reasons to remain. Save myself, and perhaps Jericho as well... and I know that I myself am quite close to attaining the same heights as you, yet I find myself loath to do so." It had so much it could still learn. And, more than that - it had ties here, people it would miss if it left. So much to learn. As long as it was learning, it was safe. It would not have to leave, or think about what might await it beyond these halls. It had known only two places, really, in its life - the Casa, and Amityville Academy. Leaving the one had been piercing, but doable. Leaving this place, where it had been permitted to grow into the fullness of its self... It was afraid. And afraid again, for it knew Riley could never be happy if she were held back from everything she wanted. It loved that ferocity in her, that terrifying ambition and drive that had been a part of her from the day they met. It would not purge it from her for anything - and yet. And yet. It imagined itself as - no, not an anchor, but a weight, something that dragged and held. And it realized it had stopped speaking some time ago, but spoken words were really superfluous at times like this. It knew she would comprehend.
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Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:07 am
Everything it said was true. Even when it admitted to its hesitation, she was not surprised. She'd known - and simply assumed she had the patience to wait until it was ready.
It would be ready, wouldn't it?
She slowly pushed herself up, to sit up straight, and looked down at her plague doctor. The fears that plagued it so felt so much deeper than she'd imagined the problem to be. She started to wonder them, herself - though she could never tolerate the image of Malodore as an anchor, weighing her down. She dismissed it violently, and focused more on the realistic possibility that it may have been considering an extended stay at Amity.
The idea made her stomach churn with disgust.
I see. She truly had, and now it burdened her with worry just as much as it did for Malodore. Perhaps I have been misjudging the situation. I never thought it a problem. Now I see. It felt like one of the greatest challenges to their unlikely partnership yet, though certainly not the greatest. So much more subtle, and seemingly harmless. Yet no less deadly.
A problem is nothing without a solution. She faced this one head-on, as she did any other. So let us examine the facts. I submit this question to you first - is there a chance, however small, that you may find yourself wanting to remain at Amityville.. forever?
There was no chance in her voice, and she dampened the waves of concern that the question surged forth in her. It needed a clear mind with which to think about the question honestly.
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Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:45 pm
"Forever?" It stilled, then shook its head. "We walk the land for a very, very long time, mia cara. I cannot conceive of staying in one place for so long. And yet..." It lifted its hand to stroke a finger down the side of her face. "I can conceive of staying at your side for such duration." Could not, in fact, think about leaving her for any real length of time. Its devotion rang from it like a bell. "Yet the hunger to learn is large in me," it admitted, after a moment. "I think it was in me always, and that being denied so in my youth has only made it more voracious. This, I think, you will understand?" It did not open its beak to make the gesture externally, but the warmth that meant smile presented itself anyway. "And the friendships I have forged I would not wish to lose. I simply... I fear diverging from you, because you are swift and fierce and-" Admiration radiated from it, and pride, and love, because those were some of her best qualities in the plague doctor's estimation. And I fear that speed will take you where I cannot follow, and that wave of love was... not drowned out, that was impossible, but muted by a sharp jangle of fear and images, flickers of everything from a destroyed dorm room to herself gone grey and frozen.
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Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2014 4:47 am
A warm, filling wave of contentment washed over her the exact second its claw brushed down her face. Her eyes closed, and she allowed herself to just feel the affection radiating from every movement, and every thought. It was gratifying, how reassuring its love felt. She let it soak into her, reminding her once more why she'd allowed herself to fall this deeply in love in the first place.
She wanted to give it everything.
Her eyes opened, and her expression lifted when she experienced its yearning. It was a hunger she shared, she simply did not believe this institution could sate it for her. That did not scare her as much as it had a moment ago. Her heart clenched with renewed determination.
Nothing will take me where you cannot follow. She whispered, her voice shaking with power. I must have you. By my side, always. Her expression cringed at the memories of times when they had been separated, and her arms reached out to pull it into her embrace. She couldn't really promise forever, in a world so dangerous. So untamed.
She'd hoped to tame it, once. Now she knew it did not deserve her reign.
I will carve a path out for us with my own claws, if I must.
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Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2014 8:23 pm
Her determination thrilled it, filled it up from the inside like a fine blood wine. It answered her with its own ferocity, pulling her close, the tips of its claws digging a bit into her shoulders as its wings swept around them both. ... It was rather spoiled when one of the feathers snagged on the bedsheet, tugging the thing away and dragging it upwards in an odd approximation of a tent. "Well, then," Malodore said, dryly, shaking that wing a bit to try and dislodge the fabric, to no avail. It sighed, then nuzzled at her cheek with its beak. "Then tell me, mia cara, where are we to go?" It believed she could climb any height, go anywhere - but the decision of where was hers. Its ambitions had been met simply by coming here, by absorbing Cricket's tutelage. A strange and startling thought. Perhaps that was why it feared release? What came next had always been a blank, in its way... but it had also always been reassuringly far away. Not so, now. But it trusted her.
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:44 am
Riley slid comfortably into the arms that captured her, reveling in the feel of those claws biting against her skin. It tempted her to ask for more, but their conversation weighed with so much importance, that her carnal needs were but a blip in the back of her noisy mind.
Everywhere. She hissed out ferociously. I want to test my mettle in the working world. And, should that prove infertile, I want to continue to carve a path until I find a niche worthy of my hold. I will start small, of course. Quietly, carefully. Just as I did here. But there is always time, now that I am freed from the bonds of my predestined life. There is nothing but time.
She pictured a world bustling with people, chaotic and constant in movement. The deepest, oldest parts of her remembered wanting nothing more than to cull the masses and create a new world, transform everything under her guidance -
The desire to cull the herd was still there. Just for slightly different reasons.
We must strike out in the world. Together. Her eyes met Malodore's. Find our path. Paths. And once we have found them, then we will merge them into our future.
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 5:40 pm
It made a pleased sound at her imaginings. "As you say," it murmured, with a trill of happiness twining around the words. "And the first step is to... finish here, yes." The happiness turned to something a bit more sour, though it was not so much at the thought of leaving. Not now that it had been reassured. No, now it was more prosaic. The thought of a requirement left unfilled, one it rather loathed. "I am informed that my skill in battle is incomplete," it said, grumpily. Bits of battles it had been in flicked through its memory. It was... yes, it was offended to be told so. Had it not spent enough Fear and shed enough blood under Amityville's banner? Hmph.
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Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 1:07 am
Incorrect. She was quick to tamp down the mere idea that anything about Malodore was less than perfect. It is not your skill that is incomplete, it is the required number that the institution requests of us before they give us a piece of paper and claim us to be better than we were when we entered. A claim I have often refuted. Her eyes twinkled with mischief. But, be that as it may, rules are rules. If what you need is more battling, then that is a step that must be taken. Her finger ran down the length of its beak fondly.
I'll spar with you, if it helps. She'd spar with it if it didn't help.
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Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 3:05 pm
It chuckled at her reassurance. "Ah, well, when you put it that way," it said, amused. Though it radiated a bit of concern at her offer to spar. "I... am not sure if I could hurt you, mia cara. And all my skill in battle seems to be, er... very... very much with the cutting and slicing." It thought of her flesh laid open under the scalpel and twitched. Then it twitched again, because the idea wasn't as repugnant as it should have been. The thought of her letting it investigate her body of her own will was... ... mildly intoxicating. Replace the hand on the scalpel with any other, however, and the revulsion redoubled. "It is complicated," it said, helplessly. Nio Love you know she saw all those mental images don't even front
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Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:11 pm
From very quiet, intimate conversations in the past, Malodore knew that certain acts went hand in hand in the traditional methods of Illithid coupling. She, however, did not remember informing it of such details, and as such, her skin flushed darkly with color and desire. She actually inched back, just enough to breathe, and let out a long, calming sigh through her tentacles.
Your worries do nothing but entice me in ways that have nothing to do with my love for fighting. She warned, her eyes looking anywhere but in its own eyes. So perhaps, if you feel this is complicated enough to cause you discomfort, I will rescind the offer. It pained her to say it. But you'll need to find a sparring partner that you don't have trouble - A ridiculous spark of jealousy erupted within her suddenly, and it cut off her words with a jolt. It was immediately followed with a bubble of tense, awkward laughter.
Complicated. She repeated, laughter still in her words. Yes, that is a good word for it.
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Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:58 am
Malodore's beak closed with a clack, and it gave her a look of utter bemusement for a moment before laughter overtook it and it ended up flopping back on the pillows, laughing helplessly. "Ah, mia cara," it managed once speech was a possibility again, "we are well matched indeed."
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