Don't Give Up Your Ghost
Mephistopheles
It was rare if Viper went out far from Fenmyre these days, but there was an occasion where she needed to take a long trip around in search of prey that weren't plagued by the glowing nature of the winter changes around them. They weren't sure if the prey was infested with anything, it didn't seem that way at least after they died but they couldn't be too careful. With pups on the island and more on the way, it seemed Chimera's priorities changed away from Viper. Though, she couldn't say so for sure because she avoided Chimera as best she could. It hurt to be around him, it hurt to be on the island. She would never admit that though, and instead she would suffer through her own emotional turmoil she was good at hiding.
Traveling around the pack lands in the south east she wasn't sure if she would find any prey out this way while it was getting so crowded. Still, time away from the pack felt relaxing to her though she couldn't hide the bit of anxiety leaving Cerberus for so long. She knew he was in good hands though. She was going to travel more north towards the falls and rapids, but as she rounded the mangrove she thought she had caught a glimpse of some kind of foggy figure float through the trees. She only stopped for a second to look in the direction, but she assumed it was just a trick of the strange, dark light that seemed to fill the days here recently. She almost went to move on until she heard a quiet whistling, as if the wind was blowing around in her ears but there wasn't any breeze blowing by. She didn't really feel fearful of the changes and the fireflies around, but she wasn't necessarily comfortable about it. Just as she stopped to look back into the trees, she thought she spotted the ghostly fog move farther into the forest, and just then a few fireflies circled around in a line to follow it. She hesitated to listen to the silent blue lights, but eventually her paws moved forward.
thinking "speech" "others" He wasn't particularly far from home, though it was a bit beyond his usual haunts. The bobbing and dipping fireflies, blue as the moon overhead, had lured him further east. It was only when the russet deity realized his paws were beginning to slip and slide over muddy terrain that he seemed to faze back into focus. The heady aroma of decay and mud were carried upon the humid air of the mangrove, along with a vaguely familiar scent. Cerulean gaze bleary as he peered about, the phoenix finally found his eyes landing on the small form of a dame he'd run into a few times already. She had yet to introduce herself, and the mystique surrounding her continued to entertain and enthrall him. Long limbs carried him smoothly forth, trailing after the fae who seemed to be charting a very specific course through the mangroves. "Afternoon, doll. Or perhaps it's evening now?" he crooned with a lopsided grin, making no effort to catch up beyond the few feet by which he trailed behind her. He wanted to say more, to draw her into another fun brawl, but the moment his mouth opened, a voice drifted in on the wind. Abomination.. a reedy, breathy whisper trickled through the thick fur of his ears and slithered into his brain. Hesitating mid stride over the tangled roots of the mangrove trees, he looked around. All he could see were those damned fireflies, dancing to and fro as they seemed to gather every closer to him. Wary and unsettled, his eyes narrowed as he cast his gaze over the strange formation of fireflies that amassed around him and began to drift along somewhere above the mysterious dame while she walked. Disgrace.. The whispers seemed to follow the path of the spectral insects, but they couldn't possibly be the source.. could they? Bugs don't talk. He picked up his pace again, trying to catch up to where he'd been following after the dark furred woman. "Do you hear something?" he sought to pass the question off as casual, off the cuff. However, his mind was already reeling with possibilities. Something about the voices were familiar, but he wasn't entirely certain how. |
| Art by Monster |
While her attention was lost in her thoughts of what she was going to do, she ended up growling at the brute that joined her out of sheer surprise. She didn't spring into action though, instead realizing he wasn't really a stranger. She didn't mind him at least, it was hard for Viper to get close to anyone these days. So just a general relation made her feel good.
She relaxed as he joined her, her head raising and gaze looking forward into the grove where the fireflies had seemed to want to lead her. She finally took steps forward into the trail with the fireflies hovering over them and the brute following close by. She had stayed completely silent for the few moments they were together, but she was clearly comfortable in his presence. Or maybe not so clearly to him, but she was. As she followed the fireflies, she started to hear very faint, quiet voices, Rain..., She looked over at the man with her but she immediately knew he wasn't the one that was talking, I would have given you anything...
She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, her eyes searching almost frantically through the trees in front of her though her demeanor was completely calm. She was looking for him; Tyranis. But it didn't seem there was anyone here but her companion and the fireflies. He asked if she heard something and she hesitated at first, "Yeah." She supposed with the events happening around them, it wasn't so weird to hear voices from coherent fireflies. "I hear... him." She couldn't call Tyranis her father. She didn't say anything else as they continued, Tyranis' voice she heard only locked away in her memories.
thinking "speech" "others" In what appeared to be her usual character, the nameless fae all but ignored him. Her pace continued with a steady swing of her legs and a gentle sway of her tail, not a sound uttered. Just as he was, she appeared to be following the spectral fireflies that bobbed lazily along their own mysterious path deeper into the swamp. It was only when a soft, shuddering breath escaped her that the phoenix looked up. Cerulean eyes sought to read as much as he could from her side profile, pale green eyes scanning the shadows between gnarled trunks in furtive sweeps. Curiosity piqued, he took a few steps closer, careful placement of broad paws on the tangled roots that served as their only footing through the woods. A subtle twitch of her whiskers, like she had thought to say something and then decided against it. Finally she answered his question, a soft utterance of "Yeah." that almost seemed to dissolve in the crisp, dark air of the shadowed mangrove. He was about to prompt her further, when her lips parted again. "I hear... him." she simply said, in that odd voice of hers with its accent he couldn't place. Lingering just a hair too close, he was looming just behind the small dame, and he dropped his skull so he could better hear her gentle lyrics amidst the faint drone of whispery wings that ebbed and flowed like a tide all around them. "If I hadn't burned his corpse myself, I would think my father were here somewhere." he murmured, narrowed eyes searching the shadows. It was strange. The susurrating drone to the familiar rumble of Kaine, almost like the beating of a thousand little wings, distorted and garbled the sentences that invaded his psyche between his own speech. Son... the word dragged out, slurred like a drunkard. ... killed your mother.. He pulled his ears back against his head, a grimace peeling the lips away from pearlescent fangs. "We should get out of here, doll." he said, currents of anxiety a tumultuous undercurrent of otherwise hard vocals. "Something out there is playing games with us." |
| Art by Monster |
As the brute spoke about his father, Viper's cheek turned toward him in almost a way of understanding maybe, though it may not have been perceived that way. Her gaze though still scanned the area, waiting for either Tyranis or another man she didn't know to come out of the firefly-less shadows of the grove. But it would seem they were alone, even while it didn't feel that way.
The brute suggested they leave, and Viper just stood for a moment before finally turning inward towards Meph closer than any usual acquaintance was while he had also been standing so close himself. She stopping again to look at their surroundings as if from a different angle and then moved forward back the way they came. She couldn't deny she was interested in what Tyrains had to say, but she also didn't care at all. He had abandoned her before Aranea had, so he was no different.
You turn to leave but find you are blocked by a wall of thick fog. It moves slowly upon you driving you backwards, and you find that the more it envelops you the harder it becomes to breathe.
Maybe you shouldn't have done that...
As she stood beside the brute's shoulder with her own, she was about to move forward to head out of the forest. But her eyes caught a glance of a thick fog coming in between the trees. It moved quickly, almost like a giant blew it in their direction. She did pull backwards as it started to get closer, bumping into the brute slightly but didn't turn around to blush or apologize. It didn't seem to be an issue at first, but as the fog surrounded everything around them, her breath started to get shallow. Almost like the air was thin like they were up on a mountain, but the fog was incredibly thick so maybe that was it to. Along with not being able to see any of the trees or waterways around them anymore, Viper's breath was nearly being pulled from her chest, but she was still surprisingly calm physically, maybe not so much mentally.
thinking "speech" "others" He was beginning to figure out that the nameless fae spoke more with her body and her face than she did with her words, and he kept a keener eye on her still form in the shade of the mangroves. Her features tilted towards him at the mention of his father, the sea foam shade of her eyes more visible to him in the low light as she subtly displayed some of her interest. At the mention of abandoning the foray deeper into the trees, she seemed to concur with his assessment of the unsettling shift of the air around them. With an abrupt turn, she shouldered her way past him and started backtracking. Well, she was certainly not one to mince words, now was she? With a soft snort of amusement, the phoenix moved to follow, long limbs folding carefully as he trailed along behind her once more. Those whispers continued, the rumbling cadence of his father's voice beckoning from the fringes of his peripheral vision- begging him to turn around and look again. Maybe this time he would see Kaine, staring from the shadows between gnarled trunks in abject disappointment. No, it was a trick. All of it, just smoke and mirrors meant to torment him. Caught in the whirlwind of his own mind, he nearly jumped straight off the tree roots when his chest bumped unceremoniously against the woman's rump while she skittered away from a sudden fog that had rolled in. Grunting in surprise, he took a few steps of his own to widen the gap between them. "Sorry doll, I didn't..." he hesitated, narrowed gaze fixed on the flashing whites of her eyes that were beginning to show some panic. Amidst the whispering drone of fireflies, the sounds of harried breaths. "Are you okay?" They were engulfed in the thick fog that had come in from seemingly nowhere, it smelled like a memory that he couldn't quite grasp. The sickly sweet smell of rotting fruit tickling his subconscious in a way he couldn't chase. He dropped his head lower to squint at her through the fog, daring to take a half step forward in hopes she might offer up some sort of reassurance. |
| Art by Monster |
The thick fog suddenly rolls in quicker and closer, it rises higher, swirling up your limbs and leaving a wet chill it lifts higher, higher, soon enough you can't see the ground or even your companion anymore and still it rises, swirling in front of your face seeming to curl intentionally into your nose and mouth making it hard to breathe.
Maybe you shouldn't have done that...
thinking "speech" "others" As the fog crept closer, the stench of rotting fruit became overwhelming. Tendrils of thick mist wrapped around his limbs like the delicate trace of a lover's grip, carding through the thin tresses of his fur and leaving a cool dampness in their wake. A shiver tripped up his spine, fur fluffing up in an instinctive attempt to ward off the chill. As those sky blue eyes cut towards the nameless fae with an ever increasing edge of worry, he realized she was lost in the sea of fog. "You still there, doll?" he questioned, lifting a questing paw to feel the familiar warmth of another body and reassure himself. Within scant moments, the same tendrils that had curled over his limbs were raking their icy touch through the fur of his shoulders, hips, and over his entire body. Moving steadily up his neck and face. Those frigid fingers of fog forced their way into his body with the draw of his breath, sliding into his trachea. It felt like he was choking on ice itself, the cloying aroma of decay finding a home in his lungs. His own breaths turned to ragged gasps, desperate to draw in an unhindered lungfull of air. Was this what it felt like to die? Wide eyes flashed instinctively upward, searching for some kind of sign from a God he hadn't been devoted to in years. What did this mean? Dark claws curled inward, gripping the gnarled roots of the tree he stood upon and scoring the bark as they tightened. A reedy whine managed to escape him as thick mist pooling out of his nostrils. |
| Art by Monster |
He had asked if she was okay, but when she went to speak it was like her breath just came out of her without a noise. Silence certainly wasn't new between them or for her, but not being able to speak at all was definitely a little frightening.
The fog grew thicker as she was nearly stumbling on what, roots? Him? She wasn't even sure. Soon she couldn't see anything around her, not even the brute. The voice of her father she had heard previously was long forgotten in the back of her mind as she thrashed around in the fog, making her lose her breath quicker. Even though she couldn't hear the voices, everything seemed so loud around her. Maybe it was her own struggled breathing in her chest, but before she knew it she was down on the ground, passed out from the exertion she had vaguely remembered in her time in Fireside. The fog would fade to reveal her laying there unconscious, but would the brute be joining her down there as well? Maybe a little nap wasn't so bad.