Duchess had been glued to Noir since she arrived to the festival, maybe taking a glance towards Indigo from time to time whether he had noticed or not. She was being as affectionate as Noir would allow her, she was making quite the point if only in her own little world. No point at all really, she was just being extremely immature and obvious of how she felt being here in the same place as Indigo. She didn't have to say anything.

She had looked up for a moment to see just as Aslatiel was stepping away from him. And it was like this urge just hit her to go up to him. Because she never would have as long as his sister was there. This was never planned.

Leaving Noir's side she had walked towards the buffets at first but then made her way around to Indigo across where she had been keeping her distance. Her whole demeanor changed as she drew closer to him. She was not looking for anything from him as much as her actions with Noir may have shown otherwise. Her gaze and expression went soft as a small nearly fake smile went across her maw when she looked at him. "Hey." Her voice rang out gently in a casual greeting. Almost as if nothing had ever happened between them. Like they were... friends. The last time she had seen him the band was gone and it was her own goodbye too.

"Duchess"

Duchess is an !M rated! character for themes of Depression. Please Discord me if you have concerns.

It pained him when he’d caught a glance of Duchess earlier, further still the man she attached himself to. He was older, in his prime, looking charming and handsome just like she would want. Indigo didn’t feel a great vibe from the man, but he couldn’t dwell. He’d let go of Duch. He hoped that she was happy.

He knew that Aslatiel had seen her too, and he was surprised that she had voluntarily left his side with Duchess here. He didn’t have any intention of seeking her out, his heart still hurt and he didn’t want to dwell on the past at what should have been a fun party. He decided to focus on the food when Asla walked a ways away, never expecting to hear Duch’s voice beside him.

His ears fell to his skull as his sapphire blue eyes lifted to the mottled woman’s soft features. He hated how familiar that half smile was, how easily it slipped over her lips to hide the emotions beneath. "Hello, Duchess.” He returned her greeting quietly, the tightness in his chest translating lightly to his words.

"Speech"

As Indigo greeted her back, she too felt that pit in her soul ache for what they had lost. Each other, and their children. Duchess knew at heart that indigo was who she wanted... but she knew there was nothing they could do to mend what she had done and what had happened. It was far from over between them. He had what he needed to fill his heart, and she supposed she had hers. How much truth was in that though...

She still acted fine, she went to take a seat there beside him. Taking a deep breath as her eyes went out towards the party goers. How much time she had before Aslatiel would notice or come back was not on her mind. She was not provoking Indigo in anyway, not right this second. She didn't want that now that she was here. After what felt like too long, she finally spoke out, "I'm here for Ricin." Her nose pointed out towards the large blue boy, she wouldn't know that Indigo could have already known him by being in Elysium.

She didn't wait much longer to conclude, "I like to believe that ours would have been like him." She really meant no harm in saying so... maybe some kind of healing or closure or something. Ricin had helped fill some missing part of her, maybe Indigo could find the same. Not just in Ricin but, any where else too. She was sad as she had spoken, that much was shown in the way she kept her eyes forward and not towards Indigo. But she contained herself the best way she knew how; by shutting herself down. Indigo may have known her enough to see it, but by the time she'd make it back to Noir, she'd be able to mold herself anyway that he needed. She could be open about this to Indigo. Unfortunately she didn't feel exactly the same for Noir. He could have a different part of her.

"Duchess"

Duchess is an !M rated! character for themes of Depression. Please Discord me if you have concerns.

Every time he looked at her he’d see the faces that should have been there with them today. They would have been yearlings, starting to find their paths to adulthood. He wondered too often what they might have been like, if they’d take after him, Duch, his family? There were so many possibilities they would never know because they weren’t here. They were parents to dead children and that fact would never change.

After a long moment she mentioned Ricin. Indigo knew him in passing, he was a good lad as far as he could tell and Duch’s words about him cut Indigo deeply. He’d made great strides with Aslatiel but there would always be that tiny piece of his heart that wasn’t going to come back and it wasn’t going to heal because it died with the babies he should have had.

He looked away and closed his eyes tightly as he withheld the overwhelming emotions she coaxed from him. Just a few words and he was brought right back to the familiar state of mourning. He hadn’t ever really stopped in the year they had been dead. It never got any easier, and this was a reminder that there was no progress made beyond living with the weight of this burden. He was strong enough to carry it now, but it never relented.

Indigo didn’t know what to say, he couldn’t say anything really. No words would ever be able to convey the feelings within, nor how easily she brought them out of him. He clenched his paw as he fought for control, and closed his eyes to hold back. How different would everything be if they were here today? Would they be much like Ricin as Duchess hoped? "I’ll never forget what we lost.” He whispered softly, quieting in the jovial crowd in remembrance of them.

"Speech"

Asla had left Indigo alone for a moment to go and speak to her children nearby. She had not seen the purple whore in the crowd. If she had, she would have asked Indigo to leave with her. He'd made such progress lately... seeing Duchess would set him back once more and she knew it. Though she loved her brother beyond measure, there was no denying that he was emotionally weak. So much so that she had to be strong for both of them. Though he'd always been soft, Aslatiel couldn't remember him being like this as a child and she blamed it all on Duchess.

The fawn woman's galactic gaze roiled with fire as she looked across the gathering and saw Duchess speaking to Indigo. Even from where she stood, Asla could tell how upset he was by the set of his shoulders, the droop of his head, the glances anywhere but at the purple skank. Aslatiel wished that Indigo would have some backbone. That he would finally tell Duchess once and for all to fuck right off and never pay her any mind ever again. She had proven that she wasn't worth his time. In Aslatiel's eyes, Duchess wasn't fit to breathe the same air as any other wolf. She should die, be burned and scattered to the winds. So, once again, Asla had to be the strong one.

With purpose, the small but powerful fae stalked towards the pair. As she grew nearer, Asla picked up the pace. Coming in from the side, the giantess in a fae's body slammed into the purple whore, sending her crashing to the ground. Before Duchess could react, Aslatiel latched her teeth in the loose skin at the back of the purple woman's neck. With the warrior's strength that she worked every day to maintain, she easily drug the woman out of the gathering and into the bushes that were a few feet away. It was done quickly and efficiently and she doubted that many, if any, had even seen it.

Teeth popped through flesh with the force of Asla's dragging. Once the pair hit a small clearing, Asla released her captive, but she continued to invade her personal space. The scarred woman snarled, lips peeling back from canines that were used to taking lives. Her tail curled high above her spine in a show of dominance. She could easily kill Duchess right now and be done with her. Were they out in the wilds rather than in Elysium lands, she would have without a doubt.

"It's only for Indigo's sake that I don't kill you," she growled low, teeth a hairs breadth from the woman's dark muzzle. "You've done enough damage with your whoring, lying ways. He doesn't need you. He will never need you. You're nothing more than a reminder of something lost." Aslatiel's paw snatched up the gloved paw of Duchess and pressed it against her snowy stomach. "I'm already giving him what your rotten womb couldn't." She then threw the paw away again. "If I ever see you speak to him again, Duchess... I will fucking end you. I'll rip your womb out of your body while you're still alive and make you eat it. I swear by all things holy. And I never fucking jest."

Aslatiel stepped away from the abhorrent woman, allowing her to rise if she so wished. "Gods help the poor bastard that you're with now if he ever wants children." She could still taste the fae's blood in her mouth and made a show of licking it from her lips before spitting it on the ground between them. "Get out of here, Duchess, and if you're smart, you'll never even think of Indigo again." With that, she left the woman there, stalked back through the bushes to the gathering, shot a smile at her big marshmallow of a brother and gave a pull of her skull, motioning for him to follow her away. The mood had been tainted and she no doubt had some emotional cleaning up to do.

"Aslatiel Indarra"

Inside, Duchess felt Indigo's voice. She couldn't forget either, the babies buried under the falls that never even took a breath. There were a lot of things she knew she was missing. Even if her and Indigo never mended things between them, she knew they would still work together to be apart of those children's lives just as they needed. She knew they could make it work even if they never had the relationship they did before. All of her thoughts came to a halt though as she was thrown off her feet and drug outside the tents of the festival.

She hadn't even heard Aslatiel coming and she certainly wasn't expecting this. She was thrown straight into a panic as Asla dug her fangs into her scruff and practically threw her on to the ground. Duchess was no fighter, and as much as she didn't like the pain Asla drove into the back of her neck she was actually not very scared of her at all. She wouldn't fight back, she wouldn't challenge her dominance, but the lack of care that Duchess had for her own life didn't make her cower and beg for her life. Her ears pulled back on her skull but she was near emotionless. She had shut herself down save for that bit that just couldn't hold back as tears started to fall down her cheeks over a dead expression. She let Asla stand over her, scream, threaten, snarl. She didn't care.

She was finally left to her own devices as Asla left her and took Indigo away. She'd never be able to fully move on from what happened, she'd always be stuck in this loop left to deal with it on her own. She needed Indigo to help her but it was never meant to be. She'd just have to try to fill the void with something else and always wonder what life would have been like if she had never deceived Indigo to begin with. She was realizing too late just how much she needed him.

She didn't even move for a moment, she stayed right there in the grasses as she tried to quickly calm her breathing and compose herself. She couldn't stop crying though. She finally made herself stand, heading back into the festival and dashing through the crowds with her head down. She made it back to Noir still with a bleeding shoulder and tears running down her face, "We need to leave." Was all she could muster out. If he wanted to try and calm her down or listen to her and leave was up to him, but she just needed to get out of the crowded space. She didn't want to be alone.

"Duchess"

Duchess is an !M rated! character for themes of Depression. Please Discord me if you have concerns.

Whenever he looked at Duchess he was given a glimpse at everything that he had lost, of the children and family they should have had, of the band that should have surrounded them, of the adventures they had been going to embark upon. None of that existed anymore. Their children were gone, any kind of relationship between them was broken, and the band was dissolved. There was no returning to what was, they were set upon the paths they were on now. They would lead them in completely different directions.

Before Duchess could answer him Aslatiel reappeared, hitting Duchess to the ground. "Aslatiel…” He spoke sternly and went to grasp her shoulder but she shrugged him off and forcefully drug Duchess away from the crowd. He went to follow, but Aslatiel gave him a look that stopped him in his tracks. There was no stopping what was about to happen. Deep down he knew these were the last words that he would speak to Duchess. He wouldn’t forget their children and he wouldn’t forget those moments of happiness they had shared at one time. Too much had changed, the knife had severed them completely.

Asla slipped back through the foliage shortly after, not looking at all like she had threatened Duch’s life, but even if he didn’t hear anything he knew what happened. He sighed softly, and returned his sister’s smile. His heart ached, but Aslatiel was the balm to all of his sorrow. He was sad for Duchess and he was sad for the puppies lost, but he wasn’t taking a path into fog and uncertainty. He had the true owner of his heart, and whatever was coming down the path was bright and beautiful. Aslatiel returned his hope and mended his heart. As he turned away from Duchess he turned away from soul crushing grief he’d allowed to take him.

"Speech"

Duchess went walking off without him when he turned around and suddenly she wasn’t there. Noir grumbled a little to himself but he took the chance to do a little flirting while he had the chance. He didn’t notice at the time but in the future he would realize that none of them were near as interesting, or as interested in him, as Duchess was. He was actually getting bored by the time he was finally reunited with his woman, and she looked awful when she finally returned to his side.

Tears fell down her cheeks and her shoulder was bloodied. Noir was taken aback for a moment before she spoke, urging him away from the gathering altogether. ”Then lets go.” He spoke unfeelingly in that moment, but the way he moved to her uninjured side and helped to support her revealed otherwise.