• Closed • Seethe

[Mal]

Vhalar 13th, 716

The dark consumes the best of us. The hymns it sings speak of melodies that defile, that take and skewer the hearts of a mind so noble as to never consider such a thing

Until our morals betray us.

And amid the shrouded encampment, the scouting party led by Highmark Rockholm slumbered in shifts, though the sleeping Hyx dreamt with a fitful, agitated unease, Emea did call him to walk that world.

It was a forest, large and hot. The Becomer had never been in a Jungle, but his mind pictured towering bushes and wet hotness, a large, looming sun obscured by misty clouds above. The canopy was so thick above that it stretched across the sky like a form of weather. Wide, muddy trails were walked by Mal, plants tipped with stingers threatening to stab passersby as he walked with a troupe of faceless men. He knew them each well, but he didn’t want to know them. He feared getting close, and held a disdain for their blind loyalty.

Snakes covered the ground like weeds, their soft but scaly bodies thick and writhing underfoot, making the very earth squirm. Balance was very difficult, but the group had gotten used to it. Mosquitoes buzzed overhead, around faces and over exposed skin, biting and sucking, leaving welts behind which itched. These ones were large, the size of thumbs and occasionally even fists, their proboscis long enough to jab well beyond Mal’s fur, a pain that he ignored and pushed forevermore and onward through, the ideal snack for these insects.

This was their domain, and Mal intruded.

[Nightshade Eld]

Jungle fell away into vicious and wretched waste lands of cold and ice, the climate shifting violently into one a stiffing fear. The form Emea shifted to take was one of a different dreamer, a fitful dreamer who out of fear rested on the verge of Emea and wakefulness. The ideas of the following day haunted her, knowing that she would be part of that march willing of not. Her nature called her towards the path of a hero and sung bitter sweet melodies of death. Wraiths made of cold and ice swirled in the air, vicious hawk like predators with large gaping maws and bodies like icy dragon snakes. They looked similar to predators ready to strike.

As jungle crossed into this greedy waste it was eaten alive, trees seemed to instantly rot as the cold creeped closer and closer trying to swallow everything up until all was a flurry of blinding white. The only thing that could really be seen through the blinding storms was a figure hunched over and weeping softly. The past in the form of nightmarish creatures during waking hours had come back to haunt her, and even though she was able to put on a brave face for the most part around Etzos, Emea was different. Emea was a strange kind of sanctuary where the half breed could openly weep without fears of being judged.

Between wakefulness and sleep the creature with such a strange temperament was able to show weakness. The storm slowly became more violent almost as if it was trying to protect the girl from prying eyes, like a wintry guardian. The area slowly started to become more and more dark as whatever sun was hidden behind vicious storms passed. Despite the fact the clouds should be covering it a bright and silver moon crested the sky acting as a sole friend to someone who looked towards it and its aspects reverently. The cold and the moon both two companions that made everything better and in her dreams attempted to protect her. The storm pushed against Mal trying to force him out of this dream. It was his choice to try and approach the girl, his choice to press on.

[Mal]

Emea plotted, Emea wove such capricious tales. As the jungle fell away, the white roiled and swept over the Nine, the large Hyx left with his head above the chilling snow as the very world rotted away. The Hyx’ head whipped around at his fellow soldiers, but all he saw was ivory in their place. Eight skulls, each attached to spines, even a flesh-scoured arm reaching out to him as if pleading. I failed them! Mal worried.

His tears started to flow, only to freeze at the ducts, keeping his eyes open though the wintry chill burned them as he peered through the snows, a serenade of wind cascading across icy shoals, the outlines of trees all around, branches breaking away as a heavy gale dove into him. There were shadowy folk, like the Mist Men of Etzos. They crept around at a distance, while the elemental beasts strayed nearer, roaring at him as he stepped forward through this white tundra.

Above, the bright sum dimmed to the cratered surface of a lunar watcher, an ellipse forming until it smiled, blushing to a vivid red with two ominous black, lidded eyes like those of an insect. It seemed so close, yet so far, it intimidated, yet it held beneath it a creature. Mal couldn’t make it out at a distance, though curiosity now dashed his worry aside.

The snow fought against him, a hurricane contending with beast to stop the Becomer in his tracks, the very tracks which sunk deep into the snow, swallowing his paws in a cold abyss with every step. And yet, by sheer force of will, he prevailed. It seemed as if the very world behind him was dragged onward, mosquitoes made from icicles whizzing by, snakes crawling out of the ice though white of scale, red in the eyes. That moon above now seemed to bear teeth, black drops of ethereal ichor dripping against the misty sky from an open maw, threatening to consume.

And in all this, Mal could do nothing except curl around the girl. He knew who it was, then, as he shared his warmth, trying to comfort her. “Eld,” he whispered. “I’m here for you, Eld.”

[Nightshade Eld]

Night became still her entire body coming to a halt, her weeping disappearing into little more than a light sob. "Mal?" she whimpered quietly her voice shaking with fear and hesitation. "Mal, am I a monster?" She asked quietly. She raise her hands quietly her features forming into a glare as she looking upon the disgusting clawed things. If she had been born just another human, she couldn't deny the fact her life would have been easier.

"I wish I wasn't born," she whispered in an almost nonexistent voice. However through Emea's design it came out crystal clear above howling winds. Those words had a strange effect on the world around them. The wind's howl turned into something of a scream as it turned up the violence of the snow curling around them. The snow turned into shards of ice threatening to cut them up.

The monstrous icy wraiths began to scream at full volume swooping around the pair as they howled out ballads of hate and hunting. They came close threatening to attack the pair if they decided to fight back or not. But Night was left almost completely immobile. She stared at her hands unmoving and silent.

A haunted look rested on a frozen face that would have trailed with tear if she wasn't well aware of how they would freeze to her. When she looked at her hands, her legs, her wings, she saw the parts of a monster. That's all she would ever see. And in Emea she couldn't help but realize the things she tried not to linger on long. Her mind whispered to her the things her of the waking world feigned ignorance to. The largest being the fact that in the eyes of many no matter how many good deeds she did, she would never be anything more than a monster.

As if to cement her point creatures similar to Avriel, but a lot more wicked looking and beastly, began to form from shadows and ice. They were horrifying creatures, representing how she saw her own Avriel half. All the hate of her vision of that half of her family combined into wretched forms of creatures one step away from attacking the pair.

[Mal]

Mal would not grant this cruel reality a chance to dig its claws deep upon one of the few he cared about. He curled around her more tightly, his fur warm to the touch as his very will radiated outward, keeping everything at bay, if only to bounce off his form with frightening yowls and terrifying, blood-curdling screams. He listened to her as she spoke, the tone of her voice unnerving him. He hated seeing her this way, he wished she could move on as he had.

The voice of the little girl that died called to him even now, the both of them hearing her cry. “Why didn’t you save me? I was there, but you failed, why did you fail me?” she asked. The questions tore apart Mal’s resolve, and a deep, sullen regret filled him. Despite this, he tried to ignore her, despite the lost child looming ever closer. “Eld, we’re all monsters in some way. You, I, and them. We kill, they kill. We define what is horrific, just as they do. That they fear us does not make being a monster at all a bad thing...” He saw the change in Eld’s form, briefly pausing in worry.

“But life... life isn’t quite fair or deserving of such a jewel as you. That you still care tells me that you are the least monstrous I’ve ever known. I’ve seen, I’ve been beholden to the dark.” Mal pressed his cold nose against the back of her neck, rising through her hair until he rested his chin over her head. “I know you are kind. Please, Eld, I want you to smile for me. Your tears hurt me...”

The wind seemed to reach a crescendo, overwhelming the both of them in pure white until they lay in a world where there was nothing. Slowly, silence overtook them. This pure white world wasn’t cold, though the two of them were covered in frost. Mal stood and looked down upon Eld, starting to walk away, to the girl which stood there. Her face was panicked, frozen in terror. With one paw, he placed those pads upon her head and pushed down. She sunk into the white, disappearing.

He turned to Eld, “forgetting is what makes us monsters.”

“We stop caring, to forget, to avoid the pain of remembering.” He looked down, the little girl’s face visibly apparent, stalwart and silent as a puddle upon the white ground. “But it’s easy to be a monster. I think it’s our nature, but there is a variance.” He gave a wistful sigh, looking at Eld with a sad, mournful look. “There are degrees of monstrosity, I like to think. You and I are on the lower end of things. Those men who judge you, who scorn you for what you are... they are far more cruel.”

[Nightshade Eld]

"Yet that makes them no less wrong. My hands are red with the blood monsters and my own kind. I have murdered and slaughtered all to protect my own life and what I deem worth of protecting. And not a day passes where I don't remember the things I have felled in an attempt to bring my means to their end. Isn't it wrong? This world, I mean. My entire life all I've done is try to survive showing a blind ignorance to those trying to do the same. I could smile because ignored that which was around me. Sweet miseries come to take us back to the times that we know we have done wrong. Would I even remember if not for the fact the memories have dug their claws into my mind, to deep to pry out? Will I still remember in years yet to pass, or will I just become numb to all the death and suffer. A soldier, a monster, a beastly pet, a dog. But who am I to complain when Etzos, a city I so viciously defend, has already done such things to you. Is it not wrong? I've caused you nothing but trouble Mal, how can you still speak in words so kind?" She whimpered curling in on herself more.

Her wings curled around her body. Pitch black feathers like midnight rustled against a breeze as the frost dotting them made her wings look like the endless beauty of night and safety itself. A bitter laugh bubbled out of her body. "It's as if the universe knew I was going to become some wretched creature some day. Did I ever tell you I was named for Deadly Nightshade? It's one of the most poisonous plants in the world!"

Despite the continued bitterness of her voice, the cold and vicious painful hate she directed towards herself there were certain things that showed Mal's words had more of effect than she allowed to be believed. Her eyes were far warmer, more like the night of a full moon instead of the cold dead middle of Cylus's moonless nights. Her body though curled in on itself was more relaxed, and her words were far more fluid. Less choppy and harsh. "But I guess since I have nothing else to keep me going, nothing else to believe in, for not I'll just have to believe you. See you again Mal."

[Mal]

Mal listened to her as well he could, though he seemed to find himself getting pulled away. The two were starting to decay into ash as he watched, though Eld seemed to fail to notice, or simply didn’t care. “You have your own take on things, and I have mine. We are ourselves, as I am myself, so are you. That is all that matters. If you think you are a monster, than you are a monster... I cannot change that.”

“But I do not think anything is wrong, except those that blindly follow the steps of another. War bites on my heels, and yet I remain, myself, defying monstrosities.” He curled his tongue back, raising his head with a gulp. “I don’t think you should be blamed for doing what you thought was right to do. You care about others, even in your own way. I admire that about you.”

“And... you do not cause me trouble. None at all, you are an escape from that which ails!” he growled. “Do not compare yourself to me, be yourself, and thrive. That is all I ask.” The two were half-faded, the ash peeling away their forms. “I think I must depart soon... I care not for your name, nor mine. Mal is not my name of birth, but I...” Her wings seemed to shroud her form as the last bits of her wafted away in the breeze of this empty world.

He heard her speak, even as nothing remained. Her farewell made Mal relax. “Another time, then,” said the Becomer-Become-nothing.

[Niv]

Nightshade Eld

Story= 5/5
A little short but none the less a trippy fun ride of horribleness. I liked it.
Structure= 5/5
Very good
Collaboration= 5/5
you worked well with Mal

Lore:
Endurance: The bitter cold of an unpleasant dream
Meditation: Dreams are a place to let your emotions free.
Meditation: Friend of the sky
Emea: Words effect the environment.
Psychology: dreams can show how you really see yourself.
Psychology: We define what is horrific.
Psychology: just because people fear it doesn’t make it bad
Psychology: Don’t compare yourself to others, be yourself
Persuasion: Convincing someone you really are horrible
Poison: Nightshade is the most deadly plant in the world.

Mal

Story= 5/5
A little short but none the less a trippy fun ride of horribleness. I liked it.
Structure= 5/5
very good
Collaboration= 5/5
you worked well with Nightshade

Lore:
Endurance: Giant Mosquito bites ain’t bringing me down
Endurance: Tears turned to ice.
Psychology: We define what is horrific.
Psychology: just because people fear it doesn’t make it bad
Psychology: Agree to disagree.
Psychology: When people just don’t see their own decay.
Psychology: Don’t compare yourself to others, be yourself
Meditation: Ignoring the guilty whispers of figments
Persuasion: convincing a friend they aren’t a monster
Persuasion: Talking about things you admire about another to get your point across.
Hyx: The creature from my dream
Hyx: Killed Eight of my men in a single blow
Poison: Nightshade is the most deadly plant in the world.
Nightshade Eld: Horrible shared dreams.






Art credit to Yoshitaka Amano