alonimi
Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - Printable Version

+- alonimi (https://alonimi.net)
+-- Forum: Fantasy (https://alonimi.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=70)
+--- Forum: Misc Fantasy (https://alonimi.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=82)
+--- Thread: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] (/showthread.php?tid=781)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - SolitareLee - 12-28-2019

...Could dragons actually sense lies? She'd been pretty sure he was bullshitting that! She'd lied to him before, hadn't she? Had she?? She suddenly couldn't remember, because looming dragon man.

"UH," she said, both to buy time and because it was about all she could think at the moment. "Uhhhhhh... lot of things?" she squeaked out. "I'm tryna be short on th' details here, because yer time is valuable and I wanna get to Gareth?" This was another half-truth, because while she was doing a lot of that, she also was trying to keep Gareth's shitty, shitty, dumb secrets, out of fear that she'd spill one and the whole thing would come tumbling down and then he'd hate her.

Enthusiastic for the distraction, she launched into yet another awkward description of the place she'd seen. "Shadowy ain't quite the right word... th' first time I showed up, I couldn't see, but it was like I couldn't see because I didn't have eyes? Or anythin' else? I was just sorta... an awareness, existin'. I could hear waves... like the Great Lake, or an ocean, I think. Th' second time, I figured out how t'see, but not like, with eyes? With... different senses. It's hard t'explain. When I first got back to my body, that other sense was still workin', an' I could see Gareth's..." She gestured vaguely. "Self. The part that goes inside yer body. Anyway, there was this like, giant lake or somethin', an' th' waves were tryna pull me out, and were pullin' Gareth out. I found him an' dragged him out and th' next thing I know, we're both back in our bodies an' there's dead rats everywhere."

RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - Tindome - 12-28-2019

She might have been more believable if every sentence didn't come out of her as a question. "Really." He tapped his claws idly against the floor. "You don't seem that hurried."

"Ah." He nodded. "The..." He frowned. "I don't know what you call it. The waiting place." He tried to turn the word and concept in his head into a word she would know. "The foam." No, that wasn't it. "You know what I mean," he said impatiently. They must have had a word for it. He just hadn't ever needed it before.

"You're a..." Shit. More words. "Guide-thief. Soul vulture." His consonants were sibilant or rolling, grasping at words. "Reaper," he suggested. "Gold has magic, rats have souls. Fuel. Lucky it was just rats, for a first try."

It had taken him a while to figure out how to use gold and gemstones instead of everything. That was a long time ago, now.


RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - SolitareLee - 12-28-2019

Ren nodded as well, although she had no actual idea what he meant. "Y'mean like, where people go after they die but before they pass on, or whatever?" This made sense, and had been one of her guesses. Some religions probably had a term for it, but she wasn't familiar with any of them. The Foam worked well enough. The Foam it was.

The rest, though, was baffling and more than a little alarming. "I'm a wot?" A soul-vulture??? That wasn't a thing! Was that a thing? "You mean I do magic with souls? The way you do it with gold?"

Visions of gold turning to lead, all that was live and shining inside them turning to dark poison, played through her head. She was going to be sick.

"A... A reaper? Like a soul-collector? I thought I was just a rat waif, this is..." But it made sense. She hadn't known that was even a thing that existed until right now, but it made a weird kind of sense. She'd always been all but impossible to poison, she almost never got sick. And she'd been able to pull Gareth's soul back into his body when he'd ejected it out of his idiotic half-dead body. The cost for that magic was, apparently, other souls. Rat souls.

"I coulda..." she squeaked. "If the rats hadn't been there. I might have killed his pets, I might have hurt Nighthoof, I might've... This is exactly what I was freakin' out about!" She sat up, clutching at her head. She was feeling very frayed at the edges, and having to try and lie to the King was stressful even on the best of days. This was not the best of days.

Squatting over her was pushing it. Tapping his nails against the floor was, apparently, the breaking point. A vision of sharp teeth and rolling growls echoing in a tight, dark place overtook her taxed mind, and before she even realized what she was doing, Ren's legs were bending just enough to scoot herself rapidly, still on the ground, away from the King, like a mechanic scooting out from underneath a large vehicle they'd been working on, but with extreme speed. She continued doing this until her back thumped up against the bed frame, at which point she considered crawling underneath it. The only thing that kept her from doing so was the memory of how much hiding in a small dark place hadn't worked last time. All the fear of being eaten she thought she'd squelched came rushing back, but this time, a corner of her mind reminded her that he'd said he wouldn't. He'd definitely implied it, at least.

It did remarkably little to calm her hummingbird-fast heart.

"I! Am in a huge hurry, actually, I've jus' decided I should leave an go to Gareth's side immediately, on account of he needs me."

RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - Tindome - 12-29-2019

"After death," he agreed. "Before hatching. A waiting place, a plane of nothing."

He huffed. "You use the word magic for too many things," he said. He could manipulate magic, which could itself manipulate things on the material plane. But humans used the word as a catch-all rather than to refer to the specific energy, and it confused matters. "You manipulate souls. Sometimes it takes more souls to do what you want. Rat souls are easy for you. Probably you always would have defaulted to rats."

He waved off her concern. "Nighthoof is not so easy. The birds, maybe. Their souls are not so anchored."

He watched her panicked retreat, and then stood. He closed the gap enough that he could bend at the waist, his hand against the bedframe and his nose near to hers, curls falling neatly.

"He doesn't need you," he corrected. There were a lot of things he could have added.

"Go," he ordered.


RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - SolitareLee - 12-29-2019

Ren had more questions about this in between place that she could visit and return from. Especially because the King's knowledge of it and reference to hatching had worrying implications about the human soul, what happened to it, and that the King somehow knew the answers. She also had more questions about magic, which she'd had very little in the way of education about, and souls, which she'd had basically no education about.

She had a lot of questions, all of them pressing, but she also had the King approaching her. She squirmed back against the bed frame, feet pushing against the rug like she might still find a way to scoot backwards. She flinched as he bent down, beginning to tremble slightly in a combination of fear of the past and fear of the very immediate future.

She also kind of wanted him to kiss her, which was always an issue.

She bit back a sharp retort--Gareth had sure needed her yesterday, twice. He wouldn't still be around for the King to be possessive over if not for her freaky soul-vulturing. She didn't say that, but she knew herself, and knew just how bad she was at hiding defiance in her glares.

That being said, when the King told her to go... She went.

There was a beat of pause, and then she ducked under his arm, standing on shaking legs to walk--quickly and still trembling--to the door. To her credit, she managed to get out of the door before taking off in a sprint.

It was stressfully easy to open her mind back up to the rats, despite the pounding in her skull. With them, it was easy to get directions towards where Gareth was being kept.

Someone probably should have stopped anyone who was sprinting through the castle, but any remaining King's Guard probably had other shit to deal with. She arrived at the all-too-familiar hospital wing. Someone did move to stop her by the last door between her and Gareth, moving quickly towards her with hands up and a protest on their lips, but Ren just dodged around them and shoved open the door.

Gareth was lying on a bed, still conscious, still breathing. A large crystal was sitting on his chest under the stab wound, a sure sign of magical healing underway that she shouldn't interrupt. Ignoring it, she rushed over and half-collapsed, half-slid to her knees next to his bed.

"Hey," she said hoarsely. "I hear you've had a shitty day."

RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - Tindome - 12-29-2019

He watched her go, heard her steps speed up as she entered the hall. Then he stood, and wandered out into the hall himself. He smelled the air until he found something he liked, something to follow. Eventually he made it far enough to find someone unattended.

"Laura," he said, grabbing her by the arm. She started, but didn't recoil.

"Your Majesty?" she asked. She didn't think she'd done anything to get in trouble, but it had been a weird day, so she tried to remember anyway.

"Come with me," he ordered, pulling her along back the way he came.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, picking up her skirt with her free hand and trying to keep up.

"I want company."

"Oh." She blushed, but didn't protest. When they made it back to the room, he shut the door behind them, and she clutched her hands in her lap. Then he dropped to the floor next to the bed.

"Down here," he said, which was a bit confusing, but she did her best to comply. And then he pulled her under the bed. There was some clumsy tangling of limbs and skirts until he'd gotten her onto her side, back tucked against his chest amidst blankets and pillows all piled up around them.

It was a little claustrophobic.

"Your Majesty?" she asked again. He only tightened his arms around her waist, knees bent into her skirts, and sighed into the crook of her neck. She relaxed, and patted his arms. "Okay."


Gareth was startled when the door burst open, but his face immediately softened into happiness. He would have gotten up if she hadn't been next to him so quickly.

"You came back?" he asked. He tentatively touched her cheek. "You're here?"

He'd been very worried, while he was left alone, that he'd let her wander into the woods to freeze.

Karek rolled his eyes and shut the door for them.

"I've had worse," he said, grabbing her hand and squeezing it tight. "This is good. I'm good."


RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - SolitareLee - 12-29-2019

His hand was warm against her face. Not hot, which seemed important, and she leaned into his touch. She rested her hand over his, small as it was comparatively. She wasn't necessarily used to this kind of touch from him, and definitely wasn't used to allowing it, let alone encouraging it.

"Yeah. Well, technically I beat ya here, thanks to Nighthoof. Sorry for th' scare." It was necessary, and maybe he'd deserved a little bit of a scare. She was supposed to be a little mad at him, after all. But with him here and the King not, that seemed distant and unimportant.

"Th' King doesn't even wanna kill me," she informed him, and then considered that statement. "Much? Probably. It's pretty good odds, honestly." Insofar as these things went.

"Th' King tells me yer fueled by intimacy," she informed him, trying to sound matter of fact and not like she was reciting a bad plot point in an erotic novella. "Which woulda been nice to know before. What kinda intimacy? Should I squeeze into bed? D'you wanna make out? I feel like anything more physical is outta the question until there isn't a hole in your chest." She considered. "I could also wait until he shows up and you could watch me blow him," she said dubiously. "If that'd help."

RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - Tindome - 12-29-2019

"It's okay," he said, though he'd been absolutely sure she'd left and had resigned himself to that fact. "As long as you're here, that's okay."

"I told you he wouldn't," he said. "Once you explained everything." The King was fickle, but not that fickle. He didn't think.

"He said what?" Gareth said, nearly sitting up before remembering he shouldn't. The crystal on his chest glowed briefly brighter. "I'm—why would he—no." Right? "I'm not… I'm mostly human. Basically. It's mostly looks. I don't—I would know if—that's not a thing." He would know if that was a thing.

"He might have just said that to fuck with you," he said. "That's… that's probably what he did." It sounded like something he'd do.


RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - SolitareLee - 12-29-2019

"Mostly human?" Ren asked indignantly. "You just survived someone putting a sword through you. I'm more human than you are, and I just dragged your soul out of... Never mind," she said with a sigh.

"Here," she decided. "Just tell me if this feels better." Not giving him time to figure out what she was doing, Ren stood enough to lean over his bed, and planted her lips on his. The kiss started gentle and chaste, but then she deepened it, slowly. She used every trick the King had taught her during their make out session in the woods, and she only pulled back when she needed to breathe... and when she was fairly sure she'd made her point.

"Any difference?" she prompted. "Feel better, less pain, that sorta thing?"

RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - Tindome - 12-29-2019

"That was a fluke," he insisted. "That doesn't mean I have... incubus powers. Real ones." He was more than a little uncomfortable with this line of inquiry.

If getting horribly injured was the trick to getting her to kiss him, he was going to have to do it more often. Not that he'd hurt himself just to get kisses out of it. Probably. He hummed happily against her mouth, his palm against her cheek and his fingertips in her hair.

"If I say yes, will you do it again?" It was an absurd question, anyway. Everyone felt better after kissing. That was just how kissing worked. If you felt worse after kissing, you were doing it wrong.


RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - SolitareLee - 12-29-2019

Ren snorted. "Yer impossible," she informed him. "I dunno why you think it's so absurd th' King knows a bit more about half-demons than you. He even knows what's up with me, an' I'd be willin' to bet you never even heard of it before. He's probably seen hundreds of half-demons in his life. Besides, y'always seem like y'feel way better after I..." She cleared her throat, beginning to turn red. "Well. Not like I'm doin' that in the hospital wing, anyway. Doc would throw me out in a fuckin' heartbeat." He was a patient-seeming man, but she was pretty sure even he had limits to what he was willing to accept was a medical procedure.

She kissed Gareth again, though, just for good measure. "If I ask y'how yer feelin', will you actually tell me, or just insist yer fine like y'get stabbed through th' heart every day?" she asked when she pulled back again. "Cause I need t'catch y' up on some shit but if I upset yer injury at this point, there's gonna be a line out the door to kick th' shit outta me."

RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - Tindome - 12-29-2019

"Everyone feels better after sex," he countered, annoyed. "That doesn't mean I need to get fucked for my health." He hadn't meant to snap at her, but he did. "Or whatever," he added, like that would soften it somehow. He rubbed at his chest, though the crystal had sapped away most of the pain. "Sorry," he muttered. "Hurts."

He felt a bit guilty about trying to use it to justify unrelated behavior, but it felt like he ought to be allowed. Extenuating circumstances, and all.

"It's better than it was," he said warily. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he quashed that thought as soon as he was aware of it. "You can tell me," he said firmly. "Whatever it is, you can tell me."


RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - SolitareLee - 12-29-2019

"Alright, sorry," she said with a sigh. Was this what it was like dealing with her? Probably. But it was whatever, so what if he didn't believe the King? She did, and she was one of the people who could give him 'intimacy' or whatever in the first place. She could just go ahead and do the things that would make him feel better, and he could go on believing he was a perfectly ordinary human who just had horns. It was his business if he wanted to have a complex. She'd just found out she was a soul vulture or something. She could relate.

Hmm... what would be the easiest way to apply affection to the situation? He was injured and also taking up most of the bed, which was surely the biggest one they had to begin with. She opted for staying on the floor, her upper half leaning onto the bed. She put his hand in her hair so he could idly play with it while she talked, if he wanted, and laid against his upper arm. She would be able to go in for emergency kisses as needed, from here. This could work.

"Let's start with th' easy stuff an' good news," she decided. "As I mentioned, the King isn't gonna kill me an' also I'm gonna rejoin the King's Guard. Or join it for the first time. I'm not sure; there's gonna be a lot of paperwork, proly. So. Not all good news, there, but like, it'll be mostly Grilka's problem, right?" She decided to skip over the favor she now owed em. That was her own problem. "On the less great side o' things, I think we need to have a Serious Talk About Our Feelin's." The capitalization was inherent in her tone, and her own feelings on the matter were clear from the way she rolled her eyes. "I know, but look, I think you might be as bad as I am about this." She poked him gently in the side. "I'll go first, but only cause yer hurt. Please take advantage of this moment, I'm never gonna be this agreeable again for th' rest of our natural lives."

Why was this harder than telling all that stuff to the King had been? Why was this the hardest thing ever when she'd already said it like, twice?

"I'm... in love with you, I guess," she said, rapidly turning crimson. Wasn't talking about your feelings supposed to feel good? This was mortifying. No wonder she never did this. "An' I'm like, as sure as I can be that it's totally unrelated to th' circumstances of my, uh... Th' circumstances of my situation fer the last year-ish. But if that makes you uncomfortable, I get it, it's pretty fucked up. Supremely fucked up, t'be honest."

RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - Tindome - 12-30-2019

He relaxed as she seemed to give up on that topic, petting her hair the way she seemed to want him to.

"You're staying?" he asked, his mouth turning into a smile. That was a surprise. He'd assumed she'd use every reason she had to get out of service and get her freedom back. It seemed like all she'd wanted, and she had so many reasons.

He laughed. "I don't mind talking about feelings," he said. He didn't think anyone was as bad as she was about this, but he didn't say so. She was trying to let herself be vulnerable, so he wasn't going to tease her about it.

His smile was brilliant when she confessed in earnest, blushing like she hadn't already said it. But it faded as she continued, his hand stilling in her hair. "Oh. You've... yeah." He let his head fall back on the bed. He hadn't had much time to process that aspect of the situation. "This has been... very different, from your perspective." He started to think about it, then stopped himself, because even a glimpse was upsetting. She wasn't saying it to upset him. The last thing she needed was him making this about him. "I'm sorry you had to... unpack that. On your own."


RE: Beg Forgiveness [Closed] - SolitareLee - 12-30-2019

"I'm staying," she confirmed, although the truth of it was that if she came this far only for him to shoot her down at the finish line, she would be out the goddamn door. But she wasn't going to say that. Then he might say things he didn't mean just to keep her.

Maybe she was flattering herself, but she didn't want to take any risks.

His smile was better than the sunset, though, and she silently cursed herself for having problems that would make it fade. Maybe she should have just stopped with I love you and not pointed out the obvious.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so. Although I'm just as confused by how different it's been from yours," she said, sighing and slumping against the bed. "There's a lot of stuff I just sorta assumed was one way that I gotta reconsider." She didn't want to list them while he had a hole in his heart. If he started crying, it would be terrible for his health. "An' I un'erstand if it's too much..." she gestured vaguely. "Too much whatever. It's obvious that 'I was bein' held thoroughly against my will, starved, et cetera' is fuckin' awful, but that don't mean yer end of it ain't horribly traumatizin' to deal with too." She sighed. "Stupid, complicated mess," she complained. Way too complicated, when all the wanted was kisses, cuddles, and then also dick, at some point.

"This is the part," she prompted him nervously, "where you talk about YOUR feelin's, yknow, about the situation, an'..." And HER, though she was finding it impossible to say out loud.