Like a Poem Said by a Lady in Red

[redlightgreenlight]

Who: Valdis and Open
What: Still trying to deal with Life
When: December
Where: Paradesium and around Pumpkin Hollow
Warning(s): In Headers



Hold Me in Your Heart Tonight | backdated to November 1st | Closed to Max

To be added

In the Magic of the Dark Moonlight | Paradesium | Open | CW: TBD

Her house stands empty without any word given to Fever, Erik, Crichton, Cassandra, Lina or Mulcahy, not even CT has been made aware of anything but for the fact that there is someone else currently directing the Constables. Quiet rumors fly about a black beast in Paradesium, hunting the larger fauna, elusive and difficult to track, but there are many dangerous creatures wandering Morrow Isle and few dare venture out to the depths at this time of year. Those who do speak of an ill feeling whenever they see the creature that lessens the more distance they give it. Sometimes eerie howls that send chills down their spines and fill their hearts with fear can be heard, but the offending animal is difficult to pinpoint.

Venture into Paradesium at your own risk.

[ooc: This is a good place for short threads with encounters and brief conversations that later CR can build on. Valdis will not be harming any that venture into her hunting grounds, and if they happen upon one of the many aggressive creatures that live there she will actually protect them.]

Save Me From this Empty Fight | Paradesium | Edgar and Daisy | CW: Blood, Violence, Depression, Self Harm, More to be Added

The bodies stay just as well as the wounds opened by every fight, vanishing with the various curses of both her own and Morrow isle, but the trail of death she leaves in her wake can be easily followed by the strong scent of blood. The sense of the Hunt and the End fill every breath she takes, along with the misery, the stranglehold she has on her humanity, trying to deprive it of what it needs to survive. Others are allowed to feel, can take out their emotions on the things around them, can drown their misery in drink, can talk to their loved ones without breaking.

Not her. No. She must drown in her own refusal to feel, must make her internal pain external. The creatures here are large, they fight back with tooth and claw, scoring bloody wounds deep into her flesh. That pain is far more acceptable. Just as the killing of those creatures fulfills her desire for vengeance, to rip and tear and End over and over again without a worry for those she cares for. They are far from her rage and sorrow.

Her bloody head lifts from her most recent kill, nostrils flaring as familiar souls approach. Her blood mixed with that of the large, horned beast she had just taken down, matting in her thick, black, filthy fur. There is nothing elegant or graceful about the Hound now, she looks ragged and thin, what can only be described as unhealthy.

Who dares to approach?

In the Game of Life | Pumpkin Hollow | Open | CW: TBD

To be added

Comments

In the Magic of the Dark Moonlight

[bedknobsandbroomsticks]

She had wanted to check in on Valdis since learning of Max's departure. The witch could only imagine what the woman was going through with the loss of her partner. (If Wizard suddenly left, what would she do...?)

There was no trace of her having been at her home for some time. Where could she have gone to? Even reaching out to her through the Sending Stone didn't work. After inspecting the outside of the house, she decides to check around the grounds for any leads on where she could have wandered off to.

Paw prints.

Sorceress hops on her broom and follows the prints as best she can, eventually finding herself out of the Paradesium. She remains in the air, looking around. The witch would rather not enter the place by herself like this, so hopefully Valdis is somewhere nearby enough to hear her as she calls out:

"VALDIS! Can you hear me? It's Sorceress!"

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis lifts her head, eyes searching the sky for the source of the familiar voice she heard, but when she glances back down, her most recent victim has vanished. With a low snarls, she creeps off into the bushes, headed toward the voice.

Why are you here?

[bedknobsandbroomsticks]

"Valdis..." Her voice drops in volume and she frowns. "I haven't been able to contact you since I found out about..."

There's a pause, her not wanting to say Max's name, just in case. "... I grew concerned."

[redlightgreenlight]

You've made contact now.

She wants to stay angry, wants to stay here and do what she needs to protect herself. Yet the woman calling out to her is the one who met her when she was alone and helped her remember.

Do not concern yourself.

[bedknobsandbroomsticks]

"But you're my friend. I'm going to be concerned about your well being no matter what," Sorceress informs her.

She shifts a bit on her broom. "I'm not asking you to return to town or anything... You do what you feel is right but... I would like to talk with you, if you'll have me."

Save Me From this Empty Fight

[hadnoright]

"Who else?"

It's not showboating, it's not arrogance, it's almost reassurance of a sort—how many people on the island would risk direct confrontation with the Hound, already so thick with blood and the taste of the Fears radiating from her stronger than ever? Daisy is not scared, as she steps out of the foliage to see her, even small as she is in her human-like shape and standing ahead of another.

Usually, she would have refused a tagalong. Edgar seems too human, too damageable, but he's got his reasons for being here and so, in the circumstances, she didn't actually put up any fight after she got her answers out of him about what the hell he meant about Valdis.

[hate_gettin_older]

He's feeling all too human and damageable himself, right now. None of this was anything he planned, when he ran into Daisy while looking for Radar at the Leeds house -- but he'd heard the rumors of the black beast in Paradesium, and it wasn't at all hard to figure out who that had to be, and he was feeling just impatient enough to demand what's Valdis think she's playing at, then? when he encountered someone who might know.

How they got from that to coming out here after her, well ... it seemed to follow, at the time.

For the moment he doesn't speak, letting Daisy take point while he takes in the sight. What's more alarming than Valdis's snarl is how awful she looks, not just bloodied but ... wretched. Filthy, ragged. Worn down.

(The word for how she looks, just below his conscious focus, is Tail.)

[redlightgreenlight]

Her low growl seems to reverberate through bone and into the soul itself. Of course Daisy is the one to come out here with such an air, the one person who could match her strike for strike without hesitation. In hindsight, it's not surprising that the woman would come out here, Valdis has spoken to enough people that it was bound to get around back in town. What is surprising is that Edgar hides in her shadow. Her scarlet gaze flicks to him. Even as shut down as she is, she can still see the surprise in his eyes. Perhaps he never expected she could fall this far, maybe she didn't either, but it's better than what happened last time.

Why are you here, Hunter.

[hadnoright]

Daisy huffs, keeps her gaze on Valdis. "Don't try and force distance by calling me that. Not here as a Hunter. I'm here as me. A friend."

Straightforward. Genuine. Followed, shortly, by:

"What the hell are you playing at?"

[hate_gettin_older]

He manages to suppress a snort of laughter at hearing his own words echoed. It's not that hard to suppress; nothing about this is genuinely funny.

"'S been weeks," he adds, and somehow keeps it to that.

Hold Me in Your Heart Tonight

[maximumcake]

His peaceful rest in bed beside Valdis, well earned after all they faced the days before, is suddenly disturbed by A Call that only he can hear. It tugs him toward the harbor, and he knows, with every fiber of his being, that he has to heed the call. No matter how much he doesn't want to.

A sob catches in the back of his throat. He doesn't want to wake Valdis. Not yet. But he can't seem to stop his hot tears from flowing into his pillow. This isn't fair. It's too soon! He only just got her back... What is she going to do without him? Thinking about that makes the tears come harder, until he has to wipe his face to even be able to tell the time on his watch. It's still the middle of the night.

Well, if he can't stop this, then he can at least try to say his goodbyes. As gently as he can, he slips out from the covers, trying to pretend like this is nothing more than a wee hour trip to the toilet. In actuality, he's headed to the kitchen. The animals all follow him with varying degrees of concern while he desperately shushes them. "Shh, come on, don't wake Valdis."

His intention is to try and draft out letters to all his friends and closest companions, so Valdis can deliver them. For her, though, a letter won't do. He'll wake her before he goes. After he makes one last breakfast for them both together. Assuming she doesn't notice him missing from the bed and... senses his despair.

If only he could keep her from having to feel it.

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis stirs ever so slightly when he wakes, murmuring something softly as he cries into his pillow. She hovers somewhere between wake and sleep, vaguely aware that he's upset, but they've been through so much, it only makes sense. She rolls over to offer him comfort as he rises to leave the bed. Anani, Ava, Shasta and Crumpet follow. Her concern rouses her from the strange half state and she too follows him.

Down the stairs, into the kitchen, following the absolute despair wafting off of him.

"Max?"

[maximumcake]

"Valdis," he says after choking back another sob. "I... I'm so sorry. I--" He has to pause there and swallow thickly against another rise of emotion.

"I have to go. I... I feel the ferry calling me."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis freezes, her breath catching in her throat, lungs paralyzed at the very thought of him leaving. She feels she must comfort him, must be strong until he leaves, can't fall apart with him still here.

"How much time do we have?"

How long can he resist the call, how long does she have to say goodbye?

[maximumcake]

"Not enough," he says with a sob. "Maybe not even an hour. But I... I was hoping we could have breakfast together." He doesn't want to say one last time because that will make it feel too final.

"I um. I was also hoping you could deliver a couple of letters for me, too."

In the Magic of the Dark Moonlight

[ss_buttcrack]

She didn't say she was leaving, but when she doesn't turn up to work and he starts hearing rumors, he knows how to connect the dots. Aided by his water pack, he jets out to Paradesium to attempt to pick up her trail.

"Valdis? You out here somewhere?"

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis senses him long before he calls out, slinking deeper into the caverns, seeking solace from what is sure to be an annoying conversation.

If I wanted company, I wouldn't be here

[ss_buttcrack]

"Yeah, I know." He expected this much. "Unfortunately for you, I'm trying to stay in the habit of checking in on the people I love."

He doesn't try to follow her deeper. Actually, he decides to plop himself down on the ground right where he is.

"Is being out here like this helping?"

[redlightgreenlight]

A long silence follows as she finds some sort of cover to hide her bulk under. The large plants are luckily easy to find shelter under.

I tried your way. Now I have to do it my way.

[ss_buttcrack]

"Valdis, I know," he repeats gently. "I didn't come out here to drag you home. I just want to know how it's going. You didn't answer my question."

In the Magic of the Dark Moonlight

[configuration_birdwatcher]

Spending time in town has been too distressing; every crowd seems to hold a human who they attempted to kill on the battlefield of the Slaughter's domain, and unlike most times when their combat protocols took over post-reactivation, Bastion remembers every moment. They know it has to have been an intentional alteration on the invading entities' part. Dispelling the usual cascade of decryption errors and incompatible formats supplies them with more reasons to fear themself, to fear their neighbours' reactions, to fear what else the Fears could have spied on and tampered with inside their mind.

Paradesium has few sapient inhabitants and abundant natural resources. Edible fruits and fungi where the cold conditions of the surface wouldn't allow dedicated foraging, and mineral formations that act as the catalyst for Pokémon evolutions. It gives them the perfect justification to make long trips into the caverns and spend only enough time in town to drop off their finds and resupply before departing again. Their Togetic, Callisto, accompanies them every time. One of the stones they're looking for is for her, a luminescent green and yellow hexagonal crystal.

The forest is silent. Callisto takes off into the treetops, just like they saw Ganymede do so many times before trouble found them. Their optics register a swift motion of black fur between the trees.

[redlightgreenlight]

She hears them long before she sees them, but finds herself tracing their steps as any predator would, though not in the capacity of such. When the Togetic darts ahead of Bastion, Valdis mirrors it, keeping slightly ahead and parallel to the small creature, her awareness reaching as far as she can around all three of them. Something is ahead, not currently hostile, but with the ability to cause damage should it desire.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

The forest gives way to the muddy shores of a small lake, just ahead. Inhabited by a bog boar, which would prefer to remain undisturbed, and is tensely watching another, more distant creature for signs that it intends to step One Fucking Foot Closer to disturbing it. The small creatures of the forest and the water's edge have picked up on that tension, but the beast that's earning the boar's ire remains clueless.

Bastion anxiously follows Callisto's flight path, trying as best they can not to draw attention to themself.

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis stops as she recognizes the soul signature of the creature. A bog boar would see her as an immediate threat, but hopefully not Bastion's companion, so she watches it from where she stands, ready to move if it does decide the small creature is a threat. She vaguely senses the other creature too, further off, hopefully it too will prove not to be a problem.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

The bog boar has taken notice of the odd bird flying overhead, but the little flying thing can't hurt it. From the sky, she can't even do much to bother it.

However, it did tilt its head to keep the bird in view and make sure it stayed up there, and now the other creature has taken this as an invitation to sneak just a little bit further towards the opposite edge of the boar's field of vision. It locks eyes with its rival and lets out a disapproving, warning snort.