RP:Beware the Man In the Crimson Mask

From HollowWiki


Luarelle’s Lake

Sabrina sat down at the water’s edge, covered in leathery scales, coffee, Lycan and kitty fur, among other things. She removed what she could, setting it along side the lakes edge with a new clean garment she hung over the willow branch that she picked up along the way. Something pretty this time, a green dress, she would not be hunting tonight. She ventures in the shallow waters to finally become clean of it all. She took the quill with her, propping her thin pale body on Willow roots that gave her a perfect and secluded place to finally relaxed in silence. She made further notes to avoid both Cenril and Kelay as well as detailed ramblings about a Lycan called Desparrow. It had been a long and trying day, most of it would have been completely avoidable had the first skin to skin contact never been made. Daisy took her by surprise, that was probably the first part. Deciding on her beginning she takes the quill in her right hand and presses the tip shallowly into her left forearm. A cool glimmering liquid flooded from the point, forming words into an Elvish story that saturated and faded as the images swirled in numerous ramblings of all that had transpired. The Lycan known as Desparrow was unlikely to be a person she would associate with any time soon, the name was etched in brighter than the rest, emphasis on the following word as well. The Elvish words for ‘Disorder’ would linger longer than the rest. She sighed heavily, clearing away all the chaos that just had her. She sinks into the shallow support of a rather large root that held her carefully just so she submerges to the point of being chin and shoulders above waist-deep water but all that shouldn’t have been seen was hidden neatly from view.

Fuan was once more in an area he had never ventured to before, though this time he was not idly wandering about. At some point in his travels, he caught a whiff of a particular scent he had come to know only recently. With a dark grin, he had decided to follow it, only to get turned around in some town after the smell got all..garbled. Following the mess, he had traced it well enough, his focus on a solidary object for the first time in a long time. Stepping through the trees, his dark eyes dart back and forth, his ears pricking at the slightest of sounds. Tails wrapped gently about his waist, he steps from the tree-line and stops, gaze locked on the water ahead. It wasn't surprising to find yet another of such locations, though having not traveled this far before he was intrigued none-the-less. A soft splash to his left reaches his ears, his masked vizage turning to locate the source. He clicks his fangs lightly as the small form in the water reaches his vision. Only the top of a head, but the scent was there. His target was within reach. With a soft chuckle, he strides to the waters' edge, keeping a fair distance between them. Sitting down, he drapes his legs in the water, not bothering to even roll up his pant legs.

Sabrina dwelled on all that had transpired and decided she was sick and tired of being treated like some prize to be won. Maybe Vaan was the prize? No, not him, and definitely not the Lycan, still she wondered why she didn’t really get a say in the matter. She was distracted with a flood of thoughts. Minty green eyes follow the water’s movements as she departed, light from the second moon glinting off them in the way where it was easy for her to be confused with a succubus. Her hair wet through and through slid down over her shoulders, past her hips and weighted down to about mid thigh; the inky locks did their job hiding anything indecent as she stepped out of the water- iridescent but distant her eyes had fixed on the dress that hung there. She didn’t recognize him when she turned to the sound of waters lapping against the foreign instruments that were his legs, but she did take similar interest in the trio of tails in a similar manner to their last meeting. Switches of willow flow toward her body as she walks, shielding her further from prying eyes in a life-like curtain than ran across her skin; in effect pulling the excess water from her slight frame. Best. Towel. Ever. “Can I help you?” As shy as she was about peering at the naked Desparrow hours ago she seemed uncaring of her current condition.

Fuan had kept his eyes on the water after he had sat down, knowing what might have been a possible, and very plausible situation should she have considered him to be a pervert trying to catch an easy peek. The sound of water sloshing about as she removed herself from the lake drew his attention, though he fought the urge to simply turn to face her. His tails unravel from his waist and wriggle against the soft grass behind him as her words strike him. He tilts his head slightly, a clawed finger raising to tap at this chin, "Help me? I dare say not, as none can help this poor sod with his many troubles. However, I might offer you a small bit of advice, M' Lady; it may be the quickest way to relieve oneself of the grungey excess, but bathing in a public place isn't exactly a safe bet. Not with many hunters about, anyways." He gazes up at the sky, stars glittering in his dark eyes, "I can't sense your friendly pooch about. I take it he's still being rather stubborn about his pride and all that? That goofball. He'll learn eventually, so I suppose no worries on that end." He shrugs and giggles, poking at the water with a finger, small stars of ice springing forth and floating away from his touch, "I don't mean to be rude, but are you dressed yet? I'd rather not have the wrong idea spring from your entertaining little brain."

Sabrina realized by his words they had indeed met, but there was no markings of that evidence on either of his wrists. She turns back to the dress, more like a rather long stretch of pale green fabric that needed to be strategically entwined about her form. She manages like a pro, finishing the task in a matter of seconds. She was not in a hunting mood, but found herself curious as to why this one was not marked friend or foe. “It would seem you have me at a loss.” The accent was terribly thick due to her lack of energy, but quite calm and soothing. It really was a long day. She had made her way to stand directly behind him by then, defending her bathing spot as peaceful and generally unvisited. She lifts the ground beneath him enough so his feet skim the top of the water. “I am not exactly helpless in any case.” True enough, she wasn’t helpless, but she wasn’t a badass either- though it would be hard to tell she was a scholar looking the way she did just then. It would seem he knew why Rohk had taken absent more than she. “What can you tell me about my dear sweet Ro?” Dear sweet Ro? Clearly there wasn’t a message that had been relayed to her.

Fuan twists an ear as he makes sure she at least pretends to cover herself. Figuring that she had, he nodded slightly as she strode to stand behind him, "I know just how well..." His words halt only a moment as the plot of earth he was sitting upon was raised, his wet legs dripping just over the water, "...'helpless' you are, and all the contrary to that point as well. Your little threats don't exactly scare me all that much, M' Lady, so you needn't waste your energy trying to poof up your fur beyond measure." He pokes the dirt under his rump, the ice coating it his own little show. The way she spoke brought back memories of their previous encounter. It seems she wasn't lying about the whole memory loss thing, though it wasn't very nice that the puppy still had a name for her, "What I know about your little 'Ro' friend, is that he is a little too full of himself. He doesn't appreciate the act of mutual protection. He plays at loyalty around solidarity. His pride was a little too easy to break, I think."

Sabrina simply laughs at him. “What did he do this time, break my arm?” She examines her scar free limbs and adds “ He is a Hell Hound, what do you expect. At very least they are unpredictable. Add insult to injury he is a halfbreed. I assure you he gives me nothing that I can’t handle.” She reached out to toy with one of his tails, God it looked soft. “Wouldn’t you feel like you had something to prove if you were inferior on two levels simply because of bad breeding?” She knew something had been going on with Rohk when he didn’t return upon her waking. “I must have broken his code… something I am sure. He will come around.”

Fuan raises a hidden brow at the laugh escaping the female as he turned to face her. Not exactly the reaction he thought he'd get from her, as compared to the look upon her face as the event transpired. A half-breed hound, eh? That was a new one for him. From all he had gathered, hell-hounds were an overly proud species who wouldn't deign to mate outside their own. Guess stranger has happened, "I will let the knowledge that he has injured you before slide for now, but inferiority is his own bog to swim through. The edge is only as far away as you let it get." He let his tail get fiddled with, a second wrapping about her wrist, "I suppose if that was part of his code, sure. I'm sure you know how he is all protective of you and all. The trouble is, he didn't quite appreciate BEING protected. Even ~I~ told you he would come around, but he was in a rather heavy funk as he stormed off. Not sure if he has ever done that before. Perhaps you know." He crossed his legs beneath him, water seeping through his pants and cooling his rump, "How would you have even met a creature such as he?"

Sabrina tugs lightly at the first tail, a smile gracing her fine features as the second plush appendage wraps around her wrist. She leaned in closer to him as if sharing a secret hidden from a crowd. “Rohk. Doesn’t need protecting.” Thoughts took her back to when she found him. “One of those colder than shyte winters, where the food runs out and the weaker ones are weeded from the rest.” She smiles warmly, the memory was fond. “He was nearly frozen in the ashes of what I figure was his dead mother. Tiniest little thing only yay high.” She takes the free hand and places it about knee level. “Took him to a Sylvan Healer and I made a choice.” She puts the same hand over her heart. “Half of what I had to keep his from stopping.” There it was, peeking through the fabrics between her breasts which were usually covered crossways; her one and only faint and jagged scar. “If I had known now that it meant he could never go home… I would have let him die.” She had a tear ready to roll from one eye. “Its been over four hundred cycles and I haven’t found the trick- not without the ultimate price. As you can see, he isn’t protecting me because he has to. But he keeps me alive because he loves me.” Rohk could have gone back any time he wanted. “I can’t live in his world. Bit parched and all that. He shouldn’t have to live in mine.” Her fingers lay still, buried in the fur of his tail. “He has every right to be upset when I endanger myself.” A keen observer would have noticed the entire time she recalled a memory a swirling mix of tattoos shifted, telling the story in Elvish and some images on her left arm.

Fuan was silent throughout the story, letting the words soak into his mind. He archived everything down to the smallest detail, even the look upon her face with each shift in the recital. He shook his head at the remark about letting him die. He had 'let' many creatures perish over the years, though not always for the same reason, "A good reason to be so devoted, to be sure. Love is a strong bond, hard to sever but easy to shatter, given the right circumstances." His gaze dropped to focus on her arm, watching as the tattoos twisted and flowed, but chose to focus on her face. She had hid that arm once from him before, so he needn't risk her pulling away again because of his unwarrented glance, "He may be entitled to be angry, but that doesn't mean he should forsake you over such a thing." He reaches into a pocket of his robes and removes the strand of hair he had 'acquired', holding it in his palm, "We live in a realm of constant threat. It matters not who defends who, so long as the bond between each party is strong. You say he loves you enough to die for you, but why is it that you can't love him with the same fervor? I don't think that's very fair at all." His tails snaked about her arm, his third wrapping about his own elbow.

Sabrina didn’t understand his logic. Surely for her to live, and him to be unhappy would weigh differently than for her to die so he can be happy. She moved to pull away from Fuan, the insinuation she should die for Rohk’s sins weighing heavy on her mind. Was one sin not equal to another? Was there such thing as sin at all? She wanted the hound to be happy… even tried it a time or two- that blasted mutt managed to save her from herself. She seemed sad, a sadness that befell a light sprinkling over the lake. Emotionally she found herself in tune with everything- her heart split open as it were, torn by that beastly magic that constantly fought against her nature. It was like a fissure that stayed open for all the world to sink in, and for all of herself to bleed out. It was why what happened today could transpire- being bound to that creature made it so no one could touch her skin-to-skin without feeling everything she felt; the feeling hitting the inflicted tenfold in a sudden rush. It was like jumping into a pool of ice cold water without warning, or for Fuan, perhaps a boiling pot.

Fuan felt the emotional undercurrents shift in the area, though he knew they were there from the pained look upon her face. Shaking his head, he let out a soft his as his body was suddenly wracked by heavy shaking, his mind thrown into pounding surf. The fur on his tails puffed up within the females grasp. He tugged the appendages free as she stepped back, a hand brought to grasp at his chest. Ugh, that feeling. Never had he wanted to feel that again, let alone so strongly. He flopped to his side and curled up into a ball, letting the shaking flow through him as it will. Was it his imagination, those thoughts he took to be hers? If that were the case, this would be case number two of him managing to harm her mentally. Fantastic. Curling further into his ball, his voice seeps from his lips, "It is true he would not be happy to have lost you should you perish, but it should have brought him equal pleasure in knowing he meant that much to you. It isn't about who dies...more so the point of how much you love each other." All his fur was standing on end at this point, his tails jittery on the ground behind him, "It is his job to protect you...but also yours to protect him. That is all there is to it."

Sabrina had never had this effect on others before, at least not without direct contact… or.. She steps back further from him, the issue of proximity arising once more. She shouldn’t have been here talking with this man in the first place. She moves toward the south. “I love him enough to respect his wishes.” Was that it? Or was it self preservation? She would die if something happened to him, literally - her half of the heart would stop beating with his half. But Ro… it was likely he could live without her- two halves, in his case, would have made a whole. It was ingenious, really. She assumed, due to the writhing she should take her leave, apologizing to him in several different dialects of Elvish, common, and bad common. It was somehow easier now, knowing that killing herself would not only end Rohk’s pain- but spare his freedom in the same breathe. Her feelings began to bottle themselves, she had to get a clear head; in order to do that she needed a hunt. The deadlier the prey, the less her thoughts could wander.

Fuan can't stop the convulsing of his body, claws digging deep into his palms. Blood was flowing freely from the deep gouges now found there, his breathing heavy. He felt her pull away from him, her elvish words spurning him to his feet. He turned towards her and walked through the haze of pain, a soft his escaping him with each step, though there was the hint of pleasure within the sounds. He wouldn't let her escape with that. Not at all. His lengthy stride closes ground within seconds. His mask falls to the ground between them, its binding force loosened by the shockwaves weaving through his skin. The excruciating look upon his face clearly wasn't all from the hurt as he brought a shaking, bloody hand to rest atop the female's head, halting her progress, "Respecting his wishes is wonderful, but what about ~yours~? Why not find a way to make you both happy, whilst protecting each other?" The erotic grin that splayed across his lips as he touched her split, blood flowing from his flesh, "The will be no finding a way out by ending yourself. Trust me, I've tried. Doesn't exactly work out in the end, and everyone involved is always far worse than the start."

Sabrina didn’t understand, she thought he meant for her to end herself, and now his behavior... she stumbles back when he moves to touch her, and automatic reaction bruised into muscle memory from years of avoiding such things. His hand only grazes her flesh just so. She had found a way to fix everything and that remained hidden in the damn book. “I tried looking… The Book wont show me.” There was such a spell that could allow her to be in two places at once, and if cast on the Hound, he could carry her heart across worlds, leaving her unscathed. She screamed those last words at him from where she fell to the ground. She was still moving away from him, he looked like he was going to explode from one head or the other. His blood had marred her perfectly flawless flesh, three streaked fingerprints contrasting deeply crimson against the paleness that was she. She wore it well. There was a new feeling brewing now, lingering just beneath the surface, testing the waters. It was fear. He was scaring her- not the kind of start that makes one wish on silly hope that he was going to be ok but the kind of fear that made your heart beat hard enough it pounds against your chest in absolute terror that this individual would hurt her before doing other unspeakable things with her corpse. The distorted smile haunted her. Safe to say she coulda peed her pants and not noticed… but she didn’t. She pee’d before he ever got there. Plus she wasn’t wearing pants… and so probably shouldn’t have been on the ground performing some horror movie crabwalk.

Fuan grinned maliciously, blood dripping from his chin as the female barely dodged away from his grasp. He tilted his head as he looked down at her, his blood shining against her flesh, "You found a way, but cannot access it. Sounds like you could have used some help. Have you even considered asking someone to assist with that? I know quite a few individuals with power enough to decrypt strong magicks." He himself would have loved to try, but that was neither here nor there. The scent of fear was growing stronger in the air, his tails slicing through the air behind, no rythe\m to their movements. He kept pace with her as she tried to crawl away. He chuckled softly as he used a little of his, a phantom hand wrapping around one of her ankles, it's firm grip gentle in its ruthlessness, "There are other methods one can try as well, though not always a safe bet. Of course I'd stay from those if you can manage it." He suddenly stopped in midstride, his hands crossing over his chest as he buried his bloody face within his amrs. Plopping down on the ground, he sat there and began to rock back and forth, the 'hand' still upon her ankle.

Sabrina could move no further, the power that held her there did not hurt, No. It was the struggling against it that dug pressure into her flesh. Why was he keeping her here? Why, today, was everyone trying to keep her from going when she wanted to go? Caught in between flight and fight the strangest thing came over her and the ground in which the lunatic sat would sink- not in some smooth liquid mess doomed to suffocate, rather brick by earthen brick it began crushing down around him, the sides moving upward equal and opposite to the method in which he would fall centrally. She broke free her ankle from mystic hands and scrambled to the willow where she would not only seek refuge, but her bow. It was almost as if he didn’t want to hurt her, but the evidence proved otherwise. She held aim to the rim of the feline-size shotglass she still built itself skyward. There was no delicate and silvery and elegant bolt that came next, no entwining and vining green, not at all. The draw on this arrow was golden in nature which represented an earthen force to drive it. This arrow was meant to steel through its target with deadly force- the one ticket in her arsenal she only brought out in dire need. She drew from no quiver, didn’t need one for these types, and the bow’s limbs grew bright as the pull settled to the full draw. If and when he emerged keen senses would loose the arrow from its home.

Fuan hadn't kept a stable flow of power to her restraint, so it broke with relative ease once the earth began to shake and move. The earth fell away beneath him, the feline tumbling down along with it. He didn't even bother attempt to protect himself as he fell, stones crashing into his flesh with shattering force. Finally coming to his senses a bit, he pushes himself skyward and out of the hole, landing not-so-gracefully on the ground at the pits edge. clambering to his feet, he stares off into the morning sky, blood oozing from his many wounds, though no pain shown on his face. That lifeless gaze turned towards the willow, where the female had scampered off and retrieved her bow. A grim grin splayed across his lips as the bow is drawn and readied, the golden arrow aimed steadily at him. As he turned, the arrow is launched and screams towards him. Under any normal circumstance, he could dodge the projectile with no trouble, but he just stood there. He shifted only slightly a moment before the arrow struck, the bolt slamming into his shoulder, sending him skidding a few feet backwards. He holds his footing as he smiles at the female, the sight warm and tender with no hint of malice, "You know, in this very moment, I can see why your friend thinks he needs to protect you, though I still wonder why you don't want happiness for the two of you." Shaking his head, he turns and begins to stride out of the area, not bothering to remove the lodged ammo. Looking over his shoulder with a gentle look, he smiles again, "He'll return, and with him an understanding of your feelings. I'm sure of it."

Sabrina had since drawn another arrow, but seeing him strut… not just walk, but strut..to the north, she simply waited for him to go before dropping her aim downward and finally taking in a deep breath. What the hell was that? She didn’t get a name, so she had nothing to write down. She thought of the mask that had fallen there… worse is what hid beneath it… what could she record really? Clouds and thunder had rolled in and she scorned the skies for hating her.