RP:The Possession of Anything Begins in the Mind

From HollowWiki

Part of the And it Harm None Do What Ye Will Arc


Summary: Talyara and Linn lay in bed after a typical day in their home. While Linn remains restless, Taly suddenly "wakes" from her slumber, only to steal something precious from the enchanter before running off with it. Linn quickly follows and begins to realize what might actually be plaguing the witch.

Opening in the Mountains

Linn laid in bed alongside Talyara, tossing fitfully every now and then in a state of only half-sleep, never fully slipping away no matter how much he tried to keep his eyes closed. With the world seeming to collapse on him from every direction he never did seem to react properly; the lack of respite didn’t bring about exhaustion to him, but rather imbued him with some restless energy like a coiled spring. It never did go away, no matter how much he tried to do; the only things that would get him to slow down would be the occasional injuries from his trips, but with a lack of any truly serious ones as of late even that was a sink he couldn’t access. So he laid, a slight irritated huff coming as sleep kept pushing him away tonight.

Unlike Linn, Talyara lay completely still upon their shared bed, curled up on her side with her back to the enchanter. The only indication that she was in fact alive was the sight rise and fall of her chest. Despite the heaviness of this sleep, however, it was anything but restful. Even as Linn stirred and huffed behind her she made no movements besides her slow, steady breathing. It wasn’t until moments later that the witch stirred. And it wasn’t so much a stir as she sat completely upright in bed as if she had been sitting there all along. For now, those eyes remain closed but she soon begins to peel the sheets away from her too-thin body.

Linn took a sharp breath the moment Talyara sat up but gave no more indication that he had noticed. After a few seconds his breathing evened back out, becoming almost –too- even. It was taking everything he could do to not turn and see what the witch was up to, the answer to her periodic disappearances looking to come through the fog of everything she seemed to be suffering. Another fitful toss like one given during a bad dream to turn his face away if it wasn’t already. As much as he tried to put on the appearance that he remained asleep, he was listening closely to track her movement.

In one dramatic swoop of her frail arms, Taly throws the quilt completely off of her and onto Linn and opens her eyes. They are normal; large and doe-like, while retaining their emerald green hue. However, they weren’t present, they weren’t focused. They looked as if she were awake but not all there. She twists her body and swings her legs idly from the bed as those haunting eyes cast about the room, glowing eerily in the fading firelight. Not satisfied with her vantage point, Taly stands and continues to sweep the room as if looking for something. There, on the table beside Linn, lay his violet crystal. A sickening grin pulls on the corner of the witch’s full lips and it does nothing to soften her features. Slow, quiet steps bring her to the other side of the bed to get a better look. The swirling black inclusion within the crystal burning into Taly’s eyes and the only thought she had was she -had- to have it. In an instant, the cool stone is held within her hand and brought up to her face for closer inspection. A deep chuckle echoes in the back of her throat as the negativity within seemed to pulse in her grasp. “Let’s see what kind of trouble I can cause with you,” she coos to the crystal. Only, her voice is different. It still holds the feminine sweetness, but at the same time there is deep heaviness, something more masculine underlying there, as if there were two voices in one. With her desired object in hand, Talyara immediately turns on her bare heel and without so much as a backwards glance at Linn flees from the small makeshift house.

Linn ’s breath halted the moment Talyara spoke with her twinned voices, his heart suddenly beginning to pound in his chest as it became apparent that she was… someone else. That, and she took something that very well could get her killed. A lot of reasons, really. The moment she slipped from the house he threw the sheets off and leapt from the bed himself to throw on his shirt and pants. A fleeting glance was given at his armor doublet; too slow, too noisy. A mental timer ticked in his head from the moment she left; from it he judged it safe to open the door and begin chasing after the witch once he was properly clothed. Barefoot as well, he left to follow after Taly(?) to wherever she was going. Despite the fear and anxiety that naturally came as the person closest to him wasn’t such, that investigative spark he always held had exploded into a roaring fire in his mind, consuming any other emotion he might feel and turning them towards this grand mystery.

Sage Forest

Talyara had some distance on Linn and was moving at quite a speedy pace considering the terrain was not all that smooth and her barefeet had to navigate many obstacles. It was for that reason that she never even heard Bachias stir from his own slumber, moving to the threshold of the house and calling after Linn to see what was going on. Talyara managed not to trip, not to get caught up in the foliage, not flinch when she snagged her arm on a rock in the cavern wall and begin to bleed rather heavily. On and on she walked without stopping, leaving a trail of blood in her wake, until she reached a clearing in Sage forest. Only then she relinquish the grip on the crystal, slipping it in the pocket of her dressing gown. Still the witch didn’t seem bothered by her wound, only rolling a slender finger to scoop up a bead of crimson. She lefted her blood covered finger to her mouth, traced it along her lips like some macabre lipstick and chuckled in that dueling voice of hers. “Such a sweet, little Witchling,” the voice commented before disappearing between some trees in search of something else now.

Linn ’s head snapped around the moment Bach called to him before he rapidly shook his head, hissing out a sharp “stay here” as he quickly waved the child back into the house with Stitch and Pinky. He was just about to protest before Linn was already dashing off again; miraculously, he obeyed the order. A witch going evil, an enchanter unable to sleep, and suddenly Bach turned obedient? What in the world was up with this family… As if he wasn’t nervous enough as Taly first left, the blood trail nearly put his heart in his throat. Picking up to a full sprint for a second he took a quick hop into his usual slide, the calluses on his feet functioning as boots enough under the odd effects of his favorite spell. His path took him weaving through the trail, the witch’s blood staining his feet and complicating the line as he followed her to Sage.

Talyara quietly waits in the brush, squatting down, her green eyes unblinking as they stare out in the distance, clearly focused on something. She remains silent and still, barely breathing as she simply bides her time until a small wild rabbit scampers into view. Those eyes follow it until it is close enough for her to reach out and snatch, which she does. Immediately, she grips its head tightly and twists, instantaneously snapping its neck. The rabbit barely had time to twitch before it lay limp and dead in her hands. Satisfied with her kill she moves back into the clearing and kneels down, dropping the rabbit before her. Crystal withdrawn from her pocket she examines it from all angles before settling on a sharp, pointy end. With surprising strength given her slight frame and malnourished body, she slams it into the belly of the rabbit, puncturing the skin. With a swift tug along the flesh, Taly manages to make a sizeable hole in the corpse, enough so she can probe her fingers in there. Discarding the crystal beside her, she worms her fingers into the fallen rabbit and begins to yank until she begins to pluck out organs which she tosses over her shoulder behind her. Finally, she exposes some muscle to the critter and she grins maliciously once more before lowering her face down and beginning to gnaw at the raw meat.

Linn kept sliding his way along the path until he heard the commotion in the bush, and with a quick double-back to let him slow down without causing much noise he filtered his way through the trees and brush as silently as he could, almost as if he was hunting the witch himself. By the time he got into proper view behind a bush of his own she was already eating the raw rabbit. And so he watched, unable to really find anything to do other than… watch. And he’d keep doing that, unfortunately stalker-ish in execution but hey, it wasn’t actually his girlfriend doing this, right? Right? There wasn’t much for him to do other than stay hidden and learn as much as he could.

Talyara continues to noisily slurp at her meal, her stomach churning in protest at the introduction of not only food, but raw muscle at that. Still, she continued to eat for several minutes until she lifted her face for a breath, blood coating her mouth, dripping down her throat, and staining her white cotton dressing gown. She looked like a regular wild woman now, eyes wide and crazed, hair messy from sleep, and covered in the comingling blood of the rabbit and her own. Throwing the carcass away for now and swallowing her mouthful, she wipes her hands on the hem of her gown, enough to get the excess off, before picking up the violet crystal once more to examine it. “Now, the enchanter seems to keep you close. Why is that?” The dueling voices ask the stone. “I can sense the danger within you. What are your secrets?” the voices hiss. Suddenly, a small sound can be heard coming from Taly, like that of a moan of pain or a whimpering, one that was only in that sweet feminine voice. “Shut up wretched girl!” The more masculine voice yells back. “Please…” the normal Taly voice begs. The more masculine entity roars furiously and Taly’s hand holding the crystal suddenly raises and aims to slam the pointy end into the soft flesh of her belly, just as it had done with the rabbit. As soon as skin was broken, a scream is pulled from Taly’s lips, this time the two voices coming together as one, the pain obviously affecting them both.

Linn blinked as he watched Talyara, transfixed on the conflict within her until she raised the crystal up to stab herself. A small, choked “no…” escapes his mouth, his mind stopping dead in its tracks and his body held back by its only order to stay hidden. His will had another idea though, and the crystal would answer to it. Just before she stabbed herself the crystal would forcefully rip itself from her hand towards Linn’s direction without regard for anything in the way, likely causing some minor wounds on the way out. It would fly into the leaves with a soft burst of rustling before a much more intense disturbance came as he began moving, dashing his way back into the trees before circling around a thicker one to hide again. He hesitated for a few seconds again before putting his hands and feet against the trunk to creep his way up like he did the stone cliffs, taking care to avoid the view of the clearing Talyara was in or the bush he just vacated.

Indeed, the skin that had been broken had not been the flesh of Talyara’s belly at all, but rather the palm of her hand which has been shred as the crystal burst from her hand and across the clearing through the brush. Even more blood is added to the mix as Taly’s small body turns in the direction the stone went flying. Those combined voices let out a hellish roar as the witch bounds through the brush only to find the stone gone. Further disturbances in the foliage have Taly whipping her head about trying to find the source. “Who’s there?!” The voices ring out loudly, returning to the clearing to spin around in circles. “Show yourself!” Things quiet down after that, only the heaving breaths from Taly can be head. That is, until the faintest of feminine whimpers calls out, “Linn…”

Linn remained glued to the treetrunk as Talyara’s alter-ego spun around looking for him. Try as he might he wasn’t able to suppress all the noise coming from his panting breath; he had to hope that the distance and foliage would muffle it enough to slip under her notice. It began to steadily slow down after her faint whimper, until he’d eventually climb his way up the tree further to peek out into the clearing from above. Everything in him wanted to jump down to comfort the witch, but the answers were pouring out one after another and his mind demanded that he keep them flowing. Again… watching, colorless eyes only slightly poked out from where a treetrunk branched out into its canopy.

“Shut up you stupid, Witchling!” the masculine voice began to yell once more. “That man doesn’t love you, doesn’t care! He’s still in bed sleeping, doesn’t even know you’re gone!” That evil voice began to chuckle despite Taly’s head shaking back and forth. “No he loves me, he loves me,” she answered weakly. “He doesn’t stupid girl! He never has!” It was quite an interesting sight, watching the witch argue with herself as if there were two separate beings within the clearing. “I am the only one who is here for you! Me and nobody else! Not even your sister cares about you!”

Linn’s expression fell as he listened to Talyara’s argument with the mysterious figure. For a split second he…smiled? It all made sense now. Suddenly there was a theory that everything that seemed so –off- fit into. He climbed back down ever so slightly to slip from sight before calling into the canopy in the forest in an attempt to keep his voice from being definitively located. “He lies, Talyara!” the words would ring out into the clearing in the unmasked voice of Linn.

Talyara gasps as she hears Linn’s familiar voice, her face turning this way and that to figure out where he is. “Linn!” She calls out weakly once more, everything from her eyes to her features returning to normal. But just as suddenly as the normalcy returned, her face contorted in ugly anger once more. “No, it is -he- who lies to you Witchling! And you will see! In time you will see he does not love you!” And with one final growl of rage, the other entity seems to disappear, leaving Taly as just Taly. Only she is weak from lack of nutrition and blood loss, and the constant battle for her own mind so she simply collapses on the forest floor unconscious.

Linn took another tight breath as the figure called back against him with only a single thought circulating through his mind: This guy, whoever he is, is going to be dead. For good. Once the clearing remained silent for long enough he’d peek back out to find the witch unconscious. Cautiously he’d approach, gently turning her over to examine her wounds. A wince came as he examined her hand before he drew the crystal himself. The darkness was for him only to know. Provided she hadn’t woken up he’d take his shirt off to begin cutting it up into makeshift bandages to dress her wounds before carrying her back to Xalious. Chances are he wouldn’t be sleeping anymore for the night, and would spend the time making some stew for when she finally got up, because she REALLY needed to eat.

Opening in the Mountains

Talyara remains unconscious as Linn strips off his shirt and begins to make bandages which were quickly tied off on her hand and her arm. She doesn't wake when he picks her up in his arms even as he begins to walk. It isn't until they were nearly home that she starts to stir, groaning as she came to in her body. She blinks a few times and looks up into the face of the enchanter. “Linn?” she asks in a confused tone. “Wh--where are we?”

Linn fortunately had enough time to fabricate, or at least alter some of the details of what just happened to buy time for himself against whoever this figure was in Talyara. It didn’t stop his brief wild look when she woke up in his arms though, though that faded immediately as he recognized her proper voice. A sad blink and a short silence as he kept walking. When he finally spoke his voice was marked with a sad melancholy, the only light in it that he finally knew what the problem was. Though in this case the truth might just be worse than all the possible alternatives. “I found you out in Sage again. You were hurt.” Forward he looked down the messy blood trail back that he swerved through a few times going to Sage with a sigh. “You’re safe now. But you need some food okay? Something to help build yourself back up.”

Talyara looks up at Linn, concern etched in her features as she watches the cogs work in his mind. She didn’t know he was fabricating a story, however, and her lips thin when he mentions finding her in Sage, injured, she frowns. “I’m sorry,” she answers in a weak voice, her head flopping to the side to rest against Linn’s chest. “I’m not really hungry, Linn…” she tries to tell him.

Linn looked forward for a long time as he walked after Talyara’s apology, eventually shaking his head weakly. “It’s fine.” He answered softly before her statement about not being hungry brought his eyes back down to meet hers, much sterner this time. “You’re going to eat anyway. You might not be hungry but you need it now more than ever.” He’d be damned if he didn’t make her eat at this point.

Talyara sighs heavily when she catches that stern look from Linn, his voice equally as hard when he informs her that she’s going to be eating anyway. She didn’t have the energy to argue, didn’t have the power to put up a fight. She was weak and tired, exhausted really. Her sleeping as of late hadn’t been sleeping at all. “I’m covered in a lot of blood,” she comments in an off hand sort of way. “Do you know what happened or you just found me?”

Linn looked back to Taly as she mentioned the blood all over her with a sigh, shaking his head. “All I can tell is that it’s yours. Your arm and hand got all cut up.” A nod towards the wounded and bandaged limb as he kept going. Another sigh; dammit, he’d have to go out even MORE to figure out a solution to this problem. Things always got worse before they got better didn’t they?

Talyara falls silent for the remainder of their journey, her mind racing and trying to remember what had happened this night, attempting to draw up any images that she could. But there was nothing, only blankness. The last thing she consciously remembered was bidding Linn good evening in their own home, in their own bed and drifting off almost immediately. Eventually they make it back to the house and Linn deposits Taly in unoccupied chair, thankful that Bachias, Stitch, and Pinky seem to be snoozing away contently. “I’m sorry…” she says one more time as tears begin to stream down her face.

Linn began preparing the pot and fire to begin cooking some stew the moment he put Talyara down to rest, another weak shake of his head coming to dispel her apologies. “It happens. Not much you can do about it when you’re still asleep.” That –might- have been the right term? If only figuratively. A passing glance was given towards the pets and the child as he continued cutting up the various chunks of meat and veggies. His brows furrowed for a brief second as he realized that Bachias actually –did- what he told the kid to do. And without question! With another sigh he goes back to cooking the food, seemingly in his own world as he continued thinking on where to go next.

Talyara eventually crawls from her chair as Linn goes about preparing some food. She moves towards the bedroom and tugs off her soiled dressing gown, simply discarding it on the floor, and replacing it with the old oversized shirt standby. She pads back towards a few reserve basins where fresh water is kept and does her best to wash the blood from her flesh. Eventually, Linn calls out to her for dinner and she attempts to protest but he fixes her with that stern look which promptly shuts her up. Linn would content himself on spoon feeding the witch to make sure she had some food in her system. After a while, and almost a whole bowl of stew she would gently take Linn’s hand in hers. “Lay with me?” And he would.