polarvoid | Inbox for ryslig

Inbox for ryslig

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 * CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS has joined 018.07.154.55 <Daisy>This is Basil! I'm not around right now, but if you leave a message I'll get back to it as soon as I can. <BANNED USER> SCREENED MESSAGE. UNSCREEN? Y/N -- sample for when you ban someone <USERNAME> First sentence of message. <USERNAME>** First sentence of message.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Maybe in that silence, he's considering alternatives. Maybe... No. Max doesn't let herself hope that. Some days hope feels like a noose to hang herself with, and that's exactly what it is right now.

She opens her mouth to protest, that it'd be a start. That at least it could get her to the soup kitchen, maybe, or something like that. But then Basil presents the checkmate to his argument, and her stomach drops. ]

No... [ Weak and small, like she hates feeling. Wouldn't she be such a hypocrite for arguing, after what she'd said herself to Fugo? That if she's going to be living- existing like this, she should have a part in the acquisition of food. Of...meat.

Why wouldn't it apply to Basil too?

A stiff arm reaches up to- something. Hold her drooping head up, wrap around herself in a half-hug, she's not sure, she just wants to move and prove that she doesn't need him to go out and kill someone for her (for the both of them).

But it hangs in the air. Half-reaching for him. ]

It's not fair. It's- it's not fair...for you to do that all alone.

[At this point, Basil's unsure what the right thing to do is. If one of the adults were here, they could get help. But...they aren't. They could be anywhere right now, as a matter of fact, and Basil isn't sure they have the time to find someone. He's so worried about Max that he can't fathom forcing her to wait much longer.

There's one horrible truth that Basil knows is going to haunt him for the rest of his time as a Gargoyle, and that's the fact that he must hunt. Maybe he can get away with not hunting for every single "meal", but he'd already tried to ignore it before, and as a result had nearly killed Bakugo over it. Though there's a possibility that was just starvation taking hold...he doesn't want to think about the fact that it wasn't.

Even if he doesn't do this for Max, he will be forced to eventually. So, then...why waste the opportunity now, when he could be helping her? Helping both of them.

Just like how he helped Sunny. He stepped in, he took control where he could not.

Basil's lips tremble, his ears drooping low over his shoulders. He could very easily just leave now and get it over with, but it's the way Max reaches up towards him that causes him to stay.

...if she's not looking, she'll hear it first, the way his knees softly hit the wood floor as he falls back to them in front of her, leaning in to wrap his arms around Max's shoulders. He feels...sick. Numb, hollow...tears dripping silently down his muzzle as he squeezes her gently, her hair tickling the side of his face.]

I...I'm going to have to...whether I do it now, or later.

[He admits, though the way his voice cracks betrays his fear. He had been able to take over for Sunny because Sunny had been too catatonic to do anything on his own. He had no choice.

Max...she does. She can protest, and Basil doesn't want to leave her with no say whatsoever.]

...i-if...if you really don't want me to, then we can try to figure something else out. But I...would. For you.

[ Hear it first she does, as her eyes are on the floor—she can't bring herself to look at him, she feels so guilty—and her ears turn upward just a moment before she feels the hug. When she tries to return it, she finds her outstretched arm so stiff she can barely move it. It isn't just her imagination when something inside her creaks and cracks, and she grits her teeth. She doesn't think she can bring her other arm to move at all.

He's right. She doesn't have enough time. If she'd eaten recently, maybe this wouldn't be the case. But the amount of damage her body's endured has taken its toll. ]

Basil... [ Her voice hitches, catching on his name. It's only because she's cried so much that she doesn't have any more tears to shed, but her eyes sting nevertheless.

And she leans her face into the crook of his neck, as she promises: ] N-next time... It won't be just you. F-for as long- as I can— I'm never gonna let you do something like this b-by yourself, ever, ever again.

[ It's as good of an okay as he's going to get. ]

[Next time. What a sobering thought. Because from what Basil has been able to tell, they'll have to do this monthly at the bare minimum, barring help from something dried or prepackaged in-between. Max can only tell the truth, so he knows without a shadow of a doubt that she means this.

He's glad she can't see the look on his face right now, the way it tenses and becomes ugly, however brief. Maybe...if he pretends it's all a bad dream, it will be easier.

But of course, Basil knows that won't even be necessary. His instincts...they're strong enough that they will take over when the time comes.

Sniffing, Basil reluctantly draws away after a moment, just long enough to work a smile back onto his features as he pushes himself up to stand.]

I know. N-next time...we'll figure it out together.

[For right now, though...it's time for him to go. He already has an idea for the best way to go about this, seeing as how so many humans are already gathered at an unfortunately convenient location. Distracted, possibly already injured...he won't have to waste time trying to hunt someone down.

What Basil does take the time to do is pull his blanket off his bed, letting it fall around Max's shoulders so she'll be able to keep some semblance of warm while he's gone. Then, knowing he won't actually be able to keep going if he doesn't just...go, he tears his gaze away and leaves.

Leaving Max alone...her only company being the music, and the soft glow of a few bioluminescent flower petals that Basil's horns dropped as he left.

She will be here for several hours before Basil's return is heralded by the sound of his footsteps through the halls. Or, more specifically, the way he drags his feet, his talons scraping the wood as he slowly climbs the stairs to his room. He can't quite help how honestly horrific he must look as he emerges from the dark hallway, the glow of his horns casting a new, terrible light over him now. He is covered, absolutely drenched in blood and lake water. His entire face and snout are saturated, and the front of his overalls is stained a deep, almost blackened crimson. Every breath he takes brings with it a slight puff of smoke, blood occasionally dripping from his open mouth.

He barely remembers killing them. The spirit at the lake had done a wonderful job of hypnotizing all who came too near, and fortunately Basil had been too far gone, too smothered by instinct to fall victim. In the end, a human- nondescript- had been floundering in the edge of the water, still alive yet trying to push themselves in deeper despite their legs having been rendered useless by the fish ripping them to shreds deeper in. They would have died a miserable death from blood loss, leaving Basil's interference a mercy.

At least, that's what he'd been telling himself, begging himself to believe as his fangs sunk into their neck.

He carries in his arms strips of flesh ripped from the body, completely divorced from the corpse in such a way that he can only hope it looks less like what it is, and more like...well. What it is: raw, bloody meat. That's what he brings in, his eyes wide and tinged red, every scale on his body extended and rattling dully as he slowly sinks to his knees about a foot away from where he'd left her.]

H- Hee...here...

[He had almost thought about trying to torch it with his flames, wondering if that would make it easier and more palatable for Max, but...it's likely better this way. "Fresh" is the name of the game, after all.

As for Basil, he doesn't need it. He's had his fill, and feels simultaneously more alive and more miserable than ever.]

[ Max doesn't want to let Basil go. She doesn't want to be alone. But, she knows this is necessary, and that she has to. She doesn't quite release him as she lets all conscious tension leave her arms. The one around Basil's back is still stiff, unnaturally so, but it falls to her side, hitting the floor with a thunk. It makes her feel all the more dead, but Basil smiles, just for her sake, and it almost makes it feel like her still heart's beating again.

Then he leaves without looking back, and, for the next several hours... Max is alone.

It's almost suffocating how alone. It's as alone as she'd made herself the first few days of the song, as alone as she'd become by her own accord back home. Except now, she doesn't even have her music to comfort her. Nothing but the violin, which alternates between coaxing her to spill her guts to an empty bedroom and beckoning her to die.

During the former, she murmurs horrid truths, about how she wishes she'd kept trying to stand up to Neil even if it got her hurt because maybe it would've made Billy see her as an ally. How she wonders if she would've ever been enough for her mother, if she'd tried harder to be a better daughter she wouldn't have felt the need to seek her validation from the scumbags she dated. How the first time she wished Billy dead was before they even moved to Hawkins. How she worries if she weren't here her mother would've pulled the plug on her—the ultimate act of giving up on her own daughter.

During the latter, it's a blessing that rigor mortis has set in so severely that her muscles can barely twitch. The only reason she knows they're happening is the slight change to her posture, or the small groove her claw has dug into the floor where it futilely tried to pull her from the bed to the door. It's like falling asleep, except part of her is always a second away from snapping her eyes open. Like living on the edge of a lucid dream, reaching for control but never achieving it until she gasps awake.

What comforts her in this time is just one thing: Basil's familiar scent clinging to the blanket.

Max can't pull it closer around her, but she can let her head droop enough that her nose—dry instead of moist, because still, she feels mildly feverish—into its soft fabric. It's grounding, reminding her where she is and who she's waiting for. That she's not really alone. He's coming back for her.

At some point, she really does fall asleep, still sitting against the side of Basil's bed, whole body limp. There, without the rise and fall of her chest or the sound of steady breathing, she really does look like the corpse that she is.

Basil returns, and it's only the scent of fresh blood that wakes her. Her still, somewhat sunken eyes blink slowly open to a half-lidded gaze. The skin on her lips pulls as her jaw drops open, tearing slightly from how utterly dry they are. ]

Ah..... A-aahh...

[ Even her vocal cords are starting to stiffen.

In the time he's been gone, a layer of moss has grown over parts of Max—her antlers, her cheeks, her arms. Stretching out from under the carefully applied bandages. It's...actually more accurate to say, it hasn't grown over anything, but rather in place of it, fur and velvet turning to plant.

If there was any doubt before, it should be cleared up now: Waiting any longer would've been a death sentence. ]

B... B- aaah...

[ Sound cracks from her throat as her eyes try to focus. Her thoughts bounce sluggishly around her head, like ping-pong balls moving through molasses— He came back, he really came back and of course he would and i think i'm dying again.

Only the smell of blood. Only the smell of meat gets her mouth to fully open, fangs aching to sink into the strips of flesh, because she wants to live more than she hates herself for how she has to. ]

[It's probably for the best that Basil doesn't know just how close to death Max is, even though it's hard not to see it in her features, and the way she looks more corpse than alive. She can barely speak by the time he's returned, and that alone is enough to spur Basil on further, dragging himself closer since he knows Max can't make it to him on her own. And once he's collapsed in front of her, he'll reach forward, the freshly stolen flesh in his claws.

He doesn't want to put her through the indignity of it, not unless absolutely necessary, but he'll feed it to her himself if he has to. He's not sure she can move her arms, or manipulate her hands enough to actually take it from him, he's realizing...]

I-it's okay...I'm here...I...I've got it...

[He rasps, his voice low as he drags himself even closer, sidling up next to her so that she can lean her weight against him if she needs to.]

Y...you're going to be okay...I promise.

[ It's a strange situation, due to how her body works. Hungrier she gets, the more it decays...but really, she wasn't incredibly hungry before. So this is something different. She's hurt, she's...sick, really. Like it's working so hard to keep her together it can't work on being anything but a corpse. It needs meat to replenish itself. Without the fog, she'd probably have literally fallen apart on the way back to the Palazzo. Max wonders, distantly, if she'd still frenzy when she's barely able to move. Would she bite at anyone who came close, with whatever jaw strength she's able to muster up?

The musings idly slip through her mind as Basil's reassurances reach her ears. Luckily, she doesn't try and snap at Basil's hand, because if she was that much of an animal right now Max doesn't think she could be able to handle it. But she also can't pull herself forward very well. Her arms are heavy and stiff, so he may very well have to feed her, as embarrassing as it is.

The moment the flesh is within reach of her mouth, she doesn't really have a choice, as her fangs snap at it almost desperately. Fresh blood and meat on her lips, she could cry. She can't hold back her relieved moan as she swallows a piece practically whole. It feels wet...but that's natural. It's raining outside.

(Still. Later, she'll be able to guess, when she really thinks on it. It makes the most sense if that's where Basil got it from.)

The moment he's next to her, Max leans against him. And, after a few bites, a loud cracking of bones sounds from her arm, fingers twitching back to "life" to try and take what she can so he doesn't have to keep feeding it into her mouth. ]

[Even if Max had snapped at him, he would have understood. He's gotten to that point before. He wouldn't wish it on anyone...but he has. Yet despite knowing that she's desperate for it, he surprises even himself by how...unafraid he is to help. His mind has already been scorched by the memory of that human dying in the lake, so perhaps it's a side-effect of being numb. Whatever the case, he holds the strips of flesh close enough so that she can eat. Then, when her body starts to slowly knit itself back together, his arms lower a bit so as to be closer to her hands, giving her less of a distance to have to reach for what's left.

He brought as much as he could carry from the corpse, so there's a non-insignificant amount of meat here. But he can go get more, if he has to. He's just not sure if it's a blessing or not that the body is unrecognizable as human, now that both he and Max have been feeding from it.

For now, he's gravely silent. Silent, but not going anywhere as he sits back on his haunches, his tail wrapping loosely around the both of them.]

[ At first, Max tries to take strips of flesh a little too fast for her arms, as the groan under her movement. She lets out a few soft grunts as she fights against the stiffness of her body. Like whole entire slabs of muscle are dethawing or...something, and it almost burns. But soon, she brings piece of meat after piece of meat to her mouth, becoming a little more animated with each one, with about the worst table manners ever.

It stains her paw pads red as Basil's little hands.

For a Waldgeist, it seems meat is the ultimate cure-all.

It's most of the corpse fragments that Basil brought back that Max devours. Maybe she should've left some for later, but it tastes best when it's fresh, and she does it rarely enough that...

That it's hard for her to hold back or even concentrate. Truly as soon as she gets going, her mind goes so blank it's like the music can't even affect it anymore, as all that's there is the rich, warm meat. No place, no person, nothing but her meal.

Except. Midway through, her own skull tail, limp on the floor alongside her, slithers over Basil's, curled about the flower-like ending tip. It's not a conscious action at all, but when she slows, eyes wide and wet, she does not remove it. ]

You...s-saved me, [ Max's voice comes out in a croak of a whisper. The lower half of her face is stained in red, blood dripping from her fangs and eyes fully yellow instead of their cool blue.

Saying it out loud feels like it's going to break her heart. She really isn't used to it. People coming through for her. ]

[Basil's floor is going to need a deep cleaning after all of this, and this is honestly not even the worst its seen after how he changed violently in here. It's the furthest thing from his mind currently as he sits next to Max, watching her as she eats her fill. It almost feels like a dream, like he's watching this happen from outside his body. Everything that happens in Ryslig is so absurd as to be unbelievable, yet at this point he's almost certain he's seen and been through it all. The trauma runs deep between them both, and he figures that if it ever went any deeper, they'd simply break.

At some later point, Basil will ask someone from the Palazzo to help break down the remainder of the corpse they couldn't finish, because between them there's still roughly a quarter of body mass left in one of Basil's many tunnels, mercifully kept dry from the elements and hidden from wild animals who could make their own meal of it. For now, his focus is on Max as she eats until her body finally seems to be slowly starting to get back to normal. Whatever counts as "normal" now, anyway.

Her words seem trivial, in the wake of things. Basil just sort of looks at her with his eyes half closed, yet still managing to seem so large in the darkness.]

I...I w-wasn't going to let anything happen to you.

[Everything is going to be okay.]

You're...you're one of my best friends. I can't lose you.

[He's lost everyone else. He can't do it again.]

[ It matters to her. The thought of what was happening to her... Limbs stiffening, body growing still. Slowly finding herself completely unable to move.

It terrifies her. It makes her think of the future that was left for her in Hawkins. It makes her think of the attic and her dwindling sensations. So it matters. More than anything, it matters.

She's still tired, and it shows when she tries to readjust her position. Her body's sore, her blood having settled at the lowest points of it, but she wants to lean closer to Basil. The blanket's kept her warm but it's nothing compared to feeling another person beside her. Her cold body settles, bloody hand grasping for bloody hand.

Softer, she repeats: ] Basil. You saved me.

[ She's not done with eating, just has finally slowed down. But she can take a moment to squeeze his hand and gaze at him, gratitude radiating from her. ]

Thank you. Thank you, for...for doing this for me.

Edited 2023-05-21 03:45 (UTC)

[Basil's ears twitch, eyes flickering from the floor back up to Max when he feels her reaching for his hand. His hands are warm, as they always are. A little overly so, but thankfully not burning-hot. Warm, like a heat pack. It means that in contrast, Max's hand feels blistering cold to him, but...it's hard to be cold when you're so warm all the time. To that end, it doesn't bother him at all.

He lets her, and once their hands are joined, he'll carefully curl his claws over the back of her hand.]

Y-you're welcome.

[This time, he accepts her thanks, simply. It seems like the best thing to do.

His face feels warm, and he's not sure if it's from the blood still caked onto it, or the fact that he's blushing. He's just glad his scales hide it for the most part.]

I'll...I'll stay with you, okay? Until you're better...a-and all of this is over.

[Until it feels like they can exist as themselves again.]

[ At that moment, Max is overcome with a feeling she's only had for one person. A desire, and it's...

It stills her. It churns something in her stomach, as she realizes what it is, looking quietly at Basil who has done so much for her. Who she's heard so much about, the good and the bad, who has heard so much about her. Being like this, looking at each other, the intimacy reminds her of the Snow Ball.

It's stupid. Because this isn't the closest they've been. And her face is covered in dripping blood, and the blood between their hands oozes to the floor, but the first time she felt like this before it was in a junkyard on top of a broken down bus waiting to see her first monster—so it's par for the course, but she feels stupid, and it's stupid, and like she's betraying herself and—

Lucas...

She's frightened of it. The feeling. The desire. But she doesn't let go of Basil's hand, because that feels like it would be giving up. It doesn't show on her face, besides a few twitches of her lips and narrowing of her eyes, which she covers up with another bite of meat. ]

Mm- um, okay.

[ After everything that's happened... This sentiment shouldn't make her feel so good. But it does. She shouldn't be feeling this.

Maybe it's just the moment. She's not currently compelled to say anything about it, so—maybe it's just because she's tired, and he saved her, and the shock of almost dying again has her heart feeling like it's going to start again.

Max thinks maybe it's circumstance. Maybe, for now, she can just let it sit and not do anything about it, because she knows, for sure, that everyone would get hurt. ]

Yeah. I'd...really like that.

[While Max is being hit with this feeling for perhaps the first time, Basil...has felt it for some time, just buried deep beneath his own insecurities, fears, and convictions that Max would hate him if she knew about all of the literal skeletons in his closet. But...it seems that his fears in that regard were unfounded, or at least they share in so much of their trauma that Max couldn't judge him for what he'd done even if she wanted to. Perhaps she never would, simply because...it's Basil.

It isn't the first time Basil has felt it. But the last time...was a long time ago. Back home, back when things were simpler, and easier...back when there wasn't this awful secret keeping them miles apart.

Basil...has to hope that nothing that terrible happens ever again. He feels like in this case, in Ryslig...it's not possible for anything to be as bad as the fact they literally have to kill innocent people to survive. So...perhaps there's no reason for him to think that way.

There's no reason for him to think it at all.

Max can probably hear the way Basil breathes quickly, still overwhelmed by what he's just so recently done, his body coursing with adrenaline and unable to calm down. He's wet, bloodied, and exhausted...but he's done what he set out to do. They should both he set now for the rest of this month, he has to hope...

He doesn't say anything else. He just sits there as she feeds, resting his head against her shoulder.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Inbox for ryslig

cw: cannibalism cont, suicidal imagery

Omori spoilers, cannibalism

corpse decaying, cannibalism

cw: extreme cannibalism/blood/gore/disassociation

cw: hypnosis/domestic violence/euthanasia/lost time/dissociation/body horror/cannibalism

cw: extreme gore/cannibalism

cw: extreme gore/cannibalism, corpse decay descriptions

cw: extreme gore/cannibalism cont

cw: extreme gore/cannibalism cont

cw: extreme gore/cannibalism/disassociation

cw: corpse decay, mild cannibalism. how can cannibalism be mild.

HOW CAN CANNIBALISM BE MILD

cw: MILD CANNIBALISM BC WE'RE MENTIONING THAT SHE ATE PEOPLE BUT NOT BEING EXPLICIT ABT IT???? IDK

SHIT u right tho, Omori spoilers, cw: cannibalism