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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. | ||||
cw: cannibalism, gore
...well. That thought gets tossed pretty much immediately, because before Basil realizes what's even happening, Max lunges. Basil feels a soundless scream catch painfully in the back of his throat as Max all but tears the guy in half right in front of him, using her mandibles and fangs to tear his chest open.
It is so violent. So bloody that Basil gets caught in the crossfire, flinching back as blood splatters on his face and clothes. His vines tighten around the now-corpse that he's more or less just propping up for Max to feast on, struggling to fight back waves of nausea over the smell of blood and death.
Basil doesn't feel the urge to rip and tear. It's bad enough that the deer deep in him wants to feast along with her, to gorge itself on flesh...but it's kept in check by the Nymph, the much more peaceful and sensitive side that would prefer to take nutrients from a corpse in a much slower manner. The two sides clash, and it makes him dizzy.
As Max tears away strips of flesh, the bones of the boy's ribcage glinting in the moonlight, Basil sobs under his breath.]
cw: cannibalism, gore
That is all that's on the forefront of Max's mind, as blood slides down her jaws, her chest-mouth licking up anything that her muzzle and mandibles miss. An almost giddy sense of fulfillment, because she's free, at last, her brain reaches a zen calm that she doesn't think she's ever felt before. The strange sense of loss that started when the strange figure that passed through her is gone as well. Her beating heart is full, her body rejuvenated.
A piece of flesh catches in her teeth, just as she has the passing thought—and now, I won't hurt Basil—
And it all comes crashing down.
With a start, Max gasps, because she recalls Basil is there, watching, keeping her prey still with his vines. And she recoils, shaking claws and trembling jaw withdrawing. The panic overwhelms the endorphins flooding her, leaving Max a mess of mixed signals. She loses her footing, leaving the boy—the body, slightly withered, a hole in his chest like—
Leaving it supported solely by Basil's will alone.
Bloody snout first, Max turns her guilty, horrified gaze to him. ]
I'm- I didn't- it just- I c-couldn't stop—
[ Sorry, doesn't cover it. Between this and the others, the roasted corpses that she left on the sidewalk.
Everything she's put him through tonight.
It would figure when she's the one with the hunting instincts, it all goes terribly wrong. ]
no subject
Which brings them to now, with three corpses under their belts, one of which Basil is still supporting between them. The boy died the moment Max tore his chest open, and now he's nothing more than a dead body kept held aloft by Basil's vines. Though...he doesn't keep that up for much longer, slowly- shakily- lowering him down to the ground between them. There is still plenty left here, and he imagines the plan will be to either consume the rest here or to save it for later...he isn't sure if the other two bodies are salvageable, charred and burnt as they had been.
Basil isn't taking the usual sharp, heavy breaths that he does when he cries. His body no longer needs to draw breath, which means this expression of grief is equally silent. No tears fall, but that doesn't mean his head doesn't ache from it, his body feeling weak and hollow.
As Max begins to apologize, Basil shakes his head. He doesn't move, staying put where he is in front of her.]
You didn't...d-do it on purpose.
[He knows she didn't. She would never.]
no subject
Her claws dig into the grass. While Basil doesn't gasp while he cries due to his dead body, Max does, and it surprises her. Max doesn't know if she can catch her breath, as hot tears cut through the blood coating her face.
Now, the instincts that have been guiding her all night are mercilessly quiet, leaving her just with her own disgusted thoughts.
Max can't form any words, as they get stuck in her throat and she has to breathe now, and that's just far too many actions at once. Her arm-wings wrap around her, as she keeps gasping in shallow, quick breaths and lightly shaking her head in return. ]
cw: gore desc, omori spoilers
And he realizes, as Max stands there and begins to cry, that someday when she's in the proper headspace for it, he thinks he will tell her about his own first time. But not now. The last thing Max needs now is another helping of senseless, violent imagery.
Once more, Basil is brought right back to the night of the recital. He remembers how Sunny looked, how he acted as he froze with terror and panic, unable to do anything but catastrophize. He didn't mean to, he didn't, weren't words Sunny ever said to him, but Basil knew he felt them in that moment. It's how Max is feeling now. Perhaps it's a bit different, since death was always the outcome...just not like this.
After a tentative moment of near-silence between them only broken up by the sound of Max crying, Basil steps forward. He doesn't consider the fact that she might not want to have anyone near her right now, because he remembers how he felt. There was a reason he'd asked someone he trusted to be there with him, that night. He should be afraid of her fire, but he isn't. Instead, Basil reaches out gently with shaking hands to rest them on Max's elbows, trying to get her to look at him and not at the corpse on the ground.]
I...it's going to be okay. I promise.
no subject
What it does do is accomplish Basil's goal. Max's reptilian face turns in his direction, scrunched up with pain and guilt. Tears run down her scales, and...
And her bloody claws, shaking like Basil's hands, lightly grasp at his arms. Her breathing still won't calm, nor will her tears, but even though Max doesn't believe those sorts of promises, ever, from Basil?
She wants to. She almost does. ]
We- we ha- have to-
[ Get the body out of the middle of the park. Teleport back to the Palazzo. Find something to do with the charred bodies, or- or, god, anything—!!
But Max can't form words. Not when she can still feel the fresh blood on her face, or scraps of flesh in her teeth. There's not much she can say, except for a painfully true: ]
I'm sorry- for screwing up.
no subject
Though, Basil cannot deny the temptation to just run home from it all. Someone would find these bodies eventually, and nobody would ever know who did it, nor are there systems in place to find out. Finding a half-eaten corpse isn't really a crime that can be prosecuted in Ryslig. If it were, every monster would be in prison for life.
But...he isn't going to do that. They'll take this one step at a time.]
It's okay. T...the instincts are hard.
[He wants Max to know that. He understands how she feels. He's been there.]
We...we'll take care of him first. ["Him" being this body here in the park. They need to bring it back to the Palazzo.] Then we'll...get the others.
no subject
She swallows down a stressful lump in her throat and nods jerkily. Yes, him first. And...maybe now, they can find Fugo, and he can help. At least maybe see if anything at all can be done about the charred bodies.
A small shiver runs down her spine as Max reaches out a claw to Basil. She should be able to get them back with just the ring. The two of them and a bloody corpse as a bit of a tight fit. Her mind feels clearer, in terms of using Faerie powers.
But a truth dances on the tip of her tongue that's far too sensitive for this moment. So instead of answering with words, it's just the nod and the outstretched bloody claw. ]
cw: disassociation, omori spoilers
It's eroding him slowly, constantly, from the inside out.
When Max reaches for him, Basil doesn't hesitate to take her claw. They both know what needs to be done from here.
It's just a matter of making themselves do it.]