Undying Light - Mercy - Dec 05 2015
((private between Beast/Clover, but if anyone else has a reason to join, feel free to ask!))
The young white lion was sleeker than he had been, but his coat was still smudged with dirt. He still lingered in the shadows of his garden, though he now also spent a great deal basking in the beauty of Clover's gift.
The white doe--the only one who had ever been kind to him, and a godsend after Vazi's cruelty--had left him a glowing stone about the size of her head. The plants seemed to grow better in the light it gave off, and Beast often spent hours merely lounging beside it, half-closed eyes drinking in its bright purity.
It brought him happiness.
It represented kindness: the kindness the white doe had brought. It symbolized hope in a dusty, dark world. Mercy in the midst of cruelty. Innocence, without ignorance.
Of course, he didn't quite think these things through in those words; rather, he knew it made him happy, thought it was "nice" when so many things were not.
And so in between his careful tending of the vines and reeds, or the magical growth he patiently meted out bit by bit to the berry bushes and long grasses, Beast often rested here. He'd even created a sort of shrine, around it, or perhaps it could be better-called a sanctuary: a clear ring of soft mossy earth, where a few lions could have lain comfortably, and around which a thick wall of greenery grew. There were several ways in and out, but once inside, one couldn't see much bar the little thicket and the glowing orb within. It was peaceful, quiet, a little shelter, and the young white lion loved it.
He lay there, half-drowsing, and wondered if the white doe might someday visit again.
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@Clover
RE: Undying Light - Belladonna - Dec 05 2015
![[Image: clover_2.png]](http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o198/LadyRowen/clover_2.png)
She'd wandered back into Orion, restless, forever restless, seeking the taste of blood in her mouth and the sight of tears. She wanted to share her torment, her rage, her pain, with everyone, but this time she actually had someone in mind.
The sight of little scraggly berry bushes had reminded her of that pale white starving lion Clover had taken pity on, and the thought of ruining them gripped her like a chokehold. She needed to take their heart and rip it in two; it would just be so easy. Like stepping on a butterfly and eating them afterwards.
But finding them was another matter. Deliberately the mind inside her cage gave her false clues as to where their garden lay, telling her it was in one direction, then another, a worthless dictator of her motion. It wasn't until she ripped it out of her that she was given a clear memory of where it was. She'd just dropped the unconscious mind in her prison and skulked towards the garden, grinning all the while, the sludging tears that constantly dripped from her shadow eyes getting into her teeth, staining them.
It took a while to find the path to the inner garden, the current state of it mismatching with the memory. It certainly had grown since Clover had seen it last.....and that shrine! How pathetic! After she ruined Beast, she'd tear it down and stain it with her shadows.
She stood over the sleeping lion, waiting for their peaceful dreams to wake into a nightmare, smiling all the while.
"Awaken, Beast," She hissed, leaning her head down, letting her tears fall on their pretty coat, letting the shadows that roiled over her to touch their cold hands over their paws and legs.
"......."
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RE: Undying Light - Mercy - Dec 05 2015
The cub opened his pale eyes only slightly at the sound of approaching hoofbeats, freezing in place--was it Vazi, finding him at last...? Not that he was hidden, exactly, but--... But no, it wasn't. The legs were white, and he nearly called out in joy before realizing that something was very, very wrong.
There was black ichor dripping onto the moss before him, and the fear that had nearly faded surged back, cold and paralyzing. When her voice came, it wasn't gentle, wasn't sweet. It was a dark, seething hiss. Darkness--shadows--even boiled off of her in icy waves, flickering from what had been pure and pale and instead screaming of hatred and malice.
Slowly, fearfully, the cub raised his head, raised his eyes to meet her own. He nearly lost his mind right then: they were not bright and soft, but rather, black pits of empty void. Horror filled him.
What had happened to her?
The adolescent lion lay motionless on the ground, only his eyes raised to her. His voice came choked and quiet; he was barely able to squeeze the words out past his fear.
"Miss Clover...? What happened to you?"
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RE: Undying Light - Belladonna - Dec 05 2015
She just smiled wider, the ink from her face dripping into her open mouth, with laughter that contained absolutely no amusement whatsoever within. The sound echoed within the little garden, touching everywhere with its hideous sound.
"Why, Clover is dead, Beast," She said, her voice so sickeningly wrong. There was no remnant of the deer left, only a hollow shell the shadow wore. "Just like you will be, soon." Her smile was disgustingly sweet, like a candy that had rotted away so long ago the sugar had turned black.
"She was naiive and kind and it led to her death. She was a fool. She trusted that disgusting creature Vazi and he killed her, oh, not too long ago, right over there." She nodded to the east of them, using her height and her nastiness to move towards the paralyzed lion and make them edge away from her into the ground. Still, she advanced, like a snake, ready to bite. "So close you could've heard it, in fact....oh, if you heard her screaming while she died, how pitiful it was!"
"To think that you envied her, thought her the world! And you didn't do anything to help her at all. You could've been there, Beast. But you weren't. You just hid in your pretty little garden like the coward you are, like the simpering piece of filth that Vazi turned you into. You're nothing more than that, and you never will be."
Her face was so close to theirs now, almost close enough to touch, and she was just leaning right over them, pressing them into the ground. "I will enjoy making you suffer."
With the shadows at her command, she took Beast's shadow and covered him with it, covering his eyes, taking away his sight, and she laughed, low and hollow. All the light in the surrounding area dimmed, and before he was completely blind, she ripped the soft glow from the stone he so treasured and replaced it with her writhing shadows.
"......."
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RE: Undying Light - Mercy - Dec 05 2015
His mind raced with the ugliness that poured forth from Clover, that dripped from her words.
She was dead? But... she didn't look dead. Was that what all the black stuff was?
His fear still gripped him, his terror, but it wasn't for himself--it was for Clover. He hadn't been afraid for himself. "You died...?" he asked softly, horrified. And then she was calling him a coward--did she blame him? He'd always taken blame; he knew he was filth. He was used to being trampled for things that were not his fault--torn apart, beaten, bruised. But for once, he felt the need to protest--not out of his own pride, but because he wouldn't have let her be harmed, if he could have helped it.
"I'm not hiding, I... I am taking care of my garden--I would have come..." but his voice was trailing off into a frightened whisper.
She could hardly make him feel worse about herself--Vazi had torn that part of him away long ago. He had no pride. No feeling of self-worth whatsoever. He was filth; that was just how it was. Those words passed by him with no effect, bar a little twinge--a little grief that it was Clover saying it.
Oh, he still hurt. Her words still ripped at him, still tore at his soul, but probably not for the reason she'd expected. No--he pitied her. Horror and grief for Clover welled up in him, and as the darkness descended over them both like a cloak--one which brought cold, and not warmth--he didn't shrink away. Wide pale eyes seeing nothing through the black, he lifted his nose to try and touch hers, even as she leaned down over him.
She was ugly.
Everything about her had become ugly.
And he felt terrible for her. Terrible--and afraid.
But what could he do for her? He didn't know. He couldn't grow her, like his plants--couldn't tend this sickness that wilted her life and spirit. She had spoken of the way that light worked the same way, and he had practiced, tried to learn--maybe he could do that, at least...?
Keeping his head close to hers, touching, if he could, he closed his eyes and focused. He remembered what Clover had been, and he tried to push that darkness away from her.
Maybe... he could heal whatever had been done to her? Maybe he could fix whatever Hasira had inflicted? He was still filled with fear, grief, the emotions threatening to tear him apart, even as Clover hissed her hatred. But he didn't know what else to do, but try.
A gentle glow began to shine from the white lion, reaching up for Clover through the shadows... trying to find her.
Wherever she'd gone.
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@Clover
RE: Undying Light - Bartos - Dec 05 2015
RE: Undying Light - Belladonna - Dec 05 2015
She could taste Beast's horror like a fine wine, bitter and rotten to her tastebuds, swirling around her mouth, and it was delicious. She could get drunk off of it, for how intoxicating it was to her. But something else inside it ruined the taste, something sweet fouling it all up. There was pity mixed in, and some measure of hope, and it made her so hideously angry that at the same time the spell was worked on her, she struck out at the lion with her hoof, aiming for their eye but hitting their cheek instead in her blindness.
She screamed,the shadows burning within her eyesocket, and at the same time she was physically damaged, so to was her core attacked with this absolutely beautiful image of Bartos staring at her in awe, laughing and smiling at her.
Everything everything EVERYTHING was burning inside with the light and beauty and the raging sea inside was screaming and tearing at her inner walls, threatening to crumble the castle down, and the prison cell in which the mind was held was left wide open. The shadow was clutching her head, and didn't see that she was at the helm, her bright soft yellow eye blinking away the sludge that surrounded it like bad mascara and eyeshadow gone wrong.
"Bartos,"
One word spilled from her, her pure, sobbing voice wracked with pain.
The shadow tried to control this boiling mess, but the insane sea wouldn't listen, rushing to her and trying to tear her apart while the mind was safe in the light, and she couldn't hear the shadow screaming in agony and rage.
"......."
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@Beast @Bartos
RE: Undying Light - Mercy - Dec 06 2015
The adolescent white lion flinched as the hoof cracked out at his face, and thankfully it didn't split him, didn't tear his wide, pale eye from its socket. Instead it found his cheek, lancing pain, sending him rocking back. Dispersing the light he'd been gathering.
Yet Clover didn't seem to notice.
All Beast saw was the white doe covered in roiling black--yet it seemed that somehow, beneath the surface, a storm raged. She choked a word he didn't recognize--Bartos--a name?
Fear battled within him against the gentle awe he held for the doe, the love he'd gathered for her the way he loved his plants. He wanted to help her, to cleanse her, to grow her--what had Vazi done?
With a soft cry of pain at the kick to his face, he cowered down and gathered himself again. He wasn't sure he had it in him, but he had to try. He had to keep trying, as before, to not give up; she had gone out of her way to show him kindness, and he wouldn't turn on her now.
This isn't her, he thought again. Something has her.
Maybe this shadow was an illness, after all. He pushed again, pulling on all that gentle warmth coiled up within him, trying to send it streaming out into the darkness in the form of glowing light. In the form of magic. It would take time; the pain had stamped his power back, and so he spoke, voice gently curious... trying to find out what it was that caused her such anguish. And trying to buy time. Maybe Clover herself could keep the shadows at bay.
"Who is... Bartos?" Beast asked softly.
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@Clover
RE: Undying Light - Belladonna - Dec 06 2015
Clover took in harsh breaths, sobbing, blinking the sludge away, barely hearing Beast. She felt like she'd died and undergone a harsh anabiosis, her mind dragged back to life.
"He...is...my love...."
She said, her voice so strangled. How could she let herself forget? How could she let the dark take her over? How?
She looked around the garden, at the hideous shadows hissing and leaving the both of them, fading away, and she didn't hear the shadow drowning in the hollow sea, didn't hear it struggling to take control again. But Clover saw Beast, saw the blood on their cheek and how they cowered, and she shook her head in disbelief. What had she done while she was asleep inside her prison?
"Oh Beast," She said, her voice so full of heartbreak. "I'm so sorry."
Already she was starting to feel it...the blankness, the void, the death, as the emotions that were spurred on by the pulse through the thread were starting to fade. She had to say this quick, before the dark took over again.
"If you meet Bartos, please, tell him I love him, okay? I'm so sorry. I'm losing this fight. I'm trying, but..."
She leaned down and kissed Beat on the opposite cheek, soft as a feather. "I'm sorry for hurting you."
"This is how I speak."
@Beast
RE: Undying Light - Mercy - Dec 06 2015
Beast lay quiet as she fluttered touch over his face, soft as the wings of a butterfly. He peered up, his large paws tucked beneath him, his round ears rising to listen to her words.
What was she talking about?
Losing a fight?
He understood that she was asking a favor of him--Bartos, whoever it was, had to hear that she loved him. He could do that--if he ever met Bartos, whoever it was.
"Okay. You ...didn't--it's okay. Vazi--... Hasira, kicked me worse, plenty of times." He spoke softly but matter-of-factly, his memory running over all the times a hoof had opened his flesh, or an antler tine sent him flying, bruised and battered. The shadows still lashed and hissed, and Clover seemed to be fighting... herself, her own little war within her. Beast still didn't understand, but he wanted to hold onto her. He didn't want her to go.
He wanted her to stay herself. So he kept trying to call upon that softly glowing light within him, all the while speaking, as if they were holding a perfectly normal conversation.
As if Clover could ever be normal again.
"I didn't think he'd... hurt you, though... I can show you the way out of this cave, if you're not safe? Or--you could stay here, with me?" He wasn't sure. He spoke softly, uncertainly, his voice as delicate and fleeting as the mothwinged touch of Clover's kisses.
He didn't understand. He didn't know what was going on, or what Vazi had done. He just knew... "I don't want you to go," he murmured.
His light still wouldn't come... but neither did her shadows close around the two, yet.
Maybe there was still hope.
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@Clover
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