[SE] So many things I need to say to you

Maea

The chakram struck true, delving deep into the joint between hip and leg and lodged itself there. The roar of pain was deafening, and Maea could see a thick stream of blood flowing down a leg that no longer supported any weight. A jubilant whoop of hers turned into intense focus as she toes the line of safety with a third burst of Bloodbane; made worth it by how the lial groaned and turned sluggish, its eyes dulling with pain and fatigue.

Spotting the first thrown chakram on the ground not far, Maea made a dive for it, snagged it up in a hand and threw the disc towards the creature's neck. It too lodged itself into the thick hide, causing a second fountain of blood to spurt from a nicked vein.
It was dying now, but much like with a wounded bear, that only made it more dangerous.
"Hit the disc with your sword!" Maea called, hoarse from hunger and excitement. "We're almost there!"

And I am the monster that startles me
in the mirror

Table base by Skylark

LIAM

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
You and I drink the poison from the same vine

The chakram lodged into the joint between hip and leg, earning a fierce grin from Liam as his partner whooped with glee. The Lial was quite angry now, and dying - and all the more dangerous for the change. With one leg disabled, Liam crept forward, drawing his sword in a two-handed grip. If it came at him, he needed to be ready to dodge - even injured, its superheated body was a danger to him -

The first chakram was in Maea's hands before he could blink, and stuck in the Lial's neck before he could take a breath. The beast was struggling against its inevitable demise now, and with both of them still standing and relatively unscathed (save for Maea's bloodbane), Liam was starting to share in his partner's excitement. At her hoarse instruction, he rushed towards the beast, lifting the sword - and drove the flat side of the blade into the disc with all his might.

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight

Maea

Hunger, excitement, dark magic lacing through her veins - it was a potent, heady mixture that reached a fever pitch as Liam's sword fell upon the chakram, driving it deep into the molten crocodile's hip. It sliced through ligaments and nearly sliced the leg clean off, drawing an agonised rumble from the lial. It whipped around to try and snap at the man - then Maea darted up to the disc lodged in its neck, yanked it out and threw it as hard as she could one final time.
Slicing cleanly through thick hide, Lasracha severed the main artery and the windpipe - and with a groan the beast collapsed onto the ground.

Panting hard where she stood over her prey, Maea at least had the sense to heal herself before she gave in to hunger. She barely even felt the pain as she drew on the bloodboon to erase what damage she'd done to herself; sealing mangled flesh and severed blood vessels, repairing skin until not even bruises remained. Only when she was whole and hale did she kneel in the growing pool of blood and began to carve into the flesh, still rippling hot and steaming when she raised a dripping chunk to her mouth.

Thoughts faded from her mind. For a long time all she could think of was the food, and the potent blood that made her own hum in her veins. Gone were the concerns over what Liam would think of her, seeing her so blood-soaked and savage, lost to urges that couldn't be entirely compared to devouring a tub of ice cream or a well-seasoned steak. Even her own inhibitions against soiling clothes and hair fell away, letting her dig deeper into the carcass than she'd ever done before in this form.

------

Bloodboon (Ancient): Can injure themselves for mastered damage, healing themselves or others at 1.5x their mastered level with a range of 30ft.
Type: Dark | Rank: Mastered

And I am the monster that startles me
in the mirror

Table base by Skylark

LIAM

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
You and I drink the poison from the same vine

The sword clanged into the chakram, driving it deeper. The Lial spun, snarling a dying growl, to snap at Liam, but Maea was faster. It took but a heartbeat for the second chakram to be ripped free and thrown again, this time to sever the beast's main artery and windpipe; the Lial sank to the ground and did not rise again.

Liam stood, sword in hand, quivering with the adrenaline of battle. He looked at Maea to find her a bloody mess - all self-inflicted, he thought - and as he watched, she used her bloodboon to heal herself. The soldier wasn't sure he'd ever get used to that - the casual tearing of flesh to mend it all back together - but it was starting to become rote. Just a thing that Maea did sometimes. Normal.

He might have checked on her then, but something in her expression stopped him; she sank wordlessly to her knees, reaching out to grasp a chunk of the Lial's flesh, and raised it, steaming and bloody, to her mouth.

Liam looked away. It wasn't that he was disgusted (although he certainly would not be sharing the meal), but it felt... wrong, somehow, to watch her as she ate. Just as he wouldn't stare at her during any other meal, it felt rude to do so now. Instead, he carefully retrieved the chakrams, then retreated to a relatively flat rock nearby, where he began to clean their weapons as he waited on his partner to feed.

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight

Maea

Given the difference in size between the felled beast and her stomach, by the time she had sated her carnal cravings most of the animal remained untouched. Staggering to her feet, Maea would hardly recognise herself in the wild thing she'd become; bloodstained with the armour soaked to the elbows, grime and ash clinging to the velvet while red streaks crusted in her hair. Filthy, she was absolutely filthy and it felt good, so she stumbled over to Liam and plopped down by his feet with a dazed grin. Full to bursting, and strangely buzzed - like she'd had too much to drink and not nearly enough time to snuggle with her favourite person in the whole world.

"We did it," she told him with a smug little smirk. "Not gonna say I told you so, but also I told you so." Her words came out slurred; as she gazed up at him, he wouldn't quite focus in her eyes - probably because her pupils had widened enough that they nearly eclipsed her irises entirely. "Liiiiaaam... Liam what do we do with the rest? I wanna... do something. Like... something grand. Like back before the wars, when deeds actually meant somethin, you know what I mean?" Maybe he would understand, being a soldier and all. This had been an ordeal. A brutal battle they'd barely survived, followed by one where everything went right. It called for ceremony, for gratitude, for honoring the gods... but damn if her brain wasn't twisting itself into knots at the moment, ideas coming apart at the seams before they could consolidate into a plan.

And I am the monster that startles me
in the mirror

Table base by Skylark

LIAM

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
You and I drink the poison from the same vine

Liam had managed to clean the weapons and had moved on to sharpening his sword, looking around every once in a while to check for danger as he worked, when Maea finally rose from the Lial's carcass and sauntered over to plop down at his feet. She was absolutely filthy, covered in blood and dusted with a fine layer of dirt and ash that darkened her complexion a shade. Her pale hair was tinged crimson in all the placed where blood had dried in it, and when she smiled at him, it was red-lined and rather macabre.

But more concerning to the soldier than her appearance was her sudden shift in mood. Gone was the agile, capable huntress, replaced by something entirely the opposite. Her words slurred together as she teased him, and she practically swayed in place even though she was sitting down. Her pupils were blown wide, and her voice had a wheedling quality he'd never heard from her before. It was almost like...

Almost like she was high.

A memory surfaced: a fine powder in a bag, confiscated from some party or other in Stormbreak, headed for the little store room with EVIDENCE painted on the door. A detective who told him all about Snapdragon, a stimulant that made the user euphoric, lowering their inhibitions until they would do all manner of strange things. A line he'd never crossed, even at his worst.

Snapdragon contained Lial blood.

Which Maea had just consumed in massive quantities.

Liam stared at Maea for a beat longer than strictly necessary, then looked at the dead Lial. What in Caido was he supposed to do now? "We could mount its head as a trophy," he suggested, all the while struggling with a combination of amusement and dismay. "Hang it on the wall of your living room."

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight

Maea

The way she pouted at his lack of originality could have been cute if it wasn't for the bloody crust still staining her face. "No not like that, I want it more... well more." Making a gesture of something huge blowing up nearly had her sprawling on the ground, though she caught herself before actually faceplanting. "Like a big fire, or – hey! We can push it off the edge of the world."

Grinning wide and slightly cross eyed, she contorted around until she could point in the direction of the sea (it was ther wrong way, but you get the gist). "Imagine the splash when it hits the water! Or, or - we can set it on fire and throw it in the sea. With flowers!" She was absolutely brilliant today, so damn full of good ideas. Liam was a bit slow on the uptake but she could forgive him for that, he had pretty privilege for days and weeks and years and decades and centuries and millennia and... whatever came after that. Forever! Yes, that sounded right.

She was on her feet a moment later, lurching wildly and set a course for the big, heavy carcass, fully intending, it seemed, to drag it all the way to the cliffs. And if that didn't work... she could fly? Probably? "I bet it would be easy peasy as a dragoooon, a dragoooOooOon ~ "

And I am the monster that startles me
in the mirror

Table base by Skylark

LIAM

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
You and I drink the poison from the same vine

"... more?" Liam repeated dumbly, feeling particularly lost. As Maea went on, Liam quietly kept his many, many questions - like do Lials even burn? or are Lials superheated when dead, or do they cool off eventually? or how the fuck do you want us to move that thing? - to himself. Reaching up to rub the back of his neck, he glanced in the direction Maea pointed and paled slightly at the sheer distance involved. His strength and stamina were decent, sure, but maybe not that decent. And, while he might love and adore Maea, he was rather less than inclined to see a dragon fly under the influence.

Maybe if he could distract her long enough for the blood's effect to wear off. Latching onto one idea, Liam was on his feet as soon as Maea was, reaching out to grasp lightly at her arm before she wandered off for the Lial carcass. "Flowers first, right?" he reminded her, gently steering her away from a pool of lava and towards a rocky hill nearby. "I bet there are some smolder blossoms up there. Maybe we could, uh - weave some together and decorate the Lial before we set it on fire." Yes, good. That sounded just slightly deranged enough that it might work.

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight

Maea

"More," she agreed, repeating the same gesture of something big growing even bigger. This time she did fall over. Once up on her feet, it was momentum more than anything that kept her going. The light tug on her arm sent her staggering into Liam, grinning madly with a light in her eyes like she was able to see the stuff their universe was made of. "Oh riiiight, flowers! Kiada had smolder blossoms for her wedding you know. Very pretty - I kinda hated it though, because I know about half the people in the room would have applauded if I dropped dead. Do you have a favorite flower?"

Winding a bloody arm around her lover and partner and best friend with a vice like grip that wouldn't budge, Maea's mind scattered all over the place, skipping from topic to topic like water sprinkled on hot stones. "I'm really grateful, you know? You stick around even when I do dumb shit. And Dygra lets me be all weird and awkward about being this new thing even though it's been like three years so I should be used to it by now - and I guess I'm getting there? But also I still like the other gods. Safrin make me nervous and I don't know about the sexy part of Frey, but Ludo is always fun and Mort is wonderful and I don't want to stop being theirs just because I'm Dygra's, right? And Rae, and Vi - I kind of want to pray to all of them, you know?" Hence the need for flowers. And fire. A big fire that all of them could see, right on the edge of the continent and the world she knew.

And I am the monster that startles me
in the mirror

Table base by Skylark

LIAM

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
You and I drink the poison from the same vine

Maea staggered into Liam's side, earning a soft oof for her efforts; the soldier got the distinct sense that he was the only thing keeping his partner from falling over, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders despite the blood and gore still covering her body. Her rambling was kind of endearing, really, and Liam started to think that as long as they didn't run into any other creatures out for blood, they might actually be okay. They could ride this out and it would be fine. "I'm partial to lilies," he told her, distracted by the thought of others wanting her to, in her words, drop dead. "But, honestly, I, uh, don't know much about flowers."

Liam led her gently towards the hillside, keeping an eye out for any threats - and, apparently, any flowers. Somehow they'd gone from doing something big with the Lial to searching for flowers to praying, and he honestly wasn't quite sure how they'd wound up there. At least he could sneak away a few blossoms for his quest, and Maea would perhaps be none the wiser. "Is Dygra a jealous god?" he asked, curious in spite of himself. "I don't see why you can't honor all of the gods, personally." Although if the goddess of entropy was opposed, that might put rather a damper on any attempts to do so.

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight

Maea

His question brought her to an abrupt halt, as moving her legs and producing a serious answer simultaneously did not compute. "Uuhhh.." she hummed intelligently. "I don't... think so? She didn't say anything about me doing a quest for Mort. But from Ludo sounded like it was a reason why we weren't friends like before... so I dunno maybe it's not actually a problem. Wouldn't be the first time I made a hen out of a feather. Ha, haha ha." Laughing jarringly at herself, clearly the ragged deity's retort still stung her, though even in her hopped up state she did her best to put a smile on.

As they made it across a hillock, a valley opened up ahead of them. Heat rippled from the steep sides and a faint glow announced the presence of fresh lava before they came close enough to see the bottom. Once they did, though, Maea tugged on Liam's shirt and squished him excitedly, already pointing out the flowers growing along the edges of the lava. "Oh look! There they are! Are you gonna be okay though, they're really hot?"

And I am the monster that startles me
in the mirror

Table base by Skylark

LIAM

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
You and I drink the poison from the same vine

Maea stopped abruptly, and Liam paused until she started moving again, keeping his arm wrapped firmly about her shoulders. First, to keep her on her feet; second, to keep her from wandering too far from his side, where she would probably be safest at the present moment. "I don't know much about the gods' relationships with each other," he admitted as they started moving again. "But as long as you're not making Dygra angry, then I think you should do what feels right." And maybe this wasn't the time for such a serious conversation, given Maea's inebriation, but here they were anyway. Liam wondered, vaguely, how much of this she would remember. What was the effect of Lial blood on one's memory?

A valley spread out before them as they topped the hill, and Liam wiped the back of his free arm across his brow as a suffocating heat enveloped him. There was fresh lava here, and as they made their way closer, it became evident that they were doing to have to approach it to collect the flowers. The soldier considered this predicament - and that of the burning flowers themselves - and glanced at Maea. "Hmm. If you collect them, could we bundle them up in your Flame Forged Robe to carry them back to the Lial?" If the robe could keep things from burning, then maybe it would protect Liam's hands from the flowers' properties, as well.

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight

Maea

All things weighed equally on her mind right now, in that matters had no weight at all and drifted like dandelion duff upon her lial-blood breeze. Maybe the little woman would have dropped some remark on the tail end of the conversation if she'd been more herself - but in the very present moment Maea was getting lost in the vibrancy of the colors before her. Black and red and gold swam in her vision, so that Liam's suggestion reached her belatedly and only in part.

"Hmmm? My robe? Suuuure, it has pockets! Lemme fetch it." She dropped the bag from her shoulder and began to rummage through the contents, scattering items around her with no ducks fiver for anything but the immediate task. Unfurling the silken garment with a triumphant "Aha!" she paused, looking from the soldier to the robe and back. "I'm sorry, but I don't think it will fit you," she told him so gently, so softly - like she feared he would be wrecked by the disappointment.

And I am the monster that startles me
in the mirror

Table base by Skylark

LIAM

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
You and I drink the poison from the same vine

It would have made for a beautiful scene had it not been so stiflingly hot, but even still Liam could appreciate the stark contract between the vibrant scarlet flowers and the surrounding landscape. A part of him longed to pluck one from the ground and tuck it behind Maea’s ear - but no. These flowers would burn him as quickly as the lava, if he wasn’t careful.

He realized belatedly that he should have brought some sort of protective gloves, but without that foresight he was left at Maea’s mercy. The pale Ancient produced her robe from within her bag (along with a great many other things) and held it up, triumphant; then she softened, as though about to deal a devastating blow upon Liam and his ego. Lips twitching with mirth, Liam shook his head. ”I don’t think it will,” he said seriously. ”But maybe we can use it to bundle up the flowers. Like a little makeshift bag.” After all, he would hate to ruin her robe.

Oh, I love it and I hate it at the same time
Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight