[split] [se] the ones who sing in the dead of night


Age: 7 | Height: | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: - Strg: - Dext: - Endr: - Luck: - Int:
Played by: Admin/Moderator Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,387 | Total: 1,387
MP: 0
#1
Hold that thought, Amalia.

The bones of the bridge rattle and quake and the world errupts in such violent vibrations that your eyes blur and are forced shut. When you open them, you are standing knee deep in mud staring up at a tree whose equal is probably only the Mathair.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#2
no amount of guilt can change the past && no amount of anxiety can change the future
She feels she might drown in her confession, but then there's arms around her shoulders, Adam pulling her into a hug. Without thinking Amalia presses her face against his chest, trying very hard to ignore the lack of a heartbeat, the cold of his hands. He smells, feels, sounds different, but he's still her Adam, and so for now she doesn't care.

A strangled laugh at the stupid joke bubbles from her chest; she shakes her head against him, surprised by the mirth. As for what else has happened? "I fucked Ronin," she says before she can stop it, and it's the first time she's told anyone but the parties involved. From there it's a waterfall of almost frantic recounting: "Got sick. Moved to Torchline. Almost drowned. Kept dreaming about you, that we---"

--but whatever the content of her dreams might have been dies on her lips as the world shifts and spins. "Adam--!" the girl manages to cry, reaching for her friend with arms and wings and a deep seated ferocity made that much keener by loss. Her grip is strong enough to risk suffocating him had he a need to breathe, but Amalia doesn't care. She lost him once, and she will die before she lets him go again.
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#3
ADAM
it's not a cry for help,
it's just a cry for connection.
Holding her close, Adam lifted one of his hands to stroke through her hair; there was no hesitation, no wondering what was appropriate. When he had been dead, he had been with Pet, so seeing him again had been nice, but not too monumental. He'd been separated from Amalia though, and his heart, beating or not, was nearly bursting from the overflow of love at seeing her again.

Upon hearing Amalia say fuck, then realising the context of it, he leaned back, a delightfully scandalised expression on his face, about to ask about all of it - then the world around them blurred and shifted. Gripping back on Amalia just as hard, he didn't say anything except a loud, confused 'UHHH--??'

It finally seemed to stop and he dared to open his eyes again, at first making an annoyed groan upon seeing his nice boots were deep in mud. Adam looked up, down, then across at Amalia, who was fortunately still with him. "...Did...did Ronin do that? Was he pissed you told me about the fucking?"
i'd trade my life and health,
to make people pay attention.
I'd sacrifice myself for the
sake of entertainment.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#4
no amount of guilt can change the past && no amount of anxiety can change the future
The wave of terror clings as close and firm as the muck they've fallen into, and nearly takes more to shake off. The shelter of her wings is reinforced by the length of scales that glitters over her spine, by the long pair of antlers that curl from her forehead and the fangs to rival Adam's own peeking from under her lips. Yet for all her strength Amalia clings to Adam like a buoy in the storm, terrified of drowning without him by her side as panic begins to rise behind her eyes.

Who's to say what might have happened next, had it been anyone else? But somehow Adam knows exactly how to lance the tension, taking irreverent humor to her wound and leaving Amalia too startled to do anything but bark a surprised laugh. She pulls back, the animalistic features retreating as staccato giggles soften some of the panic attack. "He- y'know- that might be a more realistic fear, if it had meant anything to him." The words taste bitter in her mouth, but she's too deafened by the thunder of her heart to hear it.

Reluctantly she peels away from Adam and rises in the mud, one hand extended to stay in his own, pull him up along with her. With filth on her face she peers at the tree, a magnificent thing so marred by death that Amalia can nearly taste it. "How beautiful," she murmurs, absently laying a track of hard light over the ground that she might easier approach. "It reminds me of the Mathair, but... Sadder, somehow."
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#5
ADAM
it's not a cry for help,
it's just a cry for connection.
A grin grew on Adam's lips as he saw Amalia calm down and laugh. While her words weren't particularly cheerful (Adam wondered if the meeting had meant anything to her, but decided to save that question for another time), it was clear she was finding his dumb questions helpful. "I bet his dick was like two centimetres past his balls anyway, right?"

He went with her when she pulled him up, rescuing his boots from the mud with heavy schlorp noises and making a mournful whine at the sight of the leather covered in brown smears. It would take hours with a brush to get it out of all the crevices.

Looking back up as Amalia spoke, Adam glanced over the fucked up tree. He'd never really been one for nature. "Uh...yeah...I dunno if I've ever seen the Mathair. Do you...know where we are? D'yknow about the fucked up trees of Caido by heart?" Stepping up and around, he looked about them. "...This is still Caido, right?" The idea he might have moved worlds again suddenly struck him, and Adam did look distressed by that, even as he tried to keep an even smile.
i'd trade my life and health,
to make people pay attention.
I'd sacrifice myself for the
sake of entertainment.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#6
no amount of guilt can change the past && no amount of anxiety can change the future
"I see you're still fascinated with d- dicks," Amalia half-laughs, her voice still tight and strained. Walking down her her hard-light boardwalk, the not-Shield extends a tentative hand towards the red-barked tree. "The Mathair is - was - part of the Greatwood. Before the A- before the Voice had it killed.". Bitterness creeps into her voice, a flash of anger she can't quite suppress. "The Fae said she was a goddess in her own right. I don't know about this tree, though."

As to whether or not they're still in Cairo? With a great deal of confidence Amalia nods her head. "I can still feel Vi with me," the girl says simply, her declaration punctuated by the sudden bloom of marigolds in her hair. "I don't know where we are. But we're in Cairo. And-" Turning back towards Adam with a radiant, shy smile, Amalia squeezes his hand. "-we're together. So we'll figure it out, right?"
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#7
ADAM
it's not a cry for help,
it's just a cry for connection.
Adam was guilty as charged as far as the dicks went and could only shrug, but when it came to the Mathair, he didn't feel any particular ownership over that guilt. He'd not been a part of the Ascended then, after all. Still, he felt the awkwardness of the moment as Amalia quickly corrected herself to blame the Goddess and not her followers; hopefully that was where the schism would end, at the odd uncomfortable phrase.

"Oh. Okay. Cool." With no idea how it felt to be connected to a God as deeply as she was, Adam had little reference for what exactly Amalia meant, but her assurance was enough for now. As she turned he squeezed her hand back, briefly lost in the radiance of her smiles, even as shy and small as this one was. She'd somehow gotten more beautiful while he'd been gone; maybe it was new confidence awarded by the Gods.

So, they were walking. "....Hey..." He asked as they walked down her boardwalk, onto the ground when it was available. "...While we're just kinda wandering...you said something about dreams, before Ronin sex-blasted us over here?"
i'd trade my life and health,
to make people pay attention.
I'd sacrifice myself for the
sake of entertainment.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#8
no amount of guilt can change the past && no amount of anxiety can change the future
They walk around the Hanging Tree upon a boardwalk of light, hand in cold, bloodless hand. She tries not to think about that too hard: how cold he is, how his hand doesn't have a pulse to if, how if she cut him with her sword he wouldn't bleed, only ooze a lifeless fluid.

She turns away quickly, focusing on the path ahead. Looking at him is wonderful, but it aches.

The question Adam poses is innocent enough, and yet Amalia finds herself growing red, the tips of her ears hot and visible even as she keeps her face turned away. "It wasn't Ronin," she corrects immediately, "And I... I dunno. After you... after, I missed you so much. I thought about you all the time." Gently she tries to disengage their hands, to wrap her arms around herself. Long nails clench anxiously at her skin, and her toes curl as she shuts her eyes. She hasn't told anyone about these thoughts, about how deep her mourning went. How much she wanted him back.

"I guess it carried over into my dreams. I'd dream that we... Gods, it doesn't matter. They were just dreams."
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#9
ADAM
it's not a cry for help,
it's just a cry for connection.
Adam was just happy to be holding Amalia's hand; for once in the last month didn't consider how he couldn't feel her quite as well. He was there, experiencing life, with his best friend by his side. Yeah, sure, there was that weird tight feeling in his chest that liked to resurface every so often, and the knowledge that she hated what he'd become clung to his mind like a bitter limpet...but for the most part, ignoring everything determinedly, Adam was pleased to be there.

"It wasn't Ronin." He repeatedly solemnly, a smirk pushed down from his lips, though Adam actually did gain a serious expression when Amalia continued speaking. While he could absolutely tease her for it ('everyone thinks about me all the time'), something in her tone made him just nod and squeeze her hand, eventually stopping when she trailed off and cut her sentence short.

He wasn't sure why, but he really wanted to know what she was going to say. "No, c'mon. I'm here now, right, and who else are you gonna tell? You'd dream that we...?" Adam leaned a little closer so he was on her eye level, gave her a smile that wasn't a 'signature smirk' but an actual genuine kind gesture, and waited to listen.
i'd trade my life and health,
to make people pay attention.
I'd sacrifice myself for the
sake of entertainment.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#10
no amount of guilt can change the past && no amount of anxiety can change the future
He doesn't let her pull away, following her down with a sweet, genuine smile that makes Amalia's stomach clench, her heartbeat speeding in her chest. She turns back to him, pulled by his hand on hers, trying and failing to keep herself from looking up at his face. No, her mind screams, no, it doesn't matter, it can't matter---

But her lips are moving without her input, her voice escaping the thundering of her heart. "I dreamt that we were together," she whispers, so soft she can barely hear it through the pounding of blood in her ears. "That we- that I-"

And then the thing she's known but never said is roaring through her mind, beating a tattoo in her pulse, aching and longing to be free. And even though it's wrong for so many reasons, even though she knows it, even though she's so afraid it strangles her, she cannot hold it in.

"I loved you, Adam," Amalia whispers, dark eyes slick with tears as she looks up at this stupid, charming, undead rogue, who walked into her store one day and turned her whole life upsidedown. And she can feel her heart breaking like her voice, the fractures left behind by his death only made deeper by his return. "And I know it's wrong and that I'm too late and it, it can't ever mean anything, but I... I love you."
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#11
ADAM
it's not a cry for help,
it's just a cry for connection.
Adam, in a way, had been expecting her to say that they had been together in her dreams; he'd somehow thought it would be a joke though, something light-hearted. Immediately, from Amalia's tone, he knew it wasn't; terrifyingly, his reaction was to wish he could have had the same dreams. He opened his mouth to say as much when she said her next piece, taking what emotions were already there and heightening them twice as much.

It was, indeed, wrong for so many reasons. He was married, he was in love with someone else, he was on the other side of this stupid war now. Yet...there had been something he hadn't said to Pet, something he'd known before he'd died and back when Deimos was there, something he'd buried down and kept quiet and ignored because it had been convenient. That was what drove him now, his fingers reaching forward to stroke her hair, then despite everything, he began to lean closer.

"I know. I love you too, Ama." He said lowly, hoping that just for a minute all that separated them could leave them be, just long enough for one kiss pressed to her lips, his hand coming to cup her cheek. Gods, it was doomed, but surely all they'd been through to get there deserved a moment of relief and happiness?
i'd trade my life and health,
to make people pay attention.
I'd sacrifice myself for the
sake of entertainment.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#12
no amount of guilt can change the past && no amount of anxiety can change the future
In the breaths that pass Amalia feels the world grow eerily still. Bugs stop their chittering, the wind grow silent; it is as though the entire world is holding its breath, waiting for a pin to drop. Amalia stares at Adam with the wide eyes of someone who knows she has made a mistake and feels so deeply afraid and relieved, who wants to believe in the dream she has carried for so long, who yearns for a different world. She expects him to laugh at her, or gently let her down, or even get mad (he's married, after all). But she's leaning closer and she closes her eyes, and then his hand s on her cheek, and hers is on his chest, and she's leaning into it, and his lips are on hers, and it feels so...

...so....

....cold.

She's dreamt of this moment countless times, but in all her dreams his lips were warm. They weren't this, this, this mockery of him, this chill lifeless skin suit that's been wrapped around a mechanical beast, powered by a shadow of the man she loved. Adam had always been so alive - now she cannot even feel a heartbeat beneath her palm, nothing, nothing, but empty circuits, but frigid metal, but chrome. She's mourned him for so long and so deeply, never letting go; and when he'd come back she'd thought that maybe, maybe, maybe now she might heal.

She cannot bear to look up at him as she pushes him away, gently but barring no room for protest, her strength uncontestable as her body shakes.

"I'm sorry." She cannot look at him, but the hard lines in her face are unmistakable as she steels herself against her pain, armored with anger and despair. Adam has been an open wound in her chest since the day he died. But this, this thing? This isn't Adam. This is a cruel joke of the Voice.

"I was wrong. I love Adam, but you aren't him. You're something the Voice stole and wrapped in his skin. You may have Adam's face, his memories... but you don't have his heart. You aren't him."

She turns away then, so he doesn't see the tears that she's barely holding back as they fall onto her cheeks. Wings spread out from between her shoulders, creating another barrier between them. Amalia's heart broke when Adam died, and now it is breaking all over again- but this time, it will heal.
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#13
ADAM
it's not a cry for help,
it's just a cry for connection.
As far as Adam was concerned, the kiss was almost as perfect as it could be. No, he couldn't feel all he might have been able to once, but he'd been growing used to the limited senses the Ascended body gave him. He pulled away, not sure what they'd say after but thinking it would be about how they could make this work, how they could continue any kind of relationship given everything.

He did not, for a moment, consider that Amalia would let it all come between them. That she'd actually choose the distant beings that gave her favour over him, her best friend. He would have done anything for her, anything; Adam thought she had felt the same.

To find out she didn't...even though he couldn't feel physical pain, he put a had to his chest, almost gasping from the ache as he stepped back, looking somewhere by her feet. He was silent, gritted teeth and shaking as he tried to come up with anything to say that would change her mind - oh Gods, was she going to leave him? He couldn't handle that. Not after everything else.

"You...you really think that?" Was all he could finally choke out, no anger in his voice, only hurt. "...I...I thought...I thought..." Adam's hands came up to press to his own chest, to feel the lack of heartbeat. "I'm me. I'm me. I had to lose some things to come back, but you - you were one of the things I came back for. Please don't do this. Fuck, please--" Aggressively rubbing the heel of his palm against his eye, Adam didn't look up at her either, just spoke to the ground, trying to recover from the sudden dip of atmosphere from shy kisses to this in just a moment.
i'd trade my life and health,
to make people pay attention.
I'd sacrifice myself for the
sake of entertainment.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#14
no amount of guilt can change the past && no amount of anxiety can change the future
It hurts; every word is a lance against her back, another lash over her skin, because they sound just like him, these words, the pleas. Because it's everything she wants to hear - that he loves her, that he came back for her, that he's hers -  and yet Amalia knows it isn't true. Can't be true, because his lips are cold and he has no heartbeat and he smells like metal instead of skin, because he's not alive, he's not alive, he's not alive---

"Stop it," Amalia half snarls, half pleads, the feathers of her wings rippling with tension. She turns on her heel back to Adam, and there is no mask to cover how much this kills her, nothing but longing and pain and wishes backed by steel resolve. "You didn't come back for me. You came back because of her. And she didn't save you, Adam. She stole your soul. Ripped you away from Mort's light and brought you back as a shadow of what you were, so you could be her pawn, tethered to her to survive--"

Again her voice breaks and she looks away. When she speaks again her voice is soft, vulnerable and low. "I would have done anything for you. When you died... I wanted to follow you. I would have traded my soul, if it meant I could have yours back. But this thing you are? I... I can't love it. It's so much less than what you should be. What he was."
Amalia


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)


RPG-D