multimuse for calamitoushqย !ย ย
izara โkitโ levine * / ย bioย .ย muse.ย ย wcs.ย ย ย ย
jakoris davenport * /ย bio .ย ย muse .ย ย ย wcs.ย
elian maxwell * / bio .ย ย ย muse .ย ย ย wcs.ย ย
๐ฉต avery cochrane ๐ฉต
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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Claire Keane

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trying on a metaphor

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Noah Kahan
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@cavernovs
multimuse for calamitoushqย !ย ย
izara โkitโ levine * / ย bioย .ย muse.ย ย wcs.ย ย ย ย
jakoris davenport * /ย bio .ย ย muse .ย ย ย wcs.ย
elian maxwell * / bio .ย ย ย muse .ย ย ย wcs.ย ย
Selene let a victorious little smile spread across her lips as Elian followed her when she began to tug him away from the grim and dark of the Dominion. She wasn't sure if she'd expected resistanceโshe was never sure what to expect from him really, he was hard to read compared to most others who, one look, Selene could deduce much of what they were thinking, or what they desired.
"You were? Perfect, then we can go together." She beamed, keeping her fingers locked with his for as long as he would let her. The markets were always full of curious wonders, little trinkets and new things to discoverโalongside the tapestry of people from all factions that browsed the stalls. Selene enjoyed wandering through, seeing what she could find, but more than that she would enjoy seeing what intrigued Elian.
As they walked, Selene fell into step beside him more-so than dragging him along, her arm wrapping around his where she kept their fingers laced. Perhaps it was too much, too familiar, but she had always been an affectionate person and never afraid to show it. And something told her that he deserved more affection, warmth and gentle touch in his life.
"Hm, that depends on what's available. Sometimes I like to just brows the stallsโsee what little curiosities can be found. Or I like to watch the people, so many different faces from all walks of life, it's intriguing." She answered thoughtfully.
Her gaze turned up to him, a brightness in her eyes as she looked upon his face. "What do you like to do for fun? And I know there must be something, so don't say nothing." She smiled, a playful little squeeze of her fingers around his.
Selene wanted to know more about him, peel back the layers, the armour, the walls he put up around himself. She understood why they were there, the Dominion was cruel and you needed to guard yourself however you couldโbut she hoped perhaps to peak beneath the curtain.
Elian wears a sceptical, but boyish frown on his face. He isn't sure he believes her at her word, but there's no reason to doubt her; she's always been a kindness in his realm. His mind is simply notorious for its tricks, and its distrust. With his fingers snared in hers, he feels uneasy making her lift her own, to be able to reach his comfortably. Selene is light too; she lifts weights off his shoulders, just as much as he could reach down and lift her skyward her with one arm.
He doesn't dare. And he shutters the thought away behind metal gates, where things get forgotten.
"I like to do that too." Peruse, and learn the new age trinkets. Hundreds of years below the surface, has left him wondering if he ever knew the world at all. Boyhood is so far detatched, that any glimpse of a fogged memory is slathered in blood, or filled with the tearing of scales from a tail brutalised beyond salvation. But he's listening, and hanging onto every word; Elian doesn't know Selene outside of the Ghouliard, not really. "What do you learn about those people. The ones you watch." Does she do that to him? Stare and wonder? He'd say there isn't much to think about; he is all he is, in one glance.
He takes a moment to consider telling her what his free time is spent doing.
Procuring souls for a demon? Luring them to the Dominion, to be torn apart. That is what he should be doing, in his leashed freedom. But often, he takes detours. "I visit the Vault, in the desert, you know it? Full of history." The ones he's missed, in the desperate hope he might remember something of a water-filled world that left him to rot. "And I go to the taverns, houses where they drink. Talk to some." He doesn't say about his brother, or his world of fistfights, or bloodied jobs for a demon who'd rather watch, like a voyeur, he'd say. Selene is more graceful than that. Unburdened. It's why he doesn't understand why she would put herself in the grasp of soulstealers.
She has one to be stolen. Elian does not.
Throwing a glance down at their hands again, he lets them trail ahead to track their path to the Haven. She makes him warm, and he knows that sensation; he underrstands that for a creature as cold as he is, that stirring something is like a beacon, to all the wrong places.
He tries to shatter the pause, with more conversation before she notices his mind has plummeted: "Were you looking for something... specific today, at the markets?"
-closed starter for Izara @cavernovs 126 SRS, Thirst vs Tinkerer The Slaughter Ring, The Haven
The crowd's roar faded into background noise. Najelon could barely acknowledge it.
Who the fuck put Ravenโs name in? The question had been looping in his mind since the tournament began and their names showed on the wall, hers just a few matches after his. He had almost snapped at her before seeing the expression on her face and instantly absolving her of any blame. She didnโt do it herself. So who the fuck did it? There were too many possibilities, too many fuckers eager to get a rise out of him. Particularly that selfโrighteous bastard that took his hornโno, it wasnโt Mariusโs style. Someone else did it, someoneโฆ
The sound of the bell brought him back to the task at present.
His attention finally fixed on the woman standing across from him as his eyes surveyed the room once more. A werewolf. Strong build. Sharp eyes. His first opponentโand not really a suspect. Just a poor soul unlucky enough to face a seething demon. At least she looked determined enough so that their fight might not be too boring.
A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth as shadows gathered lazily around his boots. "Try not to disappoint me too much, I really need to blow off some steam." The words came out almost playful, but there was a clear edge of anger lining them.
He took a slow step forward. Then another. There was no rush in his movements, no explosive charge or dramatic display of power. The demon moved like a predator closing the distance, waiting, watching. His crimson gaze never left hers.
"Come on, little wolf." Najelonโs vicious smile widened. "Show me what all that growling's about."
She hadn't put her name in anything, let alone the Slasher.
When she'd seen it scratched upon the wall, in crass, ugly handwriting, bile had threatened to choke her. Gods shit, what do I do? A wolf stirred to life, hungry to know who had done it. But Kit didn't need to look far, or know the faces in the room, to deduce who would be cruel enough to throw her to the wolves, other than the self-proclaimed Emperor of them.
She cannot see the Alpha who destroyed her life in the crowd, but if Izara sniffed deep enough, she expected to find her, smug in the crowd. You think this will bring me to your cause? Sending her to fight the bloodthirsty creatures of the city. Kit could not forfeit, because she had seen a hundred fights, and understands the consequences of a beast who cowered, and ran.
By the time her heart is pounding in her earts, and the sand beneath her feet sinks between her toes; barefoot, because she knows that pushed to the edge, she cannot control claws or teeth, or how messy it could get. She'd hoped for someone who felt the same as her; that they did not need to put on a show, or make it a deathmatch.
Izara hoped Axel had saved himself from the sight, but she imagined that with so mant of his own in the Slaughter Ring, he'd never be anywhere else.
She could smell demon a mile away. Things that could reach inside her, and pluck out everything that had made her who she is. Stolen. Like Jack had told her that Ophelia's had been; torn from her, and left her half a person. No. She could stand her ground against this demon, for a little while. She had to. Just long enough that when she beat the ground, it was not without showing them all that Kit had a little fight in her, still.
Focusing with a steadying breath, she grounds herself to the sands, when he taunts.
She scoffs, because she does not exude his cocky confidence. Even if there's something about getting close to him, that makes all her hairs stand on edge; she hasn't decided if it's because she's ready to claw his eyes out, or because she'd kneel before him and allow him to do the same.
Fuck. Shaking her head, she growls; it's primal, and involuntary for the most part because she will not be sucked into the magics of monsters.
"Yeah. Don't we all."
And then, Kit ran at the demon, two legs and jumped, bending her knee first to strike.
A rush of air escaped her lips as her arm was pulled again, as if the Vampire was trying to rip it off completely. Tears bubbled at the corners of her eyes as Raven gritted her own teeth, trying to push through it. She wasn't a stranger to pain. In fact, this wasn't even as bad as she'd had it years prior, when she lived with Vampires. But that didn't mean she was having fun. She could barely even focus on what Jakoris was doing for her.
Then suddenly, he wasn't even below her anymore. When had he stopped? Dizziness swept over her mind as her legs buckled again. Jakoris was speaking but Raven could barely hear him over the roaring of her own blood being forcefully sucked out of her. It was more than what she'd realized. More than she thought either of them would take.
An angry growl fills the room and then the skin of her neck goes taut -- stretching outward as Demitri is being forced away from her. There's a tear and when she's finally released, she practically crumbled to the floor.
"Rules." Demitri hissed at his sire. "There's no fucking rules." The human's blood dripped from his lips as he glared at Jakoris. His fingers wrapped around the other's wrist and then shoved his arm away -- forcing Jack's hand back from Demitri's chest. "What? You're boring now, huh? When the fuck did that happen?"
Demitri's eyes peel off of Jack's and dart towards the mortal who's now kneeling on the floor, cradling her limp arm. She's still alive. For now. And with how fast Demitri had taken her blood, he knew that her body couldn't replenish it quickly. And even as his eyes met Jack's again, and he noticed the shift, Demitri still didn't care. "Make me." He grounded out. A threat. A challenge. Then he placed his own hands on Jakoris' chest and shoved him backwards, slipping past him in an instant and heading straight for Raven.
Jakoris has to put an end to their fun, if Demitri kills it too quickly. Too early. Then there would be a far greater threat knocking on their doors, than the eager bliss of the chase. The connection between Davenports only stretches so far, before it begins to ache. Jack doesn't do well with aches, and pains when there's nothing to balance it out; no satisfaction in sight.
The second that Jack's hand is thrust away, he's using the other to slam Demitri back, until the walls of Firelight shake. "Oh cupcake, there's rules with this one." Albeit, thin, and futile for the most part. Alive, is the bottom line. Najelon is only an ally as far as Raven returns safely, no matter how much she opens her mouth to talk. Or whether she spreads her legs, and stays a good girl. Darkening eyes dip to the blood trickling down Demitri's chin, as they face off against what would usually never be a fucking issue. His tongue swipes beneath the jawline, smirking at the provocation of a man irked.
Raven's momentarily forgotten.
Until Dem refuses to let things lie. Fuck sake, honeypot. Jakoris will have to get dirty, to salvage the wreckage of the bloodshed. He'd been having fun, too. Still is, in some ways.
Then they're fighting like dogs who haven't yet decided if it's worth the aggravation. Hands upon hands, upon chests. Shoves and pushes, toothless and clawless. Shadows that were freshly fed, move around Raven, until Jakoris brings Demitri in against him. "You know I love it when you're like this, hm? Bending for meโ"
Demitri slams into him, and barrels towards Raven, again. Jack hisses his protest, and pursues the man. In amongst the second strike, there's an attempt to tackle Dem to the ground, beside a bleeding Raven. Jack caves to admit that he'd deceived his protรฉgรฉ, somewhat: "I don't usually stop all the fun, babe." A quiet murmur, low and harsh. "But I like this one, and you won't like her master."
Send ๐ถ for a starter based on a song from a randomly chosen playlist on Spotify @cavernovs / kit & jack ( the wheel of names picked ) / running up that hill by kate bush
Jack didn't know if the Commander had seen Kit recently, and if he had, if he had shared what was going on within The Refuge, and he knew it was forbidden to talk about the goings on to people on the outside, but this... Jack needed the help, he needed the advice, and someone to keep him level-headed about it. He was a Strategist for a reason, but when it came to Ophelia, as much as he tried to hide it, most of the level-headedness went out the window.
"It doesn't hurt me, but see how deep the bullet lies... If I only could, I'd make a deal with God, and I'd get him to swap our places." He paused, glancing over at Kit. "Ophelia was the better of us, and you don't have to try and stroke my ego; we all know it. The fact that it was she who this happened to was a blow not just emotionally, but strategically too. She was always better at seeing the bigger picture, and don't get me wrong, that hasn't gone anywhere; she's better at it now, but the level of trust is so small."
If he could make a deal to put Ophelia's soul back in her body and take his instead, it would be better. He was sure Ophelia would have already found a solution to the problem if the shoe were on the other foot, but it wasn't, and he was letting her down.
"I'm not... I'm not going to try and make a deal with the demons, you don't need to worry or tell Ax, but I just feel like I'm doing such a shitty job compared to what she would have done if roles were reversed, you know?"
Jack's a nauseating presence; the reminder of a life she's lost, over and over. A man who'd stood by, when Axel had done his duty to the Hideout, and tossed her to the wolves. A mercy, she'd had learned to believe. Instead of a punishment, for her failure. A decade of wrestling with who she was, to who she'd become. Yet, in all the agony, she'd never wished it to be anyone else who had suffered what she had. She didn't think Ophelia would want to put her anguish on Jack, either. Kit had played that game many times, and the result had always been the same.
"Why would you say that?" It took her a moment to register that he wanted to be the martyr. Kit thought there was no room for self-sacrificing types, below Axel, because that isn't what their Refuge needs. Axel had spent so long trying to convince her of his necessary decisions, even if she called it madness. But he'd stood by it, even when she'd looked at him like she didn't know him anymore. A certainty in his gaze, that he believed himself doing the right thing. Dangerous, is someone who desperately believes they're doing it for the right reasons.
Jack doesn't feel like the man she remembered, either. It had been so long, and their reunion had been short-lived. "It hurts, Jack. But this โ what you're saying, won't help, will it?"
He doesn't quell her worries, even when he broaches it. Kit can't trust a man she only knew a decade ago, and she cannot trust that his emotional streak to come to her, after everything, to not overrule his reason. Should she tell Ax? She reaches for him, slowly at first, to rest a hand on his shoulder. Izara doesn't have any wise words of wisdom for him, either. Not like Ophelia probably would, judging by the way he speaks of her. "She'd want you to chin up, right?" Maybe? "Ax needs you, more than ever. You'll figure this out." How could she promise something like that? Demons were tricky. "You have to. That's the only thing that'll get you through. You have to." There's nobody else.
-closed starter for Elian @cavernovs The Ghouliard, the Dominion; midnight
The storage room should have been empty.
The Ghouliard was brimming with inhibited patrons spending away their kochba without second though; the invisible touch of pixie in their drinks certainly worked them up, just like their host calculated. Every member of the staff was running up and down handsโfull, and Elian had been suddenly sent to fetch another crate of spirit bottles, despite having stocked fully before the start of the night shift.
Dust gathered in forgotten corners. Shelves groaned beneath assorted containers and supplies. Somewhere overhead, pipes rattled softly as water traveled through the walls. It was the sort of mundane silence people didnโt notice while they were busy. Until the light flickered.
Once. Twice. Then steadied. Nothing happened. For several seconds, everything remained perfectly normal.
Then a shadow moved. Not Elianโs. Something shifted across the farthest wall, stretching unnaturally between the shelves. The lights flickered again, dimming long enough for darkness to engulf the whole room. For a single heartbeat, a distorted silhouette stood in the middle, its shadow projected on the wall in front of Elian. Tall. Horned. Its proportions all wrong; limbs too long, fingers ending in claws, a tail curling behind it like a serpent preparing to strike. Something was behind the merman.
Then the light returned and the figure vanished. Instead, a familiar shape leaned against one of the shelves as though heโd been standing there the entire time. Naj tilted his head as a slow smile spread across his face. His crimson gaze drifted over the room before settling on Elian.
โI was hoping youโd scream.โ
Bottles clink as Elian stacks them into crates, moving half emptied containers. Staff had lazily plucked a few bottles out of a box, and left some almost bare. They're mismatched now, different spirits all sharing a nest, as glass rattled in his hands. He lifts the crate, heavy and weighted and turns to take it out front. The light in the room has always been a little untrustworthy, but shadows were not Elian's friend, even on a good day.
A day in the Ghouliard, is rarely ever a good day.
Tilting his head, to assess his surroundings and the overhead buzzing, feet slip out from between shelving units to know what might have been trying to seduce him into the dark. He's too busy for games, tonight. Najelon would devour him, if he were caught chasing flickers of light, and embers of trickery instead of keeping his patrons entertained.
And then, the looming stretch of darkness drives up the wall, and a horned figure, sucking away the light, stares back at him. Eyeless, and soulless. His hands tighten on the crate, splintering, before he wants to throw it at the damn thing. If it had been his first month out of the hole, Eli might have launched at the shadow, knowing no better than to try and make it pool black; a violence that had no end, in knowing nothing else. He's learned now, in the few years of games within the club, that shadows do not bleed.
Certainly not Najelon's.
Elian's eyes swung to the more tangible figure, kicked back against the rickety shelves; draped like oil, and slick as ever. Eyes like rubies drove daggers through his own soulless body, and pinned him still.
No scream. But an evident unease crawls into his spine, wondering what exactly he's being paid a visit in the storeroom for.
Nothing good, he imagines. Not when there is an invisible noose being tied around his throat, and a warmth that boils the water lingering beneath his fingertips.
"You play the same games." He sometimes thinks Raven does, too. Until she takes him by surprise. Naj has several moods, and all of them were capable of making Elian kneel, if that's what the soulstealer wanted. Taking a step backwards, crate in hands, he explains very bluntly that he has work to do. "I'm busy."
For a moment, Selene let herself indulge in the simple fact of looking at him, unapologetically, without the need to steal a moment between their work and without clients breathing down her neck and begging for her attention. Her eyes drag over him slowly, his stature so much taller than her own, taking in every little detail like she wanted to commit it all to memory. Her smile never fades, but it softens around the edges, still bright, still warm.
She knows what he means without him having to say the name and shakes her head. "Noโit's my day off." She answered. Selene didn't really get day's off, just days where she didn't want to work, considering she wasn't bound to the Dominion or Naj like so many othersโshe walked into that dark place willingly because he life had always been surrounded by dark places, so it did little to frighten her.
Selene tilted her head at his words, lips forming a small pout as her fingers came to an eventual stop. "Well, on that we shall have to disagreeโbecause for me it is definitely lucky, like the universe or some higher power gave me a little gift." She chuckled softly, before her fingers slid down his arm to gentle tangle with Elian's, lacing them together.
"Are you busy today?" She asked, but in truth it wasn't really a question just a courtesy because Selene had already decided, whatever Elian might have planned would now be spent with her. "Or do you think you could spoil me some more with your company? I was going to go to the markets for a while, then maybe find something fun." She said, already beginning to tug him along in the direction of the market, putting the Dominion behind the both of them, and not giving him much choice but to follow her.
Of course she wouldn't actually keep him hostage to her company, but Selene was someone who was used to getting what she wantedโand an entire day with Elian, no work, no prying eyes or expectations? Oh she most definitely wanted that.
She exposes him with the glittering gleam of her gaze. He's made raw, when she so easily peels away the heavy cloaks of armour and rusting steel of his broken walls. Like the ink on her fingers has powers, when touching the ink needled into his face and his throat. Nails that dig under the corners to pull it away and reveal him, naked, and bare. Elian doesn't know how she does it; it scares him, but not as much as never letting her doing again would.
"You should go somewhere brighter." His way of saying she would look good in the sunlight. Not beneath the ashen sky, and the greying world they're in the middle of. His head tilts down, where her fingers have snared his. "I wasโ"
Selene doesn't stop. She talks of gifts. Of company. Of all things Eli had not imagined would filter into his day. A mind that cracks with each new piece of information fed to him, from pink lips. He doesn't notice that so much on others; smooth, and ripe. He's known some, like Raven's, and felt the world between of bliss and dutiful service. Selene's not of their world, her magic is not like his. And his cursed deal is not for her to get wrapped up in. It is a hungry viper that would coil around her and squeeze, until all the goodness, and beauty would burst out of her. Elian can't let it happen. He's learning kindness.
"I was going to the markets, too." He says, as he's pulled along by a woman half his statue. Elian catches up to her, eyes that dart around to assess if there's any other company in the shadows that have noticed the pair of them. Nobody that spared them a glance for too long. He'd have ripped out their eyes, if they got ideas.
Elian swallowed, too aware of the hand tied in his โ he's not sure if to untangle it, now. Would she let him? He fought through the dark spots in his mind, for versions of this, that he could pull from. But there were flashes of skin, and flesh but none of them with faces, or intentions. Lost experiences, that he's lost hope ever being able to recover.
In the flurry of movement, "You dance fast." He murmurs โ but he thinks he's seen every way she can move, on a stage. "What do you do for fun, there?"
It was tempting, but she didn't want a win right now - not the win that Jakoris meant, anyway. Azagi wasn't about to take any sort of win whilst he was down and out, and she sure as shit wasn't going to rip at his throat with her own sharpened demon teeth until only the sand could be seen where his neck had been... No matter how beautiful the darkness inside of her thought that would look. "No, Jackie boy. If you don't like it when I do it, I want to feel you fighting me. Not just sitting there and taking it like some bottom bitch because you can't fight back."
She sighed, her head lolling to the side to look at him, giving him a knowing smirk, "You know I did, baby. I just hate the fact that you're too weak to take my blood. Mine might not be so... precise, but I don't think you'll dislike it, honey." Azagi turned fully, resting her head on his chest, her fingernails drawing patterns into his abdomen.
Jakoris was getting his strength back slowly; she was sure of that, but they both stayed still on the shores, at least for the moment. It was rare, their moments like this, but it happened; she imagined it came at a time where they both needed it. Jack wouldn't allow for it unless she asked for it, and she had only ever asked for it when she was desperate. Once, maybe twice, in the entire time they'd known each other.
"Not for your kin, not really." She corrected, glancing up at the other, "You, and if your family should need it then... I suppose I would be there if you asked. It's not weakness, it's strength. Sticking together. When we fight each other, it's glorious; when we fight alongside one another, it's fuckng magic, and you can't deny that."
Azagi's brows raise at the fact that she's clearly just given him new information, "Oh baby, don't tell me you didn't know? Damn, I guess you're not as omnipotent as I thought." She chuckled, hand tapping him on the abdomen before sitting up. "I don't think it's like that with them, real love or otherwise. Seems to just be a friendship... I don't take her as the intimate type, honestly. I could be wrong, though."
Azagi stood, wiping the sand off her clothes before holding out a hand for Jack. "C'mon, we can't squander this fun lying on a beach, unless we're gonna fuck in the blood rain. Sexy, but perhaps not on the beach. Not romantic, mostly just get sand in places sand should never be."
She plucked a chuckle out from between his lips and his skin vibrated with desire; he wanted to peel flesh from the bone, and taste the nectar below. The blood had hazed him, as violent as the rainstorm battering down on his face had. It peppered his tongue with bloodied kisses, that he swallowed down whole.
Words were usually so easy, but they escaped him then. Tangled in the hum of rain, and the shuffling of a body beside him. Jakoris didn't need to war for the right. She could curl her disappointments around him, and squeeze the wrath out of his body, if she liked. Encourage him onto his feet, to go tooth and nail with her, even in his state.
'Zagi's head on his chest, has his hand lifting to snake up the nape of her head, and tangle in her hair, like they were something other than they were. Warm hands burn shapes into the ridges of his stomach. They've done this before, when she's crawled into his bed, on the backend of a fight she'd lost โ she'd never admit it, he knew. But Jakoris knew; there were things out there that rattled even the demon.
"You find me someone who'll drink you dry, babe. Then we'll talk." If fuelled by magical blood in the gallons cannot provide him enough to endure her poison, then Jack doubts anybody can survive it. Fingers press gently into her scalp, slow and mindless.
Her grand speech quirks his mouth into a wide smile, all teeth, thick with blood. "I never denied anything." An eye cracks open to look down at her, splayed out on him. "You keep talking like that, sugarplum and I'll think you've lost yourself to the rain." That, and it sounds less and less unappealing when she might climb atop of him. But it'd be uncharted territory, to get there without a fight.
Mal sours the provocation, as fast as his tongue swipes at his teeth.
"So she's an obsession?" Better. Less concerning to think Mal's already tied up in something that would wreck him for another decade. One Commander, and a ticket to death had done plenty numbers on all of them. Jakoris closes his eyes again, and settls back into the sand, even as Azagi moves, "Mally's a romantic." he decides on. "But he's not a saint." If he's going around breaking viriginals or whatever friend-thing 'Zagi implies, then there's something else at play. "Did you just admit you could be wrong. Oh my, lover. Say it again. I'm getting hot."
And then she's gone, pressure removed, and his hand unfurls from her body.
Jakoris had considered the beach, and the fuck, but the sand's an excuse he won't pull at Azagi for; he's half-cocked, and being pushed into madness by the blood.
He concedes, in the streak of many firsts. "Mm, fine. Let's play then."
And without much heistation in the weakness, he takes her hand and they're creatures let loose in the bloodshed, again.
Location: Leaving the Dominion Starter: Closed for @cavernovs
It was one of the few days Selene wasn't working in the Ghouliard, a rare moment of reprieve to herself. Sometimes she enjoyed the break, and sometimes she didn'tโespecially when her brother was too busy to keep her company and she was left to entertain herself.
With no real destination in mind, she'd taken to wandering around the city, mostly to see what amusement she could find for herself, or trouble, if that would entertain her.
The last thing she'd expected to see was Elian outside of the Ghouliard's walls. She blinked in surprise, as if the sight itself was some kind of trick of the light or mirage and would fade at a moment's notice, but noโthere he was. She couldn't help her smile, skipping up to him with her infectious smile and danger's grace, coming to a stop in a little hop right in his path, blocking him from going anywhere, and placing herself right in his space unapologetically.
"Elian!" She beamed up at him brightly, clearly pleased to see him, especially out in the worldโno prying eyes of demons upon them, or the expectations of work for the both of them to keep their attentions elsewhere. It was as if the day had given her a gift, and Selene was about to enjoy it to it's fullest.
"I almost never get to see you outside of work, must be my lucky day." She said playfully, tattooed fingers walking up along the centre of his chest as she smiled brightly.
It's usually North that he navigates, when emerging from one type of darkness, to another. A metal grate shifting aside, where the cold of the Westside greets him; the warmth of the sun is blocked by an ashen sky, thick with clouds infected by whatever the centuries have wrought. He knows the routes by now, or at least, the ones that take him to the spots he knows. Usually, it's the Haven and its amenities. He likes to see the market, because the wares shift so often, unlike the rest of the world he's trapped in.
A thin cotton hoodie does little to mask his gait, as he makes haste North, through the merciless creatures that linger in the shadowy spots of a side as cold as the ocean depths. That's a sensation, more than it is a memory. He remembers the water, because he touches streams of it, every other day, when he can.
Elian doesn't expect the voice to follow him down the street, or still him dead before he can begin a watery assault on a stranger. They're no stranger. And beneath the blackened sky, they're not so far from what they know either. Selene? He looks either side of her, afraid that something would creep out of the edges and steal them away. They don't belong in the same world, outside of the Ghouliard, and Eli would argue she doesn't belong there either. His hand lifts to pull back his hood some, to see her better.
"What are you doing out here?" His brows dip, confused. "Are you going there?" She knows where; there's a dozen entrances across this side that lead into the demonic tunnels of old magic, and metalworks. They could navigate the labyrinth blind by now. But he'd rather not utter the name, whilst he's free for a while.
The mark at the base of his spine warms, as if it can read his thoughts; reminding him that freedom is a lie he tells himself; it's a leash, and he is an animal to command.
"I'm not sure that is... lucky." She should see the sun instead, because Elian wishes he saw more of it. But he's distracted, as ever, by the wandering hands she reaches out with. She has a nice smile, too. Happy. He wonders if he ever gets that gleam in his gaze; the same one she gets, when sunlight pours out of her, so bright that even the West is blinded by it. Then he decides that, no, he could never be that. Not like her.
-open starter Galerie de Dรฉsir, the Dominion; afternoon
Among the many paintings that could be found in the Galerie de Dรฉsir, one of them had a peculiar way of drawing the eye, birthing rumors with every glance.
A moonlit balcony stretched across the canvas, silver light spilling over marble balustrades and through the open glass doors behind them. Intricate shapes of dark stone and cold iron adorned every surface. Beyond lay a lavish chamber frozen in another century: a neatly made bed with an ebony wood frame, a writing desk littered with yellowed papers, shelves crowded with dripping candles that had been burning endlessly and books whose titles had long since faded from memory.
And standing at the center of it all was the man himself. Nestor. Or so the small plaque beneath the gilded frame claimed.
Dressed in dark brocades and impossibly composed, he leaned against the balcony railing as though he had been standing there for years. His expression carried the sort of quiet melancholy that artists loved to immortalize, the kind that made strangers wonder what tragedy lurked behind a handsome face. Most visitors passed by after a glance; some lingered. The latter were rewarded.
At first, it was easy to dismiss it as a trick of light: a subtle shift of posture, the slightest tilt of his head. Then, a slow blink and the rise and fall of his chest as he took an empty breath.
Nestorโs gaze settled upon whoever stood before the painting, and for a moment, neither moved. The corner of his mouth curved upward, something close to a smile that invited conversation. Or perhaps temptation.
Of all the places he has wandered, when learning the maze-like tunnels of the Dominion. Galerie de Dรฉsir is unlike the rest. An ever shifting entity that rivals the Vault in the Outerworld. He does not know its origin, and if he ever did, it is lost to the abyss of a broken mind. Elian would never begin to understand what the hum of the walls mean, or what the art is mean to speak. But, it's quiet.
The Ghouliard is never quiet. Even the surface has noise, of neonic humming of magic in use, and the gentle hiss of irrigation between crumbled buildings. Stone that cracks, under the softest pressures. A world of desolation, fighting itself to become something again. He's learned that, in the few years caught between the earth and its below. Eli doesn't know what it had been before it was this, but he understands that things do not begin broken, usually. That happens by force, the same way as a mind falters, under immense pressures.
He likes to talk to Nestor, even if half the time, he forgets the last conversation they had. A fading memory, where he wonders if that's the power of the Galerie, or if it's the traitorous mind of his. Some vacuum in his head that cannot recall beyond when a demonic hand held itself out to him, and he kissed it; oathed himself to the creature, like he knew nothing else.
It's strange, wondering if Nestor put himself in the frame, like he wanted solace. Or if he is as trapped as Elian is.
He wonders how often he asks that, and whether the regal, strange-dressed figure answers him. They're still, the pair of them, staring at each other between a canvas; a de ja vue that nauseates him, for just a second before he blinks. Breaking the standoff, first. If nothing else, he is used to the unusual, and the unnatural. Eli thinks that Najelon would eat this painting for breakfast; unamused to be smiled at by a brushstroke figure like this. It's probably why he likes to wander here.
"You rattle many people with this trick?"
Starter: Open Location: Myre Casino
"Ugh... shut up..." he barely managedโwith all the strained tolerance of a wild animal, his lip pulled into a half snarl, sharp canines peeking as he lifted his head from the table, the blonde curtain of hair parting as those perilous yellow eyes pierced through its gauzy veil, staring unkindly. "I don't know where your worthless whelp is..." whatever horrible things he had done, whatever atrocities he had committedโsurely it did not warrant something as mindlessly cruel as working customer service. He looked down at his own sharp claws and fantasized of slicing open that throatโwhy must he be forced to indulge this mindless drivel? "I have no recollection of snapping their neck, sadly..." a sigh expanded in his lungs, loud and provocative, making his displeasure known. He did have a very clear memory of beating said whelp within an inch of their life with a lampโbut whatever they did or didn't do after the humiliating spectacle was hardly his business. Perhaps they had some pride left and decided to spare someone else the trouble and jumped off a ledge. The thought did amuse him, if only a little. "Do kindly take your nonsense elsewhere, will you? Your shrill voice is making my head hurt and my master is busy being... busy." the demon waves off the disgruntled customer as if dismissing a petulant child, with a casual flick of his wrist and a sharp turn, the bracelets on his wrists and ankles clinking like cymbals as he unceremoniously sauntered off, massaging his temple.
"This is unbearable..." he grumbled, groaning and moaning, loathing the day his feet ever touched this accursed earth. "Say something nice to me," the pale demon's disembodied voice whined, manifesting before they did, a solid shape draping itself against the length of their back. "It's been such a horrible night..."
Izara didn't make habits of getting snared in the gambling vice, but an old friend had caught her in a bind, once. Offered her the elixir to get wired in the walls of Myre, and like an addict chasing its next fix, she was at the bar, with an array of chips in a stone rack. Blackjack had been a hit (she still doesn't understand all the circles on the felt), and she'd had to pull herself away just to stop herself throwing it all back to the house.
If she wasn't working tirelessly in the Caverns, so close to the Casino, she might have done a lot better in unwinding tensions anywhere else. It's guilt, mostly. Lying to a man about her whereabouts, when he asked. Staring him in the eye when he asked how her day was at the shop; she can't tell Axel that she'd taken up a business deal with the King of the Forgotten. Repairing a ship that she isn't sure isn't going to be used as a weapon of war. I know you're at the table of peace talks, baby, but I think the pirate is okay?
She rolls a chip between her knuckles, when something heavy and fire-warm leans over her; languid limbs flopping over her shoulders like a cape.
Torn between panic, and aggression. The growl is killed in her throat when she tips her head to learn she's not in pain but that this stranger could be.
And then she sees the expression, and shrugs off the flair for dramatics.
"Uh, are you good?" Kit does her very best to wiggle free of limbs that have spidered around her, before she hits the bar and scatters her drink all over the place. "โ usually, there's a hello, or some kind of drink shared before we get this close... guy?"
Bad joke.
Maybe she should entertain him, before she gets into a Myre-shaped-mess of fae, and whatever else can trick her sensibilities. "You've got lovely nails, sharp." Like hers. Common ground? God she hates herself right now.
Perfect for slicing clean through โ
"Oh-kay." Now she's moving with a bit more urgency, swivelling around on the barstool to face them. This probably isn't any better. If she hadn't necked as many drinks as she had, maybe she'd have her bearings a little more in check. She tries for a smile, but it's awkward, suspicious, and a little panicked. "...You wanna talk about it? You could take a seat, and get a little tilted. It's not healthy, but it works."
"I am a Queen, Elian. I know how to talk to people. To even make deals, if I need to. I can help you." Saylor insisted, wondering why he wasn't believing her. What would she have to do to convince him that she was being truthful? That she didn't want anything from him other than to get him out of this dark and depressing place.
As she opened her mouth to add something, he darted towards her. In less than a second she had gripped the water, ready to use it, as she felt his hand cover her mouth and his arm wrap around her body. Her eyes widened as he pulled her closer to him, where their faces were mere inches from one another.
Her skin tingled where he'd touched and as he spoke to her, she released the water and relaxed. He was only warning her. He wasn't trying to harm her. Saylor sucked in a deep breath into her nose and tried to exhale, only for it to be blocked by his hand. But then it was gone and he had placed space between them.
Saylor ran her hand through her hair and then down her clothes, as if composing herself. She didn't want to appear as if she'd been accosted. Especially not in the Dominion, so far away from her home.
"I'm going to make good on my promise, I swear." Saylor insisted as she watched him back away from her. She was determined, now. Whether Elian would give her the reason of why he was in the Dominion or not, Saylor was going to find out. And once she did, she would do everything in her power to ensure he was freed from whatever binds held him there.
Wait. Saylor ran towards him, her hand plunging into the satchel that she always kept. "Take this." She insisted as she held it out to him. It appeared to be a simple clam, one that would be often seen underneath the surface of the ocean. But inside, there was a pearl. Saylor had picked it up on her way out of the Forgotten. "A memento from home." A promise that I'll come back for you. "Keep it." Please.
A queen that let him suffer in the pits for centuries. A brother with royal ties that did the same. What could she do now, that he's found a way to free himself in half measures? Elian thinks she is foolish to think she would ever be a victor in a deal, especially one with a soulstealer. All those glimmers of hope that she'd throw him, like bait in a lake, began to disintegrate. She only cares, because she has an interest in his brother. A kindness that will only get her burnt, if she thinks the Dominion will bow to her.
She could promise whatever she liked, and swear oaths to the walls of this place. Someone else would use it against her. Better he leaves and saves her the trouble of her delusions.
He's already partway down the tunnel when his head turns to the padding footsteps chasing after him. He opens his mouth to warn her she doesn't belong in the dank tunnels. Urge her to leave, and never come back โ is he speaking a language she does not know?
But his eyes catch on something like porcelain โ a shell. He doesn't need gifts from her, or mementos of a life he doesn't remember. As he stares, he wonders if it would unlock something in his mind, beyond the crash of waves, and the glimpses of marble pillars. But nothing other than shades of blue, and dark spots that blind him; all the faces are blurred, like he's always been looking through a thousand fogged glasses. He's only ever able to make shapes out of recollection.
He doesn't need a shell, to remind him of anything. Yet he reaches out, unafraid of the trickery she could have laced within it. His fingers ghost along the ridges, before he cracks a nail in the gap of the clam. It begins to peels apart, and he isn't sure if he's supposed to force it. He glances up to the woman, confused.
And then, steals it away in his pocket, for later.
Elian won't tell her again, after this. "Go back to the water."
When she'd originally told Jack that she'd meet them, Raven hadn't been quite sure what to expect. She had many experiences with Vampires -- mainly from when she was younger. Her twenties had been filled with bites and drunken hazes from the high of them. She'd told Najelon, recently, that she wouldn't let a Vampire bite her again. Not without his permission. But this... it had been something that she just couldn't pass up.
The two of them were different. One clearly didn't care about giving her pleasure, in the slightest. No small talk -- all bite. But Jack took his time, his hands moving along her body, barely giving her much of anything other than anticipation and need.
The ripple against her thigh, speaks of Jack's quiet amusement. Raven's vocal in her need; he remembers that from their previous engagements. But it's the first time he's invited Demitri along to play, and by fuck is he bloody making a meal of it.
She'll manage, he thinks. Because she's got a masochistic streak, like the best of them. And she tastes delightful โ maybe Dem's encouraging the cortisol to the surface, in rivers, because Jakoris enjoys knowing Raven gets off on a little bit of threat.
A hand explores, soaked with want.
And then there's a sharp, unnatural pop, and Jack snaps out of his pleasures he's eliciting with a hiss. Glances up to the pair of them. What have you done, Dem? Sure enough, Raven's pain cannot be outweighed by the violence of whatever she did to piss the other off. With bloodstained lips, Jack licks them clean and is on his feet. All hands removed from delivering fun, because their game has shifted.
"Oh honeypot, you're changing the rules." Jakoris cannot let him rewrite it entirely, if only because Jack cannot return Raven in pieces to Najelon's doorstep.
At the very least, he needs her alive.
Demitri's going to snap her arm clean off, if Jack lets him. Even smiling, he's quick to put himself between the pair of them, shoving Demitri back with a rough palm to the chest. New game, then. They're both fed on the same delicious charge.
Raven's momentarily forgotten about in Jack's provocations to a man he's considering slamming up against the wall. "You know I like it rough, but you'll end this so quick, baby..." With blood still painting their lips, the two of them probably know violence as a language better than anyone. But Jack thinks there's an art to it, that Demmy's not quite figured out. A gleam of promise in his gaze, he teases: "โ we gotta play nice."
Selene waited in the silence between them for an answer, breath held, eyes hopeful. She never wanted to presume to know, only hope. For all she knew this spark she felt was one sidedโthat she alone felt something between them.
She pursed her full lips in thought, an almost pout as if she were about to argueโshe only gave the Ghouliard a version of herself, a performance. She became what she needed to be to please those who paid for her attention, and when she was on stage she became a show for their entertainment.
But none of it was the real her. That she saved for a finite number of people, and for a moment she wondered if Elian realised he was one of them, or if he thought she performed for him as well. It almost broke her heart to think he might believe she was never real with him.
But before she could argueโthe shattering of glass cut through their silence, making her head turn to inspect the noise. Selene tilted her head, leaning forward where she sat perched on the bar as if to get a better view of the disturbance before Elian came around and stood in front of her.
She's almost taken aback by the dismissal, a flash of disappointment in her eyes when Elian told her to leave. Her stubborn streak flared hotly, like she was about to tell him no, her lips once again almost forming a pout.
With the same grace she always possessed, Selene slipped down from the bar, heels clicking against the club floor. She turned to face him, looking up at his much taller stature, even in her heels, before reaching out, tattooed fingers curling gently under Elian's chin. Selene rose up, pressing a kiss to his cheek, the corner of his mouth. "Goodnight Elian."
Elian's glaring out towards the club, where the sea of movement gets rough; demonic fire threatens to gain the owner's attention. If Najelon catches wind of unruly disrespect in his club, and sees that nobody's doused the flames โ especially the ones who could soak the fire with a glance, Eli would face the wrath tenfold. Selene is the distraction he cannot afford to sacrifice for, right now. But even in his affirmation, she manages to still him and root him to the floor. Her features shift into something sadder, and less jovial. Did he do that? Elian hurt her?
He never meant to. And then, she's up on heeled tiptoes, and he's bending down to chase her touch. Hands bracing on the bar either side of her, as she steals his flesh. It's over faster than he could dream for.
What did she do that for?
Goodnight โ
"Selene..." He swallows, before there's another shattering of glass, and the temperature of the room rises beyond comfortable. Blinking. Reality hits. She doesn't belong here. Fuck. He has to do his job, and when he lifts his hands from the bar, and backs away from the witch, he tries to make something of an apology clear on his face. It's not evident, in the speed in which he darts between figures, and scruffs the demon, overindulging on pix. But he expects she is smart enough to know he belongs to the Ghouliard, before anything else.
His hands are cold, where water has funnelled to them, protecting him from the heat of a soulstealer. Flames are quickly washed away, in a splash, and the scene in itself is a mess. But it's over, and Elian's shoving the culprit through the crowd, muttering about Najelon's disapproval, if he hears about this.
He'd hoped to catch a glimpse of a woman, in the tunnels when he's back outside. The dank, unpretty tracks of metal and rust were no place for the dancer. But Elian had made the mistake of hoping, knowing that it only digs a hole deep, when there is nothing to satisfy it at the end.
She's gone for the night. But safe.
And he's ducking back into the Ghouliard, to go back to work.
โAnd Iโd prefer to stay hidden. Seems like weโre in a deadlock.โ The baritone voice replied calmly, almost sounding too serene for the situation, either like everything was under its ownerโs control or nothing was and he contently resigned himself to fate, a truly neutral entity. He was decisively not laughing at her though, far from it. As a matter of fact he reasoned eerily calmly. Or maybe what made it so uncanny was the fact that he was presently just air speaking. โBut youโve already gotten what you prefer earlier. You have seen me.โ How well in the dimness of the night though, that was questionable.ย
โThank you.โ A surprisingly straightforward, simple response to what he apparently perceived as a compliment. No detectable tone of gloating or pride in it. โAh, there is a great difference between not caring for trouble and not wanting trouble. I, for example, care about it greatly if trouble happens to me.โ Another rationally irrational response, it would be difficult to describe it differently and still be accurate about it. โBut I understand your concern. I mean no harm unless harm is meant for me.โ A long pause which resulted in no revelation of the voiceโs body yet, only the invisible shadow posing a question of his own, likely an unexpected one. โWhat is your name?โ
She would like to say that whoever this is, is cowardly. Talking to her from the abyss as if she might be the threat isn't something she's used to. If she could clamp eyes on something that can bleed, then it is less of a danger. Bleeding means it's not imprevious. But Kit has to consider, if she had the power to remain one with the darkness, would she make herself known to a stranger? This figure had followed her, if it is the same silhouette, standing alone on the shoreline earlier.
The low words, confirm as such. It is them. Now they're a stalker? Great. Promising start. Speaking pedantises like Kit isn't standing in the sand, talking to the nothingness. If anyone else graced them on the shores, she would look positively like a madwoman; a lunatic, as literal as the books are.
Kit stretches her hands out from within jacket pockets. It's stupid, but she's shaking her head. "Does it look like I'm out causing trouble, shadowman?" It's not confidence, as much as it is a plead that she'd rather just get on with her night, and leave the man of shadows to his. Her concerns which he mentions, are that he could slit her throat, and she'd never see it coming.
Izara thinks that's a pretty good reason for her hackles to raise.
Deciding she isn't the only lunatic out tonight: "Do you always take everything so literally?" She hasn't worked out if he's threatening, or he's warning. Maybe both. Perhaps there's a very thin line between the two of them. "Tricks aside. I'm minding mine, if you're minding yours."
She continues to take a step away, hoping it's not into obnoxious arms.
"I don't think we need to do names." a beat, because now she's brave all of a sudden. Thinking that maybe her mouth is the trouble, as much as the glimmer of movement in the air could be, "Shadowman, and I'm leaving now, works fine, yeah?"
Selene believes that muchโnothing much does change night on night at the Ghouliard, the same music, the same routine of patrons, performances and pleasure. She can only imagine it is the same for him too, but she knows that whilst she is free to come and go as she pleases, employed of her own free will and not a demon dealโElian isn't so fortunate.
So she wants to ensure that if she can make things easier, that she does.
Because he is important to herโa little more so every day. Its a slow thing, a sweetness that had seeped into her daily life a little more each time until she found herself always looking forward to the part of her night where she could linger at the bar, speak with Elian for a while, enjoy their moments together.
His words make her smile, soft, gentle, a far different expression to the one she flashes for customers that is always bright, playful, but lacking any real depth to it. "Would I have your eyes too?" Selene asked softly, words that normally might be coated in playful flirtation, for Elian they were said with an earnest wonderingโlike it really mattered to her if he wanted to look at her or not.
Again her gaze softened at his words, knowing the meaning even if he's not saying it outright. Why would she be here when she is free and not bound by demon deal? How did she explain her reasons to him without sounding like the entitled little brat she really was? It made her gaze drop slightly in embarrassment, ashamed where usually she never felt such a thing. "I don't give this place anything real, not to anyone else anyway." The implication was there in her words though she didn't say it out loud while they were out in the open of the main bar.
She was real and honest with him, but the rest got the illusionโjust more pretty magic.
She has his eyes, whenever he's able to spare them. But how does he tell her that? It just makes him like every other, admiring her on her pedestal of a stage, sparking magic off her fingertips, and creating the illusion that the world is not so dark, and decrepit. That his world is not such a lost cause in its monotony, and expectation. He only has to look back to the bar to know its vile underbelly; mortals and immortals tangled in one another, mouths wide with intention. Speaking hushed words, of deliverance and promises; a sales pitch of something greater, and with a thousand strings attached; they'll be tied to wrists and knees like a marionette. Jerked to life, and loss by demons who have mastered their craft of gaining everything and giving very little, if anything at all.
In his quiet, he imagines she has read him like a book, even in his shrewd stoicism. A silence that's loud, and fingers that twitch against his arms, flesh that gets hot in the stuffy air of the Ghouliard, where he has to cool it down to sea-level.
His mouth curves in the corner, but it's not humour. "You give it enough."
Convincingly, too.
Elian can't read too deeply into the words, or become captivated in conversation with Selene for long, because there's a loud shattering of glass at the other end of the club. And then a shout, and something low, and hot that ripples along the floor of the Ghouliard. There's something stewing in a booth, or wrath or envy has erupted in all its ugly glory for another time tonight.
He steps out from behind the bar, and places himself near enough in front of her, to find the source of the disturbance. "I should get back to work. Deal with that." Before a certain demon notices his distraction. He nods towards the door. "You should go, Selene." He doesn't want her to, but it's the right thing for her.
She can flaunt that beautiful power she has, elsewhere.
He doesn't much want her to see him throw people out, or consider his earlier ideas of shoving glass down throats, because it wouldn't be pretty.
Aspen does look around when prompted - and decides, naw, this place ain't spruced up at all. She likes it here, wonders why it's here she's at, rather than anywhere else. But then she remembers the talk with Axel and feels her shoulders tense up. Not now, she thinks, because it does feel like she's making a real friend. Maybe not a human, but - danger lurks at every corner here.
"Sure, yeah. Thanks." She lurches forward a little too quickly, unthinking, and gathers the her portion of the trade goods into her own sack. Slinging it off her shoulder, she wheels back around. "Oh! I mean - yeah, please come by. Whenever. I'll.. I'll draw you a map real quick."
And she does. Crude as ever, on a blank page ripped out of an old book. "I'll show you my mural." Is her parting words, and she lets out a slow, shaky breath with a nod before skipping out. Next time - she'll ask Kit about the Axel stuff. Next time - she'll try and make a better deal. Friends, first.
FIN.