Ellery Tannin

“Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom. “ ~Mary Ferguson

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter​:

“They’ll be alright; June is just very…sensitive to magic, but more sensitive to things around them; it’s probably a little overwhelming adjusting from how toxic the world up there is to how sterile this place is instead.” He had seen before how June’s physical state was deeply tied to the environment around them; if anything he was hopeful some of the constant exhaustion might resolve there in the city where things weren’t as much of a strain on them.

He felt a flutter of guilt with that thought, because if that turned out to be the case then maybe he should have gone back for June, or gone back at all. The appearance of another member of the family he had all but abandoned stirred heavy, pained memories. August didn’t want to go back to that past in any fashion; but he couldn’t ignore the people who had been a part of it. His ghosts had come back to haunt him and he couldn’t say he didn’t deserve it, nor could he claim he didn’t deserve their anger. But neither October nor June had expressed anything of the sort; he was lucky, perhaps, that it was the two of them; several of his other siblings were not nearly as forgiving.

“I’m not sure your magic could really latch onto June anyway; it’s always been more rooted into the world than to any Witch, even with a bond.” He had always wondered if there was something off about that, if his sibling had some flaw there, or if it was simply one of the varied manifestations of magic that was distinct. It felt like opening the proverbial Pandora’s Box by admitting to Ellery that his sibling had magic outside the usual for a familiar, because the same was true of October, and it wasn’t going to take much of a leap from there for the Witch to reach the conclusion, true as it was, that August did as well. They each had something outside of the norm, but explaining why meant voicing the secrets to their carefully planned creation and August had wanted to put that far behind him as well. He wasn’t sure where that truth would settle with Ellery; knowing there was something…very different hiding under the surface of that magic.

He didn’t have to volunteer the explanation though, not until Ellery asked for it, so August said little else at the time.

“They don’t have a lot of energy anyway, I don’t know if…their magic is very weak or if it’s the opposite problem and it’s too strong, but either way, yeah, this is pretty normal for June.” As normal as anything could be, he supposed, as he kept a steady hand at the other’s back to direct them in their hazy state. “And, yes, there are more of us; I guess that’s obvious too at this point, but I have eleven siblings, actually. I’m more or less a middle child, as you could probably figure out by my name. June is actually a few months older than I am.” Which was hard to imagine when looking at the two of them.

“Maybe your magic isn’t interested; in some ways magic is reflective of ourselves and in others it is practically it’s own sense of self; June might not register.” He reasoned, but ultimately he had no full answer for Ellery beyond speculations. No more than he had a clear answer for why his own magic was so often hostile towards other Witches but warm towards Ellery; some of it he couldn’t deny did lie in his fondness for the Witch. But that was difficult to address in his current state of shaky focus and hormonal distractions.

June yawned and mumbled something impossible to understand, voice trailing off in something like humor before whatever whim had hit them faded and they shook off a bit of the daze to take in their surroundings as they reached the edge of the woods and ground gave way to streets and buildings. “So big and so alive,” they hummed, eyes trailing the skyline, “How did they trap the whole sky under the water like that?” It didn’t seem like a question they were seeking an answer to though. “I wonder if the clouds feel like they’re drowning.”

August only glanced June over with the trailing, light words, far too used to the odd circular and nonsensical way they often rambled on about this and that; October’s brain was filled with secrets August could not always fathom and June’s was drenched in colorful whims that he had always been too much of a realist to entirely connect with. “You’ve got plenty of time to look around, later.”

June hummed in agreement and fell into a comfortable silence as they walked, gaze flickering now and then to various things, setting them aside to think about later. August was right, rest was better for the moment; June accepted that August was very often right, actually, he was the leader. Or had been. To June he still was, always would be; mostly because August had been a different sort of leader than February. He had listened, hadn’t cared about the power very much; June’s thoughts were wandering again over it all but they came with that small conviction that coming to the city would work out fine because August was there.

The Witch they weren’t certain what to make of yet but if their brother trusted him that was reason enough to do the same, wasn’t it? There was a tiny, thread-thin feeling there that June wasn’t sure how to name yet but it lived very clearly in the way their brother looked at the other man; reflecting in his eyes. Anyone who knew August knew how to read his chilly blue gaze, the subtle shifts in those cool tones; June knew. They didn’t know exactly what it was, no, because rarely had they seen that certain look, but they smiled none the less. They would trust the Witch because August trusted him and looked at him like one might take in the sunrise; possibilities and the sort of warmth than sank into a person.

This was normal? 

Ellery glanced at the dreamy expression on June’s face and gave August a somewhat skeptical twitch of his eyebrow, but said nothing. October was… unique, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that another sibling was a little unusual too. And now that he thought about it, the witch supposed he couldn’t exactly say August was run-of-the-mill either. But Ellery couldn’t say much about that himself, after all he knew a person was as much a by product of their upbringing as their nature. His own unusual background and quirks were testament to that. 

So he figured that like with October, and August before them, he too would get acclimated to the eccentricities of this newest sibling. Ellery was thankful that at least so far, June didn’t seem as inclined to casual nudity as October was. 

So deeply distracted in his own head, Ellery almost missed what August said. 

Almost.

“Eleven?” He squeaked, so surprised his steps faltered and it took a concerted effort to make his legs keep moving in as much of a shamble as he could, muscles still embarrassingly wobbly from their recent sprint through the woods. 

Eleven siblings? No August, no, it hadn’t been obvious. At least not until a third sibling crashed into their lives, bringing with them another piece of the puzzle and making the whole image a lot clearer. August, October, and June. And now, Ellery guessed, the rest of the months too.

His head spun. Eleven. Siblings. They couldn’t be full siblings right? Or at least not all of them. Not if June was only a few months older than August, and not if this wasn’t just some cute little naming convention. Ellery knew families got up to weird things with names, after all, Jen and her 5 siblings all had names beginning with J, and one of the families in his coven had named all of their children after savory herbs. But if this wasn’t a weird naming convention, and August and his eleven siblings were all born in their namesake months, then who… how? Twelve children, a month apart. How could this be? The precision, the planning that had to go into every step from conception to birth. Almost like they were bred. Ellery reeled, head spinning with questions he knew he couldn’t ask.

What must it have been like, growing up in the kind of place where your birth was more a mathematical equation than a celebration of love and nature? Who were the women consenting to this, if they consented at all?

Why would someone do this? Who could do something like this? 

The answer was obvious, and Ellery swallowed around a bout of nausea.

A witch. 

He didn’t like it, but he’d spent enough time combing through ancient grimoires while researching for his own dark ritual to recognize the telltale patterns of magic. Twelve children, birthed with the cycles of the moon? The whole situation stank of the kind of ritual certain brands of witch were so very fond of. 

Twelve familiar children. At least two of which Ellery knew had been bonded. He didn’t think it was much of a leap to assume the other ten had also undergone a bond. Whether that was something they were enthusiastically consenting to, well, August’s ire with witches told Ellery all he needed to know to draw a conclusion.

Ellery shuddered. He really, really hated being a witch sometimes, if it meant he shared anything in common with the kind of people who did things like that. How often had hardships in the world all come down to just a power hungry witch doing whatever suited them, consequence be damned?

It was somewhat reassuring to hear that August didn’t seem to be concerned about Ellery’s magic trying to get friendly with June, or being a source of discomfort for them with the unusual nature of their magic. It was somewhat less reassuring to think about the easy lines that August could draw between why Ellery’s magic only seemed to be interested in his own these days, and what that might mean for the witch’s own interests. The witch cleared his throat, ducking his head as a nervous blush burned across his cheeks.  

He was relieved as they stepped from the quiet shade of the forest and into the vibrant bustle of the city, thankful for the redirection of their attention as they suddenly had to navigate busy sidewalks back towards Augusts apartment. The two towering men had little issue cutting a path through the crowd, June’s smaller frame tucked safely close to August while their eyes wandered. 

“I felt the same way when I first arrived.” Ellery smiled down at them, thinking fondly of those early days of Caelestis. “I’d never seen anything like it, the buildings, the people, the technology…” 

He trailed off. Ten years and the newness had worn off, the city around him becoming just a common setting for his everyday. But seeing it through the wide fascination of June’s eyes, he could remember the magic of it. 

“We’re going to need a bigger apartment.” Ellery breathed, thinking of the already cramped lodgings that barely contained himself, August, and October who walked on four paws as often as two feet. A fox took up far less room than a twenty something person. And who even knew what the other siblings might be in their shifted forms! They had room for a fox and a crane, but if someone the size of August’s stag needed housing…

“We could move into my townhouse.” he mused to himself, already spinning through an ever branching future of possibilities driven like most things, by both anxiety and excitement. There was more than enough room to house at least a few more siblings, with two guest rooms and the finished attic. And Ellery could always convert the study into another bedroom, or throw some walls up in the attic to break it down into additional rooms! Although with the angles of the sloping roof the rooms might be a little awkward. Still, better a little awkward than overly cramped. 

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter​:

“It’s an old injury,” August remarked as though somehow that explained away the logic to needing nothing of healers and doctors before. It didn’t, but August was so accustomed to not having those luxuries in the past that it was difficult fathom any need of them at all anymore. A bubble in the water didn’t erase an entire life beyond it, one where practicality were at times less kind but always more important than ease. “From where someone didn’t listen very well about trees when they learned to fly,” he added with the sort of light reprimand common among siblings.

He remembered that day, remembered June was above all things distracted as a child and an adult both, and how the injury had been surprising, slow to heal, and never really sound again after. A silly, useless thing, a bird that couldn’t always trust their own wings. But in a way August had been nearly always sure that it was simply some part silent protest from his sibling in the only way they could; June had never wanted that expectation of being able to fight, that much it really only took a momemt in their presence to fully understand that some beings were not crafted for any sort of ill will towards others.

For their part in it June only stiffled a sound like a giggle before attention came to rest upon Ellery with all the passively sleepy gaze of slow drifting clouds, an expression that spoke in a sort of ‘I thought you might be’ without a shred of condescending air; they hardly knew the feeling of such a thing at all. If they hadn’t been so tired, lethargic in a way that was not at all uncommon for them, they may have spoken in that honey-colored, rain-soft voice again but sleep had already drenched their thoughts into more than just the typical nonsense.

Walking they could do, nearly slumbering on their feet or not.

August kept a hand there to direct them, knowing a nearly sleep-walking June was still capable of finding more than a fair share of trouble somehow. The only difference was, awake or asleep, while August was content to leave October to their own devices knowing they were too sly and far too otherworldly for trouble to hook claws into, June was different. A ghost in a way, but in a way too trusting, to calm and sweet, just too damned good to trust the world around.

The resounding difference that made August afraid of that city taking nottice of his sibling was black and white; October had teeth but June could get hurt. And likely would, with their seemingly instinctive certainty that things would turn out fine.

These ridiculously unhinged creatures, as much as August loved them, were going to be the death of his sanity some day.

“More,” June agreed quietly from the cage of August’s arm at their shoulder, a yawn dissolved into a soft sadness that infected their words and lift of iridescent eyes to their, amusingly younger, sibling, “but less now.”

The words and the look took August off his stride a step and he started to question but June’s eyes had faded to a bland, grey-skies tone that was no longer aware. They were still present but no more than in body, August had seen it before too many times to know exactly what the emptiness of everything drained looked like; there was no point in asking when he was only dealing with the shell June’s self resided in and retreated deeper in rest.

October though, yes, would be giving him answers when they got home; August knew that somehow they knew exactly what the words had meant.

His mood somber, August was silent during the walk; so much to process and not the least of it was wondering how swiftly June would recover. Faster, he assumed; they were no longer in a dying place that in turn kept June at the very cusp of the same day after day; magic had always been heartless to the pale familiar.

“They’ll be fine,” he automatically reassured Ellery when he noticed the witch watching the seemingly listless slump to the bare-bones body June resided within. “They’ve always been this way, sometimes I’m not sure it isn’t on purpose just refusing to put any distance from themselves and, well, everything. I don’t know how this place will affect that; it’s not as rotted as up there but it’s also not natural.”

A subtle nod to magic, he assumed the witch would understand because August didn’t know how else to explain it; how June’s magic just seeped into everything around it, felt it, lived through it. And sometimes the tired state of the world just melted all the energy in them to nothing.

It felt like a longer walk home than it should have been, August had almost fooled himself into forgetting what it was like looking after those strange being he shared blood with but didn’t always feel as real as himself. He hadn’t been a part of magic in that way in so long, and he wasn’t sure he remembered how to just yet.

In a way he knew that, if anything, Ellery would have been more helpful than ever around the apartment but, chances were, the sheer logistics would ruin the idea and the witch would lose his mind for lack of space.

August himself wasn’t sure if he might not as well, honestly, when that space was even more closely occupied by the man he couldn’t scrub from his restless, distraction-laced midnight thoughts. If it had been any other season he might have been fine but damn the fall and the pit of his stomach that twisted in wants that he still, for so many reasons, made him nearly sick with guilt over.

It was a lingering, vicious little reminder dug into the back of his mind like his own personal spectre or demon; he could argue all he wanted and maintain that unwavering contol but, at least in one area, August was struggling more and more to pull himself away from thoughts that he didn’t know what to do with other than suffer through to keep them from marring everything else around him.

It felt intrusive, watching the quiet glance between the siblings of confusion and gentle grief. What Ellery knew of August’s life before he came to the dome was little, shared only in brief recollections of survival and struggle. But in that look, the witch saw here was a moment where August too was in the dark. Judging by the sorrowful pitch to June’s eyes, Ellery knew that when it came out, it would be in a conversation he’d be far removed from. 

It seemed there was much the siblings needed to discuss.

Loss. Ellery knew loss. The witch glanced away, turning his eyes down to the leaf strewn path beneath his feet, gnawing at the small kernel of guilt and discomfort in his chest. He shouldn’t have pried, shouldn’t have asked. August was nothing if not open about his stance on sharing information; on the terms of the teller, not of the asker. But the words had slipped from the witch’s tongue before he’d had a moment to think, drawn forth by that strange sensation of memory. What had that been? 

There was so much Ellery had yet to learn about August, so many parts of him that were foreign to the witch, like they were out of his reach. He didn’t know this August, the soft young man who teasingly reprimanded his sibling even while he kept a protective hand on their back and helped them over obstacles on the path. He’s seen glimpses of him, during the times El had been injured, or distressed, and August had softened a little, those sharp edges dulling so as not to hurt while he helped. Still, there was a sense of closeness, of intimacy present in the way the two siblings moved together, as if so in tune that words were not needed between them. 

A lonely child, the witch found it hard not to let jealousy sink it’s teeth into him. No siblings and few friends, he had little clue what it was like to have that kind of knowing bond with someone else. There was no one left in his life who knew him before he became who he was now, who knew the joyful child more than the struggling adult. Only his coven, in a home he was unlikely to ever see again.

It was good then that August’s siblings were inexplicably, finding their way down here. Jealousy aside, Ellery wouldn’t deny the man this connection, not when it meant that even if from the outside, he was able to experience some of that wondrous joy family brought into the stag’s life. And there was joy brought into his own life too. As unusual as they might be, October was good company. In only these few short moments, Ellery already found a vague sort of fondness forming for the frail crane, as if he’d already known them for far longer. 

He didn’t understand it when August spoke on June’s seeming detachment and near catatonic state, a lack of distance and the environment around them. That is, not until he moved a little closer, closing some of the gap that had opened up between the siblings at the witch as they walked. 

And there it was, the soft touch of magic against his own. Ellery blinked, steps faltering at the sensation, anxiety spiking in a sharp lurch of fear and a nervous press of his hand to his scar. His magic stirred in response, but did little more to acknowledge the touch of June’s magic. Perhaps because it was not with the same eager intensity he felt from August’s, or the overly welcoming softness of Henry’s. No, this was more akin to the sensation of walking into mist, stepping into an encompassing presence that neither gave power nor asked for it. It only was. 

“Oh.” Ellery breathed, head tipping in confused curiosity. This wasn’t what he was used to feeling from familiars, or even witches, both species more accustomed to keeping their magics tightly reeled inside the confines of their bodies rather than spooled out in a haze where it could freely interact with the world around them. This was… quite unusual. 

“Is it always like this?” he asked, directing his question at August, sure that he’d be the one answering given the sleepy blankness June’s face still wore. He traced his fingers through the air, nearly able to feel physical sensation of magic against his skin. He knew better though, it was only his body translating the touch of June’s power against his own as it eased out from his chest to his fingertips. 

He could very much understand how wearing that would be on the young familiar, to have that very vital part of themself constantly interacting with the world and other magics around them. Self consciously, the witch firmly reeled his own magic back in, urging it back into that spot inside himself where it hunkered down to wait and rest. If June had difficulty encountering regular magic, Ellery could imagine what it would be like encountering his own overpowered force.

“Will it be okay?” Ellery asked softly, dropping back again and sticking just to the edge of the range of June’s magic. “I’ve never-- I’ve never met someone with magic like this. I don’t know if… if I’ll be too much.” 

A hand raised to settle low on his chest, over the spot he always felt his magic expand from. It was seemingly content to sit inside the soft aura without any of the needy excitement it showed for August. 

“It’s not doing what it usually does for your magic,” he remarked, more to himself than to August, wishing he could close his eyes and look inward but also realizing he was barely able to avoid tripping with his eyes open, let alone closed. Come to think of it, his magic hadn’t made a go at October yet either, which was something of significance considering its history of immediately overwhelming any familiar it had contact with. 

What was different now? 

Ellery rather suspected he knew exactly what the difference was, and it was something he wasn’t quite comfortable admitting to himself, at least not now. No, it was better thought on in the liminal space of the early morning hours, when it was easy to abandon reason and consequence in favor of dreams and heart. It was rather puzzling, and something the witch mused over in the time it took for the trio to slowly make the trek from the woods up to August’s small apartment. 

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter​:

“They’d argue that with you, they like the fact they’re so abnormal.” August mused, as so much to October came down to the oddities they embraced, so it was hardly an insult. Ellery didn’t know the full sum of how unnatural they all were but August didn’t enjoy digging into that past or laying secrets out in the open air. It felt safer to not put that burden on the witch; knowing too much. October agreed, thankfully, and August knew that agreement had reasoning that only the younger familiar understood. Hardly settling either though, even some of the family found October so bizarre they avoided them, but August wasn’t about to do anything like that. Even though, at times, he didn’t entirely understand himself just what was going on in his younger sibling’s chaotic mind.

Best not to question it; for as much as he didn’t understand August still trusted October to have insight nobody else could and that was invaluable at times. If they shared it, which they rarely did. “They certainly seem to think they’ve got figured out.” He added after a moment, “Don’t worry too much about it though, October knows more about anyone than they do themselves. You get used to it eventually; I just wish they lived more in this world than in that other place.”

For their own sake it would have been better, being part of the world; but it would never happen and the hazards came in people. October simply paid no mind to those who might be malicious because they barely felt the tangles of life threaded through them; August just worried over how spending so much time with one foot in the grave might land the rest of them there one day. October was powerful but not immoral, maybe; he didn’t want to consider the possibility he might be wrong in that.

“You do have to be careful with the curse, and I’m out of practice, like I said. So it’s going to be slower than I’d like but that’s a necessity really.” Too much of a rush could end badly and the sort of bad that might just crack fishbowl they were living in. “It’s like any muscle; the more you use it the better it works.

His comparison did fall a bit wayward as Ellery complained about actual exercise and August couldn’t help being amused. Maybe it wasn’t the best point of reference in that case, given the witch had an aversion to the idea. "Might not be as much fun as some things but still needed, right? For both of us; I was starting to feel a little stir crazy myself.” A year entirely cautious over when and how to spend the magic involved in changing forms had been frustrating, he wasn’t made to have limits. Ellery had far too many he needed still but that magic at least was strong enough to tap into without behind hindered and August knew it meant flexing those muscles would be like it used to.

A fact he had to be very cautious over itself; knowing how sharp the teeth of that magic under his skin could have when threatened. Now it wasn’t only threats to himself that would get it riled up but threats to Ellery as well.

The topic of other, less dramatic, exercise was amusingly mundane. He didn’t discuss many of his habits with the witch other than what Ellery saw from living with him, so it had somewhat slipped August’s thoughts to even explain little things like the classes he attended.

“Yeah, if you want to.” That time he didn’t offer Ellery an easy escape because it felt unneeded; there was nothing strenuous to yoga and it was good for clearing a person’s mind. August thought so anyway, though less so during that damned autumn season when his nerves were frayed and his interests wandering just a bit too much. He could survive the next few weeks, yoga be damned, if that’s what it took to prove to himself he was being ridiculous in his wandering thoughts.

Logically it might have been easier if he didn’t spend so much time in Ellery’s company and have such a fondness for the witch; no wonder his interests had settled so determinedly on the other man. So yoga would be problematic, but August wasn’t going to voice it when Ellery had asked to join him. Just maybe no wearing jeans to class; the instructor would at least stop complaining about that for a while.

The mention of that garden and the reminder written into it that Ellery would be returning home also stirred that restless feeling more than he cared to admit, the idea of narrow time aggravating those sensitive instincts that usually were so unshakeable. The fall really was little more than a bane to deal with, and so much more so that year than the one past when he’d been so accustomed to solitude.

But he tried not to allow that to distract him when his focus was needed elsewhere. The sort of elsewhere that truly baffled August; the apparent trickle of his family into the city with no clear indication of how or why but it was undeniable with that lanky bird standing before him. He knew what lay under those feathers, the person who resided past that magic; but the truly unbelievable part was the why to it.

“Be careful,” he cautioned, knowing full well that changing that shape could leave wounds far more damaged with the shift, but being such an old injury he knew that was avoidable. And the only response he was given came in the form of a warbling sound as the bird dipped that curved head again and took a step back.

The presence of the stranger was the reasoning for slipping out of view, it wasn’t altogether an appealing idea to change in full view of others; that was more a given for some and June certainly didn’t want to expose quite so much of themself in the effort. Ellery at least didn’t have that to trouble over.

The jacket, August thought, might be more hinder than help, but he held onto it as the gesture was an attempt to help and was appreciated. The witch had little idea to the contrary of course; while he was certain Ellery knew that his tone and familarity meant family he very likely also was thinking of someone like August himself.

And June, was not.

“Are you alright?” He spoke once the swish of wings had fallen silent and the shuffle of other motion sounded from that spot behind the trees and brush, only a wordless affirmation in return until motion from behind them was seen. A bit of a struggle with and injury, and with the fact that there was a clear airy lightness to the avian familar, a reflection of the creature under their skin, that simply did not match the frame of their brother’s jeans well at all; June managed the one-handed effort of pulling on the spare pair in that backpack with the sort of practice in the gesture that marked it as learned.

August always packed extra clothes in situations he knew he would be using magic, that was justca practical habit he was raised with; and once again the past kept being frustratingly useful to him.

The pale-eyed familiar of course went to August, wisps of nearly ivory hair messy across their gaze and injured arm held to their chest, but none the less the smile on their face was warm excited, and soon buried against the taller familar’s shoulder. “You were gone forever,” they spoke in a voice that mirrored a sigh, not so much troubled as curious. “A very long forever.”

“June,” August spared a moment to hug the narrow-framed figure, cautious of the shoulder he then rested fingers on to inspect. “Why didn’t you come find me? How did you even get here?” The words were a mumbled thought as he handed the coat back to Ellery a moment, fingers lighting on the correct spots and bracing his palm. “Okay?”

“The wind was wrong, it doesn’t go very far here.” They mused, dealing with the prodding and press of fingers with a nearly disconnected sort of air, only nodding to the question and barely flinching with the motion that snapped that dislocated shoulder back into place. They blinked slowly and flexed thin fingers, testing them while August fussed over pressing at that joint to make certain it wouldn’t slip again. In the meanwhile they regarded Ellery with a sort of sleepy-eyed interest; now who was this?

“Hello,” they murmured, pausing to slide their gaze to August a moment with all the moving about, attention drawn there and passively waiting out the inspection. August was occupied with retrieving that bag and entirely ruining one of his shirts by ripping it and making a makeshift sling, leaving June to taking in the quiet surroundings; the cold was a bit uncomfortable but that didn’t register much when they had already been in it all day.

August had noticed, given the chill of their skin, and the awareness that birds do not possess the most resounding internal heating system, and June was vaguely aware that he voiced that concerned but they only smiled snd ushered it away, more lethargic than chilly. “Just nearly asleep,” they trailed off, distracted by a flittering leaf and studying its’ bouncing on the breeze.

The familiar that emerged from behind the tree, oddly adorable in the way they had to keep one hand knotted in the waistband of August’s borrowed jeans to keep them from slipping down waifish slim hips. The hems sagged down around pale feet, lending the crane a delicate air that only served to draw attention to the awkward hang of the arm not clutching their borrowed pants. Shock white hair floated around their face like so much dandelion fluff, nearly obscuring the glint of their pale eyes. So ethereal they were that Ellery might have mistaken them for a spirit, if not for the broad beam that broke across their face as they closed the last few feet to August and were tugged into a warm embrace. 

Their voice was light, melodic in the way of a breeze through leaves, and neutral but for the tone of relief Ellery thought he sensed as they spoke into August’s shoulder. 

June. A sibling, then. 

Concern outweighing his sense of social insecurity, Ellery stepped forward towards the pair, dark brows drawn together in concern. 

“August, we should go to the clinic. Someone should look at their shoulder. And in bare feet--” he fretted, imagining how much pain the smaller sibling must be in and how very long the trek out of the woods and back to town would be. “we could-- I can take your backpack, and you can carry them--”

He drew his attention away from the dangling arm and felt his cheeks heat. Two pairs of equally pale eyes looked back at him, one with a gentle curiosity and the other with an all too familiar twinkle of amusement. One of August’s dark brows twitched up skeptically, Ellery blinking owlishly back at him until realization dawned. Just like October, who had found their way into the dome unregistered, unknown. And while the powers that be certainly wouldn’t throw someone back out into the poisonous land above, they certainly wouldn’t welcome a stowaway with open arms.

“Okay, so maybe not the clinic,” Ellery conceded, “but we should at least get them home.”

The word hung bittersweet on his lips for a moment, home. He should correct himself, really, but he hadn’t the will, not when in his heart the small apartment had become just that; his home. 

Gaia, he was so fucked. 

Still deep in thought over his inevitable heartbreak, the witch wordlessly accepted his jacket back, fingers worrying at where the wool was still warm from August’s hand and not paying much mind to the quietly chatting siblings. That is, not until with a sharp, practiced motion June’s shoulder was popped back into place. 

Oh. Oh no. 

Ellery dragged in slow and steady breaths as the image of June carefully testing the mobility of their pale fingers was crowded by black spots fizzling around the edges of his vision. He closed his eyes tightly against the resonant pop that still echoed in his head, blocking out the sight of the two familiars as he struggled to fight off the wooziness that threatened to take him down. 

There’s no blood, it’s okay, there’s no blood. Don’t pass out, you’re fine. 

The witch hunched over, planting his hands on his knees and dragging in steady breaths. Yes, there, that seemed to help at least a little bit. Head no longer swimming but tummy still wobbly, he shot August a scandalized look from under his brows, risking a glance but quickly shutting his eyes again as the black spots returned, “You can’t-- you can’t just do that to someone. You’ll break them!” 

Or you’ll break me. 

And really, who did that? Just oh so casually yanked a dislocated joint back into place like they were jerking open a stuck door. Ellery had to wonder how many times he’d done this in the past, to be so familiar with where to brace his hands, how to move them, how to care for his pale sibling afterwards. 

Cautiously straightening from his recovery hunch and tentatively slitting open his eyes, the witch looked over the pair, searching June’s face. How many times must they have gone through this? There was no lingering sign of pain, only a kind of pinched tiredness that reminded Ellery startlingly of the few times he’d seen August drawn and wan. It was a strange sort of thinness, like they’d lacked something that made them more substantial, more tangible. 

The witch felt his magic stir slightly in his chest, but it did little more than flicker before settling back, still tired and sated from their activities that afternoon. 

For a minute he watched as August fussed over the smaller familiar, muttering under his breath as he tugged a shirt from his bag and tore it into useful swaths of fabric with a few practiced twitches of the wrist. Of that fabric he fashioned a sling, carefully catching June’s arm by the wrist and tucking it against their chest until he could secure it against their body with the supporting lengths of cotton. 

Ellery’s eyes caught the faint treble in that small frame and quickly stepped forward, coat extended to August, still wary of getting too close to this new familiar with his magic still stinging from the overflow earlier. It was contented for now, but if there was someone the wild force was going to make a go at, Ellery was sure both he and August would prefer it was the stag. He wasn’t sure the wispy crane could withstand it. 

“Here, cold or tired, it’s still too chilly to be shirtless.” he insisted, ignoring the fact that sweat still prickled along his own collar, a remnant of time spent running while wearing too many layers of knit and wool. 

He started a little when those pale eyes drifted back his way with an open curiosity. Ellery flushed at his poor manners, and sent the young familiar a soft smile and an awkward wave. 

“Hi, hello. I’m Ellery, August’s-- uh-- friend.” the witch greeted with only a stumble of nervousness in his words. “ You must be family, like October.” 

August. October. Now, June. 

A strange sensation twisted in his gut, like a past premonition he couldn’t yet make sense of or a memory that had yet to come into focus. August, October, June. The phantom scent of ink and old paper teased his nose, displaced amongst the earthy richness of the forest. Unbidden, he spoke before he’d even put the thought to mind. 

“There are more of you, aren’t there.” It wasn’t a question, and the witch was already holding up a hand to wave off any answer, shaking his head softly. “Sorry, I don’t know-- it doesn’t matter. We should get them home. Get you home. Get us home.” 

Three siblings now, in that tiny apartment. October wore their fur as often as their skin, but still, that space was never meant to hold four people. It was barely meant to hold two. Ellery brooded as they gathered up their things and began walking. He dropped back to let the slim shapes of the siblings lead the way along the winding path through the trees, the witch more in his head than on his feet.

His time on that couch was coming to an end, an end that was all the closer with the addition of this second sibling. But with the promise of what was destined to be an uncomfortably disastrous yoga class, and the ongoing mystery of how to untangle his curse and train his magic, Ellery was not quite as melancholic as he might have assumed he would be. 

True, he was not keen to return to his lonely townhouse after these months of living in close quarters with someone whose company he intimately enjoyed. But no longer was he worried that with space would come coolness, an emotional distance to match the physical. There would still be lunches enjoyed across the cool marble of the barista counter, teasing texts about whatever bit of clumsiness the witch had most recently embarrassed himself with, and rare quiet moments sat next to each other at the table in Agatha’s bar that Ellery had quickly come to think of as theirs. 

No, Ellery no longer dreaded returning to his townhouse. But there was no chance of that happening until October had done whatever it was they thought they could do to rid the house of the raven’s malevolent presence. And that was something the fox seemed to be taking their grand time with. Maybe the presence of another sibling crammed into the one bedroom apartment would be the pressure they needed to get that furry behind into gear.

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter​:

"They’d argue that with you, they like the fact they’re so abnormal.” August mused, as so much to October came down to the oddities they embraced, so it was hardly an insult. Ellery didn’t know the full sum of how unnatural they all were but August didn’t enjoy digging into that past or laying secrets out in the open air. It felt safer to not put that burden on the witch; knowing too much. October agreed, thankfully, and August knew that agreement had reasoning that only the younger familiar understood. Hardly settling either though, even some of the family found October so bizarre they avoided them, but August wasn’t about to do anything like that. Even though, at times, he didn’t entirely understand himself just what was going on in his younger sibling’s chaotic mind.

Best not to question it; for as much as he didn’t understand August still trusted October to have insight nobody else could and that was invaluable at times. If they shared it, which they rarely did. “They certainly seem to think they’ve got figured out.” He added after a moment, “Don’t worry too much about it though, October knows more about anyone than they do themselves. You get used to it eventually; I just wish they lived more in this world than in that other place.”

For their own sake it would have been better, being part of the world; but it would never happen and the hazards came in people. October simply paid no mind to those who might be malicious because they barely felt the tangles of life threaded through them; August just worried over how spending so much time with one foot in the grave might land the rest of them there one day. October was powerful but not immoral, maybe; he didn’t want to consider the possibility he might be wrong in that.

“You do have to be careful with the curse, and I’m out of practice, like I said. So it’s going to be slower than I’d like but that’s a necessity really.” Too much of a rush could end badly and the sort of bad that might just crack fishbowl they were living in. “It’s like any muscle; the more you use it the better it works.

His comparison did fall a bit wayward as Ellery complained about actual exercise and August couldn’t help being amused. Maybe it wasn’t the best point of reference in that case, given the witch had an aversion to the idea. "Might not be as much fun as some things but still needed, right? For both of us; I was starting to feel a little stir crazy myself.” A year entirely cautious over when and how to spend the magic involved in changing forms had been frustrating, he wasn’t made to have limits. Ellery had far too many he needed still but that magic at least was strong enough to tap into without behind hindered and August knew it meant flexing those muscles would be like it used to.

A fact he had to be very cautious over itself; knowing how sharp the teeth of that magic under his skin could have when threatened. Now it wasn’t only threats to himself that would get it riled up but threats to Ellery as well.

The topic of other, less dramatic, exercise was amusingly mundane. He didn’t discuss many of his habits with the witch other than what Ellery saw from living with him, so it had somewhat slipped August’s thoughts to even explain little things like the classes he attended.

“Yeah, if you want to.” That time he didn’t offer Ellery an easy escape because it felt unneeded; there was nothing strenuous to yoga and it was good for clearing a person’s mind. August thought so anyway, though less so during that damned autumn season when his nerves were frayed and his interests wandering just a bit too much. He could survive the next few weeks, yoga be damned, if that’s what it took to prove to himself he was being ridiculous in his wandering thoughts.

Logically it might have been easier if he didn’t spend so much time in Ellery’s company and have such a fondness for the witch; no wonder his interests had settled so determinedly on the other man. So yoga would be problematic, but August wasn’t going to voice it when Ellery had asked to join him. Just maybe no wearing jeans to class; the instructor would at least stop complaining about that for a while.

The mention of that garden and the reminder written into it that Ellery would be returning home also stirred that restless feeling more than he cared to admit, the idea of narrow time aggravating those sensitive instincts that usually were so unshakeable. The fall really was little more than a bane to deal with, and so much more so that year than the one past when he’d been so accustomed to solitude. Something to look forward to every autumn, evidently, that hyper-awareness of the other man; that wouldn’t be exhausting at all, no.

August had little choice but to deal with and try to avoid it becoming an uncomfortable note between them.

Thankfully distraction from those thoughts was rather direct, even if it came from an unexpected source. Of all the things he might have guessed to have crossed paths with that day with magic humming in hus veins and his senses sharper than normal it was not the resounding awareness of another of his own kin.

August never expected them to stray from home; October wasn’t shocking as they were prone to whims that couldn’t be predicted but the others were more set in their ways, not always reasonable but a but more predictable.

The past never felt like something that might actually come right to his doorstep.

But it did, with a flurry of feathers and long-legged jumbled limbs. August might not expected that particular sibling at least as they rarely strayed from familiar places. “Change first, arms are easier to deal with than wings.” He instructed while the creature before him tried once again to coil their neck and peer around to study Ellery; that curiosity anything but surprising.

They listened though, after a moment, picking a few careful steps around roots and uneven ground to the trees and the cover of behind them. Already August had questions.

“How did you even get here?” He voiced once the shuffle of feathers sounded more like the heavier noise of human limbs working at a too-large tee shirt and the spare jeans August carried in the backpack he’d tossed behind the tree.

Not an easy task with a shoulder out of joint but not a complaint was voiced, no answers offered either until the willowy creature slipped back around the trees.

Familiars often had features in common with their animalistic forms, the distinctly slender, light build and feathery ivory hair, messy as it was, left little doubt in the connection. There was a similarity in the strong bone lines between the siblings but their eyes lacked any intense tones at all and were wide, curious, nearly silently questioning with a soft fascination.

Uninjured hand lifted as though to test the idea, they tapped fingers to August’s chest, not nearly as tall as him, and seemed satisfied given the smile that broke out on their face.

“I wasn’t sure if you were you, it’s been a very long time since you’ve been anything but gone.” The smile tipped warm and the space between them was cut by the motion that drew them closer, marred by the seemingly forgotten injury that caught them by surprise with a little startled jump.

August sighed, not bothering to repeat the question yet. “Be careful. Did you fall out of the tree? Or hit something flying?” The conversation was more for the sake of distraction, the necessity of resetting that shoulder was quick, one palm braced to it and the other hand maneuvered in a quick, practiced motion than snapped the joint back into the proper spot. They barely flinched and August didn’t hesitate; clear signs that it wasn’t anything uncommon to either of them. “June, you know you have to be careful when you land with that shoulder, it slides out of place too easy.” He sighed, giving the rest of them a look over. “Now, how did you get here?”

“The same way I get most anywhere, though it really wasn’t supposed to end like that, the tree had other ideas.” They mused with a bit of a shrug and roll of the stiff joint, tone still light and airy, eyes trailing back towards the witch with a tilt of their head. “Hello, do I know you? Oh, no, not yet.”

They seemed to consider that a moment while August took the man’s jacket and covered them; just as ill-fitting on their very slight frame. They did now, know the man, because clearly the man knew their brother and that was odd as August wasn’t the type of want to know people; so it must have been a good thing.

“You hit the tree?” August just stared for a long moment, tempted to shake his head. “You have got to pay better attention to things.” But it really wouldn’t matter; June didn’t see a bit of the world that wasn’t daydreams and pretty notions; flying into a tree had likely been a moment of distraction. “That’s Ellery, you scared him half to death.” He chuckled, mostly certain his sibling was mostly sound, the strange behavior was entirely normal from the other familiar.

“Ellery,” they tested the name quietly and smiled again, still lurking close to August with a shyness than made actually approaching the witch difficult. “I’m sorry I frightened you,” eyes wider with the words and the apology, they were entirely earnest in it; they hadn’t meant to upset the other man with their clumsy tumble from that tree. “Are you alright?”

August wasn’t the only one who didn’t like the reminder that someday soon the witch would be returning to his own home, vacating the space he’d found in August’s home and in his daily life. For all that he missed his own space and all of the precious things he’d found to fill it with, the last months had shown him that it was all just that: things. His overstuffed chairs and bookshelves couldn’t fill space the way that August’s laugh could. His bottles of tea and tinctures couldn’t soothe him the way just feeling the couch cushion beside him dip as August settled into his spot did. It had been alarmingly easy to make his life there in the cramped apartment, and to forget that in the end, he was but a guest. Temporary. And that all temporary things must come to an end. 

The witch swallowed hard, but set his jaw resolutely. All he could do was make the most of the time he had left, enjoy those late night talks in August’s kitchen, and those sleepy mornings spent watching August drink the coffee he’d made while scratching away in one of the notebooks he kept. Change was inevitable, but that didn’t mean it had to be a thing of fear or of loss. At least not before it even happened. 

Ellery couldn’t deny that part of him had been hoping August would give him a way out of his impulsive suggestion to join him in yoga. Uncoordinated, unathletic, inflexible, and entirely inappropriately obsessed with the man he would be going with: how could it turn out any way but terribly? 

But, well, maybe it would be a bit like exposure therapy, the witch thought to himself as he followed along the path beside August. The more he got used to being around the familiar while the man was doing his most alluring activities, the better Ellery would get at suppressing his wildly interested libido. Hey, maybe some day he’d even be able to not be terribly awkward and overly aware of August’s nudity when he was shifting between forms! 

The pale expanse of August’s back flashed through his mind, the witch remembering the subtle shift of muscles and bone beneath tattooed skin and the fleeting curiosity if the lines of ink would be tangible beneath his tongue. He flushed and shook his head to rid himself of the tempting visual.

No, somehow Ellery didn’t think any amount of exposure therapy would cure him of this desire. 

But now was not the time to be dwelling on his incurable attractions to the familiar, not when that dagger shaped head kept peeking around August to level a sky bright eye at him, seemingly paying little mind to August’s brotherly worrying. Ellery offered the crane a nervous smile and a small wave from where he stood, still cautiously tucked a few feet behind August’s form. Not that he thought the bird was going to do anything to him. But all the same, that was a very large bird, with a very sharp beak. Best to keep his distance. 

The snow white crane turned to carefully pick their way though the tangled roots and disappeared around the opposite side of the tree. He relaxed a little, wiping his damp forehead with the back of his hand. A throaty noise of exasperation escaped him as his hand came away dirt streaked. Why was it that he never met August’s siblings when he was at his best, prepared to make a good impression? 

Ellery cast a tempted look over his shoulder back toward the path home. Maybe he could just dip out really quickly, take a shower and change into something that was both less sweaty and had far fewer burs stuck to the wool. No, no that was foolish and quite risky. Knowing his luck, the witch would be fresh from the shower and in naught but a towel when August and his avian sibling would make it back home.

Determined to make the best of the situation, Ellery quickly gave himself a once over, smoothing some of the wildness from his curls, tugging his knit vest into place, and fussily rolling his crisply pressed sleeves back to settle just below his elbow. If he couldn’t aim for polished, at least he might be able to hit ‘ruggedly casual’. 

Lacking the sharp hearing the familiars possessed, Ellery could barely hear more than the soft crunch fallen leaves underfoot and so it was with some surprise that he took in the sight of the whispy familiar that stepped back around the tree, blinking at he and August with wide pale eyes. 

The looseness of August’s clothes on their much smaller frame did them no favors in making them appear any more solidly tangible than the delicate crane had been. But despite the difference in coloring and stature, there was a familiarity in the cut of their cheekbones and the delicate arch of pale brows. Even in this new stranger, Ellery could find pieces of August, and it was this that helped settle his nerves even further. 

Ellery hung back, watching the familiarity between the siblings, drinking in the tender concern on August’s face and the affectionate wonder on the crane’s. It wasn’t often that Ellery was in a place to relish seeing this side of August. His brotherly streak presented differently with October. That tender concern had been turned on Ellery from time to time, but rarely was the witch emotionally lucid enough to appreciate it for anything other than the comforting guidance he needed at the time. But here all of his sharp edges were softened, that quick tongue gentled, movements careful around the injured familiar. 

They were a bit of an odd bird, moving with a  dreamlike quality and speaking with a voice as soft and neutral as the candy floss cloud of their ivory white hair. There Ellery could see the similarities to October too, a shared distance from the concrete realities of the world, though it seemed where that distance had sharpened one sibling it had softened the other. 

The witch was stirred from thought as August’s clever fingers curled around the elbow and wrist of his sibling’s injured arm. Yes, they should use Ellery’s jacket to make a sling, or to bind that injured arm to their chest until they can get to the Medical building and get it seen to. Ellery stepped closer to the pair, jacket held out. 

“Here, for a sli-“

August’s grip tightened, his stance tensed, and Ellery’s stomach sank. No. Oh no, no no.

Before the witch could look away, with a low thunk that Ellery could feel reverberate in his molars, the crane’s shoulder was popped back into place. June may have barely winced at the procedure, but Ellery reflexively jerked back, face twisted in consternation. He felt his stomach quickly turn sour and a hot flush run through him from crown to toe. He hunched low, bracing his hands on his knees and hauled in a few deep breaths to try and steady his swimming head. For a moment, black spots twinkled at the edge of his vision. However they cleared just as quickly, and after a few more of those deep, if somewhat tremulous breaths, Ellery tentatively stood up again. He’d unreasonably hoped the others hadn’t taken too much notice, but twin pairs of pale eyes were leveled his way. He offered a weak smile, swallowing thickly. 

“Sorry, I wasn’t ready for-“ he broke off, stomach lurching in warning as the memory of the meaty ‘thunk’ echoed in his ears. He shook his head, and just gestured loosely at his own shoulder and then at June’s. “I’m —hurk— squeamish.” 

Ellery took another deep breath to collect himself as August grabbed the offered jacket and helped June shrug into the oversized tweed. Bundled up as they were, Ellery was struck by how young the familiar looked. A younger sibling then, he decided. It made sense, given August’s protective concern. He was exercising those big brother instincts, surprised to find his sibling in an underwater forest, falling out of a tree. 

And the crane’s name was June, huh? Ellery’s head tipped in thought. Another sibling named after the months of the year: those parents really knew how to stick to a theme when naming their kids. Interesting. Not that Ellery had much room to talk, his coven certainly wasn’t the most typical upbringing. 

Hearing his name brought his attention back to the siblings, and to the teasing jibe August had thrown his way. 

“I wasn’t scared.” Ellery corrected huffily, shooting August a piqued look and primly smoothing away a couple of burs that had gotten hooked to his trousers. “I was just… surprised!” 

His expression softened as he turned his attention on the smaller familiar. Something like affection bloomed warm in his chest at the sincerity in June’s apology and the brightness of those wide eyes. They really were quite cute. 

“I’m quite alright, thank you.” he replied, smile turning self deprecatingly rueful as he shrugged with a little laugh. “I don’t like to think I’m fragile, but I have to say this is going far better than when I met October. That was… not one of my better moments.” 

Really, at this point he was just keeping up the tradition of making terrible first impressions with the Winter siblings. August he’d thrown a tree at, October had witnessed him tail spin into a panic attack, and now he was sweaty, disheveled, and had quite nearly fainted upon meeting June. Honestly, it was an improvement, but still, not the polished and charming impression he’d have liked to make. 

Determined to change that, Ellery straightened and offered a slightly dirt streaked palm to the smaller familiar. “It’s a pleasure to meet you June. Now I must ask if you’re alright, with your —blech— er, your shoulder.. and everything.” 

[ellerytanninrp]

Person A: You look so badass. Like you're going to hurt people.

Person A: You look like a sexy cactus.

Person B: I'll just pretend you said nothing.

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter​:

“October doesn’t have a natural state, they’re unnatural by sheer existence.” He chuckled with another bone-cracking roll of his shoulders and a fleeting thought to said strange sibling. But, like most of the family, October was simply the end result of equal parts that unsettling upbringing they all shared and something just slightly off-skewed that was unique to each member of the family. Growing up had been quite the accomplishment, as August had only begun to realize after being years and miles away from that past; it really was surprising he wasn’t more off-centered as a person than his own quirks. In comparison to some he felt downright bland. Which, all in all, wasn’t anything he exactly minded. 

“But that’s still an unsteady slope when it comes to October, you’ve seen them and that disconnected state they wander around in; I really don’t think it’s a great idea to encourage them getting too used to wandering around without clothes when we’re living in the middle of a large city. There are more ways than I could count that going badly, mostly for other people." 

Credit where it was due though, August had to admit that he worried far less about October’s ability to look after themselves as he might have with some of those siblings. "You haven’t seen their temper when somebody takes their habits the wrong way." 

The most complicated about October was exactly what Ellery had already learned; there was rarely anything sexual to them at all, something of an impulse that struck at times but was widely absent, but trying to logic the idea that most normal people sexualized nudity to a person with only a vague connection to the psychical world in the first place? August had tried more than once and wasn’t sure much of it had really managed to sink in too well. 

He wasn’t looking forward to the day someone caught October in a mood, said the wrong thing and ended up with a nervous breakdown for their efforts. But he also couldn’t say he really was going to feel bad for them either, October was still his younger sibling after all. 

"Nah, it’s probably better not to right now; magic fatigue is worse than physical and usually will put a person down for days if they push it too far.” He was used to a far different level of energy extended most days in general, or was in the past; that morning would have barely been a start to the day a few years ago. It had stirred up the old muscle memory, ready to move, hardly even a strain at that point. But it was a better idea not to push too much at first, not just because Ellery was building his tolerance in degrees but August was a bit out of practice the few years himself and he wasn’t immune to that exhaustion either. But physically those muscles were far more suited to motion than the stagnant life he’d lived since coming to the city; it felt good to be reminded of the stretch and pull of them. 

Casting an eye towards Ellery with an amused lift of the corner of his lips over his hemming and fumbling about, he shook his head over it all. “Yeah, next time it’s probably better to not dress like you’re going to freeze to death.” The humor lingered with the run of his fingers along a strap of that backpack as it was shifted around a bit. “It’s fine, neither of us is going to know exactly how to do all of this at first. You keep throwing things at me I don’t expect too, that’s fine; things’ll sort out and fit together along the way. Obviously we’re from two very different places, mentally, magically, everything else; part of it is adapting to what works from both sides. But, yeah, those pants were a bad idea,” trailing back off into another mild chuckle, August filed away a few stray notes from the morning for later and turned his attention back to the path. 

As much as Ellery was fumbling with his stress over the matter it was hardly as dramatic as he seemed to think, barely a side note overall; if the man didn’t know already the fact was there were millions of scents conflicting with each other constantly and most that became familiar were little more than part of the fog of the rest. It was the shifts in focus to it that August took more note of, that strange chemical reaction that came with what people might have called moods, attention shifts, dozens of little twinges that caused reactions that were difficult to put to words so much as just label off as scent. It wasn’t a science he understood well enough to describe in technical terms. 

The constant state of flux lately hadn’t gone unnoticed but had gone unspoken, he wasn’t certain exactly why Ellery had been changing things around with his normal habits but he figured that was the witch’s business more than his own. They were far more tolerable changes though than if Ellery had decided randomly to douse himself in things like a few of the teas he enjoyed so much that August just had to avoid too close encounters with for their unpleasant combinations of herbs and whatever else it was to them that clearly were lost to human senses. 

At least coffee had a sharp and strong enough scent to cover most of those spiky teas most mornings, or else he was developing a tolerance to them; whatever the case. He’d learned to keep his reactions to a minimum for the sake of Ellery’s sensitives over his apparently carefully brewed concoctions, but was certainly glad that he was rarely expected to actually drink them himself anymore. Lesson learned after that last bout of intense illness from the over-saturated combination, yes. 

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew what things used to be.” August couldn’t help but get a bit lost in the thought, it happened more often when his mood was lighter, when he was feeling energetic and a little powerful the way he used to. The past didn’t feel as much like an ocean of shadow, more like rain that trickled through those memories in silvery glints of the good and bad both. He couldn’t say he cared much for talking about those days, too many secrets that were held for the sake of the safety of people he greatly missed, but his cautions dipped a hint lower. 

“Today was practically clumsy, I should have been able to cover that distance in half the time, I’m so slow,” he laughed at himself over it, eyes tipped skyward a moment, “Used to be able to fight too, who knows anymore, I guess you don’t really forget what you were taught but living made me lazy. I almost miss the monsters up there; the only ones down here are too good at playing human." 

At least with the real monsters a person knew where they stood; either bare your teeth or get your throat torn out. Under the waters though it was hardly that simple, or that easy to destroy the things that were a threat. 

The notion passed, that history belonged to a person that felt different than himself, or at least he wished were someone else. Because the overtone of it was red, dark and sticky crimson, it was a dangerous path of dark nights and bitter winters. Monsters, yes, and the only way to survive them was, ultimately, for a person to become one themselves. The problem was, that struggle August knew would follow his steps his entire life, was that after being one it was no clear cut way back and something, tiny dark spaces, would always exist in a person. Blood left stains, wounds left scars, and people could never fully change from what they were at the very depths; try as he might he knew that, still, maybe he didn’t exactly belong there in that place with people who had only ever seen the human side of themselves. 

It was something that would always remain a wall between himself and the witch, one of his own crafting, because Ellery was a good person at his core and August, well, he couldn’t say the same for himself when he thought back on some days.   He didn’t need to be that, no, a survivor first and most things came after. But sometimes, looking at the witch in the middle of some mundane task and so entirely focused it settled over him how sheltered Ellery had lived.

He couldn’t fault it, the man was better for it in a great many ways in fact, maybe that was where the best in people really came from. But he couldn’t  relate to it, couldn’t even say that he knew how to step back from that position of watching over things and just take a breath without weighing things around him. 

It felt like different worlds, and he wished that wasn’t the case.

"Less comfort and more that sidewalks are a hazard to hooves, suffering the indignity of face-planting is something I avoid, much less how destroyed my apartment would be if I even tried to change there.” The idea was comical, but hopefully one that he’d never had need to test out. “And I appreciate it, but you work early mornings already, and you look mortified from just making the suggestion.” August countered with a lifted brow, he knew perfectly well that Ellery was not interested in running around in the woods when he could have been relaxing somewhere quiet during his mornings. “We’ll have plenty of practice anyway, and I still have yoga classes.” And the possibility of venturing out on his own when need be, it wasn’t as though he had anything to really be wary of in wandering the forest by himself. 

As they walked he let the sounds wash over him, the somewhat natural air of the place and the life there, even that wasn’t exactly like the real world above. That world was mostly dead, empty, it was a surreal feeling seeing what those places should have been. The scurry of small creatures, the warbling cry of birds, countless things crawling and creeping around. One sound though caught his ears and he paused, turned on a heel and still kept pace with the witch as he glanced back down the pathway; something nagged at him. 

“That’s strange, it almost sounded familiar.” Trailing off with the words, head tipped in an effort to place the one sound amid all the rest, but it all mulled together. Maybe thoughts of the past had skewed his perceptions though. Pushing it aside, he turned back forward to continue the walk and missed another step, the throaty sound barely reached his ears again, unnatural and not the typical long roll of birdsong but choppy, once, twice, three and finally four times before a drawn out call and a few more short notes. It was unmistakable and August stopped, eyes lifted to the treeline. Other than the very narrow chance that some actual wild bird had picked up a talent for chirping in codes, and honestly, he thought that almost more possible than the alternative. 

“There’s no way that’s not one of them,” August confirmed, mostly to himself, with that repeated call.  

Distracted, he stepped from the path and tried to trace the direction of the sound, feet crunching the leaves under those heavy boots as he roamed deeper into the woods, planted one heel against a small slope and hauled up, head still lifted to scan the branches above. When he finally did come to a step it was a the base of several trees, their limbs swaying slightly with the motion above and the uncurling of long legs and ivory feathers, a shadow cast and what should have been a graceful attempt but honestly those long legs were terrible about getting tangled up. 

So it was a half climb, barely flight, mostly stumble of lanky bird that ended up with two legs to the ground and a fluttering of wide, tapered wings and long neck folded inward somewhat; a mess. Head turned to train a large eye on the both of them, a strange hazy shade of soft sky blue, head tipped towards them both but mostly in curious study of that stranger as the heron fluffed about a bit and straightened a few out of place feathers before inclining that narrowed head and uttering a flustered version of a croaking sound. 

August reached and caught a wing lightly before it accidentally smacked Ellery in the skull, frowning at the out of joint appendage when trying to tuck it away left it at a bizarre angle. 

“How did you even…this isn’t new.” Not a result of a the near fall, but likely the cause of it. Frowning, he watched the heron tip that its’ head once again at his in an almost shrugged gesture, then cast another look towards the witch. “Yeah, I’ll explain in a minute, this first,” the words accented by the motion bringing that backpack forward and tossing it behind the tree.

“Now, I wouldn’t say they’re ‘unnatural’.” Ellery replied, feeling slightly offended on the fox’s behalf. “Sure, they’re a little unusual maybe, but, I mean—“ he broke off with a bit of an incredulous laugh. “We live in a world of curses and magic and poison air and walking corpses. There— there is no natural. We’re all just… whoever we are.”

The witch knew August was speaking from a place of love, but all the same, the comment rankled. Maybe it was because often Ellery felt that he was ‘unnatural’; unnatural in his lack of control, unnatural in his ever growing magic, unnatural in his crippling anxiety, unnatural in his desires. In the witch’s mind he was no more ‘natural’ than the two-toned familiar, the only difference perhaps that the familiar cared less about trying to hide the parts of themselves that made them peculiar.

Much of who Ellery was had come about as consequence of trying to appear as normal as possible for as long as he could. He’d foolishly cursed himself in an attempt to appear as if he were only a low magic witch, had fled to a new city far from anyone who might have known him, somewhere he could recreate himself. Even his career had been shaped by his discomfort with himself. He’d been tempted by the isolation of the hours, the small handful of people he would work with. It was only later that the passion and joy for baking had sparked within him, and for a long while he had thought he would be able to live out his days in his carefully crafted and controlled life of slivers of happiness. Or at least happily enough until death came for him, either from the curse devouring him from within, or by his own hand.

And then he’d gotten a taste of what he’d been missing all this time, of what he’d denied himself all these years. He’d met August, who wouldn’t just let him give up and fade away. August, who thought he was useful and worthwhile and a friend. August, who had peeled away the layers of normalcy Ellery had carefully wrapped himself in, had looked at all of the peculiarities hidden inside, and had found him wanting for nothing.

Ellery glanced at August’s profile as they walked, at the familiarity he found there. The witch felt his heart flutter in his chest, swelling with emotion, and he knew:

He was well and truly fucked.

“No, I haven’t seen any sort of temper.” the witch admitted hastily, tearing his eyes away and focussing on the trail again. He couldn’t trust his exercise wobbly legs not to get caught on a wayward root and send him sprawling in the dirt. “Which I guess— it’s always nice to know you haven’t pissed a person off enough for them to get angry with you.”

And sure, Ellery definitely did his best to keep October’s sweet tooth satisfied with all sorts of treats brought home from the bakery. The man wasn’t going to not use his best skill toward getting on someone’s good side, via their stomach. A little bribery was okay, from time to time.

It was true though, that the young fox very much suited the description of a person with their ‘head in the clouds’. Though they might be there in the room with you physically, Ellery often got the impression that their mind was somewhere else, having conversations and experiences that would be inexplicable to anyone other than themselves. And the things they knew…

Ellery shivered a little as they walked.

August was right, the witch hated to think about what might happen if October’s wanderings were paired with their disregard for clothing. The absolute scandal it would cause!

“I guess I never really thought about magic fatigue much.” Ellery confessed, a little sheepish in his ignorance. “I supposed because it’s not something I’ve ever had to worry about, mostly because I just never used my magic.”

The witch knew that these little practice sessions were as much to flex his casting stamina as they were to teach him control. It was usually something children learned throughout their magical growth, their body’s tolerance for using magic growing right along side the force itself. But once again, Ellery was proving to be atypical in both education and experience. He sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You’re right, best not to over do it.”

The last thing either of them needed now was the witch laid up for days because he’d over did it with magic practice and was now suffering the flu like results of that cockiness. Especially since Ellery admittedly did not handle feeling under the weather with anything close to grace, and he didn’t think it was really fair to force his less than pleasant company on August while he was still freeloading on his couch.

He didn’t miss the amused tilt of the stag’s lips as he appraised Ellery’s carefully composed layers of sweaters and tweed. A part of him warmed at the expression, in a way that had nothing to do with the heated dampness he could still feel around his collar and beneath his arms. He was sweaty and uncomfortable, yes, but at least August had found some amusement in it. It was yet another sign that both of them seemed to be settling into their friendship with a new layer of comfort, August trusting that Ellery wouldn’t take his playful prodding seriously, and Ellery trusting that the familiar knew where the witch’s protective boundaries lay and wouldn’t knowingly cross them.

“You know, at least I keep things interesting?” Ellery offered with a lopsided smile, sidling closer to dare to give August a bump with his shoulder. “You never know just how things will go wrong, when it comes to me.”

For all of August’s experience living with witches, growing alongside them and seeing how proper witches behaved, he was still feeling along as blindly as Ellery was in this attempt at training. Still, they were figuring it out together, and for that Ellery would always be thankful. Gaia had truly blessed him that afternoon when he’d accidentally met August in the forest for that very first time. Of all the people who could have been there that day, She had brought him the one who had been so perfectly suited for the task of saving the witch from himself.

Ellery smiled as he followed alongside August, eyes drawn to the familiar as they always were. Yes, he had done a fine job of helping the witch turn his life around. Now they just needed to make sure he kept on track.

“I would have liked to see you fight,” Ellery murmured without thinking, caught up in the scene in his head. The pale stag was already something torn right from the pages of his coven’s mythology, to see that all of that awesome strength and majesty at its deadliest… crimson blood splashed over white fur flashed through his mind, and El shivered in the cooling autumn air. “After today, I can’t imagine anything even wanting to go head to head with you in your stag aspect. You’re… immutable.”

And then he blushed and quickly looked away out into the forest as if something else had caught his attention. Waxing poetic about seeing a big giant deer man stomping something else into bloody tatters, really Ellery, how was that appropriate? Especially in that almost wistful tone of voice?

“I hadn’t considered that hooves and pavement wouldn’t be a good mix.” Ellery said consideringly, picturing those elegant legs suddenly splayed and scrambling to keep the heaving mass of the stag upright on Caelestis sidewalks. He fought against the smile he could already feel dragging his lips into a curve. “I do have a yard, you know.” Ellery remarked, brows knitting together hopefully as the idea blossomed in his head. “I don’t think you had a chance to see it that night, when you met— well, when we were at my house. But I have a yard, and it’s got grass and dirt and trees, and a really quite lovely gazebo that I’ve trained wisteria to climb and oh my garden, I haven’t watered anything in—“ he shook his head, pulling back from the distracting and somewhat devastating train of thought.

He continued.

“Anyway, it’s obviously not anything compared to all of this,” the witch gestured broadly at the sweeping forest of grey-white trunks and richly colored leaves, “But you’d be able to at least have a quick stretch if you wanted, without having to come all the way out here.”

And if it also meant that he got to see August, possibly naked, in his backyard? Well, why wouldn’t he want that? Especially if it meant he never ever had to run in the mornings. Ever.

The witch laughed, and shrugged off August’s teasing. They had both called his bluff, the last thing that Ellery wanted to do was make their recent sprint through the forest an organized and ongoing event. Yes, it had been fun. Yes, it might have been something he’d dreamed of doing as a young child when he’d first learned about the mythical and mysterious antlered spirits of forests long since gone.

But he was so sweaty.

Ellery shuddered, picking at his collar to bring a cool flash of air into the heated space between his innermost layer of sweater and his sweat dampened skin.

“I appreciate you calling my bluff.” the witch chuckled with a look of relief, “I don’t really do organized activities that involve sweating, like going for runs or spending time at the gym. Which, combined with the amount of pastries I eat and my fondness for wine, I’m thankful that I’m not even softer than I am.” He pinched at the thin layer of padding fat beneath his sweater, having long since accepted that since he was unlikely to suddenly enjoy intentional exercise or stop liking tasty things like croissants and Sauvignon Blancs anytime soon, this was the best his body was ever going to look. Especially considering that the surface area of scar tissue had been steadily growing, and Ellery did not think there were many out there who thought the addition of more stylized scarification increased his attractiveness.

He stopped in his tracks when his brain caught up to August’s words, and he had to take a few hurried strides to catch back up to the familiar. Yoga? August, black leather wearing, sharp tongued, multi pierced, mortician August did yoga? Skin tight leggings and pretzel like positions flashed through his head, and the witch spoke before he had a chance to really consider what he was saying.

“I’ve always wanted to try yoga. Maybe I could come along to your next session?”

He blinked incredulously at August, surprised at himself but unsure how to backpedal from his libido having invited him to go do stretchy yoga things with August in a hot room full of other people. The witch floundered for a moment, and then offered up a weak smile. “It’s supposed to be calming, right?”

Calming, right. As if he was going to be anything resembling calm while standing in the same room as August doing a downward dog or whatever. This was going to be a disaster. And that wasn’t even considering that at some point he too would have to do those bendy balancing poses! Taking his own inflexibility and relative state of eternal clumsiness into account, Ellery didn’t think there was much hope of him being able to do much more than stand there and try to touch his shins without feeling like the backs of his legs were on fire. He was just too tall to be that flexible, yes, that was it! Never mind that August was a scant inch or so shorter than he was, Ellery was simply too tall, which August would tell him, and therefor he would be saved from the embarrassment of having to try to do yoga with an obvious erection.  

So engrossed was he in his own thoughts of impeding yoga related doom, the witch missed August’s remark, and only caught that there was something unusual happening when he realized the familiar was no longer walking along side him.

“Sorry, what?” He turned, just catching August’s dark shape disappearing off the path. “Ah, wha—“ Ellery gaped open mouthed, before hurrying along and delving into the underbrush behind him. For all of the grace that August’s slender shape cut through the ungroomed forest, Ellery followed after with the grace of a drunken giraffe. He ducked under branches, caught small twigs in his hair, and nearly lost an eye to a broken branch he stumbled into when trying to untangle himself from a thicket of brambles August had easily breezed right by. He scrambled up the small slope August had disappeared over and stumbled to a halt a few feet behind him, a small scratch burning along a cheekbone, sweating and slightly out of breath all over again.

“August, what—“ he began in a slightly upset tone, but the complaint died in his throat as he caught sight of the massive white and black bird perched indelicately in one of the trees before them. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open into a shocked ‘oh’. This… was not what he was expecting to find. The bird appeared to half fall out of the tree, barely getting those impossibly thin legs sorted in time to catch itself. Massive white and black wings stretched in the small space, narrowly missing the witch’s head as August’s hand darted up to catch the wayward limb.

Ellery blinked at the bird, confusion apparent in the twist of his dark eyebrows. He had spend enough time around August and October now to recognize the faint tingle of his magic recognizing the corresponding magic of a familiar, but as he stood there peering down at the ruffled feathers he felt… nothing? Was this just a bird? A regular, totally normal and completely non magical giant bird?

 That scarlet capped head twisted elegantly on its long neck to fix a pale blue eye on the witch with an intelligent curiosity, and Ellery knew with certainty that this was far from a normal bird. Pale eyes and the familiarity with August caught that wayward wing to tenderly tuck it back up against the softness of the heron’s body left little doubt in the witch’s mind: this was another sibling.

Which meant that this would likely soon be another naked sibling.

“Here, they’ll be cold if they shift back.” Ellery quickly shrugged out of his coat, cautiously edging closer to August to offer the heavy tweed garment. Worry lined his forehead as he finally caught the uncomfortable hang of that out of place wing.

“Oh,” he breathed, concern heavy in his voice. “You’re hurt.”

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter​:

It was an odd realization but one that struck him each time with those changes just how strange humans were in their design. How off-balanced they looked, how small in comparison when he knew it would have taken only the crashing land of a single wide hoof to snap apart the delicate cage of their ribs, to split the curve of their skulls and leave everything to spill out onto the messy ground. It was a terrible thought with hungry eyes but it was also very true. He stepped more lightly, with a degree of caution, when it came to being around humans when he had abandoned that form himself for a time. Ellery was tall, broad at the shoulders, but even so the same bones rested under his skin, the same tediously fragile organs lay even further inside; it was little wonder that back home what passed as a future was hinged upon the physical design of his race rather than the witches. It should have been a give and take, magic that dwelt within delicate bodies counterpoint to strength in inhuman ones but there had been very little that didn’t fall more to an uneven balance in those days. 

Even as his magic tested, twisted and tempted the bare edges of Ellery’s, that awareness remained in the back of his mind. It was useless anymore, the city wasn’t built upon the same needs as the world above. At times August felt misplaced because of that, saving grace in his ability to adapt and his intellect, but part of him still held to that odd sensation of not quite fitting into the paces of the city and a world set up for those who sought peace so eagerly, made for it in a way that he hadn’t been designed. 

Still, he could keep the wayward notions silent, every day he found ways to fit the spaces necessary, but it still wasn’t fully settled right under his skin. In those moments, when that skin was braced to the wind and he felt unhindered, he nearly forgot some of the weight that rested on his shoulders. 

Watching Ellery was comical at times, the offset of how much the man sought peace himself in who he was, but that was nothing he could lead him to. A nudge, perhaps, here and there, but it was the witch’s path.  There was a fearless strength in that form, a feeling close to invincible, even to his own perplexing feelings when it came to Ellery. It wasn’t something he could capture with ease, wrap his fingers around and pull in closer when his mind was burdened with a million other thoughts in the day to day, but that clarity felt pleasant for the time he could dwell in it. 

Later, he knew, the questions would return and the world would feel the same but less clear, less direct, the overlap of human emotions was a complicated idea that did not grant easy answers. If they had, well, perhaps things would have been very different between the two of them, the past wouldn’t feel like such a looming monster and his own reflection wouldn’t hold the strains of old bloodshed. And even of then still did the overcast of them wouldn’t feel so strong, wouldn’t have mattered as much, because the human mind had a way of taking every detail and turning it into a tower of intense uncertainties that was often difficult to climb in comparison to how existence felt like simply that when it wasn’t overthought. Nothing was ever so simple, unfortunately. 

“Most of us would, clothes feel strange, but it is difficult to hold a conversation with people unless you’re dressed,” August pointed out with a chuckle that got lost in the muffled layers of fabric as he pulled his hoodie down over his head and mussed up his hair in the process. Social norms were an entire language in themselves, and within the city they were even more vast than they had been back home, riddled with details and the cultural expectations of too many races and upbringings to count. He couldn’t keep up with the finer details of every different background but the universal ones were enough. in most cases, and everybody had hangups over the idea of what was acceptable when it came to embarrassment over exposed skin. It was tedious, August hadn’t ever really felt embarrassed over that, but there had been different opinions among even his siblings, thanks to the influence of their mothers. There was some strange psychology to it all that fascinated him. 

“Already? I thought the day was just starting,” August countered as he tested the steadiness of his legs and found them sound. He was not as swift as some to acclimate from one form to the other the way some of his siblings did so with barely a blink. He felt the little pops and cracks of joints stressed from old injuries reminding him but, still, it was a lighter feeling than it used to be. Not too long past he would have doubted he had the strength to change at all, as thinly stretched as his magic always was. It was hardly magic’s fault his body in either case had a few old broken bones and frayed muscles to complain about, he’d taken long years earning them and if that meant reminders that even magic couldn’t fully ease over so be it.

It had been a longer morning than his muscles were giving credit for, it was just that pleasant energy after exertion that had settled over him, something he rarely felt within the confines of the city. It was exhaustively simple at times there, in comparison, the day to day motions were sluggish and practically like sleeping off half his life when he thought about how things used to be. There was no real challenge, that was one of the downsides to safety, mentally there was more burden but physically August felt entirely stagnant. 

“I need to exercise more, I forgot what it actually feels like to move,” he added with another rolling pop of his shoulder blades. Had forgotten the flex and feel of it, but of course that magic helped now that his body was constantly dealing with the hindrance of damage and strange sickness. He had Ellery to thank for that, and hadn’t forgotten it, especially right then. But the witch was tired, he didn’t want to push too far, so he settled for the idea and knew he could occupy himself while Ellery rested. Magic had a strain physically as well, and no doubt the witch was feeling it after everything that had happened. 

It wasn’t a great idea to return too directly to thoughts of the witch though, not when they were gleaning right at the edge of his mind in a taunting way, tempting him nearly as soon as he’d fully felt his feet on the ground and his eyes focus back; it was some vicious trick of the season that never gave him any peace. A few weeks though, he could survive that long, then there would be little left to sort out once the sway of the fall had left him. 

He held his tongue before speaking, a dozen stray comments about the rest of the day, and one in particular about the shower that left him tempted to laugh at himself under his breath if it wasn’t for the slight twinge of forlorn, askew tension under his skin that translated to want, misplaced or not. August drew a slow breath and set it aside, purposely directed his eyes away from sight and scent of the other man when both were equally distracting, and watched the trees while Ellery sorted himself out. 

“Alright, home,” he confirmed, home with its’ walls and quiet spots and doors that gave him a bit of room to breathe; restless energy was going to plague him all day. August retrieved his backpack and left the strap to hang long and lower from the sharp peak of his shoulders, listening to the crunch of leaves under his boots as he stepped back towards the path. But something was nagging at him, not the sort of frustrated nagging he knew was connected to the witch’s presence but something else, digging under his skin without direction. He couldn’t sort it out, but it made his steps slow, distracted, something that held him back from leaving.

Ellery flushed a little at August’s mention of holding conversations while nude, knowing the familiar was poking fun at Ellery’s very obvious sense of discomfort when it came to more than the average amount of exposed skin. The witch cleared his throat, casting the thankfully now dressed man a sheepish look.

“I’m sure I would— er— get used to it, if October really insisted on remaining in their, uh, natural state.” he replied, memories of the fox’s naked ass perched on his marble bakery countertops flashing through his head. He flushed, carefully studying the crimson leaves beneath his boots. So maybe he wouldn’t ‘get used to it’, but all the same, he would hate for his comfort to be the reason for someone else’s discomfort. The last thing Ellery wanted to do was step on anyone’s toes.

Plus, he was starting to understand the young fox a little better, after so much time sharing space with them. With October there was nothing sexual about their nudity. It was now thankfully rare, times that they surprised Ellery by shifting into human form and sliding out from beneath the couch in a sprawl of pale limbs and marbled hair, or they found the pastry Ellery had given them to be too messy for paws and fur but all of that honey would wash off of bare skin much more easily. All of that was just… October.

Still, Ellery was thankful that August didn’t have his sibling’s very relaxed regard of nudity, or at least not while the witch was bunking on his couch. He didn’t think he could have survived it, seeing as much of August as he’d now seen of his younger sibling. That would be— Ellery shook his head slightly at the thought— simply too much. He was only a witch after all, and praying to Gaia for strength had nothing on the way his pulse rushed anytime August drew near.

Ellery glanced down at his watch. Even with the late start they’d gotten to the day after their late night confessions and leisurely morning sleeping in, it was still barely past noon. He flushed a little. August was right, the day had barely started, and really, it would be good to try and put in more time practicing with the familiar out there in the woods. But drying sweat prickled along his hairline and around his collar, reminding him distinctly of just why he wanted to get back to the apartment with haste.

“We can still do things!” Ellery assured quickly, hoping that August wasn’t upset he was unexpectedly cutting the day short. “I just wasn’t prepared for this amount of running, or sweating.” Ellery confessed, overly aware of the damp heat trapped against his skin by layers of wool and tweed. “I would have worn, well… not this.”

Bundled up in the kind of layers he usually didn’t pull out until a little further in the winter, the witch definitely hadn’t dressed for anything more vigorous than the leisurely walk from city to forest. Not that he really had ‘work out’ clothes, per say. Most of the witch’s physical activity came from laboring in the sweltering heat of the bakery nearly every day of the week, which was something he was surprisingly thankful for. Ellery never had been much for organized athletics, and with his affinity for rich morsels and bread his eating habits could have very quickly gotten out of hand.

Still, wearing the loose slacks and lightweight cotton shirt he usually donned at the bakery would have been a much better option than his layers of carefully coordinated sweaters and wool.

Now, Ellery was left feeling quite uncomfortable and more than a little worried he was starting to stink. With how sensitive he now knew August’s nose to be, the witch had gotten somewhat self conscious about any body odor he might be experiencing, offensive or otherwise. To complicate matters even more, it hadn’t taken him long to notice that some of his scented care products seemed to bother August just as much as something like burning sugar would bother his own nose. The witch might not be the most observant person, but it was hard to miss the familiar wrinkling his nose or doing his best to stick as far away from the witch as he could while still sharing the small apartment.

So Ellery had limited himself down to a few complimentary scents that he could barely pick up on his skin, ones that didn’t seem to cause the familiar any undue strife. And he was studying in his free time how to craft his own hygiene products, in hopes of being able to use natural scents that would be even more appealing than what he’d settled on for the moment.

Still, what he wouldn’t give to be wearing a strong deodorant right now.

“It didn’t look to me like you had any issues with moving.” the witch retorted, thinking of the easy lope the stag had adopted as he followed leisurely along behind Ellery’s fevered sprint. It had been mesmerizing, seeing the speed and easy grace the towering stag had possessed as he maneuvered through the trees. The sharp points of his antlers had gleamed wickedly in the dappled sunlight, adding a silent threat that had thrilled down Ellery’s spine and settled in unexpected places the witch didn’t care to inspect too closely. At least not while he was so close to August.

It wasn’t that he was attracted to the stag. Ellery knew he had his fair share of kinks but they didn’t go so far as to find four legs and a healthy coat of fur a big turn on. No, that wasn’t it at all. Over his time getting to know August, living with him, becoming his friend even, the witch had slowly come to realize that it was the man’s strength that he found so toe-curlingly attractive. And sure, obviously he was physically strong, both by nature of his species and by the towering build he was born with. But his strength of character was something Ellery had found August carried through and through.

Ellery so very often felt vulnerable and weak. He craved to be near that strength, to be sheltered by it, and to hopefully learn from it so that he could build up a strength of his own. And, when he admitted it to himself in the privacy of his own head, he craved to be a lot more than just near that strength. Under it, over it, squeezed into his tiny office at the bakery with it, standing beside it in line at the grocery store while thinking about what it would do to him when they got home, tangled up in it until he could barely breath but for the absolute joy of being with it.

The witch cleared his throat, glad to set off along the pathway he by now knew lead back to the edge of the forest closest to August’s apartment. He really needed that shower, the time alone in it just as much as the wash.

“I know the city isn’t a comfortable place for you when you’re in your other form, but I you could always come—“ the witch gestured, pumping his arms at his sides, miming a steady run, “out here. And— uh, well— I, er, I could use the cardio, if you ever wanted company.”

Ellery trailed off, his heart thundering in his ears in the wake of his proposal. What on Gaia’s Blessed Earth was he doing, volunteering for physical activity? That wasn’t like him. He hated running! And what would he do if August actually accepted his offer, and dragged him out to lope around in the woods in the wee hours of the morning? The witch grimaced at himself as they walked.

As if that was even a question. If August invited him for a run, Ellery knew exactly what he’d do. Ellery sighed, and vowed to himself to shop around for some athletic gear and running shoes as soon as he was able.

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter‌:

From his spot among the leaves and bits of brush August studied the awkward collection of disjointed parts that the witch was. If not for having been born in the same sort of body, because regardless of what some might have claimed his own species was indeed born human in make and learned to shed that form later in life, he might have puzzled how it was that people accomplished anything with those ill-designed bodies. His own was comfortable enough, he’d never felt distance from it anymore than he had his other form. Some found it a struggle to find a comfortable spot in both, made a habit of keeping more to one side with fur and claws as October or only resorted to such things in dire necessity and preferred to be human as his brother September did, but August had never looked to himself as something fully human or fully not so much as something between the two. 

And it seemed, in both forms, there was nothing out of balance to him, some subtle gift in grace and form that, perhaps, came from what he was. Watching humans though left him bemused at how they stumbled about on stilted legs and struggled to convince their bodies to do as they wished in spite of having always worn the same one since birth. 

His head tipped, neck craned just barely, while Ellery worked out the stiff muscles and gave himself more sore spots to deal with later. The man was a bit out of shape, all the more amusing for someone who was so obviously strong given the sort of tasks he carried out at the bakery day to day. It was a stark difference in the life he had known and the one the witch had lived; honed muscles had been for the sake of survival. But he didn’t mind that, there was something to it, Ellery’s little quirks and the differences, that he found endearing. Perhaps not the best at the task of living in a harsher world but it came from a place of not needing to. And in that spot instead were different strengths; empathy, kindness, even a sort of resolve he had begun to see grow within the witch and all those things were just as admirable as physical prowess. 

Not that he was dismissing the physical, August couldn’t really say that with any truth to it, but his thoughts were clearer in the light breeze and not as tangled in distractions that would come back to revisit him later, no doubt.  Of course they would, until the damned season let go that hold on him it seemed he would be spending most of his nights entertaining dreams that he couldn’t decide if he wanted to wake too soon from to spare himself the awkward feelings or to linger in, awkwardness be damned, for the escape they offered.  Human bodies were treacherous that way, yes, never fully something to trust when the mind was so entirely distracted in the depths of sleep. 

His ears twitched with the breeze, the words, and with it came the traces of magic still scattering in Ellery’s presence. He welcomed it, the warmth, the coil of power just at the edges of his own, not nearly as wary of overstepping it as he might have been before. Those too were slotting into comfortable spaces, the back of his mind uttered warnings over what it could mean and even in that looming form he felt an ancient sting where his wrist might have been if he’d had close enough to a human one at the time. But the fear was muted, he knew his control, knew he could match what the witch’s magic tested with, perhaps not stronger than it but on level enough ground as to push it away if necessary. 

He doubted that to be the case, but with every bit of control Ellery also learned with time he grew more certain of it; once the witch could master his own magic then there would be no need to keep a wary eye just in case that power pushed too far on his own. Time, perhaps, was what that would take. 

When Ellery spoke he drew a deep breath, reluctant himself to leave that spot. It was that soft voice under his skin, something that wasn’t human that his species always felt in a way, a cry to remain in the natural world rather than return to the paces of men. There it was peaceful, calm and placid; something to the setting was a forgotten comfort. The forests he had known above had seen him as a demon, a monster with vicious teeth, and that was the creature he was content to be because the skeleton trees and the dust-soaked ground were unkind. But there, even thought it might have been crafted by men rather than had sprung forth from Gaia’s hand, still, he could see why it was that so many of his kind felt as though they were part of it. Not a demon there, the impulse he felt was more a watchdog, a guard over those delicate spots and beautiful places where wild things grew. It was oddly pleasant, inviting, but of course it wasn’t for him. As much as he might have courted the idea August knew he was not meant to forget how to be a human, to abandon the responsibilities he knew and the trappings it held. Just as well, what would he have done spending his time away in the forest anyway? 

With the same slow ease he rose to his feet and stepped away, eyes trailing Ellery in passing and his head dipped for the barest instant to nearly touch his forehead to the witch’s as he regarded him, then continued onward. He kept those steps slow, unhurried, now and then pausing when the witch’s own unsteady paces favored one side or the other so that he could wait for him. Everything felt so resoundingly simple, a sort of simplicity that August had not known since he had been a child too small to be expected to do anything but only exist. There was the moment, the skies above and the ground below, there was Ellery’s presence with him and outside that fragment of time everything else waited. He indulged it, if only a little, and savored what he could of the feeling. Unable to speak of it, not in any way the witch could have heard, he kept that feeling secret and to himself as he let it wash over him. 

But too soon it had to end, the spell woven by the moment had to break, the path spread before them became familiar and slowly reached an end. With it of course they were back at the start, already the fallen leaves had erased the steps they had upset them with earlier, nature wiping the slate back clean and dusting away the footprints under a newer blanket of fallen orange and crimson. August reached the tree where he’d tucked away his possessions before and paused near it to wait, not wanting to catch Ellery of guard and to give the witch time to move past that spot. Because it was a simple thing to change forms, his back to the other man in doing so, but of course the stipulation that came along with it was bare skin where fur had once been. 

By the time his muscles and joints had situated themselves back into the shape of human he had already reached for his jeans, barefoot amid the leaves but at the very least he supposed some degree of modesty was in order. Silly thing, that, how people lived in such anxiety over each other’s bodies, but August knew it was a strange trait they were all taught, even those like himself. The lesson just never stuck as well with his race, not really, and it was more a matter of the comfort of others than some scrambling for his own that made him follow those rules. 

Still, clothes were hardly that much of a burden, they just never felt right on his skin after returning to that form, as though he had to adjust to the feel of fabric anew each and every time. It made him sluggish with the effort, buttoning his jeans rather than quick to it, every time it caught his attention. “It’s weird how constrictive clothes are and you don’t notice it until you have to wear them,” he mused with a shake of his head, speaking somewhat to hear the sound of his own voice, “but everything is strange at first going back to being human.”

There was a bittersweet ache in Ellery’s chest as he walked along side the towering stag through the pained reds and oranges of the forest. There was something different about the air between them here, something uniquely wonderful that Ellery could feel fading away with every step they took toward the clearing where their belongings still sat. The witch’s attention turned inwards, blindly navigating by August’s presence which he could feel against his magic as clearly as he would head against skin. What was it that had been different? What was he afraid of losing, that made tension creep into his shoulders and a dull ache to settle around his heart?

Maybe it was a closeness that he was mourning, the pair of them somehow granted freedom from the restrictions they’d placed upon themselves however unwittingly while in the bustle of the city. It had been different here, in the seclusion of the trees. Ellery had felt like he’d finally had space to breathe, confident both in their distance from the city and in August’s steady presence. He’d carried less worry about how his magic might react, about what damage it may do it he were to lose control in the tight confines of the populated city.

That spot of skin between his brows still seemed warmed by that near brush of August’s broad forehead against his own, a brief moment that still replayed in Ellery’s mind as they walked. Twin arches of pale bone lowering around his ears, hot breath puffing against his skin, and a fleeting thought that though the musky warmth of the stag’s scent was entirely wild there was still something undeniably, familiarly August that ran within it. There was no more than a faint tickle of fur to his brow before August had moved away toward the gap between the trees through which Ellery could see the path winding away, back toward where they’d come.

Some part of him longed for it, the firm press of his forehead and the bridge of his nose to the strong plane of August’s face where it sloped smoothly from antlers to velvety nose. He imagined the comforting solidarity, the centering calmness that would come with it as he attuned his breath to the warm huffs of August’s against his chest. It was too intimate perhaps, that sort of lingering contact and unspoken familiarity reserved for people who knew each other completely in body and soul. Something not meant for him, or at least not right now.

It was with an odd sort of melancholy that Ellery stepped through into the clearing behind August, wandering past the pale bulk of his form to fish his water bottle out from where it had been buried in a pile of leaves at the base of the tree he’d sat under earlier. It wasn’t until he held the bottle in his hands that it felt like the thirst he’d worked up during his impromptu sprint through the trees had caught up to him in a sudden demand for water. He hurriedly unscrewed the cap and sucked down the cool water inside, not even caring about the faintly metallic taste from his water bottle.

Until August’s voice startled him into a sputter, spilling water from around the edges of the bottle to darken splotches down his sweater. Coughing a little, he busied himself with tightening the top back onto his water bottle and steadfastly trying to ignore the sudden awareness he had of August’s state of undress not too far behind him. Ellery listened to fabric rustling quietly, the familiar sound of buttons somewhat of a relief when it finally came. At the very least August had his pants safely done up, enough for the witch to risk a quick peek over his shoulder, some of the nervousness melting from his frame when he caught only the barest glimpse of exposed stomach as August tugged on his shirt.

He laughed a little at August’s remark, cheeks pink. “I imagine that is why it was such an argument to get October to agree to it, when they’re human.”

Ellery watched August finish slipping the last of his outerwear and shoes on, now able to recognize the same innate grace in his movements as he’d had in his stag aspect. There were a lot of shared similarities between those two forms, both of them pale and long of limb, strength hidden in a deceptively beautiful wrapping, and ice blue eyes just as emotive as they were guarded. They were August, in ways that Ellery hadn’t known he would be able to identify, something that now he felt much more confident in.

“I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like. Being around you in your other, er, other shape.” Ellery admitted a little sheepishly, still shyly taking quick glancing looks at the familiar, as if he had to reacclimatize himself to the sight of him in this form. “But, it was…”

He trailed off with a soft smile, shrugging a little helplessly at his speechlessness. He was still trying to process his feelings himself, at a loss for words to explain the complete sense of peace he had experienced, or the giddy joy that had sung through his veins as they’d raced together beneath the painted boughs of the trees. He was half afraid August would think him foolish for it, the other man far more experienced with all things relating to magic and the complicated relationships between witches and familiars. Maybe this was all normal, and Ellery was just making a bigger deal of it than necessary.

That was probably the most likely explanation, Ellery decided with a little twitch of his shoulders. He always did make mountains out of molehills. Turning a perfectly normal experience into something spiritual and life affirming was very much in line with his usual tendencies.

Ellery shook away the thought, turning a rueful look on August. “Lets go home. I don’t know about you, I’m very much in need of a shower.”

It had been a long day, to say the least. A hot shower and a glass of wine sounded absolutely delightful. And if that shower lingered a little long over thoughts of August made much clearer by  those brief glimpses of bared pale skin, who was to know any wiser?

[ellerytanninrp]

The First Feast

The first drops of rain pattered softly against the glass high above his head, filling the gentle darkness with a quiet sort of music that settled like a balm around the witch’s shoulders.Sharp and fragrant smoke from a hardwood fire clung to his clothes, evidence of time spent sitting beside the bonfire that still flickered a fading orange through the rippled glass of the greenhouse windows. Sleep called to him along the edges of his thoughts, his bed seeming a welcoming place after the day’s activities of cooking, feasting, and running full tilt along with the general chaos that always seemed to accompany August and his family.

March had been characteristically inappropriate and prone to the kind of mischief that kept Ellery in a constant state of generalized anxiety for most of the day, June had been delightfully helpful in the kitchen with plating the feast for that night, by now well attuned to working with the witch in the kitchen from their time spent living and working together, and October had disappeared in the depths of the house for three hours before reappearing as if no time had passed at all. May had kept mostly to the garden, more comfortable in the open air and keeping well away from Ellery and the uncomfortable strength of his magic. 

Ezra and his strange companion Hart had even come out to join them. Ellery was thankful for the other witch’s calming presence, even when it was accompanied by the boisterous energy of the eagle, whose jovial good nature was sometimes overshadowed by his overwhelming confidence that occasionally led to ruffled feathers when it came to interacting with the other familiars around Ezra. While the quiet witch was far from sharing the same hedgewitch background and beliefs that Ellery held, Ellery still felt that there was more of an understanding there, a sort of unspoken kinship between them in the midst of all of the familiars. Everett too joined the party, appearing near nightfall when they all gathered around the roaring heat of the bonfire, bellies full from the feast, and enjoying the warmth of the fire in the slowly cooling night air.  

And August? August had done his best to manage the whole lot of them, navigating the day with the watchful precision of a herding dog looking after an unruly flock. 

He was there, redirecting March when he could see Ellery was wearing thin, helping to keep a comfortable distance between May and the witch he still wasn’t comfortable being around. He helped ferry bowls and platters heaped with food out into the garden where he and Ellery had set up a long table and chairs the night before. In the moments that were loud and full of life and chaos and vibrant joy, he was there sharing a secret look with the witch across the room, eyes warm and lips turned up with a hint of the smile reserved just for him. Somehow despite the number of people milling about throughout the day, August still found quiet moment to share with the witch, a soft brush of a hand against Ellery’s hip, a low murmured check in, a long moment where it was just the two of them in the kitchen standing hip to hip, looking out at their gathered friends and family enjoying themselves beneath the bright sunlight of Ellery’s back yard. And when the time came, August set match to kindling and lit the bonfire that they all sat around well into the night.

Yes, Ellery was tired. Still, the witch wore a soft smile on his face as he quietly walked through the darkness, blindly following the earthy path that wandered through the beds of plant life and collections of pots that burst with leafy greens. It was a path he knew well, one he’d followed many times in both the bright light of day and the silvery kiss of moonlight. This was where he felt most connected; to the rich soil of the earth, the gentle thrum of life, and the wellspring of his magic. There was a falseness to it, hints of the artificial hand of man in the loaminess of the soil, the perfection of the leaves, even in the clean sweetness of the air. Still, after a decade of being removed from the wildness of the world above, Ellery had found the gentle warmth of his goddess most right here in the quiet embrace of his greenhouse. 

So here it was that he came to pray, to worship at the modest altar hidden away beneath the boughs of his lemon tree and the trailing vines of ivy. The earthen trail beneath his feet gave way to smooth cobblestone as he stepped into the little clearing there in the depths of the greenhouse. The white shape of a clawfoot tub loomed out of the darkness, a heavy counterpoint to the small table and single chair tucked opposite it across the circular clearing. And there at the westernmost point of the clearing sat his altar, a weathered stump polished flat and smooth on top and flowing into a tight tangle of roots that Ellery had so carefully and lovingly nestled back into the earth. He’d found the stump, remains of a tree unsuccessfully transplanted from the world above and abandoned to the pile of organic matter the dome recycled into useful soil and fuel. Dirty and broken, it had called to him, and so with the help of men much stronger than him, he’d brought it home and designed his greenhouse around it. Lovingly he had labored over it, smoothing the top until it was soft and snag free, steeping rich oils into the wood until it glowed with warmth and life and all of the energy and love he had poured into it. 

Ellery kneeled as he came upon it, knees easily finding the soft divots worn into the cobblestones after a decade of worship and meditation, his head bowing briefly as he offered up the laden tray he had been carrying. One by one he placed its contents upon the smooth surface of the stump; a small bowl that held coals still glowing from the fire, a cream colored plate of morsels saved from the day’s feast that though cool now still held a fragrant delight, a small bundle of honeysuckle and mint tied tightly with a yellow ribbon. 

Beltane; a celebration of the fire of the sun returning to drive away the lingering chills of winter, to ruminate on the virility of nature as time turned toward summer and the harvest began to bloom. A day to give thanks to Gaia for sheltering her creations during the long dark cold of winter, and to reaffirm the promise of tending her gardens as the warmth of summer comes. While there were other holidays that Ellery held closer to his heart, there was always a sense of relief and renewal that came with his time spent before the May Day bonfire each year, and it was with that lightness of heart that he leaned in to gently blow upon the cup of coals and stoke them into a brighter glow. A thin trail of smoke twisted up from them, and it was this that Ellery tangled his fingers through as he closed his eyes and bowed his head to give thanks.

There were words he could have said, long and sprawling refrains he had fuzzy memories of being chanted by the hedgewitch elders and sung by the May Queen. But it had been many years since Ellery’s spiritualism had been anything but private moments of connection and thanks between himself and his goddess. What need was there for speech when she could see into his heart, and know the truth of it? 

No, instead he held the fullest picture of his gratitude in his mind, and offered it up to Gaia in the twisting magic of his breath. 

Memories of the day played through his head, flashes of smiles, the sound of more laughter and voices than his home had seen in years, words of praise and appreciation shared over full plates and shared bottles of wine, warm firelight flickering over the faces of people he had come to treasure having in his life, despite the challenges that sometimes came with it. Friends and family, coming together and celebrating a holiday that wasn’t their own, because it had mattered to him. 

And August, always August. The stag had  long since become a strong presence in these quiet moments of communion, another facet of understanding being added to the picture Ellery held in his heart with each day that passed by. The pale blue flash of his eyes, the curl of his smile, the low timber of his voice when he let the witch catch him in song, the gentle guidance of his hands as he helped nurture their relationship into something new, the grace with which he bore the burden of leading his siblings into their new life below the sea, the fierce dedication with which he protected his own, the feel of his body pressed closely against the witch’s own, breath intermingled in the quiet calm of sleep. All of this swelled within Ellery’s heart, pressed up into a thickness of emotion that lingered in his throat even as he smiled at the joy of it. 

Love. All of this was what love is, and he offered up his gratitude for it. Rain pattered quietly overhead, and in the dark loaminess of his greenhouse Ellery prayed. 

When he opened his eyes again, the glow of the coals had sputtered and died, the barest trail of smoke winding between his still outstretched fingers. Gently, Ellery dug into the earth between two twisted roots, parting the soil to make a small depression. There he tipped the still warm cinders, covering them with cool earth, returning the burned hardwood to Gaia’s embrace as he too would be when his body was cool and spent of life. 

The speckled cream colored plate of food he took and placed on the ground over the freshly covered cinders. He would leave it overnight, knowing that some creature, be it fae or familiar, would come and partake of it. This too was a way of worshipping Gaia, giving back to her creations with the nourishment she had grown for them. Thinking of the times he’d found the shallow imprint of fox paws in the soft dirt of the greenhouse path, Ellery had a lingering notion of who might be enjoying the honey cakes and slivers of smoked turkey before dawn. 

The small bouquet of fragrant honeysuckle and mint he left, shining pale on the dark wood of the altar. He would leave it there until it dried, when it would then be tucked safely away until the next year’s Beltane, when he would reuse the butter yellow ribbon to tie a new bundle of flower and herb and nest the dried one amongst the logs of the bonfire to add its fragrance to that of the burning wood. Like all things, it was a cycle, and one he honored in its simplicity. 

Rain splattered heavier on the glass above him and the last of the bonfire’s dying glow was extinguished. It would be hours yet before the artificial sky lightened behind the manufactured rainclouds overhead, but the witch knew to it to be in the wee hours of the morning of the first of May. Feeling all of the subtle aches exhaustion brought finally set in, Ellery levered himself to his feet and walked the meandering path back to the greenhouse door which he left ajar as he stepped through out into the rain. After all, foxes didn’t have thumbs. 

Ellery paused as he crossed the damp lawn toward the backdoor of his house, face upturned into the cool of the falling rain. The smell of smoke would linger yet in his hair and on his skin, but the cleansing rain would temper it somewhat, hopefully enough to not disturb August’s sensitive nose. The witch shivered as a trickle of rain dripped down the back of his neck, and finally hurried the last few yards to the back door and into the quiet warmth of his house.  He listened as he toed off damp shoes at the mud room’s welcome mat. The silence that greeted him was a comfortable one, one that still hummed with the contentment of a happy house that had been filled to bursting with life and joy hours before. 

The witch didn’t bother to try and quiet his steps as he padded up the long hallway from the kitchen at the back of the house. Ellery slowed as he passed by the darkened entry to the living room, attention caught by the glow of blond hair in the low light and a flash of pale skin. March, tucked up on Ellery’s fussy emerald velvet couch. May, wrapped up in a blanket and sprawled on the rug alongside the couch. The witch smiled at the sight. Despite the differences between the various familiars, and the very real need for space between the strong willed siblings, it was good to see them seek the occasional comfort of closeness, knowing that even in their sleep the five of them could still somehow sense the others were near, gathered safe beneath one roof. 

Ellery tread the worn stairs up to the second floor, not bothering to try and stifle the creaks of well used timbers, knowing by now that he could never be quiet enough for the sharp senses of the familiars in his mismatched little family to not hear his movements in the nighttime silence of the house. Some, like August, even took comfort in it. 

Sleepy pale eyes watched him from beneath lowered lashes as Ellery entered their bedroom, quietly shutting the door behind him. He cast August a soft smile, unsurprised to see him awake. He never did seem to really settle in to a deep sleep until the witch was tucked in bed safely beside him. 

Quickly stripping out of his wet clothes and sliding into a pair of soft sleep trousers, the witch finally clambered into bed. A happy sigh escaped him at the warmth there beneath the blanket, until now not realizing just how much chill still lingered in the early summer nights. Beside him August shifted, snagging warm fingers around Ellery’s wrists and drawing him in to press the witch’s cold hands into the warmth of his chest. 

“Don’t.” He whispered, cutting off the impulsive apology he knew was already on the tip of Ellery’s tongue. The witch smiled, and laughed softly, glowing with contentment as he shuffled closer to tangle his legs with August’s and bring their faces close enough together that he could feel the warmth of his breath mingling with his. 

“Thank you.” Ellery murmured instead, knowing that in those two words August would know everything they encompassed. 

Thank you for today. Thank you for bringing me into your family. Thank you for loving me.

“Of course.” that smoke in molasses voice replied.

Of course I’d give you today. Of course I would share my family with you. Of course I love you.

Of course. 

[leepace71]

[leepace71]

[august-wynter]

There were signals, subtle motions, communication in a slew of body language that the witch did not know how to read. He could have spoken as clearly with it as words to any of his siblings, well practiced in those gestures, but could not with Ellery. He might have taken more caution, warned the witch of the thinner lines in those moments; senses filled with more than the usual limits and magic worked into every muscle in a way that only came with distance from the confines of a human body. The expanse of space felt larger, less fenced in, within that spot were his thoughts roamed; felt as though they were as free to run as the steady footing of his legs. 

For a moment it was a distant memory, a cloudy recollection, like rain soaking through him refreshing rather than chilled; washing away the false skies and unnatural pathways. He forgot, briefly, that the dry grass catching in the breeze and the twist of branches around them weren’t the same as above. 

But above those things weren’t real, they hadn’t been for his entire life other than in tiny hidden spots that, if one were lucky, they might happen across. Because the ground crackled underfoot with ash rather than dried leaves and the trees did not bloom so fully that the landscape was painted in reds and golds, the air was not so crisp that it could be tasted. Those were memories of a place that did not exist, only one that was the hopeful ideal that artificial version planted like a seed in the back of the primitive parts of his mind. 

August had never seen the world above the way it was built up around the two of them then, only a shadow of such things. But somehow he still missed it, perhaps because of the season, or stretching his legs in ways he hadn’t dared to in months; whatever the reason it was a bittersweet sort of memory of things that had used to feel like home. 

His magic wove through the thoughts, from his focused eyes to every inch of the rest of him right down to the catch of his steps upon that ground. Given a longer leash it was a curious, hungry creature, always had been, ferreting out glints and gleams of power and touching them with greedy want. Of course Ellery’s magic was a stronger force than anything that could be picked apart, there was little want to do so, but it still tested the edges, dipped into the little nooks and crannies of that power to weigh it out, see how it matched up, see what could be gained. 

It was only a flutter of awareness, toying at the edge, already there was enough awareness for the connection to feel natural. It was a daunting realization, one that August was hesitant to put the proper weight to, especially right that moment, because the season was still flowing in his veins and his thoughts were laced with impulsive twinges. 

His own control didn’t slip too far, perhaps here and there, but was strung back together and settled back to where it was meant to be. The temptation was right before him, a call he knew from his youth but one he had struggled to stop chasing ever since. Magic wasn’t going to be the answer to everything the way he’d been taught, power had a knife’s edge to it that he had discovered over the years; even Ellery’s was a weapon when tipped that direction. 

But it didn’t have to be, not as fully as he had heard every day, iron lessons that he had discovered were brittle enough to break with too much pressure. 

Ellery’s magic was strong but just the same as any power it was thin as ice, splintered along the surface and August felt the cracks in that surface, the fractures, but he didn’t press them. Knowing them was a matter of deciphering where the faults were in that magic, and even then he searched for weak spots in the bindings of that curse but it burned to reach for and forced his efforts back. Abandoning it for the moment, August tipped his focus back to the witch and took in the amusing sight of his mussed and rattled appearance. He doubted, in all his time among blazing ovens and the heady air of fresh bread, that Ellery made such of a mess of himself. He looked so delightfully ill-suited to the woods, but perhaps that was some subtle lie, because the witch had to have come from somewhere and August found himself wondering just where that had been. 

The image of Ellery spending his hours and days among the crumbling buildings was wrong, it didn’t fit, and when he nudged at that magic again he hunted for little secrets tucked away here and there. Magic held many things about a persoh and none of them were ever perfectly clear; but the sense of earth and quiet lingered behind. The witch was by no means suited to the wild places but something still held green and growing , vastly stunted for the years it had been left to wane away. Clumsy, misplaced witch, Ellery would have fit better into that place if he hadn’t forgotten some of it along the way. Watching him and that shred of reconnecting that his magic was trying to latch onto only convinced him all the more that Ellery was only out of practice with himself. 

August uttered a low sound, wordless from lack of the means to manage it, perhaps it was some sort of self-directed humor at his own distraction. He drew in the scents around him once more, the only one that stood out as distinctly was the witch, recently he had found it almost fixating. The season was still nipping at the back of his mind, he shook his head and a few leaves scattered in the motion as Ellery closed some of the gap between them. Head craned, for a brief moment there was that instant of contact, brush of muzzle towards one of the witch’s hand when it was lifted. Even that, only the span of a few breaths that warmed the witch’s palm, was long enough to pause, for his thoughts to curl inward on themselves and that tiny little flicker in the back of his thoughts hummed not so much with magic as something else far less complicated. 

It was still a blurry thing, a connection patched together and trying to settle into place rather than constantly change, but connection none the less. One that reverberated warm and inviting and just a little perplexing; navigating some deep forest in the warmth of summer and trying to gauge north from south simply by the flow of the breeze. 

August tipped his head away, not certain how the pieces fit together anymore and too energetic from the moment to pull his own thoughts down with trying to solve the puzzle. He stepped past the witch with a shouldered nudge, a silent expression of humor, and cleared a few steps lightly, spirits still high. No more running though, he decided with another shake of shoulders to tame the tense muscles, no more tempting the fates of losing himself to the sensation that day. The magic still buzzed at the corners of his senses but he allowed it to remain there, stretching his limbs with each step as he enjoyed those underused muscles and he could have made his way back to where they had started with a few swift steps and little effort but Ellery looked, for lack of better term and even with the irony of it, winded. 

He didn’t really mind a few more moments there in the brisk air to allow Ellery time to catch his breath after the exertion, the slow steps gave way to another stretch and a shuffled effort to find a bare spot in the leaves, legs folded under the bulk of his form. It was just as much a gesture to urge the witch to rest, the chirp of birds and subtle sounds of the forest around them calming after the rush earlier. Peaceful was a rare feeling, best savored when it was within reach, something August had begun to understand after spending time with the witch.

[ellerytanninrp]

Where August’s magic was hungry, teasing along the edges of Ellery’s with a toothsome playfulness, the witch’s was only confidently waiting. It knew this game. Magic called to Magic, and with the heady power of the Wellspring still thrumming through it, there was nothing to fear in letting the familiar’s magic eat away at it with the invisible teeth and claws there just beneath the curious brushes and playful pokes. It had not been long enough yet since the night before when the two forces had intermingled, dropping barriers and opening up a pathway so that the imbalance between the two might reach an equilibrium of power.

There in the wildness of August’s magic, the witch’s could still sense a hint of its own ozone and burned sugar flavor. With an indulgent sense of satisfaction it stretched out to brush over those gifted parts of itself that were slowly absorbing into the familiar’s power. Yes, that was good. That was right. That magic that fit so perfectly as a counterpoint, whose edges slotted easily into all of the ragged parts of itself, that soothed the hurt and anger it felt for all these years of being cancerously eaten away at by the curse that contained it. It had found a its match at last, and now it was doing whatever it took to make the familiar’s magic wanted it just as much as it was wanted in return.

August’s magic? That magic was hungry. An eagerness for the heady swell of power that came with pulling more magic into itself, Ellery’s magic knew the feeling all too well and was more than happy to indulge the familiar force a little. And so as the stag moved through the clearing, pacing restlessly around him, Ellery’s magic unfolded even further into a tempting mist of power that clung to grasping edges of August’s wherever they touched. It was a suggestion, an offering.

The witch in his inexperience did not yet know the name of this feeling that radiated out from that tender spot inside of him where he knew his magic rooted. Excitement? Anticipation? Fear? No, not fear. With all that he had done in the last 24 hours, all that he had seen, standing here in this quiet clearing with the midday sunlight glowing where it kissed the dappled pale fur of the familiar, Ellery was far from feeling afraid. No, this was a different feeling that tingled up his spine and pushed his senses to be just that little bit sharper. The low rumble of August’s wordless voice shivered in his ears, and just for a short moment the velvet softness of the stag’s nose pressed into the outstretched curve of Ellery’s palm. Hot breath warmed between the witch’s fingers, leaving cold skin in it’s wake when August withdrew and stepped away with a crunch of sharp hooves on dry leaves.

Ellery’s shoulders relaxed and that unnamed tension eased into something else, a comfortable warmth that spread through the witch’s magic like ink dropped into water. The eager anticipation that had pulsed along the open edges of that arcane force softened now, shifting from the questing of hungry tendrils into a lazy curl and tangle that unfolded quietly around the small clearing the two creatures shared. The familiar brush of August’s magic had retreated, and with that temptation gone Ellery’s had little to do but enjoy this small moment of freedom it was allowed.

Something a little like disappointment ached in Ellery’s chest, but it was brushed aside just as easily as he was by the firm bump of August’s shoulder against his own. The witch huffed a breathless laugh as the pale stag stepped by, still massaging the tight stitch in his side from the impromptu run. There was still a restlessness he could see there in the lines of the familiar’s form, twitching along the powerful muscles of his haunches and flickering in the attentive movements of his ears. Again the witch found himself struck by the majesty in that form, filled with a bone deep sense of appreciation for just how uniquely magical familiars were.

Not that he would ever be able to express that thought to August without coming off like a pervert lunatic with a crush on a deer. Which wasn’t what this was, obviously. August was still August, but even the witch’s libido hadn’t become so neglected as to be roused by antlers and hooves. Still, the ever growing flame of love that burned hidden away in the witch’s heart flickered with a warm affection as he watched the great stag shuffle away some leaves before turning in a tight circle and carefully lowering his bulk to the ground.

August was as unaffected by their run as he would have been by a casual stroll instead of an all out sprint, so Ellery knew that the obvious signal to take a break was made for his own benefit and not the familiar’s. The witch flushed with embarrassment. He wasn’t about to complain, not while he was still working to catch his breath.

“That felt really good.” he grinned between breaths, pacing back and forth on wobbly legs as he eased himself down from the unexpected exertion. “Using my magic like that, I mean. It felt… natural. More than it has in a long time.”

And it was true. Without the overthinking the witch was usually so guilty of, without getting caught up in his own head and all of his own worries and fears, he’d been able to use his magic the way he was supposed to; unthinking, easily, intentionally. And it had felt good, even so soon after that terrifying brush with the Wellspring. Even all of the running had felt good in its own, kind of painful way.

“I’m going to be sore after this.” Ellery admitted as he stepped back into a loose lunge. He winced at the burning stretch along his calf but breathed through the discomfort before switching sides to do the same to the other. He stood straight again, did a few preparatory knee bends before folding himself over to brush his handing fingers against his ankles, about as close as he could get to touching his toes. “I don’t really run, I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

He couldn’t really see August’s face from this angle, but the witch could imagine the sidelong look of amusement he was getting for his pathetic attempts to stretch out already tightening muscles. Pain burned up the back of his legs as he dipped down just a little bit further, stretching his fingers out, straining toward the dust covered toes of his boots. The barest tip of his middle fingers touched leather, and quickly Ellery regained his posture with perhaps a little wobble from the sudden head rush.

“It’s a safety issue, really. Self preservation.” he explained with a self deprecating shrug. “Sometimes when I ran in the past, my legs would get away from me and I would just…” he brought his palms together in a smacking smear, an obvious mimicry of a person falling and skidding along the dirt. The witch winced at remembered injuries, turning it into a lopsided smile. “I’m just not very good at it, I guess.”

Already the sweat from their short chase through the woods was settling into a clammy dampness along his collar, the chill in the late fall air catching up with the witch as his body cooled down from the run. Ellery shivered a little, slipping his hands back into his pockets in an attempt to keep his always chilled fingers somewhat warm. He was reluctant to call an end to this quiet peace that had settled around them there in the forest, surrounded by the vibrant oranges and reds of leaves the likes of which the surface hadn’t seen in remembered history.

There was just something different, about being around August like this. Perhaps there was some unconscious tension the witch held in himself when he was with the man shaped aspect of the familiar, some underlying restlessness even after all these months of knowing each other, of living under the same roof and struggling through secrets and revelations together. Maybe it was a degree of separation that came with the change in forms? Somehow this antlered version of the familiar presented Ellery with all of the joys of being around August, but without any of the complications that came with being in love with your best friend.

A cooler breeze rustled through the leaves overhead, drawing another shiver from the witch, who finally gave in with a soft sigh. “I think we should start heading back, if that’s okay with you?”

[clairvoyant-aesthetics]

Herbal/forest/stag witch

@midnight-forest

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter‌:

He snorted, deep and indignant at the sudden burst of foliage before his eyes when Ellery tipped to his feet and all but bolted, a few stray leaves catching amid the prongs of his antlers and sticking in spots to the points. August remained still for one second, two, a slow breath longer, just to give some distance between them because he knew he would clear it far easier than the witch. Even a human well practiced and suited to being swift on their feet wasn’t much match to most anything with four legs, and even less one to him; he’d spent most of his life either in pursuit or being pursued in one facet or another and it gave a sharpness to that speed. It was just rare that he used it anymore when life was held inside a bubble that felt both fragile and too much like iron walls; the false skies did not open up to forever and the crafted ground did not always feel real below. 

When he moved it was at a brisk pace but not fully the sum of his strength, that would have cut it too short and his mind tangled itself around each motion of the witch, setting to use old trained skills to predict his movements. Even in that harmless game it was hard to break the old mindsets, the habits ingrained, but it was all in fun, he certainly wasn’t trying very hard to bring the moment to a halt. Warming up, that brisk trot, the pleasant sensation of extending those limbs he hadn’t made use of in too long. 

He gave Ellery his space to run, bringing his own steps to a halt with each splash of color and downpour of leaves, batting them away with a quick jerk of his head to scatter them to the sides. August thought about circling, about cutting a wider path around to the front of the direction with witch fled in, his muscles tensed with the eagerness to run, but he held back. His hooves caught light and dug deep into the soft earth as he sprinted from the path to the low crest of a ridge that put him just barely above, stones clattering under his steps and kicked up in his wake. His head dipped to avoid the lower branches, shoulders slung low and eyes narrowed in focus, amusement still twitching at the corners of his mind and keeping the more demanding instincts at bay. 

Instincts that held sharp teeth and streaks of red within them, bone-cracking strength and the stalking swiftness of a predator; impulses that did not fit the moment and were brushed away with a flicker of magic that lapped at his steps and the corners of his eyes and open senses. 

The wind was swirling in spots, spider-webbed with the witch’s magic and ruffling his fur in passing, his own magic sparking like fireworks along his muscles as he stretched them and felt some of the heaviness of weeks and months of lack of use melt away with the roll of motion under his skin. It was a sensation he missed, from days when he had remained on  guard to run and run until his lungs wouldn’t allow another step, a wild, intense feeling. August had always inwardly relished the feeling of being faster than the death around him, the flat power in his form not one he took for granted in the least, and at times it had been indulgent just to let those muscles do what they were made to. The animal in the back of his mind was prone to flight, a stilted-legged creature with roaming eyes and light steps, running was as natural for him as breathing and nearly as effortless. 

It made the clumsy effort from the witch more of a comparison, but the determination in Ellery made the chase all the more enjoyable. 

Eventually though he spotted his chance, overtaking the witch was easy enough but he didn’t want to simply do that. He ran ahead and across a spot where the ridge overtook the path, twisting to jump to it and turn to face Ellery with a stamp of one hoof to the rocks with a sound as loud as ice cracking and a toss of his head before it was lowered and his shoulders splayed. With his siblings it would have been a challenge, or perhaps a ploy to catch them off guard in a spar, but it was neither with the witch as he kept his head just level enough to turn his shoulder quickly if Ellery failed to skid to a stop in time. Better to hit his shoulder than those sharp prongs, he wouldn’t make that mistake. But it would cut the witch’s retreat short drastically, just for the amusement of watching him scramble from it. 

August took a step back, sweeping the ground with a front leg dramatically before he drew up to his full height and then higher still with a tilt back onto hind legs strong enough to balance his weight a few seconds. Long enough to extend both front legs upward and then down to the ground with another loud crack against the stones and twigs in the path and a shudder of focus just enough to make Ellery’s magic part and turn back on him in a rush of wind as his own barreled against it playfully. He snorted, rather pleased with himself, shoulders still twitching with the exertion and the feel of muscles flexing with the rise and fall of his chest a bit quickly as he watched the witch, head tipped and eyes trailing him with a gleam. 

His senses were open, the subtlest sound around him bringing a twitch to his ears, colors in pinpoint detail and every little scent tugged at him with little whispers of awareness. His magic coiled and crept, pleased as a cat cornering a mouse, reaching and testing at the edges of the witch’s power like it wanted to gather it up and tangle through it. His nostrils flared again, taking in Ellery and the familiarity of his scent, warm and pleasant in a way that made his shoulders bristle with a possessive little twitch. Ellery was a mess of dust and leaves, breathing heavy from the game and it nagged at August, nipped at the back of his mind and stirred a restless sensation. One that couldn’t be tamed down by running or fresh air, that little glimmer of happiness he felt in the witch’s presence was impossible to deny.

Gaia’s Mercy, he hated running. How had he forgotten he hated running?

Ellery panted through the stitch in his side, one hand planted over it as if he could will the pinching pain away with the sheer force of palm to skin. Despite the long legs, or maybe because of them, the witch had never been much of a runner. He could never figure out the right gait, and was just as likely to trip on his own feet and go sprawling as he was anything else. Still, as he ran, a small part of him felt exhilarated by the burning exertion in his legs, the feel of wind sharp against his face as his magic parted the air around him and drove backwards in an invisible wall of resistance.

He couldn’t hear the sound of hooves over the noise of his own labored breath, but as he ran he cast the occasional glance over his shoulder, just long enough to catch a fleeting glimpse of pale fur amidst the dappled browns and reds of the forest. And so Ellery continued to run, driven by a need to feel alive, shaking off the lingering tendrils of fear and death that clung to him like whips of smoke. The uncontainable excess of his magic streamed behind him like the bright tail trailing a comet, rippling through the air in swirls and eddies of wind that were just as sensitive as any brush against skin would be.

More than sight, he could feel August there as he ran. He knew the strength of his breath, the soft ruffle of his fur, the tingling bristle of his own magic where it came into contact with Ellery’s. There is was again, this sense of expanding self, of losing the individual amongst the many. Fear thrummed trough his chest like the anxious tremble of branches in an oncoming storm, but before it could swell anywhere beyond worry a gust of wind against his side grabbed the witch’s attention.

White fur flashed and August was there on the path before him with the thundering of his hooves, body braced and antlers lowered. The witch yelped in surprise, gravel crunching beneath his feet as he careened toward the sharp spines carried by the momentum of his run and the wind at his back. Outstretched hands meant to brace his impact just barely skimmed fingertips against the very longest of antler tines as he skidded to a halt breaths shy of the stag. Heart thudding, he just stood there for a beat, panting air back into his straining lungs.

Joy swelled in his chest again, and Ellery huffed a breathless sound that was half laugh, half relief. He snagged a vibrant leaf from one of many places they’d caught in the arcs and points of sharpened bone, clutching it and watching with wide eyes as August reared high above him, glowing dappled white and grey in the sunlight that filtered through the trees. Again, the witch was struck with the beauty of him, this pale stag with a crown of bleached bone and blood red leaves. August, a perfect balance between strength and grace, somehow feeling just as familiar in this form as the one Ellery had come to know.

Still he was helpless against the gasp and instinctive step back when those powerful front legs came back down, cutting through the air to strike against the ground with a force that he not only heard but also felt reverberate through the artificial earth beneath their feet. With just as much force the familiar’s magic snapped back against Ellery’s own, ricocheting it back with a whoosh of wind that that flapped at his open jacket and pulled his hair into even more disarray than it had been from his impromptu run through the forest.

The witch blinked, wide eyed with surprised delight at this newest turn of play. Another self pleased snort from the stag had a wide smile tugging at the witch’s lips, even as he returned a hand to his side, massaging the tight stitch that still twinged with each panted breath. Ellery didn’t know how, but looking at the delicate planes of that long face as August tipped his heavy head to better see him, he could still read the exact level of smugness there. Even in a different aspect, August was exactly the same.

There was something comforting about that. As that knowledge clicked into place, Ellery felt tension he didn’t know he’d been holding release like weight lifting from his shoulders. But that look shifted into one he wasn’t familiar with, either on this antlered aspect or the familiar face he knew. Tension of another kind rose in its place as he stood there, catching his breath, eyes locked with August’s.

Anticipation.

The air around them was energized with magic, almost crackling against his skin as the two powers circled each other in an invisible dance the two men could feel with more than just nerves. Chest heaving in time with the weighted rhythm of the stag’s, Ellery shivered, took a halting step forward. With a touch of intent, he let his magic open its borders to offer itself up to tangle with the pacing hunger of August’s.

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter‌:

There was a thick tension in the air, one that made August uneasy where he stood. The silence in the forest was only a backdrop, distant from the maelstrom of something in places he could not reach. He could read the body language, the spill-over magic in the air, but it was clear that what the witch struggled with was buried deep in the corners and secret places of his mind. That was a space too private, even if he could have overstepped the walls and rooted down to the source of the problem it was not a path August was willing to take, no more than he was willing to allow Ellery access to the shadowy spots of his own thoughts. There were limits, always, that even on the best of terms should belong solely to a person without being trespassed upon. Whatever battle was pulling at Ellery’s magic, digging needles into the spot where his own overlapped that power, it was one he could not, and would not, step into the fray of. 

He anchored himself firmly, more than just physically, to that spot and gave his magic room to weave thin strands at the edges, whatever the outcome the witch would find it with exhaustion in body and mind. He would need a spot to step back to, something to hold him upright and sound enough to recover. 

August knew there was a risk in it, his own magic kept itself occupied with the day to day but it hadn’t felt real strain in long years. That distant sensation was almost forgotten, not of having the power pulled out from under him but the excess of it. There was only so much Ellery could take, magic could break bones but it could far more easily break bones and snap the thin threads of sanity when pushed too far. 

And, of course, Ellery was surprisingly eager to push much too far. Like a child just discovering something new, some limit to play with, for someone so cautious before August was learning how reckless the witch could be when the chance was set at his feet. It shouldn’t have been a surprise though, Ellery’s magic was in its’ adolescence for the lack of growth it had been allowed in the past; and any adolescence was a jumbled mix of eagerness and rush. 

It was more than he expected though, even catching on the flutter of magic at the edges left August feeling the thick muscles constricting, the barrel of his chest too tight and he couldn’t draw in the air needed. Senses flooded, the world was washed over in a blur of white like the glitter of diamonds, obscuring everything and for an instant that baser instinct reared up in protest and demand to bolt. It made no difference, his legs were too heavy to lift and his mind was raw, in some place that didn’t feel real at the moment he tasted the bland seep of copper with the clamp of jaws too tightly against the struggle for air. The millions of miles away it felt, even the weight of muscles and bone that felt disconnected, did not snap back away in an instant with the shift of magic that must have marked Ellery regaining some control, thankfully, it was a gradual wave that he remained on his feet through. 

A moment crept by before August fully felt the world around him, hands gripping and the additional weight of the witch, some vague sleepy feel to the edges of his thoughts that he blinked away.  His bones felt like stone, his lungs finally freed of the constriction, it was only after the danger had passed that he felt any fear of it. By then it was too late to give such things more than a faint acknowledgment before he breathed out and licked his lips, swiping away the trickle of red that had left a damp trail from his nostrils. It could have been worse, August reassured himself with the sort of conviction in truth that was what he needed it to be, what other choice was there really?  

In the end whatever had happened was already past, whatever came next could be handled down the road. The only step that was truly a stumble was one taken back, not one that was weary or wild chance; sometimes the latter was the only way to move forward anyway. 

The sound was louder to his ears than it should have been, everything still carried a hint of amplified presence, and August dropped his head in a faint slope to regard Ellery once the man had sank to the ground. He saw the hints of something unhinged, something unraveled for an instant, but it was a fleeting glimpse that dissolved away into the dusty soft edges that made up the witch. Licking at his lips again, clearing his thought and his throat of the sticky dry sensation of the air stolen from his lungs, August might have agreed with the comment if he’d been able to voice it. As it was he only breathed in again, feeling the tickle of Ellery’s hair against his nostrils with the effort before his head lifted once more to avoid curve of those antlers catching fabric when Ellery climbed to his feet. 

He remained motionless just a bit longer himself, feeling his center of gravity settle back into place, his muscles no longer craving oxygen and his mind clearing as the dizziness of it faded with each draw of air in. Finally he took a step from the spot, the crunch of leaves crackling like a fire under each press of motion. His senses hadn’t failed him, his magic had kept itself from shattering, it hummed with new energy to toy with and it would for days; years melted away and the old abilities slotted back into place after such a long dry spell without so much magic. 

He knew Ellery would recover, would be fine, because he wasn’t going to accept anything else and that was simply where his mind was set. The witch might struggle but he wouldn’t collapse under that power; the possibility not one August would allow the world to demand. At the rate things were going ti damn well might end up killing him but it wasn’t going to the witch; there would be answers.

Shaking the sluggish feeling away, head first and then his shoulders, August stopped a few feet from Ellery once the witch had seated himself under the tree. A moment passed, watching him pull himself together and process some of what had happened. He would have to ask, and he planned to, just what it was that the witch had been toying with in that strange place his mind had skirted off to. It could wait though, the breeze picked up a bit without Ellery’s doing and the branches softly creaked and swayed. Their motion caught his attention, only drawn from it when Ellery spoke and earned a tip of eyes upward at the words. Things rarely happened how they expected, that didn’t mean it wasn’t how they needed to happen. 

Ellery was overthinking, and honestly that was August’s job really because when the witch did it he wandered into downcast thoughts and tired resolve. None of that, no, it was still a step forward. His eyes drifted back to the branches once more with their gemstone reds and oranges, deep golden hues and earthy browns just barely gripping with the determination of nature to hold out against the coming icy season. So fragile. With an amused sound August closed the gap between them and lifted his head high with a graceful flex of his neck, points brushing the branches enough to tangle the edges between the curves of his antlers and a jerk of his head to one side rattled the whole lot  roughly.  A scattering  soft snap of thin twigs and a shower of freed leaves rather suddenly rewarded his efforts as they fell down lightly on the witch harmlessly but messy. None of that now; things would go however they did but it wasn’t going to mean doubting.  

Too bad he couldn’t speak, much less laugh, but the snort of exhaled air that caught one of the leaves for an instant before it dropped to join the rest where they had been dumped on Ellery served purpose well enough and August would have grinned if he could have. It glinted in his winter-cast eyes though, melted ice and clear skies in crisp cold tones of blue. Humored chiding, daring the witch to try to step back towards those weary thoughts; he wasn’t going to let Ellery drag himself down that time.  

How did he keep getting himself into situations like this? Okay, so he was cursed, that obviously didn’t help his luck in particular.

Most witches would be happy to have a power boost like the one that still pulsed beneath Ellery’s skin, but then again most witches weren’t in danger of accidentally asphyxiating half the population if they hiccuped irresponsibly. With more magic came more trouble in his experience, and there was little enjoyment the witch could coax out of his newly expanded well of magic. He had enough trouble controlling the wayward force as it was, how was he going to handle this?

And now he had this extra sensory awareness added on top of it. He could feel August, an irrefutable awareness of exactly where the familiar was that buzzed beneath his skin like the excited flurry of bees to a flower. There was a hunger to it, an eagerness that while the witch himself often felt an excitable thrill whenever he was around August, had a different flavor that Ellery knew had little to do with the conscious parts of his mind. No, this was magic calling to magic in a way that rang through him demanding to be acknowledged. Ellery scrubbed a hand over his sternum where the tingling buzz was strongest, brows drawing together in concern.

Was it always going to be like this? How was he going to get anything done if anytime he was within twenty yards of anyone with magic, he started vibrating like a tuning fork?

The tingling buzz of magic beneath his skin increased as the stag wandered closer on those impossibly slender legs. Even through the unsettled feeling that still jittered along his limbs in the emotional fallout of the last few minutes, the witch appreciated the affectionate wonder that kindled in his chest as he watched August move. The stag was large, impossibly so from Ellery’s perspective where he sat leaning against the gnarled roots of the great red maple. His broad chest rippled with thick muscle as he walked, a small shake of his heavy head wobbling the thick ruff of his neck. Ellery remembered the feeling of that dappled white fur beneath his fingers, coarse and impenetrable, a protective layer between the world and the fragile bones and veins beneath.

The witch’s fingers smoothed distractedly over the bottle in his hands. What did the rest of that fur feel like? Surely the fine hair along the length of August’s forehead was as gossamer smooth as it looked.  Ellery opened his mouth to speak, and shut it again just as abruptly. He was not going to ask August if he could pet him. The man was a person, even if he wasn’t person shaped. The witch wouldn’t ask to pet him if the familiar was in his human form, why should this one be any different?

A stray thought about petting a human August colored Ellery’s cheeks, and the witch cleared his throat, hurriedly lifting the bottle to his lips again both to hide some of that flush and to distract himself from venturing down that train of thought any further. Ellery drank deeply, and sighed when he pulled the bottle away from his lips once more and his eyes returned to the pale stag standing scant inches from his outstretched feet.

For all that he could do with the flood of magic that boiled in his veins, he still was little more than a man. But staring up at the majestic pale stag framed by fiery foliage, August was something out of legend, something otherworldly.

Ellery’s heart clenched painfully, and his magic throbbed beneath his skin.

And then with a clatter of sticks on bone, August rustled half the tree onto the witch’s head.

“Hey!” Ellery complained, ducking his head beneath the shower of small twigs and loose leaves that tumbled down onto him. He lifted his head as the last of the leaves drifted down to join the scarlet blanket that had settled over him, gaping up at the stag. The shapes of his face were different, but Ellery got the distinct impression of smug amusement from the flared nostrils and the sky blue eye turned his way. The witch blinked up at him, frozen between incredulity and outrage as the familiar stretched his neck out to huff at one of the last leaves lazily drifting down to join the others.

Here he was having a perfectly good (and in his opinion well deserved) bit of self pity, and this great big mass of fur and attitude had to come along and interrupt it with his— his—- his himness.

Ellery’s eyes narrowed, glinting thinly up at August as he pointedly screwed the lid back onto his bottle and tucked it away, doing little to disturb the shower of leaves that had landed on his head, shoulders, arms, just about every flat surface there was to him. Slowly, he clambered to his feet and gave a shuddering shimmy, shaking the leaves from him in a flurried rain that probably looked a lot less dramatic than he’d hoped it would.

“You.” Ellery hissed, now standing eye to eye with the towering familiar, a pointed finger raised between them accusatorially. “You. Are. SO. ON.”

A broad smile cracked the witch’s serious expression, eyes glimmering with challenge and an unspoken gratitude. Magic surged beneath his skin, the extra power he’d dreaded only minutes before now just added ammo in this impromptu war between friends. Ellery had survived. They both had. And now it was time to celebrate being alive, and the unexpected thrill of newfound power.

With a bark of laughter Ellery broke away from where he stood, long legs carrying him in a loping run away from August. He twisted as he ran, throwing an arm back behind him in a sweeping motion upwards. Wind stirred, and the pile of leaves that sat where he’d stood exploded upwards in a flood of red that crashed against the stag’s chest like a wave against cliffs.

Now wasn’t the time for the careful elegance of motionless casting, no this was the base physicality of magic. It was the way children first used their magic, naturally using power as an extension of self. That’s how this magic felt to Ellery, raw and unprocessed, with all the wild messiness of childhood. And this was just what he’d never been able to do, not as the child who’d been strong enough to nearly send a room of his peers to their early graves.

But August was strong. August was in control. And so maybe now, in this moment, Ellery could be free.

An undignified crow of joy escaped the witch as August’s hooves thundered into motion. Long legs churning, Ellery turned and took off into the forest with the wind at his back and magic on his heels. He didn’t know what he was running from, what kind of playful revenge August had in store for him. All he knew is that he felt good, he felt safe, and he felt alive. And so grinning he ran, as clumsy and unused to the practice as he was. Here and there he would drive an open hand toward the sky to bring back down in a closed fist, booted feet carrying him quickly away from the cascades of fiery foliage his magic brought down between him and the pursuing stag.

[ellerytanninrp]

august-wynter‌:

Temptation existed for everyone, magic sought magic, power sought power; there was always something waiting to tip the scales and make a person more dangerous than they were under any other circumstance. Temptation for him came in the form of crimson more than anything else, but the need for self-control was the same. He knew there was a twinge, a stirring along Ellery’s power as the awareness reached outward tentatively, senses apparently sharper than what the witch had known before. Little wonder, August weighed, given how very much of Ellery’s existence seemed to have been within the strange bubble of void he had cast around himself and dampened what he should have had. The problem was self-control though, rather than only locking it away.

He wasn’t going to leave Ellery to stumble, at least not when he was left out of sorts and with something new dropped at his feet. It seemed more often than not the learning curve that went with magic was one the witch was reaching finally rather having found earlier. Something he had learned and practiced in his teens himself, in days when he knew where his magic would settle and where that bond would be written, because there hadn’t been any argument over the flat truth to what life was. Purpose outweighed anything else by leaps and bounds, August had discovered that learning hadn’t been compliance, because it would serve him one day far beyond bonds he didn’t want and magic that was icy and cruel. He’d needed the demand, the chill, to keep him focused, to keep that anger burning where it had, eventually it had given reason to know he was strong enough not to have to rely on the things he had to by existence alone. But that wasn’t going to help Ellery, demands that intense would only shake the foundations of the witch, it was more a matter of giving him a nudge and watching where it went. 

Some places August knew only in a secondary sense, he couldn’t fully know the witch’s magic anymore than he could what belonged to someone else, so he didn’t know entirely what Ellery was sorting through and tapping into. He could sense the shift and twist of that power as it tested the ideas, but placing his hand directly upon it was impossible, though at that point it didn’t appear that Ellery himself fared much better at it. The witch was crossing paths with that very important lesson of what happened when a person, metaphorically, touched an open light socket when it came to magic and felt the jolt of the energy that made it a living force. 

Of course Ellery jumped too far, dug too deeply; restraint was something the witch had always known in the terms of having an actual lock on those powers keeping him from pushing them too much. It wasn’t something learned yet, not the way most people with magic found through trial and error in their youth while that magic was underdeveloped. Every spark of Ellery’s magic that wove through him was stronger than it should have been for the level he was at in his control. August had expected the lurch in magic, the seasick feeling from it and the thin threads of connection between them to tangle and jerk under the pressure that came with the witch too eager. Part of that just seemed to be habit of Ellery to step blindly, for all the caution the witch possessed he was reckless when overwhelmed. Not the wisest idea, no, but most people were headstrong when something so new called them away from the layer of dust they had known, giving them a chance to clear their senses. 

His head swayed, legs still steady under him, though he was glad there was four of them with the way they locked so stiffly right then, August had been knocked back on too many occasions to count by excessive power and had to get back up again. Steeling himself had been a defense that had come with that training and one that kept him steady then while he felt the erratic pitch and twist of Ellery’s magic as it fought against the idea of being reigned back in but he left it to the witch for a moment, let him try on his own until he could feel the weakness starting to flutter along those threads. Not everyone sensed magic the same way, he saw the glint of it but there were other ways, probably an endless amount really. Ezra had always seen it as colors, or so he’d been told, October saw shadows and the curl of darkness and some people saw nothing but sensed in other ways, like May in how power was a constant hum that caused his head to ache from it. August had to close his eyes to see, in a way, the tone of that energy and the strength of it, the glimmer to it, like lightening building slowly. 

Best not to let it, not with the force of power that Ellery could exposed like a raw nerve when it grew too out of course. 

Personally, he far preferred to be underestimated, it gave a certain edge. Even with Ellery, where it was an unneeded edge, August didn’t bother to really use much magic, his own or what he could gather, because he stood well enough without it. He was hardly overwhelmed though, not yet. He tipped a leg, a restless stomp against the ground and his eyes narrowed, some internal sense snagging onto that energy like a line and giving it a firm and set pull back into some sense of behaving itself. His own magic was not so entirely spent on changing forms and that connection, but he had the advantage of tapping directly into Ellery’s wayward power and turning it on itself. Witches never grasped what they had given his own race, nor did most of them really, that with enough control it really didn’t matter how strong a witch was in comparison if the very nature of your own magic was to reach into that power and use it as well. His own witch certainly hadn’t realized it in the past either, no. 

It was a bit much, had been a long time without so much magic thrumming under his skin and it would take a bit of time to settle but he hadn’t really jerked Ellery back from that edge so much as cleared the path; the witch had to take the step back, in a manner of speaking, on his own and reclaim some of that magic back. Ellery could do it though, August gave him another physical nudge to remind him to stay grounded to the real world so he wouldn’t get too lost in what lay outside it, gradual in that coaxing from the blazing glow of power far outside what either of them was capable of. That power might have been a bit intoxicating but the jolt that had come with it, hopefully, had made Ellery realize that just being able to reach it wasn’t good enough reason to want to possess more than what a person could handle. Magic was greedy, August knew that very well, but that was why people had to know their limits. 

His head lifted just enough with careful motions to avoid those sharp prongs catching fabric or flesh, giving Ellery a moment without the muddled tangle of self to recover with that connection less intrusive and more there to calm him while he worked out where his own magic had settled. Knowing if it was too much for the witch he could tackle that problem as it came alone, but it wasn’t only that. The tingle in his own nerves gave him strength, clarity, his instincts flared and he cast a rolled eye around their near vicinity on the odd chance anyone else might be around. 

They were alone, which was something of a positive, with the way August felt bristled over the witch he might have at least bared his teeth at anyone near him while Ellery was recovering from the burdens of that magic, if not outright challenged them in that possessive moment. Even without as much or needing to he tipped his head higher, shouldering against Ellery to keep him steady on the chance he might have felt the drain from that power, ears swiveled with a breathy exhale, a grumbled sound, prone on guard; nothing of danger in the area but he was watchful none the less. Just as well the woods were empty, he might have ended up spilling blood in his anger if anyone had been hapless enough to accost Ellery in that vulnerable state. 

Every sense the witch possessed was screaming with overload, ripped open and set ablaze beneath the power coursing through him. This torrent of magic was a single grain of sand plucked from the desert, a tiny droplet pulled from the ocean, a leaf from a sprawling forest. And still the witch was being crushed beneath the weight of it, drowning in the vast expanse of it, every fragment of self carried far apart on a current of wind in the endless field of magics unknown. And through it his magic rejoiced, eager to escape the imprisonment of this cursed body and rejoin the source it had been born of, taking the tiny kernel of consciousness called ‘Ellery’ along with it. That small thing would be lost, burned away, but that would be okay, wouldn’t it? For that freedom? For that power?

A brief flicker of grief lit along the fraying thread of witch and magic. For all of the struggle that would be left behind, so too would fragile dreams he had been building in the secret refuge of his mind, carefully cradled and curated in the quiet hours of early morning when like the sun breaking the horizon, hope is new and shining bright. Ellery would be gone. That small kernel of consciousness kindled with protest against the thought. Maybe… maybe that wouldn’t be okay.

There was a word for this. A word for witches who were lost to that ocean of magic they had been tempted into drinking from. Ellery remembered stories learned at the feet of his elders, stories of the world before the mists had come and everything had fallen into rot and ruin and blood. As magic had bloomed amongst humanity, it brought with it the rise of creatures long thought only things of myths and nightmares. No need to hide, to make themselves small for the comfort of humans, burning curiosity had bloomed amongst these liberated witches. Just how much magic was there? And how much of it could be theirs? New arts were born, new practices of magic explored, and a new species created under a desire for yet another tool from which to draw yet more power. Familiars.

Still, it wasn’t enough. And the greedy search continued, leaving those who flew too close to the sun as hollowed shadows in it’s wake.

Harrowken.

A witch burned out by magic too strong for them to control, left as empty and grey as the dying twilight the world had soon sunk into. Witches driven to screaming madness at the brushing touch of that power, entire covens found wide eyed and comatose, bodies still present but minds long gone, burned away by the heat of a magic they were never meant to touch.

Was that what was to become of him?

Ellery. The name came, and encapsulated in it the sense of the witch, who he was, who he had been, who August hoped he would yet come to be. It came singing along that fragile thread like the note of a harp string plucked by the familiar’s firm demand to behave. Ellery. The thought rang out through that endless sea, striking the scattered fragments of him into in a sympathetic harmony. There was dissonance for a moment, until the chorus of tones came together into a single note, and with them all those loose filaments of the witch.

Ellery slammed back into himself, eyes flying open and chest heaving as for breath as if he’d been drowning in the deeps and had just broken the surface. A harsh noise escaped him on the exhale, the witch left raw and shaken in the wake of his foray into stupidity. Ellery sagged, his knees buckled beneath him. He didn’t know when the stag had lifted his head, but was glad the sharp cage of his antlers was no longer pressed around the breadth of his shoulders. August’s strong flank was there at his side and blindly the witch braced himself against hard muscle. A tremulous sigh escaped him as he struggled to orient himself back to where he stood in the clearing. His fingers sank into thick fur in a prickling slide against the whorls of his skin, as if each strand of hair was a gossamer thread of magic that yearned to connect with the power barely contained by the membrane of his skin. To connect to him.

What had happened? Where had he gone? He was far from new at searching out that place where his magic dwelled, after all that had been the first step in locking it away beneath the curse that still twisted with life across his chest. But never had he felt it so keenly, or been able to dive into that well and trace it back to the bottomless aquifer it drew from. And hadn’t that been a mistake.

The witch’s eyes slipped shut and he let himself slide down August’s side into a weary slump against the cool, damp earth. He watched distantly as his fingers splayed, digging beneath the loamy layer of decaying leaves to find the soil that welcomed him eagerly. This was one thing the creators knew they wouldn’t be able to manufacture there beneath the sea. Tonnes of rich, dark, life giving dirt and all of the tiny microbes it carried, brought down here to be given a new connection to the world as a whole. Ellery thought he understood that connection a little better now. A gentle echo of magic called to him from there, where his fingers touched earth. The witch pulled away before his magic could have a chance to betray him and respond. August was there, the sensation of breath filling those massive lungs spun together by magic, it whooshed against the heightened awareness of this new sense.

He understood now, how other witches could single a familiar out in a crowd or identify one of their own kind long before laying eyes on them. Magic sought magic, and now he knew just how much magic there was out there. And for a moment, just how good it had felt to reach out and grasp all of it.

The emotions he hadn’t felt while he was drowning in the depths of the universe came crashing over him, a tangled knot of fear, regret, and a bone deep sense of relief. Ripped open and raw, tears came before he even had a thought to try and stop them. Too eager in his new sense of control, his explorations had nearly lead to his downfall. To losing everything he’d worked so hard to build, that he so very much wanted to keep.

And yet, here he was. Safe. Unscathed, for the most part. Long gone was the giddy sense of rightness he’d felt that morning when he hadn’t been filled to overflowing with magic as usual. He was right back to where he’d been the night before, self examination told him as much. Except now it seemed like there was more. More room, some how. More of this unwieldy, overeager magic that he struggled to work with on even the best of days.

More? How could there be more? All of those greedy witches in the cautionary tales his elders had told him had been scheming toward just that end, to reach into the well of creation and come out with more power than any creature living had the right to posses. Ellery, who could barely cast a basic charm or access his natural aeromantic discipline without nearly uprooting half a forest. He had foolishly given into temptation as so many witches had before him, had nearly lost himself to it, had nearly become harrowken—

And his Gaia Blessed ass had come out of it with more magic. It wasn’t much, but there it was.

August was going to kill him.

An incredulous chuckle started low in his chest, bubbling up into a throaty sound of hysterical disbelief. The sound of damp leaves crackling beneath sharp hooves spurred him to lift his tearstained face from where he’d been staring transfixed by the circles of clean skin his tears made on his own dirt covered hands. Ellery smiled blearily up at the big pale stag towering above him.

“I’m okay,” he reassured, struggling to speak through the convulsive laughter and fresh tears. “Really. I just —hah— I just need a moment.”

Where was that water bottle August had thrown at him earlier? Working to suppress the hoarse chuckles that still fought to escape him, Ellery struggled to his feet and wobbled over to where it sat neatly tucked between the roots of a tree. He slid down the trunk of the tree, sinking back against the rough bark and drinking deeply from the cool lip of the metal bottle. The water was crisp, bringing with it a centering clarity that the witch clung to, drinking until the ache in his lungs forced him to come up for air.

Tears drying on his cheeks and his stomach sore from laughter, Ellery let his head drop back to loll against the thick trunk, quietly drinking in the pale shape of the stag watching him, a stark white silhouette amidst the carpet of crimson fallen leaves. For a brief moment, he let his eyes slide closed. Even without the negative that burned clear along the inside of his eyelids, the witch would still be able to feel him there with this fascinating new sense of magic, the vibrant glow of August’s presence as clear to him in that sense as it was as sight to his eyes or touch to his hands.

The witch’s eyes slid back open, crinkling with a tired smile.

“Things never seem to go as planned, do they?”

[leepacesource]