i’m p sure these get around faster so until i make a proper promo, can y’all please LIKE // REBLOG this if you are interested in interacting with a literate & semi-selective DEE SHVAGENBAGEN from youtube’s “METAL FAMILY”???? crossover & OC friendly (provided you have info abt ur oc)!! he’s an angsty teen w/ like,,,,,,, zero musical talent, give him a chance!
After the disaster that had been Aliel dropping in for a visit only to discover Buer and Seth both comfortably spending time together, something Seth didn't fault them for taking the way they had, their lack of reaching out to him equally unfaulted. In their place, with how easily he had displayed that level of trust in someone who had hurt them that badly (a fact he still wasn't fully over if he was being honest, but with how small the Fallen community was there was little room for holding obvious grudges no matter how deserved), he would have reacted the same way. That thought was what kept Seth worrying. About how to explain if he was allowed, what effect this would have on what the two had built up between them (even if he had to convince himself it was one sided). Whether he's done irreparable damage.
Staying at the place that was for the moment his home with those thoughts filling the space and nowhere for them to go had driven him out into the streets to try and walk his way into some measure of calm.
The greenery of a human created park catches his unconscious attention as Seth's body turns in through the entrance. His hands are in his pockets, holding into a slight lean to try and minimize the line of his wings beneath the jacket he was wearing.
The auras around him are predictably human, flickers of candlelight compared to the bonfire that was his own from what he'd been told, the similar amounts of Power in different textures of other Fallen notably absent from the city. At least this part of it.
Until he rounds a corner and stops still in the middle of the path he'd been walking, something familiar but off striking his senses all of a sudden as if the owner had been trying to hide themselves. Despite the low thrum of pain that was a constant companion now his pace quickens as he heads to where he can feel the source.
Expecting to see a familiar face regardless of body, all he could hear was a decidedly unfamiliar voice, muffled but still one he didn't know. That didn't count for much - voices and bodies both could change all too easily if you weren't stuck to just the one the way humans and Fallen were.
Once he's close enough to see just who that aura belongs too however all of Seth's earlier worries come rushing back tenfold. The owner clearly wasn't Aliel, and if this was their answer… He casts about, trying to find them nearby, but nothing of them but the little girl was anywhere nearby.
Lost in the static of those thoughts and ignoring the humans glowering at him for stopping in the middle of the path, realization that she had been able to feel him just as clearly strikes Seth only when he finds her in front of him, staring up at his face with child-large eyes that were blatantly curious as to just who, what, he was.
Her mother is following as well, suspicion in her body language as she approaches to get her daughter. Seth starts on seeing her face; she had the look of many of Aliel's project humans, that haggard look that came from the work of Heaven being wrung out of them he had become familiarized with long ago. The look that was the source of many a civil argument between the two.
The little girl was still a surprise, and an unknown. But one that, as he watches her mother pulling her gently back to protectively remove her from the presence of what appeared to be a strange man, he's already resolved to follow up on.
She deserved some sort of introduction to the half of her that her mother wouldn't be able to help her with after all. And just knowing whose she was had him protective already even without any actual knowledge of who she was on her own.
As much as what had obviously happened hurt, Seth was more than practiced at pushing such things away for later. That evening was going to be a rough one once he got home, he knew that of course. But breaking down in public, with the walk ahead of him, the risk of being outed to the humans who were overwhelmingly outnumbering him, was dangerous.
Mind again buzzing, upset betrayal sadness and a deep exhaustion that never went away mixing together, he retreats for now. Not home yet, the urge to walk further, try and tire himself out, strong enough to turn his feet in the opposite direction of the park entrance he'd arrived by, Seth continues on.
He would survive this, of course, he'd survived so much already. But the new reality he'd found himself in still rankled. And Seth was going to have a long walk ahead of him while he processed this, he could tell already.
So he walked. Each step taking him on a rambling path through the city, passing through close to where Larry had stayed briefly, a supposedly single woman and her friend living there now. He avoids the street he knew other Fallen conducted business on, but he could feel their presences as easily as they could feel his, a distant pressure against his skin that he turns away from in his rambles.
Aliel had fathered a child. When? Soon after their leaving, he assumed; she didn't seem that old. But judging human ages wasn't his strong suit. It was a failing he had no real motivation to resolve however.
Turning down another side street, the human tailing him finally turns away as Seth pushes a tendril of power toward them, only enough to discourage. He smiles tiredly, used to that as well. He did look like an easy mark he supposed, standing out as much as he did around here. It didn't matter though, he had ways to avoid that sort of harm.
The hum of the city starts to mute itself around him, shadows growing longer the further Seth rambles. He would have to get in touch with one of the Families that helped some of their number. It was a resource he didn't utilize that often, not having a frequent need to. Now, however, that bit of insight into human society would be more than welcome.
That was just step one however. He'd had to figure out the rest, how to safely monitor both the little girl and her mother; with her existence they were both going to be vulnerable if they weren't careful of the less friendly members of the Fallen. He was going to have to make sure to step in before that.
But that was the easy part. Living with what he'd found out would be harder. But doable. He could live with it.
It's only after sunset that Seth finally returns home, tired enough that once his shoes were off he drops his jacket and shirt in a crumpled pile before immediately heading to the hoarded pile of pillows that for now he counted as a bed.
Only then do his shoulders shake, the privacy of home enough to finally give in to the emotional side of what he'd discovered rather than the logical. There was no space for thought now, not here where being vulnerable was safe and allowable.
Wings out to either side, he doesn't bother pulling them back in his muzzy lack of focus. Too much effort, too much trouble, when he was too tired to even properly undress.
There would be little sleep that night, and what was there was restless, when Seth finally passes into unconsciousness.
Her lips pressed into a thin line, the young girl looked close to tears as she knelt before the large planter. Her fingers were black with dirt as she reached up, pushing her glasses up so she could rub her eyes, shaking her head as she did so. Her other fist balled in her lap, she was as angry as she was upset. The plant she'd worked so hard to nurture, had spent so many week caring for, was dying. An infestation of bugs had eaten away at its roots, the leaves now limp and yellowed. When she'd discovered the source of the failing health she'd dug under the plant, thinking she could kill the offenders... but it was too late, the damage too severe.
As fast as she wiped her tears away, more welled in her eyes, falling down her cheeks in thick streaks of dirt. At the tender age of eleven she felt like a dear loved one had been given a death sentence. She kept shaking her head, but she turned her tear filled eyes up to her Papa, using her modified signing in a sharp gesture, 'Fix.'
Sitting high up in a tree a young woman sat on a branch, he bare feet swinging back and forth. She had a long black skirt on, the ruffles at the bottom frayed and dirty. Around her shoulders was a huge shall made of layers of feathers, most looked like hawk feathers varying in shades of grey and black. The shawl was clasped with a Moon and Star made from silver, a gift from her wife. Leaning dangerously far to peer down, she blinked through her large cat-eyed glasses at the stranger approaching her. Her face emotionless, she doesn’t say a word, just stares.
How? How could they ever be safe when the threat was inside them? A part of them. Always threatening to hijack their body and take them for a joyride.Maybe their surroundings were safe. Maybe this stranger was truthful in saying that they weren’t going to attack them- but.
"I don't...feel s-safe a-a-anywhere... A-and no offence t-to you, but I don't t-think you could make me feel s-safe."
Staring at them with large eyes that almost seemed to glow behind her large cat-eye glasses, the harpy slowly settled to the ground, flexing her bare toes into the dirt. Digging her toes in as deep as she could, Dee breathed out slowly, she was a tree, growing from the dirt, her roots extended so deeply, she was old and powerful and no wind could blow her down.
With her brief meditation complete, she prepared herself for talking as this would clearly need a bit of it. Yet this soul, whoever he was, seemed in need. So if she could help, she would.
Dee raised a hand to gesture at the sky, “Looks clear now, but storms could always come. Grandmother used to bring them, fury and ice and words meant to hurt,” she turned her eyes back to the boy? (she struggled so much with ages), “Is hard to know safety, to trust safety.”
As Dee lowered her hand, her cloak of feathers shifted and fluttered almost like wings. With her hand hovering before the boy?man? she closed her eyes half-lidded she looked at him beyond mortal sight, reading his aura, “Is especially hard to feel safe when in turmoil.”
❓Dee, Sonny, what are your favorite things about each other?
SEND ❓+ A QUESTION AND MY MUSE HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO ANSWER TRUTHFULLY
Dee huffed a sigh, looking at her wife as a small smile played across her lips. With a wry twist to her smile, she teased, "Loud."
Playfully sticking her tongue out at Dee, Sonny gushed, "She's just so pretty," her hands clasped before her, seeming overcome with emotion, "Like a silent movie star. Hollywood glamor starlet, she has the face for it! She'd hate it though, don't look at me like that, I'm not saying you should-" Sonny said in aside to Dee's raised eyebrow "-but she is glamorous enough. And she's just," Sonny made a complicated series of motions, flapping her hands when words failed, which made Dee giggle, "And just, she's so kind. She works so hard and cares so much, even if other people never understand. She makes the world better every day."
Her eyes misting up Dee buried her face against Sonny's shoulder and gave her more serious answer, "My Sun."
"How DARE! How dare you make me pick among my children! Do you see their little faces?" she holds up a lollipop dramatically, "Look into those eyes and tell me you could break their hearts! That you could tell any one of them that they were second choice!"
Sonny flings her arm over her face dramatically fake sobbing. Beside her Dee taps her AAC and a robotic voice states, "She. Likes. Gummies."
Dee:
Dee shrugs and points to a package of hot red cinnamon candies. While Sonny elaborates for her wife, "She likes the crunch."
Her lips pressed into a thin line, the young girl looked close to tears as she knelt before the large planter. Her fingers were black with dirt as she reached up, pushing her glasses up so she could rub her eyes, shaking her head as she did so. Her other fist balled in her lap, she was as angry as she was upset. The plant she'd worked so hard to nurture, had spent so many week caring for, was dying. An infestation of bugs had eaten away at its roots, the leaves now limp and yellowed. When she'd discovered the source of the failing health she'd dug under the plant, thinking she could kill the offenders... but it was too late, the damage too severe.
As fast as she wiped her tears away, more welled in her eyes, falling down her cheeks in thick streaks of dirt. At the tender age of eleven she felt like a dear loved one had been given a death sentence. She kept shaking her head, but she turned her tear filled eyes up to her Papa, using her modified signing in a sharp gesture, 'Fix.'