[PRP] Zodiac: The Firefly [Starlit Vow & Through the Flesh]

[Araucana]

The Firefly: Repeating the same line of a poem over and over, unsure how it ends.

Dusk had fallen over the swamp and Starlit Vow had awoken to the night in a particularly good mood. Tonight the fireflies were out in spectacular numbers, flooding the swamp with little specks of flickering light.

Usually his eyes would be only for the stars above at night, but he simply couldn’t ignore this spectacular show by the fireflies, who themselves were very much like the twinkling stars he adored so.

Amorpheous

I hope it’s okay to have left the poem aspect for Through the Flesh? c:

 

[Amorpheous]

In the mud, dark and cool, she felt herself begin to unspool, unwind, melt away. Here in the darkness, eyes closed, and deathly still, she laid with mud on her limbs and in her hair, vegetation resting against her sides. Here, she felt her understanding of herself disappear and the truth assert itself. She was in the flowers, in the mud, in the trees, in herself, all in her and her in all, for truly they were all the same. That she could lift up her body and walk away was ephemeral, a perception of barrier that, at the very core of things, did not really exist.

So there she was, surrounded by the cicada song, breathing as the trees themselves breathed. Somewhere inside, in the decay and the birth, she was singing too.

Araucana

Augh, sorry this took forever. This is actually reply 2.0 since I accidentally closed my browser on my reply yesterday before I submitted.

 

[Araucana]

Starlit Vow was weaving between the mangrove roots, treading shallow water and stepping through mud. His eyes only for what glowed and twinkled above him. He was joining the firefly dance, moving his body in tune with their zig zags and jolts. Caught up in the energy, with bright grin in place, Vow was caught completely unaware when his hoof caught on something and he came tumbling down rather ungracefully, doing an awkward somersault before landing with mud all over. Particularly over his antlers, which had caught in the mud during his head first fall.

Blinking in shock a few moments later, Vow shook his head, sending mud (and regrettably) little purple petals flying. Feeling a little put out, Vow watched as the main body of fireflies left him behind, their dance continuing into the heart of the swamp. Still, many still flit from place to place around him, no lose to the main group with such extraordinary numbers tonight.

Finally, Vow turned to see what he’d tripped on in his carelessness, only to find it had not been a what, but a who.

Amorpheous

No worries! heart Also, SORRY THROUGH THE FLESH. This was the first thing that popped into my head to respond with. xD

 

[Amorpheous]

In the far away, her mind was settled into the roots and the leaves and her body was a part of all. In this place where she gave herself over to the knowing and the truth, the plane of existence where there was no difference between her and the all, she was infinite and there was no absolute. The sudden impact of getting tripped over did not quite register; it rippled through her awareness but the feeling became diffused and became lost.

There was no reaction to be seen. Everything was so loud and clear that the feeling became just another part of the unity that filled her senses with the living and the dying, the voice of life. She felt him, like she felt everything, as he was a part of the whole, made up of the one, and a representation or an amalgamation of the singular.

He had always been there so she laid there, still as death.

Araucana

 

[Araucana]

Vow scrambled to apologise, “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t see you there!” before he realised the doe in the mud didn’t move at all. She was rather sunk into the mud, completely covering her legs, tail and even in her hair… “…Miss? Are you alright? Are you hurt?” He pulled himself upright and stood above her to inspect her better. She blended in well with the swamp mud, Vow briefly wondered whether he might have tripped on her regardless of where his attention might have been focused. Only, no, those red markings streaking across her back were too striking, even under the veil of night.

She was very still and it concerned him. Hesitantly he gave her a little nudge with his foot. Surely… surely she wasn’t dead.

Amorpheous

 

[Amorpheous]

So completely there and far away, she didn't quite register the impact on her side or his concern- Or, it was there and she could feel it but she could not separate it out from all else. Faintly, it touched something, told her that something or another wanted her present, but it was never an immediate thing. Drifting in and out of the one and the separation, into and out of consciousness and the conscious like waves lapping against a shore, she was filled with something else.

Finally though, after what was perhaps a worryingly long stillness and silence, the words seemed to find their way through the haze that was everything and make themselves known. Her eyes creaked open, glowing gold making themselves known against the dark, but still her eyes were not quite there and her breathing was low and shallow, barely there.

It was even longer until she spoke, answering his first question--whatever else he had said in between could not reach her, had not reached her yet--her voice barely a whisper, but clearly heard as if she knew the perfect pitch to cut through all the noise, "Hurt only because somewhere there is hurt and always fine, beyond harm because life is life is death."

'Look around,' she almost seemed to say and if he looked closely, perhaps he would think her smiling.

Araucana

 

[Araucana]

Vow watched as she slowly stirred, she was kimeti he was sure, but she moved like something else. Or maybe not necessarily something else, maybe, something more…? She certainly intrigued him. The fireflies around them were just about forgotten to Vow, until the strange doe opened her eyes, gold and glowing like the star-like bugs. He was mesmerised by them, drawn in by the glow. She didn’t speak right away and Vow would think just as well. As he stared into her eyes he watched as they never quite focused. Even when she spoke, her voice quiet but clear, somehow he didn’t feel like she was directly addressing him, or just him anyway.

At first he merely blinked at her, not quite knowing what to make of her words. Vow might tell the fantastic tales given to him by the stars but rarely were his stories or the meanings behind them as abstract as what this strange doe managed in a single sentence. There was something beautiful about it though, poetic.

But there was something else. Had he… had he heard those words before? Mauling them over him his mind he wondered if it might have been something his mother had say, maybe, or perhaps another figure from his childhood that he scarcely remembered. Life is death. He didn’t think it was the first time he’d heard that.

He didn’t respond for a good while, though he doubted she’d mind, if she even noticed. Finally he settled himself down beside her and said fondly. “Deep, aren’t you? Life is death and even, death is life… sounds like a familiar sentiment, though I’m not sure why.”

He looked first to the stars, always his guardians, and waited for their thoughts. They were both young and old, and he would perish long before they would, should they ever. The stars might never leave him, but he might leave them. The realisation stuck him cold, but he felt the gentle lights calming him, it was alright, it wouldn’t mean the end. A story was building it’s self, pieces drifting in, arise from his body would come new life. Life will be death, death will be life. The stars will always be with him and have always been with him, no matter what form he’s existed in.

“Maybe I have always known, as I have always known the stars, and the stars have always known I.”

The story stirred in his mind as he spoke. It was unnatural for him to stall in telling a star-told tale when in company, usually speaking the beginning before he even knew the end, but something about this odd doe and the profound thoughts her words had inspired in him made him patient. He would wait for the ending this time. It was fitting, he thought, as this story started with an ending.

Amorpheous

When I started writing this I was having difficulty and then it just suddenly flowed out like mad, haha!