[PRP] Gravity [Nose-in-the-Air/Last Night]

[Amorpheous]

When she woke, Last Night looked at the Swamp with new eyes, quite literally. She blinked away the dust and stared out at the world, everything looking curious and new. She refused to blink and lose sight of the world despite the burning in her eyes, all of them. Finally though, she had seen enough and was content to turn away from what was outside of her and look at herself. Though she had changed, the weight of her antlers remained familiar and true. When she moved her joints creaked as if from disuse and dust and leaves fell from her form, speaking of a sleep much longer than any she had experienced before.

The dream lingered and she wondered if the MotherFather would ever speak to her again--in dreams or otherwise. She had many things she wished to know and there was not enough time in the Swamp for her to know them all.

Her thoughts spiraling away, more interested in the possibilities than the transformations that had already occurred, she rose to her hooves and shook the debris off. She found delicate spider silk hanging from her antlers and tail, but she let them stay. They were now a reflection of her soul rather than simple refuse after all. She found her footing amongst the tangled roots and began to walk, trying to learn her new limbs. As she wandered, thoughts going far than ricocheting close and intimate again, she began to long for a companion. She longed to close her eyes and feel warmth beside her after sleeping cold and alone for so long as she walked a strange and wondrous dream.

So she set off, knowing by some instinct where she would find him.

Ruriska

Here we go!

 

[Ruriska]

Nose-in-the-air didn’t like to admit that he was lonely, certainly to himself, who was quite keen on theatrics and would have no doubt made life unbearable for the children of his that weren’t psychotic by never leaving them alone. So instead of admitting he was lonely and following Little Poison or Sainfoin or his new grandchildren (oooh, he was getting so old) around like a bad smell, he was wallowing in a mud puddle.

He had been there most of the morning, half on his side, head propped up on a convenient rock and just thinking. He thought, as was usual, about his son (that son) and of the pretty new grandchildren he hadn’t quite gotten to know yet. They were all lovely as far as he could tell from their brief meeting. Family was the most important thing in his life, he had realized, bringing with it all his sadness and happiness and half the time he rarely saw any of them. They were grown up, wandering the Swamp, living their lives.

Then of course he thought of Last Night and wondered, not the first time, where she was. It felt far longer than usual since their last meeting and he was missing that warm comfort, that gentle presence at his side to chase away his many fears. Nose-in-the-air thought of her and sighed.

Amorpheous

 

[Amorpheous]

Perhaps it said something about Nose-in-the-Air, or about herself, that time and time again she returned to his side. It was never too long that she would find herself searching for the invisible paths that would lead her back to his side. Though she left time and time again as well, as had been her first nature, she was not unchanged for knowing him. She was old enough, wise enough to recognize that, not so convinced that she was impervious to change as she once was.

For sure, she was still very much her own self, willing and able to step back, to stare down at the world as if a spider on a web, but that was not all she was anymore--the silent observer who made no claims to any right or willingness to judge.

She happened upon him from behind, so she could look at him, wallowing if she allowed herself to use a word like that--one with connotations, personal judgements. She saw him with her new eyes, burning bright with the MotherFather's glow, and found peace in that observation, thoughts slowing and settling in the present.

She sighed softly, content.

Ruriska

meep q__q

 

[Ruriska]

He felt her before he even realized she was there. It was the way his fears and thoughts suddenly retreated, giving his space to breath and allow a rare little smile to reach his face. It was peace that Last Night brought him, before he’d noticed her presence, before her sigh had reached him and he turned his head, seeking her as his thoughts slowly caught up with the motion.

Nose felt his stomach drop and he startled, as any self-respecting buck that was almost the personification of a rabbit would do. But he didn’t bolt, if only because he was locked in the mud and was too busy staring, and staring, at a very different version of the Last Night he’d seen a few weeks past.

She’s apparently collected some spider friends and decided they could just live in her antlers and on her tail and- oh sweet MotherFather those looked like extra eyes. And yet- and yet- the feeling was the same. This was his Last Night regardless of the changes.

Nose-in-the-air rose slowly from the muck and stood to face his old friend. “Are you… okay?” He asked, a quiver in his voice.

Amorpheous

smooch <3

 

[Amorpheous]

She shivered a little, almost imperceptible, except that she was sure that Nose would notice because it was unlike her. She was the mangrove securely anchored below the water, the slowly waving reed standing in shallow waters, a pool, only moving in the way that water must move to be water. She did not shiver, shaking like the rabbit who smells a predator in the air or like the leaf quivering against the wind, barely clinging to its branch.

She stared too, because it was hard not too. She was seeing him anew as well, her new eyes for the first time seeing her faithful companion who, despite everything she had once told herself, had become a point of gravity.

Finally though, she responded, her voice low and gentle as it always was, familiar in its distant coolness, "I think so."

And she smiled, her six eyes blinking in slow unison.

Ruriska

WEEP. SUDDENLY MY MUSE RETURNS.

 

[Ruriska]

He did notice and it carried to him. Like catching a yawn, the shiver rolled through him, beginning in his nose and ending at his tail.

A small portion of his mind was telling him to be scared, to be wary of this change, this new thing before him but the emotion never formed. Nose could feel his heart beating in his throat, a steady ‘thump, thump, thump’ but other than his initial surprise, there was no alarm.

This was Last Night looking back at him. The one presence in his life that was steady and true.

“Well,” he said finally, “I missed you.”

He smiled back.

Amorpheous

<3

 

[Amorpheous]

Another kin might have said 'me too,' automatic and warm, even if it wasn't absolutely true; the saying made it truer, created the feeling even if none had been there. Last Night didn't though; she knew keenly the things she felt and that Nose wouldn't begrudge her for not missing him, for not having feelings that settle and linger. She had come to him after all; the longing was there, only different.

Instead she tread forward, steps even and careful, stopping when her front hooves sunk into the mud puddle, head tilted, curious. A different angle, a different view--seeing with six eyes wasn't the same as seeing with two.

"I dreamed for a long time," she said by way of explanation for her long absence--even though she couldn't say that she would have returned sooner otherwise; it wasn't untrue. She paused and looked as if she were going to say more, but she settled with leaning down to run her nose along his cheek in a gentle caress.

Ruriska

 

[Ruriska]

He didn’t expect an echo of his sentiments. Nose had always been the emotional one of the two, vocal in his likes and dislikes, his fondness and his fears. Last Night was different and he respected how she simply was, without all the voices that chattered constantly in the back of his own mind, so that sometimes the only way to drown them out was to say too many needless words.

He counted her eyes as she approached -- made it to four, five and six and felt his knees go a little funny. Yet he still wasn’t afraid and when she finally reached him, it was all he could do not to melt into her comforting caress. He swayed slightly instead.

Nose wasn’t sure what to say. It was strange but this was the Swamp and these sorts of things happened. She’d always been special and clearly the MotherFather had noticed as well. He was proud of her.

"You must be hungry," he said, for lack of anything better. "We should find you something to eat." Well, she had been sleeping for a while and his natural urge to fuss exerting itself.

Amorpheous