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 Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 7:24 pm
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Abandoned now by both of his prospective dance partners....ex-lovers....confusing current engagements....gods this was confounding, Sharra had stood blinking for a long moment, allowing Marosa's words to sink in, momentarily stunned by the contact and the intensity of the fey boil's admonishment. "Wait...." But it was too late, the redhead was already gone, and now the Nergal was fumbling.
That had sounded a damned sight like someone who didn't know if he was coming back from whatever Jack-bedamned mission he'd sent himself on. A fool's errand. The little hints that the fey had been dropping, the way that he'd intentionally shoved Nergal and frigid djinn together despite all odds. Something was....wrong.... And this was coming from a boil who knew a thing or two about reckless choices.
Stalking out into the night, he knew full well that sleep would not be finding him this evening.
So he should likely find the source of his turmoil instead. She had not witnessed Marosa's goodbye, and the grim fist curled 'round the Nergal's guts was surely not rooted in mere nerves. All right....it was time to call on his base knowledge. She had fled, she was upset, she would run to comfort....comfort was not currently her fiance so....
Water...
He took in a heaving gulp of the night air as he burst out of the prom, it hit his lungs with a cool humidity and the demon boil followed his senses....he needed water. Taking a habitual lap close to his own dorms, just in case she had fled close to home, he then headed for what would be the nearest body of water. It was calming, her element, and his best bet for finding the distraught Hadiyya.
Eyes glowing in the night, he quickly closed distance between himself and the lake.
This was an idiot's gamble, perhaps, and there was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that told him seeking out the djinn was...rather reckless. However he knew that she cared about Marosa with the same intensity, that at least she needed to know, even if she had discarded Sharra entirely. If naught else....the blond knew what his priority was in this. To look after the two of them in whatever way he was still able, and he had been tasked with guarding HER.
He almost rolled his eyes at the thought. She didn't need his protection, and yet Marosa had almost demanded it, assigned it as though he were a general directing his forces.
And he'd known that Sharra would comply.
A quiet scoff came to his lips as he slowed his mad dash and surveyed the calm waters of the lake.
Marosa. That sly, sly faerie.
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 8:00 pm
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It wouldn't be terribly hard to find the djinn once the nergal had made it to the lake. She was perched prettily on a stone outcropping past a line of trees edging the forest. Dainty, henna kissed feet peeked beneath the silk hem of her sari, the tips of emerald painted toes barely touching the water beneath her. Subtle ripples were spreading from that source, not the perfect circle of rings, but waving designs that curled and twisted around each other. Almost like filigree. When the moon hit just right, a faint shimmer showed around delicate ankles and following the contours of each small foot. Water eagerly crawling that sun kissed skin.
Her hands were in her lap, elegant fingers twisting her engagement ring round and round in worrying circles, though she hardly seemed aware of it. Her attention was on the lake itself.
The reflection of the moon bright across it's surface. The heavy, intoxicating scent of water that hung in the air and filled her lungs with each calming breath she pulled in. The sound, soft though it was, of lazy waves lapping against stone and sandy bank alike. This is what she needed to clear her head and cool her temper. Her element.
She didn't notice Sharra at first, too lost in her own thoughts and the ever inviting embrace of the water around her. It wasn't until he'd drawn close enough for her to hear a twig snap under the smooth soles of his oxfords that she realized she wasn't alone. In truth she wasn't surprised. Admittedly, It was the fey she'd been expecting, not the nergal. Glowing eyes widened a touch when she lifted her head to look at him.
"Why aren't you dancing?" And where was Marosa, if Sharra was here?
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:04 am
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When he spotted her, it was easy to see she was fretting. Though he might not remember all of her tells, the djinn’s very demeanor reeked of that familiar worry, and the intensity of Sharra’s concern took a softer glaze on the demon’s handsome features. Sighing quietly, he moved closer to her after the verbal inquiry. If Hadiyya had noticed him, there was no point in shying away, the knot of hesitance that had balled up in his core dulling as the blond committed to this interaction. What he had to convey was more important than his own personal comfort…though if he’d been utterly unselfish he likely should not have returned to Amityville at all.
But he simply didn’t have anywhere else that felt familiar any longer.
Shifting onto the outcropping to join her, he came close behind, to sit off to the side, heaving lean legs off of the edge, though less directly over the shimmering waters below. Whilst he was close enough to touch her if he wanted, to meet her eyes, he was not completely encroaching upon her personal space. Idly, the black and green spines of his tail swayed behind him casually, a metronome to keep him sane. “Because your boil’s about to go do something stupid.” The words sounded like a sigh, heavy with details he wished he knew. “You’ve both run off tonight…and he told me to take care of you….like you need that.” Bitter, scoffing laughter colored that dismissal.
“But he warned me too….about running away again. I don’t know whose wrath I’m more afraid of at this point, yours or his…” That he did not make light of. It was somber, the acid of his gaze flickering over to her shoulder and then upwards.
“And now he’s gone off, to do Jack knows what. But he had that ‘idiot going off to war’ look.” The way he informed her portrayed a fond concern….for both of them, the Nergal’s voice wistful. “And I do know a thing or two about being an idiot.”
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:00 am
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Clear blue eyes watched him wearily as he moved towards her and took a seat. The night had been long enough already, with too many feelings and shadows of the past. Sleep seemed a wonderful escape, but she'd known when she'd left the prom that there were hours still before that luxury would be available to her. As the demon boil answered it appeared she was correct, though the reasons weren't quite what she had been expecting. She frowned at his response, brows knitting as the first stirrings of concern crept into replace the hurt and irritation.
"What do you mean?" Where else would Marosa possibly go? What else could he have to do if not seeking out to try to placate his irritated fiance? She was his priority, had been for some time now. His leaving this duty to Sharra, of all people, was baffling to her.
Tanned fingers stopped their mindless worrying of the ring, and instead she lay her palms against her thighs, smoothing them along the cool, silky fabric of her skirt. "He's acting oddly tonight," she admitted, looking away and back down towards the dark water. "Inviting you, insisting we talk." Full lips pressed into a thin line. "I thought at first he just wanted you back. Bad enough to just up and forgive you for leaving. It was infuriating to me. He know's how I feel...felt." Even she was no longer certain.
A careful shift of one foot, and the lines in the water moved and swayed. "He didn't tell you where he was going?" She doubted it. If he had, no doubt Sharra would have followed, tried to prevent the fey from doing whatever fool's errand he had set himself on.
With a sigh she lifted her head again to look up at the boil. "It's still your choice, Sharra." Regardless of what she or Marosa had warned, it was moot if the boil choose to simply walk away. If he was out of their lives, he couldn't hurt them anymore, in any fashion. "You aren't obligated to be here on his order if you don't want to be." And there, a slight note of bitterness.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:46 am
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He cast a sidelong glance over to meet her gaze, the spines and orbs that had lain dormant along his shoulders shifting to emphasize the demon’s shrug. “He told me he’d see me in a few days…then something about sooner than that…if things didn’t go well.” Sharra’s lips had pressed into one thin, unhappy line at the conveyance of that message, “Not sure I was supposed to have heard that last bit…but with everything else that’s wrong with me, my hearing certainly hasn’t gone.”
Sucking in a slow breath, letting the balmy night air caress his lungs in a steadying manner, he looked back out, over the water, letting that perusal then trail back to the ghoul beside him, sliding from ankles and all the way up again. There was nothing at all rude or coarse about the way he was watching the djinn…it was instead another reacquaintance. Just being near her was heady, a sensation that was on a collision-course with the knowledge that all of her discontent was of his doing.
“There wasn’t any sign of him when I made my way out…he just took off running, I think. He’d no intention of letting me follow him…I wish I’d been able to.” Wished that Marosa had had the Jack-damned sense to make this a group effort. Whatever kamikaze mission that the gancanaugh had set himself upon. “He hasn’t changed much in that, really. Running off half-cocked.” Fond and frustrated were the emotions in the Nergal’s voice. Marosa’s sincerity and fervid dedication was something that was a double-edged sword to the fey boil. “I was honestly rather hoping you’d have more of an inkling of his purpose than I.”
Meeting deep azure with simmering green, he didn’t flinch from that connection, but allowed the depth of his own conflict to play out on his features. “I’m still baffled that a choice even exists. And I can’t lie in saying that perhaps it might be easier for me to run. Put myself into exile rather than fight what I know is an uphill battle. One that’s likely going to hurt immensely before it reaches a calm place, if indeed it ever does.” Mostly where Hadiyya was concerned. She was completely justified in her skepticism.
“I’m here because I want to be. Logic says I should have stayed away but…it isn’t obligation that brings me back, or even out to find you tonight…I…” Fighting to choose the right words had never been a particular priority of Sharra’s in the past, but now it felt as though he were treading on the thinnest of ice, trying to avoid the cracks that his last, heedless journey across them had left. Marosa had made the path tread-worthy once more, but it was up to the Nergal’s footsteps therein as to whether or not it would hold. He needed to be compassionate in both word and action, if he were to have any chance to prove his sincerity.
Trying to convey the knot of emotions that wrapped around his very centermost being was not a novice’s task.
“Marosa might have invited and admonished me, but in asking that I do those things for you he was….wise in his choice of motivation. I want to be here. I know I don’t by….any means deserve it, but I do.” And trying to stay away had proven utterly futile. Sharra’s pride had been battered into nothingness, but there was something in him that felt a sense of relief in the threats leveled at him by both of his….Jack, what even were they to him anymore? The Nergal was the piece of the puzzle that no longer fit, and he was searching to find what place even remained for him.
There was a chasm in him, a place where something had been shattered…the idea of filling that void was an almost foreign, pipe-dream sort of concept.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 6:40 pm
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Sharra's response did absolutely nothing to thaw the icy knot that was forming in the pit of her stomach. Fear, worry, and what bits and pieces of anger still lingered. Anger that the fey hadn't sought her out after having so clearly upset her. Anger that he would send the nergal in his stead. Anger that he would run off, tonight of all nights, to dive headlong into some unknown trouble that had to potential to leave her without him. Delicate fingers curled tightly in the fabric of her skirt, a fine trembling chasing up her arms and inter her shoulders as she tried to cease the endless circulation of scenarios running rampant through her mind. So many things that could happen, that could hurt him, and she didn't have a clue where to even begin looking.
Numbly the djinn have a shake of her head in the negative. "No, I don't. If there's something he feels needs doing, he hasn't been forthcoming with his plans." She tried to think back, tried to pick apart their conversations over the last few days, week, month. Nothing stood out to her, and dark hair slithered along her shoulders as she gave another shake of her head.
Tension was creeping through her posture, tightening shoulders, back, neck. She sat rigidly beside the boil, gaze jumping, until blue eyes landed on citric green. With a swallow she uncurled her fingers to lay her palms carefully flat against her thighs. Reigning in the control she'd been losing. Even the water had responded in turn, crawling rapidly up her shapely legs. She had to push it back, send it to circle 'round dainty ankles. A breath, then another, and the set of her shoulders straightened once again. "In truth, if it had been up to me there wouldn't be a choice." Cold, but honest. Hadiyya had been prepared to cut him from her life for good. "But here you are."
She watched him critically as he struggled to find the right words to say to her, and when he did speak it was with great care. That alone bought him a measure of tolerance. They had both been terribly vicious to each other when the boil had first returned to amity, and things had not improved much from there. Until now. Whatever foolish endeavors her fiance was charging into tonight, at least in one thing he had done well. Yaya had been angry, but she had danced, and they had talked, and paths that had seemed lost to them were now slowly reappearing.
Perhaps.
On a whim, the ghoul reached out to trail the tip of a finger along one dark spike on Sharra's shoulder. Once upon a time the quills had responded to the simplest touch from her, she was curious if somethings remained the same.
Flicking glowing eyes up once again, she trapped him with a challenging look. "Do you love us still?" The point of her chin tipped gently to the side. "Do you love me?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 8:13 am
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The close relationship he’d had with her over the years caused his spine to tense at her distress, seeing her obvious worry for Marosa – a concern the Nergal shared, heightened the blond’s own sense of alarm, causing hackles to rise in a bristle of spines at the nape of his neck. It was conscious effort to bring them back down again. “That’s not at all comforting…” A dry mutter, frustration causing his eyes to flare subtly with a spark of ire. Anger at the fey for likely endangering himself, for letting them both sit here and stew without even the slightest tell as to where he’d run off and into what sort of disaster.
If there was anything that Sharra had learned, is that there was no shame in needing help in one’s quests. He’d never found anything a matter of simple management when it came to this turbulent world they inhabited.
His ears caught the sound of water as it clothed her calves, mirroring the rise and fall of her emotions….she sought for calm and the Nergal’s presence was currently a detriment to it. So the words that followed came as little surprise. Whilst she might not have implicitly spoken of her resolve, the demon boil had known it, unsung in the ice of her eyes. “I know. You would be rid of me, and I would have gone.” There was a true sorrow in that acceptance, but he did not flinch, once more allowing her unrestricted access to the maelstrom of his emotions. “I thought to reinforce your decision, not damage it, at first…”
The boil’s eyes did widen rather comically when she reached out, and his body responded quite without his acquiesce, the spines rippling upwards to her touch, the eye-like orbs nestled amongst them glowing bright in recognition…a sensation that caused a shiver of cool pleasure to run all the way down his spine. “I…” It was a deer in headlights moment for a few brief seconds, caught utterly off-guard, astounded at the intensity of long-forgotten reflexes.
When he finally spoke, eyes half-lidding, looking down at the fingers that were currently tightening in on his palm, red pin-pricks left in pale skin. It was a shudder that brought that gaze back up to focus, “Yes…” The word trembled, “Jack help me, but yes.”
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:24 am
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There was something betrayingly comforting in the response that light brush managed to illicit from the the nergal boil's spines. They had always sing in the past, clacking together in what she supposed would have been excitement. Even mere proximity could draw a reaction, or the soft sound of her voice. Obeying her, at times, better than the boil himself.
Something's never changed.
Her focus seemed to shift to the orbs and quills, despite Sharra's admission, and for a long moment she didn't say anything, didn't do anything, beyond the delicate slide of a fingertip long the edge of one shifting spine.
In truth are wasn't entirely sure how she felt about it. Her emotions on the matter were so ridiculously jumbled at this point , it was hard to separate the various strands, or where they originated. Relief, maybe? A stirring of something warm, but was it fondness, or anger? She had hoped knowing would bring son measure of clarity, but if anything, she was more lost now than at the start of the evening. The ground had seemed so much firmer a few hours ago.
Maybe she didn't have to say anything. Turning towards him, the ghoul brought her legs up to fold beside her, then shifted until shevwas sitting on her knees. The habd that had been toying with his spines lifted, and instea he'd feel the cool brush of delicate fingers along the edge of his jaw as she sought to draw his chin up again.
Whatever she might have done then, and even she hadn't been sure, was interrupted by a loud buzz from the demon boil's pocket. Yaya startled, fingers drawing back from pale skin as a quick breath passed through half parted lips.
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