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 Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 11:26 pm
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A yawn interrupted the quiet that had settled over the room in the early ours of the morning. Somewhere within the tangle of blankets and feathers that covered the bed was a drowsy, ha;f asleep chimera. She'd woken up about an hour ago, but there was a warm body laying beside her, his back to her front, with one pale arm looped around his waist. Her legs were tucked up behind his, tail curled loosely around one tanned ankle, her breath warm on the back of his neck, carrying his scent back to her.
She remembered falling asleep the night before with their positions reversed, but at some point they had switched, they usually did. Merry curling her body protectively and possessively around the quetzalcoatl in her sleep. In the few weeks since they'd met the ghoul had taken a particular fondness for the boil. He was more than friend with benefits, more than just a cuddle buddy.
With another yawn the ghoul squirmed in the covers until she could press her face into turquoise hair, humming affectionately as she tightened her arms around the boil. An ear perked, listening to the sound of his breathing as she tried to deduce if he was still sound asleep, or close to waking.
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 3:15 pm
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A soft giggle sounded from behind him, and she nuzzled into his hair, drawing another deep breath before letting out in a sharp, tickling exhale against the back of his neck. "Hi yourself," was punctuated by a kiss against the soft skin just behind his ear.
"Are you sure it's just me? You smell like rain, and growing things, and air all wrapped together." It was like home, though unlike the boil,Merry had nothing but pleasant memories of the jungle she'd grown up in. So open, so clean and fresh smelling, and utterly alive. The city wasn't bad, she loved her life here as well, but nothing really compared to the atmosphere in the rain forest.
At his question she'd give a drowsy, though pleased,"mmhmm." Painted nails trailed over dark skin, tracing soft circles as her hand drifted from his stomach around his side, along the length of his arm. "Did you?"
He sounded so much more serene lately. The nervousness remained, and he still rambled, undervalued himself, but not as bad. It seemed like her presence in his life was helping, she hoped it was.
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 5:52 pm
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It made her happy, seeing him so relaxed, at ease and comfortable. his shifting had her nuzzling her face between his shoulder blades before his comment made her giggle. He'd feel it, a a warm, wet line up the back of his neck before an obvious smack of lips. "You taste good,." Like clean water and rain clouds. As for smell? He had it pretty much spot on. Some of it was extremely familiar, scents she'd grown up with, and some of it was new. Storm clouds, rolling in over blue skies.
She'd wiggle back a little to give him room to roll, but once he'd settled she crawled over him, laying with her lower body between his legs and her arms folded across his stomach. "What do you want to know?" Where even to start.
"We're a loud bunch. Loud enough the racket we make carries out of the valley. It's shocking at night, when a lot of the young ones are a sleep, and the elders are on watch. You can finally hear the rest of the jungle." She smiled, tracing her finger along the scales on his hip. "Unless we're celebrating something, then the valley if filled with music until dawn." At this she grinned, red eyes flicking up to him. "We celebrate a lot."
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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:21 pm
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"Of course you can. I wanna take the twins too, we'll just all go together." Of the three, Pachua might get a little more out of the experience because he had his wings, and he'd be able to fly around the the rest of the tribe, explore the cliffs that surrounded the valley.
Her head tilted at his worried frown, and she slid her hands across his stomach and up along his chest in a reassuring motion. "As much, or as little, as you're comfortable telling me." She was curious, of course, but she wouldn't push him.
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 9:29 am
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“I’m not sure how much you know about my people, my tribe is sort of secretive.”
He took a breath and let it out slowly, closing his eyes and worrying at his lip again.
“Colors are important.” He added. “Colors… sort of say who you are in the tribe, what your purpose is.”
He reached a hand to trace at her bright feathers.
Wings should be vivid, not just colorful but…undiluted. The scales, well… they should be, they should be either those of a human world snake, or… they should be vivid like the wings. One of the most desirable of my people has scales of bright purple and teal, patterns of an opalescent cream but the white is a minimum. That’s…that’s important.”
“We still believe in our ancestor, the great Quetzalcotal for whom our people are named, they said he could do more than …than call to the rain. He could make rainbows and thunderstorms and he was the very idea of storms. We also have a… a sort of peace with another tribe, the Tezcatl…”
He chewed his lip.
“They aren’t like us, they have, fur and spots and… they um…well we hunt each other. They try and eat us and, if they do that’s all well and good for them, but if we win then we pass to adult hood.” He ran a hand over the pelt around his waist by way of explanation.
“We honor their deaths by wearing cinnabar.” He touched some of his beads.
“And… in exchange for our rights of manhood they…we, give up some of our own to …to THEIR ancestors, and to their royalty.”
He paused, glancing at her to study her face.
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 10:12 am
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The ghoul gave a subtle shake of her head to indicate that she didn't know much, but otherwise kept quiet, letting him continue uninterrupted save for the soft rumble of a purr radiating from her chest. As much a comforting thing as a sign of contentment. It was clear to her that whatever he wanted to get off his chest, it wasn't something he liked to talk about, or possibly ever had before.
So she listened, bright eyes trained on his face, open and interested, as she kept up that soft trail of fingertips along his sides. It was all pretty fascinating, about the colors, the scales. She'd known Quetzalcoatl existed, but not much about their culture. As he continued, she started to get a sense of why.
Brows twitched up as he mentioned what was required of the young before they could reach adulthood. She knew the Tezcatl as well, they didn't just hunt the feathered serpents. It was why Merry's tribe lived in the valley, surrounded by cliff faces on all sides. The chimera had their own traditions, but none that required any sort of battles with other races or tribes. Their ancestors were about joy and fertility.
Frowning, her hands stilled on his sides as what he was saying sank in. "What do you mean give up some of your own to their ancestors?" She had a sinking suspicion she already knew, but she needed to hear it from him.
These traditions and rituals were not that foreign to her, they were in all the old stories of the gods, and she knew other races still held true to those old ways, but she had never personally had to face them. The idea that Pachua might have bothered her. The purring ceased, features melting from interest to concern.
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 11:00 am
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He took a shaky breath and let it out again. “… The royals of the Tezcatl, they wear feathered cloaks.” He said hesitantly. “…White quetzalcotal aren’t…common. It’d be better liked if I’d been all white, but I’m still a white Quetzalcoatl. I’d… I was raised to give everything, from my core to my wings to them at the great ceremony. The last white Quetz before me, she vanished. They say she ran away and there was great shame on her family because you’re to face it with bravery and acceptance.
Except… I … couldn’t. I was…when I first came here I was so, prideful and arrogant of our tribe and how great an honor it was. But then I met more boils and ghouls.”
“They called me back home, I…was supposed to stay.”
He glanced back to her with an anxious expression, worried that she’d judge him poorly for running away.
“… I just… want to, mean something. If I had for some reason to give up my core I want it to mean someone else was saved, not because they wanted to dye my feathers brighter colors and wear my wings as their own.”
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 4:47 pm
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Oh, no sir, she did not like that one little bit. It seemed totally barbaric to Merry, with her loud, close-knit tribe and easy going customs. Bristling slightly, the ghoul rose up on her hands and knees so she could crawl up along the boil's body until their eyes were even.
It wasn't some honorable sacrifice they were trying to enforce on him, it was death for the sake of vanity, and that just seemed utterly wrong. They couldn't have him, not his core, not his wings, not even his feathers. They didn't deserve even a drop of his blood. Pachua was a wonderful boil, he was sweet, and honest, and genuinely good natured. How could anyone ever want to snuff out his life? It baffled her.
"You don't belong to them," she told him, a hand moving to cup his cheek, thumb stroking soft skin. "They don't own you, and they can't make you do this." As she lowered down again her knees were tight against his sides, and her tail looped possessively around one of his legs while one arm did the same around his shoulders. "They can't have you." She nuzzled him, a little roughly, clinging tightly.
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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 5:43 pm
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She was shaking her heard at his logic, not so much disagreeing, as simply not accepting. They could not have him. She'd made up her mind, and that was that.
The thought that someone would come here to try to collect him, or worst, harm the people he cared about, had colored lips peeling back from sharp teeth as a growl rolled up to rumble through her chest. "The people you care about are strong." Well, she was strong. Honestly she did not know who else the boil cared for other than Llyr, and she was unaware of how well the nix could defend himself. It was a valid fear, but Merry was drawing a line in the sand, metaphorically placing herself in front of Pachua and anyone else the boil valued that could not take care of themselves.
There was also the matter of this being a school. "Amity will not allow you to be clutched from their grounds and stolen away. Not you, or anyone else." At least she didn't think so. Obviously a parent had the right to collect their child if they had a valid reason, but she believed the school had their student's best interests at heart. If Pachua explained, they'd fight to keep him here, wouldn't they?
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