[PRP]Teeth and Ambitions are Bared(Shik/Shaheen/Medea)

[Seussi]

It had been a while since Shaheen had made a journey to that tower top, too busy this past too long with preparing her and Shik's lair for comfortable habitation for them, and uncomfortable habitation for any filthy white coated humans they might happen to capture (and she planned on capturing a lot).

However, there was a sense of their work for the priestess-now-self-proclaimed-queen not quite being finished yet. There had been a promise of power, after all, and Shaheen certainly did not feel any more powerful by any means. Which begged the question of why, and what they must do, and whether or not they were simply being played as pawns in whatever greater game Medea had going on.

She reached the final step and glanced over towards Shik.

"You go first this time. I can never understand her riddles. They make my head hurt. And try not to step on any of her precious, over fluffed vermin.. I think you may have offended her, last time."

Which was clearly why they did not have their power yet. Yes. It was entirely Shikoba's fault.

medigelx

zoobeyx

 

[Zoobey]

The door was open, and Medea was lying belly down on her swathe of pillows and foxfires. There seemed to be more foxfires than pillows, though it was hard to tell, though many of them, upon immediately seeing Shikoba and Shaheen, flattened their ears and raised their hackles and barked up a small storm.

Medea waved a hand, and they quieted, somehow disappearing into the mound of pillows.

"If it is power you seek," she began, almost lazily, "then you must find it yourselves. The weakness stems from instability of the heart. Tell me, what is it that your heart desires, truly?"

medigel

seussi

 

[medigel]

There was never any question about their pawn status as far as Shik was concerned. Had he known anything about chess, however, he would have pointed that it was only a pawn that could become a queen--and that their handler was due for a meeting to talk about just such power and rank.

Instead he scowled at Shaheen and gave her a short bat with his wing. "As if I'm better equipped," he groused, though he did take the lead. Albeit while rolling his eyes. "Bah. Those pets make better coats than they do animals. I'll never understand her fascination."

But he made good on the promise not to harm them. The ones gathered around Medea this time had attitude, and he bared his teeth and puffed his wings in return, standing at his full height in order to intimidate them as he snarled in return.

(He honestly couldn't help himself, it was the War in him. But he did like their spunk.)

Folding his wings, Shik let the snarl simmer into something less vicious and more annoyed. Medea's lackadaisical manner wasn't a welcoming sight this time; he'd hoped to see her more active after all this time, not lounging again. "More than power, high priestess," he said gruffly. "We have found sacrifices for you, done your tasks, and remained faithful from the beginning. Mere power isn't enough. We seek nothing less than godhood."

xxSeussi

xxZoobey

 

[Seussi]

Oh look, there were the yelping, beady eye little rodents. Much like Shik, Shaheen's lip curled back as she bared her teeth at them, going so far as to bite at the air in her annoyance when the barking persisted even half a second too long.

But Medea had them gather beneath her once more, and Shahen straightened, wings that had unfurled behind her folding back into place neatly as she regarded Medea with a single raised eyebrow.

"I would not seek power if it were not necessary to do so. I wish for the promised apocalypse, Medea. I wish to raze the humans and those pathetic white coated filth that protect them to the ground. I want to see the world burn. And I want to see the maggot's home sink while they watch, as they forced us to do." She smiled then, and barked out a laugh.

"But you already know this. We have had this conversation before."

medigel

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

Medea paused for a moment, blinking at the audacity of the two horsemen. And then she laughed and laughed and laughed, until for a moment she lost her form as simply a horseman. "Of course, you have been promised, and it has been delivered."

She smiled and it was that of not the queen of the chessboard but as the endgame itself, "would you like to see the culmination of your results, while you have been simmering in your own resentment?"

The pyre behind them formed into a door.

Seussi

medigel

 

[Seussi]

Okay, Shaheen was now at least adequately impressed. She knew that Medea was powerful, and nothing to slouch at, but the fact remained that any time they saw her, she was usually lounging on pillows and behaving like a lazy cow that could only speak in riddles.

This version of her was much, much nicer.

"Now we are getting somewhere." She muttered, teeth bared in a grin. "But I would not say it has been resentment we have simmered in, only eagerness." She said, much louder, golden eyes almost glowing with excitement as she stepped towards the door, a glance going back towards Shik.

"Apologies, queen." She turned back again and now nodded at the much more formidable force that demanded respect from them, "But we of war are not well known for our patience." Eyes flickered to the door again,

"And yes. I would like to see."

medigel

zoobey

 

[medigel]

Medea's laughter was a little unnerving, her shadow almost larger than it was cast before. Shik liked this way better. His bow to Medea wasn't ironic, despite the twist in his toothy smile; he preferred having a leader that inspired some amount of Fear rather than laziness and the howls of insipid minipets.

"Our sincerest," he added after Shaheen as his wings swept against the floor. "We will never pretend that peace is in our nature." And then he straightened, amber eyes gazed into the pyre hungrily. Fire and power made such a lovely combination. Fire and anything else often did.

Eager to see it already, he grinned at Shaheen and began to step towards the door.

Seussi

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

The first sight was bodies. Some were still alive, struggling, caught in some strange flower-like cage. Pods, almost, grotesque in nature. The ones awake screamed, squirmed in pain. The ground beneath them was covered in thorns, bones, decay, the strangest, most twisted of greenhouses. Red butterflies flew all around them.

One of the humans escaped a half-open flower pod. It began to crawl, helplessly, searching for an exit. Its legs were missing, feet entirely corroded. Fear washed off it in thick waves, powerful, intoxicating.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Medea walked over to the Human, and crouched down, petting the injured Human like she would a foxfire, "this is the garden of rebirth."

As Shaheen and Shik moved around, the garden shifted, it adjusted, growing entire archways, rows and columns of space, the walls made always of thorns and live cattle. At the end were two thrones, one fit for a queen, the other a king. A strange power called to them, it made them feel complete, washed away from Insanity, it made them feel whole. It barely nudged the recesses of their most subconscious desires and filed it with a deep satisfaction that only destruction could bring.

Medea would follow them a little afterwards, now carrying only the severed head of the human. "As long as she stays with us, this fortress is ours. We feed them to her, the sacrifices, and she in turn returns power to us. The power from our crystals, the markings, our Fear runs through the veins of this fortress, it is the storehouse that readies us for the great war to come for our final moment of triumph. She turned her head, tilted it slightly, and tilted the head of her puppet the other direction. "You do understand, children, why we must continue to persevere. We cannot be gods we do not have those who serve us."

Immediately, the ceiling bloomed in red flowers, rows and rows and rows. They were all empty. They were all hungry.

Seussi

Mediciner

 

[Seussi]

Beyond the door, everything was glorious and beautiful and perfect. All Shaheen could do at first was stare in rapturous awe, stepping through to the other side, gaze flicking around at all the wonderful chaos that there was to see. She stepped lightly, to avoid the vines, the grasping humans, the corpses, and bathed herself in the Fear that permeated the air, taking in a long breath before grinning, a rising sense of giddiness welling up inside of her.

She had to stifle the urge to begin giggling like some young foal. It was just all too wonderful!

"It's more than that." She finally breathed, stepping further inside. If she had any trepidation towards the vines or flowers, it certainly didn't show. No, instead she wondered if it would be possible to have such incredible things, maybe just a few, transported to her own lair.

She was lost in the moment, feeling whole, complete, the whispers in her head vanishing for a time.

Great war to come.

She turned back towards Medea, an eagerness in her gaze, a deep desire, a hunger.

"I would very much like to be a part of this war, Medea. I would very much like to be a leader in this war. What must we do?" The words were barely out of her lips before her attention was turned upwards, towards the flowers on the ceiling. "Feed them? Serve destruction? I would be only happy to do so. Whatever it takes, whatever is required."

medigel

zoobey

 

[medigel]

Eau de la misère humaine was the most intoxicating thing Shik had ever had the luck to breathe in, and he had once helped an entire village burn itself to the ground; not much could trump the smell of crisp bodies and fresh Fear. He was not aware of Shaheen's quieted whispers, but he revelled in the beautiful red atmosphere all the same. It reminded him of his vision from the tower, a world of razed lands and cowering chattel, of utter and complete destruction at his command.

The women's words went in and out of Shik's mind, hazy like smoke, entwining as the thorny vines. Leader. He had always been on his own, but for a cause like this, if they could....If they must...

He eyed the thrones like a curious foal, wings twitching with anticipation. Were those theirs? Someone else's? Who else had to be disposed of to take them? What else must be rent apart to secure their own? He stood by his mate and turned to Medea expectantly, awaiting explanations and orders with an uncharacteristic silence; it was clear he was with Shaheen's answer. Satisfaction, after all, was so hard to come by these days.

Seussi

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"You are the queen and king of war," Medea pandered to them, "it is time to feed your loyal subjects and prove to them who you serve. This garden recognizes you, it is your Fear, your loyalty, that nourished it, like a Scareling gaining Fear for the first time. Humans, creatures of Halloween, anything containing Fear. They are sustenance. When all the flowers bloom in this garden, your position in the upcoming war will be permanently unchangeable."

medigel

Shik and Shaheen now have permission to gather Fear/ actual bodies from rps and bring them to this garden to "feed" it.

Seussi

Shik and Shaheen now have permission to gather Fear/ actual bodies from rps and bring them to this garden to "feed" it.

 

[Seussi]

"The king and queen of war?" Shaheen grinned, nearly laughed, and thought better of it. While she liked the sound of it, she knew better than to believe that it was actually true, but despite that, there was little reason to argue. Not then, not there, not when surrounded by such beauty, not when blessed with such a horribly wonderful task.

And while the titles meant little to her, the mention of a war to come? That was something that piqued her interest.

"What war?" She asked, immediately. "When?"

medigel

zoobey

 

[medigel]

Shik really, really wanted to believe they had earned the titles, but...It had been too quiet. War was not always noise, true, it could be waged with the coldest of calculations behind the scene. But simply waiting, well, that was a different beast altogether. No amount of simple Fear harvesting, even despite what they had done for the high priestess, felt enough.

But he really wanted to be called King, Jack damn it. What a tease.

"What position?" Shik added after Shaheen hungrily, seemingly as eager to feed as their new garden.

Seussi

Zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

Medea gazed at them evenly, "what do you fancy yourselves, true kings or queens that must represent the greatness of many, forced to employ others to do what they truly desire, or warriors that are the subjects of kings, all but kings in true title? For one there is always the other."

medigel

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

"A true queen would not require others to do her work for her. A true queen should be a warrior, the best warrior, and one who will represent the greatness of many while also fighting for them." She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Those of war may thrive on chaos, but even chaos could use some guidance from time to time, and not from just anybody who gives themselves the title of queen, but from one who truly understands them, their desires, their wishes, and what they have strived to achieve. Who do you deem worthy, Medea? Eris? She has not been seen for over year. I do not presume myself to be the most worthy choice for a leader, but I believe I have made a damn good case for myself, my loyalty to you all this time not withstanding."

zoobey

medigel