[ prp ] the unforsaken road ( lurks & waits )

[its me debz]

Much like always, Lurks appeared suddenly and without warning, just like he'd left. He flopped onto the cushions closest to Waits, legs kicking in the air excitedly as he did.

"Brother!" he squeaked, exploding into a fit of shadow-bugs gleefully, letting them cover his form entirely until he was writing bundle of cloth and bone and wispy insect legs. "I am home!"

A pause, and he poked his head out of the amorphous darkness, face screwed up in concentration. "Or, well. I am here. I do not know if it is home. But it is where you are, and so, I think it is okay to call it so."

chirigami

 

[chirigami]

A few of the insects hiding under the cushions made their mass exodus into the recesses of the layers that Waits cloaked himself with as Lurks made his decent upon the pile, shifting them ever so to stir the alchemist from one of his many naps.

Around him were a few experiments in various stages, most barely looking like anything at all but at least remaining untouched from his brother's entrance. Because he knew better, knew how to arrange such things because of the infrequency of the other's returns to any home they ever had. It would have been more work to clean things up and more work was a terrible thought. "Welcome... home," he drawled out as his wings fluttered into awareness and a few of his centipedes slithered from a sleeve. (The term home was still loose with him as well). He still hadn't really moved yet.

"Did you have fun?" Another interpretation could have been, 'did you bring anything fun back?'

cherno astra

 

[its me debz]

"I had the most fun!" he said, muffled through his scarf, rolling around on the sand, like some sort of sidewinding snake. From the depths of his bedraggled robes, Lurks produced a bloodstained teddy bear for Waits, with a piece of scalp and hair tied around its neck, shiny and black. He flung it in his brother's direction, and went back to rolling on the ground.

"It is not very much," Lurks continued, mournful. "I did not think to take a souvenir until it was almost too late. The hair is from the false mother, and the toy was her youngling's." He paused, thoughtful. "She is not as good as us."

chirigami

 

[chirigami]

It wasn't so much getting the object thrown at him that caused him to move, but his brother's rolling. Well, he did sit up at least to inspect his present but all the while also tucked his legs in as to not be an obstacle and get hit. "Thank you," he drawled on as he wasted no time to clutch it in a bony hand and hold it to his face, breathing it in. There could be so much found from the scent of things, conditions the toy had been, perhaps some fear from the small creature that owned it, bacteria.

Waits proceeded to then lick it. Simple observations first and all. He'd do the scalp next. "No one ever is." He replied as her poked at the soft exterior with his other hand, feeling the residual textures.

"Did you play with them long?" He went on, sounding rather bored all the while as he prodded the thing, "they have anything to do with those humans we found in the tower?"

cherno astra

 

[its me debz]

"A few suns," Lurks said, sitting up to stretch his feet out in front of him, leaning forward to clutch his bony toes with his equally bony hands, clacking them against each other. "Only way they are close is that I want a whoooole family one day. Me and you and Original and manymany others, all together to be mine. And maybe yours. To borrow. But mostly mine!"

Also affixed to his hood was a new, shiny hairpin, a little dot of galactic purple and shining blue against his browns and ivories. "I did meet another people that was a hunter. She was very nice and had manymanys, too." In time with his 'manymany', a writhing mass of shadows exploded from his wings, cascading down on him like slowly falling rain. "She called me Lurks Beneath the Stars, because I am the best and she admired us-- Famine!-- very lots lots."

chirigami

 

[chirigami]

There was a pause, a small second of wonder if there could have been possibly more to be taken from his brother's trip besides just a simple bear and a piece of scalp but Waits let it pass as soon as it entered his mind; it was his brother after all, he couldn't really complain since it was something even with the amount of time he had spent with this so called family and it was far longer than he probably could have bared to be around humans. Would have probably fallen asleep quickly enough unless he managed to get them to do something interesting. Lurks probably 'played' with them, as he did those many.

"A family," the alchemist repeated as he simply ripped one of the arms off the bear in his hands, allowing a few of his centipedes to crawl inside the innards of the main parts of the bear and a few others to take apart the appendage itself. His gaze didn't leave the plush as he mulled over Lurk's little idea, wondering if it was a new concept or one he (Waits) had simply forgotten he had conjured up one day. The ideals had been long forgotten, it had been just the two of them for so very long. It wasn't a terrible idea at that ever; and those many had been so helpful as it was. The Original though, so boring.

With the onslaught of sudden insects, Waits finally turned his head and watched as the fluttered about his brother's form. Then looked from them, to Lurks and then to the very obvious new thing that adorned him. It did indeed look like the very thing he gazed up at lazily. "Admired us, hm," again with the repeating of words. He shifted to sit up a little more properly, his own wings splaying across the pillows as his many layers of cloth and sash. "Doesn't seem too terrible having such fine taste," well... (eh, it was his brother, he did like him a whole lot even with his moments).

"How did she have her own, though? Humans do not possess such abilities, those Hunters seem to be the only ones with any sort of abilities. But, those only in the form of weapons." Or was it that? Oh, the curiosity.

cherno astra

I finally got to this! gonk

 

[its me debz]

"I want one," Lurks reiterated, sharply, like a child who wanted to have not one cake, but three. Immediately. "I love you the very very most, of course," he said, gleefully watching Waits take apart his gift. That was what his brother did, after all: took things apart to see how they worked from the inside, to puzzle out life's greatest mysteries at exactly his own speed.

Maybe Waits should come, the next time Lurks went on an adventure. It would make the games so much more fun.

"I do not know," he whispered, suddenly baffled, jolting straight up. "I will ask the next time I see her. I think she was a hunter, but the good kind. The mine kind. Muchmuch better than that awful red one." Who, still, did not get any capitalization. Because she was the worst.

chirigami

 

[chirigami]

Waits didn't move, nor seem to blink at Lurk's outburst. Too used to them. Nothing, even at the sentiment (though, he did appreciate it being said. There was no doubt in his mind that it were true, and assumed his sibling knew the feeling was reciprocated).

Finally, there was a movement with him reaching to the bear's ear, one of them stained lightly and matted with blood, and began to pull at it. It was stitched a little tighter than the arm had been, now on the ground with the stuffing everywhere and slowly getting its seams ripped by tiny little shadow legs.

At the mention of the red one, Waits hissed lightly with rattle in his throat. He knew too well whom Lurks was referring to, that one that had attacked and scattered the scavenger in the tower. No, he did not like her either. Obviously. But if this other was nothing like her, even if she was one of those, "please do." And even then added, "it would be interesting to meet his one." Despite this being Waits. Could prove more entertaining that the Original.

cherno astra

 

[its me debz]

The only one who had the patience for him was family, and it was tempered with mighty laziness in Lurks' very fine opinion, but either way, he was glad. Waits just did as he always did, living up to his namesake:

Waited it out.

"Oh, then maybe we can go looking together! She likes the big wides, and the forests tall. Where the old bases used to be, before the others filled them with a destruction mighty." He smiled, widely, and began toying with the fluff on the ground, smooshing it between his bony fingers.

"She wanted a few of my many manys to keep and look at. She put them in a little jar. I think she likes to study things, so you would much much get along, I think."

chirigami