[mature] diabolical, delicious things; - Printable Version +- Beqanna (https://beqanna.com/forum) +-- Forum: Explore (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=1) +--- Forum: The Common Lands (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=72) +---- Forum: River (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=82) +---- Thread: [mature] diabolical, delicious things; (/showthread.php?tid=21090) |
diabolical, delicious things; - Disastardly - 10-08-2018 The devil nudged her a few times, but Dizzy was too far gone to open her eyes, too far gone to do anything more than twitch uselessly and blow out a soft huff of protest. He lost interest eventually and left her to die, and Dizzy had just enough fight left in her to drag that death out as long as possible. She didn’t notice the contractions, drowned out as they were in a sea of agony, all her pain nerves firing desperately, furiously, as if her brain couldn’t already tell she was in trouble. Stripped bare, burned flesh oozing, pieces of her burned skin left lying on the ground, strewn about like discarded wrapping paper the devil had peeled free of her flesh. Bruised, battered, brutalized beyond recognition, there was barely enough left of her to push a tiny surprise baby out of her, and even his small body scraping against her burned insides was enough to overwhelm her senses and cause her vision to fade out for a long moment. Maybe she was bleeding to death. It would makes sense. She’d thought he’d cauterized all her wounds to make her last longer, but maybe he hadn’t bothered the last time. Morbid curiosity forced one eyelid open, and she panted and fought to raise her head to see… A baby? She was delusional. It was the only real explanation she could think of. Pain had made her insane, and she’d started to hallucinate. Except the bundle of baby made a grumpy little squeak and flailed a little, fighting almost as hard as she was to raise its head and look at her. If she could have, she might have scrambled to her feet, reared up and crushed its perfect little face beneath her hooves. She could imagine it, the way it would crunch and splatter, spurting blood and brain and bits of skull bursting from its skin as its body spasmed and went still. It would be kinder, ending its life before the devil could find it. Before it could look at her. The self-pity in that last pathetic thought would have been enough to stop her, if she'd been able to get to her feet anyhow. She let her head fall to the ground and just kept breathing as the baby grunted and protested with an angry little snort, clearing its nostrils and huffing impatience all at once. A good mother would have found her way to her feet, cleaned her baby off, helped it to rise and nurse. She was no good mother. Even as the baby scrambled to stand she lay still, stubbornly dragging in breath after ragged breath. She might have blacked out again for a moment, because the next thing she new it was touching her cheek with a gentle little brush of its muzzle. She snorted and jerked, eyes wide and staring up at--oh. Yes. Baby. Not the devil. And clearly not the devil’s either, not with a black coat splashed with Dov’s bold, starry blue. Two pairs of dark eyes met, one rich brown and the other verging on black. She stared at the baby and just breathed for a long moment, memorizing that face just in case it was the last thing she saw. Given half a chance, it would grow up beautiful, she could see that in the lines of its face, the gorgeous play of color across its coat. So damn striking, and her weary eyes traced the pattern across its skin, wandering idly. It even had little baby winglets peeking out of its back, all covered in fluffy black baby down. God, and its dad’s lip spot, a splash of blue and white that crashed up against the black at the corner of its mouth, making her stupid heart skip a beat in her chest. Well, that or her heart was failing, always a possibility too. Little of a, little of b, maybe? Who could even tell. Probably she wasn’t gonna make it long though, not at this point. So she raised her head to touch the baby gently with what used to be the velvet softness of her nose. “Defy,” she murmured with a broken voice, and she wasn’t quite sure if it was a name or a command. But the baby nodded, huffed out a breath, and flicked its ears back in the cutest little grumpy expression that looked so damn much like its daddy. “Mine,” it demanded, and this time the word washed over her and eased the pain just a little, setting a piece of the world to rights. She nodded slowly and murmured agreement. “Yours.” Let out her slow, shaky breath and answered, “and you’re mine,” and pressed a soft little kiss to the spot at the corner of its lip. “Duh.” Its sassy tone coaxed a hoarse little laugh out of her as her eyes drifted closed again, vision fading out on the sight of her little one standing guard over her, wobbly legs splayed, ears pinned as it looked around, dark eyes watchful and wary. @[Dovev] RE: diabolical, delicious things; - Defy - 10-09-2018 Home was safe, dark and quiet and warm, cozy in this blissfully undisturbed way that left the boy sleepy and content, happy to curl up niiice and tiny even as his body developed more and more. Tiny was sneaky and tricky, and made him smile to himself with a little wiggle and a flutter of his itty bitty wings. He was gonna be the best surprise ever. It was almost time to come out. He knew by the way it got so, so hard to stay still, by the way even the vastness of home’s warm embrace didn't feel big enough anymore, by the way his cozy contentment started to fade, replaced by restless irritation. And then the world suddenly felt a whole lot less safe. Spikes of fear leaked in through his belly, spreading in a way that told him it was not his but Mom’s. His little ears heard the way her steady heartbeat took to racing, heard screams muffled by layers of flesh and fluids. Chemicals coursed through him, trying to keep him calm and alert and ready to act, but there was nothing he could do. Home shook and crashed, screamed and cried, and there was nothing he could do. She kept him safe as she burned, as she bled, and he could feel her rage and pain and her endless defiance. Ohhh, his chest puffed up with pride even as he fretted, hidden away safe inside home. Home got a lot less safe though, bright and hot invading and retreating , the nightmare orange lighting through flesh and making home glow, making his eyes squint and try to focus. It wasn't long after that her body gave out and they crashed to the earth. And still he could feel the fight in her veins, flowing into him, flowing through him. So strong, his Mom. She held him until everything was quiet again, until the danger passed and the fear faded from their blood. And then, when it was as safe as she could manage, home pushed him out. He entered the world with a plop, just a tiny glob of tissue filled with fluids, tied to Mom still by his belly. The cord broke though as he grew rapidly, expanding out to his full size, tearing through the tiny birth sac and gasping in a breath as she raised her raw, mangled head to look at him. To be honest, he didn’t know what a mom was supposed to look like. But he was pretty sure not that. He peeked down at himself, and nope, he wasn’t all gross and oozey and cracked peeling bleeding ick. Just hair that wasn’t even that wet ‘cause he’d gotten big and the wet had not. Okay. So probably that was the screaming and the scary things and all, ‘cause also the air smelled like danger and burning and charred hair and skin and there were bits of what looked like Mom skin sorta strewn about and yeah okay that...was bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, very bad. At least whatever had hurt her was gone now, or he hoped so anyhow. But what the hell was he supposed to do though? His ears flicked back all anxious, and he worried at the corner of his lip, looking around and trying to make his eyes focus even though that was a whole new thing, being able to see farther than the inside of Mom. Well. If she couldn’t take care of him now that he was out, he’d have to take care of her. So. Yeah. He took a big breath, huffed it out, steeling himself to try and get up. It took a couple of goes, ‘cause he’d never been this big before and it was a little disorienting there being like, a ground to stand on and having to hold his weight up with his legs and balance on them when really they were just big long sticks to wobble on. But after a couple of failed tries, he managed it, standing on splayed legs and ducking his head to sniff at Mom and touch her cheek lightly. She jerked with a soft, scared little cry, and he crooned gently and found a spot to touch that still had skin. She stared up at him, and he looked right back, peering into her eyes for the first time as a feeling of safety washed over him and chased away all the scary stuff for just a moment. His mom. She was his mom, and look how hard she’d fought to keep him safe already. She touched him gently and croaked out his name, and he puffed out his chest again and took it on happily, and gave her the only truth he knew in return. “Mine.” Her answering claim back was obvious enough he barely commented on it, but her little kiss to the side of his face made him grin even as she closed her eyes and drifted off again. So he stood guard over his Mom, not sure what else to do. Something rustled in the trees, and he huffed and puffed himself up real big, flaring out his baby wings and snorting and stomping. “RAAAH!” he yelled as big as he could, and well hey at least successfully scared off a squirrel, so. Good. Best protector. He tossed his head and snorted again, arching his neck and charging after it a step ‘til it ran faster. And then um tripped over a damn rock on the way back to Mom. Good thing the squirrel didn’t see that. He caught himself and managed not to fall on his face at least, and cleared his throat and stood guard over Mom again. ‘Til someone who looked super fuckin’ scary came into sight, and he wanted to shrink down so damn tiny and hide in the crook of Mom’s neck. But her neck was a whole lot of hurt right now, so it was his job to be big and brave. So he narrowed his eyes and flared out his little baby wings and growled. “Mine,” he told the man covered in bones, blood oozing out of the edges. “You can’t hurt her, I won’t let you.” RE: diabolical, delicious things; - Dovev - 10-13-2018 dovev we're slaves to any semblance of touch Lord, we should quit but we love it too much ummm sorry. no yeah, i was right :| he legit just wants to get heals to her asap. so um, brb :| RE: diabolical, delicious things; - Defy - 10-14-2018 Yeah! That’s right, you’d better run! Defy snorted and stomped and tossed his head as the scary bone man with the starry blue legs turned and ran away. Damn right! ‘Cause he was scary too! He arched his neck and flared out his little baby chick wings and preened, so fuckin’ proud of himself he could barely stand it. He was the best big brave boy, and the very best protector and guardian, and he was takin’ such good care of Mom! He pranced back over to her, and this time even didn’t trip on a rock or nothin’! He sobered up though when he got back to her side. His belly clenched with a feeling he didn’t like, one that crept along his back and up his neck and made him all tense and tight and anxious, and he worried at the corner of his lip where it was blue speckled with stars. “Mom?” he asked softly, reaching out with a hesitant little muzzle to brush his nose juuust barely against her cheek. She made a pained little whuff sound, so he knew at least she was still breathing and shit. Ugh, she had to be okay though. She was his, and his only, and what would he do if she wasn’t? No. She would be okay. He’d make sure of it. Maybe he could like, lick her and make her better. That was a thing, right? Probably, so he tried it, picking a spot of yuck to lick--which wasn’t hard, since most of her was pretty mangled and icky. He licked her face, right by her mouth, and she just made another soft ouchie sound and didn’t get better. Oh. Okay. Um. Okay so that didn’t work. He caught a soft, anxious whine just as it started to escape from his throat. His little ears were laid back, and oh man but he wanted to be so, so tiny, just snuggled up in the crook of her neck. He’d fit so perfectly right there, he could even see the spot, and he could snuggle right in and be so cozy and safe. Right now did not feel safe at all, and he reallyyy wanted safe. Ugh, and his tummy was growling too, and he could smell food somewhere in the mangled mess that was Mom. But nosing at her hurt her, and anyhow he didn’t know where to look exactly. And besides, he had to protect her, and that was hard to do when you were eating. Plus the fire had probably like crustified any food there was. So that sounded kinda gross. If it was a thing even. Maybe it wasn’t, ‘cause he smelled it and it made his tummy rumble so, so hard. Mom musta heard, 'cause she groaned and tried to stand, but mostly just managed to roll a little and shift one of her legs. So he whined softly again and followed the scent that made his tummy so very rumbly, and nudged so, so gently. She still hissed through gritted teeth, but she didn’t shove him away, and moved her leg a little more so he could try to reach. He had to shrink a little bit to manage it, but just for a minute, okay? Just for a minute, and he ate as fast as he could, sweet rich milk flowing into his mouth mingled with a little blood that made it taste kinda funny but he was too hungry to care, and he wasn’t about to complain. Not when she was hurting so bad. He ate so, so fast, and then let her rest. Just snuck up to her face to give her another soft little kiss, and got all melty warm inside when she huffed softly and brushed her lips against the starry spot at the corner of his mouth. “Love you, Momma,” he said, trying really hard not to worry, or at least to pretend he wasn’t super scared ‘til...well. Hell. Til something magic happened? Or? Til she rested enough and was okay? Thinking about what came next made his breath come fast and his heartbeat race and his bottom baby teeth chatter up against his gums. “You’re gonna be okay, okay?” he said, or begged, he wasn’t really sure. “I’m gonna take the best care of you.” “Love,” Momma said softly back, and that was all she could manage. But he knew. He knew the rest. So he stood watch, protecting her from all manner of scary fluffy things, chasing off squirrels and rabbits and even a big scary deer with pointy horns, and not panicking at all as her breath got shallower and raspier. He was the best protector. Her big brave boy. Her Defy. And she was his Momma. And she was gonna be okay. Somehow. RE: diabolical, delicious things; - Dovev - 10-28-2018 dovev we're slaves to any semblance of touch Lord, we should quit but we love it too much RE: diabolical, delicious things; - leliana - 10-28-2018 I waited for something, and something died it's our dearest ally, it's our closest friend RE: diabolical, delicious things; - Defy - 10-29-2018 The more time passed, the more Mom’s breath rasped and wheezed and caught in her throat. And the more labored it sounded, the more desperately Defy wanted to curl up against her and hide, wanted to be pressed up against her chest with her chin tucked around him. But he was so, so careful not to touch her too much, not where she was raw and oozing, which was almost everywhere. So he stood over her, keeping her safe, until one time she breathed out and forgot to breathe back in. “Mom?!” he yelped, and nudged her frantically. He might not know much, but he was pretty sure not breathing was a bad, bad thing. “Mom!” He burrowed against her, fitting himself into that cozy safe space even if it’d hurt her, nudging with his nose and making sharp little terrified whimpers with every wriggle and twist ‘til she cried out softy and gasped in a breath and held him tight just where he’d wanted to be this whole time. Tears trailed down his cheeks, and his body shook as he curled against her chest, weary but too afraid he’d fall asleep and wake up all alone. “You gotta stay, Mom. Here with me, okay? I need you.” She nodded and struggled to rise up, to sit upright instead of sprawling out on the ground, but she was too weak. “No, shh, it’s okay. Rest, just...just don’t leave me.” She let out a heavy sigh and settled back down, but her chest kept rising and falling, and he pressed his head against her and listened to her heart still beating. Still beating. He stayed curled up against her chest, listening and making sure she was living up to her nod and staying with him. He didn’t even get up to chase away a chittery yelly squirrel that probably wanted to eat them but was too dumb and small to manage it anyhow. It felt like forever that he was curled up like that, scared and shaking and listening so hard for Mom’s heart to keep making that safe, familiar, cozy sound that had wrapped him up and snuggled him for so long. But it felt like not long enough when the big scary bone man came back with company. He scrambled to his feet, eyes wide, heart racing, his ears pinned back and his jaw set. He squared off and snorted and stomped his tiny little foot, stretching out little baby chick wings again and trying to make himself b i g when he was so, so much better at being small. Nobody was gonna hurt his mom. Not again. But the new big scary person came close anyhow, even though he huffed and reared up a little to stomp even bigger and tried to scare her off with a yell that worked pretty well on rabbits and squirrels. He started to shake as she got too close, but...but she talked. And her voice was soooft, and maybe not so scary, murmuring the exact thing he needed to hear. He didn’t quite believe until Mom’s breathing got easier and she sighed and relaxed. Well. Not until she breathed in again after that. A few times. Look, it took him a minute, okay? But Mom seemed like she was hurting less, and that was the important thing. So he scurried out of the way - after all, he was pretty scary and good at chasing things off, and he didn’t want to chase away help. He watched them both, the bone man and the lady with the wings, not really sure what they were talking about exactly other than that the bone man had brought her to help Mom. Ohhh. His eyes went wide and he crept closer, sneaking over while they both stared at Mom. And he ducked his head to peek at the bone man’s legs, ‘cause hey actually! Maybe he wasn’t so scary, not if he was helping Mom. And ‘cause he’d just finally noticed something. “Hey!” he said in a startled little squeak. “You got my stars!” He held up a leg closer to the bone man’s to compare, and then grinned up at him. “How’d you do that?” RE: diabolical, delicious things; - Disastardly - 10-29-2018 Shock took Dizzy beyond the pain of her wounds, into a sort of dazed euphoria. She was dying, she must be, but that didn’t seem so bad. The world around her faded in and out of focus, but any time her eyes really focused, she saw black and star-studded blue, midnight dark eyes staring down at her from a tiny face, flashes of wings too new to be anything but adorably useless. She was dying, she must be, but that sweet little face kept peering down at her and begging her with scared eyes not to leave him. So she tried. But silence and an overwhelming sense of peace lay waiting for her in the dark behind her closed eyes, so tempting after a year of numb misery. Yes please, just make it all go away. Such bliss in that sweet silence, she could feel it radiating all the way to her, all the way through her, beckoning softly. Come and rest, baby. Let go of the hurting and the shame, let go of all the ways you’ve failed them, all the pain you’ve caused, all the regret. Let go. A fresh wash of pain jerked her back to herself and she cried out as black and star-studded blue writhed against her chest, frantically nudging her and dragging her back to him. Alone, he was far too little to be left alone, and she did her best to hold him close, tuck him under her chin and keep him safe. He scrambled to his feet, and she struggled to do the same, tried to drag her weary, broken body upright to protect him from whatever had frightened him so. But the best she could manage was a pathetic whuff, a grunt, a little flailing of her legs as she tried to rock herself up to at least see. Ohhh. Ohhh but then. A different kind of peace washed over her, golden and glowing softly, bolstering her waning strength and making it so much easier to breathe. She relaxed back into the ground, lying prone and letting healing magic wash over her and do its work. She barely caught the familiar cadence of Dovev speaking, but couldn’t quite get her mouth to cooperate, and really, she was probably imagining him anyhow. Wishful thinking and pain-induced hallucination. Still, she whuffed out a quiet little greeting to the imagined sound of her love and to whatever angel was helping her. Her soft voice washed over Dizzy, and soft lips brushed against her neck as she murmured words of comfort. Dizzy nodded and breathed out a sigh shaped like the word thank, just the softest whisper as she closed her eyes and let herself rest. RE: diabolical, delicious things; - Dovev - 10-30-2018 dovev we're slaves to any semblance of touch Lord, we should quit but we love it too much RE: diabolical, delicious things; - Defy - 10-31-2018 “FUCK!” Defy jumped with a startled huff, eyes going wide. Ohhh that was a good scare sound, got his heart racing and his whole body paying attention and trying to decide if he had to run away hide behind Mom, he’d have to remember that one. “Fuck!” the bone man helpfully said again, and Defy recognized the quiet panic in his dark eyes that hid behind the big scary rawr sounds he was making. He’d felt an awful lot of that himself too, so instead of scaring him it kinda made him feel like...like yeah, no, I get that, man. Life’s some scary shit, huh? Yep, and then the bone man started tearing up, his eyes getting all watery just like Defy’s had earlier. And then yeah no like full on crying, Defy totally got that. He took a teeny little step closer, reaching out his nose to make careful, gentle contact with a soft little whuffing sound like Mom made, just a reassuring little breath of hey, I got you that she managed even though words were hard. He was pretty sure the words spilling out of the bone man’s mouth were only like halfway important? Like panic sounds, words all jumbling together getting trippy and tangled as he freaked out out loud. Defy just nuzzled him gently, his muzzle brushing against his skin where he could reach it between bony bits. Oh and then he rambled something super interesting about not wanting kids, and Defy perked up and tilted his head a little, peeking down at himself again and then back at his stars splashed on the bone man’s legs, and right there on his face too. He narrowed his eyes and frowned a little, puzzling it through, and glanced over his shoulder at Mom then back up at the bone man again. Bone man was still crying, but he sniffed, like Defy did when he was tryin’ to pull himself together. “So fuckin’ gorgeous,” he murmured and tugged him closer to admire his wings. Well, like sorta tantrum-admire? Like he was kinda somewhere between proud and offended? Which was weird, but to be fair, Defy was pretty sure his wings were awesome, so. Maybe it was fair to be like a little jealous of how fuckin’ gorgeous he was. He grinned up at bone man and leaned into him, and snorted another surprised little huff as they sorta collapsed to the ground in a heap. He snorted again, more amused this time, and curled himself up against bone man’s chest to snuggle up, fitting himself between the plates of bone and taking advantage of the cuddle to lip at one of the plates and indulge his curiosit--hey! Come back here! He huffed and narrowed his eyes at bone man as bone man fussed over him, but okay actually that was kinda nice, or at least it would be if it were a little less frantic, more like, calm and cozy licking grooming thing? Welp. Bone man scrambled up and shied back a bit, and Defy guessed it was probably ‘cause he was pretty scary, good at chasing things away and like, faking like he was big and mean and shit? So that was fair. He scrambled to his feet too and wiggled his little tail and his little wings and really his whole little body, trying to settle into himself and keep up with bone man’s whirlwind of talking and freaking out and crying and stuff. Bone man tried to nudge him away and shove him toward Mom, but Mom needed a minute and Defy wasn’t anywhere near done with him anyhow. He wobbled and stumbled a couple of steps in Mom’s direction ‘cause he didn’t have a whole lot of choice other than to fall on his face, and then turned back with a stomp and a huff. Okay. How to not be scary? He turned his grumpy furrowed-brow frown into a smile and reached out slowly to touch the softest bit at the very end of his muzzle to bone man’s, breathing in and out nice and slow to like, remind him how. In, and out. “It’s okay,” he said softly, taking a couple of easy, cautious steps closer. “I know I’m real good at lookin’ big an’ scary. But you helped Momma. So you don’t gotta be afraid of me. I’m not gonna hurt you.” He snuggled up against bone man’s chest and rubbed his cheek against a nice skritchy edge of his armor, angling his head to hit an itchy spot with an appreciative little huff. Then he lipped at the bony plate again, exploring it. “That’s a real good scare sound you made. I’m gonna have to borrow it, it’s better than just shouting. Fuck!” he tried it out, sounding way too cheerfully delighted by the word to manage scary yet, but that’s what practice would be for, huh? “But you don’t gotta try and scare me though. Maybe...maybe we could even be friends? We got the same stars, that’s pretty cool, huh? Even right here.” He reached up and nudged the spot at the corner of bone man’s mouth where they both had stars. “Momma likes that bit right there on me. She gave me a kiss there even, which was a really nice kind of icky, the kind that makes your insides all warm and melty and makes you kinda maybe not mind the ick, you know? “You got a name, or...? Momma calls me Defy,” he added, puffing up his chest and preening a little, ‘cause it was an awesome name. Mom was pretty much the best at naming. He snuck a worried little glance her way. “She really gonna be okay?” he asked, his voice small, his ears flicking back uncertainly as he pressed harder against bone man’s chest. “I tried real hard to keep her safe like she kept me, but I couldn’t fix her.” |