<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Rouge+Script" rel="stylesheet"><center><div style="background: url('https://www.transparenttextures.com/patterns/shley-tree-2.png');background-position: top; background-repeat: repeat;width: 526px; box-shadow: 0 0 15px #000; background-color:#322b1e; padding: 5px;"><div style="background: url('http://i.imgur.com/sar9hik.png'); background-position: top; background-repeat: no-repeat;width: 526px; position:relative; box-shadow: 0 0 15px #000; background-color:#ac7c56;"><div style="width:526px; height:253px; background: linear-gradient(to top, #ac7c56 10%, rgba(255,255,255,0) 70%);"><div style="padding-right: 200px; padding-top:104px; text-transform:lowercase; font: 80px 'Rouge Script', cursive; color:#d9b48c; text-shadow:1px 1px 10px #000;margin-bottom: -21px; opacity: .8;">tangerine</div><div style="padding-right: 50px;font: 12px 'Times', serif; font-style: italic; color:#d9b48c;text-shadow:1px 1px 10px #000;">face to the sun</div></div><div style="margin-top: -60px; padding: 15px; text-align:justify; font:12px 'Times', serif; color:#2b0f00; line-height:135%; letter-spacing:0px; padding-bottom: 10px; opacity: .7;">
So this is what he is, your supernova. Stupid girl, power like that didn't come with a smile. Welcome him- your jailor forever. He is your god now.
He came to her then, after days of solitude, with no fanfare or warning. He is a plain gray this time. He did not need to lure her with a peacocks show - she is already his. A warm smile is on his black lips, he is pleased by his work, he is pleased by the wealth of flesh he hoards.
Blood looks black in the dark.
He comes at her then, sweet smelling and violent, the dank humidity of the cavern replaced with crisp ionized air. Like a good pet, she had waited patiently and without contributing howls of her own to the terrible music playing in the dark around her. But the walls of her prison melt away as he approaches, she does not stir, not until he calls her by name.
"Tang" he purrs into the space between his mouth and her skin. She tries to smile, a valiant effort, but she cannot manage it and grimace takes shape on her lips as her eyes focus on the wall behind him.
This is a god they are dealing with.
"Hmm, I see how it is." Was that disappointment in his voice? She is frozen. He moves again, sending waves of energy and ice ripping through her veins. His lips touch her neck, right below the crescent scar he had left her with after their first meeting. He hums into her skin. A flash of pain blinds her before he is whispering again, soothingly calling her back to the present.
"I know it hurts," he coos as he leans in closer. She grits her teeth and forgets to breathe.
"Don't move."
Her neck is burning and tearing, but no flame is being used, she knew what true burns felt like. With dark magic, he carves into her hide and muscles with precision. And the pain grows as he gives a final push- one last sip and a brilliant agony. She is glad that the dark god is so close, focused on her flesh, that he can't see the tears which wet her face.
Then, like a dam breaking, she breathes a torrent of fast and shallow breaths
- and the blood just spills and spills.
Tangerine decides to move away, to fight, to flee, but her body disagrees.
She falls, a pile of burgundy and gold into the dirt of his grotto as hot teas mingle silently with her blood. From the fog, she can sense him withdrawing, and she is again, alone. But she dares not to blink nor move, she simply fades.
Tangerine awakens to a pounding in her skull. The blood is gone but the skin on her neck seems the crackle as she rises to stand. She drinks deeply of the water he has so kindly provided. Maybe he did care for her in some strange way, she consoles herself.
He didn't have to give her water.
She paces, anxiously for the rest of the morning taking note of the different sounds her footfalls make on the ground of her cell. In the back of her now home her hooves create a deep -thump- which reverberates in her cell. Out of boredom, she strikes the ground harder there, and then again. Something moves. With both front hooves, she bounces, almost comically if the situation was not what it was, and the ground crumbles under her weight.
She tumbles, falling into a dark passage. Fear strikes her like a blow to the heart and she is tempted to crawl back into her cell and patch the hole before the dark god finds out what she had done. But a thought of her children, born and unborn, spurs her on to see what may lay at the end of the tunnel.
Soon, a new world opens up before her. It is a bright world, and the light blinds her. She half stumbles half trots forward blindly- she has made her decision and she has to keep moving. Her vision returns and when it does she gasps.
A massive sand cat stalks her, its hackles raised as it tastes her fear. Out of the pan and into the fire, her mother's voice laughs in her mind. But Tang fortifies herself, she had done this before, she had killed a grass loin before. Not many knew, but she knew and she knew she could do this.
She lowers her skull and leaps towards the creature. The cat is caught off guard and Tang snorts and pulls her knees up around her face before stomping the ground where the cat had been. She catches its tail under one hoof and the feline spins towards her with one wide paw lashing out. The claws wrack her face but she does not retreat. As her nostril tears under his talons, she drives a hoof into his exposed ribcage.It gives under the force of contact. But she had not a second to spare for celebration. She champs the creature hard behind his skull, taking his scruff between her teeth. With all the force she can muster she shakes the cat's body until he no longer resists. His lifeless body crumples in front her and their blood marries in the sand.
I wonder if Carnage bleeds red.
She waits for her heart to slow as she looks at him, committing the image to memory. Gently, respectfully, she lays his body out - head high and tail flying behind him in a final leap into eternity.
No vultures fly in the white-hot sky above her.
Valiantly, she moved on. She only had two choices, lay beside the cat and waste away or move on. She chooses to continue. Miles pass under her hooves without passing a single structure or life form to let her know she's making progress. Her mind whirles in the blankness of the empty landscape.
The desert is scentless, void and very dry. She licks her lips and they burn. But then she is not alone. The wind rises and the heat seems to clear away, there is another woman, and she looks into Tang's eyes with a brash defiance she has never seen before. Tang smiles in self-defense - the other woman frowns.
Celest. What was her baby girl doing here in this land of monsters?
'Hello' Tang murmurs in the shadow of the great woman who has not been born yet. Maybe this was her way out, maybe her daughter had somehow come to save her.
'You poor, stupid bitch.' The woman states without feeling.
Tangerine recoils as if she has been struck. Instantly she is moving backward as fast as she can in a shuffle, refusing to take her eyes off her daughter. The dark amethyst of the woman's eyes burn with a purple fire, and Tang knows her child is not hers, but her fathers.
"Stop." Her teal lips part to speak the word with a cool power. "It's embarrassing."
Tang freezes.
Celest does not hesitate, yet none of her movements seem rushed, and soon she stands before her mother. "You know, this is the first time I've seen you with your sanity." She tilts her head ever so slightly, her violet forelock cascading down across one eye. "I'm disappointed, honestly."
Confusion flickers in Tang's amber eyes. She doesn't want to understand what her child is saying to her, and for all her dreams she has never seen anything like this in her future. She shakes her torn face back and forth. No. "Stop, I don't know you."
And the creatures composure breaks. She laughs, a melodious laugh, and tilts her teal head back in exhilaration. "And that always was the problem!" She manages to say through her laughter. "It's not really your fault, I know. It's not your fault you were created so simple." Once again, she is composed, but the smile lingers - her fathers smile. "But that's no excuse, or at least not a good enough one to get you out of your punishment. I see he had already left you marked, but you still owe me."
Celest seems to be glowing now, a faint light emanating from the teal of her coat and the black and purple of her eyes. A thread of light materializes between them and unfurls to touch Tang's face. "Don't fucking move." The teal mare threatens, so like her father. And for the second time, that day Tangerine stands motionless at the mercy of the merciless - unable to fight her own child. Unable to fight a god.
That did not make her weak.
"Celest, please. I can make it better, when I go back, I can change the story." The gold and cream mare winces as the thread of light touches her face below her eye. "Burn me if you want! But tell me how to make it better for you!" Steam rises and obscures her vision as the light melts away her skin. Tangs voice rises an octave. "Tell me, what I will do wrong! So it doesn't have to come to this."
Celest pauses momentarily only to look into her mother's other eye. "Once upon a time... nobody gave a fuck." She smiles. "How do you like that story, mother. It's better than all of yours."
The branding complete, Tang lets her head drop low between her knees. Celest steps back to admire her work and her grunts in displeasure. "Well, this was anticlimactic. I always imagined you differently." She turns to leave but pauses when one last remark comes to mind. "I guess I should say thanks anyway. Maybe if you had done your job as a mother I would be the way I am." She is calm and collected once again, her vengeance satisfied. "Those are tears on your face, they will scar nicely. A fair exchange, I think, for all the tears I couldn't cry as a child. For all the tears you should have wiped from my face - but you weren't there and so I never cried them."
And the daughter of Carnage walks away, into the nothingness where she disappears into the waves of simmering heat.
Tangerine has nothing left. Her mind is devoid of thoughts, she has felt too much in one day. But as her unborn daughter leaves her to trudge along alone, one thought continues to rise between the long stretches of blankness. "Is she the monster, or am I?"
In this pattern she walks miles, head low and feet dragging. Her face is torn and burnt and along the crest of her neck Carnage's mark throbs dully. It is not until the sand below her feet begins to clump and change that she notices the oasis. A few more steps bring her onto the grass around the water and her muzzle instinctually reaches down to tear tender shoots from root. Mechanically, she chews and swallows as if this were a normal day by a normal pond and not the nightmare it is.
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OOC: Carnage carved a spiral on her neck which will scar raised and white. The bite scar he gave her when he bred her is in the top/middle of the spiral. The panther scratch her face, tearing one nostril and Celest (CarnagexTang) used her light beam emission to burn some rough teardrop shapes under her left eye. Let me know if anything needs changed - I plan on Celest being a dark character in the future and so this is one possible outcome for how she may turn out with the current chain of events. This was probably not actually Celest but just a version of her Carnage created to torment her mother.
So this is what he is, your supernova. Stupid girl, power like that didn't come with a smile. Welcome him- your jailor forever. He is your god now.
He came to her then, after days of solitude, with no fanfare or warning. He is a plain gray this time. He did not need to lure her with a peacocks show - she is already his. A warm smile is on his black lips, he is pleased by his work, he is pleased by the wealth of flesh he hoards.
Blood looks black in the dark.
He comes at her then, sweet smelling and violent, the dank humidity of the cavern replaced with crisp ionized air. Like a good pet, she had waited patiently and without contributing howls of her own to the terrible music playing in the dark around her. But the walls of her prison melt away as he approaches, she does not stir, not until he calls her by name.
"Tang" he purrs into the space between his mouth and her skin. She tries to smile, a valiant effort, but she cannot manage it and grimace takes shape on her lips as her eyes focus on the wall behind him.
This is a god they are dealing with.
"Hmm, I see how it is." Was that disappointment in his voice? She is frozen. He moves again, sending waves of energy and ice ripping through her veins. His lips touch her neck, right below the crescent scar he had left her with after their first meeting. He hums into her skin. A flash of pain blinds her before he is whispering again, soothingly calling her back to the present.
"I know it hurts," he coos as he leans in closer. She grits her teeth and forgets to breathe.
"Don't move."
Her neck is burning and tearing, but no flame is being used, she knew what true burns felt like. With dark magic, he carves into her hide and muscles with precision. And the pain grows as he gives a final push- one last sip and a brilliant agony. She is glad that the dark god is so close, focused on her flesh, that he can't see the tears which wet her face.
Then, like a dam breaking, she breathes a torrent of fast and shallow breaths
- and the blood just spills and spills.
Tangerine decides to move away, to fight, to flee, but her body disagrees.
She falls, a pile of burgundy and gold into the dirt of his grotto as hot teas mingle silently with her blood. From the fog, she can sense him withdrawing, and she is again, alone. But she dares not to blink nor move, she simply fades.
Tangerine awakens to a pounding in her skull. The blood is gone but the skin on her neck seems the crackle as she rises to stand. She drinks deeply of the water he has so kindly provided. Maybe he did care for her in some strange way, she consoles herself.
He didn't have to give her water.
She paces, anxiously for the rest of the morning taking note of the different sounds her footfalls make on the ground of her cell. In the back of her now home her hooves create a deep -thump- which reverberates in her cell. Out of boredom, she strikes the ground harder there, and then again. Something moves. With both front hooves, she bounces, almost comically if the situation was not what it was, and the ground crumbles under her weight.
She tumbles, falling into a dark passage. Fear strikes her like a blow to the heart and she is tempted to crawl back into her cell and patch the hole before the dark god finds out what she had done. But a thought of her children, born and unborn, spurs her on to see what may lay at the end of the tunnel.
Soon, a new world opens up before her. It is a bright world, and the light blinds her. She half stumbles half trots forward blindly- she has made her decision and she has to keep moving. Her vision returns and when it does she gasps.
A massive sand cat stalks her, its hackles raised as it tastes her fear. Out of the pan and into the fire, her mother's voice laughs in her mind. But Tang fortifies herself, she had done this before, she had killed a grass loin before. Not many knew, but she knew and she knew she could do this.
She lowers her skull and leaps towards the creature. The cat is caught off guard and Tang snorts and pulls her knees up around her face before stomping the ground where the cat had been. She catches its tail under one hoof and the feline spins towards her with one wide paw lashing out. The claws wrack her face but she does not retreat. As her nostril tears under his talons, she drives a hoof into his exposed ribcage.It gives under the force of contact. But she had not a second to spare for celebration. She champs the creature hard behind his skull, taking his scruff between her teeth. With all the force she can muster she shakes the cat's body until he no longer resists. His lifeless body crumples in front her and their blood marries in the sand.
I wonder if Carnage bleeds red.
She waits for her heart to slow as she looks at him, committing the image to memory. Gently, respectfully, she lays his body out - head high and tail flying behind him in a final leap into eternity.
No vultures fly in the white-hot sky above her.
Valiantly, she moved on. She only had two choices, lay beside the cat and waste away or move on. She chooses to continue. Miles pass under her hooves without passing a single structure or life form to let her know she's making progress. Her mind whirles in the blankness of the empty landscape.
The desert is scentless, void and very dry. She licks her lips and they burn. But then she is not alone. The wind rises and the heat seems to clear away, there is another woman, and she looks into Tang's eyes with a brash defiance she has never seen before. Tang smiles in self-defense - the other woman frowns.
Celest. What was her baby girl doing here in this land of monsters?
'Hello' Tang murmurs in the shadow of the great woman who has not been born yet. Maybe this was her way out, maybe her daughter had somehow come to save her.
'You poor, stupid bitch.' The woman states without feeling.
Tangerine recoils as if she has been struck. Instantly she is moving backward as fast as she can in a shuffle, refusing to take her eyes off her daughter. The dark amethyst of the woman's eyes burn with a purple fire, and Tang knows her child is not hers, but her fathers.
"Stop." Her teal lips part to speak the word with a cool power. "It's embarrassing."
Tang freezes.
Celest does not hesitate, yet none of her movements seem rushed, and soon she stands before her mother. "You know, this is the first time I've seen you with your sanity." She tilts her head ever so slightly, her violet forelock cascading down across one eye. "I'm disappointed, honestly."
Confusion flickers in Tang's amber eyes. She doesn't want to understand what her child is saying to her, and for all her dreams she has never seen anything like this in her future. She shakes her torn face back and forth. No. "Stop, I don't know you."
And the creatures composure breaks. She laughs, a melodious laugh, and tilts her teal head back in exhilaration. "And that always was the problem!" She manages to say through her laughter. "It's not really your fault, I know. It's not your fault you were created so simple." Once again, she is composed, but the smile lingers - her fathers smile. "But that's no excuse, or at least not a good enough one to get you out of your punishment. I see he had already left you marked, but you still owe me."
Celest seems to be glowing now, a faint light emanating from the teal of her coat and the black and purple of her eyes. A thread of light materializes between them and unfurls to touch Tang's face. "Don't fucking move." The teal mare threatens, so like her father. And for the second time, that day Tangerine stands motionless at the mercy of the merciless - unable to fight her own child. Unable to fight a god.
That did not make her weak.
"Celest, please. I can make it better, when I go back, I can change the story." The gold and cream mare winces as the thread of light touches her face below her eye. "Burn me if you want! But tell me how to make it better for you!" Steam rises and obscures her vision as the light melts away her skin. Tangs voice rises an octave. "Tell me, what I will do wrong! So it doesn't have to come to this."
Celest pauses momentarily only to look into her mother's other eye. "Once upon a time... nobody gave a fuck." She smiles. "How do you like that story, mother. It's better than all of yours."
The branding complete, Tang lets her head drop low between her knees. Celest steps back to admire her work and her grunts in displeasure. "Well, this was anticlimactic. I always imagined you differently." She turns to leave but pauses when one last remark comes to mind. "I guess I should say thanks anyway. Maybe if you had done your job as a mother I would be the way I am." She is calm and collected once again, her vengeance satisfied. "Those are tears on your face, they will scar nicely. A fair exchange, I think, for all the tears I couldn't cry as a child. For all the tears you should have wiped from my face - but you weren't there and so I never cried them."
And the daughter of Carnage walks away, into the nothingness where she disappears into the waves of simmering heat.
Tangerine has nothing left. Her mind is devoid of thoughts, she has felt too much in one day. But as her unborn daughter leaves her to trudge along alone, one thought continues to rise between the long stretches of blankness. "Is she the monster, or am I?"
In this pattern she walks miles, head low and feet dragging. Her face is torn and burnt and along the crest of her neck Carnage's mark throbs dully. It is not until the sand below her feet begins to clump and change that she notices the oasis. A few more steps bring her onto the grass around the water and her muzzle instinctually reaches down to tear tender shoots from root. Mechanically, she chews and swallows as if this were a normal day by a normal pond and not the nightmare it is.
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OOC: Carnage carved a spiral on her neck which will scar raised and white. The bite scar he gave her when he bred her is in the top/middle of the spiral. The panther scratch her face, tearing one nostril and Celest (CarnagexTang) used her light beam emission to burn some rough teardrop shapes under her left eye. Let me know if anything needs changed - I plan on Celest being a dark character in the future and so this is one possible outcome for how she may turn out with the current chain of events. This was probably not actually Celest but just a version of her Carnage created to torment her mother.