[private] You see yourself hung on the wall

[Fazia]

FAZIA

Baltia swims in Fazia’s veins despite how she had been born after it had fallen. Or been absorbed by Beqanna. Whichever was the truth. She adored her mother and father’s stories of what it had once been, the kingdom and the oceans of their home and the military strength of their family. Now that she is grown, the stories she and Basiane were told feel like memories. As if they had been there too.

Really, she is a child of both places — Beqanna and Baltia — and feels a draw to both. Baltians feel a little extra like being home, like she’s with family, and though she has no trouble being bold around the Beqannians, there’s a little extra spice for those who share her aquatic features and silver-black eyes. With love, of course.

Fazia is on her way into the water, intending to vent some her energy beneath the waves, when she spots a stranger.

She sees his tentacles and knows what’s going to happen next before she begins to angle towards him.

There’s still some distance between them when she tries reaching out with her mind to possess his, she wants to know what it feels like to move those tentacles. And to see what happens if he hits himself in the head with one.

@eddie

[eddie]

eddie

weaving a thread round your heart and your soul, deceiving your eyes and delaying your goal..

Like Fazia, he had heard tales of Baltia growing up, though his storytime seems to have been cast in a far less flattering light than hers. But, that's likely a common theme amongst the taboo children born of a Baltian and Stratosian union.

Still, he feels a similar connection to the submerged kingdom and that is what brings him to the water's edge today. As is typical for him, he pauses to stare pensively at the horizon beyond the gentle ocean ripples. He is usually consumed by reminiscence and, while he is still distracted today, it is for a different reason.

He knows that something has changed about him, and he doesn't mean the obviously physical alterations. While he is accustomed to having tentacles, he is not used to their constant presence—normally, they only show themselves when he wants them to, which is usually in order to spend time beneath the surface, and they've always served as a replacement for his equine hind end. But now?

Now he's realized he has lost the ability to change and has been left with these ever-present (and fairly useless) tentacles sprouting from unlikely places. There is a small, short cluster that hangs from his chin like a wriggling goat's beard. Several more protrude from his shoulders, nearly resembling a strange, slimy pair of flightless wings. And as though a reminder of the loss of his shifting, more tentacles, long enough to teasingly brush against his pasterns as he walks, hide amongst the stringy tendrils of his yellowed tail.

Thankfully though, his Baltian gills (and other Baltian/Stratosian traits) remain unchanged, so he can still explore the ocean's depths whenever he pleases. But it feels wrong, it feels as though he's lost a part of himself, a connection to his past. So, as he stands alone, wondering how he managed to bring this upon himself, he leaves himself vulnerable to and unable to recognize Fazia's attempt to take over his mind and body.

Just as he thinks he needs to snap out of it and get moving, one of the longer tentacles at his left shoulder suddenly lashes out and strikes his cheek, just below his bright blue eye.

For a moment, he is frozen in stunned disbelief, but then he begins to laugh—slow and unsure at first, but eventually loud and sharp (a bit unhinged, really). He can't help but find it maddeningly humorous that his body could turn one errant thought into such a fitting action. After all, why wouldn't he want to physically punish himself the same way he does mentally?

..ships in the night, when they pass out of sight, deliver their cargo of earthly delights

image by eymur
@Fazia

[Fazia]

FAZIA

Fazia still has a connection to the stranger's mind when he begins to laugh so she does too. The unhinged laughter bubbles out of her briefly until the sound of it startles her and the already tenuous threat between her mind and his snaps.

But her shark-tooth smile remains. She was surprised to realize she felt it too when the tentacle made contact and she is delighted to have inspired such a reaction. Fazia drifts closer, feeling instantly at ease around someone who she has made laugh and who has Baltian in their veins. Her parents' war and prejudices surrounding hybrids hadn't taken root inside her heart. She had been born and raised here in Beqanna, after all, around all sorts.

The tentacles are fascinating up close and though she had sort of felt the texture through the possession, it had not been the best connection and she would very much like to see what they felt like on her own skin.

It was almost a pity she wasn't a full demon yet, so she could just possess him and find out right away instead of worrying about this talking nonsense. She wasn't even sure she had the energy to try again right now — the half-present ability to possess was very much a muscle she had to hone.

"Are you alright?" She asks as she comes to stop nearby, amusement lighting up her silver-pupiled eyes. As though what had just happened had simply been something she witnessed and not something she had orchestrated. As though she hadn't just laughed in the exact same manner as him (a fact that, in the short walk over, this translucent mare has already forgotten).

@eddie