FLASH. Give me any sense of control. (DAHMER)

[Scyla]

I'm an invisible monster, and I'm incapable of loving anybody. You don't know which is worse. Life was adventure made for those who were bold enough. Scylla was by far bold enough. The invisible monster had pretty much followed her older brother for most of their lives. After all, he was far more any sort of parent than anything else she had ever encountered. It seemed almost silly to the monster that she would continue her quest to follow him. She flew above the lands, looking for a good place to land. Landing had always been the tricky part. When she had acquired the a few years ago, the starting part had been the easiest. She had climbed to a high cliff, teetered on the edge of it with a heart of exhilaration, the adrenaline making her heart pump faster and faster until she thought it might pump out of her chest. The muscles had tightened, released and tightened again. Her wings had almost involuntarily, instinctively opened, and she could feel the wind catch into each individual feather only increasing the feeling of an almost manic euphoria. And then she had jumped. The gravity had pulled her down, and death was a fleeting feeling that covered her like a womb. Death had never scared her. Death had been part of her since her earliest members. The first feeling she could remember was rejection. When your mother debated bashing your brains out before you were able to stand, well, death feels like a warm embrace. It feels like a mother's love. Dahmer was the first kind touch she had felt, the first steady hand in a world of bites and kicks. She could not forget his kindness. Thus, the minute she was out of the clutches of those that viewed her as pretty thing to put on a shelf she had searched for him. Always a trace of him. Always a familiar scent. Those blue eyes burned into the back of her mind the same time that their mother's were inevitably burned into his. He was the prince, and she was the means for the future that had mother had, and the future she had planned out for her son. She was the price to be paid for power. Her brown eyes now scanned, the wings gliding her lower and lower until the ground was closer than the clouds. She was tired, and the muscles that gave those wings fatiguing, burning with use. Scylla refocuses her attention and she lands, galloping at first while the wings open wide, fighting the wind instead of working with it. But within a few strides she slows and the wings fold against her sides easily. She looks around, her sides heaving, her nostrils flaring. She would of been a beautiful creature if she wasn't so dirty. Grass stained her hips and knees, dirt left her looking off-white instead of the pristine grey that she would of been. Only the feathers seemed to be well kept. She preens herself, first the right wing and then the left before adjusting her wings against her sides and heading towards the river. She waded through, the cold river feeling good against her skin, until it just barely touched her belly. Only then did she drink, long and deep. It was a snap of a branch that stopped her peace. An ear twitched, and her head rose, with the crystalline droplets falling off her whiskers.

@[Dahmer]

[Dahmer]

CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT
& SATISFACTION BROUGHT HIM BACK

With the arrival of Autumn had come the anniversary of his own arrival in Beqanna. Of the three years he'd spent mingling with pegasi, telepaths, pyrokinetics, and the odd assortment of creatures, Dahmer had spent the majority of it dedicating himself and his services to the Kingdom of Tephra. He'd seen the volcanic island rise to greatness beneath the skilled hoof of Magnus, who'd been both kind and fair. Dahmer had served as Magnus' councilman, and then he'd seen the coronation of Lucrezia, the woman he had loved... and he had seen her hand over her crown without even the blink of an eye, gifting it to Offspring without so much as a warning to her congregation.

Dahmer had left her there (how could she give it, her home, away so easily?), had turned and walked away from his peafowl lady, with a fire gifted to him by Desole lashing and licking within his chest. The River had turned into the black beast's home during his time away from Tephra, and while he has once again found a home within his beloved sulfur-tinged Kingdom (beneath the ever-watchful Offspring), he still finds the time every so often to venture away from the volcano, and from his new son (and his once-upon-a-time lover), to enjoy the solitude that only the River can offer. The cool Autumn air is welcome against his sleek black coat. It draws a shiver down his spine, our winged thoroughbred has grown so used to the hot and humid, but it pulls that trademark lopsided grin to his lips without hesitation.

The air of the River is crisp and he greets it with flared nostrils as he meanders down the bank. Dahmer's heavy hooves sink into the soft loam but he continues undeterred, ruffling his unused wings against his sides on occasion, as if to remind himself that they are there. Ellyse has requested that they fly together a time or two, but the blue-eyed beast is still so undecided about them that he has denied her each time. Eventually, maybe, he will take to the skies - for now, though, he will stick to his private copse of trees by the volcano, or the riverbank that lay nestled between the Field and the Meadow.

The sound of the water rushing over smoothed river rocks drowns out the majority of the other sounds in the area, if there happen to be any. He enjoys the tranquility, the absence of the need to be a diplomat (at least for the time being), and allows his mind to wander. The Hellhound's son thinks first of Azza, of his Subway, of the life he had lost when their island had rumbled and crashed, swallowed into the sea by the earthquake. Nostalgia blooms, warm and welcome, in his chest and for a moment (a tiny, succinct moment), he imagines the scents of his homeland and of those companions who had made it great. One of these scents, in particular, grows more powerful with each rhythmic step he takes and Dahmer sighs with melancholy at his memories of his half-sister.

But then (how?) he can see her as she wades into the river, just up ahead. Dahmer's face reflects his immediate confusion, the pupils in his brilliant blue eyes narrowing as he moves closer to the tovero mare, who he, without question, knows is Scylla. But... wings?

He snorts loudly to the mare, belly deep in water as he remains on the bank, his grin returning. "Well, I'll be damned," he announces himself, ears fluttering towards Scylla with intrigue, "Took you long enough to get here. Mother would be disappointed in your tracking skills."

A playful chuckle follows, and then a happy nicker, and suddenly Dahmer feels complete, despite never knowing a part of him had ever felt empty.

Dahmer

image © celestiene

@[Scylla] ♥

[Scyla]

I'm an invisible monster, and I'm incapable of loving anybody. You don't know which is worse. When the black winged creature had emerged from the woods, Scylla did not at first recognize him. Gone was the spots their mother had given him and in their place, black wings held awkwardly at his sides. As if he wasn't sure that this was the role he wanted to play. She tilted her head, watching him. He walked like Dahmer...he smelled like Dahmer. And when his voice rang out in a playful jab she knew her big brother was just inhabiting a different body! Or at least that's how the monster would play it out in her mind. Whatever, it made sense to her. She shifts around, not bothering to get out of the water and returning his sassy grin with a wrinkled up nose and ears flicked back. "That must be a new feeling for Mother...my, however will she survive?" She laughed then, and those wings unfurled, dipping in the water and splashing up towards Dahmer. She then launches herself up the bank towards him and presses her neck into his while her lips play with the end of his mane. "You know, if you didn't keep wandering off, I wouldn't have to keep tracking you.." She pauses as she untangles himself from her and gives some distance between them (but not very much.) Her brown eyes watch his, memorizing them all over again. The invisible monster shakes out her wings a bit before folding properly against her sides. The muddy grey legs shift as she stands. The restlessness she nearly always felt seemed to quiet before the blue-eyed brother of hers, and she felt uncertain where to go next. "So have you carved out a place for yourself yet? And where is this place anyways? It took forever to get here.." Her voice drifts off, blunt but with that playful hint that always made everyone wonder did she ever take anything seriously. "Also can you use those?" She motioned to his wings, while adjusting her own. "Its super fun!" She offers her own opinion in case he scoffs at her. They had so much to catch up on, and so much more to experience together. One thing Scylla was certain of was that she would never leave her big brother again if she could help it.

@[Dahmer] - love!

[Dahmer]

CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT
& SATISFACTION BROUGHT HIM BACK

Dahmer forgets where he is when his blue eyes touch down on the tovero frame of his sister. It's as if Beqanna doesn't exist, as if Azza and Kusheth have returned for the day. Even their surroundings, the leafy trees and winding river, remind him of the lands in Kusheth where the wilderness had reigned, unlike the dilapidated ruins of the Azzan island. His mind flashes to Azza's raids against its more peaceful island counterpart and then the memories shift to ones of him and Scylla meeting secretly after the fall of darkness when Desole had carted her away and transplanted her in the Zoo.

His heart suddenly aches at the thought, but she is here now, and with him again.

The chestnut tovero completes a semi-circle in the river and returns his grin with a wrinkled nose. Dahmer laughs freely and gives his dark head a toss as she unfurls her own wings (so strange to see them sprouting from her shoulders) to splash him with the refreshing river water. "I think she will get over it eventually," the black beast jests as the siblings close the space between them and embrace, neck pressed to neck. "I was just trying to help you learn to track," he grins as Scylla pulls away, "you know, like big brothers do. But now that you've found me again, we can work on some other skills if you plan on staying in the area."

"Like, maybe... social skills?" he says with a twinkle in his blue eyes, his feathered wings adjusted at his sides to mirror Scylla as she does so. His ears flutter as she inquires about his new home and the black thoroughbred nods with enthusiasm. "This is Beqanna, and of course I have! I live in a land called Tephra. There's a volcano and we never have to deal with snow, so it's a pretty nice setup," he adds at the end, curious if she would remember the winters in the Subway that he refused to leave their maze of underground tunnels because of the white, fluffy precipitation outside.

"I may or may not have actually used them yet, but maybe soon... it would be cool to see the volcano from the sky," he smiles, though his eyes have grown mischievous.

"I have a new son, too. He's back at home. His name is Smoak."

Dahmer

image © celestiene

@[Scylla] ♥ UGH I'M SO EXCITED TO WRITE WITH YOU AGAIN.

[Scyla]

I'm an invisible monster, and I'm incapable of loving anybody. You don't know which is worse. There was one rule to being an invisible monster. It was simple, never let the past affect you more than it already has. In this particular instance, she tried desperately never to think of Azza or Dog-face or the Zoo in particular ever again. She had no intention of ever again being in any situation remotely similar. It had been fleeting moments with Dahmer that has secured her life long devotion to him. The small bit of heaven in a lifetime of hell. The hellhound's monster was the ultimate survivor and focused on little else. She snorts and her ears flick back in indignation. "I already KNOW how to track. I found you afterall." She shakes her head and then breaks into a giggle as he mentions her close to non-existent social skills. "And lose the one thing I inherited from Mother? Meh." She shrugs with her wings, the muscles still sore but less noticeable now. She rolls her brown eyes at his comment about the wings and his obvious lack of use. "Well maybe while you are teaching me social skills, I'll show you how to use those wings. It's not as hard as you're making it out to be." She listens about this land, a smile coming to her face, "You always preferred the warmth to the snow. I am not surprised you chose a volcano as your newest home...I thought you smelled a bit like rotten eggs." She, of course, mentions the sulfuric smell that had come from most volcanos. She wonders if Tephra would be warmer than the river, although her own coat was just starting to grow to the normal fuzziness of winter. She was not opposed to a little vacation from the snow. Granted, she'd have to fly somewhere to get her fix. Snow was always so magical to her, quiet, peaceful and...renewing. Winter she could hide, and while her tracks could be traced, the gray and white blended in beautifully in the weather. It was only in the snow could she be truly what she wanted...invisible. Her eyes lit up at the fact she has a nephew, gone were the thoughts of her disappearance and she prances in place for a moment before settling back down. "When can I meet him? Also who is his mother? What she like? Are you in looooovvvveeee?" A five year old. Scyla was a five year old.

@[Dahmer] SOOOO excited!

[Dahmer]

CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT
& SATISFACTION BROUGHT HIM BACK

And lose the one thing I inherited from mother?

Laughter erupts from the black stallion's maw. It reverberates in his chest as he tosses his head back, blue eyes closed for a brief moment before he gazes at his sister with amusement once more. "I'm so glad you're here," he confesses to the mare, but is relieved that the conversation shifts quickly to a different topic. If there is one thing that they both share, it's the inability to fully express themselves. Dahmer has yet to grow out of it, and the black beast is unsure if he ever will. "It's a deal. But you're not allowed to laugh at me if I crash," he demands with mock austerity, his true amusement still dancing in his playful blue eyes.

"Don't worry," he chuckles and paws a front hoof against the soft earth, "You won't be able to smell it anymore after you've been there for a season or so," hoping that his assumption that she will join him in Tephra is true. Beqanna is large and far-reaching, with plenty to offer to the plethora of creatures that call it home, and while the winged stallion can't wait for new adventures with his sister, he can't ever picture himself leaving Tephra again.

Scyla's enthusiasm in response to Dahmer's news excites him and he grins as she prances. "Slow down, slow down!" he laughs as he speaks, "We can head to Tephra now and you can meet him." The black beast rolls his eyes playfully before pivoting his hindquarters until he faces the direction of his home. "Her name is Ellyse, and she is Tephra's Head of War," Dahmer offers to the painted mare, but simply grins in acknowledgement of her last question before trotting off, though he knows it isn't the last he'll hear of that question.

"Come, little monster, I've lots to show you!"

Dahmer

image © celestiene

@[Scyla] ♥