[private] i think i could live in it | mazikeen

[Gale]

warning: mature themes

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you Is it because she sleeps beside him, Gale wonders? Has her nearness contributed to the restoration of his magic? He can feel it even before he’s fully awake, thrumming inside of him like the lightning that dances across his skin. Mazikeen still rests, and the recently-woken Gale buries his face back against her shoulder, where the scents of sleep and blood and sex are still thickest. He shifts against her, hoping she wakes but content to admire her sleeping until she does. The phoenix flames burn at her center, and Gale Watches them fondly, blows intangible air on them and wonders if Mazikeen will feel their flare in her skin. “I found Malik,” Gale says aloud once he is sure she is awake. “He is Gale’s but I think...” He hesitates, considering just a moment, and then continues, because surely he can alter the boy the way he has his mother: “I think that he might be worth having in Hyaline.” The exact method is still something he considers. Theft is simple, but Sickle has proven that the twins are old enough now to resist being taken. Perhaps he can make the boy younger? “What do you think?” he asks, and the genuine interest he feels as he waits for her answer does not feel as strange as it should. @Mazikeen

current appearance: glowing perlino wildcat with lightning and iridescent navy blue scarring

[Mazikeen]

Mazikeen the wildcat sleeps with a ferocious expression despite the peace she feels but as she begins to wake, a smile grows. It does not soften her face as it once had, but it is a warmer fire - a more pleasant burn. She knows who it is that is shifting against her, who has his face buried against her shoulder. Heat stirs inside of her, flames being coaxed into life, and when she opens her burning gaze to look at him her smile dances among the fire. The first topic is not one she would have guessed at and those eyes widen a little in surprise. No fear is there, not any more, and she listens with interest as he explains. What was it about the boy, she wonders, that makes Gale think he’d be worth having? And when he asks what she thinks, sounding like he actually would like to know, she replies honestly. “I’d like to see him.” Her time with Sickle had been brief and she wonders if she should have kept the girl anyway. Now, it feels weak to have cast the girl back in Tephra. She nuzzles in close, burying her face into his fur and watching the lightning arc across it before she asks in a voice that holds nothing but the remnants of sleep and mild curiosity “Will we actually get to keep him or are you going to make me kill him too?” He had freed her from obedience, but he still might ask things of her - and she had not been lying when she told him her freedom would look much the same. m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you In much the same way he knows to use children against their parents, there remains a possibility that someone might try something similar against him. Well, against Mazikeen really, as Gale’s interest in the children exists only through the bond he shares with their mother. They are part of her, and so they are worth keeping. He needs only to carve their father out of them, and then perhaps they’ll be worth keeping. “He might need to die.” Gale says, and the words are at odds with the way he teases the soft places of her skin. “Or I can make him small again,” he suggests, and that idea sounds even more appealing when he says it aloud. ”We will be the only parents he remembers.” It is not a thing he has tried before, but he is a confident creature, and is filled to the brim with energy and Power. He could replace the weakling he’d ripped out of her, could fulfill the future he’d seen in the fires of Straia’s tree of her nursing his child in the coming spring. He smiles and rolls atop her, enjoying the thrill of pleasure that comes of seeing her so exposed. “He might still die but...” he trails off, replacing words with kisses as he caresses the bruises he’d left on her earlier. “I could be convinced to bring him back, I think.” Gale grins, because they both know the type of convincing he’d request is the same sort that they’re engaged in now. @Mazikeen

current appearance: glowing perlino wildcat with lightning and iridescent navy blue scarring

[Mazikeen]

When he says Malik may need to die, she searches for the worry that isn’t there - finding only darkness and fire when she looks where those thoughts might have once lingered. More fire than anything, especially while Gale teases her skin as he speaks. The idea of him making Malik small again, giving her a chance to start over as his mother, is something that calls to that not-quite-there heart of hers. “I’d like that. We could raise him as our own.” Not the child of who was once Gale and Mazikeen, but theirs. As they are now. A child that is strong and fierce and without limits. He rolls atop her and she does not feel that old sense of indignity at having her belly exposed and vulnerable. He may kill her, but she knows she’ll return anyway, and there is a thrill in the possibility of danger. She involuntarily winces as he lays kisses on top of bruises but a purr is close behind, carrying quiet words. “I would enjoy convincing you.” As if there were any doubt of that. And then, with her red-orange eyes bright and intense upon him she speaks again, “Is there anything you can’t do?” She does not bother to hide the awe in her voice as she says this reverent, mostly rhetorical question and presses her body into his. The flexibility of feline shapes has always been a favourite of hers and it remains just as true for climbing trees and navigating the rocky paths of her mountain home as it does for fitting herself against Gale. m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you For all his abilities, the Curse is not without limits. She asks if there is anything he cannot do, and he is quiet for a long time afterward. He considers answering for a long time, long enough that he must begin to kiss her again to stop the ache that builds in his mind. He needs her and the feeling is mutual, so he takes her as queen, and after they are both sated he traces the midmorning sunlight that dapples her pale skin. ”Some things are easier than others,” he says, and at first it is not entirely clear that he is answering her earlier question. His voice is low, and soft, and he savors the hard planes and rounded edges of her shape as he caresses her. “Magics that I’ve taken from others are simple to learn. If I’ve only seen - Seen - something I can replicate it, but it is draining.” “Malik will be on the western edge of the Forest in a few days.” He tells her, changing the subject and showing her the same image he’d given the boy, a distinctly shaped arch with cascading green string-of-boulders that stops just above the treeline, where Loess and the Common lands share a thin border that no one but the wanders lay claim. Taking the entity might disrupt those plans, he thinks; the boy might be reluctant to meet with a near stranger knowing his mother and uncle have lost the healing waters that aid in the peace of his home. The rumbling of his stomach reminds him of his unsated physical hunger. “You are sure we cannot hunt the angels?” He asks sweetly, “I don’t think they’d even put up a fight.” @Mazikeen

current appearance: glowing perlino wildcat with lightning and iridescent navy blue scarring

[Mazikeen]

He is quiet for so long after her question that she does not expect an answer and she doesn’t mind. She had just been marvelling at him, and she takes the extended silence to admire him further - and when the need in her matches the one in him she enjoys the way he changes the subject. No nap punctuates this round and she lies there with a satisfied smile, watching him as he caresses her and finally answers that question. It takes a moment for her mind to focus on what he’s saying, to emerge from the pleasant haze of lust that does not seem to have an end with him. She’s glad she does focus, though, because it’s both interesting and good information to have. Mazikeen doubts it will ever aid her in making a move against him, but it means something to have an idea of his weaknesses. Before she can ask anything else on that subject he mentions their son again, shows her where the boy will be. Her mind begins to toss around ideas, whether they'll be able to approach him easily enough or if he will be cautious after what happened with Sickle. Perhaps now is the time for her to turn into Wishbone. It is his grumbling stomach that interrupts her thoughts this time, and a smaller rumble from her own seems to rise up in answer. Gale's sweetly-spoken question should enrage her, but Mazikeen just laughs softly, wondering if he is right. If neither of them would put up a fight. The panther would on their behalf, but the angels themselves? It is hard to say. “Not these ones, but maybe we can find one or two outside Hyaline.” She suggests with a wicked grin. And like the snow leopards and her mother, Mazikeen is curious whether hunting a strange angel would feel like hunting her friends. She stands then, feeling certain that if they don’t move they’ll end up eating each other (which would be more inconvenient than anything else). “Did you take anything from the stallion we hunted?” Mazikeen asks, curious - her mind still working on a plan for Malik, hoping to delay or avoid entirely the suggestion of turning into the purple mare. Although she is sure in Gale's desire being focused only on herself, it would still feel like losing to actually make that shift. m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you He does not expect to find her considering a shift into the purple mare, but Gale grins with delight when that is what he discovers right at the edges of her mind. For Malik, he knows. If he asks her to wear it for a while afterward she will rage, he knows, so he decides that he will do so if the opportunity arises. Rather pleased with himself, he does not bemoan her continued protection of Hyaline’s angels. He’ll have to get rid of them some other way, Gale thinks, and is considering methods as he climbs to his feet, and dismisses them only when he is asked about their first joint kill. “I did.” He replies. He does not tell her of the telepathy because he is still learning it, because all he has done so far is learn of her vague idea to become the purple mare she’d so staunchly refused to earlier. Useful, but not yet controllable enough to share. “Immortality.” So he cannot be killed, it seems at first, but rather than gloat at the woman who will kill him, he instead steps closer. “Did you not feel it?” He asks, and though he closes his eyes he can see the glittering embers in her chest, can roll them about in his intangible hands in a way that he thinks might make her spark and sizzle. “I made you mine forever, Mazikeen.” He says against her cheek, drawing back before his hungers can merge, but intrigued by the prospect. “Let’s find someone softer,” he says, “So you can know how sweet it sounds when they beg.”

current appearance: glowing perlino wildcat with lightning and iridescent navy blue scarring

[Mazikeen]

Mazikeen’s eyes almost roll when he mentions immortality - finding it frustrating to have a second barrier to eventually need to battle through to kill him - but when he steps closer, when he tells her he had given it to her instead of keeping it, her red-orange eyes dance instead. She feels something in her chest and assumes it is just the proximity of him combined with his words setting her insides on fire in a way that is more pleasant than painful. His forever, he tells her, and a deep purr begins in her wildcat stomach. “I felt something, but I always feel heat whenever you touch me.” She wants him again, right now, wants to show him just how sweet she finds those words. Mazikeen can feel her reaction to this gift stirring and she moves her head to follow him as he draws back but does nothing more. She lets the feeling simmer, knowing it will only grow until she becomes lost in it. Once they’ve eaten, she tells herself as she grins at him. Once they have the energy for her to thank him properly in all the creative ways that are going through her mind. His suggestion inspires a new thrill inside of her. In the black shadows of where her empathy and compassion once were, tendrils of dark fire spark to life at this idea and the thought that comes to her. “Can…” She falters on the question, tasting it - testing herself to see if it is something she really wants to do. And when she finds no reason why she should not also enjoy this as he does, she asks “Can I pick them out this time?” m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you He can feel himself slipping, melting into the heat of her red-orange eyes. She is warm beside him, stretching her powerful muscles and making no secret of her desire, and Gale wants to lower his head and bury his face in her pale ruff. Forcing himself to draw a breath, Gale pauses with his mouth a hair’s breadth above her neck. One hind foot has drawn up, just above Mazikeen’s exposed belly. He’d begun to rip her open, hungry and knowing she is the sweetest. But he withdraws, and his breathing is heavy, and he does not meet her eyes. Her request elicits a frown, and only then does he look back at her. Is she trying to appease him? It doesn’t matter; he is too hungry to care. He is too close to doing something he will regret. “Who?” he growls. “Anyone for you, my queen.” He can feel his claws flexing in her belly, smell the sweet scent of her blood. What harm is there in another death? It is hard to reason, hard to think of anything at all but the wildcat he kisses and the way her pulse hammers beneath his tongue. He wants to hunt down the prey she names and throw it at her feet, and though he is sure that should feel Wrong, it no longer does. He’s changing again. Near her. For her. If she dies, the Underworld is beyond even his long reach. The barrier had not existed when the Curse had been brought into existence. He cannot cross it, and so Mazikeen will be out of his reach for just a moment, just long enough for someone to take her away from him or for her to leave. And he cannot risk that, and so she remains alive and safe in a world he can Watch.  Yet in the moment it is so easy to forget that, so easy to kiss his way down her belly and feel the welcoming rumbling of her purr. He'll rip her open and - Gale turns away abruptly, sitting up from where they'd been tangled on the mountainside. The drizzle around them is turning to snow. Hunting in this weather will be dangerous. It's easier to think out here, away from the fire that burns away every inhibition. "I hope they live somewhere warm." He says, and there is humor in his voice that does not match the rapid pounding at the center of his once-empty chest.  When had he grown a heart? @Mazikeen

current appearance: glowing perlino wildcat with lightning and iridescent navy blue scarring

[Mazikeen]

Mazikeen thinks he’s going to take her again until she realizes a hind paw has drawn up above her belly. A strange version of anticipation and confusion floods her when he withdraws instead of moving further and averts his eyes - only looking back at her when she asks her question. She ignores his question for now, and how much she likes hearing him call her his queen, focused only on how that paw is flexing its claws into her skin. But then he is kissing her again, her heart racing as his mouth moves down her body and there’s that purr the trail of it brings from her as the confusion fades. Will he tear into her, devour her intoxicating flesh and give her a chance to do the same with his before she dies? As much of a death as she can have before she is reborn again, thanks to him. His gift makes her sense of self-preservation a little fuzzy and she almost finds herself wishing to feel his teeth in her, finishing the job his claws started, when he leaves. Her upper lip curls back in a disappointed grimace before she rolls over onto her stomach and stands. Despite everything that’s already happened this morning, she feels the sting of rejection. And yet… if she didn’t know any better, she’d think he didn’t want to hurt her. Mazikeen’s quiet for a moment, considering, and does not immediately move to join him. When she speaks, she doesn’t point out that he’s being so confusing she’d like to shove him off a mountain. Instead, she answers his question. “I didn’t have anyone in particular in mind,” She explains casually. “I just… wondered what it would be like to pick someone out of the crowd and watch as you ate them.” It’s true, but she says it hoping to see whichever version of his smile he might decide to give her. Something other than… whatever is happening now. They both need to eat, she reminds herself. Maybe that’s all this is. “We could go back to Islandres.” She suggests, moving now to join him - brushing her shoulder lightly against his but making no other contact. It is meant to be a comforting, friendly gesture - as though they were just any couple. Her gaze out on the snow-flecked landscape ahead of them instead of on him. “Or the Cove even, it’s a little closer and it’s warmer than Hyaline in the winter.” She'd prefer if they hunted their own kind further away from their home but the island, for all its delightful tropical comforts, may be too far. m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale