revivalbeast

[revivalbeast]

She bites into the candy, opening up the Earth and seeing inside. While the man talks and pays and the crumbs fall on the ground, she walks over the crust and the mantle and her insides and away from the man lecturing her, observing it in better light.

Eventually she does respond:

"I do not beg, and I will never beg."

And if she had her sword, she would make him beg. "Even when I was rent asunder and reformed into this, I did not beg Him. I will not beg you."

She finally turns her gaze from the multi-colored insides of herself and back to the man who bought the candy. She just wanted to see inside. It wasn't right, but it didn't feel wrong, either. It tasted sweet where it should taste of metal, but that wasn't bad either.

"My job was to fight, and i did that wrong. My job was to sleep, and I am awake. Now I can only look for answers." She holds out the jaw breaker with the insides showing, the multiple layers, close to the man's face.

"It's right but it's wrong. But it is all me."

「✦」 The poor store clerk looked on the verge of tears. Why were the tall blond ones always so scary?! As he debates whether to risk it by pestering the two again, Aurelius frowns at his face and levitates his phone towards the counter.

"Be quick about it," he says briskly, and the clerk hastily catches the mobile to see that it's already open on the Dust app.

While his brain registers that the man is paying after all, Aurelius shifts his attention to Alecto next.

"There's no need to make everyone else's life difficult," he points out.

"Return your favors properly. For someone who needs me to pay for their candy, you fit the profile of a beggar much more than I."

[revivalbeast]

She exhales, and inhales, and it's quick at first and starts to slow down as life starts to return to her body. Every little cell, every little bacteria in her. She needs to focus, she focuses on Anastasia, she focuses on (Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes) Céline! She focuses on:

"Céline!"

Her voice is loud. Loud and almost dangerous but not quite dangerous and she pulls at her restraints again. She hates it, she hates it but she's used to being bound even here and she needs Céline to know she's here.

"It's okay. It's okay. It's okay."

She repeats it three times, trying to think of everyone whos ever tried to help her.

"It's okay, I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. Alecto. I'm Alecto and I'm here." The glow coming from Céline illuminates them both, showing Alecto and her bruises and blood.

"Ah...you're...you're so beautiful. Like an anemone. Don't slam against the wall. You're so beautiful. I'll kill everyone when I get free. For you I'll kill them all. So don't worry, we'll get out. I'll do it." She will, she starts to wiggle her wrist, angling it right. (Pyrrha taught her in case she couldn't pop her arm off. In case she had to be safe. Secret. Hidden. Golden eyes dulled and covered by long dark hair and-)

She feels one wrist pop.

"Tell me, about how we wanna decorate my room. Can I have new shirts? This one is bloody now, I'm sorry."

@uwps002 -> sunliteve

🎔 It took a while for Céline to awaken, and when she did she was very groggy. Had she been asleep while sitting? She could tell she was upright, but it was dark. Her head ached. She'd been struck? And she was bound? Her arms and legs were all tied. It was Alecto's voice that finally snapped her out of it, and her human disguise melted away so that her luminosity kicked it, lighting all of her pink features so that she was visible in the dark. "Alecto!?"

This was bad. Where was she? How had she ended up there? As panic took root, faithfully recalling the events that had occurred before she'd blacked out became difficult to grasp. If there was anything she hated in the world that stood above the rest, it was feeling trapped. As an experiment that had been on the run her entire life, she'd gotten too used to feeling "free" in Spirale.

It was like a cold reality had just been dropped on top of her. Céline was usually so composed, but being put in a situation like this shattered that composure.

"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!"

She was in real danger of hurting herself, not only with how much force she was trying to break free of her bindings, but because she kept slamming her weight into the nearby wall.

@sunliteve -> @revivalbeast

[revivalbeast]

She did not like being restrained.

She liked it even less that Céline was restrained.

They had been out together, when suddenly they'd been taken. Alecto herself was hardly aware of it as several large people had to restrain her. Not at her full strength, she could only hiss and spit and she thinks she broke someone's arm but she's not sure.

It's dark. Céline is here she thinks, it's dark. Her eyes almost glow in the dark. She has to break free. Luckily(?) she's been working at that for a while, thrashing until her wrists ache, the restraints across her body cut into her.

The scream she lets out is unrestrained and feral, echoing off the container. It falls down to a whimper, but then she cries out again,

"Céline!?"

She shakes again, pulling at her restraints with a shout.

"Are you here? Are you nearby?" Her breathing is heavy, she's clearly a mixture of enraged and panicked, still straining.

@uwps002 -> @sunliteve

They underestimated a frivolous young idol. So, they let the location slip.

As much as he wanted to rush there immediately — and attempted to, at first — rationally, he wasn't getting in without a plan. He paid his way into a service uniform and a hefty, realistically-marked box, and then he approached the entrance with clear eyes behind sunglasses and a pounding heart.

The building itself was a front, but presented itself as a bar-karaoke members-only establishment. It was technically just past opening time when he approached, and the area was still deserted. Hiyori hoped that meant the place was going to be thin on employed troublemakers.

He shifted the box and knocked at the door. Someone peered out through a window in the door, and after giving him a pointed look, opened it. One point for the Spirale*Mart delivery driver disguise!

"A delivery, now? Who for?" the stranger asked, and Hiyori stepped in, rotating the package to give him a good look at the recipient. By researching them, he'd found out a name of someone higher-ranked that often showed up there and marked it on the box. "Jefferson, huh... guess she won't want to wait on this." An uncertain look back at the door, his assigned post, gave Hiyori the opening he needed.

"It's my job to get the packages to their recipient. Just tell me where I can find her," he said in a level voice, and while the guard looked at him through narrowed eyes, the goon gave in easily. Laziness was so useful in others at times.

"I'm not really supposed to let you do that, but I'm not supposed to leave this spot either. Sure, what the hell. Head toward the back of the place, office three."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Hiyori replied with a nod of his head, walking at a measured pace further into the building. He didn't hear the clack of shoes suddenly turn to chase him, so step one was a resounding success.

Of course, now he was in enemy territory. Other dangers awaited, and his improvisational skills were going to get a workout today.

@revivalbeast ➥ @uwps002

[revivalbeast]

When she wakes up, she's some place different. Still curled up next to Céline, she jolts up. In her experience, waking up somewhere unfamiliar isn't great. It puts her teeth on edge. She extracts herself from her girlfriend, moving quietly on all fours to the window.

And when she looks out, she sees,

"The sea!"

Clothes are torn off as she runs, tripping on unfamiliar stairs and stumbling over strange new furniture and immediately diving into the ocean the moment her feet hit the warm deck, leaving a trail of pajamas and chaos in her wake.

[revivalbeast]

Alecto wearing her hair in braids just like Nona prayer circle

[revivalbeast]

"Some planets don't have seasons. It makes me sad, to know that there are no winds being brought by water to the faces of the people living on them." She presses her face in the sand again, before pulling her face up to talk to the woman with stars in her hair and eyes.

"I can still feel them all, here," she taps her chest with one sandy hand, "It hurts, and I don't think that can heal. Do you understand?"

"I wonder if they would affect my the same way they do souls.." Mira more idly mutters to herself, looking towards one of her hands before she's deciding to mimic her, moving to dig her fingers into the sand to feel what it's like. The coolness feels all to familiar, yet having the sand around her fingers is for sure interesting.

"Where I am from, there are no seasons, so I am still in the process of learning how they affect places. It's very interesting to say the least."

[revivalbeast]

"Hiyori Tomoe." The name was initially unfamiliar on her tongue, but she learned it soon enough, especially if they were friends. She reached out, grasping his hands in her own, squeezing them - lightly, to her, perhaps more than, to Hiyori -

"I have no last name, just Alecto." This was a good way to introduce herself, she thought, "I want to be more than her friend, I think, she is pretty like a flower that has grown under the sea. Pink and seeking the light."

"How did you become more than a friend to Constantine?"

Oh, she knew Constantine. Well enough to know his scent. Hiyori was bewildered by this initially, but the name she gave rang a wonderful bell.

"If I'd found Alecto, I don't think she'd have been as bossy as you two..." Céline had muttered when he was standing near her on their quest to take out that candy dragon. And here was the person that was referring to!

"Ah! That Alecto!" Hiyori said, as much of a gleeful epiphany in his voice as on his brightening face. It felt like he'd solved a grand mystery here. Even her making him step back into a bit of snow couldn't bother him now!

"Mm-hmm~! I'd say he's much dearer to me than a friend, but Céline is a friend of mine! If you are close with them, we're practically friends already!"

There was nothing like discussion of someone he loved to switch back on the sunny disposition.

"If you haven't heard of me yet, I'm Hiyori Tomoe. ♪"

[revivalbeast]

"Ask me out? We're going out." She's not necessarily confused, but more confirming that they're already together. Tonight and in general. "I was planning on going to your room, so we can spend the rest of your birthday together." In fact, she was surprised that they hadn't bedshared sooner.

She would have picked up Celine, but they were almost there.

The sun was setting on the board walk as she quickly kicked off her shoes and walked into the shallows, breath coming quickly as the sun just about fell over the horizon-

"Look!"

The shallows began to light up, a beautiful display of jellyfish illuminating the shoreline even as the orange of the sun started to disappear, a beautiful illuminating blue.

"They call came out to wish you a happy birthday."

🎔 Exploding cake might have sounded exciting, but it was probably for the best that this wasn't the event that Alecto had lined up. But it had to do with the sun setting? That was a clue, and she could think of a few things! She managed to keep her pace with Alecto, but she was probably going to be exhausted by the time they got there.

She had way more stamina in the water, so sue her!

"Um... I was going to ask you out tonight! Do you want to stay in my room tonight whenever we're done... all this!?" She was at least trying to keep the conversation going as they ran.

[revivalbeast]

"Yes." She answers briskly and honestly, moving to stand next to Constantine and untie her boots carefully putting them to the side. She pulls odds and ends out of her pockets - a smashed phone with a blurry picture of Celine as the lock screen, some rocks, some chalk that looks chewed on, and a few shells.

"Are you?" Any implication is absent from her voice, it's a simple question, with no ulterior intention.

@revivalbeast

He stares out into the ocean of sunset circuit. All the large bodies of water are beautiful, but there is actually something about the Moon Beach that draws him in.

He's half tempted to take a swim, but he hasn't gotten used to the fact of people seeing his form just yet. Not yet.

"Wonder if Celine cares," he mutters curiously under his breath. Maybe it's something he can ask.

It's the sound of sand beneath someone's feet that has his attention pulled from the colorful rippling of waters to the presence approaching.

"Here for a swim, Alecto?"

[revivalbeast]

"No, no exploding cake," maybe she misheard that, she wasn't sure, an exploding cake seemed like it might be fun. Alecto drags them both across the city, entering Golden Ward, almost racing the sun.

"But we do have to get there before the sun finishes setting." She trusts Celíne to keep up with her, although she's sure to keep her pace as close to her partner's as possible.

"We have to hurry."

@revivalbeast asked:

"Come on," she had had a few birthdays in her 10,000 years, but some measure of excitement had grasp over her as she tugged on Celínes hand. It's a bit later in the day now, the sun starting to set, "It's your birthday, and I have a present for you, but we have to run there now."

🎔 "Oh!? And were are we gooooooing!?" Céline was hardly able to keep up with her girlfriend, but she was super glad that she had stayed in shape all these years. She couldn't imagine what Alecto might have gotten her as a gift, much less one that they'd have to run there to reach? Was there a time limit?

"What's up!? Is it like a cake that's going to expire any second now? They're usually still good on the expiration date!"

[revivalbeast]

She's standing in the grocery store, in the snacks isle, and the loud pop of the seal of a metal cap breaking alerts anyone nearby. She hardly looks concerned as she reaches a hand in, pulls out a handful of uncooked popcorn kernels...

...And starts loudly crunching on them in the middle of the store.

[revivalbeast]

I made you Adam and Eve...Galatea. Barbie. Frankenstein's monster with long yellow hair.

[revivalbeast]

daily sketch sheet whoops all alecto with bonus celine

[revivalbeast]

"Constantine..." She nearly drops him at the recognition, leaning closer and taking another sniff. That was it. He smelled like, "Céline's brother, Constantine. You smell like Constantine."

"He's your friend? Then you are a friend of mine." She finally puts him down, brushing him off (and perhaps accidentally pushing him a bit, not knowing her own strength). "My name is Alecto. I am Céline's protector."

She was a potential fan, and he was in public! These facts reined in his instinctual alarm over her peculiar behavior, but it didn't prevent eyes briefly wide as saucers and a hastened move to get out of her arms and back on his feet.

(He didn't want her to drop him, either.)

"Ahaha, you must be a fan of the same perfume!" Hiyori answered, his quickened heart rate belying his performative laugh. "You have wonderful taste. Now, if you would like to continue to discuss it, perhaps I should see what Constantine is doing! He's wonderful; very reliable, and strong at that!"

He just wanted to make sure she knew he had resources.

[revivalbeast]

The steel was buckling, but that bothered her less than the amount of people in here. She didn't like being around too many people like this, and it limited her a bit. If she screamed too loud, or got overwhelmed and started throwing a tantrum, they'd definitely die.

She could refrain around Céline, but that's because Céline is Céline.

She's gnawing at her lip, entering into a small regeneration loop absent from her up until this point. Her body is strong again, but...

Golden eyes look back at everyone, and then to Céline, whose weight was a comfort to her. She leans back.

"I won't go." She says with certainty, "But I..." She pauses, remembering how the others looked at her with such disdain when she ruined their plans.

"Mm, it might get dangerous. If I throw a tantrum, you and everyone else could get hurt." There were a lot of those things on the other side of the door.

"I can, um, 'let loose', but..." She looks back at everyone gathered here. "I get too loose."

@revivalbeast

HOOOOOOOOARDE!

🎔 The descriptor of the modifier on her phone had said she was unlucky, and Céline definitely felt that way. Though it wasn't just her. Alecto and some others had gathered in an attempt to endure the initial wave of possessed NPCs in a fairly well secured warehouse. It was a plan that would likely have worked if not for the modified.

A monstrous cry from outside had summoned what looked like tens of the creatures to the steel, retractable door of their hideaway. It was sturdy, but how long would it last? She'd led the others into the depths of the base, before returning to Alecto's side near the entrance. Her human disguise was dismissed with a shimmer.

She let her shoulder gently lean against Alecto's body. "I double checked, and we're the only two with abilities. What's our plan here? My body is more durable than most, so I should be able to endure. But I'm worried about them slipping by and reaching the others." A factor that gave the slug woman pause.

"I'm the one who decided to look out for them. If you'd rather leave now... I don't want to force my desire to protect them onto you..."

[revivalbeast]

"In your bed? Okay." She agrees quickly, nodding firmly. She was big now, bigger than she was, but she could curl up. It'd be easier to protect that way, easier to see what's coming before it gets here. She's kissed, and she's bitten, and she feels at ease.

She feels like she just put her face in a flower, and that makes her cheeks turn red to the tips of her nose. That's new, she wasn't sure she could do that before.

Working, Céline had to work, but that was okay, she could wait outside the work, too. "I'll wait until you're done with work, I can wait a long time. Years." Another firm nod, she presses her own teeth onto where Céline's had been, and nods for the third time. "You can call me too, any time. And sleep in my bed if you want. We can push our beds together, or sleep on the floor." She adds hastily, in case that was a preference.

"But let's go now. Anywhere you want to go." An echo of their mall date.

"If we can't pay, we can run quickly away. Alright?"

🎔 "Pride" definitely wasn't a feeling she had ever felt towards her real body. She had been hunted for it and had taught herself that others would only see her disguise as beautiful. Alecto had been the first person to challenge that in a meaningful way. There were clear differences between the two of them. She still didn't have answers about Alecto's background, but that was something that could be discovered with time, right?

She had no right to judge people based on who they used to be anyways.

Alecto was warm. That was the only thought that filled Céline's mind as she was hugged closer. Most people didn't express affection through biting, but there was an exception to be made here so long as those rules were followed. On the subject of Alecto's past though, she had to wonder who this "him" was she spoke of. Someone related to her past? A question for another time, when it wouldn't ruin the moment. "It's okay, I believe you. Alecto's so big and beautiful and strong, I don't think she'd ever fail to protect me. You can sleep though! ...Even in my bed, if you want."

Would she need a longer bed though? Alecto was so tall.

"Mhm! You can call me to go on dates whenever you'd like. If I'm working at the time, we can meet after. Or we can plan in advance... Whatever you'd like to do!" She used her arms around Alecto's neck to lift herself up higher so that she could plant a kiss on the woman's lips. And then the slightest nibble on the way back down. "Do you want to grab dinner tonight? It could be our first "date"! Officially!"

[revivalbeast]

After the phone reads it out to her, she responds by yelling into the text to speech:

[text] IS THIS A CURSE? HAVE YOU CURSED ME? [text] I WILL DESTROY YOU

[text] I AM RUNNING TO YOUR HOME.

[txt] FWD: FWD

(TEN people?! That's a lot! Do I even KNOW that many people?!)

Till starts scrolling through his contacts, clicking some names at random, some friends, and some names he'd only added to make sure he never answered the phone if they called.

[txt] FWD: FWD: FWD [txt] i hope some of you get bad luck.

@foreverembrace @deathsang @cursesang @heclingmuzik @lonelyalchemy @2501iv @vamplyrical @revivalbeast @beforemeteor @sickhackbassist