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+--- Thread: Falls of the Hinterlands It's the last midnight (/showthread.php?tid=54183)
It's the last midnight - Arashi - January 16, 2023
For @Alduin! :3
His mind was in a whirl. Leaving behind Hildibrandr and the others had been no easy thing, but he felt he had no choice. Fury had left him. There was nothing for him there to live for... not even Sovereign. But she was grown. He had no fear she would be able to fend for herself, as well as the rest that remained with her.
In the last day or so, he'd walked without stopping to eat, drink, or sleep. He had no patience for any of it. Just like he had no heart left to care. That white bitch had taken all of it from him.
This hadn't been the first time. He remembered well as those of his past had left him behind. And none were for good reasons. None. They were all excuses. Useless excuses. "All for your good.", "To save your life.", "To teach you to live on your own." And the best one yet. "Because I wish you were never born."
The thoughts— the words... they ran through his head with no intent to stop. But yet he walked on, paws aching and eyelids tiring. They willed to close, but he wouldn't let them. He couldn't.
RE: It's the last midnight - Alduin - January 16, 2023
EEEE so excited!
Alduin’s back. Not for any particular reason besides the fact that he has been searching for artifacts from the gods that is. He had left though…cold and outright.
Banesteppe told him to.
And for that he comes back with a skull. Not just any skull though — ohhh, no, no, no. It’s Banesteppe’s skull, short muzzled and alien shaped with blunt teeth. It’s cleaner now that the hellhound has licked it of all the dirt and grime stuck to it, but it is now considered a precious treasure. It’s old, yellowed and a crushing hole marks a gruesome, brain spilling death.
But he was reborn into a god, a deity, an entity of power, knowledge, mystery. Banesteppe holds the secrets of becoming one himself — a god.
But whereas Banesteppe told him to leave, he also has ordered him to return. And so here he walks with the skull in his jaws, held so delicately — something Alduin has never done before. He rounds the southeastern mountain of his birthplace, but he does not stop — no — he’s heading right back to the burnt, decrepit lands of the Heartwood where the Forsaken still lies heavy in his cold dead heart.
But there’s a surprise for him waiting in between…a familiar face laced with scares. One who also gave him his own set not so long ago.
Arashi.
He sees the male walking, paws dragging him. He seems different to Alduin in a way he cannot explain or describe — he just feels it.
So Alduin would zero that bloody gaze on him and brazenly close in. His pace is lazy, not quick or sneaky, merely strolling — yet careful. Alduin’s always ready for a fight despite his path to godlihood, that has not changed.
Whether he is heard or not, he would halt a fair fifteen or so feet away and speak, voice hoarse and rasping.
“Arashi.” He’d call, demanding the man’s attention, but unwilling to wait long for it.
RE: It's the last midnight - Arashi - January 16, 2023
A voice. One that called to him. It is familiar, but anything with familiarity is no longer wanted. No longer acceptable.
You've mistaken me for someone,He calls back bitterly.
Arashi is gone.Maybe not dead, but gone.
He waited for some reaction.. some words of rebuttal. Anything, he pleaded. Anything but the memory of who he had been and who he no longer was.
RE: It's the last midnight - Alduin - January 16, 2023
The man stops and the hellhound gets a reply just as short and rasping as his own.
You've mistaken me for someone, Arashi is gone.
Alduin’s expression shifts only a pinch. With a subtle furrowing of brows and a twitch of a whiskered lip. He drops his head, gently lying the skull at his forepaws. He doesn’t move closer, but he most definitely does stare, uncaring if the other man looks back at him or not.
“I haven’t.” He rumbles back matter-of-factly. “For here you are, only…different.” He trails off.
RE: It's the last midnight - Arashi - January 16, 2023
"I haven't." They say.
"For here you are. Only... different."
Sharply, the beastly man turns, eyes ablaze and lips curled tight around his teeth. Saliva slowly seethes, a drop or two occasionally falling to the earth.
Different!?Loudly, his voice roars.
Am I the different one? Or is that maybe everyone else in this god damn world!?
No one he saw was the same anymore. Everyone was changing. But not for the better.
Everyone I've known... everyone I ever gave a shit about— they've left me! So why the hell should I stay the same, huh?? Why should I be the same man they once knew??!Ever word, spat right in the other's face. He cared not for who they were. It no longer mattered. They approached him and spoke these words. So he would take out every truth on him.
RE: It's the last midnight - Alduin - January 17, 2023
It seems his words hit a nerve — no matter how unintentional they were. Alduin is a rather emotionless man, he doesn’t usually feel the need to tip toe around other’s feelings. There’s no need for pleasantries or faux words. Only harsh truths or boring statements.
Clearly, Arashi doesn’t think the same. He’s whipping around like a madman, lips snarling and droop stringing from dark lips. His voice is hardly contained next —
Different?! He’s screaming back to the damned.
Alduin’s spotted ears shift backwards, his expression hardens but remains devoid of any hard emotion. Yet, Alduin wonder’s what has happened in his long absence of the man himself. He remembers him on the island. He remembers him in the Strath. But now, something’s wrong it seems — something happened…
But the rough and rageful voice of the beast continues.
Everyone I've known... everyone I ever gave a shit about— they've left me! So why the hell should I stay the same, huh?? Why should I be the same man they once knew??!
Ah…
The puzzle pieces click into place.
Mmm… Banesteppe hums beside him — a curious and carefree sound. Another man forgotten. Sound familiar, Alduin?
Alduin blinks, he knows the entity floating around in his brain is referencing the Dagon child himself. But for once he doesn’t bristle at the sight of snarling teeth and rumbling growls. No, he lowers his head, peering over to the other man with bloody, dead eyes.
Yes — he was once like that. Mourning the things he has lost. Reliving the tales of abuse and near death experiences he’s had — being frightened to live by them.
But no longer.
Still, his words echo in his mind.
So why the hell should I stay the same, huh??
“You don’t have to.” Alduin hums, deep and rasping.
“Come with me…” Al’s monotone voice takes up a mysterious edge to it.
And from his head’s lowered position he noses the skull with his muzzle to face Arashi. The alien looking bone on display, its hollow eye sockets and odd face mocking yet emotionless — eerie. Alduin’s head linger’s just beside it in the grass, gazing up at the agouti male.
“And we can change together…” He finishes brazenly — daring him to do as he says.
RE: It's the last midnight - Arashi - January 17, 2023
You don't have to. Doesn't he? Isn't that what they all expect of him?
Come with me... But to where? The world was endless. There's nowhere he could run. Nowhere to hide from it all—
And we can change together...
Together. Together. Together.
The word is drilled into his mind, refusing to let go.
They would go on— ... together? He couldn't believe that.
Together?He finally spits back in spite, stare hard and challenging.
The lot of them have left me for dead. How can I know you won't do the same?
Or was there even any way to tell?
But he was tired of playing games. No more beating around the bush to try and guess who would stay true. It was either they would, or they wouldn't. Case closed.
RE: It's the last midnight - Alduin - January 17, 2023
It’s clear the man is a hard sell, but the hellhound doesn’t plan on him buying it. He will come, or he won’t. This is Alduin’s attempt at snatching up his straying soul.
And his soul, he will take.
Arashi asks a question, The lot of them have left me for dead. How can I know you won’t do the same?
Alduin drops his gaze to the skull his face hover next to. He stares into its lifeless eye sockets…
How can he know Alduin won’t do the same?
The damned lifts his head, gazes back calmly, yet without a shred of emotion in his eyes.
“How can I leave you if we’re both already dead?” He asks back in question.
He makes it seem like such a simple thing — Alduin died long ago. There’s no saving him. He’s fucked. His soul has already been contracted out — he’s forever a slave to the voice inside his head. The skull he took months retrieving proves it.
Arashi is no different. Whatever happened to him has killed him too. Alduin wants him to accept it as he’s already done.
And so the question stands: How can two dead men leave one another? They can’t, they’re already buried, there’s nowhere to go.
RE: It's the last midnight - Arashi - January 17, 2023
"How can I leave you if we're both already dead?"
With this comment, the agouti man's frame stiffens, eyes dead locked on the dark form ahead.
We're already dead.
Yes, that's it. The reason he was looking for. His excuse to be gone from existence. He was already dead, so how could they find him? How could they ever hurt him again.
They couldn't.
It was then a devious grin, filled to the brim with hatred, cunning, and malice took over his once angered expression. Just like that, his soul lit afire. The spirit that once wilted was now reborn. But then, Arashi was still 6 feet down, buried beneath the earth and left to rot. No one would ever that withered corpse. No one.
Once at a distance, he had means to close it.
Closer and closer, his feet swept him towards the shadow before him. He stopped only when their muzzles nearly touched one another.
You say that we will change, together. But haven't we already?They'd put behind their weak, worthless selves; together, replaced into the forsaken souls they were fated to be. What more changing did they need.
Now, there is only room to grow. Grow and conquer that which none else have the power to do. Only we do.
His gaze was fruitful and famished, hungrily lurking for that same ignition in Alduin's own expression. He needed to feel it, from both of them. To feel that desire burning within. To know that they were together in this and would never be split apart.
RE: It's the last midnight - Alduin - January 17, 2023
Oh, there it is, that spark of interest in those angered eyes. The stiffness of his body that Alduin’s eyes linger on shows the becoming of a new mind — a realization.
And then a grin mirroring that of the Cheshire blooms and Alduin knows he’s gotten him.
His soul is mine. Alduin thinks victoriously.
His soul is ours. Banesteppe corrects darkly beside him.
The hellhound doesn’t bother to correct the deity. Because he’s right. Alduin’s soul is his too. But he hardly cares, for his eyes are stuck on the agouti male’s closing figure — stalking, looming, born anew.
A walking dead man just like him.
And when he stop, he feels his breath on his muzzle — their souls linger and dance for but a moment. Much different from their first clashing of fang and claw, but somehow just as intense. So Alduin moves naught. He meets his eyes, daringly so, as his voice meets his ears and slithers into his hazy mind.
You say that we will change, together. But haven't we already?
Yes, he’s so very right. They have changed. And they’ll only continue to decay.
Now, there is only room to grow. Grow and conquer that which none else have the power to do. Only we do.
At those words and the piercing stare of maliciously righteous hopefulness, Alduin also feels the corners of his maw tilt up some. His eyes darken and a slow, rumbling chuckle falls from closed lips.
“Hope you’re ready to become a god then.” He hums ominously. “Because that’s the path we’ve taken and there is no out. At least not for me.”
Arashi could probably see the disturbing acceptance in his eyes — the confidence and belief that he will indeed become unkillable, unstoppable, and either worshipped or damned. Either one will do. One of the only emotions that’s passed through his eyes for the first time in a long, long while.
And somewhere in the back of his mind, he hears the malicious laughs of his own god himself.
RE: It's the last midnight - Arashi - January 17, 2023
"Hope you're ready to become a god, then." This is he hears, but not the rest.
In a swift motion, the agouti breaks the distance.
Grasping the other's scruff, a long leg wraps itself around Alduin shoulder. And then, in a flash, the shadow is forced upon his back, another atop him.
The body that once belonged to Arashi stood there, looming.
Muzzle on muzzle, he did not shy away, keeping as close as possibly could.
We will not become gods. We are gods, by rite. No one can say otherwise. And if they try, they'll meet the fate our past selves have already met.
This was the truth in his eyes, and none would sway him.
Every corner of existence, we own. Every soul we come across, it is ours to take. Every mere creature that crosses us, will meet its end.The strength and firmness of his words match every inch of his gaze and posture. He means it. All of it.
You and me— we will make it so. As one.That's what they had become. One mind, one body, one soul.
And if Alduin did not yet believe it so, then he would be shown just how true it was.
RE: It's the last midnight - Alduin - January 17, 2023
The same hound that has slayed many a foe and survived too many close calls with death does not expect the teeth that snatch up a thick scruff. Furthermore, he doesn’t expect the strong arm that grips him with possessive and aggressive excitement to drop him to the ground. On his back. With the other on top.
Alduin has a resurfacing memory as he witnesses the other male stand on top him. He’s reminded of Sayf. Which brings back a slough of feelings and memories that he still hasn’t unpacked yet. But the switching of positions isn’t the most adequate thing. And yet, somehow the hellhound has yet to snap his teeth. The feeling surges — the desire to dangerously assert his dominance as it is taken from him. Yet, as the other man’s muzzle brushes against his own it has him stilling some — nothing but a vague twitch of his lips any evidence that he would snap back in the first place.
And Arashi speaks once more, telling him of their power to be — the force of reckoning they’ll become. For a moment, Alduin doesn’t doubt him at all, but his more rational mind speaks of this man earning his keep.
Oh, but Arashi’s a ticking time bomb now — willing to take out himself and all around him with a slash of his teeth and a spew of blood.
Alduin will take him hand in hand on that.
But the hound’s shock at the newfound position had faded almost immediately, only to be replaced by a heated gaze of both eager male dominance and perhaps a hint of his more shameful, carnal side.
And so he accepts — relents — but only for one thing…
His shifts his muzzle beside his own, craning his head up to an ear.
Banesteppe’s words echo in his mind, Any and all in exchange for a soul.
So the slave repeats it.
“Any and all in exchange for a soul.” He confirms in that low, rasping tone — quiet to any around but dauntingly clear and heavy to the man above him.
RE: It's the last midnight - Arashi - January 17, 2023
fading out here, after this :3
"Any and all in exchange for a soul."
Was Alduin giving him anything and all? Whatever he wanted, his to take?
Who could deny a liking to such a thing?
Then I shall have you. And with that, my heart and soul is yours.But only if I can have yours, his cold, yet warm eyes demand.
Leaning closer, a slow, tantalizing, yet affectionate kiss was planted clear upon Alduin's face.
But oh, he wanted more than just this simple thing.
Dance with me.It was both a suggestion and a command. Either way, he wouldn't accept no for an answer.
And then when Alduin finally found his feet, the two would dance until their energy had escaped them. Long into the night, if need be.
Many more kisses would be shared. Closeness would not be evaded, and desires were fulfilled on this night. Then later, they would slumber side by side, an arm placed across another. Here they would stay until dawn forced them awake and bid their journey to continue. The journey of the two, lost souls that were now forsaken for all eternity.