Blackbeak Bluff arachnophobia has left the chat

the woman liked the sea. 
the crash of waves against rock was a steady drumbeat below, and the woman stood poised near the edge of the steep drop off, watching with detached interest a wet bundle of fur that was thrown up against the cliffs every few heartbeats. the wet sound of it impacting the unyeilding rock was barely discernable against the din, and she listened for it carefully. 

she'd left the sunspire shortly after the move; she'd pledged herself to the mountain, and when Rannoch stepped down, her presence had gradually diminished until she'd wandered east. there was no more sense in forcing a square peg into a round hole, in any case, and she savoured the freedom to do entirely as she wished. she'd left adolescence alone, with no one to please and not attempting to conform to any one whim. she simply was.

the mass clung to the cliff and held, appearing to find some semblance of a resting place among the rock.

@Vaati

The leviathan seems to move faster than his brain can keep up, charging forth as if death incarnate followed close behind him. With blind ambition does he follow the scent, void of reason as he moves though one name does ring across all catacombs of thought. “I told you I would see you again.” His baritone sneaks up behind her, prowling forth as he reaches the desired destination before the great drop. Perhaps predatorily he observes her, how she has changed since laying eyes on her last. The familiar drops of stardust have not flickered from her pelt, but slightly worn does she appear; scars littering a once pristine coat. It hurts him, knowing something other than his own claw had left her beat -- that was not the way he wanted it. To him, she remains his possession. Once he had stolen her, broken her, claimed her as his.... the fact she had escaped his grasp did not change the fact the imprint of his canines still graced her neck.

his scent is pronounced and sudden, and ironclad exprression twitches as her muzzle pulls into something resembling a smile. she does not shift immidiately, watching the corpse a moment longer until he addresses her. when she moves, it is easy and lithe, twisting and moving to meet him. he observes her in the manner of a predator, and she him; and so it appears he failed to die in their time apart, after all. she merely allows a small, contemplative hum to escape her lips, wondering whether to dance with words or cut simply to the immidiate thought on her mind. she did not believe that their previous encounter would be their last, the universe seemed to find great enjoyment and throwing them together time and time again. "hello, my dear." the words lacked warmth entirely, and she regarded him cooly as her gaze asked a silent question. did he want to kill her, or fuck her? she remembered the act, the unimpressiveness of that first time, the burn when she'd lain her fangs against his throat soon after.

She regards him cooly, a scathing glare that would burn if it could have. He lets out a harsh chuckle, near sneering as his tongue ripples across his teeth. “Did you miss me?” Vaati taunts, moving a step closer. A sizable part of him yearned to slaughter her where she stood, though biologically, she attracted him in a wholly different way which tantalized him into a vexing predicament. Whether or not she would let him near her in the way he wished was yet another issue, even if instinct chanted to simply take her anyways. If not he, another male would and that was something he would not allow -- she is his. She forever would be.

she wants his ire for no reason besides that fact that she misses the passion of it; besides her night with the green-eyed woman her life had consisted muchly of attempting to stay alive. there was the odd fight, but none lit with the same fire as those when she'd pitted herself against the titan. "I found other amusement." she answered airily, cocking her chin a fraction. "and you?" it was a nonconcrete answer, but one that invited a little imagination. she matched his step, moving near, not quite close enough to touch. the words, the step, were a test, poking at a bear with a stick and inviting any outcome that came.

She alludes to being with others in a way she knows very well he would not approve of, attempting to aggravate and succeeding. “Do not patronize me.” He balances a snarl on his tongue before jutting out and nipping her cheek; turning away quickly when the action is complete. Vaati lets the air hang silent as he thinks, returning to meet her gaze with the slightest hint of desperation in his tone. “Can you truly deny that you have been better off without me? That your life has been more fulfilling without my input?” Hard optics searching her emerald eyes wildly, he seeks answers. Answers to things he questions within himself and yearns to hear straight from her mouth. Vaati has had enough of chasing after her, trying to control her so that she may not escape his grasp. He wants to hear the confession tumble from her lips that she has not thrived without his presence to for once gratify his efforts in keeping her close.

fangs nip and pull; not enough to draw blood but fast enough so that her own fangs, poised to snap at his scarred muzzle, deliver an empty threat to empty air. he is silent and she lets it spread, hang heavy in the balance between them as piercing emeralds burn into his crown. fangs slip back behind lips and he looks up, this time with desperation colouring his voice - something entirely disconcerting emitting from one resembling a harbringer of death. his gaze is wild not with bloodlust nor the will to demonstrate control but instead with a desperate search for affirmation, one she considers a moment while silence falls again. "better off? no. I survived and I grew, and there is nothing fufilling in that, but it is life." fulfillment was not something one considered while alone against the winter. she sought the burn of blood against her palatte and to preserve her own by taking those lives of others. above all she was entirely free to do what she wished, a form of which she'd sought for so long only to find that a life without duty nor bonds became a life of mediocrity.

Survival was not enjoyment, like eating scraps when there was nothing else to feast on. It was validation enough that he had been successful in reining her in, but it did not answer his query as to why despite what he offered her, she still scorned the very sight of him. “Then why do you push me away?” He looks to her, a slow burn in his eyes. Perhaps a part of him understands why she detests him so, for he had imprisoned her once. Abducted her from a life she had known, he had irreparably changed her for better or worse. But in that same breath, he had brought her a new identity. The fact remained that Cassiopeia would not be Cassiopeia without him. Why did she not see it from his point of view, he could not seem to gather. Nor could he truly understand why to this day, she greeted him with hostility instead of welcoming, for his supposed 'shortcomings' had always worked in her favour at the base of what they were. 

his words bring her pause, analysing, this new dynamic that has shifted so from from those past. this is not about him gaining the uper hand or either of them vying for power over the other, this is the same thing that happened all those moons agoin the glen. this is delicate and dangerous as the fine edge of a dagger, and she drops any semblance of the shielded creature she was a moment ago. "because you do not want me, Vaati. you want a life to interfere in, a struggle for power." so much of her had been defined by pre-set ideals, those defined by her mother, by Rannoch, by Vaati, and she had only come to understand who she was very recently. cold and fire and anger masked a sense of self shattered by all the turbulence of her youth, which rather than build her character had sought to uproot it, change it, break it into something new and different each time. "I do not know who, what I am. you are much the reason for that." the ice was scrubbed from her voice, and she no longer cared about trying to turn his words to her advantage.