Noctisardor Bypass shotgun shuts his cakehole
the wayward son
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Ooc — delaney
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All Welcome 
to whomever joins this: most of this is a dream. only the last bit is vex awake. feel free to pp him looking disoriented. he's pretty spooked, kek.

in vex’s bed of decaying leaves and loamy moss, covered hastily with a small deer pelt he took from some place or another, the firetouched boy stirs in his sleep but does not wake.

a mighty, slavering black-furred polar bear ( not that vex knows the difference aside from this isn’t a bear he’s seen even in passing before ) prowls towards him; his footsteps filled with a silence that causes the hairs at his nape, both dreamscape and upon his slumbering body, ears and whiskers twitching, to prickle. writhing shadows are left in the wake of the mighty bear’s pawsteps; ruby gaze bearing into his soul holding vex captive.

even in the dreamscape, his fight or flight instincts are triggered; muscles twitching violently with the desire to flee; but he can’t. his body is frozen, rooted to the spot he stands as the beast closes the distance. before him, vex is insignificant. tiny. sarcasm and snark leave him; bravado siphoned out of him as he tries and fails to tear his eyes away.

he is drawn into the god of darkness’ gravity. it pulls him in like a lone moon to a planet’s orbit; warming him with the light of a red dwarf sun. jaws are frozen, words fleeing vex’s mind. yet, the mighty beargod looks at him as if he understands; gaze merciless but not cruel. whoever this bear was …it certainly wasn’t his sister’s artemis.

don’t speak, the beargod commands in a gruff, powerful voice that would and undoubtedly could command legions. you walk my path, young anneriwok. you awoke me from my slumber; summoning me to these lands. skeptical, as always, even in the face of the beastly bear whose jaws could crush his skull within a second. it wasn’t bravado this time. i am sos, bear god of darkness. of greed, vanity, trickery, rage and power. i've watched over your ancestors for a long time and now, i will watch over you. vex blinks, slowly, skeptically; and as if sos can read the dreaming boy’s thoughts, he laughs like the tremor of an earthquake.

i am very real, cub. the low rumbling snarl that comes from the shadowlord’s massive and powerful jaws causes the hairs along vex’s spine to stand on end. you will come to learn this in time — sos reaches out and clamps his teeth ‘round a frozen dream-vex’s muzzle, teeth sharp upon his flesh —


vex wakes up with a gasp and a start; disoriented and pushing himself to his paws; adrenaline coursing thru his veins, heartbeat loud in his ears. it was a dream. just a dream. no doubt inspired by haunt’s mention of her artemis calling her ‘little bear’. vex repeats it like a mantra to himself, over and over.

when vex is sure he can control the movement of trembling legs, he does not linger in his bedding. he yearns to put as much distance between it and himself as he can, figuring a patrol would burn it off. the dream. the adrenaline.

because that was all it was. a dream.

so then, why, a small part of his brain asks, does he feel the phantom grasp of sos’ teeth against his muzzle?
word count: 535
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Ooc — Kat
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Artemis hadn't visited her dreams for several nights in a row—at least, not that Haunt could remember—but the goddess was never very far from her mind. Already a quiet wolf, the youth now became deeply introspective as she tried to parse out her own beliefs. Were the dreams just the result of hitting her head, essentially meaningless visions? They were so vividly detailed, with a distinct continuity; it made it very hard to dismiss them.

As she meandered through the bypass, absently sniffing around for signs of small prey, Haunt found herself speaking to the antlered deity. Will you visit me again, Artemis? I want to learn more. I want to understand... Her lips moved as she prayed silently without realizing that's what she was doing. I want to become a great huntress. I want to be your arktoi... A strange yearning filled her breast.

The appearance of her brother in the distance dragged Haunt swiftly out of her reverie. Even from here, she could sense her sibling's agitation. "Vex!" she called, pushing thoughts of goddesses aside as she hastened toward him, "What's wrong?"
the wayward son
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Ooc — delaney
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despite that vex had high hopes for the effectiveness of a patrol calming his mind; it only seems to send him into a heightened awareness. he goes through the notions that any good hunter goes: that only something big can make a twig snap under foot, or make that much noise in their steps. something like a mighty beargod, for instance. despite that sos’ steps had been like the silence before the storm: an eerie calm that heralds the coming of something terrific and terrible, it doesn’t stop vex from peering over his shoulder at every noise; skin prickling and hackles bristling.

he almost loosens a snarl as the ghostly form of haunt approaches him; but calms the erratic race of his heart as his brain registers that it’s haunt; and is flooded with guilt that she looks worried. still convinced that her injury was, more or less, his fault he doesn’t want her to look worriedly at him. he doesn’t deserve it.

for a second, he considers lying to her. telling her he was fine. that nothing was wrong; and thinks better of it. he isn’t sure what he looked like but he felt like a spooked cat — minus the puffed tail and arched back.

surely, haunt, out of anyone, would understand. she’d told him about her dream, after all.

i …had a dream. just a dream. he places heavy emphasis upon it for his own sake; because he still can’t shake the feeling that he’s being watched. of course, given the lockdown arbiter had placed him and haunt on he probably was realistically be watched, especially on the borders. there was this bear. bigger than any i’ve ever seen before. it’s fur was as dark as the darkest, starless, moonless night sky. dark felt like an understatement. with glowing red eyes. called itself — vex chokes on the name, almost afraid to utter it out loud.

so much for being skeptical about deities.

sos. he called himself sos. vex forces sos’ name out, yet cannot help but whisper it as if he says it too loud the mighty beargod might appear. probably just because of your little bear name or something. he tries ( and fails ) to convince himself, his tone falling on the spectrum of highly unsure as he looks to haunt; silently pleading with her to tell him that he was being silly and that it was just a whacked dream.

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Ooc — Kat
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A look of naked surprise took residence upon her face when Vex regaled her with a description of his own vivid dream. His sounded more like a nightmare, especially considering how shaken he seemed. By the time he finished, Haunt's lips had pressed together in a thin line. Her mind raced. What were the odds that not one but both of them should dream in such a fashion? Her brother hadn't said anything about Sos being a god, though she inferred it, simply because of her own dreams of Artemis.

"What did Sos want?" Haunt asked, showing his vision the same gravity he had given hers. The antlered she-wolf was beautiful, lithe and—most importantly of all—a sort of benevolent guide. She did ask Haunt to pay her respects, yet so far that hadn't proved a particularly steep price. "The dream troubled you," she said rather than asked, yellow gaze resting on his face, coaxing him to elaborate.
the wayward son
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Ooc — delaney
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much to vex’s chagrin, haunt doesn’t tell him that he’s just being silly. that it was just a dream — nightmare; whatever. of course, if he was really looking for assurance, to be swayed from his doubt he could’ve easily sought out royal. he doubted their other sister would’ve cared much about a silly nightmare. or that he was spooked. it was unfair of vex, but he hasn’t seen anything that really solidified that royal gave two shits about him ( which was plenty fair because he couldn’t really say he cared much for her either ). his sudden closeness to haunt was surprising …but nice.

i don’t know, vex blows out a breath, ears fluttering back against his skull as he rewinds thru the dream, still fresh in his mind. he just said that i walk his path and that i awoke him from his slumber and summoned him to these lands. to vex, who does not know of his family’s history, this doesn’t make much sense.

the hell does that even mean? vex all but growls; closing his eyes for a moment as he tries to regain control once more. when his heart rate slows back to normal, he peeks them open at haunt.

i mean …i’m skeptical, vex admits. but i don’t know. what if he’s real. do i just …do what he wants because he wants me to? because he could snap my neck with his friggin’ massive jaws in a single second? there was no real way to describe how terrifying …and yet impressive sos was.

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Ooc — Kat
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She remained astutely silent as Vex hashed out the dream aloud. It certainly sounded much more ominous than her visions of Artemis. Her brother clearly feared this Sos, that much was clear even in light of his skepticism. Haunt did not break her silence, though she did touch her muzzle to his shoulder to remind him that he most definitely wasn't alone in this sort of baptism by fire.

Although Vex didn't know what Sos wanted, he was already torn about whether to offer it. "It depends on what he wants," she breathe before murmuring, "Does he want you to pay homage, I wonder?" Of course she thought of her own brush with the divine. She couldn't possibly imagine what a dark, dreadful bear god might want otherwise, much less from her brother specifically.

Uncertain how to soothe Vex's fears, Haunt wondered if she might distract him by sharing, "I made an offering to Artemis. And she accepted it, I think." Her own pale face was skeptical, as she still didn't truly know what to make of the outcome of her first dabbling in divination.
the wayward son
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Ooc — delaney
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i don’t know. vex admits, feeling a bit like a broken record doomed to repeat the same phrase over and over. he doesn’t know what sos wants with him, or how or why they’re connected. he doesn’t know what sos expects and perhaps, more than anything, it’s what worries him the most. well, besides the fact that he was having his resolute skepticism about religion shaken to its very core ( but that was an issue for another day ).

i have a feelin’ that he’s not going to be very forward about …anything. and then, feebly, vex hangs onto the hope that maybe it was really just a whacked dream. there isn’t much gumption behind it but it’s a wisp that remains and desperately, he clings to it.

yeah? vex inquires at the mention of haunt making an offering to haunt. he jumps on the subject change quickly — anything to get the lumbering shadowgod off his mind. d’you feel different? is your hunting mojo on point? he asks, unsure how one really knows whether a god accepts or rejects offerings — though he can’t help but think it’d be mighty greedy and arrogant to reject something someone offers even if it’s small as if he was one to really judge ( he’s not ).

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Ooc — Kat
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Vex seemed so lost about what to make of it, it compelled Haunt to lift a paw off the ground and smooth it from his shoulder to his elbow, a comforting gesture. "You just have to wait and see if you have any more dreams," she said quietly. Whether or not Sos would make clear his intentions for her brother didn't matter if he never came to Vex's dreamscapes again.

He seemed eager to shift the conversation toward Artemis, arguably a much more benevolent figure. "No," Haunt replied honestly after pondering a beat, "I don't. My hunting is the same as always. But," she continued, chewing on the inside of her cheek, "I can't explain it. I left a small, blue feather and came back to a large, brown one. I left a mouse too, that was gone. There was no blood, no scents and the sticks I put down around it weren't moved."

It didn't occur to her to guess that a winged predator—a hawk, perhaps, or maybe an owl—had spotted the easy meal, swooped in and grasped it without disturbing the site, excepting the beat of great wings which sent the jay's feather adrift. An aerial predator had never once crossed her mind and, without any scents, a terrestrial one was easily discarded as an impossibility. That only left the supernatural.
the wayward son
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Ooc — delaney
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i hope i don’t, vex grumbles all too eagerly. he’d rather the nightmarish shadowlord not stalk him; dreams or otherwise.

he’s quiet as she admits that her hunting was the same as it’s always been; giving a small cant of his head as haunt goes on to explain that she couldn’t explain it and that a few items she’s left for artemis have gone missing without disturbance. vex considers it quietly for a moment, admitting to himself, that it took a skill and precision that many animals didn’t have to be able to pull such a feat off. in his mind, prey and scavengers alike were usually clumsy; uncaring if they left her arranged sticks in place or not.

sounds like she’s accepted your offerings, then, vex drawls. maybe it’ll just take a while. on the subject of gods, vex is woefully terrible at encouragement or anything of the sort ( actually, he’s just terrible at encouragement period ).

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Ooc — Kat
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"Maybe," she murmured noncommittally, setting aside her introspection on the subject. "In the meantime, you know what might make you feel better? Killing something." A smirk slowly wound onto her muzzle. "Let's hunt."

She nudged her shoulder into his, then slipped past him, bumping his hip too as she began to walk deeper into the bypass. She didn't go more than a few feet before her head dropped to the leaf litter, sniffing around for any promising scents.
the wayward son
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Ooc — delaney
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this seemed like a good place to wrap up & archive. <3

before vex can be drawn into the churning sea of his thoughts haunt makes a suggestion about what might take his mind off of it. he doesn’t think he can entirely shake it off but he isn’t one to say ‘no’ to a hunt and a few seconds after the words hang between them it sounds like the best idea ever. you’re right. vex agrees, giving a soft snort of affection as she nudges his shoulder and bumps his hip as she brushes past him. he loiters for a few seconds, turning around and veers in the opposite direction of her to sniff out thick underbrush ripe with decaying berries in the hopes that prey might find the appealing and he might pick up a scent if she didn’t.

in the end, a hunt provided the perfect distraction he needed …even if it was just for a short while.

word count: 149