sticksandbones | If it were the real me and you

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If it were the real me and you | OPEN

Who: Wolfwood and YOU!
What: Wolfwood schedules a cult book burning and invites everyone
When: March 10th
Where: The Church
Warnings: Relevant info for this event can be found here, general warnings for: monster attack which could lead to blood/gore/etc in threads, please tag accordingly! Will update as needed

Netbook | Morning

Hey everyone, it's me Wolfwood. Nicholas D. Wolfwood if you're new.

So, here's the deal. The church I bought has a problem. It came with a bunch of religious texts inside of it, and while that's...you know. What you'd expect in a church, these ones are like

super fuckin culty.

Not exactly what I asked for. Not that I asked for them at all. I keep trying to get rid of them but they keep showing up again later so

Basically Im gonna be burning them again this evening if anybody wants to come to the bonfire, or help me in getting rid of them cause theres a shit ton. Bring marshmallows or whatever, I dont care.

and before someone comes preaching to me about burning books, again: its cult propaganda bullshit. read it for yourself if you dont believe me
just make sure you chuck it in the fire afterwards or ill do it myself.

Church | Evening

[Should you choose to come to the Church later that evening for whatever reason, you'll find the Priest himself already hard at work setting up a pyre in the yard just outside of it. (Just look for the massive bound cross propped up nearby, you can't miss it.) With the way he loads up the firepit he's created with kindling, it's clear he's already had to do this once before. It's a bit tricky to find anything dry given that the snow is still on the ground in a lot of places, but he's making do with what he's got. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Beyond getting the fire going, there's a matter of getting the aforementioned books out of the church. It's just as Wolfwood described, should you grow curious and crack one open. They're very religious, but strangely...plant focused. Like it's a religion that revolves around the Forest itself, almost. Definitely nothing orthodox about this, that's for sure. There are quite a number of them to take care of as they've all refilled the church pews since the last time he did this.

Or, perhaps you're just here because you think bonfires are cool and want to simply enjoy yourself for a change. The Forest seems to have had its fun with the animal race given that everyone's back to normal at this point, so really, why not kick back and enjoy the warmth of the flames while it isn't sub-zero temperatures outside anymore?

Feel free to mingle...or don't. Perhaps the distant unease in the atmosphere is enough to stop you.]

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["Stoking" them, yes. That sure is a word for it.]

I haven't. Is it wise to be burning them all then, you think...?

[You and everyone else have been asking this.]

[looks at the mod comment below this thread

no.

Anyway!]

Is there wisdom in flame, Sesa? [what the fuck does that mean] I simply find solace in them. Whether the idea is "wise" or not has never mattered to anyone who has set a blaze before.

[well. he has a point—]

Mm. I suppose...

[There are instances he can think of where someone would attempt to set a fire cautiously, but perhaps it doesn't matter since this definitely isn't one of them. Like yes, the fire pit itself is constructed in such a way that it won't spread, but does that really make much of a difference when Wolfwood is out here burning texts pertaining to the forest?

The fact they're contributing to that is...concerning at best, but Sesa figures so long as they keep most of the actual desecration at arm's length, they'll be okay.]

Well, if nothing else, you are keeping the flames well stoked. And I am glad to see that your devices seem to be in working order now.

[Just accept that Elliot is unhinged—]

They needed some tweaks. I am without my primary machine, but my Arts come to me with more ease, now. There are some weaknesses still, but I find that I don't want for power as much. That dreaded ice from when I first arrived had caused several malfunctions — I did not account for weather similar to Kjerag's, as I have never been.

[RI doesn't really... go there much, and when they do, it sure fucking isn't with Elliot. He'll freeze to death.]

You and I have been in the same boat in that regard. The cold has been particularly brutal, which is why I am thankful for nights such as these.

[Not just ones where it isn't snowing, but nights where they can huddle around a nice bonfire. It's fine as long as they don't think about what the bonfire is being used for.

Sesa scootches a little bit closer to Elliot's side.]

I am more than happy to help you work on them, if you ever need.

[Fully leans into Sesa, wraps an arm around his waist. Aww, look babe, we're cuddling :) ]

I may take you up on that. We can rendezvous in your room, for lack of a true workshop, and work on some fine-tuning. [Elliot.] Or is it "our" bedroom now? In either case, the bedroom works well, as I would hate for us to be too loud in the main laboratory area. [Elliot.]

[Sesa stiffens briefly, feeling his face and neck grow hot. One thing's for sure, ever since they started..."spending time" together, Elliot has not been afraid to let Sesa know exactly how he's feeling.

Though, when has he ever been afraid of doing that, lbr.]

I hardly think it fair to call it just my room, at this point. Plus, I would be quite disappointed if you decided to vacate and return to yours.

[He has never been afraid of doing that. It's just that Sesa was oblivious until after Elliot kissed him, and then some.]

Certainly not. I warned you once before that, were you to bridge the gap between us, I would never let you go again. I'm afraid not even dragging me out by my tailfeathers will convince me to leave.

[Such a romantic scene... cuddling by the bonfire... watching the sun go down... hearing something roar in the distance and wondering what that could be... aww.]

Well, you would have to do something truly heinous for me to-

[Sesa stops, lifting his head just as the sound of distant roaring catches his attention. Even at a distance, it's enough to make his scales prickle, some of the larger ones rising along his shoulders and neck underneath his coat.]

...Elliot. Do you hear that?

[Elliot's feathers are puffed up, and not in a cute "ooh Sesa look at me" way. His eyes drift toward the forest...

He unsubtly steps away from the bonfire, dragging Sesa with him. That Sankta child is doing something and Elliot wants no part in it. This, of course, happens mere seconds before vines explode up from the earth right where Elliot was standing. Had he not moved, he would've been impaled. Another howl sounds off in the woods, and something breaks through the fog too rapidly for him to tell what the hell it is.

There's no urgency to his voice when he asks:]

Did you bring your weapon?

[Sesa allows himself to be dragged, feeling an uncomfortable prickle of foreboding race its way up his back and shoulders. Which, the feeling is immediately justified by the sudden explosion of vines from underneath the ground, the sight of which causes Sesa to step closer to Elliot out of reflex, one of his hands reaching towards him as if that would have even done anything. It wouldn't have, of course. He would have been run through, instantly, and he couldn't-

The Vouivre's head snaps up, and a sudden snarl rips from his chest when his eyes catch movement in the distance. A distance that is still too close for comfort, even with where they've ended up on the far side of the bonfire. The way the light cast from it dances across the ground certainly isn't helping.]

I- ...no, I didn't think I'd need to-!

[But now...]

Nor did I bring anything save Thorne, [he says, but at least Thorne is an Arts Unit and therefore Elliot won't worsen his Oripathy, theoretically.] Stand back.

[He's going to aim at some sort of twisted, bipedal deer-thing, but Moder happens to run into his vision just at that moment to tackle it into the ground. Elliot isn't going to question it; he wheels around instead, looking for something more— aha, there. A corrupted bird streaks through the skies, and Elliot focuses the firepower he can muster on that, trying to strike the wings with his lightning to ground it.

Distracted by the bird, it means he doesn't see anything else coming at the two of them, so. Uh. Good luck Sesa—]

[Without his gun, Sesa feels...almost entirely powerless. It isn't that he even wants to be using it in this situation, but it would do to have something for defense. And in this case...there's nothing. Elliot has Thorne, but his Arts Unit can only do so much against what he's realizing is now an onslaught of creatures flooding in from the forest. He's not sure how or why this is happening right now, but there's no questioning it.

Not when he looks over, and sees something massive charging from the undergrowth straight for the Liberi while his gaze is turned towards the sky.]

Elliot-!

[If he'd had his gun, he could have shot at the thing from a distance, but even then...he would be putting Elliot at risk of getting hit by shrapnel from the explosion. He can tell from here that it's no bird or deer, but a wolf of some sort, keeping itself held low to the ground with brambles encircling its body and more eyes than should be possible, jaws slavering as it runs at full tilt in Elliot's direction.

It's entirely without thought, without pausing to consider the consequences, that Sesa drops everything and runs forward with his arms outstretched, quite literally body-checking the wolf just as it leaps from the ground to try to jump onto Elliot. He wraps his arms around the thing and goes down with it, head over tail, a ball of vicious snarling, yelping, and claws.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire in the most literal sense.]

Sesa—!

[He would rather have taken the shrapnel to the face, thanks! Hindsight is 20/20 they say, and the only reason Elliot even left with the smallest part of his Arts Unit was simply so that he could participate in burning books by electrocuting them, like a completely normal and not at all unhinged man would. Lesson learnt: Don't go anywhere without a weapon. That should've been a primary consideration.

Elliot is now sufficiently distracted from the bird, watching Sesa hit the ground next to him. There's a swift calculation in this mind, how he can actually hit that wolf with lightning but not have to worry about taking Sesa out alongside it; the bird takes the opportunity to swoop at him and Elliot pivots to the left and away overall, but a talon rakes across his upper arm. He pays little attention to how blood trickles down it and seeps into the white of his clothes, watching the bird reposition for a second pass.

That thing is going to have to die before he can be of any assistance to Sesa, he determines. He'll have to trust the Vouivre's constitution, that he'll outlast the creature before it turns him into dinner. His machine whirs, hovering over his shoulder, and Elliot yet again conjures a storm to his fingertips — but the bird has him figured out and dodges with a sharp swerve to the right. It only serves to veer the creature off-course, but the talons still rake over his opposite shoulder and upper arm regardless. It is far faster than he is.]

[The worst part of this now is not only does Sesa have a wild beast literally in a headlock on the ground, it means he's unable to really help Elliot at all with that bird swooping and taking potshots at him from overhead. But perhaps it wouldn't matter anyway, should that wolf have managed to grab Elliot by the throat. He wouldn't have been able to do much about that.

Needless to say, Sesa has his own problems right now. He can't hear anything over the din of creatures howling and his scuffle with this creature in the dirt, who is still yowling and snapping its jaws at the air in an attempt to get some part of Sesa in its mouth. Eventually, it does, jaws clamping shut around his forearm with a force that would have snapped a normal human's arm.

But not Sesa. Not a Vouivre, not someone with plate-like scales across more sensitive parts of his body to ward off against this kind of injury entirely. It won't save him forever of course, but it does mean he's able to use the leverage to flip the beast over onto its back, literally straddling the wolf as he digs his claws into its chest in an attempt to try to pull its head off him.]

Insolent beast-!!

[His tail cracks like a whip behind him, eyes glittering with anger. Sesa...isn't the type to want to hurt anyone. People nor creatures alike. But this thing...this thing very nearly got to Elliot, and now its teeth are sunk into the arm of his jacket, and that is more than enough to set off his instincts. The anger, the rage that fuels races like his own.

Instinct blinding enough that Sesa isn't even in his right mind anymore as he thrusts his head forwards, using his own fangs to bite into the wolf's neck, who responds with a high-pitched yelp of alarm.]

[If only Elliot could sit there and watch this with popcorn, by the Gods, he would be doing that instead of helping. But no. No, the world is out to try to kill everyone here, them included, and Elliot can only divert his attention so much. That bird has its eyes locked on him — a boon for the others, but a curse for him in specific. He may be Sargonian, but he's Liberi and Infected, and that means he's of weaker constitution. He can't dodge or flip the enemy like Sesa can. He can't take a bite directly to the arm and be mostly-alright, and he certainly can't rip arteries out with his bare teeth. He's a Caster, for fuck's sake.

His lightning bolts are missing. They're not at full strength, because he only has, again, less than half of his normal equipment. His head is throbbing both from blood loss and pushing his Arts too far. It's not looking good, and the Forest is well aware of that. The Forest knows Elliot is one of the physically weaker people here.

The bird swoops, and Elliot doesn't manage to dodge. He gets launched when he tries, but maybe that's the better ending for him — the talons don't hit him, and the bird's recalibrations lead it to headbutting Elliot in the gut. He skids to a stop some distance off, feeling his ribs bruise against the impact and the back of his shirt rip open in the grass from the force. He's sure he must have some sort of cuts there from rocks, but if so, he doesn't feel them. The adrenaline is pumping too hard as he picks himself up off of the ground.

There's static crackling around him now, a thundercloud's fury. That bird better pick a God and pray, because the next pass, Elliot is going to scorch it.]

[Sesa is not faring much better, meanwhile. Granted, he does sortof have the upper hand, what with his teeth buried in the neck of this creature as they are. It has the intended affect of getting the wolf to let go of his arm, the jacket there torn and the scales underneath gouged and bleeding. It also means that the wolf is flipping around to try and get Sesa off of him, hind legs kicking out and clawing, body writhing and kicking up dirt and ash from the not-so-distant edge of the bonfire.

It's chaos. Sesa tastes iron and fur adhering to his tongue, yet he doesn't let go. At least, not until he sees Elliot be thrown out of the corner of his eye.

He briefly forgets his task, shaking his head violently like a bull in a way that tosses the creature off of him.]

ELLIOT!

[The Vouivre is scrambling to his feet now, spotting the Liberi now dressed in tattered, bloodied cloth having fallen at the edge of the wood. The sight sends Sesa into a blind, panicked fury, yet before he can run towards him, he feels jaws once more clamp down like a vice on his ankle, pulling him full-force to the ground.

With a roar more animal than human, Sesa's spine twists back around just as the wolf slams its paws into his chest, once more throwing his arms around the beast's body so he can bury his claws deep into the flesh of its back, pulling away chunks of bloody fur along with it.]

[Honestly, Rhodes Island has encountered harder battles. Here, they're without their commander, and it shows. It's sloppy work — everyone is overwhelmed, no one knows what to do, and the personal stakes are too high. At any time, he or Sesa could lose their lives.

Elliot has never particularly cared for his until now. Perhaps it isn't that he cares for his own life, so much as he cares what happens to Sesa's — if he dies here, this entire place will become Infected. It's almost guaranteed. Oripathy is a fate he wouldn't wish upon anyone.

There's a loud, electric hum around him, the crackling of static and lightning in a broad circle. It forms something of a barrier, and Elliot has to push himself to do it properly and maintain it. It's enough to make his feathers stand on end, and without much fanfare or warning, the next time that bird swoops down? Elliot hits it with everything he can, no longer trying to knock it out of the sky and put it out of its misery with some manner of respect, but rather unleashing a whole storm upon it that lights the surroundings ablaze. The bird goes with it, feathers and plantlike growths catching as it seizes in the air, crashing down into a fiery heap in the grass.

Elliot does not think "fire could be bad" or "I bet Gnosis will put this out" or "hey maybe some water would be nice here". When the bird screams and burns to death, he turns his attention toward the wolf on Sesa, ready to unleash another storm if need be. He may be bleeding from everywhere, but that won't stop him from burning this place down.]

[For Sesa's part, the only thing he can process is the wolf trying its damnest to kill him. It's igniting the most primal parts of him, bringing every emotion to the forefront and squashing them all in favor of his anger. His indignation that these beasts would dare try to harm someone he cares about. His claws rip and tear, his ears full of the sounds of snarling as the wolf continues to grapple with him on the ground.

Then, a thunderclap as if it came from the gods itself. It prompts everything in the surrounding area to stop for a breath, for Sesa to look up just in time to see the bird Elliot had been fighting come careening down to the earth. It's on fire now, dying in a furious inferno, which must mean- in some measure- that Elliot is out of immediate danger.

The distraction gives the wolf the chance to strike Sesa one last time, jaws snapping audibly shut narrowly close to his neck. Just a hair closer, and it would have bitten him fully. Instead, the Vouivre manages to turn just in time to grab the wolf by the muzzle and force it back down to the ground again, blood staining the grass crimson all around them both.

He holds it there with claws and fang until it, too, stops moving.

It isn't until then that Sesa rises to his knees, his face dripping blood and viscera. He has no idea just how terrifying he must seem, looking as if he'd gone swimming in blood, yet resurfacing from the battle with only two bite marks to show for it.]

[Terrifyingly hot haha (Elliot is currently not thinking this, he's in fucktons of pain and trying not to make it obvious he's hacking up blood from Arts overuse, but he will in about fifteen minutes).

If the fire spreads somewhat, so be it. Either it'll be put out shortly, or it'll shield them from the remaining onslaught. It doesn't appear to be too much; Moder in the distance has ripped a corrupted creature in half, and there's a hail of gunfire from the opposite corner of the Grove and a lightshow from the resident Sankta that Elliot finds wholly unsurprising despite not knowing the gravity of the situation over there. There's nothing else howling in the woods. It seems like a brief attack. Something to try to take them all out quickly that failed, he muses.

The electric crackle stops. If he'd had the rest of his Arts Unit, he would be in less rough shape, but the ~~several nat 1s~~ assault from the bird on top of pushing himself too far has him practically collapsing to his knees for just a break. Maybe he'd still be standing if he'd lugged that machine around. Who knows.]

Sesa. [...] You still stand. I was hoping that would be the case.

[Sesa sees Elliot's mouth moving, but- at least at first- can't quite hear what he's saying. His heart is pounding too violently, blood rushing too hard between his ears. He's keyed up and trembling, struggling to get a hold of himself even with the attack seemingly over with for the time being. Somewhere across the bonfire, Elsword has been drawn back by Add's intervention. They won't have to worry about the Grove being razed to the ground, at least for now.

He may feel guilty for his single-track mindedness later, but right now Sesa's focus is solely on the Liberi as he quickly gets to his feet and closes the gap between the two of them. Should Elliot feel like he's going to actually collapse, he'll find himself quickly gathered up in Sesa's arms long before he can fall to the grass.

Of course, Sesa has to sit them both down regardless, but...at least Elliot won't be faceplanting in front of god and everyone.]

The same could be said for you...but you are hurt nevertheless.

[He says softly, cautiously holding him without pressing too hard on Elliot's myriad of scratches and scrapes.]

[It's nice to have something to lean against. The gashes in either of his shoulders burn and bleed, and it's times like these where he wishes he had some sort of healing Arts or at least the ability to cauterize wounds. Not that that would be much better, but it's something. The medics are busy with the people who got the worst of it for now. Elliot won't fault them for that.

He's just tired. His feathers are ruffled and uneven, and his entire demeanour has gone from flirty to exhausted. There's blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he tries to speak.]

It certainly isn't the worst I've had. More scars to add to the ones already along my back, yes, but I still stand. ...sit.

[He does not stand.]

I'm sorry. Elliot, I'm...

[Sesa is still...very much covered in wolf's blood, so he probably shouldn't be this close to the Liberi right now, yet that doesn't stop him from pulling Elliot into an embrace once he figures out how exactly to hold him without exacerbating his wounds. His heart races in his chest between them, and it sounds like he's struggling to actually speak for a moment between catching his breath and being overwhelmed by adrenaline.]

I almost...didn't get to you in time. That, it could have-

[He'll need medical treatment, of course. It's nothing Add can't patch up, but the man is quite busy for understandable reasons, and Elliot thinks he's better off just bandaging these himself and calling it a night. They need to take a bath to uninfect these and get the monster blood off of both of them.

Either way, Elliot shakes his head. Yes, that was bad. Yes, they could have both died. But—]

There isn't use in entertaining hypotheticals. We both still live another day, we both still draw breath. For now, let that be enough.

[Elliot entertains so many hypotheticals in his day-to-day life anyway, the "what if I didn't" and "what if I did", and right now it's too much to entertain this particular one.]

[Elliot has a point, if nothing else. It's happened. It's done...and no amount of fretting over the fact it happened will change that. Nor will wishing he could change the past.

...well. They are alone currently on this side of the bonfire. It won't matter, then, if he leans in to press his lips to Elliot's temple while using his thumb to brush away the blood dripping from one of his cuts.

If there were ever a concern about contracting the infection, he sure as hell isn't showing it here.]

...yes. You're right. We are fortunate.

[He glances across the fire somberly, because he can hear the others. It's not hard to tell things are going badly.]

I wish I could say the same for us all.

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If it were the real me and you | OPEN

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