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Mood Music
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Mood Music
╚═════════════════ ≪ °❈° ≫ ═════════════════╝
"Myth, jou're mi best friend. Y'know that? Ey dunno what ey'd fuckin' do without jou."
The large, beefy woman stared down at the corpse of Gehrman with a few short breaths, lifting her arm to wipe the blood covering her mouth onto her sleeve. She could hear the stunned silence surrounding her... Not even the sound of breathing, as those present held their breaths, as if expecting the deceased to suddenly take in a gasp of air despite the steady stream of crimson flowing from his shredded jugular and out onto the growing pool around him. The woman held no remorse in her gaze. Simply annoyance and aggravation. "Stop spreading lies," she spat, sending a glob of bloodied spittle down upon Gehrman's corpse... Which then disintegrated into ash, of which dissipated off into the air.
She said nothing. She looked at nobody. The Avanthar simply stepped forwards and through the ash, unflinching, and headed deeper into the belly of the sewers. She paused briefly to stare at a man who looked upon her blood-splattered form in horror, sending a growl his way in warning, continuing on to the one place she knew of best. The one home she had come to cherish and find a family. Everybody had been trying to spread lies to her. Tell her that Merith was dead, that the Hierarchy was shattered and broken, and that the home she knew of no longer existed. But how could she believe them? How could she believe the people she once considered close friends, now coming after her and attacking her when all she did was breathe in their general direction? Void, DON of all people stabbed her, literally, in the back and snapped the blade off so it was just... Stuck there.
Traitors. Liars. All of them.
Over the bridge she went, rounding a corner, climbing another bridge and down a ladder. Her heavy footfalls echoed dully through the tunnels of the sewers. Her facials were still twisted up into a bloodied scowl. However, she slowly came to a halt just as she was about to come into view of the cistern that she knew to be her home. The one place she could rely on to hide when she needed it... As she spotted something from the corner of her eye. All she caught was dark auburn hair, pale skin, and three blue lines. Two vertical across his black, void-filled eyes, and one circular about the forehead. The flash of red and blue colored clothing coupled with bits of fur pelt set the identity in stone. It was one that had followed her around for some time ever since she had been told of their fate.
The Avanthar lowered her head to hide the fact her scowl soon softened, saddened even. She swallowed the lump in her throat as the familiar voice in that sing-song language reached her ears.
<Skod> You know what lays past that wall. I know you see the scrapes and dust along the sewer. It isn't healthy to lie to yourself, woman.
She didn't respond at first. For once, she simply stood there in brief silence. She went to speak, hesitated, and fell to silence once more. A small sniff and another swallowed lump. After kicking at the ground a few times she slowly lifted her head to stare towards the path ahead, and what potentially awaited her within the sewer's depths. "<Skod> I've already failed you. I can't fail another... I can't LOSE another."
<Skod> Jin, don't-
He didn't get a chance to finish. There wasn't an echo of what the Northerner attempted to say to her as she let out a low, animalistic growl and stepped forward through the dust-coated tunnel. Her stubborn steps, however, echoed through the halls.. Much more than usual. She stubbornly kept her head down and headed to the entrance, reached a hand forwards, and stumbled as the wall which was usually there was instead a distant pile of rubble. The Avant's head snapped upwards at this sudden change, and the sight she was gifted was one she had refused to accept... And as such, it stabbed her right in the chest as her wide eyes drank in the shadowed cavern ahead.
What once used to be a labyrinth housing dozens upon dozens of sanguine now was little more than varying sizes of likely unstable rubble. Cracked and broken stone littered the large and now eerily-open cistern. Bits of metal rods and sheets scattered the rock piles like needles hidden within a stack of hay, waiting for someone to slip and impale themselves upon it. The rubble filled the entirety of the cistern in varying sized piles, the tallest one of which being near the center of the cavern, stretching almost to the ceiling. The fortress was gone. It had been demolished... Exploded. There were no sounds of family, sanguine, cattle, or even rats. Not even stones tumbling from unstable positions. Whenever the fate of the Sanguine Capital came to be, it was long enough for the chaos left in it's wake to settle.
<Skod> I told you so.
Unbeknownst to Jin, tears began seeping from her eyes and trickling down her bloodied cheeks. She either ignored the man's voice completely or simply did not hear him within the depths of whatever world she had fallen into. The Varghul so many hated and feared just... Broke. Slowly, stumbling, she began stepping onto the unstable rubble. Step after step she took. At times her foot slipped and she was brought to a knee, but she picked herself back up and continued on. The broken stones she struggled to walk upon threatened each second to give way beneath her and swallow her whole.
<Skod> Jin, come back! That shit isn't stable enough to walk on!
Not even a flinch or ounce of hesitation. Her teary crimson eyes were set upon the pile of rubble in the center. She didn't stop until she reached it's base. The woman then paused to let a massive set of tattered, leathery wings manifest at her back. She unfurled them with the roll of her shoulders, hunching as she stared up at a platform a little higher up where the rubble seemed to flatten. It certainly was even less stable than the rock covering the ground in general, but she didn't seem to care. The sound of heavy and quivered breaths echoed about the cavern as she stood with her massive wings, slowly stretching them up into the air, high above her head...
And then gave a heavy downwards flap as she kicked her large form up into the air. She soared up and forwards, skidding as her feet met the uneven platform, and stumbling as she tried to maintain balance as the rock shifted and groaned beneath her weight. After a moment her wings folded back up and disappeared back within her shoulderblades. She waited until the shifting stone settled once more before taking a couple lumbering steps forwards to the platform. A hand lifted to press to the stone, dipping her head once more as she closed her eyes. "Myth, what en the void happened while ey was gone..." Of course she wasn't given a response. Not even the Northerner spoke up, if he was even still there.
... Jun?
The Avanthar's entire form stiffened breathing once more stuttering, before slowly lifting her head to look over her shoulder. Sure enough, there stood the Altalar she had so loyally stuck next to. The closest living thing she had to family... But she was different. Her eyes that once held blackened scleras and a deep, glowing crimson iris were now just... Black. All of the eye, devoid of color. They didn't hold any sort of glow to them and not even a torch seemed to cause a reflection within their raven depths. Merith looked to the woman with an emotionless expression. The ultimate pokerface that would never be broken. Dare one say, an expression that was devoid of life itself.
Jinuep lurched forwards to wrap the woman up into a snug embrace, holding her briefly, before setting her hands to the Altalar's shoulders as she pulled away... However her hands simply passed through Merith like air. She snorted, as if this was somehow normal, and instead dropped her hands to her sides. Her lips curled up into a relieved and fanged grin.
"Myth... Ey got so much shit to fill jou en on. Ey won' ever leave jou again ef jou don' leave mi, got et?"
@CRASHIR
I understand that this seems horribly outdated. This is because I meant to write and post this FOREVER ago, back before the new sewers were released and the Witchblood mutation was changed to make them teleport backwards. To keep the overall heaviness and aesthetic of the story though, I decided to keep it written as is.
Also can we just take a moment to appreciate old ass characters like Jin that have been through way too much?
She may be gone, but never forgotten!
Also can we just take a moment to appreciate old ass characters like Jin that have been through way too much?
She may be gone, but never forgotten!
