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time to leave them all behind -- assembly/takeover - Warringkingdoms - 10-27-2019
/tw: gore, including detailed references to hanging, decapitation, and impalement, in paragraphs 13-14 (italicized)
/tl;dr + OOC notes at the end
Sleep had come easily that night, but it wasn't long before she found herself in the midst of a dream.
Rin stood on a riverbank, her paws sinking slightly into the damp soil, fog permeating the air. A short distance away, she saw a figure in the mist. Hunched over, its vaguely-canine snout pointed to the ground, the river lapping at its feet, it seemed perfectly still. Dead, even, save for the lack of obvious wounds on its body.
Narrowing her eyes, she approached the figure, watching it closely. As it came into clearer view, two yellow-green eyes peered back at her, without pupils, their sickly glow emanating from sunken sockets. Its skeletal form melted into the river, dripping like tar.
“What are you?” she asked softly.
It lifted its snout slightly, its jaws creaking open. “I am the Ferryman,” he rasped, “disgraced as my brethren have been.”
Rin’s eyes widened, and she unsheathed her claws, but the Ferryman made no move to attack. A low rumble escaped his maw, almost like laughter. “I am not here to fight. This is merely a dream- we could not slay each other.” He tilted his head slightly, the crack in his bones audible. “I am here to… enlighten you.”
Enlighten her? Before she could say anything, the mist between them coalesced, until there were another four figures standing there- three identical beasts, their features unclear in the dim light, and a much smaller creature in the center. Craning her neck to see, Rin could catch a glimpse of the surrounded creature’s sandy fur and blue eyes- and jolted.
“Fear not, we do not yet have her in our grasp,” the Ferryman murmured, though his tone held no trace of reassurance. “The line of leadership in these lands… you know full well of the curse on it, I am sure.” Extending an elongated, twisted paw forwards, he set it on the small figure’s shoulder. “Her time is approaching swiftly. If she is still in power by then-” he pressed his paw down, the figure melting into mist and dissipating beneath it- “she will not survive.”
Though the Pitt raid did pose a possible danger, and she could easily have guessed that the leadership of the Ascendants onward was cursed- their tendency to die gruesome deaths or disappear without warning couldn’t be overlooked- the fact that the Ferryman thought he could threaten her was preposterous. “And why should I believe you?” Rin demanded, lashing her tail. “She is the only Elysite who has the capability to lead right now.” A few months ago, she would never have thought those words would come out of her mouth, but it had become true. Despite having began at a young age, Tena had adapted well to the challenges of leadership. No one else could do it. The Ferryman wished for her to make a snap judgement, but she wouldn’t fall for it, not when she could easily find and kill him before he could do anything.
He lifted his outstretched paw towards her, the claws twitching open and closed erratically. She shrank back slightly, her ears pinning back, but he gave an almost-imperceptible nod. Allowing the fog-crafted beasts to melt back into his form, he whispered, “It must be you.”
Shaking her head, Rin subconsciously tugged at her scarf. “It can’t be me,” she insisted, “not again. I won’t fall into your trap.”
“Oh.” The low utterance was punctuated with only the slightest twitch of his brow. Slowly, his mouth cracked open wider and wider, his facial muscles contorting, his thoroughly-rotten fangs on full display. The result was a smile in only the most technical sense of the term.
His eyes gave off a pulse of bright light- and she could see flashes of crimson, hear the screams of the fallen, feel the blood seeping into her fur. A body, hanging with a branch through its trachea. A frenzied message spilled onto the floor. A head mounted on a pike, surrounded by bits and pieces of its former owner. A hybrid behemoth, viscera dripping from his lips, cradling a mangled corpse. A bystander, impaled, impossible to remove. A torn throat, its fur shifting from silver to bengal to bloodstained white.
In the midst of it all, lying on the floor, broken, lifeless- “Tena!” she cried out, stumbling forward-
A blink of an eye, and she was once more in the mist, facing the Ferryman.
“You do not wish to gamble her life, do you?” he murmured, his face still split by that nauseating grin. “Though I suppose, with the blood of two entire clans on your paws… one more life is meaningless to you.”
Baring her teeth, Rin lurched forwards to swipe at him, but with a jerk of his head, the screeching burst into her ears again- deafening her, causing her to stagger back and fall to the floor. Screwing her eyes shut, she clawed at her own ears to shield herself from the noise, but to no avail. So many voices, so many whom she knew she would only hear again in her nightmares.
All at once, the noise stopped, but the echoes reverberated in her head. “Take her place, and bear this curse yourself,” she heard the Ferryman rumble, “or her life is forfeit.”
She opened her eyes, and the floor had turned to cobble- the same stones of the house she had sheltered in for the past few months.
Swallowing back a wave of nausea, she curled up and shivered. He didn’t have that kind of power at the moment, did he? He couldn’t do anything to Tena… could he? The odds were that his threats were empty, but was she willing to take that chance?
She couldn’t lead again. She couldn’t. Elysium couldn’t meet the same fate as her first home. The Ferryman knew what was going to happen if she took power, his sadistic smirk proved as much. If she became the Magna, everyone would be in danger.
Yet, if she didn’t, she would be gambling Tena’s life. Rin knew she would have no one to blame for the ensuing bloodshed but herself either way, but of the two options… the others might not blame her for any chaos that occurred if she became Magna, but they couldn’t possibly defend her if she knowingly allowed a threat on her friend’s life to be carried out.
She was going to kill the Ferryman sooner or later anyway. Maybe she couldn’t find him in the waking world soon enough to defuse his threat against Tena, especially since they were about to raid the Pitt, but within the next few months, surely she’d be able to corner and kill him. Once she did, his curse would be broken, and she was free to step down. Then she could reinstall Tena as Magna, and they could move on.
Tena wasn’t going to be happy about this, not one bit, but Rin would rather have to deal with her anger than have to bury her corpse.
Walking into the open air and stepping up onto a tall stone, Rin glanced around. Some of the passersby looked to her curiously- probably remembering her as the one who kept getting herself hurt in increasingly strange ways, or the one who started the discussion about the Pitt. Or perhaps the one that, up until now, had never sworn the oath.
She had known how foolish it was to stay for too long, lest she end up getting attached, yet she’d done it anyway. She’d known the gods would use the Elysites against her, yet she’d found herself caring about them anyway. She could never seem to learn.
Rin lifted her eyes to the sky, blue and cloudless, in sharp contrast to her state of mind. “I hereby swear my allegiance to Elysium,” she declared, firm in spite of her doubts. “I promise to protect the community with everything I have, to uphold the values of community and justice, and to always serve the greater good without giving too much of myself.” That much seemed almost like a formality, considering how long she had been here, and how she had thrown her lot in with the rest of them against the Pitt. "Giving too much of herself" had never been a concern for her; regarding her own soul, there was no such thing as too much.
Having confessed that much, having admitted that she had failed to distance herself from them, she straightened up. Feeling the bile rise in her throat, she announced, “I am also stepping up as Magna in Tena’s place.” There was no amount of rationalization that could make the words any less poisonous. She knew she was trying to protect Tena, but telling herself that this was better than letting Tena die was like claiming that going into a burning building was better than jumping directly into a bonfire. Sure, the former presented a slim chance that everyone would come out alive, but the odds were still in favor of a bloodbath.
It occurred to her that she had never outright taken power from a living, present leader before. All the other times, her predecessor was gone. She had no idea what sort of explanation to give for why she was doing this, especially now, on the eve of the attack against the Pitt; if she announced that she was attempting to save Tena from a curse, everyone would think she was crazy, and likely they would put Tena in charge once again. She couldn’t have that. This was for Tena’s own good.
After a few moments, Rin continued, “I am only taking over to ensure that the Pitt raid goes smoothly, and that we can recover as quickly as possible from the fighting. I will not remain the Magna for long- just long enough to get this all figured out.” That was the best she could do right now. She nodded. “We’re going to start the raid as soon as Tanglewood and the Typhoon are ready. I will be visiting them myself to confirm that we're prepared.”
Glancing around, she twitched her ears. “I will need a second-in-command, so I will be watching for a possible Warden over the next two weeks or so,” she noted, “as well as other high positions.” She had a few members in mind that might fit the bill, so this would be their chance to prove themselves. If nothing else, since the curse ostensibly only applied to leaders… well, she’d figure that out when the time came.
Dipping her head, Rin said, “That’s all I have. If anyone objects, speak up now.” After a moment, though, she tapped the side of her head with one paw. How could she have forgotten? "Actually, real quick. Those of you who are new here and want to be sworn in, step forward."
/OOC notes + tl;dr:
-while asleep, Rin received a message from one of her old home's gods, telling Rin to take over Elysium and threatening to kill Tena if she refused (Tena isn't really in any danger, but Rin's paranoid and the god in question knew it)
-deciding not to risk Tena's life, especially due to the Pitt raid being soon, Rin swore allegiance to Elysium and stepped up as the new Magna
-Rin will be visiting the other groups to confirm that Elysium is ready for the raid- the raid thread will be linked here when it starts
-she's also looking for potential high positions, so keep an eye out for that
-had to edit to add this since I forgot, swearing in will occur in my next post, everyone who wants to go ahead and swear allegiance step forward
-this takeover is approved by staff OOCly, but characters don't have to approve ICly- feel free to express dissent
Re: time to leave them all behind -- assembly/takeover - Warringkingdoms - 10-31-2019
/ooc nudge: https://beastsofbeyond.com/index.php?topic=12717.new#new
/here's the Pitt raid- go wild!
Re: time to leave them all behind -- assembly/takeover - lavi s. - 11-01-2019
[align=left]IF THE SKY COMES FALLING DOWN, FOR YOU —
There's a discomfort in the mountain cat's eyes. His entire body stiffens as a frown pulls down his maw. Lavi liked Rin enough but he didn't like this. Perhaps he had grown too fond of his firey friend, but it wasn't like Tena had not been trying to keep Elysium afoot. Maybe I should have done more to help her.He had followed her to the desert of her old home. The young Jedi would follow her to the end of the earth. Nothing would change that. As such he stood up, regarding Rin silently for a long moment then turned around, walking away without a single word. His distaste of politics and desire to avoid a confrontation led him to a simple conclusion -- he should go find and talk to Tena.
Lavi may have found it ironic, if he knew of Rin's reasons, for he knew full well of Tena's paranoia. His friend, so terrified of what might be on her tail, never truly opened to anyone. He was still trying to find a way through her walls himself. She's not gonna be happy... But maybe she'll be fine with this.
He trusted Tena.
— THERE'S NOTHING IN THIS WORLD I WOULDN'T DO