sunrise : death

[MOONMADE]

[size=9pt]Death came quietly. A slow, seething heat that took hold of his body and set him alight from the inside out, till his skin sat, boiling, over insides that turned molten with fever. He lay under the covers of his bed and stared at the ceiling as his body turned in on itself. It was nothing for the books.

Fevers took away clarity. Had Moon of died any other way, of any other sickness, he would’ve known it was happening. He would’ve thought about his life, like they did in the movies. He would’ve thought about who he loved, everything he hadn’t done yet. He would’ve been scared. He would’ve fought it.

But he was foggy in his last moments. His body shook violently where he lay, curled in on himself, and he thought, oblivious, of what he’d have to do in the morning. Agathe and Titan would have to run everything, tomorrow. He’d send someone to the Cleric’s Hide to find something to fix him. He’d get someone to make sure Har ate. He’d get someone to make sure Gabe wasn’t fucking dead. He’d get someone to run patrols, set up the training session, keep the place from burning to the ground while he recovered.

But he never did rise from his bed. When the new November morning came and shone its cold rays over his freckled, golden face and the birds started up their fluttering choir, the light faded in Moon’s too bright eyes and from dried, parted lips, he shuddered his last breath. He’d been made under the moon— best to go under the sun.

[ALLOY]

you take this back right now

[FUBUKI]

[align=center][div style="text-align: justify; width: 60%; font-family: georgial; font-size: 11pt;"]/ WOAH WAIT TRACKING FOR NOW

[BABY —]

F

[agathe.]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; color;"]What had been so important that Agathe had been unable to wait until Moon had risen that morning? What matter had weighed so heavily upon her mind that she had abandoned all rational thought in favor of so uncouthly charging into his quarters? As she stared down at his body, she could not, for the life of her, remember. No, all Agathe seemed capable of doing for a few seconds was simply gape, refusing to believe what certainly sprawled before her. Dead. That word tasted wrong in her mouth even despite her being a harbinger of death. Of destruction. But Moon was dead.

She hadn't been close to him, not by any means, but he was still her leader (and a far better one than her grandmother had been). How had he died? What had killed him? Goddesses above, she honestly couldn't tell, not as she sunk into a seated position to steady her shaking limbs. "May the..." The Cosmic General paused, biting her tongue for a brief second as she once more contemplated whether or not she had the power to bless him. In the end, she said fuck it and did it anyways. "May the many faced Goddess embrace you and return you the Darkness. Goodbye, Moonmade." For someone so confused, so shocked, her voice was surprisingly calm, ever the extension of her carefully composed facade. But what happened next?

For once, Agathe didn't immediately know.

[BABY —]

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YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME

YEAH, YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T GO BACK, IT'S TOO LATE TO SAY IT'S TOO LATE. YOU CAN'T TAKE BACK THAT YOU SAID NOTHING. HOW COULD YOU DO NOTHING?

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Death was never easy. Sometimes it stung more than the deepest wounds and ached more than the messiest heartbreak. Sometimes the death of another felt like the death of your own self. Titan knew death all-too well; the stench, the sight, the sound. Too many had been lost... t̴̡̮̩̄o̴̳͎̹̍o̸͚͇̊̄̾ ̷͕͋͂͠ͅm̵̭̱͌a̶̞̮͋̒n̶͔̪̄ȳ̵̪̺̿.

By the time he heard the sullen voice of Agathe coming from the Astral Seraph's quarters, he knew something had gone terribly wrong. Moonmade had not been himself for the past few days. It had to have been a matter of time before he asked the high positions to take over his duties, or in this case, worse.

The lion ducked into the door—slowly—and his amber hues steadied onto the body of the fallen leader. He took a few steps forward, looking upon Moonmade's lifeless eyes with that of his own. He knew it. Moonmade was gone.

[GABRIEL]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size: 9.4pt; line-height: 1.4;"]The dirt was still settling on Lazarus' grave, an ugly mound of a reminder, though he was losing more and more time. Couldn't think straight most of the time, kept seeing corpses around every corner, broken bodies he couldn't recognize but knew somehow- it was safe to say his life was worse than it'd been back when he'd burned out. It was like extinguishing the desperate stuttering of a flame that had already gone out before, depriving oxygen a second time. He'd thought the next worst thing that could await him was death, his body caving under the stress, that a couple more feathers lost and he'd go, too. It wasn't even an awful thought, which he knew was selfish. Gabe couldn't leave Moon, couldn't give up when the kid was still going, no matter how much he wanted to crawl six feet under with Laz and stay there.

He was tired, sanded into bones bleached from exposure, but if there was one thing Gabe could do, it was limp on out of pure habit, not will. He didn't have it in him to care much about what happened to him, but he did care about Moon, about the rest of the kids wandering The Ascendants. If he couldn't walk for himself, he'd walk for Moon, for everyone else, because he'd always, always measured his life by how it could serve other people. Just wasn't so bad until he gave too much.

Maybe he hadn't given enough, though. Maybe he should have tried harder, fought longer, pulled himself together by sheer fucking determination instead of staggering around like some kind of ill drunkard. Instead of hanging like dead weight around Moon's neck, more effective than any skillfully knotted noose. There was always something he could have done better.

He could have thanked Moon for taking care of Laz while he was in The Typhoon. Could have apologized until the words wore his tongue into bits for failing to keep Moon safe when they took him. Could have worked more at keeping Sunhaven from drawing those shit conclusions, even if it meant dragging the kid off by his ear. Could have knocked him out at some point to get sleep into him, force feed him if he had to, because nothing would change that Moon deserved to be sorting herbs and working on his smartass remarks, not shouldering the responsibilities of a clan with no real support system to keep him from buckling. Gabe hadn't been able to work past his own shit.

Still wasn't, but he was around regardless in all his pathetic glory. He headed for Moon's room to check in on him, because there was this writhing discomfort in his gut, which froze and dropped to splinter his insides when he saw the grim faces at the door. Lungs drawing no breath, the hybrid shoved his way inside, heading for the motionless body in a swimming daze. "Moon." The last bit of oxygen in his chest bled out of him, taking with it whatever mindless energy had kept him on his paws. Gabriel dropped over the larger figure, wings spread in a molting, inky blanket.

Gentle, so painfully gentle, he rested talons against the side of the slack face. He had not looked peaceful in so long, but it wasn't fair that he should have to find rest in death, that the fire Gabriel had envied choked and took Moon with it.

"Lo siento, mi luz. Te he fallado como papá." His voice could hardly be called that. Gabriel pressed his forehead to a stiff cheek, the breath shuddering out of him. "Te amo. Siento que no te lo dijera antes." Always something.

[align=right][i]——INFO

[radeken]

Oh, were creatures congregating? Radeken wanted to see! She veered over because the hunch that was brewing in her belly said that this is a tragedy. It must’ve been, right? Nobody was laughing, except maybe her in a few moments. It wasn’t even that she found this sort of thing amusing enough to laugh at, just that she liked the idea that a bad situation could be made that much worse by one quick sound. Like a carrion animal, she drew close, licking her lips at the thought of a potential event to stir up what had thus far been a dreadfully monotonous day.

Ah, this...this was really pathetic, wasn’t it? She hated it when death rolled around. Watching all the long faces was like being left out of an inside joke. Grating on the nerves. What was important here, now, was that they had a fresh corpse that could be analyzed, just like anything else, and moreover, needed to be properly disposed of. If he needed to be mourned, fine, but no matter how you diced it, they were standing by a dead body.

“[color=#cd7f32]Welp. Better get it out of here before it becomes unsanitary.” She spoke up after two courteous seconds of silence. Sure, he had seemed nice the exact one time they had met, but that was his job, seeming half-decent to joiners. It didn’t matter one way or the other to Radeken. “[color=#cd7f32]Did he have any precise requests for the disposal of his body?” She added in a hopeful voice. Broaching the subject of allowing her to
have a few hours with the corpse for research purposes was bound to be a sticky ordeal, but he wasn’t getting any deader. “[color=#cd7f32]To clarify, were his wishes that his corpse remain undisturbed for the burial? Or cremation. Or taxidermy. Whichever.” Better to rip it off like a stubborn bandage now than spend precious time mincing words. Radeken tactfully opted to hold off on that laugh she had planned.

[BABY —]

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YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME

YEAH, YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T GO BACK, IT'S TOO LATE TO SAY IT'S TOO LATE. YOU CAN'T TAKE BACK THAT YOU SAID NOTHING. HOW COULD YOU DO NOTHING?

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The lion began to zone off, hearing only Gabriel's foreign-tongue murmuring within the vicinity. He couldn't stop staring at Moonmade's eyes, his lifeless eyes. They were ( empty ) and glazed over, and it was hard to believe that they were once so bright and full of l i f e . It had been quite a while since he had seen a corpse in person, so it was hard to avert his gaze.

Then, a sudden voice broke through the tranquil atmosphere. It was nearly jarring, how abrupt the female spoke. Titan craned his head to see none other than Radeken, the rather blunt newcomer that he had greeted a few days ago. He gave a slight sneer in response to her questions. Her comments, even if they were legitimate, were quite insensitive ( especially in the presence of Moonmade's cold vessel ). "He had no requests." The Lunar Lieutenant shot back, perhaps more sharply than he originally intended. His amber eyes pierced Radeken's, his tail lashing in irritation, and he continued, "None of us knew that this would happen." Did Moon even know that it would happen? That he would die an early, untimely death?

Titan's features softened ever so slightly, and he began to look back towards the lifeless leader. He took a breath and stated, "We'll hold a burial." He blinked slowly and added, "Then, we'll journey to the Starpool to wish him farewell." Sweeping his gaze over the others in the room, he cocked a brow and clarified, "That is tradition, isn't it?" Although Titan had not lived here long, he had been given a rundown on the basic traditions. It would be only proper to follow them, right?

[Owlie]

Death in the air, a quiver in the Force, Anakin could feel it. The lion rose out the ground outside Moon's home, the dust forming into a cloudy lion, and moved past the others, phasing through someone to stare at Moonmade's lifeless body. White eyes looked down upon it, a paw reaching out and casting over it.
He's not with the Force... He's passed on.

He turned around, looking at the crew.
"My his soul pass on at the starpool." Anakin vanished, his spirit returning to the starpool to wait on them.

☯ you must know you're doing the right thing