TEMPORAL TOWER // Jupiter

[HORIZON CIPHER.]

HORIZON CIPHER

someway somehow, we've fallen out ,
caught in between my enemies !

Horizon could feel himself regaining consciousness, a coughing fit escaping him as he slowly started to come to his senses. He could vaguely feel a warm body pressed against him, but wasn't completely aware of who or what was against him. It briefly reminded him of his mother at first, though the difference here was that he wasn't within a pouch of some sort. Whatever was next to him was curled around him, instead of him being inside of them via a pouch.

Horizon snapped open his eyes, still coughing, waiting for his fit to finish and for his vision to focus so he could finally see what was going on. Once he was able to see his surroundings properly and they were a blurred mess, the devil could see a striped white pelt curled around him. "... Jupiter?" He called out, his voice shaky as he spoke.

transmale | greenhorn of the frostblown | "speaking" | thoughts

[Casphian]

The white tiger had curled around Horizon ages ago, his mint gaze watching as the raging waters finally calmed their angry torrents. Panic continuously coursed through the feline's veins, at one point causing Jupiter to curl closer to the body he was wrapping around, a wing stretching out to hover over the devil as if to hide him away from the world. Eventually Jupiter allowed his head to fall to the ground, eyes fluttering close as exhaustion finally washed over him and drawing him into a fitful slumber.

It wouldn't be much longer that he would be awoken by the coughing fit that came from Horizon, pulling the tiger from his slumber rather suddenly. His gaze dropped down to the devil, moving his wind to fold against his back once more. He awaited the other to stop coughing, his gaze still panicked by relief starting to flood across them. "Horizon," he softly whined out. "I was afraid you would never come to," he admitted, fear lacing his words.

[HORIZON CIPHER.]

HORIZON CIPHER

someway somehow, we've fallen out ,
caught in between my enemies !

Jupiter's body seemed to jerk from his coughing fit, which ironically seemed to startle Horizon as well. He blinked up in surprise at the tiger, almost in child-like awe. "I..." Horizon first responded, before a wave of nausea crashed over him for a brief moment. Me too. He thought, closing his mouth and grimacing as he tried to fight back the feeling of wanting to throw up. The whine that Jupiter let out was ironically heartwarming, as harsh as it sounded. It sounded as if Jupiter actually cared about him, something Horizon wasn't used to.

"M-me too." Horizon finally replied as the feeling of nausea went away as he focused on Jupiter. "Did-Were you the one that... saved me?" There was no way that he would be alive right now if someone hadn't have saved him, right? Or at the very least, if he had survived the raging flood somehow, he would be far, far away from The Frostblown. At least, that's what he was assuming. And that was a horrifying thought, mind you.

transmale | greenhorn of the frostblown | "speaking" | thoughts

[Casphian]

Jupiter looked away from Horizon, his claws digging into the ground below him before he finally spoke up. “Yea I was the one who saved you, I can’t just sit by and watch my clan mates suffer and possibly die,” he mused. He didn’t want to have to admit that he had saved Horizon, to him isn’t a big deal and he didn’t want anyone to make it a big deal. It’s just the law with groups, you save each other’s hides, or at least it was always a law he had.

“Are you feeling okay?” He asked, shifting his mint gaze towards the devil. His words were still laced with concern, unaware to him. The feline wasn’t quite sure what to do in this situation now, it wasn’t every day that he went about saving others from drowning, he supposed it also wasn’t every day a flash flood occurred.

[HORIZON CIPHER.]

HORIZON CIPHER

someway somehow, we've fallen out ,
caught in between my enemies !

TW: second paragraph briefly mentions abuse

It wasn't a law per say to protect one another, at least from Horizon's understanding - but it was definitely frowned upon if you didn't help your clanmates out. Still, Horizon felt a little be glad that he was considered a clanmate; it meant he was respected. He was wanted here. At Jupiter's question about how he felt, Horizon blinked for a moment as if trying to comprehend the question. "I'm... just a little shaken up is all." He responded before going quiet.

Horizon looked away from Jupiter, staring down at his paws with his gaze clouding over as memories started flashing in his head. "... My father -" The word came out strained, as if Horizon wanted to call him father but said father was anything but that. "- tried to, um... y'know. Drown me a couple of times..." The devil trailed off his words, going quiet again.

transmale | greenhorn of the frostblown | "speaking" | thoughts

[Casphian]

Jupiter snapped his head towards Horizon when the devil admitted to what his father had tried to do to him. "He doesn't sound like much a father to me if he would do such a thing to his own child," the tiger huffed out. A soft rumble of a growl emitted from him, honestly creatures who would do such harm to their own children disgusted Jupiter. "Thank you for trusting me with that info, I appreciate that you trust me enough to tell me," he said, resting his tail across the devil. 

He could tell the other was still shaken up over the flood but he wasn't quite sure what he should do to help soothe the other. Jupiter wasn't usually the type to go around comforting people and the only person he really ever had comforted was Mercury and honestly it didn't take much more than a few lullabies to get his younger brother to calm down from whatever had upset him "Is there anything I can do to help calm your nerves?" he asked albeit awkwardly.

[HORIZON CIPHER.]

HORIZON CIPHER

someway somehow, we've fallen out ,
caught in between my enemies !

TW: vague mention of emotional abuse in the last sentence of the second paragraph

Horizon let out a forced laugh over Jupiter's comment about his father. "Ha, yeah. He's definitely not much of a father, to say the very least." He didn't really like talking about Caesar, but he wanted to show the world that not every Cipher was bad like Caesar, hence why the devil didn't abandon the Cipher name. "... I know this sounds really fucking cheesy and you don't have to do it if-if you, uh, don't want to, but..." He paused, as if he was embarrassed to continue on. But eventually, Horizon allowed himself to continue, "My mother used to sing some little songs to relax me. Nothing in particular, just a soothing hum." He then began to laugh again, though they were clearly forced.

"I know, I know, it's stupid. I'm a guy, I shouldn't find things like that soothing. But I do. But you-you don't have to do that, if you don't want to. Just talking to me is fine." Caesar had been all about 'men do this' and 'men do that', using the way Horizon identified against him, but of course that wasn't something the devil was ready to talk about just yet.

transmale | greenhorn of the frostblown | "speaking" | thoughts

[Casphian]

Jupiter was a little shocked to hear the devil request that of him, not because he was upset by it but just that the other trusted him enough to even ask. "I haven't sung to anyone since I was just a cub but I still know a few lullabies I used to sing to my younger brother," he hummed. It had been so long since he had sung to Mercury honestly he was surprised he even remembered some of the songs he would sing. "Horizon just because you're a guy doesn't mean you can't find things soothing, society and sex don't control what you can and cannot like," he mused. With that the tiger began to softly hum a soothing tune, the words easily falling past his maw as a simple lullaby swiftly filled the silence between the two, wrapping between them in an attempt to soothe them both.

[HORIZON CIPHER.]

HORIZON CIPHER

someway somehow, we've fallen out ,
caught in between my enemies !

Horizon was flattered that Jupiter seemed to think he had been assigned male at birth - it was quite reassuring, actually. To hear the tiger say that society and sex didn't control what he liked was soothing in of itself, but in a way, it implied to the devil that he seemed like he was born as male. Something Jupiter probably didn't even realize had effected Horizon in such a way, but he still appreciated it nonetheless. It was reassuring to know he passed well enough. Horizon went quiet though, as Jupiter began to hum a lullaby, shuffling closer to the tiger in order to get more comfortable.

//End it here, or did you want to continue?

transmale | greenhorn of the frostblown | "speaking" | thoughts

[Casphian]

//I'm fine with whatever you wanna do!