A little chunk of hope // TW: Alcohol

[SETHIRAM]

Sweet dreams are made of this,
Who am I, to disagree?

Red felt herself sway as she sat down on a tree stump, overlooking the brackish waters that lined the coast. A casket of strong liquor sat below her, and she clasped her paws around one to ease the shaking. The serval fiddled with her bandages, then pressed the bottle to her maw to drink. Her vision flashed, and the pain in her wounded eye was like hot, hateful fire.

"Alec?" she hushed, looking at the dark canid figure over the water. It wavered, then walked away. "Alec!?"

She stood, then swayed, then fell into the casket of liquor with a crash. With a pained grunt she hauled herself up. "Come back..!" her voice came as a sob, and a paw pressed against her bandaged eye as the pain became worse. "Come back, please..." came her drunken sobs.

— Reggan

[LUCINDER XIU]

EVERY OCCASION HAS ITS DISCUSSION—


he hadn't ever, seen any animal like this before. not this bad. he had been having thoughts as of late and found himself by the coast. a figure in the distance, calling out for someone named alec. the figure looked familiar, lifting a bottle to her maw to drink before tumbling back into the casket. lucinder frowned and increased his speed to a hurried trot before finding red settling down again. "red." his voice was harsh as her unintelligible ramblings broke down into sobs. "what are you doing?" he attempted to take the bottle from her paws and fling it to the side, where it would land with a crash.


—AND EVERY GENERATION HAS ITS MEN

"SPEECH"

ROUND UP YOUR SOLDIERS, QUEEN—
lucinder x — tanglewood — 2 years & 5 months
[color=#C178B7]—BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL STRENGTH

[SETHIRAM]

Sweet dreams are made of this,
Who am I, to disagree?

"I saw him... I saw him, I saw him!" she cried, unaware of Lucinder up until he threw the bottle. Looking with her good eye and cradling the bad with a paw, she glared at him.

"What I do..." she looked up at Lucinder, lost in drunken thought for a moment. "Is no one's business." She tried to reach for the bottle, then groaned again as her eye kept getting worse.

"Fuck-" she felt along her face, peeling away bandages and letting them fall to the ground, her paws shaking. Her vision blurred, and she shook her head, only making the pain worse.

— Reggan

[LUCINDER XIU]

EVERY OCCASION HAS ITS DISCUSSION—


he didn't know who this 'him' was that she kept talking about, but at the moment he didn't really care. all he cared about was her wellbeing and when she looked at him he could tell she was really, really drunk. she said it's nobody's business what she did and he responded to that with a rough snort. as she tried reaching for the bottle he pressed his shoulder against her chest, forcing her to put her paw back. put it back she did, but only to reach up and unwind the bandage that wrapped around her optic. she kept shaking her head and lucinder snarled. "stop moving, red. you're just making it worse." a paw came up to linger at her cheek, a tight force meant to prevent her from turning her head that way further.


—AND EVERY GENERATION HAS ITS MEN

"SPEECH"

ROUND UP YOUR SOLDIERS, QUEEN—
lucinder x — tanglewood — 2 years & 5 months
[color=#C178B7]—BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL STRENGTH

[SETHIRAM]

Sweet dreams are made of this,
Who am I, to disagree?

Her lips pulled back in a snarl as he spoke, pressing a paw against her cheek. For a second, her expression softened, haunted by the memory. Then, just as quickly as it came, it was gone. "Get your paw off me." she snapped, lashing out at his foreleg.

Staggering back, she felt blood trickle from the wound, but she looked at Lucinder. "And what... why do you care? Why the fuck do you even care!?" she raised her voice slightly, not enough to be a yell. Her skin itched so, so much. The scarring on her legs itches even more, and she fought the urge to scratch at it.

— Reggan

[LUCINDER XIU]

EVERY OCCASION HAS ITS DISCUSSION—


she snarled as he spoke but when he touched her her expression seemed to soften. before what was her drunken rage causing her to lash out again, snapping for him to get away from her. her claws lacerated his skin, drawing blood, and he let out a harsh hiss, the flames on his back exploding into a wonderful supernova of red and orange.
she stumbled away from him and he watched her movements with a scowl. why should he care indeed? her voice had been raised, an uncomfortably loud thing breaking whatever silence once lingered here. he advanced on her again, ignoring the blood that dotted the ground as he moved. "i fucking care because i fucking care about you, you fucking idiot!" his response was equally as loud and by the time he was finished his large frame had cornered her against a tree, giving her no option other than to look at him. anger burned in his optics, fuelled by the fire dancing on his skin. "i fucking care, red, and i'm not watching you crumble if i can fucking help it." his breathing was ragged. he didn't want to see anyone like this, let alone her. ever since she had leapt in with him during the monthly meeting he had observed her differently, like she held a weigh of importance to the lion's life.


—AND EVERY GENERATION HAS ITS MEN

"SPEECH"

ROUND UP YOUR SOLDIERS, QUEEN—
lucinder x — tanglewood — 2 years & 5 months
[color=#C178B7]—BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL STRENGTH

[SETHIRAM]

Sweet dreams are made of this,
Who am I, to disagree?

Red backed up into the tree, anguish in her eye as she stared up at Lucinder. He... cared. About her. It was a wicked idea, something she hadn't expected. She was uncomfortably silent, staring up at him, eye a myriad of emotions. Grief, anger, fear, maybe something more. But she shut her eye to the world and tried to steady her breathing. She couldn't tell if the alcohol was already fading off (if it was, it was all thanks to the blood within her, the divine curse), but her thoughts had cleared slightly.

Opening her eye, meeting his with an equal amount of fury, she spoke. "You don't know enough about me to care; you don't know what I am, what I've done, where I've been." She could feel the anger in her chest, and it fueled whatever memories of him she had. Too vivid were the thoughts of the black canid, the one who had stolen her heart once before, and she didn't know if he'd given it back.

— Reggan

[LUCINDER XIU]

EVERY OCCASION HAS ITS DISCUSSION—


her optics was filled with so much pain it hurt him to see. more emotions swirled, was that fear he saw in there? he backed up  as she shut her eye and a rough snarl came from the male. he fucked everything up, didn't he? now this, now her. she then spoke, fury in her voice, saying he knew nothing about her, about what she had done or where she's been, and a pained laugh was all he could respond with. ""okay, and, red? and what? you don't know what i've done either, it's fucking selfish of you to say i don't know enough about you to care. i personally thing i fucking know enough about you to care about you." he began pacing, claws unsheathed, digging groves into the sand. "i fucking like you, red. fuck!" he ended with an exclamation, optics burning with a fury hotter than a thousand suns as their supernova glared into her.


—AND EVERY GENERATION HAS ITS MEN

"SPEECH"

ROUND UP YOUR SOLDIERS, QUEEN—
lucinder x — tanglewood — 2 years & 5 months
[color=#C178B7]—BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL STRENGTH

[SETHIRAM]

Sweet dreams are made of this,
Who am I, to disagree?

Red flattened her ears against her skull, listening to each and every word as the thoughts got louder. Where was this leading? Would it end? And he fell silent, and she spoke up. "Selfish!? Selfish!? You really don't know a DAMN thing about me-" His confession damn near broke her. She fell silent, letting the words sink in as a paw reached to the tooth that hung around her neck. It was a sudden realization of two things; one - Alec was gone, dead most likely, and two - in the short time she'd known Lucinder, she had started to feel some semblance of affection toward him.

But her past was dark, interlayed with things she had nightmares and terrors about. Would he really want to deal with her, with all that? Her voice was small, incredibly tiny compared to before. "If you knew everything, maybe you wouldn't.." she lowered her head, hiding her wounded eye. "But... I like you too."

— Reggan

[LUCINDER XIU]

EVERY OCCASION HAS ITS DISCUSSION—


she interrupted him before he could speak, arguing that how dare he think her selfish? when he said he liked her she fell silent. his orbs lingered on the paw that came up to touch her necklace. given by who? a past lover, perhaps? who knew, lucinder didn't care. he'd give her the world if she asked for it. "i might not know a damn thing about you," he said, his voice softer, "but i do plan on learning everything there is about you, red." he made his way over to her again, optics darkening. he wouldn't like her if he knew everything? he nearly snorted but kept it in. son to elsweyr and arrow he knew more than enough what terrible things had been done. she would not faze him. he didn't even know why he blurted out he liked her, but she responded that she did, too, and looked down, her voice very, very small. he touched his nose to her chin briefly, letting his shoulders slump down with a sigh. "i would love to learn everything about you, red. i mean it."


—AND EVERY GENERATION HAS ITS MEN

"SPEECH"

ROUND UP YOUR SOLDIERS, QUEEN—
lucinder x — tanglewood — 2 years & 5 months
[color=#C178B7]—BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL STRENGTH