YOU'VE GOT HELL TO PAY // return

[VIGENERE CIPHER.]

[glow=white,1,400]WE ARM OURSELVES FOR THE WRONGS WE'VE DONE ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Vigenere would have never expected to be unable to interact with the living for the most part of his death. It had been almost immediate after Stryker struck a root through his throat. It resembled how Caesar had killed the King of their Home Dimension, as funny as that was, though Vigenere assumed that Stryker didn't know anything about that. It had simply been a coincidence, was all. An ironic death but one that Vigenere almost... accepted. At the time of his death, Tanglewood was falling. They were dying off just as Snowbound had done to Atbash and it seemed like there was nothing he could do. Dying was almost a relief to him; it made his burden of leading go away.

But unfortunately he couldn't interact with the living like a certain Tangler he knew could. Arrow had been a ghost, almost like he was now, but she had been able to talk and interact with her clanmates. So why couldn't he? It's almost as if I'm stuck in the Mindscape. Except he could see color. The Mindscape was completely monochromic, grey-and-white, but wherever he was now, he could see color just as if he could when he was alive. This meant that, yes, Vigenere knew of the things that were going on in Tanglewood: Aurum's rise and fall, Elsweyr replacing him, Elsweyr getting attacked by a Pittian prior to Aurum dying, Atbash's attack, Merlin's capture... He saw it all. But he was powerless to do anything.

Vigenere was flung back to Tanglewood's camp as someone began banging on his mask. It was Arrow, crying almost incoherently. But Vigenere could hear her words, her pleas, her cries. He understood her hurt but at the same time, the spirit was angry that she was pinning Atbash's injury on him. If he could have prevented it or stopped Caesar, he would have. But he had been powerless to do anything. But Arrow's pleas and cries made him want to come back. He wanted to stop the hurt that everyone was dealing with. So the spirit went off in search of a body to possess, another savannah body if preferable. Then he could hopefully mutate the feline's fur into being similar to the color scheme he was born with.

-----------------

Fortunately, Vigenere had been able to find a savannah body and was able to overthrow its former host. Just as the demon hoped, he had been able to mutate the body into his old fur color scheme but there was one thing different - a large scar was on his throat, from where Stryker had plunged the root of a tree through it. It didn't hurt him or anything, as by now the scar had obviously closed up and healed as much as it could, but it was still something that Vigenere noticed as soon as he realized that he was alive. Taking a deep breath and relishing on the feeling it left in his body, the savannah begun his trek back to Tanglewood's border.

He was home.[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[trojan g.]

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IT MUST BE BELIEVED TO BE SEEN

If she had known who died and would come back, Moth would stop mourning for them. Her energy seemed wasted when she went through grief and hardship, wishing she had done more, when the one she had been hurt over was simply there, at the border once more, waiting to be let in again. Waiting to walk the earth with those living once more.

Ready to die again.

She didn't have much room to talk, considering her own death and come back, but it simply made death seem so meaningless. Why was she mourning over her brother when he could possibly come back one day? Why was she even healing anyone to the best of her ability to make sure they didn't die when they could just hop into another body and come back to the border, simply standing there.

Words didn't come to her when she saw the Cipher at the border. In fact she couldn't believe her eyes. She had been walking around trying to make sure that she had enough herbs to cover any injuries that would be thrown at her - to the best of her ability, of course - when she saw the figure at the border. Saw the familiar eyes and stance, watched as he looked over the border.

She simply dropped her herbs and left.

MOTH KINGMAKER - TANGLEWOOD - PENNED BY TIKKI - BIO

[sup]© tikki[/sup]

[arrow]

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She'd made it an unspoken rule to just not expect anything living here, lord knows what could happen that was once declared impossible out loud. Death? Unpredictable, she was convinced the swamp had some sort of influence over the dead, and the concept of death itself. Had to have been that graveyard, between the residents dying on repeat or restless ghosts causing mayhem here and there, once even processing the entirety of the library in one organized ghost army. Typically though, minus those strange exceptions, the dead stayed dead. She hadn't seen the majority of the deceased come back at all, not even as a little spirit hopping along the edges of the swamp. Vigenere was one of those deceased.

She'd crossed paths with Moth first, having dropped her herbs and leaving without another word, which Arrow found very...interesting. Hadn't seen that before, and you'd think maybe the Reaper would, y'know, want to keep those life saving herbs or something. "Where ya goin'?" The cheetah asked, looking over her shoulder as the light furred figure vanished out of her sight. She squinted, and opted to investigate what caused the woman to start escaping on autopilot. Not that she was ready for what she'd find either.

Arrow stopped, squeezing her green eyes shut for a second. Then two, slowly opening one to make sure she wasn't seeing things that weren't there. Nope, he was still there. Something hit her directly in the gut, and she wasn't sure if it was nausea or what, but it wasn't enjoyable. Not that she was disappointed or fearful to see Vigenere, but the timing was fucking bizarre. "I've gone insane, this is it. This is totally it, I'm going to wake up any second now, and this will all be over. I cross the line at necromancy, I refuse. Absolutely not."

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[ATBASH CIPHER.]

ATBASH CIPHER

everything's just come together at last !

There was only one reason Atbash was even apart of Tanglewood in the first place and she was sure that her clanmates are aware of that. Still, she tried to remain positive and forced herself to believe that she had a place here within Tanglewood, that she was a Shaderunner for a reason, and it wasn't all because of Vigenere. With Merlin joining and Atbash getting feelings for her, the savannah found herself enjoying life in Tanglewood a lot more. That is, until all the troubles started.

Tanglewood was better off now than Snowbound had been at the time of their downfall; at the very least, at least Elsweyr wasn't the only high position and trying to lead the clan on her own. Atbash wasn't sure if Vigenere was the only high position at the time of his capture, but that didn't matter; she still knew how hard it was to lead a group that was dying. Atbash hurt for Vigenere because she knew how family-oriented his was, even if that family was made by friends and groupmates. He was very much a soldier, that's for sure.

By now though, Atbash had accepted the fact that Vigenere likely wasn't coming back, even if she knew he had the ability to. In a way, she couldn't blame her elder brother for wanting to stay away from the living world, especially with everything going on. Speaking of which, Atbash knew she probably shouldn't be going out alone, given the fact that was the reason she had been attacked by Caesar in the first place, but she wanted to be there when Merlin returned. If Merlin returned.

However, the familiar scent of Vigenere in the air made Atbash's heart soar and the coyote picked up the pace until she reached where her brother stood, rushing past Arrow, and immediately grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. She buried her face into his fur, sobbing. She had no words, her only reaction being tears of joy; she couldn't say anything, her throat was too tight from her crying. But she was relieved, she was happy. Her brother was home. Arrow's words were muffled, with Atbash hardly hearing the Vassal's comments of disbelief.

female | shaderunner [shp] of tanglewood | "speaking" | thoughts | "telepathically speaking"

© madi

[rhosmari]

She knew of death but she had never really truly died. Despite what had happened when her body had changed form that had not been a true death. It had been partial as her body reformed itself and caged her soul once again. She didn't see anything and after a time she had stopped feeling the pain of her melted and burning figure. It had been planned or so she felt like it had been. Something out of her control. And it had changed her as well. The lioness couldn't feel the same about the death of Vigenere as everyone else had been. It did hit her with a sense of loos considering he was the one that had left her join Tanglewood when she had first gotten here. She blamed a lot of others for his death that happened at the gathering. Their bullheadedness and open willingness to put the leaders lives in danger when they had nothing to help them gain the upper hand had damned Vigenere to his death. Stryker held all the cards and those that had attacked had been foolish. 

But when she had met him, she had been an outside and still was. She followed him because that seemed to be the right thing to do. The normal thing. It helped her find her place and she had sought to do her best here. To live by their laws and by their standards. It was hard because everything was so strange. And then he died. There was nothing but sorrow over the committed crime and she felt anger. As she walked along the path through the swamp her gaze snapped up when she witnessed Moth rushing by and away from something. Her head cranes to follow the woman and she was about to call out when she heard a commotion that was nearby. Whatever it was had made the Reaper rush off and she supposed she should check herself.

Frowning slightly the pale predator made her way forth with her paint figure easily slipping along the swampy grounds. It wasn'tong before she came upon the scene. Arrow in disbelief and Atbash in tears. Herself,  she didn't know how to feel about the situation and so she just stood there. Staring in the back ground. The dead often came back here. Not at her home. They stayed dead but here they treated it like a fleeting presence. Her ears pulled back slightly but she was still there and still visible to the world. "He came back. She is..." She was what? Happy? Euphoric? She felt something but she wasn't sure what it was. A small smile pulled at her muzzle then as she stepped up to lightly brush against Arrow. To try and ground the king cheetah. "Tanglewood is very happy to have him back. A lot has happened..."

[VIGENERE CIPHER.]

[glow=white,1,400]WE ARM OURSELVES FOR THE WRONGS WE'VE DONE ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Moth leaving just like that was... a surprise to say the least. Vigenere frowned as he watched the Reaper leave before the sight of a coyote with black-spotted markings came running at him. Her scent was familiar, as well as the markings on her body; this coyote was undoubtedly Atbash. His sister pressed her face against him, sobbing seemingly uncontrollably and he laid his head on the back of hers - a comfort sign. He was assuring her without words that he wasn't going to leave, that he was here for her. Just like I always had been.

Arrow in the distance caught his attention though, mumbling about how she had to be sleeping or that his presence was a dream. An understandable reaction, really. "Oh no, it's definitely me." Vigenere mused. "You've awoken me from trying to ruin my mask, you know." His tone was light as he tried to portray that he was only joking around. Vigenere was giving Arrow a smile whenever Elsweyr came over, looking at him in what seemed to be disbelief.

"I know, things have been... rough, and I apologize." Vigenere spoke with a frown now. "I wish there had been some way I could help, but I lost contact with the living world. I am so sorry for the things Tanglewood has lost and has been through." Aurum's death, Caesar's attack... He was here to try and stop his clanmates from dying. [glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]