Just Run Away Now;; Sep

[Jiyu Simul Stamus]

The water sided path had not even been any bit of an idea in her head as she speed out of the stone halls of the ruins and onto the softer forest floor. All that had went through her head? Was how badly she needed to get out of there, how this reign had started out with the biggest mistake any leader could have ever made besides saying she was actually in charge. Large wide paws kicked up dirt, messy tracks being left behind her so opposing to the normal soft way she moved to miminize any trace she had been there. Numerous thin pieces of foliage snapped against the force of her, anything larger in her way being purposefully destroyed with expert claws and fangs, too much ran through her head to go around any single object. Even the large rocks in her path? Got taken head on, she simply would run to the top and jump onto the nearest tree branch, leaping her way down back to the forest floor quickly as she could. Escaping was the only thing she could think of, getting away from something she didn't want to face. The last time she had run like this, oh she didn't want to remember that!

Briefly the calico slammed her head into a nearby tree to erase the imagine of WhiteMoons body laying at her bloodied paws gasping for his last breaths which she stole. Nothing remained, everything was gone she didn't need to remember the night that started her running, what she had once regarded as the only thing she had ever done right. How could that night have been right if it led to such brief happiness that was never going to come back to her. Once more, she impacted her body against another tree, causing the bark to splinter and finally erasing the images from her head. Jiyu knew they wouldn't stay away, her ghosts and demons never did, but at least for now the head on her shoulders was her own again for a little while. The steps of the calico turned stumbling almost drunken for a long time as she headed towards the wastes against her own knowledge, prints only evening out after the dizzying effect from the abuse to her body had faded.

How long had it been? No clue existed within her, the only thing Jiyu could do was head around the edges of the forest not wanting to return, but the wastes was too dangerous this time of day for her long pelt. Her plan, best she could form it would be to hide in the ruins for a few days while she calmed down. The calico was daft to many things, but she knew history and history told her that the last time her body behaved this way she had ruthlessly murdered someone she had until that moment been entirely thoughtlessly loyal to. She had to get away. Only, a scent near the border caught her keen attention, causing her to head that way instead of seeking out some hiding space where no one could find her until she could get lost in the ruins for several days. Following that smell, she found a large tabby male sniffing around at the border, looking incredibly suspicious as if he didn't want anyone to see him. No, she couldn't deal with someone at the border right now, she wasn't fit, she wasn't suitable for anything but hurting others!

Yet, she kept watching, paws carrying her slowly forward in silence. As the calico stumbled closer, the suspicious behavior of the tom mounted, he was clearly sneaking into the territory. Everything mounting she was finding it harder to resist years of training towards what she was made to do, shaking her head and staggering a step as her jaws opened. "This place belongs to the Rosebloods." her voice was strained as her claws dug into the ground, her wide seemingly terrified optics focused on the ground. "You groups can't just claim the forest." he needed to shut up, she couldn't control herself, not like this. "Leave, this is your last warning." it was the only winning she could give, heavy breathing as if she was panting. Between her mental strain, how little she actually fed herself, and other mounting variables, the calico only wanted one thing right now. "What are you going to do? Kill me, you look horrible, you're no match." the tom laughed, not taking the warning of a cat who looked the way she did.

It took only the blink of an eye as his words snapped anything she had been using to keep herself at bay and chained nicely as she lived. Jiyu had pounced at the male, her entire body colliding with his shoulder, knocking him over. Just like the ghost from a few days before? She used the momentum from the attack to help her spring back, pouncing again after she rolled away. The tom never stood a chance, entirely winded by having the two foot feline impact his chest from the side. Unable to right himself, the male could do nothing as she leaped upon him, taking her hind claws along his flank and the top of his stomach on that side, jaws and front claws digging into his throat. Clearly the kill was meant to be swift but also incredibly painful, and she left him like that, gasping for his last breaths. No words spoken she stood there, watching as the tom spasmed in the pooling puddle of blood. "Pl..please.. end it." he begged for mercy, but she didn't even have basic emotions much less mercy. "I'm going to eat you." her front paw lifted the cats face as she struggled for breath, kicking with renewed strength even though he clearly had no strength. Moments later? He passed and she sighed as if disappointed it was already over, leaning over the body and taking a bite from where she had already ripped him opened.

[sephiroth]

SEPHIROTH

MALE — ROSEBLOODS — PHARAOH — HOVER FOR TAGS

[div style="background-color: #292727; color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-align: justify; overflow: auto; width: 500px; height: 340px; padding: 10px;"]Now, Sephiroth hadn’t planned on tailing Jiyu after her abrupt departure from the meeting.  He had almost expected some sort of strange reaction from the female, she always struck him as a bit off and after the incident with that vengeful ghost he especially kept his eye close on her.  Not because he didn’t trust her, if he didn’t he wouldn’t have made her his right hand, simply out of interest.  Or perhaps if any other ghoul wanted to do the group harm.  And now that Jiyu held a position of authority in the clan, Sephiroth especially had incentive to keep a closer eye on her if something were to happen to her.  He wouldn’t admit that he needed her to be another strong support in the group, but he did.  He hadn’t planned on leading and while he fell into the role given to him easily because his gut told him that was what he was meant to do,  he still needed guidance.  He had hoped Jiyu would be able to offer her strengths to him, but it seemed there were some things that needed working out first.

The silver Pharaoh slunk through the territory on the newly promoted Vizier’s scent, a ways behind since he had to pause to attend to other business he headed out.  The trail was still fresh, especially to his keen senses, so she was easy enough to track throughout the new land.  Sephiroth’s steps were quiet for a creature of his size; soft pawsteps on the ground as not to disturb too much foliage before he broke from the greenery of the rainforest to go deeper into the territory.  Towards the border more specifically, that was where his nose was telling him to find Jiyu.  He picked up the pace a small bit, expression neutral as he followed the path left for him.

And he found Jiyu alright, consuming the body of another feline.  Okay.  In his time here or in his cracked past memory, he hadn’t witnessed that.  Learning of the concept before he joined the Rosebloods, he had honestly found it rather revolting.  He had spent enough time around cat corpses, especially in the old base of the Rosebloods, to know they smelled foul and probably tasted the same way.  He couldn’t really imagine feasting on one of his own kind even in a dire circumstance, he was a prideful lion and wouldn’t stoop to such measures even in drastic times.

He hadn’t exactly pinned Jiyu for a cannibal either; the recent encounter with Painted did tell him that the calico certainly had her secrets, but cannibalism?  It was unexpected to say the least.  Was she as dangerous as the spirit implied?  …Did he make a mistake promoting her?  He was just inner monolouging about how he thought the Rosebloods should have been more brutal to live up to their reputation, and now that he was actually faced with said brutality he was starting to question things.  At least, of this type.  If it ended being aimed at his enemies he wouldn’t mind so much.

”Do you feel better?”  Sephiroth’s voice was a drawl to start, taking steps closer to the scene as his unblinking gaze moved from predator to prey and back again.  ”I never took you for a cannibal, Jiyu.  Is there something you want to tell me?”  For once his voice didn’t have an edge of threat in it, and he remained rather steady and neutral in his tone.  His eyes said it all, a spark of cold fire with questioning glittering behind them.  He needed to know things, he didn’t want secrets to be kept from him.  If she didn’t tell him?  He did have mental powers, he could more than likely force answers out of her if it came to that.  For now his physical presence was all that he was needed as he awaited a response form Jiyu.

#psychosocial.

[Jiyu Simul Stamus]

Large ears perked when she suddenly heard a voice in the middle of using one of her unsheathed paws to rip open the corpse further so she could get to the good parts first. Oh gosh, it had been so long since she had eaten with everything that had been going on she had been unable to get away to make the kill necessary to feed herself. Backing up slightly her head turned quickly to look at what had spoken, her mind still a little foggy. Mouth hanging open a few scraps of what may have been liver fell from her mouth, plopping onto the ground being joined by the drops of fresh blood from her muzzle. Too much, this was all too much, if she was capable she would have made some excuse to convince him this was not what it looked like. However, the calico was not that sort, all she could do now was figure out how to deal with the fact that now the Pharaoh of her group knew what she ate. Over her years of life, she had grown experienced with convincing the rest of those around her that she ate normal prey, even occasionally choking down a sparrow or such to further the illusion. He wouldn't fall for the illusion she managed anymore.

"Of course you didn't. How many of our fellow Roses do you think would honestly feel safe with me around if everyone knew." she kept it hidden for a reason, though she had not understood why until a conversation long past where someone pointed out to her that she could only do her job if everyone felt 'safe' around her. "I can't stop." most cannibals did have some twisted reason for it, enjoyed the fact that they ate the meat of their own species. However, she couldn't have him thinking she actually liked feline meat, though it tasted better to her than it would to him, since her taste buds had adjusted over time to the diet. "Normal prey does nothing but ease hunger, I get nothing from it. Eventually I can't even eat it without my body rejecting it." she recalled a few times were she had to excuse herself quickly from those around her because she had over estimated her ability to choke down normal prey and needed to throw it up somewhere out of sight.

He was going to want more than that, her being a cannibal could be very dangerous for those around them, she was no stranger to that, which was why she went far away to hunt most times. "I tried to stop around seven years ago sometime after I first joined." However, her attempt had not lasted long at all as her adoptive father within the group had known and dragged one of the fresher mess hall corpses to her when she was no longer able to move due to starvation she had not seen coming back then. "If I don't eat the meat of other felines, I slowly starve. One's diet for over seven years can't be changed just because they don't live that way anymore." it had originally been just part of her training, something she did without questioning it because that had been her purpose. By the time she was capable of making the choice of wanting to try stopping? Her body was psychically incapable of sustaining itself without the meat of other felines, it just couldn't take in nutrition from normal prey.

He had been the one to interact with Painted for the longest, hear most of the ghosts comments. What did he think of everything that had been said now that he knew she had to eat her own kind? Let alone how long she had been doing it. "He proved himself to be a threat to the group, I didn't hunt on our territory I don't do that, nor do I eat here it's too dangerous for me. I haven't gotten away to hunt recently, I started eating him because I'm already starving." it was the truth she detested eating on the territory because of how dangerous it was. Especially if she happened to kill the wrong cat for food and someone seeking revenge found the group. "She didn't come because I ate her." With what he had just found out he had to be thinking that Painted had been seeking revenge for being eaten, but that just wasn't true. "I couldn't eat her." the sadistic feline had been pretty much the only one she didn't eat to some degree. Stating that she hadn't eaten the ghost should be enough right? He couldn't expect her to just tell him about her past.

Looking at the body briefly she looked back at him. "Also I don't feel, I was raised not to." Yet, how she protected them said different. If she didn't care? She wouldn't hunt outside the territory. If she was just out for herself, she wouldn't have broken down a burning door. Certainly, her statement looked true if someone only glanced at what she presented, but her actions most of the time spoke to the opposite.

[sephiroth]

SEPHIROTH

MALE — ROSEBLOODS — PHARAOH — HOVER FOR TAGS

[div style="background-color: #292727; color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-align: justify; overflow: auto; width: 500px; height: 340px; padding: 10px;"]Sephiroth would look at Jiyu with a stern and unblinking focus as she explained herself, his expression hard but not betraying any sort of emotion in particular.  The pale lion didn’t interject with any words as his second in command spoke, standing practically stone still.  Hm.  He supposed it was a logical conclusion to reach, though he still found it odd.  Though surely if one put their mind to it and took it slow they could change their diet…was this something deeper and biological?  Or simply a choice?  He couldn’t be sure.  He wasn’t exactly a trusting beast, at the very least he didn’t like secrets being kept from him.

The lion would hum in acknowledgement as he lowered his head, his eyes still carrying their intensity.  If one looked into his eyes deeply enough, they held that slight otherworldly glow about them.  ”I see.”  Sephiroth’s voice was a low reverbing sound from his throat.  It still held the quiet will it usually did, but there was something rolling underneath like a coming storm.  A pale ear flicked thoughtfully.  Oh, and she didn’t feel emotion.  He figured that, he had known her since he joined and she hadn’t at once showed much if any emotion in his presence.

”I suppose it would make sense that others would be suspicious if they knew..”  The silver Pharaoh mused in a quiet tone, shifting into a sitting position as he hunched his powerful shoulders and stared down at the calico.  ”I can’t say I blame you for…keeping it a secret.”  Yeah, he was stating the obvious, things that the female probably already knew.

But that was intentional.  As he spoke, Sephiroth would utilize his mental manipulation to gently probe at Jiyu’s mind.  He hoped conversation would serve as a suitable distraction in the world of the physical as his mental talents tried to work their magic.  The defenses seemed strong, but with enough prodding he hoped he could get into her head and get answers for himself without much trouble.

#psychosocial.

[Jiyu Simul Stamus]

The cannibalism she exhibited? Was indeed far too deep for the calico to change things even by going slow. Apart from her body having grown up on nothing expect feline meat? All the mental damage done to her did it's own hefty toll resulting in an even more drastic inability to survive on anything else. Honestly, she had no reason to lie about that once someone had caught her, the truth was the only explanation that anyone could live with anyways. Pretty much any other way her cannibalism could be explained would drive someone away from her. No one wanted to be around someone who ate others of their own kind for fun. If she had been able to stop, oh she would have so many times over, the calico could not recount how many times she had to earn back someone she had once loved after they found out. Just simply eating other felines was straining to those around her, she was a monster but part of her basic programming was to not be burden to others. If the large calico had ever been able to stop eating the meat of other felines, she would have done so long ago. Of course, without love remaining she had no reason to even try again.

He spoke and she was lucky to be able to contiue paying attention past the tempation of the barely eaten corpse laying in front of her. Could he finish up his constricting moral display so that she could finish the meal, try to pretend things were any bit normal even if they had not been that way in forver. Something was not quiet right about current events, the way he spoke held no purpose. If he truly wanted a conversation? By now he had been around long enough to know that unless the statements actually demanded some sort of response, she was extremely unlikely to respond. Part of lacking emotions? Was the effect of also being unable to decide to speak unless it was nessecary as most conversation had some emotional purpose that she just had no interest in because hers were not there. So what was the actual goal of contiuing to comunicate, he should know by now that she would have no response to give him. Why was he taking such a shot in the dark?

For the first few moments she had not felt anything because there would be a passage of time were his power had to swim through the sheer emptiness she lived in from day to day. Once he got past the emptiness to the nothingness? Jiyu would become able to feel the invasion, since when she had her powers they had to reach out from her deepest core. If she had been smart, knowing this would have helped her realized why she lost all of her powers, but she never was able to reflect that way. The deepest core within her was undoubtly the kitten she had been before growing up into the monster she became, and the biggest difference between them was that side of her did feel, she just chose to drown it. With that brief moment in time being the strength of her powers? If she couldn't let her long beaten down emotions out at least the slightest bit, she also couldn't use her own powers even if her life would be threatened otherwise.

"I see." she echoed his earlier words, extending one paw forward to begin a slow walk towards the lion as his power kept trying to worm its way inside of her head. "You know." she let him, knowing he was squirming the calico simply let him try to swim through the endless inky blankness which surrounded everything else she kept within her head. Jiyu was comfortable letting him swim through the nearly endless emptiness she had to live with every day thanks to what had been done to her, what she had done. She simply kept walking until she was right in front of him, rearing up so his icy optics were staring directly only barely inches of air seperating them from her mismatched ones, head tilt causing her hair tuft to move out of the way. "Next time." he would be able to feel an 'entrance' which he could squirm that power into. The second he entered her 'mind' the lion would realize his mistake, only one thing existed where he would be able to get in! Pain, agonizing the sort that made one entirely give up, crushing and unbearable in its intensity. "I won't be kind with it, stay out of my head." She had been rendered emotionless over her life, and that was the reason she could survive the pain locked deep within. For someone who didn't know what they were getting into? It would be far more than enough to eject him from her head. The leaders probe had been rejected, using something within her memories but the intensity of it was almost blinding, she had picked carefully. "I give my entire existence to this place, I've died time and time again for this group, my head is mine, my past or anything else you were looking for is absolutely none of your business if you want to get it that way."  Occasionally? There had been those who got her to admit the past, but they were fleeting and rare. Sep had no business with her history if he couldn't put in the same work others had to warm enough that they could make her feel comfortable saying something.

[sephiroth]

SEPHIROTH

MALE — ROSEBLOODS — PHARAOH — HOVER FOR TAGS

[div style="background-color: #292727; color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-align: justify; overflow: auto; width: 500px; height: 340px; padding: 10px;"]He expected emptiness.  With the lack of emotion he could assume there wasn’t much going on inside the outskirts of her mind.  Sephiroth had hoped to find more at the surface, but apparently she kept her secrets well hidden.  He continued to probe as Jiyu started taking steps towards him, having to lean his platinum framed face down to keep eye contact with her.  His eyes, the faint glow still ebbing from them, narrowed as she approached and his slit pupils seemed to thin a little bit more than usual as the calico spoke.  As she met his eyes he didn’t back down, his eyes just as intense as ever.

He was so focused on his task he didn’t look too much into what she was saying to him, so her trap was lost on him.  Sephiroth was too engrossed in his task to really respond verbally.  He was getting close to his goal, to breach the surface of Jiyu’s mental shield and reach the core.  There, he found an entrance and felt himself breach the barrier of her mind and-

Sephiroth’s reaction was raw and immediate.  He was hit with a swath of intense pain as he felt himself stumble heavily backwards with a pained roar as he was forced back the sheer intensity of Jiyu’s reaction to his mental probing.  His own head throbbed as a result, a splitting headache that seemed to grind its way right into his skull with intense pain.  The male leader gasped, his eyes widening and the glow fading as he gathered himself.  His own mind screamed with pain, and there was something amiss in his own head, but Jiyu was speaking to him and tried to focus on her words even while his head was wracked with pain.

Panting, Sephiroth would look at Jiyu was a different kind of intensity in his gaze.  A shocked kind, that kind that was expressive with fierce question and surprise.  He let silence hang in the air for a couple more hot seconds before he spoke once more.  ”…I simply do not like secrets being kept from me.”  His voice was an exhausted hiss between his teeth, working to steady his posture as he grit his teeth against the heavy headache he now had.  ”But I….I will respect your wishes.”  Sephiroth hadn’t experienced somebody besting him yet, and even though he lead this group and could’ve easily ripped Jiyu to shreds for this, or at the very least strip her of her duty seeing that she was far more powerful than he had anticipated, the sheer pain alone made him bend the knee and agree.  He did not apologize though, he was far too prideful for that.

#psychosocial.

[Jiyu Simul Stamus]

Eyes endless as the sky and deep as the forest simply stared their void into him, already having expected some reaction since she had been fully aware. The pain within his roar was clear, but honestly she had not put all the pain she could have there for him to find. With all the agony she had felt and caused within her lifespan? If she had not used some degree of moderation when rejecting him, the male could have ended up injured. Not to even mention the fact that her soul was not stable as well. So far his backward stumble had not caused him to trip or anything, but she kept her mismatched emotionless gaze focused to make sure he didn't bring himself anymore harm. She had not been the one to cause the heart wrenching, brain tearing pain he was feeling, it had been his own rashness to decide to try to pry everything from her that had resulted in this. Why had he thought abusing his power on one of his own was alright? She never once tried to touch anyone else in the Rosebloods with her powers when she had them, if she could feel she would be disgusted and upset over this, but she couldn't.

"The pain will fade shortly, I used as little as I could." he was stunned and still reeling, likely had some sort of head ache or a few physical responses he couldn't exactly control in response to the pain. However, the calico had been careful, she couldn't harm those within this group without her emotions she should really be able to, but something kept her contained. "The secrets of monsters are ones best kept." he knew nothing, but she knew that the secrets she locked deep inside were no larger harmful to them only her. "What I used to reject your power wasn't randomly generated, I pulled it from an incredibly small moment of the past." and she was happy she had made the decision to reject him, if he was unable to withstand that much of the pain she drown in nothingness, he would have shattered if he had actually gotten in. "My secrets are deader then my emotions." anyone who knew besides her was dead, gone, she was all alone now. "Animals keep their secrets for a reason, I keep mine because they're enough not anyone could endure knowing. I don't have emotions but I still don't want to hurt my own." with that comment she went back to eating the corpse she had killed earlier.

It was his choice if they kept talking. Hopefully he would go away, putting even the slighest amount in the front to reject him had secretly left her vunerable in the psyhical plane. While he could not get into her head? Using the past to kick him out had left a small sliver of her heart exposed and it would stay like that briefly until it could fade back into blackness.

[sephiroth]

SEPHIROTH

MALE — ROSEBLOODS — PHARAOH — HOVER FOR TAGS

[div style="background-color: #292727; color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-align: justify; overflow: auto; width: 500px; height: 340px; padding: 10px;"]If that was only a sample of her strength, Sephiroth both dreaded and anticipated what even more power she had.  If somehow he could order that might to be used on the enemy, the Rosebloods could certainly use that sort of strength for the good of the group.  The male managed to gather himself together, cringing as the throbbing heaviness in his head turned into a persistent dull ache.  He steadied his posture, standing back up straight and facing the calico.  His eyes lost their fire, mentally exhausted from his endeavor.  ”I…understand.”  The lion’s voice came breathy and quiet, the most surrender he had shown anybody in the group.  The most weakness he had shown anybody in the group.

”…I won’t tell anybody.”  Sephiroth would murmur a promise of secrecy to Jiyu as he broke his eyes away, unable to meet her odd eyes any longer.  ”I care not about what you have done nor for your secrets; all I ask of you is your loyalty to the Rosebloods.”  The Pharaoh figured that asking that was a well enough compromise for the time being.  If anything, Jiyu proved her strength today and Sephiroth respected that.  Despite the ramifications he had suffered as a result.

The pale lion would turn his body away and start to pad off as per Jiyu’s unsaid wishes, his steps regaining energy as he hauled himself off in quiet surrender.  As long as none of his groupmates got hurt as a result of this, he was alright with her doing as she pleased as long as it was aimed at their enemies.  Sephiroth would slink quietly along, not wishing to admit anymore weakness in the presence of his second in command.

#psychosocial.