save me from bloodshed / return

[emil]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; padding: 10px; height: auto; overflow: auto;"][div style="width: 400px; padding: 0px; line-height: 14px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"]crunch.

prestige woke with a start. his chest heaved for some time, gasping in what air he could until it became too much. a paw lifted quickly to grip at his chest. in tact. no broken ribs or collapsed lungs. he was... alive. the male keeled over to the ground and shuddered.

a lioness standing above him, on top of him, crushing him beneath her weight. he was dying. he died. he was dead. the darkness had consumed him, dragged him under, lulled him into something of a sleep... and then he was back.

a few moments passed. slowly, he rose up from the cold ground, blue eyes drawing over his body. his new body. he had died. he had come back. this form was significantly larger than his previous one, light in color with darker spots decorating his body. around massive paws curled his rather long tail, twitching idly back and forth. a snow leopard. prestige inhaled shakily and looked around, taking in his surroundings. he was just outside the territory, staring into the dark, eerie forest that led to his home.

he hesitated.

his mind raced a mile a minute, his heart slowly catching up. in his mind, jumbled memories, incomplete, filled with giant holes. he remembered spending his days with livius, preparing for children and a wedding, and then suddenly the elite was now the rosebloods. he was an adviser when he had only just become a guard. it was obvious that time had passed. how much time, he could not tell. perhaps years, perhaps only a few days. but that left many unanswered questions in his mind, blurring together and making him more anxious with each second that passed.

prestige closed his eyes, breathed in deeply. he calmed his mind. though it didn't entirely rid the anxiety within him, it helped. he'd be alright. sola was leader, after all, and felix was an adviser with him. his mother- and father-in-law. they would help him sort things out. they would help him find livius, wherever he was. he needed only to find them.

the snow leopard took a shaky step forward, not quite used to his new, heavier form. he stumbled briefly, then continued. prestige padded along the beaten path for a while until finally he paused; this new body of his, no one would recognize. he couldn't just waltz into the mansion. not like the lioness had. they were all surely on alert after that. the male cast his gaze around him, ears swiveling back. "sola?" he called, voice scratchy and sore from not using it. he sounded younger, and though he wasn't aware of that (as he was under the impression that he was young) it was sure to raise some eyebrows. "...it's pres. i'm home," the feline seated him slowly on the path.

[SAYØNARALULLABY]

[align=center][div style="width: 455px; text-align: justify; font-family: nyala; font-size: 8pt; letter-spacing: 1px; color: #000"]　　　Working. / Working. / Must work.

　　　Must clean after the storm's tears and screams. / Must kiss on the roses for well growth and strength. / Must not fall back. / Must go forward and strive for warm blood and white eyes.

　　　So, there, the star child of dreams and wishes limps across the somber forest. / A light in darkness. / An attraction for the eager eyes and greedy mouths. / Though, Ayon does not care about anything but to keep moving forward.

　　　Let the glass shards and ashes sets against his paws, and let him weep and bleed, for he will understand the meaning of endurance. / Let him try, try, and try, just as much as Prestige tried to protect Sola.

　　　( May he fail, but at least his determination will fall to become a tale. )

　　　Ayon stops at the sight of a large figure standing ahead. / Waiting. / Mouth moving... / His eyes narrows before a flicker they widens. / Celestial mind whirls around the fact Pres is...right there. / In a different body, but alive.

　　　He takes a step closer to the other, gold heart beating confusion. / Loud and clear. / Violence in silence. / ❝ Pr-Pres... ❞ / A whisper through the winds, nearly fusing. / Nature sings the child of soft skeleton and iron heart a welcome home.

　　　He inhales the waves of strength and pushes himself to stand right in front of Prestige, as so the snow leopard said it himself. / He stares at Pres' body. / All new, yet...different. / He glances at his own foreleg where it's wrapped with cobwebs.

　　　He recalls spilling his own blood to let the white rose drown in his ruby red—an honor given to Prestige, protector of solar crown and raging roses. / Wonder burns within tiring brain if his gesture made the Advisor rise like a star reborn.

　　　Ayon thinks, and thinks, and it only leaves him a question for Prestige.

　　　❝ H-how?... ❞

[S. Mortem]

[align=center][div style="width: 55%; text-align: justify; font-family: calibri; line-height: 110%"]"Sola?"

There's a pause in her steps, head turning, ears lightly falling back. She swears she imagined hearing her name, as if she somehow caught it within the low whistle of the wind. It would make sense, considering how unsteady she is, and she's sure not to get her hopes up until she hears what follows. It's a rather immediate reaction - the way she shifts her body to face the direction in which the voice is coming from, allowing large paws to clumsily carry her until she reaches the duo. There's another pause as she stares, wide-eyed, barely paying attention to her own body as she moves forward some more, passing Ayon with only a brief glance, having to keep herself from leaping at the snow leopard. After all, wouldn't that only remind him of his attacker? Of his death? With a sharp inhale, she can feel the light, worried crinkle of her face.

"Pres..." Sola is trying to smile, although it falls flat, as she's still rather stuck on what occurred at the meeting. The best she can do is gently lay her head on his own, if he allows it, trying to keep her breathing calm and steady, despite the increasingly rapid beat of her heart.

[emil]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; padding: 10px; height: auto; overflow: auto;"][div style="width: 400px; padding: 0px; line-height: 14px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"]a child standing in front of him, eyes wide with bewilderment and voice but a mere whisper in the wind. for a moment he craned his neck, ears straining to hear the boy, but his ears perk at the mumble of his name, and a question. how?

something he'd been wondering about since he woke.

he stared at ayon for some time, finding the child familiar, and yet he didn't know him. couldn't find his name in the archives of his mind, nothing to place with his face. for a moment, he felt... frustration. prestige frowned to himself. it was given that he wouldn't know every single face or name in the group. there were many taking home here, many he hadn't met, but this boy. he should know his name.

the snow leopard's attention shifted upon seeing an orange figure ahead, galloping toward him. sola. his heart leapt in his chest and he stood up straight, paws shuffling momentarily in anticipation. another murmur of his name, the sound oh so sweet in his ears rolling off of sola's tongue. his closest friend, somewhat a mother to him, the most important person in his world next to livius.

an unspoken conversation between him, the slightest gesture, and prestige found himself lowering his head slightly, purring softly upon sola's chin resting upon his head. "sola," he cooed in return and shut his eyes. i'm here." the adviser murmured, nuzzling his face into her fur.

[PEYTRIVING P.]

PEYTRIVIING  M.

✯ — I KNOW WHERE YOU'VE BEEN, OH

space

that meeting had gone... terribly downhill. it had only just begun, with sola calling forward a meeting. the strange ghost lady claiming sola was trying to poison them for some reason. peytriviing pondered whether the undead creature just wanted to cause a ruckus at first, and figured sola would have waved her off easily. then... then she was on the ground. a lioness holding her down and a call for silence. it had all happened so fast, pey wasn't quite sure they had processed it entirely until hours after.

sola had been thrown into the electric shocks that charon had conjured around her. then prestige... oh pres.

the manticore's crude sense of humor made him believe that was a perfect introduction for a roguish gathering of animals like them to kick off their activity. though something wedged into his mind that it was a sign. maybe they weren't ready if someone could so easily come through their borders-

it wasn't anyone's fault. they reminded themselves with a slow sigh. they had been trying to distract themselves of the graphic death of their advisor especially. just... suffocated, so easily. his small body no match against a powerful beast like that. peytriviing themself was only bigger in height and bulk, but not nearly as trained to kill like she had been.

"sola?"

their ears twitch, and they swear it sounds familiar. different, but... perhaps? they are hesitant at first, but they move in the direction. they scent their sister-in-law first before seeing her face-to-face with an unknown snow leopard. rose hued eyes go wide at her words and he looked to the advisor with a small lopsided smile. so he was back, thank the gods. he was back and this time, hopefully, he would survive longer in this form.

peytriviing came a few steps closer, halting beside sola. "are you alright? you.. you're safe now. we'll make sure of that." they reassured with a definitive nod of their head. they cared a lot of about family in the rosebloods. even those that weren't from blood, or marriage. however dysfunctional it may be sometimes, they would protect everyone here with their life. seeing that they had failed with rpestige, pey would try their damned hardest to prevent that from happening again.

space

✯ — GENDERLESS. THE ROSEBLOODS. HARD PHYSICALLY. MEDIUM MENTALLY. REF. BIO. — ✯

#psychosocial.