01-05-2019, 09:18 PM
[align=center][div style="max-width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 1.4;letter-spacing:.1px"][ ☠ ] Throughout Roach's entire short life, pain has been his way to measure success. The more he dealt, the safer he was. The more he took, the stronger he was. Either way, he was more and people did a lot less harm. Something that once hurt didn't anymore; something that once made people laugh now made them bleed. He had to be strong to survive. Maybe his world had been separate from this one, but in his, nobody protected the weak and the small. Scars already create ridges along his body to prove it.
Today's the day when all of those scars and all of that pain finally pays him back. Heat sears through his skin and scorches his fur, the smell of it choking the clean air out of his lungs. Every tug away from the fire tightens the leash around his throat, linked chains digging and biting into him while every step to loosen it brings him closer to the blaze. Roach doesn't know how to settle. When he had first been dragged to the tree and told to stay, he had expected the other back in a few moments. He could smell another group nearby — close enough that their border was clear even now, with smoke darkening the air, but far enough away that their passing forms pay no mind to him — and he'd assumed that they were here for another toy, or maybe a simple report.
But each minute that ticked by and dragged the sun closer to the horizon had left bugs crawling around under his skin and between the pads of his paws. His heartbeat kicked up and up until the only reasonable thing had been to struggle. And from there, a spark. The small embers caught quickly on dry grass and dying wood. Roach could only yelp and snarl as the flames grew higher, licking at the lower branches and brown leaves that hung on them. Then they fell, pieces drifting onto his back. And they grew, and grew. He panicked, could anyone blame him? The young lion is snarling and roaring as he struggles with the chain, his weak, tired noises carrying across the border.
It had only taken a moment. Just one short moment and the perfect set of circumstances and fire licks at his paws, draws unless he chokes, burns at his face when he doesn't. It hurts. Everything hurts. The pain has kept him alive for this long, everything aches. He had only ever been able to control the pain when he could focus, and focus came from pain on its own — like this, though, all he can do is spiral. The chain chafes more as Roach struggles, his head beginning to spin and vision blurring with it. His struggles will mean nothing, the chain is looped around a thick branch too far above his head and has grown hot from the same fire that has left patches of bare, blistered skin on his back and paws. He's starting to see the futility.
That's never happened before.
/ uh idk what this is i just kinda ran with an idea. the tree is far enough away from others that the fire won't spread easily from this exact area, but roach has a chain around his neck with the other end wrapped around the burning tree, he has a few feet of slack, just not enough to be safe. so he is stuck.
Today's the day when all of those scars and all of that pain finally pays him back. Heat sears through his skin and scorches his fur, the smell of it choking the clean air out of his lungs. Every tug away from the fire tightens the leash around his throat, linked chains digging and biting into him while every step to loosen it brings him closer to the blaze. Roach doesn't know how to settle. When he had first been dragged to the tree and told to stay, he had expected the other back in a few moments. He could smell another group nearby — close enough that their border was clear even now, with smoke darkening the air, but far enough away that their passing forms pay no mind to him — and he'd assumed that they were here for another toy, or maybe a simple report.
But each minute that ticked by and dragged the sun closer to the horizon had left bugs crawling around under his skin and between the pads of his paws. His heartbeat kicked up and up until the only reasonable thing had been to struggle. And from there, a spark. The small embers caught quickly on dry grass and dying wood. Roach could only yelp and snarl as the flames grew higher, licking at the lower branches and brown leaves that hung on them. Then they fell, pieces drifting onto his back. And they grew, and grew. He panicked, could anyone blame him? The young lion is snarling and roaring as he struggles with the chain, his weak, tired noises carrying across the border.
It had only taken a moment. Just one short moment and the perfect set of circumstances and fire licks at his paws, draws unless he chokes, burns at his face when he doesn't. It hurts. Everything hurts. The pain has kept him alive for this long, everything aches. He had only ever been able to control the pain when he could focus, and focus came from pain on its own — like this, though, all he can do is spiral. The chain chafes more as Roach struggles, his head beginning to spin and vision blurring with it. His struggles will mean nothing, the chain is looped around a thick branch too far above his head and has grown hot from the same fire that has left patches of bare, blistered skin on his back and paws. He's starting to see the futility.
That's never happened before.
/ uh idk what this is i just kinda ran with an idea. the tree is far enough away from others that the fire won't spread easily from this exact area, but roach has a chain around his neck with the other end wrapped around the burning tree, he has a few feet of slack, just not enough to be safe. so he is stuck.
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｢ YOU'RE NOT DEAD ｣
but you're not alive either
[div style="font-size:7pt;line-height:1.2;font-family:arial;color:black;letter-spacing:.12px;margin-top:-3px;margin-bottom:5px;"]INFO & AES | YOU'RE A GHOST WITH A BEATING HEART