bloody nose // joining + amnesia

[Cosmic]

The small feline was stumbling in the snow, the cold biting at his feet and nose, his only wish to get to a safe and warm place. He had been traveling and wandering aimlessly for hours, possibly a day or so, the snow clinging to his medium-length fur, making it appear more unkempt than it really was. Light green-gray eyes blinked non-stop as to not become frozen from the winds that blew past. It was a miracle he was even alive at this point.

He paused, feeling a strange sensation slither it’s way up his paws and hold them there. He looked down, but didn’t see any physical force holding him in place, but the sensations remained, making its way to wrapping all around his body. He couldn’t move, even if he tried, and began to panic.

“S-Stop! P-Please!” The amnesiac feline pleaded, and for all he knew, he was just talking to air. He could have been hallucinating, even dying, and he wouldn’t have been surprised if that were the case. But how could he be speaking so clearly and strongly in a panicked manner if he was dying? What was happening?!

Save your breath, kid. The voice scared him shitless, and he looked around for the source. But now instead of the sensations holding him, a sudden jolt of pain enveloped his entire body, and his jaws opened in a silent scream of agony. He felt as if a part of himself was being shredded piece by piece, and he physically reacted once more by clenching his jaw shut and holding onto his very being with an iron grip. He managed to lift his head just enough to see the red, fiery outline of another soul right in front of him, along with tendrils forming around it, and around his own body, thicker ones digging into his forelegs.

The harder he resisted the tugging, the worse the feelings became. He was beginning to cave, his energy weakening as he refused to give in to this spirit. Something within his soul broke, and it no longer hurt as much. He didn’t feel himself slipping anymore, despite the other offending soul’s attack, the grip still there. The feline gazed upon his attacker, intense eyes focused on him, and felt a different kind of jolt within himself. He felt like he was... growing stronger, instead harnessing the abilities used against him to pull in the spirit.

Shit-! He heard his attacker swear, their form losing its shape just as his had, though the energy wrapped around him, winding through his entire soul, stayed. He was using the spirit’s energy against them, and he hadn’t realized he had been doing so. The other seemed to realize this too, especially with the next comment they made. It finally revealed the other’s gender as male as well.

Huh. I guess you’ve proven yourself. Proven himself how? He tilted his head slightly, though suddenly feeling light-headed. We can’t keep this up for much longer. I was lucky to have found you- The soul rushed at him before he could react, and felt it as it made its way into him, pulsing with energy and tearing right for his core.

A single thought crossed his mind in that moment,

CONSUME.

He more than obliged, taking the soul and energy into his own, making it his own, overtaken by the almost euphoric feeling of feeding off of something. It was a feral, almost natural feeling he didn’t realize he possessed. Though he didn’t see it now, perhaps it wasn’t just his own will or ferocity.

With the fight over, he dragged himself maybe a few feet forward before collapsing in the snow, almost blending in if it weren’t for the new markings on his forelegs which were a bloody red, forming a spiral all the way up to his shoulders, before slowly dissipating in a way almost as if something dug itself into his body.

A harsh cough, then a grin of victory formed on the feline’s face. A chuckle, and then-

“Guess this’ll have to do...”

He closed his eyes, the exhaustion overtaking him as he fell into a deep sleep.

___________

’Mercer... Mercer, wake up! Please!’

It was a voice he didn’t recognize, yet somehow felt a familiarity with. The name felt as if it belonged to him, but at the same time, it didn’t. He had another name- his real name, but he couldn’t remember it for the life of him.

It was at this moment when everything became black again, and he felt his physical form begin to stir. His consciousness was returning to the waking world...

____________

He woke up with a gasp, sitting up, heart racing. He looked around, assessing the environment before taking a look at himself, and instantly fear took him. Those markings... no... no! It couldn’t be- he looked them over and began to hyperventilate, fear becoming panic as he pitifully tried to back away from himself, anything to make them disappear! This wasn’t normal, no no no no no!

“What’s happening to me?!” He stumbles backwards into a run, his emotions fueling his adrenaline and his limbs as he took off in an, again, aimless fashion.

The first thing he spotted in the distance was a rabbit, and his thought process immediately changed, as though a flip had been switched. And unknowingly, he had managed to venture into Elysium territory. But that didn’t matter, not right now. What mattered was sustenance, and this hare would suffice.

He didn’t know why he suddenly became less afraid and more... predatory as his prey came into view. But he slowed to a trot, and then to a complete stop. He lowered himself, ready to strike as soon as the opportunity arose. His intense green-gray gaze focused as it once had in his previous fight, and waited patiently before he sprang into action, red and black smoke wafting from his paws as he ran full force towards the poor rabbit who was too late to react.

The white feline didn’t bite down on the neck for a quick kill as most others would, but went for more brutal measures- ones he would never have thought of before. Was it all from that... attack?

His body automatically reacted before his brain even realized, his claws tearing through flesh and fur before he felt his soul metaphorically light up as he took the dying prey’s spirit into his. Once he was done there, he wouldn’t waste the meal laying before him, and set about to viciously chowing down on the hare.

As previous, one thought was on his mind:

CONSUME.

___________

Again startled by these behavioral changes, the feline began to sob and hold his paws over his head, officially acknowledging that something went wrong. Everything was wrong, and he felt like he couldn’t stop himself. It was all because of that damn spirit! It was the only explanation, but it didn’t help how he felt about himself now: a monster. A murderer. He despised himself and who he was, to the point of being afraid of himself. He didn’t want anyone to find him... he didn’t know if he would be able to fight back against the urges that threatened to overwhelm him.

“W-Why?! What is wrong with me?!”

[candorosa]

[align=center][div style="width:70%; text-align: justify; padding: 1px; font-family: helvetica; color: #2D0B08;"]Though he couldn't claim that he had found himself in the same situation as the amnesiac, Lemy could sympathize with intruding thoughts and urges following an...incident. Even years later, lifetimes later, Lemy could still recall the white-hot pain and the shrieking cries that followed. Though his exact memories were muddled, that man's recollection oozing into his, Lemy would never forget the sensations. They were with him forever, and there they would be left to fester until someone finally ended his miserable existence.

However, Lemy didn't usually preoccupy himself with those thoughts. They caught up to him whenever he was idle, latching on to his mind, poking and prodding to remind him of his inability to move on. Sleep was out of the question for that reason. Working himself to a coma was a more pleasant alternative than dealing with insomnia and his bitterness.

Lemy heard the sobbing by pure chance, too busy trying not to stumble with his concussion. The symptoms seemed to have abated a tad, by which he meant that he only slurred and mumbled every other ramble, and his vision wasn't too fucked. Though, he still had a raging headache which sorta got worse whenever he spoke. That was...kind of depressing actually. Was this how others felt when he ran his mouth?

The point was, he hadn't expected to hear crying in the middle of the territory. Instead of concern, a thrill ran through his body, sending chills down his spine. His claws unsheathed, flexing in the snow before returning to their cover. Lemy changed course, slinking toward the source of the sobs. As he grew closer, his ears perked at the questioning wail that escaped the unknown individual, excitement growing in his heart. It was simply miserable, pure in ways he hadn't heard before. It was wrong to feel this way in response to someone else's pain, wasn't it? He knew that but who cared? It wasn't as if he could help it anymore.

Finally, he spotted the one behind all the ruckus. A cat, huh? Lemy watched the other man with dead blue eyes, not caring if his surroundings blurred together as his headache worsened. He allowed himself to take in the sight for a few more moments before he approached the feline, making sure to make his pawsteps audible. "Heyaa! You okay? Don't think I've seen ya around before, why are you crying?" Though his words and his tone were concerned, albeit a bit slurred, Lemy was just interested in nosing his way into the stranger's business.

It was after he spoke that the smell of blood hit him in all its coppery glory. How had he not noticed before? (Concussion, his lagging brain offered not-so-helpfully.) His blue eyes trailed to the tom's mouth, gut twisting at the sight of blood marring it. Lemy's thoughts screeched to a halt, all feelings of sick delight evaporating into the air. I can't have anything, can I? He thought as he grinned even wider, tapping his mouth with a paw in a jesting manner. "Ya got a little somethin', mister," he said, punctuating his words with a rather loud giggle that sent his gooey, itty-bitty brain matter sloshing inside his cranium.

[Warringkingdoms]

  [font=trebuchet ms]/tw: blood throughout, disembowelment in italicized paragraphs 5-7

  She could hear screaming and smell blood- a horrible combination, and one that she had experienced far too many times.

  Without sparing a thought to who the unfamiliar screams might be coming from, or whose blood it might be, Rin bolted towards the borders, following the metallic tang in her nose. The biting wind only seemed to make the scent stronger, harsher- blood dripping onto the snow in front of her, staining her paws, the tendrils creeping towards her eyes-

  The sound of Lemy's voice, apparently concerned, briefly jolted her out of her swirling thoughts. He was talking to someone. The someone probably wasn't dead. Still needed help, she was sure. She had to get there. Even as her muscles cried out in protest from the sudden strain, she rushed towards the source of the bleeding. No one else had to die this season.

  As the two came into view, Rin skidded to a stop. A stranger wailed, covering his head with his paws, apparently confused about what was "wrong" with him. Lemy watched with a strange grin, even a light giggle. Her eyes flickered over to the bleeding creature on the ground-

  gray fur, tiny frame, empty violet eyes

  vicious gouges in the stomach

  no saving them this time.

  Rin dug her claws into the ground, her breathing growing shallow and rapid, but she narrowed her gaze onto one intact bit of flesh- brown, she repeated to herself, brown and elongated and floppy. Cartilage, extended. Long ears. Rabbit. "Rabbit," she murmured under her breath, forcing her fur to lie flat. Rabbit, not cat. Prey, not clanmate.

  Tearing her eyes off of the torn-up rabbit, she looked down at the soil and started counting. One pebble, two pebbles, three pebbles, four. Nobody sentient had been hurt. No Elysite had been hurt. Someone was here and confused and needed help but nobody was going to die.

  Looking up, finally, at the stranger, Rin furrowed her brows. "What is your name?" she said softly, sheathing her claws, but keeping her distance. If he happened to be in a similar state as she had almost slipped into, then getting closer might scare him. "Are you hurt?" He didn't look injured, but asking questions might help her figure out the problem, or at least eliminate some options.

  After a moment, she shot Lemy a glance. Now wasn't the time to ask why he was out wandering while concussed, not with an emotionally-distressed newcomer present, but she would have to corral him back into the medic's quarters as soon as the newcomer was taken care of. Of course, if it were her suffering from a concussion, she probably wouldn't be obeying any bedrest orders either, but as a trained medic she felt some obligation to at least try to get him to.

[Cosmic]

The two new faces approached him and he could feel something rise from deep within. Something dark, sinister and primal. It scared him- it was the same feeling from when he killed and ate that rabbit. To... consume. The white feline again stumbled onto his feet, backing away slowly, a headache and the impulses beginning again. No... no... not now! Not here! They didn’t do anything to deserve this! He didn’t deserve this!

“Stay... stay back! I don’t.... I don’t want to hurt you...” He backed up, not realizing the dead hare was right behind him, and he fell into his back. A vulnerable position, his predatory brain noted, fueling his anxiety and fear of hurting these people. He immediately stood up, a visible wobble in his steps.

His name? He... he couldn’t remember... he only heard one name, but that had been in a dream. He knew the dream name wasn’t his. Who’s was it? He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts a bit before replying to the one who asked. “I... I can’t remember, as... stupid as that sounds...” He spoke softly, looking down at his strangely marked forelegs to try and resist what his body almost craved.

“I don’t think I’m injured... physically, anyway...” He looked up once to face her, his expression grave and through it he was silently asking, without words, please help me. He didn’t appear fragile anymore, but his mental state didn’t give him the fearsome reputation it would have in that moment where... no. He couldn’t think about that right now.

“Am I... on your turf? I’m really sorry... if you want me to go I’ll leave. I promise I won’t bother you again...” His expression showed pain as well, as much as he tried to play it off. It didn’t work. Something was wrong... so very wrong.

[Warringkingdoms]

  [font=trebuchet ms]He stumbled back, staggering, tripped over the corpse and fell back- ordering them to stay back, lest he hurt them. Rin found herself thinking back to Romanempire's explanation from a few weeks prior: losing control of himself, not even having control of his body, being overrun by an urge to kill. Was this a similar case?

  If so, given that he was here and needed help, it was Elysium's responsibility to find a way to stop whatever was controlling him. If this creature fell under the control of whatever made him eviscerate that rabbit, someone could get seriously hurt or worse, and the last thing Rin wanted to do was put her fellow Elysites at risk. Still, driving him away could come back to bite them later, especially if he happened to find his way to the Pitt... they hadn't caused any more trouble since Goldenluxury's takeover, but that could change easily.

  At his admission that he couldn't remember his name, Rin nodded slightly. Amnesia was common among those who found themselves in these fields, as she knew full well- the only indication she'd had of her own name, when she woke up here the first time, was the tag on her scarf. Most weren't that lucky.

  Watching him closely, she had to agree with his analysis that he wasn't physically injured, but there was no missing the haunted expression in his eyes. Certainly, if she were in danger of being possessed and forced to hurt people against her will, she would be terrified too- especially if she didn't know what would trigger the possessor to take over, if anything. If there was a stimulus that would trigger the possession, then they ought to find it.

  Either way, Rin decided, keeping him here was probably the best idea. "No, you don't need to leave," she said, furrowing her brows. "I don't know what happened, but I think I can help you." If he was indeed dealing with a possessor, then keeping an eye on him would allow her to keep anyone else from getting hurt. She'd probably have to ensure the others kept a wide berth until they figured out how to solve his problem, but it was doable. It would get in the way of hunting down the gods, but then, leading Elysium had gotten in the way already. What was one more obstacle?

  With a shrug, she continued, "If you follow me, I can take you to the town. We can find a quiet place for you to stay, and I probably have something I can give you to help you calm down." They could work out what to call him once he was situated.

[Cosmic]

He shook, both from the cold and from the anxiety he was experiencing at that exact moment. He didn’t think he’d ever been that scared in his life- he was almost killed and his body taken, and now he’s surrounded by people he didn’t even know who were offering him a place to stay and aid. He didn’t know them, and he was terribly hesitant. But he decided that he would rather die in warmth surrounded by strangers than taken by the cold surrounded by nothing. An odd train of thought, but he was an oddball anyway.

‘Rin’ seemed trustworthy enough to him, but ‘Lemy’ appeared... off. Very, very off. Not that he wasn’t any different with his predicament right now, but that was beside the point. He gave a gentle, uneasy nod in understanding, wanting all the help he could get. If she really could help him, he would be forever grateful for her assistance. This wasn’t something he wanted to keep fighting with for the rest of his days. Something had to give, and hopefully he wouldn’t lose himself in the process.

“T-Thank you... I didn’t catch your names... what are they?” The small feline inquired, wanting to put names to these faces. It made him more nervous when he didn’t know anyone’s name, even if it took him a while to learn. He was better with faces and voices, as his eyesight wasn’t the best. “I’m sorry...” He mumbled this time, his head lowered to his paws as he shuffled them, waiting to go to the town and see how they could help, if at all.

[candorosa]

[align=center][div style="width:70%; text-align: justify; padding: 1px; font-family: helvetica;"]So focused was Lemy on the distressed individual that he missed Rin's entrance and reactions. Lemy forced his fur to lie flat on his skin when he heard the woman speak, tearing his eyes away from the sobbing male to watch Rin's actions. He caught her glance and sent her a honeyed smile.

Lemy brought his attention back to the other male, listening quietly as he babbled out warnings and scrambled away from them. Lemy's smile turned frigid as he watched the spectacle, mind churning as he processed the words. Everything about the scene set him on edge, for various reasons. If the guy had just been snacking on a rabbit, that'd be fine. They were animals; they ate raw meat, much to Lemy's chagrin. But finding an amnesiac crying near a torn corpse? Implying that he wasn't able to control any urges that might hurt them?

And they were just expected to believe him?

Lemy was about to open his mouth to suggest that, yes, leaving would be an excellent idea when Rin spoke. His teeth clattered shut and his smile slipped off his face, replaced by a look of genuine bafflement. For once, his blank gaze flickered with emotion; alarm and confusion swirling together its blue depths. You're shitting me, was the unspoken statement in his eyes. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

She was just going to allow a clearly unstable stranger to flounce his way into the town, just like that? Because she thought she could help him? Shit, he wasn't one to talk, after all, he must've been missing some marbles too, but at least Lemy wasn't breaking down and warning others to stay away from him. Remarks and observations bounced in his mind, none of them pleasant.

Lemy swallowed his words and nodded along with Rin, countenance melting into something more amiable. "Yuup! Rinny's right, mister Rabbit," he finally spoke, stretching as he moved from his spot to begin walking back to the town, "we're all real nice here, so don't worry about leaving. There's looots of people in town that'd probably help you too," his words were sickening sweet, an unintentional second meaning to them that he tried not to acknowledge.

Whatever. If the man tried to pull anything, Lemy would be ready to reply with a dagger to the throat.

Lemy tilted his head at the request for his name, releasing a soft hum. "Well, name's Lemy! Nice 'ta meet ya, mister Rabbit," he pointed his tail at Rin afterwards, "that's Rin! She's our super-duper ultra nice leader. A real sweetheart," a real bleeding heart, he wanted to say.

[Warringkingdoms]

  [font=trebuchet ms]As he thanked her, she nodded and turned towards the town, then started walking after Lemy. Occasionally, she would glance back to ensure the stranger was following, as well as to ensure that the stranger didn't appear to be undergoing any sort of transformation. Since she was between him and Lemy, if he did suffer a takeover or whatever it was that was happening to him, she would be able to hold him off while Lemy had time to run; but she'd rather stop it before it got to that point, especially since Lemy was currently concussed.

  Lemy beat her to the question of their names, but Rin twitched her whiskers in response to the moniker of "mister Rabbit." She glanced over her shoulder towards the stranger, furrowing her brows. She wasn't sure what would and would not cause a flashback for this individual- she'd hope two words wouldn't do it, but she'd seen creatures suffer flashbacks over something as small as a moving shadow. "While we're looking at herbs, maybe we could find one you like, and use it as a nickname," she suggested, flicking an ear. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it would do, she figured.

  As Lemy referred to her as "a real sweetheart," she had to fight the urge to scoff. If she had any redeeming qualities whatsoever, kindness was definitely not one of them. "The town's not far," she said, deciding she might as well change the subject. "If you're worried about... hurting anyone, the outskirts of the town is pretty empty. I'll take you to the house I keep my herbs in first, though."

  /ishpost