COUNT THE STARS ☆ vathmos

[wormwood.]

Everything stays, right where you left it.

But it still changes, ever so slightly, daily and nightly.

Secrecy was not something that Aurum normally approved of. Ever since the disaster that had been the secret planned assassination of his brother, Aurum had come to associate secrets and all things related to them with death and destruction. Still, when Vathmos looked away for a moment, a look of pain and shame in her averted eyes, the lion knew that he would never tell another soul anything. Vathmos was his friend, and he never wanted to hurt her in any way, and it was obvious that if he ever spoke a word of this to another soul, he would be hurting her in a way that would be unforgivable. It would be even worse than the whole bloodrage debacle when they had first become friends. With his chest weirdly tight and a strange sense of anxiety settling in the air, the proxy nodded his head, "I... I promise I won't tell another single soul. You have my word, Vathmos." Aurum kept to his word, so stubbornly so that it was almost agonizing to think about. So, Vathmos was in good hands. Still, Aurum couldn't help but feel a little shiver of stress run up the middle of his spine. What could Vathmos possibly tell him that was so important, and so dramatic that he couldn't tell anybody else?

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[Vathmos]

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VATHMOS

INFORMATION ROLEPLAYER MISC.

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Vathmos looked around, and behind Aurum, to ensure that they were alone. She took in a deep breath, looking away, then back at Aurum. She wasn't sure how to tell him. Should she tell him? It would help give him better context to understand her plight, and why she couldn't return to her own kind.
"Aurum, there are things, that are wrong with me, that does not fit into a hyena tribe." Her blood. Vathmos was born in a raging thunderstorm. Lamashtu either cursed her, or blessed her with the power of the storm. "I came out wrong." Maybe Aurum would understand what she was eluding to- her ability to rage with the power of electricity. Raging wasn't unheard of in a hyena tribe, but her electricity was.
"I am an exile, Aurum. I'm Vekkteman. I'm clanless. My scars mark me as so. I'm banished from all hyena tribes, not just the one I was born in." She gulped, a shuddering breath leaving her, as Vathmos stood to turn away from him, her back towards him. "I can't return to my own people. Ever." Her head tilted upwards, and the hyena sucked in a wet, thick breath.

━ [b]MY SKIN IS A STORY┆LONELY. CLINGY. HATEFUL. ━

[wormwood.]

Everything stays, right where you left it.

But it still changes, ever so slightly, daily and nightly.

I came out wrong. The simple phrase itself was enough to make Aurum ache with sympathy, mostly because he knew all too well what it felt like to be rejected by your own kind. He might not have felt the exact same way about his fellow lion that Vathmos felt for her fellow hyena, but he could certainly remember many a night spent wallowing in exhaustion and sadness, wishing he was good enough, or born right enough, for his friends and family not to hate him. That alone was enough to make Aurum want to snap. Not at Vathmos, but for Vathmos. After all, what fucking right did they have to say that she had come out wrong? Vathmos might've argued that since they were her people, her tribe, that meant that they knew better, but the proxy definitely felt like calling bullshit on such a thing. Still, he remained silent, allowing the hyena to finish in her little explanation of why she couldn't return to her own kind. His heart ached from deep inside his chest as she turned away from him, and he let a long moment of silence pass between the two of them, seemingly processing. Once he felt he had let the air hang long enough, he spoke softly, "Vathmos... I can't imagine what that must be like. How awful that must be. And I'm sorry that you have to suffer like that. But also... I feel really sorry for all those fuckers in those hyena tribes who won't have you alongside them. Because, those marks or not, you're still amazing. You're a good friend, and a valuable asset, and no matter what they think makes you 'wrong,' they've got their heads up their asses." He tried to keep his voice from growing too aggressive as he got to the end, his claws digging deeply into the earth to stop the anger inside. It was just... Vathmos was his friend. She didn't deserve this.

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[Vathmos]

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VATHMOS

INFORMATION ROLEPLAYER MISC.

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Vathmos did not know much about Aurum's past. She couldn't recall discussing it in detail with him. The hyena knew a few things about his life before Tanglewood- a bad mother, a brother... both of which were out of Aurum's life now.
Maybe, in Vathmos' eyes, they only had eachother. Aurum, no doubt, with his postition and time, had more than Vathmos. Perhaps, the lion had found a safety net in Tanglewood the hyena herself had yet to discover. Aurum had more than Vathmos, so why did he bother with her? Especially after she left for so long?

Her ears perked as she heard Aurum speak, her shoulders squaring and head lifting. Vathmos hated the idea of Aurum seeing her in a vunerable way, yet here she was now, spilling all her secrets to him. The hyena huffed as he called her a valuable asset. She could agree to that. Vathmos prided herself on her strength and ferocity. She turned back towards him. "I was number eight in my tribe. You know that? Out of forty or more hyenas, I was number eight. Then it was all gone in a flash of lightning." A sigh. "It brings me shame, Aurum."

"I can't belong anywhere, Aurum. I can't claim myself to be from somewhere."

// see now here's where Aurum can tell Vathmos that Tanglewood can be her home

━ [b]MY SKIN IS A STORY┆LONELY. CLINGY. HATEFUL. ━

[wormwood.]

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AURUM

DO NO HARM BUT TAKE NO SHIT !

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Aurum hated his past. He hated all of the baggage that came with it, both emotional and not, along with all of the scars that his body carried because of it. And now, with Vathmos in front of him, pouring her heart out to him – or the closest to that the hyena would ever get to, really – he can tell that she hates talking about it too. It's yet another thing that they have in common, and it would've made the lion smile if it weren't for the vulnerability that Vath was showing him. As he listened to her speak, his muzzle turned down in a frown, a soft sigh leaving him as he nodded, "I... I know what that feels like." After all, he had once been next in line for the throne back in the pride, but then he had lost all of that, with just one swift punch to the gut from his mother. He knew what it was like to feel like you could do anything, and then feel like you couldn't do jack shit the next moment.

Still... Vathmos was wrong, and Aurum knew that well. "Vath... don't you get it? Even if you can't go back to another hyena tribe... this can be your home. Tanglewood can be your home. I know we're not a bunch of fellow hyenas, but I like to think we're a pretty decent little bunch, and you know you're welcome here... you can claim to be from Tanglewood." There weren't many times where Aurum would insult Vathmos's intelligence, since he knew her to be plenty smart in the areas that mattered, but she really needed to get it through her thick skull that Tanglewood would accept her just as much, if not more, than any hyena tribe.

━ I'M GONNA WIN┆PROUD. WARM. PROTECTIVE. ━