#💔 || the guardian's inner demon

[oflostinfound]

He's caught wind of something going on with his mate, and makes his way for their forest with haste. So many times has he missed when Hax would find themselves baring their shortcomings, he would not miss this.

"Hax dear...what's happened?"

He approaches, undaunted but concerned.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ I- ❞

They take a shuddering breath, trying their best to cover their face with one hand and cover their mouth(s) with the other. Intrusive thoughts, the urge to just lash out, tell him that he's better off without them. Alexander had enough on his plate with his kingdom, with the people who would come just to poke and prod at the draconian, he didn't need to deal with them too.

Spines had started to grow out of their hair trailing down their back, their hair itself had grown out enough to reach their shoulders. An odd look, considering how they liked to keep it short. Wings pushed against the back of their shirt, and they almost seemed to be growing taller-

Unable to find words they just shake their head rapidly, their hair hiding their features.

Please leave please leave please leave please-

help me

[oflostinfound]

The sickening sound of the sword cutting through flesh and bone rings in their ears. A wild grin and raucous laughter from their left side, while their right lets out a shrill scream, gasping for air between sobs that start to wrack their body.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ NO! NO NO NO- HONEY-! ❞

It's enough to throw off the left half of their face, the fact that the emotion of the right was affecting them. A momentary pause in their wild strangely marionette-like movements, long enough for a vine to pierce the hole in their chest and push them back. The demon coughing up blood, garbled cries of pain as they're brought to their knees and held up by the vine through their heart.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ There's nothing to fix Honey! ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ I'm a monster- ❞

They snarl, trying desperately to reach the blade they'd dropped. It should've been so simple, tp pick it up and swing it at Honey, to try to cut her in half.... and yet...

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Please no- no I-I've hurt her enough-! Stop this-! ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ I can't be saved, I can't be fixed, I can't be what I need to be- if I'm doing to die then I'm taking her with me! ❞

The talons on their feet dig into the ground to try to force themself forward, to try to grab the sword even if it meant further impaling themself on the vine. Their right side trying to fight their movements, fingers curling into a fist to try to stop themself from picking up the weapon if they managed to get close.

They were halted, for now, but who knows how long that would last.

Long enough, it seemed, for a small blue daemon to burst from the treeline opposite of Honey wielding a bow and singular arrow that glowed with an almost eerie magic. Standing, stunned, behind the demon that had taken over her friend- her family.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ Hax-! Honey!? ❞

It was quite a scene for the little daemon to arrive at, the Chimera had not been part of the cloudy images she's seen in the lake.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ Honey what is- ❞

|| 💛 ||: ❝ You! ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ Eath RUN-! ❞

An enraged shout, the toward demon swinging an arm in the direction of their friend- their sister.

No she was no sister of their's that was wishful thinking, to be accepted into her family. They weren't blood, and she would never accept them. Not after everything they've done. Not after this, not before either. They were just a means to an end, a shield for her to hide behind when she was threatened.

That's all they were good for, to take the blows in her place, and they had the scar across their chest to prove it.

A bleat rings out from Eath, a portal opening under the tiny daemon's feet which she suddenly drops through right as Hax's arm should've slammed into her. Right as she should've been sent flying.

Instead she appears on the other side of the grove, leading semi-gracefully on her feet as she leaps through a portal that opens next to Honey. Her eyes a glowing white as she prepares the bow and aims it towards the demon. Her own colors different from her normal sky blue calm and forest green joy. A deep jewel tone green laced with grey and blue, determined, scared...

Worry in her heart, for what might have to be done.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ Honey! Speak quickly, please, they have Fifteen Minutes. ❞

Eath almost never knew the time...

A lump filled the back of the amalgamations throat. Not that anyone else could really hear her internal dialogue. Right now Hax was torn in two down the middle fighting inbetween facets of their own self doubt, loathing, and hatred. And unfortunately the monster was the target of such ire.

But if anyone could hear her own inner dialogue you'd hear the conflict in the monsters head about actively harming the Daemon.

"Kill it before it kills us!" "IT'S-- name is Hax. They're our friend." "We barely know them and they're actively trying to kill us. End this." "They'll go on to hurt other people if we don't stop them here." "A PERSON THEY'LL HURT IS THEMSELF. We're helping them."

"If ye sqwaukin' feckers could keep yer opinion tae yerself..." The monster hissed in her head behind that infuriatingly suave smile. You know, for someone who has a giant staring them down. "Ah'll shoot meh big mout' when ye make meh-- preferably wit yers." The monster quipped back with an outrageously tacky wink. "Ye know whoots real attractive. When people sit down and talk aboot t'eir problems in a healt' and constructive manner. Why doon't ye tell meh whoots wrong." The chimera sang out inbetween pained breaths from her still singing diaphragm.

"It's not working!" "THEY'RE GOING TO KILL THEMSELF."

The monsters eyes fell on their dripping chest-- the enraged and fearful colors slowly dripping with the liquid that came out of the hole. Hax wouldn't live long with their innards becoming their outers-- OH GOD. The monster didn't react in time, lost in her own thought-- she was too busy trying to figure out the best way to restrain Hax without hurting them more. And the price to pay for her negligence-- a shooting pain in her arm where her hand once was-- the blades force came down on it while she was moving out of the way-- crushing her lower left hand off of her.

"If ye wanted me hand in marriage or tae hold ye could've aSKED--" the monster managed to breath out with a breathy, sharp, squeak in her voice. Obviously in pain but didn't want the pain or fear to permeate in her voice. If Hax was in there, they had to know that honey had their back.

Seeing that the daemon was going to lunge at them again, the chimera needed to foond a way to keep them from moving too much, especially with their injuries. Every hit Honey landed on them brought them a step closer to passing out from magic loss or blood loss.

So a well aimed vine through the already existing hole-- plug up the bleeding and hopefully pinning the giant like a bug.

What was she going to do.... "C'mon lets talk and hug all noight--" If this didn't work Honey was going to have to start hitting back. The monster didn't want to leave Taygate parentless, but she had a daughter too! "C'mon Hax calm down and we can fix t'is please..." The chimera pleaded, her facade faltering as the adrenaline wore off-- a draining pain in her missinghand beginning to flare up.

[oflostinfound]

Last Resort.

[oflostinfound]

(from @autumna-potentia)

"Hax?..." Blake's words broke the quiet tension just like the realization broke the ice in their mind. The similarities were undeniable, even though they hadn't know each other for that long. They wanted to step closer and ask what was happening.

But what if this isn't Hax? What if this is Hax, but this monster was their true nature? What could it be capable of doing?

Cyrus wouldn't let them get closer. It was too dangerous, even if the one before them was Hax - the Hax they knew. Or rather, thought they knew.

"What's happening with you?" They asked, voice unsure but unwavering - to hide the fresh fear and total confusion in their thoughts.

So they stood there, awaiting a response, fingers still clenched around the handle of the revolver hidden in their jacket and thumb ready to pull back the hammer. Even their finger was on the trigger, despite knowing better trigger discipline. The sooner they were able to shoot, the better.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Witch, w-what are you doing here? ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ Great, another to disappoint. ❞

The voices speak in unison, one with a tremble, one with a snarl, as they crane their neck to glare and eyes back at them. Back turned, hunched over as claws dug into the ground.

Witch didn't know them well enough yet to have too many negative thoughts flood in about the past. What did flood in were the what ifs, the future that they would have obviously messed up. They had already built the perfect ruse, the mask of the baker. The happy go lucky giant who lived in a small town- living with their friend / sister.

Still, even if they were just starting to become friends...

A snide smile crosses half of their face-

|| 💛 ||: ❝ No- No! Witch, RU- Mmm-! ❞

They turn around, having pressed their palm over the saddened face's mouth.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Why don't you come closer-❞

@autumna-potentia

[oflostinfound]

To Grim, that look Jewel gave him might as well have been a neon sign. He knew it, that concern, that worry.

|| 🖤 ||: ❝ My wings still work. ❞

Is all the reassurance he'll give. He could get away fine, but any fighting would be difficult. They we he fought didn't mix well with his wingspan. Quick movements, subtle strikes, they would only get in the way.

A brow quirks at the vampire at her words. The kiss atop his head bringing a light dust of color to his cheeks, despite the glare for wasting time.

|| 🖤 ||: ❝ I'll be fine. ❞

He wont chide her for it though, and he watches as she disappears among the trees.

|| 🖤 ||: ❝ ... Stay safe. ❞

Back among the treetops, growing closer to the ongoing battle between siblings, screams of rage and agony leave the demon that had been brought to the surface. Yelling out insults, mixed with apologies from the half that most resembled the Hax she knew, as they continue to hunt her.

Catching a glimpse of Eath, she falls through another portal to avoid being struck by a massive hand. Her expression twist into worry- and hurt. Hurt at what they were claiming she was doing, what they felt.

She wished she'd seen it sooner.

She rolls to a halt on the forest floor as her portal spits her out behind the enraged demon. Struggling to push herself back to her feet, adrenaline only lasted so long, made her limbs feel heavy as its benefits wore off. Combined with the tears in ehr eyes, clouding her vision as she watches her friend- her sibling- turn to strike at her again.

Their back turned to the vampire hidden among the trees.

Hax being distracted gave them time. Time that only existed on Eath’s shoulders. It was unreliable but it was time. They could use that.

Before Jewel could do anything Grim warns against it. The immediate anger that melts into concern is evident. If Hax was ever to start throwing boulders could he even respond quick enough to get away.

But Jewel took the daggers and vial. Letting out a sigh.

“Fine, Humor me for a minute.” Jewel stepped away.

Just to approach Grim from the side. Planting a small kiss on the top of his head. “You’ll need the luck.”

Jewel said before taking off quickly hiking up and disappearing into the treetops.

[oflostinfound]

"Hax...you okay?..." They reach a hand out tentatively towards them.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Go- Away! ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ Get lost! ❞

Hax curls up tighter on themself as the two distinct voices echo out. Fingers curled in their hair, arms pressing tightly to the sides of their face. Trying to hold themself together- literally and metaphorically. They could feel the seam down the center of their face, feel themself slipping. They were terrified- but that fear only fed into what was emerging from inside them.

Hieron can read minds, they already know how much of an awful person you are. They're just being nice- If they touch you they'll know just how much of an awful person you really are.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ I SAID GET LOST-! ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ please leave- ❞

[oflostinfound]

Partially Recovered

[oflostinfound]

Not Hax post-inner demon form holding Taygete in the palm of their hand b/c she's only 2'6 and they're still 14ft & crying a little

[oflostinfound]

They're reaching a point in their inner demon form where they will just start attacking people on. sight. The faces have argued enough between themselves and their time is running short.

[oflostinfound]

Button was here, as they usually were in a time of crisis. But they weren’t here to talk, at least, not for long.

They weren’t alone, either, but the 13th Starbourne were ordered to stay out of sight unless things went really pear-shaped.

“Hax, Hax,” they said, acknowledging both sides of the daemon. “We need to talk.”

Hax still wasn't used to this body, this form, it was too soon for them to have gotten the chance for them to really try to master it.

Granted that wasn't the point of this form, the point was to hurt. The point, was to be who they really were act out on their fears. On their intrusive thoughts that plagued them, the fear of hurting the ones they loved, showing them just exactly how two faced they really were. Unable to hide any of their flaws, laid bare, for friends, family, and strangers alike.

Button was one such stranger, though they'd seem them talking to Eath and the Duchess before Hax had kept their distance.

Hunched over, claws digging into the bark of a tree, as Button's voice rings out does their head snap in their direction- Unnaturally so, an audible crack as their eyes stare them down.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ I-I can't- ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ We don't have the time- ❞

Turning with a surprising speed, they swipe a massive clawed hand at them.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Come're meddler! ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ Run- Run! ❞

[oflostinfound]

The Last Resort - Alternate Timeline

She bobs and weaves between the trees. Running as fast as she can, but they were faster. Her only advantage being how unstable they were, not used to this new form they were forced to take.

She has to find a vantage point. It hurt her heart just to search for it, but their time was running short.

They had minutes, their body had fallen further apart. blood and gore spilled out from the blows they'd taken. The ones inflicted on themself in desperation to destroy what they loved.

It hurt to look at them, but she knew she'd have to turn back to face them soon. If not just to fire the arrow.

A whirlwind of tree bark and branches flies past her as they launch a downed tree in her direction. Falling forward, covering her head with her hands as a log misses her horns by mere inches.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Get back here! ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ ...i'm... sorry... ❞

The voice she recognized had grown weaker, raspy.

Tired, and hopeless.

They knew what awaited them, they knew just how close they were getting to their end. Their magic was running out, and with it the energy that kept them from succumbing to their wounds.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ You'll have to catch me first! ❞

She shouts back in response, they had to keep following her. The daemon scrambling to her feet as she continues to scale the mountain, as she makes it to that clearing near the peak. A place where jagged rocks push out from the side of the mountain. Rocks she could stand on, ones that would give her the vantage point she needed to meet them face to face.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Too scared to face me, Eath? Too scared to see what you turned me into? ❞

Her ears fold back, but she keeps running. Running until she can dig her claws into the rocks and start to scale them. They were still breaking through the trees, moving on all fours, they couldn't stand for long on just the two, not in the state they were in.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ I didn't- ❞

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Didn't what, Princess? Befriend me just to have me take the blame for you? Have me thrown in prison so you could spirit away to safety? So you, a thing that shouldn't even exist, can keep on living? Ha! One life for another, isn't that how your powers work? ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ ... it hurts... please... ❞

They laugh, and the snapping of the final tree alerts her that they had made it to the clearing. Followed by heavy footfalls. Tired movements, weak, as they grow closer.

The fight was still there, but they couldn't muster the energy to swipe at her again. To throw the tree they'd haphazardly clawed their way through.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ I never asked you to do this, to become this. I wanted you to stay, I didn't want you to suffer for me! ❞

She readies her bow, the arrow she had been given. The curse she was ready to inflict upon the kobold.

"For their own good", She'd told herself.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ I became this for you, not because you wanted it. No, because you needed it. You, what you are, what you'll be, and what I've done demanded me to become this.

This Guardian.

This Monster.

Someone that would protect you even if it meant sacrificing myself.

It's the only way I can actually be useful. The only way to make up for my mistake of trying to be a friend. ❞

The seething tone lowers. Her ears pin back, hearing their talons scrape against the stone as they claw their way up the side of the outcropping.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ So turn around. Look at me. ❞

Her ears flicks.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ LOOK. AT. ME. ❞

She turns, the arrow notched, glowing eyes staring up at the massive demon before her.

Damaged.

No. More than damaged, broken. Shattered.

The split down the center of their face had spread further down their torso to their navel. The two halves holding together by a thread, their organs visible, bleeding and pulsing when they weren't hugging themself together with broken wings.

Half of them, seething rage, gritted teeth and a piercing eye that wished only for her death.

The other half, tired. Haven given up fighting back a long time ago. Whispering apologies, begging quietly for rest. For an end to this.

The two lock eyes, tears streaming down Eath's face as Hax cackles, then collapses onto their knees. Splitting apart further.

Giving her an opening.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ Go ahead, Princess. Fire that arrow. Loose another so-called family member. ❞

She pulls back, aiming the bow at their exposed heart. Her lip quivering.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ ... goodbye... ❞

A whistle as the arrow flies through the air, a scream of rage, than cry of panic. The magic spreading through their body, even after they rip the arrow from their flesh. Engulfing them, growing around them until they're sealed away within a diamond-like crystal.

The tiny daemon collapses to her knees, the bow clattering to the ground next to her. Hands covering her face, her body shaking as she lets the emotions flow out of her like a mighty flood.

She was alone, once more.

[oflostinfound]

A secluded grove is where they managed to steel away to to finish this horrible transformation. As bones cracked, as their face split in two and spines pierced the skin of their back, wings destroying their shirt as they grow to double their normal, already towering, height.

They could handle this alone, so they'd told themself, how much of an idiot they were. Now they were all alone, stewing in self hatred and loathing, stumbling around clumsily as their maddened side figured out how to properly pilot this twisted body. All while mumbling aloud intrusive thoughts from their left, and trying and failing to counter them with their right.

They were going to find the people they loved and show them the real them, it's what they deserved. They deserved to be seen as this monster, this horrible thing. A two faced liar. But they came out here to avoid that, didn't they? No, no, whether or not they wanted to it's what they were going to do, it's what was going to happen and it was going to tear them apart. They were going to tear them apart, the horrible thoughts of how they could use their freakish size and strength to hurt most of their loved one so easily-

They freeze in place, suddenly, sensing something. The feelings of another, yet echoed back. Pain- pain? Their pain? No- another's pain- No...

A hand curls taloned fingers into their hair as they stop reading into the feelings of another and turn in the direction of the cloaked giant. Their left half quietly hissing in his direction between clenched teeth, the right observing in shock as tears roll down ashy cheeks.

This person was unfamiliar, but was seeing them in this state all the same. Seeing the real them right off the bat.

|| 💛 ||: ❝ W-Who are you? ❞ || 💛 ||: ❝ What the hell do you want? ❞

[Closed starter for @oflostinfound ]

It was hard to ignore his surroundings, even at the best of times. Not when he was made specifically to harmonize and listen to them.

Someone, Something out there, in this forest specifically, was tearing itself in two on every possible level; mental, spiritual, and if the echoes of pain were anything to go by, almost physically literally as well. That made it hard to ignore the same way it would be impossible to ignore someone casually stabbing you with a rusty knife repeatedly.

...it would be an honest question, were anyone around to ask him, if it was more a sense of concern or a simple desire to stop feeling so much pain himself that drove him to find the source and help them.

Nonetheless, the Cloaked Giant silently approached, holding a living staff of oak, ash, and thorn intertwined.

Closer and closer to the source of everything.

[oflostinfound]

{ bored at work, writing a drabble about if Eath had to use the arrow she got for inner demon Hax }

[oflostinfound]

Grimbright's leg is currently in a cast from the incident with Hax and theyre so fucking mad about it.

[oflostinfound]

The Runaway's Bane.

|| 👑 ||: ❝ Absolutely not! Eath you know what those arrows do! You know what it would require of you! Why in the the name of the Spirits would you want such a thing!? ❞

The voice echos from the Crystal powered screen, the device that she'd gifted her grandaughter in case she needed to call upon her sweet old grandmother or vice versa.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ Because it could be the only way to save them! ❞

The small daemon counters, her voice raising slightly, her eyes glowing solid white. The glow dimming as she moved father from the source, climbing over logs, traveling closer to the ruins in the middle of the lake.

The broken ingress.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ I know it means I've have to travel back home. I know the danger it puts me in, what using it means but- If it can stop them- freeze them in time... ❞

The Duchess pinches the bridge of her nose,

|| 👑 ||: ❝ Sweetie I mean this in the kindest way but stop being so spirits damn cryptic. Who needs saved? Why my arrows? If it's some sort of human disease I assure you we can fix it- ❞

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ It's- ❞

She almost didn't want to admit it.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ Hax. They've become an Inner Demon- ❞

|| 👑 ||: ❝ They what? ❞

Eath shakes her head, turning her face towards the screen that hovered above her hand,

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ I can sense them. They're not as far gone as inner demons are thought to be! There's something there that can be stopped- saved! But I don't know how, and there's not enough time. ❞

Her ears droop, pinning back against her head. A silence growing between the Duchess and the girl, even as the tiny daemon prepares the small raft to get to the broken ingress amidst the murky waters of the lake.

|| 👑 ||: ❝ Do you really think you can do this? ❞

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ I need to try. They're all I have. They're my best friend... they're family. ❞

A sigh, the Duchess muttering curses under her breath,

|| 👑 ||: ❝ Fine, but let me tamper with the arrow, so that it's affliction is instant, and can only be broken when the demon is no more. And you have to promise me you'll use it the second your life is in danger. ❞

A nod.

|| 🔷 ||: ❝ I promise. ❞

And a lie.

[oflostinfound]

Not much is said after that. A nod, a hum of acknowledgement at his need to further explain what she'd seen. Beyond that, she simply reaches out to the fiery soul. To cup it in her hand like a baby bird, just as she was doing for Hax's soul.

Her eyes alight with a different glow. One with a dim golden light, the other bright as that wildfire she'd seen. Standing between them, the lights of their very beings now visible in her palms as she too shifts and changes to support them. To the two souls in her protection, the room around them fades away to nothing.

It's dark, at first. A voidlike room awaiting the King as he'd awaken within this strange place. Each step echos around them seemingly endlessly, it's cold here.

Then, a light, the light of the pendant that Eath had trusted to him. Growing ever brighter in the darkness until an roar of fire leaps from the gem. The fire burning into an outline similar to Eath- yet her hair moves like the flames that make up her being, and her gaze is less kind than any Eath was known to give. Her fire provides little warmth.

This being stares at the king. Silent. Floating before him and examining him.

Then, she points. Out into the void, and in the distance a portal opens.

Soft voices echo from it, one of them familiar. One they would mimic more often than most. And another, a woman's voice, chiding them.

The first memories.

It's not so much spoken, as the words are felt in the fiery shade's eyes. She floats towards the portal and waits besides it. The closer he'd get, the more he could see past the normal swirling darkness that these portals held. Into the memory, into a familiar forest, in a familiar cabin. Hax locked in their room. Curled up into a ball on their bed with an arm covering their face, fingers curling into their hair.

Eerily silent. Crying. Unaware they were being observed.

Go.

Cromwell listens intently while Eath catches him up on things, explaining Hax’s state as he worked on finishing the stitches on the king’s neck. All the while, through the hive mind several pawns had come in, carrying large white crystals of different cuts and shapes, white ones held the most magic. They were instructed to set them around Hax’s bed to go out and prepare more as needed until they had stabilized them enough to do without.

Alexander nodded and did his best to understand Eath’s explanation, But ultimately he had broken it down to Hax being consumed by their anger and fears and as a result; them manifesting into a beast that personified them.

He offers his paw where Eath gives them the same orange pendant and examines it. He had no idea how he would go about helping Hax further, but he did not want to lose them.

“Soul magic is not something anybody here is proficient in…but you seem to know the answer. I may not fully understand but I will do as you say. Just tell me what to do.” He nodded, determined to help in any way he could.

“You…can sense souls?” He hesitated for a moment, worried now. A worry he hadn’t felt in quite some time. Alexander may not had known much about the two siblings but he never disclosed to either of them about his human past. Here they were born demons while he was not. He wondered what they would think of him when they found out the truth.

Judging from Eath’s look she had seen something that eluded to his human self, he watched her carefully and knew that she had seen it. His ears deflated a little, but he sighed.

“I suppose I have some explaining to do.” He rumbles, still clutching the pendant.

“Very well, I’m ready…”