#tw: maiming

[umbralsound-xiv]

Reminder.

Two sets of steps thundered down the eerily silent halls of the compound. Ariq held a tight grip of Sayuri as she struggled against him, arms uncomfortably bent behind her and kept in place by an iron-like grip of the Xaela. She hissed and kicked, her heel ramming into his shin and coaxing an annoyed growl out of the Au Ra as he continued to haul her through the hallway. He had not said a word as he collected her, having simply torn her from the floor and immediately dragged her along - something Sayuri certainly had not appreciated.

Ariq, the very picture of annoyance, tightened his grip of the Seeker the more she squirmed, shoving her in front of himself and steering her towards the arena. Sayuri's mismatched gaze shot across the open space, ears pinning back as she noted the amount of people sat in the stands. Her eyes briefly met Grymahtyn's, as he stood upon the inlet he had held her that fateful sun, his expression betraying no emotion as Ariq continued to push her towards him.. and then past him.

Sayuri was thrown from the inlet and into the arena, released in the middle of it and left to freely slam into the sands below, hissing out loudly as she spared no moment to shove herself back up on her feet, turning to face Grymahtyn anew.

The footfalls that had approached Eir's cell were less familiar to him; no herald of ominous metal approached, but some unease still followed as the drew closer. A veritable parade of people had passed through so recently that he'd dared to wonder if something was amiss, but any conclusion his thoughts had drawn to had done nothing save for set a knot in his gut. The louder footsteps pause outside his cell only for a moment, a brief rattle of keys the only sound before the Roegadyn strides inwards. Ketenblaet; the first face he'd seen upon waking in this hell makes his approach, rag in hand and wordless as he saught to approach and tie it tightly. First thinking it to be a blindfold, Eir held little hesitance... And some confusion, as it slipped down to his mouth and between his teeth, any question he could have wanted to ask muffled by cloth. Steely eyes peer to the man he'd now read so much about, some amount of apprehension and muted rage quickly simmering as the Sea Wolf left just as hastily, leaving Eir alone once more.

Inside the arena was a far different tale. 

Vairg had spent his waiting moments in a patient manner. The dull roar of the crowd, the many faces; be they for his lauded swordsmanship or for her downfall, it was difficult to tell. He only responded with turned attention and the occasional quip... Before his attention was stolen completely, as Ariq tossed the Seeker into the sand at his feet. He had waited for this. Vairg's lips pull into a widened grin, opting to speak as his would be opponent rose to her feet, slowly unsheathing his blade.

"Oh, i have been looking forward to this, girl." Vairg's tone was low and barely rumbled with amusement, mismatched gaze keenly set on her.

[Vairg] And i had. Ever since i had heard and seen her capabilities, that... Itch resurfaced. All i wanted to do was fight her. I asked the boss... And he agreed. Don't kill her, he said. That was the sole stipulation of our altercation. Where would be the fun in that?

Vairg's voice promptly harrassed her ears, which in turn pinned back. Like a flipped switch, ice sprung out beneath Sayuri and spread across the sands as she swiftly began to turn to face him - hatred all too visible in her own icy glare that locked upon the Viera. A snarl through gritted teeth was all that left her before the frost followed her very movement, a spike emerging from the patch of ice beneath her and flinging towards Vairg's chest - sparing no moment to attack.

Vairg bats away the ice with a single swing of his buckler clad forearm, having anticipated the assault from the moment she'd seen him. Her hate-filled glare only garners his amusement, not even opting to make a move to strike her besides defending. "That's all you have? Pathetic! Show me what you can do! Give me some entertainment!" His lips twist into a wicked grin. "I hope you provide more sport than your lover did!"

Sayuri's fangs bares in a tight grit, a nigh animalistic growl making itself heard. Despite the ache she felt from using her ice, her aether stirred as she began to approach the Viera, slow steps turning into a full on sprint. Ice emerged within her palm and shot outwards, twisting and shaping into a large, jagged axe she proceeded to collect in both her hands as she drew closer, lifting it high above her own head and swinging it downwards as she lunged at him, aiming it directly for his shoulder. "You want to see what I fucking have?" She snarled. "Don't you worry, I'll bloody show you!"

[Vairg] Then show me! Show me the girl who has scarred so many here, who people speak of with such caution and apprehension! Give me some enjoyment, some entertainment!

Vairg's grin didn't drop an ilm as she closed the gap, brows briefly lofted at the appearance of an axe. The same buckler-clad arm reaches upwards to catch the brunt of the blow, as the blade is turned and shifted to expose the pommel, which is immediately rammed towards Sayuri's ribs. "Then show me! You'll have to try better than that, girl! COME ON!" His demand was a roar, pushing her back and readying for her next assault.

Grymahtyn quietly watches from above, a brow slowly raising at the sight of the axe... And his lips slowly curl into an amused grin.

Sayuri ripped her axe away from the buckler with a vicious snarl, the pommel slams into her ribs and makes her features contort in slight acknowledged agony, the move prompting the Seeker to release the handle of her axe with one hand and snap it towards the pommel, seeking to lock her fingers around it and yank in an attempt to rip the weapon from Vairg's hands. "It'll be enough when it takes your damned head off your NECK!" She bellowed back at him.

Vairg laughs as he feels her grasp around the handle of the blade. He doesn't seek to relinquish it, but does let her pull it - And him - closer to her. He's now ilms from her face, close enough that she could feel his breath, and the mismatched gaze he held with glee in his eyes. "Will it?" He cooes, stepping in uncomfortably close, giving neither any sort of room, yet still braced to move if needed. "Would you even know what to do with this if you wrested it from me?" He gives the sword a testing tug, but with no real effort to remove it from her.

Sayuri hisses, baring her fangs a little more. Blood long since dried yet cling and stain Sayuri's body, hair and clothes, the matted, red-dyed locks being glared through as he is much too close to comfort. Sayuri rocks her head back only to slam it forwards - intending to collide her own skull with his. "I know several weapons, asshole." She spat, ice creeping from the hand still holding the pommel and wandering towards his own, threatening to freeze his hand to the blade.

Her head collides with his none too gently, but even though he'd anticipated it he saw no cause to move. Still, some pain rang out through his skull, but nothing she hadn't likely felt in return. At the chill of the ice at his hand, he raises a boot to her stomach to shove her away with aid of a hand, readying himself again. "So you do. I hadn't known what to expect. But i expected more." Tauntingly, he bats his blade against the smooth buckler. "Come on! Show me the girl behind the tales i hear them all speak of!"

[Vairg] She can fight, but every movement feels like she's holding back. Maybe it's the shard that hampers her? She has more than this, i know it! Perhaps i just need to give her a little reminder as to why she's here!

She staggered back several steps at the shove, her fingers slipping from the icy pommel in the process. It didn't take long for her to charge at him anew, the axe returning to a grip of both hands as she once again swung for him - horizontally, this time, aiming for his chest. Ice continues to build in the area directly around her as she moves, slowly but surely beginning to coat the sands.

Vairg's blade is raised to catch the axe, holding her in a lock as both weapons connected. "COME! ON!" He barked, impatience beginning to get the better of him. "I had thought you possessed of more vengeance than this! More rage! Or have you so soon forgotten what i did to him?" His sword lifts, and he aims to launch her backwards with a swipe, aiming for one particularly bloodied patch in the arena, browned and dried with the passing suns. "He died a weakling. His like are better off dead, for all the use they have!"

Sayuri's bare feet tore across the frosted sand in the swipe, forcefully distancing her from the Viera. She refuses to look in the direction of the stain, yet pointing it out seemed to serve as enough of a reminder - not that she had forgotten. "...Gentle... and weak... ARE NOT THE GODDAMN SAME!" A bone-biting chill swept through the arena, the ice on the ground continuing to creep outwards and expand. She again sprinted in Vairg's direction, the axe swinging in a lower sweep, this time - directed for his legs. "-YOU- ARE -NOT- BETTER THAN HIM- OR ANYONE, YOU ARROGANT PIECE OF SHIT!"

[Vairg] But i am. What is a weakling Viera like him good for anyway? I assume he left Golmore because he couldn't survive, and for me it was the lack of challenge. It bored me. All of them, weak and pathetic, just like him. They all bored me.

Eir swallows against the gag, uncomfortably between his teeth and against his tongue. He could make some noise should he have wished to, but he'd not yet ascertained the reason as to why, exactly, they chose to make efforts to mute him. Torture? But then, surely they'd enjoy listening to him scream? He'd pondered, dread-filled, for several long minutes, as the distant clash and clatter of weaponry sounded not all too far away. Vairg's voice could be picked out when he'd risen it loud enough to be heard; it explained the footfalls, he was likely fighting. But as for his opponent... That much had only dawned on him when Sayuri's voice, unmistakable to his ears, had bellowed out from what he could only assume was the arena. His heart sank in his chest, a small murmur of distress from behind the cloth...

[Eir] I... I think i am beginning to understand why they no longer want me to make noise. Sayuri... Sayuri is out there. Out there with that monster. I am close to the arena, i... I can hear the sound of weapons. Are they making her fight him? Is she hurt...? They could not risk her hearing me. I... I understand now. She still thinks i am dead. ...Perhaps, i am.

All speed suddenly takes Vairg's frame; the metal boots he was so fond of wearing helped him grasp on the icy ground, unbothered for the terrain on which he stood. His blade sweeps for her arm with intent to slice it, a boot risen and forced down on an arm. The axe slams against one leg, enough to move him but not enough to buckle him; the armor he'd chosen to wear taking the brunt of it. Still, the cold bit into him, but he laughs it away, still. "Sayuri, help me!" He mocks, tone rising to something a little more shrill. "Tell me, what were his last words? Did he beg? Tell you it would all be okay, as so many of them do? Tell you he loved you?" The grin returns, as Vairg lunges back and swings at Sayuri sidelong, then. "Pathetic!"

The stomp upon her arm forces her into an awkward bend, one hand opting to free itself from the axe's handle in favour of another shard of ice more akin to a dagger forms in her hand - briefly disrupted as ice springs forth along her arm just before Vairg's blade meets it. While not managing to cover the area completely before impact, it serves to lessen the blow - even if a notable blot of red stretches beneath it ever so slowly. "-ASSHOLE-!" Sayuri's voice shatters mid-scream, Vairg's taunting striking right at her grief - making her aether surge in the area. The ice upon the floor grows jagged and expands quicker, some of it even having begun crawling up the wall that led to the inlet, that she had been the closest to when it began to spread.

He deigns to laugh. A wicked, gleeful sound, dancing up in a bubble that poured from the back of his throat, as the ice swirled and snaked around them. Vairg paces around her, the trademark sound of his boots crunching against ice as he slowly circled her, as a predator would prey. "Fitting that a false name should be begged, X'llaya." Rare it was that Vairg spoke her name, but he'd learned it well since she'd arrived here. He steps over one frozen tendril of ice, and batters another way with his arm, allowing it to shatter on the frozen ground. "You'll never hear it again. Not from his lips... Speaking of." Another amused laugh takes his tone, brows lofting. "Suppose you impress me. I'm a generous man, after all. Maybe i'll even let you see his body!"

[Vairg] But she'll never impress me. And she'll never see him again, unless the boss deigns otherwise. I'd only bothered to learn her name for moments like this, and don't care for them otherwise. I barely remember the name of the Viera. I kept my own for something to call me, shedding my surname the instant i left, my last remnant of weakness.

She snarled, ears pinned and her body continously turning to keep her facing him as he began to circle her. Her slitted pupils thinned into mere lines and her feet soon began to move across the ice in a similar way of his own, refusing to let herself be circled like prey in an attempt to return it more akin to an equal - or challenger. "It isn't false.." Her words were much more quiet than before, but spoken with no less purpose. "I abandoned the name X'llaya -eighteen- cycles ago.." The axehead dropped against the icy ground and slowly tore across it as she moved, tail thrashing behind her. "Generosity is not the strong suit of you fuckers.." She hissed and spat, twitching slightly as she tried to refrain from succumbing to anger. 

"Then you will reclaim it, as we have reclaimed you!" Vairg's words are followed as he turns, sprinting towards her, blade outstretched lengthways which he sought to bring against her arm in a sharp, practised swing. Regardless of whether it connected or not, he follows up with a boot to her knee, aiming to kick her away or down her, it didn't seem like he minded which. "None will speak that name again. Not him, not you. I'll beat it out of you every time you do!"

"I will -not-." She hissed defiantly. Her body jerked to the side to escape the swing of his blade - her own axe lifting off the floor and swinging towards the side of his knee as his boot met her own. She was forced into a backwards stumble and twisted her foot enough to keep herself upright. "My name is -Sayuri-." Her words were delivered sharply, her multicoloured gaze seeking to lock with his as she spoke.

Vairg's blade narrowly misses her, but the sudden lift of her axe into his knee sends him forth, catching himself with a free hand and a knee that made firm contact with the ice. Despite taking the hit, his smirk curls at one edge. "-X'llaya-." He corrects, and as though to hammer the point home, he uses the momentum afforded as he kicked up and away from the ice, to close in on her again, aiming to drive his knee into her gut, buckler risen and ready to defend against retalliation.

The slam into her gut threatens to send her tumbling, her axe slamming down into the ground as a means to steady herself while long, sharp icicles coat her free hand's fingertips and rapidly extends outwards as she swipes it wildly after Vairg's face. "-Sayuri-." She spoke through gritted teeth.

Vairg jerks his face away from the lenghty claws with a small wrinkle of his nose, curled smirk present once again when he finds himself reaching for the very hand that had just swung for him. "-X'llaya!-" Her arm is jerked away at an angle it shouldn't bend. "You are X'llaya. You will -always- be X'llaya!" With every instance of her name, it's bent and buckled further, not caring for the damage he could be doing. "Your other name died here with him, and will be forgotten with him, too!"

[Vairg] I'll beat it into her until she remembers. The boss should like that, i think. Beat the hope out of her. Any semblance of the life she had will be buried with him.

Sayuri notably winced as he bent her arm, her body following suit in an attempt to make it more comfortable despite violently failing to. Her lips parted enough to let a gasp of pain leave her, yet no scream did. A shattering sound saw Sayuri tear off a piece of the handle of her axe before she began to push back at Vairg, bringing the ice shard to his side while being somewhat uncaring for any further pain that might be caused to her other arm as she sought to plunge it directly into his side. "--MY NAME- IS- SAYURI- FELLFROST! AND YOU-- BEST-- DAMN WELL-- REMEMBER IT!" She screamed it at the top of her lungs, ensuring her proclamation was well heard by everyone within the room - and some without.

Vairg bends her arm still; further, further, he'd threatened to break it or dislocate it, whichever came first. He'd expected her to scream as he felt her lungs fill, the icy air between them drawn in... But the deafening proclaimation of her name is enough to narrow his eyes, attention stolen, as the shard of ice sinks into his side with a small grunt of pain. His amusement doesn't flee, but flickers; a small hiss between his teeth as he sharply wrenches her arm away and back in an effort to break it, before tossing her away to the other end of the arena. Blood pools at the wound in his side, regarding it briefly, but he seems content that it isn't fatal. "So you -do- have some proper fight in you." He chuckles darkly, "COME ON! SHOW ME HOW FAR IT GOES!"

Eir could only listen in dread. The sound of steel against ice. Their words barely audible over the din and distance. His heart raced in the pit of his throat, fearing for a scream, fearing for any sound she'd make at his hands. Eir hears her call out, and it's all he can do to hide his face for all the good it would do him, unable to help her or even cry out her name; he'd understood why they'd gagged him, now - It was unlikely they'd told her of his survival, and they could not afford her learning, here. But as she spoke her name... -Their- name, at least half of it... He pauses. Had he heard that right? Eir slowly lifts his head from his hands, as tear-welled eyes blink in disbelief. Lips parting with a small gasp, they pull into the smallest smile.

[Eir] She... ...Sayuri? She... She said my name. Her name. She... She took my name? But... But we... Oh, Sayuri... If i could only tell you how much that meant to hear...

A sickening crack from the wrenching of her arm is enough to pry a scream of pain from Sayuri. She's thrown, rolling across the ice-clad sands and wincing each time she landed on her broken arm - only to swiftly drive herself back up on her feet - free hand cupping her arm. "-FUCK- YOU." She snarls and hisses, remaining where she's stood for the time being.

Having kept her silence for a prolonged time, Vex begins to slowly rock in her seat. She soon springs to her feet as she drew a deep breath - about to live up to her name. "KICK HIS FUCKING ASS! -SAYURI!-" She yells, immediately gaining the attention of several of the individuals present - Grymahtyn included. Her crimson gaze met his pale green one, a flicker of a grin displaying itself upon her lips as a heavy set of hands grasped her and promptly yanked her back down into her seat. "What? You'd rather cheer for Vairg? He's an ass! Half of you don't even fuckin' like him!"

[Vairg] Oh, fuck off, Vex. When i'm done with her, i'll come for you again, and wipe that smirk of your fucking features. I'm beginning to see why they called you ask they did.

A look of confusion had swiftly taken to Sayuri's features, yet her gaze didn't leave Vairg.

Ariq, still at Grymahtyn's side, shifted briefly - only for the Sea Wolf to peer his way and offer a sharp shake of his head - a quiet mutter leaving him that only served to make the Xaela exhale sharply in annoyance while glaring Vex's way.

The sound of her scream brings an immediate look of horror to Eir's expression, hands now moving to cover his mouth. Now quietly glad for the gag, a sob drives through the fabric, tears spilling down his cheeks. He could do nothing. Nothing to help her. Nothing to save her. Only the defiant snarl is enough to bring him some fleeting comfort, partway through wanting to cover his ears and be deaf to it all, and to further listen.

[Eir] Sayuri, no! No... No no... I can do nothing to help her! Even were i well enough to fight, and not confined to this room... No... Please, please be okay! You have to be okay! Do not let that... Bastard best you...

Vairg pointedly ignores Vex, uncaring of her opinion or others even if he'd had the moments to spare her. He watches as Sayuri rolls with the momentum of his throw, a thin-lipped smile on his lips that only held malice. "You're not done. Good." Lunging at her again, he skirts to the side of her worse arm, bringing the flat of his blade to the back of her knees, aiming to drop her down to the floor.

Sayuri's head lowers even if her gaze remains locked upon Vairg. Her eyes seemed to almost get a faint, pale blue shimmer to them as her aether stirred to such a degree the pain it caused became nauseating. She releases her injured arm and allows ice to spread along the fingers of the hand which held it, a swift swipe into the air seeing five spikes of ice emerge in Vairg's direction, intending to force him to abandon his course, or get impaled. "-- Azeyma as my witness.. I -will- kill you.." She growled. ".. May it take.. suns.. sennights.. moons.. or cycles.. I will not be -done-.. until you are fucking -DEAD-!"

A spike of ice is battered away by the buckler, and another by the blade, until he realises he can't close the gap without taking a hit from at least one of them, diving out of the way with a roll. He briefly bares his teeth at the pain in his side, laughing again. "Pray to whatever gods you wish, it's all the same. You won't best me, girl!" He kicks up off the ground again, aiming to cleave at her with a wide swing.

"Considering.. you're too much of a bloody coward.. to face me at full strength, maybe not.. But if you think.. I'll stop trying, you're -wrong-!" Sayuri lunged herself towards him, the hand coated with icy claws swinging towards his chest while he cleaved her way - yet any speed she could have hoped for was not enough to do as she fully intended, to escape his swing by doing one of her own. His blade meets her body, and her body swiftly meet the ground. Her fangs lock in a grit as she hisses out in pain, refusing to give them the satisfaction of a scream this time. 

"It doesn't matter how strong you get, girl. I could still cut you down if i wished!" He bolts after her as she meets the ground, swinging a sharp metal boot to her ribs hard enough to rip her from the floor and along it in another roll. "Is that everything you have? Surely you have more for me, yes? COME ON!" Vairg darts after her, dipping down and grabbing her by the throat, hoisting her high in the air. "Show me..."

A gasped breath of pain emits from her as Vairg's boot meets her ribs, more cracking sounds emitting from her body in the process. The struggle to draw a proper breath cancels any scream she might've done as she's launched across the icy ground. She takes a moment to curl up as pain violently shoots through her body, lips parted in an attempt to breathe despite the stabbing pain in her lungs. Her icy claws rip into the ground as Vairg reaches her once more, soon leaving it in favour of cramming a few fingers in between his hand and her throat - hissing loudly at him in the process as he rips her from the ground. Her legs swung in a kick, her bare feet aiming to ram into his gut.

Vairg slowly begins to squeeze her throat as he held her aloft; blade still in hand. It taps testingly at the shin of her offending leg, a brow lofting over his mismatched gaze. "You want me to break those too...?" He asked as a question, holding her tightly enough that he could feel her pulse beneath. "He begged for you to help him. When he needed you most..." The grin widens for having her so close, bringing some amusement as she tried to pry herself free. "...I wonder who will scream louder. You or him?" Another testing squeeze. "Shall we find out?"

Sayuri's lips automatically part in an attempt to catch her breath amidst the squeezing of her throat. She thrashes and squirms in his grip, her fingers shifting to the point her claws pressed against his hand and threatened to rip at it - as she had done to many before. Ice crawls Sayuri's body and snakes up along her collarbones, slowly seeking to dig its way in under Vairg's hand to cover the surface he holds. With it, one leg shifted back and forth to once again ram her foot against his torso.

"I'll take that as a yes." The sword-wielding arm hooks beneath her knee to pull her closer, tilting her backwards enough that his hand slips from the ice that had slithered up to coat her neck. Desperate to maintain a grasp on her, his hand fumbles to clumsily grip at her jaw, holding her firmly once he'd managed it.

Sayuri jerks herself in his grip as it begins to slip, a sharp turn of her head sees his left hand's little and ring finger shift dangerously close to her mouth, and a second twist sees them slip past her lips before her pointed teeth slam down upon his digits, biting down hard with a nigh animalistic growl leaving her in the process.

[Vairg] Fuck, that hurt! That... What...?

The first sound is a hiss between his teeth, as Vairg feels her pierce his flesh, the unfamiliar feeling of numbness in his last two digits. Reflex sees him attempt to wrest them from her mouth with a single sharp pull.

And Vairg, for the first time to anyone present, screams.

It's such an unfamiliar sound to even his ears that he can't seem to comprehend that it's his. He can no longer hold her properly, dropping her flat into the ground as he holds a shaky hand up, blood dribbling from the stumps that used to end in digits, now gone. Slack-jawed and eyes wide, his face is a picture of horror, that slowly contorts into a calculated rage. Sword turned quickly in his better hand, it's immediately thrust through Sayuri's shoulder, pinning her to the dirt.

[Vairg] My fingers! My fucking fingers! What... What did she...? THEY ARE GONE! THAT... BITCH! FINE, SO YOU DO HAVE SOME FIGHT IN YOU! It's time to stop playing around with her... You'll suffer for this, i swear it! I don't need them to best her, i'll tear her to fucking pieces!

A knot had begun to climb up Eir's throat, as the sound of chaos and conflict had been absorbed by the sound of the crowd, no longer able to hear word nor scream in the midst of it all. He was unsure which he'd preferred, swallowing the lump which had risen with a wavering exhale, before a scream splits the air and he catches his breath again. Not Sayuri's. He'd grown unfortunately familiar with the sound of them, and with what he'd not heard through his suns, he'd heard in his nightmares. The only other person that came to mind to make such a sound... Eir slowly widens his eyes in disbelief. Surely, it couldn't have been him...?

[Eir] What... Happened? I... I heard her scream, and then... Silence, for so long. I... I am so worried, Sayuri... What happened? I... I do not know this voice. Surely... Surely it was not his...? Is... He capable of screaming? Did you do this to him?

Sayuri's fangs tore into Vairg's flesh further as he tried to rip away, her features contorting into mild disgust as the taste of blood filled her mouth, and the digits remained even when his hand did not. She drops to the ice-clad sand and spits out the two fingers the Viera's way as he stared at the stumps.

The crowd merely stared in shock for a moment, some dragging themselves closer to the ledge to see if they truly had seen what they had.

Any amusement Grymahtyn had held was gone, replaced by a blank stare into the arena.

The only one who seemed happy with the outcome was Vex, who had Matoyan's hand cupping over half her face to prevent her from laughing too loudly, feeling the Seeker's lips twisted into a grin against his palm.

At least, until the blade was thrust through Sayuri's shoulder, ripping a scream from her already pained lungs as the blade locked her against the dirt. Her arm lift half-way only to collapse back against the ground, both arms essentially rendered useless, leaving her unable to really do anything with them.

Vairg wastes no time now; any sense of prolonging the fight gone with his fingers. The sword is held and pinned against her, as a metal boot moves swiftly to her neck and he presses down, aiming to choke her out. Green and gold eyes level against hers with a wordless glare, a sharp frown in place of his usual cocky grin. Blood spills with a steady spatter of warm droplets against her cheek, as his hand remained upright, with some small effort to stop the flow.

[Vairg] I don't need them to kill you, girl. And i would, i would in a heartbeat if i was given the word. it would be so easy to kill you. But i will temper my rage for our next meeting. We will fight again. I hold to this, as i watch the life leave your eyes.

A choked noise immediately left her as his boot presses down upon her throat, her body half-squirming under the weight but freezing up just as quick as the blade in her shoulder threatened to twist around from her own movement. Her legs bent and feet pressed against the floor, heels digging into the jagged ice far enough that it pierces her skin and covers the underside of her feet with blood. Her arm refuses to lift despite her attempt to, her eyes beginning to roll back at the lack of air allowed into her lungs. She blinks her gaze back repeatedly, only for for it to roll back anew and become dotted. Her body automatically thrashes despite the pain the closer to unconsciousness she drifts.

Vairg stares. He dare not move an ilm, not until he was sure that consciousness had slipped from her. He doesn't loosen the pressure, nor care for the thrashing as she slipped away.

"You couldn't have protected him even if you'd have tried." Vairg hisses. It is devoid of the teasing he often administered, spiteful and cruel. It's the last words he opted to speak to her before wakefulness left.

[Vairg] It's what i'll hold to, knowing this will not be the last time we cross blades. I will not be so kind next time... I promise you that much, girl. I'll make you scream thrice as loud as i ever could.

[mipmoth]

Reunion but MAIM KILL INJURE

They're fine now

[zu-is-here]

Boo(p) :)

[kermit-coded]

me when dc makes jokes about nightwing's ass on their official social media but won't address the fact that he's canonically been raped and sexually harassed multiple times

[marspebbles]

off with your head

[soldier--poet--queen]

i hate you diet culture i hate you body competitions i hate you extreme workout culture i hate you body shaming i hate you unhealthy expectations for how bodies should look i hate you culture that promotes starving i hate you unrealistic body images i h

[ratwithhands]

I was in tech class when I pitched a comic idea to my friends and now we're here. I can't remember if anything was mentioned between Michikatsu and other sun breathers in canon (ik Kokushibo ran a killing spree on them but not anything before that), but something tells me he would not have been pleased to know someone else learned it before he could.

The guy lived, don't worry 👍. At the request of the insta followers, he has a name: Takashi Kuwabara (久和原 宇志). The guy talking to Michi also has a name. Tadaki Noumi (能美 忠喜) is from my Sengoku Era Hashira cast. Anyways Kuwabara is probably going to retire very soon 💀

Also I promise I don't think Michi is an unreasonable rage freak , I just have more fun drawing aggression. If anything, compared to other sketches I've done and have planned, this is one of those rare annual outbursts. Considering how Michi and Kokushibo talk about strength and posturing like a swordsman, I feel like he'd be curt but professional a lot of the time anyway. Maybe next on my list should be drawing him chilling tf out o(￣▽￣)ｄ

[lorephobic]

im no better than a dog because even though i know this is makeup, seeing this photo gives me an adrenaline rush accompanied only by the animalistic instinct that makes me want to tear somebody limb from limb for doing this to her

[not-sure-what-im-feeling]

I love anxceit. Sure it can be wholesome and fluffy (I do like that sometimes!) but it’s also so normal to just go “yeah this is a ship I love yeah they kill and maim each other with their bare hands I love them”

[i-can-not-art]

Incredibly lazy artificer

[missygoesmeow]

@/copicrossing on birdapp said "phantom dracopia"

i didn't mean for him to look that insane, it just happened. it will happen again.

[cemetery-grl]

Grimes stamps or blinkes ?.

(especially her artangels „era“)

ALSO HOLY FUCKING SHIT YOUR PAGE IS LIKE.

CARRYING BLINKIE TUMBLR.

Lolll sometimes you guys make me feel like I'm famous on here

[horizon-penblade]

Personally i think "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth" should be a more common tumblr "I Am Not Normal About This" tag. i mean we are on the hellsite after all.

[fitzrove]

Every time i look at 1992 uwe tod i come away thinking that tod just..... should be weird. We can't be having normie tods running around... I want him to be this completely inhuman figure who tries to get close to humanity (because how do you personify death??) but deeply misunderstands some things, especially things like human behaviour and emotions. Máté is good at this too, he just did it in a different way, but after those two the effect is never really potent enough again. I mean, there is something to say for prods with humanized or gentle etc tods, at least theyre doing something else than mrak seiber, but it's not quite it for me at least. He needs to be weird because Elisabeth is weird and, dissatisfied with her life, craves a poem in the flesh.

And for me personally (this is not me saying gender non conformity is weird or inhuman btw, it's not, it's just hot and looks good) i want back the mayerling dress and all that, and the actors should be styled accordingly, if he's not going to put on eyeshadow and blush and get dolled up to kill rudolf then don't fucking cast him?? There are enough musical actors out there who like straying from the mold, the overlap between drag performers and musical artists is not insignificant. Hell, if despite your best attempts macho guys are still the only guys you can find, then cast a woman (trans or cis - for a trans woman the role might be easier/not require rewrites, because of vocal range), cast a nonbinary performer. You don't really have to change stuff in the script, someone who's not a man can still be a "prince" if the styling is androgynous. It really is that simple...

also this should maybe be a separate post but 1992 is so iconic for portraying mayerling as a romance, rudolf running to embrace tod, twirly dancing, Big Damn Kiss (rudolf barely notices the actual act of shooting himself, he's so busy making out) - up until the very end, when rudolf is dumped unceremoniously on the floor. symbolism. It's such a better deeper way to tackle the subject. Suicidal ideation doesn't just beat you over the head violently, mental illness/depression lures you in with promises of a "solution" but actually only offers a miserable nothing.

This is also why it's so important for Elisabeth to get dumped on the floor as well - there's more care in that than in how Rudolf is treated, Tod is obviously distraught, but that's the point and the tragedy of the show!!!! Freedom is fleeting, dreams are fleeting, emotion is fleeting, but yearning for them is what makes us human!!

If he carries her away the moral of the story becomes "if you die you get a hot supernatural partner that's obsessed with you!!!" No!!!!!!! The romance narrative is a big lie, suicidal ideation is a big lie, history is a big lie, it's all connected, but we always cover shit up with kitsch because some people prefer a simple romantic reading to the degree that they warp the rest of the story around it. I stg people have just replaced sissi movie trilogy fairytale prince FJ (1950s) with elisabethdasmusical fairytale prince modern peugeot king mark seibert leather tod (2020s) or insert whatever other boyfriend death you prefer

[chokit-pyrus]

[cdroloisms]

dr3 please send help im so obsessed with jmah au but Specifically Box Au i think this is a Problem. box au is so absolutely crazy to me . imagine getting not one au but TWO AUS WORTH OF TORTURE 😭😭 do u have any more fun facts or other info u can give us abt it 🙏

HAHA god box AU is so nuts soooooo nuts

just checked my tag man I gave yall NOTHING didn't I ??? okay okay box AU information. once again, here are the main two posts about the premise of this AU, which is actually an extension and sort of "bad end" for my and kat's JMAH AU. In short, when jmah!Quackity takes over the prison at the end of the AU, the dominos fall so that jmah!Sam offers to let him visit Dream to get the revive book (like he did in the first canon timeline) in the prison to bargain his way out of the main cell. Quackity scoffs at Sam's attempt at a deal, considering the guy doesn't have any real leverage, but realizes that he needs to protect the prison from any Technoblade-related interference (especially because at this point Sam has spilled about timeline #1 and has either directly said that Techno was responsible for things going south with the prison the first go around in some kind of emotional or pain-driven rant, or Quackity has put that together himself) and that he can get much-needed Sam revenge by fucking with Dream. As a result, Sam is let out of the main cell, and Quackity tortures Dream daily much like in canon--only this time, he answers to no one, he's the Warden now bitch, and Sam is his shitty little janitor/mechanic/punching bag probably sometimes when he gets pissed the fuck off, which is often. Sam is allowed into the main cell post-sessions for only 30 minutes a day.

For Dream...it's a horrific betrayal. Worse than the first, honestly. When Sam first arrives in the jmah timeline a stranger to Dream, the emotional impact was kind of secondary to being suddenly thrown head first into the deep end of "Sam is unrecognizable, crazy as fuck, and probably about to actually murder me" -- in canon, c!Sam's whole deal at the beginning of the prison is still sudden, but at least there's some sense in connecting Sam as Warden to the man he was before. With a year's worth of context missing, Dream is honestly too busy what the fuck-ing to process how badly he's been betrayed by Sam. No frogboil, this time -- just the alarm of Sam building what ends up being a torture machine on day two (2) of the prison. On the other hand, the last year of his life has been spent playing catch up, having to make sense of the man that Sam now is Or Else. He has devoted everything to figuring out the rules to abide by, mathing out what makes the Warden grimly satisfied and what makes him give into sudden and alarming violence. Sam at the beginning of Dream's prison stay is a stranger, but by the end he very much isn't one, and it's the Sam that has become his whole damn world that sells him to save his own skin.

That being said, it's still just Sam. Quackity's visits are. Well, they're not pretty. He doesn't have to answer to Sam, this time, and is actively against the idea because jmah!Quackity REALLY REALLY hates Sam. Dream is angry at first, because of fucking course he's angry, he was sold, he's utterly fucked, Sam broke something unnamed but fundamental between them, every time he's left bleeding out it's because his Warden let another man own him--but at the same time, there is nothing else. Nothing else. Quackity is barely even in this for the book, honestly--what's more critical to him is 1) revenge and 2) the power of having control over Pandora's Fucking Vault, and both are kiiiinda dependent on using Dream against Sam but not really about Dream. The book would be a great cherry on top, of course; he has zero love lost for either person here, but what's most important is Making Them Pay.

Sam, therefore, is actually in a really uncomfortable position, because the reason why he proposes this deal (and his mindset as he proceeds through this time period) is that he doesn't actually want to be on opposite sides from Quackity. He killed Q, but because he was a security risk, because he had broken into the cell because he was going to take Dream away -- Sam hasn't exactly mathed out the fact that his complicated ass camaraderie with Quackity in canon is COMPLETELY in ruins in jmah's timeline. He's working on a plan to get the prison and prisoner back into his control, of course, but he wants to believe that the current situation is controlled and sustainable, just a different name for what had been the arrangement in canon--even though, y'know. That's absolutely not the case.

The way this works is largely that Quackity more or less visits daily to torture Dream (but unlike canon, he's not exactly beholden to any kind of Sam timekeeping or pedantics on the schedule or hemming and hawing about visitation) and then lets Sam visit for 30 minutes a day to patch him up. Otherwise, Sam's job is to reinforce the prison from Technoblade--something where he and Quackity are actually on the same page, so Sam is definitely working on that, but he's also trying to rig things up without Quackity's knowledge to get control back of the prison pwetty please. Quackity definitely keeps Sam in one of the other cells when he's not around, for obvious reasons. Sam keeps trying to appeal to him and honestly probably gets punched and shit for it LOL. LMAO. It's a strange and unsettling dynamic for Sam, who has seen something so similar to this before but not quite the same--he's still patching up Dream after sessions, but he's hesitant to ask him to give the book up to Quackity, who has made it quite clear that Sam will see hide or hair of the damn thing if he gets it--nah, he'll just kill Dream and Sam can have his old room, how about that? He's coaching Dream on how to respond to Quackity.

He knows that Dream can endure a lot. It's been an obstacle for so long, but here it works in his favor--he'll get control over the prison and prisoner again, soon. All he's asking from Dream is to endure it--and he already knows that he can.

Quackity isn't barred from permanent damage in quite the same way as he was in canon, but it takes awhile for Sam to really grasp the implications. Here's a post delving into some of the details about the way that the torture progresses--in short, Sam tries to cling to the cope that he and Quackity are on the same side, it's not all that different from the first go around, he can make this work without having to choose one side or the other in a super definitive fashion--until Quackity drives him to the edge and he recognizes that his options are to kill Quackity or to lose Dream, and we all know what happens when it comes to that ultimatum.

After Quackity dies, the dynamic changes quite a bit for Dream and Sam again. Quackity takes Dream's leg, Sam only barely manages to keep him alive through a failsafe he'd installed in his old dispenser system, Quackity dies in a pretty bloody fight with Sam fueled by pure Dream-related desperation and little else. The cell is...a wreck. Sam had been pretty adamant on keeping it more sterile than the first go around, absolutely hating the mess that Quackity and Dream were responsible for, but he's hardly had the time to clean the thing in his half an hour granted for him to do everything he can to keep Dream from bleeding out before Quackity arrives again. His perfect system has been tainted with layers and layers of grime and blood and viscera--Quackity has taken to shit like writing on the walls with Dream's blood, at least in part just to fuck with Sam (Sam tried to have A Conversation with him like he would've in canon about the state of the cell, and Quackity does nawt appreciate Sam's acting like the Warden, especially when he no longer has any power to back up the posturing.) And for Dream...Sam betrayed him, yes, but more recently and more importantly--Sam saved him. Sam protected him. Sam has brought him somewhere light and soft and clean and is telling him no more Quackity, ever again, you're safe, and isn't reacting violently when he behaves erratically and touching him gently and his leg is gone he can't fucking run and Sam saved him.

Sam is around Dream...quite a lot, after all of this. He's um. Well. Clingy, honestly. Being so far removed from the prisoner, what was happening to him, having zero control, often not even being allowed to supervise the visits from the atrium (unless Quackity wanted him there, in which the visit would've been So Obviously a show to fuck with him)--it really was his worst nightmare, in many ways. And Dream is dealing with like, a month or so of horrific trauma on top of almost a year's worth of Sam-related conditioning, and now Sam is being strangely nice and lenient and he's in so much less pain than he's been in a very long time. It's not the best mixing pot of mutual mental illness and codependence and intimacy...at all. Aha. (the c!awesamdreamons get. A LOT WORSE.)

(And well...in canon, there are a lot of reasons not to give up the revive book. There's the plan, the fact that the book preserves his life, the fact that there's no confidence in Quackity for sure or even Sam's investment in keeping Dream alive. Only here, Sam's deal has been so singularly wrapped around Dream much moreso than the book--the book had been a frequent part of interrogations, yes, but so was Tommy, and Ranboo, and the TNT on the prison, and Technoblade, and so on. Here, Dream has suffered through a huge blow to his confidence in the idea that he'll ever make it out, knows that Quackity is pretty damn okay with killing him regardless of the book...knows that he's been sold once before. In the early delirium of being saved by Sam and needing to do something, anything, to make sure that the last month won't happen again--in the reeling from losing his leg and the grappling with the idea that even moreso than he'd already begun to think through JMAH, that he would never make it out of the prison, never see anything but these obsidian walls again--in the knowledge that Sam has lied to him before, pulled the rug from under his feet before, that any and all kindnesses from the Warden were so dependent on what Dream was able or willing to sacrifice, and the fact that he therefore can't be sure that the threat of Quackity is actually gone for good...it's a lot of strain, and the concrete reasons to give up the book are a lot less solid in this scenario. So.)