[Even if Rosso has potentially never seen a lion or tiger in the flesh, he might know Adrian well enough now to recognize that this animal prowling the streets of Bavan looks startingly similar to him. What with that dark brown coat and matching stripes, mane with golden streaks that bears an identical resemblance to Adrian's own "mane". Suffice it to say that given what he knows about the changes, it has to be him...which is a good thing, since...well.
He sure is a Big Cat just walking down the street like he belongs there, not bothered by the way humans are scattering like bowling pins ahead of him in an effort to give him the widest berth possible. It's a bit funny actually...all he has to do is look for them to turn away.]
[If anything, the Large Cat smells like Adrian does, and that's what Rosso uses to identify him. He'd doubt himself otherwise. The form distantly reminds Rosso of his own travel form, and he can't help but wonder if it's the same thing.
...
Or, for that matter, if Adrian likes scritches? That's probably not something to do with a cat that large (Rosso is, as ever, a short dude who could be easily killed by a fucking liger) but...
...
His tail wags. The gremlin thoughts take over. He must... pet the cat.
Ho ho ho! Your Secret Santa giftee is HORATIO HARGREEVES, network alias "NeverAcorned". He looks like a kid, but, trust me, he's not. He's in his sixties, I think? He drinks a lot. Plan accordingly.
Buy or make Horatio a gift by December 26, or Santa will come down your chimney and box your ears.
If you need more information, contact me C/O Hawkeye Pierce at Crowe Clinic, and I'll delegate him to tell you to do your own research.
[Sometime during the night before Nattensfest Rosso will find a present at his door. Inside is a stone bowl and a set of tea lights. Carved into one side of the bowl is a howling wolf made out of colored glass in different shades of red, orange and pink, reminiscent of a sunrise. If Rosso lit one of the tea lights inside he would see that the colored image would be reflected on the opposite wall.
"Angry red puppy" (Crash's words not his) wasn't a lot to go on but he hoped the lamp would give some color to Rosso's nocturnal lifestyle as a werewolf. There's also a deck of playing cards. As someone who was also described as angry a lot, Altair thought a game Rosso could play with friends might be nice.]
[Oh, it's cute... as angry as he can be, he still appreciates the little things like this. He'll spend the next hour drinking tea and staring at this happily, thank you.]
[ Rosso will receive a warm scarf decorated with cat prints and paw prints. Even if he's got fur in his normal werewolf form, at least he can look stylish! ]
[It's been...literally two days since they got together. TWO.
The weather is still pretty bad in terms of it being just...cold, which means Adrian is crashing at Rosso's place today for a visit. Or...maybe it's more accurate that they've just relocated to his place, because suffice it to say they haven't really left one another's space since New Year's Eve. They would be working, but since it's the holidays and whatnot...they're both off. Cool.
Which means Rosso will definitely be home when Adrian does arrive (he'd been making sure the treehouse was reasonably locked down this time before leaving, just in case that stupid cat came back, he's not territorial shut up) and pretty much like...bursts through the door, hello.]
Rosso.
[It's maybe more telling that he called him Rosso, not Ainen-]
[Okay technically they were Acting Together before they slapped a label on it so there's like a nebulous timeline going on here, anyway
Rosso is, predictably, cooking when Adrian arrives. As you do when you are Rosso and are hungry. Not many restaurants are open over the holidays, and Rosso's of the opinion that people should have it easy, fuck capitalism, etc... and also nowadays he's developed a thing about eating out by himself. Weird what Men do to you.
Since he's indoors, of course, he's stomping around the kitchen in a sleeveless shirt and shorts and an apron, because cooking. He will only dress for the weather one (1) time. The apron in particular is nothing special, but it's covered in various ingredients at the moment because Rosso is a mess of a person. It gets covered in more ingredients (specifically lemon juice, which he squeezes all over himself by accident) when the door whips open and scares the daylights out of him.
So much for a quiet moment.]
Jagi. Glad you figured out how doors work this time. [Recalling when Adrian just beat on the door yelling LET ME IN ROSSO and he was like, dude you have hands, the door's unlocked?] What, am I in trouble?
[The package is good sized box, wrapped in bright orange paper; inside is (slightly sarcastically) a few scented candles. But aside from that is also a more genuinely included wooden incense burner, carved with care and probably purchased from the Night Market, as well as as a few sticks to go with it.
Along with the box is also a paper bag of sugar cookies, appropriately holiday-esque, just for good measure.]
[It's been six days now. Six days of the same thing, over and over. The same ruined plans, same exhaustion, wash, rinse, and repeat. Adrian had lost count by day four, so it could be four days, or four months. At this point, he's not sure it even matters really. For each day that's passed, no matter how much worse than the last it's been, the day resets at 6 AM and Rosso doesn't seem to remember anything. It's...a bit upsetting actually in a way Adrian can't quite put his finger on, and it doesn't have anything to do with the way things are going actually. Even if they're going utterly miserably. He's been given second chances, but nothing has really panned out. The only thing he really feels thankful for is the fact that he knows how to avoid the worst of the destruction now. They aren't going to die in an apartment fire, and they won't be mauled by groundhogs.
Yet...the only constant over all six days...has been Rosso. Sure, he doesn't remember the hell Adrian's been through, but he's put up with Adrian's unusual grumpiness despite it all. He even, fucking...cleaned and bandaged his wounds after the groundhog incident. They bathed together, and Rosso doesn't remember.
But Adrian does. He remembers. He remembers all of the ways Rosso has made him wonder just why he's still with Adrian's stupid ass. He remembers every gentle touch and firm scolding, every kiss and word softly spoken that no one else gets to hear. He really doesn't feel like he deserves it, sometimes.
The sun has long set, and the day will reset in a few short hours. For this particular loop, Adrian had flown straight to the apartment- no touching down anywhere in the city- picked up Rosso and Alisha, and took them straight to his place. They'd watched that sequel heist movie as the sun set while Adrian tried super hard not to think about how groundhogs would be storming the city soon even as they sat here together acting like nothing bad is happening, actualy. Adrian made dinner with his brand new fancy electricity set-up at the treehouse, even if it was kindof bland and he accidentally boiled it over a couple of times. And now, here they sat in the corner watching regular cable this time, one of the gross rom-coms they have playing for the holiday, while they snack on mochi that Adrian had ordered specifically from the ramen place for tonight. And it's all...going...well. Weirdly...well, despite a few hiccups here and there. He doesn't trust it, at all, but...
Whatever. He doesn't care anymore. Let the stove explode or the tree get struck down by lightning, he can no longer be phased.
He exhales like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, resting his chin on Rosso's shoulder since the Were is currently perched in his lap with Adrian's sherpa blanket draped around them both.]
Can't believe you actually like that dumb thing I made for you.
[He muses, the little wolf Adrian had carved sitting on the table nearby, miraculously not at the bottom of the gutter today.]
Alisha remembers things, of course, but animals are in tune to time loops or something. Her attempts at explaining things to Rosso in her broken way of speaking, though, completely flies over his head. "TIME LOOP FIRE RUN" does not make much sense when you are just a tired wereidiot who has no idea what's happening.
As far as Rosso knows, it's still Valentine's Day, and he has not gotten progressively thirstier about Adrian over the week. He's just Normal levels of Horny, obviously.
...
Yeah, no. On top of having to deal with the awful week, fires and groundhogs and getting hit by cars and losing gifts and such, he's also had to deal with Rosso pretty much pouncing on him nightly, but stopping for one reason or another. One time it was Alisha just being downright needy for attention. Another time it was because Rosso's dogbrain got distracted by something on TV and the mood was killed due to Zoomies. They didn't get That Far in the bath because Adrian was injured and Rosso didn't want to risk making anything worse. (That one probably wound up being for the best, since the day reset anyway.) Let's just say if hickies persisted through time loops, Adrian would simply be one giant bruise by now.
Apparently the countdown to date 3 and Valentine's Day, whichever happened first, is no longer a concern, because Rosso's just acted up all fucking week.
So far tonight, he's been normal about everything. He has not attacked Adrian with kisses. He has not gawked at him in the bath. Rosso's just being warm and content using Adrian as a space heater, tail wagging softly as he ignores this movie entirely and shoves mochi into his face. He's not sure where Alisha went, and he's not concerned about it. She's probably up at the highest point of the treehouse doing her little cat thing. Or asleep.]
Of course I do. It's from you.
[Stupid ass—]
I told you you'd get the hang of whittling again if you were patient. It paid off.
[Adrian legitimately sleeps through the changes this time.
He's been through several transformations during his time in Ryslig, and even outside of it. The first time it ever happened it was miserable...scary. Traumatic. At this point, over ten years later, while he's not exactly numb to it, sometimes his body just...checks out from it all as a defense mechanism. It helps that the changes just happened to be painless this time around. Everything grew in overnight while he was sleeping. Feathers took the place of fur, wings didn't have to go anywhere and instead just shifted from one shape to the next. The one major remnant is that Adrian's stinger and both horns drop off and get left on the floor near the futon, just kindof...there, in the aftermath of it all.
And when he finally manages to peel his eyes open, it's to the tune of Alisha screaming. He'd been ignoring her wailing for the past half hour, because...she does that in the morning when she wants them to be up. It's normal. But as he comes to, he starts to make a bit more sense of the noise, as well as the fact that she's actually saying something to him.
Father. Gone. Over and over.
Adrian sits up so fast that the rock-cat tumbles into his lap, though she's quick to right herself and continue pacing in a circle on his knees, yowling. It's still semi-early in the morning, but bright enough out that he can see that the space next to him where Rosso usually sleeps tucked against the wall is vacant, the blankets touseled and tossed haphazardly aside. It's only then that Adrian is clued into something being very, very wrong.
It's the blood. Blood dripped into the floorboards, smeared across the ground by paws. There's shed fur everywhere, more than normal, and feathers strewn about. Black, red, orangish in hue. Without thinking he's shoving himself up to his feet, then nearly falling flat on his ass when he realizes he doesn't have paws anymore, but instead massive talons that cause him to slide across the wood until he's able to regain his bearings.]
What...what the fuck...?
[Adrian takes just enough time to give himself a once-over, and it doesn't really tell him a whole lot about what's happened. He's got feathers and talons now. He's a harpy? That's the most he's able to discern. The extra pair of arms he totally misses, solely because he's so used to having them.
With Alisha still losing her mind, Adrian rushes to the door of the treehouse, too ungainly with his massive wings to climb to the roof as he does as a Manticore.]
Ainen!
[He doesn't feel comfortable trying to fly like this. His body just feels so heavy, compounded by feathers and leaden from still trying to wake up fully. So he decides instead to jump to the ground and follow the trail he can see, blood slick against the grass and trees Rosso must have passed by.]
[Rosso is not usually a runner — even when he'd transformed into a half-shade and started clipping through the goddamn floor, he wasn't a runner — but today is entirely different. Today, he wakes up in pain, because he goes through so few transformations it fucking hurts every time he does. Today, he wakes up well before the crack of dawn itchy because his fur is shedding off, bleeding heavily because something is trying to pierce through the flesh of his back, clawing at his face because there are hairline cracks on his skin that burn. Suddenly when he opens his eye, his vision is a kaleidoscope, like staring through a faceted piece of glass. Too many images, too much to process.
All of that isn't why he's run off. The reason Rosso takes off — delirious with pain, unable to properly see while the blood runs down his face into the extra set of eyes on his cheeks — is because he can feel the telltale prickle of his old magic at the back of his neck. And he knows, better than anyone ever could, that the second he loses control, the treehouse will go up in flames. And he can't. He can't, he cannot let that happen.
Rosso doesn't know fear. Not really. But for the first time in years, he thinks he's feeling it claw its way down his spine and take root in his heart, a sticky spiderweb that he can't clear away.
He doesn't bother getting dressed by the time he heads down to the lake, which means he's still in his pyjamas — a baggy, cropped T-shirt and spandex shorts, and when Rosso is coherent again he'll thank past-him for never getting fancy pyjamas because he's bled through the white of the shirt. He feels the fire coming long before it actually makes its way to the surface, and by the time he makes it to the water's edge, the reeds are alight and the only thing stopping the crimson flame from spreading is the muddy bank. They'll burn out in time, but for now, smoke rises and whirls in the air, and Rosso is burying himself in a foot of water, sitting down in it with his hands shoved into the mud and his legs bent and clawed feet out behind him.
Ordinarily, he'd hear Adrian calling for him. Today, his werewolf hearing is gone, his sense of smell dulled, and the only thing he can hear is his pulse rushing in his ears. The surface of the water is boiling; Rosso is sweating, breathing like he's just run a marathon, and no matter how much he wills himself to calm down, the panic doesn't ebb.
...
At the treehouse, Alisha heads for the door, screaming at Adrian to follow her. She can sense exactly where he is.]
[Adrian had finally passed out long before Vash cleared the treeline. The last thing he'd heard was being apologized to, distant though it was, and it felt like a slap in the face. Whatever.
Maybe he'd have the decency to just lay here and die, finally.
There's no way for him to know how much time passes, initially. But Adrian is luckier than he knows. Lager- the forest he's chosen to live in- is littered with patches of fog...and some of those just so happen to wander near the fringes, where he finds himself now. The Fog has been so thin the past few months, but in Lager it's probably at its strongest. Strong enough to keep Adrian alive, as much as it feels like he's clinging to life for a while there. He slips in and out of consciousness for what feels like hours, the sun jumping through the sky in erratic steps. He vaugely remembers rolling his eyes up to look at the canopy above, watching a squirrel stuff a nut into a hole in a tree. It's remarkably mundane, before he passes out again.
This happens for some time until, finally, the Fog has done just enough haphazard stitchwork to keep Adrian together. The blood he's laying in has long since grown cold, dried hard to his fur in some places whereas in others it remains tacky and wet. He needs help, but he's too weak to scream for it. Too weak to move, really. Vash had drained a lot of his energy, but not enough to kill him. His only saving grace is that his back has suffered so much nerve damage that the pain there is all but absent for the time being. He knows deep down, of course. He just can't let himself think about it right now. But he's fortunate. His discarded wing had become food for forest animals hours ago, and now nothing but bloody bones remain. Maybe he won't register it. Maybe he won't see it.
He has to move. He has to...get home. Of course, his first reflex...is to try to fly. It's a mistake he won't make twice, because the act of trying to move one wing sends phantom pain through his entire body so violent that he actually blacks out again for a moment. It isn't until he comes to to the realization that he's laid here so long that the sun has reached the other side of the sky that he's able to slowly piece together the notion that he probably would have died hours ago if circumstances were different. One meager point in the Fog's favor, he guesses.
And so begins the slow, arduous task of dragging himself home. Lager woods is massive and sprawling, yet Adrian knows it like the back of his hand at this point. Even when he's unable to properly get to his feet, he can at least halfway crawl through the trees, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. There is a moment or two where he manages to struggle upright, hobbling for a half mile or so before he collapses again. He's not sure how long he does this for, just...long enough.
He doesn't stop until he sees home in the distance. He can tell Rosso is home from work already, because there's a little trail of smoke coming from one of the windows. He's probably cooking. And from what Adrian can tell, wherever Vash went, it at least wasn't here.
Thank god, he thinks, as he drops to his side at the edge of the clearing, the rest of the scraps of energy he managed to dredge up finally leaving him with the relief of managing to make it back.]
[Rosso is, in fact, making dinner. Whether Adrian "wants to stay out late" or not, he's making dinner, and his general thought is always: If Adrian shows up late because Maya grabbed him for an event, or he's helping Max out of some situation she's found herself in, or if Kaito's bugging him and Adrian can't escape, he'll still have leftovers. Rosso doesn't mind eating dinner alone; it happens. As long as Adrian will make it home in one piece...
...
Something emerges out into the clearing, and Rosso sees it out of the corner of his eye. He looks up just in time to see Adrian, and the immediate sensation of something is wrong hits like a train. Rosso barely remembers to turn the stovetop off as he rushes outside. The smell of blood permeates the air, and Rosso — still a Gargoyle, though he'd long since lost the Naphil parts after about a week — feels his scales start to sizzle.]
Adrian— [No, no, no no no—] Adrian, what the fuck happened? Where's—
Hi!!!! you're probably already busy but I wanted to let you know that Nai'a's going to be closed until.. whatever this is, is over! So if you show up to work, you won't be able to go inside! So.... don't do that.
[It's been well over two weeks since Adrian's injury. Though he's no longer in the danger-zone in terms of dying in his sleep, that doesn't mean he's doing well. In fact, the fact the Peninsula has had so much rain lately has left him in a lot of pain.
It's Monday. It's Rosso's first shift back at work in two weeks. Adrian is home alone, and his chosen method to chase away the phantom pains of his missing wing until the next Fog had been to, just
Smoke a Lot of weed.
Rosso probably won't see that he's gotten a text from him until he's on his break, sometime around 8PM.]
baeb babee
can u stop by the 812 on ur way hoem i want a bunt a bingas bingo fuck i just woke up u know what im talkn about
[Messages received while Rosso was gone from their temporary Merain lodgings (a small house near the ocean away from the main town because these two are reclusive and like their privacy) for literally like An Hour probably to see what the food situation here is like:]
i needed to ask mana for something while you were gone dont ask what it wasnt important but she did something weird you need to get back here
[Adrian wants to surprise Rosso. He never told him he got a Korean language book, the equivalent of Elrian (he HOPES Mana didn't rip him off), and has been determined to learn something from it. Sure, it's not going to be conversational, but...he's never made this much of an effort for anything before, and even though he can't remember much about the last week and some change, he...he was left feeling more.
Sentimental than normal.
So he messages Rosso and then closes his laptop to go rescue Dachie from the couch cushions now that they're back at the treehouse, because he's certain he's fucked it up or said something wrong.]
[Rosso getting this message and his first thought is... aww, he's learning Elrian? That's really cute. His second thought is—]
Wtf you're going without me? Punk ass
[He's kidding, of course, but also how dare you go swimming without him? He's stuck doing this modelling shoot (they're between takes currently) and you're gonna go swimming!! As if they didn't do enough of that at Merain anyway—]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
flammadecinis) wrote2022-05-15 03:26 pm
Big Cat Delivery | Sometime between the intro and modplot
He sure is a Big Cat just walking down the street like he belongs there, not bothered by the way humans are scattering like bowling pins ahead of him in an effort to give him the widest berth possible. It's a bit funny actually...all he has to do is look for them to turn away.]
holds him gentle like hamburger
...
Or, for that matter, if Adrian likes scritches? That's probably not something to do with a cat that large (Rosso is, as ever, a short dude who could be easily killed by a fucking liger) but...
...
His tail wags. The gremlin thoughts take over. He must... pet the cat.
Patpatpatpatpatpat—]
HEHEHEH
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Post-Felfri, let's say Oct 27th? im sorry
you better answer i swear to fucking god
never apologise
Apartment. Why
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NOO MY HTML
SQUEEZES YOU IN SOLIDARITY
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I am so sorry
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<KrisKringle>
Buy or make Horatio a gift by December 26, or Santa will come down your chimney and box your ears.
If you need more information, contact me C/O Hawkeye Pierce at Crowe Clinic, and I'll delegate him to tell you to do your own research.
Secret Santa
"Angry red puppy" (Crash's words not his) wasn't a lot to go on but he hoped the lamp would give some color to Rosso's nocturnal lifestyle as a werewolf. There's also a deck of playing cards. As someone who was also described as angry a lot, Altair thought a game Rosso could play with friends might be nice.]
Happy Nattensfest,
Secret Santa
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sorry I'm so late getting to this orz
Nattensfest
i forgot to. reply to this.
it's cute okay!!!!]
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the 2nd after Kaito's post oh boy
The weather is still pretty bad in terms of it being just...cold, which means Adrian is crashing at Rosso's place today for a visit. Or...maybe it's more accurate that they've just relocated to his place, because suffice it to say they haven't really left one another's space since New Year's Eve. They would be working, but since it's the holidays and whatnot...they're both off. Cool.
Which means Rosso will definitely be home when Adrian does arrive (he'd been making sure the treehouse was reasonably locked down this time before leaving, just in case that stupid cat came back, he's not territorial shut up) and pretty much like...bursts through the door, hello.]
Rosso.
[It's maybe more telling that he called him Rosso, not Ainen-]
SOBBING
Rosso is, predictably, cooking when Adrian arrives. As you do when you are Rosso and are hungry. Not many restaurants are open over the holidays, and Rosso's of the opinion that people should have it easy, fuck capitalism, etc... and also nowadays he's developed a thing about eating out by himself. Weird what Men do to you.
Since he's indoors, of course, he's stomping around the kitchen in a sleeveless shirt and shorts and an apron, because cooking. He will only dress for the weather one (1) time. The apron in particular is nothing special, but it's covered in various ingredients at the moment because Rosso is a mess of a person. It gets covered in more ingredients (specifically lemon juice, which he squeezes all over himself by accident) when the door whips open and scares the daylights out of him.
So much for a quiet moment.]
Jagi. Glad you figured out how doors work this time. [Recalling when Adrian just beat on the door yelling LET ME IN ROSSO and he was like, dude you have hands, the door's unlocked?] What, am I in trouble?
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I spent literally 45 minutes digging through threads trying to find this word u better appreciate it
https://www.90daykorean.com/korean-terms-of-endearment/
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Nattensfest (i forgot rosso somehow and then i had to drive to another state please forgive me sOBS)
Along with the box is also a paper bag of sugar cookies, appropriately holiday-esque, just for good measure.]
NEVER FORGIVEN (you're forgiven)
the cookies are eaten within 5 minutes of receiving them. delicious.]
Right before the event, this doesn’t even have to be a long thread I just needed this to happen
[it
Is 4 am]
Oh my god
[Adrian's lucky that Rosso woke up to the ping noise because he didn't shut his laptop down before he passed out—]
c:
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cw: animal death
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hee hoo Valentine's Day (But for real this time)
Yet...the only constant over all six days...has been Rosso. Sure, he doesn't remember the hell Adrian's been through, but he's put up with Adrian's unusual grumpiness despite it all. He even, fucking...cleaned and bandaged his wounds after the groundhog incident. They bathed together, and Rosso doesn't remember.
But Adrian does. He remembers. He remembers all of the ways Rosso has made him wonder just why he's still with Adrian's stupid ass. He remembers every gentle touch and firm scolding, every kiss and word softly spoken that no one else gets to hear. He really doesn't feel like he deserves it, sometimes.
The sun has long set, and the day will reset in a few short hours. For this particular loop, Adrian had flown straight to the apartment- no touching down anywhere in the city- picked up Rosso and Alisha, and took them straight to his place. They'd watched that sequel heist movie as the sun set while Adrian tried super hard not to think about how groundhogs would be storming the city soon even as they sat here together acting like nothing bad is happening, actualy. Adrian made dinner with his brand new fancy electricity set-up at the treehouse, even if it was kindof bland and he accidentally boiled it over a couple of times. And now, here they sat in the corner watching regular cable this time, one of the gross rom-coms they have playing for the holiday, while they snack on mochi that Adrian had ordered specifically from the ramen place for tonight. And it's all...going...well. Weirdly...well, despite a few hiccups here and there. He doesn't trust it, at all, but...
Whatever. He doesn't care anymore. Let the stove explode or the tree get struck down by lightning, he can no longer be phased.
He exhales like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, resting his chin on Rosso's shoulder since the Were is currently perched in his lap with Adrian's sherpa blanket draped around them both.]
Can't believe you actually like that dumb thing I made for you.
[He muses, the little wolf Adrian had carved sitting on the table nearby, miraculously not at the bottom of the gutter today.]
HEE HOO HEE HEE
Alisha remembers things, of course, but animals are in tune to time loops or something. Her attempts at explaining things to Rosso in her broken way of speaking, though, completely flies over his head. "TIME LOOP FIRE RUN" does not make much sense when you are just a tired wereidiot who has no idea what's happening.
As far as Rosso knows, it's still Valentine's Day, and he has not gotten progressively thirstier about Adrian over the week. He's just Normal levels of Horny, obviously.
...
Yeah, no. On top of having to deal with the awful week, fires and groundhogs and getting hit by cars and losing gifts and such, he's also had to deal with Rosso pretty much pouncing on him nightly, but stopping for one reason or another. One time it was Alisha just being downright needy for attention. Another time it was because Rosso's dogbrain got distracted by something on TV and the mood was killed due to Zoomies. They didn't get That Far in the bath because Adrian was injured and Rosso didn't want to risk making anything worse. (That one probably wound up being for the best, since the day reset anyway.) Let's just say if hickies persisted through time loops, Adrian would simply be one giant bruise by now.
Apparently the countdown to date 3 and Valentine's Day, whichever happened first, is no longer a concern, because Rosso's just acted up all fucking week.
So far tonight, he's been normal about everything. He has not attacked Adrian with kisses. He has not gawked at him in the bath. Rosso's just being warm and content using Adrian as a space heater, tail wagging softly as he ignores this movie entirely and shoves mochi into his face. He's not sure where Alisha went, and he's not concerned about it. She's probably up at the highest point of the treehouse doing her little cat thing. Or asleep.]
Of course I do. It's from you.
[Stupid ass—]
I told you you'd get the hang of whittling again if you were patient. It paid off.
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NSFW starts here-
to the 0 people snooping my inbox: enjoy your porn
screams about that image
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7/14 | EVENT START > Morning...whenever Rosso changes tbh
He's been through several transformations during his time in Ryslig, and even outside of it. The first time it ever happened it was miserable...scary. Traumatic. At this point, over ten years later, while he's not exactly numb to it, sometimes his body just...checks out from it all as a defense mechanism. It helps that the changes just happened to be painless this time around. Everything grew in overnight while he was sleeping. Feathers took the place of fur, wings didn't have to go anywhere and instead just shifted from one shape to the next. The one major remnant is that Adrian's stinger and both horns drop off and get left on the floor near the futon, just kindof...there, in the aftermath of it all.
And when he finally manages to peel his eyes open, it's to the tune of Alisha screaming. He'd been ignoring her wailing for the past half hour, because...she does that in the morning when she wants them to be up. It's normal. But as he comes to, he starts to make a bit more sense of the noise, as well as the fact that she's actually saying something to him.
Father. Gone. Over and over.
Adrian sits up so fast that the rock-cat tumbles into his lap, though she's quick to right herself and continue pacing in a circle on his knees, yowling. It's still semi-early in the morning, but bright enough out that he can see that the space next to him where Rosso usually sleeps tucked against the wall is vacant, the blankets touseled and tossed haphazardly aside. It's only then that Adrian is clued into something being very, very wrong.
It's the blood. Blood dripped into the floorboards, smeared across the ground by paws. There's shed fur everywhere, more than normal, and feathers strewn about. Black, red, orangish in hue. Without thinking he's shoving himself up to his feet, then nearly falling flat on his ass when he realizes he doesn't have paws anymore, but instead massive talons that cause him to slide across the wood until he's able to regain his bearings.]
What...what the fuck...?
[Adrian takes just enough time to give himself a once-over, and it doesn't really tell him a whole lot about what's happened. He's got feathers and talons now. He's a harpy? That's the most he's able to discern. The extra pair of arms he totally misses, solely because he's so used to having them.
With Alisha still losing her mind, Adrian rushes to the door of the treehouse, too ungainly with his massive wings to climb to the roof as he does as a Manticore.]
Ainen!
[He doesn't feel comfortable trying to fly like this. His body just feels so heavy, compounded by feathers and leaden from still trying to wake up fully. So he decides instead to jump to the ground and follow the trail he can see, blood slick against the grass and trees Rosso must have passed by.]
Ainen!
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All of that isn't why he's run off. The reason Rosso takes off — delirious with pain, unable to properly see while the blood runs down his face into the extra set of eyes on his cheeks — is because he can feel the telltale prickle of his old magic at the back of his neck. And he knows, better than anyone ever could, that the second he loses control, the treehouse will go up in flames. And he can't. He can't, he cannot let that happen.
Rosso doesn't know fear. Not really. But for the first time in years, he thinks he's feeling it claw its way down his spine and take root in his heart, a sticky spiderweb that he can't clear away.
He doesn't bother getting dressed by the time he heads down to the lake, which means he's still in his pyjamas — a baggy, cropped T-shirt and spandex shorts, and when Rosso is coherent again he'll thank past-him for never getting fancy pyjamas because he's bled through the white of the shirt. He feels the fire coming long before it actually makes its way to the surface, and by the time he makes it to the water's edge, the reeds are alight and the only thing stopping the crimson flame from spreading is the muddy bank. They'll burn out in time, but for now, smoke rises and whirls in the air, and Rosso is burying himself in a foot of water, sitting down in it with his hands shoved into the mud and his legs bent and clawed feet out behind him.
Ordinarily, he'd hear Adrian calling for him. Today, his werewolf hearing is gone, his sense of smell dulled, and the only thing he can hear is his pulse rushing in his ears. The surface of the water is boiling; Rosso is sweating, breathing like he's just run a marathon, and no matter how much he wills himself to calm down, the panic doesn't ebb.
...
At the treehouse, Alisha heads for the door, screaming at Adrian to follow her. She can sense exactly where he is.]
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I was trying to wait for u to get through some tags but I can't ignore these Rossos any longer
never wait
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Invades ur inbox invades ur inbox | Probably like 8/10ish?
Maybe he'd have the decency to just lay here and die, finally.
There's no way for him to know how much time passes, initially. But Adrian is luckier than he knows. Lager- the forest he's chosen to live in- is littered with patches of fog...and some of those just so happen to wander near the fringes, where he finds himself now. The Fog has been so thin the past few months, but in Lager it's probably at its strongest. Strong enough to keep Adrian alive, as much as it feels like he's clinging to life for a while there. He slips in and out of consciousness for what feels like hours, the sun jumping through the sky in erratic steps. He vaugely remembers rolling his eyes up to look at the canopy above, watching a squirrel stuff a nut into a hole in a tree. It's remarkably mundane, before he passes out again.
This happens for some time until, finally, the Fog has done just enough haphazard stitchwork to keep Adrian together. The blood he's laying in has long since grown cold, dried hard to his fur in some places whereas in others it remains tacky and wet. He needs help, but he's too weak to scream for it. Too weak to move, really. Vash had drained a lot of his energy, but not enough to kill him. His only saving grace is that his back has suffered so much nerve damage that the pain there is all but absent for the time being. He knows deep down, of course. He just can't let himself think about it right now. But he's fortunate. His discarded wing had become food for forest animals hours ago, and now nothing but bloody bones remain. Maybe he won't register it. Maybe he won't see it.
He has to move. He has to...get home. Of course, his first reflex...is to try to fly. It's a mistake he won't make twice, because the act of trying to move one wing sends phantom pain through his entire body so violent that he actually blacks out again for a moment. It isn't until he comes to to the realization that he's laid here so long that the sun has reached the other side of the sky that he's able to slowly piece together the notion that he probably would have died hours ago if circumstances were different. One meager point in the Fog's favor, he guesses.
And so begins the slow, arduous task of dragging himself home. Lager woods is massive and sprawling, yet Adrian knows it like the back of his hand at this point. Even when he's unable to properly get to his feet, he can at least halfway crawl through the trees, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. There is a moment or two where he manages to struggle upright, hobbling for a half mile or so before he collapses again. He's not sure how long he does this for, just...long enough.
He doesn't stop until he sees home in the distance. He can tell Rosso is home from work already, because there's a little trail of smoke coming from one of the windows. He's probably cooking. And from what Adrian can tell, wherever Vash went, it at least wasn't here.
Thank god, he thinks, as he drops to his side at the edge of the clearing, the rest of the scraps of energy he managed to dredge up finally leaving him with the relief of managing to make it back.]
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...
Something emerges out into the clearing, and Rosso sees it out of the corner of his eye. He looks up just in time to see Adrian, and the immediate sensation of something is wrong hits like a train. Rosso barely remembers to turn the stovetop off as he rushes outside. The smell of blood permeates the air, and Rosso — still a Gargoyle, though he'd long since lost the Naphil parts after about a week — feels his scales start to sizzle.]
Adrian— [No, no, no no no—] Adrian, what the fuck happened? Where's—
[Where is your wing?
And then, in a far, far more sadistic tone:]
Who do I have to murder?
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/wrap
Text, August 11th or something
And tell your boyfriend for me too!
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Not sure if you got the news but Adrian is injured as fuck right now so he's not coming in for a while
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8/28 | <pyro>
It's Monday. It's Rosso's first shift back at work in two weeks. Adrian is home alone, and his chosen method to chase away the phantom pains of his missing wing until the next Fog had been to, just
Smoke a Lot of weed.
Rosso probably won't see that he's gotten a text from him until he's on his break, sometime around 8PM.]
baeb
babee
can u stop by the 812 on ur way hoem
i want a bunt
a bingas
bingo
fuck
i just woke up u know what im talkn about
[Does he???]
< firemaster >
you want me to buy you drugs
<pyro>
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1/2
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9/6ish, after they've gotten to Merain I am once again in your walls | <pyro>
i needed to ask mana for something while you were gone
dont ask what it wasnt important
but she did something weird
you need to get back here
<firemaster>
If I come back and you've become a fucking cockroach arachne I WILL scream and set you on fire
[Burning bugs is valid if you're Rosso and have a lighter in your pocket constantly]
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Sentimental than normal.
So he messages Rosso and then closes his laptop to go rescue Dachie from the couch cushions now that they're back at the treehouse, because he's certain he's fucked it up or said something wrong.]
Suyeonghada.
[He wanted to say Salanghaeyo. I love you.
Instead, he told Rosso he's going swimming.]
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Wtf you're going without me? Punk ass
[He's kidding, of course, but also how dare you go swimming without him? He's stuck doing this modelling shoot (they're between takes currently) and you're gonna go swimming!! As if they didn't do enough of that at Merain anyway—]
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