cyclopticsadist: (you talkin a lot of shit)
Niles // Zero ([personal profile] cyclopticsadist) wrote in [community profile] middaeg2020-07-10 02:16 pm

1/3 open post

Who: Niles, Azura, Henry, and anyone in the Outpost.
When: Backdated to the 5th.
Where: The Outpost, then Aefenglom
What: Full shifted form shenanigans!
Warnings: Painful tf description in first prompt.



The Change: Closed to Henry

As far as Niles is concerned, every monstrous change he's "endured" has only made him more sexy and powerful. The social stigmas associated with being a chimera were frustrating to the extreme, but honestly the othering, mistrust, and suspicion he's all used to. So this month, as the moon rises and he feels it's pull on him dragging something more out of him, excitement easily wins out over apprehension. And whatever change is coming is big. Bigger than gaining his tail even. Remembering that night vividly, he quickly kicks off his pants. He liked that pair and wished them no ill will. He breathes deeply, preparing for the tingling of rapidly growing fur to build into the ache and burn of shifting bone and muscle.

As his last act before he's incapacitated by the rearranging of his spine and limbs and skull he scrambles into bed, and tugs the band of his eyepatch loose. Through all of it, his expression holds a smile. Or at least until his face stopped being human enough to convey it. Once he weathered this storm he was about to have a fun night.

The Outpost: Open

The blissfully cool night air ruffles the thick fur of his newly comprehensive coat. Now that Henry's put his eyepatch back on, (tied a little clumsily but they made it work), Niles is ready to go. New powers came in waves here, and he's sure he's not the only one needing to give a new form a test run. All that chaos, and the added anonymity of being plausibly mistaken for a turnskin if he stuck to the shadows, meant that this was the best time to risk a trip to Azura. But that would be a very serious conversation, he needed to be composed and contritious, and with all this energy buzzing in his veins he's not going to be able to think through the right words.

So he'll just take a hot minute to blow off some steam first. He leaps off the platform with a an absolutely delighted bounce, bouncing off of the lower limbs of the massive trees with ease. He is taking 0 fall damage. If he gets the sense that someone's watching him he'll turn back at them, claw at the side of the trunk vigorously, then jump down to the ground. How about you meet him in the pit?

Aefenglom:Closed to Azura

[The trip to Azura's home in the coven was more perilous than he anticipated. This absolutely infernal heat. And so when he finally arrives at Azura's door he doesn't have the patience or energy to find a less obtrusive way to get in. As he found out earlier with Henry, language isn't really in his wheelhouse yet but he does his best.]

AArruuhhaahh..!!

[His ears go flat. Shit that was way too loud. He doesn't try again, opting instead to reach up and scratch pitifully at the doorframe.]

((Sketch by raptorscribbles.))
prayerwheel: (temp7)

[personal profile] prayerwheel 2020-07-11 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ Hey, now, this is his house, too. Did he not take his key with? Oh, right, he didn't, beCAUSE HE RAN AWAY AFTER HE FAKED HIS DEATH!!

He's lucky she was in the living room, otherwise she might not have heard him on the first yelp. She does, though, and it's...spooky? What the fuck was that? Who even is at the door? She gets her lance and looks through the peephole.

It's a giant cat? Actually, that looks like the same kind of cat that Ni--

......

This fucking guy.

She sets the lance down again and opens the door just wide enough for him to slip through. ]


Gods above, you nearly gave me a heart attack!
prayerwheel: (temp0)

[personal profile] prayerwheel 2020-07-19 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
[ She drops to her knees next to him and in a few seconds, the patch of floor underneath him starts to turn cold and frigid.

Ice magic is handy when your boyfriend is a giant snow cat. ]


Hmm? Can you not speak?
prayerwheel: aisutabetao | pixiv id 8428902 (♪ is so familiar a gleam)

[personal profile] prayerwheel 2020-07-29 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
[ petting his fluffy head. yes, yes, Niles, you're very cute and she's happy to see you, too. ]

Do you have any idea why you happen to be stuck as a cat, at the moment?

[ a yes or no type answer will do, she figures he can manage that much without speech

(sorry, she's stuck on that part right now. why is he full cat?? what happened???) ]
prayerwheel: (♪ now you have me on the run)

[personal profile] prayerwheel 2020-07-30 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Following his line of direction--the moon? ]

The full moon? [ an eyebrow quirk ] I wonder why now. You've been here longer than I, haven't you? And I haven't seen you turn wholly into a cat before.

[ --okay fine ear scritches commencing why is he like this, he knows all of her buttons to push. god, man. ]
prayerwheel: (♪ is it any use?)

[personal profile] prayerwheel 2020-07-31 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ she will pet the kitty head, yes.

Although, seeing all of this prompts her to think of something that hasn't occurred to her before. Azura taps his nose to hopefully snap him out of whatever feline trance he's slipping into. ]


Niles? Ah, there's something I'm curious about, though I presume it's a bit odd. [ a light tilt of the head ] Is having animal appendages comfortable? Do you ever yearn to have human ears and feet back?

[ ...... ]

If, er, the response is one you're able to convey.

[ picked the wrong time to have the navel-gazey question for him ]
prayerwheel: (♪ has found its way to me my dear)

[personal profile] prayerwheel 2020-08-05 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
So...a no to your ears, but a yes to your feet?

[ rolling it around in her head a little

actually that makes her want to touch his cat feet, now. can she touch the beans a lil? she's going to poke but look like she's not interested. ]
bergamotrose: (pissy)

Outpost

[personal profile] bergamotrose 2020-07-14 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
[They meet in the pit all right-- and Lorenz barely manages to leap out of the way before the strange, cat-like creature lands on the ground before him.

Agitated, he shook his deer-head. Lorenz had taken to the outpost in an attempt to escape the heatwave that had beset Aefenglom, but he hadn't expected... this. The rising of the moons had found him transforming into a deer with a proud silhouette... and a very purple coat.

Words will still difficult for him, but he stamped on the ground with his hooves and shook his head vigorously. Watch it!]
bergamotrose: (surprise)

[personal profile] bergamotrose 2020-08-02 03:30 am (UTC)(link)
[Had he a voice, he would have broken decorum and sworn!

As it were, all Lorenz could do was spring backwards, unheedful of his surroundings, and throw himself into a snowbank in order to get away from the massive feline. Without his legs, without his lance, he had no idea what to do.

He didn't know who this was to attempt to divine what they were doing... if they were Mirrorbound at all.]
hearthebell: (I'm drenched to the bone every time)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-07-25 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[L's exile, while largely self-imposed, feels necessary. He isn't incapable of speech or using his magic, but the mutilation of his tongue and hands continues to pose struggles and challenges. Someone shabby, accustomed to disappearing easily when his situation required it, has become the sheer embodiment of need and inadequacy, and it's not a position he's at ease occupying.

Even those who truly care for him feel like they're gritting their teeth, going through the motions, fulfilling a duty that they must in the form of a broken mess left behind after a disaster, while delicately not voicing that perhaps it might have been better if the disaster had left nothing at all. These days, L's fantasies occupy two distinct moods: smudging away Myr's burden like a dream upon waking, and making Niles' life as miserable as possible with every available moment.

Opportunities, now more than ever, shouldn't be wasted. And on this oppressively hot day, his scrying basin shows him one that's rather too good to pass up, and when the Sun is still in the sky but beginning to set, he ventures out, overdressed for the weather, but with plenty of pockets to conceal what remains of his hands.

He knows who to find, and where to find him. It's almost pathetically easy, but wasn't it pathetically easy for L to Niles to divide him into pieces when he was drugged, silenced and tied down? One is one, and he approaches the panting animal in silence.

He keeps a safe distance at first, steps soft. A leather strap is tightened around his wrist, useful for holding implements. Typically it's most useful for meals, when slipping a fork between the strap and his flesh is the most elegant solution... but it can also hold a blade. Not that he's likely to need one, when Niles is shedding so generously.]
hearthebell: will credit if found (You know the preacher liked the cold)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-07-27 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
[Niles is right to feel panic. Anyone sane would, knowing what they did, what qualifies as revenge in the mind of someone this twisted and mangled by spite.]

Shhh.

[Would would sound soothing in someone else's mouth sounds sinister in L's. Maybe it's the forked tongue, courtesy of Niles' claw. Rather than speaking in his new and imprecise way, Niles will hear a familiar voice in his own mind, smooth and soft and integrating very naturally with his gray matter.]

This'll go so much more easily if you don't fight it.
hearthebell: (My duty is to know)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-07-29 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[Communicating telepathically is a relatively new discipline for L. It's easiest with Myr, but either because there's a perverse bond through the trauma they've subjected each other to, or a very real one as a result of the small amount of blood they've incidentally exchanged, he can manage it with Niles with surprising effectiveness.

He remains outside of striking distance, while still standing his ground, making it clear that he's not going to back away or quail away from the chimera's lashing out.]


You won't. Recall that I'm not a sadist; I didn't go outside in this heat just to torture a dumb beast.

[He takes another step closer. He suspects that just pulling a clump of hair out would be easy enough, even without shears or a knife. Convenient, given his limitations.]

You actually took that on, yourself, making you something of a masochist, perhaps.
hearthebell: (Am I just a shadow you drew?)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-07-31 06:44 am (UTC)(link)
I have a lot of time to think, these days. Still not a sadist, unlike you.

[L's pretty adamant. Even if there's more truth to it than he'll ever admit, he seems genuinely convinced that it's not the case.]

One is one. I care about justice; you're still alive, not serving any kind of sentence. Someone has to make you pay a fair price for what you did, and while you took away a lot of what I could do, I can still punish you while enjoying no part of the process.

[The words fly by more swiftly and smoothly than they would if they were being spoken aloud, and he takes a step closer, testing this. Niles seems exhausted, but he doesn't put it past the one-eyed chimera to rally for one or two snarling surges of energy. Better if he can avoid that, crippled as he is, angry as he is.]
hearthebell: (You got your legacy)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-07-31 03:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[With every careful step, L is weighing and measuring just how strong Niles appears, just how capably he can defend himself should it come to that. Niles, by now, must be aware that he's far from magically helpless in spite of the brutal precautions taken, but the process has been one he's needed to relearn without the tactile comfort of fingers or the whispering rustle of precise syllables that never failed to produce exactly the desired results.

Things are different now. Still powerful, just volatile. He wants to be sure that works in his favor if Niles does decide to pounce, and if that happens, he can at least be certain that it will hurt. He just has to take care that it won't kill the already-enfeebled chimera.]


You know as well as I do that you've earned cruelty. Maybe you'll feel better, too.
hearthebell: will credit if found (You caught me under false pretenses)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-08-28 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[Something about Niles' response hardens L's dark eyes further. Perhaps it's the flippancy, the air of dismissal, but his steps take on a more confident and resolute stride, and as he crouches next to the chimera, it's a smooth and deliberate motion.

He reaches out. Grasps bluntly with a fingerless hand that folds into a shape adequate for the unspecialized task, twists and pulls more hair than he needs from Niles' flank.

He didn't have to be here for this, even to obtain these things. Niles' missing eyepatch is also proof of this, L's last trophy. His audacity is born of restlessness and desperation, these days, because freeing Myr from the ugliness of his oblivion can be as kind and inevitable as possible. Men like L meet their end all the time, actively court it, in fact... and while he can't feel entitled to the love of someone better than he is? He already feels that he owns a piece of Niles, something sharp and sinking that clutches bloodily and doesn't let go. It's awful, and gruesome, and probably deadly, and it's undeniably his without guilt or shame.

It's a heady thing to not feel those things, when they permeate every other aspect of the detective's current existence. Addictive, even.]
hearthebell: (I won't let you murder it)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-08-28 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's a little disappointing, to get even more cat hair due to the heaviness of Niles' shedding. More resistance would have been more satisfying, maybe even a little bit of blood, but... no, the follicles part ways amicably from the overheating monster. L's teeth tug at the leather cord of a small pouch, where the sweaty clump of hair goes for safekeeping...

...only for Niles' horns to punch him squarely in his bony midsection, with no protective pad of muscle or fat to cushion it. A rib might have cracked; he's not sure, but he's rather winded, regardless.

Reflexively, one of his mutilated hands shoots out in Niles' direction. Physical contact isn't established, but an absolutely searing cage of electricity bundles and constricts the chimera. While the electricity is intentionally weak (since cardiac arrest isn't L's aim), the already oppressive heat will doubtless feel unbearable so long as it remains intact.]
hearthebell: (Am I just a shadow you drew?)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-08-29 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
[L's not thinking about how hard he went down, or how he'll explain to a healer just how he managed this kind of injury on a day most people consider too disgustingly hot to move at all. His focus isn't even on the pain or the choking way his breath isn't moving as easily through his lungs; he's too bent on holding and squeezing that cage around Niles.

By the time it breaks, he's a bit more breathless, but far from spent, if Niles really wants to test him again. It's all a matter of making sure he has enough in him to teleport away, when the time comes.]


You should really phrase things more carefully. Suffering isn't universally appealing to you, as both of us are quite aware.
hearthebell: (A plague I call a heartbeat)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-08-29 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
[Instinctively, L braces, because he can't afford another blow. Maybe he can't move out of the way quickly enough without teleporting; as long as he doesn't cast anything else, he'll have the power to do that at least once.

He can resist further parting shots, though; he never can.]


I'll test that, you know. Just how much you may or may not love pain.

[There's a reason he came for the fur, after all. It'll go nicely with the eye patch.]
hearthebell: (Am I just a shadow you drew?)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-08-31 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe.

[His elbow presses against the smarting spot on his ribs, applying subtle pressure. It's just bruised, if he's lucky. If it's cracked... well. He'll just have to come up with something that doesn't endanger his ability to keep coming after Niles this way, both in-person and remotely.]

We both know that's where the similarities end.

[L is entitled to this; he has every good reason, every grudge and every debt belongs uniquely to him. His pursuit won't end until he does; they both know that, too.]
hearthebell: will credit if found (You've played by all the same rules)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-08-31 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[The sincerity, at least, is real. L can lie with the best of them, might in fact be the best of them, but in the rare instances he feels true conviction, it's a clear and powerful brand that is almost childlike in its purity. Why else would he feel he has the right to every desired piece of someone else, when even living among other humans in society wasn't accessible to him, once?

He'd be insulted, at least, if he knew that Niles believed his attack underwhelming when it was, by design, not intended to cause catastrophic damage. He'd pulled his punch to avoid killing the smug chimera, but now? He thinks that maybe he should have poured it on harder, put pain in his voice in the place of languid pleasure.]


For being a monster, yourself? You don't understand them well, at all.

[The air around him collects a charge. He can attack Niles again, if he needs to, but it might be a choice between that and escaping to a safe distance. He'd rather relish the slow burn of a victory where he can prolong Niles' suffering, rather than one where someone's misery ends today.]
hearthebell: (A plague I call a heartbeat)

[personal profile] hearthebell 2020-09-21 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
[The static in the air makes L's dark hair start to lift from his scalp; any closer, and it would do the same for the prostrate chimera on the ground before him. He's agile; L's seen it, knows it, but it's tempting to take the offered opportunity and put a charred black streak across that exposed belly.

It would char his chances to get away, as well. The choice is still one that lingers, seems somehow uncertain even though the correct and wise choice is clear.

He makes it, scuffing a simple rune with his heel.]


The fur's all I needed.

[Not all he wanted.]

Enjoy relative peace while you can.

[The last of his mana goes towards vanishing from the spot.]
morbide: ᴀʀᴛɪsᴛ: <user name="qiornono" site="tumblr.com"> (i am damage in the making)

[personal profile] morbide 2020-07-29 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
The Outpost proper is still quite chilly, leading Henry to be bundled quite thoroughly in anything he can get his hands on: blankets, his own clothes, a lovely cape Tataru made for him... But sometimes, only fluffy Chimera leopard-goat-scorpions will do to fend off the cold.

The Outpost isn't big, but it only makes sense that Niles, his Bonded, is close by. (Temporary Bonded though it may be, it's still something, especially way out here.) The dark mage's steps are with a practiced stealth as he crawls across the elevated Outpost on feet that may as well belong to a bunny, they're so soft... Or, as close as a clumsy human could manage.

He's sure Niles can hear him. Not that he expects that his Chimera friend is going to have shifted.

Henry peers into the dark of the area Niles occupies, scarcely breathing in his advance. ...His teeth, however, chatter. He's not pumped full of adrenaline enough to stop that.