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Post by briala on May 6, 2008 20:49:06 GMT -5
Briala sat at the edge of a sluggish part of the river, her footpaws dangling in the slow water. She was bent over a bit of parchment with a stick of charcoal in her paws and a look of intense concentration on her face. She was trying to sketch the nice view of the forest in front of her, complete with the river and clear, blue sky. She wasn't particularly good at it; she never had time to sketch usually, so the shapes were vague and ill formed. However, it gave her something to do, and the view was so pretty...
She blew lightly on the paper to get rid of extra markings, then wrinkled her nose at her drawing. "Aw, it's not even close," she murmured quietly. "I guess drawing isn't my talent. Oh well, least I got something," she glanced at her daggers, smiling slightly. Maybe she couldn't draw, but she knew how to fight. She sighed slightly, then returned to her sketch. To add insult to her skill-less injury, she didn't even have any colors, so she couldn't properly capture the bright colors of the forest. Shame really, but she had to live with what she had.
Briala vaguely registered the sound of footsteps behind her, but didn't pay attention to what that would mean. She was trying to make it so you could tell the river was sparkling in the sun, without much success. She leaned in closer to the paper, squinting her eyes at her drawing. Maybe it could work...
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Post by Linx Exotic on May 6, 2008 20:55:41 GMT -5
"Hi." Archon's voice came out subdued, almost defeated, even though the conversation between them that he supposed was about to take place hadn't even started as of yet. He walked over to beside Briala and glanced at her charcoal drawing; probably better than he could do, although he wouldn't know since he'd never tried drawing anything, but not all that great. Then again, what could he expect? This was from a young otter who was trying to be a warrior in the military, and had to deal with a kid brother at the same time. A very immature kid brother, from what he'd gathered. None of this really made an impression on him, though.
He was too devastated by what had happened just that night before. At first, he figured it was just another one of his typical turn-downs where someone rejected a night of fun and he'd be able to just move on. What bothered him was that he wasn't able to move on. Wearing an old change of clothing he'd gotten from his room, the mouse appeared a bit ragged, which well described his mood; he hadn't so much as shown up at the house after being rejected by Briala. And now he had spent the better part of the day looking for her. Indeed, he was a wreck all around.
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Post by briala on May 6, 2008 21:00:39 GMT -5
"Hello," Briala greeted distractedly. She leaned in closer to the paper until her nose was about an inch away. "And...there! Not great, but better." She lifted her head back and tilted it, trying to view her drawing in the best light. It still wasn' that great. Briala huffed and placed the parchment beside her, deciding to give up for now. She shook out her paws slightly to relieve the pain of holding the charcoal in one place so long, then washed them in the river to get rid of charcoal dust.
Briala finally noticed who had joined her. Archon. She raised an eyebrow fractionally. "Yeeeeeees?" she drew out the word, making it a more inquistive question. "Something wrong?" she asked as cheerfully as she could manage. "You ain't looking too good."
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Post by Linx Exotic on May 6, 2008 21:06:21 GMT -5
"Uh... Yeah..." The mouse neglected to mention that he'd been thinking about Briala so much the night before that he'd gotten less than an hour of sleep, total, and at that point he felt like collapsing. He almost did when he realized that he was talking to the otter he had been thinking about for so much time, and probably making an idiot of himself. "I didn't have a very good night... And I've been looking for you... All day..."
This had taken a notable toll on both his body and his mind. He felt like sitting down and not standing up for the rest of the day, since he'd been walking for hours on end at a brisk pace with all of his stifling, winter-grade clothes on in the late spring. Moreover, he felt like bursting into tears. None of this was easy to contain.
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Post by briala on May 6, 2008 21:13:31 GMT -5
Briala's eyebrow shot up higher. "Any particular reason for that?" she asked carefully, taking a closer look at the mouse. He did seem to be a wreck, and Briala sincerely hoped that wasn't because of her. Especially since she didn't think she had done anything that bad..."Well, you found me...now what?" she asked a bit impatiently. After all, she really hadn't expected to see Archon anytime recently. Let alone find out he had been looking for her.
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Post by Linx Exotic on May 6, 2008 21:18:33 GMT -5
"Now I'm gonna... I dunno what." Archon did sit down then, although it was more of a collapse than actually getting down on the ground. He slumped down against his knees and looked up at Briala almost apologetically. Now that he'd gone and bothered her, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to actually say or do. "I don't know. Ever since you said no and just let me go I've been... I've... I can't stand this." He probably looked overly emotional and probably a bit melodramatic, but Briala didn't know the whole story. She didn't know how so much of his wonderful mind had been reduced to nothing when he was captured and tortured in ways that many a beast could barely even imagine. She didn't know how desperately he wanted to get back to the truly happy mouse he'd been before, before his parents' death, before his capture, before all that tragedy. She didn't know how much she could help.
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Post by briala on May 6, 2008 21:24:32 GMT -5
Despite herself, Briala was beginning to get concerned. What had happened? There was no way just a rejection had caused this; even Briala could see there was more to it than that. "Well...I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean for that to happen," she murmured, staring glassily at the river. She didn't know what to do; nothing like this had happened before. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees, thinking. What was she going to do? It seemed obvious to her there was something she had to do...she just had no idea what that was....
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Post by Linx Exotic on May 6, 2008 21:27:17 GMT -5
After a few more seconds had passed, Archon fell on his back, looking up at the sky. He'd already been rejected once; what was the worst that could happen now? He decided to just speak his mind and get it over with. There was a reason behind his need to be involved with so many and it wasn't hedonism. None of them could do it all themselves, and there was still so much of him just gone. "I wish you'd stop trying not to help put me back together," the mouse murmured sadly. "I just wanted another part of me to be... Repaired..."
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Post by briala on May 6, 2008 21:31:23 GMT -5
Briala turned to look at Archon. He was lying on his back, looking utterly defeated. The wary look in her eye softened, and she sighed. "I want to help put you back together, from whatever broke you in the first place," she said slowly, thinking over her words carefully. "But...as a friend, and just that. If that's what it takes, I would love to help. But more than that, and it's a negative." She shrugged slightly, hoping being a friend would be enough to help Archon. She certainly hoped so.
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Post by Linx Exotic on May 6, 2008 21:33:59 GMT -5
"If you knew what happened, you un... You would understand that it doesn't work like that." Slowly, shakily, Archon rose to his footpaws, and started taking off his coat. "No. Don't worry. I don't plan to do anything," the mouse explained tiredly as he tossed the black article of clothing aside to reveal a rather baggy short-sleeved shirt. It covered his arms up to the elbows. "I just want to show you something. It, uh... It has to do with this."
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Post by briala on May 6, 2008 21:36:40 GMT -5
"Well then maybe you should explain it to me," Briala murmured, though mostly to herself. After all, she didn't like talking about her own past. She couldn't expect others to do the same. But, to her surprise, Archon seemed about to explain. She was a bit skeptical still, but nodded her head slightly. "Okay...what is it?"
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Post by Linx Exotic on May 6, 2008 21:41:43 GMT -5
"This..." Archon removed the shirt covering his upper arms and torso, and the sight thus displayed shocked even him; he apparently didn't look at himself with no clothes enough. The fur on his upper arms was thin at points, nonexistent at others; the flesh was covered in scars from what were obviously chemical burns. His flanks displayed a similar trait of scarring, but it was clear by the shape of the scars that it had come from repeated slashes, actually from countless vermin claws slicing into his flesh. And the most disconcerting of all was a thick rounded triangular scar on the center of his chest; it had been branded onto him. He turned to display yet more scarring that resembled the claw wounds, but longer and thicker. Those were from being excessively whipped. "I have a lot of mind to put back together, after all this..."
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Post by briala on May 6, 2008 21:45:56 GMT -5
Briala scrambled to her feet as Archon revealed that his entire upper body was covered in scars. She circled him once, completely speechless. "Geez...Archon, what happened?" she whispered, her throat choked up. She was a warrior, and thus didn't have a squeamish stomach. But to see all that on a living being...it was awful. "It's a wonder you aren't completely insane!" she murmured, noting what appeared to be a brand on his chest.
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Post by Linx Exotic on May 6, 2008 21:50:24 GMT -5
"I have some beasts who help me out," Archon mumbled. He continued in a tortured, desperate-sounding voice. "There were over fifty of them. Every single one of them... They actually took turns doing it. And they even gave me a break once in a while to make sure I stayed conscious for the whole thing. Friendship? Not really enough to fix damage that... Intimate." The whole thing had been a sick, twisted imitation of an otherwise wholesome activity. Archon eventually sat back down, hunched over as before, with an expression that made it look like all of those wounds had been inflicted just minutes before.
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Post by briala on May 6, 2008 21:54:22 GMT -5
Briala slowly sat back down too, her skin pale underneath her fur. "Geez Archon...I don't know what I can do," she whispered, shaking her head slightly. "I'm not even enough of a Healer to heal your wounds on the outside, let alone what must be hurt on the inside." Briala was visibly shaken; she couldn't imagine anyone doing that to another living creature...as she had said, it was a wonder Archon wasn't clinically insane, or even dead.
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