crooked

Elvira Winters · 07-03-2011, 12:44 AM

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i want to mix our blood and put it in the ground so you can never leave

Clouds obscured the moon. Everything was an ocean of blackness. She crept through the underbrush, disregarding eyesight for the enhanced senses of the predator. Of course, she was far from a majestic wolf, and far from practiced in her mannerisms, but always she’d been far more feral and predatory than was natural. A dead snake hung from her jaws, limply swaying with each step.

Despite the hour, Elvira had always ensured that her way and her whims were met without conflict from anyone—even her own mother. Perhaps the collie hoped that some stray monster would snatch her up and steal her away into the night. Her yellow eyes shone like embers when the moon finally crept from hiding. She moved out into the open, heading toward the entrance to the manor.

Caspa Al-Fateh · 07-05-2011, 05:02 PM

Still as a stork, the silk-furred luperci watched clouds furrowing the face of the moon and deeply breathed the still air. It was always this late hour that she chose her moment, not only for the clarity the slight chill gave her mind, but also the lesser risk of being seen or encountering another wolf. She had become most introverted of late, her days settling down into an intensely rigid structure of meditation and scavenging for food, with the most colourful hour this, the last, spent under the stars and moon with a bottle of something or other for company. Tonight it was an 'other' night. Caspa drew a glass vial from her sleeve and held it up, the pale amber liquid colourless in the low light. Gently she poured a few drops onto her right paw-pad, upheld to prevent drips, and lifted her hand to lick - but then a sound made her lift her eyes. She peered into dim greyscale shadows, scented the puppy, and then noticed the glint of silver scales, lacing the neck area of the little animal. Was she being attacked by the reptile? Caspa had no free hands, so she hoped not. A moment more watching told her the child was moving normally. She sighed and let the drops fall through her fingers, replaced the stopper in the vial, dropping it smoothly into her sleeve pocket and dusted away the remnants of liquid. "You are out late," she commented. "Be glad you found that snake before it found you. They see without light, I'm told."

Elvira Winters · 07-06-2011, 12:42 AM

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She stopped, staring warily at the creature. In passing they’d probably encountered one another at some point—Elvira didn’t care, and she’d always kept mostly to herself. Yellow eyes peered on—ears lifting forward at the sound of her voice on the evening air. The pale moonlight reflected from her coat, changing the creature into a ghastly spectre. Of course, she was the girl with the soft, plush body and the raptor eyes.

She could taste metal from where her teeth pierced the snake’s scales into the flesh below. She didn’t immediately say anything, half out of indifference, and half out of sheer unwillingness to put in the effort to clear her maw enough for words. “What is that?” she finally uttered, eyeing the place where the vial had vanished back into her sleeve.

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Caspa Al-Fateh · 07-06-2011, 04:37 AM

Although the pup was sumptuous and in many ways should have been irresistibly adorable, despite Caspa's marked lack of overt sentiment, she found herself more chilled than heart-warmed to catch those yellow eyes. After a glance towards the certainly dead snake, the half-eastern dog turned her eyes back skywards and frowned a little disapprovingly as if reproving the child for speaking with its mouth full, although really she was regretting having to answer the obvious question, regretting putting herself in the vulnerable position. Perhaps it was because she was still young and her mind not as sharp as training might make it, but she didn't notice that she was already acting a little as though the girl was a dangerous potential threat. It was a darker reflection of Caspa's habit of treating everybody as equal - child or adult, all deserved respect, or in this case, wariness. "Poison," she replied briefly. "Something like what is in that creature's fangs. Too much is dangerous, and any at all is too much. You should put it down." It was the last thing she needed, a puppy of the court accidentally killing itself on a cloudy night when they were alone together. But this puppy didn't seem like the clumsy or foolish type, so Caspa was not really concerned.

Elvira Winters · 07-08-2011, 03:08 AM

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The snake fell into a gentle coil at her feet, dead and slowly cooling as the warmth seeped from heated flesh through the holes in its skin. It wasn’t fear that had caused the creature to depart from her jaws. She just wished to have the ability to properly speak—interest piqued. “Poison?” she repeated, knowing warnings and stories, but nothing from personal experience. “Tell me more,” she demanded in her soft lilt.

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Caspa Al-Fateh · 07-14-2011, 07:44 PM

She left a beat after the child's words, a pause where her lids drooped to make her eyes even blacker than ever, the pupils indistinguishable, although they were trained steadily on her questioner. The request for information was impossible to ignore, and here by vague association was Caspa's field of expertise, though she would not mention the liquid in her possession. She had been trained in butchery, had tanned the leather she now wore, but had also learned much about the fittings of skins and organs belonging to a variety of creatures. She knelt on knees very used to kneeling and took the head of the snake in one hand, gently turning it to face upwards at the canine pair. A small squeeze opened the elastic jaw, revealed white moonlight incisors. "Poison means a substance that causes you harm." Caspa was not sure if this particular variety of snake carried poison, but she pointed anyway to the fleshy gum behind the tooth. "The snake holds it in a gland here, and it flows through a hollow channel in the tooth and into the flesh of the bitten." Her finger moved grimly along the path the venom would theoretically take, and finished up pointing roughly in Elvira's direction. Caspa did not think the puppy would frighten easily, but she should respect the dangers that nature's various beasts held. "There are several possible effects. Poisons can halt breathing, or stop the heart." She finished on a final-sounding note, having reached the limits of her knowledge and sure the youngster's mother knew far more than she - for Caspa assumed this was one of the healer's children, not that she'd met any of that family yet.

Elvira Winters · 07-25-2011, 03:38 PM

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Her mother was a healer. Even inadvertently she’d have picked up some knowledge of herbs, poisons, and other dangers that the world possessed. Of course, while her mother’s goal was to save lives and aid others, Elvira couldn’t help a fascination with darker, deadly things. She held no empathy. Instead, like a coiled snake, she wished to strike for no reason other than to see what damage she could inflict.

For the time being she was tiny and frail, but the dead creature now displayed so inelegantly had been small and venomous. Sharp eyes trained on the image, her teeth showing behind a feral smile. Envy showed in her hawk-like gaze. She listened with rapt attention. “How lovely,” she breathed in response, own canines exposed as though she’d truly become a reptile.

Caspa Al-Fateh · 08-02-2011, 07:12 AM

The will to destroy didn't mean anything to Caspa. Nothing would last forever, so where was the point of hastening its demise? Strength was in prolonging one's existence and by proxy, those around you who might help to protect you. The clan-raised dog had been taught to beware a mysterious faceless rabble of strangers, outsiders that had no dignity or empathy and just wanted to hurt. Cruel like children could be - like this child might turn out to be. But children grew up, the enmity-laden strangers could never escape the prison of their violent minds. Puppies had a chance because they could and must learn fellow-feeling to belong in a pack like theirs. How lovely. Caspa drew herself up tall, folding her arms and fixing Elvira with a severe expression. "Excuse me?" she said, tone icy. "It brings a slow and painful end, which no one deserves." She had done her utmost to warn the child, although far from seeming wary, the puppy was quite taken with the poisonous creature. It was true, the snake was beautiful to look at, especially the deadly flesh-machinery within its mouth. Something in Elvira's smile told Caspa she hadn't been thinking purely of the animal, though.

Elvira Winters · 08-07-2011, 08:25 PM

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i want to mix our blood and put it in the ground so you can never leave

Elvira was poisoned, right from the beginning. She’d been born cursed, of foul, tainted blood. She was less than an animal—less than instinct. She was a feral creature of nightmare alone, harming without purpose save personal amusement. She was far more wicked than the cat murdering solely through driven instinct, pawing the bird from the sky on whim and leaving it broken on the sidewalk.

The creature become irritated with her demeanor—with her answer. Yellow eyes trained on the woman’s, staring back without fear, without allowing herself to feel cowed or remorseful. She scoffed, contorting her expression into something distasteful. Each hair seemed to alight with some subtle electricity, feeling the fire rise at the slightest hint of provocation.

Caspa Al-Fateh · 08-07-2011, 08:45 PM

Caspa, with the complications of the philosopher, did not find it easy to handle the basic evil in nature. She always searched for loops and links of meaning, of a sense of rightness. The end result being impossible to see, was always the logical conclusion, and to fill that ambiguity was what some might call faith. To her, meaning was arrived at at the end of a lengthy and considering search. It was not the lowest common denominator, a simple lust for pleasure or pain. She accepted not every individual would torture their mind as much as she with debates and dilemmas, but she believed that such things as discipline and consideration could be taught - or enforced if necessary - and were right sensibilities to possess, worth aiming for. The puppy did not seem inclined to explain or reflect further, instead she reacted; anger pulsing through the small, disconcertingly appealing form. It was easier now to imagine her killing the snake, unless she had found it dead, but Caspa suspected the former. She reassessed the child then, and couldn't help but wonder if she simply bristled because Caspa had got her meaning wrong and she was offended. The lofty mongrel hoped so. "Perhaps I misunderstood you," she sighed, "if so, I apologise." Maybe, after all, the puppy did just think snakes were darn pretty. "What is your name?" Back on firmer ground with this, she hoped.

Elvira Winters · 08-08-2011, 10:44 PM

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The situation was to be amended. The fire died down to a low, perpetual ember, hiding away behind feral eyes. Her posture relaxed. The tenseness that had slipped into her muscles without her knowledge melted away. Even for her age, the lust was apparent in her demeanor, leaving Elvira a precocious little girl—disconcerting to anyone.

She desired things that were wrong, and wicked. Whether it was through her mother’s paranoia, or her own inherent nature, the hybrid would grow into something foul over time. For now, she was nothing more than an ill-tempered child with the eyes of a raptor. “Elvira,” she said, her soft, high voice again revealing her youth.

Caspa Al-Fateh · 08-21-2011, 07:28 AM

For Caspa, there was little more available for discernment than a contrary child, though she did have the feeling that her disdainful bad temper was stronger than the situation called for. Maybe she was a girl used to argument and being difficult to gain ground. Caspa thought of her brother Bazyl, and how others would fade beside his tantrums, and wondered if Elvira had siblings. "I am Caspa. I hope we can meet in a less sinister manner some time," she said, straight faced but amused within at the strangeness of the young woman and the girl child in the dark, each carrying poisons. It seemed funny, but not to her liking, and she hoped it was just an ironic coincidence, and not a portent of more darkness to come.

Elvira Winters · 09-05-2011, 02:36 PM

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She said nothing. Always, she was naturally on the defensive, and such words ruffled her feathers, even though they weren’t meant to. There was nothing save rage beneath the surface. She hadn’t found anything sinister here, and so immediately she took the words to be a gibe, calling her something sinister. Her eyes narrowed again as silence lingered on her lips, but she didn’t move.

Caspa Al-Fateh · 09-12-2011, 01:45 PM

Charcoal eyes took measure of Elvira. There could be no knowing what was going on behind that sweet visage. The girl was not choosing to honour Caspa with any measure of social graces, that was for sure. Of course, she was very young. Maybe she did not understand the word sinister, although its almost onomatopeic nature could probably be related to the snake one way or another. Come to think, Caspa should really be being more the responsible adult. A potentially venemous snake was definitely not a plaything. It was up to the whole pack to watch out for the youngest inhabitants, in Caspa's book. "Let me take that," she said stepping forward, then as if jumping to the conclusion that Elvira was unlikely to relinquish her serpent so easily, added the incentive "We should bring it inside where there is light - I could show you more of the inner workings, they are fascinating. If you like I could even make you something from the skin, maybe a purse, or some gloves..." But the poison, Caspa thought, I will keep if I can.

Elvira Winters · 09-14-2011, 11:13 PM

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As suspected, her words initially invoked ire, causing her body to draw toward the snake, protecting her prize. But the incentive came, luring her back—suspiciously, of course—enticed by the idea of further details regarding the serpent. Fascination grew, raptor eyes entranced, and slowly her lips drew back over milk-white teeth, veiling them from sight. “Show me,” she said. “Show me, now.”

Caspa Al-Fateh · 09-20-2011, 12:19 PM

As the pup withdrew from the corpse, Caspa scooped it up, not grabbing - not a snatch - but a swift and exact motion, crouching. At a level more near Elvira's, she let her eyes focus into the child's. "Demands and impatience? No way to treat someone doing you a favour." Then she stood up, and jerked her head towards the mansion. "A sharp knife and a light are the least we need to do this task without destroying the skin." She made for the entrance, snake swinging in her hand, not looking back.

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