Re: wild green stones

300+

OOC:

IC:


He felt the rush, the swarm of the head that came with doing, and away his breaths went as they toggled back into a regular pace. That was when he realized there were two strangers amongst him, and they would expect him to speak to them. The words, the thoughts, the eyes. The eyes. Mystery didn't want it, he didn't need it. He just wanted to be alone, or as alone as he could get since he could never be alone. Run run into the darkest reaches and you would still need to bring yourself along. The self is inescapable save for the one escape. And that one escape was inescapable, too. Then that feeling again, of the sky and the ground melting and somersaulting into one another like some twisted dream that made his stomach churn.

His eyes were chalky, blank like the dreary canvas of an overcast sky. He was still staring off into space, though his dark ear had lifted a ways, as if deciding to listen on its own accord after its master had left the floor. The dark doors hanging open with the breeze flowing through. “Th-the…” Mystery turned, eyes attempting to focus on the pair, but avoiding all eye contact. Never contact never never. A gradual snap or click, and the colour, the sharpness came back to his sights and things ran faster. But too fast, because now he could feel the panic filling his limbs. “W-w-watching?” Pretending not to know, even though he did know. To watch and not do, but he did do, and now he was here and his heart filled his ear canals. ‘Asking too many questions that one’ A total of one.

“I sh-should uh, j-just go. I h-have an e-errand for the th-thing b-before the sun a-and I get hungry it's f-funny,” he rambled, the string of words like cotton in his mouth. But when he was supposed to turn away, to leave, he found his legs wouldn't motion to get him far, the mania of that question driving him too far in. Were you watching. ‘You were observing’

(210)

--

Once the excitement of the moment had died away, her companion - Generosity - joined her at her side, seeming equals parts disheartened and unsure. Skylark, dissatisfied with this state of affairs, aimed a playful lick at the youth's shoulder, hoping to raise her spirits. "That's okay!" she replied, with an emphatic shake of her head, "it surprised me too - I didn't expect it to run out into the open like that." Leaning forward, she whispered conspiratorially, "between you and me, I think it was afraid of us; we make a pretty good team."

The words had scarcely left her lips when Generosity rounded her attention on their latest arrival, giving voice to what Sky presumed was the source of her apparent confusion. She had, for the moment, forgotten the other was there, but she quickly followed suit, offering a cordial smile and a lazy wag of her tail as they awaited a reply.

The stranger, however, did not quite meet her gaze, and her rambling response gave Sky pause. Brows furrowed in puzzlement, she fell silent for a few beats, trying to parse some meaning from her words. "What kind of errand?" she inquired finally, tilting her head to one side. That much, at least, she had caught.

(186)

The lick on her shoulder surprised her but Generosity didn't back away, only giving Skylark a curious look at the friendly gesture. She wasn't used to such familiarity, not even from her mother. Especially not her mother. She grew sheepish when she suggested the lizard was scared and that they made a great team. Flustered, she directed her attention elsewhere.

It so happened to land on their nameless companion. They were more of a nervous mess than she was and it made her calm down, strangely. Her own anxiety wasn't as important as the other's, even if their presence was something she found mysterious and strange. Their words were equally puzzling and Generosity found her ears laying against her head for a moment in confusion. She managed to get the gist of it, she assumed, and nodded at Skylark's words.

"M-maybe we can help you with the errand. And then get something to eat so you're not hungry," she said, her voice growing more confident. She felt like her idea was sound, and appealing. A good meal to beat the heat sounded great in her ears.

400+

OOC: The lizard didn't actually come back, Mystery is bein cray cray

IC:

The peppy dog, of good intentions busied herself in conversation about the lizard. But what was the lizard. Another thing with a shiny stripe, a good side, a flashy wave of hello and goodbye. It was one thing or another at a time all the time, Mystery knew. It was unsettling to think they were all just being pointed and prompted into different directions, perpetually, like a full circuit or a good book. The only thing that dragged him away from the tag-you're-it charade of the outside were the voices on the inside. The ones distant, speaking out from a crag steeped in black, that reminded him he was not alone.

“I ah…” he began wintry eyes reeling from the brisk and bright of summertime, the friendliness of the pair. They were not demonic voices, but that was exactly it. Or was that not the real problem, and the real problem was hiding behind another rock, the next lizard that would come careening from the dark. “I w-want to be alone,” he told them harshly, eyes aloft into the slow travelling clouds because he refused to look still. ‘Harsh’

Mystery frowned, feeling the pangs of guilt settling there, stones in his throat. ‘Quite,’ Crowley agreed, ‘but necessary’

“I mean, n-no…”

‘What’

“I d-don't, don't listen to me. We sh-should st-stay here a bit longer and—” and there from the rock the next lizard—or more accurately—the same lizard, was waving hello again. He saw the swift blue tail slip through some shorter tufts of grass and his legs tightened, his ears lifted. His mouth was drawn open, where it was when his words ended, as if at any moment something would crawl on out. But nothing, nothing but light blue eyes and the odd expression of a glassy, hyperactive stare where the grass had rustled without sound. Then he scrambled off, out toward where the next thing sat in wait, but when he arrived no such thing existed. Just the airy hiss of the grass being played by the wind, and the faint rush of his blood warming his face. ‘Looooser. Looser is losing it’

He shook his head, paced a small circle, tail waving in odd little tangents. “No I'm n-not.”

‘Gone gone gooone’

Mystery pawed the ground, eyes searching hard and fast in leering motions. The grass empty, the bushes empty, the world empty. Empty and full, fully empty and full of emptiness.

‘There was nothing there, dear’

“Th-there h-had to. It was s-so real.” Everything was so real. The next lizard and the previous. The current being the realest, compared to the last, then the next.