the water creeps to my chest
#1
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Thread Information
Date: 17 October

Setting: The Waste

Time: Afternoon

Character Form: Optime

Word Count → 431 :: Thanks for threading with me! Big Grin My apologies for my rustiness as I get back into the swing of things.

It had only taken the Russian man a day or so to decide what it was that he needed to do first. Perhaps he wasn’t yet ready to face the woman herself, but Silas knew that his heart would ache until he at least heard something about the woman’s state of being. There was much he was sure to find out (and much he was curious to know) but it was the woman who had stolen his heart that came first. He’d gathered his belongings from his temporary shelter within the dilapidated buildings of Halifax’s harbor and then immediately trekked northeast. Though it had been quite some time since he had made this journey, somehow it was still familiar despite the slight changes in scenery.

By way of Arachnea’s Revenge, Silas drew ever closer to the coyote clan as he made his way towards the beaches of the Waste. Though both the water’s edge and the borders of Inferni were out of sight, the Russian could tell he was drawing nearer to both. The smell of the coyote clan wasn’t exactly how he had remembered it, but something in his brain recognized that it was in fact Inferni that lay not far from where he had managed to find himself. The taste of moisture in the air alerted him to the nearing shore, but Silas did not proceed. Instead, he ditched his bags along the rocky terrain and settled himself along a stony outcropping.

Clawed fingers reached for the pockets of his worn denim jeans and fished out the same collection of cigarettes he had first broken into upon his arrival to Nova Scotia. The silver container swung open on a hinge to reveal almost a dozen rolled cigarettes, from which the Russian plucked one. Though within one of the bags he carried the man had more dried plants to roll into papers, he always made sure to have a supply ready for the smoking. The one he procured now was solely comprised of dried tobacco leaves. He did, however, have a couple containing cannabis.

With the cigarette held gently between his teeth, Silas lit the end with a match before returning the cigarette case and matches to his worn pocket. The journey had hardly been arduous or warranted a cigarette break, but the task before him had elevated his nerves. Before he was to discover the state of things, Silas needed to calm his nerves. Spending time by the shore with a cigarette in hand had always been one of the easiest ways to put the Russian’s soul at ease.


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#2
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390
I see no rust. Big Grin


The grasses of the Waste tickled her scarred forelegs as she trotted outside of Inferni territory, blue eyes scanning the lands south of her territory. There was a restlessness to her pace and to the swing of her tail, almost as if the one-eared coyote was daring for someone, something to show up and give her some sport. The world of the coyotes had been more or less quiet after the hurricane ravaged the land, and while the peacetime allowed for relaxation and growth, it allowed for little else, and she was starved of some sort of stimulation.

Vesper reflected that this was one problem with settling down in a clan; as a loner she’d been constantly moving, constantly adjusting to new lands and meeting new canines, attempting to balance her life among her available contacts and her own intuition. Inferni was safe but stagnant, and all she wanted was a little meeting or a particularly interesting hunt to shake matters up. She knew that the peace wouldn’t last forever—that was just the nature of things among these wolf packs—but she wanted a little sport while she waited and prepared for the day trouble started up again.

It was for this reason that, when the wind shifted and she caught a tinge of smoke somewhat like the cigarettes the former Aquila had favored on occasion, she did not ignore the stranger in favor of returning to her clan. Instead, her ear swiveled forward and her nostrils flared, bringing in more clues to the whole picture, until the wind changed on her once again. Her eyes narrowed briefly, and then she began a bounding run that brought her along the rocks nearer the forest, the silhouette of a Luperci now visible on the outcropping. She knew she’d be in plain sight to him, and hoped that their more-or-less shared species meant there wouldn’t be reason for quarrel.

Vesper was silent when her Lupus form finally reached a jutting stone near but not quite connected to his ledge. She tilted her head, inhaled more of the smoke, and offered him a look she hoped meant she was here out of curiosity. She didn’t want to bother him if he wasn’t in the mood for a chat, but this was far more interesting than wading through the grassland looking for rabbits.


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#3
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Word Count → 298 :: You're too kind. Big Grin

For a moment, the Russian allowed both icy blue eyes to be veiled by dark lids. Nothing but the sound of the distant shore, the slight breeze, and his own breath as he blindly lifted the cigarette to his muzzle reaching his ears. He tried not to think about all the things he needed to do, and instead tried to focus on the serenity of this moment. It was a trick he had learned to help put himself at ease; when Silas opened his eyes after a brief time, he found his nerves much calmer than just moments before.

The advance of another did not alarm him, but blue eyes did search for the company. This was the second person he had come across since his return to Nova Scotia and he was not surprised to see that it was not someone he instantly recognized. The lands had changed since his departure, and it was clear Silas could no longer consider himself a native of these lands. No words were exchanged as the stranger made their advance, and Silas remained in the same state of ease that he had achieved upon lighting his cigarette. It was only when the woman drew so near that he could speak to her in comfortable, effortless tones that he decided to break the silence.

"Smoke?" He lifted his hand out to her, offering the cigarette if she so chose to accept it from him. The scars adorning her body along with a lonely ear told the man that this coyote woman was a warrior of some sorts, but he did not suspect that she was here for a scuffle. In fact, there seemed to be a strange tranquility between them. However he did suspect that she had come from the coyote clan.


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#4
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Mah post is cruddilicious!


The hybrid stranger was definitely a memorable character, with black and tan fur and dark hair tamed by a blue headband. His eyes, too, were blue: a pale, icy color not unlike hers. He had piercings, scars, a tattoo, but her survey of him ended there. Her gaze was drawn to the cigarette between his fingers as he held it out to her, and he spoke a single accented word in question, one that made her smirk wryly.

“I’ve never tried, but if you want to hold it for me…” Vesper drawled smoothly, lifting up a forepaw to showcase her lack of thumbs. She supposed she could shift into Optime to make this easier, but she preferred her birth form outside of the safety of Inferni. She hesitated, measuring him and how much she could trust him, and made a gesture that asked him to wait a moment before stepping back as she let the change take over her body. It was a faster transition than it used to be, but not as fast as practiced Ortus shifters.

She was infinitely relaxed once the change was completed, sitting and running her fingers through her short hair to pretend she wasn’t shaken. She then reached out for the cigarette, turning it around in her claws curiously before putting the right end to her lips.

The coywolf wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but as the smoke filled her lungs she parted her jaws and coughed out a few puffs like a dragon with a cold. Eyes watering, she looked at him questioningly. “Why do you Luperci breathe this stuff?” she asked hoarsely, and coughed again.

“I’m Vesper,” she introduced after she’d sucked in cleaner air. “From Inferni.” She wondered if that’d mean anything to him.


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#5
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Word Count → 321 :: Lies!

The way the woman’s words fell away told Silas he should be patient and he nodded as the woman made a gesture and then took a step back so that she might shift. Pale gaze shifted away from her then, looking for nothing particular amongst the horizon while she abandoned her birth form for the moment. When she at last reached out for the cigarette, Silas handed it over without protest. His hand fell gently back to his side as he exhaled the last drag he had taken into the cool air above his head.

When she became racked with a small fit of coughing, Silas directed his gaze to her once more. There was no judgment in his features, for he easily remembered his first few times smoking. In fact, he was more focused on the woman’s face. Despite the fact that she displayed visible signs of battles past, Silas decided that Vesper was unconventionally attractive. The unique coloring of her pelt combined with a comparably icy stare gave the women an allure quite unlike anything he had encountered before.

"You get used to eet after awhile," he told her at last, speaking of the burning she undoubtedly was experiencing within her throat. "Eet eases your body, relieves stress. After awhile eet juzt habit," he admitted, with a light shrug. He found it somewhat amusing that she said "you Luperci' as if she were not among them, though didn’t comment on it.

"Silas," he told her in response, eyes searching for his cigarette and subconsciously awaiting his next drag. It was no surprise to him to hear that she came from Inferni. He had pegged it from the start, but it seemed as if Vesper were easily an Inferni stereotype. A slight smile found his lips then, and he nodded his head softly to her words. "‘ow ees zhe clan? I used to be een eets ranks many monzhs ago."

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