[P] silence like a cancer grows

[Anonymous]

A N O N Y M O U S The wraith didn't even flinch as the blade crossed his cheek. Anonymous found himself admiring that staunch resilience as he waited for the reply. It was strange though, out of place. Someone who resisted pain was either immune to it altogether, or at least showed signs of feeling it, the effort to resist and remain calm. The brute did not reveal any of these qualities. His gold and turquoise began to roam the lines of the other's body, the golden and ragged mane and tail, when the wraith began to chuckle. It is a cold, unfeeling laugh, cut off abruptly by a single word. "Only." It's not a word, it's a name. Amusement dances in Anon's eyes, but he neither smiles nor laughs. He is in no position to tease about names, after all, he chose to call himself "Anonymous." It seemed fitting, but that did not make it any less strange. The bay considers Only's request to finish the introduction. Should he gift the wraith with his name? He hesitates a moment before making his decision. "I am Emrys." The name of a childhood friend. Perhaps someday he will reveal his identity to Only, but not when he is such a stranger still. Only, the cocky bastard, begins chuckling, then outright laughing. Glee dances in those emerald eyes. Such a strange creature this one was. He jerked his head toward the east. "I thought you were looking for the Rapax. What keeps you planted here, gawking at me?" A cold drawl, contrasting from the heat of the moment just before. Then a mischevious glimmer appears in those dual-colored eyes. "Perhaps you just can't stand to leave me? I know I'm a handsome bastard." Gods strike him down, he could be so full of himself sometimes. But Anonymous can't help himself. Teasing this strange stallion is bringing more enjoyment than he expected. @Only

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[Only]

...



I thought you were looking for the  Rapax?

Oh right, that was a thing.
Stephan cannot remember a lick of what 'Emrys' must have told him, them, Only.
Now it is Only's turn to laugh but it is easy for Stephan to staunch that soft-boy's racket.

His ears come together as he rolls a shoulder, the whole of him slinky and serpent-like with how thin, black, and slick he looks.  "I changed my mind -" Stephan says rather firmly in defense.  His tail snaps hard against his own flanks, left-to-right, as if to punctuate how serious he is.  It doesn't help that he pins his toxic green eyes on him again, his mood unreadable  "I find you much more interesting but don't flatter yourself Emrys, perhaps I am standing here just long enough to figure out what it is I am going to do to you."  A bluff. 

Convincing.

Whatever it is that Only thinks he will find on the banks of the Rapax River will have to wait, Stephan's interests differ greatly in times like this.  That, and he isn't sure whether he feels angry, vengeful, or downright thrilled that Emrys has taken something from him that he feels is rather intimate.

"I am surprised you didn't want to lick it off your knives - was there ever a time in your life when you would have done such a thing?"  He speaks from experience - because Stephan is the kind of guy who (in the heat of the moment) would like the blood off of his knife if the moment was horrible enough.  His boss, Mr. Whatever, had known true terror before dying - Stephan had seen to it. Now he was in pieces all over the backyard and the loveliest roses grew in all the places Stephan saw it fit to bury all the parts.  

At least Mother had been happy with the garden after that.

"Maybe I just want to spend time with you."  He dropped quite forwardly.

"Maybe you are more interesting than Rapax."  

At that Stephan cants his head to the side in such a way that the golden hair slides off his long 'S' of a neck that already houses a terrible and obvious scar across his throat.  Stephan knows the pathway to Death quite well, he has walked it many times with open eyes and a calm mind.  His cheek gleams pink and wet and raw in the dark and the scent of blood is fresh in the air.  Even though Stephan shows no signs of pain where Emrys has hurt him it is clear as day that he is aware of it - too aware.  It stings and stings and stings so much that he cannot help how watery his eyes are in trying to hold back the constant twinging of the cut.

"You smell like piñion fires and it reminded me of home.  For once, I realize that I do not completely detest the company I am with."   Stephan admits quite shamelessly, head held high as he maintains his pride despite admitting something rather personal about himself. 

.only
thief for hire
lesser telekinesis

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are called but few are chosen.

@Anonymous  "Emrys"

[Anonymous]

A N O N Y M O U S The skinny beast rolls his shoulder, and as he announces the change of mind he swats his own flanks hard with his tail. He cocks a brow, the corners of his lips quirking up in a barely conceived smile. Emerald eyes meet the turquoise and gold ones. "Don't flatter yourself." He says, taunting. And yet, here you are flattering me. How comical. Only trying to decide what to do with him? 'I am nobody's prey or plaything.' He wants to say, but doesn't, because the wraith continues to speak. And Anonymous was ever the good listener. The energy between them seems to rise - barely noticeable at first, growing with each word that Only speaks, each word that Anonymous doesn't. Would he have licked the blood off his knives? Perhaps. If the moment called to him, but it hadn't. Not this time. Still the thought rings in his head: You don't know this creature. Protect yourself, your identity at all costs. And now Only confesses he wants to spend time with Anonymous. His onyx wings extend smoothly, silently from his body, feathers ruffling as he stretches them, then tucks them back in loosely. The flattery (however suspicious, that thought nagged in his mind) made his blood pound again. He feels it coursing through him, making his nerves tingle with excitement. Is he really so susceptible to flattery? Sure, when he hasn't had a kind word of any sort said to him in so long. Plus there's something about this Only that intrigues him. Still his eyes sparkle, and his ears prick forward, but otherwise he remains still and quiet. Only exposes his throat, and Anonymous sees that he is clearly not the first one to wound the bastard. The scar across the black's throat is not the only one marring his hide. Numerous wounds scar him, even more than Anonymous has hidden over his body. Anon's scars have healed well, having been treated well, and they are faint across his body. "You smell like piñion fires." Not despising the company he keeps? A curious statement. Clearly there's more to this Only than meets the eye. It occurs to me that the one that speaks now is so different than the pathetic wraith that first called out to the assassin hidden among the trees. There's more to him than meets the eye. Something in Anonymous clicks, changes. He takes a step closer, then another, and another. He's close to Only now, so close, and whatever personal bubbles either of them might have had have been lapped over each other. He breathes in the scent of the skinny male. It's pungent, like bloody roses. He extends a wing up and over Only's back, circling him, ending where he's standing at a 45 degree angle from the bleeding head. Anonymous lets a sexy grin spread on his face, and he murmurs. "You would never detest me, not with the.. entertainment.. I could provide you." He wonders, will Only take his words at face value? Or catch the double entendre delivered on a silver platter. @Only

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[Only]

You would never detest me -  

They'd kill each other before it got that far.  

- not with the ..entertainment.. I could provide you

"Oh?"

The silence.  It grows.

It grows the way bones do.  Slowly, surely, with reason, with purpose.  Anonymous is wise not to answer anymore of Stephan's obvious questions.  Anonymous is brilliant not to ask any of his own. Emrys is confident enough to know that with one touch - he can command all of Stephan's attention at the tip of a feather.  His ears are alert, forward, his eyes like a jackal's fiercely sharp and full of a hunger that is different than the one that describes the chill that runs down his spine.  It was a hunger that surpassed that, the chill that settles into his shoulders and fill his belly full of fire is different than the terrible desire to find prey.

Emrys is dangerous. Only warns Stephan this time - he is the one bound in the rope at the bottom of the basement.  Stephan is different, however, he has the body so he has the mind and when he gets it (as he has now) - he can open the door to hear his better half shout some sort of a warning to him before he closes the door again.  Only, that poor fool, it is not the same for him - he is weak and so when he walks in that same body he hears Stephan, day in - day out.  Laughing.

Inside of Stephan's head it is eerily silent as he lets the door slip from his fingers and creak shut - forcing the darkness on Only to go mad in his mind, all alone.  The silence grows - it grows old.  It grows big, it frails, it weakens, it eventually cracks.  Stephan heeds Only's warning but gladly wanders into his cautionary warning as if it were a dark forest full of knives and snapping jaws.  Emrys circles him and makes him feel very small underneath his shadow but he moves with care not to leave himself unguarded.  

"Come with me.  I know where to go." 

The silence breaks.  The marrow spills out and turns to ash.  Stephan pushes Only far away from him now - so far away he barely exists to him.  

You can go now. We are through here.  He dismisses Only.  Stephan leaves the house and dumps the keys into the well that is in the front yard.  He exits the gate and turns left to leave completely.  

Amare grows darker (if that is even possible) and the trees grow thicker.  The running water runs away from them now and in the distance it gurgles, splutters, then falls silent as Stephan takes them away.  

He stops when the ground grows cool beneath their feet and sparkles like granite in the dappled starlight, the breeze is cooler here with it coming off of the water (Rapax Stephan remembers now, Only's secrets can never be kept from him) and the air is crisp with fresh pine.  He takes a long moment to breathe it in deep - too many times has he spent long nights in the woods to bury the bodies when it came time to let another one go.

 Stephan reaches up and reassures Emrys without words that he's welcome to this encounter - this stranger in the woods cannot do much worse to him than what has already been done before.  Perhaps he is stupid for trusting that Emrys will not straight up kill him with his daggers...but again, Stephan will welcome it - he has been counting down the days until he'll make sure that Only stays quiet for good.  If Stephan cannot have complete control - then neither of them can.  

In the dark, however, Emrys should only trust Stephan so much.  In all of that growing silence the snake has been keen on getting an eye for an eye - if it sparks a violent struggle then so be it - Emrys will get what is coming - he'll get what he is owed.

The cut on Stephan's cheek glows hot red in his nerves and that is all the drive he needs to pull the dagger from his sheath and send it straight up between them.  It flies crooked but it flies true, and his mind drives the blade into his flesh, rends it apart in a crooked swoop.  When he smells blood the connection splits and the knife loses all life and falls softly on the loam between them.

"Butterfingers?"  Stephan suggested, stepping back from him once but not giving himself any clearance from getting hit.  His suggestion could easily be translated as 'sorry, not sorry'.

.only
thief for hire
low-functioning telekinesis

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are called but few are chosen.

@Anonymous  "Anony-mouse"

[Anonymous]

A N O N Y M O U S Only remains still under the feathery touch, and Anonymous wonders if the thrill he feels is felt by the other as well. His eyes sparkle, but his lids are getting heavier with each passing breath. 'Come with me, I know where to go.' Anonymous lets a dark, raw chuckle bubble up his throat. It was unbidden but... not inappropriate or misplaced. There is a tug between the two males, one of power, intelligence, and certainly sexual tension. Where it came from, who knows. One the predator, the other the prey, then it switches. Switches again. Under the cover of darkness, thickening darkness, they are equals. Dark hooves step softly behind Only, following the slightly smaller stallion. They pass beneath the trees, over a ground sprinkled with pine needles. The scent of the woods fills his nostrils and.. that musky scent heavier than before. It ripples through him, the heat in him growing, twisting, burning. His arousal is no secret now, no longer hinted but explicitly displayed. Just as Anonymous realizes that his mind has grown fuzzy, a haze settling on his thoughts, his reflexes... Just then, Only uses his own power to lift a dagger from its sheath, upward to cut across his right cheek, a mirror image of the wound he had given Only. Despite his surprise, his eyes only display hunger, and a chill runs down his spine. The wound is more jagged than the elegant slice that he had delivered earlier. Another chuckle rumbles from his chest. The knife has already fallen to the ground. Anonymous lifts it up with his mind, then, keeping eye contact with those golden-green gems, he smoothly licks his own blood from one side of the dagger. He moves it to Only's unmarred cheek, and finishes wiping the blade there. He returns it safely to its scabbard once more. Butterfingers indeed. He steps forward and puts his darkened lips next to Only's ear, then whispers huskily. "Something tells me, it's only going to get worse." --FADE TO BLACK. WE WENT THERE.-- @Only | I'll throw up another post after this, post-FTB.

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[Only]

Something tells me, it's only going to get worse. "It does." Stephan says with a menacing gleam in his eyes. "It does." --- It shouldn't be as cold as it is.   Or is it hot? The dreams he dreams are of a stranger in black coming to meet him in the dark, it is raining but Only - dreaming - doesn't care.  The stranger begins to move toward him and he does not panic, he just waits.  The world bends in pitches, colors, and temperatures - it is as if the dream breathes the way Only breathes.  Why would it do that?  And why does the grass feel like velvet?  Why is his head moist? Wake up.  Something inside of him stirs.  The body in the trunk is not dead but it is alive, very very alive.  He drops his shovel as the stranger comes closer - closer... 'Emrys?' Only feels his dream pull away from him at the sound of the stranger's name, a mutual energy exchange is all it takes for him to wake up from a dream that is not his but Stephan's.   'N-'  No! He wants to shout in disbelief but sees 'Emrys' beside him.  Only's eyes widen in shock as they take in the deep black of the stallion's face curled in, the runes are his only clue to know that he himself must have never left the creek to go back home last night.  Did I check the Rapax?  Did I make it? He doubts it.  The dream burns off like late morning smog leaving Only with the short pieces he knows but he is sure he knows enough by the way his body aches all over.  The taste of blood is sweet on his tongue, still fresh and he realizes it comes from a split lip.  A fight? Perhaps.  He goes to pull up as quietly as he can but meets resistance.  Grudgingly, Only feels his ears curl inward as he noses into the runes on Emrys's neck, he does not understand why he inhales the wild fire smell on the man with such reverie.  Its when his own skin crawls remembering pleasure that Only's stomach lurches with the anxiety.  He has to be free, he has to find the Rapax! "Emrys - Emrys, get up.  You are on my tail."   .only

@Anonymous Sorry this isn't my usual kind of response. Only woke up instead of Stephan. :x

[Anonymous]

A N O N Y M O U S It felt good, their bodies together. Some parts of the memory are blurred, some parts in vivid detail. The explicit details -- those are burned in his mind. He feels no guilt, no sense of the unnatural, of sin. Some part of the "find a princess, marry her, rule the kingdom" routine was not properly drilled into his mind. Bodies exist to serve, to pleasure. Who is on the giving or receiving end matters little. And body is a little sore, tired after their evening together. Just before waking, the thought comes to him as it always does after sex: "was it good for you too?" But what he doesn't want to admit is.. this is his first time with another male. There's no shame, but his mind whirls. He is roused by the press of something velvet to his neck. His dual colored eyes flutter open to see a dark muzzle nudging him, decorated with golden green eyes. He groans, body stiffening as he stretches. The barely smaller stallion, Only, is curled up against his barrel, nosing his nighttime companion awake. 'Emrys- get up! You're on my tail!' Anonymous grunts and rises slowly, lifting himself up to a standing position. The tension between the two stallions has faded, their urges satisfied during the night. The dawn light peeks through the tree tops, shedding rays upon the males. The wickedness that he had seen the night before seems to have faded from Only's eyes. It makes him curious, but perhaps all the boy just needed a good fuck. He puts the thought into the back of his mind, believing it to be irrelevant. He shakes out his neck and head, then stretches again more like a cat this time, his forelegs in front of him. "That was satisfying." His voice is a rough purr, conveying a satiated lust of the beast inside. He extends a dark leg to nudge the back of the wraith. "Maybe we can do it again sometime." He drawls, a smug look coming over his face. He spreads his wings, stepping away now toward the clearing. He is about to leave, the tension clear in his appendages, but he hesitates and looks back over his shoulder. "And the name is.. Anonymous." And then he was gone. @Only

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[sid]

STAFF EDIT*** @lauren has claimed signos for completing this thread, sent to @rostislav's account
@Parade / @Only has claimed signos for completing this thread and 1st time with Lauren.