thevoidsdarkhorse | Heart Game (Continued)

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From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[Nothing like BAD PINGS.]

[And now the whole group of them are after her, trying to snatch her up.]

From:

pawper

[this is what it's like to be the prey, to be the rabbit chased by the wolf

as she runs, she understands, and bears them no ill will; they need to eat, they're hungry, it's nothing personal

just survival, just an end to the horrific ache of starvation

she keeps running]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[They keep right on your tail and]

[Well]

[Long hair.]

From:

pawper

[once, she had cut off her hair because she had given up any personal right to femininity, because she had thought she needed to in order to survive

if she still has her knife, which she should (sword is too big now, the sheath slung over her back) she's whipping it out and behind her in a fierce slashing motion to cut away the hair they've grabbed]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[S-she actually has no weapons.]

[They kind of disappeared with the tiny.]

From:

pawper

[r u d e

going to yank and twist, hard as she can, to tear herself free even at the cost of being scalped]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[HEART IS VERY RUDE.]

[And they're closing in, reaching for her, mouths hungry, hair tugging out, skin pulling-]

[And then there's suddenly a whole lot of WHITE as white Carapacians appear, and start dogpiling on the black ones.]

From:

pawper

[squirming to get safely within their midst when and if she can, blinking at the white ones in dazed confusion

what a rabbit might feel when pinned by a wolf, only to be inexplicably saved by a hunter's arrow hitting the wolf between the eyes]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[The white ones keeping pulling away the black ones, though they seem disinclined to actually do REAL harm, but yeah, they're not letting go.]

[Another one is scooping up Hydra to carry her away.]

From:

pawper

[no real harm is good

after all, it's nothing personal

being carried away!!]

Ah....thank you. Will they be all right?

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[WHY YOU ASK THE AWKWARD QUESTIONS, DREAMER.]

[H-how about we get you home, yes, this is good.]

From:

pawper

[because hydra is awkwardly blunt

also rude don't ignore me]

....I hope they will be, for a little while at least. They were just hungry.

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[Yes.]

[Yes they were.]

[Safety first, little dreamer. Perhaps it is time to explain.]

From:

pawper

[Yes please since she's been flying by the seat of her pants

as carrying continues:]

Why did you help me? Aren't you hungry, too?

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[Patience, patience.]

[Time fast forwards, you're home, you're safe, helping the Carapacian treat your own injury, and they explains. Explains that there is a difference between Dersites and Prospitans. How you're a 'Dreamer' though the term confuses you, and how a Prospitan must never harm one, but for Dersites it's more just really, really bad form to do so before the start of the end. It's confusing, but you understand a few basic things.]

[When Carapacioans are hungry, they have a harder time controlling themselves, and they're all basically starving.]

[The reason you're protected is because of some role you don't understand and not because it's you and that HURTS more than the teeth did in your skin.]

[And no matter what, you are never completely safe outside your house.]

[Hydra is herself again, and she's in the basement. There's Roxy, only five years old, a bandage wrapped around her leg, and sorting through cans of food with a grim determination.]

From:

pawper

[depressing shit, that

.....ah, she remembers tiny roxy

so she knows to sit down quietly, put her hands where they can be fully seen, and say, slowly:]

Roxy.

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[This one is even tinier too.]

[And she jumps, like a startled rabbit, and whips around to face Hydra with wide, fearful eyes.]

From:

pawper

[she was expecting that, so she remains still]

I won't hurt you. I'm not even going to move without your okay.

[it's said slowly, calmly, sincerely, backed up by totally unguarded body language; she thinks about turning into a wolf, or at least trying to, but it doesn't seem like this roxy would remember anything to do with that]

From:

thevoidsdarkhorse

[The slow is appreciated. She flinches as she talks, a hand moving to her ear, and it takes a bit longer for her to parse out the words. She's not used to being TALKED AT and needing to RESPOND, always having all the time in the world.]

[But she makes the motions and don't move! Don't move at all, I can totally fight!!!]