i am hung with graveyard flowers;

[rhinemaid]

Who: Ilde Decima and Hasi; OPEN
What: The water helps her.
Where: The Gross Tar; initially near her waterfall territory in Raven's Gate, after that various areas.
When: Givdi with Hasi; open after that through Shundi.
Notes: Specify time/place (if not Raven's Gate) if you tag in, please!
Warnings: Descriptions of LM:A-related horrors to follow in the thread with Hasi; discussion of rape & related fall out in thread with Jae.

When she finally goes down to the water, it feels so good that she hates herself for a moment sliding in, her clothes on the bank under an illusion. It soaks into her skin like she belongs there and she's glad that she got there first, that Hasi isn't there yet, because sinking into it hurts a little and it's-- not anybody's business what internal conflicts she's having. She just died. She's allowed to feel...whatever this is that she's feeling, and whatever it is she's going to feel it at the bottom of the river for a while, her tail catching light as it flicks up before she dives.

She'll surface, eventually.

Comments

the following coardi; badside area?

[gramarye]

The Gross Tar is... n...ot the prettiest landscape option, but at least it's interesting. And in a way, sure, it has its own kind of beauty, if you squint and tilt your head, and let it never be said that Wolfgang is incapable of finding beauty in unlikely places. He really did like Bonetown.

At the very least, it's a good place to be alone -- people don't tend to get too close, so they leave him alone for the most part. He's thought a few times about fishing in it, but what he's seen watching others indicates that takes a bit of equipment, and also he's aware that people-slash-things live in there and it strikes him as maybe a little impolite. Also, he's dealt with both the Broad Arrow and the Militia before, and he'd rather not have his legs broken.

His head still feels foggy and it's hard for him to focus on anything for very long, another reason why he's come here to sit close to the bank, his arms resting on his knees and looking intently at something that isn't there -- he doesn't have to think too hard about anything. He's a little drunk, just enough so that he feels somewhat awful instead of complete shit, result being that he's lost track of time a little.

But it's not like he has anywhere to be.

the following coardi; badside area;

[rhinemaid]

Badside is further than she meant to go; she'd just started moving and she wasn't thinking about anything and that had been good, not thinking. Sooner or later, though, everything comes back and there's stillness and then there's something under the water where Wolfgang is staring. Eyes, blue-black and wide, staring right back at him, and then--

She doesn't surface, actually, not quite yet.

[gramarye]

When he realises he's actually looking at something -- it takes a while for his eyes to actually focus and for his brain to get around processing that sensory information -- he startles visibly. He hadn't expected anything to be in there this far out of the way. Up north, close to the beaches? In East and West Gidd, where it's lovely? Sure. Here? What is there here, except a bunch of sad, angry poor people.

He can't quite make out what it is, so instead of getting up and walking away on the off-chance it's something unfriendly, he leans forward and peers at it again, trying to see what's down there.

He's had the fear of death just about beaten out of him, and has yet to hear of anything bursting from the river to grab people with tentacles and drag them down to its silty depths. This week, anyway. Hi, Ilde, he sees you creepin' there.

vaguely near howl barrow; at the river bend

[fuckin_thirsty]

It's too dark for anyone to tell, unless you can taste the copper on the current, but when Deacon plunges his hands into the cold water, red lifts off into the inkiness like smoke, and vanishes again just like it. He brings his hands up again and palms the wet along his throat and beneath his jaw, smearing away the crimson in a sort of hack job of cleaning up a little.

The river seems less filthy here, with exception to this recent contamination. Cobblestone makes a harder divide than soft foreshore would allow and lets the vampire crouch to touch the river just inches beneath. His backdrop is the dim firefly sparkle of city, distanced and vague, a little bit of Howl Barrow on the upsides slope from the winding river that cuts through Baedal's heart at a fork. This particular patch is silent save for wind rustling the trees. This patch is probably a nice picnic spot. During the day.

It sort of makes for a good one at night, too, incidentally. That's with regard to the cooling body that Deacon grabs the ankle of, and unless given any reason to pause, the recently deceased young man, with his throat practically removed, will be tumbled carelessly into the river.

[rhinemaid]

Ilde is not in the mood.

It irritates her when they do this; there are various people in Baedal who've already learned the hard way not to toss their trash into the river, and while she's slightly warier about people whose trash is corpses, she's not any less irritable. Moreso, in fact. Living water is not a fucking graveyard--

--and maybe she's a little sensitive about that, this week. Maybe she can't be blamed.

The body slides into the water just as anticipated; a few moments later it's forcibly expelled, like it was levered out against something, and...yes, that's something remarkably like a crowbar that she found down there in the water in her hands when she surfaces.

"Don't do that."

[fuckin_thirsty]

As discussed, there aren't mermaids, or fairies, where Deacon was from. The presence of other supernatural beings may be a thing it takes more than a few months to grow accustomed to, and he's had enough negative hunting experiences that the concept of a corpse violently reanimating and talking in a new voice isn't entirely out of the question. He's half risen out of his crouch when the body splashes to the surface, startling and automatically gripping a handful of now water-logged shirt and hauling the great, loose-limbed thing off and away from him with a soft, animal-sounding snarl of annoyance.

Deacon's dressed darkly to disguise the run off from his feeding, but smears of red remain on his face, neck, his hands, though the most of it is washed clean. In comparison, Deacon is never in the mood to tolerate the bullshit of others, but he is at least having an okay night.

"It's a free river."

Veerdi evening; the fork in the river between Bonetown and Griss Twist

[wontturntofoam]

Shrieky was still a little reluctant about straying too far from the Valhalla Inn, but once he'd heard that there was a large body of water running through the city, the chances of him not finding it had quickly dwindled to nothing. He sat at the waters edge, one leg dangling over the side and submerged in the Gross Tar, the wetness plastering the cloth of his trouser leg against his skin.

What he would like to do, really, is just slip away from the bank and swim out into the water, then on as far as he can possibly go until he's exhausted. That's not really an option for him now, of course. He's fully aware that the ability to walk comes at the cost of the ability to swim as he used too, and that henceforward, plunging out into dark waters of unknown depth and danger is likely to end with him drowning.

So he resists the desire, instead contenting himself with keeping to the bank, trailing his leg through the water, and staring out into the darkness.

[rhinemaid]

Not all humans - and at first glimpse, that's all she thinks he is - come so close to the river-water. There are reasons for it, lots of different reasons, but they all mean that people dipping their bodyparts in the water is a little unusual. Enough that Ilde's natural curiosity surpasses her lack of interest in winning friends and influencing people; she swims towards him, knifelike in the water.

She stays under the water, for the moment, but she watches him from beneath it - near enough to be seen - watching to see if he does anything else.

[wontturntofoam]

It takes Shrieky some time to notice her there. He's trying to feel down the side of the bank with his one submerged foot, trying to see if he just stretches in a little deeper, if he'll be able to touch the bottom. It should be shallow at the sides, shouldn't it? Shallow enough, maybe that if he stayed near to the edge, he could slip into the water without any immediate risk of drowning?

From the position he's in though, there's no way of telling, so after a moment he withdraws his leg, and shifts around to lean forward over the water, trying to make out it's depth by sight. That is when he sees her watching him, and his heart almost stops.

His stomach twists with something that Shrieky can't identify, and without even thinking about it he's leaning too far forward. His face is breaking through the water's surface, and he's able to stare back at her properly, without the irritants of refraction and air interfering.

veerdi night. possibly. time is hard.

[boomvox]

Jae hasn't heard from Ilde in a while, and hasn't seen her on the network either - not that he's been being very social himself, since that broadcast. (He wasn't as traumatized by it as some other people were, but it didn't put him in the mood to bounce around and say hi to strangers.) But that guy, who network research showed knows Ilde, is from her world - that asshole - is back? And Megan's acting weird, and -

- a million other things, that he should ignore, but come eveningtime, he's across the street from his apartment building, halfway through way too many cocktails in a quiet bar. Texting.

Hey pretty lady. What's happening lately?

[rhinemaid]

The text back takes a little while - she has to decide whether or not she really feels like this, and sometimes she just feels bad about Jae knowing much about her world. It seems like some kind of cruelty and he understands too much to avoid realizing some things.

But.

I just got back this week.

[boomvox]

He doesn't know if he even expects a reply. He should probably stop bothering Ilde (that's what it feels like, bothering, maybe he should bother Hasibe or Six instead, but they're - well, miles beyond him, really). But there's not really anyone he's casually friendly with, and while he might not be there completely with Ilde, he feels like at least she probably understands if he has a fit of hating the silence.

It's a shitty thing to understand.

- He feels even worse when he gets her reply.

So it's probably a bad time.

The part of the river nearest to Flyside; Sukkardi evening

[studious_snake]

Nagas tended to like the water. Even if they weren't in it, they liked to be near it. That was what brought Jay out to the river that morning, staring into the water, almost hoping to see a fish swim close enough to the surface that he could snatch it up and swallow it should he so choose. However, when he saw something much larger than the fish he was picturing swimming below the surface, Jay went to the edge, kneeling down and staring deep into the water, trying to figure out what it was.

[rhinemaid]

A face takes shape under the water, eventually, coming close enough to be made out as she stares back up at him. The expression is easy to read, for once:

Dude, what?

She flicks her fingers up toward him, as if to suggest he is about to fall in if he doesn't mind himself.

[studious_snake]

Startled, Jay jumps back, hissing at the figure coming toward him. He's still close enough that she could probably pull him in if she really wanted, but he hoped his hissing might dissuade her. If not, he would change, because while he didn't want everyone knowing what he was he had the feeling that if she found her hands full of a writhing, venomous snake, she'd change her mind about whatever she had in mind.

[norea]

Hasi, Huan, and a bottle of champagne (light stuff for fairies with limited alcohol tolerance) come tripping down to the river. Ilde is underwater, but she senses her presence and location, so she leans against a concrete block near the riverbank to wait for her friend to surface. Huan peers thoughtfully at the water itself, as though debating the merits of dipping a paw in. He's a breed that's excellent in cold weather, so that's no deterrent.

[rhinemaid]

Ilde doesn't quite surface at first - she comes into Huan's view first, looking back up at him from underneath and tilting her head, half-smiling reflexively. She's fond of Hasi's dog.

She moves back from him a bit before she does come up, though, pushing herself to the surface until she's hip-deep in the water, smoothing her hair back over her shoulders and swallowing before she says, "Hello."

[norea]

There's a moment of glassy stillness from Hasibe (in stark contrast to the water, dressed in red, eyes like gold), she flicks her gaze over Ilde's face, her shoulders. She looks through; faqra see into the spirit of things, the transformations that the soul goes through when it leaves one plane and enters another. She sets her jaw, and she lets Ilde see that she knows.

"So it's true," she says, and she crouches down by the water to look Ilde in the eye. "You're back for good."

echomire, late sukkardi night/the wee hours of shundi

[fish]

The weather is cold, and he's been busy—well, busy being distracted—and it would be dead simple to justify staying at home in a pile of blankets on his night off... and yet.

And yet, here is Hamilton Fish, alone at the riverside, shoulders hunched as he slips out of his coat. Hanging it, and then his scarf, on a low branch. Glancing furtively toward the bank further downstream, at the long, pale coils of one of the Monster Garden's stone inhabitants. It is a serpent-like thing, massive, at once menacing and benign; he finds its presence comforting. A breeze moves his hair, and touches the bare skin of his neck, and soon his back, his hips, the rest of him.
As he steps into the shallows of the river, Fish is silent but open-mouthed—and then pursing his lips, showing his teeth to no one, whatever he can do to keep from— no, wait, he makes a noise as he crouches down, as the water meets his, er, undercarriage. It's kind of a squeak. From there he kneels quickly, blowing air past his lips in a rush.

Fish has brought with him a plastic bag, tied shut and bulging full of water, with small living things flitting inside; he clutches this now in both hands. Shivering hard, but determined nevertheless.

"Sooo... hi..."

Hi, mom. Hi, auntie.

[rhinemaid]

Ilde recognizes him, vaguely; she's seen him on the network before, she thinks, but she doesn't remember offhand if they've ever spoken. Maybe? Maybe not. He works at the inn, which she's inherently suspicious of, but this doesn't seem like he's doing anything bad...

She swims closer as he moves into the water, curious and watchful, and finally surfaces at the greeting that probably isn't actually directed at her in the first place.

"Hello. What are you doing?"

[fish]

"Uh..."

Oh, hi, I'm just sitting here in the middle of January (or whatever) freezing my balls off. ...No. He does freeze, though, in the bodily manner of speaking, and stares like—well, like he's been caught in the nude. Which he has. So that's neat.

"...saying hi?"

There's a glint of silver between his wrists. Movements in the bag, small and quick.

Sukkardi morning – under the bridge by Smog Bend, apparently.

[charismatic]

Will's walking to work today – not all the way, just from the central junction, but he's done less looking around for apartments on the way to work than is logical, most likely, so he might as well do it now. He's coming up on his last day at the Inn and he'd rather not stay longer, if he doesn't have to. It's probably because he's paying more attention to the surroundings than the people around him that he ends up stepping on someone's tail on the bridge – and Will's sense are still working fine, thanks, but knowing that someone's going to hit him doesn't help as much when that someone has anatomy that Will has never seen or imagined in his life.

It's an embarrassingly short fight. If Will weren't himself, he'd probably tease him about it. Still, he figures, while he's plummeting ass-first toward the water, it could be worse. He's not injured, he learned to swim when he was thirteen, and he's probably not going to get eaten by anything in the river. Hopefully.

[rhinemaid]

Probably.

He's probably not expecting the collision that ensues-- his weight collides with Ilde's hip and tail and the momentum drives them both further until Ilde gets her bearings under the water and then there are cold, small hands clutching in his shirt and around his arm. Her nails dig in, but she doesn't mean to, it's just that she isn't very strong and dragging him is hard; there's a moment where it seems like she's about to let go and then the water is pushing him up, too, faster than she could've pulled him.

Water doesn't usually do that, but it tends to roll over for Ilde like a kitten when she wants something.

late veerdi; just past smog bend

[supersonic]

The problem with Baedal, in Pietro's opinion – other than it being the approximate size of a shoebox for someone accustomed to doing laps around the equator to clear his head – is that there are too many people in it. Even at night, in the more populated parts of town, the city's significant nocturnal population ensures there is always someone on the street. He can't hardly find a decent stretch of road on which to build up his speed without having to dodge something.

Of course, roads aren't the only clear paths in Baedal.

Somewhere around Smog Bend, Pietro gets tired of avoiding people, and after a quick glance around, he hops the fence, takes a few long strides along the bank, and sets off onto the river. (Yes, onto the river.) The trick to this is maintaining his balance against the changing surface tension, and more importantly, keeping up his speed, fast enough to propel him forward before he sinks.

Which all goes quite well until a two-headed duck decides to land directly in his path. He swerves to one side with an undignified squawk, followed by a splash and a crash as he ricochets into the boardwalk. (At least he didn't land in the water?)

[rhinemaid]

The disturbance above the surface catches Ilde's attention and she interrupts it a few moments later, following the ripples, alarm and the flapping duck until she spots where Pietro collided with land and-- just goes over there, because 'is this any of my business' is not a question that it ever occurs to her to ask when it happens on the river.

Of course it's her business, fuck you.

"Did you just brake for a duck?"

...look.