[004] Let me be your everlasting light

[themuseabandonsyou]

Who: Orpheus (themuseabandonsyou)
What: February Catch-all
When: Throughout February
Where: Earworm, Willful Machine, Cellar Door

Warnings: Potential mild sexual/suggestive content, mild body horror (partial beasthood), giant worm/slug being, background use of drugs/alcohol, discussion of NPC death (trampling), mild blood, transformative magical effects


I. Your sun when there is none
( cw: Potential mild sexual/suggestive content, mild body horror (partial beasthood), giant worm/slug being, background use of drugs/alcohol ) ( closed to Vyng and Eurydice )

The descent into Earworm from the aboveground entrance is... a little nervewracking! As a rule Orpheus tries to stay away from being underground whenever possible these days, but he guesses if Lady Bop really wanted to build her club miles deep that's sort of her prerogative? It's a sacrifice he's willing to make for the sake of trying to figure out how to make life her a little safer, at least, though as he, Vyng, and Eurydice descend he seems deeply torn at all times between wanting to glance at his wife to check on her and very much not wanting to do that. It's fine, he knows, but years of nightmares about being in the dark of the underground with her have taken their toll.

In any case, when they do finally make it there - sooner than Orpheus expected but also not nearly soon enough - and the doors to the great cavernous expanse of the club itself swing open, they're met with a veritable wall of noise. Orpheus flinches away from it, but somehow it seems to adjust down to more manageable levels, fading gently until it's a more tolerable sort of loud. Glancing around, he tries to take in as much of it as he can at a first look. It's a little hard to pay attention to much else other than the gigantic, sluglike being from which all the music seems to be emanating, though, and Orpheus stares for a long moment before trying to get the rest of his bearings. The club isn't as busy as it could be, but there's still quite a few citizens dancing and sitting in booths and at the bar for this early in the day, being served by similarly sluggy people carrying trays of drinks and bar food. The doorways lining the back wall are what catch his attention, though, posters and signs portraying people in various states of beasthood posing suggestively and winking or blowing kisses at the viewer.

He looks to Eurydice and Vyng. "Let's split up?" he says, loud enough to be heard over the throbbing percussion of Lady Bop's current song. "We'll meet up later and talk about what we find."

And with that, absolutely failing to elaborate on what he means by 'later,' he makes his way off in the direction of the stage, disappearing into the crowd. About an hour passes before he bumps into either Vyng or Eurydice again.

"I couldn't get an audience with Lady Bop?" he says, pulling them aside. "But I did talk to a few of the dancers! Oh, but what did you find?"

(There is, of course, also nothing stopping them from reconvening before Orpheus turns up again.)

II. I'm a shepherd for you
( closed to Manabu )

Orpheus does a fair amount of wandering, most days. He doesn't tend to work until afternoon and evening, entertaining at various cafes and bars in Cellar Door, but he's always been an early riser, so that tends to leave his mornings fairly open once he gets done with his chores around the house. To his credit, he has been much more careful about where he wanders recently, sticking to crowded-but-not-too-crowded thoroughfares and keeping Eurydice updated on his location via the Omni regularly, and is just taking a blurry photograph of an interesting looking storefront in Willful Machine for her when he nearly bumps into Manabu.

"Oh!" he says, backing up and fumbling with the Omni so as not to drop it before stuffing it back into his pocket. "Hi, Manabu! It's nice to see you again."

Sidestepping to get out of the way of the foot traffic and gesturing for the other man to follow, he beams, obviously pleased to see his friend again.

"What have you been up to recently? It's been a little while, hasn't it?"

III. And I'll guide you through
( cw: discussion of NPC death (trampling) ) ( OTA )

Another day means yet more wandering, and is proving to be mostly uneventful and sort of dreary to the point where Orpheus is considering turning around and going back home for risk of rain, right up until he spots them.

By all appearances, they're just a random Trenchie, all dressed in black frills and silver accents, but Orpheus stops dead in his tracks when he sees them, eyes flickering with a faint glow like an animal's eyes in the dark. They don't notice him staring at first, but it's hard to ignore when he darts across the street - forcing a horse-drawn carriage to stop short and takes them by the shoulders. The world around him seems to grow dimmer, shades of night drawing in and more reflective, subtle pinpoints of light like distant bestial eyes appear around him in pairs, all focused on the poor confused citizen as he begins to sing, almost frantically.

"In the mud and under hoof
Is where the bitter end will come
Try to tame them but they'll prove
More than your your efforts' greatest sum

The herd knows you are watching
The herd knows your intent
The herd has been so patient
But the last of it is spent

In the blood and under hoof
Is where the bitter end will come
The stallion that gets loose
Will end your days under the sun"

The Trenchie looks, rightfully, absolutely terrified by all this. Maybe someone should intervene.

IV. Let me be your everlasting light
( cw: mild blood, transformative magical effects ) ( OTA )

Ordinarily even Orpheus would be sort of wary about the notion of taking candy from eldritch strangers in exchange for his blood - he's trusting, but he's not that bad - but there is not anything remotely ordinary about the Chocolatier. As it stands, he winds up with a very small box of chocolates, and less blood in him than before, which he does feel a little bit worried about now that the strange figure is gone, actually, but there's no turning back now, he guesses? Curious and also feeling a little woozy after all of that, he considers one carefully before nibbling at it, intending to savor it like he tries to do with all sweets.

It's gone before he knows it, though, and with it comes an odd prickling sensation all over his skin. He looks down at his hands, watching as his fingernails elongate and thicken into hooked talons and the skin of his hands and forearms grow leathery and scaly. Feathers start to unfurl from his skin, along his upper arms and chest and cheekbones, and he feels a sudden pressure at his back growing stronger by the second - prompting him to hurriedly strip out of his jacket and shirt before a pair of large brown wings unfurl from his shoulders. He blinks, startled, before starting to laugh.

"Oh! It's this again," he says to himself, kicking off his shoes so as to avoid them being destroyed by more talons coming in. He seems in good spirits about it, and that continues as he makes his way to one of Cellar Door's parks, whistling a cheerful melody to himself.

V. Wildcard
T( OTA )

[ OOC: Want something else? Feel free to add me at questionableveracity on plurk or message me at quodVide#2951 on Discord!! ]

Comments

IV

[demonicbeauty]

Ariadne sort of understood how it happened. But for once in her life, she honestly didn't care. For once in her life, she decided not to mull over the consequences, the possible futures that might arise out of--an admittedly poor--choice on her part. Not now, anyway. Not when, for the first time since she was a little girl, she felt...whole again.

The wings on her back were black and feathered, stretching out almost double her length either side. It had felt uncomfortable at first. Before it felt...right. Still, taking to the sky again felt a lot like the first time.

Which was to say, it felt very clumsy and awkward. She pumped both her arms and her wings at the same time, and started jerking violently up and down, bouncing over the trees and nipping stray leaves. She felt her stomach drop out from under her and was afraid she was about to plummet. She braced her arms and that seemed to help.

All right, just her wings. Yes, she remembered making the same mistake the first time.

She gave a slow, languid push. And the air seemed to do the work for her. Shooting up in the sky, she cut through the moonlight. It all felt so free. She was alone in the open air, with a world all to herself. Pumping her wings, she went higher still, tilting to the left, to curve in a wide circle. Around and around, gliding back over the parks of the Cellar Door.

Ariadne was born to do it.

[themuseabandonsyou]

For his part, Orpheus doesn't take to the air immediately. He has vague memories of how rattling around in the recesses of his memory, the last vestiges of that alternate siren-self of his that he lived as for a while back in Deerington still clinging on. He's not yet certain enough of himself, though, and sticks to the ground for now, standing in the middle of the park and stretching them open experimentally, just trying to find his center of gravity again until he notices the large shadow pass through the moonlight overhead and looks up.

He doesn't recognize Ariadne from this distance, silhouetted against the sky as she is, but it's still exciting to see someone else clearly testing out a new set of wings. Emboldened by the possibility of having a companion in this, Orpheus breaks into a run, angling his wings to catch the air and kicking off the ground with a hard downstroke. He doesn't fly, not exactly, not moving quite fast enough to get there, but he does manage to launch himself onto a nearby rooftop, coming to a stumbling halt and bracing himself against a chimney.

Heart hammering from the exhilaration, he laughs with the pure excitement and joy of it, turning his face to the sky again and waving to the figure circling overhead as she passes. He doesn't expect her to come down, necessarily, but he wants her to know that he's here, too.

[demonicbeauty]

She heard the laugh from the world below and gazed down. She knew that laugh, but when she saw him he...well, he wasn't at all what she expected. It probably shouldn't have been surprising. The chocolates were transforming her. Why not someone else? All the same, it was jarring, at least, to see Orpheus transfigured.

Immediately, she swooped into a low arch, baking to the right as she swung back around, bringing herself down to the level of the rooftop.

If the landing was a little rough, well. She was out of practice after all.

Anyway, with the crunch of gravel, she was brought to a standstill, slowly rising up to her full (short) height, eyes wide as silver coins. "Orpheus?"

[themuseabandonsyou]

"Airy!"

Orpheus grins, eyes alight as he realizes it's his friend coming in for a landing. He straightens up, then staggers slightly as the weight of his wings threatens to topple him over, having to lean forward slightly to compensate.

"Look at you! Did you get a gift from the Chocolatier, too?"

The more cautious part of Orpheus, which has come to the fore more and more often in recent months, does sort of wonder if that's something to be excited about, rather than concerned. But, well. It's easy to ignore that aspect of himself, especially in the moment with all of this to be excited about instead. The candy at the music festival didn't turn bad, after all. Maybe this'll be the same?

[demonicbeauty]

She was honestly a little surprised that he was so upbeat. Many Humans tended to be very, very particular about their appearance. They didn't like it to change suddenly. But if he didn't mind, she supposed she wouldn't question him. Although it was a little hard not to gawk, if only because it was so strange.

Then again, she was probably strange too.

She spread her wings to their full length, going up on her toes to do a little pirouette for him. They were the deepest black, although they caught rainbows, like an oil slick. And though they weren't exactly scaled, they weren't exactly feathered either. A sort of funny hybrid of the two.

"This is what I would have looked like, if I'd grown up among my people," she said, raising those wings like hands, up to the sky, before she let them settle along the lines of her back. "I'm not sure the Chocolatier knew but...well. Maybe he did!"

[themuseabandonsyou]

Orpheus lights up when she spins for him, showing off her new wings, and only seems all the more excited when she explains.

"That's wonderful!" says Orpheus, though on some level he realizes that may actually have some troubling implications - he knows Airy had been afraid of people knowing what she was, back in Deerington, and that combined with her very distinct usual lack of wings could well mean something terrible had happened in the past. But she seems happy about it now, and far be it from him to try to dig at the details of what may be a sore subject. If she wants to bring it up, she can.

"You looked so graceful, up there. I tried to join you, but I only managed to make it up here, so far. It seems really difficult? Getting off the ground to start with."

[demonicbeauty]

Those implications were very, very real. But they were also very far from her mind, at the moment. She was too happy to think of sorrowful things.

"Well, there's also the Alastrian method," she said, "but I'm not sure you want to try that. It usually involves a parent pushing their child off of a very, very high tree." And it usually involved more than a few broken bones.

But that was the Alastrian way. Learning through hardship and struggle.

"Taking off from the ground is just about using your wings to create a pocket of air beneath you." She spread her wings to demonstrate, forcing them down hard enough to lift herself just a couple of feet, before she dropped back down to the ground again.

[unphase]

Tinya's never seen this particular person ever, but that seems to count for 99% of the population, given that this is only her second month here and she's been so busy trying to figure out why her inborn powers keep failing her. The pathway between the dimensions is still clear but try as she might, she can't slip between them the way she used to.

She's out, trying to get more of the lay of the land when she sees a man grab another person by the shoulders...and apparently predict their death? Because of a horse? That may be true, but the other person looks terrified and that's not okay.

She approaches with a warm smile, though there's an edge to her voice. "Do you do this often? Predict how others will die? You might want to let them go if you don't mind, they seem to have gotten the message."

[themuseabandonsyou]

"What?"

Fortunately, whatever came over Orpheus seems to have passed or at least ebbed enough that he's a little more aware of the world around him, and he looks over at the woman who he's sure just asked him a question. What was it again? It takes him a moment to catch up to the present, but when he does he looks back at the Trenchie and blinks in confusion before letting go, backing away with his hands up apologetically.

Predictably, they also back away, before breaking into a run and hurrying off down the street and into the crowd.

"Um," says Orpheus, turning back to the woman. "No? I mean, I Saw one of my friends die a few weeks ago." You can practically hear him pronounce the capital S in Saw. He seems pretty put-out about it, brows furrowing as he glances in the direction the Trenchie ran off in. "But I didn't understand that that's what was going to happen until it came to pass. This one was a lot clearer? I really hope they decide not to try to tame that horse."

He's a little too distracted by his own problems - or rather his getting mixed up in someone else's problems - to notice the signs of disapproval in the woman's tone.

[unphase]

An eyebrow rose slightly. "Did you, ah...not know what you'd done? Like a trance?"

She feels bad for the Tranchie, but there seems to be nothing she can do to help them. Especially since they're going to die by horse. She knows enough about time travel to know that interfering would be a really bad idea and might in fact lead to the whole horse trampling thing.

Tinya's still watching with a carefully polite and friendly expression. She knows from experience that she gets a better reaction when she keeps her cool than when she flies off the handle. The fact that he recently saw someone else die also makes her more inclined to talk things out, given how upset he seems. "That couldn't have been easy. Though, I've heard that those who die here get better in time. Is that true?"

The disapproval is mostly gone, leaning more into curiosity. The more she learns about this place and her fellow Sleepers, the better off she'll be.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Orpheus bites his lip slightly and nods. "Sort of? It just seemed really important that I tell them, once I recognized them, and I just... forgot everything else."

Though whether that's a result of the power in his blood or just the fact that Orpheus is kind of like that sometimes is a little bit up for grabs. It's probably a little bit of both. Either way, he nods at her question.

"Sleepers do, and Pthumerians, I think, but not anyone else. My friend was another Sleeper, so he's fine now?" Hence Orpheus's not seeming as rattled about it as he could be. "But we don't really know much about how it works here, yet. What the cost is."

He sighs, shaking his head.

"I'm guessing you're a Sleeper, though? Do you, um, need help with anything? I know it's hard, figuring things out after you've just washed up here."

[unphase]

"Ah...I have a teammate like that back home. She sees the future in dreams. She tends to forget, too," Tinya says. It's...not exactly relatable, but understandable when put like that.

Tinya has yet to explore the full depths of what she can do, too busy mourning the loss of the powers which were her bloodright. She knows she can generate fire, but has yet to even begin to discover the rest.

"That's good to know. How long does it usually take? Coming back from the dead," She did it once in her homeworld. Never in the other. The other made it seem nightmarish, but she's been through nightmares before. Temporarily being a squid is nothing compared to her dreams.

"Yes, I arrived here last month. So I'm still getting the lay of the land, the people who populate it, those sorts of things. And...do you have any powers from home you can't use here? That may seem like a terribly forward question, but I promise I'm going somewhere with it."

[themuseabandonsyou]

"Right," says Orpheus, frowning a little. "I usually See things when I'm playing," he gestures to the guitar on his back, "and if I don't try really hard I usually forget what I Saw right afterwards, so I try to write them into songs to make things easier to remember."

Usually it works, but sometimes it leads to him leaving out important details because he wasn't sure which details were the important ones. He thinks he's getting better at it, but even so.

"I don't think so, though," he says, in response to her question. Everything he could do back home has been working more or less as expected here, aside from not being able to calm Varian down properly when he'd turned into a beast. But admittedly that had been an unusual situation, and he's not sure he would've been able to do that anyway. "Why? Are you having trouble with something you used to be able to do?"

It seems like a solid guess, if she has a friend who could see the future, and is asking like this. He frowns, sympathetic.

[siriusly]

"Ouh--uh! He-hey...!"

Recognition doesn't hit Manabu the moment they nearly collide, but after a second or two and a few words of greeting in, his expression perks up as he catches on. His omen doesn't need that much time, already sniffing and pawing at Orpheus' shoes, tail a-wagging happily and hastening along with them as they move out of traffic.

For Manabu's part, he's only jostled for a moment, hastily crumpling the opening of the paper bag he'd been carrying as he hugs it to himself. By now it's clicked - Orpheus! Guitar guy! Deer...guy...! - and he's not so fussed as he would've been otherwise.

"Wow, yeah, it...really has, hasn't it? Sorry about that...are, are you doing okay?"

[themuseabandonsyou]

"I'm doing pretty well!" says Orpheus, brightly. Ultimately that might not be true by most peoples' standards - he did sort of have a vision of one of his best friends dying and another friend turning into a monster, completely fail to prevent it from coming to pass, get his leg badly burned by said monster, and deeply upset his wife with his disregard for his own safety - but, well. Orpheus is pretty good at bouncing back from his problems and taking things day to day. And so far today's been pretty okay! Most of it worked out relatively fine anyway. It's fine.

"What about you, though? Oh! Is that your omen with you?"

He leans down momentarily to offer them a hand to sniff or shake as they see fit, his own omen - a little brown plover with wide orange eyes - popping into visibility on his shoulder as he does so.

[siriusly]

"Aa, ye-yeah, Magnet..."

The hand gets a few sniffs before the dog shoves his head right into it for pets - it is a demand, not a request.

"Sorry, he's...kind of nosy. If he's bothering you, let me know."

[themuseabandonsyou]

"Oh, no, not at all," says Orpheus, beaming and scratching Magnet behind the ears. Dogs scare him a little bit these days, but it's mostly the very big ones that give him trouble. "It's nice to meet you, Magnet. Oh! And this is Aoede."

He gestures to the bird on his shoulder. "A pleasure!" she says, as he straightens back up again.

"Anyway," says Orpheus. "What have you been up to? I haven't seen you around much? But I guess that's easier here than in Deerington. This is a much bigger city."

So much more to do, so many more crowds to get lost in. He swears, if it weren't for the Omnis he'd never be able to coordinate with his friends well enough to find hardly any of them, save for the ones whose addresses he already knows.

[siriusly]

Manabu double-blinks at hearing the bird speak, involuntarily bowing politely because...well, what else is he going to do when a bird is greeting him?

He straightens back up, watching Orpheus give Magnet those pets.

"There was also a smoldering snake-monster roaming around," Manabu points out. "But I think it might've moved on." He shrugs. "Month-stuff."

[themuseabandonsyou]

"A smoldering snake-monster?" Orpheus parrots, he and Aoede both cocking their heads to the side in unison. "Do you think it was another Sleeper? Sometimes that kind of thing happens to us, here. Um, turning into beasts, that is."

And the notion of that happening twice so close together is sort of worrisome, actually. He gets that there are a lot of Sleepers in Trench, but, hm.

"I guess it might've been something else, though," he says, frowning. "But, are you okay? Did you run into it?"

I.

[spiritwalks]

With a drink in one hand and a club patron in a shimmery dress hanging on the other arm, Vyng's smile is relaxed when he spots Orpheus. After warmly pardoning himself to his companion, he saunters through the crowd to reach his friend.

"What did I find?" he echoes the question, gaze trailing toward the ceiling in thought. "Uhhh..."

Oh yeah. He came here for reasons other than just dicking around, didn't he. Vyng downs the rest of his drink and passes it off to one of the slug people (though not without a wink and a tiny piece of amethyst for their trouble).

Finally, his full attention is on Orpheus.

"Everyone I talked to had something different to say," Vyng admits. "One thing I noticed was that the people who incorporate beasthood into their dance routines are very experienced with it. It seems to involve a lot of mental and emotional work before you can do stuff like that reliably."

[themuseabandonsyou]

"Right," says Orpheus, chewing his lip thoughtfully. "The dancers I talked to said the same thing? That they'd been doing this for a long time, and that it's a little different for everybody."

Which makes a lot of sense. Beast forms seem to look pretty wildly different for everyone - no one here has the same amber horns or fiery breath that Varian had, or anything else he recognizes. Why wouldn't the internal process of becoming a beast be different too?

"So it probably isn't just Lady Bop making it safe for people? She may be doing - a lot, or a little, but either way there's a lot of work on the Sleeper's end that has to go into it too."

He frowns, considering how to phrase the idea he has that's starting to form.

"I just - I wonder, if someone can learn how to control it under these circumstances? Where it's safe, then would that help with controlling it when things are worse? Or is this kind of beasthood so different than what happens outside, that it wouldn't help at all?" It's something to think about, and Orpheus's gaze drifts back to the doors at the back of the club again.

[spiritwalks]

Vyng rubs his chin in thought.

"It might depend on how much stress the person is under," he points out. "Like, if you're doing a routine you've rehearsed a hundred times? That's gonna be way easier than harnessing your beasthood against one of those blood-crazed zealots. Not impossible, but...risky, for sure."

There probably isn't some 100% fool-proof way of controlling it, in other words. Hell, he can't even say the same about his own powers. Nature is just too raw and volatile.

"You know, back in the dream — and in my old world too — even I needed a little help with my shapeshifting sometimes," he admits. "It didn't even have to be complicated. Sometimes having a little emotional support was all I needed."

[themuseabandonsyou]

"Right," says Orpheus. "I remember helping you stop being a crow, the first time we met? And it seems like having other people around who can remind you of who you are is one of the biggest things that can help when someone turns into a beast. It's what brought Varian back, I think."

He frowns a little, before looking back at Vyng.

"I don't think it'd be easy, but... if learning something here could make it even the slightest bit easier to control if the worst happens? Even if it's not turning back, but just stopping yourself from hurting somebody, I think it's worth trying. Do you think that makes sense?"

Vyng's the expert, after all - or maybe Orpheus shouldn't think of him that way, given how very, obviously different his shapeshifting is from any of this. But it's the closest thing he's really got.

[spiritwalks]

"One-hundred percent, buddy," Vyng assures him. "Just because you go beast, doesn't mean you've gotta go beast. And I think a lot of Sleepers would love to know any tips and tricks to help 'em keep their heads on straight."

Even druidic shapeshifters had to content with their animal's instincts getting the better of them. Vyng himself occasionally felt waves of aggression when channeling predators, while prey could leave him on the jumpier side. Hell, sometimes he carried certain behaviors over into his person form. He still remembers the way Tuck needed to soothe him like a spooked horse the first time they met.

"I think you're right on the money about reminders of who you are," he adds. "Anchors were always an important component for what I did. In the Spirit World, we were anchored by loss. But in Trench, we're probably anchored by the bonds we create."

[themuseabandonsyou]

Orpheus nods along slowly, taking in what Vyng has to say.

"By loss?" he echoes, brows furrowing slightly in confusion. He's not sure he follows - being able to get back to yourself through your relationships to others, or reminders of yourself makes sense to him. But loss? "As in, grief? Or - something else?"

The general shape of how it could make sense is almost within reach, assuming of course that he's on the right track with regards to understanding what Vyng is saying in the first place, but it's still a bit beyond him. Closer is the notion of how focusing on something like that - using it as an anchor - could make things harder to come back to yourself. But Orpheus has never been someone who's been able to deal with loss in healthy ways, so maybe that's what he's missing.