Xaviers!

Posted: **Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:21 pm**

"And you haven't... had much of a chance to be soft," she muses.

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 1:03 am**

"Or desire." she scoffs. "I am the Living Nightmare, Keeper of the Dead."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:25 am**

"I think we're more alike than either of us is comfortable admitting."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 3:44 am**

That earns her a couple minutes of pointed silence from Cailleach as they glide back up into the darkness. It's only when she's nigh invisible save for the glow from her angler-fish bulbs that she speaks again. "This does not mean we're friends now."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 4:34 pm**

"Of course it doesn't. But pretending I could never be you isn't useful."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:06 pm**

"Don't scuttle your ambitions." Cailleach nods.

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:39 pm**

"And I've seen how you clean up," she... teases?

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:47 pm**

Cailleach recoils, only snap forward again, fins flared and illuminating her face that is twisted into empty, milky eyes and black skin that looks paper thin stretched over her cheekbones, hissing at Sam through thin, crooked teeth.

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:50 pm**

"Ah, yes. Maximum effort."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:56 pm**

"Better than being pretty pretty." she scoffs. "Could still leave you down here, see if you find your way back before something finds the tasty morsel."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:59 pm**

"You have your story you live in. I have mine."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 6:05 pm**

"Not if you throw me in a pit for having a little fun, take my Spark away." she grumbles, but starts swimming upwards again.

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 6:06 pm**

"You tried to make my girlfriends kill each other."

"You got off light."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 6:16 pm**

"Everyone... hiding their true selves. Thought the Little Ones glamour being torn away would show you. Thought I'd make your body show you. Thought I'd show the Wolf and the Fae. No one wants to be. Everyone here's so... boring. Show you this, you still don't get it." she mutters more to herself than really addressing Sam directly.

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 6:23 pm**

"And if I did what I wanted to you, I doubt you'd appreciate seeing me in full throat."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 6:33 pm**

"Always excuses. Didn't get that the first time we met, tried to scare you. But you're already afraid. Afraid of yourself. Always."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 6:43 pm**

"Sometimes I feel like, in a perfect world, I'd be the Morrigan with her wolves. That's been... pleasant, the times I've done it."

"But it's not a perfect world, is it? Yours or mine."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:26 pm**

"Sit in the woods. Eat a squirrel. Who will stop you? Who can stop you?"

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:38 pm**

"That tells me you didn't go all that deep when we were together."

The deep starts shifting around them. It's not obvious at first, dark as it is. But someone adapted to live in it might realize that the darkness isn't hers anymore, and that the comforting embrace of the sea is replaced by a breeze through trees on ground that hasn't seen the sun since those trees were young.

"But I can show you."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:48 pm**

The gradual transition (and metaphorical nature of it) means at least Cailleach doesn't flop to the ground like a literal fish out of water, though she seems to insist on retaining her Deep Sea Mermaid look. If she's uncomfortable she's doing her best not to show it. "S'called being dismissive. Doesn't mean I don't get it..." she says, scowling at her surroundings.

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:55 pm**

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep," she says, her shape blurring until Cailleach sees her clad only in warpaint, feathers woven into her wild hair.

"But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:13 pm**

"Still not seeing anything you couldn't do." she grins goadingly.

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:18 pm**

"I want them to stay."

"You remember what that's like, don't you?"

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:25 pm**

"No." she lies. "They see what I want them to see and I don't care what they think anymore!"

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:31 pm**

"You could make someone feel fear. You could pour the worst gut fear into them. You could craft a thousand cunning lies."

"But it's not as satisfying as the real thing, is it?"

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:36 pm**

"All fear becomes real when tooth and nail pierce skin."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:40 pm**

"Only works if devouring them is what you want in the end."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:43 pm**

"Why scare them if you're not going to feast on them?"

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:45 pm**

"Because after you've eaten them, you're just alone again."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:50 pm**

"Like being alone..."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:53 pm**

"Oh, is that why we're having this conversation?"

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:01 pm**

"Widening my understanding of the Deep, the Sparks. Growing stronger." she says as she slithers through the underbrush to peer around.

"And it's almost like talking to myself. A squishy and naive version of myself."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:08 pm**

Sam's deep is just as dark as that of her counterpart, and just as before it's certainly not empty. Every so often Cailleach is aware of presences near her, sometimes catching the shine of a pair of eyes.

All of it seems to keep a respectable distance from Sam. Just from Sam, though.

"Whatever helps you justify it."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:13 pm**

Cailleach doesn't seem to mind the beasties stalking her, if anything she's gazing into the woods curiously and changing course to approach them.

"Poor things... left to languish in your mind." she pointedly ignores Sam's very good point.

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:28 pm**

"They see the light, sometimes."

"But here is where they belong."

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 11:58 pm**

"Says you or says other people?"

Posted: **Thu Jul 23, 2020 11:59 pm**

"A fox in a forest is wildlife. A fox in a city is a nuisance."

Posted: **Fri Jul 24, 2020 1:34 am**

"Don't live in the city then, Fox. S'not metaphor to us."

Posted: **Fri Jul 24, 2020 2:04 am**

"Or everything is."

"Humans are part of the story I'm living."

Posted: **Fri Jul 24, 2020 2:13 am**

"S'a stupid story then. Like the stupid cartoon Conduit made me watch about stupid raccoons. Humans are overrated."

Xaviers!

...or can you?

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