Solace did not like it when Kagerus brought up her time in the afterlife, and she likes it even less when her wife speaks of the sense of belonging she had experienced in her time there. But although the topic makes her uncomfortable, the pale pegusus reminds herself that it is the past, and there was no benefit in concealing the truth.
But the familiar form of Panthera was one that always made Solace smile, and she lets the discomfort fade away. Kagerus was here with her now, they had each other, and whatever the future brought they would navigate when the time came. She was learning, little by little, to enjoy the moment.
But as if just to prove how fickle the world they lived in truly was, her sense of calm and belonging is suddenly shattered.
Her brother's soft smile becomes something terrible in an instant, and she feels her blood run cold. He luges for the vision of the other cat, but the failure to engage with that opponent leaves him looking for another. It all happens abruptly - the three of them are an explosion of action, and Solace reacts on instinct. Yellow fangs and flashing caws are swiftly flying towards her, and she is painfully aware of the fragile burden she carries. She had not attempted to use her phasing in over a year, and never while pregnant, but before she has the time to weigh her options, her body takes on a ghotly translucency. The frost in her mane and tail flurry wildly around the empty space where her body had been, and all around her a blue light shimmers.
Kagerus is in motion but Solace's eyes never leave the puma, even as the magic of her mate reaches to restrain him.
"Don't hurt him," her voice cracking with emotion, the words leave her as a command. She knows that Kagerus would never hurt Svedka intentionally, but in the moment, in the heat of panic, her words are fraught with an intensity she had rarely used with her wife.
The scene settles with the lion in tethers, and Solace steps forward. Her ghostly body moves with a liquidity as she brings herself face-to-face with the black eyes of her brother's lion-form. With the sunlight passing through her, she looks at him, seeing nothing she recognizes looking back at her. She takes a breath, her pulse still hammering, and tries to understand what has happened. Svedka was not behaving in the same way as all the shifters she had known. Her brow is knitted and worried, but with complete faith in Kagerus ability to restrain him, Solace becomes tangible once again.
As her body becomes solid, the storm of frost calms, falling gently into her mane again. Extending her neck, she closes the final inch of space between them to brush the velvet of the muzzle across his brow. "Svedka?" she asks, the unidentified musk she had scented on him earlier now making sense. "Are you there?"
we are the ever-living ghost of what once was
@[Kagerus] ooc conversation took place about the plowerplaying, i tried to leave his "restraints" vague so kag could fill in the details!
