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    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


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    [mature]  until the ashes of eden fall; daddy and khari
    #1
    Kali had been trying to visit Uncle Ru. It was a trip she’d made a hundred times, sneaking from Ischia to Taiga for a visit and to play, but this time...this time things were different. A wall of thorns blocked her path, and before she could find her way through it or around it or over it...everything changed.

    She’d been a pretty sheltered kid, had never so much as seen anyone bleeding beyond the bumps and bruises of childhood. So when a voice crashed through her and told her to run, when a volcano went off and all hell broke loose, she was utterly unprepared for what felt like her perfect little world suddenly ending. The water flooding in wasn’t so scary; she could walk above it, balance precariously on its rushing surface. But there were others who weren’t so lucky.

    So she’d tried to help, to find Uncle Ru or his pretty fire friend, or her friend Jinju, or anybody she could help get out. But while she was struggling with the border, the devil came and twisted fire and water into monstrous creatures, the stuff of nightmares; Lily burned a hole through the wall and it was all she saw of her, as the fiery woman dove back into the danger to find Ru or help any Taigans she could find to escape.

    And Kali tried to follow, tried to do the same. But as soon as she crossed through the charred, mangled hole in the wall, she became a target. One of the lava monsters had reached for her, spitting fire and just grazing her skin, leaving charred hair and a burned patch across her shoulder. Worse still was the water beast that turned friend into foe, claws and teeth reaching for her, snatching at her and spewing water down her throat, her nostrils, choking, drowning, stealing the breath from her lungs. Her body had bent and twisted wildly, desperate to slip free of its slick grasp, and she had run back through the hole in the wall and far, far away across the water until she couldn’t run anymore.

    Her Khari had heard the screaming that echoed in her head when her voice wouldn’t work, when words turned to ash in her mouth and all she could do was stare with hollow eyes as the waves rolled beneath her, haunted by fire and death and destruction, by shrieks and cries of agony and the feel of water filling her lungs and trying to drag her under.

    He’d found her and wrapped himself around her, tucking her up against his side and snuggling her with his wings and holding her so close she could almost feel herself sinking into his skin, and still all she could do was stare at the water, watch the way the light danced on its surface and wonder how anything could dance in a world like this. How anything could breathe through the choking, clinging smoke that rose and billowed in the air, through the ash that rained down and blanketed her coat, turning the lavender and white parts of her into soft grey to match the rest. Her lungs still ached from breathing that air, from having it stolen away, her throat was raw from screaming and choking and retching, and everything felt so heavy. So she rested her head on his shoulder, tucked up safe and sound. He’d always keep her safe.

    But how could he protect her from that?

    As time passed and her Khari still couldn’t get through to her, he reached out to their dad instead, called him with his beautiful mind, showed him where to find them out on the vast, rolling ocean. And so Daddy came, a shimmering impossibility racing across water that should have swallowed him down. He scooped them up, wrapped around them to hold them close, and carried them away somewhere solid and high above the destruction that still raged in the world below.

    And they held her, her daddy and her Khari both, tending to the burn on her shoulder and trying so hard to tend to the ache in her soul. It was days before she spoke, her voice still cracking and gravelly though it was healing by now, repairing damage from the smoke and the drowning and the screaming. “Where’s Mom and Kylie?” she croaked out, looking around for them, brow furrowing in a frown as she realized they weren’t there. The frown quickly turned to panic, and she thrashed and struggled to get her feet beneath her to go find them, to make sure they were safe.

    “It’s okay, baby. They’re still in Ischia, safe and sound. Easy, love, I’ve got you. We’ve got you,” Daddy crooned, and she gave in, and fell back against her Khari’s side and drifted quickly into an exhausted sleep.

    A few days more, and the horror hadn’t really faded from her eyes. But she leaned into Daddy, looked up at him with big brown eyes quietly pleading. “I want Mommy and Kylie too,” she said softly, the grit and gravel starting to fade by now. “Can we go home, Daddy?”

    And Daddy could never resist her. “Of course, baby girl. We can do that.” He’d pulled her closer, snuggling her up against his chest, tucking her beneath his chin, and just holding her for a long moment. “Yeah, angel eyes, we can go home.”

    ((We checked in and got the okay for time to have gone kinda wonky for these guys on the Mountain and it only be a short time on their end since they disappeared. M-tagged because Kirby is in it and realistically speaking it's just safer that way. XD))
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    #2
    By the time Kharon got in touch, I was about frantic with worry. Kylin and Lacey were safe and sound, untouched by the fucking disaster that had become of Taiga. But Kali and Kharon had a tendency to sneak off, Kali to visit her Uncle Ru, and Kharon to keep Kali out of danger. Well. There was only so much of this level of danger he could keep her out of, especially if she snuck off without telling anybody again. And she sure as hell didn’t tell me or her mom.

    So yeah I was riiiight in that sweet spot of panicking but not quite bad enough to let it show, had already pretty much handed Ischia over to Ea and asked her and Caw to watch over Kylin for me and set out looking for the two of them when I heard his beautiful goddamn voice in my mind, calling me to him, showing me where to find them. Because my Kali baby needed help. And if that didn’t send my heartbeat fuckin’ skyrocketing nothing ever would, you know?

    So I ran, thanking whatever gods existed and whatever quirk of my fucked up bloodline was responsible for my miraculous ability to walk across the surface of the water instead of sinking like the iron weight I was. And damn but I had to run far - Kali in a panic could move.

    Kid kept in contact, and we played a frantic game of Marco Polo ‘til I caught sight of them, little flashes of my lavender and white on the water, without the metallic gleam of iron flesh. Ran straight over and wrapped them up in an iron hug that lifted them up off the water and onto me, sorta melded my flesh into the right shape to carry them, no big deal. Baby needs a horse trailer, baby gets a horse trailer, it’s cool.

    Perks of being my shiny-ass self, I guess, whatever, point being.

    Scooped up my kiddos, had Kharon fill me in while I carted them up to higher ground. Not that flood waters or ocean waves were much concern to me or mine, but there was disaster still raging in Taiga and I’ll admit I wasn’t at my best. Shiny badass warrior fairy had helped me out once before, giving me back my shine and throwing magic into my veins to restore other people’s powers.

    Maybe she’d lend a hand again. Give my baby girl some time to heal, maybe help out with that fucking burn on her shoulder that Kharon filled me in on while he was filling me in on everything else that had fucking gone down. Or alternatively, we could find ourselves completely alone on a giant-ass mountainside with no helpful fairies in sight. Whatever, at least it was quiet and far away from the imminent danger of Taiga’s crazy fucking destructo-rampage.

    We cuddled and fussed over our little angel eyes for days, while she stayed basically cata-fucking-tonic and scared the everliving shit out of us. Quietly fretted and tried to keep it together for each other while baby girl was trapped in her own little nightmare world in her head, dealing with the horror and shit. Kharon kept trying to reach her, to coax her out of it bit by bit, but it took time.

    We tucked her up between the two of us, Kharon and I, and she clung to her brother’s side, barely letting him get up to tend to basic needs, and only then if she had me to cling to, if I wrapped her up in warm iron that had no right to be comfortable and only managed it because I’m fucking magic, okay? and held her the whole time he was gone. A body’s gotta piss now and again, sorry, angel eyes.

    Other than a quick little panic about her mom and her sister, she was absolutely silent. For fucking days. Long, endless fucking days during which Kharon and I switched back and forth between talking out loud so she’d have the soothing sound of familiar voices to listen to, and using his gift to communicate silently. We waited, and we held her and loved on her and did what little we could to comfort her.

    ‘Til she looked up at us with dark brown eyes that had never been full of her momma’s haunted sadness before. Sadness I put in those angel eyes the first time ‘round in a different face just as beautiful. Sadness I’d never been able to chase away, was probably the wrong person to chase away. Something broke in my baby girl, and it broke my fucking heart. So yeah, if she wanted to go home and see her momma and her big sis, I’d give it a shot.

    Anything to try and ease some of that hurting, take away some of that heartache.

    You okay with heading home, son? Stupid question, of course. If it was what Kali wanted, he’d do anything to give it to her. But it still felt important to ask.
    Bite my shiny metal ass.
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    #3
    kharon
    He'd been terrified. They all had been. And still were, to some degree.

    Dad would pace, and worry --in his mind. Physically, they both held on to Kali, and she held on to them. She wouldn't speak, and that's what Dad was mentally pacing and worrying over the most. She wouldn't even speak to him and he tried not to let it get to him. Hadn't he once meant everything to her?

    She still did to him.

    He sort of shut down emotionally, maybe. In a way. He certainly didn't feel like he was really feeling all of this. He knew he would normally be hurt that after all this silence and clinging, after all his fussing and curling up with her in her mind, trying to coax her to at least think to him, it was Dad that she spoke first to. Not him.

    He supposed that might have been when he shut down, actually.

    So he was here for them, but he wasn't. Here was his body, his supporting shoulder, his gentle touch. Here was whatever they needed. A hug. A smile. A kiss on a cheek.

    But he wasn't really here.
    And neither was Kylin.
    Or Mom. Or Reilly. Or baby Baddie boy.

    But neither was Kylin.
    He'd been everything to Kylin.

    You okay with heading home, son?
    His grey eyes turned to Dad, registering slowly because he wasn't here just then. He blinked, and nodded. His Kali baby wanted to be home. He did too. They all did.

    Yes, he forced out quietly into Dad's mind. And he carefully rose to his feet, magnificent wings stretching as he so gently, delicately helped Kali up too. He brushed a kiss on her cheek, the last of so many useless touches in this place. Smiled for her.

    "Come on, Kali. Let's get you home so we can see everyone. I bet Momma misses you. Kylin too. Reilly and Baddie. Sounds good, doesn't it?" She had already said as much, sort of. But mostly he was just talking for her, letting her hear his voice. Maybe it helps even a little.
    Quotes are speech. Italics are telepathy
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