She could feel the tangible heat of his fury radiating through her palm, pulsing through him with a barely contained rage.[break][break]

Half of her expected him to at least shout at her, or to even strike her as he had struck down all these men for lesser crimes against him.[break][break]

Instead, he asked her an impossible question. As usual, she'd be the one disappointing him.[break][break]

"I don't know," was her honest admission. "There's no easy answer to achieve trust with someone, Matias. People don't work that way."[break][break]

I don't work that way, she amended in her mind.[break][break]

"You've already lied to me once. Steps forward are slower than steps back."[break][break]

There was no accounting for his unpredictable moods, however, or the violence they might inspire. She opted for patience with him, fingers running through his hair as she kept her voice soft and low.[break][break]

"But this is a good start, isn't it? Fighting together here like this."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission.(x19)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

As it held itself against the ZYGARDE's earth-shaking power, the rot of RUINATION didn't spare Wo-chien's chosen Avatar, either. Her name also rested upon the Tablets of Ruin that fed its spite.[break][break]

"MORE," that voice commanded her, gleeful in its insistence to be fed. "THIS is what OUR suffering is DESTINED to overcome. MORE!"[break][break]

The sight of freya morningstar's writhing agony flashed through her mind's eye, and the primal terror it invoked in her left her far too aware of Wo-chien's sudden invasive plumbing of her mind.[break][break]

Wo-chien rooted around the hallways of Elisabeth's memory with childish impatience, carelessly tossing open doorways to the horror show that had characterized the worst decade of her life. It paused for her reaction then, the way a human might crassly lick the salt from their fingers to prolong the taste of an exquisite meal, before rummaging for more grudges to savor.[break][break]

And what a rife collection of resentments it had to choose from.[break][break]

"MORE." She relived the isolation of being discarded after giving up everything for a man she thought she loved.[break][break]

"MORE." She relived the humiliation of being exposed and exploited by him and by others for their own selfish gain, betrayed over and over again.[break][break]

"MORE." She relived the loss of her sanity -- first in name, then in reality -- as that man took even her own sense of self from her.[break][break]

"MORE." She relived so many goddamn days spent slowly killing that man, knowing that ungodly act would kill her humanity, too.[break][break]

"MORE!" She relived the hollow emptiness that awaited her the day he died at her own hands, that ache forever haunting her.[break][break]

"MORE!"

[break]

Would killing FERNANDO SILPH leave her empty, too?

[break]

"Stop!" A sob broke out from her throat as Elisabeth keeled over, the sheer weight of Wo-chien's mental demands as dense as a hammer repeatedly shattering against her psyche. "Stop," she begged it again, having been made to bleed for the Ruinous Beast one too many times. "I can't..."[break][break]

I can't keep doing this, a tiny voice pleaded with her patron as she knelt on the ground. You'll kill me.[break][break]

With RUINATION complete, ochre eyes swiveled about the premises, just in time to see the flames burning away the encasement that its chosen Avatar had hidden herself behind.[break][break]

Stop, it heard her beg again, and Wo-chien's indignation at the audacity of this ask reared its head with an ugly vengeance, sneering at this weak and unexpectedly exhausted source of once-unending sustenance.[break][break]

Who was this mortal, to deny a god what it wanted?[break][break]

"Coward," slithered a dissatisfied voice in her ear, reeking with disdain. "We do not BEG. We are a GOD. We TAKE."[break][break]

Carmine eyes blinked back tears as she attempted to find her footing, meeting its gaze across the battlefield. Wo-chien looked upon her, and for the first time, it could not understand what this woman thought or felt when it gazed upon her.[break][break]

Again, the strings were pulled. Again, the sting of her rejection cut through the Ruinous Beast like ice.[break][break]

"You'd dare deny our power?" roared an unfathomably enraged voice in her ears, buzzing like locusts to eat at what shreds of restraint still held her back. "THEN SUFFER ITS ABSENCE."[break][break]

All at once, a SPRINGTIDE STORM howled around them, scattering blackened petals and rot as the Ruinous Beast at its center vanished into the nearby fog.[break][break]

She had to be taught better, yes. She had to know her place. She would need to be reminded who was the master and who was the mastered, here. It would let her suffer, just enough to save her. To show her that she needed its guidance. Her insubordination required punishment.[break][break]

Betrayal was inevitable, it seemed, whether it came from a source human or divine.[break][break]

Stripped of the walls she'd built to defend herself and abandoned by her Divine patron, Elisabeth now faced the unflinching stare of her enemies, knowing she had but seconds to act. Her existing Pokemon had been distracted from her; she had no time to summon the army needed to defend herself now.[break][break]

If only her shadow wasn't shackled here. She wasn't too proud to run.[break][break]

"Coward," came that voice again in her mind, dismissive and cruel in a way that felt almost comfortingly familiar. "Suffer, then. That is all we know how to do, isn't it?"[break][break]

No, she insisted, shaking off that self-defeating thought with newfound clarity. I know how to survive, too.[break][break]

"Are you the trainer or the trained," a different voice taunted, and that strengthened her resolve as she pulled her palms apart in a familiar stance. Pink mist blossomed forth from their center, spreading out as she summoned the god that had never seemed to view her as its own.[break][break]

But they'd made a deal, she and that goddess.[break][break]

And gods were bound by their oaths as much as mortals.[break][break]

"Tapu Fini!" she shouted to the sky, aware this bid for survival might be her last. "I have held up my part of the deal. I call upon you now to answer yours!"

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH freya morningstar[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x17)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

The seaweed washing upon the coast stirred faintly, as if caught in an ill wind. One slimy strand of algae slithered towards the woman and her Pokemon on the sands, seeking to grab it like a grasping hand into the dark sea.[break][break]

"All alone? Bold of you." a feminine voice taunted from the shadows, creeping in with the sea breeze. Standing in the darkness, a woman emerged from a submarine that crested the ocean's surface, the look in her eyes flashing with cruelty and determination. "A Ranger, I'm guessing? Well. No matter."[break][break]

A peculiarly colored OVERQWIL emerged from the waves, shooting forth SPIKES that threatened the path of the Pokemon visible on the sand. Behind it, a NIHILEGO bobbed in mid-air, preparing a ROCK TOMB to prevent the trainer from escaping too easily.[break][break]

"You've encroached on Rocket territory," she continued, making her way leisurely to shore. "I'm afraid I'll have to punish you for that. Unless you're willing to surrender now?"

[attr="class","ooc"] Yuina Higashi[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission.[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

Her back suddenly pressed against smooth rock, a forgotten PRECIPICE BLADE left jutting out from the earth to deny her retreat further. She lifted her chin, his blistering retort weathered in stony silence as she witnessed the anger -- and hurt, perhaps? -- flashing in his eyes.[break][break]

"Did it ever occur to you that I don't trust anyone?" she asked him, her own voice icy in answer in to his heated outcry. "Only a fool follows anyone blindly. Everyone is capable of betrayal. I just don't forget my own reality."[break][break]

Her parents. The men she'd loved. The loved ones she'd thought would stand by her, only to abandon her at every turn.[break][break]

Even gods, she silently suspected, discarded their Avatars like toys when it suited them.[break][break]

But perhaps he didn't yet understand that truth. Perhaps he was not like her, a stray Delcatty that knew better than to trust in human hands for warmth and kindness. It took only one cruel hand to teach you differently.[break][break]

The iciness in her tone abated. Her own hand reached towards his cheek to soothe his bruised ego, hoping to placate him. Dry blood stained her fingertips, leaving them red.[break][break]

"In this world, the dead don't always stay dead," she reminded him gently. "But sometimes they do, Matias. Don't risk that fate for yourself needlessly."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission.(x18)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

The hostile Pokemon converged on the Ruinous Beast from all sides, pathetic little scavengers that they were. Flames spewed and sputtered all around Wo-chien's SPIKY SHIELD, seeking to swallow it whole with Lyune's rage, as an irritable meat-sack of a man screamed for its lackeys to exterminate it on command.[break][break]

To be blunt, Wo-chien preferred its meals to remain silent.[break][break]

Neither freya morningstar nor FERNANDO SILPH had seen the true power that a Ruinous Beast could conjure. They had not witnessed jayden cross's pact with Chien-Pao in the Cave of Origin, or how a tundra frozen with HATE had thrust a room of Avatars and criminals into chaos and confusion. But they would learn, Wo-chien decided.[break][break]

If they wished to battle the Beast alone, so be it. They would discover the might of RUINATION for themselves.[break][break]

The Tablets of Ruin burned once more on Wo-chien's back, the familiar names of both its prey lighting up as if invoked by an ancient curse. A coalescing storm crackled with thunderous dark energies, while the nearby terrain blackened as Wo-chien drew upon the wealth of resentment and grudges that had scattered across this barren landscape.[break][break]

The lifeforce of their Pokemon, the humans themselves, and what little plant life existed in this underground place all felt the strain of Wo-chien's demands.[break][break]

Satisfied by its greed, the building RUINATION released with explosive purpose. It repelled back all the encroaching silhouettes with a single mental push, its after-effects thoroughly blighting the cavern.[break][break]

Nothing here escaped the gravity well of its hunger.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH freya morningstar[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x16)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

Within her self-woven cocoon of twisting vines, she attempted to hear herself think.[break][break]

freya morningstar's taunts whispered through the cracks of this imperfect fortress, and rather than answer them in words, Elisabeth castled herself in place. Inhaling deeply, she breathed out more of the BERSERK FOG to form a thin barrier against her attackers -- enough, perhaps, to keep them at bay.[break][break]

I refuse to die here, she thought desperately, even as she remained somewhat blind to events beyond her garden wall. There has to be a way out, if not a way to win.[break][break]

But would she be allowed to flee, even if she wanted to? Would Wo-chien let her evade this vengeance they'd both conspired so desperately to achieve?[break][break]

Would Tapu Fini, for that matter?[break][break]

The sound of her Tsareena's complaint at being lifted like a ragdoll was punctuated by a HIGH JUMP KICK, one that served more of a means of creating distance between the Terastallized Pokemon and the Mega-Glalie than a true attack. In the thin sliver of time that elapsed, the Zygarde received the opening it needed.[break][break]

The Ruinous Beast screamed in protest as the GLARE arrested it in place, paralyzed and denied its sinful indulgence.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x15)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

Her perception of time evaporated as she watched what felt like a thousand actions take place at once around her. An unsteady hand pressed against her forehead as she fought to center herself in a world that refused to stay still.[break][break]

She didn't even feel real to herself, like this. It felt like she was a figment in someone else's dream, suddenly made aware she existed only to be forgotten upon waking.[break][break]

Carmine eyes darted back and forth, watching the Pokemon that belonged to her acting on what seemed like their own accord.[break][break]

Her Tsareena jumped back as the Salamence's massive paw swiped for her Nihilego, crushing its dome beneath thick vines that mimicked her own. They spread wide in a FRENZY PLANT that stretched into a formidable barrier, defending the dragon and its white-haired mistress against--[break][break]

Elisabeth's gaze froze upon Wo-chien, as if seeing it for the first time.[break][break]

The enormous, hulking snail pulsed with its own slobbering greed, its GIGA DRAIN sucking all the life that surrounded freya morningstar with hideous wanting. Its ochre eyes looked upon her as a craving to be sated -- a thing to be consumed and discarded.[break][break]

A familiar jolt of fear sliced through Elisabeth like a knife, one that had once sent her running through the Petalburg Woods to flee this creature's inevitable grasp.[break][break]

That beast will kill you, a panicked reminder clawed back through her, a long-suppressed survival instinct that now rang loud and clear with its own desperation to be heard. You can only trust yourself, Elisa. You know this. You have always known this.[break][break]

What was a woman like her to the gods of this universe, if not some laughable plaything? Hadn't Tapu Fini abandoned her here, too?[break][break]

Had the figure in the mist been right, then? Had she damned herself to her death with her own greed?

[break]

Suddenly she remembered she had a body, and it moved just in time to see the ZYGARDE burst onto the field, thrusting the earth apart with the wrath of LAND'S END.[break][break]

The entire world seemed to split open, throwing every piece on the board into chaos.[break][break]

Wo-chien hissed with undisguised fury as both FERNANDO SILPH and freya morningstar acted to prevent it from consuming its fill. A tantrum manifested as BURNING JEALOUSY, searing through the plants impeding its scrabbling path to the woman it now hungered for most. The Tsareena answered her god-general's call to act as defense against the Zygarde, her DRAINING KISS seeking to delay its pursuit of the Ruinous Beast.[break][break]

Out of the corner of Elisabeth's eye, FERNANDO SILPH lunged forward from his previous confined state, and the dynamic abruptly flipped on its head as Elisabeth felt herself become the prey in this game of cat-and-mouse.[break][break]

Letting herself be distracted by the councilman was a mistake she'd pay for dearly.[break][break]

The arrow she herself had gifted freya morningstar pierced Elisabeth's soft flesh with cruel accuracy, narrowly avoiding her anxiously pounding heart. A choked scream announced her fall to her knees, before a hand pulled on the arrow so that it snapped in half. Useless Naganadel poison filtered into her bloodstream, believed powerful enough to kill a god.[break][break]

The true demons lived on, whether you wanted them to or not.[break][break]

Again the thicket of thorns and briars rose in answer to her beckoning call, but this time, they formed a semi-circle around her in towering defense.[break][break]

She now had no allies here, god or mortal alike.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x14)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

A delicious cacophony of agony ripped from FERNANDO SILPH as RUINATION struck, writhing in performative defiance of the vines that Wo-chien's Avatar wielded to lash him in place. Immense satisfaction rattled throughout Wo-chien's entire being, sated by the way his misery awakened the memory of her own.[break][break]

"Is it enough?" the Ruinous Beast goaded, the intrusive thought seeping into the woman's mind with an almost giddy excitement. "Has he suffered enough, to know what we have suffered?"[break][break]

Already it knew the answer, a piteous and small voice that whispered in the depths of her heart: It will never be enough. Nothing will ever be enough.[break][break]

How marvelously futile it all was. An empty, miserable void of discontent served as the perfect platter to feast upon, and Wo-chien planned to engorge itself thoroughly.[break][break]

Until this new scent disoriented and distracted it.[break][break]

No two resentments quite tasted the same. Some were weak and paltry flavors, no better than dishwater to sip upon: something that sated thirst, but nothing more. Those were born of tedious, mundane, day-to-day resentments. Other, more intriguing grudges could be born from other emotions and memories, like subtle notes infused in a fine wine. Heartbreak and betrayal, grief and self-loathing, envy and powerful ambitions left to wither and go unmet...[break][break]

There were countless types of grudges indeed, their number as vast as that of the kinds of suffering in the world.[break][break]

Wo-chien considered itself a connoisseur of such things. Elisabeth Fiorelli was the embodiment of a rare wine of grudges, aged to a unique perfection and finally unbottled by a being capable of seeing her Ruinous potential.[break][break]

Even the existing presence of Tapu Fini was not enough to deny Wo-chien its gluttonous desires.[break][break]

So why? Why now, in this moment when it should be relishing in the most satisfying meal it has craved and fantasized savoring for months (no, for decades, lost inside that false Galar)? Why now did the siren song of another grudge pull upon its senses so powerfully?[break][break]

Since when had it cared about that woman, freya morningstar?

[break]

Saliva dripped from its mouth as an overpowering urge to taste this new, ever-so-potent resentment reluctantly drew Wo-chien's attention away from the man it had hunted with such narrow singlemindedness before.[break][break]

The pull of this grudge was irresistible.[break][break]

"What are you doing," it could distantly hear its primary source of fuel shouting, but it had no present interest in feigning the role of the mastered. The Ruinous Beast had a moment to spare, surely, for a taste of that supremely unique elixir.[break][break]

The man was bound, it reasoned, and the woman might yet flee.[break][break]

How had it not noticed this scent until now? How many times had it encountered this woman before, never realizing the fertile ground for grudges buried in her own soul?[break][break]

A lost city. A family, dead and desires left unfulfilled.[break][break]A man who'd died for ideals unrealized. Another man she'd sold her ideals to, out of a misguided sense of duty and purpose. And still yet another man who had left her for ideals she refused to relinquish, as his child was threatened by a danger she'd invited to their door.[break][break]Always, always, she did the wrong thing, no matter how much she tried otherwise. Silly, stupid, pathetic little girl.

[break]

How had she hidden such a wealth of suffering for so long?[break][break]

In their previous battle, when Wo-chien and its Avatar had drawn upon these emotions, freya morningstar had resisted their pull. But now? The resentments were a flood, unrelenting as the dam in her heart burst open, inviting Wo-chien inside to see her bleed in all her glorious hurt and pain.[break][break]

This newfound display confounded the Beast. It fascinated the Beast. It tempted it and taunted it in equal measure.[break][break]

Wo-chien couldn't help itself. A GIGA DRAIN moved to devour the source of these intoxicating emotions, feeding on them with a Mandibuzz's feral hunger.[break][break]

As Wo-chien lost itself to its gluttony, it briefly forgot the woman that it had so jealously watched over since the day it had first claimed her.[break][break]

It did not notice her stumble forward, as if blinking awake from a trance.[break][break]

And it did not notice that when she did, FERNANDO SILPH was abruptly unshackled from his prison of thorns and vines.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH freya morningstar[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x13)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

Did he even believe in his own lies? At this proximity, she couldn't escape the metallic scent of blood that enveloped him like a tangible warning.[break][break]

She moved to take a small step back, her own breathing ragged and shallow with the adrenaline of war, and swallowed.[break][break]

"Would you believe that, if you were in my position?" she asked him finally, deflecting his own question back to him. "You're not exactly an easy man to trust."[break][break]

The sea of corpses stretched around them stood as a testament to that fact. Satisfying, he'd called it. She couldn't determine her own feelings as clearly or as cleanly as he did his own. It wasn't disgust, but not pride, either. Not even the indifference she suspected others like Zev Harcourt experienced.[break][break]

Killing felt like a necessity for her. She didn't feel like she had the luxury to have an emotional component to it. That came later, after survival allowed the opportunity to ruminate on her actions.[break][break]

"...I wonder what makes it satisfying for you," she said to him then, her hand falling back to her side. "Is is that the people being slaughtered trusted you? Or is it just the thrill of any battle, at any time."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission.(x17)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

How tiresome all this interference was.[break][break]

Until now, Wo-chien had been fairly content to slink back in the shadows; the most obedient vessels, it found, were those that believed themselves in control of their own thoughts and actions. The less the Ruinous Beast intervened directly in events on its Avatar's behalf, the more willing and subservient her descent into its clutches would be.[break][break]

What it hadn't expected was the willingness of others -- this creature from another realm, and now even Tapu Fini -- to tangle and twist the looms of its own carefully laid plans into something alarmingly unrecognizable.[break][break]

The Ruinous Beast would not allow that.

[break]

Ochre eyes blazed through the gloom of the Interdream mist, narrowing in on the approaching form of the enraged Tapu Fini. You'd dare betray us? came the silent judgment of one god to another, but the confrontation of that GRUDGE never manifested. Instead, Tapu Fini and its shadow-half dwindled into ash, dissipating as another unknown figure manifested to attack their mutual foe.[break][break]

The identity of the ghost didn't matter to Wo-chien. The fact that it caused distress to the rampaging Salamence was a boon, and Wo-chien intended to take advantage of it. Time was of the essence, to achieve these ends.[break][break]

With the ease of a Persian swatting away a Cutiefly, Wo-chien assembled its nearby pawns with a quick yank of its Avatar's psyche. The dragon and its mistress are inconsequential, came the mutual thought echoing in both their minds. See that they do not deny us our true ends.[break][break]

Pink light heralded the luminous TERASTALLIZATION of Elisabeth Fiorelli's Tsareena, emerging as a glittering and roseate FAIRY-TYPE as it moved to summon a TERA BLAST against the thrashing dragon. A GRASS KNOT from the Nihilego sought to topple the fiend, using its own weight against itself.[break][break]

Wo-chien did not especially care if either succeeded in their efforts. These were distractions, mere pawns sacrificed to allow access to the king on the board.[break][break]

And there he was.[break][break]

FERNANDO SILPH.[break][break]

Wo-chien advanced towards the councilman, ooze dripping with a slavering eagerness that reeked of purest gluttony. There was no mistaking the Ruinous Beast's predatory intent. It wished to feed, and there was no finer place for its favored source of distilled misery and discontent than here, right now, in the presence of this man.[break][break]

"Remember what HE did to US."

[break]

Again the puppet strings were sharply pulled back, tugging on the fractured memories that always awakened the greatest grief in its chosen vessel. The dead Kalosian with coal-black eyes shifted with astonishing ease, blurring until he became the Kantonese man before them: the anxieties of one dark-haired man unlocking the buried grudges, resentments, and agony of the first.[break][break]

"Remember what WE have suffered."

[break]

The gathering storm of RUINATION built like a dense thundercloud overhead, bruised and blackened like a festering wound. The Tablets of Ruin on its back continued to glow as if afire, drawing upon the pain of the broken woman it had so voraciously latched itself onto with parasitic appetite.[break][break]

This was the core memory that it knew had to be recreated and relived. This was the moment that it knew needed to be reenacted, one male actor exchanged for another.[break][break]

It was just a script she had to play, Wo-chien had decided. Édouard, Fernando, the name of the antagonist didn't matter. Rewriting, from there, came easily enough.[break][break]

Then would come the exquisite suffering of the finale.[break][break]

The RUINATION released towards its chosen target, and with it, a single thought screamed in her mind with so much certainty it drowned out the words that freya morningstar tried to reach her with:[break][break]

"KILL HIM, BEFORE HE KILLS US."

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH freya morningstar[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission. (x12)[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

So many shadows, all existing amongst one another. So many faces, shrouded in unknowable mystery.[break][break]

Barnaby Finch. Admin Bee. Barnaby L'oiseau.[break][break]

A shadow could not exist without something to defy the light; a mask could not exist without a face to shroud.[break][break]

All personas had a point of genesis. This shadow sought to unearth his.[break][break]

Like smoke, this 'other' Elisabeth drifted across the wide expanse towards him -- as silent as any shadow, when light first beckoned it back into the world. This peculiar being defied the ways of both humanity and darkness, forever shifting and moving in ways neither ought to move in the presence of light or gravity.[break][break]

Yet this hazy shadow was, without a doubt, Elisabeth Fiorelli.[break][break]

He simply knew her, the way that anyone knew how to recognize the face of someone who loved them.[break][break]

Wild curls of raven hair danced in a windless storm; vestiges of night-black matter clung to her bare form like a mockery of clothing, hiding everything and nothing about her all at once. Strangely, the empty light of her eyes shone as twin flames, glowing a fierce magenta that burned like undying cinders.[break][break]

The tangible sense of perpetual melancholy haunted her every movement like a ghost, palpable with the ache of unrequited yearning.[break][break]

"What a fragile vessel this one is," the shadow spoke then, and when this Elisabeth grinned, her teeth flashed like the glint of a crescent moon. "So devoted. So turbulent."[break][break]

She raised a hand, examining each inky strand that served as her fingers, before curling them into her palm. A familiar mocking laugh sang out from her lungs, but an ugly cruelty rang behind it. Its persistent echo rendered her an uncanny and imperfect likeness of the woman she embodied.[break][break]

He'd never known such contempt from her.[break][break]

"What is this pathetic creature to you, I wonder?" the shadow taunted as she lingered closer, drawing a fingertip across his cheek. "You risked so much for her, and for nothing."[break][break]

He'd feel her seize his chin then, forcing his cobalt blue eyes to meet hers. How pitiless those magenta lights seemed now, this close and this terrible to behold.[break][break]

"Will you let her drag you into the pit of her own despair? Will you pursue that Beast the next time it seeks to claim her?"[break][break]

The temptress dipped her head low, whispering into his ear a veiled threat with all the tenderness of a lover's confession:[break][break]

"Answer wisely, for the light reveals all lies, and nothing here can hide in shadow."

[attr="class","ooc"] BARNABY FINCH

[attr="class","pkmn"]