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Creation myths claimed the first man came from the dust of the earth, cobbled together from mud, water, and life-giving air.[break][break]
Regirock had reduced all the complexity inherent to
Elisabeth Fiorelli to an unrecognizable paste, its potential for life rendered nonexistent. Blood had soaked into the ground where Regirock's fists had struck the corpse into submission, seeping its nutrients into the greedy soil.[break][break]
Billions of structures had comprised this single fleeting, imperfect creature: cells, tissues, organs, bones, and nerves. How deceptively fragile such intricacy could be.[break][break]
Wo-Chien clicked a tongue irritably. Precious time would be wasted on this endeavor.[break][break]
Tapu Fini's cerulean eyes met Wo-Chien's ochre, unblinking in their stare. Silent trust passed between a nature deity that conjured ghosts from the dead and a ruinous devil that resurrected ancient grudges from the earth, before at last the Sea Guardian vanished from the enclosure.[break][break]
In truth, the bastardization of death was neither concerning nor unfamiliar to Tapu Fini. All ghosts she'd ever known held grudges, and those grudges spurred them to
life.[break][break]
White moonlight spilled over the curious cocoon that served as Elisabeth's sepulcher, a low-lying fog gathered in its pink mist. Blue eyes of keen cerulean glanced out at any that might wander in search of the underboss's burial grounds, an unsettling sense of foreboding accompanying the
MISTY TERRAIN.[break][break]
[break]
The thorns that formed the encasement could neither be scorched by flames, cut by ice, charred by lightning, nor felled by poisonous intent. But whatever harm would be committed unto her grave would be struck back at its desecrator tenfold, cursing them with vindictive relish.[break][break]
In another world, perhaps this restless soul would have joined Tapu Fini's collection in service of its last Avatar.[break][break]
Yet in this world,
Elisabeth Fiorelli still had an unfinished role among the living to play.[break][break]
Mud packed onto remnants of bone, vines twisting and guiding the broken pieces back into position. Leaves rustled as they sutured ruptured organs, the corpse's still heartbeat quickening at the gentle touch of a flowering stem.[break][break]
The
GRUDGE stirred from its slumber.[break][break]
"Remember."[break][break]
(A man with coal-black eyes and a cruel smile. The Kantonese man who followed in his footsteps, reminding you the path of the Vindictive was well-trodden. The Volatile who attempted to sway you from your path of vengeance for another. The Infernal who'd damned you in ways crueler than all others.)[break][break]
"Remember."[break][break]
(The moonlit pact with the enemy of your enemy, binding yourself to an oath you didn't understand. A withered husk of a slaughtered temporal fae, and the slobbering greed of the devil you took for your own.)[break][break]
"Remember."[break][break]
(You see Ting-Lu, the
WISHING STAR gleaming between its brilliant antlers. Fear, nostalgic in its dread, blankets your consciousness with unsettling reminder: the metallic taste of blood on your tongue, earth caked beneath your fingernails, mud matted to your wild blonde hair.)[break][break]
To be living is to
FEAR, because it is to not yet be claimed by
DEATH.[break][break]
"AWAKEN."[break][break]
(You cough out the dirt from your lungs, sunken eyes opening wide. The parched thirst and weakened hunger that comes with mortality both return to you, desperate to be sated. You crave, and
crave, but nothing in this world will ever satisfy the emptiness inside of you.)[break][break]
"WE SHALL FINISH WHAT WE STARTED, YOU AND I."[break][break]
[break]
Several days passed before the mist-wreathed grave of
Elisabeth Fiorelli returned to visibility. Those who would push aside the thorns, however, would discover the cocoon cracked wide open. In its hollow carcass, no trace of
Elisabeth Fiorelli or her Divine patrons would be found. No matter how intently
howard slayte and his followers might look.[break][break]
Yet in the coming days,
declan walsh would receive a single black rose - wilting ever so faintly as if human touch had scarred it by the fingertips. Attached would be the following note, accompanied by a signature perfume of lily-of-the-valley and honeysuckle:[break][break]
[break][break]
No other explanation was given in those early days, nor any sighting of the underboss reported.[break][break]
FERNANDO SILPH would be the first to encounter the return of that ghost from the grave.[break][break]
[break]
TLDR:[break]
- Tapu Fini uses cursed misty terrain on the grave to keep away SNOOPS.[break]
- Wo-Chien Frankensteins back Elisabeth to life with GRUDGES, as you do.[break]
-
declan walsh gets a lil rose and a promise Elisabeth will be back soon, XOXO.[break]
- Cocoon is
empty bitches, suck on that
howard slayte.
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