Post by Vyn on Feb 16, 2008 21:06:20 GMT -5
Author: Vyn
Characters: Xylia
Takes Place: Capital City; Present
Word Count: 941
(Experimental Mishaps)
For a Corvie, curiosity was just second nature. They went hand-in-hand together just like Weird was always coupled with The Wood, each halves to one whole and impossible to separate as far as Xylia had yet to see and this was true for her as it was for any other.
Even a clear warning of danger was not enough to dissuade most, especially when there was not a clear cut reason why or a noted effect to the cause. Why not investigate what would happen when the steel bracers were worn over night? They couldn't be all that dangerous, right? After all, what could wearing a pair of bracers really do to you? Nothing serious, surely, but Xylia had to find out for herself.
After an agonizingly long month of aching curiosity, Xylia surrendered.
Allowing herself to sleep in late that afternoon so that she would be refreshed throughout the evening, Xylia slid the bracers on and headed out for her daily afternoon chores. She ran errands until the sunset, stopped at home for a cold dinner, and then returned to the city for the remainder of the evening. She would walk the streets until morning broke and just enjoy the exercise it offered her. When morning broke Xylia was tired but wholly satisfied in her experiment despite the disappointing lack of anything.
No pain,
not even tingling,
just...nothing.
That was, however disappointing, the reaction she'd expected. What could honestly happen from wearing something overnight? She laughed at the silliness of it all and returned home to the apartment she shared with Solo. She was far too exhausted to notice much of anything upon returning, even the smallest hint of foreboding in the back of her mind, and collapsed eagerly into bed.
* * *
Upon waking that morning, Xylia stretched out her protesting muscles and wandered aimlessly from the bedroom in pursuit of the kitchen. As she walked she compiled mental notes. She didn't feel any different, so she cold only assume that everything was fine. Humming softly in sleepy thought, she passed by an open doorway on the way to the kitchen and was halted quite suddenly by something she had glimpsed therein from the corner of her eye. Her body twitched a little and slowly she forced herself back on step and then two, almost afraid to confront the overwhelming sense of wrongness that the brief glimpse into bathroom door had given her. In the end if was the very sense of wrongness which she feared that finally drove her back to the doorway.
There, in the full length mirror across from the door, stood the thing that had halted Xylia's original movement. It was not Xylia there, not any form of herself that she recognized. It was a shadow, that thing which stared back at her from the full length mirror, a living shadow which had taken her shape and, in terrible mocking, mimicked her movements and her panic. A terrible scream tore from her as she collapsed in a heap upon the floor and watched in sickened horror as her reflection, for it could be nothing else, followed.
It was no cruel illusion, no figment of her imagination: the image in the mirror was her!
Melanism! The bracers had caused complete melanism! Her beautiful green markings, her eyes, her mane...everything!!! Nothing broke the total eclipse of black fur not even, to her utmost horror, the red of her birth suit. Its absence caused another horrible sob to wretch itself from her and tears streamed fully down her face. The black 10 of Spades upon her left breast was near impossible to see against her shadowed fur, but there was no denying that it was still there. Faint, but terrifyingly there. Another horrible sob wracked her body, left her shaking and sick to her stomach. Her suit! Even her suit! How could that be possible?!
Abruptly her eyes fell upon those terrible bracers and she let out a terrible wail before tearing them off, thrusting them away from her with a desperate flush of hope. Yet even once they'd rolled to the other side of the room the image didn't change. The black didn't recede, her suit didn't return... The damage really was done! Another sob and then, nothing. The shock was too much, just too much.
Absently her mind registered movement and Solo's worried voice and, lastly, that someone was ushering her about. She didn't resist, just allowed herself to be moved from room to room as Solo willed it. How long things went like this, Xylia wasn't sure.
* * *
By what would be the second day, her thoughts came back to her enough to record the changes the Bracers had made but not enough to get her out of bed. By the third day Solo decided it was time to stop his half-sister's moping and so, with as much love as he could muster, Solo kicked her out.
How long she sat on the door step she wasn't entirely sure, but eventually she found her foot and took to walking instead of simply sulking. Her legs missed the movement of being busy and for a long time she wandered aimlessly before finding the edge of the park. The fresh air and sunlight cleared her mind but her thoughts were still dredged deep inside herself. For now, that was a good thing, it helped keep her from noticing the majority of the stares she received.
However much she hated to admit it, Solo was right. So her dreams were crippled, that didn't mean they were over just that she would have to work harder. And she would work harder. She was too determined to just give up now, regardless of her suit.
Characters: Xylia
Takes Place: Capital City; Present
Word Count: 941
(Experimental Mishaps)
For a Corvie, curiosity was just second nature. They went hand-in-hand together just like Weird was always coupled with The Wood, each halves to one whole and impossible to separate as far as Xylia had yet to see and this was true for her as it was for any other.
Even a clear warning of danger was not enough to dissuade most, especially when there was not a clear cut reason why or a noted effect to the cause. Why not investigate what would happen when the steel bracers were worn over night? They couldn't be all that dangerous, right? After all, what could wearing a pair of bracers really do to you? Nothing serious, surely, but Xylia had to find out for herself.
After an agonizingly long month of aching curiosity, Xylia surrendered.
Allowing herself to sleep in late that afternoon so that she would be refreshed throughout the evening, Xylia slid the bracers on and headed out for her daily afternoon chores. She ran errands until the sunset, stopped at home for a cold dinner, and then returned to the city for the remainder of the evening. She would walk the streets until morning broke and just enjoy the exercise it offered her. When morning broke Xylia was tired but wholly satisfied in her experiment despite the disappointing lack of anything.
No pain,
not even tingling,
just...nothing.
That was, however disappointing, the reaction she'd expected. What could honestly happen from wearing something overnight? She laughed at the silliness of it all and returned home to the apartment she shared with Solo. She was far too exhausted to notice much of anything upon returning, even the smallest hint of foreboding in the back of her mind, and collapsed eagerly into bed.
* * *
Upon waking that morning, Xylia stretched out her protesting muscles and wandered aimlessly from the bedroom in pursuit of the kitchen. As she walked she compiled mental notes. She didn't feel any different, so she cold only assume that everything was fine. Humming softly in sleepy thought, she passed by an open doorway on the way to the kitchen and was halted quite suddenly by something she had glimpsed therein from the corner of her eye. Her body twitched a little and slowly she forced herself back on step and then two, almost afraid to confront the overwhelming sense of wrongness that the brief glimpse into bathroom door had given her. In the end if was the very sense of wrongness which she feared that finally drove her back to the doorway.
There, in the full length mirror across from the door, stood the thing that had halted Xylia's original movement. It was not Xylia there, not any form of herself that she recognized. It was a shadow, that thing which stared back at her from the full length mirror, a living shadow which had taken her shape and, in terrible mocking, mimicked her movements and her panic. A terrible scream tore from her as she collapsed in a heap upon the floor and watched in sickened horror as her reflection, for it could be nothing else, followed.
It was no cruel illusion, no figment of her imagination: the image in the mirror was her!
Melanism! The bracers had caused complete melanism! Her beautiful green markings, her eyes, her mane...everything!!! Nothing broke the total eclipse of black fur not even, to her utmost horror, the red of her birth suit. Its absence caused another horrible sob to wretch itself from her and tears streamed fully down her face. The black 10 of Spades upon her left breast was near impossible to see against her shadowed fur, but there was no denying that it was still there. Faint, but terrifyingly there. Another horrible sob wracked her body, left her shaking and sick to her stomach. Her suit! Even her suit! How could that be possible?!
Abruptly her eyes fell upon those terrible bracers and she let out a terrible wail before tearing them off, thrusting them away from her with a desperate flush of hope. Yet even once they'd rolled to the other side of the room the image didn't change. The black didn't recede, her suit didn't return... The damage really was done! Another sob and then, nothing. The shock was too much, just too much.
Absently her mind registered movement and Solo's worried voice and, lastly, that someone was ushering her about. She didn't resist, just allowed herself to be moved from room to room as Solo willed it. How long things went like this, Xylia wasn't sure.
* * *
By what would be the second day, her thoughts came back to her enough to record the changes the Bracers had made but not enough to get her out of bed. By the third day Solo decided it was time to stop his half-sister's moping and so, with as much love as he could muster, Solo kicked her out.
How long she sat on the door step she wasn't entirely sure, but eventually she found her foot and took to walking instead of simply sulking. Her legs missed the movement of being busy and for a long time she wandered aimlessly before finding the edge of the park. The fresh air and sunlight cleared her mind but her thoughts were still dredged deep inside herself. For now, that was a good thing, it helped keep her from noticing the majority of the stares she received.
However much she hated to admit it, Solo was right. So her dreams were crippled, that didn't mean they were over just that she would have to work harder. And she would work harder. She was too determined to just give up now, regardless of her suit.
