↳ mountain shrine

　　　↳ ᴇɴᴅ ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ ᴏɴᴇ. ↰

@✧　Celes ↳ ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 2, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: norupo - heilung

"Yes," Shuangmei replied. His daughter was in perfect health, round-cheeked and bright-eyed. She was small for her age, sure, but that was because she was a dragon child and she would grow slowly—he hadn't told the elemental how old his daughter was, anyway, so if she assumed Guiying was younger than she actually was, well, that was no problem of his.

"The money becomes rent money once you use it to pay the rent," Shuangmei continued to try and explain with great patience. Who had taught this child? Why had they not taught her the first thing about money? "You receive the money in exchange for providing a good or a service—the ice cream that you sell—and then you can use it to pay for services and goods, like the rent of the building you use for your ice cream shop." Perhaps she would understand it when it was worded like that.

Of course it was clean. Shuangmei had been raising his daughter on his own for four years. He knew how to clean her face and feed her and clothe her and take care of her in general. It was almost insulting, the insinuation that he might not be able to clean her. "I will give her a bath when we arrive," he told the elemental. "The blood has dried, and I would rather not wet her face when we are exposed to the cold like this. She may catch a cold if I do so."

@✧　Shuangmei ↳ ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 2, 2051

"Really?" Celes looked at the giant maybe-monster with round eyes, then looking at the little girl. She did seem healthy. The ice elemental's mind was spinning at a mile a minute, picking up random visual cues and blurting out the first thing she could think of. This kind of thing came naturally to her. What didn't come naturally to her, was listening comprehension. "Really? So if I keep the money than I can use the same money to pay rent?" That made no sense at all. Things were supposed to be traded one for one. How was ice cream money the same thing as rent money? Didn't make sense at all. "That can't be right. Don't I need rent money? Where do I get rent money?", she followed up, gazing eagerly at the giant who seemed like he knew many mysterious things. So smart~! Like the master! But more patient than the master. "Oh- ooh- !" Celes' eyes widened when her orb starting floating by itself. For a moment she thought she was going to drop but... nothing. "Wowwww" Celes looked down, unobstructed at the snow that moved under her like clouds. Then the hand came back for her, large and scary, grabbing her orb out of the air. Tsk. Celes hopped to the wall again and inspected the girl's nose. "It's clean now!", she gave her status report. "Do you also want to wipe the blood off her face or......" Celes looked at the giant unsurely. "Oh, and are we there yet? How long till we arrive? I can't wait to see where we're going!!"

@✧　Celes ↳ ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 2, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: the walls - chase atlantic

Shuangmei frowned. "There is nothing amiss with Ying's diet," he replied stiffly. He did not take criticism well, especially when it came to how he was rearing his child. If this elemental was going to try to tell him how to take care of his daughter, Shuangmei would pull out her fingernails one by one and feed them to her. What was it with people and interjecting themselves into other people's lives as parents?

The suggestion that Shuangmei couldn't afford the ice cream had him raising a brow. He and his daughter wore fine robes and fine headpieces, things that Shuangmei would not prioritize if he had little money. But it did not seem to be intended impolitely and Shuangmei didn't take offense; there was nothing wrong with /not/ having money, anyway. It built a kind of character that the rich didn't have.

"You get the money," Shuangmei said, with all the patience of a saint, "by selling the ice cream instead of giving it away. Then you can pay your rent. It is not that complicated, snowflake."

The elemental's words made Shuangmei huff, but he released the orb she was contained in. It floated along at level with his shoulder, but a foot ahead of him as he fished a handkerchief from inside of his robes and used it to carefully clean his child's face. "Such is having a child," he sighed, a poof of red mist enveloping the fabric—a spell that cleaned and sanitized it for another use later. Tucking the handkerchief away, he reached out and plucked the orb out of the air again. "They can be a mess."

@✧　Shuangmei ↳ ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 2, 2051

The more Celes spoke, the more certain she became that this was a good person. Everyone she could talk to so freely could only be a good person. Of course, she was completely missing the rather important detail that this was a one-sided conversation she could just as well be having with a rock. Or a teddy bear that said 'mama' upon squishing it. On that note, she wanted one of those. A teddy bear, not a mama. Teddy bears were so cuddly after all! "That's great!", she cheered happily. "That's good." blahblahblah "Oh, your daughter's name is Ying! That's cute! Does she eat vegetables too? You know, the master said it's very important to eat your vegetables for solid fleshy creatures like you and little Ying. And how come you don't like ice cream? Ice cream is delicious! You just haven't tried my ice cream yet. You'll love it. I'll invite you! Then you don't have to pay, in case you can't afford it. Master said I shouldn't give out free ice cream but I think it's okay. It's just ice after all. I can make lots of it! I'm not sure what to do about the rent though. The master says I need to pay it but how do I get the money? I don't really understand all that human stuff. It's very complicated. Apparently, I can't even pay in ice creams! Can you believe it?! By the way, Ying has a booger up her nose, in the left nostril. I didn't want to say anything but it has been bothering me because it's so big and so... there... could you clean her nose?"

@✧　Celes ↳ ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 2, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: the wolf - phildel

"I suppose you did not," Shuangmei agreed, but his smile widened, sharp as a knife and possessing an edge twice as jagged. "But you were certainly stealing glances at something that you should not have seen," he continued. "I am aware you were afraid—you reek of it. The stench of fear clings to you like it is a second skin."

When the creature turned silent, Shuangmei looked away from the orb, following the icy mountain path. The man shivered, his arm tightening around Guiying and warmth flowing through his arm and hand and into his daughter. She had inherited Shuangmei's problem with temperature, unfortunately, and she got cold just as easily as her father did. Keeping her warm was always the priority—perhaps they should not have gone so far up into the mountains, but it was a secluded place to commit a heinous crime.

Listening to the creature in the orb babble, Shuangmei wondered just how much of a little fool he was. Shuangmei was... he had no intention of /helping/ the thing. He was going to cause him excruciating pain and then he was going to kill him. But if the little idiot wanted to drop his guard with the wolf lurking right outside his door—the wolf that he had just seen /eating someone/—who was Shuangmei to stop him? It would make it all the sweeter when the elemental realized just what kind of situation he was in.

"We are not leaving the island," Shuangmei confirmed, though he ignored the questions (and all of the babbling) that had preceded that one. Unfortunately for the elemental, he wouldn't be going back to 'try out his master's girl form' that evening. Shuangmei's home on the side of the mountain had a basement and a root cellar, and both were perfect for use as torture chambers. He would use the root cellar, so as to not disturb his daughter's rest. "Ying must be put to bed."

The half-dragon had to keep himself from grimacing. Gods, the elemental babbled on and on! "I am not a fan of ice cream," he answered, "I do not go out seeking ice cream shops."

@✧　Shuangmei ↳ ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 2, 2051

"But- I didn't- I didn't steal anything!", Celes protested weakly and smacked the wall of the orb which, of course, did absolutely nothing. "Well, I was- I was.. I was scared! It looked scary so I didn't want to come out!" Celes looked up at the maybe-monster. From this angle, with this size, he looked like a giant and Celes felt like a little ant. Scary. The little girl looked huge too. He could look right up her nose from this angle. Yuck. Celes quickly focused his eyes elsewhere, which was a mistake, because what he saw next was the corpse of the poor victim and now the elemental just felt sick. His mind recalled images of them eating the poor man's raw flesh and Celes gagged. He covered his eyes and turned his head away. After deciding that it was safe to look again, he peered up at the giant maybe-monster. He was determined to convince him he wasn't a threat.

"Ooh!" Celes' eyes widened in awe. He sounded a bit haughty, but maybe he did know. He did seem to know many different magics... fire - he shuddered - red light stuff, eating people... Was eating people a magic? Probably not. How sad, that he was forced to eat others to survive... he must feel horrible about it. Celes had taken on an aura of excitement and anticipation as they walked along, eager to learn how to regain his body of flesh in an instant. Had the maybe-monster said something about pain earlier? ...Nah, Celes had just misheard. "If you show me, can I do it too?", he asked eagerly and stared up at the black-haired with sparkling eyes. "Last time I needed two months to get my body back! It was terrible!" Celes paused and looked to where they were heading, then back up. "Where are we going, though? Is it far? I need to be back home tonight, the master is waiting for me - and I want to try out his girl form! Is it very far? What if I get lost on the way back... we aren't leaving the island, right?" Celes wandered around his little orb-room, pressing his forehead and palms against the wall as if that would make him see better. At the end of his little observations, he would always turn back to the maybe-monster-giant. "You know I wasn't born like other elementals, well, I was, but not really. The master made a thing, I don't really know, and then nature made me in there and that's how I was born! I was supposed to be a wind elemental though, that's why my name is Celes. I think the master was disappointed that I'm not, but he promises he isn't! I'm not sure though. I'm not very good with my powers either so I get a bit sad sometimes. I don't want to hurt anything, you know? But when I walk I accidentally leave behind trails of ice where I touch... so I don't like to stay in one place for too long. Except for in my ice cream shop! The master helped me open it and it's great!! There nobody minds that I'm cold and they like my ice cream. Have you seen it? It's very pretty!"

@✧　Celes ↳ ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 2, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: do bad well - kshmr

The elemental had taken a humanoid form within the orb, like the figurine of a dancer that was trapped within a snow globe. Shuangmei's lips curved in a pleasant smile that was laced with pretensive intent, stepping over the half-eaten corpse abandoned amid the snow as he began the walk down the mountain. "So you claim, and yet you were skulking about like a thief in the night," he answered in kind. Speaking aloud would disturb Guiying, who had shoved her face into her father's neck. Her breathing had begun to change into the familiar rhythm of sleep. "That is not a valid excuse for lurking and watching us. One can only assume that you have bad intentions."

The half-dragon raised an eyebrow at the elemental's question. "Of course I can," he answered, the words possessing an edge that one might presume was haughtiness rather than well-placed confidence. After all, Shuangmei knew he didn't look like a master of magic, or even someone who was old enough to be one. And the aura of his power did not overflow around him and seep into the surrounding area, like that of other magic users he had met; Shuangmei's control was impeccable. It meant he was underestimated, and it was easy for him to hide in the guise of a single parent who was traveling the world merely to seek a place that was safe enough to raise his daughter.

"You will see," Shuangmei replied evasively.

@✧　Shuangmei ↳ ᴀᴜɢᴜsᴛ 14, 2051

Celes was quite proud of himself for thinking of turning into snow to escape. He wasn't well-versed in his powers or combat of any kind. As such, when it came to creatively applying his powers to a situation he was lagging far behind. Or maybe he wasn't, and he was just too young. Celes was sure this would work. How could it not? It wasn't possible to catch snow! Right? Wrong. A red light flashed and he suddenly couldn't move forward. Before he knew it he was trapped in a small orb. It was an odd sensation and not even one that inspired immediate fear. He'd never been trapped before, or maybe he had? It felt familiar. Still, he didn't like it and his thoughts soon spiralled into the darkness.

The ice elemental couldn't do anything in the small, confined space. Or maybe he could if he had a better understanding and control of his powers. The tiny snowflakes merged to form a minuscule version of Celes who stared up at the monster in dismay. Ying? He looked over at the girl and shuddered. "N- no, I swear I wasn't trying to do anything strange!", Celes tried again to appeal to the other, speaking to the monster's mind This was just a misunderstanding. If he explained that he'd been here first, it would be fine. Yes. He just had to explain. "I- I was here first!" Celes stepped up to the orb's walls and pressed against it tentatively. They didn't give. He shuddered at the monster's musings. Wait- he could pull him back into his body? That worked?

Celes watched the big monster get the little monster and, after arranging his thoughts, spoke up again. "You can remake my body of flesh just like that?" There was some fear in his tone, but it was outweighed by curiosity, cautious curiosity. Somehow, the comfort of being in the small orb was calming. Unpleasant, but calming if that made any sense. It reminded him of when he'd been just a little spark of energy, slowly being formed by mother nature, and provided him with a false sense of security. "How?" Maybe he had to eat people to survive. Maybe he wasn't a bad person. Maybe he was just scared for his daughter and being careful. This was just a misunderstanding.

@✧　Celes ↳ ᴀᴜɢᴜsᴛ 14, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: queen - loren gray

"You did not see anything?" Shuangmei tsked, gently shaking his head as he took a single step closer to the elemental cowering on the floor. He watched him with the detachment of someone who no longer had the capacity to care for the wellbeing of others—his sobs were neither satisfying nor irritating, and he felt no desire to comfort him and put an end to his tears. When Shuangmei made him cry because he was tearing him limb from limb, it would be different—that would be a satisfying sound. "I could feel your eyes on myself and my child as you watched us from this closet." He bent at the waist, dark hair slipping over his shoulder to brush against the elemental, and whispered, "Liars are the most despicable of all people."

Shuangmei was not a young dragon, and had experience with elementals and all other kinds of creatures. When the ice elemental tried to shoot past him in the form of snow, Shuangmei lazily circled his hand, red light drawing in the air to wrap the snow in a vacuum. He did not allow a single piece of the elemental to escape, an orb wrapping around a small clump of flakes as the rest burned.

"Perhaps I should give you to Ying," he remarked to the orb, as he bounced it in his palm. "She chews through her toys so quickly." Of course, the elemental didn't know that Shuangmei would never do such a thing, in order to protect his daughter from any harm that might come of having such a toy. "I have better plans," he mused, half to himself. "How painful can I make it when I pull you back into your body?"

Shuangmei turned, stepping out of the closet to return to the body where he had left his daughter. Guiying was sitting beside the man, blinking sleepy eyes as she held out her arms for her father to pick her up. With a smile, Shuangmei dropped to hook an arm around her waist and scoop her onto his hip, still holding the magic-sealed orb of snow in his other hand. "Silly girl," he crooned, "you are all messy." He would take her home, clean her and put her to bed, and then entertain himself with the elemental.

@✧　Shuangmei Celes involuntarily flinched at the gentle, harmless tap. He couldn't smell the blood through the ice, but the scent reached him anyway - a trick of the mind, induced by fear. No. Maybe he can't get through. Maybe he'll give up and leave me alone. Celes had a very strong, sinking feeling that that would not happen. His feelings were usually right, and thus he spiralled slowly into despair. The elemental felt the heat against his protection and cried out. He tried to fight it, sending out more power to rebuild the ice and maybe extinguish the fire. It was unstoppable, a steady burn that dissolved anything Celes put in its way. The sensation of the fire slowly approaching him, eating through what was an extension of his body, was haunting.

Celes felt helpless, vulnerable and weak. So weak. Like his powers were child's play in the eyes of other's. They were, he decided. He was young and had yet to learn how to even control his powers, let alone strengthen them. He was so useless. The dreaded fire kept coming and the panic building. This monster wasn't normal. He could feel it. He was crazy, evil, dangerous! Celes cried out once more once the last of the ice melted away and sank to the floor of the closet, curled up as small as he could make himself. He didn't reply immediately, too busy trying to keep some sense of reason and wit as his mind began to unravel. The threat of fire made Celes lose all reason.

The elemental cowered in the closet, arms raised over his head as if that would do anything, curled up into a ball with streams of tears pouring down his face. He was shaking. He could feel the heat in the air and imagined it at his body, melting him, slowly killing him. Such torture, but the monster seemed very capable of such cruelty. Then- the heat vanished and only then did the ice elemental look up, fearful and wide-eyed at the monster still stained in his victim's blood. He couldn't speak. Each word caught in his throat and he didn't want to speak - what if he said something that displeased the other? Ah, but he had to. Silence would definitely be punished. Blue lips parted but what came out first was a frightened sob. "I wasn't-... I didn't-... I didn't see- see anything- nothing-!" He visibily shook as he spoke, the tremors reaching his weak voice. Ah! An idea. Celes burst forth, his body splitting into hundreds of tiny snowflakes that tried to fly out past the monster.

[one possible method, of many, to catch him: if you catch even just one snowflake and burn the rest, you'll have celes trapped again]

@✧　Celes ↳ ᴛʀɪɢɢᴇʀ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ: cannibalism
↳ ᴀᴜɢᴜsᴛ 14, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: fairly local - twenty one pilots

Shuangmei crossed the threshold of the shrine, producing a white fan from inside his sleeve. He snapped it open and gently fanned himself as he took in the shrine interior, steps unhurried. The ice that flowed out from the closet gave away the spy's location; Shuangmei was in no rush even as his body temperature began to drop. He stopped before the doors of the closet and tapped gently with his fan, marveling at the power in the ice. An admirable, but pointless, effort. Heat blazed beneath the skin of his palm, resting his hand against the icy surface as red flame pushed forth. Shuangmei guided it to over the ice, beginning to melt away the barrier between himself and his quarry.

Shuangmei was not unaccustomed to those who could reach out to the mind of others. His laughter was soft but lined with steel, fan snapping shut in his free hand. "I shall not," he replied in kind, reaching into the elemental's mind. The temptation to claw and tear at the soft spots of another creature's mental state, to rip his psyche apart and enslave his will or shatter it altogether, was great, but Shuangmei would not be so merciful. "I am not the one choosing to hide and spy upon those who are minding their own business."

His wrist flicked, and the closet doors were violently pulled open to reveal a cowering elemental, a creature of ice. The flame in his hand would be a quick, painful death for the elemental, but Shuangmei preferred to... drag certain things out. The fire was soon gone and he stepped closer, blocking the door of the closet. "Whatever were you doing, sneaking and spying?"

@✧　Shuangmei Celes died on the inside when the monster's gaze swept across the area only to rest on where he was hiding. His lashes fluttered down, eyes falling shut. For a moment, all strength faded from him. It was the kind of feeling one had when one realised one had made a very, very, very, very big mistake. He should have left. He could have. He could have joined a fluttering snowflake and drifted away in the wind. The footsteps were getting closer, each gentle thump ringing in his ears like church bells. The ice elemental, on the verge of despairing and resigning himself to what he assumed would be a bloody fate, shook himself to alertness. He grabbed the closet doors and froze them from the inside, hoping it would keep the doors closed. Then, going a step further, he turned his body of flesh into one of ice. He was more durable this way and might survive even if only a small piece of him remained. He hated doing this. In his somewhat short life, by elemental standards, he had only returned to his pure elemental form once before. That had only been because his master had pressured him and he didn't like it. Why? Because it was so hard for him to remake his body of flesh. His body was translucent, his eyes shining a bright blue. He could control himself even less in his form and his powers flowed freely out, freezing the entire closet and encasing it so it became a block of ice. Celes was not taking any chances after what had... happened. He reached out with his mind, searching for a consciousness to connect to. There were two and he assumed the stronger one was the person approaching him. Celes tried to make a connection to project his voice into the other's mind. "Leave me alone!"

@✧　Celes ↳ ᴛʀɪɢɢᴇʀ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ: cannibalism
↳ ᴀᴜɢᴜsᴛ 14, 2051
↳ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: we go - 3racha
↳ sʜᴜᴀɴɢᴍᴇɪ: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/48/45/df/4845df5193b1ab722c3b7cacc0fb716e.jpg

Shuangmei did not always eat other people, but sometimes he had a craving for human flesh, or he sought the entertainment of making a man suffer the pain of being eaten alive. Today hadn't been one of the days he planned on such a thing happening, but this human had given his daughter a candy and tried to lure her away—or, at least, that was the narrative Shuangmei's brain had provided when he had swept Guiying into his arms and away from the evil scoundrel. Luring him into the mountains had been a simple trick of magic, and Shuangmei had tucked Guiying away behind a rock and pounced.

Meat separated from bones with a sickening squelch, and Shuangmei tilted his head back to swallow a strip of meat as blood ran down his chin to stain the white collar of his inner robes. He stepped away from his kill and to the rock he had left his precious child sheltering behind, hands hooking under her armpits to settle her on his hip as he returned to the half-eaten corpse. He knelt on the ground, Guiying settled on his leg, and freed a hand so he could deftly strip flesh from bone and hold it out to his daughter. Her sharp baby teeth sank into it, pulling it free so she could gorge herself under his watchful gaze—but something was amiss.

Shuangmei could feel the eyes watching them, and his wide eyes swept over the surrounding area to settle on the shrine.

"Ying," he lilted, carefully settling her on the ground beside the corpse as she chewed on her meat, "stay here. Baba will be right back."

@✧　Shuangmei Celes was hiding in a closet in the shrine, peeking out through the keyhole at the monster outside. He didn't think of many creatures as monsters but this... He was- he was eating someone. Celes really didn't want to look. He didn't. He wasn't a or a sadist or a psychopath... but something about seeing a person, a creature, being eaten was so strange and unreal that he couldn't look away. So, how had Celes ended up hiding in a tiny shrine, watching such a traumatising spectacle? You see, Celes had been here first. In fact, he'd been at the shrine for a whole week, determined to meet the God of this shrine. Every now and then his master showed up and told him to come back home, that the Gods didn't visit whoever asked to see them, but Celes would not be deterred. He was going to stay here for a week and wait. Well, now was the last week and then this happened. The feasting was happening a few yards below the shrine but Celes could see very well from where he hid. It was scary, horrifying and beautiful. Celes did not know this yet, but he was going to have nightmares about this sight for close to a year.

@♆　Arai Takibi he wasn't sure what he was expecting... but it surely wasn't take arriving in what appeared to be a cotton top which allowed a perfect view of takibi's body within what little spring breeze the mountain shrine provided. whether it was the weight of this being a place of saints where the ancients used to come and worship, it was a place where one was to be pure and clean--unfortunately, for demetrius... takibi's appearance did not allow for any peace of mine within the unseelie's minds. not going to lie, it didn't help that demetrius' eyes had wandered down to the slate blue slacks the other bore. no. bad demetrius.

tearing his gaze off the nymph, demetrius trailed his lavender eyes off to the side to stare out to the view below the mountain, demetrius pulled his own fleece sweater tighter around his body. "a little. but i'm not here for idle chatter. i'm just here to set things straight." demetrius' then returned his eyes to look towards the nymph who was an inch taller than the long-legged unseelie. thin lips pressed firmly together. "I'll tolerate you. you've... grown on me, but I'll tolerate you for lysander's sake. thank you for the flowers, they're beautiful."

@♆　Arai Takibi Demetrius' Outfit: https://64.media.tumblr.com/752da36194de391b04b80cedf8f6103d/f3573d5e4786d0dd-9f/s400x600/9f3bc088084da62935dcb7a3b90aa46873205a1c.gifv

when demetrius stepped out of the house that night, he didn't plan to leave for long. after turning off the lights in his home and stepping out of the porch and upon the forest path with his phone in hand, demetrius turned towards the flowers. the sunflowers, bellflowers, and beautiful gladiolus... he'd hate to disturb their slumber, but the unseelie needed to finally settle this.. whatever this was that was going on within the fae.

"i'm sorry to disturb your rest, but if you can, please let takibi know that he should meet me at the mountain shrine. as soon as possible." and with that, demetrius made his way to the said destination. dressed in a yarn top, the yarn warming him and his sensitive wings for the time being, demetrius climbed up the mountain where the range overlooked the city and up into the night sky. and there, demetrius sat. waiting to see if the nymph would come.