one among Ketheric's ranks fancies herself a shepherd of sorts, the witch now welcomed in the embrace of the Lord of Bones, for she figures in many a recounting of caravans and scouting parties being fruitful because of her. The more help, the better and she herself looks to gain nothing from it. The look of disinterest she's said to carry often and that indeed she carries now says as much. Gortash still decides to poke the metaphorical bear: Rue is most certainly an unknown, and he won't abide that for long.

❛❛ Some say the dead are the fortunate ones, for no mercy will be shown to survivors, ❜❜ he prompts as she ascends the stairs, and then he dismisses the pair of Priestess Gut's volunteers that had made their way here with the last caravan. And then he turns, black eyes meeting vibrant green. ❛❛ Would your master agree with that, I wonder? ❜❜

❛❛ well. are you mute ? ❜❜ the question echoes loftily. if there was not to be a proper address, she could have at least come out with the bid already. perplexingly, the witch simply stares. perhaps expecting him to have some explanation of his own for her being here. slowly but surely, koschei begins to smell a conspiracy afoot.

𓆩 ♔ 𓆪 @hedgewitched ( 𝒓𝒖𝒆 ) . . . inquisitor prompts ↳ are you the one that sent the note ?

ah, there it was then. ❛❛ a note ? ❜❜ he nearly scoffs. why ever would he bother? on the other hand, why bother to come if she did not believe it true? deigning to consider her more carefully, there was indeed something rather familiar ( if not deeply unsettling ) about the witch. yet koschei could not for the life of him peg any memory of importance to her. with a lizard's eye, his scrutiny sharpens, almost imperceptibly; and though his voice remains even then, some agitation calcifies in the wrap of his fingers over the volute of his seat. ❛❛ i see so many leave this castle, you will have to refresh my memory. ❜❜

sparring // @hedgewitched ;;

A petulant fury saw Nan gritting her teeth, only for it to be washed away by confusion at Rue's words. "Slower?" she echoed. "What good's that gonna do?" Nan swung Corpsegrinder idly back and forth, an odd pendulum that gleamed in the late afternoon sun.

RANDOM ACTS PROMPTS.

it wasn't that she was necessarily unused to handling curious items or,  for lack of a better term,  bodily items;  under the sea scales were exchanged and used like coins,  and she had held and ground and carved into her share of spiraled narhwal horns.  such occasion,  however,  was usually   ...   expected.  unlike this.  very much unlike this!  

vivi could manage only the softest sputtering choke as the other woman so,  so oddly casually yanked a tooth from her pretty mouth and placed it into her palm.  the visceral overtook the rational;  with a surprised squeak she jumped back,  and the pearly white bone-like item fumbled from her grip and plopped to the ground.

Send "How'd that happen?" for my muse to tell yours about one of their scars || @hedgewitched

The giant was seated before a growing fire, his shirt off & tossed carelessly to the side, fingers busy adjusting a few bandages that needed correction or a full swap. While his body could not die, it was forever collecting wounds, old & new alike; a tiresome inevitability. Mid-motion, while tightening a wrap along his arm, he heard a voice speak, inquiring about one scar among the hundreds etched into his flesh. Cyrus turns slightly, movement minimal, only his chin angling as his eyes follow.

“Th’ one on the back?”

                      𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐃  𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑  𝐅𝐎𝐑  @hedgewitched

calm  ,  quiet  ,  judgement  .       always  meticulously  pulling  apart  whatever  mask  a  person  wore  before  him  .  no  one  could  escape  the  probing  vision  and  forthcoming  jabs  to  understand  and  concede  in  his  own  gain  .  gold  gauntlets  pressed  together  ,  elbows  on  desk  lips  shrouded  by  his  hands  ,  to  hide  the  voice  within  .

"  and  why  ,  pray  to  tell  ,  so  i  owe  the  pleasure  of  your  company  today  ?  what  is  it  you  wish  to  gain  from  the  likes  of  me  :  but  a  humble  city  patriarch  and  deal  maker  ?  "

"STOP PUTTING YOURSELF INTO DANGER!" PROMPTS || Open!

" And, from my observation, I would not call this handled. "

He could not in good conscience berate any of this party's penchant for stubbornness when he bore his own brand himself. And perhaps his own legs would give out on him for any frustration he held toward any of them refusing aid. He respected their space when they explicitly or implicitly created it, keeping his distance until he could not bear to play mere spectator when recklessness or stubbornness threatened to endanger their lives or that of the others.

🎁 / back at gale! spotify wrapped: accepting!

The conjured figure above his palm, reconstructed by the makings of her own intricacies; the piece of his past that seemed to slip around him in his lowest points, the darker ones. Ironically, given the relation and title they’d held together, the bond that seemed to exist in more favorable ways than just one– it’d given him some semblance of purpose, the barest tease of power and what it looked like. Feeling it was something else entirely. 

“It’s a habit, I can’t help it,” the wizard murmured beneath furrowed brows, the depths of honeyed tones taking in the pristine fragmented representation as it spun on its invisible axis, as though it were the center of all creation. In a sense, it was, to him.