Scarletfox

"No... no please" the man whispered. Rubrum perked up at that, and smiled a joyous smile, "Thank you!" She said with a bounce while simultaneously slicing his throat, "I needed that one!" She hesitated, then frowned. She probably could have gotten more from this one if she had pushed harder. Oh well, no matter. She would never run out of these mortals to play with. She let her fingers extract themselves from the man's brown curly hair, and let him slump to the ground. Rubrum sighed, before pulling out a small white card out of her pocket, and writing some things onto it. Then she surveyed her work, looking around the room of corpses. Rubrum was tall and slender, with deep red curly hair peeping out of the crimson hooded cloak that enveloped her. She happily placed the card into one of the pockets in her cloak, and skipped away smiling. She did all that she could for the night.

When the woman began to laugh, Fox was filled with something in between the feeling of dread and hatred, but not quite either. She never could quite come up with a name for it, perhaps it was the wounding of pride. Fox hated being laughed at, but then, it seemed as if this woman was not quite laughing at her, she did not have that look of contempt and sharpness when the laughter was finished, but a look of only someone who had been humored. Fox didn't know how to respond to that. Then the woman spoke of what she was, an... echo. "You're... an echo tied to the knife? What does that even mean?" Fox asked.

Fox stared into the woman's eyes fearlessly, though her gut churned as the woman identified the lack of information. Fox released a short breath she didn't know she was holding when the blade was removed from her neck, but then the woman's sudden and surprising grasp on her hand send electrifying shocks of fear and terror through Fox's whole body. The minute the woman let go of Fox, she quickly pulled the knife out and stepped back. She was breathing shallow breathes in and out, and had to make herself slow down. Then she looked back up with eyes of jeweled daggers at the woman, "Don't you dare touch me again." Fox said chillingly, with a speck of hatred that had somehow slipped in. Not hatred at the woman, per-say, but at the action.

Fox decided to disregard the first question. "I... I don't know if he trusts me... I think he does. And I... yes, I trust him with my life." She would let herself be somewhat sincere, because all strategy seemed to have been thrown out the window anyway, but she did pick up on a flash of something on the woman's face... worry? anxiety? or perhaps it was... a faltering of thought? Fox did know this woman enough to be sure, but there was something going on that she could probably take advantage of. Or she could just accept that one of these days she would probably be sliced to bits by some voodoo magical creature.

Fox's voice betrayed her emotion, weighted with a slight quiver. "He gave the blade to me, I promise. I do not know much of Queen, besides that she helped us, and Nath trusts her." Fox's body was taut with tension, she would be ready to take an opportunity to change this circumstance (pun intended) if necessary.

Fox stepped back. Perhaps there were two playing this game. Perhaps this woman was not as put together as she had seemed. "I believe he is talking to Fadran and Queen right now. I did not do anything-" her voice caught, but she quickly recovered "I didn't do anything to Nath."

Fox lifted her knife, her legs moving into instinctual defensive positions, though her fingers were trembling. "If anyone is to die, it will not be me!" Did Fox literally just challenge a strange magical being in a strange place with only two knives? Yes, yes she did. She was so dead.

"No! For all I know you're just a figment of my imagination! You could literally be anyone, and-and Nath said that I could keep the knife!" Fox felt desperation entering her voice. Gah! She was just too tired to keep from falling into beginner errors all over again, she knew better than this.

Yeah, she just had me do ridiculous conditioning the entire rest of the practice, and an extra fifteen minutes.

"You're husband... Nath?" Fox asked, before adding in an authoritative voice, "He gave this knife to me, it's mine." Her fearless composure was slightly betrayed by the white knuckles that gripped the knife.

Fox yelped in startlement as a beautiful woman materialized. "I-your knife? I'm called the- I mean I'm called Fox, I, this is my knife." She fumbled. Stupid stupid stupid! That was all she could think to say? Why couldn't she come up with some sort of con on the fly like she normally did? Well, she wasn't the most informed on how to con magical beings, though perhaps it would come to her naturally as the conversation continued. She composed herself and eyed the woman suspiciously, "Who are you, and why do you call my knife yours?"

In volleyball last week, our head coach was gone, and we just had our assistant coach, and so she had us practicing serving. I am the worst server in the history in volleyball, everyone knows this, so I don't even know why she even has me practicing with everyone else. Anyway, I think I pulled a shoulder muscle, but I'm used to tuning out pain and the likes. The problem with tuning out pain, is that you have a lot less control over the muscles you're tuning out. So, I was hitting the balls all over the court. Of course, the assistant coach has a large cup of coffee. And she's walking up and down on the inside of the net commenting on people's serves. You would think that during a serve, being under the net would be a pretty safe place to be. Right? NOT! My next ball went flying literally straight into her coffee and spraying it all over the gym. My coach gave me this super intense look that spoke, you storming piece of trash how dare you touch MY coffee? YOU WILL DIE!!!!!!!! Curse, you and your family for all of time! And I was just shriveling up against the wall. Just like that, the look was gone, then she smiled an evil smile, and was like, "Well, (the head coach's name) isn't here today..."

Fox's mouth dropped, quickly morphing into a broad joyous smile. That wasn't what she had expected. "I-I... I...." She fumbled for moment before taking in a deep breath, and stately putting, "Thank you, Nath." Something about this moment seemed familiar, like she remember something similar happening once before, but she couldn't put her finger on in. She looked at the knife, and simply couldn't believe that it was hers! It was all hers, the beautiful piece of majesty, it was hers. It didn't have to be a source of guilt or dreading any longer, because it was rightfully hers. She looked up at Nath, and then back at the knife, and then back at him. Fox's eyes twinkled with joy.

*a police officer* How many times to I have to say this, the kids on Elm street don't think they're better than you! Smashing their mailboxes will not solve anything! Thirteen acres of land and a pound of dog poop.

Fox smiled faintly for a moment, before a thought occurred to her. Nath was being so sincere with her with his faults, but what about her faults... she had taken his knife, and hadn't even told him yet. She had done it for him, but... he really should know, shouldn't he? But what if telling him what she had done to him made things even worse than before? It didn't matter. She should be honest with him, shouldn't she? She was expecting honesty from him, when she herself had stolen from him! She tried to keep smiling emptily, when even that she could not hold, for she was stricken with guilt. Fox stood there contemplating. Fox timidly began, "If... if we are to place everything on the table, I have something to tell you about..." She looked at her feet for a moment, which of course happened to be where the hilt of Nath's knife was sticking out of. This made her even more anxious. She crouched down, and fumbled with the strap for a moment. Fox hesitatingly withdrew the beautifully carved knife from her boot. "I-I think this is yours. I wanted to stop your pain by taking it... but... I think I might have just made things worse. I too have..." Fox gulped down her pride, barely getting out the words "failed you, for I was not honest."

Everything I touch dies, so we only have fake houseplants. Ooh, that's a hard one, I think right now it'd have to be Beautiful Eulogy (by the artist, Beautiful Eulogy).

@Matrim's Dice may I too join the PM? pretty please?

Fox felt Nath speaking to her in her brain, yet, not in her brain. She let her eyes close and retreated to speak to him. She stood there for a moment at first, unwavering, looking down at Nath. He was so weak, like always. Always putting himself in the place of vulnerability. Or was it strength? Fox didn't know. She didn't know what she thought of Nath's failure. She didn't know if she still trusted him, but she did know that she was glad they were both ok. Fox was hurt, she was wounded, but she still cared for Nath. Deep down, she hated him for his weakness, but she loved (platonically at least for now) him for his sincerity. The love outweighed the hate. Fox gathered all of her strength to try to put a few mental words through "You did." She paused for a moment, "but I still care for you, no matter what happens." As she spoke the words, she realized their truth. Fox tried to reach out to Nath. "Let's figure this out together." Just then, she vaguely felt herself being lifted by someone or something, her body tensed and she felt a spike of fear for half a moment at her helplessness, but then she remembered who she was with... friends... @Nathrangking

As Fox saw Nath, tears welled at her eyes. They were tears of joy at seeing Nath once more, but also tears of betrayal. Fox struggled to move closer to Nath. She failed. "Where..... were...... you" she managed to wheeze. "You said.... you'd always, *cough cough* come...." she meant to say come for me, but unfortunately she had to cut it off to take a labored breath. @Nathrangking

Fox could vaguely feel someone picking her up, but just barely. It hurt. Everything hurt. Nothing happened for a while. Then, someone appeared to her in her mind. More tangibly than Queen had. She was so surprised at the young man that she didn't say anything as he strolled up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. The second he touched her, she could feel all the emotion re-immersing itself back into her. She yelped at first, but realized that it was different this time. The emotion was still overwhelming, but she no longer hated feeling it. It was as if she had resigned herself to feel these things. Fox released a sigh of contentment and relief as her physical burden was slightly lifted. It was better now. Things... were better now. As the man walked away, Fox caught a glimpse of his silvery wings. As she felt herself being returned to reality, Fox whispered, "He really is my angel, isn't he..." Fox's eyes slowly came into focus. There was a woman standing over her. It was Queen. Fox tried to speak. "Nath", she barely managed to get out in a hoarse whisper. @DramaQueen