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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 7:07 am
Ravnos smiled warmly, taking the offered ring and placing it back on his finger. “I thought something felt off.”
The warmth of Grendel’s hand in his was familiar and soothing. It brought him comfort and hope. Hope for a future with him and a hope for many other things that may yet bein their futures together.
“Ok.” He took one last look at the world he was leaving behind. And while he knew it would be futile he hoped Clementina and Antonio would be ok. It was a small hope that he knew would probably go unfulfilled but he could at least fool himself into the belief.
He followed the God quickly as they moved across the threshold. And suddenly they had returned. This place too was familiar. Grendel’s temple. This world was familiar yet strange all in the same vein. He knew every crack and dent that this world had endured and yet it was as alien to him as the moon was to a mouse.
His green gaze swept across the surface of the temple taking it all in.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:35 am
There was a hurriedness in his stride, though only because he did not know for certain how long the bridge would hold. He watched the doorway carefully, searching for any sign that it might close before they could make it through, though ultimately they crossed over its threshold, one after the other, just fine.
The moment Ravnos stepped foot into the temple, a shockwave followed, silent, rippling through the air, likely only felt by those who were either very ancient and powerful or deities themselves. It was the second time that night that the vampiric world had become altered, though this time it was more of a correction than anything.
With his return, Ravnos's bloodline had been restored as if it had never been lost.
Not far from where they stood, the Spear hovered in the air, power still funneling through it and into the doorway. Grendel cut off that power and the Spear clattered to the floor in response, the doorway behind them flickering, and then fading away completely.
The throne room was silent, then. Ravnos was taking it all in, and Grendel turned towards him, hand slipping from the Disciples so both could rest instead on his shoulders, red eyes piercing an unfamiliar green, just one of several changes to the vampire standing in front of him.
"How do you feel?" His deep voice rumbled, eyes seeking Ravnos's for anything amiss. This was the first time he had ever created a living (sort of...) thing, and a Disciple to boot. In this case, he at least had a blueprint of sorts to work off of. Still, it was not the same as creating an inanimate object. There was a little trepidation in the God still. For all of his confidence at the time, he wanted to make sure he had done everything right.
"Anything...different?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 3:53 pm
The show wave was a curious thing to experience and Ravnos had wondered just what had happened during his prolonged abscence. Had everyone just gone on without him! Not like most of them would have realized he was gone anyhow he was sure
“Hungry.” It was true. He hadn’t been a vampire in the other world so now with his Vampirism returned he was quite famished. It was an odd but familiar sensation as the Beast grumbled to life and punched him in the stomach. The fangs were another thing and he ran his tongue along them for a moment. But there was a marriage of other things too. Vision, smell, hearing. It had all changed.
Or well, changed back anyway.
He jingled as he shifted his stance briefly. Brushing back long, dark brown hair from his face only for it to fall back over pne half. It was a constant menace some days.
Asking if anything felt different was a curious question and he quirked an eyebrow. “Of course. Why wouldn’t there be?” Removing Grendel’s Haines from his shoulders he brought them up to his lips and kissed them.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 6:21 pm
Not exactly the answer he was looking for, but the miscommunication was certainly understandable. Either that or Ravnos was being purposefully ambiguous. Grendel could, unfortunately, see either of those options being true.
Ravnos raised his hands up to his lips for a kiss, and while the very much enjoyed seeing him here, whole and wonderful and not completely destroyed as he had thought, there was still the matter of discerning whether or not he was indeed okay.
"Dracian." A gentle tone, though there may have been the faint edge of exasperation. "I had to remake you. I have never done anything like that before. I am just making sure you are...intact."
That seemed like a poor choice of words for some reason.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 6:32 pm
He had to fight back a laugh. He struggled so far. Grendel indeed did look rather serious about the question. A smirk spread wide across his face. A mischievous look ok in those green eyes as he pressed the bad of Grendel’s hands to his forehead. Ravnos’s shoulders shook once before he lifted his head in calm composure. “Y…” He stopped clearing his throat. “Yes. I mean unless you would like to check for yourself then by all means go right ahead.”
Ravnos had missed this. How serious the God could be about the silliest. And I’m turn Ravnos would have a quip right off the cuff.
It was one of the many reasons he loved him.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 6:54 pm
Grendel had the distinct feeling he was being laughed at, even if he never actually heard a laugh at that moment. He could read it in Ravnos's eyes the moment he looked back up at him. It was...confounding. The God couldn't understand how the Disciple could be so calm, somehow. Like he was taking this whole thing in stride, as though he hadn't just been gone for years, or like he hadn't just unraveled into nothing more than his essence a mere few moments before this.
Yet something in the mischievous glint of those green eyes, in the smirk, in just the tone of his response, that was all Ravnos. Grendel's Ravnos. Somehow, that was enough to ease his concerns, and he stepped forward, removing his hands from the Disciples so that he could wrap his arms around him, pulling him in close. Behind him, the shadowy tendrils began to snake out from his back, and they wrapped around him too, holding him tight.
"I.." His voice hitched in his chest, which suddenly ached painfully with so many emotions it would be impossible to untangle them all. He couldn't hope to speak around them. He just wanted to say how much he had missed him, and he wanted to tell him how sorry he was, again. He felt like he would never stop apologizing. But he couldn't get the words out.
Tears had begun to well up and he closed his eyes against them, buried his face against Ravnos's neck, and breathed him in again.
Unbidden, though he had tried to stop it, the tears fell, slipping out, a red that was almost black, leaving dark trails along his cheeks.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 7:05 pm
A look of surprise washed over his features at the tears Grendel was shedding. Was he really that upset over it all?
“Hey. Hey.” His voice was soft now, barely above a whisper as he leaned back to get a better look at the God’s face. Whipping away the tears that fell the best he could. “It’s ok now. It’s over and I’m here.” He leaned on to kiss at more of the tears before wrapping his arms around him tight and running his fingers through his hair.
“Do you want to go back to the wagon?” Ravnos asked quietly. There wasn’t a ton of comfort here in Grendel’s temple. And at least there at his wagon he could help Grendel calm himself better.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 8:16 pm
It had hit him like a freight car, all of a sudden. He hadn't cried when he thought Ravnos had been destroyed. He had felt broken, yes, and had gone despondent for a while, but he hadn't cried. And he wasn't upset right now, not really. In fact, if anything, the opposite was true. It had just been, so much, so fast, and he hadn't given himself enough time to feel, until it flooded him, all at once.
It was embarrassing. The tears slid down silently, and he wasn't able to make them stop. "I am fine," he growled, suddenly finding his voice, and trying to shift his face away (though he clearly was not fine), but eventually he stopped trying to hide it and let Ravnos wipe them away, kiss them away, and hold him.
"Up until a few nights ago, I thought I had destroyed you. I did not think I would ever see you again." His voice was gruff, and there was still the raw edge of pain in them, but it was a pain from the past, not from the present.
"I grieved for you, every day, and now you are here." He paused for a moment, the tears had, thankfully, stopped. Soothed away by quiet, gentle words.
"Yes. Let's go to the wagon." He liked the wagon. It was a much warmer place than this. This place held too many memories, and most of those were depressing ones.
So, he hand-wavied them to the wagon.
It was always easier than walking.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 8:30 pm
Ravnos chuckled deep within his chest as he continued to stroke Grendel’s hair. Leaning down to kiss him on the cheek. “And yet I think if not for you I wouldn’t be standing here right now. You do not give yourself enough credit because I know once you put your mind to something it will happen. You just have to give it time.” Whether or not Grendel believed that well at least a Ravnos did. Some might have seen him as the brooding, failure son of Caine for maybe not living up to the potential Caine sought for him. But he had grown into the potential Ravnos believed he had.
The hand ways were still a bit odd but hadn’t changed much in the way they made Ravnos’s stomach jump from time to time.
Looking around the wagon he took in all his things. The barely lit inside, no windows. The brightly colored furniture and decorations. The tall bookshelves on the one wall and the beaded curtain. It was all the same and perhaps in ways not. The smell of cloves hung heavy in the air as if someone had been here prior to their arrival and had been smoking. “I’m glad to see it didn’t just fall apart while I was gone.”
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 8:51 pm
The Disciple's words were comforting ones. They reminded Grendel that while he may have grieved, he had still done what he needed to the moment he realized he could get Ravnos back. And he had done it in a remarkably short time frame, at that. It still made him feel bad, that he hadn't realized sooner, that Ravnos had lived another life for years in that other plane, but he was coming to realize he needed to try and get past that now, and not let those thoughts consume him.
The teleport to the wagon was instantaneous, as always. Grendel hadn't actually been here since he had lost Ravnos, though he had thought about it from time to time. Ultimately, the thought of coming here alone had been too heart-wrenching, so he had not visited it, not for comfort or grief or otherwise.
He was almost glad of that now. It wasn't tainted with bad memories, only good ones.
"Mmm.." Grendel looked around himself, giving a slight nod, eyes narrowed. "No, I don't suppose it would have. Not like...." He stopped and gave the Disciple a sidelong glance. "....Your bloodline. Though those that were gone seem to be back, now." He tacked on that last part almost like an afterthought.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:01 pm
It made sense that his children and grandchildren would disappear with him gone, but as long as they had returned that was a positive thought. He didn’t spend much time with them which was also fine. Their mothers were kind of crazy anyway. “Well of course. The wagon wasn’t made by my bloodline. It was made by Clementina’s. Antonio’s family were timeless craftsman and his sons and grandsons as well.” Ravnos looked around the wagon appreciatively. Green eyes glimmering in flame light.
The story had been true here as it had been in the other world where he once lived. “The magic however has always been mine. But we didn’t come here to talk about blood and magic.”
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:10 pm
Grendel watched him as he spoke, and again the Disciple was completely unphased. It all seemed to be so easy for him, and Grendel envied that, but at the moment, together with Ravnos in the quiet comfort of the wagon, he was captured by his words and by the vibrant green of his eyes.
He reached over to brush back some of the hair that insisted on obscuring part of Ravnos's face, tilting his head to the side slightly, a small smile playing along the God's lips.
"Oh? What have we come here for, then?"
As if he didn't know.
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