Cats and Crows

[Dōkeshi]

Jungles seemed to be Kobayashi's lot in life. Chasing large animals was another thing that seemed to fall definitively in the White Dōkeshi's corner, being a part-time giant animal, himself. So: jungle, hunting, big animals.

The Nexu leapt at him, getting itself caught on Kobayashi's sword, and they both fell from the trees. In midair, the white-clad man shifted form into a gigantic leopard, with the spiny feline wrestling him for control. Each was trying to make the other bear the brunt of the impact on the ground.

[member='Morrigan']

 

[Slot 13]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yw6zxWLy6g​

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The serenity of the uncivilized wilderness always made for better melodies in Morrigan's view. Sitting in the stillness beneath a beautiful tree, with the sunlight peeking through the leaves, her fingers danced along the strings of her harp. The music was sad and sweet. Perfect for how she had been feeling in the recent weeks. So long it had been since she had last seen her home. Her new one was very nice, of course, but it would never compare to Falcrest. Not in a million years. She sighed, continuing to play.​

[member="Dōkeshi"]​

 

[Dōkeshi]

The Nexu finally got a claw into the giant leopard that was Kobayashi. The gigantic snow-colored cat yowled with a sound like a hurricane at the pain of the foot-long claw sticking through his shoulder. With a final, crushing, blow the other feline was finally dead, and Kobayashi pulled himself away. He could barely see through the pain of the other wounds his prey had given him.

As he shifted back into his normal form, he wondered how he could've let the Nexu do this to him. He'd taken on bigger prey, more dangerous prey... Was he tiring, losing the will to fight, maybe? Kobayashi couldn't tell. His pondering was put to an end, though, as his leg gave way under him, making him fall down and jog already-cracked ribs. But his head still perked up. Something...

He heard something... beautiful. It made him forget why he was lying on the ground, bleeding out. It made him wonder who was playing the song. And it made him wonder why he wasn't still walking toward it. Was he really this weak? He picked himself up, wounds and all, and walked towards it.

The last thing his blurry vision saw was a black-haired woman with a harp, and something huge and black behind her. Then, he simply collapsed against a tree and fell unconscious.

[member="Morrigan"]

 

[Slot 13]

Morrigan weaved her song into it's last notes just as she felt someone come near her. Her golden eyes rested on a white-haired man slumped against a tree, so close to her that it almost made her jump. She then saw the enormous gash in his leg and the trail of blood he had left behind him. She rose from the stump she had been sitting on and quickly made her way over to him.​

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The first thing Morrigan would notice about him as she gently pulled him onto her lap was the mask he was wearing. How odd... She gently removed it, and smiled a little. He was quite handsome. The next thing that caught her attention was the giant claw that took the place of one of his hands. This one was definitely strange. Nevertheless, she couldn't just let him die here.​

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Luckily, Morrigan knew a bit of healing magic, though it wasn't anything too major. She moved a hand to his chest, mending the broken bones and the bruises. She then went to work on his leg. Her massive black wings stretched over the man's body as she worked, almost as if she were shielding him from the forest around them. She managed to stop the bleeding. However, a fresh scar was still quite visible, and the pain would still be there for a time.​

​

Morrigan sighed. That was the best she could do, unfortunately. She carefully moved him to a small patch of sun next to her harp ad took her seat there once more. She then continued to play until the mysterious man awakened.​

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDuE_2dV6V4​

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[member="Dōkeshi"]​

 

[Dōkeshi]

Kobayashi gasped as his eyes snapped open. He looked around, wondering why the familiar weight of his mask was gone. The next thing he wondered was why he was awake to be wondering things, when he'd just been in the middle of an odd dream about a Nexu dancing on his chest. Finally, he wondered belatedly why his wounds were only itching, and why the music he thought he'd been dreaming was playing outside his mind.

Looking around for the source of the beautiful sound, his eyes lit upon a woman with... Wings? A beautiful woman with wings. Fascinating. The star-shaped scar on his face burned slightly, along with the scar of the now-closed wound he had, as he tried to pick himself up off the ground. With a loud groan, Kobayashi pushed himself up into a sitting position, gasping for breath.

"Hello?"

[member="Morrigan"]

 

[Slot 13]

Morrigan smiled, not looking up from her harp strings as she finished the song. "You've woken up. That's a welcome relief. I was almost convinced that you wouldn't..." She said calmly. When the final note was strung, she turned to the man, her piercing gaze locking with his. "You nearly scared me out of my wits, just appearing there beside me before. I was lucky not to break one of my strings. But you should be alright now. I took the liberty of healing you up a bit. I apologize that it couldn't be more complete, but alas, I only know so much."​

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[member="Dōkeshi"]​

 

[Dōkeshi]

To somebody else, it might have occurred that one should be nice to the beautiful woman with the harp, but Kobayashi's Batman complex got in the way. He kept looking around for his mask, slightly lost without the cold weight on his face. There was no anger in his face or voice, he simply looked like an oversized, lost, kitten. Especially with his tail wagging around and most of the clothes that hid the white fur on his shoulders gone.

"I didn't appear. I was hunting… What was it? A nexu, I think. It's probably dead, and I'm hungry."

Then, his mind finally locked itself back into its normal priority order.

"Where'd you put my mask?"

[member="Morrigan"]

 

[Slot 13]

Morrigan smiled wider as the man began searching. How truly adorable! "Oh? do you mean this?" She said, revealing the mask from underneath her long black skirt. She held it up, looking at it again. "A shame that you feel the need to wear something so cumbersome. There's no reason why you should hide those beautiful blues." She tossed the mask to him and looked at his tail and chest.​

[member="Dōkeshi"]​

 

[Dōkeshi]

Kobayashi shrugged as he put the mask back on. With the silver metal over his face, the air of being totally lost dissipated slightly. He still seemed a bit like a lost cat out in the woods, with a Dark-mangled hand to prove that he'd done something in his life. Running his clawed hand through his hair, he felt his frown lighten up slightly at the strange woman's compliment.

"I'd feel more shame not wearing it. It's... important."

[member="Morrigan"]

 

[Slot 13]

Morrigan nodded. "Ah, I see. It's a bit like this pendant I wear," She said. She reached a hand up to the little silver raven who appeared like it was clutching an emerald in it's talons. "This is the only thing I have of my home. If I were to ever lose it, I would more than likely go insane." She stood up and decided to approach the man, sitting down beside him. "I'd say judging by the fur and the way you act that you are a Felacation, are you not?"​

[member="Dōkeshi"]​

 

[Dōkeshi]

"I wish that was all I was. I'd be able to smile, or laugh, or cry, or bemoan the state of my hand. The mask is the thing that reminds me of what happened to my body. I can't lose it, or I'll lose my purpose."

Kobayashi looked around the clearing, his tail twitching, trying to see where he'd collapsed. It didn't seem very important, but it took his attention from those piercing jewel-like eyes. There was something that made him want to stare into them, but it felt like he'd be trapped. He didn't like feeling trapped.

[member="Morrigan"]

 

[Slot 13]

"So, you're a hybrid, then? Wonderful!" Morrigan chirped giddily. Pureblood species can get dreadfully dull, even though she happened to be in that category. At least, as far as she knew. "Hmmm, what other species could be within you? Such a tantalizing mystery you are..." She placed a taloned index finger on her lips as she began trying to think of what else this cat-like being could be made of.​

[member="Dōkeshi"]​

 

[Dōkeshi]

"I'm not a hybrid."

His clawed hand clenched, making a slight scraping noise on his palm. Kobayashi had never told anybody what he was, before, and even this strangely mesmerizing person could never force the story out of him. It was just too much to deal with, a decade of pain and torture for no apparent reason but revenge.

"I've been... tortured. What you see is a shadow of a person. Or, maybe, a ghost. I prefer ghost."

[member="Morrigan"]

 

[Slot 13]

Morrigan's smile shrank slightly at his reaction. It was obviously a bit of a touchy subject for him. She flapped her wings a bit, continuing to look at him. "If you're a shadow of a person, then I'm a shadow of a bird. The way I see it, it doesn't matter what you are or what people tell you to be. What matters is who you are, and who you want to be." Morrigan was never one to give advice about this kind of thing. But she believed it.​

[member="Dōkeshi"]​

 

[Dōkeshi]

"You don't understand."

Kobayashi's frown deepened by a lot, as he slid himself over to the woman. From behind the mask, he stared into her face. No tears came from his eyes, and no physical evidence of his mental trauma was evident, except for the erratic twitching of his tail.

"This claw on my left hand is the result of a decade of irreversible Force Corruption. I can't feel emotion because my mind simply shut itself away after all that time of fear. I'm not a person anymore."

[member="Morrigan"]

 

[Slot 13]

Morrigan held his gaze. "Oh, really? You can't 'feel' anymore? Then why don't you explain the pain and the torment that I can sense coming off of you right now? Or the uneasiness you were feeling before you put that mask back on? You may not see yourself as a person, but make no mistake, you still very much are. You may suppress your emotions, but they are still there. And whether you like it or not, they aren't just going to disappear." She grinned slightly. Somehow she knew he would get a bit uncomfortable around her. But she was enjoying this little chat they were having. Mainly because she knew she was right.​

[member="Dōkeshi"]​

 

[Dōkeshi]

Kobayashi sighed and rested his chin on his knees as he sort of curled up into a ball. It still felt very uncomfortable to talk to this winged woman, and the white-furred Felacatian was rapidly becoming more lost as the conversation progressed. For once, the mask felt heavy on his face, and he took it off, surprised to find the inside moist.

"How am I... crying? My mind is cut off from physical displays of emotion. I can't smile."

His eyes locked on the woman's again, and he shook his head.

"I don't understand you. You keep on trying to insist that I'm a person, but I'm not. I died ten years ago, when my former Master ripped my mind from my body. The pain was..."

He shuddered, and his expression softened to something between a frown and a smile.

"... impossible to bear. You could do anything you want to me, but I'd never feel pleasure or pain anymore."

[member="Morrigan"]

 

[Slot 13]

Now that was something that Morrigan just couldn't resist. "Anything? Let's test that little theory, shall we?" She scooted even closer to him until they were just inches apart. She reached over and flicked his forehead. "Did you feel that?..... Or how about this?..... Or maybe this?..... I know that you can feel this...." She proceeded to poke his cheek, and then his stomach before attempting to tickle him.​

[member="Dōkeshi"]​

 

[Dōkeshi]

Kobayashi gave the bird woman what might have been described as a sad cat face if he'd been able to show such emotion. His fur flattened, and his tail moved slower.

"No... My pain receptors are fried, miss. They just never grew back."

He noticed, then, how close she was. She smelled good, too. His catlike senses smelt something sweet, and some floral scent, and the slightly musky scent of the feathers that made up her beautiful wings.

[member="Morrigan"]

 

[Slot 13]

Morrigan tilted her head slightly, a piece of her raven hair falling over her bare shoulders. "Hm. If that's true, then stand up." She said, gesturing to his legs. She did so herself, and even used her wings to hold herself a few feet off of the ground. "Stand up, and see if you can reach me. That will prove that you can't feel pain." She watched him below her, curious to see if could actually do it.​

[member="Dōkeshi"]​