Fantasy Auribus Teneo Lupum

[Luda]

It wasn't that Patrick hated his life, necessarily. It was more of a....general distaste for his current predicament for the past four years. Even before he had been born, his parents had held high expectations for him. With his father an esteemed doctor and his mother a successful business woman, it was expected that they thought he would grow up to be something incredible. Maybe they imagined him as a scientist, helping NASA discover the unimaginable mystery of the universe, or perhaps they saw him as a world-class CEO with businesses all across the globe. Whatever they first desired for him, he knew without a single doubt that this was something they never would have thought of.



They certainly didn't envision their baby boy as a Harvard drop out. After five semesters, he showed up on their doorstep with the news that he decided that he didn't want to become a doctor. It went over about as well as he might have hoped. His mother cried. His father yelled. His grandfather basically disowned him and told him to get out of his house. You know, the works. The only part of his family that still even made contact was his eldest sister. Most of the time, that was only to make sure that he hadn't been murdered in his shithole of an apartment.



That is the short version of how he went from a rich boy from a rich family to a someone who was only a step above being homeless who happened to be from a rich family. The only thing that did keep him from living on the streets was the crappy, minimum wage job he worked. Don't get him wrong. He was extremely grateful to have it. He knew people on the streets, and to be truly honest, it looked and sounded like shit. He would take dealing with obnoxiously stupid coworkers and serving burgers to customers over that any day. At least it paid the bills, even if those bills didn't leave money for anything else. Like food.



Today happened to be one of those days where he actually did have money for food. It was a rare good day where he could afford more than ramen and could take the bus to the work. Of course, he had to walk back, but he liked to look at the silver lining. It was raining by the time he ended his double shift. The stores were only ten minutes away, but after sixteen hours on his feet, Pat wanted nothing more than to fall into the gutter and die. Vetoing the need for food until the morning, he started stumbling his way down the street towards his apartment.



His eyes more closed than open, he was a mere block away from sweet, blissful oblivion when his shaky feet slipped out from beneath him. With a loud, rather high pitched yelp, he crashed to the ground hard. He laid there for a few minutes, muttering curses and rubbing his sore bottom. 'At least you didn't hit your head?' his brain supplied helpfully. It just made him grumble louder and shove into an upright position to look for whatever tripped him.



The offending object sat a few feet away, the street lights glittering off the silver chain. It was a necklace. A rather old one that looked expensive at that. At the end of the chain hung an obsidian pendant. It was formed into the shape of an upside down raindrop. Intricate, fluid designs wrapped around what looked like pearls fused to the surface. It was captivating.



Already soaked through, he crawled forward and gently scooped it up. The pendant sat perfectly cupped in his palm. An odd warmth seemed to come from it, like it had sat in the sunlight only moments before. Just as the thought crossed his mind, an intense pain bloomed in his chest. It stole the breath from his lungs and sent him bent in half to the ground. With his forehead pressed into the rough pavement, he desperately gasped for air, fist clutching at his chest. It didn't matter. He could not breathe, and the pain just kept growing and growing.



After what felt like hours, and only seconds from passing out, the pain stopped as abruptly as it started. It left him startled but relieved, and he sucked in lungful after lungful of oxygen gratefully. It wasn't until his panting breath had calmed that he opened his eyes. The sight that greeted him took a few seconds to process. He blamed the near death experience for that. Scrambling upright, his startled gaze looked out upon a foggy, green field. That's it. There was nothing else in sight. Not a single building or road. Nothing remotely similar to where he had been less than five minutes ago.

 

[Aster]

• Ignis Callum •​

Being hundreds of years old meant that life got boring---no, life sucked, especially for a near-immortal being like Ignis Callum who grew jaded to the greed and ways of the world. History had an uncanny way of repeating itself and as Ignis withdrew from society, he found living more of a pain than a blessing. Despite this, there was no way the proud demon was going to lower himself to something as foolish as ending his life purposely. That would be pretty stupid.

Instead, the young demon had found a loophole, seeking out one of the most skilled of magicians to tie his soul down to a gem.

"Doing this will allow you to hibernate. You'll be able to rest so long as this stone is undisturbed," the magician had told him, pressing an obsidian pendant to his palm. Of course it had to be black.

"Perfect," Ignis had replied, taking the pendant and all the more ready to disappear for a few millennia. Perhaps when he finally wakes up, things will be different. People won't suck and the planet won't be dying.

"I don't understand why you're doing this though," the magician inputted before he could leave, "You're immortal (no, not really). Why would you leave yourself vulnerable like this?"

Ignis paused, giving thought to the question. There was a sad, old smile on his face when he finally answered, "L'appel du vide."

And just like that he left, hiding the pendant away from civilization, deep within the heart of his home where no man ought to venture to. There he laid, asleep and undisturbed for a few decades until a sudden jolt pulled him into wake, with such a sudden force that it almost hurt. It was a quick and merciless jolt which had him summoned from his obsidian world, only to fall full force onto the twice-damned creature who had the misfortune to wake him.

Because he had not expected to be waken up so soon (he had set the stone to break a few thousand years into the future but the amount he slept certainly didn't feel like a thousand.) Ignis had materialized in one of his default forms: a monstrous beast-like creature with black leathery skin, sharp claws and even sharper canines. Large horns grew from his forehead, curling up into the air like a ram's and his veins throbbed blue from underneath the parts where his skin grew grey. His core pulsed with the color of magma and emitted waves of blazing heat. From his back sprouted thin, bat-like wings tattered and torn but the most frightening part were his eyes: they were pitch black save for the gold slit in his iris.

Underneath his large hands and feet was something soft and squishy. Standing on all fours on whatever he had landed on, he removed a hand to find a frightened face staring up at him.

"You," he growled, voice raspy and crinkling with ash and flame. "Did you wake me, human?"

 

[Luda]

Patrick managed to stagger to his feet. His eyes roved around desperately to try and find any sort of landmark or shadow among the fog. Nothing. No matter how hard he strained his already poor eyesight, there was nothing. The walls of mist obscured whatever might have been out there. Panic that had been resting just below the surface rose until he felt like it would choke him.

He had just started convincing his feet to move when a large, heavy thing slammed into him from above. The impact drove him into the ground and stole the breath from his lungs. Gagging and choking on dirt and what tasted like ash, he struggled wildly against the weight. He couldn't breathe between the weight on top of him and his own esophagus closing up. Relief flowed through him like a crystal spring when the creature started to move and lift itself, only for the that relief to transform back into terror when a massive, nonhuman hand pushed into his face.

His breathing was cut off again. This time, however, the fear made him freeze, locking his muscles into place. No matter how hard he fought against himself, he could not force even his hands to move. Thankfully, the creature lifted it's hand, and he sucked in air in gulps that nearly choked him again. Getting his first look at the creature that had damn near killed him already, Patrick immediately regretted wishing for it to move. He would rather suffocate to death in blissful ignorance.

The crackling growl sent terrified shivers down his spine. The heat emitting from the...thing's chest was nearly unbearable, and he could feel sweat forming at his temples. He could imagine himself impaled upon those horns a little too vividly.

'Jesus fucking Christ, please just kill me now,' he thought hysterically. Wide eyes flitted about the demon's being until they locked onto it's eyes. His mind went numb with fear, and he vaguely heard himself start babbling. "Uh, n-no! I don't think I did. I mean, I might have, but it was a mistake. I just-I was just walking home, and I tripped on this stupid locket and ended up in this place!" He accidentally punched the underside of his jaw in his haste to yank the offending pendant into view.

 

[Aster]

• Ignis Callum •​

(Tries my best not to cackle at Patrick's misery)

Ignis was never really the violent sort, despite the stereotypes against his rare race of beings. The power and the horrific looks were wasted on his old soul. But that didn't mean he wasn't susceptible to quick bouts of irritation, annoyance and even anger. In this case, the unfortunate human was granted with a concoction of all three. Sleep-heavy limbs had him reacting poorly to the sudden bout of action and a bare fist successfully landed against his jaw, knocking his head back.

"Ow!" he bit his tongue, almost swallowing his own exclamation before turning back to glower at the human. "This 'stupid' locket you call is half my soul."

Half now that I'm awake at least, he thought.

"I'd appreciate if you don't thrash it around like so," his rebuke was quickly retracted with another yelp of pain when he tried to grab his locket. A shot of pain seared his palm, running up his arms like shocks of electricity. This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't normal. This didn't go according to plan.

His head whipped towards the male with a glare exuding potent accusation. If looks could kill, the human would be dead on spot.

"What have you done?" Ignis questioned, clearly not believing that the human just happened to "walk by" and "trip" on his pendant, which was supposed to be tucked and hidden away into the depths of his home. "Lie to me again and I'll have your throat," he threatened, enclosing a clawed hand around the male's neck.

 

[Luda]

• Patrick Choi •​

The absolute shriek that flew out of his mouth was undignified at best. The sound hurt his own ears, but he would gladly burst his own eardrums than face whatever this monster had in store for him now. Disbelief spun rapidly around his mind at the fact that he had just punched a creature that looked like it was from hell right in the face.

"Oh, my god! I'm so sorry!" He screamed, jerking his hands quickly back to his chest with a loud thump. There was little doubt that he just added another bruise on top of the multiple he had acquired seconds earlier. The demon's hand reached out, and his eyes shut.

'This is it,' he admitted silently. 'I'm actually going to die like this. I just wanted to go to sleep.'

Loud apologies spilled from his lips with abandon. It was only the sharp claws clamping around his throat that finally silenced him. For the fourth time in less than ten minutes, the his lungs were robbed up precious oxygen. It was pure desperation and instinct that made him thrust his hands forward into the monster's face, the pendant clutched between his fingers.

His entire being was held tense in preparation for something to happen. An explosion, a scream of pain, the demon crushing his fragile throat like a cheap plastic straw. There was nothing. Silence. Inching an eye open, Pat looked around. An obnoxiously bright yellow light nearly blinded him, and for one heart stopping moment, he thought he had died. Closer inspection showed that wasn't the answer either.

A being stood shrouded in the glow. Surprisingly hot fingers were wrapped around his wrists, preventing him from reaching the demon. In it's other hand, it held the demon's horns in it's grip. Very slowly, it pried the demon off of him. As Pat sucked in air and coughed his way back to working order, the being settled the demon a few feet away. It turned to face both of them, and he felt a heavy weight push on him as if to keep him in place. He didn't test if he could move. One pissed off monster was quite enough for him, thank you very much.

"You have been given a task." The voice rumbled through the air like thunder. He felt his hairs stand up and his stomach jumped like he had just missed a step going down a flight of stairs. Energy crackled around them sporadically like the being couldn't keep it contained very well. The light shimmered and shifted around it's face and shoulders, hiding whoever it was from view. "You have been given the great honor of finding The Well of Immortality."

"Fuck that!" It tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop it. This had to be a drug induced dream. The Well of Immortality? What was this? Some bad dungeons and dragons game? "No, for real. Fuck that. I want to go home." He pushed against the invisible bonds to no avail.

"You will do as you have been tasked to do." The figure turned it's attention solely onto the demon, apparently done with the insignificant human now. "You, demon," it sneered in obvious disdain. "You are tasked with guarding this life form. Your soul is tied to it's soul now. No harm is to befall the human while under your care." Not bothering to wait for a response, the being abruptly vanished in a flash of light and crack of thunder.

Stunned, he sat that staring at the spot the...god? Angel? Whatever the hell that thing was. He wasn't sure and honestly didn't want to know. He turned to look at the demon next to him, and felt his brain finally click with the fact that he was here with an actual, real life demon who had already tried to kill him. A wave of stress and fear pushed a few hysterical giggles out of him.

"Do you think if I just started walking, I can get out of this?"

coded by Aster

 

[Aster]

• Ignis Callum •​

When the glowing ball of light had made itself present, Ignis scowled, though to say he scowled would be quite the understatement to what his face twisted to when the being grabbed his horns. He was livid. Even more so when he was easily tossed off the human like a child would fling a ragdoll.

With gritted teeth, he held biting words back. His horns were sizzling from the being's touch and only the most holy souls were able to bring him substantial harm with just a touch. His eyes narrowed.

What was a god doing here?

The god's next words had Ignis cursing inwardly just as the human. Fuck that, was a very appropriate choice of words but Ignis knew better than to pick a losing fight. He could only glare with ferocious intensity and snarl back at the god's visage of contempt. When the god vanished, he roared a howl filled with anger and frustration. A violent sort of yell which amplified the magnitude of his ire as his fists connected with the ground below him, shattering it as though it was frail glass and not solid earth.

"STUPID, FUCKING, OVERSIZED FIREBALL. IF YOU'RE SO GREAT WHY DON'T YOU GET ONE OF YOUR BIRDBRAINED LACKEYS TO DO IT FOR YOU, HUH?" Ignis yelled, punctuating each word with a punch. He was steaming (literally). Boughs of vapor escaped through his dark skin as he started to cool down considerably after his mini tantrum.

Seated on his knees with his shoulders slump in defeat, the fire demon fell into a long period of silence. It had been a long while since he's last felt so mad. This wasn't like him. He had to cool down and whether he liked it or not, Ignis knew he'd have to come to terms. Two millenniums of walking the Realm (*substitute for earth cause it sounds cooler) had him jaded to a lot of things but being forced on mission impossible was a new ballgame of fuckery.

He'd find the fucker who signed him up for this task, he swore to himself, and he'd pay them back in full.

For now, Ignis had to follow along and make sure this... human doesn't do anything stupid.

"Do you think if I just started walking, I can get out of this?"

Ignis stared at him dead face, not moving and thinking to himself, "Hey at least he didn't do anything stupid. He just said it."

Slowly getting up with a sigh, he dusted his knees and his hands. "If your soul wasn't tied to mine, I'd say yeah sure. Go right ahead and walk yourself off the Realm, yeah?" Ignis said, sarcasm dripping. While he had calmed down considerably, he was still feeling very sour.

"But you can't cause I can't let that happen. There's no guarantee that any harm that falls on you won't be granted to me," he continued to explain, rubbing the back of his neck. He really needed a good stretch, especially after being asleep for so long.

"By the way," he added, eyes skimming down the male before him, "Is this the latest fashion trend now in Hominum* or are you not from around here?" A hand hooked under the human's chin, lifting it up so that Ignis could examine the collar better. It didn't look like a tunic or anything he was familiar with seeing. He took care not to let his sharp claws accidentally cut the fragile skin near the human's neck, but after getting one claw stuck on the material of his shirt, Ignis decided that keeping this form would be far too inconvenient.

In blink of an eye, the fire demon had changed form, shrinking down into a slim human figure. Short black hair jutted underneath dark caramel skin and multiple black markings ran down his face and body. His wings, horns and claws were gone now but his irises still glowed a brilliant amber. Sharp incisors were revealed in a dry smirk as Ignis released the male's face.

He stepped back to give him space. Their heights were closer now, though Ignis stood just at the human's eye level. This didn't bother him as much as it should. With everything else that's been happening, the last thing he could care about was who was taller.

"Name's Ignis, by the way. Wish I could say it was a pleasure but it really hasn't."