Leucistic [For Armande]

[iprince]

Armande’s logic was lost on Kaemonji. Why should he feel responsible for something that he was nothing more than a pawn in, chosen by chance, not fate? Kaemonji would have done anything to find Jiaro, and find him he would, with or without Armande’s help. (Eventually. Certainly not so quickly as he seemed to be doing now). He had no need to feel responsible for any danger Kaemonji might be putting himself in.

Kaemonji had faith that Jiaro would not be…too unwelcoming to his presence. It would be a cruel irony if he was, after Kaemonji spent so many times proving his loyalty again and again by searching for him for so many years, in so many places. After having paid the prices he’d paid.

Nevertheless, if Armande wished to bring him, he was not going to tell him to do otherwise. He owed him, and if that, if piece of mind, was what he wanted, so be it.

“If you are sure, Armandejah, but I will be fine,” he squirmed uncomfortably, peering down at the ‘map,” I would not want you to be hurt because of me.”

That map produced the image of a church, a graveyard, and a theatre just beyond both. Near the edge of town, it seemed. It would be a fair walk, and it was already deep into the night. Hopefully they would reach it before morning. Kaemonji had his…ruby, but he was not so positive Armand had any such disguise for walking amongst humans. They would have to be hasty if they decided to go tonight.

If they would go tonight at all.

Kaemonji’s stomach was stirring with hunger. His trek through the maze had kept him from hunting, and he had been unusually famished as of late. But hunting came second to finding Jiaro, and they would only have time for one before the night was over.

Blank eyes flickered from the map to Armande,”It will take many hours to reach Jiarokumo, and I…am hungry,” he winced at the word, eyebrows cinching guiltily,” I…do not know which I would prefer to finish the night with. If you wish to wait…if you…do not mind my company, we could find him tomorrow night?”

He was tired, and hungry, and he did not want to come to Jiaro exhausted and weak. He would not return to the feline’s good graces in such a dismal state. Perhaps it would be best to wait, then.


{{ooc; x.X;; I really have no idea how I'm going to work in the whole "ohmygodI'mpregnant thing. X3}}

[silverdust]

((Perhaps Armande should notice? He has gone through this before ;D))

"It does not matter that much in any case really," Armande mused, half to Kaemonji and half to himself. "I was bound from the start...but, do not worry about me Kaemonji, I will be fine. I won't intrude upon your personal meeting."

He only meant to accompany the Puppeteer till the theatre. Whatever words he had for Jiarokumo were his and his alone. Even if Armande insisted on being with him to that point, there was nothing he could do if the dark god turned on him. He could only trust that Kaemonji knew Jiarokumo as well as he said he did.

But perhaps, that wasn't something they would have to deal with immediately. Armande really had no idea how tense he was until Kaemonji's next words sent a vague tinge of release through him. Tomorrow night; it was amazing how those simple words could sound so welcome.

"If that is what you wish," he said, and it was not teasing or scornful but somewhat relieved. He laughed lightly at Kaemonji's embarassment over such a simple need. "You would not want to collapse of hunger in such near sight of your prize."

A touch of worry lingered on his brow though, as he took in his young companion. He seemed exahusted, and he wondered just how many sacrifices he had made in pursuit of a singular goal. "Are you well enough to hunt, or shall I...?"

This scenario seemed oddly familiar; he couldn't quite place it though. The feeling of deja vu, the remembrance, he had owed it all to the leonine's exotic innocence, but this was something certainly more solid. Distressingly so.

[iprince]

{{That would be lovely, if you wouldn’t mind it ^^;; Kaemonji is a first time, after all. Wouldn’t notice it if it hit him over the head.
Mrah, I’d just like to add that there won’t be any bebe-kicking. Nagas = eggs! <3}}

“No,” a quiet chuckle spilled from his lips and his face brightened, his smile returning to his mouth as if they’re dalliance with the bebe had been nothing more than an unpleasant dream, ”Jiarokumo would not be impressed. But I would like that very much, I have not eaten today.” He did not add that he’d been unusually hungry as of late. Perhaps it in itself was noticeable. A predator such as a Euclides had no need to eat everyday so long as one good meal was caught frequently enough. Nevertheless, Kaemonji could not quell his hunger. Hopefully his gentleman would not think less of him for it.

Increased hunger, added lethargy, and that rounded belly. None of it was flattering. Jiaro would hardly recognize him in this state!

“I will hunt with you, if that is okay,” his smile turned sheepish once again,” I need the…” what was the word? Work? Play? No…nor was practice quite right. Why couldn’t he remember it? “I am well enough.” Tired, yes, a little weak from hunger, certainly, but not incapable of hunting if he must. There was nothing wrong with him, after all. And even tired hunters could still hunt, when it was required of them. Kaemonji merely had the added help of his gentleman.

“I…” he lifted a paw, extending a single talon to toy with the curled filigree of his snake-pendant. The ruby glimmered in the moonlight, sparkling like diluted blood,”…can take another form. Perhaps I could be like marionette, and you ca make the kill?” Even in this late hour, there were always humans about. Drunkards and prostitutes mostly, a few shady characters as well. They might be able to catch something of interest.

[silverdust]

"If you believe you can manage, it is all the better."

The words sounded the same, conversational, but still the Director could not displace the feeling of...something. He wold have to think on it later though, when he had the time and the tranquility. His eyes shifted to Kaemonji's pendant, following the claw, and an eyebrow lifted in surprise. He hadn't exactly taken in the details of the other's jewelry, but he had been around Egyptian artifacts long enough to know that this one was different from most.

"A marionette?" he questioned, somewhat distractedly, as he shifted closer to examine the amulet. "That jewel allows you to take a human form?"

Well, then that was certainly useful. He had hunted many a time with marionettes, enough that he had it down to a work of art, perfectly precise and perfectly fatal. Not that there would be any out this night that would make the hunt a challenge, but his young companion seemed too...delicate for that at the moment.

There it was again, that familiar stirring. He shook his head, as if to dull it away. "Very well, Kaemonji, we shall use your strategy tonight."

[iprince]

“Yes,” Kaemonji replied simply, dropping his paw to the ground. The serpent swung daintily beneath his chest before the lack of momentum stopped it.

A human form, and one other. But there was no need to dwell on that now. His…other form would not help him acquire prey this night. Shapeshifting was a most wondrous art. One had to exert themselves so very little when working as a marionette. It was no wonder to Kaemonji that they were the primary food gatherers for a cast.

He leaned back on his haunches, tossing his mane out of his face and lifting that paw once more to grasp the serpent by its swerves, the tips of his toes brushing against the little ruby encrusting its face. The shift was quick and elegant, fur withering away to coco-cream skin, his limbs rearranging themselves to make him long and lanky. His mane merely shifted position, shortening until it only just brushed his shoulders. The delicate gold tail band fell to the ground with a clunk as his tail shriveled into himself. Still seated he merely reached back behind him and slid it up the length of his leg until it snugly gripped it calf.

A long-fingered hand raced through his hair, bushing shaggy bangs out of his eyes. His attention turned to Armande and he struggled to his feet, wobbling a little from lack of practice. He was nude, yes, for no Euclides shifting with clothes in tow, but unashamed of his nudity. Why would any bestial creature feel shame for a natural state? Never-the-less his hands fell in front of himself…not to hide bits, but rather the curve of his stomach.

It seemed all the more disgustingly obvious in this form.

Kaemonji sucked in a breath between his teeth and turned away. He had been abusing him with the luxuries of this English town. Now look at what was happening to him. Hopefully it wouldn’t deter they’re hunt.

“I am…sorry of this,” his hands shifted a little, spreading over his belly as if they might be able to mask it,”I have been lazy since I came to England.”

[silverdust]

Armande blinked. He knew enough of marionettes and their human forms, though he hadn't seen it in a male before he knew what that bulge meant. If it were fat it would've been visible on the rest of that slender, lanky form. But that little curve, so perfectly placed in a sort of aesthetic mockery. Surely the other would know...?

"You're pregnant," his tone came somewhere between a statement and a question, and then he cursed under his breath and gave covered his face with his claw, chagined. He had meant it to come out with more tact than that, but it was generally a knee-jerk reaction in males to take such sudden situations of this kind as such.

He opened his eyes and gave his best attempt of a smile at the youth. It wasn't that he was disgusted or disturbed with the fact, it had just been an extrememly long time since he had...well...it didn't matter. He just hoped he hadn't discomforted his companion. He would have known, right? It wasn't as if it were a fact to be ignored.

"I'm sorry, for my reaction," he bowed again. "It was just a surprise."

((Armande assumes too much, tactless fellow indeed :B ))

[iprince]

He was…what?

Kaemonji’s eyes widened slightly and his neck jerked downward, hands flying away from his belly as if it were some foreign thing crawling about his body. His face contorted into an image of shock and he stepped backward, mouth agape.

He couldn’t be. He had only…it was but once…they weren’t compatible, were they? They couldn’t be. A naga and a Euclides. He just…he couldn’t be…

“No,” Kaemonji muttered, the word a fair whisper under the night-time noises,” It is…I can’t….”

Just a surprise! Hardly as much as it was for him! How could…how could this have happened. Kaemonji stretched a finger out toward the bump, inching it forward with hesitance as if his belly might gape open and devout his hand just like that. He prodded it with caution. Hard, with skin stretched thin.

“…I can’t be…”

His head snapped up once more and he shrunk to the grass, resting on his knees with hands held at either side, as if afraid to let them drop onto his belly. Kaemonji’s eyes rose to Armande’s, face painted a thousand shades of confusion,”…I am…not…not really…am I?”

{{And Kaemonji would have continued in ignorant bliss until he actual had the blasted things, were it not for Armande’s tactlessness X3}}

[silverdust]

Shit. He hadn't realized, had he?

Armande was, for once, at a lost, and the Director's mind seemed to be doing nothing at the moment but stringing together random curses into an endless static. He hadn't been prepared for this at all; all his experiences with pregnancy, the female had been expecting it. Or at least adjusted rather quickly. What was he...expected to do? Because he had to do something or it seemed Kaemonji would likely have a mental breakdown.

More extreme than the one he was having now, in any case.

Armande inched closer, raising a tentative hand to the boy's shoulder. He gave tight-lipped smile, but not angry in the least. Just try to be rational about this, calm. "Yes...you really are. I have...experience with the matter. It is no mistake."

What now? He was not terribly cut out for this in the least; the charm had disappeared with a greater part of his intellect awhile back.

"It's a natural process, you should be fine," he finished, somewhat lamely. Somehow he was sure that he was not much helping at the moment, but he needed time to get his bearings. He could bare grasp what the other might be feeling at the moment.

[iprince]

Oh, by Ra. He was. He really was.

Kaemonji sucked in a deep breath, letting it out as a shuddered exhale of air. He hung his head, black hair following over ginger skin, smothering eyes in darkness. His hands finally slid up his body, resting lightly over the curve of his belly. There were…things in there. Some abnormal manner of creatures.

Why now? Why this? Had…had his naga meant for this to happen? Used him to continue his species, such as it was. Were these merely an attempt to keep those serpents from extinction? Or was it more. Was it something to remember him by?

Good god. Did he even know what they would be.

Kaemonji shivered, his hands clutching at his skin now, breath nothing more than thin gasps. His chest heaved with each one.

This wasn’t fair. This wasn’t part of their pact.

A natural process? No…not with what they were.

“…I don’t want them. I don’t know what they are…” he lifted his head, hair moving out of his eyes,”They are not…they are not…”

It had only been once. Once in all of his life. He’d never permitted himself to partake in carnal acts before or after his naga. They could only be his…

…but how could that happen.

“He was not a Euclides.”

[silverdust]

Not an Euclides? Well, that was certainly a surprise. But Armande was in no position to judge what Kaemonji had taken upon him, as part of his quest or some other inclination. He had lost the right to take judgment on personal choices, in a fact, and he would not make the errors that had led once to his destruction. After all, he had heard rumors, in this city, and Kaemonji was not the first.

With a sigh, he reached over, shielding the figure with his wing as if he could somehow hide him from the world. Indeed, it seemed what the boy wanted at the moment. His voice was as tender as he could manage, a fluid stream of words.

"Kyvabikuna, the first daughter of Jiarokumo, the bearer of the grandchildren I mentioned before. Her mate was not full Euclides either, but the child of a Marionette and a lycan vampire. And there have been our kind who have mated with humans before. Not that any ever had an idyllic ending, but it is not a twisted as you might believe."

With the same slow, tentative grace, he rested his other claw against Kaemonji's clenching hands. "The...secondary father, I suppose, he did not...?"

Rape, ravage? They all seemed to cruel of words to question in such a delicate state. If indeed the boy had been taken against his will...well, there was not much he could do except what the other wished for. It was out of his hands once again, without the story and without the necessary empathy he couldn't possibly know what to do except for what these ancient and forgotten impulses guided him toward.

He only hoped he was doing well, so far.

[iprince]

Humans, lycans, vampires. All well and fertile and breeding. They weren’t dying out. They hadn’t put the responsibility of a race, a culture in his hands. Or rather, his body.

Kaemonji let himself fall forward against that welcoming wing, resting his brow against the lightly furred shoulder of his gentleman. He was taking this all very kindly, and Kaemonji could not have asked for a more…comforting person to inform him of his state.

But oh, how he hated this. This was not part of their deal. Perhaps it would not have been so bad if his naga had informed him of what had happened …but this…but this…

Good god, he could have killed the children with his carelessness.

He didn’t want this. He couldn’t have this. Jiarokumo was the extent of his legacy. Not…not these creatures.

"The...secondary father, I suppose, he did not...?"

…did not wh-

Oh. Oh lord.

Kaemonji’s hands tightened into fists and he jerked backward, shaking his head once, simply, in response. “No…no…never,” he was so kind, so gentle, so very patient. He had only requested it out of loneliness (or so Kaemonji had thought), and he would never have made him, if Kaemonji had not wished to.

“It was…trade, for where Jiarokumo was,” he shivered, and his grip loosened, hands sliding off his belly and to his sides,”…I did not know…”

That this would happen. That this was what he wanted.

A groaned wracked his lips and he jerked away, eyes squeezing shut and teeth clenching,” I do not want this. I cannot do this. Armandejah…” his head drooped again, breathing labored,”…Armandejah, he was a naga,” the word was barely a whisper, hardly audible against the night. A secret, a precious, careful secret.

But he couldn’t do this alone. He could not take care of them on his own, inexperienced and unwilling. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what they do.

“...help me.”

[silverdust]

A naga. The words struck like a weight to his chest. Of all the beasts in the world, a naga's children. Kaemonji, poor unwilling Puppeteer, he was carrying the seed of a myth. His past life, his past gods, what could he remember of the naga? Swallowers of the sun, shielders of the gods, bearers of immortality...but they were all lost to the dust. All it seemed, except for this one. The one whose eggs Kaemonji now bore in his body.

The claw ran in an absent, soothing motion through the raven hair. Was he supposed to treat Kaemonji like a child now, like a mate or friend or lover? Was there even a specific role for him now? All he knew is that he was in this, irrevocably. These children were now as much in his care as they were in the leonine's, now that he knew the secret of their origin. Such a price to pay for Jiarokumo's location, and Armande felt the vague stir of ire in the back of his mind, against whom he wasn't sure, but it was there.

How complicated, the games of fate. And too choose this hapless individual. But then again, what better choice? There was something almost virginal about the boy, an almost divine purity that seemed to halo him. Armande had sensed it, perhaps, when he had first seen him. He had glowed for an instant, and it was more than just the moonlight against the cloud white of his fur.

The plea was impossible to resist, anymore than he could've forgotten his name and his past. He smiled. "I would not abandon you now, Kaemonji."

He rose swiftly, changing into his anthro form as he did so, better to assist the now human Euclides. He held out his now hand, taloned still but definitely more dexterous. "Come, the first thing we must do is make sure you eat well."

He would have to find the boy some clothes, too. If Kaemonji acted the part well enough, their prey would be too drunk to notice, or put it aside as something else. Afterall, beggars could not be choosers, and Kaemonji was more than they could've ever gotten, sober and straightlaced or not.

[iprince]

“Thank-you, Vizier.” The words left his lips like a breath, and he took the proffered hand gratefully, trembling fingers curling around those long, gangly talons. He let himself be lifted up and stepped away, rubbing absently at his eyes although he had not shed tears. Out of shock, or strength, or lack of every having done so. Tears were not for Euclides, after all.

Oh, but Armande had no real part in this. He shouldn’t be involved, this was not his story after all, not his strife. There was nothing for him to get out of being the caretaker of a trembling boy. He dropped his head again, teeth gritting and sending that irate plastic-y noise cutting through the quiet.

“I am sorry, Armandejah…I spoke without thinking. You do not need to help me. This is…different than finding Jiarokumo,” he lifted his head again,” You should not become part of it.” It could be messy, it could be dangerous, it could be difficult. Armandejah owed him no oath of allegiance.

“I would still like to hunt with you, though…if it is all right.”

He would not pass that up. What sort of damage might hunting do to his…to the naga’s offspring? He did not want their burden, but he would not willingly attempt to murder them. They were a precious curse, one that he had little choice but to bear.

The thought of clothing passed through his mind as well, but the nighttime pickings would be thin enough as it was. Perhaps they might find some discarded article littering the trash. Attractiveness was not the only reason for clothes this night, though. It was chilly, and without his fur Kaemonji could feel the cold seeping into his skin.

“You know this town better, where should we hunt?” he paused, smoothing his hands over his abdomen,” And…do I need clothing, or can we do without? I do not know much of English people.”

[silverdust]

Armande laughed again, and it was in general amusement even though it was hardly the place and time. How deep Kaemonji's undeserved guilt ran. Impulsively, but with all the charming elegance befitting his rank and type, he bent forward and touched his lips against the youth's forehead. The touch was brief however, lasting only a moment before the night air seperated them once again. This was certainly no place for intimacy.

"I am under no obligation to help you Kaemonji, that I understand," his face turned away, mouth curving into an unreadable grin. "But I want to. That I wish you to understand."

He extended a forefinger, north towards the park entrance. "That way, toward the shopping district. You do need clothes; I am guessing the eggs need warmth. We can go to the hunting grounds after that is taken care of."

He held out his elbow in the perfect imitation of a high-bred Puppet Master, lest Kaemonji feel the need of assistance while walking, or even for comfort. He wondered if the other suspected at all, the depth of well-disguised affection. In any case, he would try not to burden him with it out loud; there would perhaps be another time for that.

[iprince]

Kaemonji’s breath was let out in a quiet shudder at that chaste kiss, head bowed in response,”Thank-you.”

Wanted to…without the promise of an oath or price, without having been forced into it unwilling. Freely, and without payment. Kaemonji had never had someone commit themselves to him without that. It was…humbling. He nodded his head in response, lips drawn tight but managing to curve upward in a quiet smile.

The shopping district. Very well. If Armande insisted he need clothes, Kaemonji would not disagree with him. He seemed more knowledgeable about this situation than he, and Kaemonji would not deny that he was cold.

It felt odd to speak of ‘the eggs’ though. The word caused a shiver to wrack his body and he slid a hand over the bulge before forcing it away, stepping nearer to Armande. He took the proffered arm with a miniscule smile, curling his body against Armande’s warmth.

If there was not-so innocent affection in Armande’s action, they were lost on Kaemonji. He had assumed…in the beginning, with that gentle brush of his cheek…but Armande had not continued with his actions. Kaemonji brushed it off as camaraderie, and why should he take these as anything else? Especially now, with him knowingly carrying offspring.

“Is the…district,” –what a strange word - ,”Far? I would not like to be seen by…not prey, if we can manage.” Not like this, anyway, with his condition so painfully obvious.