Skill:

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Nate +/- Ko-Ga
Set just before this thread.

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Valeska would not speak to her.

It was an unfamiliar sensation. The cold that lingered between the pair was ... unnatural. It was something Amaranth could not process readily, and something that drove her ever closer to feral madness. It drove her to a state of restlessness, and yet she could not walk, for her ankles were injured. It drove her to a state of disarray, a state that matched the patchy, regrowing fur along her burned face.

Of course, what she had done would be considered by most a feral action within itself ... but if they only stopped to look and think, then perhaps the average onlooker could have seen the education behind the madness.

The plague had taken Valeska's tail, after all.

And what would have come next ...
... well that was unimaginable.

And yet Amaranth suffered the consequence ... all the while still bathed in the blue light of the flame that had both blessed and cursed the pair. Even in the dim light of the afternoon, Amaranth could see it. She could feel the way the flames ushered life ever-closer, offering a purge for anyone affected by the world's ill effects.

Despite this, the obvious flame ...
... no one could see the good in what she had done.

And so she continued to wander, mindlessly limping and aiming to collect more pointless gifts to leave Valeksa's doorstep. She would have to forgive Amaranth eventually ... right?

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Skill - Ranger 1/5

Ko-Ga had found something. And because Ko-Ga could speak (still a novelty Nate was adjusting to, some days, and now he'd starting having dreams where the bird offered cryptic advice framed in atrocious puns), well, because Ko-Ga could speak, he had informed Nate that it was a sulking damsel limping around the countryside collecting obscure objects.

Nate wasn't sure whether he preferred it when his friend was limited to caws and the vague imitations of animal noises.

But it certainly seemed worth investigating, as day by day new refugees stumbled in from the cold to shelter by the flame, and he'd taken it upon himself to help the ones that had need of it.

She wasn't too hard to find. Especially with Ko-Ga's eyes above. Nate followed the shuffling imprints in the snow, and then circled upwind and put himself into potential view long before he was close enough to give too much of a fright. Hopefully.

With the offer of a wag, he made an approach. Afternoon, Ma'am.

Wow. She really did look like a wreck.

Skill:

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The wraith would prowl around, velvet nose to the snow as she aimlessly toddled around for just the perfect present. So far, Valeska had ignored everything — the ebony raven feather, the sleek river rock (that she'd nearly frozen her paws for), and even the piece of bark shaped like a little heart. Amaranth could not cease in her search, despite her crippled legs and her unkempt appearance. 

The old raven feathers in her nap ruffled with the wind, her amythyst eyes practically seething as she lifted her head from the snow to ponder where she would go next.

However, instead of a something, she found a someone.

Her half-feral gaze drifted over toward the blue-hued male.

"Afternoon, Ma'am."
Ma'am.

Amaranth blinked, her head tilting slightly as she pressed her ears forward in silent greeting. The first thing she noticed was the scent of corvid and pine. It was ... nostalgic. It reminded her so of home ... of Sylvi and Valeska. As if forgetting she were injured, drawn by intoxication, Amaranth moved to take a step forward to meet the stranger. The step, however, was far too wide, putting too much weight on an ankle that nearly gave way beneath her with a sharp jolt.

Before long, she was moving toward the other wolf, either to tumble into him, or to faceplant into the snowbank below her.

For fuck's sake, this was worse than when she'd broken that nail.

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Skill - Kultz 2/5

Oh, shit. Pretty sure by now the lady was addled in some way, Nate had the benefit for being braced for something to happen. Just maybe not this, exactly. He lurched forward to catch her, certain ancestors on both sides of his family tree would curse him for failing to impose himself as a gentleman otherwise.

Except even with half-decent feet, he was moving on ice. And Nate's balance was questionable enough before he traded two legs in for four, so probably no amount of practice was really going to solve that particular failing. When he stretched out to catch her, his center of gravity spun out. Along with the rest of him.

The she-wolf didn't hit the snowbank. And the most honor Nate could muster out of the situation was that he hit the ground hard and fast enough to not only bite bruises into his tongue, but also serve as a suitable cushion for the victorian dame with the weak ankles. Oof!

Struggling to force air back into his lungs, Nate wrangled a throbbing tongue, Y-ou... okay, Ma'-am? Yeah. Maybe he would just lay here. For a while. Forever.

Somewhere in the trees, Ko-Ga was laughing.

Skill:

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Like a willowy tree, the Augur would fall, completely crippled by her own weight and fully at the mercy of a stranger. The events that followed were mostly a blur; the sound of nails on ice, the flash of blue fur reaching for her, the drop of her stomach as she fell toward the earth, and then the soft (soft?) thud of her body against what she had thought was the ground.

But it was far too squishy.
And fluffy.

The man below her released a wheeze — "oof." And they would lay there, a tangle of gold and blue fur as Amaranth blinked. Well, that hadn't hurt nearly as bad as she'd anticipated. "Y-ou... okay, Ma'-am?" The voice peeped out from beneath her, and she blinked a few more times, trying to power herself back on. Ah, I'm ... sorry. The words were gentle, her body carefully moving as she tried to get herself off of the stranger.

It was too bad she was made mostly of pointy bits.

Finally, she would work her way upward, wincing against her ankles but managing, this time, to hold herself upright. Seems they're not quite healed yet, she'd mutter, flattening her ears as she thought of Amaris (for the 30th time this week, likely). Forgive me, your smell was ... familiar. Crows. Evergreens. Unfortunately, she had no better excuse.

The wraith would turn her angular face toward the stranger, who was still starfished on the cold earth. She would frown, just a little. Are you okay? A note of concern laced her eerie vocals. Had she sufficiently maimed him? Pummeled him with her pointed golden elbows?

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The elbows were certainly vengeful. Nate winced at new-forming brusies and cleared his throat. I'm... fine. Yeah. Mmh. This is about how it normally goes for me, these days. So. Don't worry about it.

Gingerly, he pulled his legs back under him, squinting up at her through the glare of sunlight on ice. I'm Nate Ronan. Peanut gallery laughing up there is Ko-Ga. And you are, pretty lady? I don't... think we've met. But times being what they are and uh... skulls being appropriately rattled — This dame could scalp a man with joints like that. Maybe it just hasn't come back to me. Yet.

Eyes flicked over her figure, settling on the unstable bow of her ankles. Do you need — help? What was she wandering around terrain like this all weary and wounded for?

Skill:

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From his position on the ground, he proclaimed he was fine — all the while wincing as he huffed off the blows of her pointed joints. It wasn't much of a secret, at least to Elysium, that perhaps the golden wraith should spend a bit less time with her trinkets and a bit more time at the dinner table. Maybe if she put on some weight, she'd be graced with much less deadly angles.

Eventually, the stranger would lift himself, and Amaranth would flick her head slightly at the dual introduction. Nate and ... Ko-Ga. Slowly, Amaranth's gaze would shift toward the cawing creature in the crook of a nearby tree — Ko-Ga. A soft smile laced her lips, the fond memory of her own daughter Sylvi flooding her with endorphins.

She almost forgot Nate was speaking.

Hmm? The sound escaped her lips as she turned back toward him. Right. I'm Amaranth, High Augur of Elysium, she'd hum, the softness of her voice tangling with the cold breeze. I don't believe we've met ... She would have remembered one with such a plush frame, she thought. Besides, she wasn't much of a ... social butterfly. I admit I'm often more of a homebody, she'd explain, slowly blinking her amythyst eyes.

If only home was available right now.

She would sigh again.

"Do you need — help?"

She shook her head softly. Time will heal. The words were cryptic, and perhaps holding a deeper meaning than Nate might realize. Time would heal all things, including her relationship — it had to. My family may come back for me, once they've forgiven me. At that, Amaranth would huff, running her tongue over her teeth. Perhaps she'd said too much.

Do you live here?

Good save.

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Skill - Vagabond 3/5

High Augur. Nate whistled, impressed. Sounds like quite the title, Ma'am. He didn't have a hat to take off, but he dipped his head and hoped that was appropriate enough.

It didn't seem like a stretch to think someone who went around calling themselves that would be prone to crypticism; maybe the occasional vacant stare and — homebody-ness, could be accounted for in that, too. He didn't personally know much about Augurs.

But... he did know about folks who spent a little too much time in the elements, and got a bit touched for the trouble. Sometimes they just wandered off, and their families' couldn't find them.

I uh, don't really live anywhere, Ma'am. He smiled, Though I've been camped out near that blue fire for a little while now. Might wait out this cold spell, there. Still waitin' for the verdict on some forgiveness, myself. Didn't really expect to get it.

Hard to imagine this pointy-armed lady could have done anything egregious enough to warrant being left behind in the snow with bad ankles.

Tilting his head, Nate offered with gentle curiosity, Being new and all, I'm still learning the lay of things. Why don't you tell me a bit about your family? They're... close by? Looking for a lost mother and/or wife, potentially?