tampered | (no subject)

(no subject)

When; Friday, July 20th (Daemon day)
Rating; PG for now
Characters; Ion

flammenschwert
Summary; It's Daemon day and theres probably going to be more than a little bit of chaos for these three. (Posted early since we three mun's don't run on the same schedule)
Log; Ion didn’t really expect much when he woke up, maybe he didn’t expect anything at all. Except the city didn’t seem to want to let that slide as when Ion woke up, he had a daemon. A white Persian cat with bright green eyes was curled up next to him, watching him intently. He blinked a few times, didn’t know why but a name came into his mind from some hidden place.

“Belinda…?”

“Good morning, Ion.”

And even though it felt normal he couldn’t help but yelp and fall off the edge of his bed like he’d been struck by lightning. Belinda padded over to look over the side of the bed, green eyes glinting a bit as she commented.

“We believe that was over-exaggerated.”

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There was something Radu had forgotten about in the chaos of realising that the City's curses had struck again and that this small, scrawny desert fox he had woken up next to was in fact not just a talking animal, but his dӕmon companion. It had taken him a moment to get over the initial shock, to realise that he could indeed not get further away from the fox - she had introduced herself as "Aurora" and didn't seem to like him too much - than a few metres, and he was still not completely over the anger that followed this realisation as this dӕmon was not only utterly spiteful and bad-mannered, but not even a nice sight to behold.

What he had forgotten came to his mind during another argument when he heard the yelp from one of the other rooms, followed by a crash. Ion, who was almost completely inexperienced with the City's curses, seemed to have made a similiar discovery as him this morning. Ignoring the few spiteful remarks Aurora spat at him, Radu darted to the door, and after a short knocking, entered Ion's bedroom, trusting Aurora to follow him if just to prevent another painful reminder of their bond. "Ion, are you alright?"

Belinda was sitting on the bed, watching Ion pull himself up from the floor. She stodd up, tail waving and hopped to the floor, inspecting Ion before looking at Radu. "We is alright. He just had a fall from his bed."

"We don't need thee speaking for us!"

Even with the sharp tone her was using with his dӕmon he couldn't stop himself from picking up the cat and holding her curiously. It was strange how right it felt holding the feline.

"Tovarăş, this is strange. Is today a curse day?"

Aurora had indeed followed Radu, and was now watching the scene from a safe distance behind Radu's feet. It was only when Belinda had spoken that she pushed past him, jumping on the bed and eying Belinda with a trace of malice. "He's a clever kid, now isn't he?" she asked with a small snarl and the full force of cynism she could offer. "Ever so good at pointing out the obvious."

Radu, in the meantime, had approached and offered Ion support standing up. He ignored the dӕmons' talk for the most part, except for one short, hateful glance in Aurora's direction. "Forgive me, Tovarăş. I forgot to inform you about them. It seems this is a curse day. It will probably be over tomorrow."

Belinda climbed out of Ion's arms to land on the bed near Aurora, looking at the ragged fox with an air of superiority. "Thou are one to talk. You look as if thou just escaped from a plague."

"'Tis fine, Tovarăş. We only just awoke." Ion said grateful for Radu's help in standing.

The fox did not answer, except with a low growl, but Radu cut her off almost immediately. "I made tea, Ion, if you want to have breakfast now," he explained, opening the wardrobe and searching through the clothes he had bought for Ion the day before. His old robes were blood-stained and torn by bullets, and could not possibly be worn again. "But first, you need to dress."

The cat did nothing more than flick her tail after that and sniff dismissively. As far as she was concerned, conversing with the fox was done and over with. It deserved no more attention from her. Though Ion was different, he was curious about the fox, wondering how something so seemingly ill-tempered could be kind of extension of his partner.

He didn't even think as he reached out to touch the fox's fur.

Lyra hadn't noticed there was a curse. How could she? What was for her flatmates something unusual, was for her and Pantalaimon the normal mode of existence, and since they'd slept in late, well, Pantalaimon was walking down the hallway to breakfast while Lyra finished getting dressed. He's been hearing odd noises and had thought he'd smelled other dæmons.

When he turned his head to peer in at the scene in Ion's room as he blinked sleepily, it took a few seconds to process what was going on. A flash of understanding passed through his mind and Lyra's (who had just finished getting dressed).

Searching through the wardrobe for clothes for Ion, Radu did not pay attention to the link to his dæmon, which he had subconciously shut off as much as he could anyway. He never saw it coming and he didn't understand why suddenly, his body went limp. He didn't realise that he crashed right against the wardrobe's door when he fell down. All strength seemed to be drained from his limbs. He did not know what was happening, but something deep inside him felt wrong, left him breathless and shaking in horror, disgust, and disbelief. It was as if something vulnerable and precious had been shattered, a seething feeling of spiritual agony that was so intense that it knocked out every reasonable thought he could have made, and left him paralysed from helplessness and shame.

Pantalaimon almost couldn't believe what was happening, but he knew what he saw. He shot onto the bed, teeth bared and aimed at the throat of the white cat as he shot towards her, ready to bite and claw and inflict as much pain as possible, sending his disgust and fury through Lyra's mind as she ran into into the room and froze, her eyes widening with horror as she took in the scene with her own eyes before running to Radu's side to try to comfort him, while her eyes remained fixed on Ion, her expression full of horror and a growing hatred.

Pan's attack on the persian cat caught both Ion and Belinda off guard and the cat was bowled over. The attack made Ion flinch -- severing the connection he had with the fox -- and fall back, both he and the cat crying out at the same time. The cat found its wits quick enough and started to fight back as Ion stayed on the floor, pinned and a bit alarmed by Lyra's glare.

"What... what is wrong with Radu?"

Pantalaimon was equal to that, and parried the counterattacks, snarling and biting and trying inflict as much pain as possible on the cat.

Lyra's expression of hatred and disgust remained fixed on Ion as she flinched slightly from the pain of the fight, and her knuckles had gone white.

"I thought you were friends," she hissed, the loathing evident in her tone, "How could you do that to him?"

Freed from her paralysis, Aurora jumped back as if hit by an electrical shock and rushed to hide behind Radu, throwing a nervous and disturbed glance at Ion and Belinda. The Methuselah was still dizzy and shaken from the touch, and without much thought, pulled her close and instinctively held her pressed to his chest. He glanced up at Lyra's words, still too breathless to ask questions, and stared at the two fighting dæmons in confusion. The whole scenario didn't make any sense to him, but in a weird way, he began to understand part of the weight of the bond to a dæmon people in Lyra's world had.

The cat was biting and scratching back, snarling like there was no tommorow.

"We did nothing wrong!" He protested. He couldn't have hurt Radu, he was sure of it. All he had done was touch the fox... How could that have harmed his best friend?!

"You touched her!" Lyra shouted, "You touched her, you're not ever supposed to touch anyone else's, don't you understand what you've done?!" This was punctuated by a particularly nasty bite from Pantalaimon as he tried to force the cat into submission.

"You- what right d'you think you have to touch someone else's soul!" Lyra snarled, looking like she was almost ready lunge at Ion.

The screaming and fighting between the dæmons was enough to finally let Radu come back to senses; for the most part at least. "Stop it - both of you," he hissed flatly, standing up and letting Aurora go. Still disturbed, he moved to pick up the clothes he had dropped when falling. "Ion, you need to get dressed. I'll make the breakfast ready in the meantime. Lyra, can you help me?"

Lyra nodded, and Pantalaimon broke away from the fight to glare at Ion and Belinda from behind Lyra's ankles as Lyra wrapped her arms around Radu and gave him a reassuring squeeze before turning away to pick up her own dæmon, and clutch him tight against her chest as the two of them shot hateful glances at Ion and his counterpart.

"Yeah," she said softly, "I can."

Belinda had hurried over to Ion once the fight had been ended, climbing into his arms and pressing up close to his chest. She was a little worse for wear, Pantalaimon has managed to pull some fur from her coat but other than that she was fine. But Lyra's words had shaken Ion. He couldn't believe that it was his fault that Radu had collapsed.

He nodded dumbly when Radu told him he should get dressed and avoided looking at Lyra as she left his room. "We shall get ready Tovarăş..."

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