Mature Obey Pt. 2

After having met a frightening and strange being in a desolate branch of Emea, Cierne tentatively follows it to a bound man in the middle of a forest. What the being requests of her next is something Cierne finds difficult in accepting...

38th of Saun 720

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Cierne
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Posts: 118
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2020 12:58 pm
Race: Naerikk
Profession: Bartender
Renown: 40
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Obey Pt. 2

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38th of Saun, Arc 720
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Cierne didn’t have much say in whether or not she wanted to follow the raven before it had already begun leading her across the barren beach.

Her footfalls were muffled by the sand that had recently been washed over by the abysmal ocean. The raven in front of her trotted carelessly, occasionally fluttering it’s dark wings to avoid an oncoming wave, waves the Naer could not have cared less about.

She surveyed the distance in front of her, finding nothing worth walking towards. This left her with the inevitable question as to where it was they were going.

Before she had a chance to ask, a flicker of movement startled her. From the ground, trees and bushes, fallen logs and a murky swamp began to build itself up from an apparent nothingness. Like children creating a town out of wooden figurines, the area was being built right before her very eyes. It happened seamlessly. It was like a ubiquitous fog was slowly raising the closer they neared, revealing more and more of a place Cierne was certain hadn’t existed moments before.

Before long, both she and the raven were in the midst of a thick woodland. Tall trees surrounded them on either side, and when she glanced behind her, she could no longer see the beach they had come from.

“Where are we going?” Cierne finally asked, pulling the edges of her coat close to her middle in a feeble attempt to stave off the cold. It was less chilly with the trees blocking most of the ocean wind, but it was still cold regardless.

“Curious,” the raven said. “I admire that.” But it gave no indication of where it was they were traveling towards.

It wasn’t until the bird had stopped it’s quick peddling that Cierne’s question had been answered.

A small, unlit fire pit stood ensconced between large wooden logs that flanked it on all sides. Sitting on one of the wooden logs was a young man. His arms and legs were tied up, and his mouth was covered with some form of binding which prevented him from uttering anything other than a muffled whimper.

Cierne couldn’t distinguish any specific characteristics of the man’s face. Perhaps it was because she had never met him before and her dream was limited on its ability to craft a being from complete nothingness. But Cierne didn’t know this. All she knew was that when she tried to find his face, it was blurred like a glitch in reality was preventing any finer details from manifesting.

“Who’s that?” She asked, taking a tentative step towards the stranger.

“Does it matter?” The bird said, answering her question with a question of its own. If she wasn’t still intimidated by the being, she would have been frustrated and potentially have said something about the bird’s evasiveness. However, she was still a bit too timid to be stepping out of the line that had been metaphorically drawn between them. She stayed inside her little box and nodded her head unconvincingly.

Perhaps it was a good thing she couldn’t see his face clearly, because the bird’s next request would have been much more difficult to accept had it been more clear.

“I want you to hurt him,” it said. It’s voice held no emotion whatsoever, and it’s eyes still held the lifeless quality that had made Cierne quiver upon their initial meeting.

“W-what?” She stuttered, clearly taken aback by this outlandish request.

The raven stood unblinking and repeated itself as though it was of no consequence what it was asking.

“How is this different from a rat? Or a bird?” It asked, flicking its head from her to the man in that creepy way birds' heads moved.

“I- I-.” In fact, she didn’t have a proper response to the question.

She mentally began to compare the two. They were both alive. They both essentially could feel pain (this was something she was aware of since she had mutilated that raven one evening and it had squirmed and croaked and attacked her in response). Besides, if this was a dream, such as she was certain it was, what harm would it do?

Her desire to quell the violent tendencies that waged within her was never ceasing. Her affinity for control and manipulation was an affinity that had a mind of its own- urges that required being dealt with. Only she had dealt with them in the form of hurting little creatures. No one would have missed them. Hell, people hunted and killed animals for food or clothing. So her reasoning for her torture of animals seemed valid. But a human? She had never done anything physically bad to a human before because there were stronger consequences that came with it. There were laws in place that kept order and those laws required no harm towards others. But what was so special about humans when compared to animals? Hadn’t her mother always told her that men were the weaker sex? That men were meant to be enslaved and ruled over? To be done with however a woman pleased?

Really, Cierne simply never had the interest in harming someone else. She was satisfied with torturing small animals and finding thrill in other equally dark things.

But was this impulsiveness, this vice, ever entirely quelled? No. No, it was not.

“So why don’t you try it?” The bird said, having seemed to read her mind and finish her thoughts for her.

Beside the man was a pair of brass knuckles, just like the pair Cierne had in the waking world. She absentmindedly strode towards them with an empty mind. She had no thoughts on the matter, and in fact she felt like she was enduring an out of body experience.

She placed both brass knuckles firmly onto her hands and stared at them blankly. They felt heavy and out of place on her pale, slender fingers.

“There are no consequences here,” said the raven with a sharp crack of its beak.

Whether that was a true statement or not, it’s words were enough reassurance for the Naer to cave in to the want to do harm.

She struck the man across his blurred face. Because his mouth had been bound just like his extremities, he let out no whine or whimper.

So she struck him across the face once more.

A sickening sweet sensation drifted up and down Cierne’s spine, encouraging her to continue. It was similar to being high, or drunk. But like the buzzing or numbness that was associated with being intoxicated, it too would begin to fade. That was, unless she continued to feed it more fuel.

“I expected more from someone who gets their kicks out of tormenting my brethren,” the raven sneered.

A sense of guilt crept up her throat. Cierne didn’t like feeling guilty. So by way of assuaging the feeling, she resorted to spurring herself with anger, throwing a weaponized fist into the man’s lower abdomen.

He doubled over in pain, but other than the movement, he showed no signs of protest.

“What do you hate most?” The raven suddenly asked, causing Cierne to stop.

Well, she hated a lot of things. She hated her mother for selling her to thugs. She hated being forced into slavery. She hated performing menial, laborious tasks as a young woman without freedom or basic rights. She hated not being able to fend for herself and for having to rely on Everton for so many things. She hated how Meinz could be such a bitch. She hated how Diaval was set in his ways about being her friend when she knew he deserved so much better. But most of all, she hated herself for being who she was. She hated having to fight the darkness that resounded within her like a gong that wouldn’t shut up.

“Everything,” she muttered, feeling thick globules of tears streaming down her cheeks.

When had she started crying? And why?

She vigorously wiped at the tears with the back of her hand, scratching her cheek with the brass knuckles she had somehow forgotten she was still wearing.

“You hate feeling weak,” the bird whispered. It’s voice was soft and melancholy in her head, like a mourning dove’s call during a steady fall of rain.

Suddenly the man before her flickered and changed into an uncanny resemblance of herself. Her face was still blurred, but there was no mistaking that the woman that sat tied up in front of her was indeed Cierne.

She threw another punch, this time as hard as she could and aimed directly at the imposter’s blurry face.

“Why do you do this? Why me? Why are you the way you are!?” She cried, not withholding any strength as she rained an onslaught of beatings down on her mirrored image.

Once she was out of breath, she stopped, and threw herself back onto the wet ground. She lay there, staring up at the empty sky. There were no stars that freckled the darkness. There wasn’t anything there at all.

“Perhaps you have much yet to learn,” came the raven’s voice, thick like honey. But it was bittersweet.

“Perhaps you need to mind your fucking business,” Cierne spat through a thick veil of tears. “I was just fine until I met you.”

The raven pounced on the Naer. Strangely, though, she couldn’t feel it, regardless of the fact that the creature was half her size. It was like it was weightless. Or she had become numb after having let out so much pent up trauma.

“I mean,” it croaked. “Perhaps you are stronger than you think.”

And then it vanished, along with Cierne’s imposter, leaving her utterly alone with only her thoughts for company.

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Doran
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Re: Obey Pt. 2

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Cierne:

Knowledge:
Torture: Brass Knuckles to the Face
Torture: Mental Torment via Self-Destructive Thoughts
Torture x2
Discipline: Dealing with Internal Turmoil
Discipline: Hurting Someone as Encouraged (Obey Pt. 2)

Dreamwalking: Dark and Eerie Beach Forest Branch
Dreamwalking: Most Lucid Dreams are Nightmarish (Obey Pt. 2)
Personal: Dealing with the Internal Conflict of Who You Are
Personal: Having a Strong Disliking Towards Avian Creatures (Obey Pt. 2)
Personal: Understanding What it is You Truly Hate (Obey Pt. 2)
Personal: Despising the Prospect of Being Weak (Obey Pt. 2)

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: Shallow scratch on cheek
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 10
- - -
Comments: I’m glad that you decided to write a sequel to the thread with the raven. I really enjoyed that thread and wanted to know more. In my opinion, you did a great job when it comes to describing the sometimes fantastical nature of dreams – the swamp building itself up from nothingness, for example. I wish you had Cierne react more to such things happenings around her though. But then again, maybe she was too focused on the raven to think about the swamp that suddenly appeared?

I was just as curious as Cierne as to why the raven led her to the man who was tied up, and I couldn’t help but wonder why it wanted her to hurt him. I found her comparison between animals and the man in front of her interesting. I appreciate the insight into her psyche – and how her being Naerikk affected things. Furthermore, I could not help but wonder why she thought that her friend Diaval deserved better. She seems to have a lot of self-hatred!

You described Cierne’s emotions very well. I thought that the scene where the man suddenly changed into herself and the ending, with the raven telling her that perhaps she was stronger than she thought. were great!

Enjoy your rewards!

P.S.: I might have added “Endurance” to the list of skills used as you mentioned Cierne hitting her mirror image until she was out of breath, for example.
word count: 351

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