Evening in the Forest

[mogget_cat]

The evenings are edging into the 'pleasantly cool' range, as the year progresses. One can stretch out on a tree branch and watch the pink clouds above the mountain shift from pink to purple to grey, as the night rolls in. It is a singularly beautiful sight, one that is quite useful when a patron has a lot of thoughts to sort through.

So this evening there is a Bright Shiner stretched out along a tree-branch, near the lakeshore, watching the far clouds slowly drain of color. Still, though the sunset was a a brilliant one, and the colors left behind were quite beautiful, his thoughts are elsewhere. And they are troubled.

Comments

[ten_of_swords]

"My sister is fond of trees as well, when the wolf chases her into them," he calls, throwing a stick for Bane to run after.

[mogget_cat]

"Sometimes the birds become accustomed to me, and forget to be wary," he shrugs.

"And it's quiet. What brings you out here, Ruin?"

[ten_of_swords]

He smiles up at Yrael, the expression anything but pleasant.

"Bane likes to run." The coyote returns with the stick and Ruin throws it back out. "And you, of course. We've not had a proper chat in some time."

[mogget_cat]

Yrael looks down at Ruin, impassive. "My absence from your daily conversations must have been a lack more sharply felt by you than by me."

He had come out here to figure out a way to help Jason. Ruin was not in Yrael's plan for the evening.

[ten_of_swords]

"I can see why she likes you."

Ruin holds Yrael's gaze unflinchingly.

"You can't help him, you know. He has to help himself. The whole lot of you mean shit to him right now. He doesn't want your help."

[mogget_cat]

"He will have my help whether he wants it or not," Yrael says, rather snappily. "He cannot help himself when he is not himself."

Those drugs of which Jason constantly smells, Yrael has seen what they've been doing to his brother.

"Who better to remind him than his friends?"

[ten_of_swords]

"Help unwanted is help ignored or scorned."

He smirks.

"It would be best if you just... let me do my job. Let Jason fuck himself up and not drag all of you down with him."

[mogget_cat]

"If you're asking me to stand aside while my brother destroys himself, you might as well save your breath," Yrael raises an eyebrow.

[ten_of_swords]

"If you could do it before," he says, his voice low, "you can do it again. It would be in Jason's best interest."

[mogget_cat]

There's a warning growl from the Bright Shiner in the tree.

"That was different, and a long time ago. It has no place in this. Jason can't take care of himself right now; he needs his friends to support him until he can support himself."

[ten_of_swords]

Ruin gazes steadily at Yrael.

"Oh, kitty, there really is nothing you can do," he sighs, and he makes it almost sound like he regrets that bit. "Nothing. Jason won't listen to you. He's chosen his path, and it's a lonely one. Your support?" He shakes his head. "Not wanted or appreciated. He doesn't want you. Any of you! You all are just too blind to see that, thinking there's something of the Jason you knew left in that coke-addicted shell up in his room snorting himself into oblivion while his friends scurry around trying to pick up the pieces of the life he doesn't care about anymore! Wake up and smell the week-old sheets, Yrael."

[mogget_cat]

"You're wrong, Ruin," Yrael says, dropping down from the tree to land among the roots on pale bare feet. The movement, he feels at least, helps hide the sting he felt at those words.

The canid is ignored.

"He does care about his life. He just doesn't know what to do to save it. Jason'll listen to me."

He's his brother.

[ten_of_swords]

"No. He won't."

Simple as that.

[mogget_cat]

"That'll be his choice, now won't it?" Yrael snaps.

[ten_of_swords]

Ruin smirks.

"He's already made that choice, Yrael. Why don't you... go on up and visit with him?" He leans in closer to Yrael. "You'll see just how right I am and how wrong you are."

[mogget_cat]

Yrael bristles, even in human-form. He glows faintly, in the twilit evening.

"And if I choose not to?"

[ten_of_swords]

He comes into Yrael's personal space, his face dead serious as he looks down into the Bright Shiner's eyes.

"Can you live with yourself if his death could have been prevented by a single trip up a flight of stairs?"

[mogget_cat]

The sound that forms the reaction to Ruin's question is not in any language of words. It is a roar, crackling like the immediate retort of thunder to a nearby lightning strike, accompanied by a two-handed, full-strength shove to Ruin's chest.

[ten_of_swords]

He might be strong, but he knows Yrael is stronger.

Ruin stumbles back, falling against a tree, and laughs softly.

"I know," he says, rubbing his chest. He was going to bruise. "Truth sucks."

[mogget_cat]

But Yrael is gone.