dreamwalking again [p. valentine]

[BLAZESTAR]

---

╰☆☆ The night before has lingered with him, from the smell of the stagnant water in the marsh clinging to the tips of his cream-colored fur, to the sharp green eyes that haunt his thoughts. He had returned home last night physically exhausted--but his mind had been racing. he'd left the safety of his world, had met one of the fearsome wildcats, and...

And what? Nothing had really happened, right? The small black she-cat had not chased him away. She had not clawed him or threatened him with cannibalism or torture. She'd regarded him curiously, thoughtfully. There'd been a dark, shadowy scent to her, a hint of mud and moss and something intriguing. She'd acted almost friendly, and...

Blaise sighs and lifts his chin to taste the air. His housefolk's garden flowers are in full bloom; the air is heady, fragrant with their nectar. His head feels scrambled, and he needs to talk to someone. Maybe someone with a unique perspective. He can think of only one cat for the job.

Teetering unsteadily on the fencepost, Blaise peers into the yard beside his, blue eyes wide. "Valentine! Val!" The strange tomcat liked to wander, though never into the woods, to Blaise's knowledge. He hopes his friend is here; he needs to be grounded. Valentine probably isn't the right cat to do that, of course... but he has few options at this point. "Are you busy?" He calls, voice soft.​

—PENNED BY MARQUETTE.​

@Valentine

 

[DAWNGLARE]

( ♡♡♡ ) Are you busy? Are you busy are you busy?

He's looking ♪ Peering below, but he doesn't see. And if he truly did see, he would see the bright-eyed face looking back at him. Face wide in a smile, wide as a blooming flower, bright as the moon on a lover's night. Bright, watching. "Busy?" he parrots, his head tilting to the side, tilting like something so ... leaning. Leaning like he like liked to lean on something plush and soft, the heavenly touch filling him with joy, making him want to burst. He lets himself fall into the grass below.

"Is the─ Is the sun too busy to start the day?" he asks him, a rhetorical question, obviously, but he knew Blaise has difficulty understanding such profound meanings. His paws reach for his friend, white as snow. Sublime, brilliant, but his friend isn't there. Valentine frowns, perplexed.

"Come here!" he demands, eyes narrowed in something akin to suspicion as his paws continue to make grabbing motions. He needed to squish his plush, warm face, mold it to his will. He needed it. "What are we speaking of?"​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

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╰☆☆ Blaise blinks, at first not seeing the red-lined white face peering up at him. It's Valentine's cryptic voice that draws the flame point's eyes to him, and he smiles as he teeters on the fencepost.

"Is the-- is the sun too busy to start the day?" Blaise refuses to laugh, but he has no idea what Valentine is talking about. That was the thing about his friend... he would just say whatever was on his mind with little hesitation. He had to admit, with as careful with his words as he sometimes was, that it was refreshing to be around.

Valentine falls onto his back and waves his paws in the air, beckoning Blaise into the grass, demanding he draw closer. He leaps unsteadily, lands with some reverb a few pawsteps in front of his friend, and closes the gap between them. Blaise peeks over Valentine, fur fluffed out around his face like a lion's mane.

"I went out there last night," he confesses. It's odd to talk about something like this while Valentine is lying on his back and Blaise is looming over him, but he doesn't really have a choice. "You know, to the forest? And I met one of those wild cats."

He thinks about her now, the mud-flecked black fur, the brilliant green eyes. Why had she had such an effect on him?​

—PENNED BY MARQUETTE.​

 

[DAWNGLARE]

( ♡♡♡ ) Ice-blue eyes— or maybe sky blue? Eyes... they blink up at his friend. He's looming over him as if preparing to gobble him up. Not quite the eyes of a predator... brilliant blue, full of soul unlike the bottomless abyss of a dog's gaze. Blaze would be a very fun predator, he thinks. Bright and shiny and warm. Like aaa...

Wild cat. Yes, aptly described...

...He snaps out of his stupor at the mention of wild cats.

Valentine surges upwards, his head connecting with Blaise's in a short burst of pain, but there isn't time to worry about that. There's danger! Danger ahead, blarring their sirens and making his ears ring ring ring ♪ "Blaise!" the tom gasps, his tone shocked, appalled. "Speak─ do you come to me as a spirit now? Your teeth plucked from your gums? Your innards left sagging, forgotten somewhere?" he exclaims. The tom stands oh his toes, chin lifted as if he could glimpse over this fence and catch sight of Blaise's discarded corpse.

Oh, but his teeth appeared fine, body in-tact, not a single bloody fissure marring his wonderfully groomed fur. He narrows his eyes.

"You live..." the statement is careful, as if subject to change in a number of moments. But there's something different... a subtle change... The smell of the sun now watered down by something dreadful. "You reek, sunshine." he tells him, lips worried in a slight pout. "Why travel to such a place? Do you seek death? Did the wild cat attack you? Were you battling for your life, tremoring as you struck down another with your claws for the first time in your life? Was it fun?"
​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

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╰☆☆ At first, it's hard to tell if Valentine has even heard anything Blaise has said. His pale blue eyes have gone a bit vacant, as if lost in thought. The flame point looks at his friend patiently, confident the other tom will return to him.

He does, of course, almost as though he's been electrified. Valentine's head crashes right into Blaise's, sending his vision surging with stars for a brief moment. "Hey! That's not gonna make either of us smarter," he teases, rubbing the spot with a ginger paw ruefully.

But Valentine is on one, alright. "Do you come to me as a spirit now?" Blaise sighs, but it's good-natured. "Seek death?" He repeats. "Nah, you know me better than that. I got a little bored. You know, the housefolk left the window cracked, is all. And she... she didn't attack me, no."

He tilts his head, pondering. "She was actually... pretty nice. Surprised to see me, but nice. We had a conversation. Can you believe that?" He smiles and wraps his fluffy tail about his feet. "It was fun, but maybe not as fun as battling for my life. Maybe you should come with me next time! You'd love it. I think."

He's not really sure about that, actually. Valentine is a peculiar individual. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what he will or won't enjoy. And besides, he's afraid Val might scare Little Wolf away more than he's worried about the opposite happening.​

—PENNED BY MARQUETTE.​

 

[DAWNGLARE]

( ♡♡♡ ) Nice? Out there? Oh, the thought perplexes him; conflicts with everything he's ever known of that forest. His head cocks to the side, loose wisps of velvety fur framing his jaw. Surely, he jests. An oxymoron. A paradox. Why was Blaise so very pleased to speak of this cat? She's stealing him. Luring him into those unknown depths. An ulterior motive... she wants to engulf him. She feeds on the sun.

"This one? Out there?" he asks incredulously, eyes wide at the suggestion. It's strange, the sights and scents and sounds─ blue luminaries squeeze shut, and then they open again. Confused, confused, it's spinning "Er──" Why could he not─ not─

He breaks into a sneezing fit. His muzzle wrinkles in dreaded anticipation before he's left reeling, nose buzzing with discomfort. A swarm─ a swarm flaring inside─ a sign! "Kh─" he rubs at his face with a paw. Loose hair tickles his nose. "Does the─ Does the mother will this one inside? Seems it isn't quite...so. Punishment has rained down upon me... swift" Was it punishment? He wasn't so sure. Discomfort, archaic aching at first, but perhaps not all bad. When not so surprising, not so bad, so bad. He's in need of an oracle, a dream.

"I will... have to think, yes," he says, but his nose remains upturned. This one has standards; isn't swayed so easily by honeyed words. "To defend you?" Valentine questions, perking as he does. "Today, you live, but the next..." and he's scrambling to his feet, paws light beneath rough-hewn sprigs as he prowls after an invisible enemy, round and round.
​

 

[BLAZESTAR]

---

╰☆☆ Blaise's invitation seems to have had quite the effect on Valentine. He stutters before breaking into a fit of sneezes. The flame point tilts his head--a gesture he basically associates with his friend at this point--and smiles.

"Yes, I could use the extra muscle, I think," he purrs to his eccentric companion. Amused blue eyes follow Valentine as he twirls around, paws grasping for a tail just out of his reach. "But I don't think the wildcats are as dangerous as they say. Really. I wouldn't ask you to go with me if I thought they would hurt you."

He almost absentmindedly lifts a paw to his collar. Little Wolf's first words to him had been you aren't supposed to be here. It had been this scrap of leather that had given him away, he thinks. Perhaps he should find a way to remove it, though he's partial to it. He's worn it since he can remember. The jingling will probably alert anyone with ears at all if he goes back into the forest, though. "I'll let you think on it," he says after a moment's thought. "If you decide you want to come with me next time, you let me know."

Valentine and his dreams. Blaise's smile widens. His own dreams are about nothing but chasing mice and rolling in catnip. He wonders if his friend actually has insightful slumbers, or if he just... thinks he does. Blaise determines it's probably the latter.

"You know where to find me." His belly is beginning to rumble, and he thinks ruefully of the bowl of kibble beneath his windowsill. Not a meal for a wildcat. But he isn't a wildcat, so why should he feel guilty for eating it? He brushes the thought away. "See you later, Val." He wrinkles his nose at the reddish tom before turning to go. "Don't hurt yourself."

With that, the ragdoll scales the fence again.​

—PENNED BY MARQUETTE.​