[PRP] shadows on the wall (shiloh & gloom)

[azuredreams]

It was a rather dapper looking shadow that was waiting at Court one day. Gloom's shadows were behaving, not wisping up off of him and every which way, and he had what looked like a cute bowtie and vest on (thank you Court magic).

His tail swished from side to side, white eyes looking around as if he was not sure if he could keep waiting or maybe just ... go search out the person he was waiting for.

Spoiler: It was Shiloh.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Court was marbled and opalescent as always, if not relatively silent. There was the occasional murmur—like voices behind the curtains—or footsteps traversing the halls, but almost none of them bore any sort of fruition.

Eventually there was a set of footsteps different from the others. These weren't a soft murmur; this was a sharp click, click, click, and around the corner came a boy with honey-blonde hair and clothes that looked stained from black ink. His eyes were covered by an intricate veil, the lacey patterns on it almost indescribable. Shiloh looked... busy, actually. It wasn't surprising given all the action of late.

His arms were full of papers—various documents, thick leatherbound notebooks, simplistic manilla folders—but he stopped rather suddenly when he came upon a familiar face.

It had been months, damn near a year, but how could he forget Gloom?

"You..." He wasn't sure what else to say. It wasn't as if their last meeting had ended on a high note.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Gloom visible straightened when he caught sight of Shiloh. "Noble Beaumont!" he greeted, voice still soft and sweet as ever.

"Gloom- I," he corrected, "was wanting to see you. If you are busy, I will come back another time."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Well, Gloom was apparently aware of his status as a Noble, this was good to know. Then again, he supposed most Othercreatures should be.

Oh god, was this Otherworld business? Shiloh didn't know if he had the time for Otherworld business, not right now, not so soon (Shiloh you've been a Noble for how many months now?); and how many more.

"No, no." He sighed, "I'm not busy." Truth be told, a lot of it was a show; the papers and documents were for a reason of course, but despite all the things Shiloh wanted to get done and felt like he had to get done, there wasn't much... direction on how to do it. Just waiting. This bothered him immensely. "But if you could make it quick..."

The last thing he wanted was Beel to come looking for him, only to find him fraternizing with a pine martin in a tiny marten vest.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It can be quick!" said Gloom, quite quickly in fact. His tail was swishing back and forth before he realized it and then just stopped. "I just wanted to bring y'- you something!"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh blinked very slowly, though it was hard to tell under the his veil. "Bring me something." He repeated just a slow. So much for being quick. "Aright, that's fine."

He gave a lasting look around the expanse of the Court.

"I'd rather we be in my Court." He admitted, "It's this way." His shoes made sharp click, click, clicks as he wandered away.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Of course!" Gloom ended falling forward onto his paws and into step with Shiloh. "I was waiting to see if you would appear." Mostly because he had a sense for these things but that was neither here nor there.

"It is best to discuss things in your own domain."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Hm." Shiloh made a sound of acknowledment, but let the conversation drop to footsteps and the pitter-patter of paws.

His domain was much the same as it was any other time. An indoor garden under the illumination of an atrium, winding streams, tiny gold fish within them. It looked like it would be a temperate rainforest, but the temperature was quite pleasant. Shiloh led them down the decorative stone paths, through blankets of hanging ivy and wisteria, until they finally came to a door deep in the domain.

He opened it, and the smell of paint came rushing out.

Inside was what could only be described as an art studio, but a rustic one. The walls were cherry red wood, the floor creaked in places. It had the aesthetic of a shack in the woods rather than an upscale workshop, but Shiloh liked the overall dimness. The only important source of like was by the only open window in the room, the outside bright and lush with greenery, an ample contrast to the overcast drizzle that the walk through atrium presented. There sat a canvas, the paper half mussed with a vague sketch.

He took a seat on a small stool, motioning towards a blank space for Gloom. With a snap of his fingers, the wood underneath him obeyed, thick vines surging upwards until they created a natural chair for the shadowy familiar to sit upon. The legs were like twisted branches, the wood laden with baby's breath.

"So," Shiloh deposited all his papers onto the table next to them, "What uh... did you bring?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

The shadows that made him up seemed to surge forward, coiling around the seat after it formed until there was a well-coiffed (as coiffed as a shadow marten could get) Gloom sitting in the chair.

"A gift! Gloom found it and thought it should go to ya!" Shadows swirled in a ball, near Shiloh's hand, as if waiting for him to reach for it to take.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh's legs folded—almost demurely, almost (it was the outfit and the ruffles)—as he watched Gloom....gloom into the chair, or whatever it was he just did. "A... gift?" He tilted his head with a genuine curiosity. Beel sometimes came to him with the complaints of Othercreatures (it was rare, as he later found out Beel had a tendency to try and pawn the problems off on others, you lazy piece of s**t), but it was rare to see anything come just to... bear a gift, or whatever.

Unless it was ulterior.

Shiloh's eyes were squinting behind the veil, but he reached out to cup the shadowy mass regardless. It was a pretty simple game of give-and-take, but this was Shiloh Beaumont, and nothing was ever ******** simple.

"VERMIN? IN MY DEMESNE?" Suddenly there was a rancorous thunder of footsteps, Shiloh putting a hand over his forehead instead of reacting to the loud sound, and then Beel charging in with a broom. Unlike any other time where Beel had been gowned in... basically nothing, this time he was covered head to two in fabric. Literally. There wasn't a single piece of skin showing, from his slick heeled boots, his long slacks, the jacket, the vest, the tie, the gloves...

His face was a mess of a black medical mask and a lacy veil like Shiloh's, but more taught. His hair was replaced with a purple beanie. Shiloh, what the absolute ******** are you dressing your fetch in?

"Oh," He said suddenly, "It's just The Friendly One. My apologies." The broom was set down onto the floor, the bristles causing a small cloud of dust to puff up.

Shiloh sighed, "It isn't even your demesne, you idiot."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Gloom ended up curling up in his chair, pancaking in fact, as he heard Beel and the sound of his thundering footsteps. What had been a shadowy mass became a box in Shiloh's hand of fairly decent size.

His ears pricked forward once Beel realized that it was him but he was mostly a pancake regardless. "The vermin know better, except for the little ones because they're young ..." Gloom's head rose up a little out of his shadowy pancake form. "I brought Noble Beaumont a gift!"

To explain what he was doing there, okay.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I said I apologized!" Beel explained hastily. Shiloh had his face in his palm. "And I acknowledge the cleverness of vermin. They still manage to get into this land, and no matter what I do they always seem to come back." Beel sighed. "Crafty, cunning things. It shames me to admit my difficulty with them."

Are you done, was the look Shiloh was giving him. "I'm sorry for him, Gloom." Now Beel was the one saying Hey! with his demeanor. "Thank you for the gift, I guess? Uh..."

His fingers picked at the box as he slowly opened it.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It is okay and you are welcome," Gloom said to Shiloh and then looked to Beel as the gift was inspected. "Sometimes, if you want to deal with creatures like that, it is best to broker a peace with them. Set aside something for them or an area if they are insistent on being here. They could become little allies."

The shadow marten, at Court, seemed to be an entirely different being than the one that was found without.

Within the box, once opened, was what looked like the makings of a terrarium. There had been very fine holes in the top of it, air holes, and the inside was actually bigger than the outside. Especially when one considered that within were a pair of turtles. At least, they appeared to be turtles. Their skin was a dark green, near black, and their shells looked to be closer to some kind of precious gemstone (a dark turquoise or hawk's eye) that was covered in moss that was flowering. For all that they were turtles they were clearly other in nature.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Allies..." Beel seemed to legitimately be considering this. An army of othermice, hmm...

Shiloh meanwhile had entirely dropped the Court act; his eyes were sparkling under the mourning veil, his mouth making a small 'o' shape as he looked at the terrarium with such utter wonder that he looked more like a kid on Christmas rather than a Noble. "Oh my god, they're so small? How did they get in there..." He was cradling the object delicately, "Can they come out? How am I supposed to feed them? Do they have names? Oh my god they're so pretty..."

"I wanna be pretty..." Beel mumbled from the background.

"Beel, you are pretty." Shiloh consoled him, but was still fixated on the terrarium.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"They can come out," Gloom told Shiloh with a happy chitter, "and I think they eat like normal turtles except that they also need sunlight like plants ..." His tail was swishing back and forth, leaving streaks of shadows in its wake.

"They don't have names but don't talk much either." Gloom could understand them but only because they were othercreatures and he, himself, was other. "I just transported them in that so that you could make them a better home."

Melancholies