Run in the Muck
A conclusion tale for my longest running character. A character I lost my interest in, and needed to move on from. Raze Sanoru is no longer my focus.
This character helped me in many ways, processing emotions and a lot of things about myself. But I feel limited by them now. 2002-2020 is a good run to imprint on a species and character. But I've been dealing with some hard emotions to process. I felt I had to leave a bit of me behind in all these emotions. And through the depression I used this story to help get some of that feeling out. I'm still not sure what a lot of it means to me personally. It felt good to get a lot of this out in a creative way. She's not gone for good. But I do intend for my blaziken to take a back burner.
Raze stirs from sleep with a roll to her back and a short stretch, followed by a sigh. Her shirt is twisted around her torso, making it cling to her breasts and her waist. She looks out the window, tuning in her senses slowly. The sound of rain pattering the glass and roof fades in for her, her reaction is to fall back against the pillow.
With a click, the bathroom lights turn on, illuminating the white painted walls and fake tile lining the floor. Her body moves, but it feels sluggish, as most mornings. Her bare hips, crotch, and ass move in the cool, open air. The morning routine is usually the same; brush the beak, do her business, brush her hair, then head back to her room to get dressed.
Today, is a free day, but she needs to run errands. A few things she's put off, and a few things that need taking care of at their normal pace. A quick meal of toast and cereal tide her over, cleaning up the dishes drying her hands, and then heading to the door to grab her coat and put on her shoes. The sound of her jeans swiping together can be heard down the hall, heading to the stairs and out the door.
Her hood is up, catching the rain and repeling it. The waterproof jacket is essential for a blaziken, and it's a very heavy rain. She keeps her head pointed down, saving her beak the trouble of the downpour. Despite the rare rainy day, she feels on autopilot, following her schedule and fulfilling some kind of role that isn't hers. It could be the weather bringing the gloomy disposition.
The cars along the road leave trails of bubbles as tiremarks, she watches as she walks. The bubbles part, only for the next set of tires to peel the water up and drop it back down and create more. It's a bit hypnotic, however, when she comes to, she's looking to a ditch, away from the road, watching the flow of water between hills of grass, and how it ripples at each droplet that hits the surface like TV static that leaves the screen. When did she stop..?
She walks to the light, and presses the button. The confirmation is instant as the light shifts to yellow, then red. The walk sign turns and she proceeds with her beak down to the road. No sounds of tires ripping the water from the ground can be heard. Her hands are in her pockets of her hoodie. She peeks up as she reaches the next sidewalk, she can see another figure on the other side of the street. A surprise for sure, but she's out here, so it's not too odd.
The trip is fairly the same. Two more road crossings, and a revisit of that ditch. However, she finds herself looking to the water in there again. But her senses are brought back up as she gets to her fourth light. She waits for the walk signal, and proceeds. Her mind fades into the dullness of the day yet again, until suddenly something hits her legs out from under her, and her head slams something metal.
The sound of rain outside and a flow of liquid hitting the surface of water is all that's next. But she's cold, damp, and.. floating in water? Her eyes shoot open, struggling in the water to upright in shock! She finds ground two feet below the surface of the water, but she's in a drainage canal. She stands up and looks down to look over herself. She's naked with nothing to cover herself! How did she get down here..? The hole up top where the rain water pours down is too small to fit through. The ones leading out are about a foot wide, but that's also with plenty of water flowing through.
She has a bit of a panic moment, before realizing.. The water doesn't really hurt. Her fur is wet and matted, but there's nothing that points to the sensation of her fire abilities being agitated by the water. As a matter of fact, she feels very cold. She holds her torso and looks around again. Maybe there's something she can do about this situation. She raises a hand to the drain above, and attempts to let out a stream of fire, nothing. That's not normal, even given the circumstances.
She falls to her knees and hugs her torso, still feeling cold, but not able to do anything about it. Actually, it's cold, but not overly cold, not even in the water. She pats her arms a bit, and there's a grey streak behind where the fur fills back in and lifts from her arms. It's acting very differently, almost as if the fur grows back out instead of lifting off of herself.
What she does next, is partly out of panic, and desparation. Her claws dig into her arm, and they pierce the skin, however, it doesn't fully hurt.. There's a pinching feeling but it goes away after a moment. Her fingers sink, then she rips at it, pulling it open and looking at the grey shiny goop inside. She looks in horror, before pulling her hand free and watching it reform to heal, and go back to looking normal. She pauses a moment, wondering what this means..
She relaxes her left arm, focusing on the fingers and forearm. She just lets them relax and thinks about the goop she had seen. Color leaves her taloned hand as it seems to melt. It falls into the water and she panics, pulling her arm up. The viscous slime that is her arm never detatches, but she can feel it touch the floor beneath the water.
The ripples in the water mask whats happening, her right hand grabs at the thick grey slime, and trying to lift it up and out of the water. She eventually comes to the conclusion, that if she focuses on how it's supposed to be, perhaps she can get it back to normal. Her mind focuses and she gives a good serious effort, even trying to move the phantom limb.. Nothing. At least, it doesn't seem to be disconnecting..
Raze looks up to the opening, shouting out to anyone that might hear. She leans back against the wall with her left arm trailing into a goop into the water. She's overwhelmed, falling to sitting there in the water. She begins crying, just losing herself in the worry in her mind.. until her eyes just won't open, and she scrambles in the water. Things are a blur, Her mind fading in and out. Her panic only escalates as she checks in and out.
Upon waking yet again, she's in water, and naked as before. Her eyes open this time, looking around and scrambling to upright herself. She's in the drainage ditch, grass hills on either side of her. She's naked still, and her red fur is vibrant against the water and the pale grass of the hills around her. Her left arm is back to normal thankfully! The taloned fingers close and open experimentally. Her right arm covers her nipples, as she goes to climb out and see where she is.
It appears, she's lost ground in her travel, but that's not her main concern right now. She wants to get home. The sopping wet blaziken climbs up to the sidewalk, covering her sheath and balls below, she walks home, embarassed at the naked, sopping wet walk through the rain. A few people shout to her, but she ignores them.
Before she knows it, she is back at her apartment. She shakes off some of the water, and walks to her door. Without a key, she cant get in. She locks her windows too. She stands there awkwardly for a moment, still covering her bits. Her eyes are locked on that mail slot, its not used for anything nowadays, but she gets an idea.
Raising her left arm to the mail slot, she opens it to where its about an inch open. She puts it in, and keeps going until it gets stuck. Then, she nervously pushes harder, until the fur of her arm turns grey, and she closes her eyes, pushing more and more. She feels her head hit the door, but then moves her beak to the opening, and keeps going, until she slips and her hands hit the floor on the other side. Her eyes open, and she looks at her apartment with a triumphant smile! Her torso and arms made it in!
She looks up at the locks and wonders if she should open it or just continue how things are going.. her hips are stuck outside. Her arms push against the door to try and tug her through, but for some reason, she's stuck. Another moment to meditate on it probably will work. She closes her eyes, leaning her arms on the door to keep the weight moving forward, and then with one more smooth motion, she slides in and falls to the carpet of her apartment.
Finally, some good news on how to use this new ability of hers. She stands up and makes her way to the bathroom for a towel, to try and dry off. Going over her fur and hair a bit before realizing; She's still soaked. It's not water, that's just how she is. The towel is dry, no matter how much she wipes at herself. She focuses on it a second, the fur shows dryness after a moment, feeling it in her core that she should be dry, and then she just is!
The light clicks on to her bedroom, shaken from the events of the day, she climbs into bed, pulling the covers over herself and grabbing for her body pillow. She stares at the wall with the light on, eyes darting, trying to wipe thoughts out of her mind. She needs the light to focus right now. It's the middle of the day. She's not hungry, not too warm, not too cold, not uncomfortable, not wet, not dry, and not too incredibly distressed. Besides her confusion, she's at some point of indifference that she can't seem to pin.
"Does this mean I'm dead...?"