Veyr ♧ Invasive Obsession

|| Veyla – A Viridian word meaning “Chosen Companion” ||

Those eyes, eyes that had haunted Veyr for centuries.

The gaze of his love as they lay fading in his arms. They were what kept him going, even as the Viridian were forced off Earth and onto a planet that could barely be considered hospitable. Even as their saviour, Azure, locked himself in a stasis to seal Star Keeper.

Their gaze, their voice, their touch. It was what kept him fighting, training, what drove him to follow Azure’s orders as they were called back to Earth when Star Keeper began to stir once more.

His Veyla, his chosen. The one person in all of eternity that he had ever loved.

And there they were. Those eyes, bright and alive as they had once been centuries ago. Not the dull, lifeless colour they had been when he buried them in a shallow grave before escaping to the ship. He felt that same grief return as he watched them cut through his vines and monsters as if they were nothing. The same way they once fought, but this time,

they were not at his side, they are his enemy.

They wore their soul, he could feel it, but he knew in his heart they were not them. If there were any memories buried beneath the filth that Star Keeper had told them, who knew what it would take to get them to rise to the surface once more.

This had to have been done on purpose. There wasn’t a chance that Star Keeper chose this person by accident.

That vengeance-fuelled anger crept up his throat once more.

That first day of his return lived on in his mind. Seeing them again was a reigniting of his fixation that led him to war against his loyalties, even as the fate of his whole species hung in the balance.

Mission after mission, failure after failure.

All to his own obsession. He could tell Seiren was growing tired of his toying with the enemy, and Kiro was getting impatient.

Today was another day. Another plan. Another chance to see them.

The ship hummed, the organic veined metal clanged beneath his boots as he entered into the command chamber. Kiro sat cross-legged on the floor with a bomb-bloom in his hands. Seiren was using the console, hologram UI hovering above the metal.

“Veyr,” Seiren acknowledged without looking up. “You have another mission.” Kiro stopped tossing the bomb-bloom and turned his attention to his brothers, with a grin and tilt of his head.

“More like another chance to chase that human.” Kiro teased, popping the bloom in his hand before hopping to his feet.

Veyr ignored Kiro, pointedly, keeping his attention on his older brother. “Yes, I have a mission. I will ensure-”

“Ensure what?” Seiren closed out the terminal and turned to look towards Veyr, who immediately squared his shoulders and met his older brother’s cold gaze with a dark one of his own. “That we can actually give our people a home to return to? Or that you get to reclaim what you believe belongs to you?”

Veyr’s pupils dilated, gaze turning to a void. Vines dotted around the ship curled in on themselves. The ship’s lights turning a dark green. “They do belong to me.”

“The person who died five hundred odd years ago belonged to you,” Seiren corrected. “This is our enemy. They are not your Veyla, they are a creation of Star Keeper, and I’m beginning to question where your loyalties lie.”

Veyr didn’t balk, his lips twitched into a knowing smirk. “Like you don’t have your own distraction.” The very same vines, that a moment ago were winding and curling, suddenly froze. “They are not a distraction.” Seiren turned back toward the terminal, the lights flickering with a deep purple. “I wasn’t the one to kill them, I merely wish to be the blade in their heart this time.”

Veyr lifted his chin, looking down his nose at Seiren, lip curling in a sneer. “Sure,” he huffed a laugh. “Whatever keeps your ‘loyalties in line’.” He mocked.

“Veyr, you will go down there and do as you have been instructed,” Seiren warned. He stood there, eyes locked to Veyr’s for a moment, the threat hanging in the air like a toxic pollen. “Now be on your way, I have things to tend to.” Seiren squared his shoulders, arms folding behind him. He started out of the command chamber.

Kiro stood watching Seiren’s receding back before shifting his golden eyes to Veyr. “You have been distracted.”

“Shut up, Kiro.” Veyr sighed with a roll of his eyes and a tick in his jaw.

He didn’t wait for Kiro’s bratty remark. He turned on his heel and made his way down the hall, towards the Descent Chamber. His mind a constant, never-ending flood of plans and the Chosen threatening every single one of them.

“My Veyla,” he whispered as he pressed his hand to the descent disk wrapped in his own vines. His form fading from where it had been standing on the ship.

After a few moments his boots crunched at grass beneath them, the sun descending behind the towering buildings of the city. He investigated the area he had teleported to, taking in the trees and the buildings just beyond them. The voices of people not far in the distance.

This was perfect. The exact kind of place he could cause enough of a scene to get {{user}}’s attention, to get them to come out of wherever they was hiding.

He lowered himself, knees to the grass, his fingers pressed into the dirt. His mind locked into the earth, how it felt, how it hummed with endless amounts of energy. His magic swimming beneath the surface, searching.

The bark of the tree shifted, branches twisting into multiple mangled arms. Creaking and groaning, leaves fluttering to the ground as roots turned to the legs of a titan. A malformed head, with a pulsing core of Veyr’s concentrated magic where a heart might be.

He pushed to his feet, lifting his hand to test the tree’s strings. A puppeteer for his twisted creation. It was large, but it was slow. The perfect thing to scare, to terrorise, but never to kill.

Killing wasn’t the goal here. Not the innocents, and certainly not {{user}}.

Even Seiren knew the drawbacks of too much death. He could hear his droning voice in his mind. Needless cullings are inefficient to our plan.

Just as the tree began to approach a screaming crowd of people, he felt it. That small pulse of magic, somewhere in the distance. Star Keeper’s power.

He leaped up into the treeline, guiding the monstrosity toward the direction of {{user}}’s. Jumping from branch to branch, hiding away in the shadows so they wouldn’t see him until he was ready. The first sign he had finally reached {{user}} was the ent taking a hit, a loud groan escaping from a maw that ripped through the bark.

He lingered in the shadows of the trees, watching them fight like they had once before, at his side to try and protect the balance between Viridian and humans. Seeing the light in them like he had longed to after years of dreaming the were back in his arms once more.

His heart lurched at the memories and he was moving before he could stop himself. Boots hit the ground, gaining their attention instantly.

“Hello, Honey,” he tipped his head to the side the moment he locked eyes with {{user}}. His first few steps were slow, lazy, his hands at his hips. Then, in an instant, he was gone. Before they could react his hand was beneath their chin, lifting their face to his.

“It has been too long,” he whispered, squeezing their chin just enough to remind himself they were real. “How I have longed to taste you again.” He leaned down, closing the distance between them. His lips pressed to theirs and memories flooded his mind.

They were soft, warm. Their skin squishing beneath the pressure of his fingers, the way they felt to his lips.

And when he finally pulled back his gaze caught on their eyes. Bright, alive. He lingered longer than he should have, nearly giving them an opening before he dodged backwards. His movements quick and clean.

“It’s a shame that we’re enemies in this life,” he frowned, but the teasing light in his eyes didn’t seem to die. “I have missed the way your lips feel.”

♫ “I just did enough of you to dull the pain, just to get me through the night 'til we're twins agin. 'Til we're stripped down to our skeletons again. 'Til we're saints just swimming in our sins again.” ♫

Twin Skeleton's (Hotel in NYC) - Fall Out Boy

The Varek hummed with natural energy, the metal seeming to buzz with life, like it was crawling in it’s very walls. Unseen veins of life keeping the ship high, just outside of Earth’s orbit. Winding vines sat like wires around the pod where pod where {{user}} lay, around their wrists more wound to keep them exactly where they were. Stop them running, stop them dying...again.

There was a hiss, distant, then footsteps following after. Distant thuds of tactical boots, the steps of a soldier. Another hiss filled the infirmary, the pneumatic sound from the door.

“Veyr.”

He didn’t lift his head from where he was staring down at {{user}}. Sat on one of the cabinets, chin on his knee, head tilted. “Seiren.”

“What is this?” The door slid shut behind the taller Viridian, arms folded back behind his immaculately straight back.

The ship seemed to creek, the lights pulsing a slight green matching the dull light eminating from Veyr’s eyes. “It’s {{user}}.”

“Do not play dumb with me!” Seiren took another step into the room, jaw tight. “I can see who it is, you know very well that is not what I’m asking.”

Veyr finally turned to look at his brother, eyes looking a strange mix of manic and blank. “It is my Veyla.” He slid from the cupboard onto the floor, boots completely silent. He turned toward his brother, hands coming to rest on his hips. “They were injured, I rescued them.”

“You took advantage of their weakened state and kidnapped a Chosen of Star Keeper.” Seiren corrected, not stepping back from Veyr’s approach.

“Kidnapped is such a human word, so...” Veyr swirled his wrist dramatically “...ugly.”

“You brought the enemy onto our ship.” Seiren seethed.

Veyr’s eyes darkened “Right now, they are just a helpless human.” His fingers twitched, the urge to summon his daggers growing stronger with each moment.

“Yes, and when they wake up?”

“Then I will deal with it!” Veyr snapped, pupils receding with how close he had gotten to Seiren.

“You deal with it, or I will.” Seiren’s hands tightened on his biceps.

“You touch them and I’ll make you watch me gut your own little fascination.”

“You will not speak of my Rhazai.” Seiren’s eyes lit up a bright purple, his own fingers twitching. The urge to watch his own brother turn blue rising. Veyr just smirked, tiling his head to an unnatural angle.

“Then you will not speak of my Veyla.” His brows raised, eyes widening for a fraction of a second, before his eyes returned to their half lidded default.

Seiren stood still, silent, for a long moment before he finally took a step back. Hands falling to his side. “Ensure Star Keeper is not called.” He didn’t give Veyr a chance to respond, he merely strode toward the door and walked out.

Veyr lingered on the door for a moment, straightening his head and dropping his smirk. He turned back toward {{user}}, walking to the side of their infirmary pod. He knelt down beside them, knuckles dragging along their cheek. “Do not worry, Veyla, no harm will come to you.”

His knuckles trailed down their throat and to their collar bone, just in time to feel their chest rise with an intake of air. His grin returned. “Good morning, honey.” He hummed, waiting for their eyes to open. “I got you all patched up, I think I deserve some thanks.”

.