//------------------------------// // The Right Stuff // Story: A Goblin, a Griffon & Debauchery // by Merallakos //------------------------------// When Seraphimus didn't respond Jacko tried again. "Love, you're the prettiest, most amazing thing Oi've ever seen! Just a little more time with you is all Oi want! Thet's all. Oi see it in your eyes, you think Oi need you for some hair brained scheme, but that's not it! Oi jest--" Jacko sighed, looking towards the ground For a moment he was quiet and sniffling, wiping tears from his eyes (and nose) with one hand. "Stay with me, love..." Jacko slowly released Seraphimus' twitching hind leg. "Es thet so much to ask? Jest one penumbral night, thet's all." Jacko wiped his nose on Seraphimus' limp tail. Seraphimus suddenly broke out of her shock, yanking her tail back to herself, scraping snot and tears off of it with a cold talon. She only glared at the goblin. "Oi..." Jacko stared into Seraphimus' eyes. "If, if it pleases you... Oi can even bring some of my mates oveh. Break the ice as it t'were." At this point Seraphimus was beyond incredulity. Yet somehow more of it crept into her voice. "Why, for a windigo's breath, would I ever want to be in the presence of your... 'mates?'" "Oi, well not thet kind of mate," Jacko chuckled nervously. "Oi mean like me buds, you know, fellow gobbos, my pals you know?" "It was my impression that you didn't have any." "Ah, true..." Jacko's murmurred, his ears falling. Seraphimus sighed. For some reason something compelled her to speak. She'd faced down snivelling criminals of all manner of pitiful walks of life. She'd smote ponies who had only ever felt comfort the shedding of blood and creation of trauma. She'd wiped the filth from this world for years without ever feeling obliged to entreat them to anything more than snide remarks. Yet, leaving this goblin, she couldn't restrain herself. Perhaps it was because she knew he would listen, and he would hurt, because he wasn't already gone. "You truly are a pitiful creature aren't you. You think you can stop me, yet you'll die here as street scum. Kicked from the ashes of your own holy city with nothing more than than those chaotic strips to call your own --a faulty attempt at pride-- probably disremembered by your own outcast clan. Any sane being would feel nothing but pity for you." Seraphimus aimed an iron frown at Jacko. "Pitiful," she spat. She sighed, "I should leave before you give me any more reasons for me to put you out of your misery." The tall griffin once more turned to the window, perching upon the seal, ready to take flight, but something held her back. "Sheila," Jacko murmured, getting up, his ears still flattened. "Maybe you think Oi'm no good... Oi guess I can see thet. Out heah, fur bloodin' and yobbin with low caste gobbos, scraping heaps together jest for paltry streeps. Et doesn't look terribly good. But mark my words: the flame of petra burns in my mind clear es stars. "Back in Petra a fortune telleh told me thet. Oi wasn't gonna bring it up jest 'cause it seemed silly, but Oi reckon can't get much sillyeh then this." Jacko frowned. "Listen heah, Birdo. Oi may not look like much, but Oi got somethin big ahead of me. Thet fortune telleh, she saw it, told me I was destined for the stars. Most gobbos don't look deepeh than the prison, but Oi look for the context which the prison was buil' out of. "Theah's something deeper under all this. Thet fortune telleh saw that. She may have been a crazy plinker, but she knew. Always talked about 'the Angels,' and circles with cycles and what not... Dragons, spiders, where did the gobbos come from? Where did they all really come from? "Oi just wish you'd see." Jacko turned towards Seraphimus. "How can somethin so beautifully looking be so blind?" Seraphimus sighed, looking away from the twilight city, reluctantly observing Jacko. She did see. What's more, she felt. Here was a race of beings ever optimistic, industrious, and devout-- even if only in some perverted sense of the word. Yet somehow they mantained this in front to an ever encroaching, hideously graphic three sided war that constantly threatened to destroy and enslave them. No creature deserved such a fate. And here was one of individuals who'd stop at nothing to see the will of their might through whichever mischevious avenue presented itself. Someone who'd been squoze and twisted like a rag, but still just kept fighting. How could someone like this be expected to die to forces beyond their control? How... How could this be?! Seraphimus was no stranger to unfair situations. She'd undermined, outmaneuvered, and outright decimated numerous criminals throughout Rhobredden while in the Right Talon of Verlaxion. What's more, she'd seen that the entire culture and the deity which it worshiped --which she worshiped- had been a backhanded fabrication that had cost her the very lives of those dearest to her... It made her shudder. But somehow, someway, this was different. Infuriatingly different. Seraphimus reobserved Jacko. Large pointed ears , big emphatic eyes, and a scattering of body hairs were the first things that stood out. But beneath the hair, surprisingly smooth skin, a... handsome? snoot, a-- what? Handsome? Seraphimus shook her head. She'd expected to see a rounding from mouth to neck, but instead Jacko possessed a strong, pointed jawline. Robust, wiry muscles corded underneath his smooth skin. While impish, Jacko's frame was sturdy, well built, complementing his well proportioned hands. Jacko's body was clearly one used to hardships and rugged work --much like Seraphimus' own... Did Seraphimus really just think that? Seraphimus' rear legs buckled. She sat, grounded. She looked towards the throbbing pink ocean under the curveside shadow, lurking just outside Blobstain.