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Martin was walking. He really wasn’t sure where, not without Jon to tell him at least, but he didn’t believe he had made his way out of his domain yet. It was still so monochrome, and the pouring rain that seemed to soak into his very core showed no signs of letting up. The wind was quieter here, at least, but all that really did was make it easier for him to hear his own thoughts. Really, that was worse, because now he got to listen to his earlier conversation with himself- or his domain self, he supposed, though he doubted there was much of a difference- as it replayed itself over and over in his mind.
He was only able to take a few more steps before something ran out of the shadows of the moor and hurtled into him, pinning him beneath its paws as it stared intently down at him. Its silver-streaked hair nearly brushed against his face, its multitude of green eyes glimmering in the dim light. Slowly, it sat back on its haunches, allowing Martin to stand back up. He did, shakily and gradually. The creature had massive, dark gray wings matching the rest of its dull body, and its thin tail flicked back and forth. Eyes were scattered across its body, the clusters occasionally broken by a multitude of scars. The feathery plumicorns atop its head were relaxed, almost completely flat. It almost reminded Martin of Jon, strangely enough.
[Martin?] The creature’s voice held an almost monotonous quality, complemented by an underlying hissing sound reminiscent of a tape recorder. More importantly, it was Jon’s voice.
“Jon?!” Martin yelped. “What happened?”
[It’s a long story,] the creature that was Jon replied slowly. [Maybe we could wait until I’ve gotten a more… human form.]
“...Alright. Can you- can you do that? Have a more human form?” Martin queried.
[Yes, I can.]
“How do you-”
[I know everything, Martin.]
To Martin’s surprise, that actually got a chuckle out of him. “That you do. So then… now what? Do we just… keep walking?”
[I suppose so.] Jon nodded and got back on all fours.
It was very odd for Martin to see his boyfriend like this, and honestly really unsettling. Not only was Jon now the antichrist, but he was also some sort of owl-cat amalgam. And all this just within the time it took for Martin to talk to himself. He strongly hoped that Jon was right, and that a human form was possible.
— — X — — X — — X — —
Jon was finally back in a somewhat more normal form, to Martin’s relief. He still wasn’t quite… human. He was still dark gray, almost black, and still had wings, though they were smaller now, a tail, and plumicorns. It at least seemed like he had fewer eyes, which was good. Martin had to lend Jon some of his own clothes, since Jon’s had presumably been tattered when he took on his monstrous form. Now, he had a too-large light blue jumper loosely draped over him with slits cut in the back for his wings, and was sitting on the ground with Martin.
“So… what was that all about?” Martin asked hesitantly.
[Ah.] Jon took a moment to think, his tail twitching. Martin couldn’t help but note that Jon’s voice was still inhuman. [I was trying to find you, to See you. But the Eye… you know its inconvenience with statements. It wanted me to make a statement about you. I promised I wouldn’t look into your head, so I tried to resist it… the Eye punished me for it. You saw what I looked like.]
Martin, despite his obvious surprise at the events that had taken place in his absence, couldn’t help but feel a sort of warmth in his chest at Jon’s loyalty, but it warred with guilt, with this nagging sense that it was his fault.. “Oh. Are you… does that mean you’ll be stuck like this?”
[Probably.] Jon stated this in a matter-of-fact sort of way, lacking the expected bitterness or general displeasure, that made Martin wonder what Jon actually thought about this new form. [Should we continue, then?]
“Yeah. Yeah, we probably should.” Martin got up with a slight grunt and helped Jon to his feet as well.
This was going to make their trip a lot more interesting.