Who: Riddick riddickr & Elaine Mallory ssadabsiannataz What: Soul Gazing When: [July] Where: Outside Elaine's House Rating: Mature Audiences Only Warnings: Sexual content/innuendo. Crude language. Riddick. Please be an adult if you intend to read this. Status: Complete Upon Posting
~*~
Elaine was sitting on the floor in her kitchen, playing with the cats, not really thinking about much. She was just enjoying the peace and quiet of her home, her cats and the lurking presence of her wild man nearby. Ever since that talk about darkness, and his claiming of her, she was feeling good. He meant the world to her and that was as scary as his admitting he wanted her in his life.
They were a perfect set - wild, crazy, free.
She rose to her feet after chatting with him on the network and disappeared into the woods. She was going to make him work for it. She'd learned to adapt, and no longer felt bad about using magic to do so. She cast a veil and hid herself from sight, though sound was still an issue. And smell.
She led him on a merry chase through the forest. Until she slipped up and found herself nearly face to face with him.
Elaine made the mistake of looking him in the eye, something she’d avoided directly, and she started to feel the tug. She panicked and looked down, her breathing sharp and fast, he’d feel it too. A little tug of power. Almost a need to look. To peer deeper.
To connect.
“I’m sorry.” she said quietly ashamed she’d almost lost her sliver of control.
~*~
Darkness was the only home Richard B Riddick had ever been able to lay claim to---until he'd met his witch. She let him chase her, hunt her in the darkness without his goggles to protect his strange, alien eyes, and his witchy woman never offered him fear no matter how fast he raced after her or how he caught her.
Catching her was inevitable.
Riddick was the perfect hunter. He was the perfect convict in the other life he saw in his Dreams, but in this one? His body was that of a pure predator. Francis and his Dragon had accepted the him as the animal he was, but Elaine offered Riddick a different kind of acceptance. Something deeper than friendship existed within the realm of what he had with her though Riddick wasn't ready to put words to it.
Words cheapened things more often than not.
Confusion came over him as he caught the strangest scent coming off her, not fear, never that, but not a good emotion either, not something he wanted to smell from her.
His brow knitted as he asked, "What you sorry for, witchy woman? You think I don't like you how you come?"
She accepted him exactly as he was, why would he offer her anything less?
~*~
Elaine shook her head.
“You didn't feel that?” She asked quietly. “That tug of power? That's me. That's why I never look you in the eye. I can't stop it if I do.” She admitted quietly. “You ever hear the saying, eyes are the window to the soul?”
She swallowed. “They are. I look into people's eyes and see their soul. I see them laid bare, who they are at their core. In return they see me. It's never happened here, I'm good at avoiding direct eye contact but I don't know what you'd see in there.”
She didn't want to scare him. She'd never fear him. But she couldn't bear him being afraid of whatever he saw in her.
~*~
Riddick laughed, loud and low, a guttural sound in the dark. He didn't try to temper his laugh for whatever might be in the woods with him. Riddick was an Alpha Predator. Anything came hunting him only managed to catch its own death. He was prepared to do whatever it took to prove himself worthy of this witchy woman and she was worrying about what he would think if she looked into his soul.
"Witchy woman, I don't even know if I got a soul. Do animals have souls? I'm not exactly human. I'm not exactly anything. You can look me in the eye all you want."
He had felt the tug of her power.
It'd been rich, deep, bold.
Reaching for Elaine, he jerked her against his chest, trying to catch her eyes with his own, "You think I'm scared of your power? I like power. I like you strong. You want to bring me down? Put me on my knees for you? I'll let you try. I take you as you come. Exactly as you come. Over and over."
~*~
At first she felt stupid for saying it. With him laughing and all but it didn’t take long for her to realize he was laughing because he was trying to prove himself to her and she was the one fretting like a crazy person. He liked her for her, but she was still having a hard time wrapping her head around it.
“You have a soul. If you didn’t? I wouldn’t have that tug.” she said honestly. “I don’t know what you’ll see. I don’t. I really, really don’t…” she shivered in worry then sighed as he pulled her to him. She let him jerk her eyes to his. If he trusted her to do that, then so be it.
Then she’d be able to look into his eyes after that all she wanted.
What he sees inside Elaine:
He finds himself standing in a summery forest that, at first, is picture perfect and elegant - very much like Elaine. A few steps in however the details emerge. The trees are gnarled and scorched but with signs of new growth. There was undeniable touches by the Faerie of Summer - it feels like the air is magical, surreal and weird in this landscape. Shadows crowd the trees, though, along with glimmers of light. Summer fire licks from the depths of the shadows. Hints of smoldering fires lay beneath old trees.
Following a worn path he finds a scene laid out before him. Elaine, younger, bedecked in swirls of blue ink, naked and skin glowing faintly with her hands in those of someone whose face Riddick can't see but he's obviously a male. A second later she's bound in chains with the same one holding them. A fire envelopes the scene, and in those flames dance the images of Elaine fleeing the control, fighting mental chains and disappearing. The scene shifts a little, more real than the last, blending real world with dream world. She’s captive in a cave, bound and broken, but still fighting. Fire flickers around her there, too. A swirl of dust carries away the image.
It becomes clear that this place is where she fled to - Summer court. The flames die, leaving Elaine standing before the Queen of Summer, new chains wrapped around her frame - thinner, lighter, but stronger - binding her to Summer. New power flows through her, though she’s bound as any creature who makes a deal with Summer is. She’s broken in new ways, bound because she asked for life.
Fire flickers on the edges of the forest - images dance in the flames of the things she's done since then. Kill in the name of Summer, fight for Summer, love Summer in all of the word's connotations - mental, physical, spiritual - but the chains are loosened now - a measure of freedom, of self control emerges. There's darkness clinging to Elaine's soul - deep, evil darkness that lurks but never has infected her, instead fighting the darkness that's inside her has left her stronger, sturdier, and hard to break. But it’s there licking at the edges, looking for a foothold. The scars of the real world are visible, but she’s still fighting to keep her ground.
Elaine isn't squeaky clean, she's got her own darkness, her own grime, her own evils - but she has tremendous strength to keep herself through all of her bindings. The fire that licks at the forest is born of her own resolve and her own desire. Fire can destroy, but it can also purify.
He's whisked back to the present with an image of Elaine turning to face him, her eyes ablaze, resolve on her face as the chains wrap up one arm, but loosen on the other, with thin lines of lightning flickering along the chains that bind. She’s beating back the fire with lightning.
Inside him
Riddick’s soul is less complicated than hers. At least to her eyes because he’s a much simpler creature. He’s got a soul of a warrior, of an animal, a strong soul. He’s just as vicious and feral in here as he is out there. His feet stand planted on dry earth, only the bones of the long-gone breaking up the dead world for as far as even his eyes can see. The skeletal remains almost seem to be their own flora as they appear to grow out of the earth as if they'd always been there, sprouted there, bloomed there instead of being left behind to rot in the desolate landscape.
Death comes in a wave of blistering heat from dual suns overhead, scorching the earth further and casting Elaine out of the desert graveyard inside Riddick.
Present.
It's only been a few seconds. A minute at most. And Elaine slumps back against his arms, her eyes focused on him. The pull of the gaze no longer apparent. It's just a normal gaze now, never again will they be unable to look into the others' eyes for fear of this. The images of what was inside are unforgettable - they’re seared into memory as fresh in a decade as they are today. She looked a little worried, waiting, to see what the experience was like for him.
~*~
Silence overtook the moment as surely as a lion could hunt down a gazelle. Riddick felt the depth of his awareness of the witch growing deeper, deeper than the ocean, deeper than the blood of an entire race which threatened to drown him at any moment. He could almost feel at peace as he held Elaine against him. Her body was no reed; she did not tremble even though Riddick knew she felt the strain of her powers.
"You're beautiful. Alive where I'm dead inside. Could be what's best for us: a touch of life from you in exchange for the clasp of death from me."
The statement was downright poetic for Riddick, but he was certain it was exactly how he felt. He wanted her to know the way he felt. She might not understand all she'd seen inside him. She might not want him around her any longer if he didn't try to explain. There's more to Riddick. Dreams were a constant for him and he was certain there was more to him than the dead planet he'd come from---wherever that might have been.
"I'm more than you saw there. Fuck if I know how I know that. I just do. You're more too."
~*~
Elaine was exhausted. The image burning brightly in her head. She'd have to carefully set it aside, and be mindful of how she looked at it. It would serve as a reminder not to use the Sight on him, she was sure she'd blind herself. He blazed even in the depths of his soul.
She waved his explaination off. “It's not… it's hard. It's not an exact image, it's more broad strokes instead of fine details. The essence not the hard definitions.” She gave him a smile. “That's life, finding someone to share a piece if your soul with, that brings in something different.”
“It's a snapshot of defining moments and a image of potential. We're more than that, it's just the core, the foundation we start from.” She leaned up to steal a kiss, she wasn't running or leaving. He was him, no matter how she looked at it. She liked that. A lot.
~*~
"You seem to like my foundation fine."
Riddick smirked as he lifted Elaine from the ground, encouraging her to wrap her long legs around his waist. He liked the way her body felt against his own. There was something solid about her which anchored him to the world around him instead of how he usually felt---adrift, an alien walking among strange, lesser beings.
His witch was a warning unto herself of things he couldn't imagine from a world he'd likely never see again unless she had a way to show him more with her own unique eyes.
"I know I'm fond of yours."
Tightening his grip on her ass, he squeezed her flesh, smirking, showing teeth, "I did catch you. Technically. Does that mean I get to have my way with you now, witchy woman?"
~*~
Elaine laughed, a throaty laugh as he told her she seemed to like his foundation. She did, that was very true. She never once expected to find someone like him her to help anchor her.
But here he was.
Her long legs wrapped around his waist, and her arms snaked around his neck. She sighed happily as she settled against him, enjoying the strength he had and the comfort her brought her.
Elaine grinned as he squeezed her ass, and she replied with a press of her hips against his. “You did indeed, come take your prize then. I feel the need to scream today. Make it happen.”
~*~
Some men tended to shy away from challenges. Riddick wasn't of that sort. He grinned more fiercely as Elaine expressed her exhilaration with him. Her laughter was a balm to his blistered soul. They were good for each other. Every day he found a new reason to believe he'd been right in hunting her to ground without ever capturing her to take her away from her freedom. They'd started on uneven ground, but now?
They were equals as Riddick saw it.
"I'll do my very best."
He would, too. They'd make the earth move beneath them outside under the dark sky where anyone could see. It would be nothing short of its own miracle. They were their own miracle in the madness of Orange County. Nothing outside of them mattered to Riddick. He was going to make sure, for a time at least, Elaine wouldn't think anything outside of them mattered either. She'd be too busy enjoying him to think about anything else.