SH - Collateral Damage

"Police sympathizer!"
"Of course the freak is on their side!"
"I bet he's in with the CAC, too!"

"S- Side..? No, I- I'm not! I.." Nagi stammered. He scrambled backwards across the tile until his shoulder bumped one of the shelves.
Menacing footsteps followed.

"We're going to teach you a lesson, Ghost."

"Y- You have it wrong! I have n-nothing to do with them! Please! I- I never did a- anything! I swear!"
His pleas fell to deaf ears. He could hear the strangers closing in. Hear the shuffle of debris as they fashioned themselves weapons from the wreckage of his shop.

"Please..."

He had been here before. Cowering, whimpering, hoping and pleading for mercy. The memory was old, but still sharp as glass. Memory of hiding from the thundering footsteps and angered shouts, memory of death hunting him through his own home, beckoning with the voice of his own father. Saya had been with him then, and it was only from her sacrifice that he had made it to the forest.

Who would save him now?

Never before, not in all his years of life in the city, had Nagi wished so desperately and fervently for the night. If only he had his other shape. If he had his sight, his Power. Even just metal and talons. Any aspect of that form was better than the useless nothing he was during the day. But of course, it couldn't be that way. After all, it was barely lunch time when the riot had spilled into his own shop. Dusk was still half a day away, and the dazed wish to have a form that could fight back would simply go unanswered. If these irrational people had their way, Nagi began to fear he may never see another night again...

- - - - - - -

My poor bab TnT 
This illustration was both a delight to work on (I haven't been active with my art for months due to RL issues) and painful because I had to hurt my sweet bean. But it's done! And just in time, too!

Done for Sybal Heim's 2nd plot event, the Riots of 1894


Nagi's not a violent enough sort to be involved in a riot voluntarily. And he has such faith (perhaps too much) in Basileus and the governing bodies that he, personally, had no arguments against the CAC. He was just happily going about his business as the protests went down in the market square just a few streets over from his pottery shop. He was perfectly content to simply ignore the civil unrest, firmly believing that it would pass. But when protests turned violent, and vandals and looters took to the Souq streets, he received quite the rude awakening. Making for such easy prey for violent folk, he quickly found himself - once again - an easy scapegoat for others' anger.
If only he had someone to protect him...

There is an RP that accompanies this, which you can read over here!


Character is mine
Sybal Heim belongs to the talented Turtle-Arts 
Pose referenced from stock by