<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/99/de/80/99de80dd4fb18a5a2b5229f5fe73ae72.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;"><strong><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;">Twin Oxenbridge</span></strong></span><br/>Human Wizard X<br/><hr/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=332279.msg15859725#msg15859725">Quote from: Ixy on 19-05-2021, 19:54:33</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">She spreads thin and strong fingers-- lock-pickers and knuckle-breakers-- along the span above his knee, savoring lean muscle under fine fabric.  "Twin," she says with a smile.  "She... frustrates you.  A shame."  Over the rush of the wind and the splash-hiss of the ghostly cold hooves into the water, the word 'shame' sounds like 'shem,' drawn-out and languid like a cat's stretch.  "Lovhers should not -toy- with each other."  She turns toward him, so he can see the profile of her heather-gray skin, made gray-violet in the sunlight.  "Eksept for pleasure, of course."<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>If Twin truly had been the powerful wizard that everyone believed him to be, he probably should have known better.  He should have seen through Ithika's sultry guile, her delicious arts, and he should not have chosen her to accompany him beyond the barrier.  But now that she was pressed against him, he found that he was very much smitten with her precise proportions.  She was lean, taut, and supple, arresting to behold, intoxicating to embrace.  He found himself even soaking in the perfume in her hair, wondering half-heartedly at its provenance.<br/><br/>She was nubile and firm to the touch, much like he dreamed his Aishah to be.  But she was not Aishah.  How desperately had he wanted it to be her.  For a moment, he imagined that Ithika<em>was</em>his beloved.  It was simple if he closed his eyes.  He got so lost in the warmth of Ithika's body that he nearly smashed right into the barrier.<br/><br/>Ithika would not have survived the barrier, that much he knew.<br/><br/>The Phantom Steed came to a sudden stop, its wispy mane becoming kismet as it grazed the arcane energy that surrounded TIDE POOL.  Twin clutched Ithika's hand which was on his knee and he pulled it back just so, so as to make Ithika avoid touching the barrier, too.<br/><br/>"... You are right," Twin said, staring coldly at the side of her face.   "But the woman I love has never reciprocated my affection.  I..."  What did he want to say?  That he did not understand people?  That he didn't understand affection?  That he didn't understand "human" connections?  He only knew the science.  He was a creature of arcane figures.  He had treated Aishah like an abstraction which could be understood if he knew the right formula.  He believed he could make Aishah love him if he pulled a string here and a string there.<br/><br/>Again, he got lost staring at Ithika's face.<br/><br/>Then, he produced from air a small stone with an arcane mark, which he easily passed into Ithika's hand, which he still held.<br/><br/>"I need your help opening the barrier," he said.<br/>