Tears of Stone, pt I: Tarnished Dreams
First segment in Lazuli's backstory - something which, as of arriving at Avelyon High, he has next to no memory of. The reason for that, of course, will become clear in time(to those who don't know it already).
This is Lazuli's first sexual experience. Be warned: It's not pretty. He didn't consent to it in any way.
6233/09/1/8, afternoon. Eastern Erigineea.
Lazuli tried not to feel out of place.
That was doubly difficult. His father had only been transferred here a few months ago, so things were still fairly new to him. That was the first problem.
Second, and harder to deal with, was that he didn't see anyone else who had fur.
Xi'lavri weren't common in these lands; in all his life, spread across a number of different towns, he'd met so few others that he'd be able to count them on one hand, if he could even remember them clearly. Though he hadn't met many of them, he had, at least, run into some other people who had to worry about keeping fur clean, finding clothes that wouldn't wear it thin, and not getting their tails caught in doors.But the sandy-coloured feline, marked like a tabby in chocolate-brown, didn't see any such here.
The town's populace was mostly human, as with the other places he'd lived. He glimpsed a few elves, even faeries, of varying racial purity. Nobody he saw here was someone he knew, though.
He wove his way along the sidewalk, thumbs hooked under the straps of his backpack. One of the people he did know here, a human youth named Relyn, had mentioned that the library had a good selection of books on the history of nonhuman races. Lazuli's adopted family had got him interested in Xi'lavri traditions and history, but his interest hadn't stopped there. In human cities, their own history had been easy to com e by - but others had often been scant, in small towns with neither a significant presence of such other races nor well-funded libraries.
There was the net, of course - now that he was starting to learn to use it - but it was all too easy to find unreliable information there, things people had published because it was sensational. Besides, nothing could really replace the feel of leafing through a book.
A passing figure caught his eye. Tall, broad of shoulder, pale blond hair and tanned skin - black trim on a grey jacket - Relyn?
Relyn had said, that morning, that he had relatives coming over for dinner and wouldn't be available when Lazuli went into town that afternoon. Maybe that had been called off, or he'd been excused until then?
"Relyn!" Lazuli called, turning and breaking into a jog. The other youth apparently didn't hear him, because he kept walking without a glance, turning into a side alley and out of sight.
Murmuring apologies, Lazuli dodged his way across the street, along the sidewalk, and to the place he'd seen his friend disappear. It was just a space between two buildings - a textiles warehouse on one side, vacant offices on the other. With the tall buildings there, the afternoon sun was largely blocked off, turning it into a shadowy place, dingy and cluttered with discarded bales and pallets.
Fire exits clung to the sides of the buildings, so close a person could probably jump from one side to the other.The warehouse went right to the other side of the block, and the far end of the alley was fenced off. There weren't any doors in sight - Relyn must have gone in behind the office building.
Lazuli crept through the darkened strip, skirting the bales and pallets. A musty smell suggested some of them had been here a while - but not so long that they were ruined by mould and mildew. It was all scraps to begin with, that he could see, but with a wash it might be serviceable for patches, quilts, and the like.
He turned the corner - and found himself face-to-face with... someone. The clothes were right, the body was right, even the face was right - but those eyes, dark and hard, were as far removed fromRelyn's gentle blue gaze as could be.
"Well, what have we got here?" - dear Gods, even the voice was right, apart from that sneering tone. "A little lost housecat, wandered away from home, looking for somewhere to play?"
Lazuli swallowed. This place, he saw now - this blind alley with the bottles and cans and cigarette butts and who knew what else worse - this place was trouble. He took a step back, opening his mouth to say he'd thought he had seen someone else - but a hand seized his arm before he could speak.
Someone had come in behind him - someone whose breath smelled of alcohol and less savoury things. And there, emerging from the shadows ahead of him, was another, a big youth with short brown hair, wearing a vest that showed off his muscles.
The other hand of the one behind him grabbed his jaw, wrenching his head around to face an unshaven, black-haired youth, hazel eyes considering what they saw.
"Huh. Blue eyes," he observed. His breath made Lazuli's eyes water. "Got a real pretty-boy wandering in here."
Not-Relyn developed a cruel grin. "Well, hey," he drawled. "Arrun owes us a few favours, but why use them up just to get some girls when something like this comes looking for a good time?"
"Careful, Keron," said Brown-hair. "Someone won't be happy if their pet comes back hurt or goesmissing. Someone would remember him coming in here."
Lazuli's stomach wrenched. He wasn't sure which of them was implying something worse.
"Oh, fine, we'll send him back in one piece," blond Keron said. It was his turn to grab Lazuli's jaw, looking the xi'lavri over. "After we have some fun. Damn. You're right, Koge - for a boy, he is pretty fine. Just look at that worried little face. And look - " At his gesture, Koge shoved Lazuli forward, and he stumbled against Keron with a yelp, caught by one hand on his shoulder - and the other yanking painfully on the base of his short tail. "He even comes with a handle."
He was half-pushed, half-tugged back into Koge's grip, and the scruffy youth dragged him toward a back door into the offices. He should've dropped into a stance, stayed away from them, maybe given one of them a knock to distract them so he could scamper off, but it was too late now, with both his arms held, and so much of his weight hauled up from the ground that he didn't have the leverage to kick. And he hadn't got nearly far enough in his self-defence classes that he could possibly hope to slip free of the hold. He was helpless.
They'd set up a bedroom of sorts in one of the offices. When they hauled his backpack off and shoved him onto the bed, it felt scratchy and lumpy, like burlap around a collection of cloth scraps. But he didn't have time to think about that when rough hands grabbed his belt.
They were trying not to leave an obvious mark, so they didn't just rip his clothes off - but they weren't gentle. The sudden tug on his belt squeezed the breath out of him, and when they yanked his pants down, the clasp they hadn't bothered to undo snagged a bit of fur on his tail, ripping it out. If he'd had any chance to get some air in his lungs, he would've screamed.
Even as he gasped for breath, the sounds of at least one of them stripping down were all too clear. Laz wasn't as worldly as some of his peers, but he wasn't stupid. He'd read a few romances in his time, some of them pretty explicit; between them and his classes he knew all too well what this trio was going to do to him.
Somehow he'd imagined himself doing this for the first time in a friend's living room, candles flickering, soft music playing - not this dingy little hole. His stomach churned again as he realised these three wouldn't be gentle enough to let him enjoy it, either.
He lurched as one of them grabbed his arm, yanking him up a little. His shirt got tugged up to his shoulders, a callused hand running over his back. "A prize like this doesn't drop in every day," Koge husked by his ear.
"No shit. Hey, Addem, if you're gonna just make faces, go keep an eye out front. You can get yourself a girl later." Keron moved into view, a light sheen of sweat gleaming on his bare skin.
He grabbed Lazuli's jaw again, pulling it upward, forcing him to meet those dark, contemptful eyes. "If you know what's good for you, you won't even squeak," he snarled. "Now lick it - and don't you dare put your lips around it, not with those teeth." He moved that hand behind Lazuli's head, pulling the xi'lavri toward his groin.
Lazuli gulped. Ever since he'd started experimenting with himself, not all that long ago, he'd been fascinated by the scent, wondered what it might taste like. When Relyn had snuck him a book that demonstrated - in fiction, granted, but still - that, yes, people did this for fun, he'd had some guilty dreams about the other youth actually letting him try it.
Instead, he got... this.
Terrified of what it might be like, but at the same time far too frightened to disobey, Laz extended his tongue, pressed it against the blunt, pink-red head of the naked youth's member.
It... wasn't that bad. He might actually have liked the taste if he didn't also have the choking sourness of bile in his throat.
Not faced with much choice, he kept licking, as the thick malehood swelled and stiffened. When he heard the big youth moan, he was heartened. Maybe if he could pleasure his captor this way, he wouldn't have to... do other things. Maybe he could keep those for himself... Desperately, he lapped at as much of that firm flesh as he could reach.
"Uh, Gods," Keron gasped. "F-fuck, the little bitch is good..." But suddenly he was pushing away, drawing his shaft out of reach. "C'mon, Koge, you give it a try. I'm gonna give him a special reward for being such a good bitch."
Lazuli almost whimpered, but the sound died in his throat as a fresh wave of terror and nausea gripped him, and a brutal disillusionment. He'd hoped, he'd hoped with all his soul that it wouldn't come to this...
This time, unfortunately, hisimpression of the immediate future was dead on. Koge, slimmer than his partner and almost ghostly pale under his scattering of black hair, was already half-hard when he took up his position at what apparently was the head of the bed - and it was already bigger than Keron's, by a fair margin, in both length and girth. Within the space of a few licks, it was massive, and drooling a liberal stream of clear, slightly salty fluid.
Laz squeezed his eyes shut, trying to tell, from the sounds Koge made and the way he manhandled the feline's head, what was working best. He sent up a silent prayer to any listening Gods that, if They granted him one favour today, They would make Koge, at least, be satisfied with his mouth.
Then, keeping a tight grip on his tail, Keron rammed in behind him - and he almost changed his ple to have Them just end it all, instead.
The pain was horrible - all the more so because it lanced deep inside him, seeding to spread all the way to his fingertips. But even the pain couldn't match the despair of all his innocent dreams crumbling - and even that paled in comparison to the awful sense of violation.
He collapsed, choking. Keron's grip kept his hips where they were, but his head thudded into the stuffed burlapmattress. His tail end seemed to be burning as Keron's shaft drove relentlessly in and out. Panic gripped him, too, at the thought of what Koge might do to punish his dereliction. Maybe, if Lazuli's muzzle couldn't satisfy, he'd get in line behind...
The thought galvanised him. Blinking away tears, he forced himself back up, even managed to balance on one hand so he could hold that massive organ with the other, flicking his tongue over the bulbous head.
"Oh, fuck," Keron was gasping. "So... mmmh, tight... here, bro, I'll keep him up for you..." The Gods granted a small mercy; Keron let go of his tail, and instead hunched over the xi'lavri, one hand planted on the mattress, the other arm wrapping around Lazuli's body.He pressed down against the cat even as he pulled Laz upward. The feel of his sweaty body against Lazuli's back, plastering down the fur there, was revolting - but it lessened the risk of him losing his balance and falling away from Koge again.
Somehow, Laz kept licking, despite feeling like Keron would either smother him or rip him open.
"Sh-shit," Koge gasped, somewhere up above. "That tongue - we gotta get ourselves one o' these..." A hard gulp. "Oh, fuck, gonna come... suck it, cat..."
Lazuli hesitated, Keron's dire warning echoing in his mind - but that very youth shoved into him even harder than usual, and cuffed his shoulder. "Got a problem, bitch?" he snarled. "If he tells you to suck him, you damn well suck him - and you swallow every drop until he decides he wants to see it on your face instead!"
Shaking, trying not to give into his tears, and still mindful of how Keron had mentioned his teeth, he lifted his chin, stared down the most length of that rigid pole, and let his lips part, curling them in over his teeth. He stretched out to take in that flared, swollen glans, terrified that if he didn't move fast enough, Koge would just shove the whole thing in and choke him.
Fortunately, Koge had other things on his mind. Mere seconds after Lazuli had taken that fat head into his mouth, the black-haired youth let out a hoarse groan, fingers digging into Lazuli's scalp, warm, thick fluid pulsing over his tongue. Caught off guard as much by the pungent taste as by its very presence, Lazuli almost gagged - but somehow, he turned it into a swallow. The stuff clung to the sides of his throat, but more was following, and so he kept gulping it down.
He was still doing that when Keron grunted, rammed all the way in, and stayed there, still at last. But any relief Laz might have felt for that small mercy was tainted by the wet warmth seeping into him from both ends, bringing with it a sense of filth and defilement.
The pair drew their spent members out of him, leaving him to collapse, trembling and struggling to keep his lunch down, onto the lumpy, scratchy bed.
"Sure we can't just hang onto him?" Koge asked, tugging his belt tight.
"Nah, Addem's right. Someone would miss him, and someone would remember seeing him come back here. We'll just send him on his way like nothing much happened." As he spoke, Keron tugged Laz's shirt back on and roughly hauled his pants up. Bending down, he hissed into the xi'lavri's ear, "But here's some free advice, bitch. Forget all about this. If you tell anyone - if you rat us out - we'll find you. And if you come back, you're ours for good."
He hauled Lazuli to his feet, the feline stumbling in a sudden wave of vertigo -
He caught himself against a wall, gasping for breath. A few people gave him odd looks, but moved on without comment.
He glanced around. What had just happened? He'd thought he had seen... someone...?
He shuddered. Somehow, this dingy pair of buildings - one shabby, one completely run-down - filled him with nameless dread.
Lazuli started walking, and almost stumbled again. Why was he so sore all of a sudden? And, for that matter, disheveled and unkempt, with a strange taste in his mouth and a mix of unfamiliar smells clinging to him. He couldn't possibly go to the library like this...
Shaking his head in confusion, he turned around and headed back for home - home and a shower.
Incidentally, would it be permissible for me to post things in this setting elsewhere? And what kind of accreditation should I give for the setting(i.e. where should I link, how should I list the name)?
This is Lazuli's first sexual experience. Be warned: It's not pretty. He didn't consent to it in any way.
6233/09/1/8, afternoon. Eastern Erigineea.
Lazuli tried not to feel out of place.
That was doubly difficult. His father had only been transferred here a few months ago, so things were still fairly new to him. That was the first problem.
Second, and harder to deal with, was that he didn't see anyone else who had fur.
Xi'lavri weren't common in these lands; in all his life, spread across a number of different towns, he'd met so few others that he'd be able to count them on one hand, if he could even remember them clearly. Though he hadn't met many of them, he had, at least, run into some other people who had to worry about keeping fur clean, finding clothes that wouldn't wear it thin, and not getting their tails caught in doors.But the sandy-coloured feline, marked like a tabby in chocolate-brown, didn't see any such here.
The town's populace was mostly human, as with the other places he'd lived. He glimpsed a few elves, even faeries, of varying racial purity. Nobody he saw here was someone he knew, though.
He wove his way along the sidewalk, thumbs hooked under the straps of his backpack. One of the people he did know here, a human youth named Relyn, had mentioned that the library had a good selection of books on the history of nonhuman races. Lazuli's adopted family had got him interested in Xi'lavri traditions and history, but his interest hadn't stopped there. In human cities, their own history had been easy to com e by - but others had often been scant, in small towns with neither a significant presence of such other races nor well-funded libraries.
There was the net, of course - now that he was starting to learn to use it - but it was all too easy to find unreliable information there, things people had published because it was sensational. Besides, nothing could really replace the feel of leafing through a book.
A passing figure caught his eye. Tall, broad of shoulder, pale blond hair and tanned skin - black trim on a grey jacket - Relyn?
Relyn had said, that morning, that he had relatives coming over for dinner and wouldn't be available when Lazuli went into town that afternoon. Maybe that had been called off, or he'd been excused until then?
"Relyn!" Lazuli called, turning and breaking into a jog. The other youth apparently didn't hear him, because he kept walking without a glance, turning into a side alley and out of sight.
Murmuring apologies, Lazuli dodged his way across the street, along the sidewalk, and to the place he'd seen his friend disappear. It was just a space between two buildings - a textiles warehouse on one side, vacant offices on the other. With the tall buildings there, the afternoon sun was largely blocked off, turning it into a shadowy place, dingy and cluttered with discarded bales and pallets.
Fire exits clung to the sides of the buildings, so close a person could probably jump from one side to the other.The warehouse went right to the other side of the block, and the far end of the alley was fenced off. There weren't any doors in sight - Relyn must have gone in behind the office building.
Lazuli crept through the darkened strip, skirting the bales and pallets. A musty smell suggested some of them had been here a while - but not so long that they were ruined by mould and mildew. It was all scraps to begin with, that he could see, but with a wash it might be serviceable for patches, quilts, and the like.
He turned the corner - and found himself face-to-face with... someone. The clothes were right, the body was right, even the face was right - but those eyes, dark and hard, were as far removed fromRelyn's gentle blue gaze as could be.
"Well, what have we got here?" - dear Gods, even the voice was right, apart from that sneering tone. "A little lost housecat, wandered away from home, looking for somewhere to play?"
Lazuli swallowed. This place, he saw now - this blind alley with the bottles and cans and cigarette butts and who knew what else worse - this place was trouble. He took a step back, opening his mouth to say he'd thought he had seen someone else - but a hand seized his arm before he could speak.
Someone had come in behind him - someone whose breath smelled of alcohol and less savoury things. And there, emerging from the shadows ahead of him, was another, a big youth with short brown hair, wearing a vest that showed off his muscles.
The other hand of the one behind him grabbed his jaw, wrenching his head around to face an unshaven, black-haired youth, hazel eyes considering what they saw.
"Huh. Blue eyes," he observed. His breath made Lazuli's eyes water. "Got a real pretty-boy wandering in here."
Not-Relyn developed a cruel grin. "Well, hey," he drawled. "Arrun owes us a few favours, but why use them up just to get some girls when something like this comes looking for a good time?"
"Careful, Keron," said Brown-hair. "Someone won't be happy if their pet comes back hurt or goesmissing. Someone would remember him coming in here."
Lazuli's stomach wrenched. He wasn't sure which of them was implying something worse.
"Oh, fine, we'll send him back in one piece," blond Keron said. It was his turn to grab Lazuli's jaw, looking the xi'lavri over. "After we have some fun. Damn. You're right, Koge - for a boy, he is pretty fine. Just look at that worried little face. And look - " At his gesture, Koge shoved Lazuli forward, and he stumbled against Keron with a yelp, caught by one hand on his shoulder - and the other yanking painfully on the base of his short tail. "He even comes with a handle."
He was half-pushed, half-tugged back into Koge's grip, and the scruffy youth dragged him toward a back door into the offices. He should've dropped into a stance, stayed away from them, maybe given one of them a knock to distract them so he could scamper off, but it was too late now, with both his arms held, and so much of his weight hauled up from the ground that he didn't have the leverage to kick. And he hadn't got nearly far enough in his self-defence classes that he could possibly hope to slip free of the hold. He was helpless.
They'd set up a bedroom of sorts in one of the offices. When they hauled his backpack off and shoved him onto the bed, it felt scratchy and lumpy, like burlap around a collection of cloth scraps. But he didn't have time to think about that when rough hands grabbed his belt.
They were trying not to leave an obvious mark, so they didn't just rip his clothes off - but they weren't gentle. The sudden tug on his belt squeezed the breath out of him, and when they yanked his pants down, the clasp they hadn't bothered to undo snagged a bit of fur on his tail, ripping it out. If he'd had any chance to get some air in his lungs, he would've screamed.
Even as he gasped for breath, the sounds of at least one of them stripping down were all too clear. Laz wasn't as worldly as some of his peers, but he wasn't stupid. He'd read a few romances in his time, some of them pretty explicit; between them and his classes he knew all too well what this trio was going to do to him.
Somehow he'd imagined himself doing this for the first time in a friend's living room, candles flickering, soft music playing - not this dingy little hole. His stomach churned again as he realised these three wouldn't be gentle enough to let him enjoy it, either.
He lurched as one of them grabbed his arm, yanking him up a little. His shirt got tugged up to his shoulders, a callused hand running over his back. "A prize like this doesn't drop in every day," Koge husked by his ear.
"No shit. Hey, Addem, if you're gonna just make faces, go keep an eye out front. You can get yourself a girl later." Keron moved into view, a light sheen of sweat gleaming on his bare skin.
He grabbed Lazuli's jaw again, pulling it upward, forcing him to meet those dark, contemptful eyes. "If you know what's good for you, you won't even squeak," he snarled. "Now lick it - and don't you dare put your lips around it, not with those teeth." He moved that hand behind Lazuli's head, pulling the xi'lavri toward his groin.
Lazuli gulped. Ever since he'd started experimenting with himself, not all that long ago, he'd been fascinated by the scent, wondered what it might taste like. When Relyn had snuck him a book that demonstrated - in fiction, granted, but still - that, yes, people did this for fun, he'd had some guilty dreams about the other youth actually letting him try it.
Instead, he got... this.
Terrified of what it might be like, but at the same time far too frightened to disobey, Laz extended his tongue, pressed it against the blunt, pink-red head of the naked youth's member.
It... wasn't that bad. He might actually have liked the taste if he didn't also have the choking sourness of bile in his throat.
Not faced with much choice, he kept licking, as the thick malehood swelled and stiffened. When he heard the big youth moan, he was heartened. Maybe if he could pleasure his captor this way, he wouldn't have to... do other things. Maybe he could keep those for himself... Desperately, he lapped at as much of that firm flesh as he could reach.
"Uh, Gods," Keron gasped. "F-fuck, the little bitch is good..." But suddenly he was pushing away, drawing his shaft out of reach. "C'mon, Koge, you give it a try. I'm gonna give him a special reward for being such a good bitch."
Lazuli almost whimpered, but the sound died in his throat as a fresh wave of terror and nausea gripped him, and a brutal disillusionment. He'd hoped, he'd hoped with all his soul that it wouldn't come to this...
This time, unfortunately, hisimpression of the immediate future was dead on. Koge, slimmer than his partner and almost ghostly pale under his scattering of black hair, was already half-hard when he took up his position at what apparently was the head of the bed - and it was already bigger than Keron's, by a fair margin, in both length and girth. Within the space of a few licks, it was massive, and drooling a liberal stream of clear, slightly salty fluid.
Laz squeezed his eyes shut, trying to tell, from the sounds Koge made and the way he manhandled the feline's head, what was working best. He sent up a silent prayer to any listening Gods that, if They granted him one favour today, They would make Koge, at least, be satisfied with his mouth.
Then, keeping a tight grip on his tail, Keron rammed in behind him - and he almost changed his ple to have Them just end it all, instead.
The pain was horrible - all the more so because it lanced deep inside him, seeding to spread all the way to his fingertips. But even the pain couldn't match the despair of all his innocent dreams crumbling - and even that paled in comparison to the awful sense of violation.
He collapsed, choking. Keron's grip kept his hips where they were, but his head thudded into the stuffed burlapmattress. His tail end seemed to be burning as Keron's shaft drove relentlessly in and out. Panic gripped him, too, at the thought of what Koge might do to punish his dereliction. Maybe, if Lazuli's muzzle couldn't satisfy, he'd get in line behind...
The thought galvanised him. Blinking away tears, he forced himself back up, even managed to balance on one hand so he could hold that massive organ with the other, flicking his tongue over the bulbous head.
"Oh, fuck," Keron was gasping. "So... mmmh, tight... here, bro, I'll keep him up for you..." The Gods granted a small mercy; Keron let go of his tail, and instead hunched over the xi'lavri, one hand planted on the mattress, the other arm wrapping around Lazuli's body.He pressed down against the cat even as he pulled Laz upward. The feel of his sweaty body against Lazuli's back, plastering down the fur there, was revolting - but it lessened the risk of him losing his balance and falling away from Koge again.
Somehow, Laz kept licking, despite feeling like Keron would either smother him or rip him open.
"Sh-shit," Koge gasped, somewhere up above. "That tongue - we gotta get ourselves one o' these..." A hard gulp. "Oh, fuck, gonna come... suck it, cat..."
Lazuli hesitated, Keron's dire warning echoing in his mind - but that very youth shoved into him even harder than usual, and cuffed his shoulder. "Got a problem, bitch?" he snarled. "If he tells you to suck him, you damn well suck him - and you swallow every drop until he decides he wants to see it on your face instead!"
Shaking, trying not to give into his tears, and still mindful of how Keron had mentioned his teeth, he lifted his chin, stared down the most length of that rigid pole, and let his lips part, curling them in over his teeth. He stretched out to take in that flared, swollen glans, terrified that if he didn't move fast enough, Koge would just shove the whole thing in and choke him.
Fortunately, Koge had other things on his mind. Mere seconds after Lazuli had taken that fat head into his mouth, the black-haired youth let out a hoarse groan, fingers digging into Lazuli's scalp, warm, thick fluid pulsing over his tongue. Caught off guard as much by the pungent taste as by its very presence, Lazuli almost gagged - but somehow, he turned it into a swallow. The stuff clung to the sides of his throat, but more was following, and so he kept gulping it down.
He was still doing that when Keron grunted, rammed all the way in, and stayed there, still at last. But any relief Laz might have felt for that small mercy was tainted by the wet warmth seeping into him from both ends, bringing with it a sense of filth and defilement.
The pair drew their spent members out of him, leaving him to collapse, trembling and struggling to keep his lunch down, onto the lumpy, scratchy bed.
"Sure we can't just hang onto him?" Koge asked, tugging his belt tight.
"Nah, Addem's right. Someone would miss him, and someone would remember seeing him come back here. We'll just send him on his way like nothing much happened." As he spoke, Keron tugged Laz's shirt back on and roughly hauled his pants up. Bending down, he hissed into the xi'lavri's ear, "But here's some free advice, bitch. Forget all about this. If you tell anyone - if you rat us out - we'll find you. And if you come back, you're ours for good."
He hauled Lazuli to his feet, the feline stumbling in a sudden wave of vertigo -
He caught himself against a wall, gasping for breath. A few people gave him odd looks, but moved on without comment.
He glanced around. What had just happened? He'd thought he had seen... someone...?
He shuddered. Somehow, this dingy pair of buildings - one shabby, one completely run-down - filled him with nameless dread.
Lazuli started walking, and almost stumbled again. Why was he so sore all of a sudden? And, for that matter, disheveled and unkempt, with a strange taste in his mouth and a mix of unfamiliar smells clinging to him. He couldn't possibly go to the library like this...
Shaking his head in confusion, he turned around and headed back for home - home and a shower.
Incidentally, would it be permissible for me to post things in this setting elsewhere? And what kind of accreditation should I give for the setting(i.e. where should I link, how should I list the name)?