Hollow Souls [Aina/Cala]

Cala, after they forced themselves to halt their feeding, would make sure Aina was lowered to a seated position with slow, purposeful care. A clinical, methodical bend to their motions as they knew all too well where to cut, to stab and break in order to hurt someone. So it was rather simply to understand how to support these same muscles in seating Aina where she wished. Only once she was seated safely would Cala kneel in front of her, hands sliding down her arms to her own hands and they would take both her hands. With a gentleness belying the tight grip they had just held on her shoulders Cala seemed to turn her hands this way and that, spreading her fingers even as their senses began to wash over Aina in appreciably focused waves.

This would, no doubt, be an odd sensation for the both of them as Aina's own energy was used to fuel the technique. Her own being echoing back at her from a pit of loss, like hearing her own voice and soul echoing back at her from someone else's mouth would Cala study her energy closely. Their hands would move to her left hand together, leaving her right unattended, and softly feel along her arm for a brief moment before turning their focus to Aina's shoulder. Honing in on where they had gripped her so firmly and with a pensive firming of their lips they would murmur.

"Apologies."

It was a simple, passive thing and Aina's words, her courage, in the face of that restrained hunger, her desire for life, also told Cala many things. As soft fingertips brushed over the veins of her forearms, claws ever so gently testing the skin, Cala would finally nod and release her. Moving back from Aina Cala would sit on both knees before her and take a moment to let her relax before stating gently.

"It would seem we have both forgotten.... much. You resonate, faintly, of things you do not feel."

Cala gently extended their hand, cupped Aina's cheek, and used a thumb to brush under her left eye.

"Your eyes are empty of naught but innocence because they have known far and away everything but. You are small, weak, as we are... and yet we would say you are grand and intoxicating. It is only after feeling you so closely we wish our own abilities could consume themselves, so that we may sense glimmers of our own being, and yet in the wake of your soul we find those questions quiet, placated, as you are a very fascinating curiosity."

Cala's voice was level, cold even, and the very definition of clinical as they stated this. Indeed they sounded just the tiniest bit sad and distant. As their hand falls from her cheek Cala folds their hands in their lap placidly, the lingering taste of Aina's being and Loss on their tongue, and like a glutton with a banquet in reach that palpable hunger was undeniably present, but was deniable in it's execution, and so Cala simply sat, stared blankly at her, reminiscing to her of the echo of what she had lost, while hungering to tear her apart as if she were a fine banquet presented to a starving animal.

Cala considered Aina's words in rapt contemplation, their face not turning awya from Aina so much as the mask's eyeholes bored into her without a word, drinking in her philosophy as much as her spiritual energy and Loss, and after a moment Cala gave a slow nod. They understood, for now, Aina's intention as well as any Arrancar could, or even an Adjuchas for that matter. Cala, of course, told her as much in their own detached, murmuring fashion.

"We.... do understand. But..... from what we were and what we are now it is strange. All Hollows of the class of Menos, who develop beyond a singular Hollow, know the sensation of grappling with other presences to establish themselves. It is all but guaranteed that the powerful Hollow who devoured the others to get to that point will have the largest bit of themselves survive but.... other beings.... normal humans, demons, Danava, are not Hollows. Not yet, at least, in the case of a normal human, and not for certain. We feel, in the echo of what Aina is, that there was more to our creation than this process and that there is something more to Aina than even Aina is aware....."

Cala pursed their lips, nose wrinkling a tiny bit in dissatisfaction as they haltingly continued.

"We are....... sorry if our use of your name is confusing. We mean to say it this way should it help your mind focus on that aspect of yourself.... or yourselves."

Cala went quiet as they pondered Aina thanking them, being thanked and being helpful were two sensations Cala was far from used to, and their ashen skin around their nose smoothed as they tilted their head.

"Your words are.... strange. We understand them and yet something unbidden comes with them. Your words inflict warmth and it is... foreign."

Instinctively moving away from this feeling Cala stood, a certain tenseness in their motions now, and they gave a nod of their head in recognition.

"Today has taught us something as well, a small piece, but piece nonetheless. Other Hollows feel familiar, but ever so slightly foreign, and the echo of your loss made it more clear to us that we did not develop as other Arrancar have...... this......."

Cala bit their lip, for the first time outwardly showing emotion in a small display of apprehension as their small fang dug into their bottom lip and they turned their head away from her.

"...... this is the first step, we think, as merely knowing we are different and can feel bits of ourselves in you bears possibilities. We.... are sorry if we do not make sense."

Cala could not help that gentle, escalating warm feeling in the depths of their stomach as Aina affirmed them, stated they had gained each other. A deep rooted, instinctual urge to run from this unnamed emotion made Cala twitch, made them uneasy for the smallest of moments, but as quickly as she had caused the feeling Aina eased this urge by softly encouraging them to let it in.

This was....a mixed blessing for Cala. That warm feeling nestled deep in their stomach like a serpent of fire coiled in their guts, and other unknowable sensations also clawed at the periphery of their senses. Things Cala did not, could not, give name or purpose to as of yet. Aina's next comment as she gazed to the sky earned a small nod from them before, to shake the encroaching ineffable emotions converging on their consciousness, Cala strode forward past Aina....and paused.

Facing away from her Cala's senses would begin to radiate outward, spreading and stretching gently over the landscape in a low effort, passive sweep of all nearby. Seeking out comfort, ease, and loss of consciousness. With a small, homey inn located Cala would exhale out their nose in something akin to a sigh but infinitely more internally conflicted before, slowly, they would follow the quiet, warm urging of that fire serpent and offer Aina a single, clawed ashen hand back to her.

"If you are in need of rest then..... have you your own home to gain it? We fear our home would be Ill suited to gaining rest and, should you not, we have located a mortal dwelling that may suffice. We will claim it for you and..... keep you safe while you rest.... should you wish it."

Cala began to walk for a moment or two, not saying anything to Aina's question, their senses retracting from their dispersed nature to focus more completely around the local area of themselves and Aina. Only after a moment of feeling strangely.... wary of saying anything did Cala nod. It was not Aina, necessarily, that made them wary but rather the worry on her face was an emotion they disliked for some nebulous, foreign reason. They were on edge, as something prickled their senses and that coiling, burning sensation in their stomach only made them tense their jaw as they vaguely wondered if Aina was worried about their safety.

"It is, but it is not somewhere we would take you."

Cala nodded once more, before pausing, and were their eyes not covered they would have narrowed suspiciously. Their reiatsu would flare at Aina's question of whether or not they were staying with her, their senses tightening and sharpening down around them in an inquisitive fashion. Their voice was now slow, distracted, and their hand craned to the side.

"We.... will."

Cala did not finish the second word before they began to move, drawing Ceniza and beginning to step backwards and to Aina's right, facing away from her. Their movement was, however, a tad too slow and as the presence they had barely been able to scrutinize revealed itself, claws ripping into Cala's shoulder and throwing them bodily aside, Cala was only just barely to simultaneously slash away it's other clawed hand from reaching past them to Aina before being flung away. The Hollow that appeared in a flurry of leaves, and grasping, choking vines hunching it's furred form and snarling at Aina as Cala rolled back onto their knees. It's voice a low, snarling growl as a half-dozen vines whipped out at Aina to lash her.

Hollow:

"I thought I sensed others in my hunting grounds. But I did not expect to find willing PREY so close at hand...."

The creature had only begun to speak when Cala used their Sonido to rush the creature, even more of it's grasping vines surging out to lash at Cala only to be blocked by an erected, ashen barrier of Fade that made the Hollow snarling in hatred at the odd ash. Stepping away from Cala and opening it's maw as it charged up what looked to be a swirling, buzzing and stinging mass of bees within it's fangs.

Cala hissed in anger, growing full of energy from what they had drank of Aina and now what they stole from the Hollow attacking them. Sensing the fear and desperation from Aina had an odd effect on the Arrancar, turning that subtle warmth in their stomach to cold sharpness that made them bare their fangs in turn.

The Hollow, on the other hand, bore it's fangs wide and, grunting as the blinding strikes did nothing but rock it's head back briefly, withdrew away from Cala and fired a very odd Cero.

A loudly buzzing, swarming and crawling stream of bees, worms and arachnids was spewed forth from the Hollow's maw toward Aina, and Cala used ayat energy they could into as many Bala as they could to kill most of the insects. Though a writhing mass comprised mostly of arachnids swarmed toward her, a hairy, disgusting puddle of spiders about the size of a pillow that crawled desperately over one another to reach her, along with a half dozen large wasp-like insects about the size of Aina's hand buzzing loudly after her from above.

Cala turned, beginning to only take their first step toward Aina, when the Holloa leapt their barrier of Fade and attempted to come crashing down on Cala with their bone-like claws. Cala dove, their cloak and leg being cut, and rolled to an unsteady standing position before firing a stream of Bala into the Holloa to cover their evasion. The smattering of black-cored light causing it to stagger and roar in pain, bleeding from a dozen light wounds in it's chest as Cala slowly, warily, continued to move towards Aina while it pursued.