[O] WHO WE ARE - Printable Version +- HELOVIA || The Way to the Sun (http://helovia.com) +-- Forum: Out of Character (http://helovia.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=1) +--- Forum: Archives (http://helovia.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=11) +--- Thread: [O] WHO WE ARE (/showthread.php?tid=19801) |
||||
WHO WE ARE - Atlas - 06-13-2015
OOC| Spur of the moment post. Open to anyone. RE: WHO WE ARE - Ashamin - 06-13-2015 How Long How long have we walked now How long have we strayed? The wind is low, the cold continuation of the day. How long will I stay here? Will we find our way? ASHAMIN BEAUTY IS PERCEPTION The day wore on and Ashamin wore with it. His tail drooped and his hooves scraped the frosted earth in the wood--the unfamiliar, tangled wood. He knew that he had gotten a little lost, but, well, he didn't think he had gotten this lost. The shadows loomed like threads and threats, patterning stripes between his spots of white. Occasionally, he bent his features to nose the little egg before him, taking care with it and checking often to make sure it was secure. His steps had begun to falter as he had walked farther--his hing leg had weakened with the long travels in the wrong direction. Ashamin sighed, looked up, lifted at last his tired, lowered head, and surveyed the woods with his deep black eyes. His tail waved like a banner behind him, tapping the trunks of trees as he traveled between them. "Seems we're lost, 'panion," the buck said quietly into the dark nothing, his brow knitting tightly beneath the black lock and the pitted, twisted horn atop his brow. He exhaled once more, halting his movement and letting the weaker leg shake. It was scarred now in more ways than one. He took the time still to orient himself, hoping he could find a way back home with his nose alone, but the maze of these woods offered him no direction. Ashamin circled and turned, looking for something he might have missed, hoping he wasn't so alone that he could be offered no instruction as to how he should return. The blue buckskin of a mare that he had met, and Zahra, they seemed to know so much more about Helovia than he. Would Ashamin ever catch up? He let his tail drop, sliding against a trunk and curling around it, landing dully in the frost. The snow had stopped here but the cold had not--as used as he was to it, he shivered. And then he saw the other, a unicorn patterned in white patches like himself. Ashamin made a wide circle, trying to better make out the stranger in the dark but struggling to see anything more than glints on the white of their coat. It was only when he came to see the other side of the stranger that he saw the stallion (for it was a stallion, that much was clear) was painted with stars. To himself, he smiled at the memory of first seeing the aurora above the Basin. Had this stallion seen it, too? Or was he outside of the herd, like the watery mare had been? Ashamin approached slowly and quietly, just barely poking himself out of the trees before and to the right of the stallion. "It's a good thing I'm not alone out here," Ashamin spoke out into the wood with a quiet smile. How good he was getting at speaking with others--how much he was coming into his own. He bent down, nuzzling the egg in his pouch and then turning his gaze back up to meet the stallion's. His eyes, deep, black, and empty, were filled with a pleasure and confidence no other could see. Ashamin wouldn't have ever admitted he was lost, not before. He wouldn't have ever asked a question. But a little time from home, a lot of time from the image of his grief, was changing him, and fast. And so he spoke, his voice louder now as he drew closer, hid cloven hooves striking the frozen earth unevenly as the one at the back right dragged ever so slightly. "Are you lost, too?" [[WHAM BAM TAGGED YOU @[Atlas]. Bad poem is bad.]] Table by Jen, with help from Avis RE: WHO WE ARE - Tiamat - 06-14-2015
Tiamat like the ocean kissed the sky
She had quickly trusted Ashamin, taking his lead back to the Aurora Basin—to home. However, a little while after they had begun their journey together, it became apparent that the kingdom of the great arctic North is not so easily found as one would assume. Unfortunately their path has appeared to not bring them any closer to their destination. All the same, despite her burning eagerness to return to the valley that had adopted her so long ago, Tiamat is not a character to become discouraged so easily. Rather, she keeps her hopes high, sure that she will be guided there in time.
Repressing a sigh, the blue mare shakes her head, the mass of her dark mane dancing against her neck, the shells chiming gently. Pausing a moment in her step, the unicorn presses her blue muzzle to the trunk of a tree. “Hello, family,” she murmurs gently into the rough wood, eyes wandering upward—to the patches of sky that she can glimpse from between the branches, now weighted with snow. While this part of the woods is particularly dense, dark, and mysterious, Tiamat is not as frightened as most might be—perhaps as frightened as she should be. Oddly enough, she feels comforted being this much surrounded by nature—by her distant relatives of the trees and the earth. It’s almost as though she can feel their energy, their presence, and it is heartening. Closing her eyes, she breathes in the earthy scent, seeing only the beauty in a place where most see fear and carnage. Caught up in her musings, the ocean blue mare falls a little behind Ashamin—not far enough to lose sight of him completely, but cloven hooves carry her at a slower place as her mind wanders to things she cannot touch. Only when the lanky stallion’s voice drifts from between the dark trunks does she return to the presence of the trees—her relatives. Her ears perking forward curiously, Tiamat quickens her pace to an extended walk, following Ashamin’s trail as it leads her to where the woods thin just slightly. Emerging from behind him, she sees to whom he has spoken—another stallion, taller, and…painted with…stars. Could it be? Perhaps she is not the only child of mother sky after all. Smiling brightly and her white eyes shimmering beneath the twinkling light of the sun, Tiamat steps out from behind Ashamin completely, facing this familial stranger. “Hello!” She greets him cheerfully, the long length of her tail fluttering excitedly over the snowy ground, “I’m Tiamat.” There are so many questions she wants to ask him, eager to explore the possibility that she has found another child of nature, but she is able to restrain herself for now Ashamin has inquired of him first, after all, and it wouldn’t be considerate to probe him just yet. Even so, her lips are turned upward happily, eagerly. notes; sorry if it's sloppy, I'm tired P: tag; @[Atlas] & @[Ashamin] “Speech.” RE: WHO WE ARE - Atlas - 06-14-2015
RE: WHO WE ARE - Ashamin - 06-16-2015 I Forget I am unbidden I forget what you taught me, dear father remind me what was it you once said what was it I once heard: the voice for whom the heart stirs the heart that stirs the voice to speak? Oh father, please forgive me, oh father, I forget. ASHAMIN BEAUTY IS PERCEPTION But of course, he was never alone. Tiamat had begun to follow Ashamin after meeting him in the Secret Grove, and though their travels had not always been strictly side by side (and he would admit that for a moment he had thought he had lost her in these woods,) he was not terribly surprised to see her emerge from the trees. As she parted the shadows with the light of her being, the painted buck smiled. It was genuine--the smile of comfort at the sight of familiar kindness. The star-painted stallion, on the other hand, was more difficult for Ashamin to understand. He wasn't sure he'd ever met anyone so openly... faith, the stallion didn't even know what the word was. Openly what, informal? Or just bluntly honest? Disappointed was not the word, but perhaps, well, caught off guard. He had seen a stallion of such physical beauty and shocked himself with his own judgement: he had assumed a sort of worldly intelligence from one looking so clearly like he was plucked from the sky. From this other stallion's lips, he had expected a magnificent treatise on pain. But perhaps that was more of a reflection on Ashamin than anyone else. And perhaps that was what this character before him maintained, and perhaps it was simply a side Ashamin was not seeing right away. This, too, was something he knew he was wrong to assume. There was a wisdom to this other stallion's speech, just not one Ashamin had ever before seen. But the buck knew better than to narrow his understanding of such a thing as knowledge, particularly given that he was always in pursuit of it. So with a small self-chiding, an insistence to clear himself of expectation, Ashamin returned the stallion's smile. A smile could go a long way in this land of magic and 'panions, he was learning that very quickly. And at the same moment that Tiamat stepped from the dark, introducing herself in those delicate tones that radiated sweetness, Ashamin incidentally drew close enough to the starry one to put forth his cheek, presenting an offer for the other stallion to touch it. Had he the gift of hindsight, then, some future version of himself looking back, perhaps Ashamin would have held off and not overwhelmed the stallion with the interaction. Ashamin's tail waved at his back and beckoned Tiamat closer and to his own side. His face turned to hers instinctively, reaching to touch it, to feel the softness of her cheek again. She was kind; her touch was a rare welcome warmth, a distraction from his thoughts. For Ashamin's thoughts still linger on the lostness of which this stallion speaks. He feels, for a moment, a worry. Will he himself stay lost? But the egg at his chest, so small and powerless, and the home that lay in the Northwest of anything but. Ashamin pulled back from the stallion to give him more space, drawing closer to Tiamat, creating at her side a unified front. "I think," Ashamin said with a smile to his colleague, his fellow soon-to-be-Basin-member, "That one can find themselves, if their company is kind enough and they head in their direction together." Yes, it was confidence that all this company had gifted him. First Zahra and now Tiamat. Perhaps this stallion would do the same for Ashamin. He lifted his head but kept his gaze trained lower, first casting a meaningful, pregnant glance at Tiamat before returning his eyes to the stallion. "I am Ashamin--the both of us are seeking a way out of this wandering. We are headed North, towards our home in the Aurora Basin." Ashamin hesitated; he caught Tiamat's white eyes once more, as if searching for an answer in them. How could he invite this stallion home with them, when he didn't even know the stranger's name? He doubted it was 'flattered.' That failure to produce a moniker, that sort of... informality, again, irked him. What had the other stallion's reply even indicated? Had Ashamin been more aware, he would have recognized that the stranger was producing some sort of flirtatious dialogue. Had he been even more acute in his observation of himself, he would have noticed the reaction--the lash of his infinitely long tail and the struggle to keep his eyes wide when this stranger had spoken so boldly. He turned his gaze now entirely to Tiamat, watching her, hoping she would produce a response. This confidence, it was a new look on the buck. But this dependence on others, even as he cradled unborn life to his breast, still, it always remained. [[@[Tiamat], @[Atlas]]] Table by Jen, with help from Avis RE: WHO WE ARE - Tiamat - 06-17-2015
Tiamat At Ashamin’s beckoning—by his impossibly long tail, which makes her giggle amusingly to herself, what a wonder it is!—the ocean blue mare sidles closer to the two stallions, coming to rest at the familiarity of the unicorn’s shoulder. She completes his touch happily, pressing her muzzle briefly to his in a gesture of companionship. Despite having not known each other long, they have becomes fast friends—united together in the fellowship of their quest for home. Tiamat enjoys Ashamin’s company very much, and hopes that their camaraderie will last much longer than their journey together. Her smile widens when Ashamin speaks again to the wondrously star-painted unicorn. Tiamat is not off-putted by his less-than-merry demeanor (perhaps not all can have the smiles of sunshine and the hearts of rainbows), but she accepts him nonetheless. All the while, the possibility never leaves her mind that maybe—just maybe—he has been born to mother sky like she. She quivers in excitement, shuffling her weight to keep herself from blurting out. Then Ashamin glances to her, and she turns the stark white of her eyes to him, smiling encouragingly. Her heart flutters happily with the mention of heading north, and Aurora Basin, and home. She is so ready to be joined in the mountainous valley again. While she has never felt truly lonely—what with either the watchful eye of her mother accompanying her, or her sisters’ playful presence, or the other family that surrounds her—but the Basin gives her a sense of longing that she can’t quite explain. All she knows it that it is happy and safe and good. Sighing blissfully to herself, she catches Ashamin’s glance once more. Whereas the lanky stallion is uncertain, Tiamat is sure, not lacking the confidence to reach out kindly to the stranger. To be honest, she is quite eager to have a moment. There are many questions for him that sit on her tongue, questions of the earth, sky, and family—but she is able to restrain herself, starting out simple. “Perhaps you would not feel so lost if you were to share some company for a little while,” her gentle grin is encouraging, leaving the formal invitation for Ashamin (it would do him some good, she thinks). Of course, she knows nothing of the starred stallion’s situation—he could have just departed from other companions hours ago—but from personal experience, she feels most lost when she has been alone, and uses this logic to help him as best as she knows how. “The North is a beautiful and wondrous place,” the blue mare adds, truly taken by it herself. Flicking her lion-like tail out behind her, Tiamat tilts her head slightly to the side, peering up at him in playful curiosity. “Is there another name you bear, friend? Or would you prefer to be known as Sir Flattered?” Blue lips twist into a good-natured smile, her merry laughter soon mingling with light words. She is jesting, of course, not keen on assaulting his personal space right away, but surely a name is no matter. If nothing else, it is the first step to making a new friend—and, just perhaps, discovering another with origins similar to hers. tag; @[Atlas] & @[Ashamin] “Speech.” RE: WHO WE ARE - Atlas - 06-21-2015
RE: WHO WE ARE - Ashamin - 06-24-2015 The Direct Route If I am your misunderstanding then let you be my misguided love you and you, and all us three together we'll make confusion together we'll find a way home. ASHAMIN BEAUTY IS PERCEPTION None of it, not a damned word, made any sense at all. Ashamin had understood and taken comfort in Tiamat's willing kindness. He had recognized the reassurance in her look, he had appreciated her asking the stranger the question he could not. He wasn't sure he could ask anything of that star-painted creature, the one whom he understood so poorly. And of course, their new stallion company did nothing to clarify the matter. The stranger, this Atlas as he now revealed himself to be, was bolder than Ashamin had even expected. And he was wrong, too. Was he courting Tiamat? This stallion could not have been more ridiculous. Ashamin wasn't even quite sure what courting was, wasn't even quite sure where this stallion had gotten such an impression, an impression that they were lovers, but he knew it couldn't be true. He'd never had a lover before but he had a feeling that whatever he felt for Tiamat was just friendship, and nothing more. Then again, he'd also thought they were heading North. For a youth so wise, so well-versed in the archaic tomes of death, perhaps he knew little of what it was like to be alive as anything other than a child. For once in his life, he had some semblance of being in charge. He could feel it in the way Tiamat waited for him to make the move to invite Atlas North; he could feel it in the warmth of the egg at his chest; he could feel it in the way that Atlas had assumed Ashamin had some sort of claim over Tiamat, wrong as the starry one was; and he could feel it in that same stranger's question, even as he asked to join them. There was a lot to think on and a lot, too, to say. Ashamin began by shaking his head and staring Atlas down. "No, I'm not sure I do know what you mean..." Ashamin said, frank, confused, mildly concerned, and willing to admit a lack of knowledge given that he had a feeling no one knew what the starry one meant. He wasn't entirely sure why he did that last bit, though--that staring. Was it out of annoyance at Atlas or an inability to look Tiamat in the eyes after his remark? Why did he feel hot with embarrassment? "Tiamat is a new friend. She is my company North and homeward--you, too, are welcome to the same, Atlas," Ashamin said with a smile that was a poorly concealed attempt to mask his confusion at the situation. How had he even gotten here, in these woods, on this dark and cold night? And how had he gotten here with such a curious crew about to be in tow and following him home? [[Tiamat, Atlas]] Table by Jen, with help from Avis RE: WHO WE ARE - Tiamat - 07-03-2015
Tiamat When the star-painted stallion asks about lovers, courting, and privacy, Tiamat tilts her head to the side in confusion, her white eyes sparkling as they catch the night’s glowing light. While it is true that the blue mare loves with her whole heart, uninhibited in her affections and giving, in reality, her understanding of love is very narrow—even more so when it comes to the idea of being in love and having a lover. She loves her parents, her family, her friends, and nature. That she understands—the love and companionship of being together with those that she cares about. But what he speaks of? She has never experienced it before. Does she love Ashamin? Of course! In the same way she loves her sister stars that are twinkling above them in the darkness, or the brown mare who had guided her home all those years ago—or perhaps even how she could grow to love the painted stallion standing before them. Tiamat loves—she loves without condition and without inhibition. Who needs a reason, anyway? Almost blindly, like a child to its mother, she gives her heart to those around her, confiding in them a naïve sense of trust that has yet to be torn from her innocent eyes. She likes the world this way—it is her world, and she wants to share it. Her white eyes flickering between both of the stallions, her gaze eventually comes to settle on the stranger, dainty ears tilting forward. “Yes, Ashamin is my dear friend; we’ve only just met, not long ago now, but I am grateful for his companionship nonetheless,” the ocean mare smiles, sensing the general confusion that is buzzing about their little group, although she is pleasantly unaware of the slight tension that accompanies it. Like the long-tailed stallion, Tiamat doesn’t exactly understand everything the starry stranger says, but in her good nature she can only assume it is of the best intentions. What else can she expect? “It is a fine place, Atlas—” what a fitting name! She thinks delightfully, her smile widening to flash brilliant white teeth “—and as Ashamin has said, we would love it if you joined us in our journey. We could always use the extra guidance.” Tiamat giggles blithely, the sounds trilling like rain through the air, and she shakes her pretty head. A gentle gaze is cast to the black and white stallion, her eyes bright, hoping to assure him that she teases him only in jest. After all, if Ashamin hadn’t gotten them lost, then they wouldn’t have found Atlas—and where would he be then?! Everything works out the way it should, and everything happens for a reason—even if you don’t understand it then. This she is sure of. notes; horribly late, I'm so sorry! x[ tag; @[Atlas] & @[Ashamin] “Speech.” RE: WHO WE ARE - Atlas - 07-10-2015
@[Tiamat] @[Ashamin] |