the Rift


[OPEN] and a moon that's the color of bone;

Gabriel Posts: N/A
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#1


"Afraid of decision, I buried my finer feelings in the depths of my heart and they died there."



He's always been prone to wandering.

Since he was a colt along the banks of the dark river he wandered, slipping away from Benediction when he could (the stallion had been old, kind, and easy to evade), searching the shadows and shorelines of Phlegethon. No one disturbed him, because for all they knew he was the son of a queen and a god, and fear was as deep-set in the hearts of those that lived there as anger. In all that had happened since (lifetimes worth, he sometimes felt) he had never lost his taste for wandering.

It had started off as a search. Maybe it still was.

If that was the case, he couldn't say what he was looking for today (for he knew his north star would be nowhere in these woods), save maybe an excuse from the stifling heat beyond the trees. The whole world seemed to be an open mouth, hot and heavy and damp, and though the pines rose like bars against the sky, they were cooler. Cool enough to warrant pushing deeper.

This was not the kind of forest he knew. There was something unsettling about it, something the heaviness of the air seemed to add to; the scent of it was pervasive and thick and not unpleasant, the sharp tang of pine, the musty dankness of rotting foilage and earth. Undergrowth occasionally caught in his mane and tail, twigs and thorns pulled against his skin; he kept pushing on. He'd know the goal when he came to it.

It was first a rustling and then a snapping sound that tipped Gabriel off; the red stallion stopped and the sounds of the forest stopped around him. His unease transferred, however temporarily, to the area wildlife, and he felt he could hear the muted sounds of his own heartbeat. He was not afraid – he had never been one for fear – but there were beings that walked here, he knew, with capabilities far beyond his own, and thoughts far darker.

“I know you're there,” he said, low and slow and even, and he straightened, waiting for whoever – whatever – would emerge.

gabriel

Ranjiri the GoldenShade Posts: 372
World's Edge Mare atk: 4.5 | def: 8.5 | dam: 6
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 :: 5 HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Mara :: Common Rougarou :: Shadow ali
#2
ranjiri
                                                   calmness is the cradle of power



Remember how I said before that I'm almost nothing like my mother? Yeah. Well, in my short time of roaming Helovia I've found even more ways that I'm so unlike my mother. For one, I'm a little bit of a wimp. I don't like being hurt and even the slightest pricks from the briar bushes make me feel like I've been stabbed. Second, I don't like the sight of blood. It makes my stomach feel queasy like it doesn't want to keep any food in it. Thirdly, I am not quiet when it comes to walking through the forest. I trip over every branch on the ground and I step on every twig and dried leaf. If I had to sneak up on someone I wouldn't be able to do it.

"I know you're there."

And fourth, I never know when there's someone else around.

At the sound of his voice I froze, though it was only for a few seconds before my wing continued its battle with the briar bush it had been snagged in. It had a good hold on my feathers and when I finally yanked my wing free I lost a golden feather. "Ow!" I didn't even try to muffle my cry. Hey, you try losing a feather to a bush and tell me how it feels.

It hurts.

I snorted at the bush then turned my head in the direction the voice had come from. I crept forward until I could see him then poked my head from behind a set of trees. "Hi." I said rather sheepishly. I kept my wings tucked close and tight to my body as I stepped forward a little more. "I wasn't following you." I suddenly blurted out because I figured it was what he was suspecting. "I was ... stuck. In a bush." My voice fell flat and I frowned.

How embarrassing to admit it.

@[Gabriel]



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Alysanne the Devoted Posts: 641
World's Edge Queen atk: 7 | def: 10 | dam: 3.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 16 hh :: 11 years HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Hemlock :: Flammulated Owl :: Heal & Cypress :: Great Horned Owl :: None Sarah
#3

The forest is somewhere she knows well, whether these trees were familiar to her or not, and she moved among it with ease. It was dense, but so was the forest in which she was raised. When she raced her father and weaved around and under the sprawling spruces and pines in the oldest part of the forest. She had always preferred this to the open skies – there was too little and too much up there all at once.

Give her a forest, dark and dense but so full of life.

She was still getting her bearings of Helovia – having been given an introduction by Kahlua. It seemed like every other day she was discovering something new, but also something old. So many faces she recognized! It blurred the lines of what she considered home.

Everything was so new here but as she wandered from World’s Edge and this time she stuck to the woods. The trees grew older and closer as she moved away from the coast – closer to where she began in the Threshold. Ginger were all of her steps through the woods, barely a twig snapping beneath her hooves. For a time, she thought herself to be alone – until she heard some rustling followed by a voice.

Up ahead she could see a chestnut and then a smaller form, black and gold. So excited at the opportunity to meet others she didn’t even hesitate before moving forward from the shadows and the firs. “Stuck in a bush! Happens to the best of us.” Alysanne offered a bright, encouraging smile in her emerald eyes. As easy as she moved among the trees there were still pieces of sticks stuck in the feathers of her wingz as she ‘discreetly’ displayed for the yearling on the side not facing the chestnut. Her voice soft and sweet, she then addressed the pair as one. “Hope you’ll forgive the intrusion – been wandering about and just couldn’t resist coming to say hello. I’m Aly, what are your names?”

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Gabriel Posts: N/A
Unregistered
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#4


"Afraid of decision, I buried my finer feelings in the depths of my heart and they died there."


He waited, tense but steady, until the voice came, and then a face. Gabriel had never had a truly negative encounter that began with a 'hi', and he dropped his head to her in a cautious greeting as she stepped forward, shifting on his feet into a more relaxed position.

It seemed today wouldn't be the day he'd meet the less-than-friendly beings he'd heard mention of.

“Ah,” he managed, when she continued, keeping his mouth in a neutral line. Gabriel wasn't prone to laughing at another's expense. “I can't say I blame you,” he said, taking in the wings she had folded against her sides. “Wings must be cumbersome here.” He allowed a smile, feeling oddly out-of-place here in Helovia among the winged-and-horned creatures; funny, you'd think it would be the opposite. He'd never been stuck in a bush, after all – but he had spent a fair amount of time beneath the open sky, wondering what it must be like to navigate that new territory, graceful and at home as a fish in water.

He got no further than that when there was another stirring, and he half-turned to face the newcomer – though perhaps newcomer was not the right word for the mare. Something at the sight of her pricked at his memory, and it kept at it as she spoke. It wasn't until she gave her name (though only part of it, not quite enough to complete the puzzle) that he thought he placed her. It was hard to get to know your herd-mates in a jungle, but everything about her – the voice, the name, the way the shadows of trees barred her skin, the green eyes – screamed familiarity. And yet he couldn't remember ever having met her. He'd left with the twins, more or less haunted their steps into Helovia, so would it be so strange to find another lost Nocturnite? Perhaps not.

But Gabriel said nothing of it, unsure and still wary in this deep forest, and only looked at her hard before his smile resurfaced. “Well met, Aly. You're not interrupting anything – we hadn't gotten around to introductions yet. I'm Gabriel.” His coffee-dark gaze lingered on her another moment before he turned back to the younger alicorn. She was incredibly striking, and had she been older and not caught in brambles she might have been intimidating; still, he felt foolish for the way his heart had galloped, in those moments.

Never mind that caution was how you survived, when you wandered alone.

gabriel


Ranjiri the GoldenShade Posts: 372
World's Edge Mare atk: 4.5 | def: 8.5 | dam: 6
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 :: 5 HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Mara :: Common Rougarou :: Shadow ali
#5
ranjiri
                                                   calmness is the cradle of power





"I can't say I blame you. Wings must be cumbersome here."

"You have no idea." I sighed and my wings loosened a little from their tightly folded position at my sides only to be tucked in once more. I remember being thankful that he didn't tease me about being stuck in a bush. Ros would have teased me for being stuck in a bush, but I guess it would just be payback for when I laughed at her for getting her horn stuck in a tree.

"Stuck in a bush! Happens to the best of us."

Know how I mentioned that fourth way that I'm not like Momma? This was proof of it yet again.

I didn't startle at the sound of her voice, probably because she didn't sound threatening and when she finally stepped out where I could see her she didn't look threatening. She just reminded me of how embarrassing it was to be stuck in a bush, of all things. Inadvertently I wondered if it would be more embarrassing to be stuck in a bush or stuck in a tree. She then spread the feathers of her wing facing me and I could see the sticks that were stuck in there, but she didn't appear to be missing any feathers.

Stupid bush.

I tore my gaze away from the mare's wing and looked up at the ginger stallion when he spoke and I wondered if he and the mare knew one another. I stared back and forth between the two for a little bit before I realized that it was my turn to introduce myself and I grinned again, sheepishly. "I'm Ranjiri." I said. "But you can call me Ranji. Or Jiji." Jiji was what Ros called me, but I didn't think it would matter if someone else called me that. "Do you two know each other?" No one could blame me for being curious.




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Alysanne the Devoted Posts: 641
World's Edge Queen atk: 7 | def: 10 | dam: 3.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 16 hh :: 11 years HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Hemlock :: Flammulated Owl :: Heal & Cypress :: Great Horned Owl :: None Sarah
#6

Aly was relieved that she hadn’t interrupted anything – she had suspected as much, considering the status of the meeting when she joined, but she would never assume to force her company upon others. But the winged yearling and the chestnut stallion accepted her here and a sunshine-warm smile illuminated her eyes.

No, she was no threat.

There was a slight pause in the conversation before the girl introduced herself – hardly a blip, this was casual and Aly was rejoicing in the familiar comfort of just being near others after wandering on her own for so long. “Gabriel and Ranji – so wonderful to meet you both.”

For someone that had spent most of her life wandering, Alysanne was not built for the nomadic, solitary life. It was here, where equid concentrations were high, that she felt at home. Safe. She had yet to discover anything about Helovia that suggested it might be otherwise.

The young girl’s question startled her and encouraged her to take a second glance at Gabriel. “Know each other? I don’t believe so.” Her uncertainty is plain as she looked at the chestnut stallion. Yes, there was something vaguely flickering in the back of her memory. Not someone she had ever met before, Aly rather prided herself in being able to recall the name of everyone she met. It would be a terrible thing, after all, to be forgotten, and she dreaded the idea of being the one to cause such a feeling.

Could it be that she was remembering another chestnut? Though now that she thought of it, she had not met many of those at all. Even in Nocturne, with all the fantastic varieties of species, black, white and grey were the most common sights.

“I’m rather new to Helovia, I haven’t met many others.” Her sweet voice offered as an explanation, though now that it had been brought up that vague recognition was going to gnaw at her. “Well, really, I’ve come across more familiar faces from Nocturne than I have those that live here.” The time that she spent in Helovia, most of it had been spent with familiar faces. Miykael and Aleksandr – she had yet to see the other, troublemaker of a twin but the two were never far from one another. She hoped to see him sometime soon. It was hard to think of this as a strange, foreign continent when there were so many dear faces.

As always, the idea of home stirs up something in the white and black Pegasus. It was a notion that she adored, but had yet to achieve herself. Perhaps her two companions had better luck. “Do you two have homes nearby?”

please tag Alysanne in replies
[Image: alysanne_by_schwartze-d89se15.png]
made by the lovely tamme
non-life threatening physical force is allowed at all times, but preference is to be checked with beforehand for any injuries

Gabriel Posts: N/A
Unregistered
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#7


"Afraid of decision, I buried my finer feelings in the depths of my heart and they died there."


Ranjiri, he thought, when the yearling gave her name, and then Ranji. She seemed, now that he was learning more of her beyond her rather imposing looks (missing a few feathers or no) like a Ranji – or so he hoped. Gabriel was not in the habit of making friends; he didn't have the ease of conversation or simple magnetism that Kostya did, nor the quiet mystery of Sasha. Others did not gather to him as they had to both his parents. He had always been too remote – a field of ice.

But here it was summer, and he was tired of being alone.

Gabriel allowed Aly's to be the only answer to Ranji's question – certiainly there was the niggling doubt, clearly present in both of them, but he would not presume to know somebody who didn't know him. Wrapped in the same jungle or no, they'd lived their separate lives, been different enough (he remembered when his breath was frost, his footsteps ice, and demons haunted the borders of the land) and it only went to show how ill-suited he was as a teacher, not knowing those who should have been his pupils.

Ah – but that was a past life, immaterial now save for the simple fact that it had led to here.

He was quick enough to look away from her vibrant eyes, uncomfortable under her gaze, uncomfortable wrestling with the feeling that he should know her, until she mentioned Nocturne.

“Nocturne?” he repeated, and looked at her sharply, ears pricking in visible interest. “I haven't a home here – but I followed a pair of twins from Ferraden, more or less. Konstantin and Aleksandr. I haven't seen them since crossing the Threshold...“ The stallion trailed off uncharacteristically, letting the silence ask the question for him. Surely she knew them – hadn't everybody? It was he that was the shadow, hovering at the fringes of the brothers, weaving in and out of their lives.

But never too far, if he could help it.

He looked round at the younger mare, almost sheepishly; doubtless she was losing interest in them, bumbling about with names and places she knew nothing of.

“I'm sorry,” he told her. “I'm new here too. But, it would seem, not quite alone.”

gabriel


Ranjiri the GoldenShade Posts: 372
World's Edge Mare atk: 4.5 | def: 8.5 | dam: 6
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.0 :: 5 HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Mara :: Common Rougarou :: Shadow ali
#8
ranjiri
                                                   calmness is the cradle of power





I found it very strange that the two seemed like they recognized one another, judging purely on body language and expressions, yet both of them denied it. I know I had a quizzical look on my face as I glanced back and forth from one to the other, trying to figure out if they were playing some kind of game with me. In the end it seemed as if they weren't playing some kind of game, but they both came from the same land previously. My jaw had dropped open slightly at the very idea that there was a land outside of Helovia, but then I felt silly because I knew that already! Kostya was from outside of Helovia and he had told me that only a day or so before.

It was like the ginger stallion was reading my mind because he mentioned Kostya, or Konstantin, shortly after I had thought about him and I smiled. "I know him!" I piped up. "He was in the Thistle Meadow a day or so ago." I could have stayed silent and even wandered off probably, and they wouldn't have noticed until much later, but I wanted to be part of the conversation, too, especially when it turned to the nice stallion who had tucked a flower into my mane.

"I can show you around a little." I offered to Gabriel when he admitted to being new to Helovia. I looked to the mare and smiled before looking back at the stallion. "There's lots of places to go in Helovia." Some of them I hadn't quite discovered yet, but I would when me and Ros finally went on our grand adventure that got us in more trouble than anything else. But hey, I wanted to try my hand at being a tour guide.


"."

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Alysanne the Devoted Posts: 641
World's Edge Queen atk: 7 | def: 10 | dam: 3.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 16 hh :: 11 years HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Hemlock :: Flammulated Owl :: Heal & Cypress :: Great Horned Owl :: None Sarah
#9

Was it possible for her already bright smile to lighten those green eyes even more? She had been so happy in finding two new faces, two new friends, that there had already been a smile present but Gabriel’s words (and in particular one name) made it come alive even more. What were the chances that there’d be so many from Nocturne here? And, a stranger she had never met but was friends with her friends! At the unanswered question, Alysanne bobbed her head enthusiastically – though her expression would have undoubtedly given away the answer already. “I know them well! I saw Aleksandr just the other day. He and I we’re…” What were they? Together? In love? Alysanne generally did not give it much thought – he wasn’t exactly the prince charming she had dreamed about as a filly. Charming, yes, but in… his own way. “Well, we’re friends.”

The simplest while still accurate description. Though she did not hide the fact that she believed there was more.

He had mentioned Ferraden as well, now wasn’t this such an odd, happy coincidence? “And Ferraden! I lived there as well, for a little while before I came here. Followed Aleksandr home one day and just couldn’t leave.” A soft smile at the memory – the day she and their son showed up.

And it turned out that Jiri knew Kostya too! What a small world. So now they had recent news of both of them – the pair was likely to get in trouble, after all. It was good to keep track of them. “Isn’t that just amazing? Kostya always seemed like the type to make friends everywhere he went.” Aleksandr was quieter – still seemed to attract friends but a little more reluctantly.

Jiri offered to show Gabriel around, or at least that was how it seemed. Aly never liked to assume and she felt a little left out. Just a little. There was that smile, maybe it was an invitation, maybe it wasn’t. Doubt was such a silly thing – luckily it was easy to get rid of. So looking to the younger girl she asked in a soft, uncertain voice. “Could I tag along? I’ve seen a few of the lands around here but not many – and never with a guide.”

please tag Alysanne in replies
[Image: alysanne_by_schwartze-d89se15.png]
made by the lovely tamme
non-life threatening physical force is allowed at all times, but preference is to be checked with beforehand for any injuries

Gabriel Posts: N/A
Unregistered
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#10


"Afraid of decision, I buried my finer feelings in the depths of my heart and they died there."


For the six years of his life thus far, Gabriel had got by on constant readiness, on not letting anything surprise him. But here, in the half-dark of the forest, in the gloomy golden light filtering through the trees, standing with a stranger and an almost-stranger, he did not expect Ranjiri to say she knew his north star.

“You – know him?” and then, on the heels of it, “Thistle Meadow?” He marked it mentally, adding it to his list of places to go. It sounded like the kind of place Kostya would be – remote and lovely. Gabriel shook his head, clearing off what was almost certainly a rare thunderstruck expression, and laughed. It was so unlikely, here of all places, and yet...

“I can't even be surprised we all know at least one of the twins,” he mused. “They're both very...magnetic.” There were a thousand other things he could say, of course; he thought of all the paramours Kostya had, several queens among them and some he was sure he knew nothing of. Sasha was less familiar territory to the red stallion, but he'd traveled alongside them both long enough to know they had the same almost supernatural draw.

Funny old world.

Gabriel was even less surprised, then, when Aly said she knew them, too – and that finally helped him place her. So they had been herd-mates; well, that just went to show how piss-poor he was at being a part of any group larger than three. He could hear the uncertainty behind what she said, the way there was something more between her and Sasha – and he accepted that, too. That would always be the case, between the twins and those that loved them.

He smiled at Ranji's offer, following her glance to Aly and offering the paint a nod. Gabriel wasn't intending to let go of his new connection to the twins and Ferraden, not this soon after finding her. He was glad when she spoke up, and looked back at the native Helovian with coffee-dark eyes.

“We'd love for you to be our guide,” he told the yearling with a smile. “Should we start by getting out of this forest?”

A part of him wanted to remain among these trees. Where at first it had seemed ominous, threatening, now it seemed like an almost enchanted place.

@[Alysanne] @[Ranjiri]

ooc/ sorry that took so long and is so bleh! I blame work the past several days. We can start a new thread elsewhere if you like, or continue here :]

gabriel



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