the Rift


[OPEN] give a little back

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
#1
When the day is blue, I'll sit around wondering about you

In these idle days and nights, she loved to spend her time here when she wasn’t distracting herself with conversations. It had a little to do with the atmosphere – the beautiful plants and fungus that gave off a gentle glow – and even more to do with the fact that she could, in a little way, do some good here. A lot of these plants were supporting the population down here, at least those that knew what was edible and what wasn’t. And as the bits were eaten, they needed a little extra help replenishing the soil. So she’d stand here and do what she could, feeling the tingle as the magic seeped from her hooves and into the soil that supported the mosses and grasses that managed to survive here.

Certainly their stay in the caves would have been a great deal more hectic if it weren’t for this branch of the cave system.

It wasn’t much, and maybe she wasn’t really helping. Certainly not any help that would be noticed in the short run, but longer-term the delightful plants that lived here would be happier and grow just a little stronger. Or, at least, that was her understanding.

Aly felt like she was helping, regardless of how much, and that let her feel at peace for a moment or two. It was nighttime in the world above now, though it always felt like night in this room. She should be sleeping, maintaining something of a regular pattern, but she was avoiding the thoughts that would plague her when she settled down to do so. Instead, she was here. Shifting to a new spot, the vines that hung from the ceiling brushed against her face – causing that glass headband to make a tinkling noise as the glass heart knocked lightly against her forehead - before she ducked around them and found a more comfortable spot. Best to spread the nutrients around, share the wealth. Whatever she could do to give a little back to the place that was supporting them through these difficult times.

Closing those emerald green eyes, she shut out everything else for a couple more minutes. There was no darkness eating up the land she had learned to call her home, no heartbreaking events that her friends were put through, no confessions that broke her heart. Denial was a wonderful thing.

She could pretend it was just her and the plants.


for @[Lena]

Come back to me, my darling
original html by rottie
picture credit
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

Lena the Songbird Posts: 663
Aurora Basin Time Mender atk: 4 | def: 10.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: 6 HP: 69 | Buff: NOVICE
Imogen :: Common Kitsune :: Fire Heather
#2
Instead of choking, lying, beneath dust, crypts and stone, Imogen and Lena stayed and strayed, immersed in the glowing temple, foraging and forging flower crowns, mossy convictions, sanguine veins of jubilant tunes. When the luminescent strands, the shrouding vines, the quiet, exotic forest gleamed, they radiated back, pulsing beats of pervading songs, lustrous and opulent. Rich, lacquered dreams, particles of star coronets and constellation circlets, writhing and contorting in the throes and throngs of ensnared lures, they stared into the abyss and became enamored with its beams, with its glory, with its triumph. Blooming and blossoming, an underground oasis where pyres and tombs swallowed and gulped, paradise and Elysium sprung from roots and bulbs, strange, foreign, and extravagant. Perhaps it was courageous to rise from the depths and columns of caverns, without sun, without daylight, reaching towards the heavens with no sign, no path, no trail laden for it to crawl upon. Perhaps it was brave and stalwart, driven to no end, to no pursuit, ghostly entrails of a stronger power, divine brushstrokes of the sky painted beneath the layers of earth and stone; rubble fireflies. As Imogen waltzed beneath a massive frond, tugging on it gently, then batting it with a false ferocity, Lena pondered over the other guises of its masquerade, whether there were other uses for these brilliant pieces and fragments of sanctum. Could the particles be harvested, fostered into medicinal purposes, ground into powders, poured, swallowed and burning down gaping mouths to mend, to soothe? Could they be waged into poison, trenchant and mordant, scraping and strangling? Which was which; if she were to pick a hand, a vine, a leaf, would it provide relief and ambivalence, or scorn and danger, foretold by the grandeur of its hue – green for peace, red for spilled ichor? For the briefest of moments, she frowned, examining and investigating, piecing together notions of information bubbling and brewing, consternations and extravagances, if the world always had a mere two choices: life or death.

The ivory kitsune’s sudden chirp, springing and gliding off the haven walls, snared her away from the building study of the plants, the runes, the contorted enigmas, gaze cast into the shadows as Imogen noted another creature roaming into the illuminated corridor. The shape was distinctive, not the radiant, golden phantom Roland, not the painted Glazier Kahlua, but winged. Trepidation floated through her veins for the slightest of seconds before she cast it aside for beneficence, for altruism and generosity, as she advanced, recognition came into play, and the sentiment of a threat was lost altogether. The sylph had no name to place upon the other femme, plumed and anointed with glass hearts, but she’d been amongst their throng, their din, their candor and broken ailments when healers had gathered, attempting to lace wounds and stitch seams of darkness across open chasms. They approached, smooth and fine, slow and deliberate, lithe and limber, beast and maiden, shield and sword, with the refined edge of a smile dipped across the fairy’s features, unwavering and resolute, strength in the gallows and repose in the sepulchers. “I remember you!” Radiant tunes, bells and carols, whistles and carillons, chiming a warm peal over the blossoms; no tocsins, no augurs, no scathing shadows. “But unfortunately, not a name.” She pressed her lips together, honeyed gaze searching and seeking another’s keen kindness, extending her greetings towards the pale vixen at her feet, sniffing the air, wild and free. “This is Imogen.”

@[Alysanne]
her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love
LENA
Credit URL

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
When the day is blue, I'll sit around wondering about you

A quick yip alerted her that she was no longer alone and she opened her eyes in time to see that she was being greeted by a familiar unicorn and a… well, it didn’t quite look like a fox. But that was the only term that she could think of that was remotely close. Whatever it – no, she – was, she was absolutely lovely. A beautiful pair, no less so because of their dream-like surroundings.

Given more time to daydream, she might have taken the moment to wonder what her own companion might look like – but she was being spoken to and she was rather happy to hear that in addition to recognizing the mare, she was recognized too! It always felt nice to be remembered and a bright smile was quick to take over her features. “I remember! You’re the one that can heal by melody. Such a fascinating power, if you don't mind me saying.” The idea had stuck with her, it had seemed so strange and wonderful at the same time. Alysanne was so used to two basic types of healings – with plants and just plain magic – that she had not even thought about the idea that there might be other methods.

She thought back to the meeting and who had introduced themselves. “It’s Lena, right?” Normally she was pretty good with names – finding them to be important enough to take note of – but there was always the chance she got them mixed up. So she rather hoped she had not, of course, as that would be very embarrassing! “I’m Alysanne, sorry I didn’t get around to introducing myself last time.” Normally it was something she did straight away, but it just had not been the first thing to pop into her mind on that day. There had been a lot going on and, as polite as it would have been to introduce herself, she had not wanted to take the focus away from Resplendence and what she gathered them together for.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you officially – and you, Imogen.” She smiled brightly at the pretty fox-like creature. She seemed to be coming across more and more companions lately, though she imagined her chances were increased slightly now that almost everyone was all crammed into the same relative spots instead of spread out across Helovia. And still there was so much she did not know about them - she could only hope she would not accidentally do something to insult anyone. Shifting just slightly on her spot, conscious of the fact that this particular spot was getting more nutrients than she planned but not thinking it would cause any harm, she decided it wouldn't hurt to give into her curiosity a little bit. “What part of Helovia are you two from before our little... vacation underground?” Her smile twisted slightly as she found probably the kindest way of phrasing their situation.


@[Lena]

Come back to me, my darling
original html by rottie
picture credit
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

Lena the Songbird Posts: 663
Aurora Basin Time Mender atk: 4 | def: 10.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: 6 HP: 69 | Buff: NOVICE
Imogen :: Common Kitsune :: Fire Heather
#4
Relaxing, serene and tranquil, efforts combed and combined into repose, fruitful and cheery, as if gloom never reigned or mauled, as if terror hadn’t struck or persevered above their heads, careening and crashing into their homes. Trenchant, terrorized nerves were severed and slid back into unwound smiles and harbored optimism, buoyed and brewing amongst a passionate glow, a gentle forest, strangers embarking on delights instead of melancholy. The fairy tilted her head in curiosity, in inquiry, sifting through enigmas, quandaries and mysteries, distracted from nuances of ruins, desolation and forsaken barbs, nettles cast into their new, underground tomb, soft eyes watching and exploring, examining and perceiving. Bright grins and brilliant chords floated back to her in waves of questions and intrigue, pulsing and vibrating warmth, generosity, cordiality, and the nymph offered them in return, blessed and blissful. A dip of the head towards consideration, kindness, and compliments followed (hesitating to not flush at the admiration and flattery, nearly unfamiliar with notions unless she bestowed them herself), and subsequently gliding her gaze over the femme in hopes of prospering her own sentiments back. She granted absolution, deliverance, and liberation with the tilt of her flute, with the sanction of her carillon, with the gentle, harmonic lull of her aria. “Thank you, Alysanne. Are you gifted with your own enchantments?” What other scales of sorcery laid hidden away, deep in the confines of the unknown? What passions stirred this considerate soul to action, to motion, to motivation? Did adversity tangle into her veins and pervade her senses, like Lena’s, until it stirred so fiercely that she became determined to move the earth, heaven and hell? Did she maneuver across great sands and perils, rendering desolation and disregard? Did she contort and move with the wind, her great wings fluttering, her grand plumage ascending, gliding, rising above the clouds and twirling with the sky, combing the atmosphere until she was held amongst the stars? Did she weave tapestries, canvases, or determine harpsichord fates? Elements lingered everywhere in their world, capable of being spun into so many different fabrications, dark and ardent, wise and cunning, sage indifference and fiery wiles, and any being could possess their bounty. What had she chosen – and what did it say about her character?

Alysanne’s glowing countenance towards Imogen earned her favor amongst the ivory vixen, and she twirled beneath the Pegasus’s cranium, flickering her five tails in tandem to the beat of generosity. She sniffed delicately at the place where the mare had shifted, delighting in the sweet, tender nutrients billowing from its core. But another query slipped from the mare’s mouth, and Lena’s trepidation slowly slid back into her cranium, waiting the noxious plunge of Alysanne’s smile to fall into an arena of treachery and disappointment. Though many strangers had not granted her the fever, the pulse, the malice and menace that came with the moniker of her favored banner, the freezing decibels of ice, the keen power of summits, mountains and valleys, the possibility still remained. Would she be shunned, evaded and avoided? Or would normalcy and kindred spirits would resume, as though no assaults had ever been rendered, forgotten, set aside against the encroaching decibels of darkness and augured settlements? Her voice, resolute and strong, delivered the poignant depths of her kingdom (because she was still proud, still mighty, still belonged to those glorious halls and glaciers), waited for an ax to fall or recognition to flounce away. “The Aurora Basin. Yourself?”

@[Alysanne]
her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love
LENA
Credit URL

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
#5
When the day is blue, I'll sit around wondering about you

‘Enchantments’ was such a lovely word to use to describe the little bits of magic that they could do. Alysanne wasn’t so sure her own could be quantified as such. “I can fertilize the earth when I’m standing still.” Although she was quite fond of her power, she always felt a little embarrassed speaking it out loud – especially when it felt like it was being compared to something truly magical (and helpful) like Lena’s powers.

She smiled at Imogen as she came forward, sniffing at the ground where her hooves had been just moments ago. Closer up, she realized that there were more differences between this beautiful girl and a regular fox. She was stunning! “I think Imogen’s picked up on some of them!” She chuckled before looking back to Lena now, she decided to explain a little bit. “I’ve been spending my time in this room because of that – I figure if most of us have been living off of these plants, and we don’t quite know how long we’ll be down here for, the least I could do is help them along a little bit.” She knows she’s nervously rambling a little bit, but she couldn’t quite stop herself – Alysanne liked her little bit of magic and she didn't want it to seem too silly.

Now, Alysanne was naïve to a lot of things and she didn’t even realize just how many. Up until her return to Helovia she thought this place was a paradise, and even in spite of all the things that had happened since then – she still felt more at home here than she had anywhere else. At least here it was simply an infection, where they could get better. There was no healing a demon.

And that was it – this little outbreak (which she was sure would end soon) was the only downside to this entire place. Sure, she knew the name Aurora Basin but it wasn’t associated with anything bad for her. She just remembered back to when she arrived in the Threshold and was told it was just for unicorns. Well, she had never thought much of it. Some just felt more comfortable around their own kind, or maybe it was just as simple as unicorns having thicker skin so that they could handle being up north all the time. So her reaction to the name was a delighted smile – after all, she had never met someone from there before! “Oh how wonderful! I’ve never had the chance to visit there, but I spent some time in Frozen Arch.” A fond smile at the memory of Sasha and their latest moments together appeared briefly, but this was no time for daydreaming. “I hear it’s all unicorns. I imagine that’s quite a lovely sight – up there under the aurora or in the summer when there’s flowers blooming.” She quite liked how that image seemed in her mind. There just seemed to be something extra magical about unicorns.

“I’m from the Edge... well I’ve only been there since... Tallsun.” Upon her return, the white and black mare had made it a mission to start using all the Helovian terms for things – though the word still felt a little awkward when used instead of just ‘summer’. “Have you ever been?”

@[Lena]

Come back to me, my darling
original html by rottie
picture credit
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

Lena the Songbird Posts: 663
Aurora Basin Time Mender atk: 4 | def: 10.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: 6 HP: 69 | Buff: NOVICE
Imogen :: Common Kitsune :: Fire Heather
#6
Lush, rich, vibrant, she listened to the soft air and the dulcet claims, a winged femme broadened and hastened to the earth and all of its laments, requiems, and elation, pieces and snippets of roots, stems, and trunks. Her gaze floated to the tiny shoots peeking from rubble and stone, reaching for renewal at Alysanne’s quiet, hushed, comman; entreating the beacons of life to further perseverance. Imogen traced the filaments with a bellowing chirp, echoing over the midnight oils and nocturnal constellations, everlasting twilight and shadow, hidden and conveying naught. The nymph’s voice followed, like a harmonic swing, embodying bliss where it was foiled and trenchant, mordant and unholy. “A remarkable gift!” She winked towards the compassionate creature, the kind and the benign, pressing her energy into maintaining a semblance of plant-worth, as if they could feed themselves off of the endless crops, the everlasting radiance, the aspiring trace and glory of one being against monsters, fiends, and blackguards. An emblem of determination, and Lena appreciated tenacity, fed her blood, her fire, her essence, its rampant ichor, and through the stalwart bounty, felt the kindred spirits bond in cauldrons, dungeons, and oubliettes.

Yet, the Basin resounded within her chest too, leapt and scaled the words embodied by the painted flier, of wonder, of lovely sights, of flowers blooming in the drowsy, summer sun, or rime shackling its alluring aura. She missed it, the fine summits, the brilliant edges, the hot springs boiling and simmering, the lake refusing to freeze, refusing to bow, all the mettle and finery. What did it look like now (and the fear, that it could have collapsed, it could have been destroyed, it could be covered and distorted, suddenly made her heart jump in fear, smothered with a quick smile)? Instead, she pressed the sudden panic down, below her whimsical tunes, beneath the valorous fathoms, whittling and chipping at her bones. She formed benevolence and beneficence, wonder and majesty through her words, unfolded their tender, generous hums into the chattering atmosphere. “We have many things to marvel: summits reaching for the heavens, soothing hot springs, a fine lake…” The sylph ended on a sigh, recalling its images with naught else to hold its glamor, grandeur, and opulence but distinct memories, hoping they hadn’t faded in their prison cells.

I’m from the Edge. Ghosts, silent wraiths, trickled back through fog and mist, reminded her for each portion of angelic, seraph boldness, devil dissonance had long since etched their hymns over her virtuous boughs. Her sins lay crisscrossed in the Edge’s rubble; carried out through the abyss, where victory didn’t always mean conquest, when two little urchins and their mother were carried off to their former world of cliff tops, bracken, and the wild sea. It’d been a world to first accept, then betray her, swindle her with stars and ferocity, temper her ebullience with the reality of treachery and wounds wrapped around her throat, her heart, her soul. Where she’d consumed violence just as quickly as the rest of them, defending what was theirs, then trying to grasp it again, watch and witness as it was torn from their clenching fists and iron swords, tossed back into the wicked eaves, faltered, stumbled, frayed and flayed. All the blessings, all the wiles, built an artifice around her grin, tactful, cunning, bright and brilliant to hide the quiet desolation around a land she’d once known, cherished, beloved. “I have. Its quite a lovely place.” Not a lie, but a breathless lull of specious ropes, and she has no need to drag her feet within its snare and be pulled and strung beneath its grip, has no urge to traverse down melodies of legends and tales seemingly scattered by opposite ends. Perhaps Alysanne had heard of their mistakes, misgivings, danger and allure, could calculate past the locks and veneers, the forts and walls, visualize sinister outcries of war, channel and chain the formalities and destitution of destruction – but Lena held no regard to kindle and ignite the flames within the confines of their glowing cavern. Truth held its own layers of demolition, and while she administered it with harmonic twists and turns, with a melodic flow and a cherubic grin, she clenched it between her teeth now, bitterly swallowed the remnants of turbulent seasons.


@[Alysanne]
her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love
LENA
Credit URL

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
#7
When the day is blue, I'll sit around wondering about you

The embarrassment at the simplicity of her power faded away at the kind words and encouraging wink from the brown unicorn, a soft response showing her appreciation. “Thank you.” It was always a delight to find someone else that appreciated similiar things, that could see the joy in the ability to replenish soils. She wondered if magic in Helovia worked off of personalities, if the powers possessed were a reflection of what was inside.

It was no wonder she was getting along with Lena, a mare with a beautiful healing power.

One of Alysanne’s greatest joys was hearing someone speak about something they loved – when that warm note of pride entered their voice. She could see that Lena loved her home very much and even without having seen it personally – the picture painted in her mind with the words spoken was a lovely one. “It’s sounds marvellous. Do you have family there as well?” Alysanne rather liked the idea of visiting there one day, seeing the sights for herself. There was so much of Helovia she had yet to see, she wondered when she would get the chance to get out of here – stretch her legs and her wings. She’d like nothing more than to continue to lose herself, learning everything she could about the land she had so accidentally found herself in.

Though it hardly felt like an accident, considering all the coincidences that had occurred since she had arrived. Clearly there was something about Helovia that was magnetic. Of all the lands, what were the chances that more than one familiar face from Nocturne would show up here? Helovia may not be quite the perfect haven she had believed when she had first arrived, but it was still far better than where she had come from.

In response to that sigh that Lena had finished off her description of the Basin with, Alysanne offered an encouraging smile. "I’m sure we’ll get to return to our homes soon." Optimism certainly wasn’t hard for the two-toned Pegasus to come up with, and she much preferred it to the alternative. She would not be very good company – for others like her or for the plants – if she let herself wallow, if she focused on all that had happened. Denial certainly had its uses.

It turned out that Lena had been to the Edge and this further connection between the two distracted Alysanne from picking up on anything hidden behind those words. She felt proud of her home, though she had not even been there a year yet, and proud that someone else knew of its loveliness. Unknown to her was the history of the herd she had joined and it seemed easy to susject that that perhaps the kind mare had visited there at one point or another. “It is quite lovely, isn’t it? Though of course it lost a little of its charm the last time I was there.” There was a bit of a light laugh punctuating that rather painful thought – really nothing more than a sharp exhale of breath. It was a natural response for her to make light of the situation though there was so little actually humorous about their predicament. Still, she maintained her belief that they would get to go home soon enough and if they could go home, surely the danger would be past. She would no longer be forced to see the infected versions of her friends and feel how it was to be attacked by those you cared for.

@[Lena]

Come back to me, my darling
original html by rottie
picture credit
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

Lena the Songbird Posts: 663
Aurora Basin Time Mender atk: 4 | def: 10.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: 6 HP: 69 | Buff: NOVICE
Imogen :: Common Kitsune :: Fire Heather
#8
Secrets remained unscathed, plentiful and chiseled deep into her chest; the Pegasus femme didn’t press, didn’t pry, didn’t stare beneath the surface, so Lena escaped the potential fuselage, the augured outcry, the simmering poison that undoubtedly still embossed and coated misty, wooded hearts. She smiled and grinned into the simple atmosphere and unveiled nearly nothing, a dance of the effortless, easily glossed and glowing from whimsical wiles and fanciful laughter, delight sown into ambient shards. Resting, relaxing, her armor untouched, she listened to the chords of Alysanne, to the foils of a generous soul, remembered Kahlua and all her gifts, recalled the glory of hallelujahs and jubilance, responded in kind to the toast of absolution, the taste of liberation, and the gentle cajoling of quiet, harmonic gestures. Though the next query forged by the painted dame urged, forced, her angelic nature to recollect a world she’d long since thwarted, bloodlines mutually forsaken (though, at times, they reared their ugly heads and her blood hummed, beat, with that violent air of Valkyrie queens and baleful kings, and she detested the taste, the feeling, of her sword plunging into another’s nape), and a group of heathens who’d welcomed her into their arms. It was the latter she chose to reflect upon, to hasten across her brow with a composed, light, ethereal air, who’d taken the dainty morsel, the silly laurels, the alluring nymph and allowed her to live in their infidel wings, in their potent parlors, in their drawn veils and curtains, as gentle, as compassionate, as generous as she yearned to be. Not once had they doubted her creed, her valor, and instead, permitted her to live as she’d wanted, yearned, and desired. “The Basin members are my family.” Voice heightened to a drifting aria, to a brilliant hastening of melodies, bright, harmonic jewels nestled along her tongue and between her ears, as if she’d been awarded, blessed, and bestowed the most gracious of kindred spirits, brethren nestled together in rime and glaciers. “What about yourself?”

Optimism, buoyant and ebullient, conspired in the aching doldrums, so that rather than mulling over the bestial burdens of homes they couldn’t grasp, couldn’t hold, couldn’t touch with the press of their hooves, they hoisted them into their hearts, minds and souls. Lena dreamed of returning to the ice, gliding amongst snowflakes, christening and anointing the summits, the peaks, with their unbridled glory, with their endless strength and perseverance. She aspired to sing in the caves, she longed to touch and grace the unyielding lake, she ached for the refinery, the edges, of serenity, of tranquility, because despite the pleasing shape it took within the sanctum, within the current threshold, it still didn’t acquire the same hold in her essence. Alysanne’s conviction was contagious, and she didn’t hesitate or labor over the words formed across her lips. “Yes. Shortly, hopefully.” The nymph was grateful for the sanctuary, for the haven, for the refuge, but not the chains, the locked gates, the way she was incapable of spreading her joy, her soul, through the iron bars.

Discussion of the Edge returned, and still, the bay femme and her vixen were saved from the burden of explaining their tomes and legends – the painted figure, the one who placated plants and soothed nutrients, aspired them to greatness, ruminated on spoiled charms. She nearly opened her jaws again to pry, parted her mouth to mull over the blight and damage the abyss had suffered – but speculations held a firm grip over her melodies, and sentiments rang only in her head for a few moments. Did the femme comment over the last invasion, the building of ice-crowned fortitude and ferocity brewing upon her door? Or had another shade been amiss, a wraith, a ghost, contorting in the veils and valleys of the cliff tops? Though she ended on a laugh, though she ceased the statement with some light giggle, it still punctured, pierced, through the meticulous air of the limber, lithe, fey and fairy. Imogen’s head tilted, and Lena’s querying renewed on the depths and clamoring, on the listless winds and silken echoes, delicate in the daunted pestilence. “How so?” Had they been visited by more pernicious schemes, not orchestrated by the Basin, but by the dangerous ruses of the darkness beyond, turbulent, chaotic, and demonic?

@[Alysanne]
her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love
LENA
Credit URL

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
When the day is blue, I'll sit around wondering about you

Family meant a lot of things to Alysanne, and it had not been for quite some time that she had kept the definition just at blood. At first that was all she had, her sister and her cast out of the herd for being impure pegasi, her mother and father were all that they had. But then she and Iona had travelled to Nocturne and she found more family – and even more here in Helovia. So she understood it when Lena replied that the Basin members were her family – and she was happy to hear it. To consider one’s herd family was rather the perfect situation, wasn’t it? There was no reason to pry into Lena’s blood relatives, Alysanne saw no reason to bring up herself what had not already been brought up. If Lena considered the Basin members to be her family, well, that was wonderful.

Alysanne’s own response was just a little more complicated. “I hope the Edge members will become my family one day. But the rest of my family is scattered – I came to Helovia rather by accident and left behind my son, my mate, my sister...” Listing them rather did make her feel terrible, as though she had abandoned them all. “I’ve seen them all since, but I seem to make my family out of those with wanderlust.” At least they always came back. She dreamed of a day when they might all be together, where she wouldn’t feel more at home here in Helovia and yet long to be with those that had no desire to uproot themselves from where they were now. But they were safe, she knew that much, and maybe given the current cave situation it had been better that they not come with her quite yet.

Any last remnants of that forced laugh disappeared entirely as Lena inquired about what she had meant when she mentioned a loss of charm. It was not something she rather enjoyed thinking about, never mind speaking of, but she had brought it up – had she not? Perhaps it was time to stop avoiding the memory. There was no way to go back and change it, after all. “My friend Miykael and I had just come back from visiting our families in another land when we landed in the Edge. Others found us, Resplendence one of them, and told us of the caves… but we were unable to make an escape before we were attacked by a friend of mine, only she was a twisted, sick and angry version.” No smile now on that dark, gentle face. “Not everyone made it back here safely that day.” Emerald eyes glossing over with tears at the memory, of Resplendence yelling at them to leave her but they wouldn’t. And then Miykael, brave Miykael, giving himself up to give them a chance. “But they’ve made it back since and were healed” At least there was a happy-ish ending there. Miykael who she couldn’t trust anymore, the words of his betrayal still branded into her mind. But though she had been avoiding him as stubbornly as she had been avoiding the memories of the flee from the Edge, at least he was healed and safe now.



@[Lena]

Come back to me, my darling
original html by rottie
picture credit
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

Lena the Songbird Posts: 663
Aurora Basin Time Mender atk: 4 | def: 10.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: 6 HP: 69 | Buff: NOVICE
Imogen :: Common Kitsune :: Fire Heather
#10
The other’s story, enlightening, pressing, intriguing, ushered the wayward scathing, rancor, and bitterness away from the nymph’s mind – she scraped at the pathways of Alysanne’s family monikers, the fleeting glimpses of scattered remnants of heritage and resemblances, pondered over what made family beyond the reaches of blood. She’d fastened herself so readily to emblems, crests, and creeds, mountains towering over blossoms, to cretins and creatures who presided over her heart as meticulous bouts of devotion, forthright fidelity, adherence, and allegiance to cretins, vagabonds, and blackguards, each one a wonderful sight in her eyes. She’d sang to them in the darkest reaches of their innermost voids, she’d bled and torn for their renounced vows, she’d chased down demons in hollowed, hallowed corridors, daggers reaching and howling for their souls to be safe and warm, from the smirking, strong Deodat, to the wily, cunning Faelene, the poisonous Doctor, to the charitable, charismatic Roland – just as cursed, just as consumed as they. An embrace of the wickedness, and then a loathing of all her wretchedness, forever followed, but she knew, deep in the fathoms of her quiet, refined essence, when all the secrets ended and all the confessions were stained red, they’d do the same for her. She’d tended to far more war hymns, to far more ichor campaigns and crusades for them, for the peaks, for the valleys, then the bloodline running rampant through her frame, unruly and unholy. But Alysanne had not yet encountered that, hadn’t been forced to endure plagues, pestilence (except this new one, forcing them into holes, refuges, and havoc), and it was a welcoming whim to discover such facts. While she admitted the notion of wandering, the close binds of the mist and abyss hadn’t yet molded into her movements, into her motions, it would be nice to imagine they’d eventually carve and sculpt their way into her elegance – without bloodshed, without upheaval, without anarchy breathing and fusing into her regality. Lena’s thoughts clamored, and through the echoes, through the arias, through the ditties, a strain sprang, bounding and joyous, along her throat, tumbling into the chamber. “I have no doubt you’ll find and create more kindred spirits.” She laughed for a moment, remembering ways she’d crossed lines and trails of her fused comrades and companions, from wounded soldiers to petulant threshold wanderers, weary and confused. “Sometimes we find our closest friends and family in the most uncanny of ways.” A pause, another rumination, and she fastened a wink in front of it, a sage and fairy hastened into bright, brilliant chords. “Hold onto them.”

The following subject, however, forced the giggles to die and decay along the walls, and she was sorry she’d brought up the queries at all, forcing the mare to relive one of the many debacles and catastrophes lined in their memories. All at once, Lena remembered the monsters beating, breathing down her neck too, pieces of familiar faces twisted and distorted, misshappened, misaligned, tainted and stained by the poisonous vectors brewing and brooding outside their cloister. Kahlua, once gentle, then fanged, Imogen rampaging with her eternal, glorious fire, and the healer doing naught to stop the inferno, trickling ghostly songs through the smoky haze, Psyche, broken and malformed, beasts craving hearts instead of stalwart fancies. Alysanne had her own devils to fight against, friends forged into fiends, lost souls reaching for sanctity and only finding flesh. Her face fell into an obvious frown, and Imogen, from the corners of her amusement, chirped a sullen call. The painted femme’s mare was a familiar tale, bounding across the sanctuary’s grounds, a constant anomaly chosen to plague and haunt them into eternal damnation. “I’m sorry.” She was, for many reasons, and her eyes wandered over the reaches of their glowing sector, wondering how to mold further assistance into the rancorous regards. “Is all well now? Is there anything I could do?”


@[Alysanne]
her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love
LENA
Credit URL

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
#11
When the day is blue, I'll sit around wondering about you

Alysanne found hope in Lena’s encouraging words, speaking of finding family in uncanny of ways – and she thought of those she had already met and held so dear. Kahlua and Brisa, the wonderful mares that had been among her first experiences here in Helovia – fastening themselves to her heart so securely that she told tales of them to her son when she had met them. His new aunts, unbound by blood but by something else. Sweet Brisa and joyful Kahlua, who had woven her a gift that she still wore proudly on her head – a beautiful glass headband with a delicate heart at its centre. It might one day get lost and she would miss the light weight and the tinkling noise of the glass links, but the memory would remain of the bonds she had made here in Helovia.

Maybe she was wrong to speculate that she had not yet found family here.

She appreciated the soft apology from Lena, the sullen call from Imogen. They had all been touched and torn at by this sickness. Alysanne would have happily born the burden alone if it meant everyone else would have been saved from seeing friends turned, or from being attacked by those they loved. A sad smile is all she could manage at the question of whether everything was well. “As well as it could be. I’ve seen him once, since then. He was healed – by a young girl with powers similar to yours, actually.” She wasn’t sure why she had not picked up that connection before now, thinking of the brave little girl who had helped her ensure Miykael’s safety before Alysanne had hurried away, unwilling and afraid to comfort the one who had just thrown terrible truths at her. “But I’ve not spoken to him since then.” She wished there was something that Lena could do to make everything all right, or even a little better. Talking about what had happened… Alysanne had avoided it with passion. It hurt, those emerald eyes glossy with the tears she had not allowed herself to so much as spare a thought for in these days that they spent in the caves. Focusing for a moment on the vines that dangled above and next to their heads, she willed them not to become more than that gloss. There was no shame in crying, but she would not burden her newest friend with any more than she already had.

She wondered whether Lena’s healing powers could mend a heart that was broken, but thought it too silly of a request to ask. So instead she asked something else, the question that had been bothering her all this time – the answer to which she had assumed but perhaps she was wrong. “Do… do you think, when they’re sick, they are capable of speaking the truth? Of pulling out memories and using them as weapons?” Alysanne did not believe that her friends were in control of their actions or their words – but maybe whatever possessed them could access what was in their minds. “He told me something when he was sick and I don’t know whether to believe it or not.”


@[Lena]

Come back to me, my darling
original html by rottie
picture credit
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

Lena the Songbird Posts: 663
Aurora Basin Time Mender atk: 4 | def: 10.5 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3 :: 6 HP: 69 | Buff: NOVICE
Imogen :: Common Kitsune :: Fire Heather
#12
She speculated, listened, to the rhapsody and tribulations of Alysanne. The pestilence she’d encountered had seemingly conspired in its travels, immersed itself into nests of memories, decay, and withering reveries, until it was naught more than spinning webs of delusion and melancholy. The nymph instantly felt remorse drum within her barrel for her newfound friend, for the dame was undeserving of such bleeding laments poured against her heart, against her mind, framed like clockwork truths and bestial armaments. Lena hadn’t been courted into regrets, rancor, or bitter diatribes (only the slashing fangs of Kahlua, the pressing agony and distress of Psyche, the whistling, whispering tides of claws rasping down columns and throats; destroyed by song, by laurels, by rose snippets and symphonies), but, she didn’t want to leave Alysanne to the depths of mockery either. She drew her lips together in a thin line, stared into the remnants of glowing pools and lustrous leaves, and spoke through the mass of pondering ideals, convictions, maladies and understandings; musing on the layers and lacquer of the world she’d traversed. “In my experiences, they were shells of themselves.” Monsters, ravaging and pillaging – but underneath the ramparts, the munitions, the heavy, heady, overwhelming, sinister displays, the friends I once knew and cherished. She measured the length of her song into melodious overtures, gestured her warm, tender stare back upon the painted figure, glossed over the particles of sage essences. “They only knew how to attack, how to maul, how to devastate.” The mender tilted her head for a moment, but pried no further in the ample curiosity (the other had been wounded somehow, and she dared not reopen bruised lesions or old scars neatly closed over by a smile, a twinkle), grasping at what could have been, what might be. “Perhaps they found a way to pierce you.” Had anyone else been punctured in such a way, not by bites, not by ivories, but the juncture of images, of precious, gilded memories formatted into barbaric pictures, mounted and set into villainy and cloaked into deceit? And if so, how did they combat it? How did they forgo and forget? Was Alysanne forgiving, merciful, lenient, or too haunted by the stature of the affair? If Lena could lend her strength, she divided and quartered it through song, drumming another elegant beat, another proud rhapsody, clamoring for valor and honor through the heartache of bewitched fiends and diseased foes. “Don’t take it to heart. If you allow it, then they’ve succeeded.” If they were driven into the trenches by every weighted word, every singular possession of their soul, mauled, mottled and ruined, then no one would be able to rise from their furrows.

[Sorry this took so long! D:]
@[Alysanne]
her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love
LENA
Credit URL

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
#13
When the day is blue, I'll sit around wondering about you

In her sadness, Alysanne had wondered if physical wounds would have been easier to tolerate than the mental and emotional ones that kept her from sleeping.

If she had all of her memories, if she knew what the infected Miykael was talking about, she would know – she would know that the price of bites and tears and broken bones would be worth it if there was someone else to save. She bore the scars of this previous encounter with another demon, but thought it only an unfortunate cougar attack when she was freshly pregnant.

But ‘ifs’ are easy to wonder about - easy to let multiply and take over a once calm mind.

“Quite effectively too.” She spoke without scorn, only sad fact - Lena spoke of them finding a way to pierce her and they had. “To find that I’ve had memories, major memories, removed from my mind by someone I thought to be a friend…” It was a violation, she still could not accept that somewhere in her life, something had happened that she had no memory of. If she tried to concentrate too hard, tried to remember, she was unable to focus – like there was a slippery wall around what he had taken from her.

Whatever it was, knowing it would be better than this – would be better than wondering and thinking the worst.

She hadn’t meant to tell Lena anything specific about what had been said – she did not think it was fair to force the beautiful unicorn to share (even briefly) in any pain when she was sure to have her own. They all seemed to, down here.

It was amazing how sometimes it took a friend to make a point to really make it click. Alysanne probably could have come up with similar advice, and she might’ve if the roles had been reversed. As it was, she was left with only with gratitude for the beautiful bay unicorn that spoke such amazing truths! It was true that she had been spending an incredible amount of time worrying over what happened – giving greater weight to the events than she should have. Yes, they were troublesome, but wasn’t she making it worse by agonizing?

A small, grateful smile returns to those green eyes. “You’re right, of course you’re right. I will try.”

Maybe it would be best to move right on from the topic. And from this spot, now that she thought about it!

“I think I’ve stood in this spot for long enough, there’ll be trees breaking through the caves of these walls if I give them any more nutrients! Time to move on. You're both quite welcome to keep me company as I make my rounds, if you'd like!” She looked between them, her smile growing. Whether they parted here or later on, she was so glad to have met Lena and Imogen - and she did not think it would be goodbye for very long.

The caves were only so big, after all. Sooner or later you'd run into just about everyone!



@[Lena]
(thought this might be a good way to 'end scene' and fade out <3 but if that doesn't work for you I can change it!)

Come back to me, my darling
original html by rottie
picture credit
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


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