the Rift


[PRIVATE] I can hear your heart
Ascended Helovian

Gaucho The Wildfire Posts: 1,004
Deceased atk: 8.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 8
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.2 :: 12 HP: 85 | Buff: PINNACLE
Mara :: Black Mamba Snake :: Paralyze & Vorsa :: Plain Zephyr :: Phoenix Odd
#1

GAUCHO
Doubt comes in on sticks but then he kicks like a horse.


It had been Mara who spotted the egg, which was surprising given that it was one of the few things Gaucho could actually see on his own. It had been caught against a rock in the Endless Blue - nearly pulled out to see by the current. Had he not spotted (or more precisely, had Mara) not spotted Oxy below causing the dun to land, he wouldn't have seen it at all. Wouldn't have tucked it under his wing for warmth and safe keeping. It had occurred to him afterwards that perhaps the egg belonged to some sea creature, and that in fact it wasn't in danger. However Mara pointed out that if it breathed air it shouldn't hatch directly in the water. And if it didn't, then it would have perished anyways. For some reason intuitively it seemed better to Gaucho to pull it back rather than throw it into the water, even if neither option was in fact better.

Still, when the egg became more active, Gaucho had retreated to the Oasis. He figured if the thing inside did breathe water, at least he would be able to throw it inside of their inland lake in time to prevent suffocation.

He could hear a tapping from inside the egg, as if something was trying to force its way through, but the dun did not help. Instead, he watched whatever it was inside struggle to get out. Eggs were natures way of mercifully killing those too weak to survive early. If this creature couldn't even escape the confines of its egg by itself, how would it survive the world?

Tenderly, Gaucho watched. Mara had slithered down his leg, and had used her body to dig the egg into the sands a bit so that it wouldn't roll around so much. She recalled breaking out of an egg once herself. Hissing softly, reassuringly, she waited as well. The snake was unable to reconcile the feelings within herself. If this creature was like her - a snake - could she help it survive? Would it bond to Gaucho for survival as she had done? Was she jealous ? It was strange to think of, for she had never had to share Gaucho before.





For @[Ampere]. Egg hatching!

"their speech goes here and this is the color









Image Credits -- Table style by Tamme!
Please tag me in every post! Magic/Force is allowed on Gaucho at any time.


Ampere The Mother of Companions Posts: 719
Dragon's Throat Sultana atk: 9 | def: 11 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 14 hh :: 6 years HP: 73 | Buff: DANCE
Kygo :: Green Cheek Conure :: None Blu
#2
A M P E R E
"Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death" -- Michel Aoun

It was not the first time she had seen Gaucho since the birth of her son, but it was the first time she didn't immediately duck for cover behind a shrub or a dune. Whether it was her hormones leveling back out or a spurt of maturity she couldn't be sure, but she did not leave and that was enough. Unfortunately for them both, it probably would have been better if she had.

Lifting her head in a display self assurance and confidence Ampere walked towards the stallion of fire. She wasn't sure what she was going to say or do, she rather hoped it'd come to her by the time she got to him, but she knew that something needed to happen to fill the rift she had carved between them. Her feelings were tangled, as it always was with him, and the complexity was only accentuated by their roles in the herd, by their potential blood shared.

It was only as she drew closer that she realized what it was that captivated him so - it was rare to find him grounded, he usually flew patrols tirelessly when he wasn't battling or assembling the herd. She was even starting to doubt that he slept.
What held him in the sands was no war criminal or breakfast buffet, it was an egg. Instantaneously Ampere's gait sped up, curious and anxious to see. Only several strides later though and she slowed until she stopped, standing several paces away from the Wildfire that set her alight every damn time. She breathed heavily, having held her breath in those precious moments of realization. Everything she had meant to do came crashing down around her, blocking out everything but him, her, and the egg.

She was silent for a while, until at last she had gathered to fortitude to tap on the glass wall standing between them.

"Gaucho?" she called out quietly, uncertain, afraid. She didn't want to see this, didn't want to see him here, with this. A tremble ran through her, a testament to the force of emotions that rolled like the sea inside of her.

She remained rooted, unable to turn away, unable to look away, unable to ignore this part of him, of her, of them any longer. "What is that?" another whisper forced through her lips, painful as it passed to the heart which hammered in her chest. She already knew the answer, but she needed him to say it.

@[Zèklè] (No need to join if you don't want/have time!)

Credits: Image by Tabini
Coding by Tamme

Tag me only if starting a new thread.
Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
Ascended Helovian

Gaucho The Wildfire Posts: 1,004
Deceased atk: 8.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 8
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.2 :: 12 HP: 85 | Buff: PINNACLE
Mara :: Black Mamba Snake :: Paralyze & Vorsa :: Plain Zephyr :: Phoenix Odd
#3

GAUCHO
Doubt comes in on sticks but then he kicks like a horse.


Whatever tension was between them, whatever distance the birth of Zero had placed on the tentative love that had tried to blossom - Gaucho was too tired to acknowledge it. He didn't know what they were anymore, or what Ampere wanted. Hell, he wasn't even sure what he wanted - or at least he wouldn't admit that he did. In truth he did know, and the certainty of his emotions was merely suppressed by the exhaustion that weighed heavily upon his shoulders.

He would deal with it, but later.

His normally deep gaze appeared flat, empty somehow as he looked towards her as she approached. Gaucho's head bobbed gently at the sound of his name, before his attention was pulled back to the egg.

"Not know ... when Gaucho find Mara, she in an egg just like this. She was dying. Maybe this egg dying too."

Again, the faint tapping sound resonated outwards. Inside a light seemed to pulse, or perhaps it was just a body moving. Hesitantly, Mara wriggled backwards, winding up Gaucho's foreleg and remaining there. It could very likely be be holding a predator - the snake would be cautious. Even as a baby, things that came out of eggs could eat snakes such as she with ease.

Without much pomp, a crack appeared in the egg. A foot emerged from that crack, small and wrinkled in appearance. A sound like a squeak followed, as the leg shook weakly as if trying to kick open the rest of the shell. Nostrils flaring, Gaucho watched with interest. The light inside of the egg pulsed brighter, and then brighter still. The leg retracted as smoke began to pour from the small opening. Lowering his dark muzzle, Gaucho's head titled, internally weighing whether or not he should interfere.

Just as he was about to use his antler to pry about the hole that the foot had created, the entire shell burst into flames. Disintegrating quickly, a squashed looking bird of red and fire sat on the sands. Completely black eyes squinted against the light of day, as it helplessly looked around.

A Pheonix.

Yet .. it was unlike any he had seen. It was pathetically small, and bore only one colour. The flames on its body burned weakly, as wings that looked more like clumps of meat beat softly against its body, trying to move it forward.

Weakly it squawked again, toppling over in the sand.


Image Credits -- Table style by Tamme!
Please tag me in every post! Magic/Force is allowed on Gaucho at any time.


Ampere The Mother of Companions Posts: 719
Dragon's Throat Sultana atk: 9 | def: 11 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 14 hh :: 6 years HP: 73 | Buff: DANCE
Kygo :: Green Cheek Conure :: None Blu
#4
A M P E R E
"Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death" -- Michel Aoun

She caught the look he offered her and it seemed, different, in a way she couldn't place, but that was there nonetheless. In a different situation she might have chiseled away at that strangeness in her Gaucho, but for now the egg captivated them both, if for different reasons.

His voice reached out, impatient, though not cruel; focused. All the same Ampere bristled at it, feathers fluffing around her stiffly. His tone did not grate her so much as the words themselves, each pressing against her hide like a hot brand that caused her to jerk forward. She wasn't sure what she was doing, she wasn't thinking clearly, but what she knew in the very depths of her being was that she couldn't just sit by and let this happen. Observing Destry was one thing, but Gaucho, Gaucho, he was another - and this was his second. She wasn't even sure it was possible, but all the more reason to intervene, to save his soul and its.

"Gaucho NO!" Ampere called out, desperate as her hooves moved like lead across the sands, too slow to reach him before the egg split with a bright, blossoming glow. Ampere's heart leapt into her throat in the same instant her right shoulder kicked out to jab into Gaucho's left, hopefully shoving him aside. She nearly trampled the chick as she did so, and she knew then, she was too late. That rationale was drowned beneath the onrush of emotions that poured through her though. Anger, Grief, Hurt, Love... each wave was a tumultuous tide of feelings and Ampere was swept away by them.

"HOW COULD YOU!?" she screamed, tail whipping up a hurricane on her flanks, feathers streaming like dark rain at her sides. Her mane swirled in a dark storm against her taut nape, head held high, legs splayed for balance, as though ready to vomit up her ocean of outrage. "WHY, GAUCHO," she yelled, she begged. Pain was a bold blaze in her eyes, their blue so alive with electricity it sparked in the ground at her feet, in the space that existed between them. "Why did you bond!" quieter now, sadder now, adrift. Her flanks were heaving, nostrils flaring, as she poured herself into the sands, exasperated. "They would have survived alone..." she trailed off, straightening, sobering, sinking.

Unbeknownst to her another magic had slipped free in her hysteria, its cold, invisible hand like a clamp upon the chords that linked the souls of those bonded. Alone, it's precisely how their connection would feel, for the time being.

[Up to you how long you want the bond silencing to last. Since she didn't do it intentionally/it's her first time, I'm figuring shorter than normal?]

Credits: Image by Tabini
Coding by Tamme


@[Gaucho]

Tag me only if starting a new thread.
Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
Ascended Helovian

Gaucho The Wildfire Posts: 1,004
Deceased atk: 8.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 8
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.2 :: 12 HP: 85 | Buff: PINNACLE
Mara :: Black Mamba Snake :: Paralyze & Vorsa :: Plain Zephyr :: Phoenix Odd
#5

GAUCHO
Doubt comes in on sticks but then he kicks like a horse.


Gaucho couldn't quite tell the order of what happened next. Had Ampere screamed, the bond formed, and then her body slam into his shoulder? Her her shoulder struck him just after the bond had formed? Or was it all one big mess that happened all at once? It certainly felt more like the latter, although reason told him that there needed to be some sequence as to what had happened.

Gaucho heard Ampere's distressed cry as she threw herself across the sands. In that instant instead of pulling away to evade her attack, the Wildfire actually flung himself at her. Her flailing hooves would surely come dangerously close to the fiery child as it waddled helplessly and naively in the sands, and his body was the only shield he had. His teeth clamped together as their shoulders momentarily melded into one another. The Wildfire didn't need Mara's eyes to see the sparks radiate from her body onto the sands, and instinctively one of his flaming wings shot from his body to act as an umbrella for the pheonix who still hobbled around below. As all of this was happening, something else was happening too, although it was much more subtle.

It was simply a feeling at first - like an opening. His mind widened, allowing the life that tottered helplessly at his hooves to enter and find some respite from having been newly born. Unlike whatever Ampere might have thought, bonding was not a conscious decision, and yet even if it had been, he would have let it happen. He could feel the need, the quickly fading strength, and the confusion of the small chick, and that was not a plight the Wildfire could refuse, even if it meant a lifetime of bondage. He had no way of knowing that the creature would grow up strong - perhaps it would always be a burden to him, a life that he would constantly have to protect rather than a (mostly) autonomous creature. Even so, he wouldn't have turned away. It was simply not in him.

Spinning towards Ampere, using Mara's eyes as a guide to her position, the dun snorted loudly. The pheonix shuffled to his hooves, bouncing happily and chirping.

"Too small." He pointed out gruffly. "No mother around. Never see pheonix just around." How could she possibly stand there and say that this pathetically small creature would have lasted more than a hour on its own? It had almost died under Ampere's hooves moments ago. Without Gaucho it would already have been dead. "Gaucho not -" mean to bond to it ... was the conclusion of his sentence, but suddenly he stopped.

The world grew empty and Ampere faded from his view. In a panic, Gaucho tried to search his mind, to introspect and find Mara's presence to inquire why she had suddenly pulled back, but found no traces of her. His mind was vast, inhabited only by his thoughts, and the rumbling need for food of the chick. Black ears flattened against his head as his gaze snapped back to where he recalled Ampere standing, using her hoof prints as a way of confirming he was looking in more or less the right place. His first thought was that Ampere had done something to Mara yet .... yet he would have felt it if she had, wouldn't he? Would have felt her move, heard Mara hiss -


SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Sand moved on the ground where Mara had been, and yet without her eyes Gaucho couldn't see what it was. The chick was still too young for Gaucho to invade its thoughts and use it as a tool. Snorting, he watched the sands flatten in a pattern that usually heralded Mara's approach. SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS came the familiar sound of her hiss.

Although Gaucho couldn't' see what was happening, he could hear her. Mara raised herself up, coiling her body beneath her as she wavered slightly before Gaucho, her onyx gaze locked flatly upon Ampere. Her mouth widened as venom dripped from her fangs. The snake was clever, far more clever than her bonded, and she took it as no mere coincidence that whatever had occurred between she and Gaucho had come at the tail end of Ampere's outburst about companions.

Her body darted forward across the sand, gunsteel on gold, teeth aimed for Ampere's chest. Maybe if she could bring the blue down, she would be able to communicate with Gaucho again.



I figured only one bond would be silenced not both, since it's her first time? Also, up to you if Mara hits or not :D



Image Credits -- Table style by Tamme!
Please tag me in every post! Magic/Force is allowed on Gaucho at any time.


Ampere The Mother of Companions Posts: 719
Dragon's Throat Sultana atk: 9 | def: 11 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 14 hh :: 6 years HP: 73 | Buff: DANCE
Kygo :: Green Cheek Conure :: None Blu
#6
A M P E R E
"Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death" -- Michel Aoun

He was a wall that she slammed into, the force of which reverberated through her, shaking her. The tremors weren't enough to drag her out of her hysteria though, so maddeningly she kicked and screamed and fought against the wall that he stood as, he and so many others in the metaphorical sense. She wanted to rip all those walls down. Freedom.

Like wreckage after a storm Ampere hung limply at his side. She knew she was too late, always too late. Meekly she stepped back a pace or two, head shaking beneath the certain of darkness that fell from her nape. "Bullshit," she hissed, but the energy was gone. Her fists were still up, but the wall was already bloody with torn skin and it hadn't even been chipped. "Where else do the eggs come from? It might have had a family." Her ears pressed back tight against her skull, blue eyes flashing amid strands of whipped hair as she shot him a hard look, teeth grinding in frustration. "Maybe it didn't need a family, like snakes. They hatch and fend for themselves!"

Her energy was building back up, a swell, but nothing like before. All the while she continued to take steps away, barely able to look at him any more. He disgusted her, because why else would he so gently care for an egg? Why else if not to bond? "You expect me to believe you're suddenly so altruistic Gaucho? That you saved its fucking life, for NO REASON, except to protect it? Meanwhile a murderer is running around slaughtering our OWN KIND."

She laughed, then stumbled, a drunkard with emotions, All the while she was too absorbed to see the white serpent moving towards her, poised to strike. She was working herself up again, thoughts spinning like clouds in a jet stream. She couldn't help but fight, even if the odds were shit. She'd hate herself more if she didn't bloody her hands, because otherwise why even make them a fist? Most of the time she was fighting herself, it was just easier to pretend she was up against the world, tossing blows with others. "Why aren't there any horse companions?" she demanded of him, of the world. "Why not just take our fucking son and chain him up to your soul if you think it's so fair!" she was screaming again, head mane a whirlwind on her aggressively swinging head. Feathers rose and fell like waves at her sides, punctuating her words with a frenzy.

Ampere slowed suddenly, deflated again, heavy. She hadn't recognized the flash of white in her tirade, blinded by the ebbing darkness of herself which she waded through. Mara's fangs injected a potent venom, its effects exacerbated by Ampere's heightened energy, her pulse a drum beat that roared itself into abstract noise. Wooziness overwhelmed Ampere, though that wasn't all together alarming - this wouldn't be the first time she nearly blacked out from yelling, but it had been a while certainly. Age had granted her patience, though clearly not enough.

"What?" she asked, the words slipping and slurry as her tongue seemed to swell into lead inside her mouth. Her body drooped, frozen, and around her the magic stilled. Inside though she remained a nightmare, even more so as Mara trapped her within herself.
"What's happening?" she whispered frantically, only finally noticing the pale serpent in the golden sands as he head drifted down, eyes wide with shock.

She had learned long ago not to begrudge the actions of companions, their hearts and minds addled by the mind. Still, it was painful every time they interfered with the crusade she carried out in their name. Another flake of her heart peeled off and drifted away; a flower petal curling up into decay.

Credits: Image by Tabini
Coding by Tamme

Tag me only if starting a new thread.
Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
Ascended Helovian

Gaucho The Wildfire Posts: 1,004
Deceased atk: 8.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 8
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.2 :: 12 HP: 85 | Buff: PINNACLE
Mara :: Black Mamba Snake :: Paralyze & Vorsa :: Plain Zephyr :: Phoenix Odd
#7

GAUCHO
Doubt comes in on sticks but then he kicks like a horse.


Al true his stick? Gaucho didn't understand. Who was Al, and what was his true stick?

In the roar of silence between each of her punctuated syllables the dun wanted to scream back that YES. THAT WAS PRECISELY WHY. It was what motivated Gaucho always - what stayed his hooves and fire when many spoke against his promotion so many season ago. Why he had allowed and continued to protect those who would see him dethroned and cast out as an ignorant savage. He was here to protect those who couldn't protect them selves, and yes an isolated egg on the beach which was about to be smashed by his BFF's extraordinarily large ass seemed to fit the bill. That it would bond to him was never something he chose, never something you just sign up for. It had just been something that had happened.

"MIGHT." He snapped back, unfocused. He couldn't' answer Ampere's demands for justification at the best of times, but as his connection to Mara began to flicker and dissipate, his ability to articulate the flaws in her logic disappeared as well. "AND YES TO PROTECT. THAT WHAT GAUCHO -"

And then she was falling - he could hear her body moving the sand even if he could no longer see her. In the back of his mind he heard Mara still hissing and distantly knew what had happened.

His mind tried to focus on the fact that Ampere could be dying at the hands of his companion, but found he could not. Her words echoed again and again in his mind, drowning out any other coherent thought.

Our fucking son...

Our son.

The thought inflated his mind, infiltrating his senses and drowning him in this new sea of blackness. He had wanted the deformed child to be his, but Ampere had denied his paternity. Or at least, had denied the certainty of it. That she had been with someone else would have been easily smoothed over in his mind if only the one-winged babe had been his, as if his successful sperm somehow solidified that what had occurred between he and the Blue had been real. If the child wasn't his, then there was nothing to tie them together. Nothing to remind them of the culmination of seasons worth of searching, of lingering gazes and stolen touches.

He hadn't noticed it, but Mara's mind was slowly returning to his. Without being asked she projected the image of Ampere's crumpled form, accompanied by a rather proud stream of thoughts. SSSSSSSSSSSSHE DO THISSSSSSSSSSS. Mara's voice still seemed far away, like a dull whisper in his mind. "How?" He asked aloud, though received no answer from his companion who merely hovered around his hooves.

Oblivious to all of this, the small pheonix chick bounced happily towards Ampere. Its sight was still spotty, but having her on the ground made things much easier to focus on. CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEP? It asked boldly, its pitifully small body barely the size of her hoof.

Protectively, although of whom was an open question, Gaucho moved towards Ampere. With the aid of Mara's eyes again he could easily place her in the sands, and was careful not to step on any part of her - or the pheonix chick. His flaming wings spread slightly from his sides to block the suns light from her body, assuming that shade would likely be the only comfort he could provide her now.

"Letting die is just as bad as killing." He offered stiffly, tail flicking against his hocks.

Grinding his teeth slightly, he looked at her expectantly. He knew she wouldn't allow him to help her up, and so he didn't offer, yet the concern was clear upon his handsome features even though he offered no apology for what his companion had done.


Image Credits -- Table style by Tamme!
Please tag me in every post! Magic/Force is allowed on Gaucho at any time.


Ampere The Mother of Companions Posts: 719
Dragon's Throat Sultana atk: 9 | def: 11 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 14 hh :: 6 years HP: 73 | Buff: DANCE
Kygo :: Green Cheek Conure :: None Blu
#8
A M P E R E
"Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death" -- Michel Aoun

Her breathing ruffled the sands where her nose lay stretched out. It was shallow, slowed by force, and with it Mara's hand forced a calm over Ampere. Though the paralysis was brief, it felt horribly long, and in its endless time Ampere stared at the world with an open heart and empty eyes. She asked of it, not for the first time, why.

Sand stirred with the pitter-pattering of the chick's feet. Its motion drew her gaze, the blue dripping like a slow burning candle down the black frame of her face. It's voice, so like a query, pained her for its innocence and the loss of it. The god's words echoed in her head, that this was a choice, that this tiny, newborn chick had chosen the bond. Did it even know what it was choosing? Or was it simply lonely, afraid, uncertain, and the bond offered it everything it wanted? She knew those feelings all too well - could she blame it? No, she knew instantly, forcefully, angry she even had to ask herself. The chick was a mere child, wanting, needing, and thus taking, as all children did. Gaucho however, she could blame him. Maybe he didn't know he chose, but the bond only formed because he accepted it, the merging of souls an agreed upon deal.

Ampere sighed heavily, sand twirling in a mini tornado as her exhale cast it in quivering eddies of air. Gaucho pushed his legs through the grains, standing over her, an eclipse, a shadow, a plight. She shifted her head up, bending it further back towards her ass that sagged awkwardly on the ground, stubbornly refusing to look at him.
"Is it?" she asked. Live free, or die?. She already knew the answer though, but it was more complicated than that. "Is safety better than freedom?" That was a better way to look at it she thought, but she suspected she already knew his answer - he who would blow up the ground to keep them safe. He was the type who liked to put bars on things, to trap them in, to clip their wings so that they didn't break them. Could she love someone like that?

For the first time when she posed the question to herself about Gaucho, the answer seemed to be, no.

"I know you protect," she muttered into the sand, referring to his previous shout, its noise still scattered in her ears, one of the last things that happened before she fell. "You protect us, you protect horses... but other creatures?" She wanted to shake her head, but couldn't, so instead she heaved out a dramatic sigh and closed her eyes for a long time. "Have you wondered why no other creatures bond? Why horses do not bond to other animals when they are orphaned?" He might argue they didn't hatch from eggs, but she knew that wasn't always true - and she had seen plenty of non-egg animals crawl out of a shell for the name of a bond. Companions seemed to be their own species, small, frail, meant for soul convergence - it was why there were no horse companions, because they existed for horses.

They were nothing more than tools.

"The gods created the bond, for us." The Earth God said ti was for them too, but she didn't believe that, because why so many differences, why so many lost eggs? Why so much interference by otherwise selfish horses?

Credits: Image by Tabini
Coding by Tamme

Tag me only if starting a new thread.
Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
Ascended Helovian

Gaucho The Wildfire Posts: 1,004
Deceased atk: 8.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 8
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.2 :: 12 HP: 85 | Buff: PINNACLE
Mara :: Black Mamba Snake :: Paralyze & Vorsa :: Plain Zephyr :: Phoenix Odd
#9

GAUCHO
Doubt comes in on sticks but then he kicks like a horse.


"Yes." He rumbled back, black ears flirting with the top of his neck. "If have power to save a life and not do so, just as bad as killing. You are killing. Egg alone on beach. Even in egg it not safe - it almost get crushed. Gaucho would have brought it back if it hatched and was strong." Nosing toward the small ignorant chick, he huffed. "It obviously not. It choose this."

As she asked if safety was better than freedom, Gaucho fell silent, a look of betrayal upon his stoic features. Of course it wasn't - how could she think the two concepts were even remotely similar? And worse, how could she think he would support the second? All that he had done in all of his time in Helovia, was train. He sparred and fought and conditioned almost every day. Why? To protect. He wouldn't need to protect those around him if they bothered to try and protect themselves. But they didn't. Aurelia strolled happily into the Basin, knowingly and willingly provoking fights, Sohalia disappeared into Gods knew where, before that the Wraiths had come, and even know a murderer walked among them. He couldn't protect his family, those he cared for and valued above all else, at all times. If he made the Throat into an island, at least they could have a haven wherein they could be safe, where they would not have to worry about the plagues and tribulations of the world around them. Further that she thought that he was somehow restricting their freedom, as if this whole second leg of this damned quest wasn't specifically about ensuring that the non-winged among them had the same mobility made the flames on his wings flare up. He wanted to kick her in the face for her ignorance, to transfer the rage that boiled within his core into her. To make her feel his anger, his disappointment, and to swamp the arrogance that seemed to ignite her words.

All he had ever wanted was to make his herd strong so that they could be safe, doing and being wherever and whatever they pleased. But until that time came, he would protect them.

Through clenched teeth he turned his blazing gaze upon her, regardless of whether or not she returned it. "Safety is better than death. Everyone is as free as they allow themselves to be. Our herd .... " Lazy wasn't the right word for it. Perhaps un-motivated was better, but at the moment Mara was still too intently focused on Ampere to provided an apt substitution. "-they do nothing. They rather swim in Oasis and let Gaucho and warriors protect them, than learn to protect themselves. They happy that Gaucho the one with all the scars, not them."

He had always wanted the Throat to be a herd of warriors. They need not all be the caliber that he and his current selection were, but nothing would make him happier than if they had all at least won one fight. But he had been told, on numerous occasions, that that was asking too much. That the herd could decide to give themselves into the protective folds of the warriors so that they would never have to learn to fight.

He did not want this for them, they had chosen it themselves. And here Ampere was, throwing it in his face.

It burned, and it hurt.

He pulled away from her, first with his eyes and then his shoulders, to contemplate the oasis. A dark ear flickered to catch her second question, but more than anything he wanted to ignore it. To ignore her. The two were like rhythmic pulses on slightly different beats. At certain times, they would align, their rhythms beating perfectly in time together, loud and strong. But as time went on, the sounds were pulled apart, the syncopation becoming unbearable. He had thought Ampere knew him, understood him.

Apparently not. He was just some monster who enslaved creatures while they were weak, and did the same to his herd.

"No." He replied, his voice flat and distant. "Gaucho not wonder. Gaucho not wonder about a lot of things because it not matter. This how world works." Flexing his neck around to regard her solemnly, wondering when the spark in her eyes had turned to daggers meant for him he continued. "The way the world is is not right or wrong. It just is. Maybe bonding bad, Gaucho not know. But with out it, these creatures die. Gaucho not have to let that happen." He conceded, his dark skull dropping to the sands to Mara. The snake slithered to him, her gunsteel body raising up to gently nuzzle against his black lips encouragingly.

I sssssssstay. She whispered thoughtfully, before moving to his foreleg and winding her way up to his shoulder, then wither, and finally into his antlers.

He look to Ampere silently. So self righteous, so arrogant. "You never bond. How you even know?"



Image Credits -- Table style by Tamme!
Please tag me in every post! Magic/Force is allowed on Gaucho at any time.


Ampere The Mother of Companions Posts: 719
Dragon's Throat Sultana atk: 9 | def: 11 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 14 hh :: 6 years HP: 73 | Buff: DANCE
Kygo :: Green Cheek Conure :: None Blu
#10
A M P E R E
"Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death" -- Michel Aoun

Her arrogance? He was the one who stood before her under the guise of some white knight, claiming he'd saved a life. He needed that feeling, didn't he? A reason for his strength, a purpose for his scars. He basked in the glow of the sun because without it he was dark and his armor built of bones. Good deeds were the blood on his hooves, proclaimed gloriously each time he reared up to lord them over someone. She hated him for it.

This was where their fire clashed, where their balance went careening out of control. It was so obvious, but she'd willingly been blind to it, because sometimes it just felt good to burn. Even the God of the Sun was balanced by his elements, fire and light. Her and Gaucho, they could only ever raze the land, and each other.

As she lay there listening to him justify a safe life over a free death, a bonded companion over an ignored egg, she simply wondered when he would stop. It was same worthless drivel she had heard before, and though it wasn't fully surprising that it came from him, it was utterly infuriating. For so long she had made him the stallion she wanted him to be, even going so far as to overlook obvious cues that he wasn't, that this scene was unavoidable. She was coming to terms with it now though, and with that realization came the gradual withdrawing of her heart. It would not be an immediate severance; there would be residual flutters of feelings, habits which had to be broken, but she could not explain to herself any longer how she could love him. Not when he was like this.

Not when he had two lives taken, all in the guise of salvation. Some lies were simply too thick to wear.

"They LIVE Gaucho," she finally growled into the dirt, struck by his next words in which he slathered blame on everyone. The black flesh of her neck rippled as it whirled towards him, her head an arrow that shot her defiant gaze out. Beneath her lithe body her legs trawled through the dunes, preparing to lift her. The last shreds of the paralysis had since left her veins, but only now was her strength returning, rekindled by his flames. "It is not their job to fight, it is ours, that is why they have joined this herd. That is why other ranks exist, because it takes more than warriors to create, this." She had lifted herself up in-between her sentence, red granules raining from her hide as her wings flung out to gesture at the desert all around them, at the Throat. "You are not the only one with scars Gaucho, you are not the only one who works, who saves."

"That is their freedom." Of course any life involved a fight, and Ampere wholly believed in being able to protect yourself, to survive int he most basic of forms - but she never doubted that they could. There were more ways to fight than just with bodies anyways, something Ampere was slow to learn, but maybe Gaucho even slower. That was where the freedom mattered, because if fighting is what kept you safe, but wasn't what you wanted to do, was it even worth it? Wouldn't it be better, more fulfilling at least, to die with a slit throat, your blood painting the artwork you had just crafted? Didn't that make your life worth something?

Didn't the companions at least have it owed to them to try and survive alone, to live, to enjoy freedom? If all that was needed was for the egg to be saved, couldn't it be moved elsewhere, assuming it even needed to be moved at all? How many of these tiny creatures had actually been robbed from their homes by some unknowing do-gooder? Assuming all of that wasn't possible though, as Gaucho was saying that there was certainty that no family was around, and that the egg wouldn't survive alone, then why did the bond need to exist? Both had to choose, that's what the gods said, so despite what Gaucho knew he had forged the bond just as solidly as the chick had.

The gods said they didn't interfere, but bonds were evidence of just that. The mortals definitely interfered, and the gods not only let them, but helped them.

Ampere snorted, half at her thoughts and half at Gaucho's response when he finally turned back to her. "It is not how the world has to work," she seethed, teeth holding back the bite of her anger, though her posture was not so kind. Was he so content to live this way? Of course, she thought, it suits him. The companions help him, why change it? "It can be changed. It should be changed." Sun god fry her on the spot if he claimed change shouldn't happen, that it couldn't happen, because he had done just that. He had swept into that baby phoenix's life and changed it all. The gods had forged the bonds, they had changed the world, at the hands of a mare no less - could she change it back?

SLAP.

The last words he leveled her with, said so casually, so coldly, bored into her more than the rest combined. It was not the first time she'd heard them, but she never got over the cruel bite of them and all they implied. She shook, barely able to resist the urge to kick him in the fucking mouth. She decided instead to respond, crumpling up all her love and all her hate into the words that slipped from her tongue next. Like most things in life, they appeared simple, but were full of more complexities than most could see. If he would only do as the words said, then maybe he could see it too.
"Because I whatch."

Credits: Image by Tabini
Coding by Tamme

Tag me only if starting a new thread.
Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
Ascended Helovian

Gaucho The Wildfire Posts: 1,004
Deceased atk: 8.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 8
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.2 :: 12 HP: 85 | Buff: PINNACLE
Mara :: Black Mamba Snake :: Paralyze & Vorsa :: Plain Zephyr :: Phoenix Odd
#11

GAUCHO
Doubt comes in on sticks but then he kicks like a horse.


"SOME JOIN HERDS SOME BOND." He bellowed, ears flat against his skull. If loyalty meant anything to anyone around here, Ampere would see the situations to be the same. Herds are joined for the valuable resources they provide, but the bonds formed upon joining were often disregarded as mere formalities. To join a herd and just leave ... what was that? Where Gaucho came from, such a thing was unthinkable. Only in rare cases, such as his own, could one leave their herd - their family - with impunity. Was it not the same with companion bonds? That once the decision was made between both parties it should remain until death takes one - or both?

For a moment he was glad that he couldn't see her. Glad that if he blocked Mara's eyes from his mind, that her blue form disappeared from the sands. He couldn't look upon her, because he knew that if he did he very well might kill her. A confused tension welled up inside of him, resonating in his very bones such that he felt as though he might explode outwards at any instant. How they had gotten here - how the flames of their passion had turned into something so dark and so twisted - he didn't know. His thoughts were like a rising crescendo in his ears and mind, ideas he wanted to say lost on words he couldn't articulate.

He didn't know. Didn't know the extent of her plight to save companions. He thought she merely looked out for those being mistreated as a result of their bond, not every creature who had bonded. If Gaucho had known ... would that have changed his actions? He didn't know, couldn't know. But for now in his mind, he clung to his ignorance. And in that ignorance he lost himself in bittersweet memories of her. Of the taste of her salty skin, seasoned with an electric blue that both cooled and stoked the fire inside of him. Of the way they had moved together once, and the way the words I love you had felt, unspoken, upon his lips.

At the time he didn't think they needed to be spoken, and now, in the midst of this betrayal and confusion, he selfishly cherished the fact that they never had. Still, the words scarred him just as surely as any other wound did, though never this deep. Tension descended upon his shoulders, as his wings negotiated their place against his flanks although never to his satisfaction.

He wanted to make her see that whatever wrong she had thought he committed he had done so non-culpably, but that would require conceding more than his soul could endure.

Returning his gaze to her in a sweep, he tried to pull from her the emotions that he was currently feeling, the want - the need - to remove from history the past 5 minutes and to start again. To re-calibrate and relight the flame. But in her eyes he only saw the reflection of his own flames. The flame she held for him was gone.

"This how you change it?" He inquired dryly, the depths of his gaze finding no home in her own. "You know Gaucho have Mara. Gaucho have Mara for years. Never say anything. Tavi have Natraj. Soh have Astra-" The list could go on, but he felt he had made his point. He hadn't been there during any of Ampere's rants or soapbox lectures, and she had never bothered to educate him.

"Not going to change the world by watching." He concluded darkly, still trying to contain the immense swell of emotion that was threatening to spill over at any moment.


Image Credits -- Table style by Tamme!
Please tag me in every post! Magic/Force is allowed on Gaucho at any time.



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