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A M P E R E
"Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death" -- Michel Aoun "It's fine to think you're the best," Ampere began after listening to Isopia. "At least, until you find someone better." There was a big difference in thinking you were good, and failing to admit when you were not. "You mean to say, with all these horses, in all these gatherings, that not one looks around and decides they are not as worthy as one of the others present?" Ampere snorted, finding that hard to believe. "I have found myself not worthy in several instances, and though I do my best to become worthy, one should drop their head in recognition of those already there. That is something no one in these gatherings does, because their greed supersedes everything else." Isopia went on, and Ampere listened, genuine in her attention. She had spoken to several before about many of the things they were discussing now, but this was different. Ampere couldn't be sure if it was that Isopia hadn't bonded yet, making her less defensive about the matter, or that her god's blood gave her better intelligence, or clarity, or something. She was certainly a smart mare (was she really already a mare!?), despite her youth. Her stillness and her detail of thought reminded Ampere of her father, and for that she was grateful. Ampere was often a reactionary force, pushing back whatever was pushed upon her - whether she instigated the shove or not wasn't what mattered, it was the sum of the forces that did. Everyone met Ampere's fire with fire, and so they all burned. All except the Earth. "Well," Ampere admitted, "maybe not everyone, but most." Did she really need to clarify that for Isopia? There were always exceptions of some kind, even with that very statement, because Ampere hadn't yet met an exception to the way a companion bond operated, or lasted. "Still, you think many of these horses know much about their companion? Most don't even know much about Helovia, much less what creature is even in the egg and what it will want and need to be happy. How could they, when that is the role of the species to which the creature, the egg, belongs? I cannot ask a fish how to swim, or why it lives underwater." Isopia went on, and she was right so Ampere was quiet, nodding. Until... "I think you're taking life too exact," Ampere laughed, a trilling sound reminiscent of birds in some ways. "Certainly this is the only existence I have ever known, but I have had many different lives before this. I lived with my mother and kin as a nomad on my birth plains - not my choice surely, as I was a child, but I chose to leave those plains when I was of age. I chose to follow my friends and live with them in their herd for a while, both of which are different from the life I live now, the one I chose here in Helovia with the Dragon's Throat herd (really, it chose her, but she chose to accept it, to remain, and to come back). Before then though I lived as a wanderer in many different lands before choosing to come and wander Helovia, both of which were different lives, different worlds from each other." Ampere's eyes sparkled, cleverness glinting among their depths. "So I have lived more lives than this, and I chose them all, in one way or another, but companions do not. They get one choice, made as an infant." Ampere spoke that last word with a certain, indignation. "An infant raven, not even hatched! How many things do you remember from that age?" Here Ampere regarded Isopia a bit warily, wondering if perhaps she did remember things given how quickly she had grown. "I know I don't remember much before weaning, and most would agree, yet these creatures are bound by their first decision, when they know nothing of the world. In what way is that just, when we are given so many opportunities to choose? We have that right, that freedom, but they don't. Why are they lesser?" "So you're right, Raven, they should be older when they decide to bond," here Ampere smirked, as if she was sharing a joke, but it wasn't one she was happy about, or maybe it was just morbid. "But they don't, or won't (or can't?). There are no old animals that bond. It's only the infants, the helpless, the naive - those are the ones we prey upon and condemn forever." Why Raven, ask yourself why - it's because the older they get, the more they don't need us. As Isopia began to delve into the way the bond worked, Ampere straightened up. This was ground she was admittedly rocky on too, never having bonded herself (something everyone loved to point out). Ampere knew the generalities of it, the way someone knows what sight is when they are blind. "No, bonds don't work one way... but tell me Raven, do you think an infant can resist the influence of another's emotions, feelings, thoughts, prejudices? We're debating now, because we're both separate, and we've both had time to experience different things which shape the base of the personalities we're born with. Companions... when they bond, they are constantly surrounded by the horse they are tied to, unable to escape into their own head, unable to truly see with their own eyes. When you share everything, nothing is yours, and because the companions share from the moment they hatch and are able to take on the world, they have nothing to even give up to share - they are drowned by the bond and the horse. They may react, or think, or say things differently, because in their core they are still an individual, but in as much the same way, they are nothing but an extension of their bonded." Each bee was it's own being, but it was still a part of the overwhelming authority of the hive. "Mothers teach their young. They shape them into what they ought to be, what they should know, so that the child can be better, safer, happier than the mother. They can do this, because the foal is easily impressed when it is young, and those first lessons, those first experiences, pave the way the child walks as an adult. Yet foals have the freedom companions do not, because eventually when they age, they can choose to listen, they can choose to leave." Ampere grew quiet, letting Isopia finish her words. She didn't respond at first. "Have you ever wondered why they're so small?" Ampere finally asked after a pause, wherein she watched the owl seemingly select it's desired caregiver. Just like that, in less time than it took Ampere to properly spar someone, a life was handed over for all of eternity. How could you not be greedy, when it was that easy to gain a slave? Even the lazy could manage that much effort (case in point, Oxy). "Some of the companions, they're smaller than the normal animals. Bears, big cats, wolves and such... Was their growth stunted?" Ampere didn't say "by the bond", but the intent was there. "Or are they a different species? Hatching from eggs certainly happens every time with a companion, but I can't say it happens with all animals." It happened with her, which was not the normal tendency of horses, or even pegasus, but it was something that could be argued (though Isopia probably didn't know). "So if they are a different species, that begs the question, why?" Ampere turned back to Isopia, regarding her with a highly focused gaze, one which seemed made of steel rather than neon. This was something important to Ampere, so she did not take their conversation lightly, nor did it escape her that she was delving into the truths of companions with the Earth, again. It was only his child this time, but maybe there was more hope because of that. If she was supposed to help connect the gods and the mortals, maybe she could bridge the rift that stood between Ampere and the Earth, and all his serious concern over the matter. "Why create a smaller, bond-able version of species that already exist? Why create the bond at all... or at least, why forge it with such permanence?" "Not even our magic is that tied to us. I have heard of horses losing theirs, of it being stripped from them - not hidden, but lost, or taken - gone." Ampere blinked, remembering her insistence that the god strip her magic from her. She hadn't done it, she hadn't needed to after all, but he had given her a way for it. "We can lose our appendages, or gain them. Our colors can shift and the marks upon our bodies can come and go. Yet none of that, not even our magic, kills us, or anyone else, just because it is gone. Only companion bonds which are broken are so devastating, and I have to ask, why?" Ampere exhaled heavily, as though the weight of her being was pushed out with those words and she needed as much air as she could get to pump herself back up (and the only way you got more air in was getting more breath out). "Why is the bond necessary, much less such a permanent one? Not even twins, identical twins, have something so strong. Shared thoughts, or feelings, or senses... perhaps, but not all, not a soul." Ampere licked her lips, her throat going dry with all her talking, but she persisted, because this was the first time she felt like maybe she was actually being heard. "They cannot be given. Some have asked, tried to pass the companion and bond down to a child or a lover of their kind... like, like it was just something to be given away and not a life, for gods' sakes. They can't though, so maybe the gods at least recognize that." Ampere grunted, not impressed. "They can be silenced. The land was cursed once and all the bonds grew quiet. I have an ability that does something similar... though it's brief. I'm hoping to get it stronger, longer, with practice, but it's hard." She just might even pray to the gods to make it stronger, but would they? Would the Earth step in and bellow at her that she could not? "Yet they cannot be broken... not without utter ruin." Why? Ampere shuffled her feet, resettling on the branch as her muscles tired. "You think I'm arguing that we shouldn't have companions?" she answered Isopia's lingering question at last. It had been so direct and final, like nothing Ampere had ever been asked before, and it had taken her this long to respond properly to it. In doing so, she shook her head, the motion slow and full of something like sadness. Is that all Isopia thought of her? "I am against the bond." "I have known horses that have tamed wild beasts into pets, that have mended broken creatures and befriended them, that have raised orphans into adulthood and in doing so gained children of sorts. In all those instances, no bond held their love together, just respect; earned with time and care, like relationships should be." "Bonds force what should be made with delicacy, what should be chosen each and every day. They are an ugly shackle on the soul, making something that could be beautiful into a conglomerate of feelings and heartbeats." "You asked if I thought the gods have simply overlooked this, and I do, because they are like us, and as such are not infallible." Ampere stared into gold with blue, willing to defy even gods on this matter. The Earth god took it seriously? So did she, and not just because one fucking idiot stallion stole something from her once. "I am against dragons fighting when they simply fight because a horse does. Do you know why they fight in the wild, what they fight for, what all their breath and their scales and their teeth are for? It's not for fucking horses, that's for sure. I am against their natures being merged into our natures, against them failing to do what is normal for them just because they are tethered. Our lives are spent growing, learning, surviving, and in those moments, we share them with our own kind, so that we may find love, or at least romance enough to reproduce, and pass down what we know, what we stayed alive with to our young - can companions do this, can they really, when they ride on withers and attend herd meetings?" Ampere snorted, teeth bared in rising ire. "I am against gods trapping creatures and calling it salvation." If anyone bothered to look, it was the exact same thing as the Moon Goddess arguing that murder was good. |
Coding by Tamme
Tag me only if starting a new thread.
Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
