the Rift


Of Shadows and Shrubs

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#1
isopia.

Isopia was quickly realizing that there was much more to this world than rationality and clear thinking. There were emotions and intuitions, acrasia, hate and love. If the world were divided into two parts - the rational and the irrational - the earthen-child was quickly coming to the conclusion that the irrational part was swamping the rational. Thranduil had showed her how the body could trick the mind into feeling and being a certain way, just by the suggestion of sexual gratification. Roskuld had showed her that violence and physical threats were often the only means of piercing though a veil of emotional irrationality. Both required skills that exceeded the linguistic and philosophical tools that she had acquired thus far.

Isopia needed to learn how to use her body, as well as her mind.

And so, without much pomp or circumstance, the youngest of the demi-children woke one day in the silence of her glade, and decided that she would learn how to fight. She didn't know much about it, she just knew it involved a lot of physical flailing in an attempt to win. Winning in this context was merely triumphing by physical force, such that the loser had no choice but to do whatever it was that caused you to fight in the first place. It seemed horribly base, primitive, and juvenile, but that was the way of things. The world had degraded to this point and no one seemed to notice. Helovia was full of those with military might and power, arenas to fight in, and bodies scarred with badges of honour. But where were the schools? Where were the places of learning and mental development?

That's right. There weren't any. Helovia favoured the strong and not the clever. Perhaps one day she would meet some of Helovia's most clever: Mauja or Ophelia perhaps. Then she would really be able to make her point, for where would those clever minds be without wars and battles? Even they had not gotten to where they were today without accumulating a few scars.

Isopia had her reasons and her justifications ... now all she needed as an opponent.

Mesec..

Gliding on blackened raven wings, the now-avian girl spied her darker cousin below. He appeared to have a small bird with him, but that fact fluttered irrelevantly out of her thoughts. As did just about all of the other relevant facts. Were she more experienced, she might have considered that sparring in a meadow freshly covered with snow was a poor choice, or that sparring at all in the snow was a poor choice. The only time Isopia had ever worked up a sweat was in the warmer seasons - she had never yet felt the bone-chilling cold which occurred when one sweat too much in the frigid air.

All she thought about was increasing her skill in this area. And why not with Mesec? Hadn't the two discussed fighting before? In Iso's mind, he was a perfect candidate ... even if they had never explicitly agreed to actually fight. She briefly considered calling down to him, but refrained. If this was to be a good approximation of what a real fight would look like, one attacker wouldn't intentionally try to alert the other. That much she thought she knew. So, in fairness to Mesec really, she remained silent.

Then she dove.

The black speck that was her body dropped from the overcast sky, aiming right for Mesec. As she dove, she began to change. Her wings elongated, her body rapidly grew in size and contorted. As this occurred, the previously smallish shadow that fell over Mesec grew larger and larger as his cousin rapidly descended upon him.

Isopia completed her transformation about 10m above Mesec. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" She yelled finally (horses did this right before an attack, didn't they? She was sure they did), as she aimed to more or less use Mesec's left shoulder as a way of stopping her forward and downward momentum. Her angle wasn't so steep that she was dropping down directly on top of him, and she found that all four hooves actually struck the ground once before she tried to barrel into him.





Setting: Thistle Meadow. Overcast sky, chill in the air, and freshly fallen snow on the ground.
WC: 693
Attack: 1/3
@[Mesec]





Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#2


You know, it started out as just a peaceful day; everything was a soft shade of grey the way it usually is in Frostfall and there was barely any noise. And then suddenly there was a quick bout of violent screaming - which, even for Helovia, was quite strange. It came from above Mesec and he looked up in time to see someone coming right down on top of him. The call had made Mesec - who had been humming softly to Lucius - jump almost right out of his feathers. Instinctively he quickly turned to the side, sliding in the fresh snow as he did so and almost completely losing his balance as he changed his direction quickly as he could.

Now he could see that it was his youngest cousin that had been trying to barrel him over, and not in a playful way that he would have expected from Roskuld when she was younger. Worry for Lucius, the tiny little bird that was clinging to his back, quickly overwhelmed him and manifested in part as a rush of anger toward this sudden attack. He sent soothing thoughts to his companion as he hurried out of the way. He would like to keep moving away from his cousin but if she attacked him once there might be others.

The little zephyr would not be soothed. He was cawing like mad as he was disturbed from sleep and fearful over what was happening and why Mesec - who was always so careful not to disturb him - was suddenly running about. “What are you doing?!” He shouted at Isopia as he escaped her hooves, sticking with his new direction as he moved away and encouraged Lucius to hop from his neck onto a low branch of a nearby oak. The companion was refusing to calm down or stay in the nest of feathers. Instead he hopped off Mesec but continued to bounce about on the branch in an angry way, squawking the entire time. Not very intimidating, when you were still a mess of black down and a few silver feathers sticking up atop your head, but Mesec didn’t have the time to linger and calm Lucius down. He did not want to be near his companion when another attack came. He had promised to take care of the zephyr and dealing with this fight would be one way to keep the action away from the oak.

He turned back to his cousin, frowning, feeling less angry now that Lucius was - hopefully - out of harm’s way. “Are you picking a fight with me, Little Earth?” He could see as he looked to her that she had outgrown the name already, she was aging so quickly, but it had stuck in his mind if only because it was the last thing they had talked about. She would tower over him if they were standing closer and he was about to get closer - but he had no idea how to attack a larger opponent. There was a fair amount of difference between their heights now, her wings would be larger and she’d likely be stronger than he was but what about speed? Endurance? There was only one way to find out. As he had moved away toward the treeline, to get back to Isopia he summoned the shadows around him and readied to teleport toward her.

But he did not reappear in a heartbeat as he usually did. He held onto the magic as he readied himself, unfurling his wings and preparing and only reappearing when he was ready - 5 seconds later. He had been hoping to teleport to a spot where he was facing her but at a slight angle off of her left shoulder. At least, that was the spot where he thought she had been standing before he had disappeared.

Slightly raised on his hind legs, Mesec let go of his magic when his large wings swung out, hopefully buffeting her in the head the way you might smack a child. He even scolded her as the wing moved, angry both over the fact that they were fighting and that she had tried to sneak it upon him. “You could ask. I will not have my companion harmed on your whim.” He wondered if she had seen the small bird, if she simply didn’t care. Or was this no spar, was she actually fighting him for unfriendly reasons? It was hard to tell, both options were just as likely as the other.

Words: 749
Attack: 1/3

her scream acting as a warning, Mesec avoids Isopia's attack by sliding out of the way and moving to put Lucius on a nearby tree branch
he teleports back to her, prolonging the time between disappearing and reappearing for 5 seconds, before appearing where he believed he would be facing her off her left shoulder
when he reappears, his wings move to buffet Isopia in the head


image by jjjj56cp at flickr
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#3
isopia.

To be fair, Isopia didn't know Mesec had a companion. He didn't have one when they saw each other on the beach or with the dragon in the woods. And it was nearly impossible to see the little chick, given that it was a black and silver ball of feathers tucked against a body of black and silver. Then again ... in all fairness it is also worth mentioning that even if Isopia knew that Mesec had a small companion sleeping on his back, she wouldn't have cared. Nothing would have changed. Enemies wouldn't wait for you to coddle your loved ones, so why should see?

In the back of her mind her animated mental facsimile of Thunderhead was screaming at her for potentially injuring a companion, but she easily blocked the voice out. She hadn't quite picked up the torch for companion-rights yet.

Isopia couldn't be sure what caused her initial attack to miss, but miss she did. Was it her completely arbitrary screams that alerted her cousin? Her lanky and unwieldy body that she didn't quite know how to maneuver? Or was it her obvious lack of skill and forethought?

Take your pick.

Iso's galloped forward. Without Mesec's body to stop her charge, she had to let her momentum slowly dissipate lest she try to slam on the breaks and fall in the snow. Vaguely she heard his voice leaving his lips in a chastising tone, but the words didn't make their way into her thoughts; she was still concentrating on slowing down without falling. Out of the corner of eye she saw her cousin pause by a tree, which she assumed now held his companion. Iso didn't actually have any real desire to bring the young chick into it, so mentally she vowed to steer clear of the oak if she could. Finally coming to a halt, her warm breath leaving her dark nostrils in puffy clouds of white, she stomped her hoof. "No, I picked you for a fight." She corrected, then tensed up much the way a puppy would when expecting another to playfully attack it. For Iso, this was playful. Playing was fun, and learning was fun - this was just another way of learning things.

Her tail swayed behind her trying to antagonize him into moving, because as she had just learned, charging at Mesec seemed to be hopeless. Besides, she had attacked him - now was his turn to attack her. Wasn't that how things worked? Her mind quickly began to churn, trying to recall any sparring etiquette that she might have forgotten which would dictate what she ought to do next. Just as she was about to conclude that indeed, she knew nothing, Mesec disappeared. The earthen-child's nostrils flared as her bright golden stare was cast quickly around the pale expanses. Wherever Mesec appeared she was sure to spot him instantly - he would be a black smudge on a canvas of white. Unmistakable. The last time Mesec had used this magic he had appeared farther away from her, and so, acting on that previous knowledge, Isopia quite literally never saw him coming.

His blackened feathers rubbed right against her eyes, as his wing buffeted across her unsuspecting death-masked face. Tears instantly streamed down her left cheek, as her left eye declared itself closed for business. The thrust of his shove caused her quad-horned skull to be thrown to the right, painfully twisting her neck with the surprise of it all. The pain was bright and tangible in her thoughts, but instead of screeching out, Isopia smiled. She had never really been in this sort of pain before, and having it inflicted on her by her cousin seemed ... intimately fitting. It was new knowledge, and silently she thanked Mesec for it.

With a grunt the much larger demi-god threw herself to the left. Her left eye was still shut and throbbing, and rudely was still blocking her vision, so her actions were fairly uncoordinated. Her aim was to throw her left shoulder into ... well hopefully into Mesec. Specifically where was anybody's guess - though his own left shoulder was most likely. It never even occurred to Isopia to bite him while she was that close (how barbaric), so instead she flared and flapped her own wings, hoping to hit him in the neck with her left one.






WC: 716
Attack: 2/3
@[Mesec]





Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#4


“Don’t I feel lucky.” He mumbled as she clarified that she had not been picking a fight with him, she had picked him for a fight. Although he could feel his agitation fade away now that the initial shock had one, he did not appreciate the drop-in selection method that Little Earth chose. It wasn’t very polite but, then, she didn’t follow the same rules that everyone else seemed to. Learning that fact about her had been part of what endeared her to him. She may be half-god and half-mortal as he was but he had a feeling that she would be the one to figure it all out, she’d find it easier.

This was his cousin, after all, he would not want to harm her too severely if he could not avoid harming her at all and - lest he forget - they both had healing magic As it had with Ophelia, when he saw the effect of his attack he winced and wanted to call the whole thing off. He did not like inflicting pain, whether or not it was for a spar or to learn. But Mesec didn’t have much time to think - he got distracted, worrying over the damage, and forgot to anticipate her next attack. Time to worry but no time to actually check and see if she was okay. She reacted quickly and shouldered into him as her giant wings came rushing at him. Her strength was incredible! It was hard to believe that she had been born less than a year ago. Mesec would marvel over it later, however, as at the moment his shoulder came too close to popping out as it twisted with her hit and, to top it off, one of her wings caught him in the neck. Their proximity ensured that it was the muscular part - caught him right on the front of his neck as she was shouldering him. Luckily enough his shoulder took the majority of her movement but he still started gasping, sliding in the slick, trampled snow and shaking his head as he tried to catch his breath again.

Grunting both to catch his breath and due to the pain, Mesec couldn’t help but wonder, once again, why this was a favourite pass-time of Helovians.

He could hear Lucius’ chatter grow louder as the discomfort radiated through their bond and he felt the effect that his well being was having on the little chick. It was still strange, being so linked with something else. Sometimes the thoughts that were in his head weren’t his. Regrettably, that wasn’t a new sensation but the intimacy of the bond between his companion and him was surprising him. And they were only just starting out!

“H...hold...on.” Mesec requested in a hoarse voice, speaking to both his cousin and his companion as he caught his breath, hoping that they would both just give him a second to do so. Every step he made with his left leg sent shooting pains into his shoulder but this wasn’t over yet and his breathing was still painful but a little easier. He’d have to see about healing the shoulder before too long, so that it set properly, but his esophagus should stop feeling so constricted soon enough. It felt bruised but nothing too serious.

The steamy breaths coming from his lungs came in smaller gusts as he regained his breath and his head raised up again, looking for his cousin at the same time as he sent reassuring thoughts to Lucius, who had settled down. Not trusting his leg to catch him up to her, Mesec once more shrouded himself in shadow. He did not waste time lingering in darkness this time, but reappeared right away - aiming to reappear off of her right side toward her hind legs. Once he was solid once more, he shot his neck out (regretting the quick movement immediately) with the intention of nipping her on the leg. The pain in the throat was aggrivating but he wanted to give his legs a break and did not think that he would have enough strength either to attack with his front or to support his weight as he attacked with his back.


Words: 703
Attack: 2/3

- takes the majority of Isopia's attack on his left shoulder, bruising the muscle severely and almost dislocating it
- gets whacked in the throat by Isopia's wing, causing temporary breathing difficulties
- using his magic to teleport toward Iso's rear right side and attempts to nip her on her right hip


image by jjjj56cp at flickr
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#5
isopia.

The earthen child felt nothing as her attack solidly and victoriously found her cousin. The blood-lust that others felt - the rush of passion and fire, the heat and need to attack again, the dizzying swell of aggression - all of it was absent. This was tactical, emotionless, and disconnected: just like Isopia. Although her body felt the impact of itself against Mesec, her mind remained contentedly adrift from the action.

It was both a blessing and a curse, this monkish dichotomy she maintained between her mind and body. Whether it would prove a boon in combat had yet to be decided. On the one hand, an emotionless killer might have the capacity to sweep across the battlefield without remorse or second-thoughts for those left dying and dead. Without emotion to stay her hooves or her magic, she would never hesitate to attack. And yet that lack of emotion would also bar her from the power of desire, and ambition and pride - emotions that could dull pain or provide fuel to an empty tank. She would never fight for anything, only because of something. And while reasons and words might win arguments, hearts and passion won wars.

H...hold...on.

Mesec's voice broke the silence that up until now only heavy breathing and colliding bodies had. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Isopia obeyed her older cousin. She didn't know enough about combat to know that breaks and time-outs were not allowed, or at least that she was not obligated to respect them. She could have conjured up a dragon of stone or water and dropped it on top of him, could have upset his footing with her magic, or thrown water in his eyes all while he was distracted. It would have been to her advantage, and likely any onlooker with a mind for strategy would have indeed approved it. Yet she obeyed his command and remained docile as he silently communed with his companion (although to Iso, it merely looked like he was catching his breath).

Her large golden eyes watched him with a soft patience, growing even rounder as he disappeared. She cast her gaze about the white field knowing that he could appear anywhere. Isopia's nostrils flared as she inhaled heavily, wondering if she could smell him even if he was invisible. Her last thought before her cousin's teeth found the flesh of her right hind-leg, was No, I suppose there's no way to detect him when he uses his magic.

Pain gripped the flesh around her gaskin. The suddenness of it all allowed her body to briefly overturn her mind's monopoly on her actions; Isopia's hind legs lifted off of the ground bucking out towards Mesec. As soon as the demi-child felt her legs elongate she mentally reprimanded herself for being so impulsive. Whether or not her buck hit Mesec certainly wasn't going to diminish the pain in her right leg (in fact, as her muscles tightened and her legs returned to her body, the pain increased). Her next thought was that she was almost certainly going to fall.

Isopia felt her front legs strain to hold her weight stable on the snowy ground. She hadn't had much practice when it came to balancing in this posture, nor were her muscles particularly well-versed. Her rapidly-aging body paired with her dislike of general play, hadn't given her much experience when it came to maneuvers which involved frolicking or flailing. As a result, her knees buckled as her hind-legs snapped back to her body. Her weight shifted her forwards, and although her front legs tried to reconcile the abrupt imbalance, they failed spectacularly. Iso felt her knee hit the ground and was shocked to feel how hard and solid it had become. The fluffy layer of white snow that topped everything had given her a wildly inaccurate picture of how frozen the world had become. Pain ricocheted up through her front left knee, as she stumbled forward like some wayward snowplow.

Surprise was evident on her death-masked face as she tried to find her footing, alternatively shifting between favouring her bruised knee and her aching hind-leg. If Isopia could feel frustration, she would have been overflowing with it. Instead, her mind raced to try and reconcile what had happened and why. Was it the element of surprise that had let Mesec so expertly bite her? Had he known her body would betray her, and that her instincts and reflexes would hinder her, rather than help? Was it the snow? Who had failed her? Her mind? Or her body?








omg I'm the worst. I said I wanted a fast spar and then took 3 weeks.

WC: 755
Attack: 3/3
@[Mesec]





Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Blu the Bootyful Posts: 443
Administrator atk: 99 | def: 99 | dam: 99
Mare :: Other :: 5'7" :: 25 HP: 99999 | Buff: TWERK
Blu
#6
Mesec defaults to Isopia. Isopia earns 0.5 VP.
 HP: 1100

Helovia Hard Mode


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