the Rift


[OPEN] eye see

Rikyn the Puppeteer Posts: 549
Aurora Basin Lord atk: 7.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 HP: 70 | Buff: SWIFT
Duir :: Royal Cerndyr :: Earth Spirit Bunnie
#1
Яikyn

Wheeze, thump, wheeze, thump.
 
Some healing, Moon Goddess; my welts, bruises, and burns were gone, but something terrible was itching, scratching, burying itself in my lungs, grasping sticky barbed fingers into the tissue of my throat, my gaze obscured now and again by some floating, dark blots that I can only assume are the same black, putrid coloration as that which drips from my nose.  My ears feel as if they are stuffed with fabric, my head aches, and each joint seems to click with my slow, laborious step.
 
I skirt the Dead Lands, something of the abysmal darkness of that land feeling like kin as I walk alongside its boundaries, some twenty feet from where the grass shrivels into the colorless putrefaction the wraiths left behind.  Occasionally, some shadow seems to dance and cackle, the random breezes which waft from the dank marshland cold as I would imagine the touch of death to be, colder than even the winter I had come home to.
 
As a child, I had never been allowed so close to this land, my mother terrified of the disease which may lay dormant within, that which had turned her into a beast, which had forced friendship out of enemies.  She had forbid I ever come so close to this land of monsters.
 
But she was not here, was she?  She could just take that law and shove it right up her ass, wherever she was.
 
I chuckle, feeling oddly giddy despite how very crappy I feel otherwise, the sound contorting suddenly into a harsh hacking, the grassy earth at my hooves sprayed with a film of black stickiness before I at last manage to gasp a clear breath and continue onward.
 
I glance at the forest to my right, the one that hides a little pavilion that once had been very, very beautiful if the draping and glass that remains are any indication.  A pretty little pavilion in a wood of doom, of ultimate suffering.
 
As cryptic as the Dead Land is, the forest frightens me more.
 
The forest is alive, its dark fingers scratch and reach from bending boughs out towards me, where I skirt outside their desirous grasping among the growing grasses, warmed by the spring sunlight (which is outrageously bright, so very bright I squint as I walk along, my eyes downcast, my head lowered from its usual proud position to defer the glare of the wicked Sun).  It had almost had me, I had almost walked into it - but I will be eaten by no trees on this day, I think to myself, feeling an odd dizziness sweep through my head as I wobble in place, staring into the land of death.


[ OOC:  Is in a stretch of living meadow which stands between the Dead Lands and the forests surrounding the Rotunda, heading Northward.  Is experiencing mild delusions (as well as paranoia) in that the trees seem to be alive and trying to grab him, which he has interpreted as the trees trying to eat him (yay tree snacks). :D  Open for anyone! ]


in every heart a hole
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Ki'irha Posts: 176
Outcast atk: 4.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 6
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15hh :: 5 years old HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Noella
#2




Ki’irha
We used to look up and wonder at our place in the stars.


The midnight unicorn moved slowly through the forest. The Birdsong sun warmed the air, and dappled the ground in long fingers that were able to break through the canopy. Though the trees were not at their full foliage, they provided enough coverage to maintain the coolness of the season. Making her way along, alone as nearly always, she spent time mapping the terrain in her mind. She had never been this way during her time in Helovia, and was unsure what she would find sneaking through the trees. It was remarkable really, she considered, how among the decay of decaying trees, life still thrived. Upon the thick trunks of the dead grew boughs of rebirth.

She had heard in passing there stood an ancient ruin that had still perservered, and she quested to find it. But as she picked her way further into the depths of the forest, she noticed the trail of another crossed paths with her. In the soft soil, distinct cloven hoofprints were pressed into the mud. She dipped her head low and inhaled deeply. She recoilee, lip curling. The trail smelled of a putrid sickness. The starry mare paused, and considered turning and leaving. But she was a warrior, the proud Corporal of the Aurora Basin, and she held no fear or concern for whatever may be lurking in the wood.

Continuing on, more cautiously than before, she found herself following the trail of prints, until she came upon the sounds of their owner. Remaining concealed the best she could, Ki'irha peered through the thicket. A stallion stood alone. He was handsome and uniquely colored, jet black with strains of vivid gold. But still, something seemed off. The brute seemed to stumble, and even while standing still he seemed to have a certain uneasiness on his own feet. He avoided the touch of low hanging branches, shying from them like they were going to animate and drag him in.

She stood in the shadows for a while, watching him wobble. He stared at something, though she wasn't sure what. But something dark was dripping and oozing. The girl was unnerved. There was the distinct sound of a laugh that mutated into an awful cough, and tar seemed to burst from his mouth. She watched, horrified, before something possessed her to speak to him.

"Hello, darling,"she called out, her words slow and gentle. Perhaps he was a haunt of the forest? A mad creature cursed with illness? Or an outcast,  exiled because he was plagued with some horrid disease. She shuddered. She slowly stepped from her cover, knowing it was a dangerous move. Silver eyes never left the brute, and she watched for any indication he may strike. But although he was bigger than she, she was small and quick.  "You seem unwell. Is there any way I may be able to help you?"How stupid, she thought. She did not possess healing magic, nor did she know of any cures or treatment for any sickness this may be. But, though he may be deranged, he still wore a horn upon his brow, and deserved help if he needed it.

She stood strong, and waited to see how mad this unicorn really was.
______________________
“Talk”
OOC//
Tagged//

Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.

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Please Tag Me ○ Permission for magic and injury is granted. Just no death or permanent harm.

Eden Posts: 56
Absent Abyss atk: 4 | def: 9 | dam: 7
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16.1 :: 5 HP: 64 | Buff: NOVICE
prissy
#3

E D E N
if you wanna break these walls down
you're gonna get bruised





She couldn't tell where she was going anymore. The colors were everywhere, they blurred the realm between sight and sound. She stumbled around the forest, tripping occasionally over branches and the like. Sometimes she would fall, scratch and muddy up her knees. She didn't care about that pain, nothing was worse than what she was seeing. 

The pale mare stumbled forward into the Rotunda, falling to her knees and coughing up more of the black goop onto the verdant around her. Her throat felt raw with each cough, her lungs painfully filling with air. The most basic need for survival, oxygen, was becoming increasingly difficult for her to obtain. 

She struggled to her feet, shielding her eyes from the glaring colors of the glass on the building. It made her headache even more than normal. It made her sick to think that she would consider this normal. She considered normal to be a relative term. "I want my normal back," she mumbled to herself, tucking her head and throwing her mane into her face. It helped hide the sights, but the sounds remained along with the colors they brought.

Eden travelled slowly, leaving behind the strange building and coming upon wood. She weaved between the trees, eventually noticing how sparse they seemed. A meadow. She saw known noises, birds chirping (blue), water running (green), and hooves thumping (orange). She stopped as she saw the familiar shade of orange, associating it with strangers. She saw words, staining her vision with shades of emerald. A versatile color, either cold like the stone or warm in the verdant of spring.

"Hello?" She called, raising her head and letting her mane fall back to her neck. As the word left her mouth the black goop oozed from her lips, eyes, and nose, along with adding another color to the mosaic that was her vision. Tuning out the colors wasn't easy, but she managed to make out two shapes, both dark against the green of the land. She saw horns against the green, giving Eden hope in the fact that perhaps these horses were of the Basin.



            
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Random Event Posts: 1,286
Helovian Ancient
Stallion :: Equine :: ::
#4
Ki'irha has contracted GLL.

Rikyn the Puppeteer Posts: 549
Aurora Basin Lord atk: 7.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 HP: 70 | Buff: SWIFT
Duir :: Royal Cerndyr :: Earth Spirit Bunnie
#5
Яikyn
Hello, darling…

My eyes snap up, narrowed in dislike of that word, one that calls to mind my dam in her conniving beauty manipulating strangers, herd mates, myself, to her will. One ear slips back, assuaging far too quickly for sense that this young woman is a bitch of the devious sort, that I should be cautious what steps I take about her, what words I let fly.

Alongside the raising of defenses is a heightened sense of abandonment, that my mother is no where near to call me such words, to hear my tales of conquest or to tend for me now that I am genuinely ill, having been unusually healthy and of good fortune in my youth.

Yet, the eyes that I discover upon my figure are silver, not aureate, her figure azure laced with the same metallic shine as the gaze which holds me. Pretty, I think to myself, even if she is wicked and a temptress, a beguiler and mistress of deceit; perhaps all the best women are, anyway. They are the gentler of our blood, tender, and must make up for what they lack in physical strength with the tenuous strength of their wit – though this mare is lined with sinew that suggests she comes with the ability to wield the shining mythril of her blade as well as the silver of her tongue.

That she thinks her question is stupid is quite ironic (not that I can read her thoughts), because I mentally mirror almost the same statement. At least the second one isn’t so bad, turning the frown that had bloomed at her arrival into a straight line of nonchalance.

No regard is given to the matter that she managed to surprise me.

I’m not myself, as she can see, hear when I first try to speak and manage only a gruesomely wet hacking sound for several moments.

"Did you hear that?" I ask, having heard something like branches snapping in the forest some distance behind her, body craning slightly to the side so that I might peer at the grasping shadow of the wicked trees; there is no one there, yet.

Maybe the trees ate them.

I shudder.

"Maybe," I answer, remembering she had asked if she might help, "but you will get it too."

A faint hello draws my attention away from the blue woman, black glazed vision landing upon a pale damsel marked with butter cream details and a long, golden horn. So, the trees didn’t eat her, they merely poked her eyes out, as obviously we are right here – so why would she tremulously ask hello as if we were invisible?

I crane my head forward to see better, finding her eyes are still in tact – though the same black goo which leaks from my facial orifices besieges her features, as well. Fear spasms through my heart.

"Has it… has it made you blind?" I question, a knot tightening in my throat and panic threatening to overwhelm me if her answer is yes.

I don’t want to go blind at all.

in every heart a hole
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Ki'irha Posts: 176
Outcast atk: 4.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 6
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15hh :: 5 years old HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Noella
#6
 
Ki’irha
I am no bird & no net ensnares me.
A look of displeasure, like a bad taste had seeped into his mouth, crossed over the sick stallion as Ki’irha looked on. He began to cough, as if his lungs were going to crawl from his mouth. Perhaps they would. The black oozed and splattered. She was too focused on the black beast, riddled in illness, to hear the sound of another stumbling through the forest “I, I don’t believe I did, I didn’t hear anything.” She stuttered, her voice unsure. She had never felt uncomfortable like this. She felt very nauseous. “Are you, are you hearing things? What do you hear?”



The black stag answered her question, and the answer made her feel no better about the situation. “What happened to you? What is this?”



Before he had a chance to answer, a ghost appeared. The warrior’s skin crawled, and the whites of her eyes formed crescents around silver. This white unicorn shared the black’s with the black discharge that seeped from her face. “What the fuck is happening?”  

she cussed, shying backwards. She leapt forwards, trying to distance herself from the pair. Terror squeezed her heart, urging her to run until she could no longer see this wretched forest behind her. But before she could make it farther than two strides she tripped over an exposed root, and tumbled to the ground. She flailed, trying to drag herself upwards, when a harsh pain shot up her front right leg. A sharp whinny broke from her lips. She managed to stand, but knew she had injured herself bad enough to be unable to retreat. It was no worse than a sprain, but still hindered her for the moment.


The black stag mentioned blindness. Is that what this disease was doing? Causing blindness and delusions? Hundreds of thoughts rushed through her head. She had never heard of anything like this before. She exhaled, trying to focus herself and calm her pounding heart. “What is going on?”

she repeated, unable to fully hide the quiver in her voice. For all she knew, this disease could be contagious, and ripping through the herds like wildfire.


She didn’t know the half of it.
_________________ 
Speech
OOC// I'm giving full permission for one of you to do something to come in contact with her to get infected! The choice is all yours.
Tagged//
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Colored by Kels ♡
Lines by Bronzehalo

Please Tag Me ○ Permission for magic and injury is granted. Just no death or permanent harm.

Eden Posts: 56
Absent Abyss atk: 4 | def: 9 | dam: 7
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16.1 :: 5 HP: 64 | Buff: NOVICE
prissy
#7

E D E N
if you wanna break these walls down
you're gonna get bruised



Uncertainty came off in waves from the others. She took an uneasy step back, biting her lip. Perhaps she wasn't so welcome in these parts. As a matter of fact, she wasn't sure where these parts were anyways. Her own herd was a bit biased based upon race. There were other herds in Helovia, Eden knew the possibility of one being racist towards horns...

She clamped her mouth shut, lowering her head and trying to look weak. She meant no harm here, truly! She had seen unfamiliar colors and gravitated towards them. 

Eden flicked her ears toward a dark looking voice. She assumed it belonged to a stallion. His words were an ensemble of bold violets. "Has it… has it made you blind?" She suppressed a groan. Her sight wasn't gone necessarily, just a bit subdued by sounds. She doubted it would be easy to explain. 

"I - I'm not blind," she spoke softly in a quite pathetic attempt to avoid adding another color to her vision. "It's doing something weird to me. It's like I can see sounds, but they're all I see," she stated, her voice sound broken and raspy. She let out a cough, spraying the black goo over the foliage nearest to her. Physical exertion was taking a toll on her lungs. 

The other voice spoke up, it's emerald looking more vibrant than the previous violet. A mare, for sure. Her voice looked concerned, confused, perhaps even frightened. The tension drove Eden into a downward spiral of anxiety and panic. 

She shook her head, losing what little hold she had on the colors. She saw each little noise in the brightest shade they could manage. She felt as if her head could explode at any moment. Her hooves scrambled back, wheezing and oozing black goop. 

"I wish I knew," she whispered, words barely audible, but they still painted her vision in deep shades of gray. She shook her head back and forth, whining softly, hoping the motion could do something to help her head. It didn't. 

"I WISH I KNEW!" Eden screamed at the mare as she asked another question. Her vision filled to the brim with gray, slinking away as her voice died down. "I got it in the new land, the maze-like one. Labyrinth or something - I don't know. There was a battle, blood got on me, then I started to feel ill. The black goop started, my sight got all messed up. Now I've succumbed to this. I'm a walking host; a shell for this sickness. I don't know if there's even a cure. I think that's the worst part, the not knowing," Eden mumbled, her bitter sounding words leaving a bad taste in her mouth. Maybe it was the black goop. She wasn't sure about it - about anything anymore.



            
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Rikyn the Puppeteer Posts: 549
Aurora Basin Lord atk: 7.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 HP: 70 | Buff: SWIFT
Duir :: Royal Cerndyr :: Earth Spirit Bunnie
#8
Яikyn
She hadn’t heard anything.

She accuses me of only hearing them instead. My eyes narrow at her, my tail writhes behind me in reaction to what I take as an insult, a snort spreading black filth across the earth between us.

"Hooves. Sticks breaking," I answer with a rattling breath after a long, glaring pause, a black goo lined ear flicking about to catch the sounds of the wind and the surrounding dead and living woods.

The pretty woman seems to grow afraid – the smell of it radiates off of her, anyway, and I feel my ears lift and my eyes narrow in on her. Does she see the trees coming for us now, too? I shift so that I can view the region behind me, angled in the blind range of my vision, hearing her question as an afterthought among my conscious worries that the trees have grown closer.

And then the ghost appears, the poor, blind ghost; my heart slams against my ribs, I physically jump when the corporal begins to fretfully shout, flying away from us in a sudden panic.

I’m not blind.

An indigo blur, the soldier mare dashes as if to flee, her ankles snared in the process; she hits the ground with a loud thud that is solid in comparison to her womanly shrieks, a cry of fear (or perhaps the air being pushed violently from her lungs on impact) breaking from her lips. I watch her there, on the ground, my eyes madly gleaming, the dark trees reaching, writhing…

Sounds… they’re all I see…

I cackle at the folly of her flight. The cackle dies in the sound of a gurgle, dissipates into a rolling hack, the weight of what the white one says a faint bell of warning over the distraction of the kind mare’s fear.

I don’t know what good running will do, anyway. It’s a disease. She’s in trouble for having stayed to talk to me this long, her compassion a burr which has dipped poisoned tips into her dark azurite flesh.

I wish I knew, says the ghost.

The fallen one rises.

The ghost screams her words again, a twice said answer to a twice asked inquiry.

I find that I’m giggling. I am not entirely sure why.

Maybe it’s that one is afraid, and one is angry, and neither of them do any good for themselves or the sick feeling so.

What do I feel? The question floats like debris on the surface of a puddle across the background noise of the pale woman explaining with many words to the dark woman what has happened to us. My giggling dies.

I glance to the reaching trees – I am afraid of them. But of the women? Of the sickness?

My breath catches, wetly I hack until the black filth dislodges from whatever part of my being it had tried to become one with, splattering in a nasty glob at my hooves; despite feeling like such shit, I don’t think I’m worried about much more than the trees.

Maybe what the shadow hides. Such an evil forest must have truly evil inhabitants.

The ghost had come from there, after all.

"Green Labyrinth," I say, amending the name of the land that I was not sure now how I knew she had named it wrong (I had paid almost no attention to her, after all), "and there is a cure."

I look over at her with a harsh glare, an accusatory one, though it is short lived – I do, after all, have to be mindful as to whether the trees creep closer, their roots inching through the earth towards us.

Don’t condemn the world with your pessimism, lady, not when trees are trying to eat people, and you see with sounds and pretty rainbows – there is enough bullshit in the world already, it doesn’t need your help through dark insinuation.

I cured Volterra’s boils. Someone else would cure this disease, too.

"Have you even tried anything but bitching about it?" I ask, a serious question – my eyebrows even raise, gilded eyes widening in interest as I tilt my head in her direction.

[ OOC: I think something in your code is making my font bold, Prissy. Lol. Should just need <*/b> at the end of your text (without the asterisk) but it could be something more complex. I am not code talented. x3 ]

@Ki'irha
in every heart a hole
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Force/violence is allowed to be used on Rikyn permitted it does not permanently maim or kill him (PM me!).


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