the Rift


[PRIVATE] oh, brother

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
Rikyn

The serenity of the world around us is a cruel mockery of the bewildering swiftness of my thoughts and emotions as the realization that my sister, the small, emaciated bit of nothing mother and I had found abandoned in a meadow, was the child of a God. 
 
Her question meets my ears with the sound of hooves departing, as others leave the gathering disappointed or overwhelmed with joy that there would be no violence as there had been in the other lands.  I find that I care very little about either of these things in this moment, focusing instead on a relationship that I had come home to find very, very changed.
 
Surely it had changed everything.  The way Erebos had told the tale, she had simply left – not a word to him.  The coldness of that, to leave and be within reach, to force a friend, a brother as she called him, to find her…
 
It read quite a lot to me, really, that as soon as she had found her father, she had lost any need for us at all.  And, yet, there is something in her expression that is earnest and truthful, that makes a ball of something well up in my throat which tightens and flexes, which tries to clear all in a long moment of pondering.
 
"I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye," I answer, the honesty of the apology gleaming brightly in my eyes before it hardens under the weight of anger, admonishment – I may not have been there to be a brother then, but I am now, "but it would have been hard to, considering I was invisible, and I didn’t have much time to consider farewells… and besides all that, it didn’t give you a right to abandon Erebos like you did!"
 
My brows are knitted down over sparkling gold eyes, unafraid even as my mind repeats he’s my dad (the image of the God himself framing her with his pale wing), even as I recall her fire breaking apart the crystals of the Bear like they were glass.
 
 






Coding by Tamme - Image by Dingo


@Aithniel @Erebos

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Aithniel the Inquisitor Posts: 169
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 4.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 15.0hh :: 4 Years HP: 75 | Buff: NOVICE
Zerachiel :: Royal Griffin :: Molten Dagger tamme
#2
nothing can save you now,
Her hooves were carefully positioned over the swell over her egg, guarded carefully between her toes. She approached her friends, silver eyes churning earnestly as she knew that this moment would be make or break for her past. The thought of losing her two friends set her stomach reeling, but she was strong enough now to know that there was a bigger future than her own desires - one that she had to ensure took place. Aithniel watched Rikyn carefully, the black and white of this disease fading slowly as the last of the black gunk ceased to leak from her eyes and nose.

Sure, he could judge as much as he wanted about her leaving and saying nothing - but wasn't that exactly what he had done? Aithniel scowled as his words reached her ears, and she snapped her lion tail around herself, defensiveness raising her hackles. Here were two - somewhat - grown boys and all they had to complain about was her leaving? She snorted angrily. What about what she wanted? What about the fact that everyone had looked at her funny? What about her future as the Sun God's daughter?

She would have acknowledged his apology had that sincere expression stayed for longer than a half-second, but instead it gave way to unwarranted anger. "Abandon?" she snapped in return. "He is a prince! And I saw him after I left in the meadow. He seemed just fine. The Aurora Basin is Erebos' home more than anyone else's and without Illynx and you there, I had no other purpose than to be an annoying shadow in his steps!"

"YOU didn't even say goodbye to me, and I knew you were invisible! So yeah, I went off to search for my past and my future - because I was tired of assholes wanting to take my wings and everyone giving me weird looks." Aithniel was at least honest with her barking voice, and she tucked her wings into her sides, narrowing her eyes. "Another pegasus taught me how to fly, and she showed me a land where my father is the leader. It's where I can be close to him."

Aithniel glared. "So you want to judge me? Fine. But you're not perfect either. I wasn't going to yell at you about being gone, you know - or leaving without saying anything."



But burn down our home
I won't leave alive


Please tag me in everything!

Erebos Posts: 474
Aurora Basin General atk: 7.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.1hh :: Four HP: 75.5 | Buff: DANCE
Orsino :: Plain Kitsune :: Dark Illusions & Enyo :: Common Griffon :: Draining Clutch Heather
#3

A finale hung in the air, harsh and brittle. He waited for so many things to snap, to break apart, to be whisked away out into the open, latent air, where everything else was listless and lethargic. The little scion felt particles of anger grate against his soul, frustrations tear along the inflation of his lungs, simmer and boil below the schism of his exuberant, wily essence; fraying the ends of his kindness, his patience. Aithniel was a daughter of a god – an untouchable, intangible artifact, like an arcane beauty he’d never thought would be so out of reach (and a part of him wanted to overflow, erupt in a series of echoing barbs and ruthless words). She’d billow past them before too long, reach for the stars and find them along her wings, forget the two boys she once knew. What were they, in the grand scheme of the divine, in the overthrow of empires, in the reigning wars of kingdoms and reveries? Nothing? Passing spirits on the horizon? Meant to become one of the many sheep, infidels, and cretins? She wouldn’t recollect them in a few years: passing by them on a shimmer of constellations and laughing at their sad, wicked mortality. She wouldn’t remember their names as she sauntered beneath her sire’s triumphant inferno. She wouldn’t know them from all the saints and sinners driven to each battle, to each crusade, and she wouldn’t mourn their loss when they managed to find their graves. She’d always be their long lost, unattainable ally, and they’d be the pebbles lodged in her hoof.
 
He’d always wished, always dreamed, always yearned for greater things, but to see another capable of sauntering far beyond what he could ever have was a vexing, depressing seam – stitches unraveling, one by one, thread by thread, searing to a bout of jealousy, to a broil, a brew, of envy. It was ugly, it was seething, it was raw and real, and he hated himself for thinking that way, for being an impudent, spoiled brat, for not being able to combat the darker stretches of thoughts, of sentiments, gleaming amongst his skull. Was it because she had something he wanted: potency, prowess, potential, without a second thought? Or was it because while he wandered, while he strayed, while he searched for them, she grew stronger, she found others, and no longer cared for the little beasts from the ice and wind?
 
Who pushed who away?
 
He said naught for a long while, listening to the throng and din of their arguments, allowing it to build while he festered, while he withered, while his breath grew harsh and belligerent, bold and cruel. Everything hurt and his eyes couldn’t blink back the layers of tears, of brine, of quiet, undying loyalty; too shattered, too tired, too saddened by the dense, foreboding shroud of loss – again and again, a constant cycle. Even Orsino did nothing: uttered not one single grumble, not one protest, not one pressing hiss. Erebos gathered what little strength, what little puissance he had, and etched it through their malicious spouts, ensnared, unraveled, the bits and fragments that stung the most. Abandon? He is a prince! - and he knew that meant nothing too – princes were hurt, princes bled, princes cared for their friends, princes wished they could become something, anything, for the ones they cherished. Princes lost all the time. Sometimes, princes were inept, ineffective, and forgotten.
 
Did he mean nothing to them at all? Was that why they fled without breathing a word? Was that why they ran away, split onto different paths, and never told him a thing?
 
Because he’d be fine? Because it wouldn’t matter to him? Because he wouldn’t be worth fretting about?
 
His voice, calm, controlled, sauntered into the open gale, cold and fluid, contorted and raw. Quiet, intense, harboring so many unsaid things, ravished and ravaged out into the midday sun, pressing the traces of anarchy, the broken shells of their past and present. “I looked for you.” Eyes, once drawn in mischief, were suddenly all the more corroded, haunted by the disease festering between his heart and limbs, tired of the soulless dance they all stomped, turning and twisting towards both friends, both companions, and wondering when they’d all fallen so far apart. “I looked for both of you.” For months, for eternities, and he’d do it again and again – even if the favor wasn’t returned. But the selfless distortions were mottled and disheveled; avaricious plunges revived with an eerie clamor, and the lonely shackles, the horrific images, he’d managed to capture and contain had forced him into different avenues, along rubbled paths and ruined trails. “Everyone left. Adelric disappeared. Asch was gone. Arwen was murdered.”
 
He stared solely at Aithniel then, blinking away the tethers and ties, the chains and endeavors; wanting to know why he hadn’t been given a fond farewell, why he was forced to wonder and wander and only imagine. “Why couldn’t you say anything?” Then the boy didn’t pause, didn’t relent, gave into all of his convictions and oaths without restraint, rupturing over the flow of impassivity, bestowing his vows, what could have beens, flickers of a future savaged and sketched off the canvas. His voice trickled into a vibrant intensity, brilliant, beautiful promises, a child who still believed in diligence and endurance and perseverance and unwinding, incandescent strength. “I never thought you were annoying. I wouldn’t have let them rip you apart. I wouldn’t have abandoned you.” Maybe he was the biggest fool of all three of them: to believe in those wild, savage dreams. Maybe he was the one that none of them required.
 
Then, the final heartbreak loosened from his mouth, passed over his tongue, riddled and beseeched with truths, with integrity. “I don’t know what I – or we – are worth to you anymore, Aithniel.” Followed by the slimmest vestiges of bitterness, the withdrawn nod of his head, the sinking, shallow bob of his cranium glancing downward, as if he were ashamed before he even proffered the phrase. “You’ve already proven you don’t need us.” I needed you. I needed both of you - he thought, but never said. 




OOC;; ---
TAG;; @[ ]

"talk talk talk"
image credits
- table by Niki -


@Rikyn @Aithniel

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
#4
Rikyn
I find that my ears fall further and further back the more my little sister yells at me, her words as much an excuse for inexcusable behavior as my own had been. And yet, my own hypocrisy adds the fire that lights under me as I glower back at her, hiding the softer words – I missed you, I thought of you, you haunted my nightmares and danced in my dreams – behind the harsh snap of vocal chords, the angry, twitching sway of my lion’s tail.

I cough, sneeze; the black film that glistens on the ground between us is a cruel mockery of the seriousness which lines my features. I bundle up my features in a grimace of outrage at being accused of being as cold as she was, I prepare my tongue to lash back with the same fire she delivered…

I looked for you, comes the soft voice of my friend, and I turn away from the sparks and flames which threaten to bloom to life between Aithniel and I, nearly drowning in the cold, deep sadness that wells where smiles should be. He paints it as I thought it had been – that Aithniel had left him silently, with little more to lure her away than her own selfishness. He promises her that he would not have let them hurt her.

I believe him. He would have been hurt himself in an attempt to defend her, and it was a hope that I had clung to during many nights when I wondered if, in my sudden attempts to cleave to the departing figure of my dam, I had brought death to those I love.

And then… and then he says it. All the feelings that have knotted up in my chest so tight that it feels like my heart is rupturing are let fly on crisp, Birdsong wind; they dance over the rainbow waters at our hooves, make mockery of the pale white clouds which skirt the heavens above, those clouds which are not gray and heavy, which do not leak slowly in cold drips as my heart feels they should.

The twitch of my tail behind me stills; the ears that had pinned in anger lift and splay in the heavy sorrow that I was gone too long to be needed anymore.

I lean closer towards Erebos, wanting to vanish with him into the memories of our youth, before time and distance stretched long and intangible between us all. I am guilty, as well, of doubting how greatly he suffered, the boy with his family close to him and the mountain still promised to him by the rights of his father, a prince who surely was admired, if not loved. I had also, of course, never thought that everyone would leave as Aithniel and I did, all at once.

"I’m sorry we left," I say again, not liking that I have to say it but saying it regardless, "but what was I supposed to do? I didn’t want momma to abandon me… I wanted to show her that I was strong and brave, that I was worth staying for. And instead she’s gone."

My eyes are hard in the knowledge that I had been abandoned; my heart steels itself, refusing to cry, though the corners of my vision blur with dampness anyway.

"I thought of you both, I prayed for your safeties, your happiness’s," and I did, just ask the Priestesses, or Xynia; stare into the depths of the Starplane and let each face which floats to its surface tell of how much I had loved them from afar.

"I was weeks away, little sister, lost with no maps to guide me home," my golden eyes are sad; she’d never even asked where I’d been, why I had left, why it was I was home and mother was gone. Maybe her little orphan heart didn’t care, too calloused from her own hurts to see my bleeding soul. Maybe she didn’t care about anything but herself, becoming the very monster mother had warned of and that, I remember it so well, Aithniel had sworn not to become.

"What is your excuse for your absence, when you were so close?" the question falls hard from my lips, golden eyes narrowing as I answer it for her, "I’ll tell you. You didn’t need us to protect you anymore. Your family does that for you."

"The family that left you to die," its said sharply, angrily, all the childish hurts I feel flooding each hurtful syllable which I hurl at her, fully intent on drawing emotional blood - mostly because I hurt and I hate it.

Misery, they say, loves its company.




Coding by Tamme - Image by Dingo


@Erebos @Aithniel

Wishlist - Plots

Force/violence is allowed to be used on Rikyn permitted it does not permanently maim or kill him (PM me!).

Aithniel the Inquisitor Posts: 169
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 4.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 15.0hh :: 4 Years HP: 75 | Buff: NOVICE
Zerachiel :: Royal Griffin :: Molten Dagger tamme
#5
nothing can save you now,

Aithniel glowered, stomping her hoof powerfully as anger burned through her veins thicker and stronger than any other emotion she was feeling. It was a welcome poison, and she grit her teeth together tightly as she stared at Erebos. "Yeah, and you did find me. We met in the Thistle Meadow and you showed me your fire magic. You didn't seem all upset then without your friend to gang up on me!" she snapped, nostrils flaring. She narrowed her eyes. "Oh wait, is this the same Adelric who told me that I wasn't supposed to be in the Aurora Basin? Maybe because I was different, hhmmm?" she hummed sarcastically.

She took a pained step back, her eyes narrowed as she was faced with the hypocrisy and self righteousness of his words. This was not her brother. This was not the boy she had cried for a missed and eventually assumed would never come back to see her. Why would he? She was abandoned by her first family, so why would she think her second family wouldn't do the same? "You still have a dad though, you know. I saw him before, and he looked pretty miserable that you were gone. So yeah, your mom abandoned you, but you still had family." She grumbled.

She turned to Erebos and stiffened her spine. "Of course I don't need you! I don't need anyone! Because everyone I rely on only lets me down," she focused her gaze on Rikyn. "They are all promises and fancy words until they simply are gone, so I rely on myself now - as I should have from the beginning. Do not mistake me for some wilting flower who pines for the protection of my brothers, because I can hit just as hard as you. It's time you stopped looking at me like a child and saw me for who I am now!" she yells, fire flickering at her hooves.

"My family doesn't protect me because you are my family and you were gone! So I followed the one clue I had about my past because I have a right to know why I was just dumped in the field. I have a right to discover who I am without you two telling me who I should be! And now that I have a father, something you two boys have always had, I want to get to know him! I want to learn why I was made." Aithniel glared, hard. "And if you cannot understand that, then you are no family of mine - I am just a possession."

Aithniel turned to Erebos then, taking a deep breath. "I am sorry that I didn't say anything when I left. I thought when I saw you in the Meadow that you were okay, but I understand now that you deserved to know why I was going. You have my apologies for that, and I hope that we can mend the rift I created." The sun child then turned her gaze to Rikyn, slipping back into a hurt, narrow-eyed scowl.

"Glad you're back."

With that, she turned and stormed away lest her temper ruin any good she tried to do.





@Erebos

But burn down our home
I won't leave alive


Please tag me in everything!

Erebos Posts: 474
Aurora Basin General atk: 7.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.1hh :: Four HP: 75.5 | Buff: DANCE
Orsino :: Plain Kitsune :: Dark Illusions & Enyo :: Common Griffon :: Draining Clutch Heather
#6

  Vestiges of rawness, of bitterness, clawed down their throats and out into the air: alive and reborn, seething and simmering, varnishing and rasping and growling amidst everything they’d seen and done since they’d all parted ways. The rancor was a harsh, unrelenting, beating heart, howling into the wind, spewing embers and venom, nasty, vile toxins, and he should’ve thrived on it, given way to its merciless, chaotic semblance – but where his father had mastered the realm of anarchy, Erebos had only borrowed its essence in brutal, barbaric times; not when his beloved friends unraveled and unfurled their fangs. His fractured soul bent in pieces, his head turned low, shallow and grave, wondering how and why everything had to go so wrong, why things couldn’t have stayed the same, why they had to grow further and further apart until they simply nettle one another and broke apart. In the midst of Aithniel’s fiery bellowing, something that had enticed, allured, and beguiled him since their very first meeting (when she didn’t want to be taken away, piece by piece, feather by feather), and Rikyn’s savage explanations, he became the quiet, composed one, melded and molded by something foreign and unknown. He didn’t give way to the burning edges curling against his veins. He didn’t shift or shudder or fracture when they all spewed and raged – because he’d already been that angry little boy amidst the gallows, yelling and shrieking and swearing vengeance upon the beasts who crossed him – and it would never be these creatures, those he cherished, those he loved.
 
But Rikyn wasn’t like that: bursting and conforming and desperately trying to contain the rancor lodged inside his throat, but it stained the walls, the puddles, the flattened lands. Everything came in sharpened, keen, blunt edges, and while the prince leaned closer to him, notched his maw across growing locks, because he knew about trying to be brave, trying to be stalwart, trying to become something someone would admire – he knew it wouldn’t end there. The lad’s poise remained, accepting his friend’s sentiments and regards.
 
But Aithniel wasn’t like that: fueled and massacring and burning fortifications, entreating brutal movements, motions, and phrases - he became punctured, lacerated, and torn down again. The clip of her words, the bestial surge of her heartless, embittered tempest clung to his skull and threaded through his membrane, so every moment, every syllable, shot a stinging barb straight into his temple. Of course I don’t need you! I don’t need anyone!
 
It said so many things all at once: he was worthless, he wasn’t worth knowing, he wasn’t necessary, he wasn’t vital, he wasn’t a part of her life anymore. The fragile toil erupted a fierce chord in his frame, and he could do nothing about it. It stung and it bled and it boiled through his thoughts, his sentiments, and all the days he’d left behind, searching for her, searching for them, all of their lost, little souls, and how much time he’d wasted trying to foster something that could never be there again – she didn’t want them, she didn’t need them, she didn’t care at all.
 
Why should she? a piece of him muttered through all the hollow granules and the embittered strife. She’s a daughter of a God.
 
But his words spoke volumes; strong and enduring, unwilling to be cowed or daunted, unnerved or intimidated, slinking past the bounty of his sadness, slithering amidst the soulless refrain, sliding through the heady, overwhelming throng. “That was a year ago, Aithniel.” The scion’s eyes bore into hers, raising his head, invoking all the durability, all the persistence, all the perseverance his kingdom expected, ending the first stroke of his speech with an inquiry, a delve into the unknown, a curious tilt, a roaming into the infernal warren. “When have I let you down?” Had he, in some uncharacteristic way, forgotten about her, driven her into ill will, pierced the mighty sanctions of her presence? “When have I told you what you should become?” Erebos stared, irked and irritated, bristling notions growing despite his composure, despite his forbearing patience – exasperated by all the vicious accusations thrown their way when he couldn’t recall doing anything of the sort. He wasn’t going to be punished for something he hadn’t committed. He didn’t deserve all the heartache, all the twisting knives, all the darts thrown in his direction - he never left. He never fled. Then, to Aithniel’s turning back, to her shift of impudence, he forged one more oath, taking her apology and solidifying it back into the emboldened air. “That’s up to you. I’ve always been here. I’ve always tried to be your friend.” He paused, still watching, still indomitable, reaching and reaching for the stars even when he knew he couldn’t touch them. “I’m glad you found a place to belong.”



OOC;; ---
TAG;; @[ ]

"talk talk talk"
image credits
- table by Niki -


@Rikyn @Aithniel

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
#7
Rikyn

I find myself rolling my eyes at her – still whining about a life that she wouldn’t even have been able to bitch about if mother and I hadn’t saved her. Sure, she likely hadn’t been treated very nicely by our herd mates, but she also could not deny that she was different – and they certainly had never hurt her, at least not in any way that was more than emotional.

She keeps going - I have a father, - but she obviously doesn’t understand the way it feels to watch someone who is supposed to be there for you walk away, without a glance over her shoulder. I don’t think my mother even noticed I had followed her, but I know that I had ached inside the further away from home we had traveled; the more deeply I understood that father and I were being abandoned.

I don’t claim to have made the proper decision that day, but I also am not sure I’d take it back. I even manage to soften towards her ever so briefly before she coldly snaps words at Erebos that sting, and incite another rolling wave of anger.

It broils, it bubbles, building in pressure as she keeps fueling it. My temples throb, hypertension occasionally making my vision hazy with the tempo of my heart; the ache only builds when she somehow goes from shouting to quietly apologizing, womanly instincts sarcastically turning the blame upon herself, as if she hadn’t just been shouting condemnation of her brothers, flames leaking from her figure.

Erebos’ voice is defiant, hurt, but even still there is a sense of defeat and acceptance to it all that I find absent in my own thoughts of the situation; that he still speaks even when she stomps away, shooting glares as if we are to blame for everything, proves that he’s probably more of a noble’s son than I am.

Glad your back, she says, like a total bitch.

All I can manage to immediately do in all my youthful hostility is to reach out with my magic, anger making the motion swift as my consciousness warps and snaps out towards her, seeking to make her trip on her stupid little hooves as she walks away. When I feel my mind slip back into myself, I find the words that fall from my lips are sharp, hateful.

"You won’t be."

I don't even know what I mean by it, turning to leave after a narrowed stare which holds steady on her for some few seconds, my lion's tail curving about in a whip like manner as I try to let all my hurt and hot feelings fall away. Reaching out to brush at Erebos' shoulder, I silently ask him to walk away with me, clinging to what friendships I had left that were not tarnished and worn by the passage of time, and the acidic nature of my tongue.

@Erebos @Aithniel
[ OOC: He tries to use his magic on her as she walks away because he's a poop. ^^ ]



Coding by Tamme - Image by Dingo

Wishlist - Plots

Force/violence is allowed to be used on Rikyn permitted it does not permanently maim or kill him (PM me!).


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