the Rift


[OPEN] Zapdos
Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#1
but somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
He was alone again. When he wasn't, it was what he wanted, and when he was, he felt lonely.

Life could be a bitch. A right motherfucking bitch.

Like. Like, take this—Helovia's gods, for some strange reason, decide to find some inter-dimensional lost lands, anchor them to Helovia's framework, "cleanse" them, and then have giant battles with giant, ugly, corrupted gods.

First of all. What was the fucking point of it? Glory? Madness? Expansion? But why? Was Helovia not big enough? Not pretty enough? Or were they slowly falling to the same corruption which they fought, craving more and more and more until their veins would run with thick black grime instead of whatever stardust that powered them now?

Point made. Mauja saw no point in these little space jaunts and finding pretty new locations for their inhabitants to piss on.

Second—it had brought them nothing but misery. Spacey horses lost in Helovia, torn from their homes and lives and families (no matter how shitty they had been in the first place, it had still been theirs) and thrust into this foreign, not-so-spacey place. On top of that needless cruelty, the first battle had nearly cost the life of Irma (and the life of some unknown colt Mauja had sworn he'd seen again later), and the second battle had cost the life of Aviya. Again—for what? More territory? Glory?

If the Gods wanted to gamble with lives, maybe they should start using their own as currency instead of drag the misery into the midst of the mortals who hadn't asked for this—and, on top of that, were stupid enough to throw themselves in harm's way for the stupid Gods themselves, and then brave enough to face the sick Gods because they came here and threatened everything.

Play with fire you get burned.

You want more land? Go fucking get more land but don't throw all the inhabitants of Helovia like an unwilling army into their face. Please and thank you.

Third—horses got sick. Mauja had seen more with their skin weeping sluggish red, and some had, frankly, gone insane after the latest battle as black started to dribble from their noses.

So. Lives were lost, survivors got sick, and what had they gotten?

A few more acres to prance through.

Yeah, good bargain.

Mauja's lips curved into a snarl in the deep darkness of the Edge. Not even the sharp starlight and the fog could soothe the ache in his bones and the sharper pain lancing through his injured skin each time he moved. Ugly red was spread across his flanks and joints.

He had a problem. He had a problem, and he knew it, but he didn't have any solution whatsoever.

Bitterly, he glared at the thin sliver of moon visible in the sky.

[ This takes place shortly after Ulrik was accepted into the Edge by Torleik, so a few days after the battle in the Labyrinth. For @Ulrik to cure Mau of his boils that I keep forgetting about x__x; and for them to catch up. ;D ]
man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Nyx Posts: 292
Deceased atk: 7.5 | def: 9.5 | dam: 6.0
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16hh :: 11 HP: 72 | Buff: SWIFT
Dominus :: White Lion :: None Snow
#2
Permission to post and to have her walk into Mau to cure him given by Neo! @Random Event @Mauja


The night air is crisp against her hide, a winter kiss pressed across grey fur. Tonight she idles, with few cares and fewer things to do. Most nights are spent training, or duelling in the fog with her dearest spotted king, but tonight she is determined to simply relax. Graze, mooch around, chill. Lazy horse things, not fearsome warrior things.

No sooner did she tell herself that, however, than boredom began to set in, a thief in the night. How can she stand idly around when there is work to do? So she settles on a compromise; an activity that will stimulate her brain, but will still allow her to stand in one place and believe that she is relaxing, even if she isn't. She rarely uses her magic, certainly far less than she should. In her humble opinion, it isn't as fun as the magic she had when she was a foal, which she traded for sight; the ability to summon thunderstorms is far more interesting than the ability to turn herself into an electrified shellfish. But her powers do have their uses, so she steels her determination and bids a crust of ice to form across her body, charged by an electrical current. She will only get better at using her ability if she practices with it outside battle, after all. It doesn't involve much movement, and it will satisfy her craving to better herself every minute of every day.

Despite her vow to stay in one place and have some much-needed downtime, the silver still finds herself wandering forwards, wincing against the effort of maintaining her woefully underused magic. She slams her eyes shut and forces all her focus into keeping her thunder-shield activated, just to see how long she can maintain it before it crumbles into shards. As a result, she isn't looking where she's going. She doesn't see Mauja, brooding under (and staring daggers at) the moon. Not until she stumbles into him with a muffled thud, right into his not entirely unattractive backside. "Whoops," she squeaks, as her eyes flick open and she realises who she has walked into, and probably gently electrocuted. She hauls her magic back into her body, but it's more than likely too late.

She flashes him a somewhat sheepish grin. "I'm starting to think you like being sparked on the ass," she remarks, high-humoured and only slightly shamefaced about frazzling her king. Their fight is still hot in her memory, and her veins throb as though in sympathy with the mere thought of his ice spikes bursting through them.

[ SOMEDAY WE MAY SEE A WOMAN KING, SWORD IN HAND, SWING AT SOME EVIL AND BLEED ]

Other characters have permission to use magic/violence against Nyx at any time.

Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#3
but somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
I don't

He swallowed, rough and hard. Blinked furiously against the burning sensation in the backs of his eyes. It felt like someone had set his eye sockets on fire, and crammed a hot hedgehog down his throat, only it had gotten stuck in his gullet.

It hurts

He shifted, the night air playing around his softly weeping body; yet another boil tore, spilling its gruesome burden down the marred perfection of his flank. Still, the only tears he shed were red.

"Why?" he asked softly of the moon, his voice a thick whisper fighting its way past the pain in the back of his mouth. Why this illness? Why Aviya? Why everything? What was the point of anything? Of allowing this heretic back upon a throne he had already lost once?

Wasn't that just asking for him to lose it again? Who would be next, to come with their dogs and their flame, and burn him out of his home? What monstrous creature would the next God bring forth for them to fight? Half of them had done the same greedy mistake—Mauja didn't doubt a third would come.

And whose life would be the price of the next new land? Whose heart would stop beating, whose blood would turn to dust, whose eyes to glass as the soul fled into the skies?

He closed his eyes, breathing the night air in through clenched teeth. Spark was mysterious—it didn't surprise him that it was that God who had brought the first land forth. The Moon would hardly let her brother hold an advantage over her. But Earth? Would he commit the same sin, risk the lives of Helovians in the same fashion?

(Lost in the haze of his bitterness and pain, Mauja didn't notice the iron titan creeping nearer.)

Until suddenly—

—his thoughts crashed in a shower of glass, in shock and thunder and ice, a jolt rattling all his nerves and punching the air out of his lungs. His heart skipped a beat, aching body heaving forward a few steps, and—

Oh god but that hurt—

His sides were heaving, nostrils and eyes wide, red and ugly yellow spilling from the mess along his flanks, crystal clear tears sliding in silence from blue eyes—

"Ouch," he said to her, knowing her scent across the one of sickness, knowing her in his heart. Nyx, the wolf, the sterling, the one who patrolled in the shadow of the glass—vigilant, dutiful.

"Of course I do," he replied, voice still thick and bitter, painstakingly turning his head to peer at her through the blur of his tears. "I mean, who doesn't?"

[ @Nyx @Random Event ]
man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Random Event Posts: 1,286
Helovian Ancient
Stallion :: Equine :: ::
#4
Mauja is cured of BFB!

Nyx Posts: 292
Deceased atk: 7.5 | def: 9.5 | dam: 6.0
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16hh :: 11 HP: 72 | Buff: SWIFT
Dominus :: White Lion :: None Snow
#5

Guilt floods her, and even his sardonic words don't stop it. "Sooooo-rrryyyy," she chimes in a sing-song, but genuine, voice. She only uses her magic when absolutely necessary, as she imagines it stings like a bitch to be electrocuted with ice-shards. After all, she has never been on the receiving end of her own magic, nor does she have any great desire to be. So to afflict someone with it by mistake is enough to make her feel slightly shamefaced, especially when that someone is her king.

Her gaze flickers across the hideous boils that pepper his skin, like his spots have turned against him and erupted into evil mini-volcanoes. "The hell happened to you?" Come to think of it, during the God fights she'd seen a couple of horses afflicted with the same revolting disease, and she subtly sidesteps away from him in case it is infectious.

Only now does she note the bitterness in his voice, and when he turns to her she sees his cheeks streaked with tears. Immediately her face turns serious, and concern is evident in the frosty blue of her eyes. She is not the most empathetic of creatures, nor is she the sort to freely offer feelings or emotions out like gifts. She keeps her cards close to her chest, and chooses humour over serious conversations - because it's easier, and she fears her own ability to articulate her thoughts. She is iron, steel, not flesh and feeling - or so she likes to believe. But the sight of those eyes, glimmering with crystal tears, triggers an emotional response that she is not expecting, like a dagger of ice directly to her heart. "Are you...alright? What's happened?" Her voice, for once, is unusually soft, velvet rather than metal. Her head tilts, ears rammed forwards, sharp features melted away to be replaced with an expression of concern.

Shit, she must be going soft in her old age. Normally she'd take the piss out of a big strong stallion having a sneaky little cry-fest in the corner, but some primal knowledge in her heart tells her that this is not a time for humour or banter.

[ SOMEDAY WE MAY SEE A WOMAN KING, SWORD IN HAND, SWING AT SOME EVIL AND BLEED ]


@Mauja

Other characters have permission to use magic/violence against Nyx at any time.

Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#6
but somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
"Sooooo-rrryyyy," but he couldn't even be angry.

He tried to think of others—you know, normal individuals—and wondered how many of them that simply wouldn't care they'd been mildly electrocuted by their own Captain. Results? He didn't have a single clue, but he could imagine certain violent idiots pitching fits about it. 'Boo hoo, HOW DARE YOU WALK INTO ME?!'

Boo hoo, how dare you be in my fucking way.

She had set off a storm of agony in him, boils and sores breaking, little shards of ice lodged in his skin and melting softly—the uncomfortable feeling lingering in his veins, the memory of choking for a moment. But when that stilled... "Are you...alright? What's happened?" She was soft in the moonlight and his tears, her voice suddenly so different—not that of his iron wolf, but that of someone else.

Someone warmer. Someone with a heart. He felt something stir within, both angry, with himself, and equally worried, just as she. Because if he moved his steel guard to such concern.. just how pitiful did he seem? He blinked, trying to clear his eyes, but now that the tears had begun to flow they just refused to stop.

"Fucking Spark happened," he replied crassly. Bloody water and dying owls and chaos as they fought a giant bear—

And wolves melting into shadows—

"I think it came from the bloody waterfall." His voice was softer, lighter, but his eyes had fled to the shadows around her, for there was something deep within that had uncoiled—like a tightness in your gut you hadn't even known was there. The air was a little cooler, a little more soothing, the fires in his flanks a bit less painful... It felt like he could breathe. It felt like his heart could beat without nearly splitting his mind in two.

"What did you do to me?" he asks, with wonder in his eyes.

[ @Nyx ]
man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Nyx Posts: 292
Deceased atk: 7.5 | def: 9.5 | dam: 6.0
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16hh :: 11 HP: 72 | Buff: SWIFT
Dominus :: White Lion :: None Snow
#7

Fucking Spark happened. Ah, yes, the God battle. Nyx had been too caught up with her own fighting to notice what was happening to Mauja, so she is oblivious to the injury his bonded obtained during the fight. If she'd known, though...jesus, she would have so much sympathy for him. The idea of Dominus getting hurt, or worse...it fills her with more dread than she can possibly articulate. He is a piece of her soul, and if something happened to him she would just as rather die with him than go on living without him, with a chasm of emptiness in her heart.

"Did something happen during the fight?" She pushes that little bit harder, trying to breach the delicate balance between friendly sympathy and stop interfering, you nosy bitch. Like her, she has always felt Mauja to be a cold, steel-clad creature, not easily given over to wanton emotion and physical expression. He is a closed book, although she will freely admit that she has sometimes wanted to open said book up and read what lies within. She breached the surface during their first meetings, and the irony is not lost on her of the fact that the most they'd talked had been when they were relative strangers.

He suddenly seems taken over with wonderment, leading her to think he must be feeling a bit better. How curious. Does her electricity have magical healing properties, or is it perhaps just her delightful booty? "I...don't know. Aside from the obvious, but I don't think that fondling your ass with an electric shield counts as a valid cure for any disease." Or does it? The silver is no healer - she wouldn't know one end of a herb from the other - but it seems she has accidentally stumbled upon some hidden property of her magic. How curious.

[ SOMEDAY WE MAY SEE A WOMAN KING, SWORD IN HAND, SWING AT SOME EVIL AND BLEED ]


@Mauja - if you want we could end this in the next few posts, as we have the other more recent thread of theirs? ^^

Other characters have permission to use magic/violence against Nyx at any time.

Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#8
but somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
[ Awkward insertion of "Aviya died and d'Art left"-emotions. ]

"Did something happen during the fight?" Did something not happen during the fight? Or, rather—everything happened after the fight. Fights. And .. what did he have for it, really? Pain. Some more pain. Here, you okay? TAKE SOME MORE PAIN.

".. I guess," he said, lamely, looking away from her. These battles were laced with grief, with loss, with injury and illness, and honestly, what else had the Gods expected when they tore up the fabric of the world like that? When they took from other Gods, and allowed the Helovian mortals to get dragged into it? Those Gods from the Rift were fraught with disease, with greed and envy and all sorts of dark things, was it really that strange many came away sick? Was it that hard to figure out that maybe, if you were interested in stealing from others, you should set up some kind of protective barrier so no one else could GET KILLED because of you?

He closed his eyes, fighting to keep the scene contained within his skull, to not let it spill out in more tears reflecting the past in the moonlight—death, dying, leaving, loss. How the fuck was he supposed to just walk away from that?

This was his first silver lining since. The first, small, shard of hope, as the deep and brutal ache in his body lessened. Pain was a right bitch. Pain made everything worse. Pain turned enjoyable things to dust, turned bearable things into torture, and agony into something mindless and searing. Its lessening was .. like rain after a drought, like relief after worry, a soothing touch in the storm of your grief. His eyes kept opening and closing, slowly, slowly, and his body moved lightly, trying to tease the agony back—because what if it was just some temporary fluke, something that made it seem less painful just because his system had spiked recently?

"I...don't know. Aside from the obvious, but I don't think that fondling your ass with an electric shield counts as a valid cure for any disease." He just grunted, vibrated, but aside from the very solid, very real sensation of a boil tearing with the stretching of his flank and the rather nasty feeling of pus sliding down his skin there was no pain. There was no mind-numbing, all-encompassing agony associated with his soul, with his core, with the depth of his body. Fervent, his blue eyes sought her out again in the pallid light. "Do it again," he asked—commanded—her breathlessly.

[ @Nyx I agreeee... #lameass ]
man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Nyx Posts: 292
Deceased atk: 7.5 | def: 9.5 | dam: 6.0
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16hh :: 11 HP: 72 | Buff: SWIFT
Dominus :: White Lion :: None Snow
#9

He looks away, and she begins to question. Nyx herself hadn't thought too much about the whys and wherefores of the new lands and the God fights that accompanied them. In her shallow opinion, it was just a chance to get her horn bloody, and to have a little bit of murderous fun in the process. She didn't contemplate the ethics of why the Gods were taking from other Gods, why they needed more land in an already massive Helovia. Perhaps she just isn't developed enough to comprehend the deeper meanings of these things, or perhaps she's just too shallow to give a damn. Either way, save for the unpleasant wounds given by the flailing beasts - she's starkly reminded of being temporarily blinded by burning blood in her eyes - she hadn't really dwelled on the fights since their conclusion.

But then again, she hadn't known anyone who died. She could file away the battles under 'yay fun', whereas others...others lost loved ones, had their lives changed forever.

He shuts his eyes, and the silver feels her muzzle spasm, wanting to reach out to touch him, comfort him. The spasm is her stopping it from doing so, twisting it firmly against her chest. She has limits. It isn't her place to touch him, even to offer comfort, and she guesses he would only reject it anyway. No man wants to be offered solace, in her experience - it insults their manly manlyness. Do it again. Well, she wasn't expecting that. Whatever sorrow he's feeling, whatever unquestionable agony inside his soul, perhaps he thinks it can be cured with pain. Nyx is guilty of doing that, of forcing aside 'hard' emotions like sorrow and replacing them with 'easier ones, like pain. Is her ice king doing the same?

"If you're sure." She hesitates, gives a second for him to change his mind and move away if he wants to, then she erects a sizzling barrier across her body again and feels the telltale waver on her strength. She moves towards him, aims to touch her electrified side against his own for a fraction of a second, long enough to feel the sparks spring from her body to his - then she moves back, withdrawing her magic, withdrawing her pain-giving. She stands, slightly awkward, looking at him as a foal would look at their father when they're not quite sure they've done the right thing.

[ SOMEDAY WE MAY SEE A WOMAN KING, SWORD IN HAND, SWING AT SOME EVIL AND BLEED ]


@Mauja

Other characters have permission to use magic/violence against Nyx at any time.

Ascended Helovian

Mauja the Frozen Light Posts: 1,392
Outcast atk: 6.5 | def: 10.5 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.2 :: 14 HP: 79.5 | Buff: HUNTER
Irma :: Snowy Owl :: Terrorize & Diego :: Eurasian Eagle-Owl :: Rage Neo
#10
but somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
"If you're sure." Did she question his sanity?

Probably.

With good reason.

"Yes," he breathed, waited, braced for impact—the pain and whiplash shock going through his system had begun to take on something intimately familiar, something ..recognizable, like an old friend, like how he had played cat-and-mouse with Deimos death magic in the old days. He knew what to expect. He knew what he was waiting for, a religious light burning in his mind because this was salvation from the crucible of agony—

It wasn't often his own weapon was used against him, but she was one who could do it, the ice nubs like acupuncture needles forced into his skin, conduits for her disaster—the highway for her lightning bolts, and it jerked through his system, breath getting all messed up as his nerves short-circuited and he stumbled down onto one knee, hair on end. It hurt, it motherfucking hurt, but it in a sweet kind of way—like, a pure and crystalline pain, instead of the.. foul, deep, stinking agony of his boil-curse.

A couple of seconds later he came back to his senses, and, shaking, hauled himself up on all four again. His sides were stained ugly red and yellow, crusts flaking off where his twisting and turning had torn them open, but it was a pure pain—like she had burned him clean of everything, purified him. Cleansed him. Laughing, a few tears still trickling from his eyes, he spun in the moonlit glade—danced with his pain, for it was like high notes and bells, needle-like and precise, not at all a fire ravaging his skin.

"Thank you," and he kept on laughing, blood darkened by monochromatic light seeping from his wounds, washing the last of the infection out, "Oh, thank you,", and somewhere, Irma wondered if Nyx's magic had done something to his brain.

[ @Nyx || Maybe just have it fade to black here? ^^ ]
man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same
angels, they fell first, but I'm still here


Forum Jump:


RPGfix Equi-venture