the Rift


[OPEN] and everything is new [Welcoming]

Tiamat the Ocean's Light Posts: 360
Aurora Basin Lady atk: 8 | def: 10 | dam: 3
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.2 :: 6 years HP: 60 | Buff: NOVICE
Nimue :: Common Orca Leviathan :: Boil Reli
#1
Tiamat
The journey from the Threshold does not last long for the ocean mare, time passing away in a blur of beautiful sights and happy company, their pace a steady trek up to the mountains. She does not dare push the large stallion, ever mindful of the injuries that he had so recently received. Even though Agnodice had been kind enough to offer the gift of her healing, Tiamat watches Kodiak with a practiced eye, ready and willing to come to the draft’s aid should he need it. If nothing else, she is sure that he is tired from his ordeals, and would appreciate their measured progress.

Even so, Tiamat is hardly able to contain her enthusiasm when the Basin’s threshold rises on the horizon. Her excitement bubbles and swells within her chest, overflowing to spill into the rest of her body, welling just beneath her skin until she fears she might burst. Flicking her long tail in wide arcs that curl around her legs, the blue mare prances for a moment, nearly skipping while the shells in her hair chime their musical chorus.

For a moment she longs to dash forward, caught up in the delight of her excitement and wishing to erase the distance between her and home, but as she glances up to her mother sky, Tiamat is reminded of her selflessness. With white eyes sweeping then to the painted stallion, her gaze wide and wondrous, she motions ahead with a gesture of her horn. “There it is up there, we don’t have far to go,” she offers him a brilliant smile, hoping that the Basin will give to him all that it has given her (and she doesn’t doubt that it will).

Pressing forward at an extended walk, her lion tail swaying gently with every stride, the ocean mare is reunited with her home before long. Happily her eyes drift upwards, to the metal sentinels—their steel figures beginning to crumble now and not as mighty as they once were—but still magnificent all the same. Breaching their unblinking gaze, Tiamat pauses when the valley opens before them, her breath caught in the pristine beauty before she turns to Kodiak. “The Aurora Basin,” she’s grinning from ear to ear, lingering by the stallion’s shoulder while she dips down into the valley, her heart leaping delightfully within her chest.

“Speech.”
a bright star
so no one lets you down
i will shine to guide you
.

@Kodiak @Deimos @Hotaru || image || table
please tag Tia in all replies!
magic & force are permitted.

Kodiak Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#2
Kodiak

The dense trees dusted in snow thinned and gave way to deeper drifts that slowed their progress. He was pretty sure Tiamat was deliberately measuring her stride, even though her spindly legs carried her only half as far as his own. Perhaps it was her that was suffering from the trip, god only knows where she found the energy to fuel that unbridled enthusiasm. So he kept his head down and his comments to himself and trusted that she had her reasons.
 
A question nagged in his mind, as the hills grew steeper and the snow deeper still. Tiamat's coloring and ornamentation on her mane hinted that she belonged on some sandy beach somewhere, not tucked away in the mountains where the closest thing to an actual body of water was the sea of white that brushed her belly. And yet, she seemed more than happy. Would he even be able to tell if she wasn't?
 
"Do you like the mountains?" he asked, wondering if she would understand what he was really asking. Do you deny your nature for this place?
 
Kodiak couldn't imagine doing such a thing. The snow and ice called to some deeper part of him, something that was forgotten. It wasn't a memory, not exactly, but it was something he wanted to hold onto. A connection to the past that he'd lost, but that taunted him in its absence. Would it always be like this?
 
"Where do you come from?" he pressed again. He hoped she wouldn't be bothered by his questions, for all he wanted was to see if her memories shook something loose from his own. And perhaps he wanted to understand her a little better.
 
Their journey came to an end rather suddenly, as Tiamat lead him past some strange old statues and brings him to the first rise of a valley. He hesitates for a moment, looking down at it all, before following close behind.
 
"Talk."
@Tiamat @Albrecht
I'm walking the long road
           watching the sky fall
                                                           
image credits

Albrecht Posts: 249
Aurora Basin Impersonator atk: 6 | def: 8.5 | dam: 2.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.1hh :: 19 (Orangemoon) HP: 60 | Buff: NOVICE
Strom :: Suma Ball Python :: None Townsen
#3
The snow is still a freezing, impeding, sloppy mess that sticks in the cup of hooves and sits quietly smothering everything inside the bowl of the Basin, but now that it’s done raining from the sky like an endless bombardment of misery it’s not quite so traumatizing to the crotchety old stallion. He fumbles along dirty, winding tracks of travel stamped down by familiar hooves, taking small comfort in the visual cues of smaller, more manageable segments of white rather than a broad, sprawling blanket of it. Thin streaks of sunlight trickle through the clouds above to heat the top layer of ice by a few degrees and fuse it to a smooth crust that crackles underfoot.

He huffs in irritation. Some of the paths simply end without a destination, as if the ones who made them suddenly decided to turn around. He shakes the copper curtain of his beard, trying to decide whether forging his own way or searching out another path would be less infuriating, when a hollow tinkling of sound tips his head to one side.

A bounding bundle of blue takes up most of his attention – the healer Tiamat. She’s been all smiles and uncontrolled excitement the last two times he’s noticed her wandering about, so it’s no surprise to see her frolicking in a similar manner now. What does surprise him is the brick shithouse of a man lumbering behind her. He's not much taller than Albrecht himself, but even from here he's certain the paint is twice as wide. Now those are hooves for clearing snow.

“You there, healer!” He calls, noting how the brown and white Goliath follows her stride. “What have you got for swelling in the joints?” Two birds with one stone and all that, or in this case a bird and an ostrich might be more appropriate. Why not load up on poppy seeds and willow bark while he's at it? Medicinal, of course.


//

OOC: Herrow :3


@Tiamat @Kodiak
           
[Image: 56c616e54affc]Rated M, R, NC-17, AO, 18+, NSFW
Tag dat azz!  @Albrecht
Violence & Magic okay.
Wish - Away - OOC


Deimos the Reaper Posts: 527
Deceased atk: 7.0 | def: 12 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.1 :: 7 HP: 72.5 | Buff: NUMB
Heather
#4
Delivered from the blast
Deimos the Reaper


Deimos was born of wreckage, demolition, earth, and fire, and all of them conspired into a mass of elements and vestiges carved from death itself. He moved without inhibition, he stalked without pretense, he sculpted Machiavellian defiance without apprehension - cold and dastardly, treacherous and powerful. He was permitted condemnation, he was rewarded with bestial shades and the rapture of demise, with the promise of conspiring cataclysms, chilling, scored, incised, rancorous reverberations – he was the Reaper, a moving scythe, a brandished sword, an eternal reminder of Hell and all of its iniquities.
 
But today was not to be one of rapacious claws and licentious discord. Instead, it seemed to swarm, breathe, and brood in curiosity.
 
Perhaps one of his flaws, or small, minute virtues, was the scope and range of his intrigues. He was forever endowed with the endless possibilities of the world, of its creatures, of its fiends and cretins – how to maneuver them across a chessboard, how to pry a pawn from another’s grasp, how to shuffle and distort and tether them all to the damned mayhem brewing in his mind. How could he mutilate and destroy an enemy? How could he obliterate an opponent? How could he ruin one more noxious scavenger? How could another benefit his herd, his empire, his compatriots? How could one more offer ominous opportunity, foreboding turmoil, dastardly deeds, for the palace beneath mountains and ice? How could one more bestow that sinuous unit of power, of might, of strength and fortitude, into the colossal wares of their crowned anarchy?
 
His eyes narrowed across the morning abyss, catching, snaring, on the movement of blue and shells (Tiamat – sweet and sanguine, somehow remaining unbound by the nefarious bits of hate strewn between rocks and glaciers), on the motion of a stranger at her heels, and the older fellow he’d seen time and time again. There, the interest curled along his calculating mind, and he followed along the lines of hoof prints in the snow, hunting, stalking, a composed, wolfish brew of silence and iniquity, before sliding before all of them.
 
The Reaper proffered a bob of his skull to each, perhaps even deeper to Tiamat (since her healing prowess, he’d had no aches, no pains, from the legion of new scars crossing over his nape and hind), and then the scalding, brooding contortion of his narrowed, piercing eyes pinpointed directly to the newcomer. He was a large beast, likely drove through the snow and banks as if he could plow them into oblivion, painted, antlered, and seemed to resonate a quiet measure. The Basin’s ability to utilize his form had already sprung through the demon’s ominous, foreboding skull, but he said not a word about it. Instead, he parted his jaws, keen and blunt. “Welcome to the Basin. I am Lord Deimos.” His stare moved briefly over to Tiamat, arching his brow in inquiry, in pondering over why she’d snagged the Colossus from wherever he’d come from (what were her plans, her designs?), before twisting his chilling gaze back to the stranger. “Who are you, and what do you seek here?”



Tiamat the Ocean's Light Posts: 360
Aurora Basin Lady atk: 8 | def: 10 | dam: 3
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.2 :: 6 years HP: 60 | Buff: NOVICE
Nimue :: Common Orca Leviathan :: Boil Reli
#5
Tiamat
Tiamat’s gaze sweeps happily over the snowy valley, never tiring of its beauty. She closes her eyes momentarily while she inhales a deep breath, the cold air frosted with pine and the familiarity of home. A dainty ear tilts in Kodiak’s direction when his deep voice rumbles along the wintry breeze, issuing his first question, and she opens her eyes to look to him. “I love it here,” it is said without hesitation, never skipping a beat, with a smile softening her lips. It is not something that she has to think about. The only change she would make is to have her father closer; but even then, as she thinks of the lake and springs, she knows he has not left her alone.

“Sometimes I miss the beach, the ocean, but the Aurora Basin is my home,” her smile broadens affectionately, white eyes drifting to return to the Basin’s vast expanse, and she speaks with quiet confidence, “I belong here.” Ever since the kindly brown mare had brought her here those few years ago, Tiamat has never doubted this fact. This land, this herd, has given her a sense of belonging, a family; she only hopes that it will do the same for Kodiak.

It is not long after when he speaks again, questioning her life before Helovia, and the ocean mare smiles with gentle amusement. “Nowhere specifically, I awoke on the shores of Helovia a few years ago; I don’t recall anything before that.” There is no trace of sadness in her voice, or sense of wistfulness for what might have been. That day that she had awoken—that had been her birth, molded by nature’s tender hands, and ready for her introduction into this part of the world. Tiamat does not consider herself any more important for her heritage, believing them all, in some way, to be connected to nature. Some have simply forgotten.

Settling her gaze again on the stallion’s face, the blue mare continues instinctively, inquiring out of politeness and genuine curiosity, “What about you?” As soon as the last syllable slips from her lips, Tiamat realizes her mistake, glancing to his eye before remembering his injuries. “Oh, right—sorry,” she smiles bashfully, embarrassed by her slip-up, and hoping that she hasn’t offended him. That is far from her intentions.

“You there, healer!”

Tiamat turns her head upon hearing the call, fluted ears perking in attention as she notices the old stallion approaching them. She has seen him around, lingering on the outskirts of gatherings, but has yet to officially exchange words with him. “I have just the thing—Albrecht, isn’t it?” The Medic smiles, ever willing to offer her aid. Arching her neck, the ocean mare snatches what she needs from the herbs braided into her hair, clasping the sprig of ginger between her lips and offering it to him. “Here, this should relieve some of the inflammation. Let me know if you need anything else, I’m happy to help.”

Hearing the crunching of another set of hooves, the blue mare glances up to see Deimos, and her grin tempers to one of familiarity. She admires the dark stallion, deeply respectful of his leadership and his devotion to the herd. “My Lord,” Tiamat inclines her head to him, the curved point of her horn bowing before she casts a glance to the painted draft at her side, “this is Kodiak.” And she leaves it at that, assuming that the stallion would want to speak for himself, while offering him silent encouragement.

“Speech.”
a bright star
so no one lets you down
i will shine to guide you
.

@Kodiak @Deimos @Albrecht || image || table
please tag Tia in all replies!
magic & force are permitted.

Kodiak Posts: N/A
Unregistered
:: :: ::
#6
Kodiak

Kodiak froze with his hoof in mid air, his heavy feathering fluttering in the breeze. He bent his neck like a pretzel to train his good eye on the blue mare before him. Could it be? Could she have the same affliction on her mind as him? She didn't seem to feel even a fraction of the distress that it caused him. He felt his missing memories like a phantom limb, unable to forget the wrongness of their absence.

He lowered his leg slowly. "Doesn't it bother you? The not knowing?" If his voice was louder than it had been before, it was only because the wind was picking up. It was not possible for a horse like him to fear something more than a tiny prancing blue unicorn. He tried not to stare like his life depended on the words she would say next.

There was nothing to say, really, when she made the mistake of turning his questions on himself. He half listened to her flustered apologies, but he had already shrugged off her poorly chosen words. By now he'd realized out that she wouldn't intentionally bring harm to even the tiniest insect in the Basin, much less a fellow horse.

"I like the snow," he said, as if that explained everything, and perhaps it did. He gave her a gentle smile.

They were interrupted by a lanky rack of bones that vaguely resembled a goat, but without any of the nimbleness or grace a mountain goat possessed. He turned his head a bit to the left and squinted. A horse then, he decided after a longer inspection. Tiamat jumped to fulfill the strange horse's demands, as he knew she would, but something in Kodiak bristled at his tone.

"You should thank her," he told the goat-horse quietly.

Another figure stalked towards them through the snow. Something about him pulled Kodiak's attention, much like a poisonous snake resting harmlessly on a branch. There was no telling when it would uncoil, or what it would do once it had. The stallion's mannerisms tugged at his memories, and something finally shook itself loose. He was quite certain that the horse that had attacked him, damaged his mind and stole half his sight, had looked at him the same way Deimos was right now.

"My name is Kodiak," he told the stallion. He felt that calculating gaze slide over him, and he wondered if Deimos would understand what the tilt of his head meant. Just how obvious was his blindness? "I wish to seek shelter in your territory, and perhaps to learn the ways of your healer."

He didn't look at Tiamat, conscious of the fact that he hadn't asked her first.
 
 
 
"Talk."
@Tiamat @Albrecht @Deimos
I'm walking the long road
           watching the sky fall
                                                           
image credits

Albrecht Posts: 249
Aurora Basin Impersonator atk: 6 | def: 8.5 | dam: 2.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.1hh :: 19 (Orangemoon) HP: 60 | Buff: NOVICE
Strom :: Suma Ball Python :: None Townsen
#7
He watches the mare curl and twist her neck to reach beneath the thick cerulean waves of her mane, emerging with a sprig of something brown and green between her teeth. The herb smells something like pepper but not so harsh and with a more earthy tone to it. Albrecht’s no healer and so he doesn’t have a name for the thing, but Tiamat seems happy and healthy enough having held it in her own mouth for a moment, so he cranes his neck to take it from her without suspiction, pressing forward slightly in an attempt to let the softness of his muzzle brush against hers in transfer.

It’s the first time he’s gotten to see the young Medic up close. Everything about her speaks to the open ocean, from the adornments of seaweed and mollusk shells she’s placed there herself to the very color and pattern of her coat; a layered blue with imprecise strokes of light like ripples of reflection across a water’s surface. Something smooth and iridescent circles her eyes, but he doesn’t get the chance to observe any further before the commanding presence of Lord Diemos himself bursts onto the scene and draws the mare’s attention away. It seems at times that the Lord of the Basin is inescapable, an omnipresent warden of the herd. Overachieving son of a bitch.

Brown and white Goliath mutters something, his head cocked to train the non-blood-smeared eye in Albrecht’s direction. He’s not overly familiar with moose language, but the unkind sheen of the strangers gaze prods him to mark one more tally in the ‘probably won’t attend your wake,’ column in his mind. Still though, he doesn't appreciate rash judgments - no matter how accurate they might be.

“Maybe let a guy commit hish crimesh before you go White Knighting all over the convershation, huh?” He gibes mildly, ginger root lending a slight lisp to the pronunciations. Shank you Tiamat." He sing-songs to the healer, one ear tipped warily toward the black Lord should he find this inappropriate, though really he's seen and heard much worse from the old grump without complaint. 'Th,' sounds are hard with a full mouth you know.

The conversation continues without further interjection on Albrecht's part, as is becoming his custom when Diemos is in attendance. He watches vacantly, noting that the Moose-Man's name is Kodiak (how clever) and that he wishes to be a healer like his thalassic friend.


\\

OOC: Made you dictionary that shit didn't I? xD


@Deimos @Tiamat @Kodiak
           
[Image: 56c616e54affc]Rated M, R, NC-17, AO, 18+, NSFW
Tag dat azz!  @Albrecht
Violence & Magic okay.
Wish - Away - OOC


Deimos the Reaper Posts: 527
Deceased atk: 7.0 | def: 12 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.1 :: 7 HP: 72.5 | Buff: NUMB
Heather
#8
Delivered from the blast
Deimos the Reaper


More healers? The notion that they’d suddenly become a swarming bunch of menders and nurses was an odd, perplexing measure – had they asked him years before, while he carved his way through bones and muscle, sinew and flesh, if they’d be regarded as the herd with the most nourishing, soothing beasts, he would have laughed. But he wasn’t about to send Tiamat’s newest, large parcel away; the calculations were already conniving and weaving their threads around his skull. Perhaps one day they would have need of so many tending souls – especially if they continued skirmishes, spars, practices, and eventual challenges (for power, for prestige, for honor). Who knew when the next invasion would strike? Who knew when the next bout of monsters would arrive? Who knew when the Gods would chuckle and let the skies fall upon their heads? The more soothing essences would be required, administering their herbs and dressings, their assuaging qualities (they wouldn’t be able to call upon the Lord for such duties; he wouldn’t even know where to begin – maybe with amputations?). A certain bout of curiosity bloomed around this Colossus, Kodiak (like a bear, like an ursine, mighty and strong, tough and enduring?), because he seemed inclined to move in a strange way. Was there a weakness, a vice, a defect? He wouldn’t ask the beast in front of the others – but perhaps in due time, when prowess was more than just a potential, when strength could be determined beyond a large mass and a gracious heart.
 
He said naught to Tiamat or Albrecht (though he did arch his brow at the latter; the elderly creature seemed to be everywhere at once despite his age, eventually he might pick the rank of spy solely out of necessity), brandishing the power of his words solely to the newcomer. “You are welcome to join the ranks of healers.” He paused, gesturing his skull towards the shelled mare, remembering the methods she used to counter his own lacerations and agonies. He extended compliments where they were due, bestowing assurances and layers of conduct between those feral lines drawn in the sand. “Tiamat is well versed in the art.” Then he paused, unsure, uncertain, if he was putting too much upon the mare. “You may also contact our Time Menders, Lena and Enna, for further education.” He nodded, brisk and keen, as if that put an end to the necessities. “Welcome to the Basin.”



Tiamat the Ocean's Light Posts: 360
Aurora Basin Lady atk: 8 | def: 10 | dam: 3
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.2 :: 6 years HP: 60 | Buff: NOVICE
Nimue :: Common Orca Leviathan :: Boil Reli
#9
Tiamat
“I haven’t really thought about it,” the ocean mare confesses to Kodiak’s inquiry about not knowing, pursing her lips together for a moment. Of course, she doesn’t really see herself having a...‘before,’ considering that the moment she had washed up to Helovia’s shores had, by any definition, been her birth. Perhaps, at one point, she had been with her family—with her mother and father, somehow a part of them. Even if that were the case, Tiamat feels just as one with nature now, and that is all the comfort she needs. Her father never fails to comfort her and her mother is ever watchful—she wouldn’t know how to be bothered with them in her heart.

Offering the draft an encouraging grin, Tiamat laughs softly when he addresses Albrecht (the sound little more than a breath against her lips), demanding gratitude from the elderly stallion. She had not thought anything of the old unicorn’s tone, never assuming anything but the best of anyone, and takes their little interaction with lighthearted amusement. A smile breaks across her features when he croons his gratitude through a full mouth. “You’re very welcome, Albrecht.” Generosity is inherent to the blue mare’s nature, her desire to help and mend stitched into every inch, every arc of her soul’s tapestry.

She sighs quietly to herself when Kodiak addresses the dark, grand stallion, introducing himself before stating what he desires to learn. A healer! Tiamat’s heart practically leaps from her chest, her smile widening excitedly to flash brilliant white teeth. “Oh wonderful!” She sings in utter delight, the length of her lion tail swaying animatedly out behind her. Her cheeks warm with Deimos’ compliment, eyes dancing, “Thank you, my Lord.”

The ocean mare turns to the painted draft, looking up at him with her fluted ears perked forward. “I’d be delighted to teach you,” she says without hesitation, thrilled by the opportunity. While she is far from knowing all that she can and desires to learn, Tiamat has become particularly well-versed with the practice of herbs, not having the blessing of any sort of magic until recently. There are still times when she is haunted by the possibility of not having enough, of not being to give enough without the healing gift from their patron god, but it is a fear she has learned to disregard more easily.

“Lena and Enna are the herd’s Time Menders,” Tiamat goes on, continuing Deimos’ thought, “they have healing magic from the Time God. They’re both lovely and dear friends of mine, I’m sure you’ll like them.” The mare’s expression grows softer, forever grateful to the brown mare and her instruction, and Enna’s undying support. She exhales, smiling when Kodiak is formally welcomed, seconding the invitation with a bright smile. “Shall I show you around?” Tiamat offers, leaning her weight a step forward to encourage Kodiak to follow, before glancing over her shoulder to Albrecht, offering a grin, “You’re welcome to join us.”

notes; I figured it was okay to start wrapping this up? If not I'm okay with continuing :3
“Speech.”
a bright star
so no one lets you down
i will shine to guide you
.

@Kodiak @Deimos @Albrecht || image || table
please tag Tia in all replies!
magic & force are permitted.


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