"Where brilliance is good and madness is better..."
Helovia Info
Helovia opened in February 2012! We are an active fantasy equine RPG
Where once the world narrowed into naught but gray dust and desolation, the gods called for life. Wielding the elements of fire and light, dark and wind, earth and water, spark and time, they have created Helovia. The realm is set within the mythical globe of Loorien, a planet rich with all variety of creatures and blessed with all manner of magic. Originally populated by nomadic, tribal characters, they've since grown into massive empires saturated with culture and history. Separated into four distinct segments of Helovia, called "The Regions," each band of horse strong enough and capable enough, took up the power and responsibility of leadership. Unicorns, old, wise and mysterious, took to the north, hidden in forests of mists and shadows and rarely making themselves known beyond their cliffs of the World's Edge. Equines, vast, organized and militaristic, split into two, one group went north to the Windtossed Foothills and the other group went south to the Dragon's Throat. Pegasus remained nomadic, making their homes in various parts of The Wilds in a migratory manner. For many generations, the land was peaceful and calm, but peace was never the way of the gods. With a clash of argument, war and bloodshed massacred Helovia, and in the aftermath, the realm was eerily quiet. Now, as newcomers sweep into this land, they are met with the lingering bitterness of the gods and the struggle to reclaim what was lost. Nothing remains safe or certain while sorcerers and soldiers alike brood and bide their time for revenge, honor and glory.
Site Wide Plots
Kaos :: The Beginning of the End ☼ - 6/2017 - Kaos placed Helovia in a time-bubble for a short period of time, but the Helovian gods are fighting back. But Kaos is powerful- far more powerful than anyone thought. This may be the beginning of the end of Helovia as we know it.
Kisamoa :: A New Kind of Kaos ☼ - 3/2017 - Kisamoa asks Helovians to help him restore the Spectral Marsh. Which side will you choose?
Invasions :: All Out War ☼ - 5/2/16 - New layout and the brand new invasion rules are up! Thank you for your patience and we look forward to getting started with this new adventure.
The Rift :: Gods Do Die ☼ - 8/2015 - Helovia Gods are saving the Rift from corrupt gods! Can Helovians band together against these foreign deities?
The Literal Ship ☼ - 2/8/15 - Oh no! You have to pair up for Valentine's day!
Sky Island :: Murder ☼ - 10/25/14 - Vesta has been found dead on the island, and the gods have called to you to solve the murder!
Sky Island :: Peace ☼ - 7/7/14 - An island has appeared in the sky! Clouds carry Helovians from the Veins to the sky.
Restoration :: We Welcome the Dawn ☼ - 9/21/13 - The sun has finally risen on this day, giving the land new light, but the Time God and the Sun God have yet to be seen.
Endless Night :: Broken Magic Plot ☼ - 8/30/13 - The earth god has returned and is walking across Helovia to heal the land. Every area can now be considered lush and prosperous, but the sun has still not risen.
☼ - 7/19/13 - The moon has risen in the sky, heralding the return of the Goddess of the moon. Lamp trees which light the paths have grown brighter, moon flowers which grow in dark places have begun to grow and prosper and the world is brighter, filled with a new hope.
Endless Night :: Dead Magic Plot ☼ - 6/22/13 - The gods of Helovia, in order to protect the world, have disappeared into the rift, leaving the world sunless, moonless and magic-less in their absence. Only the herdlands have a source of light, but lamp-trees with glowing leaves and branches sporadically line the popular roads and paths from place to place.
Doppleganger Plot ☼ - 6/20/13 - The God of Time is still struggling to close the rift though which the dopplegangers have come. He has requested that his brothers and sister assist in closing this hole, but without knowing why it opened, the task is proving difficult. Magic still remains faulty and hard to control, but the herdlands continue to be places of refuge for those who are fortunate enough to call these lands home.
ORANGEMOON cools off the lands with a a viscious force. Colder than normal, a sign of things to come during Frostfall, Helovia is bathed in a rich tropical lushness - albiet a cold one. The coastlines of the Dragon's Throat are pelted constantly by tidal waves, and the desert climate is humid but chilly. Ice begins to form early in the Aurora Basin leaving the winding trails slick and dangerous. The mists of the World's Edge coat everything in a glistening crystalline shine which encourages mould to grow everywhere. The Spectral Marsh is the only area which remains fertile, blissfully temperature and lush.
Cotm
Character of the Month for
June, 2017
WEAVER, Corporal of the Aurora Basin, is a relatively recent addition to Helovia and has taken it by storm. Branded with the seal of Death on her chest, intrigue and interest follow both her past and present. Though she is assuredly beautiful, her sometimes sharp personality reveals that there is more to this uni-peg hybrid than meets the eye. Proving herself able on the battlefield in the Basin’s warrior ranks, we can’t wait to see her test her mettle against the looming Kaos happenings! Congratulations!
Helovia RPG was created by Tamme and Blu and coded by Tamme also known as Schwartze. All coding, palettes and imagery are copyrighted to the website and are not for use outside of Helovia. Thank you to our ServerMaster for hosting Helovia. A special thanks goes to Neo for all of her coding help and fixing Tamme's errors, Boom, for her loyal service and creation of the Time God, and to Ali for her consistent contributions and dedication.
Where there's no Law tying my heart from the start..
I was in the Edge again. Don’t ask me—I just was.
I would start thinking about it too hard and Cheek already has a problem with me thinking about shit to hard and he he’s been trying to teach me how to cool my jets even though we both know it’s an impossible task but he keeps trying, he keeps trying, and I love him forever for that (amongst a lot of other things).
(Also—I don’t talk for him anymore cuz he can talk for himself now. Or at least, I don’t describe shit to him anymore, because he’s a big boy and I crimp his style or whatever. Fine. Fine. I didn’t feel like yapping my gums to you anymore nohow. Bastard)
I mean, he is a huge bastard now (I am, he says). Not that I have any clue what exactly the hell he is, because I still don’t (A rougarou, he tells me, knowing full well it means jackshit to me) but I’m like 89% sure his whole breed is just built to fuck with me. Large and fluffed out and SWOLE like a lion, here he is now, laying across my back, his bat-like wings draped over my sides (hiding the gleam of metal—) while his bright blue whatever the hell (is it a tail? A stinger? What the fuck—) curled against his back in a pleased, lazy feline tick. If any of that shit made sense to you then I don’t know where the fuck you’re even from because I don’t even know where they do that at, but I wasn’t lying to you either. Because that’s what he chose to be: a huge (pretty) lion with wings and a blue butt-thing. (And horns.) And horns. He’s got horns, too. I forgot to mention them.
He was lying on my back ‘cuz it was balls freezing. It wasn’t the North so I guess that’s the north-like wind was blindsiding me so bad, but so it was; cutting and furious and cold so goddamn cold and there we were, standing outside the broken shards of a glass wall standing useless and gorgeous around the perimeter of the sea-side herd. (Useless and gorgeous like my swo—)
(Stop.)
(But it’s just like—)
(Stop.)
(If I had just been there—)
(Stop.)
(….B—)
(Stop.)
….Okay.
I’ll stop.
So there I was, in the Edge again, standing idly on a day that thought about snowing. The wind was already throwing its frozen little spit-particles around, the tinest, most annoying sleet imaginable—not enough to actually penetrate your fur and make you wet, but just enough to flutter into your eye when you dropped your guard. My breath fanned out in front of me in a billowing cloud as I stood there, waiting for—
--for someone I guess, or something, some sign, some anything to tell me that I was supposed to be here (that it was right for me to be here—)
(Stop.)
(It was his daughter--)
(Stop it.)
It….
(…)
…
(…stop.)
I stopped.
I sighed and I felt Sparkmarrow on my side rattle with my sides moving and something sick rose in my gut and you (sorry, Cheek, Cheek, I’m not speaking for him anymore) kneaded his claws in my skin and I sighed again and shook my mane and I stood there in a biting wind and the fake-sleet and I froze and waited and froze and waited.
I was in the Edge again. Please don’t ask me why.
[SKULKING AROUND THE EDGE someone say hi to her :| ]
"talk"
"Chico"
She’s been slowly getting used to calling the Edge home. That said, she hardly knows anyone that lives here, preferring to loiter around the forest getting to know it. Old habits die hard, and if she can’t have her forests in Morham, she was going to do her best to learn her new forest like the back of her hoof. It would never really be the same, she knows. Not without her family. Not without the power of the wind at her disposal. But still, it was something. And for now, it was easier than facing the reality of her situation.
Though she’ll explore the rest of the kingdom too, even when the trees thin out giving way to warm pools of water and eventually, the cliff. Though today, she’s mostly sticking to the trees, which cut the winter wind, offering some level of shelter. Her coat has grown thick and she feels a little scraggly, honestly. It’s colder here than Morham, though thankfully, she’s not completely unused to winter. Morham had some semblance of cold, at any rate.
Still though, she keeps her wings tucked to her sides, her tri-colored feathers offering another layer of warmth and protection from the wind. Between the winds and the trees and the beginning of a storm, Lyanna doesn’t even notice the stranger at first. But there’s something different in the air, something other than the smell of sap and evergreen, and she turns her attention toward the border, trying to find the source.
When she’s finally looking – really looking the white and blue mare becomes obvious, standing on the other side of the broken glass wall. Lyanna is quite possibly the most useless person to be the first to greet a stranger. There’s nothing she can actually do besides say hello, but still, at least it’s a hello. And invite her into the shelter of the trees. Which possibly she isn’t even supposed to do that, but really, she can’t let the mare freeze to death out there.
Lyanna slips through the trees as if she actually belongs there. You do, she reminds herself. It’s a constant game, reminding herself that she does in fact belong in the Edge now. But still, she can’t convince herself of it. In Morham, she was a Princess. She knew the ins and outs of the kingdom, knew the customs, knew everything, really. Here though? Here she didn’t even know a handful of horses.
“Hello,” she says as she comes to a stop near the other. There’s a…well, Lyanna doesn’t know what it is, lying on the mare’s back. All she knows is it looks vaguely like a lion, with a bright blue tail, and horns. And wings. “I’m Lyanna. Can I help you?” which, though is the polite and correct thing to say, is in fact hilarious. Lyanna can’t do anything to help, besides provide some worthless conversation. But at least she can at least attempt to be polite.
Maybe one day she’ll actually be useful again.
[hope you don't mind her popping in - she needs things to do, even though she knows nothing]
Where there's no Law tying my heart from the start..
I mean, I’m not saying the girl didn’t have any right to approach me like she did. I was on her turf and her doorstep and if she really wanted to she could kick my ass the fuck on out of there at the mere word. I ain’t like I was really really really trying to be there; if someone told me to beat it, I was gonna beat it with a quickness, and gladly, too, because I was still trying to work up a reason why I stood there in the cold and kinda-snow amongst the ruins of glass and greater times.
But here she was, asking if she could help me, and I was looking at her and it was probably a look that was way too hard and cutting and Chico probably noticed (I noticed) so he yawned his great lion’s mouth and leapt from my back and zpnck!ed into something fluffier and friendlier as he landed on the ground. I watched him waddle from my side, right at the girl’s (Lyanna) feet and plop himself right down, looking up at her with expectant, liquidy-brown eyes. He had a hide and a tail that were way too floofy and it was a given that it would be stroked and cuddled. (I cute. Fucking cute.)
Her perfect strangeness to me only underlined a pitifully painful truth: that the world was large and strange, and you can never really know the whole of it upfront. But that wasn’t her fault, so I tried to talk to her, and, as expected, it was a fucking disaster. “Uh—yeah, sure, whatever,” I said, and even my words were a shrug, “Is uh…Do y’all got any…um…” I don’t really know why I was stalling but I was doing it badly and I shifted from hoof to hoof while I cast about for something to say without spilling all kinds of business I still couldn’t really look at with a straight face.
“Is…is your king…uh…” I blinked, because I hadn’t meant to let that slip, but it was on my mind (even though Cheek had told me to stop it) (I did) and there’s a mental Freaky-slip thing that happens sometimes. I shook my head, clearing that nasty word-poop from my palette to give myself a fresh start. “I mean,” I said, forcefully, clearly, “Have you…Do you know if someone named—uh—Ophelia is here?” That was another thing I needed to face—another set of eyes, and this time only one of them were blue. This was the last place I knew my Ma to be and it was probably gonna be sticky but I can’t keep running from a painful, sticky thing. It’s always gonna be painful, probably. I just gotta make it right.
02-18-2016, 02:40 PM (This post was last modified: 02-18-2016, 02:41 PM by Lyanna.)
i am a leaf on the wind
The mare just sort of stares at Lyanna for a moment, and honestly, the tri-colored mare isn’t entirely sure what to do. She’s sort of hoping someone will come along, and quickly. Someone useful who has actual answers and actual knowledge of this place. Unlike Lyanna, who probably should have just slipped through the trees and pretended never to have noticed the stranger on the border. Because really, what good could Lyanna actually be, particularly with someone else just staring at her.
Then the lion-type creature on the mare’s back yawns before leaping down and shifting into something that was all fluff and fuzz and adorable big brown eyes. The creature sits in front of Lyanna, looking up at her like he’s expecting to be petted and possibly to distract Lyanna from his staring mare. But either way, she smiles happily, glancing to the white and blue mare for confirmation that it’s okay to pet her shape-shifting companion.
Though it doesn’t take long to her attention to shift back to the fluffy creature, because he is adorable, and she leans down to pet him, though she’s careful to stop before completely crossing the distance and wait, making sure he’s in fact amenable to any sort of touch. Because honestly, she did just see him change from a lion with a giant stinger, so she’s pretty sure it might be beneficial to play it a little safe here.
Lyanna looks back up when the mare begins to speak, her face calm and patience as the other looks for the right words. There are a variety of half questions before the mare finally decides to ask for Ophelia. Lyanna shakes her head slightly, “Honestly, I’m pretty new, and I don’t know Ophelia. But come in, and we can try to find her.” She steps aside, figuring it’s probably acceptable here for Lyanna to let the mare in. It’s cold outside the trees, and the members of the Edge seemed too kind to leave someone standing on their border freezing.
“Did you want Tembovu too?” she asks, moving into the shelter of the trees a little farther, though not going too far into the kingdom. The black and white mare isn’t entirely sure if the other mare was in fact asking for him when she said King, or someone else, or if she’d just changed her mind. But in an effort to be helpful (to the extent she could manage helpful), she wanted to at least offer. Though of course, she has no idea she’s possibly just hit on a sore spot. “Do you and your compantion have names?” Lyanna adds, hoping to maybe ease the somewhat awkward situation.
Where there's no Law tying my heart from the start..
I watched Cheek stamp his little feet in anticipation for the mare’s (Lyanna’s) dropping nose, for a snuggle that was his due. When she hesitated, hovering over his head as though second-guessing herself (which, okay, honestly, it was a pretty smart move, good girl) he quit the patience and reared on his hind feeties, pressing his head against her chin and taking those goddamned snuggles for himself. Fuck her comfort levels, man, Cheek don’t give a shit about boundaries. (Nah.)
It was almost enough to distract me from where we were, and I almost smiled—but this chick was still a stranger (LYANNA) OKAY FUCKLyanna was still a stranger and I don’t like smiling in front of them things and this was still the Edge and there was a whole shadowy undercurrent of dark, distrusting things I felt about this place, from its patron asshole god and its history that I actually know about and, at this point, maybe even its royalty. Plus, Lyanna was spitting I name I didn’t know and I wasn’t sure how to rank it in my head (or how my heart weighed it against other things, because right now the scale was busted). I don’t remember the name Tembovu.
“Uh…he’s the king, right?” I asked, kind of groping in the dark at that point, “Then yeah, whatever, I’d like to meet him.” And she was offering to let us inside the borders of the glass wall, which was gravy because the wind really was kicking my ass now that Cheek had stopped covering my back like he had been. (Grow fur.) (Shut up.) I also felt really, really bad for this gir—for Lyanna (I’m trying, okay), and I can’t even really give a straight answer why. She was just…I dunno, there was something innocent about her that wasn’t even really innocent, something about her cluelessness, because I had a feeling that the name Ophelia was something that would’ve been known in this herd (amongst several reasons). I dunno exactly how new Lyanna seemed to be in this herd, in Helovia, for that matter, and—I guess it was making me sad thinking about all the shit she was probably gonna learn. And that’s a bad time, friend. She’s gonna have a bad time.
So then she was asking for names. Which is the hardest question ever, at least for me it is, but I gotta start swallowing it back and spitting it out, for jeezus’ sake. She was offering her home to me, in the meantime. And helping me. Which, I’ve learned, isn’t something I can take for granted anymore. “I call him Chico,” I said, pointing down to the tiny cuddle-monster who was still snatching every hug and belly-rub he could get from a poor, vulnerable woman, “and Ros works with me.”
02-23-2016, 05:06 PM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2016, 05:07 PM by Lyanna.)
i am a leaf on the wind
She can’t help but laugh as the furry creature reared up on his hind legs, fuzzy head burying into the bottom of her chin. She presses her muzzle into his fur some more, sure to give him a very good cuddle and a little bit of an ear rub. He clearly didn’t mind, and more to the point, how was she possibly supposed to resist soaking in the adorable little creature. She still has absolutely no idea what he is, but she doesn’t really care either. He’s simply a treat, and she’s going to enjoy it.
But eventually, she does have to return to the conversation at hand. In truth, she could probably ignore the mare for her fuzzy friend for quite so time if manners didn’t dictate otherwise. She smiles at the creature before pulling her head back up to a normal level, teal eyes focusing back on the mare. “He is,” she says, confirming that Tembovu is King. Well, leader, really, but that’s probably the same thing as King here. Whatever he wanted to call himself, he led the Edge. That much she knew for a fact.
“I gather that he’s often lurking around here, so hopefully he won’t be too hard to find.” She plunges a little bit farther into the forests, still not venturing too terribly far from the border, but far enough that she thinks they might be more likely to run into someone who could be of any actual use. She was slowly growing used to the forest here. It still wasn’t her forest, the one she’d grown up in back in Morham.
And in truth, she’s beginning to realize it never really would be. Not that the Edge wasn’t great, but nothing can replace where she came from. This was different, and lovely in its way. But it would always be different. It was easier thinking of things that way anyway. She couldn’t replace her past, but she could try to move on from it. How much worse could it really get anyway? Her family had all been slaughtered, except her sister, who simply up and disappeared.
No, she probably doesn’t know what know how much worse it could get. She’s not asking that question for a reason.
”It’s nice to meet you both,” she says, reaching down again to give Chico another rub, clearly perfectly content with being used as a petting post. There were no companions in Morham, so fuzzy little cuddle-monsters are a new, and rather fun, treat for the black and teal mare. “I’m sorry I’m not more use, but hopefully I can get you a little warmer and find someone to help you out.” She says to Ros again, because honestly, she’s not entirely sure what else to say.
It’s a strange feeling, really, being so damn useless. And she really doesn’t like it.
Black rimmed ears sweep forward, listening to the rise and fall of voices that came through the misted trunks. He recognized only one voice— and only vaguely. He waited, ears still perked but great skull swiveling as the voices drifted from the border to gradually entering the Edge. There were sounds that ended higher than they began— wordless questions and uncertain tones. It obviously begged his attention. Mbwene bumped her infant, elephant head against his knee— why were they just waiting in the mists? She felt the pull of his obligation through their bond. And, likewise, he felt the pull of curiosity from her.
The curiosity was a breath of fresh air for the Elephant King. So, unknowingly turning up the edges of his thick lips, he grasped onto the sentiment in his bond and started towards the voices with sweeping strides of his massive legs. Mbwene, ears waving in triumph, trotted eagerly out ahead of him; small body disappearing in the mist.
She stumbled on the two equines a few meters ahead of her bonded, appearing from the mist before he did. Her bright blue eyes in her youthful face immediately zeroed into the furry companion with paws perched on an unknown mare’s muzzle. Uncertain if this creature meant danger— and with the lion companion’s threats still very fresh in her young mind— she emitted a brassy half-trumpet, ears out and waving to make herself appear larger. But she did not back away— no, her curiosity was too great. And, her bonded would be close behind. In her young and naive mind, he could protect her from anything.
Sure enough, the giant man emerged from the mist shortly after Mbwene’s trumpet. Navy eyes pin his companion (ensuring that she was safe) before sweeping to the two speaking equines. One was Lyanna, the other was foreignly familiar. She was from the blood-soaked sands of the Isles. The day of Mauja’s daughters death— though he did not know the electrified mare, he would not forget the images and faces of that tragic day.
At the wave of sadness from Tembovu, the small elephant murmured a throaty squeak, one ear falling flush with her head. But she remained fixated on the furry creature.
“Hello Lyanna,” his low voice rumbles in greeting, before turning his attention to the strangely marked mare. “I don’t think we’ve properly met. I am Tembovu, King of the Edge. But you know that as well as any,” his navy stare pins the mare, attempting to ignore the flashes of a white carcass and congealed blood. “Are you looking for Mauja?” His spotted friend had offered her leadership of the Edge, they must share a friendship?
Where there's no Law tying my heart from the start..
Cheek was just so fuckin’ pleased with himself, even as the m—as Lyanna walked off to lead us deeper into the herdlands. He was just this little waddling thing walking with his chin held high, proud of himself and everything and swelling with it. Everyone love me, I heard him say to himself, humming it a little bit, and when I rolled my eyes (shut up) he promptly told me to shut up because even though I was rude and smelly, that didn’t mean he had to be. (You still smell like ass, though.) (Bite me.)
I mean, it’s true, though. I don’t really know how to make friends—and I’m not sure if I really want to know how, either. Anyone I’ve really befriended just sort of happened and I can’t really tell you how—I mean, I still struggle with giving my name. Case in point: Lyanna started apologizing for not knowing more, or not being useful, and I sort of cocked my brow at her and gave her a funny look that wasn’t built for being reassuring. “S’fine?” I said, with an awkward lilt to my voice that didn’t really help with the expression on my face. Mostly I was confused—I mean, she’s helping me now, isn’t she? It ain’t like I expected her to be my Ma or whatever. She was doing her best and I was the intruder so…I dunno. Just kinda caught me off guard—
I WANT IT.
OW OKAY WHAT?!
Lyanna had just ducked her head down to pet Cheek again when he saw it; the tiniest little tank of a thing screaming at us, except it wasn’t really screaming so much as it was a brassy screech that seemed to trumpet from its long, long nose. I blinked, staring at this thing cuz what the fuck. I’ve never seen any kind of creature like that in my life; I wondered if it were some kind of hairless, wrinkly horse that got its nose stuck in a hole in the ground and the badger kept stretching it out. Chico didn’t waste time blinking, though, and staring, and wondering what the fuck. The delight in his breast spiraled and swelled out of all control until—
I WANT, he screamed, and suddenly he was a furry bullet dashing through the grasses, charging straight for the--thing. And feeling a rising frustration that made me grin a little—because, as we had found out sometime ago, Chico can’t change anymore. Well, he can change, but not into anything he wanted like he could when he was a baby. And now he was furious cuz if he’d known that a creature like that existed--oh man oh man he would’ve bashed my kneecaps in so hard, you don’t even know man, awgh god it would’ve been SO awesome. But no. He was stuck as this furry thing and even though his was super fucking irritated about it, it didn’t completely outshine his excitement—so he ran for it.
I mean…I don’t know what he was gonna do when he got there. I don’t think he thought that far ahead. At that moment, he just needed to get there.
“He’s harmless!” I shouted a little into the mist, where I saw a huge (huge) shadow approach—and I put two and two together and realized this cute-ugly, wrinkly creature was probably someone’s companion, “He’s just—uh—excited I guess, but he ain’t gonna bite, I pro….”
The shadow got more distinct (and more huge, holy shit) and I realized, when I saw those stripes across his back, that I had actually seen this guy before. There was no mistaking him; massive, holy shit so massive he was almost on par with Mr.Archiballs, like that kind of massive. And besides, I had only met him once, but I will never forget that particular circumstance. It crushed my heart to see this guy, just by association.
“You,” I whispered as he came into view, squinting my eyes up into a face that was just as kind as it was big. Tembovu, is his name. “So you did become King.” I was murmuring more to myself, because the memories were rushing back—
(stop)
--and they almost flooded me, almost overwhelmed me, but I was able to blink them away (for the time being) and at least let them give me some context. I was there when he became King, even if I hadn’t realized it at the time.
*“Are you looking for Mauja?”*
It happened so fast I scared myself, honestly.
I pinned my ears, hard; I snorted, my tail lashing; Chico glanced back at me, at the spike that had been thrust so suddenly into my breast that it caused my teeth to bear. “No, I’m not looking for fucking Mow-ya,” I said way too hard, way too hostile, that name on my tongue too strange to say right, “I don’t know a Mow-ya.” I know Lee, and goddammit I really really wanna see him. But that was the pain of it, right? Was I ever gonna see “Lee” again? What did that even mean, for me to call him that? Lee wasn’t his real name—obviously—and to have the real thing thrown in my face like that, so fucking casual, like it was common knowledge—
--like all his friends would know his name like that—
(Ros.)
(It’s just that—)
(Ros.)
(Oh come on! You can’t say I’m wrong for—)
(Not now.)
(Not…)
Not now.
I realized how stormy my face had gotten in those few seconds—how tense my body got, and oh shit I had snapped at a herd lead and it was rushing back and back and I could see how fucked up I had acted. So I—I took a few breaths, then a deeper one, and my head lowered a little bit (but I didn’t break my eyes away from him. Nah, I wasn’t that much of a coward). “That was rude,” I said low and plain, “I’m sorry.” I sighed again and rolled my shoulders and I straightened my tongue out and tried again (people are hard, ugh).
“I’m…I’m actually looking for Ophelia,” I said, pressing on and leaving the other thing behind because, like Chico told me, now was not the time. “The last I heard of her she was living in this herd…Is she—uh--around?” I tried not to ask the follow-up: Would she even wanna look at me?
03-01-2016, 09:09 AM (This post was last modified: 03-01-2016, 09:13 AM by Lyanna.)
i am a leaf on the wind
He seems to know when he’s needed. It, thankfully, doesn’t take long for Tembovu to find them, though he’s accompanied (actually, he’s preceded really) by a tiny little elephant. This sort of thing is started to be less strange to Lyanna, but still, an elephant did just emerge from the forest to find a strange furry creature that could quite possibly have fangs hidden behind all that fuzz. The little elephant trumpets her horn and waves her ears and the fur ball that Lyanna had been petting goes flying toward the elephant.
Lyanna, for her part, doesn’t even actually know the names of these animals. She’s never actually seen them. And in characteristic, useless form, there’s absolutely nothing she can do to help this situation out. While Chico may be an adorable furball at the moment, she had seen him as some half-lion, stinger-tailed creature not all that long ago.
Ros yells at that he’s harmless though, and that seems likely enough. So if nothing else, Lyanna doesn’t panic over the whole situation. Once upon a time, she could have sent a blast of wind between them, could have scooped them into the air and kept them apart. Now though? Now she could do absolutely nothing, but smile and nod and generally try to stay out of the way.
”Tembovu,” she greets with a low nod in his direction. She wants to ask about his companion, but knows this isn’t the time. His attention has already shifted to the white and blue mare anyway, and it quickly becomes clear they have some past history. Probably not much, but they don’t seem like complete strangers.
As Tembovu and Ros start to talk, Lyanna realizes she’s entirely in the way. The problem is, while she knows she ought to leave and give them some privacy, she is still rudely curious about who all these horses that they keep naming and what this life was that she’d pretty much just fallen into. And then suddenly Ros has her ears pinned, snorting hard, like she’s been threatened almost.
Maybe she really should leave. She does, instinctually, take a step back, trying to at least be slightly less in the way. But she still doesn’t leave. Corbin would yell at her. But then, Corbin is dead, and he can’t scold her anymore for ignoring manners that she knows all too well.
Now is not the time to start thinking about Corbin. Stop that.
Ros apologizes, and continues on, asking for the other horse she’s mentioned earlier on. The one Lyanna knows nothing about. She can’t add to this conversation in any way shape or form, but still, she stays. If nothing else, maybe she can serve as errand girl for her King. It’d be something.
Mbwene’s eyes rounded wide as the furry, blue-tailed, winged, lion thing suddenly came bolting towards her. Perhaps trumpeting at dangerous things was not the best way to go about life, she was quickly learning. Giving a high-pitched trumpet of dismay, she began scrambling backwards, away from the grey and blue blur of excitement and terror. Though she wanted to put some distance between her and the white-maned creature, she wasn’t willing to turn her back on it.
Tasseled tail and wrinkled haunches slammed with stumbling force against Tembovu’s forelimbs— and he just barely managed to discard the grimace that still barely creased his navy eyes. Eyes that glanced down to Mbwene, then watched the oncoming manticore, then finally returned to the electric blue pupils of the demo-goddess as she was shouting about the harmlessness of a winged, horned lion with a stinger for a tail. A brow raised in mild disbelief, though it seemed that the other companion harbored only exuberance and no ill-will.
So he dropped his great head, pale muzzle nudging the wary Mbwene forward as the stout, young woman murmured quietly to herself. Though he still nodded slightly as if to affirm that he did, in fact, become King.
Mbwene was less convinced than her bonded, but still began to move her stumpy legs in small steps towards the winged lion (as if the other lion wasn’t bad enough with trying to eat her, this one had wings and horns). A quiet, demure squeak of greeting vibrated out of her trunk as it raised up and out towards it. Large ears flap once in a half-hearted greeting as eyes warily watch the tail that ended in a stinger. But, still, she was there, greeting like a good little elephant.
The Elephant King, however, was not being as cordial— his ears snapped flush with his skull at the hostile words that whipped from the visitor’s mouth. Though, in both regard for Mauja’s friend and understanding of what had last transpired when they were near each other, he held back the reprimand that formed on his tongue. Instead, studied the shorter mare with a flinty, cobalt stare.
Black-rimmed ears swing forward as her apologies come on sighs and with rolling shoulders. A simple nod was given in acceptance, “I still don’t know your name?” was the only, gentle reprimand that rumbled from his barrel.
His great skull cocked slightly as she asked after his old Specter, of all equines. “Ophelia no longer resides within the Edge. She followed Torliek out into the wilds or another herd. I am not certain where she is now,” while the Elephant King normally would offer further help, he waited until he knew the mare’s name before offering Edge resources to a mare that snapped at a King. He glanced at Lyanna, wondering if he should send for her to fetch Mauja.
Mbwene, however, was becoming much more enthralled with the fellow companion by the minute. His mane looked so soft, her slender trunk needed to investigate it. So out it reached, tip grasping for the fuzzy fluff.
Where there's no Law tying my heart from the start..
It could’ve ended badly; I could see the muscles in his neck tense up, reacting to my little outburst, and it could’ve turned out a whole lot worse than it did. And I couldn’t even be mad about it cuz it was my fault. I dunno, maybe I woulda learned my lesson finally, after going to blows with a king on his doorstep for being a brat about shit that wasn’t even about him.
…but nah, I got a free card. With a guttural voice that would belong to a giant like him, he only gave me a gentle prod for my name, which was a much more patient scolding than I deserved. And I knew that. “Er--Ros,” I said quickly, before I fucked it up any further.
*”Ophelia no longer resides within the Edge.”*
“Motherfuck,” I muttered under my breath. Yeah, that would happen. It seemed like Ma changed houses once a year—or twice a year, considering. I bit my lip, furrowing my brow as I stared around at the mists around me for a sec. It was a weird feeling—that release of tension and the bunching of knots in my stomach all at the same time—as I thought about her and Shapes (still not calling him by his name) leaving the Edge. I dunno man—it seemed…almost disrespectful, considering her relationship with the herd. That she would help it commit some crimes, then live in it, then up and leave like it wasn’t shit. Or maybe it was some shit, and I didn’t know about it, but it didn’t’ stop the slightly sick rolling in my insides. Oh well; I still had some time to bullshit before I needed to look her in her eye. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
“Well…thanks,” I said, still chewing on my lip as I tried to think of what the fuck else I could do, “I appreciate the tip ‘n everything and helping me get out ‘o the wind, but I think we should—“
!!
Oh my god—what?
I was ‘bout to bounce out with Cheek—there was no reason for us to stay and keep breathing these fine people’s air for no reason. But Chico stopped me with a blaring mental alarm, and, as I turned to see why he stopped me, I saw that the little thing that had captured Chico’s fascination was pawing at him with her little-long tubey nose thing. N’aww shit, Cheek, I sighed with exasperation as she basked in the gentle pats of yet another admirer. He was so fucking hopeless, I swear. And he didn’t feel like leaving—not when the wind blew so harsh, and there was so many cuddles on this side of the wall.
“…um,” I started, shifting my hooves a little, cuz I know I had no real right to ask any sort of favor from the huge king, “If…if it’s not too much trouble, y’think me ‘n Chico here could stick around for a…little while? We won’t start no trouble or nothin’, I swear, we jus’ don’t know where to go next yet.” And yeah, we were used to frost at this point, but it would be kinda nice to a few nights without having to look over our shoulders all the time.
“…What kind’o animal is that?” I suddenly blurted, looking towards the long nosed, big-eared thing, knowing I was asking way too many godtdamn questions but not being able to help myself.
Mbwene, discovering that the lion’s mane was as soft as it looked, sent a thrill of delight through their bond. Her trunk quickly tightened on the mane, tugging roughly to bring the excited companion closer so that she could explore more of it— what did his horns feel like? Her trunk began to try to slide up, seeking to fully inspect this strange, energetic creature.
Tembovu’s irritation was mitigated partially by “Ros’s” apology, her crestfallen look at his answer, and the pleased curiosity pulsing from Mbwene. Cobalt eyes watched her closely, falling on the lip she worried between her teeth as she half-heartedly spoke of thanks and leaving, but was interrupted by a glance towards her unusual companion. Briefly the King realized that that must be what it looked like when he heeded the mental summons of Mbwene— sudden turns and looks/glares/smiles in the direction of his small elephant.
An elephant who, by the way, was now entirely enthralled by ‘Chico,’ as Ros was now calling him.
Navy eyes, anger faded and now warmed as he watched the electric mare shifting on mostly dark hooves, crinkled with amusement at her “I swear”. His low voice rumbled with mirth as he began to answer her, “I would wish the chill of that wind on very few of even those I dislike, so you are welcome in the Edge for as long as it blows— or longer, should you wish to make the Edge your home,” he paused for a moment, thinking and watching the sparked woman, “What is the reason you seek Ophelia? I can send someone to help—”
”—What kind’o animal is that?” An outright, lopsided grin crossed his broad muzzle as she blurted a question about his companion, despite interrupting him. “Mbwene is an elephant— which, fittingly, is my namesake. And Chico?” Black-rimmed ears swing forward as his gaze alights on the companion of odd parts after imparting his personal tidbit of information (why had he done that?). Though he was further amused as he watched the two companions, commenting, “It seems he’s won Bwen over.”
ooc| Ugh sorry for the wait. Ros is welcome to stay in the Edge until the end of Frostfall, unless she wants to join :D -wink nudge- @Lyanna@Roskuld
She’s one-hundred and ten percent sure she should be completely gone from this conversation. But while it feels rude to stay, it also feels rude to just peace out like she wants nothing to do with this anymore. So basically, she’s a little bit trapped as the most awkward third-wheel to this conversation. Thankfully, she’s spent a lot of her life playing third-wheel in conversations, standing just behind her royal parents or just behind her brother and heir apparent, with a pleasant smile plastered on her face while conversations that have nothing to do with her progress. It’s a learned skilled.
Here though, she has two adorable companions to busy herself with. She drops her head slightly, once the two have settled down slightly, inviting Chico back to more cuddling if he wants, or to offer Mbwene (she catches the name from Tembovu, one ear constantly cocked in the direction of that conversation) a hello greeting. The companions are both really adorable, and make for a good distraction. Even just watching the two interact was a great distraction from the conversation that Lyanna doesn’t entirely understand. There was definitely far more rolling beneath that surface than the tri-colored mare could possibly know. And probably, she doesn’t want to know.
Still though, she listens in, making sure she doesn’t miss something that actually pertains to her. And also, trying to piece together some of this. Yes, rude. Corbin’s voice comes into her mind, scolding her. But you’re dead, she hisses back at him before realizing having conversations in her head might actually be slightly crazy. Corbin would haunt her forever though. She didn’t doubt that.
The conversation is less heated, and as Ros asks to stay, Lyanna shifts her attention from the two companions to the two equines. Tembovu allows her to stay, at least through frostfall, and Lyanna offers a small smile to Ros at that. Something of an unspoken invitation to show the mare around, if she ever wanted, not that Lyanna thought Ros actually needed a tour. But still, she could try to be polite.
Though she’s more intrigued by the conversation of what the little gray, wrinkled creature is. An elephant. She’d probably laugh, if she knew just how fitting that namesake was for her titan of a King. But she’s never seen a full-grown elephant, and has no idea just how large they actually are. ”She’s quite adorable,” Lyanna offers, feeling so entirely ridiculous still standing here with next to nothing to offer. Ah, but she really is stuck between a rock and a hard place, she she simply does her best.
watch how i soar.
lyanna
Please tag in all posts Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death Image by Kiki
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