the Rift


[OPEN] her mind swims where others drown

Aquila Posts: 95
Outcast atk: 5 | def: 9 | dam: 5.5
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.2 :: 6 HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Craonos :: Common Narwhal Leviathan :: Boil smitty
#1
of the sea
She was still. 

It was a strange thing to be, for the seahorse. Her life had been perpetual motion: training, drills, swaying in ocean currents. For those of the sea, there was never stillness. But for those of the land… How often she had seen equines standing, sleeping, watching. All with with their four hooves rooted firmly in the earth.

And here she was, becoming one of them. With her webbed, cloven feet sunk in shifting sands. Scaled, striped ears tilted back, resting on her ridged neck as she realized this. But, with her haunches to the sea and setting sun, she still did not move. Only a flick of her barbed tail and pinned ears gave any outward sign of her internal ire.

She stared out over the Isle that were awash in the setting sun’s palette. Despite her dislike of things above the sea, the militant mare had to admit that there was some beauty in the fiery glow that splashed the green cliffs and reflected on the turquoise water. She sighed, then snorted— suddenly pawing fiercely with her right forelimb, sending a crystalline splash around her chests and face.

Ridged face swung around, unblinking eyes staring momentarily at the hot, fiery, sinking ball. Her wide gaze narrowed once— against the glare and against the clawing, empty loneliness that replaced any sense of self or purpose in her lithe barrel. 

Then her bright irises fell to the waves lapping at her plated knees. This land was full of things she did not know, but she had been resilient against the stabbing hopelessness for so long. Her training had kept her persevering… but now, alone with the sea, her defenses began to crumble. 

Image Credits

@Syrena @Tiamat #MERMAIDSQUAD

Please tag Aquila in all posts.

Syrena Posts: 207
Dragon's Throat Forger
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.1 hh :: 7 years
Thelxiepeia :: Royal Rougarou :: Water Kyra
#2
Syrena
let the water take me
It was strange for the siren not to be still. So long had she stayed in one pool or another, moving only enough to find a new nest every now and again (and with that new nest, new prey). What a strange thing to go from being the hunter to the hunted, though there were few predators around here. Only her own mind, and the constant lapping of the sea that brought with it too many memories.

Still she comes back to the water’s edge. Time and time again.

Though lately, she has been here less. Lately, she has been trying to live the way normal horses do. Picking a rank (crafting, she thinks), building things with her own two feet. It was a far cry from the beautiful monster she once was. It was a far cry from be beautiful monster she still wanted to be.

In the Falls, unless she was hiding in a pool somewhere, she wasn’t even beautiful. Just gray, with her wet, seal-like coat. One patch of her mane was stained pink and purple from the charm that sweat water, but otherwise, she is so little of the mare she once was. This place. This cursed, miserable place.

Her muscles still ached from building that roof. Yes, she’s built something, and yes, there was some pride in that. But mostly, she was miserable. She wanted to be herself again, though that was not even a remote possibility. She wanted not to ache, and that at least, would come in time. She wanted so many things she would not have.

And like always, when she finds her mood slipping, she comes back to the sea. Even though it reminds her of all she has lost, still, there’s a comfort to the water. Today, she plunges in, swimming the length from the shoreline to the Isles that lay beyond. She needs to forget, needs to pretend if only briefly that she is still a siren, still all that she was born to be.

When she surfaces, a mare on the edge of the Isle catches her attention. This mare is stunning in the way Syrena is not. Her coat is that of a seahorse, colored with sand and lines of bright aqua. Jealousy hits like a punch. Syrena has never been one for mares, really (her life had been about luring stallions to their death, after all, and she was better with them), but this one? This one looked like everything Syrena dreamed of being.

Still, she cannot help the small bit of curiosity that stirs as well. Why? Because this mare seems like her, a creature of the water, forced to live on the land. They were not made for it, and yet they did. The gray mare crosses the rest of the distance, her body now a swirl of greens and blues in the cold water. Here, in the sea, she is beautiful. It is the only time.

She emerges on the shore not far from the other, the color slowly fading from her body as the water drips away, returning her to gray. “Hello,” she says to the mare, who’s eyes are downcast on the water, a stance that Syrena is all too familiar with. Not that she can know what’s going on in that mare’s mind – perhaps she’s just tired – but still, she rather likes to believe she’s not the only miserable soul tethered to the earth. Misery loves company, after all.

"words"

darya87 | larfsalot
on deviantart


@Aquila @Tiamat yay mermaids!

Please tag in all posts
Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death
Image by Reli

Aquila Posts: 95
Outcast atk: 5 | def: 9 | dam: 5.5
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.2 :: 6 HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Craonos :: Common Narwhal Leviathan :: Boil smitty
#3
of the sea
The sound of movement by the other is lost to the crash of rolling waves—but the motion of her rising from out of the sea catches the large gaze of the militant mare. Scaled ears that had laid back in her moments of misery swing forward, wary and unblinking gaze morphing to curiosity the longer she watches. The woman of shifting greens and blues (colors of the sea) slowly turns to gray as she leaves the water. Rivulets of liquid leave trails of color in their wake, but soon after the color fades back to gleaming gray.

Her face-fins flare once in anticipation—was this woman of the sea? Was she of Akvo? It was clear she belonged in the water, much as Aquila did. And it was clear the sea brought out some kind of magic in her, just as it did for the militant mare.

Ridged nostrils flare, trying to take in the scent of the approaching, slick woman. Similarly, her over-large eyes do not blink in their intense scrutiny of her. This woman was softer than herself. Where Aquila was coated in plates and angles, this woman was covered in sleek skin and curves. Perked, straining ears twitch as her melodious voice— so much different than Aquila’s throaty one— slips easily into their scaled funnels.

So she was of the sea, but so different than how the seahorse was of the sea. Her lips part, but her voice fails her, she is too distracted by the woman’s body and skin to form words. Instead, her fins wave in greeting while she jerks her mind to focus and speak.

“Hello,” her throaty voice is quiet, “I am Aquila,” for once, the woman freely offers her name, first. “Where are you from?” The invasive question is out on her husky voice before she can stop it— some kind of blasphemous hope forming deep in her chest.

Image Credits

@Syrena I figured we could go ahead and thread these 2 :D

@Tiamat and @Sikeax feel free to jump in whenever <3

Please tag Aquila in all posts.

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
#4
like the ocean kissed the sky
With the long tassels of her hair slicked against her neck in the aftermath of her ocean play, Tiamat is settled along the shoreline. Her lowered figure is framed by the setting sun, haloed as the light catches the water that dampens her skin—from a distance, it would almost seem that she is a part of the sea, one with the water as its frothy waves roll back and forth to kiss her folded knees. Soothed by the rhythmic surf, the blue mare gazes out across the horizon, features settling into a moment of calm, beautiful bliss. It has been too long since she has had the chance to rest at her father’s side, to be carried by his strong arms, and enfolded in the power and stability that is him.

Sighing happily to herself, Tiamat  lays back, stretching out her neck along the pearly sands. Here, between the watchful eye of her mother and the embrace of her father, time seems to stop. It is as though nothing exists but them in this moment—she is content, safe, and given all that she has ever wanted. Slowly, sapphire lids droop over her pale eyes, until the measured lull of the waves has taken her to places that only her sheltered, innocent mind could imagine.

In this, her own beautiful little realm, the ocean mare lets go of time and of the world. It isn’t until the splashing of water—a rhythm not in harmony with that of the tide—echoes across the beach that she is roused from fantasies. Inhaling sharply through curled nostrils, Tiamat raises her head, dainty ears attentive and eyes blinking blearily as her mind searches for the source. Unlike most (perhaps foolishly so), she is not frightened by what creature might be lurking near. She cannot fathom such horrible things; instead, hope and excitement are blooming in her chest, ever eager to acquaint herself with strangers or reconnect with old friends.

Catching sight of two equine shadows not too far in the distance, Tiamat rises to her hooves, shaking herself awake before plunging happily forward. She canters easily, the split in her hooves cutting through the wet, packed sand, with foamy splashes erupting from each step (a silent encouragement from her father, his watery fingers guiding her favorably). When the distance to the two mares dwindles, she remembers to slow down, not wanting to greet them with a salty spray in the face (for once not allowing her excitement to run away with her).

“Hello!” She calls out brightly to them, stopping to make a little triangle of their group. “My name is Tiamat,” a smile softens blue lips as she turns to the scaled—scaled?! How intriguing!—mare, “Aquila, was it?” Tiamat’s head tilts slightly in her inquiry, tulip-ears slanting forward curiously, believing to have heard the stranger’s introduction from across the shore. “And I don’t believe I caught your name,” she looks to the other almost bashfully—a slate gray, seemingly slippery in texture with color dripping from her withers. A plethora of questions bubbles to the blue mare’s tongue, full of curiosity and excitement, but she manages to contain herself. At least for now…

notes; Sorry I took so long to jump in!<3
“Speech.”

@Aquila @Syrena | image credits
please tag Tia in all replies!
magic & force are permitted.

Syrena Posts: 207
Dragon's Throat Forger
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.1 hh :: 7 years
Thelxiepeia :: Royal Rougarou :: Water Kyra
#5
Syrena
let the water take me
The other is so obviously different from her, and yet, similar enough that they both stare for a moment too long, wondering just exactly what piece of the sea they belong to. For that much, they have in common, and for them, it is the only thing that matters. “Syrena,” she offers, almost never thinking to give her name unless it’s solicited. Not because she cares, but rather because she simply doesn’t think of it. Manners don’t matter to her much.

The next question from the mare is an interesting one. Because there is the obvious answer, and there is the answer that matters. Usually, Syrena would simply say, The Hidden Falls, because that is the answer others are expecting. A place that exists in this land. Somewhere to lay her head at night and all that jazz.

But does the seahorse want that answer? Because Syrena wants to know that others feel like her. She wants to know that others are like her, cast into the world in which they don’t truly belong. But before she has time to answer, to offer information that she rarely freely gives, the sound of footsteps in the water pulls her attention away.

Again, a familiar pang of jealous finds her. This mare is also beautiful, and also of the sea, though in a way different from either Aquila or herself. She looks more horse, but like she’s just crawled out of the water and been stained by it. Her body a deep blue with trails of water coursing down her body. Seaweed and seashells make their home in her mane and tail. And she is beautiful. Beautiful in a way Syrena will never be when she stands outside the water. She cannot take the magic and the colors with her on dry land.

“Syrena,” she offers, not adding a pleasure to meet you or any other such pleasantry. Though for once, it is a pleasure to meet someone. She actually wants to remember their names. Actually wants to be here. It is a strange thing, for her to want conversation. For her to want much of anything, other than the things she has lost.

“The Hidden Falls, now,” she adds after a pause, turning back to Aquila, not doing the best job filling Tiamat in on the question. Though if the mare overheard the name, she probably overheard the question. “But once, from everywhere the water touched.” Once, she was everything. Now, she is only this.

“And you?” she asks, turning her gaze to both of them. Wanting to know more about the creatures so like her.

"words"

darya87 | larfsalot
on deviantart


@Aquila @Tiamat

Please tag in all posts
Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death
Image by Reli

Aquila Posts: 95
Outcast atk: 5 | def: 9 | dam: 5.5
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.2 :: 6 HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Craonos :: Common Narwhal Leviathan :: Boil smitty
#6
of the sea
Scaled ears sweep forward, straining (which is so unlike the usually controlled warrior) to hear her response. Her stare is vivid, intent, as her unblinking gaze stares into the grayish blue of the woman. “Syrena,” her ears twitch at the name, something lighting in her over-large stare as she waits for the answer to her question—

But then another appears. So intent had her attention been on Syrena that she had entirely missed the approach of this bubbling woman. The attentiveness washes out of her face, instead severity replacing it as she studies the newcomer. She is of the sea, her body shouts of it. But she is not of the sea, as her people are. She appears to be a land-dweller that the sea had loved and claimed for its own, for her skin is coated in fur.

Tiamat. The name is surprisingly pleasant in the seahorse’s head—it nearly sounded Akvian. And for the mare strangely shrouded in melancholy with her mind so unused to the sensation, it makes her more open to the woman than she normally would have been. Especially given the fact that she interrupted an answer she was so keen on hearing.

Her barbed tail stirred once in the lapping tides, a quick slice of her bladed horn was the greeting she gave the sea-painted woman, before turning her attention back to the grey, seal-coated woman. And her answer, it is disheartening at first. The Hidden Falls? That is where she also resides, but that is not where she is from.

Her unblinking gaze leaves the woman, attention shifting to the sea—but aqua irises jerk back to Syrena, “from everywhere the water touched.” Her ears sweep forward, “Where is that?” Her attention piqued, was that someplace in Helovia?

“I live in the Falls, now. But I am Akvian, from Akvo, the great nation of waves. We are from the Rift, as Helovians call it. My people live—lived,” the correction is swift, and a surprising pain flashes through her chest, “Just beyond the horizon,” her aquamarine horn motions towards the sea. And then she awaits for Tiamat to answer.
Image Credits

@Tiamat @Syrena sorry for the wait!

Please tag Aquila in all posts.

Syrena Posts: 207
Dragon's Throat Forger
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.1 hh :: 7 years
Thelxiepeia :: Royal Rougarou :: Water Kyra
#7
Syrena
let the water take me
It is unlike her to care so much about being in the company of others. But these mare are like her. Not exactly, of course, they are not sirens ripped of their powers. But they are of the sea. The one belongs to the waves almost moreso than Syrena does, her body so obviously something created by the gods of the water. The other was created by the land, but had been adopted by the sea anyway. If the sea loves her, than Syrena will respect the mare as well.

It is so rare to find others that long for the sea as she does. That know what it is liked to be trapped, stuck in a body that belongs more on land, stuck in a place that has taken away the powers that once truly let her belong to the waves. Her sisters do not come to her anymore, though she has not asked them to either. When she thinks of them, she wonders if she’s gone too far from the water to be accepted into it once again, when this mortal body gives up its short life. She’s afraid to see them, afraid to ask, because they might not come.

But now, for a very brief moment, she feels accepted.

As she talks the seahorse turns her gaze, as if not hearing what she wants to hear. As if being stuck in this place is enough to make Syrena no longer worthy. It is her fear come true, but then she continues her answer, and the attention is back. Oh, how strange and glorious the attention feels. She almost basks in it, truthfully, feeling like herself in a way she never does. Where is that? the mare asks.

“I was nomadic before I came here. I spent the first four years of my life outside Helovia, wandering from one part of the ocean to another. Crossing lands to find different shores.” Her voice, as always, is deadpan, but there’s a hint of nostalgia and longing there now. She misses that life. But no, Helovia took everything from her, and the only way to gain any of it back is to stay. And so, she stays.

The mare with the seashells in her hair remains silent, but the Aquila tells her own short tale. A great nation of waves. “Is it gone?” Syrena asks, having noted the change in tense, and not having enough tact to simply avoid the question. “I wish I had stumbled upon it, in my travels. There were never nations of water, just shorelines.”

"words"

darya87 | larfsalot
on deviantart


@Tiamat @Aquila
Sorry to skip you Tiamat, but I admit I got on a roll of "get posts done!"

Please tag in all posts
Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death
Image by Reli

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
#8
like the ocean kissed the sky
The seal-coated mare offers her name with little fanfare or warmth, but this does not deter Tiamat’s excitement. Her smile broadens across sapphire lips, doe-eyes sparkling, and questions bubbling to her tongue as wonder swells to touch every part of her. “A pleasure, Syrena,” a friendly dip of her horn is directed in the gray mare’s direction, soon followed by another for Aquila, as the seahorse had done towards her. The blue mare could never imagine the vast differences that lie between herself and her new friends—between any of them—but she accepts them eagerly, welcoming their stories of her father ocean.

As fortune would have it, both of these sea-equines reside now in the Hidden Falls. However, it would seem that two very different paths have been taken to end at that same point—two adventures (because isn’t that what life is?) that Tiamat is anxious to hear. “I’ve never been to the Hidden Falls, but I’ve been told it’s beautiful,” the young healer sighs almost wistfully, dreaming (not for the first time, and undoubtedly not the last) of traveling the world.

“What is Avko like?” The ocean mare questions Aquila with honest enthusiasm, wanting to hear every little detail that the larger mare is willing to divulge. While the Rift has painted a darker picture with the wars that plagued their worlds, Tiamat is keen (desperate, even) on catching a glimmer of beauty in the haze of battle. Then, widening her attention to Syrena, she continues with airy laughter lacing her voice: “What is the world like?” The length of her leonine tail flutters behind her, skimming the ocean’s surface with a tinkling of shells.

In comparison to their grand histories, Tiamat feels almost plain, though she would change very, very little (if only it were possible to bring the ocean to the highland regions). The snowy mountains of her home are dear to her—she would live nowhere else, given the choice. The mountain valley and its people are much more to her than a herd—it‘s her family. “I’ve been in Helovia for several years; I live in the Aurora Basin—I love it, it’s beautiful, and it’s my home. I also love to explore, though,” she shakes her head with a smile, knowing well how difficult her curiosity can be to swallow. She doesn’t enjoy being away from the Basin for terribly long; but she doesn’t like to stay cooped up in there, either. There is far too much to learn of the world!

With her attention settling on the scaled mare, the Akvian, as she had called herself, Tiamat questions with a curiosity she hopes isn’t too overwhelming, “I’d love to hear all about where you come from.” White teeth flash beneath the sun’s glowing light, her mind spinning fantastical stories of the other side.

notes; I know I've been super flaky with replies, so I don't mind you skipping me at all! I'm working on trying to get back in the groove of things<3
“Speech.”

@Aquila @Syrena | image credits
please tag Tia in all replies!
magic & force are permitted.


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