the Rift


take a whole lot more than words and guns

Rikyn the Puppeteer Posts: 549
Aurora Basin Lord atk: 7.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 HP: 70 | Buff: SWIFT
Duir :: Royal Cerndyr :: Earth Spirit Bunnie
#1


Their children will learn to hope for a Caesar.

We wound for a while through the trees in silence, her normally voluptuous figure slanted and sharp in all the ways she was supposed to be round and full.  I think I’d even joked once that she and Zunden were both fatties, and seeing her like this makes the ruthlessness of such a joke seem that much less funny than it had at the time.  Trotting to catch up to her, I let the sounds of voices fade into silence, and the soft song of the branches high overhead.
 
Stopping in a clearing that smells like no ones been through but birds in ages, I clear my throat, and prepare to unleash whatever crazy, female horror show is about to engage (I did have a little sister and mother, after all; I know about these things).  A check list flies through my thoughts:
 
  1. Don’t mention Rhoa.
  2. Don’t tell her she’s usually fat.
  3. Don’t be rude.
  4. Seriously, don’t be rude.
  5. Don’t ask about dead kids!
  6. Why was that not the first item…?
 
"So…" I stall, not really knowing what to say that won’t immediately ignite the fuse on either her shouting or weeping armory of explosives.  I clear my throat again, as if to announce that the topic of “feelings” may not be my area of expertise.  "obviously you’re not okay."
 
Oh yeah, smooth (said no one ever).
 
"Maybe it’s none of my business and you can tell me so," I ramble onward, avoiding eye contact as if a single touch of her crystal eyes would make me burst into flames, "but you really look like shit."

[ Continuation of so I cover my eyes ]

@Glacia

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

Glacia Posts: 111
Aurora Basin Medic atk: 4.0 | def: 8.0 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 Years HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Name :: Snowy Owl :: None Nessie
#2


It is silent for some time. Frankly I was surprised to have the son of the gilded tongue following me. That he wanted to know. But could I answer his questions? Did I have the heart for that?

The sound of his hooves quickened behind me as we entered a clearing as Rikyn trotted up to my side. Once we had entered it, I heard the clearing of his throat, and his hooves ceased to make sound. I fell to a halt, my head turning to look at him.

"So...
He clears his throat, and I get an odd sense that he does not do this often.
"Obviously you're not okay."

An ear falls back for a moment before flicking forward again. No, I wasn't. I wouldn't be okay. I would always be damaged goods. Someday I might act 'okay', but it would still hurt just as much as it did then.

"Maybe it’s none of my business and you can tell me so," I raise a brow watching him. He was terrible at this. "but you really look like shit."

For a moment I am watching him mildly stunned by this statement. I watch him for a moment, his avoiding of eye contact. What? Was he scared I might explode? Actually that was reasonable. I wasn't stable. After I move past the initial stunned moment a laugh erupts from my throat. It was hollow, and slightly deranged. Thankfully it doesn't last long. "And I thought I was starting to look a little better..."

I sighed looking away as a layer fell over me. It was thick enough to drown in. It wasn't awkward, but it was painful. Everything was sad nowadays. I missed the carefree days of youth, And I wasn't even three yet. My eyes returned to his golden and black face.

"I had two. Kvasir and Vidar. Vidar wasn't born alive... I... I'm not dealing with it well. Obviously." I shuddered, and in the back of my mind I note how calm I am acting.
"I tried to give Kvasir away, because I'm shit at parenting... I let my child down, his father, my father... I let a lot of people down." My gaze dropped to the grass, my eyes focusing on a particular blade.

"Today I'm okay, but.... Other days I'm not entirely sane. Too wrapped in misery I suppose." I glanced up again, watching for his reaction. How does one even react to that? Why would he even care?

"talk talk talk talk "



I HAD A HEART THEN
but the queen has been overthrown


full image

Rikyn the Puppeteer Posts: 549
Aurora Basin Lord atk: 7.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 HP: 70 | Buff: SWIFT
Duir :: Royal Cerndyr :: Earth Spirit Bunnie
#3


Their children will learn to hope for a Caesar.
Blessedly, she doesn’t blow up.  She just looks at me like I’ve asked something weird, something that people like us, people who’ve known each other their whole lives, should just ask when they see someone struggling.  While I’m not the nicest fellow around, I do have a heart; seeing someone as horribly off as Glacia made it twinge, especially when I hadn’t been particularly kind to her in our last encounter.

When she laughs, my ears lift swiftly, glancing over at her with a wonder as to whether or not her mind has broken.  She quickly negates that possibility, brushing off my concern, and elaborating on the laughter, by stating she had thought she looked “better.”

I frown.  How bad had she looked last week?

Silence keeps my tongue, because I don’t know what to tell her.  I don’t know what she looked like last week.  Compared to the broad no-longer-maiden daughter of the Frostheart I’d last met with, she looks a mere ghost of herself.  Her sigh is full of those ghosts, the tossing, tangled sound of innocence fled, and while I don’t know her pain, in particular, I do know that sigh.

Regret.

Every person felt it at least once or twice.  It was sad that her regret was an entire life, however; her story starts slow, and it starts with a dead kid.  Two, she says, two which became one.  She had named them both.  It seems weird to me to have named something which had been born lifeless.  It seems even weirder to know that loss and to give the other away, but one look at her says it was probably best.  A foal couldn’t get a lot of nourishment from a mother who looked like a walking skeleton, draped in midnight.

She says she’s miserable, and that she’s perhaps crazy.  It probably doesn’t help that I think by gender alone she is cursed to madness, so I keep my mouth shut.  I meet her eyes when they rise to mine with a golden light that still ponders just what to make of something so terribly tragic.  This whole topic is something which has nothing to do with me, and which I have no experience in dealing with.  I fumble about in my brain for something to say that might make it less horrible than it is.

I am still a virgin, by Time’s Beard.  What do I know about kids, about giving them away, or keeping them, of burying their small bones in soft earth?

"Everyone is shit at parenting," is where I start, because as I’ve seen, they are; example A: "even the Sun.  Didn’t lift a wing to spare his daughter from abandonment or death when her mother left her to starve in a meadow."

My brows drop down into golden orbs of anger, of misunderstanding, the memories of that day flooding to me like they always do.  They are clear, like most of my memories, easily viewed in the cinema of my thought.  I see her small, shriveled, barely able to stand as she stumbles eagerly towards mother’s side.  Her parents had left her to die, and she had gone back to him.  She even called him father, stood beside him with love in her eyes.

Girls are stupid.  They lead their lives with love.  It’s why Glacia is in this situation she is in now.  If anyone ever abandons me and takes my heart with them, I’d just beat them into a senseless pulp and carry on with a winner’s smile.  I certainly wouldn’t be ghosting around like Glacia, and I definitely won’t forgive them for stabbing me in the back, like the sister who will not be named.

You’re supposed to be being supportive, I reprimand myself.

A smile is forced over the emotional upheaval at the thought of Aithniel and her asshole dad.  I continue with my previous train of thought as if a few really awkward seconds hadn’t just stretched between what I said first, and what I say now.

"If a God can’t do it, I don’t know why you think they’re all so disappointed in you," I finish with a shrug, my face blooming into a true smile as my humor overrides the dark thoughts that had captured me only moments before.  I finish it all with a chuckle, one which I hope helps cheer her up. "Besides, if you carry on like this, you’ll never get to make it up to them.  Dying makes it hard to do that, you know."

[ OOC: Hey, you've got an extra div close in that table that was mussing up the bottom of the signature/edit format!  I fixed it in the one above so you should be able to just copy/paste that code into your table trackers and it'll be okay now. <3 ]

Wishlist - Plots

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

Glacia Posts: 111
Aurora Basin Medic atk: 4.0 | def: 8.0 | dam: 6.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 Years HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Name :: Snowy Owl :: None Nessie
#4


It is silent, but not for long. My ears wait to catch his words, and my eyes watch to see how his face changes expression. To see the lifts and curls, disappointment, disgust... Judgement?

But there is none of that. In fact he starts with something that actually... actually makes sense. Everyone is shit at parenting. The statement is so simple, and for a moment it really made me feel a little better. But there is more to the story. He talks about the abandonment of a child. The Sun's child. I watch as he falls into silence, as the delicate lines of his face knit into anger, and frustration. Why? Who was this child of the sun? And what did she mean to him?

And for a moment I worry that is all he was going to say, and the thought crossed my mind that he had gotten way worse at this since he had been alone. Ah, but then he smiles. It's stiff, and looks forced, but he speaks again. As he speaks his smile turns genuine again, and I look down. I was processing what he had said, and he was right. I lift my head, staring at him, moments passing. How was it, this stallion, who I doubted had much experience with this, had manged to make me feel better. Him, who had teased me as a child, and laughed at my pregnant body. I turned my head to look at the thin body that I had now, and it churned my stomach. I was so sick, and how had I not seen how bad it was until now?

I return my gaze to Rikyn, and I step forward to touch his shoulder. "Thank you, Rikyn...." It's a soft whisper that comes from my mouth, but it is filled with a lot. It thanked him, and it was raw. It held a lot of emotion that I had been holding for such a long time. No, it wasn't going to end. It would always hurt, and I would never fully heal from that wound. There would be hard days, and hard nights still, but between the words of my father and Rikyn's surprisingly helpful insight, I knew I could make it through it. Some how I would push on. I had to find it in myself to do so. I pull away then, and I try to smile. "You know... I've seen your father... If you want, I can lead you to the Edge. I'm sure he would love to see you. You have no obligation to stay, but you would be more than welcome Rikyn... " My lips twitch upwards, a small glimmer of who I was under this cloud shining through.

"talk talk talk talk "

@Rikyn
Sorry this took so long dear <3



I HAD A HEART THEN
but the queen has been overthrown

full image

Rikyn the Puppeteer Posts: 549
Aurora Basin Lord atk: 7.5 | def: 11.5 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.3 :: 4 HP: 70 | Buff: SWIFT
Duir :: Royal Cerndyr :: Earth Spirit Bunnie
#5


Their children will learn to hope for a Caesar.


Something in the combination of words works; silent thanks are sent along the wind to the mother who’d taught me the art of such things. Still, her silence until she does speak leaves me feeling a bit nervous, because of all the emotional disturbances likely to be coursing through her female body, and so my smile is much more genuine when she thanks me.

It’s the sort of combination of words and emotion that mean she means it, and maybe that I’ve made up for taunting her all those whiles ago, when I’d run into her, wide as a bear. Despite my impish, jealous, and morally lack luster life style, I do have certain honorable characteristics within me, including the concern for those who had been a part of my life for as long as Glacia has. I’d have spent the afternoon talking with just about anyone who I considered to be part of the family, the family that had mostly unraveled in the passing of time.

So I’ll hold the end of her trailing tethers; I’ll try to tuck them up neatly in a row. I think hope she’d do the same for me.

Her lips kiss my shoulder again in time with her thanks, and I meet her gaze with my own rather than returning a physical embrace, not the sort to be overly touchy feely like mother, or so many others I’ve met. She’s wearing a smile for the first time, and I feel a swelling of pride in my chest (that is quickly doused when she talks about going to the Edge).

I’d been twice, though I hadn’t seen dad. The first time, some angry lady with throwing knives had chased me away, and the next, I’d almost been skewered by a mare before d’Arcy had spared me their violence. The thought of Tembovu’s face as I walked through the Edge with yet another of the young ladies of his herd brings a genuine, near laughing grin to my face, the smile of doing something devious, and daring. I think I’ll tell Glacia about all my adventures on the way, do some catching up that doesn’t involve sad things like dead foals, or abandoned sons.

"Sure," I say, lion’s tail playfully swaying behind me in a wide, eager arc, "I’ve snuck in a couple of times… unsuccessfully, of course. Having an escort is certainly a change of pace."

Taking a few cheerful steps forward, I glance back at her with some of my impish cheer faded. I’ve been much less brazen about my adventures since Gaucho had nearly put me down like a wormy dog, and the sudden memory of the behemoth man who guards those lands comes to mind.

"That Tembovu guy won’t mind so long as you’re with me, right?"



@Glacia


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