the Rift


[PRIVATE] in the shade of poison trees

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#1

It was probably a mistake to have gone to the Basin, but Mesec felt lighter for it - the knowledge of his children secure in his heart and it made him feel lighter, lighter than he had in so long. Even under the weight that he should not have gone, that denying himself that knowledge and visit could have been one thing crossed off the list for his quest. But, he thought, it would be easy enough to find other things to control, to deny himself, as he continued to wander across Helovia.

He needed to be more careful about running into others - it was reckless of him to get drawn into conversations, into a family when he still couldn’t control his emotions and the very dangerous creature that emerged when they got out of control.

How he ached to go back to the Basin, or to go to the Throat - even the glimpse he got while waiting for Megaera on the southern shores of Helovia had been agony. He wanted to go home, to find Gaucho and Zero and Ampere and apologize to everyone for what he had done. What he had tried to do.

But he couldn’t. Not yet, not until he had control again and he was so close now.

It was getting easier to think about them, about that family, with each day that passed - albeit in a detached, hazy manner. Easier to think about the family as a whole, to be happy that they were a family, if he did not think about any of the individuals.

They travelled east - Mesec still bound to the ground as Lucius flew ahead. The zephyr pointed out frequently that if they flew together, a stray thought could trigger Mesec’s transformation and then the warg would go crashing into the earth.

Briefly, a few seasons ago, this outcome had been considered favourable.

Briefly for it was quickly followed by a series of sharp nips from Lucius and a volley of harsh language that Mesec was quite sure he had not taught his companion.

Now they travelled in peace - matching drops of night in the fresh dawn as they weaved through the forests on the eastern side of Helovia. This had been the last place Mesec had seen Ampere but though those thoughts tickled at the back of his mind - with all the finesse of a rusty blade - now his mind was full of a small colt and filly, blanketed with stars... and of whales that looked suspiciously like zephyrs.


art by oddmountain


sometimes I feel like Mesec is living in a Dashboard Confessional song

for @Zèklè! <3333
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Zèklè Posts: 166
Outcast atk: 8.0 | def: 10 | dam: 3.5
Colt :: Pegasus :: 14.1 :: Three HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
charks
#2
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Zero was on his way home. His meeting with Själ left the lightning boy with a significant weight off his chest, a realization that Hey, maybe I'm not so alone! It also left him with the realization that he'd left people behind, too, and that wasn't the person he wanted to be. So he left with the decision that he would find Tae and Grusha, and make sure they were okay, and let them be mad at him and promise to take care of them from now on. That was the plan, at least- except that instead of being in the Thistle Meadow, which he was pretty sure he should have reached by now, he was still in a forest; and instead of the new and elated feeling of Oh yeah, I'm going the right way!, the familiar sinking suspicion of Oh no, I'm lost, was beginning to set in

The lightning boy frowned, trying to peer up at the sun from between the dense canopy of trees. Ma had taught him that you could use the sun to figure out what direction you were facing before she... well... y'know; and while Zero found the concept fascinating in theory, in practice he struggled with its execution. He certainly thought he'd gone the right way, which was left, because that was the way the sun was rising and the sun rose in the South because it rose up from the bottom of the world- or was that right? Now that he thought about it he wasn't super sure.

Not that the sun could help him now. It was dawn, and he'd been traveling for a whole day, and he really just wanted to get away from all these trees.

Zero grit his teeth stubbornly and started off in a new direction (somewhat southeast, which, really, is what he didn't know he wanted), positive that eventually he'd find something that would lead him out of the woods. And he did find something - or someone, rather - but it certainly wasn't a discovery that would get him out of the woods. If you know what I mean.

(Y'know, metaphorically. Or whatever.

Oh, forget it.)

"Mesec!" the lightning boy exclaimed, leaping forward through the brush to where the sparking form of his friend had seemingly materialized out of thin air. He hadn't seen Mesec since that night- and Zero's greeting reflected this fact, because the boy was uncharacteristically anxious as he looked at the older stallion, his usual enthusiasm marred by a frantic desperation. It was the look of someone who'd just gotten rejected from nine different colleges, and knew that if he didn't get into this one he didn't have a chance- the look of a child looking in the very last place for their favorite toy, a beggar asking the last person for a dollar. The look of someone needy, and hopeful, and thoroughly prepared to be crushed by the answer, but still unable to give up until they get it-

"Do you know where my Ma is?!" Zero practically begged- because Mesec was that last letter, that final hiding place, that dollar into which he'd invested all his remaining faith. Because if anyone knew, it would be Mesec, and if Mesec didn't know, well...

He didn't want to think so much about that.

Image Credit


@Mesec
[ ok so obviously first posts are a struggle but it will be better? D: ]

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#3

Mesec’s mind and heart had become a jumbled mess of fear and hope in this last year - everything seemed to have been going so well and then disaster had struck. And he was that disaster, it was his fault. It didn’t matter that no one had really been hurt that day, the threat was still there. He was still a danger. What if Gaucho wasn’t there next time to draw him away from the foals? What if he actually killed someone? What if? That was why he was on this quest, why he needed control, but it seemed that no matter what he couldn’t actually cut out everyone from his life, even temporarily.

How many lives had he accidentally put in danger, knowing that one stray thought could trigger him? But this was one of the worst.

Zero.

He should have turned and run as soon as he heard his name being called and he recognized the voice but instead he came stuttering to a stop and his sad silver eyes looked upon a face he had not seen in so long. This couldn’t possibly end well. But he felt rooted to the earth, more permanent than the trees that surrounded them. Lucius circled around the two in uneasy circles, fearing what could happen from this reunion.

But the apologies that wanted to come tumbling out of Mesec's mouth were caught by the next words from the lightning colt.

Ampere was missing?

“What?? I thought she went back to the Throat.” Dread seeped into him as he thought of the implications of that line of thought. “This was the last place I saw her after…” He shook his head, taking a step back away from Zero though that small action had the power to break his heart. He hated this - hated that he was a threat to one of his best friends. If Ampere was gone he wanted to be there for the colt, to provide some sort of stability. That was Gaucho’s job, though, whatever Ampere had said about Mesec being in her family.

He would have given anything to be able to move forward instead of backward, to have reassurances on the tip of his tongue that they would find her again. But even those thoughts were dangerous and they formed a hurricane in his mind, drowning out everything that good and happy and leaving only a crushing sadness in their place.

It was his fault that Ampere was missing. His fault that Zero was looking at him, pleading with him, for news of his mother instead of continuing to live happily in the Throat. There was no coincidence that she was missing, Mesec's mind immediately accepted blame for it even though he did not know that Ampere had been missing since that day. But he was quick to believe it. Of course it was his fault.

“Zero.” His voice cracked as he said the name and again he was shaking his head, wishing away the dark thoughts and the sadness that was washing over him. Lucius was starting to panic, he could feel what was happening through their bond and he flew towards Zero to encourage the colt to get away. “I'm sorry I can't…” Mesec's breathing was becoming haggard as he fought to control something that could not be controlled. “You need to go!”


art by oddmountain
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Zèklè Posts: 166
Outcast atk: 8.0 | def: 10 | dam: 3.5
Colt :: Pegasus :: 14.1 :: Three HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
charks
#4
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And just like that, Zero's last hopes were crushed. "Oh," he whispered slowly, softly, that single syllable holding the weight of a hundred nights of praying, a hundred days of searching for the shadow of a sign that maybe, maybe, Ampere was going to come home.

"Okay. No. She didn't." Zero stared at the ground through uncharacteristically somber silver eyes, too absorbed the the bleakness of this news to notice Mesec's rising alarm. He didn't blame Mesec. Not at all. Zero was still too naive to understand the strange complexities of his mother's relationships, and even if he had- well, Zero was far too busy blaming himself to even consider shifting that guilt. It was firmly lodged, a selfish thing, the emotions of a child too wrapped up in himself to consider that maybe his Ma had loved something more than him- enough more, in fact, that the pain of it could drive her away from him.

Maybe it was good that Zero was selfish. In a way, it protected him from greater pain.

At the sound of his voice the boy's head snapped up, a reflexive smile at the ready as he prepared to deliver his usual It's fine, I'm sure she's just off on a really important mission, she'll be home soon. But the smile died as he caught Mesec's strained expression, the panic in his friend's eyes- "Mesec, are you okay?" the boy asked slowly, a sudden fear rising in the back of his throat.

Despite Lucius' attempts to deter him, and Common Sense's nagging message of hey man, you were just told to walk away and last time Mesec did this he became a giant monster thing, so maybe we should listen, Zero did not budge. Well, no, he did- he walked toward Mesec, a stubborn expression on his dark face, anger and fear flaring up in his chest. "No!" the lightning boy exclaimed foolishly, "I'm not gonna leave you! You can't make me go away, Mesec! You can't."

Because last time he'd run away, his Ma had disappeared; and there was no way he was gonna let Mesec do the same thing. No. Way.

Image Credit


@Mesec

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#5

Mesec, are you okay? No he wasn’t, he was so far from okay that he couldn’t even answer that question. He was too busy remembering the concern on Zero’s face when they were in the Thistle Meadow, the last real memory he had of that night that wasn’t borrowed from Lucius. The same concern was present now - concern that Mesec didn’t deserve. How could Zero possibly still be worried about him when it was Mesec’s fault Ampere was gone?

All his fault. He was pestilence and death to those he loved.

But soon, soon he could start making up for it. Why couldn’t Zero find him a few days later? Why couldn’t this reunion happen when there was any other outcome other than the one that was bubbling within him.

Panic over rode his fear when Zero, that brave, foolish, amazing boy, actually took a step forward. His silver eyes widened in surprise and he stumbled backward again, with absolutely no grace. “Zero STOP! You HAVE to go! Don’t you remember what I did?!” He shouted across the space between them, hating himself for yelling at his friend, someone he loved, but this wasn’t something that could be reasoned away with talking. It was happening and he wasn’t going to be able to stop it. And this time, Gaucho wasn’t here to step in - it was just him and Zero in these woods and he feared what the isolation could mean.

There would be no distractions for the monster within him, there would only be the colt before him.

Lucius, his panic rising, turned from Zero and focused his attention on Mesec - pecking and using his talons to try to bring his bonded back to the present

The promises of how Mesec would find him after, that this wasn’t forever, were choked off as that now-familiar pain started and his entire body began to shake as he fell. His silver eyes closed against the pain as his bones began to splinter and shift, as it started to take hold. The next word was a whisper, fracturing in his mouth and coming out in a croak. Please.”

It was already too late to stop the shift from happening but maybe if Lucius helped Zero escape his worst fears would not come true.


art by oddmountain


DAMN IT ZERO
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Zèklè Posts: 166
Outcast atk: 8.0 | def: 10 | dam: 3.5
Colt :: Pegasus :: 14.1 :: Three HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
charks
#6
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What's that saying about unstoppable forces and immovable objects? Because if there's one thing Mesec was at that moment, it was unstoppable- and if there's one thing Zero was, it was stubborn. In the face of Mesec's pleas the lightning's son held steadfast and strong, as stalwart as the metal that clung to his side, his wing pulled tight against his back, his face a firm collection of edges and refusal to to so much as budge. The more Mesec pushed him the more Zero held fast, though his breath was coming in rapid pulses and his heart was pounding in his ears.

"I remember," he responded- but what he remembered was running away, hiding behind Gaucho and how disastrous that had been. "But it's okay, Mesec! I'm not gonna leave you! You're safe!"

(Yeah, kid, and you're not.)

No, Mesec would not drive him away - because Zero was Mesec's friend, and Zero loved him, and you did not leave the people you love when they needed you most, okay?

But the boy did take a step back, almost mechanically, driven by the startling transformation that was overtaking his friend. Last time he'd been too far away to see his friend's skin contort, to see the bones move in ways bones were certainly not meant to move, to see the way his fur rippled unnaturally. It was strange, almost nauseating, and Zero had to swallow back the bile rising in his throat- but he still stood stalwart, a mixture of stubborn stupidity and naive love preventing him from even considering moving away.

"Mesec," the boy pleaded, his voice quivering with desperation and fear, "Mesec, this isn't who you are, an' I know you wouldn' wanna hurt anyone, an', an', an' I'm not scared'a you, even if you gots a monster in you, 'cus we can figure it out! Let me help you," the boy begged, tears and terror welling like rain clouds in his sunbeam eyes.


Image Credit


@Mesec


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