the Rift


[OPEN] Dreams Fight with Machines

Ulrik the Engineer Posts: 235
Deceased atk: 5.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.1 hh :: 11 HP: 69.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Kirchoff :: Common Hellhound :: Superspeed Tamme
#1
ULRIK the ENGINEER


Ulrik took a step back to observe the machine he was building, bronze eyes sweeping over the plates of the large, metal wolf. He smirked at Kirchoff who simply rolled his eyes and groomed his black paws. The hellhound was feigning unimpressed, as usual, when in actuality, the large metal beast was rather impressive. His bond mate was such a curious man, and he found himself growing attached to him over the years. Ulrik had sired three children who followed him, more or less - if not in intellect then certainly in hair.

How such a brilliant creature as Ulrik managed to exist was fascinating. The way his mind worked was... so unique and it was a privilege to experience every impulse first hand.

Was.

See, for in a matter of seconds, the smirking, bluntly charming, somewhat psychotic man who was Ulrik the Engineer was just gone.

The metal wolf came to life, red glass eyes glowing as machinery whirred inside. Ulrik stood by and controlled the thing with his magic, making it step forward and snap its jaws. There was something frightening about this cold, metal thing. It looked like a wolf, moved like a wolf, but it was unfettered by pain and without emotion or remorse. The churning machine was built to kill and protect, and it dug its claws into the soft ground just outside the large, marble structure of the ancient rotunda.

Kirchoff watched as Ulrik circled the machine, eyes searching for any small defect and any misshapen edges. He scanned methodically, almost like one of his own creations. The Engineer came to a section of wires that were loose, and he reached out, nudging them back into place.

That was when it happened.

A gigantic blue spark arced and snapped onto Ulrik's face, burning the skin off the left side and exposing a damaged, bronze eye. He bellowed in pain and Kirchoff, who shared that pain, yelped, running toward his bond mate. The stallion, unable to see out of the left side of his face, turned quickly and was met in the neck with a frantic metal swipe of the paw of his own machine.

His magic, in a panic, set the beast in motion, and he hit the ground with a thud. The burns settled into the mud, and he stared at the big, blue sky from where he laid there, immobile. Ulrik took rattling breaths as Kirchoff crawled toward his bond mate, shoving the stallion with his two front paws.

"Get up, Ulrik," he demanded, heart pounding in panic as he felt Ulrik's inability to sense his own hind legs. "Come on, big oaf. This isn't... This isn't where it ends." The wolf growled, blinking away silver tears from his silver eyes.

"You ever wonder what's beyond all this?" he muttered, taking another rattling breath and blinking upwards still.

"No, stop it. Get the fuck up."

"Give everything I have to Amalrik," he said aloud, hoping someone heard. "Rikyn... Rikyn is older now... he doesn't need. Gyda has her mother... Amal... tell him..." he muttered quietly.

"He's my son."

"All you need is a healer, Ulrik. I'll... I'll get one..." The wolf turned and ran, frantically looking for another horse desperately, howling from the depths of his lungs to alert the woods of his pain.

The metal wolf stood watch over his creator, red eyes flickering as Ulrik's magic inched steadily away.


Credits: Image by LyrebirdBlue @ DA


(Amalrik next)

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Amalrik Posts: 12
Outcast
Stallion :: Hybrid :: 17.0 hh :: 1 year
Tamme
#2
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are gone

The world was vast and open, and he wanted to see every corner. Amalrik traveled on his own, unafraid and without burdens. His shoulders were free to flex and wander. That was the way of a child without tragedy. Bright lights - a bit naive. Hopes and dreams still changed and shifted without pressure forcing him in any direction. He was truly free, but sadly, not for much longer.

Death is a burden we never shed.

Amalrik's brows furrowed when he heard a familiar howl. Kirchoff. The boy turned on his haunches and quickly trotted toward the sound of his father's black wolf. He had never heard such emotion and panic in the musical tones before, and a pit started to grow in his stomach with every in closer. As soon as he saw the black wolf, he knew something serious was wrong, and he ran after the companion to where he saw a sight that broke his naivety clean in two.

His father's body lay listlessly on the ground. Only the wind rustled the messy, curly hair that chase his beard to his chest. A light rise and fall of his chest was the only sign he was still breathing, and Amalrik took a hesitant step forward, unafraid of the massive, red-eyed glowing wolf-machine nearby. The boy neared his father's head, gently reaching down to nuzzle at his black fur on his cheek.

"Father?" he asked, voice deepening with age. "What's... I..." he stammered, not even knowing what to say. Some broken things could not be fixed, and this... was one of them. A quick look told him that much.

Ulrik passed on his things, and Amalrik shook his head. "I don't... want your shit, dad. I want you..." he admitted, emotions clogging in his throat. His entire spine stiffened, and his long, lion's tail hung on the ground. What good was anything of his father's without the quiet, strange black shadow who raised him to be strong and adventurous? To see the world analytically and with wonder? To not take anything for granted?

"I... I love you."


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Ulrik the Engineer Posts: 235
Deceased atk: 5.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.1 hh :: 11 HP: 69.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Kirchoff :: Common Hellhound :: Superspeed Tamme
#3
ULRIK the ENGINEER

Kirchoff was whining and dancing from one paw to another, obviously distressed. But, over the sound of his companion descending into emotional pain, he heard light steps and cracked open his bronze eye again. His heart turned over in his chest when he saw his son approach. Ulrik wasn't sure he could feel much, but he knew he loved his son. With whatever he had and whatever he was made of, he loved his children. The stallion blinked and his brow creased when Amalrik nosed the side of his face, the sensation like a ghost.

His son told him he didn't want his things, and he didn't blame the boy for his anger. Ulrik had never been close to his family. In fact, he barely knew who his father was. Torleik had been his closest family as a boy, and then he had joined a band of misfits and assholes who barely understood why he never spoke and made horrific war machines. Until Helovia, he had wandered with hatred and bitterness in his heart. He hadn't known his heart could beat with anything but loathing and ego until he had first laid eyes upon Rikyn.

That's when it all changed. He didn't regret a single moment.

"Sorry kid," he offered quietly, lips turning up for a final smile. "The world ain't fair. But, I've lived... a long time, and I've had the honor of watching you and your siblings... You changed me. Made me a better man. You'll never know how much..." he trailed off, blinking and looking up at the sky again.

"You'll never know what it was like to feel... for the first time." He hummed quietly and let out a heavily exhale.

"My son." In this simple sentence of only two words, he spoke the volumes of his heart and shouted his love.

Ulrik breathed for as long as he could, looking up at the pale blue sky and wondering what laid beyond. Would the God of Time come to claim him in death? Would he simply cease to exist? Would he travel through the universe and see the stars up close? He would like that, he thought. Finally, he would get to understand the mysteries of the world. He would know everything. His heart was full and his mind was eager.

He exhaled for the last time and the large, metal wolf that hovered over him slowly came to a whirring quiet. Every circuit failed to function without the magic of its creator, and the pulsing, red eyes ceased to glow - never to awaken again.

Kirchoff howled, feeling his soul being torn into pieces. The hell hound crawled up into Ulrik's chest fluff and whined, unable to handle the pain of the loss of his other half. He had no use in living with only part of his soul remaining, and thus he passed too, into the beyond.



Credits: Image by LyrebirdBlue @ DA

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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
#4
Blood.

It’s a simple word, but a foreign one, to the one who shares it with me. On a rise not far from me, hidden by the shade of the forest of a familiar haunt, my buck stands and stares out towards the Rotunda, to which we are heading.

I smell it now, too, perhaps through the bond, or my own nose. It’s hard to tell, sometimes, so strong is the connection between two hearts, bound together like ours are. Regardless, its there, wrong as the Sun in a starry sky, bright against the cool, familiar smells of the river, the snow, and the trees, and it adds speed to my pace, where it leaves Duir standing still, his woodland eyes staring worriedly at the distant tragedy.

A howl breaks the silence, a pained one, and the trot that had been born from my walk becomes a canter, knowing such cries from fields left by the felling of Gods. I rush towards death, unprepared, unskilled in any art that might save the wounded but for a clean, swift end to their suffering. Arriving to the familiar clearing about my favorite place in all of Helovia, I feel everything in my chest drop hard onto the forest floor, my long steps suddenly jerking to a halt.

It’s the boy. A metal wolf clamors to the ground next to the only person in the world that could be: my father. Pressed against his strong chest is my childhood friend, my warmly remembered guardian, and neither of their chests move.

Blood.

Blood stains the snow.

"Dad…?" I whisper, not wanting to say it, not daring, hearing the God’s words echo in my head, how I took it all for granted, how time would move forward, and I would come to regret how I had attempted to cling to its shores, ignoring that it carried ever onward. My hooves move beneath me, somehow, perhaps carried forward by the strength of my companion, who arrives alongside me as I approach where he takes his final sleep.

I have seen the dead before. They were strangers, faces new, not as familiar as the sky, or the smell of rain. Looking at him there, glancing at the child with my own mourning evident (who I assume to by my kin, from his sorrow, and his metallic, dark colors, recognizing him, also, from the meadow, when I’d been too late, late as I am now), I fight the tears the press against my eyes. I press them back, deep inside myself, and build around them a wall of steel, looking at the remains of the only man who’d ever truly been proud of me.

"I thought…I thought I had more time," is all I can manage to say through that heaviness, reaching to touch Kirchoff’s head, and then my father’s still warm shoulder for the last time. I won’t ever make the mistake of being so careless again.

Looking up at the boy, my brother, I admire his similarities, and jealously look upon the things that had once been my father’s. Duir, however, quiets that ugly emotion with the same logic that had driven the actions of the Engineer: you have more than he does.

"I, uh… I’m Rikyn. I don’t guess he’d ever mentioned me," I say, looking back at down the scene that would likely keep me far from this beloved place, for a long time, "I haven't been a very good son, after all."

[ OOC:I WASN'T READY FOR THIS!!! D: sobs onto keyboard with stepdaughter judges me ]



@Amalrik

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


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