the Rift


[PRIVATE] strawberry fields forever

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.

 
Drawn out into the Steppe by the serenity and promise of silence therein, the trails lead me north, and further north still, until the rocky paths vanish all together, replaced, instead, with game trails.  Steadily making my way along one such path, passing through branches that gently sway in my wake; the only hooves imprinted on the clay below seem to be those of deer, or the smallest toed unicorn I’ve ever seen, and, as I come into a clearing, I lay eyes on the creatures that had left them.
 
Three does stand in the shade of tall white oaks, interspersed with towering, sentinel pines, at least a hundred years old each, their young saplings and meager tree-children standing many, many meters beneath their elders.  It’s hard to decide which to look at, first:  the graceful lift of the female deer’s heads, their round, dark eyes wide with surprise, their fawns, with snow-dapples among the brilliant chestnut of their soft coats, or the stand of pines and oak, proud and regal against the blue horizon.
 
So I stop, to take it all in, at least until one doe bounds from the clearing, and her companions follow suit, their white tails exposed to me as they crash into the cover of the forest.  Duir, arriving alongside me, watches them flee with a sad expression.
 
Why you scare them for? he complains, having, so far, gone out of his way to meet any and all four legged creatures who’d crossed his path and weren’t bigger than he is.
 
Didn’t know they were there, I reply, an overtone layered into the mental phrase that suggests, perhaps, I was a bit disheartened they’d left, too, must be good grazing, though, if there were so many, right?
 
I try and recover, making my way into the clearing, my tail curving about my haunches as I move, eagerly, towards the patches of wildflower and grass they’d been eating from.  With surprise, I find a patch of wild strawberries, noticing, as I see them, that some of the bushes along the far side of the clearing seem to be blackberries, also - almost as if someone had once tended a secret, hidden garden here.  Regardless, large and fully ripened, they look way too good to pass up, and I happily begin munching away with Duir, doing my best to remember how I got here so I can one day make it back.



[ OOC: LOOK FOOD ALBRECHT maybe they will both be nicer with full bellies? ;D  It's gonna work this time I just know eet ~~ ]


 

@Albrecht

Wishlist - Plots

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

Albrecht Posts: 249
Aurora Basin Impersonator atk: 6 | def: 8.5 | dam: 2.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.1hh :: 19 (Orangemoon) HP: 60 | Buff: NOVICE
Strom :: Suma Ball Python :: None Townsen
#2
albrecht
There’s a sweet smell in the air of the north today, not the light fragrance of Birdsong flowers, but something stronger, something tangy and new for Orangemoon. It draws the old stallion out with its’ promise of rare delicacies, trailing him nose first across the steppe, his companion helping to guide where age and changes in wind currents strive to confuse, bringing him slowly but surely to the edge of a small clearing guarded by massive pines.

In the shade of the tree's needle canopy he doesn’t notice the other stallion at first, multiple flashes of white leaping away into the surrounding forest helping to distract his attention. Deer? He guesses, recognizing the bounding strides and fluffy white bottoms even as they recede from vision. He assumes he startled them himself, being generally rickety and ungraceful, so when a glimmer of gold catches his attention from the opposite side he stops, turning to see who - or what - it is.

‘Not nice.’ His companion announces, still solidly against the Basin Lord for the storm of negativity their last one-on-one encounter conjured. Rikyn, his bonded corrects, trying to expand the snake’s vocabulary to at least include a few names, the ‘not nice’ list getting to be a little too long for use in identifying. He does concede that he’s not up for another emotional shit storm though, his ears flicking uncertainly. Should he leave? He wonders, but he can discern the strawberries for what they are now, his stomach clenching to remind him of its' neglect. Maybe he could just keep his distance then? The meadow’s not that small.

Face wary, he changes course to follow the outside curve of the meadow, aiming to position himself at the opposite end of the meadow from Lord Asshole, but before he makes it half a dozen steps in that direction something cream and tawny shoots upward from the low brush in front of him. Body tense, legs splayed in surprise, he stares down at the little figure, and the figure stares back, its' spindly legs quivering in uncertainty.

The enormous eyes blink, rolling over the figure in front of him, a worried and questioning bleat slipping from newborn lips before the fawn realizes that all the parts of this creature are wrong. Mother is tall, but not that tall. She's not hairy or dark either, and she certainly doesn't smell so bad.

Certain now that the fawn isn't a threat, the old stallion's expression softens, his head lowering to make him seem smaller, less threatening. He tilts his head, admiring the large squares of white that blanket the newborn's back, and a low wuffle of greeting flutters past his nostrils. "Hello little one."


"Talk."
OOC // @Rikyn I hope you don't mind me pushing this up to Orangemoon! Also feel free to PP the fawn, though I imagine he'd run pretty soon after this.
Oh where have you been,
That it hurts to be forgiving?

image | coding
           
[Image: 56c616e54affc]Rated M, R, NC-17, AO, 18+, NSFW
Tag dat azz!  @Albrecht
Violence & Magic okay.
Wish - Away - OOC


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.


Look who here, Duir says, lifting his head from the blackberry bush he’s shoved in into, a few of the dark, plump treasures dropping to the earth below, and rolling about in wild directions. Moving to pick them up, having nearly lost his retained worry that I’ll assault the old man again, he glances at us both while he nibbles.

And? I ask, after looking over my shoulder at the geezer, now sharing our secluded patch of paradise.

You don’t think weird he here? asks the deer with a snort, exasperated with my stupidity, and short mindedness, not common area, this.

I scowl at him, the sweet taste of the berries on my tongue soured by his noble notion that I should, I don’t know, apologize or something, or at least strive to mend the rift between myself and the old man with some means other than cold words, or silence. About to tell the lightning marked cerndyr to mind his business and otherwise fuck off, the words are stolen away by the clamor of something back by the geezer.

Turning about quickly with a trained pivot, I’m ready to fight whatever it is, horn angled to kill; I’m left feeling pretty foolish when it’s just a fawn.

Dropping my guard, watching it with disbelief at its smallness, I look over at my buck, who’d I’d been so quick to wound with my words only moments before, with soft eyes. Remember? You were delicate like that once, too.

With a deer croon of hello, Duir moves to approach the spotted thing, but between Albrecht’s soft greeting and the drawing of a strange stag, the fawn bolts. Standing in disheartened disbelief, he makes a sad, wallowing noise and stares at the swaying foliage, where the babe had fled.

It leaves me awkwardly facing the hollow hearted man, however, and I can’t pretend I haven’t noticed him, as he can’t pretend he hasn’t me. With on ear tilted back and a lack luster expression of greeting, I admit defeat.

"Hey, Albrecht," I open, not bothering to close the small distance between us if he doesn’t, "nice place, huh? I wonder who tended it. I've never seen it before, and Ai... Erebos, Adelric, and I used to explore out this way almost every day."



@Albrecht

Wishlist - Plots

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

Albrecht Posts: 249
Aurora Basin Impersonator atk: 6 | def: 8.5 | dam: 2.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.1hh :: 19 (Orangemoon) HP: 60 | Buff: NOVICE
Strom :: Suma Ball Python :: None Townsen
#4
albrecht
For a split second, he thinks he might be able to touch the young fawn, his salt and pepper muzzle reaching out with ginger, tentative slowness, but as the newborn continues to blink sleep away from his questioning eyes the reality of his situation sets in and the overwhelming stimuli of three unknowns sends him leaping away and into the safety of the forest, presumably to find his mother and herd. The stallion sighs, sad to see him go, his sentiment echoed in the low wail of Rikyn’s companion.

That turns his head, one ear rotating toward the cerndyr, the other folding back, acknowledging the other stallion standing close behind him and his own uncertainty at having encountered him outside of official herd business. They stare at each other a moment, and then – to the black’s obvious surprise – it’s the gold marked stallion that speaks, not an obscenity or disparaging word in the whole exchange.

The elder’s expression puckers, instinctively suspicious, but the other offers only polite conversation, elaborating without prompting in a manner that tries to draw him in and leaves space for reply. "I don’t know.” He answers slowly, glancing around the little meadow. Now that he thinks about it, the vines and bushes and patches do seem to be laid out in a logical pattern, not the haphazard mixture of fruit and weed that nature would weave on her own. "I’ve never been here before. I just thought it smelled nice.” Unlike you. He stifles himself, his rough and always ready backsass grown accustomed to total freedom in these last three years.

Awkwardly, he shifts toward the berry bushes, plucking and chewing a mouthful of the purple bunches while he thinks. Mortuus Nox had told him once that Rikyn grew up in the Basin, that he was related to Deimos, and that he was a prick. "How does it feel to be home?” He asks, eyes down and away from the other stallion, bitterness that has nothing to do with the berries invading his senses. How does it feel to have a home to go back to?


"Talk."
OOC // @Rikyn
Oh where have you been,
That it hurts to be forgiving?

image | coding
           
[Image: 56c616e54affc]Rated M, R, NC-17, AO, 18+, NSFW
Tag dat azz!  @Albrecht
Violence & Magic okay.
Wish - Away - OOC


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.

 

His remarks are short and meaningless, the sort you can’t reply to without feeling like a jackass, so I don’t, instead nodding in silence, dropping my head back to the tangy leaves and sweet berries at my hooves; not that I mind the vapid nature of the conversation, really, considering that he lets slide my almost mentioning her, and it merits little of my attention to remain involved, otherwise.  Even when Duir still stares after the fawn, wishing it would turn back, I’m looking inside, staring after my own proverbial, fleeing spirit, her black tips wings spilling embers, as she turns her back to me for the last time. 
 
I don’t know if I would rather mine come back, or leave forever. 
 
I’d seen my sister since she’d stormed away from Erebos and I that afternoon, of course… but no words had been exchanged in those mass gatherings, in which she had stood among her real family, and new friends, and it had ever since seemed like my brother and I were the only to notice her, the missing piece of our once inseparable being.  Her eyes were always cast on Gods, on speakers, on the strangers standing alongside her, with a warmTH that had once been mine; those eyes never seemed to see us, at least not anymore.
 
I’m glad to be here, where memories of her don’t rise to mind, where all I have are these few fleeting moments.  It makes it easier to push her out of my mind entirely, to chase her deep into the dark, winding woodland of my not-dealing-with-that mind acreage.
 
Fuck her.
 
"I guess," I answer, looking up without raising my head all the way, tilting my head and shoulder in a nonchalant, unicorn shrug, "its not really the home I remember.  Things change, though, right?  Not all of them were bad, even though a lot of them were."
 
When I’d come home first, I’d been unable to stand the thought of it; my home, my kingdom, it had carried on without me!  All the differences had pressed in on my youthful soul and burned it.  Now, however, more time within this existence, and having been forced to deal with more and more change the longer I dwelled in it, I’d begrudgingly come to accept that all I could do was swim, wherever the current of Time decided to sweep me.
 
Didn’t make it any less of a crock of bullshit, especially when the river eddied in whirlpool of death and revived Gods, or the left branch, the ruse, of trying to help Erebos out becoming a swift waterfall of responsibility (accompanied by a Divine threat of who-knows-what should I fail).  A waterfall which I was actively trying to thwart, being out here in the woods, doing fuck all.
 
I redirect my thoughts to more pleasant things:  the positive changes, so to speak.
 
"For one, that Thranduil is who knows where," I laugh, happy that the prying gold is wherever else but in my face, asking questions I don’t have answers to, or do, and would much rather he simply go fuck himself than answer, "did you ever have the, uh, honor of meeting the Laurelin, yourself?  I can’t say I know much about your history with the herd.  I was, er, out."

 

Wishlist - Plots

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

Albrecht Posts: 249
Aurora Basin Impersonator atk: 6 | def: 8.5 | dam: 2.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17.1hh :: 19 (Orangemoon) HP: 60 | Buff: NOVICE
Strom :: Suma Ball Python :: None Townsen
#6
albrecht
He laughs, the sound short and harsh, somehow entirely lacking humor. "Things change, alright.” He agrees darkly, eyes cutting away from the young Lord, turning to hide whatever splash of emotion might dull their emerald green and only shaking his head slightly when asked about a Laurelin.

"Nope. He’d been missing for some time already when I entered the Basin. As for my history there-“ He shrugs, reaching out to pluck a few black and amethyst berries from the shrubs around them. "I showed up one day and no one bothered to chase me off.” The shadow of a wry smile crosses his features then, thinking of the months he’d haunted the Basin without challenge, when the only active member of the herd had seemed to be Deimos himself and his overabundance of lordly responsibility had kept his judgement well at bay. “I think maybe there just wasn’t anyone around to do it.”

Pausing his chewing to glance over, the elder ponders if the black and gold understands what the herd was truly like before the Reaper’s death drew so many back up into the mountains. Out, he'd said, and so was everyone else. Had he been cognizant of the ruin? The emptiness? Of the disappointment their illustrious northern ruler must have felt in his final moments? Does he feel guilty for not being there? Do any of them? There'd been not a word of criticism at the Reaper's burial, yet when he'd called to them only silence answered. He'd stood over these snowy peaks guarding a memory of glory and all their empty promises of action until his final breath. Even a callous hearted old stallion can see the sorrow in that, perhaps because it's too close to the haunting vision of his own inevitable end: cold and alone with nothing to show for his years in this world.

'Nah lone.' His companion interjects, an air of offense seeping across the bond between horse and snake. 'Strom count.' He asserts, fed up with being on-again off-again ignored in the old stallion's morose contemplations. He winds himself around one grey tinged ear as if to force the organ to hear him, though the python's grip is gentle compared to what he's surely capable of. The old stallion consciously relaxes his jaw, ears, and neck, surrendering to his silent conqueror for the time being. “Suffice to say I had and have nowhere else to be.”


"Talk."
OOC // @Rikyn
Oh where have you been,
That it hurts to be forgiving?

image | coding
           
[Image: 56c616e54affc]Rated M, R, NC-17, AO, 18+, NSFW
Tag dat azz!  @Albrecht
Violence & Magic okay.
Wish - Away - OOC


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
#7


Their children will learn to hope for a Caesar.


I’m not sure if he’s mocking me or agreeing, or if it’s a different emotion all together that makes that bark of a laugh so tense. Regardless, he doesn’t reply with anything particularly notable, and doesn’t leave or start shouting, either, so I figure its all going okay, no matter what the guffaw was. Maybe he’s just losing his mind a little bit, like people said lots of folks did, as they got older, from too many knocks on the head or something (I’m not a doctor, okay).

He claims to not know the Laurelin, which I guess is true. There is no point in lying about it, not really. My lips upturn at his proclamation that he’d simply arrived and no one had chased him out, and I’m about to chuckle a little bit at the thought of Deimos scowling at the elder’s presence from afar, wondering if it was honorable or at all necessary to kill someone who was liable to drop dead at any moment anyway. “Wasn’t anyone around,” though, has a cut to it that stills my amused laughter, and lessens the degree of tilt to my smirk.

Was that really why? Somehow I felt it was more to do with my Uncle’s demented sense of what was just, which had truly found a place in his son, who was every ounce of Knightly that his sire had striven to be, through murderous means. I denied that it could be anything else what so ever when I presented myself with an ulterior truth: he’d punished me for taking from the weak, as I’d been taught to do as a boy, but had let an infiltrator do as he’d pleased.

"Emptiness happens to failed empires," I tell him, a cold truth that resonates throughout history; those who seek to conquer the world often find themselves all alone in its vastness, in the end, when the winding of fate and their crafty wiles failed to deliver their desired prizes to their hooves, "those who once lived there alongside him in the old era are dead, or banished, or worse – they turned their backs upon him, as if he was not still there."

Like my entire family, I think, and it hurts like hell to do so.

I stare at the strawberries at my hooves, and think of my bitch mother, and of my father, following Torleik to the mists, back to the land he had once watched fall to the Qian. I think of Beowulf, d’Artagnan, Hotaru, Krieger, Sialia, Thranduil: all of the men and women who’d stood tall in my youth, who’d left and not returned, and my stomach clenches with anger at their faithlessness, and is sick with self blame that I can count myself among them.

"Its the price to be paid for failure," I tell the old man with hard gold eyes, hiding all these things I feel behind the cold indifference I had been taught made you a man, "or for choosing too dark a path, or shit friends to walk it with. I am not certain which the folly was yet."




@Albrecht

Wishlist - Plots

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


Forum Jump:


RPGfix Equi-venture