the Rift


herald her arrival

Hotaru the Valkyrie Posts: 295
Outcast atk: 7 | def: 10.5 | dam: 3
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3hh :: 6 Years 3 Months HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
Alice :: Royal Hellhound :: Acid Brit
#1

I am a quiet god
and my hunger
is cavernous

Chill air nips across the sway and swell of bone beneath coral hide, soothing the prick of sweat across the woman's nape. Long tresses flicker across her hocks, soft nares flaring with effort that does not transfer to the serene expression upon a beautiful face. Set in a dished face, two shades of color stare out from intent eyes. Pathways wind before her, labyrinthine and dizzying with the possibilities that peek out from the folds of untouched decisions. It is the birthplace of branching lives and new beginnings. And though its name does not echo that of the fire-filled land that owns it, the lady believes it to be the true Heart of Helovia. The Threshold.

The Valkyrie lifts her face to the autumn sunlight that dapples through the bower overhead, proud horn glinting in her peripheral vision as she stares down the worn path she has chosen. Straight to the unclaimed lands of wild freedom and lawlessness. A decision not made lightly, one spoken of in hushed voices with the golden shadow who hounds her heels. Even with the decision weighing heavy and real in her head, her heart careens down a different path. Straying northward, to where the lights dance eternal in the sky and the stars blanket vastness interrupted only by mountains that reach to embrace their light. The Aurora Basin was not where she had taken her first breaths, but it was her home. She had ruled it faithfully, until desperation and her duty as a mother had ripped her from the icy throne and thrust her into the bowels of the unknown.

Romina had inherited her wanderlust from her father, a characteristic she and Hotaru would never share. Hotaru had been happy with the boundaries of Helovia as her guide, learning each crevice and crag until she could walk its faultlines in her sleep. Never had she desired to know what lay beyond the domain she called home. But when Romina had disappeared in the wake of devastation and fury, Hotaru had thrust her crown aside to follow her into the darkness. The Valkyrie had failed too many times as a mother to think twice about putting her people before her children ever again. So she had fled - or tried to, because there was one other thread tied to her soul that she could not sever so easily. The same thread that had taken Ophelia from the same throne.

Love.

It was love that had led her to the forests of the Edge, to the confessions and decisions that came thereafter. And when she hesitated, one hoof poised over the line between Helovia's lands and the unknown, he was there to press along her side and quietly await her decision. Until she stared down the horizon with unblinking eyes and walked away from everything she knew.

And here she was at last, returning home with family trailing behind her. Sides swollen with life that seeped energy from her limbs, demanding and unforgiving as the souls inside sought life of their own. The journey was exhaustive, the toil too much on her delicate bones. Her hooves had carried her countless miles, but she pushed onward furiously, breaking down the last bits of her fortitude to make her only wish a reality.

This is our home. My children will be born here, no matter what it takes. This is where I took my first breaths, where all my children did the same. It shall be no different this time. Alice crooned softly at her heel, ever faithful wherever Hotaru wandered.

Until finally she arrived, home at last. A temporary foreigner for the first time, coming through the portal to the land of her childhood as a newcomer instead of a queen.

Though her knees quaked and sweat dampened her neck, Hotaru lifted her head triumphantly as the dawn rose to meet her with its sisterly hues. Everything seemed to resonate with kinship around her, calling her home, singing its welcome in a language that had been lovingly written into the marrow of her bones.

"Home at last."

Image Credit
Code: Time & Neo


@Thranduil

Note: Romina is hanging around in the back somewhere but will probably slip away during the first few posts depending on who responds to this.
[Image: 515265280ffff]

::Strong like the sea is stormy::

Please only tag starting posts, spars, and threads collecting dust!
Plot with me here!

Thranduil the Laurelin Posts: 598
Outcast atk: 5.5 | def: 11 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.2 hh :: Eight HP: 77 | Buff: ENDURE
Haldir :: Common Cerndyr :: Dark Mist Hawk
#2

Lungs inhale the thick pine air deeply but with a weariness. The Threshold. The gold’s hide shivered. He’d been here as a traveler more times than he cared to reminder at the moment. Tasseled tail flicks his sides with annoyance. He wasn’t, as you might can guess entirely thrilled with returning. Of course, he hadn’t been thrilled at leaving either.

It seemed ages ago…but then maybe it had been. His crowned head shakes with the memory. It still burned in his chest, even given how it resolved. He had at first thought he’d won some favor from the gods. The gold had stood upon the line of the Edge, sleepless as usual, looking north, when suddenly from the depths of the darkness, she’d appeared. Hotaru. Oh how foolish he’d been though to let his heart leap. He should have paid less attention those first few moments from drinking her in, and more to the expression on her face. Perhaps then her news might not have been so difficult to deal with. Then again, there would never be a really great time to tell the Laurelin that the child she’d had with (the damned) Ashamin had left, and she was to go and find her. He took it….as best as could be hoped… which is to say he flew off the handle. Yet Hotaru had held a trick card up her sleeve…she was pregnant.

That was all she’d had to say. What should have been a massive war, thousands dead, land plundered and pillage, all ended in an instant. Babies have a way of doing that. His just remade heart gave a jolt, more shocking than even Ashamin could have managed. Perhaps he’d looked foolish standing there with his ear to her belly trying to hear, but he hadn’t cared. In the same mind he’d refused to let her go alone. Refused to let her vanish into the night. He still needed her, more than just the basis of love and child. He was still haunted by a white ghost that only her touch and kiss could make vanish. So he’d followed, trailing her. In truth it hadn’t been the bore he feared at first. Away from the trappings of Helovia and solely in her sight it had become like a honeymoon. The gold was free to forget, to let himself get high off her love constantly.

Perhaps that why he found himself hesitant, and behind her. Why he let her lead. It wasn’t that he hated the idea of coming back. All the long miles home he’d thought of the stories he could call to his name, the titles he’d earned, and the promises of all that and more still to come. But things had changed. The more he stared ahead at Hotaru’s swollen sides the more he was reminded of it. So long he’d hesitated to call it such, to name it, but now it had to be said. He loved the life of the Laurelin, but now he loved the mare and what grew in her belly equally, and those two worlds he feared would not mesh very well. She loved the Basin, and made it clear that was where she and his child (children?) were heading. Yet the gold’s still felt his back tense at the thought of the place. Especially now. Still he feared, especially given the recent months, she’d never let him peacefully return to the life they had before, separated by miles and mountains. Nor was he sure he wanted to…

All this kept him from stepping as surely as Hotaru. The Laurelin trailed the rosen lady, letting her lead, and keeping an eye on the deer like mirror behind her. He still could not look that child in the eye. As strikingly beautiful as she was, she was below not his, she was Ashamin’s. The gold’s tolerance and, at best, strained care for her was due to Hotaru’s blood in her only. Only Haldir kept the grown child company in the back of their small pack. The stag, feeling the tensions bubbling in the gold kept well away. He was resolved to remain in that blissful mood that had dominated the last few months. The gold as he eyed his companion with dark earth eyes, could not blame him.

Hotaru slows, they were getting close and the gold comes closer to her. His leafen stared head brushing her hip as he eyes her carefully. The last few weeks journeying back that look had grown more frequent. Even the gold could tell the pregnancy was taking a toll on her, straining ever step. And he was helpless to ease her suffering which he knew she hid. It made it all the worse. Haldir had continuously nagged him that perhaps this was normal, afterall how many pregnant mares had the gold been around? That question had caused such sting and pain in the gold that Haldir and he hadn’t spoken much sense. The golden had enough to think about without letting those painful thoughts in. Yet they had reminded him of a pale face, lined with black that he did hope to see soon.

Finally, as if he could stand it no longer, the gold shook his crowned head. Enough. For the first time in a while Haldir’s voice slipped in. ”That what makes Laurelin.” One gold hark slides back to the dark stag as it comes closer to him from the last traveler. It was horrendous advice…bottle it up to sort through another day. It was what ended up in the gold lain on a bed of moss in a cave a complete madman last time. But it had given him many a wondrous day as well. Plus it was far easier. A smile crept on the gold’s lips. Not one of a peaceful lover like the last few months had seen, but one of promise and traced with malicious excitement. Yes, he’d let it all get shoved in the corner. He’d figure it out another day. Hotaru was happy, she would stop travelling so his child was safe, and there was at least a promise of his most beloved mischief in the air.

His mate speaks and the gold sidles alongside her, offering his steadier stance. He would have wrapped her in bubble wrap if such a thing were possible. Her wet hide in the cool autumn dawn makes his harks fall back, but he, as usual, says nothing. She has just as much pride as he had. It was a question whether she’d even take him up on his offer of a steady support. He was glad to see her so wholesome again though at the welcome she felt from her home, but it was not the same for him. Instead he let himself roll back into the golden clothes, letting the rich fabric cover all his worries, scars, and bruises from chains, collars, and memories. He let the weight of it settle back on his shoulder, its cold touch ever so familiar.

His head brushes her shoulder and his earth eyes spark with play. Had she been in another state he would have dared her into some game or sport. Perhaps daring her to see if they could trick some poor unknowing creature into taking them ‘home’. But though he could change himself, he could not change their reality. So instead he nips at her mane, a habit, and just teases. “Shall we terrorize some villagers first before breakfast?” He nudges her gently, careful not to knock her off balance. “For old time’s sake?”




"talk talk talk"
OOC::
ETA:: Forgot to mention, open to all =D


Thranduil
His words are clever and bright

Credits: Image by Schwartze @ DA

[Image: 5381546acbe33]
Feel free to use any force/magic on Thranduil, short of killing him.
Please tag in every post.
Ask Thranduil any question in the world, he'll be forced to answer on his profile. PM with your question.

Hotaru the Valkyrie Posts: 295
Outcast atk: 7 | def: 10.5 | dam: 3
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3hh :: 6 Years 3 Months HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
Alice :: Royal Hellhound :: Acid Brit
#3

I am a quiet god
and my hunger
is cavernous

All it takes is a slide of her eyes across the landscape to the point of her shoulder, to where her Laurelin - golden, shining russet and well-loved in the light of her sister-hues - comes to a rest beside her. He is more familiar to her now than he has ever been before.

In the past he would disappear into the night, leaving her silent and aching as the cold wrapped around the places he had touched her, erasing the lingering scent and touch of him no matter how she tried to cling to it. Days and weeks would pass without seeing him, closing her eyes to try and recall the exact shade of his eyes or the devilish twist of his smile. Trying to cling to each snapshot in her head until the colors faded and left her wanting. Waiting for the next time he came to her, to soothe the burn of frustrated desire and longing like a wildcat clawing in her chest.

Though they had been gone far longer than anticipated, Hotaru did not regret their absence. It was aptly dubbed a honeymoon in her lover's thoughts. She had possessively dug her claws into every inch of Thranduil she could think to touch, and even places she had not. Memorized him down to his molecules. No matter what happened now, as they slowed beneath the bowers that rustled with the cold wind, nothing would steal those memories from Hotaru again. And though nothing could truly show his mark on her as boldly as his children within her womb, the Valkyrie knew she would not release him from her clutch as she once had. Even if it meant leaving the northern towers of her home, following him to the Goddess she had kept in her prayers the entirety of their travels. Nothing would take him from her ravenous, greedy grasp any longer.

Truly Hotaru owed him more than he knew. He could have turned her away so easily with the proof of her past laid out in front of him, catastrophic and condemning. Ashamin...it still hurt to even think his name, to see him in her daughter's angled face and body. She would not do him the disservice to claim she had not loved him, or that she no longer did in her own way. But he had disappeared, abandoned her - though Thranduil had done the same in his own turn - and all promises of love and sweet whispers of a future together were carried away with him. Leaving her bereft, leaving her struggling and in denial when Thranduil swept along in the wake of her heart's devastation to remind her of the glaring fact that she was mortal and flawed. And he had followed her into the unknown, to hunt down a child that was not his. Because of her.

Faithful mate this time. Strong pack. Strong pups. Loved pups. Alice rumbled in her head like touching a humming wire against her wrist, vibrating all along her neural frequencies. Hotaru smiled. Yes, this time she would make things work. World and rule be damned.

Warmth brushes against her hip, and Hotaru turns to watch him with naked fondness on her face. Perhaps he would even feel it, warm and pulsing against his chest, where the charm lay. It had made their lives easier on the road, forcing the reality of their emotions to light when they tried to hide behind layers and layers of masks.

When he comes to her side, she leans against him, silent gratitude exuding from her tired frame. Though her pride was at times crippling, she would not deny herself this closeness. Not when faces from their past may soon reappear, forcing them into roles they had abandoned what seemed lifetimes ago. Hotaru knew that when she stepped back into those well-worn clothes, however, that they would melt against her body in welcome and recognition.

Her beloved must be thinking along the same lines, as his teeth tease at her tresses and his eyes dance with mischief. Like kindling the fire sparks and races from him to her, contagious, and her smile is a vixen's gleam in the dark of a den as her prey wanders forth into patient claws.

"I could use the excitement after so long with such transient, pitiful prey out there," she agrees with a gleaming smile. Reaches up to lip at his forelock in call-and-response to his tugging at her mane. "I've certainly missed seeing you in action," she teases with simmering eyes. As if she'd jump him then and there had he not already knocked her up. What could she say? They were a matched pair; one side royalty, the other Joker. Mischief and power.

Image Credit
Code: Time & Neo
[Image: 515265280ffff]

::Strong like the sea is stormy::

Please only tag starting posts, spars, and threads collecting dust!
Plot with me here!

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

Gwyn is with me, and the path to the Threshold has never been so beautiful in Orangemoon; I can’t help but think it’s her who makes it so, considering that it’s so cold, and the sky is gray and hard with winter’s promise. Still, with the last above freezing afternoons on the verge of vanishing, I’ve brought my young daughter out with me for an all day adventure outside the Basin, on one of the last days until Birdsong I might be able to do so. It is, perhaps, a bold strategy, but there is something inside me that almost insists that today is the day…

And so, here we are.

The frost which has lined the branches in the early morning has begun to thaw, trickling wet, dark lines down the trees, and saturates the earth beneath our hooves, making it cold, and damp. She moves alongside me with playful scampers and inquisitive, distant stares into the trees, and down the open hollows we slip past, and the golden hints upon her rump glimmer with faintly blue sparks that leap harmlessly into the cold air. While it had been startling at first, to be sure, it had quickly grown on me.

It reminded me, with some pangs of sorrow that I quickly tried to push away, of my parents, and their magic.

My brain is trying to lure me into that dark pit I’ve covered over with sticks and leaves when a completely different voice of my youth sounds out in the forest. Stopping, I tilt my ears towards the sound of the voices, but I lower my head to touch Gwyn in an attempt to get her to stop.

Thranduil? I think with a wary snort (I certainly hope not), stepping towards the conversing, unseen individuals to settle my curiosity once and for all.

When it actually is him, however, I can’t help but stare for a moment. The same hardness I always feel when I lay eyes on him flares to life, but it’s born out of wariness of an older hurt, more deeply embedded beneath metaphorical sticks and leaves than the death of my father. He probably is unaware that he goads me nearer that forbidden ground with the questions he asks, but I still dislike him for it, regardless.

Hotaru, however, is a different story; when I’d been very small, I’d had a giant crush on her, mostly because she was so pretty. She still is, to be sure, but I’m also older, and I’ve done more than sweetly pine after the right to compose poems to a woman, after all (cue Gwyn, pausing alongside me). Besides, with a glance from Thranduil to her and the obvious breadth of her belly, I put two and two together… or in this case, one and one.

"Long time no see, Laurelin," I say, with a nod; in fact, the last I’d seen him had been during a meeting that had been infiltrated, scattering the small gathering there to the wind, and when it came to Hotaru, I wasn’t sure when the last I’d seen her was. A lot had happened between then and now, I guess. "And miss Hotaru, as well. Gwyn, these people were once Lord and Lady of the Basin, and knew all your grandparents. This is Gwyn, and I don't think you've met Duir, either."

I gesture to her with my muzzle and a proud smile, and Duir introduces himself with a nod of his ivy-laden crown, but he makes the most attempts to meet eyes with Haldir. Having never met another cerndyr before, he is quite eager to do so.

"Its good to see you back," I admit, because I guess it sort of is; its been awfully boring, after all, and Thranduil is masterful at causing a good scene. Put Albrecht, Thranduil, and I in a room together, and someone is bound to get offended, one of us included. "Assuming you are, of course?"




Art by Esa82@DA

Wishlist - Plots

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

Gwyn Posts: 10
Aurora Basin Filly
Filly :: Unicorn :: 16.2 :: Newborn
Bunnie
#5


Cantering and trotting alongside daddy and Duir, the autumn forest seems to go on forever. While the Basin seemed big, and she had yet to explore anything at all like all of it, the vastness of the world beyond was as overwhelming as it was interesting, and with each stretch of the road they passed, the more and more Gwyn believed she wanted to see.

So, when her father’s nose touches her upon the shoulder and bids her to stop, she does so quite reluctantly, at least until she hears the same voices that made him pause to begin with. Her own ears lift forward and her tiny nub of a horn glints in the dim light of the dreary Sun making its way through the boughs of the trees as she lifts her head, too. She cannot see them, but soon enough, she is following her daddy with eager steps, blissfully unaware of danger, and anticipating only friendship, or fun.

What she finds is a stallion with a rich, golden yellow coat, with creamy hair, and dark markings; he, too, has a deer friend, but he doesn’t have plants in his antlers, like Duir does, and is instead smoky, and mysterious. She wonders if that means the stallion is, too, but doesn’t think about it long, because the woman with him is so pretty.

She makes Gwyn think of sunrise, which is one of her favorite times of the day, and becomes the immediate focus for the filly, who barely hears her father introduce her.

Hello,” she sweetly says. Smiling belatedly and looking around at the strangers with deep nods of greeting, she’s otherwise silent, mostly wondering what sort of stories these tall strangers know about her family.



’cause you’ve got teeth like a wolf
but you cry like a sheep


Image & Code by Me

@Thranduil @Hotaru

Rexanna Posts: 499
World's Edge Mare atk: 4.5 | def: 8.0 | dam: 5.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15hh :: 7 years HP: 61.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Marembo :: Marbled Polecat :: None Skylark
#6
paint my spirit gold
It had been so long since the gilded mare and her daughter had been alone together. In fact, Rexanna couldn’t even remember a time when they had done so; but the child was now a woman, and Rexanna was certain that she would have to make sure she didn’t miss out on more of her children’s lives than she already had. Her heart yearned for Rein, so long since she had seen the golden boy’s face, that she did her best to try and understand Kiada in an attempt to make sure that she had some idea what her girl was getting into.

And so they wandered, talked of their lives and of Kiada’s interest in Kaos. And while Rexanna wasn’t fond of the idea, the child carried a necklace gifted to her by the creature, assuring her mother that things would be fine, and that she had inherited the good wits and fiery magic of her heritage. And yet, worry still sat within Rexanna’s stomach as they traveled to the Threshold, however in an attempt to keep whatever closeness to her own flesh and blood, she swallowed her questions and worry, offering a masked smile for her daughter’s thoughts.

It wasn’t so terrible, in all reality. While Rexanna hadn’t been there to teach the girl many useful tricks and actions, Thranduil had been there, teaching them useful things they needed to know. Just as he was when she was a new face among the Basin pillars. And she thanked him immensely in her mind for such actions, though whether she saw the man again was another story.

But as fate would have it, voices came, buzzed and morphed through the trees from distance, immediately capturing the duo’s attention. Marembo was nestled in closely to Rexanna’s mane, exhausted from the many familiar paths he had traveled when they were on their way here. The poor polecat had worn himself out already, and they hadn’t even reached their destination! Regardless, his little bronze speckled head popped up, little hands gripping his bonded’s golden chains as Rexanna and Kiada headed in the direction of the sound.

As they broke through the tree line, immediately Rexanna’s sapphire gaze landed on the gathering. Rikyn was there, with a small child she didn’t recognize, and as her eyes reached Thranduil, a smile began to twitch at the corners of her lips. Yet, her gaze didn’t stop there. No. It went straight to Hotaru, her best friend, belly swollen and looking absolutely radiant. Some sort of squeak escaped her maw as she made her way to the gathering, momentarily forgetting about her daughter as she moved over toward Hotaru, conveniently forgetting about their past interaction. “Hotaru! Oh my gods, how I’ve missed you.” Her voice cracked slightly as she looked to the pink mare with happiness gleaming brilliantly in the sapphire pools of her eyes.

"Talk."
rexanna
image credits


INCOMING KIADA.
[Image: lovelyskylark.gif?8]
Permission given for moderate power play.
Feel free to use magic/force on Rexanna, without killing her.
Please tag in every post!

Kiada Posts: 181
World's Edge Nurse
Filly :: Unicorn :: 16.3 hh :: 2 years - Birdsong
Khairi :: Leucistic Lammergeier :: Paralyze Skylark
#7
KIADA
do not think you are safe because you love her

In all fairness, the harpy had never traveled with her mother before. Every other time the cream mare had accompanied her, she had been with the Elephant King and never completely alone. So of course it was absolutely awkward. At first, they passed the time with stupid little memories. Other times, she tried to test the waters with what her mother thought of Kaos, before divulging anything too intense. Still, she would lower her inky muzzle down upon occasion and touch that glowing necklace Kaos had given her, as if it offered her some sort of comfort, knowing that no matter what everyone else thought, that she knew what his intentions were.

And when her mother masked her interest in Kaos with fake smiles and nods, Kiada knew her mother didn’t approve. But she admired the siren for sticking with the conversation, and still remaining supportive of her. Kiada didn’t seem to feel too much, but whatever she felt in that moment felt relieving. Especially after the argument her mother had with her when Nyx died. Perhaps it was fear, or something else, but now that she was a woman, Rexanna didn’t have any full reign over her any longer. She was free to do what she wanted, to make whatever mistakes she chose to; it was all a part of learning and growing up, right?

Khairi remained flying through the trees, no longer interested in trying to snatch Marembo as a snack, and the pair relaxed. Marembo seemingly resting on Rexanna’s back while Khairi danced from tree to tree overhead. And when the duo heard the voices coming through the trees, they immediately changed their course to the sound. When they approached, Kiada’s eyes first found Thranduil. Then it traveled to the Rikyn Calor, to what appeared as a child at his knee, and finally to her aunt. By the time her gaze landed on the pink sunset mare, her mother was already over there speaking to her.

Kiada remained lingering in the back for a few moments, the flames on her back shifting to playful otters as joy overcame her. She was so excited to see familiar faces once again, and immediately began to wonder if Thranduil would be interested in her tales of Kaos and all the many things he’d done for her. It would be a conversation in private, for sure, however as she stepped up to the gathering, she dipped her head to Calor and the child, speaking a soft worded “hello” before looking to Thranduil and Hotaru. “Laurelin, Aunt Ru. It’s good to see you both again.” And she offered them both a broad, pleasant smile, wondering if Romina or Ru’in were around as well.

Though judging by the last interaction between Romina and herself, it hadn’t exactly gone well. She hoped that this would go much smoother.

"Talk."

do not think she will not stain her mouth red
with your blood too —



img


@Thranduil :D

IT'S SAID SHE'S MADE OF STORM CELLS
AND A WILD WOLF'S HUNGRY HEART,
THAT SHE'S LEARNT THE LIGHTNING'S SECRET
TO RIPPING DARKENED SKIES APART.

Thranduil the Laurelin Posts: 598
Outcast atk: 5.5 | def: 11 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.2 hh :: Eight HP: 77 | Buff: ENDURE
Haldir :: Common Cerndyr :: Dark Mist Hawk
#8

A shiver runs down his spine unbidden. Perhaps his mind knew she was already pregnant, but his body didn’t. Her warm body and nibble on his mane wasn’t helping the situation. Maybe they had just come off a honeymoon, but they were by no means cooling down.

Yet they were not in the wilds any longer. Quite the opposite, they were practically in Times Square of Helovia, and the world was quick to remind them of that. Before a word left the gold’s lips a shadow moves beyond them. Crowned head lifts back up, but he makes no move least Hotaru’s balance against him should be shifted. Perhaps he was a hardened soul built on daggers, leather, and cut throat thievery, but he secretly was proving to be an ever careful gentle mate. One benefit of his obsessive passiveness and protectiveness.

“Rikyn” The gold rumbled with a coming of humor and pleasure, letting his head tilt in greeting. The more golden of the two dark princes was, it had to be said, his favorite. Mr. No-Body- as if. His mind wandered over the last time th- Two small dark shapes follow the prince into the clearing, and the gold’s harks come to attention. One, shape didn’t attract much interest, but the other…Rikyn had been a bit busy himself it seemed. Conversation pulls the gold back in, and his earth eyes follow back up to the youth- stallion? God was he that old?!

Introductions come as they usually do….quite boringly. It gives time for the gold to ponder all the many questions he had about this other side of Rikyn. The stallion was being strangely, nice, and pleasant…and civil. The gold was not surprised, after all Rikyn was proving to have so many sides, but he was slightly put off that the feisty youth showed no sign of still remaining. Not even a jab. He quiet liked that dark prince he’d met along the river.

Haldir was not of the same mindset, or more so, he didn’t care. His moon eyes were only watching the other deer which had joined. Large ears were on their tips and his head held high in the regality which been passed down to him. The other deer had more tines than he (perhaps a little of the vanity in the gold had indeed snuck into Haldir), yet to see another of his kind was ever so rare. The dark stag smiled at the other and made a gruff call in greeting, and his head tilted to see the reaction.

“It appears so.” The gold let rumble to Rikyn’s question, though he was still buried deep in his own. Especially the one were the Puppeter was glad to have him back. The gold had been under the impression the dark was never exactly…pleased to see a golden hue in the shadows. Ever more to ponder.

Some things though, do not change. A noise from the side draws his attention, and his mischievous, amused grin turns a bit brighter to see Rexanna step forward, Kiada at her side. The cream and gold mare might be one of the few the gold could call ‘friend’, and his protectiveness over her was rivaled only by that over the Valkyrie. It had been with a twinge of guilt that he’d left her without even a note. To see her come so amiably towards him was a welcome sight, though he did feel slight jealousy, when she spoke only to Hotaru. He shouldn’t have, Hotaru was after all the more social of the two, but he did. Just another thing to shove into an already growing dark closet, and he’d only been in 5 minutes.

The Laurelin instead tried to turned his attention to Kiada, nodding to her greeting. She had grown quite a lot as well. He wondered how her brother faired, but as she headed towards the rosen shadow in the back he was not inclined to ask least it lead to conversing with the other. Instead he turned to what had become a sizeable gathering.

Earth eyes found Rikyn, trying to compete with Hotaru’s socialness. “I’m glad to see you haven’t let the place burn to the ground... yet.” It was a hint, and suggestion to know to the news of the day, but in the typical Laurelin fashion. Oh yes, they were certainly back, running business as normal. Dark closets, hidden thoughts, twisted humor and all.

"talk talk talk"
OOC::

Thranduil
His words are clever and bright

Credits: Image by Schwartze @ DA


@Hotaru

[Image: 5381546acbe33]
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Hotaru the Valkyrie Posts: 295
Outcast atk: 7 | def: 10.5 | dam: 3
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3hh :: 6 Years 3 Months HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
Alice :: Royal Hellhound :: Acid Brit
#9

I am a quiet god
and my hunger
is cavernous

Though she had prepared mentally for the return to her birthland, it did little to stop the prickle of tension along her spine as the crackle of passing hooves upon leaves that blanketed the earth touched her ears. Safe. Gods here, mate here, our magic from here. Pups will be safe. Alice's mind soothed across hers, a primordial sort of vehemence to her words, as if simply saying them would make it so in reality. Still, the comfort washed across Hotaru like the receding tide. Alice was right. Hotaru knew these lands well, her Goddess was here, her friends and family were here, her magic had come from the veins of the land beneath her hooves. No matter the paranoia the lands outside of Helovia had imparted in her, the twins in her belly would be fine. Hotaru would make sure of it.

She needn't fear in the first place, for from the long shadows of a yawning morning sun comes a gilded frame she has not seen in years.

Illynx is apparent in his lineage, and it pangs a note of sorrow across her heartstrings to see her mentor and once-Lady upon the Blade's son. But it delights her to see Rikyn nonetheless, though she is temporarily stunned by how drastically he has grown since she'd last seen him gangly-limbed and eager at his mother's side. He's...well, a stallion. Larger than her in height and breadth, with a patient countenance that only came from the wisdom of passing years. It is only further proof of the time that had slipped by since she'd last crossed the Threshold with Thranduil.

Still, as he turns to her and titles her so sweetly, Hotaru can't help but smile beatifically at Rikyn. "Rikyn," she greets warmly, the glowing maiden at the Laurelin's side. It's all a part to play, though she extends his name sincerely in this rare moment of kinship and nostalgia. He is of the snow and ice just as she is, after all. Though she is as yet unaware of just how precisely they mirror one another, he having taken up a mantle she had held for years.

The boy-turned-man introduces the little one peeking out from his side, equal parts curious and tentative as young children are. Hotaru laughs softly and gazes upon Gwyn's sire with a lacing of fondness across her beautiful face. "Are you calling me old, Rikyn?" she teases. Though she did know Gwyn's grandparents, which certainly made the Valkyrie feel old. Especially considering she was pregnant herself. But she knew the way Helovia worked, and how quickly and carelessly it tore souls from the earth. There was no time for dawdling when it came to love or procreation. And those who lived into double digits were regarded as either masterful or impossibly lucky.

As the men converse - Hotaru rolls her eyes so soundly inside her head that Alice snorts at her side - she turns her attention to the miniature shadow that ventures forth to speak a shy hello. Her hips are coated in gold and frost, accenting the innocent baby blue of her eyes. Hotaru tilts her crown towards the young filly with a gleaming smile, reluctantly leaning her weight off Thranduil to engage the youth in conversation.

"Hello Gwyn, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." If Rikyn wanted to paint her so regally, well, the least she could do was play the part.

Before she could say anything else to try and bring the quiet child from her reverie, Alice's hackles swiftly rise and flares of color shoot across Hotaru's eyes in wordless panic. It's dizzying, disorienting, and she immediately steps closer to Thranduil, ready to protect and be protected, eyes casting sharply over her shoulder to Romina lingering silent in the shadows. Except by the time she faces the newcomer, the first words have already fallen from the woman's lips, and Hotaru's heart seizes painfully in her chest.

Beta, Alice growls and whines in Hotaru's head, throat seeming to convulse spasmodically around the word, unsure which emotion she wants to feel. Hotaru doesn't even have the time to sympathize, because Rexanna is right there, eyes glistening with a joy that wraps around Hotaru's throat like strangling vines, unstoppable and unwanted. It's instinctive. Their explosive last meeting could not break a bond that Hotaru had ached without in the solitude of her kingdom. She had poked and prodded the bruise of Rexanna's absence in the silence of the long nights in her cavern. No Ashamin, no Thranduil, no children, no best friend. The loss had hurt almost as badly as what she had perceived as Rexanna's ultimate betrayal. But the joy...

"Rexanna," she finally manages to strangle out of her throat, clinging to her peaceful mask with bleeding fingertips. "I'm so glad you're well," comes spilling out unbidden, truth escaping the weight of her confining teeth before Hotaru can shove them back into her throat. Alice shifts restlessly at her side, eyeing the growing crowd uncertainly. Pup is here too, she murmurs quietly to the Valkyrie, who turns and smiles at her niece radiantly. This she can handle. This is familiar territory. Though she can hear Romina's swift, careless departure just behind her at the arrival of the young mare who had been her sister in arms.

Go, she commands softly, and Alice turns in a blaze of toxic purple smoke to follow the mutated child into the wilds.

"You've grown so much, Kiada," Hotaru notes pleasantly, if only in hopes to distract the fire girl from the rude departure of her daughter. Then she glances across all of them, these people who represent the ghosts of her past and the welcoming hands of her future. "How is everything here? Falling to pieces again?" Because when wasn't Helovia in utter chaos of some kind? "Where do you all call home now?" Where would she call home, after all this time?

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::Strong like the sea is stormy::

Please only tag starting posts, spars, and threads collecting dust!
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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
#10

If he’s disappointed that I’m not an insulting slinging outcast anymore, it isn’t immediately obvious to me; then again, what Thranduil feels never seems to be. I don’t really know what it is that he expects from me, or what any of them, do, really, the elders who had watched me grow, and, during that time, foresaw the man I would become. The problem was that none of them had seemed to pick the same ending, each as different from the first as the next, and so, time and time again, I would learn I was somewhat of a disappointment to them. All that mattered in the end, however, was that I was proud of myself, right?

There definitely is an air of suspicion to my allusion that I’m happy to see him, though, which I pick up on with a smile. You’re not the only one with cloaks, I think to myself, glad to have thrown him off for a time – but its not like the statement was untruthful, either, just without teeth. I was glad to see him; it meant all of my past had no fallen away into the void of death or the vanished, and that I might get to see yet another person threaten to blow him up or skin him alive before either of us were due to leave this world. It meant that, someday, others might walk back through the forest, too, others who I held warmer memories for, and deeper relationships than simply skirting around his barbed questions, deflecting with my own sharp retorts. He was a tutor, yes, a master of the art that we both shared, and, in his own way, I supposed he was a familial figure, watching from the distance, and manipulating me towards his own desired future for me with his warped ways… but he was not a friend. He was a necessary and never ending presence in my life, and like the rest of the things I would rather go away than be forced to deal with, I was learning to accept him. Appreciate, even, all the ways that he wasn’t a splinter in orphan’s skin, as much as he reminded me of the hurt with his presence.

"Never old," I grin at the rosy mare’s jest, though it is dampened somewhat by what I say next, "just one of the few left that did, is all."

Hotaru reminds me of my ultimate loss, too, in her own way, but I remember her learning from mother, not plotting with her; there were no whispers between them that were not truly shared, unlike those that Thranduil and the GildedBlade had exchanged, each a half truth designed to serve the speaker or harm the listener. The memory of Hotaru is not stained with the nature of my dam which allowed her to turn her back upon her family and herd, as Thranduil’s is, and, while I had been unable to understand why I’d hated him so much when I was younger, I was now able to deduce all the more clearly that it likely wasn’t his fault at all.

Besides, I have a daughter, who, after a cheerful grin of greeting is exchanged between the Valkyrie and I, is quickly usurped in the pretty mares wiles, as I had been as a boy, too.

"On the contrary, I like to think the world tried to burn me down for a little while," I banter back; it’s sort of true, I guess. Gaucho did use a lot of fire magic while kicking the shit out of me. "To its credit, I have always been the sort to gallop with lit torches, of course."

Or thieving eyes. Whichever. Does it matter?

When Rexanna and Kiada arrive, I look back to them, happier to see the appaloosa youth’s mother than I am her. Not that our meeting had gone badly, of course, but, over my time upon returning to Helovia, I’ve grown quite fond of the gold-smoke mare, and my buck has formed quite the friendship with Marembo, who had been there moments after he’d hatched. Torn between his vast interest in the crooning Haldir and the arrival of his furry friend, the cerndyr bleats an apologetic hello in the direction of the polecat, before meeting the gaze of the other stag, and returning a robust, male call, ears lifted and green eyes watching.

A sudden desire in me to careen towards the other deer with strong bounds and crash antlers into his in a gentleman’s contest fills our bond, and with a snort, a bob of his crown, and a stamping of one toed, golden foot, Duir barely resists his entirely natural, male instinct. With quiet whuffing exhalations of breath, he makes the first move towards the other cerndyr in his usually peaceable fashion, though his antlered head is held high; when the distance closes, he reaches out with his muzzle, to exchange breath, like horses do.

Distracted by Hotaru’s questions, I look away from Duir, and back towards she and Thranduil. Glad to be the bearer of any news, even if its bad, especially seeing as they clearly expect it, I go ahead and throw it all on the table.

"The Rift Gods have been reborn as a being called Kaos, who at first deceived the people of Helovia into serving him, under the false name of Kisamoa," I begin, "he claimed to want to heal the Spectral Marsh, at the behest of the Earth God. None of that is true. He killed several, instead, with a giant bone creature – I know it sounds mad, bear with me - and is now a disembodied voice holed up in the Marsh, seemingly focalized about this weird rock pillar. There have been reports of attacks on patrol units ever since. It serves logic that they are correlated with Kaos’ presence. As of yet, I have not heard anything about the herd lands having been subjected to these attacks."

Pausing to gather my next stream of thought, willing to field questions later, I forge ahead.

"The Earth God has also disbanded the Hidden Falls, to better serve towards the cause of dealing with or defeating this latest threat to our kingdoms. His people have scattered across Helovia," I don’t think either of them hold ties to the green realm, so I carry on without much more detail, "and I myself returned to the Basin, upon the death of…"

Where I had strongly surged ahead through the various calamitous news of the day, it is not until I make it here, to the deepening, black pit of my mourning that I avoid and avoid some more, that my voice breaks.

"The death of Ulrik the Engineer and Lord Deimos the Reaper in the mid-weeks of Birdsong," I finish, stealing away the emotions that broil beneath that golden, cold wall so that I cannot be manipulated anymore than I already am by them; further bolstering their heights and breadth, I lacquer my newest job, aside from father, clearly, over the bleeding heart that had momentarily been glimpsed seconds prior, "and I am now the reluctant Brat King, alongside the Lady Tiamat."

Wondering what Thranduil will think of that, I try to meet his eyes with a faulty grin.




Art by Esa82@DA

@Hotaru @Thranduil @Kiada not gonna tag you twice bruv

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Gwyn Posts: 10
Aurora Basin Filly
Filly :: Unicorn :: 16.2 :: Newborn
Bunnie
#11


When the woman turns to talk to her, Gwyn smiles; its small, and sheepish, mostly because she certainly had not expected to earn the attention of an adult, and certainly not one so elegant. Meeting Hotaru’s pretty emerald eyes with her own pale-sky blues, the child reaches out her nose towards the white strip atop the Valkyrie’s, hesitantly attempting to do what Duir does, with Haldir, and what she’s seen other adults do, too, when meeting each other.

When she pulls her head back, she’s still wide eyed and overwhelmingly pleased with the moment. The rosy woman speaks to her like she’s a grown up, with fancy words and a pretty flourish to her tone, and Gwyn’s shy grin splits into a full blown, close lipped smile, as her warily parted ears leap forward.

And yous as well, Miss Hotaru,” still grins the filly, her diminutive tail and cotton-down poof of ebony tail hairs slowly swaying from side to side behind her with cheerful abandon. Not sure what else to say, she is glad for the arrival of Rexanna and Kiada, too, but for different reasons than most everyone else.

Laying eyes on the other appaloosa with the fire coming from her ridgeline, Gwyn’s eyes widen a second time. It’s very similar to the electrical magic currently sparking across her gold and white dappled rump, and as the pair closes the distance, the animals that flicker in the stranger’s flames change into different ones. Too little to know what their called, she does know that the second one is much, much cuter than the first one was. Silent and staring, the filly finds no time for words among all the greetings and grown up talk, and instead leans her shoulder into her daddy, and feels his voice rumble and resonate from his body into hers.

What he is talking about sounds scary. It always does, when they start talking about it. Attacks, creatures, dying, it all sounded pretty bad. Wondering what it all means, but sure she is safe, especially with her father so close by, the filly, like young children, doesn’t wonder about that particular thing long; in moments, she’s not listening anymore at all, and is instead watching Duir and Haldir, and then Marembo, and then Kiada’s fire again…

Grown up talks were boring, but boy, animals were neat!



’cause you’ve got teeth like a wolf
but you cry like a sheep


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Rexanna Posts: 499
World's Edge Mare atk: 4.5 | def: 8.0 | dam: 5.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15hh :: 7 years HP: 61.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Marembo :: Marbled Polecat :: None Skylark
#12
paint my spirit gold
Rexanna cared so deeply for both of her friends, so deeply in fact, that she chose to speak with Hotaru in the hopes of repairing their relationship. She already had a beautiful relationship with Thranduil, perhaps one that made each one of their lovers jealous in some aspects, so while she chose to focus on Hotaru, she did manage to look over at Thranduil and offer him a gentle smile as well. “Have you both been well?” She questioned quietly, looking to both Hotaru and Thranduil for any shred of answers.

Regardless, conversations ebbed and flowed as they always did. Rikyn began to speak with Thranduil, and she stepped aside to allow Hotaru even more space. And while she knew Hotaru, she didn’t see past the mask she placed. Instead, she thought things were now fine between them as her voice acknowledged her and her daughter. Alice quickly shifted to the side while a small bleat from Duir registered in Marembo’s ears. His head perked up, little paw waving to the deer in the air before wrapping his tail around his body and snuggling in closer, hoping perhaps he might catch a quick nap. Both deer had been friends to him, Haldir in a different way. He hadn’t known the smokey cerndyr since he was born like he did with Duir, but he had still helped the creature when it mattered most.

You look radiant.” Rexanna added on slightly toward Hotaru before she questioned if everything was falling to pieces. A small smile creased the corners of her lips as she looked to Rikyn who chose to explain the whole situation they faced. She nodded along as he went, agreeing that he had the correct information. However, when he spoke of Kaos’ attacks, her blue gaze swept to her daughter immediately, curious as to what she had to say on the matter. Would she confess to them that she had been gifted from the demon? Would she try to sway their ideas differently? Her gaze lingered a bit longer before returning to Rikyn as he spoke of the deceased, her lips turning downward into a frown.

The child beside him stayed quiet, but Rexanna offered her a gentle smile if she so happened to look her way before turning back to the Laurelin and the Valkyrie. “Kiada and I live in the Edge still.” She began, eyes scanning over Hotaru in case the words might trigger anything to her from the last time they met. “I had another child recently, named Safiri. She’s about nine months old now, but has some severe health issues. Tembovu stepped down from being King to help where it was needed. He wasn’t around much with all the duties he had to do. So Alysanne and Lyanna run the herd now.” She felt as though she began to ramble on, eyes sparking with an idea. “There are many there that would love to see you both. Raeden still remains in the ranks as well. I would love to bring you there so you can see everyone.” Her head tilted slightly. “If you want to, of course.

"Talk."
rexanna
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ily guys <3
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Permission given for moderate power play.
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Please tag in every post!

Kiada Posts: 181
World's Edge Nurse
Filly :: Unicorn :: 16.3 hh :: 2 years - Birdsong
Khairi :: Leucistic Lammergeier :: Paralyze Skylark
#13
KIADA
do not think you are safe because you love her

As Thranduil’s gaze shifted to her, she lifted her head to try and meet his gaze and nod in return. A small smile hinting at the corners of her pink splattered lips before looking over as Hotaru, her mother, and Calor spoke. They spoke in a way of catching up, yet vaguely in a way where Calor had begun to fill them in on all things Kaos. However, as the conversation continued with it, she began to grow bored. Her tail flicking with all the misinformation of Kaos that the man spewed. Still, she didn’t acknowledge it. She remained quiet, even unobservant of Romina and Alice fleeing away from the gathering hidden among the trees.

That was until “the death of Ulrik the Engineer and Lord Deimos the Reaper.” Her heart stuttered as her inky head flung to him. “Wh.. What?” She croaked out, her flames morphing to elephants and spiders crawling along her hide. “Oh my god.” She muttered, stepping back and slightly away, flashing back to the point where she had so recently spoke with Erebos, speaking with him about her own interactions with her father… And the short answer of the Basin’s fairing in return.

Suddenly, she began to feel bad about the whole ordeal. Her eyes wide and perhaps a bit angry as she looked away from the group into the trees. Khairi, immediately as the feelings hit him, swooped from a large tree down onto her back. His talons digging into the skin of her withers marred with various little scars from him and the griffins on that one fateful day. She needed to speak with Erebos. She needed to tell him she was sorry. “It okay.” Came Khairi’s deep crackly voice. “You not know.” He tried to reassure her, his scarlet eyes looking back to the gathering to keep an eye on the events. Her mother began to speak then, talking of their home in the Edge and of her own father. Her gut continued to churn uncomfortably with the news, though. She reached her small muzzle down to press the glowing necklace Kaos had given her as if it gave her some kind of solace.

Her head shifted to Rikyn, then, still not knowing his true name. “How is Erebos?” She questioned quietly to him, her head searching the gold and chocolate unicorn.

"Talk."

do not think she will not stain her mouth red
with your blood too —



img


@Thranduil ! <3

IT'S SAID SHE'S MADE OF STORM CELLS
AND A WILD WOLF'S HUNGRY HEART,
THAT SHE'S LEARNT THE LIGHTNING'S SECRET
TO RIPPING DARKENED SKIES APART.

Thranduil the Laurelin Posts: 598
Outcast atk: 5.5 | def: 11 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 16.2 hh :: Eight HP: 77 | Buff: ENDURE
Haldir :: Common Cerndyr :: Dark Mist Hawk
#14

It may have been all pleasantries and ‘adult talk’ but it was very valuable. This was not the dull interactions to usually be found here. Helovia might not have burned down, there was a hint of smoke in the air.

The gold, quietly letting the conversations flow does rumble in humor at Hotaru’s exclamation. He’d felt the same. Yet what Rikyn offered in consonance, was more wounding instead. Perhaps the gold did not feel connected to those gone, but there were faces he wouldn’t mind seeing again. Especially some from the North.

As the trail of lines roll on he smiles when he should and listens otherwise. The news of the world is of great interest. He knew Kiasmoa Kaos after all. Had Rikyn so quickly forgotten that lovely afternoon when the gold had blew a few branches up… The gold hadn’t, perhaps a few comments were out of turn, but it was a laugh all the same. Strange patrols were also nothing too terribly new. RIkyn may not have been there, but the gold recalled times when the head of a wolf bit into a deer, and animals ran stampedes without cause. And that was just their god’s doings. Still, it does warn the gold of the creature…or rather interest. What could he possibly want?

The last of the news was not so much of a shock (besides the news of the engineer), but it did bring sadness. “I was there the day he fell.” Came the slip of breath, and the gold’s ears fall back slightly. He has mask enough to hold a gaze, but within he wishes to drop it in respect for the old Lord of the North. Deimos had been a constant, and dependable lasting creature, something the gold rarely had (and dare he say, needed?). That Rikyn had also lost his father was news, but the gold had never been as close to the engineer. He was always tinkering with his machines, and so far from the golden’s….mindset. Though it had stung, the words rang all the more truth into the thought that Hotaru and he were some of the last left of that generation.

The final news was at least a wakeup call from the depression the thought of funerals tends to bring. A wide Cheshire grin rolls back up the gold’s lips. He noted the grin on the stallion’s lips and doubted to himself how ‘reluctant’ he really was. Had he not said that even without his lineage Rikyn would never be able to just, blend in? His mother’s crown may not fit him, but he would have made his own anyway. Of course given this nature he was unsure if the stallion had the same…spunk which the gold had originally thought would get him there, but he doubted it could have all washed away. Rikyn may be young, but the gold was hardly worried he’d be any less of a Lord than the Basin demanded. So all the Puppeteer gains is a swagger of a grin, and a short comment. “Told you you’d make a pathetic Mr. Nobody. Brat King has a much better ring to it.” Thranduil rarely missed a ‘told you so’ but the nod of approval was not to be missed either. A thought drifts into his mind…and he toys with it, finally, and as subtly as possible, inhaling, letting the gears within him click and finally lock in.  

Kiada speaks up to the dark stallion, and the gold switches conversations, instead letting his ears turn back towards Rexanna. He finds her running through her news as well, and listens with the same patience. It was good he’d only had boring tales in the wild so that he was still riveted by such basics as herd positions. The name Raeden rings a bell though, and he wonders how the challenger, Toulouse?, faired. That had been a rather fun day as well.

Then she mentions living in the Edge, and the gold’s breath hitched. The prior thoughts try to worm their way back into his mind. He glances to Rikyn. Though he enjoyed the youth, living under him, or even temporarily calling it home felt…impossible. Laughing at your superiors, or making them want to strangle you was really not the best way to make Thief of the week, or even maintain your visitation rights. The earth eyes look down to the rosen Valkyrie at his side, her neck still slightly damp from their efforts to simply walk. His teeth ground, but he whispers softly. “Perhaps? A Basin winter is harsh.” And you’ve grown so fragile Even if they did have healthy foals, the winter would be a strain. “And its not that far.”Without a mountain to climb to get there. He frets for a moment, could she even make it to the Basin if she wanted?

He’s growing moody again, and once more can not stand it, so throws off his momentary lapse with something more golden. “Plus, plenty of lovely villagers…” His wolfish grin goads her, and he nudges her gently, teasingly again in Rexanna’s direction. “No offence Puppeteer….” The gold flips to RIkyn, and though it’s a harsh line, his tone is decidedly different from one you’d might expect. His earth eyes dip slightly, and it does not have the full polish of off handedness. If you read it closely you might even think he was sincere. Then as usual he covers his tracks. ”Hell frozen over is lovely any time of year.” Supposedly the golden would know.

"talk talk talk"
OOC::



Thranduil
His words are clever and bright

Credits: Image by Schwartze @ DA


@Hotaru

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Feel free to use any force/magic on Thranduil, short of killing him.
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Hotaru the Valkyrie Posts: 295
Outcast atk: 7 | def: 10.5 | dam: 3
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15.3hh :: 6 Years 3 Months HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
Alice :: Royal Hellhound :: Acid Brit
#15

I am a quiet god
and my hunger
is cavernous

A soft twitter of laughter falls from her lips as Rikyn defers to her teasing with a grin, sparking a lightheartedness in her ivory breast that had not had the kindling to grow in many moons. The outside world was disappointing in ways she hadn't anticipated, bringing with it pawns that fell too easily for her wiles and womanly charms. Nameless faces that mattered little to her. No kin or acquaintances, friends or pawns with which to amuse herself. There was no history out there in the brambles and spiraling pathways. Though she could have easily built a kingdom of her own, never returned to the harrying, harrowing nature of Helovia, it did not beckon to her the way her motherland did. Perhaps Thranduil did not understand that entirely, but even with the barest flicker of her eyes over his countenance, Hotaru could see what a difference Rikyn's presence alone caused in him. This was where they were meant to be. Carrying on in the shadows of their mentors, becoming legends themselves, until time and age whisked them away into the void as it had their idols.

Idols...and Hotaru's face fell somewhat somber to recall Illynx. The first to foster the manipulative threads in her soul, untangling them where they had fallen into the corners of her personality, buried away beneath shame and anxiety. She had given Hotaru so much, and the Valkyrie would never be able to properly thank her. Fate had taken that decision from her, and so all she was left with were the ashen words lining the edges of her teeth, bitter and acrid with uselessness and regret.

"She was an amazing mare," Hotaru spoke softly, still feeling her age like a noose around her neck. Weighted by everything life had thrown at her, a ball that grew ever heavier as the chain grew tighter. "She would be prouder than anyone to see you take the throne, Brat King or otherwise," and here her lips twisted into a teasing smirk, ears flickering with amusement. It did not hurt as she had anticipated, to see another wearing the circlet that had crested her forehead for so long. Perhaps she'd simply had it on her mind so long in the wilds beyond the borders that reality could not stand up against the worst ideas she'd conjured during their travels.

So with a quiet blessing for his rule she turns to Gwyn, charmed by her childish words and prim mannerisms. A princess in the making. "And what does a princess like you hope to be, my child? A dashing knight like your father? Or the one who chases after them to heal their silly wounds?" Motherhood bubbled in her throat, coloring her words with effervescent golden hues, seeking to enchant and amuse. Hotaru ached for her own children, the one she'd only just found - who had already escaped into the shadows of the tired morning - and the ones she feared to never find again. She had fallen prey to crippling anxiety in the quiet of her thoughts, terrified to fail the ones in her womb as she had been doomed to fail all the others she'd borne and raised.

Rexanna's soft query and compliment draw her from the echo of her fears, and Hotaru gives a grimace of a smile. "I do not feel it," she confesses, wondering if the woman can hear the soft rasp in her breathing, notice the sweat drenching the shadows of her neck where the morning light cannot reveal her secrets. Her face turns slightly grim as she leans against her beloved, loathe to admit to the weakness of her small body and dainty bones. Cursed with twins from her mother's genes, cursed further with a body not built to foster them.

Though the Valkyrie would rather converse with the cute child than face her once best friend, admit to the struggles she experiences daily, the news of the land was far more important to know than a filly's dreams for her future.

A flinch crawls across the delicate woman's hide to hear of Kaos, and sorrow strikes pain through her gut at the crumbling of the Falls. It had been her birthland, once. Though it held no claim to her heart, no sway to her allegiances, it pained Hotaru to know it did not even exist in the manner in which she had known it.

Eyes close and her face turns away from the news of the death of Ulrik - one she had scarcely known - and Deimos; one she had known far too well. His death was still a festering wound on her heart, recalling the monsoon that had overtaken the land, the cold of it on her skin and the barren chasm that she had felt far too keenly at her side. He had been a Lord to envy and fear, and she had loved him in her own way.

"I'm sorry, Rikyn," is all she can muster instead, fragile words that do not become her in the least. But she knows the death of a parent, of both. No matter how the weakness reflects on her now, Hotaru cannot forgive herself the silence she would otherwise choose. "But you will surely be a fine Lord." It was the only blessing she could give, because Hotaru was still a creature of pride. A former Lady.

Rexanna brings forth her own news, though Hotaru knows little of the Edge and its politics. Still she cannot help the pulse of her heart at her twin sister's name, hope prickling like warning thorns in her ribcage. "Raeden? How is she?" The matching bracelet on her cannon bone seems to become heavier with the reminder. The Valkyrie can handle any news, because at least her twin is alive. It was a lot to ask for with the nature of Helovia.

Until Rexanna, smooth with her subtlety in a way Hotaru had always known her to be, proposes something that stiffens the arches of the rose's shoulders. A hiss of malcontent broils between her teeth, though she does not allow it escape. Already the gears in her lover's head can be heard turning, biting deep into the potential offered to them with insistent, carnivorous teeth.

Hotaru had wanted to go home. It had been a source of bickering for the two of them many times as they neared Helovia's Threshold, neither wanting to budge in their stubborn natures. Thranduil did not want to return to the Basin, certainly not now with the colt they'd known from birth at the helm. Hotaru had refused to listen to any other option, yearning for the blistering cold of her home. The glittering lakeside where all of her children had been born.

How could she abandon that? How could she break that tradition, treat these twins any differently than she had her previous? They would never know the sight of the sturdy mountains against the violet skies, would not huddle beneath her belly in search of warmth. It hurt to imagine for a mother as devoted as Hotaru.

But Thranduil croons softly to her, hesitance trailing on the edges of each word, because he knows how important the Basin is to Hotaru. She loved and defended it as fiercely as a viper, unforgiving and possessive. It was her home.

Still...the weight of her belly and the stress on her aching spine can't be denied. His grin prompts one in return from her, automatic, rising to the flare of his flame. Still she can't help but step closer to him as he nudges her towards Rexanna, petty and stubborn as she mulls over it in silence. Could she even manage to ascend the twisted pathway of her home? It would kill her to only make it partway there only for her knees to sink uselessly beneath her, taunting her with her own weakness and the siren call of home ringing in her ears.

Returning with Rexanna though? But on the other hand there was her sister...

With a forceful exhale, harks slicing back against her neck in a display of violent displeasure, the ice of her exterior hardens into something chilling and impenetrable. If they would ask her to break, to bend, then they would not witness it firsthand.

"Send my thoughts to Tiamat, if you will. I will see her soon, if all goes well," she directs to Rikyn, the only evidence of her decision. "And...thank you, for the information. Keep yourself, and Gwyn, safe. I would hate to lose the cutest babe I know," Hotaru ends on a playful tease, grin dancing on the corners of her lips. If he could imply her age, then she could do the same.

Turning, she tilts her cheek against Thranduil's neck, the cold of her horn brushing against his warm skin for a brief moment.

"I shan't go without complaint, I still think the ice is far better than any useless mist." The 'but' lay unsaid, her verbal agreement refusing to show its face in her prideful mouth. At least the Edge had her Goddess, her sister. Perhaps her health, Gods willing. Turning to angle her lips intimately to the Laurelin's hark, she whispers, as far beneath her vocals as she can manage to hide further weakness from any who crane their ears to listen. "We must go now, love. I...do not think I have the strength to remain here any longer." Motion, at least, could be sustained once initiated. Stillness was where her joints creaked and the twins kicked and pushed against her insides. Hotaru was convinced she was holding off birth through sheer force of will alone, needing the safety of a herdland before she let herself fold beneath the weight of her children's demands. Even if it was not the herdland she had been hoping for all this time.

Image Credit
Code: Time & Neo
[Image: 515265280ffff]

::Strong like the sea is stormy::

Please only tag starting posts, spars, and threads collecting dust!
Plot with me here!

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
#16

"Hm, if only you knew how proud," I reply to Hotaru’s genuine complement with a much darker tone; the last I’d seen of my dam, over a year ago, on the borders of a tall forest filled with fireflies, I’d been told I had to be as much. Of course, any who knew me, also knew I had returned to Helovia and done exactly the opposite. I was where I was now because it was my path, which I had earned on my terms.

Fuck her, and her games, I think, with backward tilted ears, realizing that I’ve suddenly grown rigid in the throes of my dark thoughts, pulling myself out of them to listen to Hotaru and Gwyn, Kiada and Rexanna, and, of course, Thranduil.

What I knew that the Laurelin certainly knew was such: Kisamoa had risen from the sea, and he probably shouldn’t pretend to be Shida ever again. I had not seen him in the Marsh, during the confrontation (as I had only briefly been there), nor did I recall Hotaru’s presence – it was as much for her, Kiada, and Rexanna to know, as it was his greedy need for everything to be about him, and it was better to include everything I knew, and was willing to share. Getting it all out of the way, without having to dwell on it, seemed the most logical course. Besides, I didn’t like discussing the current matters in front of Gwyn, to begin with. It was all too dark and scary for little ears that, as far as I was concerned, were meant to hear only stories about cheerful, happy endings.

We didn’t know the end yet. It’s what made it scary. It’s what also made it so imperative that these two individuals, in particular, were made fully aware of what was going on, being among those in Helovia who had seen many disasters, and dealt with them each in turn. As I had told each of the herd lands that had arrived at our doorstep, the time for putting barriers between ourselves had passed, at least until Kaos had been dealt with. Though I was not always honest, I did mean that; even though Gwyn had only been an imaginary thing, still within Glacia, at the time, I had other priorities, now.

And, I really did want to do what was best for everyone. Even if it meant putting aside the way I felt about others to include them in the bigger picture; even if it was hard, and I almost always failed to do so. The magical rock that the Time God had given me had forced me to truly be what other people wanted me to be, for the while they held it. I had first thought that it was a punishment, a means to inflict that powerlessness upon me as I had to others…

But it had been full of more lessons than that. Lessons that I was slowly absorbing, still the same person I’ve always been, more or less; I spend too much time thinking about myself, in contexts of selfish wants and whims, and too little seeking the meaning of all the small parts and pieces that have coalesced to the now. Yet, for all that I had to still see, I had been forced to accept that others felt empty, too, and that others saw me as many things: an object, a friend, or an enemy, but none of them seemed to see me for who I truly was.

Maybe that meant that I didn’t see others for who they were, either.

Kiada’s gasp at the mention of the death of the long-time Lord and my father draws my eyes, a flickering glance tossed to the emotional reaction, and Hotaru’s apology draws a more slowly acquired look, after I have managed to seal away the holes in my heart behind a hard, golden wall. They are something to focus on other than the snakes and shadows roiling about inside my chest; the witnessing of someone else’s pain, fresh and wounding, rather than my own, which has grown fetid inside my chest. How is Erebos? She asks, and I narrow my eyes at her, despite my want to remain impassively stone, and to not let my feelings slip out so easily; how is he? What about me? I jealously think, before the bite of how selfish a thought that is resounds after, in Duir’s mental hymn.

"Sullen, and removed," I answer, because it’s the truth; as to how he is, I don’t talk to people about their feelings unless I have to, mostly because it quickly gets complicated, and I manage to wound them further. Especially his. "He spends what time he is not serving the herd or training at the Lord’s Tomb, it seems."

Looking next to Hotaru, I nod, genuinely grateful for her sympathy. So few had known my sire well enough to understand what a loss he was to this world, but Hotaru… Hotaru knew.

"Thank you," I say, softly, the fringes of my quickly erected emotional barriers curling beneath the weight that presses behind those two words. Like her, we are hidden creatures; she taught to be as she is by my mother, belatedly evolving from ensnared moth into carefully poised spider, and myself… I had been created. An unnatural amalgamation of a warrior’s honor and a serpent’s deceit, ill composed, and wavering.

That I am not made to hide behind guises and masks is evident by how easily my amusement can be drawn out by sentiment and memory. When Thranduil congratulates me as the conversation turns more towards my newest achievement, I mirror the smile, and snort humorously. Remembering that conversation with some measure of embarrassment, because, Gods, I was a whining shit back then (still are, Duir remarks, casually), I tilt my head.

"It’s not the worst thing to pretend to be I guess," I lend him with a smirk, "it was meant as an insult by the woman who first spat it at me. I find it more truthful than anything else I’ve been called by my herd-mates before… and I guess part of me hopes it pisses her off, too."

I get the feeling Thranduil understands that rush more than most I’ve met.

Raeden is brought up, and my ears fall back slightly, my smile faltering at the thought of that horrible wench. How could Hotaru share blood with her? Aside from the prettiness, I found little of comparison between the bitch in the mist, and the rosy woman of my youth.

"Still a complete bi…er, terror," I correct myself, remembering Gwyn is with me at the last moment, but wanting to share with Hotaru that, while her sister was certainly not my favorite person, Hotaru just might be one of hers, "she asked after you in the rise of the season, when she and Rexanna came to the Basin among their comrades. I… uh, well I told her I didn’t know where you had gone."

Not so nicely, of course, but I’m also entirely wary of women. While it has been men who’ve nearly killed me, for the most part, its only women who have attacked me for seemingly no fucking reason at all.

When the conversation quickly turns to the real reason this forest is here, and why anyone lingers, however, it quickly becomes evident that I’m on the losing end. A frown slowly slips over my countenance, Duir looks up with curious wonder at the strange darkness which suddenly blooms inside my heart, and I find myself remembering my father’s back, as he walked out of the Basin, towards the mists.

Were they all this way? I wonder, of the men and women who I had once thought would be a unit, together, forever, only to grow older, and discover that of them all – mother, father, Psyche, Mauja, d’Artagnan, Deimos, Deodat, Sialia - only one was truly anything at all like who he’d seemed to be all along.

And he was dead now.

Hell frozen over is lovely any time of year, says Thranduil, and the pensive hesitation that had bound back my usual emotional eruptions is suddenly forfeited, ears falling back, and golden eyes narrowing contemptuously. Hell? Even Hotaru’s quickly following, positively intoned statements don’t make amends for that blatant insult to my homeland that had invited him in (despite the hesitations of many), and that had once given him a fucking crown.

"Aye, and it is why we must wear such thick cloaks, to keep the petty winds from dampening our spirit, and the ice from treacherous effacements from laying our skin open," I declare with contempt of his attitude, suddenly recalling why it was I disliked the gold, aside from his (former, current?) allegiances to the biggest bitch in all of Loorien; he was arrogant, and took for granted the cost and weight of casually tossed words, and what others could take them to mean. I was still here, under this ruse of regalia and Lordliness, because it was easier to get everything to just fuck off if I played the part they all demanded of me. He could learn that the hard way, I guess, if he so insisted.

"Your welcome, Hotaru, and don’t worry for my Gwyn. We are made strong in the north, as you know," I tell the rosy Valkyrie with a smile that is still hard with my hostility towards her mate, severing my stare at Thranduil to look to her as I turn to leave, with a soft touch to Gwyn’s shoulder in the motion. Unwilling to loathe Hotaru for her contemptuous taste in fuck buddies, I also look to Kiada and Rexanna with individual nods of farewell as I say their names. Duir, in his hurry, simply bleats a mournful farewell to Marembo and Haldir, before scampering after Gwyn and I as we progress out of the clearing. "It was good to see you all again. Come, Gwyn-a, it is time to go home."

I nod while looking at Hotaru’s emerald pools, affirming that I will tell Tiamat that I had seen these two, before I turn to leave, and steadily walk out into the surrounding wood, towards the north. Outwardly, I seem calm, a father cheerfully walking with his beautiful daughter, but, inside, a storm brews, per always.

"I’m sure you will see miss Hotaru at our ever frigid Gates of Hell soon," I say as we part, looking down to my daughter, audibly continuing my words as I touch the soft down of her mane betwixt her perfect ears. I use that quiet, peaceful gesture to reaffix my metaphorical, slipping mantle about my tired shoulders: becoming the father, the Lord, the man I am supposed to be, according to everyone else. There is no room left in my life for my wants anymore, not really… and what had Tiamat said? To be a good man, you had to try? "Some might find them closed or inhospitable, of course, but she was born in the north, just like you. Maybe she’ll have her foals with her next time…"

[ OOC: so remember that time we wrote a novel together guys LOL ]


Art by Esa82@DA

Wishlist - Plots

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

Gwyn Posts: 10
Aurora Basin Filly
Filly :: Unicorn :: 16.2 :: Newborn
Bunnie
#17


The cheerful air of the gathering continues on, and the filly basks in the attention of the rosy woman, while stealing glimpses at the other two pretty mares. Though much of the conversation goes over her head, too adult or disinteresting to be understood or bothered with, she does perk up to catch the pregnant beauty’s question.

Immediately, her eyes widen with a wonder as to what she wants to be, after all. Until now, she has simply been, moving from one meadow to another, following after her mother’s white flecked figure, or her father’s coffee brown one. Thinking about it, trying to be quick about it so as not to become droll, and lose Hotaru’s interest, she stares into the green eyes before her, pondering through it all; she did not care for leadership, as it involved too much talking, and she supposed she did like the smell of the herbs her mother kept in their cave, after all. She just didn’t know anything about healing, really, or fighting, for that matter. To be honest, all Gwyn knew she loved was a very simple list: her family, her father’s cave, and a full belly as she dozed off to sleep.

Was there a job that involved sleeping all day? She wondered.

I dunno,” at last supplies the child, a small giggle following the sudden upward sweep of her grinning lips; pausing for a second, she follows with a question of her own, “what sorta stuff you do?

Soon, however, its back to grown up things, and Gwyn is again looking at the trees overhead, the birds fluttering through their branches, and whatever else moves and is interesting – at least until tension breaks the up until now pleasant gathering, and her father’s voice grows hard, his muzzle softly touching her shoulder as he tells her it is time to go. Wondering what she missed while watching two sparrows entwined in playful flight, she worriedly glances her farewells to the others, quietly peeping:

Goo’bye,” says Gwyn, mostly to Hotaru, though she does look to everyone else, too, with a fluttering smile before her faintly crackling figure moves out with her father’s golden marked one. When he touches her head, she nuzzles upwards with a cheerful grin, and listens happily to his promise of the pretty mare’s imminent visit as they depart.



’cause you’ve got teeth like a wolf
but you cry like a sheep


Image & Code by Me

@Hotaru @Thranduil @Kiada

Rexanna Posts: 499
World's Edge Mare atk: 4.5 | def: 8.0 | dam: 5.5
Mare :: Unicorn :: 15hh :: 7 years HP: 61.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Marembo :: Marbled Polecat :: None Skylark
#18
paint my spirit gold
The ex-Thief inwardly cringed as Kiada’s reaction to the passing of Deimos crept into the air. Perhaps she should have told the girl (woman now, but forever Rexanna’s little girl) of when she visited the Tomb of the Reaper. Yet, it hadn’t come up, hadn’t crossed her mind to mention something so sad when things had honestly been going so well as of late. Her soft cyan gaze lingered on her daughter as she stepped away from the gathering, before returning her gaze to the two she once called her lord and lady, watching as Thranduil questioned Hotaru on whether or not the Edge would be a good choice.

Her eyes lingered a bit longer on the golden stag, pleased to have finally seen him again after he seemingly vanished after returning her son to her side. However, as the conversation continued and Hotaru expressed her sympathies to Rikyn, Rexanna found her gaze residing back on Hotaru – the one mare she truly considered a best friend despite their falling out. Perhaps it would be a time of fresh starts; another chance to become friends once again, without petty things like love interfering.

Raeden? How is she?” The question was directed at her, and Rexanna offered a gentle smile toward her friend. While she didn’t know the mare well she had heard through the grapevine that she had returned to her pedestal as a Specter. “She is once again a Specter for the Edge. I’m sure she has many a story to tell you.” She added in, her smile widening slightly. She didn’t understand the intensity between Raeden and Rikyn when she arrived that cold day on the Basin’s doorstep, but she knew there was tension in the air. At least Rikyn was smart enough to not destroy Hotaru’s sister by word of mouth in front of her. However, the smile began to falter as the idea of the Edge crossed the pink woman’s mind. A sharp exhale escaped Hotaru and Rexanna paused in her breathing for mere moments as hope billowed in her chest.

Send my thoughts to Tiamat, if you will.” Began the choice of returning to the Edge with her. Rexanna, though overly joyous, wouldn’t even dare to show such excitement in front of another herd, let alone be seen doing something so childish. Instead, she nodded, turning to Rikyn and offering a smile. “It was a pleasure Rikyn, and it was nice to meet you little one.” She added in before looking to her daughter for confirmation as Marembo waved goodbye to Duir and began the trek to where they came, though allowing themselves to travel a bit slower because of Hotaru’s state.

"Talk."
rexanna
image credits


aaaand kiada coming too, then i'll tag you guys in the Edge as well <3
[Image: lovelyskylark.gif?8]
Permission given for moderate power play.
Feel free to use magic/force on Rexanna, without killing her.
Please tag in every post!

Kiada Posts: 181
World's Edge Nurse
Filly :: Unicorn :: 16.3 hh :: 2 years - Birdsong
Khairi :: Leucistic Lammergeier :: Paralyze Skylark
#19
KIADA
do not think you are safe because you love her

Internal conflict continued to rage as her sapphire gaze became glued to Rikyn. She didn’t know who Ulrik was, but she knew Deimos. And knew to ask of Erebos. Perhaps, had she known Ulrik, she would have extended her condolences to the Brat King as well; but she didn’t know, and thus it was lost in translation. Everything became quiet and hazy as her ears perked to listen to Rikyn and Rikyn only to hear of her friend’s suffering.

Sullen and removed.” He began, churning Kiada’s stomach with each word. Khairi continued to try and make it easier for her. She did her best to listen to her companion, but found it hard each time Rikyn opened his mouth. “I would too.” She mumbled, adding onto the phrase that Erebos spent most time with his father’s tomb. Even if Kiada didn’t care for her father much, she would still at least visit. However, Deimos had a far stronger impact on her than she thought anyone realized. And she knew she’d have to crawl to the Basin’s doorstep, to see the remaining pillar that held the last bit and piece of the Reaper as she knew him.

However, Thranduil and Hotaru’s minds were made up, and they were returning to the Edge. Kiada, dipping her head to both Rikyn and Gwyn, listened as her mother said goodbye to the chocolate stallion and immediately her ears fell back. Rikyn? Confusion began to sit in her stomach once again, creating flames of sheep milling about in circles on her spine as it registered through her mind. Had he lied to her? She was young enough at the time to believe anything, and perhaps she should have taken it at face value, but she didn’t. Instead it felt almost personal.

And suddenly she felt that whatever condolences she would have offered the stallion for the passing of his father, began to evaporate before they made it into her mind. She dipped her head, then, and began to head in the direction of home alongside her mother, her aunt, and the Laurelin.

"Talk."

do not think she will not stain her mouth red
with your blood too —



img


@Thranduil @Hotaru <3

IT'S SAID SHE'S MADE OF STORM CELLS
AND A WILD WOLF'S HUNGRY HEART,
THAT SHE'S LEARNT THE LIGHTNING'S SECRET
TO RIPPING DARKENED SKIES APART.


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