the Rift


[OPEN] They've Branded Us Enough {Basin.Plague.Open}

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
HOTARU
I'll deceive you, child, with a whisper of words and a welcoming smile

Fuck, it's cold.

Split irises squinted at the horizon as if it had personally insulted her, shoving aside the mounds of snow with her lean pillars. The wind was calm, hardly more than little swirls that danced upon the surface of the snow like frisky, playful kittens. The sun had finally returned, and it glinted like warm butter and honey off the reflective ivory surface of the cold substance she pressed through. She had watched it rise with Tingal at her side, and had only felt empty. Hotaru had not rejoiced at the glow that appeared on the cusp of the world after so long without it. Why should she? Having lost everything, why should she dance about in joy? There was a hollowness in her, a chasm that split across her insides and stabbed like a million needles and knives. Her sister and mother were so far away, unreachable. The woman she'd looked up to had dismissed her harshly in view of all she loved. Everything had crashed down like a tidal wave, and she was left floundering, anger shielding the hurt inside, winding briars around her frame to keep all others away.

Even so, Tingal followed her faithfully, and it was both a relief and a source of confusion for her. Why? Why did he stay by her side when she was nothing but a troublesome youth? There was nothing special to her. Had he wanted looks, he'd have preferred her twin. She was just...herself. There was no attribute that attracted others to her side. In fact she pushed others away more often than she drew them in, these days.

The shy, borderline mute filly had shed its skin in bitterness and hurt, and had emerged broken and weathered, distrustful. So she had set out to find her ever absent father, with only the name of a world unknown to her whispered in her thoughts from so long ago, and a name. Two names, to be precise. Tolio and Faelene.

And that was how she ended up in the Steppe, a pale pink in a whitewash landscape, silently wishing Raeden was there to complain about the cold, the wetness, anything really. Hotaru equally hated and loved her sister, her twin, the one she was supposed to trust implicitly. Did she trust anyone at all, really?

"Where the fuck am I now? How the hell am I supposed to get to the Basin when everything around here is just white?!" Snorting angrily she lashed out a foreleg to cut like a loosed arrow through the fluffy, annoying substance. There were no landmarks to speak of, and she was growing steadily more and more irritated with how things were turning out. The sun warmed her spine, but it did nothing to ease her frustration. She needed to get to the Basin. If she didn't...then she wouldn't know where else to go.

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table by whit
[Image: 515265280ffff]

::Strong like the sea is stormy::

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

Tingal Posts: 110
Outcast atk: 5.0 | def: 9 | dam: 5.5
Stallion :: Hybrid :: 17 hh :: 9 years HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
dark
#2
I was feeling pain all over, my body holding burns, bruises and cuts. The cuts were mostly healed, but I had reopened a few. The bruises were fading, but the few that were layered under the burns hurt like hell. The burns themselves ached, and so every time I moved, a jolt of vicious pain was sent to my head. But none the less, I pressed on.

I followed Ru still, wherever she walked, I walked close behind. But her leading me to the Steppe, that may have been a mistake. As soon as the cold, frigid fingers of the Steppe touched my exposed flesh, I shivered and shook. But Ru kept walking, and so I forced myself to follow despite the horrible pain.

Sometimes I wondered why I followed Ru, stuck to her like sap to your skin, but I quickly told myself why. I followed her for multiple reasons, because she told me never to leave her again, and I had promised her I wouldn't. I follow her because a soul like her should not wander alone, at least, in my eyes they shouldn't. And because, I love her. She was growing into a beautiful mare, a lovely blush pink mare having been dipped in honey. Her eyes told a story, a story of who she was and how she came to be, and a story of what she wanted to become. And a beautiful young girl should not go alone in a world so harsh, it wouldn't end well.

I tagged along, staring at my hooves as I followed the dual toned girl, who lead me towards the Basin. I was drifting in my own thoughts, day dreaming as I walked. In an instant, my head was snapped up and I winced, the pain sending screams to my head. Ru had begun screaming, wondering where we were. I giggled, oh how clueless. "Calm now Ru, we're in the Steppe, and fairly close to the Basin... I think." I raised my head briefly, opening my maw to let more scents in. There was the faint scent of horses drifting up my nostrils, meaning that there were horses around, and the strength of the scent meant there were lots of them. "So why have you lead us here?" In my mind, I assumed she had either been clueless or she had been searching purposely for the Steppe or the Basin, maybe she was searching for someone or something.
"Talk talk talk"
[ cause tingal will forever follow ru :I deal with it ]
Tingal

image credits
table by whit

i am a king
and the world is beneath me

d'Artagnan the Nightshade Posts: 364
Aurora Basin General atk: 6 | def: 9 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17hh :: 12 HP: 68.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Aramis :: Common Hellhound :: Hellfire & Superspeed imi
#3
"You’re not meant to find it." He answered the angered cry of the filly. Just like d’Artagnan was not meant to be out here, but when one was stressed, one found it hard to simply stand still. From the Endless Blue back to the Basin and now he was navigating the snows of the Steppe once again. There was something about the cold caress that soothed his mind just a little, he would find the answer he needed one of these days. For now he looked over the girl before him, crowned in proud ivory and splashed in a lovers blush, her face awash in harsh frustration at the elusive herd she couldn’t find. His own herd. d’Artagnan stood a respectable distance away alone, Aramis out hunting for the rough meat of the snowy land as he wondered why the young filly was looking for the Basin. She was perhaps younger than Aviya, built very similar to his two daughters, adorned in a feature that would grant her access to the Basin. If that’s what she wanted.

He turned to the horse tiger then, the Nightshade might have jumped in surprise, but he had seen this creature before. Back in the days where he fought for the egg that harboured his hell dog, the bonded creature he had won in a fair fight. This beast had been there. For a moment he paused, mind searching across the white wastes to find the familiar canine touch, return to me was all he said before turning his attention back to the duo. Aramis would be along soon. Better to counter claws with claws after all, d’Artagnan liked to prepare himself for a bloody scenario, even if they were just a little girl and her pet tiger.

The Nightshade snorted before parting his dark lips once more, his vocals rough and low, but calm and genuinely curious. "Why do you seek the Basin, little sister? This is not the place for fun and games, the land is hard to find for a reason. You will not encounter hopes and dreams here." Why indeed. For one so young he wondered if she understood anything about the land she so fervently sought, there were no soft hearts to be found up here, perhaps she wanted something colder. Something darker and stronger. Then she would be almost in the right place. The newly returned sun bleached his coat a vibrant red, shining bright off his delicate horns and the silver moons that hugged his left flank as he contemplated the pair. It appeared d’Artagnan was in for some sights these recent days.
Bitter crimson tears flow from lifeless eyes

my heart’s an endless winter
              filled with rage

Use force at your own peril ;) please tag me!

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
#4
HOTARU
I'll deceive you, child, with a whisper of words and a welcoming smile

Every step she takes, it is echoed by those of a stallion far larger than her. She had not beckoned him when she had set out for the Aurora Basin, but nevertheless he'd been at her side. The injuries that scored him were far worse than the badges she wore on her blushed coat, small scrapes from where he had gone easy on her in their fight not long ago. Her pride was still inflamed because of it, refusing to accept that he had not found her a worthy enough opponent. The shivers that wracked his frame were more than apparent, but she said nothing. Why, when she had told him clearly he need not accompany her? She had not forced him to, after all. Still, a part of her felt slightly guilty, but her frustration was getting the better of that emotion. As she yelled out into the frigid air, annoyed, Tingal gave a soft laugh and spoke quietly to her, assuring her they were close and would not be lost for long. Hotaru gave a soft snort to show she'd heard, but nothing else escaped her pale snowy lips, blurred blazed face twitching softly.

Did he really want to know why she sought the Basin? She had given him no reasoning when she'd told him where she was going, but she felt it quite an invasion of privacy despite him being one of her closest friends. Her emotions towards him were conflicting, and she'd honestly been expecting him to stay behind, wishing for solitude to figure things out for herself. "Not here, Tingal. It is...a sensitive matter." She'd composed herself, breathing deep through her nose, and her voice was once again soft and mannerly. Perhaps she acted older than her young age, but she could care less. It was only another reason for others to treat her with the respect she would grant them, should they deserve it.

"You're not meant to find it."

Hotaru turned her long tiara'd crown towards the bloody mage that had spoken the words, pinning him with her dual irises, curiosity in her gaze. The herd scent upon his coat was easily recognized, though it was not a musk she'd smelt before. "One of it's greatest defenses, I'm sure," she said softly in reply, a hint of amusement sparkling in her gaze. She felt as if she was going to like this fellow.

The dual horned brute seemed wary of Tingal, and Hotaru's jovial look became slightly wary, though she took a step towards the carmine coated stranger regardless. He was the only one who could lead her to the place she needed to get to, and she would not waste this opportunity so readily. Again he spoke, soft, almost charming, and Hotaru gazed at him evenly for quite a few silent moments. Her brow was heavy with the ivory weight of her heritage, the one he echoed, the one he held ties with through family and herd. She had to trust him enough to tell him, or she would never redeem herself.

"My father hails from the Aurora. My Godmother Faelene does as well. I know there are no flowers in the place I seek, no ease in the way of life you live. You don't realize that I don't want that kind of life." Her mind goes to Tingal, worried. He is an equine by nature, the faux crown he wears unable to hold true under daily inspection. Would his gentle golden heart break, knowing she wanted to venture into the cruelties of a herd rumored for its racism? Would he follow her despite all the difficulties and dangers? Her heart ached, for she knew she was a terrible person, and wished he would not. He did not deserve that kind of pain. In truth he did not deserve to be chained to her, and she wished she could free him, but time and again she'd tried. It only ended up hurting them both, because despite how much she wished not to, she needed him too."I come from the Foothills, and the Grey. I have been scorned by my family and mocked by my leader, shoved around by nearly everyone. I want to show them they are wrong," and her voice is a growl of vengeance, a snarl upon her lips twisting her beautiful features, eyes flashing with anger.

"I want to prove to them that I am untouchable, I want to see them broken as they have broken me. I ask for guidance, a home, a mentor. A challenge. I seek your home because I have been treated as a lowly servant, and I want to be a Queen." Her entire body is vibrating with anger, injustice, passion. Oh, she wants this. She wants this so badly it makes her ache and she can no longer control her words, so many confessions slipping through. In her lyrics she betrays her past, showing this stranger how lowly she was treated, how she had once been dirt beneath her family's hooves. Blood meant nothing to them if you weren't beautiful or bold. Had this stag ever been treated like that? Had he ever had his name smeared, his worth broken and stained?

If he had, he'd understand.

image credits
table by whit
[Image: 515265280ffff]

::Strong like the sea is stormy::

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

Tingal Posts: 110
Outcast atk: 5.0 | def: 9 | dam: 5.5
Stallion :: Hybrid :: 17 hh :: 9 years HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
dark
#5
She said nothing to me at first, her lips sealed. I frowned, my dark lips curling down in a gentle frown. I felt a little hurt, that she would not answer me. I huffed, my warm breath swirling into a white cloud before disappearing, devoured by the chilling air surrounding us. I shuddered, invisible fingers of ice caressing my wounds. Ru's soft, sugar soaked voice broke through my moment of pain, and I looked up. "Not here, Tingal. It is...a sensitive matter." I nodded my head understandingly. I did not wish to provoke Ru's emotions, not now that was. "I understand."

Within a few moments there is a voice, and a stallion. He is a bay, his legs decked out in a dark shade. His left haunch was given a silver marking. Where... had I seen him before? I reached within the corners of my mind, realizing now where he had been before. Several others had gathered in the Heart to battle a demon, and in the end, this stallion had been given in egg. His name, however, was still unknown. He asked why Ru sought the Basin, telling her it was no place of hopes and dreams.

Ru's response told me that she sought a home within the Basin, and suddenly my gut was twisted for two reasons. I didn't know of this Faelene Ru spoke of, but something deep inside told me I had seen her somewhere before. "Faelene?" I murmur, my words picking up the conversation before it could fall to the ground. But my gut was knotting for another reason as well. If she sought a home in the Basin, would they take note of the horns on my head? I was of no unicorn blood, and as rumors had it, the Basin had a strict rule. Equines and pegasi were of the lower class, and their blood was of no use to the Basin. So would my faux horns surpass their inspection, would I be accepted into the Basin? If they saw past my mask, and didn't allow me into the Basin, my heart would tear. I would be breaking my promise of staying by Ru's side, of being her guardian, of being her protector.

Ru then went into hissing about her family, and how they had had teased and mocked her. During that time I felt bad for her, having been shunned by her family, I had never felt that way. But I had never known my father ( I has seen him briefly before, but I had never gotten to know him) and my mother had been lost to me when I was Ru's age. At least she had a family, mine had vanished during my first year and a half. But there were still strangers who taunted me for my looks, and some that rejected me for how strange I appeared.
"Talk talk talk"
Tingal

image credits
table by whit

i am a king
and the world is beneath me

d'Artagnan the Nightshade Posts: 364
Aurora Basin General atk: 6 | def: 9 | dam: 6.5
Stallion :: Unicorn :: 17hh :: 12 HP: 68.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Aramis :: Common Hellhound :: Hellfire & Superspeed imi
#6
d’Artagnan steadily met the girls gaze, watching her for the telltale signs of fear, but when he found none in her features a small smile curled onto his sooty lips in acknowledgement. It was good to see the younger of his kin still had courage in spades. He returned her first words with a husky sounding laugh, but said nothing in reply and instead listened to the tale she went on to tell, his gaze shifting to the tiger horse ever so often as he remained undeterred when the filly stepped closer to him. She spoke well, a girl who knew what she wanted, he took in each part of her story, not once interrupting her until finally her tongue seemed to snap like a whip as her tale reached its climax with an angered twang. d’Artagnan blinked, his gaze glittering as he mulled over the potential the filly showed, enough blood thirst to easily be a warrior. A Queen? He had to hand it to dainty belle, her resolve seemed as firm as the mountains that surrounded her, maybe one day she would achieve that goal. That was, if she stayed alive long enough. There were parts of her past that the Nightshade himself could relate to, her childhood was turning out much like his own and for a moment he lamented that she would have to endure the same feelings he had. It had made d’Artagnan a mad, blood lusting murderer, but not one horse since had ever walked all over him like his own father had back then. He wondered if this girl before him would turn out the same or would she chose a different path to walk down.

The Mender took a minute to gather his thoughts, noting the presence of Aramis drawing closer, but not quite here yet which gave him chance to alter his orders. Don’t show yourself, track us from a distance he commanded down the invisible strings of their bond, there was no need to reveal Aramis yet. Sir! Came the hell born’s confirmation and d’Artagnan was now free to talk once again.

"As long as you’re sure, you may think it hard to find the Basin now, but you’ll find leaving it much more troublesome. Would you tie yourself to these mountains, cast away those family bonds and devote yourself to the Aurora Basin to be called upon when needed?" Another lifeline, another chance. The unicorns once of Mauja’s era and of the new one tended to end up in nasty battles, if her conviction wasn’t solid, she would die or be taken. At least, that was how d’Artagnan looked at it from his own past experiences. A cold smirk embraced his lips then and he began to lower his horns, twisting his head to one side before his eyes danced across to try lock onto his target of summer strawberries. "Can you fight?" His face contorted into darkness and a brief look of complete insanity flashed across his face. "Can you kill another without hesitating?"

He lifted his head back to the normal upright position then, the look of madness gone from his features and all that was left was a calculating frown. "These are things that may be expected of you. A good Queen must first be able to follow orders after all." It wouldn’t be like that all the time of course, in fact very rarely and most of the time d’Artagnan took it upon himself to go hunting down enemies, but if she knew the worst then the rest would come easy. He turned to the striped horse then, intricate horns curled round his ears, but something about the shape of his body and the curl of his tiger tail unnerved and his lobes flattened. "I don’t like your friend." He said rather bluntly in his cold tones, eying the brute through haunting pools of blue and brown, "if he must come then I will only accept him as a slave. He looks… Impure." His dark nose wrinkled and his blood pumped with blood thirst, but if the girl wanted to keep him as her pet, then it was not his place to kill him.

As if the thought had just suddenly occured to him, he turned back to the filly with a simple curious gaze. "What’s your name?"
Bitter crimson tears flow from lifeless eyes

my heart’s an endless winter
              filled with rage

Use force at your own peril ;) please tag me!

Tingal Posts: 110
Outcast atk: 5.0 | def: 9 | dam: 5.5
Stallion :: Hybrid :: 17 hh :: 9 years HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
dark
#7
The way the demon man spoke, the bloody man, it sounded as though he wasn't going to allow us to leave the Basin. I shivered, the cold words of kill crawling up my spine, pressing itself into my mind. I look at Ru, wondering if she really could kill another without hesitating. Did she really think she could? I look at her, a frown pressed to my lips as I carry my gaze to the stallion. I had narrowed my brows, ears falling back. My green eyes were littered with questions galore, questions that remained only inside my mind. What were these savages going to do to Hotaru? Turning her into a ruthless slayer would turn me into a primitive beast, desperate to take revenge on the poor innocent flower whose beauty was destroyed by savages.

My lips lifts itself when the man says he does not like me. I look at him, a fierce bite in my gaze as my green eyes are drawn to his blue eyes. Well I don't like you. I spat back in my head, my whiskers twitching as I raise my lip higher. My tail lashes at my thighs, a furious whip of fur and flesh. He says I may only come to the Basin as a slave, a servant. I snort, the air from my nostrils evaporating. "There will be only one I serve." I mutter, my ears laid against my skull. I heard his last word, he called me impure. I took a great offense to that word, even though I'd think I'd be used to it now. So many have called me impure in the past, but hearing it from the mouth of him worked me up. I moved closer to Ru, my tail tip moving towards her. Did she really want to live in the Basin? Wasn't it obvious to her that all the cold killers came from the Basin? I sink back, a look of displeasure left on my face.
"Talk talk talk"
[ so short i'm sorry ; n ; ]
Tingal

image credits
table by whit

i am a king
and the world is beneath me

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
#8
HOTARU
I'll deceive you, child, with a whisper of words and a welcoming smile

Disregarding the quiet echo from Tingal as she announces her Godmother's name, her eyes focused instead on the specter of black and blood that stands a few lengths away from her. This isn't his future, it's hers. He doesn't have to follow her, but she knows he will, or at least will want to. She recalls the echoes from the past, the words he had spoken so intimately to her, proclaiming love for her so passionately. And what had she done, but step back and tremble with emotions so foreign to her? Sometimes she wished for solitude, the one friend she had enjoyed in her short life. But no, she could not escape to sort her thoughts. Even so she had denied him, and regardless he trails behind her while she tries to find the words to explain that she has no heart to love him with. Though it seemed the stag opposite her understood who she was, what she was. At least someone in this world did. A stranger knew her better than her own family, and it was a depressing, bitter thought. They did not deserve her lingering thoughts, nor the brief flicker of longing in her chest. This was for her, and she would not cast away her crown, her birth right, for the ones who had made her this way.

"I have no family bonds to mourn, if you are willing to extend your invitation to me you may consider myself at your call as of this very moment." There is a solid tone to her voice, a stubborn will that glows through her vocals. She will conquer, she will show them all she is no weakling, that they should not have laughed when she was down on bleeding knees bowing to their superiority. And now the bloodied mage does the same to her, crystal horns like daggers towards her throat, and out of instinct she tilts her own towards him, wary. It is a slower movement than his, keeping her eyes on the ones that lock upon her frame, silently questioning what he is doing. There is interest in her mismatched eyes, a thirst to know how to intimidate another with a mere movement as he did. She wants to latch her teeth to his throat and drink the knowledge from his blood, tear it away into her own body, feed upon his wisdom like a vampiric parasite.

"I can fight. I may be small, but I am no weakling, sir." It is a purr as it leaves her lips, but instead of seduction it is the subtle caress of a hunger to show him what she can do, is willing to do. And he asks, can you kill? And she snorts; crown is tossed high, no longer threatening but imperial, pure. "And murder? They have already killed what little of me I gave them, this world. Why should I care if they bleed at my feet? It is where they belong, after all I have done for them on my knees. And if I cannot, then I will learn. Glee is all I would feel to watch them sputter and die, choke on their own blood as they beg for mercy, because as they showed me none I shall do the same." A growl, a vibration of rage in a slim chest, a flash inside her eyes that mimics the insanity that flutters like a frantic bird in d'Artagnan's.

The world has narrowed to only her and the dark stallion of her heritage as he stands across from her. Tingal is silent as the grave. They are her inquisitions to answer, after all. "To lead and not follow is to have a weakness. How can you learn if you don't have a mentor that you follow?" Hotaru shrugs, simple and short, and watches the crimson cur opposite her. His nose wrinkles as he gazes at Tingal, and Hotaru flickered her gaze between the two, watching Tingal's expression sour. She considers her reply as she watches his face, feels the kiss of his tail against her side making the skin there jump at the unforeseen touch. But Tingal is already answering for himself, and Hotaru gives him a look meant only for his eyes. Do not do this to yourself. Do not do this for me. But it's not what she says. "Very well, he's made his decision." And if her eyes crinkle at the corners in restraint from screaming and pleading with Tingal to just leave and be safe, then the stranger will not be able to tell. He is merely that, after all, and does not know her tells as Tingal does.

Instead she turns to d'Artagnan once more, Tingal back in her peripherals, and her tongue forms the one title she's clung to all this time, the only one she hadn't cast off that her family had given her. "My name is Hotaru. May I ask yours sir?" Hopefully this would be the seal upon the fate she'd always wanted, and she was nearly vibrating with eager anticipation.

@[imi]

image credits
table by whit
[Image: 515265280ffff]

::Strong like the sea is stormy::

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


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