[open] I've seen ghosts brighter than her soul, anyone - Printable Version +- Beqanna (https://beqanna.com/forum) +-- Forum: Explore (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=1) +--- Forum: The Common Lands (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=72) +---- Forum: Forest (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=73) +---- Thread: [open] I've seen ghosts brighter than her soul, anyone (/showthread.php?tid=26200) |
I've seen ghosts brighter than her soul, anyone - Aislyn - 02-16-2020 Aislyn she set fire to all the things that held her back RE: I've seen ghosts brighter than her soul, anyone - Voracious - 02-18-2020 You twist, I turn, who's the first to burn? You sit and stay, I don't obey. If there is anything to which Voracious can boast a keen knowledge of, it is loss and pain and bloodshed. His youth had been filled with it. He had fought and bled and killed and even nearly died pursuing freedom from it. And he had succeeded, against all odds. But it leaves behind a crack in one’s soul. A fissure that bleeds darkness, even when one isn’t focused on it.Perhaps especially when one isn’t focused on it. It’s all he had ever known though, and so a different life had always been an alien concept. Something he had only ever been able to dream of, and poorly. But the echoes of his past will forever haunt his present, even in this impossibly peaceful realm where he has yet to find a thing to fear. Too many times he has found himself on the verge of impaling a perfect stranger, simply because they had startled him. Perhaps one day he even would. Regret though? That is truly a foreign concept to him. He is as he is. As he has always been. Maybe that is why he is so easily able to wander this surface world, blithely happy despite the darkness of his past. Because he had never seen the point in lingering. So when he sees her, recognition coming after a moment of confusion, his reaction is immediate delight. “Aislyn!” His voice is bright on the wind, no doubt annoyingly cheerful in the face of her dour mood. But, whether regrettable or not, he remains completely oblivious to the darkness that plagues her heart. “You look different.” Pause. “Why do you look different?” Voracious RE: I've seen ghosts brighter than her soul, anyone - Aislyn - 02-23-2020 Aislyn she set fire to all the things that held her back RE: I've seen ghosts brighter than her soul, anyone - Voracious - 02-26-2020 You twist, I turn, who's the first to burn? You sit and stay, I don't obey. Were he cleverer or more socially adept, he might have noticed the subtle cues signifying her discomfort. Might even have paused to question it, given how amicably they had parted after their last meeting. As it is however, he is neither of those things. And so, much as she had surmised, he remains oblivious to her clear agitation.Instead, his attention is entirely focused on trying to recall exactly what she had looked like at their last meeting and why she seemed different. While his ability to notice and react to stimuli in the immediate present is nearly unparalleled, his memory… well, that’s an entirely different story. Perhaps it is a consequence of one too many knocks to the head as a child, but whatever the case may be, he struggles committing those details to long term memory. On the battlefield, such a thing had been largely irrelevant. Now however, in the face of social expectations, it seems those things matter a great deal. A concern for another time. Assuming he remembered it, of course. When she reveals her newly antlered state, his gaze flies up to the pale horns stretching skeletal fingers above her head. “Oh!” he exclaims before offering her a sheepish grin. “Right. Of course. I forget sometimes most of you lack them.” Closing the distance between them, he stretches his nose forward, sniffing curiously at the new appendages. To his surprise and chagrin, they prove no different smelling than any other set of antlers he’s ever sniffed. Which, as it happens, is a larger number than he’d care to admit. Her forced cheerfulness goes unnoticed by the peryton as he accepts her friendly small talk at face value. “Oh, well enough, I suppose,” he replies blithely, still focused on the unconscious sway of her antlers as she speaks. “Your world is endlessly fascinating.” He pauses for barely breath before abruptly returning the subject she’d just tried to abandon. “How did you get antlers?” Voracious RE: I've seen ghosts brighter than her soul, anyone - Aislyn - 03-19-2020 Aislyn she set fire to all the things that held her back RE: I've seen ghosts brighter than her soul, anyone - Voracious - 03-24-2020 You twist, I turn, who's the first to burn? You sit and stay, I don't obey. He should be as dissolute and jaded as any other who had learned of the true nature of the world. He should be, and yet somehow, he is not. His life until recently had been, by any definition of the word, hellish. There had been little joy to be found in the endless, brutal training to be a defender of a forgotten city. Despite this, he had retained a naivete that allowed him to find pleasure in the simplest things in life.The fact that he had been forged in the fires of damnation seemed only to enhance his stubborn determination to achieve freedom. Had only served to fuel the fires of his impossible belief that there must be something better. He cannot read her thoughts as he reaches his nose to her antlers. A good thing, in all likelihood. For all that he trusts her, it is something that would only hold him so far. Endless repetition had honed his instincts, and no matter that he would not wish to respond in kind, he would have. In the end, her restraint is a blessing. One he doesn’t even know he’d been granted. Her blunt response to his curious questions brings his aqua gaze down to find hers. The flatness of her words might not have registered had she not continued, clarifying what she meant by fighting for them. Brows furrowing, he tries to recall fighting her. Without thinking, his own head tips as well, bring his antlers forward to clatter faintly against hers as he peers at her with a baffled gaze. “I do not recall us fighting,” he finally replies, uncertainty coloring the edges of his words. Abruptly a thought occurs that stirs alarm deep in his breast. “It was not one of my brother’s was it? I did not think they would come to the surface so easily.” Voracious |