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+------ Thread: [open] this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria (/showthread.php?tid=28419)
this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Volos - 12-05-2020
He wakes to the squawks of parrots ringing in his ears.
Nekane is curled against him, and together they are wrapped in the warmth and security of their twin. The early calls of the rainbow-colored birds are as familiar as the heartbeats of his sister, so he doesn’t resent their effective call to rise. Instead he yawns, stretches his tiny hooves out to make shallow trenches in the sandy soil, and jumps to his feet ready to greet the day.
The twins are just old enough to venture away from their mother for a few hours at a time. With an eager gaze and a wagging, bottlebrush tail, he asks Titanya if he may be excused to adventure for a while. When she obliges, Volos turns to Nekane immediately. “Want to come with?” And whether or not she follows, he is off.
Under the verdant green underbrush, the colt becomes a cub. He cavorts through the jungle on his way to the roaring waves beyond the treeline. Here and there, his overlarge paws catch on an errant rock or snaking vine and he tumbles, rolling over himself and laughing at his own inelegant movement. A young parrot watches him fall at one point and dive-bombs him. There is a blur of blue and gold feathers filling his vision and he feels a gentle tug on his scruff. Volos is about to playfully swipe at the bird when he realizes he knows her. There is a distinct chip in her beak that he recognizes. She finds him often, this young macaw, and he decides to race her to the beach.
Parrot and tiger cub take turns chasing each other under the canopy of the dense, tropical forest. Volos makes sure to leave enough room for Nekane if she has decided to join him or if she is trailing somewhere behind him. Hopefully she is enjoying this race as much as he is! Thick clusters of trees eventually give way to the scrub brush just before the dunes. He nimbly weaves through the sea oats and leaps out to bump the low-flying parrot with his shoulder. Putting on the brakes quickly, he sends the bird a toothy grin over his shoulder. “Winner, winner,” he says competitively, mild pride coloring his words. The parrot flaps away with a final squawk.
Powerful waves beat against the shore and the sky darkens in the distance, telling of the summer storm brewing miles out at sea. There is a deep well of curiosity that springs up inside of the young colt-turned-cub. He wonders if it will reach them, this storm, wonders if they will be in danger. He sits down on the dune and curls his striped tail tighter about himself, considering it. It is obvious that he will have to protect them - the lot of the islanders - from whatever may come.
V O L O S
. . . . .
@[Nekane] @[Aquaria] @[Asena]: any extended family welcome!
RE: this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Nekane - 12-19-2020
N E K a n E
“Duh,” she responds to Volos with a toothy, lopsided grin. The gangly filly yawns dramatically as she follows her twin towards the verdant jungle, her ears pricked forward and attentive with only a brief backwards glance at Titanya, who had already turned her attention away from the departing children. Thankful for the freedom, Nekane throws her lanky hind legs into the air with two small bucks, tossing warm sand into the air beind her.
When Volos shifts into his cubself, Nekane follows suit. The transition doesn't seem to come as easy for her as it does for her brother, but when finally her bones have shifted and her hooves have become paws, the young girl stampedes through the lush foliage in pursuit of her twin. She growls low in her throat as they bound through the jungle, but flops to the ground with roaring laughter when Volos stumbles over his own oversized paws. “Way to go!” she manages to tell him between bouts of laughter before her attention is drawn away from her twin and to the blue and gold bird that has decided to perform acrobatics overhead.
Thankfully, Volos had filled her in about his parrot friend - and so she does not swipe at the avian the way she would like, but instead takes off running after the bird and her brother with a wide smile and salty sea air in her face. Nekane trails behind the pair, just close enough to laugh at their antics as finally they peel away from the jungle and bound onto the shore. As Volos brags over his win against the parrot, it's Nekane's turn to stumble over her paws. Airborne briefly, her striped feline body lands with a somersault next to her twin.
Spitting sand from her mouth before she can speak, the young tiger smiles over at her brother. “Nice win,” she tells him with pride before noticing that his gaze lingers on something in the distance. Turning to look, she, too, notices the brewing ocean storm.
RE: this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Asena - 12-23-2020
“You guys are probably too little to know about hurricanes,” Asena says from where she lounges in the sand. Having layered both invisibility and illusion thickly around herself, she’s not surprised that the two children had raced past her without a second glance.
She’d followed them, curious, and her disguises were shed on the jungle floor as she trailed them to the open beach. Her voice had come from behind the two cubs, and she steps forward to peer more closely at the two cubs with curious violet eyes.
“Which one of you is Nekana?” She asks, pronouncing the name like the warrior queen of old, and just a little bit like @[Nekane]. “I’m Asena. I’m your cousin.” There is a hardly perceptible pause before the final word, as though she was trying to recall exactly what the name for daughter of your father’s brother was, and settling for cousin, of which she has very many. She feels closer to them in age than aunt implies, as well, having just passed her third birthday. The antlers that she sports reflect that, one white-tipped purple tine for each spring she’s borne witness. Today she’s decorated them with flowers and vines (though her nap had rumpled them) using her tail, which now curls – long and white, across the purple slope of her shoulder.
“Anyway, that -” she gestures with her muzzle toward the distant storm “- is a hurricane. They suck you up and put you right down in Pangea and then a monster’ll eat you before you cough the water outta your lungs.” There is a solemnness on her face that lends sincerity to her warning, and she looks from one striped face to the other with a warning in her eyes. And then she shrugs, complete nonchalance, and adds: “At least that’s what I’ve heard. But I’ve always been smart enough to take shelter before they get here so I’ve never been sucked up.”
@[Volos]
A S E N A
will I remember to put a quote here before i post? probably not
RE: this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Volos - 01-01-2021
this ain't no place for no hero
He is so happy his sister has decided to join him as he twists and turns and tumbles through the jungle.
They have easy lives, growing up here on the island. Their bellies are always full and there is always so much to do and explore without even leaving home. Of course, Volos wants to go and see what lies beyond the white-capped waves and sun-soaked sand of Ischia, and sooner rather than later. He imagines all that the world has to offer - all the faces he can’t wait to meet and the places he wants to see with his own molten gaze. He only has to grow up for a little bit longer, his mother tells him when she tucks him close to her side every night. But that won’t stop the colt from finding his own adventure where and when he can. The fact that Nekane is as eager as him is a bonus.
Today’s adventure is just another to add to the twins’ growing list.
They spill out onto the beach as raucous and rambunctious as ever. Volos sobers when he sees the storm out at sea, though. He’s had such an easy life that he’s never considered the possibility of hardship or strife. This literal dark cloud steals his breath with its significance. What if his parents are hurt or his friends? His sister? She’s beside him, now, likely full of similar thoughts. He rubs his forehead under her jaw, trying to soothe the both of them. He’ll never lie to her, never lead her intentionally astray. But he’ll also always be there if she wants him to. “It might. But we’ll take on anything with our claws and teeth.” Volos bares his sharpened canines at the ocean as if daring it to come closer.
He’s about to rush the high tide to prove his words by action (his rear end even wiggles in preparation to pounce), when he hears the voice behind them. The cub startles out of his stance and turns to face the stranger instead. “Hurr-i-cane?” Each syllable is tested out as it leaves his mouth and is committed to memory. So, too, does he commit the woman’s face to memory, from the tips of her antlers to the vines curling around her ankles. She’s young and still soft around the edges of her face, but quite older than the twins - just young enough to invoke some awe and admiration in the eager cub.
“Hello Asena. I’m Volos, and this is my sister.” He tilts his head to include Nekane beside him, assuming she wants to introduce herself. Asena tells them more about these hurricanes – wretched, nasty things they are – and it makes Volos more excited than he ought to be. “Really?!” He imagines himself flying through the air, lifted up and surrounded by ocean water as it churned and chugged its way to Pangea. “Pshh, I can swim and I’m not afraid of monsters.” His gold eyes glance over at the other tiger cub, searching her face for any signs of fear. He doubts he will find any there either. “Our mother told us that hiding is for cowards.” He waits to see what their elder will say to that.
RE: this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Nekane - 01-10-2021
N E K a n E
Side by side, the twins square off with the foreboding clouds in the distance. If she concentrates real hard, the young girl's sharp amber eyes can see the sheets of rain that pour down beneath the darkness. Volos' testament to their prowess draws a load half-roar, half-squeal from Nekane in the face of this imaginary adversary. Titanya would be proud, she knows, of their willingness to protect the shores of their home.
She would not, however, be pleased with the way both of her children allowed a stranger to sneak up behind them. Nekane hisses, her half-circle ears securing themselves to her small skull as she leaps and turns in the air. She lands splayed, her eyes colliding unerringly with the lounging antlered girl. It takes her a moment to register what the stranger has said, though she remains silent regardless, as it is Volos who decides first that she is not a threat.
“Neka-neigh,” she finally finds her voice in the process of correcting her name, and then instantly settles when the stranger introduces herself. Asena. Halcyon had mentioned her name before ─ and he had ingrained in them the importance of family. “But you can call me Neka.” With the flick of her feline tail, the young girl lays herself upon the sand in much the same way Asena has, though her own eyes widen at the mention of monsters.
Volos makes laughter bubble up from Nekane and she offers a toothy grin as he turns a brief look in her direction.
“I'd like to see a monster, I think,” she muses to the two of them before she rolls onto her back in the sand and takes an upside-down glance at their cousin. “Could you show us one?”
RE: this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Asena - 01-16-2021
Asena had met the twins’ mother just the once, when Titanya had called her part of the morning crew, up before the dawn. Asena had not known then that she and the tiger-turned-mare would someday share kin, and some part of her is pleased at that. The sabino mare seemed brave and bold to Asena, as idolistic to Asena as she is to the boy in front of her. When he says that hiding is for cowards, Asena nods in agreement. If that is what Titanya says, it must certainly be true. Plus its important that children listen to their parents, and Asena applauds herself a little at this show of mature responsibility. Just look at her, guiding the next generation like she’s someone important.
Volos looks very cuddly compared to the adult forms of his parents, but Asena’s eyes do not miss the sharp claws on his feet or the way Neka’s teeth glint as she pronounces her name. Asena repeats it once for confirmation. So she doesn’t contradict his claim, but she does grin almost wickedly at her niece’s request.
“Um yeah of course. You ever seen a dragon? They’ve got lots of dragons in Pangea, ” Asena begins, her voice soft as she allows the slow mist of an illusion to rise up around her. A shadow crosses the sand overhead, and a large shape hurtles toward them from the sky. A dragon, long and gold and toothy, swoops down toward the three young horses on the beach. Just before it might scoop them up in its jaws, the beast explodes in a shower of glitter and very small birds, which fly off into the jungle and eventually disappear. She likes to add a bit of theatrics to her illusions, and she glances back and her young niblings with a pleased sort of expression as she waits for their reaction.
@[Volos]
A S E N A
will I remember to put a quote here before i post? probably not
RE: this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Volos - 01-24-2021
this ain't no place for no hero
Warmth bubbles up from his belly to his chest when he the older girl agrees with him. It is one thing to hear approval from his parents - and even his sister, when she is so inclined and isn’t busying giving him a hard time and getting it right back – but it is another when it is someone just older and wiser than him. He thinks they could learn a lot from Asena, he and Nekane.
He wonders if she knows any secret hiding spots on the island that their many adventures have not yet turned up. There are so many hidden ponds and grottos and waterfalls to explore that it is hard to sleep at night thinking about what they will discover the next day! She seems to know a lot about the other kingdoms, at least, and this is as fascinating to Volos as anything else. One day, he plans to see it all for himself. Today though, he lets his aunt fill in all the details his imaginative mind starts to paint.
“Pangea sounds busy. Waaaay busier than it is here in Ischia.” The tiger cub stretches out, his claws extended in his full-body motion before he too lays on his belly in the sand. Home is wonderful with the land always changing with the trade wind breezes and the water always moving with the tide, but there aren’t that many other horses for him to meet. Sure, there’s Grandame Aquaria and Asena’s parents and his assorted extended relatives, but he craves more.
He’s enchanted enough by the promise of a monster that he clamps his mouth shut before he can say more and watches. The shadow comes first, and his hackles raise and he crouches lower to the sand on instinct. Then, the big behemoth blots out the sun and he gets his first real glimpse of a dragon. The gold scales on the edge of the creature glint like a halo as it swoops towards them. Even from here, Volos can sense the power and strength in such a beast. A growl starts low in his belly at the perceived threat; how could Asena conjure and control it? Why would she call it here to attack them? Volos leaps up in front of Nekane and tries to block her at the last second, roaring with all of his little might.
And then it explodes harmlessly into the air, sending birds to swoop away into the forest.
Volos tilts his head, the hair still raised along his spine. “Ho-how did you do that?” His voice is shaky for only a moment. “That was awesome!”
RE: this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Nekane - 02-04-2021
N E K a n E
The twins are lucky that their parents have fostered independence in them. This, of course, does not come with a lack of love (though Halcyon is much more apt to display it outwardly), but it has afforded the pair the opportunity to develop their own personalities without the fear of being dampened. Nekane has heard stories of overbearing guardians, has twisted her feline face in disgust at the idea, and finds herself wondering briefly if Asena will act the part of doting chaperone in their parents’ absence.
It must run in the family, this independence and bravery ─ Asena does not shy away from the topic of monsters, and instead ups the ante for the young tiger cubs.
The sun disappears beneath the outstretched wings of a giant flying beast. A dragon, Asena calls it. Neka’s toothy maw drops open in awe at the power that radiates from the flying wyvern, at the glint of its sharp teeth and the balefire glow of its leather plating. The great brute shifts in the air and suddenly begins to plummet towards them, its mouth ajar and ready to swallow them whole.
Only peripherally aware that Volos has bounded in front of her, the young tigress hunkers down and curls her lips upward to hiss, as ferociously as she can muster, at the dragon before the invisibility she hadn’t known she possessed pops her striped body into nonexistence.
Just as suddenly as it had appeared the wyvern explodes into glitter and birds, leaving behind only their memory of the creature and their rapidly beating hearts. Volos is the first to speak, the shakiness in his voice apparent for only just a moment before it is replaced with excited incredulity. Nekane laughs aloud, the disembodied sound emanating from her still-lucid body, “I want one!” she shouts, remembering Titanya telling her and Volos about those who had animal companions, “Can we go get one in Pangea?!”
@[The Monsters] - Whoops, is Nekane’s Density Manipulation under fire?????
RE: this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Random Event - 02-04-2021
@[Nekane] your density manipulation has mutated into cellular replication. you're welcome.
(if i'm mathing correctly this is 9 spaces of traits so let me know in updates how you'd like to rearrange them genetic/non-genetic/carried!)
RE: this ain't no place for no hero; any family/Aquaria - Asena - 02-07-2021
The children act appropriately startled by her illusion, and Asena nods happily, pleased both by her production and at the instincts of her young relatives. They will make brave fighters one day, Asena decides. That will make Papa happy, since Asena and Aureus are certainly not fighters. Her father likes having someone to teach, and that will take some of his attention off Asena, leaving her more free time to wander as she pleases.
Just as the young mare is about to tel Volos about her illusionism, she glances toward Nekane. Or rather, where Nekane had been a moment ago, and where her voice is clearly coming from. Asena laughs, and tells her: “You went invisible Neka.”
She wants to have a dragon of her own, and that too encourages the bright smile that remains on her purple face. Asena has no intention of going to Pangea (she values her own skin too much for that) but she does happen to know where a much closer dragon is. “No,” she tells her niece, “But I can show you one in Islandres.”
She had overheard her father and Gale talking about a dragon who lived on the island to the north. If he lives there with uncle Gale he can’t be too terrible, and perhaps she can show Volos and Nekane their first real dragon. Asena glances out at the water, and her immediate plans are reminded abruptly of the gathering storm. Perhaps after the storm, she thinks.
@[Volos] @[Nekane]
A S E N A
will I remember to put a quote here before i post? probably not
“Duh,” she responds to Volos with a toothy, lopsided grin. The gangly filly yawns dramatically as she follows her twin towards the verdant jungle, her ears pricked forward and attentive with only a brief backwards glance at Titanya, who had already turned her attention away from the departing children. Thankful for the freedom, Nekane throws her lanky hind legs into the air with two small bucks, tossing warm sand into the air beind her.