"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
She asks the same questions that Ivar had, but the only answer he can give her is a shrug of his shoulders. This Beqanna is the only one he has ever known. The hills and the river had been discovered in the north when he was a child, and Pangea had fallen into the sea on his first birthday. Ivar can picture the entirety of their island continent when he concentrates.
“Something about magic,” is all the more detail he had. Perhaps someday they’ll learn the whole story.
Kylin seems to enjoy his description of Sylva, and the young horse is easily distracted from his ponderance of the changes in Beqanna. “Good,” he tells her with a quick smile, picturing the lake he might show her first. She will like swimming there, he knows. It is a different experience in the quiet golden woods than here in this humid greenery.
“Oh Kylin!” he replies, her name alone an exclamation of disbelief. “There is so much to see!” The excitement in his voice is contagious, and his warm brown eyes are as animated as he shuffling hooves. “The cliffs of Nerine, the volcano in Tephra. Even the mountain coast along Loess is wonderful!” So enthused, he forgets his polite manners and reaches forward, wrapping his neck over hers in a spontaneous hug.
He doesn’t mean to use his hypnosis – he doesn’t even know he has it. He’s only excited about the prospect of adventuring with Kylin and showing her everything she’s never seen before.
kelpie mimicry | dragon scales | tactile hypnosis
Ooc: so I’ve not yet played his tactile hypnosis so he’s probably really terrible at it and I didn’t want to powerplay anything. basically he accidentally used his tactile hypnosis to try and make her super excited bout travelling with him
html code by Toli, design idea based on "Dovev" by Laura
Like a flower waiting to bloom. ”Oh” is her rather disappointed reply. Kylin is aware that her reaction isn’t entirely fair, she knows Ivar cannot know everything, but that doesn’t change anything about the unanswered void that is left behind. Then she suddenly lifts her head again, hazel eyes searching Ivar’s as a new idea pops in her mind. ”Maybe we could ask Father, or uncle Reilly!” Mother probably not, Kylin wasn’t entirely sure if she would like an uninvited visitor.
She heard him tell her ”Good” before falling silent again. Maybe he wasn’t too fond of his own home and didn’t want to see it? The between his excited shout for her name and his almost docile ‘good’ from before is huge. It almost startles Kylin. Almost, as Ivar’s enthusiasm flues her.
Kylin can only look at Ivar with pinned ears as he tells her about other places. The enthusiasm radiates of him, no wonder it affects her too. ”Have you really seen all?” she asks amazed, just before their bodies touch. She gasps softly, both at the unexpected hug and the sudden rush of enthusiasm that runs through her. If his words hadn’t made her excited enough already, Kylin now definitely was.
”Can we go, now? Anywhere really” she asks as she’s practically bouncing on her feet, still pressed close in Ivar’s hug. It’s impossible to keep still as her heart beat fast and loud in her chest, her stomach fluttering with an unknown amount of excitement and sudden desire. Kylin’s neck is wrapped around his, breathing in his scent deeply.
Too excited to keep still much longer she pulls back, but not without teasing his shoulder a little and a tug on his black mane. Her nostrils flare wide and ears never flicker back. It’s only then that she realises how quiet it has become. ”Oops” she says, glancing up at the trees above them. ”I think we scared them.” But honestly, in her enthusiasm she can barely get herself to care. And they parrots are soon forgotten as she looks at the tobiano colt again. ”Please Ivar, would you show me around?”
I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
Her disappointment is obvious, but Ivar has no solution. He’d pried for answers as much as his mother would tolerate; if he got too annoying she was prone to simply disappearing. Her suggestion to ask her father or uncle brings a smile to his face. Yes, they might know! And hopefully be more willing to talk than his own mother was. There are dozens of tales he’d made up in his head. Gods and fairies and magic are only a handful of the possibilities he’s considered.
The amazement in her voice when she asks if it’s true, if he’s really seen all the kingdoms makes up for the disappointment.
Her gasp is somewhat muffled in the mass of his corded black mane, but the sudden increase in her heart rate is impossible to miss. The way she stays pressed against him even as she vibrates in anticipation is thrilling. It only serves to increase his own excitement, which in turn he transmits to her in a seemingly endless cycle of anticipation.
(Mine.)
She smells like seasalt and sunshine and hydrangea, and the piebald colt buries his pale nose in her still-damp mane and breathes it in. He’s drawn out only when she pulls away, taking a little bit of his own mane with her. He tugs it back with a laugh and grins at her sudden bold enthusiasm. The force of it does nto alarm him; he is often given to quick sweeps of emotion. Perhaps his description had helped convince her. Whatever it was, Ivar doesn’t look too closely.
Concern over the sudden silence of the parrots doesn’t occur to him; his eyes never leave Kylin’s face. She asks him to go, to take her with him, and the thrill of it sets a fire in his young veins.
(mine now. take her somewhere safe. mine to keep safe. mine.)
“Of course,” he says with a sharp nod and a bright grin. “Anywhere you want. Anywhere at all. Where should we go first?” The entirety of Beqanna is open to them, it feels. Ivar has always been a free spirit, but he has always roved alone. With a companion beside him, adventures will be even better.
It doesn’t occur to him that perhaps late afternoon is not the best time to begin a journey. Beqanna is a vast land; they will have many miles to travel. A young prince taking a foreign princess from an unallied land? Taking her away from her home, not returning till past nightfall (perhaps even past dawn!) is a rather terrible idea. However, Ivar is not currently inclined to the most thorough and logical thinking. He is only picturing Kylin’s expression as she stands atop the ocean cliffs of Nerine or beneath the canopy of Sylva’s autumnal leaves.
html code by Toli, design idea based on "Dovev" by Laura
Like a flower waiting to bloom.
It’s impossible to deal with this amount of excitement. There is no way she can vocalize or show how deeply and truly excited she is, and her body almost buzzing doesn’t any justice either. The flutter in her stomach is both excited and nervous, but wasn’t that normal when expectations rose high like this? It makes Kylin giggle as he repays the favor of gently tugging at her mane when she pulls back, and she grins her most innocent grin at him. As if she was say ‘Whaaat, I didn’t do anything’. Though there was now way that he would’ve missed the slight sting from her pull and the delightful twinkle in her hazel eyes.
Just as impossible is it to keep quiet when he agrees to show her around. ”Yaay!” she exclaims happily – so loud that if there would’ve been any parrots left, they surely would’ve fled now – as her eyes meet Ivar’s. Driven by excitement and impulse she steps forward and presses the velvet of her nose against his, this time it’s Kylin’s turn to forget about manners. ”Can you show me your favorite place? Pleaasee?”
If she would’ve seen herself like this, oh, she would’ve been very much ashamed of herself. Probably quite flustered too.
This final burst of enthusiasm makes her jump up and kick her legs like a jolly child. Once, twice, and then she stand still again, although her muscles are trembling lightly. Kylin snorts, attempting to blow some of the tension away, then she offers Ivar an apologetic smile.
Also due to the excitement he had unknowingly hypnotized her with she’s oblivious to the time of the day. Her eagerness to see all these lands he told her about – including his own home – leave no room for any rational thoughts. Perhaps Kylin even would’ve pushed them away if they had managed to slip to the surface. To her, none if it mattered right now. ”What will you show me first?”
OOC: Aw, thanks! It really means a lot me to hear that <3
I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
From the moment he was born, the need to be Aware was drilled into him. Ivar was born with far more instinctive drive than most of the foals in Beqanna. He might have gotten it from either of his unique parents, but what really matters is that he has it.
The urge to climb the ranks, to rule and govern? He doesn’t have it.
The skills required to assess the state of diplomacy? Nope, not that either.
The fighting skills expected of a student of the Sylvan Blademaster? Definitely not.
What he does have is the natural inclination to slip between her and the heart of the island. It’s easy to do while they both prance and move in excitement, Ivar doesn’t even realize. She kicks out and he steps forward, unafraid of her flailing hooves.
(she wants it. she does.)
“Let’s go!” he says, gesturing forward with his pale nose. He will follow her lead, his body language says – she knows the best way out of the jungle and to the seashore. His own heart is still racing, the thrill of seeing his own excitement reflected in Kylin’s eyes is intoxicating. He’s blissfully unaware of his influence on her emotions.
If he knew – if he even suspected – he’d be horrified. It would be part of being Aware, but not something either parent would have known to prepare him for.
“My favorite? Hmm.” The pied colt put on a front of thinking heavily, but it is brief. “I know just the place!”
It’s not terribly far either, just past the Taigan Peninsula and up toward the mouth of the river. They’ll make it there by moonrise. He’s never been there at night before, but the thought of showing it to Kylin in the half-darkness is very appealing. He’s ready to follow her to the shore, and then lead the way through the ocean. She’ll be faster atop the water and he’ll be more comfortable below, but they can still travel together.
html code by Toli, design idea based on "Dovev" by Laura
Like a flower waiting to bloom.
Never had she expected him to walk into her line of fire and she’s only barely able to redirect her legs to not hit him square in the chest. Normally she would’ve gasped and apologized, but now not so much. And that Ivar is actually joining her enthusiastic burst, only makes her more exited. Secretly making Kylin like him more too.
His words are all the encouraging she needs. Lavender ears pin forward as she comes to a halt, her sides moving with each breath she takes. For a moment her hazel eyes meet brown ones, but only for a moment. A quick glance up in the sky, and then around them, is all she needs to determine where they were, and which way the would have to go. ”This way” she tells him, though Kylin doesn’t actually turn and start moving until she playfully nips at his shoulder.
That’s her clue to start their race. Why would she walk slowly towards the beach if racing would get her there faster? That also meant faster at the place Ivar would show her. ”Think you can keep up?” she calls across her shoulder, teasing the young man into following her.
Kylin doesn’t go full out, not like she would’ve with Kharon. She kept in mind that Ivar didn’t know the jungle, not their island, and even in her excitement she does realise that if he would hurt himself, their trip maybe would be over before they could actually leave Ischia.
Not much later they arrive the edge of the jungle, perfect sandy beach stretching out in front of them and leading to the sea. On bright days you would be able to see the mainland from where they stood, but with the sun dipping closer and closer towards the horizon, all they could see was the sea.
”Where do we go now?” she asks him, turning towards Ivar smiling widely as her hazel eyes twinkle in delight. Everything about her would show her enthusiasm. The look in her eyes, her pinned ears, the way she held her tail up in the air and the movements of her body. Oh, Kylin was just so eager to see the most beautiful part of Beqanna, no longer caring if this was the old or new one.
I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
Though he’s willing to follow her lead,
(better position to guard from, to keep watch)
Ivar readily takes up the challenge of race, childish enthusiasm overtaking the muffled thoughts of a herd-leader. Kylin knows the jungle better, and Ivar keeps only a pace behind her, trusting her knowledge of safe footing rather than his desire to win. He bumps against her every now and then – gently and only because they are moving so near the other, never enough to leave her unbalanced. Their speed muffles the sound of her heartbeat, but the steady pattern to her breathing suggests that she is holding herself back.
The tall colt sees the opening in the jungle ahead, where the greenery will break open onto the sandy beach. He can find his way from here, he knows.
“Catch me if you can,” he says, stretching his head toward her to run his pale muzzle along the lavender slope of her neck. The enthusiasm of travel that thrummed through him has been overtaken by the joy of running, and as he tastes the seasalt of Kylin’s neck his touch is equally infused with desire. It’s not a passionate or burning thing, just his genuine wish that this adventure might last forever, that she’d stay with him, his to keep and protect and treasure forever.
The hypnosis is brief and fleeting as their contact is broken. Ivar races forward, head held low as his focus narrows to the opening in the path ahead. He doesn’t know if he wins their race, but he draws to a stop in the glistening red sand. Breathing heavily, he turns to grin at Kylin. He eyes are out to see and he follows them readily. He sidles to the left to stand beside her, pointing to a distant point in the sea.
“That way.” he tells her, “Where the River meets the ocean. You run, and I’ll swim.” Eager, he steps forward. The sea is warm and dark as it laps at his pale legs, and he readily wades deeper. “It’s not too far,” he promises as a wave crests over his white withers. “You’ll love it.”
