[open] the rain inside you is still gonna fall

[Mesarez]

The timing of the earthquake had been pleasant for Mesarez, who easily assumed his partner at the time had some earth-trembling abilities. When it had continued even past when they both got distracted, he realized it had nothing entirely to do with him (probably) and instead was something much more important. A rueful look is exchanged with his sparring partner and then they both took off through the Baltian waters in different directions. Mesarez felt the pull to the surface, the curiosity and demand for knowledge like a tether, but first he would make sure his mother and younger siblings were unharmed. He could have sworn the water tasted differently as the shaking ceased but maybe that was just the excitement. Satisfied that there was nothing but a bunch of confusion in his home, Mesarez finally turned his dark eyes upwards. His first attempt at surfacing saw him met with a haunting site - one pulled from nightmares that could still plague him after decades. If he walked into those ruins, would he be able to find the exact spot where his father and sister died? Would their blood still stain the brown grass? So no, he did not go there. He instead followed the river a little north, moving with just his eyes out of the water - scanning this land. Lush and green and entirely new. It had been years since he had walked and when he rises out of the water, Mesarez’s first step is shakier than he would like. In the twilight of this spring evening, his glowing, transparent body stands out and he tilts his head, listening to the shift in sounds. His skin crawled as the water began to evaporate from it but there is still a small smile on his face as he stands on the banks of the river and lets his senses adjust.

(open to any!)

[Isaure]

i’m still standing on the shoreline and nobody hears me scream --

Her life had always been quiet, and that was how she preferred it.

She did not know the kind of chaos her parents had lived through before she was born. She did not know of the seemingly endless dark and how it had tried to drive a physical wedge between Tiercel and Islas, or that her older sister had been born into that same dark and hadn’t learned of sunlight until she was older.

Isaure and her twin brother, Tiernen, had been born into an almost idyllic world by comparison. One with both parents present, and with a sun that rose every morning and set every night. Hardships were virtually unknown to her, and she had assumed she would live in this world forever.

The earthquake had brought her world crashing down, in a most terrifying literal way.

Escaping Loess was a blur, but all she knows is that her family made it out alive, and so far that is the only silver lining she can find.

It was uncharacteristic for her to withdraw from them but with her very foundation shaken she finds herself desperately wanting to escape the confusion and the stress, and so without a word she slips away from them, not even telling Tiernen where she is going.

Quiet.
She just wants quiet.

She stands along the river’s edge, admiring the stars as they glittered in the dark sky—her mother loved the stars, told stories of them as if she knew them, and while Isaure thought they were beautiful she did not feel quite the same connection.

When the kelpie emerges from the river just ahead of her she is momentarily startled, and there is a moment where she looks around for some place to go. But their eyes briefly catch as he surveys his surroundings, and Isaure feels entirely caught. “Sorry,” she finds herself saying, and she isn’t sure why. But she feels as though she has intruded, that perhaps this was his part of the river and she had accidentally trespassed. She wasn’t familiar with anywhere outside of Loess and she was sure she had just committed some kind of error. “I can leave, if you want.”

-- and i’ll lure you like a landslide and i’ll show you lovely things but they’re make believe
isaure.

[Mesarez]

Mesarez hadn’t been expecting to see anyone and he’s not really sure why. It surprises him enough that he startles a little when their eyes meet, but the moment passes quickly and is replaced with delight. His head tilts a little more than necessary as he looks her over, those silver pupils dilating as his smile grows. She’s polite, which is a good first impression to have. Maybe a little too polite but that’s usually better than the opposite. “I’m the one intruding on your land, if anyone should apologize it’s probably me.” He doesn’t though. Instead, he takes a step closer and finds the movement awkward and wobbly. “It’s been a few dozen years since I last walked.” He offers by way of explanation as he laughs softly at himself. Mesarez was going to need more practice walking before he got comfortable, it bothered him to feel so weak. He was not without defenses if this young mare ended up being more dangerous than she seemed. He knew better than to assume someone’s teeth were dull just because they used the word sorry. He takes another shaky step, this time moving parallel to the white and blue mare - consciously not approaching too close. Just like his soft laugh, these are carefully learned behaviours - balancing out what one of his siblings called his "spookiness" with friendliness. A desire to not appear threatening, to keep up the appearance that his teeth are dull as well. “Does this place have a name?” His head gestures to… well, everything. The land surrounding them with its trees and grasses and endless skies instead of endless depths. His silver and black eyes snag on everything around them and they are slightly wide with his wonder.

@Isaure

[Isaure]

i’m still standing on the shoreline and nobody hears me scream --

He calls this ‘her’ land, and there is a flicker of confusion that passes over her face. Perhaps he calls it this because he is coming from the water and she is clearly a creature meant for solid ground, but she wouldn’t necessarily call this, or any part of Beqanna, ‘hers’. She thinks to correct him but for some reason she stops herself, deciding it was not worth the energy of explaining it. The longer she watches him—the way his legs don’t seem to have ever known land at all, or at least not for quite some time—has her second-guessing her original assumption that he even lived here at all.

This is further proven when he asks if this ‘place’ has a name, and by now she has forgotten most of her earlier worries and was instead losing herself to the curiosity she could feel bubbling inside of her chest. “We just refer to this area as the river. It doesn’t really have a more official name than that.” She pauses at the slow realization that perhaps that isn’t what he had meant, lifting her own eyes to the sky, and then to the mountains that jut against the horizon in the distance. “But as a whole, this land is called Beqanna.”

Her blue eyes survey him, doing her best to not appear as though she is staring although it’s clear she is taking some kind of inventory of him. She had assumed that magic, at least the kind that existed in Beqanna, was unique to only here. But looking at him he looked similar to all the other kelpies she had caught occasional glimpses of, though there was certainly something not quite right that she couldn’t place. “You aren’t from here?” she asks with an inquisitive tilt of her head, before adding with a small, somewhat guarded smile, “My name is Isaure.”

-- and i’ll lure you like a landslide and i’ll show you lovely things but they’re make believe
isaure.

[Mesarez]

Mesarez

The river may not be a very official or imaginative name, but it is accurate and effective. She continues, adding that the entire land is called Beqanna. He doubts he is the first of the Baltians to hear the name, but he can’t help but think it would be fun to beat Helice and her spies back with that information anyway.

Not yet - because though Mesarez enjoys needling the general whenever he can, he’s not above enjoying being observed and certainly not going to prematurely disappear from his first conversation with someone not from Baltia in a very, very long time.

She offers her name but he replies to her question first. “No, I’m not. Was there an earthquake here?” A small pause, watching for a nod - easily assuming there would be one. “Whatever caused that brought my home - Baltia - here, to your ocean.” He thinks about it, regarding the mare before him with a glimmer of a grin in his black and silver eyes. “Pretty damn convenient that we arrived in another place that speaks the same language, though.” And one that did not have toxic air or even toxic water for that part. Though he supposes there’s still time to figure out if there is something in either one that will affect him slowly.

That’s probably important stuff to worry about, but right now he’s standing on land, beneath the stars, for the first time in a few decades and he’s got some pretty company - so no he’s not really thinking about dying horribly due to toxins.

“I’m Mesarez.” He finally offers, his easy smile growing a little more on his softly glowing face. Being on land isn’t so bad, now that he’s standing still, and it’s easier to relax. “Do you swim, Isaure?”

@Isaure