[open] lost in the woods; any

[Lepis]

again you’re gone, off on a different path than mine i'm left behind wondering if i should follow Something happens, but Lepis is not sure exactly what it might have been. It’s so immediate after the infusion of trust that she attributes it to a drop in the temperature or a quick gust of wind. That it might be the stallion in front of her reacting oddly to something she’d unconsciously done never even occurs to her. She is still feeling more amused than she has in months when the unicorn suddenly asks if she might use her powers on him, might make him leap from the cliff against his will. She blinks. By the time he sidles a little farther away from where he stands at the precipice, the earlier humor is gone. The blue-haired mare has been working hard to keep her guard down. She’s even been doing rather well at it, right up until now. Her face has grown still, settled on something just less than uncertain, her head tilted and blue-grey eyes narrowed only slightly. “In your head?” She repeats, the two of them parroting the other’s words like Ischians. Lepis’ empathic projection does not involve words. She can weave and implant emotions; and while she is sure that she is the best at it in all of Beqanna, she is also utterly sure that her powers don’t extend to speaking into another’s mind. The mare shakes her head. “I thought that, but I didn’t put it in your head.” Lepis argues. “You must have taken it out of my head.” Determined to not allow this stranger to take anything else without her consent, Lepis thinks very hard: [Stop it.] She does, of course, project this directly to the horned stallion just as she shuffles her golden wings about and pulls them back in tighter against the wind. LEPIS i’m the one who sees you home-- but now i’m lost in the woods and i don’t know what path you are on

@[Wolfbane]

[Wolfbane]

I believe I'd die if I only could

I sure feel strange, but it sure feels good

Was she… fucking toying with him now? Wolfbane was ready, fully expecting @[Lepis] to respond differently, maybe with a little decorum for once given the circumstances but this? This is… interesting. Confusion molds both of their expressions perfectly because since beginning this conversation, it might’ve been the first time either of them are being honest. Tipper (to his credit,) is mid-step but he settles down. The unicorn was caught with his eyes searching around the empty, flat area for someone else to suddenly appear. Like this was all some big sham - just a few royals toying around with a bystander.

“Are you being serio-” He nearly laughs, just as the voice; her voice penetrated the veil of secrecy covering his thoughts. “NO you stop!” He did laugh this time, nervously. His two yellow-red hind hooves scuffled around to find better footing. “C'mon I was watching you this time - your mouth didn’t move.”

Wolfbane could hardly keep from smiling. Tipper’s light-hearted attempt to rouse the atmosphere back into a comfortable zone fell flat. The blue-and-gray newcomer let his chest rise and fall, mimicking a racing pulse. His voice came out unsteadily, “M’lady. You’re starting to scare me.” And he does what anyone would do, trying to talk a crazy person down from their determined beliefs. He over-explains, “I was born without magic. Just a ridiculously breakable horn, ok? I think by now I would’ve realized… and I haven’t heard other voices until I met you, so…” Tipp trails off.

For this thread:  Sex: M  ◉  Appearance: Unicorn  ◉  Mood: Pleasant

[Lepis]

again you’re gone, off on a different path than mine i'm left behind wondering if i should follow Lepis had made a trip to the mountain, but she had come away unchanged. She knows the stories – that the Fairies will sometimes favor their supplicants – but the dun mare hadn’t even seen one of the Fae, let made a request from them. There is no reason for her to have some ability she’d lacked before, and so the possibility that it is her doing this is simply unfathomable. But Tipper looks as perturbed as she is, and nervous as he shuffles a little farther away.  Not for the first time, Lepis longs for something that allows her to read emotions as easily as she gives them. If he is an actor, he is one of the best that she has ever seen. The trust battles against her rising uncertainty, and she takes a step forward despite herself. Lepis does not want to be closer to him, but in much the same way she’d pursued and trampled the vipers that threatened her children, she does not intend to let him slither away without learning his lesson. “I don’t know why you’re lying,” she begins, her ears lost in the windblown tangle of her mane. “But I know what my magic can do, and it’s not that. This is you, and I don’t like it.” The last three words are clipped and firm, accentuated by the subtle flaring of her wings. Lepis is not a warrior, but she knows how to make herself look more impressive. “Now stop it right now, or you’ll regret it.” The dun mare is not entirely sure how she’ll achieve this, but there is enough confidence in her voice that she might be seconds away from shifting into a dragon. “Castile won’t appreciate knowing you mentally assaulted his Cleric,” she adds, the reminder of his allegiance hopefully another avenue of persuasion. Her mind is her sanctuary, and she’ll not have a stranger there unwanted. LEPIS i’m the one who sees you home-- but now i’m lost in the woods and i don’t know what path you are on

@[Wolfbane]

[Wolfbane]

I believe I'd die if I only could

I sure feel strange, but it sure feels good

Unlike Heartfire or their daughter Eyas, Wolfbane can’t do that ‘seeing’ thing they do - mental pictures of the present and past. He can’t conjure accurate images of what @[Lepis] is doing with all of her spare time, like she has no idea if he’s alive or even in Beqanna at all. He’s forced to do what he’s doing now: wearing a poorly-planned disguise to come and check up on her physically.

But after checking up on her? Eh… there hadn’t been a solid plan as to what information he wanted, if he wanted any to begin with.

Presently Bane’s just enjoying how silly this entire interaction is becoming. Crumbling into a game of “he-said, she-said”; Lepis acting blatantly paranoid and himself pretending to be caught in that wave of insecurity when someone with more political swing threatens to have you tried and hanged by dragon claws. Meanwhile, underneath, he knows that she’s wrong but he can’t reveal that knowledge without also revealing his true self.

What utter chaos.

“Okay. Rude.” Tipper mumbles at her accusation that he’s lying. (He totally is, not about the mind stuff though.) Then he sighs because the exact reason she uses to defend herself and her actions could also be used against her. It’s just that she has Castile and a title to back her up; Tipper doesn’t. “Aww, feeling a bit of pity for the lesser folk?” One voice goads him internally. “Be smarter, less like yourself dumbass.” Another urges him. He likes that idea.

“Woah woah! Assault is a strong word, Lady.” Tipper stiffens. He may be many things but one thing his fake personality is not would be an aggressor of any kind against mare folk. “Can we both just… slow down for a second? Talk about the facts, maybe?”

Despite the obvious way he holds himself like escape could be an option, Tipper inhales and stands his ground, intent on continuing before she can outright deny his request for decent conversation. “Both of us are hearing your thoughts, or blips of them. Whatever.” Tipp shrugs, “We both don’t like it - obviously. Which tells me that if one of us is doing this it’s not meant intentionally or with malice. Fair assumption?” Now he pauses - brown eyes filled with some sort of rational hope, pale ears protruding from the teal strands of his forelock. “I can’t summon a King to defend me, but I can say that I wouldn’t be standing here trying to calm you down after you’ve… ya know jokingly wanted to murder me and then less-of-a-joke kept threatening me.”

Another shrug, followed by a gentle smile. Rightttttt? He wants to prod but doesn’t. Any other horse even slightly guilty of the offense Lepis was accusing would’ve either been long gone or just continued using the power as was intended. Tipper isn’t though, he’s not guilty and that’s his saving point. Wolfbane has to cling to that if he’s got any chance of calming his ex-wife. Cling to that or get frustrated and give up.

“If you are right - not saying you are! But if you’re right and it’s me there are like, a thousand better ways to test that theory than having me shit myself in fear.” God he can’t help it: Tipper cracks up a bit at the last part. “Sorry. I’m sorry. But honestly! If it was me I’d like to know for sure… wouldn’t you?”

For this thread:  Sex: M  ◉  Appearance: Unicorn  ◉  Mood: Pleasant

[Lepis]

again you’re gone, off on a different path than mine i'm left behind wondering if i should follow Tipper’s suggestion that they slow down is met with another firm stamp of her hoof. It is a stamp in place, at least; her attempt to scare him away paused at least for a moment. She doesn’t verbalize a willingness to talk about the facts – and why would she, when she knows them? Instead, she just narrows her eyes. She refuses again to visibly agree with his rhetorical ‘fair assumption?’ and her scowl never falters for a moment as he spins out logic and reason. “You should probably find a magician,” she tells him when he finally stops speaking. “Maybe they can help you get yourself under control before you take a thought from someone less forgiving than I am.” There’s a faint rolling of her eyes, and whether she means ‘Ugh. Peasants’ or ‘Ugh. Men’ or ‘Ugh. This one specific idiot’ isn’t clear, but the sentiment behind it most certainly is. His ability to read thoughts must be a newly developed one, Lepis allows. He should be more responsible, of course, but everyone makes mistakes. Well, almost everyone. She is still considering calling out for Castile, but instead she recalls something he’d said while attempting to soothe her. “You didn’t really think I would have pushed you off the cliff, did you?” Lepis asks. Some part of her thinks the belief that she is capable of murder might be helpful in her agenda, but another part wonders how she had gotten to such a point. Lepis has done a fair number of less than favorable things, but she’s never come even close to murder. “I liked this conversation much better when you were flattering me.” The dun mare says, having calmed herself. A spark of her humor returns as the anticipation and frustration from moment earlier is covered. “Maybe we should go back to that part and try again.” Under the guise of resettling her wings, Lepis widens the space between them. She pushes a few golden feathers back into place as the wind catches her mane, and looks back at the grey stallion. LEPIS i’m the one who sees you home-- but now i’m lost in the woods and i don’t know what path you are on

@[Wolfbane]

[Wolfbane]

I believe I'd die if I only could

I sure feel strange, but it sure feels good

A blind horse could’ve read Tipper’s thoughts. At the very sound of Lepis’s hoof slamming into the bedrock his smile looks defeated and his head turns gently away, eyes roaming the wide open hills and flats so she can’t exactly see how blatantly aggravated he’s become. But he’s sure she can feel it radiating in waves.

Tipper is a commoner. If anything, @[Lepis] has destroyed what confidence he might’ve had in his self worth and, if he’d truly been a Loess initiate he wouldn’t be for very long after this encounter. She scorns his actual attempts at reason in place of her faulty, misplaced logic and so the unicorn bites his tongue with a half-hearted, “Yea I’ll get right on that.” Though each word is swept away by a whistling, bitter gale of wind.

Wolfbane was the one possessed by a curse and in the wrong but damn his ex had gotten just as delusional in the meantime.

Her question is stupid enough that Tipp turns back to look at her, throwing the same exact shade she’d thrown at him with a mute brown eye roll that could’ve been, “ugh, royal scum” or “ugh, women” or just plain “ugh.” Of-freaking-course he thought she would seriously have murdered him. Any non-magical horse would’ve - especially feeling the warmth of her emotional manipulation at exactly the same time he’d been poised to take a leap. And then her thoughts, so clear and so strong! Forcing their way into his mind and being so loud about it. He contemplated leaving, because any rational equine would after having endured what poor Tipper just had, but Wolfbane and his many personas wouldn’t be satisfied with that ending. Not now. Not when they felt they had something to prove.

“Yea for once I agree with you.” Tipper bowed out, chuckling as she vainly set her feathers to rights and looked at him expectantly. “For starters you’re crazy beautiful. More than I thought you would be? If that makes sense.” He smiles, visibly relaxing. He decides he won’t indulge her on his thoughts concerning her crazy-to-beautiful ratio or the false backstory about how his family insisted most royals were inbred freaks.

Tipper the Unicorn wasn’t Beqanna’s standard heartthrob. He wasn’t muscular or the epitome of a warrior knight. No freakish traits like fangs or scales to give him an edge. Just a slender male, less body fat and more wild, lean muscle. He appeared as any powerless nomad would, having spent an adult life wandering from place to place and scavenging through more than one tough winter. Yet there was a strange attractiveness; a niche sort of aesthetic that grass-fed blue bloods might not understand. A survivor's sharpness indicating he could make it far even surrounded by horses stronger, faster, and much more wicked than himself. He doubts Lepis would ‘get it’. No reason she would want to.

“Your eyes,” He hesitates for a second, unsure of how to proceed. She would be able to tell that he was getting tongue-tied, because what he said next sounded husky and secretive, “they’re mesmerizing, Lepis. Like a thundercloud. When you-” Tipp paused again, uncomfortable with continuing in case he might upset her again, “When you first looked at me, before our, uh, disagreement… when you turned your head and the light of something else was still lingering there…”

Tipper exhaled deeply, almost a whistle of appreciation while his head shook side-to-side gently, “Let’s just say I would’ve jumped willingly into any abyss for you to look at me that way.”

He’s still smiling but the agitation is forgotten now, replaced with a seriousness he’s not shy to express anymore. “Despite everything I’ve ever heard about you and your kind, gossip or legend, meeting you sort of puts it to shame. The real thing, the real you is beautiful and terrifying, regal and mesmerizing.” Tipper explained to her. He was glad to have come across her, death threats and all.

“I think you already knew that, though.” He barely laughed, feeling the fool in front of someone leagues beyond him in rank and ability.

For this thread:  Sex: M  ◉  Appearance: Unicorn  ◉  Mood: Pleasant

[Lepis]

again you’re gone, off on a different path than mine i'm left behind wondering if i should follow Lepis had forgotten how readily he had taken her earlier suggestion to heart, but when he does so again – even after what has passed between – she knows she won’t forget again. In this world there are those who take commands and those who give them. Lepis is the latter, of course, and easily places Tipper into the former. When he describes her as crazy beautiful, Lepis rolls her eyes once more. There is less malice in the action this time; the dun mare knows she is pleasant to look at, but not much beyond that. She does appreciate the flattery though, and only looks back at him when he hesitates after naming her eyes. They settle on him, as dark as the thunderclouds he compares them too. Then they travel across his dusty coat with slower appraisal than at the start of their conversation while he continues to speak, and even when he pauses before mentioning their earlier raised voices she gives no indication she is bothered enough to end her perusal. Something about him pulls at a memory she cannot quite recall. Lepis knows she has never met Tipper before, but there is something about him that she recognizes without truly realizing that she does. It feels rather like her own projection of trust in the smallest possible dose. The warmth of the flattery and her own confidence create a heady mix. She will never look at a man the way she looks at Loess. Never again, she doesn’t say, but the thought lingers until Tipper continues. “My kind,” Lepis responds with a laugh. She knows what he means – commoner and royalty – but he speaks of it as though the division is massive and unbreachable. “It’s not like we’re separate species,” she adds, choosing to ignore for the argument that there are indeed some monarchs that had something in their veins beyond simple horse blood. Lepis doesn’t go so far as to say that she and Tipper are the same (she is clearly better, but that is true for nearly everyone) “I’ve never heard terrible as a descriptor before,” she answers with a rather stolid face that is only ruined by her eyes, dancing with good humor. “But you somehow managed to make it sound like a compliment, so I will accept it.” LEPIS i’m the one who sees you home-- but now i’m lost in the woods and i don’t know what path you are on

@[Wolfbane]

[Wolfbane]

I believe I'd die if I only could

I sure feel strange, but it sure feels good

Horses believed what they wanted to, @[Lepis] wasn’t any different. She turned her head and gave him a look; stormy skies encapsulated and distilled down to an artful glance. What her eyes saw was no different from what any other horse would see, and she believed it just as much as she believed the praise Tipper eagerly gave her. Wolfbane wouldn’t have been so sure without that look. He watched her and felt high off it, knowing the entire time he’d played the long game well enough to put her off the scent of suspicion. He’d become the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Laugh for laugh, he watches Lepis behind the mask and feels that sickly sweet feeling of victory. To have this unnamed power over her… knowing things about himself and her as well, knowing but saying nothing for the twisted joy of it. It’s a dark and empty victory and it won’t last. He won’t allow it, not for too long anyway. Not when he can taste the hate she’ll harbor against him afterwards, or how he’ll subsist on the idea that his ex-wife will probably beat herself up for having let him get so close again after threatening him away from Loess and their children.

No… it was fun to toy around with Lepis, much more fun to break her down again and again.
They’re both very good at manipulating. This fake little show is just proof of that knowledge.

“I think the female sex of our world aren’t credited nearly enough with their ferocity. You’re welcome.” Tipper dipped his head briefly. Then he shifted and popped a heel up, quite at ease since their initial introductions had turned into an hour-long conversation. The sun kept up its journey; the shadows shifted and gave away the time. “I’d say it’s our experiences that make me talk like that.” the Unicorn flicks his colorful tail, “Not that we’re so different, you and I. Just that we’ve lived differently. That’s all.” He grins, warmer and warmer each time.

Probably an assumption any regular, defacto nomad would make. That the royal equines and their descendants have lived a cushiony fairytale while the rest of Beqanna’s unknowns scrambled for purpose when none had been given to them. Wolfbane wonders what Lepis would’ve been, had she not been born into the crown. But Tipper wouldn’t have those thoughts… or would he?

“You’re probably right though.” He pipes up again after pausing. “We’re both Loessian’s, I guess. I came here because after all the years of making it on my own, I figured I still had something to prove. Made me want to better myself… be more than just ‘Tipp’ for once.” He says, a personal allusion to the reality of who he really was under this skin. “Don't you feel trapped by your duty here?”

For this thread:  Sex: M  ◉  Appearance: Unicorn  ◉  Mood: Pleasant

[Lepis]

again you’re gone, off on a different path than mine i'm left behind wondering if i should follow Wolfbane, somewhere deep inside the creature, knows how Lepis has worked to develop this ability to seem so casual with a near-stranger. Not just to feel relaxed, but to truly experience it. For nearly a year she’d lived on edge, and the habits borne from times like those die extremely hard. For years after that, she’d flinched at unexpected sounds in the night, finding comfort in the warmth of a body at her side. Those habits haven’t had time to die yet. Sometimes she still finds herself reaching for him in the darkness, in that half-world where past and present combine. Lepis does not really trust the grey unicorn, but she doesn’t think of him as a threat. The suspicion does fade from her brow (where she has consciously allowed it to show). Lepis reveals a great deal of emotion, in truth, she always has. The dun mare is easy to read, hardly making an effort to hide behind silvered diplomacy. Or so it seems. Her former spouse is not the only one with the ability to project a false self, after all. Tipper shifts to a more general sense of flattery, speaking well of mares, then of the differences between them. They’ve lived differently, the grey man says, and the smile that she gives in reply is only a little introspective. They certainly have lived differently. The part that he plays is convincing, and Lepis’s mind reaches to thoughts not so far in line from his own. What could’ve been? What might have changed if things had happened differently? A folly, she finds, and her blue-ringed ears flick toward him after he breaks the brief silence. He speaks of coming to Loess after years alone, of becoming more than who he was. Lepis, who has rarely ever paused in her pursuit of an ever-higher perch, smiles. She has always wanted more, even before she understood what that truly entailed. “Trapped by my duty?” Lepis repeats, the words said aloud but meant for herself while the navy-haired mare considers what he has asked. It takes her a long moment to answer, during which she looks out at the distant valley where the nearest kingdom resident wander. “Yes.” Lepis admits. The rewards are worth it though, she nearly continues. That would be untrue though, and she has no need to lie to Tipper. “I would like sometimes to not be recognized,” She tells the valley and the stallion beside her. “Or maybe to be someone else. But I’ve done too much, I think.” The curve of her mouth where the smile had been remains, but there is a stillness to the rest of her expression when she looks back at the stallion whose has claimed allegiance to Loess. “I think you could be more than just Tipp.” Lepis says. Her mind has turned to the task set her recently. “But only if you’re willing to accept the trap of duty” She smiles at her own jest, and glances up at him from beneath dark lashes. LEPIS i’m the one who sees you home-- but now i’m lost in the woods and i don’t know what path you are on

@[Wolfbane]

[Wolfbane]

I believe I'd die if I only could

I sure feel strange, but it sure feels good

This conversation isn’t anything like the talks they’ve had before. Tipper shivers for a moment, ill-equipped to handle the high altitude in a short coat, listening and watching as his once-wife admires the view. She’s thinking about his question, about the role she’s played for a lifetime and once again Wolfbane is left to quietly contemplate their beginning as it compares to the here and now. Before this little meet-and-greet he’d assumed that duty was tied to fate, and his fate - like @[Lepis]’ - had been to rule and conquer. They never questioned each other, never considered slowing down or stopping.

Their marriage had succeeded because they were so alike, so driven and equally paired because the two of them had been born wanting so much more.

But what was true in their past can’t be mirrored in their future, anymore. She tells him yes, which Wolfbane hadn’t expected but it’s something that coaxes an understanding smile out of Tipper. All of what she says afterward rings true for the Unicorn; that she would like to not be so well-known, or become someone else entirely. But if she weren't herself that would make Lepis like Bane, and he isn’t a creature anyone loves or admires anymore.

There’s only the ghost of what he was, and now there’s Tipper. The teal-and-cream unicorn that bobs his head and perks up when Lepis ensnares him with the net of her dark lashes, because he can’t seem to avoid getting lost in the churning seas of her eyes. “Sounds like there’s a catch.” He grumbles with a bit of wisdom, but his mouth is lifted in a partial smile. “Though I’ve managed to shake loose a few snares in my lifetime. Compared to your idea of a swift exit…” There’s a hint of teasing when he looks past her, out to the precipice of the rocky ledge where the earth suddenly dropped away. He won’t be letting go of that anytime soon.

“What did you have in mind?” Tipp is curiously attentive now, seeing no point in hiding how much he (and the rest of himself) felt about the pegasus hen’s mysterious offer.

For this thread:  Sex: M  ◉  Appearance: Unicorn  ◉  Mood: Pleasant