12-12-2019, 10:59 PM
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Catamaran|Dancing+Script&display=swap" rel="stylesheet"><style type="text/css"> .aqua_container {position: relative; z-index: 1; width: 450px; background-color: #9C9B99; border: 2px solid #9ee0df; box-shadow: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 10px;} .aqua_container p {margin: 0;} .aqua_img {position: relative; z-index: 2; width: 450px;} .aqua_mes {position: relative; z-index: 4; width: 420px; background-color: #E2A36C; box-shadow: 0px 0px 5px #000;} .aqua_txt {position: relative; z-index: 5; text-align: justify; font: 12px 'Times'; color: black; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px;} .aqua_grade {position: absolute;z-index: 3;top: 325px;width:450px;height: 50px;background:-moz-linear-gradient(top, rgba(156, 155, 153, 0) 0%, rgba(156, 155, 153,1) 100%);background:-webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,rgba(156, 155, 153,0)), color-stop(100%,rgba(156, 155, 153,1)));background:-webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgba(156, 155, 153,0) 0%,rgba(156, 155, 153,1) 100%);background:-o-linear-gradient(top, rgba(156, 155, 153,0) 0%,rgba(156, 155, 153,1) 100%);background:-ms-linear-gradient(top, rgba(156, 155, 153,0) 0%,rgba(156, 155, 153,1) 100%);background:linear-gradient(to bottom, rgba(156, 155, 153,0) 0%,rgba(156, 155, 153,1) 100%);} .aqua_name {position: absolute; top: 220px; left: 185px; z-index: 6; font: 75px 'Dancing Script'; color: #9ee0df; text-shadow: 0px 0px 10px #000;} .aqua_quote1 {postion: absolute; z-index: 7; text-align: center; font: 11px 'Catamaran'; color: black; padding-bottom: 5px;} .aqua_quote2 {postion: absolute; z-index: 7; text-align: center; font: 11px 'Catamaran'; color: black; padding-top: 5px;} </style> <center><div class="aqua_container"><div class="aqua_name">aquaria</div><div class="aqua_grade"></div><img class="aqua_img" img src="https://i.postimg.cc/J0Z6CFqT/aquaria-starfish.jpg"><div class="aqua_mes"><div class="aqua_quote1">- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -</div><p class="aqua_txt">How far had they run, since she had found the fearful scene? Since she had torn her way into the ancient scene and changed the script. Not far, not really, yet the time she had spent in this strangeness was telling. If someone or something had decided to punish the sea mare, they had chosen the correct means. Her head pounded with the need for water, salty or fresh, it didn't matter.
With vague awareness, she noticed the wary looks the golden mare was giving her. No wonder, when she took into account how very abnormal she must look. Any creature wearing scales and fins would look out of place in this ocean of sand. Doubly so when they adorned her equine form. It took a dose of concentration that seemed larger than usual, enough that her gait slowed to a halt. When she recovered though, she felt relief.
It was a short-lived feeling. As it had before, fog decended on the pair. Aquaria felt her throat tighten with the sudden obscurity, how it clung to her and let nothing else exist. She was beginning to hate and fear the fog, and what she was anticipating followed it.
She was expecting more blood, or another blistering empty waste that threatened to swallow her up. The vision that followed was none of those things, something far more beautiful instead.
Two mares, the ones she'd watched meet their ends before. One of whom she had led away when given the chance. Here they stood entwined, framed by sand and endless sky. It made her heart ache to see them like this, such a private, intimate moment put on display. It was important though. This was love, pure and untainted by time or doubt.
As quickly as it occurred, the scene erased, and Aquaria found herself looking anew at the gold mare she had found. "What's your name?" She asked, feeling the dreamy unreality of the situation. The mare looked her over with flat eyes, clearly unimpressed with the little white-gold girl who had dropped so unexpected into her life.
"I am Craft. Who the hell are you."
Aquaria flinched slightly at the hard tone, but knew it was warranted. She was the stranger here.
"I'm Aquaria, I... I'm not really sure what I'm doing here. But I think it has to do with you, and with another mare. Black, with eyes like sea glass..." She had felt stupid beginning the sentence, but the look on Craft's face as she described the other mare made her think otherwise. There was a longing, and a pain etched deeply on her face, the weight of years made plain.
"Anatomy," A world of emotion fit into that one word. The palomino nodded, weary. "Go on."
The pale dappled girl hesitated, unsure off what exactly she needed to do at this point. It was a puzzle that she didn't have all the pieces of yet. Not quite. "Let's keep moving, and I'll tell you what I know." She suggested, and began to piece things together aloud as they trotted off.
Craft listened, intent and quiet even through the brief descriptions her companion gave of her visions. Past, present, future, none seemed to exist in the space they occupied. They were simply there, and moving toward an unknown. At last, the story wound to the current point, and Aquaria realized she was coming to the end of her rope.
"The kind of love you have- had, with her. I... don't know what it's like. I don't think I've ever had that kind of feeling for anyone who's cared to return it." She stated dispassionately. This wasn't about her lackluster love life. It was so much bigger than that.
A faint shimmer caught her eye ahead of them. The sky grew deeper, darker, scattered with an impossible number of stars. Beneath the cloak of night the sand undulated in endless waves. Wind and water had similar effects, it seemed. And not so far off, like the oasis pool from before, a faint glow emanated much as the glowing algae that washed on Ischia's shores.
They slowed as they neared it, eyes fixed on the shifting light that pooled at their feet. A thought filtered into the nereid's mind, as much a hope as it was an idea. "This could be a way home. For both of us." And what that meant suddenly came clear. "My home is Ischia. It's the only thing that I can honestly say has all my heart right now. But I think home for you might be her, Anatomy. And," she took a breath, praying that there was kindness in the universe after all. That maybe some stories could be retold with happy endings if the first one didn't do the tale justice.
"I think she's home to you. And if you jump with me, you won't be alone anymore. If she's out there, I'll do everything in my power to help you find her." She shrugged, not knowing if she was making anything like sense at the moment. But she had tried. Truly tried, and now the day was catching up with her. She wanted to rest, to heal. There was so much weight in the world, and she needed to see this one piece through. Then, maybe, she could be set free.
</p><div class="aqua_quote2">- MY ONLY RIVAL IS WITHIN -</div></div></div></center>
With vague awareness, she noticed the wary looks the golden mare was giving her. No wonder, when she took into account how very abnormal she must look. Any creature wearing scales and fins would look out of place in this ocean of sand. Doubly so when they adorned her equine form. It took a dose of concentration that seemed larger than usual, enough that her gait slowed to a halt. When she recovered though, she felt relief.
It was a short-lived feeling. As it had before, fog decended on the pair. Aquaria felt her throat tighten with the sudden obscurity, how it clung to her and let nothing else exist. She was beginning to hate and fear the fog, and what she was anticipating followed it.
She was expecting more blood, or another blistering empty waste that threatened to swallow her up. The vision that followed was none of those things, something far more beautiful instead.
Two mares, the ones she'd watched meet their ends before. One of whom she had led away when given the chance. Here they stood entwined, framed by sand and endless sky. It made her heart ache to see them like this, such a private, intimate moment put on display. It was important though. This was love, pure and untainted by time or doubt.
As quickly as it occurred, the scene erased, and Aquaria found herself looking anew at the gold mare she had found. "What's your name?" She asked, feeling the dreamy unreality of the situation. The mare looked her over with flat eyes, clearly unimpressed with the little white-gold girl who had dropped so unexpected into her life.
"I am Craft. Who the hell are you."
Aquaria flinched slightly at the hard tone, but knew it was warranted. She was the stranger here.
"I'm Aquaria, I... I'm not really sure what I'm doing here. But I think it has to do with you, and with another mare. Black, with eyes like sea glass..." She had felt stupid beginning the sentence, but the look on Craft's face as she described the other mare made her think otherwise. There was a longing, and a pain etched deeply on her face, the weight of years made plain.
"Anatomy," A world of emotion fit into that one word. The palomino nodded, weary. "Go on."
The pale dappled girl hesitated, unsure off what exactly she needed to do at this point. It was a puzzle that she didn't have all the pieces of yet. Not quite. "Let's keep moving, and I'll tell you what I know." She suggested, and began to piece things together aloud as they trotted off.
Craft listened, intent and quiet even through the brief descriptions her companion gave of her visions. Past, present, future, none seemed to exist in the space they occupied. They were simply there, and moving toward an unknown. At last, the story wound to the current point, and Aquaria realized she was coming to the end of her rope.
"The kind of love you have- had, with her. I... don't know what it's like. I don't think I've ever had that kind of feeling for anyone who's cared to return it." She stated dispassionately. This wasn't about her lackluster love life. It was so much bigger than that.
A faint shimmer caught her eye ahead of them. The sky grew deeper, darker, scattered with an impossible number of stars. Beneath the cloak of night the sand undulated in endless waves. Wind and water had similar effects, it seemed. And not so far off, like the oasis pool from before, a faint glow emanated much as the glowing algae that washed on Ischia's shores.
They slowed as they neared it, eyes fixed on the shifting light that pooled at their feet. A thought filtered into the nereid's mind, as much a hope as it was an idea. "This could be a way home. For both of us." And what that meant suddenly came clear. "My home is Ischia. It's the only thing that I can honestly say has all my heart right now. But I think home for you might be her, Anatomy. And," she took a breath, praying that there was kindness in the universe after all. That maybe some stories could be retold with happy endings if the first one didn't do the tale justice.
"I think she's home to you. And if you jump with me, you won't be alone anymore. If she's out there, I'll do everything in my power to help you find her." She shrugged, not knowing if she was making anything like sense at the moment. But she had tried. Truly tried, and now the day was catching up with her. She wanted to rest, to heal. There was so much weight in the world, and she needed to see this one piece through. Then, maybe, she could be set free.
</p><div class="aqua_quote2">- MY ONLY RIVAL IS WITHIN -</div></div></div></center>