"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
05-18-2020, 09:55 AM (This post was last modified: 05-18-2020, 09:55 AM by Aquaria.)
aquaria
- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -
She was livid. She was terrified.
She had screamed herself hoarse when she'd returned to the beach she'd left them on, the twin foals playing in their nursery shores. She hadn't worried, and oh gods she was paying for that now. The fear that had followed her back from Loess roared to life when it had been so recently learning to sleep, and she roared with it.
Her children. Gone. The only evidence they had been there at all was washing away as the tide came in. When she had worn herself out calling their names and diving the waters that they'd been playing near with no results, her aching body was left on the beach shivering and cold. Where were they? A thousand scenarios rolled through her mind, each one more tragic than the last. Sapped of adrenaline and with a stark hope she made her way to the cove they called home, only to feel that hope shatter inside her when no little faces greeted her there.
The next morning, her message was clear: Show up, or lose your isle. She fully intended to follow up with that threat. Those who arrived on the meeting beach were met with her ragged face, no gills or scales to be found. Her mane and tail remained aquatic, if shrunken, the only vestiges of her marine form. She was spent, exhausted, and had no temper to be spared.
The golden lizard doesn’t really bother to change shape when the distressed call comes - changing and adapting come naturally to him, but it also wears him out to change more than a few times in an hour. He’d just gotten used to his gills again - and besides, he’s large enough to be noticed, he thinks.
He leaves his place on the tree that secures Elayne’s sleeping place, and swims the distance to the beach - though, as he arrives he figures he does need a change after all.
”Aquaria,” he calls from below, his large emerald eyes blinking at her sight. ”you look terrible.” As to emphasize, he takes a horse-shape, but mimics her pale coat (which is close enough to his own usual white base) and disheveled look, with her drooping fish-like mane. He - or it, as Aodhán is practically genderless in the moment, his mimicing not entirely complete towards a female in his haste - frowns at her the way she glares at him and whomever dares to show up besides him. ”How do we get back to normal?” he presses further, hoping to cut off any snide remarks before she thinks of them.
It’s not a new thing for her to see him shift, he knows, but it is entirely new for her to look in a living mirror, and he’s taken quite a leap with this action - but how else to confront her? Maybe she’ll be shocked into action.
I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
The thrill of a successful hunt under Brennen’s nose has been enough to make Ivar forget his revenge for a few hours. Having left the children in the care of one of the roan mares, Ivar had travelled to Nerine and proceeded to forget about them entirely.
At least until he wakes to the sound of someone calling him.
Ivar enjoys Ischia for its lack of structure, and a summons is exactly the opposite of that. And there is no doubt it is a summons. Had he not seen Aquaria’s magic he’d might have ignored it, rolling over and falling back asleep in the surf. But that pricks at him, needles him to wakefulness, and he growls as he releases his left hind foot from where it has held tight to a coral and anchored him in his sleep.
The meeting is not at her private cove, and nor is Aquaria entirely the creature he remembers. Where are her scales? Her gills? The woman in front of him looks terrible, though he cannot fathom why. The same is true for the creature in front of her, a genderless thing that Ivar glances at with the same sort of interest as he might look at week-old leftovers. Palatable, but not his first choice. When they speaks in a familiar voice, Ivar’s expression suggests he’s found mold on those leftovers. It’s the shifter from a few weeks ago. Aodhan. They knows that Ivar had been looking for Aquaria’s home, and the kelpie had told them of his search for Evia.
Aodhan asks Aquaria something about getting back to normal, and Ivar doesn’t know what they mean. He also does not care, and instead yawns and stretches. There is neither sign nor scent of the blood that had so recently colored those perfect white scales, but the memory of it keeps him from snapping irritably, and instead he drifts, withers and shoulders above the shallow water of the beach, and waits to see why he’s been bothered so early in the morning.
and i'll use you as a warning sign that if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind
05-26-2020, 01:37 PM (This post was last modified: 05-26-2020, 01:37 PM by Aquaria.)
aquaria
- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -
Her lips pressed tightly against each other as first Aodhán and then the glinting kelpie Ivar arrived at her summons. At the spotted stallion's shift into what she knew was a reflection of herself, she felt her jaw tighten painfully. For a moment all she could do was look at him, shame prickling her gut at the drab image he painted. It ebbed away as she caught the kelpie's eye. Appearance be damned, she had more pressing things to address.
Her head, plain white except where a faint golden emblem marked her brow, nodded curtly in acknowledgment of their presence. "I see I'm down to two beachmasters. A pity." She said, glancing at the sea that held their isles near. "Very well. We've waited long enough. Too long." The words caught in her throat momentarily, cleared away in a rough cough.
"My foals are missing. I've searched the main island, and have found no trace of them. I called you here to let you know that I'll be searching your islets next. You're welcome to join me. I'd appreciate the extra eyes and the familiarity with your homes, but it's not required." Her hooves shifted beneath her restlessly. Already she felt they'd wasted far too much time. The sooner she got underway, the sooner she'd find her babies. The alternatives were unthinkable, though they pressed at her mind insistently. Anything less than finding the twins alive and well would rend her apart.
With a brisk shake that ruffled her from nose to tail, she forced herself back into control, willing emotion to stay contained while these stallions remained near. There would be time enough for the gut wrenching tears later. When she was alone, or with her children. Not now.
"Who's first?" She asked, looking from one face to the other. Ivar, bored and beautiful. Aodhán, concerned maybe, in his own way. Their homes might hold the treasure she'd lost, and she was not about to waste time recovering it.
SO GIVE ME HOPE IN THE DARKNESS THAT I WILL SEE THE LIGHT 'CAUSE OH THAT GAVE ME SUCH A FRIGHT
He’s late. It’s not that he didn’t hear her summons, it’s just that he was a world away speaking to the Queen who holds his oath, and it left him unable to immediately respond to the lesser Queen who rules his home. Or, well, rules Ischia. Nobody rules Brennen’s home except the laughter of his own children, and the oft-sultry smile of his mate, who is surprisingly good at getting the age-old warrior stallion to do what he wants.
Still, he doesn’t want to be unforgivably late, so he appears beside Ivar and Aodhan as quickly as he is able, and having been listening in to this far-away conversation brought to him across the sea with tendrils of his own magic, he’s well caught up on the issue. He turns amber eyes first to Aodhan, imposing a double image of the boy’s true form for a moment to determine who it is, and frowning a little when he does. One of the little fish in his magic net, then, Scorch’s grandson. Looking next to Ivar, and somehow the warm gold of his eyes is a hard color when he surveys the kelpie without any other expression. He doesn’t trust the scaly blue stallion at all, but he also doesn’t want to…leap to any conclusions.
Finally he turns to survey Aquaria, head tilted in somber curiosity. “Sorry I was delayed. I have duties elsewhere.” Some part of him is rather fond of his little island, the paradise home where he keeps his quite happy lover, but he coexists with Ischia’s rulers. He does not bow to them. Brennen bows to few, anymore. “You’re welcome to come to check out my home first, if you’d like. When I departed earlier, there was no one there except my own mate and a handful of our children. If you younglings have gone there, the worst that might have happened is Lhoire will have tempted them into a game of hide-and-seek.”
His gaze slides momentarily back to Ivar, a hint if not an accusation. “Do you have enemies that might have come to Ischia to steal your young?”
BUT I WILL HOLD AS LONG AS YOU LIKE JUST PROMISE ME WE'LL BE ALRIGHT
Genderless-Aquaria does it's job; but, the mare must truly be worse for wear if she can't be aggravated by his image, but accepts it as a message. Her tone is flat when she speaks, and worry flashes his gaze, but Aodhán otherwise keeps silent.
He shifts, true to his own shape but fully golden and scaled like the kelpie, awaiting further orders - expecting them to lead them to the waters, he took a shape that will make shifting into the golden sea-serpent shape easier. It seems then, that a third Beachmaster arrives, the magician he was vaguely aware of living in the south-east; only by Eva naming him to Aodhán once, truly. "Perhaps we should all go together." He doesn't, in fact, know Ivar of Brennen very well, and this would be a chance to find out. And, the complete disappearance of young children suggests a predator in the waters - he's not sure he wants to run into whatever that is, alone. The thought of enemies makes him eye the bay male, then slowly nod as he accepts the possibility that someone did it on purpose, or for political reasons. She was, after all, the keeper of the islands here. Her children missing specifically, might set a wrong example.
05-29-2020, 11:08 AM (This post was last modified: 05-29-2020, 11:08 AM by Ivar.)
I V A R i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take
Aquaria’s attachment to her children borders on insanity. They’re been gone a day already, and she still looks for them? Surely she knows what happens to children when they are left alone?
The confusion in his golden eyes looks almost like concern. It disappears at Brennen’s arrival, and the scowl that he gives the bay horse is far less neutral than the one he receives in return. He had hoped the man would not return, but he should have known better than to expect everything to go his way. Brennen offers his home first when Aquaria asks about searching them, and Ivar’s scowl deepens. When Brennen mentions enemies though, the kelpie smiles, a full show of his glittering teeth. An enemy? Ivar?
“Many of my mares have just foaled,” he says in reply to Aodhan’s suggestion. “They will not appreciate a search party stomping through our home, and I will not subject them to it.” You are not welcome to search my island, he says without words, and he meets Aquaria’s gaze squarely for just long enough to seem defiant. Then his metallic eyes turn to Brennen, contemplative.
“Can you use your magic, or something? See from a distance if there are any children there who do not belong to my mares?” He thinks of the cream and silver tails swishing contentedly as they nursed; Fool has easily accepted them as her own after Ivar had done away with the useless colt she’d borne him. “If there are - which I doubt - I would allow Aquaria to search.”Ivar cannot begin to fathom how Brennen’s magic might work, but he must trust that his own hypnosis will stand up to its scrutiny.
@[Aquaria]
and i'll use you as a warning sign that if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind
05-29-2020, 11:49 AM (This post was last modified: 05-29-2020, 11:50 AM by Aquaria.)
aquaria
- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -
Her best case scenario was that the children had gotten bored and decided to test their strength and swim to one of the border isles. One of these stallion's homes. That they had made it, but were tired yet from the long swim and stranded but safe on one of those shores. If that were ruled out, then there were more tragic possibilities, ones she hoped wouldn't need entertaining.
Her hardened as a new face joined them. As with Ivar, she knew him by reputation first, though his was far less gruesome than the painted stallion's. She had never met him though. Knew only that he and his kin occupied one of her isles, and that he had fathered a son on her sister. Her nod of greeting was a curt one, but better than the salty words she considered. He had shown, even late. She grimaced. Perhaps his isle was treated more as a convenient summer home.
The pearl mare decided that later, when emotions were not running so high, she would seek him out for a chat. It was unfortunate timing that this was her first real meeting with the island's tenants, and she would rather know them properly in the future. Aodhán, the only one of the trio that she'd had any kind of pre-existing relationship with seemed to support Brennen's suggestion of their search.
She met the bay stallion's gaze as the morpheus Aodhán took on a more marine form, much to her relief. "If I have enemies, they have severely misunderstood who they're playing with." The normally sparkling depths of her eyes had flattened with single minded certainty. If this was not an accident, or two foolish foals simply wandering. If someone had actually dared to take her children. There would be no forgiveness, and there would be no mercy.
A scowl of equal ferocity turned her gentle features into something warlike as Ivar made his excuses. "I don't remember asking permission, sunfish." Her words flowed soft and warning. "My children are missing. If your herd is full of mothers, then I can't believe they would object to my searching for my own foals. I will trust my own eyes before any magic, and," she paused to glance at the other two standing on the shore. "If it's all the same to you gentlemen, I think I'd rather we begin with Kelpie."
The gall of him. The sheer, stupid nerve. If he thought to stand between her and any chance of finding her children, he would find himself soon mistaken. And if his blathering had delayed them in any way long enough that her children were less than whole when she found them, he would face that consequence.
so give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light 'cause oh that gave me such a fright
He can see the unease on her face when he arrives, and Brennen holds her gaze for a moment. His island is not any more uninhabited than the other stallions’, though the inhabitants don’t always include the bay himself, and he rarely arrives or leaves by foot; he prefers to fly or -conveniently – simply teleport. Brennen and Aodhan both volunteer seemingly unconcerned about the search, but he’s not particularly surprised that Ivar doesn’t.
Ivar is looking at him, and the magician holds his gaze with no expression. It’s hard to decide if Ivar is against the search because he knows something, or because he just doesn’t want them in his space. He suggests that Brennen search by magic instead. The bay chooses not to respond right away to this suggestion, instead sliding his eyes towards Aquaria in an inquiring look. She’s fierce, and he gives a little approving smile that barely reaches his eyes. Only after she speaks does he turn his body back towards Ivar; the kelpie physically towers over the magician, but Brennen simply looks up a little and tilts his head in consideration.
“I could certainly look with magic.” he drawls; “But the lady says she’d rather go, so I suggest we go. It’s her land, after all, unless you’re contesting that…?”
but I will hold, as long as you like just promise me we'll be alright
BrenneN
SORRY I am late AND this is awful. You guys can skip me whenever I'm super slow. @[Aodhan] @[Ivar] @[Aquaria]
06-16-2020, 03:01 AM (This post was last modified: 06-16-2020, 03:03 AM by Aodhan.)
Aodhán
Ivar reacts evasive; which draws the attention to him right away. Brennen seems unconcerned as much as Aodhán - if the children were on their islands, then they were there on accident. About the kelpie, he is less sure - the male had acted similarly on their recent meeting, and the gold-scaled shifter isn’t yet sure what to make of fhe man. There’s no... well, no real trust. His current behaviour does not steer Aodhán into a more trusting direction, and he tilts his head. ”I’d easily take a shape that’s non-threatening, as I think the mage could do as well, or otherwise make sure not to be noticed. Your concern is noted, but unnecessary.” he shrugs. Maybe that’ll relieve the man; if not there may be other motives. He takes the shape of any Ischian native parrot more often than not, it won’t be hard to do it again; although he’d rather not shift many more times today, he’s willing to put up the effort.
He tilts his head at Aquaria and Ivar when the mare speaks - did they ever talk when Ivar was looking for her? They both don’t say a thing about it - he’s about to poke the bear, but this meeting should come to a conclusion, and it seems the conclusion is to get to the northern island of Ischia no matter what Ivar has to say. So he’ll find out later what was up with the teal nereid he’d never heard about before. Instead, he glides towards the water, and once under, the golden sea-serpent lifts his head out of the waves. He nods to Aquaria, nudges his head towards the ocean, and leaves to search the bottom of the sea just in case; his elongated body should still be in sight as he does, what with the water being so clear and the color being obvious; he’s heading north to that island - heck, perhaps he’ll reach it before the kelpie does. Wouldn’t that be insightful, he wonders.
