"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
You think I'll be the Dark Sky so you can be the Star? I'll Swallow you Whole.
She does not remember why she had chosen Pangea. Maybe her mother had mentioned it in passing, or maybe she had just stumbled across it and saw no reason to leave. Pangea had not been much to look at, and even she could see that, as clueless to the ways of this world though she was. The rest of Beqanna seemed so bright, with a myriad of colors and sounds. Pangea was barren and desolate, like some diseased thing that couldn’t seem to actually die. It didn’t seem to belong, like the rest of the lands.
And perhaps that is why she stayed; because she did not really belong, either.
A lost star that was still trapped earth-bound, and near as she could tell, the stars were still too far away no matter which land she chose to live in.
She watched with the same indifferent stare as always when Pangea first went up in flames, and then swallowed the magic mare as the earth shook. If anything, the event at least sparked some sort of emotion in her; curiosity, mostly, at the endless mysteries and powers this land seemed to hold. If capable of such a thing she would have been almost irritated by it – to once again witness such power, but she herself having been left rendered almost entirely weak after arriving here.
It makes her wonder, though, what kind of secrets the other lands hold. If they too have fires that swallow lands and spring up others in their wake, if the earth could simply open up at any given moment. It makes her wonder, too, what would have happened had she died; if she would have gone to the afterlife, or been returned to the sky as a star. It’s a thought that had not crossed her mind until she was faced with the possibility of dying, and she tries to not think too hard about why she let the opportunity pass.
It is dusk when she arrives at Loess, and much like Pangea, there is no reason why she chooses here. She walks across the rocky hills, the glow of her skin becoming more pronounced as the sky continued to dim, but she does not call out to anyone. She does not think her presence will go unnoticed.
It is a small pleasure that Mesec has missed experiencing to recognize someone. Most of the population of this land are strangers to him, he has not exactly been the most social since he has arrived, but there are a handful at least that he can recognize by sight. And he remembers this one without any difficulty after her growing glow catches his attention across the rocky foothills. How could it not? There weren’t many that called Loess home at the moment and he could not recall whether Oceane or Tarian glowed.
Even if they did, though, a few more strides and he recognizes the face as well as the glow. This is the mare that could weave with the stars and create new constellations.
Beneath the night sky, Mesec also glows softly - his body shining with moonlight and strengthening as the sun slips below the horizon and night begins to strengthen its hold on Loess.
With few trees to block the view, this is a spectacular place to stargaze but he’s focusing on the starry figure on the ground instead of the ones dappling the dusk sky. “Hello again.” He calls to her as he approaches, an easy smile already brightening his silvery gaze as he comes to stand nearby. He fights the old insecurities that plagued him in his youth, the ones that would worry about whether or not she remembered him.
Only once he has stopped does he look skyward as he asks with warmth in his voice - “Have you created any new constellations lately?”
You think I'll be the Dark Sky so you can be the Star? I'll Swallow you Whole.
It is not long before someone arrives to greet her, which was expected. She had learned that the residents of this land were quick to flock to newcomers; sometimes out of friendliness, though often with suspicion. The idea of finding your own kind a threat had confused her at first, until she stayed in Pangea long enough to see the way this place worked.
It made sense, after that.
Everywhere she looked there seemed to be chaos, and if there dared to be a moment’s lull, you could be sure that someone would breathe fire into the calm.
She didn’t mind it, but she didn’t understand it either. She did not dislike anyone here enough to attack them, just as she did not like anyone enough to defend them.
Still, the idea of feeling something so strongly still appealed to her, and she still hoped that perhaps one day she will truly know what it meant to be alive.
She recognizes the one that has approached her, though the acknowledgement just hardly flickers across her face. It shows mostly in her eyes, something bright that flashes from the depths of the purple-black of them. “Mesec,” she recalls his name, and remembers their last meeting. He had caught her in the middle of rearranging the starlight into constellations, and that memory alone is what encourages a wisp of a smile on her stark white lips. “I haven’t had the chance to do that here, no.” Her eyes lift upwards, to where the sky had now darkened enough that the brightest of stars were able to shine through. There is the same feeling beneath her skin, the same feeling of tugging and longing, and she turns her gaze back to him. “I didn’t know you lived here.”
Those insecurities that Mesec had been trying to muscle down and not give thought to are eased when the starlight mare speaks his name and his smile brightens. Relief warms him and he forgets that he had even been worried about it at all.
He follows her gaze to the stars and wonders what shapes she might be able to weave there. What would he change? Would he write stories in them, stories of his life? Mesec likes the idea - but he’d be worried about accidentally erasing the stories of someone else and write his in their stead. These are worries he does not share with Islas, knowing that they’re a little… well, a little too much to speak aloud.
His silver eyes fall back to hers when she looks at him and that warm smile that is not ever too far away shines as she mentions that she didn’t know he lived here. Although it’s not exactly a question, he explains anyway - “Only for the last year or so, since after we met.” It hadn’t been too long after that at all, he thinks, when he met Lepis and decided to stay. And then he has just kept staying after she had died. It was as good of a place as any, wasn’t it? And the vastness of the sky, with only the occasional collection of boulders to block the view, was pleasant.
But his attention doesn’t return to the stars, it remains on the mare nearby. “Are you living here too, or just visiting?” It would be a shame but not entirely surprising if there were various other inhabitants of Loess that he had just not happened to cross paths with yet. Had he and Islas both been living here for some time? Wouldn't that be a lark.
You think I'll be the Dark Sky so you can be the Star? I'll Swallow you Whole.
She has noticed that they like to move, too. That most of them don’t seem content to be in one place for long, which was not something she was accustomed to. As a star, she did not move. The stars stayed and the world moved around them, and they lived and died in the same place. To not be anchored had been the hardest thing to grow accustomed to after she became earth-bound, and she wonders if that is why she can never shake the feeling of restlessness. The two parts of herself seemed to be constantly at odds with each other, the need to move and the need to stay still, the craving for sunlight and the longing for the dark.
It would be overwhelming if she felt the emotion of it all, but instead there is nothing.
Just the same hollowness as always.
She likes Mesec, though, as much as she is capable of liking anyone. He always expressed interest in her affinity to the stars, and since that was the only thing she really knew how to carry on a conversation about, it allowed her to indulge in a sense of normalcy.
“I haven't decided yet,” she comments idly, looking up at the advancing darkness. She pulls a single tendril of starlight towards them, spins it into the shape of a flower, like the kinds she has seen in the meadow, and nestles it into the dark strands of his mane with a faint smile. “If I can find a reason to stay, then I might.” She does not understand the weight of those words – does not realize how close her life is to changing in a way that she could never comprehend, that would tie her to Loess forever, if only in the sense that it would be the setting for significant memories.
Those silver eyes widen in delight and so does his smile as Islas pulls starlight and weaves it into a flower, tucking it into his mane. Though her own smile is faint, warmth spreads through Mesec at this token and he feels lighter. While also simultaneously being worried about moving, lest he accidentally dislodges it.
Can you dislodge a flower made of starlight? He’s not sure, but he’s unwilling to test it out.
“I do like it, yes.” Although it’s more of a statement than a question, Mesec finds himself answering Islas anyway. He does his best not to sound too much like a recruiter, though he’d be pleased if she decided to stay. It would be good to have a friend here. “I like the foothills, they remind me of my youth. There aren’t many others here, which is appealing. I think I’d be overwhelmed in a crowded place. And those I’ve met have been kind.”
Mesec wasn’t sure how populated any of the other lands in Beqanna were, but from his few ventures into the common area there seemed to be a lot of other horses around and the quiet of Loess was comforting whenever he returned. “It seemed as good of a place as any, and I have not come to regret the decision yet.”
Fortunately, Mesec does not have the ability to see the future or he’d know the price he’d pay for such a casual decision.
Although dimly aware that his list for reasons why he’s chosen Loess is already long, he adds one more when his silver eyes drift back up to the stars above them - a wistful smile working its way into his words. “I have a… complicated relationship with the night but I’ve always felt more relaxed under an open sky too, with little to obscure the stars and moon.”
You think I'll be the Dark Sky so you can be the Star? I'll Swallow you Whole.
She isn't sure what Mesec thinks of her, but he seems content with the star-flower in his hair, and that is enough to keep the wisp of a smile on her pale lips. There had been a time when she was younger that she had longed for moments like this, when she could imagine that she almost fit in with the rest of them. Conversation with him was easy in a way that it was not always for her, and it allowed her to pretend she was not so entirely different.
“I’ve only ever lived in Pangea,” she offers, though she does not make a comparison of it against Loess. To her there wasn't much difference between the lands of Beqanna besides the obvious contrasts of landscape and climate. None of them ever felt like home, but she did not hold it against them.
Home was an impossible thing for her; something she did not ever expect to find.
Her eyes follow his back to the stars above, and though the laugh she emits is short it has a light, silvery sound to it, as though it too was spun of starlight. “Unobstructed view of the stars is the only thing I look for in a place, so I suppose I don't have a reason not to stay.”
Islas
@[Mesec] I was thinking this could be a closer since by now Mesec has DIED and there's an eclipse and blah blah blah
