"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
01-31-2022, 03:45 PM (This post was last modified: 02-01-2022, 10:24 PM by Obscene.)
Don't look back, nothing left to see I can feel you though, Wake me from this dreamin'
He had stared into the sea on the little stretch of land that remained of the South, what remained of Loess, the few spires and flat red tops of canyons that acted as islands now. He gazed out into the orange sky, the sun already dipping towards the waves and accenting them with a tangerine tint, where the Pampas had once been. Of that, there was nothing to show. No wildflowers peeked from beneath the water, no trees broke through the surface. As if there had never been a place where he had once looked out to watch storms, where he had raced against the wind and fate itself with Revelrie, where he had played constant pranks on Steve. As if there had never been the grave of a girl, the burnt remains of his mother, as if none of it had ever happened. As if it had never been home.
There was nothing. Nothing but the gentle lapping of water against rock, the stench of salt and brine, nothing but endless ocean that seemed to stretch for eternity.
As always, his expression was one of indifference. Life flickered behind the depths of red that bore into the calm briny deep but whatever the dark Fae was thinking was kept purely to himself. Unreadable to those that didn’t know him best. He stays until the last golden light fades and then he moves on, utterly silent and drifting just as he had done all those years ago. When he had belonged nowhere. He meanders to the meadow, black and gold tendrils stirring lazily against his broad neck with the gentle spring breeze, and turns his crimson view to where he had once frolicked with fairies. They were long gone, had been silent to him for ages, and he drifts again for there is nothing left for him here either.
It is easy to find the band of Will o’ Wisps, their light beckons to him as they break away from each other and dance across the surface of the river, looking for unsuspecting prey to lure into the strong currents. He quietly watches them from his place on the muddy bank and then one breaks away in his direction. It moves with ferocity and finally a faint smile appears on his dark mouth as the glow from the creature envelops him with its hazy brightness. “My Prince.” The Wisp whispers. “My Light.” He responds and there is a hint of relief laced within those two words.
For awhile they quietly regard each other. “You were gone a long time my Prince. Your kingdom has fallen.” The ball of light finally says, hovering uncertainly before his head. “I know.” Comes the calm reply, raising his muzzle to the Wisp and then tucking it to his star covered chest. “Did any survive?” He finally asks. There is uncertainty in the movements from the fairylight and the missing Prince of the Pampas sighs. “I could feel you but I couldn’t reach you.” Light says after another pregnant pause. “Where were you my Prince?” He shifts slightly, a muscle jumping in his jaw as his pointed ears flick backwards. “I’m not sure. I believe we are about to find out though…” Arching his neck, he turns his handsome face towards the shadows from where he had come. “Aren’t we Cheri?”
01-31-2022, 05:08 PM (This post was last modified: 02-01-2022, 03:47 PM by Cheri.)
I see us written in the Stars
When Cheri saw what remained of Loess and the southern territories, she lost a bit of herself. Eventually her journey with Aela and Obscene led them to the fringes of Beqanna’s forest, where she finally broke past the scraggly line of saplings and beheld the few remaining spires of her kingdom floating in a sea of water.
It was like… dying.
Feeling the water lapping against her quartz hooves, smelling the brine and the cry of a gull somewhere amidst a heavy fog rolling in from the east. Knowing that out there, on the other side of the landbridge that seemed to disappear into the water, was Tephra. A part of her absolutely died that day, laid to rest on the ocean floor in the deepest, darkest parts of the sunken canyons.
Cheri had blinked at the choppy water, raised her head, and let the dark tendrils of bitter hatred curl around her heart. For the first time in her life, she felt capable of a pure and powerful violence. Instead of fearing the sensation, she let it flow across every cell of her being until it bathed her senses in liquid fire.
But in the next ragged breath, she saw the sense in choosing to be cold instead. The fire cooled and hardened to steel, encapsulating the young magician's feelings. She turned her back on the sea and in a matter of hours, she was alone again. For now, she would rather calculate her next move; there was still the matter of her relatives in the north, and Tarian.
Most importantly: she needed to feed her magic.
Whatever she’d done to herself and Obscene had nearly killed her. Before the moment of their disappearance, Cheri couldn’t be sure that anything was capable of killing her - she’d felt as bright and hot as the sun’s surface, untouchable. Now she knew better. Her idiotic nature could easily be the end of herself or someone else, and from now on she would have to think twice before she did anything without considering the repercussions first.
It felt too risky to just up and wander off, so Cheri lingered in the woods and out of sight, feeding off the land like a vine rooted to the soil. For all her vigor and slow-spreading rage, she was not yet convinced that eating flesh or consuming the bloody, coppery lifeforce of a more sentient creature was a higher route to take, so she never fed on other animals.
On her many walks she often found her way to the River’s edge, drawn to the water by memory or desire (neither of which she liked to linger over.) Tonight, she floated down the peaceful banks like a haunted spirit, following Obscene’s trail toward the lights of the winking wisps.
“If that’s what you’d like.” She responded from the shadows, taking shape in the dark as her powers slowly illuminated every dip and curve of her replenished form.
The pegasus mare was achingly lovely. Even in the pale, dim light of her ethereal glow it was painstakingly obvious that not a single hair was out of place. Everything was exactly as it should be, where she was concerned. Frozen midwinter, she was the undying bloom of the Southern court, and the ice in her veins reflected coldly in the look she gave Obscene and his companion.
Don't look back, nothing left to see I can feel you though, wake me from this dreamin
They had both lost a part of themselves when the South had fallen. He hadn’t doubted that the former Loessian Queen had understood exactly what he had needed to do on his own and had, correctly, assumed that she would need to do the same. Would need to see it for herself… By herself. Did she also see ghosts amongst the waves as he did? Or was it a different kind of spirit that haunted her?
The frustration he had been battling since their return can no longer be leashed, now that they are alone. For the last few days he had been unsettlingly quiet around Aela and Cheri. He only spoke when needed, healed when and if Cheri wanted it, fell back down into bad habits, and for the most part kept his focus on the only plan they had. Find who was left and rebuild. So far the only success he had found was being reunited with Light. That and Cheri was finally no longer so brittle and breakable.
There is a hardness in her eyes that hadn’t been there before but he does not flinch before it. Instead his own mouth tightens, the red of his eyes darkening with understanding. He knows that wall, he recognizes the armor she has placed herself in. Armor so similar to his own. She is illuminated with power and beauty, the crystals along her forehead shimmering with light, and one of those fog like dreams passes through his head. Like a memory. He reaches for it but as always his fingers pass right through, finding nothing to hold on to.
”If that’s what you’d like.”
Her tone is as cold and calm as his own and he regards her for a moment, as if teetering on a razor edged sword. This was a conversation that was long overdue. That first day in the ruins he had felt as if he might explode at her and perhaps he would have if Aela hadn’t been present. Now his anger had cooled, there had been some time to process, but it hadn’t died out completely. Still, he does not raise his voice at her. What good would that do when she had donned her steel?
Light dances above him and he glances back up at it before looking back at her. “Light is quite unhappy with you.” He finally says in clipped words that hold his smoldering vexation, searching the elegant lines of her face. “He seems to think you are the reason behind our disappearance. He isn’t wrong is he?” It’s not really a question when he already knows the answer. Exhaling slowly, he takes a step towards the mare who had uprooted his life the moment he had laid eyes on her. “What did you do?” He asks quietly, blazing eyes burning into the cool jaded stone he finds in her gaze, but his tone is surprisingly not filled with accusation. And there it is again, that wisp of something that he just can’t seem to grasp.
His brow furrows, wincing, as he shakes his head and gold glitters in the pale light. “I can’t…” And the word stops on his tongue, physically unable to be said. Remember. What he had wanted to say was remember. But apparently the Fae in him had seen that word as a lie. So were these memories after all? He snorts in exasperation and tries again with more success. “I’m confused. The last certain memory I have was being here. With you. There are these other bits and pieces and they don’t seem real. I look at you..” He hesitates, trying to find a way past those cold walls, to find the chink that she had found in him. “I look at you and see hints of a life that doesn’t exist.” His gaze is unwavering as he watches her carefully. “But it did exist, didn’t it?”
The truth is that they experienced something powerful, together. They lived an entire life separate from this one, fell in love with one another, and watched the days pass by in blissful comfort. Some nights when the temperature dropped and the mesas sparkled with bitter frost, Obscene would ask her if she remembered. “Remember what?” She would ask, and the itch at the back of her skull would grow by a fraction or two.
He knew. There wasn’t a single doubt in her mind that the memories would return, perhaps not fully but well enough that he could recall bits and pieces. How ironic, she thought. The two worlds were like one rough-cut crystal: turn it to the light and you see one thing, twist it away and it reveals something different.
“I didn’t act alone.” She answered his question.
That didn’t resolve her of any blame, no - gods no. He was right that she’d done something, most likely channeled energy through him as a conduit, but the effect was something they both wanted. Even if Obscene denied it or didn’t realize it, Cheri knew that her most powerful acts of magic to date happened because a second party more or less drew it out of her. Magic that strong was always consensual, as she was coming to learn.
Targaryen. Sorren. Obscene.
Three specific instances of her power being called forth against her better judgment. Three times too many for her to ignore the signs any longer. She was as dangerous as she was helpful, and currently too unstable (or possibly volatile) with the limited knowledge she possessed. So far she’d been acting on instinct, and look where that had gotten them.
“I could show you.” Cheri closed her vibrant eyes, deflated for a moment by his kindness and the sound of his voice… so much like the one she wanted. “But you already see the truth, even if it doesn’t make sense.”
Clenching her jaw, the gleaming pegasus steeled herself and looked upon Obscene once more. By the Gods, he was handsome.
“Years ago, when my powers started to mature, I fell asleep and woke up in another place. It was Beqanna, but not the same Beqanna as this one. Everything was… slightly different.” She looked past the Fae Prince and his ever-faithful Light, toward the winding river.
“I met you there. I know this is all confusing, but I think what happened then was a warning. I didn’t understand at the time that we would go back together, to fulfill the vision of what I’d seen and experienced. Not until now.” She tried to make him understand in so many words, but the task felt impossible.
Choose the harder path. Remember what I told you? He had said; she’d done her best to listen and try, never knowing how difficult that would be.
Don't look back, nothing left to see I can feel you though, wake me from this dreamin
”I didn’t act alone.”
He is silent as she speaks, trying to make sense of the riddle she had laid before him. Usually he was a fan of puzzles, of trying to figure out the clever twist. This time he is only frustrated and when she closes his eyes to him, there is anger radiating out of his own. There is something he is missing and it pisses him off to no end. What truth is she speaking of? The truth of the magic she had casted on them or the truth that had been staring them in the face since that storm in the meadow all those years ago?
He recalls standing on this bank with her, dried flecks of blood still clinging to his glittering coat and not knowing if it belonged to him, Gale, or Tantalize. He remembers looking at her and feeling so fucking tired. Tired in a way he had never felt before, a heaviness across his broad shoulders that he had never expected. Perhaps, for the first time, he had finally understood what Offspring had felt right before he had disappeared.
She looks back up at him and he glowers at her and it’s as if nothing had ever changed at all. But that wasn’t true either. Things had changed immensely, especially when it came to Cheri.
Obscene had given up at life at a young age. A Tephran Prince abandoned by his family with suddenly no purpose, no direction, no guidance, no magic… He had simply given up. It had been something that had infuriated Aela to no end. She could never understand his laziness, how he seemed to only do the bare minimum... If even that. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, that he didn’t have it in him somewhere. The only value he had ever had was in being a Prince, he knew how to rule and how to do it well, it had been the one thing his parents had managed to instill in him and taught him through the stories of their own successes and failures as rulers in their own right. It wasn’t that he couldn’t rise to the occasion, with or without magic… He just hated being different. Had hated being built up just to fall. Had hated feeling all the things he had been feeling and ending up entirely alone even when he had done everything right. So he simply quit. Quit caring, quit giving a fuck, quit trying to be someone. Quitting was easier. If he was going to be worthless anyways then why not just stop caring? If he could never be better than anyone, then it was easier to just be worse than them.
It had been working out just fine until he had met Cheri.
Since the moment he had seen her, that striking young girl that stood unwavering in the storm, he had known she was unstoppable. Every word he threw at her she took as a challenge. The more he pressed, the more she reacted. Their backgrounds couldn’t be more different and yet she broke barriers in a world he had come from and didn’t cower to anyone, least of all to the likes of him. How could anyone not look at her and admire her?
How could he not admire her without constantly being reminded of his own faults and weaknesses?
How could he not admire her, against his will, and hate her?
How could he not admire her and fall deeply in love with her?
She speaks of a parallel world, of a warning, and it’s all gibberish to him. What is clear though is what he remembers now. When he had stood there on the river, blood stained and weary, feeling overwhelmed by everything and everyone. Except for her. Looking at her was the only thing that seemed to make sense.
Years ago she had asked him if he had thought her beautiful and he had laughed and told her no. Back before his ears had elongated, before magic coursed through his veins, before he could no longer lie. He tilts his regal skull at her, red eyes now simmering with something hard to place, as he finally breaks the long stretch of silence with a question he had asked her so many times and that she had always deflected or refused to answer. His voice is low and rough, crimson eyes flashing. “Have I told you lately how vile you are?”
She could describe harnessing a lightning bolt and striking a tree thirty paces away. That was simple. It was… powerful, like feeling a current race across every smooth muscle in your body - but instead of succumbing to the pain and terror you suddenly control it. You can grip it with your mind, curl your will around it, and literally fling it toward the earth in one awe-inspiring display.
But this? What she felt for Obscene? There was no word for it.
There was only the darkness enveloping him, turning his red eyes sinister under the glow of his fairy kin. On the banks of the river, where the trees grew all the way to shore and silverfish darted upstream, he stood out like a void in the otherwise mythical setting. Cheri could hear his breath and feel his heartbeat; she wanted to scour every inch of him, but his gaze was impossible to break away from.
He reminded Cheri of the wind at her back, pushing her toward him when the storm peaked. Rain would lash over them, cold and stinging, but they never paid any attention to it. The rest of the world seemed to fall away, and then there was only Obscene. He became her world in those moments, just like he was doing now. When he tilted his head, her breath stuttered for a second.
And then he spoke, breathing life into something that had no name, shape, or sound.
A bare smile poked its way through her stony exterior before she could stop it, hardly believing the words even as he said them. His ‘insult’ washed over her; No, through her. More powerful, more potent than any one type of magic she had ever thought to feel, and the smile flared with heat.
There was nothing sweet about the black grin that took over. Her entire demeanor began to smolder, causing the gleam of her markings to flicker like phantom flames in the night. Cheri narrowed her eyes with a knowing look.
“No. You haven’t.” She murmured.
Something strong was coursing through her, humming in her veins. Lifting up, the pegasus began to hover gracefully above the earth. She let her translucent hooves droop slightly from the weight of gravity she was defying and hung, midair, like a bright pendulum. Her wings lay still and quiet by her sides, but the look in her eyes said it all:
“I’m still waiting.” Cheri flicked her dark ears toward Obscene, amused.
02-01-2022, 06:01 PM (This post was last modified: 02-01-2022, 06:14 PM by Obscene.)
Don't look back, nothing left to see I can feel you though, wake me from this dreamin
It takes a moment but he can see when his words hit her bloodstream, the crack in her armor, when her chilliness fades and her gaze smolders. It stirs something inside of him far more hungry than the snake, something that’s been gnawing at him for ages. Something he has been fighting against for a very long time. He follows the path her dark grin takes, that winds up her lips as she (finally… finally) murmurs her response.
How easy the smug smirk comes back into place, twisting his own mouth into something wicked. Light senses what is happening and is quick to make an exit, flying back along the surface of the river until the only brightness comes from her. Can she see him now, even in this familiar place? This banter they’ve exchanged over and over again? His crimson eyes wander slowly down the length of her swan-like neck, along the flickering markings of her dark skin, the wild weaving tresses of her viridescent mane, right down to where her pale hooves hover over the earth. When his appraisal is done, he finds that amused look in her eyes and his smirk deepens. Only to slightly soften, loosening enough that only one corner of his mouth barely quirks upwards.
“I cannot.”
He breathes out two strained words, unable to break the invisible electricity that holds their gazes together. He raises his head to her, those crimson depths sparking with mischief, covering most of his unease. His vulnerability. It had always been there, hanging unsaid in situations that were always left unspoken. It had always been there for her to take from him. The words are physically incapable of being spoken from his lips. She had never asked the right questions. She had never given the right answers. Until now.
She had always been the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.
Another step closer to her but the distance still spreads between them. “I cannot.” He whispers again and finds he can’t seem to close this gap between them. Not when he is so exposed to her now.
Cheri was hyper aware of him. She sensed his pulse, thudding under the dark, inky pelt he wore. The way he smelled like warm, earthy spice. How his lips twitched when he spoke.
Obscene had always been an especially attractive stallion, before the body modifications and magic. He was built like a powerhouse, spoke like a god, but walked with the air of a noble. A deadly combination. For being born a mortal horse, there was no question that wherever he went eyes were drawn in his direction.
She’d been the ghost of a young filly when they first met. Nothing more. She’d laid eyes on him in the meadow, under the eclipse, and that was all it took. He was twice her size, ten times more confident, and she never forgot how accurately he cut through her defenses. She’d never been so furious.
She’d never been so amorous.
It would take her years of waking up from feverish dreams to realize how deeply he’d cut her that day. In one fell swoop, Obscene had plunged right to the core of her being and plucked something out for himself, stealing it away. Her life’s mission since then had been to return the favor.
I cannot, he smirked. Finally, she exhaled.
His head was rising toward her, but Cheri was already floating, gliding down to meet him. Did he really think she would wait any longer? There was mischief in his eyes, sparkling with something wholly forbidden that Cheri had always pined to take part in. Those eyes… Gods, the things they promised. She was tired of denying herself - of denying him - the fantasy any longer. In this world or the next, she would have Obscene for herself.
I cannot, he whispered.
She touched the earth again, planting herself firmly so her nose could roam over that smart mouth of his, and with the edges of her lips she snagged his cheek between her teeth for a brief second. Did he like that? She was curious, withdrawing. She gauged his reaction with a keen grin. Laughing, Cheri stepped aside and flicked an ear his way, tilting the pretty shape of her dark head in his direction.
“Then tell me something else.” She demanded.
The light from her wings shone behind her ears, haloing Obscene’s rugged features with a soft, nearly touchable gleam. Every speck of gold covering his face winked just for her. They were already close enough, but a sudden urge to do something drastic suddenly overcame the slender pegasus, and she had to resist the heatwave burning in her lungs. She thought of winding her legs through his, of pressing her narrow chest into the curve of his broad shoulder and leaning in. She’d tell him, I want you, Obscene, and he’d unburden all her troubles. It would be so easy to release all those pent up feelings. She was nearly there.
Cheri found it hard to catch her breath, but somehow she managed. “You know what I want, Obscene.” Cheri could hardly talk. The dark felt like was pressing in on all sides, when all she wanted was him pressing all of her sides. “Say it.”
If he said I love you, she might actually bite him. I love you was for siblings, for the times you wished a loved one goodbye. This was not their ‘I love you’, not if Cheri could help it.
This was the moment he took what rightfully belonged to him, Prayers be damned.
02-01-2022, 10:23 PM (This post was last modified: 02-02-2022, 01:01 PM by Obscene.)
Don't look back, nothing left to see I can feel you though, wake me from this dreamin
Time seems to slow down and all he can hear is the rapid thudding of his heart, suddenly not so heavy. Not so withered. She still smells of lillies and rainstorms, that floral scent that had haunted his dreams for all these years. She is still so irritatingly stubborn, so clever, so annoying. If he had always been a villain in her story it was only because she had been a thief in his. Stealing what he had thought belonged to him but now knows was meant for her all along. His confession is free on the wind and she glides down to snatch it and he is too caught off guard by her swiftness that he doesn’t even realize what’s happening. Can’t even register her teeth against his cheek as she looks at him as if he was the one worth devouring.
He is caught in the net of her laughter as a sharp hiss of want escapes him, brings him closer to her as she steps away. A dark chuckle quickly follows her demand as the darkness closes around them. In the distance, the fairy lights twinkle but all he can focus on is the beauty before him, the curve of her back in the haloed light from her vibrant wings, the feel of a strand of green hair caught between his teeth as he pulls her to him. There will be no telling. He was done with words.
No, he would show her instead.
There is no mistaking the unbridled desire flaring in those vermillion eyes, the hunger in those flames that dance around his pupils. It startles him to see a mirror image in her own pale gaze, causing his heart to stutter and his pulse to race, for that smug smirk to trace along his mouth brought on by unstable confidence. “You know what I want.” In that moment, he does. He knows exactly what she wants.
His teeth pull her close again, his star speckled chest pressing firmly into the curves of her own, and just as he releases the strand of her mane… Just as she whispers ”Say it.” A wicked grin forms on his mouth as he presses it just beneath her ear. Murmuring in a raw husky tone that leaves no room for mistaking his intentions. A name filled with worship and reverence. Her name, given as a prayer to the Fae.
There is not an inch of her he doesn’t greedily consume. There is not a single part of her he can leave alone, if only to discover what might make her say his name in a prayer of her own. His mouth follows the svelte curve of her shoulder but not before he had tasted the sweetness of her exposed throat with a heated kiss. Not before the way he kisses her leaves them both exhilarated, bruised, and longing for more. The feel of her, the scent of her, every fantasy he had dreamed of this moment coming to pass pales in comparison to the reality.
She is everything he had always thought she would be. She is everything and more.
Still, he remembers that moment long ago amongst the wildflowers. When he had told her he was undone by her and wondered if she had been telling the truth in wanting to touch him… What if this was still an elaborate lie? What if it wasn't real? Whatever his uncertainties… He looks at her and finds that he is powerless to resist whatever this is anymore.
They were both fallen leaders with their lands submerged to the sea. They had lost everything. They had nothing. Yet here in the darkness with her… It suddenly feels like he has everything. Her teeth pinching against the golden points of his glittering trails, the soft caress of her lips against his steaming skin. His muzzle is teasing as it traces across her backside, teeth grazing against her spotted flank, the red of his eyes rising to burn into her gaze with a demand of his own.
It had been a long time since Cheri was lonely. She tried to run from the feeling, simply scared and biding her time. But Obscene… he’d always been the one she pictured by her side.
Ahh, she moaned as soon as his teeth pecked at her skin. There was the pressure of his mouth on her neck for a moment, drawing fire wherever it went, building in heat until her back was curved but smooth to the touch. She could feel him, now.
Everything inside of her went still.
For the first time in a long while, peace overcame the young mage. Her walls crumbled, smothering any hesitations she might’ve had up to that point. Cheri would never known his thoughts in that moment, but Obscene had been right about one thing: he should’ve questioned Cheri’s touch.
Five minutes ago she’d been secretly terrified that it could kill him without her trying. She was a real and true danger to herself and others, being so impractical with her powers.
And yet the quiet settled into her bones, shrouding the passionate couple with a heavy blanket of security. Cheri knew then that she could never hurt him. Not Obscene. She couldn’t explain it, but he was a counterweight of sorts.
Something about him left her… perfectly balanced.
The blanket-spotted Appaloosa mare stopped questioning herself. There was only the scent of freshwater and their heat, mingled in a way that drove Cheri mad with desire. She couldn’t get enough of him; it felt worse than nearly dying, and more urgent than the threat of an apocalypse. She wanted him now, though the pegasus would’ve been just as happy to have him speckle her with as many passionate kisses as he had gold flecks.
She opened her eyes, filling them with the sight of the Fae Prince as he fit his body perfectly into hers. They melded together so prettily it felt like a crime, both their dark pelts equally black and svelte as the other so that you couldn’t tell them apart. Obscene had managed to work his way expertly beneath one of her luminous green wings, ever the trooper. Cheri would chuckle, if she wasn’t so caught up in the way he was looking at her.
She decided to do away with them, for now.
The wings exploded harmlessly, disappearing in a slow rain of cool, green sparks over them both. Now she was free to move underneath him, and move she did - twisting her heels and spreading her legs shamelessly for the black Prince. She would encourage him, then, but Cheri knew better.
Obscene needed no encouragement. He was well versed in these kinds of things, and for once Cheri couldn’t hold that against him. Not when all the hard work was about to pay off in her favor. Instead, she kept the silence and enjoyed the golden warmth he provided, her head thrown up and her mouth parted by a steaming hiss of satisfaction.
![[Image: Obscene-Pixel.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/fTkjKh9Q/Obscene-Pixel.png){kind=tracking}
