baby you’re a renegade; any

[Lell]

Lell was a child’s dream.

She knows this in the way that all magical things know what they are and from whence they came.

Children dream such fantastical dreams! 

Which is why Lell is buttercup yellow. This is also why her name is Lell - a corruption of yellow that a child could not correctly say. 

She holds a horse’s shape of course. Though what breed it may be is anyone’s guess. Lell is likely to be the product of a unicorn and a chincoteague pony - somehow beautiful but also ridiculous. Isn’t that the kind of stuff the best dreams are made of? Beautiful and ridiculous.

But like any dream-thing given flesh, she is flawed because that is the way of the world. Nothing is perfect. Not even in the dream-world.

Lell belonged to a herd as brightly colored as herself. No two shared the same color. Every individual was as bright as a crayon in a Crayola 64-pack. Not only did their colors make them stand out from one another but each of them had a different ability that accounted for some measure of magic in their bloodstream.

The problem was that Lell couldn’t control her ability. Hence the first flaw in her character. She tried but most of her attempts were failures. It’s not easy to control shooting stars in the first place. Stars weren’t meant to be tamed or hitched to mortal desires for all that poor Lell tried. Usually there was someone nearby to put out all the small fires she started when she lost control.

Except this last time...

She was showing off. Trying to impress someone that she was now trying to desperately forget. They had stood close together with their heads raised to the wild night sky, manes blown back by the wind that blew over their upturned faces. A shooting star or two had gone by so naturally she tried to pull more from the fabric of space in an attempt to amaze. 

An attempt that backfired when they began to rain down around them. Many small fires started. Bright colorful skins were singed. Chaos reigned in the dreamscape that night as the herd stampeded and snorted and fire chased them from the meadows they’d always known. No amount of apologizing could save her then. Lell was cast out from her home-herd never to return.

It only got worse from there -

Once she left that particular dreamscape, she acquired a new ability. Lell discovered that she could dissolve into fairy dust and travel that way. It was easier to cross worlds and jump dimensions when she was nothing but a scattered shimmering of dust. However this too was flawed in her. Whenever Lell sneezed (and it was often enough to be a problem), it triggered the dissolution of herself into dust. 

It was an inconvenience.

Lell was an inconvenience.

She happened upon Beqanna in a fit of sneezing and fairy dust. Eventually the fits subsided into quiet hiccups as the little mare got her first good look at the land through eyes as gray as a raincloud. Field. Forest. Meadow. She was doomed! The land was far too flammable for her liking but she was tired - so tired. Still hiccuping, all she could was hang her head and look glum.

[Astrophel]

As the days and months (even years now) pass by, he begins to forget what the world above him was like. A world that Astrophel tried so much not to forget. However, it’s hard to hold onto the memories. They are fading faster than he thought. A memory he truly wishes to never let slip away, but they do, disregarding every effort he puts in to remember his home. It was a home he thought he could never be torn from—the very stars itself. There was tranquility there despite the all the darkness that surrounded him. It was within the darkness that he had become one with the celestial beings. He had become part of something greater than himself, and just being connected with them all was enough for him. But he does not feel them anymore. He cannot feel their presence, no longer the warm cosmic essence that filled his heart. It aches so much, black and hollowed. Some days are easier than others, and some are hard. He longs for the embrace of the stars. To be wrapped up and be one with them again—he would do anything. Astrophel often questions if he is here for a reason. A purpose that he was brought her to fulfill, but he does not find himself motivated to truly seek it out. He finds himself sulking more than anything. This earthly world was never his home even if he had been created and shaped into the very elements of this world. He moves across the familiar grassland. The long blades of grass gently brush against his underbelly. His bright blue eyes search across the meadow. Everything remains in their familiar places—nothing ever truly changes here except for the occasional new face. It seems today a new face does find its way to the meadow. She was colorful—this new face in the meadow—a buttercup yellow. Astrophel had seen colorful horses before her, but hers was different. It reminded him of a star in the far off distance just like the many stars above that brightly lit the black night sky. The star boy makes his way to her, hooves finding their way easily on the familiar pathways of the meadow. “Hello,” he greets warmly. Astrophel drops his head at the level of the other mare, blue eyes watching and examining her. “Why so glum today?” He cannot help but ask. Astrophel never liked anyone to be so glum—even if he was glum himself he rather make another person happy.

character info: here | character reference: here
@[Lell]

[Lell]

The hiccups didn’t stop. They stayed with her but never got loud enough to bother anyone else. She was glad of that small mercy. It was still ridiculous to be standing there with the grass tickling her lips and doing nothing about it. Considering that grass-tickles could spark another round of sneezing and dust-transformations.

Lell flings her head up. Okay, breathe. It is a mantra that is repeated in her head for the space of a few eye-blinks. Then she abandons it to count stars. Except Lell can’t see any stars in the sky - too bright, still daylight. In her head, it’s raining stars upon a dazzling plain and a herd of fanciful-colored horses. 

Cerulean.

Viridian.

Amethyst. 

Stars become colors. All the colors of their skins. Bays were bright like blood and pennies. Grays rivaled driftwood and ash. They were not without their spots and stripes too! One was similar to a grassy-green giraffe. Yet in the midst of stars and colors, there comes a stallion of fresh poured cream. 

Lell immediately lifts her head higher to see him better. The gray of her eyes have brightened to a fever pitch - could one of her brethren be here too?! No! That is impossible! She is the first to be cast out of the dreamfields for her impudence. Her face falls again at this thought.

She really hadn’t meant to set their part of the dreamlands on fire but she had been trying to impress someone and naturally it backfired. Then she frowns noticing the lack of shadows at her feet. When had night fallen? It sure happened fast around here! Plus she had forgotten about him until his nose is scant inches from her own and a pair of blue eyes startle her from her misery. 

Oh he really was too kind! Asking her why she was glum but she figured that was too long of a story to launch right into. “Oh I am, I am!” her voice comes out in a singsong child’s chant. But he’d asked why not was and she was obligated to answer him. “Nothing is going right and I’m so very far from home!” she blurted out.

@[Astrophel] ❤️