[open] one day it's here and then it's gone; leliana, any

[Titus]

titus

one day it's here and then it's gone,
how are you still holding on?

Chaos.

Destruction.

It rings in his head. It fills his thoughts with blurred memories. Memories smeared by thick blood. Screams of agony echoing in his ears.

He can feel the scraps and cuts against his flesh. Opening wounds that can barely heal. He can feel the heat rising, the magma swallowing him. Swallowing all of Tephra.

But it is only a dream.

Only a nightmare.

He wakes up in a cold sweat each night. Opening his eyes to see that the world still is alive. There is no magma engulfing him. No battle raging around him.

It is only a dream.

But a dream that haunts him in every waking and sleeping moment. Titus knows all too well that the dreams are true. The reality is that Tephra burned. The volcano exploded, swallowing all of it. All of them? He hopes not.

It’s been weeks now since he has stepped foot into the volcanic kingdom to truly know if there is nothing left of Tephra. He doesn’t have the guts to face the truth that another home of his has turned into ashes. But it is his greatest fear that is what has come to Tephra now.

The war had been too much. There was too much blood. Too much loss.

Would they always be truly damaged? Would they always be blind by their selfish motives? Their own morals and principles to dictate how the world should be?

The fairies knew then, or at least the stories he knows. They knew how corruptive, how destructive his kind would always be. Titus isn’t surprised they have demolished them all into an oblivion. Their humanity was only damaged goods. There truly felt like there was no longer any redemption for them.

Redemption, he stops suddenly in his thoughts. Perhaps that was what they would always be given. Perhaps they would always have a seconded chance to redeem themselves. A salvation, a brighter future promised tomorrow.

Titus cannot help but think about his conversation with Magnus. The memories of them fighting flash quickly back to him. He can feel the blood splattering, the sweat dripping from his brow. The only thing on his mind then was to protect his home.

To protect Tephra.


Tephra. He bites his lip. Home. His nutmeg eyes search around from where he stands, from where he has been the last weeks since the war had ended and the volcano had erupted (close to the border of Sylva). They quickly turn towards north, finding the tip of the volcano in the distance.

It stands there as it always does. Since he escaped from the explosion, he looked at it every day, hoping to return but never had enough courage to do it.

Until now.

This time he looks at it differently. This time he feels it calling him again. Just as it did on that day Tephra became his new home.

He doesn’t know when he starts moving north, heading on the worn-out path that leads from Sylva to Tephra. Only his hooves carry him forward while his eyes remain on the mountain top.

The smell of sulfur, magma, and scorch set his nostrils on fire. He inhales the aftermath of the war and volcano explosion. It burns his lungs each time he inhales. Igniting him on fire. But Titus doesn’t press away from it. He continues further into the territory, looking across the destruction that their differences have created.

Suddenly, he catches the sight of flowers scattered across the ground. Titus slows down, his gaze tracing across the ground. He stops abruptly in front of a single flower that pushed itself through the harden magma. Lowering his muzzle to the flower, he inhales the sweet scent from the flower.

A sign that there will be life again.

This was their new beginning.

His new beginning too.

son of rome and porcia
male, classic champagne appaloosa
ocelot-shifting, wings, immortality

character info: here | character reference: here
@[leliana] Just tagging if you maybe wanted them to meet. Anyone else is welcomed! <3

[leliana]

Magnus had told her of Titus. In their many conversations, her uncle continuing to guide her through her ascension into Queendom, he had told her of those who called Tephra home. He had told her of the families who had taken refuge here during the plague—forming their own small herds within the land—and those who had begun to trickle in, seeking purpose and willing to take up the mantle of the land.

Titus had been one of them.

Perhaps one of the most noteworthy.

So she had not been surprised when she had seen him show up during the war, even though her heart had ached that any had to be there, that any had to feel their flesh split and the blood fall into their eyes. She had tried to protect them, but her magic had limits—and she was still so new to it. Still so unpracticed.

But he had survived—she had done her best to check on him—and she feels as he returns. She feels as he crosses the threshold into the aftermath of the war and she turns her eyes toward the horizon, seeing through the ash that filters through the air and the faint smell of smoke that has yet to leave completely.

Without hesitating, she begins to make her way toward him. As she has lately, flowers fall in her wake, splitting open the hardened magma and letting lush vegetation break through. It is slow, her work to heal this land, but it is steady and throughout Tephra, there are pockets of it already in place. Water that is clean and grass that is sweet and areas where mothers can rest their children without fear of harm.

It is the only thing she can ask.

As she walks up to him, white flowers blooming in her crimson mane and greenery sprouting around her hooves, she gives him a soft smile. Her hazel eyes find his own and rest there for a moment.

“Titus,” she says his name quietly. “Welcome home."

it's only you and me there until the darkness calls
let's face the dawn together; we'll brave whatever comes

@[Titus]

[Titus]

titus

one day it's here and then it's gone,
how are you still holding on?

He had only ever heard about war in stories his father used to tell him. Stories that could never truly capture what war was like. The stories were not even close to what his father had said. Nothing that he had imagined either.

War was a much darker place than he imagined. It was beyond a nightmare. It was not something that simply happened and became a story to be told, but it changed everyone affected by the war. It changed lives for the better or worst.

Titus hopes it will be for the better for him. He can only hope that something so small, like this flower he stares at now, will give him enough courage to make a better future. To make a better future for himself and other future generations too.

The smell of faint smoke and ash continue to fill his nostrils, but the scent of something sweet and lively draws his attention away from the flower just at his hooves. Titus peers through his multi-colored mane where pieces have fallen, covering his face. His nutmeg eyes quickly set on the queen. Quickly, his expression turns into shock. He thought the volcano had taken her all these weeks ago.

She wakes with life. New growth trailing behind her—a bringer of life, a healer of destruction. His shocked expression quickly fades as he realizes she has been slowly healing the land from the war. In her every step she heals the land, working to bring it to what it once was. To something greater—a bright future for them all he hopes.

Titus smiles warmly at her welcome back home. “Thank you, Leliana,” he says, a bit surprised he knows his name, but he assumes Magnus has spoken to Leliana about who he was. It seemed they shared a relationship together when he first saw Magnus on the battlefield to protect Magnus. “I am glad to see you are here.” What else he could say? There was hurt and loss that happened across Tephra and even in Loess. Two places he has called home now. It pains him almost to think about Loess too even if he no longer lives there. It once had been a happy time for him in his life.

He glances to the ground for a moment, noticing how the magma once there is no longer there, but replaced with greenery. “You have been busy it seems,” a smile touches his lips again, “It’s good to see that Tephra is coming back together. It was a lovely sight to see when I first came here.” His nutmeg eyes meet hers again. “I know it will be even better than before,” he adds.

son of rome and porcia
male, classic champagne appaloosa
ocelot-shifting, wings, immortality

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

[leliana]

War is never what is expected. She hadn’t ever thought to prepare herself for such a thing—why would she, a quiet healer from nothing, ever need to prepare for war?—but she had experienced it anyway. She had felt the scars of it deep within her. From watching Rhonen fall and not being able to do a thing to stop it to seeing Loess rain down on Tephra and being little more than a half-functioning shield for her home.

She had known the bitter taste of war, and she wears the weight of it still.

Titus is exactly as she expected him to be though, and her smile is genuine where it touches the very corners of her mouth. “I have been busy enough,” is all she says regarding her own accomplishments because, to her, they are hardly that. They are penance for her own part in what transpired. They are the only thing she knows how to do to help after the destruction that she helped wrought.

It would be easy—to slip into the darkness, to leave.

But she does not deserve such beautiful endings.

She deserves to work and face everything she has done. She deserves to bear the brunt of it.

Still, he is kind and her smile spreads a little further, the warmth just barely reaching her eyes. “I believe in the Tephra that we are building. She is strong, and I know that she will rise strong than before.” There is a brief pause as she gathers her thoughts, looking toward his face again. “But I cannot do it alone, Titus. Magnus has told me of you, and I have watched you. I am in need of a General to help protect Tephra.”

She pauses, letting the sentence rest in the open between them.

“I would never ask you to do something you did not feel called to do, but if you are…”

Her voice trails off and she waits, watching him for a reaction.

it's only you and me there until the darkness calls
let's face the dawn together; we'll brave whatever comes

@[Titus]

[Titus]

titus

one day it's here and then it's gone,
how are you still holding on?

Titus knows all too well what it is like to slip back into the darkness. He has done it for such a long time that he has almost forgotten who he really was. The darkness was all that he knew, and how easily he slipped into and left it all scares him to this day.

If he had not been so silent back within Loess maybe he could have prevented what had happened. Maybe if he spoke up. Maybe if he didn’t let his own darkness take control of him. Then maybe. Just maybe he could have helped avoid what transpired between Loess and Tephra.

His actions—selfish, so selfish—leave him pondering what he has perhaps helped create. Certainly, he should have spoken against what was happening. But he never did. Titus forgot his own voice. He forgot Loess was truly his home and that Beqanna was also his responsibility to take care of as well (even if he was no longer the Head of War). The plague had torn them apart, and he watched idly by as Loess took the healers for their own personal vendettas.

Titus cannot do anything about what happened now. He cannot prevent the war or the death and blood that occurred during it. All he can do is move forward. There was no going back to the past. He cannot change the events that happened. But he can change the future.

The Tephra queen doesn’t say much on what she has accomplished with recreating the land. He doesn’t push any further—something told him there was more underneath though. A personal sentence she has given herself. It sparked curiosity in Titus, but he is not quick to pass over barriers that he does not feel welcomed to cross over just yet. It is only his first time speaking to Leliana after all.

Her smile is kind, he notices, as it grows further on her features. She speaks greatly about Tephra. It makes his own smile spread a little further too. He liked discussing the future of their home. It brought a sense of hope for the future everyone would have within the kingdom. A new beginning is what many of them needed—he needed it as well.

But Leliana’s next words are surprising. His smile fades away from his mud-splashed face. Titus carefully considers the expression and words that come from Leliana. The winged stallion is surprised by the offer—a bit put off by the kind gesture to even be considered such a position. “A general?” It felt too soon almost. Part of him felt he was not deserving of such a position. Others within Tephra surely were more than he was.

Titus turns his gaze away from the queen for a moment. His nutmeg eyes flicker to the land that stretches beyond where they are in Tephra. The memories of when he first came her and saw the volcano fill his thoughts now. Then he pictures the war and the disaster that Tephra has been through, and now a new image settles in his mind. He replaces all of those memories with what he sees now—a new beginning.

It was a new start he deserved as well.

This was his opportunity.

“I never thought I’d be given this chance again,” he says finally turning back to Leliana. He cannot turn away from it now. It would be the worst decision he ever made if he did. “I would be honored to serve Tephra as her general.” A warm smile quickly stretches across his lips after his words.

son of rome and porcia
male, classic champagne appaloosa
ocelot-shifting, wings, immortality

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