"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
The sapphire haired male stirs from his broody musings. He is no longer obligated to see Mary. She made a point of keeping the kids from him so, why reward her by torturing himself with the past? With a shake of his head, as if to shake the self-destructive thoughts right out, Velk moves forward. The smoky black and white is in no rush so an easy walk will get him where he needs to go. Not that he needs to do anywhere. What he needs is a distraction.
Since coming to Loess, he had kept to himself. He made a point of not seeing anyone just because he could not predict what he might do or say. He certainly did not need to go off on the wrong person and cause drama within his father's kingdom. As his jagged hooves slap the sodden earth, Velk decides that what he needs right now is a good roll. With all of the spring rain, the ground is soft. The grasses are tender and easily uprooted.
Blue eyes locate a bald patch among the green fuzz and he marches towards it. He extends a forelimbs and vigorously digs into the soft soil. He churns it as he marches in place and spins about. Once satisfied with the dirt pit he has created, limbs fold underneath his chassis. He sinks into the warm mud with a grunt and a thud. It had been a long while since he had given in to the simple pleasure of rolling. For a moment, he lays there just soaking up the mid-morning rays. His hide absorbs the heat and, soothes the stiffness he has been ignoring while he has been sulking. Finally, Velk leans back and presses his left cheek into the dirt. He rubs the left side of face into the earth before limbs reach as far away from his body as possible. His hooves scratch at the soft ground until they find traction. With a push from his feet and a pull of his muscular shoulders and back, the stallion rotates so that his limbs reach into the clear blue sky.
The effort is not enough to roll him onto his right side but, he relieves an itch on his croup that he was unaware of until now. He tries one more time and, this time, the tovero steed is able to roll over. He groans in relief as he presses his right cheek into the dirt and begins to rub his right shoulder and hip into the earth. He repeats the process of rolling over, alternating between sides until both are evenly loose and, all itches are relieved.
Velk
Velk is a Castile x Solace twin. He is sore on love right now but, is typically, fairly broody. He needs to meet some new faces so, feel free to crash his party or, join it!
09-22-2019, 09:02 AM (This post was last modified: 09-22-2019, 09:23 AM by Oriash.)
She has spent so much time exploring lately that she’s barely been in Loess. Today she decides to stay, not that anyone would notice one way or another. She lives here, but her presence isn’t really know and she’s never much tried to change that. Slowly she’s begun to change that, slow being the key word. There are very few here that she knows, and she hasn’t really cared much about the politics that surround kingdom life.
Less slowly, that is beginning to change. The shadow of her mother looms too large above her. A shadow she is quickly growing tired of living in. It seems the only way to remove that shadow is to become her own, for good or bad.
The day is beautiful, the sky clear, the grass green beneath her feet. It gives her no need to paint, really, but she paints anyway. The deer she’s created for Pteron materializes, trailing her slightly, though it stops to graze and keeps a bit of distance as a real deer might. She’s grown fond of it, and of whom it reminds her. The only true friend Ori has.
The shadow of her mother gnaws at her, even as her concentration stays on the deer. The possibility that she would never escape Kagerus shadow is too real, and some part of her considers painting herself to look more like Solace and less like Kagerus. She is both of them though, a perfect combination of the two, and she can’t bring herself to take that away no matter how she feels about always being recognized simply as “Kagerus daughter”. Even if she wants to be anyone else.
She is not anyone else though. She is Oriash. She is herself.
Her mind is lost in thought and she’s rather close to the stallion before she finally notices him. It’s far enough away as to not be embarrassing, but too close to avoid actually talking to him now. Not that she should avoid meeting other Loessians, and besides, she needs a distraction from her thoughts. If she keeps it up, her mothers are likely to start materializing beside her despite her better control over her power, and she doesn’t particularly want that.
The stag is rolling back and forth, covering in dirt and mud, and she finds herself a little jealous. Antlers and rolling don’t mix. There is a brief period each year where they shed and she is granted such luxury, but they are large and imposing and heavy atop her head this time of year.
”Looks like fun”, she says, without a hint of sarcasm. It does look like fun, after all, and she doesn’t much care if she’s covered in dirt or not. Who exactly is she trying to impress? No one, and yet everyone. Impress is not the right word though. Maybe she’s just make herself infamous. She can only imagine “wow, look at the daughter of Kagerus gone terribly wrong. I wonder what happened.”
In every scenario, she is still her mother’s daughter. ”I’m Ori,” she offers, standing rather awkwardly nearby. It really would be preferable if she could just join him. Damn antlers. Damn Kagerus.
***
Phone post, but I couldn’t resist. Ori has NO idea Solace has kids with anyone other than Kag and also she basically don’t know any of her siblings. Maybe they can discover this.
@[Velk]
Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission
The sound of approaching footfalls is lost with the stallion's grunts while rolling. However, her words startle him and, he attempts to gather his limbs and pull himself onto his hooves. His attempt is unsuccessful as he is much too clumsy to pull off something so agile. The smoky black and white sinks back into the mud pit and rests on his elbows. His sapphire blue gaze attempts to make out the figure standing at the edge; however, his field of vision is blocked by caked mud caught in his eyelashes. What he can make out are a pair of large antlers on the top of its head. The only being he knows with adornments like that are Kagerus. He swallows a huge lump in his throat at the thought. He had not seen her in ages. What would she think of the stallion he has become?
Velk takes a moment to calm his darting thoughts and control his breathing. He could not bear to look like a colt caught off guard. Hind limbs draw towards chassis and front limbs dig into the dirt. Haunches push off of the soft ground and, in a moment, Velk is upright. He dips his head towards his right fore and proceeds to rub off the caked dirt from his vision. Next, a shake starts at his head before it ripples down his entire body. When finished, his sapphire gaze meets the blue pair of the buckskin and white painted mare. Her poll is indeed crowned by an impressive track of antlers though, she is not Kagerus. He sees this now and exhales a silent sigh of relief. Then, the nagging sense of familiarity finally clicks and makes sense. She looks a whole lot like Solace! Velk knew his moms had other kids out here but, what are the odds he would bump into one of them?
At long last, his awkward stare and silence ends and he finds his words. "It was quite fun. I imagine your antlers make it difficult though. I am Velk." With his introduction out of the way, the smoky black tovero decides how to proceed. He wanted to know what familial ties she has. Someone else might have recognized that jumping right in is not socially appropriate or proper. However, this is Velk. Broody, love-sour, awkward Velk. "You remind me of someone, Ori. Where do you hail from?"
It seems she has managed to interrupt him, which she feels a little bad about. That had not actually been her intention. Her intention had been to wander around aimlessly as she usually does and not actually talk to anyone, though it had felt rude to blow right by him. Of course, perhaps it was more rude to interrupt his dust bath. She doesn’t actually know. It’s not as if anyone taught her how to behave or how to even be a horse really. Ori has spent her life pretending to figure it out, which is to say fumbling through most every encounter she has ever had.
After all, she’d been stolen away and gone with Castile quietly and pleasantly. That is not normal behaviour. But then again, no one is likely to call her normal. There are worse things.
It takes him some time to get up, but she waits patiently, feeling rather guilty at this point. He could have just stayed on the ground rolling around, it would not have offended her. Little does she know though that their thoughts now, at the sight of her antlers, are on similar topics. It is hard to escape Kagerus, even for a girl who never really knew her mother. She would be rather glad to know that Kagerus sends his thoughts darting around just as much as her own. Not that she can read minds, which is perhaps a good thing (though sometimes it seems like a useful skill).
Once standing, his response sets her at ease. He doesn’t seem annoyed. He doesn’t mistake her comment for being something other than good natured. In fact he seems rather pleasant, considering how he had just been stopped from what looked like a good roll. His second bit is less pleasant to her, even though she knows he doesn’t mean it that way. After her encounter with Eurwen on the Mountain, Ori tries to school herself into some semblance of calm rather than irrational anger.
In truth, he hadn’t just come out and assumed, which is sort of refreshing. He may think he’s diving in, but as compared to her usual experience, he is being quite polite about it. Usually “I assume I remind you of Kagerus?” she asks, not quite answering his question but answering the point of it anyway. Ori tips her head a few times, emphasizing the antlers that tower atop it. Those and the leopard spots usually give her away. “She is my mother, along with Solace.” She feels the need to add Solace because Solace’s name never comes up, though it deserves to. Ori looks like both and she doesn’t actually hate Solace. Her feelings for Kagerus are far less kind.
but they forgot that nightmares are dreams too.
@[Velk]
Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission
Velk
