[mature] Sidewalk scenes and black limousines (Neverwhere)

[Eyas]

As her black legs slunk alongside one another, carrying the shaggy buckskin pegasus from the nearby riverbank down into the open expanse of the meadow, Eyas licked her dry lips and pulled her tri-color wings closer against herself. It was late afternoon already, more like evening really - her dark gaze drifted up towards the sky and then returned to the path in front of her - but right now was the perfect time for the roving, disbanded loner to try and pass undetected. These few hours were hard on a horse’s sight; something about the way the light slanted turned everything in one’s foreground to black silhouettes.

If she focused, perhaps she could turn herself invisible for a little while. Long enough to slip past a few remaining stragglers trying to shove down a final meal before sunset. Eyas paused to consider how she would navigate through them, looking down at her hooves now and then to confirm that, yes, she was invisible right now. When the moment seemed right she drifted on again, walking nearly unseen and unheard through the undulating waves of meadow grass. She was almost certain that no one had seen her approach from the river…

Still, she held her breath when the most direct route led her past a trio of other mares and silently hoped they wouldn’t notice how the grass bent aside where she passed. One more to go, she managed to exhale quietly. Up ahead another horse was lingering, directly blocking where Eyas longed to be. Worst of all the breeze kept shifting; one wrong step and her horrid smell would give her away.

The pegasus faltered, trying too hard on deciding which way to go around them that for a minute her invisibility turned off and then on again, making it look as if a random equine was appearing and then disappearing in the Meadow.

All of which Eyas wasn’t keeping track of, ingrained as she was in her thoughts.


@Neverwhere

[Neverwhere]

One more to go

And, in theory, she should be the easiest to pass, half-blind as she is with the film of cataracts over her pale blue eyes. In the setting sun, her eyes are bleary and irritated, her eyelids lowered against the light and her cheeks damp with the tears that come unbidden, but she grazes stubbournly in spite of it, in spite of the red that stains her sclera. She stands like a blockade across the path of something unseen, unable to clearly see the way the grasses bend.

But, if she listens very carefully, she can hear the approach. And oh, she can smell it, whatever it is. Her nostrils flare and her breath is full of its odor, drawing the scent deep and, finally, curling a scarred lip in a snarl, yellowed teeth bared. Something sour and stale is standing nearby. Neverwhere snorts, sharp and loud, and she considers moving aside to let whatever magical beast is coming through go by, but she is disinclined to be pushed away from her grazing, especially when there is something almost familiar drifting below the scent of sickness. She lifts her head from the broad-leafed grasses, bits a of green poking through her lips, and swings her haunches away so that she faces where the invisible creature stands... roughly. She only guesses, really, since the sound of motion has died away and only the softest noise of breathing plays across sensitive half-ears.

"I'll admit, I don't usually care for magic, but if you look as bad as you smell, I guess it's alright this time."

As the last words leave her lips, the young mare flashes into view, and then away again, and Nev jerks her head to the left where a moment ago someone else had stood, a brief glimpse of staring golden coat, of black and blue, stark shadows where hip bones jut out. Nothing more than a sense of starvation and suffering and fear. Then, nothing, just the russet and gold of the autumn meadow burnished by the copper sunlight. The shadows have shifted further, their edges growing softer, blending into the twilight that hints in the valleys.

It is that smell of fear that catches at her, the half-remembered roll of white-rimmed eyes searching the middle-distance. For what? She frowns.

"Whatever is after you will smell you from miles away like a vulture following thermals," Neverwhere scolds, full of unasked-for advice, "And this flashing in and out is just drawing attention, even I can see you. Pick one and leave it."

@[Eyas]

[Eyas]

Neverwhere’s luck at avoiding one particular Beqanna family and Eyas’ luck at staying hidden intersected, crashing together into one smoldering pile of shitty fate, and the resulting event was their meeting one another. Of all the horses she might’ve crossed, Eyas hadn’t suspected it would be one from Nerine and one who knew her great-grandmother on an almost intimate level. This just seemed like too uncanny of a thing, them meeting out here like this, Neverwhere bristling and standing there like an angry badger knee-deep in grass.

“Easy for you to say!” Eyas huffed indignantly, dropping the charade and her invisibility. She doesn’t know yet that circumstances are what they are, or that Neverwhere had already discerned a recognizable scent underneath the layers of scum and matted hair. The roaming girl only knew that her ‘jig’ was metaphorically ‘up’. And that Never apparently A) Disliked magic and those who used it, B) Had no idea or very little understanding of her own appearance, making fun of Eyas like she did, and C) Was more than willing to engage whatever disturbed her rather than just moving on from it.

“You try being invisible and then come and tell me how that works out for you.” The young mare muttered, taking a deliberately stinky step closer to lower her head and tear at the grass underhoof in one sweeping, angry motion. The entire meadow didn’t belong to this spitting viper - so there. Her head popped up again, mouth stuffed with the remaining grass edible enough for digestion, and Eyas chewed stubbornly. “However,” She muttered through her mouthful, still a bit stern yet softer - not directed at Neverwhere but at what she’d said earlier. “I usually don’t care for magic either. In this case I just thought …”

She swallowed down the lump of wet food and let the rest of her sentence drift away.

“Fuck it. Doesn’t matter what I think. Obviously my plan to stay undetected didn’t work anyway.” She said, as if to prove the uselessness of being gifted regardless of the gift. What would this stranger even care? Eyas sighed, realizing the fruitlessness of explaining her situation to anyone at all. Especially this horse in particular; she eyed the silvery animal more closely this time and detected the familiar scents of Nerine wafting past her own stench. Whoever this mare was she seemed fit for the northern Kingdom, wearing a deep scowl and looking as if she’d weathered a hundred or so storms.

“I’m sorry if I disturbed you. I’m E-” She started telling her own name, then paused to think better of it, “-vion. Evion the nomad.”

Eyas couldn’t let down her guard just yet, even if this horse was from Nerine. “Are you a recruiter?” She wondered casually. Lying wasn’t exactly her strong suit and giving a false name had already roused that earlier fear and trepidation she’d brought with her out here. “The winters in Beqanna are kind of hard on the body… and I’m not very adept at this whole ‘loner’ lifestyle.”

@[neverwhere]

[Neverwhere]

The younger mare has a lot to say for someone trying to sneak around, and Neverwhere is quiet beneath it, breath passing through pinched nostrils with a barely-audible hiss. Even with fogged eyes, she can see that the stranger is in a sorry state, and certainly ill-prepared for the winter that is coming. There are places that will hardly be touched by the chill, and that is where the dappled mare would be heading, if it were her, but she refrains from mentioning them. Certainly this one is running from something, and who knows what - or where - that thing is? Her ears swivel, scanning for sounds around them, but so far there is nothing but the quiet crunching of horses grazing, and no scent on the air but one. She puzzles over that smell, she has only met a few horses since coming here, and at least one of them had arrived at the same time she did, there is no reason that anything should strike her as familiar, but whether because of natural differences or the stain of death that spreads across it, she cannot find he answer.

An acerbic challenge cuts through her silence and the dull gold mare steps closer. Shortened ears fall flat, but she exhales in a short, breathy burst that is almost a laugh. Trying to be invisible would certainly work out poorly for her, she is sure - as sure as anyone can be, who has not tried to turn invisible before - that such a feat is well beyond her abilities. Perhaps there is no reason to assume that, but she does, and holds it tightly. Neverwhere has no wish to be truly, physically, invisible, has no wish to discover what balance lies on the other side of that innocuous magic. And anyway, she is perfectly content with the wreck of her face, which Heartfire saw fit to show her once upon a time in this same Meadow. She does not much care what others think of it.

"Obviously not," she responds at last, indifferently. Pale eyes fix onto the girl's black ones when her story dies on her lips, and when she also forgets her own name - for a moment - pink, mottled, lips set in a firm line, as though to say I don't believe you, but the words do not come, remain unspoken, and Neverwhere only nods a small, curt, nod, but I am not going to ask.

"Well, Eh-Evion-the-Nomad, I can certainly see that. I live in Nerine but I am not a recruiter. Who would follow me?" she bares her teeth in a mirthless grin, but there is humor hiding in her voice, "No. I come and go as I please, and Nerine mostly leaves me to it. Are you going that way?"

Her expression turns to one of appraisal. To go North in Evion's condition would be a a taxing thing to do, the weather is quickly growing cold there, and the forage poorer by the day. It is not a place for the sickly. Not so stark as Icicle Isle, perhaps, but not so far removed. If the journey doesn't kill her, the exposure of the clifftops may.

"I can't imagine why you would want to go there, but if you need a guide..."

The blind leading the dead?
Even she has to laugh at that.

@[Eyas]
(ooc: FYI Eyas is welcome to use any magics she wants, or doesn't want, to use on Nev. I don't care lol)

[Eyas]

It does seem a bit odd that Eyas would metaphorically have to re-trace her steps North in order to find the peace she sought out here in the mainland. The North was where Heartfire lived, and wherever Heartfire lived was the promise of inclusion, possibly respite from the terror of Eyas’ changing abilities. The two mares had met only once face-to-face, and Eyas knows her inherent blood-bond with the Queen of Nerine is not so strong as the one between her father and the icy monarch. Heartfire may be looking for her like Eyas is always looking for her great-grandmere, but the way their powers worked would keep that knowledge distant and hazy.

She suspected that Heartfire could see Eyas through Wolfbane’s eyes, but reasons that the roan mare may have lost connection with her during the long winter spent on Icicle Isle. No eyes out there to see her and no bond between the two females aside from their familial relationship would leave a very cold trail for anyone with vision manipulation to follow.

But this mare may help to bridge such a gap.

“I was considering…” The young mare humored her companion, attentive to the mood and slight disbelief at someone in Eyas’ state wanting to go there this time of year. Wouldn’t take much imagination to figure it out when we arrived. The young nomad’s thoughts lent a smile to her own face, two black eyes sparkling at her innermost jokes. Perhaps Never would think she was just amused about going to Nerine.

Eyas, however, was too curious not to snoop for information. She chuckled and focused on the ruined tear-trails that left red, chapped streaks underneath her host’s cloudy gaze, feeling the steady rush of adrenaline that accompanied her specific powers. She had to tread carefully not to disturb the silver-dapple; Set had gotten the full brunt of her greedy magic and felt the intrusion like a rough shove. If she was careful, measured in her approach, she might bypass Never’s mind without raising any alarms. When done correctly, (like she’d done with Jesper) Eyas could peer through the veil and gather everything she needed peacefully.

The subject would feel next to nothing at all, except for a momentary lapse in their train of thought. Like going to retrieve something but forgetting what you needed along the way.

“You’re an apt enough candidate for leadership.” The pegasus murmured, her powers like a blank white wave that swept over Neverwhere’s brain, “Given the chance, I think you’d be surprised at how many other horses here would align to your… attitude about things.”

She smiled briefly, distantly, and then her power hit a wall.
Eyas grimaced, affronted by what she felt already in place when she went to search deeper through Never’s opaque eyesight. The whiteness of her magic met another’s, much stronger and much more firmly in place than the glimpse Eyas was perusing for. She could sense it like a protective boundary: white, like her own manipulation but tinged with a vibrant, electric blue color. “@[Heartfire]!”, the young mare gasped aloud, recoiling from Neverwhere’s mind as rapidly as she could manage.

Her great-grandmere and this mare had… they’d forged a bond already. Eyas’ own searching could go no further than the border set in place by her ancestor. “Oh Neverwhere.” She trembled, blinking at the sudden light as if awakening from a deep slumber.

“Do you know what you’ve done?”

@[neverwhere] I tagged Heartfire because she's mentioned so much in this post lol

[Neverwhere]

Darkness gathers, lapping closer to their hooves like the incoming tide, and a faint smile grows on the thin mare's lips. An exasperated sigh is already building in the expansion of Neverwhere's chest, breath drawn in while Evion lets her thoughts trail off again into silence and finishes her sentence with an unshared joke. For a moment, the straight set of Neverwhere's mouth grows more stern in the face of inner laughter, but she pulls it back, resets to casual indifference with a shrug.

"I'll be going back the way I came, ev... eventually... I..." Her own words trail off, lost mid-sentence in the dark cavern of her mind. For a moment, she dully wonders if Evion is, in fact, ill, and she has caught whatever it is. A hold out of the Plague? She had not been here then, and she does not want the Plague, but she almost laughs remembering a light-hearted conversation about starting one anew.

Lilli.

Neverwhere pulls her nose back with a startled jerk, a half-remembered cog falling into place as she sets her gaze again on Evion. Her eyes narrow a moment, the delicate, skin around them crinkling, confused, why does this mare's scent remind her of her friend? She cannot put the puzzle together, does not think it is as simple as shared blood between them, and shelves the mystery again, retuning her attention just in time to hear the other mare speak, serious, but with the distant sing-song of a soothsayer.

She almost laughs again at the dull-coated mare, a hard, sharp exclamation accompanied by a sneer as if she could possibly express her disinterest and disdain for assuming that sort of responsibility. She almost laughs, because before she can, Evion gasps wretchedly, and the whole world lurches forward. The laugh budding in her chest is pulled from her throat roughly enough to leave it raw, and she stumbles forward with the ground, echoing the over-fast retraction of magic. As quickly as it began, the sense of vertigo evaporates, and the silver dapple pulls up abruptly.

"I haven't done anything," a thread of mistrust laces through her words. More magic. "So much for not caring for magic, are you trying to give me a headache?"

She winces and pulls away from Evion, eyes shutting against the last light of the sun glaring angrily at the horizon. What the hell is that mare trying to do? Neverwhere wonders, and almost hopes that Evion is in her mind again, can feel the knife-edge to the thoughts. The pain of the sun in her eyes, and the recolinv of the magic dulls to a slow throb and she re-opens her pale, clouded eyes, focusing them on the other mare as well as she can.

"You might have asked. Like--"

Like Heartfire did.

Oh.

Oh

She remembers that Evion had gasped a name then, and tilts her head to one side. It's not unusual that someone else would know of Heartfire, but this sort of magic feels too familiar. Although, to be fair, she had felt almost nothing when Heartfire had stood here playing the same games, but there was a sense, a familiar flavor on the back of her tongue.

"What do you mean?"

@[Eyas]

[Eyas]

So Grandmother had asked, then. Or - as Eyas takes a moment to consider what she knows about Heartfire and what she’s seen during their single interaction - Grandmother had persuaded Neverwhere to agree. The dappled mare didn’t have to finish her sentence for Eyas to know who she meant. Her black gaze seemed less disturbed while it searched the intensity of Never’s cloudy focus, but it was also irritatingly condescending in a way Eyas had no right to be. Being privy to the innermost exchanges of a horse’s mind could give a young thing that weird sense of entitlement.

“I mean to say that you and the Nerinian Queen,” She alluded quietly, bridling her manners and steering them toward discretion. “have a very special connection.” Eyas sighed, thinking of the little salt-water succulents that grew in the marshy sections of Loess. The unsuspecting party had been pickling in a brine of her great-grandmother’s concoction, and her memories had a very distinct feeling to them.

Heartfire had the all-seeing eye and not only was it opened, but currently looking upon all that Neverwhere may-or-may-not envision.

She offered a blind horse the gift of sight, Eyas wondered to herself, biting back a frown. Indignant jealousy reared its imaginary head and flared both nostrils at the subtle ease which her ancestor used to cement the bond - that Heartfire could do it so well even Neverwhere was left somewhat in the dark. She scoffed aloud, shook her fuzzy head and glanced aside to the unsuspecting horses far away from them.

“I understand if you’re offended - that was rude of me, earlier.” Young Eyas sighed dejectedly, turning her ears down and setting her expression to glower. “I’m not very adept at what I do, not like —- well you know.” Her feminine voice lowered. It took her a moment to realize that her displaced jealousy probably went deeper than expected. It wasn’t so much that she was envious of what Heartfire could do, it was who she chose to do it with.

The studious hen-horse jerked her chin back around, glaring at Neverwhere through narrowed, jet stone eyes. “For someone who’s not so keen on magical gifts, you sure seemed eager enough to accept one without considering the strings attached.”

@[Neverwhere] she's just a jelly girl livin' in a grandmother-deprived world

[Neverwhere]

There had not really been a moment of persuasion, a moment where Neverwhere had ever stopped to consider consequences, a moment when Heartfire needed to convince her of anything. What Heartfire had offered was a lark, and what Neverwhere had accepted was with every expectation that it would come with hidden strings. She expects nothing less of magic. But, so far, the strings have not bothered her terribly, if she can see only in Nerine, it is better than the nothing she had before, and if it is suddenly gone one day, it will only be as before she met the Nerinian Queen.

"A special connection might be over-selling it a bit," she grumbles as the last pang of pain dissolves away in a haze of pressure. Her ears flicker, brushing away Evion's conciliatory tone with irritation, the scars on her face flushed a fading red and her nostrils drawn tight enough that her lips are pulled into a mostly-unintentional snarl.

"For someone who also claims not to like using magic, you sure use an awful lot of it," the dappled mare retorts, "and without much care, either."

What does this bedraggled bit of skin know about Heartfire or whatever relationship Neverwhere has established with her, and why should it matter to her, anyway? She bristles under the other mare's condescension for a moment, but then drops it with a roll of her shoulders, unwilling to carry someone else's burden so personally.

"We are all hypocrites."

This is not an apology, it is not an attempt to close the widening gap between them. She holds the winged buckskin in her clouded gaze firmly, the snarl of her lips becoming a cool frown, and flatly states what seems obvious to her. She will not acknowledge any regret for her decision, both because she simply refuses to do so, and also because no-one has given her a good enough reason to consider it. In any case, what's done is done and cutting those ties is almost certain to require further meddling with magic, and this she also has no interest in doing.

"In any case, I suppose I see some of your interest in heading to Nerine."

The younger mare is so hot and cold about it that Neverwhere wonders if that is really her intent at all. A strange thing to bring up and lie about, though, if not. The expression on her face is one of scrutiny, though what she can scrutinize with those eyes may be deeply questionable. Nonetheless, it is the most apt description. At last, she sighs.

"Can you do something about the stink on your skin? If you do come to Nerine, the easiest way passes through Taiga and I'd prefer not to draw Wolfbane's attention while I'm there."

Because I will have to kick his stupid face in, she thinks, the snarl returning to her lips unbidden. The chances that she could do it may be minimal, but she's willing to try, if it comes to it.

Neverwhere

...

@[Eyas] Was it your intention for me to have the Barbie Girl lyrics stuck in my head?

[Eyas]

Yes, they are all hypocrites. Every single one of them. Jesper, her father and mother, Neverwhere… Heartfire even. Eyas probably was the worst of them, hating her powers and using them the way she did. The way Neverwhere rightfully accused her of doing. But she can’t stop and, irritatingly, she won’t stop. No one but a magician could keep her at bay - even then they have a hard time expecting the unexpected or preparing for what Eyas brings to the table. Her existence is hypocrisy itself: outwardly Eyas desires to be good and wholesome, to use her powers for good and the likes of the righteous, but inwardly she finds that it often leads her to dark places and even darker realizations. It led her to try and commit suicide by starvation, only to slap her in the face with the reality of her own inability to die.

She is a mess, and her current state of appearance reflects this so others will see it too. A personal choice for a personal vendetta.

She’d never expected the blind to see so clearly. “Oh! Wolfbane will be the least of our problems, I can promise you that.” Eyas cloudy mood breaks at the mention of her father. Neverwhere had met him then. Good. One less thing to explain or, uh, lie about. “That greedy little pissant is terrified of offending Heartfire, and even more terrified of me.” The earlier juxtaposition of her happiness and sadness forgotten with the way Never seems to degrade her father. All is forgiven if the Nerinian mare hates him more than Eyas does. “All the same, I think you’re right; best to avoid him at all possible costs. Shame you can’t fly…”

From one disgusting outcast to another, Eyas contemplates their options and then sighs - deeply.

“Okay fuck it.” She concedes at last. “I’m not Evion - surprise. My name is Eyas and Heartfire is my… great-grandmother? Yea. Wolfbane is my dad BUT,” She emphasizes this last part, “I’m not inclined to be his little puppet anymore. I really, really need to see Heartfire and you have her on speed-dial.” The young mare quickly explains, excitement thrumming in her chest. “I’ll bathe and wash the stink off, and I promise to give us adequate cover through Taiga. Even Wolfbane won’t know we’ve passed through.”

Then she pauses; shifts from one leg to the other and grits her teeth again. “I gotta see Heartfire though. Neverwhere she knows we're coming - don’t worry.” Eyas feels a determination building inside of her. A new hope beginning to harden in her black, sparkling eyes. “If you get me to her, Nerine will be unstoppable. And that’s exactly what the rest of this horrible world is trying to prevent.”

@[Neverwhere]

[Neverwhere]

Suddenly, things are falling into place, and you might think that understanding would make Neverwhere feel better, yet her scowl only deepens. She's Wolfbane's daughter. Oh, she should have known, the coloring is off, perhaps, but that mane, and the almost-familiar scent that lingers underneath the stench of sickness. What is the magic that entangles Neverwhere into this single family line? That's the real question. She suspects that it is not Heartfire's doing, though perhaps it works rather conveniently in her favor.

"Of course you are."

She does not bother to hide the aggrieved recognition that mars her features as clouded blue eyes look over Eyas anew, but the young mare's assertions that Wolfbane is afraid of her do little to soothe the silver dapple. She may have magic, but he has magic, too, and it is outside Neverwhere's scope to judge whose is more powerful. Certainly something has driven Eyas to this state, to the point where she sneaks and creeps and lashes out when confronted like a fox with its leg in a trap. The striped stallion had not seemed terribly frightened of Heartfire during their last... conversation, but perhaps this, too, is a trait the Eyas shares with her sire, this bold bluffing that she uses to scare off others who cross her path. Such attitudes will beat themselves to death against the rock of Neverwhere's disdain.

She does not retract her offer of guidance, however, though she cannot help but wonder what assistance Eyas needs if she is, indeed, as powerful as she claims. Ultimately, it is irrelevant, her path will take her back to Nerine regardless of whether the thin buckskin accompanies her, but the idea of Heartfire spreading out a red carpet welcome seems unlikely and amusing enough to pique her curiousity.

"It's really nothing to me if Nerine is unstoppable - and I assure you, I am not worried about Heartfire - but if you have such important things to discuss, it's past time to be on our way."

So clean yourself up, and let's get going.

Neverwhere

...

@[Eyas] /end scene