"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
Her ebony coat made a drastic contrast to the snow covered ground around her. In combination with her uniquely pink mane and tail she made a very striking site against the winter scenery. The dame surveyed her surroundings with dark pupils; the landscape was virgin with no tracks to be seen. The snow was fresh though, so the mare had hopes that this land was frequented by others. Imke had spent a year by herself, wandering the lands and familiarizing herself with the place she had long ago called home.
In her time along she had met a few, and observed many - some things about this place had not changed; such as the strange abilities and appearances of some of the inhabitants. The charcoal colored fae had yet to come across a land that had the ability to produce such unique inhabitants.
A stiff breeze brought the mare out of her reprieve regarding the uniqueness of the locals and her dark orbs again surveyed her surroundings, hoping to pick out another being in the rather desolate winter landscape. In her year of homelessness there had been a great deal of solitude. While some solitude could be pleasurable the dark fae found that in excess amounts it caused loneliness, which was very unpleasant. Imke had stayed away from the herd lands for the most part, preferring not to disturb those settled into their domestic lives. Though of late she had debated herd life for the company; for being an outsider could at times be difficult and depressing. The mare stamped her hooves though the noise was deadened by the snow.
take my head & kick it in break some bread for all my sins
Why Dahmer continues to venture into the Field in the dead of winter, he will never know (and, obviously never learn). The snow is cold and uncomfortable beneath his dark hooves and the icy air offers him no kindness, either. His ears are plastered to his head, hidden beneath the tousled mane they call their home, in the hopes of avoiding frostbite. It is a pointless effort, because they always hurt from the cold just the same, but he does it anyway.
His bright blue eyes find the only other individual who has decided to trudge through the frozen Field today, and he adjusts his course so that he is heading in her direction. Her black coat may match his, but her mane and tail cause him to blink his blue eyes a few extra times. Pink?
Nickering a greeting, the black thoroughbred pulls himself to a halt and tilts his head sideways to study the tiny mare. "Did you have to eat a lot of berries to get your mane and tail that color?" His trademark (and quite dashing) lopsided grin finds its place on his maw, and Dahmer offers her a semi-gentlemanly nod.
"I am Dahmer, of Tephra, and it's quite a pleasure to meet you."
01-16-2017, 09:29 PM (This post was last modified: 01-16-2017, 09:34 PM by Imke.)
The femme easily spotted the stranger approaching for his dark coat was as striking as hers in on the white landscape. His greeting was friendly and the mare allowed him to approach, as he came closer she notices his eyes were an appealing shade of blue - Imke felt a little bit of kinship for a fellow equine with a rather striking trait. He was larger than Imke - for she was by no means a beefy picture. Her Arabian ancestry was by far the most dominant of her motley bloodline, and gifted her elegant curves. The pony somewhere in her bloodline meant that she was of slight stature and the Friesian in her was barely noticeable, giving her hooves only a very light feathering and some volume to her pink locks.
His musculature was definitely more noticeable and developed than her own though that was an expected difference between a male and female.
"Actually, I look like my mother, so it's her fault." Imke said rather playfully. It was easy to speak about her family, though it was not easy to think about them. She did not know her full lineage, her mother had not been forth coming about it, and to her knowledge they were all dead. She did not believe she was the last of her line, for she was sure she had siblings and cousins, though she would not know them if she saw them.
The stallion's smile helped prevent Imke from falling into another internal reprieve. His grin had an endearing aspect to it. Imke angled her head in a coquettish manner.
"It is likewise a pleasure to meet you, Dahmer. I am Imke, of nowhere."
"What's your story?" The fae asked curiously. She was aware of how open ended the question was, but she had found that such questions let the individual tell as little or as much as they chose. She liked to know things, if she could not know them about herself than she would try and know things about others.
take my head & kick it in break some bread for all my sins
She turns to face him, her expression warm and amiable, just as Dahmer had hoped it would be. It made everything a whole lot easier when he didn't have to work through the maybe-he's-a-serial-murderer doubts.
She tilts her head, something akin to coyness crossing over her feature as she responds to his inquiry. Dahmer offers a small pout, "Shame. I'd quite liked the idea of hunting for berries together on our first date," his frown transforms, now a handsome grin, "but I'd like to thank your mother, I think."
Her voice is sweet and pleasant in his ears, offering the information that she has yet to be wooed. The stallion's blue eyes watch her closely, and her name rolls off his tongue warmly, "Imke," as he considers the mare's question. There is quite a lot that he could decide to tell her or not tell her, actually. He had lived an entire life in Azza, a world away from here.
Instead, he makes a pleasant hmmm noise and turns his gaze to the snow that surrounds them with mock admiration. "Well, I was born in a distant land, my mother was the fiercest soul I have ever known, and I absolutely love the snow," a pause and a wink, "One of those was a lie, but I won't say which."
The mare watched the stud intently as he spoke, hid mentioning their first date made her pause. He was a flirt, more confident and outgoing that she was by a mile. She could manage a coy smile and a hint of coquettish banter, but anything more was beyond her. But she thoroughly enjoyed the attention, and his smile was personable and attractive.
He begins to speak of himself, though he quickly turned into a game. The fae suspected the answer to his question was the third answer, but she didn't want to appear totally dense if she was wrong and so didn't respond. She instead chose to consider how she could respond to his question.
"Well, I'm from Beqanna originally, though my mother took me away before the cataclysm. I had heard that life had returned here, and I thought I should do the same. While my mother may not have been fierce, she was most certainly prudent." Imke stated. She also considered her mother brave, it took a strong individual to leave everything she knew and lead her daughter away through turbulent waters. Brave and stupid, but it had worked out in the end.
"It is obvious what I am doing here, and your reason is I assume, equally obvious. So tell me more of Tephra, Dahmer. What has that place to offer other than a mountain that belches smoke?" The charcoal mare's tone was still light, though it took on a more business like emphasis.
take my head & kick it in break some bread for all my sins
It is sometimes hard for the black stallion to speak of Desole. His mother had not raised him in the same way that other dams had done with their own children. He had never known the luxury that was childhood. There had never been time to goof around, what with their training, and when there was, it was only because he and Sid Malone had snuck away for the day.
Their time away from the Subway and from the hellhound that was Desole had usually been worth the repercussions that followed. Eventually, Dahmer had grown to appreciate his mother and her way of life. She had not been placed upon their earth to simply stand at Executioner's side. No, she had been his father's Hellhound and right-hand lady until the day the earthquake sank Azza.
He wonders about Imke's childhood as she explains her own mother, and he suspects that she had not grown up surrounded by sunshine and rainbows, either. "From what I gather, many stayed to face the Reckoning. Foolish, I think." He had been foolish at the end of his home world's life, sticking around to see if he could salvage his beloved Subway, to see if any of his dedicated congregation had survived the way the ground beneath them had crumbled. At what expense? He has nothing to show for it now. His stories and memories do not suffice.
Dahmer lets the memories drift away from him as Imke finds it in herself to be a bit more forthright. He chuckles warmly, letting his blue eyes linger on the pink-accented mare before turning his gaze towards the volcano of Tephra in the far distance. His bones ache for the warmth of his new home. "Belch makes it sound so ugly," he muses playfully, "I much prefer to say that it is gifting us with the pleasant stench of sulfur, though only near the base of the volcano."
He's silent for a second, his eyes returning to his newest acquaintance. "As for what else it has to offer... you'd have your own personal cuddle buddy every night. Can't get much better than that, can it?"
"I agree, foolish. But some just don't know how to let go." Imke responded to Dahmer's statement. The fae thought it had been very prudent of her mother to evacuate, and that anyone who stayed behind had been asking for death - but that was just her opinion on the matter.
The lady took the opportunity while her counterparts eyes were on the mountain to examine him more closely. He was well built did not appear to have any blemishes, a good sign. His comment about the volcano made her follow his gaze toward it. "Sulfur," It was a foreign word to her. "is that what the foul smoke s called?Is it dangerous?"
His next statement startled her; he certainly was a very forward gentleman. She enjoyed being flirted with, it made her feel pretty.But when it came to reciprocating the affections the black mare always felt as though he were stumbling and making an idiot of herself. "No it can't, especially if my buddy were as handsome as you." In her head it has sounded alright, not very articulate, but not a total disaster of words. "I've never been out of the common lands, is it a terribly long walk to get there? Mountains can be deceptively far away."
take my head & kick it in break some bread for all my sins
Clueless to Imke's lingering eyes, Dahmer gazes at the volcano of Tephra for a few more moments, only drawn back to the chilly Field by the mare's warm and inquisitive voice. "Well, it's probably not the best to stay by the source of it forever, but mostly it's just... unpleasant," he curls his lips up for a second before chuckling quietly, "I promise that you can't smell it in Tephra until you start to climb the volcano."
He remembers the acrid stench from his adventure to its peak with Lucrezia and the way it stung his nose for the first week or so that he'd inhabited Magnus' territory. These days, though, he could hardly notice it. Tephra had become a true home to Dahmer, who had only ever known Azza until his arrival in Beqanna.
Almost involuntarily, the black beast smirks and offers himself as a cuddle buddy, but he is more interested in the mare's physical response than her verbal one. He has caught her off guard, of that much he is certain, and the way she flushes makes the stallion want to keep that innocently embarrassed expression on her face.
"It's a few hours from here, though not strenuous. We can stop to sight-see along the way, if you'd like." Pivoting on his hindquarters, the black stallion looks over his shoulder to see if the black-and-pink mare is following him. It's be nice to have more company in Tephra.
+ tag imke + notes would you like to start a thread there? ♥
