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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    [private]  Leave some morphine at my door; Brennen.
    #1

    there's no religion that could save me

    no matter how long my knees are on the floor

    i'll pick up these broken pieces 'til i'm bleeding

    if that'll make it right

    Gods in heaven and devils in hell be damned, he returned.

    (And surely they would burn, or at least, they would wish they could once they realized what this meant).

    The Ischian landscape was one that utterly, passionately, irrevocably pissed him off the moment he realized that it wasn't changing the closer he got to the kingdom. What the damn hell was Beqanna thinking when it created this place? That horses like to fry to crisps? Or to take baths in ocean-wide hot tubs?? Where was his ice kingdom, his perfectly stereotypicalized and categorized bachelor kingdom, made explicitly and unquestionably for him and everyone of his ilk? What was with the diversity, the openness? There were no lights, neutrals, darks?! How the hell did anyone know where to go?

    It was fucking hard to be a cranky recluse if there was no where to be one. Jeez. (I'm Looking at you, fairies. Have no doubts: I, Nihlus, hate thee).

    The ankle-deep, low-tide waters playfully lapped at the stallion's bark-lined legs, and he viciously kicked back at it, splashing dramatically across the border as only he knew how. Storm clouds brewed at head-level and poored - literally in sheets - ice cold water into the sea, but it made no difference. There was too much sea and he would NEVER be able to make it a cold one, even if he spent forever making it rain ice-water.

    The clouds disappeared inexplicably: there one moment, gone the next.

    "What the fuck was Brennen thinking. Brother of the Tundra? My ass."

    And so, dripping went and in his usual huff of pain-in-the-ass-ness, Nihlus returned to Beqanna.

    Already, high in their holy thrones, the gods burned.
    Nihlus
    Every day it will rain



    (soo.. Volcan didn't want to play. Nihlus did. OOPS).
    Reply
    #2
    hold me in this wild, wild world
    'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
    Looking across the ocean towards the mainland, he is half dozing and half watching the shallow part of the ocean, the area where the tide pulls the water back enough from the shore as to allow easy crossing for those who have no other way to make the trip. It’s clear, spring bringing true summer weather back to their tropical islands. At least for a time – and then it’s not clear, the sky darkening over the ocean and over the sound of waves, the pounding sound of heavy rain. He looks up, eyes sharp, and contemplates the strange way the clouds hang low over the water.

    Probably not a natural phenomenon, then; yes Beqanna is weird, but not that weird. This storm is probably caused by a someone, rather than a something. It is a short trip from tucked just inside the treeline to the expanse of shore, but he heads that direction to intercept the stranger, even as the rain suddenly ceases.
    But – and he smiles despite himself – it’s not a stranger at all. And he already hears his name on the not-stranger’s lips.

    “It grows on you,” he answers, an amused lilt coloring his usual drawl. “As much as any of these new territories can.” The equine equivalent of a shrug as he ruffles and resettles his wings, tilts his dished face to the side. An exhale, and a layer of ice begins to form under their hooves, the air cooling considerably around them from even that slight change. “Plus, I nearly carry the essence of the Tundra within myself, so I’ve decided it doesn’t matter where I settle in the new world. Ischia seemed…malleable.”
    hold me in this wild, wild world
    and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
    BRENNEN
    Reply
    #3

    there's no religion that could save me

    no matter how long my knees are on the floor

    i'll pick up these broken pieces 'til i'm bleeding

    if that'll make it right

    It takes next to no time for the Sought One to appear - ever the diligent boarder parole officer - mister 'half dozing.' About the time that Nihlus snaps the clouds into nothingness, he realizes that Brennen has arrived. Slightly shocked at his sudden appearance, the stallion's lips accidentally let a wide, genuinely happy grin slide across them. It felt so good to see a familiar face.

    The smile stopped as suddenly as the clouds when he feels it reaching his eyes.

    "Well, if this is the best it gets, then I have some concerns." The harsh words don't carry any true weight, but he's not joking, either. Beqanna's change really did irk him - he had been a hermit back in the Tundra, a snow-dweller, a seeker of stability, reliability, and stagnancy. Now, all that had changed, and the best place in the new world was here - the ocean-version of the Deserts.

    Gag.

    When ice begins sprouting at their hooves, Nihlus visibly relaxes, his ears easing forward and his stiff back slouching. A moan - almost ecstatic, poor Brennen - escapes him, and his eyes close orgasmically. "You literally have no idea how long I've been looking for some goddamn snow."

    One eye, sheepish and mischievous, opens. "If you'll excuse me a moment..."

    Compressing his being, the stallion shifted quickly into rabbit-form and began rolling around euphorically in the snow. The ice particles clung to his long dark-brown fur and bark-lined paws, and his button nose twitched merrily. Hopping as only over-excited bunnies can, Nihlus spent a whole minute fooling around in the snow, backing up and zooming forward, sliding on his belly between Brennen's legs and seeing how far he could go.

    When at last he shifts back into horse-form, his entire body is coated thickly with snow, and the grin is back again: full force.

    "Ahh, Brennen, I knew I could count on you." He steps forward, breathing heavily, and bumps his chest into the stallion's. The gesture was the equivalent of a man hug, with the grasped fist and two pats on the back. Despite Brennen's admitted good-lookingness, some part of Nihlus just knew that hitting on him would just be so, so awful. He'd probably frozen in an ice cube and kept on display forever - worse yet, he might be laughed at.

    He steps back, still smiling. "So, tell me more about this new Beqanna, and how I fit into it."
    Nihlus
    Every day it will rain
    Reply
    #4
    hold me in this wild, wild world
    'cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be
    Over the years, many had come through the Tundra, for stays of varying lengths. Depending on his own current status – always a resident, usually high-ranking in the army, but not always mentally present - Brennen had engaged with some, and watched others from a distance, and become attached to a very rare few. Always they had his loyalty as Brothers, his protection if they needed it, but rarely did one earn any honest affection.

    He remembers the boy Nihlus had been. The colt had been the biggest pain in the ass Brennen had ever had to deal with, but he had grown on him over the years as he grew up.

    The younger stallion’s blustery, prickly exterior doesn’t phase Brennen. He lets him grumble at first, listening to the complaints and saying nothing; it’s not like he doesn’t agree. It took him nearly a decade, after all, to settle here. Nothing was his Tundra, not even close. And even accepting the Tundra was gone, he couldn’t even find a match for the merciless Desert heat or the soothing love of the Falls.

    They were all forced to start anew, and some of them were pretty old for starting new.

    The tension leaks out of the boy, replaced with pleasure, when the sand beneath their hooves becomes covered in ice and snow. If he is uncomfortable with the amount of pleasure Nihlus finds in the change of terrain, well, he says nothing; he does not begrudge his Brother these small joys. The amount of power it takes him to hold such a small area is negligible, or at least as good as, and he remembers what it was like when all of their powers were stripped from them at the beginning; it had been near to torture when he had been similarly bereft.

    The rabbit is a little harder to react to. It’s hilarious. And kind of cute. Brennen knows that Nihlus would react poorly to being laughed at in this moment, but while he is romping distractedly, the warrior can’t help but chuckle, allowing himself to relax, shifting his weight off of his right hind and settling to wait, unbothered even when the rabbit slides between his legs and under his belly. Let the kid have his fun. He does school his face back to at least a fond smile instead of laughter before the man retakes equine form, straightening to meet him in the equine form of embrace.

    He doesn’t say ‘I’ve missed you,’. That’s not the kind of relationship he has with most of his Tundra Brothers; he typically saves that naked honesty for the children that find themselves in his care, because they need it. It’s there, though, written in the affectionate look in the stallion’s amber gaze. He would never even consider that Nihlus might flirt with him. Not because he isn’t interested in men, though all of his great love affairs have been with women; he might consider it if the right opportunity presented itself. It’s because it’s hard to imagine yourself as even remotely romantically interested in someone you watched grow up, no matter that they are both very much adults now. He’s seen Nihlus flirt too often; oblivious as he is, he probably just assumes that’s the way he interacts with everyone.

    “New Beqanna is…lacking,” He finally speaks again when asked a direct question, something that can’t be responded to with slight facial changes and shifting weight. “Even I find it boring, which is saying something.” Old age had made him somewhat of a recluse, a loner even amongst the notoriously standoffish Tundra men, but this is just depressing. “I came to Ischia because it is still young, amongst the new Kingdoms, and seems like it could go in any direction. And it’s easily defensible nature called to me. There is nothing like the Tundra, so I had to make do.” He glances back towards the tree line and then across the ocean towards the mainland; his smile takes on a mischievous glint. “With the right influence, I think it could become interesting to live here.”
    hold me in this wild, wild world
    and in your heat I feel how cold it can get
    BRENNEN
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