"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
06-23-2018, 05:20 PM (This post was last modified: 06-25-2018, 01:27 PM by Ilma.)
Ilma
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
It's fall again; life goes on. Tähti should be back from Nerine soon, Llowell is nearing an age where he could survive on his own (if he could defend himself that is), and the white mare stares at her reflection, no idea what to do.
It’s been a year since she saw Arty, and their last meeting didn’t go as she had hoped and expected. Now she has a son she doesn't know what to do with, a friend she’d like to know better but doesn’t dare tell him about it, so today, she just had to get out.
The river is a common land, not without it’s own dangers. Still, the gurgling of the water is a different sound than the lapping of lake water against pebbled shores, and she could use the change.
She’s been here a while, though. She is getting hungry, despite her first idea to meditate here instead of at home where she would be distracted. Now, her nose catches the scent of an apple tree nearby, and sooner rather than later, she follows it. The fruit has a bit of a weird taste, but, after downing the first one, she notices no weird changes in her stomach other than the knowledge that she is indeed hungry - when did she last eat? - No, she can take these. They’re just a bit old is all.
One bite leads to another, until she’s losing count. Probably around 10, and it should be enough to sate her appetite. She walks back to the shoreline, enters the water for a drink. She feels a little dazed but, with all that has been happening to her, no-one could blame her. She laps up the water, but when she lifts her head, it’s too quickly, and dizziness threatens to overcome her. She’d probably better get out.
Doing so proves to take more effort than usual. When she slips, she giggles suddenly - in the back of her mind she knows that she is acting weird, but oh, she doesn’t care. Hey look, she has a weird alien green spot on her right haunch - never noticed that before, but it will probably pass. Nothing to worry about!
When she finally reaches the shore, she is laughing all by herself. What an idiot she is! Hah, Svedka should have seen it. Hi-la-ri-ous. She wonders if Kagerus and Solace have ever moved so stupidly, and when she imagines her queens doing what she just did, swaying instead of walking, she burst into a hysterical laugh again. God, that is SO amusing!
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
06-24-2018, 06:31 PM (This post was last modified: 06-24-2018, 06:32 PM by Sunblaze.)
Sunblaze wanders aimlessly along the River, bored out of his mind. Perhaps he should visit Loess, he thinks. A year ago, when he'd first arrived in Beqanna, a mare - what was her name again? It started with a T. Theresa? Tara? Close to Tara... Ah, Taria! - had invited him there, speaking of loyalty and strength. He'd received an invitation to Ischia as well, but Taria had come first and to be honest, he doesn't really like tropical places. Oh, and he's started glittering recently. He doesn't feel sick, so it should be nothing to worry about. And Sunblaze has always liked sparkly things.
Splashing and loud laughter draws the Arabian from his thoughts. He looks around to see a winged white mare giggling to herself and walking weirdly. The sensible part of Sunblaze tells him to back away slowly, but he never liked listening to that part anyway, so he trots toward her, a curious smile on his dished face.
As he gets closer though, amused curiousity melts away into concern, especially after he spots a glowing green spot on her haunch and the unbalanced way she walks. "Are you okay?" he asks, his voice warm but not as deep as some other stallions. "Do you want to lean on me if you have trouble walking?"
@[Ilma] Sorry if there are any typos, still getting used to this time zone
06-24-2018, 06:37 PM (This post was last modified: 06-24-2018, 06:41 PM by Chemdog.)
These fermented apples were a delicacy this time of year and Chem was happy to return just in time to enjoy them. In the cool autumn breeze he plucked at them gingerly, his enormous size allowing him to consume a large amount he wasn’t willing to count. He knew exactly what he was doing, even sharing with a young bachelor passing by. The two shared in the fruit getting slightly drunker with each few and chuckling at one another’s slew of ruffian stories. The random meet ended with a friendly wrestle before the younger stallion shouted a ‘have a good one’ sort of phrase and moved off.
By now Chem’s head was delightfully swirling and he bears a rather stupid grin. His ears are flopped oddly and his steps are clunky as he makes his way to the burbling water’s edge. The pebbles shift and clatter underneath his hooves and the waters trickle louder at the disturbance in their flow. He lowers himself knees first into the shallow rush, flopping the last part of himself into the water with little control of his flop. The chilly water felt good, probably because his blood felt sort of hot.
“Well hello there.” His voice smooth and direct, so direct it is not apparent in his speech that he is tipsy. She has just come forward to start having a drink and maybe didn’t witness his descent into a laying position. Nevertheless he has the same predatory look burning in his radiant teal eyes and a crooked cheshire grin as usual. She is across from him on the opposite bank of a thin part of the River.
The other stallion's approach goes nearly unnoticed until he is right next to the mare offering his glittery assistance. Chemdog chuckles to himself and looks on unhelpfully. Perhaps she is fortunate the stallion came, or unfortunate, or perhaps it matters very little whether he is present or not.
chemdog
astra inclinant, sed non obligant.
oi sorry i posted at nearly the same time and did not see the first reply!
i tried my best to include him in the end.
didn't mean to exclude i promise! <3
She'd been doing anything to preoccupy her mind lately, including feeding the hunger of her wandering heart. The travels took her throughout the majority of Beqanna, though each passing week the terrain felt like it was getting smaller and smaller, leaving little uncharted territory left for the woman to discover. Nowadays there wasn't much left to her imagination, having seen and witnessed a great many things while completing her journeys. But today the recognizable sensation of suprise resonates within her as the path back home becomes entangled with someone else's she had met before.
A flash of white near her is enough cause to make her stop, and her gaze drifts to peer through a dying shrub. Shifting her viewpoint, the familiar white silhouette of a certain pegasus meets with her curious eyes. The leopard maiden can't help, but smile, realizing that she had not so long ago been wondering what her friend had been up to these days. Currently Ilma seemed to be preoccupied with satiating her appetite on some weathered looking apples, not entirely sure that such an action was a good idea. But for the sake of curiosity, she doesn't expose herself to the other woman just yet, watching with eager attention as she finishes her meal before moving to the river's edge. It's not long before she realizes Ilma is no longer moving with her usual grace, and Breckin's eyebrows knit with concern. What could have caused such a drastic change? At least the pegasus was laughing, she quickly notes; whatever was vexing her musn't be entirely too concerning then.
Emerging from the brush, she pauses beneath the apple tree where Ilma had stood just moments before. A thought flits before her mind's eye, wondering if perhaps the ageing apples could possibly have to do with the sudden shift in Ilma's behavior. There could only be one way to know for sure, she concludes, and the simple fact that she was willing to throw herself at anything tossed at her direction if it meant she could lose her thoughts in stupid simplicity. Not needing further internal encouraging, she is quck to consume several of the fallen fruit before shifting back her attention to the other mare.
Raising her head, Breckin's lips descend into a slight frown, mildly perturbed that perhaps the apples weren't the root of Ilma's problem after. Blinking, she takes a step towards the alabaster mare to come to her aid, but a movement that should have been easy becomes incredibly hard as she finds her step to be misplaced and somehow manages to catch herself from diving into the packed ground. Chest heaving and eyes wild at the sudden shift in her own mannerisms, Breckin struggles to find Ilma's frame that she knew should only be a few steps away. Finally fnding her again, it would seem that the pegasus had attracted the attention of two stallions and for whatever reason, the leopard mare suddenly finds that entirely too amusing. Of course people would flock to her, she's fucking beautiful!, she thinks to herself. Such a sillly thought from a silly girl.
She's not entirely sure how she managed to get to the other side of Ilma, but suddenly she's there. A goofy grin widens upon her face, as her lids become heavy, "Hey bish, stop hoggin' all the attention."
______________
Just for the sake of clarification, bish=bitch in the drunken language. XD
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
This was already becoming the most interesting and funny evening in months. Years! Forever! Definitely forever. She nods to herself, just as someone says something to her; hello? Her ears swivel and instead of turning her usual way, going forward, she moves her hind to make the 180. The stallion on the other side seems to burn his stare into her, and all warning bells go off - too bad she ignores them. She perks her ears towards him but, as soon as she does, she sees a golden figure to her left side, and she whinnies happily to him.
She's always liked a bit of gold on a man. Or maybe not, maybe just because that one boy (man, stallion, kid - all the same in one) is golden-coloured. Gold with specks of clouds on him. But this one... "Oooh, sparklyy. Svedka will be sooo jealous. He don't have sparkles." she tells him, a very serious, but glazed look on her face. Assuming everyone knows who's who, she doesn't bother to give her name, they're all friends together in this. Or... oh, maybe not. "Yushuld," she begins slurry, then frowns at herself, hearing it doesn't come across too well. "...have apples." she smiles, and nods to where the apple tree was. Oh, but there's another one over there. Spotted, not as perfectly white as she herself, but almost.
"Brackinnn. I'm too pretty!" she exclaims, aware of this fact as she has always been subconsciously, but never cared to speak aloud. She's too kind for that - normally. "Why I have mah babies. I gonna make some mooore. Whi' Svedka. Watch me." She takes a step into Sunblaze's direction, who happens to be in her way back towards Hyaline, and stops because she realizes something, so she turns back to the spotted mare. "Butcha cute too. Yoush'd make pretty babies too."
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
@[Breckin] @[Chemdog] @[Sunblaze]
Chemdog sorry for partly ignoring you, he should come over to this side of the river. She hasn't got a lot of short-term memory going on right now.
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
Oooh, sparklyy. Svedka will be so jealous. He don't have sparkles.
Sunblaze's thoughts can be pretty succinctly summed up as; What the hell?
There's a glazed look on the white mare's face. He thinks that it can't be good, especially with the black and white stallion on the other side of the River giving her that look. (When did he become so responsible?) He manages to untangle the idea that he should eat some apples from her slurred speech, and swivels his head to see the apple tree she's talking about. Maybe the apples did this to her. Nobody would act like this normally. (At least, Sunblaze thinks so. But then, hadn't the horses from before Beqanna thought that nobody would like sparkles so much normally? He still likes sparkles. But now he's being responsible for some reason. Maybe it's that Beqanna makes horses responsible, and the apples are the only cure. YES. IT'S A CONSPIRACY.)
(The sensible part of Sunblaze's mind wails in hopeless protest, but the poor thing gets ignored, as usual.)
He wanders over to the apple tree, determined to cure himself of the responsibility disease. Cautiously, he munches on just one apple. It tastes stale and old. Yuck! exclaims the glitter-loving part of his mind, the one that always overrules Sensible and sends it crying into a dark corner of his brain. For once, however, the two parts agree that he should stop eating, though for different reasons. Glitter doesn't want to get his taste buds anywhere within ten meters of those apples (perhaps it's an overreaction, but then Glitter always overreacts), while Sensible thinks they might be dangerous.
He lifts his golden head from the fallen apples, and experiences a slight lightheaded feeling. Hmm. Oh, what's this? There's another mare, white with black spots. She's pretty, says Glitter, partly serious and partly under the influence of the fermented apples. He canters over to her, any tiny amount of restraint he might have had forgotten in the apple's wake. "You're beautiful," he tells her, completely seriously. "See, uh..." What's that mare's name again? She never told him, did she. "Your friend," hopefully they actually are friends, "agrees with me." Who's this Svedka character? The pegasus keeps mentioning him. "Your wings look fluffy," he adds to said pegasus, and reaches over to press his nose into the feathers to see if they actually are fluffy. Sunblaze likes fluffy. Almost as much as he likes sparkly.
06-25-2018, 07:17 PM (This post was last modified: 06-26-2018, 04:43 PM by Chemdog.)
The scene seems to unfold at a rate he cannot keep up with. It’s not really clear whether it is laziness, drunkenness or lack of give a shit, but either way Chemdog is happy to simply observe from the other bank. When the speckled girl stumbles forward with an obvious hitch in her step and tip to her pretty eyes he could not help but deepen his grin a little bit. From across the river he could smell the faint flavors of their homeland. He recognizes it, but really it is not pertinent at the moment so he moves on with it.
He watches the sparkly stallion’s demeanor light up when the winged girl looks him over and comments. It is the small thrills in life that are really important, he chuckles to himself. Still now he seems to go rather unnoticed and he’s completely okay with it, looking on patiently as the pale woman turns to stumble off. She doesn’t get far, but the brigade is there for assistance, surely. What an interesting encounter…?
He remains comfortably flopped in the chilly water, small rapids forming over his knees and carrying away his chunky tail to intertwine with riverweeds. It feels nice against his clammy skin, the alcohol starting to work its way down from the peak and drawing a slight headache in his temples. He continues to keep an eye on the group from across the water, contemplating whether or not he may follow them to their destination…
Her perspective on the world was beginning to change, both metaphorically and literally, but more so the latter in her present state. Apparently the placement of her hooves had been misjudged and unfortunately for Breckin had been placed entirely too close together. When Ilma had shifted to move towards the glittering fellow, the spotted mare had, for whatever reason, thought that she had to move as well to allow her the space. As her body weight shifted, her lean was entirely too overshot and through dark eyes she watched as the horizon slowly began to tilt. Lady Luck must’ve been on her side, because by some miracle she managed to find enough quickly fleeing self control to regain her footing. Keeping her new stance probably over exaggeratedly wide, and her eyes becoming a little more wild, she looked over to where Ilma and Sparkles now stood. They had said something to her, she knew she should probably say something back, but just existing right now was becoming increasingly harder. The hell is happening to me?, she muses.
“Ilma, are you asking me to watch you make babies?”, she manages to blurt out with an intermingling of disgust and humor. Rightly she knew that that wasn’t what the pale woman was implying at all, at least she seriously hoped not, but the hilarity of the idea was enough to elicit a girlish giggle. She was beginning to find everything hysterically amusing.
“Eh, I’m aight.” she replies with a subtle shrug of her dotted shoulder in response to the both of them complimenting her appearance. “But thank you,” she quickly adds, suddenly remembering her manners. She may have been intoxicated, but she was still going to be a classy broad, dammit.
Breckin hadn’t noticed at first that the other stallion had remained in the shallows of the river until his ebony and ivory body catches her attention. Suddenly concerned for his well being, she makes her way down the opposite embankment, and rather inelegantly it should be noted, coming to a stop just as the water kissed her worn hooves.
“Ey guy, did you know that...” she pauses, momentarily forgetting what she was doing, “you’re gettin wet?” She giggles again, realizing that her words were somehow losing letters.
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
The sparkle stallion had agreed to take apples, to Ilma's delight. She cheerfully follows him a few wobbly steps to watch his reaction, and bursts out a laugh when he finds them entirely inedible. This laughing is only amplified when Breckin asks if she should be watching while Ilma makes those babies, and she waddles a few steps towards her spotted friend to bury her face in her neck, trying to catch air from the ridiculously overreacted, uncontrollable laughing. "No but. Good idea! Might learn... something." she chuckles.
Breckin leaves her side to address someone else who appears to be in the water but doing nothing. Still chuckling, Ilma makes a delighted 'whoo' sound when the sparkly palomino buries his nose in her feathers. "They aarrrr." she agrees wholeheartedly. She grins at the fellow in the water, and waits for his response. He sure is getting wet, Breckin is totally right to point that out. Obviously the spotted girl is very smart.
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
@[Breckin] @[Chemdog] @[Sunblaze]
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
White Mare and Spotted Mare (Brackinnn, as White Mare called her) burst into laughter, so Sunblaze joins in, because why the heck not. Unfortunately his nose is still buried in White Mare's feathers, and they tickle him so much they make him sneeze. Twice. Dizzily, Sunblaze wonders whether two sneezes means someone is thinking/talking about him, or insulting him. He can't remember. It isn't important anyway. Unless this is another conspiracy. Because conspiracies are important. Also bad. Conspiracies are bad. Unless they're good, which means a conspiracy against evil people. But Sunblaze isn't evil, so the conspiracy must be bad.
It occurs to him that he should probably remove his nose from White Mare's feathers. So he does. And then turns to watch Brackinnn talk to that other stallion. "You're getting wet," he points out belatedly. Oh no, now he sounds stupid and what if That Other Stallion thinks he can only repeat what Brackinnn says? He doesn't want to sound stupid! Well that's all right, maybe his stupidity will help make Brackinnn sound smarter. Sunblaze likes helping. But Brackinnn sounds smart already. Lucky her. So does she really need help?
All this thinking is making Sunblaze dizzy. So he turns back around to fluffy feathers and this time, attempts to rest his entire head on the feathers for a fluffy pillow. He's never had a pillow before.
