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    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]  Blinded by your sideways smile and the kindness in your eyes; Castile
    #1

    Ilma
    And there's a lesson waiting to be learned
    the firestarters always get the burns
    and the good guys never get the girl

    How often will I have to come fix things with Loess?

    First I had almost been stolen away, yet Lady Luck was on my side, instead I stole the mare who’d thought she could steal me. I’d hoped that had been enough of a lesson, and after she told me her idea was to let me go and Hyaline (as it was) would owe her, I returned her with the same condition. Bad for Loess, good for me. As it was, Kagerus had back then, had to return to fix the mess that had been made by the (slightly overdone) message they’d sent to Loess in the meantime.

    I did not intend to make the same mistake now, so when a steal was attempted towards Loess and Litotes was whisked away for it, I figured that he would just sit out his time and that was that. My queens went so far as to name another Primarch, which I had found strange but not questioned: I figured that maybe Litotes liked Loess better.

    After all, he did not return upon change of leadership, while I was pretty sure Castile would not have kept him if he really disliked it. No new terms for freedom were discussed either… maybe I’ve assumed too much.

    The third time would be Oriash - the child, hardly weaned at 6 months old, that was last born from Solace. I simply waited for the result first, figuring we would discuss this when the dust settled.

    Things turned out less simple than that. The moment I set foot in Pangea to seek out it’s leader (and to replace this leader if they wouldn’t show, or if I didn’t agree with them), a challenge echoed. Litotes. But our long-lost member, even though he recently returned to see his daughters, was not there on the Cove’s business. Loess had come to steal from the Sanctuary once more, within days of the other steal.

    Is it just me or are they out to get me? Is this my fate? To squabble with the neighbours that should have been our friends?

    I haven’t wasted any time. I’ve turned around, awaited the challenge that I already knew would never be fought, and returned to speak to Litotes - finally, I think. Ironically, the last time I’d really spoken to him was on a diplomatic mission to this very place, Loess. On a mission for a queen who would later expel him of his leading title. No wonder he wanted to get back on the Cove - but I sincerely hoped he could see that things had changed there, whilst he had been away.

    But to have Loess against me once more? To find that my friends - former friends perhaps by the look of it now, which saddens me a great deal more than it angeers me - are working against me... I’ll have a hard time forgiving. Litotes and I might not have ever had the chance to become real friends, but Cas...

    I can forgive him a whole lot of things. More than average, even.

    But to pull my world from beneath my feet when I’ve just made about three paces forward, is a very big hurdle.

    And so, my amber eyes shine perhaps a little too hardy and brightly when I come looking for him this time. But this time there should be no doubt as to why I disapprove of his behaviour.

    and shooting stars cannot fix the world


    @[Castile]
    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.
    Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time
    #2
    and underneath the layers, I find myself asking what's left
    a hollowed out form, the skeleton of a ghost, the pitiful echo of what once was
    Somehow, he knew she would return. Somehow, he knew to wait for her.

    The talons recede into hooves and the scales are replaced by hair. Here, at the lip of the mountain’s cave, Castile is able to shift and embrace his new self in a leisurely manner. Family – including his parents and children – frequent the mouth but wander as they please. He spares each of them a glance when Ilma’s scent catches on the breeze. A jagged smile splits his lips which is met with one similarly by Reia. ”Would you like to join me?” An enthusiastic nod answers his question and together they take flight only to soon land near the border.

    Reia lands less gently than her father, her eagerness and brash personality immediately presenting herself the moment she glimpses the outsider. ”What do you want, outsider?” Her canines peek out from between her lips as she edges closer, the blue flames along her crest crackling defensively until Castile presses his mouth to her, unfazed by the fire kissing his skin. ”Settle,” he murmurs into her before raising his head and observing Ilma.

    Her frustration simmers underneath her diplomatic expression, and he knows why.
    Suppressing a smug grin is difficult but somehow he manages it as he finally greets her, welcoming some humor between them despite their previous – and current – encounter.

    ”I’m beginning to think you have a crush on me with all these visits, Ilma.”



    castile


    @[Ilma]
    #3

    Ilma
    And there's a lesson waiting to be learned
    the firestarters always get the burns
    and the good guys never get the girl

    I didn’t - don’t - didn’t - trust my voice enough to call out right away; in fact I’d hoped to remain here long enough for my anger to completely fade. But it doesn’t - still lingering, it surfaces every time I even remotely think of Solace, or Oriash, or Litotes who had come to trust the Loessians who stole him and those who purposefully kept him, over us back in his home. In truth, perhaps I am disappointed in myself as well, and know that I wasn’t good enough - quick enough - to help prevent all this. Not quick enough to approach Lie right after my temporary coronation, not good enough with my intuitions and visions to know Castile was aiming for our former queens' latest child.

    But then a young semi-dragon comes at me, and her ‘defensive’ way of greeting me makes me smile at her. Not in the usual warm motherly way, to be honest - but that of a mother seeing a child misbehave and can’t help but smile at it’s silliness just a little. Of course, I let it fluidly go over into the more signature warm smile quickly. I’m not here to start a war, in fact I'm still hoping to leave on good terms (though it's lessening with each defiant glance I receive). Still, I do want to make a remark at her, for the sake of perhaps teaching her a tiny bit of diplomacy - something her father hasn’t done or doesn’t care too much about perhaps. ”Outsider? Is that how we’re greeting neighbours nowadays?”

    I half turn to Castile saying this - obviously he hasn’t bothered to tell his daughter about any whatever-kind-of-social-relationship we had. Obviously he hasn’t taught his daughter about who rules where and who else is perhaps of influence (if the change of crown had gone unnoticed somehow, I'd still be a high ranking ambassador in the Cove to him). Information lacking for a princess older than Oriash, if I’m honest.

    He opens with a jest and, thankfully, my name so that his daughter (the relationship is so obvious) can keep up. However, I can’t say that he can wholly lift the mood with one joke. My remark is maybe not snippy in tone, but I’m sure he’ll catch the hidden disappointment anyway. ”Too bad you keep giving me mixed signals, Cas.” I smirk. It’s a face relatively new to him, I’m sure - to anyone, really. But he happens to get under my skin. One could consider that an achievement, I suppose.

    In all honesty, it might have worked between us - in the past. If he hadn’t been with Solace before we met, or if he hadn’t been too busy beating himself up about it when we did. If I hadn’t restricted myself to not moving forward with someone who was the father of my friend and queens children - there had been a boundary there. If he hadn’t taken Lepis’ side more than mine in a conflict that she’d started herself - without thinking, without blinking an eye; without really asking or considering my feelings. If he hadn’t been with Sabra at the other time we met, if he hadn't threatened her for having a child she never wanted in the first place (unfortunately for him, I could relate with her too well). If he hadn’t so violently taken the Resort. If he hadn’t stolen from me… If I hadn’t been a ruler for maybe a few weeks or less, when he made that move. If I wasn’t feeling like he had betrayed me… Right about now, I could even believe he might have had a hand in Litotes’ anger towards the Cove and his (unnecessary) way of gaining Pangea - fighting instead of just coming to talk to me. Or to Dawn. Or anyone really.

    Perhaps then, this rude girl would have been mine, and wouldn’t be glaring at me so much. I certainly think I’ve raised my children better and would have done so with her too - dragon or not.

    But it isn’t so. These things happen, these things are, and last we spoke I told him I disagreed with his methods and am disappointed. I still do - and I can’t understand why he thinks we’re still on joking levels after this last move, his going behind my back. If he had wanted something from me, from the Cove, I would have been inclined to simply give it had he asked - but no.

    Actually, he is the one who doesn't leave me alone, in that regard.

    It is too much effort to keep my composure, and so I look away one moment, outing a silent yet probably visible sigh before capturing the mismatched gaze I know too well. Kind eyes, sorry eyes - but I don’t really believe in them any more. ”You have an interesting way of congratulating a friend with a throne.” I open with, much more neutrally than my reaction to his earlier joke, bordering on sadness - I look at the girl one moment; a short glance as she reminds me of something that happened long ago in Hyaline - she reminds me, simply by being a girl and being here - then back to him.

    I really don’t need this nonsense of circling around the bush.

    So maybe we’re no longer friends. I don’t know. Maybe I’m forced to play his stupid game of crowns and steals and challenges, and maybe I don’t want to play. Maybe I don’t need to hold in my distrust and disappointment, and so I don't. Anger and disappointment mingle and finally flow out. ”What the actual fuck were you thinking? Do you want me for your enemy?” I only take a millisecond to breath in. ”In all honesty Cas, I don’t think even you would like the outcome of that.” He may have ruled longer, but I have forged alliances across all of Beqanna for years - years in which he was still searching for himself. Can he possibly think that I won’t be able to act against him? How did he possibly think that this wouldn't be the last straw to break the camel's back?

    My outburst remains short, and I mostly-compose myself, returning to the seething state I entered this country in.

    ”So tell me, what will you give me in return for your ex’s daughter?”

    I lift my head to cope with the height difference. He picked this fight and I won’t back down. A lady doesn’t start a fight - but she can definitely finish them.

    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.
    Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time




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