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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


    Lost in the deep end // Aedan
    #1
    It would be dark soon. He could feel the air beginning to cool on his skin, the sun's heat now soft on his face. He had bedded down for the day in a tree shaded hollow. The scents of warm pine sap and sweet clover filled his nose as he slept, encouraging hungry dreams as the day passed around him. 

    Waking with the bats and nighthawks, the midnight stallion felt his stomach clench with need, despite his companion not having arrived yet. Soon enough the fragment of starlight would arrive, and navigating the world would be a less daunting task. For now though, hunger won over his cautious nature, and the night and starlight stallion ventured from his hiding place into the open pasture that lay beyond him. 

    His every step was carefully measured, and still he found himself stumbling on the uneven ground. Cursing quietly, he stopped as soon as he felt thick grasses beneath his feet, not trusting himself to make it much further safely. As he dipped his head, the ink dark ears that emerged from his tangled mane rotated endlessly. It was dangerous to be caught unawares. So he listened while he ate, and tried to look as little like a target as possible. 

    @[Aedan]
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    #2

    i have loved the stars too fondly

    Mom and Dad were fast asleep, but Aedan wasn’t. He lived during both day and night, grabbing naps in quiet moments between adventures. Aedan slipped away from his parents quietly, having become an expert in sneaking. Not that his parents didn’t let him go out, but it was vastly more fun to go out without their permission. Though as he gets older, they care less and less what he does. Still, the game amuses him, despite the fact he knows his mother will wake and probably just sigh at his absence. He’s been sneaking away since he was old enough to walk, by now, she is used to it.

    Once he’s far enough away, he pulls at the stars and their light surrounds him. It calls attention to himself, he knows, but in the darkness a glowing ball of light is usually something to steer clear of. Besides, he can see far better with the aura around him and, should something attack, it’s a rather solid barrier for defense.

    The boy makes his way through the night with no purpose in mind. His feet simply wander, and eventually he realizes he’s made his way to the meadow. A safe enough place at night, though strange in its emptiness. There are muted, hushed conversations, shadows in the shape of horses tucked away in the distance. Not everyone slept easily, and he was used to running across a few other equines at night, but the difference from day to night is always stark.

    Aedan let’s the glow around him fade some, keeping a bit of its presence for light but taking away the bulk of it. He’d rather see the stars, would rather be led by the moon than his own power. Of course, he chooses to half blind himself at the wrong time and nearly slams into a stallion.

    Aedan comes skidding to a halt in a tangle of overly long legs, barely managing to keep himself upright. It is not the graceful approach of the stealthy thief he likes to think of himself as. Then again, maybe his parents always know when he sneaks away and just let him get away with it. “Sorry,” he mutters, calling the stars back to him to lighten the area around them.

    The stallion is a deep blue, swirled in gold patterns that Aedan has never seen before. They look, in some ways, strangely alike. Both have white manes, though the other’s is long where Aedan’s has decided to stop in a mohawk that he does he best to own. The other is not quite the night sky, and yet, he belongs to the night all the same. Well then. There might be worse horses to almost trample. “Aedan,” he offers, figuring he owes the other a name at least. 

    to be fearful of the night

    aedan



    @[Tyr]

    Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission

    Reply
    #3
    He had been grazing, solitary as usual. There was no herd for the midnight stallion, no family group to guide him. That wasn't to say that they wouldn't, if he let them. His sisters would welcome him the island of he chose to return there. For them it was freedom, a convenient berthing for his aquatic siblings. But it was a claustrophobic cage for the stallion who had grown so accustomed to roaming the wider world, and could not join his sisters beneath the waves. 

    There was no jealousy there, though he could have easily felt it. It seemed easier to simply see it as the pattern of their family. Mother, the girls, they had saltwater in their veins. And while his father also had adapted to the marine lifestyle, it seemed borne of his love for his mate as much as anything biological. The elder stallion had been as earthbound as his son in his youth. 

    So the midnight stallion lingered in the open lands, slept through the days when he might attract attention he didn't want, and spent his nights camouflaged by darkness. It was safer that way, when danger was a thing he could not see. He could hear when others approached, knew the scents and tastes of plants that would make him ill. It was other horses he couldn't predict, and couldn't escape very easily if they did mean him harm. Best to avoid others when ever he could. 

    He was minding his own business tonight, feeling for mouthfuls of brittle grass to quiet his grumbling stomach, when a shuffling, stumbling almost colliding presence arrived. Tyr raised his head in surprise, snorted and stepped back a pace in case the noise hadn't realized he was there yet. A noise that rustled somewhere near his chest. The near-black cups of his ears twisted every which way, trying to gather as much information as they could about the... Rabbit? Maybe it was a big rabbit. An apologetic one. 

    No, that wasn't right. Rabbits didn't run towards horses, and they definitely didn't apologize if they did. He blinked beneath the curtain of his forelock uncertainly, smiling vaguely in the general direction of... Aedan? Whatever Aedan was. "No harm done..." He assured, shifting his feet uncertainly. The instinct to run was always there in the back of his mind, ready to engage at the first sign of trouble. So far though, this little voice in the darkness seemed harmless enough. 

    "Tyr," he replied, giving his name in exchange for the new comer's. "Sorry but," he sighed, a bit frustrated. "Where are you? And what...?" It was so awkward to try and speak to another when he didn't know which way to face. 

    @[Aedan]
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    #4

    i have loved the stars too fondly

    Aedan pulls the stars to him, surrounding himself once more with a soft glow. It illuminates the area around them just enough to make out their outlines and shapes, to see the white of their mane and their markings. The light probably makes him a bit more indistinct, more like a horse-shaped flashlight than a horse, but it’s enough to reveal what he is.

    “Horse,” he says, “like you.” He’s nothing more special than that, not really. His markings make him look like the night sky brought to life, but he carries only the most basic of the night’s magic. His glowing markings, the aura of the stars, and the ability to make others sleep. They are simple things, though he does not long for more power.

    Like Tyr, he is not jealous of those who have more, who are more. He is fine with what he is. Unlike Tyr, Aedan is fond of his home. It is not a cage though, but a place to rest his head, a place to return to, and having such makes him feel safe. Tephra is wide open, veins of cool lava running through the even growing flora (two nature based magician queens will do that to a land), and a staging ground for all this adventures.

    Aedan never stays put much, but he always comes back. It is the coming back that seems important.

    “What are you doing out here in the dark?” he asks, thinking that the other horse doesn’t appear to glow and is in fact actually in the dark. Aedan only chooses darkness when it suits him, but he is never without light. Even when the stars are dull, hidden behind clouds, he glows at least softly.

    to be fearful of the night

    aedan



    @[Tyr]

    Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission

    Reply
    #5
    The night-tinged stallion nodded briefly to acknowledge the voice, the assertion that the voice was owned by another equid something of a relief. It was easier to manage conversation with horses, when necessary. This one sounded youthful, though it was difficult to try to put anything more exact to the voice's age. 

    Ears flickering back and forth ceaselessly, Tyr smiled softly, unaware of the gentle glow illuminating their scene. It was nighttime, he could tell that by the lack of heat coming from above, by the scent of dew gathering on the grass, the sleepy, infrequent birdsong. The safest time for him to be out and about was when these markers told him most others would be occupied with sleep. 

    A sigh faintly misting the air before his muzzle, the deep blue stallion shook his head in gentle bewilderment before he replied. It wasn't often he had to explain his habits to others. "I suppose I feel a bit more at ease, when I can graze with no one else about." He spoke slowly, feeling that the words were true as he said them. 

    This tactic was of course not fool proof. He had learned long ago not to stay near places with many rocks long, as they tended to hide large predators that were adept at concealing themselves. Likewise, he avoided deep forests, for similar reasons. Places frequented by other horses tended to be safer at night, and he'd gotten used to hiding from danger of the equine sort by being most active at night. It freed him from harassment that might otherwise end badly for him. That was a lot to explain to a stranger, however. 

    Instead he just grinned, and threw back the matted white sheet of his forelock to reveal the milky blue marbles that were his useless eyes. "It makes little difference to me, if I'm traveling by day or by night." He added, in case it wasn't obvious already.

    @[Aedan]
    Reply
    #6

    i have loved the stars too fondly

    To be fair, the other stallion didn’t have to answer. Or really he could throw the question back in Aedan’s face, though if you could see him it was obvious why Aedan enjoyed the night. He was made of it, after all, with the stars for friends and their light as his blanket. There was always something to do at night, anyway. The sort of things you couldn’t necessarily find during the day, the sort of conversations that one didn’t have beneath the bright sun. He enjoyed the opportunity that the darkness presented itself.

    The other stallion does answer though, giving two truths. The first with words and the second with his eyes. They are milky white and clearly sightless, a thing that young Aedan has never actually considered. It makes sense, he supposes, but he’s never encountered another who can’t see and he can’t help but look up at the sky and try to imagine a world in which he could not see it. The idea hurts, something deep and pitted in the bottom of his stomach. “Sorry man,” he says, apologizing maybe just for the fact that he would never know what the night sky looked like.

    “Definitely doesn’t much matter when you travel, I guess.” he says, trying to figure out what exactly he is supposed to say. At this point he has no idea, if he’s being honest, so he just plows ahead like this is any normal conversation. “I just like to explore at night. It's always fun.” Small talk, because what else do you do with a stranger you just met, but it seems like a good enough way to keep going.

    to be fearful of the night

    aedan

    Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission

    Reply




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