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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]  oh, the devil's inside, ten
    #1

    I never cared for anyone so much. I was born with a bomb inside my gut.

    If she had a friend, she might have sought them out.
    Just to tell them how strange things have been lately.

    But she has none, save for Velkan, who is a father now and otherwise preoccupied with all that entails. So, she wanders in her restless way, spurred into motion by her want to find someplace better. Warmer. Safer. There, in the back of her mind, is the reckless belief that she’ll find it someday. And yet, she rarely ever leaves the common lands.

    She’d lived in Sylva for a time. Long enough to learn that there had never really been anything for her there. Her heart is a fickle thing, a desperate thing, a foolish thing. Sometimes she wishes she could carve it out of her chest and surrendered it to the earth. If only so that she would not have to worry about it anymore. She is growing tired of protecting it. And besides, she’s never been very good at it anyway. She had sacrificed the heart for a chance at feeling alive. Or, if not alive, at least something.

    She loiters near the edge of the forest now. Night is gathering along the soft edge of the horizon and she considers plunging herself into the absolute darkness. Because the pulse has not quickened in some time. And anyway, the last time it did nobody had come for her. She had merely clambered out of danger’s reach on her own and stood at the edge, breathing heavily. And she had remembered, quite vividly, her place in the world.

    No one will come for her now.
    She drags in a shuddering breath and turns her gaze back to the breadth of the meadow, that large swath of land illuminated by the mooning hanging fat and low overhead.

    The nerves hum unpleasantly just beneath the surface, the muscles aching for motion. But she remains there at the edge, contemplating. She listens to the heart’s persistent beating and wishes more than anything that she could quiet it. 

    lilian

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    #2
    He had lost track of time a long time ago now. When he’d realized it, he’d spent a while trying to figure out how one might keep better track of it, given his rather unorthodox lifestyle. As it turns out, he’d come up with absolutely nothing useful. Maybe one day he would. But, for now, well, he has plenty of time.

    Or at least, he’d had plenty of time.

    The universe is a vast and fantastic place. It had been easy for a youthful Ten to discover the beauty and wonder of it. To revel in the endless possibilities and throw himself blindly into one incredible thing after another. However, as inevitably happens with the young and naive, he had discovered the darker corners of it as well. He had found that everything is not nearly so bright and perfect as he had once imagined.

    Of course, that had not done anything to dissuade Ten from his headlong course. He had saved Beqanna’s heart, after all. Certainly he could do the same elsewhere.

    Except that, well, as it turns out, that is much easier said than done.

    Take today, for instance. Everything had started out quite wonderfully. In fact, he’d just a short while ago quite happily announced what a great day it is. He should have known better. One wrong turn through one wrong doorway, and suddenly he’s running, quite literally, for his life.He hadn’t paused to get a really good look at exactly what is trying to eat him today. At the moment, it doesn’t really matter. Reason had already failed, and Ten, despite his optimism, has no intention of being lunch.

    The only problem? It kept following him.

    Ripping open another portal, he vaults through. The thing pursuing reaches out, as though it could grasp the edges of reality, and lets loose an ear-shattering roar as it tries to keep the tear from closing. The sound is cut off mid shriek as the break seals shut.

    Expelling a breath he hadn’t known he was holding, he glances sideways, only to start quite violently when he realizes he’s standing right next to someone else. Oh no. He definitely hadn’t meant that to happen. That creature would squirm it’s way through soon, and, as he glances around, he realizes this is not a place he wants it following him to. With an apologetic grin at the stranger, he loops his powers around himself once more. Moments later, he finds himself standing beneath the full light of an alien moon, purple vines curling around his feet. A heartbeat later, he realizes he’s not alone as his gaze lands on the stranger from moments earlier.

    “Oops.”
    TEN


    Yes, hi, I maybe just went wild. Please let me know if I should change it lmao <3
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    #3

    I never cared for anyone so much. I was born with a bomb inside my gut.

    There is silence.
    A long, steady hum.
    And then there is something else entirely.
    An explosion of motion and sound.
    For a split second, absolute chaos.

    It is as if her willing her heart to quiet has created this rift. And she, too tired to do anything but suck in a sharp breath. She, too foolish to leap out of the way. She turns, wide-eyed to blink imploringly at the stranger, the sound of that earth-shaking shriek echoing in her head. There is some strange stillness then, until he realizes that she’s there. She opens her mouth to say something – sorry, perhaps, as if this is somehow her fault, as if she should have known that she should have found someplace else to stand. But he shoots her an apologetic grin and then there is absolute nothingness.

    She blinks and there is nothing but darkness. A long, pulsing emptiness. And then she blinks again and both the blackness and the emptiness have fallen away to reveal something else entirely.

    The heart beats harder now, frantic. She sucks in another sharp, startled breath as she, too, registers the alien moon. She drags her focus away from the sky and shackles it to the stranger’s face. For a moment, she is too stunned to speak. Too stunned to move, even. Perhaps she should be angry, she thinks, but this seems unreasonable. Irritated, maybe. But even this seems like a stretch.

    Where are we?” she asks and there is a slight tremor in her voice when she asks it, the only thing that betrays the way her heart thunders in the cavern of her chest. Beats itself hard against its ribbed cage. “What happened?

    Maybe she’s dreaming. Maybe she’ll blink again and she’ll be back in the meadow. Or even all the way back in Sylva. But she closes her eyes and nothing at all has changed when she opens them again.

    lilian



    @[Ten]
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    #4
    He had thought he’d grown skilled enough in the use of his power to avoid little mistakes like this. Turns out, he was wrong. Very, very wrong. One could only hope one day she might forgive him for it. For now though, he doesn’t have the time to worry about that.

    “Ummmmm,” he begins uncertainly, glancing around agitatedly, as though the creature might burst through at any minute. Which, it might. But he definitely did not want to alarm her by sharing that information. Blowing out a breath, he rallies his ability once more, wrapping her up in it purposefully this time as it sucks them through to a new world.

    Two suns beat abruptly down on them, blinding after the dark midnight purple of the previous world. Surrounding them is a field of flowers in a myriad of brilliant colors, swaying despite a notable lack of breeze. Safe for now. Hopefully, the decidedly unfriendly alien would take a while to trace him here across the universe. At least long enough for him to explain the situation. And maybe figure out what the heck he was going to do. Or say.

    “Uh, sorry. I was being followed, and, um, yeah that was an accident.” He grins sheepishly, his expression apologetic before quickly adding, “I’ll get you home though!” That last thing he needed was her running off. Although, after all that, he couldn’t exactly blame her if she did.

    As he’d spoken, the swaying flowers had slowly begun to cluster closer, their gentle, subtle movement producing an almost lulling murmur. The colorful little plants seem to clamor around them excitedly, clinging and pressing up legs and bellies. Realizing belatedly that she probably had no clue what they were doing and may find it alarming, he hastily continues, “I’ve been here before, they’re friendly.” Flinching as one tickles at a sensitive spot, he bites back a laugh, trying not to squirm in front of her. Suddenly, he shoves his head down into the swarming flowers, coming back up a moment later with a face full of clinging, brightly coloured plants. “See?” he says brightly, grinning. “I’m Ten, by the way.”
    TEN
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