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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]  waking up to ash and dust
    #1
    The snow makes playing hide-and-seek easier, and yet Larikin can convince none of his siblings to play with him. They all have better things to do on this bright winter afternoon, so Larrikin stomps a little more dramatically than necessary as he makes his way out of Sylva and into the bare-branched Forest. His shaggy winter coat is warm, and the texture of it hides much of his distinctive markings. He’s just a black colt with some white markings along his topline – there is no sign of the spotted cheetah pattern nor the glowing lavender constellations that they hide within the white. It’s almost like he’s wearing a costume, Larrikin thinks to himself, but maybe still a little too obvious.

    Color ripples across his coat, so quick as to be nauseating (or so Nota had said), and settle on a black so dark it seems to swallow light itself.

    Vanta black is almost as dark as his soul, thinks Larrikin with intensely theatrical emotion, it shows off the true darkness within him.

    The drifts are deeper here, probably due to the bare canopy, but the black thespian stomps through them with melodramatic determination. The quiet little huffs of his breath are probably a little louder than they need to be, and his not-blue eyes search furtively for an audience. There is none though, and Larrikin is as alone in the Forest as he had been at home in Sylva.

    He sighs, loud and in a way he considers to be quite sensational while also still super sad, and looks up at the open grey sky.

    @[Squirt]
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    #2

    Mazikeen is curled up in a tree as a white squirrel when she hears someone stomping around on the ground through the snow. She’s been hiding from a rather frantic mother black squirrel that kept trying to usher her into a squirrel nest (this is the last time she ever choses this form, she thinks). But, thankfully, that real squirrel was gone now and she could peek down to see a colt moving around dramatically and sighing as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

    Well, time to go see what’s up with this! She scurries down the tree and as soon as the snow swallows up her squirrel-shape she’s back to being Mazikeen-the-filly and she wastes no time in going over to investigate this strange stranger. He’s a little older than her, but that doesn’t stop her - he might be older but he isn’t acting like an adult and that makes him one of her kind. You’re either an adult or a potential friend, Mazikeen hasn’t yet bothered to sort the world into shades of grey. For her it is as simple as the white and black markings on her coat - though her black markings look dull compared to the soul-sucking black of the colt that she approaches.

    Perhaps that’s why she really comes over - her orange eyes bright and curious as she comes to stand in a small snowbank. He fits the black and white world she lives in so perfectly as he stands there in the snow.

    She knows what question she wants to ask but she takes some care to not let the words come out too bluntly. “Are you the one that was sighing?” She asks as though she hadn't been hiding out nearby as a squirrel, watching. “What’s up your butt?” Alright, so the tone isn’t blunt but the words themselves might be - she hasn’t quite perfected the art of conversation yet.

    image by Reitro


    @[Larrikin] I hope she's okay!! <3
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    #3
    Looking up at the sky , Larrikin does not see the descent of the squirrel or its transformation into a far larger creature. What he does see is a horse he has never met before. This delights him, and it is quite clear from the way his ears prick up and a smile appears on his face. Of course, with the darkness of his skin neither of those reactions are visible. Nor is the pinning of his ears easy to see when she insults his acting. He’d come to the Forest to get away from his unappreciative family, and the first horse he finds appears to be his young sisters in a different body. Panda and Nota would like this rude girl, Larrikin thinks.

    “You can’t just ask people what’s up their butt! That’s rude! And for your information there’s not anything up my butt!” His vexation becomes even more visible as the Vanta black fades  to a muted gray. When he is flustered he tends to lose control of his colors and revert back to his natural shade, but he he’s never done so in front of a stranger before. Trying to make it seem purposeful, he shakes his purpling mane in a manner he thinks looks quite regal.

    Perhaps if he closes his eyes they might reset the conversation. Dad was always telling him to just close his eyes and start over when he got frustrated with something, so it must be good advice to follow in conversations with rude strangers, too. After several very long seconds of silence, the boy opens his eyes and smiles in a charming way at the smaller girl as if he just now encounters her for the first time.

    “Hello. My name is Larrikin, but you can call me Rick.” No time better than the present to try out his cool new nickname. Larry is a little kid’s name. But Rick? Rick is the name of a successful and handsome young stallion. “What’s your name?”
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    #4

    There’s a grin in her orange eyes as Mazikeen watches the flustered boy respond to her - rather innocent, she thought - question. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if there was something up his butt, even though she was pretty sure his denial didn’t extend to the metaphorical butt. For someone so young, he sure was acting a lot like an adult!

    But her wicked smile turns to amazement as the colour of his coat shifts to a muted grey  and some purple appears in his mane - he closes his eyes which gives her the opportunity to stare blatantly, and she even takes a small step forward. She had never met someone who could changed the colour of their body before!

    Unfortunately, when he opens his eyes again and goes for some charm, the topic of conversation shifts and she frowns for a fraction of a second. Conversing with horses older than her was always a risk - and it seems that she found herself another boring adult.

    Still, she felt curious enough to stick around a little bit longer and she stores her questions about his coat for another time and matches his expression as best as she can - though the mask feels tight. “I’m Mazikeen, it’s wonderful to meet you Rick.” The sweetness is poured on a little thick, but she hopes it does the trick and balances out the wicked flash of a grin in her orange eyes. “What brings you out here today?”

    Maybe a more roundabout way of asking what was up his butt would do the trick?


    image by Reitro


    @[Larrikin]
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    #5
    When he opens his eyes, the white filly is closer than she had been. He is sure of this, but he narrows his eyes only slightly. At least she is smiling now, and seems nicer. Larrikin remains dubious, even considers turning himself to dust and drifting away.

    But he does not, and knows that he cannot as soon as he hears Mazikeen say his chosen nickname aloud.

    “Oh nevermind, nevermind,” he says, shaking his head as if that might make it easier to forget the silly way it sounded. “Don’t call me that. I’m Larry but I thought Rick would be cool. I want to a have a cool name, like Malone or Carnage or Never Again Will You Whisper.” These are all wonderful names of equal value to Larrikin, despite the incongruous nature of them. His mother had told him the last one, and Larrikin had decided that would be his spy name, whenever he grew up and became a spy. It sounds dark, eerie. Perfect. Inspired, he returns to his former shade of Vanta Black, though he keeps the purple glow of his constellations along his spine and sides.

    The costume change, the reminder of his secret name, and Mazikeen’s question are the perfect set up to his next claim:

    “I have come to the forest to conquer. I will set fire to the trees and take all residents as slaves and do many other, very bad things.” Having added red eyes about halfway through speaking, Larry does his best to look menacing as he begins to stomp around the woods in a threatening manner.
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    #6

    The nickname Rick is immediately retracted and the old colt introduces himself instead as Larry. He lists off a bunch of other ‘cool’ names and she nods along, finding particular interest in Never Again Will You Whisper - though it certainly raises questions. Does that mean they’ll be mute or that they’ll just shout everything all the time? She hopes it’s the second one.

    Larry explains what he’s up to and it’s just lucky that Mazikeen even hears him because she’s too distracted by his coat shifting colours - especially the whole eye thing. That is damn cool. Instead of asking about it, she watches him as he stamps off, rather dramatically - though she’s beginning to suspect he does everything dramatically.

    “Well that sounds fun, they probably have it coming. Especially the trees.” Her tone dances the line between sarcasm and sincerity, even Mazikeen herself doesn’t even know which side she falls on. Except she does know she’s intrigued by this colour changing colt and maybe if she hangs around she can find out how she can change her colours like that. She hasn’t even figured out how to change her colours when she shifts!

    She then gets a spark of an idea and she follows along after him. “You need a lieutenant, someone to help.” And, because he showed off his little trick, she shows off hers - and shifts into a white lioness with ink-black paws and those same burning orange eyes. She flicks her tail in this new form before sitting, a smile beginning to form.

    “You can call me Maze.”


    image by Reitro


    @[Larrikin]
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