"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
01-15-2021, 12:29 PM (This post was last modified: 01-15-2021, 12:31 PM by Elegance.)
Elegance doesn't care for the changes that have taken place across Beqanna (though she supposes not many do nor would those changes care about the darkness they've inflicted across the four kingdoms). Luminesce has the benefit of her glow to light their way through the shadows of Taiga but Ellie had lost her sister some ways back. Something had made a bush rustle and the problem with this never-ending night was that you couldn't tell if it was a creature or something more feral, like a possum. That was what had emerged after the sisters had separated and the young pegasus had rounded back to the offending shrub.
She couldn't see it with her other sight but Ellie had flicked into her other vision - a blur of reds and yellows and golds - and spied the tail.
No monsters.
Just a rodent.
Huffing, Ellie tucked her wings comfortably against her sides and contemplated going towards to Nerine. That was where her mother often was and the girl wondered if that was where her pale dam had gone. Her white head lifted as she listened, making sure that she couldn't smell or see anything suspicious nearby. When she was satisfied that she was truly alone, the winged girl decided on a direction (they all looked the same in the dark) that must be North and started to walk that way.
Her fireflies flickered on and off, a distracting beacon in the dark, and the girl muttered when she accidentally grazed against the deeply-patterned bark of a Sequoia. Her right-wing lifted up in an attempt to move it away from the tree and the filly, aggravated with this endless dark, muttered angrily to herself: "Might as well have rocks for eyes."
ELEGANCE
image credit to insane<3
@[insane] if you wanted to drag Lumi out and also open to anyone <3
@[The Monsters] have fun with her malleable anatomy please
She had stopped to inspect a faintly glittering stone, eyes straining through the dark as she tapped at it with on hoof, only to find Ellie gone when she looked up again. With a soft huff of annoyance, she had trotted forward to try to catch her again, but she had disappeared into the endless night. She finds herself far more irritated than alarmed by this abrupt turn of events. Ellie is always bulldozing forward with a bone-headed vigor Lumi couldn’t quite understand herself.
She should be afraid she knows, but she just can’t seem to find it in herself to be. Dad constantly fretted and worried, but mom never seemed to. And even though she knows there are monsters out there, she can’t quite seem to find it in herself to be truly frightened. Nothing bad had really happened, besides the sun going out. So what is there to be afraid of?
It’s a foolishly naive way of thinking, but then, Lumi is still a foolishly naive girl. One who has yet to learn the ways of the world. And right now, her biggest concern is figuring out where the heck Ellie had gone.
With the soft glow of her own skin to light the way, she traipses haphazardly through the trees in the direction they’d been heading. Hopefully she would catch sight of her soon. And to her credit, she does. Or at least, she spies the floating lights that seem to trail her sister everywhere. And of course her sister could not be far ahead of them.
Close enough for her to hear the words her sister mutters into the darkness. An abrupt laugh escapes her lips as she pushes through the underbrush to come alongside Ellie. She tosses her a faintly haughty look as her chin juts a bit higher into the air. “You’d look so much better if you had rocks for eyes at least.”
Luminesce
@[Elegance]
@[The Monsters] please feel free to have at her serial immortality!
01-30-2021, 05:35 PM (This post was last modified: 01-30-2021, 05:36 PM by Elegance.)
The longer they linger in the dark, the more that daylight becomes a distant memory for the striped girl. Ellie reverts more and more to this second-sight she has, this way of seeing in colors that seem to be associated with living shapes. It lets her see the smaller creatures that call Taiga home and it allows her to find the various members of their extended family.
What a blue sky looks like becomes a faint shade in her memories.
The warmth of the sun is pale and can't compete with the darkness that swallows all of them.
But as children, Elegance and Luminesce seem to make the best of it. Despite the shadows creeping across Beqanna, they are children who still play their games and their giggles light up the Taiga as generations of laughter before them have. They still bicker as generations of siblings before them have.
She scowls towards the obscure shape of her twin sister.
Even though she can't see it clearly, it isn't hard to imagine the arrogant glance that Lumi gave her. Her sister's tone said it all. The striped filly came alongside her and Ellie knew better than to attempt to raise her head. They would stand here all day (or night?) preening. Her fireflies flicker yellow-and-green along her face and reveal the near-identical face of her twin.
"Don't you mean we?" she asks Luminesce. Aside from Ellie's wings, there are very few differences between them. "What kind of sister would I be if I didn't share?" Elegance traces the outline of her twin, finding it hard to imagine what rocks would look like in place of their blue-green eyes. Her gaze returns to find Lumi's, feeling curious about the thought. "What kind of rocks would you have?"
She snorts derisively at Ellie’s rather pointed retort, sea-colored eyes rolling perilously far back as she demonstrates her disdain at the notion. Nevermind the fact that they are indeed nearly identical. Tilting her head to peer haughtily down at her sister (though the effect is pretty well ruined by the fact that they are not only of a height, but still encumbered by distinctly childish features. “As if you’ve shared anything in your life.”
The fact that they’d shared a womb notwithstanding, while it may or may not be true, circumstances had made it that they were quite blessed in their existence so as to have no need to actually share anything. Not that Luminesce would ever point that fact out.
Sisterly sparring aside, when Elegance asks her about rocks, Lumi does pause to consider the question, forgetting momentarily the grave insult she’d just been dealt. In the end, she holds far too much affection for her sister to genuinely mean any of the insults she tosses at her. In truth, she only does so because they are so very much alike it’s galling. Not because they are alike, but because despite the fact that they are alike, Ellie has one very obvious ability that Lumi does not. That is galling. To somehow have been made the lesser twin despite the alikeness, and despite the fact that not only does Ellie have wings, but so too do both of their parents.
Frustrating indeed.
Still, she has her entire life to dwell on the unfairness of it all, but only these few moments to dwell on which rocks would be the prettiest. After a moment of silent contemplation, she confidently replies, “Amethysts.” Her tone brooks no argument. “They are by far the prettiest.”
Her gaze shifts then, peering towards the western borders of their home. The only place she’d ever seen amethysts. Turning back, she easily reclaims her haughty tone as she adds, “Maybe we should go find some for you to try out.”
(She wants to roll her eyes as Luminesce had but to do so would mean copying her sister.) Apart from the lack of wings, they were identical and Ellie hated anything that drew attention to that fact. When Lumi stares haughtily at her, the young pegasus stares back. Her petite head lifts - reminding her sister that she is slightly taller - before she snorts brashly.
The young filly watches her sister, waiting for a reply she isn't certain will come. Luminesce could refrain from giving any answer at all; she might just dismiss the question with another imperious glance. But her twin does reply and Ellie's body stills, where it had been impatient to move away from their spot a moment before.
Amethysts.
It's not quite what the winged child had imagined (though she can't quite fathom having rocks for eyes, either). Her head tilts curiously before she catches on to the tone of her sister's - one that says there is no room for arguing - and like any respectable sibling, she disagrees. The pale girl scowls. "What about emeralds?" she scoffs back (because the color green is her personal favorite; they remind her of her fireflies). This could be another debate in itself but when Lumi glances towards the western border - towards where Taiga makes a triumvirate with hilly Loess and blazing Sylva - Elegance tenses while her pale nostrils flare wide.
"Da wouldn't like it," she warns her sister. "Besides you'd probably get us lost."
Luminesce huffs right back at her sister’s snort, unwilling to be outdone. Undoubtedly they could do this all day, but just as Ellie is impatient to continue on, so too is Lumi suddenly overcome by the desire to something a little bit dangerous (or at least as dangerous as her young mind could fathom).
‘What about emeralds?’ her sister asks, causing Lumi to roll her eyes once more. “Your eyes are already green,” she replies quickly, her tone impatient. “How boring can you be?”
With a dismissive toss of her head, she turns to stare towards the west with a narrowed gaze, as though she could see the distant borders through the trees and the darkness. She tosses her head again when Elegance continues, expressing her uncertainty over dad’s approval. “I bet mom wouldn’t care,” she replies churlishly, though it does cause her to hesitate. Dad had certainly warned them to be careful enough times.
But they weren’t leaving Taiga, were they? No, of course not. So really, what harm could there be?
“We won’t leave,” she continues decisively, having made up her mind. “It’ll be fine, dad just doesn’t want us leaving.” Then, as though the second part of her twin’s statement had just clicked, Lumi huffs insultedly, jewel-bright eyes flashing as she tosses Ellie a scornful look. “And I will not get us lost. You’re the one with the awful sense of direction, not me.”
With that final insult hurled, Luminesce starts briskly forward, picking up a bouncy trot as she steps nimbly over the leaf litter and fallen branches. Ellie could follow or not, but Lumi is going to find some amethysts.
Her twin rolls her blue-green eyes and Ellie huffs in disapproval. Of course, she thinks. Of course Lumi would think emeralds are boring. The winged filly refrains from rolling her own identical eyes but some part of her thinks that she shouldn't be surprised. Elegance could suggest they explore the Southlands and Luminese would tell her they should the Isle. Opposites just for the sake of being opposite.
Just because they looked so alike (apart from the wings).
If it didn't feel so juvenile, she wanted to stick her tongue out at the back of Lumi's turned head.
Luminesce has one point, however. Where their mother was, well, she wasn't here was she? So who was to know if the two fillies left the Taiga for a few (harmless) hours? The taller filly gives her sister a long look when she says that they won't leave Taiga, as if Ellie knows her sister better than that. The striped girl tucks her wings neatly against her sides and pushing off into an equally-determined trot as her sibling, goes after Lumi.
