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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


    [open]  To the stars who listen and the dreams that are answered [Any]
    #1

    Ciri

    Ciri was lost without her stars. It was starting to seep into the very cracks of her being, sucking the marrow from her bones and pulling each string of insecurity that had burrowed deep beneath her scarred dark skin. Who was she if she couldn’t connect to the fiery balls of gas and magic above? Had they abandoned her? Was this a punishment for every foolish mistake she had made during her ignorant youth? Seeing the ones that had swirled around the girl in the forest had been a dagger to her heart. Perhaps she wasn’t worthy of their love anymore, perhaps they had banished her forever, a star-child that had fallen out of favor with her ethereal ancestors and had now lost her inheritance.

    It had happened so fast, when light rampaged over the world and blinded them all. It sent the dark scurrying and they had all been left blinking upwards, straining and wincing with the pain of the fiery rays above them. It was the first time she had felt a flutter of hope in a long time. Others were reveling in the returned warmth, dancing and frolicking beneath bright yellow beams. Rejoicing daylight while she.. She eagerly waited for the night to fall again. And when it did… Oh when it did…

    The threat of tears rim the lines of her silvery eyes as the first dots of twinkling stars line the twilight sky. The night is clear, not a single cloud can be seen. And with all her might, remembering how she drew her power over and over again to no avail, she calls to them. She sings to them and her shield explodes around her with such force it sends the roosting birds in nearby trees to erupt in a flurry of feathers and flight. The noxious balls of gas and starlight form around her and now she is sobbing, sobbing freely with relief. It flows through her body as she sags with it, the release of it. They hadn’t left her. They hadn’t abandoned her after all. As if in response, there’s a soft voice that seems to float through the breeze, that echoes in her head, that pirouettes through her shield because it’s part of it already. “We never left you silly girl. We are always there even when you can’t see us. Remember Ciri. Never forget where you truly come from. A reminder that in the darkest of nights we are always with you.”

    There’s a softness against her cheek and as her shield fades around her, the stars themselves seem to fall from the sky to embrace her. It is quick, a snap of the fingers, but when the stars part… Some are left behind. They hover above her tangled mane, sparkling gently down her neck and back. Never quite touching her but she can feel the soft brush of starlight soothe her clammy fur. The stars that had hovered over that girl in the forest had now settled on her as well. They glitter and spark as someone comes into view. Ciri turns her tear stained visage towards them, pulling herself together even as she reveals in the return of her beloved stars, of her power.

    all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was



    Open to any <3
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    #2
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    ’You’re glowing’, she’d said, and in the moment Gale hadn’t known what she’d meant.

    Only now, in the darkness of the first true night in years, does he understand.

    While most of his body is a deep navy blue, he is slashed through with pale brindling. His injuries and wounds all grow back the same shade of pale cremello, and every bit of pale gold is glowing. Even a few streaks of his mane, torn out and grown back so pale a gold as to look white, now glow faintly in the dark summer air.

    He feels incredibly visible, a strange and foreign sensation after years spent hiding from Monsters.

    There is a way to dim the glow, he knows, but he has not yet mastered it. Instead, he moves like a strange striped beacon through the dark night air, drawing to a halt only when he sees a most remarkable phenomenon.

    Light has been seen aplenty since the Eclipse ended, and Gale’s attributes are not the strangest he has seen since the light returned. He’s not seen anything like that though, where stars fall from the earth and surrounded a horse.

    Curious, Gale turns from the path he’d been taking toward the Field, and heads toward the distant grey mare. He stops some distance away, but is careful to have made enough noise on his approach to warn her (as if his glowing would not give him away for sure).

    He doesn’t say anything, but he does look at her quite curiously. His eyes are a shade of blue so bright as to seem nearly unnatural, and he rarely blinks. There are scars across her skin, reminding him of Mazikeen.

    Gale smiles at the thought of her, and casually shakes out the white wings at his sides before refolding them. “I was almost hoping we would get a very long day to make up for all that darkness,” he says, gesturing up at the sky, and the distant stars. But then his attention returns to the stars that hover around her, and he gestures at them curiously.

    “Have you always had those?” He asks curiously, “Or are they new?”

    @[Ciri]

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    #3

    Ciri

    Stardust smears where her tears have left tracks, leaving streaks of luminescence beneath her eyes and along her cheeks. Despite the evidence of sadness, it’s a dazzling grin that greets the foreign male as he comes closer to her. The silver swirls of her iris’s bright and spiraling wildly in her joy, taking him in as he stops a respectable distance away from her. He looks like lightning, that’s the first thought that flashes in her mind. From his electric eyes to the dark blue sheen of his coat, to the clouds of feathers that rest along his sides. The way he glows. “You’re like a summer storm.” Her laughter is soft and unexpected, as light as the weight that’s lifted off her shoulders. It just comes out, still dizzy on the high of the stars and the clear nights that she had come to live for.

    He speaks of the sun and she shakes her head gently, sending some of her new golden companions to twirl about her ears and dance along her backside. “This was what I was waiting for.” The smile is still bright on her dark face as untamed raven tresses fall back into place, the stars that hover around her illuminating every scar and story that she wears across her body. From the ravaged pink skin beneath her eye that marks her escape from the psychotic wolf shifter to each talon and claw mark that had broken through her flesh in the Underneath. At times she had been self conscious of them but in this moment they are forgotten. She’s never felt more comfortable in her own skin.

    At the mention of her stars, she grins even bigger. “These friends are new.” She admits, gesturing with her muzzle to the little nuclear balls of gas and light that twinkle merrily around her. “This…” And now she pulls from her power, summoning the shield of stars that form a protective nebula around her. A mix of solid atmosphere where dust and gas combust and reform, a slight heat coming off from it. Nobody had ever gotten close enough to touch it and see if it could actually hurt but she had a theory that it would. “This was a part of me but in that darkness…” And as she drops the shield there’s a flicker of strain in the depths of her metallic gaze, not wanting to remember how terrible it had felt to be without it. “I can only do it when the night is clear and the stars are out.” Why she had waited anxiously for that first real night as everyone else celebrated the return of the sun.

    She’s not sure why she’s revealing all this rather personal stuff to a complete stranger but everything just feels… Good. A sense of calm had settled over Beqanna and the fear that they had all carried leaves them more exposed in their relief. “What about you Lightning Boy?” She asks curiously and teasingly, pointedly looking to the glowing threads of gold that thread within his skin, peeking from scars and weaved within the short crop of his mane. "Have you always looked like a bolt from the blue?"

    all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was



    @[Gale]
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    #4
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    She doesn’t move away when Gale comes closer, and even laughs as she greets him. Her eyes are sad, but he has learned that sometimes it is better to pretend he has not noticed that at all, so instead he allows his curious eyes to wander across every part of her and is not at all bothered by his silence as he does.

    She replies, and shows him her stars, and Gale is immediately enthralled. He steps closer, heedless of the grey mare, and looks from nebulae to star, peering closely at the miniaturized wonders.

    “I think it’s remarkable,” he says, and though his voice is noticeably distracted, it is clear by the fascination in his gaze as he inspects her stars exactly what is the source of that distraction. It’s not his intent to be rude, but in this novel moment he finds the stars themselves far more intriguing than conversation.

    She calls them friends, as though they are not a dozen suns, and Gale listens intently lest she share more about them. Only when the stars are out and the sky is clear, she says, and Gale immediately wonders if they can appear beneath the canopy of trees that prevents her from seeing the sky.

    Before he can ask, she is talking again and calling him Lightning Boy as though it is his name, with a familiarity that is at once intriguing and alarming. He isn’t entirely sure why he feels either of those emotions, so with an ease that has come easier since the dark god had Looked at him, Gale ignores them both.

    “For the moment part,” he responds instead, always honest. “Some are newer.” He gestures vaguely toward the healed injuries - a slash across his breast from competing in the Alliance, a pale hind limb that’s been entirely regrown from the magic of his self-regeneration, the red V with which Mazikeen had marked him.

    He’d been thinking of the Alpha’s catlike shapes when he’d seen Ciri’s scars earlier, and now he asks curiously while gesturing at the clawed scar on her shoulder: “What is that from?” It doesn’t occur to him that scars might have more meaning to those who do not heal from them with near-immediate (at least these days) ease. He means it in the same friendly manner with which the rest of the conversation has gone, and there is only curiosity behind his wide blue gaze.


    @[Ciri]

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    #5

    Ciri

    Perhaps he is too bold in the way he closes the distance between them. Perhaps she is being too reckless, allowing him to do so. Letting her physical guard down so to speak. There is nothing about the lighting stallion that comes off as a threat, he seems far from a monster. And the way he inspects her stars and shield with utter fascination makes her heart warm slightly. It had been a very long time since she had shared her gift with anyone. He calls her gift remarkable and she can only grin stupidly back at him before shifting her own gaze back to the ones that hover permanently above her head. “They are remarkable aren’t they?” She whispers softly, a tone filled with love and admiration, the glimmer of each little ball of gas dancing in the swirling silver of her eyes, dark lashes laced with stardust that she blinks away gently.

    She doesn’t know this stallion, doesn’t know him at all. And yet somehow they’ve fallen into the ease of conversation and companionship as if they had known each other for decades. Somewhere she knows she’s being too audacious, gracing him with nicknames and a familiarity that should be foreign to her. The strangeness of this isn’t lost on her but it’s not as alarming as it perhaps should be. The stars that flicker around her, that somehow make up the threads of her, have lived lifetimes and seen everything that could ever be seen. Maybe it’s the stars that recognize Gale, that have known him before and will know him again. The stars that greet him like an old friend.

    The attention on her celestial comrades reverts to himself and she follows his gestures along his body, lingering on the parts that stand out. The scar on his chest is easy to recognize, the story of a battle that she can understand. She carries many of those chapters herself. The red V is intriguing but not as much as the pale limb that she had missed before. Of course she is curious, to what they all mean. What they represented. There is a pain that still lingers in the long healed over wounds she wears and for that reason she doesn’t pry into his. However, he has no such qualms.

    For a moment her eyes fade, dark with memories she had a hard time forgetting. Her smile lingers but seems slightly strained before she gives a soft sigh. Releasing tension, preparing to be honest. There was no reason not to be, not with him for some reason. “ A siren.” She responds softly, a ghost of a smile back on her lips as she looks down at her shoulder. Remembering. “Most of these are from my time in the Underneath.” Hesitating only for a second before she tells him a condensed story of what the Underneath was. The alternate dark version of Beqanna that roamed with monsters far worse than some of the ones that had lurked during the eclipse. She speaks of the Leshen of the woods hunting her, the strange night vision that took over her sight, the attack of ravens, the ghostly version of herself as a child that lured her onto a glassy solid lake. And how the lake fell out beneath her hooves as the siren tried to claim her as its prey. How her light had saved her, the light of the stars as her power finally awakened inside her. She finally falls silently when she tells him about waking up on the lake of Hyaline, back in the right side of the universe. Not able to continue past that, to where the raw pain of Amet and their life together still ran deep.

    She’s not sure why it all comes out. It had been a story that she had locked deep into her soul and one she hadn’t told in a long time. However in the telling of it, there’s a slow release of a tightly wound string that loosens around her chest. Some of the details she had never even told Amet, even though he was the one that had painstakingly put her back together when she had washed up on his shores. It had been too fresh then, too real. Now though, now time had played its part. “ I’m sorry,” she laughs lightly, gracing him with an apologetic grin. “I didn’t mean to chatter like that, I must be boring you.”

    all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was



    @[Gale]
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    #6
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    Gale is no longer as socially inept as he had once been, but the intricacies of emotions across a face is one that he has never mastered. Ciri continues to smile, and so he continues to think she is happy, unaware of the strain or the shadows that dance in her silver eyes.

    She sighs, but smiles again, and Gale smiles back, his head tilted curiously at the mention of a siren and the Underneath. It is not a place he has heard of before, and from her description he is almost glad of that. Perhaps that is where the Monsters had come from, he thinks, or perhaps it is a world that they’d fled.

    The story is a fascinating one, and Gale is pulled away from his inspection of the stars. His blue-eyed attention is devoted only to her and the tale she tells. His expression never changes as she speaks - always curious - and only when it ends does that change.

    The mention of Hyaline causes him to brighten, and Gale smiles at the mention of his new home. He’s still smiling when he tilts his head with confusion wondering what she might be apologizing for.

    “No,” he tells her with complete sincerity, “Stories are my favorite. Thank you for sharing yours.”

    @[Ciri]

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    #7

    Ciri

    She hadn’t realized that she had drawn him in with her words, her gaze mostly fixed on the stars that twinkle light yards away above them. It’s their light that gives her the courage to delve into old wounds. So she’s surprised when she finally turns to look back at him, finding him fully engrossed and gazing at her with that electric gaze. A slight shiver runs along her spine, the muscles beneath her dark hide spasming in response. Not from fear, not exactly. More so of feeling suddenly very exposed. Vulnerable to this man who she barely knew and yet was spilling her history unprompted before his hooves.

    There's a blush heating along her cheekbones but it's hidden beneath her ashy complexion. It's not a feeling of butterflies or a crush on Gale that makes insecurity gnaw at the back of her head. It had just been so long since she had felt such ease with another, too long since she had been able to talk to someone like a friend. Even if he wasn't.

    However he is smiling and his voice is sincere enough to edge through the sharp cut of her uncertainty. Slowly she releases the tension that she had been holding, not sure how it had gathered to begin with. The words seem genuine enough and a little warmth glows in her chest, that he found something of worth in what she had experienced. Rearranging herself beside him, easing a hind leg into a more comfortable position as well as dispelling some restless energy, she tries to shift the focus from herself. “What of your story?” She can’t help but tread lightly, hesitantly. Curious but unsure. “It seems you might have one worth telling.”


    all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was



    @[Gale]
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    #8
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    For most of his second life, Gale has avoided socialization in favor of observation. He prefers the latter, but there are times like these when he learns of things he cannot See, and they are worth the potential awkwardness of conversating.

    Even with his guileless smile, the brindle stallion’s intense observation of others can be off-putting. Ciri though, has not reacted as poorly as she might have, and that alone has endeared her to Gale. The Stars and the Story alone might have done so, but he enjoys that he does not see apprehension or misgiving on her dark face when she looks at him. (Those had been two emotions he’s learned to read quickly, if only because of the frequency with which he saw them on the faces of others).

    The story of a world that he does not know would have captivated Gale regardless of the teller, and to find one surrounded by stars is more than he might have dreamed of finding.

    This combination of factors weighs so heavily in the scarred mare’s favor that Gale finds himself telling her a Tale of his own. It is a far different tale than Ciri’s, the story of how following his father into war had been his destruction, and how he’d climbed from his Loessian grave with nothing at all of his past remaining in his mind. He tells her of Ruinam, and the invitation to Islandres, and the slow recovery of his memories.

    (That he leaves out the reunions with his family is intentional; he avoids a great deal of his family history)

    He tells her of his time in the Alliance, when he’d made it to the final round but couldn’t stop thinking about an earlier opponent, and how she’d found him months later. Without including the story of the Curse, Gale finds that their story is mostly a tale of his romantic ineptitude, but he is still smiling as he speaks of Mazikeen, and ends with:

    “So I’m going to live in Hyaline, now that I’ve put Islandres in the care of Fenwe and Islay.” His story has been a long one, and if she has wandered off during it, she will not be the first to have done so. 

    @[Ciri]

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    #9

    Ciri

    Gale’s story is much more personal than the one she had shared with him. She had shared only one experience, a traumatic one, but it seemed to pale in relation to what comes out of him. He tells of his father, of War, of dying. This alone floors her but he continues. Resurrection, lost memories, found memories, finding a home. Fighting love and Finding love. With each word spoken, the tentative bond between them seems to solidify. How can she not come to care for this man who was so open with her? It had been years since she had considered anyone but her stars as a friend. Tonight, tonight she finally seems to have found one.

    When he finishes, she is still standing, still attentive, and searching the lines of his face with open curiosity. Hesitantly, she can’t help but ask softly, “When you died, do you remember it?” She’s not sure why that question is burning on her brain but she can’t help but ask it and thinks he won’t shoot down her curiosity. Aware that the mood may have darkened, she laughs lightly and the stars echo the sound with their movement. "Thank you for sharing that with me. It puts a lot of things in perspective." A pause. "And I'm quite glad you lived to tell such a tale."

    Her own thoughts can’t help but turn back to Hyaline and everything she had experienced there. Everything that had been lost. If she was a more bitter person, she would have blamed everything on Castile. For coming into their perfect life and placing that seed of doubt. It wouldn’t be fair though, whatever feelings that had stirred between her and the dragon-shifter had been real and sometimes… Sometimes she regrets not taking a chance with him. Her love for Amet had been completely real but after seeing him in Eternal, knowing he had handed off their child for Jah to raise…. Something twisted in her gut just thinking about it. A sense of missing something important, something that was just out of her eyesight.

    Gale speaks kindly of Mazikeen and their love is fresh, just like hers and Amet’s had been. Now is not the time to bring up ruined relationships of Hyaline, it’s not the time to dampen their burgeoning love story. Because maybe those two have a chance. “I met Mazikeen briefly when I returned.” She finally says, doing her best to focus on the present. She hadn't really gotten to know the mare who had been focused on the kingdom and the darkness. “I’m happy for you, that you’ve both found something special.” She means it and her voice is warm even as she looks back to the stars in the sky with a sigh. “When you go back to Hyaline perhaps you can see if a large wisteria tree still exists. I would love to know.”

    Once she had tried to bring that tree back to life for her love. And when it came back, Amet had taken the delicate flowers and branches and created something beautiful for her. A beautiful place where they confessed their feelings and the first time she had experienced all the lovely things that love held. It’s a memory that she cherishes close to her heart, no matter what had happened or what was to come. When being escorted out in the endless night, there hadn’t been a chance to see if it still stood. She truly hopes it does.


    all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was



    @[Gale]
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    #10
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    Gale’s preferred method of sharing is ‘over’, and he has thus far been rather fortunate that his trusting nature has not landed him in uncomfortable situations. There are rarely others interesting enough  to draw him into conversation, so he gets little practice in chatting. Ciri has been at the receiving end of this. He’d found - and still finds - her stars sensational, and so has chosen to befriend her (even if, perhaps, he is not entirely sure he’s going about it correctly.)

    Her curious question elicits a noncommittal tilt of his head. “Sort of? There’s not really a lot between the lava and waking up buried, but I think I might have died a few times climbing out, and I remember feeling...different? Not alive. But I don’t think I was in the Afterlife. Or maybe I was, but it was in Loess too? ” This is not a topic that Gale has devoted much attention too, but it is a rather marvelous one, and he grins happily at Ciri for having come up with it.

    The smile remains as she thanks him for his story, and Gale bobs his dark head appreciatively.

    He does not intentionally draw the vision of the wisteria tree from her mind. Ciri holds it so clearly in her mind’s eye that Gale finds it as easily as he catches the scent of stardust and salt-tears from her skin, a purple flowered wonder that is impressive even to the far-seeing brindle stallion. Though he has made a conscious effort to avoid the use of his vision magic, some habits are hard to break, and he does not regret what he’s Seen.

    There is more to it, Gale knows, more to the image and the golden stallion she is not picturing, but he does not pry. Doing so would be using his Sight for far more than the single accidental shared vision, and the stallion is reluctant to do so. He is curious though, and might have asked were it not for the expression that she wears.

    His ability to read body language and faces is growing, but he is not the best. This though, he recognizes, and does not disturb. He has seen his parents speak of each with that look, seen Nashua as he spoke of Noel, and Pteron of Aegean and Aquaria. Some things deserve the time to be savored.

    So Gale nods his agreement, and tells her that he will look for it when he returns. “Do you live here, in the Meadow?” He asks instead, wondering where he might find her to tell her if the tree remains.

    @[Ciri]
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