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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


    when it falls into place we go from if to when | djuna
    #1
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    An almost full moon illuminates the river bottom, providing clear light for the blue-eyed river otter who swims down from the heights of Hyaline. The feel of water through his thick fur is pleasant as he swam, but he is quick to shake it away when he emerges from the River. The almost-dawn air is cold, and it rattles the last of the autumn leaves and nips at the delicate skin of his now-equine face.

    Having released all his shifting, Gale is only a horse now, one with piercing blue eyes that draw attention away even from his iridescent and jewel-toned hide. He is not quite handsome (not as handsome as he will be when the sun rises), but he is tall and muscular and looks every inch the Champion of Hyaline. 

    Gale snorts, and burns away the last of the water with the fiery aura he had taken from Mazikeen. Warm now, he looks around.

    Autumn is not the commonlands busiest time, and nor are the hours just before dawn. He is alone, save a few distant sleeping figures, and he marvels at their ignorance.

    Alone, unprotected, easy targets.

    Or perhaps powerful enough to feel confident sleeping with no guard, and so Gale leaves them all be, choosing instead to meander up the path along the water until he encounters something that finally makes him pause.

    “I had horns like that once,” he tells the chestnut mare with a charming smile, “But they weren’t nearly so nice a color.”

    @Djuna

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    #2
    Djuna
    the would-be queen
    The mid-year warmth has come and gone from Beqanna, a deeper chill settling in its absence. The night is quiet now, a stark contrast to the cacophony of crickets and frogs that had filled the air just weeks ago.

    Djuna's taken up shelter beneath a tall oak that grows from the grassy banks near it the river's yawning mouth, watching the last bits of silvery light of the moon reflect off the burbling water. The sun will be rising soon, she can see the very first hints of light inkling against the horizon, and she knows she should try to rest. Yet sleep eludes her, as it has most nights since she stepped hoof in this place. Where once she'd slumbered peacefully, now she resigns herself to simply...wait. For the light ― for safety. Only in the mornings can she doze properly, those few hours her only tenuous connection to sanity, the only thin wall separating her from what she's sure must be madness.

    Because honestly, screw this place. This place had nothing to offer but poor luck and even poorer choices.

    Djuna's acidic inner monologue is broken by the distinct sound of hooves against packed dirt ― someone coming down the trail. She blinks herself back into reality, stomach turning slightly. She's in no mood to chat with wanderers or grifters, but turns her head anyways out of what she likes to think is some deep-seated sense of politeness, but is more likely to be a sense of self preservation, of wariness.

    A ghost-like figure materializes from around the bend, a lonesome stallion ambling up the path. He pauses when he sees her, and Djuna has to stop herself from tensing under the vivid blue of his gaze. The rakish smile that curls at his lips does little to ease the anxious machinations of her over-tired mind, but she forces herself to return it with an amiable half-smile of her own. 'Relax. He's probably harmless.'

    "Oh, you did?" Is her simple reply. Her gaze drifts upwards, trying to imagine him with horns like her own ― graceful in the way they'd curve away from his skull. It suits him, this mental image she conjures up, though she's sure her imagination would never suffice to do the real ones justice. After a moment she levels her eyes towards his again, a question forming in her mind and on her tongue: "What happened to them?"


    @Gale sorry for the wait asdfjlk
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    #3
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    Her eyes are wary, but there is weariness in their jade depths. Gale stares, his own eyes bright and lightning sharp, crackling like the miniscule bolts that pulse across his hide. She looks soft, and beyond the sharp curl of her horn he cannot Sense anything within her that feels sharp enough to truly hurt him.

    Should he eat her?
    Bring her skull back to Malik as a plaything?

    His young son will appreciate the toy, something to sharpen his pointed milk teeth on. The cub is starting to eat more meat as well, and the mare is strong and well-muscled, with a haunch that could easily fill the stomach of a growing boy.

    Kill her here or take her back home first?
    She’s looking up at the place his horns had once been, and Gale grows them again.

    Well, he means to, but instead the forked horns that he had been gifted by Hyaline’s entity grow. They are not white spirals like her own, but instead they are black and three pronged, and they glow and flicker with slow moving blue lava-like light. Gale frowns, because the magic does not usually affect him so.

    Had she done this?

    Had she hidden something from him, some ability that causes a malfunction in his abilities? Best play along, he decides, and tread carefully until he has a better idea of the source of this oddity. If it is the green-eyed mare, he will take it from her as he eats her heart, and the thought causes the claws of his forelimbs to dig into the earth.

    Concentrating, he pulls the horns longer, till they curl around like his had - like hers do. “The darkness took them.” he replies, referring to the Eclipse. She does not glow, he realizes just as he speaks, there is no light about her the way there is on so many of the survivors. Perhaps she is a newcomer to this world? Perhaps she has some foreign Gift he does not recognize.

    Take her back home first. The choice is made for him. Better to have back-up.

    “I would like to take you to Hyaline with me.” He tells her. The declaration is matter-of-fact, and he waits expectantly for an answer once he has asked: “Will you come?” He sounds only curious, and there is still a handsome smile on his dark face. She could say no, the smile says.

    He’s not quite decided if that is true yet.




    current appearance:glowing perlino stallion with lightning and iridescent navy blue scarring. forelimbs are those of a quetzalcoatlus, feathered in white with a red V shape in the feathers on the left -> grows black horns



    @Djuna no worries!
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