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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]  brought the dark to the light
    #1
    Gale
    started under neon lights, then it all got dark
    i only know how to go too far



    Dawn is just coming to Islandres, replacing the starry black eastern sky with one of molten gold. Though the water will be turquoise in full light, this morning the waves are still charcoal grey, foaming with white where they climb the obsidian sand. Farther and farther they climb, until they brush along the half buried body of a horse in the sand.

    The touch of the cool spring waves does not wake him immediately. Gale is lost, his mind somewhere between the endless Void and nightmares. The self-healing with which the pegasus had been born has always kept the smallest piece of him alive, immune from the infestation of the Curse that had struck him at the start of the Eclipse. Losing himself had been a progressive thing, and every now and then Gale would wake - fully himself - with no memory at all of his recent life.

    Those moments (meeting Sabal, wandering in the woods, blinking for what he’d have sworn was a half-second only to find Mazikeen mid-sentence instead of asleep beside him) had been few and far between. As he stands, shaking off the sand, Gale finally recognizes them for what they were. Moments when the Curse inside him had been distracted or weakened. Weakened like it is now, reduced to something not unlike Gale so often was - a shadow in the back of the mind.

    It will return, Gale knows. It will come back, and there is not anything he can do to stop it, only wait for it to happen.

    He feels drained, Gale decides, as though his body has been fighting many battles. It is more than physical, he finds; the exhaustion is deeper than that.

    Gale does not remember the explosion of light, or the way his very existence was twisted about by the dark god.

    He knows only that he goes to pull his wings tighter to his sides to comfort himself just to find that they are not there. He is nothing but a horse, each bit of his magic stripped away. His back feels uncomfortably cool even on this warm spring day, void as it is of the white spinal mane.

    He shivers, but remains standing at the water’s edge, enjoying the sunrise as he waits for what he knows is inevitable.
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    #2

    -Adria-

    After many quiet years beneath the sea, Adria was ashore again - woken from her peaceful solitude by the appearance of the Baltians and Loess tumbling into the ocean whence it came. She’d been shoreside for a few months now, happy to find the rest of the world (more specifically her favorite little corner of it) mostly unchanged. The islands were stable, the darkness had fled, and her energy - unlike Gale’s - felt refreshed by the emergence.

    She would go on living for a little while longer, and eventually the sea would call her back to it’s soothing embrace, but for now she was happy enough to pause in the midst of her morning walk and peer out at the horizon from between the tangled grove of swampish, brackish foliage.

    There, Gale’s still-dark silhouette stood out against the natural colors of another bright and lovely sunrise.

    He was so still that for a moment the Nereid mistook him for one of the carved figurines indegnous to the black-sand isle, but a second later she knew it couldn’t be; the figurines were farther away, near the uppermost tip of Islandres where the sea fog rolled in around them.

    Sensibility told her to leave the brooding horse alone. Clearly they were deep in thought, or expectant of some company that most definitely wasn’t her. The way they faced the ocean was a sight she’d seen many times before, even experienced herself, and typically it wasn’t a stance that needed or wanted another warm body to complete the picture.

    But she surprised herself by turning and breaking through the overgrowth anyway, overcome by her desire to be sociable like she’d once been when Ischia had been hers to keep and command.

    Ah, the seamare sighed pleasantly, those were the days.

    “Greetings!” She called out, passing by the towering palms. On her face sat a warm, welcoming smile. “I’m coming down to join you.”

    Oh my love, don't forsake me; Take what the water gave me



    @Gale
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    #3
    Gale
    started under neon lights, then it all got dark
    i only know how to go too far



    The sound of cracking is not his bones, but it takes a moment for Gale to realize this. He winces at the sound only to realize it is the sound of the grapple trees being forced apart, and he turns his electric blue gaze on the stranger as she emerges onto the beach. The citrus scent of the leaves perfumes the air and disguises her scent, but even at this distance Gale is sure he does not know her.

    Is that better or worse, he wonders?

    He does not know how he came to be on Islandres, or how much time has passed since he had last been in control of himself. The last time had been in Tephra and how long ago had that been? A week? A year?

    Will she be hurt when the Curse comes on him? Or does she know it? His eyes search hers, and though Carnage’s blow had pulled the lightning from his skin with the rest of is magic, it flashes for just a moment in his too bright eyes. There’s no fear in her yellow eyes, no shadow of dread in the welcoming smile on her vermillion-lipped smile.

    It is tempting to pretend, to act as though there is nothing at all amiss. It would be easy to act the part of the man he’d once been. It might even be fun to pretend, to take a brief moment of happiness before the inevitable darkness returned. Could he do it though, risk having someone near when the madness returned? His indecision can last only as long as it takes her to make it down to the waves beside him.

    He decides to disappear and spare her, closing his eyes, and as he feels her shadow fall across his blazed face suddenly remembers that he lacks the ability to disappear. Off balance, Gale reopens his white-lashed eyes, blinking quickly to focus. He attempts to smile, but it is strained, and he manages a: “Hello.”

    @Adria
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    #4

    -Adria-

    As soon as Gale turned his head (confirming that he was not a statue) Adria’s uncertainty washed away. Surely he can see me smiling, she thought, and know that her intentions were good. Yes?

    Had he not turned she might’ve paused, sensing the awkward indifference, but as it was the seamare has no possible idea of what worries currently plague the blue-brindled stallion. All she can see is the handsome visage, chiseled and strong, set ablaze by two striking, electric blue eyes.

    His attention only serves to deepen Adria’s already too-warm grin.

    Confident that her decision to mingle had been a good one, the Nereid took a rest beside him and let the wet sand cling to her hooves. She watched him; watched his expression fumble and his eyes flutter open once more, pained with some sort of emotion. Coy, Adria held back a laugh and tried to smother a slow-burning burning interest, not wanting to chase him off just yet.

    “Are you ‘Baltian’?” She queried, looking him over for good measure.

    He had been staring out to sea all alone, and ever since Adria came landside she’d been passionate about hunting the isles for one of these so-called ‘new breeds’. To her disappointment, she found the blue male free of any gills or scales. Hmph, she waited. Perhaps he knew of some, and could direct her where to find them.

    Oh my love, don't forsake me; Take what the water gave me



    @Gale
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    #5
    Gale
    started under neon lights, then it all got dark
    i only know how to go too far



    His tepid greeting dissuades her none at all, and the vermillion woman soon stands beside him. He is looking out to sea as she looks at him, aware of her curious golden gaze but knowing better than to engage. He might have continued to do so, had two things not occurred simultaneously.

    The first is that he realizes that there is water where land should be. Where the southern kingdoms had once met the northern sea is now nothing but a stretch of water between the Tephran volcano and the redwood-topped granite cliffs of Taiga. The second is that she asks if he is a Baltian, and it so startles him beside the missing shore that he replies. 

    “Am I a what?”

    What is a Baltian, and where has the South gone?

    Being lost is not unfamiliar to him, but he knows that there is little point in trying to be found. The Curse will return before long, oozing outward until Gale is nothing but a silent lament in the back of his own mind. He shouldn’t even wait for an answer. And yet he has been standing here at least an hour, and that is the longest stretch he has had to himself in a half-decade. Perhaps the Curse had finally taken on something too large?

    The hope feels bright in his chest.

    Gale quashes it with a scowl, one that he levels at the innocent red mare.

    “You shouldn’t be here.” He tells her. “It isn’t safe.”

    @Adria
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    #6

    -Adria-

    "A Baltian" was on the very tip of Adria’s tongue when Gale interrupted. She closed her mouth tightly, so taken aback by the sudden warning that she recoiled, stunned into silence.

    Then she scowled right back at him.

    “Tsk, grosye. The lovely Nereid scolded, clicking her tongue.

    She relaxed her chin and let her neck uncurl, but left her gently curving ears down where he could see them. Some stallions never got the licking they deserved as colts, and it clearly showed. This one seemed as uptight as his mane.

    “I may look like the filly, but more than likely I am twice your age.” Adria scoffed, indignant. What was his problem, huh? She was being nice, wasn’t she? “I’ve been here for days already, scouring the Island.”

    Poor Gale - he was just trying to do right by her. But there goes a saying: ”pa gen okenn bon aksyon san pinisyon.” No good deed goes unpunished.

    “There is nothing to fear out there.” She smirked her pale, pink lips at him.

    Oh my love, don't forsake me; Take what the water gave me



    @Gale
    Reply
    #7
    Gale
    started under neon lights, then it all got dark
    i only know how to go too far



    She speaks, but the sounds she makes are as intelligible as the gulls overhead. Gale does not need to know exactly what the words had been to catch her meaning though, and that is confirmed as she dismisses his warning. Scouring the island, she said. So he’s been here at least a few days. How long since the time before that? A year? A week?

    Gale’s scowl deepens, his navy ears half-pinned as he snorts irritably.

    “Are you good at killing?” He asks. Not at battle, anyone can be trained to fight. Killing is another matter, but perhaps there is more than meets the eye beneath the sabino exterior. His gaze wanders as he wonders this, and though his eyes see only the salt-thick hide of a seahorse out of the water too long, he can See the scales that glitter beneath them. Perhaps she is a kelpie with a myriad of drowned lovers. She might stand a chance, if the Curse truly were weakened somehow.

    He tilts his head and brings his blue gaze back to her golden one, staring intently as he has always been prone to doing. He cannot see it himself but the lightning that had flickered in his eyes earlier now flashes down the length of his wide white blaze. It doesn’t quite reach his nose yet, but like the tide that creeps slowly up the black beach, it stretches with each passing breath.

    “Because you don’t look very good at it.”

    His tone is flat, and the words are blunt. His scowl remains, navy brows shadowing his too-bright blue eyes, but there is no derision or mockery in his expression.

    @Adria
    Reply
    #8

    -Adria-

    Good at killing? The nereid mare would laugh if she thought it could break this dark spell over her companion. She could feel the intensity behind his open, electric eyes. He wasn’t joking.

    “If you are here to claim the island,” she responded flatly, “I won’t contest you.”

    Why should she leave, though? Why should he question her ability to kill? What was circling around and around in that dark, handsome forehead? Adria thought she might not have to guess for long, eyeing the flicker of lightning as it danced over his skin.

    “But if you want me to leave Islandres altogether, you’ll have to make me go.” The Nereid shrugged her slender, brightly-colored shoulders.

    The tide heaved, rushing up the shoreline to pool around their fetlocks and soak them both. At odds with the time of day, it should’ve been receding and exposing hidden treasure brought up from the churning depths, but for some reason it swelled and kept rising.

    The seamare cast her eyes out upon the great expanse of water surrounding them, keeping her voice deadpan but sweet.

    “Can you breathe like a fish?” She asked her aggressor.

    Oh my love, don't forsake me; Take what the water gave me



    @Gale
    Reply
    #9
    Gale
    started under neon lights, then it all got dark
    i only know how to go too far



    Claim the island? Does that make her chief of it then he wonders? He does not believe that Islay and Fenwe would have let it lapse into the charge of one so quick to surrender though.

    But how long has he been gone?

    Tephra is the last place he remembers. It smokes on the southern horizon, a grey smudge on the pre-dawn horizon. He remembers Divest with her wide silver eyes, and before that? Hyaline, broken on the cliff where Mazikeen had dropped his nearly empty body.

    Gale shivers, and a bolt of lightning flickers down toward his chest. He can feel the darkness, pulsing with his own heartbeat, and knows it is not dead. The monster that has worn Gale’s body has contracted to nothing more than a knot of oozing filth where his heart had once been, but he had felt it twitch. It will return, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it.

    She informs him that she will not be leaving the island, and it is clear from the far away look in his eye that he is not really listening to her. He is not seeing anything at all, and when he Looks there is only darkness and a steadily growing ache in the back of his head.

    He wants Adria to run from him, and instead she draws the water up. For what else could pull the tides up the black shore so swiftly? What but control of the seas could have the salt water lapping playfully against his legs? He looks down, to where a school of silver fish dart between his white stockings.

    Gale shakes his head, and the lightning dances toward his withers.

    “Usually.” He answers, voice clear and matter-of-fact. “But not today, it seems.” It is a marked change to the flatness of tone he’d used before, though his blue eyes remain equally intense (and no more prone to blinking). Scaring her off had not worked, so it is time to try something else.

    “I am not safe,” Gale tells her casually, because he has never been good at lying and the truth is always easiest to remember. “Well, usually.” There is nothing usual about him at all, and perhaps the vermilion mare has already begun to realize that before the soft hairs of Gale’s mane begin to rise with static electricity. He’s not doing it purposefully, and the little bolts that dart toward his nose make him want to sneeze.

    “Is there anyone else on the island?” He asks. Still only partially convinced that she is the Cheif, he only wants to know if he is likely to run into others. There are places he could go, he thinks, jungles so dense that a stranger could get lost for weeks.

    Is the Curse a stranger to Islandres? Gale certainly hopes that it is.


    @Adria
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    #10

    -Adria-

    Was he confused? Had she not spoken clearly? Adria was pretty sure she’d been speaking in common tongue just now, directly to him. Normally when she spoke, it was with the expectation of a response. He must have thought that she was easily scared, or just another horse to order around as he liked, because Adria couldn’t remember the last time a stallion visibly ignored her and didn’t learn to regret it.

    It was with a little thrill of satisfaction that she watched him look down at the ocean, suddenly aware of its tug and pull around his legs. His skin flashed with that same strange, electric pulse she'd seen on his face, sparking her curiosity before his retort snuffed it out again.

    Hah! The little seahorse half-snorted, her expression a mixture of awe and heated disgust. What did he mean by repeating himself with this word, usually?

    “If that’s the case, then I should suck you into the black abyss and let Lanmè A have her way with you.” Adria drifted in a slow arc, cutting her way through the churning surf without moving her limbs. Something told her that this, too, would pass right through him, and her patience was wearing thin.

    If he was a threat, this so-called ‘killer’, then she would swallow him up with the water and send him far away from these shores, where he could bother others and leave the Islands in peace. So far he’d done nothing but warn her in that strange, uneasy way of his, thinking he had a right to tell her off. Adria didn’t care if he hadn’t done anything to her yet, besides expecting her to just buckle and disappear. No one forced her from the Isle’s of her birth - not him, not anyone.

    “As of today, there is only us.” She grinned prettily, watching the faint tendrils of her hair float atop the rising waves. “I suggest you grow gills, or get swimming.”

    Oh my love, don't forsake me; Take what the water gave me



    @Gale
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