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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


    [private]  you wouldn't be the first renegade to need somebody, voracious
    #1
    BUT I HOPE I NEVER LOSE THE BRUISES THAT YOU LEFT BEHIND
    When he had agreed to follow her to Taiga she had been surprised by the warmth that flooded through her. She hadn’t realized how much of her hope was hanging on that invitation, that for him to deny her would have been far more disappointing than she would ever let on. She had thought that by burying her wants and desires that it meant she did not have to feel them, that she could pretend they didn’t exist. But in that moment that hung, suspended, as she waited to hear his answer, she realized that it would have broken something inside of her all the same. 

    She had smiled at him, a true smile, and said, “I’ll explain it to you once we get there.”

    They enter from the south, the forest that flanks it gradually giving way to trees so tall that even when she cranes her neck back she cannot see the tops of them. But they do not go towards the heart of the land. Instead, she veers west, following a familiar path that leads to a now unfamiliar coast. She has already been here, once, to look at the new border — at the sea that now separates Taiga and Tephra. She stops at the edge, where water now lapped at an unnatural shore, and she turns her antlered head as Voro comes alongside her. 

    “There was a time when Tephra and Taiga bordered each other. Before the earthquake that caused the sea to rise.” Without thinking she steps closer to him, and this time when his wings brush against her sides she does not move away. The feeling of any part of him touching her threatens to fog her mind, to make her lose interest in the story she is trying to tell, and it is around a steadily increasing heartbeat that she continues. “When I was born, everything was on fire. My mother lived in Tephra at the time, when war broke out between them and Loess. Loess had dragons and those that could bend shadows, and after they set Tephra on fire they shuttered away the sun until everything was dark.” She pauses to look at him, a small smile twisted on her lips. “That’s what I remember about being born—shadow and smoke. And having to learn to run before I ever figured out how to walk.”

    With a twist of her head she looks behind her, at the army of redwood trees. “After that, Taiga was like a second home. I spent just as much time there as I did Tephra. It always seemed to suit me a bit more than Tephra did, yet I never stayed.” Here, a small frown shadows her face, having never really considered the why’s of that—why she never stayed, why nothing ever really felt like home. Her vibrant eyes turn back to him, and she wonders again at the feeling that blossoms in her chest when she looks at him, when she tries to speak around it. “We could stay, if you wanted. Or we can keep looking.”
    A I S L Y N


    @Voracious
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    #2

    You twist, I turn, who's the first to burn?

    You sit and stay, I don't obey.

    It had never been a question of whether or not he would agree. That decision had already been made before she had even posed the question. Her quiet acceptance of the darkness he harbored had ensured it, and with that, he would have followed her anywhere. It wasn’t hard, especially for a creature who had already risen from the bowels of his own personal hell. He had followed her then too, and she had given him this world in exchange.

    Now he wonders what she will give him this time.

    Though he had been beset by curiosity, he had only nodded when she told him she would explain later. It had not taken him long to settle his avid curiosity on their surroundings. Had not taken him long to begin wondering about the place in which she’d been birthed.

    He follows her without question as they traverse the massive redwoods, neck craning as he peers around, hungry eyes devouring. When she halts at the edge of an abrupt shoreline, he scans the unnaturally carved strait before turning his gaze to Aislyn. He listens to her story with an intensity derived from years of practiced study, keeping his questions in check until she is finished. Her tale sounds as strange and fantastical to him as he knows his must have sounded to her when she had first traipsed into his hidden prison. His own birthplace.

    When she mentions that they could stay if he wished, Voracious’ gaze brightens, head tilting slightly. Peering at her for a long moment, he finally says simply, “I wish to stay wherever you stay.”

    Though he’s not entirely sure why, he finds her company far more compelling than any physical place. He has begun to believe he might be happiest wherever she is, regardless of their surroundings.

    Finally breaking his gaze from her, he glances around them, curiosity rising once more. “The shadows and smoke,” he continues, returning his attention to her tale just as his aqua eyes return to her. “Is that how you were created? Or how you were trained?”
    Voracious


    @Aislyn
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    #3
    BUT I HOPE I NEVER LOSE THE BRUISES THAT YOU LEFT BEHIND
    She watches him from the corner of her eye, trying to gauge his reaction to this place. She is only a little bit familiar with the land he had come from—after all, she hadn’t been there for long—but it was enough for her to know that it was vastly different from Beqanna. Not just in scenery, but the entire culture, and she was never sure how he was going to take things. The Taigan trees were beautiful, for example, but they could also appear suffocating, with the way they could blot out the sun and sky, make you feel as if you are trapped beneath an ocean of tree-limbs.

    But Voro looks upon the place in admiration, and again she feels that flood of warmth in her chest. Showing him Taiga had felt like showing him a more personal part of herself,  and she wonders if she will ever stop fearing his rejection each time she does so.

    When he says that he will stay wherever she stays it feels as though what remained of her guard finally falls, and she stares at him searchingly for what may have been too long.  She is still standing close to him, still able to feel the occasional brush of his feathers against her side, and she can almost see herself closing the gap between them entirely—can see herself pressing into his side to see what it really felt like to have his body pushed against hers. But despite her inability to continue to deny her feelings, she has not yet found the courage to act on them.

    Not completely, at least.

    Reaching forward she touches her nose to his neck in the same gesture as she had before, offering a small smile when she tells him, “I will show you all the places in Beqanna that I can think of, and then we will decide where to stay, together.”

    She is distracted from their closeness at his question, and she falls into a thoughtful quiet as she considers a way to explain this to someone that had been created in an entirely different world. “Not exactly,” she starts slowly, and shifts away from him just slightly. Perhaps this would be easier if they aren’t touching. “In Beqanna, no one is just….created. I mean, you are, but it involves your parents. Your parents create you, together, and then eventually you’re born.” She pauses, turning her vivid colored eyes to his, and trying to ignore the heat that threatens to creep into her face. Why was this so difficult to explain? “Does that make sense?”
    A I S L Y N
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    #4

    You twist, I turn, who's the first to burn?

    You sit and stay, I don't obey.

    Standing in the place she had been birthed, a place so very personal to her, Voracious cannot help but bow beneath the warmth and closeness of it. There is something almost soothing about standing beneath the same canopy that she had witnessed upon first opening her eyes, in knowing that she had wanted him to witness it enough to bring him here. That she had allowed him to see another piece of her.

    A part of him wants to be the only one she shares with this, but the more sensible part of him knows how selfish it is to want such a thing. Still, he would be selfish enough to take any piece of herself that she offered. That much he could not deny himself.

    Her soft touch draws him closer as leans almost unconsciously into it. When she smiles and offers to show him more, his own lips tug upwards as his aqua gaze warms, chest puffing with something indescribable yet undeniably pleasant. With a swallow, he nods before saying, “I would like that very much.”

    Though she is no longer touching him, he can’t help but draw closer. The heat and softness of her is alluring, and he wants her to touch him again. Or to touch her in return. He is only a whisper away when her words interrupt him, reminding him of the conversation they were having. He should pull away - it would be the polite thing to do - but he does not.

    The way she speaks of her creation, he can tell there is more. Yet, the words are enticing. He understands those here have parents, even if he never had. And learning they must work together to create another sounds… intriguing. Do they all share the connection he feels now with Aislyn? Or is it as cold as his own creation had been? The way Aislyn speaks though, it does not sound cold at all.

    “I never had parents,” Voracious finally admits, his voice soft. He still doesn’t move away from her, unwilling to relinquish this enticing closeness. “How is it decided, who can be parents and create young together?” He thinks he might like such a thing, though he does not know if he would even be allowed to do so. Still, it cannot hurt to ask.
    Voracious


    @Aislyn
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    #5
    BUT I HOPE I NEVER LOSE THE BRUISES THAT YOU LEFT BEHIND
    She cannot imagine what it would be like to not have parents, to simply just be created. She already had spent so much of her life feeling lost, aimless. How much worse would it be if she did not at least have her parents as something to anchor herself to? For her entire life her parents had always been in the same place, even before they had become the inseparable pair that they are now. And even if she had grown up feeling as if she could never possibly measure up to either one of them, they had been there, two immovable forces that she knew she could always count on.

    And while she still does not think she will ever truly fit the space they had carved out for her, she knows that she is far more fortunate than most—that she had been born to parents that loved her, that were not faceless names and shapeless mysteries that she did not know.

    It’s why she does not entirely know how to answer Voro’s question on how it is ‘decided’ that someone will be parents, and she chooses her words carefully. “Anyone can do it, technically. I was lucky, because I was able to grow up with both of my parents, but that is not the case for everyone.” She hesitates, before correcting herself with a short laugh. “Actually it’s not the case for most here. It’s usually more common for children to just be….an accident, I guess. One thing leads to another and it just kind of…happens.”

    She already knows that he will not entirely understand what she means—is certain that since he had come from a land where they were simply created and not born that perhaps he would not understand the feelings that could lead to 'accidentally' creating children even if she described them.

    So she turns, her eyes catching his, and she asks quietly, “Do you feel anything when I touch you?”
    A I S L Y N


    @Voracious
    Reply
    #6

    You twist, I turn, who's the first to burn?

    You sit and stay, I don't obey.

    Love is something that has never been a part of Voracious’ life. In the bowels of his birthplace - the place he had been created and trained - he had known only duty and violence. He had been considered defective simply because his heart had yearned for more. Ridiculed because he had dreamed of something beyond orders and forced servitude. Love had never even been a consideration.

    Now, though he knows it exists, he struggles to understand. Yet he cannot help but wonder at the warmth that bubbles inside his chest every time he looks at Aislyn. Wonders if he already knows it but simply hasn’t been able to recognize it.

    He nods when she proclaims her own fortune at having grown up with parents, a faintly wistful smile touching his lips. It is certainly something he had never known. The slight smile dips into a frown when she continues however. He doesn’t quite understand how children can be created by accident. It has always struck him as a very deliberate thing.

    Voracious is mulling that over, deciding how best to clarify when her gaze shifts and catches his, an unexpected question falling from her lips. He blinks, wondering at the abrupt change of subject. But then what she had asked hits him, causing warmth to spread across his skin. Clearing his throat, he glances briefly away in chagrin before forcing his eyes back to hers. “Yes,” he replies slowly. “It’s very… pleasant.” He clears his throat again. “I like it and it… it makes me want to touch you too.”
    Voracious


    @Aislyn
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