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dark moon rising; castile - Printable Version

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dark moon rising; castile - Lepis - 08-24-2018

The wind ruffles my hair, tugging at the deep blue strands and tangling them with the white. There is no smoothing them into respectability; that chance was lost about four thousand feet up in a particularly nasty cumulonimbus. The memory of the storm is still fresh in my mind. Lightening below me and thunder all around me; I am still blinking away the results of the brilliant flashes as I stand in the heart of the forest.
 
Around me, the woods are just starting to rouse themselves after the storm. Late afternoon sunlight is filtering through the branches overhead. I breathe deep in the revitalizing scent of a world after the rain. I can almost block out the scent of the fall, of the autumn when life slowly begins to decay. It is easier now that winter is close. I draw my wings tighter around me as another gust ripples through the trees that surround me. It carries with it a familiar scent, one that I am surprised I have not forgotten. It had come to me in the clouds, when a flash of lightening illuminated a piebald coat in a pattern I knew well.
 
He’d not heard me over the wind, shouting his name. He probably hadn’t even seen me.
 
But I’d seen him land, here where the storm had already passed, and I had followed him down. My situation is forgotten; it doesn’t matter how I got here, only who I have seen.
 
“Castile!” I call as I pick my way through the sopping forest. My head is held high, and I search with my nose and ears as well as my eyes. There is no one around, but I know he must be near. “Castile!”
 
It doesn’t occur to me that he might not recognize me, that more than my voice may have changed since the last time we met. I’m no longer a gawky yearling, but a woman grown. The rosebud prettiness of my adolescence is gone, replaced by a sharper sort of beauty that is offset by the myriad of scars across my buckskin coat. Castile had looked the same though, strong and fast and draconic, the idol of my childhood and my beloved uncle.
 
“@[Castile]?!”
 
@[Castile]
I thought he needed some non-romantic drama in his life <3


RE: dark moon rising; castile - Ilma - 08-25-2018


Ilma
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned
the firestarters always get the burns
and the good guys never get the girl

They both have had time to think, by now, she hopes.

When the storm is over (perhaps it had taken a few hours maybe a day), Ilma set out to find Lepis. Again. The girl had made good on her promise that she would leave, but, after a quick swoop in the sunlight over the border area between Hyaline and Loess, it was clear that she had not taken that route. A smart thing to do; it was opposite of what she'd said.

So, Ilma got delayed, but she was determined to find Lepis anyway. Great prisoner guard she turned out to be if she just let her escape without consequence. Following Loess' eastern border, she reached the forest, and maybe she was lucky, but the perlino mare just happened to be calling out. Castile, she asked for. Now wasn't that curious; Ilma had only recently met the man, but he seemed the good kind, or at least, one that was trying to be good. Trying was the thing that mattered to Ilma; she was just a bit surprised that the two were compatible at this point.

She lowered herself into a sunlit clearing, shaking her fur and mane. Then, she followed up on the sounds easily. Casually nearing the perlino and navy mare, she made no haste. She'd told her queens that she would follow up on Lepis - if she did not return on time, they'd send someone to check on her and help. Hopefully it was not needed, however.

"Hello again. I had hoped to speak back in Hyaline, but I see you've chosen to make good on your promise." She shudders her wings casually, indicating that following her had not been as much trouble as Lepis might have hoped. But here she was. "Don't worry about me dragging you back instantly; I'll help you find Castile and leave you two to talk a bit, if you want." she offers. Perhaps, maybe, they could mend their relationship over some time. It seemed that whatever was going on between Loess and Hyaline, it was mostly their personal relation that was standing in the way of good diplomacy. While Ilma was prepared for another argument, it was not her intention to continue that route.

That road led to nothing, after all. And besides, it made her incredibly tired and wary.

and shooting stars cannot fix the world


@[Lepis] Since it looks like an escape attempt, I can't take the risk of not replying (:. Blocking escape! But I'm going to let you thread with one another, because Ilma is actually such a nice girl. Just not always when someone's stepping on her toes. Wink @[Castile]


RE: dark moon rising; castile - Castile - 08-30-2018

One by one, they were finding him – the faces of his past. There isn’t a sole emotion that trademarks his return. Thus far, there has been anger and happiness, disappointment and love. But sheer excitement? No, there had been no expectation of that as he came to alight along the treeline as the storm approached. In the forest, he expected solitude, but instead he hears his name called by a somewhat familiar voice. A momentary clench of his gut is attended by a jump of his heart into his throat.

When his head turns, his bronze locks slicked down by the rain, Castile glimpses Lepis barreling the foray and weaving among the trees to find him. A broad smile immediately stretches along his lips, warranted by the familiar face he has always adored. Although her childish innocence has since sharpened into adult femininity, Castile still recognizes her. There is no feasible way he could forget his niece.

Alas, her path is intercepted by a familiar face. The scent accompanies her, clinging to the pink outline of his nostrils when a breath is drawn in. Being fairly close, Castile curiously listens to the brief exchange before edging closer. The wings on his back ripple and shift into those of a dragon – of what he truly is – but he doesn’t adopt any aggression or disappointment to match the draconic image. ”Ilma,” he richly mutters as he takes a final step to her side, ”You found me.” An amused gleam lights up his eyes as he glances to Lepis but it subtly wavers as his attention sweeps back to the Ilma. ”And you’ve found my niece.”

There is a hint of tension in the air that Castile grasps and tries desperately to analyze. Inclining his head thoughtfully, he considers the underlying message exchanged between the women. ”I thought Hyaline embraced neutrality and didn’t steal from other lands?” The scent of Loess is still thick on Lepis’ skin, marking her as a remaining member of its ranks. ”Or did something else happen that she is held captive for?” Perhaps, Hyaline has changed its protocol, leaning toward a new direction entirely and sinking its nails into a new way of life. Curious and brooding, Castile glances between the two, waiting somewhat impatiently for an explanation.




@[Ilma] @[Lepis]


RE: dark moon rising; castile - Lepis - 08-30-2018

For a few blissful moments, I’d forgotten about Hyaline entirely. Focused on my search for Castile, thoughts of the mountainous kingdom and their political ineptitude had been entirely absent. 

Yet there is a flutter of wings behind me as I call, and I spin ‘round to find not my Uncle, but the white Hyalinite that I’d left behind. To call the expression I wear a scowl is to do scowls a disservice; there’s far more fury than disappointment. Perhaps Ilma thinks a few hours might have softened my position, but it is clear from the dark ears now nestled in my navy mane that the very opposite is true. She mentions I’d made good on my promise, and the scowl fades away to something closer to incredulity. What about our conversation would have possibly made her think I wouldn’t carry out my promise?

Had I known Ilma still harbored thoughts of reparation, my anger would have been softened. I am not at heart an angry creature, but there are some lines that even the most soft-hearted cannot stand to see crossed. As it is, what I hear are threats to drag me back (as if she could, this mare who won’t fight!) and condescension.

”What I want is for you to let me go before I actually do something to merit the threat your queens made.” The words are steely despite my now-neutral expression, and I’ve briefly forgotten my search for Castile entirely. ”Because I guarantee if you attempt to drag me back anywhere, it will be the last thing you ever do.” There, at last I’ve made genuine threats. I’d tried to avoid them, but the storm and the situation have taken too much out of me, and I am weary of parrying words with a diplomat who never seems to say anything new.

I would have said more (the words rage heavy at the back of my tongue), but our dripping clearing is soon filled by another horse. This time it is the one I’d been looking for, and the smile with which I great him is nothing less than brilliant. It doesn’t fade, not even when it becomes clear that he knows Ilma. His next inquiry is about Hyaline, and there is a long-forgotten sensation of petulance as I suddenly recall scoldings of the past. This time I’d done a little more than childish pranks (carefully surround him with cacti as he’d slept or rolled in the mud before meeting with visiting diplomats), but my sense of righteousness doesn’t fade.

”They’ve been busy lately.” I reply. ”I attempted one perfectly friendly steal”(that’s how it had been intended anyway, it’s not my fault they overreacted before attempting conversation). ”And now Solace and Kagerus have threatened war, Ilma has taken me captive for an entire year, refuses to discuss terms, and now she seems to be stalking me to make sure I can’t contact my child or mate.”

Here I shift my weight, a subtle move that nevertheless blocks Ilma from the conversation. She could easily move, of course, but the pettiness is satisfying, even if ultimately unproductive. I consider asking where he has been, what he has been doing. But my own experience with that question makes me hesitant; I certainly do not want to delve into what he has missed in my life during his time away.

Instead I settle for stretching out my muzzle to press it gently against his shoulder. ”I missed you,” I say, and though I try to mask it, there is a trace of sadness in my blue-grey eyes. ”Are you back to stay, or just to visit?” I want it to be the latter; when he had disappeared I had lost the last of my family, my mother having vanished months earlier. There is so much to tell him - good things, things like Arthas and Wolfbane and the New Loess, like my son.

@[Castile]
@[Ilma]
sorry for spellings; I’m on my phone!


RE: dark moon rising; castile - Ilma - 08-31-2018


Ilma
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned
the firestarters always get the burns
and the good guys never get the girl

Lepis' face is thunder, but what for, Ilma does not fathom. The girl still thinks she has every right to be angry, while whatever Ilma has done is exactly the same she did to her - Hyaline and Ilma had reacted equally angry, but for some reason the Loessian mare refuses to see this. Yet, being angry is tiring Ilma, and - like she told Castile before - she can be forgiving if that means her soul stays whole.

Though the perlino-navy mare is making that very hard on her at the moment.

So all Ilma displays is sadness, with a tight pinch of disappointment shimmering behind her eyes; all these words for the continuing of a fight and the ending with yet another threat won't get them any closer to a deal. Perhaps it is a more genuine threat this time even, but Lepis should know that the white mare will not drag her by force even if she were indeed capable; though it is the law of the lands that the girl returns with her. But all she can think of is a tired look. She shakes her head lightly to indicate she's not going to have the same discussion over and over again, and looks at the male, Castile indeed, and nods at him in a slightly solemn greeting. You found my niece, he says, and she looks briefly at Lepis, then back at Castile again. Though she does not say it aloud, knowing it would be probably something else that Lepis would likely add to her already overly long "list of why Ilma sucks", it is clear that she does not see any likeness in the two.

Before she can answer the painted male's question however, Lepis interrupts her. Talking about a 'perfectly friendly' steal, Ilma's brows raise sky-high, and then again blinks and softly shakes her head at the continued blatant rant. Stalking, huh? And how did she think she would contact her child or mate in this forest?

Her ears swivel at the misplaced accusations, but she addresses the stallion instead of the girl, to explain his question hopefully better than she did. "Lepis' steal did not appear to be perfectly friendly at all, as she was trying to hold me in Loess for a whole year and made no notion of it being friendly. Such a steal on a neutral sanctuary violates our very core and everything we stand for, especially when she tried a second time in response of our closing the borders. Apparently, closing our borders to Loessians is now the same as a threat of war." Her head shakes as she looks at the young mare to address her instead. "I'm returning the favour, in hopes that you understand how we felt about it. By the looks of it, you now feel as we did. I also have children to care for, Lepis. That I not birthed Ember myself this season or that Tähti has been reborn as a newborn last winter instead of being just a year younger than you, does not grant you permission to just tear me away from them for a year and expect me to magically understand that it was supposed to be perfectly friendly." She takes a deep breath before she continues, face back to neutral. "My steal will be as friendly as yours - in this case that means I will talk to you about an agreement on your return as soon as you are ready. But as long as you appear not to be ready to talk without it growing into another argument, then yes, I am refusing to negotiate with someone on heated terms."

Lepis seems to want to ignore her though, and with a snort she sidesteps, although she does not move forward. Ears backwards but not lowered, she appears to just casually stand there for a moment. With one last look to Castile in hopes he understands now what is going on, she walks a few paces away from the two of them, back towards the clearing she had landed in, and takes a mouthful of grass. Surely none of them have anything to say to her at the moment. Lepis is acting like a child, and if Castile wishes to talk to his niece then that's fine, but she somehow doubts he wishes to come between them.

Though if he did, perhaps he'd be the mediator they needed.

and shooting stars cannot fix the world


@[Lepis] @[Castile]


RE: dark moon rising; castile - Lepis - 08-31-2018

That she must be so verbose in Hyaline's defense is only further evidence of her illogical position, and I do not make any effort to disguise the rolling of my blue grey eyes. Had my steal been successful, Ilma would have been back with her children before the day was over, with Loess holding her commuted sentence as useful leverage. I'd not given any indication of that, to be sure, but exactly how I was meant to communicate that to her when she had not ever been made to come to Loess remains a mystery.

"Your queens told Loess that Nerine would hold a knife to our throat if we stepped out of line and implied Ischia and Tephra would support it. I don't give a damn about closed borders." A kingdom that can't protect its own people is not a kingdom I'd claim, and Hyaline has never struck me as especially useful.

"You've already kept me longer than you'd have ever stayed in Loess. It's not my fault your peaceful kingdom chose threats over a simple conversation, and each day you refuse to release me is more infuriating than the last. Waiting for less heat from me about this is as futile as waiting for hell to freeze over."

I know that Castile knows about my gifts, that he'd not want me to use them how I have. As a child, my empathic projection had been a toy, used to make others think I was funny or that the ghost stories I told him were especially frightful. I didn't share with many that the tingle of fear down their spines was from more than my story-telling, but Mother had always known and I'd never kept it from my Uncle. In the years since our separation I have grown ever more skilled in their use and it occurs to me for just a moment that I might terrify Ilma, send her scampering for cover from a nameless and overwhelming sense of  terror and dread.

But I don't.

Castile stays me, for reason I am not entirely familiar with, and instead of magicking Ilma I simply scowl at her retreating back. Then I glance back at Castile. I can't quite smile, not with those sour emotions still fresh in my mind, but I do at least roll my shoulders in an attempt to relax, to brush off the bitterness of the previous conversation. "I'd invite you home to visit Loess, but perhaps somewhere less volatile might be better." At that I do smile, the tiniest quirk of my mouth at my own humor. "Plus someone else would have to tell you about how Wolfbane has changed the kingdom, and I wouldn't want to miss that." It occurs to me just as I say it that my uncle might not recognize the name of our current king, or even the one before him: my Arthas.

ooc: i did check with aeris before being a rude and bumping her. i have family coming in this afternoon to stay all weekend so i'll be swamped but i wanted to progress Lepis' timeline so it fit with her other threads Big Grin


RE: dark moon rising; castile - Castile - 08-31-2018

The tension is increasingly tangible, gripping him with a relentless hand. With a single breath, a mere hello, Castile is drawn into the circus of their aggravation. His mismatched eyes glance between the two women, scrambling to understand and see a light at the end of this narrowing tunnel. Ilma’s expression first reads of surprise, then exhaustion. Lepis, on the other hand, is steadfast and unyielding with her building irritation. He almost says something, nearly trying to reel them back to shore, but reconsiders as the words continue to pour from their mouths and flood the space among them.

So, he waits.

His forelock clutches desperately to his face as water droplets continue to trickle down and kiss his nose. The storm has since passed, but in its wake are restless nomads lost in a sea of emerald and brown. Funny, he thinks, how rich the green of plants and trees are after a rain. Blinking, Castile casts his attention away from Ilma and Lepis to more closely observe the web of trees encasing them. His thoughts roam listlessly until the burn of eyes penetrates through him, bring his own somber gaze to Ilma as she explains what has elapsed since his departure. Naturally, as he expected, the stories don’t quite align. There are discrepancies and opposing views, but their adamancies are quite similar. With pursed lips, Castile weighs the situation and realizes how detached he has been from kingdom politics. Mother raised him into it, but he never rooted himself to one place long enough to be sucked into its quarrels.

”Shit happens,” he quips suddenly as he takes a solitary step back to look at them both. ”There was miscommunication,” here, he glances to Lepis for having failed to emphasize the friendliness of the steal, ”but then there was… vengeance of sort?” He flickers his gaze to Ilma now with a tilt of his head. ”Do two wrongs make a right?” It genuinely surprises him that the peacekeeper – especially seeing as she is from Hyaline – would get back at someone. He knows her to be forgiving and kind, a maternal figure.

Maternal.

Child and mate.

The words suddenly register and Castile jerks himself to look at Lepis, unable to accept that she has matured enough to have a family of her own. There is a tightness in his stomach, in his chest, but he doesn’t address it just yet. Life continued during his absence, but it seemingly slipped through his fingers faster than he would have liked. Harboring the questions for the time being, he makes a meager offer. ”If you just need a body – since a lesson seems to have been learned between you two – then let me take her place, but I’ll be a prisoner for two years. Lord knows I would rather not be stuck in Hyaline.” It would force him to face his mistakes daily while also relive all the memories manifested in the grassy hills. It would, quite frankly, be torturous. ”You’re back with your family, unharmed and earlier than expected, Ilma. Return the favor and let my niece return to her loved ones, too.” He is far brasher than Ilma (her sweet tones and reassurances still echo in his mind from their first meeting), but it’s a quality inherited from his brazen mother.

”I’m curious about this Wolfbane,” he admits to Lepis, ”when all of this is settled and done.” He, ideally, wants to hear about all her life changes and to absorb everything he has missed, as though that will be enough for having left.




@[Ilma] @[Lepis]


RE: dark moon rising; castile - Ilma - 09-03-2018

Castile is not wrong - simple revenge is very un-Ilma; but not entirely right either: it is not just any body she needs, because it isn’t simple revenge. She shakes her head. “Visit anytime you need to, just not as a form of punishment. You know you don’t need it.”

But she knows that she isn’t getting anywhere near her original intents like this either. She turns to Lepis. “If you’re not offering me anything for your freedom, I’ll give you one deal to consider instead. Go home today. Visit your mate, king and child. But come back willingly tomorrow and quit the escapes. Your child is welcome also and won’t be harmed, if you need him to be with you. Stay with us and learn our values. Stop thinking in owing and debt and deals, and understand what it is to be Hyalinian and why we resent stealing so much. You’ll be released if our leaders come to an agreement. Until then, you live with us, walk with us, dine with us, sleep near us, and don’t leave our kingdom unaccompanied by an adult Hyaline member. If you stay in Loess instead, then I will consider it your choice to have Loess be in our debt for the rest of the year.”

OOC
Sorry for messy phone post, needed to get this up asap and can’t sleep anyway Smile
@[Solace] @[Kagerus] FYI! No need to get involved in the thread though.

@Lepis I think this fits with their timelines if she takes the deal! Best I could think of and thought myself pretty genius, but Lepis can think of it as no real choice at all and still be angry ofc.
@Castile
Ilma leaves this thread now with this ultimatum, you may continue to thread if you like Smile

Edited for plot stuff, also fixed some more minor things, sorry for multiple tags


RE: dark moon rising; castile - Lepis - 09-05-2018

Though I recognize his emphasis, my blue-grey gaze doesn't waver at the attribution of miscommunication. I hadn't made the friendliness of the steal clear, that is certainly true. To do so would have ruined my plan entirely, and to I am too proud to apologize for that shortcoming. It is a minor one, after all, given the immediate reaction of Hyaline, and to say there is not a bit of a gloat in my expression as Castile berates the idea of two wrongs making a right.

I do not miss the surprise in the dragon's eyes at the mention of my family. There is so much to catch him up on, so much that might have already been said, if only Ilma had not been lurking. It is that taste of bitterness, soured by the experiences of my past (the history of abuse and torment that have accompanied my earlier captivity, the history that Ilma does not factor in to her self-righteous calculations), that makes me brasher than I might have been otherwise.

It is not a good deal for Loess, but I will take it because it is good for me.

"I'll introduce you to him. Are you busy now?" I ask Castile, seemingly ignoring his trade and the offer that Ilma has given. It is only when I glance back over my winged shoulder at Ilma that it becomes clear that I have heard her, and that I am accepting the offer that any good diplomat would surely scorn.

The words I say next are meant for Castile, but I say them to Ilma, lest she misunderstand. "A year is not so long a time. I am certain Loess will have something to trade in exchange for a shortening of the term." I am going back a free woman to Loess, who will be in Hyaline's debt.

For now.


RE: dark moon rising; castile - Castile - 09-08-2018

”I am not,” curiosity swarms his every thought as Castile turns his attention to Lepis. Here she stands as an adult, and yet in his eyes she remains an innocent child. Has so much time passed? Her heart has captured someone and together they have borne a family. Admittedly, Castile is envious of her active lifestyle because he so miserably failed his own. The only two women he has so deeply cared for have slipped through his trembling fingers and his children are merely names. He knows nothing of them, only that one is just as draconic as he.

Time hadn’t stopped when he left, he reminds himself time and time again. Life resumed, nearly unfazed by his absence. He could not have expected everyone to wait on bated breath and to put their lives on hold until his return.

But he can’t deny the pleasure he finds in that idea.

Swallowing past his self-pity, Castile straightens himself with a sideways glance to Ilma. The vision of her is a reminder in himself to remain strong and to push through his own inner darkness.

(I’ve changed)

With a warming smile tipping the corner of his mouth, he tilts his head and searches Lepis for an indication of their next direction. ”I would like to meet your family,” because he has no one else that wants to meet him anymore.




@[Lepis]