• Logout
  • 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


    I've got no roots; Terran/Any
    #1

    She is an island unto herself.

    She has grown used to the solace, used to tucking herself away in all the places no one looks for company.  It’s safer that way, she reasons.  I can’t hurt those I haven’t met, she tells herself.  And it is true, that the gatekeeper of War should keep away in case she fails.  She should stay gone so as not to run into the other seal-holders and reunite that which lay within each of their breasts.  Beqanna is not ready for another catastrophe, another Reckoning to shake and rattle the world senseless.  When she thinks of going home, Titanya remembers the yellow eyes of Conquest, feels the emptiness of her belly and dryness of her throat before Famine.  She remembers the cracking crunch of her skull under Death’s hooves before what she thought was the end.  

    She stays away as long as she can to protect them.  But it angers her, like most things eventually do.  It starts with a drop of a thought; why should she be punished for doing the right thing?  The thoughts multiply until they are an ocean of regret roiling inside of her, until she can stay away no longer.  As summer begins to burn the ground with its heat, the sabino welcomes its fire on her back, the first she’s felt of the open sky in ages.  She leaves the wilderness and goes home, ready to face whatever waits there after so many lonely years.  

    Early fall peppers the undulating land before her, sprinkling pale yellows and tangerine oranges throughout the flora.  The meadow is exactly the same as it has always been, full of eager faces all pressed together in conversations new and old alike.  Titanya rolls her eyes from the shadows of the bordering forest.  She could have gone longer without the meaningless banter that Beqannans seem so fond of.  What she wants is action, a release from all the pent-up energy she’s never without.  The placid meadow is not where she will find it, the mare knows, but maybe she can spend a little time before sinking her teeth in.

    She concentrates on the large oak she’s been hiding behind and passes through it to the open space beyond.  The brown grass at her feet holds no appeal, even as her stomach rumbles its’ protest to her long journey. Never having been one to ignore her base needs, she moves deeper into the expanse in search of a more appetizing meal.  Just ahead, a boulder conceals the last tall shoots with any hint of green left.  The dark mare dives in immediately.  She gorges herself all while looking out for any would-be interrupters with furtive, amber eyes.  Let them come, she thinks mischievously, flicking her tail in imagined agitation.  I could use a welcoming rumble

    Titanya

    I've got no roots,
    but my home was never on the ground




    @[Terran]
    Reply
    #2

    No Crosses Count

    The years of watching the lives play out below him… Sons and daughters experiencing all the crushing joy and devastation life had to offer. Old lovers seeking solace in the warm embrace of an other. He had grown bored with the staleness of the afterlife. He grew restless to rejoin the living. And he had with their great escape but he paid the ultimate price. He could have returned with old vigor in this youthful carcass that had been provided. He had the power (despite having no powers at all) to intercede and change the paths of fate that were befalling his kin and loved ones.

    But he doesn’t remember them. Or this place. Everything he knew was lost in the endless dark gates of the Hell he had escaped. All he had was his name and Nocturnal. Perhaps that was all he needed.

    Tephra was alright but he’s not fond of the constant stifling heat. So he slips from the molten land to sate his curiosities elsewhere. The Meadow is packed and his crimson gaze searches the faces as if to find a familiar face although he knows there won’t be one. Not one he could recall anyways that he hadn’t met within the last year. Raven tendrils curl lightly along the curve of his jaw as he tosses his skull, snorting with irritation. It was always the same old things in a different day. The same mindless chatter, the same tentative questions until the conversation died and they moved on to brighter pastures.

    He is restless, tired of the monotonous routine. Wishing that despite the pretty faces (which he appreciates for what they are) he could find something to occupy his time. Something that wasn’t so…. Boring. His russet body brushes against a large boulder and he presses his hip to it, scratching at a hard reaching itch absentmindedly. Sighing as curved ears swivel forward, hoping to catch something of interest.

    Girl, I've got that silver tongue, Drives you into delirium



    Hope you don't mind, Cross is bored and needs things to do <3
    Reply
    #3

    Terran

    Ander was growing older, Jinju … she’d always been independent. It’s blissful to watch over them in these troubled days, but in the moments when I’m not keeping an aerial eye on the two I somehow manage to catch blips of time where I can still get around to personal wishes. For my own sake, I’ve avoided the meadow - what good could come of being there? Every interaction I’ve had the chance of casually starting takes me back to the first day that I’d met Jinju, the day when my wings had finally sprouted and we’d laughed in shocked amazement over the scene.

    I can still remember the candor of her personality, how it struck a chord deep within and allowed me (for perhaps the first time) to open my eyes to a life I was wasting all those years before.

    Here I am, though, full circle from where I began and gliding without much thought over the expanse of open grassland. From below, I imagine that I seem nothing more than a simple black speck, outlined every now and then by the glint of sunlight striking my wings. It never bothers me, the separation from earth, because to me the rest of the creatures below all seem like ants too. “The grass is never greener.” I muse, shifting into a downwind gust before banking left in a wide circle.

    When my gilded hooves strike earth, I’m jolted back into a memory by the happenstance of glancing across to a familiar shape. Overhead, I had thought the two horses meandering by the boulder had been acquaintances - but as I peer with narrowed, amber eyes I can see the opposite stands. Neither are interacting, yet, but the black mare seems somehow … “Titanya.”

    The name seizes me by the throat, cuts off my air supply while I struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy. I’m staring at her, not willing to believe it even as my footsteps guide me closer. “So long .. too long.” I think, “Could it be? Maybe her daughter…”

    My heart trips. “Titanya?” I call out once I’ve neared them. Feverish anxiety halts me, I tuck my wings like a crushed-gold cape across my back and glance nervously again to the Bay stallion, adding a nod if he should happen to look. “It’s me - Terran.” I offer, clinging to the bare threaded hope that she might recognize me, too.

    “Let it be her, please.”

    All around these golden beacons, I see nothing but black

    Reply
    #4

    As she eats her first taste of Beqanna in years, Titanya’s thoughts inevitably lead her further home to the Dale.  She’d been so angry when she left her little family long behind her.  Angry at the way her mother loved Terran more, because he didn’t look exactly like father.  Angry because Talulah had told her as much one night when her twin still slept, curled underneath the hollow winter sky.  She had told her, weeping, who their real father was.  How dead their real father was (a different angelic presence in the sky, one who would never return to earth like they’d been promised).  How much she looked like him.  How sorry she was for lying, for failing, for everything.  And instead of comforting her, Titanya had simmered and hardened her heart against her mother.  Let her take the blame, fall on her own failures.  By the time the bells tolled, she’d not spoken to the mare in months.

    For the longest time, her only regret had been leaving Terran alone.  She could never fault him for any part of her childhood.  But distance equaled safety.  And staying away meant keeping him safe, even if it tore at her to steady her feet.  As time went on, however, the dark mare realized her own failings.  Despite the seal that feels like a lead weight pressing between her lungs, she comes home in peace and to make peace.  She’s wasted so many years already.

    Her amber eyes rake across the horizon when she’s not focused on the grass in front of her mouth.  So far, none have come anywhere near her hide-out.  No one has set off her alarms or wandered too close to her smorgasbord.  Pity.  She’ll have to sort out her own amusement…once she’s had her fill, that is.  But just as her black and white face dips down into the sweet greens, she hears something.  A scratching sound starts on the opposite side of the boulder she’s currently tucked against.  The mare closes her mouth on air with a loud crack of her teeth.  It sort of hurts, the way it rattles through her jaw, but it also punctuates the fact that it hadn’t been softened by grass.  Titanya focuses and steps into the boulder that has become as dense as air. 
     
    “Excuse you.”  Only her head and neck jut out right next to the culprit, hopefully scaring the shit out of him in the process.  

    Her amber eyes spark with almost-faux indignation as she looks over the red eyed beast.  She’s about to launch into a long-winded tirade when she hears her own name carried sluggishly over the dead air.  The sabino doesn’t appreciate slow things, knows only decisive abandon in her own life.  But the way it’s said (with uncertain hope) makes her turn her head immediately in happy recognition.  And even as he approaches her with a feathered mass of gold on his back that hadn’t been there before, she knows it is him.  Her Terran (her softness, her twin).  

    Titanya tries to run forward but is stuck like molasses within the boulder.  Her thoughts are in knots too thick and tight to concentrate right now.  Rock-side discussion will have to do until she can stem the flood of emotions swelling within her.  Of course, there is the bay criminal to contend with as well.  To him, she nods in Terran’s direction when he says her name.  “Yep, that’s me.  Now who the hell are you?”  Her grin is as quick as her temper, and it doesn’t fade when she turns back to her brother.  “Of course it’s you, the better of us.  And prettier, too.”  She reaches forward to brush the forelock out of his eyes, to see the same amber of her own, but she is stopped short.  “I’ve missed you most of all.” 



    Titanya

    I've got no roots,
    but my home was never on the ground




    @[Terran]@[Jeje]
    Reply
    #5
    This year had been the first time he’d experienced what hormones could do to a stallion. It had been unnerving and strange and Ander had struggled to deal with the strange sensation by himself. A part of him had wanted to confront his father, but at the same time he had been too flustered too. The talk would be kind of embarrassing too.

    It hadn’t him driven away from his family though. He couldn’t help it but to worry about losing them, like he had lost his grandfather and aunt, and almost had lost his mother. It is hér who he has been watching. Father seemed much more comfortable by letting her go out on her own than Ander ever would be. Perhaps he took more after her than he had realised before.

    Anyway. Today he had taken Jinju – his mother slash temporary little sister – to the meadow. They had been living everywhere and nowhere these last few months and it was time for a chance of scene. While watching over her he also kept a red eye focussed on father’s shiny form high up in the sky. Sometimes he wondered what it was like to fly, how it would feel to let the wind carry you. But it wasn’t something Ander would ever experience, he was bound to the ground.

    By ground they move to see what Terran was up to. Seeing him land had made Ander curious and thus he had called the inky black and ruby eyed filly to his side. It was impossible to miss that they were related in one way or another. The same red eyes and stark black coat. The only difference was the gold of his points, which was a clear resemblance to his father with his golden hooves and wings. One could think they – both Ander and Jinju – were his offspring, but the truth was entire different. Terran and Jinju were his parents, even though Ander now looked older than his mother.

    He uses their approach to study the black mare his father was talking too, and the way they interacted with each other. Before he wouldn’t have noticed, but they boy was slowly becoming a man. One who was much more aware of the world around him. Ander stays back a little, giving both black horses a chance to reconnect before approaching. They seemed comfortable around each other, perhaps a fling of his father before he’d met his mother?

    ”Dad?” he calls out, then approaches them after gently nudging Jinju’s shoulder to invite her to come with him. The black filly doesn’t need much more invitation, trotting up to Terran’s side to brutally push her muzzle up his shoulder. ”Terran!” she exclaims happily, already eagerly reaching out to touch the sparkling golden wings. Her inspection is short though, as ruby eyes now focus on the sabino mare standing close to Terran. ”Hi.”

    Ander follows with a small grin. Now he had gotten used to the idea of his mother as a filly all over, it was kind of amusing too. It made him wonder if she’d been like this when she had been a child before, under grandpa Ruan’s care. By the time he reaches the black trio he dips his head in a silent greeting, then looking at the unknown female in the exact same way as the filly. An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
    Reply
    #6

    Terran

    I’m aware that majority of my life has been summarized by failure. Someday, I’m sure that Ander will have nothing but bitter words to describe me and when Jinju retains her memories, it might not be with fondness. The best I can do, I feel I’ve done - but seeing my twin eclipses everything (even the stranger she tries to engage from behind her boulder).

    Titanya’s infectious personality sweeps over me in crashing waves; I can’t contain the urge to move forward even when she doesn’t. Her sudden appearance is the only connection to a past I’d almost forgotten occurred - the final silver thread of my history. A history Jinju had never known, a past no one had ever cared to know. It leaves me breathless.

    Her hesitation at touching me doesn’t bother me so much as I anticipated it would. We’re not the same, are we? Half-stuck inside of her stone, @[Titanya] is the confidence and know-how that had evaded me all my life (she is, after all, my better half) and her goad on my appearance reminds me of the half I’d taken from her, when I’d left so long ago. “Tiphon always gave more to his sons.” I chuckle, stretching forward with all intentions of picking up where she left off. My nose is ready and willing to brush against hers.

    “Dad?” I hear, jerking my bald face around to see Ander and Jinju. It still surprises me to see them, they both seem eager to grow in leaps and bounds. I have nothing but a warm grin to return the greeting, that and, “@[Ander], Jinju, I’m glad to see you here. I’d like for you to meet someone special.” I explain, lifting one side of my wings to drape them lightly over Jinju’s dark back. The molten color of my eyes rises to clash against their likeness in Titanya and without skipping a beat, I jump into introductions.

    “Titanya, this is my son Ander and my ward Jinju. Both of you -" I pause, turning to glance at the duo and then back to my sibling, “This is my sister, Titanya. The family’s all together now.” I muse, interested to see how Titanya will handle this turn of events.

    All around these golden beacons, I see nothing but black

    Reply
    #7

    Everything is surreal.

    She had come back from the wild with an aching loneliness weighing heavily in her chest.  Too many years spent on the run from invisible ghosts and intangible monsters.  Far too long without her family and without friendship.  And now?  Now she is face to face with the one who could have been enough company if she had stayed.  The other half of her heart and soul - her twin - who knew everything and more about her. It frightens her in ways she cannot express, in ways that she does not show.  Because alongside the loneliness was the seal of War lodged between her ribs.  Coming back puts her closer to the other seals.  Coming home endangers Terran, her mother and not-father, and all the others.

    But she is selfish, too, and so glad to see her brother.

    Titanya keeps looking at him as she stands half-in and half-out of the boulder.  He has grown, changed, but somehow his face is already burned in her brain.  She knows each line and curve like her own because they are nearly the same.  Identical in almost every way but color.  Hers’ is the same black as their true father that fades and mottles into stark white on her belly.  His is solid and all encompassing, save for his unique facial markings.  They both carry some of the familial gold, though.  Hers’ on her ears and his on his toes.
     
    The strange, unnamed stallion is quiet, and that is just fine with her. She gives him a final glare before turning back to Terran and the little ones that trail just behind him.  The sabino figures he will introduce them once they catch up, but until then she will not waste a moment in silence (not that she ever has).  He mentions their false-father, their grandfather, and she sighs.  “Speaking of Tiphon, I haven’t been the best sister, Terran.  There is something I should have told you a long time ago.”  She feels his whiskered muzzle connect to close the space that her rock-stuck body couldn’t and prepares to change his life with a few words.

    But then the others are there, suddenly.  One is an older boy who is clearly touched by angel genetics.  He looks like Ramiel, almost, with his gilded mane and tail.  But those eyes are new to their line, red and fiery.  Titanya approves.  The girl is younger and shares only their dark coats.  She has the same eyes as the boy (siblings?).  Titanya’s smile grows as she analyzes them, realization dawning when she looks back at Terran.  Well, she’d been half right at least.  “A son?!  My…my nephew, then.”  Her excitement is enough to force her out from the granite boulder she’d been wedged in, and she pushes into her brother’s space without a second thought to get a better look at Ander.  The girl, as it turns out, is not the daughter she had assumed.  A ward?  One that looks exactly like the boy, save for the lack of gold?  Hmmm.  Titanya grins at the two children, so overwhelmingly happy her brother is not alone.  He wasn’t meant to be – not like her.  

    “It’s fantastic to meet you both.  I only wish it had been sooner.”  The dark mare nods in Terran’s direction.  “Don’t worry, I don’t have any surprises for you waiting to jump out of the woods.”  Nieces and nephews will be more than enough in her lifetime, she thinks, the thought of motherhood never having crossed her mind.  What does cross it, she asks next.  “Well, not the whole family.  Where are the rest of them?”  It shouldn’t matter (it does).  All she needs is here in front of her.  All the support and companionship she could ever want.  Titanya shakes her head briefly and then smiles back at the trio.  “Mind if I tag along with you guys for a while?  I’m an easy keeper, promise.  And I have a lot of catching up to do.”





    Titanya

    I've got no roots,
    but my home was never on the ground




    @[Terran] @[Ander]
    Reply
    #8
    what a lovely way to burn
    Dad wants them to meet someone special? Terran could not have said something that would make him more curious than that. Red eyes turn towards the black sabino mare and he curiously studies her. Shamelessly, after all, he is only a young stallion that has yet to realise that it might be inappropriate. One thing in particular holds his attention; her golden tipped ears.

    Those same ears don’t earn Jinju’s attention, for her it is the most normal thing in the world to see gold and black laced together. The tips of Ander’s ears are just as golden, as are other parts of his body, and Terran had his golden wings and hooves. But that doesn’t make her less curious. Both Ander and Jinju look up at her with a curious look in their red eyes.

    Ander offers the mare a smile, but then his gaze moves back to Terran’s honey eyes when he’s addressed. It takes him a few seconds to realise what exactly his father said. Their family was bigger than Ruan and aunt Polaris? Never before had he met family on his father’s side, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t interested in getting to know his new found – met? – aunt. ”Aunt Titanya?” he tries, the name coming from his lips a little strangely, but soon his lips curl up.

    Where Jinju stays at Terran’s side, comfortably under his golden wings, Ander steps forward once Titanya breaks free from her prison. He extends his neck to offer her his golden nose, both his golden tipped ears forward. Soft breaths of air are exchanged, then he pulls back. ”More family?” he cannot help but to ask, pulling back to look at his father for a few seconds and then back to aunt Titanya. ”There are more than just us?”

    ”Of course you can! Right, dad?” By then Ander is barely able to keep his hooves to the ground. Enthusiasm has him bouncing on his legs and he is more than ready to learn more about his newly discovered aunt. ”Where have you lived?” One cannot blame a young stallion from wanting to explore the wide world.




    OOC: Sorry for the wait <3
    Reply




    Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)