"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
Krone keeps an observant eye on her beloved Ischia. Each movement of strangers entering, each tide, each sunrise and sundown, she is watching. She feels a special connection with the island since it had chosen her as its Keeper and tries to treat it as her family. Rather than a land to be conquered like her father would have.
The meeting in the meadow with the lavender stag and the pale mare had her befuddled. She had never quite got an answer; was he Kirin or was he not? And that fact bothered her. If her father was back, Krone knew he would try to get under her skin, try to rip her beloved home from her.
She'd be damned to let that happen.
But she also knew Kirin had a lot of children who all shared similar colors (except, of course, for her) and it wouldn't be totally unusual for him to be a brother or cousin or even a nephew. She supposed it was nothing to fuss over (that is until she was given a reason to).
So she sores around Ischia, observing it, keeping an eye on anything unusual that may be going on. She is not one to intrude on private matters, unless the situation calls for it, so she simply observes Ischia in all it's glory, as the sun basks her bay pelt in summer warmth. And then she sees it. That damned color again, and her heart skips. It could be Kylin, the lavender and white mare who had been here first (who Krone often thought deserved the crown more than her).
But then again, it could not.
She is too high up to make assumptions, so she decides to land. She glides down through the trees, and when she is about to hit the greenery, she spreads her wings, letting herself float to the forest floor.
To her surprise, there is not one, but two familiar faces today. The two horses from the meadow. One ear flicks back in curiosity...why were they here? Had she mentioned Ischia in the meadow? She couldn't remember.
"We meet again," she mutters to them. Usually she'd be nicer to a pair of possible inhabitants, but something about them rubs her the wrong way. "Is there something I could do for you today?" She asks with a quiet hint of annoyance in her voice.
They were being interrupted again. The pale skinned mare turned as she saw a shadow glide towards them, landing to show the strange girl from the meadow. She arched an eyebrow at her companion, wondering if he actually knew her. If he was truly her father like she had claimed. She hadn't gotten the idea that he was so much older, but it was possible, she supposed. Looking at the approaching lady closer, she noticed a glint of emerald, brighter than the girl's mane, peering through the strands of her forelock. Now that was interesting. A twinge of jealously pinched at her gut, making her inhale sharply. So this is who the shell had chosen? Well. No matter. She was nothing if not resourceful, she could adapt.
A careless smile pulled at her lips as the young queen came upon the pastel pair. "So we do. I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name the first time around?" She replied airly, leaning a haunch lazily against her lavender escort. "My name is Sabra, and this is..." She trailed off, remembering that the tall man beside her was enjoying his game of anonymity. She would let him answer for himself, it would save both women some trouble, it seemed like. The blue pools of her eyes glimmered in amusement at the situation, not letting on to the calculations her mind was running through. The truth, or part of it anyway, seemed the best place to start. Especially with the green-tinted mare's rancor threatening. The last thing she wanted wad to be banished from the pretty island, so why not express that? "To be perfectly honest, I've rather fallen in love with this place. How could you not, really? I've never been anywhere quite like it. Look, it sounds like you and I may have gotten off on the wrong foot. What say you we start again? I, for one, would be honored to be a subject of yours, and be given the chance to build a life in this beautiful place." Her words were laced with sincerity, and to an extent, they were just that. She dipped her head humbly to the shell-crowned girl. Perhaps they could be friends?
He too is always watching - as "Watcher of Ischia" was his official title. Though to be honest... He wasn't too sure what exactly his duties as Watcher were. Being a part of a kingdom was still entirely new to him and he still had yet to figure out what all was expected and/or required of him. It was these factors that caused him to start seeking out Krone as he had a feeling she may be able to shed some light on the answers he was looking for. Though before he can find her on own, the stallion comes across the newest keeper of Ischia engaging in conversation with two faces that he had not yet seen. The air that surrounded the pair was mysterious and wild and for a moment he watches, standing in the shadows of the thickly grown palms and tall ferns alongside the beach edge.
He notes his queens unusual tone and the airy nature of the other and for a moment his head tilts in curiosity. Who were these two, and why had they sought the shell? Though when the cremello mare refuses to acknowledge the name of her male companion, the buckskin and white stallion steps forward into view, slowly making his way next to Krone. He stops next to her in silent support, eyes staring blankly at the the two as he continues to listen in silence. The way the mare words her next statement comes off odd, as though she is acknowledging a past indiscretion without the willingness to apologize and for a moment he grinds the back off his teeth together in thought and before he knows it he is responding, first to Krone and then the other. "Excuse me for what I'm about say my lady, but... That seemed kind of ...half-assed?" Looking at the other he continues. "No offense, as I can be a suspicious man - but is it truly your intention to do what you say? Ischia is a wonderful and beautiful place, but it's her recent members and Krone herself that have brought her to life once more and what they have provided for her, we need our newest members to do the same."
The sincerity in the other's voice doesn't go unnoticed. Though like Krone, he had the strangest feeling like something wasn't entirely right. Though feelings couldn't always add up to reality. Sometimes they were just that - suspicions - and he never has really been that great with strangers in the first place. Kelsie was the type that took time to warm up to others and trust them. Circinae had been the first and only that he had liked right away and he was still taking time to let the others grow on him. Though when it all came down to it, when it came to his home and those who lived in it and served it loyally and faithfully, he would do everything to make sure he served them well and protected them - as this was his natural duty as a citizen of Ischia.
First they were greeted by a taffy and cream mare with a unique set of wings at her side. Chatting for a bit before they were met by another. This mare was familiar though. Not too long ago in the meadow she had questioned his identity. Mistaking him for his father, which was easy to do. So he had played the part. Not offering his true title to anyone really. This emerald pointed mare wasn't what he had expected to see from his, their fathers loins. Sporting the flight-giving wings of his lineage but her color was less than flattering. Also noting quickly the jewel that had been on the beach upon their arrival planted on her forehead. He cocks his brow curiously but assumes she is attached to this oasis in some way. He looks to his partner as she speaks. Asking of the emerald mares name and giving her own before trailing words lead him to respond. "It's good to see you are well, My child. Looks like you've secured a home for us creatures of the sky since our last meeting. Congratulations." His crown dips in her honor. "But I believe we failed to catch your name in the meadow. My lineage is great and it has been hard to account for every apple that has fallen from it's branches." A grin paints across his pale purple lips. His shoulder brushing against Sabra's. Awaiting the name of the chosen one.
And then there was 5.
Yet another creature of the island intercepts their conversation. These added mouths were not getting anything accomplished especially with hostility. The butterscotch and vanilla stallion enters with aggressive words. Challenging the validity of his companions statement. Hazel-silver eyes narrow upon the new face as his handsome crown twists to view the stallion better. "If this is the way you welcome potential new residents your home will soon become hollow walls... Or a target to far greater leaders. You need us. More than you realize," his tone is matter of fact. Eyes sliding from the stallion that he doesn't bother asking his name. Fore what is a name anyways.
His gaze turns to his cream companion with smile before turning to the shell queen again, "So what do you say... Shall we make Ischia a great kingdom, together?" His pale purple tassels danced upon his flesh as he waited for judgement.
Klaudius
Calm Before the Storm
@[Krone] since Kylin had just come across them and it seems to be the same timeline I'm melding the two threads a bit.
Krone is not so easily fooled. But she will admit, when the lavender stallion calls her his child her heart stops beating, her breath catches. Flared nostrils and barred teeth, she has hardly noticed her loyal Watcher join the conversation. Honestly, she has hardly listened to anyone but the one who claims to be Kirin.
"I have secured nothing for anyone," A hiss on her lips, venom in her words. "Ischia has chosen me to protect Her and all who inhabit here." She looks to Kelsie, then back to them. "If I believed an ounce of your lies..." A pause as she glances to the pale woman, Sabra, then back to "Kirin." "I would have done Her wrong."
She steps forward, getting so close they are nearly eye-to-eye. She stares into his eyes, the same hazel as her own. Green wings flutter in the wind, which has now picked up to indicate a summer storm. Either that, or the rage boiling inside her has caused Ischia distress. "Do not fuck with Ischia, and do not threaten me. Since Circinae, myself, and the others have come to this island, we have begun restoring Her to her former glory. She is doing better than She has in years. I'll be damned to let you two try to sway me with your pretty words."
She backs away, glances at Kelsie. A soft breath escapes her, her rage beginning to dissipate as she stares at him. She can feel the island breathe, feel its heartbeat in her chest. She is one with this island, she cares for it more than she had anything else in her life. "If you plan to stay, and Ischia will not have you, She will let me know," Krone murmurs, almost to herself.
12-09-2017, 11:48 PM (This post was last modified: 12-09-2017, 11:49 PM by Sabra.)
Her ears twisted into a slight backward tilt in response to the thinly veiled threats that flew through the air. How childish. The newcomer, a man of honey and milk, had a mouth on him. Really, the general hostility in the clearing was palpable. She turned to him, a haughty look on her cream features. "I'm sorry, but who exactly are you to be commenting on the condition of my ass?" She asked, one eyebrow quirked. Next her lavender companion, (Kirin?) spoke. He spoke of children and lineage and a number of other things which she didn't think fit him at all. But if that was his prerogative, so be it. Who was she to judge?
And then there was the bay-green wannabe queen. Venom coated every word she spat at them, making her position clear on the matter. There was no mistaking that the shell adorned woman wanted them gone, yesterday. She stood abreast of them now, staring the stallion next to her in the eye with an exacting anger. People did dumb things when they were angry. Her own blue eyes were set, decided.
"No one has threatened you. No one has threatened Ischia. And we do plan to stay." She answered, equally quiet. "We'll stay out of your way, keep to ourselves. Surely, this land is big enough for the two of us?" She spoke, tone still soft, but raised enough to be audible to the rest of the group. "Try us out. We will not disappoint." She promised, no more smiling, no more pretty manners. She simply stared, blue gaze meeting grey.
The summer wind pulled at her creamy feathers, tugging them in an inviting embrace. She was tired of talking. The sky called, as it always did, and she wanted these eggshell talks to be finished with already.
12-10-2017, 12:25 AM (This post was last modified: 12-10-2017, 12:26 AM by Deathwish.)
Deathwish
im a DIY pioneer, they tryna get involved
She had come here looking for Jah.
Her only real friend if you could call her that—she was the only other female that Deathwish could tolerate. Word on the wind was that she had followed the wolfshifter to Ischia, and so much had happened since the last time they'd been together—that she found she had to have someone to talk to.
The things that she had allowed to happen to her. The way she spent her nights. The way she walked side to side. The faint hint of blood and sex that clung to her—and stained her—was obvious...and DW hated the way she felt like she looked like a Jezebel. She clamped her tail close to her rear as she made the swim—the saltwater was murder on her open, seeping wound. She cussed, and it put her in a right foul mood when she finally shook out her lavendar grey pelt.
To what was very obviously a welcoming party. Or another raid. Deathwish grinned inwardly, as she saw others that looked like her... A green and purple lady (one who looked much like a stallion that was on her mind, in her body, and constantly aggravating her), a purple winged horse—fuck what Deathwish wouldn't have given for wings when she'd crossed the channel to this god-forsaken Island. It had been much easier last time. Hadn't it?
So there were more of them... family. And she termed that loosely. They were no family. They were just bound by the fact that they all looked alike.. It was telling. With a dark grimace on her face, she heads towards the one that reminds her of Maugrim, and with a quietly cool look of disdain, she addressed the one who looked like she was in charge. The one with the foul mouth.
She liked her already.
"If I had known this was a family reunion, I would have come months ago. I wish they would have rolled out the flower carpet. Life would have have been so much easier then." Deathwish licked her lips, giving side eyes to the others. She didn't know who they were. But her instant dislike for what must be the son of Kirin, and the way that the angel defended him, set like acid in her mouth...
It was almost enough to give her indigestion.
"I did not know that great-grandfather had enough virility left in his sack to produce a near perfect clone. Are you a wind-bag too?"
She turned back to the foul mouthed green girl, and smiled with silver eyes, even though her resting bitch face remained as serene as ever. "My name is Deathwish. I'm not here to tear apart your pretty little home. This time." She looked around at the foliage... the urge to kill something was evident in the way she shifted in the sand agitatedly. But that is not why she was here.
12-11-2017, 01:22 AM (This post was last modified: 12-11-2017, 01:59 AM by Kelsie.)
It's Klaudius that grabs his attention the most out of the pair and when the purple colored stallion responds, his lips tilt slightly upwards in the tiniest of smirks. His threats come with little effect to the buckskin and white stallion and with a slight shrug he tilts his head curiously as he watches the other. For a moment he is silent and then he speaks - his tone is even, without threat or harshness. Though underlying it all is a sense of strength. "This kingdom will always welcome those who do not with her harm with welcoming arms and kind words. Though when or if her residents have reason to suspect ill-will, it is their right to protect their home. The other kings and queens who may have more power would do the same, and for us to not do so would be a sign of weakness - and we wouldn't want that, would we?"
Another slight shrug follows his words and then his attention is quickly torn from Klaudius to Krone as she follows the others statements with biting words and a warning of her own. It is warranted of course. When there truly hadn't been any threat from Kelsie or herself at first - only simple suspicion, Klaudius had chosen to take it otherwise and drag it in a direction it shouldn't have gone. He watches as she approaches Klaudius and stepping forward, he stands close to his Queen's side, only backing away when she does the same. His eyes lock on her own until she begins to calm her rage and her next words have him nodding in agreement and then that agreement becomes verbal.
"Krone is correct. If Ischia does not want you, she will make it known." And then there is the cremello mare. He hasn't forgotten about her. Slowly he looks towards her, her sarcastic comment going unnoticed and with a slow blink of his eyes he looks towards Krone. "We do not have a valid enough reason to turn them away forever. I say we let them stay. Maybe a trial period of sorts. At the end of the period we can decide if they are to be permanent residents or if they are to leave?" he sighs softly. "Though it is up to you my Queen. If they are wrong for Ischia, like you said, the truth will be revealed." He looks back towards the pair without emotion. "Nothing stays hidden in the dark forever."
Then suddenly there is the newest face, a mare of obvious darkness and predatory nature. Her insults cause a slight snort of amusement and for a moment he is completely taken by her before blinking a few times and clearing his mind. "She is around somewhere," he knows the question was meant for Krone, but he can't help but answer. The image of the hyperactive mare came instantly to mind and he sighs softly. He hadn't liked her at first, but his time away from the islands had given him a chance to grow more tolerant and patient. He glances towards his queen apologetically and looks back towards the pair, refusing to take his attention completely away from them.
12-11-2017, 10:08 PM (This post was last modified: 12-11-2017, 10:11 PM by tannor.)
Quit your sleeping, I told you. "This is a mutha'fuckin' journey we finna go through."
Have you ever come to notice that things like this are nothing new in our world? We seem to thrive on new power and leadership and with it always comes some sort of scene that makes the darkest of us crawl from the shadows.
The demons though, it is they who thrive on it most of all. It calls to them like the sweet melody of a lover carrying through the empty spaces of the world, it's grasp clinging and pulling until finally they are in the open and ready to make their presence known to those around them.
With it's call it pulls a singular face of history from the shadows of Ischia and soon a streak of silver can be found on the beach, staring at the group in silence. It's not where he intended to be. Instead the demon was in search of the one he trusted and admired most. But if history has taught him anything, it's that you don't always get what you want.
He's here.
She's gone.
He's full of rage.
-----------------
Laughter.
It's the first sound that rings from deep within the demon and with fluid movements the silver stallion makes his way towards the group, his all black eyes slowly sliding over each of them.
In a moment like this he, like anyone, would have to decide who to stand with. Though his mind is already made. Like a snake he slithers up on the other side of the bay and emerald colored mare and he grins at Klaudius and his cream colored friend before shaking his head slowly. "Tsk, tsk," the sound slips from between clenched teeth. " You seem like the sort that should know that to get what you want you cannot be throwing around threats."
He smiles again, this time his own grin dripping with silent warning. This was his home, too. Let it be known. Turning his head towards the new Queen his features instantly change to a slight kind and unusual nature. "Queen," he says in a respectful sort of greeting. "If these threats ever come to a head," he glances at the unknown pair, "You have my services. I pledge myself and my true self to you and the safety of this land." With that he turns and walks back towards the inland.
Though before he can disappear he turns back towards the group a sinister smile on his face. "If a day comes where they need removal, I will gladly do it myself." In the shadows a long tongue can be seen slipping from between his teeth and licking his lips before he finally turns and continues into the darkness.
Rage.
It's burning inside him.
She's gone.
She keeps him grounded.
He's nolonger grounded.
The demon has risen once more.
TANNOR
demian & padma's demon-morphing asshole of a son
@[Krone]
<3 tannor just wanted a reason to come back. feel free to put him on the board.
And more roaches crawl from the cracks and crevices of the islands cliff. Offering services that there was no need for. The thought of his presence here rendering such hostility causes him to chuckle under his breath. Was his companion and himself that threatening to their happy little lives that they needed numbers to scare them?!
His hazel-silver eyes slide from one face to the next. Their words faint in his mind. That is until he meets the figure of another lavender creature fresh from the saltwaters. She held his attention as her words were directed to him and him alone. Perfect clone... The words cause him to straighten just a tad more. The rise and slight turn of his facial profile brought a smug look to them, "Not near perfect... I am perfect." A smirk forming before he turns his gaze to her. Another relation coming forth to his lines. Deathwish... Another name with purple tones. This was becoming a very interesting island.
After Deathwish finishes her purpose for being here he feels obligated to share his secret now. Turning to look to the seething queen, he states simply, "Then the island shall decide sister... My partner and I will stay out of your way." He takes a step nearer to her. Eye to eye he whispers low, "If you'd like to continue in private, come find me." A devilish curl of his lavender lips offered before he retreats from the Queen's side.
Returning to his cream companion. A gentle press of his muzzle to her cheek, "Shall we?" His wings unfurl slightly to hint his need for some fresh air. Things were getting a tad stuffy down here...
Klaudius
Calm Before the Storm
@[Deathwish] @[Sabra] @[Krone] not trying to leave anyone out but this is way too much to follow lol.
