"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
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
With spring well settled in Beqanna, life seems to settle in a known rhythm slowly as well. The tumults of leaderships changing and positions being reclaimed can't bother her as long as they don't threaten her - in the case of Loess and Sylva, that honestly is just something she still needs to figure out. Or maybe have someone else figure out. Like Solace. Or Wolfbane himself. They still owe Hyaline now, although not for the best reasons. But perhaps something can be worked out. If not, at least they've made sure that they know Hyaline is not that easily messed with, she figures. But she'll retreat. It's worse enough that this situation existed in the first place.
No, there's other matters that concern her today. They end up being a missing stallion and his weird behaviour upon returning, and that's an understatement. And the fact that she hasn't visited many allies for a time - but she knows Breckin (formerly her friend in an equal position to hers, now queen) needs time to settle in, and that Ischia doesn't need her prodding about if there's nothing to talk about really. Tephra... she just hopes the new diplomats are doing well. She'd been tempted to follow them, but in the end decided to put a little faith in them. They were both adults.
Now, she's staring at the river's water, watching it bubble as it passes by, lively. Trying to empty her head and failing at it. Wondering what she should do, next. Or if she should just lay back and wait.
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
@[vulgaris] at long last, there's a starter (:
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
The birth of his daughter has invoked a certain kind of peace within him, cleansed a bit of the dark cloud normally hanging overhead. The fresh scars across his face and shoulders may suggest otherwise, but an easy sort of smile remains firmly rooted to his face. Today Leliana has given in to Adna’s pleas to go meet other children, leaving Vulgaris to wander from his small family for the first time. Already it feels strange to be apart from them but he knows he can’t shadow them every day. They need their space and he has to give it to them, begrudging as he may be.
He sees her from the corner of his eye and he turns his gray head to watch her for a moment as his memory searches for her face. Ilma, that’s right. She’d been so certain he meant to bring harm to her before. He calls out to her before approaching so as not to surprise the poor girl, worrying she may still be fearful of others.
Vulgaris comes to stand beside her with a reasonable distance between them, then leans his head to watch the river as well. He doesn’t realize that perhaps she is only lost in thoughts and worries as he tries to see whatever she sees. The woes of more reasonable creatures elude him entirely.
“Are we waiting for something?” he asks as he glances at her. He speaks softly, careful not to disturb whatever may lurk beneath the waters. Vulgaris lifts his head when he’s certain there’s nothing coming to meet them and turns to face her, now worrying that she may not even recognize him. Not everyone has a knack for names and faces as he has, after all.
“How’ve you been?” And then he smiles, rows of sharp teeth glimmering warmly despite their harsh appearance. The expression reaches his eyes and the sincerity is hopefully evident.
" ancient language, speak through fingers. the awful edges where you end and i begin. "
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
And when all else fails - there is a Loessian coming her way. It’s the scaly-toothy male she met once before in the forest; near autumn, she’d chastised herself for going there alone, thinking what had happened last time that had resulted in Llowell - but Vulgaris hadn’t made such a move, and she was less fearful of him now, knowing he had thought that she was afraid he would eat her. It seemed silly in retrospect, but at least she would never forget the meeting.
Today he moved precariously and warned her with a whinny, and she smiles at the river water before turning to face him. The grey scaled stallion was looking at the river as if something might be in there, and she chuckled a bit at his question. ”Only for problems to solve themselves. Your new kingdom has brought me quite a number of those, as of late.” She shakes her crest, helping her mane realign. Well. New might not entirely be the word since he carries the smell on him so obviously.
”That would be... quite a long story I fear.” Almost being stolen. Stealing in return. Having to follow Lepis around because she was one such an irritating child that could not accept that she lost the game. Needing to grit her teeth, like a lot, waiting for a deal to be made and then finally releasing the perlino piece of annoyance on the condition that Loess would owe them big time. And now just waiting on a proposal that did not seem to come. Oh yeah and good thing Bane had returned the child, or he would have had much bigger troubles. Not even to mention Svedka returning and behaving like, ten times the idiot he had always been.
Such a great half year.
”How about you? You seem happy.” She cocked her head at him. He really was, wasn’t he? There was something lightfooted about him today, and his smile was genuine. Something good must have happened then.
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
@[vulgaris]
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
Only for problems to solve themselves. He laughs softly at the answer and the breath causes the river to tremble briefly before returning to its usual flow. Vulgaris understands that all too well but he’s not one to ever admit it. Instead he lets the moment pass as she declines to fully answer his question. Perhaps another time, when they’re better friends and she feels safe confiding her frustrations in him. That’s usually his ultimate goal, after all, to be trusted despite the reputation a serpent normally has.
He’s already forgotten the trouble Lepis has stirred up, drowned it out with the mess he made with himself and Kagerus instead. Maybe the queen never admitted to being the one to give him these scars? How mysterious he must seem, then, to everyone but Leli. Of course he’d told her when he came home dripping blood and tired from his fight. She was the safe place he could turn to and lay all his secrets to rest.
Which brings him to her question. The smile spreads wider across his face and he lifts his chin a bit when his pride swells through him.
“Leliana and I have had our first child,” he explains. Already he can only think of Adna as the first, as though she isn’t their only baby to date. To have more seems so inevitable to him that he has no desire to say she is their ‘only child’. “Her name is Adna. She’s got her mother’s laugh.”
He could go on and on, really, but he tries to constrain himself to only the most important facts. Vulgaris thinks to ask her if she has any children of his own but he decides against it. His other offspring are a bit of a sore spot for him and so he says nothing of them, for now. It may be the same for her and he would hate to ruin the foundation of their friendship so soon.
“I think you would like Leli. She’s the opposite of me, basically.”
Vulgaris laughs at his own joke despite the truth of it. Leliana is kind and soft, everything that he could never be in this life. But that’s why he loves her so much.
" ancient language, speak through fingers. the awful edges where you end and i begin. "
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
Ilma doesn’t open up in the way he’d hoped, maybe that is so. Her wannabe-friend is not the real problem however; she doesn’t know where to begin. All these things are such a tangled mess in her head that she can’t find what she’s looking for, and she can’t ask of him to help unwind it. And maybe there’s the thing that, if he’s loyal to his kingdom, if she told him all that plagues her mind, he should tell Wolfbane like a good citizen - and she’d rather get a feel of the striped king herself than be talked about. She doesn’t know what Lepis might have said, but it can’t be good. She wonders what Bane thinks of all this.
But not through Vulgaris.
Her question however, hits bullseye, and suddenly a small laugh breaks from her lips as he gets fired away. He’s found a love then, and had a child, a daughter to help him see the light in the world. He can’t stop talking, it seems, and she watches amusedly how he struggles not to overwhelm her white self with the beauty of his baby, and finally focuses on his wife, girlfriend, whatever she officially or unofficially may be. ”They sound wonderful. I hope we can visit one another in our homes again, soon.”
She grins at his joke on himself, and shakes her head. ”I know they say opposites attract,” she offers more seriously, ”But I think you’re cutting yourself short just a little.” After all, even if Leli being everything he was not should be a reason for Ilma to like her - she liked Vulgaris, too. She knew he tried. For that, he gets points too, in Ilma’s book.
And probably in Leliana’s too, judging from what he says about her.
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
@[vulgaris]
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
Although Ilma doesn’t consider the serpent to be a friend, he views her as someone to be trusted and protected. If he knew of her troubles, he would most likely try to make her enemies pay their debt in blood, much as he does for Leliana or Wolfbane. But she is a creature of peace and tranquility even in her troubled times, he thinks, so he doesn’t expect such a request of him.
He notices the smile on her face when he speaks and he wonders if he’s rambling. Vulgaris hardly ever opens up about the vulnerable pieces of him and so the limit is a mystery to him. But she’s as kind as always, waiting patiently until he’s done before she speaks again. A smile dawns across his face as he nods in response to her invitation to visit. It might be strange for him to enter Hyaline on friendly terms, but he supposes it could be dismissed when his intentions are purely social.
But then she offers her opinion of him and his smile fades. She doesn’t know the things he’s done or the lies he’s told to get what he wants out of this world. Ilma is a dove amongst ravens, perfectly white and infinitely greater than the rest of them. But he doesn’t confess his sins or reveal the singularity of the darkness within him. Instead, he brushes her compliment away with a shrug of his great shoulders.
“Maybe I just don’t see what you see,” he says with a half-hearted laugh. His self loathing threatens to engulf him and so he changes the subject instead.
“But I really would like to come visit your home some time. I need to get out more.”
And then he’s smiling again. Vulgaris knows he spends too much of his time within his own home, remaining in the comfort in Leliana and Wolfbane’s company. There is no room for growth while he continues to reinforce the bonds he’s already established.
" ancient language, speak through fingers. the awful edges where you end and i begin. "
@[Ilma] he has no idea how to take a compliment lmao.
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
Politics should never get in the way of friendships, and neither should teeth. Yet they seem to have had that rough start because of both, and she has let it. But new opportunities arise, and when he smiles in regard to her invitation to visit, she assumes he will, in his own time,
The winged mare doesn’t really mind his joke on himself being secretly serious, though. It’s what she always liked so much about Hyaline, too. To not judge the past. To see what one can become, if set on the right path. To help those who wander - figuratively as well as literally - to find a home, or find a way.
Vulgaris had done that without her help, and yet, he still seems to lose himself sometimes, like now. She shakes her head. ”I’m sure your family would agree with me instead of you, this time.” she grins, ”You could bring them over with you for a visit if you want. Or, I suppose when things have settled I should talk to your leader sometime, and I can meet you there,” she says,
Honestly, she had contemplated friendly-stealing him, right after Lepis had run away with Valdis. But she’d reconsidered because it might have been seen as another violent act on Hyaline’s side, something she could not use at the time. But perhaps an un-forced social visit would be better anyway.
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
@[vulgaris] xD
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
Vulgaris has never taken goals such as Hyaline’s seriously. He believes his darkness is one with who he is and always will be, even while he basks in the light of Leliana’s love. The brighter the light the darker the shadows, after all. But for now he is more focused on Ilma and her subtle kindness as she reaffirms her beliefs about who he is at his core. And maybe she’s right, maybe there is something truly good at the center of his being. It would explain his rage whenever punishment is not dealt to those even worse than him.
“I’d like to bring Adna to Hyaline. A girl like her has potential to do great things so it’s important for her to learn politics young,” he says as he stares off at nothing, imagining what sort of person his daughter might grow to be. Larva had retired from that sort of life by the time his younger children were born and so Vulgaris was never properly socialized. To see him beside his eldest sister, Darling, it’s hard to imagine they share the same parents. She is eloquence and grace given physical shape, she thinks.
“I have to be home in time to tell her goodnight, though, so I have to head home now.” The words are casual in his voice and it almost seems strange to hear him speak them. But this is his life now; the hunter has become the head of a small family and he takes the responsibilities as seriously as those given to him by Wolfbane. He offers Ilma another sincere smile before he bids her farewell and heads for Loess.
Now he just has to convince Leliana to let him take Adna to Hyaline for a day or so.
" ancient language, speak through fingers. the awful edges where you end and i begin. "
@[Ilma] it might turn into a family trip if leli won't let him go without her too lol
And there's a lesson waiting to be learned the firestarters always get the burns and the good guys never get the girl
The white woman smiles a little, though she doesn't comment on his being good-or-not any further. Truth is, most people are mixes of what's good and what's considered awful, and there's reasons for one thing to come out more than the other sometimes. A threat to herself or her family, for instance, would be met with a much harsher version of herself than Vulgaris right now.
As he speaks, she nods to him. "She'd be welcome, of course." Surely, if she has a mother like Leliana, and a father like Vulgaris who's trying so hard to be good for his daughter (at least, that's the impression he gives the Andalusian mare), she'd be pleasant to talk to. To work with. Teach things.
She gives him a light chuckle at his confession that he wants to tell her goodnight, and this means he has to go early. "Of course. Say hi to them for me, and I hope we'll meet again soon." she offers with a polite dip of her head. Glancing at the river once more, she listens for his hoofbeats to leave, then heads back home herself, also.
and shooting stars cannot fix the world
@[vulgaris] Haha. I guess this ends this thread though?
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
