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    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


    take a bullet to the heart just to keep you safe; element, any
    #1

    At the hands of many, Leander had seen his distant cousin murdered. It was a ruthless death – a death he and a handful of others had tried to prevent, though it had all been in vain. He felt a deep-seated revulsion for what he had witnessed in Pangea, and questions still rang in his mind. Had Rhonen actually done anything to deserve such an end? To him, it had tasted of pure madness from the onset. He couldn’t understand what had possessed such a number to complete the dark voice’s bidding so unquestioningly, but now – now they would all suffer the consequences.
     
    He could have sworn he’d felt it come upon him. At Rhonen’s last breath, a sickness had been unleashed – dark and thick and cloying – and Leander had breathed it in. He’d seen the others. They, too, had been coughing it down before they scattered. The attackers quickly abandoned their kill like rats from ruin. For the defenders, there was nothing left to do but leave. So the palomino overo had taken wing, a thickness in his throat that was more than dismay, a heaviness in his chest that was more than disbelief.
     
    He flew from Pangea, his breath becoming short and laboured as though a vice-like grip were closing in around his midsection. All too soon, he struggled with the exertion of his flight – but just before he could land in a small clearing he’d spotted through the forest canopy below, everything shifted. Leander blinked hard as he watched the trees sway and heard the sound of distant rumbling as the earth made way for the rising of the safe havens.
     
    Safe havens that would be of no use to him.
     
    Already, he could feel it – his lungs clutched with infection. He had alighted in the clearing some time ago, and he knew from experience that it had taken him much too long to regain his breath. Leander coughed, trying to clear the tightness in his airways as he took shelter among the trees. He hardly noticed the dipping sun, nor the way the autumn rays shone warm and bright through their boughs. His thoughts were consumed with all that he’d seen. He wondered if there was anything more that could have been done to prevent what felt like calamity.
     
    Yet the real calamity had only just begun.



    leander
    take a bullet to the heart just to keep you safe; like a dream in my arms but i’m wide awake

    Reply
    #2

    What a lovely way to burn

    She’s not entirely sure why she’d stayed. It had seemed like a Not Terrible idea at the time, but now she’s wondering if she had really gone and fucked it up. Especially after the vision. Gods, she’d been so tempted. She’d been spoiling for a fight, but she’s also not an idiot. Seriously, who wouldn’t find something a little odd about a mage-god sending out visions enticing the weak-willed and weak-minded to come fight his battles for him? Downright sketchy, in her opinion. Besides, she’s not into fighting other people’s battles. Sounds damned lazy if you ask her.

    Which they hadn’t, of course. Not that that has ever stopped her from handing out her opinions left and right.

    But now she’s edgy, plucking the frayed threads of her imagination as she tries to figure out what had actually happened and what she should do about it. Not that it’s helping, of course. Just making her even more edgy.

    And so, when the earth rumbles and the lands shift as the gods send out their warnings, Element nearly explodes out of her skin. I’d say figuratively, but it seems to have a pretty literal side-effect, given the sudden draft of flame that bursts from around her and into the trees. With a low growl, she quickly gathers the escaped flame and snuffs it out before it can spread too far into the dry autumn forest.

    Irritable as hell she might be, but that doesn’t mean she wants to accidentally burn down the forest.

    Wings settling loosely at her sides, she stalks through the trees just in time to see a body disappearing on the other side of a small clearing. Immediately she straightens, wings flaring slightly as her attention piques. “Hey!” she shouts as she bursts into a trot, footfalls thudding heavily against the earth beneath the weight of her large frame. “HEY!”

    No way he didn’t hear her. But hey, she’d never made any claims to subtlety anyway.

    Element
    Reply
    #3
    Leander was already infected.
    He rolled a 2 which means he will not express a trait.

    Element rolled a 3, and is infected.
    A roll of 4 means she's symptomatic.
    A 1 means she will not express a trait.
    Reply
    #4

    He could hear someone approaching before the first shout reaches him, though by the second he has turned to watch the large black mare barrel through the trees. “Stop,” he warned, backing away even as she approached. “I mean it. Don’t come any closer.” While she was built more intimidatingly than he was, Leander raised his wings to splay wide at his sides even as he craned his neck to keep from coughing on her as his lungs spasmed suddenly.

    “I’m sick,” he said after recovering from the spell, though there wasn’t any need – if the cough hadn’t given him away, it would be made clear by the breath that still came with too much effort and by the unseasonal sweat that beaded upon his brow. Though he found he had to look up at her so as to actually meet her gaze, the brown of his eyes was insistent. He didn’t yet know how serious the sickness would become, but he knew how quickly it had come over him. What was to keep it from infecting everyone in its vicinity?

    “You should leave – go somewhere safe, while you still have the chance.” His chance had come and gone, as it had for all of those who were present at Rhonen’s murder. His thoughts began to turn to those relatives he knew of that still lived – his cousin, Kagerus, and his uncles; perhaps even his sisters, Rhy and Kora, if they yet roamed elsewhere in these godforsaken lands. He could only hope they were all protected, safe from the plague that he carried like a dark pit in his stomach.

    A plague he was sure others were carrying, too.

    Continuing to back away, his palomino overo frame brushing against the bark of shadowy trees, feathers snaring in the thickets as he beat his outstretched wings once, weakly. “Seriously, get out of here,” he coughed again, the sound more frightening than one would expect after such a short time between exposure and inoculation. It was a sound that could only speak of the magic at work – one that would ravage the lands so much more quickly than anyone could begin to imagine.



    leander
    take a bullet to the heart just to keep you safe; like a dream in my arms but i’m wide awake

    @[Element]
    Reply
    #5

    What a lovely way to burn

    A scowl tugs on her lips at his demand for her to stop. Perhaps, if she weren’t quite so bull-headed, she might have listened. Instead her chin notches up slightly as her own wings flare to match his. As if illness had ever given her pause before. She’s not a fucking child scared of phantoms. She could put her big girl panties on for a moment and deal with things like a normal adult.

    Like she does every damn day.

    We’ll try not to delve too deeply into that. Honestly, one could almost counter that such stubbornness is childish. If they wanted to be kicked in the teeth that is. Play dumb games, win dumb prizes, right? Right. Who knows, maybe she’d even win the plague?

    She snorts derisively at his continued protestations. “What the hell makes you think I’m scared of some stupid cold?” she scoffs, her eyes rolling briefly in exasperation. But when her gaze finally fixes on him, her dual-hued eyes narrowed, there is no hint of that irritation.

    “You look like shit,” she observes a bit wryly as she steps closer, her wings buckling as she tries to avoid snagging them on reaching limbs. Much like his had done. Honestly, at this point, he’d gotten her curiosity up. And there is no tearing her away from an object of her curiosity. As he’d no doubt soon learn. When one is as stubborn as she is, it seems there is some advantage to being rather large and immoveable. “What happened to you anyway?”

    She cringes slightly as the cough wracks his frame once more. That sounded truly god awful, but he’d need to do a helluva lot more to frighten her off. Besides, it’s not like she’d be any safer if she took off now. She’d already been exposed, hadn’t she? Safe has never really been in her vocabulary anyway. The closer to death she comes, the more exhilarating. And so far, this feels pretty damned ordinary. Hardly a rush at all.

    Except that he does sound rather terrible. And hell, the cold couldn’t be helping. Freaking aaaaa, why did she even have to think of these things? She would’ve been perfectly happy pestering him for information then heading the other direction. But now she’s actually feeling. Thinking how miserable that must. Every goddamned time.

    With a sigh, she uses a thin lick of flame to banish the chill air, warming a small bubble of space to a temperature comfortable enough one might actually be able to relax.

    She'd deny it if he asked, of course. Couldn't have him thinking she actually has a heart, could she?

    Element
    Reply
    #6

    “This isn’t just a cold,” Leander managed to say before his lungs began to spasm once again. Her next comment might have had him chuckling wryly once, before all of this – unfortunately, his current state was no laughing matter. As the coughing fit worsened, his wings retracted reflexively. He found that he was too weak to protest her rather obstinate presence any further. Once the fit had faded, however, Leander could have sworn the winter air had become blessedly warm around him. Though he hadn’t seen the telltale flame, the chill in his bones had dissipated some as he blinked past watery eyes and worked to regain his breath.

    Having recovered enough to look up at the mare with some curiosity, Leander spoke in a voice worn raw by sickness. “I went to Pangea.” It was an answer of sorts, though it only begged more questions. Questions he’d been asking himself since he’d left that forsaken place. “I tried to stop someone from being murdered.” The fact that he had to use the word ‘tried’ made his stomach twist. He grimaced. “So I guess this is what I get for trying to do the right thing.”

    A short cough that had started as a self-deprecating laugh escaped him. “What’s that saying again? Nice guys finish last?” He shook his head and leaned against the solid trunk of a tree, feeling weary to his very core as he closed his eyes momentarily. After a pause, he glanced to her again. “Leander,” he offered, shrugging a shoulder to resettle the wing which was folded between himself and the roughness of the  bark. While a selfish part of himself felt  glad not to be alone, a nobler part felt perturbed that she refused to leave. He eyed her from beneath a sweat-dampened forelock. “If you catch this, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.”



    leander
    take a bullet to the heart just to keep you safe; like a dream in my arms but i’m wide awake

    @[Element]
    Reply
    #7

    What a lovely way to burn

    For all her brash words and bold attitude, even she can recognize this is more than a piddling cold. Not that it does anything to frighten her off, of course.  Fear is a foreign language to her, one she doesn’t care to learn. And his noble attempts to ward her off with his dire warnings fall on deaf ears.

    Well, not deaf, I suppose, given the way she snorts derisively at the comment. Just excessively stubborn.

    Still, foolish bravery aside, it’s not like she planned on laying one on him or anything like that. Hell, she’s not that dumb. She might suffer from an unfortunate dearth of fear, but that doesn’t mean she’s beggin’ to get sick. And a stunt like that would be sure to do it.

    Of course, if she were considering such a stunt, she’d have hella more problems than just a plague to worry about. Because, y’know, consent and all that. Besides, that’s just creepy. She has her limits, predatory creepiness being one of them.

    Honestly, it’s probably a good thing he can’t get inside her head. Or at least, she sure as hell hopes he can’t. A w k w a r d.

    Which is to say, it’s probably a good thing he’s consumed by a coughing fit and she has some time to sort out her decidedly wayward thoughts. When his cough finally subsides, another concerned frown is tugging at her lips, eyes narrowed as she tries to determine if he’s going to come out of it or if she needs to find some help for him. Gods, wouldn’t it just be her luck to get sucked into some ridiculous search trying to find a healer for him?

    Luckily for her, he stops spasming like a chain-smoking asthmatic and recovers enough to actually take a breath. Enough to tell her his story, brief as it is. Pangea. Of course. She narrows her eyes on him, suddenly wondering if there isn’t more here she need worry about. Not that he’s in any condition to do anything dumb, like attack her. But hell, one never knows how idiotic someone might turn out to be.

    Though, as it turns, he really is idiotic, just for the right reasons instead of the wrong ones. Or at least, one could suppose. If one had a conscience. Which, no matter how much she might pretend otherwise, she regrettably does. She barks out a humorless laugh when he continues, lamenting his inability to see through his nobly heroic task. “I knew he was up to no good,” she mutters, half to herself, half to him if he cared to listen, feeling rather vindicated that she’d ignored that summons like a champ.

    She narrows her eyes briefly at him, considering his story for a long moment before quipping, “That’s a load of bull. Sounds like you went in there half-assed with no plan.” Blunt, as ever. But really. Nice guys finish last? No, guys who sprint off at the drop of a hat with an unbaked plan finish last. Of course, he hadn’t actually divulged a plan, but she can guess exactly what it was given what he’d already told her. I.e. there wasn’t one.

    She snorts at his last warning, exactly as she’d done with his other warnings. “Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind,” she replies rather sarcastically before amending her tone into something slightly more friendly. “Element.”

    She’s not totally devoid of sympathy however. He’d tried, and she supposes (a little grudgingly) that must count for something. “Did you know him?” she continues, this time a little more gently. She’s not heartless, after all. And if he’d lost a friend in all of this, she can imagine how terrible he must feel.

    Element
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