she's a one way ticket | any

[e v e r d e e n]

You can look boy but don't you touch,
If you want my love make me give a fuck
If Everdeen learned anything from Vain it was how to be manipulative, the difference was she wasn't in it for power. Everdeen was boy crazy, not throne hungry. She plays to her strengths, she's attractive, cunning and a little mysterious - her weaknesses, well she doesn't fancy that she has any. She's cocky much like her mother and her grandfather, Texas.  She could go to the Desert's or the Chamber to her parents homage but she heard there were several interesting men in the Valley. That wasn't her sole purpose of joining ranks somewhere but it's a lot easier to work around men than women. If the Tundra weren't so bleak she would likely stop in there to flirt.

She wasn't sure exactly what it was that she liked so much about playing games with men, she had never had a child, perhaps it was the chase and her always winning; leaving them high and dry. She was built carefully, full hips and long legs and amber eyes. She was a dark gray with a tobiano pattern and had a seemingly sweet disposition. Perhaps a diplomatic in the making, she is going to hunt for the things she wants in life. Taking what you want is not a foreign idea to her, Vain had taught her that much.

She is truly along for the ride, whether by bus, train, plane, or a jackass.
e v e r d e e n

[Gallows]

Summer is my least favorite. The sun burns the face of the planet mercilessly. Water shrivels and grass withers. Horsekind is more likely to launch into stupid squabbles because we're all so damn grumpy.  Of course, the thermals, those great updrafts of warm air, are great for flying. So I guess there are SOME upsides. With my wings spread for coasting, I could probably be mistaken for a bird. You know, if you were incredibly stupid and also had never seen a bird before. Or maybe blind. Yeah, a blind person would probably imagine I was a bird. It's not too horribly difficult to see the rather plain reddish bay body attached to the wings, but other than the wings you probably wouldn't take a second look. There is never, and has never, been anything particularly special about me. I don't expect remembrance or recognition. I mean, I did rule and I am pretty fantastic, but still. Not special. Do you know how many idiots have held the throne in the Valley? There's probably one holding the throne now. It's just a game of odds. So maybe that's why I find myself doing an all too familiar loop around my home. I'm halfway looking to see if Kushiel has made himself useful anywhere, but mostly looking for a reason to stop avoiding the Valley. It seriously wouldn't be hard to convince me. I'm bored. So. So bored. I don't know how Carnage and all those do it. How do you live for freaking ever? I mean, I've only had sex the one time but surely even that gets staid and stale after awhile. Is that why most of the immortals off themselves or go nuts and murder someone? I haven't murdered anyone. Maybe I should try that. Ah, a likely victim.  (okay, not really. calm down) She's gorgeous, in a "the boys all want me" sort of way. Gray patterned, and clearly aware that she is good looking. I don't need to read her mind to know her type. She's determined and knows what to do to get what she wants. I'm probably the wrong gender for her, but what the heck. She's a reason. I land a bit away so no one has to witness my less than graceful landing. Even when I was Queen here I rarely let anyone see me land after flying. I'm just not talented in that area and I felt like watching one's leader break her bones wasn't very encouraging. I tuck my russet colored wings close to my body and canter easily, settling in a distance of about twenty yards. If she was planing to hurt me, I'd know it as soon as she did, but still, the illusion of safety for both of us is probably comforting. I'll let her come closer to me if she wants. See? Look how considerate very very old age has made me? "Hey. Meeting someone, or just scouting out fresh meat?" G A L L O W S We must all hang together or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

[e v e r d e e n]

You can look boy but don't you touch,
If you want my love make me give a fuck
She hasn't thought about it much, she has felt like she's sat here for an eternity waiting to see the King that was so talked about. Eight. Little did she know there was a new guy in town. Everdeen wasn't necessarily hunting, she was perusing the market for the ripest peach and she likely wouldn't buy anything until she found it. She's the grandmother of the fresh market.

The gray tobiano has no idea that Gallows is a past Queen, that she is 'somebody' because Everdeen is separated enough from her grandparents; Texas and Prague to know any history. She doesn't attend the kingdom meeting because she's not a part of it, what does that even mean to begin with? What will she do? She has no fighting skills, her diplomacy is basically lip service.

"Well, Hey thanks for asking - I'm not doing either, I had heard of how great the Valley is/was but my interpretation has been quite different," she says breathily, thinking of all the opportunities to meet others she's lost by staying here. Naive, at best. "I'm Everdeen, I don't have any real plans but I'm not too ashamed to ask for guidance," she coyly speaks to the mare, her eyes look full of wisdom even if her outer appearance is grand and her wings still full with youth.
e v e r d e e n

[Fennick]

the darkest nights produce the brightest stars

Fennick had explored bits and pieces of the Valley. A tree here, a patch of scrubs there. Eventually, he would know the entirety of it. He did not imagine that he would ever know all the people. Even if there were only a handful so far. Somethings were just unknowable. Fennick didn’t mind the unknowable, as long as they are also predictable. The setting of the sun, the changing of the seasons. All that was appealing. It made sense, and it could be counted on. Useful, is what it was.

The problem lay with the combination of unknowable and unpredictable. People were like that. They could never be counted on to do what you expected, and that just didn’t sit well with Fennick. It was very hard to plan your day around something that may or may not do as you expected and made no sense at all the majority of the time.

He saw the girl and didn’t recognize her. That was a little strange, for while Fennick knew hardly any names he did recognize most of the faces. For a brief, flickering moment, he thought that perhaps he should go over and see what she wanted. Surely, that was expected of a kingdom resident? He hesitated, then realized he wasn’t in the diplomat caste so surely it wasn’t his responsibility. If she did anything nefarious he could rough her up a bit, but that was the extent of his responsibilities. Besides, a mare who he did recognize had landed and was talking to the stranger. There, problem solved.

Feeling as if he had accomplished something, Fennick moved to walk away from the gathering mares. He was happy enough to wash his hands of the whole thing, when the snippets of conversation floated to his ears. I had heard of how great the Valley is/was but my interpretation has been quite different. Fennick snorted loudly, and laughed to himself.

“How fortunate for us then, that our self worth is not based on your good opinion.” He froze in his tracks. Shit. Had he said that out loud? Yes, yes it had. Slowly, Fennick turned to face the mares and smiled as if he tasted something bitter.

Oh well, there was no avoiding it now.

Fennick

Whale x Rea

[Gallows]

I not only approve of her lack of ambition, I am completely content with encouraging indolence. Hedonism is a credo I can get behind. Kings and Queens come and go and every one of them thinks that ranks make the kingdom. But really, it's the excitement of the unknown. No one gives a crap who you might be. It's what you do that speaks for you. Besides, since when have we ever really needed diplomats here? There are way too many hot heads to make a diplomatic mission anything but incindiery. At Fennick's approach and words, I laugh aloud, a sound of complete merriment. Oh, this one, he's adorable. If he imagines I will reprimand him or be offended at his words, he is mistaken. He speaks exactly what he's thinking, which makes it a bit more interesting for me. I only have to wait for his mouth to open and repeat what his brain has composed. "The little man is right," I say with amusement. "But what our worth is based on is yet to be seen. Perhaps Fennick can enlighten us with the Valley's virtues?" I grin and dip my head, as if to say, after you. And then I turn to the mare, offering her the most partially serious look I can muster. "Well, darling, it depends on what, or who, you are here for. If it's a handsome man, I know a few who might be interested." More than a few based on the girl's lovely form. "If it's a good time, well, there are plenty of opportunities here for that." G A L L O W S We must all hang together or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

[e v e r d e e n]

been tryin' hard not to get into trouble

Everdeen was depicted as an easy target, she knew that but played that to her advantage. What do you do when you come ill-equipped to a fight because you assume the weakling doesn't know how to fight? The weakling brings a gun. We cannot know the essence of another, the heart of another unless you can read minds...which Everdeen is unaware the Gallows can do but if that's the case she fares better to make friends.

She was enjoying the older mare's company when a younger man approached, quick to defend and even quicker to point out her opinion doesn't matter. "Is interpretation and opinion synonymous? Furthermore, if it truly didn't bother you what use would it be to speak on it? Being inside a kingdom for nearly an entire week, going unnoticed, is a little alarming from a tactical standpoint but I digress," she says, knowing that although she was no true harm to the Valley itself she spoke truth. Soon after her arrival Eight stepped down, a new man was in town; Demian and she had met him, thankfully. "I've seen you around Fennick, had you seen me until today? Things to ponder..." she smiles, very broad and with her doe eyes shining towards him. She was genuine but it could be mistaken for sarcastic, even a smartass move; some things were just genetic.

She turns to the mare now, she likes Gallows from the quick impressions she has gotten. "Handsome men are great, men with ambition are better," a corner of her mouth wrinkles, Gallows would interpret this perhaps the way it was intended but to an onlooker it just seemed as though she liked a hard worker.

e v e r d e e n

[Fennick]

the darkest nights produce the brightest stars

Fennick quickly realized he was in the wrong conversation. He didn’t understand women, he didn’t really like women, but only because they never seemed to like him. It wasn’t that he liked men, he just struggled to like anyone.

It was a burden, being so deep in your own head.

The big stallion sighed a little forlornly. He certainly had brought this upon himself. It would be shamefully cowardly to run off now, so he took a step closer to the mares and joined their conversation properly. Fennick may be a bit of an idiot, and he may be an abysmal failure at making friends, recruiting, and general conversation, but he was not a coward. It was one of the few things he had going for him, and he intended to hold on to it.

He didn’t, however, know how to answer Gallows. First off, because he was far from little. He looked her up and down skeptically. She wasn’t small, per say, but she was a hand shorter than himself, and Fennick wasn’t built along a dancer’s delicate lines. He sniffed, trying not to go rigid with conversational anxiety. These days when Fennick’s expression turned too stony the rest of him followed soon after. That was, perhaps, the only thing that could make him a worse conversationalist, if he turned to stone.

“I’m sure you know the Valley far better than I. I could say, however, that any attribute would be an improvement if the alternative is to be judged on the eligibility of our men.” Fennick’s expression turned thoughtful for a moment. Did he just insult himself? Quite possibility. He was, after all, one of the men that would be the basis for judgement if they were truly to use eligibility as a scale.

Damn it, he had just insulted himself. He decided to pretend that it hadn’t happened and move right along.

Fennick then turned to Everdeen, and tried to plaster something that resembled a civil expression on his face. The girl hadn’t done anything particularly grievous, and still she found herself on the sharp end of this tongue. Although Fennick was a bumbling fool in most situations, he was proud. He had precious few things that he valued, and therefore felt the sting all the more when one of those things was belittled, like his home for example.

“I never said that it didn’t bother me. I thought it was rather obvious that it did.” After all, he wouldn’t have said anything if it hadn’t nettled him. He hadn’t really intend to say anything, but it had popped out. He did, however, decide to let it drop. There was no use in belaboring the point. At her question he looked at her once again, trying to place her. Nope, no good. Fennick was a newcomer himself, and wasn’t particularly gifted with names. He was better with faces, but he tended to avoid crowds, giving him little opportunity to see them.

“Then you have the advantage on me, for I don’t recognize you. My name is Fennick.” He had learned that introducing one’s self was the basis for most conversation. Did following social conventions matter after you had already broken them?

Now that he was here, Fennick decided to spend the time educating himself. He listened to Everdeen’s assessment that ambition was better than looks, and expectantly turned to Gallows for her answer. Not, without first asking a question of his own.

“And what of power? Is that better than ambition? I don’t believe they are one in the same.” Look at Demian, for example. He was currently in the highest seat of power, but didn’t have a hungering ambition for it. He carried kingship like a scared duty, without the lust for power. Perhaps that was even better than ambition or power? Power without ambition?

Fennick was giving himself a headache, and probably his companions as well.

Fennick

Whale and Rea's amorphous, ever-changing son

[Gallows]

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing, but amusement is shining in my eyes. Fennick seems utterly confused, and Everdeen has just revealed that she has fangs beneath that sweet exterior. Good for her. It wouldn't do to let someone else establish dominance over you so early in the game. You'd spend forever trying to build yourself back up to a position of power. I nudge Fennick with a grin as he recovers from Everdeen. I respond to his thoughts out of habit, not immediately realizing he wasn't pondering aloud. "Don't worry your mind about it, dear. I call all men little. It's a deplorable habit, but at my age I'm not about to change it." Not that I look my age. Immortality does have its perks, and one of them is the appearance of peak health until the day I decide I've had enough. Which I really don't see happening in the near future. Life still has so many lovely twists and turns. I sigh, a teasing mockery of regret. "It's deplorable that you went unacknowleged for so long, Everdeen. I apologize for that. I fear in the shuffle of rulers quite a few tasks went undone." Fennick's question makes me pause, but I have a fairly ready answer. This is not a subject I am unfamiliar with, and I feel a bit of deja vu. Perhaps that is simply what happens when you've lived so long. "You can have ambition without power and power without ambition, but I tend to think of the two, power is a better choice." I grin at Everdeen. "Still, it generally takes ambition to get there. And it's much wiser to go after one or the other, than chase the pretty boys. They always know they're pretty, don't they? And that rather spoils the mood." Social conventions are so confining. If we were following them, the next steps would be inane conversation about one's home and family and background. But I don't do small talk. The details are trite (of course, that is easy for me to say when I can have instant access to almost anything I want to know) and I much prefer the depth of a conversation. "So share, my friends, what you would have the Valley defined as for the rest of Beqanna? Was that what you drew you here?" I'm always curious about other's relationships with the Valley. She has been my mistress ever since I was three years old, untraited, and following around behind my twin brother because I had nothing better to do. G A L L O W S We must all hang together or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately.