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  • 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


    [open]  rotten peaches on the breath of the Colossus.
    #1
    GHAUL
    i can take you there, but baby, you won't make it back
    He was born small and sickly, all ribs and feral uneasiness as he skittered about Beqanna. He feasted on rodents and abandoned carcasses until he grew strong enough to take on larger prey. Now, his scales have hardened into armor that will know no defeat and his baby teeth have been traded in for rows of curved, crooked fangs. Ghaul’s talons leave deep tracks in the spring mud as he travels to the river in the middle of a heavy rain.

    There is a restless ache building between his ribs that he tries his best to ignore. He knows it is because Clarissa is not with him as often as he would like, but he gives her all the space she needs. The young monster has taken to needless hunts in an effort to sate his mood but to no avail. The throbbing emptiness that she leaves remains all the same. He snorts and a few small embers flitter from his nostrils before dying on the cold wind.

    His wings fold over his back in a pitiful attempt to shield him from some of the downpour. Ghaul has decided he hates spring but there is little he can do about it other than sulk. A slow, sad croon escapes his throat as he comes to a stop beside the river. He likes to watch the blue rippling and flowing that marks the water’s path, even if he can’t see it quite as well as others. The tall grasses reach up to his broad shoulders where they rustle against his body in the breeze. The world is bright and green and bursting with life, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

    His thin tail flicks from side to side before finally settling into a soft stillness. For now, he will count the hours until one of his few friends come back to him.
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    #2

    She might have passed him by, if it weren’t for the horns. Or the wings. Or the scales. Or those multicoloured feet…

    Alright. There was very little chance she was going to pass him by. Like calls to like, after all, and she knows a fellow monster when she sees one. Armoured plates cover her body instead of scales, and she finds herself rather jealous of his talons (though she would have ordered them in a different colour). For a moment, she simply observes him from far away. Impulses are hard for her to deny, however, and she is moving forward without any more consideration on the subject.

    A low, clicking noise - decidedly not-equine - serves as her initial greeting. She’s not completely sure but it seems very likely that this strange creature won’t be able to see her and, at the moment, she does not wish to startle him.

    Part of her wants to, though, and she has to actively suppress the hunter’s urge. There are some less sinister urges, however, she might give into. A few small tests.

    She will have to get closer for those, but she pauses a few lengths away to start. She’s not looking to fight, not yet, and at the moment she is untested against someone with wings like that.

    Her head tilts to the side, dark eyes bright with an intelligence not common in her close family, as she regards him.

    “What’s it like to fly?”




    @[ghaul]
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    #3
    GHAUL
    i can take you there, but baby, you won't make it back
    He lifts his head sharply when he hears the clicking emanating from her, his small ears turning this way and that until he spots her. Ghaul watches the blurred red and white of her approach curiously before he offers a brief chittering noise in return. No one ever quite returned the odd sort of noises he made and so he’s already curious just what sort of creature she is. The drake leans his head forward, sniffing the air for the scent of scales to go with the strange outline of her body, and he’s mildly disappointed when he finds none.

    But while she may not be quite different in the same way as he, there remains a need to understand. One talon lifts to step forward when she asks her question. He pauses. What is it like to fly? He regards this question for a moment before replacing his foot back in the spring mud where it had been before. Gluttony had made it sound so beautiful when he asked her but he had never found it to be so glorious. But perhaps she was not a hunter in the way he is?

    Thrilling,” he finally answers, his lips spreading into a wide grin built of crooked crocodile teeth. He thinks of plucking young fawns from their mothers and the cries they each give. They always keep their eyes trained on the tree lines for signs of wolves or large cats, never thinking to watch the skies for something worse.

    They never see me coming. The table is turned.

    And then he laughs but something about the noise is out of sync, disjointed from itself with each breath. But his focus drifts to her strange tail and he finds something like envy worming its way into him. The only part of him that is not armored or weaponized, he thinks. His tail is much the same as any other of his species and he wonders if she has ever used it to kill. Certainly, she has?

    I am Ghaul, of Pangea. Show me your tail.
    @[Fiorina]
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    #4

    Fiorina does not usually have cause to feel delight so she’s not sure whether hearing a chittering noise from the odd boy even counts, but there’s definitely a hint of a smile on her wicked features when she draws closer because of it. Most other equines don’t react to the creaking click that serves as a quasi-language for the xenomorph clan. At least, not in a similar fashion - some of them react, because it’s usually the first warning they get that one of them is about to attack.

    Not in this case, which perhaps is why it’s nice to have it returned.

    The answer to her brings out a full smile. His laugh is weird, but Fiorina hasn’t heard enough laughter to notice. She does not know what it should sound like.

    But his joke was funny whether he intended it to be or not, and it reminds her of why she wants a set of wings. How fun it would be to hunt from the air!

    “Fiorina. I think I’m supposed to be of Pangea as well but I haven’t quite decided if I will.” With accuracy, she turns her armoured head in the direction of that kingdom. She still feels the call, like a steady beat. Whether Anaxarete cares if she arrives or not is yet to be seen. It is a call, after all, not a demand.

    His demand is easier to follow because it pleases her to show off and she brings herself back to the present. She shifts her stance a little so she’s a little askew from him and that prehensile tail curls up, the knife end glinting in the light. Her attention is on him and she wiggles the tail a little bit, like a deadly puppet is waving to him. “How can you see it?”



    @[ghaul]
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    #5
    GHAUL
    i can take you there, but baby, you won't make it back
    Ghaul has chirped and crooned since his unholy birth, and yet he has never received reply in the way that he prefers. Even Clarissa only laughed and smiled when he purred delightedly beneath her touch. He does not see enough to discern the smile across her face when she draws closer, only the vague outline of her shape. Still, he seems rather pleased just the same.

    Fiorina. He tilts his head when she explains that perhaps she will also be of Pangea, but perhaps not. Ghaul follows her gaze and a brief snort puffs from his nostrils in wisps of smoke and ash. How could anyone not want to be born of such a sacred home, he wonders? Pangea will engulf this world in flame and shadows. The drake returns his gaze back to her and he feels his lips twitch downward in a frown for just a fleeting moment.

    Is there somewhere better?” he asks, incredulous in his tone. “Nerine is too cold, too quiet. Loess is false promises and gilded glory. Tephra is weak and full of soft bellies. Only Pangea is worthy to burn the others to the ground. Once they are cleansed, maybe they will be worthy.

    And here he smiles again, imagining all the char and smoldering embers that he will leave in his wake. When she shifts her position and presents that strange tail, though, he finds himself kneading at the mud with his talons. He leans closer, sniffing at it and following its little wave curiously. Ghaul believes himself safe from such weapons now that he has matured, but if she hooked him like a fish then he would learn very quickly.

    I see some things. Anything very cold, or very warm,” he explains, still mesmerized by her tail. “I do not see the sky or the stars. I have only been told of them.
    @[Fiorina]
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    #6

    Who’s teaching this little monster about eugenics?

    Fiorina comes from a vicious family who would eat everyone until they were killed but, mercilessly, are tethered to a magician that will not allowed them to cause (much) havoc. But that is simply the way of animals - and the xenomorphs are animals. Utterly feral, hunting for food or for hosts for the next generation.

    But this? This talk is something she does not quite understand. Who decides who is worthy and what is their right to do so?

    “There could be.” Is her shrug of a non-commital answer at first, tilting her head like a curious bird or puppy that has just discovered something new. She’s not quite sure what to make of this creature and his talk of cleansing. Maybe that’s why she gives the full truth? Just to avoid having another conversation. “Anaxarete called me home but I’ve been exploring and it’s hard to stop that habit. I haven’t seen Beqanna since it all shifted and changed yet and I would like to.” Which is, she realizes before she continues, possibly a hard concept to explain to someone who can only see hot and cold. Is it rude of her to explain that she is looking for a new hunting ground, not a new family. She cares little for politics - she wants to see something interesting. If Pangea is the most interesting then that’s that - but if not? Well, she’s curious to see where she might end up.

    Her smile returns when she watches him following the wave of her tail.

    She does think about it, for a moment.

    Thinks about testing whether it could slice through scale.

    But his mention of the sky and stars is enough to send that thought away. She looks up, considering the sky for a moment and letting her tail fall back to rest lightly upon the ground. “Well there’s nothing interesting there so you’re not missing much. The sky is the same wherever you go, it does not change anything.”



    @[ghaul]
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