"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
Pale as the seafoam washing on the shore, the nereid paced the beach. The sun was shining, sinking, swallowing the sea in a breathtaking island sunset. It was her nightly treasure, and she drank it in like a balm.
Time had passed since Eva had passed the mantle of Dame on to her own slender white shoulders. Time enough for the seamare to marshal her thoughts, to see her eldest off on his mainland quest and for her youngest offspring to be deposited safely in a sheltered tide pool. Little translucent packets of leathery fabric, in which her children grew with every passing day. Morning and night she checked on the purses, and she knew that very soon the dark shapes within would spill forth as new foals.
Meanwhile, she had business to see to.
Unhindered by a growing belly, she went about her daily tasks until the time seemed right, and then the word was passed. Tonight, this very evening, she gathered the twos and threes and families together, heart fluttering but confident. This was her home, and her family's home, and she knew she'd give her life to keep it from harm.
Still, though the passing from Eva's care into her own made sense to the mermare, it was still just that the other islanders know, and give their consent to the change. Forcing her hooves to still in the warmly lit sand, she let them gather and smiled at each in turn.
"Thank you for coming," she began simply. Violet eyes glowed in the reddish light shining off the waves as she walked among those gathered there. "These meetings aren't common here. It seemed time though. Eva has decided that her term as Dame has been fulfilled, and I'm sure I'm not the only one grateful to her for the love and care she's shown Ischia and her residents in her time at the helm." She paused, nodding respectfully to the members of the purple woman's family present.
With a deep breath, she continued. "You'll have noticed, however, that I am the one who called this gathering. At Eva's recommendation and with your blessing, I would be honored to take on the role of island Dame. Ischia and those who call her home mean everything to me. Let us together keep our home a safe harbor in the storms and sweet waters to come."
It wasn't long, as far as speeches go, but she knew the islanders had their own routines to get on with for the night. She didn't mean to keep them long. There was sunlight enough still for questions and comments and, stars forbid, dissent.
- MY ONLY RIVAL IS WITHIN -
OOC: Hi all! Official meeting announcing Ischia's leader change and inviting questions and comments. Answer IC or OOC as this will also serve as an activity check for a board update. ~Love and starfish, Aquaria/Bruja
She had told Raul she was going for a quick run, maybe find some fruit for their daughters and themselves to enjoy, and she had meant what she said. But it had turned into more than that. She hadn't stopped running, then swimming, until her body couldn't take anymore and her lungs were threatening to burst below her ribs.
Panting, Warlight had washed up on Ischia's shore walked until she could breathe again. She had followed the coast, listening to the waves and let her mind wander. She had savored her solitude and felt strong and tired at the same time.
She is about to return home, debating if she should dream herself there or swim the channel again, when she sees a sort of gathering.
The mare speaking is a pretty thing, pretty enough to make Warlight ignore the warning that she shouldn't intrude. They almost share a home, she rationalizes. She may as well represent Tephra since she was here, and the antlered mare halts at the outskirts of the little group to hear what the nereid has to say.
idk what happened will just really wanted to come to this meeting
He knew, of course, for some time now that Aquaria would be next, and then had known after Eva had told him - which was, and rightly so, after talking to Aquaria. Suffice to say he’s been waiting for the call, but doesn’t expect major changes. Unless of course she feels like revoking his ‘beach master’ title just because she felt like bugging him, but he doesn’t think she cares that much about him anyway.
In fact, he’s not entirely sure he knows enough about the new Dame of Ischia - but perhaps that is best left for a later conversation. Today, he comes as his horse-shape, although honestly he has oftentimes debated on his way here to take the kelp-horse-shape or a parrot shape, forms that she also knows. But he doesn’t think her sense of humour will overshadow her sense of duty right now, and figured he could do that later, too.
So instead, he settles with a polite nod, watching the rest of the Ischian family arrive, and he doesn’t feel like he needs to say anything to Aquaria all that much - if things will stay relatively the same, he has no objections.
A Tephran arriving however, that is quite a new thing. Curious, the shapeshifter tilts his head at the brown and white mare. She says nothing, just hears the nereid out, and he feels grateful for it - he’d heard what happened the last time such a meeting took place, and wasn’t all too happy about it either. He has heard that Isilya has done nothing to upend the rule of the nereids here, though, he cannot say he ever met a Tephran on Ischian soil; he cannot help but wonder why now. Has anything changed out there?
Yet still - that’s probably another question to wait another day.
05-07-2020, 08:48 PM (This post was last modified: 05-07-2020, 08:48 PM by Aquaria.)
aquaria
- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -
One. One islander stood on the shore with her, had answered her call. Her throat tightened. Aodhan, the spotted stallion she had met a few years before and had bumped into occasionally since then. He was a bright, if mischievous, presence. To see him standing here so solemnly seemed at odds with the jokers she knew him for, a shade of surrealism on an already strange day.
The white seamare blinked at him wordless. Halcyon was away on the mainland seeking what fortunes he could find, Cormorant had no interest in politics or who was leading the island and had made a point of turning down her invitation to the meeting. Of her family, she was the only representative. That in itself stung.
She wasn't entirely right though. It wasn't just her and the spot patterned stallion. The mare who lingered at the edge of the beach had emerged silently from the jungles watched with eyes that lingered like a touch on the scene.
Aquaria smiled at her a little helplessly. "'Lo there," she greeted when she could find her voice. "I don't think I've seen you around before? I'm Aquaria, this is Aodhán. We were just..." The words trailed off. She was speechifying, to a mostly empty beach. If she'd know this would have been a meeting of two she'd just have found Aodhán and told him like a regular horse. Roughly, she shook off the disappointment. "Not much of anything, I suppose. Unless you have something to add?" Violet eyes swept between the two uncertainly. Oh well. Things could only get better from here. Right?
Warlight didn't know who Eva was (Hell, she didn't know who the mare speaking or the stallion who comes to stand beside her were, but now wasn't the time to mention that) but she quickly understands what kind of meeting she has stumbled across. She hadn't gotten out much after being thrown back into the land of the living, and now was a good of a time as any to educate herself on her neighbors.
Warlight has a bad habit of acting before thinking, of diving into blackwater without a second thought for what could be below. It had been a flaw that panned out in her favor a few times, enough to get Nikkia's attention and bring her back to life after all.
She would still be fighting her daily battles in the afterlife if it weren't for her heart-first approach to life... and death. And as the seamare finishes her announcement and stares at the pale stallion, Will is glad she came.
Disappointment becomes a tangible fourth to their little party Warlight is happy to stride forward once she is addressed. "I'm Warlight. Just passing through on my way back to Tephra at a lucky moment, I guess." Her sunburnt smile is easy, almost flirty as her blue-black eyes dance between her two newfound companions. "It's nice to meet you both," she adds. No harm in trying out her manners, even if they don't come across as her most practiced quality.
He waits with her for others to show, then frowns as he realizes not many would be coming. Though his ears perk a little at the shuffling walk nearby he thinks to probably be Velkan, that means that there are roughly three adults on the island that can be bothered enough with politics - four maybe, if this painted mare is to be included.
He smiles a little apologetically from Aquaria to Warlight as they introduce one another, and himself. "I'm thinking the younger ones aren't that interested in politics." That is - if he happens to come upon them, he supposes he should tell them to look for Aquaria if they need anything.
"That's a shame," he interjects when Warlight explains she's already on her way back. "You'd be welcome to stay a little longer, if you want a tour." he follows up, his green eyes darting between the mare and the nereid for a heartbeat, then he decides for himself that it doesn't matter who takes the lead in such a conversation; the lead mare or one of her beach masters. "I can't help but be curious about Tephra, too." They don't get too many visitors from the mainland lately - and not from Tephra for a while, now, either. He wonders about that - what they know, and think, of their territories can be quite important to know in the long run.
from the ashes a fire shall be woken
@[Warlight] @[Aquaria] @[Velkan] I just went ahead and said Velkan is nearby, so you can drop in anytime ^^
05-08-2020, 03:04 PM (This post was last modified: 05-08-2020, 03:06 PM by wrena.)
Wrena
Fat, miserable and feeling like all she does is excrete things. She remembers this from the first go-around. Why, she pleads with herself, does she not tell that foul kelpie NO? All other times are just fine ̶ but when the leaves turn in the Meadow ̶ it’s a no no. And yet. AND YET.. not once, but twice...TWICE.
She curses the wind. Herself. Her parasites ̶ number one AND two.
Where was that son of hers, anyway? Gone, probably. Or dead? He’s fool, if he was, she declares.
Ugh, yes, and to the subject at hand. A meeting, another change. Truthfully Wrena hadn’t bothered to slink out of her seclusion long enough to notice that Adria had gone away. She didn’t care when another came, and maybe even another? She did not bother to keep track, but this one she seemed to pay attention to for whatever reason. She didn’t immediately dislike her upon meeting her just the once and that calls for a little respect, Wrena decides to herself.
From a high rocky perch above the rest in a lurky, but also *enormously* obvious fashion, she watches and listens. It was nothing of great consequence it seemed, not hostile takeover, no declaration of new enemies or wars. Some talking, some niceties, some listening. She curls her lip, a waste of time, she grumbles. Hormonal and uncomfortable beyond measure, she spares them her presence, but makes brief eye contact with Aquaria. She has Wrena’s support, if one can convey that with a sweaty, agonized look.
Wrena is pregnant, about to burst, standing on a big huge rock watching them from above.
it's to their benefit that she doesn't join in. but she's here and will help with whatever!
she loves burning shit [and others] (:
05-11-2020, 01:19 PM (This post was last modified: 05-11-2020, 01:19 PM by Aquaria.)
aquaria
- THE TIDE IS HIGH, IT'S SINK OR SWIM -
The look she shot the spotted stallion was one of gratitude. He was here, and that was a kindness in itself. But it was not beyond her reach to behave as her new station required, and besides, she'd always enjoyed the task of greeting newcomers before anyone made it her job.
The spatter painted mare was lovely in a rough and tumble way, clearly someone unafraid of living life. Her smile made it easy to return the expression in a carefree manner. Aquaria let herself relax a bit, enough to be a gracious hostess, even if a whisper of doubt nudged the back of her mind. Larke had been pretty and sweet too.
That didn't seem to be the way the current was flowing today though. "We're glad to have you, Warlight," she said, calling on a practiced confidence to mask the anxiety the meeting had wrought on her. "Please, don't leave on our account. We Ischians pride ourselves on hospitality, and a tour from Aodhán is not a thing to be missed." A chuckle bubbled unexpectedly from her lips. Charming stag that he was, she felt certain Aodhán would treat their guest appropriately.
That was all, she thought, until the eerie sense of being watched drew her eyes upwards. The basalt cliffs that edged the shore revealed the heavily pregnant form of a new acquaintance. Wrena, large and surly looking, but present nonetheless. A flickering smile was cast upward towards the bay woman, acknowledgment and appreciation of her presence. That she'd shown up at all was more than a little surprising. Aquaria didn't grudge her the brief and distant cameo.
![[Image: Warlightpageddoll1.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/NMPHtrtV/Warlightpageddoll1.png)
