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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


    [private]  you get murdered first for once
    #1

    can’t stop staring at those ocean eyes. 


    Sabal was feeling very personally victimized that everything hadn’t returned to sunshine and happiness when the sun had come back. She had been really looking forward to spending her days lying on the shores of the lake without a care of the world, collecting her shiny treasures and showing her teeth to anyone who bothered her but no, she couldn’t have nice things apparently.

    The news Mazikeen had delivered to her weighed heavily on her (shapely, lovely) shoulders. Obviously, she’d help Maze in any way she could since they’d transcended to frenemies from BFFs at some point during the Eclipse.  But it seemed that the darkness had made everyone frisky AF because now Maze was pregnant.

    And she’d gone and got herself knocked up too but at least she wasn’t like…a literal actual whale like Mazikeen. She was never letting her friend live this down. Ever. But she couldn’t even tease Maze about her hippopotamus status since she’d confided in Sabal about the circumstances.

    Sabal had just gotten herself knocked-up the old-fashioned way. One night stand with a hot, willing partner.  But now here she was paying the price for a booty call while also pondering how the hell she could help her friend with this clearly very serious ‘my boyfriend is cursed’ business and honestly it was all just…a lot. The sun literally just came back and she couldn’t even enjoy it mindlessly sunning herself on the shore because now they had family drama. Ugh. Not to mention that 1. She still hadn’t gotten her shiny present from Gale which was a huge bummer and 2. Couldn’t wait to tell him upon meeting him that she’d basically offered to kill him if Mazikeen couldn’t.

    She let out a sigh, the kind that conveyed the full breadth of her existential angst, and flopped down not at all dramatically in the shallows of the lake, hoping that the sun would wash away all of her problems.  But knowing very well that all that lying in the sun all day would do is burn.

    s a b a l .
    manip by squirt



    @[Gale]
    #2
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    Gale opens his blue eyes to find a beautiful sunlit morning, and immediately closes them again.

    The pain does not come, so he cautiously reopens them.

    Yes, he confirms, it is morning. And there is no ache in his head, no fatiguing weariness in his body, no sign that anything is wrong at all.

    Why would anything be wrong?

    Gale frowns. He is sure that something is wrong, but try as he might, he cannot think of what it might be. He looks more closely at the world around him, and realizes what it is.

    He’s not in Islandres. He’s very sure that he’d fallen asleep on the beach last night, leaving Ruinam to his patrolling, but this is not his island home. The trees around him are only flowering, not pink and purple leaved, and the brindle stallion moves a little closer to a lilac to investigate.

    It smells wonderful and tastes better, and when Gale is full he begins to move downhill. A large lake glitters through the trees, and though some part of his mind tickles with familiarity at the sight, Gale pays it no mind. He’s very sure he’s never seen this lake before.

    Not the lake, nor the pale creature that splashes in its shallows.

    “Hello!” Gale calls out, moving closer and not wanting to startle whatever it is. His blue eyes are curious, peering out from a handsome navy face that is turned up in a friendly smile. Whatever - whomever - is in the water is turned away from him at the moment, so he comes to stand at the edge of the lake and asks loud enough to be heard: “Would you mind telling me where I am?”

    @[Sabal]

    #3

    can’t stop staring at those ocean eyes. 


    Sabal let her blue eyes close and she heaved out another breath, content just to be for a minute. A fleeting minute as it would turn out, as a greeting carried out over the water that made her gnash her very sharp teeth together as she did her very best to try to ignore whoever it was. Until said mystery person got close enough to cast a shadow over her glorious attempt at sunbathing, and she couldn’t stop the pout from crawling across her lips.

    “Where are you? You are blocking my sun, that’s where you are,” she muttered, finally peeling back an eyelid to see who the offending shadow caster was.  She was somewhat surprised that she didn’t immediately recognize the face, but she had her suspicions who this was based on the description that had been previously provided to her. However his question didn’t really seem to make sense if it was him. But Sabal had a little more tact than to ask him to his face if he was normal Gale or curse Gale, especially since Maze had explicitly asked her not to. Oh, if only he knew how reminiscent this was of her first meeting with Mazikeen. It would be, like, really cute without the whole ‘I’m cursed and might kill everyone you love’ thing. Aw.

    She rolled over and managed to school her features into a mild expression. She was an excellent actress after all. It was one of her many talents. Sabal: actress, therapist, resident sea monster, sass master, general BAMF.  “Sorry, that was rude. I’m very cranky in the mornings and that’s totally on me. You’re in Hyaline – at the lake. I’m Sabal,” she adds pleasantly, with a little smile and a flick of her kelpie tail.

    “What brings you to my shore this morning? Rough night?” she asks, knowing that the question is probably bordering on the edge of too nosy, but keeping her tone lighthearted enough she hedges her bets that she can totally get away with it.

    s a b a l .
    manip by squirt



    @[Gale]
    #4
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    She accuses him of blocking her sun, and Gale takes a single sidestep so that she might be better illuminated. It's a warm enough day that he’s surprised she’d noticed, but then he remembers the sunbathing crocodiles. Perhaps she needs the sun to warm herself, he thinks, and starts to apologize.

    She beats him to it, saying that she is cranky in the mornings, and Gale feels a little relieved. He hadn’t meant to offend her, especially not when he is likely already intruding into her home.

    “I’m Gale,” he replies, and then his blue eyes move toward her flicking tail. “Are you a nereid?” His voice is as curious as his expression - he’d thought they all lived in the sea. But this lake is fresh water, isn’t it? He thinks of trying it, but that feels rude somehow, so Gale refrains. Best to not be too rude.

    She asks a question that he cannot answer.

    Gale wants to - he is an open and trusting creature by nature - and yet he does not know the answer. This is frustrating to him, so he frowns down at his hooves for a long moment.

    “I don’t know,” he finally says. “I woke up in the trees back there,” he gestures up the mountain, where the copse had been. Had he come to visit Breach? That seems possible, but why wouldn’t he remember it? Gaps in memory are not unfamiliar to the brindle stallion, so he is not as panicked as another might have been.

    The sensation that something is wrong still plagues him, even when looks back up to meet Sabal’s gaze. She clearly doesn’t know him, and so peppering her with the thousand questions spinning in his mind would be useless.

    “Is Breach around?” He asks, wondering if she might be some help. “Or, um...” Why can’t he remember the name of the white mare he’d fought in the Alliance? He huffs irritably at himself, and instead of her name sends Sabal a visual image of the mare with her pointed horns.

    @[Sabal]

    #5

    can’t stop staring at those ocean eyes. 


    Sabal manages to bite her own tongue before almost instinctually replying ’I know,’ when Gale confirms his identity.  Although with his current state of amnesia or whatever maybe it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Maze had told her that the curse was more violence oriented than anything…and this iteration of Gale certainly wasn’t violent.  This did nothing to help Sabal’s current state of indecision, and her current track record for good decision-making was not skewed in favor of ‘good’ lately. FML.

    The diversion of the conversation to her heritage is the perfect (temporary) diversion.  “My mom was a nereid, my dad was a kelpie. I ended up with her looks and his teeth,” she said, with a little laugh and a wider smile – showing off the sharply pointed teeth that were rather uncharacteristic of her nereid sisters. “Best of both worlds,” she added, with a flourish of her tail. 

    But it was clear this very pleasant, very superficial conversation wasn’t getting them far because that cloudy look returned to Gale’s face. The mirth left her face as she watched the frown cross his face, and the sensation that something far beyond her understand was wrong was just…unshakable. Well…obviously she knew something was wrong with him.

    “Ummm…” was Sabal’s very eloquent response to his mention of Breach. “Well Breach is, um, like kinda dead. And has been for awhile now,” she said, nervously chewing on her lower lip. But the image of Maze flickered into her mind and Sabal visibly brightened.

    “You do remember!” she breathed, without stopping to think about the words that escaped her. Oops. Her eyes widened for a moment, but finally she thought what the hell – she needed to rip off this bandaid one way or another. He wasn’t rampaging around Hyaline or anything, like, bad. “Mazikeen. You’re looking for Mazikeen. Maze. She leads Hyaline now. She’s my best friend and she’s your…” She lets her voice trail off, because she’s honestly not sure what to tell him.

    “She’s important to you,” is what she settles on instead. 

    “Do you remember…anything else about her…?” she asks, knowing that if he doesn’t he will probably have like, a million questions. And whoa boy will she have answers.


    s a b a l .
    manip by squirt



    @[Gale]
    #6
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    The explanation of her aquatic heritage is met with an intrigued nod of Gale’s head. Nereid and kelpie, a combination he had not considered. While Gale knows there are a great many equid species living in Beqanna, he’s not made the effort to learn much about any of them. Perhaps Sabal and her kind are not bound to salt water at all. He wants to ask, having looked admiringly at her finned tail, but her answer regarding Breach dashes the last good-natured curiosity from his expression.

    Kinda dead? For a while?

    Had the Afterlife closed with her on the other side, he wonders, or had something happened to her in the darkness? Sabal looks nervous, and so Gale begins to feel nervous. Nervous and frustrated by the inability to remember the name of the orange-eyed mare.

    Sabal knows who she is though. And knows him, too?

    Gale begins to shake his head slowly, his blue eyes narrowed. The brindle is wondering who exactly Sabal might be - a friend to the white mare, or the one responsible for his inability to remember? He doesn’t know a lot about nereids, but are they capable of enchantment? He knows kelpies can control through touch sometimes, so he takes a step away from the water just as Sabal announces: Mazikeen.

    Mazikeen. Leader of Hyaline. Sabal’s best friend and someone important to him.

    Important how? Were they friends as well, he and Mazikeen? No, he thinks, or else Sabal would have simply said it. So it seems they are more than friends then, even though Gale had accepted a decade ago that he had no interest in love. He frowns, because this does not make very much sense at all.

    He closes his eyes, and takes a long quiet breath. He tries to remember anything at all from before he’d woken up. There is only darkness, and a building ache in his head, and then one thought that does not make much sense at all, but he says it aloud anyway.

    “I brought her a...” He trails off, trying to pinpoint the face of the black and white stallion, or the name of the starry purple mare. “I brought her a present. Presents?” The last is a question, because even though he suspects there are three, he cannot say for sure why, or even what they are.

    When he tells the story of the entities in the future, Gale will leave out the way he’d lept - startled - nearly out of his skin at the sound of something moving at his feet. (He’d grown up with snakes of the outback, he’d argue, a rational reaction).

    A tree begins to grow, so rapidly that magic must be involved, yet Gale is sure that neither he nor Sabal are responsible. The tree grows larger - a pine - and then flames sprout where needles should be, and Gale stares in wonder even as he steps back to get a better look at the pine and its reflection in the lake.

    While he was looking at the flames, a statue has appeared, and a ring of glowing light now shines at the edges of the border.

    “She said she’d like an entity,” Gale says, but the words are slow as he attempts to puzzle out their origin. “What did you say her name was? Mazikeen?” He glances back toward Sabal, and frowns.

    “She must definitely be someone important to me.” If he’s brought her three of them, says the raise of his brow at the sight of the three magics. Protection for the borders and the children, the ability to see danger in the future, and the opportunity for even the weak to arm themselves.

    Gale knows even less about romance than he does about nereids, but he is fairly sure this is an impressive gesture, so he looks very closely at Sabal after he speaks. So closely that he is really just staring without blinking, as he often does.

    @[Sabal]



    i didn’t plan on this being the ic entity arrival but i went with it.
    #7

    can’t stop staring at those ocean eyes. 



    Sabal notices the change in Gale’s demeanor right away and wonders if she’s said too much. She silently curses herself for not trusting her squid senses as Mazikeen so lovingly refers to them.  But she was hoping a little push would help, not hurt in this case. The concern is evident on her face as she watches the confusion cross his. She can only imagine having a stranger tell you that your whole reality is wrong would be a little, well, overwhelming. Sabal hasn’t always been known for her tact.  Or, you know, ever been known for her tact. 

    A small frown tugs at her lips as she watches him struggle. “I’m sorry if I’ve confused you at all. I hope I can help you remember something,” she adds, somewhat pitifully, because it’s evident that her attempt to help him had clearly caused him some degree of distress. As would be expected if someone basically told you to your face that your memory was busted.  

    She decides to tread carefully about filling in details, again worried about triggering something more in him. She doesn’t want to let it slip that he’s going to be a father of god knows how many children Maze was carrying, looking at the size of her. But at the same time, she does wonder if this side effect of whatever the hell is going on was something more permanent, and that made something churn in her stomach.

    There had to be some hope, since he had brought Maze gifts. And not just any gifts. 

    When Gale jumps, so does Sabal - flattening herself towards the surface of the water, ready to sink below the waves with only a moment’s notice. She slowly watches as the tree bursts from the ground, burning brightly in the afternoon sun. The reflection of the flames dance along the surface of the lake and her jaw threatens to pop open at the very sight.  And that isn’t all. The tree is followed by a statue and a glowing ring of light that follows the entire border of Hyaline.

    “I think Mazikeen will be very impressed by these gifts, Gale,” she manages to mutter, still unable to drag her gaze from the burning tree. A small laugh escapes Sabal as she, well, for lack of a better word gapes at the entities. “I have no idea if you’d remember this, given everything,” she starts, still staring at the burning tree with wide, amused eyes.  “But Maze had told you to bring me something shiny. You know, to get on my good side,” she added, with a friendly and oh-so-Sabal wink. 

    “And I just have to say, mission accomplished!”  She knows that these gifts were very obviously not intended for her, but she’d been lounging around the lake waiting for her shiny gift and viola! these arrive.

    And there’s also the fact that these entities are a much safer topic to focus on for the time being than focusing on the source of Gale’s amnesia, which is undeniably tied to his curse in some way. The coincidence would simply be too great for the two to be unrelated in Sabal’s mind. She knows she’ll need to tell Mazikeen, who undoubtedly knows more about the curse and it’s progression than she ever would.  At least this level of amnesia appears harmless for the time being.  Maze had mentioned violence, so Sabal found that she couldn’t drop her guard completely.

    s a b a l .
    manip by squirt



    @[Gale]
    #8
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    She apologizes for his confusion, and Gale glances up. His blue eyes are bright and sharp as they meet hers, and his navy face remains as unreadable as a storm, clouded by a puzzled frown.

    This is not the first time he’s lost his memory, but that does not make the experience any more comfortable. The first time, he’d woken up by the water, washed down from the highlands by the spring rains. This time it had been in the woods. Years had passed the first time though, and from what Sabal is saying he can’t be missing a massive amount of time. A few months, perhaps?

    He slowly recalls some things as he focuses, feeling almost as though the memories fall into him like grains of sand, building slowly into solid images. Not enough to reassure him that all is well, but enough that he can smile at Sabal’s attempt at humor when he finally reopens his eyes.

    “The fiery one is for you, then.” He says. “And the other two for...Mazikeen.” He hesitates before her name, sure he must have said it but still finding it strange to say aloud. He looks at them all for a moment longer, lingering on the flaming tree that is said to give visions of the future.

    “This isn’t the first time I’ve lost my memory,” he adds, tilting his head toward Sabal though his attention remains on the magical objects. “Last time though, I didn’t know who I was at all. But I still know I’m Gale now, so, that’s good I guess?” He’s not really asking, mostly musing aloud to himself.

    “Have we met before?” He asks.

    @[Sabal]





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