Words of others filtered through the air, through the chaos, filtered into Fiona’s thoughts but she was spinning, trapped by the dizzying number of gophers that wandered through the room, lazed at her feet. Their chattering joined the din of the rest of the conversations filling the space around her, but she did not hear them. Did not hear the strange grey mare asking for healers, nor Asterion as the King stepped up to aid.
No, their voices did not lift her eyes until Atreus spoke her name, and then their gazes were meeting and her lashes fluttered and her fevered skin flushed even more. It took her a moment to straighten her thoughts, long enough for Israfel to step up and for her bonded to become ablaze in an effort to warm the poor creature that the Theodosia had carried in on her back. Although the gopher appeared to be in good hands she knew the one thing it would need when it roused was a drink. Dehydration was a concern, especially if they did not know how long it had been trapped.
Fiona turned, trying not to trip over her wavering, quivering legs, and made her way toward the food and drinks that had been laid out for those gathered. The lavender and ivory girl carefully filled a small bowl, and holding it tightly, returned to the group clustered around the gopher where she set it down gently so that it could drink from it when it woke. Then she stepped back, drawing away again, and saw the other creatures digging holes in the floor with great speed and power.
She wanted to plead please, please stop. What were they doing? Why were the gophers ruining their home? What can I do to make you stop? and yet she could think of nothing. Would they have brought these creatures here, sheltered them, giving aid to one of their own, only for them to destroy the court?
11-29-2018, 08:40 PM
Played by
Staff [PM] Posts: 309 — Threads: 165 Signos: 989,640
Like the dusk giving way to bursts of color on the horizon, the vibrancy starts to leech back into Vespera’s frame bit by bit. It starts at her hooves, turning from black to pale, pale gold. The yellow creeps up her legs slowly, haltingly - would anyone notice? Or were they too focused on the gophers?
The gopher stirs on the ground, sniffing delicately at all the treats arranged before it. He seems almost to be deliberating, looking at each offering and then to the equine that offered it. He drank carefully from the bowl Fiona had given him, and - seeming to not want to offend anyone - nibbled carefully at each of the other trees (although he made a slight face at the taste of the spices pressed into the carrot Atreus had given him.)
A second gopher steps forward then, sniffing at the sprigs of coca Asterion had placed on the ground. He opens his mouth, ready to snatch the treat and run - then seems to think better of it, sitting back instead to look over the gathered horses with a look in his eyes that might just incite them to give him treats, too.
“It would seem these creatures are the cause of the sinkholes,” Vespera prompted quietly, the color creeping further up her grey legs. “And now they’re all here, in the Court.”
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Her legs wobble the slightest beneath her as the gophers weight is removed from her back, her body longing towards the phoenix’s bright flame and offered warmth -- she has been cold for so long now that she can hardly remember warmth, her body soaked beneath the rains until barely anything remained of the bright red paint she’d worn so proudly on her wings. Her eyelashes flutter for a moment, eyes desperate to close and sleep, but she only locks her knees and folds her wings against her barrel, lavender eyes roaming towards the sea of gophers that had followed them. -- and were starting to tear up her beloved court!
The cadet took one shaky step forward, wings flaring slightly to catch the attention of a small group of gophers. “That’s enough of that,” She scolds them with a stomp of her hoof to the muddy ground, mimicking the thumping of their tails to each other, and she can only hope her ‘mom-face’ is as good as her dam’s when it comes to striking fear into the troublesome. “Is that how you behave as a guest?”
She sees the gopher next to its sickly brother, as though begging for a treat -- and an idea springs to mind. “Does anyone have something sweet?”
He is grateful for the rush of activity that comes then, because it gives him an opportunity to closer examine the situation. First there is the gophers and the work they are setting to; it is only now that he begins to notice the similarities between the holes they are beginning here and the ones that caused collapse throughout the rolling fields. It makes him want a few of AAtreus’s powders and plants for himself; it makes him wish that Calliope were still among them.
But then his gaze returns to the injured animal (but how? he can see no wound still) and the inscrutable stranger with him. Asterion is about to ask her name, to catch her eye, when Atreus returns. At the same time Solaris flutters down toward the gopher, and the bay does not doubt the bird for a moment; he steps back, casting his glance up to @Israfel for a moment. He smiles, though it is faint as rain on a distant hillside.
His eyes move to @Fiona next, when she steps forward with the bowl, the liquid in it barely wavering in her careful hold. Concern wrinkles the place between his brows as he looks at her, but she does not meet his gaze; still it follows her anyway. Only when she turns back to the other gophers does he, too, and what he sees makes him stand taller, makes his blood begin to turn hot like sunlight saltwater in his veins.
Asterion doesn’t need the strange mare to say what she does, then; in that moment he has realized it for himself. At the sound of her voice he looks to her, anyway, dark-eyed with a drawn mouth - but the king does not speak. Not yet, not yet, because he is recognizing something else, too; the color that is creeping up her legs like dawn. A glint in her eye that he had not seen before. Suddenly even the timbre of her voice is like a memory, like the wind always in his ears.
The bay stallion does not know what to think of the goddess in their midst, as the court is destroyed around them.
Luckily he does not yet have to speak. @Theodosia does instead, despite the shudder of her wings, the flutter of her heartbeat in her throat. Her eyes look blue-smudged beneath the amethyst, and Asterion’s worry doubles.
But her words have him thinking, having him nodding in agreement. He thinks of how, before the gophers had come, there was a week of rains, and all the fields were flooded. He thinks of how lucky it was, that it happened after so much had already been gathered; little was left of food after those first terrible days.
“Everything in the kitchens - bring it all,” he says then, and thinks unbidden of Moira, and her love for sweets. He catches the eye of a few horses standing toward the back of those gathered, and gestures them away. They go at once.
And then he turns back to the gophers and the scattered members of his court, and all the worry they wear.
“Theodosia is right,” he says, his voice soft-edged but stern as a boulder smoothed by the current. “You are guests within these walls, and you must not destroy our city. We need it to survive, as you surely need the grains and grasses that were all washed away by the rains. If must be we will defend it-“ and here he releases the barest touch of his power, enough to fill the holes dug so far to the brim with water. There is still enough in the air, he thinks, and the ground, and the nearby sea, to lend him strength for ours. Yet his words are still even when he speaks again. “But we would rather shelter you, and feed you, and help you return home.”
if you'll be my star*
12-07-2018, 09:59 PM
Played by
Dingo [PM] Posts: 50 — Threads: 5 Signos: 330
over the moaning bones
of those who quit and chose to remain
The longer his eyes linger on the gopher, the more vexing it becomes that it seems entirely unscathed. Of course, Atreus knows better than anyone that not everything can be seen on the surface, but… when the rodent stirs and fails to show any sign at all of discomfort, his suspicion grows. This was rapidly becoming quite an ordeal over a single gopher that appeared to be nothing more than a little cold and dehydrated. Another gopher comes forward then, and the roan’s ears slide back towards his skull in warning. Their supplies were running thin with the recent destruction of Terrastella, their food scarce as well, and they couldn’t be giving handouts to those that didn’t absolutely need them.
He certainly hadn’t been expecting the Warden’s bird to leap down to the ground and become engulfed in flames, and when it does, he raises his head again and steps away. Atreus was about to speak then as he shifted back closer to Fiona, but his voice drowns beneath the murmur of everyone else – the gophers burrowing and chattering away in the background, Theodosia chiding them for destroying their home, Asterion suddenly ordering them to bring everything out from the kitchens, and the strange mare that had accompanied them back – the mare whom he now realized was changing right before his very eyes. The mottled grey began to give way to a myriad of colors, splashes of amber melting into shades of red, creeping ever so slowly up the length of her legs and beyond.
Suddenly he finds himself shifting closer to Fiona. It’s a subconscious reaction that he doesn’t realize for the time being, and he looks on at the outsider through narrowed, judgmental but inquisitive eyes of brilliant gold and endless black. “Why bring them here in the first place?” His accented voice curls and blatantly questions the Goddess in disguise, and he stands unmoving from his lax position nearest Fiona.
It wasn’t often that she felt useless, but it was all that Israfel was feeling during this particular encounter. Her eyes, sharp stabs of vermilion flame, darted furtively between those gathered around; she peered at the poison master Atreus, the gentle medic Fiona, the fierce storm that was Theodosia, and the troubled heart that was Asterion. This was her family, whether she know them well or not, whether she like it or not, but her skills were of no use here. Placidly, Solaris gifted her flames to continue to warm the gopher, but to what avail? Would it help? She had no fucking clue.
Teeth grinding in mounting frustration, the Sun Daughter held her ground as her head twisted towards the gophers and the mystery woman in their midst. Israfel’s eyes narrowed, catching the way that sunlight seemed to rise up her slender legs, giving them color in place of that dull, unassuming grey. Interesting. An ear flicked back, and her eyes rose, peering into the mare’s glistening eyes. Oh. Well then. Foolish though she could be, Israfel knew that there were things in the world she had no place to mettle in. This was one of them.
At Theodosia’s command, then Asterion’s adjoining remark, the Warden rolled her shoulders back and lifted her head with a notable frown marring rose-kissed lips. A single word was all she needed to use force. With or without her magic, she was a storm of flames and embers, and Terrastella? This was her home. This was their home, drowned and wretched as it might be, and it had seen enough destruction. A single word, and Solaris’ flames would switch from gentle and warming to blazing and dangerous.
“Best listen, little friends,” Israfel muttered, her patience waning, eyes once more focusing on the grey lady who had brought the gophers to their midst. Oh, but how she loathed to be helpful… Hopefully that would change in the wake of whatever the fuck this was.
Still the gophers continued to dig, to tear up the floor of the citadel with ease. Fiona wondered if they desired a comfortable bed, for did they not sleep in tunnels for safety and warmth? Perhaps... if they gathered blankets and bundled them up onto the floor? Her lavender eyes bounced from each equine in the room, wishing that the words could pass her lips. If only she had her pens, her paper, she could write a note. If only she could speak, but oh, she could not and never had it brought such negative emotions to her than this disaster seems to have. For a moment, tears sprung to her eyes, heat rising in her already flushed cheeks, and she could not help but wonder what good was she?
Then, she felt the warmth of another at her side, and her head turned to find Atreus standing there. The expression on his face caused her eyes to wander, landing then on the strange grey mare, though she was grey no longer. The all too familiar colors of a brilliant sunset began to fade into her coat, like the ones Fiona had painted more than once. This mare was no mere mortal, no mere citizen of Dusk nor any other court on Novus. For a moment, the lavender and ivory girl forgot anything else, too amazed by the transformation she was witnessing.
She realized quickly that some of the others had sprung into action to try and stop the damage the gophers were doing. Chiding them like children, which almost brought a chuckle to her lips. Were they not similar, children and animals? Oh, but unfortunately they could not understand the words spoken. The tone, perhaps, if they were lucky. Still others came bearing food, treats, perhaps, to occupy their guests? Fiona felt almost too overwhelmed by the bustling and the noise and she took an unstable step to the side, closer to Atreus that her side might brush against his wing. He was her foundation, when all else was unsteady, and she sought warmth from him without truly thinking about it. Would their tactics work, or was their court simply doomed by these gophers?
12-10-2018, 09:56 PM
Played by
Staff [PM] Posts: 309 — Threads: 165 Signos: 989,640
Theodosia manages to catch the group of gophers utterly by surprise: they squeak and chatter back at her, scrambling backwards as her wings flare overhead. But they seem to understand the stomp of her hoof well enough, their voices dropping away in an instant. They look to her with their heads cocked to one side, as if waiting for her disciplining to end so that they can get back to their antics.
But when Asterion steps forward, his tone stern and commanding, all the gophers stop to listen. A hush seems to fall over the court as the creatures gather together, their eyes focused on the two equines.
That is, of course, until the sweets arrive.
They dig in with a frenzy, seemingly preoccupied for the time being. “I think we’ve found the way to their hearts,” Vespera jokes, adding more carrots to the food pile offering.
“Why bring them here in the first place?” Finally caught, the color rushes back into Vespera like a river through a broken dam, the transformation complete within seconds. She turns slowly, regarding Atreus carefully from the corner of one eye. “For your understanding,” she answers cryptically, her expression tightening.
“Sometimes helping others is synonymous for helping yourselves. Yet it took far too long this time. Until it was almost too late.”
She gestures to the sickly gopher, who finally begins to stir in the company of his friends. Her frustration is clear - so much of this could have been avoided - but did the goddess really have much right to be upset? She brushes past Atreus with hardly a second glance.
“Nevertheless, they’ve found the help they needed. They can move on now.”
And Vespera was determined to aid them in doing so. Once the creatures had eaten their fill - and gotten their rest - she would lead them back to their home.
It would be remarkably easier now, with them all in one place.
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In the end, it was as easy as feeding their surprise guests the last of their stores, and giving a few herbs to a gopher that still had no discernible illness.
For a moment Asterion lets relief wash over him like a saltwater tide, but it is a difficult feeling to hold onto when he knows how little food they have left, and that with half the population sickly and all of the court flooded. There would be no more harvests before winter, and what grasses could be left after weeks of rain?
The king wonders, for a moment, if these are questions he should raise now, before their goddess and in sight of all the court. But instead he breathes out a long breath through his nose, and glances again at the faces of those gathered.
When it lands on the mare who had at last revealed herself to be Vespera, it is difficult to read, and within Asterion his feelings churn like Charybdis. Had it all been a test, then? Was her hand in it from the very first fall of rain?
“For some it was too late,” he says, and thinks of those washed away, or buried under mud, or sick and frigid in the flooded swamp. “But I am glad our guests are satisfied.” His words are still seafoam-soft, but there is an edge beneath them, and his eyes are the cold darkness between stars when at last he looks away from the goddess.
But he holds no anger for his court. “Thank you for your help,” he tells them all, as the gophers continue their devouring, as he wonders how he will guide them through the winter. “Today and each day before it. I think - I hope - the worst is past.” As he looks on their faces - at Fiona, at Theo, at Israfel and Atreus - and the gauntness, and the weariness, and the frustration, all those same feelings stir in him, too.
Before his face can betray them he turns, and makes his way back to the castle, to learn if what they still have can see them through the days ahead.
if you'll be my star*
12-14-2018, 12:49 PM
Played by
bruiser [PM] Posts: 99 — Threads: 13 Signos: 1,000
She thinks of the bodies she has pulled from beneath the mud, too late to arrive, of the horses she had pulled from the river and the ones she had failed to help, and fury begins to burn within her breast as she looks upon the Goddess in their midst. With the gophers feasting and no longer rambunctious, all of her attention is upon the Goddess, and there is a tightness in her expression that she cannot control.
“Your people died for this test of yours,” She spits out in disgust, pale eyes narrowed. It is a jarring reminder of how Gods were, of all the stories Anzhelo had told her, of her father and her siblings -- “Even my father never stooped so low as to disguise himself while killing his mortals, they could at least recognize him to tell him to fuck off,” They had helped the gophers, at the expense of their own Court, and now they would starve through the winter. How many would die as a result of this test? How many had already perished?
She turns on her heel, one wing extending to help keep her balance and ‘accidentally’ buffeting the Goddess upon the head, and her smile was as sickly-sweet as she could make it when she aimed it towards the Goddess -- but she offered no apology as she stalked out after @Asterion, already trying to plan ways to help save her people.
