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 Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 5:27 pm
  Echo: November - 579 December - 516 Khalon: November - 718 December - 270+277 = 547
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 5:27 pm
His mate fluttered her eyelashes at him, and Khalon felt his body tense up. This was it. This was the moment. This would be the request that would put the nail in his coffin and drive him off the cliff. He could sense it. He could see it. It was there, in her pretty eyes and her winning, sparkling smile that bespoke of something that she really quite wanted and would be determined to obtain. It was always this way. She would start off with a smile, then an eyelash flutter, then she would swish her- yep, there it went, she was swishing her tail, and that back left hoof was doing that thing. And the head duck.
It was distressingly predictable that Echo had such innocent, childlike tells. But considering that her vocabulary was still agonizingly limited in what she could say, he supposed she had to be more transparent and honest in the way she interacted with the world around her physically. She couldn't afford to get into the habit of veiling words or thoughts, not when they could mean something important.
Or, as was often the case, were a request. Of him. That were as like to raise his blood pressure and stress levels as they were to be an enjoyable event. Probably more likely, actually, if he thought about it long and hard. Or even thought about it at all, because her 'favors' had ended in more than a few kinds of drama and trouble. It seemed to be her modus operandi.
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 5:44 pm
Drama and trouble wasn't her intention. It was more an enjoyable side benefit of the irrepressible mare's bubbly personality and (dubiously) gentle soul. Warm, loving, and with an unfortunate inability to string together too many sentences unless she had an especially loquacious compatriot, she couldn't be a gossip, so she had to find other ways to enjoy herself. Unfortunate for her mate, that frequently meant he was the butt of her madness. That wasn't very mad, just mischievous.
Right now, he wasn't inaccurate in assuming that his mate wanted something. Matter of fact, he was quite right. Following the little scuff of a hoof and the duck of a head, and then her gentle, sweet voice speaking one of the few words that she could say any time, that ran through her mind over and over, that she had spoken so many times no curse could take it away. “Khalon.” Khalooooon. “Mate.” It would be almost a guessing game for him to try and determine what it was that she would want.
More often than not she played it from boredom. Picked some obscure goal such as a flower or a feather, or a leaf from the other side of the river. Her mate was a good mate, but he got so stolid and boring sometimes that she felt it was only right to keep him light on his hooves. A good quest was just what any knight needed. Unfortunately, she simply hadn't found the right one to keep him particularly busy. He was sinking into the role of grumpy patriarch.
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 6:36 pm
"Echo." Suspicion. All the suspicion. So much suspicious, he couldn't be more suspicious if his name was Suspicious. This was kind of becoming a constant state for him after so long, but he wouldn't have it any other way. Echo brought a light into his life that he simply couldn't pass up. That did not mean, however, that he was going to simply relax and ignore when she had that devilish look in her eye.
Drawing closer to the dainty female, he peered down at her wish one silver eye. One suspicious silver eye. "You want something?" he phrased it as a question, but the answer was already there. It was obvious the more he examined her. And while he waited, he considered what it could be that she wanted this time.
She was playing it up too much for it to be a simple thing. Requests for objects were typically quickly asked, and usually when she just wanted him away for a few hours while she spoke to someone he may not approve of, or simply wanted some time alone. They included the coquettish game that she was playing now, but this was too genuine. Which suggested a more serious question.
Or she was with foal again. That would be wonderful news. Expanding the bloodline further? But she didn't look to be round- Was Resonance with foal again? NO. Rejected. Daphne? No- it couldn't- It could be news? Oh, please, if it were news, please don't let it have anything to do with his baby girls. The boys, well... they weren't his baby girls. Not that gender was vit- okay, that was a lie. He definitely preferred his daughters to his sons. They were his princesses.
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 7:00 pm
"Want." She agreed sweetly, nodding her head up and down to let him know yes, 'want' was an accurate assessment. 'Something' on the other hand. Yes, she wanted something, but it wasn't a thing in the physical sense, so much as the mental and emotional sense. Still, agreeing to 'thing' would... hmm. "Something." She swayed her head in a circle, indicating that something was a nebulous concept at best. "Some? Want."
She glanced meaningfully over to their grandchild, Arae, who was talking to his half-sister and his uncle. not all of their family was with them on a regular basis, more was the pity in her opinion. She missed her children, and the fact was, she hadn't met some of her grandchildren she knew of. She may even have great-grandchildren who were lost to her that she longed to seek out.
But that wasn't the same as... "Khalon. Want. Ishtar." She looked over at the mare, Kishi's daughter from an assignation he'd had before Resonance had fallen to his charms and the two had been forced to wed. The poor darling always seemed so awkward, and she still treated Echo like a stranger sometimes, even after all this time. "Khalon."
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 7:15 pm
Well, at least 'want' was correct. It was a start. Something was a negative, but some... "Someone? Somehow? Some-" his eyes trailed over to the group of young folk, his face moving to a stern expression as he spotted Reflection standing there chatting instead of practicing. Practicing for what, he wasn't sure. His vendetta against the kalona was the product of something that predated his children, predated him. The numbers of soquili had grown, blood had been polluted. There was little left to fight against, and he'd already lost children who weren't willing to deal with his inflexibility.
"You want Ishtar? You can't call her yourself?" he watched his mate huff and scowl. It was obvious she could call her. So to say she wanted Ishtar... "Is it Ishtar herself? Family? Kishi's family?" Was it something to do with Kishi? But why would she say Ishtar instead of reflection? "The children? The grandchildren?"
Having to play 2000 questions to have a conversation with your mate: Not a problem most stallions he knew seemed to have.
((November: 71 cool )
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 8:59 pm
He was an adorable, even if emotions-wise he was a bit of a lump. Well, that was what she was for. Letting the words he had offered her sit on her mind, she considered how best to phrase her request for him. "Ishtar. Family. You. Her. Echo. Resonance. Reflection. Arae. Kishi. Family."
She stomped her hoof and pouted. "Want Ishtar. Grandchildren. Family." She wanted to be called grandma! She may also want more actual children, but that was another consideration for after this hurdle. This hurdle consisted of Khalon not acknowledging his step-granddaughter, and said granddaughter not calling her grandmother, and her having family that she didn't know anything about- and this situation was DIRE.
"FAMILY. FAMILY, KHALON."
((November: 579))
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 6:23 pm
Tilting his head, he eyed his mate with mingled suspicion and resignation. She wanted him to take the initiative to try and bring the family together, but Ishtar liked her well enough; the mare's problem seemed to be entirely with his own perceived deficiency of personality. It wasn't his fault that he was so focused, however. He had a goal, after all, and was much too busy trying to ensure that everyone was trained and...
Playing grandfather just wasn't convenient. But he was a grandfather. Dorian had foals, Resonance had foals, just because the job wasn't easy didn't make it any less a part of the job description for him. He sighed. "You have Arae, Circinus, the others... why is it so important that Ishtar be convinced to call you Grandmother? And why is it my job to convince her?" He sounded petulant. Even he could tell that he sounded petulant. Honestly, though, even he knew that this wasn't something he could win. Who was the male most dominated by his mate? Khalon was. No other Soquili stallion could claim the same. He was almost certain of it.
He could, at least, rebel in some small way against the inevitable by making it more difficult for Echo to actually come out and say 'I want you to be nicer to Ishtar because you've been a jerk for years.' Not that he was a jerk. He was just stern. His family knew that he was stern. And he had reason to be stern! He was just trying to keep everyone focused, and safe and... He'd made that argument already to himself.
(270)
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Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2015 6:25 am
Sometimes it warmed Echo's heart that her mate was learning to read between her words. Not that he had much choice; they had been together for so long, and while they had discovered several workarounds to what was dubbed- and in many ways, actually was and may legitimately be- her 'curse', none of them allowed her freedom to speak in a manner that she may wish. So time had taught him to, though not read her mind, certainly quickly find the page that she was on. Her adorable, emotion-lump. He just didn't always understand. That was okay- he was male. But how could she explain it to him?
Not for the first time, Echo mourned her curse. It made teaching her children so difficult. It made being the buffer between her mate's rigid ideas of right and wrong so much harder than it had any right to be. She was the mate of a warrior, who had issues enough speaking words of love to his mate of so many years. Children didn't always understand the fact he was such a large... Grumpus. Grumpy-face? Hard-hearted Handsome? Though the last one could be all her, and his heart was more like... the last shreds of burnable wood in a charcoal lump. REGARDLESS! Perhaps that was why some of their children never seemed to come by to visit anymore. Perhaps that was why it was so important that the children and grandchildren they did still have, and see... even the ones who weren't blood-related?
Huffing out a sigh, Echo shook her head. She had to have some way that she could explain herself. She had already made clear that she wanted family. Wanted Ishtar. Wanted all of her grandbabies! How could she explain the Why when he gave her so little to work with when it came to expressive words?! He never said he loved her, so how could she tell him that she wanted her family with her because she loved them? She missed them. She missed Dorian, and his sassy joy. She'd never met Anolani, or their three children. Three! She missed Daphne, and her beautiful sweet heart. The daughter who might have been hers, since Resonance was just like her father! She missed Sigao, their son who was so much like his father in his manner. He'd always seemed so aloof but loving towards his mother, and Echo missed the children he'd had that she only knew by rumor. That was five grandchildren she had lost out on the chance to spoil!
And her mate hadn't given her any such words to express that. It was downright inconsiderate of him to know so much of her but to be so unable to actually read her mind and know her heart. Huffing out a sigh and a glare, Echo smashed her hoof into the ground, glaring at him. “Khalon. Family. I want my family.” He had at least given her that much to say. “Ishtar is family.” And if that wasn't enough, she would be forced to a much less mature manner of getting her desires across.
((WC: 516))
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Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2015 6:45 am
Khalon had given Echo just enough words to damn himself with. Or, how did the humans say it- Given himself just enough rope to hang himself with? That long-suffering sigh and that tired, resigned glare from her red-rimmed eyes would have been more than enough to overwhelm his rebellious attitude on any day, but combined with the tired way she said, 'I want my family,' it was the final nail in the coffin of his feeble defiance. Silver eyes narrowed at his beautiful mate, and he watched her for a moment, her eyes on their extended family talking quietly.
This had gone far deeper than her childish tells at the beginning. This was something more serious that she wanted from him than the quests that usually came with her fluttered lashes and coquettish teasing. This issue lay close to a heart he hadn't even realized was wounded. And the wound was, in some small way, his doing. Even he could see that many of his children had choked under the yoke and burden he entrusted to them. And to hear Echo say 'I want my family' sounded much like 'I miss my family,' but he hadn't given her the words to say it.
He had been unkind.
Moving forward, the knight dropped to his knees awkwardly before his lady. She had given him a quest, after all. “As you wish,” he told her. I love you. She wanted him to be nicer to Kishi's daughter, to make her feel welcome, it was a small thing in the scope of what he would do for her. And at least she hadn't asked him to be nice to Kishi!
(277)
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