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 Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:02 pm
Vartan mock-staggered at the head-butt, and suppressed the chuckle that welled up in the back of his throat. It was rare for him to unwind this much. He didn't want Marut thinking he'd gone soft.
"Find a familiar, and get you a short hair-cut," he teased. "Unless you really are a mare under all that muck."
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Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 1:04 pm
Gotcha! she crowed in her head, having landed the butt. She guessed that Vartan was slightly exaggerating, but it always felt slightly good to get one over on her brothers.
'Feh, do you see anything resembling a root vegetable between my legs? I may not be pretty, but I am still a mare.' she flicked a glob of mud at him.
'And I'll still kick your butt if you let me.'
'Like giving your poor old mother fits do you dear?' Neve had stopped grazing and had moved on, finally catching sound of them and finally sight of her children. She emerged on the winding, churned up path just ahead of them.
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Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:26 pm
"I was just checking." Only the playful flick of his ears told Marut that he was joking. He thought his sister was damn pretty, but he wasn't about to say that. "With you it's hard to tell."
Wait, was that-
Mom?
Vartan snorted and shifted in place, raising a cloud of dust with his large violet hooves. He was pink, sure, and some moronic two-legger had trussed him up with a rose while he was sleeping one night, but he sure as hell wasn't any gentleman. He did what had to be done. He did not do nuzzles or whinnies of excitement, even when he was happy to see someone.
"Hey Mom," he greeted her. "What does it matter? Trying to set Marut up?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 9:17 am
'Thanks sooo much Vartan. You really are tempting fate y'know?' Marut winked at him and then rolled her eyes skywards at the sound of her mother's voice. Thank you spirits, thank you. She was just so pleased that Neve had happened upon her when she looked the way she did. Now she wouldn't hear the end of it.
'Hi Mum,' she smiled, trying to look innocent.
Neve flashed her a daughter a do I like blind? look. A winsome smile and an attempt at innocence didn't hide all the muck caked on her youngest daughter, nor on Vartan. But she allowed for that, she knew that males hated to be nagged.
'This is how you greet your mother after all this time?' she did however chide him slightly, going over and nosing a patch of skin on his neck that wasn't quite as mucky.
'No, I'm not actively trying to set her up, I wouldn't do that. I would like to see her happy one day, and I find it hard to believe that any male would manage to see past her 'wild boar' impression.'
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:28 pm
At that, Vartan had no choice but to roll his eyes. It wasn't his fault. He was compelled.
"Maybe you think that," he allowed. "But trust me, a mare who's caught up in her looks can be much worse. Sure, it's pretty, or whatever, but whenever you want to spar you have to think about her hair, and spirits help you if there's a dent in her jewelry at the and of the day. Like I care about any of that. And then-"
He cleared his throat.
"Er." He turned to his Mother. "Hey Mom. You look-"
He tried to think of a word that was sufficiently complimentary. Roses aside, he wasn't a flowery talker.
"Well, you're in one piece, so I guess it hasn't been hard saving Dad's sorry a**. That's good."
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:56 am
Marut raised a mud-caked brow and looked at her mother who gave a similar look in return.
'Any mare in particular that you are alluding to there brother dear?' she wheedled. She wondered if it was the same mare that had left him with the scars that Neve had yet to notice. If so, he probably wouldn't speak of it in front of their mother.
'You're not too old to feel the end of my wing young man.' Neve reminded him. She loved all her children, but Vartan seemed the most determined to age her prematurely.
'And you look well-ish.' she pursed her lips and didn't comment further.
'So what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:48 pm
Vartan ignored the odd looks that the mares were giving one another, and arched an eyebrow in response to his mother's question. She didn't seem all that thrilled.
"I need an excuse to visit my mother?" Vartan asked. "Look, I'm not Ishmael or Belial, and I don't want to be. But I'm not Jaci either."
The stallion might not be very outwardly affectionate, but he did love his mother. If she asked he'd make a suicide charge at a herd of skinwalkers without a second thought.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 12:36 pm
'No, you don't, my children never need an excuse to come home, nor to visit their mother OR father.' Neve was happy to see him, his barbed comment about his father was not welcome though.
'So, you been up to anything interesting you feel like telling me about?'
Marut rolled her eyes again; her loving brothers, she supposed though that if they ever all got on it would end the world or at least make her fall down in surprise.
'Well..' she grinned, wondering how much Vartan would kill her if she dropped word that he'd been in a fight with a mare.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 3:31 pm
Vartan hadn't actually mentioned his father at all. He had brought up his brother Jaci, but to his mind that was only fair.
Jaci ran because he had no wings. When he was young, Vartan had assumed that Neve and Marius must have done something to provoke his brother's departure. Adolescents like to think that their parents are working against them, and sometimes, though Vartan was loathe to admit it, it could be difficult to be a wingless child when your mother and siblings soared the endless skies.
Now that Vartan was older he merely thought that Jaci was ridiculous. Any winged Soquili who thought Vartan was a pushover because he didn't have pinions was looking for a swift hoof to the face. He'd never back down for a reason that stupid.
"Got in a fight." Vartan didn't shrug, because his shoulders didn't have the shape for it, but his tone was nonchalant all the same. He seemed to take a stoic sort of pride in his injury. "Scarred up my flank, had a fever for a while. It's better now."
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 9:06 am
'Well I am pleased to see that are in one piece after that at any rate.' Neve said. She was pleased that her children could stand up for themselves, after all she wasn't exactly a pacifist and bore the scars to prove it.
'Who with?' she like her daughter hoped that it wasn't with one on his brothers.
'A mare!' Marut burst out, unable to hold it in any longer. She snickered.
'Vartan got his butt kicked by a mare.'
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 4:35 pm
"You're making assumptions," Vartan pointed out, thwacking his sister in the shoulder with his tail. "I did my damage too."
His lips curved into an uncharacteristic grin at the memory. Yes, there had been a bite, and the taste of blood would always disturb him, but Vartan couldn't help but feel a measure of masculine pride at having marked a worthy opponent.
"Got an infection in my leg wound. It took a few days to recover, but after that, we fought again. Uncle Zevach wouldn't stand for screwing around or giving up." He tossed his mane. "I'll head back in a couple weeks. It's not settled yet. It's not like I'm harassing her. Really, if you met her- she's a vicious b***h."
It was going to be fantastic.
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Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:32 am
Marut rolled her upper lip back and showed her teeth at her brother.
'Bite ya,' she threatened, clacking them together.
'And yeah? Well you look battered enough. I wouldn't have gotten a scratch..probably.' she added, half boasting - half joking around. She gave him a look, curious as to why he was pursuing this 'vicious b***h'. What was that about?
Neve gave her son a look, but of a different kind. Returning to see the female that he'd fought with. Well, she knew that relationships could be founded on the strangest of bases.
'Who you are going to see again.' she pointed out, rustling her feathers in merriment.
'Sounds like you like what she does to you.'
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Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 1:58 pm
Vartan arched a single dark brow. His tail swished noncommittally, and even the fall of his mane over his eyes radiated skepticism. He knew what his mother was implying. Thankfully, he didn't really care what his interest looked like. Galaxia and he had the kind of understanding that could only come from beating the crap out of someone in a creek-bed, and knowing the way their muscles moved when rational though fled and instinct took over. Whatever that was, it wasn't-
Hmph. Whatever.
"I've never pretended not to enjoy a good fight. Most of the males I've met are damn useless on that front."
He canted his head towards Marut.
"You can brag when you've trained with Uncle Zevach," he said, with an amused snort. "Or is all that mud from running off to roughhouse with other males, now that I'm gone?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:16 pm
'As you say,' Neve let the subject drop for now, bar one small added comment.
'If you do decide to make me a grandmother, at least let me meet the mare in question okay?' she chuckled.
'If I trained with Uncle Zevach I would upset our father, I think there is enough family fighting without my adding fuel to the fire.' Marut replied in a pointed fashion.
'I've met other males besides my brothers yes' she nodded.
'Why, am I only supposed to fight with you?'
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:45 pm
Vartan was about to start flushing and sputtering over his mother's comment, when Marut's barb hit him like a splash of freezing water.
"It wasn't like that."
Vartan hadn't even known that Zevach was his blood uncle until it was too late to turn back. Was it his fault that he and Marius didn't share the same goals and interests? Another Soquili might have lied about it to make his life easier; grinned like Ishmael while pretending he'd never had a mentor. But Vartan wasn't that kind of stallion. Once he started something, he owned it.
"And I didn't say you couldn't meet other males. Don't put words in my mouth."
He looked away from both the mares. All traces of amusement had leeched out of his features. His expression was closed and distant.
"I shouldn't stay long."
He was so tired of the way his mother and sister looked at him, digging at the way he felt about Ishmael and his relationship with his uncle. There were two sides to every fight. If they had to put up with that winged idiot's constant baiting and taunting, then maybe they'd understand why Vartan couldn't be around his youngest brother. But no, no matter how hard he tried, it was always down to his problems, his faults. He hadn't harmed any of his family members. He shouldn't have to constantly defend his choices.
All he'd wanted was to spend some time with two of the people he loved most on these damn plains. Maybe he shouldn't have come at all.
"Is Maharet around?"
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