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 Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 2:15 pm
Still, even if the sight did conjure up a lot of unanswered questions it was peaceful too; calming. He’d met Vox here, not so far from this very spot actually. The place was full of good memories, and hopefully soon there would be more of those. He couldn’t wait to show Lydia and Alice his favorite sights. Perhaps they’d make this place a sort of home; still wander the world as they liked but come back here every so often. He liked that idea.
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 2:48 pm
Nevertheless, it was worth it to be up in the sky at night. Cold. Clear. Empty. There was time up here to think about everything, or about nothing. Nothing to keep in mind, no masks. She loved her masks, but they were an effort. To relax her face and her mind, to smile if a pleasing thought occurred to her; it was bliss...
But she wasn’t alone anymore. There was another Aeri down on the cliff below, and there was something subtly wrong bout the shape of him. Wrongness and strangeness were always worth investigating, even if it meant ending her peaceful flight early.
Smiling a faintly predatory smile, Selene angled her wings downward and swooped towards the dark shape. Perhaps this night would turn out to be more interesting than she had expected.
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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:05 pm
He felt her presence before any of his sense were explicitly aware of her. Perhaps it was a flicker in the corner of his eye he’d half been aware of, perhaps he’d caught the beat of her wings above the sighing of the wind or perhaps her decent had disturbed the air around him. Still, whatever the reason he found himself lifting his head to the sky without quite knowing why, only to see a white shape swooping down towards him. He was too late to dodge her if she was planning to attack, and so Lucius held his muscles tense, ready to twist and minimize damage if he could.
As it was, he didn’t need to; the mare - she was a mare; an Aeri - whisked over his head to land a short distance away with her back to him. “What is you name, stranger,” Lucius rumbled, ears set back in annoyance, “and what do you want of me?”
Then she turned around and... smiled at him. Lucius’ scowl deepened; people didn’t just smile at him. What did she think she was? Some great brave warrior mare who wasn’t afraid of some stallion’s creepy adornments? Perhaps, he snorted internally, she got turned on by that sort of thing. But no, it wasn’t that sort of a smile. it wasn’t any sort of a smile really; not happy, not nervous, not mischievous or devious or sly it was just... A smile. And she hadn’t answered his question yet. What an annoying wench she was.
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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:07 pm
When she turned, it took all of her control not to gasp. This was more than just a bit strange; this stallion had a skeleton on his back. Not quite what she’d been expecting, but then who went around expecting to meet people covered in bones? Not her, certainly. Shuddering internally, Selene gave the strange creature one of her unreadable smiles; perhaps he had power of some kind, she needed to find that out. If he did, she wouldn’t mind the bones at all.
“Good evening, stranger,” she said after a suitably long pause. “Quite a lovely night, isn’t it? The stars shine quite beautifully, don’t they? You may call me Selene; perhaps you would care to give me something to call you in return?” Perhaps it was something like Fang or Ebony or Night-Wing; that would be amusing, and she would thinking of him as Fluffums if it was. It was wonderful to think up silly things to mentally call people who had pretentious names that sounded as though they’d chosen them themselves because their parents had called them Egbert or something.
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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:12 pm
Very annoying wench. Lucius snorted and pinned his ears back further. “My name is Lucius,” he informed her, “and you haven’t told me what it is you want of me. If you don’t want anything, then kindly depart; I have no desire for idle chat with mares who think too much of themselves.” That said, perhaps she had a right to think a lot of herself. She was tall, lithely muscled and rather lovely both in colouring and in face. A shame her personality didn’t seem to match; he did detest people who waxed poetic about the prettiness of something before they even troubled to give their name. Oh no, not their name; something to call them by, Selene might not even be her real name. Well it hardly mattered either way; Selene or not, he didn’t like her a bit so far.
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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:22 pm
Selene smiled again and bowed her head slightly to the other Nequus. “Well met then, Lucius.” He was a grumpy one, wasn’t he? Most of the stallions she met let her get away with a lot more than that before getting annoyed, mostly because most of them were busy staring at her. Selene wasn’t under the any illusions about herself; she was attractive but no stunning beauty, it was just that most of the stallions she seemed to meet would stare at anything female they came across. Any actual prettiness at all was a bonus, it seemed. Hum, but Lucius was just plain annoyed with her. Perhaps he was deeply in love with someone else and fighting his instincts, or perhaps he was just getting laid enough not to care about another fairly pretty mare. Perhaps he was gay. She quite liked that last one; she would pretend she thought he was if the topic came up.
“As to what I want,” Selene went on, “I just wanted to ask you about those bones. I’ve never seen anything like that before; why don’t they just fall apart, and why are they red?” There was something about them beyond that though... Ah, there it was. Very faint but still visible; they glowed a little, just enough to make them stand out sharply in the darkness of night. There was definitely something to those bones, but did they have real power or was it purely superficial?
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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:33 pm
Well met. Well met. Thick-headed annoying wench, how was she under the illusion that he was happy to meet her? Some people just couldn’t take a hint, but much as he wanted to show her just how displeased he was, he didn’t want a fight tonight. Tomorrow he and his family were going to go exploring; last thing he needed was to be bruised and sore.
“The bones,” he said levelly as the white-coated Aeri posed her question. “are my business. Suffice to say they belonged to a flame elemental, hence them not behaving like normal bones.” Perhaps he should tell her that he too was an elemental, and that if she didn’t leave soon he’d burn her to a crisp. It was tempting, but no; he was no liar. Hopefully her curiosity would be satisfied with what he’d told her, and she would leave now. Somehow he doubted it; she didn’t seem like the type. Well he certainly wasn’t telling the whole story to her; a few more details if she wanted but not the whole thing. She hadn’t earned such a telling.
“Was there anything else, Selene?” he asked pointedly, glaring at the mare from behind his bone mask. He’d been enjoying the night until she’d appeared.
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Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:21 pm
An elemental? Now that was interesting. Selene looked Lucius over more thoroughly, her face pleasantly neutral as her thoughts swirled. Did the bones give him any vestige of the elemental’s powers? Did he have them because he was one himself. Probably not. It was disappointing, but there you had it; life wasn’t always all you wanted. In any case, this Aeri seemed like quite a stallion just by virtue of being himself. He was intelligent certainly, well muscled too. Perhaps it was worth her time trying to befriend him, though given how annoyed he seemed to be at the moment, that could be quite difficult.
“Your pardon Lucius,” the purple-eyed mare said with a bob of her head, “that was rather forward of me, but I couldn’t help my curiosity. If you will endure a little more talk, tell me this; do you come here often?” Do you come here often. One of the most despicable phrases ever coined by a hopeful single, and yet some stallions lapped it up from her, and mares like her. Well, just mares in general really, as she’d already thought. Somehow she didn’t think Lucius was going to leap at the chance to flirt with her but awful as it was, it was still a conversation starter; a way to find out more about him.
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Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:37 am
He wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. The mare had gone from pushy to flirty in less than a moment... but it wasn’t really flirty. Thank goodness for that; it was more of a general conversation starter going by her inflection. He hoped he was right in that; last thing he wanted was an admirer, especially one that was as annoying as this Selene was. “Often enough,” Lucius said eventually with a shrug of his wings. “I find Quirn pleasant. I can’t say the same for the people I find here, however. They have a tendency to be moonstruck fools here only to sigh over the eternal romanticism of the ocean, and long sunset/starlit walks on the beach with their beloved. Brains full of nothing but fluff and foolishness; unbearable,” he concluded with a rather pointed look in the mare’s general direction. She didn’t seem like the typical hopeless idiot you got around here, but she certainly was unbearable.
“In the interest of reciprocity,” Lucius added with a snort of derision, “do you come here often?” he asked, hoping that she’s catch the hint that she was one of the annoying people he tended to encounter hereabouts. Even if she did catch it though, he considered with a frown, she didn’t seem like the type to be put off by it... Come to that, other than annoying she didn’t really seem like the anything type. She gave nothing about herself away at all, and that was annoying in itself. People who hid their true selves, in his opinion, were doing so either because they had something to be ashamed of, or because they wished to manipulate others. So far as he could hazard a guess, Selene fitted into the latter category; she was very self assured and that was something you didn’t usually find in people ashamed of themselves.
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Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:49 am
Selene smiled faintly and shifted her wings against her flanks slightly. So he wasn’t going to be an easy nut to crack so far as friendliness went. That was fine by her; she liked a challenge, and if she failed it was no great loss to her in the end. For a few moments she remained silent, giving Lucius another thorough inspection. It would be interesting to see what he made of that. Perhaps he’d think she was sizing him up, either out of attraction or because she was planning a fight. It wasn’t the best way to get him to like her, in fact it was a poor move so far as that went, but having fun was more important than winning his esteem by a long way.
“Often enough,” she said eventually, raising one eyebrow as she made eye-contact again. “I tend not to trouble myself with talking to people here though,” she went on, “as you say, they’re usually fools of one kind or another. I thought that you were just strange enough in appearance not to be one of them, though there was a risk that you’d be out here to angst over your differences to an empty night sky that wouldn’t judge you... Still, I have been pleasantly surprised; it’s not nearly often enough that I get to meet intelligent folk no matter where in the world I am.” Perhaps that would redeem the thorough look over she’d given him, or then again perhaps not; he didn’t seem like he’d be won over by simple flattery.
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 7:49 am
Lucius continued to scowl at the mare and said; “Quite,” in a rather pointed fashion. “Though I suppose I should be grateful that you are at least capable of basic irony,” he added with a snort. What was her game? What were her intentions? What did she want? One minute she seemed to flirt, the next she sympathized with him, the next insulted him and then she just being plain behaved in an extremely annoying fashion. He wished he could work out what it was she wanted of him; it was so much easier to deal with people when you knew what they wanted. Sadly however, for all his intelligence, reading people had never been his greatest strength and this mare was worse than most. She was about as transparent as a tree trunk.
“Is there anything else?” the orange-eyed stallion asked after a brief pause. “Much as I find the company of inconsistent annoying wenches thrilling, I had plans for tonight which you are disturbing. They included interesting things like sleeping, contemplating parts of the world that interest me and perhaps even some mild boredom.” She must realize he wasn’t impressed with her, and usually when people realized that they made a swift exit. Was she very brave, or very stupid?... Or perhaps she was calculating the risks of him getting angry enough to actually be a danger and had decided the odds were in her favor, freaky bones or no. At the moment, he had to admit they were in her favor, but the balance was certainly starting to shift the other way.
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 7:57 am
She still wasn’t getting anything from him, still had no idea if he was special, if he was blessed with any power other than a good deal of intellect. It seemed he wouldn’t put up with her for much longer too. Damn. She so wanted to know more about him; he was the first vaguely promising person she’d met in a long time. “Oh dear,” Selene said with a passive smile, “I’m interrupting your boredom? How rude of me. I had hoped to talk to you a bit more; you seem to be truly unique, Lucius. I know everyone is ‘unique’ but frankly most are the same dull elppas from the same dull tree. Quite sweet maybe, and different to each other of course but all of them still elppas. You aren’t like that, are you?”
Perhaps she should pick a tactic and stick to it; fun as switching around was, it seemed to be making Lucius really rather angry. It was hard to decide which to go with though. Perhaps simple neutrality would work, or perhaps she should feign infatuation... Though that could turn unpleasant if he reciprocated; she wanted to get closer to him but certainly not that close. Well, not unless he had some real power; if he had magic then she was willing to put up with any amount of morbid accouterments and whatever sort of relationship he wanted with her in order to be close by him. Nothing was quite so beautiful as power.
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:08 am
Patience growing thinner by the moment, Lucius growled under his breath and ground his teeth. “Of course I’m not like them,” he snapped, “all fruit-related metaphors aside, I have striven all my life to be better than the masses. What do you want of me Selene, why do you insist on remaining when you are clearly not welcome? I don’t want a fight tonight, it would be highly inconvenient, but if you continue to push me I swear to all powers that I shall fight you, defeat you and unless I feel a sudden rush of mercy I shall toss you down onto the rocks to die. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
She was bigger than him, but that wasn’t a cause for concern; size and power were no match for skill in the end. He’d have her down in a moment, just like that stupid Reya mare he’d met up in the Hellene territories. It would be satisfying to make her pay for her insolence, perhaps to break a wing or something but leave her alive. Oh she would hate him, how she would hate him! Perhaps she would swear vengeance and while away her pathetic life in attempts to defeat him. She never would, not unless she was coward enough to gather a group of comrades and come after him. Let her try it. Let her try to find people who would fight for a fickle drek like her against something like him; a creature from their nightmares. Oh let her push him further; he could deal with being sore tomorrow if it meant he got to smash those silvery grey pinions beyond repair.
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:18 am
Selene took a couple of paces backwards, her ears pricked up alertly and her face going carefully blank. So. Yes. It seemed he didn’t have any magic, but there was power about him, powerful anger in any case. She didn’t doubt his boast that he could kill her; though she could hold her own very well in a fight against other untrained Nequus, he didn’t hold himself like an untrained Nequus. He was dangerous, and he wouldn’t hesitate to carry out his threats if she made a wrong move now. She wanted to make an ally of him, but now was not the time to try. Perhaps it never would be now that she’d made him so angry, but she wasn’t willing to give up all that easily. Another time she would find him again and try again.
“I have no desire to fight you,” the tall mare said eventually, “I am no match for you, I can tell. I shall leave you in peace now. Perhaps we shall meet again some day and get along better. For now,” Selene gave a momentary smile, “I shall leave you to your plans. Farewell, Lucius.”
With these words, she trotted a short distance away along the cliff, out of charging range, before stepping over the edge and opening her wings. In a moment, she was aloft again and soaring away inland. Once she was a little way away, Selene allowed herself to scowl and mutter a curse. Another time she would find him again, and she’d make up for angering him. Somehow. Hum. She’d have to put a lot of thought into that. Shaking her head to herself, the white mare flew on into the night, leaving the strange boned stallion far behind.
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:31 am
...And now she was gone, he was still angry, ergo he had nothing to take out his anger on. Lucius, ears pinned back against his skull helm, kicked a small rock viciously. This did very little to relieve his feelings. He swivelled his head to glare at the departing white speck and gnashed his teeth in frustration. She was gone, and there was nothing he could do about that. Damn! Tossing his head, Lucius sprang away along the cliff at a gallop; running until he felt he couldn’t physically take another pace and then turning around to come back ought to make him forget his rage. He just hoped that this mad dash didn’t make him damage a muscle in the process of saving his sanity. Drekking stupid wench.
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