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 Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 3:29 pm
Nevermore was home earlier in the evening then usual. The lightning arching across the sky and the fact her cloak was soaking wet had something to do with it. She pushed the hood back from her face, her caramel and mint hair was hanging in long, water saturated curtains around her face. She wriggled around under her cloak and with a loud THUD, her saddle bags dropped to the floor and she shoved them to the side with a back leg. Maybe being home early would be nice for a change. "Noble!" she called out, letting him know it was she who was making all the noise in the foyer. "Hey Noble, I'm h." Lightning cracked loudly nearby and the sky flashed bright as day for a split second. In that second, Nevermore had dropped to her stomach, shaking violently, her hood flopping back over her face. Normally she tolerated lightning, though she hated it since her accident as a filly. Not long after welcoming Wicked Stitch into their home, the colt had asked her and Noble to help him with an experiment during a rainstorm. The pair, ever curious, were interested in helping. In the end, in a bright split second, Nev had been struck by lightning. Since then, if lightning struck too close to her, it rattled her deep to her core. Crouched down tightly, Nev gulped in deep breaths and tried to steady herself.
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 8:47 pm
Black Hellbore, Black Nightshade, Blister Root, Cocklebur and Henbane slid from the bowl into the boiling pot of water. It bubbled merrily, slowly turning a sickly brown shade as the plants broke down. Noble Born turned the heat to its lowest setting. The potion would reduce over the next few hours and the end result would be a deadly poison that required only a few drops to kill. Down in the basement, the warlock was only half aware of the storm raging outside. The process of preparing the toxic brew had stolen most of his attention but now, as he stepped back and stretched his wings, he noticed the rumble of thunder above. Was Nevermore home yet? Just as the thought crossed his mind, there was a ‘thud’ and he inclined his head up towards the sound. Good. He heard her voice and moved towards the stairs, jumped the steps three at a time with a little flap of his wings. It wasn't long before he was in the hallway and the true ferocity of the storm was revealed. He hurried towards the foyer and upon finding Nevermore on the ground, swooping in to her side. He crouched alongside her quivering form, stretching out one wing to encase her in a loving embrace. "My dear," he whispered, pressing a kiss against her cheek, unmindful of how wet she was. "You’re a mess."The Pegasus was well aware of her fears. The incident with Wicked Stitch had left him angry for weeks and only Nev’s insistence had stopped him from removing their new brother from the world with a well placed curse. "Let's get you dry before you catch a cold."
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 9:35 pm
Nevermore's heart had already begun to slow when she smelled something sweet and felt something warm. She flushed a bit, looking into Noble's misty brown eyes that were full of concern and just a flash of anger. She didn't think he'd ever forgive Stitch for the accident and had only let it go after some gentle coaxing and her full recovery. Instinctively she wanted to lean into him. The sweet smell of brewing poison clung to him and was comforting. She wanted to bury her face into his shoulder and lay with him somewhere dry. But her brain kicked back into gear and reminded her that she wasn't supposed to think like that. Conceal, Don't Feel, as famously said by a movie heroine. "I'm fine.." she muttered quietly, standing and attempting a very weak struggle to remove herself from under his wing. "Just was startled by the weather...couldn't sell anything in this mess.." She hated feeling vulnerable, even in front of one of the few phony who she trusted. Nev finally shed her soaked cloak, hanging it on it's hook. The sudden and violent nature of the storm was apparent as she grabbed her tail and wrung it out, adding to the large puddle her cloak was already making. Her fur was plastered to her form, even her trademark chest ruff had been smoothed against her body by the torrential rain. Her long hair and tail hung off her and pooled around her legs. "I guess a towel couldn't hurt.." she conceded to his fussing, wringing out her mane as best she could. She never even got this wet in the shower. She paused and leaned close, nuzzling into his cheek before bumping her forehead lightly into his, staring back into his eyes. "I'm ok.." she reassured him gently. "Promise.."
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:53 pm
Noble Born felt the exact moment her demeanour changed. One moment she was pressed against him, her heart matching his own and the next she had pulled back, locking the part his desperately longed for away. He sighed, tucking his wing back so she could stand without difficulty. It was frustrating but he was not going to demand anything from her. How strange, that even if he was the one with the princely smile and the act, he was more than willing to take that final step and ruin it all. He stood as well, body damp from where he’d touched her and his eyes slightly narrowed. "Go and have a warm bath," he suggested. "I’ll clean this up." The floor now sported a muddy puddle and if there was one thing Noble wouldn’t stand for it was a messy house. When she moved in to nuzzle his cheek, he relaxed into the touch and nodded. "Go on then."
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 6:31 pm
Nev heard the hurt in his voice and inwardly wilted. She'd done it again, thrown that wall right up right in his face. She raised a hoof and started to say something, but stopped. He wouldn't even listen right now anyway as he'd started to mop up the muddy puddle she'd come home as. She rolled up her long hair across her flank and around her neck so she wouldn't drag a streak of water over the floor and up the stairs. The solution to getting rained on by taking a bath seemed dumb to her, but she relaxed the spray of warm water and smell of her soap made her feel better. As she toweled off her hair, she noticed the bathroom mirror had fogged over. With a practiced hoof, she drew a ornate sigil into condensation, a voodoo sign of guidance. She could use some. Refreshed, she exited the bathroom, her long hair tied up in a elaborate style with a even longer pink ribbon, which ended in a bow just behind her left ear. "Noble..? Hey, where are you..?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 6:53 pm
Once she was gone he let his frustrations out on the puddle ruining his foyer, scrubbing it away until the floor was spotless again. Nev was still in the bathroom, so he drifted downstairs to check on his poison. The mixture was slowly turning darker and more viscous. He watched it bubble for a time, caught up in a well of thoughts, primarily that one time after they’d just moved in when he’d suggested the bath was easily big enough for two. That had obviously gone nowhere. When Nev finally finished and called out for him, Noble had promised himself he wouldn't dwell on those particular thoughts for the rest of the night. " Kitchen," he called back. " I've started on dinner." There was no point in ruining what could be a perfectly fine evening. Still, he was chopping the vegetables with a little more force than necessary.
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 7:21 pm
Nevermore leaned against the frame of the kitchen door, watching him for a time. Noble seemed to have picked up their father's aptitude for being a fine cook, which was just as well as she, like their mother, couldn't be trusted in the kitchen to cook alone. The first time she attempted to cook dinner for the two of them by herself, most of it had ended up on the ceiling when the crock pot exploded. She still didn't understand how that happened. Sliding up from behind, she ran herself along the length of his side and appeared next to him. She grabbed away a portion of vegetable just before his knife came down and popped it in her mouth. He was still agitated, she could tell. "You're going to make a very good wife one day with all this cooking and cleaning you do.." she joked gently, bumping her flank against his.
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 11:42 pm
The knife hit the chopping board with a ‘thud’ and he turned his head to watch as she popped the vegetable piece in her mouth. "Maybe one day I’ll finally find a loving husband to honour and obey," he replied in a bland tone, moving away from her touch to drop the vegetables into the pot. "Then we can have lots of darling children that I can dedicate my life to." He raided the spice cabinet, pulling out vials, giving them a sniff and then choosing three to add to the mix. "I made you a ginger and lemon tea. It’s on the table." Even if she was now mostly dry and warm, there was no point in taking chances. If she got a cold, it was almost a guarantee that he would catch one too.
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Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 2:47 pm
Nev blinked at his dry response. She was at once hurt and annoyed, but the annoyance over took her. "Grounded." she hissed through clenched teeth and narrowed eyes. A bright purple sigil on Nobel's wing flashed and his wings clapped closed to his body while also feeling like they weighted 3 tons. As kids, they'd ran experiments on each other, testing their mutation limits and trying spells. Once they'd pulled out all of Nev's black feathers to see if they'd grow back back in the same color as the rest of her wings. (No such luck, they came back even darker then before, and their father was less the pleased). The one that came in handy at this moment, was the voodoo nature of Noble's wings. She'd scratched a sigil into his wings with a safety pin and rubbed a magically prepared ink into the scratches, creating a crude tattoo that his feathers covered. They'd discovered she had limited manipulation of the voodoo parts of her siblings, but she'd sworn to use the charm sparingly. Grounded created the illusion of weight and binding on Nobel's wings, while he felt he couldn't move because his wings weighed him to the floor. He was going to be pissed, but she already was, so whatever. She turned the oven off from pre-heating and used her head like a battering ram in his side, shoving Noble across the kitchen and dining room, into the den. While he felt like couldn't move on his own, he was easily scooted across his own well polished floors. She gave him a final push that bowled him over onto the large rug in the den and she sat near him, glaring. "Ok Noble..what's the problem?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 4:19 pm
As soon as the word left her mouth, Noble’s whole body stiffened in preparation for what he knew was to come. His hissed out his own soft, angry curse as his wings snapped shut. But his head remained lifted tall and prideful, the Pegasus refusing to meet his sister’s gaze as she proceeded to bully him into the other room. He had thought about trying to remove this particular weakness before and had even discovered a method, but he’d never gone through with it. If it made Nevermore happy to have this control over him, if it kept her close longer, than he would endure it. Even so, he was not happy she’d sprung this one on him right now. Noble managed to make it to the den with some dignity intact, even if in the end he did flop over sideways onto the rug. He did his best not to look uncomfortable, instead acting as if he was perfectly content being here and he was in fact reclining here by choice. "Lovely sister, there is no problem at all. You are the one with a problem, since you insist on manhandling me" He smiled, in a way he knew would be utterly infuriating and closed his misty brown eyes. "Are you going to drink your tea?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 4:41 pm
"UGHHHHHHHHH.." Nevermore stomped her front hooves down, popping herself up on her feet. "You're so lucky that your HEAD isn't voodoo cause I'd like to pop it off your shoulders! You KNOW what I mean Noble! Stop with the formality! Get angry damnit! Tell me what's wron.." Nev's rant was interrupted by a deep cough and she flushed with anger and embarrassment. Stomping loudly, she re-entered the kitchen and came back, tea mug in hoof, drinking from it delicately. Noble knowing her so well was wonderful, but occasionally infuriating. She muttered "go fly" into her cup and he could feel his wings relax. After a long moment, but before he could try and resume cooking, she asked him again in a calmer tone. "Noble..what's wrong? I know you're angry, but we can't..I can't apologize unless I know what I did..." she took a long sip of her tea. "I mean..before I locked you down and dragged you in here.." He may not have been looking at her, but she fixed him with her sunset eyes. "Noble please...talk to me..." she pleaded.
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 12:59 am
He waited quietly for her outburst to end, his expression kept carefully blank. Her frustration was both gratifying and distressing, a mix that simply left him feeling tired. While there was a dark joy to be had in riling up his sister, seeing her mad and the pain he could sense in her voice, broke his heart. But there was nothing to be done about that. Noble stood, flexed his wings and watched her quietly for a time, making no move to go back into the kitchen or go anywhere else. At least she was drinking her tea. She was a nightmare when she was ill. "I’m not angry, I’m dissatisfied and that has nothing to do with you." He told her finally. "There’s really nothing to talk about." It was an evasion, certainly, but she must already know the crux of the problem. While he had never voiced the extent of it out loud, she was always the one to pull back and surely she must see how he felt.
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 11:03 am
Nevermore's head lowered in defeat, ears drooping. Yes, she knew the "problem", the source of his dissatisfaction, but he never talked about it. He hid behind his innuendos and "subtle" suggestions, things that would be cute and flirty if he'd had ever actually stated what he wanted before hand, if they'd had actually..you know..talked about it, or even done IT. Instead...instead he... "How am I supposed to know when you won't tell me?" she asked quietly. "I'm a lot of things Noble, but I am not a mind reader..and I used to think..." her voice hitched with tears but she refused to shed them. "I used to think I was more special to you then other phony..but I don't think I am. Your using that mask with me too now, you're hiding the real you from me. If you can't even be you around me, why should I....?" she shook her head, leaving the end of that question hanging with enough room for him to add anything into it. Rain pelted the roof of their home and thunder rumbled. Nev put her tea mug down and leaned into Noble. She pressed her lips against his and kissed him, a warm, deep kiss full of all of her own unexpressed feelings. Breaking away from him, she planted a tiny kiss on his nose and whispered. "A real prince..my prince..would ask me."She picked up her tea mug and pressed it into his hoof, turning on her back leg and began for the stairs. "I'm not hungry after all, sorry.." she said over her shoulder.
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:19 pm
It was not something that was easy to talk about, he would argue. Not with everything that they had already, not with how precious she was to him. If there was even the slightest chance voicing his feelings out loud would tarnish their bond, then they would remain forever unsaid. So Noble Born kept his mouth shut and simply listened, his gaze slowly filling with some dark, unnamed emotion. Until she kissed him, he was successfully holding back his anger, resentment and desire. Until she kissed him, he could have walked away from the conversation and left it there for both for them. But she did kiss him and it felt as if his chest was in a vice and he couldn't get enough air, then she was gone and she took all her warmth with her as she headed for the stairs and something inside him broke. "No," he hissed. He smashed the mug to the floor, taking grim satisfaction from the way the shards scattered noisily across the floorboards. "I am not a prince. I am certainly not your prince and will never be one. What I am, is your brother. Your brother, you stupid girl, who loves you more than anything in the world. Your brother who wants to take you into his bed and keep you there, so that no other can ever have you."He stalked towards her, the mask gone and his frustration at its peak. "Do you think that’s easy to hold on to? When you have no issue giving your affections to others, when you shy away from my touch? Do you think that is easy to voice out loud? To fear that I love you more than you will ever love me. It eats me alive and at night I don’t sleep because you’re all I can think about.
Is that truth enough for you, Nevermore? Shall I go on?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:46 pm
Emotion didn't register on her face or even in her eyes. She held his gaze, bore his fury and when he finally was quiet, she reached out, grabbed one of his wings and stepped into the air from the fifth stair. She dragged him down with her as she fell, and on top of her, and when she landed, she kissed him again. This time longer, this time warmer, she kissed and kissed him until she'd had no more breath. She laid back on the floor, panting softly. Reaching up, she caressed his cheek. "There you are.." she cooed softly. "I've missed you, my fierce and passionate Noble." Her eyes sparkled with tears and she kissed him again, wrapping her wings around him and keeping him close. "You arrogant little idiot." she whispered softly, nuzzling nose to nose. "I pulled away from you because you are a Prince. You've worked hard your whole life perfect this persona, this cover. I would do anything to protect you and your work, even if it would be to deny you..me...us..." she looked away to the remains of her tea mug on the floor. "I don't want you to ruin it all. I wasn't..I'm not worth it. I don't deserve for you to by my Prince..."
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