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Home » Search » Roster » Whitepages » Records » FAQ » Guidebook
Did we just become best friends!?
Private Riptide Isles  Blu
Otem the Hopebringer
Currently championing:
#1

 
Otem knew this place. It was a place she had been many times before, or well ... maybe that wasn't right. The part of her brain that mirrored Isopia's way of thinking tried to qualify the filly's thoughts. It hadn't been this place precisely, because the Riptide Isles that she had previously been to were located in a specific temporal-spacial location. Although everything might look the same, it couldn't be. The Riptide Isles she knew were in Helovia. And Helovia was gone.

Just like her Mother.

It had been a few days since she'd been sucked into the portal and unceremoniously birthed out the other side. The immense grief of watching her mother disappear before her eyes had waned slightly, and been replaced with nothing but abject emptiness and apathy. Her Father carried on with his 19 bazillion other kids, her twin was a robot, and no one had even bothered to say Oh, your mom was Isopia? Kudos to her and the other Gods for sacrificing their asses for us. I mean, maybe no one actually knew that happened, maybe no one knew Otem was Isopia's daughter, or maybe it was a plethora of other things (like the fact everyone was a bit shell shocked and so perhaps their manners were just a tad forgotten at the moment), but none of those things lessened the animosity the girl was presently feeling.

"Mother killed someone here, you know." Otem told Pandora. The owlet turned her head and hooted softly as she listened. "A tigergoddess..." Her voice trailed off. If the Gods hadn't done whatever they did to Kaos, none of this would have happened. Were there any more Gods in this place? Otem decided that if there were, she would hate them on principle.

otem
Image Credits


@Iskra

You may always use magic/force on/against Otem.
Iskra
Currently championing: Caevoc
#2
Although Iskra was in no rush to leave his family's side given the recent ordeal they'd all gone through and the loss of family it entailed, he just needed a moment to be alone and think. Although Zero was playing the role of big brother and new father well, putting on a brave face and standing like their pillar of strength, Iskra also felt the need to reduce the burden however he could. So if Zekle asked, hey Sparky, you all good?, Iskra would nod and smile. Even if the smile didn't beam like it used to, and Zero knew that, at least it was a smile for his brother, and that was something, however forced he made it - that was the part Zero didn't need to know about.

They had all lost something, so he wasn't going to be a damn baby about it, but the shared misery didn't really alleviate the desire to just drop down and cry on the daily. So he shuffled off to do that instead, and at some point between all the sobbing and the moments where he literally couldn't walk anymore, Iskra finally went numb and looked up. He'd been wandering both the lands and within himself, lost to his own thoughts and oblivious to the world passing around him. He expected not to know where he was, perhaps to struggle on returning back to where he'd left Zekle and Mauna, except that wasn't the case at all.

"I know this place," Iskra marvelled aloud, an edge of excitement perking up his tone that was thick from crying. Castiel bobbed morosely beside him; the whale was too young to really be sad about anything that had happened, but Iskra's sorrows spilled like brackish water between their connection, putting the otherwise playful creature into a funk. At the promise of a happier Iskra however, Castiel gurgled curiously from his blowhole, the vein of their bond pulsing with a questioning orange hue.

Iskra was already off though, his gait quickened into a jog, ears perked towards the sounds of the sea - his crest feathers tried to lift as well, but were too damp with the constant rain to rise. "Cass, is this really it!?" he said with his more typical boyish lilt; the tangerine query hummed stronger between them. Iskra surged into a canter, racing down the shore with a newfound eagerness that left Castiel's tail flukes flipping fast and put Squishy in the dust far behind them. "This is the Isle, from HOME!" Iskra claimed loudly, nearly whooping with delight as he pounded down the coast line.

The fact that the bleak sky with its streaks of neon light persisted either did not occur to Iskra, or he deliberately ignored them for the sake of rejoicing in at least one familiar place in this alien realm. Whether it was the recognition of the shores or the hopes that they could somehow send him back remained to be seen, for now Iskra was just happy, and that was enough for however long he could sustain it.

He pulled up short upon seeing the filly, who perhaps heard his holler before he broke into view. Slowing with a cautiousness not accustomed to him, Iskra nonetheless approached, teal gaze flicking over her form, searching for proof - Helovian or Monster?
"Hi!" he greeted, apparently deciding her normal enough as his eyes settled on hers, a weak smile growing on his lips. Castiel floated in beside Iskra, spinning lazily, flippers waving opposite each other. He blew a low wail in greeting and Iskra gave a brief, short laugh, realizing he'd need to start introducing his friend.
"I'm Iskra, from Helovia, and that's Castiel!" Lumbering in behind him, the rock golem, Squishy, was also due to arrive. For now though, Iskra was keeping his grip on the thread of happiness, and he was eager to share it with her. "I'm so glad you found this place too! Do you think we can get home through it since it used to be there?" In his excitement Iskra's wings lifted and likely increased the pungent aroma of rotten eggs associated with sulphur. Since that change was still a bit new to him, he failed to notice and continued waving his wings about enthusiastically.
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more


@Otem

Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
Otem the Hopebringer
Currently championing:
#3

 
At the sight of the older boy, Otem bristled immediately. He appeared so strange in appearance - a colourful array of markings seemed to cover every angle of him that she could see. Some of it looked like primitive barring, other bits looking more like lightning streaking across his coat. But it was the feathers around his ears that really drew her attention. She hadn't seen that before. Just as true panic was about to blossom in her narrow chest (he definitely must be native to these lands...), he quickly introduced himself, and all of the filly's fears were put to rest.

Now her eyes were drawn to the floating thing, and her burgundy and gold eyes widened in surprise. On her wither, Pandora hooted loudly and took to the air, flying around the whale as if trying to dislodge any strings that might be holding it afloat. The owlet trilled curiously, large golden eyes following the whale's movements with a friendly (but cautious) stare.

"I'm Otem, and that's Pandora. We used to live in the Throat." The girl murmured distractedly, forcing herself to pull her gaze from the flying sea-creature to look at Iskra. As she did so, the smell struck her and the autumn-coloured child had to force her face to remain neutral. What was that smell?! she wondered to herself, thinking that it must come from the sea-creature, for nothing she'd ever experienced before had ever smelled so foul. But, because of the boy's cheery greeting and his optimistic inquiry about the nature of the Isles and their relation to Helovia, Otem felt obligated to not mention the smell and ruin his mood.

It wasn't his fault that his companion smelled like warm death.

Otem turned her nose towards the sea as if considering his question (but really she just wanted to breathe fresh air). "Maybe.." She began, trying to sound optimistic. In her mind however she was replaying what Erthe had told her - how there was no going back to Helovia. How it was gone. "Who would pull it back? The Gods are gone and-" Otem's voice choked off, the words drying up in the back of her throat. Mention of the Gods made her think of her own mother, and how she had been annihilated in a burst of white light. Otem swallowed her, blinking frantically into the sea air to try and get rid of the tears that threatened to force their way through her eyes. Forcing herself to cough and turn back to the older boy, Otem forced a smile onto her face, never wanting to be the one to cause discomfort in others. "But maybe! You never know!" She concluded, false brightness coating her words.

otem
Image Credits


@Iskra

You may always use magic/force on/against Otem.
Iskra
Currently championing: Caevoc
#4
Iskra's gaze diverted from Otem to her owl as it took to its wings and circled above Castiel, momentarily lapsing his words. The whale wasn't very perturbed, but Iskra had a brief thrill of concern grip him (which would have lifted his feathers were they not bogged down with rain), unsure if the predatory bird meant to feast or not. Iskra was still a bit new to the whole companion thing - did he need to worry about others eating Castiel, or were most well fed by their bonded? Since Iskra was hardly a biologist and had a lot left to learn about his own species much less any others, he decided to default to Castiel in this instance, who merely watched the owl with a detached curiosity. The whale would instinctively know what to be afraid of, right?

Ampere had a point about not knowing what was in the eggs until they hatched, and then still not knowing how to care for said animal most of the time.

Otem's response quickly returned Iskra's attentions to her however, his smile growing quickly and his volume level rising. "Hey! We're from the Throat too!!!" That he didn't immediately recognize her didn't really concern him; and not just because she seemed so young, but because the herd land was large and members came and went. He did know most of their foals though, but there had also been a lot. "My mom is-" Iskra cut off suddenly, and although it wasn't very visible, the blood in his face drained abruptly as a cold dread inched in instead. The bright teal of his gaze seemed to dim and he turned it away hastily, unwilling to let her see any wetness that might already be brimming at the edges. He breathed out shakily, but managed to swallow the lump in his throat so as he picked up his words again they sounded mostly normal, if a bit more subdued. Castiel gave a low gurgle of comfort and drifted closer to Iskra.

"She was Sultana there," Iskra told the dirt by his hooves.
"You probably saw her..." and that was all he could bear to say on the matter so he stopped suddenly, tail swishing audibly by his hocks. His father's loss was much less emotional for the boy to bring up, having never met the stallion, but he knew she was too young to have known or cared.

Talk of maybes and gone gods did little to cheer him up, the wind in his sails gone. As eager as he had been to find hope in this familiar place, he already knew the truth in what Otem was trying not to say.
"Sucks, doesn' it?" he commented with a heavy sigh, squinting out at the sea, as if Helovia could be found across the other side.
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more


@Otem

Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
Otem the Hopebringer
Currently championing:
#5

 
Otem had no real reason to be relieved. If they were back at home and she met someone she shared a herd with, that would have hardly mattered. Unless of course they were planning on telling her Mother or Father that she was somewhere she shouldn't have been. But then that was the thing, wasn't it? They weren't at home, and so the mere fact that she had shared the same sands and waters with this boy she had never met filled her with so much joy and relief that Otem almost felt compelled to throw herself against him, wrapping her wings around his lightning marked shoulders. She didn't though - she was far too awkward for that, but the feeling made her forget about her grief for a fraction of a second.

The change from is to was hit Otem so hard, that she looked like she had been punched in the chest. Her large gold and burgundy eyes widened, forced open with a shared understanding of how Iskra must be feeling, and a misplaced nugget of youthful anger that the loss of other mothers might somehow displace the importance of the loss of her own mother.

"Ampere.." Otem mouthed, the name barely more than a whisper. "Mine ... " Not wanting to make the same present-tense mistake Iskra had made, Otem paused, closed her mouth and steeled herself for the words that would come next. "Mine is gone too. She was new to the herd though...Isopia?" 

Sucks, doesn' it? She didn't mean to, but Iskra so perfectly captured the sentiment that she was feeling, that she couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah." The autumn-coloured girl immediately agreed. Then, feeling the words begin to explode inside of her, she turned her gaze back to the sea. 

"THIS SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS." She yelled for all she was worth, the breeze carrying her words far out to sea, but not far enough to reach the lands she had been born on. Yelling made her feel worlds better, as if each elongated syllable carried just a bit of her grief away. Turning to look at Iskra, she smiled rather shyly, realizing she was making a fool out of herself. Oh well. It was hard to stop something once you've started. 

"SUCKS, SUCKS, SUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS."

otem
Image Credits


@Iskra

You may always use magic/force on/against Otem.
Iskra
Currently championing: Caevoc
#6
Her name struck him as if she were electricity personified and his heart a lightning rod. It was only the gentleness of Otem's mention of it that kept him from physically flinching, the ache so deep it wouldn't surprise him if his chest visibly clenched in on itself. He set his teeth on the edges of each other, the grit of them keeping something down inside where it belonged. He didn't want her sympathy after all - well he probably did, but he didn't want to want it.

Maybe that's what made it so easy for him to subdue his own feelings when hers started to surface. It was there in the way she trailed off after saying mine. Iskra's gaze lifted back to her, holding her with a firm understanding that brought a certain automatic kinship. She waited, thinking, and Iskra held his breath in the silence. He was afraid for her to feel the same soul-crumbling tragedy that was eroding him, but knew they were already on that precipice and whether they deserved it or not stopped mattering a long time ago.

Life doesn't give you what you deserve. It gives you everything, and you either handle it or you don't.

"The demi goddess?" he asked gently after she spoke her mother's name, much braver than him to be able to say it, something he was proud of for her but had no idea why. "I heard stories about her, and I met her when she gave birth to my nephew Mauna," he explained. "I guess that'd make you his sister!" he said after a pause, brightening at this knowledge.

"You know, what she and the gods did saved us," he murmured, grateful for it, though he knew that wouldn't really make it any better that she was gone

He wanted to reach out to her. Wanted to comfort her, or save her, or do something to just make it better because feeling awful was nothing short of the worst. Being able to focus on her, on anyone else but himself, made it easier to bury his own pain. He'd been taking care of Ampere pretty much since he'd hatched, so if anything it was just a routine, one he could hold onto no matter what realm he was in.

Otem found a better way though, her abrupt yell startling him. His neck rippled with the quick snap of his head, the edges of his crest feathers managing to unfurl slightly from behind his ears with the excitement. Just as quickly though he burst out laughing; a true, honest, deep laugh that shook off all the grime with its vibrations and its impenetrable joy. She looked at him with a shy, demure smile, and he grinned broadly, not hesitating to join in and belt out his own, "IIIIIIIIIIT SUUUUUUUUUUHUUUUUUCKS!" Castiel even joined in with a high squeal whistling from his blow hole, although he had no notion as to why they were doing what they were doing.

After they'd shouted their breath and their energy out, Iskra fell back into a rolling giggle that slowly faded into quiet, hungry breaths. He glanced at Otem with a brilliant smile. "That was fun," he admitted.
"I guess this place isn't so bad if you can still have fun sometimes. Although it changed some stuff for me... I'm not sure I like them." He lifted his wings as he mentioned it, neck curling around to watch the little sparks arc from beneath his feathers; the sulfur smell intensified like an armpit being opened up, and he made a face at it and quickly slapped his wings to his sides.

"Now my wings stink and they hurt people. And there's something on my back but I don't know what," he glanced over his shoulder, trying to see the frilly gills that had grown there.
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
Otem the Hopebringer
Currently championing:
#7

 
Otem's head bobbed yes to indicate that her mother was indeed the demi-goddess. She might have said more until the boy mentioned his Nephew - and her brother. Otem still didn't know how she felt about her youngest sibling (Was he even her youngest? Volterra had so many offspring it was hard to keep them in line). On any account, he was her mother's youngest anyways. Despite the fact that he was young, Otem had never really felt about him the way she felt about Vulkán. Only her twin inspired any sort of loyalty or love in her. Mauna and all the others were just ... an ever growing branch on her family tree. "Wait, does that make us related?" Otem frowned and furrowed her brow for a moment. She would be awfully annoyed if every single boy she met ended up being her half brother (which had already happened to her a few times). Slowly Otem pieced together the pieces, and a semi-relieved smile crossed her face as she shook her head. "Wait no, nevermind. Volterra is my Father-" She added with a sheepish smile, "-so that means I'm basically related to everyone."

{screaming times}

The same breathless giddiness had come over Otem as well. Her screams had made colour return to her cheeks and small tears of laughter had even sprung from her eyes. The girl hadn't realized how long it had been since she had cried happy tears, and for a second her euphoria caused a shadow of sadness to shade her heart. Guilt trickled in, and although Iskra pointed out that they could still have fun in this place, she wondered how long it would take before she felt like she was allowed to. How long did one have to mourn for? Was she betraying her mother and Iskra's mother, and all the others who had died, by being happy?

Otem wrinkled her nose as if she was only just now noticing the putrid stench wafting off of Iskra. "That's unfortunate.." She murmured awkwardly, unsure how to agree that he smelled like a locker room filled with rotten eggs without sounding like a total asshole. "Maybe it'll just ... stop? None of my magic changed. Not really anyways." Otem continued, standing on the edges of her hooves to peer over Iskra's shoulders at the gulping gills. Although the sight of them made her want to shiver and cover them up, she forced her face to remain neutral, not wanting to make Iskra feel uncomfortable about his mutations. "Do they do anything?"

otem
Image Credits


@Iskra omg everything about your post was magical.

You may always use magic/force on/against Otem.
Iskra
Currently championing: Caevoc
#8
Iskra felt that happiness was never something to be kept at bay. Feeling it didn't necessarily mean there was less space for grief, or sorrow, or fear - he certainly still felt all of those amongst his moments of joy and bliss. To ever think he wasn't allowed to feel happiness was something which was unfathomable to the colt, and so he did not balk nor hesitate as he basked in the glory of shouting alongside Otem. He did, however, pick up on her tightened lips, the dimming of her eyes, the light leaving all of her features as more shade crept cruelly into place.

Though he wondered at its specific cause, a word out of place, his stinking wings, he didn't point it out. He'd not ignore it, but he wouldn't feed it either, and so he continued headlong onto the next topic, adamant about maintaining this lightheartedness that did the soul so much good.

"Mm," was all he could muster in response to her query that it might stop. He believed that about as much as he believed they could return home. "Lucky," he playfully griped when she admitted she'd received no magical makeovers.

"I dunno," Iskra answered her query, neck craning around to try and give himself a better view of his back, "should they? What are they?" His question was prompted by the hazy image of something on his spine that he could just see out of the corner of his eye. "Do they look dangerous or, uh, weird?" Of course they were weird, but you know, more weird than normal?

Iskra hadn't gone for a swim yet, especially not with all the moisture the sky already provided on the daily, but he'd be thrilled once he did and found his underwater adventures prolonged with these gills.
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more


@Otem

Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.
Otem the Hopebringer
Currently championing:
#9

 

Iskra didn't reply quite the way she had anticipated he would. Did he know that she had already smelled him? Was she coming across as being fake? A phoney? A phoney-baloney? Was her suggestion that his smell might go away taken as just insincere? All he said about her powers remaining was that she was lucky, which only served to make her feel as though she was doing a really poor job of trying to make friends. She should have known better than saying that she had kept all of her magic given that Iskra clearly hadn't been so lucky.

Maybe this was why Isopia rarely bothered to make - or keep - friends. Otem was much more socially aware than her mother had ever been, but even so, this was hard.

She just wanted Iskra to like her.

But then the boy craned his neck around to try and inspect his gills, rather than telling her to f-off as she sort of expected him to. Had she read it wrong? Was everything fine? Was she overthinking things?

 "Nope!" Otem chirped a shade too brightly. "Not weird. A bit fishy maybe."  The girl took a breath and tried to blow on the gills, wanting to see if it did anything other than sort of pucker open and closed. "Maybe one of the Throat healers -" Otem stumbled over the phrase for a moment, unsure whether or not it was proper to still refer to them as Throat healers, since of course there wasn't a Dragon's Throat anymore. Deciding it was still a good way to refer to them, she swallowed and continued on. "-can look at it?"

otem
Image Credits


@Iskra Do we want to fade here, since our other thread is already over? :P

You may always use magic/force on/against Otem.
Iskra
Currently championing: Caevoc
#10
The gills did not hurt or itch, and Iskra might have forgotten they were even there if not for the fact he could feel them, like any other part of his body. So when Otem blew on them and the frills quivered, just brushing his nerve endings, he shivered. "Hey, that's a good idea!" he remarked jovially, utterly unaware of the myriad of thoughts just reeling through her head about their relationship or the implications of referring to someone as a rank belonging to a herd now demolished.

"Have you seen any of them?" he asked, turning back around to face her after giving himself a proper shake off. "I've only found my brother and nephew, and now you!" He flashed her a typical (well not typical since coming to the Rift) mega-watt smile, a display not only of his natural born inclination to joy, but also the fact he relished her company. It probably helped that they had some common ground in the sands, something that tied him to familiarity in this foreign place.

"Yanno, we should probably try and get as much of the herd back together as we can. It'd be safer." He nodded knowingly, despite only essentially repeating things he'd heard Zekle say, or in the past, his mother. "C'mon, stay with me, I don't want to lose you!" he cried out with sudden excitement, a plan starting to form, a goal besides miserable wandering and sobbing. His feathers flared faintly, dampened, as he turned and began to run off, looking back over his shoulder at her.

"I'll race ya!" he challenged, not having a true destination in mind, no finish line. Just an invitation to keep having fun, to stick together, to go do.

{fade to black}
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more


yea :D I'd love to thread them again <3
@Otem

Magic or force permitted any time, aside from death.