Scint River
It is a sign of quite how skewed the yearling's priorities are when he actually feels a pang of annoyance at the arrival of the spirits. He'd been looking forward to a good debate with the crowd around him, had been excited about hearing their opinions and listening to the young mare's attempts to defend herself, but he's to be disappointed. He stands there, feeling rather cross, as the spirits erupt from the ground and snatch his crowd away from him. The young Kaos-allied mare doesn't even have the decency to answer him before she disappears off, leaving the volcano-boy feeling most peeved.
With a turn of his quad-horned head, he scans the area. There's spirits he doesn't recognise, and then there's suddenly one he does recognise. Now, this is most interesting. Whereas the spirits last time had seemed like rough approximations summoned for the pure intent of attacking the living, this particular incarnation of Isopia looks genuinely real. Vulkán knows that it cannot be her in person, as she was disintegrated in Helovia - that only leaves the possibility that it's another cheap attempt to harm the living, or that it's what remains of her spirit. The latter is an interesting prospect. The colt has always believed that death is final, and that there's no such thing as an afterlife or spirits. If this is his mother, though, then he will need to re-evaluate everything he believes in. Mildly interested, he takes a step forward - only to find a small wall of earth in front of him, summoned by his father. Perturbed, the colt spreads his wings and uses those to head towards Isopia instead, as though the earthen wall is merely an inconvenience. Most boys would react with something deeper upon seeing their dead mother - grief, sorrow, misery, happiness, anger, anything. In his chest, in his mind, Vulkán can almost feel....something, like an ache, like a pit, as though there's a missing piece that has suddenly been returned to him. This emotion is so unfamiliar that he casts it aside, however, focusing instead on his intense curiosity. He folds his wings and lands heavily by Otem, who is being shielded by the onyx bulk of their father. Otem seems to be believing what her eyes are telling her, whereas Volterra - who, bless him, isn't the sharpest stick in the tree - is telling her the spirit isn't real. "Now, that is a matter of contention, I feel," remarks the lava-colt, ambling up to his sibling and father as though they've simply met over a tasty patch of grass rather than in the middle of a ghostly apocalypse. He flashes a mildly interested glance over to Isopia, marvelling at the fact she's even acting as she would have done in life - focusing on the task at hand rather than greeting her family. It's why he always got along so well with her, her vast intelligence and the fact that she, like he, is willing to look past emotion and into common sense. "Last time, the ghosts seemed summoned from the memories of the living people around them. These spirits, though, do not seem to be conjured for anybody in particular - that leads me to wonder if, perhaps, they really are what remains of the dead. The evidence for an afterlife is dubious at best, but the existence of these spirits may prove that we do live on after death. They are not animalistic imitations like the creatures that attacked us - they seem to be acting just as their living counterparts would, which makes them either real or a very convincing imitation." He tilts his head, hoping at least one of Otem or Volterra will engage him in a proper, well-reasoned discussion. |
Flies over Vol's earth wall to stand by Otem.
