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Home » Search » Roster » Whitepages » Records » FAQ » Guidebook
shadow of the bars
Open Uwaritace 
Gwyn
Currently championing:
#1
 
 
GWYN
uh-oh, running out of breath, but I
oh, I, I got stamina

 
She was not sure where she was, other than in the midst of an endless, frigid cloud.  Still unused to the steep cold of this dreadful season, the filly shivers as her dainty hooves carry her through the world, the divots left in her wake revealing the frosty shine of ice layered over the earth below.  Occasionally, some creature or another stirs the tops of the shrubs hidden in the mists, shaking away the powdery snow to the floor, and her forward path pauses, and her small head suddenly jettisons up, her ears lifted, and her pale eyes fasten on the distant scurrying, before she carries on.
 
Having been chased throughout the night by some scary shadow beast, Gwyn was still on high alert.  Not just for monsters, but also for sound or sign of her father, whom she’d become separated from in the dark.  Having long since given up on her nickering into the night for his or Duir’s reply, the dawn had come and gone, and the girl had all but consented to the truth that she was alone.
 
It came with a dark and lurching sort of reality that the normally fearless appaloosa found almost overwhelming.  Though she pretended to be brave, stepping boldly when she dared through the seemingly endless fog bank, her heart hammered in her chest, and every foot fall came with a silent prayer that, any minute now, her dad and his ever watchful buck would appear from the mists.
 
They never did though.
 
Rather, a branch reached out for her, seemingly from no where, and with a squeal of fear she recoils, and nose moving quickly towards her chest, and her small, useless horn brandished before her.  Feeling foolish as she realizes what it actually is, her ears slowly lift, and she cautiously unfurls herself from her defensive position.  Inquisitively approaching the hidden thing, she reaches up and touches its mist-dampened, fire blackened trunk with her muzzle, feeling oddly sympathetic for what must have once been a regal tree.
 
Uwaritace, whispers a strong, female voice in the girl’s mind.
 
Who’s there?” she frightfully demands of the mist as she stumbles back several paces, her heart seeming to hammer against her breastbone, and her golden horn again brandished, as her father had taught her.  Her back glows and crackles with defensive, electrical sparks that wildly arc and sparkle in the damp air, and the filly looks all around her for the source of the voice, her lion’s tail anxiously swishing behind her. 
 
 
Image by Jody Roberts@Flickr


@Glacia and/or anyone else is welcome<3
I'm just wild
so sit the f#@k down

please tag gwyn for opening posts & mentions in group threads only
Taivas the Hopebringer
Currently championing: Reszo
#2
If you'll be my star, I'll be your sky
You can hide underneath me and come out at night
The crimson sands never stretched below her hooves, no matter how far she flew. The hope that she may find Helovia slowly but inevitably began to slip from her mind. She could not go back, only forward.

The difference being now her future laid uncertainly before her, something that had never happened in her life.

Taivas took pride in being the daughter of the Chief Nightsinger. Her role in the Fields remained set in stone, unquestioned by her peers. When father passed away, she would assume his position. With the upheaval started from the raids, that future changed into something different. The whispers and stories from her mother became her new reality, her new future. While it was a flimsy dream, the picture still took shape. Now, when Taivas considered what could be, nothing came to mind. A stark, empty abyss awaited her.

With the last shred of hope, the girl came to rest on a branch. Looking down, her eyes widen with shock. The dim light of her coat revealed enough to see that the trunk of this tree stretched impossibly far down. For the first time since arriving in the Rift, though, Taivas knew where she stood. Uwaritace, though the girl had no idea where the knowledge arrived from. No voice sang in her mind, no echoing voice in the distance. Breathing in the air, the shaman felt the massive spirit she rested upon. The great oaken branches were whitewashed and dead; ugly, blackened tongues reached and scarred the edges.

Sorrow winded its way around her heart and settled in.

Below, an echo of a squeal draws the girl's attention from the battered corpse of the mother tree. Leaping from the large branch, Taivas spreads her pale wings and gently floats down. The little star glowing in the dim light of the fog, announcing her arrival long before the sound of her feathers caressing the air.

Deep within the clutches of the fog, a slight figure begins to reveal itself. A young filly, Taivas notes, and a wingless one at that. Taivas had never seen an equine without wings before, and the girl almost wanted to laugh with how small it made her look. Quietly, the mare lands upon the loam at the floor of the great tree, and she pauses in front of the fear stricken girl. Her wings fold neatly on her back, drawing close to keep out what chill they could.

Amid the mists, sparks fly from the girl - some magic that enchanted her coat as well, it would seem, though more lively than the passive glow of the pegasus.

"Are you alright?" the shaman asks, her voice hushed in the thick air.
""
When I turn jet black, and you show off your light
I live to let you shine
Taivas
Gwyn
Currently championing:
#3


GWYN
uh-oh, running out of breath, but I
oh, I, I got stamina


The sensations that the magical tree presses upon her drive her heart to beating all the faster, and when the mists reveal no presence, she feels a cold terror begin to edge from the ice in her belly, out through her veins. No one was there, she tries to assure herself, doing her best to coax her heart back to a normal rhythm, her dark nostrils fluttering with her deep breaths, but no matter how many times she said it to herself, the fear that someone most certainly was does not ebb away.

The sight of the descending aura in the mists, then, fills the girl with immediate trepidation. Having barely had time to venture through one half of Helovia before it was annihilated, the filly does not associate shining, radiant light with magic, as many of its denizens surely did. No, to Gwyn, the pretty, subtle glow that approaches her is as malevolent as the cold fog, or the darkness that devoured everything beyond it. It was the same sort of unknown that had ripped her home world into atoms, and cast them back out to the universe, and it fills the normally brave youth with a fear so potent, that she cannot move, or speak. She merely stares, her mouth partially parted, and her icy-blue eyes are wide and fastened on the light.

It becomes apparent, however, the nearer the radiant orb gets, that it’s not an orb at all. The silhouette of a figure darkens its heart, and if Gwyn isn’t mistaken, the figure belongs to a pegasus. Just as the stranger has not seen a unicorn, the youth has not seen one of the winged ones, aside from her half-sister, and her glowering dam; having been raised by an elitist father, her opinions of the appearance of the feathered mare are equally judgmental, when they do not fluctuate on the fretful worry that the stranger was not a safe one. The sparks upon her back do not dissipate or lessen, their silver-blue light a glowing halo behind the little one’s lifted crown.

She does not look dangerous, Gwyn decides of the painted stranger. It hadn’t been kind of her to tease Gwyn with whispers from above, though, either, and the fear on the dark filly’s face takes on a few lines that indicate her displeasure with being picked on by a grown up.

I’m lost,” she answers, slowly, her head lowering ever so slightly, though her blue eyes are still watchful and wary, “some… some beastie, it chased me. And now I can’t find my dad.

Her frown is a pitiful thing, full of all the pain and fear that rises to the brim of any child’s heart, when they find themselves separated and alone. She does her best to remain strong, however, hearing her father’s voice rise to mind: we are the wolves of the North.

Why’d you whisper that weird word for?” improperly questions the maiden, not bothered with tact or grammar without her royal father about to grunt with displeasure at her broken language, “wasn’t very nice. It gave me the heebie-jeebies.


Image by Jody Roberts@Flickr

@Taivas
I'm just wild
so sit the f#@k down

please tag gwyn for opening posts & mentions in group threads only
Taivas the Hopebringer
Currently championing: Reszo
#4
If you'll be my star, I'll be your sky
You can hide underneath me and come out at night
I'm lost.
Taivas smiles knowingly, though the expression on her face is not one of joy.  Her eyes are hollow, the emotion never reaching her heart.  A smile of painful irony.  After all, she too is lost.

The mention of the "beastie" causes the girl to stop and look around.  The whole act is quite pointless, as the fog is thick and dense.  The only true landmark visible is the corpse of the great tree and her broken spirit.  A primal feeling of fear still lingers, which had become natural to them are since arriving in the Rift.  The land itself could have been beautiful once, but the scars upon its earth screamed of the horrors it face.  A poison, a deep sickness crept from the frozen soil until it could be felt just about anywhere.

Except here, oddly enough.

The Fields were one of several clans back home, so she had never directly studied the spirits in the forest.  The Woods and their people, however, cared for the trees and the creatures within their realm.  They sang for spirits of each tree, and since arriving here, Taivas began to understand why.  Even though the tree hand been mangled by fire and rotting for centuries, possibly, the feeling of a living soul remained.  The same ill feeling that she had in the Portal did not find its way here, for whatever reason.  Instead of feeling sick, she just felt melancholy.

The expression on the little filly's face reflected that dolefulness, and the mare may have attempted to console the pitiful thing, were it not for the spunky tone that lashed out next.

Taivas is confused, for she did not whisper a thing, nor had she heard a sound except for the young girl's squeal of fear.  The fog sat like a blanket upon them, hushing their voices, their hoof beats and likely any noise another visitor may have made.  "It was not me," the starry eyed maiden says plainly.  There is no indignation at the accusation, no attempt to flatter the girl into believing her, no balking at her claim of hearing a whisper in this silent realm.

For a moment, the painted girl considers offering to help the filly look for her father, but, being new to the realm, her offer would be worthless.  Instead, she offers awkwardly quiet company... just what every frightened filly needs.
""
When I turn jet black, and you show off your light
I live to let you shine
Taivas
Gwyn
Currently championing:
#5


GWYN
uh-oh, running out of breath, but I
oh, I, I got stamina


The sorrow and sense of loss seemed to permeate the air still, no matter that the mare had revealed herself. It became more apparent to Gwyn, this strange, overlaying sensation of sadness, as her fear died away, and her heart rate slowly returned to normal. As permeating as the cold and as deep as the fog which swirled around them, there was no denying that something magical was occurring in this space. The filly, however, had never met sentient nature, and thereby could not rationalize that it was the tree who was Uwaritace, not the pegasus.

Even when the stranger denies having spoken the word, the girl flatly does not believe her. Her ears fall back, and her lion’s tail takes on more swift sweeps behind her, her irritation with being toyed with by some glowing lady evident in her body language. Still, she had been raised to have some measure of tact, and so, though she wishes to shout at the mare, the maiden instead snorts.

The beasties here don’t talk,” she answers, from her prior experience with the unseen entities of the Rift which her father playfully had deemed "beasties," to come to vast and grave regret upon her over-usage of the term, “they just growl and snarl and try and get you. If it wasn’t the beasties and it wasn’t you, then who was it?




Image by Jody Roberts@Flickr
I'm just wild
so sit the f#@k down

please tag gwyn for opening posts & mentions in group threads only
Elegy
Currently championing:
#6



so what if I'm crazy?
all the best people are
Uwaritace. He didn’t need a disembodied voice to tell him the name of the tree corpse hanging above their heads, but it does anyway. Always. So much so that he has automatically tuned out the ghostly whisper at the back of his mind- just another extraordinarily ordinary phenomenon of everyday rift life. The first time he came here, maybe, it was still a little unnerving. Now? Not so much. He doesn’t come here that often, preferring other, more alive areas of the mists to this... more or less dead giant dominating the land. For a partygoer like him, there really wasn’t much to see, and even less to do but then again, nowhere in the rift was actually boring. Thrill came to patient hunter. And who said that he couldn’t help a few lost souls on the way?Elegy was known for his hospitality and warmth. Of course.


”It’s an introduction, silly.” The hybrid explained in amusement as he landed, onyx wings folding neatly at his flank. He swept the two strangers with a curious gaze, green depths glinting with the hungry eagerness of a predator. Two drabcoat girls, it seemed. A little better than the rest of their kind maybe, but nothing befitting a proper Riftian. Really, the rift could be a little more careful about the riffraff it picks up on the way. The stallion’s smooth rumble includes a hint of superior pity as he introduces the monolith of a tree to the two. ”She likes to tell everyone her name when they come by- well, anything that has enough mind to hear. She’s being polite, or something like that.” Elegy enunciates each word carefully and slowly, as if worried that they wouldn’t understand. He wasn’t taking any chances with these poor, weak newcomers, after all. Canine teeth bare in a mischievous smile as he gestures towards the tree: ”The monsters here do talk, child.”  

317 words • muse • notes:short short short! Mostly directed to Gwyn brigade that’s who he heard speak but also to both of them!
Taivas the Hopebringer
Currently championing: Reszo
#7
If you'll be my star, I'll be your sky
You can hide underneath me and come out at night
The ferocity of the small girl is apparent in her body language. She feels wronged, but Taivas has no way of convincing her otherwise. Instead, her face remains passive and calm, despite the growing frustration of her company. The motion of the filly's tail swirls the fog around them, making the heavy air pulse with her irritation.

The growl of her accusations fly across the air, yet the painted girl shows no signs of distress or anger. In fact, she nearly answered the young foal's question before another arrived.

Taivas lurches a step to the side when a masculine voice cuts through the air, obviously caught off guard. The hush which surrounds them in the fog made surprise arrivals easy, and this stallion had clearly taken advantage. Taking a deep breath, she attempts to still the rough pounding of her heart in her chest, but makes the mistake of looking at the new arrival before fully taming her fright.

He is tall, lanky, and strangely alien looking. The sharp points of his ears stretch higher than she had ever seen. From between parted lips, the flash and glint of sharp canines expose a more bestial lineage. Unlike the apparent gentle nature of Roscorro, this oddity seems decidedly darker. The tone of his voice is condescending, and Taivas instantly decides she cares not for their new company. While the filly had justification for her anger and a youth that excused her poor manners, this full grown man stood, clearly making assumptions.

Settling down from her momentary fright, Taivas recollects her form, being sure to place an empty space through which she could escape quickly, if need be, to her side. Her face remains placid as ever, flat and bored. In her annoyance at his tone, the mare nearly misses the confirmation of her suspicions. Uwaritace is the mother tree they stood beside, but it would appear she spoke to the filly directly instead of simply imparting the knowledge, as she had with the shaman.

The last statement from their newcomer seems to hint that he is the monster here. The starlit maiden nearly laughs at the attempt to scare a child and young lady. Instead, she flatly ignores his attempt to be the big bad wolf trope. He may be an ass, but he seems to know much, she thinks to herself.

"Do you know much of the Rift?" her interest resounds clearly in her voice, hoping that this stranger might have the answers she sought.
""
When I turn jet black, and you show off your light
I live to let you shine
Taivas
Gwyn
Currently championing:
#8


GWYN
uh-oh, running out of breath, but I
oh, I, I got stamina


It is not the mare who answers her.

Her eyes shoot swiftly towards the apparition, and her heart sinks down to her hooves, heavy with icy fear. Her knees tremble and her ears fall back; for all her waspishness with the pegasus mare only moments before, the filly is promptly cowed by the frightful visage of the stranger who appears from the mist. Her head is low, and her breaths come deep. Even though what he says is a direct answer to her question, the filly barely hears it, too focused on the sharp teeth which shine in the male’s mouth.

His alien-appearance frightens her, but his demeanor does more. If she’d met any of the Rift’s natives before now, she might have simply have deduced that this was just how they were; cruel, dark, and somewhat twisted. Living in such a terrible place helped forge those aspects, of course, and perhaps made them more forgivable. Gwyn, however, does not like the man. Not just because he is frightening, of course, but because, through the trembling of her dainty limbs and the stammering terror of her thoughts as she sweeps her eyes across him, Gwyn sees someone who delights in being unkind to others.

Her small squeak of fear at the suggestion that he was the beastie is barely audible over Taivas’ question, the grown woman obviously handling the situation with the haunting, unkind fellow much more adeptly than quivering Gwyn. Before too long, however, the brat of the north finds her voice again. Not before she has sidled closer to the glowing mare, however, finding great comfort in the nearness of her larger form, despite having been quite annoyed with her moments before.

Yeah,” she echoes, less boldly than the painted woman had (so, Uwaritace is the tree, she finally finds a moment to think, as she sweeps her eyes up the fire blackened giant, and feels the sorrow radiating through the air with much more understanding than she had a few minutes prior), “’cause you might talk, and this tree too, but I’ve been chased by lots of things here. And they don’t say anything, ‘cept ‘rrraghhhh!’

She does her best beastie impression, shaking her head ferociously to allow her small, golden dagger of a horn to sweep uselessly through the air, and stamping her fore-hooves alternately. It’s a very short display of a second or two, but is portrayed by a frightened, albeit committed, actress, who does her best to be brave in the face of adversary.

Besides,” she adds, feeling more bold now that she has broken through her initial fear, “you don’t look like any of the beasties I’ve seen, even if you do have teeth.



Image by Jody Roberts@Flickr
I'm just wild
so sit the f#@k down

please tag gwyn for opening posts & mentions in group threads only
Rift Havoc
Currently championing:
#9
MUNTOEK
He is an oddly colored brute.  His coat gleams of orange and red, yellow highlighting his back and belly.  Upon his thick brow is nestled a strange, metal crown or helmet.  You cannot really tell, for it has obviously been bashed and reshaped by many blows, so that its original purpose is lost.

Large, thick arms, rivaling the trunks in the surrounding forest, reach up toward a muscular torso that might have belonged to a man, if not covered in a coarse pelt.  The torso is surprisingly short compares to his forearms, as are the back feet which dangle in the air underneath it.  The legs are short, but deeply toned as well, with large feet, perfect for swinging wildly about.

He is some breed of Galeae.  The Riftian might know them.  The foreigners... probably not.

What is most important about this Galeae, though, is that he is Muntoek, and Muntoek smashes.

He heard the disturbance around the tree, where he was foraging nearby.  With impressive speed and agility, the great ape swings is body and propels forward, running upon his fists and covering the distance in a flash.

His sharp, bright green eyes take quick survey of the gathered group around the base of his queen - Uwaritace.  He notes the glowing one, like a piece of the moon fallen to earth, and the little firecracker, literally throwing sparks into the air.  The canine-like stallion is spotted, but his energy is more familiar - more acceptable.  Lifting a large stone from the earth, Muntoek balances on one arm, twirling his body around before hurtling the stone to fall on the ground between the gathering point of the equines.

"GET AWAY FROM QUEEN," he yells with a brutish voice, syllables broken and clipping, his maw gaping to reveal sharp canines.  "YOU NOT WELCOME NEAR HER."

Letting lose another wild roar, Muntoek settles on his feet and picks up a small boulder, holding it in his arms, poised to throw.

"MUNTOEK SMASH YOU."

[ ooc -- Trying to find a way to continue this thread without disturbing Neon too much.  <3  Feel free to jump back in whenever, dear. ]

ME MUNTOEK.
ME SMASH.
image || coding
Taivas the Hopebringer
Currently championing: Reszo
#10
If you'll be my star, I'll be your sky
You can hide underneath me and come out at night
The girl, who just moments before held nothing but biting words and accusations for Taivas, scoots closer to her in the presence of this newcomer.  The moonlit mare does not acknowledge it, thinking the little unicorn to be too proud to admit that she was scared, even as a squeal slips past her lips into the harsh winter breeze.

Even now, as her tiny lips part to let out what should have been harsh, powerful words, the voice sounds meek and timid.  Ah, so this girl is capricious but smart, at least.  After all, Taivas was not a fighter; she could not defend the filly if this stallion decided to attack them in the mournful shadow of the great mother tree.  

The strange dingo stallion does not have the chance to attack - not first, at least.

A booming roar sounds from the forest before the neon banner of a great ape strides forward.  He is odd, with his forearms being massive and thickly muscles, but his legs dangling from his huge torso in the air.  This does not stop him from lifting a rock easily with one arm and pelting it quite ferociously at the group of equines crowded around Uwaritace.  The rock falls somewhere between all three, probably a warning shot to try to scare them away.

Instantly, Taivas rushes in front of the tiny, confident filly to block her as a target.

He seems to be talking about the tree, but refers to her confidently as Queen.  He claims they are not welcome.  She greeted us, though, thinks the starlit beauty for a moment.

Of course, the ape is not thinking logically, but instead goes to pick up an even larger boulder from the earth, and introduces himself in the most violent of manners.  Taivas stands, admittedly dumbstruck, for she had never encountered a creature that arrived so aggressively for no reason.  Even during the raids, their intent was clear and reasonable.

This brute had no such reasons.

"Your queen greeted us on arrival, Muntoek," she says calmly, though every muscle in her body is coiled and ready to leap out of the way of a flying rock.  Outwardly, she seems less perturbed by this violent ape than she was about the arrival of the stallion.  Perhaps, she is just getting used to the never ending surprises this realm seems to offer.  "We have no intent of hurting Uwaritace."

Maybe trying to talk down a giant ape with a boulder is not the best course of action.
How would she know unless she tried?
""
When I turn jet black, and you show off your light
I live to let you shine
Taivas