Early Frost
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#1
The sky was an endless autumn blue above, mid-afternoon light filtering through increasingly-bare branches to dapple fallen leaves below. Jigano walked along the scar left by the barrier, moving slowly as he leaned upon the staff he had taken with him into the Cloister, using it to steady himself and give his trembling fingers something to grasp. Isuma frolicked in the leaves, hunting bugs and hoping to scare up a mouse or two  as she pounced and tossed the fiery ghosts of Longheat's shade into the air.

Her companion's eyes were also on the ground, the chilly blue gaze focused on the plants and animals they came across, seeking signs that the Blight had crossed from the Greatwood into the Hollowed Grounds. He studied each blackened leaf and dying root carefully to determine whether it was the result of the changing seasons or something more sinister. There was a distracted and thoughtful air about the wanderer, and between the tremble of his fingers on his staff and the bone-white of his hair he looked an old man from a distance. Though his face was unlined, there was a weariness in his eyes that did nothing to dispel that illusion.

He had been avoiding the Settlement and other people in general since his illness - no, even before that, since the utter debacle that had been the mess of kingship. The wandering itch was back in his feet, and only Rory's steady love had kept him tied to the Hollowed Grounds when everything in his past urged him to run, far away, and never return. Without the farmer he would already have fallen back onto the habits of half a decade, but with him... well. He had someone worth staying for.

More than one, he had to admit to himself. As alone and wounded as he had felt for those weeks, some of the haze was beginning to lift from his thoughts, even as the chill and tremors and tempestuous anger lingered from his week of fever. He did not know the way forward, but he was beginning to look for one, at least. He doubted he could redeem himself in the eyes of those whose respect he'd lost, but perhaps if he could find some new spark of information about the blight he could earn a place among the Fae...

Or perhaps that, too, was a lingering fever dream. Still, it didn't hurt to check for signs of the blight's spread, and there were worse ways to spend a beautiful Leafchange afternoon.
Edrei Launceleyn
the Rapacious


Age: 28 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 6 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 21 - Luck: 5 - Int:
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#2

Edy
fuck you <3

"Well, well, WELL." A voice shouted brightly over the vast and barren curst that was the Outskirts. A bit of vivacity had come back to the Hollowed Grounds, but here, closest to the barrier, it'd probably always be a bit shit.

Stalking towards the bard and his staff was a fiery queen, outlined in fire with a bobcat trotting nimbly at her side. Her eyes were like pinpoints of flint, hands clenched into fists as soon as she'd seen the pale-haired man.

"You've got some fucking nerve, you know that?" She all but snarled.
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#3
He was just regaining his feet from kneeling to examine a wilted flower when the brassy, confident voice broke through the relative peace of the day. He winced, tensing reflexively as he considered taking wing and fleeing into the Greatwood beyond the barrier scar. It was a tempting option, almost instinct, and he felt feathers ripple beneath his clothes as he teetered on the brink of retreat.

Whatever this is, Kiada's sneering words came back to him then, and he froze, jaw clenching at the reminder.

Isuma was momentarily far happier to see the approaching pair, chirruping a bright greeting to Bobi and eager to show her friend the bright beetle she had just captured, but her companion's mood dampened her enthusiasm and she went from bounding towards the bobcat to pausing, looking from Jigano to Edy worriedly.

Slowly, moving like a man thrice his age, Jigano turned to face the approaching Queen, taking in her (literally) blazing anger. This... was probably going to hurt.

Good, a part of him hissed, but he ignored it for the moment to bow to the woman who had offered him a kingship, punctiliously polite even when he suspected he was about to get punched. "Hello Edy," he said quietly, making no attempt to smile or joke.
Edrei Launceleyn
the Rapacious


Age: 28 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#4

Edy
fuck you <3

"Don't you Hello Edy me." The queen snapped. Though power might age some, Edy simply looked young and wounded and entirely feral. For her part, Bobi gave Isuma an almost apologetic growl before sitting down at Edy's heel and keeping her eyes fixed on the ground.

"Just what in the actual fuck—" were you thinking, did you do, were you planning? There were too many options of how to finish her sentence, and so the Launceleyn merely thrust her hands up into the air with a fiery groan of displeasure.

"I trusted you asshole, and what did you do? You ran back to your basement buddies who apparently you'd all been plotting with and just shoved the crown over to someone else??"
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#5
As angry as he had been about what had happened in Amalia's basement, and as wounded as he had been by those he had considered friends, his anger at Edrei came in waves that had finally begun to ebb as he was forced to acknowledge that she wasn't at fault. Or at least, that she had done nothing he hadn't, on some level, expected. He didn't blame Isuma for hunting live prey, and he couldn't blame Edy for wanting to avoid responsibility.

Well. He probably should. She was an adult now, after all. But part of him still tried to treat her as a child... even if he was getting a crash course in why it was dangerous to do that.

Isuma backed a few steps away from both humans, folding her wings tight to her sides and trying to flatten into the leaves - a spot of bright white and blue against the reds and yellows around her - as the snarling and snapping commenced in earnest.

Jigano leaned on his staff and waited, already anticipating what was coming, but keeping his mouth shut until the Queen had found the words she wanted to say. He winced as the first words cut deeper than he'd expected, echoing the howling of his own heart towards those very 'basement buddies.' Ronin must have been in a sharing mood when he'd finally stomped up to the Manor gates that night...

"Is that what he told you?" he asked softly, knuckles white on his staff as he tried to force them to stillness. "Not that it's wrong... but I thought we'd agreed together that he'd be a good choice." He bit his tongue against the other words that wanted to pile out, clamoring against the back of his teeth. Of all the snarling and yelling and anger, all the disappointment and frustration and disgust... Edy's was the most deserved.
Edrei Launceleyn
the Rapacious


Age: 28 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 6 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 21 - Luck: 5 - Int:
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#6

Edy
fuck you <3

"And Wessex." Edy bristled, her lip coiling up in a snarl. "Me too. Only he was a pissy ass-face when I went to go see him, so.." The not-teenager replied with a still-wounded shrug. Ronin hadn't apologized for that yet. Or if he had, she hadn't accepted it. The memory of how few fucks the ex-captain had given when she'd went to see him with the same naive hopefulness she'd had with Jigano made the fire around her blaze brighter for a moment.

"So all that Oh I'll help and communication is key, was all just bullshit? Just a quick old bait and switch?" Edy's jaw clenched. "Whatever." She snorted. "Cool that you're just a dickhead like everyone else." Edy added childishly, glaring at the bard hard before turning to stomp away.
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#7
"Who agreed that Wessex would be a good choice?" Jigano said softly, an ember of frustration finally flickering to life. "I asked you if Ronin could be a king, and you agreed. But you didn't ask me before you made Wessex a Queen as well. I might have fucked up, Edrei, and I'll apologize to you for not being as strong as you needed me to be. But don't pretend you were the only one hurt by finding things out after the fact."

Not that there had ever been a chance of him remaining king after the anger boiled over in the basement, and it had become clear just how badly he had screwed things up in his attempt to make everyone happy. Instead he'd managed exactly the opposite, and while some had bitterly told him to keep the crowns that Edy was handing out like candy, he had burned any chance of acting as a mediator between Ronin and Edrei.

That had been his own doing, but the chanting that had ended things, the cries of 'Queen Wessex?' That had made it clearer than crystal that he had never been an equal, no matter the fancy title. He had been as much a pawn as he had accused Rexanna of being, and no less deluded than the new Ascended in thinking himself free of the gameboard when he had let himself be maneuvered into position to take the fall. Damned if he'd turned Edy down, damned for accepting. In trying to find a middle ground he had instead lost almost everything, and he held tightly to his staff as if it were a lifeline as he watched another bridge he'd set alight burn more literally than most, given the Queen's fiery halo.
Edrei Launceleyn
the Rapacious


Age: 28 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 6 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 20 - Endr: 21 - Luck: 5 - Int:
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#8

Edy
fuck you <3

"So?" Edy barked with a shrug of her shoulders as she glanced back at the bard. "Oh fuck you." She snarled with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Difference is you made promises that you broke. I never said we were equal, did I?" In fact, the world Edy came from, the opposite was far from true. "Should I have chatted with you? Maybe. But I never said I did so don't give me this hurt feelings shit. There's a fucking big difference between promoting Wessex and finding out that you'd all been scheming which you didn't bother to mention."

Continuing to stomp away, fire burning brightly around her, Edy paused for just one more moment. "Next time you say you'll do something, how about you fucking do it." And then, flipping him the bird in a universal salute of baby now we got bad blood, Edy continued off.


Age: 7 | Height: | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#9

The ground ripples not unlike a wave.

Laaaaaaaaaandshark. Laaaaaaaaandark. Landshark, Landshark, Landshark

The ground opened in a ring of teeth. There was a brief flash of fire, a bright and beautiful string of curse words rising above the growl of the beast, and then nothing at all.

The land shark finished its dive, the ground like an upturned mole's nest where it receded back into the stony and clay-filled underground to digest its dinner.
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#10
"...No, I suppose you didn't," he said, a flicker of bitterness coiling around his heart at hearing the words of his 'basement buddies' affirmed by the Queen. She had never thought of him as an equal, apparently. No wonder Remi was so disappointed in him for being too trusting of the wrong person at the wrong time. He was a hypocrite several times over, and the knowledge twisted in his gut like live eels. They had burned each other, it would seem, and he wasn't sure even time would salve these newest wounds.

"Schemes, Edy? We didn't exactly hide that we were angry. You're more than smart enough to know that I wasn't the only one resisting Zariah's takeover. When the three of us sat down together we would have..." he trailed off, knowing the words were useless guesswork. At the time he had been too hesitant of a trap to risk revealing the rebels' official existence, and he still didn't regret that. It had been instinct, but instinct that Edrei herself had confirmed when she reported that the Manor had ears in the walls. Either way, she was too angry to listen to what he had to say, and anything he said could only dig the hole deeper.

Her parting words stung, echoes of Amalia's angry accusations still ringing in his ears and he flinched from the truth of it. "Edy..." he started to say, a note of pleading in his voice.

And then it happened again.

Last time it had been a snowy night. This time it was a sunny afternoon. Either way, the result was the same. By the time Jigano realized what was happening the landshark was already diving again. He had no magic that would hurt it, no form large enough to fight it, but still he flung himself after the disappearing behemoth, digging furiously at the molehill with hands that took in the claws and pads of a fox's paws as he shoved the dirt away. Isuma shrieked in concert with the howl of his heart as she bounded across the fallen leaves to join him, small talons aiding him imperfectly.

"Edy! Edy, gods, don't you dare-- EDYYYY!"


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