testosterone&&dread

[Casche]

Wow. What has happened to this place? As I wander the island, a portion of which I have been appointed to protect, I find myself apalled at the state of ruin to which this once prosperous and thriving land has fallen into. The whole snow-smothered, life-lacking, frozen, abandoned look doesn't flatter my Naikou whatsoever. I have been hearing rumors lately that a beastly creature slithered his way into the land, infiltrating the minds of the Leaders. And at the same time, I have begun to notice things...dying. Of course, I'm not stupid, things always seem to wither and dissolve into the icy earth during the winter months...but animals that usually slumber softly through this time, and others that peacefully meander the grounds have been turning up in all states of physical dismemberment. I recently came across the mangled, raven-foraged corpse of a putrid young black bear, a few years old. The poor dear had clearly been involved in a horrific fight; as I began to wonder what such creature would destroy her in said violent manner, I nearly tripped over the scarred, bleeding form of an old, crippled wolf. Instinct overcame me and I briskly swept myself away, but I knew that the two usually non-invasive varmints had been involved in quite a struggle. Do you see what I'm getting at? The balance in our world has been offset. It's so thick in the air, in places, I can hardly breathe. And I can feel these changes within me, as well. I am the Head Warrior of Neutrals, the General, so, naturally, I am neither a supporter nor a defamer of Lights and Darks. But in the considerably dreary past few months, my soul has been getting heavier and heavier, my emotions depressed and negative, my energy gone, my life draining. I feel like one of those starfish, lying forlorn on the slushy shores of my adopted home, Torrid Cove, with just enough water to live, but nigh too little to die. I am stuck in some sort of limbo...I feel like I am positively drowning.


And now that I have sturdily convinced you of my insanity...


I travel in what you could easily call a drunken stupor, my foggy-gray hooves dragging over scathing flagstones and getting caught up in all kinds of trouble, brought around by umpteen-million roots of retarded old trees, the stiff tenticles seeking the water that the surface once promised. Often times, my pale head would be found to be at quite the proud height, amber eyes alert and seeking danger. Now, as I stumble haphazardly up the narrow, snow-drifted mountain passages, my valiant crown is decrepid, hanging skew from the lithe ground, my visuals dull, careless, lifeless.

'Why is this happening??'

I command answers from my vast subconcious, though I know its hidden vaults will share no satisfying answers with my "living" mind. Why is this once brilliant world falling apart so quickly, right in front of my eyes??

"Give me answers, Goddammit! Tell me why!"

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I cease movemnt, a sheer wall of rock to port, an omenous drop to the bases of the Karuo Mountains to starboard. I fling my spinning skull to the Heavens, the Angels of which have so hastily and readily abandoned us. A frustration, disgust, sadness is so filling my soul and my eyes, it deeply frightens me. A horrific vigor encompasses me. My mouth flies agape, a scream born in anger and angst hurtling from the most rejected depths of my shivering body, projected with the power of a score of tortured mares, echoing harshly around the snowy peaks, but even more relentlessly within my own mind.

I am spiraling; I know I am supposed to be the strong one here, for all of those back at Torrid and the Glade. But this is just too much. This land is going downhill. Fast.

I hold my pose for several moments, the moist particles of saliva on my tongue crystalizing at an antagonizingly slow pace, my head angled in such a dejectedly hopeless manner, this 'God' must have seen and heard me by now.

"...Where has my Naikou gone?"

ooc;;
poopy. utter poopy.

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[Vogue Mode]

She'd long ago grown bored of Liberty Peak. Most of the mares had drained from the place for some reason, and she could seem to find Wandering Spirit anywhere. So, lonely little Vogue Mode sought company elsewhere, beyond the Light territories that she had seen too many times. She had worn her poor hooves hidden by milky curtains of feathering down quite a bit before she'd reached the place she thought she'd find the most interesting conversation: the Karuo Mountains. Vogue had been here once before, but then it was desolate and empty, and nobody seemed interested in the beautiful landscape. However, after the rumors of a sinister black stallion reaping the horses of their senses across the island yanked her attention towards Karuo like thrusting a naive dog along on a chain.

Sure, it was terribly cold, but something else seemed to be killing the land. It had gotten worse as she approached the mountains with peaks blanketed with white like an appaloosa. No wonder some of the animals she'd seen earlier seemed so jumpy... everything was falling apart like an old rotting carcass. And the prim mare certainly did not like dead things, not at all. Not only did they make her organs do cartwheels, but they frightened her like nothing else. You had to admit Vogue was a pretty fearless girl, but when it came to stepping through a land where the life seeped right out of everything, even the soft grind of the snow beneath her hooves made her spook.

The petite Vanner sighed as she made her way up the winding peaks, seeming discouraged though her head remained high on her lean neck and sinewy shoulders. She hadn’t seen anything alive for hours, and her gentle legs easily grew tired in the deep snow. Snowflakes gathered on her gorgeous black and white coat were constantly shaken off as she stopped to rid herself of the pesky things. Vogue was horrified to see that they hadn’t the slightest concern for her wonderful appearance. Humph! How dare those silly little bits of snow, she thought, snorting as she paused to shake herself again.

Anyone would perk up at the earth shattering sound of a scream, but Vogue literally jolted into the air, rearing up slightly and rattling her head to clear her vision. It was as if the cool, calm pool of water that was her mind had been upset by someone jumping into it, and for a moment her vision blurred. Luckily she recovered from the start quickly and couldn’t be seen by others. She moved on, towards where she had heard the shriek. She couldn’t tell if it had come from a mare or a stallion, and the cold had long since dulled her sense of smell to nothing, so she had to plough onwards to find the equine. She halted when she heard the source of the sound speak. He asked where Naikou had gone. Vogue decided then to step out, making sure to get her coat clean first.

“Hell, that’s where it’s gone.” the mare spoke, her voice not quite as marvelous as it was in the summer days. But she still had that intrigued, beautiful look about her, like a small child who had been through far much more than passerby would get an impression of. ”Or at least, that’s my two bits worth.” she said casually, shrugging and grimacing slightly to make it seem she didn’t think her opinion didn’t really matter at all and, for all she cared, only this stranger’s thoughts did. He was gray, like the winter sky, though he seemed to contain so much more emotion than those ridiculous clouds that hid her beloved, the sun. With thinly veiled interest, she looked the stallion up and down, observing, studying, absorbing. She wasn’t sure what to think of this one.

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[Casche]

This land had long ago lost its bright, new-world charm. Its novelty, if you will. The novelty of a calm new place, welcoming you with the loving embrace of the warm summer winds that never seemed to stop dancing throughout the whole of the island that Naikou had become infamous for. These icy, murderous mountains had long ago lost their rugged, wild beauty that the equines that infested the once warm land had once adored. Now, any remote tendril of life had been torn mercilessly from the cliffsides or smothered by the deafening palatte of snow. The frozen stallion that stood within his own solid ocean of solitude had long ago lost the will to hear the silently screaming planet around him, let alone the mere ability. The gale screeched around the slate wall he had scaled in the past few....How long have I been up here?? Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months--they all bleed together into a big pool of stinky sticky, sanguinated sameness now. This typhonic wind has robbed me of my vital senses: deafened to any approaching carnivores by the howling wind; blinded to any sudden movements by the snow racing past and into me. Nor can I feel or smell anything, for the air can be no more than five degrees, blistering my toned gray flesh and deflowering my tender pink nostrils. Well, I'll be damned! I've been desensitized! And after all these years pushing against the constant censorship of all things important by those of 'higher authority', here I am--everything around me has been obscured, all of my senses dulled, morphing the generally sharp, detailed mosaic within my mind into the blurred, bleak mess I see now. Crap. I have no idea where I'm going, let alone what to do.

A thick layer of snow has manifested on all Heaven-facing facets of my body. Ugh. I fail to supress a violent shiver, almost seizure-like in its jittery quality. Thus, the cold, melty blanket issue is solved and forever vanquished. Well...vanquished at least until the next fifteen minutes pass. I entomb my tawny eyes and shield my sensitive cherry nose, arching my dappled, veiny neck in a somewhat elegant manner; far too elegant for any portion or this land; just sorrowful enough for all of it.

I won't lie; I was once a pleasant beast. But, I guess, when an island this big goes down, it has the ability to take every one and thing with it. Some that knew me back when might assume that I was considering a final submission to the damned spectrum. Too bad no one knew me back when; no one knows me at all. I've been acquainted with the Master Neutral, Saence. And his tastes come across as too bland for the warhorse I am, Neutral Warrior. And too bad I'm not swaying in any direction. Yes, I am sad. Yes, I am deeply destraught. Yes--what was that??

"Hell, that's where it's gone"

I started at the sudden whisper flickering past my pinned ears--where did it come from? My sense of direction has been so terribly warped by the echoing, scathing nor'easter. Her voice...It had already been blazened into my shivering mind. It was a soft sanctuary in this Hellish whirlpool of iciness, a monastery for my sense of hearing to take solace in. Her voice had been such a faint outburst in this constant roar; was she even real? My head spins around with such momentum, I fear for a moment that I have just condemned myself to a solitary flying lesson off the edge of this precarious rocky face. All around me is peircing, blinding white, and I see no other touch of blessed color. I glance down for a moment, giving my tired eyes a moment's rest. How long has it been since I last slept, anywho?
"Keep it together, bud. That's not the matter at hand, now is it?"
I surprise myself at my own ability to clearly articulate my thoughts in all of this mess.
Now. 'The matter at hand'. Find this girl. As I'm glancing down, I realize that, if she, as I assumed she had, heard me, she could most definitely not see me. Right? I mean...I am pretty much camoflauged against the worst. Right? Whatever.
I glance back up. I cannot see her, so I figure if I can weasel another angelic whisper out of her, it'll all be smooth sailing. So to speak.
'Or, at least, that's my two bits' worth'
There she was again! This whisper was more faint, as if she had moved farther away. Damn! My cranium swings back up, visuals wide and ready for action. As I sought for any physical sign of her presence, it was not clear to myself whether I sought the owner of this voice for comradeship, or for the mere fact that there was something alive out here.
There! A quick, glaring speck of mocha-brown, bright against the heavy, pasty-white snowfall for a second or two. I commence movement towards the brown-ness. I stop when, according to the freckle I had seen, I assume I'm an acceptable distance away.
"To Hell, or to the dogs?"

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My voice surprises me: it contains a measure and degree of firmness, warmth, sincerity that I have not been able nor willing to partake in for many a year. I guess that's a good thing...
My mouth awakens yet again, a warm, moist chasm. I hope that same voice stays and visits for a while.
"Not that one is ever better than the other."

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[Vogue Mode]

Her least concern was seeing the stallion. She could see him; her eyes were sharp. But only a shape, a pulse of life. His voice was what kept Vo inching forward, eager to get a better glimpse of this creature. He'd answered... the way horses were so cold these days, she was surprised. It was as if in this deep, lonely winter, someone else was already surging towards the long yearned for vernal equinox. And again, the stranger further lowered the fascinated mare's defenses with what exactly he said. He didn't agree... he questioned her. Instantly a cunning reply came to mind, and she blurted it out comfortably.

"Actually, I think one is better than the other." she pointed out.
"You see, if it had gone to hell, there would be no escaping. Who ever escaped hell? But if it had gone to the dogs... well, nobody ever said what these dogs were like. Perhaps they were kind dogs, and they'd set us free back into real existence..." Vogue trailed off, but followed up her theory with an idea that had popped into her head after she had thought through the metaphor she was attempting to mold into the stallion's mind.

"...that is, for a price."

If you really did think about it, Vogue was putting a slight riddle into her words. Either the island would never break free of this sudden empty state, or it would some day burst back to life... but not without making any sacrifices. After she'd pondered her words, Vogue chuckled. Her laugh was bright, seeming to illuminate the air.

"So, perhaps it has gone to the dogs? Ooo, you're sharp aren't you? You managed to catch me off guard!" the mare giggled blithely. She continued to put off inquiring a name. She didn't need names to have a nice, warm conversation. It was just like eating at an unfamiliar restaurant. If the service wasn't very fine, she wouldn't care to know what the place was called, as she'd never visit it again. But if she was impressed, of course she would request the name, and then give hers so that she, too, could be recognized in return.

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