valravn [ return ]

[adomania]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 55%; line-height:115%; text-align: justify;font-family: calibri;"]They couldn't really remember the last time they had been here. On one hand, it felt like they were gone for nothing more than a few days at most, while on the other they could barely recall more than a handful of names that drew them back to the Ascendants. Myliu remembered Gabriel, and a little bit about Moon and Imperia... but beyond that, faces blurred into those that marred his vision most of the time, and it was hard to distinguish what was part of his mind and what had been real. To spare himself the trouble, the wolf had decided to believe that everything other than that he explicitly remembered was a dream.

They remembered the Ascendants, though. They remembered the title that they had been given (someone had to explain it to him meticulously before he understood even a word of what they were saying) and that a few people who Myliu considered close (not friends... that word was still not in his mental dictionary) had lived here. If they still lived there was another matter entirely, but the child had never been one to wallow in the past or self pity. There were too many things actively going on inside of his head as it was, and there was little room left for things like history. There was the present, and the rest would eventually fade away like it already had.

But the important things stayed, and they carried the wolf's paws back to the place that had taken him in when he was much smaller and far more gullible. He was older now, and capable of much more than he had been before... but he was still the same Myliu, and his vocabulary, although slowly expanding, was still quite small. He was wild. That was just how he had been raised, and at this point it was hard to get something like that out of him. That didn't make him any less happy to see the familiar lands before him, though. That was still all genuine.

They didn't smile, but their violet eyes shone beneath the shawl they wore around their neck. The spirits hummed gently around him, a comforting buzz that didn't war with the echoes of his past, and finally, with one sharp bark, Myliu announced his presence at the border, hoping someone familiar would come around to jumpstart his memory.

[agathe.]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; color;"]The pain in her head had yet to subside but she supposed that that was to be expected. Settling, from what she had heard, was not a fun process and even more than that, one that had crept up on her all too quietly. Only matrons were permitted to settle and cast aside mortality, not heirs. By witchling definition, she was still considered the latter, the blue-blood that raced in her veins not yet blessed by a divine priestess. And yet, it felt like her goddess herself had bestowed upon her this gift for becoming a different type of matron- the type that wasn't a matron at all. She hadn't dared to question it, merely accepting this strange development as if it were no different than the plethora of other surprises that had fallen upon her in the recent days. The will of her goddess would be made clear soon enough, she was sure of it.

Despite the throbbing ache in the back of her head (and in her back, she realized with a silent groan), Agathe found herself doing her regular rounds of the territory. That idle buzz had, thankfully, dissipated and she was left feeling freer from its confines than she had in days. It almost made the headache bearable. Almost. She was drawn from her thoughts almost immediately as she heard a sharp bark, golden eyes blinking a few times as she hurtled back to reality. A joiner? Or just a lost visitor? Whatever was the source of the sound, she figured that it was her responsibility to investigate.

It didn't take long for the cloaked individual to arrive before them, expression impassive as she casually studied them. Agathe had not been a member of the Ascendants when Myliu was here last, only just having joined three weeks ago herself. It was strange to think that so much had transpired in such a small window of time, but those thoughts had to be saved for another time- a time when she wasn't dealing with outside affairs. "What is your name and why are you here?" The snow leopard would inquire quietly, rearing gracefully upon her haunches, "This is the Ascendants territory and my name is Agathe."

[GABRIEL]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size: 9.4pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Myliu Gabriel remembered well. He remembered most -if not all- of the young faces under his wings, and when Myliu had disappeared, he had hoped they'd found...something. A better life elsewhere, maybe, and lately, the faces that had left a while ago seemed like they were probably in a better position, wherever they were, considering recent events. Gabriel couldn't find it in himself to care anymore, though. He hadn't eaten in a while, merely went back and forth between the graves, until his shape was as great a part of them as Laz and Moon were. The only difference was he still breathed, more or less. Beyond that, he was just their ghost, haunting them both, and a reunion was far, far from his mind. He was convinced that all the people he had known were either dead or gone- almost the same thing, really. Either way, Gabriel was alone to wither as he saw fit, leaving a trail of molted feathers in his wake like a breadcrumb path of mindless mourning. He wouldn't pretend he wasn't pathetic.

Gabriel was on another circuit between them when he heard Agathe's voice. He slowed, hollow stare shifting in her direction, though it was the figure she spoke to that had him stopping entirely. He couldn't be certain, not when it was entirely likely for Gabriel to simply project memories onto strangers' faces, but he started approaching before he could convince himself to move on. This couldn't be Myliu, could it? The small, scraggy kid Gabe nearly drowned for when dragging them out of the lake? And then Myliu had covered both their asses.

"Myliu?" His voice wasn't the most pleasant of sounds, hoarse as it was.
[align=right][i]——INFO

[adomania]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 55%; line-height:115%; text-align: justify;font-family: calibri;"]Myliu never cared much about gods. He believed in them, though not those that most claimed to believe in, but they had never been there for the man to care much about them. The gods would exist, and they would die, and Myliu would still exist, and then die as well when the voices stopped caring about him in turn. He didn't pray to some higher power for his survival; that was all just his own skill and prowess. Gods had nothing to do with it.

Or maybe they did. Who was he to say?

Either way, whether it be gods or fate or just coincidence, Agathe was the first to arrive on the scene, a leopardess not unlike some Myliu had seen before in both real life and visions. He watched her appear, violet gaze hooded and subconsciously turning wary, tail tip twitching nervously the closer she got. He didn't know if she was alive, or if she was just another one of the visions... and for safety reasons, the elected to believe the latter. It wasn't uncommon for new spirits to tag along on occasion, to speak to him in strange riddles and ways that seemed to make them all more alive than they actually were.

He chose to ignore her, not only because he didn't know if she could be trusted, but because half of the words she said didn't make sense to him to begin with. He vaguely remembered the word 'name,' as well as the name of the place he was in... but beyond that, the question fell on deaf ears. He grunted in response, gaze averting non-threateningly towards the side, waiting for something else to come, something he remembered and knew was alive.

Myliu didn't mourn. Sadness was a fleeting feeling in their heart, quick to either fade away completely or turn into a burning fire within their soul. Myliu knew anger, not soft nostalgia. He was a child who had never learned how to be gentle, and it was obvious when he had do face emotions stronger than the neutrality he was usually surrounded by. The wildness in his heart paired with visions that impaired his ability to think a lot of the time didn't mix well with reality and controlled emotional responses.

Perhaps Myliu wasn't trained in being gentle, but that didn't mean he didn't care. They weren't in tune with their own emotions as well as others were, but worry still managed to slip itself in between his ribs, furrowing the young man's brows together as he continued to peer at Gabriel from underneath the shawl that had replaced the skull he had been known to previously wear. A moment of silence passed, their gaze briefly slipping back towards Agathe, but still convinced she was nothing more than a vision, he returned his gaze back towards the one individual he knew was real.

"Gabriel..." their voice was much smoother than it had been before, breaking free of the yolk of childhood into something far more soothing and melodic. It was a stark contrast to the man's own rasp, but Myliu didn't seem to mind the grate, a hesitant smile splitting their features. His voice didn't matter - it was still Gabe beneath that, no matter how tired he seemed to be.

Another silence fell, but it was a calmer one as Myliu filtered through different phrases and words in his head, trying to search for something that would explain his reasoning for being at the doorstep of the Ascendant's territory. It took them a while (they hadn't needed to speak for a good few weeks now, and being so unaccustomed to speech to begin with made it hard to retain such memory), but eventually the words appeared, and he spoke.

"I return," the broken English was understandable enough, even if grammar wasn't his strong suit, and he hoped that Gabriel (or Agathe, depending on how real she was or wasn't) wouldn't give him hell for it. Talking was hard, and Myliu didn't quite feel like throwing a tantrum the moment he arrived because of something as simple as frustration.

[emil]

[align=center][div style="width: 600px; padding: 10px; height: auto; overflow: auto;"][div style="width: 550px; padding: 0px; line-height: 13px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;"]Loverboy was not a believer in many things. Gods, deities, divine beings that some people sought out thinking they might make their life better. It was a nice sentiment, and he had grown up in a home with a mother that believed in higher forces; for a time, he too had taken up this belief, but as time went on such faded. It disappeared completely when his mother passed away. She was a good woman, hadn't done a single bad deed in all her life, and yet she was taken from him when he was so young and she had so much potential. Loverboy didn't want to believe in a god who took good people early.

Fate, destiny, coincidences, and things of that sort, he didn't see much appeal in. All things seemed good in theory, like love at first sight; oh, how the boy had always dreamed of falling in love, but whenever he found someone that caught his eye something seemed to happen. Perhaps he just had bad luck or brought bad luck to others. Black cats had a reputation for that, didn't they? Maybe being a big black cat just amplified it. Still, such things didn't matter. It wasn't fate that brought him to the border then, merely his own decision to go along walking.

He caught sight of Agathe and two others he didn't know, standing around and speaking. With piqued curiosity the panther approached. He paused beside the astral seraph and offered her a smile, then settled his attention on the one that didn't smell of the Ascendants. He'd barely caught their name as he had been wandering over. Myliu. It was certainly unique. He was quiet for a moment, before clearing his throat and offering a big smile to the apparent returning member. "Hey! Welcome back!" The boy said lightly. "I like your name. I'm Loverboy, or Lou, if you want. Does Myliu have a meaning?"

/ this is shit :pensive:

[adomania]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 55%; line-height:115%; text-align: justify;font-family: calibri;"]Love was likewise not something that Myliu thought often of. There really wasn't a lot of room for anything but survival inside of the man's head, urging him to continue living as he had been. He didn't know what love was; he didn't even know the word. It was too soft and gentle a feeling for him to bother with, however. Myliu didn't recall ever feeling anything like that long enough for it to make a difference.

He supposed he loved his mother, way back when, although that was more common sense than feeling. He didn't remember his mother, not like most people did. She was nothing more than a face, screaming at him to run. As tave Myliu. I love you.

How ironic that he had grow up not knowing what his name even meant, and that it was not a name but the last broken mantra his mother spoke.

But Myliu wouldn't mourn things he never understood. He wouldn't mourn the love he never had, he wouldn't mourn the dead at his feet. He would live, he would be, and then he would not be. There were too many feelings to understand with everything else, and the man already had enough on his plate as it was. Like his return.

Another face appeared, getting closer every second. He turned a wary eye towards the silhouette, a soft chuff leaving his throat, a subtle hint that gave away his mounting discomfort. Crowds were still high up on the list of things Myliu didn't like, and although this was still far from a crowd, it was starting to become bigger, and inevitably would become big enough to be a threat. His gaze flickered from Gabriel, to Agathe, to the newest stranger in rapid succession, before returning to Gabriel with a silent plea. Then, when Lou was close enough, Myliu's violet eyes settled back on him, ears and body occasionally twitching as it begged to flee the scene.

There were too many words being thrown at him that he didn't understand, each of them grating against his nerves more so than the last. Myliu didn't like those who were too talkative, the headaches that plagued him coming back a thousandfold when people thought it'd be easy to hold a conversation with the maladapted adult. He didn't know anything beyond his name, everything else too fast and too complicated to pick out individually. He couldn't help but press his lips back into the faintest semblance of a snarl, violet eyes flashing a warning at Lou before flickering back to Gabriel, a hidden plea beneath them. A few seconds passed, then with a soft, low whine starting deep in Myliu's throat, he murmured the only word he could at the moment, obviously directed at Gabriel due to his body all but leaning towards the older man. "Help."

// no its not im love you