by CallieO on Fri Oct 29, 2021 10:06 pm
Ascalante` wanders the edge of a lake, his deep blue cloak like a cloud around him, the hood obscures his face. The Mariner moves silent as a wraith, his feet barely seem to contact the loathsome earth as he wanders seemingly aimlessly. Ascalante looks towards home across the lake… deep blue sea eyes reflect another blue, but this one no hue can do justice to for the soul of the mariner is blue with a deep emotion of loss and pain though his face seems carved of stone. He keeps moving not speaking or doing anything more than wandering.
Ascalante`` stops between the waterrline and the treeline looking east towards the place where the one he lvoed so vanmished to.. he didnt understand.. it was something hard to fathom why one would abandon their home to 'go home'.
Aubrey had been walking all too long and when she saw the big blue lake spread out before her, she gasped with joy running towards it. She couldn’t wait till she could feel the cool crisp water on her skin. she slowed up some when she saw someone standing at the water’s edge but she still reaches down taking off her sandals as she comes to a stop beside him "beautiful evening isn’t it sir" she smiles at him softly her long reddish pink hair cascading over her shoulders. the girl was dressed in a simple white sundress and stepped forward a few steps to dip her toes in the cool water of the lake sending ripples along its calm surface.
About fifty yards from the shore of the lake, on the same side that Ascalante was currently roaming, some lumber was arranged as if for a campfire, but the person who put the wood together was not there. However, she soon comes into view from the forest: A silver-furred, single-tailed vulpine woman with maroon hands, feet and tail-tips, wearing leather armor, brown leggings and boots, with a
dagger strapped to her left side, and carrying a dead opossum by its tail in her right hand. She doesn't smile, nor does she sway in any manner that could be considered feminine-- yet despite that, her aura had a certain husky attractiveness about it. Having not yet seen the human or human-form mermaid nearby, she sits down at the fire, and begins the slow process of skinning the meat for her dinner.
Aubrey smiles back at him "It’s better when its deep and cold…" She giggles softly and gives him a more concerned look content at the moment to just dip her feet into the water. "Are you alright sir… you seem.. sad if it’s my place to say so…" she blinked at him slightly taking him in "I am Aubrey sir… it’s nice to meet you."
Ascalante`` catches this movement… he would turn so both women stood in his line of sight… he doesnt seem threatened, not at all, simply guarded… it goes not change his basic demeanor at all. "well, its a long story but yes, there is a deep heavy sadness gripping my heart… my wife just left me," he says, turning away from them now unable to bear letting them see the ripples of emotion that tear through his visage like a knife.
Aubrey she steps forward towards him "oh sir .. i am so sorry is there anything this one can do to help.." she looked as if she might cry herself taking another soft step towards him reaching out to take ahold of his hands giving him a soft smile "you know what always makes me feel better... a nice long swim.. will you come with me?" she tilts her head to the side again looking up at his face.
I cannot.. My god has forsaken me when his Priestess did.. but thank you. * Ascalante says smiling a little. " I will be content to stand and watch you swim, perhaps it will ease my mind some.”
Aimee looks up towards the human's face as she belatedly spots him and the girl, and she's about to extend some brief sympathetic words before the girl beats Aimee to it. Truth be told, while Aimee was certainly sympathetic to people in pain, she couldn't muster up an *enormous* amount of sympathy for the man-- for starters, she didn't know him, and secondly, she herself had been married once, a marriage that had been *forcefully* ended when her husband and second litter of children had been murdered in front of her on that dark day, fifty-five years ago. She still had the nightmares, which would never go away if she lived to be 900. Aimee chuckles sardonically as the girl tries to cheer him up by... trying to seduce him...? Typical young person. When Ascalante declines, Aimee offers, "Sit with me then, if you'd like. I'd welcome company." Hers was a voice that matched her appearance: A deep alto, husky, not lyrical. But her body language was relatively friendly and absolutely non-threatening as she continues her task.
Ascalante`` would turn to Aimee`Sarasine a moment then looks to Aubrey. “I'll be sitting over there… when you are done please, come join us.” He says then with a small but formal bow he walks towards Aubrey. "Sure thing. Seems to me you are both new to these parts, though. So easily enamored with the stranger element of this place…”
Aubrey smiled and pulled on his arm a little "gods can not forsake the feeling the water brings.." she stood looking over at the vulpine girl in slight shock she hadn’t seen her there at all and it surprised her. She seemed to lose interest in the man in front of her focusing on the girl sitting by the fire. she had never seen anyone so.. fuzzy. she smiled sweetly at her "evening ma'am.. "
Ascalante`` doesn’t actually sit by the fire but away from it a good length-- a swirl of mist gives way why, he picks it up and shoos it aside but it seems to follow him like a stray dog: the Hydro-Knight was definitely one of a billion.
Aubrey looks at the two then back at the lake then back at the two. she seemed to not beable to deside where she wanted to go finally the lake won the internal battle that was raging in her mind "oh... alright... i'm going for a swim then.. both are welcome to join me if you wish.. " she peels off that white sundress then slipping out of her panties before sliding into the water completely naked.
The water changed her, her legs forming into a long tail with fins as the mermaid enjoyed the water
Aimee acknowledges Aubrey's salutation with a curt nod and the word "Vizhra," [Vulpani: "Greetings"] and then, as Aubrey strips naked, jumps into the lake and changes to mermaid form, Aimee replies to Ascalante's comment about-- ha!-- her relative inexperience. "Easily enamored? Hardly, my rowen'yajani friend." [Vulpani: "Short-lifer"] "One forest and lake looks much like any other. I go wherever the food goes." Aimee hardly reacts to Aubrey's nudity; she was a vulpine, after all, and they were among the most sexually liberal races on earth. Besides which, Aimee wasn't attracted to women. Continuing to skin the opossum, Aimee barely even looks at what she's doing; she was experienced enough in it that she can look at Ascalante while she does her work.
“Hmm. True but further west things are much rougher,” Ascalante says pulling out his pipe and lighting it. “300 miles west of here is…well, it’s a city unlike any in the Empire which is why it is capital I suppose.”
Aubrey takes a long refreshing swim staying under for longer than breath normally would allow. she was excited and happy she had been walking so long she felt as if she might dry out. when she had enough of the crisp cool water she pulled herself back on the shore her legs reforming from the tail to dangle in the water slightly before standing. She pulled a cloth from her bag she used to sleep on dry off with and many, many other things to dry herself off before redressing and rejoining the two by the fife her long hair still damp clinging to her shoulder and back.
—NOT YET POSTED—
"'Rougher.'" Aimee shakes her head very slightly, chuckles and smiles slightly, clearly amused by what an imperial citizen considered to be 'the mean streets'. She'd been to Nanthalion for the first time about two hundred years ago to celebrate a relative's wedding, and again about twenty years ago, and though the buildings and people had changed, and the borders had expanded, it was still, at its heart, just a city. The people there didn't live off the land like they had in her home village of Ilrino. They bought and traded for what they needed; hell, the food and drinks were included with the price of a room at the inn! Aimee considered Nanthalionians to be contented, lazy and dull. Finally, she opines, "No... *I* come from a rough part of the world. Imperials don't know what 'rough' *means*."
--New roleplay, with Kerianna--
The still air near the edge of the lake suddenly shifts, a slight breeze, a feel as if lightning were about to strike that would raise one's hairs - a moment later, seemingly from nowhere, a cocoon-like bubble of black energy shot through with purple lightning comes into being with a soft thud of displaced air. It whirls rapidly, but slows just as fast, separating into individual ribbons of shadow as it does so, each of which dissipate into the air like so much smoke to reveal the fire-maned sorceress, clad in a sultrily cut cheongsam, black with silvery floral accenting and gold edging, tight to show her body off to best effect and paired with white stockings with lacy tops and strappy black heeled sandals, a few pieces of jewelry glimmering against her creamy skin and that snug dress. She blinks, arching a brow and tilting her head a bit, plush crimson-stained lips pursing, one arm lifting to cross beneath her breasts to the opposite elbow, her other hand lifting to tap a manicured nail at her bottom lip as she gazes about...
An hour or so after meeting Ascalante and Aubrey, Aimee's meal of opossum meat, onaberries and water lay out before her, and she eats slowly, savoring each bite, wishing she had a little bit of pepper to season the meat with, but really, it wasn't all that bad. Opossum, like three-fourths of the animals she'd ever eaten, tasted more like chicken than anything else. The fireplace was crackling nicely, sharing its warmth, light and comfort, and the silver-furred, single-tailed vulpine sat cross-legged a few feet from it, eating her meal. As Kerianna appears out of nowhere, Aimee's lightning-fast hand is already on the hilt of the dagger at her left side, the opossum drumstick set back down on a simple clay plate. But she doesn't draw her weapon, or give any other sign of feeling threatened, being disturbed or for that matter even being surprised. Instead, she gives the elven woman a quick once-over, and comments, "Pata calin." [Vulpani: "Nice entrance."]
Kerianna turns emerald eyes to the vulpine woman at that, blinking a moment at the hand on her weapon, her own sword left home - she hadn't exactly intended on popping out into the middle of nowhere after all, but spell research does have its...peculiarities. "Only a few dozen miles off course." she replies with a little chuckle in the woman's language, her dialect rather more proper than necessary, particularly for her casual tone, but easily understandable. "At any rate, well met...I am Kerianna Anrithar." she says, sauntering a bit close and curtsying before the woman.
"Aimee Sarasiné," the vulpine introduces herself, her eyebrows raising just slightly in surprise that Kerianna knew Vulpani. She'd met only a handful of non-vulpines who had bothered to learn the language, outside of people who'd come to her village to trade. She continues the conversation in Vulpani, but using the commoners' dialect of Utara. "Come, sit and sup with me; I'd welcome company. And you don't have to address me in Roshara; I work for a living." Aimee chuckles lightly at that.
Kerianna blinks, blushing slightly and laughing softly, but giving a nod, moving to sit with Aimee. "Forgive me - I'm still learning the language." she says with a little chuckle, a quick breath of arcane words, a flick of fingers, and she lifts a piece of the animal - she can't tell what it is, never having been particularly trained in wilderness lore - with fingers of magic to her own slender digits. "And sorry to have dropped in unannounced like that." she adds, taking a small bite of the creature.
"No worries," Aimee replies casually; she'd removed her hand from her dagger shortly after Keri had introduced herself, and now had her left hand lifting her cup of water to her mouth. "To answer the first, you speak better Vulpani than most et'vulpine I've ever met," she says with a smirk, "and to answer the second, if you were many miles off course, it would naturally preclude the possibility of a... what would the humans call it... an RSVP." Aimee chuckles, taking a sip of the water, and then eating some berries.
Kerianna laughs and nods, floating a cup of water to herself as well and washing down another bite with a small sip. "Well thank you. And yes, I suppose it would." she says with a chuckle, a smirk. "It seems that trying to expand the area of the mana bubble before dimensionally shifting along the ambient ley lines makes precise targeting for a re-emergence onto the material plane rather more difficult than usual." she adds, another little laugh, a shake of her head, lifting a hand to hook a few errant strands of scarlet behind a tapered ear and not seeming to realize that one who doesn't spend their days toying with arcane energy probably wouldn't understand what she's talking about, at least beyond the general concept.
Halfway through the elf's explanation-- 'ambient ley lines' was about the precise point-- Aimee's expressive grey eyes seem to glaze over, the expression on her face flattening as well as her ears. Through her body and tail-language, one could see that Aimee was confused and a little annoyed. Kerianna seemed to be one of those people who was quite intelligent and didn't have any hesitation in showing off just *how* intelligent she was-- in other words, she fit the mold of the stereotypical mage. At least based on that one sentence; otherwise she seemed friendly enough. After a brief and awkward (but quite deliberate on the vulpine's part) pause, Aimee finally says, "I'll have to take your word for it. Your reality's about magic, physics and study. Mine's about hunting, hard physical work, and blankets." Then, realizing that her words came out harsher than she'd really intended, she amends, "I'm sorry."
Kerianna notices that body language after a moment, blushing a bit then at Aimee's words and biting her bottom lip lightly. "N-no, it's alright...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off as...pretentious..." she purrs, sighing a little. "I was just thinking out loud...I have...more difficulty with this sort of magic than others, at times. My inclinations lead me to shadow magic, you see, and...well, it's...less exact than pure arcane energy." she says, blushing a bit more but feeling she owes the woman an explanation. "I was -trying- to develop a method to teleport myself and a small group, rather than creating a temporary portal, but bubbles of shadowstuff react...strangely, when you try to stretch them too thin. I guess I still need some work if I'm going to surprise my wife with an impromptu getaway..." she says with a soft laugh, glancing away a moment.
Aimee still hears Keri say a few words that she doesn't understand, even though she *is* speaking Vulpani, but finally, the elven woman's last sentence comes, and Aimee can, at least, speak to that, chuckling before she does so. "Oh, I don't know; sounds like an interesting way to literally 'get away from it all.' Besides, your experiment could've gone worse: You could have teleported two hundred miles away from the nearest land, or into the middle of an active volcano."
Kerianna laughs at that and nods, grinning a bit then, almost playfully. "Oh, I have my ways to get out of things like that too. Just in case." she says, winking and taking another bite with a giggle. "So what brings you all the way out here?" she asks after a moment - she'd obviously appeared due to a magical mishap, but the vulpine self-admittedly isn't one for magic, after all...
Vulpines had so many more options to express emotion than most species, that Aimee couldn't help it when her ears laid back again at that question. "'All the way out here...' as opposed to where?" she asks, quite honestly. She wondered if Kerianna even really knew where exactly they were at this moment: about three hundred miles east of Nanthalion, in a large expanse of land known as the Deltivid Expanse, claimed by no nation or kingdom.
Kerianna blinks, tilting her head a little and glancing about for a moment before looking back to Aimee. "Well...out here in the wild...judging by the sun, I'd say a fair distance east of Nanthalion, which leads me to believe this is in the unclaimed lands where the maps aren't exactly meticulously updated." she says, shrugging a little. "As opposed to...well...a settlement, of one sort or another."
"Ah," Aimee says, reaching behind her back and unrolling a scroll of parchment, using the fire to light the lines drawn on it. Aimee uses one of her fingers to point to a specific point on the scroll, which displayed a map of the surrounding area, about a hundred miles in each direction (though the measurement actually *used* was kilometers), with an arrow on the western side of the map that reads, "To Nanthalion: 315 km." "Perhaps *your* maps aren't meticulously updated, but I carefully keep track of mine. It's sort of an occupational necessity."
Kerianna blinks, leaning in a bit to look the map over, eyes widening a bit. "Well now...this...is very good." she says with a little laugh, grinning a bit, then letting her gaze rise to Aimee's eyes. "If you're out here often I suppose it would be. I don't come out this far very much, myself...well, not anymore anyway. I used to travel a lot, but always on trade routes...about the only time I go off them these days is to find some new secluded spot to spirit my wife off to, but I usually can find somewhere closer to home." she says with a little laugh - not to mention that she already knows areas to look to the north, where she spent several decades wandering from place to place as a minstrel.
"Where *do* you normally live?" Aimee asks; judging simply by the woman's demeanor she'd guess Nanthalion, or one of the capitals of another large nation. Aimee had visited four such nations herself, only one of which was on the map, and that, to the extreme far east. It was amazing how each nation's inhabitants seemed to believe their country was the center of the universe.
Kerianna smiles at the question, hand sweeping over the map toward the west...and leaving a shimmering extension of that parchment in its wake, extending to Nanthalion itself, the closer regions and the city's immediate surroundings not simple marks but an actual scale copy of the region. "I live...here..." she breathes, pointing to an impressive tower of white stone slightly northeast of the city, tucked away in the woods and low hills and shimmering as if in the moonlight. "Eldamar..."
"A tower of stone," Aimee says, looking it over-- and memorizing as much of Kerianna's map extension as she can, even though it probably wasn't strictly necessary. 315 kilometers wasn't exactly walking distance, after all. When she speaks again, after two minutes or so, her voice doesn't sound judgmental, but somewhat sad for her new friend. "Don't you ever feel the warm sun on your face, feel the grass beneath your feet, sleep out underneath the stars? Even the material your home is made from was never alive."
Kerianna blinks at that, tilting her head a little and chuckling softly. "Sometimes, when I feel like it. Though I prefer the cool wet sand of a beach in the moonlight." she says with a little grin. "Besides, the tower itself may be made of stone, but there's plenty of forest around it, and a wooden home isn't very practical when you're married to a pyromancer."
Aimee chuckles at that, and takes another sip of water. "No, I don't imagine it would be, at that." The vulpine keeps the map unrolled, even though she's not speaking; she's sitting and staring at it, continuing to absorb as much new information as she can-- which is a considerable amount. She had a natural talent for these sorts of things, and an ingrained curiosity about the world around her, even if she didn't have any use for actual urban life.
Kerianna laughs softly, sipping at her drink as well, then gesturing to the upper left corner of the map, where a shaded area surrounds a red dot. "What's that, if I might ask?" she says, head tilting curiously. "I've never seen anything like that on any of the maps of this region, but then as I said, the ones I've seen aren't particularly meticulously kept..."
Aimee tilts her head to see exactly what Kerianna is pointing at, then her eyes narrow, but not with anger towards her new friend-- anger towards the people whose territory was represented by that shaded region. "Ilrino," she says, her voice wavering just slightly, showing the deep emotion lying just beneath the vulpine's measured, experienced demeanor. "My home village. Or, at least, the area where it *used* to stand. And the shaded area represents the known territory of the people who destroyed it. I make routine reconnaissance trips to the area to see whenever they expand their borders. And they always *do* expand; they never contract."
Kerianna blinks confusedly at first, a slow nod given then at the vulpine's explanation, a soft sigh passing plush lips. "I'm sorry...I didn't know..." she breathes, reaching across to Aimee and laying a comforting hand on her arm. "Was it...recent...?" she asks, not sure what to say...she hates expansionistic regimes, no matter the country...hates the belief that might makes right...
Aimee's tail lowers to the ground in sorrow, her eyes seeming quite far away at the moment, lost in ghastly memories. Gently, she nods in response to Keri's question. "Fifty-five years ago," she replies. Which wasn't recent by human standards, but of course neither Aimee nor Kerianna was limited by such a narrow view of time. "And, heh... when I've told people about it, many assume that it was done by wolven, moriel, chirot, bright-wing Torians." The vulpine shakes her silver-furred head.
Kerianna nods softly, giving Aimee's forearm a soft squeeze. "I would guess humans..." she says softly - she's never known another race to be more expansionistic in as short a time...even goblins tend to raid and pillage but not hold territory. "But whoever it was, I'm sorry for your loss..."
Aimee's eyes widen in surprise at Kerianna's guess: She'd only met a handful of humans in her time, and while she found them, generally speaking, to be comparatively shallow and naïve, she hadn't met one whom she'd peg as having manifest destiny on his or her mind. "No," Aimee says, her lips curling with rage now, as her tail poofs up. "Fellow VULPINES did that."
Kerianna blinks at that, eyes widening - she doesn't know much about vulpines, admittedly, but all of them she's met have been...well, sweet. "Oh gods..." she breathes, swallowing softly and biting her bottom lip. "I...I'm so sorry..." That makes it even -worse-...not that wars within one's own race are unknown - far from it, but somehow it's all the more bitter when they happen...
Aimee's vehemence shows no signs of abating anytime soon. "And it was all over some minor, piddling RELIGIOUS difference! Who the hell *cares* how you worship The Lady?! What's she ever done for ME, anyway?!" Aimee takes a few deep, calming breaths, realizing she's close to tears or, worse, driving off her friend, and says, "I'm sorry. I'm one of the only vulpine atheists I've ever met. But it's hard to have faith in a goddess that nurtures your people and guides your footsteps when you've seen your husband tortured and beaten until I couldn't *recognize* him... watched as my sons were forced to rape my daughters... butchering them just long enough after the orgasm to make their last moments as shameful as possible... and then finally being raped countless times myself, beaten, and left for dead as my village burned all around me." Goddess, it was *all* coming back to her, now. One of the great blessings, or curses, of vulpines was their long memory. She literally couldn't see the present-day world right now; it was like she was watching a movie of these events inside her head. It hadn't been this intense in... years, apart from the actual nightmares she had.
Kerianna winces at Aimee's recounting, her eyes wetting at the thought...what would she do, if it had happened to her? She doesn't even know...she'd probably be dead after having tortured enough of them as horribly as she could think to that she was considered enough threat to put serious resources into eliminating... She gives a soft nod, swallowing and rising on her knees, leaning over to lightly wrap vineworked arms around the vulpine's shoulders and give her a soft hug. "That's horrible...just..." she trails off...such people shouldn't be allowed to live...should have their own cruelty magnified a hundredfold and turned back on them...
The feeling of another person's arms around her-- a once-familiar feeling that she hadn't had in too long-- brings Aimee back to the present, and her own arms, and tail, wrap around Kerianna. Then, amazingly considering her frame of mind a moment ago, she actually chuckles sardonically. "Jeez, Louise. What the heck am I doing-- *crying*?" She rolls her eyes at her own weakness. But it wasn't exactly as if there was anyone else to see it, nor had she had much company in the past four decades or so, no one to really vent to.
Kerianna gives the woman a soft squeeze, hand rising to gently stroke fingers through Aimee's hair, a little laugh of her own at the vulpine's words. "Everyone does, sometimes...it's only natural, when you experience something...painful..." she says softly, another little squeeze given.
"Yeah," Aimee says, even as she manages to compose herself more fully. Gently pulling away from Kerianna's embrace, she takes another sip of water, and then dips her fingers into her cup, using the water to wash her face a little bit, around her eyes. "Anyway: That... devastation, that abomination, I would find out upon recovering, was one of a series of events that all occurred in the same week. The Otala Tribe decided they'd end the five-year war against our people, the Karalinka, by simply putting an end to the Karalinka entirely. Where my tribe once numbered in the tens of thousands, only about twenty of us-- *twenty!*-- were known to survive. Checking back with some of my tribesmates over the years, I'd estimate that number's back up to around seventy or so." Aimee chuckles sardonically again; it was a trademark of hers. "So we're making progress, I guess."
Kerianna nods slowly at that, sitting back on her heels and biting her bottom lip a little, her eyes turning harder then, a strange look on the friendly elf's face, the sort that sends chills down one's spine. "Have you begun planning their annihilation?" she asks, her voice soft, but hard, like silk-covered steel. "If they're that aggressive, there should be plenty of allies nearby to seek...the right ones, with the right weapons and the right commander, could see the Otala's end from their own bloodthirsty nature..."
Aimee recognizes the look on Kerianna's face; it was a look she'd seen in the mirror all-too-often in the years immediately following her people's downfall. "Heh. Planning their annihilation? Hardly. The Otala are far and away the most populous vulpine tribe that I know about, and I know about 17 of them. There are only seventy of us *left*, Kerianna, and... most of them aren't even at soul-joining age yet, to say nothing of fertility age. We Karalinka have no use for war... we just want to be allowed to *exist*." She pauses thoughtfully. "Besides, I killed upwards of thirty Otala in the aftermath of the genocide, and do you know what I came to eventually realize?" She locks eyes with Kerianna. "The dead will still be dead."
Kerianna nods slowly, her gaze holding Aimee's, shifting a little. "Yes, they will..." she says, sighing softly - she can't, and wouldn't, force anyone to follow such a path...but if they had killed -her- beloved, she'd see every one of them slowly skinned alive or die trying...and she'd enjoy doing it with her own hands. "So, tell me...why, if you don't seek vengeance, do you remain near them? There's a whole world out there to settle in..."
Aimee blinks, as if the thought had never occurred to her before-- or, more likely, as if the thought was anathema to her, which she reveals to be the more accurate interpretation when she replies. "This is our *home*, Kerianna. 'Since time immemorial have the Karalinka lived in the Deltivid Expanse, free from country, free from king, one with nature.'" She quoted a great leader of the Karalinka from ages past with her last sentence. "It seems to me that the *Otala* should be the ones to move out; *they're* the invaders. It may not be safe to live in any of our old villages again... nor is it safe to even congregate together for an extended period of time... but the Karalinka are *here*, Kerianna, and unless the Otala take the time to exterminate every last single one of us, we're not leaving."
Kerianna nods at that, another little sigh given. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean any disrespect. I've never felt a particular sense of...home...with any location." she says, biting her lip again. Oh, certainly, the Otala should be the ones to leave...but they're not going to without being forced. "But...don't you want to have somewhere you -can- be safe? Even if it's not here...wouldn't your people live better if they were able to come together? Forgive me...I know it's not my concern, but...it seems like you'd be able to have a better life where your enemies aren't..."
Aimee waves her hand, which was palm-down, slightly from side to side when Kerianna said she meant no disrespect, as if to say, 'No offense taken.' Blowing air through her pursed lips, she replies to Kerianna's questions after the elf asks her questions. "Talking with some of my people over the years, there *have* been people suggesting the creation of a Karalinka'ka, so to speak--" [Vulpani: "home of the Karalinka"] Aimee shrugs a little bit. "But our people lived almost *entirely* in villages or small dwellings before the war, with only a handful of us living nomadically. So we were in nice little boxes on the map for the Otala to burn a hole through. We come by our antipathy for assembly quite honestly."
Kerianna nods at that, sighing again, shoulders slumping a bit. "I see...safety in lack of numbers..." she says softly...an unusual position, but not unheard of. "And you don't want to relocate within another country's borders because you'd be under someone else's authority." That she can understand...she wouldn't have settled where she did were it not for her wife and friends, after all.
"Right. A handful of my compatriots emigrated to Sturmstrulaise as refugees, desperately seeking the protection of someone-- *anyone*-- from the Damocles' sword that the Otala represent." Aimee shakes her head. "But to most of us, to submit to the authority of *any* governing body outside that of our tribal leaders is inconceivable. A couple hours after the fall of Ilrino, I was rescued by a small scouting party of chirot, and for two years I suffered from constant seizures, multiple personalities, occasional paralysis, panic attacks, nervous breakdowns... you name it. I... don't have much memory of those two years-- fortunately." Considering that the vulpine were among the minority of races that are capable of remembering their own birth, that was quite significant. "Eventually, they brought in a great healer to cure my physical maladies... the screwed-up chemistry of my brain, so to speak... and I was able to live on my own again, an option of which I availed myself within short order."
Kerianna nods at that, hand rising to rub at her neck, then run fingers back through her hair. "Well, I'm glad they were able to heal you in the end..." she says with a sad smile. "I suppose that, if such a life is what you've chosen given your situation, I can't fault it...it wouldn't be my choice, but then I'm not you." she says, a slight laugh given, not much humor in that.
Scene paused.
"If there's nothing wrong with me, maybe there's something wrong with the universe."
--Dr. Beverly Crusher
Player of Callie Volopa, Viaa, Auric Lightwing, Brian Perano, Erin Tarcata and Aimee Sarasiné