ooc: set the day after the challenge.

He had to mark his territory, he had done so well so far marking half the southern tip of the location of Scilla Lagoon, but he had to finish what he had started the night before. And thus the golden man had made his way walking through the pain across his home scent marking and checking the borders as he went along the paths. The sand turned to rock and the rock to water and back again. He made his way around the many beach palms that swung above his head, scanning the waters that circled about the mini island before huffing. Thank goodness he had got some rest before doing all this walking today.

Once his duties of checking the borders were done, he needed to go to the far off island that hung off near the mainland of the lagoon. He had told Vermier and those who were under him that they could remain there until the stranger had healed enough to leave. So while he was making his rounds he decided to go see how things were holding up. They had but only another day or so before Vasilis would usher them to leave the Lagoon. His honey-dew eyes scanned the island as he crossed through the ankle-deep waters to get to it.

well, that had all gone horribly and terribly wrong, hadn't it? what should have been a simple pride challenge, tied up neatly with a quick spat between vermier and the golden king, had spiralled into bouts of carnage and verbal squabbles. to make matters worse, manes had fallen beneath the hand of gwyn; a loss that stung against the dieudonne's heart bitterly and with contempt. though ambrosine was often a woman blind to her own ambition and personal pursuits, respect was due where appropriate -- and the new leader of the lagoon had been gracious enough to offer them shelter, albeit if only for a few days. for that, if nothing else, she could be thankful for.

and while she bitter through-and-through, her emotions were not directly at diurus -- and so, when she spots him approaching from across the sands, ambrosine's expression remains neutrals, if not a bit curious. quickly do the parisian's shoulders roll back, her posture as poised and proper as ever, as she looks to peel away from the rest of her family with ears perched high atop her crown. closing the distance between them with wide, purposeful strides, she lets out a small chuff once near enough, lips parting to speak. "diuris ~" twinged chords offer @Vasilis, hoping to slow to a stop a few feet from the wandering czar. "i don't think we got the chance to be properly acquainted - my name is ambrosine dieudonne." and as she speaks, her amethystine gaze flutters briefly across the man's form, revelling in the display fresh scars and battle injuries, before they return to splay across his complexion. "you seem to be healing well."

It didn't take long before the woman who he had seen near Vermier had come across to greet him. He'd eye her cautiously but his face never whispered his regard. He nods to her before pursing his lips so that the healing scab on his cheek would bend a bit so he could talk without much pain. He shifted to one side of his weight, on his fractured foot, so that she nor the onlookers would take him as weak while he was healing. It was probably not the best of things for him to do on such an injury - but Vasilis did what he knew best. Faking it.

"Hello Ambrosine Dieudonne...I didn't get to welcome you properly to the Lagoon either the other day. I hope he is also healing alright? If you need me to bring any herbs from inside the territory please let me know." he tells her swiftly. " And thank you, I am fairing well enough for the injuries obtained. Though frankly, one is a bit of a disadvantage for my liking." he wrinkled his nose to try and crack more of the skin on his cheek. The puncture was still very visible on his face but most of it was scabbing over.

@Ambrosine

"he is doing alright, i patched him up the best i could." she responds evenly, lips twisting into a faint smile, though it does not quite reach her eyes. that day been two blows, back-to-back, and it still hung heavy on her head and on her heart. she continued to listen as he spoke, however, ears swivelled high atop her skull, drinking in each twist and flicker of his baritones. "i’m glad to hear that. i suppose i should also apologize for the — extra spat that happened after your victory. it was not the best way to congratulate a new king." the woman would offer next, biting her tongue to prevent spiralling back into her pit of frustration towards the obsidian man. but all the same, ambrosine did not seek to make enemies out of every pride in the valley, and could swallow her pride when needed. @Vasilis had done nothing other than best her kin, after all, and still had offered them shelter and time to recover following his victory.

pausing a brief moment to hear his reply, ambrosine’s weight would shift idle to one side, intrigue laced across the forefront of her mind as she goes to speak once more. "i couldn’t help but notice that you called out to my cousin, amra, at your challenge. do you two know each other well?" considering that amra had been forcible claimed in the hollows, ambrosine was somewhat keen to know what else had been transpiring behind closed doors. even though it all, she could not bring herself to stop her worrying or protective tendencies.

I see, if you need anything else don't hesitate to ask, The isthmus carries a variety of plants to help with a fast recovery." Not that he didn't think she didn't have her own things to mend the man. Shifting himself just a bit he would blink his honey-dew eyes a moment down and then up, he didn't mind about Gwyn's and the other stranger's issues, just that no one went dying on his new homelands. "No it's quite alright, Men will be men after all." he smiled. "Fighting is locked in our blood regardless of where we come from. I just hope that things on your end went okay after all that died off. I'll take it as 'breaking in' the lagoon under my crown." he said with a slight shrug. He didn't really mind what had happened. "What better way than to allow a few drops of blood to welcome a new leader? It's fine so please do not fret about such an event. It's expected when tensions are high." though they are not the norm he knew that he couldn't stop every fight that would be happening around him or the lands here.

"Amra? Ahhhh~ yes, I met her in the caves when we got lost within one of the chambers. " he told @Ambrosine with a nod of his skull. "We had hung together for a bit finding our way through the chamber, exploring what it had offered." so Amra did have family nearby, and how funny that he himself would run into one so soon. Sore lips felt chapped and so the golden man would lick them softly before pulling his head to the right. "We had mostly talked of our homes before here, how she lived in a place by a large Valley encompassed by mountains old as time." he told her sincerely. No reason to hide things from her family right? They didn't do anything bad just hung out and spoke together. Which he liked very much.

"your offer is very generous." she continued, forever the calm and collected diplomat. he was far more generous than she would have been as queen, or had been as queen in the past, but she could not fault him for that, she supposed. especially given that it was currently at the benefit of her and her kin. ears perch instinctively at the continued delivery of his words, letting a small laugh slip from her between her lips as he brushes off any concerns about the rivalry. "mhm, well, if you come to spend more time with vermier, you'll find that he is not shy of competition. my family has built our name off of fighting and prosperity." ambrosine explains to @Vasilis, though is absently aware that her lineage will hold little weight for the man. they came from two separate worlds, after all.

"yes, we were forced from our homeland by rogues, but that all feels like so long ago now." the woman explains, now with the outline of a bitter smile crossing her features as she is twinged by the memory of the life that they had once lived. things were so different now, so obscure, that it all felt akin to something like a dream. "she's a good woman --" ambrosine affrims then, before her gaze shifts once more before settling on that of golden male. "-- were you aware she was forcibly claimed into the hollow?" and yes, she knew that that would come across as a fairly blunt question. but ambrosine wanted to see his reaction and prod at what exactly made up this king and his self-proclaimed values. the woman had another question riding on the back of that one, but would wait patiently for his response, before opting to share it or not.

+5 Learn something interesting about a character

It may be generous but I would want that done to me if possible" he tells her honestly. Drinking her scent, his scent, and the lagoon around him he shifted as he listened. "That is fine - I have no qualms with those who live a life like that. I myself only feel like fighting if it's absolutely necessary for me to do so. But that's just how I was raised up." he shrugged. thinking back on his upbringing gave him a sullen feat.

When she tells him about rogues taking over their home he frowned "I am sorry. It seems to be the run of the mill these days for that to happen. I had something similar to which I had told Amra about. My home was attacked by a band of males who basically burned everything to the ground and then pushed the entire pride into a corner and killed them.....those...who had survived that died by the fire that same night...I was ...the only survivor.." he hung his head and looked away.

No, enough of that! He snapped his head back up though at the mention of how Amra was at the hollow. His face grew dark for a moment as he turned his head partially to the side. " She was what?" he said asking her. "She did not tell me that, Only that her family was somewhere else and that they wouldn't worry about her for a while....she didn't....say that she was claimed like that...." he looked down. His eyes scanning the ground as he tried to think. What would he do with this new information - why was she claimed? He wanted to ask more about it.

"Is she alright..? When I met her she seemed....fair...but she never showed signs, then of any neglect..Why was she forced to be at the hollow?" he asked @Ambrosine seriously. He couldn't understand why someone would force another into a place they didn't want to be in. That went against everything that Vasilis knew and held dear. Everyone was allowed to be given a chance, a choice, a free will. And yet someone so young as Amra was not. This made him more worried for her than he would have liked to feel. So many questions bounced around his mind now.

ambrosine pauses, listening to @Vasilis respond and share his own story of turmoil before she offers a response. it would seem as though their lives were all cut from the same cloth, bound for destruction and dismay along the way. "i am sorry that the world has become such a cruel place." she offers, knowing that few words could help soothe wounds splayed beneath the man's surface. she knew the pain all too well, the guilt, the anger -- but, unlike ambrosine, vasilis seemed to have come out of it with a clearer perspective. "i hope this place has something better to offer, for all of us."

there is a sharper focus that reaches the woman's gaze, however, as they delve deeper into the conversation about amra. carefully, pointedly, does his study his reaction, finding that she was satisfied at his disagreement and initial confusion. "she rarely likes to put her troubles onto others, even with me." which was true, considering that amra had originally told ambrosine not to worry, and that she would look for freedom when ambrosine had secured a proper home for them. but how could she not worry? "we were together at the claim for the hollows. once the fight was over, and gwyn won, the moment i turned my back, gwyn's heir claimed her. like a coward, when she had no one there to defend her." there is a small bubble of anger that infiltrates her tones there, signaling her remaining frustration and displeasure at it all. "she said she is fine there until we have a new home, but they view women as lesser than, and i cannot sleep well knowing she is being chained to such a place." it tugged at her mind constantly, like an itch that she just could not scratch. with everything that was happening as of late, and the tensions rising higher with each passing hour, ambrosine knew that any pleasantries would soon come to a crashing halt. "i thought you should know. i have faced the casimir before when i was queen, and do not take lightly to their ideologies." and it is there that she would pause again, waiting ever-so patiently.

+5 Learn something interesting about a character

Vasilis was a man of his word, of honor and truth. There was very little that he lied about unless it was for the good of that person he was telling it to. When she spoke about how she hoped THIS world would offer them better he nodded. "I can only hope..I lost so much...and I can't fathom anyone else having to go through what I did..." he tried to hide the pain he had.

When she spoke about Amra and how she talked about her troubles. Then she talked about what had happened at the claim of the Hollows. An event that the golden man had missed altogether. His face grew darker the more he heard from the woman. So much so that the bile from his stomach was dancing up his throat, screaming to come out. What in the heavens were they doing in the Hollow? Why had they claimed her for no reason but of her being there?

His eyes etched across her face, listened as he felt his turmoil turn to anger, boiling anger. Then it reminded him of how he met Pistis and how the man acted just with him being nearby the snowy woman. He released a breath he didn't even know he had been holding onto. " That is unforgivable.." his words were hushed but full of disappointment and anger. Anger for how she was claimed in such away. Anger for how the leader allowed members to be claimed by force. "The Lagoon is a safe haven. We do not allow those to be brought here under pressure or force like that. It goes against my nature to do such things. It goes against all things I was taught." he said aloud.

Vasilis rose from his seat, now pacing around her as he continued to listen to Ambrosine's words. The more he heard the more upset he got. "Women are not 'things' to be claimed and used as toys. Women are just as equal as we, men, are..." he turns as he paced, walking around the backside of Ambrosine before coming to face the lapping waves of the ocean. A heavy sigh left his marred lips as he closed his eyes, hanging his head lightly as he rose to pinch his toes together against the bridge of his nose. " The more I hear of them, The more I feel a common dislike with you Lady @Ambrosine. I will see what I can do for Lady Amra. I might not have been born a fighter - but its not right to allow this to continue, for her sake or anyone else's for that matter." he tells her.

But what could he do? He didn't do trades, he didn't take up war as the Lagoon was a neutral party in all things. They were a safe haven. But he knew that what happened to amra was not right by any means. It wasn't something he could simply ignore. But he also now had to think of the Lagoon and those who would call it home in the coming months. He was in a fight for what to do. Bring it up with Gwyn? No..should he talk to Pistis alone? No...he knew from previous dealings that Pistis would not be allowed a moment alone with the golden king just by his actions alone.

idly does her head tilt, watching his features twitch and coil as the reality of the situation settled in. it was in that moment that ambrosine knew all she needed to know, and that the pieces of the puzzle had fallen perfectly into place for her, and hopefully for the lagoon czar as well. "i have ruled before, and know the ways of politics. it is not an easy crown you wear, dirius." she remarked sombrely, toes flexing against the sand as she glanced briefly towards the rocking ocean, feeling no sort of jealousy towards him in that moment.

"i'd like to ask to join the lagoon, and for my family to join me, if they wish. eventually, we would like to take a home of our own, but i feel as though we stand on common ground, you and i." her tones have vigour and confidence laced throughout them now, eyes blazing with small fires as she cranes her head to look at the man that was now drawn up beside her. they may be different in many ways, but this conversation had proven that they also share similar values -- values that ambrosine could appreciate for what they were, and respect in a ruler. "and, if you'd allow it, i would like to arrange for amra's release. if they will not release her voluntary, i, or vermier, would take her by force. i do not intend for any quarrels between us and the casimir to spill onto your lap; we can handle our own, but can come to terms with the logistics later." and there it was. everything was out on the table for @Vasilis to see and do with as he wished. he could just as easily turn ambrosine away and force a blind eye to amra's situation -- but direly does she hope that that will not be the outcome of this conversation.