wild, feral stare —
her winter lips as cold as stone

Hungry were the stray dogs – fangs pricking at the edges of taunt lips and muscles rolling beneath waves of ice-drenched flesh. How long had they traveled for now? Arduinna could not be too sure, but she knew that she was tired of it, tired of it all. They were not a band of vagabonds nor shifting, aimless spirits – they were meant for more. More, which awaited for them somewhere within this expanse of unknown territory. Within the supposed walls of their father’s kingdom.


His name had been whispered upon the breeze - a promise of new beginnings for the otherwise would-be orphans. The death of their mother had been a disappointment (another warrior woman struck down, smited by the sword), but it was not something that could be dwelled upon. Not by her, anyways. Death came for them all, in the end -- Arduinna knew that it would come for her someday, too, no matter what she did, or said, or how fervently she resisted it. What mattered, then, was to make sure that their time on this earth was well spent, and spoiled with all the luxuries of gluttony and hubris that they desired. Fate had brought them here, now, and she relished in the opportunity to see what may become of this wayward quest.

It was quite sweet, wasn’t it? Lost children in search of father dearest.

If not only for the fires that burned within their eyes.

As a distinct cologne wafted across her nose, it prompted Arduinna to a halt whilst sand pooled between her splayed toes. Her eyes snapped instinctively to her group of siblings, lips hung agape in anticipatory fashion, gauging for their reactions – they might have just found him. The rumors had been true. Despite how desolate and crude this land was, he was here. She held her pause for a moment or two longer, until the heathen’s head fell back, mouth curling as she sent out a call for the czar himself, the man of the hour. A summons, bold and brash and bellowed with the confidence that would have been unbefitting of a stranger.

The hounds were home.

@Arawn @Rhesk @Draugr @Devana

table by ryuu

AND WHAT DO WE SAY TO THE GOD OF DEATH?
not today

Their travels brought them upon a dry and sandy doorstep - the opposite of what Draugr assumed of their father. He could've sworn that they'd find his home while trudging through the snowy peaks of this land instead... not here.

Still, what faint memories they clutched of his scent - those led them here. And as the sky was overcast and the breeze that swept through them was cool, Draugr still felt uncomfortable in these lands. And he didn't know what he felt about this plan, either. Dreams and premonitions had brought him news about this very moment, but as they stood there, awaiting the king of the dunes, the seer realized that any of the tides could change within a split second. Despite seeing the future before it happened, their future was still so uncertain.

table by ryuu

I will strip away all that you know, all that you love
until you have no shelter but me -
within his mouth, flows the blood of an empire. his stare is cold, mercurial, seeking to devour the pitiful and the wretched. he has his father's blood running through his veins: his father's passion and his father's hate. everything ancient and cold lives in arawn's spirit. he is made of blood, bone and immortal flesh. everything dark, wretched and dangerous lives inside him. a heart, a mind, a soul that has only learnt the sharp caress of teeth and knives.

the titan's hunger is a vehement curse, a seething monstrosity come to life beneath viperine, male musculature. he follows this hunger, the same way he follows his flesh and blood; a slavering hound trailing after the brumal likeness of @Arduinna and @Draugr. blighted, ghoulish, a spectral form made manifest - arawn descends like unholy scripture upon the xanthous earth. muscles cut in divine ice, a callous gaze full of tempestuous, blooded ire; seeking, hunting for any forms of life in the bright ambience of daylight. with hushed obedience, he has trailed after arduinna's orders, a dutiful solider to the princess' demands; a baneful hound in the wake of bloodshed, malice and war. perhaps, it is all arawn knows, having lived a life of violence beneath brighid's commands, tasting the spears and knives of mother's armies.

now, with the past all behind them - fettered to an early ruin - burning in the wake of their mother's tumultuous end, it was time to seek out life. time to find their notorious father; to know harou the way one knows the immaculate intricacies of sin. arawn, thus, is a silent beast of icy passions and cruel vehemence; prowling in the background of his siblings with a frosty smile touching deranged, male lips. the sands purr beneath his talon'd toes, their warmth subdued by an autumnal breeze; the currents caressing his silken spine in blurred lamentations as he finally comes to stand by arduinna, the eldest. it is enough to draw curiosity from the icy chimerian beast, to lure his senses against the harsh beauty of the desert. to take in its opulent wonders;

while this is no winter wasteland full of snow and december's sorrow; something dark and hot and vicious called to arawn, instead. eagerly, greedily, arawn surveys the desolate land, taking in the rolling hills made of sand, an isolated kingdom hidden from the rest of the world. in this, he could find its unparalleled beauty; unmarked, untouched, with only the wild, woodsy cologne of harou's, drifting like timeless sins against the eternal wind. in this, he found the desert breathtaking, beautiful. and like the wolf he is, arawn smiles. a cold, vicious smile.

father is here.
i can sense him - feel him.

table by ryuu

I am the killer
in your mirror

It was time.. The ghoul trailed behind his siblings, silver gaze missing nothing as his eyes scanned the terra around their forms. Lead by @Arduinna the pack converged upon the sands in which their father ruled. He would note with interest that despite the heat and the otherwise dead appearance of the land... it was teeming with life.

Small, insignificant life, but life nonetheless. Jaws would part as the hounds came to a halt, his own lungs sucking sun baked air into them - passing the scent over the roof of his mouth. It was with a pleased rumble that the lion would pierce the sand with his claws, kneading the rich red sands beneath them. @Draugr and @Arawn both also stopped and the beast would take his place along the invisible border upon which the hellhounds stood.

His gaze passing into the lands beyond, a paw lifting as if to step and test the barrier with a toe, but he thinks better of it and settles that offending paw to the ground once more. A rumble emanated from bis breast, a mixture of a heady growl and a thready purr.

Father...the hounds of hell have loosed their bindings and have come home..

table by ryuu

I wanna feel the change consume me
feel the outside turning in

a summons from the door; dark, violent, filled by winter's scorn. the vehement spark would glint like steel struck against steel, provoking a wildfire of emotions to surge through the leviathan in their baneful, starting embers. heat would flourish down his flesh as the knight - the czar - the beast, moved towards its source; as he stalked the empty hallways of his desolate kingdom, with a bewildered hiss leaving fang-filled lips.

an unknown voice with the melody of a siren's - although strangely familiar in its icy tone - would herald the presence of strangers knocking at the castle doors. driven by a hunger to know, a fervid curiosity, harou is swift to respond. to follow the compelling fragrances that drifted from across the borders, pulling him forward with each powerful, curling step as massive paws smoothed above sandy granules. the titan's icy flesh and fur lay surging above toned musculature, twisting along the rough male anatomy, as harou removes himself from his shadowy lair and follows the source of its call, his form moving down the sandy dunes as dust lay withered in his silent, but wrathful wake.

in the back of his mind, he wonders who could it be, but when he materializes along the horizon and finally lays eyes upon arduinna's snarling face, it is clear to him who it was. a father knows his progeny, by instinct alone. harou's bloodshot eyes curiously trails the likeness of arduinna's, studying the sharp cut of her sultry jawline, the descending rivers of merle and black that painted her feminine hide in their icy pallor. the rippling lines of her powerful anatomy that revealed a callback to queen brighid's own mighty form. every inch of this young woman dripped of winter's scorn, and as harou's eyes slowly moved towards her larger brothers - draugr, arawn and rhesk - all on the verge of adulthood, oozing in their brawny, male musculature, he is both astonished and taken aback, although does little to reveal his intial surprise.

how could one look so familiar to him?
so painted in the wrath and ruins of winter?
so saturated in the warpaint of loathing,
and hunger?

harou narrows his gaze, the carmine glow of his predatory stare burning brightly; his powerful jaws parting to take in their equally familiar fragrances that collected like sins upon the autumnal wind. he would stare each yearling in the eye, and something like lightning and wrathful touch would whip down his spine, unfurling with electricity and hunger and need. this was his blood, it has to be; the fragrance, the appearance, the demeanour, it all screamed immortal and otherworldly, made graceful only by the ghost of brighid's spirit. a face of iron beauty, harou still remembers even after all these years -

thus, is it with a hushed cadence of otherworldliness and reverent awe that harou speaks, his low voice dripping like venom past his ink-stained lips, as he eyes his offspring with a militant sharpness, a hidden pride of fatherly yearning swelling in his chest. if his voice sounds dark and soft, it is only because they are his children, and this knowledge is written - carved - into the vehement quality of their winter likeness, in their violent spirits that oozed of predatory ambition. and harou can see it in their eyes. they possessed the same hunger he had. the same hate, the same drive, the same unrelenting hunger.

"welcome home, soldiers," the czar breathes, atlast, feeling the breeze tug and spill against his thick mane; feeling their fragrances touch his lips in their sleek memory. harou would thus take a step backward, to allow them into his - their - kingdom.

@Arduinna @Arawn @Draugr @Rhesk

table by ryuu

wild, feral stare —
her winter lips as cold as stone

Absently, she wondered why and how fate had brought them here – a dry desert tundra, cloaked in waves of rolling amber that was far unlike their home. She could only assume it was for good reason, but the heathen’s attention turned absently to her brothers nonetheless as the sound of her call echoed across the void terrain, as a plume of air expelled from warm, velveteen lips. pushing her weight forward upon splayed toes, there was something curled distantly across her ethereal, icy features – a grin carved there, somewhere, beneath the woman’s mask of snow and ice, albeit the fact that it did not quite reach her eyes. Truly, all that she wanted to know was whether the journey had been worth it or not.

and they were about to find that out.

the line of ghoulish figures waited patiently upon the borders of the arid pride, muscles taunt and their presence haunting. Purgatory was long and cruel, each second feeling as though an eternity had passed in limbo – but, oh! There he was within the next breath, apparating out across the sands; cloaked in a veil of shadow and ice and deep-seeded familiarity did @Harou ♔ manifest, rolling towards the winter-clad knights upon his doorstep without pause nor hesitancy. Arduinna regarded him intently as he made his approach, judgment swelling within her breast as they all sized one another up in silent bravado and hubris – but what was family if not loyal? She was a hound whether she liked it or not, chains wrapped tightly around her ivory neck and tethering her not only to her brothers, but to him, too. Blood was always thickest.

“soldiers?” A scoff met the king’s initial greeting, feminine tones dripping in faux disappointment as she took the bait and slunk forward a few, wide steps across the sands. “we’re far more than that, father.” Enunciating that last word with vigour, her tongue curled around the syllables, Arduinna refused to be seen as a simple soldier — a stranger could be a soldier, after all, and they were far more than that. “she is dead.” the final statement was made as an after-thought and following a brief moment of pause – making simple and easy reference to the fallen she-warrior – before hot, hellish eyes turned back towards her brothers, looking for their reactions (or lack thereof) to all of this.

@Draugr @Arawn @Rhesk

table by ryuu

I will strip away all that you know, all that you love
until you have no shelter but me -
their father comes - and it's a sight to behold,
it's like looking into the mirror, staring at one's reflection.

thus, arawn does not react - even as arduinna scoffs in her icy tones - held together in place by layers of brumal ice. soldiers, harou calls them. and arawn agrees. that is all he's ever known, violence. bloodshed. war. their mother's kingdom was not for the faint of heart, definitely not for soft royalty, alone.

harou's blood made sure of that, that half their lineage would be wild - feral. warriors and hunters by nature. and although arawn would never know the tumultuous intricacies of harou's life, he understood the wicked silence that emanates from the wintry beast - the father - that now stood before them.

wordlessly, arawn rumbles, a vehement smirk threatening to tug across his ink-stained lips. otherwise, arawn is cold. unfeeling. a winter soldier emboldened by his ambitious hunger. without sound, only panting breaths, arawn meets harou's gaze and something in the young man's blood, howls.

with a few surging steps forward, he finally enters the threshold of the desert, crossing the borders just as harou takes a step back. he was home. they were home. and he was eager to explore every inch of this wicked kingdom.

@Arduinna @Harou ♔ @Draugr @Rhesk

exit/fade via walking forward

table by ryuu

I am the killer
in your mirror

As with his siblings, silence ruled the mind of the glacial warrior. Lips would spread as his fangs would bare - glimmering in the light. It was as @Arduinna said - they were more than just soldiers. They were the harbingers of change. The four horsemen heralding the coming apocalypse. A blight that would spread across the lands of Amaryllis - beginning first with their domination of the red sands beneath their paws.

As @Arawn stepped across the borders at their fathers invitation, so to did the pale demon. He felt the weight of the C R O W N landing upon his skull as he did so, lips and smile turning somewhat feral. The newly adorned royal would see first to his own material comforts - what few he would allow himself to indulge in... and then?

The world would become his oyster from which to pry the pearls from the flesh offered up to him. Pearls to covet.. to claim. Oh yes... this hound - though there had been a leash lain 'round his neck with the passing into the territory.... had slack enough to move.

And move he would.


@Harou ♔ ♔ @Draugr

//exit//

table by ryuu

AND WHAT DO WE SAY TO THE GOD OF DEATH?
not today

Draugr's dreams are often plagued by a large, hulking and antlered beast, and as Harou joins them, he feels a pang of familiarity as his green eyes fall upon the face of his father. Many whispers erupt in his head and while he cannot hear what they are saying, he knows what this means.

They've made the right choice, for starters.

Though, further exploration will reveal what else they did right. He would need to dive further into the occult, collecting bones and slivers of the past to speak to him when he positioned himself between this world and the next. Arduinna is the first to speak to their father - as he calls them soldiers. Draugr never thought of himself much as a soldier. He was a ferryman, sure, one that connected the dead and the living... but he was far from a soldier. He wasn't so bold.

"She is dead," Arduinna spoke, and it was funny, that. For Draugr hadn't yet seen her spirit in his dreams. She had not come to her child, who she knew could see and speak to spirits.

But he wasn't about to attest Arduinna's facts right now, on father's doorstep. Truth would reveal itself in time, he supposed. Trading glances between his other brothers, he stepped forward and meeting eyes briefly with Harou, he stepped over the border to join him in his kingdom... My kingdom. /exit

table by ryuu

I wanna feel the change consume me
feel the outside turning in

one by one they file ahead, @Arawn, @Rhesk and @Draugr. the beastly brothers - his sons - were cold, arctic in their silent and ravening hunger; his daughter @Arduinna is voracious, another beast in the making; passionate, beautiful and wholly outspoken in her elegant deadlines. at her derisive tones, the icy heathen only smiles, a fearsome pride throbbing in his heart, swelling his chest with the sharp rise of their warm emotions. although harou will not outwardly say it, there is admiration there, hidden within the smouldering tones of his male voice, glistening in the depths of his roseate irises, as he watches his beautiful children march into their kingdom, leaving before him like the icy devils they were. he can feel the spirit of their flesh haunting him - his wraith children - all of them, possessed of such wicked allure and promise to violence. it emboldened him with a sense of untouchable pride.

"ofcourse," breathes harou as he finally holds arduinna's red gaze with a fatherly charm, stifling the urge to laugh pleasantly at her remark. ofcourse, she would be the one to resemble brighid the most in spirit; brighid, in all her passionate outspoken hunger, and harou, with his glacial and frozen likeness. "for you - only queen will do," the low rumble would blend with the desert winds, leaving his chest in a dark, purring cadence. arduinna's next set of words would cause him to darken his expression, however, the charm fading to something more sombre and morose. brighid's dead. he will not show his grief like this, however, he will not be weak before them. he lowers his gaze to the ground, remembering brighid in his mind, and looks up again at arduinna: "i see," came the callous tone, silent in the beginnings of his internalised grief.

"come, let us talk some more over super," he gestures towards his daughter, inviting her to step over the boundaries, into the threshold of her kingdom. there would be many nights of this, nights of talking and filling in the gaps, nights of hunting where feast would be plentiful and words would be exchanged. he would seek to observe and understand each child, to be there for them now, when he couldn't before. this time, he wouldn't be alone. they wouldn't be alone. they all had eachother, the beginnings of a new and violent era.

exit via talking with arduinna, following his sons

table by ryuu