OOC: there have been a lot of posts since I posted her last, doing my best to make sure I catch everything but... there is so much.

The fight wasn't one that last long and before she knew it, Reti was calling for the death of the Cove's queen. The others backed out and Elaine did as well. There was no reason to keep fighting if the others were willing to back down. She shook herself trying to push down the drive to rip flesh away as she moved back toward @Louve ♔.

Elaine watched all the fights happening around her but she wasn't really sure where she could jump in again. Familiar bodies were clashing all over and Elaine couldn't help shake the feeling that all those here, enemy and ally, were only one moment away from being called something else. She watched Reti as he jumped into what was clearly a death match. This wasn't good. She just found out that the male was her daughter's father. She wasn't really sure what to do with that information and now, she may not be able to do anything with it.

@Mirai arrives and Elaine goes to stand next to her. They had not talked about this. They had not talked about him and Elaine felt a struggle growing in her. A long and hard look was given to the male that had settled next to her, @Kaos looked enough like Reti that Elaine figured it all out. He smelled of the Brooke. She glanced at @Louve ♔ for a moment but didn't move towards her yet. She is Miaran. The leader of the Cove. An ally to the Bluffs and the Brook. She answered the boy's question as she stood with them, watching, waiting for the outcome as fights seemed to grow around them. Calls for death all around but for once Elaine didn't move. She stood with her daughter, not sure what to do. And then. He falls. Shit.

@Mirai moves from her, following the male. Her hiss towards Miaran was clear and Elaine didn't follow her, yet. She knew the lioness had a temper and Elaine wanted answers first. @Louve ♔ and speaks in a low voice. Reti. She tips her head toward the male. Connecting the dots for her. She watched her sister carefully, the deaths, the talk of coming back, she knew it had to be hard on her. Louve's words made that much clear. @Louve ♔. She snapped her head toward Alexander as his words rose up, his call for them followed by Miaran's call for them.

I can't stand against Mirai. She might not be Elaine's blood but she was the only one to call Elaine mother. Elaine raised her as her own, teaching her the best she could but there were things that she could not pull Mirai from and the lion who sired her was part of that. We have seen many fall and we know the wrath of those who are here. These lands are filled with the dead and things that we can't understand. Our father is among the dead here. Elaine's voice was on edge as she watched things. She didn't fully understand any of it but she knew that she had seen while here. Things that she couldn't just forget or dismiss. Louve's eyes, their father, her husband, and so much more. What are you going to do? Her icy gaze comes to her sister once again.

*everything to Louve is in french

Art by Lars

He is not alone in his charge. His sisters are quick to follow and it feeds his courage as he pounces the girl who is nearly his size. The woman he assumed was a girl. He is not the one she goes for, thus he remains nibbling away at her flank. Her attention wrapped wholly up in his sisters. Avarice in particular.

An lioness pounces in, going for Fury. Hylaeus snarls at rhe sight of his sisters being targeted. He let's go of Palpatine, and aims his next charge on Josephine. He goes for her side, attempting to ram his big ass five-head into her ribs.

Hylaeus @Fury @Avarice vs @Palpatine @Josephine
Dominance
2/3

Hits:

Rolling 4d20: 11 + 10 + 1 + 7

Dodges:

Rolling 0d20: 16

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 17 + 11 + 4 + 18 + 6

code by scorpixia♡︎

a little more, a little more, a little more.

out of the corner of her eye, magdalena can see @Alaric's pale form streaking against the cerulean sky and yellow sand. an alabaster blur rushing towards the two of them, lips moving without sound. whatever he says is swept away in that torrent of blood churning through her ears, the roar of battle that continues all around them. right now it is only magdalena, her sister, and their fight to the death.

the air is thick with blood and brine, though magdalena can't tell if the blood in the air comes from their fight or from some other doomed creature on the battlefield. her father's intent is obvious in the way he doesn't slow down as he rushes towards them. he was coming to stop them. for a moment, it's like the world slows with the thundering of alaric's paws nearing. stop this! his voice echos, unbelievably loud as it ricochets off the walls of magdalena's mind.

she almost does it, almost listens to their father.

there is a second where her claws stop digging into melusina's neck, her paw pressed against the wound as if she was stopped in the middle of giving her sister a tender caress against her mane. sister. she couldn't do this. was not strong enough to weather the storm that would unleash afterwards. what would a world without her sister even be like? could magdalena even live in such a reality? her breath catches in her throat, bi-colored eyes wide and wild as they take in her sister. her sister. her sister.

mercy lays on the tip of her tongue in the form of a harsh threat and magdalena's maw opens and then snaps shut. what if it was her? would that be enough to dissuade her? the answer comes in a resounding no. a threat - mercy - would be nowhere near enough to soothe the rage. she would slink off only to return when the time was right and take the justice that she felt was owed to her. was that not what magdalena herself had done her entire life? waiting for the time to be right to kill aeistrios and now slinking in the shadows around luther, waiting for an opening.

could magdalena trust her sister with mercy - could she truly trust melusina to do what magdalena herself would not? after supporting a woman who had allied with their brother, their once captor, the murderer of both of their parents? no, she decides. after such a deep cutting betrayal, magdalena could not trust her sister to not stab her - them - in the back again as soon as her eyes were closed. the answer to all of her questions, the salve to all of her fears, can only be but one thing.

death.

alaric would hate her, but at least he would be unharmed enough to do so.

magdalena's claws curl one more time, digging into that wound again and severing those vessels. deep enough that she knows this is it - the end. she may be strong enough to save her father, but she is not strong enough to watch the death of her sister. so she faces it with her face turned away, mismatched eyes staring down at the water that has turned more dark red than shining blue. still lapping at her legs like the tamest of puppies. shame and guilt cloak magdalena like a second skin, their grasp tight and suffocating.

her ears ring and magdalena doesn't know when melusina finally falls, or how, or if she even does so at all. can barely hear the sloshing of the water as she starts towards the shoreline. magdalena feels almost otherworldly, like a balloon in the air, clinging to her body with a fraying tether - like she is the one who's life has been snatched away. a mix of tears and her own blood drip from her chin, each drop disappearing first into the ocean and then staining a path in the sand.

limping heavily, magdalena passes by alaric and then @Arion with her breath coming in harsh pants. she barely catches sight of rohan, fighting viciously against luther, between the blackness beginning to swallow her vision. magdalena can only assume that none of them truly understand why she had launched herself at her own sister. maybe she would have stopped to explain, but there isn't enough energy in her limbs or breath in her lungs to do so anymore.

she doesn't know a lot of things - too many things, in fact. what she does know is that she needs to leave this place for now. it's as if magdalena's body moves on it's own accord, hauling herself to the only person she can trust to take her. her slow, labored steps bring her in front of @Dominic and an unknown lion. only recognizes him from the blob of purple and white that she can make out through her swimming vision.

magdalena pushes forward into his neck. "dom," her voice sounds foreign, raspy and haggard. i don't want to be here. she doesn't know if he can read the pleading in her eyes, can only hope that dominic doesn't hate her for everything she's done to him. she can only pray that he would take pity on a girl that he had once loved and take her anywhere that wasn't here. magdalena cannot be here to witness the grief of her family - the grief she has now inflicted upon them. she would face it later, begrudgingly perhaps, but it is not something she will survive today. "i'm sor-" the half-formed apology is all that magdalena can get out before she starts to slump forward into the lilac man. as the darkness closes in and finally takes her.

exit magdalena via unconsciousness

coding by daanyen | art by yumpy

He watches with disappointment as Anya slinks away, but it doesn't matter. She's dug her own grave and now she must lay in it. He cannot waste time on her any longer, not when there are others in his life that genuinely wish to be there. So as the battle concludes and he is able to secure Anniston's safety, the Valentine swings his attention elsewhere to scan the battlefield. It doesn't take long for him to spy Rosalind on the receiving end of an attack, and the heir snarls. “@Kasanovaou wanna help me beat the shit out of that guy?” It's an open invitation to follow him, help smash some more heads.

Colsun bolts for the squabble, fangs flashing. He will defend his pride mates to the best of his ability, as is his duty. The colossal lion attempts to approach Zagrius from his left side, angled at his midsection, and tries to harness all of his momentum as he attempts to simply body slam the lion and send him staggering backwards.

Colsun & @Rosalind vs @Zagrius
Dominance
Round 1/3
Hits:

Rolling 7d20: 11 + 1 + 19 + 4 + 14 + 18 + 10

Dodges:

Rolling 2d20: 18 + 10

Luck:

Rolling 6d20: 9 + 17 + 10 + 20 + 6 + 1

*Pride Tier 4: Bonus to members participating in fights in their pridelands (doubles the level 1 bonus of their master trade) - paladin
*From Heloise - Medic Sub-Master Perk: Healing expertise keeps all pride-mates in peak physical condition (+1 luck for pride-mates in fights when medic is present, once per character per thread)
*Fatigue: -1 hit, -1 dodge

ART BY SPU, CODE BY DEE, MODIFIED BY GUNNER

usually i'm very polite

She is so distraught in her own personal hell that she seems to watch the battles around her take place as if she were outside of her body. Her legs feel heavy, her paws weighed down with sand -- her heart slowing in her chest. She watches her son battle Morrigan with hollow eyes, her gaze flitting to the others in her care, in between movements of the Summit Queen and her son and those of her pride as they're locked into fights.

So much happens all at once, she wonders for a millisecond if she will ever be able to slow it down in her mind and relieve the horrors of this war. Horrors she is sure that will have ramifications throughout the ages of Amaryllis. She witnesses, with a sharp intake of breath as @Reti ♔ falls. Her heart stammers to a juttering halt, and she is moving towards him before she realizes what she is doing. It takes so much for her process the scene, that in a lull of moments she does not speak.

Her sharp teal and silver gaze locks onto the Caladan Queen who speaks, and her lips curl in a defiant snarl. Yet, Ghyslaine is beat to her words by none other than @Alexander ♔ . Ghyslaine moves through the crowd to come stand near the Hollows king in a clear physical demonstration that Lorien's alliance with the Hollows- the friendship that could blossom between their prides would grow from this.

She would speak, her voice cold -- a tone that Ghyslaine does not recognize herself to @Miaran.

"Reti is my Sovreign." She says, her voice icy, her body rigid. "Lorien will stand with the Hollows against you, and we will see you fall." I will see you suffer the same. She looks to Reti's body, her gaze softening for him only, as she takes in the sight of him. "I have always been a friend to the Hodari. This will not stop now." She snarls, her tail lashing as she takes a step forward. "Flee. I will not sully his memory in this moment to attack you now." There is an implication of a but as if it will take nothing more than the gentlest push for Ghyslaine to launch herself at Miaran in honor of Reti's memory.

"The Cove is an enemy of Lorien!" She announces loudly, proudly, wanting all of her members to hear her -- to take that opportunity to do what they will to those Cove supporters.

but i'm about to get savage tonight

code x art

Miaran's words pass over her. Hanneth had lived too long and seen too much to give this closed-minded lioness anything else. If she was willing to kill, she wasn't a lioness that Hanneth wanted around her or her family.

"Dad?" Oh no. No. No.

Hanneth's eyes shot up expecting to see one of the cubs that had been born not long ago, to see the fear in their eyes but the lioness in front of her wasn't one of them. Wasn't one of her known grandcubs. Reti had mentioned others but not that they were here. Hanneth looked at her with tears streaming down her face. My son. She whispered to the stranger. Hanneth struggled to get much else out but this lioness needed to know she was among family here.

A louder voice caught her attention, she didn't know the male that spoke but it was clear that Reti knew him and he thought highly of Reti. Then it was clear. The Hollows. The land that Reti was a leader of, the land that held far too many memories for her. He was going to war for Reti. Hanneth shook her head slowly, her thoughts taking time to form, time to pull together in anything close to normal thought patterns. Reti had died trying to protect them, she doubted that he would want more to die from it. @Ghyslaine's words filter in around the edges of things. Not her too.

She was about to say something when another male arrived and Hanneth had to blink to make sure she was seeing correctly. Dero, how many grandcubs did he give us? She asked him softly as she tried to process things. Another lioness arrives and with her arrival, Hanneth wants to bring her son back so he can make proper introductions to her grandcubs that she should NOT be meeting over his dead body. His dead body. Her body shook as another sob moved through her as she looked back down at him. It should be her on her way to be with Dero once again, not him.

"Mourning is for the weak". The voice felt like a festering wound and slowly she pushed herself up. Her eyes were locked on @Miaran, a strange and unfamiliar feeling of rage boiling through her blood in a way she wasn't sure she knew she was able to have. Miaran's war call was sounded and Hanneth faced her head-on as she started to speak to Hanneth's grand-son. Do. Not. Talk. About. My. Family. Her words were sharp. They were pointed. Her eyes flashed with her anger. You may see mourning as something for the weak but I have seen the mountains it moves, the wars it starts, and the bodies it lays down. The power it offers is nothing short of a miracle. She growled as she took a step away from Reti and toward Miaran. Leave. Now. She snaps her teeth together. You are not welcome here. You are not welcome near any of my family or my friends. She took another step, her body ready to attack, the anger fueling every movement.

You may think me old, weak, but I promise you that in a fight I will have no reason to hold back. A mother scorned is something you do not want to see. Hanneth took another step toward her. My family would have accepted you in fully but you harbored hate in your heart for something we hold dear. The afterlife is a real place. Rich in what it offers. Aphrodite was right to leave you. You would never be able to understand true, lasting, powerful love. Hanneth keeps moving forward slowly making every effort to push the grey lioness out of the Lagoon, away from Reti, away from her family. She wasn't touching her... yet. Reti will live on. You did nothing but take him from the land of the living. He will be with his father. He will see his family. He will come back. She almost sneered the words. My tears are for me, not him. Not totally true but she would do everything she could to make it clear that this lioness did not truly win.

Hanneth knew, sorta, that she was pushing a lioness that had just killed her son but that part of her brain was overrun by the need to get this lioness away from the rest of her family, her growing family. She needed to get her away from them so that she could better focus and maybe, just maybe be able to bring him back to his own body before it was too late. GO! She said and lunged towards her, teeth snapping. Hanneth would fight but she hoped that the lioness got the message and just left them to tend to her own wounds and get herself ready for the war that was coming her way.

CODE BY Ice - IMAGE BY Autumn

GOD KILLS INDISCRIMINATELY AND SO SHALL WE

Scarred lips tense over yellow, rough fangs. Many battles have rent them in whorls. They shone like the dull sand did. Windswept. Nostrils tease the no long confusing, no longer subtle scent of blood and death from the air. He walked with his skull stiff, chin slightly heft, regarding the scene as though a mirage. He approached their decay-green queen @Louve ♔ and the more nocturnal, starred sister @Elaine ♔. He scuffed a pawstep to announce his presence, not presuming to speak while they slack-jawed gave hushed tones that he always knew as politics, because he had been raised to understand to be silent when females were talking. But he had been born to see weakness and he saw uncertainty here. Between them, within them. Let him see this in their enemies and instantly and decorously he would descend, all accusations and mocking filigree.

Now he wondered what females of his line would do the same.

A lap of a tongue grazes bloodied lips as a singular, intense gaze pierces through the air towards the Lorien Queen (@Ghyslaine), whose ear presses against her skull. "Reti called for a death match. He lost, he died." Each word drips with gravitas. "There is an honour in his death, a noble request made as he demanded my own. Or does this land not accept its victors with the reverence they deserve? Like her," a fierce gesture towards the Scilla lioness (@Magdalena) who ruthlessly slain a Vermeda lioness (@Melusina), lives faded into obscurity. But the message resonates like thunder: would they rally with the same fervor and lament the fallen lioness as they did for Reti?

Miaran's fiery gaze shifts to Hanneth, and in that moment, a flash of fang sharpens the air. "Do not dare lecture me! I know all too well the depths of a scorned mother's heart—did she not speak of it to you?" With a withering glare aimed at Aphrodite, she turns back to @Hanneth, her voice laden with defiance. "Love? Love is a dagger that cuts deeper than any sword! Can you not see? Love makes fools of us all! It drives us to make reckless, reckless choices." No, the Executioner was a creature unburdened by love. Her heart, a cold stone, encased in shadows. Even if her Crown were to slip from her grasp, she would dissolve into the darkness once more—her true power, a tempest fueled by the very shadows she commanded.

coded by flea + background credit

Alexander's patience was growing thin. It was only some unseen force that kept him from trying to rip this disgusting creature from the face of the Mother's earth. She had no respect for the dead, no care for those she'd hurt. All she spoke of was her own ego - perhaps it was just that fragile? One day, oh, one day he hoped to rip the tongue from her mouth and make her swallow it - so never another word would usher from her filthy lips.

Pure rage fueled him now, ferried by a hate that blackened his heart. Something he had not felt in many years.

"I doubt you know anything about love. I doubt anyone has ever truly loved you, so how could you possibly understand it? Understand the depths of what you have done. Love is empowering and soon you will know the extent of it." His voice is laced with malice, so thick it was near palpable. Tongue coils from his muzzle to slide along his muzzle, teeth flashing as he snarls. Never in his life had he wanted to tell a woman to shut up, but Mother...

"If you are done listening to the sound of your own voice, we all have better things to do than listen to your monologuing." He snaps, his focus recentering on the task at hand. Stealing one of her precious members. Bit by bit he would take them, ripping apart whatever support system she had until there was nothing.

Alexander vs. ---
For Imprisonment of Milano
0 1 2 3

table by aurora / art

her brother pulls her into his embrace , the intensity of it making dragana lose her breath for a brief moment. but the sheer weight of what's happening around her quickly snaps her out, recalling that their dear father is still on the battlefield. i'm here to help! she says, even though the sounds of the battle has already drowned out her voice. it seems isildur has met a lot of others during her absence, and now dragana's peering for the woman named @Genesis.

she's a pure white lioness the same age as she, but she looks nothing like her or her siblings. are you a friend of my brother's? dragana says as she worms her way out of isildur's grip. now that he's here, she'll be fine standing on her own.

ART BY RABBIT, CODE BY LARS