fate was a funny thing.

Carefully she takes the crown from her brow-- newly won and yet already so brittle with age-- and holds it in her hands. Turning it over, looking at it from every angle. It might have fit her but it's not right. Gossamer eyes turn to @Apollinaire, staring easily upon the apparition. She remembers the pinky-promise they'd made: ils ne vous arrêteront plus jamais -- they will never stop you again. perhaps she should-- could-- be merciful: she'd done exactly what she'd set out to do. Take the crown from louve and force her mother into the matriarchal role she so desperately wished to play. Lazare herself had no interest in leadership, in wolfbron or familial matters alike. Surely there were others here who could shoulder that burden. @Elaine, most likely, or perhaps one of her wayward sisters. But elaine already shouldered so much of the past-- their past-- and keeping wolfbron would only be keeping those shackles.

non, lazare knows what she needs to do, and she knows she's right to do it. Her father, when given the freedom of a second chance at life, had finally broken free from the cage of familial obligation. Of course, He'd done so by trying to kill ludivine..... but it was still his decision to make. His alone and done only for himself. The others had claimed him mad for it but lazare knew the truth. He was free, and now... now they'd all be free.

All of you, she says-- pitching her voice loud enough to be heard. Even by those hidden in the shadows, for she knows there were many watchful eyes here. Leave. This is no longer your pride. Her first decree as queen would be to unleash them all, every last one of them. The dieudonne lived in the bluffs no more-- no one did. They'd lived here for years and years but wolfbron was not a home, it was a cage. Here they were safe and the dieudonne were never meant to be safe. they needed to be pushed-- kicked-- from the nest, or else they would always be here. Withering away in the red rocks just like the garden she'd tried so hard to cultivate. For years and years she'd coaxed some life back to it, but it was not enough.

It was never enough.

It is not cruelty that spurred her actions, for she had every confidence they would find a new home and a new path forward. Her family name would mean something again, her blood would be feared again-- or maybe it wouldn't. That was not her decision to make. But here, she would force them to try. And maybe once @Louve awoke, she would   ( finally )   fulfill her own duties as matriarch and lead them forward. And if not..... well. Lazare had beaten death once already. Surely she could do it again.

Another sweeping glance through the crowd before her eyes turn once again upon the crumpled form of the matriarch at her feet. Louve looks so small, here: a beaten rogue in a kingdom that no longer belonged to her. Though if there are any healers here, I would appreciate your time. Her piebald chin jerks in louve's direction-- it's clear who she's requesting aid for. A kindness, one that her mother certainly does not deserve, and nor would she ever be thanked for. After all, louve had said it herself: Le pouvoir exploité pour l’amour et le devoir n’a pas de prix -- Power harnessed for love and duty has no price.

What would the dieudonne be without power?

( non, what could they be...? )

A problem for later. For now... maintenant : allez, chassez, vivez. now: go, hunt, live-- she says, somehow without a sneer in her voice even though it's an exact mimic of louve's own words. Back when @Amara had gathered them together to argue her own innocence, back when @Ludivine and @Léontine had proven, once and for all, just how selfish lazare's branch of the family tree was. Perhaps she was just as bad as them, now. After all, in her own way, lazare was doing exactly what amara thought she was doing: protecting the family from itself.

But-- she had won. She had won, and she was tired of asking and getting no answers.

And so, she would make hwr own. The crown is heavy in her hands where she still holds it, even though she was the only one left. She had no desire to be queen, leastt of all a queen of nothing. Let some other lions fight over the scraps of their dynasty. Let some other family use these red rocks to hide away in. The dieudonne would hide no more: lazare had made a promise, and her garden would surely grow better elsewhere.

She takes a breath, and then lazare dieudonne tosses aside the crown and leaves the bluffs for good.

Exit

Hellfire. Hellfire.

Ain't no chariots of fire, come to take me home I'm lost in the woods, and I wander alone

Her sister arrives right after her and without saying anything, she jumps into the fight without a word. Elaine watches for a moment before her attention goes back to those gathered. Unknown strangers linger, a female catches her eye, she looks familiar but Elaine isn't sure who she is and before she can move @Armande steps in and questions her. She doesn't hear the reply but her brother's arrival makes it clear. He seemed to have an uncanny ability to show up when their family was going through things but not be around long enough to help. She felt bitter that he had managed to have cubs before her as well. Was she that undesirable?

She catches @Reti ♔ waiting and gives him a small nod to let him enter, at least he waited and asked. @Zinnia moves closer to her and Elaine allows it, because Reti and Louve had seemed to like the female well enough. Her mother accepts her brother with a head butt and Elaine narrows her eyes slightly before looking back to the fight as @Mirai joins her.

Louve slips. She falls. She doesn't get up.

Elaine stands as she watches her sister, waiting for her to get back up and finish the fight but she doesn't. Elaine's gaze moves to lock on Laz. No words come and Elaine feels an extremely unsettled feeling worming its way through her body. This wasn't going to go well. She didn't know her niece all that well, but she knew her well enough to know that she had always been looking elsewhere. To the spirits. To the lands outside the Bluffs. Taking the crown, wasn't something Elaine thought she wanted.

Laz finally speaks but the words don't really make sense. She was talking to the others, not her family, right? Right... Elaine looks at her with confusion until it sinks in. She was letting it all go. Everything that their family had worked on. Everything that they had built. Elaine took a step forward then stopped. She should challenge her, right? Take what she didn't want? Her gaze flicked down to Louve, then back to Laz, questions flashing across her features at a faster rate than she was able to process. She was second in command, everyone would be looking towards her, right? To see what she did.

She felt like she was stuck in mud, unable to move. Why was this happening to them? They offered something no one else around them had, a stable home and Laz was going to throw it all away. Did Elaine have to follow that? She took another step forward, yes. She would. For now. If only because their family had been through so much and they needed to find a way to be something without the land here. Could they do it? Could they hold onto what they had without the red dust under their paws? Very well. Words for the pride. The red rocks would find their own peace without blood being spilled, for the moment. Louve's wouldn't be the last of their blood spilled here but more would not be added here today.

She watches Laz for another moment. Prends soin de toi. Take care of yourself. Elaine didn't know what personal allies the lioness had but @Lazare was casting herself out into the world without a net, just like she was doing to the rest of them. In theory, the family should be their net but she didn't know if Louve would be able to pull them all together now. After all of this, would she be able to keep the family together? Would they all turn on her? Elaine knew the way of their family and Louve's still body was a sign of weakness and Elaine didn't know if she would be able to protect her sister forever. Elaine moved to Louve's side and waited for @Mirai to come, her daughter had been working on her healing skills and now would be the best time. Je serai dans les Plaines si tu as besoin de moi. Le père de Mirai y règne. I will be in the Plains if you need me. Mirai's father rules there. She said to Laz before she nudged Louve's body.

exit unless other wise needed via tending for louve

Take My Soul

Burn in an alleyway through a dead end street Murdering promises that I just can't keep

code by corvus|Image

He stared, transfixed on the slumped form of Louve. Fallen. After all this time. But the Bluffs would not be completely lost. It was another Dieudonne after all that stood in the Matriarch's place. So really, in the end, it wasn't much different was it?

The beast rises, preparing himself to spend some time with his wife and children before heading back home. Yet only two beats in and the new Queen declares them all released. All of them. Even the Dieudonne.

Everything in Cassius freezes. An ice cold trickle dripping through his veins. @Faustine. Their children. Loose. Unprotected. And the one refuge that would be expected, lay filled to to brim with his treachery and deceit. And there, just within reach, lay the metaphorical crown that Lazare had tossed aside. Singing out for anyone to take. Singing out for him to take.

And why shouldn't he? Why shouldn't he just.. take it...

Because it held its own set of problems when it came to maintaining his web of lies. If he took up that mantle, right here, right now, it would be Faustine he would have to make his Queen. And her children that he would have to make his sole princes and princess.
How long would his older children tolerate such blatant neglect?

His ascension would have to continue waiting..

The boys would be safest in the brook. The Darkling hums, tone taken up with a familiar nonchalance. Their daughter's safety would hold priority with her mother. But what about his sons? Cassius needed to lay claim to them before some enemy thought it wise to try their luck.

@Percival @Vernon @Akasha

code by scorpixia♡︎ | art by drifter

her blood is singing, but her attention goes from @Cassius ♔, who comes as he goes: silent yet heavy. faustine relishes in the heat of his skin, allowing herself to sink into touch before reality grabs her once more. she returns her attention to sister and mother, before she speaks. i am not so sure the relationship between lazare and louve is complicated. lazare's entire existence is complicated. she's the most mysterious of her siblings. she's all ghost and illusion, and never the solid flesh and blood lioness she should've been. faustine once was lazare's shadow but, now, it seemes like lazare's entirely her own creature. and, yet, faustine holds no ill-will towards lazare for stepping in like this. it's only natural for dieudonne women to challenge their own one day.

soon, @Vernon slinks in and faustine dips her head down to touch her son's forehead with her nose in greeting. he's growing big, big and round like his father. yet, he's also distinctly her. that dieudonne smell, the dieudonne desire to be close to kin -- those aren't cassius's. your aunt is challenging your grandmother for the pride she says in french.

then, the inevitable happens. a winner stands among the two and it isn't louve, not louve at all. instead, it's lazare, ghost and all, towering above the form of their mother. towering above them all. and she says of something faustine would never imagine anyone else would speak of, and yet, and yet, this is all so very lazare. you are free faustine's eyes narrow and her lips curl into a half-sneer. she almost hates it, to be left bereft of a home and wander amongst the lawless neutral lands. no, she must go where her family goes. so she looks to @Elaine next, while urging her son to follow.

before she can speak to her aunt, cassius's words force her to return her attention to him. she knows of the man's intentions for their sons, but faustine is yet ready to part with them. she stares down at vernon, before she turns to stare at louve. she must decide now.

i will help my mother settle wherever she'll go to she says to him. then, i shall join you and our children. to vernon, she says go to your papa, i will see you soon.

and, with that, faustine head toward louve's body. [exit]

code: cala | art: editjackson@dA

The answer came not from the girl herself, but from a new voice approaching from behind. Armande's ear swiveled to catch the words - his cousin. A blink as he processed the information, glancing between the father-daughter pair and noting the resemblance to each other, and then the traits that may have matched his own family. It was the way his grandmother greeted the man that truly let him relax and accept what was said as the truth. "Alors bienvenue, cousin." Then welcome, cousin. A dip of his head followed, yellow eyes sliding toward the male, "Oncle." Uncle.

He'd straighten again as the girl introduced herself, "Je suis Armande, un plaisir." I am Armande, a pleasure. Surely he didn't need to add on the surname they all shared - and that he had not, technically, earned yet. With the matter of whether or not these lions were welcome or not settled, his attention would return to the battle, just in time to see his mother's fall. Armande frowned, a reflexive step forward as if he might have helped was halted only by the knowledge that he should not interfere. But she wasn't getting up.

Indeed, it seemed his elder sister stood as the new queen, and it would be the first time in his young life he stood as simply another member devoid of title. It was a strange feeling, but what came next seemed to tilt his world in a way that had his claws slipping free to grip the stone below as if it might have shifted for real. Leave, she said, but where was he to go? His gaze found his mother's form again, a frown of concern on his face - he needed her to tell him where to go. What they would do next.

Ears tipped back and he would descend, padding softly toward @Louve where she lay. Questions could be answered later, once he was certain she'd rise again. For now, he would sit a silent sentinel at her side as others worked to heal and help in ways he could not.

-exit via watching over louve-

@Xavier @Ursa @Amara

code by corvus

Sébastien, generally, prided himself on his ability to recognize patterns and puzzle out the most logical conclusion. There were many factors at play, and several were not within his understanding - such as the complicated internal politics and structure of the Dieudonné family he'd found himself attached to. The two paths he saw playing out in front of them were one that ended with Louve retaining her crown and the status quo. The other, saw Lazare thrust into power and a potential for change and a fresh breeze to clear away the stagnant air of the bluffs. Metaphorically speaking. So what happened even surprised the vampire.

Many had lost a fight through poor luck alone, and it seemed this would be another of those unfortunate instances. Perhaps he should have guessed what would happen next, considering how difficult it was to truly predict the strange girl. If nothing else, she was a mystery that kept him intrigued.

He'd given three years of his life to Wolfbron, to the Dieudonné - ever a steadfast presence since his joining. So what was he to do now? He supposed, he'd do as he'd told the girl once, and return to the familiar. He did not cry out or demand answers, he only offered his little ghoul a steady, understanding, stare. Whatever the reasons, they were hers, and he supposed she felt this was something that needed doing.

Rising, he'd give the bluffs one more lingering look as if to etch it into his memory. The trip, he knew, would be slow in his condition, but he would follow instruction an go. Down the bluffs and toward the caverns that reminded him so much of his homeland.

-exit-

@Lazare

code by daanyen || art by rabbit

Vernon delights in @Faustine's touch, giggling as her nose ghosts over his forehead. Aunt and grandmother. His eyes cut towards the two fighters again, and he idly wonders which is his aunt and which is his grandmother. But something happens, something not very good, judging from the reactions of his parents.

As his parents begin to consult each other, something loosens in his chest, something in the shape of dread and fear. Are they leaving? Seperating? His mother tells him to stay with his father, and he stares after her as she slinks off into the center, unequivocally heartbroken. Her towering body provides him shelter no more, and he suddenly feels cold, lost. Mom! His eyes search for @Cassius ♔', conflicted. Did we lose? Are we leaving? Is Akasha coming with us? He pauses a beat. Is Percival?

you are insane -- my desire

Her attention is fixed on the fight as Louve arrives and does not hesitate to meet the challenger. Helah is silent, watchful- simply waiting for it to be over. When it is... it doesn't go the way that she expects... and she is... a bit baffled. The challenger takes a crown... and then tosses it aside. What did that mean? She stares for a silent moment at her, and contemplates that as others speak and her gaze shifts to Elaine -- when she speaks. Of course, Helah's understanding of French is... like c rated at best but she does catch a word that sounds like Plains and she sighs softly.

Helah stands to take her own exit without speaking further, leaving Louve's family to tend to her- though she aims to seek her out later. Then she exits the Bluffs.

-exit-

a violent daydream

code x art

Cassius nods, physically present but mentally he was far away. Every second seeing him farther and farther from reality. What was he to do now? Forsake all his affairs within Vermeda more than likely. But for how long? And Melusina.. Fuck. He hadn't even told her about all of this. She felt like a secret within their own home as it was.

Perhaps the only comfort he could take in all this was the fact that the Dieudonne weren't in any positions of power. For now. He could surely use that to his advantage in some way.

Yes, my boy. The Darkling hums, coming to hook a paw gently around @Vernon. Wolfbron has fallen. But you will all be safe in Vermeda with me. Eyes follow after @Faustine. All manner possibilities flying hundreds of miles through his mind.

With a sigh he turns to @Icefang ♔, calling for her attention. The Heir's eyes flashing in secret panic. My Queen. Your granddaughter, please. Head nodding toward @Akasha. He would need help herding these three back home.

Cassius v ---
for @Percival
just to mechanically get him to VB

coding by loki / background / wogh

The result has the matriarch blinking - shock - shreds her mask before Icefang quickly composes herself and adopts a neutral expression. This was terrible and not just because they were losing an ally, but this spelled trouble for them. Should she expect a flock of incoming stranglers from the Bluffs as the new queen quickly tosses her crown to the ground, shattering it and releasing them to be free. @Cassius ♔ calls for her and Icefang turns her skull, a brief look of ‘what the fuck’ in her eye as she turns to approach him. She can sense his own panic, but as Faustine moves away and leaves a cub at Cassius’s feet, Icefang is quick to pick up on what is happening. Though she does not feel any better about this idea. Inviting a cannibal into their mess of deception gave her a sinking feeling in her gut.

However, she attempts to pass her calm exterior over to her heir allowing her hip to softly brush against his shoulder. Her attention locks onto @Akasha and the queen gives the girl a soft chuff to beckon her closer. Though Icefang does not waste precious seconds as she approaches the cub attempting to get behind her and gently nudge her forward in her father’s direction. They would belong to Vermeda now, no matter how much she wanted to protest this idea. She would not do it here; however, knowing there were too many eyes upon them. This family had been their strongest ally and becoming difficult about any of them joining the brook would cause too much suspicion. Secretly, Icefang hopes that Louve wouldn’t of taken her offer for the X’uekai’s support literally as her eye scans the matriarch’s form crumpled on the Earth. What did this loss mean for her? Would the family still follow her or would Lazare’s decision to release them all cause them to scatter and weaken?

Icefang vs ?
For @Akasha
Round 0 of 3

"SPEECH"

html by castlegraphics; image by Eightysichs