Force-claiming is allowed here once a week per character, as is blocking force-claims by the Peak/Lagoon (as a whole) once a week. Rollover is on Sundays.
Never saw a wild thing sorry for itself; CLAIM Posted on July 10, 2024 at 12:45:38 PM by Arsinoe
Vadim looks at her, mere feet and yet somehow an entire ocean away, and walks off.
Sarama follows.
Something in Arsinoe cracks in that moment - because she thought he understood. They’re in this life together - what she has, he has. Why should it matter if the power is in her name or his? How is having a herd under her and her father any different than having a herd under her and Sakir? She did what he wouldn’t have been able to — secured them a spot in their home. Safety, security, power. Everything that they need, and she’d delivered it right to his feet.
Clearly Vadim does not see it the same way, because he doesn’t even deign to speak when he runs. Part of her, that vicious little voice that sounds like her father, says it’s true to form. Once a Lagoonie, always a Lagoonie. It’s only that he was able to hide his nature longer than most.
She thought, perhaps, Sarama would stay. That she did not simply tolerate her as a necessary part of being with Vadim. Arsinoe was so sure that they had something too — that the little black mare would have hesitated or said goodbye or given any indication she, for a second, considered choosing Arsinoe. Not just abandon her too.
She shouldn’t have been shocked when Sarama slunk off behind him (no one ever chooses her - Khan had left her just as easily as Vadim does now, all those years ago), but she was stunned all the same. That, perhaps, cut deeper. Vadim has always been a fickle creature ruled by his pride but Sarama at least had seen sense.
After the herd meeting concluded, Arsinoe had given Sakir some weak excuse - she didn’t want to see the understanding in his eyes, or to field any questions. She’d fled the Badlands - at first, following Vadim, intent on dragging him back. But when she reached the Crossing isle, she hesitated. Certainly Miriella and Abyzou will have joined him - and with how she feels right now, Arsinoe is more likely to try and rip out their throats than do anything productive. So she doesn’t pursue and instead turns her attention toward the Common, coming up along the southeastern edge of the Lagoon.
She crossed into the Common, and she’s there only a few minutes when perhaps fifty yards ahead or so a boldly painted weanling comes tumbling out of the overgrowth and races ahead. She hears an angry shout after him - but by then he’s just in front of her and stops on the path. Arsinoe also stops, ears pricked forward as she inspects the child, and the — stallion? Unexpected. Who had come to collect him.
“You should keep a better eye on him,” Arsinoe tells the stranger. “Before you wind up having to explain to his mother why he’s gone.” Replies: