MAD WORLD [open]

[musical]

When you tell me
It makes me better
When you hate me
It makes me stronger

It was night, and the inky black stuck to the coloured mans' broad shoulders. His small frame moved quietly over the rocky landscape, only the small scattering of tiny pebbles gave away his position, and Adaza liked it that way. The clouds hung over him, shielding him from the cool gaze of the moon like protective arm around him. His father? Tattooed lids closed tightly over his soft blue orbs for a brief second; anguish, grief, loss and loneliness all squeezed into that one movement. Would it be like this forever? Every passing moment consumed by the loss of his family? Adaza hoped not.

Far too much time had been spent grieving, but he couldn't shake his memories of them. The ones of his older sister haunted him the most, seeing her beautiful body become emaciated too with grief. And then she passed on, one morning an exquisite corpse the only thing left of her. But Adaza quickly tossed his head, dislodging all thoughts of her in an attempt to regain some semblance of equilibrium in life.

And then he tripped, the sound of strong feet scraping along the steep rocky face ripping through the chasm like wildfire through a dry forest. Once closed eyes widened in panic - had anyone seen him?

open for anyone! || it's been over a year since I last posted so bare with me my lovelies <3

[KK]

LITOTES

Begrudgingly in motion. Litotes stumbled along the cliff's edge. He was drunk on the memories of his siblings and wayward father. His mother . . . he missed his mother. Lie was an adult now, and disgusted with himself for being so endlessly entrapped in his family's past. He might never escape, he thought. Destructive and ever-intrusive thoughts tore apart the soft matter of his mind, dragging him ever closer to an unknown destination. His body language told story upon story: the hunched shoulders spoke of shame, the dragging feet of hesitation. Besmirched and without a cause left in the world, Litotes hovered closer to the edge, hooded lids cast down at a several hundred foot drop. He was, in a word, exhausted.

Lie was devastatingly afraid of the dark. His heart was beating out of his chest but he was too doped up to notice. He was paying no attention to the noise he made or the appearance he put out. This was who he was, raw and unabashed and child-like. When he finally noticed the man ahead of him, his lids drooped even lower, hiding the depths inside of him.

"I . . . I'm sorry," he slurred, casting nervous eyes in the direction of the man. "I d-didn't mean to disturb you."

---

musical eee i hope you don't mind me responding !!

[musical]

Are you happy yet
How do you measure if you're over it

Stupid, so god damn stupid. Clumsiness through his seemingly transparent existence on this plane would be the death of him. He needed to focus, to try and actually survive in the life his parents had given him. That was the least he could do for them, and his siblings. Would he ever see Monroe again?

So deep was his personal torture, was his search for anything coming to kill him, that he didn't notice another four-legged approaching him. A chestnut sabino man, a similar age to Adaza, someone who also had the world on their shoulders. It's funny how souls with identical afflictions gravitated towards each, with some inescapable magnetism which would either lead to their healing - or destruction.

"I d-didn't mean to disturb you." There had been words before these, but so lost that they hadn't reach Adazas' ears. The strangers' eyes were dark, although he couldn't tell the colour in the gathering darkness. But he could tell that he was nervous - because he was scared and alone? The tattooed man could relate to that all too easily. There was something else too, something intriguing, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It soaked the mans' very aura, as if it was absorbed in his very being. "It's ok, I'm so clumsy I must be disturbing everyone else around here." Adaza spoke slowly with a small smile, hoping that through the haze of intoxication the stranger would be able to understand. "What's your name? I'm Adaza."

KK ofc you can!! It's been ages since we've had a thread

[KK]

LITOTES

Litotes watched the tattooed man through hazy eyes. He was beautiful, and Lie could feel himself growing ever more gravitated toward him. There was something about the man that glowed - he could have told him he was an angel, and Lie would have believed him. His muscles were quivering in such a subtle way that one would suggest he was going through withdrawals - just the thought of his drug made Litotes shudder (he was an addict, plain and simple). His parents whispered menacingly to him; he would shoot up the flames of his father and the sip from the blood of his mother. They taunted him endlessly - Litotes, you were never fucking good enough.

Suddenly, Lie closed his tired eyes and leaned over, floating hesitantly over the edge. The ghosts of his family swirled around him, pulled hair one-by-one from his tail. A moan built in the back of his throat, setting his larynx on fire with emotions he had been denying for years. Lie swallowed it back - they would be denied for just a night more.

"It's okay, I'm so clumsy I must be disturbing everyone else around here," he said with a smile that did not quite reach his eyes. Lie fixated himself on that kind noise, now leaning away from the edge. "What's your name? I'm Adaza." Litotes immediately loved his name, found it fascinating (and wholly different from the names he had inked into his tenderest flesh). He grit his teeth and forced his eyes to focus on the bay frame of his companion. How could he come off as normal? Or was it too late?

Biting back puke, Lie murmured, "My name is Litotes." His growing a bit stronger, he added, "Your name is beautiful - I've never quite heard anything like it." Though he was shaking, he found comfort in paying attention to Adaza. Lie sighed and leaned back, casting his companion a gaze of resigned sadness and confusion.

---

musical omg ,,,,, this is not good but im so happy to be threading with you again !!

[musical]

All that I'm after is a life full of laughter
As long as I'm laughing with you

They were a sweet brown colour, the eyes of the young stranger, Adaza discovered. They were like deep pools of chocolate that the tattooed man could get so inexplicably lost in. Such sadness and fatigue resided there, sucking in all that was presented to them. Adaza wondered if they distorted the images recorded before they got to the mind of the young stranger. Was his perception distorted? What did he look like to the other young man?

Withdrawing from his stare, he realised that the chestnut sabino was leaning closer and closer to the edge of the cliff they were standing upon. Adazas' lips parted slightly, a small breath caught at the back of his throat as he stepped forward, ready to grab him, but at the moment he seemed to come back to himself, and he moved away from the edge. The tension Adaza hadn't realised had gripped his shoulders loosened, and dripped away as he watched the mistiness in the other mans' eyes disappear, replaced by pure focus. It was as if the man moments before hadn't existed.

"My name is Litotes." He spoke so softly, and Adaza had to strain to listen, but the strangers' musical name lilted gently into hearing. "Your name is beautiful - I've never quite heard anything like it." He continued, just as the same thought crossed the tattooed mans' mind. The small smile appeared again, this time growing bigger and creasing the skin around his lit orbs. "Thank you, Litotes, but I think yours is far more magnificent." He shifted his weight easily, glancing up at the waxing moon which shone down upon them. It threw light over the little plateau the two men were standing on, and suddenly the night wasn't so dark. "Have you been alone for long?"

KK ewewew but enjoying this thread soooooo much :3

[KK]

LITOTES

Lie did not mean to distress his companion. He fumbles with his thoughts for several seconds, thrown off by the care that so quickly flooded Adaza's eyes. He was so used to being surrounded by people who carefully doled out emotion; what could he do with such pure, instinctual concern? Run. Lie could run so fucking fast his hooves would turn to dust. And yet, he stands entirely still, a statue dedicated to mild shock and guarded hesitance.

For just a few moments, this stranger allows Lie to forget his devastating fear of the dark. Ever since he was a child, Litotes was paralyzed by shadows. Those few moments felt so incredibly strange that he was physically struck. He stumbles back a step, watching Adaza with sincerely puzzled eyes. Though his brain was processing several thoughts all at once, he focuses on one thing: there was a relationship that Lie badly needed blooming between them. He continues to peer at the man, a million different possibilities swirling in the backs of his eyes.

"Thank you, Litotes, but I think yours is far more magnificent," Adaza says, a smile lighting the depths of his warm eyes. Lie could do nothing more than smile back - a good smile, a genuine one, one that set bells ringing triumphantly in his ears.

Adaza, not quite finished, adds, "Have you been alone for long?"

Slightly put off by the last question, Litotes stares into the pale gaze of the moon. The smile droops, but leaves traces of delight sparkling in his eyes. Memories of his distant father and flushed mother floated gloomily by. Too long, Lie had been alone for far too long.

"Um . . . well," he enunciates, scraping one bashful hoof across the rock and shifting slightly closer. "Well, I've been separated from my family for several years, and I guess I haven't found much in companionship since then." Lie dips his head down, blinks up at the man, now a spitting image of the boy who sought after his father's pride. "Actually," he adds, unable to stop the flood from spilling chaotically from his mouth, "I'm terribly afraid of the dark, but recently I haven't been able to stop memories of MUSTANG from haunting me . . . so I run around in a panic." He grins ruefully. "I, ah, sorry. Have you been alone long?"

---

musical wooooo i dont know where that came from

[musical]

So I pray you might come
Wash over me like the pale moonlight
Until the sun comes back around

It was a blunt, slightly rude question, Adaza realised in retrospect, but he wouldn't take it back. There was something in Litotes that Adaza knew was somewhere in himself. A scared little boy, standing before his magnanimous father, desperate not to disappoint. Or at least, that was his own wish. He hadn't wanted to become King of the Hollow, but after his father and mother had departed, the tattooed man had had no choice. Adazas' gaze dropped a little, still ashamed of his reluctance to take the power his father was gifting him. People killed for the chance to be King, and there he had stood, praying that it wouldn't happen, that this moment would just peter off into nothingness.

But that shouldn't matter anymore. It probably shouldn't matter to Litotes, whatever it was that was haunting him, but here they stood. Two fractured souls looking for redemption. The not-so stranger looks up at the moon, relief coursing through his gaze for a brief moment, and he quickly explained why in a quick, gushing speech.

"Well, I've been separated from my family for several years, and I guess I haven't found much in companionship since then." He started, and Adaza blinked slowly, indicating their similar interests. "Actually, I'm terribly afraid of the dark, but recently I haven't been able to stop memories of MUSTANG from haunting me . . . so I run around in a panic." Adaza matches his grin, earthing his liking for this young man. There was a definite friendship blossoming here, and so solidly rooted he didn't think it could be broken. Litotes spoke again with that contagious rueful grin, and Adaza responded in earnest. "Pretty much the same story as you brother. Except the dark doesn't bother me much, it can be useful in some situations I guess. It hasn't been easy, or pleasant, but hopefully we'll find something better here." He glanced up at the moon, and then back to the chestnut. "Luckily she's shining for us tonight though."

KK || I love it! And these two <3 #bromance