Marlowe

Clans of the Coast

Smokestep half-listened to his brother as he sorted out the patrols for the day, his eyes half-lidded in the light of the rising sun. He didn't have to pay attention to know that Stormstrike knew what he was doing. His litter-mate had proven himself to be a strong warrior when he was younger, which had obviously garnered Coyotestar's interest not long ago. Smokestep gave the deputy a somewhat lazy flutter of his eyes as the other cats began to move away. Standing up, he stretched out his back in a long, arduous manner and mustered a wide-jawed yawn. He felt Oakpaw's eyes sear into his pelt, so he straightened up and grinned down at her. "What? Do I have a feather in my fur?"

"Come on, Smokestep! Stormstrike and Hawkshadow are already waiting!" Oakpaw complained, punctuating her words with a huff.

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. Let's get going."

Smokestep set off towards the camp entrance, the apprentice at his heels. He missed the days when he was an apprentice, though they weren't that long ago. There had been a certain thrill in going on patrols, but now they were just... boring. Oh well, he had to keep up the charade of a good and responsible warrior, especially in front of Stormstrike. Lifting his head as he approached the two other toms, he dipped his head in greeting. Hopefully something exciting would happen.

Pokemon: Ascendancy

MENTIONS:

Hestia woke, with a hefty start, to the sound of a screeching alarm. It grated against her ears and made a desperate headache sprout from the back of her skull. Whimpering, she curled up beneath the covers in an attempt to get it to recede. But the alarm wouldn’t stop, not even when she reached towards her night-table as she blindly searched for her phone. It took her the better part of a minute for her fingers to scrape against the corner of her cellphone and send it clattering to the floor, the sound of its impact sending a fresh wave of pain against the side of her head. Cursing, she threw off her dappled russet covers and reached down to grab it. After a few moments of struggle, she finally turned the alarm off– though the flash of the violet numbers on her home screen made her blood run cold. Ten o’clock.

She was late for the opening ceremony.

Something left her lips. Whether it was a muddled screech or a groan of terror, she wasn’t able to tell. All she knew was that her head felt like it had a herd of Tauros rampaging through the middle of it, she was half-undressed, and she was late for the opening ceremony. A string of curses flooded from her cracked lips as she pulled on her pajama top and rushed towards the door in order to open it, but not before she stubbed her toe against it. Another yelp came forth from her mouth in a delayed reaction as she staggered down the hallway and half-stumbled down the stairs to see that Pine was lounging on the couch and watching television like always. Orion slept in a haphazard pile in the corner of the living room, his tail tucked close against his body as the fire at the end of his tail dwindled lazily. Neither of the Pokemon stirred, even when her feet stomped against the grayish wooden floors of the first floor.

”HEY! You two couldn’t wake me up?!” she cried out, her head hurting even more than before. She clenched her teeth as she pointed at her phone. ”Pine! You knew I had to be up earlier than this! Why didn’t you–?!”

Pine gave her a sidelong glance, then turned back to the television. He let out a little chirp as he pointed at the television with a lazy claw. ”Scep.”

In the midst of her desperation, Hestia turned to look at the screen. A newswoman with bright red hair and tired eyes stared tiredly from her desk as her mouth dribbled her report. She didn’t listen to what she said. Instead, Hestia’s gaze rested on the text in bold at the bottom of the screen itself. It read, ”GALAR REGION’S OPENING CEREMONY CANCELED.”

The fire in her chest immediately transformed into ice in her veins as she stared blankly at her television. Canceled?

Hestia turned towards her phone. Her clumsy fingers worked to unlock it and enter her messages, though this took way longer than she would have preferred. The previous night had left her head feeling both light and heavy as a stone, which affected her motor skills and even her vision, which was clouded over by a misty film that she couldn’t get rid of no matter how often she rubbed her eyes. Finally, she was able to focus in on the words that lined the screen. A line of text was in bold at the very top of her list of messages. A new one had come in not even a half-hour before, from Peyton Hyacinth. ”Urgent meeting at Hyacinth Tower. All must be here by 10:30. Don’t be late.”

Shit.

There wasn’t time to shower, eat, or anything else. Hestia had to get on Pokemon-back quickly if she wanted to make it in time. She rushed back up the stairs, threw on sweatpants, shirt, and a pair of sneakers, and tied up her hair into a somewhat crooked ponytail. Both Lazuli and her were in the sky by 10:05. And, while the rush of wind against her face and ears made her head ache even more, she couldn’t help but feel glad when her Salamence’s claws touched down on the street in front of Hyacinth Tower at 10:20. She didn’t even bother to recall Lazuli before she sprinted towards the building. Lazuli was a good boy– he wasn’t going to get in trouble, and Hyacinth would understand why she left him outside the tower if this was truly an urgent meeting. Hell, she wouldn’t even care if he bit her head off later. All she wanted to know was what happened and why they all had to go meet him after he had decided to cancel the opening ceremony.

It was 10:27 by the time she made it to the meeting room. Her ponytail was nearly blown out of place by the storm of wind she had just flown through, and her cheeks were ruddy with a wild mixture of emotions. Her face was stark white and her eyes were wild, darting towards the people who had made it there before her, towards an empty seat, then back again. Breathing heavily, she sank down into one of the chairs near the front of the room, thankful for the presence of soft cushions. Hestia might have looked like a mess, but she was there on time and with time left to spare. What others thought of her at that moment mattered little.

Hyacinth entered the room at ten-thirty on the dot. An older gentleman of about fifty-something-years old, the Chairman’s age looked much more prominent than before right there and then. It was as if he had turned gray overnight; a fresh flourish of pale color hair bloomed out from behind his left ear and arched towards the side of his head. She didn’t remember that being there, and she had only seen him a few days prior. Nevertheless, the dark-haired man’s head was held high as he made his way to his chair at the head of the table and sat down, his bespectacled features betraying no emotion even as his gray eyes turned to look at everyone. He clasped his hands in front of him, neatly folding them upon each other, before his the bristles about his jaws finally twitched and his first words to them spilled forth from dry lips.

”Thank you all for being here today. I apologize for such short notice, but I couldn’t take any chances,” the Chairman began. ”As some of you have noticed, I’ve chosen to cancel the Opening Ceremony that was supposed to take place at ten this morning.”

Hestia leaned forward. ”Why?” she rasped. When he glanced towards her, she straightened up in her chair and coughed into a fist. ”I-I mean, why did you cancel the Opening Ceremony? Pretty sure the whole of Galar was waiting for us to make our appearances–”

”I wish it hadn’t come down to it, but it was a necessary step I had to take in light of information I received from Wyndon’s police department,” Hyacinth said, gloom hovering over his words. A somber shadow crossed his expression as he rested his chin upon his clasped hands, his eyes whisking over the gym leaders that had gathered before him. ”Mr. Sutherland was supposed to be here at nine this morning. When he didn’t arrive, I became worried, so I sent someone to check in with him. When they arrived, they said that his home had been broken into– and in the midst of a struggle, he was abducted. As of now, we don’t know where he is or if he’s alright.”

Wings of Fire: Clouded Visions

Sunlight bled into an array of wispy gray clouds and seeped into his dark scales. Maroon felt its warmth in his wings, his flesh, his bones. He longed to fly higher above the clouds, to touch the sun with his talons and feel how hotly that sphere in the sky burned. He pondered if it burned just as fiercely in other parts of the realm, or if it shied away from the ice and snow. In his mind, he imagined that the sun loved the SkyWing kingdom the most. It warmed the stone upon the mountains and provided his people with lovely basking ridges. At night, the warmth resisted the cold faces of the three moons, having embedded itself so deep within the earth that the mountainside felt like it had never been torn away from the sun’s embrace. That was why Maroon loved the mountains and the sky. It was as if they were lovers, ever together in the darkness of night, and he was lucky his wings were strong enough to grant him the gift of frolicking between them.

If there was ever a day that he didn’t get the chance to fly in the mornings, it would be a sad day indeed.

His talons clicked against marble floors as he landed upon the platform outside of his room. Maroon sighed, stepping inside and making his way towards the large mirror that waited at the head of his room. A songbird’s tune poured from his maw as he observed himself. His jewelry remained in place despite his early morning flight, and he was delighted to see that he appeared properly groomed. ”Seems that even the wind adores me, lest I would have had to spend even more time on my appearance,” he purred to himself with a flourish of his right wing. ”And that means that I would have the chance of missing her.”

With a light heart, Maroon began his trip towards the barracks. He kept his head high and his wings tightly tucked against his ribs, his tail delicately wisping behind him as if it were a long flame. Even then, he felt the sun-soaked breeze from his flight lift up his paws and allow his gait to be much more lordly than usual. Anyone, even the most lowly Tainted servant, could tell that the young prince’s day had begun well enough. And that was a good thing for everyone.

The guard’s barracks was much less ornate than the rest of the castle, but that didn’t matter to Maroon. The most beautiful thing to ever grace the earth of Pyrrhia was there, and that was enough for him. Her presence made the barracks the most glorious place he had ever seen in his entire life– so much so that even Aether’s untimely presence there didn’t soil his mood. With a broad grin, he approached the pale dragon’s side and gave him a sidelong glance. ”Good morning, Aether,” he greeted briefly before he turned to Solstice with a flutter in his chest. ”And good morning to you, my dear sun. Did you sleep well last night?”

He blinked at her with his deep amber eyes as he took a step towards her. Though she was his sun, her heat always frightened him, for it would flare at times he didn’t expect it to.

Clans of the Coast

StarClan, he hated mornings. But that didn’t stop Stormstike from jabbing a paw in his side in order to wake him up for dawn patrol. That had earned his brother a heated hiss from Smokestep’s side, but that was the end of that. They had work to do and they didn’t have all day to do it. Yawning, the young tom stepped out from the warrior’s den and greeted the morning sky with a narrow-eyed stare. The den seemed to be growing smaller with every passing season, though he wasn’t sure if that was because they had more warriors or they were simply getting fatter.

Smokestep yawned again, his paws stretching way out in front of him as his tail arched into the sky. When he was finally done with his morning exercises, he sent a disdainful look back towards the den. It definitely looked bigger on the outside than on the inside. He wondered if he should tell Stormstrike to tell Coyotestar that they should probably extend the den at some point. It would be easy– all they would have to do was gather more long grass and lengthy fronds. Doubt that Coyotestar’s in the mood to think of something like that right now, though.

It had been a whole half a moon since… well, that happened, and there had been no mention of the next Gathering since. Smokestep curled his lip as he padded towards the Stormrock. The thought of BreezeClan and FireClan merging together made his stomach wrench, but what could they do about it? There was no changing what Whitestar and Dawnstar decided to do without spilling blood. Now, would Coyotestar actually go that far as to start a war between RainClan and two other Clans? His tail lashed in frustration. He was always taught war was a bad thing, that StarClan never condoned it. Yet, at the end of the day, he would sink his claws and fangs into any cat’s pelt if it meant keeping Ashthorn and the little ones safe.

”Morning, Stormstep!” came the upbeat voice of Sorrelwing. The she-cat sat right next to the Stormrock, her green eyes glimmering with energy. ”It’s been a while since we’ve been on patrol together. How are the kits?”

Smokestep smirked. ”Getting bigger every day. Took him a bit, but Batkit’s finally opened his eyes.”

”Oh, how sweet. I’ll have to pass by the nursery and say hi to Ashthorn. Must be hard to keep track of three kits!”

He let out a mrrow of amusement. It was hard taking care of any kit. Smokestep of all cats should know. His poor mother had seven kits, and while only five of them survived until apprenticeship, he would never forget how crowded the nursery felt during his kithood. That was something he wouldn’t wish on anyone.

Wings of Fire: Clouded Visions

Wings of Fire: Clouded Visions

Queen of the NightWing Kingdom, Shadow-watcher

Queen of the SkyWing Kingdom, Emerald

Prince of the SkyWing Kingdom, Maroon

Queen of the SeaWing Kingdom, Narwhal

Queen of the IceWing Kingdom, Borealis

Queen of the SandWing Kingdom and Ruler of the Scorpion Den, Caracal

Queen of the MudWing Kingdom, Salamander

Queen of the RainWing Kingdom, Iridescence

Wings of Fire: Clouded Visions

Name:
Prince Maroon

Gender:
Male

Age:
Adult

Species:
SkyWing

Appearance:
A deep, ruby red SkyWing. His horns, wing membranes, and underbelly are a very dark crimson. His eyes are a deep amber that borders on red. The scales near his underbelly are all inlaid with gold. In fact, most of his jewelry is golden-- golden clasps, decorated with beautiful garnets, wrap around his wrists. Plain golden bangles are perched along his horns, though surprisingly, he doesn't wear earrings. His tail also bears claps similar to the ones that wrap around his wrists. Golden silks hang along his sides and the length of his tail, held up by delicate golden chains.

Personality:
Extremely loyal, can read other dragons like a book, stuck-up, egotistical, arrogant, hot-headed, can be childish and cowardly

Other:
Has a huge crush on Solstice

Wings of Fire: Clouded Visions

Name:
Vivid

Gender:
Female

Age:
Adult

Species:
50% RainWing
25% SandWing
25% SeaWing

Abilities:
- Has a RainWing's venomous spit
- Can change color at will much like other RainWings, though the color fades into a diluted hue as it reaches her flank
- SandWing venom is not potent, causes paralysis in certain parts of body
- Good swimmer
- Thanks to her gills, can breathe underwater for a decent amount of time, though not nearly close enough to pure SeaWings

Shortcomings:
- Poor flyer
- Can't breathe fire like SandWings can
- Dehydrates easily, leading to lethargy
- Her understanding of SeaWing language is very poor
- Sleeps a lot

Appearance:
Her stature is somewhere in between a RainWing and SandWing, with a thicker, SeaWing-like tail. She bears a cyan-hued color most of the time. The scales running along her face are bright yellow in color, and the same can be said for her underside and wing membranes. Her eyes shift colors depending on the shade of her scales. Orangey-yellow stripes swirl down from the base of her neck and down to the middle of her tail, though these too change color depending on the situation. Her frills, which are a slightly darker shade of blue than most of her body, are most prominent under her ears and along her spine until they reach the base of her tail. She can flatten and raise these at will.

Vivid bears gills and webbed claws. Her stinger is almost nonexistent; if one looks close enough at the tip of her tail, her stinger sticks out like a miniature dagger rather than an actual SandWing stinger. The stripes that line her body can light up, though they are much dimmer than a normal SeaWing's bio-luminescent markings. Her fangs protrude slightly from her upper lip, as with all RainWings.

Personality:
Adventurous, happy-go-lucky, talkative, friendly, stubborn, easily frustrated, can be fierce when need be

Other:

Pokemon: Ascendancy

MENTIONS: Everyone

Almost as if on cue, Isaiah walked through the door. His appearance spurred the others’, at the very least. Some of her compatriots had their Pokemon out, like Sawyer’s Glameow, Astrid’s Raichu, and even Mika’s recently caught shiny Snom. Hell, if she guaranteed that her Pokemon would behave and sit still, she would have taken out her own. Thus was the downside of being a Dragon-type leader; her dragons would probably eat something they shouldn’t or cause damage to the infrastructure. Not like they meant it. They all had hearts of gold– she just wasn’t willing to take the chance at a formal event like this. Especially in front of the newbie. And definitely in front of the… more distasteful people.

”Yeah, Seb. Gotta say, after all of this time, I don’t know who the ringleader of this whole circus is,” Hestia said, referencing what Nordrin had told him a few moments prior.

Hestia blew through three more of the lemon-drop martinis before she moved on to heavier stuff. Now nursing a dark stout, she raised an eyebrow at what Fiona suggested from Ryker. The champion had remained somewhat quiet throughout the whole fiasco at hand, only chuckling softly when he was acknowledged or teased. Ryker only became more serious upon the Flying-type leader’s request. Delicately, he raised himself from his chair and raised his newly refreshed cup of whiskey. Hestia raised her eyes, now silent as she watched the man closely. His crimson irises swept across their number.

”I know some of us might be nervous about this coming season. There may be repeating contenders taking part in the challenge, along with new faces that might give us more of a fight than others. Who knows, some of them may threaten our slots as leaders and champion.” Ryker raised his glass higher. ”But I know that all of us will persevere. All of you have proven yourselves as reliable gym leaders and respectable Pokemon trainers. Though, that’s not what’s important. Although much time has passed, your flames of passion have not diminished. You not only welcome such challenges, but you crave to overcome them. That’s why I know you lot will give the whole of Galar an even better show than last year.”

Hestia raised her glass in response, which was significantly harder to do than she thought it would be. ”Aye!” she agreed, her voice sultry and full of vigor. ”Although, let’s not forget that your spot is also bein’ contested, Ryker. I’ll beat you this time, that’s for sure!”

Ryker’s laugh rang through the bar like a deep bell; it was as if the embers that dwindled within him had become a full blaze. ”Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, now.”