Posts by ismene

now that she's in high school, ismene has slowly picked up more and more extracurricular activities. first it was just the advanced academic courses, then it was running for student council, and then she somehow got involved with the school garden and next thing she knows, ismene is the president of four school clubs! not to mention the stuff she does outside of school like horseback riding and volunteering at the botanical gardens in the city. iz has quite the busy life for a sixteen year old girl, but she does not mind it much. since her dad is in the military, ismene is accustomed to moving around all the time and having a full schedule. in her mind, staying busy keeps her mind off of the unimportant things like wondering when her dad is gonna come home. if he is gonna come home. besides, a fast-paced girl needs a fast-paced lifestyle. few people can juggle so many activities at once.

today, however, ismene is getting a bit of a break. a day off from school means a day off from most of her activities, and the girl is determined to enjoy it as much as possible. she does not get to come to the ocean as much as she would like to. ismene is wearing a simple blue one piece swimsuit—she isn't really interested in anything showier and she likes the whale patterns. it's fun and youthful. dark brown hair is freed from its usual ponytail, flowing freely down to the middle of her back. she seems to glow at the sight of her friends, and trots over with a warm smile. "hey guys!" she says cheerily, throwing an arm around juniper's shoulder in an affectionate greeting. bright eyes the color of ancient amber regard the older male kindly. "junie is right, abbi. you don't need to watch over our flip flops. they'll be okay." unless someone takes them or they blown away, but, hey, three dollar flip flops getting lost to the elements is not much of a loss. she glances down at rhea. "maybe we can help rhea build a super awesome sandcastle?"

ever since monique backflipped into ismene's life, iz has been fascinated with that strange girl. yes, ismene has lots of friends and all of them are awesome and unique in their own ways. but monique is different. she's silly and extravagant and dramatic and tons of fun to be around. ismene would never admit it, but she is currently the president of the monique fan club. if mo told her to jump, she'd probably do it. maybe it's simply monique's magnetic charisma that draws the young lioness to her, or maybe ismene is simply a little bit more lonely than she lets on. aside from junepaw, iz really doesn't have many friends her age, so perhaps the girl is just excited to hang around another girl—especially one as goofy as mo.

today, ismene is looking around for her friend because she has a special mission in mind. "mo?" she calls, searching up in the treetops where the other girl likes to hang around. "monique? i found a cool place where we can go pick some fruit!" ismene learned right off the bat that monique prefers fruits over just about everything else. and the moment she found the blackberry patch, she thought it would be a fun thing to do together. and maybe they could get some adventuring done together while they were at it.

monique.

yes, stairs would be much appreciated. ismene is quite good at many things, but climbing is not one of them. perhaps one day, but, alas, she is still a soft and squishy child with not much in the way of athleticism. she's training everyday to get better, though the amount of time spent doing so varies from day to day. ultimately, books and learning take priority over everything else and she often forgets about the exercising aspect. when veter arrives, she brightens up at the sight of him. "hello, mister veter," she says cheerily. "do you mind teaching me how to fly? i mean, not me, icarus. i mean, me in icarus's body. icarus is my eagle and i can control him sometimes, but not very well. so i was wondering if you could help me practice?" it's takes her a moment to realize that she has been rambling, and grins sheepishly. oops.

the arrival of other creature momentarily distracts ismene from her strategic rambling. he does not say his name, but his appearance is enough to give one pause. he looks like an angel—pale white fur the color of freshly fallen snow with graceful wings sprouting from his back, the feathers trembling delicate with every move that he makes. malakas, he even has a halo! but ismene can tell just by looking that his appearances are deceiving. if she thought her original captor was terrifying, this next creature was enough to make ismene cower away at the sight of him. not much, but enough to remind anyone watching that she was just a child. mentally mature compared to other youths, perhaps, but a child nonetheless. and the speckled lioness would have to be crazy not to be terrified of the male. and what he says to her...it's cold and nonchalant. she wants to cry, but she doesn't, face scrunching up with the effort to keep herself together.

ismene is no warrior, by any means. in fact, she is little more than a waif, motherless and fatherless, who happened to be welcomed into shadow veil with open arms. she is good at running and learning and drawing, but she has ever once trained in how to handle captive situations. the girl is afraid to be hurt, afraid to die, but if it is her fate, so be it. she just refuses to let this stupid, stinky, ugly bullies talk down to her the entire time. ismene doesn't try to be threatening. she just glares at barghest like the impetuous child that she is and says, "if you had any brains you'd know that sediment and rock are two different things." one is a dense solid, and the other is a collection of fine dust and other eroded parts. "besides, if i ate rocks it would just make me cough and wheeze and drool. very disgusting and uncomfortable but it wouldn't shut me up." it's clear that ismene is determined to be as annoying as she can manage. it's what they deserve to stealing her away from junie and mo and miss mercy. it's what they deserve for being a bunch of thugs.

her eyes flicker to the nearest window, catching sight of a golden eagle gliding in the distance. the sight of icarus comforts her a bit, though she knows he cannot help her now. not in this body, at least. ismene averts her attention back to the scary angel, fixing him with a very unconvincing glare considering the quivering of her limbs.

although ismene reveres miss mercy, she knows that there are not one, but two shadowkeepers. it's easy to find the aforementioned, because mercy is very social and outgoing. but abbi? well, he must be a bit more shy. or he is just a lot busier than ismene ever realized. in spite of all her knowledge, iz can never fathom what it is like to actually be in charge of anything. if she desired, ismene could pack up all of her things and leave whenever she pleased. beside her love for her newfound friends, there really is nothing keeping her here. once a nomad, always a nomad. no one could ever take the wandering out of her. so to imagine being a high position in multiple clans...it gives iz a headache just thinking about it. regardless, ismene hopes to finally meet one on one with mister abbi. she thinks he is pretty cool. not as cool as miss mercy, but he's certainly up there.

"mister abbi?" she calls, wandering aimlessly through the territory. "mister abbi??" clearly ismene has no idea what abbi does for fun, so at this point she is just guessing. is it weird that she just keeps calling out for him like a lost pet? a little bit, yeah. but try telling that to a child. and, hey, maybe it will actually help her find him faster! well, actually asking around would help more, but ismene is enjoying the aimless wandering.

abbi .

ismene snickers at junepaw and says, "all is fair in love and war!" before kicking the ball at his face.

ismene is quite pleased to hear that veter is willing to help her. on most occasions, ismene would generally just figure everything out on her own. she taught herself most of her own skills and knowledge with minimum input from others. but the matter of controlling another creature's body sort of freaks the girl out. she loves icarus. he is her friends. and the last thing she wants to do is to accidentally hurt him because she doesn't know how to pilot him correctly. "thank you!" iz says with a grin before directing her eagle to descend blow the canopy and land beside veter. "alright, i'm gonna switch over." the first time she "switched," ismene plunged her head into a pool of water. not of her own volition, of course. the gods made her do it. now she has practiced enough that she just has to close her eyes and lie down and then there's a brief moment of falling. when she opens her eyes, everything is in high definition. icarus's eyes are better than her own. "okay. i'm ready."

she is a child. not a soldier. soldiers are trained in all manners of war. to suspend empathy, to put the glory of their patron before their own lives. they know what to do when the enemy takes them. don't speak. don't draw attention to yourself. but ismene is just a girl, motherless and fatherless, who is doing her best in a scary situation. just like a cat puffing itself up to look bigger and scarier, ismene uses her knowledge as a sort of front. basic instinct. they expect too much of a child. if iz could hear their thoughts—barghest and shocktherapy—hear what they thought about their children, she would ask why they would have any children at all. is it just for the sake of reproducing? perhaps out of arrogance? or just an accident? in ismene's opinion, someone producing an offspring does not make them a parent. it does not give them the right to call that offspring their "child." they're just stupid, mean, and arrogant. oh, so they think she's acting smarter than she actually is? well they act the same way. age does not beget wisdom. everyone is just pretending and putting on a show.

and right now, she is pretending not to be as scared as she is. ismene's little body trembles, curling away from the scary creatures who stare at her like it's just a twisted roadside spectacle. but she does not cry. she does not scream. furious amber eyes stare back at barghest when shocktherapy steps on her leg. iz does not have enough time to move away before the bones bend and break with a sickening crack. she cries out in a quiet sob, biting down on the inside of her cheek until she tastes iron on her tongue. stupid malakas, she thinks, glaring daggers at the canine as she fights back the urge to cry. stupid ugly bully who can only grab kids. stupid ugly buttface with a bunch of stupid ugly buttface friends.

ismene knows she shouldn't say anything else. she is a foolish youth, however, and already committed to this role of talkative annoyance. so the little piebald lioness tears her gaze away from shocktherapy and drags it back to barghest. "sedimentary rock is formed from the weathered remains of other rock, as well as organic particles, and ash." hey, he asked her a question. the girl might as well answer it. and the process of coming up with an answer momentarily takes her mind off of the suffering. her leg hurts, throbbing and burning as if she had plunged it into the river styx. but achilles endured a pain much greater than hers. maybe ismene can endure this too.

”n-no!” splutters ismene in embarrassment, “absolutely not! no crushes! bleh!!”

”i will never have a crush on you,” promises ismene, mortified by the thought that someone thinks she has a crush on her friend.