The peace that formerly reigned in Terra Nova has eroded, now little more than a memory. War ravages the continent. Disputes divide kingdoms; ideals divide families. The quest for power consumes absolutely and indiscriminately. None are immune to its allure.
Who will rise and who will fall? Only time—and ambition—will tell.
UPDATES
05.26.2023
2 month character creation hold for all existing members begins 6/5/2023. Ended 8/5/2023.
10.29.2023
Change in how times flows. Was 4 IC seasons, now only 2 IC seasons per 1 OOC year.
5 whole years of Heir Apparent goodness! When I started the site, I knew I was hunkering down for the long haul, but I never could have predicted the numerous twists and turns this roleplay site has seen. Hundreds of plots, characters, and members have come and gone, all leaving marks on the site. I am so very thankful for those who have invested. Because you keep coming back, keep getting on, and keep writing, Heir Apparent has the legacy it does today. Three cheers to us!
Post by Zarha Sliva on Feb 2, 2023 17:49:58 GMT -5
When Kat spoke her eyes drifted towards Torsten. A man who is clearly much heavier then Kat. However she was determined, she will not buckle in fear. She was a strong person. She carried on doing her press up focused. Waiting for Abbott's instruction. If things get swapped around, she will prepare herself but getting herself onto her elbows to get ready for the weight of Tors on her back. She will be seen as week. He will not break her.
Yeah, that wasn’t surprising in the least. When Ber had sat on the girl’s back, he had prepared himself for the inevitable collapse under his weight, so he had his arms loose by his sides and ready to catch himself should the fall be asymmetrical. Her arms gave out. She landed in the mud. He did not. Abbott looked on in disappointment, but he found another target soon enough: Rhedara Shannon .
Silently, Ber did as he was told and climbed off the first witch to move to the second. As she looked up at him, he felt only somewhat regretful about facilitating the drill instructor’s bullying, but when push came to shove, he was not about to risk ending up on the ground alongside the row of new recruits. Ber had done his time, thank you very much; he had no desire to do more. Shannon managed a single push up before she collapsed as well, and after looking down at her, the soldier glanced up at Aldrich Abbott for the next direction.
It was @katerina who spoke up first, however, drawing his attention to the crowd that had gathered and in particular to one @torsten . Ber’s gaze moved from the other man, down to Zarha Sliva , then back to the drill instructor. Maybe if Mosse came over, Ber could leave. As memorable as it would be to watch Sliva struggle with push ups, he really just wanted some food.
Post by Aldrich Abbott on Feb 3, 2023 5:53:51 GMT -5
Aldrich watched as Berengar moved from the first soldier to the next, sitting down on her back instead. It lasted only one push-up before the girl collapsed under the weight of the older soldier. She cursed and wiped the blood from her lip. "At least you tried, right?" the officer said, looking down at Shannon and for a moment it seemed like he was genuine. "Sadly, you don't survive a war by just trying. You win it by succeeding. So you know what to do, Shannon. More training." He looked up at Stormcrest. "You can move back to the side."
He turned to face Winters when she spoke. A grin appeared on his face as he thought to himself how he kind of liked this woman's ideas. His eyes followed the direction she was pointing in, and he saw a familiar face. "Well if it isn't Mosse." He knew he had put the tall guy through hell back when he was his drill instructor. There was definitely still tension between the two men, even seven years after their first meeting. "That's a wonderful idea. Let's do that indeed." He gestured for Mosse to come over to sit on Sliva's back. "Join your buddy at the sideline, if you will. Stay or go, I don't care", he said, directed at Winters.
If the man in fact did sit down on Sliva's back, Abbott would turn to the young girl and 'tssk' at her. "We don't do push-ups on our elbows, you know that." She'd have to try to lift Mosse's weight on her hands, which would be very difficult, if not impossible. The man was tall and that made him quite heavy.
Torsten laughed harshly and addressed Aldrich, "Sir. Well if it isn't DI Dick, Sir."
"Sir. I see in your old age that now you suddenly take all your orders from a younger, lower ranked, 28 year old soldier woman. And that you're so predictable, they can openly tell *you* what to do. Sir." His face was an impassive mask that had only his dark eyes snapping with emotion. He stood squarely, towering, looming more than a foot over every person near him.
"Sir. And when you put your boot under Miss Sliva's chin, you could have simply told her to raise her chin a little to breathe better when doing push ups instead of adding more weight. I find it very strange that you're taking orders from Mrs Winter and letting the soldiers tell you what to do next. Unless *she's* running things now instead of you.... You wouldn't let me speak without permission back then, but I see things have changed. Sir."
Tor took two large strides into the ring, and stood by the inside of the fence, looking down at the older, over posturing Sergeant. "Sir. If you have any learning ideas of your own that actually teach, I'd be happy to help. Sir." He stood as immobile as a mountain with no hint of anything other than neutrality in his tone and posture, but the pure hatred nearly rolled off of him in visible waves.
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Feb 3, 2023 15:13:51 GMT -5
She knew he was doing his job. Aldrich Abbott was supposed to be a major pain in her ass. She knew that. Normally, she would have brushed it off...as much as she could anyways...and just keep her fantasies to herself.
But he had been the cause of her lip being cut.
Being a soldier meant that you would get filthy and cut up, she also knew that. But it didn't change that Rhedara preferred to keep the cuts and bruises to a minimum. She liked to look nice when she was off duty and that filthy, strutting peacock had made her cut her lip on her teeth by having someone much larger than her sit on her when she was already exhausted. And the bastard told her with that smug face of his that she should just train more. Something inside her said, "Damn the consequences. I'm doing it."
So as soon as Ber had climbed off her, she started to quietly mutter her little punishment, only vaguely hearing what Torsten was saying to Abbott through her petty rage, "You think you're a strutting peacock, but we all know you're more of a chicken. So it's time you spoke your native tongue. So until this time tomorrow, everything you say will begin by you strutting and clucking like the chicken you are."
Post by Regan Lassiter on Feb 3, 2023 15:26:46 GMT -5
Oh and what a time to enter the fray it was.
Regan was on her way to the royal blacksmith, taking a shortcut through the training yards. There’d been an issue with Othello’s new toy (the board he’d grown ever so fond of) and Regan wanted to see it fixed to satisfaction. She was edgy, near enough to the full moon that the desire to tear her own skin asunder and assume her wolf form was almost unbearable. That, and the constant yearning to be at Cassian’s side, were almost enough to literally set her on fire.
It was the harsh laugh that caught her attention. Laughing wasn’t something often heard from the training yard. It was enough to prick her wolf-hearing, but not enough to stop her in her tracks. Some recruits having too much fun, no big deal. Nothing to solicit more than an eye roll.
It was what she heard next that stopped her.
Under the walkway at the edge of the yard, Regan stood and watched @torsten ’s monologue with total amazement. Her mouth literally fell open as her eyes jumped to the familiar faces—@katerina , @berengar , Zarha Sliva —trying to figure out where all of this had started and where it was going. The girl with the bleeding lip. The people sitting on…one another’s backs? What? But—
Torsten was easily the most surprising part of it all. The soldier continued, on and on, giving Regan enough time to have the shock wear off and be replaced by bristling rage.
She started to charge into the training yard, eyes ablaze, just as Rhedara Shannon , unbeknownst to Regan Lassiter , cast her little curse and it started to take effect.
“What in Terra Nova is going on here?” Regan’s growling voice could easily be heard throughout the training yard, reverberating off the walls.
Last Edit: Feb 3, 2023 15:27:27 GMT -5 by Regan Lassiter
Kat dismounted gracefully and had no plans to stick around, especially with the entrance of Lassiter. Especially with Tortsen sounding off. Who was honestly stupid enough to start swearing and name calling with a superior. Even if he was a dick, Kat was smart enough not to say it to his face. And so just like Ber, she went to blend with the quickly gathering crowd.
She hoped with her size it would be easy to blend but be close enough to see the action. This was not something she needed to deal with.
Post by Zarha Sliva on Feb 3, 2023 16:02:36 GMT -5
When Regan entered and asked what going on here, when Kat got of her back Zarha stood up quickly to attention. "Officer Abbott running a Drill exerciser Ma'am." Her eyes was focused on Regan when she entered in. paying attention to her as she was highest one up here.
made by the wonderful Lyla
Last Edit: Feb 3, 2023 16:19:00 GMT -5 by Zarha Sliva
Nothing could have prepared Ber for what happened next.
Aldrich Abbott looked down at Rhedara Shannon with the expected disappointment and told Ber to move to the side, which he was more than willing to oblige. As Abbott turned his attention to the other soldiers, he climbed off of Shannon’s back and was still crouched on the ground beside her when @torsten approached and started lambasting the drill instructor with a stupid audacity that absolutely stunned him. Like a mouse that had suddenly seen a cat, Ber froze and barely dared to breathe. Wide eyes were fixed disbelievingly on Mosse as he just kept talking before flicking to stare in horror at Abbott. Forget push ups with someone on his back, Mosse had just signed the death warrant for them all. The man was an absolute menace when he was in a good mood. Only a fool would want to linger to see what he was like when a subordinate dared—
To curse him? A whisper from the side drew his attention to Shannon, who had started muttering what were clearly words intended to cast some form of magic. He had one guess as to who the victim would be. Ber blinked.
Nope. Nope. That was it. He was out of here. There was no way he would stick around, in the middle of it all, and suffer the consequences with the rest of the idiots who had decided to openly challenge and curse a superior officer who had the ability to make their lives literal nightmares, even if he privately, fully understood the impulse. Shoving himself to his feet, he finally obeyed Abbott’s order and started making a quick getaway in @katerina ’s wake, only to look around and see—
Regan Lassiter storm into the training yard with fire in her eyes. If the audience hadn’t been entirely silenced by Mosse’s sheer recklessness, then the Huntsman’s wrath had finished the job. Heart thumping wildly in his chest, as if it could fly away to escape this madness while its owner remained grounded, Ber silently eyed Regan and froze for fear of drawing her - or Abbott’s - attention. Then Zarha Sliva spoke up from where she stood with most of the group, and fully content to let her bear the brunt of both officers’ irate attention, the street rat took his chance to disappear into the crowd.
Once again, he found himself standing beside @katerina , out of the firing line but still close enough to watch the fallout.
Post by Aldrich Abbott on Feb 3, 2023 16:46:25 GMT -5
A lot happened at the same time. If he had to retell the story, he'd have trouble putting the events and detail on a timeline. After he had told @katerina that he liked her plan, he had called @torsten over. Even before he could tell the young man what his idea was, the soldier went off on him. It was fair to say that Aldrich was taken aback by this. His eyebrows started to raise higher and higher as Mosse went on.
"I don't know what has gotten in to you, kid, but you better be sure that talkin' to me will have conseq-". He gasped slightly, took a step back and lightly touched his throat with his hand. "Boook bok", he clucked. He was obviously surprised, but even more surprised when Regan Lassiter entered his field of vision. She practically barked her question at them, and he was glad that Zarha Sliva answered the question because more clucking came from his throat. "Bok bok it's a tr- bok bok training, bok." He hoped she would realise that he wouldn't just talk like this, or mock her this way. There was obviously something wrong, but he didn't know what. It wasn't difficult to realise that one of these bitch-ass soldiers had cursed him, but he wasn't sure which one of them had done it. He glared at all the witches in the group, awkwardly clucking here and there. "Bok bok but something- bok definitely went wr- bok bok wrong."
We won't call it quits. We'll call it the start.
Last Edit: Feb 3, 2023 16:46:59 GMT -5 by Aldrich Abbott
All the old crap had come back to literally roost. As usual, he lost his temper around the Sergeant and just couldn't stop himself. He felt Ber's astonished gaze on him. Torsten hastily backed up against the fence and stood to attention the second Regan entered into view. But then Aldrich start clucking..
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Feb 3, 2023 17:36:54 GMT -5
She saw the moment he felt the curse hit him and a sense of sick pleasure washed through her. Oh! That felt good. She should have done it sooner, she should have-
The moment Regan Lassiter showed up was the moment that Rhedara's smugness over what she'd done suddenly smothered out. Oh gods, what had she been thinking? It was one thing to lose your temper, but to lose it to the point that she cursed a superior officer? She'd be in trouble...but only if she were caught. She was sure no one had heard her cast the spell. She'd been so careful after all...
Or had she?
She tried to blend in with everyone else, trying to act as surprised as everyone else at Abbott's sudden fowl behavior...
Post by Regan Lassiter on Feb 3, 2023 17:41:48 GMT -5
Something went wrong, eh?
Aldrich Abbott might not be a witch, but Regan was. One that twas skilled enough to know a curse when she saw one. Perhaps under other circumstances, she might have found all of this terribly humorous; if she were standing in their boots and not her own. But as it was, Regan turned slowly to face the assembled soldiers, looking murderous, eyes glowing faintly like the coals of a dying fire.
But this fire was just getting started.
They were going to war. Perhaps the soldiers standing about didn’t fully appreciate that, but Regan did. Why else had she spent this last season training Othello until there wasn’t an ounce of Coheed left in him? Perfecting her own skills, so she might better serve her king?
Regan was the wrong witch on the wrong fucking day.
“Form up,” Regan barked, “All of you.”
The soldiers would know what this meant: stand in a line, at attention—and fast.
Post by Zarha Sliva on Feb 3, 2023 17:46:42 GMT -5
Already standing up and to attention as she was addressing her due to her other question her eyes staring forward. Even though she did think that it was kind of funny that sounds that Abbott was making she knew better then to make a sound. She stood to attention in a line waiting for everybody else to full in line.
Kat, now with the group milling around, formed up, but had no plans to drop front and center. There were plenty of others for Regan to pick on and power trip with today. Maybe she'd wolf out and choke someone else out again, and the soldier had no plans to go through that again. And so standing at attention she just had to hope that the king's pet had enough people to focus on that she forgot all about her.