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!
His dark blue eyes fastened on her face and he rose to his feet, rolling up the scrolls and materials, tucking them in an inner pocket. Once the worried look passed, her suspicions kicked right in. Dammit why'd he have to go and pick up a smart chick?
"No not that." he answered, looking for a way to word the explanation without arousing suspicion but keeping it truth. "I meant well done on being brave enough ta tell me every thing, with no detail spared. And uh.. sorry fer yer loss. I didn't know about yer ma or family.."
Raff's voice trailed off, not wanting to continue what must be a painful subject for her. When his own ma died, it had not just hurt for himself, but his five siblings as well. She'd left a huge void in his life and Raff wasn't sure if Red was close to her mother or not.
This time his eyebrows rose and then fell into a scowl, "More like what dint she say."
Other men visiting? Mosse, that stupid mountain that did nothing but mope and loom? The fuck was he doin sniffin around Red. Raff scowled deeper as he thought about it. That old bag's comment about Mosse said a lot more than she'd realized. So she let in the bore Tor and then eavesdropped on every word, but left him standing there with no invite-just kept fuckin yappin. He wasn't sure if it was flattering for him or she was just going senile.
"Just some shit 'bout ya having a thing for tall guys, and what Mosse wouldn't do with a nekkid woman, eavesdroppin on yer every word, fifteen more minutes of rambling then she brings up intentions- still leaving me to stand outside like a fuckwit. She's bored and needs a man or a hobby or somethin."
Then an ironic thought occurred to him that he said aloud as he thought it and laughed, "I guess she's full payback for Brent bein a dick to ya huh?"
Last Edit: Apr 17, 2023 21:51:31 GMT -5 by Deleted
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Apr 17, 2023 23:47:02 GMT -5
She got to her feet soon after he did. Was he frustrated? She was the one that’d messed up. But then he elaborated what he meant. Sounded reasonable enough, so she didn’t challenge it. To his condolences for her family, she didn’t turn away from him, but her eyes drifted down almost wistfully, “Thanks,” she said, “It’s been a few years, so it doesn’t hurt as much, but…” she didn’t finish, just let the sentence drop. She’d been entirely alone after her family’s death. Loss was difficult enough when the one left behind wasn’t only fifteen. She’d been lucky that Bette had taken pity on her, or she might have been on the street.
At his scowl, she had confirmation that he was still angry with Bette, “What didn’t she say?” And then he told her. Ugh, that was bad. Where did she even start?
“Goddess, I’m sorry about her…she’s a harridan,” an apology was a good place to start. She couldn’t believe she didn’t invite him in…especially since Raff was just Bette’s type: Young and fit. What he said about Tor though had her brow all furrowed again. What did Tor have to do with her liking tall men? Better yet…
“How did Tor and naked women come up in the same sentence?” she wasn’t even sure if Tor could say the word ‘naked’ without bursting into flames, “I’m not even sure if he strips himself down to bathe, he’s so straight-laced.”
The mention of his brother and the way he had made advances on her brought a smile to her face, “We all have to have one, right?” She laughed, “At least you’re related to yours. Mine’s just nosy.”
"Mosse said he was like a brother to ya and 'that boy wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if one of ‘em was laying nekkid on his bed and giving him directions!' Bette's got quite the fuckin mouth on her yea?"
Raff grinned and replied, "Well I dunno. I gotta say bein related to that dumbass Brent ain't a good thing. Ya might have the better deal with her...in fact.." His blue eyes gleamed as he came up with an idea.
"Do ya wanna switch out? Alan's not sleepin there and Brent's only leavin his stuff there til he's married next month. I'll switch ya Cady, Denzul and Ewan fer Bette. Sound good? Don't worry about the boys eating much yet--their appetite won't kick in hard for another couple years, then they'll eat ya outta house n home!"
Last Edit: Apr 18, 2023 19:44:04 GMT -5 by Deleted
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Apr 18, 2023 21:02:32 GMT -5
She laughed. There was more embarrassment in her laugh than there was mirth and it ended in a groan as she leaned against the wall, her hands covering her eyes before sliding down her face. That sounded exactly like something Bette would say…and Tor insisting on being her brother would certainly make the old woman suspect less than pure intentions.
The irony of his comment on Bette’s ‘fucking’ mouth brought her hands back down so she could look at him, one eyebrow raised, one corner of her mouth tilted up in the start of a smile, “Yeah, she does have a foul mouth, does she?” She leaned forward a little and let the hint of a smile widen into a grin, “You just never know if she’ll have you blushing or not.”
“Hmmm…” she tapped her chin as if considering his proposition, “That is tempting…but I think Bette would have you as shy and red-faced as a virgin on her wedding night after one day…you might have to box her ears.”
Red gave her lean in cue with the start of a smile and Raff knew it was time to pull her closer. So he did. He pulled his left arm around her, resting his left hand on her spine.
"I can't even begin to imagine what it would take for me to blush now Red. Honestly, I don't have the ego or the modesty for it. There's nothing I know of that the old bag could say to make -me- blush."
He looked down at her upturned face and watched her expression as the night darkened around them. It was getting fast toward Spring and the weather wasn't bad at all to stay outside.
"Ya wanna stay or go somewhere? I can get rid of Bette for a couple hours if ya wanna go back to yer place...Or we could go to mine for a lil bit. The kids aren't due back til ten so it'll be quiet the next few hours. What da ya say?"
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Apr 19, 2023 18:19:41 GMT -5
He put his arm around her, and she let him pull her closer. She let her right hand slide up the arm that was holding her, resting her palm on his biceps and snaked her other arm around his waist. Although the air was starting to lose the bite of heims, the warmth from his body felt nice.
“Nothing at all? Well now I just feel challenged,” she laughed. She supposed if Brent walking in on them didn’t do it, then it would be a difficult thing. Raff had certainly made her blush enough. It would be fun to see if she could make him blush for a change.
She studied his face as she thought about his question…his eyes were a pretty shade of blue. It was an interesting contrast to his otherwise rugged appearance. She didn’t really have a preference on where they went…the alley itself was nice enough, but if his intentions were something similar to that other night they’d spent in an alley—goddess, even if his intentions were as pure as Tor’s, she wanted to be somewhere a little more private. It seemed that they were always being interrupted by something no matter what they were doing.
“I don’t have a preference,” she said, “Although I’m really curious about how you plan on getting Bette to leave her own home.”
Raff searched his memory but honestly, for the life of him, he couldn't remember the last time he'd blushed or why. He shrugged and smirked down at her cute little face and then his blue eyes blatantly roamed further down with no shame.
"If yer tempted to feel challenged, then go fer it Red." His large hands curled around her waist, his thumbs lingering and he said in her ear, "If ya feel like trying ta make me blush, I'm up for anything you are..."
He moved back in a burst of laughter at her comment about Bette.
"It would cost me, but it wouldn't be the first time I visited Maurice askin fer a favor, and it won't be the last." Raff's voice deepened with the salacious memories behind the person connected to that name.
"Ya ever been ta Maurice?" he asked, knowing it would definitely make her blush if she did know. Depending on her reply, he'd figure where to go from there.
Last Edit: Apr 21, 2023 19:55:38 GMT -5 by Deleted
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Apr 22, 2023 8:45:40 GMT -5
Rhedara bit her lip against an almost shy smile at his blatant ogling. She was fully clothed and her chest was well-covered at that, but the way he was looking made it seem as if she weren't wearing anything at all. Even though it was probably much too late for her own bought of shyness, her cheeks warmed. He wasn’t the shy type about most things—she figured that out the night she’d met him. She knew she'd be hard pressed to make him blush, but she would have fun trying.
She lightly batted his chest with her hand in playful chastisement, “I bet you would be!” she laughed, “And bashful as you are, you’re expecting me to try now…” despite her words, she leaned in a fraction closer and looped her arms around his neck. Distantly, she wondered how they always managed to get here. The conversation had started out so seriously, but it had quickly turned flirtatious…not that she minded. She didn’t mind one bit.
“Who’s Maurice?” he said hiring this “Maurice” person would cost him…which made sense. You paid someone when you hired them for a job. However, there was something in the way that he said that it would cost him that bothered her. Maybe she was overthinking it, maybe not. She wished she could put her finger on what the “off” feeling she was getting about the whole thing. Maybe she should have been more concerned about what this Maurice guy would do to Bette…the old woman was a nibby nose, but Rhedara didn’t want her hurt.
“Sounds like a lot of trouble,” she moved her hands back to his arms and slid them down to his elbows, “Especially since there’s places we can be without chasing anybody away.”
Raff slowly moved his gaze to her face and smiled with knowing satisfaction,
"I can promise, my chest ain't nearly as much fun ta look at as yers." he said with usual smooth eloquence.. and a smirk. Holding her closely with both large hands as they roamed the small of her back, caressing the arch of it with long, slow motions.
In swift answer to her question of who, he moved in to kiss her, pausing to catch her lower lip in his teeth, urging her to completely forget about any mentioned names that either had spoken of. "No one." he murmured against her mouth, dragging his lips across her cheek to her ear to speak in a low growl,
"Mhhm yer right." he made several small, lingering kisses along her neck to her shoulder, "Too much trouble.."
Raff pressed her even more closely to him, leaving not even a breath of air between them.
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Apr 23, 2023 23:08:44 GMT -5
She returned his smirk with one of her own, “I dunno about that,” she moved her lips together as if she she were smoothing pigment over them, “I like looking at yours,” she reflexively arched her back, almost stretching as his hands stroked her back. It felt nice. More than nice.
His answer to her question was a kiss that had her fingers gripping his shirt and her pulse running a little faster. Was he trying to distract her? Why? He was the one that brought the name up. Even as he kissed her, she started to ask against his mouth who Maurice was, and why was he answering her question to his question with a kiss? But then he bit her lip, and the thought that she should call him out for the rather interesting way he answered her question flew away like a startled bird. She kissed him back instead, more than happy to follow his mood.
She’d ask about…Maureen, or Maroon, or Moron, or whoever it was later.
Slipping her arms over his neck again, she clutched at him. His growl made her shiver in delight. He really needed to do that more. She stood on her tippy toes as he trailed his mouth down her neck to her shoulder, both to give him better access, but also to let her reach him better, “That feels good,” she uttered before she pressed a lingering kiss to his neck, right below his ear. Then another kiss, letting her teeth graze his skin a little before another one followed that one.
Rhedara's shiver made him think she might like some talking in her ear or some shit like that. It was kinda hard to think when the blood was rushing to only one area right now. Easier access made things much much better and he grinned as he spoke into her ear again in a low lazy growl of a voice,
"Does it really...?"
Raff murmured against the skin of her neck, his mouth kissing and nipping lightly. "A mouth can be.." he paused briefly lingering over the taste and warmth of that spot just behind and under Red's ear.. "a very... useful thing.."
When she bit his neck, Raff's left hand moved upward into her hair, putting his fingers through it to get rid of those damn pins as if undressing the long dark silky locks until they were freed. His other large hand roamed down to encompass her hip, hugging her close enough to him to nearly cause pain, caught only between the threshold of their clothing.
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Apr 25, 2023 11:41:21 GMT -5
Raff did that growl thing again in her ear and she made a noise that might have been a delighted purr as she tried to wiggle even closer to him, “Yeah, really,” the nails of her right hand dug into his shoulder as she raked them down toward his arm. The fingers of her other hand made delicate little circles over the back of his neck, not quite touching his hairline, “You should do that some more…”
She felt his fingers combing through her hair, pulling out the pins she’s used to secure the braid around her head. She never thought that a man undoing her braid would feel as intimate as it did, but there it was. It was another sort of undressing, a different sort of vulnerability. She kept kissing and nipping at his neck and shivered a little as she felt her hair fall loose down her back.
He firmly pulled her to him, and the proximity let her know that he was definitely wanting the same thing she was wanting. The alley wasn’t a bad location…it was dark, and hardly anyone was out at that time of day, but it wasn’t very private. She had hoped that if they ever got intimate again that things would happen on a more horizontal surface, like a bed and the location would be a room with four walls and a locked door so they could take their time with each other without worrying if someone would walk in on them...there could be less clothes involved too. It was tempting to just say ‘screw it’ and untie the laces of her own bodice for him, or to figure out how to get her hands under his clothes so she could feel his stomach and chest, skin to skin. But it would be mortifying enough is someone stumbled on them…in the middle of things. She wasn’t a prude, but she wasn’t shameless enough to not mind if she was seen in any state of undress by anyone except for the person she was about to lay with.
She could have cursed Bette for being home that day. Ah well…if she could keep him wanting to come back to her, maybe she’d be able to literally get him in bed.
A tiny pebble smacked the wall a millimeter from Raff's shoulder and he jerked forward, shoving Rhedara off him with a swift movement and a growl.
Alan peeked around the corner, getting a nice eye full of Red's bare thigh from her skirt being hiked up and he jerked his head at Raff. With a sigh, he motioned to Red to stay there and followed his brother around the corner.
"Oh you know this better be really fuckin good Alan!" "The party that Cady's at, has just as many boys as girls and there's no parents in sight--just Jynnie's maids." "So she lied ta me?" Alan nodded, not trusting his voice at Raff's hard smile. "Nice recon. I'll have to change my plans then. Go git some sleep, good work."
Once Alan had left, Raff poked his head around the corner and said,
"Change o' plans Red. Got an awol fourteen year old who thinks it's ok ta fuckin lie ta me. Ya comin with or heading back home?"
Post by Rhedara Shannon on Apr 26, 2023 19:10:25 GMT -5
The chill air nipped at the skin of her thigh…she’d not even realized he was lifting her skirt until it was already bunched around her hip. Oh goddess, yes! If they weren’t already pressed tightly together, she would have tried to get closer…actually she did try. She started to move her leg to…she didn’t know…hook around his leg maybe? But She didn’t get very far because Raff suddenly shoved her away from him.
If she hadn’t been occupied with the feel of Raff’s hands on her, Rhedara might have heard the pebble hit the wall, but she didn’t. So it was very jarring when Raff shoved her off of him. It took a moment or two for anything to get past the desire-fueled fog in her head and she could only look at him before she opened her mouth to protest, “Why’d you shove —“ she stopped as she followed his eye line and saw who she assumed was another sibling. Damn it! That was it, next time she was pulling him into a room and blocking the door. It didn’t occur to her just then to wonder how much he saw or how long he watched them. She was too annoyed, too frustrated.
He motioned for her to stay and she did only because she needed a moment to compose herself again. While he had his brief chat with his brother, she would try and get her clothes straightened back out as best she could. She didn’t even want to think about what her hair looked like…probably not so bad, the braid would leave a wave in it, but she was sure it was mussed at the very least. By the time Raff looked around the corner at her, he’d see her with her skirt hiked up just enough that she would try and retie the ribbon that kept her socks up over her knees.
She looked up from her now retied ribbon. He was okay with her going to fetch his sister? It was probably wiser to go home, but going with him meant she could be around him more. With the stricter military scheduling, she wasn’t sure how often she’d be able to see him…plus she was more curious than she should have been on what Cady was doing that drew Raff’s attention more than the prospect of getting sex.
“I’ll come with you,” she finished smoothing down her skirt before trotting over to where Raff was standing. Once she reached him, she’d start running her fingers through her hair to smooth out any tangles, “Where are we going?”
For a long moment, Raff stood dazed as he watched the sheer stocking being tied up that long sleek leg as she bent forward. Waves of long dark shining hair cascaded down to obscure her face. When she looked up him it was like getting hit with a hammer. Hair back, Rhedara was cute as a button--but hair down, she was a straight up knock out. He only just closed his mouth, realizing his jaw had literally dropped. Dammit! Double dammit! Interrupted again!
When it looked like she was about to put her hair up he said quickly,
"Stop- yer even more beautiful with yer hair down."
Raff was sure that moments like this looked really fuckin bad for him that he was dragged away by kids every time he got a moment with her, but there was nothing to be done for it. He worked two jobs, took care of three of his five siblings and just eked out enough time for eating and sleeping. He'd simply have to cut back on eating or sleeping if he wanted to keep spending time with Red. Which was reason enough for him.
Five blocks over, he finally released her hand and made a shushing motion with a finger to his lips. Then he picked up a couple pebbles and crept closer to the noisiest house on the block.
About a dozen boys were gathered in the alley by the house, all around thirteen to fifteen and more than happy to hang around the window with the teen girls. One of them dipped her head out and whispered,
"First in line! Random kiss, close your eyes both of you." Jynnie commanded, nudging a girl to lean out the window.
Raff's eyes narrowed and he whipped a single pebble directly at the back of the boy's head and ducked back behind the corner, smiling maliciously to Red.
Last Edit: Apr 27, 2023 16:53:59 GMT -5 by Deleted