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!
She nodded as Grant mentioned @katerina, thinking he might have been giving her a name to start with in who he was interested in. Or at least physically attracted to. But when he seemed to pivot on her husband, Norah realized and remembered that he really had been gone that long.
“Oh, yes,” she paused slightly, knowing she had only truly met the man once… and not really on great terms. On a rather horrible night. “He… returned to the goddess in Heims.” Norah glanced towards Grant, trying to gauge how the next piece would hit him and how it wasn’t exactly a great topic on finding a wife. “He took his own life,” she finished as Deimos also stirred, watching the Delaney as well.
Post by Grant Delaney on Jul 16, 2023 20:42:03 GMT -5
Grant's thinking wasn't exactly clear, especially now that he was being reminded of all this grief that everyone else was also going through.
"Took his own life?" asked Grant, shocked. "I thought he and Katerina had kids," he said, the shoddily-constructed dam keeping the Bad Feelings away springing a few leaks.
"Like a lot of kids?" he added. The Van Zants seemed, uh. Well there were a lot of them. Then again Grant knew exactly what he did when he had free time, so he couldn't exactly blame them, but damn.
Norah leveled her gaze on him, and something tugged hard in her chest at his words. She had never quite understood those who took their own lives, not until recently. Not until she had seen what one could be left to be…
“Three, if I’m not mistaken, but that’s certainly not an unheard of number.” She answered, those amber eyes if Deimos finding hers. How many had she carried herself while married to Lord Carter… if they had made it… but he certainly had done his best to take care of the situation because it wasn’t the heirs he had wanted… not of the male variety.
She shifted in her seat, suddenly ashamed that her thoughts had slipped into the territory they had, before refocusing. “It’s still fresh, so she might not want anything or anyone at this time. So that could bring you to… three?” She suggested, glancing back up to him.
Post by Grant Delaney on Jul 16, 2023 21:51:41 GMT -5
Three? Oh. That was a relatively tame amount. Grant himself had four sisters.
Still, he was having trouble reconciling the urge to take one's own life and leave behind a family. Maybe that was because Grant didn't particularly want to die, or maybe because he was suddenly reminded what it was like to be bereaved, and without such a close attachment as a life partner, or his own children. Maybe it was because he was actively pursuing them?
"Right, no, she'll, uh. Probably need time," to say the least. He was also definitely not her type, they had a... personality mismatch.
"Right, ah, marriage," he said, clearing his throat, feeling terribly awkward for a change. Somehow the topic didn't pair well with death, he would have to remember. He'd have to not the fuck bring up the fact that Norah was a widow, which had somehow slipped his mind.
She mentally crossed off Katerina from the list… for now. There was always a possibility that something could come up to add her back to the pool of eligible ladies. Especially for a Delaney. But when he sounded confused, she felt her brows tug together.
“Well, out of the soldiers we spoke of… that leaves three… Evanthe Curran, Elodie Atwood, and Faylin Valana. Unless you wanted to add someone else?”
The gears seemed to be slowly turning in his head. Not at a grinding impasse but just slowly processing what she had said. It could have been the knowledge of a friend passing that was causing this, she certainly knew how loss could warp not only thoughts but time itself for a person. Had lived it. Most of Heims seemed like a fog to her. Vers had been upon them before she realized it truly had passed that much time. Or even the days she sat at the sea side, at the edge of a cliff, staring over the water because she just couldn’t look down.
Deimos was the one during those times to tell her when she needed to go. When her body had become so cold that even with him curled around her as he could, he knew she needed to get by a fire. Her lips past blue…
Grant seemed to finally say something and her focus sharply returned to him. Those dark eyes wide and round as she looked up at him, “I did.” She half said it as a question before she blinked and looking down at his knees. How much further they extended over the lounge than hers… “I ah,” she tried to restart her focus to his original dilemma. It was easier. “I come from a good family name, good social standing, good graces with the royal family… and though I had not-,” her hand ghosted over the flat of her stomach, “I can.” She left it at that, her chin ticking higher as if telling herself to snap out of it. “But I am no soldier Grant…” not in the way he was.
“And I’m older,” she tried to joke, her lips curling ever so slightly. “So my name to said list is completely up to you.” It was a taunt, a tease. But if he seriously wanted her name… her… added as an option…
Post by Grant Delaney on Jul 17, 2023 21:20:37 GMT -5
Grant wasn't sure who Norah was supposed to be arguing with? The part of his brain that refused to accept his mother's death was picturing her literally salivating at the thought of any combination of most of those things Norah just said. All of them together maybe more. No soldier even better.
"You're--wait you're older than me?" he asked, thinking about that. But she was tiny--"nevermind, not, not important," stop getting off course, Delaney, "it's not completely up to me, but if it was you're on it. It's up to you, too," he said.
The laugh that left her when he was surprised she was older was a laugh that hadn’t been heard in a long time. One that started with her head tilting back before she tucked her chin to try and subdue it just a bit. Her lips pressing together with a smile, her fingers pressing to her lips to try and held aide the sound. “Thirty,” she answered with amusement dancing in her eyes…
But he seemed confident in his next answer. And she wasn’t sure why at first, because it was his opinion she was asking for and he was easily asking for her name to be added… only at her own approval. She blinked a few times, trying to regain her thoughts and she realized why she might be a good option… and he might be a good one for her. “You wouldn’t see me often,” she offered. “I’m in Cambria a lot at this time, and who knows where after that in the next several months… which would give you a lot of freedom…”
“Would you be okay with that? Brief visits with your wife?” She needed to make sure he understood what adding her name meant. “If you are,” she thought about the things she could benefit from this as well, “I would not mind being considering at all.”
Post by Grant Delaney on Jul 18, 2023 21:29:57 GMT -5
Thirty? What the fuck did women just stop growing--? No, actually, he knew that answer. It was yes.
He smiled a little back at her. He thought about that. Well. "I mean," he said, "if I get added back into the military, I'd also probably be off a lot, so, yeah, I'd considered that," he said.
There was also the chance he wouldn't and he'd just go quietly mad here on his own but he would not consider that a possibility for now.
He was pretty sure he was picking up what she was putting down. Or, at least, he was vividly imagining what sort of implications she was giving him. Maybe he was hoping--fuck sake she was in Cambria? This could literally have been avoided or, maybe, happened organically--relax, Grant.
"Yeah, I'd have to be okay with that," said Grant, nodding. "..you're really in Cambria, though?" he asked, unable to help himself.
He seemed so... calm at the answer. He'd be gone just as much as she would when he was added back into the ranks... possibly even see her more if he was sent off to Cambria... She blinked a few times at him, a small smile mirroring his... was she actually considering this? Like truly. Even if she had already given him the answer that she'd be honored to be considered... she figured he would find someone else but...
This could protect her. Keep other's like Lord Carter from coming around to try and claim a piece of her name... a piece of her. But with Grant...
He was agreeing, and just like that... Norah's name was added as a candidate for the Delaney. Licking her lips, she looked to Deimos as that large nose pressed to her calf. "We have been. For a while now. Trying to help settle both sides of people living there, some things have been successful... others have been... rather touchy." She tucked back a piece of hair behind her ear. "I am not sure where they'd send you once you are back in, we have plenty who stayed here... but quite a few have gone to Cambria or Coheed."
Post by Grant Delaney on Aug 2, 2023 2:01:17 GMT -5
Grant smiled easily at Norah.
First off, she was a friend.
Second off, and more importantly for his (immediate) concern, she was beyond gorgeous. The idea of her being the one to carry his--
Anyway.
He looked over at Deimos and smiled, patting the wolf on the head. He looked at her. "I was... supposed," he said, with some effort to try and remain neutral, "to be stationed in Cambria. Before, uh, I was withdrawn. Maybe if I'm lucky I will again?" he suggested, looking at her and smiling. Were it so easy? Then again maybe it would have been if he just stayed the course in his career and went to Cambria. Run into Norah again, and--well. Now he was thinking ahead of himself with the idea she might marry him.
"Then it seems you have quite the full plate don't you, Lord Delaney," she a small coy smile on her lips. "On the hunt for a wife, on your way to possibly beg the Captain Commander to place you where you were supposed to be." She couldn't help herself, her eyes narrowing slightly as she thought it over. "You do know that it will be hard to conduct your research on who to pick for your wife if you are in another kingdom where some of them are not." Her eyes danced with something akin to a tease.
That was... if he got sent to Cambria... he was almost guaranteeing that Norah was the one he would have time to pursue.
Post by Grant Delaney on Sept 25, 2023 0:42:57 GMT -5
Grant stared at Norah.
Lord Delaney.
That gave him fucking chills, and he knew why. He wasn't about to mention it, but Norah was observant and probably knew exactly what she was doing, what she was eliciting.
Norah had said some things and they were surely important--because Norah Prowze did not mince words--but Grant lost most of them.
"You're sure you want to be on the, uh, list?" he asked, to clarify. Grant had a lot of opinions but, thanks to his upbringing, he knew better than to try and act on a woman without her express intent. Whether or not other folks in Nevermere realized, they were very powerful and wildly resourceful, even if slightly short and less physically strong.
Norah knew Grant, but as an instructor would know a student. She had been the one in charge of his and Regan’s paired training. Which she still wondered how they had survived her. She had less training in that area yet they had become so much. A sense of pride in herself for being able to guide them. But she saw his face in the moment, and was briefly reminded on the night they had met.
A small head tilt, a raise of her brow in a silent question as he asked her to confirm she meant it. Her eyes glanced between his, the fire crackling loudly in the silence and even Deimos seemed to glance between the two in question. Was Norah prepared for being on a list…