bakerstreet | thursday pic prompt

[I've lived here for like 8 years and I still don't know. I mean there's fuck all you'd actually want to buy in most shops anyway. The selection is enough to make any American weep. But Sundays are legit the worst. Run out of milk at 4:00 on a Sunday? You're probably screwed until morning.]

"And for all I know you've been doing so all morning," Aurus seemed completely unconcerned at this possibility though. "For the most part these days I generally presume that someone is listening. Even when they're quiet at least one or two of the Legends are almost always still there. I find nothing objectionable about having you in my head--I like you, and some of them I don't get on with at all well."

It did make sense to him, given what he'd learned thus far, that mutants would prefer that people not pry. It was also worth a mental note for when he met the students here. Aurus was much more subtle and tactful than most sylvari, mostly because he took notice of how his race's proclivity to ask blunt questions so often made people uncomfortable. (Being aware of that fact meant that Aurus could use it to deliberate effect instead of random accident.)

Personally, though, Aurus's perspective was completely different: being a de facto ambassador for his race meant that questions simply came with the terrain. And he couldn't not be an ambassador for his race when he'd set off to travel the world before most of the world even knew what a sylvari was.

He leaned forward in his own chair, elbows resting on the arms, and mirrored Charles' posture. "You needn't worry about being rude--there's very little you could ask that I'd consider indecorous. And there is no 'more' about it. I am thoroughly a plant."

[...Suddenly I'm pretty happy to be an American. Even in my mother's backwater country area you can get milk at 4pm on a Sunday (maybe not until 11AM but still...)]

"I have not," Charles said in a voice like a promise, hand coming briefly to his chest. "I don't, usually, unless I believe there to be an issue. I've... grown since I was a teenager." The corner of his mouth lifted, briefly, remembering how he was in his youth. "However, there is nothing even similar to you in our world. The most notable movement in any plant might be the Venus Fly Trap, which actively closes on prey that it is able to, but even that is rooted to the ground. Definitely nothing on the level of intelligent life. Does that mean you were-" His brows pinched, searching for the word, "grown, rather than birthed? Is it from another of your species? Seeds, perhaps?"

He paused in his thoughts coming aloud, expression utterly curious. Aurus was used to Humans, to whatever degree, and he seemed to have no issue with the idea of mutants, but Charles had to wonder how common something as wild as a talking, walking plant was across the universes. This meeting had certainly become more and more eye-opening with every minute passing!

[LMAO as I write this, at after 5pm, I have just had the horrifying experience of realizing that, because of a load of convoluted crap that I shan't bore you with, I am in actual DESPERATE NEED of a rental car. Tonight. Literally the ONLY thing that is going to save my ass is that I can get to a London airport where things will still be open. Otherwise I would be beyond fucked.]

"I was grown," Aurus confirmed. "From a tree."

He let that settle for a moment before continuing. "That would be a rather stingy answer though. Let me tell you the story:

"Some two and a half centuries ago, during the time of the Krytan Civil War, a human soldier named Ronan was separated from his unit. Alone, he made his way into a cave where he found a clutch of strange seeds, one of which he took--a seed the size of a man's fist.

"He intended to take it home to his village and show it to his daughter, but when he returned, he found the village burned to the ground, his family murdered.

"There, he forever lay down his weapons, and planted the seed on his family's grave, and there he stayed until the end of his days. He was joined by Ventari, the centaur sage of whom I've spoken, and together they tended the Pale Tree which grew from that seed, building a sanctuary of peace and friendship all through their lives.

"It is from that tree--the Mother Tree, we say--that sylvari now grow. We mature in pods on her branches, and when our time is right, we drop to the ground and awaken. We are fully grown and we know much more of the world than a human child. We can read and write and speak; we know the foundation of Ventari's teachings--all these things come to us in what we call the Dream.

"The more we live and experience, the greater the Dream's pool of knowledge. But we are still a young race. The Firstborn only awoke about twenty-five years ago."

[GOOD LUCK THOUGH! I hope everything turns out okay :( ]

Charles did not move or speak during this story, his gaze intense and yet at the same time, almost childlike. It was like just that - listening to a story being told from a children's picture book. Something out of legend or movie or book instead of the reality of someone else's existence. His hands came up, folding under his chin, as he imagined what this tree must look like - in his mind, it was as large as a great oak, smooth, a pale off white, spreading out to a glorious field of those same dark purple leaves as Aurus' hair or perhaps the brilliant blue of his skin.

A centaur! That explained the equine sound he had picked up in Aurus' mind. At least that was something familiar to him, to some degree, from stories. People hurt by war often wanted to either find revenge or find peace, and it sounded like these two had chosen the later. A species born of a tree, intelligent fruit that came to bear when the time was right. It was utterly fascinating to him!

"What a site that must have been, when the Firstborn came to be, for those there to experience it when they were 'born'." Like finding an alien, he briefly mused, then decided it would have been much less... screaming involved, or at least he hoped in that place of peace. "So this journey... does your knowledge pass to the Dream as you journey, or will it only pass on when you do as well?" There was nothing at all like this that he had ever heard of (before the internet was a thing) that would match something like this, but it was somehow easy to imagine. A vast Network, like roots, somehow connecting the entire race.

[I have arranged to collect the car at the ass crack of dawn on my way down to teach (which, P.S., is like 2 hours away). /hair turns gray in great clumps]

It didn't take half a moment for Aurus to know that he would quite enjoy showing Charles the Pale Tree. It did take half a moment for him to realize that maybe, between the Dream and Charles' abilities, it might in some sense become possible. That would be something for them to discuss. But not just now.

As for the Firstborn, Aurus seemed comparatively less awed by them. "Well they do certainly have a well developed sense of self-importance at having been first," he said a little dryly. "There were a dozen of them, and it was almost two years before we--the secondborn--awoke. Now there are more and more every day. But in the beginning, the Firstborn could not know if there would ever by any more but them. Sometimes I think they were not entirely glad to see us." Sibling rivalry? Oh yes, there had certainly been some of that.

"As for the Dream, it is always present in some sense, even when I am awake. It ebbs and flows, like a tide. When I sleep the tide rises--washes my ankles, if you will. But it is not as though a thorough awareness of all that I've done each day is instantly conveyed to every other sylvari alive.

"You might think of it as a sea, or a vast lake perhaps. When you wade along one shore, only a small part of the water touches you, and if you poured a cupful in, it would disperse so that no one could say where 'your' water would touch or what other wading feet it might wash against.

"Only the most significant of deeds create a ripple that all of us will feel, and I think then it tends to be because so many are so aware of the news while they're awake." Perhaps interestingly, for Aurus, 'roots' was not the metaphor that most directly presented itself.

[How did the car pick up go??]

Charles could find little that differed, on the immediate surface, Aurus' mind from any other mind he had touched, but he had only skimmed, listened without truly touching. He would find a world of difference within if it should ever happen where they truly connected. A mind so similar yet nothing like his own, a vast system that could spread beyond the skull that contained it and connect to something greater than he could even imagine that lay in a place beyond his grasp. He had touched something, just a tiny piece of something like that when he had met his future self, something that still left him thoughtful in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep.

"Ahh... so perhaps a little jealous they weren't as special as to be believed? Some things go beyond worlds, then." Charles chuckled softly at that, amused at the idea of these incredible beings born of a tree being upset by the new comers to their lives, like a child being upset about a baby being born.

But the idea of the Dream... Charles let his eyes close, and while he could imagine the metaphor, it would be possibly be years before he had the knowledge to truly understand such a thing. Time, experience, and life were the only teachers that could help in this case. "We have... nothing like that among our people. It sounds incredible, a way for experience to live beyond your end, to grow without having to experience every inch of it yourself. The closest we have now, I suppose, are our books, but even that pales in comparison."

[Not too bad, actually! Probably turned out to be one of the smoothest parts of the day. The state of my lecture for today's class, on the other hand... Let's just say that I got up at 4:30am this morning. BUT I DON'T THINK THE STUDENTS KNEW SO \o/]

Aurus gave a wry nod as if to say that perhaps, indeed, the Firstborn had been jealous. "I suspect that for some of them our appearance was merely an excuse to voice a discontent they already felt. Maybe, in a sense, it was inevitable."

The history of his race had thus far been without real "dark" patches, but the awakening of the secondborn arguably came quite close. Even Aurus's continued use of that word was a kind of stubborn refusal of the Firstborns' claim that 'You are Firstborn or you are just sylvari.' That didn't mean there was outright conflict though...or at least not a generational one. The formation of the Nightmare Court was a project pursued by a group of secondborn and Firstborn together.

Regardless, none of these were things that Aurus felt he wanted to foreground. He was not in the least prone to homesickness, but at the moment he did feel it was a shame that the Grove was so far away. Though he was more disillusioned with its flaws than many of his kin, he still felt the singular beauty of the place and the unique pull it managed to subtly maintain. "I would gladly show it to you if you wish to see--I wonder if your abilities alone might be enough. I've a variety of psychotropic plant extracts that could aid in the attempt if needed. One or two have opened my own connection to the Dream more than any time since I first awoke. I suppose it all depends how adventurous you're feeling."

[There's a 4:30 in the morning now?? Either way -- GOOD LUCK! YOU GOT THIS ON LOCK DOWN!!]

Oh good he had just been offered a drug trip to see a Dream by a sentient plant. Really, sometimes Charles wondered what his life had become. He shook his head slightly, knowing it was just a touch on the dangerous side for him for reasons Aurus would have no idea about. Somewhere on the tender flesh on the crook of his elbow, an old scar twitched. Hank had only been trying to help; it was his own fault what he became on the back of it. Sometimes, he wondered if it was worth giving it all up again to be able to simply walk. Those were the bad days.

Then this became the crux of a new issue. Charles watched Aurus carefully, knowing the other could potentially react poorly to his next choice of words. "While I promise I have not used them other than what I've told you, my abilities can go further than I've shown thus far," he admitted, "and perhaps together, if you were willing, we could find a way to make this visible." The corner of his mouth lifted in his own wry smile. "It may mean how adventurous you are feeling, given that I would be inside of your mind, not just... listening in, as it were."

[It's so bad. I find myself waking up earlier and earlier each morning. But it is my weekend now! Time to play some GW2! Hurrah. Also, I laughed so much at the first like of your tag--yup, Charles, that is exactly what has just happened.]

"What can you do?" Aurus had leaned back in his chair once more, but he still studied Charles' face just as closely, an unembarrassed, lingering directness to his gaze. "Not that I'm likely to refuse in any case, of course. There are very few things I won't try at least once." That, perhaps, would be the least surprising statement of the day.

At the moment, Aurus was wondering about Charles quick refusal of anything chemical to help alter his consciousness. To Aurus, that sort of thing was purely de rigueur, and it didn't occur to him for a moment that Charles might have had some history with habitual drug use. Instead he presumed that Charles, like so many people, didn't precisely trust being given mysterious unnamed drugs by a strange plant--or maybe his abilities made any kind of mind altering drug somehow dangerous for him. No matter. Aurus would still likely partake himself, unless Charles objected to that as well. But those details seemed a lower level concern, at least by comparison. Especially when he had another line of thought he'd much rather pursue:

Tapping his finger against his lips and speaking as though just voicing a casual afterthought, Aurus presently added a musing: "Hmm. The way you've said it makes it sound quite intimate, you know. That's very interesting to me as well." (And if anyone believes he didn't say that for deliberate effect there's a great bridge for sale just out back.)

[Charles: What is my life? YAY WEEKEND! WHOOOO! I'm doing a massive yard sale this weekend... my house is full of stuff @_@]

"With... effort, and a touch, I am able to access your mind." Potentially, he could do more to a single mind even without touch, but it was far more effective with. Cerebro... broke all boundaries. It was exhilerating as much as it was terrifying every time. Not something he was willing to discuss with an outsider, even more so than the X-Men as a team. "I have never attempted to access a mind of a non-human, so I'm not certain of the differences, but it could be... very different than even how the Dream touches your consciousness. I would hear your thoughts, see them, feel as you do, until we stop."

If he were to admit it, he was beyond curious. A mind like this, something completely foreign to this world, offering the possibility to see what lies beyond... how could he pass up such an invitiation? There was that fearless man of his youth, always ready (sometimes foolishly) to dive head first into something unknown.

However... his brows slowly climbed up, lips parting before closing. The rest... his brows fell and came together before he cautiously said, "it is intimate, given that most people are used to being very alone in their minds, but perhaps it will be different with you given the others already doing the same." Which begged the question that followed, "will they mind?"

[!! omg yaaaard sale! I haven't been to one of those since I was a kid! My mom used to LOVE them and she had them all the time. I hope you'll get good money and good decluttering out of it! Also, I am sorry for Charles that Aurus is not more sorry for...all of this.]

Aurus was quiet for just a moment longer than strictly appropriate for a natural pause in the conversation. One elbow on the arm of his chair, and his finger still resting against his lips, he was trying to decide whether he thought Charles knew he was being flirted with and was deliberately trying to avoid the matter...or whether he really was as steadfastly oblivious to the fact as he made himself out to be.

"Actually," he said after seeming to have considered Charles thoroughly, "I think I rather like the sound of that. Provided, of course, that you don't hold back.

"To take you into the Dream is, inevitably, to take you to the Grove. It's a sensuous place." What precisely he meant by this, Aurus did not elaborate.

"As for the Legends--what you do and what they are is so different that I'd not worry about their opinions on the matter much. And at any rate, they weren't always all in there. It's taken me years to make contact with all of them, longer to reach an accord and persuade them each to accompany me. They had to get used to each others' company one by one, and they've managed that.

"Regardless, you should know something of all of them, particularly the more contrary and belligerent ones, before we make any attempt. "

[I love having my yard sales! This is a HUUUUGE one because my grandmother decided to declutter her house as well... my living room is packed and more people are bringing stuff. However, the rain might completely fuck me over. ; ; Debating saying hell with it and just holding it on my front porch. :\ ]

Was...? It seemed like this was becoming more and more deliberate, Aurus' choice of action and words, but it was honestly difficult to pinpoint if he was misreading what he was seeing and hearing or perhaps completely misunderstanding the ways of another culture. It left Charles in an unsettled place, uncertain which way the needle was pointing, but decided it was far safer to play the measure of the latter and not misinterrupt in a rude manner. Even more so... it brought up those darker feelings, ones he worked hard to push as deep within himself as possible as he had let himself brood in them for months and months and wasted himself away. The brokeness of his body, the pain that still lingered from what he had been forced to do to protect Moira... the damage Erik had done to pieces of him that no one else had.

He held back a sigh and pushed the thoughts away with the hand of practice. "I would prefer to know the path I would be walking if I'm capable of doing so ahead of time, so please. Besides," letting himself admit it, amusement in his eyes, "I'm deeply curious about these... Legends that occupy your mind along with you. It's quite a different from anything I've seen before so I'd like to see and know more."

[I hope the weather holds out for you! Also, you must have a fab front porch if you can manage that! Nobody has porches here. You say porch and people think you mean a tiny little alcove at the front of the house. It's sad.]

At this point, it did occur to Aurus to wonder whether, because he'd now told Charles that sylvari didn't reproduce sexually, the man mistakenly believed that they didn't have sex at all. It was, he supposed, a possibility. He wasn't looking to make things awkward between them though, so he was perfectly satisfied with biding his time and letting the topic recede until the next time it seemed to naturally press close to the surface. Flirtation wasn't flirtation if it wasn't a two way street, after all.

If he had known about the things that haunted Charles from his past...perhaps he might then be taking a slightly different approach, but it was still safe to say that none of them would have dissuaded him. If anything it would just have convinced him that a man in Charles' position badly needed to have a happy love affair lest he close the door on a whole limb of his life, mistakenly believing that he was protecting himself by doing so.

Aurus didn't know any of these things though. So instead he turned his attention to explaining the Legends. There was indeed a fair bit to explain.

"They're not precisely people, you must understand. Not like you and I. Nor are they ghosts." Aurus had never needed to make sense of this to anyone before, and it took him a moment to think of the right metaphor.

"Imagine someone in your own world whose deeds are so renowned that every child knows their name. Someone who changed the whole course of a people's history, for good or ill.

"Now imagine that an image of the whole of that person's life could be carved, in minute detail, into a wax stamp. If that stamp could be pressed to paper, it would create a perfect reproduction of the whole being whose life inspired it. Now imagine that reproduction having animation and consciousness. The Legends are like that--they are not 'uniquely' the spirits of the beings themselves, but rather imprints of them.

"Besides Glint, who you've met, and Ventari, of whom you've heard, there are three more. Jalis Ironhammer, the last king of the Deldrimor Dwarves; Shiro Tagachi, former guardsman to Emperor Angsiyan of Cantha; and Mallyx the Unyielding, who you heard me address briefly last night.

"About Jalis I have no concerns--he's very good-tempered if sometimes a bit brash, but I'm sure he'll like you. He was the first that I met, and he was willing to help me right away. He is made of stone though. All the dwarves are now. So don't be surprised by that.

"As to the other two...that's where the complications, if there are to be any, will likely lie."

[I've got a front porch that's as wide as my home. It's got a pair of deck chairs, a rocking chair, a small table with two chairs, a glider, and a full sized three burner grill on it right now. If I took some of that out, it could hold a lot of tables for a sale... I have a back little deck and a patio around it. It's not a big house, but it's just me and my girlfriend in here with the pets ^^]

Unfortunately, in some ways, Aurus was correct. Charles had fairly shut himself off from that part of himself, not in the most conscious of manners, either and really, pulling him out of it would be the most beneficial for him in the long run, but it wasn't even a problem he had completely acknowledged. It was almost like a wound that hadn't healed, and his mind was attmeping to protect him from his own thoughts. He hadn't even thought about the idea of sylvari and sex, in the physical manner of it at least, because his mind had stopped going down those routes. Ironic for a man who had no issue in his youth reading over the minds of women to get laid. Those attempted 'protections' didn't always work, but in small ways, unconscious ways, they did.

Charles fingered steepled again, his intense gaze focused as he tried to put into his understand what Aurus was attempting to tell him. "I may be wrong, but I beleive I understand what you're attempting to say they are. You have their... essence traveling within you. Not the being who had once lived, like a ghost, but the living essence of what they once had been." As if a movie of a person could come to life and converse. If Charles had not heard those voices within, felt their completely alien presence, he might have dismissed this entire notion as the mind of a lunatic with voices in his head.

"I have no desire to interact or speak with Mallyx," Charles said firmly, shaking his head slightly. "I will do neither as much as I am capable of. However, why would there lie an issue with this guardsman?"

[Ahahaha should I not tell you how luxurious that all sounds to me at this point? Living in London means living in SMALL spaces. We're not even in central London--we're in the 'burbs to the south and our place is still a tiny one bedroom flat. Honestly, one of the draws of moving back to the states is that we'd get more space to live in.]

Had Aurus known what a movie was, he would have agreed that it was precisely the right sort of image. Just as many people could watch the same movie, other people could (Aurus had no doubt of the potential, at least in theory) learn the same sort of magic that he had in the Mists, and commune with these legendary heroes in the same way.

The fact that Charles so quickly grasped the spirit of the whole relation was simply reassurance of what Aurus was already suspecting: that the two of them would find easy enough concordance when Charles did touch his mind. This was important to him, and a large part of why he'd extended the offer to begin with. To him it was very clear that any touch went both ways--for Charles to touch his mind would be for him to touch Charles in some way as well. He wasn't entirely sure that this was something that Charles thought of so much though.

Aurus had the vague impression that the man tended to treat what he did as a one-way reach. Whether or not it usually was though, certainly the Dream would make for its own unique paradigm.

"Mallyx, you must understand, is the only one who is with me under duress. And..." he paused here, considering whether it felt safe to him to share this information and then deciding that, yes, the distance between worlds meant that he was breaking no confidences, "I did not collect him for my own benefit. I have him with me for my student--my former student. There's a history. It's not without its complications.

"As to Shiro--" again a momentary pause. The Canthan wasn't listening closely at the moment, but Aurus still felt that it was a matter of trust for him to choose his words with care. "In his life, he was an assassin of exceptional skill, a skill which the Emperor realized. Shiro was a loyal subject but...perhaps it's fair to say that he lacked wisdom. He was duped by a fortune teller--in retrospect, it seems, an agent of Abaddon, the deposed god who you will remember me speaking of last night.

"This fortune teller, over time, convinced Shiro of all manner of false counsel, including that the Emperor was plotting his death. Duped into believing he had been betrayed, he murdered the Emperor instead.

"For that, perhaps, history would have forgiven him. But of course the events did not end there. He slaughtered the soldiers who had once been his allies, and fought until a trio of champions cut him down in retribution. In vengeance and fury, he fed on the Emperor's soul and, with his dying breath, released the Jade Wind.

"It--" How to even describe this? "--devastated half the continent. It petrified the seas, the forests, every living thing in its path. He killed thousands.

"And he managed to return to life once after all of this was over too, some two hundred years later. ...I will just say that his acts did not redeem him then either."

Of course having told Charles all of this, which was all completely true (and fair disclosure), Aurus was left with the rather delicate task of trying to somehow convince him that Shiro was actually not a purely evil figure.

"For my part, I find it hard to fully blame a man for having been tricked by a god. Shiro's actions were horrific, but in a sense he was a victim too. I suppose we get along because I am more gentle in my judgement of him than the world at large has been. But he is suspicious and mistrustful--he has grown to trust me, but he expects trickery now. And he will expect that you are a trickster."

[I couldn't imagine living in such a tight space! I have a double and I long for a single so my house is all on its own. London sounds like such an incredible place to live, though. I'd love to go for a visit... not so much live there, I think. ^^;]

Little did Aurus know how much, how deeply he could understand that concept. It rang a little too close to home when he thought of Erik, a man who had suffered through a hell far greater than many, who had hurt and put many in danger, who lashed out at the world in his anger and rage... and how each time, to some degree, he had forgiven the other man. Even now, even after what had happened, there was a certain sense of forgiveness. Perhaps he was weak for it, but it was something he couldn't stop. Did Erik even trust him, now, or was it all gone? Hank would be upset to know there was still a part of him that understood those feelings in Erik, even the need to lash out, even if he didn't believe it was the right way.

"...there is... more to people than what lies on their surface. Judgement comes through experience, taught or lived, and unfortunately, there are teachers who can be very poor at best. Thus, unless they live through it and understand, judgement can often be faulty. Equally, one cannot dismiss the judgement of someone who has lived through the aftermath of another's actions. Their feelings are just as true. Often, one can only rely on their own judgement unless there is a deep enough trust to trust that of another. In this case, if you judge him a victim as well as acknowledge the depths of what he did, then I will trust your judgement of him. If he approaches me, I will defer to your method of how it should be handled to keep things peaceful. I've no desire to disrupt the balance you've found with your Legends."

He spread a hand, leaning back. There was little more he could offer, there, but hoped Aurus understood what he meant.

[I do love London. It's a fabulous city. The first time I came here it felt like home right away. I highly recommend it for a visit. The whole vibe of the place is wonderful.]

Sitting back in his own chair, Aurus gave Charles another one of his appraising looks--it was a smile, but the sort of smile that held just a bit of mirth behind it. Gentle mirth, but also somewhat pointed.

"You are the diplomat aren't you--that was all very tactfully put. Very carefully hypothetical too." It wasn't lost on Aurus for a moment that Charles had distanced himself from taking up any specific position in this field of 'ones' and 'theys.'

"One might almost imagine that a man who holds such views on the import of measured and restrained judgements has had some personal experience that he's keen to abstract the wisdom from without having to admit his own place in the matter." He was teasing Charles a here, true, but warmly, affectionately. And in his way he was also subtly telling him something--another in a line of hints he'd begun to drop, but which Charles, either from deliberate avoidance or because it had gotten a bit muddled in the moments of flirtation--seemed not quite to have noticed yet.

What he was trying to alert him to was this: he did not mean to accept an arrangement where he allowed Charles unfettered access and intimacy while Charles held himself at a careful emotional distance, risking nothing. Ironically, while Charles was trying to avoid revealing things, he was beginning to show Aurus more and more clearly what the contours of his walls and the shape of his emotional guardedness were.

And as a result, Aurus was starting see that Charles was not, in fact, as masterfully composed and wholly at ease with himself as he at first gave the appearance of being.

[It's on my list of places to visit before 2020. Next year will be my very first trip out of the country and I'm going to Japan for 15 days. I'm unbelievably excited about it!!]

Give Charles a few more decades, Aurus. He would actually be quite skilled at doing exactly that. Charles, by this point in his life, believed his ability to shield his from 'leaking' would get him through this encounter unscatched or perhaps the better word would be... unviewed, regardless of how good he might have been or not by this point. He could not keep it up successfully while using Cerebro, however he had become stronger and stronger when he actually would touch the mind of another. Perhaps the sheer difference in their actually existence should have given him the clue he would not be quite so lucky in this particular circumstance.

Still, there was no such thing as a completely riskless venture into the mind of another. What he could not know was that Aurus might be able to reach back. He had run into so very few who had the ability to return the touch and they still took him by surprise each time.

Charles' smirk was small but wry, watching Aurus closely. "Experience is the most powerful teacher." A yes, in his own way. In turn, there was no small part of Charles that had no doubt experience had been one very powerful teacher for Aurus, for this was the sort of man who spoke volumes of it. Not very old, by his own words, but he had seen a great deal and who knew what the Legends in his mind had imparted to him.

[Oh Japan is wonderful! We were there for a month in 2014 and we absolutely loved it! Whereabouts are you going? Have you got it all planned already? Also, when you get to thinking about your London trip, I can make lots of suggestions for nice neighborhoods to stay in, things to do, etc.]

Once again there was a pause of assessment, and then presently:

"All right then," Aurus spoke as though he accepted this rather oblique and still evasive answer as sufficient purely at face value. (He did not.)

At some point, he thought, the other shoe was going to drop for Charles on this whole matter, and he dearly hoped that when it did it would be too late for him to backpedal his way out of the thing to save himself the risk.

That wasn't a malicious sort of hope. It was actually quite well-meaning. The trouble was, that the more Charles evaded, the more he made Aurus's interest in him grow. It was not a matter of conquest or anything so blunt as that, but there was something alluring about forging a connection in the face of high odds. (What were Aurus's relationships with every Legend that he'd collected if not connections forged against high odds, after all? How many people not only struck out to find the spirit of the most venerated being in their culture, but found him, studied under his tutelage, and then convinced him to accompany them through life as friend and companion as much as spiritual advisor or tutor?)

"We can try tonight, if you're amenable. Of course I will need to be asleep or at least something close--a sort of trance-state. And though I understand you wish not to use any enhancements yourself, I will be taking something to facilitate my own openness to the Dream. Something to make sure that the channel is stretched wide, as it were.

"Would you prefer to attempt it in my bedroom or yours--or do you have some other place where we can be comfortable and undisturbed?"

[I *wish* I could go for a whole month! I'm excited for my 15 days... it's a lot of money but this is my dream vacation. Going to do so many things I've always dreamed of being able to do there including to one of the oldest onsens out in the mountains! Also yesssss I would love an insiders opinion on the places to go in London instead of the typical touristy things.]

"I do not need to be asleep, only able to touch you. Your room would be fine, so you can lay down in the state you require." It seemed simple enough, but Charles was... excited. Honestly, this would be the sort of situation perhaps he would never get to experience again and while in reality, he was a little bit over his head in a manner he didn't understand. That unknown was exhilarating, in its own way. All of this was.

It would go as it went, and he would learn as it happened, in the end. Still, he gave a smile and a quick nod, quite pleased about the whole of this. Aurus' open willingness to this was a pleasant surprise, and the other's open mind and way of speaking had proven to be fascinating. It was rare, though he would not have said so to any, to find a mind on an equal level to his own. Erik had been, had given him a challenge, a partnership, that had not come since. Aurus, he was finding, was decidedly able to not only keep up but proved an equal in thought.

[Yeah, our whole trip was crazy expensive too. It's 100% worth the cost though. We went to Yuenessun in Hakone for our onsen experience--it looks a little gimmicky on the surface but it was absolutely incredible. I'm sure wherever you go will be amazing, and you can see tons of stuff in 15 days! I will send you a PM at some point with loads of London tl;dr--there's too much to put here. Also, how did your yard sale go over the weekend?? I was thinking of you when it poured rain here on Saturday. I hope your weather luck was better!]

"Agreed."

It did all sound very simple on the surface, and really the mechanism wasn't complicated. Complicated was everything else--the magics, the metaphysics, the ideas and the feelings that the whole experience would undoubtedly invoke for them both. It was an unknown for Aurus as well, but arguably he was better prepared, if only because he was ready for whatever happened to deeply touch both of them.

He was also--and perhaps this was really a bit sneaky of him--very well aware that as far as quid pro quos went, he was now in quite an advantageous position. He meant to make good on the opportunity their path had opened for him, not to back Charles into a corner or pin him down, but simply to assert that they were going to stand on even ground as far as learning about each others lives went.

"And now I'd like to ask you something," he said. "I know you've said that you'd prefer not to be asked prying questions, so I hope you'll forgive me for this one: That--" he paused a moment to remember the word Charles had used earlier, "--photography of you standing by the blond haired woman. That's a likeness from a time when you could walk.

"Would you tell me what happened--how you came to lose the use of your legs?"

[We're going up to the Takaragawa Osenkaku in Minakami! I'm beyond super stoked. Sadly, the yard sale didn't happen for exactly that reason. ;__; it poured. However, my SO is now moved in and I cooked her dinner, we made cupcakes for my birthday tomorrow, and watched a movie. Still a good day over all!]

Really, that was a question he hadn't been expecting but on reflection, he probably should have. Here it boiled down to three options - it was someone who had been there for the experience and knew the answer, someone who assumed he had been born with this disability, or someone who didn't know but believed in the social agreement not to ask about such a thing. Aurus was neither of the first two and technically not bound by the same socialital agreement of the culture. "Photograph," he corrected quietly. "The item itself is a photograph. Photography is the art of taking a photograph." Very much a teacher.

He leaned back, looking over to that picture of himself when he was young, less scarred physically and mentally by the world, and Raven was by his side with the world as his oyster. The old twin serpents of anger and frustration rose up in him at the memory, replaying in his mind as the distance memory of searing pain arched through him and the terrifying realization he couldn't feel his legs as he laid there on the damp sand of a Cuba beach, not even as Erik pulled the bullet from his spine. One the arm of his chair, his fingers tightened hard in unconscious response and it took effort to push it all back. It didn't work completely; his gaze stayed haunted.

"...an accident," he finally said, after a steadying breath that was anything but. "A stray bullet-- projectile." He wasn't sure if guns and bullets were even a thing in the world Aurus came from. "There was-" Nothing would ever make this easier, would it? Even years later. "It was an instant severing of key nerves. They regrew, after time, but the connection between mind and body was... gone." It was why Hank's drug had worked. Somehow, it brought back to life that connection in a way they could not replicate otherwise... but took his power from him. Giving with one hand, taking with the other. For a time, he had been more than happy to pay that price in the rage that came from his loss and what his powers had cost him and the others.

[Ahh that's an area we didn't go to at all. Closest we got was Nikko, where we stayed in the most amazing historic self-catering cottage out in a little farming village. Japan has some of the most beautiful mountains I have seen anywhere, so I'm sure going farther into them will only get more grand! Boo on rain, but happy birthday!! and also hurrah for getting the move sorted!]

As he listened, Aurus gave a small nod of understanding--they had guns in Tyria. Conceptually, he had no trouble knowing just what Charles meant.

The real meaning, though, was not in the gunshot or the severing of nerves. It was in the cruel irony: Charles had lost the connection between body and mind, while in its place, the connection between mind and mind--his and others'--flourished. Of course Aurus didn't know how literally true this irony was, that Charles had to make the choice between his legs and his powers. To him it seemed only to have the force of a metaphor, but it was a powerful metaphor.

It was also, in its way, exactly what he had been waiting for: a crack in the facade through which another side of Charles was revealed.

It mattered very much, Aurus felt, that neither of them were inviolable. For all their mutual confidence and composure, neither of them had been untouched by life. Charles, arguably, was more damaged. Not physically damaged, Aurus didn't think of him that way--but his emotional wounds were still more raw, whereas Aurus's had spent more time working over his own. Perhaps, he thought, that might mean the incipient connection between them could become a sort of balm. But no salve would ever help unless the wound was cleaned and exposed first.

Reaching out, he placed his hand over Charles' where it gripped the arm of his chair. It was a risk, he knew--the man might recoil, pull away from him, but he chose to do it anyway. "I'm sorry. Chance can be very cruel." He meant these words in earnest, and they were reflected in his eyes which looked at Charles not with pity but with empathy and that same timbre of warmth that they'd held before this tale was told. However haunted Charles might be, it was by specters of which Aurus was not daunted.

[Our list right now is Tokyo, then up to the onsen, out to Osaka after that, I'm making the day trip down to Nara, then to Eko-in where we'll be staying over night in the temple. ^_^ So happy the move is over and she's even happier. And Thanks!]

Everything was made all that much worse by the situation that surrounded the injury - that it was Erik's callousness that had caused it, that Moira had been firing at him, that any of that had been happening... that part, no. He hadn't discussed with anyone at all. It hurt too deep, was the subject of nightmares. It had all led to his absolute willingness to keep taking that drug, more and more, without a care to the loss of his powers until Logan had come and forced him to realize what was going on his world. Quite the blow, in some ways, to get him to wake up out of his own spiral downwards into anger and self-pity.

Ironic, perhaps, that while Aurus didn't believe him physically damage, it would be many, many years before Charles didn't think the same of himself.

Aurus would feel it beneath his fingertips as Charles' muscles tensed further, that initial flinch away from the comforting touch, before he calmed the reaction and left his hand where it was, though he did loosen the grip he had on the armrest. His gaze tilted enough to meet Aurus' foreign eyes, recognizing the expression in them without even needing to reach out to the other's mind. He took a breath, managed to keep his voice level. "...It can be, but... what's done is done." It wasn't something to push onto someone else, to force them to deal with his demons. His was supposed to be the strength of this place, and to undermine it with things he could not control would leave him in that place he had been before.

[Ahh your route is totally different from ours--we skipped Osaka, went down to Shikoku, stayed in Matsuyama, took the ferry to Hiroshima and stayed on Miyajima for a few nights, then north along the coast to the Sea of Japan and did Kyoto on the way back. We did lots of train riding lol.]

The interpersonal elements at work in the events surrounding Charles' injury were something that Aurus could never possibly guess. Probably no one could, at least without having known all the people involved when it happened.

What he could sense in the momentary tensing of Charles' hand, however, seemed to compound an impression he'd already gotten about the interpersonal dynamics at play in the present: Hank might be a sort of right hand in the running of this school, but when it came to the more personal side of things, Charles bore the weight on his own shoulders alone. He wasn't used to talking about this issue or touching this pain in the presence of others.

Maybe, Aurus reasoned, it was the reality of this world that made the man treat himself like he had to be the emotional rock for those around him. It was hardly Aurus's place to say otherwise. But as he was an outsider to this world he could also confidently say that Charles didn't need to be an emotional rock for him.

"You'll forgive me saying, but 'what's done is done' cannot alone bring you peace or comfort in your skin." Leaning slightly forward in his chair, he let his hand continue to rest where it was, his fingertips on the contours of Charles wrist, his palm lightly covering the man's knuckles. It was a soft touch, and Aurus's skin was slightly cool on the surface, like a leaf in the shade, but his hand was big and it had the weight of living wood--not like a tree trunk, but like a thick braid of vines.

Maybe he should back off rather than press on this point, but though Charles had begun to flinch away, in the end he'd paused and let this touch of their hands continue. Perhaps he was only forcing himself out of politeness. It was hard to say--this could all be Aurus badly overstepping. But it was clear to him that if he didn't take the risk, Charles would retreat into himself rather than do so. If he caused offense, the sylvari figured he would simply apologize. "I may not know you very well yet, but I'll be so bold as to suggest that I might have something to offer you. If, that is, you'll be so bold as to accept."

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