bakerstreet | thursday pic prompt

[Srsly. These are the things that really worry my partner and I if we do move over to the states. They're also the things that make me willing to put up with a lot of less-than-ideal stuff in the UK. And oh Charles, I feel so bad for him. Poor guy.]

It might have seemed strange how accepting Aurus seemed to be of Charles' anger, just letting it calmly break on him like a wave on the shore, as though he didn't take being snapped at personally at all. He was sorry, on the one hand, for causing this sort of emotional turmoil, but on the other hand, he wasn't sorry in the least. He might be receiving Charles' anger in this moment, but he didn't feel that he was really the target of it.

The more they spoke, the more keenly Aurus felt the weight of all the unresolved hurt and rage that Charles kept bottled inside. It rested around the man's shoulders like a mantle, disguised beneath his composure and deportment. If Aurus had known the situation more intimately--known who Erik was and the past that he'd lived through--he might have pointed out to Charles how ironically like him he'd become in his response to pain and loss. But of course he didn't know.

He gave the man a moment at the window before he spoke again, still seated where he was. Now, he felt, was not the time to press the physical. In this moment, his tactic should be different.

"You're right--I don't know what it feels like. I lost my arm once. My student cut it off while we were sparring. It took nearly three months for it to grow back, but it did grow back. It's not the same.

"It is not my intention to trivialize what you have to live with. But I have no doubts at all that the physical limitations aren't absolute. I think you know that too, even without me telling you. So I can only believe that there is something else--a pain that frightens you too much, something that happened to you beyond the injury itself. Injuries, after all, do tend to become magnets for all sorts of meanings.

"I don't ask for you to tell me about it. I don't think we know each other well enough for that yet. But if, in time, you decide to speak of it with me, I assure you that I will listen."

[I don't blame you, honestly. @_@ I've never gotten to play out Charles and sex when he was in his chair, so this is actually really interesting for me to try. I hope it's something like authentic.]

Really, the snapping wasn't personal. It was anger at the situation, anger about his own feelings of helplessness, anger at why it had to happen at all. Maybe the anger was at one man, a selfish, childish thought when he knew Erik had meant nothing of the sort. He had knelt there beside him, looking as terrified as he felt--

In another situation, it would have absolutely fascinated Charles to know more about the regrowth that Aurus was capable of and curious to find out more about it (though he would never range into that psychotic manner of needing to know first hand). In another situation. When he wasn't trying to push down again everything that wasn't just threatening to well up but was in a manner that almost disgusted him to feel again. He wanted to believe himself better than the seething pit he had been years before, even if perhaps it wasn't true all the way through.

He licked his lips, a sign of his nerves, as he stared blankly out the window. Everything outside was as it should be - tranquil, peaceful, sunshine, and calm. Everything he didn't feel in that moment and should.

"...It goes beyond the injury. Imagine if you could never speak to the Legends again, or Dream again, or travel the Mists again. A part of you is gone." Hoping that might explain it all for him in a few words, something he didn't know how fully to explain. "...that's all there is."

[I love how this is all going and how real it does seem! Sex and disability is one of those cultural taboos that so rarely gets touched, and Charles' resistance to the idea is just very human--it's not simply his own hang up, but something reinforced by a world that by no means validates a man in a wheelchair as a sexual being. I'm trying to think of movies that deal with the subject and the only one I can think of is Born on the Fourth of July. It's just such an invisible topic that almost no one talks about. (Also omfg this week is kicking my ass something fierce. I don't even.)]

"I don't think any of those would really compare," Aurus returned honestly, pushing himself up from his chair. "There's something singular and irreducible about paralysis. The part of you that's gone also isn't: you see it there every day. I think that must be harder."

Taking a few steps across the room, he paused a half stride behind Charles' chair, just to his side--like he was standing at his shoulder, though perhaps the height different between them didn't make it seem so.

"You have no real reason to trust me. Certainly not with a matter like this. I know that. I still think that you should trust me though." He paused. He wanted to reach out and lay a hand on Charles' arm, or touch his hair. In his mind, he could see himself kneeling beside the chair, bringing the two of them nearly level. He could see the ways that they might touch, all the things those touches might convey. But his hands stayed by his sides.

"How long has it been since the accident? How many years since you've let yourself be touched--I don't just mean sexually, but intimately. And have you not taken a lover in all that time?"

[*nodnod* You couldn't have said it better. I couldn't imagine someone like Charles taking easily to the idea, in particular when you see the beginning of DoFP with Logan finding him or even more so, when he's on the plane with Erik. Someone who was such a tom cat before everything happened, giving up Moira, and losing Erik and his ability to walk all in a short time... I just think would have left him curling in on himself when it comes to that sort of subject, protecting himself within and projecting that calm, stable rock he saw his future self to be. Logan and his own-self got him out of it, but he's always been the one in charge, the big brother, the protector... who protects the protector? Also... going off the timelines I can find for exact years...]

Touch, in that moment, might have felt like pity. It might have gotten a backlash, another snap. In his chair, Charles was coiled tight, defensive in unconscious ways to protect himself from the internal pain he had been unable to escape. While Hank had tried, oh and he had tried to help Charles, there was a major difference between Hank and Aurus - Aurus was still trying even when it hurt. Hank had been willing to pull back, not trying to further the pain, but perhaps Aurus' distance from the matter and even the person at its core made him more willing to do the part that would still hurt Charles. Pull the bandage from the wound and tear the scabbing away to expose the skin to healing air and salve.

The silence stretched as Charles gave no reply. He did not so much as move, other than to breathe and blink, staring over the top of his hand with an unbreaking gaze. Just when it seemed like he would not answer, when he would ignore those questions until Aurus gave in first, his voice came in a broken sound, "...ten years." Two words that answered all of those questions with as minimal information as possible, yet it told everything.

Why? Why was he even so much as telling Aurus this information? Hank alone knew the full truth, Raven, wherever she had gone, undoubtedly would have guessed correctly, but that might have been all. Of all of the lives he had touched, helped save, changed forever, those might have been the lone two with any true idea of how his life had been. Aurus didn't know. Yet... for all that he had kept it to himself, he spoke it aloud. Despite himself, really. Despite his anger and the unfair anger towards the one who was pulling those words from him.

Edited 2016-10-05 22:01 (UTC)

[Yeah, it makes sense--from Charles perspective I think a lot of these things might have seemed momentarily inevitable at first...and then they just got more and more entrenched. He's kind of made himself an emotional island, and Erik is just too caught up in his own pain to ever really focus on what the aftermath of Cuba has meant for Charles. And also, lol, wow X-men movie verse, that's not a convoluted timeline at all.]

Aurus really didn't think he needed to say that ten years was quite long enough for something like this to go on without question. He was quite confident that the sentiment was already in the air. If he said it, it would only serve to hammer it home, and this was not a time for hammers.

So what he said instead was, "Well, it's not that I don't appreciate asceticism..." and then he just left the rest alone.

For a moment he was quiet, then he stepped over to the window. He stood slightly to the side, not blocking Charles view and surveyed the scenery for a moment before suggesting or, more to the point, requesting: "Show me around the grounds. It's a beautiful day--we should be out in the sun."

It was a way of changing the subject, not a resolution of any question, which it seemed to him could not happen in this moment at any rate. It was, he felt, appropriate to leave this proverbial keg open to air, let it settle and breathe and return to it in time. If he was reading the matter right, he had given Charles something to think on--something, probably, that would occupy his thoughts and refuse to fully leave him be until it came to a head one way or the next. To be fair, it might very well distract and occupy him incessantly, given how he seemed, from what Aurus knew so far, too cerebral a person to just ignore the thing now that it had been dragged out so starkly and lain at his feet.

Was it possible that he would just make Charles resent and dislike him for what he'd done? Of course Aurus knew it was a risk. One never got anywhere without taking some risks though. Besides he trusted Charles as much as he already found that he cared for him, and he did not think that was how this would end.

[I think it comes back to a lack of equals thing. Charles builds himself up and without an equal, he can't express it out, work it out, and by the time someone comes along who could be, he's so used to holding it in that it doesn't come out easily.]

The problem, at least a problem on Charles' part, was that Aurus was right. It was set deep into his mind and it wasn't going to go away easily, even with a change of subject, as much as he might want it to. He looked up towards Aurus, studying him in silence and weighing his request, before he gave a small nod. Really, every part of him wanted to smear those thoughts into the dirt, the offer that was made, forget it ever was spoken and go back to the comfortable numb it had become. What right did Aurus have to force it back into the light, to make it hurt all over again? The thoughts of what he had lost, emotionally even more so than physically, still dug deep, like barbed wire around his heart. A millstone that weighed a little more with every year, even as he tried to strengthen himself to carry it.

"...as you wish," he said after a long pause, knowing that it was on purpose to some degree. "I imagine we could fit that in before you're supposed to meet Hank." It wasn't quite a smile that he gave, but he did set the wheelchair to roll backwards, turning it carefully not to hit Aurus in the process.

Really, his face showed that his mind was anywhere near this conversation or subject as they moved outside, the halls quiet with students mostly in class. Some were outside, though, as they came out. The grounds were beautiful, almost English-countryside in the way they were kept. Open, yet the grounds felt alone compared to the world outside of it. A private place of peace, a sanctuary in a growing world. "...my family owned this estate for several generations," he commented after a time. "My parents passed when Raven and I were still young." The words didn't come exactly with a sadness. A warm family home hadn't exactly been the childhood he remembered. Distant. A bit cold. Too posh for what his heart wanted, but he had Raven to make it bearable.

[It's good for both of them that Aurus is so damn stubborn then lol. Also ooh what adventures did you have this weekend?? Boo on being sick. Hopefully that part will pass soon, but yay for a weekend filled with the good kind of craziness!]

It did honestly sting a bit to have Charles answer him that way--with that coolness, that subtle undercurrent of animosity, as though his company was almost a burden, a bothersome distraction from the usual routine of the school day. Aurus understood it, yes. He could very well imagine the resentment that Charles might feel at having him, a stranger, come into his home and rip back the veil on his most carefully guarded pains. He could only hope--no, not hope, trust that the resentment wouldn't be what calcified.

That was what he reminded himself as he and Charles left the office: trust and respect went hand in hand. Aurus might firmly believe that Charles was wrong to deny himself physical intimacy, but that belief did not for a moment alter his respect. Respecting the man mean trusting the sort of person he was and how this would play out in the end. That's all there was to it.

For now perhaps the fresh air and the sun would provide a bit of comfort and ease. Aurus did feel that they helped a little. They seemed to help thaw the conversation a bit at least.

"It's a beautiful place--very human. It reminds me a little of Queensdale and the lands outside Divinity's Reach. Though where I come from it would only be the very richest and most influential of noble families that would have something like this," he gave Charles a sidelong smile, a sort of question implicit in the remark.

"Raven is your sister?" He did not ask if she was here now, feeling that he'd asked enough sensitive questions for the time being and sensing a bitter-sweetness even in the way Charles spoke of his his family home. There were, it seemed, no few ghosts that haunted Charles, and Aurus didn't know enough yet to gauge whether Raven was one of them.

[We went to the Ren Faire here and had a fantastic day. It was a 70% chance of rain and it rained pretty much everywhere BUT where we were, so we got super lucky on that! Last night, we did an Escape Room which was INCREDIBLE. You get a scenario (we were burglers trying to break into a rich man's house and crack open his safe) and you have to solve all of these clues and puzzles to figure out how to do it -- in an hour. We were SO CLOSE!! We only had to figure out the very last puzzle to win! Time got us though, sadly. We had the safe open, all we needed to do was figure out the combo for the keypad to exit and we would have won. So close!]

In the end, Charles was and always would be human, even when he seemed unbelievably powerful to some and weak as a kitten to others. He hated and loved and angered and saddened and everything else despite the fact he tried to hide some of it. It wasn't a hate that came to him about what Aurus was choosing to do but an anger, one that if he sat and disected it from top to bottom was an anger at himself, but lashed out towards Aurus because he was the easier target than himself. It was no surprise, in many ways, that Charles and Erik were the best of friends and the worst of enemies, given how very much alike they could be.

"You wouldn't be wrong, exactly, to think that of my family, either. I would be the first to admit money has never been something I had to worry about." This was a far better way to be using his family's wealth, in his opinion. He didn't immediately answer Aurus about Raven, his expression difficult to read before he let out a breath. Things were... good might not be the word after everything that had happened in Washington, but better. Things were better. It was easier to talk about. "Raven is my sister in every way that counts." Which suggested not by blood. "That blonde girl you saw in the photograph with me in my office. She's currently out there, learning about herself and her place in the world. You would approve of her, I can tell. She thinks very much like you... that you must fight to defend what you believe in. I can tell you would both get along."

[Oh gosh that all sounds like a blast! It's been SO long since I've been to a Ren Faire. I used to be hugely into them. Collected all sorts of garb at one point or another. I've also been hearing about Escape Rooms quite a lot lately, despite never having heard of them at all before like 2 weeks ago. The Student Services folks at the place where I teach said they did one as a team building exercise and they're thinking of doing one for the students? The whole concept sounds super fun.]

"She doesn't take after her namesake then," Aurus smiled when Charles said that Raven was blond. He remembered her face from the photograph, the way that she and Charles had looked standing side by side, and he put the pieces together on what Charles said to make what he thought was a fairly educated guess--that she was likewise a mutant, and that it was being mutants rather that being born of the same parents that struck the kinship bond between the pair in their youth.

"Perhaps someday I shall get the chance to meet her, but you won't be surprised at all when I say that finding one's way and one's place out in the world can be a uniquely compelling experience. I hope her journeys are safe as well as fruitful." In a sense, Aurus thought, he and Raven might have more in common than just beliefs about the need to fight. Not wanderlust exactly, but the need to strike out on a road from home, to go somewhere beyond familiar borders and learn from doing, from seeing, from stretching one's muscles. It was a very different sort of learning than that which took place within a school, but it was an education nonetheless, and he would understand easily if she was gone for a long time before coming back again. Regardless, it sounded to him like Charles was probably right to predict that they would get along.

"Your family was involved in politics then? Have you inherited the role?" It was a question based on what Aurus knew--and what he presumed--about nobles, and on the operations of human politics in Kryta (which were, at this point in history, the human politics of Tyria as a whole). Nobles were not uniformly government ministers, but many of them were, and even if they weren't, they were still the people with the greatest political influence. The ultimate decision making power sat with the Queen, and she ruled with the interests of the common people in mind, but it was largely the nobility whose consultations she heard.

It was also, not coincidentally, a tactical question--something to hopefully continue the diversion from their earlier conversation, let the tension continue to dissipate. Not that Aurus was any stranger to being made the proxy for another person's anger. Hakkyuu had always been masterful at doing that. At sixteen he'd been almost nothing but a snarl of misdirected, avoidant anger, and given that the two of them had been alone in a desert for a solid year, Aurus was generally the most convenient target. If the sylvari hadn't already been skilled at letting it all role off his back with a practiced demeanor of unconcern, he certainly would have been by the time the two of them headed back to civilization again.

None of that, however, meant that he believed anger didn't matter, especially anger that was really meant for oneself. And especially for a man like Charles, who was even more different from Hakkyuu than night was from day (since night and day at least had the commonality of a sun and a rotating planet to connect them).

[We go to the PA Ren Faire every year at least once - it's been my birthday tradition for a few years now! That escape room was some of the most fun I've had in a long time. A lot of screaming and laughing and actually figuring things out. It was great!]

"You may, but she hasn't returned home in quite some time while she's been journeying, so unfortunately I would doubt it." Really, a small part of him wondered if he should reach out and tell her about their visitor. It might be something she would be willing to come home for and in so many ways... he missed her deeply. Raven had been the constant in his life in a way no one else had ever been and to lose her, that strength at his side, had been part of why he had collapsed so hard.

"Politics..." Charles hesitated, thinking carefully on the best way of putting it. "My father was a scientist who had done a great deal to further his field, and the wealth has been passed down through generations from intelligent men and women who tended more towards merchents and scientists than politics. I think both my mother and father would be surprised to find me involved in any sort of politics. I would say I'm surprised to find myself here, but in many ways, I'm not. I wanted to make a difference in the world, so here I am." It was a good way to get him to think on another topic like this, letting some of his anger slowly sluice off even as the back of his mind kept worrying on the original problem.

And it was doing that very much, pushing and pushing at him, shown by the careful watch of his fingers. His fingers were tapping slowly on the arm of his chair by the controls of his chair, the other hand curled in his lap.

[That's a fabulous tradition. My "home" Ren Faire was of course the NY state one, but I went to the one in AZ several times when I live there too. The UK doesn't actually have them. Maybe it's because castles and other such things are just a part of the landscape, so there's less interest in recreating the atmosphere with temporary structures and such. Also, I am sorry about this tag. I cannot blame Aurus for this one. This is all me. /shame]

It wouldn't have occurred to Aurus to suggest that Charles in some way call Raven back, or even just call out to her to tell her of his presence there. In no small part, that was because he didn't know the reach of Charles' powers. He assumed that a person had to be relatively close by--in the same room or at least the same building--for his telepathy to work.

Of course if he had met Raven, would it really have stayed secret that he was interested in her brother? Would she have picked up on the subtle clues, or would some remark of Aurus's have unwittingly tipped his hand? It was impossible to know, but perhaps even the risk made it easier for Charles if she were not here to meet Aurus, at least not right now.

"It is still strange to me to find humans with an interest and gift for science," Aurus admitted as Charles spoke of his father's work. "There are certainly merchant dynasties among the nobility in Divinity's Reach though, so I believe I understand what you mean."

He paused for a moment by a low stone wall to take in the view, and there found that he was wholly distracted: he had meant to ask Charles who it was that he needed to convince of his case for mutants, whether there was a king or queen or body of counselors. Instead, he couldn't help but stare at the massive white disk out in the distance, like a slightly concave dish held atop a huge stand. He couldn't even begin to imagine its purpose.

"What in the world is that?"

[I need this cold to go away... sleeping last night just didn't happen thanks to coughing so much. @_@ That's the nice part about the PA Ren Faire. It's not temporary structures. It's all real wood and stone and has been there for many years. No tents or anything like that. ...I'd still love to see a real castle someday, though. And no shame! None. You stop that. XD!]

His secret wouldn't have stayed that way for very long. Charles might have been somewhat oblivious, but Raven would have seen through Aurus in a second and possibly got very protective of her brother. On the other hand, she might have encouraged him to get through to Charles, so it could have gone either way. Raven's choices were very much her own, and sometimes difficult to figure out the reasons behind them.

"Why is it so strange?" Charles asked with honest curiosity. "Are humans in your world not interested in such things? Who is, then? I can't imagine a world where humanity isn't interested in science, in trying to better themselves in the way we have most available to us. Then again... we don't have magic." He wondered, though, to a certain degree. Was magic possible in this world, at all?

But Aurus' change in expression, one he had yet to see in the other, broke his train of thought and made him look out. The last time he had stood here, he had been there with Erik, standing side by side as equals in an attempt to-

He forced his mind off of it, and instead fulfilled Aurus' interested. "A satellite dish." Oh, this would possibly be difficult to explain, wouldn't it? "Above the Earth, out in space, we have... a machine capable of receiving and sending transmissions. This is the other end of it, sending and receiving from Earth."

[Oh no that's the worst! My partner swears by eating marshmallows for sore throats/coughs. I was always partial to Throat Coat tea by Traditional Medicinals (in the organic foods section of the grocery store). I still lament that I can't get it in the UK. Regardless, being kept up by a cough is just rotten. I hope you shake it soon. And re: castles--I work in one actually. It's kind of crazy to say, but it's a castle that just happens to have a branch of a university in it? It's pretty fab (and also very easy to get lost in until you learn your way around).]

"Asura," Aurus answered Charles' inquiry about science. But of course then he had to explain what asura were. "They're small," he held a hand out to about hip height which was roughly as big as they ever got, though some were much smaller, "and sort of imp-like, with long ears and skin in hues of grey and green. They were a subterranean race for many years, but the elder dragon Primordus drove them to the surface. They're the preeminent scientific minds of our world--their whole culture is based on scientific inquiry."

This whole train of thought was curtailed by the question of the 'satellite dish,' however. Admittedly, Aurus found it far more interesting than asura, which to him were a) mundane and b) always slightly suspect given their common tendencies towards amorality.

The idea of some sort of machine above the earth out in space, by contrast, was beyond believable. For a moment he stared at Charles, blinking.

"You're having me on," he finally said in disbelief, and yes it was certainly a different reaction than he'd had to anything else thus far. Aurus could take quite a lot in stride, but a machine in space? Without magic? That threw him.

"You're trying to tell me that your world has humans living in the sky building machines above the earth and that there's no magic to it? No," he shook his head, ready to laugh at the joke Charles was clearly playing on him, "not possible. I'm calling your bluff."

[If I liked marshmellows I would totes try that (their texture absolutely weirds me out, no idea why) but I'm going to go try hunting down Throat Coat. Anything to stop this cough. Wait you WORK in a castle!?!? Ahhhhh that's so cool! Man... I couldn't imagine working in a place that's got that kind of history to it. We're little babus in the US! XD]

"I think we would call them goblins or gremlins, funny enough. Creatures from story books. Then again... much of what you've told me sounds so fantastical as to be from books." He smiled at the mere idea. "Are humans more interested in magic, then, if not science? I'd be curious as to what sort of science these Asura would be working with-"

But he most certainly wasn't ready for Aurus to tell him that he was joking. He blinked up at the other, then realized no, Aurus honestly thought he was leading him on. He shook his head, a grin starting to split his lips despite his previous poor mood. Finally, something he could turn Aurus' head on! "No, I swear it on all I believe in. We don't precisely have humans living in the sky - we build the machines here on Earth and launch them into space using rockets which are capable of flying. Astronauts - the humans that go up into space - remain there for a time. We've even gone to the moon and had humans land on it and return safely."

He put a hand over his heart, still amused. "Swear it. ...This is precisely how I feel about some of what you've told me, to be fair."

[I'm with you on the marshmallows, though for me it's mostly that they're just too much sugar. I need to be in a particular mood for that much sweet all at once. And yeah, the castle is one of those weird chance things--a friend of mine joined the faculty there years ago and then one thing led to the next. It's still a little hard for me to believe when I say it. Like it's got a moat and everything. And you reminded me of this.]

Aurus continued to give Charles that half-disbelieving look. The look that said he hadn't quite decided whether the appropriate response to this wasn't 'Yeah, pull the other one, it's got bells on.' But he enjoyed seeing Charles smile again, the feeling of the two of them sharing this mirth, even if there might be something teasing to it. So for now, asura would just have to wait.

"All right, let's say--just hypothetically--that I choose to believe you. If you don't have people living in the sky then why do you need to send messages back and forth there to begin with?"

A perfectly reasonable argument, Aurus felt. But the argument wasn't really what mattered. He was smiling back at Charles in shared amusement, a part of him knowing that the man wasn't the sort of person to make up fibs for no reason, which meant that letting himself be convinced of this completely outlandish claim was largely a sort of game.

[>.> /is a sugar junkie cough cough XD I think it's one of those things you don't always think about something until someone else brings it into new light in your eyes. I grew up and lived on a farm - I barely think of it but people seem fascinated by the stories of it.]

"Without magic," Charles said, sounding serious about the situation and maybe a hint proud of what they had managed, "we need to be able to speak to others around the planet. This allows us to be able to do so. The satellite," pointing up, "receives the message then relays it to another dish," pointing across, "somewhere else in the world. An elaborate system, but one that allows us to communicate near instantly around the world. We humans have to figure out something else in lieu of magic, after all." He looked out towards the dish, mind briefly thinking on the past again.

"Hank believes someday, we'll be able to manage something even greater, where the whole world is connected through computers. Already he has some things in the works that surprise me every time he shows me, so I agree with him it will happen." Really, even to him, sometimes technology was as incredible as magic. Almost one in the same.

[Ooh what sort of farm did you grow up on? I've been horsey since I was like ten, but that is of course a very particular sort of farm life, its own little niche.]

Aurus chuckled, shaking his head but relenting--ok, ok, he would believe it. "Any asura worth their salt would be captivated by the idea, I'm sure. Their science--I suppose you might say that it's a systemic inquiry into how magic works and how the universe is structured by it. It was the asura who invented the transportation gates that allow people to travel across the world in a mere second, and it was they who first theorized the relationship between magical energy and the elder dragons.

"Humans, by contrast..." Aurus paused to think as he returned to Charles' earlier question, "I suppose their greatest concern is in preserving their own culture, their cities, their lives.

"There are relatively few of them now. I don't mean to say that they are rare. That's not at all the case. But they are threatened. The charr, the centaurs--humans have been at war with both for centuries, and in that time whole human nations have been lost. Ascalon to the Foefire, Orr to the Cataclysm brought about by the Lost Scrolls. Cantha and Elona have long since been cut off. Only Kryta now remains.

"We have no easy way to communicate across distances like you are describing though. Magic helps our letters to arrive as intended, even in remote places, but it always takes time, and I will admit that I don't understand the mechanisms. Sylvari are not especially known for their interest in science either...save for one of us, at least, and she is rather," he frowned deeply, "infamous."

[While I did ride a lot but haven't in a long time, we had a boring farm - cows, pigs, and animal-food crops. Nothing too exciting but sometimes I miss the space and nature compared to living in the suburbs. Going home for holidays is lovely.]

"I would say science is very similar here. Even though we don't have magic, we're trying to understand the world and the universe around us through the means we have. Trying to understand how we even work. We don't have instant transport like that, not even close, but non-physical things we can do more with." Yet being told that Humanity is a dying species in Aurus' world was sort of a sad thought, given how hard humanity fought to keep itself strong even as it tore itself apart here. He shook his head at the thought, frowning.

"Does that mean that you believe they will eventually be gone? Or is this last city strong enough to remain?" Because it was a curious thing. The last stronghold of a civilization... quite a different thought from how civilizations had slowly vanished here through conquering and the like purely because they were all still human. Certainly he didn't believe mutants would (and most certainly shouldn't) try to take out humanity. It was beyond a foolish notion.

"It sounds like this.... singular sylvari is less than well liked. Is it due to her actions or simply because of her desire to study science?"

[Ahh, farms are never boring though. And your family still has it too--that is lovely. I don't ride nearly as much these days as I always want/intend. I sort of miss the time in my life where horse work took up the bulk of my time every day, but I also found that I couldn't build a whole life just around that, so I get what you mean about the space and the nature...and for me there was something about the kind of work and the animals too.]

In spite of all their myriad differences and the differences between their worlds, there were still so many thing that Aurus felt he and Charles held the spirit of in common. Somehow, there was even a sense of that here in some way that Aurus couldn't quite put his finger on. Maybe it was simply an extension of what bound all races on Tyria together and the humane spirit in which Charles asked after his own race's potential extinction there.

"If humans die out, it will be because we have all died. The threats we face are planetary, and no one race could reasonably imagine its own kind spared while the others fall. But at least for humans now the wars with the charr have subsided. There are peace talks backed by the human crown and by the High Legions of the Black Citadel. The centaurs continue to be a threat--that is unlikely to change, but they threaten only the settlements and outlying areas, not Divinity's Reach itself, nor Ebonhawke.

"The real threat to us all is the Elder Dragons. There are six. One has been defeated.

"As for Scarlet Briar--Ceara as she was called when she first awoke--she orchestrated attacks on settlements from Ascalon to the Shiverpeaks, facilitated the spread a toxic pestilence over Kessex Hills, mounted an attack on Lion's Arch which destroyed the city, and killed thousands in the process. All of which pales in comparison to her final act before she died: she woke up another Elder Dragon. I'd say the dislike is justified." Aurus said all this very dryly, as though he was merely reporting neutral facts, but he managed to make it perfectly clear nonetheless that Scarlet Briar was not by any means someone he was proud to call sister. (Though sylvari being all born from the same tree, technically were all brothers and sisters regardless.)

[I loved working so much with horses - my mother had a good friend who was a riding instructor and owned a ranch and I would go there for lessons for several years. In the end I really enjoyed Western a lot more than the English she taught which kinda nipped things a little, plus going to college... I would love to be able to start riding again. I love city life a lot, but sometimes it just makes me happy to go get lost in the mountains near my mom's place.]

"...there was a darkness in her," Charles said quietly, a certain sadness in his voice to hear such a thing. The rotten seed amongst the good. It was sadly something he knew something about and wished he didn't. However, this mention of a dragon... "Dragons... are not something we have in this world. Perhaps you could explain the significance of what the dragons mean to yours?"

Something wasn't quite making sense. He understood the idea that these dragons seemed to be evil, but- "are all dragons evil? Or only these Elder dragons? Why were they asleep?"

[I have been a dressage person for years and years but lately...something hasn't quite been jiving for me, so I'm actually trying to go back to western a bit and see how it goes--I did loads of it in my youth, but it's been a long time. I have a horse, but life complications lately mean I've not seen her very much, alas.]

The darkness in Scarlet was a topic on which Aurus, for the time being, had only half the story. He did not, however, know that. Virtually no one did. He didn't know how these things were connected yet. He had no way to anticipate how partial his answer to Charles' question about dragons was about to be.

At any rate, he considered how he ought to explain it all as he gave a slight nod of his head to indicate that perhaps they might continue on their way as they talked.

"The Elder Dragons are like forces of nature, though saying it like that is also a bit misleading. They do have will. In fact, they almost seem to be pure will at times. They are, so well as anyone knows, as old as the world itself, and they are fundamentally linked to its magic. When they awake, they consume, corrupt, destroy everything--all life. And in so doing they absorb the world's magic, every last bit of it. It is taken into their bodies, and then they slumber, and as they do, the magic seeps back out of them and into the world. It's simply a cycle, like the rising and falling of tides.

"To my knowledge, the people of Tyria have never united to oppose them before now. Certainly they've never been killed. Now one has been killed though, and two others are awake.

"Each of the Elder Dragons, however, has its lieutenants--its champions. That's what Glint was before the ritual gave her her free will. These champions may be active even when their masters are not.

"I suppose it is not a matter of whether or not they are evil, precisely. They are each their appetites, and the corruption they spread has only one purpose: to extend and consume everything until it is gone. For the people of the world, the effect is equally malicious whether or not it makes sense to describe the dragons themselves as evil."

[Dressage is so beautiful...! I'm very much a 'riding to ride' sort of person. Maybe because I never owned a horse myself? So every time I got to ride I just wanted to ride. Ride as far as I could go and be out there with my horse away from everyone. ^^; Next time you see her, give your horsey some love for me.]

Interesting. So these dragons were as much a part of the world as anything else, from the sound of it. Not created or evil within themselves but a way for the world to keep itself in balance, in some odd way. "Do you fear that your world will be thrown out of balance with the death of one of these dragons? If this is a repeating cycling, won't surely something be off kilter? For all of the destruction it brings, I would fear that a greater destruction, perhaps one slower in coming and all the more unknown because of that, would eventually come."

Realizing quickly how that would sound, he added, almost musing out loud, "not that I could see reacting any differently. Everyone will fight to remain alive and their people safe, in the face of such danger."

They moved slowly through the well manicured grounds, maintained by a small host of people who were paid very well for their work and discretion. It seemed in many ways that no matter how incredible the land may sound, there were just as many problems, possibly even greater ones, that laid within. No world was careful and completely safe from danger.

[See that's precisely what I need to do--just ride to ride again. Moving the the UK was not the greatest thing for my horsey life. I am constantly trying to recoup, readjust, get my riding mojo back. Also, well done Charles for anticipating precisely the exact story arc that is now coming out in GW2! lol Two elder dragons have been killed now, and suddenly it's like whoops! Here's this great big THING that's been happening to the world while you weren't looking, and it's at least in part a result! Of course we don't know where the devs are going to go with it and whether they'll pursue that angle of the story, but I really really hope they do. I think it's some of their best storytelling so far. Absolutely no one in Tyria saw it coming at all though, which is pretty funny in retrospect.]

Aurus paused, cocking his head at the questions Charles posed. His hand had been lightly brushing across the surface of a hedge as they passed, but now it was completely forgotten, and for a moment he just blinked at the man. Charles was proposing a possibility that plainly hadn't occurred to him before.

After a moment, he said, "Honestly, I was mostly just surprised that they managed to actually kill one at all. And with relative ease, no less, though I'm sure that the Pact members who brought Zhaitan down would thoroughly dispute that it was easy.

"What I mean is that, in the end, the dragon's death was quite straightforward. It died as any mortal creature would die. It was powerful and strong, yes, and the firepower required to bring it down was tremendous, but once it was dead... Well, I suppose it surprised me that the elder dragon of death had only a single, brittle grasp on mortality--no different than any other living thing."

He didn't directly say that he'd never thought of the world being thrown off kilter by the cycle's disruption, but clearly the idea was a new (and potentially compelling) one, something he most certainly needed to think about.

[You'll get it back. ^_^ And HA! Charles knows his shit. XD]

"Things are rarely as they seem," Charles said with a wise tone, almost older than his years as he looked out across the grounds. "When you believe you finally have a grasp on something, it all too often turns out you knew nothing at all. It's something I've had to learn through experience, and yet even knowing it, it still comes up to surprise me." He had no idea how true his own words would be in not that long of a time in the future. "However, your world has been changed in a way that possibly will rock the balance to the core, with the death of this dragon. I imagine you and your people will need to figure out a way to handle those changes because it sounds like more of them will be coming, and more quickly. Now that people know these dragons are capable of being killed, they will go after more of them with even greater ferver."

Charles, watching Aurus closely, could see the gears moving behind those elegant eyes. It was clear that the sylvari would have much to think about; perhaps he had returned the favor on an idea he would not be immediately able to let go of.

"For the time being, you're here, for better or worse. Maybe we'll be able to give you a way to work through this that your own world could not provide. You've..." his voice turned slightly dry, "already given me a great deal to think about myself."

[Here's to being ever hopeful! And yes! I love it--it's so right that he zero in on exactly this issue! (It makes me so curious to know how he'd react if he learned the Super Secret Spoiler about sylvari that Aurus doesn't know yet too.)]

Aurus was quiet for a moment, thinking before he spoke again. He would not deny the wisdom of what Charles had said, and now that he'd said it the issue seemed glaring, the double-bind unavoidable.

"I was not part of the battle again Zhaitan--what I know of it has come to me through the Dream. I have been away from Tyria for quite a long time. But I can say this: defeating the dragon required unprecedented cooperation, the formation of a Pact between ancient Orders, the skill of the world's greatest military minds. All the world's races stood together in that campaign. The Pact fleet--airships armed for war--now knows its power. I do not think that they will fragment or turn their course aside easily, not when Mordremoth attacks ever more boldly, striking in places presumed to be safe.

"But indeed I am here, and I will admit that even now I feel no urgent need to hurry back. Having absented myself from the events of my world these last four years--arguably longer given all the time I spent as nearly a hermit--I've grown to feel almost like an outsider. Now it is all, literally, a world away, but it already felt like that for a very long time before this."

He looked at Charles earnestly and admitted, "That probably makes me sound horribly callous and apathetic, I know. I don't mean for it to. I only mean that I feel that for now I ought to stay right where I am, whether it's to learn something that your world has to teach me or purely because of you. So long as I don't wear out my welcome, I'm afraid you might be stuck with me." The warm, familiar smile returned to his eyes as he said this--not flirting at the moment, but undeniably fond.

Edited 2016-10-13 19:18 (UTC)

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Then I hit go before I wanted to >.<

no worries <3

This weekend was NUTS! I'm sick, exhausted, but it was absolutely beyond fun!

Welcome back though!

Thanks!

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