jade ☃ harley (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
basslines) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
bakerstreet2016-09-08 02:14 pm
basslines) wrote in bakerstreet2016-09-08 02:14 pm
thursday pic prompt
the picture prompt meme
i. COMMENT WITH CHARACTER
ii. OTHERS LEAVE A PICTURE (OR TWO OR THREE....)
iii. REPLY TO THEM WITH A SETTING BASED ON THE IMAGES.
THIS POST WILL BE IMAGE HEAVY.
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Ah, right. He hadn't explained about Raven. Charles couldn't help the small chuckle that left him, bringing up an arm and tucking it behind his head, making himself comfortable. "Raven is a shapeshifter," he said simply, hoping it might be a simple enough term it would come through to Aurus if they had anything similar or not. "She can change her appearance at will. The photograph you saw was the form she took as my sister and remained as such for the majority of her life, but in truth she is.." He paused, thinking how to describe her true form. "Blue, head .to toe, with bright crimson hair and raised darker blue markings on her skin. It actually made me wonder if I had found another one like her when you first showed up."
But his smile turned just a hint sad after his words ended, his gaze turning away. There as something in there that he hadn't mentioned, but it most certainly seemed to have to do with his sister. "She would love to have met you, if she was here."
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"How amazing," Aurus said, his head cocked slightly in fascination and his voice slightly softened. "I would never have imagined." And in truth he couldn't imagine. Not really. A sylvari with the colors that Charles described, yes, that he could picture. But a human? And just what precisely did being a shapeshifter entail? Was it only humans that she could become, or could she take the shape of other sorts of beings as well--or was even that question the sort that was barely suggested within a world where there were no other sentient races? If a shapeshifter such as this woman came to his own world, would she be able to take the shape of a tengu, for example--a humanoid bird more than six feet tall?
The cascade of questions flowed through Aurus's mind and if he'd been a younger sylvari he probably would have given them voice. His focus, however, was better than that, and what he said instead was "Perhaps I might have a chance to do so yet. You said she's out in the world searching for herself. Who knows when she may come back." Unlikely, perhaps, but Aurus was thinking that he'd quite like to meet Raven too, and he could always hope.
"But what of this student of yours, Stacy--is she a shapeshifter as well?"
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Charles would have answered those questions, to the best of his ability, if Aurus had spoke up on them, but instead he stuck to the question he did before he spoke about Raven. "Stacy is not," he started off, but it was tricky explaining to people just what her gift was without it coming off... improperly. "Stacy is capable of producing pheromones that affect humans in different ways. So far, we've witnessed her capable of making people happy or angry or ill." But he feared one day that the 'happy' would turn into something more, in particular as the child became a woman.
"Raven's chosen to.. explore the world. I'm not sure when she'll return." Yet something in his voice suggested he wasn't sure she would ever return, that note of sadness and the shift in his gaze that spoke even more volumes than his words. He missed her, so much more than he even let himself feel.
The idea that she didn't miss him at all was a barb in his heart, even if he had no idea if it was true or not.
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"Huh. I wonder what effect human pheromones have on plants," he mused aloud, "if they have any at all." It was a topic close enough to his own interest in the mind-altering effects of plant preparations that he was genuinely fascinated to find out.
"Does she have control of her ability?" Obviously, Aurus was taking to the idea of meeting this student already, and not in the least put off by the possibility that the girl's powers could somehow emotionally manipulate him.
As for Raven, though, he reached out and touched Charles' hand, sensing something of what troubled him and laying his own palm atop the man's. "Trust that you will see her again. Just as, even after so many years away, I return to my own home either to visit in the Dream or someday to go back in person. Wandering long and far does not mean that one does not love their home nor miss the people there."
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"I'm not certain," Charles said with a look and tone that suggested he wanted to take caution with this, don't just jump in there Aurus, but he softened it with a, "I'd be grateful if you could talk to her, maybe try to ease her on her unhappiness about her body. She does have control over her powers, for the most part, but sometimes when she gets very emotional they can work a bit on their own. Something we see in a lot of these children."
He offered a small smile, but the smile actually fell away with the touch to his hand. There was a great deal in this particular (tender) subject that Aurus didn't know about, what led to her leaving and the pain that came with it (being deserted when he needed her most, her choice of Erik over himself, just leaving all together).
"Maybe." His word was a stop. His voice indicated it wasn't a subject he wanted to discuss further, definitely not now.
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The nod that Aurus gave acknowledged both that he would do as Charles asked and take care in his conversation with this student, and also that he would respect the boundary being drawn around the topic of the man's sister. It was, however, a reminder of how much he still had yet to learn about the man. He knew some elements of Charles' past, but at the same time it was clear that the ghosts which haunted him had many tales yet to tell and that Charles guarded those closely.
Would the man open up to him more after tonight? Aurus hoped that he would, but he could also accept that it might take a much longer time.
He let his hand slip away. "You have my word that I will be as sensitive and careful as I am able," with Charles' student, with Charles himself.
Then, feeling that perhaps this was the moment when they ought to broach the core topic of the evening, he gave a nod to the cup on the table--really a shallow wooden bowl which Aurus kept with him for precisely this purpose. "What do you think, shall I drink and have us begin?"
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"Thank you." Whether Charles picked up the additional on Aurus' promise or not it was impossible to say, but the thanks worked in either way.
His eyes slid over to the bowl, studying the mixture soaking it in, and felt a small amount of relief he didn't feel any particular urge towards drinking it himself, more a decided anxiety. Then again, the logical part of him said, it couldn't provide him the thing he wanted again in his life. Not much of a test, but still one that came with a tiny bit of relief to have passed.
There was a quick nod, covering his own internal thoughts. "How long will it take you to be affected?" He asked curiously but at the same time, he had to figure out how much time he had for what would need to come after that drink. "I need to be able to keep in contact with your head while we do this, so if I put my back against the far edge, you can lay with your head in my lap. It'll be the easiest for such a long stretch of time." Not actually meant to push in any particular direction but simply a fact of what needed to happen. From everything he'd seen so far, though, he wasn't so concerned that Aurus might have an issue with such positioning.
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"Actually," Aurus said, unable to suppress his smile, "I was going to suggest precisely the same thing." He'd been wondering what Charles would say to the idea of having him put his head in his lap, but apparently he need not have worried, and the idea that they were already on the same page on this point seemed to him to confirm the rightness of what they were choosing to do.
"The brew takes effect gradually. It won't be long--a few minutes at most before it begins. In this case, it will help ease the way forward as I drop off to sleep, nothing more. Were I to stay awake, its effects could be quite different."
Of course Aurus still had no reason to suspect that the brew itself might be a source of anxiety for Charles. He would certainly have liked to know, but even if he had he could not have said much beyond assuring the man that hallucinogens of this sort were almost never addictive. (Some of his plant alkaloids actually had the side effect of curing addiction.) And indeed this admixture of boiled vines and leaves and bark could never give Charles the use of his legs, even temporarily...though it could perhaps allow him to hallucinate himself walking.
"The Mists are quite vast and from here in another world, the Grove and the Pale Tree are very far away. It may take a little time before anything comes into view. I don't know precisely how the connection between us will work, but I suspect that once it is made, if you feel yourself drifting towards sleep, you need not try to stay awake. If you feel a subtle kind of guidance you need merely to allow yourself to follow it."
Reaching over for the little bowl, he held it cupped between his hands with a kind of ritual reverence. The teas he drank out of it were never simply recreational. There was some spiritual significance each time, and this one was no different.
Half closing his eyes for a few seconds in something quite like a meditative pose, he focused on his breath, clearing his mind. Then he lifted the bowl to his lips and drank the liquid within.
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A brow briefly rose. Why would Aurus have suggested such a position without knowing what he required? Then again, the sylvari did know he required touch, so perhaps it made sense. Charles pushed it out of his mind, focusing on what was happening now. Good, at least he wouldn't have to fight too hard against the drug-tea that Aurus was about to consume (or he hoped he wouldn't). He shifted his weight back, getting himself into position, but he did pause mid-motion so that he could watch Aurus. It was fascinating to watch, seeing the respect that Aurus gave the moment, which put it into better perspective what Aurus thought of this venture into the Dream.
Keeping that in mind, he finished what he was doing, then took one of the other pillows and put it in his lap. It would keep Aurus' head steady and more comfortable and give his hands somewhere to rest while he disappeared into the other's mind. Much like Aurus' just had, once he was in place, he closed his eyes, slowing down his own breathing, working down the nerves he had coming into this situation. Without any idea of what he was truly getting into other than the bits Aurus had told him, even though he knew the sylvari had told him everything he could, he knew it would most likely be immeasurable and indescribable. Hank had tried to explain Cerebro to him before he put the helmet on. It wasn't nearly enough back then and he didn't imagine it would be now.
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Slowly, Aurus opened his eyes once more, his gaze settling on Charles, bright and clear and once again finding that expression of warmth and intimacy that he'd only been able to show fleetingly throughout the day. It had required careful discretion then, but there was no one else to see them now, and the only person who might judge them harshly was Charles himself.
He was sure that this would all still feel daunting for the man, the way that breaking (or at least stretching and bending) taboos always felt daunting, particularly at threshold moments when the act was just about to begin. Why, then, break taboos at all? It could only be because of desire, the pull towards an intimacy too captivating to ignore. With himself and Charles, Aurus felt that it was like the current of a river--sometimes it flowed low and hidden stirring the silt deep down, and sometimes it rose up in a visible rush that tugged and rippled right to the surface. Tonight it could touch the open air, as free and as heady as it wanted to be.
Aurus set the bowl back on the table and lay down, setting his head slowly against the cushion in Charles' lap, and looking up at him. Before he settled fully, he reached for the man's hand, seeking the press of fingertips against his own, an affirmation of the connection between them not on a telepathic level but simply on an emotional one.
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[YAY! New laptops are so much fun to get in the mail. I'm super excited to get my custom leather boots after work today... >.> Speaking of paying a lot of money for your hobby, I won't admit how much I paid for these boots. XD Also why are computer lights so much fun!? When I got my new case I squealed because it was all blue lighting everywhere. NOTHING IS BETTER THAN A GOOD SALE. (Except maybe macaroons. They are the best.)]
Perhaps that river could come to the surface so easily for Aurus, but it was not so easy for Charles. It had been a long time now since he'd allowed himself any sort of intimate connection with another person, and even if that hadn't been stacked against him with all of the issues that hung over him conected to that choice, Aurus was not only male but a male of another species all together. He could see his younger self would have been very much into this, flirting back with a grin on his lips and a certain swag in his eyes, but this was an older Charles scarred by life and circumstance and more constrained by himself than even society would bind him.
The touch to his hand opened his eyes again, pulling him out of that meditative state he had started in to look at their fingers curling together. His hand shifted, just enough for a better grip, and gave Aurus' hand a gentle squeeze. "Are you ready?" he asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the atmosphere that was brewing in the air between them. Something like the air before a storm, the tension in the space all around them without being immediately threatening or wonderful but the waiting, anticipation, for the first drops to fall or the lightning to crack across the sky.
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how mean you want to bewhether you want Charles to be able to walk while in the Dream, but it's certainly an option!]One of the things that had been most important to Aurus for this undertaking was that it not feel like Charles was a mender tending to him in some sickbed. That had, in fact, been one of his own reasons for wanting the intimacy of resting his head in Charles' lap. But it was also an element in the touch of their hands, the expression in their eyes--none of this felt clinical or sterile, and to him that mattered very much.
With a smile and a nod of his head, Aurus let his eyes slide closed, returning the squeeze Charles gave his hand before letting his grip slide free and folding his palms lightly on his chest.
He allowed a meditative focus on his breath to slowly lead him down the path towards sleep, scanning his body as he did so that the spots of tension ebbed and he sank into the heaviness of relaxation.
At first, as he did this, his mind was clear and blank, like old slate rubbed clean and smoothed by use. And then slowly, out of the darkness, an impression of shapes and contours grew. Grays and blacks became muted shades of taupe and then blue, lines and planes that wove together in an intricately patterned web. The colors shifted, blue becoming darker, becoming indigo, becoming pink then red, yellow, green, as the fractal of patterns seemed to fall closer...or else they were zooming into it, falling ever downward into its center.
Only there was no center. There was, instead, a pattern of shapes that made up other shapes, each a component of the one that came before. They slid in along spirals, the eyes of which each revealed a thousand other spirals, and they sometimes seemed to angle off center so that they slid not into the eye of the spiral ahead but into one of its tiny side components, which each seemed to expand at their approach...unless each spiral had truly always been so big and they so small but merely not yet close enough to see it.
These fractals were, in no small part, produced by the tea Aurus had drunk--a way to visualize a path, to have the sense of closing distance. But they also represented something of the immensity of the multiverse, an experience of mortal finitude and relative smallness compared to the scope and scale of the unending. The feeling of movement through this surreal landscape might itself be overwhelming, especially since it would feel like quite a long time before they finally emerged through the base of a spiral that did not lead to yet another one.
Then, at last, there was a blackness that lightened slowly into gray, and now into mist with a growing tinge of green--of light and life and growing things. All still nondescript for now, as though the world was veiled in a thick fog, but the fog was slowly beginning to clear and they were no longer falling through space.
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It was worse than he might have imagined. Far worse.
This was nothing like he had ever seen in any mind, something far greater and far more expansive, and he was certain in that moment his idea of comparing this venture to Cerebro was not only true but possibly not strong enough. It was overwhelming, something that if he had been able, he might have screamed and gripped his head, but instead he was transfixed, frozen as he fell through with Aurus, unable to do anything but hang on and pray for the end of it even as he tried to encompass the majesty and vastness of it all.
All in all, it was only through his training with Cerebro that he didn't lose the connection completely, and even only just at that. So when relief finally came, it was gratefully received - grateful for his mind and his sanity. There was no physical attribute he could match to the feelings he held, but he could well imagine how his body would be reacting. Shivering, shaking, sweating, panting, racing heart, pale. Instead, his connection was faint, holding onto Aurus only through sheer determination. The growing clarity around them wasn't even something he was capable of dealing with right now as he got over what had just happened to them, mind racing and trying to hold onto fleeting images and sensations before they disappeared and at the same time, like any sort of fear-response, wanting to soften those same things to keep itself from devolving further.
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Having spent so much time with altered states of consciousness and having taken so many hallucinogenic drugs, Aurus sometimes...forgot that other people might not cope with the visions they inspired as well as he did. For him, the experience was like being a leaf carried on the wind. There was the momentary thrill of a gust here and there, but he was so at ease with giving himself over to it that even that was not unpleasant. He hadn't been trying to deceive Charles--he really could feel lulled to sleep by that movement.
The moment that the fractal swirls began to recede from view, however, he realized that what he was feeling from Charles was not the thrill of motion or the free breath of adventure, but genuine distress. And the closeness of the Dream made that awareness keener: the Dream's connection was not telepathic but rather empathic, and right now Aurus was closer to Charles than he was to anyone.
Even before Charles' body or his own was clearly visible, before the land and sky had become clear through the fog, Aurus was already reaching out to his companion.
"Easy my friend, easy. It's all right." He wasn't sure if he was speaking in his mind or speaking aloud, but for the moment it seemed not to make much difference. "Let go of what you're seeing and hold onto me. I'm here. Feel my calm."
The fog cleared by degrees, coalescing to reveal moss and grass beneath them, and indeed, after a moment not just their feet and their legs but their whole bodies. Aurus's hands found Charles' shoulders, holding him steady and waiting for the man's focus to settle on his eyes.
"The ground is steady and solid now," he kept on talking, trying to give Charles an anchor. "You've done it. We're here. Listen--you can hear the birds sing, and there's the quiet babbling of water nearby. You're here."
The world had come clear around them as he spoke, the fog now almost gone. In its place stretched a new landscape, a new world.
They were near the bank of a clear blue pond dotted with massive green lily pads. On the far bank, a gentle stream of water danced down the rocks from above. Though it was night time, it was far from fully dark--the air was filled with motes of pollen that seemed to glint like brightly lit snow, and there was luminous plant life everywhere: where a city might have had street lamps, this place had tall flowers whose blossoms glowed like golden bulbs. Even the rocks on the edge of the pond and parts of the ground itself seemed to emit their own soft light in hues of blue and green.
Far overhead the sky was filled with stars, but the stars here seemed almost in league with the pollen motes, as though one had either risen to new heights or the other had descended. But perhaps more remarkable than that was the network of paths--great, broad sweeping walkways formed of living wood on which grass and moss and vines now grew, leading upwards though the living tiers of the sylvari homeland.
Across it all swirled occasional wisps of green mist which seemed to highlight that this was indeed the Dream after all, and not the land of waking.
If Aurus could just get Charles to calm himself and focus here on the steadiness of this place, he thought, then he'd (hopefully) be all right. ...Maybe he just wouldn't encourage him to look up just yet.
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His eyes closed and he took a slow, deep breath, then another, trying to get himself under control. It would have been embarrassing if he had the ability to focus on anything other than trying to keep the connection and his cool. The feeling of Aurus' hands on his shoulders - something alien to him, though he would learn in the future that this was less unusual - the sound of his voice, water, and bird.
Slowly, so slowly, he started to come back into himself, but it was painstaking to get himself to do so. Aurus would know when finally won because he stopped shaking and started to sag, letting Aurus' hands support him. "That-" he started, swallowed, and started again, all without opening his eyes, "that was unexpected." Understatement.
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He couldn't think about that now though. His fear and second-guessing would do Charles no good--if his advice to the man was to focus then he needed also to do the same. He needed to be the anchor, the oak-like steadiness that the man could rely on to put himself right again. This was no time to be indulgently playing games of "what if."
Instead, Aurus put everything out of his mind but the calmness of an even, rhythmical breath. He cradled the man's neck in his palm, laying his thumb against the pulse-point and tried to envision a gradual, growing synchronicity, between Charles' heartbeat and his own. And he breathed in the soft sweet scent of the man's hair as he held him, waiting, waiting.
By the time the shaking stopped, Charles would find that they were seated on the grass and that Aurus was holding him in a steady embrace, his cheek resting against the top of Charles' head. He relaxed his grip slightly when the man finally stirred, but he did not let go. His own pulse quickened and he exhaled a breath of relief when his body felt the signs that Charles was truly with him again.
"For me as well," he sounded shaken, and he was, but for his own reasons. The relief that flooded through him now betrayed how much fear he'd been keeping in check. By the Tree, what if Charles hadn't been okay?
"I'm sorry Charles. I knew that the tea would produce a vision of some sort, but I had no idea that it would be that one, nor did I ever guess it would have that kind of effect on you."
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"I... have never seen something like that before. You may be used to wandering these paths, but..." He let himself trail off, knowing Aurus would understand. He opened his eyes, slowly, letting the light filter in and his mind process each added strain step by step. When they were open, they focused on Aurus' face first before anything else. Something familiar. He breathed out slowly before giving the faintest smile, showing he was okay if shaken.
"This is going to be quite the adventure." His tone was a touch dry, but the faint smile remained.
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He looked down into Charles' eyes, still holding him close, letting the embrace and the low calm tones of his voice extend the little cocoon of comfort he was drawing around them.
"Mistrustful though I am of asura, they have a concept that perhaps comes close to naming what we saw. It was, I believe, a part of what they call the Eternal Alchemy. A sort of...cosmic mechanism. I think, though, that what we saw is only a metaphor, a representation of an idea that no one can truly see at all."
Aurus wasn't saying these things to try and press Charles to think too hard on them, but merely to have something to say, and if the words themselves might not have been wholly comforting, the tone in which he spoke them certainly was, like he was telling Charles a sort of folk story.
He lifted a hand to the man's jaw, brushing the skin lightly--it was the sort of touch he now knew would be verboten were the two of them sitting out on a lawn in Charles' world. Here, however, no one would look askance at them for a moment. (In fact, there were other sylvari nearby, but none seemed the least bit concerned with Aurus and Charles.) "I am hoping that the adventure will be a good deal more enjoyable from here on," he said. "I can promise, at least, no more psychotropic visions. The Dream does not behave like a drug trip."
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But joy started to come to his face, a certain kind of awe, that was almost like that of a child as he started to look around, really look around, at a world not only so different in design than his own but colored in ways that he might have only seen in a story book. It was beautiful, like being in the depths of some exotic jungle, yet the colors could match nothing on Earth. All too deep, too pigmented, too bright, yet incredible beyond any words he had. His fingers wanted to reach up and grasp the lights dancing above his head, wondering if he could. He wanted to touch the strange plants around him just to feel their texture.
He laughed, just a sound of quiet joy, a grin splitting his lips. The alien world around him was enough to draw him from his fear, for now.
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So he let his hand fall away once he'd helped the man sit up to take his first proper look around. The look on Charles' face more than made up for any brief hurt from that moment of rejection, and Aurus found himself grinning right along as well. The joy and amazement were infectious, and that might have been because of the connection between their minds, or the empathic bond of the Dream itself, or just because of the natural affection they were building--it didn't seem to matter.
(Of course Aurus had also noticed that Charles' chair did not seem to have appeared anywhere with them. At least not that he could easily see. He wasn't sure quite how to bring that up or if he needed to at all.)
For now, he just enjoyed the moment, and he couldn't help himself asking: "Is it what you imagined?"
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He held up his fingers with a bit of dirt, rubbing it between them. "But I can feel this, just like I was there. I know it must be because of your connection to the Dream but it's... it's incredible." He laughed again, just something soft and quick and unconscious, before he stood back up, dusting his hand off on his pants. Seemed even in his mind he wore those same sorts of comfortable trousers and button downs he wore in the physical world.
"Is this it, then? The Grove?" he asked, peering curiously towards the other sylvari he could see, but again and again his gaze drifted to some fantastical piece of botanical life - vines growing down from a tree with their own ethereal glow, a fern so vivid in color it almost hurt to look at, a flower he wanted to see what it smelled like if it looked that ghostly.
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Well, should it really be that surprising? After all, the injury to Charles' body did not alter what his mind knew his body could and should do, had it not been damaged. Why shouldn't he be able to walk in the Dream then?
Sharing in his friend's laughter, Aurus got to his feet. He was still taller than Charles, but then he was taller than most humans. He didn't specifically say anything about the man being able to walk, but perhaps the look in his eyes (and the angle at which he and Charles could now face each other) said it for him.
"This is it! Though admittedly only the beginning. There is so much I want to show you! Come."
Leading them along the path that followed the bank of the pond, Aurus began to take Charles on a sort of tour. And far from trying to shift the man's attention away from the landscape, he completely encouraged it. He led them beneath curtains of glowing vines and the shade of massive palm-like leaves, across vine bridges edged with blossom's bigger than a man's head. "You may touch it all if you like," he said in a low whisper, leaning in conspiratorially.
"Shall I show you what our homes are like?" He had brought them to the base of huge, multi-tiered, dome-shaped, gourd-like structure, its door a sort of brightly lit aperture the shape of a teardrop which opened when Aurus put his hand on it.
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Charles was more than willing to do exactly as he was offered. His fingertips slid across leaves and vines, leaning in close to see if he can figure out how they glowed, and doing just as he wanted, taking a deep breath when he was close enough to a flower to be able to pick up its scent. It felt a little like being a child all over again, a sort of innocence he only found in his students and he felt he had lost one day on a Cuban beach. When he realized they had already come up to one of these homes, he didn't bother replying to the question but instead looked confused as Aurus simply opened it. "Is this your home?" he asked instead, looking it over with a curious expression.
What was it built of? Was it in fact some sort of giant gourd, its seeds removed? Was it built out of branches and earth? Maybe something he had no concept of. Maybe it was magic, a very real possibility in this place. Did the door respond to all people like that, or Aurus alone, like some sort of key connected to his biology? With a curious but cautious movement, he touched the door himself, seeing if it would glow.
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It seemed to Aurus that Charles was more alive, more free here in the Dream than he'd ever seen him before, and it was more than enchanting. For him, it was like watching the dawn's first sunlight on day lilies. If Charles' reservations in other areas had not remained, Aurus would taken him into his arms right there and then. (He wondered if that desire was one that Charles could feel despite his carefully checked behavior.)
"We live communally," he explained with a small shake of his head, watching as Charles tried the mechanism of the door and it answered his touch without hesitation, like a fly trap or a touch-me-not plant.
"Several dozen sylvari probably call this place home now. Were I to return to the Grove, I might take a bed here, but there are many options. Some prefer to live with other blooms of their same cycle--each has their own 'garden.' Some wish to be close to their lovers or friends. There are all manner of arrangements, but it's rare for us to think of owning a domicile like humans think of owning a house."
Inside the building was like being inside a tree, only quite airy and open (perhaps strangely, with several cats wandering around). The walls were like bark, and there were two main chambers on the ground floor along with several smaller ones. All were communal, and some led out onto terrace-like spots bordered with green vine railings. There was a pond leading off the back of the building, edged by a tall outer wall of cypress trees. But perhaps most spectacular was not the ground floor at all.
Suspended from the high ceiling of the central chamber, a sort of natural chandelier lit the interior with large bulb-like blossoms adorned with bioluminescent vines and leaves. (As with the other glowing lights, no amount of searching would reveal a clear source for the illumination, just as it was hard to say clearly just where foxfire would appear before the lights turned down to reveal it.)
Stretching up towards the upper floors, which themselves looked quite open and airy, were not stairs but rather smoothy curving walkways, and Aurus led them towards these. "All that you see is grown or still growing," he explained as though sensing some part of Charles' questions. "Even the furnishings. I suppose that's why we rarely think of places here as private possessions. The whole architecture of the Grove has been shaped from the limbs and roots of the Pale Tree, augmented at times by other growth, of course."
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There was a softly spoken 'fascinating' as the door responded to his touch - so it was merely based on touch, nothing more, not even caring that he wasn't sylvari. He was curious as to what 'blooms of their same cycle' meant and his mind conjured up images of Aurus covered in an array of colorful flowers as if he himself was a garden come to life, but shook his head to clear that as it seemed slightly ridiculous, not to mention impractical. One of the felines caught his eye and he tilted his head, kneeling down to watch one from a short distance away, clearly curious about how friendly these creatures were. He didn't stay there too long, though and moved after Aurus, peering up into the massive light source above.
"What are the floating lights?" he finally dared to question, unable to keep that question in any longer. They seemed to be everywhere, yet slightly out of reach of touch. "Is it part of the Grove itself? There's nothing like this on Earth. Phosphorescent glow, sure, but... nothing like this." He smiled a little more, peering over the edge as they started up one of the spiraling walkways.
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Cattlepult: a real GW2 thing...into which you must climb and get shot out of. No lie.
I LOVE IT.
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