bakerstreet | thursday pic prompt

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.

link to an image:

embed an image in your reply:

control width and height:

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

[I think custom leather boots are a damn good thing to get excited about! What are they like? Tell tell! (I haven't had macaroons in years, gosh.) Also, here is a song for Charles--sort of this thread in a nutshell lol. Aaaaand some visual reference for the Grove. Not sure ~~how mean you want to be~~ whether 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.

[I, uh, may have been listening to that Fear Not This Night song since the moment I received your tag in my inbox >.> Holy fuck is it incredible. I will trade you for my favorite song from an MMO including one of the most powerful Cutscenes I've ever seen. It's called "Answers" from FFXIV, which is a song in which the citizens of Eoreza are praying to the goddess Hydaline, and she responds to their prayers. To give a little bit of context, if you're unfamiliar, the beginning of this movie is the very end of the original FFXIV. The game was considered a massive failure and players who remained logged in to the last minute of the game first hear a very creepy, haunting version of this song playing, then got to see this cutscene (until you hear 'Answers' finish). Then the servers were taken off line. Literally the end of the world. Quite a while later, FFXIV: ARR (A Realm Reborn) was released as 2.0 to the game and that cutscene became the first thing you saw when you started the game. It's what inspired me to start playing. The remainder of this movie is what you find out, through a grueling series of 13 raids that were the hardest thing to do in the game at the time, happened after the original cutscene ended. Oh I could go on about it, but that's the summary. If you're interested, this is a video about the 'end of the world' when the servers came down, taken by a player at the time. When we see Charles meet his future self in canon, he walks, so I assume he imagines himself being able to walk in his mind. [I think in Apoc we see it too? When he's fighting Apoc in his mind?]]

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.

[Fear Not This Night kind of had that effect on me too, negl. I think the song was part of what hooked me on GW2. (It's sylvari music and part of the Grove's soundscape, so if you want Charles to hear it at some point, it would be very easy to justify--it's not unlikely that someone they pass by might be singing or humming it.) I had actually seen that cutscene from FFXIV before, but completely out of context! Knowing that it's actually the end of the world makes it so much more impactful! And it's SO beautiful, of course--both the song and the cutscene itself. I can see where it would hook you. It makes me quite interested in the game as well...but it's got a monthly subscription fee, doesn't it? I am spoiled by GW2's lack of fees.]

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.

Those physical sensations that Charles believed of his true physical form became true in this new mental form as Aurus' hands settled on his shoulders - he shook, a pure reaction to the power of the mental, with wide eyes and straining lips in a tight line. He was doing everything in his power to simply keep this connection in the face of his own fear and mental strain, but Aurus' words were helping despite the lack of recognition in his face. He could hear Aurus, could see but it wasn't focused. Focus on the other's mind instead of yourself. Focus.

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.

When he'd seen the state the Charles was in, Aurus had wasted no time gathering him into his arms. He was, admittedly, more than a little alarmed, and he couldn't help but recall Hank's earlier warning. In retrospect he wondered if perhaps he should have taken it more seriously. If he had, then maybe...

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."

Charles was just letting his breathing calm, his heart calm, his thoughts calm, listening to Aurus' words but more so, listening to the feeling of his heartbeat somewhere in the back of his mind as the body took note of every one. Neither of them had been aware of just how powerful such a thing would be, but this was going to be the danger of this not-so-little adventure. It was a complete unknown, but that was something they were both well aware of when they started.

"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.

"Perhaps I am too used to it," Aurus said, "too used to being over-awed by the numinous. I have long since left off trying to name or even truly grasp much of what I see. There was a time when I tried."

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."

There was still the faintest twinge in Charles' jaw at the touch, an unconscious reaction to the touch that was once something familiar to him, but he didn't pull away. At least not until he noticed movement somewhere beyond Aurus, something that took his focus from the sylvari to past him and realized they were not alone. Even here, those society norms pressed into his mind since he was born came to surface and he pulled back, eyes going wide. It wasn't even a conscious reaction, one mixed with surprise as he started to realize what was around them, but it was there lingering under the layers of his skull.

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.

Of course Aurus noticed the slight tension that his caress caused for Charles, but...small steps. He certainly did not press the matter, especially not when Charles pulled away. There was already more than enough for the man to take in without him adding to it by making direct erotic advances. Anyway, he reminded himself, while no sylvari minded one whit whether the two of them were lovers or not, that would surely make very little difference to Charles. The feeling of being caught in the act of doing something you weren't supposed to do was a powerful and reflexive one--more powerful than the specifics of who happened to have seen.

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?"

"No," Charles breathed out, unable to take his eyes from the wonder around him, "I could never have imagined the reality here." He bent down - his legs seemed to work just fine here and he seemed to have no surprise or concern about them suddenly working - and brushed his fingers through the dirt. "This is so much more... I can see anyone's memories if I chose, see what they've seen, hear it, but... some senses don't come across the same. Scent, touch... for some reason they don't translate as well, as if our mind doesn't keep them in the same place as our memories."

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.

Watching Charles discover the world--his world--was pure enchantment for the sylvari. While Charles looked around, Aurus looked at Charles, finding the same pleasure at the man's reaction as his friend was finding in touching and smelling and moving through the Dream. And then there was the fact that Charles just tested his legs and stood up as though it wasn't even surprising for him that he could walk.

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.

[Thanks to you, I've been listening to "Answers" and "Fear Not This Night" basically on repeat for three days now. Entirely your fault. I also went back and re-watched all of the cutscenes about that final part of Answers and cried all over again. <3 I'll also suggest this one, also from FFXIV... it's theme for the second expansion. It's all about a woman who fell in love with a dragon in a time when man and dragon fought a vicious war and how she tried to make man see that dragons were just like them. The entire expansion is about the height of this war, happening 'now', and how the choice of dragon and man could destroy or save them both and how corruption can strike them all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtuwltmTp9I (What can I say, FF games and their story.) Like "Answers", it's a higher power talking to humanity (always called "Children of the Land"). We're a few months away from the next big expansion and I am so stoked it hurts. Another fun fact! All of these songs, in game, are the work of a bard who creates these after the game plays out, which is why we *never* hear them in character, always out of character. There are songs we hear in character, but never with music, after we accomplish something big. >.> I could go on about the music they've chosen for their themes for the FF MMOs as FFXI was just as brilliant. *cough* (I got to hear the FFXI one done live with its creator, Uematsu, in attendance and it stays with me as one of the best things I've ever heard.) I'll stop now. XD]

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.

[I freely accept all this blame, yup yup! And cutscene recaps can be so great! (When we watched that end of the world/Answers cutscene the first thing my partner said was "God if that was my fandom I'd have cried my eyes out.") It's so interesting to see how some of the differences between FFXIV and GW2 play out in things like this. Like you can really see the huge impact of Square Enix's development resources and budget just in the cutscenes and promo releases for FFXIV. Anet is a comparatively tiny company with like 250 employees total. And as I was thinking about it I realized that of all the new music we got with the HoT expansion, there wasn't a single new song with lyrics, it was all instrumental. (We also aren't getting a new expansion any time soon. They haven't even announced the next one yet. We do get regular living world updates with new story and new maps every 3 months or so though.) Just two very different MMO kinds of experiences--GW2 is very non-traditional, while I'm under the impression that FFXIV is like a mashup between a more traditional MMO and a console-style RPG. Als, btw, I shall just include a couple of reference pics with each of my tags since I think my descriptions don't give the clearest picture. Here's ground floor chambers 1 and 2.]

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."

[In all of the history of both MMOs, which is now some odd 15 years, there's a total of four songs with lyrics. Memoro de la Stono, Distant Worlds, Answers, and Dragonsong. We're hoping that the expansion brings another one. FFXIV does patches every few months which releases new content - main story quests, new raid content, etc. Usually some kind of new primal/god/monster to fight. It's funny - I never heard of GW2 until you but I was reading a discussion last night about how the only really big contenting MMOs right now are FFXIV, WoW, and GW2 with another one that's big in Korea but no where else. I've played, more likely beta tested, nearly every MMO that's ever come out in America if it came out before FFXI (where I stopped MMO hopping) - I beta'd the original Ultima Online for four years, Anarchy Online, Askeron's Call, Shadowbane, WoW, Everquest... my Dad and I were obsessed. XD]

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.

[I'm actually 100% not a gamer at all, which was kind of a joke when I started playing GW2. I'd never played another MMO and hadn't even played many console games, and I just didn't want to. But it turns out that GW2 really breaks the mold of all the stuff I knew I'd hate about about something like WoW. It's a very community focused game; everyone gets rewards so there's not the bitter camping/competing with other players for loot, and there aren't quests in the traditional sense. GW2 did have a substantial content drought in the months before HoT was released but ANet is unusually transparent about their company's inner workings, so we now know things like how many devs are on each team devoted to living world story, raids, the next expansion, etc. All of which I think gives the community confidence that they've ironed out the kinks and we're going to continue to keep seeing updates at a steady pace. (Btw, the cats this tag is referencing? They're part of an in-game scavenger hunt. You go find them around the world and each one wants a specific kind of food and after you feed them they come hang out in your home instance and occasionally leave you dead birds as gifts. "Sigh...clean it up.")]

Aurus watched Charles try to tempt the cat over (and the cat eye him from a careful distance without actually coming up to say hello), realizing as he did that he could feel a sense of the man's confusion--not about the cat, but about...? Oh, of course.

"You remember when we met I introduced myself as being 'of the cycle of night'? Sylvari tend to regard the time of day when one awakes as reflecting something of their personality. I'm not sure how true it is. Malomedies, our Luminary, describes night blooms as 'sentinels, scoundrels, and mathematicians.'" He chuckled a little, "I suppose you can tell me if you think the description fits me."

At Charles' question about the lights, Aurus lifted his head to look up at the space above them. It was odd to him that something so seemingly ordinary caught the man's attention, but when he thought about it of course it was true that one rarely saw these things outside of the Grove.

"It's pollen," he answered softly, "though I could no better explain to you why it glows that way than I could explain why my own body does. Most sylvari have a glow, but some do not. I don't think anyone has ever explained why. It seems, though, that whatever causes it is something shared between our bodies and the Tree itself.

"Actually, you'll notice that some sylvari shed a light dusting of pollen from their bodies too, which is perhaps as odd as the Tree doing so--in neither case do we reproduce through pollination at all."

[Sorry I'm a bit slower than normal. I'm running a big old LARP this upcoming weekend and I'm going nuts trying to get everything ready and whatnot, plus a big project at work. I'll be completely silent from Thursday night until Monday when I'm at the game, but things should go back to normal (I hope) by Monday. ^^ I think it's sort of adorable that GW2 got you into gaming! It sounds really incredible and if it got someone into gaming, more power to it! I like very non-human races in MMOs so the sylvari really entertain me. :3 OMG THE CATS. /laughs That's so hysterical. I kind of love the hell out of it.]

If he had been there alone, he might have spent the time to try and get the cat's interest but not today. So much more to experience and see. Still, so many questions bubbled up in his mind. Was he... there, right now? Did he somehow go through someone's mind into the present in another world? Or was this merely Aurus' memories? Yet it was so much more than any memory he had ever been a part of... was it magic? A piece of the magic of Aurus' world that he could use with him? So many questions.

"I see a bit of a scoundrel in you," Charles teased gently, looking over towards Aurus with amusement in his eyes and a smile on his lips. What do they say about the day blooms, then?" Taking a guess on the name for the others. However, he wasn't entirely sure what a 'Luminary' was but he could hear it used as a Title instead of a name, so someone of importance he assumed.

He tilted his gaze up again, looking at the pollen as it floated, glowing beautifully above him. "I wish I could see this forever. It looks like the night sky but closer to Earth." The smile on his lips had turned warm, still so curious. "Perhaps... something left over as you evolved. Like we have a tail bone from the days our far ancestors had a tail, or an appendix which is no longer a useful organ because we eat cooked meat over raw. A pollen that remained even though it isn't used for reproduction but it isn't detrimental so it has yet to leave your DNA-"

A pause, then he looked to Aurus and couldn't help a chuckle at himself. "Apologies. Sometimes my degree catches up with me and grabs hold."

[No worries! I hope you will have a fabulous weekend of LARPing and that work project gets done without any hitches! I'll be around as always. :) Honestly the concept of the sylvari really uniquely grabbed my interest because they're not just wood elves, which is so often the done thing. And the cats legit crack me up too. Of all the things the devs could be doing they're out there programming cats. Cats encased in blocks of ice. Cats that make you soup. Cats that beat each other up in a massive home instance cat brawl.]

"I'd always thought I was more of a vagabond, personally," Aurus joked back. But he might be just a bit of a scoundrel, especially if the look he was giving Charles right now was taken into account--the look that said he would happily be a very bad influence on the man, leading him astray into all manner of sexual stratagems if given half the chance.

"Noon blooms are headstrong--bullheaded if I'm being less generous. They are people of action, and very often that action is fighting. They're doers, not talkers. But they also form the bulk of our Wardens, the Grove's peacekeeping force.

"Those of the cycle of dawn are their opposite--diplomats, talkers, planners. They're gregarious, sociable. They aren't any more numerous than those of the other cycles, but they do tend to speak up and make themselves known."

And here Aurus gave Charles a smile, ready to return the teasing, "And if you, my friend, were a sylvari, I would expect you to have awoken in the cycle of dusk. The cycle of bookish, urbane gentlemen." In point of fact, it was the cycle associated with intellectuals and philosophers, but close enough. Sometimes Charles' degree caught up with him indeed!

Not that Aurus minded. Actually, he was taken by a sudden desire to kiss the man, which he suppressed in favor of taking his hand for a moment and leading him to the top of the spiral walkway and through an open doorway which deposited them not into a room or a hallway, but actually onto the outside of the building they had just entered into.

From here it would become clear that a whole network of paths and walkways stretched out around them, wrapping to and fro in graceful curves that led to their own smaller room-sized "gourds" like a sort of grown colony or apartment building. It was beautiful enough on its own, but the view from up here was truly spectacular. If the Grove thus far had looked like the night sky closer to Earth, this was like being up among the stars.

[The project is going well! It's a massive UI overhaul to a very old UI and it's working out super well so far. I love doing this work. You have a good point on the sylvari vs. wood elves thing! I never thought about that. HEY. PROGRAMMING CATS IS SUPA IMPORTANT! /giggling]

"Vagabond would certainly be an appropriate term." That much they could certainly agree on! Aurus sounded like a man who would rarely remain in one place for any length of time, so in all honesty, Charles believed the sylvari would leave. When, he wasn't certain, but that part of him was certain it would come. Erik had been very much the same, despite his attempts to stop his friend.

"Fighters versus the intellectuals." Charles' lips quirked at that, his hands going into his pockets as they walked. There was no hurry, not when they had all night to themselves. "Do they break out of that mold, ever? The idea of being trapped to a single manner due to the time of my birth... well, I imagine you can guess how I feel on that." The smile on his lips grew. Aurus was someone keenly aware of him in ways that could almost be disturbing, and at times did, but it was simply who Aurus was. There wasn't too much he could do about that other than try to curb where it bothered him and, he supposed, allow it to happen where it would. Less something he was used to, after the last many years.

The combination of the sudden grab of his hand and the reveal of the world above the building they had been in was a powerful one. Charles' hand unconsciously tightened on Aurus' as Charles stared up and around with wide eyes, the glowing pollen around his head and finally within touching distance. His free hand came up and slowly reached to cradle the piece of pollen - so large! - and see what it felt like. Warm? Cold? Netural? Did it tingle? Would it affect him, given that pollen could affect humans back on Earth?

[You know I've never actually asked what line of work you're in before! But I take it from that that it's something programming related? Most important thing is loving your work though. That is the best. Also, I have often wondered whether the Grove would be like a non-stop allergy attack for people with hay fever because of all this damn pollen floating around! But I suppose the Dream would be safe even for allergy sufferers. lol]

For the time being, leaving was the absolute last thing on Aurus's mind. He set off from places when he began to feel that there was somewhere else he ought to be, but there was nowhere now that he felt he ought to be other than here with Charles. (And if he were to leave it would never ever be the way that Erik had done--if he'd known that history he would have assured Charles of that at once.)

"Oh I think there are plenty who disregard it all completely. Like humans with their zodiacs. It serves people at a certain point in life to have those sorts of tales and types. But at some point the beliefs become more of an amusement than a real world view." To Aurus's mind, the whole belief in cycles was just a way for the newly awoken to find a sense of structure and place. The majority of sylvari outgrew the idea, learning to find guidance in the Dream itself, even if that sometimes felt more enigmatic to decipher.

Perhaps, in his way, Charles might find a kind of guidance here in the Dream too. That's what Aurus was thinking as he felt the man's grip on his hand tighten, watched him reach out to cup the pollen mote in his hand. The light of it glowed around his fingers, but it would still be perfectly cool to the touch. In fact it would feel very subtle--a powdery softness so delicate and light that made it hard to tell one was touching it at all.

As to whether it had an effect, that would be difficult to say too, as subtle a touch as its weight on the hand. Was there a slowly building headiness? Or was that merely the atmosphere of the place? Was there a sensate hum of magic, slowing accumulating like a build-up of energy? All were as possible as they were impossible to pin down.

What was clear, at least to Aurus, was that the longer Charles was here, the more he seemed to let himself relax, the more he seemed willing to venture. And to him it felt deeply right, because while the Grove was a place of freedom and peace, the Dream was a place of experimentation and learning and discovery. Charles was still only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Standing face to face with the man, Aurus watched him reach for the mote, watched the play of light over his features and the shifts in his expression, like he was as captivated by these as Charles was by his new environs. Aurus wasn't the only one watching him though--in fact watching them both.

The walkways between the pods were well populated. Not densely, to be sure, but there were other sylvari here, passing along the paths. They looked as solid and tangible as Aurus and Charles did, so not unawoken saplings. These were other dreamers, here during their own slumber, and while some simply went about their business, others were watching with interest, not unlike the students' interest when Aurus had appeared at breakfast the first morning.

[*laughs* I'm a front-end coder for a company that does clinical trial software! HTML, CSS, Javascript, stuff like that. I really enjoy it and can get pretty lost in my code from time to time. Headphones on and code and I'm happy. I would seriously hope the Dream is safe for allergy sufferers or that would be more like a Nightmare! XD]

But Charles was waiting for it. That moment when Aurus would choose to leave. It would come, as they all had, and he would lose something again. Still, maybe a part of him was learning that he had to take advantage of the chance he had with people. Right now, all of that wasn't anywhere near the forefront of his mind. Instead, the majesty of this place was. Charles studied the giant pollen caught in his hand, the ethereal feeling of its near weightlessness, the glow of it, and wished he could take it with him so he could hold a piece of this place with him always. With a small smile and a playful sigh of regret, he took a deep breath and turned his body and head enough to blow the pollen free of his hand, dropping his hand and dusting his palm on the leg of his pants.

"It's good to hear that it isn't so rigid. Children, even if they're fully grown when they're born, I couldn't imagine trying to contain that sort of new mind to such-" Charles started to say until he realized that he was being watched. His expression turned to one of surprise as he caught the eyes of another sylvari not terribly far away, his body freezing in the moment before he looked perhaps just a touch sheepish, glancing all around them before raising his brows towards Aurus. "It seems we're not alone." There was a dryness to his voice that showed it was sarcastic, but some of that easy joy faded from his face in the light of realization that there were others watching him. "This place, Aurus... it's incredible. Incredible isn't even enough of a word to truly express it. Magical." He still smiled, it still showed in his eyes, but it wasn't quite the same as moments before.

[I can imagine how it would be quite fun! Even doing silly little HTML coding for my business website or for journal layouts or whatever can be quite fun and chill! I hope your weekend LARPing was fab! We just got a preview trailer for the next GW2 Living World patch which will be coming out next Tues and on my LORD it looks AMAZING. /vibrates]

As fond as Aurus was of Charles he had to admit that he wasn't all that surprised to see some of his guardedness return the moment he realized they were not alone. Freedom on Charles seemed to be as fleeting as the weight of that pollen mote which now floated away on the air of his breath.

In a way, it underscored just how special and private a side of the man Aurus was getting to see when the two of them were alone. But it was also a challenge to see how it might be overcome. Of course he could just tell his companion not to worry and that he could speak and act freely without worry of anyone here judging him, but he already knew that words would not be enough to truly set him at ease. So instead he gave his own dryly witty reply: "Well, it was bound to happen eventually."

A smile as he placed a hand on Charles' shoulder, "Come, let's demystify my kin a bit for you, shall we?"

Making their way along the walkways meant passing a good number of sylvari here and there along the way. There were male and female members of the race with skin of all colors, from green to silvery white to purple, pink, and red. The leaves on their heads grew in all manner of arrangements, some woody like tree branches, others floral and blossoming. Very few were as tall as Aurus, and only some were dressed in human-made clothes, while the rest wore apparel that seemed grown of leaves and petals of all descriptions. Quite a number of them were very sparsely dressed, but modesty did not seem much of a concern at all.

In places they sat or stood together in small groups, telling stories about things they'd done or seen, and these seemed uniformly received with wonder and enthusiasm. ("I saw a great long wall," one woman was saying, "towering into the sky and stretching along the plains as far as the eye could see! But it was crumbling, the stone crushed, and the ruins guarded by ghosts!") There was, overall, a sort of joyous youthfulness about them--a population of happy flower children enchanted by the vast variations of the world.

Aurus did not let them get ensnared in conversation, but this seemed perfectly acceptable. People greeted them as they passed ("It's wonderful to see you!" was common) but no whispers followed behind.

In fact when Aurus did stop, it was not for a sylvari who'd said something to them, but for one who had not: coming down the walkway towards them was a sylvari with dark green skin and midnight blue hair like cattails. He was as tall as Aurus and had a turquoise sort of glow about him, and he was dressed in a sarong of layered orchid petals. Unlike the other sylvari they'd passed, he seemed not to see them at all. Instead, he was absorbed in running his hand over the green vine railing, fingers trailing its surface as he walked up the path...and then turned around and walked back the other way.

It actually might have seemed that he truly did not see them, except that when he passed by them he extended his free hand and, without looking, brushed his fingers up Aurus's back and over his shoulder before continuing on his way.

[What do YOU do for a job, anyway?? Now I'm all curious. Oooh shit new patch!! That's always huge! So I won't see you for a week is what I'm hearing. /tease]

The sylvari, Charles decided, were as beautiful as the Grove they were born from. He wanted to study them all, to see the differences in the ways they existed, the colors so subtle and leaves so intricate, seeming as varied as the flowers of the world yet all in that same humanoid feel. Why? Why were they crafted to resemble humans? In jest, in honor of, in mocking, by accident, on purpose? They all could have been true. Their uniqueness was enough to not cause him much in the issue of their dress, but really even that wouldn't have bothered him... too much. They weren't naked but more so, they weren't human.

(Briefly, the thought of ghosts sent a shiver down his spine. Not because of fear, no, but the idea of someone that had been killed due to their actions being forced to haunt... it seemed a terrible fate to him. How many might he have created inadvertantly? Did the mutants he failed to protect wallow their afterlives in anger and pain?)

Charles shook his head to clear away that thought and ended up watching carefully what this stranger sylvari was doing. The hair was quite something - Charles would have immediately likened it to dreadlocks - but that gesture brought his brows nearly to his hairline. What had that been about? He followed the other as the sylvari left, then turned his gaze back to Aurus. "...a friend of yours?" he asked with a decided bit of confusion coming out, questioning what was going on there with that oddly intimate gesture.

[In theory I have a private tuition and academic consulting business for college students and postgrads. I say in theory because it's a start-up and (insert loads of tl;dr crap here) life's complicated. You shall still see me every day including patch day though, just possibly quietly screaming a little. (We don't think they're going to destroy the main human city BUT WE ARE NOT SURE.) Also, my partner would like me to extend to you his sincere apologies for this FUCKING WEIRD ASS SYLVARI you are about to meet. He's my partner's creation, kindly on loan for the purposes of this thread.]

The question of why sylvari looked as they did was ultimately a fascinating mystery, one that rather confounded the logic of evolution. It certainly seemed as though they had been designed in keeping with human bodies, which rather begged the question of what mind had designed them. Their own stories held that the intelligence was that of the Pale Tree, which had drawn inspiration from the human grave of Ronan's family on which it grew. But no one had ever proven this for sure.

It simply seemed to make sense. After all, the sylvari had no notion or faith in any god. If the Pale Tree was not responsible for the design of their bodies, then who or what possibly could be? Perhaps seeing how they lived helped explain why none of them seemed terribly troubled over this question. The Tree was all the answer that they needed.

And seemingly no one needed much of an answer about why this cattail-haired sylvari had such a great fascination with touching vine railings either.

"In a manner of speaking," Aurus's eyes went from the passing sylvari to Charles, noting the surprise and perplexity written on his face. He hadn't planned this, but he hadn't really tried to avoid it either. And to his mind there were far worse ways for Charles to meet another member of his race. (Whether Charles would agree with that assessment remained to be seen.)

By now, the stranger had reached the point in the walkway where he turned, reached out to touch the opposite railing, and headed back towards them again. When he passed this time, his fingers reached out higher, brushing right across Aurus’s cheek and through his hair. Aurus didn’t even flinch.

"Hello Aurus," the strange sylvari said sort of absently as he went on his way, as though he’d found the words but was waiting for his mind to settle on their object like a butterfly flitting above a leaf.

Aurus kept his eyes on Charles. "He's my brother."

[Oh wait the whole game can change like that!? Holy shit. o.o That's pretty badass ~~and kind of terrifying~~. Tell your partner that apologies aren't needed .... yet. XD]

Charles... wasn't certain how to take this new sylvari. It seemed to him like a man who was high, unable to focus on the normal things and focusing on the abstract, and the touch didn't seem like something Aurus was unused to. Was Aurus the odd man out among his race or was this other sylvari the strange one? Perhaps this sylvari had been... damaged at some point? He was about to question when Aurus decided to say that.

Blink.

Brother?

What could brother mean if they weren't truly creatures that were born?? Did it simply mean 'my brother' in a generic sense, because they were of the same species? A shared pod? The same cycle? The same generation? All of these pushed against his mind and finally came out as the single, not unexpected question, "brother??"

He looked back towards the blue-green sylvari, trying to see some sort of connection between the two, but they didn't seem to resemble each other in any aspect that he could see. That might have been unkind though, given his unfamiliarity with the sylvari. Perhaps he was just missing something?

[Yup! They've actually done it once already at the end of the first living world season. There was this massive attack where the main port/central hub city was destroyed, and then an event to retake the city. After that we had a ruined, under repair version for like a year, until it was finally rebuilt just before the first expansion came out. They did give people prior warning before that event though, so conjecture is that this time at worst maybe one district of the human city will get bombarded (maybe opening a way onto a new map). Also yes, yet is exactly the operative word here--the weird only increases from here on.]

It was true, of course, that any sylvari could technically call any other their brother, since they all came from the same Mother Tree, and there were times when Aurus used the word in a much more casual sort of way, (as was particularly common between the Secondborn and Firstborn). And it was also true that, on occasion, two sylvari could grow within the same pod, though this was rare.

None of these were true in this case, but Aurus took pity on Charles' obvious surprise and confusion and explained: "Yes, we awoke side by side and within minutes of each other, both knowing the other's face from our Dream. There’s no precise word for that sort of relationship, but I believe that brothers comes close." He watched as the sylvari's path turned towards them again, also anticipating a question that he was, by now, quite used to: "And before you ask--yes, he's always like this."

He gave Charles a crooked smile before the blue-green sylvari reached them again, this time to pause with a hand on Aurus’s collar bone.

"Hello Keserhn," Aurus said with a casual, untroubled sort of tone. He didn't need to try and demand attention, because for all the flitting distraction and breezing by, Keserhn seemed to be paying quite good attention to him already. Not so much to Charles though, at least not yet.

"I haven't seen you in quite a long time, Aurus." Keserhn spoke with a low, breathy sort of voice that was intensely placid and calm, like everything was a matter of tranquil musing. "You're not back in the Grove are you? You're somewhere very far away."

Aurus nodded, "A world through the Mists and somewhere beyond them, yes. This is Charles Xavier, my host there, and my guest in the Dream tonight.

"Charles, this is Keserhn."

But evidently Keserhn didn’t require the introduction, since he was already helping himself with an outstretched hand that was reaching slowly towards Charles' hair. Or maybe the introduction was an intervention of sorts, because once Keserhn's attention was actually directed to Charles he at least paused in his attempt to pet him.

He smiled a slow, languid smile, looking the man in the eyes but also somehow seeming as though it wasn't so much Charles' eyes that interested him--like looking at him was a matter of surveying whether there were any particularly intriguing bits of him to touch. "Oh hello." The hand that had been reaching for Charles' hair was now extended in an apparent offer to shake hands. "Thank you for looking after him. I do hope he's not causing you too much trouble," as though Aurus was some sort of errant child.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject