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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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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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."
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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."
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"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.
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"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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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?
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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.
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Brother certainly seemed the right term to use in this case, but for Charles, it seemed even more fascinating simply because of all of those born in Aurus' generation that this sylvari in particular was the one Aurus chose to call 'brother'. A far more intimate sort of relationship that friend, cousin, or the numerous terms that Aurus had taught him their kind used. Knowing the other's face from our Dream... so the time before they were born, then? Why would the Dream link these two together?
The comment about Keserhn's strange sort of attitude made the corner of Charles' mouth lift in amusement. To have that unasked question so readily answered meant that it was probably a very typical question and thus it wasn't just him thinking it. Did other sylvari, or only non-sylvari think Keserhn to be a bit... odd? Charles mouthed the name to himself so that he would remember it, listening as the two spoke. So they could tell, at least to some degree, where they were when they spoke to them here? Keserhn was dead on the money about being so far away, worlds away.
He straightened up ever so slightly at being introduced, bowing his head slightly towards Keserhn in a small sign of respect, only to balk at the hand reaching towards him. His eyes flickered over to Aurus, wondering if this was typical (Aurus was a bit touchy himself, after all) or just his brother, but he didn't pull away. His brows lifted when Keserhn suggested he was taking care of Aurus - Aurus seemed fully capable on his own - but that suggested as well Keserhn perhaps saw himself as the older brother?
After a moment, Charles offered over a smile and took the offered hand (was this typical among sylvari, he wondered, or had Keserhn spent time among humans?), giving it a firm but not crushing shake. "I would say that I'm not sure Aurus is capable of not causing trouble," he said with a bit of amusement, a gentle tease and a hope to warm Keserhn up to him as someone so close to Aurus, "but he is welcomed in my home and has been a pleasure to have. It's wonderful to meet you." Both as another sylvari and Aurus' chosen brother.
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Smiling, Keserhn returned the hand shake but then, when it would have been usual for someone to let go...he didn't. Not that he gripped Charles' hand so tightly that it would be hard for the man to pull it away if he wanted to. But if Charles didn't pull away, Keserhn would happily take this opportunity to run his thumb over the man's knuckles, his fingers over his palm and the heel of his hand and up to his wrist...(and he'd probably keep right on going if he wasn't stopped).
Not that this seemed to distract him from talking, his voice retaining that same breezy calm, and his expression still that languid, almost sleepy smile. "Hm, yes, that's true," he said of Aurus's trouble-making proclivities. "I'm glad to hear that he hasn't changed."
(Aurus had the good sense to look just a wee bit sheepish at that, the way one does when people are openly talking about them and saying not-entirely-complimentary things in rather affectionate ways.)
"What's it like where you are?" Keserhn's question was directed at Aurus and Charles both, his gaze sliding from one of them to the other (though admittedly when he looked at Charles again, his eyes seemed to wander from the man's face towards his hair). "Is it a nice world?"
For his part, Aurus was also keeping a close eye on Keserhn's hands and Charles' body language. Even among sylvari Keserhn was strange. It was just that sylvari were almost uniformly direct enough to just tell him if he was doing something they didn't like. Humans, by contrast, tended to struggle much more with the question of how to handle a person who behaved this way--who constantly wanted to touch anything and everything that looked like it might have an interesting texture without so much as beg-your-pardon.
From what Aurus knew of him, Charles was exactly the kind of person who would struggle to figure out how to handle Keserhn, which meant that he expected he'd need to intervene sooner or later.
Until then though, he could give quite genuine smiles and keep up the conversation. "Charles runs a school from his home. It's a very beautiful place. Quite palatial." A subtle hint to Charles here that he could disclose as much or as little as he wanted about the sort of school it was, and about the topic of mutants in general.
Keserhn was perfectly trustworthy with information, and if Charles chose to reach towards Aurus's mind with a question to that effect, he would find Aurus's reassurance. Ironically, Keserhn had an encyclopedic knowledge of people and meetings and events that took place in the Grove, but he never bothered to speak about those to anyone, mostly because he wasn't the sort of person anyone ever asked.
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Charles would allow Keserhn to get about as far as his wrist before he cleared his throat slightly and pulled his hand away despite the nudge in him that suggested it was rude to do so but this had become... uncomfortable. Still, the bit of info he was getting from Aurus' brother was amusing and somewhat unsurprising, given what he had seen of the sylvari so far. It didn't come as a complete shock that Aurus would be a bit of a troublemaker. The more he learned of Aurus, the more he could see a bit of his younger self in Aurus. Curious, intelligent, a touch mischievous, wanting to know everything and prepared to take the chance to get it, more open. Far more open.
If Keserhn went for his hair, he was going to step back from it or gently try to nudge aside the hand with a 'please don't' expression, but would do nothing more unless Keserhn insisted. It was like dealing with the younger children who hadn't quite learned about personal space yet. A little.
"I run a private school for children who need more personal attention due to their gifts. Sometimes very bright students who need greater stimulus than their age would normally allow them in a typical school, sometimes children who have difficulty and need a more precise form of schooling... the cases tend to be very varied." Aurus, who knew the truth, would know that this was most likely a rehearsed statement but it came off very natural. It wasn't entirely a lie, after all.
But he smoothly shifted the attention from himself, looking around pointedly. "The Grove... is like nothing I could have imagined. A thousand times more beautiful than the picture I had in my head."
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Aurus suppressed a smile at all of this--at the tactful way Charles described his school's mission without ever using the word mutants and at the way Keserhn registered only a slight frown of disappointment as he released Charles' hand when the man pulled it away.
What Aurus knew and what Charles obviously would not (yet) was that hints and expressions implying he ought to stop what he was doing were, as a rule, lost on Keserhn. He did seem interested in what Charles was saying, but his interest didn't interrupt his wandering hands.
"How fascinating," he was saying to Charles, "It sounds very personalized--is that not how all human children are treated whilst they are learning? I can't imagine them being able to truly expand themselves in any other set-up." He was also, indeed, reaching out to pet Charles' hair as he spoke, and the fact that Charles moved to evade him seemed only to make him try again, like maybe he'd just missed his target the first time.
When Charles remarked on the Grove's beauty, though, Keserhn's hand paused--momentarily. "Yes, it is, isn't it," he agreed, and then looked very pointedly at Aurus, "I can't imagine why anyone would ever want to leave." Stare.
"I believe you are making him uncomfortable," Aurus said as Keserhn's hand made yet another reach for Charles' hair, using the opportunity to make his own dodge away from his brother's remark on his long absence from their homeland. Slight passive aggressiveness? Slight sibling tension? ...Well, maybe.
Keserhn looked at Charles with a smile, as though he'd genuinely only just realized. "Oh. I'm sorry." And he reached out to pet Aurus instead.
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The look Charles sent towards Aurus suggested there would be many questions later about Keserhn, unsurprising, but for now he kept that to himself for the most part and instead, responded more easily towards Keserhn because it was such a familiar topic -- though somewhat dodging that hand coming towards him. A part of him hoped that Aurus' brother was the uncommon because he wouldn't be keen on meeting many more sylvari if this was the case.
"There are... a great deal more children out there than teachers, so unfortunately that isn't so very true. We only take on very special cases of children out there that are more difficult for the normal school system to properly handle, so a very specialized school." But oh, what was that look? Was this a hint of how the sylvari actually felt about Aurus' travels or was this something more attuned to only the brothers? Maybe an anger for Aurus leaving him? Charles could only speculate but questions were being piled neatly in the back of his mind to ask Aurus later, if he was allowed.
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Aurus was pretty well expecting the questions to come at some point. Veritably no one, whether sylvari or human, ever met Keserhn without having quite a number of questions afterwards. Actually, the ones who managed to formulate questions were a step ahead--for many people they were left with nothing but deeply perplexed confusion.
At least Keserhn didn't appear to be holding on to that momentary show of displeasure with Aurus's long absence. In fact he'd already moved on.
Now that he'd been directly told that petting Charles's hair was something he ought not to do, he was occupying himself with Aurus's fern fronds instead. He stroked them with a single finger, each from its root where it began at Aurus's temple, tracing down along the grain of the leaves, and then returning up to the top and repeating the motion again.
(Aurus gave him a passing glance, then gave Charles a look as if to say Best to just accept and not question it just now.)
"And you are a very special case too, aren't you?" Keserhn was saying to Charles, looking at him in a way that left his meaning quite ambiguous. Was he suggesting that Charles was special simply by virtue of teaching special children? ...Or did he perhaps have some way to tell that there was something more to the man beyond what was being said?
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Keserhn certainly had a fascinating with touching things, Charles noted with a bit of a dry note, watching as the sylvari all but petted his brother with those oddly intimate gestures. Still, he wasn't about to judge when he had no idea what was going on and Aurus seemed calm about the whole situation. Still, Keserhn's comment to him gave him pause, debating on the possible meanings of those words. After several moments, and a brief glance to Aurus, he decided that he was comfortable enough in telling Keserhn some of the truth even if protecting his students came instinctively.
"My sister," a choice to say as it might give a greater connection, "would suggest that I am in many ways." Hoping that dry humor came across to both species. "But yes... I have a gift of my own, something very different than most people of my world, that allows me to join Aurus in his coming to the Grove. When he offered to allow me to see such a place, I was excited at the possibility."
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In a way, Aurus was actually quite flattered that Charles was willing to share this information with Keserhn. Even if it wasn't tremendously specific, he recognized that it was still quite personal for the man, and as cautious and reserved as Charles was, letting even this much be known by someone here in the Dream was significant.
He also knew that they were fast nearing the end of Keserhn's typical attention span. In his mind, he'd already begun the countdown. So he wasn't the least bit surprised with the seemingly spartan answer that his brother gave to Charles' disclosure and his choice to focus on the topic of the Grove:
"Hmm, yes well there is quite a lot of it." His eyes drifted absently to the space around them as though he was momentarily somewhere else. Then he returned.
Tucking a stray fern frond behind Aurus's ear, he caressed his cheek and the line of his jaw before letting his hand drop away with an airy, "Good seeing you."
And then, for one more moment he looked at Charles. "It was lovely to meet you. You look like you would be soft."
He didn't even wait for an answer to the remark before departing, hand back on the railing, carrying on down the walkway, evidently as engrossed in the green vine as he'd been before he stopped for them.
Aurus watched him for a beat then looked at Charles, trying unsuccessfully to suppress a smile, but at least managing not to laugh. Of all the parting comments that Keserhn could make! Truly, he couldn't even be surprised; he just hoped that Charles wouldn't be offended. Let all the inevitable questions begin.
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Charles just stood there, watching Kaserhn leave, before he just looked at Aurus. There didn't need to be questions asked; his expression asked all of them. So he raised an eyebrow and gestured towards the leaving brother, then crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
Start talking, Aurus. What was that all about? What was with the constant need to touch things? Did Keserhn have some issue with not understanding personal space? Were most sylvari like that? Was he going to have to suffer that with anyone else? Why did Keserhn seem inclined to act with them unlike all of the other sylvari who had mostly ignored them?
Start talking, mate.
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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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