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brave_kreyu(OOC: Warning for explicit adult content, mention of noncon/rape, slavery)
Is it a dream? A glimpse of a universe that might have been? A story untold?
Something called Skellig out here, to a road scratched in the earth between the desert and the land irrigated by the river. The sun overhead is like a hammer, the heat murderous. His coat...he can't remember WHAT happened to his coat. In this heat the coat would be as strange as his wings to human eyes in any case.
There are two small mud-brick houses up ahead, then more road, and a mud-brick wall encircling a small village of mud-brick houses.
He needs a drink, desperately.
He hears footsteps coming toward him, the heat haze breaks to reveal a woman. (Except she can't be a woman, no one human has that much Light inside them, that much power.)
"Even one touched by the gods should not be walking about this time of day," her voice is all concern, all worry. She's wearing a white linen kilt around her waist, and nothing at all above it except a necklace of blue clay beads. She's lovely. (And she feels familiar? Why?)
She offers a hand to him, seemingly not concerned in the slightest about his wings.
Is it a dream? A glimpse of a universe that might have been? A story untold?
Something called Skellig out here, to a road scratched in the earth between the desert and the land irrigated by the river. The sun overhead is like a hammer, the heat murderous. His coat...he can't remember WHAT happened to his coat. In this heat the coat would be as strange as his wings to human eyes in any case.
There are two small mud-brick houses up ahead, then more road, and a mud-brick wall encircling a small village of mud-brick houses.
He needs a drink, desperately.
He hears footsteps coming toward him, the heat haze breaks to reveal a woman. (Except she can't be a woman, no one human has that much Light inside them, that much power.)
"Even one touched by the gods should not be walking about this time of day," her voice is all concern, all worry. She's wearing a white linen kilt around her waist, and nothing at all above it except a necklace of blue clay beads. She's lovely. (And she feels familiar? Why?)
She offers a hand to him, seemingly not concerned in the slightest about his wings.
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Date: 2024-03-21 02:24 am (UTC)She's just, going to keep her eyes on his face. And not ogle him like a creep. If she believed that gods existed, she would swear right now that Skellig had been sent to torment her with what she can not have.
"I know you must feel very vulnerable right now," she says. "It's not RIGHT, that this happened to you. That you wound up here like this." She's clearly outraged on his behalf. "But you can claim the empty house across the way, and I would be glad to teach you anything I can."
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Date: 2024-03-21 02:28 am (UTC)He briefly bows his head in a silent show of gratitude (can't bow here people will see) and then glances up at her, now that she has closed the distance, linen in her hands.
Now she is going to have to touch him.
Right.
Skellig soundlessly works his throat, then nods a little quicker.
"The shifting -- that will be more readily accomplished, once I am clothed." That's where they were. Getting him redressed.
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Date: 2024-03-21 02:35 am (UTC)"I hope so, yes." "I want you to be safe, to be comfortable."
She wraps the linen around him, once, nothing kilt like yet. "It would be easier for me to walk your hands through it if I were behind you, I think. Is that okay?"
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Date: 2024-03-21 02:42 am (UTC)Plus, if she is behind him, he will not have to meet her gaze, or lay eyes on her body - so close to him. He nods, placing his hands at the edge of the linen at his waist, holding it as she moves.
His wings shift carefully as she settles in behind him, trying to get them out of the way as best as possible, but it is inevitable that her fingers brush his feathers.
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Date: 2024-03-21 02:53 am (UTC)She walks his hands through the steps, slow and careful. "And then tuck that there and it should stay put."
She lets go of his hands, comes back around. She's smiling at him, still.
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Date: 2024-03-21 04:46 am (UTC)Keeping his gaze on her face, he nods.
"Thank you."
A strand of her hair falls into her face; automatically, he moves a hand to reach for her hair to brush it back, tuck it behind one ear (it is a motion that his muscle memory feels as if he has done dozens of times before, which he does not understand) but he pauses before his fingers actually make contact.
Why is that so familiar?
"Sorry, I--" he shakes his head, confusion painting his features. "My mind feels as if it is playing me for a fool."
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Date: 2024-03-21 06:21 pm (UTC)"It's alright. I, I wouldn't have minded." She flushes. "I kept having to fight the urge to, to preen your wings, the whole time I was behind you. Like a bird preens its mate."
"I should REMEMBER, if we'd met before, even if I had died between then and now. It's the nature of my kind."
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Date: 2024-03-21 08:23 pm (UTC)He's still not fully sure of what is going on, but he knows he has to adapt to survive it, even if it is perhaps simply madness, or a hallucination...
"We should try again, the shifting?"
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Date: 2024-03-21 11:21 pm (UTC)"Yes," Kreyu replies. "If that doesn't work, I'll need to get you to somewhere you won't bake to death with something covering your wings."
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Date: 2024-03-21 11:45 pm (UTC)Settling with the amulet in his hand, he looks over her body once more (a flush briefly colors the tips of his ears and his cheeks) before closing his eyes.
Hair, first. Then his complexion, skin darkening, an added tan from the sun kissing the way over his flesh. Then the wings flickering briefly before they are concealed from view.
When he thinks he has it, he does need her help, however, to knot the cord for the amulet. His hands ache. And it is tricky, with his fingers.
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Date: 2024-03-21 11:51 pm (UTC)"There," she says, satisfied. The amulet was plain, before, now it bears the image of an owl. "It looks good to me, but you might want to check your reflection in something."
She bends down to rummage in the chest again, brings out a hand sized polished bronze disk. What passes for a mirror around these parts.
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Date: 2024-03-22 12:08 am (UTC)He catches the glimpse of himself in the reflection and works to study it. This is unlike anything he has ever imagined himself looking like. But it will work to conceal him from harm or any other issues that may arise.
The lack of wings is unsettling, but it is not what bothers him the most.
Skellig looks to her.
"If I have died...I have come back without some of my abilities," he offers. "Things are just...off."
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Date: 2024-03-22 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-22 12:18 am (UTC)He shakes his head, hands her back the 'mirror'.
"I cannot. I don't know why."
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Date: 2024-03-22 12:24 am (UTC)She pulls a fabric hanging off of the wall, tosses it on the floor.
She settles herself on the fabric she put down, which should at least show him how to sit with the kilt on without flashing anyone.
"Would you sit with me, for a while?"
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Date: 2024-03-22 12:29 am (UTC)And then he follows.
And while the ache in his knees and the rest of his body is not the worst it has ever been - it is not with ease that he lowers himself to the ground, mimics her position as he takes his place across from her. It is obvious that his body is tired, and it is not merely from the heat of the day having done a number on him.
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Date: 2024-03-22 12:40 am (UTC)"It helps, to be seated on the Earth." An explanation and an unspoken apology for his pain being necessary.
She offers both wrists to him. "Being what I am, I am tied into Karma, into the fabric of the world. I'm hoping you can use my pulse to find that fabric, or find the one you knew before."
"Please put a finger on each of my wrists, press enough to feel the pulse there, if you can." There ARE other places where the pulse can be readily detected, but they are more intimate. "Then just relax, focus on what you feel beneath your fingers."
Karma flows through the world, through Kreyu, through him, through everything. Ley lines like veins in the body. Warmth, Life, Emotion, the sound of her heart is the world's heart.
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Date: 2024-03-22 01:48 am (UTC)Karma and Light colliding between their bodies, in this space where it pools around them.
It is nearly a palpable crackle of electricity that runs over his skin as he reaches, allows his mind to sense her, fall into line.
(It takes much less effort that he expects - as if he's done this before...)
Skellig visibly relaxes - substantially - with his hands remaining on her wrists, as things slide, waver, and start to fall into some semblance of order in his confused and jumbled mind. He still does not know where he is, how he came to be here, or why he is here.
"Kreyu."
It is the second time he has spoken her name, and it is different off his tongue. Fond, almost.
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Date: 2024-03-22 01:58 am (UTC)It's harder to shove those wants back down than it has ever been before. "Skellig." He might notice her tongue giving his name the lightest touch of those feelings, despite herself.
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Date: 2024-03-22 02:16 am (UTC)Skellig cocks his head slightly when he realizes it is an echo.
Of what exactly, he is not sure. Past? Present? Future?
"Kreyu," he repeats. It is softer. Familiar. He barely notices that he is moving his hands from her wrists, one falling to her waist as he shifts his bodyweight to change how he is sitting, the other moving to cup her jawline, pulling her in to him, taking the initiative to bring her close for a kiss.
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Date: 2024-03-22 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-22 02:29 am (UTC)Part of his mind is screaming at him that this is a horrible idea, that he has no idea who this magic being is, no clue of the powers she may hold. She could be trying to trap him, use him for wicked things, she's already convinced him to wear an amulet and shift his appearance...
The other part of his mind simply does not care, and if this is the afterlife? He'll take it.
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Date: 2024-03-22 02:36 am (UTC)The human distress scream has a very distinct pitch, and when that scream comes from a child it tends to cut through a LOT of interference.
Skellig might hear the noise of a dozen armed men outside on the road, depending on how his hearing is working right now.
Kreyu breaks away from him, rises to her feet, shoves her wings away.
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Date: 2024-03-22 02:44 am (UTC)Distraction?
Fearful still about his wings possibly becoming visible (he touches the amulet at his neck, confirms to himself it is still there) he does linger and follow her lead, but he will not let her stray far from him. The urge to protect her is still deep rooted in his mind, despite not knowing just how powerful she may be.
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Date: 2024-03-22 02:52 am (UTC)Skellig can practically HEAR the wheels turn in their minds as Kreyu appears. She's young, she's pretty, a much more valuable prize to sell than some farmer.
"Try not to leave a mark on that one that will show, I want as much as we can get for her," the apparent leader snaps at his underlings while motioning toward Kreyu.
Kreyu spits a string of syllables and throws a small ball of fire at one of the bandits who is trying to carry off a child.