The fastness, AceHigh
[03/13 08:36pm] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx stands in the single empty room, considering. He will not change this space. That is for him to do when he returns. But.. it does not have to be all there is. There can be..
[03/13 08:45pm] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx thinks about options. Not stars, no. Snickerer gave her the stars. His eyes settle on the window. Yes, that's how to do it. Outside the window, there is now a rooftop courtyard.
[03/13 09:00pm] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx moves to the window. The courtyard is populated with cool marble columns, a pergola with wisteria, grapes, and climbing roses, a lily pond. Moonlight, for now. The scent of juniper.
[03/13 09:10pm] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx knows that there need to be sounds, too. There's the faint trickle of the fountain at one end of the pool. Not like that other. Water, is all. He'll add more as he thinks of them.
[03/13 09:28pm] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx fills the space outside the window with a thick, obscuring mist. It's not finished yet. He'd like for her not to see it until it's done.. then he laughs. With her curiosity? Not going to work.
[03/13 09:33pm] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx is about to leave, then as an afterthought, creates a small bubble in the far corner of the garden. When touched, it will release a little burst of sounds and smell of… scorched popcorn popping.
[03/14 12:01am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx comes back in.. he wants to add some birdsong. A meadowlark. There has to be a meadowlark, sometimes. When the sunlight is like golden syrup, and the sky is bluer than blue.
[03/14 12:05am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx is thinking of warm dust, of yellow clay and the scent of sweet clover. He stops, and all other thoughts vanish. Her things are gone. Gone.
[03/14 12:58am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx thought he was braced for this. He is surprised by the intensity of the stab, an icy knife sliding into his heart. It has to be, he tells himself. Then he sees: she's left the book.
[03/14 01:02am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx takes a long, shuddering breath. Yes, well. He'd better move out too, then.
[03/14 01:07am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx goes to the window, opens it, and lightly hops to sit on the sill, the way she would. He disperses the mist. There is detail to be added. Much detail. Roses, for instance. Not always roses.
[03/14 01:09am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty ponders the issue of the door outside. ..hum.
[03/14 01:10am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty decides after a moment of grave consideration that – hn. She cants her head. He's home. Well. She wasn't quite expecting that.
[03/14 01:11am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty shrugs and maneuvers to knock.
[03/14 01:19am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx thinks, but when she wants roses, they'll be real ones. With thorns. Not all damask like a bottle of perfume, not all red like a florist's shop – each variety a different fragrance and color.
[03/14 01:28am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty casts her gaze to the sky when a breeze comes slipping by. She watches for a moment, as if there's something to see there, then she finally taps her knuckles to the door.
[03/14 01:47am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx jumps down from the sill, and goes to see who's at the door. Oh! She doesn't usually knock…
[03/14 01:52am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty (rightly) believes she'd end up somewhere unexpected if she tried her usual tricks. And aside.. it's probably best to knock from now on. Subordination or insubordination or whatever it was.
[03/14 01:53am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty smiles. “Hullo.” She has quite a few blankets with her – little wonder it took some doing to knock.
[03/14 01:55am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx says, “I thought..” You'd gone. He goes to the tea table.
[03/14 01:57am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty pads in after him. S'that window open, there? “You thought,” she echoes and piles the blankets on an armchair.
[03/14 01:57am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx checks. Yes, as usual, the tea is fresh and hot. “Care for some?” Why the blankets, he wonders.
[03/14 01:58am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx says, “You took your things.”
[03/14 02:07am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty shakes her head. “Mnno, thank you.” Not right now. There're heavier tastes on the back of her tongue. “I did,” she agrees. Z's ears flick. “Well,” she amends. “Most. Not my coin.” Nor the book.
[03/14 02:08am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty leans her hip against the side of the armchair. “But that meant why, didn't it. Mmn.”
[03/14 02:10am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty says, “Should have'm with me if I need them.”
[03/14 02:18am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx laughs wryly. “I should stop jumping to conclusions. I'm liable to sprain my peace of mind.”
[03/14 02:19am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty blinks.
[03/14 02:21am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty 's eyes widen when it clicks. “Oh. Oh - no, no. Did you think- no.” Z shakes her head. “This place feels too big to be alone in. 'Specially if it's not yours. I wouldn't leave you alone here.”
[03/14 02:23am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx is carefully not looking at the open window. Perhaps a little too carefully…
[03/14 02:32am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty sees nothing interesting about the wall he's fixated upon. She turns back to him to ask a question, maybe, and only makes it partway.
[03/14 02:33am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty 's head tips very slowly. ..that was not like that, before.
[03/14 02:34am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty loses the thought and moves to investigate.
[03/14 02:46am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx moves to stand behind her. “I.. was making something. The outside is going to be mine. It's fair for me to do things there.”
[03/14 02:48am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx says, “It's not.. finished yet.”
[03/14 03:17am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty brushes her fingertips across the windowsill so light they might not have ever touched. The warm haze of rye whiskey clears from her eyes as she takes in the courtyard. This is unlike the Island.
[03/14 03:18am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty knows places of solitude. She's seen the sunrise stain the sky peach and tangerine from mountain summits and she's trailed wending footprints across riverbank and beach.
[03/14 03:18am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty knows places of design. Bernard's mansion is in order on the inside exactly as he isn't on the outside. Snickerer knew which elements to place to evoke visceral peace.
[03/14 03:18am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty knows incidental beauty, too – flagging smoke from one of KK's cigarettes. Hermein's eyes lighting with understanding. Dancers in synchrony in Improbable Central.
[03/14 03:18am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty has never seen them drawn together like this. She breathes in carefully. It could be a summer night bound just after the rain. It could be a dream.
[03/14 03:19am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty turns. “You did this?” It's only half-confirmation. She only half-registered his defense.
[03/14 03:30am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx nods, suddenly feeling tongue-tied. (And no, he wouldn't use that word to her, he knows better by now.) “It's not finished yet,” he repeats.
[03/14 03:38am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty 's grin is easy. Genuine. “That's alright.”
[03/14 03:40am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty looks back. “Can I go out? Or no?” She understands if he says no, unfinished as he says it is.
[03/14 03:45am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx says, “Yes. What I want to do is, make it so it's different depending on what.. a person.. needs. Wants. This is one way it can be. See if you like it.”
[03/14 03:56am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty is quicksilver across the sill and out. It's two steps to the first silvered squares of moonlight through the pergola's open lattice and it's there she turns. “Are you coming?”
[03/14 04:02am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx swings himself out and lands lightly before she's even finished her sentence. He's watching her face, her reaction.
[03/14 04:12am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty waits until he's drawn even with her. A swathe of moon across his hair picks out ghostly shades of colors that warm to cinnamon and the red-gold of embers on the right afternoons.
[03/14 04:16am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty is tipsy with the details of this place in a way that Sazerac could never manage. There are flagstones and grass still thrumming with the heat of the day underfoot. Flowers she's never seen before.
[03/14 04:17am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty wanders with the slow reverence of a lifelong reader let into a library for the first time.
[03/14 04:52am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx watches her. Ah, more details flow from her wonder. Next to the junipers, a small potentilla with its tiny leaves and five-petaled buttercup flowers. A clump of evening-scented stocks, spicy.
[03/14 04:56am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx suddenly knows what else. Fireflies. Little live gleams dancing on the night air, flashing, fading, glimmering again.
[03/14 05:04am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty wades from the lily pond, soaked to her knees. She stretches her arms above her head and glances back toward the building and the open window. She couldn't have anticipated this. But the blankets..
[03/14 05:07am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty flicks damp from her fingers. She goes inside to fetch the largest of the blankets. It ends folded on the grass and Z settles with wet toes, intent on the fireflies.
[03/14 05:08am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty has not the foggiest idea what they are.
[03/14 05:18am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx sits – yes, there's room – beside her on the blanket. He catches one of the fireflies delicately in a bubble, so as not to injure it, and brings it close to let her see its pulsing light.
[03/14 05:22am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx says, “This mood is early summer. June. Later, there would be crickets in the grass.”
[03/14 05:28am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty is delighted. That is an insect! She should not find it so novel – she's well-acquainted with Kittybikes and millipede cigars and vengeful, misplaced rakes. All stranger than a firefly.
[03/14 05:29am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty glances at him skantwise. “How many moods?”
[03/14 05:31am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx smiles. “Too early for waterlilies, really, but I know one that I want to include. Like to see it?” It's there now, under the moonlight - incredible, heart-stopping blue with yellow stamens.
[03/14 05:37am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx says, “How many? As many as I have time to make. There should be snow, too, once in a while. Ice on the pond. Have you ever skated? And scillas and white daffodils.”
[03/14 05:45am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty says, “Had you seen these before or is this..” Improvisation is the word she reaches for and finds lacking. She's rapt. Were it spring, she'd be stilled by peepers in the same way. “Is this you?”
[03/14 05:46am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty 's eyebrows twitch when he mentions ice. There's his answer.
[03/14 05:56am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx runs his tongue inside his lower lip, smiling. “Thousands of years, remember? Had to do something.. the places I made had to be deep-hidden. This is the first time I've shown one to anyone.”
[03/14 06:00am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx continues, “There were stores of data. I searched out pieces to use. This, here… though. I've never made this before. It's different.” ..Because it's for you.. he doesn't say.
[03/14 06:00am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty makes a soft noise of assent.
[03/14 06:01am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty meets his eyes. “Thank you for sharing this.”
[03/14 06:11am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx could drown in those eyes of hers. He looks out over the pond. “When he is back, he will have the inside to do with as he wills. I won't enter there unless he invites me in. But..”
[03/14 06:13am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx says, “..the outside will be mine.”
[03/14 06:19am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty is quiet. Eventually, she quirks a smile. “If you'll be entertaining guests..”
[03/14 06:26am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx waits for her to finish that 'if'. When she doesn't.. “This will always be here for you.”
[03/14 06:28am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty says, simply, “Then I'll come.”
[03/14 06:38am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx can't quite speak. He's imagining that future. Well. What he wants is impossible. Impossible now even while he's sitting beside her. More impossible then, when he'll have no base-reality body.
[03/14 06:42am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx manages a smile. He has right now, to keep forever. And she'll come. “Yes,” he says. “I'll be glad of it, if you do.”
[03/14 06:48am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty understands silences.
[03/14 06:49am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty reaches for his hand. She squeezes.
[03/14 06:50am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty watches the fireflies. “You've not heard me play. This is a good place for it. I'll make it so you're sick of me.”
[03/14 07:00am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx smiles. A real smile. “No. You won't.”
[03/14 07:05am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty laughs suddenly.
[03/14 07:07am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty shakes her head, three parts droll, one part rue. “I was going to say..”
[03/14 07:07am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty glances at Alandre. “I was going to say I'd bet you on it, but.” She chuffs.
[03/14 07:17am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx laughs easily. “Yes, old habits do die hard, don't they? But you can't make me sick of you. One of the rules of the universe.”
[03/14 07:19am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty might someday ask what the others are.
[03/14 07:29am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx sits beside her. The silence is comfortable now. Accepting. He should go and get another of those blankets.. no, he shouldn't. It's not cold. He doesn't want to move.
[03/14 07:39am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty doesn't either. She turns her gaze up, settling back and eventually coaxing him down, too. Z doesn't know constellations. She does, however, know something of the music of the spheres.
[03/14 07:43am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty goes to some length to describe for him what it is she can hear. She speaks soft, increasingly husky with fatigue, and stops only after she realizes he's fallen asleep.
[03/14 07:45am] <DICE> The Soloist Zolotisty still doesn't move. She closes her eyes. Settles.
[03/14 07:47am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx doesn't want to do constellations right now, he's too sleepy, so he lets the garden show the real sky which happens to be very clear right now. He makes a mental note. Skies. Later..
[03/14 07:48am] <SPOON> Alandre Jeovanx is really asleep before he finishes the thought.