[OPEN] If I don't move

[bearshermark]

Who: Eleven and OPEN
What: El being irresponsible
Where: Places
When: June, anytime
Warnings: Woops, angst and tragic backtories happened.
TW: mentions of: murder; abuse; suicide
Notes: Action or prose is fine!



A. Any library

[Humans, enslaved by dragonkind. Since hearing of it, an odd, morbid curiosity has taken hold until the thought of it wouldn't leave him.

But why? What would dragonkind need from humans?

It's enough to pull him from Raida's temple to seek more information in Diatu and Anastara's greater libraries.

He doesn't have as much time to devote to the research as he'd like, but still he crams in time to read the most relevant and interesting passages in the various tomes he can find. They're largely ancient history books to offset the class he isn't taking- focused on that particular period of time, how it came about, and how it ended- to an extended curiosity about the breadth of the race of dragonkind itself.

Already loaded down with an armful of books he doesn't really need, Eleven catches a glimpse of an eye-catching binding set with runes and his fingers itch for it]

Maybe if I skip training today, I could still have time to study..


B. Somewhere Open

He did it once, in a burst of wild anger, summoned lightning through his veins and threw it out of his fist in a blow meant to blister. Not again since.

Eleven turned his wrist over, staring at the mark of light tattooed on the back of his hand. It had yet to glow once since arriving, but now as storm clouds loomed, darkening with the setting sun and getting closer, his arm stretched out to greet them- as though he might grasp them when finally they arrived.

Afire with nervous anticipation, a word to a spell on his lips, he threw his hand skyward.

"Zap!"

Lightning flashed and flickered in a nearby cloud, but failed to strike anything in particular. No strong scent of ozone played on the breeze.

..Coincidence, he wondered- or simply the wrong word?


C. Edge of Anastara

The Sword of Light.

Lain across his lap, Eleven decided that sitting on the edge of a floating island was a lot like sitting on the edge of the world. His feet hung suspended over an abyss of sky and low-flying clouds. Eyes on the horizon, he would occasionally glance down for that low-swooping feeling in his chest. A breeze pulled at him- at once encouragement and warning.

A tiny part of his heart wanted to throw the fabled weapon out into the endless sky and never gaze upon it again, but his hands held it fast as though afraid of that very impulse.

He still wasn't used to staring out across a clear sky in all directions, unable to make out even the silhouette of one particular floating tree. Right now, he only wished to see it in order to feel like he was being heard.

"I'll do it!" Eleven snapped at nothing in particular, dropping back into the grass only to glare and yell at the empty sky above. "I never said I wouldn't! I just wanted to be normal for awhile!"

His arm dropped to shadow his face on a sigh as he pulled the sword of light to lay at his side. "..But it looks like that doesn't matter at all."


D. Wildcard!

Comments

C. Edge of Anastara

[unswervingcompanion]

Hendrik had gone out for the day and wandered around as far as he could since he had a lot on his mind. And he'd thought and thought so much that he didn't realize how far he'd walked until he heard what sounded like the Luminary yelling. Was someone attacking him and he hadn't been present to intervene?

Immediately spurred into action, the knight kept moving until he saw his charge just sitting there, light glinting off of a sword. Moving faster once he realized exactly where the boy was, Hendrik moved a lot faster.

Eventually, he came to stand a few feet from the Luminary who still had his back to him.

"What in the world are you doing Eleven?"

He's not going to throw himself off of the edge, right?

[bearshermark]

Eleven craned his head back at a near-comical angle to find his guardian there, towering above him like some sort of giant statue if only he were still enough. It hit him that it didn't really matter what Hendrik called him, after all- that it didn't change anything, really.

But what to say? That he was yelling at an absent goddess whose divine power had both left him and found its way to his hands all at once? He let himself lay back again, eyes closing.

"Relaxing, I think. The weather is nice. I could almost doze off.."

[unswervingcompanion]

Once the Luminary laid down, Hendrik felt a little better, but he was still inwardly panicking. "Then might I suggest you move away from the edge before I pick you up and move you away from it."

This was said in his most authoritative tone, but there was just so much worry behind his words. He certainly didn't need anything to happen to his charge, because he'd toss himself off of the edge if that's where his charge was going to go.

[bearshermark]

Eleven's eyes snapped open, temper returning.

"You'll do no such thing."

Rationally of course, he knew Hendrik was worried. He wasn't deaf to it, but rather found himself just this side of intolerant to anything construed as a violation of his own will. He tried, without much success, to soften the edge of his voice.

"Yggdrasil above Hendrik, I'm not stupid. I won't actually sleep here."

[unswervingcompanion]

Sometimes having the Luminary as a charge was a pain, but one that he'd been more than prepared to deal with.

"Then get away from the edge. And know this, if you fall off, I am following after you."

The knight then stubbornly folded his arms across his chest.

library

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link was trying to study for midterms. School was still a new concept, and there were a million more interesting things on his mind, (not to mention the fact he was younger than he appeared,) but, he was still trying.

He gave Eleven a small wave as he passed with his books.

"Reading about dragons? You can kill them with a hammer," Link said quietly, miming the strike of such a weapon.

[bearshermark]

Eleven smiled, returning his wave.

"Can you really?" he mused lowly. "That doesn't seem like it would work well."

[sevenyearsasleep]

"A big hammer," a small grin. "Their hide is too thick for swords. Even holy swords."

A pause. "But...I've only fought the one. So...others might be different, I guess."

[bearshermark]

It made some sense, he supposed. He's fought dragons with soft underbellies however, so he hasn't had much cause to worry. Still.. to try a hammer made for crushing.. would need to be so massive as to be impossible to wield by the sounds of it.

"Hm, well I'm not looking to fight any at the moment- just read about them a little."

[sevenyearsasleep]

Hyrule had some weird weaponry.

"They're smart. And they can be brainwashed." He didn't like thinking about that part. "But, that's all I know. Do they have a lot of dragons here?"

C: choose love or sympathy, but never both

[darkenedmoon]

As she'd told Hendrik, Yotsuyu did not often go looking for Eleven. It was bad enough he'd had one protector who was somewhat overprotective, but she did hope that the knight had lightened up a little since their tete-a-tete at the ball.

She began to see why Jecht bought into that idea so much. Damn the man, anyway. If it were that easy, wouldn't she have managed already?

Eleven's voice carried on the wind, but despite the fact that Yotsuyu had wandered over towards the island's edge, she did not hurry her steps. She trusted his good sense--he had more than other children she'd met (albeit briefly) in Doma, and thus felt no need to rush. She did, however, make her tread a bit heavier so he could hear her steps as she neared him. Yotsuyu did not try to be silent, but she often managed, whether she wished to or not. And she peered over Eleven's prone form, standing by his head.

"What does not matter at all? And to whom?"

[bearshermark]

Eleven started a bit, arm snapping down from his face to find Yotsuyu above him. He rolled a bit to the side and sat up, and regretted it a bit when he found himself briefly dizzy.

"Oh, uh.. Nothing, really." Unfortunately, he was a terrible liar, and even felt bad for trying. "..I just think that god-like beings probably don't think too much about what humans want."

[darkenedmoon]

That got a slight laugh from her. "Almost certainly. They are gods, all I have ever felt they wanted from us was our fealty and worship." Which was why she was a terrible follower for any god, to be honest. Even here, Yotsuyu only set foot into a temple rarely. But, though she knew Eleven was temporizing, she allowed him that. She knew that his path was no easy one. Far be it from her to make it harder.

"Many humans do not even care what other humans want, so why should gods? They needn't be cruel to us, we do that quite well enough by ourselves, to ourselves."

Yotsuyu did not even sound particularly bitter. It wasn't as if she had not experienced that herself, firsthand.

[bearshermark]

"I guess that's true."

But it's a foreign way of thinking that he can't understand. Cobblestone had always been a haven of kindness; it wasn't until he stepped into the larger world that he began to understand that his village was more an exception than the rule.

Hands folded in his lap, Eleven gazed down at the distant color of green and blue melding together to make a hazy coastline. His stomach leaped and he snapped his head back up with a breath.

"..I don't think that the gods are cruel. It's just that their concerns are so much different than ours that maybe they don't understand the importance we place on our smaller ones."

[darkenedmoon]

"I think that depends upon the god, perhaps...but then again, I am...in no ways devout. I think our lives have been very, very different, yours and mine. Which is..." Yotsuyu paused, looking down and over the edge of the island, herself.

At one point in her life, the temptation to simply fling herself over it would have been too great. To leave the sorrows of living behind...but not now. The sorrows she found here were not so terrible as the ones she had left on Hydaelyn.

"It is not something I reproach. I would not ask anyone to suffer the things I have. Much less one as undeserving as you. Though I well know you have suffered in your own way, Eleven."

He neither flaunted it, nor kept it a secret as she did. But Yotsuyu was well aware that was one of the reasons for the quiet well of strength the boy possessed.

C

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea wasn't sure what brought him to the literal edge of the city, except that he'd never been there before. He certainly hadn't expected to meet anyone he knew there, never mind to find his friend Eleven apparently yelling at a passing cloud. Or maybe just at himself. Either way, as it didn't look like he expected an answer, Lea thankfully had no reason to doubt his friend's sanity, despite midterms having called that into question for some.

Still, when Lea approached, he was sure to make enough noise that he wouldn't startle Eleven; this close to the edge, that could prove dangerous no matter what one's mental state. "Far be it from me to interrupt some good old-fashioned brooding," he said as he stepped up beside El, "but is this patch of grass taken?"

[bearshermark]

Eleven's head turned, halfway to sitting up before recognition flashed. He colored, conscious of how close Lea must have been to have approached him only a few moments after he'd finished speaking.

"Oh, uh.. no." Slowly, he lowered himself back into the grass and sighed. His hands folded over his stomach. "Did.. I guess you heard that, then?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea couldn't help but smile slightly at the way Eleven blushed, but had the good graces to not do more than that as he took a seat in the grass next to his friend. "Well given that you were yelling, it was kinda hard not to," he said.

"And lemme guess, your new-found desire to yell at clouds has something to do with the whole 'Luminary' thing, right?", he said. "And maybe with your frankly really cool looking new sword?" Lea knew that 'Luminary' was a title that Eleven apparently held and that it bothered him, so it was about even odds that if he was brooding about something, that was probably involved. But beyond that and a few vague details about El's world, he wasn't really sure what that title entailed and was kind of hoping that El would be willing to elaborate on the subject a bit.

[bearshermark]

Eleven's head snapped over to Lea, eyes going a little wide as his heart picked up speed. He'd forgotten that he knew about that. He reached a hand out for the Sword of Light and touched it briefly as if to assure himself that it was still there.

Looking at him and reminded of just how good a friend Lea has been to him, Eleven decided it wasn't important to keep him in the dark about it. But. Where to start without going on too long about everything?

"..So the Luminary is someone that's born to banish darkness from the world. That's what the mark means. I.." he winced. "Well, I failed to do that, so now darkness has covered my world."

He breathed a steady sigh. "So I didn't want to think about it too much when I came here. Only now, the Sword of Light has appeared to me, so I don't think I can do that anymore. I.. I am the Luminary, I just.. want to be myself, too."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea listened to the explanation, expression thoughtful. That explained a lot really, and coupled with the bit El had mentioned once before about Yggdrasil, it began to form a basic picture of the situation in Lea's mind. That definitely sounded like a rough spot to be in, and Lea's sympathy was obvious.

"Yeah, I can definitely understand now why you didn't want to talk about it," he said. "But I think you can still be yourself even if you're the Luminary. In fact, I don't think you could be the Luminary if you weren't yourself."

Realizing that that had come out about as clear as mud, Lea continued. "What I mean is, you're the kind of guy who if they see something that's wrong or somebody in trouble, you want to help out, because that's who you are. And you'd be that way even if you'd never heard of a 'Luminary'. And that's the really important part; the fact that you help people because you want to, not just because you got magically roped into it. The title, the Sword of Light, and whatever other kind of powers that probably come with the job? All that stuff is probably really helpful, but without you being the kind of person you are? Without your heart behind it all? It's just window-dressing."

Edge of Anastara

[daughterofclay]

“It’s a beautiful sword.”

She’s quiet on her feet -- slyfooting has become second nature for her -- so it may be hard to tell how long the young woman has been there and how much she’s heard. She’s dressed in Gekronus Maius colours, and her own sword is strapped to her hip.

“Is it magic?”

[bearshermark]

Eleven's breath catches, heart leaping in his chest, and he twists to find the source of the unfamiliar voice.

"Oh, thank you," he says a touch belatedly, blinking as her words registered. He sits up, glancing to the sword in question. "I know it does have magical properties, but I haven't learned them yet."

[daughterofclay]

"Sounds like a job for -- intimation?" She's been here for several weeks now, but it's still difficult to conceptualize the different streams of magic sometimes. Regardless--

"Are you okay?" He didn't look it, a couple minutes ago, and at the edge of a floating city isn't exactly the safest space to have a freakout.

[bearshermark]

"Yeah," he said with a hint of a grin. "That's how I know it's magical, but getting more.. complex answers is a bit challenging. The interpretations.."

Eleven trailed off, then shook his head. "Anyway, I'll be okay. ..I'm sorry if you heard something- uh, weird?"

[daughterofclay]

This prompted a very slight smile from her, at least. "God forbid I hear something weird while standing at the edges of a floating city."

On the other hand, maybe that part wasn't weird for him. Maybe-- "Are you from here?"