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 Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2024 2:20 pm
Quote: The Crystal Garden (2): The Crystal Garden takes up the majority of the Event Hall and is an expansive collection of hand crafted crystal flowers created specifically for this event. The garden is impressive and magical; while there is little effort to make identical replicas of the flowers used for inspiration, each cut of crystal seems to capture the light and make the flowers glow. Many of the flowers are easy to recognize and are true to life in size and shape, but there are sections of the garden with flowers that come in fantastical sizes and shapes. It feels like stepping into another world. During the daytime, the natural light from the glass windows and sunroof makes it easy to see fine details, and when the sun goes down, the artificial lighting spreads beautiful rainbow prisms across the ground and walls. No matter what time of day you visit the garden, you’re guaranteed a beautiful sight. There are several locations specifically designed for photographs you can take on your own, but the venue has also hired professional photographers to help you capture yourself in the moment. Contributing artists are credited along the back wall, and if players have characters with glass or crystal skills they are permitted to have donated to the display. If your character is a professional photographer, you can also play them as employed at the venue.
Orah...threw a wrench in that. It wasn't that he necessarily felt awkwar,d more that...Keiran was realizing that he had never really, properly, had a crush. Not that he could remember, at least. Things with Nile and Lyonesse had been different, and Lyndin was so unattainable that the affections he felt were easily set aside. But Orah was different.
And Orah had invited him to come with her to the Crystal Hearts Gallery, and that felt so much like a date, and Keiran could not remember having been on a date before, much less a date with a girl he wasn't yet sure wanted him back. Did Orah feel the same way? Was she also feeling little flutters in her chest, meeting him here?
He'd obsessed, a little, about making sure he looked nice--was it a little over-formal to wear a suit, even if it was a deep plum instead of black? Maybe. (Had he thought too much about wearing purple? Absolutely, but in the end it had made the most sense and looked good on him.) His hair was tamed into a high ponytail, and generally he thought he cleaned up pretty well.
They'd gotten inside, and he felt like he was doing a pretty good job concealing his nerves, no matter how fluttery he felt.
"I wonder if someone will have done glass orchids," he posited, idly. It was probably a silly thought, but it sounded nice in his head.
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2024 8:26 pm
Orah smiled as she stepped in beside him, the expression warming her face. "I hope so... we'll have to look."
She was glad, now, that she'd gone with a nicer dress. The wine red piece was newish, the top a warm knit with romantic bishop sleeves while the skirt was soft chiffon ruffles over her tights and knee high black boots. There was a matching ribbon holding the top half of her hair back behind her head, the rest left loose in it's heavy curls. She'd even put on a little bit of makeup, feeling very done up compared to her usual every day.
Keiran looked... fantastic in his suit, and it gave her a bit of the flutters that she didn't get any more over their casual, comfortable coffees. Coffee was easy... coffee was friends hanging out. This was... maybe still friends hanging out? She wasn't really sure. They'd never... talked about it, really. He'd never said he was interested in more than that. Everything could still be explained as just two people who cared about each other, which was maybe why she felt so nervous about it suddenly. The not knowing.
"This was the part I was most excited about, when I saw all the events they had planned." She confided, pushing away those thoughts. "Here's hoping there's no... unpleasant surprises, you know?"
Her eyes traced the sparkling petals of the fantastic rose display as her steps slowed, letting her soak in how lovely everything was. All the little details, all the skill and care that had gone into each display... to have chaos interrupt this would be a tragedy. She wanted to enjoy a normal event as a normal person... not on edge every moment for the possibility of danger. She wanted... to enjoy seeing Keiran in a fine suit, smiling at her.
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2024 8:44 pm
Orah was...so beautiful. Keiran felt like a teenager with his first crush, thinking like that--but it was true. Dressed up like she was, she looked amazing, and it made his heart pick up speed a little, just being close to her.
"I know we're not finding my favorite flower," he laughed, briefly--no need to specify, really, she'd be able to guess. But the idea that someone might have sculpted Greek funerary flowers seemed...ridiculous. "But I have to say, I was looking forward to this too. And it's really delivered."
The glass flowers were beautiful, and the way the light reflected through the room...it really was spectacular.
"Hopefully we'll just get to have a nice day out," he said. Really, that was all he could hope for. Even if any major event in this city sometimes felt like a trap. "And so far so good, right?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2024 6:15 pm
"Right!" Orah agreed with a laugh. "We should enjoy ourselves while we can."
The rest of the visitors seemed to be happy to do just that, unaware of any danger that might lurk here. They wandered in their pairs and groups, some even in singles, among the fantastical crystal shapes. Part of Orah wished they'd set it up in an actual garden, rather than just stands of displays in the event hall. Being able to wander the paths, even in the chill, with real plant life surrounding the sculptures would have been quite an experience. She had an impulse to slide her arm through his, link their elbows together as they moved forward... but sudden shyness stopped her short in her reach for him. Her fingers found the cuff of his coat instead and she pinched the side, giving it a tug as she stepped forward.
"Come on. I think that next one is Irises. Can you imagine being able to make shapes like that with hot glass? Glass blowers always amaze me with how they're able to manipulate it to make those shapes. I can get lost for hours watching the shorts on youtube." Leaning over the sculpture, one hand on her leg, she tilted her head to admire the fine details of it. Some were so delicate... like the wind had ruffled the petals and leaves and then frozen them that way.
"That sort of... artistic sense was never really something I was good at. Even stuff without fire. Arranging flowers was about the limit of what I could do... arranging glass flowers could be fun though."
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2024 5:47 pm
That little tug on his sleeve was enough to make Keiran's cheeks heat up, just a little. He felt so ridiculous--but the fact that this might be a date and might not be one and generally sort of existed in an awkward limbo...
Really, forgetting whatever past romantic experience he'd had was not making this easy.
But he shifted, a little--and moved his hand to take hers. She'd reached out, after all--it didn't exactly feel too forward to reciprocate, a little.
"Oh, all this kind of thing is beyond me. I can make food look good, sure, but anything like this--it's amazing." He squeezed her hand, shaking his head. "Capturing motion in a solid medium is...wild. And incredibly difficult."
He leaned in, examining the sculptures closely. "A glass flower arrangement would look amazing," he said. "And anyway, flower arranging takes a lot of thought and aesthetic sense. Do you go in on the flower meanings?" He paused, briefly. "...Is that a thing people are into in 2024, outside of novels?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 8:55 pm
She felt warm fingers slide around her own and Orah blinked, looking up from the glass sculpture towards Kieran, who now... held her hand as he leaned in to look with her. Her cheeks were definitely pink now and whatever they'd been talking about, she'd completely forgotten all of it as her mind spun in excited little circles of confusion.
It would be silly to assume anything from this... and yet?
He squeezed her hand and she found herself smiling back at him, something small at first that warmed and grew. This felt... nice, that was the first thing she noticed. His hand was warm, and his fingers wrapped comfortably around hers. It was such a simple thing, but it had been actual years since she'd had anyone hold her hand. Not since Laney... and she didn't feel like handshakes counted. Handshakes were more or less impersonal, while this was just a bit intimate.
He was asking something. "Oh.... yeah, I knew a lot of them when I was younger. My father runs a flower shop and it was a fun little thing to know about. Sometimes it came in useful." She said, dragging her attention back to what they were talking about. The sculptures were still beautiful, but they struggled to hold her attention now. Too much of her mind was on their hands and how she felt about that.
She had to face those thoughts now, whatever way this went, whatever it meant. Did she want it to mean more than just close friends? Did she want it to be with him? Orah hadn't really considered that before, but... yeah. Kieran was nice. He was dependable and gentle, understanding and supportive. He understood what it was like to be a senshi, and to have the bond that they had with their worlds. He had darkness in his past and their history had been fraught, but... that didn't scare her. He was a different person now, and this person had grown to be one of her good friends. Laney... Laney was gone, and after all this time, she wasn't even sure how they'd fit together anymore, if she ever came back. She was a different person now too, as Laney probably was.
It was all a lot to think about right now, too heavy for the way her heart was doing little flippy floppy flutters in her chest. It was enough to think that... yeah, she did like this, and yeah, she did want this to mean what it felt like it meant. But... well. All that was going to hinge on what Kieran actually felt. If she ever got the nerve up to ask him.
"Um... were you much into flowers before... the whole thing?" Orah asked, feeling awkward about it. It was honestly a stupid question, but her thoughts were still chasing each other about, refusing to make anything coherent.
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Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 1:49 am
Okay. Orah hadn't pulled away. That was a step in the right direction. Keiran hadn't thought that he was the type to overthink this sort of thing, to get all tied up in knots like a teenager--but, well.
"Oh, that's sweet," he said. Moving into a parent's business--he wondered if that was something he'd wanted to do, before...all of this. One of those great questions that he'd never have any answers to, because the person he'd been was gone and he had no memory of who they were.
But he had so many things to look forward to now. And his life was so much better than he could have ever foreseen at eighteen, broken and miserable and looking for a way to take that pain out on the world.
It had Orah in it, for one.
"I don't know," he confessed, "if I cared, before. I don't think I did? But...all of that is a way to get you interested, one way or another." He laughed, briefly. "But I do like them, now. Quite a lot."
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Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2024 10:16 am
Orah let her fingers curl into Kieran's, returning the hold in first a tentative, then more confident way.
"I loved it all a lot, back when I thought I was going to take over the shop from Da when he retired. I still love it, now that I'm a nurse, but its not really as relevant for me any more." She was not normally the one picking out flowers to give to someone in the hospital, after all. Sometimes it was kind of funny to see what people did bring when they came to visit someone... wondering if they meant what the flowers signified. Most of the time, they didn't.
She felt like she was running out of things to talk about and Orah scrambled about in her brain to come up with something. The silence was stretching between them and it was going to get awkward if she didn't say anything...
"Um... you run a cafe, right? What is that like? Its really impressive that you got your own business up and running. Sometimes I still feel like I'm sixteen and everything seems very adult and beyond me." She said, feeling just a little breathless.
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Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2024 3:09 am
Keiran couldn't help but feel a little giddy, when he felt Orah's fingers curl around his. Sure, okay, holding hands wasn't necessarily all that dramatic, but it was maybe a little bit special.
"That's sweet," he said. "Honestly, I...really admire your work. I don't think I'd have it in em for everything nursing takes. All that school, and then the crazy hours, and having to deal with whatever comes--I mean, customers can be pretty bad, but patients...People are there on their worst days, and all."
Still, there was an undeniable air of pride when she asked him about his cafe. "I honestly love it. It took a lot of time, and working at some restaurants myself, and some scrimping and saving--but my ex was smart about his money, and he helped me get things set up. Otherwise, I feel like I'm always kinda just figuring it out as I go. But we make enough money for me to get by, and to pay my employees fairly, and to make sure the place stays open--so that's all I can really ask for, you know."
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2024 5:23 pm
"That sounds a lot like my Da's shop." Orah said as she leaned closer to him, their shoulders touching. "Making just enough to keep the lights on and everyone taken care of. Some people might not find it glamorous, but I still found it fulfilling."
She shrugged gently, mulling over the different person she had been back when she was just a flower shop girl, and where her path had taken her instead.
"I decided to become a nurse because of everything, you know?" She said quietly as she studied the glass flower in its display case. Every leaf and petal so perfect, shaped by human hands for its beauty. "I was in the hospital more than once, when I was starting out, and the biggest problem I had was what to tell my family afterwards. I couldn't tell them the whole truth... I mean, I couldn't even tell the doctors the whole truth. So I just thought... we need people that others can go to who they can tell what really happened, and can help them figure out how to explain it later. I've been trying to spread the word so that if people get hurt, they know where to find me."
She smiled a little, though there was not much mirth to it. "And now I'm even better at helping, since I can speed things up a bit."
The amber she wore on her wrist as a senshi worked well to convert some of the energy she fed to it into healing magic. That too had come as a way to better help everyone, just like her job. Everything she was now, after all these years, was shaped and molded to help others fight the war better. It had been... a long time since she'd really thought about herself outside of it. There had been times where this person, without magic, was the mask she donned when she wasn't being Ida, rather than the other way around. Some of that... enthusiasm had calmed over the years, but she still felt the duty of it, and the promise she'd made her asteroid.
"You still hang out at the park, after all this time... you still feel the same as you did when you started out?" Orah asked.
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Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2024 12:22 am
Keiran nodded. It made a lot of sense, really, and it fit with the person he knew Orah to be--kind. caring. Giving.
Perhaps a little too much of that third thing, all things considered.
"You always give so much," he said, softly. "Are there things you do just for yourself? That make you happy, and for no other reason?" Maybe, Keiran hoped, this little almost-date might be one of those things, because--well, maybe he was wrong. Maybe he was projecting, a little. But he knew that he'd found himself burning the candle at both ends trying to help people before.
"You can't give out of an empty well, and all."
Still, his smile was a little tired, when she asked her last question. "I do and I don't," he said. "I still think that most people can probably be helped, and really just need a chance. But I used to be...really concerned with making up for what I'd done, before." When he'd been a corrupted Sesnhi. When he'd killed sheerly for the joy of it, because it papered over the ache of loneliness and abandonment. "But the scales don't balance like that, you know? The best thing I can do with my second chance is have a life worth living, and try to do right going forward."
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Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2024 9:42 am
"Of course!" Orah responded instantly, though she flushed as she said it.
It wasn't a lie! She did some things just because she wanted to, her life wasn't always about other people... but she also had to admit that an awful lot of it was. And that she knew giving too much was a form of self injury... But old habits, habits internalized as a child, were hard to break no matter how old you got. She'd never not be able to live her life for other people, but she liked to think she'd taken strides in recent years to live for herself as well. Kieran was right, after all. She couldn't give what she didn't have.
"I spend a lot of time on... in my garden, taking care of it and cleaning things up. Exploring some of the abandoned places around it. I spend time with people I like..." An admission that only deepened her color. "And I spend time with my family. I practice archery, when I have the time and the weather's good."
Taking care of her world had always been something just for her, something she didn't share with anyone and got to make exactly how she wanted it, without thinking about how that affected others. Nowadays, that was a little less hers as knights began to appear, but her tower and her garden and the city around it were still hers... no wonders occupied that area, and honestly, who really needed more space than a whole entire city?
Orah stopped and turned towards Kieran at his admission, her brown eyes soft. She reached without really thinking about it and cupped the side of his face.
"What you did to leave was already a sacrifice..." She said softly. "I'm... glad, that you're living for yourself, too. And I'm glad that you're here."
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Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:46 pm
"I'm glad to hear that," Keiran sad, honestly. "And, Orah--if there's ever anything I can do to help you, please, just ask. With anything, really."
Even if it was small. Even if it was just hauling gardening tools on her world, or something--on the one hand, Keiran really did want to help her, just because she was his friend. On the other, well...any excuse to spend more time with her, really.
Her hand on his face made his cheeks heat up, red blooming across them, but still, he smiled.
"It's been a long road to get there, but...these days, yeah. I know the best thing I can do is keep moving forward."
He turned, and pressed a brief kiss to the heel of her hand, and then stepped away.
"Come on, let's finish seeing all the exhibits. And then maybe we can get dinner?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 3:34 pm
She felt his lips press against her palm, his cheeks sweetly pink, and it felt like her heart lurched in her chest, dropping a beat that shook her from head to toe. Orah took her hand back as he stepped away, letting it curl against her chest, and nodded mutely, her brain buzzing.
He'd kissed her hand. His lips had been warm and soft... a gentle brush of connection that felt so natural, but also so wildly exciting at the same time. Her heart had picked up the rhythm again, but felt like it was going to pound it's way out of her chest now, thrumming in her ears. If they hadn't been in a crowded hall... if he hadn't pulled away... Why had he stepped away?
She tried to put her serene face back on, but it was hard now. Hard to stand next to him and pretend like she was looking at the pretty glass sculptures and not thinking about that kiss instead. Orah felt so conflicted... Had she over stepped, touching him like that? That felt strange... He'd been holding her hand before. He'd been the one to reach out... And then he'd kissed her hand. So surely it had been okay? But then, why...?
"I... might need to head home, actually." She said when they'd made it through all the lovely displays and the gallery after, pausing off to the side of the expansive buffet. She really didn't feel like trying to get any of that delicious looking food past the knot in her stomach... and then have to keep sitting with him, trying to make small talk and not feel supremely weird about it all. "I have to work in the morning, so I can't stay out too late. But maybe we can plan another time?"
There was hope in that last bit, that maybe things weren't as weird as they had seemed. That, maybe, she hadn't done something to push him away.
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Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 8:38 pm
It had felt so obvious, kissing Orah's hand, like a natural step in the sort of dance they were just starting on. and if the rest of their walk was a little awkward, well...maybe that was okay? Maybe he'd taken a couple extra steps, and maybe they'd have to figure things out again, but she hadn't seemed upset, really.
He didn't bother masking the disappointment on his face fro a moment, when she said she would need to go home, but only for a moment--then it was back to all smiles.
"Understandable, you must work crazy shifts. And I'll have to get in pretty early too. Product doesn't bake itself." A brief laugh. "But yes. Another time. We can make a date of it, if...you'd like."
God he hoped she would. And also that he wasn't being too subtle about his intentions.
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