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 Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:59 am
 ...// Perchance to Dream
Long lashes fluttered against brightly-colored cheeks; thousands upon thousands of silky-soft, minute scales covered the Ki'Lin's delicate body and glittered as the sun-light filtered in through sheer curtains. Gate had adopted a place of dwelling similar to that of his former lover's people, the Oena, as it was more comfortable to him yet. Organic and airy, with lots of soft, silky materials that did not snag or pull at the Ki'Lin's scales.
Gate put one pale hand over his eyes to blot out the sun and pursed his lips together. Every morning when the sun hit his eyes in just that manner, it reminded him of Erislan...and of Aslah and those gentle peoples that he had spent so much time with. One might think that waking up without the company of a long-time lover would bring sorrow into the day, but Gate never felt that way about it. Each morning was wonderful - an affirmation of life that the Ki'Lin couldn't help smiling about (once he was finally awake, that is).
Of course, it almost reminded him that it had been a long time since he and Eri had shared a bed... goodness, had it really been so many years since their paths had last crossed? The Oena had not minded his gender-swapping at all - that was so rare. Typically Gate could find a companion that preferred one or the other and tried their best not to touch his (or her) body during the shift.
The blond stretched langoriously and pushed aside those thoughts - a small amount of reflection was acceptable, but anything more was not. Gate slowly rolled out of his silken bed and stood, pulling on a robe that he had set aside and tying it at the waist.
"Good morning Rodney~" A very fat goldfish blorped air bubbles at him from inside it's little bowl and fluttered up to the surface as though begging for flakes. Delicious flakes that the Ki'Lin would would drop into it's bowl so it could eat. Then he would prepare some breakfast for himself before bathing and dressing for the rest of his day - a day that had a few errands and chores listed out from the night before.
"What a pleasant day it will be, Rodney."
Gate could not have known that his day would be anything but pleasant - many of the Gaians in this place he had ended up were very cruel and violent -- being around them made the very center of his being ache. That night, before he crawled into his bed exhausted and feeling heart-sick, Gate went to his window and looked out at the deep darkness of the Gaian sky.
"Rodney, do you believe in wishing on a star?" No response came - none expected really. Rodney was a fat goldfish who's only care was a clean bowl and as many flakes as he could ingest. Blond curls slid across scales as the Ki'Lin tilted his face up to the beautifully twinkling stars above. "If I did, I would wish for peace here...the beings that live in this place need it so badly..."
As the mythical creature turned back toward his bed, a brilliant flash of light tore across the night sky; it went without visual notice on Gate's part though he was affected by it. The blond stumbled towards silken sheets and pillows on limbs affected with a newly-born colt's clumsiness; by the time the Ki'Lin's body fell into the bed, he had passed into a state of strange unconsciousness unlike any he had been in before, save for the Summoning Sleep...
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Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:02 pm
...// Rose-Scented Bathwater
Unbeknownst to Gate, two full nights and nearly three full days came and went while he was unconscious. A dull ache in the back of his head roused him from the involuntary slumber with a groan; in his bowl, Rodney blurbled unhappily -- being without food for so long had made the goldfish as unhappy as a goldfish was able to be. The Ki'Lin pressed a hand to his forehead and slowly got up from his bed so that he could check on things; namely Rodney and of course the date.
Once the little goldfish was fed, Gate slipped outside to check the mail - he didn't get much at all, but the newspaper quickly let him know how much time had passed. "How was I out for that long? I did not Shift...I was not Summoned..." Many questions slid through his head but found no answers forthcoming; whatever had caused this temporary fugue and sleep would remain a mystery since Rodney wasn't going to speak (not that he would have known anyway!)
Back inside, Gate prepared a plate of fruits and nuts and then settled into a comfortable chair with his papers and his meal. The Ki'Lin could not abide flesh nor things that came from the flesh of beasts, so he was relegated to strict vegetarianism by merit of his birth. It may have seemed strange to an outsider, but to the blond it was just how things Were. At length, he turned his head to address the fish swimming happily in its bowl.
"Rodney, you can't let me sleep like that again. What if I had slept longer? What would you do for food, hmm? Would you become like a mermaid and grow legs so that you could eat?" Funny thought, that. Rodney as a humanoid! Gate envisioned a short, scaled, dumpy little man with a pot-belly and tiny, tiny legs that wobbled as thought they would collapse under the strain at any time! "Perhaps I should visit the local apothecary-- no, the physician. That's what they are called here, I think. Doctors. Physicians...perhaps they have healers too. There is such diversity..."
But that only served to remind him of the day he'd spent prior to passing out; and he had to shake his head to rid himself of the encroaching cob-webbing that came with such dark, depressing thoughts.
"I'll look into it tomorrow morning, it's too late now and I do feel fine. Fantastic, even if a little sad..." The goldfish solemnly regarded the creature sitting across the room from it; unblinking eyes giving the Ki'Lin none of the reassuring he wanted. "Perhaps I shall take a bath...put myself in a better mood. Your company leaves something to be desired tonight Rodney."
Gate carefully set the papers into a recycling bin and cleaned his serving tray before going into the bathroom to start heated water into the great claw-footed bath. A small tube of faintly pink scented oil was unstoppered, four droplets of the heady stuff fell into the water and mixed with the heat and steam to produce a burst of aroma. The Ki'Lin closed his eyes and inhaled deeply -- this was no ordinary bath oil made from "ordinary" roses! Rather, it was a special blend he had made himself from the blooms in the Oena's lands -- extremely fragrant and potent, it called to mind great lush gardens of exotic flora. Eden's own roses would have carried a scent that compared -- this, Gate knew from experience!
With care he disrobed and stepped into the tub, the steam and water swirling around his gently shimmering body; already water clung to him and the oil worked into his scales so that he sighed in contentment.
Yes, a bath was what Gate needed now. Tomorrow he would find someone that might be able to help him discover why he had fallen into such a deep, black slumber.
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:23 pm
Stereochrome Jack had sent him here to 'fix a couple of lights', he said. Failed to mention that by 'a couple' he meant a whole floor's worth - something had damaged the place's circuits last night, and after spending a few hours fiddling with the wiring he had to replace every goddamn lightbulb by hand. He towed a cart behind him - half of it was filled with boxes of new lightbulbs, and the other was filled with empty boxes and shattered fragments of the old ones. Already had a couple of cuts on his hands, but he refused to wear gloves. How the hell were you supposed to screw lightbulbs in while wearing gloves, anyway?
Nick was tired and hungry. Several times, he had considered dodging into the break room and stealing someone's packed lunch from the fridge... but Nick had his morals. Maybe if he kept liming around and dragging the cart and stepladder behind him, someone would take pity on him and give him a donut. Mmm, donut. He liked his lips, then let out a surprised yelp. He'd cut himself again - goddammit. It was worse than the others, too - a trickle of blood dropped onto the polished floors below him. Syrie It had been a very full day for the Ki'lin; two nights before he'd spent several hours soaking in a claw-footed bathtub with sweet-smelling oils and that had been the last "relaxation" he'd had since then. Solving the mystery surrounding the how and why of his sleeping for three days and two nights had kept the blond very, very busy...yet no one had answers for him.
Not the hunch-backed old man with kindly eyes that ran the apothecary near to Barton Town Proper, nor the sleekly-groomed doctors in Durem's finest health clinic....nor even the faith healers that spent half their time salting their brains by surfing off the coast of the Isle de Gambino. Gate had been all across Gaia in his search but had found no clues, not a single person that could explain things in a manner that rang True to him. It was frustrating and distressing so he decided to do something for himself, for fun, in the hopes that mayhap distracting himself would allow his subconscious to work and come up with a proper solution to his self-appointed "quest".
It was with this reasoning that he found himself walking serenely towards the rather imposing Astronomy HQ - star-gazing was one of Gate's hobbies here on Gaia. He knew a great deal about celestial bodies from the other side -- looking down and out from another dimension, from beyond the stars and down towards the various planetary bodies...but it was a lot of fun to look up and out too. Once inside the modern, air-conditioned building, Gate stepped over to a directory to orient himself; having not been in the building before, he wanted to make sure he knew where visitors were welcomed...and where they were not so welcome. Naturally there were people working there - scientists and researchers that would not be pleased with interruptions to their important work.
Gate did not wish to be in anyone's way, so once he'd gotten a good idea of where he could go, he stepped over to the twin elevators and pressed the button that would take him up; the Observatory area being above the ground floor. The Ki'lin made his way along the floor quietly until he felt a light tickling at his senses -- someone else, someone injured, but very slightly.
He decided to investigate and find this person; steps lengthening as he moved through the building to find this other, injured person. Stereochrome "Uh?" He mumbled to himself, holding a broken lightbulb with one hand, and holding the other out sort of stupidly so that the blood dripped onto the ground. The last thing he needed right now was a pair of bloodstained pants... he'd just done his laundry last night, which meant he wouldn't have to do so again for another month or so. And, for whatever reason, he was having trouble coming up with a game plan right now. He had to get down from the ladder, but he didn't want to let the lightbulb fall onto the floor - he'd have to clean up the shards then.
Eventually, he managed to balance the broken bulb on the top of the ladder, creeping down with one arm until he was safely on the ground. And... now what? He looked around for some sort of stray paper towel dispenser, or an open doorway - but nothing was going on on this floor right now - likely because he was supposed to fix the lights.
He groaned and tried to shake the blood off somewhat - perking up when he heard footsteps approaching up the stairs. Maybe whoever it was would have a kleenex to spare. Syrie With quiet, quick steps, Gate made his way up and towards the man that was looking around in a hopeful-but-sort-of-needy look. Obviously, this was the person that had been injured - he was bleeding and the sharp, metallic scent of mortal blood caused the Ki'lin's stomach to clench in a rather unpleasant manner. Even so, he was compelled to offer his assistance - in any way needed.
"You've been injured." Thankfully he was wearing more 'reasonable' street-clothes than the more formal robes of his office, so he had a pocket from which to pull a lavendar-scented handkerchief from. The blond didn't think about what he was doing, he simply reached out for the injured man's hand so that he could press the soft material against his wound to staunch the flow of blood. "My name is Gate. Is there a place with a medical kit nearby?" With the blood still flowing, Gate could not tell how bad the cut was - though he did notice it was not the only wound to the man's hand. Who would have known that changing light-bulbs would be such a dangerous excoursion? Stereochrome "Hey." Nick smiled - a little uncertain at first, and not because he was bleeding but because for the first little while he couldn't tell if this newcomer was a man or a woman. When the stranger got closer, he decided... decided that it was a man. Something about the voice, maybe. Still, the guy was pretty, to the point where it was very nearly distracting and maybe just a little embarrassing.
"Yeah, uh. Just a cut - but you wouldn't happen to have a - oh, thanks." He felt fabric against his hand. A real handkerchief... odd, people didn't really carry those around anymore, and he felt a little awkward getting this one all bloody. Sure, that was sort of what a handkerchief was for, cleaning up and junk... but compared to the wadded-up kleenex he expected, it was like a museum piece.
"Like a... first aid kit? Maybe, but all the doors are locked. Anyway, I don't really need one - just gotta finish up the last three bulbs here. Whole corridor blew out last night and no one knows why. Heard there's a rumor that it had somethin' to do with the meteor shower last night - you see that? But I'll let the astronomers deal with that one. Not really my line of expertise." He glanced down at his hand, the man called Gate still holding it in the handkerchief. "Guess lightbulbs ain't either." Syrie Gate either didn't notice the man's discomfort at his person or he chose to wisely ignore it. Truly, gender was such a fluid, changeable thing for the Ki'lin that he had a difficult time understanding mortal issues with it.
"Mmm, that's unfortunate. You really must get this wound cleaned and bandanged." His handkerchief was adequate for the moment, but really, Nick needed to have it properly cared for. The petite blond was frowning a bit at his newfound companion, hand still pressing the cloth to the wound to help stop the bleeding. "Oh no, you're not getting back up there with this injury, I won't hear of it."
Gate looked at the ladder, up at the broken bulbs and thought on Nick's words carefully a moment -- could that meteor shower have anything to do with his coma-like sleeping from the past few days? "If you instruct me, I will finish changing the bulbs for you. Then you must get medical attention, please?" Such a concerned creature the Ki'lin was - but he couldn't help it. It was his nature.
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:48 pm
...// Garden of Delight
Many things were roiling through the Ki'Lin's head as he gathered up the impliments he would need for his self-appointed task: his black-out after seeing that falling star, the meteor shower that he'd missed (or thought he had missed) because of said black-out, the stubborn gentleman from the Observatory with the lightbulbs...And then there was this odd feeling that kept tugging at his insides and worrying the edges of his consciousness much the way a mouse worries a crust of cheese in a trap...the feeling that something - or someone - was calling to him.
Gate sighed softly to himself as he pulled his unruly, silky hair back into a pony-tail so it wouldn't get in his way. Atop this he secured a large, floppy sun hat with ribbons that wound under his chin; though he could heal himself from any damage this world's sun may cause, he didn't relish the idea of being blinded while working for any length of time; his ridiculously silly sun-hat would keep that from happening. Gloves would complete the picture - not the dainty gloves of one attending an opera or black-tie event, but rather the thick, heavy leather gloves one would wear to work in the garden or clear shattered glass with.
'Pity I wasn't carrying these on me when I met Nick that day...they would have come in handy...' Gate smiled to himself and gathered up his bucket of tools, nodding once to Rodney as he stepped out.
The sun shone brightly overhead while the Ki'Lin settled into his gardening work; his body finding the natural rhythym of the land and sweeping him away so that he need not think deeply nor dwell on things unwanted, bittersweet or painful. It was around midday when he was on his hands and knees in the soft cushion of grass and soil, tending to some of his rose-bushes when he began noticing that something was a bit off about these particular plants. Out of all the flora he'd tended to that point, these roses were the only ones that held a strange sort of faint light...as though glowing from within the very cells themselves.
Such a glow was very beautiful, but wholly unnatural for Gate's very ordinary garden. He removed one of his dirt-crusted gloves so that he could touch one stem with bared fingers, his magic-senses reaching out further to investigate this anomally. Yes, magic! But from what he had yet no clues beyond a slow pulsing he was feeling from the plant itself. 'Would that you could talk, friend of the soil...then I would not be made so curious.'
No answer came from the rose bush, just that gentle emanation of light and magic. Gate sighed a little bit and put his gardening glove back on so that he could do some fussing in the soil around the base of the affected plants - perhaps his answers would be found there...with the worms, dirt and fertilizer.
Another few minutes passed without anything extraordinary happening (rather, anything further) and the Ki'Lin was quite ready to accept that sometimes - just sometimes - rose-bushes on Gaia glowed with a faint, otherworldly light. It was at just such a careless moment like the one Gate was now having that had brought many an unsuspecting Gaian "down" - the Ki'Lin, despite being a magical creature, could but follow the path that fate had seen fit to lead him down. His hands brushed against something hard and warm behind a tangle of thorny rose-branches; it took him a moment to realize that there should be nothing warm lurking in his garden like that...and only a few moments more to recognise that the 'tickley' magical feeling he'd had touching the plants was now fairly thrumming through him.
"Oh, oh my--" Nervous, gloved hands clumsily dug where the Ki'Lin couldn't see in the hopes that whatever it was would not be buried too deep for retrieval. Imagine the blond's surprise when not only was the artifact easy to dig up, but it was very nearly attached to him; magic twining and joining with magic...forming a bond that would take time to understand.
Once free from the roses, Gate leaned back on his haunches, a gently glowing star resting lightly in his cupped hands and dirty gloves. "Beautiful..." Slowly he rose from the garden and returned inside where he could remove the gloves and clean the fallen star-shaped artifact with warm water; such tenderness was perhaps not warranted, but Gate felt it necessary. He felt...protective towards this newly found fallen star--
Awareness dawned upon the Ki'Lin and he stared down at the star, wide-eyed with awe. This was the star he'd seen streaming across the sky...just before he passed out! But...how had it gotten into his garden of all places...and why oh why did he feel such strong emotions towards it? "Well my little star...it seems you bear more than simply magic, but much mystery too." He quickly found a length of silk and a small bowl; fashioning a sort of nest that he put next to Rodney; perhaps the gold-fish would find the star's sparkling entertaining?
"Now Rodney, you watch that star for me...I still need to finish up with the roses..."
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 4:23 pm
Sometimes, the answer to a wish begins inside your own heart. Surely Gate, in his wish for World Peace, will find a way to bring a bit of peace to someone else. Share with us how this happens...
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:32 pm
...// Nightmarish Echos
Dreams haunt him. Blood and lust and blackness - anger, rage, hatred...blood-lust boiling up and overflowing slender limbs.
***
It is not his war, but it is his hands that are bathed in the blood of mortals and immortals alike. Wet and sticky, glittering with the light of a thousand torches; firey, fluid scales covering up those that have graced his race's form since the moment the cosmos birthed them. Thick droplets glide down one slender arm and he brings the limb up, tongue out to taste - only in these such times would a Ki'Lin dare consume flesh. The taste is bitter and it burns inside him like the destructive pyres giving unholy light to the town below.
At his feet lays the body of an usurped king; to his right stands a newly crowned victor - blood-drenched and weary from his trials and tribulations. Slowly, the waifish Ki'Lin turns his blood-cloaked body to face this man, pink eyes empty of all expression.
"With this taste of blood spilled is this our Immortal Contract filled. Lies like rubies from lips once fallen now wash o'er the ground upon which such jewels were borne. Pray you, Mortal King, ne'er to seen This One again."
The sharp crack of lightning and the mortal is alone; the Ki'Lin returned to the Other Worlds to rest and recover from the blood-sickness. It will be days after filling this contract that his delicate body is purified and it is only through the gentle expressions and hands of his attendants that he can bear the agony and renewal of self.
***
Gate woke from his nightmare with a cry caught in his throat and sweat soaking into his silken sheets. He sat up and pushed a hand to his forehead, breathing heavily and shuddering. It wasn't just a dream, it was a memory that he was trying so horribly to not think about...the things that his very race required of him. Things he had done many a time, but still felt the sharp pangs of revuslion after.
The blond slipped out of his bed to bathe and also to watch Rodney and the little glowing star for a bit in the hopes of calming his still reeling senses.
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Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:19 pm
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