Outsider's Perspective [Part 2]
Feb. 10th, 2012 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Chosen/Searching
Summary: Ras and Aldran wake up in a place that they do not recognise, where geists aren't the ones that attack humans…
Rating: PG-13/R
Contains: Swearing
Notes: Spoilers up to the most recent part posted (28) for Chosen.
Wendil is Marland's adoptive mum.
The reason why Shodin's characterisation is all over the place is because of his mix of Ronthar!memories memories and Shodin!memories. Yeah…
Psyven's should have the same hair colour as their tails. Yeah, totally. *pictures Aldran with blue and purple hair* >D
*musing* I don't know if Aldran's gotten an upgrade on his Gods' gift of knowledge or it just wasn't explored in Chosen.
I've had this completed for a couple of days now…
Genre: General/Friendship
Word count: 1,699
Total word count: 5,555
Status: Work in progress
Marland poked at his food – it was a little cold after he'd left it, but it was still edible. He turned his attention away from it and pointed his snout down, his ears pricked forward at Shodin, who sent him a small smile before clearing his throat.
"Do I want to know what happened?" Marland asked him, a couple of seconds after Shodin's door had closed, sealing the two xeni in it. He wasn't going to try and guess -because he knew just how well that turned out- so he waited with resigned patience to see what Shodin would say.
Shodin fished out the bars of chocolate he'd said he'd buy, passing one to Marland, and storing the other away in the cupboard. "We'd just left the shop," Shodin started as Marland broke off a piece, "when we heard screaming, so we ran towards it."
"Of course," Marland muttered, snorting, just before he threw a piece of chocolate into his mouth.
Shodin twitched a smile at him. "When we got there, the xeno was already dead – I think at least one of them has magic."
Marland's mind wanted to jump to the guy with the purple and blue banded tail but he quashed that quickly.
"And you brought them here, why?" he asked, half-dryly, feeling like he already knew the answer.
"Their clothing, for one," Shodin pointed out, raising an eyebrow, and Marland had to agree. They were clearly handmade and they weren't close to anything that Marland had seen in Lahstron. "So they probably haven't been here long," Shodin mused, his eyes going a little distant. "They didn't react badly to seeing Fion, and when I greeted them, they answered back."
It was definitely the last one that would have tipped the scales in their favour of Shodin bringing them over. But not running away screaming (or attacking) would have helped too.
Shodin hummed. "I called Laris and Nav but we didn't wait for them – I'll give them their payment when I get it."
Marland glanced around the room as he thought. "I guess I'm going to get them forms to register them as hunters." If they started getting their own semi-steady income (what with the rate that xeni seemed to be appearing in Lahstron) then it wouldn't be long before they could begin to rent their own place.
They turned their heads to the sound of Shodin's door clicking open, the guy poking his head through the gap.
"Do you need something?" Shodin asked, smiling gently at him.
The xeno glanced at the floor before he shook his head. "I can't sleep," he said quietly, his tail barely moving. "There's too much information…"
And Marland and Shodin were probably going to have to teach them what everything was, Marland realised, his ears flattening. How long was that going to take?
Shodin chuckled softly. "I know – it took me and Fion a while to get used to everything." He tilted his head. "But, Aldran, don't you want to sit over here so we're not talking across a room?"
So that was his name. And for a person as big as Aldran was, he seemed to spend a lot of the time trying to look as small as possible, Marland thought, watching the way Aldran's shoulders hunched before he stepped out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
"How are you?" Shodin asked as Aldran sat down across from Marland, Fion padding over to his side instantly.
"My head hurts," Aldran told them, not looking up as he played with the edge of the table. "It doesn't stop…"
Marland and Shodin shared a glance over the table. Aldran wasn't human; the human medicine might not work on him – or worse, it could kill him. Chocolate worked for Marland, but they couldn't know if that would be the same from Aldran until he tried it.
"We do have a few things that could help," Shodin said, "but they're for humans, so it could make it worse."
Marland snorted. Bit of an understatement.
Aldran finally raised his head, and his eyebrows were drawn in as he stared at Shodin. "Help?" he repeated. "How could you help with it?"
"With the pain?" Shodin said, uncertainty creeping into his tone, which Marland's own feelings mirrored. What else could he mean?
"I…oh." Aldran shook his head. "I thought you were talking about…"
And Marland was starting to get Balt-vibes from him, what with all the pauses and hesitations, but at least he wasn't claiming to know Shodin from before…
But he and the other xeno know where they lived now. Shit.
"Talking about what?" Marland growled, his ears flat and eyes narrowed. He was not going to have a drawn out conversation, not if say, Aldran was stalling for time while some people were about to break down their door. And he really didn't want to be working on assumptions again – those never ended well.
That made Aldran's attention snap to him before dropping again. He heard Shodin's sound of annoyance at him, but Marland ignored it, watching Aldran carefully.
Aldran's shoulders hunched, and his head turned away. "About my god's gift to know how something works when I see it."
Marland stared at him. His what?
"Our world…isn't like this," Aldran continued, his breathing harsh. "We don't have…'electricity', 'TVs', 'fridges'." His hand dropped to Fion's head, and he started to run his fingers through Fion's fur. "It doesn't stop," he whispered, his other hand scrubbing at his forehead.
It was quiet for a while after Aldran spoke, apart from Fion whining and then nudging Aldran's elbow with his nose.
Marland could feel his distrust crumbling, and he glanced at Shodin, who was looking like he wanted to go to Aldran's side.
"It took me and Fion a while to adjust when we first arrived, and we didn't have your gift," Shodin told Aldran kindly.
Marland was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that were was a god on their world that seemed to do something.
Aldran peeked at Shodin, his eyes a little wide. "You're also…?"
Shodin nodded. "And so is Marland. They call us xeno here, or xeni if it's more than one."
"Oh." Aldran's eyes glazed over for a second. "Oh. Strangers."
Well… Shit. Wendil had told Marland once the reason why they were called xeni, but if Aldran understood that without someone telling him, and he couldn't have known about the etymology before…
"Gods exist in your world." Marland wasn't sure if he'd been aiming for some sort of statement or question or a weird mix of the two, but it slipped out anyway.
Aldran stared at him in confusion. "Of course They do-" Marland could hear the emphasis of 'They' "-I was…" He trailed off, hunching in on himself again. Marland was starting to wonder if his back didn't stay like that.
"Geists don't exist here…"
Marland wanted to ask, but-
-'Geists?'-
Right. He should have expected Shodin or Fion to ask anyway.
"They're…abominations. They disrupt the natural order of the world."
And Marland's skin itched at just hearing those words. They sounded far too similar to what he heard being directed towards xeni.
"How do they that do that?" Marland asked him.
Aldran looked up and actually made eye-contact with Marland. "They eat people's souls."
Far too similar. "You seen them do it?"
He got a shake of the head as a reply. "We have seen the aftereffects though."
Marland slammed his hands on the table, snarling, making Aldran jump. "So how the fuck do you know that's true? And if they do eat souls-" Whatever the fuck that meant "-it's not like they can help it!"
Aldran, thankfully, cringed and didn't jump to defend what he'd just said. "We…" Aldran took a deep breath. "We've been realising that."
He eyed him, before feeling mollified. It seemed genuine enough. Marland couldn't picture Aldran jumping to defend anything though.
He then got to ignoring Shodin's patient rebuking looks.
-'Aldran?'-
"Hm?"
-'When Marland asked if you had any memory problems, why did your tail freeze?'-
Marland hadn't been paying attention to begin with, too used to filtering out Fion's voice, but he was listening by the end of it, close enough to hear Aldran's startled intake of breath.
"I… Because…" Aldran eventually fell silent.
"Do not fucking tell me you have memory problems," Marland snapped, his ears flat. The last amnesiac he let into his house ended with them being kidnapped and tortured!
Aldran didn't move for about a minute before he took a shuddering breath and shook his head.
If it wasn't him who had memory problems, then it had to be… "She doesn't know she has amnesia."
Aldran shook his head again.
The room went silent as that information sunk in. The swirl of emotions Marland had ebbed away.
"Why…haven't you told Ras?" Shodin asked carefully.
Marland saw the way Aldran's entire body froze. "She doesn't want to remember," he said, his tone constrained. "She asked…"
Well, fuck.
The admission seemed to take the last of Aldran's energy and he sagged in the chair. Marland watched Shodin usher him to the couch and by the sound of it, he fell asleep straight away.
Marland tilted his head down, so his ears pointed towards Shodin.
"He resisted when I tried to guide him to the door," Shodin explained.
Shodin sighed as he pulled a chair and sat down heavily. "I don't think we should tell Ras."
Marland growled. "And what if someone comes up to her, pretending to know someone else she's met here?" 'Like what happened to you' went unsaid, but it was still easily heard.
"And what about Aldran?" Shodin pointed out. Marland's thoughts halted at that. "He doesn't have memory problems so he would know if someone was lying about that, and if Ras didn't want to remember…"
Then she didn't want to remember.
Marland broke off another piece of chocolate and ate it. Now he had a headache with his physical bruises, and this was without touching the 'god' stuff. Ugh.
After watching for a few seconds, Shodin stole a row of Marland's chocolate, and ignored his glare with well-practiced ease.
___________________________________
…I guess the next part is going to have Marland and Shodin confirming the god angle from Ras? *ponder*
Somehow, three 'guys' – no, wait, 'four' in a room, and I don't seem to have a pronoun problem. :O
And, hey, Marland was doing most of the talking here too! Shodin was just making sure the conversation didn't get out of hand! XDDD
I only realised while typing up the last bit that I was doing the annoying thing in crossovers where the characters meet and then spill their extreme secrets to complete strangers. XD;; Oops. In zer defence, I think Aldran really needed someone to talk to, just to get it off zer chest.
Previous Part | Next Part
Summary: Ras and Aldran wake up in a place that they do not recognise, where geists aren't the ones that attack humans…
Rating: PG-13/R
Contains: Swearing
Notes: Spoilers up to the most recent part posted (28) for Chosen.
Wendil is Marland's adoptive mum.
The reason why Shodin's characterisation is all over the place is because of his mix of Ronthar!memories memories and Shodin!memories. Yeah…
Psyven's should have the same hair colour as their tails. Yeah, totally. *pictures Aldran with blue and purple hair* >D
*musing* I don't know if Aldran's gotten an upgrade on his Gods' gift of knowledge or it just wasn't explored in Chosen.
I've had this completed for a couple of days now…
Genre: General/Friendship
Word count: 1,699
Total word count: 5,555
Status: Work in progress
Marland poked at his food – it was a little cold after he'd left it, but it was still edible. He turned his attention away from it and pointed his snout down, his ears pricked forward at Shodin, who sent him a small smile before clearing his throat.
"Do I want to know what happened?" Marland asked him, a couple of seconds after Shodin's door had closed, sealing the two xeni in it. He wasn't going to try and guess -because he knew just how well that turned out- so he waited with resigned patience to see what Shodin would say.
Shodin fished out the bars of chocolate he'd said he'd buy, passing one to Marland, and storing the other away in the cupboard. "We'd just left the shop," Shodin started as Marland broke off a piece, "when we heard screaming, so we ran towards it."
"Of course," Marland muttered, snorting, just before he threw a piece of chocolate into his mouth.
Shodin twitched a smile at him. "When we got there, the xeno was already dead – I think at least one of them has magic."
Marland's mind wanted to jump to the guy with the purple and blue banded tail but he quashed that quickly.
"And you brought them here, why?" he asked, half-dryly, feeling like he already knew the answer.
"Their clothing, for one," Shodin pointed out, raising an eyebrow, and Marland had to agree. They were clearly handmade and they weren't close to anything that Marland had seen in Lahstron. "So they probably haven't been here long," Shodin mused, his eyes going a little distant. "They didn't react badly to seeing Fion, and when I greeted them, they answered back."
It was definitely the last one that would have tipped the scales in their favour of Shodin bringing them over. But not running away screaming (or attacking) would have helped too.
Shodin hummed. "I called Laris and Nav but we didn't wait for them – I'll give them their payment when I get it."
Marland glanced around the room as he thought. "I guess I'm going to get them forms to register them as hunters." If they started getting their own semi-steady income (what with the rate that xeni seemed to be appearing in Lahstron) then it wouldn't be long before they could begin to rent their own place.
They turned their heads to the sound of Shodin's door clicking open, the guy poking his head through the gap.
"Do you need something?" Shodin asked, smiling gently at him.
The xeno glanced at the floor before he shook his head. "I can't sleep," he said quietly, his tail barely moving. "There's too much information…"
And Marland and Shodin were probably going to have to teach them what everything was, Marland realised, his ears flattening. How long was that going to take?
Shodin chuckled softly. "I know – it took me and Fion a while to get used to everything." He tilted his head. "But, Aldran, don't you want to sit over here so we're not talking across a room?"
So that was his name. And for a person as big as Aldran was, he seemed to spend a lot of the time trying to look as small as possible, Marland thought, watching the way Aldran's shoulders hunched before he stepped out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
"How are you?" Shodin asked as Aldran sat down across from Marland, Fion padding over to his side instantly.
"My head hurts," Aldran told them, not looking up as he played with the edge of the table. "It doesn't stop…"
Marland and Shodin shared a glance over the table. Aldran wasn't human; the human medicine might not work on him – or worse, it could kill him. Chocolate worked for Marland, but they couldn't know if that would be the same from Aldran until he tried it.
"We do have a few things that could help," Shodin said, "but they're for humans, so it could make it worse."
Marland snorted. Bit of an understatement.
Aldran finally raised his head, and his eyebrows were drawn in as he stared at Shodin. "Help?" he repeated. "How could you help with it?"
"With the pain?" Shodin said, uncertainty creeping into his tone, which Marland's own feelings mirrored. What else could he mean?
"I…oh." Aldran shook his head. "I thought you were talking about…"
And Marland was starting to get Balt-vibes from him, what with all the pauses and hesitations, but at least he wasn't claiming to know Shodin from before…
But he and the other xeno know where they lived now. Shit.
"Talking about what?" Marland growled, his ears flat and eyes narrowed. He was not going to have a drawn out conversation, not if say, Aldran was stalling for time while some people were about to break down their door. And he really didn't want to be working on assumptions again – those never ended well.
That made Aldran's attention snap to him before dropping again. He heard Shodin's sound of annoyance at him, but Marland ignored it, watching Aldran carefully.
Aldran's shoulders hunched, and his head turned away. "About my god's gift to know how something works when I see it."
Marland stared at him. His what?
"Our world…isn't like this," Aldran continued, his breathing harsh. "We don't have…'electricity', 'TVs', 'fridges'." His hand dropped to Fion's head, and he started to run his fingers through Fion's fur. "It doesn't stop," he whispered, his other hand scrubbing at his forehead.
It was quiet for a while after Aldran spoke, apart from Fion whining and then nudging Aldran's elbow with his nose.
Marland could feel his distrust crumbling, and he glanced at Shodin, who was looking like he wanted to go to Aldran's side.
"It took me and Fion a while to adjust when we first arrived, and we didn't have your gift," Shodin told Aldran kindly.
Marland was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that were was a god on their world that seemed to do something.
Aldran peeked at Shodin, his eyes a little wide. "You're also…?"
Shodin nodded. "And so is Marland. They call us xeno here, or xeni if it's more than one."
"Oh." Aldran's eyes glazed over for a second. "Oh. Strangers."
Well… Shit. Wendil had told Marland once the reason why they were called xeni, but if Aldran understood that without someone telling him, and he couldn't have known about the etymology before…
"Gods exist in your world." Marland wasn't sure if he'd been aiming for some sort of statement or question or a weird mix of the two, but it slipped out anyway.
Aldran stared at him in confusion. "Of course They do-" Marland could hear the emphasis of 'They' "-I was…" He trailed off, hunching in on himself again. Marland was starting to wonder if his back didn't stay like that.
"Geists don't exist here…"
Marland wanted to ask, but-
-'Geists?'-
Right. He should have expected Shodin or Fion to ask anyway.
"They're…abominations. They disrupt the natural order of the world."
And Marland's skin itched at just hearing those words. They sounded far too similar to what he heard being directed towards xeni.
"How do they that do that?" Marland asked him.
Aldran looked up and actually made eye-contact with Marland. "They eat people's souls."
Far too similar. "You seen them do it?"
He got a shake of the head as a reply. "We have seen the aftereffects though."
Marland slammed his hands on the table, snarling, making Aldran jump. "So how the fuck do you know that's true? And if they do eat souls-" Whatever the fuck that meant "-it's not like they can help it!"
Aldran, thankfully, cringed and didn't jump to defend what he'd just said. "We…" Aldran took a deep breath. "We've been realising that."
He eyed him, before feeling mollified. It seemed genuine enough. Marland couldn't picture Aldran jumping to defend anything though.
He then got to ignoring Shodin's patient rebuking looks.
-'Aldran?'-
"Hm?"
-'When Marland asked if you had any memory problems, why did your tail freeze?'-
Marland hadn't been paying attention to begin with, too used to filtering out Fion's voice, but he was listening by the end of it, close enough to hear Aldran's startled intake of breath.
"I… Because…" Aldran eventually fell silent.
"Do not fucking tell me you have memory problems," Marland snapped, his ears flat. The last amnesiac he let into his house ended with them being kidnapped and tortured!
Aldran didn't move for about a minute before he took a shuddering breath and shook his head.
If it wasn't him who had memory problems, then it had to be… "She doesn't know she has amnesia."
Aldran shook his head again.
The room went silent as that information sunk in. The swirl of emotions Marland had ebbed away.
"Why…haven't you told Ras?" Shodin asked carefully.
Marland saw the way Aldran's entire body froze. "She doesn't want to remember," he said, his tone constrained. "She asked…"
Well, fuck.
The admission seemed to take the last of Aldran's energy and he sagged in the chair. Marland watched Shodin usher him to the couch and by the sound of it, he fell asleep straight away.
Marland tilted his head down, so his ears pointed towards Shodin.
"He resisted when I tried to guide him to the door," Shodin explained.
Shodin sighed as he pulled a chair and sat down heavily. "I don't think we should tell Ras."
Marland growled. "And what if someone comes up to her, pretending to know someone else she's met here?" 'Like what happened to you' went unsaid, but it was still easily heard.
"And what about Aldran?" Shodin pointed out. Marland's thoughts halted at that. "He doesn't have memory problems so he would know if someone was lying about that, and if Ras didn't want to remember…"
Then she didn't want to remember.
Marland broke off another piece of chocolate and ate it. Now he had a headache with his physical bruises, and this was without touching the 'god' stuff. Ugh.
After watching for a few seconds, Shodin stole a row of Marland's chocolate, and ignored his glare with well-practiced ease.
…I guess the next part is going to have Marland and Shodin confirming the god angle from Ras? *ponder*
Somehow, three 'guys' – no, wait, 'four' in a room, and I don't seem to have a pronoun problem. :O
And, hey, Marland was doing most of the talking here too! Shodin was just making sure the conversation didn't get out of hand! XDDD
I only realised while typing up the last bit that I was doing the annoying thing in crossovers where the characters meet and then spill their extreme secrets to complete strangers. XD;; Oops. In zer defence, I think Aldran really needed someone to talk to, just to get it off zer chest.