Patience Finished

Between the seemingly endless swathes of snowbanks collecting at the feet of glacier-cut canyon walls, Valentin Schnell wound his way along a frozen-over brook. Higher and higher, deeper and farther from the castle, the boy was on the run again. Now that it was Friday, the Frost Captain could afford to get lost, having given his team a rare weekend off from practice. The self-isolation wasn’t just for his team’s sake, but Val never could distinguish between his own needs and the well being that others required of him. Now, depriving himself of a broom, Valentin couldn’t repeat such earlier benders of reckless flying as had nearly killed him two years ago. If he wasn’t riding that lightning-cracked Silver Arrow he had lost, he wasn’t sure he’d make it home, considering how hard he pushed his personal training. Besides, the last time he’d endured a torturously slow hike, one of the best days of his life struck him unsuspecting.

Today was another day, however. It seemed that Valentin’s traditional Christmas Curse had never ended – over the winter break a crippling hunger beset the seeker, and coupled with Sergei’s assertions that Valentin was losing his mind and the horrifying events in that London bookstore, Valentin hardly trusted himself around people anymore. Not knowing that he was the victim of a mind-controlling magical slug, Valentin only knew that he had to escape into the wild when he noticed his gaze lingering too long on the lips of others.

Immersing himself in the blinding reflections of light glinting off the surrounding ice slicks, Valentin focused on the voices of the wind echoing through the towering cliffsides around him. Knowing only these sensations as he pressed on into the spruce-rimmed mountains, Valentin was in a state of perfect concentration when the screams came to him.

Truly, these are screams, thought the seeker. The tones resembled neither the susurrations of the ancestral voices nor were they blurred and hazy like a memory. Stopping to silence his footfall, Valentin listened. The screaming went on and on, but Valentin knew all about pain. This was not the sound of one in mortal terror, nor the cry of mere physical pain. No, this was someone’s very soul in anguish, and not even music could move him in such a way as this did. Valentin’s basic nature was that of a pain-eater, and neither hell nor high water could keep him from seeking its source.

Homing in on the cries like a hunting falcon, Valentin crested a ridge and looked down across a valley laden heavy with untrodden white. As if naturally camouflaged within a winter ghillie suit, Valentin’s long ivory coat, moonstone skin, and pearl-white hair effortlessly concealed the tall athlete. He might as well have been a birch tree, so thin and pale was he, standing at the treeline as he scanned the area. The sound grew coarser as it howled, but there – there in a darker splotch, the captain’s keen eye spied movement.

As the lightweight seeker broke into as much of a run as the snow allowed, his chest ached from the torment of the cries burrowing deeper and deeper into his heart. There was only one need in existence for him anymore, beyond words, beyond any meditation. Valentin had to find that heart-wrenching agony and devour it until its victim felt so purified that they could fly.

The crunching slog of Valentin’s legs bashing against the banks of snowdrift grew increasingly drowned out by the pounding of his heart and the backdrop of wails drawing near. Surely this was no less than Valentin’s true summoning. Yet, for as fast as the fleet-footed seeker was, it felt like an eternity, struggling against the embankments until he could finally fall upon the crushed-down hole in the sea of white.

The platinum-haired boy that lay collapsed therein might not have noticed Valentin’s approach, deafened as he was by his self-inflicted Muffiliato, but Valya had no words to announce himself anyway. The boy was pain and Valentin was made for this. Lithe arms reached down, and if the boy did not evade, Valentin would wrap himself around the other in his all-encompassing embrace. Pulling the other tight against himself, the seeker’s amethyst eyes squeezed tightly closed as he pressed his nose and forehead into the side of the other’s face. The weight of the six-foot athlete would add to the compression of the hug, and if the other did not escape, Valya would hold on like his very life depended on it. Hot tears seeped from around his milky eyelashes as the dust of hoarfrost melted off onto Gellert’s skin in tiny droplets falling from the plush fringe of Valentin’s coat.

Basic Stats:
STA 8 - EVA 20 - STR 3 - WIS 20 [24] - ARC 1 - ACC 17

Abilities:
Keen Eye / Charmer / Evasive Maneuvers / Fearless / Comprehend Languages: Parseltongue & Veela

@Tristan Theramin (Gellert Schroeder)

Tristan Theramin wrote: 20 Jun 2024, 15:51

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂██████████████꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂██████████████꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂

Date: June 19th Mentioning/Interacting: Open to any Durmstrang student @Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood as Valentin Schnell Languages: German English Russian French Outfit/Physical Characteristics: Reducio A comfortable summer suit and comfortable shoes Silver hair, blue eyes, and sharp cheekbones Age: 15 Location: Durmstrang IC Date: 01/26/2024

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂ Magic blooms only in rare souls. Still, we must skulk in shadows. But the old ways serve us no longer

Patience

xxxxxGellert startled against the presence of the other behind him, though he could not hear due to his self-inflicted Muffiliato and when he felt the presence of arms reaching down against him, Gellert flinched, unwilling to touch, what must be a hallucination stemmed from the pain of fire and snow. He dared not accept the hug from the hallucination as he was certain the warm caress would be mist if it touched him. But the tempting wish for intimate affection overcame him and he tentatively allowed himself to lean.

xxxxxHis breath disappeared from within him when he felt warmth. If this was a hallucination then it was an undistinguishable one. He would fall into it as wizards staring into the Mirror of Erised would. He would fall in love with the world that this deception would give him for he had no choice but to offer comfort to the cracking psyche within him. He fell into the other's arms and lost himself in the embrace. The other seemed to wrap himself tight and press his face against Gellert's own. The weight of the other seemed so real, so tight, so loving.

xxxxxThere was nothing to lose but to hold on tighter in return. If this was not reality then it was better than reality and he would lose himself within it again and again. But then he felt the hot tears from the other seep into his skin, he felt them and he tentatively wished against all odds, hoped even, that the moment Gellert turned his eyes upon the other, there would indeed be a person truly there, truly providing the intimacy he so desired. He turned his face to look and there the person was. Gellert stared, stared perhaps into his abyss, and stared at the person.

xxxxxThe beautiful hair of the soul embracing him was white as snow, shimmering, as if the other was a snow nymph, a part of nature forgotten. Others would say blonde but it was enchanting to him. He took out his wand and quickly cast nonverbally, thinking in his head, finite incantatem. Gellert was out of breath, not because of pain, but the ephemeral nature in front of him, a human that was not quite human, not lesser, but more.

xxxxxHe asked, almost involuntarily, "You must be an angel, what is your name?" There was a curiosity to his voice as if there was a hunger in him, desiring to know this apparition in front of him. Who was this stranger in front of him? "Are you an apparition or are you a student? Tell me, for I am lost in pain, and I cannot dare hope for you to be real." Gellert's eyes watered and he let his tears fall and involuntarily he let his head fall on the other shoulder and if the other would let him then he would stay there until his tears ran dry and his questions did not matter anymore. Perhaps pain comes from beauty and beauty comes from pain. If the apparition were truly here, then pain led Gellert to him, and oh what beauty did he see. There was no other answer than the one he contemplated. There was a saying that there is beauty in the night when the swallows fly and to him, the birds are flying now. There was no Shroeder or Shmitt in the presence of the other now, only a lonely and tear-filled Gellert whose heart's desire was another who would share in his affliction and affection, his pride and his pain, and his love and his lyre.

xxxxxThere was a deep ache within his soul, his beauty came from pain as the poets would say. Artists question whether their work has to stem from pain but Gellert is certain it does. There is no other answer to contemplate than this one and this one alone. If when he raised his head from his tears and the apparition was there, he would accept its reality, accept that he was real. Accept that someone had embraced him in the way he so desired, a hug that takes your breath away and never returns like love's first kiss but deeper than romance, a breath that is taken away in pure love and affection unafflicted by anything else that would spoil it forever. Gellert would ask the other for their name, would ask for truth, would ask for silence. He did not know for he still dared not hope that the angel was real. His mind rapidly hopes the angel is a student and then rapidly hopes it is an apparition, a fulfillment of his mental desire in physical form, conjured by his aching heart and his magic.

xxxxxFor, if the angel was a student, Gellert would be in complete and utter debt to the other and would be unable to pay. He is desperate for the truth and desperate for a lie. He has dichotomies within him and his mind is a dichotomy now. He has always been such and yet has never been such. There is hope and despair brewing within him, a cacophony of emotions as it tears and heals, bruises and saves, and kills and revives. There is nothing Gellert can do and he waits and waits and waits to look again as if holding time still. If he was a muggle he would say this was the dilemna of the Shroedinger's cat, the apparition is true and yet untrue at the same time. But no, Gellert is a wizard and he describes it in his mind as the dilemna of the deathly hallows. Yes they are true, but does the wizarding world want it to be true? Or if it isn't is it worth fighting for.

xxxxxHe was named after Gellert Grindelwald in strange fate and he falls and falls and falls just the same. There is nothing holding him to sanity now. He is living yet dead in this moment before he sees the truth. It is but a moment yet it is years and days.

When Gellert first turned his face towards the snowy-haired seeker, he found a glow of pure comfort exuding from Valya’s face. An innocent sigh of relief escaped from the parting of Val’s smile as his knowing eyes read Gellert’s expression. Continuing to hold the other, Val could feel it working – the outpouring of his love into the gaping wound in Gellert’s heart – and sensing that he was welcome beckoned Valya on further. Everything about the apparition surrounding Gellert shone in subtle prismatic tones of white. Although paler than even the fairest-skinned of human peers, Valentin’s albino body still carried the pink pastels of youthful vivacity which was absent in the corpselike skin of dhampirs and deadly ghouls. The exotic eyes Valentin inherited from his Tatar part-veela mother sparkled as they sought Gellert’s. A human that was not quite human indeed – while Valentin had long remained silent about his non-human ancestry, there was something decidedly ethereal to his countenance.

"You must be an angel, what is your name?"

“I can only aspire to such heights, dear Gellert,” responded Valya in a gentle German whisper. The other had not introduced himself, no, and they had never interacted before – and yet, this otherworldly creature knew his name. The standard language at Durmstrang was Russian, and yet… “My name is Valentin Schnell.” It was not a hallucination – the words came in natural, perfectly native German. The purple and mithril hues of Valentin’s eyes shifted in a kaleidoscopic heaven within each iris.

"Are you an apparition or are you a student? Tell me, for I am lost in pain, and I cannot dare hope for you to be real."

“I am but a humble student like yourself. Fear not. You cried out, and though you are immersed in this sea of pain, I have come to lift you out of it. Here now, feel for yourself – I am as real and in the flesh as you.” If the other allowed, Valentin grasped the boy’s hand and – with perhaps the lightest, most delicate touch Gellert had ever felt – he pressed it against Valentin’s own face. The seeker’s smile blossomed further, like the awakening of spring. Then, letting go, Valentin’s right hand raised to the top of Gellert’s head where, if the other did not resist, its fingers would pass through his hair in long caresses.

Tears rained down from Gellert’s eyes and scattered across Valentin’s clothes and skin like a divine rite. The captain’s shoulder came to support the other’s face as it laid itself down to rest there, warmed and brushed by the exquisitely soft fur encircling Valentin’s neck. “I’m here with you now. Please, let it all out. Pour your pain into me… all of it, as much as you can reach.”

The harder Gellert wept, the more affectionately Valentin responded. Cradling him in his arms and rocking subtly back and forth, Val buried his nose in the other’s hair. Stroking the other’s back during the most extreme bouts of weeping, Valentin never let go for even a moment. His heart ached and felt close to bursting from the intensity of the exchange, but it also electrified the blood in Val’s veins and made him feel sublimely alive. He was born for this.

“Yes, Gellert… that’s right. I heard you calling, and now I am here. Show me all the wishes of your deepest heart.” A purple gleam shone through Valentin’s eyes as he turned them back in search of Gellert’s. If he made eye contact, Val’s keen mysterious sight would dig down deep into the other boy’s, seeking their farthest recesses for his very soul. A primal yearning pulled at the heart, unseen but strong like gravity in such close proximity, as Valentin’s hypnotic gaze echoed the rituals of his ancestors. The moment rang with the magic of the surreal, but the white seeker remained, watching, with nothing but love radiating from his every facet.

Basic Stats:
STA 8 - EVA 20 - STR 3 - WIS 20 [24] - ARC 1 - ACC 17

Abilities:
Keen Eye / Charmer / Evasive Maneuvers / Fearless / Comprehend Languages: Parseltongue & Veela

@Tristan Theramin (Gellert Schroeder)

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂██████████████꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂██████████████꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂

Date: June 19th Mentioning/Interacting: Open to any Durmstrang student @Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood as Valentin Schnell Languages: German English Russian French Outfit/Physical Characteristics: Reducio A comfortable summer suit and comfortable shoes Silver hair, blue eyes, and sharp cheekbones Age: 15 Location: Durmstrang IC Date: 01/26/2024

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂ Magic blooms only in rare souls. Still, we must skulk in shadows. But the old ways serve us no longer

Patience

xxxxx Gellert cocked his head to the side, stepping out of the embrace that was so tempting to stay in and narrowed his eyes at the other. "Du kennst meinen Namen.You know my name" It was not a question but a statement. "Wenn du meinen Namen kennst, dann bist du ein Mensch.If you know my name, you are human." In that moment, Gellert's eyes opened and all he saw was a human peer, a human peer with strange appearances, but not an angel at all, no, just a kind, loving, human, perhaps the strangest creature of them all. Gellert offered his surname as a shield or perhaps a gift, a gift of humour, He gave a kind and flourishing smile, "Hmm, Valentin, you already know my name, but I shall still introduce myself, Geller Shroeder at your service, or your acquaintance." His pain was already subsiding at the presence of Valentin, at the presence of the albino, a rare human mutation, if Muggles would describe it, but he as a wizard named after Gellert Grindelwald, well, he would say Valentin was not pureblood wizard, no, he was perhaps of a more beautiful kind, not an angel, but a Veela.

xxxxxGellert would never know unless he asked of course, he was not the type to ask. His heart swelled and replied, "Beautiful that you aspire to be an angel, my dear Shnell, but angels do not deserve our praise, just kind and lonely souls with beautiful hearts that heal and love." Gellert smiled slightly, an ephemeral smile, a gentle one perhaps that could pierce the hardest of hearts with warmth and love. "I am enraptured by your care, my dear Len." He allowed the other to grasp his hand and place it against Valentin's face. There is beauty in pain and love and there is beauty in kind broken souls who are the only ones left in the world. Gellert felt a yearning within him to forever be in the presence of this beautiful soul, whether romantic or platonic, need not matter, it never had to him. It was only a deep human connection that he so desired. It would be strange to the rest of the wizarding world but he believed without a doubt that the person he could have a connection with need not have magic, nor do they need to be pure human. It could be a werewolf or a vampire, a goblin or a veela, for all he could care. It was only the connection he so desired.

xxxxx "Oui, tu es bien chair et sang.Yes, you are indeed flesh and blood" "You are the only one who would cradle me against the pangs of the night and from the cracks of a heartbroken soul" When Valentin stared directly into his eyes, Gellert looked straight back. The pain was gone, instead, he felt a yearning, as if their souls were becoming one. He looked and he observed and he saw Len for who he was, a soul with love and joy in his heart. At that moment, all his emotionality disappeared and he joked "Yes indeed, you are a student, who else would be here at Durmstrang other than students and professors." He felt normal again having imprinted on the other, forever knowing, yes,he would have this connection, which prevented him from falling back into pain and anguish again in the moment. In fact, he felt like a child again, wanting to have fun or something of the sort. In a strange flurry of giddiness, he cast, "Stella Cascadia" causing a shower of stars to fall. "Do you like the falling stars?" Gellert ask as he felt a giggle coming on and a blush on his cheeks. "

xxxxxHe for the strangest reason wanted to cast Tarantallegra on himself as well, but he dare not, for he would seem a clown. It was all a bit of a rush, originating from the first happiness he felt for a very long time, he had been lonely at Durmstrang after all. He could not help but agree once more that beauty comes through pain, and he repeated the idiom in his mental landscape again and again. Instead of the dancing spell, he cast "Orchideous' conjuring a flower that he offered to the other. The red of the flower beautifully contrasted the pale landscape of the snow and ice, as well as the facial complexion of the person in front of him. It was all glowing in his mentality as if his ancestral bloodline from nobility had awoken once more and he was required to charm the other with a glowing smile. Gellert was beautiful when he was filled with positive emotions. His smile shined against the darkness and his bright blonde, almost white, hair curled around his features and created a silhouette worthy of description. His light eyes glowed with excitement and expectancy.

xxxxx There was of course an ephemerality to him as well, as emotions darkened his expressions and caused him to be threatening or enchanting during moments that called for it. However, in this moment, no, it was all a natural result from the joy that spilled out from his heart that there was someone there and that someone would not leave him alone as he feared others would do. "You would never leave will you?" Gellert asked, expecting the answer to be no. Gellert glowed when he was joyful and it continued to show. There was an ever pouring light out of Gellert's heart even as a child and when he would meet someone who made that light glow oh it would shine so bright that it would show in his face, in his body, in his eyes. It was always people that would make him glow and once again it was a person that made him glow again this time, after years and years of heartache. Maybe it was romance or maybe it was a friendship, to Gellert it didn't matter, he just searched and searched for people who would make him feel this way, like a rose that was bursting, a warm fire in his heart that would hopefully never go away.

As Gellert pulled back, Valentin released his grip to allow the other’s freedom of movement.

"Hmm, Valentin, you already know my name, but I shall still introduce myself, Geller Shroeder at your service, or your acquaintance."

“It’s a pleasure to properly meet you, Gellert. I’ve long wondered if one day you would come to me, and if the proclivities of Dietrich run deeper in your family.” As not only a German national but a captain with an encyclopedic knowledge of quidditch, Valentin’s eye was forever watching for talent to bring onto his teams. As soon as matriculation and sports rosters were scripted, they soon fell into Val’s hands through his persuasive charm even though the captain was infamous for poaching desired players from other teams. With the terror Durmstrang’s quidditch team could now strike into the hearts of opponents, despite rising from the scraps of obliteration years ago, such tactics were undeniably effective. Perhaps no student knew more about Durmstrang’s student body than its champion, whose protective and nurturing gaze knew no bounds. Whether Gellert’s introduction remained at Val’s acquaintance, at his service, or something further depended on Gellert himself.

“It does sound lonely for angels to not deserve praise, but surely their work itself is the point. I would still struggle to get as close as possible to such heights, despite the pains of solitude.” Sighing, Valentin clearly found the remark hitting close to home. Yet, like the shadow of a cloud passing quickly over the horizon, the sadness dissipated. At hearing the name “Len,” a furtive smile of hope tinged Valentin’s face instead. This was a new one for him.

“You honor me. Most are not so fast to regard me so affectionately so soon.” Valentin’s eyes softened. Indeed, he was used to not receiving much in the way of reciprocated love until it had been cultivated in the hearts of others for years. Yet, within moments, it seemed Gellert was holding up no walls between them, and Valentin couldn’t be more pleased. A rosy blush passed over him at the use of French that he was embarrassed to only half understand from its cognates. Even this, however, seemed to pleasure him. The other’s daring eye contact did not shy away for even an instant despite the intensity of the seeker’s delving stare, and greedily the keen amethyst eyes dug deeper. Soon the pair indeed felt a mysterious union of consciousness. As the champion reciprocated in placing no barriers between them, everything that Valya was gazed back fearlessly and free for the taking.

The curtain of shooting stars from Gellert’s Stella Cascadia then drew Valentin’s eye away and, as if bewitched and entranced, it would take a long moment before responding to the other’s giggling question of whether he liked them.

After the final star disappeared, Valentin’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Staring straight at where the last one had ceased to exist, a shiver crept down his spine. Was this to be his fate as well? Knowing there was surely no way to know what had happened to the others, a wave of loneliness threatened to overtake the starlight-haired seeker. He didn’t want to be the last of his kind, but what was he to do? Looking back up at Gellert, Valentin’s eyes had taken on a teary sheen.

“When I was a child, my mother told me that it is our ancestral duty to grant wishes. Yet, however much I try, it has been so hard to find a heart that so sincerely yearns and aches for their dream that they actually endure the hardships necessary to make it come true. It is too easy to toy with ideals and then cast them aside when they grow tiresome. It hurts. Is the human heart always so capricious?” A single tear dropped from Valentin’s eye. “Don’t misunderstand, please, Gellert. I did like the shooting stars you showed me. It was a more precious gift than I know how to explain. With time, if you persist, better understanding will come.”

If beauty came through pain, well, Valentin now exuded a heartfelt agony cushioned within his enduring aura of love. Extending his hand to receive the flower Gellert offered him, Valentin smiled again with a sniff.

“What kind of flower is it?” The seeker’s eyes sparkled a little, and his voice inflected to a higher pitch. He loved flowers but didn’t have such prodigious nature skills as his fellow albino, Aida. Red was not his number one favorite color, either, but it was still near the top.

“Thank you.” With audible emotion tightening at the back of his throat, Valentin’s lips spread into a wider, shy grin. What was even more beautiful than the flower, or even the charming and handsome boy’s physical appearance, were the openness, purity, and love that animated Gellert’s heart. Further, the beauty of the boy’s pain called to Valya like a passage of music.

"You would never leave will you?"

“No, Gellert. Even if I am far away, if I can hear the summons of your heart then I will speed to your aid. When you make a true and profound wish, you may always cast it like a dandelion into the winds, but if what you want is me, then please call upon me by name.”

Basic Stats:
STA 8 - EVA 20 - STR 3 - WIS 20 [24] - ARC 1 - ACC 17

Abilities:
Keen Eye / Charmer / Evasive Maneuvers / Fearless / Comprehend Languages: Parseltongue & Veela

@Tristan Theramin (Gellert Schroeder)

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂██████████████꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂██████████████꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂

Date: June 19th Mentioning/Interacting: Open to any Durmstrang student @Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood as Valentin Schnell Languages: German English Russian French Outfit/Physical Characteristics: Reducio A comfortable summer suit and comfortable shoes Silver hair, blue eyes, and sharp cheekbones Age: 15 Location: Durmstrang IC Date: 01/26/2024

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂ Magic blooms only in rare souls. Still, we must skulk in shadows. But the old ways serve us no longer

Patience

xxxxx“It’s a pleasure to properly meet you, Gellert. I’ve long wondered if one day you would come to me, and if the proclivities of Dietrich run deeper in your family.”

xxxxxGellert hummed in reply to Len's interest in his quidditch abilities and gave a nonchalant look back at the other's face. He quipped, "Dietrich made his name outside of the family's popularity as wand tree farmers. Perhaps I do, perhaps I do not. There has been no testing of my skills in such a sport but there may be in the time to come. You are familiar with his work then, Schnell. I presume you know of his success as a seeker for the German National Team. Are you a part of our Quidditch team here?"

xxxxxThere was a switch in atmosphere in the manner that Gellert behaved in this moment. There was an ethereal nature before when his emotions were flowing and he dare not trust the apparition in front of him. Now, they were equals, equals in blood, equals in humanity, and equals as students, perhaps even equal in age and it showed. Gellert had reached his homeostasis and from now he no longer viewed the other as beyond the physical realm. Valentin was human with a soul and with dreams.

xxxxxValentin was a beautiful person with wishes, goals, and history. He was no angel, no, Len was a person with ancestry, joy, and sadness, just as Gellert did. It was easy then, to tease, to jive humorously, "And if the proclivities, as you say, of Dietrich do run in my veins, what do you wish for me to do?" Gellert smiled warmly at Len, showing that he meant no harm with his quips, that it was a sign of closeness, that he trusted the other not to leave, even if he was sarcastic or annoying. "Would you wish to test me yourself, perhaps? Become friends rather than just acquaintances, so that you may see for yourself if this proclivity is within me?"

xxxxx Gellert paused there for a moment, waiting for the tension to grow, or perhaps excitement. Then he replied, "If so, well I would love that, to be your friend." He gave a blinding smile with a lot yearning within. This was new to Gellert and having a genuine soulmate seemed an exciting prospect. There was a furtive hope or perhaps a tinge of sadness. Perhaps the other does deserve to be called an angel, a human of highest praise. Valentin confessed, “It does sound lonely for angels to not deserve praise, but surely their work itself is the point. I would still struggle to get as close as possible to such heights, despite the pains of solitude.”


xxxxxGellert paused as he began to understand the view of the possible friend who rescued him from the mire. He stared, searching within the other's eyes a question and drank in the answer that the eyes gave. His tone shifted back to a serious one and he prophesised, "The work of the lonely is often the least appreciated. The angels should not be seen as a goal to achieve. Humans should aim to reach their own heights in goodness, love, and care. The angels do not have free will to choose to be good but humans do. Shall not we search for love and purity in the stars, in our own temporal realm, rather than the realm of the heavenly, of creatures beyond our world. I search for it in you, you are the answer to my dreams."


xxxxxGellert bowed in respect to the other answering back, "You honour me" and he reciprocated, "I honour you and I will continue to honour you as friend, as co-students, as one of similar age, and as one of Durmstrang. Perhaps one day I will honour you as the one I am seeking for." Gellert's voice tinged with great sadness for a moment as if he could not bear the thought of not having the one. "But I also see you as an equal and a friend. There is honour in equality as well." Gellert offered a hand as if to guide them somewhere, or perhaps just to hold the other and to have.

xxxxxOnly yearning could be seen on his face and underneath that yearning, if one searched deeply within his eyes, was desperate hope. His whole purpose in life was to find the one. His desperate wish. The one who would hold him tightly, as tightly as he would hold the other. Someone who would dare do anything for him, as he would dare do everything for them. Blood tied together as if their hearts would race as one. There was a desperate yearning for such a One and there was a desperate wish of pain, for there is beauty in pain. A pain of hearts intertwining. There was pain in the beauty of hearts breaking, creating stories of legends. Gellert looks in the other's eyes and if the other would allow him, he would look and search deep within the others eyes as powerfully and as desperately as the other had looked at his. Gellert reciprocates that was his fate in life and he accepted it. He was searching for the one who would hold him tight and he would hold even tighter.

xxxxxGellert stared into Len's eyes and saw the sorrow. He replied "You are the last of your kind, Len" not knowing what that truly meant. "Dreams come with pain, and pain is hard to swallow. But there is beauty in pain and pain in beauty. Wishes are fulfilled and yet there is yearning. There are hardships and dangers in love, in dreams, and in wishes. I search for the one and I will never leave searching for the one."

xxxxxGellert replied, "It is a lilly, bright red as blood, in bloom."

xxxxxGellert was reassured once more at the other's answer and replied, "Yes, what I want is you and only you. I searched for a person all the days of my life. I do not know if that is you. But yes, I do want you."

“Yes, my father was German, and I am on Durmstrang’s team. I study other quidditch players and some broom racers – not only ones so close to home, of course – for I am the local first-string seeker and team captain.” Valentin did not go on to mention also being Durmstrang’s Hexiwizard champion. There was no need, and if Gellert did not know already, he probably would soon enough.

"And if the proclivities, as you say, of Dietrich do run in my veins, what do you wish for me to do? Would you wish to test me yourself, perhaps? Become friends rather than just acquaintances, so that you may see for yourself if this proclivity is within me? "

Gellert paused, giving Valentin time to contemplate his questions. The captain’s eye moved away from the curl of the boy’s smile, but it was not to evade the tantalizing sting of his teasing. Instead, his gaze began to pass casually over the other’s features. While experienced in gauging a great deal from sight alone, these considerations only produced hungry new questions. The other seemed physically well-rounded, but there was no real way to lure out his hidden talents without seeing him in action. The intensity of the other’s blinding smile beckoned him further, and returning a curious smile of his own Gellert’s way, Valentin’s eyes gleamed.

“What do I wish for you to do?” a rumbling purr accompanied the captain’s reply. “I’d like for you to show yourself to me, please, in all your ten thousand facets. I want to learn about you – everything. I want all of my senses to teach me new things about who you are and what you are capable of. Then I should very much like to help you find your future self in your purest, most transcendent form, living out your heart’s truest dreams. Only in knowing you down to your very core will I find the secrets to unlocking your fullest potential. I do wish to test you myself. I don’t know if ‘friends’ is the word that describes this, but if it is, then that is what I would like to be.” Valentin could feel the yearning tugging at him from the other boy’s eyes. The potency of Gellert’s wish called to him like an undeniable siren song.

The farther Gellert delved into the seeker’s amethyst chip eyes, the more they seemed to pull him in deeper. Within that empyreal gaze Valentin guarded no secrets, and Gellert’s questioning eyes would find their answer – yes. Yes. Yes. The farther he looked, the grander the expanding affirmation in Val’s ravenous eyes.

"The work of the lonely is often the least appreciated. The angels should not be seen as a goal to achieve. Humans should aim to reach their own heights in goodness, love, and care. The angels do not have free will to choose to be good but humans do. Shall not we search for love and purity in the stars, in our own temporal realm, rather than the realm of the heavenly, of creatures beyond our world. I search for it in you, you are the answer to my dreams."

“I dare not pretend to know the true ways of angels, but I do choose love and purity, no matter where. I couldn’t limit myself by presuming to even know what a human really is, let alone an angel. What I know is that when I search within you, I find love and purity there.”

"I honour you and I will continue to honour you as friend, as co-students, as one of similar age, and as one of Durmstrang. Perhaps one day I will honour you as the one I am seeking for. But I also see you as an equal and a friend. There is honour in equality as well. " Gellert went on to offer his hand, which Valentin took into his own. Weaving his fingers through and pressing his scarred palm against the other’s, Valentin could not take his eyes off the mysterious boy whose screaming cries he’d run to answer. Blue-green eyes began to search anew inside the dark pupils rimmed with columns of purple and mithril iris, and as Valentin felt them dig deeper he leaned forward to welcome their exploration no matter how far they wanted to go. He wanted to be known, seen, down to the most ineffable spin of his atoms, just as he burned to know the contours of Gellert’s very soul. The fiercer the yearning in the boy’s expression, the more excited and fervent the champion’s smile became.

"You are the last of your kind, Len. Dreams come with pain, and pain is hard to swallow. But there is beauty in pain and pain in beauty. Wishes are fulfilled and yet there is yearning. There are hardships and dangers in love, in dreams, and in wishes. I search for the one and I will never leave searching for the one."

Nodding, Valentin concluded that Gellert must have seen a truth about him within their profound interlocking gaze. If the lad hadn't known of his roles at Durmstrang, he couldn’t have possibly heard those family secrets he was rattled to hear falling from the lips of Gitano, right?

“You speak the truth. The sacred magic of my mother’s lineage will die with me if I do not find a way to preserve it. Yet, I have no way to practice it alone, for it requires bonding with another, and it is quite dangerous. It has been a struggle especially now that both she and my father are gone, and all I have are the books and memories they left behind… It’s all a bit much to try to understand by myself, but I want to find a way to honor the gifts I inherited from my ancestors. It’s one of my dreams.”

"Dreams come with pain, and pain is hard to swallow. But there is beauty in pain and pain in beauty. Wishes are fulfilled and yet there is yearning. There are hardships and dangers in love, in dreams, and in wishes. I search for the one and I will never leave searching for the one. "

“That is my biggest dream, actually. I too dream of finding transcendental unity with my ‘one and only.’” Twirling the red lily slowly between two fingers, Valentin smiled. The fan clubs had caught wind of the rumor that the seeker only ever took lilies up to his room, and ever since, the mail room at the Schnell Estate permanently came to smell of their sweet indole. The heady, intoxicating fragrance even seemed to trail him whenever he wore clothes brought from his residence in Kazan. Yet, such a deep red lily was unusual. Aida would have identified it as the Asiatic Scheherazade variety, but all Val knew was that it was bold, brilliant, and alluring like the red cloaks of Durmstrang itself.

“I adore it.” Taking in a deep breath of its natural perfume, Valentin’s eyelashes batted with extreme pleasure. As the euphoric expression melted off his face, a glow of peace took its place and he sighed.

"You would never leave will you?"

“No, Gellert. Even if I am far away, if I can hear the summons of your heart then I will speed to your aid. When you make a true and profound wish, you may always cast it like a dandelion into the winds, but if what you want is me, then please call upon me by name.”

"Yes, what I want is you and only you. I searched for a person all the days of my life. I do not know if that is you. But yes, I do want you. "

Valentin’s lips fell open as he turned his head from the lily back to the other boy. Him, and only him? A pounding in the seeker’s chest beat with such growing force, he could have sworn it shook his entire body, like an echoing clap of thunder. A rush passed through his head, and closing his eyes, Valya took in a slow breath. Gathering his strength to open them again, he found that Gellert was still there – apparently not a dream. Raising his delicate hand in a move to caress the crown of the other’s head and pass through the mane of the other’s hair, Valentin felt like he might float off the surface of the ground at any moment.

“Gellenka…” whispered Val in a Russian diminutive form of Gellert’s name. “Галленка моя.” “My dear Gellert.” Quelling the familiar hungering and twisting of his stomach as he longed to kiss the boy, Valentin closed his eyes to root himself to the earth. “Как ты драгоценна.” “How precious you are.” Then, exhaling slowly and looking back at Gellert, Valentin prayed that he was not about to become the victim of another seductive spirit like the water nymph by the lake.

“I feel the strong wish of your heart reverberating in me. It carries me like a high wind at great speed, and I feel transmuted like a cloud’s prickling into a bolt of raw lightning. I long to cast myself into this sublime rush without limits, fearless despite having tasted the ravages of crashing before.” Shifting his gaze back to claim eye contact with the platinum blonde once more, Valentin inhaled. “If you would try to grasp a comet, to let go is a dangerous fall. Yet, to one whose wish is stronger than any other, I will give everything I am and will ever be. All of my power to grant wishes, I will give the One. With power comes great danger, and responsibility. Yet, I long to immerse myself in the most blazing wish of all. Nothing can keep me from answering this call, which makes up every fiber of my being. I want to see you soar, to live out your greatest destiny. People have broken themselves by toying with dreams they did not want passionately enough.” Moving closer to Gellert, Valentin’s face came close to the other's cheek where he whispered into his ear. “Show me the rawest, purest form of your wishfire. Show me everything you are, and look upon me in all the wild power of my untamed heart. If your wish is of perfect truth, then all of me is yours.”

Amethyst eyes flickered with desire, and Valentin’s chest roasted from within like the nuclear bursts of a sun. Nearly overpowered by the wish to place his lips behind the boy’s ear in a small and quiet kiss, Valentin restrained himself… barely.

Patience… Stribog, grant me patience.

Then, if the other did not resist, Valentin would hold Gellert again tightly in a massive embrace. Continuing to whisper, the hairs at the back of the boy’s neck tickled the side of his face.

“My mother taught me several languages, including her native Tatar. In that tongue, there is the word гел gell, which means ‘always.’ I believe your kind of love is for always, as is mine. When I hear your name, it means this to me – ‘always.’ Whether I am the answer to your heart’s desire or not, I will do everything in my power to help you attain it, Gell.”

Basic Stats:
STA 8 - EVA 20 - STR 3 - WIS 20 [24] - ARC 1 - ACC 17

Abilities:
Keen Eye / Charmer / Evasive Maneuvers / Fearless / Comprehend Languages: Parseltongue & Veela

@Tristan Theramin (Gellert Schroeder)

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂██████████████꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂██████████████꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂

Date: June 19th Mentioning/Interacting: Open to any Durmstrang student @Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood as Valentin Schnell Languages: German English Russian French Outfit/Physical Characteristics: Reducio A comfortable summer suit and comfortable shoes Silver hair, blue eyes, and sharp cheekbones Age: 15 Location: Durmstrang IC Date: 01/26/2024

꧁༒☬•••••☬༒꧂ Magic blooms only in rare souls. Still, we must skulk in shadows. But the old ways serve us no longer

Patience

xxxxxValentin was indeed on the Durmstrang team and Gellert was not surprised. The other seemed to be of athletic build. He smiled brightly as warmth filled his heart as the other revealed his proficiency in Quidditch, however. Gellert commented gleefully, "Captain and seeker. You must be very good indeed." When he paused, Gellert felt the eyes of the other gaze over his form. He felt himself tingle as the gaze gauged his physicality. He wondered what the other saw, it did not appear to be just an analysis of his ability in sports, there seemed to be a suggestion of attraction. Gellert slightly smirked as if he was certain but he was not certain, just wished for it to be true. "Do you want me as much as I want you?"

xxxxxValentin's eyes were gleaming and so Gellert displayed himself openly like honey to a bee, enchanting the other if Len would allow it. Gellert licked his lips when the other purred his reply like a beautiful cat, whose elegant features could never be matched. "My transcendent form you say. My heart's truest dreams. You already my truest wish is to find the one. But search within me and find what I cannot see. Yes, "friends" is not the right word indeed, but this connection cannot be described in words and I do not believe I will try. We know what it is in our hearts and I shall not sully it by attempting to limit it through linguistic description." There was ravenousness in Len's eyes and that was when Gellert knew he could dare to grab ahold of the other face and caress it with his gentle pale hands. If the other would allow it, Gellert would gently bring Len closer to himself.

xxxxxGellert gasped silently when the other confessed "What I know is that when I search within you, I find love and purity there." "Love, indeed. I believe this is something more than friends, isn't it. There is an intense connection between us and it shall never fade." Geller would place his hand in Len's hair and stroke it gently if that was what the other desired. There was a burning within his veins and there was a fire in his eyes. There was nothing else in the world that would matter other than the other. "You are beautiful for desiring to honour the gifts you have inherited from your ancestors. There is a purity in such a wish. I would love to know you fully. Bond with me, for now is the time, there is no other, now is the time or it will be lost forever. There is magic in the air and it is not sorcery as we as mortals know. No there is a magic in the air that has existed from before and it is the power of love. Unite with me, Len. We shall be one together. I am certain that I have never felt anything like you before and I shall never experience it again with anyone else."

xxxxxGellert gasped with an emotional overflowing. This was the fulfillment of his dreams and with it, he cried for it to come true. There were tears in his eyes not from sadness but from a deep desire that would never end. He was overwhelmed with the reality that the other was the one he was seeking. Yes, the one could end, but for now, in this moment, yes the one was here, and he could not let it go. They were transcendent in this moment. They were transcendent above physical realms and bodies. It was their souls entwining if the other would allow it. "My dream, my deepest dream, is fulfilled with you, I am united with you in this moment. This is a fixed point in time that transcends beyond our mortal bodies. I feel it. Do you feel it too?" Everything was overwhelmingly bright. There was nothing around Gellert's vision other than the captain and seeker. When the other breathed out that he adored the red lily of Scheherazade. Gellert dreamed that Len adored him and he was in euphoria. He was forever in euphoria. Nothing would tear him from this transcendence. "Yes now I know, yes, it is you who are the one. For you accept my lily and bring me into this transcendent moment. You are the one, yes!" His heart was pounding as the other caressed the crown of his head and gently waded through his hair. Gellert choked with emotion when the other called him "my dear Gellenka"

xxxxx"I feel the strong wish of your heart reverberating in me. It carries me like a high wind at great speed and I feel transmuted like a cloud's prickling into a bolt of raw lighting. I long to cast myself into this sublime rush without limits, fearless despite having tasted the ravages of crashing before" Valentin confessed as if there was nothing left and stared into Gellert's eyes. Gellert looked straight back and bared himself open, "My heart does thump in you. Fall into me, fall into this rush, and never look back. Fall with me, милыйDarling. Fall with me and never return. Grasp the world with me and allow yourself to fall without fear. There is nothing else that matters any longer. Only you matter. Only you can answer my wish. It burns within me and it will never leave. Let all of me be yours as all of you are mine." Gellert allowed himself to be held in a tight embrace as they were as close as possible together. He hears the other call him, "Gell" and he knows that is now his true name. No one else will know except Len, no no one else at all. He twists himself to face Val once more and looks into his eyes again trying to find the answer to his question. He stares and stares then allows his eyes to flicker downwards onto the other's lips. There is a question there and Gell would allow Len to answer it.

"Do you want me as much as I want you?"

Pursing his lips as he considered Gellert, Valentin’s senses hungrily took in everything they could about the boy. Yet, there was so much more to explore than even such a penetrating stare could reveal. The platinum blonde’s qualities tasted sweeter than honey from these very first moments, but they were not nearly enough to sate Valentin’s greed. More, said his eyes. Show me more. Give me more of you. The captain was not yet sure how much Gellert really, truly did want him, and thus had no other answer to give.

"My transcendent form you say. My heart's truest dreams. You already know my truest wish is to find the one. But search within me and find what I cannot see. Yes, "friends" is not the right word indeed, but this connection cannot be described in words and I do not believe I will try. We know what it is in our hearts and I shall not sully it by attempting to limit it through linguistic description."

Gellert grabbed Valya’s face and began to caress it, finding no resistance as he brought the seeker closer to himself. Valentin was a man of many languages, but his first and most fluent was that of the body. The moonstone smoothness of his skin yielded beneath Gellert’s fingers, softened especially by fine plush hairs lining his v-tapered jaw. Yet, dense muscles beneath his wiry physique spoke of the sportsman’s devotion to long hours of hard training, as well as the ferocity required to push his body past common limits. There was an uncanny fluidity to Valya’s movements in responding to the slightest touch, born from the sensitivity and dexterity he developed when learning to move as one with his team. His body’s positioning felt almost like pre-cognition as Valentin predicted just how the other needed him arranged. Gellert’s eyes seemed to burn as he ran his hand in strokes through the seeker’s snow-white hair.

"You are beautiful for desiring to honour the gifts you have inherited from your ancestors. There is a purity in such a wish. I would love to know you fully. Bond with me, for now is the time, there is no other, now is the time or it will be lost forever. There is magic in the air and it is not sorcery as we as mortals know. No there is a magic in the air that has existed from before and it is the power of love. Unite with me, Len. We shall be one together. I am certain that I have never felt anything like you before and I shall never experience it again with anyone else. "

Gellert’s overflowing emotions poured directly into Valya as tears brimmed across those yearning teal eyes. His profound longing grasped deeper inside of Valentin than a body ever could, and it began soaking through him like a spilled black inkpot.

"My dream, my deepest dream, is fulfilled with you, I am united with you in this moment. This is a fixed point in time that transcends beyond our mortal bodies. I feel it. Do you feel it too? "

Valentin’s heart beat against the cage of its ribs as if it wished to become a bird and escape the confines of its mortal coil. This one was promising Valya his wildest dreams, right here, right now. This one’s wish scorched with the heat of a star’s blaze. This one’s ache, in all its sublime intensity, called Valya by a name beyond words.

"Yes now I know, yes, it is you who are the one. For you accept my lily and bring me into this transcendent moment. You are the one, yes!"

The empathic connection between the two boys shook Valentin down to the core as the seeker drank in the raw emotion gushing into him. He felt so alive, and more awake than during the most daredevil bursts of speedracing, pulsating with energy through veins like live wires. Gellert was magnificent at this moment – exquisite in the bare honesty of his desire.

Like melting into acceleration near lightspeed, the frame of Valentin’s mental structures began to evaporate. The demands of his aching gut seeped into a background hum as the moment began coming to him as music, the way existence had sung to him as he was dying on that fateful stormy morning. Staring into Gellert’s blue eyes like the sky itself, Valya knew he was in the grip of a gravity rush, hurtling towards the earth as helplessly as when he’d been struck by lightning.

"My heart does thump in you. Fall into me, fall into this rush, and never look back. Fall with me, милый. Fall with me and never return. Grasp the world with me and allow yourself to fall without fear. There is nothing else that matters any longer. Only you matter. Only you can answer my wish. It burns within me and it will never leave. Let all of me be yours as all of you are mine."

Gellert’s voice no longer struck as words, but swirled through Valentin’s mind as streams of blinding colour. Plummeting between hypnosis and meditation, the seeker’s breathing came to match the pattern of the other’s expanding and contracting lungs. Holding this sheer phenomenon of a creature in his arms and breathlessly intoning the syllable, “Gell,” Valentin’s felt himself steaming, sublimating like a comet while approaching the sun. Pieces of his mind might as well have been streaming off in icy chunks behind him as he felt like he was dissolving into pure light itself.

The boy’s touch sizzled like the licking of solar flares as their shared harmonic tension tore Valentin apart from the inside out. Of course he wanted him. Gellert was offering everything Valentin wanted most – the perfect, transcendental union of souls. So surreal was the music now overpowering Val’s awareness that he could describe it as no less than a spiritual experience. As such, there was no intelligible thought remaining as he watched Gellert’s hungering eyes pass over his lips. What moved Valya now was beyond words interpreted in the mind.

If the other did not resist, Valentin would shift his weight forward, grasping Gellert by the shoulders and leaning him back against a snowbank, gently. Hovering overhead he would try to sink his left hand’s fingers into the other’s hair. Then with keen amethyst eyes circling above the curves and crevasses of the boy’s neck, like falcons over a valley, Valentin froze in place, staring. From his peripheral vision, the rise and fall of the boy’s chest created the rhythm of the otherworldly music drowning out the rest of existence. The boy had asked him to answer that sacred calling that forever dwelled in Valentin’s heart. The boy asked Valentin to fulfill that deepest desire that each of them had always dreamed of.

Flicking back to the black holes of Gellert’s blue eyes, Valentin felt the echoing words becoming his own intention as he merged with the request: search within me and find what I cannot see. This was the nature of the captain, just as birds would fly and fish would swim. He would find the winds to grant higher transcendence for this boy insofar as the other would apply himself to its attainment, climbing heaven’s stairway. As if possessed by a force beyond, Valentin’s mouth began to move.

“In finding the One, you must find what is greater than you know and have ever known. This is the beginning, is the end, where you must release preconceptions of what you thought the One would be… for to know, to taste, to unify with the One, you must give up all your assumptions to see the Truth of what really is. I will help you. This is where you can begin again. Like life itself, unity with the One is a process that must continually be honed and maintained. Such needs may speak subtly, quietly, but you must hear them for what they are. As you attend to the One as one tends to the operations of a temple, the pathways of immortal love will flow freely, cleanly, without the need for fear… for just as you care for the One, so shall the One care for you in an unbroken, infinite loop. Then, one day, when things click into place, you will know that there really is no One, but only All. I want you to find your way to that place, Gellert. Then you will achieve the unity you seek.”

If Gellert accepted, Valentin would then entangle each hand through the other’s, sinking slowly into the melting snow with the added weight. Pure adoration illuminated Valya’s face, and he smiled. If he met no resistance, Valentin then leaned down and pressed his lips into the roundness of the other’s cheek. Holding the kiss there for a long, long pause, the strong pulse of Valentin’s heartbeat could be felt through their linked palms. Puffs of hot air from Valya’s nose gusted through Gellert’s hair, and he squeezed both hands. Then, after intaking a slow and deep breath to memorize the scent of the boy’s hair, Valentin sat up.

“This is a beautiful day.”

Basic Stats:
STA 8 - EVA 20 - STR 3 - WIS 20 [24] - ARC 1 - ACC 17

Abilities:
Keen Eye / Charmer / Evasive Maneuvers / Fearless / Comprehend Languages: Parseltongue & Veela

@Tristan Theramin (Gellert Schroeder)