11 Dec 2022, 21:29
Thrills & Chills Bash
Heat flowered within Ginyami's tight chest as Valentin's arm was drawn about his shoulders and the other boy leaned in, the tickle of his nose and breath of his whisper felt on his hair and ear. He inhaled deeply the exotic perfumes of stargazer lilies, leather, and Damask rose all over again, closing his eyes briefly to commit both them and the close warmth of Valentin's proximity to memory as he listened to his peer's words.
“It has to do with the goal I hinted at earlier, in the practice room.” he said, then at a quieter volume, “Trying to catch eternity.”
Ginyami tried to breathe regularly, calmly, as he felt a hand press against his waist like before and noticed the white-haired king's breathing soon match his own. As Valentin's words gradually pervaded his consciousness, he felt the other's head rest against his own and instinctively drew closer still. When he heard Valentin express his fear, he reached out to take his hand yet again and stroked its long fingers with his thumb.
The power to defeat the reaper...immortality? Did Valentin really mean to offer him such a thing? That was, of course, provided he could figure out his father's notes and the songs of his ancestors, but to think it could be possible... It was utterly overwhelming. If he could somehow help Valentin achieve that which he hoped to, though, Ginyami wanted to do everything in his power. It didn't hurt that such a thing could have benefitted Ginyami or the fact that he wanted to stay by Valentin's side at all costs.
"Regardless of whether or not you think you know what you are doing, I think deep down you will find the answers you seek, especially as with as much effort as you are putting into this. I only pray you do not neglect your health again, lest you perish first without ever learning the secret to coming back," he told the Durmstrang student. "Let me help you and do what I can. At least that way the burden will not fall solely on you."
Upon the loosening of Valentin's grip and his half step back, Ginyami regarded him closely, wondering if something was the matter. He watched his mercury-hyacinth eyes travel upward from his chest and found himself completely caught off-guard by the compliment he was given next.
“Your neck is so beautiful.”
Again, his pulse began to speed up and he put his hand not holding Valentin's over his heart as if that would slow it. The frost captain was dangerous indeed, but Ginyami wasn't sure if he knew in just how many ways. The fox's own narrow gaze travelled up the lines of Valentin's throat, considering the other's own neck before the arm fell away from his shoulders and his focus was returned to the goblin king's countenance immediately.
“If I succeeded in holding the tail of immortality in my grasp, would you… want it? Would you want me to bring you back from the cusp of death, even if I… whether you wanted to stay with me or not?”
"My fate is already tied with yours, for better or worse, with my heart in your grasp," the noiret stated, smiling faintly. "If I could remain by your side throughout the rest of my days, that would be a treasure in and of itself. But to be able to do so beyond that...if it were indeed possible, I could consider that a priceless gift."
He reached into the unsmashable pocket to fish out another grape and held it just before Valentin's mouth. "Now, for my turn...aside from eating in public, what are some other things that irk or bother you? Or, as some call them, your 'pet peeves'?"
Valentin Schnell (@Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood)
Last edited by Jack Burnett on 14 Dec 2022, 04:15, edited 1 time in total.
PC: Jack Burnett | iNPC: Ginyami Midorimori
12 Dec 2022, 07:34
Thrills & Chills Bash
With Valentin’s arm around him and leaning in close, Ginyami’s nose also picked up a subtle scent that would not be otherwise noticeable, at least not consciously – the musk like downy feathers’ that characterized the natural scent of Valentin’s hair and skin oils. The noiret’s words, together with the breath pulsating at his waist beneath the seeker’s palm, lulled Valya into a state of serenity like the flux of waves on a black sand shore.
"Regardless of whether or not you think you know what you are doing, I think deep down you will find the answers you seek, especially as with as much effort as you are putting into this. I only pray you do not neglect your health again, lest you perish first without ever learning the secret to coming back. Let me help you and do what I can. At least that way the burden will not fall solely on you."
Nodding, Valentin felt the fox’s words ring true. The Durmstrang tryhard’s greatest liability was overdoing it, but Ginyami took on a rare position: holding sway over the self-sacrificing daredevil’s most fervent impulses. No longer was Valentin’s calculus simple, distributing his efforts evenly for the greater good of all his dearest ones. If they went through with this, Ginyami’s wishes would take a privileged position above those of others. Valentin’s warning about the danger of such power echoed in the back of the captain’s mind as he felt the fox's promise of deep reciprocity thrill him to the very marrow of his bones. Yet, the Hellchaser welcomed all of this precisely because he perceived Ginyami’s warmth and reasoning as genuine and flawless.
The frost captain knew there was a gaping hole in his own plan. It was not really for himself that he sought immortality, but if he was to grant eternity to another in the only way he thought plausible, Valentin couldn’t give it without taking it as well. Infinity needed a complete circuit to flow unabated. For all the past years that he’d tried to take on more and more of the burdens of Durmstrang alone, the captain felt surprisingly little push-back. Hellchaser Val knew it was a miracle he wasn’t dead already, and the press would never let him forget it. Yet, here, a Mahoutokoro boy held the seeker’s heart and offered to help shoulder the weight together without having been asked to. It was one thing for someone to follow the captain's orders, and quite another for someone's own spirit to step up to join his struggle as equals. Ginyami did not seem to be offering out of self interest, either. Tonight, if they completed this ritual, Valentin would be claimed as surely as a snitch’s haptic memory responds to the one who captures it first.
"My fate is already tied with yours, for better or worse, with my heart in your grasp. If I could remain by your side throughout the rest of my days, that would be a treasure in and of itself. But to be able to do so beyond that...if it were indeed possible, I could consider that a priceless gift."
The fox’s words flowed, mellifluous, into Valentin’s wide open heart. For Ginyami to accept Valentin’s greatest offer struck the notes of his heart beyond what the Japanese boy could have foreseen.
“Before my mother died, she read me auguries. One said to allow my wild heart to be tamed by someone infinite. With what you are telling me now… you are the only person I know with any hope of completing this loop with me. I accept your offer of help with my deepest gratitude. If you continue to the final grape, with your acceptance here, I will vow to strive for your immortality. This would carry forward the sacred duty of my ancestors, and so I thank you again for your help. While I don’t know if I will succeed, it will become my priority if others would conflict… and it will mean I have another reason to take better care of my own health. May these be only a few of the things I do for your pleasure.” When Ginyami held up another grape, Valentin squeezed the boy’s hand and smiled in a most mischievous way.
“Ginyami…” The lips of the goblin king opened into a broader grin of excitement and wonder before darting at the boy’s fingers with a wild pounce. Within a split second, Valentin’s mouth both snagged the grape into its depths and flicked away in a dive to Ginyami’s right side. The rest of Valentin’s body followed as he used his grip on the boy’s hand to pull him into a spin, just like in their earlier dance. A splash preceded the disappearance of the grape down the seeker’s throat right as Ginyami’s spin completed, landing him back inside Valentin’s embrace but facing outwards, with his back against the taller boy’s chest. The white king’s face slid forward a centimeter away from the side of the noiret’s as Valentin loosened his hand’s grip and squeezed with a hug.
“There are a few things I dislike. I hate to be bored by sluggish, redundant, and ultimately shallow conversationalists with whom I have little in common. Similarly, I don’t enjoy people who have no interest in learning nor growing, who live only in the past and would drag me into a sick cycle along with them. Selfishly, I abhor being ignored. With most people, I don’t ask for much, but if I ask someone a question or for a favor, I like to be told if they have no intention of doing anything about it. For someone to be dishonest, or by lackadaisical whims lead me to misbelieve that I can count on them and put my people at risk… that is quite irksome. Because I put so much on the line for others, it hurts a lot when someone breaks a promise, especially when it would have helped someone. It makes me feel terribly alone. Another thing is… I hate it when the wrong people try to control me, especially about things we disagree on. Ironically, I love it when the right people control me, since it is a sign of intimacy and shared will. That makes me really happy, knowing and trusting each other so well that we work as one without any need to worry. In this way, others can teach me a lot because of my trust in them, and vice versa. To let go and be carried by the will of another like wind beneath my wings... I've always dreamed of that kind of connection, especially with me doing that for them, too. There are a lot of other things that bother me, too, but there are so many qualities I love as well.”
Leaning his cheek against Ginyami’s, Valentin held him even tighter.
“What sorts of things bother you? I want to learn everything there is to know about you, even if we're just starting with a few now.”
Reducio
Stats: STA 8 ✦ EVA 14 ✧ STR 2 ✦ WIS 15 ✧ARC 1 ✦ ACC 15 - Ency
Abilities: Keen Eye ✦ Charmer ✧ Evasive Maneuvers ✦ Fearless
Valentin's English = #CC3333; Interacting with @Jack Burnett
14 Dec 2022, 11:58
Thrills & Chills Bash
Valentin began to describe an augury his mother had read to him before she died regarding 'allowing his wild heart to be tamed by someone infinite'. Ginyami couldn't be sure what it meant to be someone 'infinite', but Valentin seemed to believe he could have been that person and that was enough for Ginyami. The seeker went on to say he accepted the Japanese student's offer of help with his deepest gratitude and that, if he continued to the final grape as a sign of his acceptance, Valentin would vow to strive for Ginyami's immortality. As such a thing would 'carry forward the sacred duty of his ancestors', a duty Ginyami knew little of but hoped to assist with, Valentin thanked him again and stated that while he didn't know if he would succeed, it would become his priority if others were against it. More importantly to Ginyami, however, it would mean, as Valentin mentioned, that he would have another reason to look after his own health better. The knowledge caused the black-haired fox to smile wider, especially as his hand was squeezed and his companion cast him a very mischievous smile of his own.
His name was spoken yet again by those pale, soft lips before said lips stretched into an excited grin and snatched at the grape between his fingers. Simultaneously, Ginyami found himself spun with easy fluidity as he had been during their dance before, borrowing from his partner's grace as he went with the flow. By the time he found himself back in Valentin's arms, facing outwards this time, the grape had vanished down that alabaster throat. Ginyami relished the warmth of the goblin king's presence at his back, unused to such physicality with another except for when practicing it for Hiro's sake. He turned his head minutely to look upon his captor as best he could while he was caught in his embrace and squeezed. He had never been treated so tenderly and he feared he was going to get addicted to it.
Each faintly accented word dripped into his mind like honey and he strove to catch each shining, golden drop. It mattered not that the subject was about Valentin's dislikes; Ginyami wanted to know everything. He drank it all in as greedily as a parched desert-dweller, mentally documenting each detestation with meticulous detail. How close had he himself come to fulfilling some of those abhorrences? It was lucky he hadn't bored the Durmstrang student with his attempt to converse during their first meeting. Additionally, it was lucky he had thought to eventually answer the question about what Ginyami had seen in his orb regarding his dreams, for that could otherwise have been considered ignoring the question, especially after the orb's owner had so graciously and vulnerably given his own answer. He wouldn't make the same mistakes again and give Valentin reason to doubt him; not now that he knew what bothered him the most.
It was the bit about what the Turkic boy loved that caught Ginyami's attention the most, however. To be able to know and trust one another so well that their wills became one and the same...could that be accomplished between them? Well, there was only one way to try and Ginyami was more than willing to find out. He exhaled shallowly when the embrace he was enveloped in tightened, a pleasant, tingling shiver surging through his body. He had never thought that being held in such a manner could have been so...invigorating. With their faces so close, Ginyami could no longer ignore the gradual, building urge that he had been resisting as it finally overtook him and he moved to subtly kiss the line of Valentin's jaw even as that jaw opened to speak once again.
“What sorts of things bother you? I want to learn everything there is to know about you, even if we're just starting with a few now.”
"Good, because I want to learn everything there is to know about you, too," Ginyami answered, his gaze downcast as he put his arms up to hold the arms holding him. He paused a moment, thinking, before continuing. "I dislike cake," he said with a grin, fully aware the statement was far from the profound revelations Valentin had been making about his own dislikes. "Too sweet and rich. Like most people, I also dislike being lied to, but I do not often put my trust in others in order to avoid that possibility to begin with. Like you, I abhor being bored, but I can stomach small talk when I need to. Hmm...I dislike stupidity. And I absolutely cannot stand when people are lazy, sloppy, or otherwise unconcerned with how they conduct themselves. It says a lot about their personalities and overall lifestyle, I find." he stated, his voice hardening with an edge to it that he quickly recognized and ceased. Valentin didn't need to know that intolerant, unforgiving, ugly side of him just yet. With a silent mental reminder, he recomposed himself and cleared his throat. It was time for another question and another grape. He reached into the pocket once more.
"Valentin...on that night we first met, you said that you were sent to your death and that you came back. That it happened twice," he added, recalling the conversation. "Would it be too much to ask what you meant by that? Did you really die and come back to life?"
Valentin Schnell (@Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood)
PC: Jack Burnett | iNPC: Ginyami Midorimori
15 Dec 2022, 14:48
Thrills & Chills Bash
word count: 326/200
mentions:
@Kim Sato || @
Right after she arrived, Bailey asked Kim what he'd like her to do. He gave her the simple instructions to greet people and make sure they were doing alright as they entered, and this suited Bailey perfectly. More than it suited Kim probably, though he knew as many people as she did. Between the two of them, they could probably name 99% of the people in the castle at any given time, staff included.
He then told her that the food could join the spread he had provided, and Bailey smiled and blushed when he complemented her.
"thanks!" Bailey said brightly, over her shoulder as she went to set the food down. As she was walking over there, she realized that she and Kim had color coordinated, even without discussing outfits. like always... our outfits very rarely clash
Bailey did as Kim requested, making her rounds and welcoming everyone. At one point she looked at the entrance just in time to see Kim slip out.
poor thing she thought must have gotten overwhelmed.
Bailey turned from looking at the door, trying not to give Kim's escape away.
Apparently she wasn't the only one who noticed Kim's absence, as @Damion White approached her, and said hello. he mentioned excitement for the upcoming spider games, and then asked where Kim was.
bailey defly answered, half deflecting the question but still somewhat answering it.
"i believe he went to set up the spider games. I honestly cannot wait for them!!! Hopefully I'm on a team with someone i know!"
Little did bailey know that she and Damion would later be paired together.
Kim soon reappeared, making the announcement for the pairs. Bailey was in two matches - she had volunteered to do this if there was an odd number.
@Cynthia Beaufort then entered the party, just in time to catch the tail end of Kim's announcement. Bailey, if she caught Cynthia's eve, would smile at the younger first year Ravenclaw.
we are all born beautiful. it is a tragedy we are convinced that we are not”
iNPC: Lloyd Matthews Thomas
Main account: Bailey Glade
16 Dec 2022, 15:16
Thrills & Chills Bash
Mature themes, esp. mortality.
Reducio
A rush of sweet heat flooded through the White Seeker of Durmstrang as he felt softness envelop his jawline. White eyelashes fluttered closed as red surged across Valentin’s cheeks and the dense capillaries of his lips. It was the very thinness of the skin in human lips that gave them their color, as their blood vessels ran much closer to the surface than elsewhere. While people of darker skin tones showed the red of these capillaries less prominently behind the curtain of their pigmentation, albino Valentin’s lips wore his bloodflow on their proverbial sleeve. Usually a rich pink hue from his lack of melanocytes, with the right provocation the pale boy’s lips turned strikingly red compared to those of others. Just so, few could blush as visibly and quickly as Valya. Mouth opening slightly as he took in a deep breath, Valentin held onto the pocket of warmth that was Ginyami.
The Japanese boy’s words swirled through Valentin’s mind with their accented melody, and the seeker gave himself up to their sounds as they absorbed his attention completely. Cake, too sweet and rich? Thin Valya didn’t want much food, but the more intense and exotic the flavor, the better. In a way, such richness tasted like efficiency, so Valentin’s answer to any food issue, even to a nauseatingly sweet cake, was simply to have less of it at a time – never to exclude it forever.
“That’s interesting. For me, nothing is ever too sweet nor too rich – there is only ‘too much’ if it’s done the wrong way. As much of a problem as I have with food, I do enjoy trying new flavors that show me the colors of the world. Maybe there’s no food I won’t try, even if I don’t have much of it at any one time. Why should I spend a lot of time eating when greater wonders await?” Nuzzling the fox with a sigh of pleasure, the seeker had preferred means of recharging himself, even if in recent years he’d found them increasingly difficult to fulfill. In truth, it was a strong need for physical contact that left Valentin with little patience for cooking, especially after a lifetime of keeping a private chef. So little did food matter to the seeker that he now neglected to warn Ginyami of the dangerous, unmitigated disaster that was Val’s attempts to cook or bake. Yet, tonight, the Mahoutokoro boy was showing him entirely new ways to enjoy food. Pulling a strand of Ginyami’s hair in between his lips, Valentin continued to listen to the boy’s preferences.
"Like most people, I also dislike being lied to, but I do not often put my trust in others in order to avoid that possibility to begin with. Like you, I abhor being bored, but I can stomach small talk when I need to. Hmm...I dislike stupidity. And I absolutely cannot stand when people are lazy, sloppy, or otherwise unconcerned with how they conduct themselves. It says a lot about their personalities and overall lifestyle, I find."
A hard edge to Ginyami’s voice came and went, and Valentin would not fail to notice. Every thread of the captain’s being hummed with focus in trying to understand the creature within his embrace. Is he trying to restrain a deeper harshness? There is more here for me to explore… if he will let me in.
“I hope that you will not find me to be too sweet and rich, over time. People tell me I’m intense, and maybe that bothers some people. As flexible as I am, I don’t think I could ever stop being this way. For example, it’s very difficult to hold in my affection…” Valentin’s right palm slipped out from beneath Ginyami’s as it curled back around to grasp it. Pulling the fox into a reverse spin, Valentin ended with him standing face-to-face once more and continued holding the boy’s peach-colored hand.
“I won’t lie to you, Ginyami. Not intentionally. Sometimes I’m wrong about things, but I’m always learning.” Valya’s left hand slipped into a back pocket to draw a reddish wand that emanated a heat of its own. “I broke my first wand on the day that I died, and this one… it hates being bored, like us. If one day I fail to keep it entertained, I think it might explode. To be honest, I have a troubled relationship with magic, but still… even this demanding little stick hasn’t gotten tired of me, yet.” With a quick slide of the wand into his pocket, Valentin stretched his back. “Perhaps I am quick to trust certain people, but I have been told I am a fine judge of character. Those who presume that I am naïve simply don’t know me well. I have been hurt in enough ways to predict how people will act most of the time. Just so, every time I am hurt in a new way, this makes me stronger.” Running his thumb across Ginyami’s hand, a smile broke softly across the frost captain’s face. “As for people who are lazy, sloppy, and irresponsible, well… I am fortunate to attend Durmstrang where there are many hardworking people, but I am infamous for my strict standards for the quidditch team. For me to give so much of myself, I must be selective about who would gain the most from my efforts. I believe I understand where you’re coming from, even if it feels judgmental. I have to make judgment calls in my position of power, and not everyone gets what they want from me. Stribog knows there are many fans out there that I do not satisfy in the ways they crave. Still, I try to be fair and give what I can… I have learned the hard way where I am limited, even if I keep trying to drive back certain boundaries.” Watching Ginyami’s hand reach into the king’s pocket once more, Valentin decided to press on before his chance slipped away.
“People need their seeker to see and grasp the truth, and they need their frost captain to use his judgment,” dropped Valentin’s voice into a deeper tone as he leaned forward. “If we are to do this, I will give you my whole truth, even as it makes myself and my team vulnerable… and I will take your full truth as well. Please, always remember what I said. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be you.” Keen amethyst eyes reached into Ginyami’s pupils, undeterred by the narrowness of the kitsune’s slit eyes.
"Valentin...on that night we first met, you said that you were sent to your death and that you came back. That it happened twice. Would it be too much to ask what you meant by that? Did you really die and come back to life?"
Leaning back, the goblin king released Ginyami and tilted his head to the side as he dug his hands into his own pockets. The sound of his name rang pleasantly from the other boy’s lips. Ever since the beginning, the Mahoutokoro teen spoke its intonation with care for its true sound. Pressing through his boots into the wall behind him, Valentin braced himself. As his memories began replaying themselves, Valentin blanched and shook his left leg as if to release a building cramp.
“It’s true, I’m afraid. If my friends hadn’t come, I wouldn’t be here with you now. I’d be gone forever. It was my recklessness, my discontent, my arrogance, my… hunger… When I was a child, I thought that mages lived forever. Even if muggles were mortal in the stories, surely people with magic always fixed their problems before it was too late. By the time I courted the thundercloud, my parents were already gone, so I was not naïve enough to believe I couldn’t die… but I was trying to forget mortality. I was running away, in the sky. Like a child, I pretended that if I just went fast enough, I could fix myself and make amends for the past. You know, high above, I can cry and scream as loud as I want without bothering anyone. The faster I fly, the harder the wind blows against me, and the better I feel in that sacred temple. Maybe there was some sense to it. If I could fix myself by escaping the past, then maybe I could still help my friends before it was too late, before the shadows claimed them completely. Flying up to the thundercloud as if it could tell me the answer I burned for every night, I asked: what good was I, the last of my kind and yet such a blight to the people trying to depend on me? Stribog responded with a fist full of lightning, and so I crashed, blasting through the treetops and nearly falling into a lake. If that pier weren’t there, I would have surely drowned. It was the internal bleeding that took me, the first time.”
Taking his hands from his pockets, Valentin held out his bare right palm face-up once more, the seeker pulled back his sleeve to reveal a fuller view of the silver Lichtenberg figure scar that branched up the inside of Valentin’s arm. From the other boy’s perspective, it would have been clear that to see the entire pattern, the seeker’s shirt would have to be removed. Numerous other scars of various ages and shapes peeked out, suggesting years of stories comprising the Hellchaser’s past despite being unmentioned during daily life, hidden beneath the clothes required by polite society.
“That was the first bolt of lightning I caught, in my palm. I didn’t want to die. I just wanted to know what to do. Still, I bled out and died. A former quidditch player found me and brought me back with CPR, and another team mate came, too – Charles, Chaser #3. They tried to get me out before I could die again, but the storm grew wrathful with the most powerful display of lightning I’d ever known. I couldn’t actually see it, as the fall caused me to go blind, but I heard and felt each bolt as it came down around us. Charles also suffered a bolt, and he was fortunate to survive what I’d dragged him into… The other boy, Romeo, was taking me by broom through the storm, but too slowly. I began choking and spasming as death came back for me, in my own home of the sky. My heart stopped from the severity of my blood loss and the shock of exposure against the biting sleet, but this time, Stribog saved me. A bolt of lightning struck us in the air, restarting my heart, and I fought back the Reaper just in time to witness our crash. I used the other boy to bring myself back, only to have to let him go afterwards. Once all three of us crashed, we had to each save one another. It was a miracle that we made it back alive. Both of them really could have died because of me, because of my stupid wish. It haunts me, and I’ll pay them back one day, never forgetting, even if it takes me years.”
“I’ve never been the same. I feel everything more intensely now, sensations and emotions, and I began hearing music and colors uncontrollably. As I was dying, my greatest fears confronted me, but I came back reborn. I’ve always been a thrillseeker, but now… I don’t have the fears I used to have, and it makes me more dangerous than ever to myself and others. The edge calls to me with greater power, and temptation burns hotter than ever before…” Valentin’s amethyst eyes slid, sultry, up the contours of Ginyami’s neckline before locking back onto his eyes. “Strange things have been happening to me, especially after meeting you. Despite recovering from the frostbite after death, I get cold sometimes, like there is a spike of ice inside that saps the warmth from my body. When you’re close to me, it’s so cold that it feels like burning, like clawing, like it’s trying to get out. It’s confusing because it feels like I am in flames…” Closing his violescent eyes, Valentin flexed the fingers of his right hand, which were already drawing the chill from the air. “I want you near me. It’s… this is why, it must be, how I became so feverish, the electricity I felt when I touched your arm, the light in the void in the piano room, and again…” Mercurial words accelerating as he pressed himself harder against the wall, Valentin raised his scarred palm to touch his forehead, which came away with beads of sweat.
“Looking into your eyes, I see something shining beyond them as the music pulls me in… It’s calling me, telling me that inside you is what Stribog was trying to show me. I just…” Reopening the blazing gems of his purple eyes, Valentin felt a wave of vertigo and a rush like falling. “Am I not humbled? Isn’t this the dive I was meant to take, instead of falling down against a rocky cliff face? I’m not just running away from the past, right? I have learned from my mistakes, and with some work, I’ll make it alright for us to be together, by keeping you safe forever without limiting you.” Rubbing the bridge of his nose with a pained squint before casting his hand back down to the side, Valentin’s wild eyes flew back to Ginyami’s. “We’ll meet there, on the other side, won’t we? You won’t… just let go?”
The Japanese boy’s words swirled through Valentin’s mind with their accented melody, and the seeker gave himself up to their sounds as they absorbed his attention completely. Cake, too sweet and rich? Thin Valya didn’t want much food, but the more intense and exotic the flavor, the better. In a way, such richness tasted like efficiency, so Valentin’s answer to any food issue, even to a nauseatingly sweet cake, was simply to have less of it at a time – never to exclude it forever.
“That’s interesting. For me, nothing is ever too sweet nor too rich – there is only ‘too much’ if it’s done the wrong way. As much of a problem as I have with food, I do enjoy trying new flavors that show me the colors of the world. Maybe there’s no food I won’t try, even if I don’t have much of it at any one time. Why should I spend a lot of time eating when greater wonders await?” Nuzzling the fox with a sigh of pleasure, the seeker had preferred means of recharging himself, even if in recent years he’d found them increasingly difficult to fulfill. In truth, it was a strong need for physical contact that left Valentin with little patience for cooking, especially after a lifetime of keeping a private chef. So little did food matter to the seeker that he now neglected to warn Ginyami of the dangerous, unmitigated disaster that was Val’s attempts to cook or bake. Yet, tonight, the Mahoutokoro boy was showing him entirely new ways to enjoy food. Pulling a strand of Ginyami’s hair in between his lips, Valentin continued to listen to the boy’s preferences.
"Like most people, I also dislike being lied to, but I do not often put my trust in others in order to avoid that possibility to begin with. Like you, I abhor being bored, but I can stomach small talk when I need to. Hmm...I dislike stupidity. And I absolutely cannot stand when people are lazy, sloppy, or otherwise unconcerned with how they conduct themselves. It says a lot about their personalities and overall lifestyle, I find."
A hard edge to Ginyami’s voice came and went, and Valentin would not fail to notice. Every thread of the captain’s being hummed with focus in trying to understand the creature within his embrace. Is he trying to restrain a deeper harshness? There is more here for me to explore… if he will let me in.
“I hope that you will not find me to be too sweet and rich, over time. People tell me I’m intense, and maybe that bothers some people. As flexible as I am, I don’t think I could ever stop being this way. For example, it’s very difficult to hold in my affection…” Valentin’s right palm slipped out from beneath Ginyami’s as it curled back around to grasp it. Pulling the fox into a reverse spin, Valentin ended with him standing face-to-face once more and continued holding the boy’s peach-colored hand.
“I won’t lie to you, Ginyami. Not intentionally. Sometimes I’m wrong about things, but I’m always learning.” Valya’s left hand slipped into a back pocket to draw a reddish wand that emanated a heat of its own. “I broke my first wand on the day that I died, and this one… it hates being bored, like us. If one day I fail to keep it entertained, I think it might explode. To be honest, I have a troubled relationship with magic, but still… even this demanding little stick hasn’t gotten tired of me, yet.” With a quick slide of the wand into his pocket, Valentin stretched his back. “Perhaps I am quick to trust certain people, but I have been told I am a fine judge of character. Those who presume that I am naïve simply don’t know me well. I have been hurt in enough ways to predict how people will act most of the time. Just so, every time I am hurt in a new way, this makes me stronger.” Running his thumb across Ginyami’s hand, a smile broke softly across the frost captain’s face. “As for people who are lazy, sloppy, and irresponsible, well… I am fortunate to attend Durmstrang where there are many hardworking people, but I am infamous for my strict standards for the quidditch team. For me to give so much of myself, I must be selective about who would gain the most from my efforts. I believe I understand where you’re coming from, even if it feels judgmental. I have to make judgment calls in my position of power, and not everyone gets what they want from me. Stribog knows there are many fans out there that I do not satisfy in the ways they crave. Still, I try to be fair and give what I can… I have learned the hard way where I am limited, even if I keep trying to drive back certain boundaries.” Watching Ginyami’s hand reach into the king’s pocket once more, Valentin decided to press on before his chance slipped away.
“People need their seeker to see and grasp the truth, and they need their frost captain to use his judgment,” dropped Valentin’s voice into a deeper tone as he leaned forward. “If we are to do this, I will give you my whole truth, even as it makes myself and my team vulnerable… and I will take your full truth as well. Please, always remember what I said. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be you.” Keen amethyst eyes reached into Ginyami’s pupils, undeterred by the narrowness of the kitsune’s slit eyes.
"Valentin...on that night we first met, you said that you were sent to your death and that you came back. That it happened twice. Would it be too much to ask what you meant by that? Did you really die and come back to life?"
Leaning back, the goblin king released Ginyami and tilted his head to the side as he dug his hands into his own pockets. The sound of his name rang pleasantly from the other boy’s lips. Ever since the beginning, the Mahoutokoro teen spoke its intonation with care for its true sound. Pressing through his boots into the wall behind him, Valentin braced himself. As his memories began replaying themselves, Valentin blanched and shook his left leg as if to release a building cramp.
“It’s true, I’m afraid. If my friends hadn’t come, I wouldn’t be here with you now. I’d be gone forever. It was my recklessness, my discontent, my arrogance, my… hunger… When I was a child, I thought that mages lived forever. Even if muggles were mortal in the stories, surely people with magic always fixed their problems before it was too late. By the time I courted the thundercloud, my parents were already gone, so I was not naïve enough to believe I couldn’t die… but I was trying to forget mortality. I was running away, in the sky. Like a child, I pretended that if I just went fast enough, I could fix myself and make amends for the past. You know, high above, I can cry and scream as loud as I want without bothering anyone. The faster I fly, the harder the wind blows against me, and the better I feel in that sacred temple. Maybe there was some sense to it. If I could fix myself by escaping the past, then maybe I could still help my friends before it was too late, before the shadows claimed them completely. Flying up to the thundercloud as if it could tell me the answer I burned for every night, I asked: what good was I, the last of my kind and yet such a blight to the people trying to depend on me? Stribog responded with a fist full of lightning, and so I crashed, blasting through the treetops and nearly falling into a lake. If that pier weren’t there, I would have surely drowned. It was the internal bleeding that took me, the first time.”
Taking his hands from his pockets, Valentin held out his bare right palm face-up once more, the seeker pulled back his sleeve to reveal a fuller view of the silver Lichtenberg figure scar that branched up the inside of Valentin’s arm. From the other boy’s perspective, it would have been clear that to see the entire pattern, the seeker’s shirt would have to be removed. Numerous other scars of various ages and shapes peeked out, suggesting years of stories comprising the Hellchaser’s past despite being unmentioned during daily life, hidden beneath the clothes required by polite society.
“That was the first bolt of lightning I caught, in my palm. I didn’t want to die. I just wanted to know what to do. Still, I bled out and died. A former quidditch player found me and brought me back with CPR, and another team mate came, too – Charles, Chaser #3. They tried to get me out before I could die again, but the storm grew wrathful with the most powerful display of lightning I’d ever known. I couldn’t actually see it, as the fall caused me to go blind, but I heard and felt each bolt as it came down around us. Charles also suffered a bolt, and he was fortunate to survive what I’d dragged him into… The other boy, Romeo, was taking me by broom through the storm, but too slowly. I began choking and spasming as death came back for me, in my own home of the sky. My heart stopped from the severity of my blood loss and the shock of exposure against the biting sleet, but this time, Stribog saved me. A bolt of lightning struck us in the air, restarting my heart, and I fought back the Reaper just in time to witness our crash. I used the other boy to bring myself back, only to have to let him go afterwards. Once all three of us crashed, we had to each save one another. It was a miracle that we made it back alive. Both of them really could have died because of me, because of my stupid wish. It haunts me, and I’ll pay them back one day, never forgetting, even if it takes me years.”
“I’ve never been the same. I feel everything more intensely now, sensations and emotions, and I began hearing music and colors uncontrollably. As I was dying, my greatest fears confronted me, but I came back reborn. I’ve always been a thrillseeker, but now… I don’t have the fears I used to have, and it makes me more dangerous than ever to myself and others. The edge calls to me with greater power, and temptation burns hotter than ever before…” Valentin’s amethyst eyes slid, sultry, up the contours of Ginyami’s neckline before locking back onto his eyes. “Strange things have been happening to me, especially after meeting you. Despite recovering from the frostbite after death, I get cold sometimes, like there is a spike of ice inside that saps the warmth from my body. When you’re close to me, it’s so cold that it feels like burning, like clawing, like it’s trying to get out. It’s confusing because it feels like I am in flames…” Closing his violescent eyes, Valentin flexed the fingers of his right hand, which were already drawing the chill from the air. “I want you near me. It’s… this is why, it must be, how I became so feverish, the electricity I felt when I touched your arm, the light in the void in the piano room, and again…” Mercurial words accelerating as he pressed himself harder against the wall, Valentin raised his scarred palm to touch his forehead, which came away with beads of sweat.
“Looking into your eyes, I see something shining beyond them as the music pulls me in… It’s calling me, telling me that inside you is what Stribog was trying to show me. I just…” Reopening the blazing gems of his purple eyes, Valentin felt a wave of vertigo and a rush like falling. “Am I not humbled? Isn’t this the dive I was meant to take, instead of falling down against a rocky cliff face? I’m not just running away from the past, right? I have learned from my mistakes, and with some work, I’ll make it alright for us to be together, by keeping you safe forever without limiting you.” Rubbing the bridge of his nose with a pained squint before casting his hand back down to the side, Valentin’s wild eyes flew back to Ginyami’s. “We’ll meet there, on the other side, won’t we? You won’t… just let go?”
Reducio
Stats: STA 8 ✦ EVA 14 ✧ STR 2 ✦ WIS 15 ✧ARC 1 ✦ ACC 15 - Ency
Abilities: Keen Eye ✦ Charmer ✧ Evasive Maneuvers ✦ Fearless
Valentin's English = #CC3333; Russian = #992314; Tatar = #1F0402
Interacting with @Jack Burnett
Last edited by Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood on 2 Jan 2023, 05:39, edited 2 times in total.
21 Dec 2022, 23:56
Thrills & Chills Bash
Banner created by AngelFyre McCubbin
Runs Off the Piste with @Simon Kincaid
Open to Interactions
She knew Simon would not only understand what she was doing in the spur of the moment, but he would actually enjoy it. She spread her arms wide for him to pelt her with his two sticky spiders, but sweetheart that he was, he went along with it, but tossed them gently.
Damn if she did not have the best partner and boyfriend. Period.
When Simon grabbed her hand, laughing joyfully along with her, and began to lead her off the piste after stopping to wish both Haley and Verona his good-natured congratulations on their win, she felt like she could breathe normally again. That game had only been asking for trouble and now they were free to enjoy each other and the rest of the night without having to subject themselves to whatever that mess was. Life was too short for such nonsense.
They stopped momentarily at the base of the platform steps so that he could retrieve his jacket and shoulder pads. Once that was done, they moved through the spectators, finally getting clear of them, and she squeezed his hand, signalling him to slow down. She moved into a position directly in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck, letting her fingers play in the hair at the base of his neck.
"You are really, truly something Simon Kincaid," and he shuffled a bit as if to shrug the compliment off, but she persisted. "No. I mean it, love. You have no idea how proud I am of you and the way you conducted yourself up there. He may be older but you were clearly the more mature one. Maybe he is not like that always. Perhaps it was just something being done for her benefit. Perhaps it is a cultural difference. I do not know, but I do know you are the one who can hold his head up high," and she chuckled as she was rising up to cement her lips to his after whispering, "Pretty boy," just before contact was made.
The magic is real.
AngelFyre McCubbin (PC) ● Stephen Schwartz (iNPC) ● Nimue White (Transfig. Professor)
2 Jan 2023, 04:13
Thrills & Chills Bash
Delighting in the innocent reaction his kiss to the edge of Valentin's jaw elicited, Ginyami began to feel a bit wicked for enjoying said responses so much. It wasn't as if he himself had had any other experience kissing another or being kissed in turn, but the delicious way the ivory prince transformed like a white rose painted a striking scarlet under the most subtle of ministrations was enchanting. The Japanese student thought he could get addicted to it easily - if he wasn't already. He found the whole thing amusing in the irony that he was kissing the other boy to get them more used to it, not to relish his reactions from being so new at it. Still, he couldn't help himself.
The cadence of Valentin's voice drew him back in to comprehend the meaning of his words as he spoke, noting what he said about nothing ever being too sweet or too rich and that there was only 'too much' if something was done the wrong way. It was an intriguing notion, but Ginyami was glad to hear that even if the seeker had an issue with eating in public, it wasn't with the act of eating itself. Due to his declaration that maybe there was no food he wouldn't try, Ginyami pegged Valentin as the adventurous sort.
"Yes...greater wonders," he exhaled as he found his breath briefly lacking and his own complexion flushed when he was nuzzled. He had never imagined behaving so intimately with another, not even with his own family or Hiro, yet here he was finding he liked it. Perhaps more than liked it; it was quickly becoming intoxicating, awakening something in him that couldn't get enough. He laughed lightly when he felt a strand of his hair had been caught between Valentin's lips before he continued to speak. The goblin king's response to his words caused him to chuckle yet again.
"You are not a cake nor a food, Valentin. Intensity in people - that I can appreciate. Passion is not meant to be held in and suppressed, after all." He felt the other's palm slip away before curling back around to grasp his once again, pulling him into a reverse spin. Ginyami simply beamed as he found himself facing his captor once more.
"I believe you," the noiret announced when Valentin said he wouldn't lie to him. That sometimes he was wrong about things, but that he was always learning. He went on to bring out a wand from a back pocket and explain that he broke his first wand on the day that he died. The wand that he brought out evidently hated being bored, like them, and Ginyami laughed. "Perhaps it is your relationship with wands that is troubled rather than your relationship with magic itself?" he suggested, but then shrugged, still smiling. "Though, you must know better than I. Regardless, that is quite the pressure to have put on you by a wand. I am amazed you are still able to tolerate each other."
He met those soulful eyes when Valentin stretched his back, talking about how he might have been quick to trust certain people but that he had been told he was a fine judge of character. Ginyami listened as his peer explained that he wasn't naïve, as he had been hurt in enough ways to predict how people would act most of the time. And that every time he was hurt in a new way, it made him stronger. Dark, narrow eyes shifted searchingly over Valentin's face, wondering what it was that made him so optimistic, so strong about being hurt when most balked at the mere idea of it. Valentin certainly may not have been naïve, but the fact that he gave off the impression of someone who was despite what he had been through was the biggest mystery to Ginyami. The young man truly must have been fearless to be so reckless despite all he had experienced. It was awe-inspiring in a way that made Ginyami both admire and fear for Valentin. If he had no fear and simply kept on propelling and pushing himself forward, who would be there to tell him when to slow down or stop before he hurt himself even more? If being hurt was not a deterrent to him, what would be? However long it took him, the Mahoutokoro student was determined to find an answer to those questions eventually.
Gazing at Valentin's smiling face, he continued to listen as the other boy spoke of how he was infamous for his strict standards regarding his quidditch team and how he needed to be selective about who would gain the most from his efforts. The fact that he tried to relate to something like being judgmental of people astonished Ginyami. Had he detected the judgmental nature of Ginyami's dislikes when it came to people and tried to make him feel better about it, perhaps to try to ease any guilt he might have had about feeling that way? Little did he know that Ginyami had attempted to change his tune quickly not because he was ashamed of his way of thinking but because he didn't want Valentin to be so aware of it. Nevertheless, Valentin's efforts touched the Japanese boy.
"It seems 'the hard way' is the only way you seem to learn anything," Ginyami commented, though with a playfully teasing demeanor. "Even then, it sounds like 'learn' is a strong word if you are continuously attempting to pass the boundaries you find anyway,"
Valentin remarked on how people needed their seeker to see and grasp the truth and their frost captain to use his judgment. He leaned forward then, continuing with a deeper tone as he explained that if they were to do this, he would give Ginyami his whole truth even if it made himself and his team vulnerable. This bewildered the black-haired teen, but he nodded when Valentin mentioned he would take his full truth as well. That it didn't have to be perfect - it just had to be him.
But what would you do if you knew that other side of me? Ginyami couldn't help wondering. What would someone noble and giving and self-sacrificing like you do? Surely you couldn't stay friends with me, let alone anything more. Valentin gave his all to people. Ginyami took advantage of people like him. How could Valentin stand for such a thing if he knew? He pondered this as he felt those silvery amethyst eyes peer into his innermost depths and shivered slightly. Valentin was no idiot; surely one day the observant, attentive boy would find out. Ginyami just hoped he could delay that day from coming as long as possible because those were questions he wasn't sure he wanted to learn the answers to.
It was then that Ginyami asked his question about if Valentin had really died and come back to life. The latter leaned back, releasing the former before tilting his head and sticking his hands into his pockets. It made Ginyami wonder if the topic he had picked for the question was a difficult or bitter one, especially when Valentin blanched and shook his left leg. Still, the storyteller unfolded his tales of the past tied directly to his literal scars. He showed his companion the silver scar in particular that started from his right palm and lashed up the inside of his arm, pulling back his sleeve to reveal more of it. Ginyami lifted a hand to delicately reach out and touch it, running his fingers across it as lightly as the breath of a whisper. His eyes were drawn by the other numerous scars too as he continued to listen to their owner. So, then, that CPR that had brought him back must have been the first contact of lips he'd had that had not been a kiss - the one he had mentioned earlier.
How interesting it was that this Stribog of Valentin's had been the one to smite him first with a bolt of lightning, killing him, only to restart his heart with another very soon after. Whether the seeker was unlucky or lucky, Ginyami wasn't sure, but given that Valentin was still around to tell the story, he leaned toward the latter. Valentin said that he had never been the same after that incident with his fellow quidditch players and elaborated on how he had changed. Instead of instilling any sort of fear in him, the event seemed to have done the opposite and freed him of any sort of fear he used to have. It was alarming to say the least. How could such a near-death experience cause one to have an even greater disregard for death than they had to begin with? Probably only Valentin knew.
He felt the other boy's gaze on his neckline before it drifted up to meet his own. He reached out to play with an especially long lock of the goblin king's hair as said king explained that strange things had been happening to him, especially after meeting Ginyami. Ginyami quirked a brow, but said nothing; not yet. He twirled the lock of hair around his forefinger as he continued to listen and he wondered if there wasn't some magic at play with what Valentin had been experiencing after the life and death situations he had been through.
If there was magic at play, though, what did that have to do with Ginyami or how different Valentin felt when he was close to him? It wasn't as though Ginyami had died and been brought back to life himself. Still, his he recognized his own body behaving strangely when Valentin was close to him as well - temperature rising, pulse increasing, a tightness in his chest, a fluttering in his stomach. So maybe it didn't have so much to do with magic after all as with emotions and how they manifested as physical responses.
Before Ginyami could ask if the burning cold clawing Valentin was unpleasant or if he preferred him not to be so close, the Durmstrang student closed his light, crystalline eyes and, flexing his fingers, told Ginyami that he wanted him near him.
"Becoming feverish, feeling electricity...are those not generally symptoms of something bad rather than something you would want to feel?" the noiret asked, concern steepling his brows. He released the lock of the goblin king's hair coiled around his finger. "Or do you chase after those senstations, too, because you are so reckless? A thrillseeker?"
But Valentin insisted he saw something shining in Ginyami's eyes that called to him; something telling him that inside Ginyami was what Stribog was trying to show him. Your own destruction? he wondered silently, keeping his thoughts to himself. If that was the case, Ginyami wanted no part of it. He had never cared for someone in this manner before; not like this. Surely with Valentin's heart in his possession he would mishandle it or neglect it or something else and end up dooming the unfortunate musician one way or another. He wanted to try to care for him, truly he did, but what if his attempts only ended in failure? It would mean disaster for them both.
As if reading his thoughts, Valentin assured him that he would make it alright for them to be together; that he would keep him safe forever without limiting him. It was then he knew he was in far too deep to turn back. Ginyami knew that undeniable truth as those silver-violet eyes darted back to his, expectant of an answer, and he only found one answer to give.
"No," he replied. "I won't just let go. We'll meet there on the other side as you wish." He leaned over and hooked his hands, one each, over Valentin's shoulders, lightly pressing down so he could coax him closer to his level and kiss him on the forehead. Then, if he allowed a kiss on his nose. A third and fourth kiss, soon to be followed by a third and fourth grape.
"I miscounted," Ginyami confessed, stealing into the pocket of the coat for three grapes instead of just one. He had reached in before, but been so entranced by listening to Valentin that he'd forgotten to retrieve anything from it. "You answered if someone held your heart and what you had been concentrating on so hard for days that you forgot to eat. That was two grapes. But I didn't feed you for the questions of what irks you and if you really died." He withdrew his hand with three grapes trapped lightly between his fingertips. "Nor for my newest question: do you not fear death?" He smirked. "And another question not directly part of the game - do you think that if I threw these into the air, you could catch them in your mouth?"
Valentin Schnell (@Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood)
PC: Jack Burnett | iNPC: Ginyami Midorimori
3 Jan 2023, 02:51
Thrills & Chills Bash
Post discusses mortality
Reducio
"Perhaps it is your relationship with wands that is troubled rather than your relationship with magic itself?" suggested Ginyami. Valentin hadn’t seriously considered that the problem might lay with with the wands rather than himself. Didn’t everyone have relationship problems with their wands? Scratching the back of his neck, the seeker’s mouth pursed with discomfort. It would be all too easy to blame the wands – wasn't that a slippery slope, like blaming one’s team mates or systemic issues for one's own failures at quidditch? It was like when Yefim raged about an unfairness of playing against part-humans, saying it was the part-giant’s fault that Valentin fell and began a cascade of disadvantages that quickly lost them the game. Valya loved that Yefim wanted to stand up for him, but the seeker never bought the story. It had to have been his own fault for not being observant enough when his wingman abandoned him. After all, the grueling training he undertook thereafter revealed numerous aspects Valentin was failing on. Now on his third wand, Valentin didn’t want to shrug off the responsibility. So much effort was put behind finding him the right one, and each wand was earnest in performing its duties, however badly they actually worked together. Potentially reading the skepticism on Valentin’s face, Ginyami shrugged. "Though, you must know better than I. Regardless, that is quite the pressure to have put on you by a wand. I am amazed you are still able to tolerate each other."
“Oh, but I love the pressure!” Valentin’s hand dropped as he perked up. “It’s like the audience in a stadium, I want them to have a great time. It’s an exchange. They need me to be interesting, perform at my best, and push the limits of what I can do, and that motivates me even more. This wand is great because it needs me to entertain it, especially since it communicates how I’m doing. My problem is that it doesn’t put out as much effort as I do. I’m trying to make it happy but it never seems to meet me halfway. It’s stuck-up, like it’s too good to do what I ask, even though it demands that I make the spells dramatic. The thing is hypocritical, hoity toity, and too reserved. I thought we were supposed to be partners but it’s a narcissist – it wants to take from me without giving back equally. It’s a pretty wand and all, but really, I need more than that if I’m to get over my guilt and self-assurance issues and give it what it wants.” With a sigh, Valentin felt himself slipping. “I’m sure if I were more flexible with how I want to do things… it’s just… I don’t feel safe casting how it wants me to. It’s my fault we don’t get along: I’m still not over what I did to Mikael.” Staring off to the side, Valentin shook his head to break out of the train of thought. He didn’t want to live in the past, especially not when Ginyami was so much more thrilling. “Anyway…”
Valentin watched Ginyami’s reactions as the conversation progressed to the issue of being judgmental. The seeker had been trying to relate to what he discerned behind the Japanese boy’s briefly hardening tone. Valentin had no way of knowing, however, why Ginyami so quickly began concealing it.
"It seems 'the hard way' is the only way you seem to learn anything," teased Ginyami. "Even then, it sounds like 'learn' is a strong word if you are continuously attempting to pass the boundaries you find anyway."
A pure string of chuckles rang out from deep in Valentin’s chest as his eyes squeezed with genuine amusement and – yes – pleasure.
“You’ve got me defenseless! They say repeating the same thing and expecting another result is insanity, but no. That’s a definition of stupidity. Insanity is what I’m doing – obsessively trying different methods for what must be, in the end, impossible tasks. Still, I just can’t say no. I want to prove each limit wrong by finding a hidden way to achieve it. You’re probably right, that I’m too stubborn to learn anything the easy way.” Laughing again, Valentin ran a hand through his hair. “Could you show me the easy way? I probably am overcomplicating all kinds of things.”
Ginyami went on to ask Valentin if it was true that he had really died and come back, which the frost captain returned with his fullest truth. Even pulling back his sleeve with hope that his scars would convey what his words couldn’t reach, Valentin wanted the fox to feel his story. In turn, Ginyami put his fingers to running up the silver river of the seeker’s Lichtenberg figure, sending shivers up and down Valentin’s spine. Mithril eyes closing as he took in the boy’s soft, wisp-like touch, only the importance of his story kept the Durmstrang boy talking – albeit with his heart pounding ever harder.
“…The edge calls to me with greater power, and temptation burns hotter than ever before…” continued Valentin, gaze sliding up the contours of Ginyami’s neckline until reaching his dark eyes. The fox took a long lock of the goblin king’s hair for his plaything as he listened, drawing Valya’s eyes into closing slowly for long intervals as he spoke. Although doing his best to give him the full story, half of the seeker’s mind immersed itself in the sensation and wanting more of it. With such unusually long hair, the king didn’t want to waste the chance for Ginyami to grasp handfuls of the soft strands. He yearned to grab the boy’s hands and pull them deep into the hair at either side of his face, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to finish the story if he did. Closing his eyes and flexing his hand instead, Valentin’s words accelerated. “I want you near me. It’s… this is why, it must be…”
"Becoming feverish, feeling electricity...are those not generally symptoms of something bad rather than something you would want to feel?" Ginyami released the goblin king’s hair with concern, but Valentin leaned forward as if to pursue that touch wherever it led. "Or do you chase after those sensations, too, because you are so reckless? A thrillseeker?"
The bluntness of the proposition froze Valentin in place, and he opened his eyes to examine Ginyami’s expression. Was the hellchaser so obvious? Silver-amethyst eyes lit up with the funny smile of a boy caught in an act of mischief. Val’s own question crept out from his subconscious, asking why it was he sought the golden snitch anyway, let alone anything grander. What drove him to seek the elusive spark, even in the cold and dark of night? Drawing the sweat from his brow, Valentin hungered. Ginyami’s black depths drew him in ever deeper.
“Looking into your eyes, I see something shining beyond them as the music pulls me in… It’s calling me, telling me that inside you is what Stribog was trying to show me. I just…” A rush of vertigo overpowered the seeker, like falling into a gravitational core. “These feelings… the sensations… what am I without them? What anima could possess me to live without the allure of such a calling? I don’t want to stop, can’t stop myself. Should birds fly only to survive? Is there nothing in their dawn chorus beyond utilitarian need? I couldn’t stand such a world. I want to be free. I need to be able to play, to love, to live for the sheer revelry, not just consign myself to some habit of self-perpetuation. Am I not humbled? Isn’t this the dive I was meant to take, instead of falling down against a rocky cliff face? I’m not just running away from the past, right? I have learned from my mistakes, and with some work, I’ll make it alright for us to be together, by keeping you safe forever without limiting you, and… we can do so much more than survive. We can make each other’s dreams come true. I admit that you intoxicate me, but there’s something pure inside of this. I know it, feel it, deep inside. I see it glowing like otherworldly silver inside your dark eyes. This music has to be taking me home, to where I belong. I hope this is also true for you. That’s what it’s all for, the sensations… they are an absolute love for home.” Rubbing the sinuses of his eyes for only a moment, Valentin’s wild gaze flew back to Ginyami’s. “We’ll meet there, on the other side, won’t we? You won’t… just let go?”
"No," replied the fox. "I won't just let go. We'll meet there on the other side as you wish." Placing a hand on each of the king’s shoulders, Ginyami pressed down. Valentin followed, as responsive as a fine broom under the command of an elite flier. With his head bowed precisely as much as the Mahoutokoro boy indicated, Valentin watched him lean in to press his lips to his forehead.
“Ahh...” Closing his thirsting eyes, Valentin gave himself completely to the moment. A flash memory of his knighting ceremony beneath the blackthorn washed through him – was the kiss not confirmation of a sacred pact? While they were the same soft lips of only one boy playing him, Ginyami drew vastly different melodies out from inside Valentin. A string of harplike tones bubbled up inside the musician and began weaving themselves around his mind into meaning. “Then let it be so… I will always come to bring you back as fast as I can since you will be waiting, kaderlem Tatar: “dear one”.”
Ginyami did not stop there, however, and descended to put his lips upon Valentin’s smallish nose. The proximity of the kiss to his mouth sent the seeker’s lungs inhaling a gust of burning wind as the fine white hairs across Valentin’s body pricked up. The air itself seemed charged with static energy on the verge of coalescence.
“Uhn…” was as much as Valentin’s brain could process, and his hand moved of its own accord to Ginyami’s waist. Sensation chasing, because reckless… thrillseeker… I… It would be premature to kiss the Mahoutokoro boy's lips now, Valentin knew. Yet, he was right there, only inches away. He could hear the humming in his ears the way a golden snitch tickles the air, so close. The boy’s lips were right there.
“W…” Valentin didn’t even know what he wanted to say before the word found its own way out in a whisper. “Cold… Burning… the drake. Colddrake.” A shiver claimed Valentin’s body, but he let go of the boy’s side before he could pull Ginyami in closer. Had the fox heard him? The loud hum in Valentin’s head was beginning to drown out his senses. He could barely hear reality through the rumbling force of hunger, but there were words lingering: Becoming feverish, feeling electricity...are those not generally symptoms of something bad? Another shiver. I want to be free. Valentin’s hand reached up to cover his screaming amethyst eyes. It’s just too soon. I’ll make it alright for us to be together, keeping you safe, I’ll make it alright… “It’s alright…” the frost captain soothed with a wave of his hand. “Please continue.” Tongue licking the air as he spoke, Valentin’s tone urged his wish for more even as he kept his eyes averted.
Ginyami went on to explain that he hadn’t been feeding him the correct number of grapes. A growl in Valentin’s belly confirmed this, bringing Val back with a laugh. “I forgot to eat, too.” The fox issued his next question and followed with what Valentin could only interpret as a delicious challenge.
“You want me to catch them in the air? Yes, I’ll do this for you. Oh, you know what? I used to practice this as a kid. Grapes, actually! It’s just that then, when people threw them I was also balanced on a tightrope– although… Anyway, I totally forgot about that, how food used to be normal before quidditch. It feels like another me, it’s been so long, but look at me with you. I’m acting like my kid self, wanting you to watch. I’ll answer your question first, and then I’ll be ready for them. Now let’s see, the question was… if I do not fear death.” Pushing himself off the wall to stand at full height, Valentin stretched out his arms and twisted his back to each side before putting his hands on his hips.
“Death…” coaxed the goblin king of himself. “I… don’t know if fear is the right word for it anymore. Can you say one truly fears losing a game? It may be that granting immortality by my hand is impossible, but it’s my quest to take on and destroy the risks that would kill my dearest ones, and to keep doing that I have to forever cheat Death. Before my time came, I didn’t really understand how self-absorbed I was, nor how limited my sense of self was. When I was a child, my game was to earn being at the center of attention. I was constantly afraid of being alone, deeply alone, as my parents were fading from my life and leaving me in a palace of emptiness. I tried to fill their place with friends, but once the quidditch team broke up I came to understand how tenuous the bonds were that I’d believed were so strong. Then, I lost my parents right afterwards, and I learned how close people always are to losing what we assume will last forever. Still, I kept trying to build the team, to deepen my friendships, and now I think we’ve broken past the limits of what friendship meant before. I think you and I can break even more thresholds together. You see, when I was dying, I heard music play by itself for the first time, and it told me I cannot be alone if there is no me. This was, at once, the most terrifying thing I’d ever heard and also held a kernel of reassurance.” Valentin grasped either arm, feeling a chill as his eyes dropped to the coat in Ginyami’s arms, but it was not its leather embrace he wanted.
“When I survived, that concept turned over and over in my head in the hospital bed. I convinced myself that all I could do was give my life to my friends and make that be enough. See, that was the only way to not be alone, to give everything to them. Everything. That way, in the end, there would be no me anymore, and I cannot be alone if there is no me. Even if I made a terrible mistake and died trying to save them, my spirit would outlive my body because the real “me” was immortal to the extent that my deeds still protected and enriched their lives. Thus, I put away the game of earning my place at the center of attention and picked up the game of taking on the risks in order to protect my friends and their love of life. Even if I ultimately failed, every time I saved someone would make it still worthwhile. In my vision, I will become so good at this that others can play their own games forever, if they want to. Even if it’s painful, this is better for me than being alone and feeling nothing. This game comes with its own sensations and thrills, too, which I have since come to appreciate…” The king shivered as he buried his fingers into his light tunic, and the ghost of a smile crossed his face like a veil of cirrus. “Would you blame me if I thought that you and I can do better?” Waving his hand as if to dismiss his own question, there was something more pressing Valentin wished to know.
“Please, Ginyami. Let’s play your eating game and I’ll try to remember what it was like as a child when I had none of this anxiety.” Leaning forward, Valentin’s eyes shone with a glimmer of fear, as if he might lose Ginyami to a single fallen grape. “First, though, I want you to tell me… Do you think people are fundamentally alone in life, whatever that might mean to you?” The seeker’s right sleeve still clung to his elbow as he stepped forward and thrust his scarred palm into Ginyami’s hair with a long stroke, and then another. Affectionately peering into the Japanese boy’s eyes, Valya pulled him in close with his other hand. Tucking his nose into the hook of Ginyami’s collarbone and pressing his cheek against his shoulder, Valentin breathed in deep. The seeker’s left hand wandered upwards and over until finding a perch on the ridge of the boy’s opposite trapezius. “…Please. I need your purest truth.”
"Perhaps it is your relationship with wands that is troubled rather than your relationship with magic itself?" suggested Ginyami. Valentin hadn’t seriously considered that the problem might lay with with the wands rather than himself. Didn’t everyone have relationship problems with their wands? Scratching the back of his neck, the seeker’s mouth pursed with discomfort. It would be all too easy to blame the wands – wasn't that a slippery slope, like blaming one’s team mates or systemic issues for one's own failures at quidditch? It was like when Yefim raged about an unfairness of playing against part-humans, saying it was the part-giant’s fault that Valentin fell and began a cascade of disadvantages that quickly lost them the game. Valya loved that Yefim wanted to stand up for him, but the seeker never bought the story. It had to have been his own fault for not being observant enough when his wingman abandoned him. After all, the grueling training he undertook thereafter revealed numerous aspects Valentin was failing on. Now on his third wand, Valentin didn’t want to shrug off the responsibility. So much effort was put behind finding him the right one, and each wand was earnest in performing its duties, however badly they actually worked together. Potentially reading the skepticism on Valentin’s face, Ginyami shrugged. "Though, you must know better than I. Regardless, that is quite the pressure to have put on you by a wand. I am amazed you are still able to tolerate each other."
“Oh, but I love the pressure!” Valentin’s hand dropped as he perked up. “It’s like the audience in a stadium, I want them to have a great time. It’s an exchange. They need me to be interesting, perform at my best, and push the limits of what I can do, and that motivates me even more. This wand is great because it needs me to entertain it, especially since it communicates how I’m doing. My problem is that it doesn’t put out as much effort as I do. I’m trying to make it happy but it never seems to meet me halfway. It’s stuck-up, like it’s too good to do what I ask, even though it demands that I make the spells dramatic. The thing is hypocritical, hoity toity, and too reserved. I thought we were supposed to be partners but it’s a narcissist – it wants to take from me without giving back equally. It’s a pretty wand and all, but really, I need more than that if I’m to get over my guilt and self-assurance issues and give it what it wants.” With a sigh, Valentin felt himself slipping. “I’m sure if I were more flexible with how I want to do things… it’s just… I don’t feel safe casting how it wants me to. It’s my fault we don’t get along: I’m still not over what I did to Mikael.” Staring off to the side, Valentin shook his head to break out of the train of thought. He didn’t want to live in the past, especially not when Ginyami was so much more thrilling. “Anyway…”
Valentin watched Ginyami’s reactions as the conversation progressed to the issue of being judgmental. The seeker had been trying to relate to what he discerned behind the Japanese boy’s briefly hardening tone. Valentin had no way of knowing, however, why Ginyami so quickly began concealing it.
"It seems 'the hard way' is the only way you seem to learn anything," teased Ginyami. "Even then, it sounds like 'learn' is a strong word if you are continuously attempting to pass the boundaries you find anyway."
A pure string of chuckles rang out from deep in Valentin’s chest as his eyes squeezed with genuine amusement and – yes – pleasure.
“You’ve got me defenseless! They say repeating the same thing and expecting another result is insanity, but no. That’s a definition of stupidity. Insanity is what I’m doing – obsessively trying different methods for what must be, in the end, impossible tasks. Still, I just can’t say no. I want to prove each limit wrong by finding a hidden way to achieve it. You’re probably right, that I’m too stubborn to learn anything the easy way.” Laughing again, Valentin ran a hand through his hair. “Could you show me the easy way? I probably am overcomplicating all kinds of things.”
Ginyami went on to ask Valentin if it was true that he had really died and come back, which the frost captain returned with his fullest truth. Even pulling back his sleeve with hope that his scars would convey what his words couldn’t reach, Valentin wanted the fox to feel his story. In turn, Ginyami put his fingers to running up the silver river of the seeker’s Lichtenberg figure, sending shivers up and down Valentin’s spine. Mithril eyes closing as he took in the boy’s soft, wisp-like touch, only the importance of his story kept the Durmstrang boy talking – albeit with his heart pounding ever harder.
“…The edge calls to me with greater power, and temptation burns hotter than ever before…” continued Valentin, gaze sliding up the contours of Ginyami’s neckline until reaching his dark eyes. The fox took a long lock of the goblin king’s hair for his plaything as he listened, drawing Valya’s eyes into closing slowly for long intervals as he spoke. Although doing his best to give him the full story, half of the seeker’s mind immersed itself in the sensation and wanting more of it. With such unusually long hair, the king didn’t want to waste the chance for Ginyami to grasp handfuls of the soft strands. He yearned to grab the boy’s hands and pull them deep into the hair at either side of his face, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to finish the story if he did. Closing his eyes and flexing his hand instead, Valentin’s words accelerated. “I want you near me. It’s… this is why, it must be…”
"Becoming feverish, feeling electricity...are those not generally symptoms of something bad rather than something you would want to feel?" Ginyami released the goblin king’s hair with concern, but Valentin leaned forward as if to pursue that touch wherever it led. "Or do you chase after those sensations, too, because you are so reckless? A thrillseeker?"
The bluntness of the proposition froze Valentin in place, and he opened his eyes to examine Ginyami’s expression. Was the hellchaser so obvious? Silver-amethyst eyes lit up with the funny smile of a boy caught in an act of mischief. Val’s own question crept out from his subconscious, asking why it was he sought the golden snitch anyway, let alone anything grander. What drove him to seek the elusive spark, even in the cold and dark of night? Drawing the sweat from his brow, Valentin hungered. Ginyami’s black depths drew him in ever deeper.
“Looking into your eyes, I see something shining beyond them as the music pulls me in… It’s calling me, telling me that inside you is what Stribog was trying to show me. I just…” A rush of vertigo overpowered the seeker, like falling into a gravitational core. “These feelings… the sensations… what am I without them? What anima could possess me to live without the allure of such a calling? I don’t want to stop, can’t stop myself. Should birds fly only to survive? Is there nothing in their dawn chorus beyond utilitarian need? I couldn’t stand such a world. I want to be free. I need to be able to play, to love, to live for the sheer revelry, not just consign myself to some habit of self-perpetuation. Am I not humbled? Isn’t this the dive I was meant to take, instead of falling down against a rocky cliff face? I’m not just running away from the past, right? I have learned from my mistakes, and with some work, I’ll make it alright for us to be together, by keeping you safe forever without limiting you, and… we can do so much more than survive. We can make each other’s dreams come true. I admit that you intoxicate me, but there’s something pure inside of this. I know it, feel it, deep inside. I see it glowing like otherworldly silver inside your dark eyes. This music has to be taking me home, to where I belong. I hope this is also true for you. That’s what it’s all for, the sensations… they are an absolute love for home.” Rubbing the sinuses of his eyes for only a moment, Valentin’s wild gaze flew back to Ginyami’s. “We’ll meet there, on the other side, won’t we? You won’t… just let go?”
"No," replied the fox. "I won't just let go. We'll meet there on the other side as you wish." Placing a hand on each of the king’s shoulders, Ginyami pressed down. Valentin followed, as responsive as a fine broom under the command of an elite flier. With his head bowed precisely as much as the Mahoutokoro boy indicated, Valentin watched him lean in to press his lips to his forehead.
“Ahh...” Closing his thirsting eyes, Valentin gave himself completely to the moment. A flash memory of his knighting ceremony beneath the blackthorn washed through him – was the kiss not confirmation of a sacred pact? While they were the same soft lips of only one boy playing him, Ginyami drew vastly different melodies out from inside Valentin. A string of harplike tones bubbled up inside the musician and began weaving themselves around his mind into meaning. “Then let it be so… I will always come to bring you back as fast as I can since you will be waiting, kaderlem Tatar: “dear one”.”
Ginyami did not stop there, however, and descended to put his lips upon Valentin’s smallish nose. The proximity of the kiss to his mouth sent the seeker’s lungs inhaling a gust of burning wind as the fine white hairs across Valentin’s body pricked up. The air itself seemed charged with static energy on the verge of coalescence.
“Uhn…” was as much as Valentin’s brain could process, and his hand moved of its own accord to Ginyami’s waist. Sensation chasing, because reckless… thrillseeker… I… It would be premature to kiss the Mahoutokoro boy's lips now, Valentin knew. Yet, he was right there, only inches away. He could hear the humming in his ears the way a golden snitch tickles the air, so close. The boy’s lips were right there.
“W…” Valentin didn’t even know what he wanted to say before the word found its own way out in a whisper. “Cold… Burning… the drake. Colddrake.” A shiver claimed Valentin’s body, but he let go of the boy’s side before he could pull Ginyami in closer. Had the fox heard him? The loud hum in Valentin’s head was beginning to drown out his senses. He could barely hear reality through the rumbling force of hunger, but there were words lingering: Becoming feverish, feeling electricity...are those not generally symptoms of something bad? Another shiver. I want to be free. Valentin’s hand reached up to cover his screaming amethyst eyes. It’s just too soon. I’ll make it alright for us to be together, keeping you safe, I’ll make it alright… “It’s alright…” the frost captain soothed with a wave of his hand. “Please continue.” Tongue licking the air as he spoke, Valentin’s tone urged his wish for more even as he kept his eyes averted.
Ginyami went on to explain that he hadn’t been feeding him the correct number of grapes. A growl in Valentin’s belly confirmed this, bringing Val back with a laugh. “I forgot to eat, too.” The fox issued his next question and followed with what Valentin could only interpret as a delicious challenge.
“You want me to catch them in the air? Yes, I’ll do this for you. Oh, you know what? I used to practice this as a kid. Grapes, actually! It’s just that then, when people threw them I was also balanced on a tightrope– although… Anyway, I totally forgot about that, how food used to be normal before quidditch. It feels like another me, it’s been so long, but look at me with you. I’m acting like my kid self, wanting you to watch. I’ll answer your question first, and then I’ll be ready for them. Now let’s see, the question was… if I do not fear death.” Pushing himself off the wall to stand at full height, Valentin stretched out his arms and twisted his back to each side before putting his hands on his hips.
“Death…” coaxed the goblin king of himself. “I… don’t know if fear is the right word for it anymore. Can you say one truly fears losing a game? It may be that granting immortality by my hand is impossible, but it’s my quest to take on and destroy the risks that would kill my dearest ones, and to keep doing that I have to forever cheat Death. Before my time came, I didn’t really understand how self-absorbed I was, nor how limited my sense of self was. When I was a child, my game was to earn being at the center of attention. I was constantly afraid of being alone, deeply alone, as my parents were fading from my life and leaving me in a palace of emptiness. I tried to fill their place with friends, but once the quidditch team broke up I came to understand how tenuous the bonds were that I’d believed were so strong. Then, I lost my parents right afterwards, and I learned how close people always are to losing what we assume will last forever. Still, I kept trying to build the team, to deepen my friendships, and now I think we’ve broken past the limits of what friendship meant before. I think you and I can break even more thresholds together. You see, when I was dying, I heard music play by itself for the first time, and it told me I cannot be alone if there is no me. This was, at once, the most terrifying thing I’d ever heard and also held a kernel of reassurance.” Valentin grasped either arm, feeling a chill as his eyes dropped to the coat in Ginyami’s arms, but it was not its leather embrace he wanted.
“When I survived, that concept turned over and over in my head in the hospital bed. I convinced myself that all I could do was give my life to my friends and make that be enough. See, that was the only way to not be alone, to give everything to them. Everything. That way, in the end, there would be no me anymore, and I cannot be alone if there is no me. Even if I made a terrible mistake and died trying to save them, my spirit would outlive my body because the real “me” was immortal to the extent that my deeds still protected and enriched their lives. Thus, I put away the game of earning my place at the center of attention and picked up the game of taking on the risks in order to protect my friends and their love of life. Even if I ultimately failed, every time I saved someone would make it still worthwhile. In my vision, I will become so good at this that others can play their own games forever, if they want to. Even if it’s painful, this is better for me than being alone and feeling nothing. This game comes with its own sensations and thrills, too, which I have since come to appreciate…” The king shivered as he buried his fingers into his light tunic, and the ghost of a smile crossed his face like a veil of cirrus. “Would you blame me if I thought that you and I can do better?” Waving his hand as if to dismiss his own question, there was something more pressing Valentin wished to know.
“Please, Ginyami. Let’s play your eating game and I’ll try to remember what it was like as a child when I had none of this anxiety.” Leaning forward, Valentin’s eyes shone with a glimmer of fear, as if he might lose Ginyami to a single fallen grape. “First, though, I want you to tell me… Do you think people are fundamentally alone in life, whatever that might mean to you?” The seeker’s right sleeve still clung to his elbow as he stepped forward and thrust his scarred palm into Ginyami’s hair with a long stroke, and then another. Affectionately peering into the Japanese boy’s eyes, Valya pulled him in close with his other hand. Tucking his nose into the hook of Ginyami’s collarbone and pressing his cheek against his shoulder, Valentin breathed in deep. The seeker’s left hand wandered upwards and over until finding a perch on the ridge of the boy’s opposite trapezius. “…Please. I need your purest truth.”
Reducio
Stats: STA 8 ✦ EVA 14 ✧ STR 2 ✦ WIS 15 ✧ARC 1 ✦ ACC 15 - Ency
Abilities: Keen Eye ✦ Charmer ✧ Evasive Maneuvers ✦ Fearless
Valentin's English = #CC3333; Russian = #992314; Tatar = #1F0402
Interacting with @Jack Burnett
8 Jan 2023, 22:21
Thrills & Chills Bash
| ───they said all dreams come true, they forgot to mention nightmares are dreams too | outfit | english─── |
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─────────────────────────────────────── HOGWARTS ────────────
| ─── | The spider games were over!
It seemed to have been a success and Kim was glad everyone had enjoyed themselves for the most part. All that remained was to give out the gift bags and the bash would be over. The guests could still stay and mingle, chat and enjoy refreshments and snacks but after the gift bag hand-out there would be no other activities. More people had turned up than he had originally expected but that meant there were a lot of students who needed a break from their studies and other things. Kim was glad it was hopefully helping them out in some way and that Bailey had convinced him to still hold the bash. Maybe he'd do it again later. Kim headed over to the partially hidden away section near the door and grabbed a bunch of mini skull bags from the table. Approaching each person who still remained inside the ballroom, he steeled himself to not think about how close everyone would be to him. He would have given these to Bailey to distribute but she wasn't around at the moment. Probably socializing with others. Therefore, it was up to him to do this before people started to leave! Kim cleared his throat and raised his voice. "Thanks for coming to the bash!" "Please come over and receive your skull bag before you leave. The bash's activities have ended for the year. But you can still mingle, chat and fill yourself up with refreshments and snacks for as long as you like." Kim told them all and waited for them to come over and grab a mini skull bag from him. He was doing this himself so that no one would end up grabbing more than one. If Sophia had been there, she would have grabbed a bunch. Inside the bag were a small assortment of candies. Quite suitable to celebrate Halloween. Kim hadn't gone overboard because it wasn't a sweets shop, it was a bash that he'd put together himself. With Bailey's help a little. Inside each bag were some homemade red velvet cupcakes and wrapped candies such as chocolate rochers, acid pops, sticky caramels and sherbert lemon drops. |
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@Bailey Glade, @Oliver Brown@Haley Rose, @Taisia Stroudefielde, @Sienna Lenoir, @Aurora Griffith, @Mina Starr, @Cassandra Ironwoods, @Bubba McGarry, @Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood, @Rita Su, @Jack Burnett, @Monica Evans, @Galton Lansdale, @Simon Kincaid, @AngelFyre McCubbin, @Hanako Tone, @Pea Elena Fowl, @Emma Wynn, @Damion White, @Cynthia Beaufort, @Charlie Jacobsen
@Bailey Glade, @Oliver Brown@Haley Rose, @Taisia Stroudefielde, @Sienna Lenoir, @Aurora Griffith, @Mina Starr, @Cassandra Ironwoods, @Bubba McGarry, @Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood, @Rita Su, @Jack Burnett, @Monica Evans, @Galton Lansdale, @Simon Kincaid, @AngelFyre McCubbin, @Hanako Tone, @Pea Elena Fowl, @Emma Wynn, @Damion White, @Cynthia Beaufort, @Charlie Jacobsen
Please read the reducio!
Reducio
Note: You can slightly godmode Kim by saying that he gave you a mini skull bag when you come up to him. But don't have him do anything else. Thank you! You can keep posting in the thread btw for as long as you want. I'll only close the thread once people have stopped posting in it. Or if there's been no activity in over 3 months, it'll be auto-locked anyway. Also, please check your trunk, I will have sent you some of the candies Kim IC gave you! Hope you have a happy holiday!
| kim sato tone bakugo | sta • 10 | eva • 18 | str • 2 | wis • 10 | arc • 7 | acc • 20 sta • 10 | eva • 16 | str • 15 | wis • 7 | arc • 4 | acc • 18 |
PC ENCY iNPC ENCY |
19 Jan 2023, 06:04
Thrills & Chills Bash
Smiling as Valentin perked up, explaining how he 'loved the pressure' his wand put on him, Ginyami listened, intrigued. Even if Valentin's wand seemed pretty demanding, the Japanese teen supposed it was true that it would be nice to have a wand that communicated how it felt its owner was doing. It was the fact that the wand wasn't 'meeting him halfway' that seemed to be the problem. Just as the wand might have had certain expectations of its user, its user must have had their own expectations of the wand - expectations that it didn't seem to want to meet. He could see why the seeker called it 'hypocritical'.
"So it is the wand that's the problem, then?" Ginyami asked, tilting his head slightly. "Hold on - you have guilt and self-assurance issues?" He smiled teasingly. "You, the famous White Seeker of Durmstrang?" Not that he blamed Valentin for having flaws. Everyone had them. Still, he couldn't resist the thought of poking a bit of fun at this boy who Hiro had previously insinuated was 'too good to be true'.
"Are you in the habit of always blaming yourself?" he asked with a laugh after Valentin said it was his fault he and his wand didn't get along. "You just stated all the ways the wand doesn't want to cooperate with you in your partnership. How can you still insist your incompatibility is your fault? Are you meant to be its slave, obeying its every whim without expecting anything in return?" His smile faded when Valentin mentioned something about what he did to Mikael and stared off to one side. Ginyami remembered the mention of the same name before. Curiosity burned him from the inside, but he dared not ask more about what had happened between them. Not just then, at least. It was obvious that whatever it was was a sore subject for the pale youth, so he let the subject drop.
It was much more pleasurable to hear the sound of the seeker's amusement as he chuckled when Ginyami mentioned that 'the hard way' seemed to be the only way he learned anything. Fascinated by Valentin's own definitions of stupidity and insanity as well as why Valentin claimed he 'couldn't just say no' to impossible tasks, the fox nodded slowly. He beamed at the other's laughter when he was asked to show him the easy way to learn things. "I will do my very best," Ginyami assured him with a light touch on his arm. "It might not be as exciting or glorious as being struck by lightning, but I do hope it might spare you some pain and damage in the future - things it sounds you have had more than your fair share of."
A smile played at the corners of his mouth when Valentin leaned forward after Ginyami let go of his hair. It faltered, however, when caught under the startling gaze of the frost captain until said captain's eyes lit with their own mischievous smile. It made Ginyami wonder just how much of him Valentin could see with those soul-sifting eyes of his. He told him he saw something shining beyond as the music pulled him in, telling him that what was inside Ginyami was what Stribog was trying to show him. But Ginyami wasn't so sure this Stribog had Valentin's best interests at heart. After all, he had nearly led the seeker to his doom before he had returned to life. And now, for Valentin to be drawn to Ginyami, a deceitful, two-faced manipulator...was Valentin truly lured in most by that which could destroy him? Was he cursed to draw a bad hand of fate over and over again until it ultimately led to his downfall?
Somehow, the thought didn't sit well with Ginyami. He may have been portrayed as a masochist, chasing after danger, but Valentin didn't deserve to be hurt. Normally, Ginyami didn't give a damn about who did and didn't deserve anything, but for some reason, Valentin was different. He wanted Valentin to reach his goals, to help him reach them, instead of just allowing him to suffer for them. He had never really been interested in anyone's goals other than his own before.
"Again, you speak in poetry. What pretty words," Ginyami remarked with a musing smile, concealing the unease he felt at hearing Valentin talk of what he saw in him. What if it's all a lie? What if that silver, that pureness, isn't there and all that exists is darkness? He traced the edge of Valentin's collarbone with a single finger as he listened to him talk, thinking hard on his companion's words. Be careful of what you go chasing after, thrillseeker. Some hard-learned lessons are more difficult to walk off than others. You want to do more than survive, but survival is important, too.
As he felt a gentle hand slide smoothly to his waist, Ginyami felt his cheeks get warm again and he put his own hand over Valentin's. He cocked his head as he heard the other begin to say something, but it was quiet when he finally managed to utter it. "What about the colddrake?" Ginyami asked softly, the shiver from his companion transferring over to his own body through their contact before Valentin let go. "Is it that burning cold again? The cold you mentioned before?" His brow grew furrowed, even when his companion finally told him it was alright and asked him to continue. Is it really alright, though?
Wondering if perhaps Valentin might have been suffering more side-effects from lack of food, he continued on to explain about the grapes and take out the three he still owed the goblin king. The sound of Valentin's ringing laughter again was wonderful to hear and some of Ginyami's worry eased, especially when his peer agreed to the game of playing catch with the grapes.
"Oh, so you must be quite practiced, then," he commented with his sly smile at Valentin's childhood story. "Balanced on a tightrope? Oh my. Then this should be a piece of cake for you, should it not?" His expression mellowed upon hearing how food used to be normal for Valentin before quidditch and how it felt like another him. What a shame for such a soul to have been thrust into the spotlight of fame when he only wanted to be free to live his own life and be happy. How many other problems like the one with food had being famous caused him? Maybe he liked to perform and to please people, but did it have to be on such a large scale?
The Japanese student exhaled a small sigh when Valentin said he would answer his question before catching the grapes, but did not object. At least he would be eating them soon. Ginyami observed as the seeker stretched his body before attempting to give the reply the fox sought. It sounded as though he was comparing death to losing a game. Was that truly how he viewed it? He supposed for someone who sought immortality, that made some sense, but it still concerned him. 'I cannot be alone if there is no me'? While Valentin mentioned the statement as the most terrifying thing he'd ever heard, it also alarmed Ginyami to know it also held a kernel of reassurance for him.
Valentin's eyes on his coat evoked its holder to offer it back to him, but he didn't take it. Instead, he simply continued on. He talked about how he convinced himself that giving everything to his friends, his life, was the only way to not be alone. In that sense, he would not be him and therefore he would not be alone. To Ginyami who lived quite selfishly and took the majority of the actions he did for his own peronal gain, this was absurd. He thought he could understand how someone who feared being alone, especially after having lost both parents, might come to such a conclusion, however. Was that why he seemed to be so selfless? Because of this new game of his to take risks to protect his friends and their love of life?
You need to be more selfish, Ginyami thought, mentally shaking his head. If you don't look out for yourself, no one else will. "We can most definitely do better," he answered Valentin with firm resolution when the alabaster captain asked if he would blame him for thinking that they could do better. "Of that I am certain." You need a new game to play. "Are you sure you do not want to wear your coat again? You keep shivering..."
But Valentin had already moved on with topics, suggesting they play the grape-eating game. Hoping some movement might relieve the goblin king from his shivering, Ginyami nodded in agreement, holding up the small, elliptical fruits between his fingers. Before he could do anything with them, though, Valentin requested to first hear the response to his question of whether or not Ginyami thought people were fundamentally alone in life.
Frustrated at being unable to help satisfy the Durmstrang boy's growling stomach sooner, the Mahotokoro youth was about ready to throw a grape at Valentin anyway, but refrained from doing so. He didn't want to waste a single bite of sustenance. As if sensing his frustration, though, Valentin came forward and his scarred hand found its way into Ginyami's hair, stroking once, then twice. Very much against his will, Ginyami found himself strangely soothed and looked up to meet ethereal stars of eyes. Just what sort of spell had the king cast over the fox to make him feel this way?
His heart thudded almost painfully against his chest when he was pulled closer, Valentin's scent and sensation surrounding him like a comforting cloak with his warm breath against his skin. He closed his eyes then and turned his head to brush his lips against an elegant ivory neck - the fifth kiss to go with the fifth question. He slipped his hand not holding the grapes to the back of Valentin's head, tangling his digits amid the snow-white locks there. Taking a deep breath of his own, he exhaled slowly, savoring each moment of their time together.
"My purest truth..." he repeated in a near whisper, turning the question over in his mind. It was difficult to concentrate over the sound of the blood pumping in his ears by his rapidly beating heart. "To be honest...yes. I think people are fundamentally alone in life." He opened his eyes to stare down at the ground, questing fingers still caught in Valentin's hair. "You said so yourself - that the bonds you thought you had made when you were younger turned out to be more tenuous than you had thought. I think that is because the majority of people tend to be selfish and to only look out for themselves when all is said and done. When a rare person like you comes along, trying to look out for others, there is no one left to look out for you. That, I fear, may be one reason you keep encountering dangers like your brushes with death. You are too concerned about saving others to think about saving yourself."
Valentin Schnell (@Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood)
PC: Jack Burnett | iNPC: Ginyami Midorimori