Like a Heartfelt Message

LadyDeme-10/26/2016

Barentia wasn't as hot in what was now leaning towards Summer as their previous stopping point had been when there was more clearly spring in the air -- a difference in climate, a drier sort of heat. Delphine sat in it, the tree above her providing some shade and breaking the light of the afternoon sun in spots and shadows, dappling across her skin, and across the surface of the page before her. The camp was just a little ways off, the town a little before -- this was a spot by the side of the road, besides a small bridge over a little stream. She had a staff slung over the top of her knees, and the book was balanced on her thighs; Delphine was curled up a little, braced against the grey bark of the oak. Her expression was pensive, looking down at the page while her eyes skipped and skimmed across the page. The pages turned quickly as a certain pleasure of just the rush of words rising and falling like a tide across her mind -- and the ease of it only pushed her along.

AOMRocks20-10/26/2016

Lorenzo had become quite sweaty due to the heat and his armor, combined with the heat of his training. Slicing dummies until his arms felt like lead made him feel incredibly heated--so he had taken the time to wash himself, let the cool water run over him, then train again. The water had kept him from overheating and dehydrating, but he still felt sweaty, tired, and in need of a well deserved break--so, noticing his friend, he silently (well, silently as his armor allowed) made his way over and sat near her, letting his back fall against the tree, trying to lessen the volume of his huffing. Having even a silent moment between them felt comforting, and as he slowly tuned out all the other sounds, he grinned, feeling a small piece of serenity.

After a few seconds of panting, he nodded to her, to her book, and spoke breathily. "What's that you're... reading?" He paused during his words to allow another puff.

LadyDeme-10/26/2016

She'd heard him, naturally -- and a few instincts had siezed her. The first was to let him do so, to just enjoy this quiet moment. The tree was a little world, created under the umbrella of its shadow -- and that little world was not a bad one. The second instinct had been to call him out, the failure of armor at stealth well-documented. But finally, it was just to press on with what she'd been reading, as the nature of it all slipped somewhere into the background buzz of her brain. But ignoring him would have been counter-productive anyway, so she turned a page. "Oh, this?" She half-lifted her head, hidden from his view by the tree, and smiled. "It's a recent treatise on the controlled application of empathy and healing magic -- something like that.. I feel like I need to step up my game a little.... After last time." Her voice and smiled dipped slightly, mentioning this. She'd been trying to conceal how it'd been -- Shanoa'd had her own troubles, and there was nothing any of the other healers would have done, she believed, but blame her for it.(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/26/2016

He raised an eyebrow. Through the fighting, he had neglected to learn what had happened before. "Last... time? I don't think I recall. It was something about... casualties, was it?" Lorenzo frowned--he had heard enough about casualties or wounds.

LadyDeme-10/26/2016

"...You know that little pegasus knight? He was on our front, and all." Delphine asked, leaning forward into her knees, the stave across them rolling down with a clatter. She hadn't known Clarke well, and she supposed it hardly mattered. "...Well. He rode to meet the prince, like some sort of glorious idiot. Just a kid. There wasn't..." She shook her head, a strand of hair falling into her face, her voice trailing off. Sure, Lorenzo might laugh: it was just the nature of war. But if she'd been someone else, maybe there would have been something that could have been done. And hadn't he said -- to say if she wasn't OK? She didn't know if it counted, but there they were.

AOMRocks20-10/26/2016

He sighed, running a hand through his curled hair. He had seen Clarke brought down like a lion would bring down a rabbit--quickly, effortlessly. He had thought little of it. People seemed to die all the time, didn't they? And certainly at worse odds than Clarke--and yet, he remembered his old enemies--how harshly their blows fell upon him, how quickly ended his comrade's lives without him to defend, as he simply couldn't take it, mauled, exhausted, broken... "...anything you could do."

LadyDeme-10/26/2016

"Exactly. I kind of knew this'd how it'd be, and I knew -- you know. That I'd be useless when it counted, but..." She shook her head, making a strange little noise in her throat. It'd been a sort of natural consequence -- or a failure of planning. But it was hard to stomach all the same. Another body on the pile strewn out before her: the fate of almost everyone she cared for before the war at best 'uncertain.' At Best. "And Shanoa, too. She's alive, I mean. Don't worry about that, but... Well. I decided I'd try and be less of a millstone about it."

AOMRocks20-10/26/2016

"...it worries you, doesn't it?" His voice is gravelly, gray, eyes staring something out of view. "If you can see something like that. Stomach it. See a hundred more Clarkes fall, or if Shanoah dies and you couldn't be there to help. If you can hold the burden people place on you, with what you do." He clears his throat, focusing on the nearby grass. "...you're having problems with it, aren't you?"

LadyDeme-10/26/2016

It was a long time before she could answer -- she had an imagination that could run wild like that, filling in his words with vivid images -- and ones he didn't meant to call up, of men rotting on pikes, the fields under a wind of ash. People waiting to die. "Yeah," She said eventually, shook her head, even as he says that. She rubs her eyes, shaking a little of the mist of the edges, hot against her face. "Well, not worries. You can't worry when you already know -- like if you throw up a rock, you can't be worried that it's going to come down, right?" Her tone was a little soft, delivered with a sad smile. Now that she'd started talking about it, it was easier, something cleared out of her throat. She unfolded a little, resting her head against the tree so loudly as to be almost audible. "... But even if that stone has to come down... It won't even come close to that peak if I don't at least throw it up. I'm more worried about if I can be worth those expectations, then how I feel. It's a rather... A rather strained simile... But that worries even you, as well?"(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/26/2016

Lorenzo scoffed, and smirked--but he quickly discarded it, rubbing his face. He had heard it so much, remaining cool under its mention was almost involuntary. Images in his mind, memories--fired rapidly. He cleared his throat, sitting back and resting his hands on his knees. "...Yes. Yes, I have felt that pressure." Another hand runs through his hair--his shoulders hunch slightly, and he shakes his head, trying to remove the weight. "You don't know if you'll be able to make it through this war, then...?"

LadyDeme-10/26/2016

Delphine edged a little around the tree, just an inch along its side, hearing something in his tone, the fallen scoff, that it was impossible for her to ignore. Her hand curved back, even visibly, around the truck. "Who, me? Well... I've already decided that however that part turns out, it's OK. I'll preserve it as I can -- I have a lot waiting for me, you know, but... I bet my life the moment I left Arcias -- however foolish it is, It'd be worse if I didn't expect the worst." The part where she maybe died: that was the easiest part. Even if she was afraid, deep in her bones -- it was far smaller than her other worries, no more meaingful than a fly among a flock of birds. "No, no, I'm worried... That there'll never be anything I can do for them. Any of them. That there never was. And still, somehow, I'm the one who got to live. They were no less worthy than I -- unable to anything for anyone, when a better person might be... Wouldn't be... Such a..." She shook her head, trying not to keep track of the world. The light rustled down through the leaves, filling what she couldn't quite say with a gentle noise, hitting one wet side of her face -- the stream burbled softly, the water ebbing so low that the movement over the rocks were hard-won.(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/26/2016

Yes. Exactly. That's it. He sighed, looking up towards the sky, thinking. That's absolutely it... He shakes his head, now huffing quietly. "Delphine... you are very inexperienced, I know..." He sighs again. "Death and war are... frequent lovers, you must know. But you have use. You are a healer, something I'm sure takes much more time and effort and knowledge than being a soldier. Letting yourself think like this will only prove your own point." He punctuates this with a nod. "You are a healer--and any healer, better or worse, knows how to heal. And without you, I'm not sure this army itself would be standing without people like you. You are a marvelous, valuable person, Delphine, and if you occasionally neglect to heal, do not worry yourself."

LadyDeme-10/26/2016

"Maybe. If I were any --" She fell silent after a moment -- she'd been answering his point about time and knowledge; sure, she'd studied it. And for the most part, it hadn't been good enough. But what he said next really stopped and paused her -- not just that any healer was better than none, though the logic of it was relaxing in its own way, but the care at the end of it put a smile on her face, letting her little slump become a relaxed one, smiling exhaustedly at the base of the tree; those pools of sunlight hitting her actually reaching with a warmth. "...Well, thank you. But marvelous or no, I decided the best thing to do was not sit around and cry about it... Much, anyway. But you know... I'm very glad to have you here, yourself."(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/26/2016

He nods, not quite smiling, but the frown is somewhat gone. He took another look around, coming back to the sights of everything. It was all so beautiful, impermanent, just like the frequent movements of their camp. "Thank you for saying so. Quite frankly, I was doubting if I could still be standing without you. You and Arty being here cause me worry, but you both comfort me so."

LadyDeme-10/26/2016

She almost said that she'd hardly imagine it -- there were things only Lorenzo seemed able to do, tough and practiced... Always striving -- but she saw the pressure behind that striving, and nodded sympathetically. "We all have to have each other's backs. Or, in my case, you have my front. My better side, I think..." She said, her tone getting back to normal. She debated showing him what she was working on, but for the moment, she was satisfied sitting there, looking out over the road to the town. She tried to judge him by his voice. "...But I don't only want to talk about my worries. That pressure's something that eats at you, too, a cankerworm in the budding of a heart. I don't know if you're a person who's helped by letting stuff out -- it probably won't hurt. But if you do... It's safe here. I want to provide that comfort." She wanted to give that back to him, if she could -- there were very few places she felt it was OK to not be OK, acceptable to let that weakness she had running wild inside her show -- not because it earned something, or because it let them feel safe, or even because it was just unbearable, but because she could. "If you need a break, though I do have some of what I've been working on; just don't ask to see it to weasel out."(edited)

October 27, 2016

AOMRocks20-10/27/2016

Lorenzo sighed. The offer had been a great blow against him--a blow he was not yet ready for. He quickly shook his head. "No, Delphine... no. I don't think we need to talk about it. What are you working on?" He sounded cheerful--a fabricated tone, meticulously crafted through the year of practice. He could not burden her with his worries.

LadyDeme-10/27/2016

She knew better than to press, even when the shift was too much a 180. She knew that move. Maybe it was, itself, something of a blow. But it was something she was ready for, and bent forward to lift up her staff. "Alright, then... But when that time comes, remember what you said. It's just between us -- I'll hardly blow up your fine persona." She said, recalling their conversation, now a month ago,on the training grounds of a distant capital. "Either way, I could show you a few of my notes -- but I don't have my book with me today. I've composed a little: poetry, not music... But for now..." She inched around the edge of the tree, peering at him with a playful look, despite her red-rimmed eyes. "You just came from training, right? Do you have any scrapes?"(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/27/2016

He giggled. How little... Lorenzo answered with a nod, slowly remembering why he had sat at this tree in the first place. "Oh, yes. Just a bit of callousing maybe a blister or two, mild bruises. Why, do you want me to slip out of my armor for it?" He smirks at the joke.

October 28, 2016

LadyDeme-10/28/2016

The laugh may have stung a little -- and it settled down like a rock, weighing into the soles of her light feet, into a heart that, just a minute ago, had been sincerely lightened. He was stealing her gambit, for one -- and for another, she'd had no gambit. Not this time -- and it was as meaningless as if she had. There was, she felt, no sense in feeling bad about it -- except to feel bad for him, without any safe place for whatever feelings he had to land. She'd hoped something foolish. She shook her head, disappointed in him or in herself (because in that way, they may have been identical) before laughing herself. "How foolish am I, to throw pearls before swine, who bat them away with a jeer! Fine, then; if you cannot handle even a sliver of a woman's honest heart, clearly, you're not ready for her poetry." She said, her voice full of an over-dramatic hurt and a faint giggle of her own. She stepped out from behind the tree to consider his tired form, and his offer. "Hmmm... Well, normally, I'd say yes because I enjoy the chance to see you out of it. But this time... I'll say..." She weighed the options seriously, trying to judge. Seeing the wounds wouldn't hurt the magic, but the whole point was to reach a place usable in battle. "Got a bruise you can show me without it? It'd be more impressive if I managed it this way, riiight?"(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/28/2016

Lorenzo's gaze hardened. He strapped off a piece, showing a rather dark bruise on his shoulder. "Right up there... Delphine, I wasn't trying to mock you... I was only laughing because I saw the jest coming. You know--you always seemed happy to make me awkward and red saying silly things like that. I just thought I'd return the favor... In time, my friend, we'll talk more, but not now." He tapped the bruise, trying to hold off a puff or a sigh. One of the reasons Delphine was her friend was her witticisms, something which he had recalled a bit in the relatively serene setting.

LadyDeme-10/28/2016

She pressed on as if she hadn't been wounded -- and now, perhaps not mollified, but perhaps more softly disappointed, for how unbelievable her kindness could be -- and for how hard the look on his face was. She'd been too drained to really apply her wit, in the most recent days, but now perhaps, there was a little more chance of it. "Yes, but then, I was sincere; a relief for your flushed face, granted in exchange for the chance to rest a little, the way a capricious god might repay a kindness. A jest only came because you summoned it, and I cannot disappoint an audience -- consider it your first lesson in magic, and a fine start to my demonstration -- we can leave that behind, as you wish." Now that he mentioned it, there were a few notes about magic that she'd been making, as she went -- she'd had, after all, a brush with demons summoned or not by appropriate cackling. That would be a fun note to compare to other forms, had she the time to consider it fully. Now, though, she leaned towards the bruise, nodding thoughtfully. "Healing magic, too, is a thing you summon by calling for me! And a love that normally must be whispered to its lover's own ear. Consider, for a moment, the delicate array of blood vessels underneath your skin, this miracle of the universe, the spider's web writ large, the roots of a forest writ small -- for the most part, magic that would repair them would need to reach them, barring a sufficiently refined healing stave, with a sufficiently refined focus. Like a heartfelt message, the closer the people sending and recieving it are, the more tender the moment. Is that clear?"(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/28/2016

Lorenzo opens his mouth, then closes it. Magic was more a realm reserved for his sister; he didn't become one of the more endurant troops casting spells, after all. The whole realm of it felt confusing and while he was of sound mind, it felt like gibberish. "I... yes, sure." He nods hesitantly. If this is how she explains magic, I'm afraid of her poetry...(edited)

LadyDeme-10/28/2016

She nodded and took a few steps backwards -- more space than she would normally have to heal on the battlefield. You could have fit another fighter between them, or the wall of a building. "This, however, isn't necessarily true. In love, a love letter sealed with a kiss will suffice. In magic, then... Among certain circles, something like that love letter's been found recently... Of course, for some people, it still won't work; I guess you need a gift with words for a love-letter, and here... The idea of strengthening healing magic's power to reach comes from pushing the magic with the heart... Like so." She raised her staff and fed it the tree -- the tree, with him on one side, and her on the other, the faint backdrop of wind through the leaves and the whisper of a stream: the image itself contained a little magic, the roots of the tree and its branches swirling to meet one another, creating a closed moment in time. She took that heart and channelled that with her magic (starting from the lungs in her mental self as her studies advised, not the fingertips) through the stave, pushing it harder than she ordinarily might -- and feeding it, imagining the thought, glowing faintly blue in the air, like an after-image, with a little prayer, and the image of the bruise itself, healing. It reached Lorenzo and found the bruise -- both the one he'd shown her, and things it did not, and however he might have felt the magic, healed it. It was faded away as if it never had been at all. Delphine, from her positioned away from him, waved a hand. "It takes a kind of a push -- a longer run-up, and to become a sort of... Wind, to catch under the magic; it's rather abstract, I suppose, but the results can explain themselves."(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/28/2016

Lorenzo grinned as he strapped on the equipment again, taking a deep breath as he holds a hand over his armored heart--all its layers. The magic had an almost revitalizing affect on him. "I see... magical wind. Makes sense--there's wind magic, after all. That's very impressive, Delphine!"

LadyDeme-10/28/2016

She curtseyed with a practicied flourish, taking a little stage-bow at the end of it. She was beaming, telling the effect more clearly as he came closer. It'd been a litle overkill, in terms of using a Live Staff for something so petty, but... "Frankly, I'm surprised that worked -- that was my test-run."

AOMRocks20-10/28/2016

He slowly shuffles against the tree, his smile widening. "Well, I'm glad I could act as your experiment, then. There will be a lot of use to that, I'm sure."

LadyDeme-10/28/2016

"I'm sure there will -- so I'm relieved to see it actually works with me behind it." She stretches out, her neck cricking from having been folded over the book as of late. A joint here or there cricked as she sat down beside him under the tree, knees raised and outstretched over the roots. "I may want to head down to the arena later, practice it up,you know... But for now, I can at least rest easy that it's done. Maybe write some of that explanation down... It had a fine sound, I think, didn't you?" She asked, her tone a little thoughtful -- she'd managed it off the cuff, after all, but it'd had a parellell that wasn't bad.(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/28/2016

He nods. "Oh, yes. Definitely. Fairly hard to follow--Arty's the magical girl, after all--but I liked the sound of it." He cranes his neck around to spot her book. "I still want to have a look at what else you have written."(edited)

LadyDeme-10/28/2016

"I might have been sacrificing sense for sound there, or, well -- for meaning? It's a little of both. The more direct explanation is the sort this book provides, but... Then, it might be too dull to understand." She leans around the tree, across him, and points out what she'd been reading earlier. When he himself pointed it out, she shook her head, indicating her little leather-bound book on her clip. "I don't have anything but little notes it with me right now -- that's what I was studying from. Though, oh, have you seen the candy shops? I have a skeleton of a thing there."(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/28/2016

Lorenzo purses his lips, then shrug. "Ah, well. I suppose I'll have to pry those writings out of you another day."

October 29, 2016

LadyDeme-10/29/2016

"I mean, I do have some base of a poem, or a passage, or...Something, if you're not attached to only seeing finished works." She swung up the chained book in a little arc, so it ended right-side-up in her hands. "I do hate to disappoint you, for being such a fine guinea pig... Besides, it's not cooperating well."(edited)

AOMRocks20-10/29/2016

Lorenzo shrugs dismissively, shaking his head. "Oh, no. I'm sure whatever you do have down is marvelous, Delphine. Even if it's just the unfinished product, I'd love to see."

LadyDeme-10/29/2016

"You say that, but I went for a triolet, and it's not quite..." She shook her head, forlornly, but pressed onward, folding open the page. There, the writing was far more scribbled than one might normally expect of someone with Delphine's upbringing -- but perhaps not her temperment, the page seeming too scattered, the pen too slow, to catch everything she intended to say on it. The occaisonal sketch (here, it seemed, Rock-candy, a girl who may have been a few years younger than Delphine tasting something with a wide smile) She cleared her throat when she found a little column of works, isolated in a rare blank space. " A dream melts upon my tongue. The rush of sweetness soon to pass -- the peachy bubbling of a melody once sung, a dream that melts upon my tongue. the sugar's dissolved, and leaves me among And a moment of time, sugar-spun, thin as glass. A dream that melts upon my tongue, a rush of sweetness soon to pass. "

AOMRocks20-10/29/2016

Lorenzo sighed, laying back. "Ah... how nice. It's certainly a good start."

LadyDeme-10/29/2016

"I think," She examined the page with an intent glare, a smile curling at the edges of her lips -- if it was a frustration, it was one she enjoyed. "That it'd be aided by being freed of the form. Some of the rhymes are too much of a struggle... I like going for something like that, especially to start with, when I don't know what it is, but..." She leaned back herself, shaking her head.

AOMRocks20-10/29/2016

"Hmm... Why not give it a break? I was thinking of heading over to the mess tent for a bit, see if I could... appropriate an apple or two." He slowly clunks to his feet, taking another look around at the serene scene.

LadyDeme-10/29/2016

"Sounds like a fine plan." She bounced up in the same sort of motion as when she'd tossed her book right-side up: she folded said book back in with her belt, so it hung without being open. "Would you care for company, or will you be heading to your own thoughts?"

AOMRocks20-10/29/2016

Lorenzo turned offering an arm to her with a playful smile. "Oh, certainly. Having you follow me around all day would make us even greater friends."

LadyDeme-10/29/2016

She accepts it, linking her arm to his with a grin that's just a little mischevious. "Or I'll drive you mad, I'm sure; it shall come, like many things, down to a roll of the dice... Or to something even more capricious, like my mood." However, as they walked towards the road, back to the camp -- while the canopy of the tree shaded them, and in an imaginary version of the world, they were still encircled in the bubble formed between the tree's shadow and the tree's roots. So she could hesitate, just a second, and say in a quiet, sincere voice that rarely saw the world beyond her throat. "And... About before. I can only offer you my gratitude... And my apology, if I was any trouble. I really needed to say that, and to hear it. Thank you." Then she shook it off, with a toss of her head that loosened her braid just a little, settling down around her shoulders. She spoke again in a more ordinary tone. "Now. Let's see what sort of apple our army can procure! ...Well, or, at least, what sort of apple Barentia can produce."

October 30, 2016

LadyDeme-10/30/2016

== End RP ==