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strangetrip2017-01-26 03:44 pm
st_rigaetsica) wrote in strangetrip2017-01-26 03:44 pm
Entry tags:
[log] Joanna & Vax'ildan
Date: Jan. 26, 2017
The Madonna Inn had a groundskeeper, of a sort. She didn't seem to know anything about the plants she was tending or why beyond the fact it was her job, although she was as quick as the inside staff to offer towels to any of the residents who tried to engage her in conversation. So Joanna had started spending part of every day on the hotel grounds. Something concrete to do was helpful, when her attempts to get home to her family weren't getting any closer to success, and she'd always felt more centered getting her hands in the dirt and helping things grow.
There were dirt smudges on her jeans and under her fingernails, and locks of hair were slipping free from the sloppy bun she'd twisted it into to get it out of her face and off her neck as she knelt over the earth. A hedge nettle was struggling, scraggly even for winter, and after a glance around to be sure there was no one to see who shouldn't, Joanna placed her hands at the base of the plant where it met the earth and whispered, "Valens. Valens." The plant filled out under the spell, stems sturdier, leaves brighter and stretching toward the sun.
Leaning her weight back on her heels, Joanna studied her work and smiled to herself. While her power had been focused on the nettle, other plants nearby perked up too. Nothing much, nothing too obvious, just a boost in health and vitality to help it through the season. "That's better."
Although it was decidedly less dramatic, a rogue was a rogue no matter if skulking through the bowels of a subterranean dungeon or just wandering through the stark daylight on a chill, sunny afternoon. Vax'ildan hadn't been skulking in the direction of the woman kneeling amid the plants, but he was, as it happened, still a sneak. So he hadn't been in view when she'd glanced about, and once she turned back he'd slid from his concealment to start his approach, padding softly closer. It wasn't intended as anything crafty - Vax simply defaulted to quiet in a place and with people that he didn't entirely trust.
He stopped mid-step when the dark-haired woman fixed her hands at the soil and murmured something he couldn't quite hear to the plant she was tending. Then his eyes widened, to see how those little whispers brought back an answer from the plants around her. They shifted subtly, but each frond of its own accord rather than caught by wind, the leaves turning a half shade greener and reaching just slightly farther than they had done. If he hadn't seen it before, Vax'ildan might've second-guessed his eyes. But he had, many times over in fact, and his heart couldn't help but ache.
He drew a slow, deep breath, loud enough the woman might hear it before he asked softly, "are you...a druid?"
The voice out of the quiet when Joanna was fairly sure she was alone startled her for a second. Damn it. Had he seen something? But when she turned to look at the – elf? His armor might have been more at home on Asgard than the world she'd been pulled from, but where and when he called home she couldn't be sure – at him, it was with a frown of confusion. She'd been living and hiding amongst mortals for too long to reveal herself comfortably. "I'm an art teacher. Or I am when I'm at home. I guess you could say I'm on the new agey side of spiritual non-religious, but I wouldn't call myself a druid."
She stood, brushing her hands off on her jeans, and offered one to him. "I'm Joanna."
She gave him a bit of a cross look, but the gesture seemed to prove she wouldn't judge his intrusion too harshly. The extended hand in itself was unexpected - not quite for what it was, but more that it came from a lady. He wasn't the sort of person who was used to good manners, particularly not from the fairer sex.
He gently clasped her fingers rather than her wrist, not minding the bit of dirt on them at all, and inclined his head just a little. "Vax'ildan," he gave his name back. "Sorry if I startled you. Where I'm from, art teachers don't usually make plants grow. But druids do."
"I get the feeling where you're from is a lot different from here. Or where I was before." No, she wasn't admitting she'd done anything to the plants. Not without knowing more about Vax'ildan, what he was, and what he knew. Joanna knew what happened to witches, especially when times were bad for people. "Have you known many druids? Real druids, if they ever existed in my world, faded into history a long time ago."
Vax didn't feel the need to twist her arm and make her admit to anything outright, but had wanted to make it plain that he knew what he'd seen.
That done, he released her hand and made to answer her questions. "Magic is very much real and alive where I'm from, though I've never had any gift for it. I've been led to believe that it's much more rare a thing here." Vax turned to admire some of her handiwork, considering the new growth of several leaves on one slender branch and reaching to thumb it lightly. "I've met a number of druids in my travels," he confirmed. His voice softened, just a shade. "I've known one in particular."
Joanna didn't need the ache she felt from him to see how he missed his druid, and her eyes softened. Whatever power brought them here, it was cruel, separating them from those they cared about. "No wonder you asked. I'm sorry if I made missing them more difficult."
He wasn't a witch, but he was used to magic, in ways it didn't sound like he be building a pyre anytime soon. And the girls weren't here for Joanna to protect with her silence. "I've lived in a world where magic was as natural as speech, and in another so rare those who had it learned to hide, lest they be hunted, tortured, or burned at the stake. But for those who know, I'm usually called a witch."
It made more sense to him then, why she'd avoided admitting what she'd done - and been a bit put-out to have been caught at it. "That sounds very dangerous," he agreed sympathetically. And it hadn't been Joanna that had made him miss Keyleth, though she'd certainly been a reminder. It was the not having Keyleth, or any of them, in this awful fucking place.
Vax turned to look at her again with a shifting eyebrow, leaving off the little branch. "You've travelled between worlds before?"
"Once. There was a key, that opened a portal." Joanna had told him, knowing that would be the most obvious question, when all of them were stuck here, far from those they loved. "We used it to escape from a corrupt king, were betrayed, and he banished us forever. The key... has since been destroyed."
She offered him a sad smile. "I haven't found a way to get us home this time, but I haven't given up hope either. My daughter Ingrid... she was able to open the portal once without a key, and my children won't stop searching for me any more than I'll stop trying to find my way back to them."
"I expect that if anyone stranded in this place has a ready way home and a desire to go back, they've gone already," Vax recognized. He himself had some experience traveling between planes, but that seemed to be a different thing altogether than this. What's more, he was the sucker that went along for the ride, not the one who pointed and flung them there. He didn't understand it the way one of the magically inclined would.
Then again, even they seemed to wing it more often than not.
"Do all art teachers lead such adventurous lives where you're from?"
"I certainly hope not. I wouldn't wish that on... most people, especially not teachers, who have too much on them already." She'd enjoyed teaching, but it wasn't the sort of thing she saw herself continuing in the girls' next lifetime, if they had one. "But I've been many things other than a teacher, over the years. What about you? Are there many adventures in the life you come from?"
"Perhaps too many," Vax'ildan considered, though a gleam took to his eyes even so. "I'm used to a great deal of travel, fighting, and getting caught up in intrigues far bigger than myself. If I'm to be honest, this place is likely to send me barking mad with its quiet before too long. I find that I spend most of my time waiting for the other shoe to drop down right on my head."
As if his constant daily wear of a full set of leather armor wasn't obvious enough proof of that. It was comfortable, for what it was, but the oily black leather armor with the musty odor was still all hardened ridges and additional weight. A less paranoid man would've stopped wearing it by now. Or a less devout one. He wasn't sure which kind he was.
Thoughts of the cards she'd drawn since coming here were never far from Joanna's mind, tied as they were with her children and how or when she might get back to them. "I have a sense you won't have long to wait," she told him, not entirely happy with the idea, but accepting it more easily than she'd like. There'd been too much danger recently, and the sudden shift was taking some adjustment for her same as him. "Although hopefully it won't be directly on your head, the peaceful cage is going to be shaken soon."
"I know I shouldn't borrow trouble," Vax admitted after a moment's reflection, gaze drifting ponderously to the smudges of soil on her hands and clothes. "I just can't help thinking that any upset to the quiet little routine we've got started around here would more likely lead to getting us home than this. Or if not... If we're well and truly stuck, it would serve us better not to be idle," he suggested as he brought his eyes back up again to find hers. "Is that an extraordinary sight you've got, or just your intuition?"
"Some of us aren't being idle," she pointed out, nodding toward the plants she'd been tending, although it fit for trying to find a way home as well. Joanna wasn't giving up. As for the rest, she shrugged. "Intuition, experience, more extraordinary gifts, the lines get blurred over time. But in my attempts to discover the nature of this...trap, and to find a way home, I've gotten hints that there's more to come. Beyond simple logic, that if someone or something brought us all here, it's not simply for an unwanted vacation."
She had a quiet assurance to her that was nurturing, appealing - for all that he'd thought she might be a druid, her manner reminded him a of Pike moreso than Keyleth. Not that he saw Joanna letting him do up her fun buns anytime soon.
"Each to our own skills, I guess," Vax answered, though there was a hint of something somber to the words. If there were no dragons to fight or similar, what was he even here for? Was this truly the Raven Queen's doing? Thinking about it from that perspective didn't sit well with him either way.
"Can I... Help you?" He didn't know why he was offering, when he didn't know the first thing about tending plants, and she seemed to be doing quite well on her own. He just thought it might feel good fostering something living for once.
Gardening wasn't always about the plants, and Joanna bowed her head slightly. "I would like that." Being able to help something grow and thrive would be good for both of them. And just maybe Vax'ildan would have a new skill to surprise his druid friend with when they found their ways home.
The Madonna Inn had a groundskeeper, of a sort. She didn't seem to know anything about the plants she was tending or why beyond the fact it was her job, although she was as quick as the inside staff to offer towels to any of the residents who tried to engage her in conversation. So Joanna had started spending part of every day on the hotel grounds. Something concrete to do was helpful, when her attempts to get home to her family weren't getting any closer to success, and she'd always felt more centered getting her hands in the dirt and helping things grow.
There were dirt smudges on her jeans and under her fingernails, and locks of hair were slipping free from the sloppy bun she'd twisted it into to get it out of her face and off her neck as she knelt over the earth. A hedge nettle was struggling, scraggly even for winter, and after a glance around to be sure there was no one to see who shouldn't, Joanna placed her hands at the base of the plant where it met the earth and whispered, "Valens. Valens." The plant filled out under the spell, stems sturdier, leaves brighter and stretching toward the sun.
Leaning her weight back on her heels, Joanna studied her work and smiled to herself. While her power had been focused on the nettle, other plants nearby perked up too. Nothing much, nothing too obvious, just a boost in health and vitality to help it through the season. "That's better."
Although it was decidedly less dramatic, a rogue was a rogue no matter if skulking through the bowels of a subterranean dungeon or just wandering through the stark daylight on a chill, sunny afternoon. Vax'ildan hadn't been skulking in the direction of the woman kneeling amid the plants, but he was, as it happened, still a sneak. So he hadn't been in view when she'd glanced about, and once she turned back he'd slid from his concealment to start his approach, padding softly closer. It wasn't intended as anything crafty - Vax simply defaulted to quiet in a place and with people that he didn't entirely trust.
He stopped mid-step when the dark-haired woman fixed her hands at the soil and murmured something he couldn't quite hear to the plant she was tending. Then his eyes widened, to see how those little whispers brought back an answer from the plants around her. They shifted subtly, but each frond of its own accord rather than caught by wind, the leaves turning a half shade greener and reaching just slightly farther than they had done. If he hadn't seen it before, Vax'ildan might've second-guessed his eyes. But he had, many times over in fact, and his heart couldn't help but ache.
He drew a slow, deep breath, loud enough the woman might hear it before he asked softly, "are you...a druid?"
The voice out of the quiet when Joanna was fairly sure she was alone startled her for a second. Damn it. Had he seen something? But when she turned to look at the – elf? His armor might have been more at home on Asgard than the world she'd been pulled from, but where and when he called home she couldn't be sure – at him, it was with a frown of confusion. She'd been living and hiding amongst mortals for too long to reveal herself comfortably. "I'm an art teacher. Or I am when I'm at home. I guess you could say I'm on the new agey side of spiritual non-religious, but I wouldn't call myself a druid."
She stood, brushing her hands off on her jeans, and offered one to him. "I'm Joanna."
She gave him a bit of a cross look, but the gesture seemed to prove she wouldn't judge his intrusion too harshly. The extended hand in itself was unexpected - not quite for what it was, but more that it came from a lady. He wasn't the sort of person who was used to good manners, particularly not from the fairer sex.
He gently clasped her fingers rather than her wrist, not minding the bit of dirt on them at all, and inclined his head just a little. "Vax'ildan," he gave his name back. "Sorry if I startled you. Where I'm from, art teachers don't usually make plants grow. But druids do."
"I get the feeling where you're from is a lot different from here. Or where I was before." No, she wasn't admitting she'd done anything to the plants. Not without knowing more about Vax'ildan, what he was, and what he knew. Joanna knew what happened to witches, especially when times were bad for people. "Have you known many druids? Real druids, if they ever existed in my world, faded into history a long time ago."
Vax didn't feel the need to twist her arm and make her admit to anything outright, but had wanted to make it plain that he knew what he'd seen.
That done, he released her hand and made to answer her questions. "Magic is very much real and alive where I'm from, though I've never had any gift for it. I've been led to believe that it's much more rare a thing here." Vax turned to admire some of her handiwork, considering the new growth of several leaves on one slender branch and reaching to thumb it lightly. "I've met a number of druids in my travels," he confirmed. His voice softened, just a shade. "I've known one in particular."
Joanna didn't need the ache she felt from him to see how he missed his druid, and her eyes softened. Whatever power brought them here, it was cruel, separating them from those they cared about. "No wonder you asked. I'm sorry if I made missing them more difficult."
He wasn't a witch, but he was used to magic, in ways it didn't sound like he be building a pyre anytime soon. And the girls weren't here for Joanna to protect with her silence. "I've lived in a world where magic was as natural as speech, and in another so rare those who had it learned to hide, lest they be hunted, tortured, or burned at the stake. But for those who know, I'm usually called a witch."
It made more sense to him then, why she'd avoided admitting what she'd done - and been a bit put-out to have been caught at it. "That sounds very dangerous," he agreed sympathetically. And it hadn't been Joanna that had made him miss Keyleth, though she'd certainly been a reminder. It was the not having Keyleth, or any of them, in this awful fucking place.
Vax turned to look at her again with a shifting eyebrow, leaving off the little branch. "You've travelled between worlds before?"
"Once. There was a key, that opened a portal." Joanna had told him, knowing that would be the most obvious question, when all of them were stuck here, far from those they loved. "We used it to escape from a corrupt king, were betrayed, and he banished us forever. The key... has since been destroyed."
She offered him a sad smile. "I haven't found a way to get us home this time, but I haven't given up hope either. My daughter Ingrid... she was able to open the portal once without a key, and my children won't stop searching for me any more than I'll stop trying to find my way back to them."
"I expect that if anyone stranded in this place has a ready way home and a desire to go back, they've gone already," Vax recognized. He himself had some experience traveling between planes, but that seemed to be a different thing altogether than this. What's more, he was the sucker that went along for the ride, not the one who pointed and flung them there. He didn't understand it the way one of the magically inclined would.
Then again, even they seemed to wing it more often than not.
"Do all art teachers lead such adventurous lives where you're from?"
"I certainly hope not. I wouldn't wish that on... most people, especially not teachers, who have too much on them already." She'd enjoyed teaching, but it wasn't the sort of thing she saw herself continuing in the girls' next lifetime, if they had one. "But I've been many things other than a teacher, over the years. What about you? Are there many adventures in the life you come from?"
"Perhaps too many," Vax'ildan considered, though a gleam took to his eyes even so. "I'm used to a great deal of travel, fighting, and getting caught up in intrigues far bigger than myself. If I'm to be honest, this place is likely to send me barking mad with its quiet before too long. I find that I spend most of my time waiting for the other shoe to drop down right on my head."
As if his constant daily wear of a full set of leather armor wasn't obvious enough proof of that. It was comfortable, for what it was, but the oily black leather armor with the musty odor was still all hardened ridges and additional weight. A less paranoid man would've stopped wearing it by now. Or a less devout one. He wasn't sure which kind he was.
Thoughts of the cards she'd drawn since coming here were never far from Joanna's mind, tied as they were with her children and how or when she might get back to them. "I have a sense you won't have long to wait," she told him, not entirely happy with the idea, but accepting it more easily than she'd like. There'd been too much danger recently, and the sudden shift was taking some adjustment for her same as him. "Although hopefully it won't be directly on your head, the peaceful cage is going to be shaken soon."
"I know I shouldn't borrow trouble," Vax admitted after a moment's reflection, gaze drifting ponderously to the smudges of soil on her hands and clothes. "I just can't help thinking that any upset to the quiet little routine we've got started around here would more likely lead to getting us home than this. Or if not... If we're well and truly stuck, it would serve us better not to be idle," he suggested as he brought his eyes back up again to find hers. "Is that an extraordinary sight you've got, or just your intuition?"
"Some of us aren't being idle," she pointed out, nodding toward the plants she'd been tending, although it fit for trying to find a way home as well. Joanna wasn't giving up. As for the rest, she shrugged. "Intuition, experience, more extraordinary gifts, the lines get blurred over time. But in my attempts to discover the nature of this...trap, and to find a way home, I've gotten hints that there's more to come. Beyond simple logic, that if someone or something brought us all here, it's not simply for an unwanted vacation."
She had a quiet assurance to her that was nurturing, appealing - for all that he'd thought she might be a druid, her manner reminded him a of Pike moreso than Keyleth. Not that he saw Joanna letting him do up her fun buns anytime soon.
"Each to our own skills, I guess," Vax answered, though there was a hint of something somber to the words. If there were no dragons to fight or similar, what was he even here for? Was this truly the Raven Queen's doing? Thinking about it from that perspective didn't sit well with him either way.
"Can I... Help you?" He didn't know why he was offering, when he didn't know the first thing about tending plants, and she seemed to be doing quite well on her own. He just thought it might feel good fostering something living for once.
Gardening wasn't always about the plants, and Joanna bowed her head slightly. "I would like that." Being able to help something grow and thrive would be good for both of them. And just maybe Vax'ildan would have a new skill to surprise his druid friend with when they found their ways home.