"Choking on the Circumstance" [Urs]

[Destyn]

Choking on the Circumstance

Tranquil Gardens - 6 Glade, 122

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Urs had given Destyn a lot to think about when they'd met a few days earlier. He was very different from Destyn and the other people in his life and, in many ways, more challenging. He'd known Torin since he was a little boy and, though Sivan had been something of a challenge in his own right for being so quiet, it still wasn't the same as with Urs. Before their parting, the human and self-proclaimed witch had told Destyn he seemed 'young'. It may have been true, but it still made him question himself- Was he immature? Perhaps so, by the standards of the culture in which he now found himself. It seemed the people of the city worked so much and barely made time for recreation. When they did, it was often not very playful. They'd just sit around and drink or sit by watching other people perform, without joining in or even dancing themselves. In fact, in many such settings to do so would have been deemed entirely inappropriate. It was all very strange.

He was thinking about these things as he lifted off from the grass of the garden, his rapidly beating wings creating a reverberant whir as he flitted upward past the hospital walls. He glanced sidelong through an open window and took note of the now-familiar sight of Urs himself. His back was to the window, but Destyn could recognise him just by his build and his mop of dark hair. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to get to know him better, Destyn thought, as he drew up to the window and gripped the frame with both hands. Once he had ahold of them, he halted the beating of his wings and swung his legs through the window to land in a crouch behind his new human acquaintance.

"Hullo, Urs the Witch!" He blurted loudly as he rose to his full height and fixed his windswept hair with the sweep of one hand.

Choking on the Circumstance

[Urs Wardell]

Urs was checking notes.

His various surgeries. Skin grafts. Heart. There were a few scheduled for tomorrow and he needed to review the patient write-ups. This was, perhaps, the most boring part of his job. Urs felt like Semblance would explain anything he might need. His Sight was becoming especially strong, as of late.

His magic rippled from his fingers, catching the papers in a perfect sort of understanding. Urs could feel, well, everything. The material, pliable. The ink, dried and lifted. He could even read it, as he counted the sheets of paper. It was easier because the notes were his - and he knew his own writing.

Some patients wanted certain procedures over others. One patient didn’t want to be exposed to magical examinations. Another paid to be provided Necromantic adjustments, to prevent any scarring.

Silly, he’d thought, when they’d asked. There wasn’t anything to worry about, concerning scars. They told stories and weren’t so unattractive. Still, the patient had been quite clear - they’d wanted nothing showing on their skin. He wondered why, but hadn’t asked. Some people were simply particular. Strange, to think that the people of Kalzasi worried so much about something as small as a scar when the people of the Midden were so more focused on survival.

He sighed, adding a few notes. Small things. Potential avenues for the scheduled operations. Ideas of which apprentices to invite. A reminder to himself, to try and fit time to practice Necromancy. He still had plans there.

And then, Destyn was there.

“Oh - hello,” Urs said, trying to catch the papers that spiraled from his desk. “It’s good to see you, Destyn! How are things?”

[Destyn]

Choking on the Circumstance

Tranquil Gardens - 6 Glade, 122

Urs ostensibly warm greeting made Destyn beam, though his broad grin briefly lapsed when he noticed the breeze generated by his wings had made rather a mess of his papers.

“Oh! I am sorry! Here…” Already crouching as he was, he crawled fleetly across the floor to help gather up some of the documents into a chaotic, unorganised stack. He handed it over to Urs and looked up at him with an apologetic shrug.

“Things are, I think, fine!” He replied enthusiastically. “I mean at least as fine as they were when last I saw you…” He furrowed his brow. Talon was still missing, the city was still in apparent turmoil in the aftermath of the attack at the reception. Even the gardens were not ignorant to the external chaos. The hospital housed in their midst had become a hotbed of activity which was only now beginning to wane and the natural forces surrounding them were concerned… frightened. Destyn was far from immune to their influence in that regard. It wasn’t so long ago that he’d been the target of a similarly brutal strike and lost his whole world. Would he lose this new one before it was even comfortable? Would the rest of his days be spent fleeing one danger after another? He shivered at the notion.

“But how are you, Urs? I hope I am not interrupting your work. I know that you have people to help, but I saw that you were alone and I thought to stop by and greet you.” It only now occurred to him to stand up so they were at roughly the same level.

Choking on the Circumstance

[Urs Wardell]

“Oh, thank you,” Urs said, receiving the collected papers with a friendly smile.

A part of him considered leaving them there. It wasn’t like he needed to hold them anymore. A simple spell told him everything. Urs could layer his Sight across each page, and read them all, plucking the information with magic as easily as he could with his eyes. He wondered if there was a Scrivening rune he might use to make the process even quicker. Sort and sift through the kept knowledge instead of reading through it all.

More efficient, if he could pull it off. That’d be nice.

“No - you’re not interrupting” Urs said, stacking his papers in a neat stack. There was a neat chest in his office and he was able to keep his reports there. He generally kept track of his things but perhaps it was soon time he found someone who might be able to organize his space.

Urs looked happy. Happier than when the Faerie last saw him.

He pointed to a chair, and sat down in the one opposite across the table. A small bowl of various fruits sat in the middle. “I’m free, for the moment. Just organizing the office. Reading reports. Things I do when I’m not in surgery.”

[Destyn]

Choking on the Circumstance

Tranquil Gardens - 6 Glade, 122

Destyn answered Urs' smile with one of his own. There was something noticeably softer about the human's demeanour today. He'd had such hard edges when last they met, though he supposed that may have been hackles raised by the way Destyn first presented himself. He'd come on rather strong, after all...

"You seem different today." Guilelessly the Fae youth announced his observation, looking somewhere between amused and suspicious as he eyed Urs up and down.

"Why, though?" He wondered aloud as he slid into the offered seat. His eyes darted promptly from Urs' handsome face to the bowl of fruit and widened slightly. He licked his lips and glanced up to Urs with an expression that begged for permission to indulge. Once it was clear that he was allowed, he snatched up an orange and dug his nails into the skin, starting to peel it.

"You must work very hard." Destyn noted- his eyes dancing about the room as his fingers went about the work of peeling the orange. "I do not have a job. When I was still with my clan we all had tasks and chores. Some were better at certain tasks and so they did them more often, but it was not like here where people have, you know, jobs and careers. We just all worked together to do what needed to be done. I do not know what I would do if I were to have a job, but yours is, I think, very appealing. It is, you know, noble? Helping hurt and sick people to get better... Yes. If I had a job, I think I would want to be like you."

Choking on the Circumstance

[Urs Wardell]

“...different today.”

Urs smiled dreamily, “Oh. Uh.”

Sivan. He remembered him. He hadn’t stopped thinking of the elf, not since their last date. There’d been wine and cheese in the garden. The night had been rich with stars. He’d thought of nothing but blue and gold, of eyes and skin. He remembered -

“- a nice night,” he said, his expression flushed, a bit. It wasn’t professional. Urs couldn’t get caught up in those sorts of thoughts. Especially not in front of Destyn. He seemed, well, a child. The way he spoke, acted, like he was on the cusp of discovery, like every day was new. His aura had been defined by it, that curiosity. A desire to learn and understand. Which wasn’t too strange, but the touch of naivety felt young.

He almost missed the pang of hunger, “Oh - sure, have one. The oranges are nice. I think,” he said, not thinking, because if he thought he’d be flirting dangerously close to Sivan and Sivan wasn’t here and why wasn’t he here, why couldn’t he always be here, and Sivan and Sivan and Sivan.

“That’s nice, Destyn,” Urs said, pulling an apple for himself. He bit into it, the flesh ripe and sharp.

“The woman who raised me taught me to heal,” he said, “Among other things. If you’re interested in medicine, why don’t you go to school?”

[Destyn]

Choking on the Circumstance

Tranquil Gardens - 6 Glade, 122

Destyn beamed at the reply.

"I am pleased to hear that you had a nice night, Urs. You, I think maybe, deserve to have many nice nights." He bit his lip as he discarded the orange skin right onto the desk beside the bowl from whence it came. Tugging a segment of orange free from its kin, he paused it just short of his lips as his eyes darted back to Urs' dashing face.

"School? But I have never been to school and now I am a man grown. Would it not be impossible for me to start so late?" He wrinkled his nose, but only for a second, because then he was eating.

"Mm, yum!" He nodded his vigorous approval and promptly bit into another piece. "We do not, you know..." He gulped down orange, "Have school when we wander. We have, I think, teachers? But school is different. This is more like being an apprentice. It is how I learned your language." He pulled another piece of orange out and let it rest in his palm, extending his hand to offer it to Urs.

"Would you like a piece?" He already had an apple, but it felt to Destyn like a little gift he could offer. "And maybe you will choose to tell me what you did that made your night special? I would like to hear of the things that make Urs the Witch smile this way!" He quite liked that smile, he was finding.

Choking on the Circumstance

[Urs Wardell]

“I’m happy about it too,” he smiles.

He bites his apple again. It tasted tart, more so than before, almost sour. The flesh, he realized, wasn’t so white. A hint of green could be seen, and he wondered if it wasn’t as ripe as he first guessed. It happened, sometimes. They picked the fruit early.

He wondered what they thought, as if time might substitute nature. The farmers worked so hard to only remove the prizes of their labor from branch or vine too quickly, so that the fruit might ripen here, in the bowl in his office, rather than elsewhere. Urs supposed it made sense. Still, there were times like these, when he bit into green fruit, that he wished it weren’t.

“That’s what my school was like,” Urs said, “Mother taught me with stories and practical lessons. I suppose there was a school, like here, back where I’m from, but it wasn’t safe - or Mother didn’t think it was safe.” They’d moved to, slowly retreating deeper and deeper into the Middens. When she’d died, they’d been close enough to the Warrens that Urs was sure no one would ever bother them - but it meant his leaving was rushed.

Mother would have been able to defend herself - was able to. Urs couldn’t.

“Oh - no, thank you,” Urs said, biting again into his apple. He didn’t find the sour taste so bad, now. He almost preferred it.

“And, uh,” he laughed, a bit nervous. “Sivan made me smile. I was able to see him, for a bit. He makes me happy.”

[Destyn]

Choking on the Circumstance

Tranquil Gardens - 6 Glade, 122

Destyn watched Urs' visage with attentive care, tilting his head sharply to one side when he noticed the reaction to the apple. He didn't quite wince, but Destyn's attentions were focused enough that he still gleaned there was something amiss. He leaned forward to extend his piece of orange even closer to him- urgingly. He slumped a bit when it was rejected.

"Oh." He sat back and looked at the piece of fruit, grimacing. With a shrug, he ate it himself and placed the rest of the orange down on the desk. It had been very good, but maybe the apples were better. He took one.

"I thought that children in cities all went to schools with many pupils and, um... Lessons with a teacher who... who it is their job to be a teacher." He knew there must have been a better way to phrase that, but it escaped him at the moment and Urs seemed forthright enough to let him know if he was incomprehensible. It was one of the things he so liked about Urs. His directness.

"Ah, that is good! Sivan is a wonderful elf! He makes me, often, also smile! I forget if I told you, but I live sometimes at his house and we spend much time together when he is not working. It is, I think, good to have people in your life, who um... who make you smile." And Destyn was smiling ear to ear toward the handsome human across the desk from him, until his first bite of the apple intruded upon the expression. It might have been under-ripe, but not for the tastes of a Fae accustomed to foraging in forests for his meals.

Choking on the Circumstance

[Urs Wardell]

Urs shrugged.

"I didn't grow up in the city," he says, turning to the window. There, he could see the courtyard gardens, people meandering through the maze of spring greenery. There, farther, he could see the beginnings of the sprawl that was Kalzasi. The gilded arches of the Golden Peacock theater. The mansions and ever-spreading palaces of the Cloudhaven district. The candy-colored rooftops of the Plaza of Jeweled Arches. The commons, too, he supposed, stretched out there, not that he could properly discern those from anything else.

And, even if he couldn't see it, he knew the Midden rested below all of everything else.

"And Mother was a teacher," he smiled, turning back to Destyn. "She was my teacher. She taught me medicine and surgery. She taught me magic. She taught me how to be a witch."

Not that he was much of a witch. He so rarely practiced. Seeing was hardly a challenge, but he did so little with necromancy and summoning. She'd be so disappointed.

"...it is," Urs said, blushing slightly, remembering his own time with the elf. He couldn't remember ever feeling this way about anyone. The rush, the heat the red of it all, everything belonging to Sivan. "He does make me smile. I don't think I've ever met anyone as kind as him."