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Re: Fantasie Nocturne
Posted: Wed May 15, 2024 3:40 pm
by Hekatos
Some said Ailuin had groomed his Strýchnos like a deadly flower in his garden. Most, however, gave him the benefit of the doubt, believing him to be an honorable elf—a prince, a king, a priest, a dragonfriend. And there had been no outcry from the princes of Val'Kor; the young elf acquitted himself well enough to remain an envoy from their court as well as a trusted envoy for Ailuin.
The Hytori were not above gossip, but more people viewed the relationship now with approval and affection. They did cut a striking image together and separately. But, of course, opinions might change when the time came for the king to marry once more.
But none of that existed here. If they weren't entirely safe and isolated in the Land of Nod, they were a good sight safer and more isolated than in Silfanore. And so, there was only connection, heat, and pleasure. The dream might last only a few minutes in the waking world, but they took their sweet time within the dreaming.
When it was done, they found themselves similarly arrayed, Rhydian leaning back into Ailuin's chest, the king's hands running over his skin as if he hadn't mapped the topography of his body countless times already. The afterglow was as lovely here as elsewhere, though it could be banished with a thought. Weariness and other such things worked differently as well, but the young prince was used to some of those rules by now, as well as how his dream king bent them to his will.
Everything bent to his will in the end. Some things, some people, like Rhydian, were just eager and willing to bend to him.
"What are you thinking?" he asked finally. There were sometimes insights to be had in post-coital clarity, but then, the king had always wanted to know what was one Rhydian's mind. Perhaps that was one of the stepping stones that had led them to this path together.
Re: Fantasie Nocturne
Posted: Wed May 15, 2024 7:33 pm
by Rhydian ValKor
A lot of people wondered at what Rhydian was thinking, given how reticent he could be with the vast majority of those with whom he interacted. Ailuin was exceptional in that Rhydian was inclined to give him a thoughtful answer, albeit one which it took him a few, lingering moments to conjure into cohesion.
"I was only musing over how glad I am that time works differently in dreams than in life... Well, first I was thinking how nice it was to bask like this in quiet solitude... just thee and me." He sighed lightly,
"But that brought my mind to thoughts of the peculiarities of this place, those that are boons and those that are banes. The boon being the this chance to linger together, the bane being how fleeting dreams are when you wake. I shall have to put my memories to paper as soon as I rise, lest I lose them like a morning mist fades beneath an unforgiving sun." Rhydian shook his head and wrinkled his nose.
"What are you thinking?" He inquired, quid pro quo, as he let his head fall to the side that he might better regard the profile of the king of his desiring. He was lovely. Here was lovely. All could be as paradise here and paradise was passing hard to quit. He found his thoughts dragging toward that truth in the silence between his question and Ailuin's answer. That was another bane of dreams- How enveloping their focus could be. A passing thought could quick transform into a maelstrom or a continent. He tried to return his focus to the face before him, reminding himself that he was in paradise and that it would be imprudent to waste his time there worrying about how he would eventually have to leave. That perpetual paradise was, ultimately, perdition.
Re: Fantasie Nocturne
Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 4:45 pm
by Hekatos
Ailuin had heard this complaint before; or, rather, the bitter that went with the sweet. He could take steps to push the memory of the dream from subconscious to conscious mind, but, ultimately, it would be up to Rhydian to take hold of it and cherish it or let it fade like so much incense smoke in a chilling breeze.
He gave Rhydian's question due consideration as well. It was a question few dared ask their sovereign, but Rhydian was afforded a great deal of familiarity with his liege-lover. A bare arm tightened around the younger elf, pulling him near enough to kiss his hair, his temple, his brow, and his mouth before relaxing once more into repose.
"I think only of you in this moment," he admitted. "If my thoughts wander, they wander down paths your feet might tread without me. I try not to think of other things in your presence. That is a boon you bring." His body shifted languidly against the Val'Kor prince's. "I am content in the moment. It is perfect, eternal and fleeting both. I am here with you. I am in your Kalzasern bed. I am at the royal palace yearning for your return. I am in my bed in the Eilranoikos dreaming of you. Rhydian... Strýchnos... Thee, thee, thee..."
The trilogy of a single word was punctuated with kisses. They might rouse desire or they might soothe like cool rain. If one were to look about them, the private bath was now surrounded by statues of Rhydian, memories of him cast in bronze and marble, glass and pure thought.
The Dreaming was a land of overstatement sometimes, but when the mind molded the world around them without intention, it was, at least, honest.
Re: Fantasie Nocturne
Posted: Fri May 24, 2024 12:14 pm
by Rhydian ValKor
Rhydian shut his eyes as he received that peppering of kisses, relishing the attention... even more so when Ailuin spoke. His eyes fluttered open to gaze upon his fair face as he spoke words so wanted he wondered, for a moment, whether this dream was an actual earnest product of his subconscious playing out a fleeting fantasy, but no... He was too present. There was too much of the conscious amidst the sub.
"It would be bad for the realm, I should think..." Rhydian began, wearing a wry, impish grin, "If you only thought of me every time I was in your presence, given my position at court." The smirk dissipated as he occupied his lips, next, with kissing Ailuin's- a punctuation to his tease, before waxing romantic again.
"But I always appreciate it when you shower me with such attentions." And a rain of flower petals began to trickle from on high as Rhydian's subconscious interpreted the word 'shower' a bit more literally than his conscious mind intended.
"Like a god..." Rhydian mused, as his King remarked upon their perfect, eternal, fleeting moment. "Many places at once, unbound by mortal constraints..." Again, his shut his eyes as more kisses fell upon his skin like so many flower petals. He'd always seen Ailuin thus. When Karrhei was putting his faith and devotion into Suion, Rhydian was finding his own religion with a very personal god, whose blessings were very much upon him now.
Ailuin's attentions soothed, indeed, like cool rain and assuaged the fears that often hounded him and had been closer at heel since Rhydian set out on this mission and quit court for it.
Re: Fantasie Nocturne
Posted: Wed May 29, 2024 4:46 pm
by Hekatos
The lover of Rhydian's dreams was as real as real here. The mind did not delineate between dreaming and waking, especially not with Ailuin. Every tiny pore would be as Rhydian remembered it. His sense of self was strong enough that it took much more than an errant thought to change him in the Land of Nod.
He laughed easily at Rhydian's quiet jests, and otherwise bathed in an unending afterglow with his young lover.
"Thankfully," he mused, "my god is not a jealous god, else He might punish me for drawing worship from Him." Indeed, Thiovan seemed one of the more distant of an already distant elder pantheon. For all that every elf dreamed, few indeed felt a keen connection with the Lord of Dreaming. Perhaps, like Rhydian, they worshiped Him through Ailuin, His high priest. Or perhaps He didn't care, content in His power and His place.
Like Ailuin.
Here, Ailuin could affect Time as Time didn't hold the same meaning as in the waking world. And so they might have made love for days, physically and otherwise. His head was resting upon Rhydian's belly when the strain of dilating time began to show. Whether it was that or the threat of those who policed the Land of Nod, he rarely even hinted at the lengths he went to for his favorite. Perhaps the Val'Kor prince would have been more secure in their relationship if he had, but boasting was not Ailuin's way.
"I fear our somnolent revel must soon end," he said, regret joining weariness upon his ageless features. He took Rhydian's hand, callused from swordplay, in both of his and brought it up to his lips to kiss his knuckles. "Remember," and the young prince could feel magical efforts to tether this dream to accessible memory. "And have you anything else you would like to tell me until next time, my love?"
Re: Fantasie Nocturne
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2024 5:27 pm
by Rhydian ValKor
"Nor should They be..." Rhydian replied at the broaching of Thiovan's dearth of jealousy, "I love Them the more for loving thee." He relished dreams much more for having those, such as this, that were manipulated by his Liege Love. Before Ailuin, fleeting though those years were, dreams felt far more ephemeral and capricious. Quickly forgotten, and it had felt like no great loss. Now they were moments to which he clinged... sometimes with more fervour than those experienced in the waking world.
Rhydian sighed despite himself as the dread moment was announced to be nigh. He knew it would come ere long, though Ailuin had been distracting or deft enough to stave off those concerns until they were at hand. He lowered his gaze to the petal strewn bed between them as his hand was lifted to the lips of his king. They darted up again as Ailuin urged this memory to seep into his very soul, or so it seemed in this poetical realm.
"I want to tell you everything and nothing..." He said, as if having gone native in this wistful yet whimsical dreamscape, "And so, may it suffice to say that I will miss you until the next time our paths cross in this realm of the waking one." He got up onto his knees and leaned forward to kiss the king's lips, before sliding off the bed. He pursed his lips and tilted his head,
"Why am I getting up?" He chuckled at having forgotten that he didn't need to actually go anywhere. He could just linger and relish the moment until it elided into an unaugmented dream or burst like a bubble into wakefulness. "Well... perhaps 'tis easier to walk away." He decided, turning and beginning to pad into a misty vista, unwitting to whither his steps might lead him next.
Re: Fantasie Nocturne
Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2024 3:03 pm
by Hekatos
The dream king laughed with his little love as he wondered why he treated Nod as if it were the heavy, static world in which they spent the majority of their time. He returned touches and kisses, hiding the strain and the slowly growing alarm of his arcane senses. He hated to see Rhydian go, but he loved to watch him walk away, his body shaped by his martial training, elegant as a blade.
"Until the next time..."
His words followed the prince like a train, and the king worked the dreaming into an easy passage from here to a dreamless, restful slumber. It was one more gift he could give. Once he was safe and sound, Ailuin fled back to his body in the blink of an eye, blinking blearily awake for a few moments before falling, exhausted, to sleep.
| ! | Message from: Hekatos |
Huzzah!
15 xp for Rhydian, for use at your discretion. Hope you enjoyed yourself. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. |