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Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Printable Version

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Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Remnii - 06-01-2020

Manifesting the Dream spell, once again, Remnii waved her hands and let the gentle, golden, glow of her magic envelop hers. She laid down and closed her eyes, falling into the trance with gentle breathing exercise and great practice. It wasn't like she'd gone to bed early or anything to get here to make everything perfect or anything. That would be silly.

Seeking her Vakas' essence, she pushed her magic forward forming an elaborate setting this time. She imagined the warm of gentle sunlight, a cool, crisp breeze and gentle fields of purple flowers-- the warm colors of the Draenic people, pushed together in a rich pastoral scene. The rolling hill of Lordaeron loosely inspired her vision for the dream. Little purple flowers dotted various little, winding pathways, if they felt the need to stretch their legs. 

If he's spent so much time, waiting in that room, all alone... and hiding away in deep caves, the least I can do from him is give him clear skies and a glimpse of a country he's yet to see. A glimpse of hope, though the road is fraught. Remnii mused as she felt the beginnings of the wind move her hair.

[Image: 55e74c2db3078a30ba2cf8895711bf16.jpg]

Conjuring a bench beneath the great tree she'd placed in the middle of the quaint scene, she smoothed her skirts and took a seat. Her tail flickered with continued anticipation, warmth brimming in her heart. Despite everything, Remnii still felt certain-- perhaps more than she should, that in these moments she could be at peace. These small moments would continue to forge the bigger whole of her identity. Birth will not define her, though it would certainly challenge her, she knew.

Humming proudly over her work, Velen's daughter (he said it!!!) awaited her Vakas' arrival.


RE: Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Velen - 06-01-2020

As Velen appeared in the pastoral paradise Remnii had prepared for them, he found himself breathless. An awe-filled smile spread across his face as his brow crinkled in reverence of the beauty.

"Remnii..." he said, looking around at the scene as he stepped forward, "it is beautiful. I... did not realize how much I missed the light of the sun," he said, smiling up at the glowing orb high up in the sky.  He took a deep breath as he stepped forward, ensuring not to trample the floral arrangement presented before him.  He stopped only briefly to crouch down, his fingers gently brushing along the petals of the beautiful flowers as he passed. Selecting one, he plucked the stem of one of the flowers before closing the gap between himself and his beloved avrokaein.

He smiled down to Remnii as he reached her.  Carefully, he brushed a lock of her hair backwards and tucked the little violet bloom behind her ear. "Though nothing could light up my dreams as much as you, my child," he said, planting a kiss on her forehead before pulling his Remnii, his daughter, in a tight hug.

For so long had he denied the spiritual truth for the physical one; now free of the secrets that had burdened him so, in this moment, he felt as free and open as the field in which they embraced.


RE: Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Remnii - 06-01-2020

Watching with anticipation, Remnii's eyes narrowed in scrutiny of her own work as her Vakas investigated her carefully thought out dreamscape. Her shoulders relaxed and she leaned back on the bench until Velen turned back to officially greet her.

Rising to her hooves she beamed at him, "I am so happy you like it! You deserrve a rrespite, and I..."

More words bubbled in her throat, only to die a peaceful death as Remnii embraced her father (remember, he said it first). She clutched to him, burying her face in his familiarity, careful to not disturb the hair he had tucked away or the flower within. Humming, almost dreamily, she turned her head careful, keeping her horns from bumping into his chin, just enough to speak through the embrace. There was no way that she was letting go yet, the touch starved draenei reveled in the closeness that her people shared. Bonds were secured and reinforced this way-- and Remnii wanted nothing more than to feel safe before the ongoing storm.

"I've missed so much. And you, and..." Her voice cracked, a sniffle caught in her voice. Still, a weak, smiling, laugh filtered her tone, "I simply still do not think I can believe you arre herre. I am so grrateful."

A small sob shook her shoulders, but Remnii loosened the hug just enough to look up to her father to offer the warmest and most heartfelt smile she could muster. Any undertones of grief or the time she'd lost were vastly overshadowed by the unwaivering love the clearly felt.

"I pr-prromised that I wouldn't crry tonight." She chuckled, "But it seems I have..." She sniffled, "clearrly lost this battle in my excitement." A hum and another weak laugh, "I just love you, Vakas. I hope you know that."

She finally gave into her baser emotions and re-tucked herself under his chin and into his beard. The tears came as easily as the joy she felt.


RE: Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Velen - 06-03-2020

Velen held Remnii tight as he glanced down at her. "It has ever been my strength, Remnii. Never could I dream of forgetting it."

He was far from a young draenei any longer, but the wrinkles that had begun to appear on his hands over the last ten-thousand years did stop him from subconsciously running his fingers through her hair, comforting her like he used to so long ago.

After a long while, Velen began to pull away, one hand gently rested on her arm before it sunk down her arm and squeezed her hand. "Shall we sit? I would take a moment to enjoy the beauty of this place. Tell me, Remnii, what inspired this magnificent place? It is... familiar, and yet unlike anything I have ever seen."

As they slowly ambled over to the bench, he held her hand gently in his. As he looked back to his little girl, he couldn't help but be as proud. She has grown so much in these years... So strong, yet gentle as she ever was as a child... but now with the confidence of a woman grown.

There was the hint of a pang of guilt as his mind flickered momentarily to the details of his revelation. Though she was ostensibly and spiritually her daughter, it was impossible not to see see the vestiges of her blood in her.  He had begun to see it over the years... but these last years had forged her into her own woman. One of infinite kindness and compassion... but one with the ambitious, relentless desire to succeed, the indomitably against all odds.  That fire in her eyes would inspire hope in their people... but he could not help but fear what it could mean. Where it could lead her.

He did not fear her. He could never fear her. She was his Remnii, his avrokaein.

But now that the truth was out there... now that she knew... he would never stop fearing for her.

"It reminds me of home.  Of Argus."


RE: Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Remnii - 06-03-2020

With time, her tears and laughter, both subsided into a relative peace. Thanks to the magic of her spell, the puffiness of her eyes was able to recede far faster than it would in real time. Despite this boon, her eyes still watered on occasion as they made their way to the bench. With purple and blue fingers intertwined she obersved their hands together as Velen lead the way.

She remembered this feel, this safety. A small blue hand in the gasp of an impossibly large, gentle grasp. It was how she had always felt-- impossibly small, next to her father. His history, his significance, his kindness. To her, her was just always too big. His hoofprints too large. Yet, here, now. They were dressed down and she was grown.

Without his mantle, staffless, Velen appeared smaller to her. Perhaps less small, perhaps simply more attainable. Whatever fueled this new feeling, one of a gentle acceptance and some kind of bravery, she took a seat with her father. No matter her emotions, love was key between them.

Perrhaps it is simply grrowing up? Remnii mused to herself before looking out over her creation.

"I took inspiration frrom the kingdom of Lordaeron, the one that the Menethils come frrom. Daelin's daughterr and grrandchildren prreside over a land much like this. The gentle rroliing hills, the wide fields wherre you can see forr miles? It was lovely." Remnii spoke, gently, "The land was healthy."

Holding his hand a little tighter, simply because she could, Remnii looked to Velen with a sheepish smile. "And, uhm, well. The purrple flowerrs werre something I just made up. They rreminded me of you! Again, I am happy you like it. I was hoping you would. I... may have starrted the spell a little earrly to make things perrfect."


RE: Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Velen - 06-04-2020

Velen let out a hearty chuckle. "It is most beautiful, Remnii. The brilliance of your heart and soul are evident in your hard work, and I am warmed that you did all of this just for me," he said. "And such magics are no simple feat. You walk tall and proud with the Light, and it with you, that much is clear. The road you have walked may not have been kind, but it is obvious that you have shined bright all the same."

The Prophet squeezed his daughter's hand and sat down, folding his robe neatly between his legs as he did. "This Lordaeron is most beautiful. I hope to see its beauty with my own eyes some day; doubly so that I may thank these Menethils for the asylum they have offered you and your friends for what time they did. I owe them a great debt."

The older draenei took a long, deep breath, allowing the warmth of the sun, the fragrance of the flowers, and the love of the Light wash over him like a soothing blanket.  Hope, even in the bleakest of times and darkest of corners.

Velen squeezed Remnii's hand again, his beloved soulmate coming to his thoughts once more, as he ever did. As he looked over to the young woman Nuuri had saved at the cost of her own life, the prophet could not help but beam with pride. She would be so proud.


RE: Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Remnii - 06-04-2020

Remnii could not help but glow under the praise her father gave. Shifting up tall, she hummed with quiet confidence, "And I would make a thousand more fields, if I could. I hope you'll enjoy what I've planned next-- I have had a lot of time to plan. Full glad am I that these dreams can be made a reality... in a sense."

She chuckled and her smile softened into a sad yet reverent expression, "The Light held me together. Somewhere along this journey, little in rituals or the practices I had learned seemed to matter anymore. To fear an emptiness that I'd never felt? I thought I'd been losing my way in the darkness of Draenor. The pain of those left behind? It is overwhelming, Vakas."

Once again tightening her grip on her Velen's hand, she explained, "Yet, in its wake? In that silence, in the shadows of grief of a dying world? The Light bloomed in ways I never... I had never imagined myself to feel. I have wanted to ask you, share with you... somehow seek the answers if this was the 'right' way to feel within the Light."

She shook her head, "It is not that simple, is it, Vakas? As much as I wish it was. M'uru told me, before he was... taken, that we all have a part in the song to sing. He, too, called me friend in the weeks I was honored to spend with him. Well, it was that and plenty of cryptic advice I have yet to decipher.

"I do not know if this makes sense, I feel like I'm rambling." Remnii sighed, searching her father's face. "Yet, through this journey, I have stood on my own two hooves alongside the Light. That darkness and distance I felt was never there, I am certain of it. Instead, it feels internal and ever-present. The Light's warmth moves through me, and I a reflection of it. Or so I hope.

"It is only by that combined effort, that symbiosis, that I was ever able to meet the Menethils and show you these fields. The Light has shaped my experiences in this world, yet it has not solely molded my days. The kindness that has been reflected back to me in this strange, wonderful, world stems not from one or the other, but from a combined effort of Light and Draenei?"

Remnii paused from her monologue to shift her weight, anxious and curious to find what her Vakas would say on the matter. The tip of her tail flicked with anticipatory nerves.

"I do not want to presume!" She offered, quickly, realizing the bold timbre of her words, "Yet, I have felt a peace in my heart, stable, in a way that is new. Now I am walking back my own words, but, Vakas, is this... right? Is is safe? I so want it to be, but I have worried that I have grown bold or that I have strayed from where I should be all the same. Without you... without Ishanah... I cannot help but worry somehow."


RE: Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Velen - 06-06-2020

As Velen listened to Remnii open up about her journey with the light, his brow furrowed in attentive thought. His eyes crinkled in kindness as she explained her thoughts, her feelings, her heart open and bare to both he and the Light.

"I thank you for telling me all of this, Remnii. The journey that each and every one of us take within the Light is profoundly intimate and individual, but profoundly shared simultaneously. A duality that cannot be explained, cannot be predicted, but rather experienced."

He considered his words carefully as he spoke, every word deliberate and steeped in the wisdom of ages. It was good to be back here; to guide his child, his avrokaein, down this path of serenity and enlightenment. Would that he could stay here, in this place, and speak of love, of Light, of growth, for all time. It would not be, but for now, they were here, in this moment, their hearts and minds connecting as they ever had. It was good.

"Indeed, Remnii, the Light is an experience as much as it is a force that ties all creation together. It can mean so many things to so many people. I will not lie and say there are no wrong ways to experience the Light. The desire to protect others drawn to its extreme becomes obsession; Justice becomes vengeance; Compassion twisted into pity pride, Holiness, zealotry. We all must temper ourselves within the Light, and allow the Light to do the same within us. But Remnii," he said, squeezing her hand, as he moved their clasped fingers to her knee. "What you are experiencing is not only right, but uniquely you. It is plain to me that you have grown to be very confident within the Light's grace in a way that no one else could possibly understand as intimately as you do."

He moved his gaze from the fields and turned to his dearest Remnii.  "You are only 'wrong' about one thing, my child: you do not need me, nor Ishanah, to guide you down this path. It is uniquely yours, and no one can truly understand it as well as you can. If you feel it is right, and if it brings you peace and balance, then it is right."  A wide smile spread across his wrinkled face. "But do not worry, avrokein. Though this journey is solitary, it is not lonely." There was a twinkle in his eye. "Farseer Nobundo said it better than I ever could, though. I trust you remember his wisdom?" Velen looked to his companion to her with an expectent smile.


RE: Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Remnii - 06-07-2020

Curious, anticipating some certain kind of answer, Remnii watched her father's face with great care. Though her expression had been soft from crying it soon melted into something tender as she listened to his words and closed her eyes. In the dream she wove, the Light was sewn into every fiber. She hummed, soft and low, in affirmation. In the very back of her mind, she imagined the gentle sounds that had emanated from M'uru during their time together. She willed it to sound, gently, under the gentle breeze of the pastoral scene.

As Velen's words grew serious, she opened her eyes and nodded with understanding, taking his words like the air she needed. "I... I have been taking time to learn. Before I walked in the Shadowlands, I became a member of the Church of the Holy Light. A monk! The Archbishop-- someone between your symbolism and Ishanah's station, tasked me to reflect upon their tenants: respect, tenacity, and compassion. I had a teacher for Respect, unfortunately, she has passed on, but I am hoping to see her again. The idea was to meditate on these ideas and and then to learn how the Light is worshiped her. It is worship on the Eastern Kingdoms, not the same sort of the relationship that the Draenei share. Still, I wanted, and want, to understand."

She watched his profile with gratitude before continuing-- his gentle face and noble crest suited him well. 

"I tell you these things to not only share where I have been, but to explain my train of thought. On my meditations there I found A'dal's crystal-- which I had attempted to send from Tempest Keep to the Exodar. They know little of the Naaru, and I've kept information quiet where I could. Being with the humans who live so differently than we? With their shorter lifespans, bold actions and their divided kingdoms, they share so much with us. The Light reached them, we have similar morals and even sometimes their cities remind them of Shattrath. 

"I felt paralyzed, Vakas. I felt so big, and I do not mean physically. I communed with A'dal in the quiet, and I 'accomplished' more in a day than they had done in four months. These revelations and pieces of information that I could bring to them, my time as an anchorite? I felt too big to be there. Yet, Vakas, it is humbling. On the otherhand, I felt so small. I still do. They worship the Light, they've established a faith and they have wisdom to share. In their short lives they must love harder, feel deeper, and understand their place in their world before a draenei child would even be considered an adult. It's beautiful. It frightens me. Their way of life is something I do not wish to tread upon"

She ran a thumb over his hand hand, shoulders slightly slumped in insecurity. Her tone was both so deeply affirmed and absolutely cautious in how she explained where she stood. 

"Caught in between these feelings, I felt like the weight of the world had descended to my shoulders. I worry I will say too much. I worry I will not say enough. I wish to share the Light openly with a world that is ailing, but I so want to preserve the hearts of the people here. I refuse to even draw near to the idea of what she does, to what the Legion does, to what they're doing to the Orcish people."

Her shoulders shook in a shiver, recalling Shaspira's, her mother's, ire. Her heart jumped to her throat, bearing her soul to her Vakas. Months and months of concerns were bubbling in her throat. She could feel the conversation growing too big for its confines, despite all the work she had done to temper herself against becoming overwhelmed. In his presence, Remnii was undone again and again. She looked down to her knees, unable to bring herself to look at him.

"These experiences.. they shook my faith to pieces, Vakas, so that I could build something new with them." Her voice cracked once again, fear snaking into her voice, her fingers tightening again around his for a very different reason. "I was, I am afraid to look at it, as I feel that faith has taken shape. It will always be a unique journey, yes. But, it does not feel safe as something new. I so desperately wished to ask you... so many things. I feel it has shaped a purpose for me, and I it. This is... hard to articulate. I..."

Remnii took a shaky breath in, she finally looked up to him. Pain was etched into her face, her tears came quietly, a few made trails down her cheeks. Unlike the Remnii's many crying sessions thus far, this read differently. Resolution steeled her, yet fear gripped her heart easily.

"Nobundo's words," She smiled weakly, "have brought me great comfort over the years, but it cannot temper the worry I have felt. I fear in this path I've resolved to carve in this world, I will lose sight of why I can so easily cry, how I can so easily feel the warm embrace of the Light for its own sake. I never wish to be the closed fist, like the Vindicators, like the Silver Hand of the humans. If I am going to build the Army of Light, Vakas, it will be forged in the fires of love and compassion and it will be tempered by this fear.

"I can explain it, I know. I think it frightens me to do so, as it came so easy. Pieces are in motion, as we speak, between Azeroth and what is left of Draenor. Confronting this..." Her lip quivered, anguish was set into every word, "This change? It is in me. I am not afraid of the Light, Vakas. I am afraid of myself."


RE: Cherishments [Remnii x Velen] - Velen - 06-11-2020

A bittersweet sorrow touched Velen's heart as he listened to Remnii. She had done more growing over the past decade or so than he could have possibly imagined. Already did she carry a the weight of the universe upon her shoulders; weight levied upon her because of so, so many things. The boundless fountain of compassion that was her heart. The expectations placed upon her as the daughter of the Prophet. And now, the knowledge of her lineage. They, and a thousand other things, weighed heavy on her shoulders... but rather than growing weary, she grew more resolute, more determined, than ever.

He saw her, standing alone amidst her path, marching onward in spite of everything. Pride, fear. The emotions of a father.

"Remnii," he said, his words coming ponderously to his mind. "The answers you seek lie already within your heart, and your path has already revealed itself to you. But... you already know that, my child. Your resolve, your strength; it comes from this simple truth." Velen scooted closer to Remnii, his tail curling around his side away from his daughter as is arm wrapped around her back and onto her shoulder. "Your trials have forced you to grow, to change so very fast. But you know this. You are aware of this. And it has frightened you... but it has not lead you astray. Remnii, you are an unending wellspring of love... but also of courage. You know, and love, every living thing that this life has to offer, and the courage to protect that life is projected outwards and reflected back unto yourself. It is one of your greatest strengths, even if it may sometimes feel like a weakness."

Velen thought for a moment, to a distant time, where he, too, had such a similar crisis. Two-hundred and fifty Argussian years ago, when he turned his back on two of his closest allies out of the fear their ignorance would damn their people. When he fled his only home with a fraction of their enlightened peoples to become nomads across the stars. Of the thousands of names, faces, friends, family that he would never see again because of those choices.  He swallowed hard before he continued.

"The greatest wisdom is that which is found in the peace of love and acceptance of the self. It is one of the few things in this blessed life we have absolute, true control over. But it is not something that comes easy. Not even to me."

He squeezed Remnii's shoulder, moving his gaze from his beloved treasure to the bright sky above them. "But that very same power is something you already have, Remnii.  It is that love, that acceptance, that inner strength that has raised this flag of warning to you. It knows well that light cannot exist without shadow, and it is afraid of what could be lost if that balance, that knowledge, is lost.

"You must heed that voice, Remnii, for it is your very soul crying out to you. Heed it. Nurture it. Remember the warnings it gives you, that you may protect it. For your soul is a precious thing, and not another being in this universe knows you like your own soul, and not another soul knows you like your own. Be afraid, Remnii - and let that fear temper you, just as you said. Let it guide you. Let it become your greatest strength, and no one will be able to wield it against you."