A Rose is a Rose, Most of the Time...

by **Kuvarakh** on June 29th, 2012, 2:53 am

"What I need is to be able to see my reflection IN her eyes. That's how I get the djed link to another person's mind. I'm only a novice at it, so I'm pretty limited."

Kuvarakh's frustration was genuine. He was starting to really feel sympathy for this rose. In his rational mind, he knew it was absurd that a summer plant would truly be affected by illusory snow during summer, but his emotions were hooked. This plant was shivering, her voice trembling with cold.

He wondered briefly how other plants were reacting to the snowfall. There were no others acting as though they felt anything. In fact, the bees Natalie had mentioned were still out doing their rounds, disappearing into snowpuffs as they did their pollinating routine.

He wondered about plants that were indoors. Were they getting enough sun, as Natalie had been concerned about? he walked across the icy walkway, careful not to slip, and made his way to a window. It was difficult to see in with the frosty coat of ice in the corners. He put his hand against the ice to block the light and cover his reflection as he looked in.

Something nagged at his thoughts, but he dismissed it as he looked in, seeing various plants, some healthy and bushy, some looking somewhat sad and thin. He took his hand away slowly, shaking his head. he didn't know enough about plants to know whether those plants were in normal condition for the season.

He started to turn back when the nagging thought occurred to him. He turned to the window again. He had blocked...his.....reflection...in the ice! He spun back to Nira'lia and Natalie-the-rose. She was not just snowy, she was icy!

by **Nira'lia** on July 1st, 2012, 5:42 pm

Kuvarakh was evidently frustrated, and Nira'lia watched him with concern. He seemed to be deep in thought so the Konti decided not to bother him. As he was lost in his reverie, Nira'lia turned to the rose. Natalie was still complaining about the weather, and the Konti decided that perhaps changing the topic could ease her.

"Natalie, you know, I'm trying to learn about herbalism..." she said with a smile. "I'm curious, can roses help us with... let's say, our health?"

Natalie beamed with pride as soon as Nira'lia asked that. Nira'lia had never seen a rose look so proud before.

"Why, yes, my dear!" said the rose. There was much energy in her voice, and it was a pleasant change from her complaints. "Our petals may be made into a tea... a tea which can relieve fluid retention and hasten the elimination of wastes. Did you know that?"

Nira'lia blinked. "You mean rose tea can be a remedy for... uhm, stomach ailments?"

"Yes, indeed!" replied Natalie. The rose bobbed up and down, as if nodding. "It can also be an excellent remedy for irregular periods and infertility. Did you know that?"

"Oh, that is helpful," laughed the Konti. She had never imagined that roses had such... unique medicinal qualities.

"However, plucking our petals are quite painful, so don't forget that... Oh, your friend is back."

Nira'lia turned her head to Kuvarakh. He seemed to have reached a realization, one that Nira'lia didn't know about. Nira'lia looked at him with much question, urging him to tell him what he had arrived at.

by **Kuvarakh** on July 1st, 2012, 10:06 pm

Kuvarakh stepped past Nira'lia without looking at her and cast himself down on the ground. He inched himself forward until his nose was almost touching Natalie-the-rose. "Look at me, please, Natalie. Look me right in the eye. Am I looking you right in the eye as well? I mean right in the eye?"

"Well, you do seem to be looking a tad bit high, if you must know. What in the world does it matter." she quipped, clearly a bit put out by Kuvarakh's seemingly aggressive position.

"Just...give...me...a moment..." he droned, staring at her, "and I'll...explain." His mind was obviously on something else as he spoke, his eyes focused intently on the little rose.

Suddenly his legs kicked oddly and he twitched, pushing himself back and twisting his torso to look at his own legs, a look of grave concern on his face. He relaxed and heaved a heavy sigh, "Oh thank the gods, that's right, I have legs!"

He suddenly grimaced, as though realizing what an odd comment he had made and looked up somewhat sheepishly at Nira'lia. "Um, do you have a shovel, Nira'lia?" He turned back to say something to Natalie, but she cut him off, her voice shrill with anger.

"So what if you have legs! What is THAT supposed to mean? Do you think that makes you better than me? You big brutes with your legs all go stumbling around, tripping and falling, stepping on things, crushing them under your big ugly feet! I make my little area far more beautiful than YOU do, and I do it WITHOUT LEGS, thank you very much!"

Kuvarakh was mortified, holding his hands up defensively as he tried to get a word in. "No, no, you misunderstand me. I meant no offense. And believe me, someone that does nothing but bring such beauty into the world could never be of less value than one of us big brutes as you so accurately describe me. It was only that, just now, I linked with your mind to try to let you feel warm, but because you are planted in the ground, I suddenly had the feeling of having been "pulled up" like a weed. It was terrifying. I was simply relieved to see that I had forgotten that I am supposed to be that way. I'm terribly sorry if i insulted you."

"Oh...well...alright, then. No offense taken. I'm sorry I raised my voice at you that way, dear." Natalie was all charm and grace again.

"Not at all, Natalie. It was a crass and thoughtless thing for me to say." Kuvarakh said, bowing. When he straightened, he turned to Nira'lia. "If you don't have a shovel, it would probably work as well to pile some of that mulch on my legs and sit on them. I think the ground is too hard to dig with our hands. The very fact of my sudden panic makes me believe very strongly that this will work. I just need to able to feel as though I have been...planted."

by **Nira'lia** on July 2nd, 2012, 3:48 pm

At Natalie's outburst, Nira'lia found herself staring at the Nuit and the rose with her mouth agape. She attempted to speak and to calm the situation down, but she couldn't find the right words. The uneasiness was clear on her expression, and she gave a sigh of relief just as soon as Kuvarakh was able to control the situation on his own.

Up until this point, Nira'lia had simply been watching. She had never seen a hypnotist in action before, and she knew nothing about the technicalities of hypnotism.

Mind links? She had no idea what that meant.

This was why when Kuvarakh turned to her and asked her to help him feel like he was planted on the ground, Nira'lia continued to stare at him in a puzzled manner.

"I... I don't get it, but okay... and no, I don't have a shovel right now."

Nira'lia leaned down and gathered some snow in her hands. The snow was cold and dirty, and felt slightly disgusting against her skin. It was also fluffy and light, and as she discarded a pile on Kuvarakh's legs, she saw that they wouldn't do their job. Beneath the snow was dirt and rocks, but Kuvarakh was right on that account as well -- it was too hard to dig with using bare hands. Nira'lia placed as much snow on his legs and saw why she had to put more force aside from the snow, because if he simply tried to stand up and shake the snow off, he'd be able to do so easily.

The Konti had a sheepish grin on her face. "Should I sit on you, then? Uhm, but... I'd rather just hold you down. I have to be careful, though... you see, I can't touch people, or I'll get visions of your past... and that's against your will."

She didn't normally speak about her Konti gift without being asked, but she had no choice. She had to explain why she had to be wary of touching him. Nira'lia didn't want to sit on him, as she found that slightly awkward in her position. Instead, she knelt down on the cold ground and placed her hands firmly on his ankles.

"Just keep your legs straight, okay...? If I hold your ankles and keep them from moving, you won't be able to get up."

by **Kuvarakh** on July 3rd, 2012, 1:30 am

Kuvarakh swallowed hard with both shock and relief. No indeed, he would not have wanted this woman to view his past. Though distant memories would have inspired sympathy, most of all, the crushing grief of his daughter's death. Since then, there was obsession, discontent, his Nuit transformation, occasional instances of satisfaction through his alchemy and decades of travel.

But more than anything else, there would be embalmings. He didn't know this woman well, by any means, but it took no great observation to see that she was of lighter sensibilities. The dark nature of Nuit existence would likely bring on revulsion. And just possibly, she would get a glimpse of his one act of outright murder...and mutilation.

The man had been a Nuit, and had convinced Kuvarakh to make the transformation as well, saying that he would benefit from the endless lifetime to pursue his obsession. The years had gone on and the man had manipulated things to prevent Kuvarakh from having any time for his own interests.

But what had driven Kuvarakh to murder was that he found that the bodies the man claimed to have been come by innocently, were, in fact, murder victims. Kuvarakh's driving goal was to find some method of extending the duration of Nuit bodies to reduce or eliminate their need for more and more bodies. To stop the murders that some Nuit committed. To give his daughter's death some meaning.

And then, to find clear evidence of this man's guilt made something snap. His daughter might just as well have been one of his victims. He had embraced a cold, calculating, avenging fury. He had not killed him in the passion of the moment. What he had done to this bastard's body was something that had driven spikes of self-loathing into his soul in hindsight. The thought of this smiling woman having even an inkling of it was unbearable. He would never do such a thing again, he knew. But she wouldn't. She was obviously someone that could never do such a thing for ANY reason. The thought of how she would look at him after seeing that episode nearly choked him with shame.

Without looking at her, he reached down and pulled his socks completely up, and his pants' legs completely down. He rolled over on his face again as she instructed him to keep his legs straight and she would hold him down.

The actual hypnotism itself was done quickly. Natalie-the-rose began to sigh contentedly as the ice began to thaw and flow off her petals. "Aahhhhh. Thank you, that is SOOOOO much better. Really, I feel the summer warmth now. I really don't know why I couldn't before. I mean, it's obviously just an illusion. So silly of me to be affected by an illusion. Mmmmmm you know, it makes me sleepy. I think I might just take a nap. I hope you don't mind. I am so much in your debt, I wouldn't want to be rude."

Kuvarakh stood, taking obvious care to keep Nira'lia's hands from touching his skin. He muttered something about being 'glad to help' to Natalie and turned, avoiding Nira'lia's face and claiming that the hypnotism had bothered his eyes, his voice catching and trembling slightly.

by **Nira'lia** on July 3rd, 2012, 5:12 pm

Nira'lia noted that Kuvarakh didn't seem pleased with her secret. She was not more specific, and as such she didn't tell him that touching another person gave her visions of the person's happiest moment. Kuvarakh didn't know this and it caused him to become upset, and Nira'lia was not aware of this.

She chose not to ask further.

"That's amazing..." the Konti quipped as she watched the rose adjust to her new state of mind. "You really convinced her, hmm..."

The Konti stood up and brushed off her skirt. She kept her eyes on Kuvarakh and saw that still seemed at unease, and he was even muttering. It was a great contrast to the charismatic and slightly odd man she had seen just minutes before.

"Are you okay?" inquired the Konti with concern. She had told herself she wasn't going to ask, but she couldn't leave him as is either. "I didn't see anything, I promise."

Nira'lia gave him a bright smile and turned to Natalie. She was now unmoving, most likely 'sleeping' as she had said. She wasn't moving and looked like any other normal flower now. After a few seconds of observing the beautiful flower, Nira'lia turned back to the Nuit.

"I guess we should leave her be now..." said Nira'lia, her voice low and hushed, as if not wanting to wake the flower.

by **Kuvarakh** on July 4th, 2012, 12:53 am

Kuvarakh took a deep,cleansing breath, which shuddered slightly as he exhaled it. He stood for a moment, then nodded once, as if to himself. Having reached some sort of decision, he then turned to Nira'lia with a sad smile. "Yes, we ought to be going."

They had only gone a few paces when it became obvious that they were not going the same direction. Kuvarakh looked at Nira'lia, trying to smile without forcing it. "I...uh...want to thank you for...not touching me. You actually didn't need to tell me that you didn't." He looked down and spoke without looking back up to her face. "If you had...well...you would probably be recoiling from me. You are a good person, Nira'lia. And while I think of myself as a good person now too, I think you come by it naturally, whereas, I...I had to...learn to be. And some of the lessons are...pretty grim. I was obsessed, and, though I still feel my motivation was...understandable...I used that obsession to...justify...things that I...can no longer justify."

He looked back at the roses, the one rose bright red and free of snow among the rest, beautiful though they were in their stark icy glitter, and smiled. "One more good deed to offset so many bad." He looked back at Nira'lia, face to face this time and extended a gloved hand, "It is my privilege to know you. Do not feel bad for making me recall my past. It is all part of atonement."

by **Nira'lia** on July 4th, 2012, 12:43 pm

Nira'lia couldn't tell what he was talking about, but it was evident that he was trapped in a turmoil that she knew nothing about. Then and there, Nira'lia felt bad for him. The concern could be seen in her eyes as she stared at him. She tried to say something, anything that would cheer him up, but she didn't know what would make sense.

"I don't think being a good person is something you learn... it's inherent," she said meekly as she forced a smile. It was a lame statement, but it was what she actually believed. She hoped he would find the sense in it as well. "Something's obviously troubling you, Kuvarakh. If you need to talk to someone, I'm right here... alright?"

She gave him a bright smile. Nira'lia didn't want to force the answers out of him, and she knew she probably wouldn't be able to say anything. His troubles seemed to run deep inside of him, if it was something that one would atone to just because she mentioned something as vague as the past. She regretted mentioning it now. He had been so happy, so enthusiastic at helping the illusionary Natalie... that was all gone now.

"I'll see you around!" she said with a grin. "Please feel better."

With a slight wave, Nira'lia bid him farewell and went off on her own way. As they separated, she couldn't help but hope that the Nuit would find peace with himself.