The Edge of Valor (OPEN!)

[Blake Andrews]

The Edge of Valor

ACTORS: Blake Andrews, Ievantes, Raine Abney

Blake never ceased being amazed at the varied multitude of scenes that the dream world offered him. One had been a vast graveyard, with bones of unknown animals jutting from the ground, and rivers of blood flowing through the ground. Another had been a veritable garden of Eden, with tall, fruit bearing trees reminding the insignificant Blake that he was far smaller, far inferior to some things in the universe. Looking around another scene of waterfalls and nymphs playing in the water had brought peace upon him. The horrors of a palace whose walls dripped with blood terrified him. And he loved all these places.

It had been a long time since his first visit to this world, where he saw the visage of Reia. In it, his childhood friend gradually transformed from the five year old he had witnessed the rape of, in to a abyssal abomination with whips and tentacles of purest night, with a maw glistening with ivory fangs. After that, he had developed an insomnia that lasted right about two weeks.

Since, he had experienced not just the nightmares of the dream world, but the dreams as well. The horrific realities of his darker half were balanced by the hopeful and reaching light of his brighter subconcious.

This place, though, this scene in particular, had become his haven, his sanctuary. He had never seen any of the students' dream forms, nor any of the pesky dream beings here. Amidst a barren landscape, parched and cracked from an apparent lack of rain, stood myriad weapons of giant proportions. A dagger four feet tall crossed with a greatsword twice Blake's size. In all directions, swords, axes, spears, maces, chains, and lances of mythic proportions jutted from the ground and reached painfully for the heavens.

If you asked him, Blake would never be able to tell you why he loved this place so much, but he spent much of his time amongst these forsaken armaments, fingering their blades, leaning against the swords, climbing the polearms like trees. He sat against a towering great shield, gazing at one of his spell cards, musing to himself quietly. Stiffening, he looked around. Had he... heard someone?

"Hello...?"

[Ievantes]

Being adrift in ethereal form, Ievantes had heard Blake speak as clearly as any human might have heard a tree fall in the forest, but still he knew that he had been addressed. In a way, rather. Ievantes knew that Blake was speaking to nobody in particular –or rather, to a particular person that he had not identified yet, and Ievantes knew that he himself was that person. Had Blake heard him here, even though Ievantes had not had any physical form? Or had the boy just imagined something?
Ievantes couldn’t imagine why else he would be where he was though, so he decided that he must be there to respond to the boy’s tentative greeting. Thus illusionary being materialized before the boy, taking on the appearance of a young courtier dressed for the hunt- but then he was an angel. Then he was a shepherd again. In any case, Ievantes was not smiling, but rather, looking very much concerned, for when he saw Blake, he saw discontent, and generally speaking, when Ievantes saw people who were discontent, that meant that it was his business to deal with that discontent. Perhaps it really wasn’t his business, but as far as Ievantes was concerned, as long as he was there with a boy that wasn’t happy, and didn’t have anything better to do, then he may as well make the boy feel better. Ievantes then thought, maybe helping this person in need was something that he wanted to do. After all, it was what he was doing. Or what he was going to do.

After some time spent analyzing the boy from appearance, trying to decide what he did and did not know, and what was okay for him to know about this young man that had somehow found him, even when Ievantes was not there to be found, he gave up on any deeper observations and simply stated (what he thought was) the very obvious:
You’re brooding.

[Raine Abney]

Raine once again had ended up in the dream world. The last time she had said good bye to a fair friend, a teacher, and one of the only friendly faces she knew. Where he went he didn't tell her but said that she would be fine on her own. Shou a mist wonder and not just that but a little piece of her. He had told her to keep the necklace, just in case he ever came back.

This time however she had ended up in the one place she had seen in a nightmare. She had been her for only a few seconds the first time. This time however she knew she wasn't alone. She fingered the blades coming from the ground with the softest touch. Her footsteps couldn't be heard, she was walking to lightly.

If you asked how she got here she couldn't answer you. She also couldn't tell you why she wasn't scared here or why she may have liked it. No it wasn't the small baled she wore on her side that made her feel safe here, nor was it the bow across her shoulder. What made this place feel fine was that she knew she wasn't alone.

And as if on cue a man was there. He had said something and she faintly heard it. No it wasn't directed at her or anyone for that matter. But another voice soon joined. Curious as she was she started forward but she didn't stay on the ground. She manged to climb the hilt of one the blades then dance across the points. She came to a stop at the shield, standing lightly on the tip of a dagger.

[Ievantes]

It had only been moments after he had engaged himself in discussion with the card-carrying boy that Ievantes found himself amidst an encounter with yet another student of Somnium- this one a pretty little she-elf, with feelings as deeply-hurt as the boy. For that instant, Ievantes was sitting cross-legged on the ground, laughing merrily and patting the ground in praise as if it were a beastie that had just presented him a work of art. There were not many instances in which this particular portion of the dream world had many people in it at all. That there were two of them here now was an accomplishment indeed.

Next, Ievantes was standing across from Raine, perched weightlessly on a massive broadsword that hadn’t been there before. Or perhaps he was simply hovering in the air. Ievantes didn’t really know what he was doing, but did know that he was eye-level with Raine. That was the only important bit really. He presented the elf with an ambiguous smile, then said, just as ambiguously;
”This must be a very auspicious moment indeed.” Then, to no-one in particular, ”Do you know why?”

Then he was sprawled out across the ground, stretched like a cat beneath sunlight that only shone on him, in a patch of clover that only grew where he laid, suddenly as comfortable and relaxed as if he really were in a sunny meadow somewhere, rather than wasteland littered with weaponry. One of the hands that had been folded behind his head reached out in a sweeping gesture to the area behind him, leaving behind it still more clover and sunshine, suggesting to either of his friends that they might sit or lay beside him.

[Blake Andrews]

Blake humored the strange man. "Why?" he asked, his voice punctuated as he stood. He walked over to the very strange man, who seemed to weave in the very fabric of the dream world. He had created a broadsword from etherium, he mystically grew clover where he sat, he spoke in enchanting, drawing tones... Truely, this man was powerful among the dreamers. "Why is this an auspicious moment?" He sat on the clovers, and, after a moment, stretched out along the soft green.

Blake viewed the Dream World as just what the name would imply. To him, it mattered little more than a world he visited in his dreams. That is, that's what he wished he believed. Slowly, he had begun to feel connected to the world around him, not that other, dingy place called reality. The scariest times to Blake were when he realized what his thoughts were saying.

He glanced at the elfin maiden. She looked very out of place in this graveyard of armaments, her grace seeming to be a complete anachronism among the cold steel. He admired her lithe frame, her flowing hair, her delicate dress. Exotic beauty like this just can't be found in reality... he thought. He realized he'd started drifting off, and looked at the stranger with rapt attention, wondering at how truly auspicious this moment could be.

[Raine Abney]

The dagger she was balancing on was starting to perice her leather boot. It was a lot sharper then she had calculated but the pain was something she didn't pay any attention to. Of course the blood that now dripped from her boot to the ground was something else. It lined the dagger in a crimson red color.

With a quick leap she was on the ground, a cloud of dust rising slightly. Her foot healed with the the walking, she was whispering incantations under her breath. "Why is it," her voice rang clear in the barren land. "Unless you mean the three complete strangers coming together in the most unlikely place."

She sat down in the clovers next to the strange man. The other one was looking at her. She smiled sweetly almost blushing at the fact that he was.

[Ievantes]

“This is unlikely. But unlikely does not make auspicious.”

Ievantes knew (from experience he was sure) that people who were not himself did not always take well to his speaking of times that were not ‘now’. Sometimes, they would not bothered. But more often they would react in the strangest, most inexplicable of ways- they would be mystified and delighted and pry for more, or they would be shocked or afraid (either of what he told him or of he himself for knowing it) or even angry at him for telling them things that they did not want to know. Perhaps more strangely still, they would try desperately to make ‘not now’ into ‘not ever’, or ‘not ever’ into ‘not now’, counterintuitive to the very definition of such things.

At some point, Ievantes had learned that this was because they did not experience time in a way that he did. He had found that they knew only the tracest fragment of things that pass, and quite nearly nothing of things that do not pass. They seemed to know things only based on their relationships to each other- and finding relationships was something they did very well. They didn’t understand at all when Ievantes spoke of things without measuring the moments between that thing and something else, and even then they sometimes didn’t get it. This was because Ievantes, unlike other people, was not good at measuring things. There would be times in Ievantes’ life when he was very good indeed at that sort of thinking (even better than people from the waking world), but it wasn’t now, and Ievantes was certain that he didn’t want to remember how to do it. He had a feeling that he was happier when he didn’t know those sorts of things.

Instead, he resolved to keep his rather unique perspective on the manner in which things come to be –or don’t come to be- to himself, opting instead to speak with other people only from a time that they both saw clearly – ‘Now’. Even then, it often became confusing to speak about, because ‘now’ was very much intertwined with ‘not now’ ‘not ever’. For instance, this moment was very auspicious because, its’ happening now meant that important things would happen not now. The boy from the waking world was unhappy now because at a time other than now, another person had besmirched the correctness his identity by spreading statements concerning his identity that Blake would not like for others to believe true. This was upsetting to Blake because at another time that was not now, somebody decided that most mammals would be the sort of creatures whose livelihood depended on their having the good favor of other mammals, and because at yet another time that was not now, somebody decided that nearly all living creatures in the waking world would value their livelihood. Because of these things that happened not now, human beings now are very concerned indeed with the way that other human beings perceived them, and Blake in particular is very concerned indeed with other people thinking that he is attracted to other men.

Though, even with that relatively thorough understanding of why Blake was upset (one of the few instances in which Ievantes had any idea why human beings acted the way they do), Ievantes was certain that the logic beyond this reaction was not quite moot; this rumor that was floating around right now was not going to result in Blake’s loss of comfort or sustainability.

Ievantes wondered if it would be appropriate to tell the boy just that- humans almost always felt better when they were seeing reason. But humans also got very upset when Ievantes acted on things that he had learned about them in times that were not ‘now’. They didn’t always know that they had shared the information- and while it was possible for Ievantes to look into their minds to see if, right now, they knew that they had allowed Ievantes to learn any given bit of knowledge about them, Ievantes was very certain that it was not polite to be aware of what was going on in other peoples’ minds. There were many things in Ievantes’ mind that he did not want share with anybody either.

On the other hand, Ievantes reminded himself, if he was there for any reason at all, it must be to share in the experiences of these humans, and that had to start somewhere. And so he turned his head to look at Blake, and said to the card-carrier,
”I think that you should remember that it is very easy to prosper, in your time and place, despite that those around you say that you are sexually attracted to men. At Somnium, heterosexuality, as perceived by yourself and by others, is not requisite of happiness. Some will choose not to associate with you because of it, and I do apologize that many of these individuals are of the sort that you relate well to, but I do not think that their friendship is necessary. You can be comfortable knowing that this girl….” Ievantes swept an arm in Raine’s direction, and for that instant all the world that was not Raine seemed to darken into nothing, ”…And I would both like you very well if we believed you were attracted to men as to women as to dirty bath sponges. We are both very good friends for you.”

Ievantes paused.

I should amend. She is a good friend. I’m afraid that bringing comfort to humans is not a great talent of mine. For the briefest moment, Ievantes flashed in the manner of lighting, appearing in that instant as a young man engaged in the most excruciating sort of contemplation before, just as quickly, the sunshine and clover returned. The look of concentration softened, and he said smoothly, musically, and quite as if he had never digressed from the original topic, ”Ironically, it really isn’t unlikely at all for the convergence of hurt individuals to be auspicious. After all, it is usually because we are hurt that it is so meaningful when we meet.”.

ooc- The amount of unnecessary crap I write in my posts and the degree to which I confuse people are directly proportion to each other, with both being inversely proportional to the amount of sleep I’ve had lately. Therefore, given that it’s twelve-thirty in the afternoon on a weekday and I still haven’t gone to bed despite the fact that I’m ill and I haven’t gotten much sleep the previous two days, what else can be deciphered about this post?

[Blake Andrews]

Blake's brief grin turned in to a frown, and then in to a bit of a snarl as he listened to Ievantes. His eyes flashed with a deep seated anger that he couldn't justify levelling at Ievantes, but he wanted to aim it at him anyway. For the moment, he had forgotten Raine even existed. Now, now Blake had a focus. Now he had a target.

Sandy Secret was nothing but a faceless, detached name floating around cyberspace. Now, though, he had a face and an identity to thoroughly express his anger at. His conscience tried valiantly to dissuade him, bringing up that Ievantes couldn't have had anything to do with the rumors, that he was just trying to be helpful, that he didn't mean to anger Blake. Blake reasoned back that Ievantes brought it up, therefore he must deal with the circumstances.

"Look, I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you don't know me at all. You don't know me at ALL!" he snarled. His voice was laced with latent aggresion, as he finally, FINALLY had the opportunity to vent some of this anger. "You don't know anything about me! How could anyone have the right to level those accusations at me? And you're crass enough to even bring them up? I was at peace here. You disturbed that."

Blake reached in to the deck box strapped to his leg, withdrawing what looked like a single white playing card. "Sword." He commanded, then all at once, he was not holding a card, but a beautiful, intricately made longsword. "I think it's about time you apologize." This was very out of character for Blake, but he had been pushed to his limit about this whole Jacklyn and Aries thing... If he were in his right mind, he'd be apologizing. Unfortunately, he wasn't.

[Raine Abney]

Raine moved to a standing position as soon as the boy did. She had listened to everything and now wasn't sure what to think. Clearly the dream being and hit a rough spot on the boy, Blake. She however wasn't sure at this moment if she should be mad at him or not. He was making her a target at one point but that wasn't what felt off.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the glint of a sword in Blake's hand. She drew hers and placed it on his blade. It wasn't a treating gesture but a defending one. She wasn't going to let Blake slice and dice the dream being. "He isn't the target and shouldn't be," she kept her thin blade on his unmoving. She looked at the dream being. "Granted he seems to know to much. Blake you weren't the only target of cyber girl Sandy Secret." Her eyes went back to Blake. "That woman did go to far in saying what she said. I read it too."

That woman drove her crazy some days. She had wanted to track the computer down but the school computer person could track that. She'd rather not be banned from a computer because of tracking down some person and attempting to kill them.

(OCC: I get the feeling I'm not wanted here anymore...)

[Ievantes]

OOC- Not at all. Brendan and I discussed the matter, actually, prior to your latest reply, given that your character seemed at the time to be mostly just bystanding, and came to the mutual decision that we like you here anyways. We’re all shooting from the hip here, anyways, so if you’re worrying that you’re interfering with our plans, you shouldn’t, because we don’t have plans.


Ievantes had, originally, been just sitting there, not quite wanting to take action without first puzzling over how the boy in front of him could possibly be quite this worked up over something as harmless as a rumor- the illusionary being was full-aware of how unpredictable humans tend to be, but even so, threatening to kill people for offering comfort seemed to go beyond mere unpredictability. It would seem, Ievantes thought, that in his effort not to intrude into areas of Blake’s person in which he was not welcome, he had sorely underestimated just how upset the boy really was. For that moment, Ievantes had his chin captured in one hand, brows tightly knitted and lower lip held between his teeth in a very aggressive form of concentration as he tried very quickly to decide if, considering how very likely it was that Blake was expressing a pain that had very little to do with the rumor, it would be okay for Ievantes to know what the real causes were. After all, if Blake was throwing a fit like this, it must mean that he was looking for help, didn’t it? Anger like this was a way humans had of letting others know that they had an issue that needed resolving. On the other hand, it was probably something very, very personal, and as a general rule, ‘personal’ meant ‘don’t touch’.

It was only when he sense the flash of Raine’s blade that he recognized the moment as being an inappropriate time to be lost in thought- people were trying to kill each other here, and while it was true that none of them would be lost forever if that happened, Ievantes knew that if Raine and Blake were to hurt each other in the dream world, there was a very good possibility indeed that their minds -to say nothing of their relationship- would not recover fully. And so, Ievantes joined his two acquaintances in standing, all at once becoming positioned between the two students’, holding a hand against the flat of either of their blades, in such a manner as would make it very difficult for the students to get an accurate hit off without first pulling out of his hold.

“It is noble, but not right that you should defend me, Ievantes said to Raine, his deep-pitched, dully echoing voice passing nearly imperceptible tones of approval towards the elf-form’s courage and altruism, ”Because my body is not real, I can’t truly be hurt in any physical manner…” Then, his voice dropping lower still, deeper and more quiet and painfully distant, as if he were reluctant to share his words, “… only my mind.

Ievantes was facing Blake, then, looking quite suddenly as if Blake had already been at him with that sword of his; torn and bleeding in any place the eye could look, an arm missing at the shoulder. His skin was ashen, and his usual brilliant illusion of laughter and light was gone, replaced with aching, uncomfortable void. His expression however, had not changed- with that same stoic face of his, though blood dripped down between lifeless eyes, looked at Blake as contently as if they were all still strewn throughout the clover.
“Which is why, if you truly think that it would improve your mood to slice me into a million pieces, you are welcome to do so. But I think, not by knowing you but by knowing humans, such an expression of your grief would only serve to further your guilt.”