[OPEN EVENT] Weekend Winter Wonderland

[wintershepherd]

Characters: All?
Date: March 8th-11th
Location: All of Keeliai
Situation: It's been a stressful month thus far for a lot of people, but Jack is determined to Make All The Happy and decides he needs to get back to his wintery roots by giving the city a proper snowing.
Warnings/Rating: People high on snow glitter?
NOTES: Actionspam OR prose, whatever is preferred! (Settings were just easier to prose.) Make your own thread headers if none of these suit! ♥



Jack had spent the last three hours balanced motionlessly on the top of a flagpole, head tilted back as he listened to the wind and the sound of the city below. Where is Winter? it asked. I'm here! the spirit replied, but he knew it didn't mean his physical presence. He'd had too much on his mind and too much in his heart and in that sense he had indeed been absent these last few weeks.

Eyes closed and thoughtlessly trusting, he tipped forward into open air, letting the wind catch him and hurl him upward into the misty cloud cover that scudded across the stars tonight. At his touch they thickened, fat and pale grey against the indigo backdrop and Jack swirled them up, the motions so ingrained in him they felt just like breathing. In the small hours of the morning snowflakes began to fall on the sleeping city, specks at first but then quickly becoming heavier.

Now with a fresh canvas to work with, Jack was really in his element. He could never have done something like this back home, not anywhere in his world. It would have been too strange, too inexplicable, drawn too much attention. But here on the turtle, things were different. There wasn't really a semblance of normal and Jack poured his imagination and heart into the things he wanted most to share, and from the snow rose gleaming swirls of snow and blue light, forming things of exceptional detail and delight.

By the time the sun rose, a solid three feet of the snow had blanketed the city, glistening and crisp and Jack went rocketing down the streets, rapping on doors and windows to leave spirals of frost on every surface.

"Whooohoo! Snow day! Get up sleepyheads, everyone come out and play!"


THREAD STARTERS
Ice Skating | Snowball Battle | Sledding Hill | Ice Cityscapes | Kids Playground | OOC Plot Post

Comments

[monstrous]

"Bits and pieces. My nights have been rather full lately."

[depicted]

Dorian sends Toby a sideways look. "Should I try to empty them out? That would leave me rather bereft."

[monstrous]

"The choice is always yours Dorian. You know that." Toby's hand brushes over Dorian's arm before turns and starts walking in the direction of the Earth Sector.

[depicted]

There is no real choice when it comes to Tobias Matthews. Dorian doesn't want anything else. He keeps pace, and his eyes always find their way back to Toby.

[monstrous]

Toby waits until they've walked a distance away from the snow festivities. "Is he anywhere close to out of your system yet?"

[depicted]

Dorian knows the metaphor implicit in that question is absolutely correct, and he sighs, shaking his head. "Do things like that ever get out of you? One minute I want his company, and the next I want to snap his neck. I can't—"

He stops. He can't put it into words. He can't justify it. He can't control it. He can't point to anything and say, 'That, there, that's what's wrong. That's what he did to me.'

Harry hasn't ever hurt him, and looking back on their conversation, Dorian was given every opportunity to leave. Harry has never, would never force Dorian to do something he didn't want to. And he is invariably courteous, invariably respectful, invariably standing to the sidelines and letting Dorian do as he will.

Lord Henry has never done anything to Dorian. Lord Henry has shaped Dorian into what he is. It's like the man is some hidden well of gravity that can only be known by its effect.

"I even wanted his acceptance, a few hours ago, thought about going to find him. But I didn't. I knew better." And yet, when Harry was set in front of him, Dorian couldn't walk away until Toby interceded. The effects of the snow fading, Dorian looks to Toby. "Do you understand?"

[monstrous]

"Even if you don't go out and find him, he's still going to be there." Like today. Toby's hands squeeze the lining of his pockets. He does understand and that understanding makes him hate all of this even more. "You don't have to do it cold turkey, if it's too much. I won't think less of you for it."

[depicted]

Dorian laughs, and the noise is horrible in his own ears. He can hear the jagged heights of despair. "I can't try to ease myself away from him, I'd forget that I hate him—I forget it half the time when he isn't there. God help me, I had an easier time quitting cocaine."

Pressing his face into his hands, he breathes until he can control himself. "I don't know how to hate him as much as I need to. And I hate him for that, too."

[monstrous]

Toby's expression turns to surprise. "You properly quit cocaine?" Toby has important priorities.

[depicted]

"Yeah." Dorian pauses. "I had a bad batch. Well. A possessed batch, actually, I think demons. They tried to get me to jump off a building. Which, now that I think about it, wouldn't have killed me anyway, so I don't know why they took that particular angle."

[monstrous]

"And you're still considering it possessed now that you think about it, too?"

[depicted]

"Yes. I can tell the difference between a demon and a bad trip." He is confident about this after a lot of experience with both.

[monstrous]

Toby puts his hands up in appeasement. "Steady on, no reason to get out of sorts. It was just a question."

[depicted]

Dorian is only somewhat mollified. "Of course it was."

[monstrous]

"So what sorts of demons possess cocaine. Are they just restricted to cocaine or can they possess any substance?"

[depicted]

"I didn't stop to ask them questions."

[monstrous]

"Yeah," Toby said thoughtfully, "you probably wouldn't have." Toby searched his own pockets before turning to Dorian. "You've got any cigarettes on you?"

[depicted]

"Of course." Dorian digs into his pockets and takes out his cigarette case.

The case that Harry gave him.

For the first time in his life, that disturbs him.

But after a moment, he shakes himself free of it and offers a cigarette to Toby.

[monstrous]

The cigarette case catches Toby's eye. He says nothing about it, only placing the cigarette between his lips and silently waits for Dorian to light it for him.

[depicted]

He obliges and takes a cigarette for himself. The lighter is an old gift too, this one from a lover in the 1960s. It's only that Dorian has never really thought about these people after he finished with them. If he didn't have a perfect memory, he could have so easily forgotten that lover's name.

But Harry, of course, is different.

Wreathed in smoke and symbolism, Dorian pulls the remaining cigarettes out of the case and shoves them into his jacket pocket. And he lets that pretty cigarette case, as old as any of his sins, fall to the earth streets. He doesn't stop walking.

(If his life really were a novel, he'd have cast it into the river, but a craftsman like Lord Henry can't be so easily thrown away. With a silent apology to Oscar, Dorian can only call on weaker metaphors, and leave behind a surface sign of that man's art.)

[monstrous]

Toby couldn't hide his surprise at the dropped cigarette case as he stopped in his footsteps even as Dorian continued walking. Toby glances back up at Dorian's retreating form, and jogs to catch up with him. He catches Dorian's sleeve and pulls him into a nearby specialty shop.

"I'm not going to have you complaining about not having a cigarette case, come on."

[depicted]

Startled and pleased, Dorian comes along with him. "I was just going to ask you to hold my cigarettes."

(This is not true. But he knows better than to thank Toby for kindness.)

[monstrous]

Toby pulled Dorian towards a display with the Keeliai equivalent of cigarette cases, their styles and designs all clearly the creation of those who were native to the Turtle. "I figured you would, so I beat you to the punch."

(This is not true. Toby just can't openly admit to his own displays of kindness.)

[depicted]

"I get to pick?" Unfortunately for Toby, there is no crushing Dorian's spirits at a time like this. His grin is broad, and he's almost bouncing on his heels.

[monstrous]

"Unless you actually want something I find aesthetically appealing."