Meaning of Green

Log Info

• Title: Meaning of Green

• Emitter: Zeke

• Characters: Dolan, Ravenstongue, Zeke

• Place: Temple District

• Summary: Ravenstongue stops by the Temple of Daeus for a visit (and accidentally gets some clerics in trouble with Zeke, the attending healer) to check on Dolan and pass on information to him based on her recent excursion to the realm of dreams. Ravenstongue struggles to convey her information properly to the still-recovering Dolan, however, and midway through the conversation, Tanith appears from hiding to help! The conversation unexpectedly, and Ravenstongue realizes on her way out what she said--and the possible implications of the dots she's beginning to connect.

GAME: Dolan rolls will: (11)+10: 21

In the depths of the Temple of Daeus, a blue-scaled sith-makar is reading a book quietly but out loud to the only other person in the room. ""There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil, least of all in people. In the best of us there are thoughts or deeds that are wicked, and in the worst of us, at least some virtue. An adversary is not one who does loathsome acts for their own sake. He always has a reason that to him is justification. My cat eats mice. Does that make him bad? I don't think so, and the cat doesn't think so, but I would bet the mice have a different opinion."" His voice is low and comfortable to listen to. Easy to ignore if one is disinclined to listen.

The other person in the room lies flat on his back on the bed, and stares at the ceiling with one chocolate-brown eye, wide-open. He is covered from the waist down with a blanket, his left arm bound completely to his side in a padded restraint in such a way that the arm from shoulder to wrist is near completely immobile. His bare chest with its scars new and old rises and falls as he listens. "Yeah," he answers shortly to Zeke. "I've seen that before, with a lot of people. It doesn't make what they do right."

There's a set of footsteps that come down the hall--light ones, as the person who they belong to is on the light side of things anyway. Cor'lana Lúpecyll-Atlon pauses at the door that she's been told leads into Dolan's recovery room. She's dressed in sensible winter clothes, and she holds a small tin box in her hands that, for a moment, she palms into one as she knocks with the other.

"It's Cor'lana," she announces. "May I come in?"

Zeke nods to Dolan's words. "Well, they are talking about the villain." He reminds the other man, and hearing the knock he puts the book aside.

"One of your friendsss Dolan?" He inquires as he stands slowly, making his way to the door with no small amount of suspicion. He recognizes the name and voice himself, but the incongruency of the person down here without an escort is too much for him to ignore. He opens the door very slowly. Just a peek. There's a cleric rushing to catch up with Cor'lana, and another that had stepped away from the door for a moment looking really embarrassed as he comes back.

"You can't take that in there ma'am." The cleric says as he comes up to the door and points to her tin. "I'll have to take it." Zeke gives both clerics a short look.

"You ssshould not have left your possst." He says shortly to the one that is returning and the cleric nods in embarrassment.

"Lana?" Dolan turns his head towards the door, his attention drawn. "Yeah. Can I have my eye, please?" He's not wearing it just at the moment, as usual when he does not have visitors. The left hand holds his holy symbol, but his right hand takes that and tucks it and its chain under the blanket. He does not seem in any way inclined to move more than that.

Cor'lana looks immensely embarrassed as she looks at the clerics. "Oh, I... I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to cause a scene," she says, a light blush of bashfulness settling onto her cheeks. "The tin has lavender-mint tea--I thought it would be a comfort for Dolan, as he's had it at my house before, but now that I think about it, it's probably not wise to bring that into a recovering room, is it. I can... leave it with one of you, provided I can have it back?" she asks one of the clerics. "Or it could be inspected?"

She looks at Zeke and sighs a little, violet eyes filled with worry and a twinge of guilt. "Please don't punish them? I'd really feel awful. I'm sure they needed a break and I just happened to come at the worst possible time?"

The cleric that was supposed to lead Cor'lana down here finally catches up and tries to catch his breath. He looks at Zeke and doesn't complain though. There's no room for excuses in Zeke's green eyes. The second cleric who was supposed to guard the door accepts the tin from Cor'lana and nods. "You can have it back when you return."

"She's... clear..." Says the first cleric wheezing. Nodding to his fellow and Zeke before hastening back the way that he'd come.

Zeke hefts a sigh and opens the door more fully to allow Cor'lana in and then closes the door behind her. He makes quick the couple of steps to Dolan's side. "Peasssce on your nessst. Thisss one mussst asssk you not to touch Dolan, nor to ssspeak to him of the vampire. Thessse are the conditionsss of a vissit. Would you like tea?" Even as he speaks he moves to the bedside table, pulls out a velvet-wrapped object, and offers it to Dolan.

Dolan takes the velvet-wrapped item and, with one hand, removes the familiar golden-colored gem in its steel-and-bronze ring. It takes a minute of twisting and turning to settle it fully into its socket, but when ht does with a last click, his flesh-and-blood eye blinks several times, in the way of one adjusting to an abrupt change in vision. He tucks the square of velvet next to him on the bed, and looks over again as Zeke speaks. "I'm fine, thanks."

GAME: Zeke rolls sense motive: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL)

Cor'lana still looks incredibly embarrassed about the whole situation, but she says nothing more on the subject as she enters the room. She looks at Dolan for a moment as Zeke speaks, but the gaze flickers back to the Sunguard in the room. "Those conditions are fine with me," she says with a little nod.

Then, a small smile spreads on her face. "I would love some tea, too."

Finally, she turns to Dolan, smiling more widely. "Sorry to surprise... well, everyone, like this, but I felt it was important to come pay you a visit, Dolan," she says. "I would be a poor friend if I wasn't. But more importantly, I think I have information about the totems that you need to know."

Zeke nods to Dolan, clearly taking the man at his word. He pours some tea for Cor'lana and blinks at her words which are straight-forward and direct. He offers her the tea and sits down at Dolan's side. He doesn't say anything to the woman, but there's a trace of something in his expression that says he will halt this discussion too if it upsets Dolan.

Dolan draws in a careful breath, and nods, his flesh and blood eye blinking as he does so. "If it's about the totems, I need to know it. What did you learn?" His right hand tugs the blanket up a bit more over himself.

Cor'lana takes the tea, but does not immediately sip it--merely holding it in her hands and letting it warm them. "Telamon is attuned to Eluna's totem," she says. "Based on your information that feeding it more blood can do 'more', he fed more blood to it. What we didn't expect was that we both would be drawn into the dream."

She finally takes a sip of the tea before continuing. "Telamon and I have recently established a permanent mental link. I can hear his thoughts and feel his feelings through the link, and he can do the same with mine. I... think that's why I was brought along. What we discovered is that it seems that if you bring a totem that you have fed into the dream, and you feed it more blood while in the dream, you can bring forth some truly amazing things--or truly nightmarish, as we saw."

Zeke startles slightly at this glancing at Dolan and then finally asking a question of his own. "Did Telamon 'feed' the totem in the dream? Did thisss caussse injury in the waking world?" The question that seems more important to him is the second one rather than the first. Though the reasoning that this is so might not be immediately apparent.

GAME: Dolan rolls will: (18)+10: 28

Dolan's remaining eyebrow goes up. "I hadn't thought to bleed in the dream," he says. "I knew about bleeding on it multiple times while awake. That's something else, and I should be able to do it one more time and have something else happen. Blood controls these things. It's giving it something of yourself. I knew you could manifest things in the real world using the dream totems. They're meant to -" He sucks in a breath. "They're meant to hold the Nightmare in every world, not just the dream or just in this one, so it makes sense that their power crosses the whole of the Source. Just ... be careful. That's how -" he hesitates again. "That's how Kol happened." He breathes out quickly.

"What'd you get?" he asks after a minute of staring into the middle distance.

GAME: Zeke rolls sense motive: (10)+5: 15

Cor'lana looks a little concerned at the mention of Kol, and her eyes flicker to Zeke, but then Dolan asks the question. Her brows are still slightly furrowed, but she looks a little more comfortable with continuing to talk, at least.

"Telamon didn't feed the totem in the dream," she elaborates, answering Zeke's question first. "We were trying to determine what to do--once we realized we were dreaming, and we'd dispatched a nightmare that we were dealing with--when a man appeared. I know him as Dace Zinskas, the Miracle Man. He runs this odd little cult that's been meeting outside of Alexandros, and he has demonic minions that appear as angelic entities to the untrained eye. I know, because I ruined the last time that, to my knowledge, his 'faithful' gathered. He appears to be related to Zalgiman in some manner--they have the same Stormguardian look about them, similar builds. But I digress."

She takes a sip of her tea as she continues. "Dace Zinskas wanted us to hand over the totem that we'd dismissed. As we talked about it, it showed up in the dream, and Tanith was nervous about it.--Oh, yes, Tanith was there too!--so we dismissed it before Dace showed up. I figured out quickly that the dream responds to your imagination and your will, so I pictured it going back to reality, out of harm's way, and it did. He tried to bind us, but it didn't work on me--and I certainly wasn't about to back down without a fight. I measured up against him until Dace fed blood to his totem, and it resulted in this horrifying wolf coming to his aid. We awakened not long after that to escape him."

Zeke thrums low in his throat, a warning but also a comfort-noise for Dolan. They are veering dangerously close to topics that he knows are not good for Dolan, and he will not allow much more discussion should they continue along the vein that has Dolan's gaze going distant. "Sssa. There will be no blood-letting in the Temple." He says very seriously, not knowing if Dolan intends such or not, but he'll cut that off before it happens. Cor'lana continues to explain the details of her dream-walk, which seems to be enough off-topic perhaps to be something that is not upsetting to Dolan, but... It's a lot of information.

"I was there!" Exclaims a little feminine voice, and a small gold dragon appears by Cor'lana's foot. She launches her golden self into the air and lands very neatly on Dolan's chest, a distraction from Cor'lana's explanation of what had occurred to be sure. She is careful not to land on his bandages, just his chest, and settles down to stare at him with a low rumbling purr building in her throat. "Hello peoples!" She offers warmly. "I helped!"

Now the only question is: where the heck had she come from?

Dolan is still trying to digest all that Cor'lana had said when Tanith abruptly lands on his chest, the small weight a distraction in its own right. "What-" He adjusts his vision, moving his head to try to get a better look at what landed on him. "You were there?" It's a lot to digest, and the little gold dragon is a lot to focus on. "You - sent it back with will - yeah so that makes sense. Zalgiman showed up. He bled on the totem in the dream world and made it manifest dream stuff. The wish demons, are they tied to this Dace?" It's a lot to sort, and he rubs his right arm across his eyes.

"Oh, hello, Lady Tanith," Cor'lana says with a wide, wide grin. At this point, she's used to Tanith just... being Tanith, and this certainly qualifies. "Nice of you to join us. Please be nice with Mister Dolan? He is still recovering from his injuries."

She looks back to Dolan. "I'm not familiar with the wish demons," she says, "but I wouldn't be surprised. He had two demons with him at the cult meeting I infiltrated some time back, and his whole thing was that he'd grant lucky people their wildest dreams and perform miracles for them. That sounds like the domain of wishes to me."

Zeke is... still trying to process the information that Cor'lana had given, which is difficult without much reference to the conversation. He presses a claw to his head and shakes it before looking at Dolan and remembering his own motion speaks to Cor'lana. "You are... thisss isss a lot of information yesss? Can you... sssslow it down? For thisss one. Thisss one isss unfamiliar with the thingsss you ssspeak of and doesss not underssstand entirely what you are sssaying." While not untrue, he asks more for Dolan's sake than his own.

Tanith smiles widely at Dolan, flashing lots of tiny little teeth. It's clear that she's pleased however. "Peoples tired?" She asks wisely and curiously of Dolan.

Dolan's arm drops to the bed beside him, and he lifts his head a little, tryingo get a better look at the visitor on his chest. It's - a dragon? Awestruck, he blinks as if to confirmed what he is seeing. "My eyes must be playing tricks on me. I swear I'm seeing a dragon on my chest. I - um, yeah, a little," he answers Tanith. More than a little, his body language says. "I - so let me get this straight. Zalgiman's behind the wish demons? What does this Dace fellow have to do with any of it?"

At this point, Cor'lana has the good graces to look a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she says to Zeke. "I think being around Tanith for some time has been rubbing off on me." There is an interesting (and mildly horrifying) thought. "Let me explain again, but... more slowly."

She points to Tanith on Dolan's chest. "That's Lady Tanith," she says. Cor'lana wisely chooses to keep it to the shortened name. "She's a majestic dragon, yes. She's been staying with Telamon and I for a little while now. She has the ability to go in and out of dreams."

Zeke blinks at this and looks at the little dragonling. "How... unussssual." He murmurs looking at her. "Thisss one hass sseen her before, but only in passssing. She isss remarkable."

Tanith preens slightly under the attention, tilting her head to the best vantage point for people-viewing. Her gold eyes glitter, her scales are immaculate. Yes, a beauty to behold. She eyes Dolan and yawns. "Peoples should sleep if tired." She says simply.

"She is here to see me, Tanith -" Dolan explains gently, regarding her as best he can with great fascination and no little awe. "It would be rude for me to sleep with her here." He scrubs at his eye with his right hand. Just watch the claws."

He doesn't look back at Cor'lana, so taken is he with the dragon itself. "Go on, Lana."

Cor'lana grins brightly as Tanith preens. "It's true, I am here to talk to Dolan. He needs to know about what we saw in the dream last night."

She turns her attention back to Dolan. "As for your question about the wish demons--it's Dace Zinskas, not Zalgiman, who deals with them. I think Zalgiman and Dace are two different people," Cor'lana says in response to Dolan. "They just look similar. And they have the same... self-assured way of acting. Plus they are both definitely servants of the Hound."

She stops for a moment and thinks. "And I... think Dace might actually be into men? He told me Telamon is a 'pretty boy'. Whereas Zalgiman's obviously into women from my own personal experience." Then her brow furrows a little. She's really thinking. "I mean, you can be into both. My mother was. Either way, I think they could be brothers."

Zeke rises to his feet at something that Cor'lana says and abruptly steps forward. "Thisss one assskss that you go. Pleasssse. Now." He urges her toward the door, corralling her gently but firmly. He does not let her look at Dolan, does not pay attention to any qualms she might have about leaving so hastily. "Thisss one hass a very important thing to attend to! Forgive thisss one? You may vissit again sssoon. But you mussst go. Very nissce to ssee you again!"

He's talking oddly loudly, and doesn't pay much mind to Tanith. Instead his whole focus is on getting Cor'lana out of the room.

Tanith's golden eyes bore into Dolan's one good one, reflecting a thousand colors. She's a distraction, a weight on his chest unfamiliar. A beautiful thing to behold. She doesn't seem inclined to go anywhere, but instead her golden eyes whirl and reflect.

"You are beautiful," Dolan whispers, only half-listening to Cor'lana's words. They sink in, somewhere, at some level, but a blessing from the Knight sitting right on his chest is impossible to ignore. He lifts his right hand to stroke her very, very gently, almost hesitantly, as if touching something that beautiful might break it. Somewhere, dimly, he's aware of what's going on next to him, but this - this is more important.

GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Sense Motive: (8)+20: 28

There's a brief moment of confusion in Cor'lana's violet eyes as Zeke rises to his feet and asks her out. But there's another flash of recognition in her eyes, followed by a deeply apologetic look. But she nods and turns about to the door. "Of course, Sunguard Zeke. I don't want to keep you from your appointment." The voice is cheery as she opens the door behind her.

"I'll come back at a better time. Tanith, you should stay with Dolan for a while. But if you come back home, Telamon and I have plenty of fish for you." Still said cheerily. "Bye now."

She goes to close the door, and she murmurs, "Sorry," as she closes it behind her.

And she puts a hand to her mouth once it's shut. Her eyes race around on the walls. "Green eyes," she whispers in the barest register to herself. "Into men. Green eyes. Shit. Telamon...!"

She walks her way briskly down the hall, carrying the weight of her realization with her.