Amber Sweet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ambersweet) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rainbowfic2012-11-04 02:15 pm
ambersweet) wrote in rainbowfic2012-11-04 02:15 pm
Entry tags:
Bittersweet 1, Dogwood Rose 10
Name: Amber
Story: Puzzled/commonplace
Colors: Bittersweet 1. growing apart, Dogwood rose 10. blue: the unattainable
Word count: 600
Rating: PG
Notes: Not long before Picking Up Where We Left Off
What troubles you, little brother? The voice startled Jian out of his frenetic pacing.
"Elder brother?" he asked aloud, startled. The Dragon hadn't spoken to him in years; Jian had mostly assumed that it had been absorbed into himself after he'd come to live in the Palace.
The Dragon chuckled. A robe might become comfortable with time, moving with you, until you can almost forget that you wear it, but the robe will never become you.
Jian ducked his head in acknowledgement. "I apologize, mighty one. I meant no disrespect."
And I took no offense. Fear not, little brother. I speak not to offer censure but to address the discontent that grips your heart.
"I miss him," he said. "I didn't expect to miss him."
Your little bird?
Jian nodded. "He didn't like it here. He - said it wasn't me, it was him. And the Palace. And now that he is gone, I can find no rest within these walls."
This is no place for those with mortal minds, the Dragon murmured.
Jian watched the koi swim in circles and tried to not build elaborate metaphors comparing their situation. It seemed unnecessarily overdramatic.
The affectionate rumble echoed in his own chest. Perhaps, little brother, you are ready to rejoin the mortal world.
"I can't do that," he protested. "Who will guard against Chenek? I have a duty, elder brother. I cannot simply abandon it because of a red-haired boy, no matter how alluring."
You have held the line for a thousand years here, while a hundred and more have slid by in the mortal world. You will not be abandoning your duty, merely passing it on to another. You might consider it a kind of retirement.
"Passing it on?" Jian echoed, surprised.
You know that you were not my first host, little brother. Do not presume that you will be my last.
"I wouldn't dare to presume such a thing, mighty one."
Meditate on it, then. Perhaps your time here is finished, and you shall choose another path to walk.
The great presence stilled then, leaving Jian alone with his thoughts.
He attempted to settle into meditation, but his thoughts refused to still, beating around his head like trapped birds. After the Dragon had called attention to himself, Jian couldn't dismiss the awareness of him, leaving him feeling watched. It rendered any activity he might have enaged in alone impossible, so Jian settled for stalking through the halls of his palace, examining the contents of rooms he hadn't been into in decades.
Jian told himself that it was a simple process of elimination that led him to the suite of rooms that he had given Robin for a workspace. If he was entering all of the rooms in his palace, then eventually he would have to go into these. It wasn't as if these rooms were suddenly not-his, just because Robin had once filled them with wires and gears, after all.
Robin had taken some of it when he left, but not all. A table was covered with scattered parts; another held a small folding computer. To his surprise, there was a note with his name on it next to the machine.
Jian -
I thought you might want to use the internet or something after I left, so this is for you. I bookmarked the cat site.
- Robin
Jian opened the screen, causing it to light up and hum. Robin had taught him how to launch the web browser, and use the search tools, and he settled down to do a little reading about the modern world.
Story: Puzzled/
commonplaceColors: Bittersweet 1. growing apart, Dogwood rose 10. blue: the unattainable
Word count: 600
Rating: PG
Notes: Not long before Picking Up Where We Left Off
What troubles you, little brother? The voice startled Jian out of his frenetic pacing.
"Elder brother?" he asked aloud, startled. The Dragon hadn't spoken to him in years; Jian had mostly assumed that it had been absorbed into himself after he'd come to live in the Palace.
The Dragon chuckled. A robe might become comfortable with time, moving with you, until you can almost forget that you wear it, but the robe will never become you.
Jian ducked his head in acknowledgement. "I apologize, mighty one. I meant no disrespect."
And I took no offense. Fear not, little brother. I speak not to offer censure but to address the discontent that grips your heart.
"I miss him," he said. "I didn't expect to miss him."
Your little bird?
Jian nodded. "He didn't like it here. He - said it wasn't me, it was him. And the Palace. And now that he is gone, I can find no rest within these walls."
This is no place for those with mortal minds, the Dragon murmured.
Jian watched the koi swim in circles and tried to not build elaborate metaphors comparing their situation. It seemed unnecessarily overdramatic.
The affectionate rumble echoed in his own chest. Perhaps, little brother, you are ready to rejoin the mortal world.
"I can't do that," he protested. "Who will guard against Chenek? I have a duty, elder brother. I cannot simply abandon it because of a red-haired boy, no matter how alluring."
You have held the line for a thousand years here, while a hundred and more have slid by in the mortal world. You will not be abandoning your duty, merely passing it on to another. You might consider it a kind of retirement.
"Passing it on?" Jian echoed, surprised.
You know that you were not my first host, little brother. Do not presume that you will be my last.
"I wouldn't dare to presume such a thing, mighty one."
Meditate on it, then. Perhaps your time here is finished, and you shall choose another path to walk.
The great presence stilled then, leaving Jian alone with his thoughts.
He attempted to settle into meditation, but his thoughts refused to still, beating around his head like trapped birds. After the Dragon had called attention to himself, Jian couldn't dismiss the awareness of him, leaving him feeling watched. It rendered any activity he might have enaged in alone impossible, so Jian settled for stalking through the halls of his palace, examining the contents of rooms he hadn't been into in decades.
Jian told himself that it was a simple process of elimination that led him to the suite of rooms that he had given Robin for a workspace. If he was entering all of the rooms in his palace, then eventually he would have to go into these. It wasn't as if these rooms were suddenly not-his, just because Robin had once filled them with wires and gears, after all.
Robin had taken some of it when he left, but not all. A table was covered with scattered parts; another held a small folding computer. To his surprise, there was a note with his name on it next to the machine.
Jian -
I thought you might want to use the internet or something after I left, so this is for you. I bookmarked the cat site.
- Robin
Jian opened the screen, causing it to light up and hum. Robin had taught him how to launch the web browser, and use the search tools, and he settled down to do a little reading about the modern world.