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| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | Anareline and Caspis try to settle in to the work in the Plaguelands, considering where their input will be most valuable. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Arc: Before the Cataclysm
Arc: Healing the Weald
Anareline nods at Caspis, coming out of their tent.
[Caspis]: Did you rest well?
[Anareline]: Yes, surprisingly so, given… *she gestures at the plaguelands in general.* And you?
Caspis shrugs, not quite making eye contact. "Shall we check the planters?"
[Anareline]: Yes, let's.
Caspis has been making an effort to speak Common, given the diverse population of the area.
Anareline looks at him carefully, trying and failing to meet his eyes.
[Anareline]: Love, is there something wrong?
[Caspis]: Perhaps it is only my imagination. I do not wish to trouble you.
Anareline pauses by a raised bed, in which a twisted and dying plant shrivels. She frowns at it, and then looks at Caspis. "Even if it is your imagination only, it matters to me. Everything of you does."
Caspis sighs at the plant resignedly. Or perhaps at the entire situation.
[Caspis]: Do you… see anything strange in the way the other druids treat me?
[Anareline]: …strange? I find many druids strange, so you may need to be more specific.
Caspis 's mouth lifts ever so slightly at the corners.
[Caspis]: I… it is not that they are disrespectful.
[Anareline]: That, I would notice. I do not want to be the overprotective lover and cause more problems in that way, but… I would notice.
Anareline kneels at the plant and murmurs, "Hillsbrad soil, no improvement."
[Caspis]: *He nods absently.* They bow, they call me shan'do - even the ones I barely know. They know that I am old, and they acknowledge this.
[Caspis]: But I cannot help but feel that they are… diverting me from the real work. Subtly steering me toward… less crucial tasks.
[Anareline]: I know few of the druids here, so for myself, I know I am an outsider. I hope I earn my place by protecting you all from the creatures that still wander here.
Anareline continues on to the next planter.
Anareline looks back at Caspis. "What would you feel you should be doing?"
[Caspis]: I would like to know more details of the central research, for one. Or take part in more of the conversations. My conversations with them so far have been… incidental. Initiated by me, for the most part.
[Caspis]: And whenever I state an opinion or make a suggestion, they say "Thank you for sharing your wisdom, shan'do," very properly, but then they - do something other than what I suggested, more often than not.
Caspis studies the trees as he talks, his eyes vague.
[Anareline]: Ah, the "Thank you for sharing your views, with which I do not agree but will not argue."
[Caspis]: Mm.
[Anareline]: I have met with that before. Not from druids, but… it is frustrating.
[Caspis]: What did you do?
[Anareline]: I… *Ana looks away for a moment.* I was not always so adept at navigating interactions as I may be now.
[Caspis]: And you are so very adept now. *A bit dry, but affectionate.*
[Anareline]: So very. *Ana smiles.* I would usually just… leave. I would rather be alone than with those who will not hear me.
Caspis leans over to press a kiss to her temple.
[Caspis]: I cannot say the urge has not seized me a few times, since coming here.
Anareline closes her eyes briefly, leaning towards him. "But I do not think that is what you want to do."
[Caspis]: It is possible to want more than one thing at a time, and for those things to contradict.
[Anareline]: To not want to be around people who do not value you. To not want to abandon the people who do this work.
[Caspis]: Precisely.
[Anareline]: Perhaps it is only that they do not know you well yet?
[Caspis]: And I should be contented, even being allowed to do menial tasks, as I know that those tasks are of use and I know that they have little reason to trust me.
Anareline moves up towards the next planter, where another withered plant is not thriving.
Caspis murmurs softly to the plant, but it sounds more like a eulogy than encouragement.
[Anareline]: Maybe you should be, but you are clearly not. Maybe sometimes it's the world that needs to change, and not your heart.
[Caspis]: But my heart is that over which I have at least some control.
Anareline reaches over to touch his chest lightly, over his heart. "That may be so. And I have no control here, either. But I wonder if there is something we might do, to make things better."
Caspis sighs softly.
[Caspis]: In truth, I know that in some ways I am ill suited for research - the details… there are so many details. I have never been good at keeping the strands of my thought and memory untangled.
[Caspis]: Even if they did trust me - no doubt I would disappoint.
Anareline frowns. "I would say I will help, and I can. But still, the tapestry of my life is so large, I also sometimes miss individual threads."
Anareline moves on slowly towards the next planter, leaving her hand free for Caspis to take if he should like.
[Anareline]: What would you say you're well-suited for, of this work?
Caspis frowns.
Caspis twines his fingers between Ana's without looking as he thinks.
[Caspis]: My time with Cobalt Company has made me very attuned to healing, to regeneration. I can feel the plants in a way I could not always… the details of their suffering, and their responses.
[Anareline]: Perhaps, then, you could tell why one plant thrives, while another does not?
[Caspis]: I believe so, but… not in the precise way the others might prefer. It is… emotional… vague.
[Anareline]: Something you could… replicate, with another plant suffering in the same way?
[Caspis]: I am not certain. I have no head for patterns.
[Caspis]: But I am beginning to get a… feeling. About the area in general.
[Caspis]: I wish it were easier to put into words the others would understand.
[Anareline]: Still, that may be somewhere to start. *Ana nods.* It may be beyond my understanding as well, but can you try to tell me what it is you feel?
Caspis closes his eyes.
Caspis takes a deep breath of the fetid air, unflinching.
Anareline squeezes his hand in encouragement.
[Caspis]: The plague has both a material and a… a spiritual component. The latter is… it is a sort of fear. Not fear as you and I know it precisely, but… *he exhales in frustration.*
[Caspis]: Do you know how animals feel the same things we do, but with less complexity?
[Anareline]: I know also less of that than you, but I can imagine, yes.
[Caspis]: An animal's fear is not like our own - it is something pure, purposeful. Fight or flight. It is not tied up with complex relationships, guilt, ambitions…
[Anareline]: So it is more… fear as a reaction, than as a state of being?
Caspis nods.
[Caspis]: Imagine that simplified even more, beyond even consciousness of survival. But the same basic… impulse to freeze or to shrink away.
[Anareline]: The land recoils from what was done to it.
[Caspis]: The land itself… on that you might need to speak to a shaman. But the living parts of the land - insects, moss, plant life, fungi… they are caught in a web of… yes, fear, for lack of a better word.
[Anareline]: Then… we need to encourage them to fight?
Caspis considers.
[Caspis]: I think unless we can find a way to remove this spiritual element of fear from the corruption, they will remain… frozen, unable to grow.
[Caspis]: For a plant, growth is the equivalent of… a human's optimism for the future.
[Caspis]: These plants are saturated in a purposeful bath of dread and terror; nothing in them is capable of reaching out and up.
Anareline considers that, as they approach the next planter. "Then they need to feel that they can grow here."
[Caspis]: Yes. That is one aspect of what we must do.
[Caspis]: Do you see how even the plants in the clean soil will not grow here?
[Caspis]: It is not simply the physical corruption.
[Caspis]: Nor, as the young ones reasonably concluded, is it a physical toxin in the air.
Anareline nods. "They brought soil from all over, many fertile regions, Un'goro… you would think the corruption would clear."
[Caspis]: It is this place. The fear that hangs about it.
[Caspis]: I feel that we should be studying ways to … somehow reset the life-memory of small portions of the land. I… cannot think of a way to word it, as it is not a thing that has been done.
[Anareline]: How would you do that, do you think? *Ana looks over at him with a serious expression.*
[Caspis]: *Cas gazes into the middle distance.* I wonder if we could begin with particularly… spiritually and emotionally hardy samples of plants from elsewhere, and bring them here to… for lack of a better word… metaphorically reassure the others?
[Caspis]: Plants that have never known this kind of "dread," for lack of a better word.
[Anareline]: Enough that they do not become discouraged themselves. And… *Ana frowns in thought* …it may be that some plants here are more resilient than others, in hope. As some people are.
[Caspis]: Yes. I could… wander a bit, perhaps, see if I can find samples that seem more resistant spiritually, even if they appear withered due to the toxins in the physical environment.
[Caspis]: I am having difficulty convincing some of the younger druids that there is a difference.
[Anareline]: I could help you prepare an area. I may be no druid, but I can garden.
[Caspis]: Yes, we could create a small patch, our own little experiment. If it does not work, they will not even notice. If it does… perhaps they will start to pay attention.
Anareline nods. "I think you should not try to convince them, right now. We should just do it. If it does work, the success will give your words weight they did not have before."
[Caspis]: I do not mean to belittle their work, by the way. One young woman in particular - her name escapes me - has made brilliant strides already in countering some of the physically toxic properties of the soil.
[Caspis]: I believe my niece might be receptive to my ideas, but she is also very well-liked by the Circle and I do not wish to lower her standing by drawing attention to our relationship.
[Anareline]: Even if we are able to attend to them spiritually, they will still need healing of the physical part, yes.
Caspis nods.
[Caspis]: And that is where I lack knowledge. It requires a mind for details.
[Caspis]: I can feel and intuit certain things about the life force of plants and animals, but I cannot remember a detail from one day to the next as is required for rigorous research.
Anareline nods. "Then let's not force you into where you do not fit, but find the place you do. And if your niece is receptive, then I think her reputation is her choice."
[Caspis]: If nothing else, she can stop by and help now and then with our little side experiment.
[Caspis]: She has the intuitive and emotional connection to life that is needed, as well as a sharp mind.
Anareline nods. "I would be happy to work with her." She pulls Caspis up to the next planter.
Caspis distractedly looks at their own intertwined fingers, the pale slenderness of her fingers contrasting with his darker skin.
[Caspis]: Mm… which samples are these?
Anareline peers down at the planter. "A simple wildflower, or it should be. Soil is… a mix of Un'goro and Arathi."
[Caspis]: Now this is peculiar. *He studies the little row of wildflowers, pointing to one that has uncurled a single feeble new leaf.*
Anareline leans closer. "Is that new growth?"
[Caspis]: Yes. It is… not quite as I thought, but I was not entirely wrong…
Caspis closes his eyes, as though … reading the plants' minds?
Anareline turns, watching Caspis's expression carefully.
[Caspis]: The specimen that has put forth a new leaf is unfortunately still dying, but it… is not… aware of this. Again, words fail somewhat.
[Anareline]: It still… longs for life?
[Caspis]: Its roots are beyond help, but the plants on either side of it have strong root systems and although they have yet to grow, they are… mm… confident? And so this dying plant, flanked by stronger ones, has gone through the motions of growth itself.
[Caspis]: It will die soon, unfortunately, but… I think I understand how to help others.
[Caspis]: If we can create… structures in the plantings, distribute the more "confident" plants just so, they should be able to … lull the others into a sense of security?
Anareline leans so her shoulder just touches Caspis's. "That is in some way very sad, but at the same time… it brings hope."
Caspis nods, lifting a hand to thread his fingers gently through Ana's unbound hair.
[Caspis]: The difficulty is that it is hard to tell by sight which plants have this sort of inner strength.
[Caspis]: So until we have a planting to show, I do not expect them to trust my word.
[Anareline]: At least, it means some still have the capacity to try to grow. To fight against the spiritual fear.
Caspis nods.
[Caspis]: I think this will be a useful addition to the experiment, once we can prove it conclusively.
[Anareline]: It may take time, but we have time to take.
[Caspis]: Yes.
Anareline smiles up at him. "Then let's try. Let's make a garden here."
[Caspis]: Yes. Let us do that. *He smiles very faintly in return, an expression that to her would seem almost radiant with joy.* Thank you, as always, shalan, for giving me someone with whom I can talk things through.
Anareline reaches up to touch her hand to his cheek. "I will be here for you always, shalan."
Caspis hugs Anareline.
Anareline hugs Caspis.