Tide of Chaos [M] (Marjorie)

[quaggan]

 That was quite fair - immortality was a wondrous gift to grant, and that Neese offered it so freely and quickly spoke volumes about his power and perhaps also fickleness. Lanfearys was willing to accept a mystery - he would just have to investigate it for himself. He did not mind being a part of a larger plan, but he always wanted to know more, to do more. Perhaps it was an act of supreme greed on his part: he was being offered the greatest gift, but still it was not enough. It was his nature to never accept, to always hunger.

But he refused to be a slave to his passions, he would be their master. The spiteful temptation to say no just to experience this rush clouded his mind, but he would not reject true immortality for a few minutes' pleasure. Perhaps he was being manipulated, but he never minded - if he got too tangled up in the webs and could no longer cut himself free, it would be his own fault for being too weak to wield the blade.

"I accept" he spoke. "But you knew that I would, didn't you? I have accepted your gift the moment you first offered it - speaking those words were just a formality." He ran his hands down the strange texture making up Neese's outer layer - skin? bark? It was smooth, but hard and deceptively dangerous. Starstrider evolution granted Lanfearys rather tough skin, but one careless motion saw the side of his hand run too close to a sharper ridge, drawing blood. The elf just laughed.

"So be it - I shall seal this bargain with my blood. I will see those three favours done."

[Marjorie]

"Mmm..." Neese's eye's sparkled with mischief. He lifted lanfearys' hand toward his lips, and licked the metallic red fluid from his palm. "So it shall be." Simple as that, it was done. There was no ritual or series of gestures or words to be spoken, simply Neese's will.

"My contract cannot be broken," the fae lord elaborated, "you are bound to me now, until such a time as I have called in all my favors. A thing for a thing is the only way." He grinned, "But I think that's enough of that now..." Neese turned his head, and brushed the tip of his nose along the ridge of the Starstrider's cheek bone.

[quaggan]

 Lanfearys frowned, expecting... well, not what he received. He wanted more fanfare, more pomp, something grand and magical, a moment of unparalelled awe. He understood that a being like Neese could probably command pure power without the need to cajole it with chants or gestures, but there was more to those theatrics. The end may justify the means for a novice practitioner, but with an eternity at one's disposal, the means held a value on their own. While he acknowledged this to be irrational and illogical, he would have considered the deal they've just struck to be more significant if it was accompanied by a sudden fanfare, the darkening of the sky, or a burst of colours he's never seen before. In the Fae's eyes, was the elf someone worthy of immortality, but not even worth a little sparkle? Should he feel insulted?

Still, at least he got some tongue action out of it. Now he could brag, not that he would. He far preferred boasting about his own accomplishments, rather than the others'. "Well then, I'm not so arrogant as to demand compliments over the taste of my blood," that was a lie, he completely was - but he always found the flow of his words more important than the truth contained within. "But if I am to live forever, I have to put some effort into self-improvement. Is there a way to alter the composition of my blood?" he asked, as his hands snaked around the Fae's body.

[Marjorie]

The Starstrider probably should have been insulted. It was not so special a thing, or even unique a thing, for him to offer such gifts --- and take in return. In fact, his meddling with mortals was a rather well established game Neese liked to play.

Neese chuckled softly. "Oh, I don't know that you could really alter the taste of your blood, even if you wanted to, but there's no need to change it." There was something primal about blood - like water, like birth, like death, like sex. As Lanfearys slipped his hands around Neese, he leaned in closer to the Starstrider until they were touching along the lines of their bodies. 

[quaggan]

 So there were some limits to the Fae's knowledge! Lanfearys was quite pleased with himself to have stumbled upon it. Neese was surrounded by such a nimbus of power, offering wondrous gifts and commanding great magic, it was quite easy for a mortal to mistake his power for infinite. Perhaps he should keep it in mind. The temptation to become lost in his awe and submit to the magic of Faerie was strong, but half the pleasure was always testing the limits of his strength, seeing how long he could resist.

His hands began to wander the expanse of the Fae's body. Perhaps it was a waste to try and memorize the texture and shape of what could be transformed with but a thought, but the sensation itself was worth it... for now.

[Marjorie]

Oh, even Neese so vain and confident, frankly, full of himself, as he was, wouldn't say that his power or his knowledge was infinite. He was not all knowing or all seeing. He was not all powerful -- that said, compared to the normal mortals of the world, he might as well have been, in his opinion, and often theirs.

"Mmm..." Neese reacted openly to being touched, enjoying the slide of fingers against his flesh that in some places was more like the skin of mortals, and in others more like leaves or rough bark or sharp thorns and fragile twigs. He moved in the subtle ways that one feeling pleasure at another's touch did - leaning in slightly here, pulling back slightly there, but never actually increasing the distance between them, which at this point was basically only the barrier of the fabric that Lanfearys was wearing, sense Neese was dressed in not but a loin cloth.

He still held, in his hand, Lanfearys' hand which a moment ago he'd sampled the Starstrider's blood from. He moved his hand, so his fingers brushed against the leafy "mask" that covered the upper portion of his face, and then he sucked one of his fingers into his mouth before slowly drawing it out again.

At this point, face to face, bodies pressed together, and especial with Neese barely clothed, the fae's physical reaction to his attraction had likely become evident a long time ago. The fey lord took a step forward, pressing Lanfearys back, then another,  toward one of the sofas in the room. He was accustomed to taking what he pleased, often, without asking, and thus he acted so, but there was always a catch - whenever he took something, whatever he took, he always gave something in return. Weather or not that turned out to be a good thing for the other being involved was often up for debate, but with Neese it was always an exchange, never a one-sided taking.

[quaggan]

 He couldn't deny, the turn the events took was quite pleasing - although after being offered immortality, Lanfearys was willing to even sit through Fae equivalent of construction work. But perhaps he was being unfair to Neese - so far the Fae has shown no boring or annoying traits, and of course judging a completely alien being by (relatively) mortal standards might be a silly thing to do. Might.

He could ponder and think later. He was never the kind to engage in cerebral pleasures when there were pleasures of the flesh to take - the latter tended to be more fleeting and immediate in nature. He didn't break eye contact even as they moved - he didn't need to see what the Fae was pushing him towards. It probably was nowhere as interesting.

His attention was directed fully at Neese now. As he was guided towards the sofa, he pulled closer at the Fae with hungry mouth and grabbing hands.

[Marjorie]

Part plant, part mammal was not just in the way Neese looked. One could, in fact, break a twig off of him and it would look like a twig, mostly, depending on how close to his flesh you broke it. That meant his body temperature didn't match that of mortals, or even Star Striders. Starstriders tended to run hot because of their increased metabolism, compared to lesser mortals, and Neese's body temperature was noticeably lower, warm around his core, but cooler as you got further out to the fringes where his pant-like appendages (or were they really bits of plant matter woven into his body) were. His skin's texture also changed from sooth and supple, not unlike that of a humans, to the roughness of bark or the waxiness of leaves.

Neese liked the warmth of Lanfearys' body. He leaned in when the elf pulled closer, slid a hand down the collar of his shirt and inside it, cool fingers, searching along his skin. The Starstrider's shirt unfastened of it's own volition as Neese's fingers hungrily explored the expanse of Lanfearys' neck and chest, making way for his exploring hand as a servant made way for a passing lord.

[quaggan]

 The fae's surface (skin? bark? Lanfearys' vocabulary was rather inadequate to the task of describing it, even after reading all of Ithan's notes) felt strange and incompareable to anything he's ever experienced. It was much colder than what he subconsciously expected; colder even than what he remembered from the few starless that he had the opportunity to sleep with. He wondered whether Neese had no blood to warm his flesh, and was tempted to bite down and see if he could find any. The temptation was strong, but in this case biting uninvited could have consequences more severe than just physical retaliation. The Starstrider was never too fond of having to think long-term, but he was willing to make this sacrifice.

He was about to help him out with the buttons of his shirt, but one look was enough to bend it to Neese's will. Well well well, it looked like there were still people in the world whose mere glance could cause shirts to open and trousers to fall (all in due time, Lanfearys supposed). The Fae seemed to enjoy the body heat, moving in closer. There was more to the elf than just a convenient source of warmth, and he was determined to show it.

His tongue and lips traversed the strange surface of the Fae's body as his hands latched onto what provided purchase. Lanfearys liked to think that he was quite good with his tongue - both physically and verbally - after all the practice he had, it would be rather troubling if he didn't!

[Marjorie]

Neese made a deep, throaty sound of pleasure when Lanfearys' mouth and tongue moved across his body. The wet warmth on his skin, followed by cooling trails when his mouth moved on was delectable.

When they reached the sofa, the Starstrider would find himself suddenly, and without stepping around, facing the other way, so that while they two were still facing each other, positions relative to one another unchanged, it was the Fae Lord with his back to the sofa. He let himself fall back to sitting on the couch and then stretched out on it, taking Lanfearys' with him. The leafy appendages and twigs rustled as he fell into place, with Lanfearys' on top of him, like leaves blown in the wind.

As they settled, the couch's proportions changed, so it was comfortably wide and long enough for the two of them to fit laying across it.

Neese's hands were sliding lower, past Lanfeary's hips. The Elf's pants slid off easily, ahead of the Fay's reaching fingers, as if they wished to be free of the body they covered. In his natural form, the Fae Lord had normal male genitalia, but Starstriders were not "normal" in this regard, he knew... able to procreate with any sex of any sentient species. Something that made them vaguely more interesting than other 'mortals'. Neese, himself, could have sex with any gender, and physically represent himself as any gender, but he couldn't procreate with a male. This, however, was nowhere near his thoughts at the moment. Right now, he sought only the pleasure of another's touch, the release of letting his body do as it pleased.

[quaggan]

 Even if he closed his eyes and focused only on the tactile sense (a beginner's mistake - only a fool would bereave themself of the full experience. It was only acceptable if the chosen partner's body was so unpleasant to look upon that it would detract from the situation), Lanfearys would never be fooled into thinking that he was with a different partner. The taste under his tongue lacked the sting of salt that he was accustomed to, and the texture as well was unlike anything he had prior experience with.

The strangeness extended beyond his senses. The Fae seemed content to just let the Starstrider do as he pleased, choosing to influence the environment rather than the elf. As they slowly approached the furniture that Lanfearys tentatively decided to define as a sofa, suddenly it appeared behind Neese. No, it didn't move from its place in the room - it was their position that changed. And the Fae didn't even make any movements - he was truly the master of this realm, to make it respond without any outside prompts.

As the sofa began to shift to accommodate them both, Neese began to take a more active role, focusing more on the Starstrider now that his alterations to the environment were complete (Hopefully. Lanfearys liked to consider himself open-minded, but playing the decorator during intercourse was crossing a line a little. The things he'd do for eternal life...). The Fae had no need for mortal decorations such as clothing, but the elf still had to comply with society's distaste for nudity (a sacrifice he was willing to make, considering how much fun he had with fashion). But, at the moment, his clothing was no proud expression of his aesthetic, but an obstacle - an obstacle his partner wasted no time removing. The Starstrider's attention was still focused on him, but every now and then he shrugged off more garments that were still in their way.

[Marjorie]

Neese was a selfish kind of person, even if he believed that give and take were equally important, however he was quite attentive to those things that caught his eye, so long as they managed to hold his attention at least.

The magic, was for him, without thought, and so he was focused on Lanfearys, and not the furniture. When the elf was finally free from the confines of his clothing, Neese relished in the warmth of his flesh. Cool fingers and twig-like extensions pressed against warm skin. Without thought, Neese's body changed, slightly, to accommodate their nearness, the sharper, longer twig-like appendages shrinking down and disappearing when they threatened to poke or scratch the elf in a way that might be uncomfortable.

Neese pressed a knee between the Starstrider's legs, enjoying the way his warmth enveloped him.  One of his hands moved, cool fingers and leafy appendages trailing down Lanfeary's chest, over the curve of his hip, and brushed against his man-hood, with a teasing, light touch.

[quaggan]

 The notes he read described the Fae as fickle and capricious, and this particular specimen fit it quite well. As much as the elf tried to remember the small details of Neese's body, they changed under his exploring fingers, twigs melting back into the bark. A part of him envied the Fae - Lanfearys only had one body to inhabit, and while he was quite content with it, he couldn't help but be aware of its limitations. This body would not change, not even age, the closest he could get to altering it would be colouring the skin. How boring must the static mortals seem to the Fair Folk, imprisoned in such an inflexible cage!

Still, Lanfearys was not the kind to let others influence his opinion of his body - he's worked to keep it in shape he would be satisfied with, and chose his clothes and jewellery carefully in order to accentuate what he deemed important. Of course, now very little of it remained, having taken place on wherever the Fae left it. It served its purpose and little was left to ponder about it.

The Fae's bold movements were at first rewarded just with with a widening of the eyes and a few gasps, but soon it became harder for Lanfearys to keep his lazy, relaxed front. Perhaps his pride was behind that attitude, unwilling to give in anything more than was earned; or perhaps it was one last gleam of his self-preservation instinct, ensuring that the Fae would not consider him easy prey.

Lanfearys was unwilling to just passively lay there, at least this time - he was very curious and eager to explore and enjoy the novelty of the experience. Neese's movements were precise and skillful enough to imply that either he had previous experience with mortals (perhaps less with Starstriders, as evidenced by his earlier comment). It was also possible that the Fae were - or, more likely, chose to - resemble mortals in this regard. Or was it the other way around? No matter - the elf was glad, in a strange way: at least some of his experience could apply. He moved with renewed confidence, and- ah, it looked like he got a reaction.

[Marjorie]

Static indeed, and, excepting brief periods of amusing, Neese found them mostly boring also. For now, this one served to entertain him. How long that would be the case, remained to be seen.

Indeed he did get a reaction from Neese, and when then were both spent - more than once - Neese leaned back and sighed, as sound full of satisfaction. "I should return you," he said off hand. He had, actually, stolen Lanfearys from his plane of existence, after-all. The Fae also didn't like mortals puttering around in their world if they weren't slaves or bound by some other means.

"Or would you like to stay a little while?" his favorite pet, until he got board of the Starelf?

[quaggan]

 Return him? The thought hasn't occurred to Lanfearys - he rarely was the kind to think his actions through, unless they were a part of a longer, more complicated plan. The con and the subsequent ritual were, but he's given no real thought to what came next. He didn't think he should have - for all he's known, Ithan would have turned out to be some paranoid waste of time. And once he first glimpsed the world she was speaking of, well, there were far better sights to contemplate than the picture his thoughts painted, and far better company to be kept than imagination could provide.

While his attention has been mostly on Neese rather than the surroundings, he was not foolish enough to think that an exit would be as simple as walking through a door - not that he's seen any doors in this realm to begin with. He was brought here by a master of this land, and departing without his leave would probably be exceedingly difficult.

He considered the situation quickly - he didn't want to bore the fickle Fae with long pondering; Neese could probably read his mind as easily as ink on the page anyway. Should he return? Was there anything he should tend to? He had some cons going on, but putting them on ice for now would not hurt the overall result. Perhaps being whisked away into a new, exciting land was the best choice, after all. Ithan's notes mentioned that time in that realm passed differently, described cases of people stolen away for one night who returned to find a world hundred years older. While Lanfearys could not hope for an entirely new population of victims to play with, not among the long-lived Starstriders; perhaps his disappearance would make them think he was gone for good, and not warn any new children about him.

"Is this an offer? I shan't refuse; from what little I've seen of this realm, it is far more fascinating than the Le'raana I've known." His words would probably fall a little flat, it was the lot of mortals to be captivated by any shiny novelty. But there was enough sincerity in them to ring true, and enough connection to be felt. After all, even though some Fae chose to travel to this mundane world, they would still return home.

[Marjorie]

It was an offer, but with Neese there was always a catch. "Be careful if you wonder the castle then," he said, "no everything in these walls is safe." He wrapped his fingers around Labfearys' wrist then and one of the twig-like appendages  sticking off his wrist grew soft, then actually grew, and fast, like a vine and wrapped itself around the Starelf's wrist several times before breaking of. "My kind," he said... and far were quite carried as a rule you wouldn't find another like Neese, likely, but he was speaking in generalizations. "Don't like mortals poking around their world unless they belong to someone."

Neese has just makes him, claimed him as properly.

If the Starelf cared to try it, the 'bracelet' would shift and move for comfort as he moved, but he'd find it quite impossible to remove. "That will grant you my protection form others," it also served as a bit of a one way beacon by which Neese would be able to find him in this realm or the mortal plain.

[quaggan]

 Lanfearys recalled the other Fae - just glimpses, presences in the background he saw but didn't really notice. Neese's presence, even in this fascinating new world, had some kind of a gravity to it, drawing his gaze and his attention and not letting go. Was it the force of his personality, or the natural charm all of his kind possessed? The elf didn't exactly have a lot to compare, but he knew what option he preferred.

Now that they were brought up, he couldn't help but wonder at the makeup of the Fae society. If they were lesser creatures, servants or thralls of the master of the castle, there would probably be no need for him to worry - they would only turn on him if he incurred Neese's displeasure. But his words implied that they were to be considered on equal terms, and wielded enough power to be able to pose a threat. (There was also the option that the fickle lord did not care for the no-longer-mortal enough to use his power to protect him, but Lanfearys never liked to wallow in self-derision.)

He watched as the hungry vine grew out of the bark covering the Fae and reached for his arm. His only reaction was to extend it closer, curiosity as always prevailing over the sorry remains of his self-preservation instinct. He would stop needing it soon anyway. The stem split into several smaller ones and twined around his wrist, weaving around each other in some kind of a strange braid. He tried to trace a path of a single thread through, but the shapes and turns it took were beyond his comprehension, as if his eyes were not enough to fully perceive it, as if it wove through more than just three dimensions.

He lazily pushed his finger between the vines, holding tight onto one thread and trying to pull. He was curious what would Fae do if he tried unraveling it or taking it off - it would surely be something more original than telling him not to. The thread came off as the elf kept pulling, and pulling, stopping only after three coils wounded around his boots. It was pretty clear that the length he saw earlier was non-indicative and he could waste his entire immortal life trying to unwind it, to no avail. He wondered if he could push it off his arm, but it was an endeavour even more puzzling. He felt it slide across his skin, the hand he used to grasp the twisting vines moved forward, but it never moved past his wrist, all while his arm didn't even seem to lengthen. It made his head hurt.

He laughed. "Well, this is a rather original method to keep mortals in their place." He wrapped a strand of his hair around his finger and pulled. He's heard quite a lot of poetic similes and metaphors about it from those who fell under his charm; at this point he could proudly declare that he was more than an expert on anything that resembled it in any way. On a whim, he wound the lock around the coil of vine making up the bracelet. It accepted the tribute graciously, pulling it closer and weaving a thread of whitest silver through the shades of green.

[Marjorie]

Nees smiled, he liked things in their proper place. He also like to possess things. He could be quite a vain, possessive, covetous creature. "It means you're mine," he said, "but it does not mean I will keep you, or that you lack free will, or even your ability to choose to come and go. Actually, it will grant you passage from this castle to your realm and back again threw any mirror. It is a part of me," it was, quite literally, after all, "and grants you a tiny fraction of my own magic, in allowing you passage."

[quaggan]

 Among the Starstriders, any person but their destined Resonance saying "You're mine" to someone was a huge breach of etiquette, and therefore something the elf tried several times. At first, he relished breaking the convention, the scandalised expressions, the gasps, the tittering... then he used it to test the waters, even had some people say it to him. He didn't mind, quite the opposite - if he belonged to someone else, that meant this person was responsible for all Lanfearys has done, the same way an owner of a knife would be blamed if a child found and used it. Quite a lot of people resolved to view him this way: as a dangerous force that could not be reasoned with, but was everyone's duty to mitigate.

He wondered how far he could stretch the patience of the Fae, how far would they allow him to go before he exceeded the limits mortals - even mortals favoured by Neese - were permitted. Would they simply throw him out, back to his world and out of their hair (or equivalent thereof)? Not likely - their senses were attuned to magic, they would recognize the vine bracelet and the meaning behind it. Was there anything wicked enough he could do to make them try and disable it?

It was a question he would like to see answered.

[Marjorie]

Neese hardly cared about that taboos of lesser people, he hardly paid attention to those of his own people, excepting those he had to or desired to.

Oh... they would not likely disable it. Depending on what he did, others would be quite well within their rights to punish him themselves, if the Starstrider's offence was large enough. Then... if it was more minor, he'd be handed over to Neese so he could deal with his misbehaving pet however he deemed fit.

"Oh, do you like that?" Neese asked, observing Lanfeary's reaction to his explanation. "You find freedom in being possessed?" Some people did. Others found it more like oppression. Neese found freedom in... well, the freedom to do whatever he damn well pleased whenever it pleased him to do so. "Interesting."