[ rand had come to the stables looking for a mount to take him closer to the forests. it's not impossible to go on foot, of course, but it'd be easier and faster going, and why forgo something that would make the journey easier? he's paid some gold in exchange for the use of a horse, has come inside looking for a particular dark-coated mare that had come highly recommended, and finds, instead... ]
๏ผ he is sitting in the corner of the stable where the tack is kept, having slipped in past the notice of the stablehands one and sundry. tellingly, perhaps, he has not even contrived a pretense for being here to offer if caught out. perhaps he can simply rely on the truth — that severe inebriation had made it seem like a good idea at the time.
he's tucked away in the corner of the small room, where everything has the rich, earthy musk of sweat-damp animals and soiled straw, the air is thick with hay particulate that catches the light as it drifts. he's sitting on several sacks of grain that have been comfortably arranged, leaning back against the wall. his hair is down, and damp — it's certainly the most unbuttoned rand has ever had cause to see him. but besides that discrepancy — and but for the presence of several empty bottles of liquor neatly lined up a shelf an arm's length away — he looks nearly normal.
rand says his name questioningly, and itachi focuses on him with a blink that's perhaps a shade too deliberate. ๏ผ
Rand. ๏ผ his voice is clear, for all that. ๏ผ Do you require assistance with something?
[ it's a few more steps to bring him closer to the corner where itachi sits, thoughts of horses forgotten. in this darker space, it takes rand a moment to take in the sight of itachi, less put together, very near very many bottles. it's not exactly easy to tell he's had that many โ discerning anything about itachi is never easy, unless he wants it to be โ but it's not the most difficult calculation.
rand pauses, and then he crouches to bring himself closer to eye level. ]
Do you? [ and then, ] What are you doing here?
[ a question that is, in this moment, less about the objective answer (drinking) and more about what itachi will answer with. ]
๏ผ it's a shade too quickly said, something instinctive rather than thought through with his customary careful deliberation. when rand crouches down, itachi's gaze narrows very faintly.
the ironic answer ('testing my capacity') goes unsaid, though in its brief consideration he makes a quiet snort of internally-directed amusement. and, rather than answer, he holds out the most recent of the bottles. ๏ผ
Join me.
๏ผ answer, refuse, or lie. he did not tell rand one could simply avoid the question altogether for one very specific reason — rand lacks the authority to pull it off. he has no such issue. ๏ผ
but it isn't a brush off. and, for that matter, he wouldn't feel right leaving itachi alone right now. so he makes an assenting sound, moving to sit beside him amongst the sacks of grain and accepting the bottle. he gives the bottle a quick smell โ mostly to get an idea of how strong the stuff is โ before going to swallow a mouthful of it.
he considers another question. but he considers, instead, waiting to see if itachi will speak first. normally long odds, but who knows after he's had this much to drink? ]
๏ผ and so it happens, they drink in silence. the liquor is in the fair to middling range — potent, but not the sort of thing that will require you be scraped off the cobblestones the following day so long as you're mindful of your intake. it's sweet, undercut with floral notes, very little afterburn. clearly chosen by matter of preference rather than convenience.
the bottle is passed between them. in the stalls, the animals rustle and bray.
at length — ๏ผ
I believe we may be looking at a situation in which the orb is currently under contract. From what the others have shared, it seems the likeliest scenario.
at least, he will be until or unless itachi tries to unceremoniously get rid of him, but he knows that having someone near is better than being alone. even if they really don't speak at all, let alone of whatever (he's increasingly sure) must be bothering itachi. and the liquor is no hardship to drink, bottle shared between the two of them, sweeter and of higher cut than the kind of thing he's used to.
but then itachi does speak. and he considers wryly that he might've guessed that it'd be mission talk, but there's genuine interest on his face as he looks towards itachi. ]
I'm not certain if the bargain is with the king or not.
๏ผ something about the situation is not sitting well with him, a niggling doubt he has been turning over in his mind. the liquor, unsurprisingly, has only made more a muddle of it, as if the answer is just out of his reach beyond a minefield he's expected to traverse blindfolded. ๏ผ
I suppose we shall see one way or another before too long. ๏ผ he tilts his head, and long damp hair spills over his shoulder like a tangle of ink. ๏ผ Where were you intending to go?
[ well, he might be right about that. there's no guarantee the king's the only person to have bargained with the orb, especially with it gone missing this long. the stories they've collected have been contradictory, confused. either no one's clear on what's happened, or someone's lying, and rand isn't sure what's worse. ]
Back to the forests, [ he admits, breathing out. looking up only gives him a view of slatted wood and tendrils of sunlight, but he does it anyway as he continues. ] It's the only place I've found any worthwhile information.
[ even if he doesn't find the great mulgrowe again, there could be โ he doesn't know, something. ]
And Elindes and Harsby remind me too much of home.
[ he admits slowly, quietly, after a long moment. he hasn't really had enough to drink to blame the confession on, for all that this is the first time he's said this to anyone. and itachi already knows how home is a sore spot for him, doesn't he? rand had made it so clear, a month or so ago. ]
๏ผ he gives the man a sidelong glance, and takes another drink. he does it languidly, every motion still graceful and controlled. standing might be harder, but control has never been an issue of his. ๏ผ
I'm sorry, ๏ผ he says finally. there is something very much like sorrow in his voice, pitched soft and low. ๏ผ for the circumstances that caused you to leave.
๏ผ it's a cruel thing, to be bereft of one's home. ๏ผ
[ itachi has to be the last person he'd ever expect to give him sympathy. the surprise plays across his face: the way his eyebrows furrow, the way he looks, sideways, at the other man, and then in how he averts his gaze again, jaw working. a portrait painted clear to the discerning, and itachi is surely discerning: a study in grief, in watercolor brushstrokes.
control, you see, doesn't come to him easily.
he could say, i am too, or he could say, it's better this way, or he could say, it was my fault. there are other sentiments he doesn't waste breath on; wishing things otherwise has never made them so. in the end, he speaks politely, a soft, ]
[ would he have ever expected such gentle kindness from the man who's instructed him, more than once, on ways to avoid showing weakness? if he had, he might not have said anything at all.
because what he remembers now, even as itachi asks that question, himself unmoving in the face of that supportive touch โ what he remembers is the sharp dread he'd felt at seeing his father's wound, at stumbling through the forest all night as tam al'thor grew more feverish and more delirious, the taste of terror in his mouth like bile, is the hopes that the village would be safe and nynaeve would heal his dad and everything would be fine, all of which fell to dust the moment emond's field came to view, still smoldering and filled with piles of the dead and cries of the wounded. is moiraine saying, they came here for you.
is moiraine, who cannot lie, speaking a bare affirmation to the question of what channeling will do to him. overlapping reasons why he can't go home, as if one weren't enough.
๏ผ there's no indication of offense. he accepts that with a nod, fingers now curling loosely around the neck of the bottle, his thumb wiping at the condensation just below the lip of the glass. ๏ผ
I come from the Country of Fire — named as such for its many volcanic mountains. But my home... ๏ผ the label is peeling. absently, he smoothes it back down. ๏ผ is called 'Konohagakure'. 'The Village Hidden in the Leaves'. It is a beautiful place. It was the first of the shinobi villages founded, a little less than a century ago now.
๏ผ destroyed, kakashi had said. a crater. given what he knows of the timeline, it seems that madara did not even wait until his body was cooling to enact his revenge. ๏ผ
[ he visibly relaxes when itachi nods and starts speaking of his own home, so much had he tensed at the mere suggestion of questions. breathes out, turns his head to listen. he's struck, as always, at how recently so many things have happened in itachi's world โ his village, one of the first, barely a century old. ]
Hidden in the leaves, [ he echoes softly. ] Is it near a forest?
Yes. It is bracketed on its north face by an immense cliff. If you stand at its peak you can see for kilometers — a lush canopy of ceaseless green, with the occasional ribbon of a blue river or gray road is the only thing that exists beyond the village gates.
( it almost feels a little like a genetic memory, that if he closes his eyes he can imagine what it might have looked like when madara and hashirama stood on the monument cliff and decided on a better future than what they had been raised for. )
Our founder could create and manipulate wood. The stories say he built the village in a single night.
[ manipulate wood. that's like the ogier, he thinks. he remembers loial telling him of how they make things, not by cutting down trees but beseeching them with treesinging. sung wood is rare and highly prized, especially among humans, so much so that rand had used to think it merely the stuff of gleeman's tales. ]
Your village sounds beautiful.
[ he says, and means it. itachi paints a vivid enough picture for him to imagine; and the shape of it is so familiar that it's easy for him to see it as a place not very unlike two rivers, in his mind's eye. beautiful, indeed. ]
I can show you, if you'd like. I have built a replica of it in the simulation room.
๏ผ it is not a publicly available file. it's private, locked to his earpiece ID. but there have been a select few he has been willing to share it with. sometimes, he spends time simply wandering its streets. his memory is a perfect creature — the village that exists in code synaptic response is pitch-perfect to the last day he spent there. the sounds, the ambient temperature, the smell of the food stalls in the air.
he has never been able to bring himself to add the uchiha compound, sequestered to the south. he likely never will. instead, he overlaid the area with a forest.
he takes another drink, finishing the bottle. he gestures for rand to retrieve another, being now nearer to the neatly woven bag than he himself. ๏ผ
[ he does go to reach for another bottle, cracks it open after a moment and takes the first sip of it. which is perhaps not entirely as polite as he might normally want to be, but, well. he passes it to itachi after a swallow. ]
I'd like to see that, [ he says, slow, ] if you really would.
[ for such a proficient liar, itachi rarely seems to say things he doesn't mean. but even rand can sense that this would be a private thing to him โ who wouldn't think this a private thing? โ and offers the out. ]
๏ผ it's said with a modest reprimand, doled out between one moment of the next. itachi's hand ghosts over rand's as he takes the bottle, and he takes drink that echoes his own. ๏ผ
I take no issue with your seeing it. You are one of the few, I think, that would understand what it means.
[ rand's reactions can so resemble a spooked, wounded animal at times. but it's a testament to itachi that right now, he doesn't. he stills as he listens, then slowly moves to lean back against the wall, lets a slant of sunlight shine too brightly in his eyes. ]
No, [ he says, feathersoft, suddenly weary. ] You're not wrong.
[ he lets the silence stretch, before asking, ]
Will you tell me what happened? If I ask.
[ spoken in the same way itachi had, only moments ago: neither a plea nor a push, merely a yes or no question. ]
Are you asking because you wish to know, or because you think I require commiseration?
๏ผ he has never considered himself one who needed to talk. his sense of interiority is strong, and his walls are high. what wounds him is kept and played closely to the heart, and he has spent his life with those burdens pinioned there. ๏ผ
[ the look he shoots itach is wry. a touch of why would i expect anything else? writ across his expression. ]
I'm asking because I'm worried about you. If talking would make you feel better, I'm here. And if it wouldn't, [ he shrugs, ] I'm still here. So long as you know.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
action;
Itachi?
no subject
he's tucked away in the corner of the small room, where everything has the rich, earthy musk of sweat-damp animals and soiled straw, the air is thick with hay particulate that catches the light as it drifts. he's sitting on several sacks of grain that have been comfortably arranged, leaning back against the wall. his hair is down, and damp — it's certainly the most unbuttoned rand has ever had cause to see him. but besides that discrepancy — and but for the presence of several empty bottles of liquor neatly lined up a shelf an arm's length away — he looks nearly normal.
rand says his name questioningly, and itachi focuses on him with a blink that's perhaps a shade too deliberate. ๏ผ
Rand. ๏ผ his voice is clear, for all that. ๏ผ Do you require assistance with something?
no subject
rand pauses, and then he crouches to bring himself closer to eye level. ]
Do you? [ and then, ] What are you doing here?
[ a question that is, in this moment, less about the objective answer (drinking) and more about what itachi will answer with. ]
no subject
๏ผ it's a shade too quickly said, something instinctive rather than thought through with his customary careful deliberation. when rand crouches down, itachi's gaze narrows very faintly.
the ironic answer ('testing my capacity') goes unsaid, though in its brief consideration he makes a quiet snort of internally-directed amusement. and, rather than answer, he holds out the most recent of the bottles. ๏ผ
Join me.
๏ผ answer, refuse, or lie. he did not tell rand one could simply avoid the question altogether for one very specific reason — rand lacks the authority to pull it off. he has no such issue. ๏ผ
no subject
but it isn't a brush off. and, for that matter, he wouldn't feel right leaving itachi alone right now. so he makes an assenting sound, moving to sit beside him amongst the sacks of grain and accepting the bottle. he gives the bottle a quick smell โ mostly to get an idea of how strong the stuff is โ before going to swallow a mouthful of it.
he considers another question. but he considers, instead, waiting to see if itachi will speak first. normally long odds, but who knows after he's had this much to drink? ]
no subject
the bottle is passed between them. in the stalls, the animals rustle and bray.
at length — ๏ผ
I believe we may be looking at a situation in which the orb is currently under contract. From what the others have shared, it seems the likeliest scenario.
no subject
at least, he will be until or unless itachi tries to unceremoniously get rid of him, but he knows that having someone near is better than being alone. even if they really don't speak at all, let alone of whatever (he's increasingly sure) must be bothering itachi. and the liquor is no hardship to drink, bottle shared between the two of them, sweeter and of higher cut than the kind of thing he's used to.
but then itachi does speak. and he considers wryly that he might've guessed that it'd be mission talk, but there's genuine interest on his face as he looks towards itachi. ]
With the king, you mean?
no subject
๏ผ something about the situation is not sitting well with him, a niggling doubt he has been turning over in his mind. the liquor, unsurprisingly, has only made more a muddle of it, as if the answer is just out of his reach beyond a minefield he's expected to traverse blindfolded. ๏ผ
I suppose we shall see one way or another before too long. ๏ผ he tilts his head, and long damp hair spills over his shoulder like a tangle of ink. ๏ผ Where were you intending to go?
no subject
Back to the forests, [ he admits, breathing out. looking up only gives him a view of slatted wood and tendrils of sunlight, but he does it anyway as he continues. ] It's the only place I've found any worthwhile information.
[ even if he doesn't find the great mulgrowe again, there could be โ he doesn't know, something. ]
And Elindes and Harsby remind me too much of home.
[ he admits slowly, quietly, after a long moment. he hasn't really had enough to drink to blame the confession on, for all that this is the first time he's said this to anyone. and itachi already knows how home is a sore spot for him, doesn't he? rand had made it so clear, a month or so ago. ]
no subject
I'm sorry, ๏ผ he says finally. there is something very much like sorrow in his voice, pitched soft and low. ๏ผ for the circumstances that caused you to leave.
๏ผ it's a cruel thing, to be bereft of one's home. ๏ผ
no subject
control, you see, doesn't come to him easily.
he could say, i am too, or he could say, it's better this way, or he could say, it was my fault. there are other sentiments he doesn't waste breath on; wishing things otherwise has never made them so. in the end, he speaks politely, a soft, ]
Thank you.
[ for saying so, for caring. ]
no subject
Will you tell me about it, if I ask?
no subject
because what he remembers now, even as itachi asks that question, himself unmoving in the face of that supportive touch โ what he remembers is the sharp dread he'd felt at seeing his father's wound, at stumbling through the forest all night as tam al'thor grew more feverish and more delirious, the taste of terror in his mouth like bile, is the hopes that the village would be safe and nynaeve would heal his dad and everything would be fine, all of which fell to dust the moment emond's field came to view, still smoldering and filled with piles of the dead and cries of the wounded. is moiraine saying, they came here for you.
is moiraine, who cannot lie, speaking a bare affirmation to the question of what channeling will do to him. overlapping reasons why he can't go home, as if one weren't enough.
he shakes his head. ]
no subject
I come from the Country of Fire — named as such for its many volcanic mountains. But my home... ๏ผ the label is peeling. absently, he smoothes it back down. ๏ผ is called 'Konohagakure'. 'The Village Hidden in the Leaves'. It is a beautiful place. It was the first of the shinobi villages founded, a little less than a century ago now.
๏ผ destroyed, kakashi had said. a crater. given what he knows of the timeline, it seems that madara did not even wait until his body was cooling to enact his revenge. ๏ผ
no subject
Hidden in the leaves, [ he echoes softly. ] Is it near a forest?
no subject
( it almost feels a little like a genetic memory, that if he closes his eyes he can imagine what it might have looked like when madara and hashirama stood on the monument cliff and decided on a better future than what they had been raised for. )
Our founder could create and manipulate wood. The stories say he built the village in a single night.
no subject
Your village sounds beautiful.
[ he says, and means it. itachi paints a vivid enough picture for him to imagine; and the shape of it is so familiar that it's easy for him to see it as a place not very unlike two rivers, in his mind's eye. beautiful, indeed. ]
no subject
๏ผ it is not a publicly available file. it's private, locked to his earpiece ID. but there have been a select few he has been willing to share it with. sometimes, he spends time simply wandering its streets. his memory is a perfect creature — the village that exists in code synaptic response is pitch-perfect to the last day he spent there. the sounds, the ambient temperature, the smell of the food stalls in the air.
he has never been able to bring himself to add the uchiha compound, sequestered to the south. he likely never will. instead, he overlaid the area with a forest.
he takes another drink, finishing the bottle. he gestures for rand to retrieve another, being now nearer to the neatly woven bag than he himself. ๏ผ
no subject
I'd like to see that, [ he says, slow, ] if you really would.
[ for such a proficient liar, itachi rarely seems to say things he doesn't mean. but even rand can sense that this would be a private thing to him โ who wouldn't think this a private thing? โ and offers the out. ]
no subject
๏ผ it's said with a modest reprimand, doled out between one moment of the next. itachi's hand ghosts over rand's as he takes the bottle, and he takes drink that echoes his own. ๏ผ
I take no issue with your seeing it. You are one of the few, I think, that would understand what it means.
no subject
You're right, you're not.
[ yes, he should've known better. itachi is ruthless, relentless in all things: even interactions with other people, even showing kindness.
his eyebrows furrow, and he turns to look at itachi as he asks, ]
What it means?
no subject
๏ผ his eyes close briefly. he breathes out, slow. ๏ผ
Am I wrong?
no subject
No, [ he says, feathersoft, suddenly weary. ] You're not wrong.
[ he lets the silence stretch, before asking, ]
Will you tell me what happened? If I ask.
[ spoken in the same way itachi had, only moments ago: neither a plea nor a push, merely a yes or no question. ]
no subject
๏ผ he has never considered himself one who needed to talk. his sense of interiority is strong, and his walls are high. what wounds him is kept and played closely to the heart, and he has spent his life with those burdens pinioned there. ๏ผ
no subject
I'm asking because I'm worried about you. If talking would make you feel better, I'm here. And if it wouldn't, [ he shrugs, ] I'm still here. So long as you know.
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