INT - Teahouse, Seiiki District; Callisto Isle
Dorian made a habit of going by the teahouse often enough and asking after a certain woman there to keep a particular rumor in place. He'd spent the long years of his life pretending that he wasn't only interested in one woman, and old habits along that front had yet to die. So, keeping up appearances, pretty Hana had been chatting with him and pouring him sake while another woman in almost as extravagant of a kimono was plucking away at a shamisen. Having already smoked opium from a kiseru left dormant upon the table, the room was fragrant with the sweet odor of the stuff, even with the windows opened to admit the spring evening's fresh air. As he often did when spending time on this side of town, Dorian donned kimono and hakama, too. He was looking up at the stars from the room upstairs, having just had his cup refilled. Now that the island was opened again, the place had casks of the unfiltered stuff he liked available again, fresh off the boat from Japan, and fitting his prodigious appetite they knew to keep the bottles coming.
Drystan Windgrace: || Walking through the teahouse behind the manager for the night, the staff scurried away at the sight of them, making themselves busy elsewhere. They approached the area Dorian was occupying and the manager paused and turned, opening their palm and waving Drystan inside graciously. "Thank you kindly. I would like to have continued privacy, and if we require anything, ...you'll know." He spoke softly to them, pulling from his back pocket a fine leather wallet, and folded a couple of bills into the opened hand of the manager. With nothing more than a look from them, Hana and the other woman stood and bowed before leaving the room, the manager pulling the door shut behind the brothers. "Dorian....you look so at ease here, its as if you've meant to take up their customs. You look quite comfortable." He stepped into the room to close the distance between them, spotting the drink and having already smelled the sweet rich scent of the opium in the air, it brought a cheerful smile to his bearded face. He had been holed up in the office and at the docks and the store working, working, working since the island was back up and running. He hadnt had time to really sit and talk with either of his siblings since the big spellwork to lift the mist. So here he was, now at least, to share some quiet time privately with him. "I take it you've been well?" He lifted his eyebrows at Dorian and kept the smile about his face that it crinkled in the corners of his eyes.
Dorian turned when his brother entered and bowed to Hana as she left. Upon being greeted, he'd return the smile in kind, looking over at his brother with part of his gaze faraway as opium was wont to do. He'd respond to his brother remarking on his attire, with a chuckle, going to pour a cup for him, explaining, "It feels good on the skin. This silk. And I wouldn't be able to put this on by myself, I still haven't figured out how to tie the ties... Here..." He'd hand over a little cup to his brother and lift his own to clink against it once he did, "I am well, and I hope you are. You've been so busy, I have seen more of your signature than I have of you lately. The beard looks good on you. To business being good, hm?"
Drystan Windgrace took the cup from Dorian, and nodded to him as he offered up a small toast. "Indeed, to business be more than good, to it being excellent." He lifted the little cup and drank back the contents. He wrinkled his a bit but let it ripple down the back of his throat. "Still not used to this. But i can see what you mean about the clothes, look at this!" He set the cup aside and instead took upon his brother, lifting his arms up and out, to pose him and also allow him to run his hands down the lengths of the arms and smooth over the fine silk. "I have a few pair of night pants made from this but not a full blown outfit." He claws left Dorian and he gave his brother a quirked little smile and poked him once in the chest. "Do you have to wear silk underpants as well or is it free form?" He laughed as he asked, and lifted a hand to push his hair back and left it cupped around the back of his neck as they spoke.
Dorian held out his arms and turned in a little circle so his brother could see where it was tucked and folded and the ties hidden. He likewise drank down the tiny cup quickly and thus had his mouth free to chortle when asked about what he was wearing underneath. Though they had the room, Dorian quieted a little as he answered, "I think they usually wear a loincloth, but I don't." His grin twisted up wryly after his admission that he was unencumbered under the loose fitting garment, and he turned to grab up the bottle to top them both off again. He wouldn't bother returning the bottle to the table, but instead posted himself a short distance from his sibling. His easy grin subsided as he let something sort of bubble up out of him that he'd wanted to speak about for some weeks, "Say... have you ah.... well...." He poured himself another one and downed it before spitting it out, looking right into his brother's eyes, "...she is different. Since the ritual."
Drystan Windgrace let his smile twist a little sideways ad the soft admission from his brother, and held out his cup to accept the refill. "You are such a deviant." He said teasingly as he brought the drink to his mouth when Dorian chugged his and then spat out the statement about Dinah. He knew it almost before he said it that this would come up, though he was glad for him getting it out in the open so early. He nodded slowly while he sucked on his tongue in thought. "Yes, yes she is. I can feel it from her, and her whole mind is different now it feels. I did not know she would do what she did at the ritual, ...I was shocked even, but there was nothing for it, she did what she did and now we deal with the aftermath." He pulled the cup up and emptied it, then reached over for the bottle to refill it. "She is sometimes shy with me, other times she seems like she's spying on me while i work, little things that make me think of her in a childlike way, ...or just not all herself all the time." He didn't mention that she had only shown up in his bet but a handful of times since - whereas prior to the ritual it was a more regular occasion. But it was an obvious change in her routine and personality. "Hmmm she has been distant with me." That's how he'd say that. "She's seen Niles and mainly stays close to home...what of it do you know from your experience? You two have that, ...twin thing. Your bond." He rolled his hand in the air as he spoke and finished that cup of sake and then put it down on the ledge of the window, looking around at the tea and little finger foods that sat around. He spied the opium and took a few steps over, folding himself down pretzel-like to sit at the little table and took it up in his hands, looking for the fire source and how it was all set up as he looked up at Dorian for his response.
Dorian had yielded the bottle when Drystan wanted another pour, and taken it back after his brother was done. Dorian's sense of concern was plain, but it was not forcing a scowl onto his face so much as a wariness to his shoulders, and a little compression around his mouth and in the jaw. Surely the opium he'd smoked had something to do with that as well. Upon being prompted to speak to the twin thing, and what he'd seen, he'd answer with the words coming forth in spurts, as he was only now putting these thoughts to actual verbiage, "She is as far away as she has ever been some days. It is like... sometimes I have to coax her out of there. Out of her mind. Sometimes she is focused and sharp. Other times, I don't know... I think she might drift away like a kite with its strings cut. And for her part... ...she was always going to do what she was going to do. We couldn't have stopped her if we tried, really. And as much as I hate to say it, she seems to be enjoying her--" He was coming over to settle down at the table and pushing forward his lighter and the sticks to set fire to for sparking up the pipe, which was only half smoked, offering his brother to take up where he left off in gesture rather than words. "--whatever it is-- liaison with Roesler. So I am leaving them be." His nostrils flared as he shoved down the rage over that fact and sealed it away. Just a moment later he was talking again, "I don't think there's really anything for it. Just... giving her time and keeping an eye on her... yes?" Over the long years of their lives, it wasn't the first time he'd asked Drystan questions like this. His elder brother was the only person he could have such a conversation with.
Drystan Windgrace took the lighter and listened all the while that Dorian spoke on her state of being. He flicked it open and went through the motions, finally drawing smoke from the end of the pipe, filling his lungs deeply, and pulling his chin to his chest and lifting his brows to keep it inside and be sponged up. He listened intently still though, noting the flare of something more than anger but it dissipated as quickly as it came and settled into a dull roar in the background for him. He didn't probe into his brother's mind like he could, just pick it apart one little fleeting moment of time from the next. He felt that far too invasive for such a casual yet meaningful conversation about their little sister. The smoke billowed out of his mouth through rounded lips as he couched a couple of times, and beat his fist upon his chest, setting the pipe aside, instantly feeling the melt start to settle over his body. He glossed over Niles and his relationship with the both of them, and went right to the heart of the matter. "Has she spoken to you at all about ...where she is when she seems so far away, adrift in her mind? I haven't dared to step into her dreams...I am only learning how that works still as well, but i fear her dreams may be dangerous territory for me still not solid on my feet in the great sleep." He spoke and then took up a cup of tea that had to have been Dorian's or Hana's and just slurped at it, wetting his dry sticky feeling throat and mouth. He too had no one he could speak so casually about nearly anything with. He didnt take for granted Dorian's counsel, no matter if he had any of the ability of he and Dinah where it came to the magic of the world, he was his best friend and brother, and now, even more. So he freely shared in his new experiences. He had no mentor, but he was eager enough and curious enough to dive into whatever it was he could do with his mind now on his own. He nodded his head in agreement, "I think for now, yes. Time to recuperate. She has always needed that after heavy situations and rituals. She gives her everything to them. She has more faith than I do, and I thought I had quite a bit, considering." He leaned his head to the side, alluding to his predatory practices being no big secret to Dorian after all this time. He maybe hadn't the details of it, but he'd seen the aftermath in some cases. "But keeping an eye on her...that and more. I fear she might have her defenses down when she's not altogether herself, when you can see it in her eyes? She needs us to help defend her from anything that might...I don't know, try and take advantage of that." He rolled his head on his shoulders, and sighed, rubbing his chest flat palmed. "...and NO....I don't mean with Roesler. They are, dating. I suppose you could call it that, you know ...in courtship. just, its modern era now and though the lot of us are all old farts, we have adapted to how that process works now. Sometimes you don't even need it," he explained because he knew his brother had no real idea about dating, and following through.
Dorian had folded his legs underneath him at the table, in the Japanese style. There was tea that had gone cool in the little pot on the table and spare cups as Dorian had only sipped out of one. Seeing his brother take up the pipe, he'd poured a little cup for himself once his brother had taken his, explaining, "This goes very well with the opium. It is a green tea." That was easy to speak to. The other stuff about Dinah, well he had listened and was letting his brother's perspectives sink in. And off the top, before he got into his own stuff, he couldn't help asking, "Wait, you can... visit dreams? I..." he let out a huff as he also tried to put what he had to into words before he found where he wanted to start, "In the days after the ritual, you know when Dinah had yet to wake up.. really wake up... Niles he took me into I guess... her mind? It was... it was a strange experience. It's something to do with giving her everything to that ritual, all of this. But we pulled her out of there. I could not have done it without him, the bastard. And I thought I was close to her." That last was so quiet it was almost under his breath. He snuffed another huff and managed to drag his silver gaze up to his brother's face across the table, smoke dispersing into an ever thinner haze around them, "But... they are courting, aren't they? That is what this is." Shaking his blond head a little, he accepted the terminology of it all, and sighed out the tension of facts he couldn't easily reconcile. He was getting better practiced at stowing that rage, and living at a distance from it. Opium helped. So did his sister's happiness.
Drystan Windgrace lifted his brows up and made a Hmm? noise at Dorian. "OH, yes, yes it has something to do with what Hunter did to my mind when he gave me back my memories. It's like when he touched my brain, something triggered something or, maybe i ..."got" it from him like the corruptions from Dinah's blood? i am honestly not too sure on that." He scratched at the side of his cheek, digging into the beard. "There are a host of things I can do..I'm not sure what I can't do to be honest with you. But it is draining, and ...it feels dangerous, if was used the wrong way it could cause all sorts of issues." He explained lightly, and dropped his hands into his lap, his knees bent up awkwardly. He listened and took a long breath and exhaled while he spoke. "Yes...I'd say that is what that is. But it is all new for Dinah as well, she is experiencing life fully, and it does make her incredibly happy. To evolve you know, to have someone outside of the two of us having loved her for so long. I ...hunted those experiences down, and relished in them, you both know me far too well on how my personal rebellion went, and continues to go." He grinned and rubbed his stomach, feeling a warmth filling him from the drug. He leaned forwards then however and pressed his torso against the table, and lifted his chin a few times to Dori to mimic and lean in as well. "Here. I'll show you something." He danced through the Niles relationship affirmations and decided a small parlor trick would be distracting enough. Something small that would jog Dorian's mind from worry. He hated to feel him so pent up from all of it. "Okay, try and empty your mind and close your eyes. It seems to work best that way, i think." He waited for Dorian to comply and puckered his lips out and closed his own eyes easily floating away from where he sat into the space between.
Dorian listened to his brother explain that his sister was experiencing life and freedom, and nodded to that, because that framing of the situation hit him hard. For whatever reason his siblings both searched for something that he never had, and he might spend some time later wondering why that was, but for now, he was happy to be distracted. He'd lean in and look over when his brother told him to empty his mind. That was going to be easier said than done, but he was game and said, "Alright, but if I end up with pie on my face I will retaliate."
He closed his eyes and tried to empty his mind, bent toward Drystan across the table. It was effortful at first, but after a moment he did a decent job of it, and his brow smoothed out once he got to a quiet place. Again, the opium he'd already smoked surely aided him in this endeavor.
Drystan Windgrace smirked at him, "No pie involved. I promise." Still with his own eyes closed, he let himself drift, and sense Dorian's presence, and being. His third eye opened and stared at Dorian, the tranquil blue that it had become since the ritual. Behind him, nearly invisible spectral forearms fanned out around him and the hands all opened their palms to focus on Dori as well, and eyeball centered in each. In his mind he caught fleeting images of Dinah, and Niles but they were being forced back willfully, he could tell that much. He smiled to himself and took a deep breath, starting with a pinpoint of light, and allowed it to bloom outward, bigger and bigger, till the roundness enveloped him and Dorian sitting at this table, and swallowed them both up inside. Inside this bubble of light was a perfect replication of the expansive gardens they had visited once upon a time in the past, somewhere in the near middle east. It was filled with all the sights, smells and temperature of that brilliant cool breezy day they spent in the garden and then at the local markets after. It would fill Dorian's entire thoughts, and he would see it just as clearly as Drystan did, a perfect glimpse of a bright moment of happiness for them both. There were no other people in the gardens, same as it had been on that day, where they gazed at all the exotic flowers and plants, and ran around like children playing tag around the maze of trees and bushes."
Dorian's breath caught as the light expanded, enveloped and ultimately revealed those gardens. Though he didn't open his eyes, he looked around and saw the memory plainly around him and hearkening back to it once the images resolved into a more fully tactile and engrossing experience. That was when he let loose a long exhale and smiled. Where he sat and in that place full of lush greenery and moisture in the air from a water feature nearby. Because he didn't dare raise his outward voice, he used his inward one on Drystan, <Persia. After you got me out of that bloody Turkish prison. That place was so-- this place... it is beautiful. You... you are as much of a wonder as she is. Is this how you handle being cooped up in the office?>
He couldn't help that he just had to wander to a flower and feel what it felt like. One thing was certain, fully transported as he was, there was just wonder for Dorian, same as there had been in that garden, in the streets with the spice vendors.
Drystan Windgrace walked up to him in that garden, dressed as he had been on that day, looking very much the same save for the length of his hair, which was tied with a ribbon behind his head. With his hands behind his back clasped together, he smiled broadly at Dorian in his wonder and spoke out loud to him in his mind, as if he was in there. "Beautiful hardly covers it, it was downright magical, and everything you needed after that awful pickle you'd gotten into." He gave his brother a knowing nod and stopped and stood next to him, gazing down at the flowers that he had been smelling. He released his hands and reached out, and touched Dorian's shoulder, which would feel as real and solid as if it was happening to his sitting posture in the teahouse. "Her and I just have different, ..methods and specialties." He chuckled at the idea of being here, rather than working. "Actually, no... I can daydream with the best of them easily enough, but you've given me something now to try though, thank you for that." His hand tightened slightly and moved to the back of Dorian's neck where his fingers toyed with the curls there. "Besides, I'm in your mind right now, going into my own mind...where's the fun of that? If I wanted you to feel something or see something, all I have to do is suggest it, and it becomes a reality for you in your mind when I'm in it. " He pressed lightly his claws at the nape of his neck and with a blink he evoked every single ounce of passion and emotion they had shared together, bringing it full force to course through Dorian's veins like a drug of it's own. Drystan turned his head and looked up and there just beyond the flowers, Dinah appeared, naked, laying in the cool grasses under the shade of the tree. Drystan tilted his head and Dinah there in the vision, nestled her hand between her legs, and one hand to bite at the back of her hand. It was all as real as the opium they'd shared, the table between them and unless Drystan undid this little bubble of reality of his choosing, Dorian would go on experiencing it.
Dorian at first tensed, but then soon thereafter relaxed into the sudden rush of unbound and unbidden feeling. Again he let loose a breath that he hadn't intended to hold. Upon seeing a very naked Dinah, he stared agape. And whatever he'd been planning to say, or any attempt at really forming words dissolved. It would take some long few moments while he took a step toward her form in the garden, and his fists went clenched before he was able to try and resolve not to indulge himself. He was shaking his head against the urges. He was just quite repressed enough that the losing battle took some time.
"Drystan?" It was a one word question, but he didn't really have the wherewithal to clarify. He'd barely had the strength of character to pull his gaze from their sister and to his brother instead.
Drystan Windgrace: || The image of Dinah, her body writhing in the grass, her soft gasps muffled only by the skin she bit on her hand, paused when Dorian said Drystan's name. Her body then began to fracture, as if made of porcelain like a doll, falling apart into a heap of dust before them. The flowers slowly lost their color, and the circle around them began to shrink. With that came darkness as the sun was eclipsed and disappeared beyond the scope of the vision, until Dorian was simply sitting with his eyes shut, sitting in the teahouse, with no hint of Drystan's presence in his mind. It might not have even happened the way he remembered it the way it was there then not. Drystan lifted his voice from above the opium’s downing effect and straightened himself out, trying to pull his legs out straight to stretch them, grabbing the cup of tea in front of him and finishing it off. "I'm glad we could talk about her, in a simple and fair manner. We will figure out what the trouble is if its lasting, we always do." He made no indications at all that he had just given Dorian that vision, and proceeded to lift himself up off the floor, patting out his pants as he did and pulling his sweater down. "I'll see to the manager that you get some more of that tea and that lovely girl..well, her company at least. Come and rescue me from work sometime, eh?" He wove a set of long clawed fingers through his hair, and laughed as he side stepped closer towards the door. "I could use the distractions! I don't need to experience being overworked, quite the opposite should this hard work pay out..." He nodded his head from left to right, a frown on his face in consideration. "Either way, we're well done for, and we are just building an empire."
Dorian found himself adjusting the way he sat once he was in the teahouse again and out of that garden. And in need of a few minutes before he'd be able to stand up, decently. With his face burning red, he shook his head and tried to listen to words. The first few he didn't catch right away, but after a bit the meanings came crashing in along with the end of the sentence. "Uh... yes. Uh... thank you. I am glad we talked. Ahem. I will uh... I will. See if I can help you."
He wasn't about to stand up and clap his brother on the back or embrace him, even if he might have ordinarily done so, in his current condition. He was plainly having a difficult time clearing the vision from his thoughts, and the accompanying feelings as well.