011;

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

[Eastern Forest Filter]

[ Spurred on by the events of Valentine's and a recent conversation with Abel--and even more so with a past confrontation with Malygos, Alexstrasza can't help but begin to feel the pains of the past; the betrayal of Neltharion and his coming return, the Nexus War where so many of her own children died protecting Azeroth from Malygos' conquest to eradicate all magic users...and the death of Malygos himself. Her once-proud brother, who was now barely a shadow of his former self...and who thought her his killer.

But wasn't she? Though she had not been part of the conflict directly it was she who aided the mortals--recruited them to enter his domain in the Nexus and given the her power so that they might prevail. Hundreds of thousands of innocents would have died at his hands had she left him unchecked, but the weight of losing another Aspect--no, a brother, bore down upon her and wracked her with guilt.

Couldn't there have been another way? Couldn't she have extended her hand to him back when he had been so vulnerable himself? If she had, perhaps none of this would have come to pass... There would not have been so much needless death on either side.

As the thoughts swirl round and round inside her head it only makes the pain in her heart worse; the taloned and armored hands of her high-elven form come up to touch the area, to touch the brooch around her neck. Thoughts of her beloved, of her children and her fellow Aspects...and for the people chained within Paradisa itself become too much for her bear in silence.

[ Wetness gathers in one molten gold eye as she kneels, her whole being wishing desperately that she could do more: more for her brother, more for her world...more for this world.

Her eyes close slowly, the single tear making its way down her elven face. For several seconds it lingers on her jaw--only separating itself from her with a soft exhale and an unspoken command. It hits the snowy ground without a sound and for several moments there is quiet. Silence shrouds the lifeless woods in all directions as Alexstrasza stands...and then open her eyes.

Golden energy flares forth from both the twin orbs of peridot and the Dragon Queen herself, filling the area with warmth and her very essence of life. Snow melts in all directions in the blink of an eye and dormant vegetation, sleeping with winter's chill suddenly wakes and flourishes. Lush grass sprouts, small Paradisan flowers begin to bloom...and from where a single tear fell, something begins to sprout.

It's small at first, barely the size of a twig...but it grows swiftly, thickening and darkening into the deep rough color of bark. More branches sprout out of it as the plant expands in all direction, reaching high up into the sky. All over it leaves sprout, unaffected by cold...and within minutes before her stands a mature oak tree

And it is beneath its great boughs that she chooses to kneel, head bowed lightly and one hand rested gently against it, as though she means to try and comfort the land itself ]


[ ooc; MOD APPROVED. Also an open post! If your character can sense magic then they will have noticed a HUGE power spike...but of a benevolent nature. This tree will be a permanent part of Paradisa from now on :> for more info, go here ]

Comments

[bedninja]

[What a curious spike indeed... even from the Castle, and even with the limitations that it has imposed upon him, Pharos can feel that plain as day - naturally he's drawn to it, as most beings able to sense it would be.

He appears a few feet from Alexstrasza, thouh his gave doesn't fall to her immediately, instead settling on the tree itself. And his expression stretches into something that could almost be called serene. Death can be a comfort to all living beings, but what better way to soothe death than surround it with life?]

...this was your doing?

[Despite his godhaxx in keeping what he is generally difficult to realize... it's probably a bit easier to tell in this place, practically surrounded by his polar opposite.]

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

[ --it definitely it, especially when his own nature bears the most striking of contrasts to her own. She can't not notice it, opening glowing eyes immediately and looking at him with something akin to quelled horror.

This....can't be possible. There has to be some mistake in what she senses from him. While she herself emits and radiates with life, Pharos...seems to void it, like some darkened abyss ]

...Yes, it was....

[bedninja]

[For once he seems to notice the effect that he has on someone - perhaps, because he has seen that kind of expression on so very many people in the past, for centuries before he ever became 'Pharos' - and the boy turns his head to look at the woman with glowing eyes.]

This is... 'life', is it not? Seeing such things... the Castle has taken that from me in part. [He lifts his hands though, his attention turning back to the tree, and he twists his hands, and if watching something around them - though of course he can't see anything, for once.] It has been a very long time since I felt such a thing.

...I can only imagine how very beautiful this must be.

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

[ There's a pause here, as she tries to comprehend just what she's dealing with. Very few things in the world made her so...uneasy as this mere child's presence alone )8 ]

........You.....

What are you...?

[bedninja]

...I see your own senses have been left in tact. How fortunate for you.

[He smiles, just a little bit wider, though it's no longer the near-peaceful expression he'd worn previously; Instead it is much closer to the kind of expression a predator might wear.

Not that Pharos ever had to do any actual hunting, of course.]

My name right now is Pharos.

As for a more official title, however... I am 'Death'.

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

[ sdkjfsk oh my gosh Pharos--there are very few things that have ever given Alexstrasza a feeling so close to fear, but that look and those words? Almost make her want to retreat back against her tree as amber orbs widen ]

Death......

[bedninja]

[He can actually seem to tell for once, and Pharos tilts his head, watching her carefully - though his expression remains unchanged for the most part.]

It is not something that I usually tell to people that I am not familiar with so easily... but you seem startled enough already by the simple fact that I am here, so there was little point in keeping it from you.

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

Everything about you...it is an abscess. There's nothing, although I can see you before my eyes...

[ She doesn't even know how to describe it in words as she straightens, eyes flashing brighter as flame licks at her hair ]

[bedninja]

If I am an abscess, it is a necessary one. Life cannot exist without death; you should know that as well as anyone else, should you not?

[His gaze drifts to her hair, and his expression falls, the smile replaced with a much more... well, it couldn't really be called innocent, but something more neutral. Disappointed, almost.]

Is there truly any need for that?

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

Every sense I get from you speaks of danger... Necessary or not, it is still... [ frightening, in a way that makes her feel like she would as if she'd angered one of the Titans; shapers of her own world ]

[bedninja]

...It is inherent in all living beings to fear death, is it not? For instincts to point them in the opposite direction of it. [He smiles again, though this time it is on the somber side.]

I do not believe that I am so easily noticed under normal circumstances... this place likely makes it more obvious.

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

....Indeed. I was not able to sense you until you appeared before me. Had you not done so I doubt I would have ever been wise to your existence in such personified form. [ not that it sets her at ease any further; beings like him are hardly benevolent or impartial in her own world ]

[bedninja]

...You fear me. Is that correct? [He tilts to the side a bit, peering up at her face; curious, studying, though something in his expression still remains knowing regardless of that.] Not simply because of what you can feel from me... but do you not know that death is not something to be feared?

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

No...I know that all life is finite. As its Guardian and Aspect I know this better than any. But despite this there is still...something. This should not be. You should not be.

[bedninja]

I am sure that if Wisely were here, he would say that you have just insulted me. [He smiles once more.] Of course though, you are correct; as I am now I am an entity that was never meant to exist from the very beginning; but likewise, the turn of events that lead to my existence were inevitable, just as the fact that I stand here before you was.

I am not merely 'Death'. I am Pharos.

And that is the being that I wish to be most right now.

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

[ ...Of all the things she thougth she might hear, that was certainly not it. Anxiety and alarms still tell her to shy back from him, to confront him, even accept him. He's as much a part of everything as she or any other Aspect would be...

But he is stronger, she knows: he IS his own essence, rather than she an embodient and protector of her own. And it's that realization, that knowledge that sets her at unease; even moreso when she hears his words ]

Pharos....?

[bedninja]

Correct.

...Eleven years ago now, A portion of 'Death' was sealed inside a young boy. And inside that boy it stayed dormant, watching and waiting for ten human years, with no knowledge of what it was or why it existed. There was only the darkness... and the life of that one human child.

That child grew, and so did 'Death'. Eventually, 'Death' was able to speak with the child... and when prompted, without ever knowing what it - I - truly was, I proclaimed that my name would be Pharos.

I spent many months, waiting in silence and talking to that boy, until the pieces of my former self could be gathered together and my memories restored... all so that I could fulfill my purpose.

But the longer I spent with that child, the more I realized... I was no longer merely an embodiment of the thing that awaits all life at it's end. I was given humanity by that child.

The part of 'me' that is human... the part that has friends and gets angry and loves Minato, that is 'Pharos'.

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

[ ....So in a way, he was like Anveena. Something that had never been meant to exist, but which against all odds had grown and become something more. The knowledge didn't comfort her, but it allowed some of her aura to quell its flame, her brow to furrow in thought rather than anxiety ]

[bedninja]

...Is my existence really so difficult for you to accept? Though I may not be human, I have a physical body within this place. [He pauses, before reaching out a hand towards her; evidence, if she should decide to reach out and actually take his hand.] I have friends within this place, and I have lost friends as they have left the Castle as well. I care very much for the boy that I was trapped inside, and I cherish the time that the Castle has given me with him.

If you could not feel my presence the way that you do in this place... you would not even question me.

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

It is not that it is so difficult to accept...rather, that it was able to be shaped into the form I see before me. [ her eyes fall to his hand, and though she can sense nothing else about him she sees no lie in his words. In fact if she'd hadn't be able to tell, she really would have thought him nothing more but a boy.

Still, she does not take his hand and instead offers an almost apologetic expression ]

[bedninja]

[He saw that coming to some extent, and when she doesn't reach out he lowers his hand, his own expression equally apologetic.]

Yes... I suppose that it would be quite difficult to comprehend. I can only imagine what it must have been like when Minato realized what he had been carrying inside of him all of those years... [He closes his eyes.]

You may do whatever you wish with the knowledge that "death resides within the Castle"; Of course there are many people that are unaware of it, just as you would have been if circumstances had been different.

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

There is no reason for me to do more than observe, if you truly are as you say. You are as much a part of the natural order and balance as I...and despite whatever unease there is, I cannot fault you for it. The fact that you are here before me, embodied and tangent...is something that I will acknowledge and accept as a Guardian of Life.

[bedninja]

...You are a very understanding guardian; perhaps in some ways, I should have expect that from someone that is meant to look after the aspect of 'Life'.

But if you do not mind sharing it with someone like me, what is your name? ...simply calling you a guardian, or 'Life', seems rather peculiar - do you not think?

[nurturing.livejournal.com]

I am known by many names... But simply call me Alexstrasza. [ and she would say it is a pleasure to meet you, but....)': ]

[bedninja]

Alexstrasza, is it? ...It is a pleasure to meet you, Alexstrasza. [Pause.] Even if the sentiment is not mutual.

[He turns his attention back on the three now, taking a step forward.]

...I did mean what I said to you before, of course. This is a truly beautiful thing that you have created. [Then his eyes are back on her, the same oddly somber sort of smile on his face once more.] But perhaps I have overstayed my welcome from the time being.