Halloween - Open

[suitsahero]

((OOC: Since a few people mentioned this, I thought I'd write one starter and whoever wants can tag in. This is one of my favorite sorts of set-ups so I don't think I'll get tired of playing it over and over if that's how this shakes out. I've tried to leave a variety of actual starting states or reasons to be there open as well.))

Getting up to the castle on purpose is difficult.

It's difficult to get to the bustling town at the base of the mountain. Transport is spotty at the best of times, mountain passes obscured by snow and ice most of the time. It's doable in the spring and summer, but the town is almost completely isolated in the fall and winter. Plenty of people make the journey, though, to enjoy the vistas, the peace and quiet through the winters, or just the ability to eke out a simple living, far from other stresses. The town is something of a tourist destination, both for those reasons and to climb a separate peak from the one with the castle on it. People go missing in the snows most years, but it's not considered dangerous beyond that, and everyone is warned extensively not to go wandering outside of the known routes or without a guide.

Nature is beautiful, but also deadly. It is nothing to be overly concerned about, beyond making sure people know how to be safe.

The people who actually live in the town are a bit superstitious, though, as only people living in relative isolation and in tension with a hostile environment can be. Which provides the next obstacle to getting up the mountain to the castle: no one is willing to take you. Stories vary on what lives up in the castle depending on who you talk to. A monster, a magician, an evil spirit, or just a strange artist who wants to be left alone. No one seems to agree on what is up in the tower, but everyone agrees that you don't go up there, you don't bother whoever, or whatever, it is. People don't come back or maybe people do come back but they're different, strange, don't remember things, or maybe no one has ever been up there at all.

And then, if you happen to still be painfully curious, particularly when you can clearly see lights moving through the castle in the evenings, the way up to the castle is also treacherous, requires skill and luck just to follow the unkept trail through the snow and rocks and trees, the way turned steep and winding through disuse. And the villagers also say there are wolves, though you've never seen any.

On the other hand, it is remarkably easy to find the castle on accident.

Nothing about it is magically easier, but if you throw safety to the wind, if your tent is ripped open by falling snows or you lose a trail you're supposed to be on, suddenly difficult and dangerous obstacles become your means of survival and climbing up to the castle doesn't seem like a journey to be embarked upon with caution but a last, desperate act of someone who doesn't want to freeze to death in the snows. Surely whatever is waiting there is better than that. Surely.

And what of those who fail? Who go out into the wilds only to succumb to the elements?

Well, no eyes and ears can be everywhere, but some few who do have their journeys set to end in the most final way possible might find themselves waking in a warm bed, instead, fire blazing merrily in a hearth. Are you lucky to have survived or not? Only time will tell...

Comments

[suitsahero]

"I hope so. I so rarely get visitors," everything about him sounds so sincere, but then why was Hodges so adamant that he didn't want to be disturbed? It's probably a little hard to think about when he's so warm and comfortable and Haurchefant is being so nice. "Perhaps you could even stay a little longer?"

There's something so longing about the last, like he's lonely beyond words.

[darlingdatura]

Mikka wasn't generally a suspicious person. Tended to take people at their word, and so he saw nothing especially strange here. As muddled as he was at the moment, distracted by his kindly host, it was so very easy just to excuse it as Hodges being overprotective. Haurchefant looked like so pale it was likely he fell ill quite easily, and so far up the mountain it wasn't like help was easy to get to.

And he's entirely susceptible to that tone of longing. Remembered his own youth, how lonely he'd been, how lonely he still so often was and his smile gentled, something sweet and reassuring to it. "Well I can't say I have anywhere pressing to be. If you've a want to put up with a guest who am I to deny you that wish?"

[suitsahero]

"Splendid!" he says it like Mikka hung the stars just for him, smile particularly bright for a moment.

Or perhaps it's really that it's just a smile with more teeth.

"I want to hear all about your travels. Where you've been and how you came to be here, and where you're thinking of going next. Everything. You seem like someone who would have a few good ones. And surely we should send some word down the mountain to your travelling companions as soon as the storm lets up just enough, to let them know where you are. I wouldn't want anyone to worry."

Innocent enough. Unless there's no one who'll be looking for him, of course.

[darlingdatura]

Mikka, unfortunately was far too dazzled by the sunshine in that smile to realize the edges that lurked just past the shine.

Oh well.

"I haven't been travelling long, so I'm not sure how entertaining my tales may be, but I'll be happy to share them." The Miqo'te admitted, his own smile shifting to something sheepish. "But there's no need to put anyone out like that... I've been travelling on my own."

[suitsahero]

"All alone and up in the mountains? Then I'm even more glad you've found your way to my door," it's just concern, of course, nothing further. He wouldn't have wanted Mikka to freeze to death all alone.

And he truly wouldn't have. Haurchefant is genuinely glad to have him here, genuinely does find the young man charming and is glad to have company. It makes the words ring true, makes it easier to ignore some of the other potential meanings, even if Mikka had been looking for them. He wants him here and is happy he is here.

He wants to keep him here.

"And I'm sure your tales will be as lovely as you are. It's been a long time since I've seen anything but these mountains. Any word at all from outside them is a gift," he laughs softly, shaking his head, "Ah, but listen to me, like a child trying to wheedle out a tale when really we ought to get you into a warm bed. Surely I can wait until you've recovered from your ordeal before I ply you for stories."

[darlingdatura]

Oh, if only Mikka was a bit more cautious. A bit more aware of the ways people might hide their true motives behind kindness. But he wasn't, quite taken with the sweet sort of charm of his host, trying to pretend that he wasn't flushing an even brighter pink at the almost casual compliment of how lovely he was.

"I'll happily share all the stories I have," He assured Haurchefant with a soft, faint little laugh of his own in reply. "But... I do think a bit of rest might be a wise choice first."

[suitsahero]

"Of course, of course. Here, let me show you the way," he offers his hand in getting up out of the chair, and if perhaps Mikka ends up a bit closer than normal propriety might allow, it's surely an accident. Haurchefant's hands are cold, but the gesture gives the impression of warmth and if there's no protest, he'll tuck Mikka's hand in the crook of his arm where the chill is less noticeable and lead him out of the sitting room as though Mikka were a noblewoman at a ball.

Any protest or pulling away at all is allowed and met with a soft smile, but if Mikka isn't stopping him, Haurchefant won't hesitate to lead him all the way to the bedroom like that.

"I hope it's to your liking. It's been a while since we've had guests." Haurchefant pushes the door open and draws him into the room a bit, so he can look around.

The room is large enough to feel spacious but small enough to be cozy all the same, with a fireplace heating the room at the moment and a large bed, piled high with pillows and blankets. It seems to be a place designed to inspire comfort and, for a desolate castle with a reclusive lord, seems even more surprising.

[darlingdatura]

"O-oh, thank you." Mikka murmured as he accepted the hand up. Telling himself that it was just the fact that he was still feeling a bit unsteady on his feet that he wasn't putting distance between them, but the flush to his face as his fingers curled reflexively against Haurchefant's arm certainly belied that handily. Entirely weak to this sort of charming, sweet attention, he cast a shy smile towards his companion, letting himself be led along.

"It looks so cozy," He hummed, peering around the room. If Haurchefant was anyone else the welcoming comfort of the room would indeed be odd, but the man, strange as he was, seemed exactly the sort to keep his guest rooms so nice even with the idea of how little use they might get. "I really do appreciate this."

[suitsahero]

"Of course," he says again, with a small bow, "I hope you have a good rest."

And Haurchefant leaves and Mikka gets ready for bed and has a good night's sleep, will wake feeling refreshed but lazy, as though he's slept in incredibly late, limbs heavy for some reason, a bit tired still but in a good way. And that's... good. Of course. That's the memory that will keep, when he fully wakes up. That Haurchefant left, that he got ready for bed on his own. But in the moment just before he wakes up, there's another memory, dream-like, over top of that.

Something about the firelight catches in Haurchefant's eyes and he's saying something, but the words slide completely out of memory. It must be something reassuring, though, because it makes Mikka relax, smile a little. And then he's crossing over and tipping his head back ever so gently and leaning in, like he's going to kiss him. Haurchefant's mouth drops to his neck, instead, and there's a surprisingly heated kiss placed there, the scrape of teeth like a lover might, and then pain, bright and sharp, that dulls quickly to a low pulse, mixed with a strange, heady kind of pleasure.

[darlingdatura]

It was such a strange memory. Surely a dream, it was so odd, so hazy that it couldn't be anything else to say nothing of what happened. So easy to excuse as some wild thing dredged up by the exhaustion of such a long, harrowing day. Even if the sensation of lips against skin was something he couldn't possibly know the reality of, or that odd, almost phantom memory of pleasure that came after the flash of pain that he'd found himself yielding utterly to.

Surely just a dream, for all his heart skipped at the idea of it, before the waking world seemed to wash the sensations out under the much more reasonable memory of what surely had been the truth of the matter. Excusing the heavy limbs and lack of energy with his floundering hike the day before. It was little surprise after nearly dying in the cold that he might sleep so very hard. Just his imagination that he might seem a slight bit paler as he was getting dressed for the day. The lighting of the place surely, or maybe he was coming down with a cold. He certainly hoped he wasn't getting ill, both for his own sake as well as his kindly host. As it was though, he finally padded out of the room, curious about the place he'd found himself, as well as Haurchefant himself.

[suitsahero]

He's allowed to wander, at least a bit, though he might find one or two doors barred a bit more securely if he starts trying doors. There's plenty to see without having to open a single closed door, however, and so he might not even discover any of them. Eventually, though, he'll find his way to a different sitting room, higher up in the tower, and find Haurchefant installed in a chair there, reading a book.

Haurchefant looks better today than Mikka remembers from the night before, no longer quite so pale and he looks up from his book as Mikka comes in, clearly surprised to see someone in the manner of someone used to being alone. A moment later there is a flash of an equally unguarded look, a way his eyes drop down from Mikka's that could be perhaps read as shy, if he wanted to, but feels more amorous, like he wants what his eyes are sliding over. The expression is gone in an instant, replaced by a more softly flustered blush, which is still entirely incongruous, just less dangerously so.

"Ah, I wasn't expecting you awake yet. You startled me. Did you sleep well?"

[darlingdatura]

He doesn't try the doors- doesn't want to be rude and snoop where he isn't invited. But he still is glad to find Haurchefant, a faint smile crossing his lips. He looked better.. perhaps he'd gotten some much-needed rest. Mikka was glad to see it, and the surprise he's regarded with is a bit charming, a thing he had been on the other side of plenty of times before.

But the look that followed, however brief was nothing he'd ever been a part of before. While he excused it as shyness, the twitch of ears, the telling frizz of the fur of his tail and the faint flush of cheeks showed that on some level he recognized that want under the reasonable assumption. Easy enough to excuse as Haurchefant spoke, the Keeper smiling shyly as he nodded.

"I did, actually." He hummed, head tilting as he studied his host. "And yourself? You look much more lively than you did last night, if it's not too permissive for me to say as much."

[suitsahero]

"I've not had a better night in some time," he answers, honestly. "Perhaps it was your company," the flirtation is easy, gentle, the implication perhaps a bit more lascivious than he intended, actually. There's something about his expression this morning that's different as well, a different type of warmth.

There's something lovely about people when they're a little bit faded around the edges, isn't there? Mikka looks so soft and pretty a little paler, a little more tired. It makes him want to dote on him a bit, get him blankets and chocolate. Restraint isn't something Haurchefant has ever been known for, but he does know he has to tread at least a bit carefully, which might be the only thing keeping him casual and not motherhenning an injury he caused.

"Are you hungry at all? I've already eaten, but I'm sure we could find some food for you."

[darlingdatura]

"You flatter me," Mikka replied, that flush spreading a bit. "But if my company helped, then I am happy to give it."

It likely didn't help that the Miqo'te already had that softness about him even when at full health. Small and sweet, and as Haurchefant had already started to see, so very weak to that gentle doting. Unaware of course of his host's struggle, unaware of how he might make it worse simply by being himself.

"Famished, actually," And he found he was, quite hungry in fact. "I certainly wouldn't argue a chance for breakfast."

[suitsahero]

"Of course!" he rises quickly, definitely more spry than he'd seemed the night before. Perhaps Mikka just caught him on a bad day, before...? "It may take the servants a bit of time to prepare something, but I will be happy to keep you company while they do."

The main thing Mikka might notice on the way down the stairs is the impression of space here. This castle is huge and he has only seen one part of it. Perhaps the rest of it is in disrepair, or perhaps with just one person to look after, opening the rest of it up hasn't seemed necessary. Even so, this part seems so large and so empty. It's easy to see why Haurchefant would be so overjoyed to have guests, though it still doesn't explain why Hodges seems so sour about them.

The head of servants is there, glaring at both of them, when Haurchefant pokes his head in the kitchen with Mikka in tow and orders some kind of breakfast for their guest to be brought to the downstairs sitting room, but Hodges doesn't protest at all, just bows and sets the meager other servants to work on breakfast while Haurchefant sweeps Mikka out back towards the sitting room with a hand on his shoulder he just rather forgets to remove as he leads him.

[darlingdatura]

"That sounds quite fine to me." Mikka replied with a smile. Happy to see his host was looking better... perhaps it had just been fatigue from the day catching up to Haurchefant that had him looking quite so tired the evening before.

With just Haurchefant and the small staff he seemed to keep here, it wouldn't surprise him to know the rest of the castle was simply closed off. A sensible thing rather than straining the servants with unnecessary work, and his host seemed the considerate sort in that. Mikka might sidle a bit closer to his side as they walked, an unconscious response to the sheer amount of empty space, as if to stave off the loneliness of such a thing.

And maybe a bit closer again at the glower cast their way from Hodges, a little intimidated by the dour man. But comforted by the gentle pressure of the hand on his shoulder, casting Haurchefant a sheepish sort of smile as they made their way toward the sitting room. "I don't think Hodges is as happy to see me here as you are."

[suitsahero]

Haurchefant chuckles at that, pulls Mikka just a little closer. It's too close for propriety at this point, but Mikka was practically gravitating into him. He can't be expected to resist that, can he?

"Hodges is overprotective. He's been with me a long time and he's a good man but he's a bit soft-hearted," it's hard to see how anyone could think Hodges is soft-hearted with how he's been acting. Perhaps Haurchefant just means towards himself. Or perhaps he's got blinders on about him. It does seem like he's the only person Haurchefant has much interactions with. Perhaps he can't see how unpleasant the man is.

He leads Mikka into the sitting room and seats them both on the small sofa there. It's not quite a loveseat size, but it's small enough that they have to sit closer than on a normal sofa, though he does release Mikka when they get there, albeit maybe with a lingering touch just a little too long.

"Do you need any blankets at all? I am used to the cold but I know you likely are not." There's a fire in the hearth, but really, Haurchefant doesn't feel the cold at all anymore and has no idea if his guest might be chilly even with it.

[darlingdatura]

"Ah, yes I can see how that might make him wary of strangers coming around then." Mikka tended to believe the best of people, and while it was a sweet trait, here it was dangerous. Here it let him gloss over those warning signs that might make another want to get distance. Made that light nudge closer earn a bit more of a blush rather than stirring any worry.

And surely that lingering of Haurchefant's hand was just his own imagination running away with him, silly fanciful ideas that surely he was just making up out of some silly romantic notion of interest with how kind his host had been so far.

"I'm not used to it at all to be fair." Mikka replied with a sheepish laugh. "I've lived in the desert my whole life. I don't think I even saw snow until I was sixteen!"

[suitsahero]

"Really? I haven't always lived in the snow, but I've been here so long it seems like it's more natural than anything else," he busies himself with finding a blanket so that he doesn't think overmuch on why he's hidden himself away up here. To no hurt people. To remove the temptation to do precisely what he is now doing. But while the intervening years have certainly kept the people around him safer than if he roamed freely, it also makes him utterly unable to resist such a charming and sweet visitor.

It would only take a word and he could have whatever he desired, and the temptation is heady, it always is. But to be able to feed is one thing and other appetites that rise under the surface after so long alone are quite another and he pushes the voice aside. Even so, he cannot resist a bit more of a touch as he fluffs the found blanket around Mikka, is growing less able to hide the subtle warmth in his gaze.

"There. Is that better?"

[darlingdatura]

Mikka was none the wiser to Haurchefant's internal struggle. And honestly, while feeding was one thing, he might find it not quite so hard to be allowed some of those other temptations even without that influence, with how charmed his guest was. Quite the romantic this one, and how many novels had he all but devoured with a healthy flush, where the romantic lead was a mysterious, charming stranger in a remote tower or castle?

A soft little chirp slipping from him at the gentle way the blanket was tucked around him, ears perking slightly as he nodded. "Much better, thank you. Now come and sit back down! Tell me about the kind of places you've lived before? I find myself curious about my mysterious savior!"

[suitsahero]

Oh no, that little noise is so cute and Haurchefant can't help but be the one looking charmed for a moment. It's all he can do to keep from petting him like a cat. His ears look so soft and he looks so cozy under the blanket. He can't feel warmth any more than he can feel cold, but the aesthetic appreciation of someone else enjoying it is enough. It doesn't stop him from wanting to soak up Mikka enjoying it, certainly.

He laughs softly and sits down, not quite touching but close enough that he can at least imagine he can feel the warmth Mikka's now radiating,

"It's been a long time," he warns, "to the point where I'm probably going to be telling tall tales, or at least getting some of the details mixed up. But I can certainly try!" He's lived up here for so long that everything else is a distant memory, but it's a simple matter to tell some stories of his childhood, to pepper in details that make the places sound more modern. One of the things he's had Hodges do has been to gather books for him from across both the land and the years. It's not as impressive a collection as it could be, perhaps, with how far the books have to come to reach him, but he's reasonably well aware of current inventions and culture-- enough that he seems a bit quaint, but more like someone who's been locked away for a normal number of years and not centuries.

[darlingdatura]

As if Mikka would begrudge him that. Blush about it of course, he seemed an easily-flustered sort, but surely not an unhappy response either. As it was, he simply snuggled down into the blanket, basking in the warmth of both it and the fire as Haurchefant settled in beside him again.

And he was utterly rapt in listening to his host's tales, certainly not minding the little oddities and discrepancies. If he had been living on this mountain for as long as he implied, then it was little surprise to Mikka that his grasp of modern culture might be a little dated. Even in the town at the base of the mountain news was slow to arrive, he could only guess how much longer it took to filter up to Haurchefant.

"You sound like you were quite the handful when you were a child!" He commented with a soft laugh, forgetting propriety enough to lean and nudge his shoulder against Haurchefant's arm in a playful sort of bump.

[suitsahero]

A rare occurrence, but it's actually possible for him to blush at the moment, and so he does, just slightly, when Mikka bumps at his arm. It flusters him enough that he has to blink just a moment to re-find the conversation, and it looks cute on the surface, but the hunger for this kind of easy companionship roars in him for a moment before he can get it under control.

He smiles back, though, adjusts his response, reminds himself he's a creature of patience, isn't he? There's no reason to be hasty.

"I suppose I was, at that. I wouldn't say I'm not a handful now!" he teases gently, "But I suppose I've mellowed a bit with age."

[darlingdatura]

It looks so very sweet on the surface, and Mikka has no idea of the undercurrent there as he beams cheerfully at his companion. Patience gives all in this situation. It wasn't like the little Miqo'te had any way to leave just yet with the storm raging outside the seeming safety of the sturdy castle walls.

"With age? Surely you're not so old as to talk like that my friend, silver hair or no!"

[suitsahero]

Careful. Careful. Careful.

He knows he can right anything he does wrong, smooth over the edges the same way he did Mikka's memories last night. But he also knows that, while he's fairly certain he could avoid anything too untoward, he cannot possibly fully behave himself if he puts Mikka under now.

He chuckles, shakes his head,

"Well, I am no longer a child, certainly," he points out, "nor do I have a child's energy. Though I have been told I still often have the mischief of one," he quips, smoothing things over. And then, whatever his other motivations, Hodges helps here by arriving with the food.

It's a simple breakfast styled meal-- warm bread and cheese, bacon of some variety and some eggs-- hearty and suited for cold weather.