The Collector's Dues - Glint - 25/11 (+ Narrative)
Nov 28, 2021 19:49:41 GMT
Pieni, Merla, the Daughter of Summer, and 4 more like this
Post by Varga on Nov 28, 2021 19:49:41 GMT
Co-written with the wonderful Soph
Continued from Conversations (by the fire)
Glint was sitting on the plushiest sofa in Root’s house, a cup of steaming pumpkin spice latte clutched in his hands. The verdant plants and elegant furniture around him blurred against the image still vivid in his mind.
A deserted market place…
Silent as a grave...
Upturned stalls like tombstones…
Blood stench overwhelming his senses…
Corpses... How many? Perhaps a dozen?
People he hadn’t cared about. Some people he’d wanted dead for so long… There they lay, unseeing eyes staring into the desert skies, grimaces of pain or fright frozen on their faces. They were dead, they couldn’t force him to do anything anymore.
Shouldn’t it make him feel better?
Why wasn’t he feeling better?!
No. No, that happened long ago. He was a different person now.
The marketplace in Port Ffirst was peaceful when they left earlier in the day.
It was fine, it all went fine and peaceful, didn’t it?
Glint took a shaky breath. His head was still hazy, thoughts and memories bounced around it, colliding and mashing together, as if he was drunk.
Did he hear Root crying to others for help?
He did!
But the botanist was fine, wasn’t he? He had to be! He had so many incantations protecting him you’d need a tarrasque to even scratch him. Root had to be alright, not lying under the bleak desert sky, he wasn’t there…
Of course not. But then… Oh, right, he was calling for help on Glint’s account.
Did he actually pass out there? He might have. Not amid the parlay, hopefully?
No, he clearly remembered the Collector asking for a truce, and, covering his retreat, throwing a ticking suitcase at them. Glint even recalled the spell he used to encase it in rocks to protect the others. He also vaguely remembered walking back to Root’s house.
So he didn’t pass out if he was still walking, right?
They had tea, Root paid the others, and asked Glint to stay.
Root asked him to stay.
So far, Glint has been the one doing the visiting, the writing, and Root… well, he never seemed to mind, but hasn’t shown much initiative, either.
Being asked to stay must be a good sign, surely?
And he stood by Root’s side through the whole ordeal. Although he did throw a poison at the Collector to stop them from running away, despite Root’s request that everything should be peaceful.
The potion was harmless, and he failed anyway… It was Lord Jaezred to make the Collector stop in the end. So Glint might as well not have been there, just as he was supposed to…
Taking all things his hazed mind allowed into account, Glint concluded that Root asking him to stay was either a very good thing, or an extremely, irreparably, disastrously bad thing.
He raises his eyes to the flustered botanist pacing the room. Against the jungle backdrop of the salon, the purple-skinned tiefling reminds him of a horned orchid blown back and forth by the wind.
“Ophrys cornuta,” Glint murmurs fondly without meaning to.
“Pardon?” Roots asks, stopping his pacing to give Glint a concerned look. “Are you sure you’re okay, Glint? You’ve seemed a bit....” he waves his hand around slightly. “Spaced out since earlier.”
Glint blinks with an effort, until his eyes start hurting, and shakes his head, his vision and his mind finally focusing on the here and now.
“Yes, I… I’m sorry,” he says with an attempt at his usual careless smile, putting his tankard down on the coffee table. “You know I’m not exactly cut out for open confrontations. Must have taken its toll on me. But… you wanted to talk, didn’t you?” He asks, and his mind immediately jumps to the events of the day, now ordered properly in his head. He takes an uncomfortable breath and adds in a smaller voice. “If that’s about me showing up without invitation, I… I’m sorry, I just… couldn’t sit this one out, I suppose…” He trails off, averting his eyes.
Root’s face softens slightly at Glint’s words and the botanist seems to think on something before sitting down on the sofa next to him. At a respectable distance. “Yes, in a way. But I didn’t ask you to stay to berate you if that’s what you think is about to happen. More to explain myself, if you’ll listen.”
He shoots a glance at Glint, giving him a moment to interject if wanted, before continuing on.
“I didn’t ask for you to come along today, not because I don’t think you’re competent, but because I didn’t want to burden you with this whole situation. I don’t want our time together to be intertwined with the mess the Collector caused me. And I certainly didn’t want to potentially see you get hurt for my sake.”
As Glint continues looking at him completely silent and unmoving, Root’s speech picks up in speed slightly, nervousness starting to creep in.
“I know with this adventuring work, risk is often part of the package, and not that you can’t handle risk, I’m not saying that! I just… I maybe was embarrassed at showing you just how incompetent I’ve been at handling this.”
Glint stretches out his hand, but lets it fall back in his lap at the last moment.
“No! Please, don’t say that. Incompetent? You? Not at all!” The fire on Glint’s head picks up, and goes out just as suddenly, as he inhales sharply and shakes his head. “Root, you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about,” he adds softly, calming down a bit. “You’ve figured out their plan, refused to cooperate, and faced them despite the danger they clearly presented. You’ve been very brave. If anyone should be embarrassed,” he takes another shaky breath and looks Root in the eye with a mix of sadness and guilt. “Root, I need you to know something about me. I don’t normally tell this to anyone, I choose to think I’m a different person now, but you need to know this. If we’re to… If you… Well, you need to know this before you decide if you want to see me again.” A couple moments go by in tense silence as he collects his thoughts and his willpower. “I used to be much like this Collector. And nothing like you. I worked for bad people without asking questions. First because I was young and stupid and it was fun to me, and then because I got too entangled to say no anymore. I wish I had your resolve and wisdom to do what you did. The physical ability to oppose such people is incidental, bravery to do so is not,” he concluded, staring at his own steepled hands in his lap. “So there, that’s my greatest embarrassment. I do believe a decade-long career in mafia beats saying no to one criminal,” he says with a sad chuckle. “That’s why you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about in front of me. Now that I know that you’ve got friends who are as willing to help you as I am, I’ll sleep that much better. But you can call me whatever happens, and I’ll always be there for you, and will never think less of you, no matter what. That is, if you still want to talk to me at all…” He sighs, awaiting his fate.
Root, quick as anything, shoots out a hand to grab Glint’s steepled fingers.
“Sorry, it’s just that you have a tendency to confess something of yourself to me, cover it up with that smile of yours, and then run off. I don’t want you running off,” the botanist says as Glint’s eyes travel up his arm, and to his face. Root contemplates for a moment before continuing: “Thank you. For trusting me with this, for being honest with me. I won’t lie when I say that I’m quite surprised, actually. But then you’ve always surprised me, in the best way.”
He looks up from where he’s been staring at Glint’s hands to meet his gaze.
“Of course I still want to talk to you. And may I just say you’re nothing like the Collector, you’ve got much better hair.” He chuckles in an attempt at levity, but seeing the wizard’s grave expression, continues in a more restrained tone. “But in all seriousness that’s certainly a past you have, but that’s the key thing, it’s the past. What matters is how you’ve used it to grow, to learn and change in the present. And presently I see a man who’s trying to be better, who is better. Someone who gives his all and is kind, who dampens his hair in my very flammable house. That’s my verdict.”
It’s not the biggest revelation Glint has ever heard, but somehow Root’s words stop his mind’s racing, and calm down his thoughts completely, the gruesome scene of his past gradually evaporating to give way to the here and now, to the jungle-themed room lit with magical lights, and a purple-skinned tiefling in front of him. Glint smiles - not politely, not even charmingly, just smiles, - and covers Root’s hand with one of his own.
“Of course it’s all about growth with you,” he chuckles softly before his expression becomes more serious and focused. “Thank you. For having more trust in me than I do myself. I won’t insult your intelligence by asking if you understand the implications of what I’ve told you, I’m sure you’ve considered your reply carefully. And I’ve certainly never received a kinder verdict.”
He gives Root’s hand another comforting squeeze, same as he did at the marketplace. He shifts a bit closer to the tiefling, as much as the plush sofa would allow without making the movement too awkward. Glint swallows nervously and raises his eyes again.
“But if it’s not too big of a request, I’d like to ask you another question. I’m probably overstepping, but I can’t stop thinking about it whenever I’m away and can’t stop fearing whenever I’m here,” he shakes his head lightly and frowns, focusing his thoughts in the moment. “So, here it goes. I’ve noticed you were somewhat upset when I spoke to Lord Jaezred of the nature of our relations. On my part, I must say I never voice presuppositions on this sort of thing. I find that gossip is just another way to manipulate people." He winces momentarily. "To pressure them into doing what you want - they either feel the need to conform to the rumor to avoid confrontation, or to act contrarily to disprove it. Besides, at the time I was under the impression that you and him are… together. He since assured me that’s not the case. And… I don’t want to pressure you into anything, but I do want to ask you, if he’s just your friend… what am I?”
The room is dead silent, save for the distant sounds of Ted walking about the roof terrace, as Root clasps Glint’s hands. And then he answers, voice barely above a whisper.
“I...I don’t know. But I do want you to be more than a friend to me.”
The tiefling’s cheeks blush as he continues to fidget with Glint’s hands. There is another moment of tense silence that seems to stretch way too long, until Root feels another warm squeeze on his hands, as Glint gently tugs on one of them, raising it to his mouth and planting a respectful kiss on the knuckles. Root’s blush deepens.
“I’d like that very much,” he says, attempting a calm and supportive demeanor, but unable to completely keep emotion out of his voice. Even for someone not quite adept at reading people, Root’s nervousness is too obvious not to notice. Glint gives him an intense hooded look. “And I won’t lie, I’m quite curious to see if I manage to stay in your good graces for any significant period of time. So curious, in fact, that I just might stop running off the first chance I get and hang around just to see how it goes,” he says with mock nonchalance. “Hmmm… how does one start? Perhaps with something small… Would you like some tea after this long day?” He nods towards the little side table with a long-cold kettle and a couple of untouched cups. His lips are stretched in a smile, but his eyes are aglow with encouragement and gratitude.
Root also can’t help but smile back, nervousness dissipating, his eyebrows shooting up at Glint’s comments. “So you do admit that you tend to flee at a moment's notice! But indeed, just staying would be a fantastic start. And, I suppose, on my part I should make sure to keep your curiosity peaked then.”
He follows the direction of Glint's gaze to the long abandoned tea in front of them. “And though tea is always a nice option, I feel like I’ve had plenty today already...” And then he fully readjusts his position on the sofa, all semblance of respectable distance gone, and feels the warmth of Glint’s body leech into his own. “Can we just talk? Or well….get to know each other a bit more, with no pretense of doing research or deciphering books. As delightful as I found it, I... don't really need excuses to enjoy your company.”
Glint’s breath hitches. He knows he shouldn’t be reacting like that. A simple suggestion to spend an evening together talking shouldn’t cause blush in a man who has slept with more people than he remembered the names of. But it was… a different type of intimacy to what he is used to. It takes him a full minute to get used to the thought, and to carefully drape his hand over Root’s shoulder. It takes him another minute, even slightly more, to remember to breathe. Eventually, his brain supplies a lot of information that he couldn’t recall after feeling Root’s body press against his - like his own name, and well, everything else.
“Ophrys cornuta,” Glint murmurs gently, nuzzling against one of Root's horns, fully meaning the fondness in his tone this time around. Answering the tiefling's questioning gaze, he says. “I think it will be a fitting addition to this room. I’m half-surprised you don’t have it already. And to that effect, I’d love to know when did you decide that you were going to live in a greenhouse? Is it a complete fulfilment of a childhood dream, or…?”
And just like that, the conversation picks up, and somehow, despite jumping from one subject to another, effortlessly stays away from any weird books and anything to do with research. In fact, it does so for hours.
Continued from Conversations (by the fire)
Glint was sitting on the plushiest sofa in Root’s house, a cup of steaming pumpkin spice latte clutched in his hands. The verdant plants and elegant furniture around him blurred against the image still vivid in his mind.
A deserted market place…
Silent as a grave...
Upturned stalls like tombstones…
Blood stench overwhelming his senses…
Corpses... How many? Perhaps a dozen?
People he hadn’t cared about. Some people he’d wanted dead for so long… There they lay, unseeing eyes staring into the desert skies, grimaces of pain or fright frozen on their faces. They were dead, they couldn’t force him to do anything anymore.
Shouldn’t it make him feel better?
Why wasn’t he feeling better?!
No. No, that happened long ago. He was a different person now.
The marketplace in Port Ffirst was peaceful when they left earlier in the day.
It was fine, it all went fine and peaceful, didn’t it?
Glint took a shaky breath. His head was still hazy, thoughts and memories bounced around it, colliding and mashing together, as if he was drunk.
Did he hear Root crying to others for help?
He did!
But the botanist was fine, wasn’t he? He had to be! He had so many incantations protecting him you’d need a tarrasque to even scratch him. Root had to be alright, not lying under the bleak desert sky, he wasn’t there…
Of course not. But then… Oh, right, he was calling for help on Glint’s account.
Did he actually pass out there? He might have. Not amid the parlay, hopefully?
No, he clearly remembered the Collector asking for a truce, and, covering his retreat, throwing a ticking suitcase at them. Glint even recalled the spell he used to encase it in rocks to protect the others. He also vaguely remembered walking back to Root’s house.
So he didn’t pass out if he was still walking, right?
They had tea, Root paid the others, and asked Glint to stay.
Root asked him to stay.
So far, Glint has been the one doing the visiting, the writing, and Root… well, he never seemed to mind, but hasn’t shown much initiative, either.
Being asked to stay must be a good sign, surely?
After all, Glint came to help him! He wasn’t invited, of course…
But he went to scout the marketplace beforehand to make sure it was safe. It didn’t do much, but he made an effort…And he stood by Root’s side through the whole ordeal. Although he did throw a poison at the Collector to stop them from running away, despite Root’s request that everything should be peaceful.
The potion was harmless, and he failed anyway… It was Lord Jaezred to make the Collector stop in the end. So Glint might as well not have been there, just as he was supposed to…
Taking all things his hazed mind allowed into account, Glint concluded that Root asking him to stay was either a very good thing, or an extremely, irreparably, disastrously bad thing.
He raises his eyes to the flustered botanist pacing the room. Against the jungle backdrop of the salon, the purple-skinned tiefling reminds him of a horned orchid blown back and forth by the wind.
“Ophrys cornuta,” Glint murmurs fondly without meaning to.
“Pardon?” Roots asks, stopping his pacing to give Glint a concerned look. “Are you sure you’re okay, Glint? You’ve seemed a bit....” he waves his hand around slightly. “Spaced out since earlier.”
Glint blinks with an effort, until his eyes start hurting, and shakes his head, his vision and his mind finally focusing on the here and now.
“Yes, I… I’m sorry,” he says with an attempt at his usual careless smile, putting his tankard down on the coffee table. “You know I’m not exactly cut out for open confrontations. Must have taken its toll on me. But… you wanted to talk, didn’t you?” He asks, and his mind immediately jumps to the events of the day, now ordered properly in his head. He takes an uncomfortable breath and adds in a smaller voice. “If that’s about me showing up without invitation, I… I’m sorry, I just… couldn’t sit this one out, I suppose…” He trails off, averting his eyes.
Root’s face softens slightly at Glint’s words and the botanist seems to think on something before sitting down on the sofa next to him. At a respectable distance. “Yes, in a way. But I didn’t ask you to stay to berate you if that’s what you think is about to happen. More to explain myself, if you’ll listen.”
He shoots a glance at Glint, giving him a moment to interject if wanted, before continuing on.
“I didn’t ask for you to come along today, not because I don’t think you’re competent, but because I didn’t want to burden you with this whole situation. I don’t want our time together to be intertwined with the mess the Collector caused me. And I certainly didn’t want to potentially see you get hurt for my sake.”
As Glint continues looking at him completely silent and unmoving, Root’s speech picks up in speed slightly, nervousness starting to creep in.
“I know with this adventuring work, risk is often part of the package, and not that you can’t handle risk, I’m not saying that! I just… I maybe was embarrassed at showing you just how incompetent I’ve been at handling this.”
Glint stretches out his hand, but lets it fall back in his lap at the last moment.
“No! Please, don’t say that. Incompetent? You? Not at all!” The fire on Glint’s head picks up, and goes out just as suddenly, as he inhales sharply and shakes his head. “Root, you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about,” he adds softly, calming down a bit. “You’ve figured out their plan, refused to cooperate, and faced them despite the danger they clearly presented. You’ve been very brave. If anyone should be embarrassed,” he takes another shaky breath and looks Root in the eye with a mix of sadness and guilt. “Root, I need you to know something about me. I don’t normally tell this to anyone, I choose to think I’m a different person now, but you need to know this. If we’re to… If you… Well, you need to know this before you decide if you want to see me again.” A couple moments go by in tense silence as he collects his thoughts and his willpower. “I used to be much like this Collector. And nothing like you. I worked for bad people without asking questions. First because I was young and stupid and it was fun to me, and then because I got too entangled to say no anymore. I wish I had your resolve and wisdom to do what you did. The physical ability to oppose such people is incidental, bravery to do so is not,” he concluded, staring at his own steepled hands in his lap. “So there, that’s my greatest embarrassment. I do believe a decade-long career in mafia beats saying no to one criminal,” he says with a sad chuckle. “That’s why you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about in front of me. Now that I know that you’ve got friends who are as willing to help you as I am, I’ll sleep that much better. But you can call me whatever happens, and I’ll always be there for you, and will never think less of you, no matter what. That is, if you still want to talk to me at all…” He sighs, awaiting his fate.
Root, quick as anything, shoots out a hand to grab Glint’s steepled fingers.
“Sorry, it’s just that you have a tendency to confess something of yourself to me, cover it up with that smile of yours, and then run off. I don’t want you running off,” the botanist says as Glint’s eyes travel up his arm, and to his face. Root contemplates for a moment before continuing: “Thank you. For trusting me with this, for being honest with me. I won’t lie when I say that I’m quite surprised, actually. But then you’ve always surprised me, in the best way.”
He looks up from where he’s been staring at Glint’s hands to meet his gaze.
“Of course I still want to talk to you. And may I just say you’re nothing like the Collector, you’ve got much better hair.” He chuckles in an attempt at levity, but seeing the wizard’s grave expression, continues in a more restrained tone. “But in all seriousness that’s certainly a past you have, but that’s the key thing, it’s the past. What matters is how you’ve used it to grow, to learn and change in the present. And presently I see a man who’s trying to be better, who is better. Someone who gives his all and is kind, who dampens his hair in my very flammable house. That’s my verdict.”
It’s not the biggest revelation Glint has ever heard, but somehow Root’s words stop his mind’s racing, and calm down his thoughts completely, the gruesome scene of his past gradually evaporating to give way to the here and now, to the jungle-themed room lit with magical lights, and a purple-skinned tiefling in front of him. Glint smiles - not politely, not even charmingly, just smiles, - and covers Root’s hand with one of his own.
“Of course it’s all about growth with you,” he chuckles softly before his expression becomes more serious and focused. “Thank you. For having more trust in me than I do myself. I won’t insult your intelligence by asking if you understand the implications of what I’ve told you, I’m sure you’ve considered your reply carefully. And I’ve certainly never received a kinder verdict.”
He gives Root’s hand another comforting squeeze, same as he did at the marketplace. He shifts a bit closer to the tiefling, as much as the plush sofa would allow without making the movement too awkward. Glint swallows nervously and raises his eyes again.
“But if it’s not too big of a request, I’d like to ask you another question. I’m probably overstepping, but I can’t stop thinking about it whenever I’m away and can’t stop fearing whenever I’m here,” he shakes his head lightly and frowns, focusing his thoughts in the moment. “So, here it goes. I’ve noticed you were somewhat upset when I spoke to Lord Jaezred of the nature of our relations. On my part, I must say I never voice presuppositions on this sort of thing. I find that gossip is just another way to manipulate people." He winces momentarily. "To pressure them into doing what you want - they either feel the need to conform to the rumor to avoid confrontation, or to act contrarily to disprove it. Besides, at the time I was under the impression that you and him are… together. He since assured me that’s not the case. And… I don’t want to pressure you into anything, but I do want to ask you, if he’s just your friend… what am I?”
The room is dead silent, save for the distant sounds of Ted walking about the roof terrace, as Root clasps Glint’s hands. And then he answers, voice barely above a whisper.
“I...I don’t know. But I do want you to be more than a friend to me.”
The tiefling’s cheeks blush as he continues to fidget with Glint’s hands. There is another moment of tense silence that seems to stretch way too long, until Root feels another warm squeeze on his hands, as Glint gently tugs on one of them, raising it to his mouth and planting a respectful kiss on the knuckles. Root’s blush deepens.
“I’d like that very much,” he says, attempting a calm and supportive demeanor, but unable to completely keep emotion out of his voice. Even for someone not quite adept at reading people, Root’s nervousness is too obvious not to notice. Glint gives him an intense hooded look. “And I won’t lie, I’m quite curious to see if I manage to stay in your good graces for any significant period of time. So curious, in fact, that I just might stop running off the first chance I get and hang around just to see how it goes,” he says with mock nonchalance. “Hmmm… how does one start? Perhaps with something small… Would you like some tea after this long day?” He nods towards the little side table with a long-cold kettle and a couple of untouched cups. His lips are stretched in a smile, but his eyes are aglow with encouragement and gratitude.
Root also can’t help but smile back, nervousness dissipating, his eyebrows shooting up at Glint’s comments. “So you do admit that you tend to flee at a moment's notice! But indeed, just staying would be a fantastic start. And, I suppose, on my part I should make sure to keep your curiosity peaked then.”
He follows the direction of Glint's gaze to the long abandoned tea in front of them. “And though tea is always a nice option, I feel like I’ve had plenty today already...” And then he fully readjusts his position on the sofa, all semblance of respectable distance gone, and feels the warmth of Glint’s body leech into his own. “Can we just talk? Or well….get to know each other a bit more, with no pretense of doing research or deciphering books. As delightful as I found it, I... don't really need excuses to enjoy your company.”
Glint’s breath hitches. He knows he shouldn’t be reacting like that. A simple suggestion to spend an evening together talking shouldn’t cause blush in a man who has slept with more people than he remembered the names of. But it was… a different type of intimacy to what he is used to. It takes him a full minute to get used to the thought, and to carefully drape his hand over Root’s shoulder. It takes him another minute, even slightly more, to remember to breathe. Eventually, his brain supplies a lot of information that he couldn’t recall after feeling Root’s body press against his - like his own name, and well, everything else.
“Ophrys cornuta,” Glint murmurs gently, nuzzling against one of Root's horns, fully meaning the fondness in his tone this time around. Answering the tiefling's questioning gaze, he says. “I think it will be a fitting addition to this room. I’m half-surprised you don’t have it already. And to that effect, I’d love to know when did you decide that you were going to live in a greenhouse? Is it a complete fulfilment of a childhood dream, or…?”
And just like that, the conversation picks up, and somehow, despite jumping from one subject to another, effortlessly stays away from any weird books and anything to do with research. In fact, it does so for hours.