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Kadaj ([info]mothersbestson) wrote in [info]mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-09-15 16:51:00

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Entry tags:ayla, complete, day 15, kadaj

Day 15
Who: Kadaj and Ayla
When: Day 15 evening
What: Seeing A Familiar Face
Where: A bench looking toward the vineyard
Rating: G
Status: In progress

He sat on the bench, his chin resting on his right gloved hand while the left loosely held the sword hilt that stuck out of the scabbard. Shifting his elbow off the belt buckle around his thigh without raising his head, Kadaj stared at the orderly lines of the vineyard fields. He didn't have any real answers regarding the planet but all he wondered about was the footprints to be seen here and there in the dirt.

Perhaps he needed to go eat something in the restaurant or maybe just sleeping would be good. Sighing, he put his face into both his hands. His white hair hung down over the black fingers. He thought about the fact that there were dreams during sleep now. His mind jumped from subject to subject in a random fashion because he didn't want to dream just then. What good was it when he had to wake up after seeming to be alive again on Gaia, or after being back in the Lifestream? Like all the stolen people he'd met to date, he didn't want to be here.

Someone approached, his senses warned. Had he been where he belonged, he would have looked up... No, he wouldn't have even been sitting amongst green, growing things so it didn't matter.

Kadaj just continued sitting there holding his head in his hands.


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[info]_ayla_
2008-09-15 08:23 pm UTC (link)
Ayla had wakened that morning with a smile. Not that it was unusual for her, but she had had a great time with John the day before. Probably the most fun she'd ever had, at least since arriving here. And because she woke in such a good mood, she spent the rest of the day in a similar manner.

She wore clothing akin to those she'd worn the day before, knee-length leather pants, an a leather sleeveless top. Both were fringed slightly and only had stitching for decoration. Rather plain, but suitable for her needs. Her feet were bare, as per her usual, and her long waist-length blond hair was plaited into a singular braid down her back.

With a bounce in her step, and her sling tucked into the tie around her waist, Ayla wandered out of the buildings. She'd noticed the change in the land upon waking and looking out the small crack in her cave that served as a window to the outside world. But, now she was getting a chance to see it up close and personal.

She settled her hands on her hips and took a good look around her. She'd never seen land like this. The beach hadn't been all that foreign to her because she'd lived near a peninsula of the Beran Sea for some time when she lived with the Clan, but she'd never seen grapevines before. She took a great inhale of breath that expanded her chest. There were so many different smells, but the smell of the fruit on the vines smelled the strongest.

She headed for them, only noticing as she stepped away from the building and onto the earth that there were footprints. Strange footprints. They weren't human, they weren't equine, and they weren't feline. She recognized all those footprints, and these didn't register. She didn't have lizards where she came from. It was too cold. She crouched to examine them, running her finger on the inside of the deep depression. Perhaps one of the stranger people she'd seen around had feet this shape. She would have to remember to look at the feet of all the people she came in contact with now.

She stood up and headed toward the fields of grapes, her bare feet sinking into the damp earth and leaving prints in the grass. It was then that she saw him. Sitting on a bench with his face in his hands. He looked so forlorn. She knew him immediately, the hair was a dead giveaway. She furrowed her brow and slowed her pace as she came to stand in front of him. Tilting her head a little, her braid slipped over her shoulder. "Kadaj?"

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-09-15 09:04 pm UTC (link)
The voice saying his name with curious concern, he knew that voice.... Kadaj had to think for a heartbeat but he placed it back to his first day when the hurricane had raged.

He looked at her from between his fingers for a moment. This peekaboo wasn't a game, however, as his eyes were serious. Dropping his hands and raising his head so that the shiney silver hair flowed back, he studied Ayla's comfortable leather clothes. She wore the same material as him but her look was very different. The clothes suited her in their casual appeal. As did the long hair in a braid. He was reminded of Aerith's hair that had also been braided. She didn't look like Aerith but the expression on her face was familiar, one of concern even when she glowed with health and inner strength.

"Ayla," he greeted softly, realising both this blonde and and brunette Aerith were beautiful. This woman would not tell him lies. Not that he thought any of the other women he met had but he simply felt this by looking at Ayla. Merely by being there she communicated it without having to speak nor to prove it any other way.

It occurred to him that perhaps speaking to her without Anakin there would make a great difference.

"What do you think of the change?" he asked, waving his hand in the direction of the new terrain covered in ordered rows of vines.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-09-16 11:33 am UTC (link)
Ayla's light brown eyebrows rose when he peeked out from between his fingers. He wasn't playing a game like the one she'd played with Durc when he was a child. He looked...upset. His hands dropped and he lifted his head and greeted her. It was a greeting she was more familiar with. None of this "Hello" or "Hi", no shaking hands.

As he looked at her, she gazed right back, her blue eyes steady and unwavering. But after a moment, it occured to her that it was impolite to stare. At least, it was in her world. A world where people spoke with their hands and staring constituted eavesdropping. When he gestured to the land around them, she turned to look at it.

"It is strange that the land changes so abruptly. I have seen changes in the land before. Floods and glaciers displace land and make it look different every season. But, this is overnight and such a dramatic change. It is a little frightening, but I like the look of it very much." She turned back to him. "What do you think of it?"

She turned back to look at the grapevines as he answered. When he finished, she asked another question. "Do you know what that fruit is over there?" She pointed out the grapevines that she had been headed for before she had paused in front of the white haired youth. "I have never seen it before." There were many things in Mirage she had never seen before, and she craved knowledge like a drug. She wanted to learn all she could about the things around her. Especially if she was to live here for long.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-09-16 12:15 pm UTC (link)
He had no idea at all how impolite it was in her culture to look directly at others. Her thought about this wasn't something Kadaj could read in her demeanor. Ayla seemed to know the value of studying someone closely as far as he could tell.

"It's startling, yes, but not frightening to me," he said, "how quickly it's changed. I can't say I've seen floods but I know what you mean by glacier." And there was Meteor almost destroying the world. But that memory filtered through Sephiroth's past action wasn't relevent just now. He shook his head slightly as if shaking it harder would harm the delicate balance of his knowledge learned from many different minds. But he wasn't immersed in the Lifestream any more, which it occurred to him made him feel disadvantaged.

Kadaj watched her as she looked at the vines growing on the hilly terrain. He stood up as she pointed to the grapevines. With a slight smile and a tilt of his head in the direction where she pointed, he invited: "Let's go see".

His mind searched his memories. Initially he wasn't sure if he knew what the fruit was but there was a snippet of thought as if someone had seen, perhaps eaten, the....

"Grapes," he said suddenly as he walked toward the vines. "They're grapes." This seemed to lighten his mood somewhat.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-09-17 10:38 am UTC (link)
Ayla looked down for a moment when he spoke, but she mostly looked toward the grapevines. She fairly beamed when he suggested they go find out what kind of fruit it was. She started walking when he stood up and looked back when he announced what kind they were.

She'd never heard the word before but she could see by his body language that he wasn't lying to her. Testing the word out, she said it aloud. "Grapes." She beamed again and quickened her pace. She soon found herself running in between two rows of the thick leafy vines.

It smelled glorious. She had a predator's senses. Overdeveloped from necessity. She dropped into a crouch and looked up under one of the vines, spying a clump of the big red globes. She reached for it and tried to pull it off, but the vine was green and did not give. She pulled a flint knife from a pouch at her waist and sawed through the vine before standing up and holding the cluster up to the sun.

The light filtered through the juicy fruit and Ayla grinned. She plucked one from the stem and popped it in her mouth. She chewed for a moment the way she always did when testing new plants or vegetation. There was no bitter taste, nothing that would indicate poison, nothing that set alarm bells off in her head to spit it out. It was sweet and juicy. It filled her mouth with an explosion of new flavor. She relished it, closing her eyes and swallowing with a little bit of a groan.

"These are delicious." She shoved the cluster of grapes at him, imploring him to have some.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-09-17 03:45 pm UTC (link)
Kadaj watched the woman with interest bordering on awe at how she reacted to the environment of the vineyard. What he viewed as an orderly, rather boring exploitation of farmed food was obviously something quite different to her.

He thought Ayla reacted like an innocent animal taking revelry in sunlight. Just the fact she smiled like that at learning they were called 'grapes' told volumes about her. But wait, she wasn't naive after all. Getting closer to the clusters of fruit made her happy too yet she tasted one of the red globes carefully. Her enjoyment following the first taste was a reaction not quite like any he had seen before.

Reaching out, he plucked one of the round fruits from the cluster almost warily, rolling it between thumb and forefinger. Kadaj held it up to also see how it looked in the sunlight. There were memories whispering in his mind, telling him that it was good. Shrugging slightly, he popped the globe in his mouth. It slid over his tongue smoothly. The skin gave easily between his teeth and the flavour of fresh sweetness was better than he anticipated.

"Hn, delicious," he agreed, gazing at the lines of vines converging to a point on the horizon. "I assume you've never seen so many plants like this? I know I haven't." He wouldn't have had this conversation on his world before he died and the thought amused him somewhat.

Reaching out, he broke another heavy bunch of grapes off the vine.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-09-19 11:07 am UTC (link)
For one who was used to foraging for food, rows upon rows of this delicious fruit was like finding a treasure trove. In her world, Ayla had to memorize where things grew and remember to return there the next year to pick the small apples or berries. Farming had not yet been thought of, and it amazed her to see so many of these plants in the same place.

She was careful not to eat too many of the large bulbous fruits, and limited herself to only the single bunch she'd cut from the vine. She took her time, and savored each one, as if she would never be able to eat them again. Although, she knew that wasn't true. This current look of the restort would be around for at least six more days if her calculations of previous changes were correct.

"I wonder how these would taste if they were dried." She contemplated harvesting a good amount of them to dry for storage in her cave-like room. She could eat them whenever she wanted if she dried enough. She speculated that, like any other dried fruit, it would be a little sweeter when dried. The concentration of the sweet juices when the water was evaporated out of them was always much stronger than when one ate the fruit fresh.

Shaking her head, she addressed his question. "No, I haven't seen so many plants in one place like this. Usually I have to go hunting for the plants. This is much more convenient." She imagined what life would have been like back in the valley if she'd had her plants all lined up like this. It would have been much easier than roaming for miles over the open plains to find the plants she needed. She imagined she would have had more time for other things, though what, she wasn't sure.

She watched him take his own bunch of grapes and grinned. So he liked them, too. She was glad. She always liked to see people enjoying their food. And she couldn't think of a single thing she didn't like to eat herself. Mostly, her food was fuel efficient and gave her energy throughout the day. Dried berries, oats and animal fats mashed together into dried cakes were good traveling food. She'd made those plenty of times.

"Kadaj? I would like to hear more about your Lifestream. Would you mind telling me about it?"

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-09-19 07:20 pm UTC (link)
"I don't mind," he agreed and popped another grape into his mouth. Like before, he savoured biting into it and the combination of sweet yet slightly tart flavours that rushed over his taste buds.

"My world is called Gaia," he began by way of introduction. "I guess it's like a lot of planets that support life. Though this is the only other planet I've been on to date." He ate another grape and looked at the young woman, who didn't appear taller than him. With the exception of children and Claire Bennet, Kadaj was used to most people being taller, even his own brothers. It was nice to gaze at Ayla at eye level. He didn't even consider her being barefoot and his thick-soled boots which made them about equal in height.

He started walking between the neat rows slowly, looking to see if she accompanied him. Something about the vinyard and the weather actually made him feel relaxed. He almost considered removing his gloves as he plucked another grape from the bunch in his hand.

"The Lifestream... it's like the blood of the planet. It's not red, not even really physical in the same way. Some consider it the soul of Gaia. Others used it to power our cities," he explained. He wasn't sure what she might understand as surely as he realised they were from very different environments. But she would surely ask what she wanted to know.

"The Lifestream is where we go when we die and I was there before Mirage stole me."

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[info]_ayla_
2008-09-22 11:10 am UTC (link)
As she ate her grapes, she listened to Kadaj tell her about his world. She found it hard to comprehend some things because she couldn't relate them to anything in her own world, but she loved stories and still found it fascinating.

In all reality, Ayla was nearly five inches taller than Kadaj, but out of habit, she stooped. She had been taller than the men of the Clan, and they didn't like having to look up to a woman, so she stooped to be closer to their height and so that she could look up to them. Kadaj's tall boots, though, helped the situation so she didn't have to stoop too far.

As he walked, she turned to walk with him, continually plucking the juicy globes from the cluster in her hand. She listened, nodding her head from time to time. She was very attentive and would probably be able to repeat back to him everything he was telling her verbatim because of the habit she had picked up as a child. Memorization had been a huge key to her survival in the Clan.

"By power, you mean the same way Mirage is powered? With e-lec-tricity?" Ayla had been one of the first people on Mirage and as such had had plenty of time to research things she didn't understand in the library. Along with stealing her from her own world, the Planet apparently gave her the ability to read modern text. It was a miracle, considering she came from a time where there was no written word.

So she had read up on electricity, and comprehended as much as she could, though there was still so much she didn't grasp. "Creb said that the people who died in our world went up to sit around the hearth fires in the sky." She pointed upward with a finger stained slightly purple from the grapes she was eating. "Death confuses me. To the Clan I am dead, but my body never stopped working the way Iza's did." She frowned, wishing that she understood better. She hated not understanding.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-09-22 06:06 pm UTC (link)
Kadaj nodded, feeling more than a bit of curiosity about Ayla now that they had started talking in a meaningful manner. Really, she reminded him a little of himself when he'd been in the Lifestream and using the experience to answer his own questions.

"Yes we had electricity. Who told you about it here?"

He listened to her talk about her past, trying to learn from her inflections as well as her words. "Hearth fires in the sky... is that what you thought of when you saw stars on your world?" he wondered while they wandered the peaceful vineyard setting. Popping the grapes in his mouth and eating seemed to improve the way he felt. He could go for longer than most without food but whenever he boasted he didn't need to eat, that was major exaggeration.

"You leave your body when you die." He vaguely knew from others' thoughts that their bodies went into the Lifestream too yet they weren't physical in the same way as they had been. "Do you mean the Clan shunned you?"

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[info]_ayla_
2008-09-23 11:42 am UTC (link)
"No one told me. I wanted to know what they were, and when I went into the big room with all the books, I started looking through them. After a long time, I found out that encyclopedias have a lot of information in them. I read about electricity and light bulbs in the encyclopedias." She had to learn a lot of things on her own, but it was nothing different from the way she'd lived in the Valley.

"That's what Creb said they were, hearth fires for the people who had gone from this life. But I met a star, and she is not a hearth fire." Ayla was sometimes more confused than educated on certain things. Those encyclopedias had also said that stars were balls of gas. But Yvaine didn't look like a ball of gas to her.

"What do you mean we "leave" our bodies when we die? Isa looked the same, her body just stopped working. We buried her in the ground and piled rocks on top of her. But when I died, my body did not stop working. But no one could see me, they thought I was an evil spirit. They wanted me to go away."

It always made her stomach thrum with hurt when she thought about being cast out by the Clan. Having to leave her child behind, and everyone that she knew and loved. She pushed the memories away, though. She was trying to figure things out, and talking with Kadaj was helping.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-09-23 08:09 pm UTC (link)
He had never had to use a library nor a database, at least not in the consciousness who called himself Kadaj. But like with a lot else, he had memories of doing so, mostly from Sephiroth's time of schooling as a youth in this instance. Considering how wherever Ayla came from existed without electricity, she had done absolutely brilliantly for herself so far.

"You have to be very smart to learn all that," Kadaj complimented. Interesting that she had spent time educating herself rather than hiding or desperately seeking to leave.

"You met a star who's a person? Really? I think I'd like to meet an actual star." Kadaj believed her but he had other comments to make: "At least I think we leave our bodies. The spark of life, the soul, the Lifestream is inside our bodies. Ah..." He stopped and turned to look at her, looking into her eyes. "It's something like a light bulb. You can see the light of life in someone's eyes and then it goes out when they die. But the bulb is still there when the light is off." He didn't go into how on his world the bodies usually vanished too since it would just confuse his point right then.

"And was it your people declaring you had died but you knew you were still alive?" he wondered.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-09-24 01:05 pm UTC (link)
Ayla laughed softly and shook her blond head. "I had to learn very quickly when I was young. It has become a habit." She nodded again to his question, although it was more rhetorical than anything. "She's very pleasant. Her name is Yvaine. When she fell, she broke her leg. I found her shortly after."

She stopped when he seemed to have an epiphany. She listened, her brow furrowed slightly. She nodded with understanding. "I think I see what you mean. We call them spirits. Our spririts are intertwined with our totems. If our totem leaves us, our spirit dies."

She nodded again to his question. "Yes, I was still alive. My totem never left and my spirit was still inside my body. But the Clan thought I was an evil spirit, so they didn't look at me. They saw right through me, as if I wasn't there." Her voice was pained. It had been a horrible experience, but she knew it had been for the best. It was better for Durc, too. The Others thought he was an abomination.

She shook her head and continued to walk through the long rows of grape vines. "Why did you go back into the Lifestream?" She was curious about how he had died. She wasn't familiar with violence. It was a shameful act in the Clan to even speak harshly to another, unless it was a male speaking to a female. But if a man layed a hand on another man, it was as if he had killed him. It was unexcuseable.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-09-26 02:03 am UTC (link)
Kadaj filed away the information about the star's name for later. He supposed he might very well meet this Yvaine, considering how he had already met several people and most of them seemed to be females. Perhaps a star would like the look of his room where he had recreated a tiny portion of the Forgotten Forest with its white-glowing trees.

"Totem?" He looked at her quizzically. "Why would they think you're evil? I know you're not evil," he stated with a teen's brash confidence. Then he heard himself say something those who had known him during his previous life would find strange: "I'm sorry they shunned you. You don't deserve that." Well, Aerith would have liked this empathy...

Kadaj was glad to resume walking and even more happy to answer her question about the Lifestream. There was something familiar, a place in his soul that spoke easily and proudly: "I was killed in a fight with Big Brother. We had a history of being enemies even though we shared genes from an alien." He wondered if she would understand and he sighed. Even if she hadn't yet read about genetics and everything he pretty much took for granted that others would know about, they certainly had time to discuss all of it. Mirage didn't want to let them go.

"I'm from a military background. Fighting is most of my life." As he spoke, strolling along, he caressed the handle of his sword. He wondered where Xena was today and when they might spar again.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-09-26 11:53 am UTC (link)
"The Clan believes that all spirits are evil, and want to take the living with them to the other side. If you acknowledge their presence, you can be vulnerable to their wiles and die yourself if you are not careful. It is best not to acknowledge their presence at all." She wondered how the best way to explain her totem would be. "Everyone born into the Clan is given a totem to protect them and help them make good decisions. My totem is the Cave Lion." She pulled the tie at her waist to loosen the leather leggings and pulled them down to show him the four parallel scars on her thigh. "He marked me here, see?"

She was probably far too free with her body, but she didn't see the act as anything sexual in nature and her tunic was long enough to conceal anything too revealing. She looked up at him as she bent at the waist, holding the waistband of her pants while he examined the scars, white against her naturally tanned skin. When she was satisfied that he'd been given a good look at them, she pulled her pants up and tied them back in place.

She sighed softly. She really hadn't deserved to be shunned, but she understood why she had been. "I was bad. I didn't do things the way the other Clan women did. I was too tall, too thin, too weak, too fair. My eyes watered, I made sounds they could not. I made them nervous. And I pushed the boundaries. I think that without realizing it, I was asking them to change. And the Clan cannot be changed." She shrugged. There was nothing that could be done about it now.

"A fight?" She winced. She knew what a fight was, of course. She had seen Broud push one of the men who was trying to teach him how to use a sling. He had been severely reprimanded for it, but she couldn't imagine a fight that would result in death. She imagined it was something like a predator stalking prey and killing it. It made her stomach churn just to think of a human being killing another one of their own.

She hadn't researched genetics and didn't know exactly what he meant, but she gathered from the way he said it that they were familiar in some way, sharing something from a source. "I am not familiar with 'military'. Why must you fight? Can your leader not settle the dispute?" She didn't know anything about warring territories or anything that would cause masses of people to fight each other. Nothing of true evil that meant people needed to die to preserve a better race. When she had lived with the Clan, it had been just them. There weren't enough people in the world to have to fight over land or power.

In the Clan it was about status. If the Clan leader said it must be done, then it would be done. There was no fighting about anything. It was a much simpler life, obviously. "I am sorry you have to fight." She gave him a small smile as they resumed their walking, eating the ripe grapes that pulled easily from the stem.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-09-26 01:28 pm UTC (link)
Kadaj listened and learned about Ayla from the natural innocence of her actions. Yes, he knew how people reproduced and had a lot of whispers in his memories about confusing human rituals, especially when it came to modesty and certain mores. If there was irony in the fact that he was just about the most perfect person to gaze upon her scars, he wouldn't know it. He just reacted in a similar manner to the way she behaved, easily keeping his reaction ingenuous. This was something he could have managed even if she had stripped, as long as she did it in her current mindset.

Though he did blink in surprise when she dropped her leggings. Her gaze up at him, however, quelled any human teen instinct he might have possessed. How easy it was to let the alien part dominate. Not to the point where he had to withdraw but just enough to accept her actions the way she meant them.

He considered what it really meant to the woman, having the Cave Lion for her totem when that was the creature which 'marked' her. And he didn't really get it, this young hybrid warrior who was certainly 'marked' with the cat eyes and white hair of Jenova.

Kadaj blinked again at Ayla's comments about being bad. "So you mean because you were different in appearance and actions, because you were simply being yourself, that made you bad. Hnn... can't be changed, sounds like Mother...."

How weird that she visably winced at the idea of fighting. While he could ignore the whole human sexual identity, battle and challenge always made his eyes glow more green. His pupils narrowed almost to the point of vanishing.

"So your society didn't go to war?" Kadaj mused. "I guess they dealt with things that scare them by shunning, like in your situation. Or if they came across different people, the behavior was cautious but not hostile, am I right? I guess my leader couldn't settle the dispute, if that's how you'd like to put it. But...."

He looked at her, wondering how to explain. "Don't be sorry I have to fight. It's something in me, I was created to fight... we don't shun what we think are bad spirits but we turn and battle them. I guess most people considered me and my brothers the bad spirits, if you want me to be honest. Except for the woman, the Ancient who took me by the hand when I died."

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[info]_ayla_
2008-10-01 11:37 am UTC (link)
"I did things that they didn't like. I should have been a good Clan woman. I might still be with them now, if I had. I should never have started hunting. That made everything worse. And then when I wouldn't give Durc up... that really made them angry." There was a tonal quality to her voice that convyed the sorrow she felt at being cast out, even though she knew it was for the better. She never would have met Jondalar if she had stayed with the Clan. And he might have died if she hadn't been in the Valley at that time.

She shook her head at the question about the Clan going to war. "No. There was no war, no violence. Yes, caution and indifference, but no hostility." She furrowed her brows as he went on to explain that he was created to fight, that it was something he didn't mind and maybe even liked. Ayla nodded, putting another grape in her mouth.

She was nearly finished with the bunch in her hands and it was now mostly just a skeleton of naked stems. "Who are the Ancients? They sound important, but I don't understand why." She looked at him as they continued to walk down the seemingly endless rows of grapes. Bees zoomed around their heads, stopping on the sticky fruit and then flying away abruptly.

Her arms swung casually at her sides, long limbed and thin enough to hide the underlying strength. She had to be tough, not in the way a fighter had to be tough. But she had to endure, and have stamina that would allow her to accomplish all she had to in the daylight hours. "We had Mog-ur. He was the magician, the holy man of the Clan. Creb was special. His totem was the Cave Bear. It marked him when he was a child, the way my totem marked me. I lived at his hearth with Iza, his sister. Brun, the Clan leader was his brother." In all reality, that made Broud a kind of foster cousin to her. But he had never treated her with anything but distain. A fact that made her sad to think about.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-10-11 05:37 pm UTC (link)
"I don't understand this giving Durc up," Kadaj admitted. He had theories and impressions from Ayla as she confided about her so-very-different-past-from-his. The two of them came from such dissimilar backgrounds, he found himself wondering if he'd adapt as well to her previous lifestyle the way she was getting along on Mirage -- with its technology being somewhat familiar to him.

He waved his hand in the air, clutching one of the bulbous grapes between thumb and forefinger. "You know, I was just thinking you're adapting well to this place," he complimented before responding to her question. "The Ancients were humans who lived thousands of years in the past of my planet. They're also called the Cetra." He popped the grape in his mouth and chewed. "It's the Ancients who first encountered the alien that came to Gaia. They called her, or it, The Calamity from the Skies. Much later, scientists who found her remains called her Jenova and I... once called her Mother."

Kadaj went silent for a few seconds. During this time, only the bees could be heard buzzing around, only a stray breeze seemed lively as it ruffled his hair. His expression didn't reveal much though he recalled all the emotions from being driven to a specific destiny by Sephiroth.

"Do you know anything about the cells that make up our bodies?" he asked Ayla, glancing at her curiously. Since he liked her, he didn't want to assume what she didn't know and become dismissive or patronising. Being Kadaj, he still had some of the scorn and anger from Sephiroth, but it was only fun using those against someone he despised.

As for the information she told him about whom she had lived with, he filed it away to possibly comment on in time, for it seemed they would have plenty of time on this world, to skirt around streams of conversation and then suddenly wade into one or another at their leisure.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-10-15 10:25 am UTC (link)
"Durc is my son. When he was born they thought he was deformed because he looks like me and he looks like the Clan. They thought his neck was too thin to support his head and that he would not grow up to be big and strong. They thought he would be a burden. They wanted to kill him, but I told them that I wanted to die too if he was going to die. They let him live, but when I was cursed, I had to leave him behind with the Clan." Tears sparkled in the corners of her eyes as she spoke of her young son. She often thought about him and hoped that he was happy and strong.

She gave him a half-hearted smile when he complimented her on adapting well in Mirage. "I don't think I have much of a choice." She insisted, honestly. Although, she did enjoy some of the technologies. Especially the running water in the bathroom. "Max said I lived thousands of years ago on his planet. Perhaps I am like your Ancients?" She tilted her head and listened as he continued to describe the ancients and the alien that was his mother.

She shook her head at his question after the pregnant pause in which bees buzzed around their heads and landed on the sticky juice that ran from grapes that had burst or shriveled. "No, I am unfamiliar with that knowledge. I should look it up." She had seen a diagram of the body's muscles and bones in the encyclopedias, but she hadn't read anything like the cells he was speaking of. The diagrams had pulled at her inner medicine woman, compelling her to learn more about the human body so she could be better at her job.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-10-15 06:44 pm UTC (link)
"Hnnn..." He nodded as she explained about having had a son. Kadaj not only heard in her voice or saw from her expression she missed Durc a lot. He knew what that felt like, at least from the perspective of being curious about his own mother, the woman who had borne Sephiroth.

"Your son is something like me then, looking like both you and the Clan. You were like the alien amongst the Clan. I look like the humans from my world but like the alien too.

"I haven't met Max yet," he mused. Kadaj looked at her as if trying to imagine her being an Ancient on his world. "Perhaps you are like them," he agreed.

Kadaj took the final grape but he didn't eat it yet. "So some of Jenova's cells are part of me is what I basically wanted to say. Do you have dreams?" he wondered, taking the last grape into his mouth. He tossed the skeletal stem into the air and didn't bother watching where it landed.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-10-23 11:50 am UTC (link)
She nodded in understanding, that Durc was a lot like Kadaj. He was part of one people, and part of another as well. It made her feel closer to Kadaj, knowing that he shared a similarity to her son. She smiled fondly at him and continued to walk at his pace.

"Max is very kind, and very sweet. He is an alien in his world. He likes to have spicy with sweet in his foods. I don't like the spicy very much. He let me try it, and it burned my mouth." She shook her head ruefully.

She nodded. "Yes, sometimes my dreams are good, and sometimes they are bad. But most of the time I don't understand them. I have dreams of the Great Mother's birth waters and my son, sometimes I dream of Creb and Iza. And sometimes I dream of Broud." She felt revulsion roil through her belly at the thought of Broud. She didn't like dreaming of him, and she often woke up sobbing because he had cursed her or beaten her.

"What do you dream about?" She watched his stem fly up above his head and land some feet behind them. She had paused and hopped forward to catch up with him again.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-10-25 05:23 am UTC (link)
He responded to her fond smile with one of his own; the more he talked with Ayla the more he liked her for being such a genuine person. As much as he didn't know why the planet chose that Anakin, nor even himself, Kadaj figured he'd pick Ayla if he was the planet.

As she spoke of dreams, he slowed down a little and shook his head like he wanted to lose some thoughts in an abrupt manner. "I don't dream," he said earnestly. "Or at least I didn't before I came here. I don't know..." He shrugged, feeling unsettled suddenly. "My room's like a dream of my planet made real--" Kadaj stopped and turned to her without warning.

"Maybe you should see my room?" He asked it in the way a child wanted to share something very important to them. Those six words opened a part of his soul.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-10-27 11:30 am UTC (link)
Ayla was just as content speaking to Kadaj as he was, apparently, speaking with her. She found that she enjoyed his company quite a lot and hoped that he would be someone she could converse with when she was feeling lonely.

"Do you dream now that you are here?" She furrowed her brow, struggling to understand what he was saying about his room being a dream of his planet made real. She was almost taken aback at his abrupt stopping and turning to her. She lifted a brow, leaning back a little before relaxing and returning to her normal stooped posture.

Ayla had only seen two other people's rooms since arriving on the Planet. Yvaine's starry rendition of the night sky, and Rusty's plush penthouse-esque apartment. She was intensely curious about the way others chose to arrange their rooms and nodded. "If you would like to show me, I do not mind seeing it." She couldn't know, or understand why it was important to him, but she did feel that it was in some way.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-10-28 10:44 pm UTC (link)
He smiled at her agreement, the expression not one he commonly wore. Kadaj considered Ayla a friend, something he didn't have besides his brothers, until he was taken from the Lifestream. Yes, once long ago he remembered Sephiroth having friends but he was Kadaj now, differentiating himself.

"Great, let's go." He began walking toward the resort building, retracing the path through the vineyards they had been wandering through. "I wish I had my motorbike here," he commented. "Oh and I have started dreaming since I got here..." He didn't seem to like this revelation so he rushed on: "What's your room look like?"

He seemed animated, very alive. Had it not been for his continuing to carry his sword, and for the fact that he hadn't changed his battle-ready leathers at all since living here, he could have been a young man deeply enjoying the beautiful day.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-11-03 10:43 am UTC (link)
Ayla followed him duitifully toward the lodging units. She watched his white hair sway as he walked and found herself wondering why his hair was such a color. He was young, and the only people she'd known with white hair had been very old. Perhaps his people just appeared different from her own. She thought that probably was the case, seeing as how he had the same kind of eyes as Baby, her pet cave lion, had.

"Motorbike?" She wondered if it was anything like the motorized car she'd ridden in the day before with John. She noticed the way he rushed on from the dream tangent he himself had taken them on, so she didn't press the issue and continue to ask questions about that.

"My room? It looks much like my cave back in the Valley of Horses. Although, there are certain differences. Such as the bathroom and the windows, and the door." She noticed that he seemed excited to be showing her his room and she was glad that she could afford him this at least.

She smiled and hurried to catch up with him, his quick stride had her falling behind.

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-11-16 01:43 am UTC (link)
Kadaj noticed how fast he was moving and he decided to slow down, though she was certainly fit enough to keep pace with him. She looked in great shape and wasn't at all winded.

"Yes, motorbikes or motorcycles... one wheel behind the other and the seat's on top of them. I guess I could find a picture of one or maybe there's some here." He shrugged, smiling slightly as they approached his building.

"Hn, I never would have thought about people having to get used to doors and windows," he admitted. "I usually leave my room from the balcony," Kadaj added as he opened the door to the building, holding it for Ayla.

It wasn't long before they were on the second floor and Kadaj unlocked Room 200. He left the door wide open as he went in, apparently vanishing into darkness. A split second later he stepped back so she could see him, smiling almost shyly and actually offering his hand to his new friend.

Once past the dark barrier, the room appeared in silver and graduated shades of blue. The ceiling looked like the night sky with stars and a moon displayed overhead. Two of the walls curved like a huge seashell's interior, forming a cove with comfy cushioned chairs and a table in it. There were cups, a teapot and a carafe of coffee on the table, as if Mirage anticipated them sitting there. Trees glowed in the rest of the space. Their branches and trunks seemed to be negative images, part of then creating a headboard for a bed situated on a platform.

Kadaj stopped in the middle of the room, waiting for Ayla to look around.

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[info]_ayla_
2008-11-18 12:46 pm UTC (link)
Ayla stepped into Kadaj's room, into the darkness. She expected her eyes to adjust, but they didn't. It was then that he reappeared and held a hand out to her. She smiled and took it, stepping past the darkness to a room filled with silver and blue. She turned around, taking all of it in. It was definitely an interesting place.

The walls curved like those of her cave, but they disappeared into what looked like the night sky. It was a little like Yvaine's room in that respect, but this was only one small portion of the room, not the entire room itself like the star woman's. Her cave seemed very plain compared with this, and any of the other rooms she'd seen since she'd been here.

She was pleasantly surprised to see trees. She didn't really see Kadaj as the type to surround himself with nature, but she ought to have expected it with the way he walked among the grape vines. She looked around for quite some time before she turned to Kadaj and smiled. "I like your room very much."

He had said it was like a dream of his planet made real. She could not fathom a world that looked like this. It was nothing like she was used to. But then, she wasn't used to a lot of things she found on Mirage. "My room is not so interesting as this."

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[info]mothersbestson
2008-11-18 05:17 pm UTC (link)
Kadaj let her look around as long as she wanted to. Her reactions were interesting. He did realise this would be an unusual room in the eyes of some, considering the apparent variety of people the planet was kidnapping.

"Thank you." He shook his head, making his hair shift like a silver wave. "I'm sure your room is interesting to strangers just like you find this interesting." His hand indicated the surroundings, moving gracefully for one who always stood so military straight. "We liked living in the Sleeping Forest and Forgotten Capital. I'm glad I can have a memory of it here."

Kadaj paused, then looked at Ayla thoughtfully. "Do you want me to see your room? I've never known anyone like you. Well, that should be obvious, yes. None of us expected to be with such a variety of people, did we?"

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[info]_ayla_
2008-11-21 11:46 am UTC (link)
Ayla shook her head. "None of us expected to be here at all, captured by a rogue planet who has a mind of its own." The Earth Mother was one thing, but a planet that could think and do things was another entirely. It was evening and the sun had long since set. Ayla was getting tired. She put a hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn, but it was no use.

"Thank you for spending some time with me today, Kadaj. I'm a little tired, but another day you would be welcome to see my room. Thank you for showing me yours. I think I'm going to go back to my room and sleep for the night. Good evening, Kadaj. Thanks again." She smiled at him before turning around and heading out the way she'd been led in.

She found the exit easily enough and stepped through his door into the hall, heading away to her own room.

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