InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I'm cold."

Jareth (ex_withinyou579) wrote in utr_logs,
@ 2008-06-16 22:07:00

Entry tags:

jareth, sarah williams

Who: Jareth & Sarah
What: Rescue mission of sorts
Where: London
Warnings: Probably none.

Jareth was pleased to find that he was still at least endowed with his own powers, and with one thought, one simple breath of his name, he was at Sarah's side. Well, so to speak.
In fact, he was standing before her, dark and shadowed, wearing very modern attire, though still with the amulet and the slight fanciful look about him.
"Now we're both lost." He said with a smug smile. "And lost is something I've never been before."

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 04:16 am UTC (link)

The vortex had dropped Sarah off on some random street, and the only reason she knew it was London was because of the accents of other people and then she'd actually asked. Go figure. So she'd waited. For Jareth, whom she hadn't seen in years and years. Not since she was a child really. Then just like that, he was there. She looked over at him, trying not to appear startled, even if she knew he was coming.

"I.. see.." she eyed him up and down. Him and his modern clothes. "Wow.." she couldn't help herself. "That's.. something.. now you know how I usually feel.. being lost.." she sighed. "At least now I'm almost as tall as you."

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 04:23 am UTC (link)

He chuckled, "And here I thought you'd completely forgotten me." He waved his hand before them as he stood by her side, "We'll walk until we find a cab." He knew of cabs and of modern, earthly civilization for a reason.

"This is a new experience for me. As I said, I wasn't summoned here, and the only time I appear in this world is through the eyes and mind of another."

He didn't make eye contact as he spoke, and his pace was on par for hers. He remembered her well, as she was one of the first - possibly the first that he knew intimately well enough to come alive in her mind's eye. "You are correct in assuming that you'd only imagined me. That's where I dwell, in my Kingdom in the imaginations of those who dare to dream me. Being here, through the will of nobody is something I don't understand."

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 04:29 am UTC (link)

"As if I could ever forget our time together.. though.. I did tell myself it wasn't real.." she had to, when she grew up and her parents were all but threatening to take her to some doctor for hallucinations if she didn't shut up about it.

She walked with him as they went to find a cab, though she couldn't stop looking at him. Mostly because him in modern clothes was almost going to make her giggle. "Oh.. well I suppose it happened through that vortex.. like that.. webpage said.." she trailed off as they walked.

"So all of that ... was my imagination? But you're here, and I'm not a child.." she didn't get it either. Sarah shook her head, "Maybe we won't ever know."

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 04:39 am UTC (link)

"Yes. I am. I shouldn't be." Jareth explained as best he could, "I've never been outside of someone's imagination before. I'm a figment, a shade, a shadow."
He shook his head, "Fictional." And then he stood at the corner of a street and flagged his hand as a cab rolled past and stopped. He looked to her as he held the door of the cab for her before slipping in, himself, "And you started it all, Sarah. Your imagination spurred on many more peoples' imaginations, making me a part of their lives as much as I was a part of yours. And even though like you, many have grown up, have forgotten me and my Kingdom, many others take their place, and I live on. Several instances at once, in some cases. But I always have stayed in that unending cycle, living as those who've believed in me and the Goblin Kingdom thought of me."

He turned to her, "Do you know where you are going?"

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 04:50 am UTC (link)

Then she really was crazy. She didn't know if that made her feel better or worse. Maybe a mixture of both. Though she supposed some part of it was probably the truth. The whole making other people's imaginations start things in others. "Well.." she finally said after a moment, "I'm.. glad I could help?" she shook her head a little. "I'm glad you haven't faded away.. I was much happier as a child.. most.. most people are.."

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her wallet. "It seems I live on.. Roberts Street.. I have a new ID it says.. you should have one too.."

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 04:57 am UTC (link)

He shook his head, "Crazy?" He let out a warm, but biting chuckle. "Hardly. You told others, who started to believe." He pulled out a wallet from his leather pants and looked at the ID.

"Yes, most people are happier as children -- it's in their nature to be more happy. But you weren't happy. You were lost. Constantly believing the world was against you, that you were alone, that you were the martyr." He raised a brow as he read off the address to the cab driver.

"Your escapes into your mind, into the depths of your imagination, they weren't crazy as those around you might have had you believe. You were and are no different than any other brilliant, gifted mind. You could write novels, Sarah. You could make plays. What is it that you're doing now? Does it make you happy?"

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 05:07 am UTC (link)

Right. Leather pants. Let's not look over at those. "That was a long time ago though.. but I guess it's nice to know I'm not crazy.." she smiled just a little bit.

Her cheeks blushed a little bit and shrugged her shoulders. "I just thought I was second best.. I think that happens to every child who has a sibling.. but maybe you're right. But I'm older.. I don't feel like that anymore.."

Climbing into the cab with him, she brushed her hair back away from her forehead "I write children's books actually.. so you're mostly right. I've got a couple that have been published but I'm not famous or anything."

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 05:17 am UTC (link)

He was starting to notice her looking. That gave him reason enough to smile.
So maybe it wasn't that he'd scared her, really. Just... she grew out of him, like so many others had. He felt like a toy, mostly, a thing that people played with and then passed on. Well loved, but also hated and jilted and feared.

Jareth looked pleased at her profession. "That's a splendid job for you! See now, you've grown up and still keep that lovely mind! How fortunate." He laced his fingers together and set them behind his head, sprawling out in his seat.

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 05:26 am UTC (link)

"Well it came easily, I admit.. writing books .. sometimes I brought up my experiences in the Labyrinth.. I made up my own little world. I always thought you'd be proud of me.." she told him, gazing out the window a bit.

"And now I just .. read my books to children and write more.." she looked back over at him. "So how many children have you stolen since I've seen you last?" she asked cheekily, smirking.

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 05:32 am UTC (link)

"I am proud." He admitted, without missing a beat.

"Ah, a few. Though mostly, they wish themselves away, the ones who dream me up." He smirked, "Most of them don't even expect it to work. Though I'll say now, that not all things are what you remember. I do have a purpose to my methods, Sarah. I can't live forever - nothing does. Taking a child, finding an heir... That's my intention, though I'm sure you're aware of that. The Goblin Kingdom would be in shambles without a king. And do you really expect those brainless creatures I rule over to have half a brain to rule themselves?" He scoffed.

"If I do return there from this place, the chances of it being a kingdom that's not set on fire or torn asunder are so ghastly low that I dread even thinking of it. And for all the imaginations in the world to dream up my Kingdom, not one has YET to imagine a fire station."

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 05:45 am UTC (link)

That made her smile, and she was glad that she'd made him proud. Not that she'd ever really looked at him like a father figure really. That would just be.. wrong on so many levels, but still she was glad.

She laughed a little, "Well, as much as I adore and miss Hoggle and everyone else, I don't think that any of them are going to be able to take over.." and now that they were talking about heirs, she couldn't help but be curios of something she hadn't thought about being that young until now. "Can you.. not have an heir the.. old fashioned way?" she blushed slightly and reached over and put her hand on his shoulder. "You feel real to me.."

It made her smile again, "Well they're not the most logical bunch.. there's a reason it's you who runs it.."

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 05:51 am UTC (link)

Jareth was only slightly affronted at the question, and he huffed, "I could if there were any others like me in the kingdom. Think back. Did you see anyone else but you, me, or Toby there?"

He looked at her hand on his shoulder and both brows raised just for a moment. Yes, he was real, he was perfectly real and he could feel her. He thought about it for a moment, wondered if he'd ever felt anything before, had ever been touched, had ever truly had that sensation. For the life of him, he couldn't remember.

It occurred to him then, that every sensation he'd felt since arriving was a new one. Sitting down, standing, walking, speaking. He knew how to, he knew everything about how to exist, but had never actually done it.

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 05:57 am UTC (link)

Her cheeks blushed, and she knew why, but she wasn't going to say anything. She just shook her head, "No.. but surely I couldn't be the only .. girl.." though that was it. She had been a girl. "But it's.. possible? Physically?" Oh god, her mind needed to get out of the gutter. Right now.

He was thinking again, and she couldn't tell what he was thinking about. "Are you all right?" he looked a little confused after all. She couldn't help but be worried about him.

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 06:04 am UTC (link)

"You weren't the only girl, no." Jareth said, faraway, still amazed at his revelation. "But I'd never tried, you see. They all..." He snapped back to reality with a tilt of his head, and he eased Sarah's hand from his shoulder into his own, which was gloved, without fingertips so that his longer-than-normal nails could have room.

"Sarah. I'm real." He fixed his eyes on her, looking dead serious, but somehow still incredibly awestruck under it all. "And it is entirely fitting that the first person to have ever touched me, to have made contact and cared is the one who'd made me whole in the first place." His voice, the expression held within it, cooled dramatically. "And though you may have forgotten about me, I never forgot you."

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 06:15 am UTC (link)

She wondered how he would have finished that sentence. They all didn't like him? Weren't like her? Maybe some combination of the two. Not that she was trying to give herself a big head by thinking that he couldn't forget about her. Even if he was saying that to her. She glanced down at his hand in hers and then back up at him.

Sarah squeezed his hand tightly and smiled just a little, "I'm honored that you think so.. I'm glad it was me.. I've never forgotten about you, Jareth.. I couldn't.. not even if I had wanted to.." she was probably blushing again because he thought about her. "You've always been with me.. somewhere.. no one could ever forget the things you showed me.. not many people get to experience things like that." then she squeezed his hand again. "You have a lot of things to experience.. wait until you try food.."

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 06:24 am UTC (link)

He huffed a chuckle, shaking his head, "Even back when I was only a thought, I barely ate." He couldn't help but feel just the slightest bit taken aback by her words, by her kind, warm ways.

"You're not going to tell me I have no power over you again, are you." There it was, the smug smile. He knew that he did have something, some grip on her, since she'd grown and still remembered him, kept him locked away somewhere in her heart for as long as it took between saying those spiting, cold, heartbreaking words, and now.

"Send me away to face reality? I'm not at all prepared for that."

He was well aware of how fragile he was without the cues to be something for her. She wanted a companion, and there he was. She wanted something to fear long ago, and he was frightening. Wanted an adversary and he became her hurdle to jump over to better understand herself.

"I'll still be whatever you bend me to be, Sarah. It's my way."

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 03:28 pm UTC (link)

Sarah smirked back at him and shook her head, "No.. I can't say that I am.. And even so, I'm not even sure it would work in this world.." but no, she wasn't going to test that theory. "You know.. unless you make me really angry.." she was teasing about that part. "However as an adult, I'm very liable to call you lots of other nasty words.."

All of the teasing aside, she was glad that he was there for many different reasons. It seemed fitting that if she were to get whisked off to some new world, it would be with him.

She was quiet for a moment and then looked over at him, "Do you want to stay with me? I can't imagine having to live in a place all alone when you're used to being surrounded by Goblins is hardly going to feel like home.. especially in a world that looks so much like mine.."

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 03:50 pm UTC (link)

"Thanks to a few of the more colorful people that've showed up in my world, I might actually understand those words." Said Jareth with a chuckle, looking nearly overjoyed at telling her how he'd matured because of what she'd started.

He had always understood the outside world, the Aboveground, from a third person point of view - how one, he figured, would understand his world if they'd never been there - and had never been in it. He knew what things were. He was feeling newly born. And there was the one who'd formed him best, and he was delighted to share his first precious passages of time in reality with her. He put his other hand over the hand of Sarah's that he'd already been holding.

"Sarah, I was always alone." Which was certainly not a no. He would never admit it, but he was apprehensive about being somewhere that he only knew from what he'd seen through his orbs, or through the minds of others. He had never been lost before, never been new. Even when he was first thought up, he was hundreds of years old and had lived a great deal of his lifetime already. "I would be a horrible guest," he pointed out, "very demanding. Intolerable, insufferable."

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 06:11 pm UTC (link)

"Oh? Finally got someone up there to curse you out hm?" she seemed amused at picturing some person down at his palace cursing up a storm at him for bringing them there. Oh yes, that picture would amuse her for quite some time to come. She was glad that he wasn't saying no to her, and gave his hand a small pat in return.

"Perhaps you were, but you don't have to be now.." she managed, swallowing down some part of her. "You mean you'd be your usual charming self? I think I can live with that.. besides, I'm used to looking after children, it can't be much more difficult.." she was teasing him again. It was hard not to when he looked at her like that. "So you'll stay?"

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 10:35 pm UTC (link)

"I'll only be that way if you'll let me," Jareth also noted, though he brought up her hand and gave the back of it a kiss, "I can be warm, it the occasion calls for it. Of course, I'll stay."

And then ego reared itself up and his smile grew a bit more twisted, "You really haven't found what you were looking for, have you? You dreamed me up, and there I was, and you still didn't want me. Perhaps you never knew what you wanted. That would have certainly explained how contrary I was for you. You wanted a sympathetic soul to hate." He slipped his hands away, tapping the glass window of the door beside him, looking out it, "But you were just a girl then, a foolish girl. Things have changed a great deal. You've blossomed, I've brooded, you've loved and lost, I've stayed alone." He turned back to her, "You loved me once, I've loved you always. It's a sad state of affairs, Sarah. To fall in love with something you can not claim."

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 10:41 pm UTC (link)

She looked pleased, "Good.." though she really had no idea what this new house of hers was going to look like, she'd improvise as necessary. She wondered then if it had more then one room. Huh. Oh well, she'd figure that out too maybe.

At his words, she avoided looking at him and stared out the window. "No, I suppose I haven't.. I didn't know what I wanted.. I just wanted Toby to be safe.. at the end.. but.." she shrugged and drifted off for a moment, thinking back to that time in her life. "Every child of that age wants to be left alone.. they want independence but they don't at the same time.. that's what being a teenager is after all.." she wanted to look at him, but she didn't know if she had the guts. "I don't know about all that.. I never got married.. never had children. Boyfriends were a bit come and go.."

Finally she managed to look over at him, "You fell in love with a child, and I fell in love with a man. I'm ... not the same girl I was.. I never said I couldn't be claimed.. not now.."

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 11:04 pm UTC (link)

He got a wry smile, "And that's the trouble with being a dream, I fall for people I've no intention of falling for." He tapped his nails on the glass once again, delighting in the sound, before the cab stopped. Jareth paid the driver and opened his door, holding it open for Sarah after he slipped out.

"Too young." He said, "Perhaps too fanciful." He watched her as she slipped out, "But you are, aren't you. You are the same girl, at least deep down. The one who fancied herself a fairy princess, with pearls in her hair and at her throat, with the gown thick with gossamer and silk." He offered his hand as they took to the sidewalk. "A fantasy can never be pragmatic, I believe." There was shimmering dust ahead of every step he took, if one looked close enough. He was so used to his own world, his own super-reality that the world somehow just gave way to his own fancies, small and mundane as they were. Jareth turned to face Sarah, "But it isn't like your world, is it? This place? Was there magic in your world? real magic?" He asked, idly rolling an orb over his hand. The orb might have been there this whole time as they spoke, and nobody noticed it, the way that Jareth was just so contentedly juggling it over his knuckles and down it again.

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 11:21 pm UTC (link)

Sarah followed him out of the car, and gave him a Look, "I really don't think so.. not a princess. Not anymore.. I mean.. pearls are nice.. but I'm not really one for dresses really. I went through a tomboy phase.. I didn't really grow out of it, I guess. I don't know.." she didn't even know if she had fantasies anymore. If she did, they definitely weren't of the little girl variety. She followed him up to the door, rummaging around in the bag she had with her for keys and took them out.

"No, I suppose it's not.. definitely no real magic there.." that was for sure. She opened the door and let them both inside, gazing only slightly at Jareth. "Home sweet home.. as they say.." it wasn't too bad. It was a decent size house, which was good. "At least this place sets people up with a place to live."

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ex_withinyou579
2008-06-17 11:27 pm UTC (link)

"I'll have to see where the world has set me, eventually." Said Jareth. With a twist of his wrist, the orb became a necklace, of pearls and softly colored gemstones that matched the color of her clothes, and he slipped behind her to put it on her, "You don't feel like a princess anymore?" His tone was almost saddened, but still chilled and calm. "Such a shame. You would've made a fine one."

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ex_dangersun460
2008-06-17 11:37 pm UTC (link)

She blinked a bit but moved her hair to the side so he could put the necklace on her. She reached up to touch them and sighed. "No.. not a princess.. too old for that.. a queen, maybe.." she smirked a little. "My mother's long been dead anyway.." her fingers ran over them and she turned around to face him. "I haven't had anyone treat me like a princess since you.."