Rapunzel has left the tower (gleamnglow) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-01-02 19:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, raistlin majere, rapunzel |
Who: Rapunzel and Raistlin
What: Random encounter
Where: A local coffee shop
When: Late December
Rating: PG
Status: Complete
It was snowing. Odd for southern California, but honestly, it came as no surprise to Raistlin. It had snowed last year as well and in a place where portals opened up at random and people could have their inhibitions turned off at the drop of a hat, a little bit of snow didn’t seem all that farfetched. If he could avoid a gremlin infestation this year, that would be nice. Although, he had a few more spells up his sleeves for the little buggers.
Raistlin disliked the cold. It had a way of burrowing through anything he attempted to wrap himself up in and once it seeped in it got into his bones and just lingered. This was why he was at a coffee shop this afternoon rather than holed up in his room at the apartment he and Tas shared. The apartment had a draft through one of the windows that was only felt whenever the weather turned. Most of the year it was fine. But when it snowed? Not so much.
So he had taken one of his old obscure tomes and made his way to a coffee shop where he could hunker down in one of the chairs and read for a few hours and warm up. Raistlin could easily lose himself in a book for hours. As a child he could sit practically anywhere for hours as long as he had something to read. It used to drive his twin absolutely nuts. This afternoon, he was doing pretty much the same thing. Occasionally a voice would carry just the right way, or a noise by the door would catch his attention, making him glance up.
Winter was probably second or third on her list of Rapunzel’s favorite seasons, honestly. Summer was so nice and warm, spring brought forth beautiful new plants, but fall was so blah. Winter was lovely, but the colder weather wasn’t her favorite thing. But at least she was living in Orange County and not Oregon this go around. It had started to snow once again and it was a bit of a winter wonderland right now. Her hair was braided up as much as she could, a stocking cap over it, and her winter coat from last year with the collar pulled up.
When she stepped into the coffee shop she had to shake herself off and blushed hoping that she hadn’t hit anyone with flying snow. She needed something to warm her body as she made her way to the front and joined the queue. So many choices, but she eventually settled on a white chocolate mocha with raspberry before stepping to the side and scoping the room for a spot to sit. There wasn’t a lot of open spots, but she spotted a nice comfy armchair, and that’s where she headed once she procured her drink. “Can I sit here?” she asked the man that was sitting in the occupied seat next to the one she wanted. If it had been across from him then she wouldn’t have asked, but she wanted to make sure it wasn’t saved for someone.
Raistlin noted the young blonde woman when she had come in. Gods, Raistlin thought Tas had a lot of hair. Tas’s topknot - as prideful as the kender was of it - was nothing compared to how much hair this young woman had. Even done up in a braid it was an impressive amount. What was more intriguing was the fact that her hair - unlike the rest of her - looked healthy to Raistlin’s cursed eyes. It almost seemed to...glow. That was the only way Raistlin could really describe it.
“Hm,” Raistlin mused to himself. She must have been a Dreamer. That was really the only way to explain it. It was an interesting note to his afternoon, but the rest of the girl seemed relatively normal. Raistlin wondered if she was even aware of how powerful her hair really was.
The girl stepped into line and Raistlin turned his attention back to his book. The book he was reading was about demonology. Yes, very festive for this time of year. However, Raistlin found that the weirder the titles he read in public, the less likely people were to pester him. He was reading about one particularly nasty demon known for being so ugly it was known to boil flesh alive when he heard a pleasant voice ask him if she could sit down.
Blue eyes glanced up from his page and saw the girl with all the hair standing there peering down at him from over the top of her coffee. Raistlin glanced to the chair next to him, then back up at her. “It’s not taken,” he answered.
The book wouldn’t scare Rapunzel off because she would probably find something like that interesting. She read a lot of books and she didn’t write of anything now thanks to her Dreams. But she had no idea that her hair glowed in the way that he was seeing it except for when she actually used her powers. When those eyes glanced up at him it was almost like a chill on her skin and she felt something different about him, but she wasn’t quite sure how to put her finger on it. When he answered that it wasn’t taken she nodded, “Thanks.”
Coffee was set on the table between their chairs as she removed her jacket and stocking cap before sitting down. She dug through her bag to grab out her sketchbook and supplies so she could finish up some of her assignments that she needed to get done before winter break. Legs were crossed as she settled into the chair and she took a sip of her drink as she began to color in her sketch.
Raistlin watched the girl seated next to him out of the corner of his eye as she settled into the chair and started taking things out of her bag. He was used to how his vision made everything around him look old and decayed. It was her hair that was most intriguing. Fascinating, really. He realized he was staring and quickly turned his attention back to his book. The girl wasn’t bothering him and he shouldn’t bother her in return.
He couldn’t focus on the book, however. Not with the head of glowing locks seated next to him. He tried but only succeeded in reading and rereading the same sentence twice and retained nothing of what the words told him. He glanced upwards again, looking at her over the top of his book.
There was a song playing in her head as she did her best to work on her sketches. The end of the semester was always such a pain in the ass and she wanted to get it done. Winter break would be incredibly welcomed. Fingers flew as she colored in things, but she could continue to feel the weight for someone watching her. As good as Rapunzel was at ignoring the stares she usually got and just concentrating on her usual work there was something about this man’s staring that she couldn’t ignore. It was mildly creepy, so she closed up her sketchbook and turned over to him, “Can I help you with something?” It wasn’t said in a rude way, but rather a more curious tone.
Raistlin was never one for warming up to a subject or small talk. He was a blunt man when it came to subjects that interested him. “Your hair,” he answered in his low voice. He was still looking at her carefully, studying her. “It’s glowing. Were you aware?” Likely not. Raistlin didn’t see any kind of glamour the way he’d had with others before. He wondered if he was looking at some kind of power source, which was even more curious.
A look of confusion took over Rapunzel’s features as she quickly reached back to her hair and pulled her braid around to look at it. It seemed as normal as it did every day, had she been humming the song while she was working? She didn’t think she was doing that, but that would be the only reason why her hair was glowing. Once it was confirmed that her hair wasn’t glowing she looked back at the man with a furrowed brow, “It’s not glowing right now.”
Raistlin’s eyes narrowed. It was possible that her hair was glamoured in some way. Raistlin had come across a few people who hid their “true forms” under glamours. His own eyes were glamoured to look blue instead of gold. But in all the instances Raistlin had found someone to have a glamour, he could see the person’s true form – or whatever it was they were attempting to hide – sort of peeking out from under the glamour itself. That wasn’t what was happening here. It was almost as though the sun, all warm and bright, had somehow found a refuge in this girl’s hair and was just hanging out.
“Hm.” Raistlin grunted. “It is to me.” His eyes moved from her hair to the girl’s face. He reaction was worth a note as well. She wasn’t staring at him as though he was crazy, which was what one would have normally expected. And she said it wasn’t glowing now. Interesting. “Does it normally glow?” He asked with interest.
That look in his eyes made her a little nervous. Is this what her evil fake mother in the dreams had been warning her about? People who would want to steal this power for themselves - although she always did wonder how it would end up for her if they tried to take the power. She couldn’t quite figure out if it would work without her being alive or if she had to be along for the ride. It obviously didn’t do any good to cut her hair and try to take it.
“To you?” that was a bit odd. How was he seeing her hair glowing when it wasn’t actually glowing? He was staring at her very intently, so he had to be honestly seeing it. The interest in his voice made her draw back just a little and her grip tightened on her hair unknowingly. Should she answer him honestly? Well, it wouldn’t do any harm and if he tried to hurt her then she would call Laura and she would probably kill him, “Not normally. Only if I want it to.”
At the sight of the young woman drawing away and grasping hold of her hair made that other stir. Was she hiding something? What kind of power did she have? Raistlin frowned as thoughts that did not belong to him meandered through his mind. He honestly didn’t care if the girl had power or not, he was far more interested in the cause rather than the power itself.
He nodded slightly in the affirmative. “To me,” he confirmed. At least the girl was aware of the glow. More intriguing was that she could control it. “If you want it to,” he repeated thoughtfully. “Very interesting.” His eyes flickered around them for a moment to see if anyone was eavesdropping on their conversation. Those in the immediate vicinity seemed more interested in their own conversations or reading materials than the two of them. Good. Raistlin turned his eyes back to the girl next to him. He frowned again. He didn’t like the way she was looking at him. He wasn’t going to get any information out of her if she didn’t trust him. “I don’t want anything from you,” he assured her. “I’m a magic user and I’ve not ever seen anyone with hair like yours before. It’s very interesting.”
“Are you sure you don’t want anything from me? You seem to want knowledge,” Rapunzel pointed out with a small smirk. Maybe he wasn’t as scary as she first thought he was, but she was a little weary giving him any information. But there was also a side of her that wanted to know what kind of magic he could do since she hadn’t met that many people with magic powers, “There’s a song I sing and my hair will start to glow. It’s magical.” That was a simple enough explanation, right? If he was going to expect a demonstration then she would probably try to do it somewhere more private. A coffee shop was not a place to start glowing and trying to heal people.
A ghost of a smirk lit on Raistlin’s features. “Yes,” he admitted, “I suppose knowledge would be considered a thing and it is something I want.” He could sense her weariness. The presence inside him could as well. Raistlin could feel it stirring even more so. He shifted a little in his seat. Hopefully if he could get the girl to explain, the presence would remain hidden away instead of attempting to take over. “Yes, it sounds magical. Has it always been that way, or was it enchanted?”
“I guess you could say it’s enchanted. It’s from my Dreams. As far as I know it came from a plant that my mother ingested while pregnant and the magic spread to me when I was born,” it had all been explained to her eventually once she was reunited with her parents. It was still a part of her since she had managed to save Flynn with her tears, but it still felt a little strange to think of herself without the hair. She wondered if this man needed something possibly healed - she had never been able to figure out the full extent of her powers except for bringing someone back from the brink of death.
“Enchantments usually happen when an object has a spell cast on it,” Raistlin stated thoughtfully. “But that seems reasonable enough. Especially if there is no explanation regarding the magic of the plant or where it came from. Certain magical elements have to simply be taken for granted that they are magical. That presence continued to stir and a tightness was beginning to form in Raistlin’s chest. He shifted in his seat again and stifled a cough against his shoulder. He knew what the presence within him wanted. He’d have been lying if he didn’t admit he wanted it too. “Is glowing the only thing your hair does? Or is the glowing the extent of its magical abilities?”
“No one has really told me the proper origin story of the plant, so I’m not quite sure. And you’re obviously not going to give up until I tell you what it does, are you?” it was a little frustrating, but Rapunzel figured she might as well just tell him and get it over with. If he tried to come after her then she had no issue defending herself and if he tried to take any of her hair then he would fail in that, “It heals, basically. It only glows when I sing the song that activates its powers and then it is able to heal people. You need to be touching it in order for it to work.”
Raistlin sort of stared at the girl. In all of the tomes and stories on the obscure he had read, he had never come across anything quite like that. Hair that healed. It was certainly special and had he not been sitting there seeing her hair glow, Raistlin might not have believed her. “Oh.” Was all he said at first with a couple of blinks. Then, after stifling another cough into his shoulder, “that’s rather amazing. I’ve studied a lot of things in regards to magic, but that is the first time I have ever heard of someone’s hair having the ability to heal.”
“It’s all the flower,” Rapunzel wasn’t going to go into how the ability had manifest in her own body after her hair had been cut off. She had managed to save Flynn from dying with her tears, but she wasn’t sure if there was anything else she could do with it cut off, “And I know it’s probably fairly rare. It’s a bit odd, but you get used to it.” She wondered if he would end up wanting something from her now that he knew how things worked. If it turned into some kind of Gothel situation she would peace out quickly.
Raistlin raised a brow. “It’s unfortunate you don’t know more about the flower itself,” he said. “Herbs and such are often used as components of spells...at least many of the spells I know of. It’s very unusual for a flower itself to be magical.” And Raistlin would have liked to have heard more about the flower - where it had come from, what had given it it’s magical properties, if healing was its only purpose - but it seemed as though the girl knew very little about the plant itself, which was unfortunate, but understandable. After all, he barely understood the magic that had cursed his eyes and even if he did, he had no way of undoing the curse.
The presence didn’t seem all that interested now that the girl seemed as though she had no further information to give, and it retreated back again. Although, Raistlin could still feel it lingering, watching. It was unnerving. He shifted a little in his seat. “Thank you for answering my questions,” he said, “and I apologize for staring earlier.”
“You’re welcome…” it seemed a little odd to be given a thanks for answering a question. Granted it had been a weird question, but at least it was over with and the man seemed like he was satisfied with the answer she had given him. If he was going to come after her then she would be on watch now in case something happened, “Maybe some day I’ll figure out what’s going on with the flower. For now my Dreams don’t provide the answer.” She gave him one last look before settling back into her seat with her sketchpad to continue her work.
“And it may never,” Raistlin said. His Dreams were great at providing answers to some questions, but never fully supplying an answer to others. He would have liked to have continued their conversation but for two things. The first was the girl seemed as though she was finished with him, which normally would have been annoying as hell. However, the second reason was more pressing. The presence, though not threatening to take over, was still watching her and that unnerved Raistlin a great deal.
He put his book on demons away in his messenger bag and got to his feet. It was time to go. The presence resisted, tried to order him to stay, but Raistlin still had enough control over himself to walk away, and he fully intended to use that for as long as possible. After pulling on his wool coat and gloves, Raistlin looked at the girl one last time. “Good luck,” he heard himself saying without meaning to. He frowned slightly, but quickly left the coffee shop and headed for home.