Dreaming (Mild Intimacy - Closed RP)

[sprinkles]

Haruka stood at the edge of a mountain cliff looking down upon a lake reflecting the sky. The sun was setting and the sky and water were filled with reds and oranges only seen for a few moments everyday. Snow and apple blossoms were falling from the sky and light music could be heard in the slight breeze that blew.
"My Lady," a voice spoke softly behind her. "do you like the view?"
Sprinkles walked slowly up next to her. He wore loosing fitting maroon robes of his priestly station back in the Burning Sands. His face, usually grey and sickly from the taint, was almost copper colored; making him appear younger that he usually did. Many would have considered him rather handsome like this, assuming they had a taste for the exotic. "This is your dream, My Lady. Is it pleasing to you?"

[Bayushi Haruka]

Haruka remembered resting her head on her saddle and covering herself with a blanket. But this... she'd never seen or dreamed anything of the sort. Her eyes searched every detail as she remembered his voice and came to realize.

"Oh Sprinkles-san, I... I guess you felt the presence of the orchid again."

She was no different in appearance, but instead of being armored and defensive, she had emerged into her dream as she always did now a days. Her kimono was long and flowing, resembling the night sky with the heavenly lights gently shining in the fabric.

She seemed blissfully relaxed even though she was confronted in her dreams, a few petals falling into her hair. She bowed somewhat reflexively as they fell away from her long flowing black mane.

"It is a pleasure to see you again, and if this creation was made for me, I must thank you. It is a truly wonderful sight."

[sprinkles]

"This place was created by me, to show you the world I seek to create. You see I am not some monster who wishes eternal night and horrors roaming the shadows. I seek beauty and serenity. Many of the samurai can paint such a scene but few would bend the world to create this scene. By bending the kami the world is ours to make as we see fit. This is what I hope to accomplish. We could force the earth to give crops every season. We could bend clouds and rain to turn a disaster like a tsunami into a gently spring rain. We can force this world into our own paradise."
Sprinkles held out his hand. The snow fell into it and melted and formed a ball of water floating above his hand. It took shape and froze in the shape of a horse. He handed it to her. "For you. Unfortunately it won't last once you wake, but let it be a symbol of my appreciation of you."

[Bayushi Haruka]

Haruka gave a soft smile as her fingers extended out to the figure, but in a slightly strange motion, she took hold of the air around it as though she understood it herself. The small horse seemed to come to life as it reared and moved as though alive, before it jumped onto her own palm. She reached out to stroke the nose of the curious being before raising it and allowing the wind to take it away as it returned to the flake it was formed from.

She had this calm and delighted smile about her, with all her burdens and worries behind her. Even physically she was without child here, allowing herself the freedom that she once appreciated as a young Utaku woman. She bore no mons, no weapons. It was just her, the maiden behind the samurai.

"A world like this does not come without a price, Sprinkles-san. I have studied the ways of the shugenja, though the power of the kami are something beyond me, I know that to beckon a wind to cool your face is to create a storm in another land.
Nothing happens alone in the world, no alteration without a balancing effect. Even if we were the ones to evoke control over the world, the rules would not change. The whole empire would have to lay in ruin for beauty like this."

She seemed saddened by the thought of it all, closing her hand and resting her arms at her sides.

[sprinkles]

Sprinkles smiled at Haruka. She was so genuine. He didn't just want her as an ally. He wanted her as the woman she was. It had been very long since he lusted after a woman and the feeling felt strange to him. But to have her he would have to win her.
"That is true. But perhaps only half true. I believe the kami are meant to serve men. Both the Great Kami and the simple air kami. Why else does maho work? Human blood forces the kami into slavery. It is true that to create the perfect world a price would need to be paid. But do we not pay a price everyday now? How many suffer each day? If you had the power would you not change it? That is why I bear the taint. I seek to force the kami into obedience. Not out of crazed power seeking."
Sprinkles reached out and took her hand in his. "I know I must seem like a monster in many ways to you. I seek to kill the gods you worship. But please before you judge me try to understand me. I wish peace and harmony. And I am willing to suffer to see that peace one day. I don't believe we are so different. I know you would do the same."

[Bayushi Haruka]

In a strange moment, one would think she would recoil at the thought of being touched, but instead Haruka seemed to revel in it. That he dared to take her hand, that he dared to approach her with such boldness. Her form relaxed, and her fingers just rested in his grip, the softness of the skin was most unusual for being a woman who handled swords and the reins of horses. But then again, this was only a dream.

And yet her gaze never faltered, and her contentment wasn't disturbed. But she still seemed defiant to his words.
"I know very little of the nature of maho and the kansen. As such I do not pretend to call myself any loremaster of the shadowlands or of the taint, as I've only ever heard what stories I could glean in my travels.

But...
With this war, the words, the daggers of will that betray clansmen and rend loyalties of families. With all that has happened, and all that will come in the coming months..
I do know suffering. I do know what it means to have everything in your life laid before you, when you're holding your fate, the blade that stands between you and your end.
And worse still, the end of another."

She seemed to close her eyes a moment and avert her gaze, the memories of conflicts come and gone causing a dark rumble in the distance. But she did not dwell on it for long, as her hazel eyes revealed themselves once again.

"...I must tell you though. Much as I know so little, I will say, not once did I think of you or anyone else who harbors the darkness to be a monster."
Her hand gently squeezed against his.
"So long as your mind is your own, I would not doubt that there was some good still in you."

[sprinkles]

Sprinkles smiled broadly and his eyes lit up a bit, not out of magic but happiness. "I cannot tell you how happy I am to hear that. And yet so few others would believe such a thing. You do not bow to my way of thinking and yet you do not bow to others either. Not even the Unicorn produce woman of independence such as you." Sprinkles took a step closer leaving little space between them. "You are the very essence of individuality and the very heart of what it means to be a woman. Both caring and strong, yet gentle and seductive."

[Bayushi Haruka]

Haruka seemed to become strangely shy to his words, averting her gaze as her face grew warmer and redder.
"I am not able to always be the person of my heart, as duty binds me to be obedient to the men in my life. But here and only here my words need not be restrained, and I needn't be ashamed. And yet.."

She kept looking away, a slight tremble in her arms. "I cannot believe that I am so different. The only thing that sets me apart from other women was the fate that was placed before me, and the courage to stand up for myself. That is all.

I think you'll find that the hearts of women are not so different. They just are too afraid to show what they desire, or their duty presses them otherwise."
His words were singing sweetly in her ears, but at the same time she wondered what really was coming to mind. Such affection was not freely given, such flattery was not without purpose.

[sprinkles]

"Perhaps but fate has brought us together here. 'Here and only here'...can I show you my heart as well. Outside this dream I can never touch you, for so many reasons. But here we can do as we please without restraint, without fear, without condemnation." Sprinkles drew Haruka in the rest of the way. He held onto the hand he'd been holding squeezing it just slightly. He moved the other up and caressed her ear. His lips were hovered just above hers. She could feel his breath on her cheek as he whispered "What is it you want My Lady?"

[Bayushi Haruka]

"I want-"

Her jaw shivered, in such an intimate hold as this she did not struggle the way she once might have. Her fears of being restrained, of being embrace had melted away and she kept telling herself in the end 'it wasn't real,' that it 'only was a dream'.

She drew in her breath as the trembling stopped and she calmed herself. His technique was bewitching, and she barely had the strength to contain herself now.

"I wish to know.. what will you do once you have the weapon you seek. You will have no need of me thereafter, Sprinkles-san."
She was tenser now, but only to draw strength from within, to keep herself from being swayed completely by his motions.

[sprinkles]

Sprinkles continued to hold her but withdrew enough to look her in the eyes. "I'm sorry I had thought it obvious. If I had only wished to use you I have many other means of accomplishing that. I seek to win you over so that I might have you by my side. Only I know the ritual that grants eternal life. We could be together. Forever." Sprinkles then quickly kissed Haruka. He held her close to him with their lips pressed gently together and waited to see if she welcomed it or if he should withdraw.

[Bayushi Haruka]

Haruka understood the words, but she seemed to pour over them in her mind slowly, and then repeatedly, as if trying to understand all the more why he was saying this, what it would be to her. She got lost in her own thoughts as she dwelled there now in his arms.

One word consuming her mind as she repeated it over and over in her head.
...Immortality.

Her senses came back to her, almost lifting the air around them as she first realized she felt the cloth he was wearing rather than her own, and before she knew it her arms slowly rose to wrap around him.
In no way was she disgusted, in no way was she bewildered or frightened. The aura of the dream scape unaltered.

Her fingers gently dug into him, as she looked to him now. Eye to eye with this man, or at least this image of a man from a distant land and a distant time. She'd reassured herself into such a state, she didn't deny herself the moment of satisfaction to be embraced. Haruka simply waited to be released.

[sprinkles]

Sprinkles continued to gently kiss her. Then slowly grew slightly more aggressive in his advances. He moved his hand down from her ear grabbed the edge of her kimono where it laid on her neck and drew it away from her. She remained clothed but he was able to pull it down her arm slightly. He laid feather light kisses across her bare shoulder up to her neck. He let his breath fall gently on her ear as he whispered to her. "I'll tell you the greatest secret of all. I'll tell you how to kill me."

[Bayushi Haruka]

Haruka was not caught off guard, but he was certainly so confident and the thought crossed her mind that he likely had done this many times before. But a secret, here and now?

"If you wish for me to know... I will guard such a secret with my life. If you wish me to be alive.. if you deem me worthy of eternal life.."
She couldn't believe the words would ever pass her lips.

"I will not refuse it, Sprinkles-san."
Her skin was unspoiled by scars, and the touch was something she craved, but had to steady herself again. The paleness of her skin a severe contrast to the cloth that covered her.

One of her hands seemed to stop his advances, gently cupping his cheek and trying to draw him back up to her face. She wanted to see his eyes as he spoke these words more than anything. And if she could have his lips again, she would take them.

[sprinkles]

He drew back and looked her in the eyes. He wanted his honestly to show. He wanted her to know. Whether she was here to join him or betray him it would serve the same purpose. "The Burning Sands have no kami. They were scorched by Lady Sun. I came here fascinated by them. When I found them I refuse to let them go. I bound them to me and I to them. The only way to kill me is to destroy Rokugan." He let the gravity of the words sink in a moment. "I am the soul of the Empire. Join me and you can be too."