westwhere | I called out

WHO: Eleven and OPEN to anyone around the Tree, chained to the Tree, or otherwise in search of one tree-hugger.
WHEN: May 31-June 10th-ish
WHERE: The Tree
WHAT: Tree simping/vibing
WARNINGS: tba?

It's simple curiosity that leads Eleven out to the tree when he hears of it. He doesn't expect more than a worn, old pine tree sticky with sap. But the moment he sees it, with wide-stretching branches held tidily up from its trunk and twining beneath the weight of a trim canopy, his breath catches.

Caught up in staring for several heartbeats, he becomes aware of a cold aura that the tree itself seems responsible for. Moreover, he senses the beginning stirs of life, entwined with another feeling that takes him too long to place: death.

Cold forgotten, his heart tumbles through his chest, tripping up his feet in his haste to reach the trunk of the tree. His marked hand touches first, palm thrust forward, fingers embedding into deep grooves in the rough bark. The whole of his awareness and focus narrows to the tree beneath his hand, seeking a connection that fails to immediately manifest.

A.

He wouldn't give up.

Over the next several days, Eleven spent considerably more time at the tree than the farmhouse. There was some connection to be made there, he was sure- it was just a matter of forging it. An effort well-worth his time if any of his suspicions or hopes came to fruition.

He spent hours circling the tree, prodding around its roots to extract visible shards of embedded glass with gloved hands, and occasionally stopped to examine an oddly shaped fallen leaf with focused intent. Sat between its roots and leaned back against the trunk to simply rest and attempt to feel for something else through the cold wafting from the bark.

Eleven spoke to it when he thought he was alone- voice soft with apologies, reassurance, or quiet concerns. Then near the end of the day, bent himself in prayer for lengthy spans of minutes, still and silent, willing his mind open to the brush of another consciousness until the sun began to set.

B.

Of course he's heard of the trials of Anurr and how he'd had to chain himself to this very tree for three days and three nights (or something?) and while he isn't surprised that Anurr's most fervent supporters have elected to follow in his footsteps, it does surprise him to discover slightly more familiar faces in the mornings he comes to visit.

Eleven crouches near them, tentatively reaching out to try and wake them if they don't appear to be conscious and anxiously hovering when/if they are.

"Hey, are you all right? Do you need help?"

C.

His persistence pays off.

Pressed fully into the trunk, Eleven knows when he's found it- a subtle feeling, but one that's reaching for the energy he's poured into the tree. The back of his hand shines with a soft glow just before he loses time and external awareness between one breath and the next.

He exists in a quiet, floating awareness, attached to a sense of aged perception. Understanding slowly permeates his mind quite without words, in the same manner his own questions reach out. It isn't much, but it's enough and he's grateful up until something within the tree pulls at him and leaves him cold.

Eleven starts back to reality with a sharp gasp and shivering breathlessness, cold and fatigue plaguing him with quaking arms and unsteady footsteps as he moves to peel himself away.

[ooc: action or prose is fine!]

Threaded | Flat

The Luminary had been at this tree business and somehow along the way today he'd given the knight the slip. It wasn't like Hendrik to misplace his charge but that was just the way it was going.

Relentlessly he searched for the boy, and made sure that he wasn't being hunted in the meantime, unsure if the undead still lurked somehow. Those thoughts he tried not to allow to plague him since he was focusing on finding the boy.

But then it seems his luck turned for the better, and he came upon Eleven who was pressed up against the tree for what seemed an eternity. This reminded him of the time on Mount Pang Lai where the boy had gone after his grandfather Lord Robert in the afterlife. And the waiting had been the hardest part.

So he stood there almost transfixed by the sight of the Luminary's hand being lit up. It made him wonder if this was somehow connected back to the World Tree and if the other was able to conjure memories, just as had happened with Hendrik's past there.

Oddly it was the desire for familiarity that sent Lily out into the woods that day, seeking out familiar-looking plants. While she found a few that looked something like the ones back home, she didn't know them to be especially magical she was quick to toss aside the disappointment she felt, not spotting the odd patch of Fluxweed in favor of curiosity, as her walk took her closer to where the trials were being held.

She had not spent time around the tree. There was something about it that was completely fascinating, but the nature of what was asked of them, and those chilly voices she heard coming from these woods at night had made her hesitant to approach. Even now, having made her way there she kept her distance, her arms crossed tightly as she frowned at it from across the distance.

Lily followed the circumference of the tree’s trunk, making a wide circle. She was careful to maintain the stretch of space between her and the tree. As she rounded one side she caught sight of a figure, seemingly engrossed and leaning heavily on the massive trunk, the sight gave her pause. Based on the nature of the trials the sight wasn’t unexpected, but the gasp the stranger breathed was sharp enough for alarm to spark up in the forefront of her thoughts.

It was that concern that drew her closer, her hand in her pocket, tight around her wand as she steeled herself and approached the stranger. “Are you alright? Do you need any help?”

[Dirty, hungry, tired and angry are pretty unpleasant states of being. Yennefer has been pried from the tree and with some intervention from Karsa the sorceress she has chosen to stay close to the blasted tree. She watches and is still very wary of the strange animalistic people. The tree itself is homely, large and woefully fitting for such an event.]

You're still alive?

[She leans in closer with caution, not believing that this place is without danger nor risk.]

C - Action

c

C. unhappy tree friends?