crystal;

[notathreat]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Ellie
RECIPIENT: All y'all
NOTES: N/A

Hey, guys. It's Ellie. Uh, acting Griffon keeper for the next couple of months. And since we've got a lot of new people joining, I was thinking- it might be intimidating to just go up to the Aerie and introduce yourself to the griffons alone.

They're mostly just big babies, but I know they don't look like it.

[Also, said babies can take off an arm if they feel like, but details.]

Riftwatch has some griffon riders who take good care of them, but they have favorite people they bond with and a lot of them don't have anybody special.

So if you want to come up and meet them, let me know and I'll introduce you. And if anybody's interested in learning to ride -- griffons or horses, or whatever else is in the stables, I can teach you that too.

[ooc; Griffon riding is an AC Reward that can be purchased here until the system is updated! It can be done without threading with Ellie or anyone else about it, but if you want to thread it out heyo]

Comments

[pathlit]

Yeah? [ A single syllable, wistful as he strokes the griffon's head, each pass a little more confident than the last. He thought she might mosey on off after depleting the offerings in his hand, but she seems content to simply soak up the attention he provides.

Looking up to Ellie, he asks, ] How does that work? The... [ he trails off as he recognizes the equipment for what it is; his heart skips a beat.

He shoots a hopeful glance at Viktor. ]

[grindset]

[Viktor gives a broad shrug in return, shoulders and face alike—don't look at him, he's not the griffon master here—that softens into quiet observation in the seconds after.

The anxiety, the joy, even the way Jayce carries himself—functionally, he's seeing all this for the first time, collecting shreds of what was taken from him (what he gave away) in Arlathan. Those rent memories can't be rebuilt, but he can fit the lost details in a new catalogue. His will to privacy has been working overtime to combat this, flicking his eyes at the barest sign of notice, snatching his attention away to some other likely point, to what he would call passable effect.

So it's nice when there's a lot of activity happening. Griffons and things. Ellie being there, directing. It pushes the likely points closer, makes what he's staring at a little less obvious.

It's good seeing them together; he hopes they'll take to it, not only when he's around.]

[notathreat]

[Potato trills, leans into Jayce's fingers, bowing her head to be scratched and then extending her neck to butt the top of her head against Jayce's chest.

The meaning is unmistakeable, and Ellie gives a helpless shrug, passing over what looks like a bridle. Who is she to argue with what's obviously happening in front of them?]

Just like that.

[Ellie shoots a sideway grin at Viktor, quietly absorbing the wistful, almost hungry look on his face. Like he's trying to commit every second to memory, like something was lost between them. It has her heart skipping a beat, because it's familiar. It hits close to home.

She looks away, places the padding, hauls the heavy saddle up and over Potato's broad back. Reaches down to cinch her belly strap, leaning her shoulder into her withers to get it snug.]

Sometimes they just seem to know right away. That's my person.

[pathlit]

[ A lopsided smile tugs the corner of his mouth. Is that what happened with you after the trial? is the joke he doesn't ask Viktor with his incomplete memories. Wouldn't land right. Probably awkwardly. Maybe offensively, even.

So he dispels the fleeting disappointment with an amused huff and gently jiggles the bridle. ]

What do you think, Potato? [ he asks the griffon. ] Willing to give it a shot?

[grindset]

[Viktor's thoughts have likewise turned back to the vaulted chamber, the bodies packed in close, the single shaft of light slicing through the gloom. The vague sense of a voice raising to acoustic echo and how he felt to hear it. Thick paper slipping through his fingers, the weight of the book in his hand. The ember of an idea that fell upon him and set him alight.

The joke practically makes itself.

For a moment he turns his face aside, coughs just the once, clears his throat. Ellie's likely fastening the last of the girth buckles by the time he looks back.]

Is that how it was with Artie? Quick?

[notathreat]

[Potato trills in the back of her throat in response, turning her head to look at Jayce with one eye, assessing.]

Psh, nah. We kind of had to win each other over. I didn't realize that him trying to eat my hair all the time was his way of saying he liked me. But he learned to be gentle, and I learned all his favorite itchy spots and snacks.

[Ellie gives Jayce and Viktor a meaningful sidelong glance as she finishes with saddling the griffon up, using her fingers to check for anywhere she needs to tighten. She is very particular about making sure that everything's secured. Reins fastened, harness snug over Potato's chest.]

To be fair, she's probably still evaluating you. So think of this as a trial run.

By the way, [Ellie glances at Viktor, like she's not sure how truthful Jayce will be.] How are you with heights?

[pathlit]

[ Ellie's answer draws a soundless chuckle from him. Not enough for you, he mouths to Potato, referring to the supply of hair on his own head, but to hear her say the word trial aloud after the memory of a different sort of trial altogether is still fresh on his mind actually tugs an amused exhale out of him.

Looking to Ellie, he says, ] I've ridden airships before. [ He'd follow up with an acknowledgement that it isn't quite the same as riding a beast with no footing beneath him or guard rail around him, but the sight of her glancing at Viktor -- that look -- it's like the looks he and Caitlyn would share. ]

What? I know it's different. You're coming, too, right?

[ He's assuming Ellie wouldn't just plop Jayce on a griffon-slash-Potato and send him off into the sun, anyway. ]

[grindset]

[Ellie's oh-so-pointed look is so clearly meant to highlight some parallel, part of Viktor would like to protest it—there was no trial run, first of all, they were committed to scientific partnership within mere hours of meeting each other—and secondly, to insinuate that said partnership has some kind of rider and mount dynamic is an insulting characterization, regardless of how it's applied—though he would be the rider, obviously—but that is simply too much personal insight to share in the name of a single correction, off of a single glance.

So he pretends to ignore it, in a way that makes it kind of obvious he's pretending to ignore it.

The second glance is acceptable and, indeed, very similar to one he might share with Caitlyn. Ellie's friendship can't possibly replace the one Jayce will be missing, but has the potential to assume a similar shape.

As for the question of a ride-along,]

I would strongly advise it. He's every bit as much a city boy as I am.

[notathreat]

[Ellie squints one eye at Jayce, like she's not sure if that counts, but she'll allow it for now. That's better than some people have got. It's better than what she had.

She hesitates a moment before Viktor encourages it, nodding to herself. (She very resolutely ignores the silent byplay between the two of them. One, she can't fathom the layers of it, and two, it seems kinda. Not her business, quite yet.)]

Good idea, but Artie would get pissed if he found me riding some other griffon. Let me see if he's near enough to hear me.

[Give her a moment to step away to one of the large entrances into the aerie. It looks like a giant hole in the wall of the tower, though it's reinforced and there is a large door that can be closed and bolted against bad weather.

She grips the one with her good hand and leans out into empty space, heedless of the sheer drop below, and puts her other hand to her mouth, letting out a shrill, loud, carrying whistle. There's a moment before there's an answering screech, somewhat muffled, and a loud flapping of wings.]

Oh, here he comes.

[And he does. Artichoke is enormous, muscular, with dark grey plumage and gold-coin eyes. He alights claws-first and then shoulders his way in, shaking his wings and splattering Ellie with water droplets from the clouds.]

Hey! Brat.

[But Ellie's grinning, and Artichoke headbutts her in the chest enthusiastically, rocking her back several steps and knocking the wind out of her, only to rumble contentedly when she sinks her hands into his feathers to give him a neck rub. He stays there for a moment, then nips affectionately at Ellie's ponytail before he makes his way over to Viktor.

To lovingly attempt to preen the man's hair, of course. Unless he's fended off, he'll make it much worse.]

[pathlit]

[ He's all open curiosity, weight shifting to get a better look at who Ellie summons, but takes no step closer, kept in place by Potato's insistent head-butting for further attention. The curiosity settles into something less giddy and more contemplative as Artichoke arrives, the interaction between he and Ellie somehow allowing a simple fact to sink in a little deeper: that the man sitting on the chair, resting upon his crutch, has ridden this beast -- this beast with the same cut of eye, gold and sharp -- that this Viktor isn't truly the Viktor he'd sought after the night in the shimmer factory like an old comfort despite anticipating ridicule for his actions, and he is not truly the Jayce this Viktor had forgotten.

And he doesn't really know all of what Viktor may have endured in Thedas and he never truly did know what Viktor had endured in Piltover and the undercity.

They fall into step so smoothly, anyhow.

It's a peculiar realization -- one that stirs a faint ache within his ribs as he watches Artie approach Viktor with a fondness bordering on melancholic. ]

[grindset]

[As he follows Ellie with his eyes, a flicker of artless hope breezes past his reserve. It tips him into a lean, too, that he might see more of the sky through the great gap in the wall, maybe catch the rush of incoming wings. Indeed, he lights up just ahead of Artichoke's bustling arrival, and watches the knockabout greeting of Ellie with open fondness. When that big furred and feathered body turns toward him, he sets his crutch aside in time to receive it with both hands, and even holds his head at an obliging angle to indulge Artie's nigh pathological love of hair, mindful of the great beak rustling around his ear, unconcerned for whatever unfortunate avian styling may occur.

That is, until the inevitable tweak to his scalp. Then comes the Ouch, the tutting, an admonishment that falls short of wholly stern, and a final round of pats before the griffon sent back Ellie's way. His unserious frown returns to a smile,

only to fade gently as he realizes he's being watched.

Viktor is not the same. Never before has he struggled so deeply to maintain a sense of self. His arrival here is the shattered nucleus of a sprawling web, every day an effort to keep the cracks from spreading; at Arlathan he took a hammer to it himself, thinking to shed pieces that would only cut him to keep. How wrong he was.

Now, as he reacquaints himself with Jayce's attention, he finds he's nervous of the potential in it, of the likelihood of further loss. Either of them could disappear at any moment—he could rebuild this only to lose it again.

Jagged edges silently graze this lingering exchange before something prompts either or both of them to break it.]

[notathreat]

[Ellie doesn't miss the way Viktor puts aside his crutch for Artie; it's an open affection that warms her heart, actually. Artichoke is an affectionate guy, but he always loves the most on the people who love him, too.

He trills and settles into something more gentle and loving, fluffing up his head feathers and lowering his head to be petted, utterly unconcerned with the scolding. A nice little slow-blink of his big, piercing eyes.

He doesn't seem to want to challenge Potato for Jayce's attention at the moment, content.

Ellie, for her part, feels like she's seeing much more than she's meant to, a vulnerability between the two of them, a gap neither of them is quite sure how to cross. Lingering fear alongside all that hopeful want.

It prods at sore things inside herself, an understanding that grounds her to the moment.]

So,

[She says to them both, gesturing to the open, yawning gap outside the tower, all the gorgeous, glorious open air.]

You wanna fly?

end!

[pathlit]

[ Affection blossoms in the wake of Viktor and Artichoke's exchange, receding into a comfortable hum beneath his ribs as Viktor's attention turns onto him. Not knowing what to say-- not feeling like words are necessary in this very instance-- Jayce merely offers him a small, lopsided smile with an equally small and lopsided shrug.

Then Ellie's voice cuts through the space between. The ring of a bell he's content to answer. ]

Absolutely.

[ And when they return from this impromptu introduction to griffons, they may find Viktor surrounded by more of these creatures, some vying for attention, others napping near his feet. It is a sight that might make Jayce's chest ache with an old fondness long since buried. ]