entrancelogs | i am the king of the sparrows

Entry tags:

i am the king of the sparrows

Who: Gansey and you!
Where: the library, the forest, the beach
When: 8/25
Rating: probably E for Everyone! Some light swearing, description of cleaning an infected wound.
Summary: Gansey is learning his way around Wonderland
The Story:

the library

[anyone who knew gansey (which is, of course, at this point, basically nobody) would be unsurprised to find him in the library. books are a safe haven, reading and research always a source of comfort, and this library has enough books to keep anyone entertained for an eternity.

at the moment, he's amassing a pile of them at the bottom of a ladder. they're on a variety of subjects, from ley lines and welsh history to the first three novels about a certain wizard with a scar on his forehead. he seems comfortable enough up on the library ladder, or at least he does until he adds one too many books to the collection he's holding on one forearm, and it goes tumbling to the floor.

apologies to anyone nearby for either the sudden falling object or the very loud noise it makes when it hits the ground.]

the forest

[the woods are lovely, dark, and deep, and gansey is homesick as all hell, at sea without his friends, without his quest, without much to anchor him besides the strange man who lives in the next room over. unmoored and left to his own devices, he seeks solace in a place that's maybe just a little like another forest he knows. it's nothing like cabeswater, really, lacking in all the magic and wonder, but the odd sense of not-quite-reality that pervades all of wonderland is something, at least.

if nothing else, it's quite a sight to see a well-groomed teenaged boy in khaki cargo shorts, a brightly colored polo, and boat shoes climbing a tree. or maybe you spot him when he's up there, wedged more-or-less comfortably in. the polo really is rather unsubtle.]

the beach

[gansey's wanderings have brought him to the shoreline. he has his shoes hooked on two fingers and a library book held with the others, but instead of helping himself to one of the chairs, he just stands and stares, watching the waves, his free hand in his pocket, rocking gently back and forth, digging his feet into the sand. once he's in up to his ankles, he goes completely still, watching the waves break and crest on shore.

he probably stands there for fifteen minutes, at least, before pulling his feet free, setting his shoes and book on a vacant chair, and walking toward the water, both hands in his pockets now. there's something about the set of his shoulders, a bone-deep loneliness, or at least aloneness. when he gets down to the water's edge, he turns and begins to walk along it. where's he going? he has no idea. it doesn't really matter.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Dipper also spends a lot of time in the library, so it's not really a surprise that he's here today. He's also very absorbed in the book he's reading, so he's not paying nearly enough attention when suddenly a book lands directly on his head, knocking his hat askew.]

Hey!

[He looks up the ladder, scowling, as he picks up the book.]

You could have bent the pages!

[the book seems to fall in that bizarre slow motion that happens when one is aware that something bad is about to happen, at least in gansey's mind. he watches it hit the boy's head with a flinch.]

I'm so sorr--

[wait, did he just say something about bending the pages? gansey's brow furrows as he starts climbing down the ladder with the rest of his books.]

Your head seems like a slightly higher priority. Are you all right?

I'm fine. [Dipper rubs his head, then hands him the book and picks up the one he had been reading.] My head's taken worse.

[He gets into way bigger messes than most 12 year old nerds. It's amazing he hasn't been to the hospital more.]

You know the ladders aren't one use only, right? You're allowed to put down some of the books before going up for more.

If you're sure. And I did.

[indeed, there is a small pile of books by the ladder. this was clearly his second trip, at least. he adds the ones he's holding and the one dipper just handed him to said pile.]

I really am sorry, though. Thought I had them all.

[he offers a sheepish smile. combined with his old-money virginia accent, he's a picture of apology for minor offense.]

[Dipper shrugs, still not really bothered.] It takes more than a book to kill me.

[Zombies. It very specifically takes zombies and a good old fashioned mercy killing. He hates that he knows that now.]

What're you researching anyway?

Well, I would hope so. I mean, it wasn't from that high up.

[that. that is slightly disturbing. but mostly gansey isn't quite sure why he looks so uncomfortable.]

Lots of things, probably. My pet research project involves ley lines.

Ley lines? [Dipper frowns thoughtfully, happy to leave behind the subject of falling books behind..]

I've heard of those. They're places where magic is more powerful or something?

(The woods were a little bit daunting the first time Max had seen them. He didn't get very far before turning away from them. They were unlike any trees he had ever seen before and he didn't like the way they felt or how dark they became the further along you moved.

Yet like with all living things in this world, they drew him in with a vicious sort of curiosity. Enough that every now and then, he'd slip in between the trees and find himself lost for a while. It was a particularly dangerous place for him to be.

This time around he's lucky. A bright color catches his eye that contrasts almost violently with the rest of the forest and has him looking through the woods to where it could possibly be coming from. Someone in a tree. Slowly Max walks closer, feeling cautious. At least until he gets close enough to actually recognize who was in the tree.

All at once, every bit of tension leaves Max and he wanders closer, staring up at the tree and the boy inside of its branches. He himself blends far better into the woods with his dark jeans and dark brown hooded sweater. The hood is up and draped over his head but he peers up from under it, stepping up onto the thicker roots of the tree.)

This anything like your strange, magic forest?

[lost in his thoughts, gansey looks the part, staring out into nothing. his expression isn't exactly sad so much as weighted, as though he's burdened with the sorts of things that don't at all fit his boyish, clean-cut image. he visibly startles at the sound of max's voice, then smiles down at him. the change in his expression is abrupt as the change of a tv channel, all traces of unhappiness gone. he's genuinely glad to see max, but there's still something a little eerie about the way he just transforms in the blink of an eye like it's nothing.]

Yes and no, but mostly no. Cabeswater is...alive. Very alive. There's nothing alive in here but the trees, and they don't seem to have anything to say.

Hello, Ramsey.

(It is a bit strange but Max was barely one in a position to judge how another's mind works. If anything, he is grateful that he had come across Gansey. He might not understand the transition but he does understand the look that Gansey had been wearing not seconds before. He doesn't return the smile passed his way but he is decidedly just as glad to see the boy.)

Hi.

(A soft, barely there word. He holds a hand against the tree, feeling mildly uncertain. It felt odd wanting to go up to someone but not sure how to.

See: Max doesn't have much experience climbing trees anymore. Though he is certainly trying to see the best route up there.)

It is....quiet.

(An agreement as Max leverages himself from root to root, peeking this way and that. How on earth had Gansey gotten up there?)

[gansey smiles, demonstrating how he got up by taking the same way back down. one of his hobbies is rock-climbing, and he's stronger than one might expect, easily able to lower himself with just his arms while his feet toe for holds. the first branch turns out to be right near where max is standing, and gansey lowers himself down until he's just dangling before dropping the last few inches to the ground.]

Cabeswater isn't just a place. It's a thing. This is just a place. But a nice enough place, as long as you stay where the light still comes in.

[like where they are now, dappled in light.]

Just out for a walk?

(Max was used to scaling the sides of cars and rigs. Things that had all kinds of metal footings and holds on them to grab at. It's very interesting to him to watch Gansey scale back down the tree with complete ease. He steps back and out of the way, slipping down the root a bit in the process.)

Ah.

(Gansey drops and Max blinks in earnest bemusement. He stares back up the tree and then back down at Gansey.

Then he turns his attention up towards the branches of the trees that allowed light to filter through.)

I am. And you...?

(He turns his head back around to look at Gansey, blinking away whatever was left of the daze he had presently been in before coming along to find Gansey.)

Thinking, I guess. I was getting the lay of the land, but...

[but then he'd stopped. it's always a bit of a risk, stopping, but at least the forest had felt less foreign than other places. he gives max a good look as he keeps blinking, a bit like he's trying to shake off sleep.]

Ramsey...did you get lost?

Uhh...

(He stares over his shoulder back the way he had come from. Then he turns himself back around to look at Gansey and all he can really do is shake his head and shrug in one coinciding motion.)

I don't....maybe. A little.

(His uncertainty is as plain as the daylight shining through the trees. It's unsettling to get lost in the forest if only because he couldn't tell if he was getting lost or if the forest was making him lose his way.)

You haven't wandered far, have you?

Not too far. Once it started getting dark, things went a bit...odd. So I came back out. The mansion is that way, the direction the trees thin.

[he points as he speaks. it's subtle, but really looking at the light on the forest floor before the trees obscure it completely makes it obvious which way is deeper in and which way is heading out.]

But there's really not much to see in here besides trees. I just like trees. Other than in here, I found a beach.

(Max doesn't ask for Gansey to elaborate on how he meant by 'odd'. Max understood well enough by his own experiences.

He reaches a hand up to slide his hand over the bark of the tree they were standing at the base of. At the mention of the beach, his eyes dance nervously over to Gansey before away. He doesn't mention the beach or even make acknowledgement towards it. Instead, he diverts the subject entirely.)

How do you get up there?

(He points up the tree.)

[gansey notes the look when he mentions the beach, and decides to let it go. showing max how to climb a tree will either be easy, humorous, or disastrous, but gansey isn't very worried about him being able to hold up his own weight, and the tree certainly can.]

It's not too hard. You should be able to follow me up.

[he goes back to the branch he dropped from. it takes him a little hop to be able to wrap his hands firmly around, but then he pulls himself up, resting his weight on his hipbones as he shifts his hands and then turns until he's sitting on the branch. using another branch and the trunk for support, he gets to his feet, and then wedges his foot into the crotch of a branch about a foot and a half higher, part-way around the tree. it's a steadying point for a longer reach for a thinner branch with his opposite hand, so he can get that foot onto a properly thick branch. that's where he stops, for now.]

That's how you start. Think you can manage?

(Max watches in fascination as Gansey begins to scale up the tree. It doesn't look outlandishly easy but it doesn't look difficult either. He gives a short nod before hauling himself up onto the first branch. He's not as used to it like Gansey is but he has a strong body that he's carried around for long enough that it doesn't prove to be too hard.

Once he's standing on the first branch, he stares up expectantly at Gansey, blinking at him to get him to do the next one.)

[gansey's slowly learning max's non-verbalisms, and so it only takes a short moment for him to realize that he's meant to take the blink as a signal to continue. this he does, reaching out from the sturdy branch to one at about chest height and a few feet away, which is the next place he pulls himself up to. after that, he's in the main crotch of the tree, and he leans against one huge branch and rests his feet against another, waiting for max to catch up. there's plenty of room for both of them here, although they aren't quite as high yet as gansy was..]

(Max waits for Gansey to crawl further up the tree before he moves after him. His own movements are far slower and more cautious than Gansey's but he also was getting used to the tree itself. The bark was surprisingly good grip if you just trusted it a bit and he heaved himself up with the occasional grunt or mutter.

Eventually he's hauled up onto the same branch as Gansey. He wavers a moment, standing on the branch a bit awkwardly, not certain of where to place himself comfortably in between all of the branches and Gansey himself.)

Higher?

Sure, if you'd like. We can go...maybe ten feet more up before the branches thin too much.

[the climb from here is a bit trickier. the next branch, gansey grabs with his hands and then walks his feet up the side of the tree to lever his leg up instead of lifting like a pull-up bar, because it's too wide for him to get a good grip around the other way. the next branch he has to lean out to grab, swinging as he pulls himself up.]

This is about as high as we can go safely, I think.

[he leaves that branch for max and levers himself over one more, grabbing a skinny branch for some support as he straddles his way over to a branch of similar height and width to the one where he indicated max should stop. the tree is sturdy, but he's not sure one branch will take their combined weight, and they're high enough up that risking it seems unwise.]

Mmm.

(He watches closely as Gansey scales up the tree even further. It was trickier but he felt good enough to try it. He grabbed at the branch and started to walk himself up along the tree. He's clumsier on the next one. His brace gets a bit caught and he grunts, letting go to fall back down a bit heavily. The branch sways under him and Max merely stares up at Gansey blankly for a moment before attempting it again.

Max doesn't really think about the weight. Too used to metal and sturdy things to think about combined weights maybe breaking something.

He gets to the branch that Gansey has indicated for him and he sits on it with his legs hanging over the side facing Gansey. He idly swings his good leg, resting his hands over the curve of the branch. He seems wholly content to stay where he is and not go any higher up. Being in a tree is far different to looking at one and soon Max is staring away from Gansey through all of the branches. It's like being tucked away from the world. He's surprised by how safe it feels. Looking down, he spreads his legs a bit to get a better view and then looks up at Gansey in a bright sort of wonder. As if Gansey was responsible for the trees being there.)

[once max is settled, gansey sits down too, letting his legs swing and watching max discover the wonder that was being up high in such a green place. there's more sun up here but they're still only halfway up the tree, and leaves still cast shadows over them, moving in a gentle breeze that wasn't so obvious on the ground. it's just enough to ruffle gansey's hair a little, to keep the work of climbing from feeling sweaty now that they've stopped.]

It's good up here, isn't it?

library

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forest!

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forest

library!