• Closed • In The Flesh

[Yanahalqah]

Much to Yana’s surprise, the Yludih in front of her had just started laughing. She wasn’t sure just what she had expected –probably shock—but it certainly wasn’t that. It wasn’t just a little chuckle either, instead it was a full blown round of laughter that shook his entire body, ringing out loud and clear. He did sound as if he was having loads of fun, and Yana wondered for a moment if she had unintentionally cracked a joke –though it’d have been an uncharacteristically funny one to result in a reaction of this caliber.

Perhaps she’d misspoke then? But no, she was certain she hadn’t. Maybe he’d just misunderstood, though it shouldn’t have been possible. Rathaan might not be good at speaking Ulehi, but he should be able to read sign quite well. There was no way he’d misunderstood.

So then there probably was an inside joke she did not know about, and which had her companion just about rolling over the floor.

The only thing she found even remotely amusing about this whole thing was that as Rathaan tried to hold in his laughter for a moment so he could speak, his Ulehi sounded a whole lot better. Other than that though, the scarred Yludih just sat there looking and feeling really confused.

As he recovered though, he asked her never to tell his mother ‘this’. She suspected he’d rather not have Yana tell her about how wrongly he’d pronounced his own name, which made sense. The new meaning his bad pronunciation gave to his own name obviously wasn’t what Rathaan was meant to be called. Yana pondered for a moment, trying to puzzle the actual meaning of his name together, figuring she’d go for the other way to pronounce the entire thing, though then she ended up with ‘boring future’, which probably wasn’t his name either. Future did seem to be right though, if she had to guess. If she’d had a brow, she’d have furrowed it, and then it clicked. It wasn’t Sintih Rathaan, it was Sintih Rathaan. That did sound a whole lot better.

That was just about the polar opposite of what he’d butchered his own name into.

She still didn’t see what was funny about it though.

“I wouldn’t dare!” Yana answered seriously, realizing she had been silent for a brief moment. Depending on how angry his parents would be, Yana might very well be thrown into the Void, or be challenged to a duel to the death. Or sentenced to another couple seasons of mandatory and solitary meditation. She wasn’t sure which was less preferable. “I would never in my life, intentionally speak the name of a Yludih so it would have a meaning other than the one intended by those who named them.” She was very serious indeed, looking straight at the other Yludih, as if to silently say “and no one should ever even think I would do it either”.

If anything, she was slightly offended by the suggestion. She crossed her arms.

[Sintih]

[img]/gallery/image ... ge_id=6091[/img]

here was something so freeing about laughing like this. There were no Idalos problems in his head as he was laughing, not even Uleuda problems. Just him and his inside joke and Saeri, Yana, sitting in front of him, looking at him in silence. It didn't even matter that she didn't get the joke. The laughing stayed with him for a while. Whenever he thought he'd gotten out of it, he looked at Saeri, Yana, faceless, sitting opposite of him and he saw her hands move once again, signing the meaning behind his name. He would just fall back into it, laughing once more. Sin couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed so hard about something. Life hadn't been laughable lately, it seemed.

As a Yludih, requiring no air to function, Sin had no problem laughing for so long without running of breath or feeling the pain in his stomach or throat like the other races would. With one less reason to stop laughing, it took much longer for Sin to calm down from his high but eventually he came down enough to be able to talk. Saeri, Yana, had just been staring at him, or at least her face had been pointed in his direction as he couldn't tell any other details from her. The yellow glowed dimmed down a little as he calmed down enough to finally ask her to never tell his mother about this. She'd kick his ass up and down Yldria if she found out.

Saeri's, Yana's, reaction didn't surprise him in the least. She took it very seriously, her chimes going just a little but less clear, a little bit more shrill as she defended herself claiming she would never dare to mispronounce a name. He should feel upset about it, the way she worded it, but there was still too much light pulsing in his body, filling him with warmth and joy. She probably never would, serious like she was. It was a strange revelation to understand that out of the two of them Sintih was probably the joker. He nodded as she spoke and could sense that the fact he even suggested something like that hurt her in some way. Her voice told him more about her feelings than the rest of her body did.

He smiled, which went unseen by anyone in Uleuda, and nodded as she defended herself. When she stared at him, he couldn't see anything on her face, but the stern, higher ranking face of Saeri was clear in his mind. It overlapped all too easily with the Yludih in front of him, crossing her arms. His smile widened as he leaned forward, closing some of the distance between them. He didn't speak, at least not with chimes. Despite his current elation, Saeri's, Yana's remarks had made him more aware of his mistakes and he didn't want to ruin the moment. Instead, he moved one hand to his chin, extending his index and middle finger and rubbing them down his chin a few times, the common sign for cute, or sweet. He continued to lean forward, placing his other hand in between him and Saeri, Yana on the ground.

He was leaning so far forward now that he was on his knees, his crossed legs uncrossing as put his signing hand down on the ground, next to Saeri's, Yana's knee. What remained of the distance between was closed with a soft clinking of crystal on crystal as his forehead touched against hers. There were no eyes on either of their face, nor mouths or any other distinguishing features but he knew exactly where Saeri's eyes were on her face so he stared at that space on the crystals instead. "Thanks you." He chimed, carefully and slowly, as correctly as he could. He had to as his hands weren't available to help with signs. He kissed her, quickly, softly. Just more crystal clinking against crystal. The previously yellow glow from his asterism shifted to a clear white with some light pink near the asterism itself, barely visible.

With his right hand shifted next to Saeri's, Yana's, leg to support him, Sin moved his other hand to her shoulder and simply moved it over it and behind her neck while moving from the kiss to the other side of her face, his cheek resting lightly against hers. He pulled her in a slightly awkward hug, due to his position, nothing else, but there was nobody else who could see them here, nobody to say anything about it apart from the two of them. He smiled in the hug, imagining Saeri's stern face, her arms crossed and him trying to hug her. He was prepared to get pushed away or hugged back, you never knew with her. At the same time he was both thankful and upset with Aelig for having taken so long to make this happen.

[Yanahalqah]

He signed back at her, avoiding ulehi for his short message as he leaned forward slightly. She would have thought it to be a matter of him not wanting to be misunderstood, or due to him feeling uncomfortable with the Yludih language if she hadn’t caught the sign used.
She had though, and if she’d had them, she’d have rolled her eyes. Now though, she just made an effort to cross her arms more, which –sadly—wasn’t quite possible.

Rathaan continued to lean further and further in though, and before Yana knew it, their foreheads touched, and she could feel the heat of his crystals on hers. Though an unexpected contact, Yana did not withdraw, simply feeling her asterism pump more warmth through her body. “You’re quite welcome,” she responded, amused.

And then… another touch of his face on hers, this time the spot where his lips would have been touching the place where hers would be. A kiss, of sorts. Yana could feel the crystals of them both join together, the telltale heat melting them into one shared set, albeit for a very brief time. It was over too soon, and even though Rathaan did not break the contact between them, the rather uncomfortable hug was not comparable to what had come before.

That had been familiar territory. On Idalos they had done the same, and now here—That was a good thing. And he had initiated—another good thing. There were no doubts. Yana knew what she wanted. She unfolded her arms, placing her hands softly on Rathaan’s shoulders, and she pushed.

Gently, slowly. Pushing him away— though not quite. She guided him, coaxed him, urged him closer to the ground. To lie down, on his back, on the floor. And she did not make haste, instead slowly coming to lean over him instead, her asterism pulsing, crystals tingling. And then, the very last part, their balance was lost, and for a brief moment they actually fell –Rathaan backwards, she forwards—and she sat on hands and knees over him, one hand on each side of his face.

“Don’t tease me like that,” she murmured to him, her face only a hair’s width away from his, “I know no restraint.” She pressed the lower half of her face onto his, feeling that heat, burning a pleasant white-hot conjoining the parts that touched. She wasn’t going to let this one pass as quickly as he had. Perhaps he could make do with little, but she was greedy. She wanted more. And she would get more, this was but the start.

“Oh!” she heard someone chime, sounding surprised and sheepish. “Excuseme,Ithoughtthisonewasfree!” they rattled before closing the door again in a very quick manner. Yana had only caught sight of a head shining with embarrassment. The female Yludih just stared at the door, quite surprised and slightly embarrassed herself.

The door opened again, and this time an Ancient stuck their head through the opening, eyebrows raised. “Should I remind you two that these meditation rooms are for meditation, and not for your youthful experiments?” Despite his words, he sounded more amused than reprimanding. He gave the two of them something that was probably supposed to be a stern look, and closed the door again, leaving the two Yludih to do as they pleased.

Yana, however, had already crawled back to her previous position, though she was sitting on her knees now, glowing a soft pink and covering her face with her hands, believing her head was shining as brightly as the Mother Crystal.

[Sintih]

[img]/gallery/image ... ge_id=6078[/img]

or a moment, Sin was just hugging her, trying to ignore the crystals clinking together and keeping his thoughts and the woman within, or outside of Uleuda, that he was hugging. It wasn't easy to keep reminding himself that this crystal person in front of him and the woman in Idalos were the same person. Not as long as his eyes were open, at least. But when he closed them in the hug, it came almost natural, like it did in Idalos, even though they hadn't really done much of it there either. Both of them were busy there and all of this was all so new to him. He felt Saeri, Yana, stirring in the hug and he could feel her arms shift. He grinned for a trill, thinking she was about to mellow down and hug him back. Instead her hands pushed between them and pushed him back by the shoulders.

At first he was confused, leaning back a little, looking at her face, the crystals he couldn't decipher even if he understood everything about Yludih facial cues because she didn't have anything to read from. He just stared at light spread crystals in the form of a face. He wanted to say something, chime her a question but the pressure on his shoulders, the pressure from her hands didn't stop. He let go of her and leaned back a little with the pushing. Did she not like it? Or was it the whole Yludih thing that didn't work for her? Sin wondered, hesitated. As the pushing didn't stop, his thoughts grew worse quickly. It wasn't like he was a fan of this whole situation but at least he tried to do something with it, tried to make it work. He much rather have Saeri in his arms than this crystal person. But she didn't have to reject him like that.

The thoughts went as quickly as they'd come as Sin felt Saeri, Yana, guide him, not away from her but rather backwards to the floor. His emotions swapped right back, frustration and the beginnings of anger changing over to excitement all too easily. He tried to shift as he felt his balance beginning to vanish but Saeri, Yana, kept pushing him back. A short, chimed grunt passed from his crystals as he hit the ground, followed by a slightly exaggerated second one as Saeri, Yana, landed on top of him. Then she was sitting on him, leaning over, her face right above his, her hands on both sides of him. Excitement was joined by lust as she spoke once he'd taken the trill or two it took to translate what she told him. He grinned and before he could speak, the warmth of her asterism passed from her crystals into his and he didn't remember what hilarious quip he'd wanted to use in response.

At first he didn't move, just responded to the kiss. When her warmth spread onto him, banishing some of the eternal chill his body suffered from, he pushed back, kissed back. He moved one hand up to the back of her neck and let his crystal fingers slip up through the crystals that made up her hair. For a trill it felt like rubbing actual crystals but then the melding took over and he felt like he was gliding his hand over the surface of pleasantly warm light. He chimed a purr of approval, not aware of the distortion his accent gave to it in the moment. His free hand brushed past her leg, the sound of crystal on crystal for a moment before it too melded with her form. He caressed her leg and shifted his hand up higher, to more rounded parts of her body.

The more excited he got from the kiss, the more of her warmth spread over him. It wasn't more than a superficial warmth, just below the crystal shell, helping to stave off some of the cold, but it was more than Sin had felt in a long time. The more the warmth spread, the more the world faded from Sin's mind. The difference between Saeri and Yana, which had been a constant drone in Sin's logical mind, was the last to go. He chimed another incoherent purr into the kiss, the meld of their lower faces, and he kissed her back with every ounce of emotion he could muster for her. He kissed Yana. As he did, a shift in the light around them, caught through unseen eyelids, accompanied by a squeaky voice chiming something quickly in the room, too quick for Sin to understand, brought his mind right back to the present.

The warmth left from everywhere at once. The kiss broke as Yana sat upright faster than a squire jumping to attention and both his hands got pushed out of the meld, out of the warmth. Suddenly, Sin was cold and empty. The bond with Yana was back to normal, back to... flat, dull, Sin couldn't quite put his finger on it. The crystal form of Yana remained seated on him as she stared at the door, pink light coming off of her in waves. It wasn't too difficult to know what she was feeling right about now. It was odd to think of Saeri feeling this way, though. The door opened again, this time a brighter, very defined head popped in through the half opening. Sin had no problem understanding what was said this time around. He tried to clear his throat, chiming a little unevenly, as his light adjusted to match Yana's.

By the time the Ancient finished talking and had closed the door, Yana had left him entirely. She was sitting back on her pillow, looking quite tense as she basked in her internal light pink. Sin felt colder than before now that all contact with her was gone. He lifted his head from the floor to look at her and at the door, which was closed again. Perhaps some Ancient could invent locks sometime soon? Sin let out a frustrated and disappointed growl, properly aligned with his accented chimes this time. He pushed himself up from the ground and back into a seated position, legs out instead of folded. He didn't want to say anything about it, despite feeling disappointed in Yana's attitude. The Ancient hadn't sounded that stern when he reprimanded them. In silence, Sin's empty crystal face remained pointed in Yana's direction while his asterism's pink light speckled through with some darker purple.

[Yanahalqah]

With the mood broken, Yana really wasn’t too sure what to do. Things felt rather awkward now, which really couldn’t be helped considering the sudden interruption of their proceedings. She sighed. This was frustrating, and embarrassing, and she did not know how to continue from this point forward. How did one get over this odd atmosphere clinging to the room? Granted, it had been a rather bad idea to “experiment” –as the Ancient had called it—in a meditation room which everyone could walk into, but that might just have been why she’d given in anyway. A true experiment, in a sense.

Still, perhaps next time she’d just stick with more private and isolated.

For now though, the Yludih gathered her courage and cleared her throat, breaking through the quiet. ”Well, anyway,” she spoke, doing her best to sound normal, despite the obvious pink hue coming off her crystal body in waves, ”we should continue this another time.” She stood then, smoothing her robes for a brief couple moments, before she headed for the door. Yana paused for a moment, turned to look at Rathaan over her shoulder. ”Language lessons too, if you want to,” she added, changing the meaning of her previous words quite a bit.

Perhaps she would have given him a knowing smile if she was able to, but alas her crystal form did not allow it. However, the smile could be found in the tone of voice she’d used, something he definitely could pick up on. Before he would be able to react to it though, she left the room.

[Sintih]

[img]/gallery/image ... ge_id=6091[/img]

here was something in the air in the small meditation room, something that kept him and Yana separate even after the ancient had gone, basically giving them his blessing to continue what they had been doing up to that point. Sin wondered if Yana felt the same way about it as he did. Not the awkward silence that was here now but the absence of heat, of shared...ness. The meld itself was alien enough to Sin, although he'd accepted it after the first time with Saeri once he understood everything properly. No, the alien feeling was the warmth Yana was able to share with him whenever they did meld. Did it feel as good for her as it did for him? Did she grow colder from their meld? Was it pleasant for her? Unpleasant?

Sin pulled himself from this train of though. However it felt for her it was good enough to have tried it a second time. Yana's chime drew his attention to her and he watched her as she sat opposite of him, too much distance between the two of them. She emanated pink, almost enough to color the room as she spoke. His own pink matched hers but the obvious darker purple was still there, random blobs of frustration in his light sea of embarrassment. He shifted a little on his own pillow but didn't stand up as she did, just nodding mutely.

He watched her smooth her robes, appreciating her form. With the distance between them, there was less attraction to what he saw, just crystals shaped to form a basic humanoid form but his mind wandered back a few trills and most of that was forgotten. She turned to the door and was about to leave Sintih alone with his thoughts when she stopped and turned to look at him. His head angled up to meet, what he figured was, her gaze. There was a sudden rush of feeling, a wave of pure red washed off of him before he could get himself under control. Her chiming sounded pleasant, friendly, even a little playful. "I'd... like that." He chimed slowly at the closed door, taking care to focus on proper pronunciation of his chimes.

For another half break, Sin used the room for what it had been intended as. He quietly thought on the events of this night, how they had met here and everything that had just happened. By the time he got up and out of the room, Sin had decided that he was indeed a lucky guy, having met someone like Saeri. There were still many things he didn't know about her, things he wanted to ask her and perhaps some things he felt she needed to know about him but he set those aside for now. Hopefully, Aelig willing, they would have plenty more time to get to all of those.

[Muse]

Your review is ready!

Everytime a little post pops up in here (okay, a long one), I always read it. I've been casually following this thread for a long time and I love it. I enjoy the interesting, complicated Yludih and also the relationship between Sinith and Yana. Thank you for a beautiful thread with all the feels and stuff. Yes.

Yana

Points

XP:
15 | These points cannot be used for magic.

Fame:
N/A

Loot

Mushy feelings.

Injuries + Overstepping

N/A

Knowledge

Skill Knowledge:
Discipline: Ignoring the stares of the people around you
Discipline: fighting awkwardness
Linguistics: explaining one language by using another
Linguistics: Pronunciation is paramount to understanding each other
Linguistics: Putting the stress on the right syllable is important for a good pronunciation
Linguistics: cursing
Linguistics: tone of voice
Linguistics: context clues
Linguistics: emphasis
Linguistics: Knowing how to make the sounds necessary for speaking a language can help for fluency
Linguistics: non-fluent speakers don’t always know they are making mistakes
Meditation: some people like to hum while meditating
Seduction: taking the lead

Other Knowledge:
Ulehi: How to express emotion without facial features
Ulehi: Harsh sounds for negative connotations
Ulehi: Some words have multiple meanings
Ulehi: Adjectives can be positive or negative depending on pronunciation
Ulehi: Never mispronounce a name
Ulehi: Vibrating different crystals to speak
Ulehi: Excessively harsh sounds are difficult to understand
Ulehi: the meaning of a word changes with its pronunciation

Sintih: Yludih form
Sintih: the name and occupation of his parents

Sinith

Points

XP:
15 | These points cannot be used for magic.

Fame:
N/A

Loot

Those feels, though.

Injuries + Overstepping

N/A

Knowledge

Skill Knowledge:
Discipline: Failing to not act on your emotions
Discipline: Keeping yourself from jumping someone you like
Linguistics: Learning one language by using another
Linguistics: Harsh tones are harsh in all languages
Linguistics: Pronunciations makes a world of difference
Linguistics: Small differences could matter a lot
Linguistics: Emphasis changes the meaning
Linguistics: You won't learn your mistakes if nobody tells you
Linguistics: Learning from a native speaker is the best way
Meditation: Best done in private in the beginning
Meditation: Certain sounds help to meditate
Seduction: Small touches for big results

Other Knowledge:
Ulehi: Harsh sounds for negative connotations
Ulehi: Words with multiple meanings
Ulehi: Never mispronounce a name
Ulehi: Vibrating crystals to speak
Ulehi: Spoken differently than any other language

Yana: Yludih form
Yana: Has a curious mother
Yana: Shy?

If you've got a question or concern or if I've missed anything, don't hesitate to PM me!

Now that your review is complete,
don’t forget go back to your review post here and drop this image in!

Code: Select all

[center][img]/gallery/image.php?album_id=39&image_id=12206[/img][/center]