faderift | [Open] Time for some enjoyment

Entry tags:

[Open] Time for some enjoyment

WHO: Iskandar and OPEN
WHAT: Iskandar is here to have a good time. Join him?
WHEN: Throughout Drakonis
WHERE: Skyhold and other fun places
NOTES: Probably lots of cute times. Maybe some sad times depending on the threads. But mostly a lot of cute and loud affection. Because Iskandar.

A. It's a new dog!

He'd been wanting one since first seeing the mabari. Now he had one of his own. A fine pup who tended to spend much of his time tripping over his own feet but was ever eager to be with and please the large man. Really he'd been told that an older dog would be recommended but they'd laid eyes on each other and that had been that. After all, once that bond was formed there simply was no going back.

And so one could find him with a puppy in one of the more open areas. They were training and it seemed that the puppy was at least rather intelligent at picking up on things! So long as Iskandar used his native tongue for the commands, something he'd decided to do just to solidify their bond further.

"Heh. What a clever boy you are, my Achilles Alexander!" The pup gave a bark and then happily ate up the piece of meat that he was given. And yes, Iskandar sure had named this dog after himself.

B. Training is important

The best way to perfect how one used their adjusted powers was to, well, use them. So he was around the training grounds to work with the couple of them that he felt could safely be done here. Name the teleportation and invisibility ones. So it was easy enough to spot him standing in one location only to reappear in another. At times he frowned and rubbed his beard as he considered what he'd been doing before trying again.

One could feel free to interrupt him though. He wasn't needing the concentration to do this really.

C. Memories rise to the surface

There were times when even Iskandar needed a moment to reflect, to think on the sadder days. Though he never regretted any of them that hardly meant they didn't weight on his heart. Many had been lost under his command or had given up much to follow him. Then there were times when he remembered Hephaestion and how perhaps he would never see him again. Or that his son would be someone he'd never lay eyes on.

So he was in the gardens with a kitten and a mabari pup curled up together on his lap. Both were sound asleep as if they'd been playing hard until that moment. He smiled down at them fondly, stroked their soft ears as he admired their pure innocence.

"It has been long since I had your purity, little ones."

Wildcard

Don't see a prompt you like? Make up your own! Or contact me through his journal or through plurk at

eiredragon1 and we can set something up!

[ooc: This is an open post but there will definitely some top levels for some people! If you would like one and don't happen to see one feel free to hit me up.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Mmm. I see. It is quite normal to me. I named cities I conquered after myself." Cities. Plural. That was a lot of Alexandrias out there and he had no trace of shame over the fact. In fact his smile said he was rather pleased with the fact.

Getting the fire going, he started to add what Sam had provided into it then fished through his things to get out some food for the puppy who perked up quickly at the sight of food. He laughed and set a little dish before the mabari who started to chow down as if he hadn't eaten his entire life. Children in just about any species were delightful.

"How are you feeling?" he asked Sam finally. They were alone out here and he'd been noticing that there was something subdued about him. As if there was much on his mind. Now seemed a good time to ask him about it.

"Of course you did," he says with a sigh, though there is some amusement on his face. Something outrageous as naming literally everything after yourself was definitely something Iskandar did.

In the time Iskandar added the supplies to the fire and started to feed Alexander, Sam found himself a spot near the fire. A spot close to where Iskandar sat, but there was still a small space between them, mostly because he had learned that he would get run over or sat on if the pup decided he wanted to be the middle of attention.

No sooner as he had settled down he looks up, blinking at his companion at the sudden question. He supposes it isn't sudden considering Iskandar has waited to ask him since he's come back. "Tired," he finally says, meaning it both physically and mentally, letting out a heavy sigh and looking at the fire.

"Yes. I could tell. Would you like to tell me about it?"

Sitting next to him, he gave him the chance to seek strength from him if he needed it. Honestly he had a feeling that he truly did. Far better that he provide that for him than to let Sam just suffer on his own. They were friends and lovers. That meant the least he could do was help him to carry the burden. Besides, it was simply in his nature and how he'd ruled when he was King.

"You can take all the time you need."

Sam definitely knows he has that option, certainly wants to take it, but he knows if he does that he might not find the strength to say what's on his mind. He knows he has to say it at some point, but how do you go about bringing up something like this? He couldn't when he first got back from the future... it had been too fresh, too raw.

"No... yes..."

Sighing again, Sam pulls his leg back so that he could lean on it slightly, arms crossed over his knee while he pressed the lower half of his face into his arms. "I saw and learned a lot during the time I was away..." he starts, but stops, brows furrowing as the words get choked in his throat. With the palm of one of his hands he rubs at one of his eyes quickly and takes a few calming breathes.

"I had to watch you and Jim die... and I couldn't do anything about it..."

He listened to him quietly. The words were few but they said a great deal. To watch the two of them die and to be able to do nothing about it... Iskandar wrapped an arm around him to pull him right up against him, rubbing his arm slowly to allow him the solid presence of himself. Clearly Sam needed this and he wanted to be sure he could provide that for him.

"I know how it feels to watch someone precious die and be unable to do a thing about it." He wondered if he'd given his life to save him but knew now was not the time to ask that. Not the time to ask how heroic his ending had been. Sam needed to get his tale out and he needed to listen.

"Go on. Tell me more."

For a moment when the arm comes around him to pull him closer, Sam stiffens as if fighting the offer of comfort, but ultimately he allows himself to be dragged over the short amount of space and settles against Iskandar's side. Normally he wouldn't be so stubborn on seeking comfort, not after how much he's shared with Iskandar by now, but taking comfort from the same person he was mourning, it was just a bit surreal.

Sam gives a huff, failing to manage a laugh, at the man telling him to go on. "Where do I even start?" he says quietly, thinking back to what he experienced from the future. "We were trying to escape... a group of us. Cyril had Pel's little girl, you, Kirk, Waver, me... and Norrington... we were in an underground tunnel with Darkspawn and Venatori closing off passages... Then you took off down the tunnel before anyone knew what was going on... I should have been able to do something, but everyone was making sure I got out to meet the others to return back here."

Pel was going to have a little girl. His heart warmed for her but he didn't comment on the fact as he nodded slowly. Taking a deep breath, he smiled some. Yes that sounded like him actually. "I must have realized that the only way to ensure that others could escape was if there was a distraction. I would have had that."

It must have been enough because Sam was here now to tell him all of this.

"Go on. Tell me more."

When Iskandar agrees to his future self's decision, Sam gives another sigh and looks up at the man, lips thinning further at the smile on his face. Not that he didn't like Iskandar's smile, but the look was far too familiar to the look he had given right before charging down the tunnel into the Darkspawn.

"You weren't the only one to do it. Norrington made a last stand to by us more time... then Jim." Sam stops again, brows furrowing as he looked away, trying not to break down about all of it. "The rest of us made it out, but then... I just don't know what happened with Cyril or Sina, we went separate ways. I guess it doesn't matter right now, but I just keep seeing it, reliving the moments over and over."

[OoC: Just guessing how things went down during the escape, for progression purposes.]</small<

Edited 2017-04-03 04:05 (UTC)

"Mm. Yes I can see that of them too. We must have felt there was a chance for you to do some good in this time." And to protect that little girl. He was one to want to protect the innocence of children but he had a feeling that if he'd given his life then she must have been very precious to him. Iskandar smiled as he thought about that before slowly shaking his head. Sam needed his attention more than the warmth in his heart over having been a potential guardian of Pel's child.

Or wondering why Pel hadn't been with Cyril and Sina.

"I relive sometimes of my own over and over again. Seeing people I love perishing, watching good people become lost. They're never easy ones to live with."

Sam lets out a heavy sigh, leaning more into Iskandar's side as he listens to him talk. Perhaps a bit more just listening to the sound of his voice then the actual words, soaking in that he was still alive and sitting next to him, but listening nonetheless.

"Before that... I only had to witness one other person I cared about perishing before me. I couldn't do anything then either, no matter what power or skills I had. Everyone else... passed on when I wasn't even present..." He's quiet for a few moments after that before Sam gives a huff and rubs at his eyes tiredly. "Sorry. We didn't go on this trip for this."

"Perhaps we did. This has weighed heavily on your heart and perhaps you needed someone to hear the words." Iskandar smiled at him warmly and ran his fingers through that dark hair to soothe him. True he'd just been told that he sacrificed his life to save him but he was still going to be the one to offer the comfort here. Obviously that was his place in this.

"I have lost cherished people before. One in particular that I could only watch fade away. It didn't matter that I was King and it didn't matter that I had the best healers in any land and it didn't matter that I had prayed to the gods for nights on end. I still had to watch him slip away from me. And I have lost many other friends as well. It is never easy."

Well he couldn't argue that he didn't need this, because obviously he did; having someone there to talk to and just let it out rather then keeping it in. Course it felt a little weird to tell Iskandar considering he was talking about his future self in all this, but it also felt... nice because the man could also relate to what he was going through in a way.

The fingers running through his hair is definitely helping and Sam leans more heavily into Iskandar, pretty much the only reason he was sitting up at all at this moment. "Never easy, I agree. I know this, but at the same time I'm... very conflicted. Everyone... and you, it all happened, I witnessed it, and now I'm back and... I'm stuck with this sense of mourning but at the same time everything is fine, you're all here." He couldn't quite place the feeling.

"To be placed into a time where all is well compared to where you were is odd, isn't it." He actually understood well what that was like. When he'd died he'd been in great mourning for his dear friend. Upon being summoned that time had passed long ago and he'd needed to live a new life. Of course he had walked it as he would any life but it didn't stop it from being odd in his eyes. Almost a little painful if he allowed it to be.

"Things can take place so quickly and we are not always allowed enough time to mourn as we would like to. It is one of the wonders of any world from what I have seen. Tragedies take place and yet the world continues to walk forward whether people are ready to step onto the path or nor. And so it becomes up to us what we will do with the time we are given."

"I wouldn't necessarily say 'all is well' in this time," he says softly, giving a slightly amused huff. It's just the future was that much worse. After saying such Sam gives another sigh, bringing a hand up around Iskandar's arm and lightly allowing his fingers to run along the muscled flesh there.

"I think that's my problem right there. The world didn't go forward from that point, I went backwards. I feel the need to mourn, I have all the time in the world to do so, but then at the same time there isn't a need to do so... you're all here. I've woken Jim up several times because of the confusion, the nightmares."

"Ah now that I understand well. When I died it was in mourning but when I was summoned again the time for mourning was no longer there. It is not so easy to keep moving when your heart tells you to still look back."

He looked up at the stars, the ones he was familiar with now but so different from those of his home. Beautiful in the sky. Always continuing on no matter what happened here below. It was something true in any world based on his experiences. "Mourn now. I will not stop you. Take this time here where you are safe to."

It sounded like a completely different instance of what he was referring to, but it did sound like Iskandar understood how he felt very well. Something about that, the comforting way his lover embraced him and told him to mourn... it loosened a bit of tension that lingered.

Sam lets out a heavy sigh at that point, seemingly curling into Iskandar's warm as they sat there, just watching the fire as the man stared at the stars. "Thank you. You know... for hearing me out" A pause. "Though I wasn't planning our trip to out like this," he mutters a bit sheepishly.

"Sometimes it is not what we plan but what surprises us that is the most important. You need this and I am here for you." He pressed a kiss to the side of his head then smiled fondly at him.

"I will be hear to listen to you anytime you need it. Or simply to hold you without a single word spoken. Whatever will help you to lift the weight your heart carries for a time. For in the end you are not alone in this."

The kiss is simple, but it brings a small smile to Sam's lips - that and the soft brush of the man's beard. He already knew his lover would do all those things, which hadn't taken long to learn after his first night in meeting the Rifter, but hearing it and feeling his presence did help.

"That... goes both ways you know. If you needed to talk about something or... just needed someone to sit with you. I can't imagine all of this is quite as easy as you make it out sometimes."

"If things were easy would they be worth it?" He laughed softly but he understood what Sam had been offering and appreciated it. Loved it even. "Thank you. It warms my heart to know I have such good people that will be there to support me as I support them."

Sam. Jim. And so many others really. "I would not keep these things to myself though. Others are welcome to my thoughts even when they are dark in nature."

Sam gives Iskandar a nudge in the ribs at the question. "That's what I meant and you know it." None of this was easy, but Iskandar's attitude did not reflect the hardships like others, he always took it in stride as if it wasn't hard.

"Well, I'll gladly listen. But... perhaps not tonight?" He wasn't sure if he could manage any more dark thoughts tonight. Had to spread it out, right?

"No need to worry, Sam. My thoughts are not dark this night." He pulled him in for a quick kiss then even playfully ruffled his hair. Not because of age or size difference but because he just liked how that hair looked when it was mussed with.

"Besides, we have to focus on figuring out what bird you should take the shape of, yes?"

How Iskandar steals kisses always manages to bring a smile to Sam's face, though there is a huff accompanying it due to his hair being ruffled. "Are you sure about that?" he asks, running a hand through his hair, not so much straightening it, but just flattening it out. He'd bet those thoughts were dark in other ways.

"Right, that's mostly why we came out here. I had a couple ideas."

"I would not call thoughts of bedding you dark." He laughed gently and gave him a kiss to the cheek then gave him a grin afterwards. He was curious to say the least about what birds Sam had in mind.

"What would you like to change into?"

"Is that a confession that you are having such thoughts?" he asks, huffing slightly at how easily Iskandar was able to brighten his mood from his thoughts moments ago. That and the slight scrape of his beard each time he leaned in to give him a kiss.

"I have a couple in mind. Either something small, easy to conceal and hide, or something large, powerful, less likely to be messed with."

"I would not really consider it a confession when I am always ready to bed you at any given moment." He laughed softly, not even the slightest bit ashamed of his confession. Then again, why would he be? He loved to bed this man so of course he'd tell him about it.

"Perhaps a bird of prey then. But one of a smaller nature. A falcon maybe?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

oops thought I had commented to this

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Oops, I lost this in my inbox

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject