A world in colour

In a world where everything is black and white, color is known to take hold when one meets their soulmate. Still this does not make the hunt for the 'one' any easier, the key is they eyes they are known to be the first hint of the truth.
Atrel x Connor
Teenager Connor is stuck on the camp his parents sent him to to 'fix' what's wrong with him. Atrel winds up in a mushroom ring very close to the camp and the young human comes across him seeking to escape the camp even for a little while.
Kat x Kit
With her brother in line for the throne, Kat feels more comfortable wandering around the human world on her own. On one of her trips she finds Kit sketching more treehouses
Nero x Vi
Deciding that he's in need of an assistant, the royal healer Nero takes a trip to the warehouse to see what's on offer and finds Vi.

Returning the smile she quite happily entered the house, thankful that unlike some species of vampire her kind of faerie didn’t need to be invited in to go into mortal dwellings. Not that it mattered in this case since he’d invited her in  “Tea would be absolutely wonderful thank you” following him into the kitchen she set the book down on the table before carefully shrugging out of her jacket since the inside of the house was a little too warm to continue wearing it.  “I’ve been looking forwards to being able to take a weekend off” speaking more to keep a general conversation going for now she took the opportunity to take in his home. It was kept nice and clean and she felt quite comfortable here “That castle right above the village on that hill, how long has it been ruined for?” it’d been where she’d grown up and to see it in ruins had been a painful experience despite everything that had happened to her as a human, the castle had always been her sanctuary.


He was different here, he held himself differently and wore a mask of sorts that hid his feelings, those differences put him slightly ill at ease but he kept that to himself. It wasn’t for him to talk first before a faerie, he’d definitely learnt that rule well and truly before he’d been brought to court, the faerie that had found him had truly struck gold, he’d been partially broken down before she’d even collared him. The apple was lit up in colour, it was his first time seeing the fruit in colour and oh how he wanted it, the cunning part of himself that had developed more to help him survive understood that while Rita had forbade him from taking food from the table she hadn’t forbidden him from accepting food from someone else. Moving a few steps closer and reaching for it, he hesitated at the last moment “whats the cost?” this wouldn’t be for free, surely.

Taking a seat when he waved a hand she nodded “Both please” while he made the tea, Katherine watched him whilst he explained that the castle had been in ruins for as long as he could remember. A slight frown creasing her features at that information, however the fact that it was privately owned perhaps meant it was still in the family, it had been at least five hundred years so perhaps the money had run out and they’d been unable to pay for the upkeep. “oh I know everything there is to know about that castle” taking the cup with a soft thank you she took a sip and sighed happily. Setting the cup down she flipped open the battered old sketch book and went through it before coming to the right page “This is what it would have looked like in its hay day, I have some rough sketches of what the inside would have looked like as well”. She’d done a lot of sketches of the castle right after she and her brother had retrieved their memories, while they were fresh in her mind and now those pictures helped her remember.


Looking slightly confused at the claim there was no cost, he automatically took them at the order and immediately devoured them, core and all not letting a single pip go to waste. Making sure to keep up with him, the human had somehow gone from the man that Atrel had met in the Switzerland town to a boy again, eerily similar to what he had been like when Atrel had first met him. Fidgeting with the tight collar that felt like it was always trying to choke him, he couldn’t help the action, this was all his own fault he should have refused her when she’d shown up and offered to get him out. “This place is… familiar” trying to push himself to reach out to the faerie, it was hard, he seemed so different after all, part of him could understand that, he’d been at court for two hours and had already figured out what a snake pit it was. Still it was hard, he didn’t want to go back in the freezer so he frequently cast looks back towards where he had seen rita last, he definitely did not want to go back in there.

Laughing a little at the gentle teasing she managed to explain  “These are from when I was young, its been quite some time since I picked up a pencil to do anything but write” she couldn’t really say that she’d drawn them from extensive memories that had allowed her to draw as much  of it as she had. “I’ve always been very interested in that particular castle, is there any way to find out who owns it? Perhaps they need a push in the right direction to get it done up” that or she’d front up some good cash for the place and do it herself. Quick to turn the conversation away from the subject of how good or not her sketches were she busied herself with her cup of tea taking a quiet sip of the scalding liquid savouring in how cosy it was drinking tea in here while it was raining outside. The sound of the rain hitting the roof was rather soothing too in all honesty.


He didn’t argue with that, deciding to keep the blurry hard to decipher memories to himself, it was just nonsense, he had a screw loose or something. The question brought him out of his thoughts  “The church managed to get me, I was stuck for a good couple of months before she snuck in and offered a way out, I refused so she left and came back after…. After some punishment, her offer seemed like the only way to evade and get away” stumbling a little over his words when he mentioned the punishment he resumed hugging himself tightly pausing yet again in his tracks to look back towards where he had come from, anxious that he’d get into trouble again. Every few months he’d regrown part of his spine and stood up to her, but the punishment, was just not worth it, the pain wasn’t worth it, the trauma wasn’t worth it. While he could talk about what the church did to him, Rita had ordered him to keep his mouth shut about the details. "mother was so angry with me, the council were so angry with me" the last sentence slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it, digging his teeth into the side of his cheek so he didn't fall apart he used the pain to ground himself a little.

Well that meant there was some hope at least, she had every intention of finding out who owned the castle now  “Do you think they’d have those records online or we’d have to go in to them to find out in person?” She had the weekend free so could use that free time after doing some drawing with Kit to find out who owned the place and how much they’d be willing to sell it to her for. Naturally she wanted to keep her wealth quite private so she would have to make an offer without the human there, but that would be manageable she was quite sure of that. The sketches of the castle were rather basic, she certainly wasn’t some master artist like one of the greats but it was passable at least, it had been her home and it had always drawn her back to visit it when she could. Glancing out of a window she wanted to go wander up the hill and wander through its familiar halls, the knowledge that it was falling apart without care broke her heart “It was beautiful once, inside and out you know” murmuring quietly Kat’s gaze returned to her cup as she lifted it to her lips.


Looking somewhat more relaxed at that he nodded to show he understood, everywhere he looked around here there were fuzzy memories and a part of him that whispered there was one more place he had to find, that kept tugging him to go into the unknown.  “There’s so much I don’t understand, there are all of these fuzzy out of focus memories that flitter in and out of my head here” he wanted to go and find somewhere to hide, somewhere Rita wouldn’t be able to find him. There were places here he’d be able to do that, he just knew it, getting tangled up in the thoughts in his mind he stopped next to a willow that had branches so long the long leaves formed a curtain hiding its trunk away from the world. He very much would have liked to be able to talk to the faerie like he did when he was a kid, but it felt like that wouldn’t happen here, there was a wall there shutting him out and there was nothing he could do about it. They were all under pressure here, pushing through the leaves he stood and stared up at the tree closing his eyes briefly as slightly more clearer memories reached him. The memories were situated in the branches of the tree urging a boy who looked like the newly crowned king to join him, his court clothes were too expensive to risk ruining so he reached up and brushed his fingers over the bark, lost in his thoughts for a while longer  “We climbed this tree” the memory was so vivid and real it felt like it was his memory, and perhaps it was after all Conrad was who he had been before he had died.

Wanting to climb up there so badly but very aware that if he did anything to these clothes the consequences would be severe he almost missed the quiet question. As it was it took him a couple of moments to formulate a response  “I or Conrad was up there trying to get you to climb and not cheat by using your wings” he didn’t look over at the faerie feeling a clash of emotions that made him feel sick. “I see it from his perspective so it feels like me, he feels like me, even though I’m not, not really…. This is the clearest memory I’ve ever had the others are all fuzzy, out of focus, like trying to see through someone elses glasses they give me headaches” he didn’t want to make the faerie upset by talking about that memory like he was Conrad, because he wasn’t conrad, he was just a reborn version that wasn’t the faerie that the king had been close with, if anything he was just a look alike imposter. Leaning his head against the bark of the tree he slipped his arms around himself and squeezed, as if hugging himself tight enough would make it all go away. “I’m not trying to be him, I don’t want to make out like I am or will ever be” the thoughts and emotions churning around in him made him regret eating the apples, he just wanted to be sick. It was a struggle not to just retreat into his head, but he knew retreating wouldn’t help, the best way to survive was to live right in the moment to not think or feel. Taking slow breaths in his nose and out through his mouth he closed his eyes and leaned against the tree leaning his head against the bark, breathe just breathe, stay out of your head con, don’t think don’t feel just be present, its all you can do reminding himself of that seemed to help his arms loosened around himself and he was able to look back at the king once more.

She had asked her brother to meet in her quarters for dinner to discuss things, seated at the table in her rooms going through some reports with a sigh. having long changed out of her court clothes into the more comfortable ones she preferred to wear when she was at home. Her thought had been drifting back to Kit thinking about the human distracted her from everything else that was happening, however she was back in the moment when she heard the door open "Well you're late Trelly, come take a seat, we have much to discuss" much of it she suspected was going to be about the broken looking boy. She'd had quite the interesting discussion with Lord Ralph and had gleaned some information that could be helpful.

Watching him move about sensing his fury and restlessness, Katherine sipped her tea “About the boy, I had a good discussion with one of his faeries about him and we need to figure out a game plan” swirling her tea around in its cup thinking things over. There was only so much she could do to help but it felt like if he didn’t talk he would explode “if you can’t talk to me about it, go to Conrads grave and discuss it with him, you cant keep bottling it up Atrel without consequences. If you want to help the boy we need a plan” if it was up to her to be detached and logical then so be it, one of them had to be after all or nothing would get done. “Lord Ralph had some interesting information to share, his wife Lady Rita was the one that hunted him and took him as a pet, she got him out of some churches basement.” Keeping to herself what she’d said to the male faerie about Connors condition and that Ralph had agreed with her and promised to try and talk his wife into actually feeding the poor thing some more food.

Well, that wasn’t helpful, but she didn’t bother voicing that, looking down at some of her paper work she tapped her fingernails against the table thinking quietly. Glancing up at the question she shrugged a little “Well, he didn’t say much about how he is being treated at their place but he said that she saved him, that she found him in the basement of a church, he’d been left hanging from the ceiling by his wrists and his back was covered in wounds from something called a cat o nine tails I haven’t had time to look up what that is, some kind of whip I think. He was emaciated and his wounds were infected, he was quite delirious but she saw potential in him and thus petted him bringing him home, he’s still a work in progress hence todays behaviour but she’s hoping that by the time she brings him next he will be more polished” she hadn’t been able to get anything out of either of them about his treatment at their place which had irked her but Katherine hadn’t wanted to push too much incase they realized how invested she and her brother were in the boy.

Finishing her cup of tea, Katherine didn’t respond to the comment, absorbing that for a few moments “Not against the laws” she had never really cared about the laws surrounding pets. However her brother might now his colour was one, but it would take something pretty large for any of the laws to be changed it had been hard enough for their parents to change the laws around women being property like pets. Getting up she walked over to sit next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder “It sounded like Rita wouldn’t be bringing him back for a couple of months, that give you time to visit Conrad, come back and formulate a plan with myself, I’ll work on some ideas while you are away as well okay?” it was the best she could offer him right now after all.

Unable to help but wince slightly at that information, it was hard and painful to remember things even when you understood what was going on, “He doesn’t know anything about you and Conrad does he?” unable to feel sympathetic for the poor boy, at least she and her brother had been aware of things before they went and remembered things. It was surprising that he was remembering things here without having gone to the valley and remembered everything at his death spot, not quite sure of what that meant she decided to focus on what she could change “I can cover the paperwork for a few days Atrel. Go”. It meant that she wouldn’t be able to visit her human for a while but it was a small sacrifice in exchange for her brothers peace of mind, speaking to the grave of his love had always helped him and she hoped that it might settle him some.

Well now, that was indeed interesting information, musing over that she had several suggestions of what her brother could do but she decided to keep quiet until he asked her for advice. Staying quiet at his gentle question, Katherine tightened her arm around him leaning her head on his taking a quiet moment to come up with something to respond with. “I can stay in contact with him via letters” it wasn’t hard to gather that his question had been about her and the human that she was friends with. She hadn’t said much to Atrel even though she had seen colour on the young man, she wanted to wait until she got confirmation that he saw colour on her as well before she went and blabbed everything to her brother. “It’ll be fine, go and sort yourself out as much as you can, come back and perhaps I’ll be ready to open up about a few things” kissing his head she got up and smiled at him “it’s a long journey, you want help getting ready?” She was admittedly fond of Kit, it was hard not to be after spending this much time with him and seeing colour, but right now wasn’t wanting to say too much about it just yet.

Musing over things quietly she accepted a biscuit off of the plate and nibbled it thinking over things “Well why don’t you come along with me and we can have a look at what state she is in on the inside” hoping that he might take her up on the idea her eyes glittered with a mischievous light that her brother would have recognized instantly. A matching cheeky smirk slipped onto her lips “It’d be interesting to find out just how much they’ve let her fall to pieces, perhaps there is a chance she can be rebuilt still” it’d be fun to live a little, do something a little risky as if being here semi regularly wasn’t risky enough. She wasn’t sure how much of a risk taker Kit was but shed already decided that she was going to drag him along with her, besides he’d expressed a wish to see the inside of her castle “Its raining, there wont be anyone around” after all if they did get caught there she would be able to talk their way out of it, that was one of the few bonuses of being a faerie, that and it might get them in contact with whoever owned the castle now presumably her descendants through some family member that inherited the castle after she and Atrel ended their lives together.