14339/An Unexpected Awakening

An Unexpected Awakening
Date of Scene:	25 April 2022
Location:	Abandoned building, NYC
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Vitali Svyatoslav, Xiang Zhao

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Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
It's a simple sort of living that they have at the abandoned building. It suits them both. It is night, dark and starry and clear, some time past midnight. All is peaceful and relatively quiet, though there are sounds of traffic from the street and other noises from the city. Soraya is settled in her nook, her feathers fluffed and inner eyelid closed as she dozes. The fire for cooking and making tea earlier in the evening has faded to embers that are red-streaked black and grey. Vitali has spread out the white polar bear fur, and part of it is drawn across him as he sleeps. It is a restless and uneasy sort of sleep, and he stirs from one side to the other.

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao is... awake. He has been for some time now. He's sitting outside the little shelter, looking up at the stars overhead, out over the water, such as can be seen through the ambient light of the city behind him. He hears the Siberian stir and turns to look. He steps away from the wall and toward his trunk and bed. Atop the trunk, his guqin, in its silk wrapping. He unwraps it and shifts the trunk until it's in front of the bed, then sits down, cross legged, atop the bed, facing the trunk. And begins to play. Soothing notes play out from the guqin, and Zhao concentrates, putting power into the notes that pour forth. Soothing, centering music, it is.

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
It has been a long time since the last time a Vision Dream has come to touch Vitali's sleep. There are times when they are common, and times when they are less so. Yet they are always brought in similar fashion -- by the nebulous spirits of his home. The dream had started peacefully enough, as they often do, but it hadn't remained so. As is the way of such omens, there is a gift of knowledge within it if it might be deciphered from the layers of possibilities. As the first of the notes rise up from the guqin, there is another restless stirring from Vitali, and a wrinkle that comes to his brow, the bearskin slipping partially from him. And the power within those notes starts to have an effect. There's a soft murmur in Russian that slips from him, a deeper breath drawn and released, and he seems to settle a bit. Soraya's feathers have lost some of their fluff, and the inner eyelid has retreated as she sits up a bit more attentively now.

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao knows something is up. Not only can he feel the power within Vitali, he can see it. And he can see it stirring. He touches not upon that power, but instead seeks to sooth the man. That, alone. He knows the look of higher powers when he sees them, when he feels them. So instead, he seeks to make whatever is coming easier on Vitali, but not to stop something he is unlikely to be able to stop. The notes continue, the song continues, a soothing melody of softly plucked notes and focused power.

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
Just as the music and power that Xiang Zhao weaves seeks not to interfere with the purpose of the spirits, the spirits cause no interference in what he seeks to do. They seem to have a similar respect for him as what they hold for the shaman. They continue to bestow their Vision to the sleeping shaman's mind. What his mind is shown, only he and they know, at least in these moments. Any distress that might normally come to him from it are eased away by Xiang Zhao's efforts and do not find their way to being expressed. Vitali's sleep has shifted back to peaceful, his breathing a steady rise and fall of soft sound. There are a few moments that pass as the spirits linger, and then they ease back and fade away. Gone into the night as swiftly as they had originally come.

Xiang Zhao has posed:
The music continues unabated. At least with guqin, it's easier to do, easier to play steadily, because it's not dependant upon Xiang Zhao's breathing, but instead his fingers. It gives a little more leeway when concentrating like he is. Luckily, he has a /lot/ of practice at it. The music continues for several minutes after the spirits have departed. And his power fades at that point, but the music continues, quiet and soothing all on its own.

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
It happens often that the passing of the Vision Dream brings about the awakening of the shaman. The contents of the Vision Dream are often enough to ensure that, as is the distress and emotion that they stir within him. It's often swift and startling, and before the spirits have even finished departing. Yet neither of those happen to be the case on this particular night. The power that Xiang Zhao had woven into his music and the melody itself are enough to ensure that. This time, it's something that takes time. Even after Zhao has stopped putting power into the notes he plays, Vitali remains asleep. And after a little while longer, there's a light flicker of his lashes before he opens his eyes to look sleepily towards Zhao. "Eto krasivo, Zhaoshenka," he murmurs, too close to sleep to realize the words aren't English.

Translation: It's pretty.

Xiang Zhao has posed:
Xiang Zhao continues to play even after Vitali has awakened and murmured. "Eto krasivo?" he asks, the words not perfect but fairly close to it in their utterance. Sweat glistens in tiny beads upon his skin, but he shows no fatigue at all. Nor emotion, even with the question. He might as well have made a comment about rocks. Except that it's clear he doesn't know what it means.