Written Wonderland

Jaz squeezed his hand, and a small jolt of excitement sparked through the touch. He raised his eyebrow slightly, though a small smile also tugged at his lips. It seemed like she wasn't upset about his phrasing, which... he tried to just be relieved about, and to hush errant thoughts about her climbing onto his lap, or his hand on her chest while she breathed.

He returned to leading her around the temple a bit briskly, tugging gently on her hand as he began walking again, but he evened his pace out once he was past his initial fluster.

Behind the temple was a small garden of herbs and flowers enclosed by a short, simple, decorative fence. Ren led Jaz through the opening in the center of the fence, and then paused, curious to look at her and see where her eyes tracked. He just figured... she might feel calmer after visiting some plants.

After a moment, he offered: "I can tell you about most anything here, if you like."

((OOC: That being said, I'd like to offer you lots of purview over what exactly is in the garden lol. I'm thinking probably some cooking herbs, some medicinal plants, maaaaybe some things that can be used for dying? Idk. There might also be a couple just pretty things. Maybe a rose bush?

I don't think the garden is huge - I think it's mostly tended to by people like Monica and Sonya, maybe with some volunteers who like to come help with it. I'd like to imagine that the like village etiquette with the garden is that it's basically in Monica's purview, and someone should probably get, like, an orientation from her before harvesting anything? But she's pretty generous with it, especially if folks essentially trade time in exchange for what they harvest, essentially.

I think anyone is welcome to come visit; there might also be a bench or two?))

Ren pulled her along a bit, and she couldn't knock the smile from her face. While they touched, just enough of his emotions came through such that her anxiety and doubt had no anchors. She really believed she was about to see something wonderful.

Her guide's pace slowed as they rounded the back of the temple, and Jaz saw a low, wooden fence surrounding a number of plants. The fence was sweetly embellished with cutouts of various animals and plants Jaz did not recognize. But she could see the love that went into the craftsmanship.

There were no doors in the fence--just an opening large enough for the two of them the walk through side by side. Jaz was immediately struck by the tallest plants at the back of the garden. They had luscious, blooming flowers nearing the point where they would loose petals onto the ground. And in fact, the ground was littered with reds and yellows and golds and pinks and oranges, and the mosaic they created was gorgeous.

"I can tell you about most anything here, if you like." Jaz turned to look at Ren, obvious awe in her eyes.

She walked forward, forgetting for a moment that she was holding his hand and hopeful that he wouldn't mind the tugging as she walked nearer the spindly plants, careful to walk lightly along the tended rows of smaller plants, arranged from shortest to tallest, probably to optimize for sunlight.

There was a neat orderliness to this section of the garden, but other beds off to the side looked more wild with large bushing leaves and vining fruits up stalks of what might be grain. She couldn't deny that she liked the more wild, overlapping beds better, but there was a care and a love to the well-organized plants, too, that still made a warm buzz in her chest.

At last, she approached the large flowered plants, their scent wafting up potently in the light breeze. It was undescribable. Like a soft blanket and a new love, all at once. Jaz closed her eyes to ask for the plant's permission, standing in front of one orange flowering bush. When she opened her eyes, she traced one stem delicately, moving her fingers deftly over the thorns and up toward the blushing petals. When her fingers caressed the base of the flower, several soft petals fell onto Jaz's sandaled feet, and their gentle caress made her release a quiet, breathy moan.

Leaning down to pick a couple up, she held them in her open palm between herself and Ren, looking at them with happy wonder.

Jaz looked at Ren with wide eyes, full of awe if he dared to say. It made him feel happy. Like he'd done the right thing to bring her here, and also like he deserved to feel a little pride in all he had learned over the past few years.

Jaz turned to walk furrther into the garden, tugging him a little in her excitement, and he smiled, letting out a soft breath of a laugh as he caught up. She led him through the garden towards some roses at the back, taking in the sights of the beds they passed along the way. His smile grew warmer by the moment. When they reached the roses, Jaz gently caressed her fingers up one of the stems, careful in how she traversed the thorns.

Some errant thought in Ren's mind mused about how Jaz seemed drawn to plants with thorns, though he didn't think too deeply about it. Instead, he watched as Jaz's gentle touch jostled petals loose that were ready to let go in the autumn chill. He wondered how awe-struck she might have been to see the bushes in full bloom that summer. She seemed happy enough with the dance of petals falling, though. Some landed gently on her feet, and he could have sworn he heard her moan, softly.

Then she knelt down and picked up some of the petals in her palm, holding them between her and Ren while she marveled at them.

"Roses," he finally offered, chancing that Jaz was ready to learn more about this plant she was exploring. "I believe they're mostly decorative, though I've seen perfumes and the like with their scent. That's a bit beyond what I know how to do, though."

He thought of more things he could say, but he paused there, wanting to give Jaz an opportunity to take in what he'd said and ask follow-up questions, if she wanted to. Or, to just let her continue admiring the petals in her palm, if she preferred.

"Roses," he said with a hint of what she felt was genuine happiness. "I believe they're mostly decorative, though I've seen perfumes and the like with their scent. That's a bit beyond what I know how to do, though." Jaz nodded, a thousand thoughts swirling around her mind. But, finally, she gently pulled her fingers out from Ren's and petted one of the orange petals, streaked as it was with pink at the bottom, with one finger. She then picked up the petal and looked attentively toward Ren as she very slowly brought it toward his cheek.

((OOC: If he would let her, she would sort of rub it across his cheek sweetly and if that went well, she would move it to his lips.))

Jaz nodded and withdrew her hand from Ren's to caress a finger over one of the petals in her palm. Then she picked the petal up and looked at Ren with an expression that surprised him--attentive to him, rather than the plants all of a sudden, with her hand shyly bringing the rose petal toward his cheek. Her approach felt much like Monica's might, but still, he stiffened, unsure what he wanted, and leaned back just subtly. He looked at Jaz' hand to assess its color--not that it mattered, probably, but for whatever reason, his attention was curious about it. Then, he looked out at the open walkway behind the temple, curious how much traffic it was seeing. Would that matter, either, though?

Ren turned his gaze back to Jaz, then, serious but with a note of apology in his brow as he gently shook his head.

"Most touch, for humans, is... extremely intimate," he explained. Granted, some humans were more comfortable with it than others, and Ren knew he was on one extreme end of that spectrum. But, he did want to help Jaz manage her expectations, overall. He frowned in thought for a moment, searching for a layer of nuance to add. Finally his gaze landed on his palms, which he held out slightly toward Jaz, perhaps offering them.

"Especially the face. Hands, less-so." He raised his gaze to her again, his expression softer.

Jaz watched him look toward the walkway back to the main part of the town and tried not to despair. She didn't expect that anyone could see them, but she wasn't thrilled with the idea that Ren was so preoccupied with it. Was this really all so dangerous?

When he turned back, he looked toward Jaz's reaching hand, and she looked, too, noticing the swirling beige and blue up her forearm. For the first time, she thought the pattern the colors made was almost beautiful. Holding his hand again had truly done her a world of good.

But then Ren shook his head, and Jaz's stomach sank. His eyebrows lifted as he met her curious gaze.

"Most touch, for humans, is... extremely intimate," he said. Jaz furrowed her brow in confusion, pursing her lips slightly. She counted the methods of touch interactions she had seen. Ren with the two kids, Jarrett's outstretched hand, Monica's touch when they first walked into the temple. She set their interactions in the quiet inner room aside, though. She suspected that was more of an anomaly.

"Especially the face. Hands, less so," he added. He brought one palm closer to her, as though in offering. The clarification did help her make sense of what he had said, but something knotted in her stomach in defiance.

While she tried to figure out why, she lowered the hand reaching for Ren's cheek and brought it instead toward Ren's palm, steadying it with her other hand. Delicately, she traced the lines she found there with the soft orange blush of the petal. After doing that slowly a few times, she brought it down toward his wrist, and inspiration struck, unraveling the knot inside her. She looked up at him, though her fingers kept the petal moving slowly across Ren's wrist.

"Of course it's intimate," she said softly, blinking once. "It's all intimate." Jaz watched his reactions closely, wanting to sense the very moment he might try to pull away from her, even perhaps before he knew himself. She ached to touch his cheek with her hand in comfort the way Monica had initially reached for Jaz's, but she refrained.

"It's a gift," she said, even more softly, looking at Ren's wrist again and aching to stroke up the rest of his arm, "the way this petal is a gift." Her eyes were shining in the noonday sun now as she returned her gaze to Ren.

"I'm glad you've given what you have to me," she said after a long pause. "I'm going to treasure all of it."

Jaz seemed stiff, but did shift her direction away from Ren's cheek and toward his open palm, which he was grateful for. She steadied his wrist with one hand, and delicately traced the lines of his palm with the rose petal in the other. He watched the patterns she traced, relaxing under touch that felt... safe. He grew just a little more nervous when she began to move the petal across his wrist--more just due to the feeling of escalation, he supposed, than anything else. On a surface level, he couldn't say it didn't feel nice.

Jaz looked up at him while she gently caressed the petal back and forth inside his wrist, and he curiously--if a touch nervously--met her gaze.

"Of course it's intimate," she said softly. "It's all intimate."

Ren frowned, irritation and defensiveness coiling together in his chest. There was something important that she wasn't understanding. He thought about pulling away, but he wasn't sure that was actually the right call. What she was doing did feel good, and while he was frustrated, he didn't want to take it out on her--which, pulling away right then might have been just to do that. Instead he let a moment of quiet pass, watching as Jaz contineud gently caressing the skin inside his wrist until she had more to say.

"It's a gift," she said, "the way this petal is a gift." She looked back down to the petal, and then back up to Ren again, her eyes nearly sparkling in the sun. It was, if he was being honest, a beautiful sight, but he still frowned in contemplation, trying to figure out how to say what he felt like she was missing.

"I'm glad you've given what you have to me," she added after a long pause. "I'm going to treasure all of it."

He offered her a small, weary smile at that. He was glad that she felt that way. But the weight of the misunderstanding he felt was heavy. And the first words to come to mind were cruel--about the 'gift' that Jarrett had offered, about why Jaz hadn't accepted it. Sure, it had been dangerous given the way that her skin might change color, but he suspected that wasn't even the primary reason she'd turned him down, and the other reasons were what he was trying to get at.

"Touch isn't always a gift, from humans," he finally said, softly.

Somehow, he looked tired, and she withdrew her hands and the petal, searching Ren's face.

"Touch isn't always a gift, from humans," Ren said, and Jaz's eyebrows pulled together again in confusion. But, she instinctively thought of Jarrett and then of the dark fae who had approached her at the gate.

Jaz turned away to look at the rest of the roses again and quietly spoke. "Yeah, well. I don't think that's particular to humans, either." She crouched down to examine the soil where the roses sprouted and saw a tiny, skinny segmented creature crawling along. It was green with brown stripes down its sides, and it moved in an undulating pattern. It made Jaz happy to watch it. Tentatively, with the hand that wasn't holding the petal, she reached out, offering a ledge for the creature. When it approached her, it seemed to assess whether that was something it wanted, tickling the tip of her finger and turning it the tiniest bit blue. But then it diverted its path and continued on its journey, ignoring her. For some reason, this, too, made her smile.

She settled down on the ground, then, arranging her dress underneath her, and considered the wilted petal between her fingers again. She sighed quietly and made a decision. Bringing the petal to her lips, she stuck out her tongue the tiniest bit and pulled the petal into her mouth. It was light with little substance and tasted like the roses smelled, which was comforting somehow. But it also tasted of the oils on Ren's hand and of her own. She closed her eyes to savor that mixture especially, unsure at this point if there would be much more of that.

Jaz opened her eyes when she had finished chewing and started collecting some of the fallen petals around her and placing them on the ground in front of her, arranging the colors in a pattern.

"And, not all gifts need be accepted," she finally added.

Jaz turned away to look at the rest of the roses again and quietly spoke. "Yeah, well. I don't think that's particular to humans, either."

Ren felt sad about that. He supposed he wasn't terribly surprised, but he was sad that she had encountered it. From interacting with her, it almost seemed possible that she never had, but... well. Clearly, that wasn't the case.

Jaz crouched down to study the base of the rose bush, and Ren watched her quietly before crouching down near her, curious what she was studying. She held a finger out to a caterpillar on the ground, which tentatively touched her before moving along. She smiled, and then sat down, settling in on the ground. She looked at the petal in her fingers, considering it, and then gently placed it in her mouth.

Ren quirked his eyebrow in surprise, but he supposed roses were probably safe--had Monica used them in tea, even? He watched Jaz's expression, curious how it tasted; it seemed like she found it pleasant enough. Then, he looked at one of the other petals on the ground, and after a moment of contemplation, he lightly picked one up to try himself. He chewed it slowly, amused that he hadn't had cause to try a rose petal before now. It still felt kind of strange, but so had many of the things he'd tried since leaving the city.

"And, not all gifts need be accepted," Jaz said as she began to gather the petals around her and arrange them.

Ren sat down as well, and continued chewing his rose petal for a moment. He still felt frustrated about some kind of misunderstanding, but on some level, he wasn't even sure that he knew what it was he was trying to get at. Maybe it was enough that Jaz was okay with him declining the touch she had offered, but even with that, some nervouness still buzzed on his periphery. He was content to let it buzz for now, though, and just quietly watched Jaz arrange her petals.

Arranging the petals in a triangle pattern with three rows of colors, Jaz contented herself. She glanced at Ren with her peripheral vision and saw him chewing as well. She wondered if he had also eaten a petal or if he had taken something else from the garden.

Well, if it was a petal, it couldn't have tasted as good as mine. I didn't touch it. The thought amused her for some reason. She was grateful for their silence, though she worried a little that he would soon grow bored. But, when she glanced at him, he did not give her that impression, though his face was still neutral and it was difficult to read.

Gods, she wanted him to hold her. Play with her hair. Stroke her cheek, even if it would be intimate. Especially because it would be intimate. She could eat all the rose petals in the garden still probably want that. She sighed heavily, unsure what to do or say next.

"It seems we have visitors in the garden today," a voice said a short distance away. Jaz's head snapped around to look toward the voice, although she tried very hard not to look guilty. Was it okay that they were here? Was her hand still blue? But no, it had faded back into the beige.

An older woman appeared, her hair long and white, and she walked with the aid of a long stick decorated with blue stripes and triangles. She seated herself on a bench near the two of them. She nodded toward Jaz's unfinished decoration and said, "that's beautiful. Thank you for making this place even more sacred." The sentiment softened the tension in Jaz's chest, and she let out a breath.

"Good to see you, Ren," Sage said.