[Forum Roleplay] The Tree Said

[Rhettthecoldone 252]

Spoiler

The following RP is for my Feat Seer application. However, if it is not accepted, the RP will still be relevant to a certain extent.

 

 

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He sat at the base of that looming tree. A place of the holy, sanctified by the Petrans, an eternal gift of nature, his home. That pale, gaunt thing placed his bony hands upon the oaken fortifications of the colossal Aldtree. The Oaken One’s dark, cloth-wrought bandages were removed so that his pallid skin could make contact with the bark. He wished to embrace the tree, to release all emotion into it. The frogs of the bank croaked around him whilst a gentle summer wind trickled through his tangled, phantom-hued hair. Thriving green grass and mosses of evergreen hues hugged his legs, softening the pressure his knees made against the earth. All this muffled his cries. His leaking, dull eyes watered the earth as the low sun failed to illuminate him due to the Aldtree’s shade. Those eldritch, wry fingers pressed gently upon the beechen monument as trickles of the surrounding pond played into Lonan’s ears. He leaned his forehead upon it and weeped, a yearning filling his clogged, cavernous throat. The skies yawned, cast in vibrant shades as the sun set itself to sleep.

 

After some time, the blue of the open sky faded into a stygian darkness, as if ink were spilled on a beautiful painting. The dazzling stars of night were hidden behind clouds of gloom. They were heavy clouds, their eyelids brimming with complicated emotion much like Lonan’s. Soft rain began to kiss the vegetation of the world, feeding life with the care of a mother. He moved to lay at the edge of the bank then, as crickets chirped all around, sent in a frenzy by the rain that threatened their little lives.

 

It was all beauty he could no longer see. He cried for himself, however selfish that might make him. He wept and wheezed through the gracious rain, basking in chilly vulnerability.

 

And so he drifted to rest against the damp grass. . .

 

‘Neath that tree, he slept. . .

 

 

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The mindscape he awakened within was incorporeal, unexplainable, indescribable. Its boundaries were none, a place of deep imagination. Darkness and safety, that place of haze and mystery. Lonan was not alone within this place. Its expanse far too wide for his consciousness to be the only one present.

 

His eyes, composed of malleable dreams, blinked and there he saw it, The Aldtree. It was rooted in dark waters, though it hadn't followed the rules of darkness. It stood as if illuminated by the sun within the vast shadow that this realm was. The chasm yawned in its delicate creation whilst revealing the beauty of the red-leafed Memory Tree. Without a tangible mouth, the willow-wrought plant spoke in carefully knitted rhymes and phrases-

 

“You sate me, friend, for your tears came to no end. Why, at the feet of my body, does your nose run so snotty?” It found that last bit funny evidently, as there was something of its sentience that made its branches creak. Despite the tree’s undeniable ancientness, it was childlike and free. It could not run through fields of green, but it was still free.

 

It felt natural for the elder, the dreaming one, Lonan, to continue the conversation. “I- I cry through eyes of vestigial purpose. No longer can I witness the bank you thrive in, the beautiful plants that grow at your feet, or you. I cannot see the bright eyes of my dearest friend, nor witness the setting sun. Beauty is gone for me. I am functionless, vestigial.” He stared to the floor, ashamed of his vulnerability.

 

It laughed again, through ancient, historical creaks and crunches of branches. Not to belittle Lonan, however. “You say you cannot see, but then you look right at me! You silly, silly boy, do not be so coy. You will see through me, through the roots of this, here tree!”

 

A brow from the pale, fragile figure was lifted in confusion. “I am sorry, but what is it you mean?”

 

“My roots spread farther than you think, you won’t even need to blink! Hide your pretty eyes, and through my roots you will see the skies!” It explained, in its mannerisms of a little boy.

 

Lonan didn’t quite understand at first, but the tree made for certain that he did by the end of the dream. Whilst it slowly sank into the deep waters, rooted within Lonan’s mind did it plant a seed of direction. He was meant to veil his eyes, for some cryptic reasoning that the childish, yet wise tree conveyed.

 

 

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Spoiler

(Should Seer FA be accepted, the following RP will be relevant)

 

And he awoke, drenched. The cold rain pelted his numbed skin, causing it to scrunch up like a sponge would absorb water. His hair laid in a mess, intertwining with different blades of grass. The frogs croaked endlessly, though the dream of mystery was too deep for him to wake from the volume of such. That rhyming tree gave him one direction only, cover his blind eyes.

 

And so he did. . .

 

That soil, softened into mud by the rain, was stolen from the earth. It sat in a clump within both of Lonan’s bear hands. Without much thought, the crooked elder smashed his hands against his eyelids, painting the area with the rich soil of the Aldtree.

 

And through the Aldtree’s roots, did he see. . .

 

The roots, however, were not physical by any means. They followed Lonan around the world from that point on, guiding him through their intangible and immaterial system. He saw, not through his eyes, but by extension, The Aldtree.

 

And it was just as The Tree Said.

 

Edited April 27, 2025 by Rhettthecoldone