2019-07-24 - Away From the Firelight

The fire blazes bright, but all around, darkness has fallen, the last vestiges of sunset lingering out over the ocean. Laughter bubbles up from the group still around the flames, but Marius has slipped off, up to the top of the dune between their campsite and the water. Driftwood is easy to find, and he sits on a what was once the trunk of a tree, his sketch pad collected in his lap. The pencil moves, taking in the figures around the fire, their high-contrast forms taking shape in bold smears of graphite, the big man using his thumb to move the coloring around the page. Shadows stretch out behind the figures, animated and almost dancing on the page under the influence of the firelight. It's times like these that remind a person that the young man who embodies Sigurd the Bull so often is also quiet and introspective. His head is tilted to one side, finding another angle to the image, and a faint smile touches his lips.

Astrid lingers around the bonfire with her friends, but she had noticed Marius disappear off. She says a few bright words, joins in the easy laughter, and then she excuses herself. There's no real attempt to hide that she's off to check on Marius because no one would believe anything less. So now she crosses up the dunes in her shorts and light jacket. Her feet are bare, letting the sand warm her toes as she gets closer to him. She is all smiles as she approaches him, not looking back where she came with him as her sole focus. "Hey," she says quietly.

Marius looks up at the quiet word, his brows lifting in faint surprise. Evidently, he wasn't expecting anyone to come out to check on him -- he definitely should have expected it. Still, the faint surprise quickly fades away into a warm smile, and he scoots down on the log a little, a silent invitation to sit with him. "I think I used up my Sigurd for the day." There's soft amusement behind the statement, the artist shifting his shoulders in the long-sleeve t-shirt he's paired with board shorts and flip-flops. His pencil touches the paper again, adding a darker patch behind Runa, then his thumb blurs it out into a drifting, flickering shadow. Only then does he lift it up and show the picture to Astrid, just enough light still trickling from the Western horizon to make it visible.

"Did you?" Astrid's words are lovely and laughing as she settles down on the driftwood beside him. She tucks her feet up near the wood, knees drawn up high toward her chest. Her eyes glance out toward the bonfire with their friends, and she folds her arms across her knees as she rests forward a bit. When he offers out the sketchpad for her to admire, she does so. Her smile brightens as she takes in each detail. "Wow, Ree... I don't know how you guys do that... that's amazing." She touches the silhouette of Ash knowingly before she glances back up to Marius with a tilt of her head. "You and Jens... you guys have some real talent."

"I draw and design, Jens paints, Runa plays, Ash writes..." Marius glances aside to Astrid, smiling softly in the fading light, "You sing." He draws the sketchpad back into his lap, threading the pencil through the rings binding the pages together, "We've all got our touch of the artist, Ast." There's a pause, and his smile settles into something soft, comfortable save for the slightest hint of uncertainty around the edges. "But thanks." Again, his words come slowly, after a little space filled neatly by the wash of waves on the shore behind them, "I like seeing how nature and people interact. Where we change nature, and where nature changes us." He leans over then, ducking a little to nudge his shoulder into hers, "And why are you avoiding the warmth and company down there?"

"Yeah, I sing." Astrid sounds dubious there. "But other people's music. I mean, it's not really an art form-- just a well-designed biology." Then she turns her head toward him when he explains the beautiful of his inspiration, and that smile softens into something genuine and dear. "I like that, Ree. We've interacted with the environment in a variety of ways since basically the dawn of civilization." She rocks forward a bit to look back out at the fire, staring at the warm spot that brightens as the sky darkens. Then she glances back to him, and again her smile redoubles until her cheeks are round and eyes bright. "Because you're up here."

"You've heard me sing, Ast," Marius grins. "What you do, it's art." There's a line there about well-designed biology, but he misses his cue. Instead, he nods at her approval of his inspiration, smiling a little under it and dropping his eyes down to the sand before them. The words that follow snap his eyes back up again, taking in that cheek-rounding, eye-brightening smile, and his smile grows to match. "Oh." He glances back down to the fire, and he studies the trio still down there, admitting in a quiet murmur, "I like that." With the firelight throwing his features into high, golden relief, it's hard to see the faint blush that touches his cheeks, "You ever wonder if you're on the right path, Astrid?"

Astrid's cheeks blush high and warm, but it is hard to spot in the dark. "Not really." But she doesn't push harder on that topic, and instead lets it fall away as Marius asks that question. It causes her take in a sharp breath, and she holds it for a moment before she lets it loose, sighing out the breath in a low, almost uncertain whoosh. "Um." Then she squints. "Sometimes. But I think that... we all do that." She glances to him. "What about you?" She tilts her head. "Are you not sure you're on the right path?"

Marius's smile is the only response to Astrid's protestation, and he nudges her shoulder with his own before drawing back a little to study her own flame-touched features as she considers it and answers his question. He nods slowly, and when she asks the question in return, "Pretty much all the time." He pauses, then shrugs, grimacing faintly as he does, "I don't know, Ast. One minute I don't doubt anything I'm doing, I think the entire plan is brilliant, and then the next I'm like, 'What the hell am I doing? I can Glimmer, and I'm going to be drawing pictures of houses and pretending to be a Viking on the weekends?" At least he has a realistic -- if not also pessimistic -- view of his prospective future.

Astrid tilts her head to him now, and her eyes search his across the meager distance between them. She searches his features, watching the question spark the grimace, and the slight shift of doubt in his expression. She reaches for him, touching his knee gently with hers in what could be seen, from a distance, as an almost intimate touch. "You're living your life, Marius. It's okay that maybe it doesn't fit the standard mold." Then she smiles at him with another tip of her head. "What do you want to do?" She nudges him a bit more. "Really. No bullshit."

Marius looks down to where her knee nudges his own, reaching down to just brush his fingertips over her bare skin. "Long-term? I've got no idea. I'm so sick of school." Of course, he hasn't stopped studying in years and years. "I just want to be done and doing things." Blowing out a breath, his hand curls around her knee, squeezing gently. "Architecture is... it's a way to do what I love. To look at where nature and home come together. I want to see what I draw come to life. I just want..." he gestures vaguely ahead of him, "...I want it to be here now, and I don't know if it'll be enough when it is here." His hand goes back to her knee, and he glances over at her, studying her firelit features. "That's what I want long-term... and what I'm worried about." His lips curl into a slow smile, "What I want short-term is a lot clearer."

The brush across her knee inspires a little smile to tug higher into place, and then she's leaning in toward him until her lips press softly against his cheek. "Then take a break." Her words are soft, honest against his skin. "You can take some time off, make a decision about what you want to do. Nothing is going to stop you." Then she flickers her eyes across his own before her smile starts to redouble once more. "Ree, I'm not the right person if you want me to talk you into staying into school even longer-- because I'm about to embark on what will be another four to six years of schooling to get my PhD. But... look, what do you want right now?"

Marius's hand slips across from her near knee to her far, "That's okay, I'm also looking at post-grad shit." The latter question, however, causes him to lean in close, tilting his head to nearly brush his ear against her shoulder, leaning in close to her lips, "So do I have to call you doctor now, or later?" Leaning all the closer, his lips just touch hers, moving slowly, "Because what I want right now, Astrid, is you."

Astrid's smile settles into something soft, familiar. She glances slightly toward the bonfire that still captures the silhouettes of their friends and housemates. Then her eyes settle back on his-- hers dark and luminous as a wildfire. Then she meets his lean before her lips touch his with that same softness. Then she nods gently without disrupting their closeness. "Alright. But where are you going to have me?"

Marius's fingers tighten slightly on her knee, turning his shoulder toward her was his left hand starts to come up toward her cheek. His lips move against hers, parting briefly, but before he can do more, a particularly raucous cheer from the fire -- and the reminder of her words -- causes him to lean back and drop his arm away from her cheek. "I've been working on that. I'm pretty sure the car's out, and the tent. But out here... sand in uncomfortable places." His lips press together as he glances out into the gathering dark, "But about a quarter mile up the road, there's a grassy area... you sneak a blanket, I'll get some more mead?"

The cry from the fire causes Astrid to glance toward it, and a little smile blossoms into place where the kiss had once touched. "I just had a flashback to ScanFest." Then she leans in to touch her kiss against his briefly before she nods. "Blanket. Mead. Then we can go for a walk." She turns away as she pushes up to her feet. She gives a little kick to the sand before she glances back over her shoulder toward him with a little smile.

The mention of the flashback causes Marius's eyebrows to go up in surprise, and then he looks back down to the fire, murmuring, "Not enough to drown us out this time." His hand slips from her knee, settling at the small of her back as she stands up, then drops away again. "I'll catch up to you in a few." They're not going to fool anyone, but a few minutes is still important for the look of things. But soon he gathers up his notepad and pencil, making his way down to the fire to joke and jibe before he gathers up his horn of mead, filling it, and heading out into the darkness.