Let Love Bloom - Valentine's Event

[Patrick]

Patrick couldn't resist the opportunity to leave a note for his love as a special surprise for when she returned from her latest work trip. He spent a long while admiring the many different blooms dotting the branches of the Valentine tree before reaching for one of its garnet colored leaves. The note he left for Penny was simple and sweet. Inside the accompanying tiny velvet drawstring bag were a necklace and ring that made him think of her and a voucher for two cups of soup at their favorite eatery. When he was finished, the pilot took another moment to stroke the silky petals of a dramatically dark peony that had bloomed nearby and smiled fondly, thinking to himself that its beauty didn't hold a candle to Penny.



_______________

I know now why they say love is like wine; every year with you gets better, grows sweeter. I love you, Peninnah, and I can't wait to marry you. -Patrick

[Canaan]

The celebration of Valentine’s Day was not generally something the Cajun gave much thought or credence to, tending towards quiet rebellion against the commercialization of love and being generally contrary. But when Josette showed up on their doorstep with her thoughtful gift of a beautiful red sapling and the tale of the enchanting garden on the Isle, she got him thinking. And wondering. After wonder came consideration, followed quickly by scheming.

All that scheming led Cane to the Isle where he purchased another sapling...not for himself but for a special songbird with a green thumb who so dearly loved the color red, knowing she would appreciate the tree and its sentiment. Before he left, Cane left a love note for his other lover to find. Nestled safely among the Valentine Tree’s branches along with the note was a gift he’d meant to give Isaac for his birthday, determining this to be an even better surprise.

An unassuming gift for an unassuming man who, despite his uncanny knack and flare for showmanship, eschewed drawing attention to himself in any way. Isaac had no want nor need of it. In fact, it was his quiet confidence that had drawn the Cajun’s eye to begin with. Cane could appreciate if not share Isaac’s preference for modesty and had kept it in mind when making the bracelet. Isaac might recognize the copper colored pearl as one of more than a dozen Cane had gathered during their recent trip to Greece.



At first I thought about being funny and quoting Pride and Prejudice at you instead, but I think Vincent said it best. ‘The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too.’ I’m a better man for loving someone whose soul is as beautiful and kind as yours — and that means more to me than you’ll ever know. -Cane

Cane’s attention shifted to the burgeoning crawl of magic and cupped his hands in time for a pair of flowers to bloom. He brought them each to his nose in turn, breathing in their unique scents one after the other. The purple blossom he tucked into his shirt pocket for safe keeping and studied the remaining flower balanced on his palm for a long minute afterward. Coral pink with splashes of white along the margins, and deep pink freckles at the center of its trumpeted bell. He held it up to his nose again and smiled against its petals like a lovesick fool, enjoying the simple fact of having learned something new.

[Rachael Blackthorne]

Once the trio had purchased a Lotto ticket, as well as multiple Valentine's Tree saplings destined for The Gardens on the Isle, the Dead Scar renovation efforts and her personal garden in the Blackthorne Household, Rachael visited the Secret Garden alone while Moneypeny kept watch over the sleepy and muddy pawed Mayflower.

She pondered a moment before she left a brief missive, penned in a precise, left-handed script on a small piece of white parchment paper, tied to one of the branches of the Great Valentine's Tree.

Mae ein cariad wedi'i wreiddio yn y Ddaear, wedi'i gynnal gan Air, wedi'i faethu gan Ddŵr, wedi'i bondio gan Dân, ac mae'n byw yn y Sêr. Nawr ac am byth, fy anwylaf.

Due to the ambient magic, a blossoming twig from a blackthorn tree soon appeared in her black leather gloved hand. A rare smile resided on her normally stern lips while her sapphire hued gaze, shielded from view by the dark lenses of her sunglasses, studied the pure white flowers.

Rachael left the Secret Garden with that magical gifting, secure in the knowledge that her very gifted grandkitten would be able to, with some assistance from her very capable familiars, help the twig take root in her garden to one day become a mighty tree on its own. Other related giftings would take place in private at the Household over the weekend.

[BardGallant]

According to Dris, February the 14th was the most wonderful time of the year. For the bard, it even trumped Christmas! This was a holiday he had been quite literally born for. Love was the single most extraordinary feeling in all the universe, and he had an abundance of it, in all its varying forms, in his heart to share. With this in mind, he visited the Isle toting a large box full of items to leave for delivery.

In total, Dris had assembled twenty individual care packages. Nineteen of them consisted of a specially tailored greeting card addressed to specific people. Attached to most every envelope was a box of tart conversation heart candies and a single red foil wrapped chocolate rose. One of them had a pair of the treats attached. Putting his trust in the spirits tasked to see these heartfelt gifts delivered safely to his friends and family, he left the box in the garden.

( Recipients, in no order: Rhys, Ariana, Sal, Gatito, Koyan, Aiden, Paiva, Conner, Mallory, Anya, Collie, Sylista, Mart, Ebon & Phen, Eden, Ransom, and their children. )

Dris then made his way to one of the magnificent trees. He had a single envelope remaining, dedicated solely to the only one man to whom he had devoted himself completely. With a red ribbon tied off in a bow, he secured it to a branch. This love letter was of course addressed to Rhys Germain. The words written within were for his eyes only, though the intensity of his exclusive love for this particular man was no secret.

A thoroughly enchanted smile spread across his mouth and the thrill of purest joy warmed his heart as he watched a single flower form out of thin air between his fingertips. Its manifestation made his skin tingle in precisely the same intensely pleasant way Rhys’ every touch did. When he turned from the tree, he held clasped close to his heart a gold stemmed rose with petals as clear and lustrous as purest moonlight. It was marvelous, just like the man he knew it symbolized.

[Morgan LaLuna]

Morgan waited for the challenge to be over, during a lull in the festivities at the Air Tower, and slipped away for a little bit. He put his fingertips to his lips and pulled from the pocket plane within his lip ring a small leather pouch, slightly weathered and held closed by a buckle. He opened it to make sure the true gift was still inside. Or maybe just taking one last look at it. A nautical compass, having seen some heavy use, with an inscription scrawled on the back. Not in his own hand, but one that was far more delicate and scrolling.

"I would be lost without you."



He put this in the tree, and stepped back, nearly missing the shimmer of magic that started in his palm. He lifted it to see, and there, in the center, a tiny white bloom he had no idea the name of. Maybe later, he'd ask. For now... He tucked it away, and slipped away to grab a ticket before he reappeared back at the party.

[Desdenova VonTombs]

Desdenova cheerfully left a little mayhem for his besties, along with a loving and heartfelt poem to Maggie and Amaris:

"Friends don't let friends do stupid things alone."

It was tender and perfect. Ah! Young Love.

As he put up the note, he found a columbine or two in his hands and laughed.



He left gifts:
For Maggie: Grawrrr.



For Amaris: Arooo



He paid for a few of the saplings, as well, and made his way home.

[Mairead Harker]

Dear Doran and Sylva,
You are my 'tribe'.
Maggie
Each was sent one of these:


Maggie had puzzled over what to give her adventuring pals for Valentine's Day.

Dear Des,
This is for the next adventure we take. Gran has started calling us the Traveling Trio!
Maggie

Boxed up for Des was an 82 function Swiss Army knife!


Dear Amaris,
This is to remind that you are never alone. We are your friends, your team, your family, and your pack. The original design of this bracelet was made in silver, I had it made it with pewter for you.
Maggie


Des and Amaris would each get a piece of this:


Dear Haru,
You started as my student and became my friend.
Maggie

Wrapped for Haru was a pocketwatch.


Mayflower and Moneypenny were sent pine tree charms for their collars.


Gussie was sent this for her collar:

[Isaac Wheeler]

The wayward scion found himself on the Isle after hearing talk of the place around the RCPA. The students had been abuzz with delightful tales of gift deliveries and magical blooms and he had overhead such excitement. To Isaac, it became the perfect way of delivering a gift to his Philtatos, to express his love and admiration for the man in a way that defied the traditional expectations and exchanges such a day brought.

For Isaac, love could be such a fickle and capricious thing. What is given too cheaply or quickly can never be esteemed with proper gravitas and importance. If never given, a soul risked condemnation to a self-created and lonely prison of isolation and missed opportunity. The delicate balance became harder the more one felt the sting of rejection, of death, of abuse couched in love. But in Cane, Isaac had learned to accept…even embrace…the vulnerability which came with opening his heart and was all the richer for it.

Baptized in the rejuvenating waters of true love, it was easy for Isaac to approach the garden secreted away in the forest upon the Isle. In his hands were both the man’s gift and a hand scrawled note. He realized, with a smile, that the nature of the delivery would come as a surprise for Cane…much like the numerous notes and expressions of love he would leave for the Cajun to find be they in the pocket of a favored pair of jeans, tucked away within the handlebars of his motorcycle or left in the refrigerator as Isaac knew the man’s appetite lent itself to raiding the fridge for leftovers. With the Cajun’s cooking…he could not really blame the man.

For his gift he had turned to the depths of his creative passions and stepped from the comfort of simple pencil sketches. For inspiration he had used a surreptitiously taken photograph of his lover standing proudly atop a rock along the lakeshore near their shared home; Cane’s strong figure silhouetted against the setting sun. Isaac captured and deepened the rich, molten colors of the sunset and cooled them into a darkening blue and crowned by the corona of royal purple before giving way, ultimately, to the abyss of the night sky. It was this black that Isaac had added, so much so that one might be forgiven for assuming that such cavernous darkness crept with all the finality of a sarcophagus upon the figure standing in the light.

The truth was the art had been crafted from the perspective of the artist…of Isaac watching as his lover’s radiant light and the warmth of his internal flame held the darkness at bay, kept it from swallowing everything into its limitless maw…and…even pushed back against such a caliginous encroachment to provide Isaac with the warmth and love his soul had needed all along. In exchange for the note, Isaac would find his palm full of a magically blooming Bayou Rose. He would marvel at the chameleon qualities contained within the flower as the color of the billowy petals changed as they aged. Today the double blossoms held a rich saturation of purple at the heart of the bloom before fading to a deep rose at the ruffled edge. Tomorrow the color would be completely lavender. Isaac inhaled the floral scent, the transmutation of color a wonderful reminder of his Cajun and the positive rewards that being open to change could bring to the soul.

Canaan,

I have loved you for a thousand lifetimes. Finding you once more, in this life, has given me the strength to hold the shadows back and given me the rarest of things: hope. Thank you, my love. Thank you for your strength, your humor, your fire and your love. I love you with the intensity of your fire and the depths of my darkness.

~ Isaac

[Amaris]

Amaris came with arms full of gifts for people. She started Des, Maggie, auntie Rachael, auntie Reiko, the kitten squad, Ebon and Doran, Mallory Haru, Sissy, and pops were all left gifts to be delivered. Along with Roni's gifts was one for Lily



Each gift came with a box of chocolates/safe chocolates for the kitten's household of course.


She had one more gift and after all were laid out she went to the tree looking it over with a curious tilt of her head and pinned a small note with a small leather pouch carefully to the tree.


After a few moments, a small grouping of roses appeared and she smiled happily they were so pretty! She took them with her.

[Mist Gul]

Mist never had much use for Valentine's Day. It never did him any good other than the half price chocolate for the next day. But he did have a daughter he could call Valentine! So, he did make his way to the garden, and set down a rather large present for Amaris...



"All of my love, little wolf princess, love, Dad."

He smiled as he found a few larkspurs, and picked them up before he headed out.

[Rhys Germain]

Prior to the Water challenge on Saturday night, Rhys had gone to the gardens with Dris to send his own care packages. While he didn’t have quite as many as his lover, those he did send meant a great deal to him. Amongst them were packages for his sisters, Paiva and Eden; his nephew, Will; and of course, his beloved Dris.

Each package contained a card and a gift chosen and empowered specifically for its recipient.


For Paiva, a ring of moonstone and silver, enchanted to enhance her intuition and help keep her calm in stressful situations.




For Eden, a ring of turquoise and silver, empowered to help ward off unwanted “visitors” and store kinetic power she could use in a pinch.




For Will, a compass pendant of silver and white opal strung on a silver chain, enchanted to help ensure the boy could always find his way home when he went wandering in nature.




And for Dris, a slim cuff made of hammered silver that Rhys had forged and shaped himself. This piece was empowered to allow Dris to call up a metaphysical shield when needed. Inside, Rhys had inscribed one word: wastad.




In addition to the package, Rhys also had a sealed letter for Dris. He made sure to tether it to a different tree from the one to which his boyfriend tied his own. After his fingers slipped from the red ribbon, he felt a tingle of magic curl into his palm. As he watched, a vibrant lavender rose formed in his grasp. The bloom was as large as his hand with dozens of tightly furled petals. When he raised the rose to inhale its citrusy scent, he heard the wind whisper its name. Love song.




Before they left the Isle that night, Rhys made sure to purchase a pair of the beautiful red saplings so Dris could enjoy Valentine’s Day in his own garden, year-round.

[Partly Cloudy]

Valentine’s Day was a strange day for gatito. He had been out of the human world for so long, the day no longer held much meaning for him. However, he respected the fact that it meant something to most others. Because of this, he stole away to the Isle to deliver cards and gifts for a pair of ladies who always made him smile, in hopes that he might make each of them smile, too.


For Eden Parker:



And for Rekah Illyriana:



He also stopped by one of the Valentine trees to tie on a letter addressed to a woman who meant everything to him, but who was no longer part of this world. Curiously, after he had finished tying the ribbon, the letter faded away and left in its place a small cluster of old fashioned roses in apricot and pale pink. As he took them from the tree, he heard a familiar voice whisper, moonlight in Paris.



Overcome with emotion, he took his roses and left the Isle—but not before purchasing a pair of crimson saplings to take home with him to Matadero.

[Sylista Ravenwood]

Sylista slipped out on her own the day after to place her gifts for those she cared for and those she loved. There were no romantic days like this where she came from so having an opportunity to show love and appreciation was exciting for the Rhy'din newcomer.

For Haru, Tori, Mik, Kira, Luna, Gideon, Betty, Rachael, Eregor, Tenball, Rhiannon, Miss Harker, Salvador, Gatito, Kayla, and Anne a card with a personal message came with a small package of chocolates.


For Dris and Rhys, Sylista decided a special card would be sent as the hours on the phone being chatty girlfriends and Rhys's patience with them deserved something special. Choosing a card that made light of her diet (that Dris often forgot about), she sent a picture of Avi and Mari together without a frame so the couple could pick their own.


Finally, for Mathian and Viktor, a small box was set up for each. Each box contained cufflinks and a tie clip with the shape of Arabrab the night the twins were born.

For Mathian:


His gift brought out the Dog Rose, a flower that caused her to smirk:


For Viktor:


And the flower, a fitting bloom for their relationship, was a royal azalea: