The Chained Watcher

Relaxing Conversation

They head East for half an hour, Grian with his wings and Scar with a magic elytra. Finding an area clear of players, they land in a snow-covered valley in the depths of a mountain range. A couple of snowy rabbits dart for their burrows at the unexpected disturbance, leaving trails through the fresh snow.

Scar immediately bounced over with an excited expression. "Can I see now? Please?"

Rolling his eyes, Grian releases the transformation magic, watching Scar's entranced expression as his wings separated into their many layers. He also grew taller, and the color of his magic filled his wings and eyes. Now Scar looked like he wanted to say something, but what- 

"So you mean you aren't short?"

Dumbfounded, Grian just stares at Scar. Of all the things to ask about, his height? Not his wings, not his eyes, but his height? He goes to speak before remembering the natural state of Watcher voices. A little alteration to smooth it out would be for the best. He opens his mouth to speak, his voice sounding like a deeper version of the one he uses in human form. "Of all the things for your first question, my height?"

Scar blinked as he realized how silly that sounded, seeing how every single Watcher he had seen at the arena had been taller than the gladiators. "Well now that I think about it, Watchers really aren't short in the first place."

Grian chuckled. "Well, when deciding what to make the transformation look like, I actually made the decision to be short. At the time, I figured that short things were less scary, so I'm just glad past-me didn't decide to take that further and end up pixie sized." He gently pushed a mental image of pixie-Grian to Scar and watched the man start laughing.

"Oh, but just imagine the pranks you could do! At that size, no one would be able to catch you in the act!" He calmed down slightly. "How do you do that, by the way? Not the transformation, the image sharing thing."

How did he share thoughts? Well that was a bit hard to put into words... "Uh, I guess the best way to describe it would be pushing the image? One of the first things Watchers are taught is how to control their emotional leakage."

"Is that why most Watchers are expressionless?"

"No, not that kind of leakage. Think of it like... a torch. The emotions radiate like light, but fade the further you get from the source. Stronger emotions are easier to feel and can be felt from greater distances, which is why the young are taught to control it. It gets to be a bit like muscle memory after a while."

"Can I learn how to feel them too?" Well that was an interesting question. Could he actually learn this?

"I'm not sure. You would probably have to have some amount of heritage from a psychically oriented race, or maybe an elemental if you wanted to learn to share your thoughts. I could let some emotional leakage out so you could feel what I mean though."

Scar nods eagerly, and Grian let his hold over his emotion's aura loosen. He didn't let it go entirely, as the amount of area that it would cover would be... less than ideal. Not catastrophic, but seeing birds laugh themselves out of the sky wasn't what he was aiming for.

Grian looked back at Scar to see him with a baby bunny in his lap. How he had managed to coax the tiny thing over here would forever remain a mystery, but never had a more perfect scrapbook scene presented itself to him. He pulled out his communicator, navigating to the picture function before snapping a picture of Scar and the bunny. Perfect.

With his emotions not restrained, Scar could feel the amusement from beside him. "Is that what you meant by leakage? It feels funny."

"Yeah, the strength of the emotions get stronger as the Watcher gets older, so it's important to teach restraint before some kid has a tantrum everyone in the room can feel vividly rather than after they've irritated a higher tier Watcher." He himself had been witness to a tantrum, and everyone who got hit with it was snappy for the entire rest of the day.

"Oh yeah, you mentioned earlier that you came here to grow new wings, right?" Grian nodded. "Which ones are the new ones?"

He brought around the largest pair, and Scar reached out slightly before hesitating. "Can I touch them? They look really soft!"

"Sure, Scar." He lowered one of his wings to rest beside the excited showman, who then buried his face in the feathers like a pillow. A muffled, "They're so fluffy!" could be heard.

Then, a twig snapped in the forest.