[AW] the least stupid smell in the world

[Eik]

E I K
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Euphoria is not a familiar feeling. Happiness yes, but it is always balanced with something else- the more joy he feels, the more afraid and uncomfortable he becomes, the more aware he is of all he has to lose. So, paradoxically, it is the awareness of happiness that inevitably makes him unhappy.

It is not the only strange loop he has encountered in this life. He's seen patterns since the day he was born. The unfolding of flowers, the shape of the mountains, the cyclical nature of time. As the opium settles like warm honey in his bones, his thoughts drift up and linger above their heads like the slow-burning incense. He feels vaguely connected to everything, as though his body does not end with his skin but spills over to the pillows beneath him and the ground beneath the pillows and even further- to everyone and thing which touches the great grand earth and even those that don't-- the birds and the wind and the sun and all the stars, the whole universe.

And he is connected to the woman next to him, too, who politely accepts his head on her flank when it would be so easy to shoo him away like a fly.

"And just what is so funny?" He blinks slow and cheerful. "The way I feel." The closest experience he's had to this would have to be at the Winter's End Festival, where a nymph in red had given him a little pastry that made him see things that (probably) were not there. That was a much different feeling though. It was the sort of experience where you don't feel like you have much control over anything at all, you're just along for some strange and wondrous ride. And his body had felt different, and his mind had felt blasted wide open.

He thinks he likes this feeling more, this hazy euphoria. Sleep is just a slow blink away but he fends it off, wanting to enjoy the soft music playing (the harp, once very quiet and basic, seems suddenly loud and beautifully intricate) and the feel of her skin under his... he realizes he's gently, thoughtfully lipping at the stranger's rump. He has the awareness of mind to feel embarrassed, but he quickly realizes that she's playing with a long strand of his mane and somehow the personal invasions seem to balance each other out. They're in the same boat, as the saying goes, floating down the same warm, mellow river.

Somewhere someone yawns, and a moment later Eik is yawning too. "Everything is fuzzy. Do you feel it too?" Fuzzy and perfect, his troubles far enough away that they might as well be gone entirely. "Have you been here before?... Is it always like this?" Many more questions come to mind but they all float away before he can get a hold of them. All he can do is stop lipping at her rump to offer a sleepy, crooked smile.

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@Soleil <3