The seas around Charon are restless, known for being rough and dangerous. Though on occasion even the waters far from land can be as dead and peaceful as the grave. Tonight was one such moment as a ship carrying passengers between Pale and Starlight city. Its a long trip, now made longer with the lack of winds to push the boat forward. Naturally this isn't unheard of, and in these situations the solution is simply to wait for the winds to pick back up.

As the rest of the guests relaxes in the diner for a late evening meal and music, Aledüne has found himself on deck. Even a social butterfly sometimes need space to stretch their wings, and in his case it was more literal as he had taken the chance to fly up to one of the masts where he thought nobody would look so late with a party happening. As he sits down, the wings on his back stretches out, flexing the muscles as best he can. The feeling was great, and the evening sky was beautiful as the starts had just started to come out between the layers of clouds gliding above.

A small bat, also happy to get some air time without disturbances could be seen flying overhead before settling upside down from a rope near its master. "Don't get too comfortable now Kip, we will need to head back in soon before any of the crew decides to look around." The bat makes only a chittering sound in response as if disagreeing.

Though things are calm and quiet up on deck, not all is still. The sound of lightly creaking wood alerts keen ears to someone coming up from below deck, failing in their attempt to go completely unnoticed.

Peeking up from the hatch leading down into the hold of the ship is a blue-eyed half-elf. He's not particularly notable outside of his odd behavior as he glances around to check if anyone is outside before creeping across the deck to the side of the ship. For some reason, he has brought up a coil of rope from below deck. The coil is slung haphazardly across his shoulder and part of it trails behind him, threatening to trip him up on his way to the railing. 

Even in the dark, it's not hard to tell that he's up to something out of the ordinary. The man drops the rope on the deck before struggling to loop it over the rail and secure it with a few knots. It's odd watching the man work as he lifts a foot up against the rail to hold the rope in place while he fiddles with the other end with one hand. Hardly seems like an efficient way to secure things, but despite the awkwardness, he does manage to get it to a point where he's satisfied. He then throws the rest of the rope over the edge before sitting on the rail and swinging his legs up and over it.

Pausing, he sits for a moment facing the still water. Listening, waiting, breathing. He then grabs the rope and disappears over the side. 

There's no splash that follows, so he must have avoided falling in the water, but just what the hell was he doing?

If one was to peer over the edge, they'd see the man slowly repelling down to the waterline. He's careful about where he places his feet and his knuckles are white from gripping the rope with one hand. It's at that point one might notice that the man is missing an arm. 

He keeps descending until he gets to the water's surface. He crouches to bring his body as close as he can to the side of the ship while keeping downward tension on the rope as he wraps the end behind his back and then tucks it under his boot. Testing that his weight will hold, he lets go of the rope and reaches down to gently run his fingertips through the mirror-like surface of the water. 

There's an audible content sigh. 

The noise alerted him quickly as he was on the lookout for any sign of movement. Hiding his wings quickly he made sure that the shadows would cover him up in the mast by hiding behind one of the packed together sails. It was strange looking at this man, his movements off. And when he suddenly decided to climb over the edge of the boat, he was sure he was either suicidal or up to no good. But it was intriguing either way, and he wanted to get a closer look.

Jumping from the mast, he glided down back on deck. He moves quietly as he reaches the edge of the boat where the man was hanging from. And looking over the edge he saw the man holding on for dear life with a single hand. Again, it just became stranger to him, as he moves closer to the water, and when the man sighs contently Aledüne was no longer able to supress a chuckle at the strange scene.

"I can see the sea must be quite the tender lover for you to give off a sigh like a like that. Like a woman in heat." He laughs quietly under his breath. "I guess I shouldn't tease a sailor in love with his ocean?"

An unexpected voice from above him makes him spook. His boots slip on the wet wooden hull and he falls into the water with a loud splash. 

"ACK!"

Luckily with the water being completely still, there's no wind to carry the ship away. There's no risk of being left behind in the water at least. That said, it is a struggle for him to right himself and he gasps for air when he breaks the surface again. Shaking the water from his hair, he reaches up to hook his arm back around the loop of the rope and looks up at the person he heard before. 

"I uh...it's not that it's uhm...difficult to explain. Sorry, I didn't know anyone was out here, I didn't mean to disturb...whatever you were doing." 

Come to think of it, he hasn't seen this person wandering around on deck. He was pretty sure no one was on the deck. Did this elf slip onto the deck while he was distracted with tying the rope?

He shakes his head and stops thinking about that. He's soaked and now has to clamber back onboard the ship. For a moment, he contemplates how he's going to do that. He hadn't thought through how it would be ten times harder to climb up than it was to climb down. 

Looking up at the elven man, he gives a bit of an embarrassed smile. "You wouldn't mind helping me back up, would you?"

With a laugh he can't help but tease the man as he fell in. Though his laugh remains quite as he keeps his calm. A amused look can be seen as he glances down on the man as he swims in the water, pretending to ponder if he should help or not.

"Very well, but lets say that you owe me one. After all, it might be more amusing to see how long it takes for the crew to notice." His tone suggests that he isn't serious as he continues to tease. As soon as he agrees her jumps over the side and slides down the rope with one arm and uses his other to reach for Everett's only arm.

"Grab hold, I will pull you up to grab the railing." As Everett grabs hold of his hand, the ice cold skin might cause him to flinch momentarily, but with strength beyond what his small frame would suggest he pulls Everett out of the water, and with effort helps him grab hold of the side of the boat. 

"I'm fine with owing a favor for a favor so long as you're not some devil or soul stealer." He jokes, though really that was completely in the realm of possibility given all the oddities and weird creatures found throughout Charon.

He reaches up and grabs a hold of Aledune's hand. The cold is certainly an unexpected surprise, but he tries not to look a gift horse in the mouth. What's more surprising is just how incredibly strong the man is, easily helping hoist Everett back up onto the deck. 

Hooking his arm over the railing, he shakes more water from his hair. "Thank you. You are surprisingly strong. What do you do for a living?"

Pulling himself up further, he manages to get his legs back over the rail and his feet back on solid wood. Water drips off of his absolutely soaked clothes and he doesn't hesitate to remove his boots and pour the contents out overboard. 

"Sorry for all the trouble. I appreciate you being willing to lend a complete stranger a hand. I uh, obviously don't have as many at my disposal as you do." He laughs as he places the boots back down on the deck and gestures to the lack of right arm.

In a futile attempt to dry his hand, he wipes his hand across the leg of his drenched pants before offering a handshake to Aledune. "Name's Everett, nice to meet you."

"No comment," he jokes as he pulls Everett back up. As Everett comments on his strength he just chuckles. "I am a scholar of sorts. But traveling can often prove to be quite the challenge, and so being able to carry what I need to overcome those challenges is a must."

After finishing pulling the man up, he leans on the side of the boat and looks as he pours water from his boots over and back into the ocean.

"I noticed. Makes me wonder why you would even attempt to climb down the way you did. Seems rather reckless, but I guess a man like you expresses his love for the ocean in ways I am not used to. I prefer dry land personally, but my curiosity does push me to ask you to explain what you were doing in your own words. After all, considering how surprised you were by my presence you couldn't have expected anyone to see you, and so I can only wonder what it is that you wanted to hide from the view of anyone else."

There is a slight smile on his lips as he asked the question, and amusement in his eyes.

"Oh, a scholar? What is your field of research?"

He's still holding out a hand for Aledune to shake and introduce himself in turn. When he realizes the elf doesn't make any move to engage, he drops it somewhat awkwardly. Maybe that isn't the custom for wherever the elf is from. 

Giving Aledune a bit of a shrug. "I don't make a habit of falling into the ocean. The sea is just..." he searches for the words, "comforting? It's the closest thing to home. I don't know."

Reflecting on his draw to the ocean, he realizes that his answer is a bit unsatisfactory. Truthfully, he has lost so much of himself that it's hard to connect with the world at all. Being on the ocean is the one thing that seems to consistently feel like it's where he belongs. 

"I guess I didn't really need to try and be sneaky about it. It's a bit odd having to explain things to folks though and sailor folk aren't well known for being the sympathetic sort. You fool around on deck too much and they're certain to throw a bucket at you." 

He moves over to the rail and starts pulling up the ropes and coiling them back into neat bundles. 

"If you prefer dry land so much, what brings you out on the high seas?"

"Don't worry then, I won't tell them what you are up to." He chuckles again. "And I just like to travel. A change came to my life, ending who I was and so I move around to learn to see things with my new eyes. It has taught me how to adapt, much like you seem to have adapted to the use of one hand. I am impressed by your ability to manage without one." He nods at his missing arm, still smiling.

"I would be curious to ask what happened that you lost it, but if you prefer to keep it to yourself that is fine. And if it helps I could always answer a couple of question about myself to satisfy your curiosity."

He moves away from the side and begins to step back and fourth between the side and mast.

"And so we can begin on the subject on my study, a core interest I have. The subject of life and death. Specifically life and death and how magic seem to interact with it. The light domain, and its curious ability to preserve and heal the vitality of a creature, and the energies of the dark domain and its ability to drain and manipulate it. Many a scholar I imagine have asked the same question, and I have just found myself with some spare time to pursue the same goal. Though I am relatively early in my journey and so my questions are far from answered. When we are on the subject, maybe you would be so generous and to share your own point of view on the subject?"

"Adapt like water, a fine value to live by."

The words come out of his mouth like they're natural, but he furrows his brow a moment after realizing that he doesn't really remember where he even learned that or why it has stuck with him, unlike so many other things. 

"Ah, well it's been gone for a long while I think," he averts his eyes and looks at the calm waters. "I don't really remember a time when I did have it."

To be honest, he doesn't remember much at all, but he wouldn't fully admit that just yet. He doesn't think Aledune has any ill intentions, but he also knows very little about the smiling man. Though his research is pretty interesting sounding.

"My point of view? Well, I'm not too sure if I can say much about it...I'm not familiar with the light and dark domains. I have some magical capabilities...I think."

This whole memory loss thing sure made having cohesive conversations with people a lot harder, but there's little he can do about it until he figures out why he can't remember jack shit about himself. 

"Sorry, I know that isn't helpful." He thinks for a moment on what he could contribute to such a complicated field of research. "I guess I can say that if we didn't have magic that heals injuries and sickness then there are probably some people who would have died a lot sooner. And if we didn't have magic that decays, there may be others who would have lived longer."

He smiles awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. "That's probably not a very interesting opinion for your research."

"Don't worry about having difficulty in answering. That is the whole point of a mystery is it not." He points out across the horizon, as if he was pointing something out, only to spin in place and point the finger at Everett instead.

"What I find more intriguing at the moment however is that you claim to not remember having an arm. If you lost it as a kid it would have been more common to claim you lost it as a kid. Something like loosing an arm isn't something you just forget like yesterdays lunch, even more so when you don't seem knowledgeable and completely aware of your own magical abilities. So from this I can only surmise that you have a few problems with your memory, yes?" He seems confident in his analyses, tucking a hair from his forehead back behind his ear.

"I have something that might help however should you want me to assist your memory. A kind of hypnosis. I can't guarantee results, but perhaps it could reveal a clue or two."

Everett looks surprised when Aledune points at him. "Uh..."

He then makes an awkward face as the scholar points out the holes in his story and how he's been speaking so far. "Yes...it's uh, a bit inconvenient."

He doesn't really know how to talk about his lack of memory. It's been more than just a 'bit inconvenient' for him, having had a few situations where he woke up completely dazed and lost. It happens with alarming frequency, but the lapses feel more minor than whatever must have happened to cause him to completely forget his past and his connection to the domains of magic. 

While he's regained a little bit of magic here and there, it still feels like a fragile connection. It feels wrong, like a close friend that has grown distant for reasons beyond his understanding. Being closer to the water helps, but he only really feels that connection strengthen when a storm is on the horizon. Clear, calm nights like this only make him feel small and isolated, which is probably why he was so anxious and felt the need to physically connect with the ocean if only for a moment.  

The suggestion of using hypnosis is a new idea he hadn't considered at all yet. No one has offered such a solution and such magic is completely unknown to him. Manipulation of the mind can be pretty dangerous, he thinks, but Aledune seems well-intended and knowledgeable enough that maybe it would be okay. 

He looks at the elven man and nods. "I am willing to try anything if you think it will help."

"Wonderful" He seems quite happy at the idea, letting some of his own curiosity show. Curiosity for the attempt or Everett's mysterious background would be a little uncertain, but he moves over to a stool closer to the mast.

"Please sit, the attempt should be too long, and we will quickly know if the attempt will get results or not but I still want you to be comfortable."

He waits for Everett to sit down, and as he does takes a moment to walk around him. Studying him in an attempt to create some theatrics, to add to the mystery. Everett was also clearly not all that normal, and learning about interesting individuals was always something he like to make time for.

With Everett seated he takes a knee in front of him, and then looks him in the eyes. For a moment nothing would happen, and only the polite smile of the elf in front of him was clear. Then it started getting hazy, as if he was falling asleep.

"You are no longer on the ship, and you now find yourself flying on a cloud in a cloudless sky. The world is in front of you, and it can lead you anywhere, any time." His words are warm, calm. And as he speaks, the scene he depicts plays in Everett's mind. There is a sense of freedom with it, as if time was standing still. Like he truly could go anywhere and any time. "Now, I want you to relax your thoughts. Allow the dark void that is your past envelop you, and allow it to guide you to where you need to go. Trust that deep down, somewhere, you remember. Now tell me, what does your inner eye see?"

"Alright."

Everett does as instructed and takes a seat on the stool. He feels a bit awkward as Aledune stalks in a circle around him, inspecting him like some odd newly discovered plant or something. Being inspected is not something he's used to, and part of him worries that the scholar will reveal something awful and terrible that he has no way of dealing with. 

His eyes meet the elven man's and it doesn't take long for him to be transfixed by the glistening pools of deep blue that stare into his own. It's almost as if they're portals into the depths of the sea itself. As the sounds of the voices from below deck lessen until they're nothing more than white noise, he feels as if he is engulfed and pulled below the ocean's surface. 

A weightless feeling takes him as Aledune's voice takes him from sinking to flying high in the sky. It's an oddly...familiar sensation, but he doesn't know why. Before his mind's eye is the whole of Charon far below him, parts of it obscured by heavy cloud cover and shrouded in mystery. Beyond the continent stretches an endless horizon curving in every direction. 

Now, I want you to relax your thoughts.

His shoulders drop a bit as he lets out a long breath, letting the tension and anxiety leave his body on the man's command. He focuses on the instructions he is given as the scene in his imagination distorts and shifts. His stomach rises up in his chest as the sensation of falling takes him and his vision hurtles back down towards the surface. He expects it to stop. The ground gets closer at an alarming rate. He hopes it will stop. There is no slowing. His whole body jerks instinctively as he collides with the ground and shatters into pieces. Fragments of his broken memory scatter.

He takes a shaky breath. "I see...black water...thick fog...a dark forest..."

"Good, we are on the right path." The elven man steps around him to his back. Placing the cold firm hands on his shoulders, grounding him in reality and making his voice even clearer. "Now I don't want you to try and absorb it all at once. Piece by piece we are put things together, and so I want you to start to think about the black water. Is it a lake, an ocean? Can you feel how deep it is? The fog, is it coming in over the waters or down nearby mountains? The forest, what kind is it? What trees do you see? Take some time and get to know the place as you step along the shore of the black water. Look in the reflection of the water, who do you see?"

Done speaking he lets go of his shoulders, allowing the memory to properly envelope him. The experience grows stronger as the sounds of the place slow takes the over from the ship dipping in the dead waters of reality and the dream is all he experiences.

Suddenly as he walks around the place, trying to connect with it, remember it. An individual can be seen walking towards him slowly. A hazy figure, and he can't tell if they are man or woman, or even human. A familiar feeling creeping closer, settling around him as the figure stops and looks at him, featureless. Someone from his past he had forgotten? A parent or other loved one perhaps. Or maybe someone who had done him ill, the villain of his story, or responsible for some trauma that was the cause of all this. Or perhaps his mind was simply making up a figure for him to interact with and ask questions, as lonely and isolated those black waters might feel to him.