mj and ice's excellent roleplay adventure

Oh, are you serious. The frustration that had simmered within Will now grows to a raging boil. Of course this madman takes him on the most complex route humanly possible. He knew he had seen that particular window before. The Snake is taking him around in circles of all things. Love each other in every life my ass, Will hisses internally, mentally trying to figure out the best possible area to set ablaze as soon as he gets the change. He had never been one for violence before, but the Snake has always brought out sides of him Will never knew he had.

While the library and the gardens sound actually quite nice, the set parameters and chaperones quickly turn Will's small slice of hope bitter and sour. "A babysitter?" Will hisses. He breaks away from Kaz's hold and folds his arms, facing the Snake with a fire in his eyes. He realizes he has no idea where he is. There's no windows over here. "Why do you treat me like a child?"

Will's jaw clenches together, the frustration within boiling over. He hates how correct Kaz is. He loathes how calm he is about Will. Why can't he be angry too? Why can't he be suffering in this cycle too? Why does he have all the cards, leaving Will with nothing but his own stubbornness and short temper?

"Why do you do this to me?" He hisses the last question aloud.

"Treat me like nothing, make me feel like nothing, cause me suffering and-" Will breaks his voice off before he can say anything truly damaging. He balls his fists at his side. What would his mother say at his tone? What would his father teach him after an outburst? They wouldn't yell, no never. Not like Will's doing now. What is he doing to tarnish their example? Will swallows around a ball in his throat. God, he misses his parents. "I'm sorry," he says quietly, hands going up to pull at his hair, pulling it from its ribbon. "I'm tired. It's- it's all so overwhelming." Will's voice cracks at the end. Oh, how he wants to disappear.

"No," Will's quick to respond. "No, no, I'm fine." He doesn't need to take nap. He's perfectly capable of handling his emotions like an adult. "I just… I think I slept odd last night. And this is a lot." The last sentence is uttered as a humorless laugh. "It's all a lot." His hands don't move from his hair. The ribbon falls listlessly to the ground.

"I will adjust," Will confirms softly. Hopefully, his brain supplies. "I don't think I ever remember past lives before I run into you," he says quietly. "And still, none of the details are solid." He softly clears his throat. "It's all… smoke. I'm able to see through the smoke, not clearly, but enough to know that there's something within in. The memories. The past." Flashes to his nightly terrors as a child surface in his mind. "No memory really compares to the nightmares, though." A chill wafts through the corridor.

Will hums softly, keeping his eyes either trained on the ground or roaming the walls. He doubts he can look at Kaz, a moment like this too strangely unifying to be broken by eye contact. On the stone walls and tile flooring, Will finds patterns in the grating. He chalks up the snake-esque patterns to his tired mind. "What did you dream of?"

Will nods, keeping his eyes averted from Kaz. They just met (well, not really) so Will can't expect the Snake to tell him everything… right? "Understandable," Will says, his voice quiet and unechoing in the empty chamber. It feels barely a whisper. His mind momentarily drifts before he clears his throat, bringing himself back to the present. "You said the library, next?" He points down the hall, unsure if it's the direction they came from or not.

The silence settles over them once more like a blanket. A rather uncomfortable and slightly musty blanket, that is. Will's always been a fan of silence… but not like this. Hell, it nearly feels suffocating… There's a small distance between the two of them - the space barely twelve inches but still there, nonetheless. Perhaps that's for the best. Will's eyes follow a tile pattern on the wall to his right, not daring to glance at the man to his left.

Unfortunately, instead of mapping out the twists and turns and switchbacks of the enormous hallways, Will finds himself zoning out. It's not that he necessarily trusts Kaz, (oh, god, could you imagine that?) but it's more so the fact that Will is exhausted; making mental maps isn't doing anything to keep him awake. He pauses when they arrive at the doors. Through the mottled glass windows, Will can decipher rolling beds of wildflowers and roses, reeds lining the soft riverbanks, and - Will feels his breath hitch - hanging willow trees. He spares a glance to Kaz at his side, waiting for any sort of indication to enter the Snake's gardens.

Will's eyes blow wide. The scenery- the flowers, the trees, the grasses and the small stream- it's all so- "It's beautiful," he says aloud, barely a whisper. He finds his stare on the willow tree. "A willow-" Unconsciously, Will leaves Kaz's side. The soft, hanging branches of the tree curl around his fingers as he reaches out. A small smile tugs at his lips. He allows his hold on his magic to loosen. Flowers turn their faces, the reeds lean, the grass flutters in an invisible breeze - all of it pointing towards Will. God, how long has it been since he's been around so many beautiful lifeforms? The willow curls further down his arm, even lightly wrapping around his torso - like an odd embrace.

An unexpected laugh breaks through his lips as the willow continues to coil around his arm. To be frank, Will has never seen a weeping willow quite like this before. The leaves - while still maintaining their classic shape - seem to curl faintly at the end. They whisper in the breeze, their color edging on gold. He wraps his fingers in the vines, channelling his energy into controlling the branches and then- A full laugh echoes through the garden as the tree pulls Will up into the tall, warping branches. His feet touch down on the thick bark of a near-horizontal limb. His free hand bolts out to steady himself against the main trunk. "It's beautiful-" He whispers, staring through the hanging branches into the rest of the garden.

Will slowly makes his way down the branch, arms splayed out wide to keep his balance. He used to do this as a child, bolt from his house to the woods to the magnificent treetops - only to be lectured by his mother on the dangers of the forest afterwards. Over time, Will learned to be subtler with his uncanny abilities, learned to hide his gifts and curses behind a mask of normalcy. After all, his home village doesn't take well to magic wielders.

Once he gets to the end of the limb, Will uses a hanging branch above him for balance as he stares into the rest of the gardens. Colors and greenery, all of it meshing beaurifully like an oil pastel painting. He's never seen anything like it. Taking a slow breath, Will falls from the branch, letting the leaves and vines of the weeping willow carry him back down to safety.

Will's smile falters as he rejoins Kaz on the main path, soon enough falling away all together. His eyes naturally avert themselves, instead following the curves of the shrubbery or the draping of the vines instead of paying any mind to the Snake. I could live here. No need to see the rest of the palace. He wants to say, but instead bites his tongue. "Fine." He ends up muttering.

Sparing one last look at the gardens, Will reluctantly re-enters the palace. Near instantly, the flowers return to their regular placement, the odd sense of rejuvenated life draining from them as the wide glass doors close behind Will. "How many species were in there?" Will, against his better judgement, finds himself inquiring. "Are any of them…" He trails off trying to find the right word. "Magic?"