Title: True Colors
Series: Golden Sun
Character/Pairing: Isaac/Ivan
Summary: Isaac is every color he's ever known.
Rating: G?
A/N: 21) Something in a shade of grey, something in-between, The Gauntlet.
synesthesia
n.
1. A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.
2. A sensation felt in one part of the body as a result of stimulus that is applied to another, as in referred pain.
-American Heritage Dictionary
.
Ivan was, and always had been impossibly different. He saw glimpses of a future he didn't recognize, and could tap into the thoughts of others. It had been an attribute he played as a child, and which lead him to have a nuanced grasp of humanity. People rarely said what they were thinking. Nice words often came with bitter thoughts. All too often had he heard someone say that he seemed an intelligent boy, and heard the echoing after of smart, but sure is creepy.
But through all these impossibilities, he could perceive the world in ways others couldn't. Ivan saw colors everywhere. What for most was a linear, finite thing became gossamer and connected. Piers was a warm light blue, kindness the color of warm aqua vitae. Mia was a similar color, but a shade darker. Garet and Jenna were red and orange, their energy flooding out of them in fits of anger and happiness, each as bound to each other as the sides of a coin. Sheba was a shade of mauve, and Kraden was the yellowed color of aged paper. And Isaac was every color he had ever known. He was grey when he was thinking, when he was stuck deep in his thoughts or planning out the next move. He often had the color of warm earth, of rich brown wood. When he grew angry the brown took a red inflection, when it was anger for someone else's sake, it turned maroon.
When he was sad, the color turned to a shade mixed of browns and blues, and the warmest gold when he was happy. He categorized them by palette, and it was Isaac he watched most of all. For all his stoicism, Isaac was many colors, many different shades unfolding. But then, Ivan knew the scope of Isaac's thoughts, he knew their deepness and changes. Despite the agreement of the wall, that he was not to read Isaac's thoughts, Isaac at times shared a deeper feeling when they shared psyenergy. Ivan preferred to think of it as an intimacy between them rather than an accidental aftereffect of sharing his telepathic powers.
.
Most of the rest of the group had already retired to bed. Their colors as they slept were dimmer, but still there in varying shades. Felix had kept watch last night, and thus went early. Piers cited the same reason, as he too had kept Felix company during the long night and boredom of the night watch. Mia had overusing her Psyenergy with healing, and thus nearly dropped into bed with exhaustion.
Jenna and Sheba had crawled to their bedding early to have extra time to spend whispering and giggling over secret things.
Ivan also felt the pressure of weariness, as if it were a weight on his eyelids, pushing them down. He ignored it and kept his seat by the fire.
"I'm staying to keep you company...if you don't mind."
"I don't mind," Isaac said.
Isaac's colors never flitted into the 'annoyed' burnt sienna color, so Ivan know this to be true. Besides, Isaac wasn't in the habit of lying to protect anyone's feelings.
"I wonder what color I am," Ivan said.
"What?"
Isaac frowned in concentration.
Ivan swallowed nervously and looked down. "Oh...no I was thinking aloud. Please ignore it."
"Colors, you said..." Isaac said thoughtfully. He thought for a long while, turning it over in his mind, focusing on a place just beyond Ivan's shoulder.
"You're purple, the sort of warm purple...like when it gets darker, near dusk."
Ivan looked up in surprise. "You see..colors? I thought it was merely a Jupiter Adept reaction."
Isaac shook his head. "Some people who aren't adepts have it. It seems to be something unrelated."
"You never mentioned," Ivan said.
"It never came up," Isaac replied.
"You already knew I was...like this?"
"You once shared a thought about a women whose mind we were reading. You thought to yourself that she seemed 'very aqua'."
"Well...She was."
Ivan had a quick, panicked thought of what if Isaac had accidentally caught other thoughts.
"I can't see my own colors," Ivan admitted, almost sheepishly.
Isaac gripped at Ivan's wrist, as they did when sharing psyenergy to read minds.
The colors coalesced together. His and Isaac's spread, as thick as ink. He saw a dark purple that Isaac had mentioned, spreading along the gold of Isaac's current color. They met until it was one mix of color, a lighter shade than it had been before.
"I haven't always had this gift. It's fairly recent," Isaac said.
What was the meshing of psyenergy, truly? Ivan had thought it a simple thing, yet found pieces of himself embedded in Isaac. Even the colors of Isaac had taken on his own hue. Had he too, been painted with Isaac's colors?
