1stmacleod

((This is an open post intended for anybody who'd like to play a thread visiting Connor at his forge. I consider any threads on this post fair game for Kai to jump in on, too. Additional similar posts available on request!))



The smithy, Connor's pride and joy, is technically a refurbished shed a little ways out from the back of the house he shares with Kairos. What started as an ivy covered, mostly stone building has since had most of one wall removed and replaced with a set of barn doors, with a sturdy support beam between them. It makes the place drafty and cold in winter, when it's not in use, but once the big forge has been going for an hour or two, it can get hot enough that the open doors let in a welcome breeze.

He has the doors open now, and the open side of the building faces the huge garden plot that takes up much of the back yard. It's covered with snow, now, cross-crossed with doggy pawprints of two different sizes. There's a semicircle of ground before the open doors that's free of snow, although it may be muddy in places. Frequent opening and closing of the doors combined with the heat of the place have melted it away. The sound of hammer on anvil rings out across the yard, and Sorcha is rolling at the edge of the snow with a big stick dragged from the nearby woodsy patch. It's a peaceful scene.

Staying just off the Nexus makes it easier to visit, and Connor is tentatively getting familiar with the place. He's been told by a couple of people that he needs to get a PINpoint, and he's learned to reliably find the free bar. He's met a girl who wants to get some sword training from him, which is something to do, and he hasn't felt the buzz of another immortal since his first time here, and that was Ramirez.

He is almost, just barely, settling in.

Then he answers a casual question, and the woman who asked it starts to tell him about the other Connor MacLeod. The one who still has a good friend and true brother in Duncan. The one who still has Alex. And John. And Rachel. An ageless, immortal Rachel.

Connor staggers back to Kairos' house, with a box of chocolates he's supposed to give to his own Duncan along with the apology he's dreading to make. Over the past five years he's mostly pulled his mind back together. He no longer hallucinates, he has enough presence of mind to walk around in public without attracting stares. He remembers to shave at least every couple of days and shower whenever he gets a chance, and he can carry on normal conversations. He's walking a fragile edge, though.
Now his mind is swirling with the stories he's been told of a big happy family with another Connor MacLeod at the boisterous center of it all, somewhere out there not so far away. It's the most wonderful thing he could possibly dream of to know his family is happy and healthy somewhere, and the most agonizingly painful thing ever to know that it's not his family, and it never will be.
He comes into the house and pets the dogs, and puts the box of chocolates on the dresser in the guest room, and sits on the floor beside the bed with his head in his hands and shakes all over for the next few hours.