Flashback [The Docks] Out for a swim{Lacerta}

[Luhrak Searunner]

He was beginning to like the game they were playing. Learning was interesting. And he had never seen anyone quite like the woman on the boat. So he had to learn more about her. He was perplexed by her answer. A ship's captain who didn't swim. What happened if her boat ceased working? He voiced his thought right away. "Just curious. I like swimming. What if it sinks?" He nodded towards the wooden construct underneath her feet. He thought about it for a moment, leaving her time to answer. If she couldn't swim then why would she be on a ship. There were so many ways one could get into the water and die if you couldn't swim while on a boat. He tilted his head left and right, stretching the muscles in his neck. A soft cracking sound reached his ears as he sat upright again. "I'm a student at the University." He said without any emotion. Students loved to brag about their place in the school but for the young man it was just a thing that had happened. Being a student in Zeltiva wasn't much different from being a person who was sitting on a pier and talking to a captain. "And I practice." He made a disinterested wave around him, sort of pointing to the pier and the docks, as if stating the extent of his training area. He then turned his gaze on the captain again as he thought of a question for her. "How long have you been here?" It was still an experience for him, talking so much to another person who was not a member of the University. At the same time it was also an experience to be able to ask question of someone not from the University without getting slapped around for being curious. He stretched his legs from their lotus position and pointed his toes upwards. He had learned, in the short time that he had been here, that stretching after practice eased the tension he felt the few days after practice. Over time the tension had lessened and the young man had creditted it to his stretching. He bend forward and tried, in vain, to reach his toes, his fingers grasping at the empty air just in front of them. His eyes stared past his toes towards the boat, looking just over the railing so he could see the general position of the captain of the ship. "You don't mind, do you?" He heard himself asking, wondering why he'd asked or why she would mind him going by his routine.

[Lacerta]

The man's question startled Lacerta. She actually had no idea what would happen if her boat sunk... Especially if she was out on open water. Wait... there was something for that, wasn't there? A... floating device. She'd sort of forgotten about it, really. She'd never needed to use it. That was probably a bad thing, really. Blinking her eyes slightly, the Ethaefal replied with a slightly uncertain tone "I have something that floats... that I can hang onto if the ship sinks." Still, learning how to swim would be a good idea, except... she didn't actually have any extra clothes that she wanted to get went... yea. So swimming was really out of the question for her. The thought was rather sad, but Lacerta understood how... strange... that would be. She shook her head to clear the thought, and began pacing around the deck. Her 'visitor' began stretching, and his next question equally surprised her. This was beginning to become an interesting day... with a lot of surprises. The Eth wasn't quite sure if that was entirely welcome or not, but she let it go, curious to see how this would turn out."Uhh no" She stated absently, really not caring in the slightest. "Um... my question then? What are you a student... for?" Her mind was elsewhere at the moment, so her words sounded quite hollow and boring. Her mind was wandering, completely by accident, through various topics. This day, Zelvita, sailing, and many other topics. She slumped to the ground cross-legged, head in hands, staring into space. Lacerta didn't even notice how rude she was being to the man, and completely missed the answer to her questionThis is just for when you answer the question Common Fravata Arumenic Someone else

[Luhrak Searunner]

Something that floats? The young man wondered what that could be. The boat floated. So she had a boat in a boat in case her first boat sunk. That was quite genius, really. His imagination took him to a second boat, built inside the first one, where the first boat would simply peel off when it was too damaged and reveal the second boat within, slightly smaller but equally able to float and sail. He wondered why nobody else had ever thought of that. Although... The bigger boats did have small boats on them for that purpose. He gave up on trying to reach his toes, letting his muscles relax as he leaned back, resting his hands on the wood of the pier underneath him. Somehow, he felt out of balance, like something was off. Perhaps it was the mere presence of the woman and the ship that took his mind off of the things that were more important, like training. "I'm a student of magical theories, focused on Projection and Flux." He said casually as he stood up from the pier. With the young man's mind unable to stretch itself between the task of training his body, as he desired, and talking with the captain, as he thought was the proper social conduct, he found himself lacking in focus for both aspects. Simply shaking his legs and arms a little, he loosened his muscles and relaxed them. Steering the conversation to something more interesting to him, apart from floating devices, the young man asked his question in turn. "Have you seen much of the world in it?" He gave a sort of nod-point towards the ship as it moved lazily up and down on the waves. As he asked her, it occured to him that, apart from magical conversations, this came close to being his longest conversation in Zeltiva so far. It was a disturbing thought. Due to his lack of social awareness and understanding, the young man barely noticed the captain's lack of interest or rude behaviour. When compared to previous experiences, her tone of voice came across as friendly or normal, rather than rude, as most people would experience it. The sea air started to cool him down too much and the young man leaned over towards his shirt, pulling it up over his head, covering his scarred body. As he peeked his head through the neck of his outfit, he suddenly seemed different for a moment, looking intently at the captain as if he saw her in a different light, as if he was trying to see something important. Brushing aside whatever rules their little game had set in place he asked another question, ignoring the fact that the captain had or hadn't asked a question already. "How old are you?"

[Lacerta]

During her thoughts, Lacerta missed his first two statements, completely ignoring the man before her. However, the last brought her out of her stupor. Her age. She jerked up slightly to stare at him in surprise (again), and frowned slightly. That was a challenging question, in more than one way. First, her actual age. She fell about.... 130 AV, right? And it was... 461, if she was correct. So... 70 years till 200, another 200 to 400, so 270, then... about 60 years after 400. 70 plus 60 was.... the Ethaefal wasn't good with math, but managed to come up with 130. So in total she was a little older than 330 years old. Compared to a human's lifespan, that was actually quite a lot... wasn't it? The man in front of her was probably 20, right? The next problem was what to actually tell him. It would be kind of strange to just say 330, right? That would just make things annoying... and awkward. Then should she just say old, like the boat? But Lacerta knew she didn't look very old in the first place anyways. Shrug? That would just cause more questions. Coming to a decision, she glared slightly at the man, and stated "Old." Before blurting out on an impulse "Around 330, to be exact" Whoops. Well, at least saying it would make things a little more interesting right? To make it seem as if she had intended to state the full number, the Eth raised a single eyebrow mockingly, as if daring him to object. She couldn't really come up with another question, so decided not to ask, and instead wait for the reaction of her visitor. Though it had been a stupid thing to do, she was quite curious to see what the man thought of her old age, or even if he believed it. Maybe the horns would give it away... or maybe he'd already figured out she was an Ethaefal. Whatever the answer was, she was interested to know. Common Fravata Arumenic Someone else

[Luhrak Searunner]

The young man watched for a moment as the captain seemed the struggle with his last question. He tilted his head slightly, observing the expressions passing over her face as she thought about her answer. For some reason it felt like the captain was counting how old she was. He just waited for her to finish, watching her from his spot on the pier. With a slight motion of his shoulders he cracked the top of his back and lower neck, seemingly relaxing afterwards. The young man blankly looked at the captain as he finally received his answer to the question. Old. Just like the boat. So the captain and the boat had spent a lot of time together as well. Probably not that long though. At the mention of the number, the young man just continued to stare blankly at the captain. Three hundred and thirty years old. It didn't shock him however, as he raised his eyes up to meet the captain's. "That's quite a few years. I'm about..." He grew silent, staring past or through the captain as his mind worked ont he answer. His eyes were squinted slightly as he thought, his entire face giving away the mental process going on in his head. And then slowly but surely, the expressions on his face faded away, leaving a blank face. Then he blinked, looking around a bit as if he suddenly found himself somewhere entirely else. Abruptly and without warning he turned away from the ocean and started walking down the pier back to the shore. After only a few paces, he stopped just as abruptly as before and retraced his steps, moving back to his previous position. "I'm Ortal." It seemed the right things to do. And then he was off again, walking over the pier towards the shore. The young man raised his hands, one tapping its fingers against the side of his head, as if he was trying to get something to work again. The other hand was snapping its fingers in mid air. Although his face was invisible to the captain, it was obvious that the young man was talking to himself. He stopped again halfway up the wooden construct, hesitant for a moment, seemingly lost again, but then continued heading towards the shore, having completely forgotten about the captain and her ship.

[Lacerta]

Lacerta watched curiously as the man, Ortal was his name, reacted. He seemed blank, almost not caring. Maybe he was confused? But when he left, that made no sense to her. Okay…. Just walk away now. Sure. No explanation. She was slightly insulted, but more just dazed. The Eth wondered who was more surprised now… him, or her? It was a question she couldn’t quite answer. But the next one was important. What to do now? Should she call after him? Or just let him… leave? It was sad to miss out on such a potentially interesting conversation, but very strange to ask him back. She could use her sun sight, but he was still close enough that if she did try, she’d see him further away than now. And it wasn’t like she could she what he was talking about anyways… It was a hard question to answer, but finally she gave into the temptation. “Hey Ortal! What are you doing!?” She yelled to him, since he was now quite far away. What was going through his mind to just leave? It made no sense in the slightest, really. Well, if he still ignored her, she could always head back to her music…. Right? It all depended on his reaction truthfully. OOCI wasn’t quite sure if you wanted to end this, so if you did, just have Ortal not hear or something, then walk away (And sorry for the short post) Common Fravata Arumenic Someone else

[Luhrak Searunner]

The young man tapped the side of his head, as if he wanted to jumpstart something in his brain. "There was this thing..." He mumbled to himself as he snapped his finger and tried to remember. His feet carried him over the wood of the pier towards the shore. The noise from behind him caught his attention and his name caused him to turn around, looking back down the pier towards the boat and the woman. Both were slowly bobbing up and down the waves and she was looking at him. His fingers moved from his forehead to his chest as he pointed at himself, his head tilting sideways, questioningly looking at the woman. Then his features brightened up as if he recognized her. With quick steps he walked back to the boat, closing the distance between the two of them. "Captain. How are you?" He stretched out both hands, holding them apart slightly as if he wanted to shake her hand with both of his. From the sudden leaving to this, the young man had seemingly completely forgotten where he was and what he was doing and then had suddenly remembered where he was and had remembered the woman on the boat as if they had been friends for a very long time already. "How's the boat? Still floating, yes?" He knocked his knuckles on the wooden railing, making sure to not hang over the gap between the pier and the boat for too long. He smiled at her, his eyes brushing up from her eyes to her horns and back down. Then it hit him, right in the middle of his brain. With a slap to his forehead he looked down at his shoes and back up at her. Behind his sparkling green eyes, a whole series of mental wheels turned as he put things into place, matching things he had been seeing for a while now but hadn't been able to connect. He gave a slight nod towards her as he spoke casually. "You have horns. It's not a hat at all."

[Lacerta]

Lacerta watched with more than slight confusion as the man wandered back to her ship, greeted her, then spoke to her like old friends. What the petch!? She narrowed her eyes slightly and raised a single eyebrow in question, while he asked if her boat was still floating. She decided not to answer, since it was really very obvious. If she was still sitting on it… it was still floating. Something was really wrong with the man’s mind, to act like this, as if he’d seemingly lost his memory. Had all the magic addled his brain? It was quite a possibility, in truth, but still. He’d been quite sensible for the past few chimes, why change now? Was a simple ‘330’ years old enough to do that to him? His next comment caused her forehead to sink slowly onto one of her palms. The genius. He’d just noticed the horns. They were sort of obvious, weren’t they? And what kind of ship’s Captain would wear a hat like that? “Idiot, Idiot, Idiot” She muttered in Arumenic, since it was one of the few words she knew by heart. “Why am I talking to an insane man like this…” She stated again, still using a language she knew was simply gibberish to Ortal. Finally, in a way she knew he’d understand, the Eth spoke more politely. “Yes, I have horns. No, they’re not a hat. What in the world gave you that idea?” Her voice was calm, but still held quite a bit of exasperation. “Any other strange things about me you just noticed?” She demanded, since Lacerta knew quite well the various strange aspects of her appearance. For one, her height. Second, Syna’s mark, a pretty obvious one-rayed sun around her left eye. At least her hair was always a normal color, compared to Leth’s Ethaefal, though it did change during the seasons. She was curious to know how much, in his newly-found state of insanity, he really did see. In wait for an answer, she kept a single eyebrow raised in question, almost mocking the man. She was tempted to mention something strange about his appearance, but really… there was nothing. He was quite a normal man. Too bad… no more comebacks for her for today, though it would be interesting if they met again another season, or even at night, when her form changed. But all that would have to wait sadly, but the Ethaefal was patient after many years, to some degree. Common Fravata Arumenic Someone else

[Luhrak Searunner]

The young man watched her rest her forehead on the palm of her hand. For a moment he was worried that she was sick or suffered from headache or something. But she seemed to be alright, although he had no idea what she was muttering about. More gibberish and more strange words he didn't understand. The young man looked at her as she finally spoke words he did understand, although he had to take a moment to realize that he was understanding her. For some reason, her voice seemed different as if she was surprised. Or annoyed. "I know you have horns. I just said that, didn't I. What idiot would say you have a hat?" He stared intently at her for a moment. Then, through the wheels turning, the ideas flowing and the thoughts getting in place, it dawned on him. It sowly crept up from the inside of his brain and it showed on his face as his eyes widened in the realization. "Oh... I said that, didn't I?" He tried to shrug it off casually, giving an apologetic half-smile towards the captain. "Strange things? There's nothing strange about you." He looked around for a moment, trying to determine if perhaps someone else had mention that. "I didn't say it, right?" He shook his head, trying to clear through the thoughts and the fog, trying to focus. How it came across to others didn't even bother the young man, although, somewhere deep in his mind, he realized how odd he must look in the eyes of the captain. And although, in that same deep spot in his mind he knew it was a weird thing, the rest of his mind seemed to think it normal. He let his eyes shift slowly over the captain, trying to determine any strange things going on. He slowly counted on his fingers, his lips moving but no sound coming out, as he worked his way over the list of strange things. "Nothing strange about you." The young man shook his head lightly. Then, as if the conversation had never been interrupted by his short walk up the pier, he repeated his last question. "So, have you seen much of the world in... it?" He nodded towards the ship, knowing that he should know the name but without being able to find it. Once more he tried to shake away the fog in his mind away, without it having any effect. What if he tried to enhance the joints of his body... The thought drifted into the fog and out of his mind. "I'm Ortal... I... I mentioned that already, didn't I?" He tried to give her a smile but the confusion on his face made it obvious that it wasn't a real smile. He squinted slightly and rubbed his temples with his fingers.

[Lacerta]

Lacerta kept her head in her palm as she heard Ortal’s next comments. He’d just called himself an idiot. True, she’d done the same several times, but… it was himself that he was insulting. And he didn’t even realize he’d said that. So stupid. Insane. He’d obviously lost his mind. The interest in all this had been lost when he kept forgetting what he’d said. What was his problem? Wait… she actually knew the answer. Since he kept forgetting…. Memory problems. A lot of short term memory problems. Though he’d seemed fine before… This was very strange. Had she triggered this? The Ethaefal felt slightly bad about this if she had, but… wasn’t quite sure if that was the answer. When he came to her question about strange things, it was possibly the worst. First, he contradicted himself again, completely forgetting what he’d said earlier. The worse part of it was after however. Go ahead, count on your fingers, and come up with an answer of zero. It made complete sense, right? Not. She considered standing up and mentioning her height, but decided against it, as she didn’t really feel like trying. As he spoke again, however, she finally burst out, though with a boringly flat tone. “What are you doing… are you insane or something?” It was more of a rhetorical question, and Lacerta didn’t really expect the man to answer. She did, however, continue. “You seem to have memory problems… a lot of them. Can’t you even remember what you just said? And… why!?” All this was monotone, with the exception of the last word, full of exasperation. She was still slightly curious about the reason for this strange change of manner, but half of the Eth simply wanted the man to go away, and get far from her ship. It was something slightly ingrained in her mind, to keep anything dangerous or too strange away from her ship. Though she wasn’t quite sure if Ortal fell into either of those categories, but she didn’t really want to take that kind of risk. However, most of the other half wanted to help the man, make him stop being so idiotic, and try to return him back to his previous state. She didn’t know if this was a permanent change, or just temporary, but it obviously wasn’t good for him. If he went wandering around like this…. He’d get himself into a hell of a lot of trouble. And somehow she actually cared, and didn’t want that to happen. This was sort of a surprise, since generally Lacerta rarely cared about anyone but herself, and anything but her own things. It was safer and easier that way. Through all these thoughts, the Ethaefal had calmed down quite a bit, and come to terms with the strangeness before her. You know… just to try, she might as well answer his question about where she’d gone with the ship. There wasn’t any real logical reason to it… more like she wanted to see if he’d remember the explanation, and for how long. “I’ve spent most of my time sailing up and down the Suvan Sea, though I’ve sailed to Lhavit before, and am on a return trip back from Mura. I visited most of the cities along the way then, but for varying amounts of time…” She thought about the last, and some of the places she’d docked for less than a year. Sunberth, for one. It was possibly one of the most horrible cities she’d ever been to. Completely lawless, and incredibly dangerous. She believed Nyka was on that list too, with its dominating monks and freakish crevice they called the ‘Aperture’. It wasn’t as bad as Sunberth, but was unfriendly and slightly scary. Luckily, those places had been evened out by the other places she’d visited, like Mura, and actually Zelvita. She’d spent a decent bit of time in both, and enjoyed it immensely. From what she’d seen, Mizahar had its goods and bads, and it was easier to stay in the places you liked rather than disliked. Common Fravata Arumenic Someone else