Four Horns are Better Than Two (Ciraaci)

[Asterope]

45th/Spring/518 AV

Aster frowned as she left the murder scene, her thoughts a whirl. Death seemed to be following her through the streets of Alvadas, and just like the last time she'd stumbled upon a body, she was itching to find out who and why.

This time, however, her motives were less pure; while her urge to find R.M's murderer had been to discover the corpse's identity and find closure for any of his kin, she was sure that this man had already been identified. Avela had recognized him, after all. No, this time, it was pure curiosity that drove Aster, alongside anger. Who would have the gall to take a human life like that?

Shaking her head slightly, Aster's gaze caught the elegant form of the other Ethaefal ahead of her. Her heart stuttered in her chest; it hurt more than she ever could have thought to have another divine so close to her, but at the same time she craved more of the other woman's attention. She wasn't ready to let her go. Besides, she'd also been investigating the body; perhaps she'd noticed something that Aster had missed.

Jogging forward a bit, Asterope caught up to the other horned woman; she reached out to touch her elbow gently, not thinking, then retracted her hand as if she'd been burned before she could make contact with her. The prospect of touching the other fallen seemed...taboo, somehow.

Swallowing, Aster instead called out to catch her attention. She opened her mouth to begin speaking, then remembered that the woman didn't speak Common. "Ah," Aster frowned slightly. Well, before anything else, she should at least introduce herself.

"I am Asterope," She said, managing to introduce herself fairly clearly; she'd had enough practice with that. "You?" She asked, her Pavi tinged with a heavy Common accent.

She waited for the Eth to introduce herself before barreling forward. "You find?" She gestured back towards the scene of the murder, where they'd come from, wincing slightly at her own question. She really didn't know much Pavi, which was becoming clear; what she did know wasn't exactly equipped for discussing a murder. She searched for a word to make her question more clearly, eyes lighting up as she remembered. "What! What you find?"

There was probably a sign that she could throw in to make her meaning more clear, but she was at a loss as to which one. None of the ones she remembered seemed like they would be of any use, so instead she waited for any sort of response from the other Ethaefal.

[Maore]

Ciraaci had left the scene of the murder perplexed, but ultimately dispassionate. It certainly made an impression, one of her first truly personal interactions in Alvadas being with a dead man's last moments of life. She wasn't unfamiliar with death, and Alvadas had a bizarre way of treating its dead that nailed home how different the culture was between this city and her home. As the ethaefal had left abruptly when indicated time was up, she'd outpaced the one that'd been looking over the body with her, Ciraaci's aversion to the sight of other forlorn souls having peaked high enough for the day, and as she'd felt there was no ghost in need of her immediate care, this ethaefal was interested in going out on her business and finding a ghost to help.

She was stopped, then, by Asterope's unfamiliar voice and paused. Even having just interacted with the other ethaefal, it took Ciraaci turning to look at her to match the voice to the face, and even then, Asterope would be rewarded with the flat green stare of someone distinctly unimpressed... though she ought to give this woman some credit for making the effort to connect. "Ciraaci," the ethaefal responded. Her handsigns were habitual, fluttering between the niceties and queries to convey the unspoken message of feeling unsure why Asterope had approached.

Ciraaci would be rewarding the female with languid patience, at least capable of mustering that courtesy, as Asterope made effort into conveying her question. Even then it took Ciraaci a moment to understand that she'd meant the crime scene, and she hummed, thoughtful. She had found a lot, actually. "I found a corpse," Ciraaci said, and she delicately tacked on, "and saw the woman who killed him." Ciraaci's mark having given her insight to the means of the strange man's death, she felt grateful to the goddess that had given it, although using it to solve a murder seemed out of her area of knowledge. Perhaps she ought to impart this onto Asterope, and let the living do their work for one of their own.

Ciraaci looked away, back towards the crime scene, and considered what it'd meant. Seeing a place to sit in this eerily curated city, Ciraaci beckoned Asterope to follow her. "Let's talk here?"

[Asterope]

The other Eth seemed...uninterested. Dispassionate, unimpressed. It made Asterope more self-conscious than she already was, so she was thankful when despite the neutral expression on her face, the other woman introduced herself.

Ciraaci's hands moved fluidly as she spoke, her Pavi smooth and unaccented like Aster's own. It sent a brief but sharp pang of homesickness through her, not unlike what she often felt when gazing up at the sun or stars. It took Aster by surprise; she hadn't expected the sudden ache in her chest.

The sudden emotion catching her off guard only meant she paid less attention to Ciraaci as she spoke, and it took longer for her to sift through the words to try and string them together and understand what was being said. She didn't bother trying to decipher the other woman's signs; her hands moved too quickly to follow.

Somebody else, a woman. A woman had been killed as well? No, the word 'him' had been in the sentence. A woman had killed him? That must be wrong, how could Ciraaci possibly know that? Frustration grew in Aster as she realized just how challenging conversing with the other Ethaefal was going to be.

She didn't understand anything of what Ciraaci said afterwards, but thankfully beckoning was a universal symbol. Aster nodded, and followed Ciraaci to a small cluster of benches surrounded by some open grass and bushes, and hesitantly sat, leaving perhaps more distance than was necessary between them as she did so.

Aster was silent for a long moment as she ran through her small vocabulary. "Sorry, give me a moment." She apologized in Common, holding a finger up so Ciraaci would know she was simply thinking and not ignoring her.

"How you..." She spoke in Pavi, addressing Ciraaci, but the words failed to come to her, and a frown curved her lips. Looking at Ciraaci, Aster tapped her forehead, hoping to try and convey what she meant. "How you saw?" She wanted the word 'know', but she couldn't remember it, if she had ever learned it. She knew her grammar and sentence structure was probably intensely off as well, but it would have to do.

"How you saw woman," Aster clarified after a moment, the word fresh in her mind from Ciraaci using it. "She..." Again the word escaped her, so Aster made a stabbing motion, then drew her pointer finger over her neck. "Him?" It was a strange and crude way of communicating, and she had no doubt she was making a fool of herself to the woman who was so fluent in the Drykas' language, but her intense curiosity overcame any embarrassment she felt.

[Asterope]

Here are your bright, shiny grades...
Enjoy!

Asterope

Skills

☀Socialization +2
☀Investigation +1

Lores

☀Aster: Keeps finding death in Alvadas
☀Meeting another Ethaefal: Painful but addictive
☀Ciraaci: Another Ethaefal of Syna
☀Socialization: Trying to communicate in a broken language
☀Aster: Homesick for both Endrykas and the stars
☀Socialization: Using gestures to communicate across a language barrier

Maore

Skills

☀Socialization +1
☀Observation +1

Lores

☀Ciraaci: Familiar with death
☀Alvadas: A different culture from the Drykas
☀Ciraaci: Dislikes interacting with other Ethaefal
☀Asterope: Another Ethaefal of Syna
☀Asterope: Knows broken Pavi
☀Socialization: Trying to comprehend a broken language

Comments

Unfortunately there wasn't much to award here for either of us, but I did what I could. Despite how short it was, I enjoyed this thread! Also, I used the name 'Ciraaci' rather than 'Maore' since that was what she was going by at the time this was written, but feel free to adjust your lores as you see fit.

Thank you for your patience! As always, please don't forget to delete or edit your grading request in the queue. Otherwise, if you have any questions or concerns about your grades, then just PM me and let me know!