Closed [Menagerie Aquarium] Contemplation of Purity (Nyael Atuin)

Jorin has lost his book of Poetry. In his room the day before, he'd copied over as much as he could salvage. But he has since come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is to create new poetry to replace what he has lost. He just needs some inspiration...

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Built into the cliffs overlooking the Suvan Sea, Riverfall resides on the edge of grasslands of Cyphrus where the Bluevein River plunges off the plain and cascades down to the inland sea below. Home of the Akalak, Riverfall is a self-supporting city populated by devoted warriors. [Riverfall Codex]

[Menagerie Aquarium] Contemplation of Purity (Nyael Atuin)

Postby Jorin Ertihan on August 30th, 2013, 4:10 am

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Season of Summer, Day 85, 513 AV

Eighteenth Bell


Purity.

The word meant ... free from adulteration or contamination. Something that was pure did not have anything else. It did not necessarily mean good things. Some things were. Pure love. Pure sugar. Pure water. But there was also other things, like pure hate, pure salt, pure acid. And of course, there was the matter of art. What was pure art?

Jorin contemplated this as he walked slowly to the Aquarium. He had, of course, been there once before. It was the second time he'd met Rinya, the Kelvic he was bondmate to. Jorin rarely re-visited places he'd gone before, mainly because he felt that doing so rarely ever provided any new inspiration. But recently, he'd had an urge to visit old haunts. Perhaps they'd changed in the time since he'd last been there.

Looking down, Jorin sighed as he hefted his backpack a bit. The book inside shifted, along with the quills and ink. Jorin was reluctant to bring the book out very often nowadays. There was a time in the past when the book never left his side. He'd take it everywhere, writing down every poem that he thought was worthy of preserving, drawing everything he thought looked interesting.

One day was all it took.

Years of poems, and drawings, washed out with the rain. One downpour to destroy everything.

So now he was much more cautious. But the day had been good, not a cloud in the sky. Jorin had spent the morning rehersing in the Amphitheater, going over and over and over the same line. It wasn't that he was not capable of delivering a line with passion, it was just that they demanded more subtlety of emotion.

For Jorin, subtlety was all well and good but it was often too subtle for most audiences to pick up. They were too far away from the stage, those minor details such as changes in expressions too difficult to discern if not impossible. Jorin sighed. Perhaps that was the difference his stage master meant. Even if the audience did not see the emotions, didn't mean he didn't still have to portray them.

So he had practiced and practiced. It was, apparently, all about body language. The tension in the arms, the shuffling of the feet. Emotion on the stage involved the entire body, not just the face. And in order to convince, one had to believe, even if just for a chime, what one was saying.

In the end, Jorin didn't think he'd gotten it down, but it didn't matter. He'd go back tomorrow, and the day after, until he had. For now, to inspiration.

Jorin had spent all day yesterday, painstakingly taking the ruined book of poems and copying what he could, searching for any poems that might have survived the encounter with the rain. His harvest was meager, leaving only a handful of poems and none of his drawings. Still, it was better than nothing.

Today, he would find new inspiration. He'd heard that there might be new exhibits in the Aquarium that day. Even if it were not true, he'd still like to see the creatures there, and perhaps see if anything there might strike his artistic nerve again. Thinking of the book in his backpack, with its many empty pages, Jorin's face took on a grim, determined expression.

The old book was gone. The new book would be better. He'd make sure of it. With that, he strode into the aquarium.


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Jorin Ertihan
Art is the purest form of expression.
 
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[Menagerie Aquarium] Contemplation of Purity (Nyael Atuin)

Postby Nyael Atuin on August 31st, 2013, 5:48 am


Day 85 of Summer, 513

 
This summer, Seafoam started an outreach program designed pique the public’s interest in aquatic life and its conservation. The program involved constructing touch tanks and setting up the conference room for lectures about aquatic wildlife. Nyael had been placed in charge of the Coral Reef Touch Tank that day and thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to share her knowledge of coral with the impressionable young minds. She thoughtfully set up her tank and included a wide variety of sea fans and plate corals as well as various shrimp, snails, small crabs, and starfish. As always, things didn’t go as she had envisioned.
 
“Yes, you may touch the coral,” an irritated Nyael said with an accent and vocabulary that had significantly improved since her arrival. She had been practicing the Common Tongue everyday and would read aloud from her botanical reference book each night. “But, please be very gentle to not break them.”
 
“But you said that if the coral breaks, the broken bits grow into new coral.” Keo, an Akalak boy, said belligerently while jabbing at sea fan.
 
Nyael felt her lips tighten into a light frown. This particular Akalak had been poking and prodding the coral more than she liked, and despite numerous suggestions to visit the other stations and tanks, he continued to stay and paw at her fragile coral. On more than one occasion, Nyael had to remind Keo not to brush the coral so roughly.
 
“Well,” she said, “it may grow into a new coral, but sometimes it does not.”
 
“When won’t it grow?” Keo held a branch between his index finger and thumb. Nyael felt every muscle in her body tense up, anticipating him to break off a piece just for kicks and giggles.
 
“Sometimes,” Nyael explained slowly, “the water conditions aren’t right or the cut doesn’t feel fast enough and the coral fragment may get an infection. Other times--”
 
“Ow!” Keo yelped. “Something pinched me!”
 
“Ooh,” another Akalak child leaned in to take a closer look, “I think it was that crab!” More children wormed their way closer to the tank; some even pressed their faces against the sides of the class tank in search of the culpable crab.
 
“Why did it pinch me?” Keo demanded.
 
“You should have been more careful and listened more closely,” Nyael reprimanded Keo. “These coral reefs are home to many small crustaceans like shrimp and crabs. In return for the shelter, the little critters will help protect the coral from getting eaten by predators.”
 
Keo silently observed the small crab for a few moments, which Nyael found a tad unnerving. What was he planning to do next?
 
“I’m a crab!” Keo announced as he pinched nearby peers and then scuttled away, much like a crab.
 
“Stop that, Keo!” Nyael heard a girl whined from the other side of the room. “It’s not funny!”
 
Nyael felt her lips stretched into a smile. As destructive as some of the kids were, they made up for it with their entertaining antics.
 
As the day drew to a close, the Aquarium disgorged dozens of children and their exhausted parents. Nyael surveyed the damage to the Coral Reef Touch Tank. A few small pieces of coral had broken off, but overall, the exhibit seemed to be intact. Today hadn’t been so bad after all, Nyael thought as she began cleaning up and closing the other touch tanks.
 
Nyael’s shift was almost over when she spotted a man with rather fetching green eyes.

 
Evening, sir,” Nyael addressed the man. Most of our touch tank exhibits are closed for the day, but if you’d like I can keep the Coral Reef Touch Tank open for you and our regular exhibits are always open for visitors to tour.
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[Menagerie Aquarium] Contemplation of Purity (Nyael Atuin)

Postby Jorin Ertihan on September 2nd, 2013, 5:31 am

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Season of Summer, Day 85, 513 AV


"Evening, sir, Most of our touch tank exhibits are closed for the day, but if you’d like I can keep the Coral Reef Touch Tank open for you and our regular exhibits are always open for visitors to tour."

Jorin almost jumped at the words. He had been mostly wandering from exhibit to exhibit, eyes drinking in the sights. it was certainly a very interesting display, but what he needed was inspiration. The voice came from a teal colored ... Jorin honestly did not know what she was. Well ... she looked like a she, anyway, although he could not say with absolute certainty. The only other person he'd met that resembled her was Uleru, but this woman did not appear to be an Otani. Was she maybe a cousin of the Otani?

"Forgive me for staring," Jorin apologized after a few moments, "I've just never met your kind before. Are you, perhaps, related to the Otani?"

Jorin suddenly realized he was being very rude. "Oh! Where are my manners, my name is Jorin Ertihan. I am an actor for the Riverfall Amphitheater, though I write poetry on the side." Jorin held up his book for her benefit. "I have not seen this Coral Reef touch tank. May I take a look?" Jorin peered over at what he presumed was the tank in question. It certainly looked quite artistically made, and he was curious how the coral managed to get into that shape.


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Jorin Ertihan
Art is the purest form of expression.
 
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[Menagerie Aquarium] Contemplation of Purity (Nyael Atuin)

Postby Nyael Atuin on September 4th, 2013, 3:54 am

Otani. Even the sound of the word was exotic. Nyael had heard stories of the Otani and their playful and mercurial nature, but she had never seen one. Or more, she had never realized she had seen one, at least.
 
“Oh, no,” Nyael shook her head with a smile. The Common tongue flowed much more freely from Nyael’s tongue these days, especially now that Seafoam assigned Nyael to the touch tanks. “I’m a Charoda. My name is Nyael Atuin. It’s fine. I get plenty of stares--it's not often that a Charoda leaves the ocean--but this is the first time anyone’s asked me if I were related to Otani. It’s actually quite flattering. I’ve never run into an Otani, even while exploring the waters around Charbosi. They seem so mythical to me.”
 
An actor, Nyael pondered. It was equally as exotic. Nyael hadn’t met many actors nor seen any plays recently.
 
“An actor and a poet! You’re a very talented man. What are you working on these days?” Then her smile widened; she knew the exact thing to show this actor and sometimes poet. Motioning him to a touch tank off to the side, she pointed to a particular soft coral.
 
“I think you’ll like this one. This is an orange sea pen. It’s called a sea pen because it looks like a plump quill pen resting in an inkwell.” She continued to recite a memorized script out of habit. ”The sea pen is made up of many polyps. One polyp hardens to form the bulbous stalk while the other polyps branch out from this primary polyp to form a fluffy-looking orange plume. If needed, they can uproot themselves and relocate to either escape from predators or too find better feeding grounds.”
 
Nyael gently brushed the edge of the sea pen and its fronds emitted a faint light upon touch. “It also glows when it’s touched or if a particularly strong current disturbs its branches.”
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[Menagerie Aquarium] Contemplation of Purity (Nyael Atuin)

Postby Jorin Ertihan on September 5th, 2013, 4:50 am

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Season of Summer, Day 85, 513 AV


So she was a Charoda, and she was named Nyael Atuin. She was certainly a very interesting-looking woman, Jorin decided, and despite her claim to not being related to Uleru's race, she certainly seemed decidedly aquatic. He wondered whether he could perhaps introduce Nyael to Uleru. A member of a clearly aquatic species such as the Charoda would surely appreciate such an introduction. Pity Jorin didn't even know how he'd attract Ulerus attention.

Nyael seemed to brighten at the mention of what he did.

“An actor and a poet! You’re a very talented man. What are you working on these days?”

Jorin laughed, and it was a laugh with amusement, irony, and a touch of bitterness in it. A strange cocktail of emotions. "Well, I think 'working on' is giving it more credit than it deserves," he admitted. "These days I'm working on perfecting lines, and today I thought to re-ignite my imagination so as to better create more poetry."

Jorin sighed sadly. "It doesn't seem to be working," he confessed ruefully.

Nyael walked gracefully to the coral, drawing Jorin's attention to it. An orange sea pen, she called it, a strange-looking coral, apparently made from many polyps. When she gently stroke it, it luminesced, throwing odd colors into the water. It was quite lovely, Jorin had to admit, but it also seemed ... sad, somehow. Like the coral was displaying its color as though to say, "please do not disturb me, take this beauty instead."

Taking out the new book of poems, Jorin wrote quietly. Not the rapid scratching of before, but a deliberate, careful script. This was his last book. He didn't know if he could acquire any more. He had to be careful. When he was done, he read what he had written.

"Deep inside Laviku's realm
Where glows the pen of ocean waves
Where Syna fails to overwhelm
Shadows dark in silent caves

Softly does the sea pen glow
And brightly do their polyps fly
Bulbous stalk into plumage grow
Stretching to their watery sky

Though not of quill or ink they be
Artists still the pens of the sea."


Jorin shrugged and sighed. It really wasn't very good at all. The final couplet did not flow like he would have preferred, but he was glad he was getting at least some of his old inspiration back.

"So tell me," he asked finally. "How does the coral get this way, anyway? Do they normally grow into these shapes?"


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Jorin Ertihan
Art is the purest form of expression.
 
Posts: 593
Words: 894547
Joined roleplay: July 27th, 2013, 3:41 pm
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[Menagerie Aquarium] Contemplation of Purity (Nyael Atuin)

Postby Nyael Atuin on September 10th, 2013, 3:43 am


“Oh, yes,” Nyael answered. “They are naturally like this now. It probably took centuries for the sea pens to develop into this shape. I’m guessing that the sea pens that thrived in their natural environment were able to anchor themselves wherever the plankton was plentiful while still being able to dislodge themselves to escape their predators.”
 
Nyael noticed the bitterness in Jorin’s tone when he spoke of the current state of his poetry and how he sighed after he thoughtfully wrote in his notebook. It was a shame, she had thought, for someone who seemed to talented to be unsatisfied with his work.

Perhaps he would like to see something more meditative. The sea pen, while interestingly shaped, tends not to stir the imagination.
 
“Maybe you’re trying too hard. With your poetry.” Nyael suggested. “Try to just enjoy yourself in the moment. Inspiration is very fussy; it knows when you’re chasing it and it’s very good at hiding.”
 
She smiled at Jorin, trying to cheer him up. “Come. I’ll show you one of my favorite exhibits.”
 
She led him through dimly lit corridors until they reached an enormous tank housing gigantic, ethereal jellyfish. Each had four pink, lacy mouth-arms and several delicate stinging tentacles trailing behind a large purple bell. Hidden directly above the tank, a light illuminated their translucent bodies so that the jellyfish were just barely distinguishable entities. The bloom of jellies contented themselves to drift aimlessly with the currents of the tank, every so often interlacing their tentacles as they floated past one another.

This was where Nyael came to think or just simply to spend some time to herself.
 
“They are called black sea nettles,” Nyael whispered as though the softest murmur could disrupt the tranquility. She practically revered this spot. “Not much is known about the black sea nettles, but like other sea nettles, their tentacles can leave you with a nasty sting.”
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[Menagerie Aquarium] Contemplation of Purity (Nyael Atuin)

Postby Jorin Ertihan on September 15th, 2013, 8:40 pm

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Season of Summer, Day 85, 513 AV


Trying too hard. He'd heard that one before. Rinya had suggested it too. There must be something to it if two completely independent sources say the same thing. Jorin shrugged and sighed. Well in that case...

Jorin closed his book, and put it and his quill back into his pack. If inspiration struck today, then that would be wonderful, but he would allow himself to enjoy the day regardless.

So he perked up when Nyael drew him over to a large tank filled with what looked like large jellyfish. Black sea nettles, she'd called them. The light filtered through their translucent bodies and threw strange shadows on the floor. Jorin looked up at them and could almost imagine them being like clouds of the sea.

"Well, I'll try to avoid getting stung," he smiled.

He glanced up at the nettles floating above. What must these creatures look like in the wild, he wondered? The ocean must look so different from below. Despite having come from Zeltiva, Jorin had never learned to swim or sail. It was one of the bigger regrets he had, that despite all the opportunity he had he never took advantage of it.

Jorin turned to Nayael with curiosity. He knew it might be rude, what he was going to ask, but he'd always been curious about new peoples. This was a rare chance for him to learn about a race he'd never encountered. "Nyael," he began slowly, hoping he was getting the pronunciation of her name correctly, "I know this is rather rude of me to ask, but I've never heard of your people before. Do you live in the sea?"

He looked up at the nettles. "How incredible it must be to live under the water," Jorin mused. "I wonder if this is a common sight in your home..."

OOCSorry about this being so late! And even so, it's not very good. I think this would just be a meet-and-greet for Jorin and Nyael. Not every thread is necessarily going to be an "OMG I must get skillz" :). If there are any skills you want Nyael to gain points in such as Coral Manipulation, I'm sure Jorin would be fascinated to watch, though! And maybe jot down a poem or two while doing it.
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Jorin's Thoughts | "Your speech" | "NPC Speech"

"Common" | "Pavi/Grassland Sign" | "Tukant"

"Written Text."

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Jorin Ertihan
Art is the purest form of expression.
 
Posts: 593
Words: 894547
Joined roleplay: July 27th, 2013, 3:41 pm
Location: Riverfall
Race: Human
Character sheet
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Plotnotes
Medals: 2
Overlored (1) 2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

[Menagerie Aquarium] Contemplation of Purity (Nyael Atuin)

Postby Translucent on December 3rd, 2013, 8:40 pm

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Congratulations On Your Hard Work!


Jorin Ertihan:
XP:+3 socialization +2 observation, +1 writing
Lores: Nyael Atuin: A Charoda, Sea-pen is made up of many polyps.

Nyael Atuin:
XP:+2 socialization +2 observation
Lores:


Notes:

As always PM me if you have issues.


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