PM to join Welcome to the Illusions -- 52nd Fall, 515 AV

[Shadyn]

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Shadyn nodded slowly, acknowledging the wisdom of changing the topic. Karin was surprisingly considerate for her age, and judicious of the boy’s feelings as well. Such were not common traits, and would become even more pronounced and valuable if she kept them in practice as she went through life. As for the boy, he was definitely not one of the better treated Deks. Still, Shadyn felt as if he must say something…

“Phobius…I am sorry. But I want you to remember this – I said that you WERE a Dek…not that you are one. If you ever do decide to return, you have my assurance you will never see the lower caste again. Now, onto more pleasant topics. I, too, would like to know where you are from, Karin. You have been rather quiet. I have presumed you to be a Svefra. Was I right?”

He was thirsty…a cordial would have been nice…as well as his food. Shooting an imperious glance at one of the servers, the man jumped, then rushed off when he realized that the giant fearsome bird was mirroring his rider’s gaze. At this, Shadyn had to grin.

“Our food should be here shortly, by the way. I don’t know about you two, but I am famished. I am no great wilderness cook, I must say, and some real food is quite a welcome thought.”


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[Karin]

Oh, the irony. From one line of questioning to another, Karin wondered if all social situations were like this. In a similar boat to Phobius, the girl merely brushed the questions away, deciding unconsciously in an instant that she would lie.

She wanted to avoid her story, as much as possible, she would leave if she had to. "I was born and raised in Alvadas. I've often been mistaken for a Svefra. But I'm a simple Alvad, nothing more to be said about it." Of course, there was a lot more to be said about it, but she smiled a calm smile, disguising all the feelings inside, and instead went onto the subject of food.

"I'm hungry too." She idly wondered about these pancakes. She hadn't had them before, but they sounded interesting. "Alvadas is an interesting place." She didn't really know where she was going with her new thread of conversation, but she too felt the same awkwardness as Phobius, even if she didn't realise it.

Making small talk, the girl turned slightly in her chair, "What do you make of it Phobius?" Then, turning to Shadyn, she said, "Could you tell us more of the places you've been to Shadyn?" Okay, open up as many threads of conversation as you can, Karin.

It wasn't long after the small, alarmed but silent exchange with the server that the food was brought over to their table, gently steaming with warmth. Unfortunately, it turned up just as Karin was asking her questions. Fortunately, hopefully, it would make a distraction.

[Phobius]

At Shadyn's words, Phobius smiled a little but said nothing. Though he was no stranger to homesickness—nor the way that it always seemed to make his chest ache—he doubted that he would ever find himself back in Wind Reach. Sure, the thought of visiting would cross his mind, every now and then, but there were plenty of things that the boy thought about doing that he never actually did, like learning how to play the piano, or sprouting wings so that he could fly. Not to mention that he didn't even want to go back.

Still, it was nice to hear that he wouldn't have to worry about getting pulled back into his old life if his mind ever changed. And maybe it would, some day. Or maybe it wouldn't.

The older Inarta went on to question Karin, asking whether or not she was a "Svefra", and Phobius blinked at him, having never heard the word, before. It sounded as though it was a kind of people, like the Kelvics that the white-haired boy, Niello, had told him about a long time ago. Maybe they had something in common with these Svefra...?

Curious about what her answer would be, the boy looked over at Karin and waited. A few ticks later she spoke, saying that she had grown up in Alvadas and that people often mistook her for a Svefra, which made Phobius frown a bit. What was it about her that made people think that she was whatever a Svefra was? To him, she looked no different than any other woman he'd seen; how did Svefra look different from other people? Unless they actually didn't, which was kind of confusing.

For a moment, Phobius was tempted to ask her about it, but then Shadyn brought up how hungry he was—if famished meant the same thing as hungry—and Karin agreed, prompting the boy to chime in with an enthusiastic "Me too!" It was the truth, of course. He had a feeling that he was nowhere near as hungry as the older Inarta seemed to be, but his stomach had been grumbling a bit, reminding him that it was still morning and that he hadn't had eaten, yet.

It was then that the woman asked him a peculiar question. "What do I...make of it?" Phobius echoed, looking confused until he seemed to realize that she had been talking about Alvadas, the bright smile returning to his face. "Oh...! I think it's great! There's so many people around, and they're all really nice and fun to talk to, and interesting stuff happens almost all the time. The illusions are the best, though, 'cause they can be really pretty...or scary."

Suddenly food was brought to the table, and the boy lit up at the sight of the fluffy-looking stacks of pancakes. More or less forgetting about what it was they'd been talking about, Phobius reached for the nearest fork and dug in, only to pause when their waiter placed a tiny jug of syrup beside his plate. "Thank you!" he said, his voice somewhat muffled from the pancakes he'd already shoved into his mouth, not hesitating to take it and tilt it over his plate.

[Shadyn]

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Shadyn could tell that Karin was dodging the subject for some reason, and while this only served to arouse his curiosity, he decided to let it pass. Phobius provided some interesting information about the city he had come to stay in for the time being, and then after that their food arrived.

When he began to eat, he did so with enough speed to have put a whole pack of starving wolves to shame. Pancakes devoured in only moments, he quickly moved on to demolish his steak, eggs, and fruit. This is not to say that he was poorly mannered. The opposite was true, in fact. His speed at consuming his food was made more astounding by the fact that he did it all with perfectly polite table manners, leading one to puzzle exactly how he managed to accomplish what he did in the time that he did. Finished long before either of his younger acquaintances, he sighed contentedly, leaned back in his chair, and slowly sipped his cordial.

"Well now...so, what do you two do for a living?" He thought for a moment, then smiled and decided to ask another question. "And, for conversation's sake, if you could have any item that you wanted -- item, mind you -- what would it be?"



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[Karin]

Strangely enough, Karin had never had pancakes before. So when the puffy looking flat things were delivered to the table, she hesitated slightly, watching what the others did with them before getting her own fork and prodding at the steaming, delicious-smelling food.

The syrup was thick and viscous, and looked unappetising to the girl, so she ate her pancakes without any, marvelling at the taste. She nodded with a mouth-full-smile at Phobius, and then, because apparently it was rude to talk with your mouth full, she sat back and finished her stack of fluff-cakes.

There was a contented, hungry silence for a chime or two, and during this time Karin finished her pancakes, a little after Shadyn. It was as she was neatly and fastidiously stacking her plates with Shadyn's (and dipping a curious finger in the syrup), that he asked a question.

Phobius appeared to be eating still, so the girl folded her hands in front of her, and answered the man, albeit rather slowly. "Well... I'm a woodworker. Apprentice, down at the port. And if I could have any item..." The girl broke off in a dream, and thought about her dream ship in her mind, decking warm and polished, sails billowing, cosy portholes...

Then she remembered that to these people she wasn't Svefra, and so she cast about a little, trying to think of something else. "Well, I would want a chisel. But not just any chisel." As she spoke, she started to warm to her idea, getting more excited as she said, "A chisel which allows me to carve to perfection, so's I don't make mistakes, or that can carve illusions! Yes, something like that."

That would actually be quite interesting, she thought to herself. Looking around at the two Inarta's sitting around the table, she opened the question up to them. "What about you two? What are your jobs and most wanted items?"

[Phobius]

The silence that came was a rather pleasant one, with the trio taking the time to enjoy their food once it'd been set down in front of them. Phobius seemed especially happy with his, and couldn't stop himself from reaching for the syrup jug every now and then, seemingly intent on drowning his pancakes in the sweet, sticky goodness. As focused as he was on own his food, however, there were moments when his eyes would drift over to the others for a tick or two, quietly observing them as they ate. Shadyn scarfed everything down, as though he was afraid that food would disappear if he didn't eat it quickly enough, while Karin ate hers a bit slower. Surprisingly enough, neither of them made a mess, and left neat stacks of their emptied plates in front of them when they were finished.

It was nothing less than amazing, really; they had eaten so fast...faster than anyone he had ever seen eat, before. Was that how they always ate, or were they both just really, really hungry...?

Phobius pondered this for a moment, then went back to his pancakes, quite comfortable with his own, much slower pace. It let him enjoy the taste of the food a bit more; well, that and the fact that eating too fast tended to bother his stomach, so he liked to take his time.

Looking full and happy, Shadyn leaned back in his chair and asked what they did for a living, along with another question that stilled Phobius' hand just as he was lifting another forkful of pancake toward it. Fortunately, Karin went ahead and gave her answers, so the boy had some time to come up with his own, mulling over the older Inarta's words while he half-listened to hers, the occasional driblets of syrup falling from his fork.

He had never heard of a woodworker, before, but assumed that they made things out of wood, like furniture and toys and little chests that you could put things in. And a chisel sounded like some sort of tool...but could you really carve illusions with one? Then again, Shadyn had said that the item could be whatever they wanted, so maybe she wanted a magic chisel.

"What about you two? What are your jobs and most wanted items?"

"I'm a courier!" Phobius proclaimed, sounding proud of himself. "I go around delivering messages and stuff. It's really fun, and I get to meet all kinds of people. I haven't been doing it a lot lately, though."

And then he paused, but only for a moment, deciding that it would be a bad idea into why he'd been "slacking" on his courier duties.

"And an item...? Uhhh...umm..." he continued, amber eyes drifting down to what was left of his pancakes as he thought. "I would want a...maybe...no, wait...hmm...oh, I know! I'd want wings, so I could fly! Feathery ones would be nice. Or...or a big dog that I can ride on, like a horse! Or a cape! A red one! Or...or..."

Then the boy trailed off, seeming a bit surprised.

"...huh. There's a lot of stuff I want, I guess. What about you, Shadyn?"

[Shadyn]

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So she works at the port. Small wonder…I still think that she’s Svefra. But now she’s made me wonder why she is so eager to hide it…does Alvadas harbor a grudge against them? Or is it something personal…surely this young girl cannot be guilty of an evil so grievous that she would need to hide her identity. Interesting…. Shadyn mused for a moment, chuckling at Phobius’s excitement.

“Well, my job is being an Endal. Endals have many responsibilities, but the one that I tend to do the most is dealing with domestic affairs. Helping people, solving problems, that sort of thing. Second to that would be providing meat by hunting. Now, what would I want…”

He continued thinking. He had never really considered what item he would want if he could have anything he wanted. Most of his wants were not “items”…family, influence, wisdom…but for the sake of discussion he needed to come up with SOMEthing.

“You know, this is actually a difficult question for me. There is precious little that I want, and less still that are actually items. But…I would have to say that a bow that aims itself perfectly would be quite nice. Would save me a ton of trouble hunting, that’s for certain.”

The waiter came and took their plates. He look at Shadyn pointedly for a tip. It took a moment for Shadyn to realize this…in Wind Reach he ate for free most of the time…but he decided to play a joke on the poor man. Reaching into one of the leather pouches on his hip, he extracted two lunatite pebbles and tossed them to him. Really, they were probably worth more than a tip would have cost, but he did not have any change for his pinions and thus could more easily spare some pebbles than his own money. He laughed.

“That ought to keep the poor fellow befuddled for a while.”



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[Karin]

Phobius's enthusiasm was nice to see, and Karin smiled a little as he listed off a list of items he wanted, some of which he could surely get at some point, the red cloak immediately springing to mind.

As Shadyn went on to talk about his life as an Endal, and about a bow that could shoot with ease, the girl found herself thinking again about how.. separated the lives of the two Inartas were, but she failed to mention it. It's best to leave some things alone.

She nodded, and with a little tilt of the head, said, "Wings would be fun. Maybe if you connected the wings to the giant dog, you could have a flying dog, and that would be even more fun?" She smirked a little smile, and shrugged. "And a bow which could aim perfectly... as long as you had the perfect arrows to go with it, I suppose."

Realising she seemed to be judging the choices a little, the girl looked away, and as Shadyn seemingly threw some stones at the waiter, she blink-blinked. Maybe it's a tradition in where Inartas live... she thought doubtfully. He does seem to have a special bag for them...

"What were they, Shadyn?" All of this was such an overflow of new information and new experiences, and the girl just did not know what to think. "And well, as we're finished eating, shall.. shall we be leaving now?" She made as if it stand up, slowly pushing her chair away and gathering her cloak about her shoulders.

OOC :

Are we wanting to wrap the thread up soon peeps?

[Phobius]

The older Inarta seemed to think for a moment before giving his answer, and Phobius went back to his pancakes while he listened, gently cutting them into tiny, manageable pieces with the side of his fork and putting them in his mouth.

He had never really thought of being a Endal as a job. Sure, they had a lot of jobs, but the Endals themselves were the most privileged and well-treated of all of the castes. They were a people and, as far as he knew, you couldn't ever stop being a people like you could stop doing a job if you didn't like it, anymore.

Shadyn went on to say that he'd want the perfect bow. Personally, the boy felt as though the things were impossibly hard to use; he could remember having tried his hand at one when he was a Yasi, but he'd never been able to hold it the right way and trying to "notch" the arrows had always hurt his fingers. Most Endals were skilled archers, though, so he assumed that Shadyn was no different.

Then Karin spoke, and Phobius found himself giggling at her words. He had never imagined a dog having wings, before, and for some reason the mental image tickled him. But the woman was right; riding a giant dog that could fly would be the funnest thing ever! Oooh...and what if it could talk to him, too, like a Wind Eagle? A giant, flying, talking dog...

Having let his mind wander a bit, Phobius didn't notice that the man who'd given them their food had returned to the table until he was walking away from them, and was just able to catch Shadyn toss him what looked like a couple of...rocks. Shiny rocks, but rocks nonetheless.

Weird. The man had probably wanted money, but the older Inarta had given him those instead of pinions. Before Phobius could ask anything, however, Karin went ahead and asked, for him. And then she got up out of her chair, wondering whether or not they would be leaving, now. The boy followed suit, stuffing the remainder of his last pancake in his mouth before scooting backward in his chair and getting up. "I guess so...?" he replied once he'd swallowed, glancing over at Shadyn with an uncertain look on his face. "I probably need to go take Nini out, anyway...she doesn't like being in my room alone for too long..."

[Shadyn]

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As they prepared to leave, Shadyn explained about the stones. “That’s no custom…I just don’t have small change. Those pebbles, however, are Lunatite – something that I found far out in The Unforgiving. They are divinely altered by Leth’s power, possessing special properties. Thus, what I gave him is of little lose to me, since I have plenty and can always get more, and is worth much more to him than a tip would be.”

He stood with them, and stretched. He supposed he would need to check into his room before he went anywhere else, so he would just stay here. He gave a short head-bow to Karin and extended his hand to Phobius.

“It was a pleasure meeting you both. Hopefully I will see you again, if not before I leave here, then on another trip, another time. I enjoyed the meal, and am also thankful for the help with finding my way through the city…that probably would have taken me quite some time on my own.”

Some people he had known objected to wasting their time with the “common folk,” but he had always seen it as valuable. Many times there were lessons to be learned, and even when there was not, you could pick up important information from them, for the common folk were far more in touch with their surroundings than the rulers, often. He did not consider this a morning poorly spent…after all, he was only on this journey to learn about the world and the people in it, and to enjoy himself. This city would certainly be one to which he would need to return.


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