RP Time? You betcha!

[shipwreck_light]

"Lucien? What did I tell you about running off on your own?"

Somewhat unsurprisingly, his son didn't answer him with more than a grin. And a splash, once Claude had drawn closer.

Leave it to any child of his to throw off his nice new boots just to stick his feet in the first likely looking stream that came along.

It wasn't even as if they'd gone that far out of town, but away from the roads, from the other sorcer-sorts and Aethies, even the breeze felt calmer, though it had hardly caught to much all the while they'd been walking. Claude being glad they had any at all, as hot as it had been the past few days.

The storm the night before had left lacy scatters of twigs and leaves and knocked down spider webs. Clean and still damp, the leaves overhead and tangled in the grass, they looked pieces of stained glass. And the trees, when they nodded, they sounded clear as harp strings with nothing else to cut the sound.

Out of farmland use and the whiles of any humans at all, the stream had been left so clear, so delicious looking. Just begging for some little blond imp of a boy to come along and kick his heels in it.

Well, one already had. Claude didn't bother with another sigh. He pulled his shoes off and laid them in the stones at his side, stretching lazy as he reached his own toes towards the glittering surface.

And promptly jerked back with a yelp. "Child of mine? That's /cold/."

"I know," said Lucien. "I think it feels nice."

"Maybe if you're part bear. I've always halfway figured, you know."

They had some teasing hums between them and Claude crossed his legs, feet now on the warm pebbles along the bank where they damnwell belonged.

"I think I got that from your side of the family," his son suggested after a while. "Anyway, why do you think it's like that? I don't hear anybody around."

"That wasn't tagging along?"

"Well..." The boy knitted his fingers in his hair, tugging himself a wingtip curl along his temple. "I think I'd only notice Nene if she was /gone/."

"And as for our new friends?"

"They couldn't have gone far. They know we have candy." To which, he nodded. Ever so sure of himself.

Ah, children. Children had gotten him this far with their self-assured beings. And children had found him what was really a rather strange clearing on closer inspection. The stream wore deeper through some places in the grass than others, showing shifts of rock, glints of moss and tree roots sneaking by. It divided the clearing just about cleanly in half.

Besides, on the edge of the forest easing back into being, a great, old ash stood.

Covered in tiny flowers. Pink and violet and hints of white. All of them, growing in streaks as if the bark had long ago turned to soil, though the tree seemed healthy and strong otherwise.

Besides.

"Papa," said Lucian, voice hushed. "There aren't any birds here, are there?"

"No," Claude answered after a moment. "It's just you and I and /a bunch of stinkers who ran off from us/."

"Oh, so that doesn't include me?"

"Child of mine."

They had a few more hums, there in the quiet of the clearing.

There, before something very strange and very faint began to creep along Claude's Aether lines.

It felt like being tickled almost. Anyway, it made him smile. Lucien too.

And next, there his son darted off again, racing over the grass and into the middle of the clearing, where he stood staring into the sky and whistling. Expecting a giant Gust to come sailing down in the form of a giant bird? It might just be that.



Welcome!

Note that anything your characters do in the clearing may result in posts back of things happening around them, even if these aren't exactly invited. Something's lurking around here, and it wants a snack!

Feel free to bring your own fairies, ghosts, mages and seriously confused regular people.

Comments

[sarcasticsra]

The guy sitting next to her at the bar was broadcasting his thoughts so loudly, Maria actually felt the need to shield herself. He was unSkilled, which didn't quite explain it; most people had basic mental shields no matter their magical capability. Surface thoughts were one thing; this was simply obnoxious.

It was just a shame he wasn't her type. Annoying, yes, but neither cheating nor a criminal. She'd have to find someone else to kill; maybe the bar across the street would have better prospects.

Standing, she smiled politely at the bartender and left a generous tip for her drinks--non-alcoholic, of course, since she was working--and headed for the door.

As soon as she left, she stopped suddenly. This was not the street.

At least it wasn't a college this time, she supposed.

(OOC: Magic AU!Maria, because yay serial killers who are also powerful telepaths. If your character has any shielding ability, let me know, otherwise she's going to be totally impolite and read minds as she sees fit.)

[shipwreck_light]

That said, her situation was only momentarily improved. There were people everywhere, some of them sneezing up whole gales of thoughts, mostly of confusion and wonder, but there was more than one dinner order out there and the usual undercut of lust.

It made the natives fairly easy to pick out. From the edge of the stream for instance bubbles a fairly mild string of sentiments about how interesting that couple and if that person was worth approaching over the fire she had kindled from nowhere.

The man these happened to be coming from stretched at length, and in doing so happened to glance over Maria's way.

In seeing her there, he smiled and beckoned.

(OOC: this character has zero shielding capabilities, but is somewhat used to having his mind read; to most telepaths, his mental space comes off as a sunlit glen or forest much like where he happens to be sitting. You may feel free to OOC me about anything in Claude's head which Maria is curious about. He has at least two dirty secrets.)

[sarcasticsra]

Maria smiled back, not her real smile, but the false, comforting one she'd perfected at age seven. It put people at ease, this smile. It was gentle, and suggested that she too was gentle.

Some of her favorite illusions required no magical ability at all.

"Hello," she said, approaching him. He was extremely pretty, she couldn't help but notice, the rare kind of attractive that meant she would be perfectly inclined to fuck him whether or not she planned to kill him afterward. That alone made him worth talking to, she decided.

[shipwreck_light]

And Claude absolutely bought into that smile. As soon as Maria took it upon herself, his thoughts evened out to a mellow appreciation. Of her, of her company, even of the glen itself, since it comforted him to know that strangers could still accept an uncomplicated welcome.

"Good afternoon," he offered with a tip of his head. "We seem to have a bit of a party going on. It's nothing I've done, I assure you, but for now- I'm Claude Marcotte and I'm very happy not to be the only people watcher here."

Relieved was more like it.

[sarcasticsra]

"You can learn a lot from observing people," she agreed. "I'm Maria. It's a pleasure to meet you." She offered a hand for him to shake, because she was curious what she might read off him, and given she could sense no particularly strong barriers, she knew it would be easy.

[shipwreck_light]

"Absolutely," he agreed, offering his hand straight back to her. "And likewise. I'm Claude."

Claude might have been a bit vexed by what had become of his afternoon, but he accepted it and was really quite determined otherwise to enjoy the situation. All of these people from lands he could not fathom, there with their stories and their songs and their loveliness.

He felt no more and no less removed from them than he did any other... People? But, "People" as it lived in his head carried divisions as elaborate as the leading in a stained glass window. Not all of the pieces between flickering "human".

[one_eyed_nemo]

Nemo reached the edge of the treeline and peered out, careful to keep to the shadows. He might not blend as well as some of his ancestors, but people wouldn't be looking for the flashes of orange and yellow unless they were especially detail-oriented.

He scented the air, mouth open slightly, turning his head slowly from one side to the other, and caught the scent of felines. Closer to demis than to 'cats, but still, felines.

He crouched down and crept through the meadow for a few steps, but the grass wasn't high enough to hide him. So he just stood and walked over to the human who smelled of felines, every confidence in the world that he couldn't be harmed by her. Mostly because, at close range, he had the weapon advantage.

"You smell like felines."

No one ever said 'cats were polite.

Nemo has no shielding abilities, other than what comes naturally to a cat, given they're private and secretive and all. Sapience does not grant telepathy.

Which is probably a good thing.

[sarcasticsra]

Maria blinked. A cat had just spoken to her.

There were rumors that the most talented in Animal Transformation could retain speech capabilities while transformed into animals, but most people regarded this as myth. Aside from that, he didn't have a recognizable magic signature that she could see.

She tilted her head slightly. "I live with three cats. None of them can talk."

[one_eyed_nemo]

Nemo would fully admit, if asked, to being smug when he said, "Not rikis or demis. What kind of cats?" He certainly couldn't tell size based on smell, but if they lived with a human and weren't rikis or demis, he would guess housecats. One of his ancestral species, about twice the size of a demi and about an eighth to a tenth his size, and where he got his coloring from. "Housecats?"

[sarcasticsra]

"Housecats," Maria agreed. "We don't have any other kind where I'm from. I would have liked to meet a sapient cat before now." Even non-sapient cats were often preferable to people.

[one_eyed_nemo]

"I a rikicat. Demicats tiny, smaller than housecats." Since they were apparently having a conversation, Nemo sat, tucking his paws just so and curling his tail around them. "I Nemo. You?"

[sarcasticsra]

"Maria," she said, smiling at him more sharply than she would have smiled at another person. "It's nice to meet you." She considered this new piece of information and asked, "Are demicats sapient as well?"

[one_eyed_nemo]

Nemo huffed, nearly a laugh. "Can talk," he allowed. "Doesn't mean sapient." That, he did say with fondness; as long as he didn't have to live with a demi, he'd be tolerant toward them.

[sarcasticsra]

"Ah, yes," Maria said, nodding. "Also true of many people I know."

[one_eyed_nemo]

Nemo might not know a whole lot of history, but he seemed to remember that unaugmented housecats hadn't done well off Old Earth, aside from a few planets (and one moon). "Where you from?" he asked.

[sarcasticsra]

"New York City," she said. "What about you?"

[one_eyed_nemo]

"Jacavi’noq Province." She looked blank, so Nemo tried, "Veni."

[sarcasticsra]

"I have never heard of either place," she said, and tilted her head slightly again as a thought occurred to her. "What year is it, where you're from?"

[one_eyed_nemo]

Nemo took a moment to think about that. He knew the Veni year easily, as well as the standard year; remember the Old Earth year took a bit longer. "2621 CE," he said at last. "Maybe a few earlier or later."

[sarcasticsra]

"Roughly six hundred years into the future, from my point of view," Maria said. It did make a certain amount of sense, given Nemo himself. "Do you currently live on--Veni?"

[one_eyed_nemo]

"No, a ship," Nemo said nonchalantly. "Just come from Veni. New York on Old Earth, right?"

[sarcasticsra]

A ship. That sounded excellent. "Correct. 2030 CE."

[one_eyed_nemo]

Nemo looked exceedingly pleased with himself when he said, "Rikis and demis get developed in fifty Old Earth years. Maybe you get one."

[sarcasticsra]

"Maybe," she said skeptically. She wasn't planning to live past 70, at this point. She wondered if she might be able to speed up the process. Maybe Little David would have an idea about where to start. "I would certainly adopt one if I could. Cats are excellent companions." Even housecats had enough of that predator streak left in them. She thought that had something to do with why they got along.

[one_eyed_nemo]

Nemo's ears didn't turn back, but they did flatten. "Rikis not pets. Companions," he emphasized. "Friends."